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Title: History For Ready Reference; Volume 5 (of 6)
Tunnage to Zyp and Supplement
Author: Josephus Nelson Larned
Release Date: March 26, 2023 [eBook #70343]
Language: English
Produced by: Don Kostuch
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY FOR READY REFERENCE;
VOLUME 5 (OF 6) ***
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HISTORY FOR READY REFERENCE
FROM THE BEST HISTORIANS, BIOGRAPHERS, AND SPECIALISTS
THEIR OWN WORDS IN A COMPLETE SYSTEM OF HISTORY
FOR ALL USES, EXTENDING TO ALL COUNTRIES AND SUBJECTS,
AND REPRESENTING FOR BOTH READERS AND STUDENTS THE BETTER
AND NEWER LITERATURE OF HISTORY IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
BY
J. N. LARNED
WITH NUMEROUS HISTORICAL MAPS FROM ORIGINAL
STUDIES AND DRAWINGS BY
ALAN O. REILEY
IN FIVE VOLUMES
VOLUME V—TUNNAGE TO ZYP
AND SUPPLEMENT
SPRINGFIELD, MASS.
THE C. A. NICHOLS CO., PUBLISHERS
MDCCCXCV
COPYRIGHT, 1895,
BY J. N. LARNED.
The Riverside Press,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U. S. A.
Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company.
LIST OF MAPS AND PLANS.
Map of the United States Showing its territorial development,
To follow page 3286.
Maps of the United States in 1783, in 1790, in 1803, in 1840,
and in 1860,
To follow page 3326.
Map of the principal theatre Of war in Virginia, 1861-1865,
To follow page 3434.
Map of the Vicksburg Campaign,
On page 3490.
Map of the Battle-field of Gettysburg,
On page 3501.
Map of the Battle-field of Chattanooga,
On page 3511.
Map of the Atlanta Campaign,
On page 3531.
SUPPLEMENT.
"Abelard" to "Wheatstone,"
Pages 3669 to 3811.
Chronology of important and indicative events,
Pages 3812 to 3856.
Lineage of European Sovereigns and great historical families,
Pages 3857 to 3883.
Selected Bibliography,
Pages 3885 to 3909.
List of works from which passages have been quoted
in "History for Ready Reference and Topical Reading,"
Pages 3910 to 3985.
{3129}
TUNNAGE AND POUNDAGE.
A tax or custom of two shillings on the tun of wine and
sixpence on the pound of merchandise, which became, in
England, from the fourteenth century, one of the regular
parliamentary grants to the crown, for a long period. It grew
out of an agreement with the merchants in the time of Edward
II., to take the place of the former right of prisage; the
right, that is, to take two tuns of wine from every ship
importing twenty tuns or more,—one before and one behind the
mast.
_W. Stubbs,
Constitutional History of England,
chapter 17, sections 276-277 (volume 2)._
See, also, ENGLAND: A. D. 1629.
TUPI, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: TUPI.
TUPUYAS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: TUPI, ETC.
TURAN.
"The old Persians, who spoke an Aryan tongue, called their own
land Iran, and the barbarous land to the north of it they
called Turan. In their eyes, Iran was the land of light, and
Turan was the land of darkness. From this Turan, the land of
Central Asia, came the many Turkish settlements which made
their way, first into Western Asia and then into Europe."
_E. A. Freeman,
The Ottoman Power in Europe,
chapter 2._
TURANIAN RACES AND LANGUAGES.
The name Turanian has been given to a large group of peoples,
mostly Asiatic, whose languages are all in the agglutinative
stage and bear evident marks of a family relationship. "This
race, one of the largest, both numerically and with regard to
the extent of territory which it occupies, is divided into two
great branches, the Ugro-finnish and the Dravidian. The first
must be again subdivided into the Turkish, including the
populations of Turkestan and of the Steppes of Central Asia,
as well as the Hungarians who have been for a long time
settled in Europe; and the Uralo-finnish group, comprising the
Finns, the Esthonians, the Tchoudes, and, in general, nearly
all the tribes of the north of Europe and Asia. The country of
the Dravidian branch is, on the contrary, to the south. This
branch is in fact composed of the indigenous people of the
Peninsula of Hindustan; Tamuls, Telingas, Carnates, who were
subjugated by the Arian race, and who appear to have
originally driven before them the negroes of the Australian
group, the original inhabitants of the soil, who are now
represented by the almost savage tribe of the Khonds. The
Turanian race is one of the oldest in the world. … The skulls
discovered in France, England and Belgium, in caves of the
close of the quaternary epoch, appear from their
characteristics to belong to a Turanian race, to the
Uralo-finnish group, and particularly resemble those of the
Esthonians. Wherever the Japhetic or pure Indo-European race
extended, it seems to have encountered a Turanian population
which it conquered and finally amalgamated with itself."
_F. Lenormant,
Manual of Ancient History of the East,
book 1, chapter 4._
"From the 'Shah-nameh,' the great Persian epic, we learn that
the Aryan Persians called their nearest non-Aryan neighbours
—the Turkic or Turcoman tribes to the north of them—by the
name Turan, a word from which we derive the familiar
ethnologic term Turanian."
_I. Taylor,
Etruscan Researches,
chapter 2._
TURCOMANS, Russian subjugation of the.
See RUSSIA: A.D. 1869-1881.
TURDETANI, The.
"There is a tradition that the Turdetani (round Seville)
possessed lays from very ancient times, a metrical book of
laws, of 6,000 verses, and even historical records. At any
rate, this tribe is described as the most civilized of all the
Spanish tribes, and at the same time the least warlike."
_T. Mommsen,
History of Rome,
book 3, chapter 7._
"The most mixed portion of the Peninsular population … is that
of the water-system of the Guadalquiver and the parts
immediately south and east of it, … the country of the
Turdetani and Bastitani, if we look to the ancient
populations—Bætica, if we adopt the general name of the
Romans, Andalusia in modern geography; … it was the Iberians
of these parts who were the first to receive foreign
intermixture, and the last to lose it."
_R. G. Latham,
Ethnology of Europe,
chapter 2._
TURDETANIA.
The ancient name of modern Andalusia, in Spain; known still
more anciently as Tartessus.
TURENNE, Vicomte de:
Campaigns in the Thirty Years War and the war with Spain.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1640-1645; 1643-1644; 1646-1648;
and ITALY: A. D. 1635-1659.
TURENNE, Vicomte de:
The wars of the Fronde.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1649; 1650-1651; 1651-1653.
TURENNE, Vicomte de:
Campaigns against the Spaniards under Condé.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1653-1656; and 1655-1658.
TURENNE, Vicomte de:
Last campaigns.
See NETHERLANDS (HOLLAND): A. D. 1667; 1672-1674;
and, 1674-1678.
TURGOT, Ministry of.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1774-1788.
TURIERO, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: CHIBCHAS.
----------TURIN: Start--------
TURIN: A. D. 312.
Defeat of Maxentius by Constantine.
See ROME: A. D. 305-323.
TURIN: 11-12th Centuries.
Acquisition of Republican Independence.
See ITALY: A. D. 1056-1152.
TURIN: 12th Century,
Included in the original Italian possessions
of the House of Savoy.
See SAVOY: 11-15TH CENTURIES.
TURIN: A. D. 1536-1544.
Occupation by the French and restoration to the Duke of Savoy.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1532-1547.
TURIN: A. D. 1559.
Held by France while other territory of the Duke of Savoy
was restored to him.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1547-1559.
TURIN: A. D. 1562-1580.
Evacuation by the French.
Establishment of the seat of government
by Duke Emanuel Philibert.
Increased importance.
See SAVOY: A. D. 1559-1580.
TURIN: A. D. 1639-1657.
Extraordinary siege within a siege.
The citadel, and its restoration by France to the Duke of Savoy.
See ITALY: A. D. 1635-1659.
TURIN: A. D. 1706.
Siege by the French and rout of the besiegers.
See ITALY (SAVOY AND PIEDMONT): A. D. 1701-1713.
----------TURIN: End--------
{3130}
TURIN PAPYRUS, The.
An Egyptian papyrus preserved in the Turin Museum, for which
it was purchased from M. Drovetti, consul-general of France.
"If this papyrus were entire, the science of Egyptian
antiquities could not possess a more valuable document. It
contains a list of all the mythical or historical personages
who were believed to have reigned in Egypt, from fabulous
times down to a period we cannot ascertain, because the end of
the papyrus is wanting. Compiled under Ramses II. (19th
dynasty), that is, in the most flourishing epoch of the
history of Egypt, this list has all the characteristics of an
official document, and gives us the more valuable assistance,
as the name of each king is followed by the duration of his
reign, and each dynasty by the total number of years during
which it governed Egypt. Unfortunately this inestimable
treasure exists only in very small pieces (164 in number),
which it is often impossible to join correctly."
_F. Lenormant,
Manual of Ancient History of the East,
book 3, chapter 1, section 2._
----------TURKESTAN: Start--------
TURKESTAN.
"Few even of the leading authorities are of accord as to the
exact meaning of such common expressions as Turkestán or
Central Asia. The Russians themselves often designate as
Central Asia the second great administrative division of their
Asiatic possessions, which is mainly comprised within the
Aralo-Caspian depression. But this expression is misguiding in
a geographical sense. To the portion of this division directly
administered by the Governor-General, whose headquarters are
at Tashkent, they give the still more questionable name of
Eastern Turkestán—the true Eastern Turkestán, if there be any,
lying beyond his jurisdiction in the Chinese province of
Kashgaria. … Russian Turkestán is bordered on the west by the
Caspian, the Ural river and mountains, on the east by the
Pamir plateau, the Tian-Shan and Ala-tau ranges separating it
from the Chinese Empire, northwards by the low ridge crossing
the Kirghis steppes about the 51st parallel, and forming the
water-parting between the Aralo-Caspian and Ob basins."
_Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel: Asia,
page 391-392._
Of the region sometimes called Chinese Turkestan, the name
"Kashgaria," "lately current in Europe, has no raison d'être
since the collapse of the independent state founded by Yakub
of Kashgar. In the same way the expression 'Kingdom of Khotan'
fell into disuse after the city of Khotan had ceased to be the
capital. The term 'Little Bokhara,' still in use some thirty
years ago, pointed at the former religious ascendancy of
Bokhara, but is now all the less appropriate that Bokhara
itself has yielded the supremacy to Tashkent. Lastly, the
expressions Eastern Turkestan and Chinese Turkestan are still
applicable, because the inhabitants are of Turki speech, while
the Chinese have again brought the country under subjection."
_E. Reclus,
The Earth and its Inhabitants: Asia,
volume 2, chapter 3._
See, also, YAKOOB BEG.
TURKESTAN: Ancient.
See SOGDIANA.
TURKESTAN: 6th Century.
Turkish conquest.
See TURKS: 6TH CENTURY.
TURKESTAN: A. D. 710.
Mahometan conquest.
See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 710.
TURKESTAN: A. D. 1859-1865.
Russian conquest.
See RUSSIA: A. D. 1859-1876.
----------TURKESTAN: Start--------
TURKEY.
See TURKS (THE OTTOMANS): A. D. 1240-1326, and after;
also, SUBLIME PORTE.
----------TURKS: Start--------
TURKS: 6th Century.
Beginning of their career.
"At the equal distance of 2,000 miles from the Caspian, the
Icy, the Chinese, and the Bengal seas, a ridge of mountains is
conspicuous, the centre, and perhaps the summit, of Asia,
which, in the language of different nations has been styled
Imaus, and Caf, and Altai, and the Golden Mountains, and the
Girdle of the Earth. The sides of the hills were productive of
minerals; and the iron-forges, for the purpose of war, were
exercised by the Turks, the most despised portion of the
slaves of the great khan of the Geougen. But their servitude
could only last till a leader, bold and eloquent, should arise
to persuade his countrymen that the same arms which they
forged for their masters might become in their own hands the
instruments of freedom and victory. They sallied from the
mountain; a sceptre was the reward of his advice. … The
decisive battle which almost extirpated the nation of the
Geougen established in Tartary the new and more powerful
empire of the Turks. … The royal encampment seldom lost sight
of Mount Altai, from whence the river Irtish descends to water
the rich pastures of the Calmucks, which nourish the largest
sheep and oxen in the world. … As the subject nations marched
under the standard of the Turks, their cavalry, both men and
horses, were proudly computed by millions; one of their
effective armies consisted of 400,000 soldiers, and in less
than fifty years they were connected in peace and war with the
Romans, the Persians, and the Chinese. … Among their southern
conquests the most splendid was that of the Nephthalites, or
White Huns, a polite and warlike people, who possessed the
commercial cities of Bochara and Samarcand, who had vanquished
the Persian monarch, and carried their victorious arms along
the banks and perhaps to the month of the Indus. On the side
of the west the Turkish cavalry advanced to the lake Mæotis
[Sea of Azov]. They passed that lake on the ice: The khan, who
dwelt at the foot of Mount Altai, issued his commands for the
siege of Bosphorus, a city the voluntary subject of Rome and
whose princes had formerly been the friends of Athens."
_E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 42._
_W. Smith,
Note to
E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 42._
{3131}
ALSO IN:
_J. H. Newman,
Lectures on the History of the Turks
(Historical Sketches, volume 1), lectures 1-4._
See, also, TARTARS; and MONGOLS: ORIGIN, &c.;
and BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: RACES EXISTING.
TURKS: A. D. 710.
Subjugation by the Saracens.
See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 710.
TURKS: A. D. 815-945.
Slaves and masters of the Caliphate.
See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST AND EMPIRE: A. D. 815-945.
TURKS: A. D. 999-1183.
The Gaznevide empire.
The decline of the Caliphate at Bagdad in the 9th century was
signalized by the rise to practically independent power of
several dynasties in its Persian and Central Asian dominions.
Among these was the dynasty of the Samanides who ruled, for a
hundred and twenty-five years, an extensive dominion in
northern Persia and modern Afghanistan and in the Turkoman
regions to the Oxus and beyond. In this dominion of the
Samanides was included the Turkish tribes which had submitted
to Islam and which were presently to become the master
champions of the faith. Their first attainment of actual
empire in the Moslem world was accomplished by the overthrow
of the Samanide princes, and the chief instruments of that
revolution were two Turks of humble origin—Sebectagi, or
Sabektekin, and his son Mahmud. Sebectagi had been a slave (in
the service of a high official under the Samanides) who gained
the favor of his masters and acquired command of the city and
province of Gazna; whence his famous son Mahmud was called the
Gaznevide, and the wide conquests which the latter made are
sometimes distinguished as the Gaznevide empire. "For him the
title of Sultan was first invented [see SULTAN]; and his
kingdom was enlarged from Transoxiana to the neighbourhood of
Ispahan, from the shores of the Caspian to the mouth of the
Indus. But the principal source of his fame and riches was the
holy war which he waged against the Gentoos of Hindostan. …
The Sultan of Gazna surpassed the limits of the conquests of
Alexander; after a march of three months, over the hills of
Cashmir and Thibet, he reached the famous city of Kinoge, on
the Upper Ganges, and, in a naval combat on one of the
branches of the Indus, he fought and vanquished 4,000 boats of
the natives. Delhi, Lahor, and Multan were compelled to open
their gates; the fertile kingdom of Guzarat attracted his
ambition and tempted his stay." The throne of Mahmud scarcely
outlasted himself. In the reign of his son Massoud, it was
nearly overturned by another Turkish horde—later comers into
the region of Bokhara from the steppes beyond. In a great
battle fought at Zendecan, in Khorassan, A. D. 1038, Massoud
was defeated and driven from Persia to a narrowed kingdom in
Cabul and the Punjaub, which survived for more than a century
longer and then disappeared.
_E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 57._
ALSO IN:
_J. H. Newman,
Lectures on the History of the Turks
(Historical Sketches, volume 1), lecture 4._
See, also, INDIA: A. D. 977-1290.
TURKS: (Seljuk), A. D. 1004-1063.
Conquests of Seldjuk and Togrul Beg.
"The history of the origin of the Seldjukides is obscured by
numerous myths, but it appears from it that Seldjuk, or more
correctly Seldjik, the son of Tokmak, and Subash, commander of
the army of a prince named Pigu or Bogu, were expelled from
their native steppes for some crime, and forced to seek their
fortunes in strange countries. Seldjuk, with 100 horsemen,
1,000 camels, and 50,000 sheep, migrated to a place on the
southern confines of the desert, in the neighbourhood of Djend
[described as distant twenty fersakhs from Bokhara]. He
settled there and, with all his followers, embraced Islamism."
Under Seldjuk and his two grandsons, Togrul and Tchakar, the
Seldjukides grew formidable in numbers and power, on the
border of the empire of Mahmud the Ghaznevide, then rising on
the ruins of the principality of the Samanides. Thinking to
control these turbulent kinsmen of his race, Mahmud unwisely
proposed to them to quit the country they occupied, between
the Oxus and the Jaxartes, and to settle themselves in
Khorasan. "In the year … (1030), that is, within a year of the
death of Sultan Mahmud, we find the Seldjukides west of Merv,
on the ground now occupied by the Tekke-Turkomans, in the
neighbourhood of the southern cities of Nisa and Abiverd, from
which point they molested the rich province of Khorasan by
constant raids, as grievously as is done by the Turkomans to
this very day.' When it was too late, the Ghaznevide Sultan
attempted to expel the marauders. His armies were routed, and
the grandsons of Seldjuk were soon (A. D. 1039) in undisputed
possession of the whole of Khorasan, with the rich and
flourishing cities of Merv, Balkh, and Nishabur. A few years
later they had pushed forward "over the ruins of the former
power of the Buyyides [or Bouides, of Persia] to Azerbaïdjan,
and, in the year 446 (1054) the skirmishers of the Turkish
army, led by Togrul Beg, penetrated into the interior of the
eastern Roman Empire [that is, into Asia Minor]; and although
the bold inhabitants of the desert in their raid on the land
of the Cæsars were bent rather on plunder than on actual
conquest, yet even their temporary success against the great
name of Rome—so long one of awe to the ancient
Asiatic—increased enormously the prestige and reputation of
the Seldjukides. Togrul Beg was said to meditate a pilgrimage
to Mecca, with the object at the same time of clearing the
road thither, which the state of anarchy in Bagdad had long
rendered unsafe."
_A. Vámbéry,
History of Bokhara,
chapter 6._
"Togrul Beg, under pretence of a pilgrimage to Mekka had
entered Irak at the head of a strong army, and sought to
obtain admission into Baghdad. The khalif, in opposition to
the advice of his vizier and the officers of the Turkish
militia, consented; on the 22nd Ramadan, 447 (December, 1050),
the name of Togrul was inserted in the public prayer; and
three days after he made his entry into the city. He had taken
an oath, before entering, to be the faithful and obedient
servant of the khalif; but it is needless to add that he broke
this immediately afterwards, and occupied the city in force. A
dispute broke out between the Seljuk soldiers and some
shop-keepers. The Baghdad Turks took the side of the citizens,
the foreigners were driven out, and several of them killed and
wounded. This riot was followed by a general attack upon the
ill-fated city by the army of Togrul Beg. It was useless for
the khalif and his vizier to protest their innocence. The
Turkish chief denounced them as the murderers of his soldiers,
and summoned the vizier to his camp to explain his conduct.
{3132}
On his arrival there he was arrested and flung into prison.
With this occurrence the rule of the Bouides in Baghdad may be
said to have terminated, and that of the Seljuks commenced.
Togrul Beg remained for a year inactive in Baghdad, neither
visiting the khalif nor heeding his entreaties to put an end
to the ravages and outrages perpetrated by his fierce and
lawless soldiery on the wretched townspeople." The khalif was
forced, nevertheless, to crown Sultan Togrul with two crowns,
one to represent the sovereignty of Persia and the other the
sovereignty of Arabia, and to confer on him the title of "The
Sultan of the Court, the Right Hand of the Chief of Believers,
the King of the East and of the West." The Seljuk sultan was
now master of the Asiatic Mahometan empire. But civil war was
still protracted for a period, by struggles of the partisans
of the Bouides, assisted by the Fatimite Kalif of Egypt, and
the unfortunate city of Baghdad suffered terribly at the hands
of each party in turn. Togrul Beg, in the end, destroyed the
opposition to his rule, and was at the point of marrying one
of the kalif's daughters, when a sudden illness ended his
life, A. D. 1063. He was succeeded by his nephew, Alp Arslan,
who extended the empire of the Seljukides in Asia Minor and
Armenia.
_R. D. Osborn,
Islam under the Khalifs of Baghdad,
part 3, chapter 2._
TURKS: A. D. 1063-1073.
Conquests of Alp Arslan.
"Alp Arslan, the nephew and successor of Togrul Beg, carried
on the havoc and devastation which had marked the career
through life of his uncle. Togrul Beg had on two or three
occasions invaded the Asiatic territories of the Byzantine
Emperor; Alp Arslan carried these partial conquests to
completion. He invaded in person the northern parts of Armenia
and Iberia. He laid waste the country in the cruellest manner,
for it was the notion of these barbarians that a country was
not really conquered unless it was also depopulated. Iberia
had been long celebrated for the industry of its inhabitants,
the wealth of its numerous towns, and the valour of its
people. There is no doubt they could have flung back the
invaders had the Byzantine Empire come to their aid. But
avarice was the dominant passion of the Emperor, Constantine
X., and rather than disburse his loved hoards, he preferred to
look idly on, while his fairest provinces were laid waste and
overrun. The country was, in consequence, compelled to submit
to the Seljuk Turks, and the invaders settling upon it, like a
swarm of locusts, swiftly converted the happiest and most
flourishing portion of Asia into a scene of poverty and
desolation. From Iberia, Alp Arslan passed into Armenia. Ani,
the capital, was stormed and taken, after a gallant defence,
on the 6th June, 1064. … So great was the carnage that the
streets were literally choked up with dead bodies; and the
waters of the river were reddened from the quantity of bloody
corpses."
_R. D. Osborn,
Islam under the Khalifs of Baghdad,
part 3, chapter 2._
"So far as one can judge from the evidence of modern and
mediæval travellers and of Byzantine historians, Asia Minor,
at the time of the Seljuk invasion of Alparslan, was thickly
occupied by races who were industrious, intelligent, and
civilised—races with a certain mixture of Greek blood and
mostly Greek as to language. The numerous provincial cities
were the centres of civilisation. Their walls and
amphitheatres, their works of art, aqueducts, and other public
buildings, give evidence of a long-continued sense of
security, of peaceful and progressive peoples, and of a
healthy municipal life. Wealth was widely diffused. … It was
against this prosperous portion of the Empire, which had
contributed largely to the wealth of the capital, that
Alparslan turned his attention when the border states were no
longer able to resist his progress. … The Strong Lion of the
Seljuks devoured many cities and devastated the fairest
provinces. Cappadocia was laid waste; the inhabitants of its
capital, Cæsarea, were massacred. … Mesopotamia, Mitylene,
Syria, and Cilicia were plundered."
_E. Pears,
The Fall of Constantinople,
chapter 2._
The career of Alp Arslan in Asia Minor was opposed by a
courageous and vigorous emperor, Romanus Diogenes, or Romanus
IV.; but Romanus exposed himself and his army rashly to the
chances of a battle at Manzikert, A. D. 1071, on which all was
staked. He lost; his army was routed, and he, himself, was
taken prisoner. He was released on signing a treaty of peace
and agreeing to pay a heavy ransom; but a revolution at
Constantinople meantime had robbed him of the throne, deprived
him of the means of fulfilling his engagements, and brought
upon him, soon afterwards, a cruel end. Alp Arslan, provoked
by the repudiation of the treaty, revenged himself on the
ill-fated country which lay at his mercy. "Every calamity of
this unfortunate period sinks into insignificance when
compared with the destruction of the greater part of the Greek
race, by the ravages of the Seljouk Turks in Asia Minor."
_G. Finlay,
History of the Byzantine and Greek Empires,
book 3, chapter 1, section 2._
TURKS: A. D. 1073-1092.
The empire of Malek Shah and its subordinate Sultans.
Alp Arslan, assassinated in 1073, "was succeeded by his son,
Malek Shah, in whose reign the power of the Seljukian Turks
attained its greatest height. … Turkestan, the home of his
race, including Bokhara and Samarcand, was annexed by Malek,
and the rule of the shepherd Sultan was admitted at Cashgar.
In addition to Persia and the countries just mentioned, his
territory included at one time nearly the whole of what is now
Turkey in Asia. … The Seljukian empire, however, broke up on
the death of Malek, which took place in 1092, and, after a
period of civil war, was divided into four parts. … The only
one of the divisions … with which I am concerned is that which
was carved out of the dominions of the Roman empire, and of
which the capital was, for the most part, at Iconium, a city
which to-day, under the name of Konieh, retains somewhat of a
sacred character among the Turks, because of its connection
with the first Sultans who obtained the right to be Caliphs.
Sultan Malek, eighteen years before his death, had prevented a
quarrel with Suliman, his cousin, by consenting to allow him
to be Sultan of the Seljuks in the lands of the Christian
empire. With Suliman there begins the famous line of robber
chiefs who are known as Seljukian Sultans of Rome or Roum, or
as Sultans of Iconium."
_E. Pears,
The Fall of Constantinople,
chapter 2._
{3133}
"The dominion of Suleiman over the greater part of Asia Minor
was recognised by a treaty with the Byzantine empire in 1074,
when Michael VII. purchased the assistance of a Turkish
auxiliary force against the rebellion of Oursel and his own
uncle John Dukas. Nicephorus III. ratified the treaty
concluded with Michael VII., augmented the power of the Turks,
and abandoned additional numbers of Christians to their
domination, to gain their aid in dethroning his lawful prince;
and Nicephorus Melissenos, when he rebelled against Nicephorus
III., repeated a similar treason against the traitor, and, in
hopes of gaining possession of Constantinople, yielded up the
possession of Nicæa to Suleiman, which that chief immediately
made the capital of his dominions. … When Alexius ascended the
throne [Alexius I. A. D. 1081], the Seljouk conquests in Asia
Minor were still considered as a portion of the dominions of
the Grand Sultan Malekshah, the son of Alp Arslan, and
Suleiman, the sultan of Nicæa, was only his lieutenant, though
as a member of the house of Seljouk, and as cousin of
Malekshah, he was honoured with the title of Sultan. The
prominent position which his posterity occupied in the wars of
the Crusaders, their long relations with the Byzantine empire,
and the independent position they held as sultans of Iconium,
have secured to them a far more lasting place in history than
has been obtained by the superior but less durable dynasty of
the grand sultans. … Toutoush, the brother of Malekshah, who
acted as his governor at Damascus at the same time, became the
founder of the Syrian dynasty of Seljouk sultans."
_G. Finlay,
History of the Byzantine and Greek Empires,
from 716 to 1453,
book 3, chapter 2, section 1._
The empire of Malek Shah "was as vast as that of the Sassanian
kings in the height of their glory. He encouraged the
cultivation of science and literature, and his reign is famous
for the reformation of the Calendar [in which work Omar
el-Khayyam, the poet, was one of the astronomers employed]. An
assembly of an the astronomers of Persia adopted a system of
computing time which Gibbon says 'surpasses the Julian and
approaches the accuracy of the Gregorian æra.' It was called
the Jalalæan æra, from Jalalu-'d-Din, 'Glory of the Faith,'
one of the titles of Malik-Shah, and commenced on March 15,
1079."
_C. R. Markham,
History of Persia,
chapter 6._
TURKS: A. D. 1092-1160.
Dissolution of the empire of Malek Shah.
"Melikshah's reign was certainly the culminating point of the
glory of the Seldjukides. … Mindful of the oriental adage,
'Perfection and decay go hand in hand,' he determined as far
as possible to provide, during his own lifetime, against
discord breaking out amongst those who should come after him,
by dividing the empire between his different relations.
Anatolia was given to Suleiman Shah, whose family had hitherto
governed Gazan; Syria fell to his brother Tutush, the
adversary of the Crusaders; Nushtekin Gartcha, who had raised
himself from slavery to the rank of generalissimo, and who
became later the founder of the dynasty of the Khahrezmides,
was invested with Khahrezm; Aksonghar got Aleppo; Tchekermish
Mosul, Kobulmish Damascus, Khomartekin Fars, and his son
Sandjar was entrusted with the administration of Khorasan and
Transoxania. These precautions proved, however, ineffectual to
preserve the dynasty of the Seljukides from the common fate of
oriental sovereign races, for after the death of Melikshah,
which took place in 485 (1092), his son Berkyaruk (the Very
Brilliant One) had scarcely ascended the throne before the
flames of discord were kindled amongst the numerous members of
the family, and they speedily fell a prey to the generals and
the other relations of the deceased prince." Sandjar, who died
in 1160, "was almost the only one of all his race who took to
heart the decay of their power in their old hereditary
dominions, or made any earnest endeavour to arrest it."
_A. Vámbéry,
History of Bokhara,
chapter 6._
TURKS: A. D. 1097-1099.
First encounters with the Crusaders.
See CRUSADES: A. D. 1096-1099.
TURKS: A. D. 1101-1102.
Destruction of three hosts of Crusaders.
See CRUSADES: A. D. 1101-1102.
TURKS: A. D. 1193.
Overthrow by the Khuarezmians.
See KHUAREZM
TURKS: (Ottoman): A. D. 1240-1326.
Origin and rise of the modern Turkish power.
On the final defeat and death, in Kurdistan, of the last
Khuarezmian or Carizmian prince, who was pursued relentlessly
by the Mongols of Jingis Khan and his successors, there was
dissolved an army which included various Turkish hordes. The
fragments of this Khuarezmian force were scattered and played
several important parts in the history of the troubled time.
"The bolder and more powerful chiefs invaded Syria, and
violated the holy sepulchre of Jerusalem; the more humble
engaged in the service of Aladin, Sultan of Iconium, and among
these were the obscure fathers of the Ottoman line. They had
formerly pitched their tents near the southern bank of the
Oxus, in the plains of Mahan and Nesa; and it is somewhat
remarkable that the same spot should have produced the first
authors of the Parthian and Turkish empires. At the head or in
rear of a Carizmian army, Soliman Shah was drowned in the
passage of the Euphrates. His son Orthogrul became the soldier
and subject of Aladin, and established at Surgut, on the banks
of the Sangar, a camp of four hundred families or tents, whom
he governed fifty-two years both in peace and war. He was the
father of Thaman, or Athman, whose Turkish name has been
melted into the appellation of the Caliph Othman; and if we
describe that pastoral chief as a shepherd and a robber, we
must separate from those characters all idea of ignominy and
baseness. Othman possessed, and perhaps surpassed, the
ordinary virtues of a soldier, and the circumstances of time
and place were propitious to his independence and success. The
Seljukian dynasty was no more, and the distance and decline of
the Mogul Khans soon enfranchised him from the control of a
superior. He was situate on the verge of the Greek empire. The
Koran sanctified his 'gazi,' or holy war, against the
infidels; and their political errors unlocked the passes of
Mount Olympus, and invited him to descend into the plains of
Bithynia. … It was on the 27th of July, in the year 1299 of
the Christian era, that Othman first invaded the territory of
Nicomedia; and the singular accuracy of the date seems to
disclose some foresight of the rapid and destructive growth of
the monster. The annals of the twenty-seven years of his reign
would exhibit a repetition of the same inroads; and his
hereditary troops were multiplied in each campaign by the
accession of captives and volunteers.
{3134}
Instead of retreating to the hills, he maintained the most
useful and defensible posts, fortified the towns and castles
which he had first pillaged; and renounced the pastoral life
for the baths and palaces of his infant capitals. But it was
not till Othman was oppressed by age and infirmities that he
received the welcome news of the conquest of Prusa, which had
been surrendered by famine or treachery to the arms of his son
Orchan. … From the conquest of Prusa we may date the true era
of the Ottoman empire. The lives and possessions of the
Christian subjects were redeemed by a tribute or ransom of
thirty thousand crowns of gold; and the city, by the labors of
Orchan, assumed the aspect of a Mahometan capital."
_E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 64._
"Osman is the real Turkish name, which has been corrupted into
Othman. The descendants of his subjects style themselves
Osmanlis, which has in like manner been corrupted into
Ottoman."
_Dr. W. Smith,
Note to
E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 64._
TURKS: A. D. 1326-1359.
Progress of conquests in Asia Minor.
The Janissaries.
"Orchan [the son and successor of Othman] had captured the
city of Nicomedia in the first year of his reign (1326); and
with the new resources for warfare which the administrative
genius of his brother [Alaeddin] placed at his command, he
speedily signalised his reign by conquests still more
important. The great city of Nice [Nicæa] (second to
Constantinople only in the Greek Empire) surrendered to him in
1330. … Numerous other advantages were gained over the Greeks:
and the Turkish prince of Karasi (the ancient Mysia), who had
taken up arms against the Ottomans, was defeated; and his
capital city, Berghama (the ancient Pergamus), and his
territory, annexed to Orchan's dominions. On the conquest of
Karasi, in the year 1336 of our era, nearly the whole of the
north-west of Asia Minor was included in the Ottoman Empire;
and the four great cities of Brusa, Nicomedia, Nice, and
Pergamus had become strongholds of its power. A period of
twenty years, without further conquests, and without war,
followed the acquisition of Karasi. During this time the
Ottoman sovereign was actively occupied in perfecting the
civil and military institutions which his brother had
introduced; in securing internal order, in founding and
endowing mosques and schools, and in the construction of vast
public edifices. … Orchan died in the year 1359 of our era, at
the age of seventy-five, after a reign of thirty-three years,
during which the most important civil and military
institutions of his nation were founded, and the Crescent was
not only advanced over many of the fairest provinces of Asia,
but was also planted on the European continent."
_Sir E. S. Creasy,
History of the Ottoman Turks,
chapter 2._
It is with Othman's son Orkhan that the Ottoman Empire really
begins. He threw off his nominal allegiance to the Sultan [of
Iconium], though he still bore only the title of Emir. And in
his time the Ottomans first made good their footing in Europe.
But while his dominion was still only Asiatic, Orkhan began
one institution which did more than anything else firmly to
establish the Ottoman power. This was the institution of the
tribute children. By the law of Mahomet … the unbeliever is
allowed to purchase life, property, and the exercise of his
religion, by the payment of tribute. Earlier Mahometan rulers
had been satisfied with tribute in the ordinary sense. Orkhan
first demanded a tribute of children. The deepest of wrongs,
that which other tyrants did as an occasional outrage, thus
became under the Ottomans a settled law. A fixed proportion of
the strongest and most promising boys among the conquered
Christian nations were carried off for the service of the
Ottoman princes. They were brought up in the Mahometan faith,
and were employed in civil or military functions, according to
their capacity. Out of them was formed the famous force of the
Janissaries, the new soldiers who, for three centuries, as
long as they were levied in this way, formed the strength of
the Ottoman armies. These children, torn from their homes and
cut off from every domestic and national tie, knew only the
religion and the service into which they were forced, and
formed a body of troops such as no other power, Christian or
Mahometan, could command. … While the force founded by Orkhan
lasted in its first shape, the Ottoman armies were
irresistible. But all this shews how far the Ottomans were
from being a national power. Their victories were won by
soldiers who were really of the blood of the Greeks, Slaves,
and other conquered nations. In the same way, while the
Ottoman power was strongest, the chief posts of the Empire,
civil and military, were constantly held, not by native Turks,
but by Christian renegades of all nations. The Ottoman power
in short was the power, not of a nation, but simply of an
army."
E. A. Freeman,
The Ottoman Power in Europe,
chapter 4.
The name of Yeni Tscheri, which means 'new troops,' and which
European writers have turned into Janissaries, was given to
Orchan's young corps by the Dervish Hadji Beytarch."
_Sir E. S. Creasy,
History of the Ottoman Turks,
chapter 2._
TURKS: A. D. 1360-1389.
The conquests in Europe of Amurath I.
"The dissensions of the elder and younger Andronicus [Emperors
at Constantinople, the younger—a grandson—in revolt and the
elder finally deposed, A. D. 1320-1328], and the mistaken
policy of Cantacuzene [Great Domestic of the empire, regent,
after the death of Andronicus the younger, A. D. 1341, and
then usurper of the throne from 1341 until 1355], first led to
the introduction of the Turks into Europe; and the subsequent
marriage of Orchan with a Grecian princess was acceded to by
the Byzantine court as a faint bond of peace between a dreaded
conqueror and a crouching state. The expectation of
tranquillity was, however, fatally blasted; and, in the last
quarrel of Cantacuzene with his pupil [John Palæologus, the
youthful son of Andronicus the younger, who was deprived of
his crown for fourteen years by Cantacuzene], the disastrous
ambition of the former opened the path of Solyman, the son of
Orchan, across the Hellespont [A. D. 1356], and laid the
northern provinces of the kingdom open to the temporary
ravages of the barbarians, thus inflicting a lasting and
irremediable injury on the liberties of Christendom. The
exploits of Solyman, however, led to no other permanent
results than the example which they left to the ambition of
Amurath I., who, amongst his earliest achievements, led his
victorious army across the Hellespont [A. D. 1360], ravaged
the extended district from Mount Hæmus to the Straits, and,
taking possession of Adrianople [A. D. 1361], made it the
first seat of his royalty, and the first shrine of
Mahomedanism in Europe.
{3135}
His conquests had now drawn a circle round the enfeebled
dominions of the Emperor; and the submission of John
Palæologus, together with his political views in more distant
quarters, alone prevented Amurath from contracting the
circumference to the centre, and annihilating the empire of
the East, by seating himself on the throne of Byzantium. For
the present, he turned his back upon the city, and pursued his
course towards the wilds of Bulgaria and Servia."
_Sir J. E. Tennent,
History of Modern Greece,
volume 1, chapter 4._
"Hitherto the Turkish victories in Europe had been won over
the feeble Greeks; but the Ottomans now came in contact with
the far more warlike Sclavonic tribes, which had founded
kingdoms and principalities in Servia and Bosnia. Amurath also
menaced the frontiers of Wallachia and Hungary. The Roman See,
once so energetic in exciting the early crusades, had
disregarded the progress of the new Mahometan power, so long
as the heretical Greeks were the only sufferers beneath its
arms. But Hungary, a country that professed spiritual
obedience to the Pope, a branch of Latin Christendom, was now
in peril; and Pope Urban V. preached up a crusade against the
infidel Turks. The King of Hungary, the princes of Servia, of
Bosnia and Wallachia, leagued together to drive the Ottomans
out of Europe; and their forces marched towards Adrianople
until they crossed the river Marizza at a point not more than
two days' journey from that city." A single battle, fought on
the Marizza, in 1363, broke this first Sclavonic league
against the Turks, and Amurath proceeded in his acquisition of
towns and territory from the Servians and Bulgarians until
1376, when both people purchased a short peace, the former by
paying a heavy annual tribute of money and soldiers, the
latter by giving their king's daughter to the Turk. The peace
thus secured only gave an opportunity to the Sclavic nations
to organize one more great attempt to cast out their
aggressive and dangerous neighbor. Servia led the movement,
and was joined in it by the Bulgarians, the Bosnians, and the
Skipetars of Albania, with aid likewise promised and rendered
from Hungary, Wallachia, and Poland. But nothing prospered in
the undertaking; it served the ambition of the Turks and
quickened their conquest of southeastern Europe. Amurath fell
upon Bulgaria first (A. D. 1389), broke down all resistance,
dethroned the king and annexed his state to the Ottoman
dominions. A few weeks later in the same year, on the 27th of
August, 1389, the great and famous battle of Kossova was
fought, which laid the heavy yoke of Turkish tyranny upon the
necks of the Servian people, and the memory of which has been
embalmed in their literature. Amurath was assassinated in the
hour of victory by a despairing Servian nobleman, but lived
long enough to command the execution of the captive Servian
king.
_Sir E. S. Creasy,
History of the Ottoman Turks,
chapter 3._
ALSO IN:
_L. Ranke,
History of Servia,
chapter 2._
_Madame E. L. Mijatovich,
Kossovo._
See, also,
BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: 9-16TH CENTURIES.
TURKS: A. D. 1389-1403.
The conquests of Bajazet.
The Emir becomes Sultan.
His overthrow and capture by Timour.
"The character of Bajazet, the son and successor of Amurath,
is strongly expressed in his surname of Ilderim, or the
Lightning; and he might glory in an epithet which was drawn
from the fiery energy of his soul and the rapidity of his
destructive march. In the fourteen years of his reign he
incessantly moved at the head of his armies, from Boursa to
Adrianople, from the Danube to the Euphrates. … No sooner had
he imposed a regular form of servitude on the Servians and
Bulgarians than he passed the Danube to seek new enemies and
new subjects in the heart of Moldavia. Whatever yet adhered to
the Greek empire in Thrace, Macedonia, and Thessaly,
acknowledged a Turkish master. … The humble title of emir was
no longer suitable to the Ottoman greatness; and Bajazet
condescended to accept a patent of sultan from the caliphs who
served in Egypt under the yoke of the Mamelukes—a last and
frivolous homage that was yielded by force to opinion, by the
Turkish conquerors to the House of Abbas and the successors of
the Arabian prophet. The ambition of the sultan was inflamed
by the obligation of deserving this august title; and he
turned his arms against the kingdom of Hungary, the perpetual
theatre of the Turkish victories and defeats. Sigismond, the
Hungarian king, was the son and brother of the emperors of the
West; his cause was that of Europe and the Church; and on the
report of his danger, the bravest knights of France and
Germany were eager to march under his standard and that of the
cross. In the battle of Nicopolis [September 28, A. D. 1396],
Bajazet defeated a confederate army of 100,000 Christians, who
had proudly boasted that if the sky should fall they could
uphold it on their lances. The far greater part were slain or
driven into the Danube; and Sigismond, escaping to
Constantinople by the river and the Black Sea, returned, after
a long circuit, to his exhausted kingdom. In the pride of
victory, Bajazet threatened that he would besiege Buda; that
he would subdue the adjacent countries of Germany and Italy;
and that he would feed his horse with a bushel of oats on the
altar of St. Peter at Rome. His progress was checked, not by
the miraculous interposition of the apostle, not by a crusade
of the Christian powers, but by a long and painful fit of the
gout. … At length the ambition of the victorious sultan
pointed to the conquest of Constantinople; but he listened to
the advice of his vizir, who represented that such an
enterprise might unite the powers of Christendom in a second
and more formidable crusade. His epistle to the emperor was
conceived in these words: 'By the divine clemency, our
invincible scimitar has reduced to our obedience almost all
Asia, with many and large countries in Europe, excepting only
the city of Constantinople; for beyond the walls thou hast
nothing left. Resign that city; stipulate thy reward; or
tremble for thyself and thy unhappy people at the consequences
of a rash refusal.' But his ambassadors were instructed to
soften their tone, and to propose a treaty, which was
subscribed with submission and gratitude. A truce of ten years
was purchased by an annual tribute of thirty thousand crowns
of gold." The truce was soon broken by Bajazet, who found a
pretext for again demanding the surrender of Constantinople.
He had established his blockade of the city and would surely
have won it by famine or assault if Timour's invasion of Asia
Minor (A. D. 1402) had not summarily interrupted his plans and
ended his career. Defeated at the battle of Angora and taken
prisoner by the Tartar conqueror, he died a few months
later—whether caged like a beast or held in more honorable
captivity is a question in some dispute.
_E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapters 64-65._
See, also, TIMOUR.
{3136}
TURKS: A. D. 1393.
Wallachian capitulation.
See BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES:
14-18TH CENTURIES (ROMANIA, ETC.).
TURKS: A. D. 1402-1451.
Prostration and recovery.
Conquests of Mahomet and Amurath II.
It is one of the marvels of history that the Ottoman empire,
broken and dismembered by Timour, recovered its vigor and
re-entered upon a long career. After the fall of Bajazet,
three fragments of his dominions were held by three of his
surviving sons, while other portions were transferred by
Timour to princes of the old Seljuk house. Civil war broke out
between the brothers of the Ottoman race; it resulted in the
triumph of Mahomet, the youngest (A. D. 1413), who reunited a
large part of the dominions of his father. He reigned but
eight years, which were years of peace for the Greeks, with
whom Mahomet maintained a friendly intercourse. His son,
Amurath II., was provoked to renew the state of war, and a
formidable attack upon Constantinople was made in August,
1422. The first assault failed, and disturbances at home
recalled Amurath before he could repeat it. The Roman capital
was reprieved for thirty years; but its trembling emperor paid
tribute to the sultan and yielded most of the few cities that
remained to him outside of his capital. The Ottoman power had
become threatening again in Europe, and Servians, Bosnians,
Albanians, Wallachians, Hungarians, and Poles now struck hands
together in a combination, once more, to oppose it. "A severe
struggle followed, which, after threatening the utter
expulsion of the house of Othman from Europe, confirmed for
centuries its dominion in that continent, and wrought the
heavier subjugation of those who were then seeking to release
themselves from its superiority. In 1442 Amurath was repulsed
from Belgrade; and his generals, who were besieging
Hermanstadt, in Transylvania, met with a still more disastrous
reverse. It was at Hermanstadt that the renowned Hunyades
first appeared in the wars between the Hungarians and the
Turks. He was the illegitimate son of Sigismond, King of
Hungary, and the fair Elizabeth Morsiney. In his early youth
he gained distinction in the wars of Italy; and Comines, in
his memoirs, celebrates him under the name of the White Knight
of Wallachia. After some campaigns in Western Christendom,
Hunyades returned to protect his native country against the
Ottomans." At Hermanstadt, and again at Vasag, Hunyades
defeated the Turks with great slaughter and rivalled them in
the ferocity with which his prisoners were treated. His fame
now gave a great impulse to the Crusade against the Turks
which Pope Eugenius had preached, and drew volunteers to his
standard from all the nations of the West. In 1443, Hunyades
led a splendid and powerful army across the Danube near
Semendra, drove the Turks beyond the Balkans, forced the
passage of the mountains with a boldness and a skill that is
compared with the exploits of Hannibal and Napoleon, and
extorted from the Sultan a treaty (of Szegeddin, July 12,
1444) which rescued a large Christian territory from the
Moslem yoke. "The Sultan resigned all claims upon Servia and
recognised George Brankovich as its independent sovereign.
Wallachia was given up to Hungary." But the peace which this
treaty secured was brief; Christian perfidy destroyed it, and
the penalty was paid by whole centuries of suffering and shame
for the Christians of the Danubian states. "Within a month
from the signature of the treaty of Szegeddin the Pope and the
Greek Emperor had persuaded the King of Hungary and his
councillors to take an oath to break the oath which had been
pledged to the Sultan. They represented that the confessed
weakness of the Ottomans, and the retirement of Amurath [who
had placed his son Mahomet on the throne and withdrawn from
the cares of sovereignty] to Asia, gave an opportunity for
eradicating the Turks from Europe which ought to be fully
employed. The Cardinal Julian [legate of the Pope] pacified
the conscientious misgivings which young King Ladislaus
expressed, by his spiritual authority in giving dispensation
and absolution in the Pope's name. … On the 1st of September,
the King, the legate, and Hunyades, marched against the
surprised and unprepared Turks with an army of 10,000 Poles
and Hungarians. The temerity which made them expect to destroy
the Turkish power in Europe with so slight a force was equal
to the dishonesty of their enterprise." They advanced through
Bulgaria to the Black Sea, and southward along its coast as
far as Varna, which they took. There they were called to
account. Amurath had resumed the sceptre, put himself at the
head of 40,000 of the best warriors of Islam and on the 10th
November he dashed them upon the Christian forces at Varna,
with the broken treaty borne like a banner at their head. His
victory was overwhelming. Cardinal Julian and the King of
Hungary were both among the slain. Hunyades fled with a little
remnant of followers and escaped to try fortune in other
fields. "This overthrow did not bring immediate ruin upon
Hungary, but it was fatal to the Sclavonic neighbours of the
Ottomans, who had joined the Hungarian King against them.
Servia and Bosnia were thoroughly reconquered by the
Mahometans; and the ruin of these Christian nations, which
adhered to the Greek Church, was accelerated by the religious
intolerance with which they were treated by their fellow
Christians of Hungary and Poland, who obeyed the Pope and
hated the Greek Church as heretical. … The bigotry of the
Church of Rome in preaching up a crusade against the sect of
the Patarenes, which was extensively spread in that country
[Bosnia], caused the speedy and complete annexation of an
important frontier province to the Ottoman Empire. Seventy
Bosnian fortresses are said to have opened their gates to the
Turks within eight days. The royal house of Bosnia was
annihilated, and many of her chief nobles embraced
Mahometanism to avoid a similar doom." After once more
attempting to escape from the throne, and being recalled by
domestic disturbances, Amurath reigned yet six years,
extending his dominions in the Peloponnesus, defeating once
more his old antagonist, Hunyades, who invaded Servia (1448),
but being successfully defied in Albania by the heroic
Scanderbeg. He died in 1451.
{3137}
_Sir E. S. Creasy,
History of the Ottoman Turks,
chapter 4._
ALSO IN:
_L. Ranke,
History of Servia,
chapter 2._
_E. Szabad,
Hungary,
part 1, chapters 3-4._
_A. Lamartine,
History of Turkey,
books 10-11._
TURKS: A. D. 1451-1481.
Conquest of Constantinople.
The Empire organized and perfected by Mahomet II.
Mahomet II., son of Amurath II., "finished the work of his
predecessors; he made the Ottoman power in Europe what it has
been ever since. He gave a systematic form to the customs of
his house and to the dominion which he had won. His first act
was the murder of his infant brother, and he made the murder
of brothers a standing law of his Empire. He overthrew the
last remnants of independent Roman rule, of independent Greek
nationality, and he fixed the relations which the Greek part
of his subjects were to bear both towards their Turkish
masters and towards their Christian fellow-subjects. He made
the northern and western frontiers of his Empire nearly what
they still remain. The Ottoman Empire, in short, as our age
has to deal with it, is, before all things, the work of
Mahomet the Conqueror. The prince whose throne was fixed in
the New Rome held altogether another place from even the
mightiest of his predecessors. Mahomet had reigned two years,
he had lived twenty-three, on the memorable day, May 29th
1453, when the Turks entered the city of the Cæsars and when
the last Emperor, Constantine, died in the breach. …
See CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 1453.
And now that the Imperial city was at last taken, Mahomet
seemed to make it his policy both to gather in whatever
remained unconquered, and to bring most of the states which
had hitherto been tributary under his direct rule. Greece
itself, though it had been often ravaged by the Turks, had not
been added to their dominions. The Emperors had, in the very
last days of the Empire before the fall of Constantinople,
recovered all Peloponnesos, except some points which were held
by Venice. Frank Dukes also reigned at Athens, and another
small duchy lingered on in the islands of Leukas and
Kephallenia and on the coasts of Akarnania. The Turkish
conquest of the mainland, again saving the Venetian points,
was completed by the year 1460, but the two western islands
were not taken until 1479. Euboia was conquered in 1471. … The
Empire of Trebizond was conquered in 1461, and the island of
Lesbos or Mitylene in 1462. There was now no independent Greek
state left. Crete, Corfu, and some smaller islands and points
of coast, were held by Venice, and some of the islands of the
Ægean were still ruled by Frank princes and by the Knights of
Saint John. But, after the fall of Trebizond, there was no
longer any independent Greek state anywhere, and the part of
the Greek nation which was under Christian rulers of any kind
was now far smaller than the part which was under the Turk.
While the Greeks were thus wholly subdued, the Slaves fared no
better. In 1459 Servia was reduced from a tributary
principality to an Ottoman province, and six years later
Bosnia was annexed also. … One little fragment of the great
Slavonic power in those lands alone remained. The little
district of Zeta, a part of the Servian kingdom, was never
fully conquered by the Turks. One part of it, the mountain
district called Tsernagora or Montenegro, has kept its
independence to our times. Standing as an outpost of freedom
and Christendom amid surrounding bondage, the Black Mountain
has been often attacked, it has been several times overrun,
but it has never been conquered. … To the south of them, the
Christian Albanians held out for a long time under their
famous chief George Castriot or Scanderbeg. After his death in
1459, they also came under the yoke. These conquests of
Mahomet gave the Ottoman dominion in Europe nearly the same
extent which it has now. His victories had been great, but
they were balanced by some defeats. The conquest of Servia and
Bosnia opened the way to endless inroads into Hungary,
South-eastern Germany and North-eastern Italy. But as yet
these lands were merely ravaged, and the Turkish power met
with some reverses. In 1456 Belgrade was saved by the last
victory of Huniades [see HUNGARY: A. D. 1442-1458], and this
time Mahomet the Conqueror had to flee. In another part of
Europe, if in those days it is to be counted for Europe,
Mahomet won the Genoese possessions in the peninsula of Crimea
[A. D. 1475], and the Tartar Khans who ruled in that peninsula
and the neighbouring lands became vassals of the Sultan. … The
last years of Mahomet's reign were marked by a great failure
and a great success. He failed to take Rhodes [A. D. 1480],
which belonged to the Knights of Saint John; but his troops
suddenly seized on Otranto in Southern Italy. Had this post
been kept, Italy might have fallen as well as Greece; but the
Conqueror died the next year, and Otranto was won back."
_E. A. Freeman,
The Ottoman Power in Europe,
chapter 4._
ALSO IN:
_A. Lamartine,
History of Turkey,
books 12-13._
_Sir E. S. Creasy,
History of the Ottoman Turks,
chapters 5-6._
_E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 68._
See, also, ITALY: A. D. 1447-1480.
TURKS: A. D. 1454-1479.
Treaty with Venice, followed by war.
See GREECE: A. D. 1454-1479.
TURKS: A. D. 1479.
Defeat at Kenyer-Mesö by the Hungarians and Wallachians.
See HUNGARY: A. D. 1471-1487.
TURKS: A. D. 1481-1520.
The sad story of Prince Jem and the Christians.
Massacre of the Shiites.
Selim's conquests in Persia, Syria and Egypt.
The Sultan becomes the successor of the Khalifs,
the chief of Islam.
"The long reign of Bayezid [or Bajazet] II. (1481-1512) which
surpassed that of his father and grandfather, so that the
three together nearly completed a century, was marked by a
general lethargy and incapacity on the part of the Turkish
Government. … Family dissensions were indeed the leading
incidents of Bayezid's reign, and for many years he was kept
in a state of anxious uncertainty by the ingenious intrigues
of the Christian Powers concerning the custody of his brother,
the unfortunate Prince Jem. The adventures of Prince Jem (the
name is short for Jemshid, but in Europe it has been written
Zizim) cast a very unpleasant light upon the honour of the
Christians of his time, and especially upon the Knights of
Rhodes. Of the two sons of Mohammed II. Jem was undoubtedly
the one who was by nature fitted to be his successor. … Jem
however, was not the first to hear of his father's death, and
a year's warfare against his brother ended in his own defeat.
{3138}
The younger prince then sought refuge with the Knights of
Rhodes, who promised to receive him hospitably, and to find
him a way to Europe, where he intended to renew his opposition
to his brother's authority. D'Aubusson, the Grand Master of
Rhodes, was too astute a diplomatist to sacrifice the solid
gains that he perceived would accrue to his Order for the sake
of a few paltry twinges of conscience; and he had no sooner
made sure of Prince Jem's person, and induced him to sign a
treaty, by which, in the event of his coming to the throne,
the Order was to reap many sterling advantages, than he
ingeniously opened negotiations with Sultan Bayezid, with a
view to ascertain how much gold that sovereign was willing to
pay for the safe custody of his refractory brother. It is only
fair to say that Bayezid, who had no particle of cruelty in
his nature, did all he could to come to terms with Jem. … All
negotiation and compromise having proved ineffectual, he
listened to the proposals of the crafty Grand Master, and
finally agreed to pay him 45,000 ducats a year, so long as he
kept Jem under his surveillance. The Knights of St. John
possessed many commanderies, and the one they now selected for
Jem's entertainment was at Nice, in the south of France. In
1482 he arrived there, wholly unconscious of the plots that
were being woven about him. … On one pretext or another the
knights contrived to keep their prisoner at Nice for several
months, and then transferred him to Rousillon, thence to Puy,
and next to Sassenage, where the monotonies of captivity were
relieved by the delights of love, which he shared with the
daughter of the commandant, the beautiful Philipine Hélène,
his lawful spouse being fortunately away in Egypt. Meanwhile
Grand Master D'Aubusson was driving a handsome trade in his
capacity of jailor. All the potentates of Europe were anxious
to obtain possession of the claimant to the Ottoman throne,
and were ready to pay large sums in hard cash to enjoy the
privilege of using this specially dangerous instrument against
the Sultan's peace. D'Aubusson was not averse to taking the
money, but he did not wish to give up his captive; and his
knightly honour felt no smirch in taking 20,000 ducats from
Jem's desolate wife (who probably had not heard of the fair
Hélène) as the price of her husband's release, while he held
him all the tighter. Of such chivalrous stuff were made the
famous knights of Rhodes; and of such men as D'Aubusson the
Church made cardinals! A new influence now appeared upon the
scene of Jem's captivity. Charles VIII. of France considered
that the Grand Master had made enough profit out of the
unlucky prince, and the king resolved to work the oracle
himself. His plan was to restore Jem to a nominal sultanate by
the aid of Matthias Corvinus, Ferdinand of Naples, and the
Pope. He took Jem out of the hands of the knights, and
transferred him to the custody of Innocent VIII., who kindly
consented to take care of the prince for the sum of 40,000
ducats a year, to be paid by his grateful brother at
Constantinople." Innocent's successor, the terrible Borgia,
Alexander VI., unsatisfied with this liberal allowance, opened
negotiations with Constantinople looking to the payment of
some heavy lump sum for summary riddance of poor Jem. But the
sinister bargain was interrupted by Charles VIII. of France,
who invaded Italy at this juncture, passed through Rome, and
took the captive prince in his train when he went on to
Naples. Jem died on the way, and few have doubted that Pope
Alexander poisoned him, as he had poisoned many before. "The
curious conclusion one draws from the whole melancholy tale
is, that there was not apparently a single honest prince in
Christendom to take compassion upon the captive." In 1512
Bayezid was deposed by his son Selim, and did not long survive
the humiliation. To avoid troubles of the Prince Jem
character, Selim slew all his brothers and nephews, eleven in
number, making a family solitude around the throne. Then he
prepared himself for foreign conquest by exterminating the
sometimes troublesome sect of the Shias, or Shiites, in his
dominions. "A carefully organized system of detectives, whom
Selim distributed throughout his Asiatic provinces, revealed
the fact that the number of the heretical sect reached the
alarming total of 70,000. Selim … secretly massed his troops
at spots where the heretics chiefly congregated, and at a
given signal 40,000 of them were massacred or imprisoned. …
Having got rid of the enemy within his gates, Selim now
proceeded to attack the head of the Shias, the great Shah
Ismail himself [the founder of the Sufi line of Persian
sovereigns, who had lately established his authority over the
provinces of Persia]. … Selim set forth with an army estimated
at over 140,000 men, 80,000 of which were cavalry. … After
weary and painful marching, the Ottomans forced Ismail to give
battle at Chaldiran [or Tabreez—see PERSIA: A. D. 1499-1887],"
and defeated him. "The victory of Chaldiran (1514) might have
been followed by the conquest of Persia, but the privations
which the soldiery had undergone had rendered them
unmanageable, and Selim was forced to content himself with the
annexation of the important provinces of Kurdistan and
Dyarbekr, which are still part of the Turkish Empire; and then
turned homewards, to prosecute other schemes of conquest. No
peace, however, was concluded between him and the Shah, and a
frontier war continued to be waged for many years. During the
campaign against Persia, the Turks had been kept in anxiety by
the presence on their flanks of the forces of the Mamluk
Sultans of Egypt and Syria, whose frontiers now marched with
the territory of the Ottomans." Turning his arms against the
Mamluks, "Selim set out in 1516 for Syria, and meeting the
Mamluk army on the field of Marj Dabik near Aleppo,
administered a terrible defeat, in which the aged Sultan
El-Ghuri was trampled to death. He found a brave successor in
Tuman Bey, but in the interval the Turks had mastered Syria
and were advancing to Gaza. Here the Mamluks made another
stand, but the generalship of Sinan Pasha was not to be
resisted any more than the preponderance of his forces. The
final battle was fought at Reydaniya in the neighbourhood of
Cairo, in January, 1517. … Twenty-five thousand Mamluks lay
stark upon the field, and the enemy occupied Cairo. There a
succession of street-fights took place." The perfidious
Turkish Sultan finally cheated the Mamluks into submission by
offering amnesty, and then put them to the sword, giving the
city up to massacre. "Tuman Bey, after some further
resistance, was captured and executed, and Egypt became a
Turkish province. … Sultan Selim returned to Constantinople in
1518, a much more dignified personage than he had set out.
{3139}
By the conquest of the Mamluk kingdom he had also succeeded to
their authority over the sacred cities of Arabia, Mekka and
Medina, and in recognition of this position, as well as of his
undoubted supremacy among Mohammedan monarchs, he received
from the last Abbaside Khalif, who kept a shadowy court at
Cairo, the inheritance of the great pontiffs of Baghdad. The
'fainéant' Khalif was induced to make over to the real
sovereign the spiritual authority which he still affected to
exercise, and with it the symbols of his office, the standard
and cloak of the Prophet Mohammed. Selim now became not only
the visible chief of the Mohammedan State throughout the wide
dominions subdued to his sway, but also the revered head of
the religion of Islam, wheresoever it was practised in its
orthodox form. The heretical Shias of Persia might reject his
claim, but in India, in all parts of Asia and Africa, where
the traditional Khalifate was recognized, the Ottoman Sultan
henceforth was the supreme head of the church, the successor
to the spiritual prestige of the long line of the Khalifs. How
far this new title commands the homage of the orthodox Moslem
world is a matter of dispute; but there can be no doubt that
it has always added, and still adds, a real and important
authority to the acts and proclamations of the Ottoman
Sultan." Selim died in 1520, and was succeeded by his son
Suleyman, or Solyman, who acquired the name of "the
Magnificent."
_S. Lane-Poole,
Story of Turkey,
chapters 8-9._
ALSO IN:
_A. de Lamartine,
History of Turkey,
books 15-18 (volume 2)._
_A. A. Paton,
History of the Egyptian Revolution,
chapter 5._
TURKS: A. D. 1498-1502.
War with the Venetians.
"During the first 17 years of Bajazet's reign, the peace
between the Venetians and the Porte, though occasionally
menaced, remained on the whole undisturbed. The Venetians
complained of the Turkish incursions; and the definitive
occupation of Montenegro, while the Porte, on its side, was
jealous because the Republic had reduced the Duke of Naxos to
dependence, and obtained possession of Cyprus (1489). At last,
in 1498, the Turks, after making great naval preparations,
suddenly arrested all the Venetian residents at
Constantinople, and in the following year seized Lepanto,
which surrendered without striking a blow (August 1499). Soon
after, a body of 10,000 Turks crossed the Isonzo, carrying
fire and desolation almost to the lagoons of Venice. In August
1500, Modon was taken by assault. … Navarino and Koron
surrendered soon after, but towards the close of the year the
Venetians were more successful. They captured Ægina,
devastated and partly occupied Mytilene, Tenedos, and
Samothrace, and with the help of a Spanish squadron, and 7,000
troops, under Gonsalvo de Cordova, reduced the island of
Cephalonia. For this service the grateful Venetians rewarded
Gonsalvo with a present of 500 tuns of Cretan wine, 60,000
pounds of cheese, 266 pounds of wrought silver, and the
honorary freedom of their Republic. In 1501 the Venetian fleet
was joined by a French, a Papal, and a Spanish squadron, but,
through a want of cordiality among the commanders, little was
effected. The Turks, however; had not made a better figure;
and the Porte, whose attention was at that time distracted by
the affairs of Persia, was evidently inclined for peace. The
disordered state of the Venetian finances, and the decay of
their commerce through the maritime discoveries of the
Portuguese, also disposed them to negociation; although the
sale of indulgences, granted to them by the Pope for this war,
is said to have brought more than 700 pounds of gold into
their exchequer. The war nevertheless continued through 1502,
and the Venetians were tolerably successful, having captured
many Turkish ships, and, with the assistance of the French,
taken the island of Sta. Maura. But at length a treaty was
signed, December 14th, by which Venice was allowed to hold
Cephalonia, but restored Sta. Maura, and permitted the Porte
to retain its conquests, including the three important
fortresses of Modon, Koron, and Navarino."
_T. H. Dyer,
History of Modern Europe,
book 1, chapter 6 (volume 1)._
TURKS: A. D. 1519.
The Sultan acquires sovereignty of Algiers and Tunis.
See BARBARY STATES: A. D. 1516-1535.
TURKS: A. D. 1520.
Accession of Solyman I.
TURKS: A. D. 1521-1526.
Capture of Belgrade.
Great invasion of Hungary.
Overwhelming victory of Mohacs.
See HUNGARY: A. D. 1487-1526.
TURKS: A. D. 1522.
Conquest of the isle of Rhodes.
Expulsion of the Knights of St. John.
See HOSPITALLERS OF ST. JOHN: A. D. 1522.
TURKS: A. D. 1526-1567.
The Sultan suzerain of Transylvania and master of Hungary.
Invasion of Austria and siege of Vienna.
Death of Solyman the Magnificent.
See HUNGARY: A. D. 1526-1567.
TURKS: A. D. 1527.
Final subjugation of the Bosnians.
See BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: 9-16TH CENTURIES.
TURKS: A. D. 1532-1553.
Frightful depredations along the coast of Southern Italy.
See ITALY (SOUTHERN): A. D. 1528-1570.
TURKS: A. D. 1542.
Alliance with France.
Siege of Nice.
Ravages on the Italian coast.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1532-1547.
TURKS: A. D. 1551-1560.
Unsuccessful attack on Malta.
Capture of Tripoli.
Disastrous attempt of the Christians to recover that city.
See BARBARY STATES: A. D. 1543-1560.
TURKS: A. D. 1565.
Unsuccessful attack on the Knights of St. John in Malta.
See HOSPITALLERS OF ST. JOHN: A. D. 1530-1565.
TURKS: A. D. 1566-1571.
Reign of Selim II.
War with the Holy League of Spain, Venice and the Pope.
Conquest of Cyprus.
Great defeat at Lepanto.
"In 1566, Solyman the Magnificent closed his long and
prosperous reign. His son and successor, Selim II., possessed
few of the qualities of his great father. Bred in the
Seraglio, he showed the fruits of his education in his
indolent way of life, and in the free indulgence of the most
licentious appetites. With these effeminate tastes, he
inherited the passion for conquest which belonged, not only to
his father, but to the whole of his warlike dynasty. … The
scheme which most occupied the thoughts of Selim was the
conquest of Cyprus. … Selim, resolved on the acquisition of
Cyprus, was not slow in devising a pretext for claiming it
from Venice as a part of the Ottoman empire. The republic,
though willing to make almost any concession rather than come
to a rupture with the colossal power under whose shadow she
lay, was not prepared to surrender without a struggle the
richest gem in her colonial diadem. War was accordingly
declared against her by the Porte, and vast preparations were
made for fitting out an armament against Cyprus.
{3140}
Venice, in her turn, showed her usual alacrity in providing
for the encounter. She strained her resources to the utmost.
In a very short time she equipped a powerful fleet, and took
measures to place the fortifications of Cyprus in a proper
state of defence. But Venice no longer boasted a navy such as
in earlier days had enabled her to humble the pride of Genoa,
and to ride the unquestioned mistress of the Mediterranean.
The defences of her colonies, moreover, during her long repose
had gradually fallen into decay. In her extremity, she turned
to the Christian powers of Europe, and besought them to make
common cause with her against the enemy of Christendom." The
only responses to her appeal came, first, from Pope Pius V.,
and finally, through his urgency, from Philip II. of Spain.
After much deliberation, Philip agreed, in the spring of 1570,
to enter into an alliance with Venice and the Pope against the
Ottoman Porte. "The ensuing summer, the royal admiral, the
famous John Andrew Doria, who was lying with a strong squadron
off Sicily, put to sea, by the king's orders. He was soon
after reinforced by a few galleys which were furnished by his
holiness, and placed under the command of Mark Antonio
Colonna. … On the last of August, 1570, the combined fleet
effected its junction with the Venetians at Candia, and a plan
of operations was immediately arranged. It was not long before
the startling intelligence arrived that Nicosia, the capital
of Cyprus, had been taken and sacked by the Turks, with all
the circumstances of cruelty which distinguish wars in which
the feeling of national hostility is embittered by religious
hatred. The plan was now to be changed. A dispute arose among
the commanders as to the course to be pursued. No one had
authority enough to enforce compliance with his own opinion.
The dispute ended in a rupture. The expedition was abandoned.
… Still the stout-hearted pontiff was not discouraged;" nor
did the king of Spain draw back. "Venice, on the other hand,
soon showed that the Catholic king had good reason for
distrusting her fidelity. Appalled by the loss of Nicosia,
with her usual inconstancy, she despatched a secret agent to
Constantinople, to see if some terms might not yet be made
with the sultan." Her overtures, however, were coldly received
by the sultan, and she was won back to the alliance. "Towards
the close of 1570, the deputies from the three powers met in
Rome to arrange the terms of the league." With much
difficulty, a treaty was concluded, and ratified in May, 1571,
to the effect that the operations of the league "should be
directed against the Moors of Tunis, Tripoli, and Algiers, as
well as against the Turks; that the contracting parties should
furnish 200 galleys, 100 transports and smaller vessels,
50,000 foot and 4,500 horse, with the requisite artillery and
munitions; that by April, at farthest, of every succeeding
year, a similar force should be held in readiness by the
allies for expeditions to the Levant; and that any year in
which there was no expedition in common, and either Spain or
the republic should desire to engage in one on her own account
against the infidel, the other confederates should furnish 50
galleys towards it; that if the enemy should invade the
dominions of any of the three powers, the others should be
bound to come to the aid of their ally; that three-sixths of
the expenses of the war should be borne by the Catholic king,
two-sixths by the republic, the remaining sixth by the Holy
See; … that each power should appoint a captain-general; that
the united voices of the three commanders should regulate the
plan of operations; that the execution of this plan should be
intrusted to the captain-general of the league, and that this
high office should be given to Don John of Austria [natural
son of Charles V. and half-brother of Philip II.]. … Such were
the principal provisions of the famous treaty of the Holy
League." The sultan was not dismayed. "He soon got together a
powerful fleet, partly drawn from his own dominions, and in
part from those of the Moslem powers on the Mediterranean, who
acknowledged allegiance to the Porte. The armada was placed
under the command of Selim's brother-in-law, the Pacha Piali.
… Early in the season [of 1571] the combined fleets sailed for
the Adriatic, and Piali, after landing and laying waste the
territory belonging to the republic, detached Uluch [dey of
Algiers] with his squadron to penetrate higher up the gulf.
The Algerine, in executing these orders, advanced so near to
Venice as to throw the inhabitants of that capital into …
consternation. … Meanwhile the Venetians were pushing forward
their own preparations with their wonted alacrity,—indeed with
more alacrity than thoroughness. … The fleet was placed under
the command of Sebastian Veniero," and sailed before
midsummer, "or as much of it as was then ready, for the port
of Messina, appointed as the place of rendezvous for the
allies. Here he was soon joined by Colonna, the papal
commander, with the little squadron furnished by his holiness;
and the two fleets lay at anchor … waiting the arrival of the
rest of the confederates and of Don John of Austria." The
latter reached Messina on the 25th of August. "The whole
number of vessels in the armada, great and small, amounted to
something more than 300. Of these full two thirds were 'royal
galleys.' Venice alone contributed 106, besides six
'galeazzas.' These were ships of enormous bulk. … The number
of persons on board of the fleet, soldiers and seamen, was
estimated at 80,000. … The soldiers did not exceed 29,000. …
On the 16th of September the magnificent armament … stood out
to sea." Before encountering the Turkish fleet, the allies
received tidings "that Famagosta, the second city of Cyprus,
had fallen into the hands of the enemy, and this under
circumstances of unparalleled perfidy and cruelty. … The fall
of Famagosta secured the fall of Cyprus, which thus became
permanently incorporated in the Ottoman empire." On Sunday,
October 7th, the armada of the Turks was found and attacked in
the gulf of Lepanto. The terrific fight which ensued lasted
only four hours, but those were hours of indescribable
destruction and carnage. "It was indeed a sanguinary battle,
surpassing in this particular any sea-fight of modern times.
The loss fell much the most heavily on the Turks. There is the
usual discrepancy about numbers; but it may be safe to estimate
their loss at nearly 25,000 slain and 5,000 prisoners. What
brought most pleasure to the hearts of the conquerors was the
liberation of 12,000 Christian captives, who had been chained
to the oar on board the Moslem galleys, and who now came
forth, with tears of joy streaming down their haggard cheeks,
to bless their deliverers.
{3141}
The loss of the allies was comparatively small,—less than
8,000." As to the armada of the Turks, "it may almost be said
to have been annihilated. Not more than 40 galleys escaped out
of near 250 which entered into the action. … The news of the
victory of Lepanto caused a profound sensation throughout
Christendom. … In Venice, which might be said to have gained a
new lease of existence from the result of the battle, … the
7th of October was set apart to be observed for ever as a
national anniversary. … It is a great error to speak of the
victory of Lepanto as a barren victory, which yielded no
fruits to those who gained it. True, it did not strip the
Turks of an inch of territory. … But the loss of
reputation—that tower of strength to the conqueror—was not to
be estimated."
_W. H. Prescott,
History of Philip II.,
book 5, chapters 9-11._
ALSO IN:
_Sir W. Stirling-Maxwell,
Don John of Austria,
volume 1, chapters 13-15._
TURKS: A. D. 1569-1570.
First collision with the Russians.
Vizir Sokolli's canal project and its frustration.
Peace with the Czar.
See RUSSIA: A. D. 1569-1571.
TURKS: A. D. 1572-1573.
Withdrawal of Venice from the Holy League.
Conquest of Tunis by Don John of Austria
and its recovery, with Goletta.
"Ulucciali, whom Selim … made commander-in-chief of all his
naval forces, exerted himself with extraordinary vigour and
activity in fitting out a new fleet, to supply the place of
that which had been ruined in the battle of Lepanto; and such
at this time were the resources of the Turkish empire, that he
was ready by the month of April [1572] to leave
Constantinople, with more than 200 galleys, besides a great
number of other ships. With this fleet he coasted along
Negropont, the Morea, and Epirus; put the maritime towns into
a posture of defence; chastised with great severity many of
those Christians who had been concerned in the invitation
given to Don John [who had just been offered the sovereignty
of Albania and Macedonia by the Christians of those
countries]; and afterwards took his station at Modon in the
Morea, with an intention to watch there the motions of the
enemy. He had full leisure to finish all the preparations
which he judged to be necessary. The allies disputed long with
one another concerning the plan of their future operations."
and were also held inactive by the Spanish king's fear of an
attack from France. "It was the last day of August before the
allies could effectuate a junction of their forces; and it was
the middle of September before they came in sight of the
enemy. … Ulucciali drew out his fleet, as if he intended to
offer battle; but no sooner had he made a single discharge of
his artillery … than he retired under the fortifications of
Modon." The allies thought first of besieging Modon, but gave
up the project. They then sent Alexander Farnese, prince of
Parma—afterwards so famous in the Netherlands—to reduce
Navarino; but he had no success and abandoned the siege. The
expedition then returned to Messina. The Venetians,
dissatisfied with the conduct of the war, now faithlessly
negotiated a separate peace with the Turks; but Philip II. of
Spain maintained his alliance with the Pope (now Gregory
XIII.), and ordered his brother, Don John, to proceed the next
spring to Africa and undertake the reduction of Tunis. Don
John obeyed the order, "carrying with him for this purpose a
fleet of 2,000 sail, having 20,000 foot on board, besides 400
light horse, 700 pioneers, and a numerous train of heavy
artillery. Tunis was at this time in the hands of the Turks,
commanded by Heder Basha, whom Selim had lately sent to govern
the town and kingdom. Heder, seized with consternation at the
approach of the Spanish fleet, left Tunis with his troops and
a great number of the inhabitants, and Don John took
possession of the place without meeting with the smallest
opposition. Philip had instructed his brother, when he sent
him on this expedition, to destroy Tunis, and to strengthen
the fortifications of the isle and fortress of Goletta. But
instead of complying with these instructions, Don John
resolved to fortify the town more strongly than ever; and
having laid the foundations of a new fort, or citadel, he
treated all the inhabitants who remained with lenity and
indulgence; and engaged many of those who had fled to return
and submit to the Spanish government; after which he carried
back his fleet to Sicily." It is believed that Don John had
conceived ambitious hopes of a kingdom on the African border
of the Mediterranean. "In the summer following [1573], Selim
sent Ulucciali against Tunis, with a fleet consisting of 300
ships, having about 40,000 troops on board, under the command
of his son-in-law, Sinan Basha. The new fort which Don John
had begun to build was not yet complete. Nor was the garrison
which he had left strong enough to hold out long against so
great a force." Before Don John could reassemble a fleet with
which to make his way to the protection of his African
conquest, both Tunis and Goletta were carried by assault, and
passed again into the possession of the Turks and their
Moorish vassals.
_R. Watson,
History of Philip II.,
book 9._
ALSO IN:
_Sir W. Stirling-Maxwell,
Don John of Austria,
volume 2, chapters 1-3._
TURKS: A. D. 1572-1623.
Beginning of the decline of the Ottoman power.
"The conquest of Cyprus was the last great exploit which ever
added materially to the dominions of the Porte; the battle of
Lepanto was the final blow which destroyed its naval
superiority. The days of greatness had gone by. The kingdoms
of the West were developing their strength, and had learnt the
policy of union and of peace among themselves. Their armies
had acquired the discipline and had learnt the lessons in
which the Ottomans had shown so formidable an example; and
their navy rode triumphant on the seas. The Empire, no longer
in the hands of Charles V., with foreign interests to absorb
its power, could bestow an undivided strength upon its own
affairs; and the Emperor Ferdinand was looking forward with
some hope to an incorporation of Hungary, which should end the
weakness, and ensure the safety, of his eastern frontier. As
the pre-eminence of the Porte, however, and the dread of it
declined, a wider intercourse for her with Europe began. …
Slowly the Sultans were beginning to take part in the schemes
and combinations of the Christian Powers, from which they had
hitherto so contemptuously stood aloof. Five reigns succeeded
to that of Selim [the Sot, son of Solyman the Magnificent].
during which the progress of decline continued marked.
{3142}
The indolence of Amurath III. [1574-1595], the incapacity of
Mahomet III. [1595-1603], the inexperience of Achmet I.
[1603-1617], the imprudence of Othman II. [1618-1622], and the
imbecility of Mustapha [1617-1618, and 1622-1623], contributed
to bring the Ottoman Empire into a condition of anarchy and
weakness. During the reign of Amurath hostilities with Austria
were renewed, and successive losses testified to the enfeebled
state of the Ottoman arms."
_C. F. Johnstone,
Historical Abstracts,
chapter 3._
TURKS: A. D. 1591-1606.
Wars in Hungary and Croatia.
Great victory at Cerestes.
Peace of Sitvatorok.
See HUNGARY: A. D. 1567-1604; and 1595-1606.
TURKS: A. D. 1621-1622.
War with Poland.
Victory at Cecora and defeat at Choczim.
See POLAND: A. D. 1590-1648.
TURKS: A. D. 1623-1640.
War with Persia.
Siege and capture of Bagdad.
Horrible massacre of the inhabitants.
"During the first twelve years of the reign of Amurath IV.
[1623-1635], the Ottoman Empire had been occupied with active
hostilities in different parts of Europe, and especially with
Poland, Germany, and the maritime powers of the Mediterranean.
… In the east, however, great losses had been sustained. Shah
Abbas, a sovereign well entitled to the epithet 'Great,' had
repossessed himself of Diarbekr, Baghdad [1623], the district
of the Euphrates, with Kourdistan; and, on the north, he had
regained Armenia, and a considerable part of Anatolia. The
Sultan therefore resolved to undertake an expedition to
recover the territories thus taken from him, and to this he
was encouraged by the death of his formidable foe the Persian
monarch. Amurath marched from his capital early in 1635, to
superintend the operations of the campaign. … In passing
through Asia, he took care personally to examine into the
conduct of his various Pashas, and wherever it was requisite
he subjected them to a severe punishment. One of them, the
Pasha of Erzeroum, was put to death. Having at that city
reviewed his army, he found them to amount to 200,000 men, and
as his first object was the seizure of Armenia, the key of the
Persian provinces, he besieged Erivan, and notwithstanding a
vigorous defence, the fortress in a few days surrendered.
Tauris and the surrounding provinces speedily fell into his
hands, and Amurath returned in the winter to Constantinople,
entering the city in great triumph. The affairs of Europe were
in such a state of confusion, that it was several years ere he
again appeared in the east, the scene of so many of his
victories. The Khan of Tartary threw off his allegiance, the
Polish serfs appeared suddenly on the Caspian shores, and,
joining a body of Russians, attacked and carried the fortress
of Azof. … The European war, which at this time occurred,
rendered it unnecessary for the Sultan to entertain any
serious apprehension from his enemies in the west, who were
sufficiently occupied with their own affairs. He therefore
directed his attention to Persia, resolved to subjugate that
country, and to seize upon Baghdad. To this end his
preparations were proportionally great. An immense army was
collected on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus. This mighty
host numbered more than 300,000 armed men, and was accompanied
by a numerous array of miners, as well as artillery. And after
having consulted an astrologer, Amurath embarked amid all the
display which Asiatic pomp could furnish, and directed his
progress toward Persia. After a successful march, this immense
army arrived at Baghdad. The city was strongly fortified, and
defended by a resolute army of 80,000 men. The Shah, however,
was absent in the northern part of his dominions, which had
been threatened by an invasion from India, under Shah Jehan,
father of the celebrated Aurungzebe. Baghdad, therefore, was
left to its own resources. The operations of the siege began
in October 1638. … The besieged made repeated sallies, with a
force of five or six thousand men at a time, who, on retiring,
were succeeded by a similar number, and thus the losses of the
Ottoman army were sometimes very great. The 200 great guns,
however, which played upon the ramparts, at length made a wide
opening in the walls, and after five days' fighting in the
breach thus made, where 'the slain lay in immense multitudes,
and the blood was stagnated like a pool to wade through,' the
city was taken. Quarter was given to 24,000 of the defenders,
who remained alive, on condition that they would lay down
their arms. But as soon as they had done so, the Sultan
perfidiously issued orders to the Janizaries, and the work of
butchery commenced, and was carried on by torch-light during
the night on which the city was taken, and an indiscriminate
slaughter took place, neither youth, nor age, nor sex being
spared by the ruthless conqueror and his merciless soldiers. …
In the morning of the 23d of December the Sultan marched into
the city, passing with his army over the innumerable bodies of
the unfortunate Persians, whose gallant defence merited a
better fate. Some 15,000 women, children and old men were all
that remained of the inhabitants, who, but a day or two
before, filled every part of the magnificent capital. … The
capture of Baghdad closed the military career of the Sultan."
_R. W. Fraser,
Turkey, Ancient and Modern,
chapter 17._
"A peace with Persia, on the basis of that which Solyman the
Great had granted in 1555, was the speedy result of Amurath's
victories (15th September, 1639). Eriwan was restored by the
Porte; but the possession of Bagdad and the adjacent territory
by the Ottomans was solemnly sanctioned and confirmed. Eighty
years passed away before Turkey was again obliged to struggle
against her old and obstinate enemy on the line of the
Euphrates. … Amurath died at the age of 28, on the 9th of
February, 1640."
_Sir E. S. Creasy,
History of the Ottoman Turks,
chapter 13._
TURKS: A. D. 1625-1626.
War in Hungary.
See HUNGARY: A. D. 1606-1660.
TURKS: A. D. 1640.
Accession of Ibrahim.
TURKS: A. D. 1645-1669.
The war of Candia.
Conquest of Crete.
"The Turks attacked the island [of Crete] in 1645, and the war
went on till 1669, when Crete was lost. This is called the war
of Candia, from the long siege of the town of Candia, which
was most gallantly defended by the Venetians, with the help of
many volunteers from Western Europe. It must be remembered
that, though the island has sometimes got to be called Candia,
from the town of Candia and its memorable siege, yet the
island itself has never changed its name, but has always been
called Crete both by Greeks and Turks."
_E. A. Freeman,
The Ottoman Power in Europe,
page 145._
{3143}
"The war which cost the republic of Venice the island of Crete
owed its origin to the incessant irritation caused by the
Western corsairs in the Archipelago. Some strong measures
adopted by the Venetians to suppress the piracies committed by
Turkish and Barbary corsairs in the Adriatic, created much
dissatisfaction on the part of the Othoman government, which
looked chiefly to the Mohammedan corsairs as a protection
against the Christian corsairs in the Levant, and considered
it the duty of the Venetians to suppress the piracies of these
Christians. The Porte at last resolved to seek a profitable
revenge, and a pretext soon presented itself. In 1644 some
Maltese galleys made a prize which offended the personal
feelings of the reigning sultan, Ibrahim. … As he feared to
attack Malta, he resolved to make the Venetians responsible
for the shelter which Crete had afforded to the corsairs. The
Porte affected to consider Venice as a tributary State, which
was bound to keep the Archipelago free from Christian
corsairs, in return for the great commercial privileges it
enjoyed in the Othoman empire. Immediate preparations were
made for attacking Crete, but the project was concealed from
the Venetian senate, under the pretence of directing the
expedition against Malta. … In the month of June 1645, the
Othoman army landed before Canea, which capitulated on the
17th of August. This treacherous commencement of the war
authorised the Christian powers to dispense with all the
formalities of international law in lending assistance to the
Venetians during the celebrated War of Candia, which lasted
nearly 25 years. During this long struggle the Venetians
generally maintained the superiority at sea, but they were
unable to prevent the Othoman navy, whenever it exerted its
full force, from throwing in supplies of fresh troops and
ample stores, by which the Othoman army was enabled to command
the whole island, and kept Candia, and the other fortresses in
the hands of the republic, either blockaded or besieged. The
Greeks generally favoured the Turks, who encouraged them to
cultivate their lands by purchasing the produce at a liberal
price, for the use of the army. … The squadrons of the
republic often ravaged the coasts of the Othoman empire, and
on one occasion they carried off about 5,000 slaves from the
coast of the Morea, between Patras and Coron. In the year
1656, after Mocenigo's great victory at the Dardanelles, they
took possession of the islands of Tenedos and Lemnos, but they
were driven from these conquests by the Othoman fleet in the
following year. At the end of the year 1666, the grand vizier,
Achmet Kueprily, one of the greatest ministers of the Othoman
empire, took the command of the siege of Candia. The whole
naval force of Venice, and numerous bands of French and
Italian volunteers, attempted to force the grand vizier to
raise the siege; but the skill of the Italian engineers, the
valour of the French nobles, and the determined perseverance
of Morosini, were vain against the strict discipline and
steady valour of the Othoman troops. The works of the
besiegers were pushed forward by the labours of a numerous
body of Greek pioneers, and the fire of the powerful batteries
at last rendered the place untenable. At this crisis Morosini
proved himself a daring statesman and a sincere patriot. When
he found that he must surrender the city, he resolved to make
his capitulation the means of purchasing peace for the
republic. … On the 27th September 1669, Achmet Kueprily
received the keys of Candia, and the republic of Venice
resigned all right to the island of Crete, but retained
possession of the three insular fortresses of Karabusa, Suda,
and Spinalonga, with their valuable ports. No fortress is said
to have cost so much blood and treasure, both to the besiegers
and the defenders, as Candia; yet the Greeks, in whose
territory it was situated, and who could have furnished an
army from the inhabitants of Crete sufficiently numerous to
have decided the issue of the contest, were the people on the
shores of the Mediterranean who took least part in this
memorable war. So utterly destitute of all national feeling
was the Hellenic race at this period."
_G. Finlay,
History of Greece under Othoman and Venetian Domination,
chapter 2._
TURKS: A. D. 1649.
Accession of Mohammed IV.
TURKS: A. D. 1660-1664.
Renewed war with Austria.
Defeat at St. Gothard.
A twenty years truce.
See HUNGARY: A. D. 1660-1664.
TURKS: A. D. 1664-1665.
Alliance with France broken.
War of the French with Tunis and Algiers.
See BARBARY STATES: A. D. 1664-1684.
TURKS: A. D. 1670-1676.
Wars with the Poles.
See POLAND: A. D. 1668-1606.
TURKS: A. D. 1681-1684.
Rupture with France.
French attack on Scio and war with the Barbary States.
See BARBARY STATES: A. D. 1664-1684.
TURKS: A. D. 1683.
Great invasion of Austria.
Siege of Vienna.
Overwhelming defeat by Sobieski and the Imperialists.
See HUNGARY: A. D. 1668-1683.
TURKS: A. D. 1683-1699.
Expulsion from Hungary.
The Peace of Carlowitz.
See HUNGARY: A. D. 1683-1699.
TURKS: A. D. 1684-1696.
War with the Holy League.
Expulsion from Hungary.
Venetian conquests in Greece.
Revolution at Constantinople.
Accession of Solyman II.
Czar Peter's capture of Azov.
The first Russian acquisition on the Black Sea.
In 1684, "a league against the Turks, under the protection of
the Pope, and thence called the Holy League, was formed by the
Emperor, the King of Poland, and the Republic of Venice; and
it was resolved to procure, if possible, the accession to it
of the Czar of Muscovy. The Venetians were induced to join the
league by the hope of recovering their former possessions, and
declared war against the Sultan, Mahomet IV., July 15th. The
war which ensued, now called the Holy War, lasted till the
Peace of Carlowicz in 1609. Venice in this war put forth a
strength that was little expected from that declining state.
Many thousand Germans were enrolled in her army, commanded by
Morosini, and by Count Königsmark, a Swede. The Austrians
pursued the campaign in Hungary with success [steadily
expelling the Turks—see HUNGARY: A. D. 1683-1609]. … While the
war in Hungary had been conducted by the Emperor with such
eminent success, the King of Poland had made only some
fruitless attempts upon Moldavia. The Czar of Muscovy, Ivan
Alexiowitsch, who, after settling some disputes about
boundaries with the King of Poland, had joined the Holy League
in 1686, did not fare much better. All the attempts of the
Russians to penetrate into the Crimea were frustrated by the
Tartars.
{3144}
The Venetians, on the other hand, had made some splendid
conquests. St. Maura, Koron, the mountain tract of Maina,
Navarino, Modon, Argos, Napoli di Romania, fell successively
into their hands. The year 1687 especially was almost as fatal
to the Turks in their war with Venice as in that with Hungary.
In this year the Venetians took Patras, the castles at the
entrance of the bay of Lepanto, Lepanto itself, all the
northern coast of the Morea, Corinth, and Athens. Athens had
been abandoned with the exception of the acropolis or citadel;
and it was in this siege that one of the Venetian bombs fell
into the Parthenon, which had been converted by the Turks into
a powder magazine, and destroyed the greater part of those
magnificent remains of classical antiquity. The acropolis
surrendered September 29th. The fall of Athens, added to the
disastrous news from Hungary, excited the greatest
consternation and discontent at Constantinople," and brought
about a revolution which deposed the sultan, raising his
brother Solyman to the throne (1687) in his place. "By the
capture of Malvasia in 1690, the Venetians completed the
conquest of the Morea. The Isle of Chios, taken in 1694, was
again lost the following year; but in Dalmatia and Albania the
Venetian Republic made many permanent conquests, from the
mountains of Montenegro to the borders of Croatia and the
banks of the Unna. The operations of the Poles in the Turkish
war were insignificant; but in July 1696, the Russians, under
the Czar Peter, after many long and fruitless attempts, at
length succeeded in taking Azov, at the mouth of the Don; a
most important conquest as securing for them the entry into
the Black Sea. It was the fall of this place, combined with
the defeat at Zenta [in Hungary], that chiefly induced the
Porte to enter into negociation for a peace."
_T. H. Dyer,
History of Modern Europe,
book 5, chapter 4 (volume 3)._
TURKS: A. D. 1691.
Accession of Achmet II.
TURKS: A. D. 1695.
Accession of Mustapha II.
TURKS: A. D. 1703.
Accession of Achmet III.
TURKS: A. D. 1709-1714.
Refuge given to Charles XII. of Sweden.
His intrigues.
Unlucky invasion of Moldavia by Peter the Great.
The Treaty of the Pruth.
See SCANDINAVIAN STATES (SWEDEN): A. D. 1707-1718.
TURKS: A. D. 1714-1718.
War with Venice and Austria.
Recovery of the Morea and disasters in Hungary.
The Peace of Passarowitz.
"By the treaty of the Pruth the Russian conquest of Azof had
been recovered. This success encouraged the hope of repairing
the other losses that had been incurred in the former war.
There were two states which had aggrandised themselves at
Turkish expense, Austria and Venice. Of these the republic was
far the less formidable and was naturally chosen as the first
object of attack. A pretext was found in the protection which
Venice had given to some Montenegrin fugitives, and in
December, 1714, the Porte declared war. Venice was entirely
unprepared, and moreover had failed to acquire popularity
amongst her Greek subjects. In 1715, the grand vizier, Ali
Cumurgi, landed in the Morea, and by the end of the year was
master of the whole peninsula. Sailing thence he captured Suda
and Spinalonga, the two last fortresses that Venice had been
allowed to retain in Crete. The republic naturally appealed to
her old ally, Austria, which had guaranteed her possessions by
the treaty of Carlowitz. … As the Turk refused to give any
satisfaction, war was inevitable. The intervention of Austria
saved Venice from ruin. The grand vizier and the main body of
the Turkish army had to be employed in Hungary. Still a
considerable army and fleet was sent to attack Corfu. The
Venetian troops were commanded by count Schulenburg, who had
won a great reputation in the northern war, and whose services
had been procured for the republic by Eugene. A heroic defence
ended successfully, and in August, 1716, the Turks were
compelled to raise the siege. 'It was the last glorious
military exploit in the annals of the republic, and it was
achieved by a German mercenary soldier.' Meanwhile the vizier,
with an army of 150,000 men, had laid siege to Peterwardein,
the most important of the Austrian border-fortresses in
Hungary," and suffered death there, in a great defeat which
prince Eugene inflicted upon his army, August 5, 1716. The
same year, Eugene took Temesvar, and in August, 1717, he
annihilated the Turkish army before Belgrad, capturing the
town.
See HUNGARY: A. D. 1699-1718.
The result was the Treaty of Passarowitz, signed in July,
1718. "Austria retained all its conquests, thus completing its
possession of Hungary by acquiring the Banat of Temesvar, and
adding to it Belgrad and a strip of Servia. The Turks, on
their side, kept the Morea, while Venice was confirmed in its
possession of Corfu and Santa Maura, together with the
conquests which it had made in 1717 in Albania and Dalmatia."
_R. Lodge,
History of Modern Europe,
chapter 16._
TURKS: A. D. 1730.
Accession of Mahmoud I.
TURKS: A. D. 1735-1739.
War with Russia and Austria.
Favourable Treaty of Belgrade.
Important acquisitions of Territory from Austria.
See RUSSIA: A. D. 1725-1739.
TURKS: A. D. 1754.
Accession of Othman III.
TURKS: A. D. 1757.
Accession of Mustapha III.
TURKS: A. D. 1768-1774.
War with Russia on behalf of Poland.
Concession of independence to the Crim Tartars.
The Poles, in their struggle with Catherine II. of Russia
found a strange champion in the Turk.
See POLAND: A. D. 1763-1773.
"The Sultan, Mustafa III., was opposed to intervention in
Poland; but his hand was forced by a rising in Constantinople,
and he declared war against Russia in October, 1768.
Hostilities were not commenced till the next year, and they
never assumed considerable proportions. The Turkish army was
in the last stage of inefficiency, and the Russians, who were
wholly unprepared for war, were little better. Galitzin, an
incompetent commander, defeated the grand vizier, and took
Khoczim after his first attack had been repulsed. His
successor, Romanzow, 'the Russian Turenne,' acted with greater
energy. He drove the Turks from Moldavia, and in 1770 he
occupied Wallachia, won a great victory over vastly superior
numbers at Kaghul [August 1, 1770], and advanced into the
Crimea. At the same time a Russian fleet appeared in the
Mediterranean with the avowed intention of restoring Greece to
independence. But the admiral, Alexis Orloff, mismanaged the
expedition. After encouraging the Greeks to rebel, he left
them to the horrors of a Turkish revenge, and sailed towards
Constantinople.
{3145}
A victory over the Turkish fleet gave him possession of Chios
and other islands of the Archipelago, but he refused, in spite
of his English officers, to attempt the passage of the
Dardanelles." In May, 1772, a truce was arranged and a
congress assembled to settle the terms of peace. "But the
Russian demands were too excessive for the Porte to accept,
and the Turks resumed hostilities in 1773. They attempted to
recover Moldavia and Wallachia, and for a time they succeeded
in forcing the Russians to retreat. Mustafa III. died in
December, and was succeeded by his brother Abdul Hamid. In the
next year Romanzow won a complete victory, and compelled the
grand vizier to accept the terms dictated to him at Kutschuk
Kainardji [July 16, 1774]. The Russians restored the conquered
provinces except Azof and Kinburn, only stipulating for
toleration for the Christian population. The Tartars of the
Crimea and Kuban were declared independent of the Porte, and
authorised to elect their own Khan. Russian ships were allowed
free passage through the Dardanelles, and the right of sailing
in the Turkish seas and on the Danube. Poland, for which the
Turks had undertaken the war, was not even mentioned in the
treaty."
_R. Lodge,
History of Modern Europe,
chapter 20, sections 11-12._
ALSO IN:
_F. C. Schlosser,
History of the 18th Century,
volume 4, pages 405-441._
See, also, RUSSIA: A. D. 1762-1796.
TURKS: A. D. 1774.
Accession of Abdul Hamid.
TURKS: A. D. 1776-1792.
Acquisition of the Crimea by the Russians.
War with Russia and Austria.
The Treaties of Sistova and Jassy.
Territorial concessions.
"A peace of some years followed the treaty of Kainarji, if,
indeed, that can be called peace where the most solemn
engagements are perpetually evaded. On that treaty Catherine
put what interpretation she pleased. … She offered her
protection to the voivods of Wallachia and Moldavia, who, in
consequence, were her vassals rather than those of the Porte.
The Christians on the opposite bank of the Danube were in
correspondence with Russia; they were encouraged to revolt, to
claim her protection, to oppose the Turkish government in
every way. … Though the Crimea had been declared independent,
she proved that the word had reference merely to the authority
of the sultan, and not to hers. … More than once … the Russian
troops appeared in that peninsula. In 1776 they deposed the
reigning khan, and elected in his stead another, who was
easily induced to solicit the protection of the empress.
Turkey threatened to resume the war. … At length … a new
treaty, or rather a modification of the former, was signed at
Constantinople in 1779. In it Russia promised to desist from
some of her obnoxious pretensions in regard both to the two
principalities and the Crimea; but promises cost little. …
Almost every year brought new complaints and evasions. The
foundation of the city of Cherson, about ten leagues from
Otzakof, gave peculiar umbrage to the Porte. This place had
now a population of 40,000; and the number of warlike vessels
constructed in its arsenal were evidently intended to overawe
Constantinople. In 1783 another insulting message was sent to
the Turkish ministers,—that, let the conduct of the empress in
regard to the Crimea be whatever it might, they should not
interfere. At the same time she prevailed on the khan whom she
had supported, Sahim Gherei, to make the most outrageous
demands from the Porte. The khan's envoy was beheaded. Under
the pretext of punishing the Turks for this insult to their
'good ally,' the Russians requested permission to march
through his territory. It was immediately granted; but no
sooner were they in the peninsula than, instead of proceeding
against the Turkish fortifications on the island of Taman,
they seized the towns, forced the Mahometan authorities, in
the khan's presence, to take the oath of allegiance to the
empress, and seized on the revenues of the country. … The khan
was now forced to resign his authority, and transfer it to
Catherine; in return, he received some estates in Russia. A
manifesto declared that the Crimea, Kuban, and Taman, were for
ever incorporated with the empire. In a document of some
length, and of great force, the Turkish ministry exposed to
the world the unprincipled encroachments of their neighbours."
But Russia responded to it by marshalling three great armies
on the frontiers, with an exhibition of formidable fleets in
the Euxine and the Baltic. "The Porte, terrified at this
menacing display, listened to the advice of France and
Austria; and, by another treaty (signed at Constantinople
early in 1784) recognised the sovereignty of the empress over
the Crimea, Taman, and a great part of Kuban. To the first and
last of these places she restored their ancient classical
names, Taurida and Caucasus." The treaty of Constantinople did
not put an end to Russian aggressions, and in August, 1787,
the Sultan declared war. "The campaign was opened with ardour.
Knowing that Otzakof would be the earliest object of
hostility, the Sultan sent a considerable force to cover it.
Another army marched to the Danube, and the vizier in person
took the field. … On the other hand, Potemkin, the
commander-in-chief, having under his orders some of the best
generals in the service, hastened to the frontiers, which were
soon covered by Russian troops. At the same time the emperor
Joseph [according to a prior agreement with Catherine] sent
80,000 Austrians into Moldavia; while a powerful fleet in the
Euxine prepared to co-operate with the allies, and another in
the Baltic was ready to sail for the Mediterranean. It seemed,
indeed, as if Catherine's favourite dream, the elevation of
her grandson Constantine to the throne of the Greek empire,
was about to be realised. Yet these mighty preparations had no
commensurate effect. An attack on Kinburn by 5,000 Turks from
the garrison of Otzakof was repulsed [by Suwarof] with heavy
loss. But this advantage was counterbalanced by the dispersion
of the Euxine fleet in a storm, with the loss of some vessels.
These were the chief events of the first campaign. The second,
of 1788, was more decisive. Otzakof was taken by assault, and
the garrison [with nearly all the inhabitants] put to the
sword. At the same time Joseph took Sobach; and his generals
captured Soubitza [Dubitza?]. On the deep, too, fortune was
equally adverse to the Turks. Their fleet was defeated in the
Euxine. … In the following campaigns the superiority of the
Russians was maintained. It would have been still more signal
but for the jealousy of Potemkin, who could not tolerate
success in any of his generals. … The death of Abdul Hamet,
and the accession of Selim III., made no difference in the
character of the war; it was still adverse to the Turks.
{3146}
Fortress after fortress [including Belgrade, taken by General
Loudon for the Austrians] was reduced by the enemy; and,
though no general engagement was risked, the loss of men was
not the less felt. Suwarof saved the Austrians [in Moldavia,
defeating the Turks, who had nearly overwhelmed them, at
Fockshani, July 30, and again at Rimnik, September 16, 1789];
Repnin forced the Seraskier, Hussein Pasha, to seek refuge in
Ismail; Komenski reduced Galatza; Ackerman fell into the power
of the Christians; Bender was forced to capitulate. In the
following campaign, the important fortress of Ismail was
assailed: the siege was conducted by Suwarof, the most dreaded
of all the Russian generals. … It was taken … though the loss
was most severe; and, in revenge, the garrison, with the
greater part of the population [nearly 40,000 in all], was put
to the sword. Other successes followed, both on the banks of
the Caspian, and on those of the Danube. Bohada was stormed;
at Kotzim 100,000 Turks were defeated by Repnin; Varna was
menaced; and the road to Adrianople lay open. The grand vizier
now sued for peace, which Catherine was ready to grant, on
conditions much less onerous than might have been expected."
Austria had already made peace with the sultan and withdrawn
from the war. By the treaty of Sistova, which the new emperor,
Leopold, signed on the 4th of August, 1791, the Austrians
relinquished all their conquests except the town of Old Orsova
and a small district in Croatia along the left bank of the
river Unna. With these slight variations the same boundary
between Austria and Turkey was reconstituted in 1791 that had
been defined by the treaty of Belgrade in 1739. The treaty of
the Turks with Russia was signed at Jassy on the 9th of
January 1792. "By that treaty, Catherine retained the whole
country between the Bog and the Dniester, but restored all the
other conquests which she had made since 1787. This was the
last of the hostilities between Russia and the Porte during
the reign of this empress; and the peace of Jassy enabled her
to carry into effect her designs on Poland."
_R. Bell,
History of Russia,
volume 2, chapter 11._
ALSO IN:
_Sir E. S. Creasy,
History of the Ottoman Turks,
chapter 21._
_F. C. Schlosser,
History of the 18th Century,
period 5, division 1, chapter 2 (volume 6)._
_G. B. Malleson,
Loudon,
chapter 15._
TURKS: A. D. 1789-1812.
Attempted reforms of Sultan Selim III.
Their fate and his.
Palace revolutions.
Reign of Mahmud II.
War with Russia.
"Abd-ul-Hamid died on the 7th April, 1789, and was succeeded
by his nephew, Selim III (1789-1807). Although Selim had been
confined in the Seraglio by his uncle, he had been in other
respects well treated. His love of information and his natural
talents had induced him to carry on an active correspondence
with several servants of his father and his uncle. Their
information had, however, in no way satisfied him, and he had
commenced a correspondence with Choiseuil, the French envoy at
Constantinople in 1786, and had also sent his intimate friend
Isaac Bey to France, to enquire into the state measures and
administrative organization of that country. Selim had also
entered into correspondence with Louis XVI, and this lasted
till 1789, when the French Revolution broke out simultaneously
with Selim's ascension of the throne. All this throws a clear
light upon Selim's eventual exertions to cause reforms which
at last cost him both his throne and his life. His thirst for
knowledge leads us to presume that he was not deficient in
natural and sound talent. … But it was a mistake, that in his
pursuit of knowledge, and desire to improve the institutions
of Turkey—and the habits and character of its
inhabitants—Selim should have applied to France, and to
Frenchmen. That country was then on the eve of her great
revolution. Theories of all kinds were afloat. … Selim would
certainly have acted more wisely had he sought help from his
own sensible mind; he would have easily perceived the palpable
fact, that things which were suited for Christian nations were
utterly inapplicable to the rude, uncivilized Turks. …
Unfortunately ke set about the task with very different ideas,
and listened to the suggestions of the sciolists who
surrounded him. The first thing to which they drew his
attention was the formation of a council of state, which not
only restricted the power of the Grand Vizier, but that of the
Sultan, very materially. The Reis Effendi, Raschid, was the
soul of the council, and the boldest of these sciolists; and
he had perfect liberty to carry on the work of reform. He set
the printing presses again in activity which had been
introduced in a preceding reign, sent for French officers, who
founded an engineer academy, built arsenals and foundries, and
openly stated that he took science under his protection. But
his chief care was to form an army after the European fashion,
in order by their assistance to gain the mastery over the
Janissaries, in whom old customs and traditions found their
most zealous guardians. He took several steps, therefore, to
call into life the new military organization, called the Nizam
Djedid; and as money was required for the purpose, he laid a
tax on articles of consumption. This was quite sufficient to
cause the popular discontent to burst into a flame. The Ulema
declared themselves hostile to the Nizam Djedid, and Pashwan
Oglu, Pacha of Widdin, who placed himself at the head of the
Janissaries, openly rebelled against the Porte, which could
not effect anything to check him, but acquiesced in all that
was demanded. The extraordinary conquests of Napoleon diverted
attention from Turkey, and instead of seeking to divide the
dominions of a weak neighbour, the Great Powers of the
Continent were trembling for their own safety. Egypt became
the battle field between England and France [see FRANCE: A. D.
1798-1799 (AUGUST-AUGUST), and 1801-1802], and its invasion by
Napoleon obliged the Turks to unite with the Allied Powers
against France. When the French were expelled from Egypt, that
province was restored to Turkey, and peace concluded between
the two Powers. Selim, under the influence of General
Sebastiani who was then French ambassador at Constantinople,
signed [seized?] what was considered by him a favourable
opportunity for renewing the war with Russia [see below], in
which, however, the Turks were defeated both by land and sea.
These misfortunes the Janissaries attributed to the new troops
or Seymens. … At the end of May, 1807, the chiefs of the
Janissaries and the Ulema had already formed their plans for
the overthrow of the Sultan, when Selim accelerated the
outbreak by going to the mosque on Friday, accompanied by a
body of Seymens and the French ambassador, Sebastiani.
{3147}
The Janissaries, aroused by this, broke out in open revolt,
which soon grew of such a menacing nature by the co-operation
of the Mufti, that Selim was compelled to promise the
abolition of the Nizam, and the heads of those of his advisers
who had promoted the measure. But the insurgents were not
satisfied with this: they demanded the abdication of the
Sultan, whom the Mufti declared unworthy to be a successor of
Muhammad, through his partiality for foreigners, and marched
to the Seraglio, to carry their designs into effect. But when
the Mufti and the Ulema entered it, they found a new Sultan.
Selim, under the conviction that he could not resist the storm
his attempts at reform had created, had retired to the Harem,
where his nephew, Mustapha, was confined, and led him to the
throne: he had then attempted to destroy his own life by a cup
of poisoned sherbet, but had been prevented by Mustapha, and
was led into the apartments of the Royal Princes, with a
promise that he should ever be treated as a friend and an
uncle. On the same afternoon, Sultan Mustapha III [IV] (who
reigned from 31st May, 1807, to 28th July, 1808) rode in
solemn procession for the first time to the great mosque, was
invested in the traditional manner with the sabre of Muhammad,
then immediately did away with the Nizam Djedid, and restored
the old customs. But among the Pachas in the provinces, there
were several devoted partisans of reform. The most influential
of these was Mustapha Bairaktar, Pacha of Rustchuk, who set
out in July 1808, at the head of 18,000 men, to restore Selim
to the throne. He succeeded in taking possession of the
capital, and keeping the Sultan so long in ignorance of his
designs, until he sent him orders to resign the throne in
favour of Selim. As the Sultan had only one hour allowed him
for consideration, he was so helpless that he followed the
advice of the Mufti and had Selim cruelly murdered. As the
gates of the Seraglio were not opened at the appointed time,
and Bairaktar hurried up to enforce his authority, Selim's
lifeless body was thrown over the wall. Upon this the Pacha
ordered the Seraglio to be stormed, seized the Sultan,
destroyed all those who had advised the abolition of the plans
of reform, and placed Mustapha's younger brother on the
throne. Mahmud II, the second son of Abd-ul-Hamid, was born on
the 2nd July, 1785, and was consequently twenty-three years of
age when he ascended the throne. … Mahmud appointed Mustapha
Bairaktar his Grand Vizier, and, regardless of the fate of his
predecessor, restored all the measures of reform which Selim
had undertaken. Within three months the Janissaries were again
in open rebellion, and on the night of the 14th November,
1808, attacked the Seymens, destroyed a great number of them,
and, after storming the new barracks, forced their way into
the Grand Vizier's palace. He fled and appealed to the people
for help, but the greater portion abused him as a renegade and
joined the rebels. Bairaktar recognised his impending fate,
but still ordered the execution of Mustapha, for fear he might
reascend the throne. After this he retired with a body of
Seymens into a stone tower, where he had before collected a
quantity of gunpowder. He defended himself here for some time,
but, at last, when the Janissaries rushed up in larger masses
to the attack, he blew up the tower. The Janissaries then
attacked the Seraglio, and, but for the fact that Mahmud was
the last legitimate descendant of the race of Osman, they
would have taken his life. But even this, probably, would not
have saved him, had he not sent a deputation to the insurgents
and given an unconditional assent to their demands. … As an
additional guarantee for his own safety on the throne,
ensanguined with the blood of his uncle and his brother,
Mahmud ordered his brother's son, a child of three months old,
to be strangled, and four of the Sultanas to be thrown into
the Bosphorus. The reign of Mahmud is one of the longest and
most important in the whole of Turkish history. It commenced
with war. The Emperor Alexander menaced him on the Danube: the
Hospodar of Servia, Czerny George, had rebelled against him.
The campaign of the Turks in 1809, was, consequently, not a
prosperous one. The contest lasted till 1812, when it was
ended by the treaty of Bucharest, which surrendered the whole
of Bessarabia, as far as the Pruth, to Russia. At the same
time the Russian protectorate of the Greek Christian subjects
of the Porte, which had been stipulated in the treaty of
Kudjuk Kainardji, was again confirmed."
_Sir J. Porter,
Turkey,
volume 1, pages 194-204._
ALSO IN:
_Sir E. S. Creasy,
History of the Ottoman Turks,
chapters 21-24._
TURKS: A. D. 1798.
In the Coalition against France.
War declared.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1798-1799 (AUGUST-APRIL.).
TURKS: A. D. 1806-1807.
Alliance with Napoleon, and hostilities with Russia and England.
British fleet before Constantinople.
Its humiliating retreat.
The English again in Egypt.
Disastrous failure of their expedition.
"Before the end of 1806, Russia had driven Selim into the arms
of France; and war was declared at the Porte just after
Napoleon's victories in Prussia had filled Alexander with
alarm. His troops had overrun some Turkish territory before
war was declared; but just at this juncture he wanted all his
forces for the defence of his own frontier. He dreaded the
effects of withdrawing them from the Turkish provinces, which
would immediately fight for France; but he must do it. He
besought the British to undertake another of those
'diversions' which began to sound so disagreeably to the ears
of Englishmen. … The Grenville Cabinet … gave orders to Sir
John Duckworth, then cruising off Ferrol, to join Admiral
Louis at the mouth of the Dardanelles. … Neither the efforts
of Sebastiani [French representative at Constantinople] … nor
any other warning that the English were coming, had roused the
Turks to make the slightest preparation. The ships sailed
proudly up the strait [February, 1807], undelayed by the fire
of the forts at the narrowest part of the channel, and
belching out flames and cannonballs as they went. They took
and burned some Turkish ships, and appeared before
Constantinople, to the horror of the whole population, who
were absolutely without means of defence. The Divan would have
yielded at once; but Sebastiani prevented it, and instigated a
negotiation which proved a fatal snare to Sir John Duckworth,
notwithstanding express warnings and instructions, strong and
clear, from Lord Collingwood.
{3148}
He was unwilling to destroy the city, and shoot down the
defenceless inhabitants; and he allowed himself to be drawn
on, from day to day, exchanging notes and receiving promises.
… Meantime, not a moment was lost by Sebastiani and the Turks,
whom he was instructing in Napoleon's methods of warfare.
Women and children, Christians and Mohammedans, worked day and
night at the defences; and in a few days the whole coast was
bristling with artillery, and the chance was over. … There was
nothing to be done but to get away as safely as they yet
might. … For thirty miles (reckoning the windings of the
channel) the ships ran the gauntlet of an incessant fire—and
such a fire as was never seen before. Stone balls, weighing
700 or 800 lbs., broke down the masts, crushed in the decks,
snapped the rigging, and amazed the hearts of the sailors. The
hills smoked from end to end, and the roar of the artillery
rolled from side to side. In another week, Sir J. Duckworth
declared in his dispatch, any return would have been
impossible. The news of this singular affair spread fast over
Europe. Every body thought the expedition gallantly conceived,
and miserably weak in its failure. … So ended the second of
the 'diversions' proposed under the Grenville Ministry. The
third legacy of this kind that they left was a diversion on
the side of Egypt. For some time, a notion had been gaining
ground, in the minds of English politicians, that the Sultan
would, some day soon, be giving Egypt to Napoleon, in return
for the aid afforded to Constantinople, on the Danube, and
elsewhere. Egypt was in an unhappy state. Mohammed Alee, the
Viceroy, was at feud with the Memlooks; and the Arab
inhabitants were made a prey of by both. The Grenville
Ministry thought that a diversion in that direction would be
of great service to Russia, and great injury to Napoleon; and
they confidently reckoned on being enthusiastically received
by the Arab inhabitants, and probably by the Memlooks also. In
laying their plans, however, they strangely underrated the
forces and the ability of Mohammed Alee; and they sent only
between 4,000 and 5,000 men to the mouth of the Nile, instead
of an army large enough to cope with the able and warlike
Pasha of Egypt, and his Albanian troops. The small British
force was drafted from the troops in Sicily. It landed without
opposition on the 17th of March, supposing that Sir John
Duckworth must by this time have conquered the Sultan, and
that his province of Egypt would come very easily into our
hands. No opposition was made to the landing of the troops,
and Alexandria capitulated immediately. Only seven lives were
lost on the British side. Within the city, however, no
provisions were found." A detachment of 1,200 men sent to
Rosetta for supplies were trapped in the city by Mohammed
Alee's Albanians, and 400 of them, with their general, were
shot down in the streets. Then Rosetta was besieged, with
results of disastrous failure and the loss of 1,000 or 1,200
more men. General Fraser, the Commander, "was discouraged from
home, and hourly harassed by the enemy. … More and more of the
enemy came up as his little force dwindled away; and at last,
on the appearance of a column which he was unable to
encounter, he sent out a flag of truce, with an offer to
evacuate Egypt on the restoration of the prisoners taken since
the invasion. This was in August, 1807; and in September the
last English soldier left the mouth of the Nile. By this time,
the Sultan had declared war against England, and had caused a
seizure of all the British property in his dominions."
_H. Martineau,
History of England, 1800-1815,
book 2, chapter 1._
TURKS: A. D. 1807.
Accession of Mustapha IV.
TURKS: A. D. 1807.
Schemes of Napoleon and Alexander I. at Tilsit
for the partition of Turkey.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1807 (JUNE-JULY).
TURKS: A. D. 1808.
Accession of Mahmud II.
TURKS: A. D. 1821-1829.
Revolt and recovery of independence by the Greeks.
Battle of Navarino.
Treaty of Adrianople.
See GREECE: A. D. 1821-1829.
TURKS: A. D. 1822-1823.
The Congress of Verona.
See VERONA, CONGRESS OF.
TURKS: A. D. 1826.
Reforms of Mahmud II.
Insurrection of the Janissaries.
Their subjugation and destruction.
"While the struggle in Greece was proceeding, Mahmud had been
busily engaged with his internal reforms, many of which were
of a nature to offend the prejudices of his subjects. His
great object was to give a European character to the
institutions and the manners of his country. He introduced the
western style of dress into Turkey; abandoned the use of the
turban, which Mohammedans generally regard with much
veneration; and gave musical and theatrical entertainments
within the sacred enclosure of the Seraglio. He resolved also
to recommence the military reforms of his uncle Selim, and
again to establish the Nizam Jedid, or body of troops
organized after European models. This last design roused once
more the savage fanaticism of the Janizaries. On the 15th of
June, 1826, when the Sultan and the Grand Vizier were in the
country, the dissatisfied troops rose in insurrection, and
committed great excesses. The Grand Vizier, hastily recalled
to the metropolis, took measures for vindicating his master's
authority, and at once found himself supported, not only by
the new troops, but by the Ulemas and Students. Mahmud arrived
shortly afterwards at the Seraglio, and by his orders the
Mufti unfolded the standard of the Prophet, and summoned all
faithful Mohammedans to rally round that holy symbol. The city
was soon divided into two hostile factions. The Janizaries
concentrated their forces in one of the great squares, and
threw up entrenchments. The supporters of the Sultan gathered
in their front, and an attack was made by ordnance, before
which the Janizaries retired into their fortified barracks,
where they continued to fight with the resolution of despair.
… The building was presently on fire from one end to the
other. The frightful struggle was continued in the midst of
the flames; all who endeavoured to escape were at once shot
down; and before the day was over 6,000 Janizaries had
perished at the hands of their fellow-troops. Fifteen thousand
who had not taken part in the movement were exiled to
different places in Asia Minor, and on the following day a
Hatti-Sherif pronounced the abolition of a corps which had
contributed so much to the military predominance of Turkey,
but which had at length become a source of internal danger too
great to be suffered."
_E. Ollier,
Cassell's Illustrated History of the Russo-Turkish War,
volume 1, chapter 23._
{3149}
TURKS: A. D. 1826-1829.
Convention of Ackerman.
War with Russia.
Surrender of Varna and Silistria.
Disastrous battle of Koulevscha.
Treaty of Hadrianople.
Cessions of territory.
"It was not to be expected that an event so remarkable as the
destruction of the Janizaries would fail to be taken advantage
of by the court of St. Petersburg. The Emperor Nicholas had
brought with him to the Russian throne a thorough
determination to carry out that aggressive policy of the
Empress Catherine, of which the terms of the celebrated treaty
of Kutschouc-Kainardji [see above: A. D. 1768-1774] afforded
so striking an illustration, and the annihilation of the
Ottoman army, as well as the distracted condition of many of
the provinces of that empire, afforded an opportunity too
tempting to be neglected. The Czar, therefore, demanded that
the Sultan should conclude with him a treaty, the provisions
of which were made the subject of discussion at Ackerman, a
town in Bessarabia; and Mahmoud, pressed by the necessity of
his condition, … had found it requisite to conclude the
arrangement, and the celebrated convention of Ackerman was
ratified in October 1826. This treaty proved of great
importance to Russia. In addition to other provisions, it
recognised the whole stipulations of the two treaties of
Bucharest and Kainardji, by which Russia claimed the right to
interpose in behalf of the members of the Greek church in the
Ottoman dominions. … During the year which succeeded the
ratification of the convention of Ackerman, Russia was
occupied with the Persian war, which was prosecuted with great
vigour by General Paskewitch, by whom very considerable
advantages were obtained; and in November 1827 the treaty of
Tourkmantchai was concluded between Russia and Persia. … It
left the Emperor … at leisure to carry out those hostile
intentions which his ready interference in the affairs of
Greece, and a variety of other considerations, clearly proved
him to entertain. The approaching war was indicated by the
mutual recriminations of the hostile powers. Russia accused
the Porte of an endeavour to cause a revolution in the
Caucasus, and of a violation of treaties by closing the
Bosphorus against Russian ships, and by its conduct towards
its Christian subjects. There was no inconsiderable foundation
for such a complaint, and especially for the latter part of
it. … Both sides immediately prepared for the struggle, which
a variety of circumstances have proved that the Czar had long
contemplated, and only waited for a suitable opportunity of
entering upon. … In the month of May [1828] the [Russian]
force began to assemble on the banks of the Pruth, and crossed
that river at three different points. Being unopposed by the
Ottomans, the Russian forces almost immediately entered Jassy
and Bucharest, took possession of Galatz, and in a few weeks
had occupied the whole of the left bank of the Danube. To
accomplish as rapidly as possible the objects of the campaign,
as well as to avoid having their very wide]y extended line
exposed to the enemy, it was resolved by the leaders of the
Russian forces to cross the Danube at Brahilow, and thence to
advance with rapidity upon Silistria, Varna, and Schumla. This
resolution they immediately proceeded to carry into effect. …
About the middle of July, the Russian force under General
Rudiger on the right, and Generals Woinoff and Diebitcb on the
left wing, accompanied by the Emperor Nicholas, moved toward
Schumia; and the Ottoman army, whose instructions were to
avoid general actions, and to throw their whole energy upon
the defence of their fortifications, having engaged in battle
with the enemy, retired within the entrenched camp surrounding
that fortress, which now contained a force of 40,000 men. …
The Emperor … resolved … to leave a corps of observation of
30,000 men before Schumla, under General Wittgenstein, and to
direct the principal efforts of his army, in the first
instance, to the reduction of Varna. … On the 5th of
September, after having been absent at Odessa for about a
month, during which he was engaged making arrangements for
obtaining levies from Russia, and in negotiating loans in
Holland, the Emperor Nicholas arrived at Varna, to inspect the
progress and encourage the operations of the besiegers. … The
besieging force, towards the end of August, amounted to 40,000
men, which, on the arrival of the Emperor, were reinforced by
more than 20,000, with a great addition to the artillery
already possessed by the invading army. This large force was
further supported by the Russian fleet. … The details of the
siege exhibit a series of assaults repulsed with the utmost
valour and spirit by the besieged, and entailing an immense
loss upon the Russians, both in men and superior officers; but
the circumstance that the reinforcement sent to relieve the
garrison could not approach, so closely was the place
invested, and the destruction of a part of the walls by the
cannon of the Russians, led to a surrender, and Jussouf Pasha
delivered up the fortress to the Emperor on the 10th of
October, after a siege of more than two months. The utmost
efforts were made to reduce Silistria, after Varna had been
surrendered, but the advance of the season, and the
difficulties of the attempt, as well as the disastrous
circumstances of the Russian army before Schumla, soon proved
that nothing more could be attempted till the following
spring. The campaign, therefore, was brought to a conclusion,
and orders were issued for the Russians to retire beyond the
Danube, and take up their winter quarters in Wallachia. The
fall of Brahilow and Varna were the only important events of
the campaign of 1828 in Europe, and even these successes had
been attained at a vast expense of human life. Out of nearly
160,000 men who had crossed the Danube at the beginning of the
campaign, only about one-half remained. … In Asia operations
were carried on by the Russians with equal vigour and much
more success, in consequence, in a great measure, of the
military genius and experience of General Paskewitch, who
commanded the troops on the east of the Black Sea. … The first
attack of the Russians in Asia was made upon the fortress of
Anapa. … After a siege of about a month, the place was taken,
with 85 guns and 3,000 prisoners, and the fleet sailed
immediately to Varna. … After some other successes, General
Paskewitch resolved upon attacking the town and fortress of
Akhalzikh, a very important place in the pashalik of that
name, and which was not only strongly fortified by nature and
art, but had for its chief strength a resolute garrison of
10,000 Ottomans, besides the armed inhabitants of the place.
The Sultan's troops defended this important fortress with the
most undaunted resolution. … The surrender of Akhalzikh was
followed by that of other important places of strength, which
closed the campaign of 1828 in Asia. … The campaign of 1828
had rendered the most active preparations requisite on the
part of both belligerents for the commencement of hostilities
in the following spring.
{3150}
The Ottoman soldiers, according to their usual custom,
hastened from the garrisons to pass the winter in their homes,
but the utmost efforts were made by the Porte to gather an
adequate force to meet the exigencies of the struggle so soon
to be renewed. Although only 10,000 men were left in Schumla
during the winter, 40,000 assembled in that fortress early in
spring. They were, however, for the most part new levies. …
The Russians, on the other hand, were no less energetic in
their arrangements. … It was impossible, however, before the
month of May, from the condition of the Danube, to commence
the campaign with the whole force, but by the tenth of that
month the passage of the river was completed at Hirchova and
Kalavatsch, below Silistria, the siege of which was
immediately begun, while General Kouprianoff was stationed
with a force at Pravadi, a fortress on the east of Schumla,
and which, lying in the line of communication between
Silistria and Varna, was important to the Russians as the
means of keeping open a communication between the army of
General Roth near Varna and the troops destined to act upon
Silistria. Redschid Pasha, who on being recalled from Greece
had been appointed Grand Vizier, had arrived at Schumla on the
21st of March, and on perceiving the position of the invading
army, formed the well-conceived design of attacking Pravadi
and the force under General Roth. … This movement of the
Vizier became immediately known to General Roth, who by means
of a courier conveyed information of it to Count Diebitch.
That General was too acute not to perceive the purpose of his
adversary, and too enterprising not to endeavour immediately
to take advantage of it. The Count therefore adopted a
movement of the highest importance, and which, indeed, had the
effect of deciding the campaign. Instead of marching to attack
Redschid Pasha at Pravadi, he resolved to intercept his
communication with the fortress he had quitted, and thus
compel the Ottoman general either to come to a general
engagement, which could hardly fail to result to the advantage
of the Russians, or to fight his way towards Schumla through
the Russian army, or leave the fortress of Schumla to its
fate, which, feebly garrisoned as it was, could not be long
delayed. This skilful manœuvre was no sooner resolved upon
than it was carried into execution. … While the Russian force
were rapidly advancing towards Koulevscha, a village between
Pravadi and Schumla, and scarcely three miles from the latter,
the Grand Vizier remained wholly ignorant of the fact that
Diebitch had quitted Silistria, and persisted in the belief
that the only opponents of his retreat to Schumla were
Generals Roth and Rudiger. … The mistake was fatal. The
Ottoman cavalry attacked the infantry of the Russians, who
were overwhelmed by their charge; and Diebitch, having waited
in expectation that the Vizier would descend from the eminence
on which he was posted to complete his supposed victory, and
finding that he did not make this movement, broke from his
concealment among the hills, and suddenly attacked the Ottoman
troops with his whole force. The effect was instantaneous. A
universal panic seized the Vizier's forces, his cavalry and
infantry fled in confusion, every attempt to bring them to a
stand proved abortive, and he himself escaped with difficulty.
The artillery and baggage all fell into the hands of the
enemy. … The muster at Schumla on the return of the Vizier and
his remaining troops exhibited the magnitude of their loss.
Out of a fine army of 40,000 men, who a few days before had
marched from the fortress full of confidence, only 12,000 foot
and about 6,000 cavalry remained. After the fatal battle of
Koulevscha, the siege of Silistria was carried on with
redoubled vigour, and on the 30th of June the fortress
surrendered, when the whole garrison were made prisoners of
war, and to the number of 8,000, and the Russians found on the
ramparts 238 cannon, in addition to those on board the vessels
in the harbour. The fall of Silistria now determined the
Russian commander-in-chief to push across the Balkans. … After
defeating with great facility such troops as opposed their
advance, the Russian army pressed on with the utmost activity
towards Hadrianople, and entered the city not only unopposed,
but amidst the rejoicings of a multitude of the Greek
population. … The terror which this extraordinary event
inspired at Constantinople may easily be imagined to have been
extreme. The very heart of the empire had been assailed by the
victorious invaders in Europe, while the tidings from the
Asiatic provinces of the defeats sustained by the Sultan's
forces opposed to General Paskewitch, greatly contributed to
the public alarm. … In the midst of this tumult of public
feeling, the ambassadors of England and Austria exerted
themselves to the utmost to bring about a pacification; and …
the Sultan reluctantly agreed to the conclusion of a treaty of
peace. … The celebrated treaty of Hadrianople, which concluded
the war of 1828-29, … contained sixteen distinct articles, by
which, among other matters, the following conditions were
agreed upon:—The principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, and
all the conquered places in Bulgaria and Roumelia, were
restored to the Porte, with the exception of the islands at
the mouth of the Danube, which were to remain the possession
of Russia. In Asia all the recent conquests were to revert to
the Porte, with the exception of Anapa, on the north-eastern
shore of the Black Sea, several important fortresses, together
with an extensive district situated to the north and east of a
line of demarcation supposed to be drawn from the then
existing boundary of the province of Gouriel, and thence by
that of Imeritia direct to the point where the frontiers of
Kars unite with those of Georgia. The conditions of the
treaties of Kainardji, Bucharest, and Ackerman were confirmed;
… the passage of the Dardanelles was declared open to all
Russian merchant ships, as well as the undisputed navigation
of the Black Sea; an indemnity for losses by Russian subjects
was fixed at £750,000, to be paid in eighteen months; and the
expenses of the war were to be paid to the Russian Government,
amounting to 10,000,000 ducats, about £5,000,000. … To this
treaty two separate acts were annexed, the provisions of which
are of scarcely less importance than the treaty itself.
{3151}
By these acts it was arranged that the Hospodars of Moldavia
and Wallachia should be elected for life instead of for seven
years; that no interference in the affairs of these provinces
by any of the officers of the Porte should take place; that no
fortified towns, nor any establishment of Muslims, should be
retained by the Porte on the left bank of the Danube; that the
Turkish towns on that bank of the river should belong to
Wallachia; and that the Mussulmans who possessed property in
such places should be required to sell it in the space of
eighteen months. … The conclusion of these treaties, on the
14th September 1829, terminated the war between Russia and the
Ottoman Empire."
_R. W. Fraser,
Turkey, Ancient and Modern,
chapters 30-31._
ALSO IN:
_Sir A. Alison,
History of Europe, from 1815 to 1852,
chapter 15._
TURKS: A. D. 1830.
Recognition of the autonomy of Servia.
See BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES:
14-19TH CENTURIES (SERVIA).
TURKS: A. D. 1831-1840.
Rebellion of Mehemed Ali, Pasha of Egypt.
Intervention of Russia and the Western Powers.
Egypt made an hereditary pashalik.
"The peace of Adrianople (1829) had greatly discredited the
authority of the Porte; insurrections multiplied, and Turkish
armies had to enter Bosnia and Albania. In these and all other
matters by which the embarrassment of the Porte was increased,
the ambitious Mehemed Ali, Pasha of Egypt, had a hand. As
payment for his services against the Greeks, he had demanded
the pashalik of Damascus. Sultan Mahmoud II. had refused the
demand, and only given him the promised Candia. Hence, while
the Western powers were occupied with the consequences of the
July revolution [in France], and all Europe appeared to be on
the verge of a new upheaval, he undertook to seize his booty
for himself. In consequence of a quarrel with Abdallah, Pasha
of Acre, Ibrahim Pasha [son of Mehemed Ali], notorious for his
barbarous conduct of the war in Peloponnesus, crossed the
Egyptian frontier, October 20th, 1831, with an army organized
on the European system, took Gaza, Jaffa and Jerusalem without
resistance, and besieged Acre, which was resolutely defended
by Abdallah. Mehemed Ali now demanded both pashaliks—Damascus
and Acre. The sultan commanded him to evacuate Syria. The
demand was naturally refused; so Mehemed and his son Ibrahim
were outlawed. But the latter proceeded with his operations,
took Acre by storm May 25th, 1832, and entered Damascus. In
the mean time, a Turkish army, under Hussein Pasha, had
advanced into Syria. Mehemed Pasha, Hussein's lieutenant, was
defeated at Homs, July 9th. Hussein himself, attempting to
retrieve this loss, was defeated at Beylan July 27th, and his
army scattered. The sultan sent a new army against Ibrahim,
under Reshid Pasha, the Grand Vizier, who had displayed great
efficiency in the reduction of the Albanians and Bosnians.
Reshid … was utterly defeated at Konieh December 20th, and was
himself taken prisoner. The sultan was in a critical
situation. He could not at the moment bring together another
considerable army, while Ibrahim had 100,000 well-trained
troops, and the road to Constantinople lay open before him."
Russia, having no wish to see the energetic Pasha of Egypt in
possession of that coveted capital, offered her help to the
sultan and he was driven to accept it. "A Russian fleet
appeared in the Bosphorus, and landed troops at Scutari, while
a Russian army was on the march from the Danube to cover
Constantinople. … At length England and France perceived how
dangerous it was to forget the East in their study of the
Dutch-Belgian question. Their ambassadors had enough to do, by
a hasty peace, to make Russia's help unnecessary. As their
threats made no impression on the victorious Mehemed Ali, they
filled the sultan with distrust of Russia, and by representing
a cession of territory to his vassal as the lesser of the two
evils, persuaded him into the peace of Kutayah (May 6th,
1833), by which Mehemed Ali received the whole of Syria and
the territory of Adana, in south-eastern Asia Minor. Russia
had to retire with her object unattained, but had no sooner
been thrown out at the front door than she came in at the
back. She called the sultan's attention to the favor shown to
the insatiable pasha by England and France in the peace of
Kutayah, and concluded with him, July 8th, 1833, the treaty of
Unkiar-Skelessi, by which he entered into a defensive alliance
with Russia for eight years, and pledged himself to permit no
foreign vessel of war to pass through the Dardanelles. The
Western powers took this outwitting very ill, and from that
time on kept a sharp eye on Constantinople." Mehemed Ali was
meantime giving another direction to his ambition. "The west
coast of Arabia, as far as the English post at Aden, had been
in his possession since 1829. He now sought to extend his sway
over the eastern coast, and subdue the sultan of Muscat. … If
this were to continue, the two most important roads to the
East Indies, by Suez and by the Persian Gulf, would be in the
hands of Mehemed Ali. … With Egypt, Syria, and Arabia in his
hands, England's position in the East would receive a blow
that must be felt. So it was a foregone conclusion which side
England would take. In 1838 she concluded with the Porte a
commercial treaty by which the abolition of all monopolies, as
well as free exportation from all parts of the Turkish empire,
including Egypt and Syria, was secured to her. Mehemed Ali
hesitated about accepting this treaty; and Mahmoud, full of
hate against a vassal who threatened ultimately to devour him,
declared him a traitor, deprived him of all his dignities, and
caused an army to advance into Syria under Hasiz Pasha. But
again fortune was not favorable to the Turks. In their camp,
as military adviser of the commander-in-chief, was a Prussian
captain, Hellmuth von Moltke. For two years he had been
assisting the sultan in planning and putting into execution
military reforms. Recognizing the weakness and unreliable
character of the Turkish army, he advised Hasiz Pasha to fall
back on the strong camp at Biridshik, bring up the
re-enforcements which were under way, and then risk a battle.
But the Pasha would not listen to Moltke's advice, pronouncing
retreat a disgrace. He was completely routed at Nisib, on the
Euphrates, June 24th, 1839, and his army scattered. For the
second time the road to Constantinople lay open to Ibrahim.
Misfortunes fell thick and fast upon the Turks. Sultan Mahmoud
died June 30th, and the empire fell to a sixteen-year old
youth, his son Abdul Medshid. Five days later, Capudan Pasha,
with the Turkish fleet, sailed out of the Dardanelles under
orders to attack the Egyptians. Instead of this he went over
to Mehemed Ali with his whole fleet—in consequence of French
bribery, it was said. … In order to prevent Turkey from
casting herself a second time into Russia's arms, four great
powers—England, France, Austria, and Prussia—declared, July
27th, 1839, that they would themselves take the Eastern
question in hand.
{3152}
To save herself from being wholly left out, Russia had to give
her consent, and become a party to the treaty. But there were
very different views as to the way in which the question was
to be settled. France, which was striving after the control of
the Mediterranean, and which, since Napoleon's campaign, had
turned its eyes toward Egypt, wished to leave its friend
Mehemed Ali in full possession. England saw her interests
endangered by the pasha, thought France's occupation of
Algiers quite enough, and was afraid that if Turkey were too
weak she might become the defenceless prey of Russia. The
latter wished at no price to allow the energetic pasha to
enter upon the inheritance of Turkey, or even of a part of it,
and was pleased at seeing the cordial understanding between
France and England destroyed. Austria and Prussia supported
England and Russia, and so France was left alone. The
Anglo-Russian view found expression in the quadruple alliance
which the great powers, with the exception of France,
concluded in London, July 15th, 1840. By this the hereditary
possession of the pashalik of Egypt, and the possession for
life of a part of Syria, were secured to Mehemed Ali, in case
he submitted to the conclusions of the conference within ten
days. … The allied powers began hostilities against Mehemed
Ali, who, relying on French assistance, refused to submit. The
Anglo-Austrian fleet sailed to the Syrian coast, and took
Beirut and Acre; and Alexandria was bombarded by Commodore
Napier. This and the fall of the Thiers ministry brought
Mehemed Ali to a full realization of his mistake. He might
consider himself lucky in being allowed to hold Egypt as
hereditary pashalik upon evacuating Syria, Arabia, and Candia,
and restoring the Turkish fleet. For this favor he had to
thank England, which sought by this means to secure his
friendship and the Suez road to India. The catastrophe of the
'sick man' [the Turk] was again put off for a few years."
_W. Müller,
Political History of Recent Times,
section 11._
ALSO IN:
_A. A. Paton,
History of the Egyptian Revolution,
volume 2, chapters 1-20._
_C. A. Fyffe,
History of Modern Europe,
volume 2, chapter 6._
_S. Walpole,
History of England from 1815,
chapter 16 (volume 3)._
TURKS: A. D. 1839.
Accession of Abdul Medjid.
TURKS: A. D. 1853-1856.
The Crimean War.
See RUSSIA: A. D. 1853-1854, to 1854-1856.
A. D. 1861-1876.
The reign of Abd-ul-Aziz, and accession of Abd-ul-Hamid.
"Troubles broke out in the Lebanon in 1860, a French army was
dispatched to restore order, and in the adjustment of rival
claims an opportunity was afforded to Lord Dufferin for
displaying those diplomatic talents for which he is renowned.
In 1861 the Sultan Abd-ul-Mejid died, and with him passed away
the hope of regenerating Turkey. His brother and successor
Abd-ul-Aziz was an ignorant bigot, whose extravagance brought
his country to avowed insolvency (1875), and thus deprived her
of that sympathy which is seldom given to the impecunious. The
only remarkable thing he did was to travel. No Ottoman Sultan
had ever before left his own dominions, except on the war
path, but Abd-ul-Aziz ventured even as far as London, without,
however, awakening any enthusiasm on the part of his Allies.
In 1876 he was deposed, and—found dead. How he came by his
death is a matter of doubt, but his end is said to have turned
the brain of his successor, Murad V., a son of Abd-ul-Mejid,
who after three months was removed as an imbecile, and
succeeded by his brother, … Abd-ul-Hamid."
_S. Lane-Poole,
The Story of Turkey,
chapter 17._
TURKS: A. D. 1861-1877.
Union of Wallachia and Moldavia.
Revolt in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Reforms demanded by the Great Powers.
War with Servia.
Conference at Constantinople.
Russian preparations for war.
"Before four years were over [after the termination of the
Crimean War by the Treaty of Paris], one of the chief
stipulations of the treaty was set aside. Wallachia and
Moldavia, which it had been the policy of the Powers to
separate, displayed a constant desire to join. Two of the
great Continental Powers—France and Russia—favoured the
junction. England, Austria, and Turkey, thinking that the
union would ultimately lead to their independence, opposed
their fusion under one prince. At last, after discussions,
which at one moment seemed likely to rekindle the flames of
war, an administrative union was arranged, which resulted, in
due course, in the formal union of the two provinces in 1861.
[In 1858, the two provinces chose the same prince, or
hospodar, in the person of Prince John Couza, who took the
title of Prince of Roumania. The Porte protested, but was
induced, in 1861, to recognize this union of the coronets.
Prince Couza aspired to absolutism, and was forced to abdicate
in 1866. Then a German, Prince Charles of Hohenzollern, was
chosen by the two provinces to be his successor.] Thus, five
years after the Peace of Paris, one of the stipulations on
which England had insisted was surrendered. In 1870 the
Franco-German War led to the obliteration of another of them.
In November, when the armies of France were either beaten or
besieged, Russia repudiated the clause of the Treaty of Paris
which had limited the forces of Russia and Turkey in the Black
Sea. The declaration of the Russian Government came as a
painful shock to the British people. The determination of a
great European state to tear up the clause of a treaty excited
indignation. It was recollected, moreover, that it was for the
sake of this clause that the Crimean War had been prolonged
after the Vienna negotiations; and that all the blood which
had been shed, and all the money which had been spent, after
the spring of 1855, were wasted in its abandonment. … All that
diplomacy was able to do was to lessen the shock by persuading
the Russian Government to submit its proposal for the
abrogation of the clause to a conference. … The conference
met. … It had practically nothing to do but to record its
assent to the Russian proposal. … For five years more the
Eastern Question remained undisturbed. In the spring of 1875
an insurrection broke out in Bosnia and Herzegovina, two of
the northern provinces of European Turkey. The Porte failed to
quench the disturbance; and, its efforts to do so increasing
its pecuniary embarrassments, was forced in the autumn to
repudiate the claims of its many creditors. … In the meanwhile
the insurrection continued to spread, and attracted the
attention of the great European Powers.
{3153}
At the instigation of Austria a note was drawn up [by Count
Andrassy, and known, therefore, as the Andrassy Note], which
was at once signed by all the European Powers except England,
and which was ultimately accepted by England also, declaring
that 'the promises of reform made by the Porte had not been
carried into effect, and that some combined action by the
Powers of Europe was necessary to insist on the fulfilment of
the many engagements which Turkey had made and broken.' As the
note failed to effect its object, the representatives of the
Northern Powers—Germany, Austria, and Russia—met at Berlin,
proposed a suspension of arms for two months, and intimated
that if Turkey in the two months failed to fulfil her broken
promises, 'force would be used to compel her' to do so. The
British Government, unwilling to join in a threat, refused to
sign this new note. The insurrection went on; Servia,
sympathising with the insurgents, declared war against Turkey;
Russian officers and Russian troops fought in the Servian
battalions; and Russia herself, setting her legions in motion,
evidently prepared for hostilities. When these events
occurred, large numbers of the English people were prepared to
support the Turk. Though they had been partially estranged
from the cause of Turkey by the repudiation of the Ottoman
debt in the previous autumn, they recollected the sacrifices
of the Crimean War; they were irritated with the manner in
which one part of the Treaty of Paris had been torn up in
1870; and they were consequently prepared to resist any
further movement on the part of Russia. The Porte, however,
dreading the extension of revolt, allowed its officers to
anticipate disorder by massacre. The atrocious cruelty with
which this policy was executed [especially in Bulgaria—see
BALKAN and DANUBIAN STATES: A. D. 1875-1878] excited a general
outburst of indignation in this country [England]; and the
British Ministry, whose leader had hitherto displayed much
sympathy with the Turks, found himself forced to observe a
strict neutrality. In the short war which ensued in the autumn
of 1876, the Servian troops proved no match for the Turkish
battalions. At the request or command of Russia the Porte was
forced to grant an armistice to the belligerents; and, on the
suggestion of the British Ministry, a Conference of the Great
Powers was held at Constantinople to provide for the better
government of the Turkish provinces. The Constantinople
Conference, held at the beginning of 1877, formed in many
respects an exact parallel to the Vienna Conference held in
the summer of 1855. … The Porte rejected all the proposals on
which the other Powers were agreed. … In each case the failure
of the Conference was followed by war. But the parallel ends
at this point. … In the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878, Turkey
was left to fight her own battle alone."
_S. Walpole,
Foreign Relations,
chapter 3._
ALSO IN:
_E. Ollier,
Cassell's Illustrated History of the Russo-Turkish War,
volume 1, chapters 1-10._
_Duke of Argyll,
The Eastern Question,
volume 1, chapters 3-9._
_S. Menzies,
Turkey Old and New,
book 4. chapter 4 (volume 2)._
TURKS: A. D. 1877-1878.
War with Russia.
Heroic defense of Plevna.
Defeat and surrender.
"Russia had already massed large numbers of troops on her
frontier, and Turkey was also engaged in the work of
mobilization. On the 24th April the Emperor of Russia issued a
manifesto to his subjects, in which he recited the interest of
the empire in the Christian population of the Balkan
peninsula, and the general desire that their condition should
be ameliorated. He declared that all efforts at peace had been
exhausted. … He had given the orders for the army to cross the
frontier, and the advance upon Turkey was begun without delay.
… The Turks had not been idle, though their preparations were
by no means as complete as those of Russia. They had massed
heavy bodies of troops along the Danube, and were prepared to
resist the movements of the Russians south of that stream. …
The first crossing [of the Russians] was made at Galatz, on
the 22d June, by General Zimmermann, who went over with two
regiments in pontoons and drove out the Turks who were posted
on the heights on the opposite shore. Having obtained a
footing in the Dobrudja, as the peninsula between the Danube
and Black Sea is called, the Russians were able to throw
bridges over the great stream, by which the whole left wing of
the army moved across. Meantime the right wing, on the 26th
June, sent a pontoon force over the Danube from Simnitza,
under command of General Skobeleff, who drove out the small
force of Turks posted there, though not without hard fighting.
More pontoons followed, and then a bridge was thrown across on
which the army could march. … By the first week of July the
whole Russian army was safely encamped on the southern bank of
the Danube, and getting in readiness to assume the offensive.
… The advance did not begin in force until after the middle of
the month. But before that time General Gourko … had pushed
forward on the road to the Balkans, heading first for Tirnova.
… On the 5th July the cavalry occupied Biela, … and on the 7th
Gourko was in possession of Tirnova. … The Emperor joined the
army at Biela on the 8th or 9th. Gourko was soon reported past
the Balkans. … The first check of the Russians was at Plevna.
They had previously captured Nicopolis with its garrison of
7,000 men, having themselves lost about 1,300 officers and men
killed and wounded. Orders had been given to occupy Plevna as
soon as possible, and Baron Krudener sent forward General
Schilder-Schuldner to carry out the orders. …
Schilder-Schuldner had 6,500 men and 46 guns in the division
with which he went to capture Plevna; he was attacked by a
vastly superior force of Turks before he had reached his
objective point, and the first battle of Plevna was disastrous
to the Russians. … Nearly 3,000 men and 74 officers were
killed or wounded. … The Russians retired to Nicopolis, and
the Turks set to work to strengthen Plevna. … From the 20th to
the 30th of July the Russians were engaged in bringing up
reinforcements and getting ready for another attack. An order
came for the assault of the Turkish position; Baron Krudener
did not believe the assault advisable, but the command of the
Grand Duke Nicholas left him no discretion." The assault was
made on the 31st of July, and was repulsed, with a loss to the
Russians of 170 officers and 7,136 men. "There was nothing for
the Russians to do but send for reinforcements, and wait until
they arrived. The advance into Turkey had received a severe
check, from which recovery was not easy. From the offensive
the Russians were thrown upon the defensive, and all as the
result of a single battle of six or eight hours' duration.
Happily for Russia, the Turkish army had no competent leader,
or the army of the Czar might have been captured or drowned in
the Danube.
{3154}
The Turks had three armies in the field. … Mehemet Ali was at
Shumla with 65,000 men; Osman Pasha at Plevna, with 50,000;
and Suleiman Pasha at Yeni Zagra, with 40,000. … The order of
the Czar for reinforcements was quickly issued, and resulted
in the despatch of 120,000 regulars and 180,000 militia for
the front. With these reinforcements went 460 pieces of
artillery. … General Gourko took up his position in the Shipka
Pass whence Suleiman Pasha sought in vain to dislodge him. …
Towards the end of August the Russian reinforcements were
assembled in such numbers that an advance could again be
ventured. … The total Russian and Roumanian force for the
attack of Plevna amounted to 90,000 men and 440 guns, while
the Turks were estimated to have about 56,000 men—and Osman
Pasha. … The attack began with a bombardment on the 6th
September," which was kept up until the 11th, when the
Russians again endeavored to carry the Turkish works by
assault. Skobeleff, conspicuous, as he always was, in daring
and in success, took one of the redoubts and held it until the
next day, waiting vainly for reinforcements which were not
sent. Elsewhere the assault failed. "The Russian killed and
wounded were estimated at 18,000 to 20,000, and the Turkish
about 5,000 less than the Russian. The capture by assault
having been given up, the Russians sat down to invoke the aid
of that engine, more powerful than all their batteries, the
engine of starvation. … One by one the roads leading into
Plevna were occupied, but it was nearly two months from the
terrible battle of the 11th September before the routes for
supplies and reinforcements destined for Osman Pasha could be
secured. The investment was completed on the 3d November;
120,000 Russians and Roumanians were around Plevna." On the
morning of December 10 the beleaguered Turks made a desperate
sortie, attempting to break the line of investment, having
failed in which their stout-hearted commander surrendered
unconditionally. "With the fall of Plevna and the surrender of
its garrison of 40,000 men, the Turkish opposition practically
ceased. Within a month from that event General Gourko had
captured Sophia, and General Radetsky took the village of
Shipka, in the Shipka Pass, and compelled the surrender of a
Turkish army of 23,000 men. … Gourko and Skobeleff advanced
upon Philippopolis by different routes and narrowly missed
capturing Suleiman Pasha with his entire force. Skobeleff
advanced upon Adrianople, which the Turks abandoned, and
Slivno and Yeni-Zagra were occupied, all inside of thirty
days. Plevna had made the Russians the masters of the
situation, and they advanced upon Constantinople, the Turks
retiring before them, and occasionally making a feeble
resistance. Turkey asked the mediation of England, and
finally, despairing of her aid, signed an armistice that
became the basis of the treaty of San Stefano."
_T. W. Knox,
Decisive Battles Since Waterloo,
chapter 21._
The campaign of the Russians in Bulgaria was accompanied by
another in Asiatic Turkey, where they, likewise, met with a
temporary check, after pushing their first advance too
confidently, and with an insufficient force. They invested
Kars and advanced against Erzeroum, in May, 1877; but were
defeated at Sevin and withdrew from both undertakings. Having
received reinforcements, they resumed the offensive in
October, attacking the main Turkish army, under Mukhtar Pasha,
in its strong position at Aladsha, or on the Little Yahni and
Great Yahni hills. Their first attack, on the 2d, was
repulsed; they repeated it on the 15th with success, driving
one wing of the enemy into Kars and forcing the other to
surrender. Kars was then besieged and taken by assault
November 17. The Turks suffered another defeat at Deve-Boyun,
near Erzeroum, November 4, and they evacuated Erzeroum itself
in February, 1878.
_E. Ollier,
Cassell's Illustrated History of the Russo-Turkish War._
ALSO IN;
_V. Baker,
The War in Bulgaria._
_F. V. Greene,
The Russian Army and its Campaign in Turkey._
TURKS: A. D. 1878.
Excitement in England over the Russian advance.
The British fleet sent through the Dardanelles.
Arrangement of the Berlin Congress.
"At the opening of 1878 the Turks were completely prostrate.
The road to Constantinople was clear. Before the English
public had time to recover their breath and to observe what
was taking place, the victorious armies of Russia were almost
within sight of the minarets of Stamboul. Meanwhile the
English Government were taking momentous action. … Parliament
was called together at least a fortnight before the time usual
during recent years. The Speech from the Throne announced that
her Majesty could not conceal from herself that, should the
hostilities between Russia and Turkey unfortunately be
prolonged, 'some unexpected occurrence may render it incumbent
on me to adopt measures of precaution.' This looked ominous to
those who wished for peace, and it raised the spirits of the
war party. There was a very large and a very noisy war party
already in existence. It was particularly strong in London. It
embraced some Liberals as well as nearly all Tories. It was
popular in the music-halls and the public-houses of London. …
The men of action got a nickname. They were dubbed the Jingo
Party. … Some Tyrtæus of the tap-tub, some Körner of the
music-halls, had composed a ballad which was sung at one of
these caves of harmony every night amidst the tumultuous
applause of excited patriots. The refrain of this war-song
contained the spirit-stirring words:
'We don't want to fight,
but, by Jingo, if we do,
We've got the ships,
we've got the men,
we've got the money too.'
Some one whose pulses this lyrical outburst of national pride
failed to stir called the party of its enthusiasts the
Jingoes. … The name was caught up at once, and the party were
universally known as the Jingoes. … The Government ordered the
Mediterranean fleet to pass the Dardanelles and go up to
Constantinople. The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that
he would ask for a supplementary estimate of six millions for
naval and military purposes. Thereupon Lord Carnarvon, the
Colonial Secretary, at once resigned. … Lord Derby was also
anxious to resign, and indeed tendered his resignation, but he
was prevailed upon to withdraw it. The fleet meanwhile was
ordered back from the Dardanelles to Besika Bay. It had got as
far as the opening of the Straits when it was recalled.
{3155}
The Liberal Opposition in the House of Commons kept on
protesting against the various war measures of the Government,
but with little effect. … While all this agitation in and out
of Parliament was going on … the news came that the Turks,
utterly broken down, had been compelled to sign an armistice,
and an agreement containing a basis of peace, at Adrianople.
Then, following quickly on the heels of this announcement,
came a report that the Russians, notwithstanding the
armistice, were pushing on towards Constantinople with the
intention of occupying the Turkish capital. A cry of alarm and
indignation broke out in London. One memorable night a sudden
report reached the House of Commons that the Russians were
actually in the suburbs of Constantinople. The House for a
time almost entirely lost its head. The lobbies, the
corridors, St. Stephen's Hall, the great Westminster Hall
itself, and Palace Yard beyond it, became filled with wildly
excited and tumultuous crowds. If the clamour of the streets
at that moment had been the voice of England, nothing could
have prevented a declaration of war against Russia. Happily,
however, it was proved that the rumour of Russian advance was
unfounded. The fleet was now sent in good earnest through the
Dardanelles, and anchored a few miles below Constantinople.
Russia at first protested that if the English fleet passed the
Straits Russian troops ought to occupy the city. Lord Derby
was firm, and terms of arrangement were found—English troops
were not to be disembarked, and the Russians were not to
advance. Russia was still open to negotiation. Probably Russia
had no idea of taking on herself the tremendous responsibility
of an occupation of Constantinople. She had entered into a
treaty with Turkey, the famous Treaty of San Stefano, by which
she secured for the populations of the Christian provinces
almost complete independence of Turkey, and was to create a
great new Bulgarian State with a seaport on the Egean Sea. The
English Government refused to recognise this Treaty. Lord
Derby contended that it involved an entire readjustment of the
Treaty of Paris, and that that could only be done with the
sanction of the Great Powers assembled in Congress. Lord
Beaconsfield openly declared that the Treaty of San Stefano
would put the whole south-east of Europe directly under
Russian influence. Russia offered to submit the Treaty to the
perusal, if we may use the expression, of a Congress; but
argued that the stipulations which merely concerned Turkey and
herself were for Turkey and herself to settle between them.
This was obviously an untenable position. … Turkey meanwhile
kept feebly moaning that she had been coerced into signing the
Treaty. The Government determined to call out the Reserves, to
summon a contingent of Indian troops to Europe, to occupy
Cyprus, and to make an armed landing on the coast of Syria. …
The last hope of the Peace Party seemed to have vanished when
Lord Derby left his office [which he did on the 28th of
March]. Lord Salisbury was made Foreign Minister. … Lord
Salisbury's first act in the office of Foreign Secretary was
to issue a circular in which he declared that it would be
impossible for England to enter a Congress which was not free
to consider the whole of the provisions of the Treaty of San
Stefano. … Prince Bismarck had often during these events shown
an inclination to exhibit himself in the new attitude of a
peaceful mediator. He now interposed again and issued
invitations for a congress to be held in Berlin to discuss the
whole contents of the Treaty of San Stefano. After some delay,
discussion, and altercation, Russia agreed to accept the
invitation on the conditions proposed, and it was finally
resolved that a Congress should assemble in Berlin on the
approaching June 13. To this Congress it was supposed by most
persons that Lord Salisbury would be sent to represent
England. Much to the surprise of the public, Lord Beaconsfield
announced that he himself would attend, accompanied by Lord
Salisbury, and conduct the negotiations in Berlin. The event
was, we believe, without precedent. … The Congress was held in
the Radzivill Palace, a building with a plain unpretending
exterior in one of the principal streets of Berlin, and then
in the occupation of Prince Bismarck. The Prince himself
presided. … The Congress discussed the whole or nearly the
whole of the questions opened up by the recent war. … The
great object of most of the statesmen who were concerned in
the preparation of the Treaty which came of the Congress, was
to open for the Christian populations of the south-east of
Europe a way into gradual self-development and independence.
But on the other hand it must be owned that the object of some
of the Powers, and especially, we are afraid, of the English
Government, was rather to maintain the Ottoman Government than
to care for the future of the Christian races. These two
influences, acting and counteracting on each other, produced
the Treaty of Berlin."
_J. McCarthy,
History of Our Own Time,
chapter 65 (volume 4)._
_ALSO IN: J. A. Froude,
Lord Beaconsfield,
chapter 16._
_H. D. Traill,
The Marquis of Salisbury,
chapter 11._
_R. Wilson,
Life and Times of Queen Victoria,
volume 2, chapter 21._
TURKS: A. D. 1878.
The Treaties of San Stefano and Berlin.
"The First Article of the Treaty of San Stefano had reference
to the new boundaries to be assigned to Montenegro. The
accession of territory, which was not very large, was taken
from the provinces of Bosnia and Albania, and lay to the
north, east, and south of the original State. … It gave to the
mountaineers their much-coveted admission to the sea. It was
next provided that a European Commission, on which the Sublime
Porte and the Government of Montenegro were to be represented,
should be charged with fixing the definite limits of the
Principality. … By Article II., the Sublime Porte recognized
definitively the independence of the Principality of
Montenegro. … Article III. dealt with Servia, which was
recognized as independent. The new frontier of this
Principality was to follow the course of the Drina, the
Dezevo, the Raska, the Ibar, the Morava, and some other
streams, and was drawn so as to give Little Zwornik, Zakar,
Leskovatz, Ak Palanka, and Nisch, to the Servians. … In
Article V., the Sublime Porte undertook to recognize the
independence of Roumania, which would thus acquire a right to
an indemnity, to be hereafter discussed between the two
countries. The most important sections of the Treaty were of
course those which had relation to Bulgaria. They commenced
with Article VI., which set forth that Bulgaria was
constituted an autonomous, tributary Principality, with a
Christian Government and a national militia.
{3156}
The definitive frontiers of the new Principality were to be
traced by a special Russo-Turkish Commission before the
evacuation of Roumelia by the Russian army. … The new Bulgaria
was of very considerable dimensions. It extended from the
Danube in the north to the Ægean in the south; and from the
borders of Albania in the west to the Black Sea in the east.
All that was left to Turkey in this part of her Empire was an
irregular and somewhat narrow territory, running westward from
Constantinople along the shores of the Sea of Marmora and the
Ægean until it touched the limits of the new Principality, and
extending no farther north than was sufficient to include
Adrianople and its immediate neighbourhood. By this
arrangement, the territory so left to the Sultan was
completely separated from Thessaly and Albania. … According to
Article VII., the Prince of Bulgaria was to be freely elected
by the people, and confirmed by the Sublime Porte with the
assent of the Powers. No member of the reigning dynasties of
the Great European Powers should be capable of being elected
Prince of Bulgaria. … The introduction of the new system into
Bulgaria, and the superintendence of its working, would be
entrusted for two years to an Imperial Russian Commissioner. …
By Article VIII., the Ottoman army would no longer remain in
Bulgaria, and all the ancient fortresses would be razed at the
expense of the local Government. … Until the complete
formation of a native militia, the country would be occupied
by Russian troops. … Article IX. declared that the amount of
the annual tribute which Bulgaria was to pay the Suzerain
Court would be determined by an agreement between Russia, the
Ottoman Government, and the other Cabinets. … By Article X.,
the Sublime Porte was to have the right to make use of
Bulgaria for the transport, by fixed routes, of its troops,
munitions, and provisions, to the provinces beyond the
Principality, and vice versa. … Article XII. provided that all
the Danubian fortresses should be razed, and that in future
there should be no strongholds on the banks of the Danube, nor
any men-of-war in the waters of Roumania, Servia, or Bulgaria.
… Article XIV. imposed on Turkey the obligation to introduce
reforms into Bosnia and the Herzegovina." Articles XV. and
XVI. stipulated reforms in government of Crete, Epirus,
Thessaly, Armenia, and other parts of the Ottoman Empire. "The
question of the war-indemnities was arranged in Article XIX.,
which set forth that the Emperor of Russia claimed, in all,
1,410,000,000 roubles for losses imposed on Russia during the
contest. … The Emperor, however, did not desire to receive the
whole of this indemnity in the form of money-payments, but,
taking into consideration the financial embarrassments of
Turkey, and acting in accordance with the wishes of the
Sultan, was willing to substitute for the greater part of the
sums enumerated certain territorial cessions, consisting of
the Sandjak of Tultcha, on the Danube (including the Delta
Islands and the Isle of Serpents), and, in Asia, Ardahan,
Kars, Batoum, Bayazid, and the territory extending as far as
the Soghanli Dagh. With respect to the Sandjak of Tultcha and
the Delta Islands, Russia, not wishing to annex that
territory, reserved to herself the right of exchanging it for
the part of Bessarabia detached from her by the Treaty of
1856. … The ceded territories in Europe and Asia were to be
taken as an equivalent for the sum of 1,100,000,000 roubles."
The remaining Articles of the Treaty of San Stefano related to
details of minor importance. "The Treaty of Berlin, signed by
the Plenipotentiaries on the 13th of July, 1878, and of which
the ratifications were exchanged on the 3rd of August, was the
Treaty of San Stefano, with additions, subtractions, and
amendments. … Speaking generally, it may be said that the
objects of the Treaty of Berlin, as distinguished from its
predecessor, were to place the Turkish Empire in a position of
independence, and to protect the jeopardised rights of Europe.
These ends it accomplished, or partially accomplished, by
several important provisions. It divided the so-called
Bulgaria into two provinces, of which the one to the north of
the Balkans was formed into a tributary Principality, while
the one to the south, which was to be designated Eastern
Roumelia, was to remain under the direct authority of the
Sultan, with administrative autonomy and a Christian
Governor-General. It left to the Sultan the passes of the
mountains, and the right of sending troops into the interior
of Eastern Roumelia whenever there might be occasion. It
reduced the stay of the Russian army in European Turkey. … It
secured to Roumania, as compensation for the loss of that
portion of Bessarabia which had been annexed to Moldavia by
the Treaty of Paris (1856), a larger amount of territory,
south of the Danube, than had been granted at San Stefano. It
restored to Turkey the whole of the northern shores of the
Ægean, a wide extent of country in Europe, and, in Asia, the
valley of Alashgerd and the town of Bayazid. … It gave far
ampler guarantees for religious liberty than had entered into
the projects of the Czar."
_E. Ollier,
Cassell's Illustrated History of the Russo-Turkish War,
volume 2, chapter 9 and 21._
"In her private agreement with Russia, England had consented
to the cession of Batoum, but she now sought to diminish the
value of that post by stipulating that the fortifications
should be demolished and the port declared free. The dispute,
which at one time assumed a serious character, was finally
settled by a declaration on the part of the Czar that Batoum
should be a free port. Kars, Ardahan, and Batoum were ceded to
Russia, the district of Khotur to Persia, and the Sultan
pledged himself to carry out the requisite reforms in Armenia
without loss of time, and to protect the inhabitants against
the Kurds and Circassians. At the same time a secret treaty
was made known which had been contracted between England and
Turkey on the 4th of June. By this treaty the Porte pledged
itself to carry out reforms in Asia Minor, and England, on her
part, guaranteed the integrity of the Sultan's Asiatic
possessions. To put England in a position to fulfil her part
of the treaty, and as a pledge for the execution of the
promised reforms, the Porte surrendered Cyprus to England as a
naval and military station, the latter agreeing to regard the
island as an integral part of the Turkish empire, and to make
over the surplus revenue to the Sultan. This treaty, which had
received the consent of Germany and Russia at the time of its
execution, aroused great indignation in France and Italy. … To
pacify the former state, Beaconsfield and Salisbury entered
into a secret arrangement with Waddington, in accordance with
which England was to put no obstacles in the way of a French
occupation of Tunis—an arrangement of which the French
government finally took advantage in the year 1881.
{3157}
The English representatives had also entered into an
arrangement with Austria in reference to Bosnia and
Herzegovina. In the sitting of June 29th Andrassy read a
memorandum in which he set forth that Austria had been
disturbed for a whole year by the insurrection in those
provinces, and had been compelled to receive and provide for
over 150,000 Bosnian fugitives, who positively refused again
to submit to the hardships of Turkish misrule; that Turkey was
not in a position to restore order in the disturbed districts.
… Thereupon the Marquis of Salisbury moved that Austria be
charged with the occupation and administration of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, and … the congress … decided to hand over those
two provinces to Austro-Hungary. … The independence of Servia
and Montenegro was recognized on condition that full freedom
and political equality were accorded to the members of all
religions. Servia received an addition to her population of
280,000 souls, her most important acquisition being the city
and fortress of Nish. She also assumed a part of the Turkish
debt. The recognition of Roumanian independence was
conditioned on the cession of Bessarabia to Russia, and the
admission to political equality of the members of all
religions—a condition which had special reference to the Jews.
In compensation for Bessarabia Roumania was to receive the
Dobrudsha and the islands at the mouth of the Danube. …
Austria took possession of her share of the booty at once, but
not without the most obstinate resistance."
_W. Müller,
Political History of Recent Times,
section 30._
ALSO IN:
_Sir E. Hertslet,
The Map of Europe by Treaty,
volume 4, Numbers 518, 524-532._
_Duke of Argyll,
The Eastern Question,
volume 2, chapter 13._
See, also, BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: A. D. 1878.
TURKS: A. D. 1894.
Reported Atrocities in Armenia.
A disturbance of some nature—the causes and extent of which
have not yet been ascertained—occurring in Turkish Armenia
during the late weeks of summer or early part of autumn, gave
occasion for what is claimed to have been more horrible
atrocities on the part of the Turkish soldiery than were
committed in Bulgaria during the year 1877. The scene of
alleged massacres is in the mountainous district of Sassoun,
near the western end of Lake Van, where 6,000 men, women and
children are said to have been slain. The Christian world
having been roused, though not very promptly, by the reports
of this fresh outbreak of barbarism, the Porte has been forced
by pressure from the Powers to consent to the formation of a
commission to investigate the affair. England, France and
Russia are to be represented on the commission.
----------TURKS: End--------
TURLUPINS, The.
See BEGUINES.
TURNER, Nat, The Insurrection of.
See SLAVERY, NEGRO: A. D. 1828-1832.
TURONES, The.
A tribe in ancient Gaul who gave their name to Touraine, the
district which they inhabited, and to Tours, the chief town of
that district.
See GAULS; also, VENETI OF WESTERN GAUL.
----------TUSCANY:Start--------
TUSCANY: A. D. 685-1115.
The founding of the duchy.
The reign of Countess Matilda.
The rise of the free cities.
"The first Lombard duke of whom any sure record remains is a
certain 'Alovisino' who flourished about the year 685; and the
last, though of more doubtful existence, is 'Tachiputo,' in
the 8th century, when Lucca was the principal seat of
government, with the privilege of coining, although her Counts
were not always Dukes and Marquises of Tuscany. About the year
800, the title of Duke seems to have changed to that of Count,
and although both are afterwards used the latter is most
common: Muratori says, that this dignity was in 813 enjoyed by
a certain Boniface whom Sismondi believes to be the ancestor
of Countess Matilda; but her father, the son of Tedaldo,
belonged to another race: he was the grandson to Attone, Azzo,
or Adelberto, Count of Cannosa. … The line of Boniface I.
finished in 1001 by the death of Hugo the Great. … After him,
on account of the civil wars between Ardoino and Henry, there
was no permanent Duke until 1014, when the latter appointed
Ranieri, whom Conrad the Salique deposed in 1027, making room
for Boniface the father of Countess Matilda. This heroine died
in 1115 after a reign of active exertion for herself and the
Church against the Emperors, which generated the infant and as
yet nameless factions of Guelph and Ghibeline. …
See 'War of Investitures,'
PAPACY: A. D. 1056-1122]
The fearless assertion of her own independence by successful
struggles with the Emperor was an example not overlooked by
the young Italian communities under Matilda's rule. … These
seeds of liberty began first to germinate amongst the Lombard
plains, but quickly spreading over the Apennines were welcomed
throughout Tuscany. …
See ITALY: A. D. 1056-1152.
It seems probable that in Tuscany, towards the commencement of
the 12th century, the Count's authority had passed entirely
into the principal communities, leaving that of the Marquis as
yet untouched; but there are reasons for believing that the
Countess Matilda in some of her difficulties was induced to
sell or cede a portion of her power, and probably all that of
the Count's. … Altogether, there appears little reason to
doubt the internal freedom of most Tuscan cities very early in
the 11th century."
_H. E. Napier,
Florentine History,
book 1, chapter 4 (volume 1)._
ALSO IN:
_P. Villari,
The Two First Centuries of Florentine History,
volume I, chapter 2._
TUSCANY: A. D. 925-1020.
The rise of Pisa.
See PISA.
TUSCANY: A. D. 1063-1200.
Cultivation of architecture at Pisa.
See PISA: A. D. 1063-1293.
TUSCANY: A. D. 1077-1115.
Countess Matilda and her Donation to the Holy See.
See PAPACY: A. D. 1077-1102.
TUSCANY: A. D. 1215.
Beginning of the wars of Guelfs and Ghibellines.
See ITALY: A. D. 1215.
TUSCANY: A. D. 1248-1278.
The Guelf and Ghibelline wars.
See FLORENCE: A. D. 1248-1278.
TUSCANY: A. D. 1250-1293.
Development of the popular constitution
of the Florentine Commonwealth.
See FLORENCE: A. D. 1250-1293.
TUSCANY: A. D. 1282-1293.
War between Pisa and Genoa.
Battle of Meloria.
War of Florence and Lucca against Pisa.
See PISA: A. D. 1063-1293.
{3158}
TUSCANY: A. D. 1300-1313.
The new factions of Florence.
Bianchi and Neri.
See FLORENCE: A. D. 1295-1300; and 1301-1313.
TUSCANY: A. D. 1310-1313.
The visitation of the Emperor, Henry VII.
His war with the Guelfic cities.
See ITALY: A. D. 1310-1313.
TUSCANY: A. D. 1313-1328.
The wars of Florence and Pisa.
The subjection of Lucca to Castruccio Castracani
and his war with the Florentines.
The hostile visitation of the Emperor Louis of Bavaria.
See ITALY: A. D. 1313-1330.
TUSCANY: A. D 1336-1338.
War of Florence with Mastino della Scala, of Verona.
See VERONA: A. D. 1260-1338.
TUSCANY: A. D. 1341-1343.
Defeat of the Florentines by the Pisans before Lucca.
Brief tyranny of the Duke of Athens at Florence.
See FLORENCE: A. D. 1341-1343.
TUSCANY: A. D. 1353-1359.
Sufferings and deliverance from "the Great Company."
See ITALY: A. D. 1343-1393.
TUSCANY: A. D. 1378-1427.
The democratizing of Florence.
The Tumult of the Ciompi.
First appearances of the Medici.
See FLORENCE: A. D. 1378-1427.
TUSCANY: A. D. 1390-1402.
Resistance of Florence to the conquests of the Duke of Milan.
See FLORENCE: A. D. 1390-1402.
TUSCANY: A. D. 1433-1464.
The ascendancy of Cosimo de' Medici at Florence.
See FLORENCE: A. D. 1433-1464.
TUSCANY: A. D. 1452-1454.
War of Florence and Milan against Venice, Naples,
Siena and other states.
See MILAN: A. D. 1447-1454.
TUSCANY: A. D. 1469-1492.
The government of Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent,
at Florence.
See FLORENCE: A. D. 1469-1492.
TUSCANY: A. D. 1494-1509.
The French deliverance of Pisa.
The long struggle and reconquest by Florence.
See PISA: A. D. 1494-1509.
TUSCANY: A. D. 1502-1569.
Restoration of the Medici in Florence and
their creation of the grand duchy of Tuscany.
See FLORENCE: A. D. 1502-1569.
TUSCANY: A. D. 1725.
Reversion of the grand duchy pledged to the Infant of Spain.
See SPAIN: A. D. 1713-1725;
and ITALY: A. D. 1715-1735.
TUSCANY: A. D. 1735.
Reversion of the duchy secured to the ex-Duke of Lorraine.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1733-1735;
and ITALY: A. D.1715-1735.
TUSCANY: A. D. 1796.
Seizure of Leghorn by the French.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1796 (APRIL-OCTOBER).
TUSCANY: A. D. 1801.
The grand duchy transformed into the Kingdom of Etruria
and given to the son of the Duke of Parma.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1801-1803.
TUSCANY: A. D. 1807.
End of the Kingdom of Etruria.
Cession and annexation to France.
See PORTUGAL: A. D. 1807.
TUSCANY: A. D. 1814-1815.
Restored to Ferdinand III.
See VIENNA, THE CONGRESS OF;
and ITALY: A. D. 1814-1815.
TUSCANY: A. D. 1848-1849.
Revolution.
Expulsion of the Grand Duke.
Proclamation of a Republic and union with Rome.
The old order restored.
See ITALY: A. D. 1848-1849.
TUSCANY: A. D. 1859-1861.
Flight of the Grand Duke.
Formation of a provisional government.
Annexation to Sardinia.
Absorption in the new Kingdom of Italy.
See ITALY: A. D. 1856-1859; and 1859-1861.
----------TUSCANY: End--------
TUSCARORAS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY,
and IROQUOIS TRIBES OF THE SOUTH.
TUSCULAN VILLAS.
"In Cicero's time the number of country-houses which a wealthy
Roman considered it necessary to possess had evidently become
considerable, and the amount spent upon them very great. The
orator himself had villas at Tusculum, Antium, Formiæ, Bairn,
and Pompeii, besides his town-house on the Palatine, and his
family seat at Arpinum. … The Tusculanum of Cicero had
formerly been in the possession of Sylla. … Close to the Villa
of Cicero, and so near that he could go across to fetch books
from the library, was the Villa of Lucullus. … Many other
Roman villas, lay on the Tusculan hills."
_R. Burn,
Rome and the Campagna,
chapter 14, part 3._
TUSCULUM.
"In the times of the Latin League, from the fall of Alba to
the battle of Lake Regillus, Tusculum was the most prominent
town in Latium. It suffered, like the other towns in Latium, a
complete eclipse during the later Republic and the Imperial
times; but in the ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth
centuries, under the Counts of Tusculum, it became again a
place of great importance and power, no less than seven popes
of the house of Tusculum having sat in the chair of St.
Peter." The ruins of Tusculum, about fifteen miles from Rome,
on the Alban hills, have been considerably explored.
_R. Burn,
Rome and the Campagna,
chapter 14, part 2._
See, also, ALBA.
TUTELOES, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SIOUAN FAMILY.
TUTTLINGEN,
DÜTLINGEN, Battle of (1643).
See GERMANY: A. D. 1643-1644.
TWEED RING, The.
See NEW YORK: A. D. 1863-1871.
TWELVE APOSTLES OF IRELAND.
See CLONARD, MONASTERY OF.
TWELVE CÆSARS, The.
See ROME: A. D. 68-96.
TWELVE PEERS OF FRANCE.
The Twelve Peers of France were the nobles and prelates "who
held the great fiefs immediately from the Crown. … Their
number had been fixed by Louis VII. at twelve; six lay and six
ecclesiastical. They were the Dukes of Normandy, Burgundy,
Guienne, the Counts of Champagne, Flanders, Toulouse; the
Archbishop of Rheims, and the Bishops of Laon, Noyon, Châlons,
Beauvais and Langres. … The immediate vassals of the Duchy of
France, who held of the King as Duke, not as King, were not
Peers of France."
_G. W. Kitchin,
History of France,
volume 1, book 3, chapter 6, with foot-note._
TWELVE TABLES OF THE LAW, The.
See ROME: B. C. 451-449.
TWENTY-SECOND PRAIRIAL, Law of the.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1794 (JUNE-JULY).
TWIGGS, General, Treacherous surrender of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1860-1861 (DECEMBER-FEBRUARY).
TWIGHTWEES, OR MIAMIS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY,
also ILLINOIS AND MIAMIS, and SACS, ETC.
TWILLER, Wouter Van, The governorship of.
See NEW YORK: A. D. 1638-1647.
{3159}
TWO SICILIES, The Kingdom of the.
The kingdom founded in Southern Italy and Sicily by the Norman
conquest in the 11th century (see ITALY: A. D. 1000-1090, and
1081-1194) maintained its existence until recent times,
sometimes as a unit, and sometimes divided into the two
dominions, insular and peninsular, of Sicily and Apulia, or
Naples. The division occurred first after the rising against
the French and the massacre known as "the Sicilian Vespers".
See ITALY: A. D. 1282-1300.
The crown of Sicily was then acquired by Peter, king of
Aragon, succeeded by his son Frederick. Charles of Anjou and
his successors were left in possession of the kingdom of
Naples, alone, although still claiming Sicily in union with
it. "As the king who reigned at Naples would not give up his
right to Sicily, … his kingdom is often called Sicily as well
as the Island Kingdom; and so when at last the two kingdoms
became one [again-see ITALY: A. D. 1412-1447], the strange
name of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies arose."
_W. Hunt,
History of Italy,
page 93._
See, also, NAPLES, and SICILY.
TYCHE.
One of the variously named parts of the ancient city of
Syracuse, Sicily. Its position was northwest of Achradina.
TYCOON,
SHOGUN.
See JAPAN: SKETCH OF HISTORY.
TYLER. John:
Vice-Presidential election.
Succession to the Presidency.
Administration.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1840, to 1845.
TYLER, Wat, The Rebellion of.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1381.
TYLIS, Celtic Empire of.
"The empire of Tylis in the Haemus, which the Celts, not long
after the death of Alexander [the Great], and nearly at the
same time with their permanent settlement in Asia Minor, had
founded in the Moeso-Thracian territory, destroyed the seed of
Greek civilisation within its sphere, and itself succumbed
during the Hannibalic war to the assaults of the Thracians,
who extirpated these intruders to the last man."
_T. Mommsen,
History of Rome,
book 8, chapter 7._
TYNDARIS, Naval battle at (B. C. 257).
See PUNIC WARS: THE FIRST.
TYNWALD, Court of.
See MANX KINGDOM;
and, also, THING.
TYRANTS, Greek.
"A 'tyranny,' in the Greek sense of the word, was the
irresponsible dominion of a single person, not founded on
hereditary right, like the monarchies of the heroic ages and
of many barbarian nations, nor on a free election, like that
of a dictator or æsymnete, but on force. It did not change its
character when transmitted through several generations, nor
was any other name invented to describe it when power, which
had been acquired by violence, was used for the public good;
though Aristotle makes it an element in the definition of
tyranny, that it is exercised for selfish ends. But, according
to the ordinary Greek notions, and the usage of the Greek
historians, a mild and beneficent tyranny is an expression
which involves no contradiction."
_C. Thirlwall,
History of Greece,
chapter 10._
"In spite of the worst which has been said against them, the
tyrants hold a legitimate place in the progress of Greek
constitutional history. They were the means of breaking down
the oligarchies in the interests of the people. … It was at
Sicyon that the first tyrannis arose. … About the year 670 B.
C. a certain Orthagoras, who is said to have been a cook,
succeeded in establishing himself as tyrant in Sicyon. Of his
reign no incident is recorded. He was succeeded by his son
Myron."
_E. Abbott,
History of Greece,
part 1, chapter 12._
ALSO IN:
_J. P. Mahaffy,
Problems in Greek History,
chapter 4._
See, also, DESPOTS.
TYRAS, The.
The ancient name of the river Dniester.
TYRCONNEL'S DOMINATION IN IRELAND.
See IRELAND: A. D. 1685-1688.
----------TYRE: Start--------
TYRE.
"Justin represents Tyre as having been founded a year before
the Capture of Troy, thus apparently reducing by about 1,500
years the date assigned to it by the priests of the temple of
Hercules. … Josephus places the settlement of Tyre 240 years
before the building of Solomon's Temple. He refers no doubt to
the same event as Justin, the occupation of the island by the
Sidonians, as he cannot have been ignorant of the mention of
Tyre in the Old Testament more than 240 years before Solomon.
The date of the building of Solomon's Temple is itself
disputed, estimates varying from 1012 B. C. to 969 B. C. …
Tyre consisted of two parts, an island about three-quarters of
a mile in length, separated from the mainland by a strait four
stadia, about half a mile, in width at its northern end, and a
town on the shore. The latter was distinguished as Palæ-Tyrus,
or Ancient Tyre, and was the chief seat of the population,
till the wars of the Assyrian monarchs against Phœnicia. It
extended along the shore from the river Leontes in the north
to the fountain of Rusel-Ain in the south, a distance of seven
miles, great part of which would be suburb rather than city.
Pliny, who wrote when its boundaries could still be traced,
computes the circuit of Palæ-Tyrus and the island together at
nineteen Roman miles, that of the island town being 22 stadia.
… Though called Old Tyre, because it lay in ruins, when the
younger city on the island was in the height of its
prosperity, it was from the first connected with it; and the
name of Tyre (Tsour), 'a rock,' would hardly be appropriate,
except to the island. … It is probable that, from the first,
the island, from the excellence of its natural harbour, was a
naval station to the city on the mainland, and, as a place of
security, the seat of the worship of the national deities,
Astarte, Belus, Hercules. … The situation of Palæ-Tyrus was
one of the most fertile spots on the coast of Phœnicia. The
plain is here about five miles wide, the soil is dark, and the
variety of its productions excited the wonder of the
Crusaders. Near the southern extremity of the city was a
fountain, which, communicating with some natural receptacle in
the mountains above, poured forth copious and perennial
streams of pure and cool water. An aqueduct distributed them
through the town. … Whatever may have been the relative
importance of Palæ-Tyrus and the island, previous to the great
migration from Sidon, occasioned by the victory of the
Ascalonites, there can be no doubt that from this time the
population of the island greatly increased. The colonization
of Gades took place about a century later. But we have no
connected history of Tyre till near the age of Solomon."
_J. Kenrick,
Phœnicia: History,
chapter 1._
See, also, PHŒNICIANS.
TYRE:
The founding of the colony of Carthage.
See CARTHAGE: THE FOUNDING OF.
TYRE: B. C. 598-585.
Siege by Nebuchadnezzar.
See PHŒNICIANS: B. C. 850-538.
{3160}
TYRE: B. C. 332.
Siege and capture by Alexander the Great.
After defeating the Persians at Issus (see MACEDONIA: B. C.
334-330), Alexander turned his attention to the tributary
Phœnician cities, whose fleets gave to the Great King a naval
power more formidable than the hosts of the nations which
marched at his command. Sidon, Byblus, and other towns
submitted promptly to the conqueror. Tyre offered a qualified
surrender, which did not satisfy the haughty Macedonian, and
he instantly laid siege to the city. Having no adequate fleet
with which to reach the island-town, he resolved to carry a
causeway across the channel which separated the island from
Old Tyre, on the mainland, and he demolished the buildings of
the latter to provide materials for the work. It was an
undertaking of immense magnitude and difficulty, and the
ingenious Tyrians found many modes of interfering with it.
They succeeded in destroying the mole when half of it had been
built; but Alexander, with obstinate perseverance, began his
work anew, on a larger scale than before. He also collected a
strong fleet of war-galleys, from Cyprus and from the
Phœnicians who had submitted to him, with which the opposition
of the enemy was checked and his own operations advanced.
After seven months of prodigious labor and incessant battle,
the strong walls of Tyre were beaten down and the city taken.
"It soon became a scene of unresisted carnage and plunder. The
Macedonians, exasperated by the length and labours of the
siege, which had lasted seven months, and by the execution of
their comrades [Greek prisoners, whom the Tyrians had put to
death on the walls, before the eyes of the besiegers, and cast
into the sea], spared none that fell into their hands. The
king—whom the Greeks call Azelmicus—with the principal
inhabitants, and some Carthaginian envoys who had been sent
with the usual offerings to Melkart, took refuge in his
sanctuary: and these alone, according to Arrian, were exempted
from the common lot of death or slavery. It was an act of
clemency, by which the conqueror at the same time displayed
his piety to the god. Of the rest, 8,000 perished in the first
slaughter, and 30,000, including a number of foreign
residents, were sold as slaves. But if we may believe Curtius,
15,000 were rescued by the Sidonians [of Alexander's navy],
who first hid them in their galleys, and afterwards
transported them to Sidon—not, it must be presumed, without
Alexander's connivance or consent. It sounds incredible, that
he should have ordered 2,000 of the prisoners to be crucified.
… Tyre was still occupied as a fortress, and soon recovered
some measure of her ancient prosperity."
_C. Thirlwall,
History of Greece,
chapter 50._
ALSO IN:
_Arrian,
Anabasis of Alexander,
book 2, chapters 15-24._
TYRE: B. C. 332-A. D. 638.
Under Greek and Roman domination.
"The Carians, with whom Alexander repeopled the city [of Tyre]
fell into the habits of the former population, and both Tyre
and Sidon recovered much of their commercial greatness. After
a long struggle be·tween the kingdoms of Egypt and Syria,
Phœnicia was finally secured to the latter by Antiochus the
Great (B. C. 198). But the commercial rivalry of Egypt proved
more serious even than political subjection; and the
foundation of Berenice on the Red Sea diverted to Alexander
much of the oriental commerce that had previously flowed
through Tyre and Sidon. But still they did not succumb to
their younger rival. Under the Romans, to whom Phœicia was
subjected with Syria [by Pompeius the Great, B. C. 64], Tyre
was still the first commercial city of the world."
_P. Smith,
History of the World: Ancient,
chapter 24._
TYRE: A. D. 638.
Capture by the Moslems.
After the taking of Jerusalem by the Caliph Omar, the Moslems
made themselves masters of the remainder of Palestine very
quickly. Tripoli was first won by treachery, and then the same
traitor who had delivered it, making his way to Tyre,
succeeded in bringing about the betrayal of that place. Many
of the inhabitants were put to the sword; but many others are
said to have saved their lives by accepting the religion of
the victors. The fall of Tyre was followed by the flight from
Cæsarea of Constantine, son of the Emperor Heraclius, who
commanded in Syria, and the entire abandonment of that rich
province to the Moslems.
_S. Ockley,
History of the Saracens,
pages 251-253 (Bohn ed.)._
TYRE: A. D. 1124.
Siege and Conquest by the Venetians and Crusaders.
The Venetians took little or no part in the First Crusade,
being largely engaged in commerce with the Saracens. But in
1124—a full quarter of a century after the taking of
Jerusalem—they found it wise to obtain an interest in the
Christian conquests that were spreading along the Levantine
coasts. They accordingly sent their doge, with a formidable
fleet, to offer aid to the Latin king of Jerusalem—then
Baldwin II.—for the reduction of either Ascalon or Tyre, both
of which cities were still held by the Moslems. Finding it
difficult to make choice between the two places, a solemn
drawing of lots took place, at the altar of the Holy
Sepulchre, as a means of ascertaining the will of God. The lot
decided that Tyre should be attacked, and operations were
accordingly begun. But "the Venetians, more devoted to the
interests of their commerce and of their nation than to those
of a Christian kingdom, demanded, before beginning the siege
of Tyre, that they should enjoy a church, a street, a common
oven, and a national tribunal in every city in Palestine. They
further demanded other privileges and the possession of a
third of the conquered city." The demands of the Venetians
were complied with, and Tyre, after a siege of over five
months, beleaguered by land and sea, was taken. The
capitulation was an honorable one and honorably respected. The
Moslem inhabitants were permitted to leave the city; the
Christians entered it triumphally, and the day on which the
news reached Jerusalem was made a festival.
_J. F. Michaud,
History of the Crusades,
book 5._
----------TYRE: End--------
TYROL:
Origin of the county and its name.
"Tyrol freed herself from the suzerainty of Bavaria in very
early times. She was divided among a number of princes, lay
and ecclesiastical. The principal of these were the counts of
the Adige or of the Tyrol, and the counts of Andechs, who
obtained the title of duke from Frederick I. [1152-1190], and
called themselves dukes of Meran. Their race came to an end in
1248, and their domains were united to those of the counts of
Tyrol who thus be·came possessed of the larger part of the
lands between the Inn and the Adige. Tyrol takes its name from
the castle of Tirol, which was built on the site of the Roman
station Teriolis, not far from Meran, on the upper waters of
the Adige."
_L. Leger,
History of Austro-Hungary,
page 144, footnote._
{3161}
"After the dissolution of the classic Roman Empire, the
Province of Rætia split up into parcels. … It is impossible,
in a sketch like this, to follow the various dynastic and
other changes, most of them extremely perplexed and obscure,
which ensued between the 5th and 10th centuries. At the end of
this period, the main constituents of the old province had
assumed something like the shape which they now bear. That is
to say, Rætia Secunda was separated from Rætia Prima, which
had also lost what formerly belonged to it south of the Alpine
ridge. … Tirol again had been detached from Rætia Prima, and
had begun to form a separate entity. Meanwhile a power of
first rate importance in the future history of Graubünden [the
Grisons] had arisen: namely the Bishopric of Chur. … The
Bishops of Chur took rank as feudal lords of the first class.
… Originally an insignificant house, exercising … the
functions of Bailies to the See of Chur, the Counts of Tirol
acquired influence and territory under the shadow of distant
ecclesiastical superiors."
_J. A. Symonds,
History of Graubünden
(In Strickland's "The Engadine"),
pages 23-27._
TYROL: A. D. 1363.
Acquired by the House of Austria.
See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1330-1364.
TYROL: A. D. 1805.
Taken from Austria and annexed to Bavaria.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1805-1806.
TYROL: A. D. 1809.
Heroic rising under Hofer, against the Bavarians and the French.
The crushing of the revolt.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1809-1810 (APRIL-FEBRUARY).
TYROL: A. D. 1814-1815.
Restored to Austria.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1814 (APRIL-JUNE);
and VIENNA, THE CONGRESS OF.
----------TYROL: End--------
TYRONE'S REBELLIONS.
The Wars of the O'Neils.
See IRELAND: A. D. 1559-1603.
TYRRHENIANS.
TYRRHENIAN SEA.
The ancient race of people in western Italy whom the Romans
called Etrusci, and who called themselves the Rasenna, were
known to the Greeks as the Turrhenoi, or Tyrrhenians. They
were an enterprising maritime people, and hence the Greeks
called that part of the Mediterranean which washes the western
Italian coast the Tyrrhenian Sea.
See ETRUSCANS.
TZAR,
CZAR.
See RUSSIA: A. D. 1547.
TZOMBOR, Battle of (1849).
See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1848-1849.
U.
U. C.,
A. U. C.,
A. U.
Anno Urbis Conditæ: the "Year of Rome," reckoned from the
founding of the city.
See ROME: B. C. 753.
U. E. LOYALISTS.
See TORIES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
UAUPE, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: GUCK OR COCO GROUP.
UBERTI FAMILY, The.
See FLORENCE: A. D. 1248-1278.
UCHEES, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: UCHEAN FAMILY.
UCLES,
Battle of (1108).
See PORTUGAL: A. D. 1095-1325.
Battle of (1809).
See SPAIN: A. D. 1808-1809 (DECEMBER-MARCH).
UDAIPORE,
OODEYPOOR.
See RAJPOOTS.
UDHA-NALA, Battle of (1763).
See INDIA: A. D. 1757-1772.
UGANDA.
"It was in 1858 that the travellers Burton and Speke, starting
from Zanzibar, first made Europe acquainted with the existence
of that vast inland sea, the Victoria Lake, of which Rebmann
and Ernhardt had already heard native reports. Four years
later Speke and Grant, passing round the western shore,
reached Uganda; and they found here, if I may employ the
paradox, a singular, barbaric civilisation. Combined with the
most barbarous usages and the grossest superstition were many
of those advances in the scale of humanity which we are wont
to accept as indications of civilisation. There was an appeal
to law, and cases were decided after a formal hearing. The
administration was vested in the king,—an absolute despot,
—and from him downwards there existed a regular chain of
delegated power and control. Well-made roads, kept constantly
in repair, intersected the country in all directions. Rough
bridges were constructed across river swamps. An army was
maintained, and also a fleet of canoes on the waters of the
lake. The arts of building, smith-work, &c., were very far in
advance of anything to be found between Uganda and the coast.
The ideas of decency, the use of clothing, and the planting of
trees, were indications of long years of development, of which
the intricate customs and etiquettes surrounding the Court
were an additional proof. Speke traces the earliest
developments of this civilisation to Unyoro and its shepherd
kings, descendants of a nomadic, pastoral race—the Wahuma—whom
he supposes to be an offshoot from the Abyssinians or Gallas.
Uganda and the countries lying along the lake shore, being the
richest province of this Wahuma empire—called Kitara—had to
bring large quantities of produce to Unyoro for the king's
use, and their inhabitants were looked on as slaves. The
legend relates that a hunter named Uganda headed a revolt, and
was proclaimed king under the name of Kimera. Mtesa was the
seventh of the dynasty, according to Speke, which shows it to
be of some little antiquity. Speke was enthusiastic about the
fertility of Uganda, and the development of its people as
compared with the savage tribes of Africa. The next European
to visit the country was Colonel Chaillé Long, who was sent by
Gordon in the summer of 1874. Stanley followed in 1875, and
simultaneously Linant arrived in the country. In 1876 Gordon
sent Emin with a party of soldiers to Mtesa's capital. They
were for some time quartered there, and Gordon had views of
annexing Uganda to the Egyptian Sudan. … Stanley was even
louder in his praises of Uganda than Speke had been, and
described it as the 'Pearl of Africa.' In consequence of his
appeal on behalf of the people, a fund was started, and
missionaries were despatched to Uganda. These arrived in June
1877. … Some two years later—February 1879—the French (Roman
Catholic) Algerian Mission despatched a party of 'White
Fathers' to begin mission-work in Uganda.
{3162}
The religious differences between these two conflicting
creeds, which marked the very inauguration of the Roman
Catholic mission, much puzzled and confused Mtesa, since both
alike called themselves 'Christians.' The Arabs from the coast
had already settled in Uganda, and brought with them the
religion of Islam. … Mtesa showed great toleration to all
creeds, though at one time he had leaned to Mohammedanism, and
had ordered all Uganda to embrace that creed. Shortly after,
however, as the followers of Islam refused to eat the king's
meat because it was not killed in the orthodox way according
to the Koran, he ordered the massacre of all Mohammedans.
Mtesa died in the autumn of 1884, and Mwanga, then about
eighteen years old, succeeded him—being selected from among
Mtesa's sons on account of his personal likeness to the late
king, since in Uganda paternity is often difficult to prove.
At this time the three religions had made great progress, and
their disintegrating influences on the old customs began to be
more and more apparent. This was especially the case with
regard to the Christians, who no longer regarded the king as
divine, nor his acts, however gross and cruel, as having a
divine sanction. They owned a Higher allegiance, though they
remained obedient subjects, and distinguished themselves by
bravery in war. Such an attitude was, of course, intolerable
to a cruel despot like Mwanga. … There was still a further
reason for suspicion and fear of the white men. … The Egyptian
flag had been hoisted at Mruli and Fauvera in Unyoro, only
just beyond the borders of Uganda, and Gordon's envoys—Colonel
Long and Emin—and his troops had penetrated to Mtesa's
capital. The Arabs also told of the doings of the Belgians on
the Congo. At a later period reports reached Mwanga of German
annexations in Usagara on the East Coast. Last, and most
disturbing of all, was the news of Mr. Thomson's arrival near
Usoga in the East—the route from the coast by which native
tradition said that the conquerors of Uganda would come.
Mwanga had succeeded his father in November 1884. Early in
1885 he determined to stamp out those dangerous religions,
Mohammedan and Christian alike, which were disintegrating his
country. The missionaries Mackay and Ashe, were seized, and
their followers persecuted. But the religion spread the more.
A plot to depose Mwanga was discovered and crushed. With
varying fortunes—sometimes treated leniently, sometimes the
victims of violent persecution—the missionaries held their own
till the autumn of 1885. Then came news of Bishop Hannington's
approach." Unhappily the Bishop came by the forbidden Usoga
route, and Mwanga ordered that he be killed, with all his men,
which was done in October, 1885. "After this the position of
the Europeans was very precarious, but not till the following
May (1886) did the storm burst. Mwanga then threw aside all
restraint, and butchered the Christian converts wholesale. …
But in spite of the martyrdom by torture and burning, the
religion grew. … The heroism inspired by religion in the early
history of our own Church was repeated here in the heart of
Africa." At length, in 1888, there was a revolt, in which
Christians and Mohammedans seem to have combined, and Mwanga
fled to an island at the south of the Lake. His brother Kiwewa
was made king, and for a time, the Christians were in control
of affairs. But the Mohammedans grew jealous, and by a sudden
rising drove the Christians out. Kiwewa refusing to accept the
creed of Islam, was deposed, and another brother, Karema, was
raised to the throne. The exiled Christians now made overtures
to Mwanga, and an alliance was concluded, which resulted in
the overthrow of the Mohammedan or Arab party, and the
restoration of Mwanga to the throne, in October, 1889. The two
Christian factions, Catholic and Protestant, or French and
English, divided the country and all the offices of government
between them, but were bitterly jealous of each other and
perpetually quarreled, while the defeated Mohammedans were
still strong and unsubdued. Affairs were in this state when
Dr. Peters, the explorer in command of the German "Emin Relief
Expedition," came to Uganda, having learned of the rescue of
Emin Pasha by Stanley. Dr. Peters, with the aid of the French
party, succeeded in arranging some kind of treaty with Mwanga,
and this alarmed the Imperial British East Africa Company (see
AFRICA: A. D. 1884-1891) when news of it had been received.
That alarm was soon increased by intelligence that Emin Pasha
had entered the German service and was about to conduct a
strong expedition to the south of Lake Victoria Nyanza. These
and other circumstances led to the despatching of Captain
Lugard with a small force to Uganda to represent the British
East Africa Company and establish its influence there. Captain
Lugard arrived at Mengo, the capital of Uganda, on the 18th of
December, 1890. Meantime Great Britain and Germany, by the
Anglo-German Agreement of July 1, 1890 (see AFRICA: A. D.
1884-1891) had settled all questions between them as to their
respective "spheres of influence," and Uganda had been
definitely placed within the British "sphere." This enabled
Captain Lugard to secure the signing of a treaty which
recognized the suzerainty of the Company, established its
protectorate over Uganda, and conceded to it many important
commercial and political powers. He remained in the country
until June, 1892, during which time he was driven to take part
in a furious war that broke out between the Catholic and
Protestant parties. The war ended in a partition of territory
between the factions, and three small provinces were, at the
same time, assigned to the Mohammedans. After maintaining
Captain Lugard and his force in the country for eighteen
months, the Company found the cost so heavy and the prospect
of returns so distant, that it came to a resolution to
withdraw; but was induced by a subscription of £16,000 from
the Church Missionary Society to remain for another year in
the exercise of the control which it had acquired. At the end
of 1892 the Company renewed its resolution to evacuate the
region west of Lake Victoria, and the British Government was
urgently pressed to take upon itself the administration of the
country. It was only persuaded, however, to assume the cost of
a further occupation of Uganda for three months by the
Company's officers, in order to give more time for ensuring
the safety of missionaries and other Europeans. It consented,
moreover, to despatch a Commissioner to investigate the
situation and report upon it. The official selected for that
duty was Sir Gerald Porter, Consul-General at Zanzibar.
{3163}
Sir Gerald returned to England with his report in December,
1893, and died of typhoid fever in the month following. His
report urged the maintenance of an effective control over the
government of Uganda, to be exercised directly by the British
Government, in the form of a Protectorate, keeping the king on
his throne, with a Commissioner at his side to direct his
action in all important particulars. After much discussion,
the decision of the Government was announced at the beginning
of June, 1894. It determined to establish the proposed
Protectorate in Uganda, not extending to Unyoro, and to place
a Sub-Commissioner on duty between Lake Victoria and the sea,
for the purpose of watching over communications, and
apparently without political powers. The Government declined
to undertake the building of the railway from Mombassa on the
coast to the Lake, for which the Imperial British East Africa
Company had made surveys.
_Captain F. D. Lugard,
The Rise of our East African Empire._
ALSO IN:
_Sir Gerald Porter,
The British Mission to Uganda in 1893._
_P. L. McDermott,
British East Africa, or Ibea.
The Spectator, June 9, 1894._
See, also, AFRICAN EXPLORATION, &c., in Supplement.
UGRI.
See HUNGARIANS.
UGRO-FINNISH RACES.
See TURANIAN.
UHILCHES, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: PAMPAS TRIBES.
UIRINA, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: GUCK OR COCO GROUP.
UKASE.
An edict of the Russian government, deriving the force of law
from the absolute authority of the Czar.
UKRAINE, The.
See RUSSIA, GREAT, &c.;
also COSSACKS.
ULADISLAUS I.,
King of Poland, A. D. 1083-1102.
Uladislaus II., King of Bohemia, 1471-1516.
Uladislaus II., Duke of Poland, 1138-1146.
Uladislaus III., Duke of Poland, 1296-1333.
Uladislaus IV. (Jagellon), King of Bohemia, 1471-1516;
V. of Hungary, 1490-1516.
Uladislaus V. (Jagellon), King of Poland
and Duke of Lithuania, 1385-1434.
Uladislaus VI., King of Poland, 1434-1444.
Uladislaus VII., King of Poland, 1632-1648.
ULCA, Battle of the (A. D. 488).
See Rom:: A. D. 488-526.
ULEMA.
See SUBLIME PORTE.
----------ULM: Start--------
ULM: A. D. 1620.
Treaty of the Evangelical Union with the Catholic League.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1618-1620.
ULM: A. D. 1702-1704.
Taken by the Bavarians and French,
and recovered by Marlborough.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1702; and 1704.
ULM: A. D. 1805.
Mack's capitulation.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1805 (MARCH-DECEMBER).
----------ULM: End--------
ULMENES.
See CHILE: THE ARAUCANIANS.
ULSTER, The Plantation of.
See IRELAND: A. D. 1607-1611.
ULSTER TENANT-RIGHT.
See IRELAND: A. D. 1848-1852.
ULTIMA THULE.
See THULE.
ULTRA VIRES.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1846.
ULTRAMONTANE.
ULTRAMONTANISM.
The term ultramontane (beyond the mountain) has been used for
so long a time in France and Germany to indicate the extreme
doctrines of Papal supremacy maintained beyond the Alps—that
is, in Italy, and especially at Rome—that it has come to have
no other meaning. The ultramontanists in each country are
those who make themselves partisans of these doctrines, in
opposition to the more independent division of the Roman
Catholic Church.
UMBRIANS, The.
"The Umbrians at one time possessed dominion over great part
of central Italy. Inscriptions in their language also remain,
and manifestly show that they spoke a tongue not alien to the
Latin. The irruption of the Sabellian and of the Etruscan
nations was probably the cause which broke the power of the
Umbrians, and drove them back to a scanty territory between
the Æsis, the Rubicon, and the Tiber."
_H. G. Liddell,
History of Rome,
introduction, section 2._
See, also, ITALY: ANCIENT.
UNALACHTIGOS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: DELAWARES, and ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.
UNAMIS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: DELAWARES, and ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.
UNCIA, The.
See As;
also, FOOT, THE ROMAN.
UNCTION.
See CORONATION.
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD.
See SLAVERY, NEGRO: A. D, 1840-1860.
UNELLI, The.
The Unelli were one of the Armorican tribes of ancient Gaul.
Their country was "the Cotantin of the ante-revolutionary
period, the present department of Manche."
_G. Long,
Decline of the Roman Republic,
volume 4, chapter 6._
UNIFORMITY, Acts of.
Two Acts of Uniformity were passed by the English Parliament
in the reign of Edward VI. (1548 and 1552), both of which were
repealed under Mary. In 1559, the second year of Elizabeth, a
more thorough-going law of the same nature was enacted, by the
provisions of which, "
(1) the revised Book of Common Prayer as established by Edward
VI. in 1552, was, with a few alterations and additions,
revised and confirmed.
(2) Any parson, vicar, or other minister, whether beneficed or
not, wilfully using any but the established liturgy, was to
suffer, for the first offence, six months' imprisonment, and,
if beneficed, forfeit the profits of his benefice for a year;
for the second offence, a year's imprisonment; for the third,
imprisonment for life.
(3) All persons absenting themselves, without lawful
or reasonable excuse, from the service at their parish church
on Sundays and holydays, were to be punished by ecclesiastical
censures and a fine of one shilling for the use of the poor."
_T. P. Taswell-Langmead,
English Constitutional History,
chapter 12._
See, also, ENGLAND: A. D. 1559.
In 1662 soon after the Restoration, another Act of Uniformity
was passed, the immediate effect of which was to eject about
2,000 ministers from the established Church.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1662-1665.
UNIGENITUS, The Bull.
See PORT ROYAL, AND THE JANSENISTS: A. D.1702-1715.
UNION, The German Protestant (17th Century).
See GERMANY: A. D. 1608-1618.
UNION JACK.
The national flag of Great Britain and Ireland, uniting the
red cross of St. George and the diagonal crosses of St. Andrew
and St. Patrick, on a blue ground.
{3164}
UNION LEAGUE, The.
A secret political society formed in the United States soon
after the outbreak of the American Civil War, having for its
object a closer and more effective organization of the
supporters of the national government. It was very large in
numbers for a time, but declined as the need of such an
organization disappeared.
UNION OF BRUSSELS.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1577-1581.
UNION OF CALMAR, The.
See SCANDINAVIAN STATES: A. D. 1018-1397; and 1397-1527.
UNION OF HEILBRONN, The.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1632-1634.
UNION OF UTRECHT, The.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1577-1581.
UNITARIANISM.
"In its restricted sense Unitarianism means belief in the
personal unity of God instead of in a community of divine
persons. … Among the articles of Unitarian faith so
understood, besides the doctrine of one supreme divine person,
may be enumerated belief in human nature, in moral freedom, in
human reason, in character as of more worth than ritual or
creed, in the equal justice not to say mercy of God, in the
unreality of a devil, not to say of evil, and in the ultimate
salvation, or evolution into something better, of all souls.
Without being in any sense the first article of the faith,
either in the historical order as having been the
starting-point, or in the logical order as underlying the
whole system, or in the order of importance as being with us
the doctrine of doctrines, it has happened in spite of a
thousand protests that belief in God's personal unity has
given its name to the entire confession. The movement first
called Socinian, then Arminian, and finally Unitarian, began
as a protest of the 'natural man' against two particularly
hateful doctrines of Calvinism, that of total depravity and
that of predestination."
_S. C. Beach,
Unitarianism and the Reformation
(Unitarianism: its Origin and History)._
"The establishment of distinct Unitarian churches in England
dates back to 1774, when Theophilus Lindsey left the Church of
England and went up to London to start the first avowedly
Unitarian place of worship in the country. But that was not
the beginning of Unitarianism. Centuries before this,
Unitarianism began in England as an individual opinion, had
first its martyr-age, then a period when it was a great
ferment of controversy, and finally the distinct development
of it which stands today in our English Unitarian body. The
names of some of the Unitarian martyrs on the continent of
Europe are comparatively well known,—Servetus, burned by
Calvin; Valentine Gentilis the Italian; and other isolated
students here and there, who had been stirred up by the
Reformation spirit to read the Bible for themselves, and who
could not stop where Luther and Calvin stopped. … What is
called the 'era of toleration' began immediately after the
overthrow of the Stuarts in 1688. The sects were now at
liberty to go quietly on in their own way. On the one hand
there was the great established Episcopal Church,—at a pretty
low ebb in religious life, for its most earnest life had gone
out of it on that 'black Bartholomew's Day, 1662,' when the
two thousand Puritan clergy were ejected.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1662-1665.
On the other hand were these Puritans,—'Dissenters' they began
now to be called,—divided into three great sects, Baptists,
Independents, and English Presbyterians. Now, these were all
free. They could build churches, and they did. From 1693 to
1720 was the great 'chapel'-building time. … But now, in this
great development of chapel-building by these three
denominations, a curious thing took place, which unexpectedly
affected their after history. That curious thing was, that
while the Baptists and Independents (or Congregationalists)
tied down all these new chapels to perpetual orthodox uses by
rigid doctrinal trust-deeds, … the English Presbyterians left
theirs free. It seems strange that they should do so; for the
Presbyterians had begun by being the narrowest sect of the
Puritans, and the Scotch Presbyterians always remained so. But
the English Presbyterians had very little to do with the
Scotch ones, and through all the changes and sufferings they
had had to go through they had become broadened; and so it
carne to pass that now, when they were building their churches
or chapels up and down the country, they left them free. … The
English Presbyterians, thus left free, began to grow more
liberal. … A general reverence for Christ took the place of
the old distinct belief in his deity. … They opened the
communion to all; they no longer insisted on the old
professions of 'church-membership,' but counted all who
worshipped with them 'the church.' Thus things were going on
all through the middle of the last century. Of course it was
not the same everywhere; some still held the old views. … One
man among them, … Dr. Joseph Priestley, … was one of the
leading scientists of his time,—a restless investigator, and
at the same time an earnest religious thinker and student,
just as eager to make out the truth about religion as to
investigate the properties of oxygen or electricity. So he
investigated Christianity, studied the creeds of the churches,
came to the conclusion that they were a long way from the
Christianity of Christ, and gradually came to be a
thoroughgoing Unitarian. When he came to this conclusion he
did not hide it; he proclaimed it and preached it. … The
upshot of it was, that at length he aroused a large part of
the body to the consciousness that they were really
Unitarians. They still did not take the name; they disliked
sect-names altogether. … And so, though they mostly continued
to call themselves English Presbyterians, or simply
Presbyterians, all the world began to call them Unitarians;
and more and more the Baptists and Independents, or
Congregationalists, who had formerly fellowshipped and worked
with them, drew apart, and left them, as they are to-day, in
the reluctant isolation of a separate Unitarian body. Two
other movements of thought of a somewhat similar kind
increased and strengthened this development of a separate
Unitarian body,—one among the General Baptists, the other in
the great Episcopal Church itself."
_B. Herford,
Unitarianism in England
(Unitarianism: its Origin and History)._
{3165}
"It is hard to trace the early history of Unitarianism in New
England. The name was seldom used, yet not omitted with any
view to concealment; for we have abundant proof that the
ministers to whom it belonged preached what they believed
clearly and fully. … But a marvellous change had taken place
in the last century, at the beginning of which the denial of
the Trinity would have seemed no better than blasphemy; while
at its close nearly all the clergy of Boston and its vicinity
and many others in Massachusetts were known to dissent from
the ancestral creed, to have ceased to use Trinitarian
doxologies, and to preach what was then known as Arianism,
regarding Jesus Christ as the greatest and oldest of created
beings, but in no proper sense as God. At the same time, so
little stress was laid on the Trinity by its professed
believers that, with two or three exceptions, these Arians
remained in full church fellowship with those of the orthodox
faith. In the territory now within the limits of Boston there
were, a century ago, but two professedly Trinitarian
ministers, one of them being Dr. Thacher, of the liberal
Brattle Square Church, while Dr. Eckley, of the Old South
Church, was known to entertain doubts as to the deity of
Christ."
_A. P. Peabody,
Early New England Unitarians
(Unitarianism: its Origin and History)._
UNITED BRETHREN (Unitas Fratrum).
See BOHEMIA: A. D. 1434-1457, and 1621-1648;
also MORAVIAN OR BOHEMIAN BRETHREN.
UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS.
See TORIES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
UNITED IRISHMEN, The Society of.
See IRELAND: A. D. 1793-1798.
UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN, Formation of the.
See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1707.
UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, Creation of the.
See IRELAND: A. D. 1798-1800.
UNITED NETHERLANDS,
or United Provinces, or United States of the Netherlands.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1577-1581, 1581-1584,
1584-1585, and after.
UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, The.
See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1843.
----------UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Start--------
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1492-1620.
Discovery and exploration of the Atlantic coast.
See AMERICA.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1607-1752.
First settlement and organization of the
thirteen original English colonies.
The earliest attempts at European settlement (as distinct from
exploration) within the present limits of the United States
were made by French Huguenots, under the patronage of Admiral
Coligny; first at Port Royal, on Beaufort River, Florida,
where Jean Ribaut, in 1562, placed a few colonists who soon
abandoned the spot, and, two years later, at Fort Caroline, on
St. John's River, in the same peninsula. The second colony,
commanded by René de Laudonnière, was considerable in numbers
but unpromising in character, and not likely to gain a footing
in the country, even if it had been left in peace. It was
tragically extinguished, however, by the Spaniards in
September, 1565. The Spaniards had then established themselves
in a fortified settlement at St. Augustine. It was surprised
and destroyed in 1567 by an avenging Huguenot, but was
promptly restored, and has survived to the present day,—the
oldest city in the United States. (See FLORIDA.)—The first
undertakings at colonization from England were inspired and
led by Sir Walter Raleigh. After unsuccessful attempts, in
conjunction with his elder half-brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert,
to establish settlements in Newfoundland, Raleigh obtained a
grant from Queen Elizabeth, in 1584, under which he planted a
colony of 108 settlers, commanded by Ralph Lane, on Roanoke
Island, within the boundaries of the present State of North
Carolina. In honor of the virgin queen of England, the name
Virginia was given to the region at large. Lane's colonists
had expected to find gold, silver and pearls, and lost
interest in the country when none could be discovered. In
June, 1586, they persuaded Sir Francis Drake, who had touched
at Roanoke with his fleet, to carry them home. Soon
afterwards, several ships, sent out by Raleigh with
reinforcements and supplies, arrived at the island, to find it
deserted. They left fifteen men to hold the ground; but a year
passed before another expedition reached the place. The fort
was then found in ruins; the fifteen men had disappeared, and
nothing of their fate could be learned. The new colony
perished in the same way—its fate an impenetrable secret of
the savage land. This was Raleigh's last venture in
colonization. His means were exhausted; England was absorbed
in watching and preparing for the Spanish Armada; the time had
not come to "plant an English nation in America." Sir Walter
assigned his rights and interests in Virginia to a company of
merchant adventurers, which accomplished nothing permanently.
Twenty years passed before another vigorous effort of English
colonization was made. In 1606 King James issued a royal
charter to a company singularly formed in two branches or
divisions, one having its headquarters at London, and known as
the London Company, the other established at Plymouth and
known as the Plymouth Company. Between them they were given
authority to occupy territory in America from the 34th to the
45th degree of latitude; but the two grants overlapped in the
middle, with the intention of giving the greater domain to the
company which secured it by the earliest actual occupation.
The London Company, holding the southward grant, despatched to
Virginia a company of 105 emigrants, who established at
Jamestown, on the northerly bank of James River (May 13,
1607), the first permanent English settlement in America, and
founded there the colony and the subsequent State of Virginia.
The colony survived many hardships and trials, owing its
existence largely to the energy and courage of the famous
Captain John Smith, who was one of its chief men from the
beginning. Its prosperity was secured after a few years by the
systematic cultivation of tobacco, for which the demand in
England grew fast. In 1619, negro slavery was introduced; and
by that time the white inhabitants of Virginia had increased
to nearly 4,000 in number, divided between eleven settlements.
See VIRGINIA.
{3166}
Meantime, the Plymouth Company had done nothing effectively in
the northward region assigned to it. Bartholomew Gosnold, in
1602, had examined the coast from Maine to Cape Cod, and built
a lonely house on the island of Cuttyhunk; Martin Pring, in 1603,
had loaded two ships with sassafras in Massachusetts Bay; a
colony named in honor of the chief justice of England, Sir
John Popham, had shivered through the winter of 1607-8 near
the mouth of Kennebec River and then gone home; Captain John
Smith, in 1614, had made a voyage to the country, in the
interest of London merchants, and had named it New England;
but no lasting English settlement had been made anywhere
within the bounds of King James' grant to the Plymouth
Company, at the waning of the year 1620, when Virginia was
well grown. It was then by chance, rather than by design, that
the small ship Mayflower landed a little company of religious
exiles on the Massachusetts coast, at Plymouth (December 21,
1620), instead of bearing them farther south. Driven from
England into Holland by persecutions, twelve years before,
this congregation of Independents, or Separatists, now sought
liberty of conscience in the New World. They came with a
patent from the London, or South Virginia Company, and
expected to plant their settlement within that company's
territorial bounds. But circumstances which seemed adverse at
the time bent their course to the New England shore, and they
accepted it for a home, not doubting that the proprietors of
the land, who desired colonists, would permit them to stay.
The next year they received a patent from the Council for New
England, which had succeeded to the rights of the Plymouth
Company. Of the hardships which these Pilgrim Fathers endured
in the first years of their Plymouth Plantation, who does not
know the story! Of the courage, the constancy and the prudence
with which they overcame their difficulties, who has not
admired the spectacle! For eight years they remained the only
successful colony in New England. Then came the memorable
movement of Puritans out of Old England into New England,
beginning with the little settlement at Salem, under John
Endicott; expanding next year into the "Governor and Company
of Massachusetts Bay"; founding Dorchester, Roxbury,
Charlestown, Watertown, and Boston, in 1630, and rapidly
possessing and putting the stamp of the stern, strong Puritan
character on the whole section of America which it planted
with towns. In the Puritan colony of Massachusetts Bay a
cleavage soon occurred, on lines between democratic and
aristocratic or theocratic opinion, and democratic seceders
pushed southwestwards into the Connecticut Valley, where Dutch
and English were disputing possession of the country. There
they settled the question decisively, in 1635 and 1636, by
founding the towns of Hartford, Windsor, Wethersfield and
Springfield. Three years later the three towns first named
confederated themselves in a little republic, with a frame of
government which is the first known written constitution, and
so gave birth to the future State of Connecticut. In 1638 New
Haven was founded by a company of wealthy nonconformists from
England, under the lead of their minister, John Davenport, and
was a distinct colony until 1662, when it was annexed to
Connecticut by a royal charter. Another State, the smallest of
the New England commonwealths, was taking form at this same
time, in a little wedge of territory on Narragansett Bay,
between Connecticut and Massachusetts. Roger Williams, the
great apostle of a tolerant Christianity, driven from Salem by
the intolerant Puritanism of the Bay, went forth with a few
followers into the wilderness, bought land from the
Narragansett Indians, and laid the foundations (1636) of the
town of Providence. In that same year another small company of
people, banished from Boston for receiving the teachings of
Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, bought the island of Aquidneck or
Aquetnet from the Indians and settled at its northern end.
This community was soon divided, and part of it removed to the
southern end of the island, beginning a settlement which grew
to be the town of Newport. The island as a whole received the
name of the Isle of Rhodes, or Rhode Island; and in 1644 its
two settlements were united with Providence, under a charter
procured in England by Roger Williams, forming the colony of
Providence Plantations. In 1643 the colonies of Massachusetts,
Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven, entered into a
confederation, from which Rhode Island was excluded, calling
themselves "The United Colonies of New England." The object of
the confederation was common action in defence against the
Indians and the Dutch on the Hudson. It was the beginning of
the cementing of New England. Before this time, small
settlements had been planted here and there in northern New
England, within territory covered by grants made to Sir
Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason. The province claimed
by Gorges was subsequently called Maine, and that of Mason,
New Hampshire; but Maine never rose to an independent colonial
existence. After years of dispute and litigation, between
1651, and 1677, the jurisdiction of Massachusetts was extended
over the province, and it remained the "District of Maine"
until 1820, when Massachusetts yielded the separation which
made it a sovereign state in the American Union. The New
Hampshire settlements were also annexed to Massachusetts, in
1641, after Captain Mason's death; were separated in 1679, to
be organized as a royal province; were temporarily reclaimed
without royal authority in 1685; but finally parted from
Massachusetts in 1692, from which time until the Revolution
they remained a distinct colony.
See NEW ENGLAND;
also MASSACHUSETTS, CONNECTICUT, RHODE ISLAND,
NEW HAMPSHIRE, and MAINE.
While the English were thus colonizing New England at the
north and Virginia at the south, the Dutch, not recognizing
their claims to the country between, had taken possession of
the important valley of the Hudson River and the region around
its mouth, and had named the country "New Netherland." The
river had been discovered in 1609 by Henry Hudson, an English
sailor, but exploring in the service of the Dutch. Trading
with the Indians for furs was begun the next year; the coast
and the rivers of the region were actively explored; a New
Netherland Company was chartered; a trading-house, called Fort
Nassau, was built on the Hudson as far to the north, or nearly
so, as Albany; but no real colonization was undertaken until
1623. The New Netherland Company had then been superseded by
the Dutch West India Company, with rights and powers extending
to Africa as well as the West Indies and the North American
coasts. It bought Manhattan Island and large tracts of land
from the Indians, but had little success for several years in
settling them. In 1629 it introduced a strange experiment,
creating a kind of feudal system in the New World, by
conveying great estates to individuals, called Patroons, or
Patrons, who would undertake to colonize them, and who
received with their territorial grant much of the powers and
many of the characteristics of a feudal lord.
{3167}
Several Patroon colonies were established on a baronial scale;
but, generally, the system did not produce satisfactory
results, and in 1640 the Company tried the better experiment
of making the trade of New Netherland free to all comers,
offering small independent grants of land to settlers, and
limiting the Patroons in their appropriation of territory. The
Company government, however, as administered by the directors
or governors whom it sent out, was too arbitrary to permit a
colonial growth at all comparable with that of New England.
Collisions with the English in Connecticut arose, over
questions of boundary, but the latter held their ground.
Southward, on the Delaware, the Swedes made a settlement where
the city of Wilmington now stands, and refused to be warned
off by the Dutch, who claimed the region. This Swedish colony
prospered and enlarged itself during sixteen years, but was
overcome by Director Stuyvesant of New Netherland in 1654. A
little later than the appearance of the Swedes on the
Delaware, certain colonists from New Haven bought lands from
the Indians on both banks of the Delaware and made attempts at
settlement, in what is now New Jersey and on the site of the
future city of Philadelphia. The Dutch and Swedes combined
against them and they failed. In 1664 the whole situation in
this middle region was changed by the English conquest of New
Netherland. The territory so acquired—or regained, if the
original English claim had been good—passed then, by royal
grant, to the Duke of York (afterwards King James II.), and
became the proprietary province of New York.
See NEW YORK.
The Duke of York, in turn, the same year, transferred to Lord
John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret the part of his domain
which lay between the Hudson and the Delaware, and it received
the name of New Cæsarea, or New Jersey. Under encouragement
from Berkeley and Carteret the New Haven colonization was
resumed. Ten years later Berkeley sold his rights to a party
of Quakers who were seeking a refuge for their persecuted sect
in the New World. A division of the province was made and the
Quaker proprietors received West Jersey, while East Jersey
remained to Carteret.
See NEW JERSEY.
Before this time, William Penn had become the principal owner
of the West Jersey interest. Not long afterwards (1681), by
surrendering a claim which his father held against the British
government, Penn procured from King Charles II. a much greater
proprietary domain, on the western side of the Delaware, being
no less than the vast tract, 40,000 square miles in extent,
which received the name of Pennsylvania. To his title from the
king he added a deed of purchase from the Indians. Penn's
scheme of colonization was very liberally framed, and it was
conducted with marked success. Philadelphia, first laid out in
1683, had 2,000 inhabitants in 1685, and Pennsylvania at large
had 8,000. Penn himself did not find peace or happiness in his
position as a princely proprietor; but he founded a great and
prosperous commonwealth on noble lines.
See PENNSYLVANIA.
In order to possess one bank of the Delaware River and Bay to
the sea, William Penn, after securing his grant from the king,
bought additionally from the Duke of York the claims of the
latter to that strip of territory which the Swedes had settled
on and struggled for with the Dutch, and which took an
independent political form in later days as the State of
Delaware. The Delaware "territories," as they were called,
never accepted their dependent relationship to Pennsylvania,
and as early as 1702 it was found necessary to concede them a
separate legislature, though they continued under Penn's
proprietary government.
See DELAWARE.
Adjoining Penn's province on the south was the domain of
another great proprietor, Lord Baltimore, whose title deed,
from the same royal source as that of Penn, but prior in time
by half a century, gave rise to conflicts which troubled the
whole life of the peaceful Friend. The first Lord Baltimore
(George Calvert) received from James I. in 1632 a patent which
gave him territory on the northerly side of the Potomac River,
stretching to the Delaware Bay and River and to the 40th
parallel of north latitude. By its terms it did undoubtedly
take in Delaware and part of Pennsylvania; but the intervening
occupation by the Swedes and Dutch, the English conquest, and
the royal grant to the Duke of York, confused the title. The
controversy was not settled until 1761-7, when "Mason and
Dixon's line" was run as the accepted boundary between
Maryland and Pennsylvania. The lords proprietary of Maryland
had been in conflict long before Penn's time with their
neighbors at the south, in Virginia, and had many difficulties
to encounter and many troubles in their undertaking to found a
state. The powers they had received with their grant from the
king were the largest that royalty could concede to a subject,
and gave to their province the character of a palatine
principality. But they exercised their substantial sovereignty
with an admirable moderation. They were Catholics, and the
early settlers in Maryland were largely though not wholly of
that faith. But they introduced a policy of tolerance which
was strange at the time to every other part of the New World
except Rhode Island, and made their province free to all
religions. Numerous Puritans entered it, especially from
Virginia, where they were unwelcome; and these, it can hardly
be denied, made ill returns for the tolerant hospitality they
received. During the time of the Civil War, the Commonwealth
and the Protectorate in England, the Maryland Puritans were
hostile, not only to the proprietary government, but to its
tolerant principles, and used the ascendancy which they
frequently gained in a spirit that does not compare favorably
with that of their adversaries. Subsequently the ascendancy of
the Puritans gave way to that of the Anglican Church, without
restoring the toleration which Catholicism in power had
established—a rare instance in history—and which Protestantism
in power had suppressed.
See MARYLAND.
Beyond the Virginia plantations, in the South, the coasts to
which Raleigh had sent his first colonists, and to which the
virgin queen had intended to give her name, waited long for
settlement. The first durable colony within that territory
which took its name in time from a less worthy sovereign was
planted in 1653, at Albemarle, on the Chowan River, by a small
company of dissenters from Virginia.
{3168}
In 1665 a considerable party of emigrants from the Barbadoes,
headed by a wealthy planter of that island, Sir John Yeamans,
established themselves on Cape Fear River, near its mouth, in
the district which was afterwards called Clarendon. Two years
before this time, in 1663, King Charles II. had discharged
some part of his heavy obligations to his loyal supporters by
granting that whole section of the American continent which
lies between the 31st and 36th parallels of latitude to a
company of courtiers, including Clarendon, Monk, Shaftesbury,
and others, and the province was named Carolina. It was
divided into two great counties, Albemarle and Clarendon, and
these corresponded somewhat nearly to the North Carolina and
South Carolina of the present day. In 1670 the lords
proprietors sent out a colony under William Sayle, which
settled first at Port Royal; but Sayle died soon after
landing, and the colonists were induced to migrate northwards
to the Ashley River, where Sir John Yeamans met them with a
considerable part of his Clarendon colony, and became the head
of the united settlements. There they founded "Old
Charleston," and, after a few years, shifting the site to the
confluence of the Ashley and the Cooper, they began the
building of the present city of Charleston. This became the
nucleus of the subsequently distinct colony of South Carolina,
as Albemarle did of that of North Carolina. The division was
made in 1729, when the rights of the Proprietors were bought
by the Crown, and the Carolinas became crown colonies. Until
that time, the southern colony had made far greater progress
than its northern twin. It had received a considerable
immigration of Huguenots from France and of Scotch-Irish from
the north of Ireland, as well as of English, and Charleston
was becoming an important port, especially frequented by
buccaneers. But after the displacement of the proprietary
government, North Carolina began quickly to receive more than
its share of the Scotch-Irish immigration and no small number
of Highland Scotch. The colony was developed almost wholly in
the agricultural direction, with few and small towns. Slavery
was introduced at an early day, and rooted itself in the
industrial system, as it did in that of all the southern
settlements.
See NORTH CAROLINA and SOUTH CAROLINA.
The last of the "Thirteen Colonies" to come into existence was
the colony of Georgia, founded so late as 1733 by General
James Oglethorpe. It occupied territory too close in
neighborhood to the Spaniards of Florida to be attractive to
settlers in the 17th century. Its colonization was undertaken
by General Oglethorpe primarily as a philanthropic enterprise
for the benefit of unfortunate English debtors, who were
released from prison and permitted to emigrate under his care;
but secondarily to strengthen the defence of the English
colonies against the Spaniards. He obtained his grant from
George II. "in trust for the poor," and the colony was
governed by trustees until 1752, when it was surrendered to
the crown. The first emigrants left England in the fall of
1732, and early in the next year Savannah was laid out by
Oglethorpe in person. His scheme of colonization proved highly
attractive, not only in England but on the continent, and
numbers of Protestant Germans came over to become part of the
original population of Georgia. At the outset, slavery was
strictly prohibited; but the settlers thought themselves
grievously oppressed by the denial of slaves, and their
discontent became so great that in 1749 the trustees rescinded
the prohibition.
See GEORGIA.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1620-1776.
Constitutional relations of the colonies to the English Crown
and Parliament.
The working of the leaven of independence
in New England Puritanism.
The history of the development of the question between England
and her colonies, as to their constitutional relations to one
another, "falls naturally into two periods: first, from the
beginning of English colonization in America to the Revolution
of 1688; second, from 1688 to the Declaration of Independence.
… Passing now to the history of the first period, it is to be
observed that the leading institution in the English
government at that time was the King in Council. … But in the
17th century, owing to a combination of very strong political
and religious forces, the struggle between the King in
Parliament and the King in Council was … opened and pushed
with vigor. It continued with alternations of success, but on
the whole with results favorable to Parliament, till 1688.
Then the King in Parliament finally gained the ascendancy, and
this result was so secured by statute as never afterwards to
be seriously called in question. The supremacy of Parliament
was established by a series of royal concessions. The
parliamentary party viewed these as compromises between
Parliament and king. This gave color to the theory of social
contract, which was now given new impulse and form by the
parliamentarian writers of the 16th and 17th centuries. … It
naturally follows from what has been said that the
administration of colonial affairs previous to 1688 was in the
hands of the King in Council. Such was the fact. The
enterprises of discovery were fitted out under the patronage
of the crown; the territories discovered or visited were taken
possession of in its name; and grants of land, of rights of
government and trade, were made to actual settlers by the
kings. Every colonial charter is a proof of this. As the king
was by the theory of English law feudal proprietor of England,
so he became proprietor of colonial territory, though that
territory was granted out in socage, one of the freest forms
of English tenure. Certain superficial distinctions were
introduced in the form of colonial governments, as royal,
proprietary, and charter; but they all emanated from the
crown. Its supremacy extended around and beneath them all. The
fact that they were established by grant is proof of this,
even though there had been no subsequent acts to enforce the
control. They were colonies of the English crown; their
inhabitants were its subjects. The true doctrine of
sovereignty and allegiance necessitates this conclusion. …
Parliament passed few statutes affecting the colonies. Yet,
not to mention others, there were five such of very great
importance which fall within this period: the Act of Supremacy
(I Eliz. cap. I), and the four Navigation acts. In all these
the colonies were expressly mentioned. But the relative
position of crown and Parliament is illustrated by the fact
that when in 1624 the Council was proceeding to annul the
third Virginia charter, the House tried to interfere but was
warned off—because the business concerned only the king and
his advisers.
{3169}
Moreover there was no lack of precedents for the extension not
only of common law but of royal ordinances and statute law
outside of the original realm of England. … Such in outline
was the status of English colonial law previous to 1688. It
was in the process of formation and adaptation to the new
empire. There were ample precedents for the exercise of the
rights of British sovereignty in America, but those rights had
not yet been called into the fullest operation. Their
legitimacy however was in general fully acknowledged by the
colonists. They had been allowed great liberty in establishing
their governments, erecting courts, levying taxes, organizing
and calling out their militia for defence against the Indians.
Colonial society had been allowed to develop freely in all
lines and the product was far different from anything which
existed in the mother country. It was democratic rather than
aristocratic; it was also extremely particularistic, and too
remote from England to feel much interest in the general
concerns of the empire. In this divergence of social
organization and interests, as between the colonies and the
mother country, lay the germ which might develop into
resistance on the part of the plantations, if at any time
England should attempt to enforce her rightful supremacy over
them. But as yet there was too little of the spirit of union
among the colonists to make possible any combined action. Also
those dynasties whose government had been most arbitrary in
England, the Tudors and Stuarts, had, till the reign of James
II, treated the colonies with great leniency. But the
statements just made do not cover the whole ground. They
describe the attitude of the colonies in general toward the
mother country, but they do not describe the special
conditions which prevailed in New England. If we wish to know
how the theory of colonial independence originated, we must
look in that direction. The American revolution cannot be
explained without reference to the political character and
tendencies of Puritanism. … Puritanism then was a political as
well as a religious movement. On the one hand its doctrines
contained a strong democratic leaven; on the other they
contained principles which might lead to the separation of
church and state. How the former tendency worked itself out in
New England is familiar; how the latter failed of
accomplishment there is equally well known. The Puritans of
Massachusetts were not opposed to the union of church and
state or to the employment of the secular power to enforce
religious conformity. … What they were opposed to was every
other form of state church except their own. … In order to
maintain her peculiar system, Massachusetts had to be on her
guard against all interference from outside. … The
Massachusetts charter was brought over to this country. A few
years later the Plymouth company was dissolved, and
representation of the colony in England, except by such agents
as she might send, ceased. The terms of the charter were very
liberal; but like all the others it was a royal grant, and
expressly stated that the inhabitants of the colony were to be
subjects of England and were to enjoy all the liberties and
immunities of such, as if they were in the realm of England.
The oaths of supremacy and allegiance were to be administered
to all who should go to the colony. The company was made a
'body corporate and politic' and was given ample powers of
government; but its laws, statutes, and ordinances were not to
be contrary to the laws of England. The admission of freemen
was left in the hands of the corporation. How did the Puritan
oligarchy make use of this charter for serving the purposes of
their government? In a word, they interpreted the expression
'body corporate and politic' to mean an independent state, and
virtually abandoned all legal connection with England except
an empty acknowledgment of allegiance. The oath of allegiance
was not administered, but instead an oath of fidelity to the
government of Massachusetts. An ecclesiastical system wholly
different from that of England was established. Only those
were admitted to political rights, made freemen, who were
members of a Congregational church. … The colony also
exercised full legislative and judicial powers, and denied the
right of appeal both practically and theoretically. The proof
of this is most direct and convincing. To illustrate: in 1646
the General Court refused to permit the appeal of Dr. Child
and others who, as Presbyterians, desired to lay before
Parliament the wrongs they suffered in Massachusetts. Not only
was the right denied, but the petitioners were prevented by
force from carrying their case to England. The same course was
pursued in reference to appeals in ordinary judicial cases.
During the discussion of the affair just mentioned it was
boldly affirmed in the General Court that subjects were bound
by English laws only so long as they lived in England; that
neither statutes nor royal ordinances were in force beyond the
seas. A little later than this both the magistrates and the
elders were called upon to give their views on the legal
relations between the colony and England. Both agreed that by
their charter they 'had absolute power of government'; that
their government was perfect and sufficient in all its parts,
not needing the help of any superior to make it complete. They
acknowledged that they had received the charter from England,
and 'depended upon that state for protection and immunities as
freeborn Englishmen'; but the duties which were correlative to
those immunities, and which are necessary to a true conception
of allegiance, were not mentioned. This position was
consistently maintained by the Puritans of Massachusetts as
long as they remained in power. In their correspondence with
the home government and its officials between 1664 and 1684
the right of appeal was always denied. Its exercise was never
allowed. If we add to this the further statements that
Massachusetts coined money; strove to enlarge the bounds of
her patent, not only without consulting the king, but in
defiance of his absolute prohibition; taxed English imports;
and, without the consent of the home government, entered the
New England confederation, some notion can be formed of the
degree of independence claimed and exercised by that colony.
The exercise of this independence however did not make it
legal. It only illustrates the fact that the roots of the
American revolution extend back into the times of which we are
speaking. … It was to be expected that England would interfere
to bring Massachusetts within the bounds of constitutional
dependence. Complaints against the colony, on the part of
Gorges and of those who had been banished by the Puritans,
began very early.
{3170}
These led to 'quo warranto' proceedings for the recall of the
charter in 1635. But civil strife at home compelled the
government of Charles I to abandon the project. Then came the
period of the Commonwealth, when the views of the English
government were so fully in harmony with those of the New
England leaders that the practical independence of the colony
was ignored. … From the restoration dates the beginning of a
more comprehensive colonial policy." With the fall of the
Massachusetts charter, in 1684, "closes the first stage in the
development of the idea of colonial independence. The struggle
between the Puritans of Massachusetts and the crown is the
most significant fact in American history previous to 1760.
The Puritans were defeated; the authority of England was
reasserted. … But for our purpose the important result is that
the Puritans left behind them an armory full of precedents and
arguments in favor of colonial independence. They had
constructed the American theory on that subject. That was the
chief permanent result of their experiment. They had from
first to last adhered to the theory which expediency taught
them to adopt. They taught the colonists how to resist the
exercise of the ecclesiastical and judicial supremacy of the
crown. If now at any time in the future the Americans should
consider themselves aggrieved by the acts of the English
government, the Puritan spirit and theory would be likely to
appear. Such was the aspect of affairs at the close of the
first period of colonial history. After the revolution of
1688, Parliament assumes more and more the control of American
concerns. Statutes on those subjects multiply. The
administration of the colonies becomes a branch of the
ministerial government of Great Britain. The development of an
imperial as distinguished from an insular policy is begun. The
interference of England in colonial affairs became more
frequent and the control asserted more extensive than
heretofore. … The attitude of the colonists during this period
was one of passive rather than active resistance.
Parliamentary restrictions were so far evaded as not to be
burdensome. … The records show that the burden of opinion in
the colonies was jealousy of all government, so far as it
operated as a restraint. The interference of government,
whether colonial or imperial, was welcomed by the colonists,
when it could be used for the advancement of their private or
local interests; when larger objects were aimed at, it was if
possible ignored or resisted. … The political condition of the
colonies was for the first time clearly revealed during the
French and Indian war. The history of Germany can furnish no
more vivid spectacle of the evils of particularism than does
that struggle. … The condition of anarchy and helplessness
revealed by the war was such as to convince all the servants
of the crown in America that active parliamentary interference
was necessary, if the colonies were to be defended and
retained as an integral part of the British empire. The fact
that the British government, within a reasonable time after
the close of the war, proceeded to put this suggestion into
execution, implies nothing arbitrary or unreasonable. It had
the undoubted constitutional right to do so; and so far as
could be seen at the time, expediency prompted in the same
direction. But during the century since the Puritan oligarchy
of Massachusetts yielded to the supremacy of the crown, the
theory of social contract had been fully developed. It had
formulated the needs of the opposition in all the European
countries to the system of absolutism. It was the theory of
government very generally held by the Puritans in both England
and America. … This theory, as soon as it was understood,
would naturally find general acceptance in the colonies. … The
American revolution, as truly as the French, was the outgrowth
of the doctrine of natural rights and social contract. By this
I mean simply that the doctrine in question formed the
theoretical basis of both movements. So far as the American
revolution is concerned the proof of this statement is
contained in the writings of the patriot leaders at the time,
the various state papers that were issued, and the doctrine
that was held respecting the right of imperial taxation. No
man contributed so much to bringing about the revolution as
Samuel Adams; and his mind was saturated with the theory of
social contract. He made it the basis of all his reasonings. …
The reason why New England became the leader of the movement
clearly appears. The process of development through which the
colonies passed was a natural, and therefore a necessary one.
It was slow and obscure, and therefore could not be clearly
recognized at the time. But that it was nevertheless
revolutionary becomes evident when we compare the views and
aims of the colonists with the constitution of the British
empire. When the two systems came into collision the colonists
adopted a theory which was 'in the air' at the time, but one
under which no government can be successfully carried on. When
they came to erect a government of their own, they had to
abandon it. It is not claimed that the doctrine of natural
rights ever found such general acceptance in America as in
France. The character of the people and the absence of a
despotic government prevented that. But that the American
revolution cannot be explained without assigning it a
prominent place is evident. It is not intended to convey the
impression that the colonists had no grievances. There were
causes for complaint, but they were doubtless greatly
exaggerated. A mind filled with the democratic theories of the
times, and with the loose notions concerning sovereignty and
allegiance which then prevailed, could easily imagine that
Parliament, unless resisted, would establish a despotic
government in America."
_Professor H. L. Osgood,
England and the Colonies
(Political Science Quarterly, September, 1887)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1651-1672.
The Navigation Acts and the colonies.
Spirit and objects of the English restrictive commercial system.
To the Act of Navigation, passed in 1651 (see NAVIGATION LAWS)
is due a change in the relations of the colonies to the
mother-country. "Henceforth they were regarded mainly as
feeders to its carrying-trade, as consumers of its
manufactures, as factories for the distribution of its
capital, and, in a word, as mere commercial appendages of what
was now the great commercial power. Dominion became
subordinate to trade. … Beginning … with the re-enactment of
the Navigation Act after the Restoration, we find that the new
system which is to regulate colonial trade and define the
relations of the colonies to the parent, is contained in three
Acts of Parliament.
{3171}
First, in the re-enactment itself of the Act of Navigation in
1660; secondly, in an act, passed in 1663, entitled 'an Act
for the encouragement of trade'; and, thirdly, in an act,
passed in 1672, and entitled 'an Act for the encouragement of
the Greenland and Eastland fisheries, and for the better
securing the plantation trade.' … The three acts which created
the system, were all passed in the reign of Charles II.; the
others followed rapidly, and in great numbers, for a century,
until the failure of the attempt to transform this system of
trade into one of trade and revenue, by means of what is known
as the Stamp Act. St. John's Navigation Act was reenacted in
1660, under Charles II., as the first-fruits of the
Restoration. This act forbade importation into or exportation
out of the colonies, save what came and went in English ships,
and its object was, to shut the doors of the colonies against
foreign trade. In 1663 another step was taken, and an act was
passed with the object, openly avowed in its fifth section, of
keeping the colonies in 'a firmer dependence' upon England,
and of making that kingdom the staple, or place of
distribution, not only of colonial produce, 'but also of the
commodities of other countries and places, for the supplying
of them.' To effect this, the Act of 1663 went beyond that of
1660, and exacted, that no European products or manufactures
should be imported into any colony, except what had been
actually laden and shipped in an English port, and carried
'directly thence' to the importing colony. This act forced the
colonists to get such supplies as they could not themselves
furnish in England only, and thus not only could none but
mariners of whom three fourths were English transport
merchandise to and from the colonies, but the colonists
themselves were not suffered to go anywhere but to England for
that which they could not get at home. … This position of
factor between the colonies and foreign markets was a
lucrative one. But the spirit of trade is such, that it
regards much as only a stepping-stone to more, and the next
enactment concerning colonial trade, or that of 1672, betrays
this characteristic. The existing factorage was maintained
only between the colonial and foreign trade; it had no place
in intercolonial traffic. … As this intercolonial trade
developed, it attracted the observation of the English
merchants, who at last demanded the control of it. In
compliance with this demand, an act was passed in 1672,
subjecting any enumerated commodity to a duty specified in the
statute—and thus was destroyed the freedom, and, to a great
extent, the incentive of intercolonial traffic. This act was
well entitled 'an Act for the encouragement of the Greenland
and Eastland fisheries, and for the better securing of the
plantation trade.' History is silent respecting the fisheries,
but it has been very outspoken concerning its effect on the
plantations. The effect was this: if Rhode Island wished to be
supplied by Massachusetts with one of the enumerated
commodities, and Massachusetts desired to furnish Rhode Island
with that commodity, the delivery of the goods could not be
made by the producer to the consumer, but the article would
have to be sent to England first, and landed there, and then
be sent back from England to Rhode Island before the consumer
could touch it. A line drawn from Boston, in Massachusetts, to
Bristol, in England, and thence back to Newport, in Rhode
Island, will show the course which such article must take, if
sold by Massachusetts to Rhode Island, before the demands of
English commerce were satisfied; it will in all probability
likewise show the least angle with the longest sides ever
subtended on the chart of trade. Should, however, the parties
to the transaction desire to avoid the risk and delay incident
to this phenomenal voyage, they could do so by paying the
certain rates and duties prescribed by this statute."
_E. G. Scott,
The Development of Constitutional Liberty
in the English Colonies of America,
chapter 8 (with corrections by the author)._
"Unfortunately there does not exist any history of the
commerce of the American colonies, from the Commonwealth to
1774, as affected by navigation laws, acts of trade, and
revenue measures. No one who has read the 29 acts which
comprise this legislation will recommend their perusal to
another; for, apart from their volume, the construction of
these acts is difficult,—difficult even to trained lawyers
like John Adams, whose business it was to advise clients in
respect to them. Nor have special students, like Bancroft,
stated their effect with exact precision."
_M. Chamberlain,
The Revolution Impending: Critical Essay
(Narrative and Critical History of America, volume 6),
page 64._
ALSO IN:
_G. L. Beer,
The Commercial Policy of England toward the American Colonies
(Columbia College Studies, volume 3, number 2)._
_W. B. Weeden,
Economic and Social History of New England,
chapter 7 (volume 1)._
_J. E. T. Rogers,
Economic Interpretation of History,
chapter 15._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1690.
The First American Congress.
King William's War.
"After the accession [in England, A. D. 1689] of William and
Mary, hostilities were declared between France and England,
which extended to America; and thus began the first
inter-colonial war [commonly known in American history as King
William's War]. The French soon planned an invasion of Boston
and New York. … On the 8th of February, 1690, a war-party, who
had come stealthily from Canada, entered the open gates of the
town of Schenectady, when it was snowing, and broke the
stillness of midnight with the terrible yell and whoop of the
savages. Men, women, and children, for two hours, were
mercilessly butchered. Their dwellings were burned. The whole
town was sacked. … The intelligence flew through the colonies.
… Schenectady was the Fort Sumter of that day. The event had a
political effect. It shamed the factions in New York at least
into a truce. It roused a spirit of patriotism. The governor
of Massachusetts urged, in letters to other colonies, the
necessity for immediate action to provide for the common
defence. … The General Court [of Massachusetts], in view of
organizing a joint effort of the colonies, proposed to hold a
congress. The call for a meeting is dated the 19th of March,
1690. It relates, that their majesties' subjects had been
invaded by the French and Indians; that many of the colonists
had been barbarously murdered, and were in danger of greater
mischiefs; and it proposed, as a measure of prevention, that
the neighboring colonies, and Virginia, Maryland, and the
parts adjacent, should be invited to meet at New York, and
conclude on suitable methods for assisting each other for the
safety of the whole land. The governor of New York was desired
to transmit this invitation to the southern colonies. Such was
the first call for a general congress in America.
{3172}
It is free from narrowness. It is liberal in its spirit,
simple in its terms, and comprehensive in its object. … The
call elicited from several colonies interesting replies.
Governor Hinckley, of Plymouth, entered with zeal into the
measure, and, though the General Court was not in session,
appointed a commissioner. The Quaker-governor of Rhode Island,
Henry Bull, replied in an excellent spirit. … Though the time
was too short to convene the assembly for the appointment of
commissioners, he promised the aid of that colony to the
utmost of its ability to resist the French and Indians. The
head of the convention of Maryland wrote, that it was the
design of the assembly to send arms and men to aid in the
general defence. … President Bacon, of Virginia, replied, that
the proposition would require the action of the assembly, and
that nothing would be done until the arrival of the daily
expected governor. The replies to the invitation were cordial.
The commissioners of four colonies [Massachusetts, Plymouth,
Connecticut, and New York] met at New York. … The
deliberations led to a unanimous result. On the 1st of May, an
agreement was signed by the delegates, in behalf of the five
colonies [including Maryland under its promise], to raise a
force of 855 men for the strengthening of Albany, and, 'by the
help of Almighty God, subduing the French and Indian enemies.'
It was agreed, that the lieutenant-governor of New York should
name the commander of this force; that it should not be
employed on any other service without the consent of the five
colonies; and that the officers should be required to preserve
among their men good order, punish vice, keep the Sabbath, and
maintain the worship of God. No proposition appears to have
been entertained for a permanent organization. … Efforts were
made to obtain additional aid from New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
and Rhode Island. … I need only state, as the result of this
congress, that it was resolved to attempt the reduction of
Canada by two lines of attack,—one to conquer Acadia, and then
to move on Quebec; and the other, by the route of Lake
Champlain, to assault Montreal. The New England forces under
Sir William Phips, assigned to the first route, captured
Acadia and Port Royal, and sailed for Quebec, in the
expectation of being aided by the other forces who marched by
the Champlain route. But they, under Fitz-John Winthrop, with
the title of major, were not successful. Leisler [see NEW
YORK: A. D. 1689-1691], with characteristic rashness, accused
the commander of treachery; while the officers charged the
commissary, Jacob Milborne, of New York, with inefficiency in
procuring supplies. The failure of Winthrop occasioned the
retreat of Phips."
_R. Frothingham,
The Rise of the Republic of the United States,
chapter 3._
ALSO IN:
_Doc. History of New York,
volume 2 (Leisler's administration)._
_Documents relating to Colonial History of New York,
volume 3._
See, also, CANADA: A. D. 1689-1690.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1696-1697.
The Board of Trade for the Supervision of the Colonies.
Plans of Colonial Union by Penn and others.
"The king attempted a more efficient method of administering
the colonies; and, in May 1696, a Board of Commissioners for
Trade and Plantations, consisting of the chancellor, the
president of the privy council, the keeper of the privy seal,
the two secretaries of state, and eight special commissioners,
was called into being. To William Blathwayte, who had drafted
the new charter of Massachusetts, John Locke, and the rest of
the commission, instructions were given by the crown 'to
inquire into the means of making the colonies most useful and
beneficial to England; into the staples and manufactures which
may be encouraged there, and the means of diverting them from
trades which May prove prejudicial to England; to examine into
and weigh the acts of the assemblies; to set down the
usefulness or mischief of them to the crown, the kingdom, or
the plantations themselves; to require an account of all the
moneys given for public uses by the assemblies of the
plantations, and how the same are employed.' The
administration of the several provinces had their unity in the
person of the king, whose duties with regard to them were
transacted through one of the secretaries of state; but the
Board of Trade was the organ of inquiries and the centre of
colonial information. Every law of a provincial legislature,
except in some of the charter governments, if it escaped the
veto of the royal governor, might be arrested by the
unfavorable opinion of the law officer of the crown, or by the
adverse report of the Board of Trade. Its rejection could come
only from the king in council. … The Board of Trade was hardly
constituted before it was summoned to plan unity in the
military efforts of the provinces; and Locke with his
associates despaired, on beholding them 'crumbled into little
governments, disunited in interests, in an ill posture and
much worse disposition to afford assistance to each other for
the future.' The Board, in 1697, 'after considering with their
utmost care,' could only recommend the appointment of 'a
captain-general of all the forces and all the militia of all
the provinces on the continent of North America, with power to
levy and command them for their defence, under such
limitations and instructions as to his majesty should seem
best.' … With excellent sagacity—for true humanity perfects
the judgment—William Penn matured a plan of a permanent
union, by a national representation of the American States. On
the 8th day of February 1697, he delivered his project for an
annual 'congress,' as he termed it, of two delegates from each
province. … But the ministry adopted neither the military
dictatorship of Locke and his associates, nor the peaceful
congress of William Penn."
_G. Bancroft,
History of the United States
(Author's last revision),
part 3, chapter 4 (volume 2)._
The following is the Plan of Union drafted by Penn: "A Briefe
and Plaine Scheam how the English Colonists in the North parts
of America, viz.: Boston, Connecticut, Road Island, New York,
New Jerseys, Pensilvania, Maryland, Virginia, and Carolina may
be made more usefull to the Crowne, and one another's peace
and safty with an universall concurrence.
1st. That the severall Colonies before mentioned do meet once
a year, and oftener if need be, during the war, and at least
once in two years in times of peace by their stated and
appointed Deputies, to debate and resolve of such measures as
are most adviseable for their better understanding, and the
public tranquility and safety.
{3173}
2d. That in order to it two persons well qualified for sence,
sobriety and substance be appointed by each Province, as their
Representatives or Deputies, which in the whole make the
Congress to consist of twenty persons.
3d. That the King's Commissioner for that purpose specially
appointed shall have the chaire and preside in the said
Congresse.
4th. That they shall meet as near as conveniently may be to
the most centrall Colony for use of the Deputies.
5th. Since that may in all probability, be New York both
because it is near the Center of the Colonies and for that it
is a Frontier and in the King's nomination, the Governor of
that Colony may therefore also be the King's High Commissioner
during the Session after the manner of Scotland.
6th. That their business shall be to hear and adjust all
matters of Complaint or difference between Province and
Province.
As,
1st, where persons quit their own Province and goe to another,
that they may avoid their just debts, tho they be able to pay
them,
2nd, where offenders fly Justice, or Justice cannot well be
had upon such offenders in the Provinces that entertaine them,
3dly, to prevent or cure injuries in point of Commerce,
4th, to consider of ways and means to support the union and
safety of these Provinces against the public enemies. In which
Congresse the Quotas of men and charges will be much easier,
and more equally sett, then it is possible for any
establishment made here to do; for the Provinces, knowing
their own condition and one another's, can debate that matter
with more freedome and satisfaction and better adjust and
ballance their affairs in all respects for their common safty.
7ly. That in times of war the King's High Commissioner shall
be generall or chief Commander of the severall Quotas upon
service against a common enemy as he shall be advised, for the
good and benefit of the whole."
_H. W. Preston,
Documents illustrative of American History,
page 146._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1696-1749.
Growing despotism of the English mercantile policy.
Systematic suppression of colonial manufactures.
"By the erection, in 1696, of a new Standing Council, or Board
of Trade, under the denomination of 'The Lords Commissioners
for Trade and Plantations,' the interests of British commerce
and the affairs of Colonial trade and government were confided
to that body, which thenceforward became the repository of all
official intelligence upon those subjects, and the medium of
communication with the several governors and assemblies of the
Colonies. Yearly reports of the state of the Provinces were
required from the governors, in answer to queries addressed to
them by the Board. An Act of Parliament of the same year still
further restricted commercial intercourse, by limiting trade
between England and her Colonies to English, Irish and
Colonial built vessels, and by prohibiting Colonial produce
from going to the ports of Ireland or Scotland. … The feeble
attempts of the Colonists to make a portion of their own
clothing from their abundant materials had not been unnoticed
in England. Three years after—the Board of Trade having
received complaints from English merchants and manufacturers,
that the wool and woolen manufactures of Ireland and the North
American plantations began to be exported to foreign markets
formerly supplied by England—an Act passed the British
Parliament, … dictated by that sleepless vigilance which
guarded the staple manufacture of England. It prohibited the
exportation of any wool or woolen manufacture from Ireland,
except to certain ports in England; but, by way of
compensation, virtually surrendered to Ireland the linen
manufacture, then little regarded in comparison with the
woolen interests. In reference to the Colonies, it was enacted
that 'After the first day of December, 1699, no wool,
woolfels, yarn, cloth, or woolen manufactures of the English
plantations in America shall be shipped in any of the said
English plantations, or otherwise loaden, in order to be
transported thence to any place whatsoever, under the penalty
of forfeiting ship and cargo, and £500 for each offence.' … A
letter from New England to the Board of Trade [in 1715] …
reiterates the necessity of employing the New England people
in producing naval stores, to turn them from manufactures. …
The discouragement of American manufactures, from this time,
became the settled and avowed policy of the government, and,
three years later, the Bill prohibiting the erection of forges
and iron mills was introduced, and declared that the erecting
of Manufactories in the Colonies 'tends to lessen their
dependence upon Great Britain.' … The company of Feltmakers,
in London, petitioned Parliament, in February, 1731, to
prohibit the exportation of hats from the American Colonies,
representing that foreign markets were almost altogether
supplied from thence, and not a few sent to Great Britain. The
petition was referred to a special committee, who reported
that, in New York and New England, beaver hats were
manufactured to the number, it was estimated, of 10,000
yearly. … The exports were to the Southern plantations, the
West Indies, and Ireland. In consequence of this evidence, and
that furnished by the Board of Trade in the same session, an
act was passed (5 George II. c. 22) that 'no hats or felts,
dyed or undyed, finished or unfinished, shall be put on board
any vessel in any place within any of the British plantations;
nor be laden upon any horse or other carriage to the intent to
be exported from thence to any other plantation, or to any
other place whatever, upon forfeiture thereof, and the
offender shall likewise pay £500 for every such offence.' …
This severe and stringent law continued in force in the
Colonies until the Revolution. It aimed at the prostration of
one of the oldest and, on account of the abundance and
cheapness of beavers and other furs, one of the most
profitable branches of industry."
_J. L. Bishop,
History of American Manufactures,
volume 1, chapter 14._
In 1749 an act of Parliament was passed "to encourage the
importation of pig and bar iron from his majesty's colonies in
America, and to prevent the erection of any mill or other
engine for slitting or rolling of iron, or any plateing forge
to work with a tilt hammer, or any furnace for making steel in
any of the said colonies." "Pig iron was allowed to be
imported free to all parts of the kingdom, so as to secure
cheap bar iron. But bar iron could not be imported at any port
but London, and carried no further than ten miles from that
city. This clause was intended to aid the owners of woods. In
order to protect the nail trade, all slitting-mills in the
colonies were ordered to be destroyed."
_J. B. Pearse,
Concise History of the Iron Manufacture
of the American Colonies,
page 121._
ALSO IN:
_W. B. Weeden,
Economic and Social History of New England,
volume 2._
G. L. Beer,
Commercial Policy of England toward the Colonies
(Col. Col. Studies, volume 3).
See, also, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1763 and 1764.
{3174}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:A. D. 1704-1729.
The first colonial newspapers.
See PRINTING AND PRESS: A. D. 1704-1729.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1748-1754.
First collisions with the French in the Ohio Valley.
"As the year 1750 approached, there came upon the colonies two
changes, destined to lead to a new political life. In the
first place, the colonies at last began to overrun the
mountain barrier which had hemmed them in on the west, and
thus to invite another and more desperate struggle with the
French. The first settlement made west of the mountains was on
a branch of the Kanawha (1748); in the same season several
adventurous Virginians hunted and made land-claims in Kentucky
and Tennessee. Before the close of the following year (1749)
there had been formed the Ohio Company, composed of wealthy
Virginians, among whom were two brothers of Washington. King
George granted them 500,000 acres, on which they were to plant
100 families and build and maintain a fort. The first attempt
to explore the region of the Ohio brought the English and the
French traders into conflict; and troops were not long in
following, on both sides.
See OHIO VALLEY: A. D. 1748-1754.
At the same time the home government was awaking to the fact
that the colonies were not under strict control. In 1750 the
Administration began to consider means of stopping unlawful
trade."
_R. G. Thwaites,
The Colonies, 1492-1750
(Epochs of American History),
chapter 14, section 130._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1749-1755.
Unsettled boundary disputes of England and France.
Preludes of the last French War.
See NOVA SCOTIA: A. D. 1749-1755;
CANADA: A. D. 1750-1753; 1755;
and OHIO (VALLEY): A. D. 1754.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1750-1753.
The eve of the great French war.
Attitude of the colonies.
"The quarrel in which the French and English now engaged was
exclusively a colonial one. The possession and defence of the
Americans had already cost, over and over again, a larger sum
than the whole produce of their trade would have produced. The
English had the mortification of observing that the colonists
claimed an the security of Englishmen against attack, and
repudiated their obligation to take a share of the burdens
which their defence occasioned. Were they attacked by the
French,—they were Englishmen, and had a right to the ægis
which that name throws over all subjects of the crown; were
they called upon for a subscription in aid of the war,—they
were men who would not submit to be taxed without their own
consent; were they taken at their word, and requested through
their own assemblies to tax themselves,—they sometimes
refused, and sometimes doled out a minute supply, taking care
to mix up with their money bill some infringement on the royal
prerogative, which rendered it impossible, except under severe
exigency of the public service, for the governor to accept the
terms offered. … The action of the colonies at this crisis was
in accordance with their invariable policy. As soon as they
perceived that the French meditated a war of aggression in
America, a chorus of complaint and apprehension came at once
from the colonists. Shirley, Governor of Massachusetts, and
Clinton, Governor of New York, had convened an assembly at
Albany during the last year of the last war, to concert
measures for uniting an the colonies for common defence;
Massachusetts and the other New England States were, of
course, anxious that the union should be carried out. They
were the barrier between the Canadas and the southern
colonies, and if any attack was made they must bear the brunt
of it. … The Congress of Albany, and especially the
Legislature of Massachusetts, advocated the erection of a line
of detached forts which might be so arranged as to overawe the
French frontier, and defend the New England colonies from
attack. … It was all in vain; every colony, with the exception
of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and South Carolina, refused to
contribute one farthing towards the expense. … Even in 1753,
when the French were actually on the Ohio, and Washington had
brought back certain intelligence of their intentions and
views, the Virginians refused supplies to Dinwiddie because
they declared themselves 'easy on account of the French.' When
at last the French had actually established themselves in
fortified posts at Niagara, at Le Bœuf, and at Venango, when
Contrecœur had driven a colonial officer out of a post which
he held on the forks of the Monongahela, when Fort du Quesne
had arisen on the ruins of an English stockade, they could no
longer close their eyes to the danger which was actually
within the boundaries of their State. They granted £10,000 of
their currency; but Dinwiddie wrote home that the bill was so
clogged with encroachments on the prerogative, that he would
not have given his assent had not the public service rendered
the supply imperatively necessary."
_Viscount Bury,
Exodus of the Western Nations,
volume 2, chapter 7._
"The attitude of these various colonies towards each other is
hardly conceivable to an American of the present time. They
had no political tie except a common allegiance to the British
Crown. Communication between them was difficult and slow, by
rough roads traced often through primeval forests. Between
some of them there was less of sympathy than of jealousy
kindled by conflicting interests or perpetual disputes
concerning boundaries. The patriotism of the colonist was
bounded by the lines of his government, except in the compact
and kindred colonies of New England, which were socially
united, though politically distinct. The country of the New
Yorker was New York, and the country of the Virginian was
Virginia. The New England colonies had once confederated; but,
kindred as they were, they had long ago dropped apart. … Nor
was it this segregation only that unfitted them for war. They
were all subject to popular legislatures, through whom alone
money and men could be raised; and these elective bodies were
sometimes factious and selfish, and not always either
far-sighted or reasonable. Moreover, they were in a state of
ceaseless friction with their governors, who represented the
king, or, what was worse, the feudal proprietary. These
disputes, though varying in intensity, were found everywhere
except in the two small colonies which chose their own
governors; and they were premonitions of the movement towards
independence which ended in the war of Revolution. The
occasion of difference mattered little. Active or latent, the
quarrel was always present. … Divided in government; divided
in origin, feelings, and principles; jealous of each other,
jealous of the Crown; the people at war with the executive,
and, by the fermentation of internal politics, blinded to an
outward danger that seemed remote and vague,—such were the
conditions under which the British colonies drifted into a war
that was to decide the fate of the continent."
_F. Parkman,
Montcalm and Wolfe,
chapter 1 (volume 1)._
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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1754.
The Congress at Albany and its Plans of Union.
Franklin's account.
"In 1754, war with France being again apprehended, a congress
of commissioners from the different colonies was, by an order
of the Lords of Trade, to be assembled at Albany, there to
confer with the chiefs of the Six Nations concerning the means
of defending both their country and ours. Governor Hamilton
[of Pennsylvania], having received this order, acquainted the
House with it, requesting they would furnish proper presents
for the Indians, to be given on this occasion; and naming the
speaker (Mr. Norris) and myself to join Mr. Thomas Penn and
Mr. Secretary Peters as commissioners to act for Pennsylvania.
(The House approved the nomination, and provided the goods for
the present, and tho' they did not much like treating out of
the provinces;) and we met the other commissioners at Albany
about the middle of June. In our way thither, I projected and
drew a plan for the union of all the colonies under one
government, so far as might be necessary for defense, and
other important general purposes. As we passed thro' New York,
I had there shown my project to Mr. James Alexander and Mr.
Kennedy, two gentlemen of great knowledge in public affairs,
and, being fortified by their approbation, I ventured to lay
it before the Congress. It then appeared that several of the
commissioners had formed plans of the same kind. A previous
question was first taken, whether a union should be
established, which passed in the affirmative unanimously. A
committee was then appointed, one member from each colony, to
consider the several plans and report. Mine happened to be
preferred, and, with a few amendments, was accordingly
reported. … The debates upon it in Congress went on daily,
hand in hand with the Indian business. Many objections and
difficulties were started, but at length they were all
overcome, and the plan was unanimously agreed to, and copies
ordered to be transmitted to the Board of Trade and to the
assemblies of the several provinces. Its fate was singular:
the assemblies did not adopt it, as they all thought there was
too much 'prerogative' in it, and in England it was judged to
have too much of the 'democratic.' The Board of Trade
therefore did not approve of it, nor recommend it for the
approbation of his majesty; but another scheme was formed,
supposed to answer the same purpose better, whereby the
governors of the provinces, with some members of their
respective councils, were to meet and order the raising of
troops, building of forts, etc., and to draw on the treasury
of Great Britain for the expense, which was afterwards to be
refunded by an act of Parliament laying a tax on America. …
The different and contrary reasons of dislike to my plan makes
me suspect that it was really the true medium; and I am still
of opinion it would have been happy for both sides the water
if it had been adopted. The colonies, so united, would have
been sufficiently strong to have defended themselves; there
would then have been no need of troops from England; of
course, the subsequent pretence for taxing America, and the
bloody contest it occasioned, would have been avoided."
_B. Franklin,
Autobiography
(edited by John Bigelow)
volume 1, pages 308-310._
"When the members assembled at the Court House in Albany on
the 19th of June, it was found that Pennsylvania, was not
alone in appointing a distinguished citizen to represent her.
On the roll of the congress were the names of
Lieutenant-governor De Lancey, of New York, who presided; and
from the same province William Smith, the historian, and the
future Sir William Johnson, not yet made a baronet. From the
proprietary provinces of Pennsylvania and Maryland were the
well known officials, John Penn, grandson of the founder;
Richard Peters; and Benjamin Tasker. From the province of New
Hampshire were her future governor, Meshech Weare, and
Theodore Atkinson; and from the province of Massachusetts Bay,
the late Lieutenant-governor, Thomas Hutchinson, Colonel John
Chandler, of Worcester, and Oliver Partridge, a man of
commanding influence in western Massachusetts. Lastly, the two
colonies which had so tenaciously preserved their charter
governments through the vicissitudes of more than a
century,—Connecticut and Rhode Island,—had acceded to the
repeated solicitations of the home government, and with
unfeigned reluctance, we may be sure, had sent as
representatives men of such wide experience in their colonial
concerns as Roger Wolcott, Jr., and Stephen Hopkins,
'America,' says Mr. Bancroft, 'had never seen an assembly so
venerable for the states that were represented, or for the
great and able men who composed it.' They were detained in
this hospitable old Dutch town for more than three weeks. …
Franklin's plan … was not approved by a single one of the
colonial assemblies before which it was brought; and … no
action was ever taken on it in England. Yet there is no
contribution to constructive statesmanship preceding the year
1776, which had a profounder effect on the subsequent growth
and development of the idea of American nationality. Even in
the amended form in which it was 'approved' by the congress,
it was, says a recent writer, 'in advance of the Articles [of
Confederation] in its national spirit, and served as the
prototype of the constitution itself.'"
_W. E. Foster,
Stephen Hopkins: a Rhode Island Statesman,
chapter 6 (part 1)._
The Plan of Union, as adopted by the Congress at Albany, was
accompanied by a "Representation of the Present State of the
Colonies." The following is the full text of the
Representation, followed by that of the Plan of Union:
"That His Majesty's Title to the Northern Continent of
America, appears to be founded on the Discovery thereof first
made, and the Possession thereof first taken in 1497, under a
Commission from Henry the VIIth, of England, to Sebastian
Cabot. That the French have possessed themselves of several
Parts of this Continent, which by Treaties, have been ceded
and confirmed to them: That the Rights of the English to the
whole Sea Coast, from Georgia, on the South, to the River St.
Lawrence, on the North, excepting the Island of Cape-Breton,
in the Bay of St. Lawrence, remains plain and indisputable.
{3176}
That all the Lands or Countries Westward from the Atlantic
Ocean to the South Sea, between 48 and 34 Degrees of North
Latitude, were expressly included in the Grant of King James
the First, to divers of his Subjects, so long since, as the
Year 1606, and afterwards confirmed in 1620; and under this
Grant, the Colony of Virginia claims an Extent as far West as
to the South Sea; and the antient Colonies of the
Massachusetts-Bay and Connecticut, were by their respective
Charters, made to extend to the said South Sea; so that not
only the Right to the Sea Coast, but to all the Inland
Countries, from Sea to Sea, have at all Times been asserted by
the Crown of England. That the Province of Nova Scotia or
Accadia, hath known and determinate Bounds, by the original
Grant from King James the First; and that there is abundant
Evidence of the same, [and of the Knowledge] which the French
had of these Bounds, while they were in Possession of it; and
that these Bounds being thus known, the said Province by the
Treaty of Utrecht, according to its antient Limits, was ceded
to Great-Britain, and remained in Possession thereof, until
the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle, by which it was confirmed; but
by said Treaty it is stipulated, That the Bounds of the said
Province shall be determined by Commissioners, &c. That by the
Treaty of Utrecht, the Country of the Five Cantons of the
Iroquoise, is expressly acknowledged to be under the Dominion
of the Crown of Great-Britain. That the Lake Champlain,
formerly called Lake Iroquoise, and the Country Southward of
it, as far as the Dutch or English Settlements, the Lake
Ontario, Erie, and all the Countries adjacent, have by all
antient Authors, French and English, been allowed to belong to
the Five Cantons or Nations; and the whole of those Countries,
long before the said Treaty of Utrecht, were by the said
Nations, put under the Protection of the Crown of
Great-Britain. That by the Treaty of Utrecht, there is a
Reserve to the French, a Liberty of frequenting the Countries
of the Five Nations, and other Indians in Friendship with
Great-Britain, for the Sake of Commerce; as there is also to
the English, a Liberty of frequenting the Countries of those
in Friendship with France, for the same Purpose. That after
the Treaty of Utrecht, the French built several Fortresses in
the Country of the Five Nations, and a very strong one at a
Place called Crown-Point, to the South of the Lake Champlain.
That the French Court have evidently, since the Treaty of Aix
la Chapelle, made this Northern Continent more than ever, the
Object of its Attention. That the French have most unjustly
taken Possession of a Part of the Province of Nova-Scotia; and
in the River St. John's, and other Parts of said Province,
they have built strong Fortresses; and from this River they
will have, during the Winter and Spring Season, a much easier
Communication between France and Canada, than they have
heretofore had, and will be furnished with a Harbour more
commodiously situated for the Annoying the British Colonies by
Privateers and Men of War, than Louisbourg itself. That they
have taken Possession of, and begun a Settlement at the Head
of the River Kennebeck, within the Bounds of the Province of
Main, the most convenient Situation for affording Support, and
a safe Retreat, to the Eastern Indians, in any of their
Attempts upon the Governments of New England. That it appears
by the Information of the Natives, the French have been making
Preparations for another Settlement, at a Place called Cohass,
on Connecticut River, near the Head thereof, where 'tis but
about ten Miles distant from a Branch of Merrimack River; and
from whence, there is a very near and easy Communication with
the Abnekais Indians, who are settled on the River St.
Francois, about forty Miles from the River St. Lawrence; and
it is certain, the Inhabitants of New-Hampshire, in which
Province this Cohass is supposed to lie, have been interrupted
and impeded by the French Indians, from making any Settlement
there. That since the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle, the French
have increased the Number of their Forts in the Country of the
great Lakes, and on the Rivers which run into the Mississippi,
and are securing a Communication between the two Colonies of
Louisiana and Canada, and at the same Time, putting themselves
into a Capacity of annoying the Southern British Colonies, and
preventing any further Settlements of His Majesty's Dominions.
That they have been gradually increasing their Troops in
America, transporting them in their Ships of War, which return
to France with a bare Complement of Men, leaving the rest in
their Colonies; and by this Means, they are less observed by
the Powers of Europe, than they would be, if Transports as
usual heretofore, were provided for this Purpose. That they
have taken Prisoners diverse of His Majesty's Subjects,
trading in the Country of the Iroquoise, and other inland
Parts, and plundered such Prisoners of several Thousand Pounds
Sterling; and they are continually exciting the Indians to
destroy or make Prisoners the Inhabitants of the Frontiers of
the British Colonies; which Prisoners are carried to Canada,
and a Price equal to what Slaves are sold in the Plantations,
is demanded for their Redemption and Release. That they are
continually drawing off the Indians from the British Interest,
and have lately perswaded one Half of the Onondago Tribe, with
many from the other Nations along with them, to remove to a
Place called Oswegachie, on the River Cadaracqui, where they
have built them a Church and Fort; and many of the Senecas,
the most numerous Nation, appear to be wavering, and rather
inclined to the French. And it is a melancholy Consideration,
that not more than 150 Men of all the several Nations, have
attended this Treaty, altho' they had Notice, that all the
Governments would be here by their Commissioners, and that a
large Present would be given. That it is the evident Design of
the French to surround the British Colonies, to fortify
themselves on the Back thereof, to take and keep Possession of
the Heads of all the important Rivers, to draw over the
Indians to their Interest, and with the Help of such Indians,
added to such Forces as are already arrived, and may be
hereafter sent from Europe, to be in a Capacity of making a
general Attack upon the several Governments; and if at the
same Time, a strong Naval Force be sent from France, there is
the utmost Danger, that the whole Continent will be subjected
to that Crown: And that the Danger of such a Naval Force is
not merely imaginary, may be argued from past Experience. For
had it not been by the most extraordinary Interposition of
Heaven, every Sea Port Town on the Continent, in the Year
1746, might have been ravaged and destroyed, by the Squadron
under the Command of the Duke D'Anville, notwithstanding the
then declining State of the French, and the very flourishing
State of the British Navy, and the further Advantage accruing
to the English, from the Possession of Cape-Breton.
{3177}
That the French find by Experience, they are able to make
greater and more secure Advantages upon their Neighbours, in
Peace than in War. What they unjustly possessed themselves of,
after the Peace of Utrecht, they now pretend they have a Right
to hold, by Virtue of the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle, until the
true Boundary between the English and French be settled by
Commissioners; but their Conquests made during War, they have
been obliged to restore. That the French Affairs relative to
this Continent, are under one Direction, and constantly
regarded by the Crown and Ministry, who are not insensible how
great a Stride they would make towards an Universal Monarchy,
if the British Colonies were added to their Dominions, and
consequently the whole Trade of North-America engrossed by
them. That the said Colonies being in a divided, disunited
State, there has never been any joint Exertion of their Force,
or Council, to repel or defeat the Measures of the French; and
particular Colonies are unable and unwilling to maintain the
Cause of the whole. That there has been a very great Neglect
of the Affairs of the Iroquoise, as they are commonly called,
the Indians of the Six Nations, and their Friendship and
Alliance has been improved to private Purposes, for the Sake
of the Trade with them, and the Purchase or Acquisition of
their Lands, more than the Public Services. That they are
supplied with Rum by the Traders, in vast and almost
incredible Quantities; the Laws of the Colonies now in Force,
being insufficient to restrain the Supply. And the Indians of
every Nation, are frequently drunk, and abused in their Trade,
and their Affections thereby alienated from the English; they
often wound and murder one another in their Liquor, and to
avoid Revenge, fly to the French; and perhaps more have been
lost by these Means than by the French Artifice. That
Purchases of Land from the Indians by private Persons, for
small trifling Considerations, have been the Cause of great
Uneasiness and Discontents; and if the Indians are not in fact
imposed on and injured, yet they are apt to think they have
been; and indeed, they appear not fit to be entrusted at
Large, with the Sale of their own Lands: And the Laws of some
of the Colonies, which make such Sales void, unless the
Allowance of the Government be first obtained, seem to be well
founded. That the Granting or Patenting vast Tracts of Land to
private Persons or Companies, without Conditions of speedy
Settlements, has tended to prevent the Strengthening the
Frontiers of the particular Colony where such Tracts lie, and
been Prejudicial to the rest. That it seems absolutely
necessary, that speedy and effectual Measures be taken, to
secure the Colonies from the Slavery they are threatened with:
that any farther Advances of the French should be prevented;
and the Encroachments already made, removed. That the Indians
in Alliance or Friendship with the English, be constantly
regarded under some wise Direction or Superintendency. That
Endeavours be used for the Recovery of those Indians who are
lately gone over to the French, and for securing those that
remain. That some discreet Person or Persons be appointed to
reside constantly among each Nation of Indians; such Person to
have no Concern in Trade, and duly to communicate all Advices
to the Superintendents. That the Trade with the said Indians
be well regulated, and made subservient to the Public
Interest, more than to private Gain. That there be Forts built
for the Security of each Nation, and the better carrying on
the Trade with them. That warlike Vessels be provided,
sufficient to maintain His Majesty's Right to a free
Navigation on the several Lakes. That all future Purchases of
Lands from the Indians be void, unless made by the Government
where such Lands lie, and from the Indians in a Body, in their
public Councils. That the Patentees or Possessors of large
unsettled Territories, be enjoined to cause them to be settled
in a reasonable Time, on Pain of Forfeiture. That the
Complaints of the Indians, relative to any Grants or
Possessions of their Lands, fraudulently obtained, be inquired
into, and all Injuries redressed. That the Bounds of those
Colonies which extend to the South Seas, be contracted and
limited by the Alleghenny or Apalachian Mountains; and that
Measures be taken, for settling from time to time, Colonies of
His Majesty's Protestant Subjects, Westward of said Mountains,
in convenient Cantons, to be assigned for that Purpose. And
finally, that there be an Union of His Majesty's several
Governments on the Continent, that so their Councils,
Treasure, and Strength, may be employed in due Proportion,
against their common Enemy."
The Plan of Union, adopted on the 10th of July, was as
follows:
"Plan of a proposed Union of the several Colonies of
Massachusetts-Bay, New-Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode-Island,
New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia,
North-Carolina, and South Carolina, for their mutual Defence
and Security, and for the Extending the British Settlements in
North-America. That humble Application be made for an Act of
the Parliament of Great-Britain, by Virtue of which One
General Government may be formed in America, including all the
said Colonies; within and under which Government, each Colony
may retain its present Constitution, except in the Particulars
wherein a Change may be directed by the said Act, as hereafter
follows. That the said General Government be administered by a
President General, to be appointed and supported by the Crown;
and a Grand Council, to be chosen by the Representatives of
the People of the several Colonies, met in their respective
Assemblies. That within Months after the Passing of such Act,
the House of Representatives in the several Assemblies, that
happen to be sitting within that Time, or that shall be
especially for that Purpose convened, may and shall chuse
Members for the Grand Council, in the following Proportions;
that is to say: Massachusetts-Bay, 7; New-Hampshire, 2;
Connecticut, 5; Rhode-Island, 2; New-York, 4; New-Jersey, 3;
Pennsylvania, 6; Maryland, 4; Virginia, 7, North-Carolina, 4;
South Carolina, 4: = 48. Who shall meet for the first Time at
the City of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, being called by the
President General, as soon as conveniently may be, after his
Appointment. That there shall be a new Election of Members for
the Grand Council every three Years; and on the Death or
Resignation of any Member, his Place shall be supplied by a
new Choice, at the next Sitting of the Assembly of the Colony
he represented.
{3178}
That after the first three Years, when the Proportion of Money
arising out of each Colony to the General Treasury, can be
known, the Number of Members to be chosen for each Colony,
shall from time to time, in all ensuing Elections, be
regulated by that Proportion (yet so as that the Number to be
chosen by any one Province, be not more than seven, nor less
than two). That the Grand Council shall meet once in every
Year, and oftener if Occasion require, at such Time and Place
as they shall adjourn to at the last preceding Meeting, or as
they shall be called to meet at by the President General on
any Emergency; he having first obtained in writing, the
Consent of seven of the Members to such Call, and sent due and
timely Notice to the whole. That the Grand Council have Power
to chuse their Speaker, and shall neither be dissolved,
prorogued, nor continue sitting longer than six Weeks at one
Time, without their own Consent, or the special Command of the
Crown. That the Members of the Grand Council shall be allowed
for their Service, Ten Shillings Sterling per Diem, during
their Session and Journey to and from the Place of Meeting,
twenty Miles to be reckoned a Day's Journey. That the Assent
of the President General be requisite to all Acts of the Grand
Council; and that it be his Office and Duty to cause them to
be carried into Execution. That the President General, with
the Advice of the Grand Council, hold or direct all Indian
Treaties, in which the general Interest or Welfare of the
Colonies may be concerned; and to make Peace or declare War
with Indian Nations. That they make such Laws as they judge
necessary for regulating all Indian Trade. That they make all
Purchases from Indians for the Crown, of the Lands now not
within the Bounds of particular Colonies, or that shall not be
within their Bounds, when some of them are reduced to more
convenient Dimensions. That they make new Settlements on such
Purchases, by granting Lands in the King's Name, reserving a
Quit-Rent to the Crown for the Use of the General Treasury.
That they make Laws for regulating and governing such new
Settlements, 'till the Crown shall think fit to form them into
particular Governments. That they may raise and pay Soldiers,
and build Forts for the Defence of any of the Colonies, and
equip Vessels of Force to guard the Coast, and protect the
Trade on the Ocean, Lakes, or great Rivers; but they shall not
impress Men in any Colony, without the Consent of its
Legislature. That for those Purposes, they have Power to make
Laws, and lay and levy such general Duties, Imposts, or Taxes,
as to themselves appear most equal and just, considering the
Ability and other Circumstances of the Inhabitants in the
several Colonies, and such as may be collected with the least
Inconvenience to the People; rather discouraging Luxury, than
loading industry with unnecessary Burthens. That they may
appoint a general Treasurer and a particular Treasurer in each
Government, when necessary; and from time to time, may order
the Sums in the Treasuries of each Government, into the
General Treasury, or draw on them for special Payments, as
they find most convenient; yet no Money to issue, but by joint
Orders of the President General and Grand Council, except
where Sums have been appropriated to particular Purposes, and
the President General is previously impowered by an Act, to
draw for such Sums. That the general Accounts shall be yearly
settled, and reported to the several Assemblies. That a Quorum
of the Grand Council, impowered to act with the President
General, do consist of Twenty-five Members; among whom there
shall be one or more from a Majority of the Colonies. That the
Laws made by them for the Purposes aforesaid, shall not be
repugnant, but as near as may be agreeable, to the Laws of
England, and shall be transmitted to the King in Council, for
Approbation, as soon as may be, after their passing; and if
not disapproved within three Years after Presentation, to
remain in Force. That in Case of the Death of the President
General, the Speaker of the Grand Council for the Time being,
shall succeed, and be vested with the same Power and
Authorities, and continue 'till the King's Pleasure be known.
That all Military Commission Officers, whether for Land or Sea
Service, to act under this General Constitution, be nominated
by the President General, but the Approbation of the Grand
Council is to be obtained, before they receive their
Commissions. And all Civil Officers are to be nominated by the
Grand Council, and to receive the President General's
Approbation, before they officiate. But in Case of Vacancy, by
Death or Removal of any Officer, Civil or Military, under this
Constitution, the Governor of the Provinces in which such
Vacancy happens, may appoint, 'till the Pleasure of the
President General and Grand Council can be known. That the
particular Military as well as Civil Establishments in each
Colony, remain in their present State, this General
Constitution notwithstanding; and that on sudden Emergencies,
any Colony may defend itself, and lay the Accounts of Expense
thence arisen, before the President General and Grand Council,
who may allow and order Payment of the same, as far as they
judge such Accounts just and reasonable."
_Stephen Hopkins,
A True Representation of the Plan formed at Albany in 1754,
for uniting all the British Northern Colonies;
with introduction and notes by S. S. Rider
(Rhode Island Historical Tracts, Number 9)._
ALSO IN:
_Proceedings of Commissioners at Albany
(Doc. Hist. of New York, volume 2, pages 545-617)._
_T. C. Haliburton,
Rule and Misrule of the English in America,
pages 253-258._
_J. R. Brodhead, editor,
Documents relative to Colonial History of New York,
volume 6, pages 853-905._
_Journal of Congress at Albany in 1754
(Massachusetts Historical Society Collection,
series 3, volume 5)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1755.
Demand of the royal governors in America for taxation
of the colonies by act of Parliament.
At the congress of American governors which General Braddock
convened at Alexandria, in April, 1755, on his first arrival
in America as commander-in-chief of the British forces,
"Braddock directed their attention, first of all, to the
subject of a colonial revenue, on which his instructions
commanded him to insist, and his anger kindled 'that no such
fund was already established.' The governors present,
recapitulating their strifes with their assemblies, made
answer: 'Such a fund can never be established in the colonies
without the aid of parliament. Having found it impracticable
to obtain in their respective governments the proportion
expected by his majesty toward defraying the expense of his
service in North America, they are unanimously of opinion that
it should be proposed to his majesty's ministers to find out
some method of compelling them to do it, and of assessing the
several governments in proportion to their respective
abilities.'
{3179}
This imposing document Braddock sent forthwith to the
ministry, himself urging the necessity of laying some tax
throughout his majesty's dominions in North America. … I have
had in my hands vast masses of correspondence, including
letters from servants of the crown in every royal colony in
America; from civilians, as well as from Braddock and Dunbar
and Gage; from Delancey and Sharpe, as well as from Dinwiddie
and Shirley; and all were of the same tenor. The British
ministry heard one general clamor from men in office for
taxation by act of parliament. … In England, the government
was more and more inclined to enforce the permanent authority
of Great Britain."
_G. Bancroft,
History of the United States
(Author's last Revision),
volume 2, pages. 416-417._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1755-1760.
The French and Indian War, known in Europe
as the Seven Years War:
The English conquest of Canada.
See CANADA: A. D. 1750-1773, to 1760;
NOVA SCOTIA: A. D. 1749-1755; 1755;
OHIO (VALLEY): A. D. 1748-1754, to 1755;
CAPE BRETON ISLAND: A. D. 1758-1760;
also, for an account of the accompanying Cherokee War.
See SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1759-1761.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1760-1775.
Crown, Parliament and Colonies.
The English theory and the American theory of their relations.
"The people of every colony were subject to two jurisdictions,
one local and one general, that must be adjusted to each
other. To effect such adjustment caused no little friction;
and the Colonies and the Mother Country got on peaceably as
long as they did, only because neither one pushed its theory
of colonial relations to an extreme, each yielding something
to the other and thus effecting a compromise. The Colonies
held that the dominion which the Cabots discovered in America
belonged to the King, rather than to the Kingdom, of England.
Englishmen adventuring into this dominion to plant colonies
were entitled to all the privileges of free-born Englishmen at
home; trial by jury, habeas corpus, and exemption from taxes
that their own representatives had not voted. The British
Empire was not one dominion, but several dominions. Everyone
of these dominions had, or should have, its own legislature to
enact laws for its government. The Colonies were not one
dominion, but 13 dominions; and in everyone the legislature
was as supreme as Parliament was in England. Parliament,
therefore, had nothing more to do with Massachusetts or
Virginia than the legislatures of those colonies had to do
with England. The King, who alone had a voice in the matter,
had, in their charters, guaranteed to the Colonies the common
law so far as this was applicable to their condition, and he
was now powerless to withdraw what he had thus conceded. Such,
in outline, was the American theory of colonial relations.
Still, no one pretended that this theory had ever been fully
carried out in practice. It must also be said that it did not
appear fully formed at once, but grew up gradually. The
British theory was that Englishmen continued Englishmen when
they emigrated to the American dominions of the King; that the
power of Parliament, to which they were subject in the old
home, followed them to the new one; and that Parliament could
yield them more or fewer powers of self-government for a time,
and then withdraw them. It was also claimed that the Colonies
were already represented in the House of Commons; since the
several members of that body did not represent particular
districts or constituencies, but the whole British Empire.
Besides, it was asserted that the Colonies themselves had
repeatedly acknowledged the authority of Parliament by
submitting to its legislation. Still no one pretended that
this theory had ever been fully carried out."
_B. A. Hinsdale,
The American Government,
sections 92-93._
ALSO IN:
_R. Frothingham,
Life and Times of Joseph Warren,
pages 30-32._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1761.
Enforcement of revenue laws in Massachusetts.
The Writs of Assistance and Otis' speech.
"Immediately after the conquest of Canada was completed,
rumors were widely circulated … that the charters would be
taken away, and the colonies reduced to royal governments. The
officers of the customs began at once to enforce with
strictness all the acts of parliament regulating the trade of
the colonies, several of which had been suspended, or become
obsolete, and thus had never been executed at all. The good
will of the colonists or their legislatures, was no longer
wanted in the prosecution of the war; and the commissioners of
the customs were permitted and directed to enforce the
obnoxious acts. Governor Bernard [of Massachusetts], who was
always a supporter of the royal prerogative, entered fully
into these views, and shewed by his opinion, his appointments
and his confidential advisers, that his object would be, to
extend the power of the government to any limits, which the
ministry might authorize. The first demonstration of the new
course intended to be pursued, was the arrival of an order in
Council to carry into effect the Acts of trade, and to apply
to the supreme judicature of the Province [Massachusetts], for
Writs of Assistance, to be granted to the officers of the
customs. In a case of this importance there can be no doubt,
that Mr. Paxton, who was at the head of the customs in Boston,
consulted with the Government and all the crown officers, as
to the best course to be taken. The result was, that he
directed his deputy at Salem, Mr. Cockle, in November, 1760,
to petition the Superior Court, then sitting in that town, for
'writs of assistance.' Stephen Sewall who was the Chief
Justice, expressed great doubt of the legality of such a writ,
and of the authority of the Court to grant it. None of the
other judges said a word in favour of it; but as the
application was on the part of the Crown, it could not be
dismissed without a hearing, which after consultation was
fixed for the next term of the Court, to be held in February,
1761, at Boston, when the question was ordered to be argued.
In the interval, Chief Justice Sewall died, and Lieutenant
Governor Hutchinson was made his successor, thereby uniting in
his person, the office of Lieutenant Governor with the
emoluments of the commander of the castle, a member of the
Council, Judge of Probate and Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court! … The mercantile part of the community was in a state
of great anxiety as to the result of this question. The
officers of the Customs called upon Otis for his official
assistance, as Advocate General, to argue their cause.
{3180}
But, as he believed these writs to be illegal and tyrannical,
be refused. He would not prostitute his office to the support
of an oppressive act; and with true delicacy and dignity,
being unwilling to retain a station, in which he might be
expected or called upon to argue in support of such odious
measures, he resigned it though the situation was very
lucrative, and if filled by an incumbent with a compliant
spirit, led to the highest favours of government. The
merchants of Salem and Boston, applied to Mr. Pratt to
undertake their cause, who was also solicited to engage on the
other side; but he declined taking any part, being about to
leave Boston for New York, of which province he had been
appointed Chief Justice. They also applied to Otis and
Thacher, who engaged to make their defence, and probably both
of them without fees, though very great ones were offered. The
language of Otis was, 'in such a cause, I despise all fees.' …
The trial took place in the Council Chamber of the Old Town
House, in Boston. … The judges were five in number, including
Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson, who presided as Chief Justice.
The room was filled with all the officers of government, and
the principal citizens, to hear the arguments in a cause that
inspired the deepest solicitude. The case was opened by Mr.
Gridley, who argued it with much learning, ingenuity, and
dignity, urging every point and authority; that could be found
after the most diligent search, in favour of the Custom house
petition; making all his reasoning depend on this
consideration—'if the parliament of Great Britain is the
sovereign legislator of the British Empire.' He was followed
by Mr. Thacher on the opposite side, whose reasoning was
ingenious and able, delivered in a tone of great mildness and
moderation. 'But,' in the language of President Adams, 'Otis
was a flame of fire; with a promptitude of classical
allusions, a depth of research, a rapid summary of historical
events and dates, a profusion of legal authorities, a
prophetic glance of his eyes into futurity, and a rapid
torrent of impetuous eloquence, he hurried away all before
him. American Independence was then and there born. The seeds
of patriots and heroes, to defend the 'Non sine Diis animosus
infans'; to defend the vigorous youth, were then and there
sown. Every man of an immense crowded audience appeared to me
to go away as I did, ready to take arms against Writs of
Assistance. Then and there, was the first scene of the first
act of opposition, to the arbitrary claims of Great Britain.
Then and there, the child Independence was born. In fifteen
years, i. e. in 1776, he grew up to manhood and declared
himself free.' 'There were no stenographers in those days,' to
give a complete report of this momentous harangue. How gladly
would be exchanged for it, a few hundred verbose speeches on
some of the miserable, transient topics of the day, that are
circulated in worthless profusion. Yet on this occasion, 'the
seeds were sown,' and though some of them doubtless fell by
the wayside or on stony places, others fell on good ground,
and sprang up and increased and brought forth in due season,
thirty, sixty and an hundred fold. … After the close of his
argument, the Court adjourned for consideration, and at the
close of the term, Chief Justice Hutchinson pronounced the
opinion: 'The Court has considered the subject of writs of
assistance, find can see no foundation for such a writ; but as
the practice in England is not known, it has been thought best
to continue the question to the next term, that in the
meantime opportunity may be given to know the result.' No
cause in the annals of colonial jurisprudence had hitherto
excited more public interest; and none had given rise to such
powerful argument. … An epoch in public affairs may be dated
from this trial. Political parties became more distinctly
formed, and their several adherents were more marked and
decided. The nature of ultra-marine jurisdiction began to be
closely examined; the question respecting raising a revenue
fully discussed. The right of the British parliament to impose
taxes was openly denied. 'Taxation without representation is
tyranny,' was the maxim, that was the guide and watch word of
all the friends of liberty. The crown officers and their
followers adopted openly the pretensions of the British
ministry and parliament, and considering their power to be
irresistible, appealed to the selfishness of those who might
be expectants of patronage, and to the fears of all quiet and
timid minds, to adopt a blind submission, as the only safe or
reasonable alternative. Otis took the side of his country, and
as has been shewn, under circumstances that made his decision
irrevocable. He was transferred at once from the ranks of
private life, not merely to take the side, but to be the guide
and leader of his country, in opposition to the designs of the
British ministry. 'Although' says President Adams, 'Mr. Otis
had never before interfered in public affairs, his exertions
on this single occasion secured him a commanding popularity
with the friends of their country, and the terror and
vengeance of her enemies; neither of which ever deserted him.'
His popularity was instantaneous, and universal; and the
public were impatient for the approaching election, when they
could make him a representative of Boston."
_W. Tudor,
Life of James Otis,
chapters 5-7._
See also, MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1761.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1763.
The Treaty of Paris.
Acquisition of Florida and Eastern Louisiana
(as well as Canada) by Great Britain.
See SEVEN YEARS WAR: THE TREATIES.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1763.
The King's proclamation excluding settlers from the
Western territory lately acquired from France.
See NORTHWEST TERRITORY OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1763.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1763.
General effects, economically and politically,
of the English trade regulations.
"Economically the general results of the trade regulations
were important. Robert Giffen has repeatedly pointed out how
difficult it is, even with modern comparatively accurate
methods, to obtain reliable results from the use of export and
import statistics. This difficulty is immeasurably enhanced
when we have to rely on the meagre figures of a century and a
half ago. For we neither know how these statistics were taken,
nor at all how accurate they are; while their inadequacy
becomes clearly evident when we consider the large amount of
smuggling carried on both in England and the colonies. One
general proposition, however, can be formulated from the
examination of these statistics, and that is the balance of
trade between England and the colonies was unfavorable to the
latter. And this was an inherent consequence of the mercantile
system, by which England regulated these commercial relations.
{3181}
The colonies were unable to pay England for her manufactures
entirely in raw materials, and the residue was paid in coin
obtained from the favorable trade with Spain, Portugal, and
the West Indies. All metal had to be sent to England; it was,
as De Foe says, 'snatched up for returns to England in
specie.' An important consequence followed from this
continuous drain of specie. The colonies could with difficulty
retain coin, and hence were forced either to fall back on
barter, or to issue paper money. … While, on the one hand, the
acts of trade and navigation are partially responsible for
many sad passages in the fiscal history of the colonies, on
the other hand they conduced to the development of a most
important colonial industry. This industry was ship-building,
for which the colonies were especially adapted on account of
the cheapness of lumber. In developing this natural fitness,
the protection afforded to English and colonial shipping by
the Navigation Acts was an important factor. As a rule England
did not discriminate against colonial and in favor of English
ships, although the colonies frequently attempted by
legislation to secure advantages for their own shipping. As a
result of this policy ship building and the carrying trade
increased rapidly, especially in the New England colonies. …
So important did this industry become that in 1724 the ship
carpenters of the Thames complained to the King, 'that their
trade was hurt and their workmen emigrated since so many
vessels were built in New England.' Massachusetts built ships
not only for England, but also for European countries, and for
the West Indies. … Politically the commercial regulations were
not so important. Up to 1763 only slight political importance
attaches to the system, for only in a negative way did it
affect the political ideas of the colonists. The colonies were
peopled by men of varied race and religion, who had little
common consciousness of rights and wrongs and few common
political ideals. The centrifugal forces among them were
strong. Among centripetal forces, such as a common sovereign
and a common system of private law, must be reckoned the fact
that their commerce was regulated by a system which, as a
rule, was uniform for all the colonies. When the acts of trade
worked to their advantage, the colonists reaped common
benefits; when they inflicted hardships, the colonists made
common complaint. Moreover, the fact that England was unable
to enforce certain of her acts, especially the Molasses Act,
caused contempt for parliamentary authority. The continued
and, by the very nature of things, the necessary violation of
this law lead to a questioning of its sanction, while the open
favoritism shown in it towards the West India colonies
naturally aroused disaffection in those of the continent. The
colonial system, as it was administered before 1763,
contributed but slightly in bringing about the revolution of
1776. As Mr. Ramsay has said, 'if no other grievances had been
superadded to what existed in 1763, they would have been soon
forgotten, for their pressure was neither great, nor
universal. It was only when the fundamental basis of the acts
was changed from one of commercial monopoly to one of revenue,
that the acts became of vital political importance."
_G. L. Beer,
The Commercial Policy of England toward
the American Colonies
(Columbia College Studies in History, etc.,
volume 3, number 2), chapter 7, section 2._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1763-1764.
Pontiac's War.
See PONTIAC'S WAR.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1763-1764.
Determination in England to tax the colonies.
The Sugar (or Molasses) Act.-"
It did not take four years after the peace of 1763 to show how
rapidly the new situation of affairs was bearing fruit in
America. … The overthrow of their ancient enemy [the French in
Canada], while further increasing the self-confidence of the
Americans, at the same time removed the principal check which
had hitherto kept their differences with the British
government from coming to an open rupture. Formerly the dread
of French attack had tended to make the Americans complaisant
toward the king's ministers, while at the same time it made
the king's ministers unwilling to lose the good will of the
Americans. Now that the check was removed, the continuance or
revival of the old disputes at once foreboded trouble; and the
old occasions for dispute were far from having ceased. On the
contrary the war itself had given them fresh vitality. If
money had been needed before, it was still more needed now.
The war had entailed a heavy burden of expense upon the
British government as well as upon the colonies. The national
debt of Great Britain was much increased, and there were many
who thought that, since the Americans shared in the benefits
of the war, they ought also to share in the burden which it
left behind it. People in England who used this argument did
not realize that the Americans had really contributed as much
as could reasonably be expected to the support of the war, and
that it had left behind it debts to be paid in America as well
as in England. But there was another argument which made it
seem reasonable to many Englishmen that the colonists should
be taxed. It seemed right that a small military force should
be kept up in America, for defence of the frontiers against
the Indians, even if there were no other enemies to be
dreaded. The events of Pontiac's war now showed that there was
clearly need of such a force; and the experience of the royal
governors for half a century had shown that it was very
difficult to get the colonial legislatures to vote money for
any such purpose. Hence there grew up in England a feeling
that taxes ought to be raised in America as a contribution to
the war debt and to the military defence of the colonies; and
in order that such taxes should be fairly distributed and
promptly collected, it was felt that the whole business ought
to be placed under the direct supervision and control of
parliament. … It was in 1763 that George Grenville became
prime minister, a man of whom Macaulay says that he knew of
'no national interests except those which are expressed by
pounds, shillings, and pence.' Grenville proceeded to
introduce into Parliament two measures which had consequences
of which he little dreamed. The first of these measures was
the Molasses Act [often called the Sugar Act], the second was
the Stamp Act. Properly speaking, the Molasses Act was an old
law which Grenville now made up his mind to revive and
enforce. The commercial wealth of the New England colonies
depended largely upon their trade with the fish which their
fishermen caught along the coast and as far out as the banks
of Newfoundland. The finest fish could be sold in Europe, but
the poorer sort found their chief market in the French West
Indies.
{3182}
The French government, in order to ensure a market for the
molasses raised in these islands, would not allow the planters
to give any thing else in exchange for fish. Great quantities
of molasses were therefore carried to New England, and what
was not needed there for domestic use was distilled into rum,
part of which was consumed at home, and the rest carried
chiefly to Africa wherewith to buy slaves to be sold to the
southern colonies. All this trade required many ships, and
thus kept up a lively demand for New England lumber, besides
finding employment for thousands of sailors and shipwrights.
Now in 1733 the British government took it into its head to
'protect' its sugar planters in the English West Indies by
compelling the New England merchants to buy all their molasses
from them; and with this end in view it forthwith laid upon
all sugar and molasses imported into North America from the
French islands a duty so heavy that, if it had been enforced,
it would have stopped all such importation. … It proved to be
impossible to enforce the act without causing more disturbance
than the government felt prepared to encounter. Now in 1764
Grenville announced that the act was to be enforced, and of
course the machinery of writs of assistance was to be employed
for that purpose. Henceforth all molasses from the French
islands must either pay the prohibitory duty or be seized
without ceremony. Loud and fierce was the indignation of New
England over this revival of the Molasses Act. Even without
the Stamp Act, it might very likely have led that part of the
country to make armed resistance, but in such case it is not
so sure that the southern and middle colonies would have come
to the aid of New England. But in the Stamp Act, Grenville
provided the colonies with an issue which concerned one as
much as another."
_J. Fiske,
The War of Independence,
chapter 4._
ALSO IN:
_J. G. Palfrey,
History of New England,
book 6, chapters 2-3 (volume 5)._
_W. B. Weeden,
Economic and Social History of New England,
chapter 19 (volume 2)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1764.
The climax of the mercantile colonial policy of England,
and its consequences.
"Historians, in treating of the American rebellion, have
confined their arguments too exclusively to the question of
internal taxation, and the right or policy of exercising this
prerogative. The true source of the rebellion lay deeper, in
our traditional colonial policy. Just as the Spaniards had
been excited to the discovery of America by the hope of
obtaining gold and silver, the English merchants utilized the
discovery by the same fallacious method, and with the same
fallacious aspirations. … A hundred years ago the commercial
classes believed that the prime object of their pursuits was
to get as much gold and silver into England as they could.
They sought, therefore, to make their country, as nearly as
they might, a solitary centre of the exportation of
non-metallic commodities, that so she might be also the great
reservoir into which the precious metals would flow in a
return stream. On this base their colonial policy was erected.
… So long as the colonies remained in their infancy the
mercantile policy was less prejudicial to their interests. The
monopoly of their commerce, the limitation of their markets,
the discouragement of their manufactures, in some cases
amounting to absolute prohibition, were all less fatal in a
country where labour was dear, than they would be in a state
where population was more fully developed and land had become
scarcer. … A contraband trade sprung up between them and the
colonies of Spain. Our settlers imported goods from England,
and re-exported them to the Spanish colonies, in return for
bullion and other commodities. The result of this was that the
Spanish colonists had access to useful commodities from which
they would otherwise have been debarred, that the American
colonists could without distress remit the specie which was
required by the nature of their dealings with England, and
that a large market was opened for English products. This
widely beneficial trade was incontinently suppressed in 1764,
by one of those efforts of short-sighted rigour which might be
expected from any government where George Grenville's
influence was prominent. All smuggling was to be put down, and
as this trade was contraband, it must be put down like the
rest. The Government probably acted as they did in answer to
the prayers of the mercantile classes, who could not see that
they were cutting off the streams that fed their own
prosperity. They only saw that a colonial trade had sprung up,
and their jealousy blinded them to the benefits that accrued
to themselves as a consequence of it. Their folly found them
out. The suppression of the colonial trade was entrusted to
the commanders of men-of-war. … We may be sure that the
original grievance of the colonists was not softened by the
manners of the officers who had to put the law into execution.
The result of the whole transaction was the birth of a very
strong sense in the minds of the colonists that the mother
country looked upon them as a sponge to be squeezed. This
conviction took more than a passing hold upon them. It was
speedily inflamed into inextinguishable heat, first by the
news that they were to be taxed without their own consent, and
next by the tyrannical and atrocious measures by which it was
proposed to crush their resistance. The rebellion may be
characterised as having first originated in the blind
greediness of the English merchants, and as having then been
precipitated by the arbitrary ideas of the patricians, in the
first instance, and afterwards of the King and the least
educated of the common people. If the severe pressure of the
mercantile policy, unflinchingly carried out, had not first
filled the colonists with resentment and robbed them of their
prosperity, the imperial claim to impose taxes would probably
have been submitted to without much ado. And if the
suppression of their trade in 1764 had not been instantly
followed by Grenville's plan for extorting revenue from them,
they would probably in time have been reconciled to the blow
which had been dealt to their commerce. It was the conjunction
of two highly oppressive pieces of policy which taught them
that they would certainly lose more by tame compliance than
they could possibly lose by an active resistance."
_J. Morley,
Edmund Burke,
chapter 4._
ALSO IN:
_W. Massey,
History of England, Reign of George III.,
volume 1, chapter 5._
{3183}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1764-1767.
Patriotic self-denials.
"Upon the news of the intention to lay [the Stamp Tax] … on
the colonies, many people, the last year, had associated, and
engaged to forbear the importation, or consumption, of English
goods; and particularly to break off from the custom of
wearing black clothes, or other mourning [it being generally
of British manufacture—Foot-note], upon the death of
relations. This agreement was then signed by some of the
council, and representatives, and by great numbers of people
in the town of Boston, and the disuse of mourning soon became
general. This was intended to alarm the manufacturers in
England. And now [in 1765], an agreement was made, and signed
by a great proportion of the inhabitants of Boston, to eat no
lamb during the year. This was in order to increase the
growth, and, of course, the manufacture of wool in the
province. Neither of these measures much served the purpose
for which they were professedly intended, but they served to
unite the people in an unfavourable opinion of parliament."
_T. Hutchinson,
History of the province of Massachusetts Bay, 1749-1774,
pages 116-117._
The movement thus started in Boston before the passage of the
Stamp Act spread rapidly through the other provinces after the
Act had been passed, and continued to be for several years a
very serious expression of colonial patriotism and opposition
to the oppressive policy of the mother country.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1765.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1765.
The Stamp Act.
"The scheme of the imposition by Parliament of a tax on the
American colonists to be collected by stamps was not a new
one. Nearly forty years before this time, 'Sir William Keith,
the late Governor of Pennsylvania, presented an elaborate
disquisition to the King … proposing the extension of the
stamp duties to the Colonies by Act of Parliament.' It had
been one of the projects of the factious Dunbar, during his
short career of turbulence and intrigue in New Hampshire.
Governor Sharpe of Maryland and Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia
had recommended a resort to it at the time of the abortive
movement for a union of the Colonies. Its renewal at this time
has been said to have been especially due to Charles
Jenkinson, then only private secretary to Lord Bute, but who
rose afterwards to be Earl of Liverpool. The project, as now
resolved upon, was pursued with inconsiderate obstinacy,
though it encountered a spirited debate when it was brought
into the House of Commons [February, 1765]. … The bill was
pending in the House between three and four weeks, at the end
of which time it was passed, the largest number of votes which
had been given against it in any stage of its progress not
having amounted to fifty. It was concurred in by the House of
Lords, where it appears to have met no resistance, and in due
course [March 22] received the royal assent. No apprehension
of consequences counselled a pause. The Stamp Act—as it has
ever since been called by eminence—provided … for the payment,
by British subjects in America to the English Exchequer, of
specified sums, greater or less, in consideration of obtaining
validity for each of the common transactions of business."
_J. G. Palfrey,
History of New England,
book 6, chapter 3 (volume 5)._
The following is the text of the Stamp Act:
Whereas, by an act made in the last session of parliament,
several duties were granted, continued, and appropriated,
towards defraying the expenses of defending, protecting, and
securing the British colonies and plantations in America: and
whereas, it is first necessary, that provision be made for
raising a further revenue within your majesty's dominions in
America, towards defraying the said expenses; we, your
majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the commons of
Great Britain, in parliament assembled, have therefore
resolved, to give and grant unto your majesty the several
rites and duties hereinafter mentioned; and do most humbly
beseech your majesty that it may be enacted, And be it
enacted, by the king's most excellent majesty, by and with the
advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and
commons in this present parliament assembled, and by the
authority of the same, That from and after the first day of
November, one thousand seven hundred and sixty five, there
shall be raised, levied, collected and paid, unto his majesty,
his heirs and successors, throughout the colonies and
plantations in America, which now are, or hereafter may be,
under the dominion of his majesty, his heirs and successors.
1. For every skin of vellum or parchment, or sheet or piece of
paper, on which shall be engrossed, written or printed, any
declaration, plea, replication, rejoinder, demurrer, or other
pleading, or any copy thereof, in any court of law within the
British colonies and plantations in America, a stamp duty of
three pence.
2. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written or
printed, any special bail, and appearance upon such bail in
any such court, a stamp duty of two shillings.
3. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or
piece of paper, on which may be engrossed, written or printed,
any petition, bill, or answer, claim, plea, replication,
rejoinder, demurrer, or other pleading, in any court of
chancery or equity, within the said colonies and plantations,
a stamp duty of one shilling and six pence.
4. For every skin or piece of vellum, or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or
printed, any copy of any petition, bill, answer, claim, plea,
replication, rejoinder, demurrer, or other pleading, in any
such court, a stamp duty of three pence.
5. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or
printed, any monition, libel, answer, allegation, inventory,
or renunciation, in ecclesiastical matters, in any court of
probate, court of the ordinary, or other court exercising
ecclesiastical jurisdiction within the said colonies and
plantations, a stamp duty of one shilling.
6. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written or
printed, any copy of any will, (other than the probate
thereof,) monition, libel, answer, allegation, inventory, or
renunciation, in ecclesiastical matters, in any such court, a
stamp duty of six pence.
7. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written or
printed, any donation, presentation, collation or institution,
of or to any benefice, or any writ or instrument for the like
purpose, or any register, entry, testimonial or certificate of
any degree taken in any university, academy, college, or seminary
of learning, within the said colonies and plantations, a stamp
duty of two pounds.
{3184}
8. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or
piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written or
printed, any monition, libel, claim, answer, allegation,
information, letter of request, execution, renunciation,
inventory, or other pleading, in any admiralty court within
the said colonies and plantations, a stamp duty of one
shilling.
9. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet or
piece of paper, on which any copy of any such monition, libel,
claim, answer, allegation, information, letter of request,
execution, renunciation, inventory or other pleading, shall be
engrossed, written or printed, a stamp duty of six pence.
10. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written or
printed, any appeal, writ of error, writ of dower, 'ad quod
damnum,' certiorari, statute merchant, statute staple,
attestation, or certificate, by any officer, or
exemplification of any record or proceeding, in any court
whatsoever within the said colonies and plantations, (except
appeals, writs of error, certiorari, attestations,
certificates, and exemplifications, for, or relating to the
removal of any proceedings from before a single justice of the
peace,) a stamp duty of ten shillings.
11. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written or
printed, any writ of covenant for levying fines, writ of entry
for suffering a common recovery, or attachment issuing out of,
or returnable into any court within the said colonies and
plantations, a stamp duty of five shillings.
12. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
of piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written or
printed, any judgment, decree, or sentence, or dismission, or
any record of nisi prius or postea, in any court within the
said colonies or plantations, a stamp duty of four shillings.
13. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written or
printed, any affidavit, common bail, or appearance,
interrogatory, deposition, rule, order or warrant of any
court, or any 'dedimus potestatem,' capias, subpæna, summons,
compulsory citation, commission, recognisance, or any other
writ, process, or mandate, issuing out of, or returnable into,
any court, or any office belonging thereto, or any other
proceeding therein whatsoever, or any copy thereof, or of any
record not herein before charged, within the said colonies and
plantations, (except warrants relating to criminal matters,
and proceedings thereon, or relation thereto,) a stamp duty of
one shilling.
14. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written or
printed, any note or bill of lading, which shall be signed for
any kind of goods, wares, or merchandize, to be exported from,
or any docket or clearance granted within the said colonies
and plantations, a stamp duty of four pence.
15. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written or
printed, letters of mart or commission for private ships of
war, within the said colonies and plantations, a stamp duty of
twenty shillings.
16. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written or
printed, any grant, appointment, or admission of or to any
public beneficial office or employment, for the space of one
year, or any lesser time, of or above twenty pounds per annum,
sterling money, in salary, fees, and perquisites, within the
said colonies and plantations, (except commissions and
appointments of officers of the army, navy, ordnance, or
militia, of judges, and of justices of the peace,) a stamp
duty of ten shillings.
17. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which any grant of any liberty,
privilege, or franchise, under the seal or sign manual, of any
governor, proprietor, or public officer, alone, or in
conjunction with any other person or persons, or with any
council, or any council and assembly, or any exemplification
of the same, shall be engrossed, written, or printed, within
the said colonies and plantations, a stamp duty of six pounds.
18. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or' piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written or
printed, any license for retailing of spirituous liquors, to
be granted to any person who shall take out the same, within
the said colonies and plantations, a stamp duty of twenty
shillings.
19. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written or
printed, any license for retailing of wine, to be granted to
any person who shall not take out a license for retailing of
spirituous liquors, within the said colonies and plantations,
a stamp duty of four pounds.
20. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written or
printed, any license for retailing of wine, to be granted to
any person who shall take out a license for retailing of
spirituous liquors, within the said colonies and plantations,
a stamp duty of three pounds.
21. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written or
printed, any probate of wills, letters of administration, or
of guardianship for any estate above the value of twenty
pounds sterling money, within the British colonies [and]
plantations upon the continent of America, the islands
belonging thereto, and the Bermuda and Bahama islands, a stamp
duty of five shillings.
22. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written or
printed, any such probate, letters of administration or of
guardianship, within all other parts of the British dominions
in America, a stamp duty of ten shillings.
23. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or
printed, any bond for securing the payment of any sum of
money, not exceeding the sum of ten pounds sterling money,
within the British colonies and plantations upon the continent
of America, the islands belonging thereto, and the Bermuda and
Bahama islands, a stamp duty of six pence.
{3185}
24. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written or
printed, any bond for securing the payment of any sum of money
above ten pounds, and not exceeding twenty pounds sterling
money, within such colonies, plantations and islands, a stamp
duty of one shilling.
25. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written or
printed, any bond for securing the payment of any sum of money
above twenty pounds, and not exceeding forty pounds sterling
money, within such colonies, plantations and islands, a stamp
duty of one shilling and six pence.
26. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written or
printed, any order or warrant for surveying or setting out any
quantity of land, not exceeding one hundred acres, issued by
any governor, proprietor, or any public officer, alone, or in
conjunction with any other person or persons, or with any
council, or any council and assembly, within the British
colonies and plantations in America, a stamp duty of six
pence.
27. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written or
printed, any such order or warrant for surveying or setting
out any quantity of land above one hundred and not exceeding
two hundred acres, within the said colonies and plantations, a
stamp duty of one shilling.
28. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written or
printed, any such order or warrant for surveying or setting
out any quantity of land above two hundred and not exceeding
three hundred and twenty acres, and in proportion for every
such order or warrant for surveying or setting out every other
three hundred and twenty acres, within the said colonies and
plantations, a stamp duty of one shilling and six pence.
29. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written or
printed, any original grant or deed, mesne conveyance, or
other instrument whatever, by which any quantity of land, not
exceeding one hundred acres, shall be granted, conveyed, or
assigned, within the British colonies and plantations upon the
continent of America, the islands belonging thereto, and the
Bermuda and Bahama islands (except leases for any term not
exceeding the term of twenty-one years) a stamp duty of one
shilling and six pence.
30. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written or
printed, any such original grant, or any such deed, mesne
conveyance, or other instrument whatsoever, by which any
quantity of land, above one hundred and not exceeding two
hundred acres, shall be granted, conveyed, or assigned, within
such colonies, plantations and islands, a stamp duty of two
shillings.
31. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written or
printed, any such original grant, or any such deed, mesne
conveyance, or other instrument whatsoever, by which any
quantity of land, above two hundred, and not exceeding three
hundred and twenty acres, shall be granted, conveyed, or
assigned, and in proportion for every such grant, deed, mesne
conveyance, or other instrument, granting, conveying or
assigning every other three hundred and twenty acres, within
such colonies, plantations and islands, a stamp duty of two
shillings and six pence.
32. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written or
printed, any such original grant, or any such deed, mesne
conveyance, or other instrument whatsoever, by which any
quantity of land, not exceeding one hundred acres, shall be
granted, conveyed, or assigned, within all other parts of the
British dominions in America, a stamp duty of three shillings.
33. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written or
printed, any such original grant, or any such deed, mesne
conveyance, or other instrument whatsoever, by which any
quantity of land, above one hundred and not exceeding two
hundred acres, shall be granted, conveyed, or assigned, within
the same parts of the said dominions, a stamp duty of four
shillings.
34. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or
printed, any such original grant, or any such deed, mesne
conveyance, or other instrument whatsoever, by which any
quantity of land, above two hundred and not exceeding three
hundred and twenty acres, shall be granted, conveyed, or
assigned, and in proportion for every such grant, deed, mesne
conveyance, or other instrument, granting, conveying, or
assigning every other three hundred and twenty acres, within
the same parts of the said dominions, a stamp duty of five
shillings.
35. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or
printed, any grant, appointment, or admission, of or to any
beneficial office or employment, not hereinbefore charged,
above the value of twenty pounds per annum sterling money, in
salary, fees, or perquisites, or any exemplification of the
same, within the British colonies and plantations upon the
continent of America, the islands belonging thereto, and the
Bermuda and Bahama islands, (except commissions of officers of
the army, navy, ordnance, or militia, and of justices of the
peace,) a stamp duty of four pounds.
36. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or
printed, any such grant, appointment, or admission, of or to
any such public beneficial office or employment, or any
exemplification of the same, within all other parts of the
British dominions in America, a stamp duty of six pounds.
37. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or
printed, any indenture, lease, conveyance, contract,
stipulation, bill of sale, charter party, protest, articles of
apprenticeship or covenant, (except for the hire of servants
not apprentices, and also except such other matters as
hereinbefore charged,) within the British colonies and
plantations in America, a stamp duty of two shillings and six
pence.
{3186}
38. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which any warrant or order for auditing
any public accounts, beneficial warrant, order, grant, or
certificate, under any public seal, or under the seal or sign
manual of any governor, proprietor, or public officer, alone,
or in conjunction with any other person or persons, or with
any council, or any council and assembly, not herein before
charged, or any passport or let pass, surrender of office, or
policy of assurance, shall be engrossed, written, or printed,
within the said colonies and plantations, (except warrants or
orders for the service of the army, navy, ordnance, or
militia, and grants of offices under twenty pounds per annum,
in salary, fees, and perquisite,) a stamp duty of five
shillings.
39. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or
printed, any notarial act, bond, deed, letter of attorney,
procuration, mortgage, release, or other obligatory
instrument, not herein before charged, within the said
colonies and plantations, a stamp duty of two shillings and
three pence.
40. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or
printed, any register, entry, or enrolment of any grant, deed,
or other instrument whatsoever, herein before charged, within
the said colonies and plantations, a stamp duty of three
pence.
41. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which shall be engrossed, written, or
printed, any register, entry, or enrolment of any grant, deed,
or other instrument whatsoever not herein before charged,
within the said colonies and plantations, a stamp duty of two
shillings.
42. And for and upon every pack of playing cards, and all
dice, which shall be sold or used within the said colonies and
plantations, the several stamp duties following: (that is to
say,)
43. For every pack of such cards, one shilling.
44. And for every pair of such dice, ten shillings.
45. And for and upon every paper called a pamphlet, and upon
every newspaper, containing public news, or occurrences, which
shall be printed, dispersed, and made public, within any of
the said colonies and plantations, and for and upon such
advertisements as are hereinafter mentioned, the respective
duties following; (that is to say,)
46. For every such pamphlet and paper, contained in a half
sheet, or any lesser piece of paper, which shall be so
printed, a stamp duty of one half penny for every printed copy
thereof.
47. For every such pamphlet and paper, (being larger than half
a sheet, and not exceeding one whole sheet,) which shall be so
printed, a stamp duty of one penny for every printed copy
thereof.
48. For every pamphlet and paper, being larger than one whole
sheet, and not exceeding six sheets in octavo, or in a lesser
page, or not exceeding twelve sheets in quarto, or twenty
sheets in folio, which shall be so printed, a duty after the
rate of one shilling for every sheet of any kind of paper
which shall be contained in one printed copy thereof.
49. For every advertisement to be contained in any gazette,
newspaper, or other paper, or any pamphlet which shall be so
printed, a duty of two shillings.
50. For every almanac or calendar, for any one particular
year, or for any time less than a year, which shall be written
or printed on one side only of any one sheet, skin, or piece
of paper, parchment, or vellum, within the said colonies and
plantations, a stamp duty of two pence.
51. For every other almanac, or calendar, for any one
particular year, which shall be written or printed within the
said colonies and plantations, a stamp duty of four pence.
52. And for every almanac or calendar, written or printed in
the said colonies and plantations, to serve for several years,
duties to the same amount respectively shall be paid for every
such year.
53. For every skin or piece of vellum or parchment, or sheet
or piece of paper, on which any instrument, proceeding, or
other matter or thing aforesaid, shall be engrossed, written,
or printed, within the said colonies and plantations, in any
other than the English language, a stamp duty of double the
amount of the respective duties before charged thereon.
54. And there shall be also paid, in the said colonies and
plantations, a duty of six pence for every twenty shillings,
in any sum not exceeding fifty pounds sterling money, which
shall be given, paid, contracted, or agreed for, with or in
relation to any clerk or apprentice, which shall be put or
placed to or with any master or mistress, to learn any
profession, trade, or employment. 2. And also a duty of one
shilling for every twenty shillings, in any sum exceeding
fifty pounds, which shall be given, paid, contracted, or
agreed for, with, or in relation to, any such clerk or
apprentice.
55. Finally, the produce of all the aforementioned duties
shall be paid into his majesty's treasury; and there held in
reserve, to be used, from time to time, by the parliament, for
the purpose of defraying the expenses necessary for the
defense, protection, and security of the said colonies and
plantations.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1765.
News of the Stamp Act in the Colonies.
Colonel Barre's speech and the Sons of Liberty.
Patrick Henry's speech in the Virginia Assembly.
Formal protests and informal mob-doings in Philadelphia,
New York and Boston.
In the course of the debate in the British House of Commons,
on the Stamp Act, February 6, 1765, Charles Townshend, after
discussing the advantages which the American colonies had
derived from the late war, asked the question: "And now will
these American children, planted by our care, nourished up to
strength and opulence by our indulgence, and protected by our
arms, grudge to contribute their mite to relieve us from the
heavy burden under which we lie?" This called to his feet
Colonel Isaac Barre who had served in America with Wolfe, and
who had a knowledge of the country and people which most
members of Parliament lacked. "They planted by your care!"
exclaimed Barré. "No: your oppressions planted them in
America. They fled from your tyranny to a then uncultivated,
unhospitable country, where they exposed themselves to almost
all the hardships to which human nature is liable; and, among
others, to the cruelties of a savage foe, the most subtle,
and, I will take upon me to say, the most formidable of any
people upon the face of God's earth; and yet, actuated by
principles of true English liberty, they met all hardships
with pleasure, compared with those they suffered in their own
country from the hands of those who should have been their
friends.
{3187}
They nourished up by your indulgence! They grew by your
neglect of them. As soon as you began to care about them, that
care was exercised in sending persons to rule them in one
department and another, who were, perhaps, the deputies of
deputies to some members of this house, sent to spy out their
liberties, to misrepresent their actions, and to prey upon
them; men whose behavior on many occasions has caused the
blood of those sons of Liberty to recoil within them; men
promoted to the highest seats of justice, some who, to my
knowledge, were glad, by going to a foreign country, to escape
being brought to the bar of a court of justice in their own.
They protected by your arms! They have nobly taken up arms in
your defence; have exerted a valor amidst their constant and
laborious industry, for the defence of a country whose
frontier was drenched in blood, while its interior parts
yielded all its little savings to your emolument. And believe
me—remember I this day told you so—the same spirit of freedom
which actuated that people at first will accompany them still.
But prudence forbids me to explain myself further. God knows I
do not at this time speak from motives of party heat; what I
deliver are the genuine sentiments of my heart. However
superior to me in general knowledge and experience the
respectable body of this house may be, yet I claim to know
more of America than most of you, having seen and been
conversant in that country. The people, I believe, are as
truly loyal as any subjects the king has; but a people jealous
of their liberties, and who will vindicate them, if ever they
should be violated. But the subject is too delicate; I will
say no more." Notes of Colonel Barré's speech were taken by a
Mr. Ingersoll, one of the agents for Connecticut, who sat in
the gallery. He sent home a report of it, which was published
in the newspapers at New London, and soon the name of the
"Sons of Liberty," which the eloquent defender of the
resisting colonists had given to them, was on every lip.
_G. Bancroft,
History of the United States
(Author's last revision),
volume 3, chapter 8._
"Meantime [in 1765], 'The Sons of Liberty'—a term that grew
into use soon after the publication of Barre's speech—were
entering into associations to resist, by all lawful means, the
execution of the Stamp Act. They were long kept secret, which
occasioned loyalists to say that there was a private union
among a certain sect of republican principles from one end of
the continent to the other. As they increased in numbers, they
grew in boldness and publicity, announcing in the newspapers
their committees of correspondence, and interchanging solemn
pledges of support."
_R. Frothingham,
The Rise of the Republic of the United States,
page 183._
The Stamp Act was passed March 22, 1765. A copy of it was
printed in the 'Pennsylvania Gazette' on April 18th, but this
must necessarily have been in advance of news of its passage.
The people of Philadelphia began at once to show their
determination to make it [the Stamp Act] a nullity so far as
revenue was concerned. An enforced frugality was the first
step. … In the 'Pennsylvania Gazette' of April 18th there was
an article against expensive and ostentatious funerals, the
writer saying that often £70 or £100 were squandered on such
occasions. August 15th, when Alderman William Plumsted was
buried at St. Peter's Church, the funeral, by his own wish,
was conducted in the plainest way, no pall, no mourning worn
by relatives. In March, the Hibernia Fire Company resolved,
'from motives of economy, and to reduce the present high price
of mutton and encourage the breweries of Pennsylvania, not to
purchase any lamb this season, nor to drink any foreign beer:
Other fire companies and many citizens copied this example. …
On October 25th the merchants and traders of Philadelphia
subscribed to a non-importation agreement, such as were then
being signed all over the country. In this article the
subscribers agreed that, in consequence of the late acts of
Parliament and the injurious regulations accompanying them,
and of the Stamp Act, etc., in justice to themselves and in
hopes of benefit from their example
(1) to countermand all orders for English goods until the
Stamp Act should be repealed;
(2) a few necessary articles, or shipped under peculiar
circumstances, are excepted;
(3) no goods received for sale on commission to be disposed of
until the Stamp Act should be repealed; and this agreement to
be binding on each and all, as a pledge of word of honor."
_J. T. Scharf and T. Westcott,
History of Philadelphia,
chapter 10 (volume 1)._
The first stern note of defiance came from Virginia. Patrick
Henry had lately been elected to the colonial assembly. Having
waited in vain for the older leaders of the house to move in
the matter of expressing the feeling of the colony on the
subject, on the 29th of May, when the session was within three
days of its expected close, "Mr. Henry introduced his
celebrated resolutions on the stamp act. I will not withhold
from the reader a note of this transaction from the pen of Mr.
Henry himself. It is a curiosity, and highly worthy of
preservation. After his death, there was found among his
papers one sealed, and thus endorsed: 'Enclosed are the
resolutions of the Virginia assembly in 1765, concerning the
stamp act. Let my executors open this paper.' Within was found
the following copy of the resolutions, in Mr. Henry's
handwriting:—'Resolved, That the first adventurers and
settlers of this, his majesty's colony and dominion, brought
with them, and transmitted to their posterity, and all other
his majesty's subjects, since inhabiting in this, his
majesty's said colony, all the privileges, franchises, and
immunities, that have at any time been held, enjoyed, and
possessed by the people of Great Britain. Resolved, That by
two royal charters, granted by King James I., the colonists,
aforesaid, are declared entitled to all the privileges,
liberties, and immunities of denizens and natural-born
subjects, to all intents and purposes, as if they had been
abiding and born within the realm of England. Resolved, That
the taxation of the people by themselves, or by persons chosen
by themselves to represent them, who can only know what taxes
the people are able to bear, and the easiest mode of raising
them, and are equally affected by such taxes themselves, is
the distinguishing characteristic of British freedom, and
without which the ancient constitution cannot subsist.
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Resolved, That his majesty's liege people of this most ancient
colony, have uninterruptedly enjoyed the right of being thus
governed by their own assembly, in the article of their taxes
and internal police, and that the same hath never been
forfeited, or any other way given up, but hath been constantly
recognised by the king and people of Great Britain. Resolved,
therefore, That the general assembly of this colony have the
sole right and power to lay taxes and impositions upon the
inhabitants of this colony; and that every attempt to vest
such power in any person or persons whatsoever, other than the
general assembly aforesaid, has a manifest tendency to destroy
British as well as American freedom.' On the back of the paper
containing these resolutions, is the following endorsement,
which is also in the handwriting of Mr. Henry himself:—'The
within resolutions passed the house of burgesses in May, 1765.
They formed the first opposition to the stamp act, and the
scheme of taxing America by the British parliament. All the
colonies, either through fear, or want of opportunity to form
an opposition, or from influence of some kind or other, had
remained silent. I had been for the first time elected a
burgess, a few days before, was young, inexperienced,
unacquainted with the forms of the house, and the members that
composed it. Finding the men of weight averse to opposition,
and the commencement of the tax at hand, and that no person
was likely to step forth, I determined to venture, and alone,
unadvised, and unassisted, on a blank leaf of an old law-book
wrote the within. Upon offering them to the house, violent
debates ensued. Many threats were uttered, and much abuse cast
on me, by the party for submission. After a long and warm
contest, the resolutions passed by a very small majority,
perhaps of one or two only. The alarm spread throughout
America with astonishing quickness, and the ministerial party
were overwhelmed. The great point of resistance to British
taxation was universally established in the colonies. This
brought on the war, which finally separated the two countries,
and gave independence to ours. Whether this will prove a
blessing or a curse will depend upon the use our people make
of the blessings which a gracious God hath bestowed on us. If
they are wise, they will be great and happy. If they are of a
contrary character, they will be miserable. Righteousness
alone can exalt them as a nation. Reader! whoever thou art,
remember this; and in thy sphere, practise virtue thyself, and
encourage it in others.—P. Henry.' Such is the short, plain,
and modest account which Mr. Henry has left of this
transaction. … It is not wonderful that even the friends of
colonial rights who knew the feeble and defenceless situation
of this country should be startled at a step so bold and
daring. That effect was produced; and the resolutions were
resisted, not only by the aristocracy of the house, but by
many of those who were afterward distinguished among the
brightest champions of American liberty. The following is Mr.
Jefferson's account of this transaction: 'Mr. Henry moved and
Mr. Johnston seconded these resolutions successively. They
were opposed by Messrs. Randolph, Bland, Pendleton, Wythe, and
all the old members, whose influence in the house had, till
then, been unbroken. They did it, not from any question of our
rights, but on the ground that the same sentiments had been,
at their preceding session, expressed in a more conciliatory
form, to which the answers were not yet received. But torrents
of sublime eloquence from Henry, backed by the solid reasoning
of Johnston, prevailed. The last, however, and strongest
resolution was carried but by a single vote. The debate on it
was most bloody. I was then but a student, and stood at the
door of communication between the house and the lobby (for as
yet there was no gallery) during the whole debate and vote;
and I well remember that, after the numbers on the division
were told and declared from the chair, Peyton Randolph (the
attorney-general) came out at the door where I was standing,
and said, as he entered the lobby: "By God, I would have given
500 guineas for a single vote": for one would have divided the
house, and Robinson was in the chair, who he knew would have
negatived the resolution. Mr. Henry left town that evening;
and the next morning, before the meeting of the house, Colonel
Peter Randolph, then of the council, came to the hall of
burgesses, and sat at the clerk's table till the house-bell
rang, thumbing over the volumes of journals, to find a
precedent for expunging a vote of the house. … Some of the
timid members, who had voted for the strongest resolution, had
become alarmed; and as soon as the house met, a motion was
made and carried to expunge it from the journals.' … The
manuscript journal of the day is not to be found; whether it
was suppressed, or casually lost, must remain a matter of
uncertainty; it disappeared, however, shortly after the
session. … In the interesting fact of the erasure of the fifth
resolution, Mr. Jefferson is supported by the distinct
recollection of Mr. Paul Carrington, late a judge of the court
of appeals of Virginia. and the only surviving member, it is
believed, of the house of burgesses of 1765. The statement is
also confirmed, if indeed further confirmation were necessary,
by the circumstance that instead of the five resolutions, so
solemnly recorded by Mr. Henry, as having passed the house,
the journal of the day exhibits only … four. … 'By these
resolutions,' says Mr. Jefferson, 'and his manner of
supporting them, Mr. Henry took the lead out of the hands of
those who had, theretofore, guided the proceedings of the
house; that is to say, of Pendleton, Wythe, Bland, Randolph.'
It was, indeed, the measure which raised him to the zenith of
his glory. He had never before had a subject which entirely
matched his genius, and was capable of drawing out all the
powers of his mind. … It was in the midst of this magnificent
debate, while he was descanting on the tyranny of the
obnoxious act, that he exclaimed in a voice of thunder, and
with the look of a god: 'Cesar had his Brutus—Charles the
First, his Cromwell—and George the Third—('Treason!' cried the
speaker—'Treason, treason!' echoed from every part of the
house. It was one of those trying moments which is decisive of
character. Henry faltered not for an instant; but rising to a
loftier attitude, and fixing on the speaker an eye of the most
determined fire, he finished his sentence with the firmest
emphasis)—may profit by their example. If this be treason,
make the most of it.' This was the only expression of defiance
which escaped him during the debate. He was, throughout life,
one of the most perfectly and uniformly decorous speakers that
ever took the floor of the house. … From the period of which
we have been speaking, Mr. Henry became the idol of the people
of Virginia; nor was his name confined to his native state.
His light and heat were seen and felt throughout the
continent; and he was every where regarded as the great
champion of colonial liberty."
_W. Wirt,
Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry,
section 2._
{3189}
"The publication of Mr. Henry's resolutions against the Stamp
Act created a widespread and intense excitement. They were
hailed as the action of the oldest, and hitherto the most
loyal of the colonies; and as raising a standard of resistance
to the detested Act. Mr. Otis pronounced them treasonable, and
this was the verdict of the Government party. But, treasonable
or not, they struck a chord which vibrated throughout America.
Hutchinson declared that, 'nothing extravagant appeared in the
papers till an account was received of the Virginia resolves.'
Soon the bold exclamation of Mr. Henry in moving them was
published, and he was hailed as the leader raised up by
Providence for the occasion. The 'Boston Gazette' declared:
'The people of Virginia have spoken very sensibly, and the
frozen politicians of a more northern government say they have
spoken treason.' But the people were no longer to be held down
by 'the frozen politicians,' north or south. They commenced to
form secret societies pledged to the resistance of the Act by
all lawful means, which we called 'The Sons of Liberty.'"
_W. W. Henry,
Patrick Henry: Life, Correspondence and Speeches,
volume 1, pages 93-94._
At New York, "in May articles began to appear in the papers
congratulating the public on the patriotic and frugal spirit
that was beginning to reign in the Province of New York. The
principal gentlemen of the city clad themselves in country
manufactures or 'turned clothes.' Weyman printed in large type
in his paper, the New York Gazette, the patriotic motto 'It is
better to wear a homespun coat than lose our liberty.'
Spinning was daily in vogue; materials being more wanting than
industrial hands; a need the farmers were endeavoring to
remedy by sewing more flax seed and keeping more sheep, and
finally we notice the odd statement 'that little lamb came to
market as no true lovers of their country or whose sympathetic
breasts feel for its distresses will buy it, and that
sassafras, balm and sage were greatly in use instead of tea
and allowed to be more wholesome.' Funerals and mourning,
which were then expensive luxuries, were modified and their
extravagance curtailed. The Society for promoting Arts and
Manufactures resolved to establish a bleaching field and to
erect a flax spinning school where the poor children of the
city should be taught the art. They also ordered large numbers
of spinning wheels to be made and loaned to all who would use
them. In September we find it announced that women's shoes
were made, cheaper and better than the renowned Hoses,' by
Wells, Lasher, Bolton, and Davis, and that there was a good
assortment on hand; that boots and men's shoes were made, in
every quarter of the city, better than the English made for
foreign sale; wove thread stockings in sundry places; the
making of linen, woolen, and cotton stuffs was fast
increasing; gloves, hats, carriages, harness and cabinet work
were plenty. The people were now self dependent; cards now
appeared recommending that no true friend of his country
should buy or import English goods, and the dry goods men were
warned that their importations would lie on hand to their cost
and ruin. There being now a sufficiency of home made goods it
was proposed on the 19th October to establish a market for all
kinds of Home Manufactures; and a market was opened under the
Exchange in Broad Street on the 23d. From the shortness of the
notice the design was not sufficiently known in the country
and there was neither plenty nor variety; but numbers of
buyers appeared and everything went off readily at good
prices. The gentlemen merchants of the city, as they were
styled, were not behind any class in patriotism or sacrifice.
A meeting was called for Monday 28th October at Jones' house
in the Fields, 'The Freemasons Arms,' but the attendance,
owing to the short notice, not being sufficient to enter upon
business, they were again summoned on the 30th October to meet
the next day at four o'clock at Mr. Burns' long room at the
City Arms to fall upon such methods as they shall then think
most advisable for their reciprocal interest. On the 31st
there was a general meeting of the principal merchants at this
tavern, which was known under the various names of the City
Arms, the Province Arms, the New York Arms, and stood on the
upper corner of Broadway and Stone, now Thames street, on the
site later occupied by the City Hotel. Resolutions were
adopted and subscribed by upwards of two hundred of the
principal merchants; 1st, to accompany all orders to Great
Britain for goods or merchandize of any nature kind or quality
whatever with instructions that they be not shipped unless the
Stamp Act be repealed; 2nd, to countermand all outstanding
orders unless on the conditions mentioned in the foregoing
resolution; 3rd, not to vend any goods sent on commission,
shipped after the 1st January succeeding, unless upon the same
condition. In consequence of these resolutions the retailers
of goods subscribed a paper obliging themselves not to buy any
goods, wares or merchandize after the 1st January unless the
Stamp Act were repealed. This was the first of the famous Non
Importation Agreement, the great commercial measure of offense
and defense against Great Britain. It punished friends and
foes alike and plunged a large portion of the English people
into the deepest distress; at the same time it taught the
Colonies the value and extent of their own resources."
_J. A. Stevens,
The Stamp Act in New York
(Magazine of American History, June, 1877)._
The Stamp Act was reprinted in New York "with a death's-head
upon it in place of the royal arms, and it was hawked about
the streets under the title of 'The Folly of England and the
Ruin of America.' In Boston, the church-bells were tolled, and
the flags on the shipping put at half-mast. But formal
defiance came first from Virginia." Patrick Henry had just
been elected to the colonial assembly. "In a committee of the
whole house, he drew up a series of resolutions, declaring
that the colonists were entitled to all the liberties and
privileges of natural-born subjects, and that 'the taxation of
the people by themselves, or by persons chosen by themselves
to represent them, … is the distinguishing characteristic of
British freedom, without which the ancient constitution cannot
exist.'
{3190}
It was further declared that any attempt to vest the power of
taxation in any other body than the colonial assembly was a
menace to British no less than to American freedom; that the
people of Virginia were not bound to obey any law enacted in
disregard of these fundamental principles; and that anyone who
should maintain the contrary should be regarded as a public
enemy. It was in the lively debate which ensued upon these
resolutions, that Henry uttered those memorable words
commending the example of Tarquin and Cæsar and Charles I. to
the attention of George III. Before the vote had been taken
upon all the resolutions, Governor Fauquier dissolved the
assembly; but the resolutions were printed in the newspapers,
and hailed with approval all over the country. Meanwhile, the
Massachusetts legislature, at the suggestion of Otis, had
issued a circular letter to all the colonies, calling for a
general congress, in order to concert measures of resistance
to the Stamp Act. The first cordial response came from South
Carolina, at the instance of Christopher Gadsden, a wealthy
merchant of Charleston and a scholar learned in Oriental
languages, a man of rare sagacity and most liberal spirit. …
The first announcement of the Stamp Act had called into
existence a group of secret societies of workingmen known as
'Sons of Liberty,' in allusion to a famous phrase in one of
Colonel Barre's speeches. These societies were solemnly
pledged to resist the execution of the obnoxious law. On the
14th of August, the quiet town of Boston witnessed some
extraordinary proceedings. …
See LIBERTY TREE.
Twelve days after, a mob sacked the splendid house of Chief
Justice Hutchinson, threw his plate into the street, and
destroyed the valuable library which he had been thirty years
in collecting, and which contained many manuscripts, the loss
of which was quite irreparable. As usual with mobs, the
vengeance fell in the wrong place, for Hutchinson had done his
best to prevent the passage of the Stamp Act. In most of the
colonies, the stamp officers were compelled to resign their
posts. Boxes of stamps arriving by ship were burned or thrown
into the sea. … In New York, the presence of the troops for a
moment encouraged the lieutenant-governor, Colden, to take a
bold stand in behalf of the law. He talked of firing upon the
people, but was warned that if he did so he would be speedily
hanged on a lamp-post, like Captain Porteous of Edinburgh. A
torchlight procession, carrying images of Colden and of the
devil, broke into the governor's coach-house, and, seizing his
best chariot, paraded it about town with the images upon it,
and finally burned up chariot and images on the Bowling Green,
in full sight of Colden and the garrison, who looked on from
the Battery, speechless with rage, but afraid to interfere.
Gage did not dare to have the troops used, for fear of
bringing on a civil war; and the next day the discomfited
Colden was obliged to surrender all the stamps to the common
council of New York, by whom they were at once locked up in
the City Hall. Nothing more was needed to prove the
impossibility of carrying the Stamp Act into effect."
_J. Fiske,
The American Revolution,
volume 1, chapter 1._
In Connecticut the stamp agent, Mr. Ingersoll, was compelled
by a body of armed citizens to resign.
See CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1765.
ALSO IN:
_D. R. Goodloe,
The Birth of the Republic,
chapter 1,
(a compilation of accounts of proceedings in the
several colonies)._
_W. Tudor,
Life of James Otis,
chapter 14._
_W. V. Wells,
Life of Samuel Adams,
volume 1, chapter 2._
_I. W. Stuart,
Life of Jonathan Trumbull,
chapters. 7-8._
_T. Hutchinson,
History of Province of Massachusetts Bay, 1749-1774,
pages 117-141. _
_H. S. Randall,
Life of Jefferson,
volume 1, chapter 2._
_M. C. Tyler,
Patrick Henry,
chapter 5._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1765.
The Stamp Act Congress.
The delegates chosen, on the invitation of Massachusetts, to
attend a congress for consultation on the circumstances of the
colonies, met, October 7, 1765, in the City Hall at New York.
"In no place were the Sons of Liberty more determined, or were
their opponents more influential. It was the headquarters of
the British force in America, the commander of which, General
Gage, wielded the powers of a viceroy. A fort within the city
was heavily mounted with cannon. Ships of war were moored near
the wharves. The executive, Lieutenant-governor Colden, was
resolved to execute the law. When the Massachusetts delegates
called on him, he remarked that the proposed congress would be
unconstitutional, and, unprecedented, and he should give it no
countenance. The congress consisted of twenty-eight delegates
from nine of the colonies; four, though sympathizing with the
movement, not choosing representatives. Here several of the
patriots, who had discussed the American question in their
localities, met for the first time. James Otis stood in this
body the foremost speaker. His pen, with the pens of the
brothers Robert and Phillip Livingston, of New York, were
summoned to service in a wider field. John Dickinson, of
Pennsylvania, was soon to be known through the colonies by
'The Farmer's Letters.' Thomas McKean and Cæsar Rodney were
pillars of the cause in Delaware. Edward Tilghman was an
honored name in Maryland. South Carolina, in addition to the
intrepid Gadsden, had, in Thomas Lynch and John Rutledge, two
patriots who appear prominently in the subsequent career of
that colony. Thus this body was graced by large ability,
genius, learning, and common sense. It was calm in its
deliberations, seeming unmoved by the whirl of the political
waters. The congress organized by the choice, by one vote, of
Timothy Ruggles, a Tory,—as the chairman,—and John Cotton,
clerk. The second day of its session, it took into
consideration the rights, privileges, and grievances of the
British American colonists.' After eleven days' debate, it
agreed—each colony having one vote—upon a declaration of
rights and grievances and ordered it to be inserted in the
journal. [The following is the 'Declaration': 'The members of
this congress, sincerely devoted, with the warmest sentiments
of affection and duty, to his majesty's person and government,
inviolably attached to the present happy establishment of the
protestant succession, and with minds deeply impressed by a
sense of the present and impending misfortunes of the British
colonies on this continent; having considered, as maturely as
time will permit, the circumstances of the said colonies,
esteem it our indispensable duty to make the following
declarations of our humble opinion, respecting the most
essential rights and liberties of the colonists, and of the
grievances under which they labor by reason of several late
acts of parliament.
{3191}
1. That his majesty's subjects in these colonies owe the same
allegiance to the crown of Great Britain that is owing from
his subjects born within the realm, and all due subordination
to that august body the parliament of Great Britain.
2. That his majesty's liege subjects in these colonies are
entitled to all the inherent rights and liberties of his
natural born subjects within the kingdom of Great Britain.
3. That it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a
people, and the undoubted right of Englishmen, that no taxes
be imposed on them, but with their own consent, given
personally, or by their representatives.
4. That the people of these colonies are not, and from their
local circumstances cannot be, represented in the house of
commons of Great Britain.
5. That the only representatives of these colonies are persons
chosen therein by themselves, and that no taxes ever have been
or can be constitutionally imposed upon them, but by their
respective legislatures.
6. That all supplies to the crown being free gifts from the
people, it is unreasonable and inconsistent with the
principles and spirit of the British constitution for the
people of Great Britain to grant to his majesty the property
of the colonists.
7. That trial by jury is the inherent and invaluable right of
every British subject in these colonies.
8. That the late act of parliament entitled 'an act for
granting and applying certain stamp duties, and other duties,
in the British colonies and plantations in America,' &c., by
imposing taxes on the inhabitants of these colonies; and the
said act, and several other acts, by extending the
jurisdiction of the court of admiralty beyond its ancient
limits, have a manifest tendency to subvert the rights and
liberties of the colonists.
9. That the duties imposed by several late acts of parliament,
from the peculiar circumstances of these colonies, will be
extremely burdensome and grievous; and from the scarcity of
specie, the payment of them absolutely impracticable.
10. That as the profits of the trade of these colonies
ultimately center in Great Britain, to pay for the
manufactures which they are obliged to take from thence, they
eventually contribute very largely to all supplies granted to
the crown.
11. That the restrictions imposed by several late acts of
parliament on the trade of these colonies, will render them
unable to purchase the manufactures of Great Britain.
12. That the increase, prosperity, and happiness of these
colonies depend on the full and free enjoyment of their rights
and liberties, and an intercourse with Great Britain mutually
affectionate and advantageous.
13. That it is the right of the British subjects in these
colonies to petition the king, or either house of parliament.
14. That it is the indispensable duty of these colonies, to
the best of sovereigns, to the mother country, and to
themselves, to endeavor, by a loyal and dutiful address to his
majesty, and humble application to both houses of parliament,
to procure the repeal of the act for granting and applying
certain stamp duties, of all clauses of any other acts of
parliament whereby the jurisdiction of the admiralty is
extended as aforesaid, and of the other late acts for the
restriction of American commerce.'] …
The delegates present from only six of the colonies—except
Ruggles and Ogden—signed the petition; those from New York,
Connecticut, and South Carolina not being authorized to sign.
On the 25th of October, the congress adjourned. Special
measures were taken to transmit the proceedings to the
unrepresented colonies. The several assemblies, on meeting,
heartily approved of the course of their delegates who
concurred in the action of congress; but Ruggles, of
Massachusetts, was reprimanded by the speaker, in the name of
the House, and Ogden, of New Jersey, was hung in effigy by the
people. The action of the assemblies was announced in the
press. Meanwhile the Sons of Liberty, through their committees
of correspondence, urged a continental Union; pledged a mutual
support in case of danger; in some instances stated the
numbers of armed men that might be relied on; and thus evinced
a common determination to resist the execution of the Stamp
Act."
_R. Frothingham,
Rise of the Republic of the United States,
chapter 5._
ALSO IN:
_T. Pitkin,
History of the United States,
volume 1, appendices 5-9._
_H. Niles,
Principles and Acts of the Revolution (edition of 1876),
pages 155-168._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1765-1768.
Treaties with the Indians at German Flats and Fort Stanwix.
Cession of Iroquois claims to western Pennsylvania,
West Virginia and Kentucky.
The drawing of the Indian boundary line.
"After the success of Bradstreet and Bouquet [see PONTIAC'S
WAR], there was no difficulty in concluding a treaty with all
the Western Indians; and late in April, 1765, Sir William
Johnson, at the German Flats, held a conference with the
various nations, and settled a definite peace. At this meeting
two propositions were made; the one to fix some boundary line,
west of which the Europeans should not go; and the savages
named, as this line, the Ohio or Alleghany and Susquehannah;
but no definite agreement was made, Johnson not being
empowered to act. The other proposal was, that the Indians
should grant to the traders, who had suffered in 1763, a tract
of land in compensation for the injuries then done them, and
to this the red men agreed. … During the very year that
succeeded the treaty of German Flats, settlers crossed the
mountains and took possession of lands in western Virginia and
along the Monongahela. The Indians, having received no pay for
these lands, murmured, and once more a border war was feared.
… And not only were frontier men thus passing the line tacitly
agreed on, but Sir William himself was even then meditating a
step which would have produced, had it been taken, a general
Indian war again. This was the purchase and settlement of an
immense tract south of the Ohio River, where an independent
colony was to be formed. How early this plan was conceived we
do not learn, but, from Franklin's letters, we find that it
was in contemplation in the spring of 1766. At that time
Franklin was in London, and was written to by his son,
Governor Franklin of New Jersey, with regard to the proposed
colony. The plan seems to have been to buy of the Six Nations
the lands south of the Ohio, a purchase which it was not
doubted Sir William might make, and then to procure from the
King a grant of as much territory as the Company which it was
intended to form would require. Governor Franklin,
accordingly, forwarded to his father an application for a
grant, together with a letter from Sir William, recommending
the plan to the ministry; all of which was duly communicated
to the proper department. But at that time there were various
interests bearing upon this plan of Franklin. The old Ohio
Company [see OHIO (VALLEY): A. D. 1748-1754] was still suing,
through its agent, Colonel George Mercer, for a perfection of
the original grant. …
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General Lyman, from Connecticut we believe, was soliciting a
new grant similar to that now asked by Franklin; and the
ministers themselves were divided as to the policy and
propriety of establishing any settlements so far in the
interior,—Shelburne being in favor of the new colony,
Hillsborough opposed to it. The Company was organized,
however, and the nominally leading man therein being Mr.
Thomas' Walpole, a London banker of eminence, it was known as
the Walpole Company. … Before any conclusion was come to, it
was necessary to arrange definitely that boundary line which
had been vaguely talked of in 1765, and with respect to which
Sir William Johnson had written to the ministry, who had
mislaid his letters and given him no instructions. The
necessity of arranging this boundary was also kept in mind by
the continued and growing irritation of the Indians, who found
themselves invaded from every side. … Franklin, the father,
all this time, was urging the same necessity upon the
ministers in England; and about Christmas of 1767, Sir
William's letters on the subject having been found, orders
were sent him to complete the proposed purchase from the Six
Nations, and settle all differences. But the project for a
colony was for the time dropped, a new administration coming
in which was not that way disposed. Sir William Johnson having
received, early in the spring, the orders from England
relative to a new treaty with the Indians, at once took steps
to secure a full attendance. Notice was given to the various
colonial governments, to the Six Nations, the Delawares, and
the Shawanese, and a Congress was appointed to meet at Fort
Stanwix during the following October. It met upon the 24th of
that month, and was attended by representatives from New
Jersey, Virginia, and Pennsylvania; by Sir William and his
deputies; by the agents of those traders who had suffered in
the war of 1763; and by deputies from all of the Six Nations,
the Delawares, and the Shawanese. The first point to be
settled was the boundary line which was to determine the
Indian lands of the West from that time forward; and this line
the Indians, upon the 1st of November, stated should begin on
the Ohio at the mouth of the Cherokee (or Tennessee) river;
thence go up the Ohio and Alleghany to Kittaning; thence
across to the Susquehannah, &c.; whereby the whole country
south of the Ohio and Alleghany, to which the Six Nations had
any claim, was transferred to the British. One deed, for a
part of this land, was made on the 3d of November to William
Trent, attorney for twenty-two traders, whose goods had been
destroyed by the Indians in 1763. The tract conveyed by this
was between the Kenhawa and Monongahela, and was by the
traders named 'Indiana.' Two days afterward, a deed for the
remaining western lands was made to the King, and the price
agreed on paid down. These deeds were made upon the express
agreement, that no claim should ever be based upon previous
treaties, those of Lancaster, Logstown, &c.; and they were
signed by the chiefs of the Six Nations, for themselves, their
allies and dependents, the Shawanese, Delawares, Mingoes of
Ohio, and others; but the Shawanese and Delaware deputies
present did not sign them. Such was the treaty of Stanwix,
whereon rests the title by purchase to Kentucky, western
Virginia, and Pennsylvania. It was a better foundation,
perhaps, than that given by previous treaties, but was
essentially worthless; for the lands conveyed were not
occupied or hunted on by those conveying them. In truth, we
cannot doubt that this immense grant was obtained by the
influence of Sir William Johnson, in order that the new
colony, of which he was to be governor, might be founded
there. … The white man could now quiet his conscience when
driving the native from his forest home, and feel sure that an
army would back his pretensions. … Meantime more than one bold
man had ventured for a little while into the beautiful valleys
of Kentucky, and, on the 1st of May, 1769, there was one going
forth from his 'peaceable habitation on the Yadkin river in
North Carolina,' whose name has since gone far and wide over
this little planet of ours, he having become the type of his
class. This was Daniel Boone. He crossed the mountains, and
spent that summer and the next winter in the West. But, while
he was rejoicing in the abundance of buffalo, deer, and
turkeys among the cane-brakes, longer heads were meditating
still that new colony, the plan of which had been lying in
silence for two years and more. The Board of Trade was again
called on to report upon the application, and Lord
Hillsborough, the President, reported against it. This called
out Franklin's celebrated 'Ohio Settlement,' a paper written
with so much ability, that the King's Council put by the
official report, and granted the petition, a step which
mortified the noble lord so much that he resigned his official
station. The petition now needed only the royal sanction,
which was not given until August 14th, 1772; but in 1770, the
Ohio Company was merged in Walpole's, and, the claims of the
soldiers of 1756 being acknowledged both by the new Company
and by government, all claims were quieted. Nothing was ever
done, however, under the grant to Walpole, the Revolution soon
coming upon America. After the Revolution, Mr. Walpole and his
associates petitioned Congress respecting their lands, called
by them 'Vandalia,' but could get no help from that body. What
was finally done by Virginia with the claims of this and other
companies, we do not find written, but presume their lands
were all looked on as forfeited."
_J. H. Perkins,
English Discoveries in the Ohio Valley
(North American Review, July, 1839)._
ALSO IN:
_W. L. Stone,
Life and Times of Sir William Johnson,
volume 2, chapter 16._
_B. Franklin, Works,
(edited by Sparks),
volume 4, pages 233-241, and 302-380._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1766.
Examination of Dr. Franklin before Parliament.
On the 28th of January, 1766, while the bill for the repeal of
the Stamp Act was pending in Parliament, Dr. Franklin was
examined before the House of Commons, in Committee. The
questions and answers of this very interesting examination, as
reported in the Parliamentary History, were as follows:
Q. What is your name, and place of abode?
A. Franklin, of Philadelphia.
Q. Do the Americans pay any considerable taxes among
themselves?
A. Certainly many, and very heavy taxes.
Q. What are the present taxes in Pennsylvania,
laid by the laws of the colony?
A. There are taxes on all estates real and personal, a
poll-tax, a tax on all offices, professions, trades, and
businesses, according to their profits; an excise on all wine,
rum, and other spirit; and a duty of ten pounds per head on all
negroes imported, with some other duties.
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Q. For what purposes are those taxes laid?
A. For the support of the civil and military establishments
of the country, and to discharge the heavy debt contracted
in the last war.
Q. How long are those taxes to continue?
A. Those for discharging the debt are to continue till 1772,
and longer, if the debt should not be then all discharged. The
others must always continue.
Q. Was it not expected that the debt would have been sooner
discharged?
A. It was, when the peace was made with France and Spain; but
a fresh war breaking out with the Indians, a fresh load of
debt was incurred, and the taxes, of course, continued longer
by a new law.
Q. Are not all the people very able to pay those taxes?
A. No. The frontier counties, all along the continent, having
been frequently ravaged by the enemy, and greatly
impoverished, are able to pay very little tax. And therefore,
in consideration of their distresses, our late tax laws do
expressly favour those counties, excusing the sufferers; and I
suppose the same is done in other governments.
Q. Are not you concerned in the management of the post office
in America?
A. Yes; I am deputy post-master general of North America.
Q. Don't you think the distribution of stamps, by post, to all
the inhabitants, very practicable, if there was no opposition?
A. The posts only go along the sea coasts; they do not, except
in a few instances, go back into the country; and if they did,
sending for stamps by post would occasion an expense of
postage, amounting, in many cases, to much more than that of
the stamps themselves.
Q. Are you acquainted with Newfoundland?
A. I never was there.
Q. Do you know whether there are any post-roads on that
island?
A. I have heard that there are no roads at all; but that the
communication between one settlement and another is by sea
only.
Q. Can you disperse the stamps by post in Canada?
A. There is only a post between Montreal and Quebec. The
inhabitants live so scattered and remote from each other, in
that vast country, that posts cannot be supported among them,
and therefore they cannot get stamps per post. The English
colonies too, along the frontiers, are very thinly settled.
Q. From the thinness of the back settlements,
would not the Stamp Act be extremely inconvenient
to the inhabitants if executed?
A. To be sure it would; as many of the inhabitants could not
get stamps when they had occasion for them, without taking
long journeys, and spending, perhaps, three or four pounds,
that the crown might get sixpence.
Q. Are not the colonies, from their circumstances, very able
to pay the stamp duty?
A. In my opinion, there is not gold and silver enough in the
colonies to pay the stamp duty for one year.
Q. Don't you know that the money arising from the stamps was
all to be laid out in America?
A. I know it is appropriated by the act to the American
service; but it will be spent in the conquered colonies, where
the soldiers are, not in the colonies that pay it.
Q. Is there not a balance of trade due from the colonies where
the troops are posted, that will bring back the money to the
old colonies?
A. I think not. I believe very little would come back. I know
of no trade likely to bring it back. I think it would come
from the colonies where it was spent directly to England; for
I have always observed, that in every colony the more plenty
of means of remittance to England, the more goods are sent
for, and the more trade with England carried on.
Q. What number of white inhabitants do you think there are in
Pennsylvania?
A. I suppose there may be about 160,000.
Q. What number of them are Quakers?
A. Perhaps a third.
Q. What number of Germans?
A. Perhaps another third; but I cannot speak with certainty.
Q. Have any number of the Germans seen service, as soldiers,
in Europe?
A. Yes, many of them, both in Europe and America.
Q. Are they as much dissatisfied with the stamp duty as the
English?
A. Yes, and more; and with reason, as their stamps are, in
many cases, to be double.
Q. How many white men do you suppose there are in North
America?
A. About 300,000, from 16 to 60 years of age.
Q. What may be the amount of one year's imports into
Pennsylvania from Britain?
A. I have been informed that our merchants compute the imports
from Britain to be above 500,000_l_.
Q. What may be the amount of the produce of your province
exported to Britain?
A. It must be small, as we produce little that is wanted
in Britain. I suppose it cannot exceed 40,000_l_.
Q. How then do you pay the balance?
A. The balance is paid by our produce carried to the West
Indies, and sold in our own islands, or to the French,
Spaniards, Danes, and Dutch; by the same carried to other
colonies in North America, as to New England, Nova Scotia,
Newfoundland, Carolina, and Georgia; by the same carried to
different parts of Europe, as Spain, Portugal and Italy. In
all which places we receive either money, bills of exchange,
or commodities that suit for remittance to Britain; which,
together with all the profits on the industry of our merchants
and mariners, arising in those circuitous voyages, and the
freights made by their ships, centre finally in Britain to
discharge the balance, and pay for British manufactures
continually used in the province, or sold to foreigners by our
traders.
Q. Have you heard of any difficulties lately laid on the
Spanish trade?
A. Yes, I have heard that it has been greatly obstructed by
some new regulations, and by the English men of war and
cutters stationed all along the coast in America.
Q. Do you think it right, that America should be protected by
this country, and pay no part of the expense?
A. That is not the case. The colonies raised, clothed and
paid, during the last war, nearly 25,000 men, and spent many
millions.
Q. Were you not reimbursed by parliament? A. We were only
reimbursed what, in your opinion, we had advanced beyond our
proportion, or beyond what might reasonably be expected from
us; and it was a very small part of what we spent.
Pennsylvania, in particular, disbursed about 500,000_l_,
and the reimbursements, in the whole, did not exceed
60,000_l_.
Q. You have said that you pay heavy taxes in Pennsylvania;
what do they amount to in the pound?
A. The tax on all estates, real and personal, is eighteen
pence in the pound, fully rated; and the tax on the profits of
trades and professions, with other taxes, do, I suppose, make
full half a crown in the pound.
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Q. Do you know any thing of the rate of exchange in
Pennsylvania, and whether it has fallen lately?
A. It is commonly from 170 to 175. I have heard that it has
fallen lately from 175 to 162 and a half, owing, I suppose, to
their lessening their orders for goods; and when their debts
to this country are paid, I think the exchange will probably
be at par.
Q. Do not you think the people of America would submit to pay
the stamp duty, if it was moderated?
A. No, never, unless compelled by force of arms.
Q. Are not the taxes in Pennsylvania laid on unequally, in
order to burden the English trade, particularly the tax on
professions and business?
A. It is not more burdensome in proportion than the tax on
lands. It is intended, and supposed to take an equal
proportion of profits.
Q. How is the assembly composed? Of what kinds of people are
the members, landholders or traders?
A. It is composed of landholders, merchants, and artificers.
Q. Are not the majority landholders?
A. I believe they are.
Q. Do not they, as much as possible, shift the tax off from
the land, to ease that; and lay the burthen heavier on trade?
A. I have never understood it so. I never heard such a thing
suggested. And indeed an attempt of that kind could answer no
purpose. The merchant or trader is always skilled in figures,
and ready with his pen and ink. If unequal burdens are laid on
his trade, he puts an additional price on his goods; and the
consumers, who are chiefly landholders, finally pay the
greatest part, if not the whole.
Q. What was the temper of America towards Great Britain before
the year 1763?
A. The best in the world. They submitted willingly to the
government of the crown, and paid, in all their courts,
obedience to acts of parliament. Numerous as the people are in
the several old provinces, they cost you nothing in forts,
citadels, garrisons or armies, to keep them in subjection.
They were governed by this country at the expense only of a
little pen, ink, and paper. They were led by a thread. They
had not only a respect, but an affection for Great Britain,
for its laws, its customs and manners, and even a fondness for
its fashions, that greatly increased the commerce. Natives of
Britain were always treated with particular regard; to be an
Old-England man was, of itself, a character of some respect,
and gave a kind of rank among us.
Q. And what is their temper now?
A. O, very much altered.
Q. Did you ever hear the authority of parliament to make laws
for America questioned till lately?
A. The authority of parliament was allowed to be valid in all
laws, except such as should lay internal taxes. It was never
disputed in laying duties to regulate commerce.
Q. In what proportion hath population increased in America?
A. I think the inhabitants of all the provinces together,
taken at a medium, double in about 25 years. But their demand
for British manufactures increases much faster, as the
consumption is not merely in proportion to their numbers, but
grows with the growing abilities of the same numbers to pay
for them. In 1723, the whole importation from Britain to
Pennsylvania, was but about 15,000_l_. sterling; it is
now near half a million.
Q. In what light did the people of America use to consider the
parliament of Great Britain?
A. They considered the parliament as the great bulwark and
security of their liberties and privileges, and always spoke
of it with the utmost respect and veneration. Arbitrary
ministers, they thought, might possibly, at times, attempt to
oppress them; but they relied on it, that the parliament, on
application, would always give redress. They remembered, with
gratitude, a strong instance of this, when a bill was brought
into parliament, with a clause to make royal instructions laws
in the colonies, which the House of Commons would not pass,
and it was thrown out.
Q. And have they not still the same respect for parliament?
A. No; it is greatly lessened.
Q. To what causes is that owing?
A. To a concurrence of causes; the restraints lately laid on
their trade, by which the bringing of foreign gold and silver
into the colonies was prevented; the prohibition of making
paper money among themselves; and then demand a new and heavy
tax by stamps; taking away at the same time, trials by juries,
and refusing to receive and hear their humble petitions.
Q. Don't you think they would submit to the Stamp Act, if it
was modified, the obnoxious parts taken out, and the duty
reduced to some particulars, of small moment?
A. No; they will never submit to it.
Q. What do you think is the reason that the people of America
increase faster than in England?
A. Because they marry younger, and more generally.
Q. Why so?
A. Because any young couple that are industrious, may easily
obtain land of their own, on which they can raise a family.
Q. Are not the lower rank of people more at their ease in
America than in England?
A. They may be so, if they are sober and diligent, as they
are better paid for their labour.
Q. What is your opinion of a future tax, imposed on the same
principle with that of the Stamp Act, how would the Americans
receive it?
A. Just as they do this. They would not pay it.
Q. Have not you heard of the resolution of this House, and of
the House of Lords, asserting the right of parliament relating
to America, including a power to tax the people there?
A. Yes, I have heard of such resolutions.
Q. What will be the opinion of the Americans on those
resolutions?
A. They will think them unconstitutional and unjust.
Q. Was it an opinion in America before 1763, that the
parliament had no right to lay taxes and duties there?
A. I never heard any objection to the right of laying duties
to regulate commerce; but a right to lay internal taxes was
never supposed to be in parliament, as we are not represented
there.
Q. On what do you found your opinion, that the people in
America made any such distinction?
A. I know that whenever the subject has occurred in
conversation where I have been present, it has appeared to be
the opinion of every one, that we could not be taxed in a
parliament where we were not represented. But the payment of
duties laid by act of parliament, as regulations of commerce,
was never disputed.
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Q. But can you name any act of assembly, or public act of
any of your governments, that made such distinction?
A. I do not know that there was any; I think there was never
an occasion to make any such act, till now that you have
attempted to tax us: that has occasioned resolutions of
assembly, declaring the distinction, in which I think every
assembly on the continent, and every member in every assembly,
have been unanimous.
Q. What then could occasion conversations on that subject
before that time?
A. There was, in 1754, a proposition made (I think it came
from hence) that in case of a war, which was then apprehended,
the governors of the colonies should meet, and order the
levying of troops, building of forts, and taking every other
necessary measure for the general defence; and should draw on
the treasury here, for the sums expended, which were
afterwards to be raised in the colonies by a general tax, to
be laid on them by act of parliament. This occasioned a good
deal of conversation on the subject, and the general opinion
was, that the parliament neither would, nor could lay any tax
on us, till we were duly represented in parliament, because it
was not just, nor agreeable to the nature of an English
constitution.
Q. Don't you know there was a time in New York, when it was
under consideration to make an application to parliament, to
lay taxes on that colony, upon a deficiency arising from the
assembly's refusing or neglecting to raise the necessary
supplies for the support of the civil government?
A. I never heard of it.
Q. There was such an application under consideration in New
York; and do you apprehend they could suppose the right of
parliament to lay a tax in America was only local, and
confined to the case of a deficiency in a particular colony,
by a refusal of its assembly to raise the necessary supplies?
A. They could not suppose such a case, as that the assembly
would not raise the necessary supplies to support its own
government. An assembly that would refuse it, must want common
sense, which cannot be supposed. I think there was never any
such case at New York, and that it must be a
misrepresentation, or the fact must be misunderstood. I know
there have been some attempts, by ministerial instructions
from hence, to oblige the assemblies to settle permanent
salaries on governors, which they wisely refused to do; but I
believe no assembly of New York, or any other colony, ever
refused duly to support government, by proper allowances, from
time to time, to public officers.
Q. But in case a governor, acting by instruction, should call
on an assembly to raise the necessary supplies, and the
assembly should refuse to do it, do you not think it would
then be for the good of the people of the colony, as well as
necessary to government, that the parliament should tax them?
A. I do not think it would be necessary. If an assembly could
possibly be so absurd as to refuse raising the supplies
requisite for the maintenance of government among them, they
could not long remain in such a situation; the disorders and
confusion occasioned by it, must soon bring them to reason.
Q. If it should not, ought not the right to be in Great
Britain of applying a remedy?
A. A right only to be used in such a case, I should have no
objection to, supposing it to be used merely for the good of
the people of the colony.
Q. But who is to judge of that, Britain or the colony?
A. Those that feel can best judge.
Q. You say the colonies have always submitted to external
taxes, and object to the right of parliament only in laying
internal taxes; now can you shew that there is any kind of
difference between the two taxes to the colony on which they
may be laid?
A. I think the difference is very great. An external tax is a
duty laid on commodities imported; that duty is added to the
first cost, and other charges on the commodity, and when it is
offered to sale, makes a part of the price. If the people do
not like it at that price, they refuse it: they are not
obliged to pay it. But an internal tax is forced from the
people without their consent, if not laid by their own
representatives. The Stamp Act says, we shall have no
commerce, make no exchange of property with each other,
neither purchase nor grant, nor recover debts; we shall
neither marry nor make our wills, unless we pay such sums, and
thus it is intended to extort our money from us, or ruin us by
the consequences of refusing to pay it.
Q. But supposing the internal tax or duty to be laid on the
necessaries of life imported into your colony, will not that
be the same thing in its effects as an internal tax?
A. I do not know a single article imported into the northern
colonies, but what they can either do without or make
themselves.
Q. Don't you think cloth from England absolutely necessary to
them?
A. No, by no means absolutely necessary; with industry and
good management, they may very well supply themselves with all
they want.
Q. Will it not take a long time to establish that manufacture
among them; and must they not in the mean while suffer
greatly?
A. I think not. They have made a surprising progress already.
And I am of opinion, that before their old clothes are worn
out, they will have new ones of their own making.
Q. Can they possibly find wool enough in North America?
A. They have taken steps to increase the wool. They entered
into general combination to eat no more lamb, and very few
lambs were killed last year. This course persisted in, will
soon make a prodigious difference in the quantity of wool. And
the establishing of great manufactories, like those in the
clothing towns here, is not necessary, as it is where the
business is to be carried on for the purposes of trade. The
people will all spin and work for themselves, in their own
houses.
Q. Can there be wool and manufacture enough in one or two
years?
A. In three years, I think, there may.
Q. Does not the severity of the winter, in the northern
colonies, occasion the wool to be of bad quality?
A. No, the wool is very fine and good.
Q. In the more southern colonies, as in Virginia, don't you
know that the wool is coarse, and only a kind of hair?
A. I don't know it. I never heard it. Yet I have been
sometimes in Virginia. I cannot say I ever took particular
notice of the wool there, but I believe it is good, though I
cannot speak positively of it; but Virginia, and the colonies
south of it, have less occasion for wool; their winters are
short, and not very severe, and they can very well clothe
themselves with linen and cotton of their own raising for the
rest of the year.
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Q. Are not the people in the more northern colonies obliged to
fodder their sheep all the winter?
A. In some of the most northern colonies they may be obliged
to do it some part of the winter.
Q. Considering the resolutions of parliament as to the right,
do you think, if the Stamp Act is repealed, that the North
Americans will be satisfied?
A. I believe they will.
Q. Why do you think so?
A. I think the resolutions of right will give them very little
concern, if they are never attempted to be carried into
practice. The colonies will probably consider themselves in
the same situation, in that respect, with Ireland; they know
you claim the same right with regard to Ireland, but you never
exercise it. And they may believe you never will exercise it
in the colonies, any more than in Ireland, unless on some very
extraordinary occasion.
Q. But who are to be the judges of that extraordinary
occasion? Is not the parliament?
A. Though the parliament may judge of the occasion, the people
will think it can never exercise such right, till
representatives from the colonies are admitted into
parliament, and that whenever the occasion arises,
representatives will be ordered.
Q. Did you never hear that Maryland, during the last war, had
refused to furnish a quota towards the common defence?
A. Maryland has been much misrepresented in that matter.
Maryland, to my knowledge, never refused to contribute, or
grant aids to the crown. The assemblies every year, during the
war, voted considerable sums, and formed bills to raise them.
The bills were, according to the constitution of that
province, sent up to the council, or upper house, for
concurrence, that they might be presented to the governor, in
order to be enacted into laws. Unhappy disputes between the
two houses, arising from the defects of that constitution
principally, rendered all the bills but one or two abortive.
The proprietary's council rejected them. It is true, Maryland
did not contribute its proportion, but it was, in my opinion,
the fault of the government, not of the people.
Q. Was it not talked of in the other provinces as a proper
measure to apply to parliament to compel them?
A. I have heard such discourse: but as it was well known that
the people were not to blame, no such application was ever
made, or any step taken towards it.
Q. Was it not proposed at a public meeting?
A. Not that I know of.
Q. Do you remember the abolishing of the paper currency in New
England, by act of assembly?
A. I do remember its being abolished in the Massachusetts Bay.
Q. Was not lieutenant governor Hutchinson principally
concerned in that transaction?
A. I have heard so.
Q. Was it not at that time a very unpopular law?
A. I believe it might, though I can say little about it, as I
lived at a distance from that province.
Q. Was not the scarcity of gold and silver an argument used
against abolishing the paper?
A. I suppose it was.
Q. What is the present opinion there of that law? Is it as
unpopular as it was at first?
A. think it is not
.
Q. Have not instructions from hence been sometimes sent over
to governors, highly oppressive and unpolitical?
A. Yes.
Q. Have not some governors dispensed with them for that
reason?
A. Yes, I have heard so.
Q. Did the Americans ever dispute the controuling
power of parliament to regulate the commerce?
A. No.
Q. Can any thing less than a military force carry the Stamp
Act into execution?
A. I do not see how a military force can be applied to that
purpose.
Q. Why may it not?
A. Suppose a military force sent into America, they
will find nobody in arms; what are they then to do?
They cannot force a man to take stamps who chuses
to do without them. They will not find a rebellion;
they may indeed make one.
Q. If the act is not repealed, what do you think will be the
consequences?
A. A total loss of the respect and affection the people of
America bear to this country, and of all the commerce that
depends on that respect and affection.
Q. How can the commerce be affected?
A. You will find, that if the act is not repealed, they will
take very little of your manufactures in a short time.
Q. Is it in their power to do without them?
A. I think they may very well do without them.
Q. Is it their interest not to take them?
A. The goods they take from Britain are either necessaries,
mere conveniencies, or superfluities. The first, as cloth, &c.
with a little industry they can make at home: the second they
can do without, till they are able to provide them among
themselves; and the last, which are much the greatest part,
they will strike off immediately. They are mere articles of
fashion, purchased and consumed, because the fashion in a
respected country, but will now be detested and rejected. The
people have already struck off, by general agreement, the use
of all goods fashionable in mournings, and many thousand
pounds worth are sent back as unsaleable.
Q. Is it their interest to make cloth at home?
A. I think they may at present get it cheaper from Britain, I
mean of the same fineness and neatness of workmanship; but
when one considers other circumstances, the restraints on
their trade, and the difficulty of making remittances, it is
their interest to make every thing.
Q. Suppose an act of internal regulations connected with the
tax, how would they receive it?
A. I think it would be objected to.
Q. Then no regulation with a tax would be submitted to?
A. Their opinion is, that when aids to the crown are wanted,
they are to be asked of the several assemblies according to
the old established usage, who will, as they have always done,
grant them freely. And that their money ought not to be given
away, without their consent, by persons at a distance,
unacquainted with their circumstances and abilities. The
granting aids to the crown, is the only means they have of
recommending themselves to their sovereign, and they think it
extremely hard and unjust, that a body of men, in which they
have no representatives, should make a merit to itself of
giving and granting what is not its own, but theirs, and
deprives them of a right they esteem of the utmost value and
importance, as it is the security of all their other rights.
Q. But is not the post office, which they have long received,
a tax as well as a regulation?
A. No; the money paid for the postage of a letter is not of
the nature of a tax; it is merely a quantum meruit for a
service done; no person is compellable to pay the money, if he
does not chuse to receive the service. A man may still, as
before the act, send his letter by a servant, a special
messenger, or a friend, if he thinks it cheaper and safer.
{3197}
Q. But do they not consider the regulations of the
post-office, by the act of last year, as a tax?
A. By the regulations of last year the rate of postage was
generally abated near thirty per cent. through all America;
they certainly cannot consider such abatement as a tax.
Q. If an excise was laid by parliament, which they might
likewise avoid paying, by not consuming the articles excised,
would they then not object to it?
A. They would certainly object to it, as an excise is
unconnected with any service done, and is merely an aid which
they think ought to be asked of them, and granted by them if
they are to pay it, and can be granted for them, by no others
whatsoever, whom they have not impowered for that purpose.
Q. You say they do not object to the right of parliament, in
laying duties on goods to be paid on their importation; now,
is there any kind of difference between a duty on the
importation of goods and an excise on their consumption?
A. Yes; a very material one; an excise, for the reasons I have
just mentioned, they think you can have no right to lay within
their country. But the sea is yours; you maintain, by your
fleets, the safety of navigation in it, and keep it clear of
pirates; you may have therefore a natural and equitable right
to some toll or duty on merchandizes carried through that part
of your dominions, towards defraying the expense you are at in
ships to maintain the safety of that carriage.
Q. Does this reasoning hold in the case of a duty laid on the
produce of their lands exported? And would they not then
object to such a duty?
A. If it tended to make the produce so much dearer abroad as
to lessen the demand for it, to be sure they would object to
such a duty; not to your right of laying it, but they would
complain of it as a burden, and petition you to lighten it.
Q. Is not the duty paid on the tobacco exported a duty of that
kind?
A. That, I think, is only on tobacco carried coastwise from
one colony to another, and appropriated as a fund for
supporting the college at Williamsburgh, in Virginia.
Q. Have not the assemblies in the West Indies the same natural
rights with those in North America?
A. Undoubtedly.
Q. And is there not a tax laid there on their sugars exported?
A. I am not much acquainted with the West Indies, but the duty
of four and a half per cent., on sugars exported, was, I
believe, granted by their own assemblies.
Q. How much is the poll tax in your province laid on unmarried
men?
A. It is, I think, fifteen shillings, to be paid by every
single freeman, upwards of twenty one years old.
Q. What is the annual amount of all the taxes in Pennsylvania?
A. I suppose about 20,000_l_. sterling.
Q. Supposing the Stamp Act continued, and enforced, do you
imagine that ill humour will induce the Americans to give as
much for worse manufactures of their own and use them,
preferably to better of ours?
A. Yes, I think so. People will pay as freely to gratify one
passion as another, their resentment as their pride.
Q. Would the people at Boston discontinue their trade?
A. The merchants are a very small number compared with the
body of the people, and must discontinue their trade, if
nobody will buy their goods.
Q. What are the body of the people in the colonies?
A. They are farmers, husbandmen or planters.
Q. Would they suffer the produce of their lands to rot?
A. No; but they would not raise so much. They would
manufacture more, and plough less.
Q. Would they live without the administration of justice in
civil matters, and suffer all the inconveniencies of such a
situation for any considerable time, rather than take the
stamps, supposing the stamps were protected by a sufficient
force, where everyone might have them?
A. I think the supposition impracticable, that the stamps
should be so protected as that everyone might have them. The
Act requires sub-distributors to be appointed in every county
town, district, and village, and they would be necessary. But
the principal distributors, who were to have had a
considerable profit on the whole, have not thought it worth
while to continue in the office, and I think it impossible to
find sub-distributors fit to be trusted, who, for the trifling
profit that must come to their share, would incur the odium,
and run the hazard that would attend it; and if they could be
found, I think it impracticable to protect the stamps in so
many distant and remote places.
Q. But in places where they could be protected, would not the
people use them rather than remain in such a situation, unable
to obtain any right, or recover, by law, any debt?
A. It is hard to say what they would do. I can only judge what
other people will think, and how they will act, by what I feel
within myself. I have a great many debts due to me in America,
and I had rather they should remain unrecoverable by any law
than submit to the Stamp Act. They will be debts of honour. It
is my opinion the people will either continue in that
situation, or find some way to extricate themselves, perhaps
by generally agreeing to proceed in the courts without stamps.
Q. What do you think a sufficient military force to protect
the distribution of the stamps in every part of America?
A. A very great force; I cannot say what, if the disposition
of America is for a general resistance.
Q. What is the number of men in America able to bear arms, or
of disciplined militia?
A. There are, I suppose, at least—[Question objected to. He
withdrew. Called in again.]
Q. Is the American Stamp Act an equal tax on that country?
A. I think not.
Q. Why so?
A. The greatest part of the money must arise from lawsuits for
the recovery of debts, and be paid by the lower sort of
people, who were too poor easily to pay their debts. It is
therefore a heavy tax on the poor, and a tax upon them for
being poor.
Q. But will not this increase of expense be a means of
lessening the number of lawsuits?
A. I think not; for as the costs all fall upon the debtor, and
are to be paid by him, they would be no discouragement to the
creditor to bring his action.
Q. Would it not have the effect of excessive usury?
A. Yes, as an oppression of the debtor.
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Q. How many ships are there laden annually in
North America with flax seed for Ireland?
A. I cannot speak to the number of ships, but I know that in
1752, 10,000 hogsheads of flax seed, each containing seven
bushels, were exported from Philadelphia to Ireland. I suppose
the quantity is greatly increased since that time; and it is
understood that the exportation from New York is equal to that
from Philadelphia.
Q. What becomes of the flax that grows with that flax seed?
A. They manufacture some into coarse, and some into a middling
kind of linen.
Q. Are there any slitting mills in America?
A. I think there are three, but I believe only one at present
employed. I suppose they will all be set to work, if the
interruption of the trade continues.
Q. Are there any fulling mills there?
A. A great many.
Q. Did you never hear that a great quantity of stockings were
contracted for, for the army, during the war, and manufactured
in Philadelphia?
A. I have heard so.
Q. If the Stamp Act should be repealed, would not the
Americans think they could oblige the parliament to repeal
every external tax law now in force?
A. It is hard to answer questions what people at such a
distance will think.
Q. But what do you imagine they will think were the motives of
repealing the Act?
A. I suppose they will think that it was repealed from a
conviction of its inexpediency; and they will rely upon it,
that while the same inexpediency subsists, you will never
attempt to make such another.
Q. What do you mean by its inexpediency?
A. I mean its inexpediency on several accounts; the poverty
and inability of those who were to pay the tax; the general
discontent it has occasioned; and the impracticability of
enforcing it. If the Act should be repealed, and the
legislature should shew its resentment to the opposers of the
Stamp Act, would the colonies acquiesce in the authority of
the legislature?
Q. What is your opinion they would do?
A. I don't doubt at all, that if the legislature repeal the
Stamp Act, the colonies will acquiesce in the authority.
Q. But if the legislature should think fit to ascertain its
right to lay taxes, by any act laying a small tax, contrary to
their opinion, would they submit to pay the tax?
A. The proceedings of the people in America have been
considered too much together. The proceedings of the
assemblies have been very different from those of the mobs,
and should be distinguished, as having no connection with each
other. The assemblies have only peaceably resolved what they
take to be their rights; they have not built a fort, raised a
man, or provided a grain of ammunition, in order to such
opposition. The ringleaders of riot they think ought to be
punished; they would punish them themselves, if they could.
Every sober, sensible man would wish to see rioters punished,
as otherwise peaceable people have no security of person or
estate. But as to an internal tax, how small soever, laid by
the legislature here on the people there, while they have no
representatives in this legislature, I think it will never be
submitted to.—They will oppose it to the last.—They do not
consider it as at all necessary for you to raise money on them
by your taxes, because they are, and always have been, ready
to raise money by taxes among themselves, and to grant large
sums, equal to their abilities, upon requisition from the
crown.—They have not only granted equal to their abilities,
but, during all the last war, they granted far beyond their
abilities, and beyond their proportion with this country, you
yourselves being judges, to the amount of many hundred
thousand pounds, and this they did freely and readily, only on
a sort of promise from the secretary of state, that it should
be recommended to parliament to make them compensation. It was
accordingly recommended to parliament, in the most honourable
manner, for them. America has been greatly misrepresented and
abused here, in papers, and pamphlets, and speeches, as
ungrateful, and unreasonable, and unjust, in having put this
nation to immense expense for their defence, and refusing to
bear any part of that expense. The colonies raised, paid, and
clothed, near 25,000 men during the last war, a number equal
to those sent from Britain, and far beyond their proportion;
they went deeply into debt in doing this, and all their taxes
and estates are mortgaged, for many years to come, for
discharging that debt. Government here was at that time very
sensible of this; The colonies were recommended to parliament.
Every year the King sent down to the House a written message
to this purpose, That his Majesty, being highly sensible of
the zeal and vigour with which his faithful subjects in North
America had exerted themselves, in defence of his Majesty's
just rights and possessions, recommended it to the House to
take the same into consideration, and enable him to give them
a proper compensation. You will find those messages on your
own journals every year of the war to the very last, and you
did accordingly give 200,000_l_. annually to the crown,
to be distributed in such compensation to the colonies. This
is the strongest of all proofs that the colonies, far from
being unwilling to bear a share of the burden, did exceed
their proportion; for if they had done less, or had only
equalled their proportion, there would have been no room or
reason for compensation. Indeed the sums reimbursed them, were
by no means adequate to the expense they incurred beyond their
proportion; but they never murmured at that; they esteemed
their sovereign's approbation of their zeal and fidelity, and
the approbation of this House, far beyond any other kind of
compensation; therefore there was no occasion for this act, to
force money from a willing people; they had not refused giving
money for the purposes of the act; no requisition had been
made: they were al ways willing and ready to do what could
reasonably be expected from them, and in this light they wish
to be considered.
Q. But suppose Great Britain should be engaged in a war in
Europe, would North America contribute to the support of it?
A. I do think they would, as far as their circumstances would
permit. They consider themselves as a part of the British
empire, and as having one common interest with it; they may be
looked on here as foreigners, but they do not consider
themselves as such. They are zealous for the honour and
prosperity of this nation, and while they are well used, will
always be ready to support it, as far as their little power
goes. In 1739 they were called upon to assist in the
expedition against Carthagena, and they sent 3,000 men to join
your army. It is true Carthagena is in America, but as remote
from the northern colonies as if it had been in Europe. They
make no distinction of wars, as to their duty of assisting in
them.
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I know the last war is commonly spoke of here as entered into
for the defence, or for the sake of the people of America. I
think it is quite misunderstood. It began about the limits
between Canada and Nova Scotia, about territories to which the
crown indeed laid claim, but were not claimed by any British
colony; none of the lands had been granted to any colonist; we
had therefore no particular concern or interest in that
dispute. As to the Ohio, the contest there began about your
right of trading in the Indian country, a right you had by the
treaty of Utrecht, which the French infringed; they seized the
traders and their goods, which were your manufactures; they
took a fort which a company of your merchants, and their
factors and correspondents, had erected there to secure that
trade. Braddock was sent with an army to re-take that fort
(which was looked on here as another incroachment on the
King's territory) and to protect your trade. It was not till
after his defeat that the colonies were attacked. They were
before in perfect peace with both French and Indians; the
troops were not therefore sent for their defence. The trade
with the Indians, though carried on in America, is not an
American interest. The people of America are chiefly farmers
and planters; scarce any thing that they raise or produce is
an article of commerce with the Indians. The Indian trade is a
British interest; it is carried on with British manufactures,
for the profit of British merchants and manufacturers;
therefore the war, as it commenced for the defence of
territories of the crown, the property of no American, and for
the defence of a trade purely British, was really a British
war—and yet the people of America made no scruple of
contributing their utmost towards carrying it on, and bringing
it to a happy conclusion.
Q. Do you think then that the taking possession of the King's
territorial rights, and strengthening the frontiers, is not an
American interest?
A. Not particularly, but conjointly a British and an American
interest.
Q. You will not deny that the preceding war, the war with
Spain, was entered into for the sake of America; was it not
occasioned by captures made in the American seas?
A. Yes; captures of ships carrying on the British trade there,
with British manufactures.
Q. Was not the late war with the Indians, since the peace with
France, a war for America only?
A. Yes: it was more particularly for America than the former,
but it was rather a consequence or remains of the former war,
the Indians not having been thoroughly pacified, and the
Americans bore by much the greatest share of the expense. It
was put an end to by the army under general Bouquet; there
were not above 300 regulars in that army, and above 1,000
Pennsylvanians.
Q. Is it not necessary to send troops to America, to defend
the Americans against the Indians?
A. No, by no means; it never was necessary. They defended
themselves when they were but a handful, and the Indians much
more numerous. They continually gained ground, and have driven
the Indians over the mountains, without any troops sent to
their assistance from this country. And can it be thought
necessary now to send troops for their defence from those
diminished Indian tribes, when the colonies are become so
populous, and so strong? There is not the least occasion for
it; they are very able to defend themselves.
Q. Do you say there were no more than 300 regular troops
employed in the late Indian war?
A, Not on the Ohio, or the frontiers of Pennsylvania, which
was the chief part of the war that affected the colonies.
There were garrisons at Niagara, Fort Detroit, and those
remote posts kept for the sake of your trade; I did not reckon
them, but I believe that on the whole the number of Americans,
or provincial troops, employed in the war, was greater than
that of the regulars. I am not certain, but I think so.
Q. Do you think the assemblies have a right to levy money on
the subject there, to grant to the crown?
A. I certainly think so; they have always done it.
Q. Are they acquainted with the Declaration of Rights; and do
they know that by that statute, money is not to be raised on
the subject but by consent of parliament?
A. They are very well acquainted with it.
Q. How then can they think they have a right to levy money for
the crown, or for any other than local purposes?
A. They understand that clause to relate to subjects only
within the realm; that no money can be levied on them for the
crown, but by consent of parliament. The colonies are not
supposed to be within the realm; they have assemblies of their
own, which are their parliaments, and they are, in that
respect, in the same situation with Ireland. When money is to
be raised for the crown upon the subject in Ireland, or in the
colonies, the consent is given in the parliament of Ireland,
or in the assemblies of the colonies. They think the
parliament of Great Britain cannot properly give that consent
till it has representatives from America; for the Petition of
Right expressly says, it is to be by common consent in
parliament, and the people of America have no representatives
in parliament, to make a part of that common consent.
Q. If the Stamp Act should be repealed, and an act should
pass, ordering the assemblies of the colonies to indemnify the
sufferers by the riots, would they obey it?
A. That is a question I cannot answer.
Q. Suppose the King should require the colonies to grant a
revenue, and the parliament should be against their doing it,
do they think they can grant a revenue to the King, without
the consent of the parliament of Great Britain?
A. That is a deep question. As to my own opinion I should
think myself at liberty to do it, and should do it, if I liked
the occasion.
Q, When money has been raised in the colonies, upon
requisitions, has it not been granted to the King?
A. Yes, always; but the requisitions have generally been for
some service expressed, as to raise, clothe, and pay troops,
and not for money only.
Q. If the act should pass, requiring the American Assemblies
to make compensation to the sufferers, and they should disobey
it, and then the parliament should, by another act, lay an
internal tax, would they obey it?
A. The people will pay no internal tax: and I think an act to
oblige the assemblies to make compensation is unnecessary, for
I am of opinion, that as soon as the present heats are abated,
they will take the matter into consideration, and if it is
right to be done, they will do it of themselves.
{3200}
Q. Do not letters often come into the post offices in America,
directed into some inland town where no post goes?
A. Yes.
Q. Can any private person take up those letters, and carry
them as directed?
A. Yes; any friend of the person may do it, paying the postage
that has accrued.
Q. But must not he pay an additional postage for the distance
to such an inland town?
A. No.
Q. Can the post-master answer delivering the letter, without
being paid such additional postage?
A. Certainly he can demand nothing, where he does no service.
Q. Suppose a person, being far from home, finds a letter in a
post office directed to him, and he lives in a place to which
the post generally goes, and the letter is directed to that
place, will the post-master deliver him the letter, without
his paying the postage received at the place to which the
letter is directed?
A. Yes; the office cannot demand postage for a letter that it
does not carry, or farther than it does carry it.
Q. Are not ferrymen in America obliged, by act of parliament,
to carry over the posts without pay?
A. Yes.
Q. Is not this a tax on the ferrymen?
A. They do not consider it as such, as they have an advantage
from persons travelling with the post.
Q. If the Stamp Act should be repealed, and the crown should
make a requisition to the colonies for a sum of money, would
they grant it?
A. I believe they would.
Q. Why do you think so?
A. I can speak for the colony I live in; I had it in
instruction from the assembly to assure the ministry, that as
they always had done, so they should always think it their
duty to grant such aids to the crown as were suitable to their
circumstances and abilities, whenever called upon for the
purpose, in the usual constitutional manner; and I had the
honour of communicating this instruction to that honorable
gentleman then minister.
Q. Would they do this for a British concern; as suppose a war
in some part of Europe, that did not affect them?
A. Yes, for any thing that concerned the general interest.
They consider themselves as a part of the whole.
Q. What is the usual constitutional manner of calling on the
colonies for aids?
A. A letter from the secretary of state.
Q. Is this all you mean, a letter from the secretary of state?
A. I mean the usual way of requisition, in a circular letter
from the secretary of state, by his Majesty's command,
reciting the occasion, and recommending it to the colonies to
grant such aids as became their loyalty, and were suitable to
their abilities.
Q. Did the secretary of state ever write for money for the
crown?
A. The requisitions have been to raise clothe, and pay men,
which cannot be done without money.
Q. Would they grant money alone, if called on?
A. In my opinion they would, money as well as men, when they
have money, or can procure it.
Q. If the parliament should repeal the Stamp Act, will the
assembly of Pennsylvania rescind their resolutions?
A. I think not.
Q. Before there was any thought of the Stamp Act, did they
wish for a representation in parliament?
A. No.
Q. Don't you know that there is, in the Pennsylvania charter,
an express reservation of the right of parliament to lay taxes
there?
A. I know there is a clause in the charter, by which the King
grants that he will levy no taxes on the inhabitants, unless
it be with the consent of the assembly, or by an act of
parliament.
Q. How then could the assembly of Pennsylvania assert, that
laying a tax on them by the Stamp Act was an infringement of
their rights?
A. They understand it thus: by the same charter, and
otherwise, they are entitled to all the privileges and
liberties of Englishmen; they find in the Great Charters, and
the Petition and Declaration of Rights, that one of the
privileges of English subjects is, that they are not to be
taxed but by their common consent; they have therefore relied
upon it, from the first settlement of the province, that the
parliament never would, nor could, by colour of that clause in
the charter, assume a right of taxing them, till it had
qualified itself to exercise such right, by admitting
representatives from the people to be taxed, who ought to make
a part of that common consent.
Q. Are there any words in the charter that justify that
construction?
A. The common rights of Englishmen, as declared by Magna
Charta, and the Petition of Right, all justify it.
Q. Does the distinction between internal and external taxes
exist in the words of the charter?
A. No, I believe not.
Q. Then may they not, by the same interpretation, object to
the parliament's right of external taxation?
A. They never have hitherto. Many arguments have been lately
used here to shew them that there is no difference, and that
if you have no right to tax them internally, you have none to
tax them externally, or make any other law to bind them. At
present they do not reason so, but in time they may possibly
be convinced by these arguments.
Q. Do not the resolutions of the Pennsylvania assemblies say,
all taxes?
A. If they do, they mean only internal taxes; the same words
have not always the same meaning here and in the colonies. By
taxes they mean internal taxes; by duties they mean customs;
these are the ideas of the language.
Q. Have you not seen the resolutions of the Massachusetts Bay
assembly?
A. I have.
Q. Do they not say, that neither external nor internal taxes
can be laid on them by parliament?
A. I don't know that they do; I believe not.
Q. If the same tax should say neither tax nor imposition could
be laid, does not that province hold the power of parliament
can lay neither?
A. I suppose that by the word imposition, they do not intend
to express duties to be laid on goods imported, as regulations
of commerce.
Q. What can the colonies mean then by imposition as distinct
from taxes?
A. They may mean many things, as impressing of men, or of
carriages, quartering troops on private houses, and the like;
there may be great impositions that are not properly taxes.
Q. Is not the post-office rate an internal tax laid by act of
parliament?
A. I have answered that.
Q. Are all parts of the colonies equally able to pay taxes?
A. No, certainly; the frontier parts, which have been ravaged
by the enemy, are greatly disabled by that means, and
therefore, in such cases, are usually favoured in our tax
laws.
{3201}
Q. Can we, at this distance, be competent judges of what
favours are necessary?
A. The parliament have supposed it, by claiming a right to
make tax laws for America; I think it impossible.
Q. Would the repeal of the Stamp Act be any discouragement of
your manufactures? Will the people that have begun to
manufacture decline it?
A. Yes, I think they will; especially if, at the same time,
the trade is opened again, so that remittances can be easily
made. I have known several instances that make it probable. In
the war before last, tobacco being low, and making little
remittance, the people of Virginia went generally into family
manufactures. Afterwards, when tobacco bore a better price,
they returned to the use of British manufactures. So fulling
mills were very much disused in the last war in Pennsylvania,
because bills were then plenty, and remittances could easily
be made to Britain for English cloth and other goods.
Q. If the Stamp Act should be repealed, would it induce the
assemblies of America to acknowledge the right of parliament
to tax them, and, would they erase their resolutions?
A. No, never.
Q. Is there no means of obliging them to erase those
resolutions?
A. None, that I know of; they will never do it, unless
compelled by force of arms.
Q. Is there a power on earth that can force them to erase
them?
A. No power, how great soever, can force men to change their
opinions.
Q. Do they consider the post office as a tax, or as a
regulation?
A. Not as a tax, but as a regulation and conveniency; every
assembly encouraged it, and supported it in its infancy, by
grants of money, which they would not otherwise have done; and
the people have always paid the postage.
Q. When did you receive the instructions you mentioned?
A. I brought them with me, when I came to England, about 15
months since.
Q. When did you communicate that instruction to the minister?
A. Soon after my arrival, while the stamping of America was
under consideration, and before the Bill was brought in.
Q. Would it be most for the interest of Great Britain, to
employ the hands of Virginia in tobacco, or in manufactures?
A. In tobacco, to be sure.
Q. What used to be the pride of the Americans?
A. To indulge in the fashions and manufactures of Great
Britain.
Q. What is now their pride?
A. To wear their old clothes over again, till they can make
new ones.
Withdrew.
_Parliamentary History of England,
volume 16, pages 138-160._
"Mr. Sparks very justly says that there was no event in
Franklin's life more creditable to his talents and character,
or which gave him so much celebrity, as this examination
before the House of Commons. His further statement, however,
that Franklin's answers were given without premeditation and
without knowing beforehand the nature or form of the question
that was to be put, is a little too sweeping. In a memorandum
which Franklin gave to a friend who wished to know by whom the
several questions were put, he admitted that many were put by
friends to draw out in answer the substance of what he had
before said upon the subject."
_J. Bigelow,
Life of Benjamin Franklin,
volume 1, page 507, foot-note._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1766.
The repeal of the Stamp Act and passage of the
Declaratory Act.
Speech of Pitt.
"The Grenville Ministry had fallen in July [1765], and had
been succeeded by that of Rockingham; and Conway, who had been
one of the few opponents of the Stamp Act, was now Secretary
of State for the Colonies. … The Stamp Act had contributed
nothing to the downfall of Grenville; it attracted so little
attention that it was only in the last days of 1765 or the
first days, of 1766 that the new ministers learnt the views of
Pitt upon the subject; it was probably a complete surprise to
them to learn that it had brought the colonies to the verge of
rebellion, and in the first months of their power they appear
to have been quite uncertain what policy they would pursue. …
Parliament met on December 17, 1765, and the attitude of the
different parties was speedily disclosed. A powerful
Opposition, led by Grenville and Bedford, strenuously urged
that no relaxation or indulgence should be granted to the
colonists. … Pitt, on the other hand, rose from his sick-bed,
and in speeches of extraordinary eloquence, and which produced
an amazing effect on both sides of the Atlantic, he justified
the resistance of the colonists."
_W. E. H. Lecky,
History of England in the 18th Century,
chapter 12 (volume 3)._
The following is the main part of the speech delivered by Pitt
(not yet made Lord Chatham) on the 14th of January, 1766, as
imperfectly reported: "It is my opinion, that this kingdom has
no right to lay a tax upon the colonies. At the same time, I
assert the authority of this kingdom over the colonies to be
sovereign and supreme, in every circumstance of government and
legislation whatsoever. They are the subjects of this kingdom;
equally entitled with yourselves to all the natural rights of
mankind and the peculiar privileges of Englishmen; equally
bound by its laws, and equally participating in the
constitution of this free country, The Americans are the sons,
not the bastards of England! Taxation is no part of the
governing or legislative power. The taxes are a voluntary gift
and grant of the Commons alone. In legislation the three
estates of the realm are alike concerned; but the concurrence
of the peers and the Crown to a tax is only necessary to
clothe it with the form of a law. The gift and grant is of the
Commons alone. … When … in this House, we give and grant, we
give and grant what is our own. But in an American tax, what
do we do? 'We, your Majesty's Commons for Great Britain, give
and grant to your Majesty'—what? Our own property! No! 'We
give and grant to your Majesty' the property of your Majesty's
Commons of America! It is an absurdity in terms. … There is an
idea in some that the colonies are virtually represented in
the House. I would fain know by whom an American is
represented here. Is he represented by any knight of the
shire, in any county in this kingdom? Would to God that
respectable representation was augmented to a greater number!
Or will you tell him that he is represented by any
representative of a borough? a borough which, perhaps, its own
representatives never saw! This is what is called the rotten
part of the Constitution. It cannot continue a century. If it
does not drop, it must be amputated. The idea of a virtual
representation of America in this House is the most
contemptible idea that ever entered into the head of a man. It
does not deserve a serious refutation. The Commons of America
represented in their several assemblies, have ever been in the
possession of this, their constitutional right, of giving and
granting their own money.
{3202}
They would have been slaves if they had not enjoyed it! At the
same time, this kingdom, as the supreme governing and
legislative power, has always bound the colonies by her laws,
by her regulations, and restrictions in trade, in navigation,
in manufactures, in every thing, except that of taking their
money out of their pockets without their consent. Here I would
draw the line. … Gentlemen, sir, have been charged with giving
birth to sedition in America. They have spoken their
sentiments with freedom against this unhappy act, and that
freedom has become their crime. Sorry I am to hear the liberty
of speech in this House imputed as a crime. But the imputation
shall not discourage me. It is a liberty I mean to exercise.
No gentleman ought to be afraid to exercise it. It is a
liberty by which the gentleman who calumniates it might have
profited. He ought to have desisted from his project. The
gentleman tells us America is obstinate; America almost in
open rebellion. I rejoice that America has resisted. Three
millions of people, so dead to all the feelings of liberty as
voluntarily to submit to be slaves, would have been fit
instruments to make slaves of the rest. … Since the accession
of King William, many ministers, some of great, others of more
moderate abilities, have taken the lead of government. … None
of these thought or even dreamed, of robbing the colonies of
their constitutional rights. That was reserved to mark the era
of the late administration. Not that there were wanting some,
when I had the honor to serve his Majesty, to propose to me to
burn my fingers with an American stamp act. With the enemy at
their back, with our bayonets at their breasts, in the day of
their distress, perhaps the Americans would have submitted to
the imposition; but it would have been taking an ungenerous,
an unjust advantage. The gentleman boasts of his bounties to
America! Are not these bounties intended finally for the
benefit of this kingdom? If they are not, he has misapplied
the national treasures! I am no courtier of America. I stand
up for this kingdom. I maintain that the Parliament has a
right to bind, to restrain America. Our legislative power over
the colonies is sovereign and supreme. I would advise every
gentleman to sell his lands, if he can, and embark for that
country. When two countries are connected together like
England and her colonies, without being incorporated, the one
must necessarily govern. The greater must rule the less. But
she must so rule it as not to contradict the fundamental
principles that are common to both. … The gentleman asks, When
were the colonies emancipated? I desire to know, when were
they made slaves? But I dwell not upon words. When I had the
honor of serving his Majesty, I availed myself of the means of
information which I derived from my office. I speak,
therefore, from knowledge. My materials were good. I was at
pains to collect, to digest, to consider them; and I will be
bold to affirm, that the profits to Great Britain from the
trade of the colonies through all its branches, is two
millions a year. This is the fund that carried you
triumphantly through the last war. The estates that were
rented at two thousand pounds a year, three-score years ago,
are at three thousand at present. Those estates sold then from
fifteen to eighteen years purchase; the same may now be sold
for thirty. You owe this to America. This is the price America
pays you for her protection. And shall a miserable financier
come with a boast, that he can bring 'a pepper-corn' into the
exchequer by the loss of millions to the nation? I dare not
say how much higher these profits may be augmented. … I am
convinced on other grounds that the commercial system of
America may be altered to advantage. You have prohibited where
you ought to have encouraged. You have encouraged where you
ought to have prohibited. Improper restraints have been laid
on the continent in favor of the islands. You have but two
nations to trade with in America. Would you had twenty! Let
acts of Parliament in consequence of treaties remain; but let
not an English minister become a custom-house officer for
Spain, or for any foreign power. Much is wrong! Much may be
amended for the general good of the whole! … A great deal has
been said without doors of the power, of the strength of
America. It is a topic that ought to be cautiously meddled
with. In a good cause, on a sound bottom, the force of this
country can crush America to atoms. I know the valor of your
troops. I know the skill of your officers. There is not a
company of foot that has served in America, out of which you
may not pick a man of sufficient knowledge and experience to
make a governor of a colony there. But on this ground, on the
Stamp Act, which so many here will think a crying injustice, I
am one who will lift up my hands against it. In such a cause
your success would be hazardous. America, if she fell, would
fall like the strong man; she would embrace the pillars of the
State, and pull down the Constitution along with her. Is this
your boasted peace—not to sheathe the sword in its scabbard,
but to sheathe it in the bowels of your countrymen? … The
Americans have not acted in all things with prudence and
temper: they have been wronged: they have been driven to
madness by injustice. Will you punish them for the madness you
have occasioned? Rather let prudence and temper come first
from this side. I will undertake for America that she will
follow the example. … Upon the whole I will beg leave to tell
the House what is my opinion. It is that the Stamp Act be
repealed absolutely, totally and immediately. That the reason
for the repeal be assigned, viz., because it was founded on an
erroneous principle. At the same time, let the sovereign
authority of this country over the colonies be asserted in as
strong terms as can be devised, and be made to extend to every
point of legislation whatsoever; that we may bind their trade,
confine their manufactures, and exercise every power
whatsoever except that of taking their money out of their
pockets without their consent."
_Representative British Orations,
pages 98-119._
The views of Pitt "were defended in the strongest terms by
Lord Camden, who pledged his great legal reputation to the
doctrine that taxation is not included under the general right
of legislation, and that taxation and representation are
morally inseparable. … The task of the ministers in dealing
with this question was extremely difficult. The great majority
of them desired ardently the repeal of the Stamp Act; but the
wishes of the King, the abstention of Pitt, and the divided
condition of parties had compelled Rockingham to include in
his Government Charles Townshend, Barrington, and Northington,
who were all strong advocates of the taxation of America. …
{3203}
In addition to all these difficulties the ministers had to
deal with the exasperation which was produced in Parliament by
the continual outrages and insults to which all who
represented the English Government in America were exposed.
Their policy consisted of two parts. They asserted in the
strongest and most unrestricted form the sovereignty of the
British Legislature, first of all by resolutions and then by a
Declaratory Act affirming the right of Parliament to make laws
binding the British colonies 'in all cases whatsoever,' and
condemning as unlawful the votes of the colonial Assemblies
which had denied to Parliament the right of taxing them. Side
by side with this measure they brought in a bill repealing the
Stamp Act. … The great and manifest desire of the commercial
classes throughout England had much weight; the repeal was
carried [March, 1766] through the House of Commons, brought up
by no less than 200 members to the Lords, and finally carried
amid the strongest expressions of public joy. Burke described
it as 'an event that caused more universal joy throughout the
British dominions than perhaps any other that can be
remembered.'"
_W. E. H. Lecky,
History of England in the 18th Century,
chapter 12 (volume 3)._
ALSO IN:
_Parliamentary History,
volume 16, pages 112-205._
_B. Franklin,
Works (Sparks' editor),
volume 4._
_Lord Mahon (Earl Stanhope),
History of England 1713-1783,
chapter 45._
See, also, ENGLAND: A. D. 1765-1768.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1766-1767.
The Townshend measures.
"The liberal Rockingham administration, after a few months of
power, disappeared [July, 1766], having signalized itself as
regarded America by the repeal of the Stamp Act, and by the
Declaratory Act. Of the new ministry the leading spirit was
Charles Townshend, a brilliant statesman, but unscrupulous and
unwise. His inclinations were arbitrary; he regretted the
repeal of the Stamp Act, as did also the king and Parliament
in general, who felt themselves to have been humiliated. Pitt,
indeed, now Earl of Chatham, was a member of the government;
but, oppressed by illness, he could exercise no restraint upon
his colleague, and the other members were either in sympathy
with Townshend's views, or unable to oppose him. Townshend's
three measures affecting America, introduced on the 13th of
May, 1767, were: a suspension of the functions of the
legislature of New York for contumacy in the treatment of the
royal troops; the establishment of commissioners of the
customs, appointed with large powers to superintend laws
relating to trade; and lastly an impost duty upon glass, red
and white lead, painters' colors, paper, and tea [see ENGLAND:
A. D. 1765-1768]. This was an 'external' duty to which the
colonists had heretofore expressed a willingness to submit;
but the grounds of the dispute were shifting. Townshend had
declared that he held in contempt the distinction sought to be
drawn between external and internal taxes, but that he would
so far humor the colonists in their quibble as to make his tax
of that kind of which the right was admitted. A revenue of
£40,000 a year was expected from the tax, which was to be
applied to the support of a 'civil list,' namely, the paying
the salaries of the new commissioners of customs, and of the
judges and governors, who were to be relieved wholly or in
part from their dependence upon the annual grants of the
Assemblies; then, if a surplus remained, it was to go to the
payment of troops for protecting the colonies. To make more
efficient, moreover, the enforcement of the revenue laws, the
writs of assistance, the denunciation of which by James Otis
had formed so memorable a crisis, were formally legalized. The
popular discontent, appeased by the repeal of the Stamp Act,
was at once awake again, and henceforth in the denial of the
right of Parliament to tax, we hear no more of acquiescence in
commercial restrictions and in the general legislative
authority of Parliament. … The plan for resistance adopted by
the cooler heads was that of Samuel Adams, namely, the
non-importation and the non-consumption of British products.
From Boston out, through an impulse proceeding from him,
town-meetings were everywhere held to encourage the
manufactures of the Province and reduce the use of
superfluities, long lists of which were enumerated. Committees
were appointed everywhere to procure subscriptions to
agreements looking to the furtherance of home industries and
the disuse of foreign products. … Before the full effects of
the new legislation could be seen, Townshend suddenly died;
but in the new ministry that was presently formed Lord North
came to the front, and adopted the policy of his predecessor,
receiving in this course the firm support of the king, whose
activity and interest were so great in public affairs that he
'became his own minister.'"
_J. K. Hosmer,
Samuel Adams,
chapter 7._
ALSO IN:
_R. Frothingham,
Life and Times of Joseph Warren,
chapter 3._
_W. Belsham,
Memoirs of the Reign of George III.,
volume 1, page 139-142._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1767-1768.
The Farmer's Letters of John Dickinson.
The Circular Letter of Massachusetts,
and the "Unrescinding Ninety-two."
"The English ministry was probably misled by the strong
emphasis which had been laid here during the controversies
concerning the Stamp Act upon the alleged distinction between
external and internal taxation. We had refused to submit to
the latter, but admitted that the former might be binding upon
the whole empire as a commercial regulation. In form the
duties levied on paints, glass, tea, etc., were undoubtedly
such a regulation, but it was at once contended here that, in
point of fact and of principle, this was as much an exercise
of the alleged right of Parliamentary taxation for the purpose
of raising a revenue for imperial purposes as the Stamp Act
itself. Although it was passed by the opponents of the Stamp
Act, and by the Rockingham ministry, who professed to be our
friends, the act met at once with opposition here. Late in
October, 1767, it was denounced by a public meeting in Boston,
which suggested a non-importation agreement as the best means
of rendering its operations ineffective. These agreements were
favorite expedients for manifesting political discontent in
those days, but, as they were voluntary, their obligation sat
somewhat loosely upon those who signed them. The truth is,
that those who were most decided in opposition to the course
of the ministry were somewhat puzzled as to the plan they
should adopt to exhibit the earnestness of their discontent. …
While the leaders of the opposition throughout the country
were doubtful and hesitating, there appeared in the
Pennsylvania Chronicle for the 2d of December, 1767, the first
of a series of letters on the political situation, afterwards
known as the 'Farmer's Letters.'
{3204}
… The letters, fourteen in number, followed one another in
quick succession, and they were read by men of all classes and
opinions throughout the continent as no other work of a
political kind had been hitherto read in America. It was, of
course, soon known that John Dickinson was their author, and
people remembered that he was the person who had formulated
what was a genuine Bill of Rights in the Stamp Act Congress.
The more these letters were read, the more convinced people
became that in the comprehensive survey they took of our
political relations with the mother-country, especially as
these were affected by the last obnoxious act of Parliament,
and in the plans which were proposed to remedy the evil, Mr.
Dickinson had struck the true key-note of the opposition to
the ministerial measures. He appeared at this crisis, as he
did in the Stamp Act Congress, as the leader and guide in the
controversy. From this time until the Declaration of
Independence the Pennsylvania idea, which was embodied by Mr.
Dickinson in these Farmer's Letters, 'controlled the destinies
of the country;' and Mr. Bancroft only does justice to Mr.
Dickinson's position when he recognizes fully his commanding
influence during that period. We may say with pardonable pride
(and it is one of those truths which many of our historians
have managed in various ways to relegate to obscurity), that,
as the leading spirit in the Stamp Act Congress, Dickinson
gave form and color to the agitation in this country which
brought about the repeal of that act, and that the arguments
by which the claim of the ministry to tax us for revenue by
such an act of Parliament as that levying duties on glass,
paints, etc. was answered in the 'Farmer's Letters' first
convinced the whole body of our countrymen, groping blindly
for a cure for their grievances, that there was a legal
remedy, and then forced the ministry to consent in a measure
to the demand for a repeal of some of its most obnoxious
provisions. It is worth remarking that when the ministry
yielded at all it yielded to argument, and not to the boastful
threats which were so common. The 'Farmer's Letters' gave
courage and force to those who in February denounced the law
in Pennsylvania; they formed the mainspring of the movement
which resulted in the circular letter sent by the legislature
of Massachusetts on the 17th of that month to the Assemblies
of the other Colonies; in short, they had the rare good
fortune not only of convincing those who suffered that the
remedy was in their own hands, but also of pursuading those
who had the power to abandon, or at least to modify their
arbitrary measures. … Mr. Dickinson begins these grave essays
with an air of simplicity as charming as it is calculated to
attract the attention of the reader. 'I am a farmer,' he says,
'settled, after a variety of fortunes, near the banks of the
river Delaware, in the Province of Pennsylvania. I received a
liberal education, and have been engaged in the busy scenes of
life, but am now convinced that a man may be as happy without
bustle as with it. Being generally master of my time, I spend
a good deal of it in my library, which I think the most
valuable part of my small estate. I have acquired, I believe,
a greater knowledge of history and of the laws and
constitution of my country than is generally attained by men
of my class,' etc. He then explains the nature of the
controversy with the mother-country, making it so clear that
the points in dispute are comprehensible by a child. … As to
our method of asserting our rights, he says, with an elevation
of sentiment which reminds one of Edmund Burke more than of
any other political writer, 'The cause of liberty is a cause
of too much dignity to be sullied by turbulence and tumult. It
ought to be maintained in a manner suitable to her nature.
Those who engage in it should breathe a sedate yet fervent
spirit, animating them to actions of prudence, justice,
modesty, bravery, humanity, and magnanimity.' He shrinks,
evidently with terror, from speaking of what may be the
consequences of the persistent refusal of England to change
her oppressive measures. … After showing in the most striking
manner the nature of our wrongs, the letters turn gladly to
the remedy that lies open to us. That remedy is based upon a
cultivation of the spirit of conciliation on both sides, and
Mr. Dickinson urges again and again upon his English readers
the folly of their policy, by showing them the value of the
American Colonies to them, and especially how the trade and
wealth of the English merchants are bound up in the adoption
of a liberal policy towards us. This is one of the most
interesting and important topics discussed in these letters,
and the subject is treated with elaborate skill, leading to
convincing conclusions drawn from our history. It must not be
forgotten that prior to the Revolution an impression widely
prevailed among the most thoughtful of our own people, as well
as among our friends in England, that if the English people
could be made to understand the frightful losses they would
suffer in case of a war in which we should be fighting for our
independence, or even during a short interruption of the trade
between the two countries, they would force the government to
yield rather than run the risk of the consequences. … Even Dr.
Franklin in London, who had had so many proofs of the
indifference and contempt with which the representations of
the Colonies in England were regarded … thought the appeal of
the Farmer to Englishmen so irresistible that, although no
friend of Dickinson's, he arranged that these letters should
be reprinted in London."
_C. J. Stillé,
The Life and Times of John Dickinson,
chapter 4._
In February, 1768, "the Legislature of Massachusetts sent a
Circular Letter [ascribed to Samuel Adams] to the Assemblies
of the other colonies, in which was set forth the necessity of
all acting together harmoniously, and of freely communicating
the mind of each to the others. The course Massachusetts had
pursued was described, with the contents of the petition and
letters which had been written, and with the hope expressed
that she would have their cordial co-operation in resistance
to the ministerial measures. The notion that political
independence was aimed at was strenuously denied, and the
trust was entertained that what had been done would meet the
approval of their 'common head and father,' and that the
liberties of the colonies would be confirmed. This letter
elicited response from some, others returned none officially,
but all who answered replied favorably. It gave, however, the
greatest offence to the ministry, and particularly to Lord
Hillsborough, the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
{3205}
It seems that he read it entirely by the light which a letter
from Governor Bernard to Lord Barrington had shed upon it.
This epistle declared the real motive of the colonies to be a
determination to be independent. Hillsborough, filled with
this idea, communicated it to the other members of the
cabinet, and thus the Circular Letter was laid before them,
prejudged. It was determined that it merited consideration,
but that the only notice to be given it should be one of
censure, and, on the spur of the moment, they resolved upon
two things: to require the Massachusetts Assembly to rescind
the Letter, and to require the other legislatures before whom
it had been laid to reject it. This was done, and the
consequences were, that the General Court, or Legislature, of
Massachusetts voted, by ninety-two to seventeen, that they
would do nothing of the kind, and that the other legislatures
gave the outcast a hearty welcome. As for the people, they
showed their approval of their representatives by toasting,
from one end of the country to the other, 'The unrescinding
Ninety-two,' with whom was coupled the number Forty-five, or
that of the famous' North Briton'; while the Bostonians added
fuel to the flame by a riot on the score of the sloop Liberty,
in which they attacked the houses of the Commissioners of the
Customs, and made a bonfire of the Collector's boat. Shortly
afterward, (but not by reason of the riot), four ships of war
anchored in Boston harbor, and two regiments of soldiers were
quartered on the town."
_E. G. Scott,
The Development of Constitutional Liberty,
chapter 10 (with corrections by the author)._
ALSO IN:
_R. Frothingham,
The Rise of the Republic of the United States,
chapter 6._
_W. Thornton,
The Pulpit of the Revolution,
page 150._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1768-1770.
The quartering of troops in Boston.
The Massacre, and the removal of the troops.
See BOSTON: A. D. 1768; and 1770.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1769.
Massachusetts threatened, and Virginia roused to her support.
"The proceedings in Massachusetts attracted in England the
greatest attention, elicited the severest comment, and,
because a military force had been ordered to Boston to support
the stand of the administration, created the greatest
solicitude. … The king, on opening parliament, characterized
the action of Boston as a subversion of the Constitution and
evincing a disposition to throw off dependence on Great
Britain. The indictment against the colonies was presented in
sixty papers laid before parliament. Both Houses declared that
the proceedings of the Massachusetts assembly in opposition to
the revenue acts were unconstitutional, and derogatory to the
rights of the crown and the parliament; that the Circular
Letter tended to create unlawful combinations; that the call
of a convention by the selectmen of Boston was proof of a
design of setting up an independent authority; and both Houses
proposed to transport the originators of the obnoxious
proceedings to England for trial and condign punishment, under
the cover of an obsolete act of Henry VIII. … The
administration determined to make an example of Massachusetts,
as the ring-leading province in political mischief, by
transporting its popular leaders to England to be tried for
their lives in the king's bench. Such was the purport of an
elaborate despatch which Lord Hillsborough sent to Governor
Bernard, directing an inquiry to be instituted into the
conduct of any persons who had committed any overt act of
resistance to the laws. … Thus a great issue was created that
affected all the colonies. … There was no adequate step taken
to meet the threatened aggression until the House of Burgesses
of Virginia convened in May."
_R. Frothingham,
The Rise of the Republic of the United States,
chapter 6._
"On the day of the prorogation of parliament [May 9, 1769] the
legislature of Virginia assembled at Williamsburg. Great men
were there; some who were among the greatest—Washington,
Patrick Henry, and, for the first time, Jefferson. Botetourt
[the governor], who opened the session in state, was in
perfect harmony with the council, received from the house of
burgesses a most dutiful address, and entertained fifty-two
guests at his table on the first day, and as many more on the
second. … But the assembly did not forget its duty, and
devised a measure which became the example for the continent.
It claimed the sole right of imposing taxes on the inhabitants
of Virginia. With equal unanimity, it asserted the lawfulness
and expediency of a concert of the colonies in defence of the
violated rights of America. It laid bare the flagrant tyranny
of applying to America the obsolete statute of Henry VIII.;
and it warned the king of 'the dangers that would ensue' if
any person in any part of America should be seized and carried
beyond sea for trial. It consummated its work by communicating
its resolutions to every legislature in America, and asking
their concurrence. The resolves were concise, simple, and
effective; so calm in manner and so perfect in substance that
time finds no omission to regret, no improvement to suggest.
The menace of arresting patriots lost its terrors; and
Virginia's declaration and action consolidated union. … The
next morning, the assembly had just time to adopt an address
to the king, when the governor summoned them, and said: 'I
have heard of your resolves, and augur ill of their effects;
you have made it my duty to dissolve you, and you are
dissolved accordingly.' Upon this, the burgesses met together
as patriots and friends, with their speaker as moderator. They
adopted the resolves which "Washington had brought with him
from Mount Vernon, and which formed a well-digested,
stringent, and practicable scheme of non-importation, until
all the 'unconstitutional' revenue acts should be repealed. …
The voice of the Old Dominion roused the merchants of
Pennsylvania to approve what had been done. The assembly of
Delaware adopted the Virginia resolves word for word; and
every colony south of Virginia followed the example."
_G. Bancroft,
History of the United States (Author's last revision),
pages 347-348._
ALSO IN:
_W. Irving,
Life of Washington,
volume 1, chapter 29._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1770.
Repeal of the Townshend duties except on Tea.
On the 5th of March, 1770—the same day on which the tragical
encounter of the king's troops with citizens of Boston
occurred—Lord North introduced a motion in Parliament for the
partial repeal of Townshend's revenue act; "not on the
petitions of America, because they were marked by a denial of
the right, but on one from merchants and traders of London.
'The subject,' said he, 'is of the highest importance.
{3206}
The combinations and associations of the Americans for the
temporary interruption of trade have already been called
unwarrantable in an address of this house; I will call them
insolent and illegal. The duties upon paper, glass, and
painters' colors bear upon the manufacturers of this country,
and ought to be taken off. It was my intention to have
extended the proposal to the removal of the other duties; but
the Americans have not deserved indulgence. The preamble to
the act and the duty on tea must be retained, as a mark of the
supremacy of parliament and the efficient declaration of its
right to govern the colonies.' … Thomas Pownall moved the
repeal of the duty on tea. The house of commons, like Lord
North in his heart, was disposed to do the work of
conciliation thoroughly. … Had the king's friends remained
neutral, the duty on tea would have been repealed; with all
their exertions, in a full house, the majority for retaining
it was but 62. Lord North seemed hardly satisfied with his
success; and reserved to himself liberty to accede to the
repeal, on some agreement with the East India Company. The
decision came from the king."
_G. Bancroft,
History of the United States
(Author's last revision),
volume 3, pages 381-382._
ALSO IN:
_Lord Mahon (Earl Stanhope),
History of England, 1713-1783,
chapter 48 (volume 5.)_
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1771.
Suppression of the Regulators of North Carolina.
See NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1766-1771.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1772.
The Watauga Association.
The founding of the State of Tennessee.
See TENNESSEE: A. D. 1769-1772.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1772.
The burning of the Gaspe.
"One of the first overt acts of resistance that took place in
this celebrated struggle [in the war of independence] occurred
in 1772, in the waters of Rhode Island. A vessel of war had
been stationed on the coast to enforce the laws, and a small
schooner, with a light armament and twenty-seven men, called
the Gaspé, was employed as a tender, to run into the shallow
waters of that coast. On the 17th of June, 1772, a Providence
packet, that plied between New York and Rhode Island, named
the Hannah, and commanded by a Captain Linzee, hove in sight
of the man-of-war, on her passage up the bay. The Hannah was
ordered to heave-to, in order to be examined; but her master
refused to comply; and being favoured by a fresh southerly
breeze, that was fast sweeping him out of gunshot, the Gaspé
was signalled to follow. The chase continued for
five-and-twenty miles, under a press of sail, when the Hannah
coming up with a bar, with which her master was familiar, and
drawing less water than the schooner, Captain Linzee led the
latter on a shoal, where she struck. The tide falling, the
Gaspé … was not in a condition to be removed for several
hours. The news of the chase was circulated on the arrival of
the Hannah at Providence. A strong feeling was excited among
the population, and towards evening the town drummer appeared
in the streets, assembling the people in the ordinary manner.
As soon as a crowd was collected, the drummer led his
followers in front of a shed that stood near one of the
stores, when a man disguised as an Indian suddenly appeared on
the roof, and proclaimed a secret expedition for that night,
inviting all of 'stout hearts' to assemble on the wharf,
precisely at nine, disguised like himself. At the appointed
hour, most of the men in the place collected at the spot
designated, when sixty-four were selected for the bold
undertaking that was in view. This party embarked in eight of
the launches of the different vessels lying at the wharves,
and taking with them a quantity of paving stones, they pulled
down the river in a body. … On nearing the Gaspé, about two in
the morning, the boats were hailed by a sentinel on deck. This
man was driven below by a volley of the stones. The commander
of the Gaspé now appeared, and ordering the boats off, he
fired a pistol at them. This discharge was returned from a
musket, and the officer was shot through the thigh. By this
time, the crew of the Gaspé had assembled, and the party from
Providence boarded. The conflict was short, the schooner's
people being soon knocked down and secured. All on board were
put into the boats, and the Gaspé was set on fire. Towards
morning she blew up."
_J. F. Cooper,
Naval History of the United States,
volume 1, chapter 3._
ALSO IN:
_S. G. Arnold,
History of Rhode Island,
chapter 19 (volume 2)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1772-1173.
The instituting of the Committees of Correspondence.
The Tea Ships and "the Boston Tea-Party."
"The surest way to renew and cement the union [of the
colonies] was to show that the ministry had not relaxed in its
determination to enforce the principal of the Townshend acts.
This was made clear in August, 1772, when it was ordered that
in Massachusetts the judges should henceforth be paid by the
crown. Popular excitement rose to fever heat, and the judges
were threatened with impeachment should they dare accept a
penny from the royal treasury. The turmoil was increased next
year by the discovery in London of the package of letters
which were made to support the unjust charge against
Hutchinson and some of his friends that they had instigated
and aided the most extreme measures of the ministry. In the
autumn of 1772 Hutchinson refused to call an extra session of
the assembly to consider what should be done about the judges.
Samuel Adams then devised a scheme by which the towns of
Massachusetts could consult with each other and agree upon
some common course of action in case of emergencies. For this
purpose each town was to appoint a standing committee, and as
a great part of their work was necessarily done by letter they
were called 'committees of correspondence.' This was the step
that fairly organized the Revolution."
_J. Fiske,
The War of Independence,
chapter 5._
"The town records of Boston [November 2, 1772] say:—
'It was then moved by Mr. Samuel Adams that a Committee of
Correspondence be appointed, to consist of twenty-one persons,
to state the rights of the colonists and of this Province in
particular as men and Christians and as subjects; and to
communicate and publish the same to the several towns and to
the world as the sense of this town, with the infringements
and violations thereof that have been or from time to time may
be made.' The motion occasioned some debate and seems to have
been carried late at night; the vote in its favor, at last,
was nearly unanimous. The colleagues of Adams, who had left
him almost alone thus far, now declined to become members of
the committee, regarding the scheme as useless or trifling.
The committee was at last constituted without them; it was
made up of men of little prominence but of thorough
respectability. James Otis, in another interval of sanity, was
made chairman, a position purely honorary, the town in this
way showing its respect for the leader whose misfortunes they
so sincerely mourned.
{3207}
The Committee of Correspondence held its first meeting in the
representatives' chamber at the town-house, November 3, 1772,
where at the outset each member pledged himself to observe
secrecy as to their transactions, except those which, as a
committee, they should think it proper to divulge. According
to the motion by which the committee was constituted, three
duties were to be performed: 1st, the preparation of a
statement of the rights of the colonists, as men, as
Christians, and as subjects; 2d, a declaration of the
infringement and violation of those rights; 3d, a letter to be
sent to the several towns of the Province and to the world,
giving the sense of the town. The drafting of the first was
assigned to Samuel Adams, of the second to Joseph Warren, of
the third to Benjamin Church. In a few days tidings came from
the important towns of Marblehead, Roxbury, Cambridge, and
Plymouth, indicating that the example of Boston was making
impression and was likely to be followed. On November 20, at a
town-meeting in Faneuil Hall, the different papers were
presented: Otis sat as moderator, appearing for the last time
in a sphere where his career had been so magnificent. The
report was in three divisions, according to the motion. … In
the last days of 1772, the document, having been printed, was
transmitted to those for whom it had been intended, producing
at once an immense effect. The towns almost unanimously
appointed similar committees; from every quarter came replies
in which the sentiments of Samuel Adams were echoed. In the
library of Bancroft is a volume of manuscripts, worn and
stained by time, which have an interest scarcely inferior to
that possessed by the Declaration of Independence itself, as
the fading page hangs against its pillar in the library of the
State Department at Washington. They are the original replies
sent by the Massachusetts towns to Samuel Adams's committee
sitting in Faneuil Hall, during those first months of 1773.
One may well read them with bated breath, for it is the touch
of the elbow as the stout little democracies dress up into
line, just before they plunge into actual fight at Concord and
Bunker Hill. There is sometimes a noble scorn of the
restraints of orthography, as of the despotism of Great
Britain, in the work of the old town clerks, for they
generally were secretaries of the committees; and once in a
while a touch of Dogberry's quaintness, as the punctilious
officials, though not always 'putting God first,' yet take
pains that there shall be no mistake as to their piety by
making every letter in the name of the Deity a rounded
capital. Yet the documents ought to inspire the deepest
reverence. They constitute the highest mark the town-meeting
has ever touched. Never before and never since have
Anglo-Saxon men, in lawful folk-mote assembled, given
utterance to thoughts and feelings so fine in themselves and
so pregnant with great events. To each letter stand affixed
the names of the committee in autograph. This awkward scrawl
was made by the rough fist of a Cape Ann fisherman, on shore
for the day to do at town-meeting the duty his fellows had
laid upon him: the hand that wrote this other was cramped from
the scythe-handle, as its possessor mowed an intervale on the
Connecticut; this blotted signature, where smutted fingers
have left a black stain, was written by a blacksmith of
Middlesex, turning aside a moment from forging a barrel that
was to do duty at Lexington. They were men of the plainest;
but as the documents containing statements of the most
generous principles find the most courageous determination,
were read in the town-houses, the committees who produced
them, and the constituents for whom the committees stood, were
lifted above the ordinary level. Their horizon expanded to the
broadest; they had in view not simply themselves, but the
welfare of the continent; not solely their own generation, but
remote posterity. It was Samuel Adams's own plan, the
consequences of which no one foresaw, neither friend nor foe.
Even Hutchinson, who was scarcely less keen than Samuel Adams
himself, was completely at fault. 'Such a foolish scheme,' he
called it, 'that the faction must necessarily make themselves
ridiculous.' But in January the eyes of men were opening. One
of the ablest of the Tories, Daniel Leonard, wrote:—'This is
the foulest, subtlest, and most venomous serpent ever issued
from the egg of sedition. I saw the small seed when it was
implanted; it was a grain of mustard. I have watched the plant
until it has become a great tree.' It was the transformation
into a strong cord of what had been a rope of sand."
_J. K. Hosmer,
Samuel Adams,
chapter 13._
"In the spring of 1773, Virginia carried this work of
organization a long step further, when Dabney Carr suggested
and carried a motion calling for committees of correspondence
between the several colonies. From this point it was a
comparatively short step to a permanent Continental Congress.
It happened that these preparations were made just in time to
meet the final act of aggression which brought on the
Revolutionary War. The Americans had thus far successfully
resisted the Townshend acts and secured the repeal of all the
duties except on tea. As for tea they had plenty, but not from
England; they smuggled it from Holland in spite of
custom-houses and search-warrants. Clearly unless the
Americans could be made to buy tea from England and pay the
duty on it, the king must own himself defeated. Since it
appeared that they could not be forced into doing this, it
remained to be seen if they could be tricked into doing it. A
truly ingenious scheme was devised. Tea sent by the East India
Company to America had formerly paid a duty in some British
port on the way. This duty was now taken off, so that the
price of the tea for America might be lowered. The company's
tea thus became so cheap that the American merchant could buy
a pound of it and pay the threepence duty beside for less than
it cost him to smuggle a pound of tea from Holland. It was
supposed that the Americans would of course buy the tea which
they could get most cheaply, and would thus be beguiled into
submission to that principle of taxation which they had
hitherto resisted. Ships laden with tea were accordingly sent
in the autumn of 1773 to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and
Charleston; and consignees were appointed to receive the tea
in each of these towns. Under the guise of a commercial
operation, this was purely a political trick.
{3208}
It was an insulting challenge to the American people, and
merited the reception which they gave it. They would have
shown themselves unworthy of their rich political heritage had
they given it any other. In New York, Philadelphia, and
Charleston mass-meetings of the people voted that the
consignees should be ordered to resign their offices, and they
did so. At Philadelphia the tea-ship was met and sent back to
England before it had come within the jurisdiction of the
custom-house. At Charleston the tea was landed, and as there
was no one to receive it or pay the duty, it was thrown into a
damp cellar and left there to spoil. In Boston things took a
different turn."
_J. Fiske,
The War of Independence,
chapter 5._
"Acting upon the precedent of the time of the Stamp Act, when
Oliver, the stamp commissioner, had resigned his commission
under the Liberty Tree, a placard was posted everywhere on the
3d of November, inviting the people of Boston and the
neighboring towns to be present at Liberty Tree that day at
noon, to witness the resignation of the consignees of the tea,
and hear them swear to re-ship to London what teas should
arrive. The placard closed,—'Show me the man that dares take
this town.' At the time appointed, representatives Adams,
Hancock, and Phillips, the selectmen and town clerk, with
about five hundred more, were present at the Liberty Tree. But
no consignees arrived, whereupon Molineux and Warren headed a
party who waited upon them. The consignees, Clarke, a rich
merchant, and his sons, Benjamin Faneuil, Winslow, and the two
sons of Hutchinson, Thomas and Elisha, sat together in the
counting-house of Clarke in King Street. Admittance was
refused the committee, and a conversation took place through a
window, during which the tone of the consignees was defiant.
There was some talk of violence, and when an attempt was made
to exclude the committee and the crowd attending them from the
building, into the first story of which they had penetrated,
the doors were taken off their binges and threats uttered.
Molineux, generally impetuous enough, but now influenced
probably by cooler heads, dissuaded the others from violence.
… A town-meeting on November 5, in which an effort of the
Tories to make head against the popular feeling came to
naught, showed how overwhelming was the determination to
oppose the introduction of the tea. … When news arrived on the
17th that three tea-ships were on the way to Boston, for a
second time a town-meeting demanded through a committee, of
which Samuel Adams was a member, the resignation of the
consignees. They evaded the demand; the town-meeting voted
their answer not satisfactory, and at once adjourned without
debate or comment. The silence was mysterious; what was
impending none could tell. … On the 28th, the first of the
tea-ships, the Dartmouth, Captain Hall, sailed into the
harbor. Sunday though it was, the Committee of Correspondence
met, obtained from Benjamin Rotch, the Quaker owner of the
Dartmouth, a promise not to enter the vessel until Tuesday,
and made preparations for a mass-meeting at Faneuil Hall for
Monday forenoon, to which Samuel Adams was authorized to
invite the surrounding towns. A stirring placard the next
morning brought the townsmen and their neighbors to the place.
After the organization, Samuel Adams, arising among the
thousands, moved that: 'As the town have determined at a late
meeting legally assembled that they will to the utmost of
their power prevent the landing of the tea, the question be
now put,—whether this body are absolutely determined that the
tea now arrived in Captain Hall shall be returned to the place
from whence it came.' There was not a dissenting voice. … In
the afternoon, the meeting having resolved that the tea should
go back in the same ship in which it had come, Rotch, the
owner of the Dartmouth, protested, but was sternly forbidden,
at his peril, to enter the tea. Captain Hall also was
forbidden to enter any portion of it. 'Adams was never in
greater glory,' says Hutchinson. The next morning, November
30, the people again assembling, the consignees made it known
that it was out of their power to send the tea back; but they
promised that they would store it until word should come from
their 'constituents' as to its disposal. … The Dartmouth each
night was watched by a strong guard; armed patrols, too, were
established, and six couriers held themselves ready, if there
should be need to alarm the country. … During the first week
in December arrived the Eleanor and the Beaver, also
tea-ships, which were moored near the Dartmouth, and subjected
to the same oversight. The 'True Sons of Liberty' posted about
the town the most spirited placards. … The days flew by. At
length came the end of the time of probation. If the cargo of
the Dartmouth had not been 'entered' within that period, the
ship according to the revenue laws, must be confiscated.
Rotch, the Quaker owner, had signified his willingness to send
the ship back to England with the cargo on board, if he could
procure a clearance. The customs officials stood on
technicalities; under the circumstances a clearance could not
be granted. The grim British admiral ordered the Active and
the Kingfisher from his fleet to train their broadsides on the
channels, and sink whatever craft should try to go to sea
without the proper papers. The governor alone had power to
override these obstacles. It was competent for him to grant a
permit which the revenue men and the admiral must respect. If
he refused to do this, then on the next day the legal course
was for the revenue officers to seize the Dartmouth and land
the tea under the guns of the fleet. It was the 16th of
December. A crowd of seven thousand filled the Old South and
the streets adjoining. Nothing like it had ever been known.
Town-meeting had followed town-meeting until the excitement
was at fever heat. The indefatigable Committee of
Correspondence had, as it were, scattered fire throughout the
whole country. … Poor Quaker Rotch … felt himself, probably,
the most persecuted of men, when the monster meeting forced
him in the December weather to make his way out to Milton Hill
to seek the permit from Hutchinson. … Meantime darkness had
fallen upon the short winter day. The crowd still waited in
the gloom of the church, dimly lighted here and there by
candles. Rotch reappeared just after six, and informed the
meeting that the governor refused to grant the permit until
the vessels were properly qualified. As soon as the report had
been made, Samuel Adams arose, for it was he who had been
moderator, and exclaimed: 'This meeting can do nothing more to
save the country.'
{3209}
It was evidently a concerted signal, for instantly … the
famous war-whoop was heard, and the two or three score of
'Mohawks' rushed by the doors, and with the crowd behind them
hurried in the brightening moonlight to Griffin's wharf, where
lay the ships. The tea could not go back to England; it must
not be landed. The cold waters of the harbor were all that
remained for it. Three hundred and forty-two chests were cast
overboard. Nothing else was harmed, neither person nor
property. All was so quiet that those at a distance even could
hear in the calm air the ripping open of the thin chests as
the tea was emptied. The 'Mohawks' found helpers, so that in
all perhaps one hundred and fifty were actively concerned. Not
far off in the harbor lay the ships of the fleet, and the
Castle with the 'Sam Adams Regiments.' But no one interfered."
_J. K. Hosmer,
Samuel Adams,
chapter 16._
ALSO IN:
_W. V. Wells,
Life of Samuel Adams,
volume 1, pages 372-375, 495-512;
volume 2, pages 1-9, 24-29, 61-63, 80-81, 103-130._
_R. Frothingham,
Life of Joseph Warren,
chapter 9._
_Force's American Archives,
volume 1._
See, also, BOSTON: A. D. 1773;
and NEW YORK: A. D. 1773-1774.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1774 (March-April).
The Boston Port Bill.
The Massachusetts Act and the Quebec Act.
"The spoken defiance of the other colonies had been quite as
efficient as the combination of threats and force to which
Boston was compelled to resort, but Lord North launched the
first retaliatory and punitive measure against that city. …
The first of Lord North's bills was the Boston Port Act, which
closed the harbor until indemnity for the tea there destroyed
should be paid and the king be satisfied that thereafter the
city would obey the laws. The demand for indemnity was fair
but the indefinite claim of obedience was not only infamous in
itself but, as Burke said, punished the innocent with the
guilty. … North's second bill was a virtual abrogation of the
Massachusetts charter. The council of twenty-eight had been
hitherto elected every year in joint session of the assembly.
The king might now appoint the whole body to any number, from
twelve to thirty-six, and remove them at pleasure. The men so
appointed were designated mandamus councillors. Thereafter
town-meetings could be held only by permission of the governor
and for the sole purpose of electing officers [General Gage
was made governor under this act, and four regiments were
placed in Boston for his support]. Sheriffs were to return all
juries, and were to be named by the governor and hold office
during his pleasure. The third bill was really a device of the
king's, and it is said that the ministry was confused and
shamefaced in presenting it. It ordained that magistrates,
revenue officers, or other officials indicted in Massachusetts
for capital offences were to be tried either in Nova Scotia or
Great Britain. Another measure made legal the billeting of
troops, against which Boston had hitherto striven with
success, and a fifth, known as the Quebec Act, though
depriving that province of the right of habeas corpus,
restored the French customary law ('coutume de Paris'),
established Roman Catholicism as the state religion, and by
extending its boundaries to the Ohio and Mississippi, shut off
the Northern English Colonies from westward extension. This
was intended as an arbitrary settlement of a vexed question.
The Puritans, however, … exclaimed that the next step would be
the establishment among them of English episcopacy."
_W. M. Sloane,
The French War and the Revolution,
chapter 14._
ALSO IN:
_A. Johnston,
The United States: its History and Constitution,
sections. 57-58._
_Parliamentary History,
volume 17._
_American Archives,
series 4, volume 1, pages 35-220._
_Lord Fitzmaurice,
Life of the Earl of Shelburne,
volume 2, chapter 8._
On the Quebec Act.
See, also, CANADA: A. D. 1763-1774.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1774 (April-October).
Lord Dunmore's War with the Indians.
The Western territorial claims of Virginia.
See OHIO (VALLEY): A. D. 1774.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1774 (May-June).
Effects of the Boston Port Bill.
The call for a Continental Congress.
"The Boston Port Bill was received in America with honors not
accorded even to the Stamp Act. It was cried through the
streets as 'A barbarous, cruel, bloody, and inhuman murder,'
and was burnt by the common hangman on a scaffold forty-five
feet high. The people of Boston gathered together in
town-meeting at Faneuil Hall, and expresses were sent off with
an appeal to all Americans throughout America. The responses
from the neighborhood came like snow-flakes. Marblehead
offered the use of its wharves to the Boston merchants; Salem
averred that it would be lost to all feelings of humanity were
it to raise its fortunes on the ruins of its neighbor.
Newburyport voted to break off trade with Great Britain, and
to lay up its ships. Connecticut, as her wont is, when moved
by any vital occurrence, betook herself to prayer and
humiliation, first, however, ordering an inventory to be taken
of her cannon and military stores. Virginia, likewise,
resolved to invoke the divine interposition, but, before
another resolution which called for a Congress could be
introduced, her House was precipitately dissolved; whereupon
the resolution was brought up and passed at a meeting called
in 'the Apollo,' where it was further declared that an attack
on one colony was an attack upon all. Two days later the
Massachusetts letter itself was received, upon which the
Virginians called a convention. From all parts contributions
in money poured into Boston, and resolutions were everywhere
passed, declaring that no obedience was due the late acts of
Parliament; that the right of imperial taxation did not exist;
that those who had accepted office under pay of the king had
violated their public duty; that the Quebec act establishing
Roman Catholicism in Canada was hostile to the Protestant
religion, and that the inhabitants of the colonies should use
their utmost diligence to acquaint themselves with the art of
war, and for that purpose should turn out under arms at least
once a week. In the fulness of time, a cordon of ships was
drawn around Boston, and six regiments and a train of
artillery were encamped on the Common—the only spot in the
thirteen colonies where the government could enforce an order.
The conflict between constitutional liberty and absolutism had
now reached that dangerous point where physical force became
one of its elements. … The situation was at once recognized
throughout the colonies, and the knowledge that in union there
is strength, manifested itself in one general impulse toward a
Colonial Congress. Committees of Correspondence were organized
in every county, and throngs attended the public meetings.
{3210}
'One great, wise, and noble spirit; one masterly soul
animating one vigorous body,' was the way John Adams described
this impulse. The Canadas alone remained inanimate. … But not
so those to whom constitutional liberty was as the breath of
life. On the 17th of June (1774) the Massachusetts Assembly,
which had been removed by a royal order to Salem, answered
Virginia by resolving on a call for a Continental Congress at
Philadelphia. The governor, hearing of what was going on, sent
the secretary of the colony to dissolve the Assembly, but,
finding the doors shut upon him, he had to content himself
with reading the message to the crowd outside. The House went
on with its work, while, at the same time, a great meeting,
with John Adams in the chair, was being held at Boston in
Faneuil Hall. Twelve colonies agreed to send delegates to a
Continental Congress to be held at Philadelphia in September."
_E. G. Scott,
The Development of Constitutional Liberty in the
English Colonies of America,
chapter 11 (with corrections by the author)._
ALSO IN:
_G. Bancroft,
History of the United States
(Author's last revision)
volume 4, chapter 1._
See, also, BOSTON: A. D. 1774.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1774(May-July).
Governor Hutchinson's departure for England.
His conversation with King George.
In May, 1774, Governor Hutchinson, of Massachusetts, who had
applied some months before for leave of absence to visit
England, was relieved by General Gage and took his departure.
General Gage was temporarily commissioned to be "Captain
General and Governor-in-Chief" of the Province of
Massachusetts, and "Vice-Admiral of the same," combining the
civil and military powers in himself. It was then supposed
that Hutchinson's absence would be brief; but, to his endless
grief, he never saw the country again. Soon after his arrival
in England he had an interview with the king, which is
reported at length in his Diary. The conversation is one of
great historical interest, exhibiting King George's knowledge
and ideas of American affairs, and representing the opinions
of a high-minded American loyalist. It is reprinted here
exactly as given in Governor Hutchinson's Diary, published by
his great-grandson in 1883:
"July 1st.—Received a card from Lord Dartmouth desiring to see
me at his house before one o'clock. I went soon after 12, and
after near an hour's conversation, his Lordship proposed
introducing me immediately to the King. I was not dressed as
expecting to go to Court, but his Lordship observing that the
King would not be at St. James's again until Wednesday [this
was Friday], I thought it best to go; but waited so long for
his Lordship to dress, that the Levée was over; but his
Lordship going in to the King, I was admitted, contrary, as
Lord Pomfret observed to me, to custom, to kiss His Majesty's
hand in his closet: after which, as near as I can recollect,
the following conversation passed.
K.—How do you do Mr. H. after y voyage?
H.—Much reduced Sir by sea-sickness; and unfit upon that
account, as well as my New England dress, to appear before
your Majesty. Lord D. observed—Mr. H. apologised to me for his
dress, but I thought it very well, as he is just come ashoar;
to which the K. assented.
K.—How did you leave your Government, and how did the people
receive the news of the late measures in Parliament?
H.—When I left Boston we had no news of any Act of Parliament,
except the one for shutting up the port, which was extremely
alarming to the people.
(Lord D. said, Mr. H. came from Boston the day that Act was to
take place, the first of June. I hear the people of Virginia
have refused to comply with the request to shut up their
ports, from the people of Boston, and Mr. H. seems to be of
opinion that no colony will comply with that request.)
K.—Do you believe, Mr. H., that the account from Virginia is
true?
H.—I have no other reason to doubt it, except that the
authority for it seems to be only a newspaper; and it is very
common for articles to be inserted in newspapers without any
foundation. I have no doubt that when the people of Rhode
Island received the like request, they gave this answer—that
if Boston would stop all the vessels they then had in port,
which they were hurrying away before the Act commenced, the
people of R. Island would then consider of the proposal. The
King smiled.
Lord D.—Mr. H., may it please your Majesty, has shewn me a
newspaper with an address from a great number of Merchants,
another from the Episcopal Clergy, another from the Lawyers,
all expressing their sense of his conduct in the most
favourable terms. Lord Dartmouth thereupon took the paper out
of his pocket and shewed it.
K.—I do not see how it could be otherwise. I am sure his
conduct has been universally approved of here by people of all
parties.
H.—I am very happy in your Majesty's favourable opinion of my
administration.
K.—I am intirely satisfied with it. I am well acquainted with
the difficulties you have encountered, and with the abuse &
injury offered you. Nothing could be more cruel than the
treatment you met with in betraying your private letters.
The K., turning to Lord D.—My Lord, I remember nothing in them
to which the least exception could be taken.
Lord D.—That appears, Sir, from the report of the Committee of
Council, and from your Majesty's orders thereon.
H.—The correspondence, Sir, was not of my seeking. It was a
meer matter of friendly amusement, chiefly a narrative of
occurrences, in relating of which I avoided personalities as
much as I could, and endeavoured to treat persons, when they
could not be avoided, with tenderness, as much as if my
letters were intended to be exposed; whereas I had no reason
to suppose they ever would be exposed.
K.—Could you ever find Mr. H. how those letters came to New
England?
H.—Doctor F., may it please your Majesty, has made a publick
declaration that he sent them, and the Speaker has
acknowledged to me that he received them: I do not remember
that he said directly from Doctor F., but it was understood
between us that they came from him. I had heard before that
they came either direct from him, or that he had sent them
through another channel, and that they were to be communicated
to six persons only, and then to be returned without suffering
any copies to be taken, I sent for the Speaker and let him
know what I had heard, which came from one of the six to a
friend, and so to me. The Speaker said they were sent to him,
and that he was at first restrained from shewing them to any
more than six persons.
{3211}
K.—Did he tell you who were the persons?
H.—Yes, sir. There was Mr. Bowdoin, Mr. Pitts, Doctor
Winthrop, Doctor Chauncy, Doctor Cooper, and himself. They are
not all the same which had been mentioned before. The two Mr.
Adamses had been named to me in the room of Mr. Pitts and
Doctor Winthrop.
K.—Mr. B. I have heard of Lord D.—I think he is father-in-law
to Mr. T. [Temple].
K.—Who is Mr. Pitts?
H.—He is one of the Council—married Mr. B.'s sister.
K.—I have heard of Doctor Ch. and Doctor Cooper, but who is
Doctor Winthrop?
H.—He is not a Doctor of Divinity, Sir, but of Law; a
Professor of Mathematicks and Natural Philosophy at the
College, and last year was chose of the Council.
K.—I have beard of one Mr. Adams, but who is the other?
H.—He is a Lawyer, Sir.
K.—Brother to the other?
H. No, Sir, a relation. He has been of the House, but is not
now. He was elected by the two Houses to be of the Council,
but negatived. The speaker further acquainted me that, after
the first letter, he received another, allowing him to shew
the Letters to the Committee of Correspondence; and afterwards
a third, which allowed him to shew them to such persons as he
could confide in, but always enjoined to send them back
without taking copies. I asked him how he could be guilty of
such a breach of trust as to suffer them to be made publick?
He excused it by saying that he was against their being
brought before the House, but was overruled; and when they had
been read there, the people abroad compelled their
publication, or would not be satisfied without it. Much more
passed with which I will not trouble your Majesty; but after
the use had been made of the Letters, which is so well known,
they were all returned.
K., turning to Lord D—This is strange:—where is Doctor F., my
lord?
Lord D.—I believe, Sir, he is in Town. He was going to
America, but I fancy he is not gone.
K.—I heard he was going to Switzerland, or to some part of the
Continent.
Lord D.—I think, Sir, there has been such a report.
K.—In such abuse, Mr. H., as you met with, I suppose there
must have been personal malevolence as well as party rage?
H.—It has been my good fortune, Sir, to escape any charge
against me in my private character. The attacks have been upon
my publick conduct, and for such things as my duty to your
Majesty required me to do, and which you have been pleased to
approve of. I don't know that any of my enemies have
complained of a personal injury.
K.—I see they threatened to pitch and feather you.
H.—Tarr & feather, may it please your Majesty; but I don't
remember that ever I was threatened with it.
Lord D.—Oh! yes, when Malcolm was tarred and feathered
[Almanac for 1770, May, MS. Note], the committee for tarring
and feathering blamed the people for doing it, that being a
punishment reserved for a higher person, and we suppose you
was intended.
H.—I remember something of that sort, which was only to make
diversion, there being no such committee, or none known by
that name.
K.—What guard had you, Mr. H.?
H.—I depended, Sir, on the protection of Heaven. I had no
other guard. I was not conscious of having done anything of
which they could justly complain, or make a pretence for
offering violence to my person. I was not sure, but I hoped
they only meant to intimidate. By discovering that I was
afraid, I should encourage them to go on. By taking measures
for my security I should expose myself to calumny, and being
censured as designing to render them odious for what they
never intended to do. I was, therefore, obliged to appear to
disregard all the menaces in the newspapers, and also private
intimations from my friends who frequently advised me to take
care of myself.
K.—I think you generally live in the country,
Mr. H.; what distance are you from town?
H.—I have lived in the country, Sir, in the summer for 20
years; but, except the winter after my house was pulled down,
I have never lived in the country in winter until the last. My
house is 7 or 8 miles from the Town, a pleasant situation, and
most gentlemen from abroad say it has the finest prospect from
it they ever saw, except where great improvements have been
made by art, to help the natural view. The longest way the
road is generally equal to the turnpike roads here; the other
way rather rough.
K.—Pray, what does Hancock do now? How will the late affair
affect him?
H.—I don't know to what particular affair your Majesty refers.
K.—Oh, a late affair in the city, his bills being refused.
(Turning to Lord D.) Who is that in the city, my Lord?
Lord D. not recollecting—
H.—I have heard, Sir, that Mr. Haley, a merchant in the city,
is Mr. Hancock's principal correspondent.
K.—Ay, that's the name.
H.—I heard, may it please your Majesty, before I came from New
England, that some small sums were returned, but none of
consequence.
K.—Oh, no, I mean within this month, large sums.
Lord D.—I have heard such rumours, but don't know the
certainty.
H.—Mr. Hancock, Sir, had a very large fortune left him by his
uncle, and I believe his political engagements have taken off
his attention from his private affairs. He was sensible not
long ago of the damage it was to him, and told me he was
determined to quit all publick business, but soon altered his
mind.
K.—Then there's Mr. Cushing: I remember his name a long time:
is not he a great man of the party?
H.—He has been many years Speaker, but a Speaker, Sir, is not
always the person of the greatest influence. A Mr. Adams is
rather considered as the opposer of Government, and a sort of
Wilkes in New England.
{3212}
K.—What gave him his importance?
H.—A great pretended zeal for liberty, and a most inflexible
natural temper. He was the first that publickly asserted the
Independency of the colonies upon the Kingdom, or the supreme
Authority of it.
K.—I have heard, Mr. H., that your ministers preach that, for
the sake of promoting liberty or the publick good, any
immorality or less evil may be tolerated?
H.—I don't know, Sir, that such doctrine has ever been
preached from the pulpit; but I have no doubt that it has been
publickly asserted by some of the heads of the party who call
themselves sober men, that the good of the publick is above
all other considerations, and that truth may be dispensed
with, and immorality is excusable, when this great good can be
obtained by such means.
K.—That's a strange doctrine, indeed. Pray, Mr. H., what is
your opinion of the effect from the new regulation of the
Council? Will it be agreeable to the people, and will the new
appointed Councillors take the trust upon them?
H.—I have not, may it please your Majesty, been able to inform
myself who they are. I came to Town late last evening, and
have seen nobody. I think much will depend upon the choice
that has been made.
K.—Enquiry was made and pains taken that the most suitable
persons should be appointed.
H.—The body of the people are Dissenters from the Church of
England; what are called Congregationalists. If the Council
shall have been generally selected from the Episcopalians, it
will make the change more disagreeable.
K.—Why are they not Presbyterians?
H.—There are very few Churches which call themselves
Presbyterians, and form themselves voluntarily into a
Presbytery without any aid from the civil government, which
the Presbyterian Church of Scotland enjoys.
Lord D.—The Dissenters in England at this day are scarce any
of them Presbyterians, but like those in New England,
Congregationalists, or rather Independents.
K.—Pray, what were your Ancestors, Mr. H.?
H.—In general, Sir, Dissenters.
K.—Where do you attend?
H.—With both, Sir. Sometimes at your Majesty's chapel, but
more generally at a Congregational church, which has a very
worthy minister, a friend to Government, who constantly prays
for your Majesty, and all in authority under you.
K.—What is his name?
H.—Doctor Pemberton.
K.—I have heard of Doctor Pemberton that he is a very good
man. Who is minister at the chapel?
H.—The Rector is Dr. Caner, a very worthy man also, who
frequently inculcates upon his hearers due subjection to
Government, and condemns the riotous violent opposition to it;
and besides the prayers in the Liturgy, generally in a short
prayer before sermon, expressly prays for your Majesty, and
for the chief Ruler in the Province.
K.—Why do not the Episcopal ministers in general do the same?
H.—In general, Sir, they use no other prayer before sermon
than a short collect out of the Liturgy.
K.—No—(turning to Lord D.) It is not so here, my Lord?
Lord D.—I believe it is, Sir. In your Majesty's Chapel they
always use such a prayer. It is a form adapted.
K.—I think you must be mistaken.
Lord D.—No, Sir. This prayer used to be printed formerly, but
of late it has not been printed with the service. In general
the ministers use a collect, as Mr. Hutchinson says; sometimes
the collect in the Communion service—'Prevent us, O Lord,'
&c., but I think oftener the collect for the second Sunday in
Advent.
H.—My education, Sir, was with the Dissenters. I conceive
there is no material difference between reading a prayer out
of a book, and saying it 'memoriter,' without book.
Lord D.—I think, Sir, it is not very material. The prayers of
the Dissenters are in substance very much the same with those
in the service of' the church.
K.—I see no material difference, if the prayers be equally
good, but will not that depend upon the minister? But, pray,
Mr. H., why do your ministers generally join with the people
in their opposition to Government?
H.—They are, Sir, dependent upon the people. They are elected
by the people, and when they are dissatisfied with them, they
seldom leave till they get rid of them.
K.—That must be very dangerous. If the people oblige them to
concur with them in their erroneous principles on Government,
they may do it in religion also, and this must have a most
fatal tendency.
H.—There is one check, Sir, upon the people. Unless a minister
be dismissed by a council of Churches, the Province law makes
provision for the recovery of the salary; but we have no
instance where a minister, for any length of time, has brought
suits for the recovery of his salary, after the people refuse
to hear him. They generally weary him, and sooner or later
they get clear of him.
Lord D.—That's a considerable tye, however.
K.—Pray, Mr. H., does population greatly increase in your
Province?
H.—Very rapidly, Sir. I used to think that Doctor F., who has
taken such pains in his calculations, carried it too far when
he supposed the inhabitants of America, from their natural
increase, doubled their number in 25 years; but I rather think
now that he did not; and I believe it will appear from the
last return I made to the Secretary of State, that the
Massachusets has increased in that proportion. And the
increase is supposed, including the importation of foreigners,
to be, upon the whole, greater in most of the Southern
Colonies than in the Massachusets. We import no settlers from
Europe, so as to make any sensible increase.
K.—Why do not foreigners come to your Province as well as to
the Southern Governments?
H.—I take it, Sir, that our long cold winters discourage
them. Before they can bring the land to such a state as to be
able in summer to provide for their support in winter, what
little substance they can bring with them is expended, and
many of them have greatly suffered. The Southern colonies are
more temperate.
K.—What is the reason you raise no wheat in your Province?
{3213}
H.—In most places, especially near the sea, it blasts.
K.—To what cause is that owing?
H.—It has been observed that when the grain is so forward as
to be out of the milk the beginning of July, it seldom blasts;
and that about the 8th or 10th of that month the weather
becomes exceeding hot, and what are called the honey dews of
the night are fixed upon the grains by the scalding sun in a
hot morning, and if the grain be then in the milk it shrivels
up, and the straw becomes rusty and black. This is a pretty
general opinion of the cause.
K.—To what produce is your climate best adapted?
H.—To grazing, Sir; your Majesty has not a finer Colony for
grass in all your dominions: and nothing is more profitable in
America that pasture, because labour is very dear.
K.—Then you import all your bread corn from the other
Colonies?
H.—No, Sir, scarce any, except for the use of the maritime
towns. In the country towns the people raise grain enough for
their own expending, and sometimes for exportation. They live
upon coarse bread made of rye and corn mixed, and by long use
they learn to prefer this to flour or wheat bread.
K.—What corn?
H.—Indian corn, or, as it is called in Authors, Maize.
K.—Ay, I know it. Does that make good bread?
H.—Not by itself, Sir; the bread will soon be dry and husky;
but the Rye keeps it moist, and some of our country people
prefer a bushel of Rye to a bushel of Wheat, if the price
should be the same.
K.—That's very strange.
Lord D.—In many parts of Scotland, Sir, Rye is much esteemed
as making good and wholesome bread.
The King enquired very particularly into many other parts of
the produce of the country, and the natural history of it, to
which I gave the best answers I was capable of.
K.—New York, I think, comes the next to Boston in their
opposition to Government?
H.—Does your Majesty think nearer than Pennsilvania?
K.—Why, I can't say that they do of late.
K.—Rhode Island, Mr. H., is a strange form of Government.
H.—They approach, Sir, the nearest to a Democracy of any of
your Colonies. Once a year all power returns to the people,
and all their Officers are new elected. By this means the
Governor has no judgment of his own, and must comply with
every popular prejudice.
K.—Who is their Governor now?
H.—His name, Sir, is Wanton, a Gentleman who I have reason to
think wishes to see Government maintained as much as any they
could find in the Colonies.
K.—How is it with Connecticut? are they much better?
H.—The constitutions, Sir, are much the same; but Connecticut
are a more cautious people; strive to make as little noise as
may be, and have in general retained a good share of that
virtue which is peculiarly necessary in such a form of
Government.
More was said upon the state of these and some of the other
Colonies. There being something of a pause about this time, I
turned to Lord Dartmouth and asked—Does your Lordship remember
when you had the first account of the Lieutenant Governor's
death, and whether it was before the Letters which I wrote by
Governor Tryon?
Lord D.—Oh, yes, I had a letter from you several weeks before
that, giving an account of it.
H.—There was a vessel sailed for Lisbon the day after he died,
and I gave a letter to the master in charge, to put it on
board the first Vessel for London, but was doubtful of the
conveyance.
K.—We never could find out which way that letter came. Is the
present L. Governor a relation to the late Mr. Oliver?
H.—No, Sir, not of the same family. I have no connection with
him, nor did I ever let him know that I had mentioned him as
one of the persons I thought might be proper for a Lieutenant
Governor.
K.—The Chief Justice, I think, is brother to the late
Lieutenant Governor?
H.—Yes, Sir.
K.—We had thought of him, but as he was not one of those you
had named, the present Gentleman, upon enquiry, appeared under
all circumstances the most proper.
H.—I had some particular inducement not to mention the Chief
Justice. He is related to me, and his appointment would have
increased the envy against both of us.
K.—How is he related to you?
H.—One of his sons, Sir, married one of my daughters. I was,
besides, uncertain whether the salary would be continued; and
if it should be, his salary as Chief Justice exceeded it,
except in case of my absence, and then the expense of living,
and the additional trouble from his post, I considered as more
than an equivalent. I considered further, that the controversy
in which he had been engaged as Chief Justice would render the
administration peculiarly difficult just at that time; and I
supposed it would immediately devolve upon him by my absence,
having then no expectation of being superseded. I never took
more pains to divest myself of all personal views than in
mentioning proper persons for this place. I should have been
more anxious, if I had not thought it not improbable that some
person might be appointed, and sent from England.
K.—What number of Indians had you in your Government?
H.—They are almost extinct. Perhaps there are 50 or 60
families at most upon the Eastern Frontier, where there is a
small fort maintained; tho' I conceive the inhabitants would
not be in the least danger. It looks, Sir, as if in a few
years the Indians would be extinct in all parts of the
Continent.
K.—To what is that owing?
H.—I have thought, Sir, in part to their being dispirited at
their low despicable condition among the Europeans, who have
taken possession of their country, and treat them as an
inferior race of beings; but more to the immoderate use of
spirituous liquors. There are near 100 families, perhaps more,
of Indians who are domiciliated, and live, some in other towns,
but most of them at a place called Mashpee, where they have a
church, and a Missionary to preach to them, and also an Indian
Minister who has been ordained, and preaches sometimes in
their own language.
K.—What, an Episcopal Minister?
H.—No, Sir, of the Congregational persuasion or form of
worship.
{3214}
The King was particular in many other enquiries relative to my
Administration, to the state of the Province, and the other
Colonies. I have minuted what remained the clearest upon my
mind, and as near the order in which they passed as I am able.
He asked also what part of my family I brought with me, and
what I left behind, and at length advised me to keep house a
few days for the recovery of my health. I then withdrew. I was
near two hours in the K. closet. Lord D. feared I was tired so
long standing. I observed that so gracious a reception made me
insensible of it."
_Diary and Letters of Thomas Hutchinson.
chapter 5._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1774 (September).
The meeting of the First Continental Congress.
"On the 5th day of September most of the delegates elected to
the congress were in Philadelphia. They were invited by the
speaker of the Pennsylvania assembly to hold their sessions in
the State House, but decided to meet in the hall owned by the
carpenters,—a fine brick building, having commodious rooms for
the use of the committees, and an excellent library in the
chambers. It is still in good preservation. At ten o'clock in
the morning the delegates met at the City Tavern, walked to
Carpenters' Hall, and began the sessions of the Continental
Congress. This assembly, when all the members had taken their
seats, consisted of 55 delegates, chosen by 12 colonies. They
represented a population of 2,200,000, paying a revenue of
£80,000 sterling. Georgia, which did not elect delegates, gave
a promise to concur with her 'sister colonies' in the effort
to maintain their right to the British Constitution. … In
general, the delegates elect were men of uncommon ability, who
had taken a prominent part in the political action of their
several localities. … New England presented, in John Sullivan,
vigor; in Roger Sherman, sterling sense and integrity; in
Thomas Cushing, commercial knowledge; in John Adams, large
capacity for public affairs; in Samuel Adams, a great
character, with influence and power to organize. The Middle
colonies presented, in Philip Livingston, the merchant prince
of enterprise and liberality; in John Jay, rare public virtue,
juridical learning, and classic taste; in William Livingston,
progressive ideas tempered by conservatism; in John Dickinson,
'The Immortal Farmer,' erudition and literary ability; in
Cæsar Rodney and Thomas McKean, working power; in James Duane,
timid Whiggism, halting, but keeping true to the cause; in
Joseph Galloway, downright Toryism, seeking control, and at
length going to the enemy. The Southern colonies presented, in
Thomas Johnson, the grasp of a statesman; in Samuel Chase,
activity and boldness; in the Rutledges, wealth and
accomplishment; in Christopher Gadsden, the genuine American;
and in the Virginia delegation, an illustrious group,—in
Richard Bland, wisdom; in Edmund Pendleton, practical talent;
in Peyton Randolph, experience in legislation; in Richard
Henry Lee, statesmanship in union with high culture; in
Patrick Henry, genius and eloquence; in Washington, justice
and patriotism. 'If,' said Patrick Henry, 'you speak of solid
information and sound judgment, Washington unquestionably is
the greatest man of them all.' … The congress was organized by
the choice of Peyton Randolph of Virginia for President, and
Charles Thomson of Philadelphia, not a member, for Secretary.
… A discussion … arose on the rules to be observed in
determining questions, … which was renewed the next day, when
it was agreed that each colony should have one vote."
_R. Frothingham,
The Rise of the Republic of the United States,
chapter 9._
ALSO IN:
_J. T. Scharf and. T. Westcott,
History of Philadelphia,
volume 1, chapter 16._
_C. J. Stillé,
Life and Times of John Dickinson,
chapter 5._
_V. C. Bryant and S. H. Gay,
Popular History of the! United States,
volume 3, chapter 13._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1774 (September-October).
The action of the Congress.
"The Congress first resolved 'to state the rights of the
colonies in general, the several instances in which those
rights were violated or infringed, and the means most proper
for a restoration of them.' Next, 'to examine and report the
several statutes which affect the trade and manufactures of
the colonies,' not earlier than the last nine years. While
these subjects were under consideration, resolutions of Boston
and its neighbors [Middlesex and Suffolk counties] were laid
before them, stating their wrongs and merely defensive
measures to which they would adhere, 'as long as such conduct
may be vindicated by reason and the principles of
self-preservation, but no longer.' … Congress unanimously
approved and recommended 'a perseverance in this firm and
temperate conduct,' trusting a change in the councils of the
British nation. The merchants were urged not to order goods,
and to suspend those ordered; and it was resolved, that after
the first of next December there should be no importation of
British goods, and no consumption of, or traffic in them. A
loyal petition to the king was ordered, assuring him that by
abolishing the system of laws and regulations of which the
colonies complained, enumerating them, the jealousies they had
caused would be removed, and harmony restored. 'We ask but for
peace, liberty and safety. We wish not a diminution of the
prerogative, nor do we solicit the grant of any new right in
our favor. Your royal authority over us, and our connection
with Great Britain, we shall always carefully and zealously
endeavor to support and maintain.' General Gage was entreated
to discontinue the erection of the fortifications on Boston
Neck, and to prevent all injuries on the part of the troops;
and Massachusetts was asked 'temporarily to submit to a
suspension of the administration of justice where it could not
be procured in a legal and peaceable manner.' Persons
accepting office under the recent act, changing the form of
her government, were denounced, 'as the wicked tools of that
despotism which is preparing to destroy those rights which
God, nature, and compact have given to America.' A memorial
was next ordered to the inhabitants of the British colonies
there represented, exposing their common wrongs and urging a
united 'commercial opposition,' warning them to extend their
views 'to mournful events,' to be 'in all respects prepared
for every contingency, and to implore the favor of Almighty
God.'
{3215}
An appeal was made to the enlightened sympathies of the
British people. … Finally, an address was made to the
inhabitants of the Province of Quebec, inviting their
co-operation. In the meantime, the form of a non-exportation,
non-consumption association was adopted, and signed by each of
the delegates. … A declaration of the rights and injuries of
the colonies was made, in which the most difficult question
was disposed of. The right to participate in the legislative
council of their common country, was declared to be the
foundation of English liberty and of all free government. … Of
all these proceedings the language was that of peace, except
where other language was demanded. For they approved the
opposition of the inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay to the
execution of the late acts of Parliament, and declared, 'If
these acts shall be attempted to be carried into execution by
force, in such case all America ought to support them in their
opposition,' and 'that seizing or attempting to seize any
person in America, in order to transport such person beyond
the sea for trial of offences committed within the body of a
county in America, being against law, will justify, and ought
to meet with, resistance and reprisal.' These were the
essential resolutions. They bound the colonies to a common
resistance to acts of force against all, or any one of them.
They also declared their opinion of the necessity that another
Congress should be held in the ensuing month of May, unless
the redress of grievances which they had desired was obtained
before that time, and that all the colonies in North America
choose deputies, as soon as possible, to attend such Congress.
On the twenty-sixth of October, after a secret session of
fifty-one days, this body adjourned. The recommendations of
this Congress were received with marked respect among the
patriots of the colonies."
_J. C. Hamilton,
History of the United States as traced
in the Writings of Alexander Hamilton,
chapter 3 (volume 1)._
"Trained in all the theories of the mercantile system, America
had been taught to believe (1) that two countries could
continue to trade, though one of necessity did so at a loss;
(2) that in the trade between England and the colonies, the
former both through natural advantages and through law was the
party to which the profit accrued; (3) that England was 'a
shop-keeping nation,' whose very existence depended on her
trade and manufactures. A suspension of trade between England
and America therefore would mean misery, if not ruin, to the
mother country, while the colonies would 'both save and gain.'
With measures of non-importation, non-exportation and
non-consumption, accordingly, did this otherwise powerless
body hope to coerce the English people and government. Though
founded on an economic fallacy, this method of action was
certain to have a great effect in England. Twice already had
it been employed on a limited scale—against the Stamp Act and
against the revenue acts,—and each time with sufficient
success to warrant the belief that its wider application would
result in victory. Now the agents of the colonies in London
were writing home: 'If you have virtue enough to resolve to
stop, and to execute the resolution of stopping, your exports
and imports for one year, this country must do you justice.' …
In both England and America the temporary destruction of
British trade was viewed not merely as an effective weapon,
but as the only peaceful one which the colonies possessed. A
failure to unite in a non-importation agreement against
England would, according to a prominent English politician,
leave nothing for the colonies 'but to decide between ruin and
submission.' The question for the Congress was not, therefore,
a choice of remedies, but merely whether, and to how great an
extent, the dele·gates could be brought to agree to the only
one within their reach. For even while accepting the system as
effective against Great Britain, the delegates and their
constituents had so far progressed as to realize that it bore
with uneven force on the different colonies. The southern
colonies were really no more diversified in their industries
than the West India islands. South Carolina grew rice and
indigo; North Carolina depended largely on tar, pitch and
turpentine; Virginia raised tobacco. Unless these products
could be exported to Europe, those colonies might suffer for
the necessaries of life. … The first consideration of the
subject in the Congress revealed serious difficulties. The
Virginia delegation, 'to avoid the heavy injury that would
arise,' were prevented by their instructions from agreeing to
an immediate cessation of trade relations. Imports would cease
on November 1, 1774, but exports must continue till August 10,
1775. It was in vain they were told 'that a non-exportation at
a future day cannot avail,' and that at the Virginia date
non-exportation would not operate before the fall of 1776. The
Virginians had determined to cure and sell their tobacco crop
of 1774 before 'consideration of interest and of equality of
sacrifice should be laid aside.' So vital, however, did most
of the delegates consider the immediate enforcement, that it
was proposed to act without Virginia; for Boston and New
England, it was said, would need active support before that
date. This proposition was defeated by the refusal of the
delegates of North Carolina and Maryland to join unless
Virginia should also make the sacrifice. With sorry grace the
Congress had to accept the dictation of Virginia. But the
trouble did not end here. Virginia's selfish interest having
been triumphant, the South Carolina delegation sought for an
equal advantage, and demanded that the two great products of
that colony should be especially reserved from the
non-exportation clause. … Rather than yield, the Congress
preferred a cessation of business for several days, in order
'to give Our [South Carolina] deputies time to recollect
themselves.' But when the Association was ready for signing,
the South Carolina delegates, with but one exception, seceded
from the Congress, and their assent was only secured
eventually through a compromise, by virtue of which rice alone
was excluded from the agreement, while indigo was brought
under its terms. Such were the secret deliberations of the
Congress, in endeavoring to unite the colonies in the use of
their only weapon. The first public results appeared in the
form of a unanimous resolution, passed and published on
September 22, requesting 'the merchants and others in the
several colonies not to send to Great Britain any orders for
goods,' and to delay or suspend orders already sent. Five days
later it was unanimously resolved that after December 1, 1774,
'there should be no importation into British America from
Great Britain or Ireland, or from any other place,' of any
goods, wares or merchandise exported from Great Britain or
Ireland.
{3216}
Three days later, with no assertion of unanimity, a resolution
was announced to the effect 'that from and after the 10th day
of September, 1775, the exportation of all merchandise and
every commodity whatsoever to Great Britain, Ireland and the
West Indies ought to cease, unless the grievances of America
are redressed before that time,' and a committee was appointed
to draft a plan for carrying into effect these resolves. On
October 12 this committee brought in a report, which, after
consideration and amendment, was on the 18th of October agreed
to and ordered signed. On October 20 it was signed and ordered
to be printed. Possessed of no real power, the Congress relied
on the people to enforce this agreement. It was recommended
that in every county, city and town a committee be chosen
'whose business it shall be attentively to observe the conduct
of all persons touching this Association.' With hardly an
exception, this recommendation was adopted. … As America had
refused to trade with Great Britain and her colonies, the
government replied by acts prohibiting any such trade. The
policy of 'exhausting its opponent by injuring itself' was at
last to have a fair trial, but through British, not American
action. The colonies were by law interdicted from all
commerce, trade and fishing. But before the legislation went
into effect blood had been shed at Lexington. The contest
could no longer be fought with acts of Parliament and resolves
of Congress; 'blows must decide.' The Association was
distinctively a peace weapon. Had the Congress really expected
war, no action could have been more foolish. A garrison soon
to be beleaguered virtually shut its ports to supplies. No
better proof is needed of how little the delegates wished or
worked for separation."
_P. L. Ford,
The Association of the First Congress
(Political Science Quarterly, December, 1891.)_
'That the foundation of English liberty, and of all free
government, is a right in the people to participate in their
legislative council; and us the English colonists are not
represented, and from their local and other circumstances
cannot be properly represented in the British Parliament, they
are entitled to a free and exclusive power of legislation in
their several provincial legislatures, where their rights of
representation can alone be preserved, in all cases of
taxation and internal polity, subject only to the negative of
their sovereign, in such manner as has been heretofore used
and accustomed. But from the necessity of the case, and a
regard to the mutual interest of both countries, we cheerfully
consent to the operation of such acts of the British
Parliament as are bona fide restrained to the regulation of
our external commerce, for the purpose of securing the
commercial advantages of the whole empire to the mother
country; and the commercial benefits of its respective
members; excluding every idea of taxation, internal or
external, for raising a revenue on the subjects in America,
without their consent.' This was not precisely what John Adams
wanted, but it was much. When this declaration went forth, the
cause of Massachusetts, in whatever it might eventuate, was
the cause of the colonies. It was nationalized. This was John
Adams's greatest feat of statesmanship. On it the Success of
the impending war, and the Declaration of Independence
rested."
_M. Chamberlain,
John Adams, the Statesman of the
American Revolution,
pages 78-80._
"How far the authority of this first congress extended,
according to the instructions of the delegates, it is
impossible to determine with certainty at this distance of
time. But it is probable that the original intention was that
it should consult as to the ways and means best calculated to
remove the grievances and to guaranty the rights and liberties
of the colonies, and should propose to the latter a series of
resolutions, furthering these objects. But the force of
circumstances at the time compelled it to act and order
immediately, and the people, by a consistent following of its
orders, approved this transcending of their written
instructions. The congress was therefore not only a
revolutionary body from its origin, but its acts assumed a
thoroughly revolutionary character. The people, also, by
recognizing its authority, placed themselves on a
revolutionary footing, and did so not as belonging to the
several colonies, but as a moral person; for to the extent
that congress assumed power to itself and made bold to adopt
measures national in their nature, to that extent the
colonists declared themselves henceforth to constitute one
people, inasmuch as the measures taken by congress could be
translated from words into deeds only with the consent of the
people. This state of affairs essentially continued up to
March 1, 1781.
{3217}
Until that time, that is, until the adoption of the articles
of confederation by all the states, congress continued a
revolutionary body, which was recognized by all the colonies
as 'de jure' and 'de facto' the national government, and which
as such came in contact with foreign powers and entered into
engagements, the binding force of which on the whole people
has never been called in question. The individual colonies, on
the other hand, considered themselves, up to the time of the
Declaration of Independence, as legally dependent upon England
and did not take a single step which could have placed them
before the mother country or the world in the light of 'de
facto' sovereign states. They remained colonies until the
'representatives of the United States' 'in the name of the
good people of these colonies' solemnly declared 'these united
colonies' to be 'free and independent states.' The
transformation of the colonies into 'states' was, therefore,
not the result of the independent action of the individual
colonies. It was accomplished through the 'representatives of
the United States'; that is, through the revolutionary
congress, in the name of the whole people. Each individual
colony became a state only in so far as it belonged to the
United States and in so far as its population constituted a
part of the people."
_H. von Holst,
Constitutional and Political History of the
United States,
volume 1, chapter 1._
ALSO IN:
_W. V. Wells,
Life of Samuel Adams,
volume 2, pages 213-247._
_J. Adams,
Diary (Works, volume 2)
pages 358-401._
_Journal of the Congress which met at Philadelphia
September 5, 1774
(London: J. Almon)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1774-1775.
Provincial Congress of Massachusetts and
Committee of Safety.
Military preparations.
"Governor Gage issued writs, dated September 1, convening the
General Court at Salem on the 5th of October, but dissolved it
by a proclamation dated September 28, 1774. The members
elected to it, pursuant to the course agreed upon, resolved
themselves into a Provincial Congress. This body, on the 26th
of October, adopted a plan for organizing the militia,
maintaining it, and calling it out when circumstances should
render it necessary. It provided that one quarter of the
number enrolled should be held in readiness to muster at the
shortest notice, who were called by the popular name of
minute-men. An executive authority—the Committee of
Safety—was created, clothed with large discretionary powers;
and another called the Committee of Supplies. On the 27th
Jedediah Preble, (who did not accept,) Artemas Ward, and Seth
Pomeroy, were chosen general officers; and on the 28th, Henry
Gardner was chosen treasurer of the colony, under the title of
Receiver-General. Among the energetic acts of this memorable
Congress, was one authorizing the collection of military
stores. It dissolved December 10. The committee of safety, as
early as November, authorized the purchase of materials for an
army, and ordered them to be deposited at Concord and
Worcester. These proceedings were denounced by General Gage,
in a proclamation dated November 10, as treasonable, and a
compliance with them was forbidden. In a short time the king's
speech and the action of Parliament were received, which
manifested a firm determination to produce submission to the
late acts, and to maintain 'the supreme authority' of Great
Britain over the colonies. General Gage regarded this
intelligence as having 'cast a damp upon the faction,' and as
having produced a happy effect upon the royalist cause.
However, a second Provincial Congress (February 1 to 16, 1775)
renewed the measures of its predecessor; and gave definiteness
to the duties of the committee of safety, by 'empowering and
directing' them (on the 9th of February) to assemble the
militia whenever it was required to resist the execution of
the two acts, for altering the government and the
administration of justice. At the same time it appointed two
additional generals, John Thomas, and William Heath, and made
it the duty of the five general officers to take charge of the
militia when called out by the committee of safety, and to
'effectually oppose and resist such attempt or attempts as
shall be made for carrying into execution by force' the two
acts. … The conviction was fast becoming general that force
only could decide the contest. Stimulated and sustained by
such a public opinion, the committees of safety and supplies
were diligent, through the gloomy months of winter, in
collecting and storing at Concord and Worcester materials for
the maintenance of an army."
_R. Frothingham, Jr.,
History of the Siege of Boston,
chapter 1. _
The following citizens composed the Committee of Public
Safety, viz., "John Hancock, Joseph Warren, Benjamin Church,
Richard Devens, Benjamin White, Joseph Palmer, Abraham Watson,
Azor Orne, John Pigeon, William Heath, and Thomas Gardner. The
following 'Committee of Supplies' was announced, viz.,
Elbridge Gerry, David Cheever, Benjamin Lincoln, Moses Gill,
and Benjamin Hall. … By the first day of January, 1775, the
garrison of Boston had been increased to thirty-five hundred
men, and mounted three hundred and seventy men as a daily
guard-detail, besides a field officers' guard of one hundred
and fifty men on Boston Neck. Three brigades were organized
and were officered, respectively by Generals Lord Percy,
Pigott and Jones. In November of 1774, General Gage had
advised the British government, that he, 'was confident, that
to begin with an army twenty thousand strong, would in the end
save Great Britain blood and treasure.' Meanwhile, the militia
drilled openly, rapidly completed company organizations, and
made many sacrifices to procure arms, powder and other
materials of war. The Home government, in view of the serious
aspect of affairs, ordered Generals Howe, Clinton, and
Burgoyne to join General Gage, and announced that 'ample
reinforcements would be sent out, and the most speedy and
effectual measures would be taken to put down the rebellion,'
then pronounced to already exist. On the eighth of April, the
Provincial Congress resolved to take effectual measures to
raise an army, and requested the cooperation of Rhode Island,
New Hampshire and Connecticut. On the thirteenth, it voted to
raise six companies of artillery, to pay them and keep them at
drill. On the fourteenth it advised citizens to leave Boston
and to remove to the country. On the fifteenth, it solemnly
appointed a day for 'Public Fasting and Prayer,' and adjourned
to the tenth day of May. The Committee of Public Safety at
once undertook the task of securing powder, cannon and small
arms. A practical embargo was laid upon all trade with Boston.
The garrison could obtain supplies only with great difficulty,
and, as stated by Gordon, 'nothing was wanting but a spark, to
set the whole continent in a flame.'"
_H. B. Carrington,
Battles of the American Revolution.
chapter 2._
ALSO IN:
_J. Fiske,
The American Revolution,
chapter 3 (volume 1)._
{3218}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (January-March).
Vain efforts toward pacific statesmanship in the British
Parliament, by Chatham, Burke, and others.
A newly elected British Parliament "met on November 30, 1774;
but no serious measure relating to America was taken till
January 1775, when the House reassembled after the Christmas
vacation. The Ministers had a large majority, and even apart
from party interest the genuine feeling of both Houses ran
strongly against the Americans. Yet at no previous period were
they more powerfully defended. I have already noticed that
Chatham, having returned to active politics after his long
illness in 1774, had completely identified himself with the
American cause, and had advocated with all his eloquence
measures of conciliation. He … moved an address to the King
praying that he would as soon as possible, 'in order to open
the way towards a happy settlement of the dangerous troubles
in America,' withdraw the British troops stationed in Boston.
In the course of his speech he represented the question of
American taxation as the root-cause of the whole division, and
maintained that the only real basis of conciliation was to be
found in a distinct recognition of the principle that
'taxation is theirs, and commercial regulation ours;' that
England has a supreme right of regulating the commerce and
navigation of America, and that the Americans have an
inalienable right to their own property. He fully justified
their resistance, predicted that all attempts to coerce them
would fail, and eulogised the Congress at Philadelphia as
worthy of the greatest periods of antiquity. Only eighteen
peers voted for the address, while sixty-eight opposed it. On
February 1 he reappeared with an elaborate Bill for settling
the troubles in America. It asserted in strong terms the right
of Parliament to bind the colonies in all matters of imperial
concern, and especially in all matters of commerce and
navigation. It pronounced the new colonial doctrine that the
Crown had no right to send British soldiers to the colonies
without the assent of the Provincial Assemblies, dangerous and
unconstitutional in the highest degree, but at the same time
it recognised the sole right of the colonists to tax
themselves, guaranteed the inviolability of their charters,
and made the tenure of their judges the same as in England. It
proposed to make the Congress which had met at Philadelphia an
official and permanent body, and asked it to make a free grant
for imperial purposes. England, in return, was to reduce the
Admiralty Courts to their ancient limits, and to suspend for
the present the different Acts complained of by the colonists.
The Bill was not even admitted to a second reading. Several
other propositions tending towards conciliation were made in
this session. On March 22, 1775, Burke, in one of his greatest
speeches, moved a series of resolutions recommending a repeal
of the recent Acts complained of in America, reforming the
Admiralty Court and the position of the judges, and leaving
American taxation to the American Assemblies, without touching
upon any question of abstract right. A few days later, Hartley
moved a resolution calling upon the Government to make
requisitions to the colonial Assemblies to provide of their
own authority for their own defence; and Lord Camden in the
House of Lords and Sir G. Savile in the House of Commons
endeavoured to obtain a repeal of the Quebec Act. All these
attempts, however, were defeated by enormous majorities. The
petition of Congress to the King was referred to Parliament,
which refused to receive it, and Franklin, after vain efforts
to effect a reconciliation, returned from England to America."
_W. E. H. Lecky,
History of England in the 18th Century,
chapter 12. (volume 3)._
The following are the more important passages of the speech of
Burke, on moving the resolutions which he introduced in the
House of Commons, March 22, 1775:
"The proposition is peace. Not peace through the medium of
war; not peace to be hunted through the labyrinth of intricate
and endless negotiations; not peace to arise out of universal
discord, fomented from principle, in all parts of the empire;
not peace to depend on the juridical determination of
perplexing questions, or the precise marking the shadowy
boundaries of a complex government. It is simple peace, sought
in its natural course and in its ordinary haunts. It is peace
sought in the spirit of peace, and laid in principles purely
pacific. I propose, by removing the ground of the difference,
and by restoring the former unsuspecting confidence of the
colonies in the mother country, to give permanent satisfaction
to your people,—and (far from a scheme of ruling by discord)
to reconcile them to each other in the same act and by the
bond of the very same interest which reconciles them to
British government. My idea is nothing more. Refined policy
ever has been the parent of confusion,—and ever will be so, as
long as the world endures. Plain good intention, which is as
easily discovered at the first view as fraud is surely
detected at last, is, let me say, of no mean force in the
government of mankind. Genuine simplicity of heart is an
healing and cementing principle. … The capital leading
questions on which you must this day decide are these two:
First, whether you ought to concede; and secondly, what your
concession ought to be. On the first of these questions we
have gained … some ground. But I am sensible that a good deal
more is still to be done. Indeed, Sir, to enable us to
determine both on the one and the other of these great
questions with a firm and precise judgment, I think it may be
necessary to consider distinctly the true nature and the
peculiar circumstances of the object which we have before us:
because, after all our struggle, whether we will or not, we
must govern America according to that nature and to those
circumstances, and not according to our own imaginations, not
according to abstract ideas of right, by no means according to
mere general theories of government, the resort to which
appears to me, in our present situation, no better than arrant
trifling. … The first thing that we have to consider with
regard to the nature of the object is the number of people in
the colonies. I have taken for some years a good deal of pains
on that point. I can by no calculation justify myself in
placing the number below two millions of inhabitants of our
own European blood and color,—besides at least 500,000 others,
who form no inconsiderable part of the strength and opulence
of the whole. This, Sir, is, I believe, about the true number.
There is no occasion to exaggerate, where plain truth is of so
much weight and importance. But whether I put the present
numbers too high or too low is a matter of little moment.
{3219}
Such is the strength with which population shoots in that part
of the world, that, state the numbers as high as we will,
whilst the dispute continues, the exaggeration ends. Whilst we
are discussing any given magnitude, they are grown to it.
Whilst we spend our time in deliberating on the mode of
governing two millions, we shall find we have millions more to
manage. Your children do not grow faster from infancy to
manhood than they spread from families to communities, and
from villages to nations. … But the population of this
country, the great and growing population, though a very
important consideration, will lose much of its weight, if not
combined with other circumstances. The commerce of your
colonies is out of all proportion beyond the numbers of the
people. … The trade with America alone is now within less than
£500,000 of being equal to what this great commercial nation,
Eng]and, carried on at the beginning of this century with the
whole world! … But, it will be said, is not this American
trade an unnatural protuberance, that has drawn the juices
from the rest of the body? The reverse. It is the very food
that has nourished every other part into its present
magnitude. Our general trade has been greatly augmented, and
augmented more or less in almost every part to which it ever
extended, but with this material difference: that of the six
millions which in the beginning of the century constituted the
whole mass of our export commerce the colony trade was but one
twelfth part; it is now (as a part of sixteen millions)
considerably more than a third of the whole. … I choose, Sir,
to enter into these minute and particular details; because
generalities, which in all other cases are apt to heighten and
raise the subject, have here a tendency to sink it. When we
speak of the commerce of our colonies, fiction lags after
truth, invention is unfruitful, and imagination cold and
barren. … I pass … to the colonies in another point of
view,—their agriculture. This they have prosecuted with such a
spirit, that, besides feeding plentifully their own growing
multitude, their annual export of grain, comprehending rice,
has some years ago exceeded a million in value. Of their last
harvest, I am persuaded, they will export much more. At the
beginning of the century some of these colonies imported corn
from the mother country. For some time past the Old World has
been fed from the New. The scarcity which you have felt would
have been a desolating famine, if this child of your old age,
with a true filial piety, with a Roman charity, had not put
the full breast of its youthful exuberance to the mouth of its
exhausted parent. As to the wealth which the colonies have
drawn from the sea by their fisheries, you had all that matter
fully opened at your bar. You surely thought those
acquisitions of value, for they seemed even to excite your
envy; and yet the spirit by which that enterprising employment
has been exercised ought rather, in my opinion, to have raised
your esteem and admiration. And pray, Sir, what in the world
is equal to it? Pass by the other parts, and look at the
manner in which the people of New England have of late carried
on the whale-fishery. Whilst we follow them among the tumbling
mountains of ice, and behold them penetrating into the deepest
frozen recesses of Hudson's Bay and Davis's Straits, whilst we
are looking for them beneath the arctic circle, we hear that
they have pierced into the opposite region of polar cold, that
they are at the antipodes, and engaged under the frozen
serpent of the South. Falkland Island, which seemed too remote
and romantic an object for the grasp of national ambition, is
but a stage and resting-place in the progress of their
victorious industry. Nor is the equinoctial heat more
discouraging to them than the accumulated winter of both the
poles. … I am sensible, Sir, that all which I have asserted in
my detail is admitted in the gross, but that quite a different
conclusion is drawn from it. America, gentlemen say, is a
noble object,—it is an object well worth fighting for.
Certainly it is, if fighting a people be the best way of
gaining them. Gentlemen in this respect will be led to their
choice of means by their complexions and their habits. Those
who understand the military art will of course have some
predilection for it. Those who wield the thunder of the state
may have more confidence in the efficacy of arms. But I
confess, possibly for want of this knowledge, my opinion is
much more in favor of prudent management than of
force,—considering force not as an odious, but a feeble
instrument, for preserving a people so numerous, so active, so
growing, so spirited as this, in a profitable and subordinate
connection with us. First, Sir, permit me to observe, that the
use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a
moment; but it does not remove the necessity of subduing
again: and a nation is not governed which is perpetually to be
conquered. My next objection is its uncertainty. Terror is not
always the effect of force, and an armament is not a victory.
If you do not succeed, you are without resource: for,
conciliation failing, force remains; but, force failing, no
further hope of reconciliation is left. Power and authority
are sometimes bought by kindness; but they can never be begged
as alms by an impoverished and defeated violence. A further
objection to force is, that you impair the object by your very
endeavors to preserve it. The thing you fought for is not the
thing which you recover, but depreciated, sunk, wasted, and
consumed in the contest. Nothing less will content me than
whole America. I do not choose to consume its strength along
with our own; because in all parts it is the British strength
that I consume. I do not choose to be caught by a foreign
enemy at the end of this exhausting conflict, and still less
in the midst of it. I may escape, but I can make no insurance
against such an event. Let me add, that I do not choose wholly
to break the American spirit; because it is the spirit that
has made the country. Lastly, we have no sort of experience in
favor of force as an instrument in the rule of our colonies.
Their growth and their utility has been owing to methods
altogether different. Our ancient indulgence has been said to
be pursued to a fault. It may be so; but we know, if feeling
is evidence, that our fault was more tolerable than our
attempt to mend it, and our sin far more salutary than our
penitence. These, Sir, are my reasons for not entertaining
that high opinion of untried force by which many gentlemen,
for whose sentiments in other particulars I have great
respect, seem to be so greatly captivated. But there is still
behind a third consideration concerning this object, which
serves to determine my opinion on the sort of policy which
ought to be pursued in the management of America, even more
than its population and its commerce: I mean its temper and
character.
{3220}
In this character of the Americans a love of freedom is the
predominating feature which marks and distinguishes the whole.
… This fierce spirit of liberty is stronger in the English
colonies, prob·ably, than in any other people of the earth,
and this from a great variety of powerful causes; which, to
understand the true temper of their minds, and the direction
which this spirit takes, it will not be amiss to lay open
somewhat more largely. First, the people of the colonies are
descendants of Englishmen. England, Sir, is a nation which
still, I hope, respects, and formerly adored, her freedom. The
colonists emigrated from you when this part of your character
was most predominant; and they took this bias and direction
the moment they parted from your hands. They are therefore not
only devoted to liberty, but to liberty according to English
ideas and on English principles. … Your mode of governing
them, whether through lenity or indolence, through wisdom or
mistake, confirmed them in the imagination, that they, as well
as you, had an interest in these common principles. They were
further confirmed in this pleasing error by the form of their
provincial legislative assemblies. Their governments are
popular in an high degree: some are merely popular; in all,
the popular representative is the most weighty; and this share
of the people in their ordinary government never fails to
inspire them with lofty sentiments, and with a strong aversion
from whatever tends to deprive them of their chief importance.
If anything were wanting to this necessary operation of the
form of government, religion would have given it a complete
effect. Religion, always a principle of energy, in this new
people is no way worn out or impaired; and their mode of
professing it is also one main cause of this free spirit. The
people are Protestants, and of that kind which is the most
adverse to all implicit submission of mind and opinion. … All
Protestantism, even the most cold and passive, is a sort of
dissent. But the religion most prevalent in our northern
colonies is a refinement on the principle of resistance; it is
the dissidence of dissent, and the protestantism of the
Protestant religion. … Permit me, Sir, to add another
circumstance in our colonies, which contributes no mean part
towards the growth and effect of this untractable spirit: I
mean their education. In no country, perhaps, in the world is
the law so general a study. The profession itself is numerous
and powerful, and in most provinces it takes the lead. The
greater number of the deputies sent to the Congress were
lawyers. But all who read, and most do read, endeavour to
obtain some smattering in that science. I have been told by an
eminent bookseller, that in no branch of his business, after
tracts of popular devotion, were so many books as those on the
law exported to the plantations. The colonists have now fallen
into the way of printing them for their own use. I hear that
they have sold nearly as many of Blackstone's 'Commentaries'
in America as in England. General Gage marks out this
disposition very particularly in a letter on your table. He
states, that all the people in his government are lawyers, or
smatterers in law,—and that in Boston they have been enabled,
by successful chicane, wholly to evade many parts of one of
your capital penal constitutions. … The last cause of this
disobedient spirit in the colonies is hardly less powerful
than the rest, as it is not merely moral, but laid deep in the
natural constitution of things. Three thousand miles of ocean
lie between you and them. No contrivance can prevent the
effect of this distance in weakening government. Seas roll,
and months pass, between the order and the execution; and the
want of a speedy explanation of a single point is enough to
defeat an whole system. … Then, Sir, from these six capital
sources, of descent, of form of government, of religion in the
northern provinces, of manners in the southern, of education,
of the remoteness of situation from the first mover of
government,—from all these causes a fierce spirit of liberty
has grown up. It has grown with the growth of the people in
your colonies, and increased with the increase of their
wealth: a spirit, that, unhappily meeting with an exercise of
power in England, which, however lawful, is not reconcilable
to any ideas of liberty, much less with theirs, has kindled
this flame that is ready to consume us. … The question is not,
whether their spirit deserves praise or blame,—what, in the
name of God, shall we do with it? You have before you the
object, such as it is,—with all its glories, with all its
imperfections on its head. You see the magnitude, the
importance, the temper, the habits, the disorders. By all
these considerations we are strongly urged to determine
something concerning it. We are called upon to fix some rule
and line for our future conduct, which may give a little
stability to our politics, and prevent the return of such
unhappy deliberations as the present. … It should seem, to my
way of conceiving such matters, that there is a very wide
difference, in reason and policy, between the mode of
proceeding on the irregular conduct of scattered individuals,
or even of bands of men, who disturb order within the state,
and the civil dissensions which may, from time to time, on
great questions, agitate the several communities which compose
a great empire. It looks to me to be narrow and pedantic to
apply the ordinary ideas of criminal justice to this great
public con·test. I do not know the method of drawing up an
indictment against an whole people. … I am not ripe to pass
sentence on the gravest public bodies, intrusted with
magistracies of great authority and dignity, and charged with
the safety of their fellow-citizens, upon the very same title
that I am. I really think that for wise men this is not
judicious, for sober men not decent, for minds tinctured with
humanity not mild and merciful."
In the closing part of his speech, Mr. Burke introduced
successively and commented upon the following propositions, or
resolutions, which formed in their entirety his plan of
conciliation. At the end of his speaking they were rejected by
a vote of 270 against 78:
"That the colonies and plantations of Great Britain in North
America, consisting of 14 separate governments, and containing
two mil·lions and upwards of free inhabitants, have not had
the liberty and privilege of electing and sending any knights
and burgesses, or others, to represent them in the high court
of Parliament.
{3221}
That the said colonies and plantations have been made liable
to, and bounden by, several subsidies, payments, rates, and
taxes, given and granted by Parliament, though the said
colonies and plantations have not their knights and burgesses
in the said high court of Parliament, of their own election,
to represent the condition of their country; by lack whereof
they have been oftentimes touched and grieved by subsidies,
given, granted, and assented to, in the said court, in a
manner prejudicial to the common wealth, quietness, rest, and
peace of the subjects inhabiting within the same.
That, from the distance of the said colonies, and from other
circumstances, no method hath hitherto been devised for
procuring a representation in Parliament for the said
colonies.
That each of the said colonies hath within itself a body,
chosen, in part or in the whole, by the freemen, freeholders,
or other free inhabitants thereof, commonly called the General
Assembly, or General Court, with powers legally to raise,
levy, and assess, according to the several usages of such
colonies, duties and taxes towards defraying all sorts of
public services.
That the said general assemblies, general courts, or other
bodies legally qualified as aforesaid, have at sundry times
freely granted several large subsidies and public aids for his
Majesty's service, according to their abilities, when required
thereto by letter from one of his Majesty's principal
Secretaries of State; and that their right to grant the same,
and their cheerfulness and sufficiency in the said grants,
have been at sundry times acknowledged by Parliament. That it
hath been found by experience, that the manner of granting the
said supplies and aids by the said general assemblies hath
been more agreeable to the inhabitants of said colonies, and
more beneficial and conducive to the public service, than the
mode of giving and granting aids and subsidies in Parliament,
to be raised and paid in the said colonies.
That it may be proper to repeal an act, made in the 7th year
of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled, 'An act for
granting certain duties in the British colonies and
plantations in America; for allowing a drawback of the duties
of customs, upon the exportation from this kingdom, of coffee
and cocoa-nuts, of the produce of the said colonies or
plantations; for discontinuing the drawbacks payable on China
earthen ware exported to America; and for more effectually
preventing the clandestine running of goods in the said
colonies and plantations.'
That it may be proper to repeal an act, made in the 14th year
of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled, 'An act to
discontinue, in such manner and for such time as are therein
mentioned, the landing and discharging, lading or shipping, of
goods, wares, and merchandise, at the town and within the
harbor of Boston, in the province of Massachusetts Bay, in
North America.'
That it may be proper to repeal an act, made in the 14th year
of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled, 'An act for
the impartial administration of justice, in the cases of
persons questioned for any acts done by them, in the execution
of the law, or for the suppression of riots and tumults, in
the province of the Massachusetts Bay, in New England.'
That it may be proper to repeal an act, made in the 14th year
of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled, 'An act for
the better regulating the government of the province of the
Massachusetts Bay, in New England.'
That it may be proper to explain and amend an act, made in the
35th year of the reign of King Henry VIII., intituled, 'An act
for the trial of treasons committed out of the king's
dominions.'
That, from the time when the general assembly, or general
court, of any colony or plantation in North America, shall
have appointed, by act of assembly duly confirmed, a settled
salary to the offices of the chief justice and other judges of
the superior courts, it may be proper that the said chief
justice and other judges of the superior courts of such colony
shall hold his and their office and offices during their good
behaviour, and shall not be removed therefrom, but when the
said removal shall be adjudged by his Majesty in council, upon
a hearing on complaint from the general assembly, or on a
complaint from the governor, or the council, or the house of
representatives, severally, of the colony in which the said
chief justice and other judges have exercised the said
offices.
That it may be proper to regulate the courts of admiralty or
vice-admiralty, authorized by the 15th chapter of the 4th
George III., in such a manner as to make the same more
commodious to those who sue or are sued in the said courts;
and to provide for the more decent maintenance of the judges
of the same."
_Edmund Burke,
Works,
volume 2._
ALSO IN:
_T. MacKnight,
Life and Times of Edmund Burke,
chapter 21 (volume 2)._
_J. Adolphus,
History of England, Reign of George III.,
chapter 25 (volume 2)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (January-April).
Aims at independence disclaimed.
"The denial that independence was the final object, was
constant and general. To obtain concessions and to preserve
the connection with England was affirmed everywhere; and John
Adams, after the peace, went farther than this, for he
said:—'There was not a moment during the Revolution, when I
would not have given everything I possessed for a restoration
to the state of things before the contest began, provided we
could have had a sufficient security for its continuance.' If
Mr. Adams be regarded as expressing the sentiments of the
Whigs, they were willing to remain Colonists, provided they
could have had their rights secured to them; while the Tories
were contented thus to continue, without such security. Such,
as it appears to me, was the only difference between the two
parties prior to hostilities. … Franklin's testimony, a few
days before the affair at Lexington, was, that he had 'more
than once travelled almost from one end of the continent to
the other, and kept a variety of company, eating, drinking,
and conversing with them freely, [and] never had heard from
any person, drunk or sober, the least expression of a wish for
a separation, or a hint that such a thing would be
advantageous to America.' Mr. Jay is quite as explicit.
'During the course of my life,' said he, 'and until the second
petition of Congress in 1775, I never did hear an American of
any class, or of any description, express a wish for the
independence of the Colonies.' 'It has always been, and still
is, my opinion and belief, that our country was prompted and
impelled to independence by necessity, and not by choice.'
{3222}
Mr. Jefferson affirmed, 'What, eastward of New York, might
have been the dispositions towards England before the
commencement of hostilities, I know not; but before that I
never heard a whisper of a disposition to separate from Great
Britain; and after that its possibility was contemplated with
affliction by all.' Washington, in 1774, fully sustains these
declarations, and, in the 'Fairfax County Resolves,' it was
complained that 'malevolent falsehoods' were propagated by the
ministry to prejudice the mind of the king: 'particularly that
there is an intention in the American Colonies to set up for
independent States.' Mr. Madison was not in public life until
May, 1776, but he says, 'It has always been my impression,
that a reëstablishment of the Colonial relations to the parent
country, as they were previous to the controversy, was the
real object of every class of the people, till the despair of
obtaining it,' &c. … The only way to dispose of testimony like
this, is to impeach the persons who have given it."
_L. Sabine,
Biographical Sketches of Loyalists
of the American Revolution,
volume 1, pages 64-66._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (January-September).
Revolution in South Carolina.
See SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1775.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (April).
The Beginning of the War of the American Revolution.
Lexington.
Concord.
"On April 19, 1775, the Committees of safety could only count
up twelve field-pieces in Massachusetts; and there had been
collected in that colony 21,549 fire-arms, 17,441 pounds of
powder, 22,191 pounds of ball, 144,699 flints, 10,108
bayonets, 11,979 pouches, 15,000 canteens. There were also
17,000 pounds of salt fish, 35,000 pounds of rice, with large
quantities of beef and pork. Viewed as an evidence of the
forethought of the colonists, these statistics are remarkable;
but there was something heroic and indeed almost pathetic in
the project of going to war with the British government on the
strength of twelve field-pieces and seventeen thousand pounds
of salt fish. Yet when, on the night of the 18th of April,
1775, Paul Revere rode beneath the bright moonlight through
Lexington to Concord, with Dawes and Prescott for comrades, he
was carrying the signal for the independence of a nation. He
had seen across the Charles River the two lights from the
church-steeple in Boston which were to show that a British
force was going out to seize the patriotic supplies at
Concord; he had warned Hancock and Adams at Reverend Jonas
Clark's parsonage in Lexington, and had rejected Sergeant
Monroe's caution against unnecessary noise, with the
rejoinder, 'You'll have noise enough here before long—the
regulars are coming out.' As he galloped on his way the
regulars were advancing with steady step behind him, soon
warned of their own danger by alarm-bells and signal-guns.
When Revere was captured by some British officers who happened
to be near Concord, Colonel Smith, the commander of the
expedition, had already halted, ordered Pitcairn forward, and
sent back prudently for reinforcements. It was a night of
terror to all the neighboring Middlesex towns, for no one knew
what excesses the angry British troops might commit on their
return march. The best picture we have of this alarm is in the
narrative of a Cambridge woman, Mrs. Hannah Winthrop,
describing 'the horrors of that midnight cry,' as she calls
it. The women of that town were roused by the beat of drums
and ringing of bells; they hastily gathered their children
together and fled to the outlying farm-houses; seventy or
eighty of them were at Fresh Pond, within hearing of the guns
at Menotomy, now Arlington. The next day their husbands bade
them flee to Andover, whither the college property had been
sent, and thither they went, alternately walking and riding,
over fields where the bodies of the slain lay unburied. Before
5 A. M. on April 19, 1775, the British troops had reached
Lexington Green, where thirty-eight men, under Captain Parker,
stood up before six hundred or eight hundred to be shot at,
their captain saying, 'Don't fire unless you are fired on; but
if they want a war let it begin here.' It began there; they
were fired upon; they fired rather ineffectually in return,
while seven were killed and nine wounded. The rest, after
retreating, reformed and pursued the' British towards Concord,
capturing seven stragglers—the first prisoners taken in the
war. Then followed the fight at Concord, where four hundred
and fifty Americans, instead of thirty-eight, were rallied to
meet the British. The fighting took place between two
detachments at the North Bridge, where 'once the embattled
farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world.'
There the American captain, Isaac Davis, was killed at the
first shot—he who had said, when his company was placed at the
head of the little column, 'I haven't a man that is afraid to
go.' He fell and Major Buttrick gave the order, 'Fire! for
God's sake fire!' in return. The British detachment retreated
in disorder, but their main body was too strong to be
attacked, so they disabled a few cannon, destroyed some
barrels of flour, cut down the liberty-pole, set fire to the
court-house and then began their return march. It ended in a
flight; they were exposed to a constant guerilla fire;
minute-men flocked behind every tree and house; and only the
foresight of Colonel Smith in sending for reinforcements had
averted a surrender. At 2 P. M., near Lexington, Percy with
his troops met the returning fugitives, and formed a hollow
square, into which they ran and threw themselves on the ground
exhausted. Then Percy in turn fell back. Militia still came
pouring in from Dorchester, Milton, Dedham, as well as the
nearer towns. A company from Danvers marched sixteen miles in
four hours. The Americans lost ninety-three in killed, wounded
and missing that day; the British, two hundred and
seventy-three. But the important result was that every
American colony now recognized that war had begun."
_T. W. Higginson,
History of the United States of America,
chapter 10._
ALSO IN:
_R. Frothingham,
History of the Siege of Boston,
chapter 2._
_E. H. Goss,
Life of Paul Revere,
volume 1, chapter 7._
_J. L. Watson,
Paul Revere's Signal
(Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings,
November 1876)._
_P. Force, editor,
American Archives,
series 4, volume 2. _
_E. Phinney,
History of Battle at Lexington._
_C. Hudson,
History of Lexington,
chapters 6-8._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (April).
The first Provincial Convention in New York.
See NEW YORK: A. D. 1775 (APRIL).
{3223}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (April-May).
The siege of Boston begun.
"Reinforcements of foreign troops and supplies were constantly
arriving in Boston. Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne came, as
generals, on the 25th of May. Bitterness, ridicule, and
boasting, with all the irritating taunts of a mercenary
soldiery, were freely poured on the patriots and on the 'mixed
multitude' which composed the germ of their army yet to be.
The British forces had cooped themselves up in Bos·ton, and
the provincials determined that they should remain there, with
no mode of exit save by the sea. The pear-shaped peninsula,
hung to the mainland only by the stem called the 'Neck,' over
which the tide-waters sometimes washed, was equally an
inconvenient position for crowding regiments in war-like
array, and a convenient one for the extemporized army which
was about to beleaguer them there. … The town of Charlestown,
which lay under the enemy's guns, had contained a population
of between two and three thousand. The interruption of all the
employments of peace, and the proximity of danger, had brought
poverty and suffering upon the people. They had been steadily
leaving the town, with such of their effects as they could
carry with them. It proved to be well for them that they had
acted upon the warning. It would seem that there were less
than 200 of its inhabitants remaining in it at the time of the
battle, when the flames kindled by the enemy and bombs from a
battery on Copp's Hill laid it in ashes. On the third day
after the affair at Concord, the Provincial Congress again
assembled, voted to raise at once 13,000 men, to rally at
Cambridge and the neighborhood, and asked aid from the other
provinces, to which Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New
Hampshire responded. The forts, magazines, and arsenals, such
as they then were, were secured for the country. … Of the
15,000 men then gathered, by the cry of war, at Cambridge and
Roxbury, all virtually, but not by formal investment, under
the command of General Ward, nearly 10,000 belonged to
Massachusetts, and the remainder to New Hampshire, Rhode
Island, and Connecticut. They have been designated since, at
various times and by different writers, under the extreme
contrast of terms, as an 'organized army,' and a 'mob.' Either
of these terms would be equally inappropriate. … Our troops
were 'minute-men' extemporized into fragmentary companies and
skeleton regiments. The officers, chosen on the village-green
or in its public-house, paying for the honor by a treat, or
perhaps because they kept the premises where the treat could
be most conveniently furnished, were not commissioned or
ranked as the leaders of an army for campaign service. The
yeomen of town and village had not come together at the
summons of a commander-in-chief through adjutant, herald, or
advertisement. They came unbidden, at an alarm from the bell
on their meeting-house, or from a post-rider, or from the
telegrams transmitted by tongue and ear. … And for the most
part they were as free to go away as they had been to come.
They were enlisted after a fashion, some prime conditions of
which were their own convenience or pleasure. … Such of them
as came from the seaboard might bring with them old sails for
tents, while the midsummer days made it scarcely a hardship to
many to have only the heavens for a roof. Generally their
towns were expected to keep them supplied with food. … The
forces then mustered at Cambridge as a central camp, and,
stretching from the left at Chelsea almost round to Dorchester
on the right, for nearly three quarters of a circle, were
indeed not organized, nor yet had they any characteristic of a
mere mob. They combined in fact four inde·pendent armies,
united in resistance to a foreign enemy. … Each of the
Provinces had raised, commissioned, and assumed the supply of
its respective forces, holding them subject to their several
orders. After the battle in Charlestown, the Committee of War
in Connecticut ordered their generals, Spencer and Putnam,
while they were on the territory of this Province, to regard
General Ward as the commander-in-chief, and suggested to Rhode
Island and New Hampshire to issue the same instructions to
their soldiers. … General Artemas Ward was a conscientious and
judicious patriot. In the French war he had earned some
military experience and fame. … On October 27, 1774, the
Provincial Congress, in which he was a delegate, appointed him
a general officer, and on May 19 following,
Commander-in-chief. As such he served at Cambridge till the
arrival of Washington. On the very day of the battle in
Charlestown, when the great chieftain was selected for his
high service, Ward was chosen by the Continental Congress as
its first major-general. Though he was only in his 48th year
when he was burdened with the responsibility of the opening
warfare, his body was infirm from disease and exposure.
Lieutenant-General Thomas, two years the senior of Ward, was
second in command. … General Israel Putnam preceded his
Connecticut troops in hurrying to the scene of war on the news
of the affair at Lexington and Concord. His men soon followed
him, with like enthusiasm. The New Hampshire troops, on their
arrival at Medford, made choice of Colonel John Stark as their
leader. Colonel Nathaniel Greene commanded a regiment from
Rhode Island. … A few days after the affair at Lexington, when
virtually the siege began, General Gage, the British
commander, at the solicitation of some of the leading citizens
assembled in Faneuil Hall, had, by a mutual understanding,
entered into an agreement that such of the inhabitants as
wished to depart from the town should be at liberty to do so,
if they would leave their arms behind them and covenant not to
engage in any hostility against his army. The agreement was
availed of by many of the suffering and frightened people. …
But the original freedom and fulness of this understanding, on
the part of General Gage, were soon reduced by a very strict
examination of those who sought to go out of the town, and by
a rigid search of the effects which they wished to take with
them. … Several of the inhabitants remained in it from
different motives: some as devoted loyalists; some as timid
neutrals; some as spies, to watch each hostile movement and to
communicate it to their friends outside. … After hostilities
commenced, General Gage, of course, regarded the citizens as
alike prisoners, either in the same sense in which he was
himself under restraint, or as abettors of those who were his
enemies. … The population of the town, independent of the
military, was then about 18,000. To all those who were not in
sympathy with them the British behaved in an insulting and
exasperating manner. … To show, as members of the English
Church establishment, their contempt of congregational places
of worship, they removed the pews and pulpit from the Old
South meeting-house, and, covering the floor with earth, they
converted it into a riding-school for Burgoyne's squadron of
cavalry.
{3224}
The two eastern galleries were allowed to remain, one for
spectators, the other for a liquor-shop, while the fire in the
stove was occasionally kindled by books and pamphlets from the
library of a former pastor, Dr. Prince, which were in a room
in the tower. … At the time of the skirmishes at Lexington and
Concord there were about 4,000 British troops in Boston and at
the Castle. The number was increased to more than 10,000
before the action in Charlestown."
_G. E. Ellis,
History of the Battle of Bunker's Hill,
pages 4-26._
ALSO IN:
_R. Frothingham,
History of the Siege of Boston,
chapter 3._
_George Washington,
Writings,
edited by W. C. Ford,
volume 3._
_Joseph Reed,
Life and Correspondence,
volume 1._
_C. Stedman [English],
History of the American War,
volume 1, chapters 1 and 5._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (April-June).
The spreading of revolt.
All the colonies in line with New England.
"On the 23d of April, the day after the dissolution of the
provincial Congress of New York, the news from Lexington burst
upon the city. Though it was Sunday, the inhabitants speedily
unloaded two sloops which lay at the wharfs, laden with flour
and supplies for the British at Boston, of the value of
£80,000. … The royal government lay hopelessly prostrate.
Isaac Sears concerted with John Lamb to stop all vessels going
to Quebec, Newfoundland, Georgia, or Boston, where British
authority was still supreme. The people shut up the
custom-house, and the merchants whose vessels were cleared out
dared not let them sail. In the following days the military
stores of the city of New York were secured, and volunteer
companies paraded in the streets. … On the 1st of May the
people, at the usual places of election, chose for the city
and county a new general committee of one hundred, who
'resolved in the most explicit manner to stand or fall with
the liberty of the continent.' All parts of the colony were
summoned to send delegates to a provincial convention, to
which the city and county of New York deputed one-and-twenty
as their representatives. … On the 2d of May the New Jersey
committee of correspondence called a provincial congress for
the 23d at Trenton. To anticipate its influence, the governor
convened the regular assembly eight days earlier at
Burlington, and laid before them the project of Lord North
[adopted by the British parliament in February, offering to
each colony freedom from taxation on its making satisfactory
provision for the general defense and for support of
government]. The assembly could see in the proposition no
avenue to reconciliation, and declared their intention to
'abide by the united voice of the continental congress.' Such,
too, was the spirit of Pennsylvania. 'Let us not have it said
of Philadelphia that she passed noble resolutions and
neglected them,' were the words of Mifflin, youngest of the
orators who on the 25th of April addressed the town-meeting
called in that city on receiving the news from Lexington.
Thousands were present, and agreed 'to associate for the
purpose of defending with arms their lives, their property,
and liberty.' Thomas Paine from that day 'rejected the sullen
Pharaoh of the British throne forever.' … In Philadelphia,
thirty companies, with 50 to 100 in each, daily practiced the
manual exercise of the musket. One of them was raised from the
Quakers. … The Pennsylvania assembly, which met on the first
day of May, rejecting the overtures of the governor, 'could
form no prospect of lasting advantages for Pennsylvania but
from a communication of rights and property with the other
colonies.' … On the 5th Franklin arrived, after a voyage over
the smoothest seas, and the next morning was unanimously
elected a deputy to the congress. … In Maryland, at the
request of the colonels of militia, Eden, at Annapolis, gave
up the arms and ammunition of the province to the freemen of
the county. Pleased with his concession, the provincial
convention distinguished itself by its moderation; and its
delegates to congress determined to labor for a
reconciliation. In Virginia [where, in the night of April
20th, Governor Dunmore had carried off the gunpowder stored in
the colony's magazine at Williamsburg, and where, as a
consequence, the excited people were already in arms, though
no further action had yet been taken], on the 2d of May, at
the cry from Lexington, the independent company of Hanover and
its county committee were called together by Patrick Henry.
The soldiers, most of them young men, elected him their chief,
and marched for Williamsburg, on the way greatly increasing in
numbers. Alarmed by the 'insurrections,' Dunmore convened the
council, and in a proclamation of the 3d pretended that he had
removed the ammunition, lest it should be seized by slaves.
Message after message could not arrest the march or change the
purpose of Henry. … At sunrise on the 4th the governor's
messenger met Henry at New Kent, and, as a compensation for
the gunpowder taken out of the magazine, paid him £330, for
which he was to account to the convention of Virginia. The sum
was found to be more than the value of the powder, and the
next Virginia convention directed the excess to be paid back.
… In twelve or thirteen days the message from Lexington was
borne to Newbern, in North Carolina, where it 'wrought a great
change.' The governor, in his panic, ordered the cannon in the
town to be dismounted; and, after a remonstrance made in the
name of the inhabitants by Abner Nash, 'the oracle of their
committee and a principal promoter of sedition,' he shipped
his wife to New York and fled to Fort Johnston, where a
sloop-of-war had its station. In South Carolina, Charles
Pinckney, on learning the inflexibility of parliament, using
power intrusted to him by the provincial congress, appointed a
committee of five to place the colony in a state of defence;
on the 21st of April, the very night after their organization,
men of Charleston, without disguise, under their direction,
seized all the powder in the public magazines, and removed 800
stand of arms and other military stores from the royal
arsenal. The tidings from Lexington induced the general
committee to hasten the meeting of the provincial congress,
whose members, on the 2d of June, Henry Laurens being their
president, associated themselves for defence against every
foe; 'ready to sacrifice their lives and fortunes to secure
her freedom and safety.' They resolved to raise two regiments
of infantry and a regiment of rangers. … The people of
Charleston are as mad as they are here in Boston,' was the
testimony of Gage. The skirmish at Lexington became known in
Savannah on the 10th of May, and added Georgia to the union.
At that time she had about 17,000 white inhabitants and 15,000
Africans. Her militia was not less than 3,000.
{3225}
Her frontier, which extended from Augusta to St. Mary's, was
threatened by the Creeks, with 4,000 warriors; the Chickasas,
with 450; the Cherokees, with 3,000; the Choctas, with 2,500.
But danger could not make her people hesitate. On the night of
the 11th, Noble Wimberley Jones, Joseph Habersham, Edward
Telfair, and others, broke open the king's magazine in the
eastern part of the city, and took from it over 500 pounds of
powder. To the Boston wanderers they sent 63 barrels of rice
and £122 in specie; and they kept the king's birthday by
raising a liberty-pole."
_G. Bancroft,
History of the United States
(Author's last revision),
volume 4, chapter 11._
ALSO IN:
_T. Jones,
History of New York during the Revolution,
volume 1, chapter 2._
_W. Wirt,
Life of Patrick Henry,
section 5._
_W. B. Stevens,
History of Georgia,
book 4, chapter 1 (volume 2)._
_Proceedings of New York Provincial Congress
(New York State Archives, volume 1)._
_W. H. Egle,
History of Pennsylvania,
chapter 8._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (May).
The surprising of Ticonderoga and Crown Point.
"Early in the year 1775, as soon as it was made manifest by
the attitude assumed on the part of the British government
against the colonies, and by the conduct of General Gage in
Boston, that open hostilities must inevitably commence in a
short time, it began to be secretly whispered among the
principal politicians in New England that the capture of
Ticonderoga was an object demanding the first attention. In
the month of March, Samuel Adams and Dr. Joseph Warren, as
members of the Committee of Correspondence in Boston, sent an
agent privately into Canada, on a political mission, with
instructions to ascertain the feelings of the people there in
regard to the approaching contest, and to make such reports as
his observations should warrant. … This agent sent back
intelligence from Montreal, and among other things advised,
that by all means the garrison of Ticonderoga should be seized
as quickly as possible after the breaking out of hostilities,
adding that the people of the New Hampshire Grants had already
agreed to undertake the task, and that they were the most
proper persons to be employed in it. This hint was given three
weeks anterior to the battle of Lexington, and how far it
influenced future designs may not be known; but it is certain
that, eight days after that event, several gentlemen at that
time attending the Assembly in Hartford, Connecticut,
concerted a plan for surprising Ticonderoga and seizing the
cannon in that fortress, for the use of the army then marching
from all quarters to the environs of Boston."
_J. Sparks,
Life of Ethan Allen
(Library of American Biographies, volume 1),
page 270._
The gentlemen above mentioned "borrowed of the Connecticut
Treasury some 1,800 dollars, and enlisted Mott and Phelps of
Hartford, and Blagden of Salisbury, to beat up recruits. With
these they went northward, and at Pittsfield got the
co-operation of Captains Easton and Brown. No time was to be
lost, and they pushed on with some forty men to find that
Vermont giant, Ethan Allen, at Bennington. Allen at once
agreed to go; he sought out Seth Warner, and roused the 'Green
Mountain Boys,' who were mostly Connecticut and Massachusetts
men; so that, in a few days, there gathered at Castleton (7th
of May, 1775) two hundred and seventy strong men. Allen was
their first leader, Easton second, and Warner third. Their
larger body was to cross the Lake in boats from Shoreham, and
surprise 'Ty.' Captain Herrick, with thirty men, was to seize
the pass of Skenesborough (now Whitehall) at the head of the
Lake, and Captain Douglass was to search for and seize all
boats and batteaux. While these things were in progress, the
ambitious, active, and daring Benedict Arnold heard of this
expedition, and at once got leave from the Committee of Safety
at Cambridge, to lead it. He rode post-haste through
Massachusetts to raise men, and, with a single follower,
reached Castleton, and claimed the command. These rough cubs
of the forest could not well understand why he should lead
them, for had they not Allen, and Warner, and Easton, and
Phelps, and Biggelow, and others? But they consented that he
should join Allen as an equal; and so forward they went. On
the 8th of May Captain Noah Phelps, disguised with rough
farmer clothes, and a long beard, blundered into the fort at
Ticonderoga, pretending he wanted to be shaved. He found the
gates open, and discipline loose; for no telegraph had carried
the Lexington news to them, nor had the winds wafted the smell
of blood, or the sounds of muskets there. When the darkness
was deepest on the night of the 9th, Allen and Arnold, with 83
men, pulled across the Lake, landed near the fort, and then
sent back the boats for Warner and his men. They had a boy,
Nathan Beman, for a guide, and were full of courage. Allen
formed his men, made them a little speech, and all was ready,
when the question arose as to who should have the honor of
entering the fort first. The dispute was warm between Arnold
and Allen, but was finally quieted; and, side by side, at
daylight, they rushed through the gate of the fort, defended
only by sleeping men. The sentinel snapped his musket, and
ran, giving the alarm; the garrison hastily turned out, to
find themselves in the face of superior numbers. Allen sought
and found the Commander's bed-room, and when Captain Delaplace
waked, he saw any thing but an Angel of Mercy with white
wings. Delaplace opened the door, with trowsers in hand, and
there the great gaunt Ethan stood, with a drawn sword in his
hand. 'Surrender!' said Ethan. 'To you?' asked Delaplace.
'Yes, to me, Ethan Allen.' 'By whose authority?' asked
Laplace. Ethan was growing impatient, and raising his voice,
and waving his sword, he said: 'In the name of the Great
Jehovah, and of the Continental Congress, by God!' Delaplace
little comprehended the words, but surrendered at once. Thus,
on the morning of 10th of May, the strong fortress of
Ticonderoga was taken by the border-men, and with it 44
prisoners, 120 iron cannon, with swivels, muskets, balls, and
some powder, without the loss of a single man. The surprise
was planned and paid for by Connecticut, and was led by Allen,
a Connecticut-born man, but was carried out by the 'Green
Mountain Boys.' Skenesborough (Whitehall) was surprised and
seized, while Major Skene was out shooting. Arnold at once
manned a schooner, taken at Skenesborough, and led an attack
against an armed sloop at St. John's; he took her and the
place, and returned in triumph to meet Allen, who, in
batteaux, was coming to sustain him. Warner led a party
against Crown Point, and took it, with its hundred cannon, and
small garrison of 12 men.
{3226}
News of these things was carried to the Continental Congress,
reassembled at Philadelphia, which caused almost as much
surprise there, as Allen's demand did to Captain Delaplace,
and more exultation. They requested the Committees of Safety
of New York and Albany, to have an inventory made of the
stores, so that they might be returned 'when the restoration
of harmony between Great Britain and the Colonies' should
render it safe."
_C. W. Elliott,
The New England History,
volume 2, chapter 18._
ALSO IN:
_J. Fiske,
The American Revolution,
chapter 3 (volume 1)._
_W. C. Bryant and S. H. Gay,
Popular History of the United States,
volume 3, chapter 17._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (May).
The Mecklenburg Declaration.
See NORTH CAROLINA:. A. D. 1775 (MAY).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (May-August).
The Second Continental Congress and its work.
Its powers, theoretical and actual.
Its opportunity.
Its influence.
The New England Army adopted as the "Continental Army,"
and Washington made Commander-in-chief.
"The second General Congress assembled at Philadelphia on the
10th of May. Peyton Randolph was again elected as president;
but being obliged to return, and occupy his place as speaker
of the Virginia Assembly, John Hancock, of Massachusetts, was
elevated to the chair. … Many of those most active in
vindicating colonial rights, and Washington among the number,
still indulged the hope of an eventual reconciliation, while
few entertained, or, at least, avowed the idea of complete
independence. A second 'humble and dutiful' petition to the
king was moved, but met with strong opposition. John Adams
condemned it as an imbecile measure, calculated to embarrass
the proceedings of Congress. He was for prompt and vigorous
action. Other members concurred with him. Indeed, the measure
itself seemed but a mere form, intended to reconcile the
half-scrupulous; for subsequently, when it was carried,
Congress, in face of it, went on to assume and exercise the
powers of a sovereign authority. A federal union was formed,
leaving to each colony the right of regulating its internal
affairs according to its own individual constitution, but
vesting in Congress the power of making peace or war; of
entering into treaties and alliances; of regulating general
commerce; in a word, of legislating on all such matters as
regarded the security and welfare of the whole community. The
executive power was to be vested in a council of twelve,
chosen by Congress from among its own members, and to hold
office for a limited time. Such colonies as had not sent
delegates to Congress might yet become members of the
confederacy by agreeing to its conditions. Georgia, which had
hitherto hesitated, soon joined the league, which thus
extended from Nova Scotia to Florida. Congress lost no time in
exercising their federated powers. In virtue of them, they
ordered the enlistment of troops, the construction of forts in
various parts of the colonies, the provision of armies,
ammunition, and military stores; while, to defray the expense
of these, and other measures, avowedly of self-defence, they
authorized the emission of notes to the amount of $3,000,000,
bearing the inscription of 'The United Colonies'; the faith of
the confederacy being pledged for their redemption. A
retaliating decree was passed, prohibiting all supplies of
provisions to the British fisheries; and another, declaring
the province of Massachusetts Bay absolved from its compact
with the crown, by the violation of its charter; and
recommending it to form an internal government for itself. …
The situation of the New England army, actually besieging
Boston, became an early and absorbing consideration. It was
without munitions of war, without arms, clothing, or pay; in
fact, without legislative countenance or encouragement. Unless
sanctioned and assisted by Congress, there was danger of its
dissolution. … The disposition to uphold the army was general;
but the difficult question was, who should be
commander-in-chief? … The opinion evidently inclined in favor
of Washington; yet it was promoted by no clique of partisans
or admirers. More than one of the Virginia delegates, says
Adams, were cool on the subject of this appointment. … Adams,
in his diary, claims the credit of bringing the members of
Congress to a decision. … On the 15th of June, the army was
regularly adopted by Congress, and the pay of the
commander-in-chief fixed at $500 a month. Many still clung to
the idea, that in all these proceedings they were merely
opposing the measures of the ministry, and not the authority
of the crown, and thus the army before Boston was designated
as the Continental Army, in contradistinction to that under
General Gage, which was called the Ministerial Army. In this
stage of the business, Mr. Johnson, of Maryland, rose, and
nominated Washington for the station of commander-in-chief.
The election was by ballot, and was unanimous. It was formally
announced to him by the president, on the following day, when
he had taken his seat in Congress. Rising in his place, he
briefly expressed his high and grateful sense of the honor
conferred on him, and his sincere devotion to the cause.
'But,' added he, 'lest some unlucky event should happen
unfavorable to my reputation, I beg it may be remembered by
every gentleman in the room, that I this day declare, with the
utmost sincerity, I do not think myself equal to the command I
am honored with. As to pay, I beg leave to assure the Congress
that, as no pecuniary consideration could have tempted me to
accept this arduous employment, at the expense of my domestic
ease and happiness, I do not wish to make any profit on it. I
will keep an exact account of my expenses. Those, I doubt not,
they will discharge, and that is all I desire.'" Four
major-generals,—Artemas Ward, Charles Lee, Philip Schuyler and
Israel Putnam,—and eight brigadier-generals—Seth Pomeroy,
Richard Montgomery, David Wooster, William Heath, Joseph
Spencer, John Thomas, John Sullivan, and Nathaniel Greene—were
appointed. "At Washington's express request, his old friend,
Major Horatio Gates, then absent at his estate in Virginia,
was appointed adjutant-general, with the rank of brigadier."
_W. Irving,
Life of Washington,
volume 1, chapter 39._
"The Congress of 1775 was not content with mere expression of
opinions. It took a large view of its powers. It realized that
its efficiency depended wholly upon the acceptance of its acts
by the principals of the different delegations; but, following
its judgment as to what the patriotism of the colonies would
approve and sustain, it initiated action of various kinds,
which, from the beginning, assumed the certainty of adoption
by the colonies, and derived all its energy from the
probability of such ratification.
{3227}
The Congress doubtless exceeded the letter of the instructions
received by a portion of its members; but this was not from
any misconception of those instructions. … In pointing out to
the colonies the direction which their preparations for
resistance ought to take, the Congress no more acted upon an
imagined authority to command the colonies than does the
lookout at the bow of the ship, when he reports the direction
of danger to the officer of the deck. The Congress
unquestionably enjoyed a prestige at this juncture which it
subsequently lost. The people, and even the provincial
conventions, occasionally addressed it in a tone which
indicated that they unconsciously attributed to it power which
it plainly did not possess."
A. W. Small,
The Beginnings of American Nationality
(Johns Hopkins University Studies, 8th series, 1-2)
page 73.
"With the energy and recklessness of a French revolutionary
body it might have blotted out the distinctions between
colonies, and established a centralized government, to be
modified in time by circumstances. In fact, it took no such
direction. It began its course by recommendations to the new
colonial governments; it relied on them for executive acts;
and, as soon as the new colonies were fairly under way, they
seized on the power of naming and recalling the delegates to
the Congress. From that time the decadence of the Congress was
rapid; the national idea became dimmer; and the assertions of
complete sovereignty by the political units became more
pronounced."
_A. Johnston,
The United States: its History and Constitution,
sections 63-66 (chapter 3)._
ALSO IN:
_R. Frothingham,
The Rise of the Republic,
chapter 10._
_H. von Holst,
Constitutional and Political History of the United States,
volume 1, chapter 1._
_P. Force,
American Archives,
volume 2._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (June).
End of Royal Government in New Hampshire.
See NEW HAMPSHIRE: A. D. 1775-1776.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (June).
The end of Royal Government In Virginia.
See VIRGINIA: A. D. 1775.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (June).
The Battle of Bunker Hill.
"British reinforcements, under three generals, Howe, Clinton,
and Burgoyne, arrived at Boston soon after the fight at
Lexington. Gage had now about 10,000 men. These occupied the
town of Boston, which lay on a peninsula covering the middle
of the harbor. Around them, on the hills of the mainland,
there were about twice their number of undisciplined and
poorly-armed Americans, without cannon and almost without
food. Just north of Boston, another peninsula ran out into the
harbor. On it there were several hills, and the Americans
determined to seize and fortify one of them, called Bunker
Hill. About 1,000 men, under Colonel Prescott, were sent into
the peninsula for this on a suitable night. For some reason,
they passed beyond Bunker Hill, and seized Breed's Hill, much
closer to Boston. Breed's Hill is now usually called Bunker
Hm, and the Bunker Hill monument is erected upon it. The
American fortification was continued silently and swiftly
through the night. In the morning of June 17, 1775, the
British in Boston woke to see a long line of intrenchments
running across the hill above them, and an American
working-party busily strengthening it. For a time, the British
frigates in the harbor kept up a slow and distant fire, to
which the working-party paid no attention; but at noon the
work was stopped, for the British troops were coming across
the harbor in boats. Three thousand well armed, uniformed, and
drilled soldiers, who had never known defeat in equal fight,
landed near Charlestown, under General Howe. Here they formed
at the water-side, and in a long, steady line began to move
upward to scatter the 1,500 farmers who were watching them
from the top of the hill. From the roofs of the houses in
Boston, the rest of the British army and the townspeople were
watching, anxious to see 'whether the Yankees would fight.'
Most of the watchers expected to see the untrained soldiers in
the fort fire a few hasty shots at a safe distance, and run.
The fort held a threatening silence until the attacking column
was within 150 feet. Then, at the word, came a sheet of fire
from the marksmen within; and, when the smoke lifted, part of
the British line was lying dead or wounded, and the rest were
retreating hastily down the hill. The British were not
cowards: the officers re-formed the line at the bottom of the
hill, and, after setting fire to Charlestown, again advanced
to the attack. Again there was a steady silence in the fort, a
close and deadly fire, and the British line was driven down
the hill again. The British then moved up the hill for the
third time. The powder in the fort was now gone, and the
garrison fought for a few minutes with gun stocks and stones
against the British bayonets. But such a struggle was
hopeless, and the British gained the fort. They were too tired
to pursue the garrison, who escaped to the mainland."
_A. Johnston,
History of the United States for schools,
sections 195-197._
"As soon as Prescott saw the defence was hopeless, he ordered
a retreat, and friend and foe mingled together as they surged
out of the sally-port amid the clouds of dust which the
trampling raised, for a scorching sun had baked the new-turned
soil. It was now, while the confused mass of beings rocked
along down the rear slope of the hill, that Warren [who had
joined the defending force that morning as a volunteer] fell,
shot through the head. No one among the Americans knew
certainly that he was dead, as they left him. … Prescott did
not conceal his indignation at not having been better
supported, when he made his report at Ward's headquarters. He
knew he had fought well; but neither he nor his contemporaries
understood at the time how a physical defeat might be a moral
victory. Not knowing this, there was little else than
mortification over the result,—indeed, on both sides. … The
general opinion seems to be that the Americans had about 1,500
men engaged at one time, and that from 3,000 to 4,000 at
different times took some part in it. The British had probably
about the same numbers in all, but were in excess of the
Americans at all times while engaged. The conflict with small
arms lasted about ninety minutes."
J. Winsor,
_The Conflict Precipitated
(Narrative and Critical History of America,
volume 6, chapter 2). _
"How can we exaggerate the relative importance of this day's
action? Did it not, in fact, not only open, but make the
contest, dividing into two parties not only those determined
for the ministry or for enfranchisement, but also all timid,
hesitating, reluctant neutrals? It was impossible after this
to avoid taking a side. It rendered all reconciliation
impossible, till it should offer itself in the shape of
independence.
{3228}
It echoed the gathering cry that brought together our people
from their farms and workshops, to learn the terrible art
which grows more merciful only as it is more ferociously, that
is, skilfully, pursued. The day needs no rhetoric to magnify
it in our revolutionary annals. When its sun went down, the
provincials had parted with all fear, hesitation, and
reluctance. They found that it was easy to fight. … General
Gage's account of the battle, acknowledging the loss of 226
killed and 828 wounded, was received in London, July 25th.
While the ministry received with dismay this official
intelligence, and kept it back from publication, many private
letters accompanying it in its transit anticipated with
exaggerations its humiliating details."
_G. E. Ellis,
History of the Battle of Bunker's Hill,
pages 102-105._
ALSO IN:
_R. Frothingham,
History of the Siege of Boston,
chapters 4-7._
_R. Frothingham,
Life and Times of Joseph Warren,
chapter 16._
_I. N. Tarbox,
Life of Israel Putnam,
chapters 7-11._
_H. B. Dawson,
Bunker Hill
(Historical Magazine, June, 1868)._
_S. A. Drake,
Historic Fields and Mansions of Middlesex,
chapter 3._
_P. Force, editor,
American Archives,
series 4, volume 2._
_F. Moore, editor,
Diary of the American Revolution,
volume 1, pages 97-103._
_B. J. Lossing,
Field Book of the American Revolution,
volume 1._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (August-December).
Unsuccessful expedition to Canada.
"The exploits of Allen and Arnold at Ticonderoga … had invited
further conquests; but the Continental Congress hesitated to
take any steps which might seem to carry war across the line
till the Canadians had the opportunity of casting in their lot
with their neighbors. On the 1st of June, 1775, Congress had
distinctly avowed this purpose of restraint; and they well
needed to be cautious, for the Canadian French had not
forgotten the bitter aspersions on their religion which
Congress had, with little compunction, launched upon its
professors, under the irritation of the Quebec Act. Still
their rulers were aliens, and the traditional hatred of
centuries between races is not easily kept in abeyance. Ethan
Allen was more eager to avail himself of this than Congress
was to have him; but the march of events converted the
legislators, and the opportunity which Allen grieved to see
lost was not so easily regained when Congress at last
authorized the northern invasion. Arnold and Allen had each
aimed to secure the command of such an expedition, the one by
appealing to the Continental Congress, the other by
representations to that of New York. Allen had also gone in
person to Philadelphia, and he and his Green Mountain Boys
were not without influence upon Congress, in their quaint and
somewhat rough ways, as their exuberant patriotism later made
the New York authorities forget their riotous opposition to
the policy which that province had been endeavoring to enforce
in the New Hampshire Grants. Connecticut had already sent
forward troops to Ticonderoga to hold that post till Congress
should decide upon some definite action; and at the end of
June, 1775, orders reached Schuyler which he might readily
interpret as authorizing him, if the Canadians did not object,
to advance upon Canada. He soon started to assume command, but
speedily found matters unpromising. The Johnsons were arming
the Indians up the Mohawk and beyond in a way that boded no
good, and they had entered into compacts with the British
commanders in Canada. Arnold had been at Ticonderoga, and had
quarrelled with Hinman, the commander of the Connecticut
troops. Schuyler heard much of the Green Mountain Boys, but he
only knew them as the lawless people of the Grants, and soon
learned that Allen and Warner had themselves set to
quarrelling. … In August the news from Canada began to be
alarming. Richard Montgomery, an Irish officer who had some
years before left the army to settle on the Hudson and marry,
was now one of the new brigadiers. He urged Schuyler to
advance and anticipate the movement now said to be intended by
Carleton, the English general commanding in Canada. At this
juncture Schuyler got word from Washington that a coöperating
expedition would be dispatched by way of the Kennebec, which,
if everything went well, might unite with Schuyler's before
Quebec."
_J. Winsor,
The Conflict Precipitated
(Narrative and Critical History of America, volume 6)._
The two movements were made, from Ticonderoga and from the
Kennebec, with results which will be found related under
CANADA: A. D. 1775-1776. "No expedition during the American
Revolution had less elements of permanent value than those
which were undertaken against Canada during the year 1775.
Great results were anticipated, but none were realized. The
obstacles were too substantial, and failure was inevitable.
Wonderful endurance and great physical courage were
manifested, and these were accompanied by a prodigious amount
of faith, but there was neither ability nor opportunity for
works commensurate with the faith. Certain Acts of Parliament,
known as the Canadian Acts, were as offensive to Canadians as
other legislation was to Americans; but the former were not
pressed to the extremity of armed resistance. The people
themselves having no harmony of religious or political views,
were equally divided in language and race. Neither did the
Canadians invite the aid of the colonies. The hypothesis that
Canada would blend her destiny with that of New England, and
would unite in resistance to the crown, certainly involved
some identity of interest as well as of action. But the
characters of the two people were too unlike to be unified by
simple opposition to English legislation, and Canadians had no
antecedents such as would prompt a hearty sympathy with New
England and its controlling moral sentiment. Neither was there
such a neighborly relation as admitted of prompt and adequate
aid from one to the other, in emergencies calling for a
combined effort. As a base of operations for a British army
moving upon the colonies, Canada had the single advantage of
being less distant from England than an Atlantic base, and
many supplies could be procured without the expense and delay
of their transportation across the Atlantic; but between
Canada and the American colonies there was an actual
wilderness. Hence a British offensive movement from Canada
involved constant waste of men and materials, a deep line
through an uninhabited or hostile region, and such a constant
backing, as was both inconsistent with the resources of the
base, and with a corresponding support of armies resting upon
the sea coast. The British government was not ready for
operations so extensive and so exhaustive of men and treasure;
neither did it realize the necessity for that expenditure.
{3229}
There were two alternatives, one illustrated by General
Carleton's plan, viz., to hold the forts of Lake Champlain, as
advanced, defensive positions; and the other, that of
Burgoyne, to strike through the country and depend upon
support from the opposite base. The true defense of the
colonies from such expeditions depended upon the prompt
seizure and occupation of the frontier posts. An American
advance upon Canada was not only through a country
strategically bad, but the diversion of forces for that
purpose endangered the general issue, and entrusted its
interests to the guardianship of an army already insufficient
to meet the pressing demands of the crisis. The occupation of
New York in 1775, by an adequate British force, would have
infinitely outweighed all possible benefit from the complete
conquest of Canada. At the very time when Washington could
hardly hold the British garrison of Boston in check,—when he
had an average of but nine rounds of ammunition per man, he
was required to spare companies, ammunition, and supplies for
a venture, profitless at best,—with the certainty that
reinforcements could not be supplied as fast as the enemy
could draw veteran regiments from Great Britain and Ireland,
to defend or recover Canadian soil. In giving a rapid outline
of this first attempt of the colonies to enlarge the theatre
of active operations, it should be noticed that the initiative
had been taken before General Washington had been elected
commander-in-chief, and that Congress itself precipitated the
final movement."
_H. B. Carrington,
Battles of the American Revolution,
chapter 19._
ALSO IN:
_B. J. Lossing,
Life and Times of Philip Schuyler,
volume 1, chapters 19-29,
and volume 2, chapters 1-4._
_J. Armstrong,
Life of Richard Montgomery
(Library of American Biographies, volume 1)._
_J. Henry,
Account of Arnold's Campaign against Quebec,
by one of the Survivors._
_I. N. Arnold,
Life of Benedict .Arnold,
chapters 3-5._
_W. Irving,
Life of Washington.
volume 2, chapters 4-5, 8-9, 12, 15-16, 19-20._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (September).
Flight of Govern or Tryon from New York.
See NEW YORK: A. D. 1775 (APRIL-SEPTEMBER).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775-1776.
Washington in command at Cambridge.
The British forced out of Boston.
Washington "arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the 2d of
July [1775], and on the following day presented himself at the
head of the army. His head-quarters remained at Cambridge,
till the evacuation of Boston by the royal forces on the 17th
of March, 1776. The position of affairs was one of vast
responsibility and peril. The country at large was highly
excited, and expected that a bold stroke would be struck and
decisive successes obtained. But the army was without
organization and discipline; the troops unused to obey, the
officers for the most part unaccustomed, some of them
incompetent, to command. A few of them only had had a limited
experience in the Seven Years' War. Most of the men had rushed
to the field on the first alarm of hostilities, without any
enlistment; and when they were enlisted, it was only till the
end of the year. There was no military chest; scarce anything
that could be called a commissariat. The artillery consisted
of a few old field-pieces of various sizes, served with a very
few exceptions by persons wholly untrained in gunnery. There
was no siege train, and an almost total want of every
description of ordnance stores. Barrels of sand, represented
as powder, were from time to time brought into the camp, to
prevent the American army itself from being aware of its
deficiency in that respect. In the autumn of 1775, an alarm of
small-pox was brought from Boston, and the troops were
subjected to inoculation: There was no efficient power, either
in the Provincial Assembly or the Congress at Philadelphia, by
which these wants could be supplied and these evils remedied.
Such were the circumstances under which General Washington
took the field, at the head of a force greatly superior in
numbers to the royal army, but in all other respects a very
unequal match. Meantime the British were undisputed masters of
the approaches to Boston by water. Washington's letters
disclose extreme impatience under the inaction to which he was
condemned; but the gravest difficulties attended the expulsion
of the royal forces from Boston. It could only be effected by
the bombardment and assault of that place; an attempt which
must in any event have been destructive to the large
non-combatant population, that had been unable to remove into
the country, and which would have been of doubtful success,
for the want of a siege train, and with troops wholly unused
to such an undertaking. Having in the course of the year
received some captured ordnance from Canada [from Fort
Ticonderoga], and a supply of ammunition taken by privateers
at sea, Washington was strongly disposed to assault the town,
as soon as the freezing of the bay on the western side of the
peninsula would allow the troops to pass on the ice. The
winter, however, remained open longer than usual, and a
council of war dissuaded this attempt. He then determined to
occupy Nook's Hill (an eminence at the extremity of Dorchester
'Neck,' as it was called, separated from Boston by a narrow
arm of the harbor), and Dorchester Heights, which commanded
Nook's Hill and the town itself. In this way the royal forces
would be compelled to take the risk of a general action, for
the purpose of dislodging the Americans, or else to evacuate
the town. The requisite preparations having been made with
secrecy, energy, and despatch, the heights were covered with
breastworks on the night of the 4th of March, 1776, as 'by
enchantment.' A partial movement, undertaken by the royal army
to dislodge the Americans, was frustrated by stress of
weather; and on the 17th of March, in virtue of an agreement
to that effect with the municipal government, the town and
harbor of Boston were evacuated by the British army and army
without firing a gun. Thus, without a battle and without the
destruction of a building in Boston, the first year of the war
was brought to a successful and an auspicious close."
_E. Everett,
Life of Washington,
chapter 5._
ALSO IN:
_G. Washington,
Writings; edited. by Ford,
volume 3._
_R. Frothingham,
History of the Siege of Boston,
chapters 8-13._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775-1776.
The beginning of the American Navy,
and the early fitting out of Privateers.
"Before the end of 1775 the Continental Congress ordered that
five ships of 32 guns should be built, five of 28, and three
of 24. This order was carried out, and these vessels are the
proper beginning of the navy of the United States. Almost
everyone of them, before the war was over, had been captured,
or burned to avoid capture.
{3230}
But the names of the little fleet will always be of interest
to Americans, and some of those names have always been
preserved on the calendar of the navy. They are the
'Washington,' 'Raleigh,' 'Hancock,' 'Randolph,' 'Warren,'
'Virginia,' 'Trumbull,' 'Effingham,' 'Congress,' 'Providence,'
'Boston,' 'Delaware,' 'Montgomery.' The State of Rhode Island,
at the very outbreak of hostilities, commissioned Abraham
Whipple, who went with his little vessel as far as Bermuda,
and, from his experience in naval warfare earned in the French
War, he was recognized as commodore of the little fleet of
American cruisers. … Meanwhile, every maritime State issued
commissions to privateers, and established admiralty or prize
courts, with power to condemn prizes when brought in.
Legitimate commerce had been largely checked, and … the seamen
of the country, who had formerly been employed in the
fisheries, or in our large foreign trade with the West India
Islands and with Europe, gladly volunteered in the private
service. Till the end of the war the seamen preferred the
privateer service to that of the government. … The larger
maritime States had in commission one or more vessels from the
beginning, but they found the same difficulty which the
Congress found in enlisting seamen, when any bold privateer
captain came into rivalry with them. … As early as the 22d of
December, in 1775, Congress had appointed Esek Hopkins, of
Rhode Island, commander-in-chief of its navy, and had named
four captains besides, with several lieutenants, the first of
whom was John Paul Jones. … On the 10th of October [1776] a
resolution of Congress fixed the rank of captains in the navy,
… Paul Jones eighteenth on a list of twenty-four. Jones was
not pleased that his rank was not higher, but eventually his
achievements were such that his reputation probably now stands
higher as a successful officer than that of any of the
number."
_E. E. Hale,
Naval History of the American Revolution
(Narrative and Critical History of America,
volume 6, chapter 7)._
ALSO IN:
_J. F. Cooper,
Naval History of the United States,
volume 1, chapters 4-6._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (January).
Adoption of a Constitution in New Hampshire.
See NEW HAMPSHIRE: A. D. 1775-1776.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (January-June).
King George's war measures and Paine's "Common Sense."
The setting of the tide of opinion toward national independence.
"Disastrous news arrived from England before the close of the
winter of 1775-6. The King had opened Parliament with a speech
in which he had denounced the Colonists as rebels, seeking,
with deceitful pretences, to establish an independent empire;
and his Majesty recommended decisive, coercive measures
against them. … The answer to the Royal Address (adopted by a
vote of seventy-six to thirty-three in the Lords, and two
hundred and seventy-eight to one hundred and eight in the
Commons) gave assurances of the firm support of Parliament to
the proposed measures. The very moderately conciliatory
propositions made by the Duke of Richmond, Mr. Burke, and the
Duke of Grafton, were summarily voted down, and not far from
the middle of December the atrocious' Prohibitory Act,' as it
was generally designated, passed. It was, in effect, a
declaration of war, and a war unrestrained by the customs, and
unmitigated by the decencies of civilization. It authorized
the confiscation of American vessels and cargoes, and those of
all nations found trading in American ports. It authorized
British commanders to impress American crews into the British
Navy, and to place them on the same footing with voluntarily
enlisted seamen; that is, to give them a choice between
parricide and being hung at a yardarm! Finally, it referred
all future negotiations to two Commissioners, to be sent out
along with a conquering armament, who were allowed to grant
pardons to individuals and Colonies, on submission, thus
leaving no future alternative opposed to the latter but the
sword, and indicating that henceforth all appeals to King or
Parliament were cut off. … Concurrently with these legislative
steps, the practical ones for carrying on the war, with a
large army, were entered upon. Finding it difficult or
impossible to obtain the necessary recruits at home, and that
the existing English and Irish regiments embarked with such
reluctance that it was necessary to keep a guard upon the
transports 'to keep them from deserting by wholesale,' the
Ministry successively applied to Russia, the States-General,
and finally, several of the German States for mercenaries. …
The infamy of filling up the British armament was reserved for
the Princes of three or four petty German States. … As the
news of these events successively reached the American
Congress and people, in the winter and spring of 1775-6, the
contest took a new coloring. Not only the bold, but the
moderate began now to see the real alternative before them.
And at a critical moment the remedy, and the path to it, were
pointed out by a master hand. 'Common Sense' was published by
Thomas Paine, and a more effective popular appeal never went
to the bosoms of a nation. Its tone, its manner, its biblical
illusions, its avoidance of all openly impassioned appeals to
feeling, and its unanswerable common sense were exquisitely
adapted to the great audience to which it was addressed; and
calm investigation will satisfy the historical student that
its effect in preparing the popular mind for the Declaration
of Independence, exceeded that of any other paper, speech, or
document made to favor it, and it would scarcely be
exaggeration to add, than all other such means put together.
John Adams, with a childish perpetuance, and with a rancor so
vehement that it appears ridiculous, spares no occasion to
underrate Paine's services, and to assault his opinions and
character. … His transparent motive seems to be to decry the
author of a paper which had too much the credit of preparing
the public mind for the Declaration of Independence, a credit
which Mr. Adams was more than anxious to monopolize. Let us be
just. Paine's services in paving the way to the Declaration
are not to be mentioned on the same page with John Adams's.
Moreover, Independence would have been declared, and, perhaps,
nearly as early, had Paine never written. But he did, at a
propitious moment, and with consummate adaptation, write a
paper which went like the arrow which pierces the centre of
the target. Its effect was instantaneous and tremendous. … The
work ran through innumerable editions in America and France.
The world rung with it. … It admits of no doubt that pretty
early in 1776, all the true Whigs in Congress, moderates as
well as ultras, became satisfied of the necessity and
expediency of separation, and that henceforth it was only a
question of time with them.
{3231}
Enactments placing the struggle on the footing of open war,
instead of mere insurrection—issuing letters of marque and
reprisal against the enemies of our commerce—advising the
local authorities to disarm the disaffected—opening the ports
of the country to all nations but Great Britain—directing
negotiations for foreign alliances to be undertaken—were
successively made. Finally, on the 10th of May, a resolution,
prepared by John Adams and R. H. Lee, passed the House,
advising all the Colonies to form governments for themselves;
and in this, unlike preceding instances of giving advice on
the same subject, no limitation of the duration of the
governments to be formed 'to the continuance of the present
dispute' was inserted. This, with a befitting preamble,
written by John Adams, was adopted on the 15th, … and was,
obviously, a long and bold stride in the direction of
independence, and must have been understood by all as its
signal and precursor. … Congress cheered on those whom
peculiar circumstances had rendered more backward, and it
tarried for them a little by the way; on the other hand, it
prudently waited for the prompting of the more forward. Thus
it avoided the appearance of dominating over public
opinion—thus it 'kept front and rear together.' Early in April
(12th), North Carolina 'empowered' her delegates 'to concur
with the delegates of other Colonies in declaring
independency.' At its 'May session' (the day of the month not
appearing in the record under our eye), the General Assembly
of Rhode Island abolished its act of allegiance, and directed
all commissions and legal processes henceforth to issue in the
name and under the authority of the 'Governor and Company.'
The Connecticut General Assembly, which met on the 9th of May,
before its adjournment (date not before us), repealed its act
against high treason, and made the same order with Rhode
Island in regard to legal processes. On the 15th of May,
Virginia took a still more decisive step, by instructing its
delegates in Congress to move for a Declaration of
Independence. … The Virginia delegates in Congress made choice
of Richard H. Lee to move the resolutions contained in their
instructions of May 15th; and he did so on Friday, the 7th day
of June, John Adams seconding them. Their consideration was
postponed until the next day, when they were referred to a
committee of the whole, and debated throughout Saturday and
the succeeding Monday. On the latter day (10th) Congress
resolved: 'That the consideration of the first resolution be
postponed to Monday, the first day of July next; and in the
meanwhile, that no time be lost, in case the Congress agree
thereto, that a committee be appointed to prepare a
declaration to the effect of the said first resolution, which
is in these words: That these 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.'"
_H. S. Randall,
Life of Jefferson,
volume 1, chapter 4._
ALSO IN:
_G. Bancroft,
History of United States
(Author's last revision),
volume 4, chapters 24-28._
_R. Frothingham,
Rise of the Republic,
chapter 11._
_W. C. Rives,
Life and Times of Madison,
volume 1, chapters 4-5._
_American Archives,
series 4, volume 6._
_E. G. Scott,
The Development of Constitutional Liberty in the
English Colonies,
chapter 11._
_C. J. Stille,
Life and Times of John Dickinson,
chapter 5._
See, also, NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1775-1776;
and VIRGINIA: A. D. 1776.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (January-June).
Engagement of hireling Hessians
to reinforce the British arms.
"The [British] Cabinet had entertained some hopes of Russian
auxiliaries [application for 20,000 of whom had been made to
the Empress Catherine, who refused them with hardly concealed
scorn], but the negotiation for that object could not be
matured. Early in the year treaties were signed with the
Landgrave of Hesse for taking into British pay 12,000 of his
men; with the Duke of Brunswick and other petty potentates of
Germany for 5,000 more. These little princes, seeing the need
of England, which did not choose to lean, as she might and
should have done, on her own right arm, insisted on obtaining,
and did obtain, most usurious terms. Under the name of
levy-money, there was to be paid to them the price of 30
crowns for every foot-soldier. Under the name of subsidy, each
of their Serene Highnesses was moreover to be indulged with a
yearly sum, irrespective of the pay and subsistence of the
troops; and on the plea that in this case no certain number of
years was stipulated as the term of service, the Landgrave of
Hesse claimed and was promised a double subsidy, namely
450,000 crowns a year. The men were to enter into pay before
they began to march! The subsidies were to be continued for
one full year at least after the war was over and the troops
had returned to their respective homes. Never yet, in short,
was the blood of brave men sold on harder terms. The disgrace
of this transaction to the German Princes who engaged in it
requires little comment. … The ablest by far of the German
Princes at that time, Frederick of Prussia, was not in general
a man of compassionate feelings. He had no especial love or
care for the North American cause. … Yet even Frederick
expressed in strong terms his contempt for the scandalous
man-traffic of his neighbours. It is said that whenever any of
the newly hired Brunswickers or Hessians had to pass through
any portion of his territory he claimed to levy on them the
usual toll as for so many head of cattle, since he said they
had been sold as such! Nor can the British ministry in this
transaction be considered free from blame. … Certain it is
that among the various causes which at this period wrought
upon our trans-Atlantic brethren to renounce their connection
with us, there was none more cogent in their minds than the
news that German mercenaries had been hired and were coming to
fight against them."
_Lord Mahon (Earl Stanhope),
History of England, 1713-1783,
chapter 53 (volume 6)._
"The first German troops to start for America were the
Brunswickers. These marched from Brunswick on February 22d,
1776, 2,282 strong, and were embarked at Stade, near the mouth
of the Elbe. The second division of Brunswickers embarked at
the end of May—about 2,000 men. The first Hessians set out
from Cassel early in March, and were shipped at Bremerlehe,
near the mouth of the Weser. The second division was embarked
in June. Together they numbered between 12,000 and 13,000 men.
{3232}
They were for the most part excellent troops and well
equipped, for the Landgrave's little army was one of the best
in Germany. … The Prince of Waldeck sent his regiment through
Cassel without trouble. The Prince of Hesse-Hanau, the
Margrave of Anspach-Bayreuth, and the Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst
had a longer road."
_E. J. Lowell,
The Hessians in the Revolutionary War,
chapter 5._
ALSO IN:
_M. von Eelking,
Memoirs of General Riedesel,
volume 1, pages 18-88, and appendix._
_G. Bancroft,
History of the United States
(Author's last revision),
volume 4, chapter 22._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (February).
Flight of the Royal Governor from Georgia.
See GEORGIA: A. D. 1775-1777.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (March).
State government organized and a Constitution adopted in
South Carolina.
See SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1776 (FEBRUARY-APRIL).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (April).
North Carolina the first colony to declare for independence.
See NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1775-1776.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (May).
Rhode Island renounces allegiance to the King.
See RHODE ISLAND: A. D. 1776.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (May).
Popular vote for independence in Massachusetts.
See MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1776 (APRIL-MAY).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (May).
Arnold's retreat from Canada.
See CANADA: A. D. 1775-1776.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (May-June).
Independence declared and Constitution adopted in Virginia.
See VIRGINIA: A. D. 1776.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (June).
The British repulsed at Charleston.
"Early in 1776 the task was assigned to Clinton, who had in
January departed from Boston, … to force and hold the Southern
colonies to their allegiance.
See NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1775-1776.
Cornwallis, with troops, was sent over under convoy of Sir
Peter Parker's fleet, to give Clinton the army he needed. The
fleet did not reach North Carolina till May. In March,
[Charles] Lee, while in New York, had wished to be ordered to
the command in Canada, as 'he was the only general officer on
the continent who could speak and think in French.' He was
disappointed, and ordered farther south. By May he was in
Virginia, ridding the country of Tories, and trying to find
out where Parker intended to land. It was expected that
Clinton would return north to New York in season to operate
with Howe, when he opened the campaign there in the early
summer, as that general expected to do, and the interval for a
diversion farther south was not long. Lee had now gone as far
as Charleston (South Carolina), and taken command in that
neighborhood, while in charge of the little fort at the
entrance of the harbor was William Moultrie, upon whom Lee was
inculcating the necessity of a slow and sure fire, in case it
should prove that Parker's destination, as it might well be,
was to get a foothold in the Southern provinces, and break up
the commerce which fed the rebellion through that harbor. The
people of Charleston had been for some time engaged on their
defences, and 'seem to wish a trial of their mettle,' wrote a
looker-on. The fort in question was built of palmetto logs,
and was unfinished on the land side. Its defenders had four
days' warning, and the neighboring militia were summoned. On
the 4th of June the hostile fleet appeared, and having landed
troops on an adjacent island, it was not till the 27th that
their dispositions were made for an attack. Their ships threw
shot at the fort all day, which did very little damage, while
the return fire was rendered with a precision surprising in
untried artillerists, and seriously damaged the fleet, of
which one ship was grounded and abandoned. The expected land
attack from Clinton's troops, already ashore on Long Island,
was not made. A strong wind had raised the waters of the
channel between that island and Sullivan's Island so high that
it could not be forded, and suitable boats for the passage
were not at hand. A few days later the shattered vessels and
the troops left the neighborhood, and Colonel Moultrie had
leisure to count the cost of his victory, which was twelve
killed and twice as many wounded. The courage of Sergeant
Jasper, in replacing on the bastion a flag which had been shot
away, became at once a household anecdote."
_J. Winsor,
The Conflict Precipitated
(Narrative and Critical History of America.
volume 6, chapter 2)._
_ALSO IN:
H. Flanders,
Life of John Rutledge,
chapter 10
(Lives of the Chief Justices, volume 1)._
_C. B. Hartley,
Life of General William Moultrie
(Heroes and Patriots of the South),
chapter 2._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (June).
Resolutions for Independence.
Making ready for the Declaration.
"Things were now verging on every side to the same point.
North Carolina had conferred the necessary powers to vote for
independence and foreign alliances as early as the 12th of
April. And now came the news from Richard Lee, to Mr. Adams,
that on the very day of the passage of the significant
preamble in congress, the 15th of May, the convention of
Virginia had gone a step further, and had instructed their
delegates to propose independence. Authority to assent to its
natural consequences, a confederation and foreign alliances,
followed as a matter of course. On the other hand, the
convention of Massachusetts had referred the subject back to
the people, to be considered and acted upon at their primary
town meetings, and the responses had been for some time
corning in unequivocally enough. So decided was the feeling
that Joseph Hawley, impatient of the delay, was stimulating
the nowise reluctant Gerry to greater exertions. Perceiving
these encouraging indications in opposite quarters, the
friends of independence now consulted together, and made up
their minds that the moment had come for a final
demonstration. Resolutions, embracing the three great points,
were carefully matured, which it was arranged that Richard
Henry Lee, on behalf of the delegates of Virginia, should
present, and John Adams should second, for Massachusetts. The
movement took place, accordingly, on the 7th of June. It
appears on the journal, recorded with the customary caution,
as follows:
'Certain resolutions respecting independency being moved and
seconded,—Resolved, that the consideration of them be referred
till to-morrow morning; and that the members be enjoined to
attend punctually at ten o'clock, in order to take the same
into their consideration.' It was well that a measure of so
momentous a character should be accompanied with as much of
the forms of notice and special assignment as the body could
properly give it. The record of what passed at the appointed
time has come down to us very barren of details.
{3233}
We only know that the resolutions were referred to the
committee of the whole, where they were debated with great
spirit during that day, Saturday, and again on Monday, the
10th, by which time it had become quite clear that a majority
of the colonies were prepared to adopt the first and leading
resolution. This majority was composed of the four New
England, and three out of the four southern colonies. But it
being deemed unadvisable to place this great act upon so
narrow a basis, and a prospect being held out of securing a
more general concurrence by delaying the decision, a
postponement until the 1st of July was effected by a change of
the votes of two colonies. In the mean while, however, as it
was thought suitable to accompany the act with an elaborate
exposition of the causes which were held to justify it, a
committee was ordered to have in charge the preparation of
such a paper in season for the adjourned debate. … At the same
time that Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin,
Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston, all but the last
named being of the movement, were appointed the committee to
prepare a declaration, as mentioned, the congress formally
voted a second committee, with powers to prepare and digest a
form of confederation to be entered into between the colonies;
and yet a third, to mature a plan of treaties to be proposed
to foreign powers. In this compass were included all the
elements of national sovereignty abroad and at home. … The
bulk of opposition now centred in the five middle colonies,
and the pillar upon which it leaned was John Dickinson. But
under the combined assaults conducted by the leading colonies
of Virginia and Massachusetts, it was plain that victory was
become a mere question of time. Jonathan D. Sergeant, who had
left congress to hasten a change in the counsels of New
Jersey, had been so successful in spiriting up the assembly as
to be able to write, on the 15th of June, to Mr. Adams, that
the delegates about to be elected would be on the spot by the
1st of July, the day to which the question had been assigned,
and that they would 'vote plump.' Equally favorable news soon
came from Maryland. … Thus were two States secured. But
Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New York yet remained to move. In
the first of these, recourse was had once more to the
so-called committees of conference. … And here, on the 23d of
June, Dr. Benjamin Rush, then a young man, but acting entirely
in sympathy and co-operation with the leaders in congress,
moved and carried the appointment of a committee to declare
the sense of the conference with respect to an independence of
the province on the crown of Great Britain. He and James Smith
were then joined with Thomas McKean, the chairman of the
conference, in a committee, which was ready the next day with
a report affirming the willingness of the deputies of the
conference to concur in a vote declaring the United Colonies
free and independent States. The report was adopted
unanimously, was presented to congress on the 25th, and,
doubtless, had its effect in determining those delegates of
the colony to absent themselves on the final vote, upon whose
resistance its adverse decision depended. As the hesitation of
Delaware was chiefly owing to the feeling that pervaded the
county of Sussex, Mr. Rodney had repaired thither for the
purpose of bringing about a favorable change, in which errand
the news came that he was laboring with success. The delegates
from New York, no longer interposing any active opposition,
yet unwilling to assume a responsibility which their
constituents had not authorized, preferred to withdraw from
participation in the decision. Such was the state of affairs
on the 1st of July, to which day the discussion had been
adjourned. There was then little doubt of an affirmative vote
on the part of all but four colonies."
_J. Q. Adams and C. F. Adams,
Life of John Adams,
volume 1, pages 308-318._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (June).
End of proprietary and royal government in Maryland.
See MARYLAND: A. D. 1776.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (July).
Authorship, adoption and signing
of the Declaration of Independence.
For the last hundred years one of the first facts taught to
any child of American birth is, that Jefferson wrote the
Declaration of Independence. The original draft in his
handwriting was afterward deposited in the State Department.
It shows two or three trifling alterations, interlined in the
handwritings of Franklin and Adams. Otherwise it came before
Congress precisely as Jefferson wrote it. Many years afterward
John Adams gave an account of the way in which Jefferson came
to be the composer of this momentous document, differing
slightly from the story told by Jefferson. But the variance is
immaterial. … Jefferson's statement seems the better entitled
to credit, and what little corroboration is to be obtained for
either narrator is wholly in his favor. He says simply that
when the Committee came together he was pressed by his
colleagues unanimously to undertake the draft; that he did so;
that, when he had prepared it, he submitted it to Dr. Franklin
and Mr. Adams, separately, requesting their corrections,
'which were two or three only and merely verbal,' 'interlined
in their own handwritings'; that the report in this shape was
adopted by the committee, and a 'fair copy,' written out by
Mr. Jefferson, was then laid before Congress. A somewhat more
interesting discussion concerns the question, how Jefferson
came to be named first on the committee, to the entire
exclusion of Lee, to whom, as mover of the resolution,
parliamentary etiquette would have assigned the chairmanship.
See, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (JANUARY-JUNE).
Many explanations have been given, of which some at least
appear the outgrowth of personal likings and dislikings. It is
certain that Jefferson was not only preëminently fitted for
the very difficult task of this peculiar composition, but also
that he was a man without an enemy. His abstinence from any
active share in debate had saved him from giving irritation;
and it is a truth not to be concealed, that there were cabals,
bickerings, heart-burnings, perhaps actual enmities among the
members of that famous body, which, grandly as it looms up,
and rightly too, in the mind's eye, was after all composed of
jarring human ingredients. It was well believed that there was
a faction opposed to Washington, and it was generally
suspected that irascible, vain, and jealous John Adams, then
just rising from the ranks of the people, made in this matter
common cause with the aristocratic Virginian Lees against
their fellow-countrymen. … So it is likely enough that a
timely illness of Lee's wife was a fortunate excuse for
passing him by, and that partly by reason of admitted
aptitude, partly because no risk could be run of any
interference of personal feelings in so weighty a matter,
Jefferson was placed first on the committee, with the natural
result of doing the bulk of its labor.
{3234}
On July 1, pursuant to assignment, Congress, in committee of
the whole, resumed consideration of Mr. Lee's resolution, and
carried it by the votes of nine colonies. South Carolina and
Pennsylvania voted against it. The two delegates from Delaware
were divided. Those from New York said that personally they
were in favor of it and believed their constituents to be so,
but they were hampered by instructions drawn a twelvemonth
since and strictly forbidding any action obstructive of
reconciliation, which was then still desired. The committee
reported, and then Edward Rutledge moved an adjournment to the
next day, when his colleagues, though disapproving the
resolution, would probably join in it for the sake of
unanimity. This motion was carried, and on the day following
the South Carolinians were found to be converted; also a third
member 'had come post from the Delaware counties' and caused
the vote of that colony to be given with the rest;
Pennsylvania changed her vote; and a few days later the
Convention of New York approved the resolution, 'thus
supplying the void occasioned by the withdrawing of her
delegates from the vote.' On the same day, July 2, the House
took up Mr. Jefferson's draft of the Declaration, and debated
it during that and the following day and until a late hour on
July 4. Many verbal changes were made, most of which were
conducive to closer accuracy of statement, and were
improvements. Two or three substantial amendments were made by
the omission of passages; notably there was stricken out a
passage in which George III. was denounced for encouraging the
slave-trade. … No interpolation of any consequence was made.
Jefferson had ample cause to congratulate himself upon this
event of the discussion. … He himself spoke not a word in the
debate. … The burden of argument, from which Jefferson wisely
shrank, was gallantly borne by John Adams, whom Jefferson
gratefully called 'the colossus of that debate.' Jefferson
used afterward to take pleasure in tingeing the real solemnity
of the occasion with a coloring of the ludicrous. The debate,
he said, seemed as though it might run on interminably, and
probably would have done so at a different season of the year.
But the weather was oppressively warm, and the room occupied
by the deputies was hard by a stable, whence the hungry flies
swarmed thick and fierce, alighting on the legs of the
delegates and biting hard through their thin silk stockings.
Treason was preferable to discomfort, and the members voted
for the Declaration and hastened to the table to sign it and
escape from the horse-fly. John Hancock, making his great
familiar signature, jestingly said that John Bull could read
that without spectacles; then, becoming more serious, began to
impress on his comrades the necessity of their 'all hanging
together in this matter.' 'Yes, indeed,' interrupted Franklin,
'we must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang
separately.' … Amid such trifling, concealing grave thoughts,
Jefferson saw his momentous document signed at the close of
that summer afternoon."
_J. T. Morse, Jr.,
Thomas Jefferson,
chapter 3._
"The statements relative to signing the Declaration are
conflicting. Jefferson states that it was signed generally on
the 4th (Memoirs i, 94), and he in other places reiterates
this statement, but this manuscript is not known to be extant.
… According to the journals, Congress, on the 19th of July,
resolved that the 'declaration, passed on the 4th, be fairly
engrossed on parchment, with the title and style of "The
unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of
America," and that the same, when engrossed, be signed by
every member of Congress.' On the 2d day of August, the
journals say, 'The Declaration being engrossed, and compared
at the table, was signed by the members.' … This manuscript is
preserved in the office of the Secretary of State."
_R. Frothingham,
The Rise of the Republic,
page 545 and foot-note._
"Because statesmen like Dickinson and communities like
Maryland were slow in believing that the right moment for a
declaration of independence had come, the preposterous theory
has been suggested that the American Revolution was the work
of an unscrupulous and desperate minority, which, through
intrigue mingled with violence, succeeded in forcing the
reluctant majority to sanction its measures. Such a
misconception has its root in an utter failure to comprehend
the peculiar character of American political life, like the
kindred misconception which ascribes the rebellion of the
colonies to a sordid unwillingness to bear their due share of
the expenses of the British Empire. It is like the
misunderstanding which saw an angry mob in every town-meeting
of the people of Boston, and characterized as a 'riot' every
deliberate expression of public opinion. No one who is
familiar with the essential features of American political
life can for a moment suppose that the Declaration of
Independence was brought about by any less weighty force than
the settled conviction of the people that the priceless
treasure of self-government could be preserved by no other
means. It was but slowly that this unwelcome conviction grew
upon the people; and owing to local differences of
circumstances it grew more slowly in some places than in
others. Prescient leaders, too, like the Adamses and Franklin
and Lee, made up their minds sooner than other people. Even
those conservatives who resisted to the last, even such men as
John Dickinson and Robert Morris, were fully agreed with their
opponents as to the principle at issue between Great Britain
and America, and nothing would have satisfied them short of
the total abandonment by Great Britain of her pretensions to
impose taxes and revoke charters. Upon this fundamental point
there was very little difference of opinion in America. As to
the related question of independence, the decision, when once
reached, was everywhere alike the reasonable result of free
and open discussion; and the best possible illustration of
this is the fact that not even in the darkest days of the war
already begun did any state deliberately propose to reconsider
its action in the matter. The hand once put to the plough,
there was no turning back."
_J. Fiske,
The American Revolution,
chapter 4 (volume 1). _
ALSO IN:
_G. Bancroft,
History of the United States
(Author's last revision),
volume 4, chapter 28._
_H. S. Randall,
Life of Jefferson,
volume 1, chapter 5._
_C. F. Adams,
Life of John Adams,
chapter 4._
_J. Madison,
Papers,
volume 1, pages 9-27._
_J. Sanderson,
Biographies of the Signers of the Declaration._
See, also, INDEPENDENCE HALL.
{3235}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (July).
Text of the Declaration of Independence.
The following is the text of the great manifesto:
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for
one people to dissolve the political bands which have
connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of
the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of
Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to
the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the
causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these
truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the
pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments
are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the
consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government
becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the
People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new
Government, laying its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most
likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed,
will dictate that Governments long established should not be
changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all
experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to
suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves
by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when
a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably
the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute
Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off
such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future
security.—Such has been the patient sufferance of these
Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them
to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of
the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated
injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the
establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To
prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has
refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary
for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass
Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in
their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when
so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He
has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large
districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the
right of Representation in the Legislature, a right
inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has
called together legislative bodies at places unusual,
uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public
Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into
compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative
Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his
invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a
long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be
elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of
Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their
exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all
the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States;
for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of
Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their
migration hither, and raising the conditions of new
Appropriations of Lands. He has obstructed the Administration
of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing
Judiciary Powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will
alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and
payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of New
Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our
People, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in
times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our
legislature. He has affected to render the Military
independent of and superior to the Civil Power. He has
combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign
to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving
his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For
quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For
protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any
Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these
States: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us
in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: For
transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended
offences: For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a
neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary
government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at
once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same
absolute rule into these Colonies: For taking away our
Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering
fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For suspending our
own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power
to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated
Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and
waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our
Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our
people. He is at this time transporting large armies of
foreign mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation
and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty &
perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and
totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. He has
constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas
to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners
of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their
Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and
has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers,
the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is
an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and
conditions. In every stage of these Oppressions We have
Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated
Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A
Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may
define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free People.
Nor have We been wanting in attention to our Brittish
brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by
their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over
us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our
emigration and settlement here.
{3236}
We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and
we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to
disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt
our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to
the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore,
acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation,
and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War,
in Peace Friends. We, therefore, the Representatives of the
united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled,
appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude
of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the
good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare,
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; and that as Free and
Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude
Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all
other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right
do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm
reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually
pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred
Honor.
John Hancock.
New Hampshire
Josiah Bartlett,
Wm. Whipple,
Matthew Thornton.
Massachusetts Bay
Saml. Adams, John Adams, Robt. Treat Paine,
Elbridge Gerry.
Rhode Island
Step. Hopkins, William Ellery.
Connecticut.
Roger Sherman, Sam'el Huntington, Wm. Williams,
Oliver Wolcott.
New York
Wm. Floyd, Phil. Livingston, Frans. Lewis, Lewis Morris.
New Jersey
Richd. Stockton, Jno. Witherspoon, Fras. Hopkinson,
John Hart, Abra. Clark.
Pennsylvania
Robt. Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benja. Franklin, John Morton,
Geo. Clymer, Jas. Smith, Geo. Taylor, James Wilson,
Geo. Ross.
Delaware.
Cæsar Rodney, Geo. Read, Tho. M'Kean.
Maryland
Samuel Chase, Wm. Paca, Thos. Stone,
Charles Carroll of Carrollton.
Virginia.
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Th Jefferson,
Benja. Harrison, Thos. Ne]son, jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee,
Carter Braxton.
North Carolina.
Wm. Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn.
South Carolina.
Edward Rutledge, Thos. Heyward, Junr.,
Thomas Lynch, Junr., Arthur Middleton.
Georgia.
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, Geo. Walton."
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (July).
Constitutional effect of the Declaration of Independence.
"The Declaration of Independence did not create thirteen
sovereign states, but the representatives of the people
declared that the former English colonies, under the name
which they had assumed of the United States of America,
became, from the 4th day of July, 1776, a sovereign state and
a member of the family of nations, recognized by the law of
nations; and further, that the people would support their
representatives with their blood and treasure, in their
endeavor to make this declaration a universally recognized
fact. Neither congress nor the people relied in this upon any
positive right belonging either to the individual colonies
or to the colonies as a whole. Rather did the Declaration of
Independence and the war destroy all existing political jural
relations, and seek their moral justification in the right of
revolution inherent in every people in extreme emergencies. …
Political theories had nothing to do with this development of
things. It was the natural result of given circumstances and
was an accomplished fact before anyone thought of the legal
consequences which might subsequently be deduced from it."
_H. von Holst,
Constitutional and Political History of the United States,
volume 1, chapter 1._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (July).
Independence declared in New Jersey
and Governor Franklin arrested.
See NEW JERSEY: A. D. 1774-1776.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (August).
The struggle for New York and the Hudson.
Battle of Long Island.
"Washington had been informed, early in January, that General
Sir Henry Clinton had sailed from Boston, with a considerable
body of troops, on a secret expedition. Apprehending that the
city of New York was his destination, he immediately
dispatched General Charles Lee to Connecticut to raise troops,
and to proceed to that city to watch and oppose Clinton
wherever he might attempt to land. Six weeks before the
evacuation of Boston [March 17, 1776], Lee had encamped near
New York with twelve hundred militia. Already the Sons of
Liberty had been busy, and overt acts of rebellion had been
committed by them. They had seized the cannons at Fort George,
and driven Tryon, the royal governor, on board the Asia, a
British armed vessel in the harbor. In March, Clinton arrived
at Sandy Hook, just outside New York harbor, and on the same
day, the watchful Lee providentially entered the city. The
movement, although without a knowledge of Clinton's position,
was timely, for it kept him at bay. Foiled in his attempt upon
New York, that commander sailed southward. … The destination
of Howe, when he left Boston, was also unknown to Washington.
Supposing he, too, would proceed to New York, he put the main
body of his army in motion toward that city, as soon as he had
placed Boston in a state of security. He arrived in New York
about the middle of April [April 14], and proceeded at once to
fortify the town and vicinity, and also the passes of the
Hudson Highlands, fifty miles above. In the mean while,
General Lee, who had been appointed to command the American
forces in the South, had left his troops in the charge of
General Lord Stirling [March 7], and was hastening toward the
Carolinas to watch the movements of Clinton, arouse the Whigs,
and gather an army there. … Pursuant to instructions, General
Howe proceeded toward New York, to meet General Clinton and
Parker's fleet. He left Halifax on the 11th of June, [1776],
and arrived at Sandy Hook on the 29th. On the 2d of July he
took possession of Staten Island, where he was joined by Sir
Henry Clinton [July 11], from the South, and his brother,
Admiral Lord Howe [July 12], with a fleet and a large land
force, from England. Before the first of August, other vessels
arrived with a part of the Hessian troops, and on that day,
almost 30,000 soldiers, many of them tried veterans, stood
ready to fall upon the republican army of 17,000 men, mostly
militia, which lay intrenched in New York and vicinity, less
than a dozen miles distant. The grand object in view was the
seizure of New York and the country along the Hudson, so as to
keep open a communication with Canada, separate the patriots of
New England from those of the other states, and to overrun the
most populous portion of the revolted colonies.
{3237}
This was the military plan, arranged by ministers. They had
also prepared instructions to their commanding generals, to be
pacific, if the Americans appeared disposed to submit. Lord
Howe and his brother, the general, were commissioned to 'grant
pardon to all who deserved mercy,' and to treat for peace, but
only on terms of absolute submission on the part of the
colonies, to the will of the King and parliament. After making
a foolish display of arrogance and weakness, in addressing
General Washington as a private gentleman, and being assured
that the Americans had been guilty of no offense requiring a
'pardon' at their hands, they prepared to strike an immediate
and effective blow. The British army was accordingly put in
motion on the morning of the 22d of August [1776], and during
that day, 10,000 effective men, and forty pieces of cannon,
were landed on the western end of Long Island, between the
present Fort Hamilton and Gravesend village. Already
detachments of Americans under General Sullivan, occupied a
fortified camp at Brooklyn, opposite New York, and guarded
seven passes on a range of hills which extend from the Narrows
to the village of Jamaica. When intelligence of the landing of
the invading army reached Washington, he sent General Putnam,
with large reinforcements, to take the chief command on Long
Island; and to prepare to meet the enemy. The American troops
on the island now [August 26], numbered about 5,000. The
British moved in three divisions. The left, under General
Grant, marched along the shore toward Gowanus; the right,
under Clinton and Cornwallis, toward the interior of the
island; and the center, composed chiefly of Hessians, under De
Heister, marched up the Flatbush road, south of the hills.
Clinton moved under cover of night, and before dawn on the
morning of the 27th, he had gained possession of the Jamaica
pass, near the present East New York. At the same time, Grant
was pressing forward along the shore of New York Bay, and at
day-break, he encountered Lord Stirling, where the monuments
of Greenwood cemetery now dot the hills. De Heister advanced
from Flatbush at the same hour, and attacked Sullivan, who,
having no suspicions of the movements of Clinton, was watching
the Flatbush Pass. A bloody conflict ensued, and while it was
progressing, Clinton descended from the wooded hills, by the
way of Bedford, to gain Sullivan's rear. As soon as the latter
perceived his peril, he ordered a retreat to the American
lines at Brooklyn. It was too late; Clinton drove him back
upon the Hessian bayonets, and after fighting desperately,
hand to hand, with the foe in front and rear, and losing a
greater portion of his men, Sullivan was compelled to
surrender. As usual, misfortunes did not come single. While
these disasters were occurring on the left, Cornwallis
descended the port-road to Gowanus, and attacked Stirling.
They fought desperately, until Stirling was made prisoner.
Many of his troops were drowned while endeavoring to escape
across the Gowanus Creek, as the tide was rising; and a large
number were captured. At noon the victory for the British was
complete. About 500 Americans were killed or wounded, and
1,100 were made prisoners. These were soon suffering dreadful
horrors in prisons and prison-ships, at New York. The British
loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners, was 367. It was with
the deepest anguish that Washington had viewed, from New York,
the destruction of his troops, yet he dared not weaken his
power in the city, by sending reinforcements to aid them. He
crossed over on the following morning [August 28], with
Mifflin, who had come down from the upper end of York island
with a thousand troops, and was gratified to find the enemy
encamped in front of Putnam's lines, and delaying an attack,
until the British fleet should co-operate with him. This delay
allowed Washington time to form and execute a plan for the
salvation of the remainder of the army, now too weak to resist
an assault with any hope of success. Under cover of a heavy
fog, which fell upon the hostile camps at midnight of the
29th, and continued until the morning of the 30th, he silently
withdrew them from the camp, and, unperceived by the British,
they all crossed over to New York in safety, carrying
everything with them but their heavy cannons. … Howe, who felt
sure of his prey, was greatly mortified, and prepared to make
an immediate attack upon New York, before the Americans should
become reinforced, or should escape from it."
_B. J. Lossing,
Family History of the United States,
period 5, chapter 3._
ALSO IN:
_H. P. Johnston,
The Campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn,
chapters 1-5,
(Members of Long Island History Society, volume 3)._
_T. W. Field,
The Battle of Long island
(Members of Long Island History Society, volume 2)._
_W. A. Duer,
Life of Wm. Alexander, Earl of Stirling,
chapter 5._
_J. Fiske,
The American Revolution,
chapter 5 (volume 1)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (September).
Quiet death of proprietary government in Pennsylvania
and adoption of a State Constitution.
See PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1776.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (September-November).
The struggle for New York and the Hudson.
Successes of the British.
Washington's retreat into New Jersey.
"At daybreak the British awoke, but it was too late. They had
fought a successful battle, they had had the American army in
their grasp, and now all was over. The victory had melted
away, and, as a grand result, they had a few hundred
prisoners, a stray boat with three camp-followers, and the
deserted works in which they stood. To make such a retreat as
this was a feat of arms as great as most victories, and in it
we see, perhaps as plainly as anywhere, the nerve and
quickness of the man who conducted it. It is true it was the
only chance of salvation, but the great man is he who is
entirely master of his opportunity, even if he have but one.
The outlook, nevertheless, was, as Washington wrote, 'truly
distressing.' The troops were dispirited, and the militia
began to disappear, us they always did after a defeat.
Congress would not permit the destruction of the city,
different interests pulled in different directions,
conflicting opinions distracted the councils of war, and, with
utter inability to predict the enemy's movements, everything
led to halfway measures and to intense anxiety, while Lord
Howe tried to negotiate with Congress, and the Americans
waited for events, Washington, looking beyond the confusion of
the moment, saw that he had gained much by delay, and had his
own plan well defined. … Everyone else, however, saw only past
defeat and present peril.
{3238}
The British ships gradually made their way up the river, until
it became apparent that they intended to surround and cut off
the American army. Washington made preparations to withdraw,
but uncertainty of information came near rendering his
precautions futile. September 15th the men-of-war opened fire,
and troops were landed near Kip's Bay. The militia in the
breastworks at that point had been at Brooklyn and gave way at
once, communicating their panic to two Connecticut regiments.
Washington, galloping down to the scene of battle, came upon
the disordered and flying troops. He dashed in among them,
conjuring them to stop, but even while he was trying to rally
them they broke again on the appearance of some sixty or
seventy of the enemy, and ran in all directions. In a tempest
of anger Washington drew his pistols, struck the fugitives
with his sword, and was only forced from the field by one of
his officers seizing the bridle of his horse and dragging him
away from the British, now within a hundred yards of the spot.
… The rout and panic over, Washington quickly turned to deal
with the pressing danger. With coolness and quickness he
issued his orders, and succeeded in getting his army off,
Putnam's division escaping most narrowly. He then took post at
King's Bridge, and began to strengthen and fortify his lines.
While thus engaged, the enemy advanced, and on the 16th a
sharp skirmish was fought, in which the British were repulsed,
and great bravery was shown by the Connecticut and Virginia
troops, the two commanding officers being killed. This affair,
which was the first gleam of success, encouraged the troops,
and was turned to the best account by the general. Still a
successful skirmish did not touch the essential difficulties
of the situation, which then as always came from within,
rather than without. To face and check 25,000 well equipped
and highly disciplined soldiers, Washington had now some
12,000 men, lacking in everything which goes to make an army,
except mere individual courage and a high average of
intelligence. Even this meagre force was an inconstant and
diminishing quantity, shifting, uncertain, and always
threatening dissolution. The task of facing and fighting the
enemy was enough for the ablest of men; but Washington was
obliged also to combat and overcome the inertness and dullness
born of ignorance, and to teach Congress how to govern a
nation at war. … Meanwhile the days slipped along, and
Washington waited on the Harlem Plains, planning descents on
Long Island, and determining to make a desperate stand where
he was, unless the situation decidedly changed. Then the
situation did change, as neither he nor anyone else apparently
had anticipated. The British warships came up the Hudson past
the forts, brushing aside our boasted obstructions, destroying
our little fleet, and getting command of the river. Then
General Howe landed at Frog's Point, where he was checked for
the moment by the good disposition of Heath, under
Washington's direction. These two events made it evident that
the situation of the American army was full of peril, and that
retreat was again necessary. Such certainly was the conclusion
of the council of war, on the 16th, acting this time in
agreement with their chief. Six days Howe lingered on Frog's
Point, bringing up stores or artillery or something, … and
gave six days to Washington. They were of little value to
Howe, but they were of inestimable worth to Washington, who
employed them in getting everything in readiness, in holding
his council of war, and then on the 17th in moving
deliberately off to very strong ground at White Plains. … On
the 28th, Howe came up to Washington's position, and found the
Americans quite equal in numbers, strongly intrenched, and
awaiting his attack with confidence. He hesitated, doubted,
and finally feeling that he must do something, sent 4,000 men
to storm Chatterton Hill, an outlying post, where some 1,400
Americans were stationed. There was a short, sharp action, and
then the Americans retreated in good order to the main army,
having lost less than half as many men as their opponents.
With caution now much enlarged, Howe sent for reinforcements,
and waited two days. The third day it rained, and on the
fourth Howe found that Washington had withdrawn to a higher
and quite impregnable line of hills, where he held all the
passes in the rear and awaited a second attack. Howe
contemplated the situation for two or three days longer, and
then broke camp and withdrew to Dobbs Ferry. Such were the
great results of the victory of Long Island, two wasted
months, and the American army still untouched. Howe was
resolved, however, that his campaign, should not be utterly
fruitless, and therefore directed his attention to the
defences of the Hudson, Fort Lee, and Fort Washington, and
here he met with better success. Congress, in its military
wisdom, had insisted that these forts must and could be held.
… An attempt was made to hold both forts, and both were lost,
as he [Washington] had foreseen. From Fort Lee the garrison
withdrew in safety. Fort Washington was carried by storm,
after a severe struggle. Twenty-six hundred men and all the
munitions of war fell into the hands of the enemy. It was a
serious and most depressing loss, and was felt throughout the
continent. Meantime Washington had crossed into the Jerseys,
and, after the loss of Fort Lee, began to retreat before the
British, who, flushed with victory, now advanced rapidly under
Lord Cornwallis."
_H. C. Lodge,
George Washington,
volume 1, chapter 6._
ALSO IN:
_H. B. Carrington,
Battles of the American Revolution,
chapters 33-36._
_G. W. Greene,
Life of Nathanael Greene,
chapters 8-11 (volume 1)._
_B. J. Lossing,
Field Book of the American Revolution,
volume 2, chapter 23._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (October).
Connecticut assumes independence and sovereignty.
See CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1776.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776-1777.
Washington's retreat through New Jersey and his
masterly return movement.
The victories at Trenton and Princeton
retrieving the situation.
"On the 17th [of November] Washington ordered Lee [who had
lately returned from the south, and who had command of 7,000
men at Northcastle] to come over and join him; but Lee
disobeyed, and in spite of repeated orders from Washington he
stayed at Northcastle till the 2d of December. General Ward
had some time since resigned, so that Lee now ranked next to
Washington. A good many people were finding fault with the
latter for losing the 3,000 men at Fort Washington, although,
as we have seen, that was not his fault but the fault of
Congress.
{3239}
Lee now felt that if Washington were ruined, he would surely
become his successor in the command of the army, and so,
instead of obeying his orders, he spent his time in writing
letters calculated to injure him. Lee's disobedience thus
broke the army in two, and did more for the British than they
had been able to do for themselves since they started from
Staten Island. It was the cause of Washington's flight through
New Jersey, ending on the 8th of December, when he put himself
behind the Delaware river, with scarcely 3,000 men. Here was
another difficulty. The American soldiers were enlisted for
short terms, and when they were discouraged, as at present,
they were apt to insist upon going home as soon as their time
had expired. It was generally believed that Washington's army
would thus fall to pieces within a few days. Howe did not
think it worth while to be at the trouble of collecting boats
wherewith to follow him across the Delaware. Congress fled to
Baltimore. People in New Jersey began taking the oath of
allegiance to the crown. Howe received the news that he had
been knighted for his victory on Long Island, and he returned
to New York to celebrate the occasion. While the case looked
so desperate for Washington, events at the north had taken a
less unfavourable turn. Carleton [who began preparations to
invade the province of New York as soon as Arnold retreated
from Canada] had embarked on Lake Champlain early in the
autumn with his fine army and fleet. Arnold had fitted up a
small fleet to oppose his advance, and on the 11th of October
there had been a fierce naval battle between the two near
Valcour Island, in which Arnold was defeated, while Carleton
suffered serious damage. The British general then advanced
upon Ticonderoga, but suddenly made up his mind that the
season was too late for operations in that latitude. The
resistance he had encountered seems to have made him despair
of achieving any speedy success in that quarter, and on the 3d
of November he started back for Canada. This retreat relieved
General Schuyler at Albany of immediate cause for anxiety, and
presently he detached seven regiments to go southward to
Washington's assistance. On the 2d of December Lee crossed the
Hudson with 4,000 men, and proceeded slowly to Morristown.
Just what he designed to do was never known, but clearly he
had no intention of going beyond the Delaware to assist
Washington, whom he believed to be ruined. Perhaps he thought
Morristown a desirable position to hold, as it certainly was.
Whatever his plans may have been, they were nipped in the bud.
For some unknown reason he passed the night of the 12th at an
unguarded tavern, about four miles from his army; and there he
was captured next morning by a party of British dragoons, who
carried him off to their camp at Princeton. The dragoons were
very gleeful over this unexpected exploit, but really they
could not have done the Americans a greater service than to
rid them of such a worthless creature. The capture of Lee came
in the nick of time, for it set free his men to go to the aid
of Washington. Even after this force and that sent by Schuyler
had reached the commander-in-chief, he found he had only 6,000
men fit for duty. With this little force Washington instantly
took the offensive. It was the turning-point in his career and
in the history of the Revolutionary War. On Christmas, 1776,
and the following nine days, an Washington's most brilliant
powers were displayed. The British centre, 10,000 strong, lay
at Princeton. The principal generals, thinking the serious
business of the war ended, had gone to New York. An advanced
party of Hessians, 1,000 strong, was posted on the bank of the
Delaware at Trenton, and another one lower down, at
Burlington. Washington decided to attack both these outposts,
and arranged his troops accordingly, but when Christmas night
arrived, the river was filled with great blocks of floating
ice, and the only division which succeeded in crossing was the
one that Washington led in person. It was less than 2,500 in
number, but the moment had come when the boldest course was
the safest. By daybreak Washington had surprised the Hessians
at Trenton and captured them all. The outpost at Burlington,
on hearing the news, retreated to Princeton. By the 31st
Washington had got all his available force across to Trenton.
Some of them were raw recruits just come in to replace others
who had just gone home. At this critical moment the army was
nearly helpless for want of money, and on New Year's morning
Robert Morris was knocking at door after door in Philadelphia,
waking up his friends to borrow the $50,000, which he sent off
to Trenton before noon. The next day Cornwallis arrived at
Princeton, and taking with him all the army, except a
rear-guard of 2,000 men left to protect his communications,
came on toward Trenton. When he reached that town, late in the
afternoon, he found Washington entrenched behind a small creek
just south of the town, with his back toward the Delaware
river. 'Oho!' said Cornwallis, 'at last we have run down the
old fox, and we will bag him in the morning.' He sent back to
Princeton, and ordered the rearguard to come up. He expected
next morning to cross the creek above Washington's right, and
then press him back against the broad and deep river, and
compel him to surrender. Cornwallis was by no means a careless
general, but he seems to have gone to bed on that memorable
night and slept the sleep of the just. Washington meanwhile
was wide awake. He kept his front line noisily at work digging
and entrenching, and made a fine show with his camp-fires.
Then he marched his army to the right and across the creek,
and got around Cornwallis's left wing and into his rear, and
so went on gayly toward Princeton. At daybreak he encountered
the British rear-guard, fought a sharp battle with it and sent
it flying, with the loss of one-fourth of its number. The
booming guns aroused Cornwallis too late. To preserve his
communications with New York, he was obliged to retreat with
all haste upon New Brunswick, while Washington's victorious
army pushed on and occupied the strong position at Morristown.
There was small hope of dislodging such a general from such a
position. But to leave Washington in possession of Morristown
was to resign to him the laurels of this half-year's work. For
that position guarded the Highlands of the Hudson on the one
hand, and the roads to Philadelphia on the other. Except that
the British had taken the city of New York-which from the
start was almost a foregone conclusion—they were no better off
than in July when Lord Howe had landed on Staten Island. In
nine days the tables had been completely turned.
{3240}
The attack upon, an outpost had developed into a campaign
which quite retrieved the situation. The ill-timed
interference of Congress, which had begun the series of
disasters, was remedied; the treachery of Lee was checkmated;
and the cause of American Independence, which on Christmas Eve
had seemed hopeless, was now fairly set on its feet. Earlier
successes had been local; this was continental. Seldom has so
much been done with such slender means."
_J. Fiske,
The War of Independence,
chapter 6._
"The effect of these two unexpected strokes at Trenton and
Princeton was to baffle Howe, and utterly disconcert his
plans. Expecting to march upon Philadelphia at his leisure, he
suddenly finds Washington turning about and literally cutting
his way through the British posts, back to a point where he
threatened Howe's flank and rear. The enemy were at once
compelled to retire from all their positions below Brunswick,
give up the thought of wintering in Philadelphia, and fall
back to the vicinity of New York. When Horace Walpole heard of
these movements, he wrote to Sir Horace Mann: 'Washington has
shown himself both a Fabius and a Camillus. His march through
our lines is allowed to have been a prodigy of generalship. In
one word, I look upon a great part of America as lost to this
country.' Here the campaign closed. Washington could not be
dislodged from his strong mountain position, and Howe was
satisfied to rest his troops and postpone further operations
until the next season. Meantime the country took heart,
Congress voted troops and supplies, and the army was recruited
and organized on a better basis. 'The business of war is the
result of Experience,' wrote Wolcott from Congress, with faith
unshaken during the darkest hours of the campaign; and
experience was now put to good profit. The crisis was passed.
Events proved decisive. Hardship and anxiety were yet to come
during succeeding years of the war; but it was the result of
this year's struggle that cleared away misgivings and
confirmed the popular faith in final success. England could do
no more than she had done to conquer America; while America
was now more ready than ever to meet the issue. Independence
was established in the present campaign—in the year of its
declaration; and more than to any others we owe this political
privilege to the men who fought from Long Island to
Princeton."
_H. P. Johnston,
Campaign of 1776,
Memoirs of the Long Island Historical Society,
volume 3, part 1, chapter 8._
ALSO IN:
_J. F. Hageman,
History of Princeton,
chapter 4, sections 4-5 (volume 1)._
_J. O. Raum,
History of New Jersey,
chapter 20 (volume 2)._
_W. B. Reed,
Life of Joseph Reed,
volume 1, chapter 4._
_W. C. Bryant and S. H. Gay,
Popular History of the United States,
volume 3, chapter 21._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776-1777.
Prisoners and exchanges.
British treatment of captives.
The Jersey Prison-ship and the Sugar-house prison.
In New York, during the British occupation of the city,
"wretched indeed was the condition of the poor refugee, of the
sick soldier, and, above all, the patriot prisoner. The
newspapers are filled with calls for charitable contributions
for women and children perishing with cold and hunger, for
disabled soldiers and families without a shelter. … But if the
favored Tories suffered, what must have been the condition of
the patriot prisoners, confined by thousands in bleak
barracks, churches, and prison-ships? Let us pass up Broadway,
amidst the uncleared ruins, and, turning down Liberty Street,
pause before a huge brick building near the Middle Dutch
Church. It is five stories high, with broken windows, through
which the fierce winds of winter rush unrestrained. Through
its imperfect roof and various openings, snow, ice, and water
penetrate to every part of the building. Sentries pace round
its walls prepared to fire upon any of its maddened inmates
who attempt in desperation to escape. Wounded men crawl to the
windows begging aid; but the impassive sentinel turns back the
gifts of the charitable. No communication with the prisoners
can be allowed. The walls within are bare and cheerless, nor
do any of the common conveniences of life soften the horrors
of those dreary chambers. Yet the old Sugar-House is the most
crowded building in New York, and hundreds of prisoners, some
chained, others at large, fill its comfortless interior. In
the old Sugar-House were confined the prisoners of Long
Island, the captives of sudden forays, the patriot citizen,
and the heroes of the rebel army. Clothed in rags and scarcely
covered from the winter air, crowded in narrow apartments and
broken by hunger and disease, the prisoners died by thousands.
The sick lay down on beds of snow to perish; the feeble
wounded quivered in the February blast. Food of the coarsest
kind was served out to them in scanty measure, and devoured
with the eagerness of famine. Every night ten or twenty died;
every day their corpses were thrown into pits without a single
rite of burial. When led out to be exchanged, the glad hope of
freedom gave them no joy—they died on the way to their
friends, or lingered out a few weeks of miserable decline in
the hospitals of the Jerseys. So wretched was their condition
that Washington refused to consider them fit subjects for
exchange. 'You give us only the dead or dying,' he wrote to
Howe, 'for our well-fed and healthy prisoners.' Howe, as if in
mockery, replied that they had been kept in 'airy, roomy
buildings,' on the same fare as his own soldiers. Washington
pointed to the condition in which they reached him—diseased,
famished, emaciated, and dying, as they were conducted to his
quarters. Across the river, in Wallabout Bay, lay the
prison-ship 'Jersey.' She was the hulk of a 64 gun ship, long
unseaworthy, her masts and rigging gone, her figurehead broken
off, and her whole appearance singularly repulsive. Yet on
board of the Jersey were confined 1,200 captured seamen. She
was never cleansed, and lay in that condition seven years. No
fires warmed her occupants in winter, no screen sheltered them
from the August sun; no physician visited the sick, no
clergyman consoled the dying there. Poor and scanty food, the
want of clothing, cleanliness, and exercise, and raging
diseases that never ceased their ravages, made the Jersey a
scene of human suffering to which the Black Hole of Calcutta
might favorably compare. Benevolent Tories would sometimes
convey by stealth food or clothing to her unhappy inmates; but
this was little. Toward the close of the war the British, from
shame or pity, made some improvement in her condition; but she
remained throughout the contest a centre of sickness and
death, always decimated by disease and always replenished with
new victims. The bones of her dead, estimated at 11,000, lie
buried on the Brooklyn shore. The crowded city itself was
never free from contagion. In winter the smallpox made fearful
ravages."
_E. Lawrence,
New York in the Revolution
(Harper's Magazine, July, 1868)._
ALSO IN:
_Force's American Archives,
4th Series, volume 6,
5th Series, volumes 1-3._
_History Magazine, 1866, sup._
_W. C. Bryant and S. H. Gay,
Popular History of the United States,
volume 3, chapter 21._
{3241}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776-1778.
Attitude and feeling of France.
Her disposition to aid the colonies and the reasons for it.
The American embassy to the French court.
Silas Deane and Beaumarchais.
Franklin at Passy.
"On March 17, 1776, Vergennes presented to his associates in
the cabinet—Maurepas, Turgot (controller-general), Sartine
(secretary of the navy), and St. Germain (secretary of war)—a
paper entitled 'Considerations,' which, after for many years
evading the search of historians, … was brought to light by De
Witt and republished by Doniol. In this important paper
Vergennes, after some general reflections on the advantages
which the two crowns of France and Spain derived from the
continuance of the civil war in America, and, on the other
hand, on the inconveniences which might arise from the
independence of the Colonies, and the probability that, in
case of failure in North America, England would, to recover
its credit, turn its arms against the French and Spanish
possessions in America, proceeds to consider the course at
once to be pursued. He bitterly attacks the English for their
habitual breach of good faith, violation of treaties, and
disregard of that observance of the sacred laws of morality
which distinguish the French, and infers that they will take
the first opportunity to declare war against France or invade
Mexico. No doubt, if the kings of France and Spain had martial
tendencies; if they obeyed the dictates of their own
interests, and perhaps the justice of their cause, which was
that of humanity, so often outraged by England; if their
military resources were in a sufficiently good condition, they
would feel that Providence had evidently chosen that very hour
for humiliating England and revenging on her the wrongs she
had inflicted on those who had the misfortune to be her
neighbors and rivals, by rendering the resistance of the
Americans as desperate as possible. The exhaustion produced by
this internecine war would prostrate both England and her
Colonies, and would afford an opportunity to reduce England to
the condition of a second-rate power; to tear from her the
empire she aimed at establishing in the four quarters of the
world with so much pride and injustice, and relieve the
universe of a tyranny which desires to swallow up both all the
power and all the wealth of the world. But the two crowns not
being able to act in this way, they must have recourse to a
circumspect policy." Vergennes "draws the following
inferences:
(1) That they should continue dexterously to keep the English
ministry in a state of false security with respect to the
intentions of France and Spain.
(2) That it would be politic to give the insurgents secret
assistance in military stores and money; that the admitted
utility would justify this little sacrifice, and no loss of
dignity or breach of equity would be involved in it.
(3) That it would not be consistent with the king's dignity or
interest to make an open contract with the insurgents until
their independence was achieved.
(4) That in case France and Spain should furnish assistance,
they should look for no other return than the success of the
political object they had at that moment in view, leaving
themselves at liberty to be guided by circumstances as to any
future arrangements.
(5) That perhaps a too-marked inactivity at the present crisis
might be attributed by the English to fear, and might expose
France to insults to which it might not be disposed to submit.
The English, he adds, respect only those who can make
themselves feared.
(6) That the result to which all these considerations led was
that the two crowns should actively prepare means to resist or
punish England, more especially as, of all possible issues,
the maintenance of peace with that power was the least
probable.
… It would be a mistake, however, to attribute the French
support of America exclusively to a feeling of revenge for the
humiliations of the prior war. Other motives came in and
exercised a decisive influence. There was a conviction, and a
right one, in France that for Britain to hold under control
the whole of North America as well as of India would give her
a maritime supremacy, as well as a superiority in wealth,
which would constitute a standing menace to the rest of the
civilized world. There was, again, an enthusiasm among the
young nobility and among officers in the army for America,
which, even aside from the bitterness towards Britain with
which it was mingled, had great effect on people as well as on
court; and to this was added the sympathy of doctrinaire
political philosophers who then and for some time afterwards
had great power in forming French public opinion. By the
enthusiasm of the young nobility the queen—brilliant, bold,
weary of the traditions of the old court, inconsiderate as to
ultimate political results—was affected, and through her her
husband was reached. But above this was the sense of right
which was uppermost in the breast of the unfortunate sovereign
who then, with little political experience but high notions of
duty as well as of prerogative, occupied the throne."
_F. Wharton, editor,
Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence
of the United States,
Introduction, chapter 4 (volume 1)._
"From the earliest moment France had been hopefully regarded
by the colonists as probably their friend and possibly their
ally. To France, therefore, the first American envoy was
dispatched with promptitude [receiving his instructions in
March and reaching Paris in the following June, 1776] even
before there was a declaration of independence or an
assumption of nationality. Silas Deane was the man selected.
He was the true Yankee jack-at-all-trades; he had been
graduated at Yale College, then taught school, then practiced
law, then engaged in trade, had been all the while advancing
in prosperity and reputation, had been a member of the first
and second congresses, had failed of reëlection to the third,
and was now without employment. Mr'. Parton describes him as
'of somewhat striking manners and good appearance, accustomed
to live and entertain in liberal style, and fond of showy
equipage and appointment.' Perhaps his simple-minded
fellow-countrymen of the provinces fancied that such a man
would make an imposing figure at an European court.
{3242}
He developed no other peculiar fitness for his position; he
could not even speak French; and it proved an ill hour for
himself in which he received this trying and difficult honor.
… Deane arrived in France in June, 1776. He had with him a
little ready money for his immediate personal expenses, and
some letters of introduction from Franklin. It was intended to
keep him supplied with money by sending cargoes of tobacco,
rice, and indigo consigned to him, the proceeds of which would
be at his disposal for the public service. He was instructed
to seek an interview with de Vergennes, the French minister
for foreign affairs, and to endeavor with all possible
prudence and delicacy to find out what signs of promise the
disposition of the French government really held for the
insurgents. He was also to ask for equipment for 25,000
troops, ammunition, and 200 pieces of field artillery, all to
be paid for—when Congress should be able! In France he was to
keep his mission cloaked in secure secrecy, appearing simply
as a merchant conducting his own affairs. … Before the arrival
of Deane the interests of the colonies had been already taken
in hand and substantially advanced in France by one of the
most extraordinary characters in history. Caron de
Beaumarchais was a man whom no race save the French could
produce, and whose traits, career, and success lie hopelessly
beyond the comprehension of the Anglo-Saxon. Bred a
watchmaker, he had the skill, when a mere youth, to invent a
clever escapement balance for regulating watches; had he been
able to insert it into his own brain he might have held more
securely his elusive good fortunes. From being an ingenious
inventor he became an adventurer general, watchmaker to the
king, the king's mistresses, and the king's daughters, the
lover, or rather the beloved, of the wife of the controller of
the king's kitchen, then himself the controller, thence a
courtier, and a favorite of the royal princesses. Through a
clever use of his opportunities he was able to do a great
favor to a rich banker, who in return gave him chances to
amass a fortune, and lent him money to buy a patent of
nobility. This connection ended in litigation, which was near
ruining him; but he discovered corruption on the part of the
judge, and thereupon wrote his Memorials, of which the wit,
keenness, and vivacity made him famous. He then rendered a
private, personal, and important service to Louis XV., and
soon afterwards another to the young Louis XVI. … He became
frenzied in the American cause. In long and ardent letters he
opened upon King Louis and his ministers a rattling fire of
arguments sound and unsound, statements true and untrue,
inducements reasonable and unreasonable, forecastings probable
and improbable, politics wise and unwise, all designed to show
that it was the bounden duty of France to adopt the colonial
cause."
_J. T. Morse, Jr.,
Benjamin Franklin,
chapter 9._
Soon after the arrival of Deane in Paris, the American
Congress, having determined to declare the independence of the
states represented in it, appointed a committee "to prepare
the plan of a treaty to be proposed to foreign powers, which,
after a long discussion, was at length agreed to, and
ministers were appointed to negotiate the treaties proposed.
Mr. Franklin, Mr. Deane, and Mr. Jefferson, were elected; but,
the last mentioned gentleman having declined accepting the
appointment offered him, Mr. Arthur Lee, then in London, was
chosen in his place. These transactions were placed on the
secret journals, and no member was permitted to give any
specific information concerning them; or to state more than,
'that congress had taken such steps as they judged necessary
for obtaining foreign alliances.' The secret committee were
directed to make an effectual lodgment in France of £10,000
sterling, subject to the order of these commissioners. They
assembled in Paris early in the winter, and had an immediate
interview with the count De Vergennes. It was perceived that
the success of the American cruisers, whose captures had been
so considerable as to raise the price of insurance higher than
it had been at any time during the war with both France and
Spain, had excited a very favourable opinion of the capacities
and energies of the nation. They were assured that the ports
of France would remain open to their ships, and that the
American merchants might freely vend in them every article of
commerce, and purchase whatever might be useful for their
country. But it was apparent that the minister wished to avoid
a rupture with England, and was, therefore, unwilling to
receive them openly as the ministers of the United States, or
to enter into any formal negotiation with them."
_J. Marshall,
Life of Washington,
volume 3, chapter 7._
"It is … a settled rule of diplomacy that a minister should
not be pressed upon a foreign court by which it is understood
that he will not be received. To this may be added the rule
that applications for loans should, unless as part of a treaty
alliance, be made through business channels. In disregard of
these rules the majority of Congress, under the influence of
Richard H. Lee and Samuel Adams, instituted a series of
missions to European courts for the bare purpose of borrowing
money, when the courts so addressed not only gave no
intimation that they would receive these envoys, but when,
from the nature of things, as well as from unofficial
intimation, it should have been known that such reception
would be refused. With France there was no difficulty, as
France had intimated unofficially that such envoys would be
received, at least in a private capacity, France being then
ready to take the consequence of war with Britain. And this
reception was accorded … first to Silas Deane, then to
Franklin, and then to Arthur Lee. Here Franklin thought
Congress should stop, saying that ministers should not be sent
to sovereigns without first having some sort of assurance of
recognition of the United States as an independent
sovereignty, and that a 'virgin' republic, as he called it,
should wait till there was some such recognition before
thrusting embassies on foreign courts with demands for money.
Congress thought differently. Arthur Lee was instructed to go
to Madrid with an alternate commission to Berlin; William Lee
was sent to Vienna, Dana to St. Petersburg, Adams to The
Hague, Izard to Florence, and the instructions in each case
were to demand not only recognition, but subsidy. … The policy
of sending ministers to European courts where such ministers
were not received worked injuriously to the United States from
the mere fact of their non-reception. Another difficulty arose
from the circumstance that several of these ministers took up
their residence in Paris, and, without specific authority,
considered it their duty to take part in the counsels of the
American legation.
{3243}
Thus Ralph Izard, commissioned to Tuscany, never went there,
but remained in Paris, claiming a right to be informed of all
the details of the negotiations with France, and occupying no
small share of the time and care of Franklin with discussions
of this claim, which Franklin could not accede to, but on
which Izard continued to insist. When the triple legation of
Franklin, Deane, and Arthur Lee (and afterwards Franklin,
Arthur Lee, and Adams), was commissioned, it was understood
that its members were to divide, so that one (Franklin) should
remain in Paris, while the others should take charge of the
missions to other capitals. But Arthur Lee, when he found that
he could not be received in Madrid, or in Vienna, or in
Berlin, made but brief excursions to Spain, to Austria, and to
Berlin, reporting himself after each short trip promptly at
Paris, there to differ from Franklin not only as to important
business details, but as to the whole policy of the mission.
When Adams was in Paris, during their joint mission, he
concurred with Arthur Lee in what turned out to be the
disastrous measure of removing Williams as commercial agent
and putting in his place William Lee, with a nephew of William
and Arthur Lee as clerk; while on the whole question of
sending legations to foreign courts which had not consented to
receive them, and in the still more important question of the
attitude to be assumed by the commissioners to the French
court, Adams agreed with Lee. … It is due to Adams to say that
he saw the inherent difficulties of permanent missions
conducted by three joint commissioners; that he recommended
that there should be but one permanent minister to France; and
that he recognized Franklin's great influence with the French
ministry as a strong reason for his retention though without
colleagues. But there can be no doubt that down to the period
when Franklin became sole minister, the American cause in
Europe was much embarrassed by the fact that he had colleagues
associated with him."
_F. Wharton,
Introduction to The Revolutionary Diplomatic
Correspondence of The United States,
chapter 1, sections 16-17,
and chapter 9, section 106 (volume 1)._
Before Franklin or Lee reached France, Silas Deane had already
entered into negotiations with Beaumarchais and opened a train
of dealings which proved unfortunate for both. Leaving aside
"all the long controversy about the rights and wrongs of
Beaumarchais, which have never been completely and
satisfactorily solved, … it appears that a large part of the
misunderstanding between him and Deane and Arthur Lee is
attributable to a change of plan between April and July, 1776.
Beaumarchais's scheme of operation, when he saw Lee in London,
was to expend money which should, at least in pretence and
form, be obtained from the voluntary contributions of wealthy
Frenchmen in aid of the American cause; but in July, when he
saw Deane, that scheme had been dropped, and the project was
that he should appear as a merchant. … In May, there was a
plan on the part of the French government to employ a real
merchant; now the plan was to employ a comedy merchant. This
was exactly the role which Beaumarchais was qualified to fill,
and he proceeded to establish and open a large house, with all
the accessories of a house of business, as the same are
understood and represented on the stage, At that time it was
believed that the colonists had plenty of exportable products
which they could and would contribute for the purpose
[purchase?] of arms and ammunition. It was thought that their
main difficulty would be to find any market in which they
could purchase contraband of war. The chief assistance,
therefore, which they would need from France would be secret
permission to make this exchange in France. Beaumarchais's
commercial operations would be real commercial operations, and
at worst could only issue in some expenses and losses, on the
balance of account, which the French government might have to
make good. Beaumarchais approached Deane with all the forms
and reality of a commercial proposition, and Deane assured him
that he should have some returns in six months, and full pay
for everything which he supplied in a year. Two days later
they made a contract by which Congress was to pay the current
price of the goods in America when they should arrive, or take
them at the cost price, with insurance, charges, and
commission 'proportioned to the trouble and care, which cannot
now be fixed.' … August 18, Beaumarchais writes to the
Committee of Secret Correspondence that, led by esteem for a
people struggling for liberty, he has established an extensive
commercial house, solely for the purpose of supplying them
with all things useful, even gold for the payment of troops;
and that without waiting for their consent he has already
procured 200 cannons, 200,000 pounds of powder, 20,000 guns,
with balls, lead, clothing, etc. He wants the cargoes
consigned to him in return, and promises that he has great
power to use any consignments whatsoever; but he wants
especially tobacco. He signs this letter Roderique Hortales &
Co. … A million livres were advanced by Spain to Beaumarchais,
August 11, 1776, and the Farmers-general of France advanced a
million livres, but took advantage of the distress of the
Americans to stipulate that it should be paid for in tobacco
at half its then current price. Beaumarchais also advanced
money to Deane for his personal expenses; and it has never
been doubted that he exerted himself with the utmost energy,
if not always with the greatest prudence, to expedite the
shipment of the goods. Of the three ships which he despatched
at the end of the year, two were captured by the English; but
the one which arrived was of the greatest possible value to
the cause. … When Arthur Lee received his appointment as
Commissioner to France and entered upon the discharge of his
duties, he found that the promises made to him by Beaumarchais
… had not been kept. He reported to the Committee of Secret
Correspondence that a change in the mode of sending had been
settled between Deane and Hortales. … Arthur Lee always held
the attitude of suspicion that Deane and Beaumarchais were in
a conspiracy to levy contributions for themselves on the free
gifts of France to the United States. Franklin always affected
to ignore the dealings with Beaumarchais, and to treat them as
exclusively in the hands of Deane; while Congress always
showed themselves very careful not to pay for anything which
possibly was intended as a gift. Therefore Deane and
Beaumarchais were left for years to claim and protest that
there had been genuine mercantile contracts which had not been
fulfilled, and they could scarcely obtain attention. … September
8, 1777, Congress voted that Deane had no authority to make
contracts with persons to come to America.
{3244}
November 21, they voted to recall him. Undoubtedly the
vexation which Deane had caused them by sending over a great
number of persons to serve in the army, under contracts which
enabled them to demand large pay and high rank, was the chief
cause of irritation against him; but Arthur Lee had also been
poisoning the mind of his brother, and through him, of the
whole Lee-Adams faction in Congress, with suspicions of
Deane's honesty. Deane had found himself transferred, within a
period of two or three years, from an utterly obscure
existence at Wethersfield, Connecticut, to the position of a
quasi-ambassador at the court of France. He adopted a large
and expensive style of living, and kept open house for the
Americans at Paris. It is very reasonable to suppose that this
large expenditure on his part was one of the chief grounds of
belief that he was making great gain out of his position. …
The affair of Silas Deane has importance far beyond the merits
or the fate of that individual. The quarrel over him and his
rights and wrongs, as will presently be seen, entered into the
hottest party contests in Congress during the next two or
three years, and it comes up again often subsequently. It has
even been asserted that the intimacy into which John Adams was
thrown with the Lees, in this connection, was what made him
President of the United States, by winning him votes from
Virginia in 1796. January 1, 1778, Beaumarchais, having heard
that money had been given to the Americans through Grand, the
banker, writes to Vergennes: 'So I have lost the fruit of the
most noble and incredible labour by those very exertions which
conduct others to glory.' … He is in terror of bankruptcy.
Inasmuch as a treaty of alliance between France and the United
States was now made, matters had entered upon a new stage.
Beaumarchais, with his fictitious firm of Hortales, was no
longer necessary or useful. The French government dealt
directly with the American envoys in granting supplies and
subsidies. April 7, Congress made a contract with Hortales
that they should pay, for all the cargoes already shipped and
those to be shipped, the first cost, charges, and freight, in
France. The contract between Beaumarchais and Deane is
recognized. Hortales is to pay bills drawn every two months at
double usance for twenty-four million livres annually. This
article, however, is subject to ratification by the house in
Paris and the American Commissioners at Paris. American
produce is to be exported and consigned to this house.
Interest is to be paid on all sums due, with a commission of
two and a half per cent. From this time Beaumarchais falls out
of sight as an agent of aid and supplies to the American
cause, and becomes a claimant, who considers that he has been
treated with injustice and ingratitude by the United States."
_W. G. Sumner,
The Financier and the Finances of the American Revolution,
chapter 8 (volume 1)._
"The episode of Beaumarchais … was a survival of the secret
diplomacy of Louis XV, for a short time exercising an
extraordinary influence in the first period of the reign of
Louis XVI. Louis XVI, on reaching the throne, found the
machinery of secret diplomacy so ingeniously constructed by
his predecessor in full operation; and, … for one or two
delicate inquiries at the outset of the new reign,
Beaumarchais, who of all the diplomatists of this peculiar
breed was the most adroit and fertile in expedients, was well
fitted. Hence came his employment, and from his employment
came his suggestions, full of brilliant wit and effective
reasoning, as to America. But the antagonism between him and
Vergennes was too marked to permit sustained political
relationship; and when Franklin entered into diplomatic life
in Paris Beaumarchais ceased to take a prominent political
position. And even during the period of Beaumarchais' greatest
activity it must be remembered that he was not technically
Vergennes' subordinate. It was one of the peculiarities of the
secret diplomacy of Louis XIV and Louis XV, as depicted by
Broglie in his admirable treatise on that topic, that even the
existence of the secret agent was not to be supposed to be
known to the king's ostensible ministers. This was not the
case with Beaumarchais; but at the same time Beaumarchais'
political influence ceased … when, on the arrival of Franklin,
Vergennes, with Franklin's aid, took control of Anglo-American
diplomacy."
_F. Wharton,
Introduction to The Revolutionary Diplomatic
Correspondence of the United States,
chapter 4, section 55 (volume 1)._
ALSO IN:
_E. E. Hale,
Franklin in France._
_J. Bigelow, editor,
Life of Franklin, by himself,
volume 2, chapters 13-15._
_J. Parton,
Life of Franklin,
part 6 (volume 2)._
_L. de Lomenie,
Beaumarchais and his Times,
chapters 20-23 (volume 3)._
_Papers in relation to the Case of Silas Deane
(Seventy-Six Society, 1855)._
_C. Tower, Jr.,
The Marquis de La Fayette in the American Revolution,
volume 1, chapter 5._
See, also,
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1778 (FEBRUARY).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776-1779.
The Thirteen Colonies become States.
The framing and adoption of State Constitutions.
"The recommendations to form governments proceeded from the
general congress; the work was done by the several states, in
the full enjoyment of self-direction. Each of them claimed to
be of right a free, sovereign, and independent state; each
bound its officers to bear to it true allegiance, and to
maintain its freedom and independence. Massachusetts, which
was the first state to frame a government independent of the
king, deviated as little as possible from the letter of its
charter; and, assuming that the place of governor was vacant
from the 19th of July 1775, it recognised the council as the
legal successor to executive power. On the 1st day of May
1776, in all commissions and legal processes, it substituted
the name of its 'government and people' for that of the king.
In June 1777, its legislature assumed power to prepare a
constitution; but, on a reference to the people, the act was
disavowed. In September 1779, a convention, which the people
themselves had specially authorized, framed a constitution. It
was in a good measure the compilation of John Adams, who was
guided by the English constitution, by the bill of rights of
Virginia, and by the experience of Massachusetts herself; and
this constitution, having been approved by the people, went
into effect in 1780. On the 5th of January 1776, New Hampshire
shaped its government with the fewest possible changes from
its colonial forms, like Massachusetts merging the executive
power in the council. Not till June 1783 did its convention
agree upon a more perfect instrument, which was approved by
the people, and established on the 31st of the following
October.
{3245}
The provisional constitution of South Carolina dates from the
26th of March 1776. In March 1778, a permanent constitution
was introduced by an act of the legislature. Rhode Island
enjoyed under its charter a form of government so thoroughly
republican that the rejection of monarchy, in May 1776,
required no change beyond a renunciation of the king's name in
the style of its public acts. A disfranchisement of Catholics
had stolen into its book of laws; but, so soon as it was
noticed, the clause was expunged. In like manner, Connecticut
had only to substitute the people of the colony for the name
of the king; this was done provisionally on the 14th of June
1776, and made perpetual on the 10th of the following October.
Before the end of June of the same year Virginia, sixth in the
series, first in the completeness of her work, by a
legislative convention without any further consultation of the
people, framed and adopted a bill of rights, a declaration of
independence, and a constitution. On the second of July 1776,
New Jersey perfected its new, self-created charter. Delaware
next proclaimed its bill of rights, and, on the 20th of
September 1776, the representatives in convention having been
chosen by the freemen of the state for that very purpose,
finished its constitution. The Pennsylvania convention adopted
its constitution on the 28th of September 1776; but the
opposition of the Quakers whom it indirectly disfranchised,
and of a large body of patriots, delayed its thorough
organization for more than five months. The delegates of
Maryland, meeting on the 14th of August 1776, framed its
constitution with great deliberation; it was established on
the 9th of the following November. On the 18th of December
1776, the constitution of North Carolina was ratified in the
congress which framed it. On the 5th of February 1777, Georgia
perfected its organic law by the unanimous agreement of its
convention. Last of the thirteen came New York, whose
empowered convention, on the 20th of April 1777, established a
constitution that, in humane liberality, excelled them all.
The privilege of the suffrage had been far more widely
extended in the colonies than in England; by general consent,
the extension of the elective franchise was postponed. The age
of twenty-one was a qualification universally required. So,
too, was residence, except that in Virginia and South Carolina
it was enough to own in the district or town a certain
freehold or 'lot.' South Carolina required the electors to
'acknowledge the being of a God, and to believe in a future
state of rewards and punishments.' 'White men alone could
claim the franchise in Virginia, in South Carolina, and in
Georgia; but in South Carolina a benign interpretation of the
law classed the free octaroon as a white, even though
descended through an unbroken line of mothers from an imported
African slave; the other ten states raised no question of
color. In Pennsylvania, in New Hampshire, and partially in
North Carolina, the right to vote belonged to every resident
taxpayer; Georgia extended it to any white inhabitant 'of any
mechanic trade'; with this exception, Georgia and all the
other colonies required the possession of a freehold, or of
property variously valued, in Massachusetts at about $200, in
Georgia at £10. Similar conditions had always existed, with
the concurrence or by the act of the colonists themselves.
Maryland prescribed as its rule that votes should be given by
word of mouth; Virginia and New Jersey made no change in their
usage; in Rhode Island each freeman was in theory summoned to
be present in the general court; he therefore gave his proxy
to his representative by writing his own name on the back of
his vote; all others adopted the ballot, New York at the end
of the war, the other eight without delay."
_G. Bancroft,
History of the United States
(Author's last revision),
volume 5, chapter 9._
ALSO IN:
_American Archives,
series 5, volumes 2-3 (as indexed)._
See, also,
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1776;
SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1776 (FEBRUARY-APRIL);
NEW YORK: A. D. 1777;
CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1776;
NEW JERSEY: A. D. 1774-1776;
PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1776;
MARYLAND: A. D. 1776;
GEORGIA: A. D. 1775-1777;
NEW HAMPSHIRE: 1775-1776.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1777 (January-December).
The campaign on the Delaware.
Lord Howe in possession of Philadelphia.
Battles on the Brandywine and at Germantown.
The winter of Washington's army at Valley Forge.
"Washington remained at Morristown from the 7th of January
until the 28th of May, during which time no military movement
of importance took place. His men left for their homes as soon
as their terms of service expired, and as few militia entered
the camp to take their places, at times it seemed as if the
army would be so reduced as to be unworthy of the name. It was
not until late in the spring that the new levies reached
headquarters. On the 28th of May the Americans marched to
Middlebrook and took position behind the Raritan. On the 13th
of June Howe marched from Brunswick and … endeavored to bring
on a general engagement, … but Washington refused to leave the
strong position he occupied, and Howe retired to Amboy. Early
in April Howe had settled upon a campaign having for its
object the capture of Philadelphia. He determined to embark
his troops and transport them to the banks of the Delaware or
Chesapeake, and march directly on the city. … On the 23d of
July, after Howe's troops had been three weeks on the vessels,
the fleet sailed, shaping its course southwesterly. … Signal
fires were lighted along the Jersey coast as it was seen from
time to time by those who were watching for it, and messengers
carried inland the news of its progress. At last, on the 30th,
it was spoken off the capes of Delaware, but Lord Howe deemed
it too hazardous to sail up that river, and after consulting
with his brother, the general, continued on his course
southward. On the 15th of August he entered Chesapeake Bay,
and on the 25th the troops were landed at Elk Ferry."
Meantime, Washington had been in great uncertainty as to the
destination and intentions of his antagonist, but had drawn
his army near to Philadelphia. It had just been joined by
several distinguished foreign officers, Lafayette, De Kalb and
Pulaski in the number. At Philadelphia there was consternation
on the approach of the enemy, but "the pacific influence which
the presence of a large Quaker population exercised seemed to
bear down all military efforts. … To impress the lukewarm with
the strength of his forces, and to inspire hopes in the
breasts of the patriotic, on the 24th of August Washington
marched his army through the streets of Philadelphia.
{3246}
The men were poorly armed and clothed, and to give them some
uniformity they wore sprigs of green in their hats." The
advance of Howe from Elk Ferry was slow, and it was not until
the 11th of September that the Americans encountered him, at
Chad's Ford, on the Brandywine, where they had taken position.
In the battle which occurred that day the British gained a
clear victory, by means of a successful flank movement which
Cornwallis executed, crossing the river some miles above,
while General Knyphausen made feigned attempts at Chad's Ford.
"The American loss was about 1,000, killed, wounded, and
prisoners; that of the British, 579. … The day after the
battle Washington marched from Chester to Philadelphia. He
rested his army two days at Germantown, and then recrossed the
Schuylkill; public opinion demanding that another battle
should be risked before the city should be given up. On the
16th the two armies met on the high ground south of Chester
Valley and prepared for action. The skirmishing had actually
begun, when a violent storm stopped the engagement by ruining
the ammunition of both armies. Washington withdrew to the
hills north of the valley, and, finding it impossible to
repair the damage done by the storm, retreated again over the
Schuylkill, leaving Wayne behind him to watch the enemy and
attack their rear should they attempt to follow." But Wayne
was surprised at Paoli, and Washington was deceived by a
feigned movement, so that Howe succeeded in entering
Philadelphia without another battle, on the 26th, having
occupied Germantown the day before. "The main portion of
Howe's army remained at Germantown, a village of a single
street, two miles in length, and five from the city." Here, on
the morning of October 4th, Washington attacked him, and, for
a time, with great success; but confusion and
misunderstandings on the part of the attacking columns arose,
which turned the half-won victory into a defeat. "The
Americans lost nearly 1,100 killed, wounded, and prisoners;
the British 521. … While the Americans were defeated in their
object, the moral results of the battle were in their favor.
It inspired them with confidence, and showed the world that,
though driven from the field of Brandywine, they were still
aggressive." The next few weeks were employed by Howe in
reducing the forts which commanded the Delaware. Fort Mifflin
was taken after a severe siege, and this compelled the
abandonment of Fort Mercer, from which the British had been
repulsed with heavy loss. Early in December Howe moved upon
Washington's lines, at Whitemarsh, intending an attack; but
found them so strong that he dared not venture the attempt,
and returned to Philadelphia. "As the season was advancing,
and the Americans were in no condition to keep the field, it
was decided to go into winter-quarters at Valley Forge, on the
west side of the Schuylkill, where the Valley Creek empties
into the river. The surrounding hills were covered with woods
and presented an inhospitable appearance. The choice was
severely criticised, and De Kalb described it as a wilderness.
But the position was central and easily defended. The army
arrived there about the middle of December, and the erection
of huts began. They were built of logs, and were 14 by 15 feet
each. The windows were covered with oiled paper, and the
openings between the logs were closed with clay. The huts were
arranged in streets, giving the place the appearance of a
city. It was the first of the year, however, before they were
occupied, and previous to that the suffering of the army had
become great. Although the weather was intensely cold the men
were obliged to work at the buildings, with nothing to support
life but flour mixed with water, which they baked into cakes
at the open fires. … The horses died of starvation by
hundreds, and the men were obliged to haul their own
provisions and firewood. As straw could not be found to
protect the men from the cold ground, sickness spread through
their quarters with fearful rapidity. 'The unfortunate
soldiers,' wrote Lafayette in after-years, 'were in want of
everything; they had neither coats, hats, shirts, nor shoes;
their feet and their legs froze till they became black, and it
was often necessary to amputate them. … The army frequently
remained whole days without provisions, and the patient
endurance of both soldiers and officers was a miracle which
each moment served to renew.' … While the country around
Valley Forge was so impoverished by the military operations of
the previous summer as to make it impossible for it to support
the army, the sufferings of the latter were chiefly owing to
the inefficiency of Congress. That body met at Lancaster after
leaving Philadelphia, and at once adjourned to York, where its
sessions were continued. But it in no way equalled the
congresses which had preceded it. 'The Continental Congress
and the currency,' wrote Gouverneur Morris in 1778, 'have
greatly depreciated.'"
_F. D. Stone,
The Struggle for the Delaware
(Narrative and Critical History of America,
volume 6, chapter 5)._
The sufferings of the army at Valley Forge, and the shameful
neglect which it experienced, were indignantly described by
Washington, in a letter addressed to the President of
Congress, December 23, 1777: "Since the month of July," he
wrote, "we have had no assistance from the
quartermaster-general, and to want of assistance from this
department the commissary-general charges great part of his
deficiency. To this I am to add, that, notwithstanding it is a
standing order, and often repeated, that the troops shall
always have two days' provisions by them, that they might be
ready at any sudden call; yet an opportunity has scarcely ever
offered, of taking an advantage of the enemy, that has not
been either totally obstructed, or greatly impeded on this
account. And this, the great and crying evil, is not all. The
soap, vinegar, and other articles allowed by Congress, we see
none of, nor have we seen them, I believe, since the battle of
Brandywine. The first, indeed, we have now little occasion
for; few men having more than one shirt, many only the moiety
of one, and some none at all. In addition to which, as a proof
of the little benefit received from a clothier-general, and as
a further proof of the inability of an army, under the
circumstances of this, to perform the common duties of
soldiers, (besides a number of men confined to hospitals for
want of shoes, and others in farmers' houses on the same
account,) we have, by a field-return this day made, no less
than two thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight men now in
camp unfit for duty, because they are barefoot and otherwise
naked.
{3247}
By the same return it appears, that our whole strength in
Continental troops, including the eastern brigades, which have
joined us since the surrender of General Burgoyne, exclusive
of the Mary]and troops sent to Wilmington, amounts to more
than eight thousand two hundred in camp fit for duty;
notwithstanding which; and that since the 4th instant, our
numbers fit for duty, from the hardships and exposures they
have undergone, particularly on account of blankets (numbers
having been obliged, and still are, to sit up all night by
fires, instead of taking comfortable rest in a natural and
common way), have decreased near two thousand men. We find
gentlemen, without knowing whether the army was really going
into winter-quarters or not (for I am sure no resolution of
mine would warrant the Remonstrance), reprobating the measure
as much as if they thought the soldiers were made of stocks or
stones, and equally insensible of frost and snow; and
moreover, as if they conceived it easily practicable for an
inferior army, under the disadvantages I have described ours
to be, which are by no means exaggerated, to confine a
superior one, in all respects well-appointed and provided for
a winter's campaign, within the city of Philadelphia, and to
cover from depredation and waste the States of Pennsylvania
and Jersey. But what makes this matter still more
extraordinary in my eye is, that these very gentlemen,—who
were well apprized of the nakedness of the troops from ocular
demonstration, who thought their own soldiers worse clad than
others, and who advised me near a month ago to postpone the
execution of a plan I was about to adopt, in consequence of a
resolve of Congress for seizing clothes, under strong
assurances that an ample supply would be collected in ten days
agreeably to a decree of the State (not one article of which,
by the by, is yet come to hand),—should think a winter's
campaign, and the covering of these States from the invasion
of an enemy, so easy and practicable a business. I can assure
those gentlemen, that it is a much easier and less distressing
thing to draw remonstrances in a comfortable room by a good
fireside, than to occupy a cold, bleak hill, and sleep under
frost and snow, without clothes or blankets. However, although
they seem to have little feeling for the naked and distressed
soldiers, I feel superabundantly for them, and, from my soul,
I pity those miseries, which it is neither in my power to
relieve or prevent. It is for these reasons, therefore, that I
have dwelt upon the subject; and it adds not a little to my
other difficulties and distress to find, that much more is
expected of me than is possible to be performed, and that upon
the ground of safety and policy I am obliged to conceal the
true state of the army from public view, and thereby expose
myself to detraction and calumny."
_George Washington,
Writings,
edited by W. C. Ford,
volume 6, pages 259-262._
It was during this trying winter, while the army suffered at
Valley Forge, that it was joined by Baron Steuben, an
accomplished Prussian officer, trained in the school of
Frederick the Great, with a record of distinguished service in
the Seven Years War. He came as a volunteer, and was welcomed
by Washington, who found in him the organizer, the
disciplinarian, the instructor, which the rudely formed
American army so greatly needed. The services rendered by
Baron Steuben during that first winter of his stay in America
were especially valuable, beyond measure. In his own account
of the state of things which he found he says: "'My
determination must have been very firm that I did not abandon
my design when I saw the troops. Matters had to be remedied,
but where to commence was the great difficulty. In the first
place, I informed myself relative to the military
administration. I found that the different branches were
divided into departments. There were those of the
quarter-master general, war commissary, provisions commissary,
commissary of the treasury, or paymaster of forage, etc., etc.
But they were all bad copies of a bad original. That is to
say, they had imitated the English administration, which is
certainly the most imperfect in Europe. The general asked me
to give him some statements concerning the arrangements of the
departments, and their various branches in the European
armies. I gave them to him, and, detailing therein the duties
of each department and of its different branches, dilated upon
the functions of the quarter-masters (maréchaux généraux de
logis) in particular, in which branch I had served myself for
a long time in the Seven Years' War. But the English system,
bad as it is, had already taken root. Each company and
quarter-master had a commission of so much per cent. on all
the money he expended. It was natural, therefore, that expense
was not spared—that wants were discovered where there were
none; and it was also natural that the dearest articles were
those that suited the commissioners best. Hence the
depreciation of our currency—hence the expense of so many
millions. I pointed out to General Washington and several
members of Congress the advantages of the contract system. I
even drew up a memorandum on the subject, which Colonel
Laurens translated into English, showing the way in which
things were contracted for in the Prussian and French armies.
But whether it was that they thought such a system
impracticable in this country, or whether they were unable to
check the torrent of expense, things remained as they were. I
directed my attention to the condition of the troops, and I
found an ample field, where disorder and confusion were
supreme. … The number of men in a regiment was fixed by
Congress, as well as in a company—so many infantry, cavalry,
and artillery. But the eternal ebb and flow of men engaged for
three, six, and nine months, who went and came every day,
rendered it impossible to have either a regiment or a company
complete; and the words company, regiment, brigade, and
division, were so vague that they did not convey any idea upon
which to form a calculation, either of a particular corps or
of the army in general. They were so unequal in their number,
that it would have been impossible to execute any maneuvers.
Sometimes a regiment was stronger than a brigade. I have seen
a regiment consisting of thirty men, and a company of one
corporal! … The soldiers were scattered about in every
direction. The army was looked upon as a nursery for servants,
and every one deemed it his right to have a valet; several
thousand soldiers were employed in this way. We had more
commissaries and quarter-masters at that time than all the
armies of Europe together; the most modest had only one
servant, but others had two and even three.
{3248}
If the captains and colonels could give no account of their
men, they could give still less an account of their arms,
accouterments, clothing, ammunition, camp equipage, etc.
Nobody kept an account but the commissaries, who furnished all
the articles. A company, which consisted, in May, of fifty
men, was armed, clothed and equipped in June. It then
consisted of thirty men; in July it received thirty recruits,
who were to be clothed, armed and equipped; and not only the
clothes, but the arms were carried off by those who had
completed their time of service. General Knox assured me that,
previous to the establishment of my department, there never
was a campaign in which the military magazines did not furnish
from 5,000 to 8,000 muskets to replace those which were lost
in the way I have described above. The loss of bayonets was
still greater. The American soldier, never having used this
arm, had no faith in it, and never used it but to roast his
beefsteak, and indeed often left it at home. This is not
astonishing when it is considered that the majority of the
States engaged their soldiers for from six to nine months.
Each man who went away took his musket with him, and his
successor received another from the public store. No captain
kept a book. Accounts were never furnished nor required. As
our army is, thank God, little subject to desertion, I venture
to say that during an entire campaign there have not been
twenty muskets lost since my system came into force. … The men
were literally naked, some of them in the fullest extent of
the word. The officers who had coats had them of every color
and make. I saw officers, at a grand parade at Valley Forge,
mounting guard in a sort of dressing-gown, made of an old
blanket or woolen bed-cover. With regard to their military
discipline, I may safely say no such thing existed. … I
commenced operations by drafting 120 men from the line, whom I
formed into a guard for the general-in-chief. I made this
guard my military school. I drilled them myself twice a day;
and to remove that English prejudice which some officers
entertained, namely, that to drill a recruit was a sergeant's
duty and beneath the station of an officer, I often took the
musket myself to show the men the manual exercise which I
wished to introduce. All my inspectors were present at each
drill. We marched together, wheeled, etc., etc., and in a
fortnight my company knew perfectly how to bear arms, had a
military air, knew how to march, to form in column, deploy,
and execute some little maneuvers with excellent precision. …
I paraded them in presence of all the officers of the army,
and gave them an opportunity of exhibiting all they knew. They
formed in column; deployed; attacked with the bayonet; changed
front, etc., etc. It afforded a new and agreeable sight for
the young officers and soldiers. Having gained my point, I
dispersed my apostles, the inspectors, and my new doctrine was
eagerly embraced. I lost no time in extending my operations on
a large scale. I applied my system to battalions, afterward to
brigades, and in less than three weeks I executed maneuvers
with an entire division in presence of the
commander-in-chief.' … The most interesting narrative of the
energy employed by Steuben, and the success of his system, is
given by his favorite aid-de-camp and intimate friend, William
North, who was with him from the beginning. He says in his
biographical sketch: 'Certainly it was a brave attempt!
Without understanding a word of the English language, to think
of bringing men, born free, and joined together to preserve
their freedom, into strict subjection; to obey without a word,
a look, the mandates of a master! that master once their
equal, or possibly beneath them, in whatever might become a
man! It was a brave attempt, which nothing but virtue, or
high-raised hopes of glory, could have supported. At the first
parade, the troops neither understanding the command, nor how
to follow in a changement to which they had not been
accustomed, even with the instructor at their head, were
getting fast into confusion. At this moment, Captain B.
Walker, then of the second New York regiment, advanced from
his platoon, and offered his assistance to translate the
orders and interpret to the troops. "If," said the baron, "I
had seen an angel from heaven, I should not have more
rejoiced." … Walker became from that moment his aid-de-camp,
and remained to the end of the baron's life his dear and most
worthy friend. From the commencement of instruction, no time,
no pains, no fatigue were thought too great, in pursuit of
this great object. Through the whole of each campaign, when
troops were to maneuver, and that was almost every day, the
baron rose at three o'clock; while his servant dressed his
hair he smoked a single pipe and drank one cup of coffee, was
on horseback at sunrise, and, with or without his suite,
galloped to the parade. There was no waiting for a tardy
aid-de-camp, and those who followed wished they had not slept.
Nor was there need of chiding; when duty was neglected, or
military etiquette infringed, the baron's look was quite
sufficient.' … Steuben enjoyed the confidence of both officers
and men, and every thing he proposed was executed with as much
precision as if it were an order from the commander-in-chief.
Although he was only a volunteer, without any specific rank in
the army, he had greater power and authority than any general
could boast of."
_F. Kapp,
Life of Frederick William von Steuben,
chapter 6._
ALSO IN:
_W. Irving,
Life of Washington,
volume 3, chapters 13, 18-19, and 23-27._
_G. W. Greene,
Life of General Nathanael Greene,
book 2, chapters 16-25 (volume l)._
_J. T. Scharf and T. Westcott,
History of Philadelphia,
chapter 17 (volume l)._
_C. J. Stille,
Major-General Anthony Wayne,
Chapter 3._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1777 (June).
Vermont denied admission to the Union.
See VERMONT; A. D. 1777-1778.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1777 (July).
The coming of Lafayette.
"La Fayette, barely nineteen years old, was in garrison at
Metz, when he was invited to a dinner that his commander, the
Count de Broglie, gave to the brother of the king of England,
the Duke of Gloucester, then on his way through the city. News
had just been received of the proclamation of the independence
of the United States, and, the conversation having naturally
fallen on this subject, La Fayette plied the duke with
questions to acquaint himself with the events, entirely new to
him, which were happening in America. Before the end of the
dinner he had made his decision, and, from that moment, he no
longer thought of anything else except setting out for the new
world.
{3249}
He went to Paris and confided his project to his friends, the
Count de Segur and the Viscount de Noailles, who were to
accompany him. The Count de Broglie, whom he also informed,
tried to turn him from his design. 'I saw your uncle die in
Italy,' he said to him, 'and your father at Min·den, and I do
not wish to contribute to the ruin of your family by allowing
you to go.' Nevertheless, he put La Fayette in communication
with the former agent of Choiseul in Canada, the Baron de
Kalb, who became his friend. De Kalb presented him to Silas
Deane, who, considering him too young, wished to dissuade him
from his project. But the news of the disasters experienced by
the Americans before New York, at White Plains and in New
Jersey, confirmed La Fayette in his resolution. He bought and
fitted out a vessel at his own expense, and disguised his
preparations by making a journey to London. Nevertheless his
design was disclosed at Court. His family became angry with
him. He was forbidden to go to America, and, to render this
order effective, a lettre de cachet was issued against him.
Nevertheless he left Paris with an officer named Mauroy,
disguised himself as a courier, went on board his ship at
Passage in Spain, and set sail April the 26th, 1777. He had
several officers on board. La Fayette successfully avoided the
English cruisers and the French vessels sent in pursuit of
him. Finally, after a hazardous passage of seven weeks, he
reached Georgetown, and, furnished with letters of
recommendation from Deane, he reported to Congress."
_T. Balch,
The French in America during the War of Independence,
chapter 7._
In consideration of the great personal sacrifice he had made
in quitting France, and his offer to serve the American cause
at his own expense and without pay, Congress, with hesitation,
conferred on the young marquis the rank of Major General, but
without command. He succeeded, too, in procuring a like
commission for Baron de Kalb, who had accompanied him. While
Lafayette was still busy with these arrangements, Washington
came to Philadelphia, and they met at a dinner party. They
seem to have been drawn to one another at the first exchange
of words, and a friendship began which lasted through their
lives. Lafayette was soon invited to become a member of the
military family of the commander-in-chief.
_B. Tuckerman,
Life of General Lafayette,
chapter 2._
ALSO IN:
_C. Tower, Jr.,
The Marquis de La Fayette in the American Revolution,
volume 1, chapter 1._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1777 (July-October).
The struggle for the Hudson.
Burgoyne's expedition from Canada.
His surrender at Saratoga.
Early in the summer of 1777 a formidable expedition under
General Burgoyne was set in motion from Canada toward Lake
Champlain. "It was a part of Burgoyne's plan, not merely to
take Ticonderoga, but to advance thence upon Albany, and, with
the co-operation of the troops at New York, to get possession
also of the posts in the Highlands. The British would then
command the Hudson through its whole extent, and New England,
the head of the rebellion, would be completely cut off from
the middle and southern colonies. Burgoyne started on this
expedition with a brilliant army of 8,000 men, partly British
and partly Germans, besides a large number of Canadian
boatmen, laborers and skirmishers. On the western shore of
Lake Champlain, near Crown Point, he met the Six Nations in
council, and after a feast and a speech, some 400 of their
warriors joined this army. His next step was to issue a
proclamation … threatening with all the extremities of war all
who should presume to resist his arms. Two days after the
issue of this proclamation, Burgoyne appeared [July 1] before
Ticonderoga." The commander of that important fort, General
St. Clair, found defense impracticable and evacuated the
place. He was vigorously pursued in his retreat and only
escaped with the loss of most of his bag·gage and stores,
besides several hundred men, in killed, wounded, and
prisoners. "After a seven days' march, he joined Schuyler at
Fort Edward, on the Hudson. Here was assembled the whole force
of the northern army, amounting to about 5,000 men; but a
considerable part were militia hastily called in; many were
without arms; there was a great deficiency of ammunition and
provisions; and the whole force was quite disorganized. The
region between Skenesborough [now Whitehall, where Burgoyne
had halted] and the Hudson was an almost unbroken wilderness.
Wood Creek was navigable as far as Fort Anne [which the
Americans had fired and abandoned]; from Fort Anne to the
Hudson, over an exceedingly rough country, … extended a single
military road. While Burgoyne halted a few days at
Skenesborough to put his forces in order, and to bring up the
necessary supplies, Schuyler hastened to destroy the
navigation of Wood Creek," and to make the road from Fort Anne
as nearly impassable as a wilderness road can be made. "All
the stock in the neighborhood was driven off, and the militia
of New England was summoned to the rescue. … The advance from
Skenesborough cost the British infinite labor and fatigue; but
… [the] impediments were at length overcome; and Burgoyne,
with his troops, artillery, and baggage, presently appeared
[July 29] on the banks of the Hudson. … Fort Edward was
untenable. As the British approached, the Americans crossed
the river, and retired, first to Saratoga, and then to
Stillwater, a short distance above the mouth of the Mohawk.
Hardly had Schuyler taken up this position, when news arrived
of another disaster and a new danger. While moving up Lake
Champlain, Burgoyne had detached Colonel St. Leger, with 200
regulars, Sir John Johnson's Royal Greens, some Canadian
Rangers, and a body of Indians under Brant, to harass the New
York frontier from the west. St. Leger laid siege to Fort
Schuyler, late Fort Stanwix, near the head of the Mohawk, then
the extreme western post of the State of New York. General
Herkimer raised the militia of Tryon county, and advanced to
the relief of this important post, which was held by
Gansevoort and Willett, with two New York regiments. About six
miles from the fort [near Oriskany, August 6], owing to want
of proper precaution, Herkimer fell into an ambush. Mortally
wounded, he supported himself against a stump, and encouraged
his men to the fight. By the aid of a successful sally by
Willett, they succeeded at last in repulsing the assailants,
but not without a loss of 400, including many of the leading
patriots of that region, who met with no mercy at the hands of
the Indians and refugees. Tryon county, which included the
whole district west of Albany, abounded with Tories.
{3250}
It was absolutely necessary to relieve Fort Schuyler." General
Arnold was accordingly despatched thither, with three
regiments, and on his approach St. Leger, deserted by most of
his Indian allies, retreated precipitately, leaving most of
his stores and baggage behind. Meantime, Burgoyne was
beginning to find his situation serious. To feed and otherwise
supply his army was the chief difficulty. He could bring
enough of stores to the head of Lake George, by the water
carriage which he commanded, from Canada; but to transport
them thence to the Hudson, though the distance was only
eighteen miles, proved nearly impracticable. "The roads were
so bad, and the supply of draft cattle so small, that, after a
fortnight's hard labor, the British army had only four days'
provision in advance." To improve his supplies, and partly,
moreover, in the hope of finding discontent among the settlers
of the New Hampshire Grants, Burgoyne sent 800 men, under
Colonel Baum, into Vermont, They were defeated [August 16] at
Bennington by the New Hampshire and Vermont militia under
Colonel John Stark, and again defeated a second time the same
day, after reinforcements had been sent to them. "Besides the
killed, about 200 in number, the Americans took near 600
prisoners, 1,000 stand of arms, as many swords, and four
pieces of artillery. … The American loss was only 14 killed
and 42 wounded. … The victory of Stark had a magical effect in
reviving the spirits of the people and the courage of the
soldiers."
_R. Hildreth,
History of the United States,
chapter 36 (volume 3)._
"Burgoyne's position was by this time very dangerous. His
Indians were leaving him; many of his best men had been killed
or captured; and he was getting short of provisions. The army
opposed to him was increasing: Congress was hurrying men up
the Hudson; and the country militia were coming in rapidly.
Burgoyne, therefore, desperately attempted to force his way
through the American army. He crossed the Hudson, and moved
slowly down its west bank toward the Mohawk. About the same
time, Gates, who had been sent by Congress to take Schuyler's
place, felt strong enough to move up the west bank of the
Hudson, away from the Mohawk. The two armies met [September
19] at Bemis Heights, between Saratoga Lake and the Hudson.
The battle which followed [called by some writers the battle
of Freeman's Farm] was not decisive: the British held the
ground; but the Americans had shown that Burgoyne could not
break through."
_A. Johnston,
History of the United States for Schools,
sections 222-223._
"Burgoyne now halted again, and strengthened his position by
field-works and redoubts; and the Americans also improved
their defences. The two armies remained nearly within
cannon-shot of each other for a considerable time, during
which Burgoyne was anxiously looking for intelligence of the
promised expedition from New York, which, according to the
original plan, ought by this time to have been approaching
Albany from the south. At last, a messenger from Clinton made
his way, with great difficulty, to Burgoyne's camp, and
brought the information that Clinton was on his way up the
Hudson to attack the American forts which barred the passage
up that river to Albany. Burgoyne, in reply, on the 30th of
September, urged Clinton to attack the forts as speedily as
possible, stating that the effect of such an attack, or even
the semblance of it, would be to move the American army from
its position before his own troops. By another messenger, who
reached Clinton on the 5th of October, Burgoyne informed his
brother general that he had lost his communications with
Canada, but had provisions which would last him till the 20th.
Burgoyne described himself as strongly posted, and stated that
though the Americans in front of him [at Stillwater] were
strongly posted also, he made no doubt of being able to force
them, and making his way to Albany; but that he doubted
whether he could subsist there, as the country was drained of
provisions. He wished Clinton to meet him there, and to keep
open a communication with New York. Burgoyne had
over-estimated his resources, and in the very beginning of
October found difficulty and distress pressing him hard. The
Indians and Canadians began to desert him; while, on the other
hand, Gates's army was continually reinforced by fresh bodies
of the militia. … Finding the number and spirit of the enemy
to increase daily, and his own stores of provisions to
diminish, Burgoyne determined on attacking the Americans in
front of him, and by dislodging them from their position, to
gain the means of moving upon Albany, or at least of relieving
his troops from the straitened position in which they were
cooped up. Burgoyne's force was now reduced to less than 6,000
men. The right of his camp was on some high ground a little to
the west of the river; thence his entrenchments extended along
the lower ground to the bank of the Hudson, the line of their
front being nearly at a right angle with the course of the
stream. The lines were fortified with redoubts and
field-works. … The numerical force of the Americans was now
greater than the British, even in regular troops, and the
numbers of the militia and volunteers which had joined Gates
and Arnold were greater still. General Lincoln, with 2,000 New
England troops, had reached the American camp on the 29th of
September. Gates gave him the command of the right wing, and
took in person the command of the left wing, which was
composed of two brigades under Generals Poor and Leonard, of
Colonel Morgan's rifle corps, and part of the fresh New
England Militia. The whole of the American lines had been ably
fortified under the direction of the celebrated Polish
General, Kosciusko, who was now serving as a volunteer in
Gates's army. The right of the American position, that is to
say, the part of it nearest to the river, was too strong to be
assailed with any prospect of success: and Burgoyne therefore
determined to endeavour to force their left. For this purpose
he formed a column of 1,500 regular troops, with two
twelve-pounders, two howitzers, and six six-pounders. He
headed this in person, having Generals Philips, Riedesel; and
Fraser under him. The enemy's force immediately in front of
his lines was so strong that he dared not weaken the troops
who guarded them, by detaching any more to strengthen his
column of attack. It was on the 7th of October that Burgoyne
led his column forward; and on the preceding day, the 6th,
Clinton had successfully executed a brilliant enterprise
against the two American forts which barred his progress up
the Hudson.
{3251}
He had captured them both, with severe loss to the American
forces opposed to him; he had destroyed the fleet which the
Americans had been forming on the Hudson, under the protection
of their forts; and the upward river was laid open to his
squadron. He had also, with admirable skill and industry,
collected in small vessels, such as could float within a few
miles of Albany, provisions sufficient to supply Burgoyne's
army for six months. He was now only 156 miles distant from
Burgoyne; and a detachment of 1,700 men actually advanced
within 40 miles of Albany. Unfortunately Burgoyne and Clinton
were each ignorant of the other's movements; but if Burgoyne
had won his battle on the 7th, he must on advancing have soon
learned the tidings of Clinton's success, and Clinton would
have heard of his. A junction would soon have been made of the
two victorious armies, and the great objects of the campaign
might yet have been accomplished. All depended on the fortune
of the column with which Burgoyne, on the eventful 7th of
October, 1777, advanced against the American position." It
failed in the attempt to break the American line. Arnold, who
bad been deprived of his command by Gates, rushed into the
fight at its fiercest stage and assumed a lead, without
authority, which contributed greatly to the result. General
Fraser, on the British side, was wounded mortally by a
sharp-shooter under Morgan's command. Burgoyne's whole force
was driven back, with heavy losses in killed and wounded,
leaving six cannon behind them, and the Americans, pursuing,
carried part of their entrenchments by storm. By this success,
the latter "acquired the means of completely turning the right
flank of the British, and gaining their rear. To prevent this
calamity, Burgoyne effected during the night an entire change
of position. With great skill he removed his whole army to
some heights near the river, a little northward of the former
camp, and he there drew up his men, expecting to be attacked
on the following day. But Gates was resolved not to risk the
certain triumph which his success had already secured for him.
He harassed the English with skirmishes, but attempted no
regular attack. Meanwhile he detached bodies of troops on both
sides of the Hudson to prevent the British from recrossing
that river, and to bar their retreat. When night fell, it
became absolutely necessary for Burgoyne to retire again, and,
accordingly, the troops were marched through a stormy and
rainy night towards Saratoga, abandoning their sick and
wounded, and the greater part of their baggage, to the enemy.
… Burgoyne now took up his last position on the heights near
Saratoga; and hemmed in by the enemy, who refused any
encounter, and baffled in all his attempts at finding a path
of escape, he there lingered until famine compelled him to
capitulate. The fortitude of the British army during this
melancholy period has been justly eulogised by many native
historians, but I prefer quoting the testimony of a foreign
writer, as free from all possibility of partiality. Botta
says: 'It exceeds the power of words to describe the pitiable
condition to which the British army was now reduced. The
troops were worn down by a series of toil, privation,
sickness, and desperate fighting. They were abandoned by the
Indians and Canadians; and the effective force of the whole
army was now diminished by repeated and heavy losses, which
had principally fallen on the best soldiers and the most
distinguished officers, from 10,000 combatants to less than
one-half that number. Of this remnant, little more than 3,000
were English. In these circumstances, and thus weakened, they
were invested by an army of four times their own number, whose
position extended three parts of a circle round them; who
refused to fight them, as knowing their weakness, and who,
from the nature of the ground, could not be attacked in any
part. In this helpless condition, obliged to be constantly
under arms, while the enemy's cannon played on every part of
their camp, and even the American rifle-balls whistled in many
parts of the lines, the troops of Burgoyne retained their
customary firmness, and while sinking under a hard necessity,
they showed themselves worthy of a better fate. They could not
be reproached with an action or a word, which betrayed a want
of temper or of fortitude.' At length the 13th of October
arrived, and as no prospect of assistance appeared, and the
provisions were nearly exhausted, Burgoyne, by the unanimous
advice of a council of war, sent a messenger to the American
camp to treat of a convention. General Gates in the first
instance demanded that the royal army should surrender
prisoners of war. He also proposed that the British should
ground their arms. Burgoyne replied, 'This article is
inadmissible in every extremity; sooner than this army will
consent to ground their arms in their encampment, they will
rush on the enemy, determined to take no quarter.' After
various messages, a convention for the surrender of the army
was settled, which provided that 'The troops under General
Burgoyne were to march out of their camp with the honours of
war, and the artillery of the intrenchments, to the verge of
the river, where the arms and artillery were to be left. The
arms to be piled by word of command from their own officers. A
free passage was to be granted to the army under
Lieutenant-General Burgoyne to Great Britain, upon condition
of not serving again in North America during the present
contest.' The articles of capitulation were settled on the
15th of October; and on that very evening a messenger arrived
from Clinton with an account of his successes, and with the
tidings that part of his force had penetrated as far as
Esopus, within 50 miles of Burgoyne's camp. But it was too
late. The public faith was pledged; and the army was, indeed,
too debilitated by fatigue and hunger to resist an attack if
made; and Gates certainly would have made it, if the
convention had been broken off. Accordingly, on the 17th, the
convention of Saratoga was carried into effect. By this
convention 5,790 men surrendered themselves as prisoners. The
sick and wounded left in the camp when the British retreated
to Saratoga, together with the numbers of the British, German,
and Canadian troops, who were killed, wounded, or taken, and
who had deserted in the preceding part of the expedition, were
reckoned to be 4,689. The British sick and wounded who had
fallen into the hands of the Americans after the battle of the
7th, were treated with exemplary humanity; and when the
convention was executed, General Gates showed a noble delicacy
of feeling, which deserves the highest degree of honour. Every
circumstance was avoided which could give the appearance of
triumph.
{3252}
The American troops remained within their lines until the
British had piled their arms; and when this was done, the
vanquished officers and soldiers were received with friendly
kindness by their victors, and their immediate wants were
promptly and liberally supplied. Discussions and disputes
afterwards arose as to some of the terms of the convention;
and the American Congress refused for a long time to carry
into effect the article which provided for the return of
Burgoyne's men to Europe; but no blame was imputable to
General Gates or his army, who showed themselves to be
generous as they had proved themselves to be brave."
_Sir E. Creasy,
Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World,
chapter 13_.
ALSO IN:
_General J. Burgoyne,
State of the Expedition from Canada._
_S. A. Drake,
Burgoyne's Invasion._
_W. L. Stone,
Campaign of Burgoyne._
_M. von Eelking,
Memoir of General Riedesel,
volume 1, pages 88-218._
_B. J. Lossing,
Life and Times of Philip Schuyler,
volume 2, chapters 6-21._
_Colonel M. Willett,
Narrative of Military Actions,
chapter 5._
_C. Stark,
Memoir of General John Stark,
pages 46-140._
_T. Dwight,
Travels in New England and New York,
volume 3, pages 220-233._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1777-1778.
The British in Philadelphia.
Their gay winter.
See PHILADELPHIA: A. D. 1777-1778.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1777-1778.
The Conway Cabal.
The capitulation of Burgoyne at Saratoga "was an all-important
event in its influence on the progress of the war; but its
immediate effect was unpropitious to the reputation of the
Commander-in-chief, who was compelled, at the close of the
year, to place his army in a state of almost total destitution
in winter-quarters at Valley Forge. The brilliant success of
General Gates at Saratoga, in contrast with the reverses which
had befallen the American Army under the immediate command of
Washington, encouraged the operations of a cabal against him,
which had been formed by certain disaffected officers of the
army, and was countenanced by a party in Congress. The design
was, by a succession of measures implying a want of
confidence, to drive Washington to retire from the service in
disgust: and, when this object was effected, to give the
command of the army to General Gates, who lent a willing ear
to these discreditable intrigues. A foreign officer in the
American Army, of the name of Conway, was the most active
promoter of the project, which was discovered by the
accidental disclosure of a part of his correspondence with
Gates. Washington bore himself on this occasion with his usual
dignity, and allowed the parties concerned, in the army and in
Congress, to take refuge in explanations, disclaimers, and
apologies, by which those who made them gained no credit, and
those who accepted them were not deceived. A part of the
machinery of this wretched cabal was the publication, in
London, and the republication in New York of [a] collection of
forged letters … bearing the name of Washington, and intended
to prove his insincerity in the cause of the Revolution.
Nothing perhaps more plainly illustrates his conscious
strength of character, than the disdainful silence with which
he allowed this miserable fabrication to remain for twenty
years without exposure. It was only in the year 1796, and when
about to retire from the Presidency, that he filed, in the
department of Slate, a denial of its authenticity."
_E. Everett,
Life of Washington,
chapter 6._
In a letter written May 30, 1778, addressed to Landon Carter,
from the camp at Valley Forge, Washington alluded to the
subject of the cabal as follows: "With great truth I think I
can assure you, that the information you received from a
gentleman at Sabine Hall, respecting a disposition in the
northern officers to see me superseded in my command by
General G--s is without the least foundation. I have very
sufficient reasons to think, that no officers in the army are
more attached to me, than those from the northward, and of
those, none more so than the gentlemen, who were under the
immediate command of G--s last campaign. That there was a
scheme of this sort on foot, last fall, admits of no doubt:
but it originated in another quarter; with three men who
wanted to aggrandize themselves; but finding no support, on
the contrary, that their conduct and views, when seen into,
were likely to undergo severe reprehension, they slunk back,
disavowed the measure, and professed themselves my warmest
admirers. Thus stands the matter at present. Whether any
members of Congress were privy to this scheme, and inclined to
aid and abet it, I shall not take upon me to say; but am well
informed, that no whisper of the kind was ever heard in
Congress."
_George Washington,
Writings,
edited by W. C. Ford,
volume 7, page 39._
ALSO IN:
_W. Irving,
Life of Washington,
volume 3, chapters 28-30._
_J. C. Hamilton,
History of the United States
in the Writings of Alexander Hamilton,
volume 1, chapters 13-14._
_J. Sparks,
Life of Gouverneur Morris,
volume 1, chapter 10._
_W. V. Wells,
Life of Samuel Adams,
chapter 46 (volume 2)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1777-1781.
Adoption and ratification of the Articles of Confederation.
"On the 11th of June, 1776, the same day on which the
committee for preparing the declaration of independence was
appointed, congress resolved, that 'a committee be appointed
to prepare and digest the form of a confederation to be
entered into between these colonies'; and on the next day a
committee was accordingly appointed, consisting of a member
from each colony. Nearly a year before this period (viz. on
the 21st of July, 1775), Dr. Franklin had submitted to
congress a sketch of articles of confederation, which does
not, however, appear to have been acted on. … On the 12th of
July, 1776, the committee appointed to prepare articles of
confederation presented a draft, which was in the hand-writing
of Mr. Dickenson, one of the committee, and a delegate from
Pennsylvania. The draft, so reported, was debated from the 22d
to the 31st of July, and on several days between the 5th and
20th of August, 1776. On this last day, congress, in committee
of the whole, reported a new draft, which was ordered to be
printed for the use of the members. The subject seems not
again to have been touched until the 8th of April, 1777, and
the articles were debated at several times between that time
and the 15th of November of the same year. On this last day
the articles were reported with sundry amendments, and finally
adopted by congress. A committee was then appointed to draft,
and they accordingly drafted, a circular letter, requesting
the states respectively to authorize their delegates in
congress to subscribe the same in behalf of the state. … It
carried, however, very slowly conviction to the minds of the
local legislatures. Many objections were stated, and many
amendments were proposed.
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All of them, however, were rejected by congress, not probably
because they were all deemed inexpedient or improper in
themselves; but from the danger of sending the instrument back
again to all the states, for reconsideration. Accordingly, on
the 26th of June, 1778, a copy, engrossed for ratification,
was prepared, and the ratification begun on the 9th day of
July following. It was ratified by all the states, except
Delaware and Maryland, in 1778; by Delaware in 1779, and by
Maryland on the 1st of March, 1781, from which last date its
final ratification took effect, and was joyfully announced by
congress. In reviewing the objections taken by the various
states to the adoption of the confederation in the form in
which it was presented to them, … that which seemed to be of
paramount importance, and which, indeed, protracted the
ratification of the confederation to so late a period, was the
alarming controversy in respect to the boundaries of some of
the states, and the public lands, held by the crown, within
these reputed boundaries."
_J. Story,
Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States,
book 2, chapter 2 (volume 1)._
The following is the text of the Articles of Confederation:
"Article I.
The style of this Confederacy shall be,
'The United States of America.'
Article II.
Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence,
and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this
Confederation expressly delegated to the United States in
Congress assembled.
Article III.
The said States hereby severally enter into a firm league of
friendship with each other, for their common defense, the
security of their liberties, and their mutual and general
welfare, binding themselves to assist each other against all
force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them,
on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other
pretense whatever.
Article IV.
The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and
intercourse among the people of the different States in this
Union, the free inhabitants of each of these States, paupers,
vagabonds, and fugitives from justice excepted, shall be
entitled to all privileges and immunities of free citizens in
the several States; and the people of each State shall have
free ingress and egress to and from any other State, and shall
enjoy therein all the privileges of trade and commerce subject
to the same duties, impositions, and restrictions as the
inhabitants thereof respectively; provided that such
restrictions shall not extend so far as to prevent the removal
of property imported into any State to any other State of
which the owner is an inhabitant; provided also, that no
imposition, duties, or restriction shall be laid by any State
on the property of the United States or either of them. If any
person guilty of, or charged with, treason, felony, or other
high misdemeanor in any State shall flee from justice and be
found in any of the United States, he shall, upon demand of
the governor or executive power of the State from which he
fled, be delivered up and removed to the State having
jurisdiction of his offense. Full faith and credit shall be
given in each of these States to the records, acts, and
judicial proceedings of the courts and magistrates of every
other State.
Article V.
For the more convenient management of the general interests of
the United States, delegates shall be annually appointed in
such manner as the Legislature of each State shall direct, to
meet in Congress on the first Monday in November, in every
year, with a power reserved to each State to recall its
delegates, or any of them, at any time within the year, and to
send others in their stead for the remainder of the year. No
State shall be represented in Congress by less than two, nor
by more than seven members; and no person shall be capable of
being a delegate for more than three years in any term of six
years; nor shall any person, being a delegate, be capable of
holding any office under the United States for which he, or
another for his benefit, receives any salary, fees, or
emolument of any kind. Each State shall maintain its own
delegates in any meeting of the States and while they act as
members of the Committee of the States. In determining
questions in the United States in Congress assembled, each
State shall have one vote. Freedom of speech and debate in
Congress shall not be impeached or questioned in any court or
place out of Congress; and the members of Congress shall be
protected in their persons from arrests and imprisonment
during the time of their going to and from, and attendance on,
Congress, except for treason, felony, or breach of the peace.
Article VI.
No State, without the consent of the United States, in
Congress assembled, shall send any embassy to, or receive any
embassy from, or enter into any conference, agreement,
alliance, or treaty with any king, prince, or state; nor shall
any person holding any office of profit or trust under the
United States, or any of them, accept of any present,
emolument, office, or title of any kind whatever from any
king, prince, or foreign state; nor shall the United States,
in Congress assembled, or any of them, grant any title of
nobility. No two or more States shall enter into any treaty,
confederation, or alliance whatever between them, without the
consent of the United States, in Congress assembled,
specifying accurately the purposes for which the same is to be
entered into, and how long it shall continue. No State shall
lay any imposts or duties which may interfere with any
stipulations in treaties entered into by the United States, in
Congress assembled, with any king, prince, or state, in
pursuance of any treaties already proposed by Congress to the
courts of France and Spain. No vessel of war shall be kept up
in time of peace by any State, except such number only as
shall be deemed necessary by the United States, in Congress
assembled, for the defense of such State or its trade, nor
shall any body of forces be kept up by any State in time of
peace, except such number only as, in the judgment of the
United States, in Congress assembled, shall be deemed
requisite to garrison the forts necessary for the defense of
such State; but every State shall always keep up a
well-regulated and disciplined militia, sufficiently armed and
accoutred, and shall provide and constantly have ready for use
in public stores a due number of field-pieces and tents, and a
proper quantity of arms, ammunition, and camp equipage. No
State shall engage in any war without the consent of the
United States, in Congress assembled, unless such State be
actually invaded by enemies, or shall have received certain
advice of a resolution being formed by some nation of Indians
to invade such State, and the danger is so imminent as not to
admit of a delay till the United States, in Congress
assembled, can be consulted; nor shall any State grant
commissions to any ships or vessels of war, nor letters of
marque or reprisal, except it be after a declaration of war by
the United States, in Congress assembled, and then only
against the kingdom or state, and the subjects thereof,
against which war has been so declared, and under such
regulations as shall be established by the United States, in
Congress assembled, unless such State be infested by pirates,
in which case vessels of war may be fitted out for that
occasion, and kept so long as the danger shall continue, or
until the United States, in Congress assembled, shall
determine otherwise.
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Article VII.
When land forces are raised by any State for the common
defense, all officers of or under the rank of Colonel shall be
appointed by the Legislature of each State respectively by
whom such forces shall be raised, or in such manner as such
State shall direct, and all vacancies shall be filled up by
the State which first made the appointment.
Article VIII.
All charges of war, and all other expenses that shall be
incurred for the common defense, or general welfare, and
allowed by the United States, in Congress assembled, shall be
defrayed out of a common treasury, which shall be supplied by
the several States in proportion to the value of all land
within each State, granted to, or surveyed for, any person, as
such land and the buildings and improvements thereon shall be
estimated, according to such mode as the United States, in
Congress assembled, shall, from time to time, direct and
appoint. The taxes for paying that proportion shall be laid
and levied by the authority and direction of the Legislatures
of the several States, within the time agreed upon by the
United States, in Congress assembled.
Article IX.
The United States, in Congress assembled, shall have the sole
and exclusive right and power of determining on peace and war,
except in the cases mentioned in the sixth Article; of sending
and receiving ambassadors; entering into treaties and
alliances, provided that no treaty of commerce shall be made,
whereby the legislative power of the respective States shall
be restrained from imposing such imposts and duties on
foreigners as their own people are subjected to, or from
prohibiting the exportation or importation of any species of
goods or commodities whatever; of establishing rules for
deciding, in all cases, what captures on land and water shall
be legal, and in what manner prizes taken by land or naval
forces in the service of the United States shall be divided or
appropriated; of granting letters of marque and reprisal in
times of peace; appointing courts for the trial of piracies
and felonies committed on the high seas; and establishing
courts for receiving and determining finally appeals in all
cases of captures; provided that no member of Congress shall
be appointed a judge of any of the said courts. The United
States, in Congress assembled, shall also be the last resort
on appeal in all disputes and differences now subsisting, or
that hereafter may arise between two or more States concerning
boundary, jurisdiction, or any other cause whatever; which
authority shall always be exercised in the manner following:
Whenever the legislative or executive authority, or lawful
agent of any State in controversy with another, shall present
a petition to Congress, stating the matter in question, and
praying for a hearing, notice thereof shall be given by order
of Congress to the legislative or executive authority of the
other State in controversy, and a day assigned for the
appearance of the parties by their lawful agents, who shall
then be directed to appoint, by joint consent, commissioners
or judges to constitute a court for hearing and determining
the matter in question; but if they cannot agree, Congress
shall name three persons out of each of the United States, and
from the list of such persons each party shall alternately
strike out one, the petitioners beginning, until the number
shall be reduced to thirteen; and from that number not less
than seven nor more than nine names, as Congress shall direct,
shall, in the presence of Congress, be drawn out by lot; and
the persons whose names shall be so drawn, or any five of
them, shall be commissioners or judges, to hear and finally
determine the controversy, so always as a major part of the
judges who shall hear the cause shall agree in the
determination; and if either party shall neglect to attend at
the day appointed, without showing reasons which Congress
shall judge sufficient, or being present, shall refuse to
strike, the Congress shall proceed to nominate three persons
out of each State, and the secretary of Congress shall strike
in behalf of such party absent or refusing; and the judgment
and sentence of the court, to be appointed in the manner
before prescribed, shall be final and conclusive; and if any
of the parties shall refuse to submit to the authority of such
court, or to appear or defend their claim or cause, the court
shall nevertheless proceed to pronounce sentence or judgment,
which shall in like manner be final and decisive; the judgment
or sentence and other proceedings being in either case
transmitted to Congress, and lodged among the acts of Congress
for the security of the parties concerned; provided, that
every commissioner, before he sits in judgment, shall take an
oath, to be administered by one of the judges of the supreme
or superior court of the State where the cause shall be tried,
'well and truly to hear and determine the matter in question,
according to the best of his judgment, without favor,
affection, or hope of reward.' Provided, also, that no State
shall be deprived of territory for the benefit of the United
States. All controversies concerning the private right of soil
claimed under different grants of two or more States, whose
jurisdictions, as they may respect such lands, and the States
which passed such grants are adjusted, the said grants or
either of them being at the same time claimed to have
originated antecedent to such settlement of jurisdiction,
shall, on the petition of either party to the Congress of the
United States, be finally determined, as near as may be, in
the same manner as is before prescribed for deciding disputes
respecting territorial jurisdiction between different States.
The United States, in Congress assembled, shall also have the
sole and exclusive right and power of regulating the alloy and
value of coin struck by their own authority, or by that of the
respective States; fixing the standard of weights and measures
throughout the United States; regulating the trade and
managing all affairs with the Indians, not members of any of
the States; provided that the legislative right of any State,
within its own limits, be not infringed or violated;
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establishing and regulating post-offices from one State to
another, throughout all the United States, and exacting such
postage on the papers passing through the same as may be
requisite to defray the expenses of the said office;
appointing all officers of the land forces in the service of
the United States, excepting regimental officers; appointing
all the officers of the naval forces, and commissioning all
officers whatever in the service of the United States; making
rules for the government and regulation of the said land and
naval forces, and directing their operations. The United
States, in Congress assembled, shall have authority to appoint
a committee, to sit in the recess of Congress, to be
denominated 'A Committee of the States,' and to consist of one
delegate from each State, and to appoint such other committees
and civil officers as may be necessary for managing the
general affairs of the United States under their direction; to
appoint one of their number to preside; provided that no
person be allowed to serve in the office of president more
than one year in any term of three years; to ascertain the
necessary sums of money to be raised for the service of the
United States, and to appropriate and apply the same for
defraying the public expenses; to borrow money or emit bills
on the credit of the United States, transmitting every half
year to the respective States an account of the sums of money
so borrowed or emitted; to build and equip a navy; to agree
upon the number of land forces, and to make requisitions from
each State for its quota, in proportion to the number of white
inhabitants in such State, which requisition shall be binding;
and thereupon the Legislature of each State shall appoint the
regimental officers, raise the men, and clothe, arm, and equip
them in a soldier-like manner, at the expense of the United
States; and the officers and men so clothed, armed, and
equipped shall march to the place appointed, and within the
time agreed on by the United States, in Congress assembled;
but if the United States, in Congress assembled, shall, on
consideration of circumstances, judge proper that any State
should not raise men, or should raise a smaller number than
its quota, and that any other State should raise a greater
number of men than the quota thereof, such extra number shall
be raised, officered, clothed, armed, and equipped in the same
manner as the quota of such State, unless the Legislature of
such State shall judge that such extra number can not be
safely spared out of the same, in which case they shall raise,
officer, clothe, arm, and equip as many of such extra number
as they judge can be safely spared, and the officers and men
so clothed, armed, and equipped shall march to the place
appointed, and within the time agreed on by the United States,
in Congress assembled. The United States, in Congress
assembled, shall never engage in a war, nor grant letters of
marque and reprisal in time of peace, nor enter into any
treaties or alliances, nor coin money, nor regulate the value
thereof, nor ascertain the sums and expenses necessary for the
defense and welfare of the United States, or any of them, nor
emit bills, nor borrow money on the credit of the United
States, nor appropriate money, nor agree upon the number of
vessels of war to be built or purchased, or the number of land
or sea forces to be raised, nor appoint a commander-in-chief
of the army or navy, unless nine States assent to the same,
nor shall a question on any other point, except for adjourning
from day to day, be determined, unless by the votes of a
majority of the United States, in Congress assembled. The
Congress of the United States shall have power to adjourn to
any time within the year, and to any place within the United
States, so that no period of adjournment be for a longer
duration than the space of six months, and shall publish the
journal of their proceedings monthly, except such parts
thereof relating to treaties, alliances, or military
operations as in their judgment require secrecy; and the yeas
and nays of the delegates of each State, on any question,
shall be entered on the journal when it is desired by any
delegate; and the delegates of a State, or any of them, at his
or their request, shall be furnished with a transcript of the
said journal except such parts as are above excepted, to lay
before the Legislatures of the several States.
Article X.
The Committee of the States, or any nine of them, shall be
authorized to execute, in the recess of Congress, such of the
powers of Congress as the United States, in Congress
assembled, by the consent of nine States, shall, from time to
time, think expedient to vest them with; provided that no
power be delegated to the said Committee, for the exercise of
which, by the Articles of Confederation, the voice of nine
States in the Congress of the United States assembled is
requisite.
Article XI.
Canada, acceding to this Confederation, and joining in the
measures of the United States, shall be admitted into, and
entitled to all the advantages of this Union; but no other
colony shall be admitted into the same, unless such admission
be agreed to by nine States.
Article XII.
All bills of credit emitted, moneys borrowed, and debts
contracted by or under the authority of Congress, before the
assembling of the United States, in pursuance of the present
Confederation, shall be deemed and considered as a charge
against the United States, for payment and satisfaction
whereof the said United States and the public faith are hereby
solemnly pledged.
Article XIII.
Every State shall abide by the determinations of the United
States, in Congress assembled, on all questions which by this
Confederation are submitted to them. And the Articles of this
Confederation shall be inviolably observed by every State, and
the Union shall be perpetual; nor shall any alteration at any
time hereafter be made in any of them, unless such alteration
be agreed to in a Congress of the United States, and be
afterwards confirmed by the Legislatures of every State. AND
WHEREAS it hath pleased the great Governor of the world to
incline the hearts of the Legislatures we respectively
represent in Congress to approve of, and to authorize us to
ratify, the said Articles of Confederation and perpetual
Union, know ye, that we, the undersigned delegates, by virtue
of the power and authority to us given for that purpose, do,
by these presents, in the name and in behalf of our respective
constituents, fully and entirely ratify and confirm each and
every of the said Articles of Confederation and perpetual
Union, and all and singular the matters and things therein
contained. And we do further solemnly plight and engage the
faith of our respective constituents, that they shall abide by
the determinations of the United States, in Congress
assembled, on all questions which by the said Confederation
are submitted to them; and that the Articles thereof shall be
inviolably observed by the States we respectively represent,
and that the Union shall be perpetual.
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In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands in Congress.
Done at Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania the ninth
day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred
and seventy-eight, and in the third year of the independence
of America."
"Under these Articles of Confederation the treaty of peace
with England was concluded and the American nation was
governed until the final adoption of the Constitution of the
United States. The main defect of the Articles of
Confederation was, that although powers sufficiently adequate
to create a government were ceded, there was no power to raise
revenue, to levy taxes, or to enforce the law, except with the
consent of nine States; and although the government had power
to contract debts, there were no means by which to discharge
them. The government had power to raise armies and navies, but
no means wherewith to pay them, unless the means were voted by
the States themselves; they could make treaties with foreign
powers, but had no means to coerce a State to obey such
treaty. In short, it was a government which had the power to
make laws, but no power to punish infractions thereof.
Washington himself said: 'The Confederation appears to me to
be little more than the shadow without the substance, and
Congress a nugatory body.' Chief Justice Story, in summing up
the leading defects of the Articles of Confederation, says:
'There was an utter want of all coercive authority to carry
into effect its own constitutional measures; this of itself
was sufficient to destroy its whole efficiency as a
superintendent government, if that may be called a government
which possessed no one solid attribute of power. In truth,
Congress possessed only the power of recommendation. Congress
had no power to exact obedience or punish disobedience of its
ordinances; they could neither impose fines nor direct
imprisonments, nor divest privileges, nor declare forfeitures,
nor suspend refractory officers. There was no power to
exercise force.'"
_S. Sterne,
Constitutional History of the United States,
chapter 1._
"The individual states had attributed to themselves, in the
Articles of Confederation, no powers which could place them in
relation to foreign nations in the light of sovereign states.
They felt that all such claims would be considered ridiculous,
because back of these claims there was no real corresponding
power. Congress therefore remained, as heretofore, the sole
outward representative of sovereignty. But the power to
exercise the prerogatives was taken from it, and this without
placing it in any other hands. The changes effected by the
Articles of Confederation were rather of a negative than of a
positive nature. They did not give the State which was just
coming into being a definite form, but they began the work of
its dissolution. … The practical result … was that the United
States tended more and more to split up into thirteen
independent republics, and … virtually ceased to be a member
of the family of nations bound together by the 'jus gentium.'"
_H. von Holst,
Constitutional and Political History of the United States,
volume 1, chapter 1._
ALSO IN:
_G. Bancroft,
History of the Formation of the Constitution,
volume 1, chapter 1._
_D. R. Goodloe,
The Birth of the Republic,
pages 353-366._
_H. W. Preston,
Documents illustrative of American History,
pages 218-231._
On the operation and failure of the Articles of Confederation.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1783-1787.
On the question of the western territorial claims of several
of the States, and the obstacle which it brought in the way of
the ratification of the Articles of Confederation.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: 1781-1786.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1778 (February).
The Treaty with France.
"The account of Burgoyne's surrender, which was brought to
France by a swift-sailing ship from Boston, threw Turgot and
all Paris into transports of joy. None doubted the ability of
the states to maintain their independence. On the 12th of
December their commissioners had an interview with Vergennes.
'Nothing,' said he, 'has struck me so much as General
Washington's attacking and giving battle to General Howe's
army. To bring troops raised within the year to this, promises
everything. The court of France, in the treaty which is to be
entered into, intend to take no advantage of your present
situation. Once made, it should be durable; and therefore it
should contain no condition of which the Americans may
afterward repent, but such only as will last as long as human
institutions shall endure, so that mutual amity may subsist
forever. Entering into a treaty will be an avowal of your
independence. Spain must be consulted, and Spain will not be
satisfied with an undetermined boundary on the west. Some of
the states are supposed to run to the South Sea, which might
interfere with her claim to California.' It was answered that
the last treaty of peace adopted the Mississippi as a
boundary. 'And what share do you intend to give us in the
fisheries?' asked Vergennes; for in the original draft of a
treaty the United States had proposed to take to themselves
Cape Breton and the whole of the island of Newfoundland.
Explanations were made by the American commissioners that
their later instructions removed all chances of disagreement
on that subject. … The question of a French alliance … was
discussed by Vergennes with the Marquis d'Ossun, the late
French ambassador in Madrid, as the best adviser with regard
to Spain, and the plan of action was formed. Then these two
met the king at the apartment of Maurepas, where the plan,
after debate, was finally settled. Maurepas, at heart opposed
to the war, loved ease and popularity too well to escape the
sway of external opinion; and Louis XVI. sacrificed his own
inclination and his own feeling of justice to policy of state
and the opinion of his advisers. So, on the 6th of February, a
treaty of amity and commerce and an eventual defensive treaty
of alliance were concluded between the king of France and the
United States, on principles of equality and reciprocity, and
for the most part in conformity to the proposals of congress.
In commerce each party was to be placed on the footing of the
most favored nation. The king of France promised his good
offices with the princes and powers of Barbary. As to the
fisheries, each party reserved to itself the exclusive
possession of its own. Accepting the French interpretation of
the treaties of Utrecht and of Paris, the United States
acknowledged the right of French subjects to fish on the banks
of Newfoundland, and their exclusive right to half the coast
of that island for drying-places.
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On the question of ownership in the event of the conquest of
Newfoundland the treaty was silent. The American proposal,
that free ships give freedom to goods and to persons, except
to soldiers in actual service of an enemy, was adopted.
Careful lists were made out of contraband merchandises. The
absolute and unlimited independence of the United States was
described as the essential end of the defensive alliance; and
the two parties mutually engaged not to lay down their arms
until it should be assured by the treaties terminating the
war. Moreover, the United States guaranteed to France the
possessions then held by France in America, as well as those
which it might acquire by a future treaty of peace; and, in
like manner, the king of France guaranteed to the United
States their present possessions and acquisitions during the
war from the dominions of Great Britain in North America. A
separate and secret act reserved to the king of Spain the
power of acceding to the treaties. Within forty-two hours of
the signature of these treaties of commerce and alliance the
British ministry received the news by special messenger from
their spy in Paris, but it was not divulged." It was
officially communicated to the British government on the 13th
of March, when ambassadors were withdrawn on both sides and
war soon followed.
_G. Bancroft,
History of the United States
(Author's last revision),
volume 5, chapter 17._
ALSO IN:
_Treaties and Conventions of the United States
(edition of 1889),
page 296._
_T. Balch,
The French in America during the War of Independence,
chapter 8._
See, also, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776-1778.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1778 (June).
Peace-proposals from England.
British evacuation of Philadelphia and march to New York.
Battle of Monmouth.
"On May 11th, Sir Henry Clinton relieved Sir William Howe at
Philadelphia, and the latter took his departure in a blaze of
mock glory. … The new commander was more active than his
predecessor, but no cleverer, and no better fitted to cope
with Washington. … Expecting a movement by the enemy,
Washington sent Lafayette forward to watch Philadelphia.
Clinton, fresh in office, determined to cut him off, and by a
rapid movement nearly succeeded in so doing. Timely
information, presence of mind, and quickness, alone enabled
the young Frenchman to escape, narrowly but completely.
Meantime, a cause for delay, that curse of the British
throughout the war, supervened. A peace commission, consisting
of the Earl of Carlisle, William Eden, and Governor Johnstone,
arrived. They were excellent men, but they came too late.
Their propositions three years before would have been well
enough, but as it was they were worse than nothing. Coolly
received, they held a fruitless interview with a committee of
Congress, tried to bribe and intrigue, found that their own
army had been already ordered to evacuate Philadelphia [in
apprehension of the arrival of the expected French fleet]
without their knowledge, and finally gave up their task in
angry despair, and returned to England to join in the chorus
of fault-finding which was beginning to sound very loud in
ministerial ears. Meanwhile, Washington waited and watched,
puzzled by the delay, and hoping only to harass Sir Henry with
militia on the march to New York. But, as the days slipped by,
the Americans grew stronger, while Sir Henry weakened himself
by sending 5,000 men to the West Indies, and 3,000 to Florida.
When he finally started [evacuating Philadelphia June 17], he
had with him less than 10,000 men, while the Americans had
13,000, nearly all continental troops. Under these
circumstances, Washington determined to bring on a battle. He
was thwarted at the outset by his officers, as was wont to be
the case. Lee had returned more whimsical than ever, and at
the moment was strongly adverse to an attack. … Washington was
harassed of course by all this, but he did not stay his
purpose, and as soon as he knew that Clinton actually had
marched, he broke camp at Valley Forge and started in pursuit.
There were more councils of an old-womanish character, but
finally Washington took the matter into his own hands, and
ordered forth a strong detachment to attack the British
rear-guard. They set out on the 25th, and as Lee, to whom the
command belonged, did not care to go, Lafayette [see above: A.
D. 1777 (JULY)] was put in charge. As soon as Lafayette had
departed, however, Lee changed his mind, and insisted that all
the detachments in front, amounting to 6,000 men, formed a
division so large that it was unjust not to give him the
command. Washington, therefore, sent him forward next day with
two additional brigades, and then Lee by seniority took
command on the 27th of the entire advance. In the evening of
that day, Washington came up, reconnoitred the enemy, and saw
that, although their position was a strong one, another day's
unmolested march would make it still stronger. He therefore
resolved to attack the next morning, and gave Lee then and
there explicit orders to that effect. In the early dawn he
despatched similar orders, but Lee apparently did nothing
except move feebly forward, saying to Lafayette, 'You don't
know the British soldiers; we cannot stand against them.' He
made a weak attempt to cut off a covering party, marched and
countermarched, ordered and countermanded, until Lafayette and
Wayne, eager to fight, knew not what to do, and sent hot
messages to Washington to come to them. Thus hesitating and
confused, Lee permitted Clinton to get his baggage and train
to the front, and to mass all his best troops in the rear
under Cornwallis, who then advanced against the American
lines. Now there were no orders at all, and the troops did not
know what to do, or where to go. They stood still, then began
to fall back, and then to retreat. A very little more and
there would have been a rout. As it was, Washington alone
prevented disaster. … As the ill tidings grew thicker,
Washington spurred sharper and rode faster through the deep
sand and under the blazing mid-summer sun. At last he met Lee
and the main body all in full retreat. He rode straight at
Lee, savage with anger, not pleasant to look at, one may
guess, and asked fiercely and with a deep oath, tradition
says, what it all meant. … Lee gathered himself and tried to
excuse and palliate what had happened, but although the brief
words that followed are variously reported to us across the
century, we know that Washington rebuked him in such a way,
and with such passion, that all was over between them. Lee …
went to the rear, thence to a court-martial, thence to
dismissal and to a solitary life. … Having put Lee aside,
Washington rallied the broken troops, brought them into
position, turned them back, and held the enemy in check.
{3258}
It was not an easy feat, but it was done, and when Lee's
division again fell back in good order the main army was in
position, and the action became general. The British were
repulsed, and then Washington, taking the offensive, drove
them back until he occupied the battlefield of the morning.
Night came upon him still advancing. He halted his army, lay
down under a tree, his soldiers lying on their arms about him,
and planned a fresh attack, to be made at daylight. But when
the dawn came it was seen that the British had crept off, and
were far on their road. The heat prevented a rapid pursuit,
and Clinton got into New York. Between there and Philadelphia
he had lost 2,000 men, Washington said, and modern authorities
put it at about 1,500, of whom nearly 500 fell at Monmouth. …
Monmouth has never been one of the famous battles of the
Revolution, and yet there is no other which can compare with
it as an illustration of Washington's ability as a soldier. …
Its importance lies in the evidence which it gives of the way
in which Washington, after a series of defeats, during a
winter of terrible suffering and privation, had yet developed
his ragged volunteers into a well-disciplined and effective
army. The battle was a victory, but the existence and the
quality of the army that won it were a far greater triumph.
The dreary winter at Valley Forge had indeed borne fruit."
_H. C. Lodge,
George Washington,
volume 1, chapter 7._
ALSO IN:
_H. B. Carrington,
Battles of the American Revolution,
chapters 54-56._
_Mrs. M. Campbell,
Life of General W. Hull,
chapter 14._
_The Lee Papers,
volumes 2-3
(New York Historical Society Collection, 1872-1873)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1778 (June-November).
The war on the border.
Activity of Tories and Indians.
The Massacre at Cherry Valley.
"The Six Nations were stirred to hostility by Sir John Johnson
and the Mohawk chief Joseph Brant, with Walter Butler, of
infamous name. Their tory partisans were more cruel than the
red men. At Cobleskill, Schoharie county, June 1, 1778, Brant
won a savage triumph with a mixed force, and burned and
plundered the settlement. Springfield was also destroyed, and
the assailants retired. A month later the Indians were again
at Cobleskill, and, burning where they went, beat off a force
that attempted to check them. The valley of the Schohariekill
was in the succeeding year subjected to invasions from the
Senecas, and suffered severely. About Fort Stanwix the tories
and red men were continually hovering, and more than once
persons were pounced upon and scalped in sight of the works.
In 1778, in the early autumn, German Flats was visited by
Brant and his followers, and was entirely destroyed, although
all the inhabitants but two were warned in season to escape
with their lives. An expedition was sent after the Indians,
but failed to bring the warriors to battle, and was rewarded
only by laying waste the Indian villages of Unadilla and
Oquaga, and capturing a large supply of cattle and provisions.
At Cherry Valley a fort had been built, and the village was
occupied by a band of colonial troops under Colonel Ichabod
Alden. He rested in security, and the settlers were scattered
in their habitations, regardless of warnings of approaching
foes. Under cover of a severe storm of snow and rain, November
11, Brant and Butler, with 800 Indians and tories, swooped
upon the homes, and 43 persons, including women and children,
were butchered, 40 taken prisoners, all the buildings were
burned, and the domestic animals seized. So brutal was the
massacre that Brant charged Butler and the tories with acting
against his protests. Brant himself was content, July 19,
1779, with destroying the church, mills, houses, and barns at
Minnisink, Orange county, without sacrificing lives, but
turned upon a party sent in pursuit, and, after capturing a
detachment, butchered the wounded, and slew 45 who tried to
escape. Such deeds produced a terror in the colony. No one
knew where the red men and tories would strike next. To check
and counteract them, excursions were made against the tribes
in their homes. One of these was led by Colonels Van Schaick
and Willett from Fort Stanwix in April, 1779). Proceeding by
Wood Creek and Oneida Lake, they penetrated the villages of
the Onondagas, which they destroyed, and seized the provisions
and even the weapons of the red men, who fled into the
wilderness."
_E. H. Roberts,
New York,
chapter 24 (volume 2)._
The following account of the attack on Cherry Valley is from a
pen friendly to Butler and from sources favorable to the Tory
side: "After an exhausting march next day through a blinding
snow-storm and over ground covered with deep wet snow and mud,
Butler halted his men at dark in a pine wood which afforded
them some shelter, six miles from Cherry Valley. He assembled
the chiefs and proposed that as soon as the moon rose, they
should resume their march and surround the house occupied by
the officers, while he made a rush upon the fort with the
rangers. They readily assented, but before the time appointed
arrived it began to rain violently, and they obstinately
refused to move until daybreak. It was then arranged that
Captain McDonnel with 50 picked rangers and some Indians
should storm the house, while Butler with the remainder
assailed the fort. Without tents, blankets or fires, they
spent a sleepless night cowering beneath the pines, and were
glad to move as soon as day appeared. They had approached
unperceived within a mile of the fort by passing through a
dense swamp, when the Indians in front fired at two men
cutting wood. One fell dead; the other, though bleeding, ran
for his life and the entire body of Indians set up a whoop and
followed at full speed. Unhappily the rangers had just been
halted to fix flints and load their rifles, and the Indians
obtained a long start. The Continental officers attempted to
escape to the fort but only two or three reached it. The
colonel, five other officers and twenty soldiers, were killed
on the way and the lieutenant-colonel, three subalterns, and
ten privates were taken. The colors of the regiment were
abandoned in the house and burnt in it. The garrison of the
fort was fully alarmed, and opened a fierce fire of artillery
and small arms. The rangers seized and burnt a detached
block-house, and fired briskly at the loop-holes in the
palisades for ten minutes, when Butler saw with horror and
consternation that the Indians had set their officers at
defiance, and dispersed in every direction to kill and
plunder. Their wretched misconduct forced him to collect all
the rangers into a compact body on an eminence near the
principal entrance to the fort, to oppose a sally by the
garrison, which then undoubtedly outnumbered them
considerably.
{3259}
There he was obliged to remain inactive all day under a
ceaseless, chilling rain, while blazing houses and shrieks of
agony told their pitiful tale in the settlement below. At
nightfall he marched a mile down the valley and encamped. He
then struggled with indifferent success to rescue the
prisoners. Those surrendered were placed next the camp fires
and protected by his whole force. Next morning most of the
Indians and the feeblest men among the rangers were sent away
with a huge drove of captured cattle for the supply of the
garrison at Niagara, and McDonnel and Brant, with 60 rangers
and 50 Indians, swept the valley from end to end, ruthlessly
burning every building and stack in sight, while Butler, with
the remainder, again stood guard at the gate of the fort. He
hoped that this appalling spectacle would provoke the garrison
to sally out and fight, but the lesson of Wyoming had not been
lost on them, and they continued to look on from the walls in
silent fury. Another great herd of cattle was collected, and
Butler leisurely began his retreat, having had only two
rangers and three Indians wounded during the expedition. He
did not disguise the dark side of the story in his letter to
Colonel Bolton of the 17th November. 'I have much to lament,'
he said, 'that notwithstanding my utmost precautions to save
the women and children, I could not prevent some of them
falling victims to the fury of the savages. They have carried
off many of the inhabitants and killed more, among them Colin
Cloyd, a very violent rebel. I could not prevail on the
Indians to leave the women and children behind, though the
second morning Captain Johnson (to whose knowledge of the
Indians and address in managing them I am much indebted) and I
got them to permit twelve, who were loyalists, and whom I
concealed, with the humane assistance of Mr. Joseph Brant and
Captain Jacobs of Ochquaga, to return. The death of the women
and children on this occasion may, I believe, be truly
ascribed to the rebels having falsely accused the Indians of
cruelty at Wyomen. This has much exasperated them, and they
are still more incensed at finding that the colonel and those
who had then laid down their arms, soon after marching into
their country intending to destroy their villages, and they
declared that they would be no more accused falsely of
fighting the enemy twice, meaning they would in future give no
quarter.'"
_E. Cruikshank,
The Story of Butler's Rangers,
pages 55-56._
ALSO IN:
_W. W. Campbell,
Annals of Tryon County,
chapter 5._
_Centennial Celebrations of New York,
pages 359-383._
_W. L. Stone,
Life of Brant,
volume 1, chapter 17._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1778 (July).
The war on the border.
Bloody work of the Tories and their Indian allies.
The Massacre at Wyoming.
"In 1778, according to the plan of campaign as given by Guy
Johnson in his correspondence, the English forces on the
western borders of New York were divided into two bodies: one,
consisting of Indians under Brant, to operate in New York,
while Deputy Superintendent Butler with the other should
penetrate the settled district on the Susquehanna. Brant
[Joseph Brant, the Mohawk chief], who, according to Colonel
Claus, 'had shown himself to be the most faithful and zealous
subject his majesty could have in America,' did his work
unsparingly, and ruin marked his track. In the valley of the
upper Mohawk and the Schoharie nothing but the garrison-houses
escaped, and labor was only possible in the field when muskets
were within easy reach. Occasionally blows were struck at the
larger settlements. … In July, 1778, the threatened attack on
Wyoming took place. This region was at that time formally
incorporated as the county of Westmoreland of the colony of
Connecticut. … In the fall of 1776, two companies, on the
Continental establishment, had been raised in the valley, in
pursuance of a resolution of Congress, and were shortly
thereafter ordered to join General Washington. Several
stockaded forts had been built during the summer at different
points. The withdrawal of so large a proportion of the
able-bodied men as had been enlisted in the Continental
service threw upon the old men who were left behind the duty
of guarding the forts. … In March, 1778, another military
company was organized, by authority of Congress, to be
employed for home defence. In May, attacks were made upon the
scouting parties by Indians, who were the forerunners of an
invading army. The exposed situation of the settlement, the
prosperity of the inhabitants, and the loyalty with which they
had responded to the call for troops, demanded consideration
from Connecticut, to whose quota the companies had been
credited, and from Congress, in whose armies they had been
incorporated; but no help came. On June 30th, an armed labor
party of eight men, which went out from the upper fort, was
attacked by Major Butler, who, with a force estimated by the
American commander in his report at 800 men, Tories and
Indians in equal numbers, had arrived in the valley. This
estimate was not far from correct; but if we may judge from
other raiding forces during the war, the proportion of whites
is too large, for only a few local Tories had joined Butler.
The little forts at the upper end of the valley offered no
resistance to the invaders. On July 3d, there were collected
at 'Forty Fort,' on the banks of the river, about three miles
above Wilkesbarre, 230 Americans, organized in six companies
(one of them being the company authorized by Congress for home
defence), and commanded by Colonel Zebulon Butler, a resident
in the valley and an officer in the Continental army. It was
determined, after deliberation, to give battle. In the
afternoon of that day, this body of volunteers, their number
being swelled to nearly 300 by the addition of old men and
boys, marched up the valley. The invaders had set fire to the
forts of which they were in possession. This perplexed the
Americans, as was intended, and they pressed on towards the
spot selected by the English officer for giving battle. This
was reached about four in the afternoon, and the attack was at
once made by the Americans, who fired rapidly in platoons. The
British line wavered, but a flanking fire from a body of
Indians concealed in the woods settled the fate of the day
against the Americans. They were thrown into confusion. No
efforts of their officers could rally them while exposed to a
fire which in a short time brought down every captain in the
band. The Indians now cut off the retreat of the
panic-stricken men, and pressed them towards the river. All
who could saved their lives by flight. Of the 300 who went out
that morning from Forty Fort, the names are recorded of 162
officers and men killed in the action or in the massacre which
followed.
{3260}
Major Butler, the British officer in command, reported the
taking of 'two hundred and twenty-seven scalps' 'and only five
prisoners.' Such was the exasperation of the Indians,
according to him, that it was with difficulty he saved these
few. He gives the English loss at two whites killed and eight
Indians wounded. During the night the worst passions of the
Indians seem to have been aroused in revenge for Oriskany.
Incredible tales are told of the inhumanity of the Tories.
These measures of vengeance fell exclusively upon those who
participated in the battle, for all women and children were
spared. As soon as the extent of the disaster was made known,
the inhabitants of the lower part of the valley deserted their
homes, and fled in the direction of the nearest settlements.
Few stayed behind who had strength and opportunity to escape.
In their flight many of the fugitives neglected to provide
themselves with provisions, and much suffering and some loss
of life ensued. The fugitives from the field of battle took
refuge in the forts lower down the valley. The next day,
Colonel Zebulon Butler, with the remnants of the company for
home defence, consisting of only fourteen men, escaped from
the valley. Colonel Denison, in charge of Forty Fort,
negotiated with Major Butler the terms of capitulation which
were ultimately signed. In these it was agreed that the
inhabitants should occupy their farms peaceably, and their
lives should be preserved 'intire and unhurt.' With the
exception that Butler executed a British deserter whom he
found among the prisoners, no lives were taken at that time.
Shortly thereafter, the Indians began to plunder, and the
English commander, to his chagrin, found himself unable to
check them. Miner even goes so far as to say that he promised
to pay for the property thus lost. Finding his commands
disregarded, Butler mustered his forces and withdrew, without
visiting the lower part of the valley. The greater part of the
Indians went with him, but enough remained to continue the
devastation, while a few murders committed by straggling
parties of Indians ended the tragedy. The whole valley was
left a scene of desolation."
_A. McF. Davis,
The Indians and the Border Warfare of the Revolution
(Narrative and Critical History of America,
volume 6, chapter 8)._
"Rarely, indeed, does it happen that history is more at fault
in regard to facts than in the case of Wyoming. The remark may
be applied to nearly every writer who has attempted to narrate
the events connected with the invasion of Colonel John Butler.
Ramsay, and Gordon, and Marshall—nay, the British historians
themselves—have written gross exaggerations. Marshall,
however, in his revised edition, has made corrections. … Other
writers, of greater or less note, have gravely recorded the
same fictions, adding, it is to be feared, enormities not even
conveyed to them by tradition. The grossest of these
exaggerations are contained in Thatcher's Military Journal and
Drake's Book of the Indians. The account of the marching out
of a large body of Americans from one of the forts, to hold a
parley, by agreement, and then being drawn into an ambuscade
and all put to death, is false; the account of 70 Continental
soldiers being butchered, after having surrendered, is also
totally untrue. No regular troops surrendered, and all escaped
who survived the battle of the 3d. … There is still another
important correction to be made. … This correction regards the
name and the just fame of Joseph Brant, whose character has
been blackened with all the infamy, both real and imaginary,
connected with this bloody expedition. Whether Captain Brant
was at any time in company with this expedition is doubtful;
but it is certain, in the face of every historical authority,
British and American, that, so far from being engaged in the
battle, he was many miles distant at the time of its
occurrence. … It will, moreover, be seen, toward the close of
the present work, that after the publication of Campbell's
'Gertrude of Wyoming,' in which poem the Mohawk chieftain was
denounced as 'the Monster Brant,' his son repaired to England,
and, in a correspondence with the poet, successfully
vindicated his father's memory."
_W. L. Stone,
Life of Joseph Brant,
volume 1, page 339, foot-note, page 338 and footnote._
"No lives were taken by the Indians after the surrender; but
numbers of women and children perished in the dismal swamp on
the Pokono range of mountains, in the flight. … The whole
number of people killed and missing was about 300. … The
greatest barbarities of this celebrated massacre were
committed by the tories."
_W. L. Stone,
Poetry and History of Wyoming,
chapter 6._
ALSO IN:
_W. P. Miner,
History of Wyoming,
Letters 17-18._
_G. Peck,
Wyoming._
_J. Fiske,
The American Revolution,
chapter 11 (volume 2)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1778 (July-November).
The French fleet and army and their undertakings.
Ill fortune and ill-feeling between the new allies.
The failure at Newport.
"The first minister of France to the United States, M. Gérard,
came accompanied by a fleet and army, under D'Estaing, (July.)
'Unforeseen and unfavorable circumstances,' as Washington
wrote, 'lessened the importance of the French services in a
great degree.' In the first place, the arrival was just late
enough to miss the opportunity of surprising the British fleet
in the Delaware, not to mention the British army on its
retreat to New York. In the next place, the French vessels
proved to be of too great draught to penetrate the channel and
cooperate in an attack upon New York. Thus disappointing and
disappointed, D'Estaing engaged in an enterprise against
Newport, still in British hands. It proved another failure.
But not through the French alone; the American troops that
were to enter the island at the north being greatly
behindhand. The same day that they took their place, under
Sullivan, Greene, and Lafayette, the French left theirs at the
lower end of the island, in order to meet the British fleet
arriving from New York, (August 10.) A severe storm prevented
more than a partial engagement; but D'Estaing returned to
Newport only to plead the injuries received in the gale as
compelling his retirement to Boston for repairs. The orders of
the French government had been peremptory, that in case of any
damage to the fleet it should put into port at once. So far
was D'Estaing from avoiding action on personal grounds, that
when Lafayette hurried to Boston to persuade his countrymen to
return, the commander offered to serve as a volunteer until
the fleet should be refitted. The Americans, however, talked
of desertion and of inefficiency,—so freely, indeed, as to
affront their faithful Lafayette.
{3261}
At the same time, large numbers of them imitated the very
course which they censured, by deserting their own army. The
remaining forces retreated from their lines to the northern
end of the island, and, after an engagement, withdrew to the
mainland, (August 30.) It required all the good offices of
Lafayette, of Washington, and of Congress, to keep the peace
between the Americans and their allies. D'Estaing, soothed by
the language of those whom he most respected, was provoked, on
the other hand, by the hostility of the masses, both in the
army and amongst the people. Collisions between his men and
the Bostonians kept up his disgust; and, when his fleet was
repaired, he sailed for the West Indies, (November.) … On the
part of the British, there was nothing attempted that would
not have been far better unattempted. Marauding parties from
Newport went against New Bedford and Fairhaven. Others from
New York went against Little Egg Harbor. Tories and Indians
—'a collection of banditti,' as they were rightly styled by
Washington, descended from the northern country to wreak
massacre at Wyoming and at Cherry Valley. The war seemed to be
assuming a new character: it was one of ravages unworthy of
any cause, and most unworthy of such a cause as the British
professed to be. Affairs were at a low state amongst the
Americans."
_S. Eliot,
History of the United States,
part 3, chapter 5._
ALSO IN:
_S. G. Arnold,
History of Rhode Island,
chapters 21-22 (volume 2)._
_O. W. B. Peabody,
Life of General John Sullivan
(Library of American Biographies,
series 2, volume 3)._
_J. Marshall,
Life of Washington,
volume 3, chapter 9._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1778 (December).
Anxieties of Washington.
His opinion of Congress.
The serious defects and errors of that body.
"Much of the winter was passed by Washington in Philadelphia,
occupied in devising and discussing plans for the campaign of
1779. It was an anxious moment with him. Circumstances which
inspired others with confidence, filled him with solicitude.
The alliance with France had produced a baneful feeling of
security, which, it appeared to him, was paralyzing the
energies of the country. England, it was thought, would now be
too much occupied in securing her position in Europe, to
increase her force or extend her operations in America. Many,
therefore, considered the war as virtually at an end; and were
unwilling to make the sacrifices, or supply the means
necessary for important military undertakings. Dissensions,
too, and party feuds were breaking out in Congress, owing to
that relaxation of that external pressure of a common and
imminent danger, which had heretofore produced a unity of
sentiment and action. That august body had, in fact, greatly
deteriorated since the commencement of the war. Many of those
whose names had been as watchwords at the Declaration of
Independence had withdrawn from the national councils;
occupied either by their individual affairs, or by the affairs
of their individual States. Washington, whose comprehensive
patriotism embraced the whole Union, deprecated and deplored
the dawning of this sectional spirit."
_W. Irving,
Life of Washington,
volume 3, chapter 38._
The following, from a letter written by Washington in
December, 1778, to Benjamin Harrison, Speaker of the Virginia
House of Delegates, intimates the grave anxieties which filled
his mind, and the opinion of Congress with which he had
returned from a visit to Philadelphia:
"It appears as clear to me as ever the Sun did in its meridian
brightness, that America never stood in more eminent need of
the wise, patriotic, and spirited exertions of her Sons than
at this period; and if it is not a sufficient cause for
general lamentation, my misconception of the matter impresses
it too strongly upon me, that the States, separately, are too
much engaged in their local concerns, and have too many of
their ablest men withdrawn from the general council, for the
good of the common weal. … As there can be no harm in a pious
wish for the good of one's Country, I shall offer it as mine,
that each State would not only choose, but absolutely compel
their ablest men to attend Congress; and that they would
instruct them to go into a thorough investigation of the
causes, that have produced so many disagreeable effects in the
army and Country; in a word, that public abuses should be
corrected & an entire reformation worked. Without these, it
does not in my Judgment require the spirit of divination to
foretell the consequences of the present administration; nor
to how little purpose the States individually are framing
constitutions, providing laws, and filling offices with the
abilities of their ablest men. These, if the great whole is
mismanaged, must sink in the general wreck, and will carry
with it the remorse of thinking, that we are lost by our own
folly and negligence, or the desire perhaps of living in ease
and tranquillity during the expected accomplishment of so
great a revolution, in the effecting of which the greatest
abilities, and the honestest men our (i. e. the American)
world affords, ought to be employed. It is much to be feared,
my dear Sir, that the States, in their separate capacities,
have very inadequate ideas of the present danger. Removed
(some of them) far distant from the scene of action, and
seeing and hearing such publications only, as flatter their
wishes, they conceive that the contest is at an end, and that
to regulate the government and police of their own State is
all that remains to be done; but it is devoutly to be wished,
that a sad reverse of this may not fall upon them like a
thunder-clap, that is little expected. I do not mean to
designate particular States. I wish to cast no reflections
upon any one. The Public believe (and, if they do believe it,
the fact might almost as well be so), that the States at this
time are badly represented, and that the great and important
concerns of the nation are horribly conducted, for want either
of abilities or application in the members, or through the
discord & party views of some individuals. … P. S.
Philadelphia: 30th. This letter was to have gone by Post from
Middlebrook but missed that conveyance, since which I have
come to this place at the request of Congress whence I shall
soon return. I have seen nothing since I came here (on the 22d
Inst.) to change my opinion of Men or Measrs., but abundant
reason to be convinced that our affairs are in a more
distressed, ruinous and deplorable condition than they have
been in since the commencement of the War.—By a faithful
laborer then in the cause—By a man who is daily injuring his
private Estate without even the smallest earthly advantage not
common to all in case of a favorable Issue to the dispute—By
one who wishes the prosperity of America most devoutly and
sees or thinks he sees it, on the brink of ruin, you are
beseeched most earnestly, my dear Colonel Harrison, to exert
yourself in endeavoring to rescue your Country by (let me add)
sending your ablest and best Men to Congress—these characters
must not slumber nor sleep at home in such times of pressing
danger—they must not content themselves in the enjoyment of
places of honor or profit in their own Country while the
common interests of America are mouldering and sinking into
irretrievable (if a remedy is not soon applied) ruin in which
theirs also must ultimately be involved.
{3262}
If I was to be called upon to draw a picture of the times and
of Men, from what I have seen, and heard, and in part know, I
should in one word say that idleness, dissipation &
extravagance seems to have laid fast hold of most of
them.—That speculation—peculation—and an insatiable thirst
for riches seems to have got the better of every other
consideration and almost of every order of Men.—That party
disputes and personal quarrels are the great business of the
day whilst the momentous concerns of an empire—a great and
accumulated debt—ruined finances—depreciated money—and want
of credit (which in their consequences is the want of
everything) are but secondary considerations and postponed
from day to day—from week to week as if our affairs wear the
most promising aspect—after drawing this picture, which from
my Soul I believe to be a true one, I need not repeat to you
that I am alarmed and wish to see my Countrymen roused.—I
have no resentments, nor do I mean to point at any particular
characters,—this I can declare upon my honor for I have every
attention paid me by Congress that I can possibly expect and
have reason to think that I stand well in their estimation,
but in the present situation of things I cannot help asking—
Where is Mason—Wythe—Jefferson—Nicholas—Pendleton—Nelson—and
another I could name—and why, if you are sufficiently
impressed with your danger do you not (as New York has done in
the case of Mr. Jay) send an extra member or two for at least
a certain limited time till the great business of the Nation
is put upon a more respectable and happy establishment.—Your
Money is now sinking 5 Pr. ct. a day in this city; and I shall
not be surprized if in the course of a few months a total stop
is put to the currency of it.—And yet an Assembly—a concert—a
Dinner—or supper (that will cost three or four hundred pounds)
will not only take Men off from acting in but even from thinking
of this business while a great part of the Officers of ye Army
from absolute necessity are quitting the service and ye more
virtuous few rather than do this are sinking by sure degrees
into beggary and want.—I again repeat to you that this is not
an exaggerated acct.; that it is an alarming one I do not
deny, and confess to you that I feel more real distress on
account of the prest. appearances of things than I have done
at any one time since the commencement of the dispute—but it
is time to bid you once more adieu.—Providence has heretofore
taken me up when all other means and hope seemed to be
departing from me in this."
_George Washington,
Writings,
edited by W: C. Ford,
volume 7, pages 297-303._
"The first Continental Congress enjoyed and deserved in a
remarkable degree the respect and confidence of the country.
The second Congress was composed of eminent men, and
succeeded, for a time, to the honors and reputation of the
first. But when it attempted to pass from discussion to
organization, and to direct as well as to frame the machinery
of administration, its delays and disputes and errors and
contradictions and hesitations excited a well-founded distrust
of its executive skill. Conscious of this distrust, it became
jealous of its authority; and instead of endeavoring to
regain, by correcting its errors, the ground which it had lost
by committing them, it grew suspicious and exacting in
proportion to the decay of its strength. And while this
critical change in its relations to the country was taking
place, important changes took place also in the materials of
which it was composed,—some of its wisest members being
removed by death, or imperative calls to other fields of duty,
or by failing of re-election at the regular expiration of
their terms of office. Among the first elements with which it
was brought into collision were the newly organized
governments of the States. The question of State rights, that
unsolved problem of our history, begins almost with the
beginning of the war. How abundant and active the materials of
disunion were, and how difficult it was even for leading men
to rise above them might be proved by numerous passages in the
letters of Washington and Greene, if it were not still more
evident from the conduct of the local legislatures. How far
this spirit might have been counteracted or controlled if the
policy of the Congress had been that policy of prompt decision
and energetic action which, commanding respect at all times,
commands in times of general danger general and implicit
obedience, it is impossible to say. … Another element with
which it was brought into immediate and constant relations was
the army; and, unfortunately for both, these relations, from
their very nature, brought into immediate and constant
contrast the elements of opposition which they both contained,
rather than the elements of harmonious action, which they also
contained in an almost equal degree. If the Congress was
composed of the representatives of the people, the army was
composed in a large proportion of the constituents of the
Congress. More than once also, during the course of the war,
men who had done good work for their country as soldiers,
withdrawing from their original field of action, did equally
good service for her as statesmen. And more than once, too,
men who had proved themselves wise and eloquent in counsel
were found at the head of a regiment, or even in more
subordinate positions in the army. … The real interest and the
real object of the citizen in arms and of the citizen in the
toga were still the same. But their point of view was
different. The ever-present object of Congress was discussion
as a means of organization. The ever-present object of the
leaders of the army was decision as a means of action.
Congress counted obstacles, weighed difficulties, balanced
opposing advantages, eating and sleeping meanwhile and
refreshing mind and body as nature bade. But while Congress
was deliberating upon the best way of procuring meat, the army
was often brought to the verge of starvation for the want of
it. While Congress was discussing by a warm fire the most
eligible method of providing the army with tents and blankets,
half the army was sleeping on the snow without either blanket
or tent.
{3263}
While Congress was framing elaborate resolutions, and drawing
out and equipping regiments upon paper, officers in the field
were standing disheartened before their thinned and
disheartened ranks. … Errors of statesmanship, like errors of
generalship, would easily have been forgiven and forgotten;
for both statesmen and generals had still much to learn.
Unfortunately, while the best generals strove earnestly to
correct their errors by their experience, Congress, in too
many things, clung obstinately to its errors, in spite of the
most decisive experience. Those errors were twofold,—errors of
policy and errors of principle,—the one tending to undermine
the respect which, in the beginning, was felt for their
wisdom; the other, to awaken a general distrust of their
justice. The first year of the war demonstrated the danger of
short enlistments and temporary levies. But more than half the
second year was allowed to pass before it was decided to raise
an army for the whole duration of the war. The first campaign
demonstrated the necessity of providing by regularly organized
departments for the food, clothing, and transportation of the
army; but it was not till late in the second year that a board
of war was organized; and not till later still that the
Quartermaster-General and Commissary-General were allowed to
devote themselves to their duty in camp, instead of waiting
idly for orders at the door of Congress. All experience and
the simplest reasoning showed the importance of strengthening
the hands of their General by passing promptly all the acts
needed for the conduct of an army in the field, or the support
and instruction of an army in quarters; but, in spite of all
experience and the plainest reason, Congress persisted in its
unseasonable delays. … The policy of the Congress, in the
organization and support of the army, was a policy of
tergiversation and delay. No wonder that the army, leaders and
all, should early lose their confidence in its wisdom! But the
dissatisfaction did not end here. One of the earliest felt of
the numerous wants of the army was the want of good officers.
… To select them in the beginning from the mass of unproved
candidates was impossible; but in the course of two campaigns,
the characters and pretensions of men were well tried, the
chaff thoroughly sifted, and what remained might be
confidently accepted as sound. … It was evidently the policy
of Congress to secure by all proper and reasonable inducements
the services of such officers for the war. It was the duty of
Congress, in its dealings with them, to remember that in
becoming soldiers, and exposing themselves to the dangers and
privations of a soldier's life, they adopted, with the ideas
of subordination that lie at the basis of military discipline,
the ideas of rank and grade which define and circumscribe that
subordination. But Congress remembered nothing of this. It
required of them the service of officers, but gave them a pay
hardly sufficient to enable them to live like private
soldiers. It demanded the present sacrifice of cold, hunger,
hard service, and exposure to sickness, wounds, and death; and
refused the prospective reward of half-pay or pension when
sickness or wounds should have incapacitated them for further
exertion, or death should have made their wives unprotected
widows, and their children helpless orphans. Forgetting that
pride is an essential element of the military character, and
that self-respect is essential to a healthy and sustaining
pride, it trifled with their claims to rank by the accepted
rules of service, and claimed and exercised the power of
dealing with commissions according to its own good pleasure."
_G. W. Greene,
Life of Nathanael Greene,
book 2, chapter 18 (volume 1)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1778-1779.
Clark's conquest of the Northwest for Virginia, and its
annexation to the district of Kentucky.
"Virginia … had more western enterprise than any other colony.
In 1774 Dunmore's war gave her the 'back-lands,' into which
her frontiersmen had been for some time pressing. Boone was a
Carolinian, but Kentucky was a distinctively Virginia colony.
In 1776 the Virginia legislature erected the County of
Kentucky, and the next year a Virginia judge dispensed justice
at Harrodsburg. Soon the colony was represented in the
legislature of the parent state. While thus extending her
jurisdiction over the region southwest of the Ohio, the Old
Dominion did not forget the language of [her charter] of 1609,
'up into the land throughout from sea to sea, west and
northwest.' George Rogers Clark, a Virginian who had made
Kentucky his home, was endowed with something of the general's
and statesman's grasp. While floating down the Ohio in 1776,
being then 24 years of age, he conceived the conquest of the
country beyond the river. … Clark says he had since the
beginning of the war taken pains to make himself acquainted
with the true situation of the Northwestern posts; and in 1777
he sent two young hunters to spy out the country more
thoroughly, and especially to ascertain the sentiments of the
'habitants.' On the return of these hunters with an
encouraging report, he went to Williamsburg, then the capital
of Virginia, where he enlisted Governor Patrick Henry and
other leading minds in a secret expedition to the Illinois.
Acting under a vaguely worded law, authorizing him to aid 'any
expedition against their Western enemies,' Governor Henry gave
Clark some vague public instructions, directing him to enlist,
in any county of the commonwealth, seven companies of men who
should act under his command as a militia, and also private
instructions that were much more full and definite. … Both the
public and private instructions are dated January 2, 1778. The
governor also gave the young captain a small supply of money.
Clark immediately re-crossed the mountains and began to
recruit his command. … Overcoming as best he could the
difficulties that environed him, he collected his feeble
command at the Falls of the Ohio. On June 26, 1778, he began
the descent of the river. Leaving the Ohio at Fort Massac,
forty miles above its mouth, he began the march to Kaskaskia.
This fell into his hands, July 5th, and Cahokia soon after,
both without the loss of a single life. Clark found few
Englishmen in these villages, and the French, who were weary
of British rule, he had little difficulty in attaching to the
American interest. Vincennes, soon after, surrendered to a
mere proclamation, when there was not an American soldier
within one hundred miles of the place. … Clark prevailed upon
100 men to re-enlist for eight months; he then filled up his
companies with recruits from the villages, and sent an urgent
call to Virginia for re-enforcements. The salutary influence
of the invasion upon the Indians was felt at once; it 'began
to spread among the nations even to the border of the lakes;'
and in five weeks Clark settled a peace with ten or twelve
different tribes. …
{3264}
And now Clark began really to feel the difficulties of his
situation. Destitute of money, poorly supplied, commanding a
small and widely scattered force, he had to meet and
circumvent an active enemy who was determined to regain what
he had lost. Governor Hamilton [the British governor at
Detroit] projected a grand campaign against the French towns
that had been captured and the small force that held them. The
feeble issue was the capture, in December, 1778, of Vincennes,
which was occupied by but two Americans. Clark, who was in the
Illinois at the time of this disaster, at once put his little
force in motion for the Wabash, knowing, he says, that if he
did not take Hamilton, Hamilton would take him; and, February
25, 1779, at the end of a march of 250 miles, that ranks in
peril and hardship with Arnold's winter march to Canada, he
again captured the town, the fort, the governor, and his whole
command. Hamilton was sent to Virginia a prisoner of war,
where he was found guilty of treating American prisoners with
cruelty, and of offering the Indians premiums for scalps, but
none for prisoners." Clark was ambitious to extend his march
to Detroit, but could not compass the necessary means.
"'Detroit lost for a few hundred men,' was his pathetic lament
as he surrendered an enterprise that lay near his heart. Had
he been able to achieve it, he would have won and held the
whole Northwest. As it was he won and held the Illinois and
the Wabash in the name of Virginia and of the United States.
The bearing of this conquest on the question of western
boundaries will be considered in another place, but here it is
pertinent to remark that the American Commissioners, in 1782,
at Paris, could plead 'uti possidetis' in reference to much of
the country beyond the Ohio, for the flag of the Republic,
raised over it by George Rogers Clark, had never been lowered.
It would not be easy to find in our history a case of an
officer accomplishing results that were so great and
far-reaching with so small a force. Clark's later life is
little to his credit, but it should not be forgotten that he
rendered the American cause and civilization a very great
service. All this time the British were not idle. War-party
after war-party was sent against the American border. In 1780
a grand expedition was organized at Detroit and sent to
Kentucky under the command of Captain Bird. But it
accomplished nothing commensurate with its magnitude and cost.
… The Northwest had been won by a Virginia army, commanded by
a Virginia officer, put in the field at Virginia's expense.
Governor Henry had promptly announced the conquest to the
Virginia delegates in Congress. … But before Patrick Henry
wrote this letter, Virginia had welded the last link in her
chain of title to the country beyond the Ohio. In October,
1778, her Legislature declared: 'All the citizens of the
commonwealth of Virginia, who are actually settlers there, or
who shall hereafter be settled, on the west side of the Ohio,
shall be included in the district of Kentucky which shall be
called Illinois County.' Nor was this all. Soon after,
Governor Henry appointed a lieutenant-commandant for the new
county, with full instructions for carrying on the government.
The French settlements remained under Virginia jurisdiction
until March, 1784."
_B. A. Hinsdale,
The Old Northwest,
chapter 9._
ALSO IN:
_Clark's Campaign in the Illinois
(Ohio Valley History Series, 3)._
_J. H. Perkins,
Annals of the West,
chapter 7._
_A. Davidson and B. Stuvé,
History of Illinois,
chapters 16-18._
_T. Roosevelt,
The Winning of the West,
volume 2, chapters 2-3._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1778-1779.
The French Alliance.
Peril of France.
Doubtful feeling in America.
Spanish mediation with England.
"From the third volume of Doniol's comprehensive work on the
'Participation de la France a l'etablissement des Ètats Unis,'
published in 1888, we are able to learn for the first time the
extreme peril of France in 1778-1779. When Vergennes advised
the recognition of the independence of the United States, it
was on the same grounds that Canning advised the recognition
of the independence of the Spanish South American States many
years afterwards. The fair distribution of power in the
civilized world, which was threatened in the latter period by
the Holy Alliance, was threatened in the former period by the
assumption of maritime supremacy by Britain. In each the
object was to call up a new sovereignty in America, so as to
check an undue concentration of sovereignty in Europe,
Undoubtedly Vergennes was aided, as Canning was aided, by the
enthusiasm felt by men of liberal views for a revolution that
was expected to extend the domain of liberalism; but with
Vergennes, as with Canning, the object was the establishing of
a power abroad which could resist a dangerous aggression at
home. When in February, 1778, France acknowledged the
independence of the United States, Vergennes had good reason
to hold either that Britain would not resent the insult by
war, or that she would find that in such a war the odds were
against her. A British army had just capitulated at Saratoga.
America, so it was reported to Vergennes and so he believed,
was unanimous in determining to defend her liberties to the
last. In Holland there was a strong party which was expected
to force the States-General into a recognition of their sister
republic. Spain had already secretly advanced a million of
francs to the American commissioners. From Frederick the
Great, delighted to see his British relatives, who had not
always supported him in his troubles, annoyed by a revolt in
their own domain, came words very encouraging to the American
envoys. Catharine II listened with apparent satisfaction to a
scheme which would relieve her infant shipping from British
oppression. It looked as if, should Britain declare war
against France, she would have against her the armies and
navies of all continental Europe, aided by the people of her
American Colonies in a compact mass. But in a few months there
came a great change. The British army under Howe was so
largely reenforced as for the immediate present to give it a
great superiority over any army Congress could bring against
it in open field. … It is true that the news in April of the
French treaty revived the energies of the revolutionists; but
this treaty had its drawbacks, as the old dislike of France,
in part inherited from England, in part the product of the
Seven-years war, intensified the yearning for the mother
country which in many hearts still remained. French officers
complained that on their first arrival in New England they
were received with sullen aversion by the people, though
welcomed by the revolutionary leaders.
{3265}
The French army and navy, for the first year in which they
were engaged in America, did no good to the American cause;
and so great was the popular irritation at their inactivity,
so strong, it was said, continued to be the old race
attachment to England, that intelligent French observers in
America advised Vergennes that he must move warily, for at any
moment America might make a separate peace with Britain and
then join the British forces against France. No doubt these
reports, so far as they pronounced this to be the drift of a
large minority in Congress, were unfounded in fact. They were
nevertheless communicated under high sanction to Vergennes,
and produced in his mind the liveliest anxiety. … English
influence had for a time regained its ascendency in Holland.
Prussia and Russia, having tasted the delights of neutral
commerce, let it be plainly understood that they would not
abandon a neutrality so profitable for the risks of
belligerency. And Spain had taken alarm and was backing out
not merely from the family compact, but from her recent
promise to aid the insurgents. Aiding the insurgents, her
minister declared, would be cutting her own throat, and no aid
to the insurgents should be given except on a very heavy
equivalent. If France was to meet the shock of the British
navy alone she might be swept from the seas, and, aside from
this danger, her finances were in such a ruinous condition
that her bankruptcy was imminent. One of two courses must be
adopted, not only to save France but to save the independence
of the United States and the consequent equipoise of power for
which France has gone to war. There must be either a general
peace, which would include the independence of the United
States, or there must be war, with Spain joining the allies. …
It was in this condition of affairs that the position of Spain
in 1778-1779 became of commanding importance. She offered
herself as mediator between the allies and their common enemy,
and through her the terms of pacification were discussed. In
the negotiations, protracted and on both sides largely
insincere, between Spain and Britain relative to the proposed
pacification, the winter of 1778-1779 was consumed."
_F. Wharton,
Introduction to The Revolutionary Diplomatic
Correspondence of the United States,
chapter 5, section 86 (volume 1)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1778-1779.
The War carried into the South.
Savannah taken and Georgia subdued.
Towards the end of November, 1778, a "body of troops, under
Lieutenant-colonel Campbell, sailed [from New York] for
Georgia In the squadron of Commodore Hyde Parker; the British
cabinet having determined to carry the war into the Southern
States. At the same time General Prevost, who commanded in
Florida, was ordered by Sir Henry Clinton to march to the
banks of the Savannah River, and attack Georgia in flank,
while the expedition under Campbell should attack it in front
on the seaboard. … The squadron of Commodore Hyde Parker
anchored in the Savannah River towards the end of December. An
American force of about 600 regulars, and a few militia under
General Robert Howe, were encamped near the town, being the
remnant of an army with which that officer had invaded
Florida, in the preceding summer, but had been obliged to
evacuate it by a mortal malady which desolated his camp.
Lieutenant-colonel Campbell landed his troops on the 29th of
December, about three miles below the town. The whole country
bordering the river is a deep morass, cut up by creeks, and
only to be traversed by causeways. Over one of these, 600
yards in length, with a ditch on each side, Colonel Campbell
advanced, putting to flight a small party stationed to guard
it. General Howe had posted his little army on the main road,
with the river on his left and a morass in front. A negro gave
Campbell information of a path leading through the morass, by
which troops might get unobserved to the rear of the
Americans. Sir James Baird was detached with the light
infantry by this path, while Colonel Campbell advanced in
front. The Americans, thus suddenly attacked in front and
rear, were completely routed; upwards of 100 were either
killed on the spot, or perished in the morass; 38 officers and
415 privates were taken prisoners, the rest retreated up the
Savannah River and crossed into South Carolina. Savannah, the
capital of Georgia, was taken possession of by the victors,
with cannon, military stores and provisions; their loss was
only seven killed and nineteen wounded. Colonel Campbell
conducted himself with great moderation; protecting the
persons and property of the inhabitants, and proclaiming
security and favor to all that should return to their
allegiance. Numbers in consequence flocked to the British
standard: the lower part of Georgia was considered as subdued,
and posts were established by the British to maintain
possession. While Colonel Campbell had thus invaded Georgia in
front, General Prevost" entered the State from Florida, "took
Sunbury, the only remaining fort of importance, and marched to
Savannah, where he assumed the general command, detaching
Colonel Campbell against Augusta. By the middle of January
(1779) all Georgia was reduced to submission. A more
experienced American general than Howe had by this time
arrived to take command of the Southern Department,
Major-general Lincoln, who had gained such reputation in the
campaign against Burgoyne, and whose appointment to this
station had been solicited by the delegates from South
Carolina and Georgia. He had received his orders from
Washington in the beginning of October."
_W. Irving,
Life of Washington,
volume 3, chapter 37._
ALSO IN:
_W. B. Stevens,
History of Georgia,
book 4, chapter 4 (volume 2)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1778-1779.
Washington guarding the Hudson.
The storming of Stony Point.
Marauding warfare of the British.
"After Clinton slipped away from Monmouth and sought refuge in
New York, Washington took post at convenient points and
watched the movements of the enemy. In this way the summer
passed. As always, Washington's first object was to guard the
Hudson, and while he held this vital point firmly, he waited,
ready to strike elsewhere if necessary. It looked for a time
as if the British intended to descend on Boston, seize the
town, and destroy the French fleet, which had gone there to
refit. Such was the opinion of Gates, then commanding in that
department, and as Washington inclined to the same belief, the
fear of this event gave him many anxious moments.
{3266}
He even moved his troops so as to be in readiness to march
eastward at short notice; but he gradually became convinced
that the enemy had no such plan. … The main army, therefore,
remained quiet, and when the autumn had passed went into
winter-quarters in well-posted detachments about New York. In
December Clinton made an ineffectual raid [in New Jersey], and
then all was peaceful again, and Washington was able to go to
Philadelphia and struggle with Congress, leaving his army more
comfortable and secure than they had been in any previous
winter. … He now hoped and believed that the moment would come
when, by uniting his army with the French, he should be able
to strike the decisive blow. Until that time came, however, he
knew that he could do nothing on a great scale, and he felt
that meantime the British, abandoning practically the eastern
and middle States, would make one last desperate struggle for
victory, and would make it in the south. Long before anyone
else, he appreciated this fact, and saw a peril looming large
in that region. … All this, however, did not change his own
plans one jot. He believed that the south must work out its
own salvation, as New York and New England had done with
Burgoyne, and he felt sure that in the end it would be
successful. But he would not go south, nor take his army
there. … The British might overrun the north or invade the
south, but he would stay where he was, with his grip upon New
York and the Hudson River. The tide of invasion might ebb and
flow in this region or that, but the British were doomed if
they could not divide the eastern colonies from the others.
When the appointed hour came, he was ready to abandon
everything and strike the final and fatal blow; but until then
he waited and stood fast with his army, holding the great
river in his grasp. He felt much more anxiety about the south
than he had felt about the north, and expected Congress to
consult him as to a commander, having made up his mind that
Greene was the man to send. But Congress still believed in
Gates, who had been making trouble for Washington all winter;
and so Gates was sent, and Congress in due time got their
lesson, and found once more that Washington understood men
better than they did. In the north the winter was
comparatively uneventful. The spring passed, and in June
Clinton came out and took possession of Stony Point and
Verplanck's Point, and began to fortify them. It looked a
little as if Clinton might intend to get control of the Hudson
by slow approaches, fortifying, and then advancing until he
reached West Point. With this in mind, Washington at once
determined to check the British by striking sharply at one of
their new posts. Having made up his mind, he sent for Wayne
and asked him if he would storm Stony Point. Tradition says
that Wayne replied, 'I will storm hell, if you will plan it.'
A true tradition, probably, in keeping with Wayne's character,
and pleasant to us to-day as showing with a vivid gleam of
rough human speech the utter confidence of the army in their
leader, that confidence which only a great soldier can
inspire. So Washington planned, and Wayne stormed [July 15,
1779], and Stony Point fell. It was a gallant and brilliant
feat of arms, one of the most brilliant of the war. Over 500
prisoners were taken, the guns were carried off, and the works
destroyed, leaving the British to begin afresh with a good
deal of increased caution and respect. Not long after, Harry
Lee stormed Paulus Hook with equal success, and the British
were checked and arrested, if they intended any extensive
movement. On the frontier, Sullivan, after some delays, did
his work effectively. … In these various ways Clinton's circle
of activity was steadily narrowed, but it may be doubted
whether he had any coherent plan. The principal occupation of
the British was to send out marauding expeditions and cut off
outlying parties. Tryon burned and pillaged in Connecticut [at
New Haven, Fairfield and Norwalk], Matthews in Virginia [at
Norfolk, Portsmouth and elsewhere], and others on a smaller
scale elsewhere in New Jersey and New York. … It was enough
for Washington to hold fast to the great objects he had in
view, to check Clinton and circumscribe his movements.
Steadfastly he did this through the summer and winter of
1779."
_H. C. Lodge,
George Washington,
volume 1, chapter 8._
ALSO IN:
_W. Irving,
Life of Washington,
volume 3, chapters 38-40,
and volume 4, chapter 1._
_B. J. Lossing,
Field-book of the Revolution,
volume 1, chapter 31._
_J. Armstrong,
Life of Anthony Wayne
(Library of American Biographies, volume 4)._
_C. J. Stillé,
Major-General Anthony Wayne,
chapter 5_
_G. W. Greene,
Life of Nathaniel Greene,
book 3, chapters 3-7 (volume. 2)._
See, also, WEST POINT.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1779 (August-September).
General Sullivan's expedition against the Senecas.
For the purpose of putting an end to the destructive and
bloody incursions of Tories and Indians from western New York,
directed against the border settlements of that state and
Pennsylvania—as at Cherry Valley and Wyoming—General
Washington, in the early part of the year 1779, determined
upon a measure for carrying the war into the home of the
invaders. "The command was entrusted to General Sullivan. The
army organized for the expedition was in three divisions. That
part of it under the immediate command of General Sullivan,
coming from Pennsylvania, ascended the Susquehannah to Tioga
Point. Another division under the command of General James
Clinton, constructing batteaux at Schenectady, ascended the
Mohawk and rendezvoused at Canajoharrie, opened a road to the
head of Otsego Lake, and from thence proceeded in a formidable
fleet of over 200 batteaux, to Tioga Point, forming a junction
with the force under General Sullivan, on the 22d of August.
Previous to the arrival of General Clinton, Sullivan had sent
forward a detachment which fell in with a scouting party of
Indians, and a skirmish ensued. The combined forces amounted
to 5,000 men. The expedition had been so long preparing, and
upon the march, that the enemy were well apprized of an that
was going on. Their plan of defence contemplated a decisive
engagement upon the Chemung river. For this purpose the
Rangers and regular British troops, under the command of
Colonel John Butler, Colonels Guy and Sir John Johnson, Major
Walter N. Butler and Captain M'Donald, and the Indians under
Brant, had concentrated their forces upon a bend of the river,
near the present village of Elmira [then called Newtown],
where they had thrown up a long breast work of logs. The
united forces of the British allies, as computed by General
Sullivan, was about 1,500.
{3267}
Having ascertained their position, General Sullivan marched in
full force and attacked them in the forenoon of the 29th of
August. … The battle had been waged about two hours, when the
British and Indians perceiving their forces inadequate, and
that a maneuver to surround them was likely to be successful,
broke and fled in great disorder. 'This,' says John Salmon, of
Livingston county, who belonged to the expedition and gave an
account of it to the author of the Life of .Mary Jemison, 'was
the only regular stand made by the Indians. In their retreat
they were pursued by our men to the Narrows, where they were
attacked and killed in great numbers, so that the sides of the
rocks next the River looked as if blood had been poured on
them by pailfuls.' The details of all that transpired in this
campaign are before the public in so many forms, that their
repetition here is unnecessary. The route of the army was via
'French Catherine's Town,' head of Seneca Lake, down the east
shore of the Lake to the Indian village of Kanadesaga (Old
Castle), and from thence to Canandaigua, Honeoye, head of
Conesus Lake, to Groveland. The villages destroyed (with the
apple trees and growing crops of the Indians,) were at
Catherinestown, Kendai, or 'Apple Town' on the east side of
the Lake, eleven miles from its foot, Kanadesaga, Honeoye,
Conesus, Canascraga, Little Beard's Town, Big Tree, Canawagus,
and on the return of the army, Scawyace, a village between the
Cayuga and Seneca Lakes, and several other Cayuga villages. …
The march of Sullivan, the devastations committed by his army,
would at this distant period seem like Vandalism, in the
absence of the consideration that he was acting under strict
orders; and that those orders were approved, if not dictated,
by Washington. The campaign was a matter of necessity; to be
effectual, it was not only necessary that its acts should be
retaliatory and retributive, but that the haunts, the
retreats, of a foe so ruthless, must be broken up. The object
was to destroy all the means of subsistence of the Senecas,
desolate their homes, prevent their return to them, and if
possible, induce their permanent retreat beyond the Niagara
River. The imprudence, the want of sagacity, which Colonel
Stone has imputed to General Sullivan in alarming every
village he approached by the sound of his cannon, the author
conceives a misapprehension of his motives. Stealthy, quiet
approaches, would have found as victims, in every village, the
old men, the women and children—the warriors away, banded with
their British allies. Humanity dictated the forewarning, that
those he did not come to war against could have time to flee.
… The march of General Sullivan, after leaving the Chemung,
was bloodless, except in a small degree—just as it should have
been, if he could not make victims of those he was sent to
punish. The third expedition of this campaign, which has
generally been lost sight of by historians, was that of
General Broadhead. He left Fort Pitt in August with 600 men,
and destroyed several Mingo and Muncey tribes living on the
Allegany, French Creek, and other tributaries of the Ohio. The
heavy artillery that General Sullivan brought as far as
Newton, would indicate that Niagara was originally the
destination. There the General and his officers, seeing how
long it had taken to reach that point, in an probability
determined that too much of the season had been wasted, to
allow of executing their tasks in the Indian country, making
their roads and moving the army and all its appointments to
Niagara before the setting in of winter. Besides, before the
army had reached the valley of the Chemung, the fact was
ascertained that there would be a failure in a contemplated
junction with the army under General Broadhead. After the
expedition of General Sullivan, the Indians never had any
considerable permanent re-occupancy of their villages east of
the Genesee river. They settled down after a brief flight, in
their villages on the west side of the river in the
neighborhood of Geneseo, Mt. Morris and Avon, and at Gardeau,
Canadea, Tonawanda, Tuscarora, Buffalo Creek, Cattaraugus and
Allegany."
_O. Turner,
History of the Pioneer Settlement
of Phelps and Gorham's Purchase,
part 1, chapter 4._
"In his general orders of the 17th of October, General
Washington announced to the army the result of the expedition,
as follows: 'The Commander-in-chief has now the pleasure of
congratulating the army on the complete and full success of
Major General Sullivan, and the troops under his command,
against the Seneca and other tribes of the Six Nations, as a
just and necessary punishment for their wanton depredations,
their unparalleled and innumerable cruelties, their deafness
to all remonstrances and entreaty, and their perseverance in
the most horrid acts of barbarity. Forty of their towns have
been reduced to ashes, some of them large and commodious; that
of the Genesee alone containing one hundred and twenty-eight
houses. Their crops of corn have been entirely destroyed,
which, by estimation, it is said, would have provided 160,000
bushels, besides large quantities of vegetables of various
kinds. Their whole country has been overrun and laid waste,
and they themselves compelled to place their security in a
precipitate flight to the British fortress at Niagara. And the
whole of this has been done with the loss of less than forty
men on our part, including the killed, wounded, captured, and
those who died natural deaths. The troops employed in this
expedition, both officers and men, throughout the whole of it,
and in the action they had with the enemy, manifested a
patience, perseverance and valor that do them the highest
honor. In the course of it, when there still remained a large
extent of the enemy's country to be prostrated, it became
necessary to lessen the issues of provisions to half the usual
allowance. In this the troops acquiesced with a most general
and cheerful concurrence, being fully determined to surmount
every obstacle, and to prosecute the enterprise to a complete
and successful issue. Major General Sullivan, for his great
perseverance and activity, for his order of march and attack,
and the whole of his dispositions; the Brigadiers and officers
of all ranks, and the whole of the soldiers engaged in the
expedition, merit and have the Commander-in-chief's warmest
acknowledgements for their important services upon this
occasion.' On the 9th of November, 1779, General Sullivan
wrote to the President of Congress: 'It is with the deepest
regret I find myself compelled to request from Congress
liberty to retire from the army. My health is so much impaired
by a violent bilious disorder, which seized me in the
commencement and continued during the whole of the western
expedition, that I have not the smallest hope of a perfect
recovery.' …
{3268}
General Sullivan, in transmitting to Congress an official
account of his operations, reported that … 'Every creek and
river has been traced, and the whole country explored in
search of Indian settlements, and I am well persuaded that,
except one town situated near the Alleghany, about fifty-eight
miles from Chinesee, there is not a single town left in the
country of the Five Nations. … I flatter myself that the
orders with which I was entrusted are fully executed, as we
have not left a single settlement or field of corn in the
country of the Five Nations, or is there even the appearance
of an Indian on this side of Niagara. Messengers and small
parties have been constantly passing, and some imprudent
soldiers who straggled from the army mistook the route and
went back almost to Chinesee without discovering even the
track of an Indian.' Sullivan was mistaken in regard to the
destruction of all the Indian towns as there were several
small villages undiscovered by his troops. The principal
villages, however, and probably nine-tenths of the growing
crops, upon which the Indians had depended for sustenance
during the following winter, were effectually destroyed. …
While Sullivan fully accomplished the task given him to
perform, the results expected were not fully realized. The
power of the savages had been weakened, but they were not
entirely subdued until years afterward, when 'Mad Anthony
Wayne' defeated the confederated bands of the Indians of the
west, in 1794, a measure which thoroughly humbled the Indians
of Western New York, and gave to the settlers peace and
security. Sullivan's expedition was fruitful of great results
in other ways, however, than the temporary subjugation of the
Indians. The fertile and beautiful country now forming the
western part of the State of New York, was then an unknown
wilderness, and its value and attractiveness were first made
known to the white people through this expedition. … Soon
after the close of the war the tide of emigration commenced to
flow westward. From the New England States, Pennsylvania and
New Jersey, came hardy pioneers, led on by the glowing
accounts they had heard of the new country, and the vicinity
of the inland lakes, the borders of the flowing streams, the
forest-covered hills became the dwelling places of a rapidly
growing band of settlers. The road which Sullivan had opened
from the Susquehanna valley was followed by many of the
settlers, even to the banks of the Genesee. Thus many of those
who had shared the perils and privations of Sullivan's
expedition against the Indian tribes of Western New York,
afterward became settlers of the land they had aided to
conquer."
_A. T. Norton,
History of Sullivan's Campaign against the Iroquois,
chapter 11._
ALSO IN:
_L. L. Doty,
History of Livingston County, New York,
chapter 7._
_O. W. B. Peabody,
Life of John Sullivan
(Library of American Biographies,
series 2, volume. 3), chapter 7._
_Journals of the Military Expedition of Major General John
Sullivan, with records of Centennial Celebrations
(including Historical Address by Reverend David Craft,
pages 331-388)._
_J. E. Seaver,
Life of Mary Jemison,
appendix 2._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1779 (September).
Paul Jones' great sea-fight.
The Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis.
"Near the end of July [1779], Paul Jones, a Scot by birth, in
the service of the United States, sailed from l'Orient as
commander of a squadron, consisting of the Poor Richard ['Bon
Homme Richard,' Jones named her, in compliment to Franklin and
to the language of the country from which Franklin's influence
procured the ship] of 40 guns, many of them unserviceable; the
Alliance of 36 guns, both American ships-of-war; the Pallas, a
French frigate of 32; and the Vengeance, a French brig of 12
guns. They ranged the western coast of Ireland, turned
Scotland, and, cruising off Flamborough Head, descried the
British merchant fleet from the Baltic, under the convoy of
the Serapis of 44 guns and the Countess of Scarborough of 20
guns. An hour after sunset, on the 23d of September, the
Serapis, having a great superiority in strength, engaged the
Poor Richard. Paul Jones, after suffering exceedingly in a
contest of an hour and a half within musket-shot, bore down
upon his adversary, whose anchor he hooked to his own quarter.
The muzzles of their guns touched each other's sides. Jones
could use only three nine-pounders beside muskets from the
round-tops, but combustible matters were thrown into every
part of the Serapis, which was on fire no less than ten or
twelve times. There were moments when both ships were on fire.
After a two-hours' conflict in the first watch of the night,
the Serapis struck its flag. Jones raised his pendant on the
captured frigate, and the next day had but time to transfer to
it his wounded men and his crew before the Poor Richard went
down. The French frigate engaged and captured the Countess of
Scarborough. The Alliance, which from a distance had raked the
Serapis during the action, not without injuring the Poor
Richard, had not a man injured. On the fourth of October the
squadron entered the Texel with its prizes. The British
ambassador, of himself and again under instructions, reclaimed
the captured British ships and their crews, 'who had been
taken by the pirate Paul Jones of Scotland, a rebel and a
traitor.' 'They,' he insisted, 'are to be treated as pirates
whose letters of marque have not emanated from a sovereign
power.' The grand pensionary would not apply the name of
pirate to officers bearing the commissions of congress. In
spite of the stadholder, the squadron enjoyed the protection
of a neutral port."
_G. Bancroft,
History of the United States
(Author's last revision),
volume 5, page 350._
ALSO IN.
_A. S, Mackenzie,
Life of Paul Jones,
chapters 8-9 (volume 1)._
_Life and Correspondence of John Paul Jones,
pages 179-235._
_W. C. Bryant and S. H. Gay,
Popular History of the United States,
volume 3, chapter 24._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1779 (September-October).
Unsuccessful attack on Savannah by the Americans and French.
"The state of affairs in the South had called so imperatively
for the attention of Congress that a portion of Washington's
army had been detached to join General Lincoln. Washington
solicited more powerful aid from D'Estaing, who then commanded
in the West Indies an army sufficiently powerful to crush
entirely the English in Georgia. The French admiral received
this application just after having fought a hard battle
against Commodore Byron without any decisive result, yet such
as obliged the latter to go into port to refit. The former,
being thus for a time master of the sea, determined at once to
comply with the request, took on board 6,000 land-troops, and
steered direct for Savannah, where, arriving quite
unexpectedly, he captured by surprise a fifty-gun ship and
three frigates. Prevost, too, was very unprepared, having his
force broken up into detachments distributed along the
frontier; but these being instantly ordered in, obeyed with
such promptitude that, before the French had landed and formed
a junction with Lincoln, nearly all had arrived.
{3269}
On the 16th of September, D'Estaing appeared before the place
and summoned it to surrender. Prevost, under pretext of
negotiation, obtained a suspension for twenty-four hours,
during which Colonel Maitland entered with the last and
largest detachment, eluding the Americans by a route supposed
impassable; and the full determination to resist was then
announced. The opinion of all military men now is that
D'Estaing was guilty of the most outrageous folly in not
marching at once to the attack of the city, without summoning
the weakened garrison to surrender at all. The surprise would
have then been complete, and the victory sure. … A regular
siege was now commenced. Heavy ordnance and stores were
brought up from the fleet, and the besieging army broke
ground. By the 1st of October they had pushed their sap within
300 yards of the abattis, on the left of the British lines.
Several batteries were opened on the besieged, which played
almost incessantly upon their works, but made no impression on
them. The situation of D'Estaing was becoming critical. More
time had already been consumed on the coast of Georgia than he
had supposed would be necessary for the destruction of the
British force in that State. He became uneasy for the
possessions of France in the West Indies, and apprehensive for
the safety of the ships under his command. The naval officers
remonstrated strenuously against longer exposing his fleet on
an insecure coast, at a tempestuous season of the year, and
urged the danger of being overtaken by a British squadron when
broken and scattered by a storm." D'Estaing accordingly
decided that he must either raise the siege or attempt the
enemy's works by storm. "The latter part of the alternative
was adopted. … On the morning of the 9th of October, before
day, … about 3,500 French and 1,000 Americans, of whom between
600 and 700 were regulars and the residue militia of
Charleston, advanced in three columns, led by D'Estaing and
Lincoln, aided by the principal officers of both nations, and
made a furious assault on the British lines. Their reception
was warmer than had been expected. … Both the French and
Americans planted their standards on the walls, and were
killed in great numbers while endeavoring to force their way
into the works. For about fifty minutes the contest was
extremely obstinate." Then the assailants gave way and a
retreat was ordered. "In this unsuccessful attempt the French
lost in killed and wounded about 700 men. Among the latter
were the Count D'Estaing himself, Major General De Fontanges,
and several other officers of distinction. The continental
troops lost 234 men, and the Charleston militia, who, though
associated with them in danger, were more fortunate, had one
captain killed and six privates wounded. Count Pulaski was
among the slain. The loss of the garrison was astonishingly
small. In killed and wounded it amounted only to 55. So great
was the advantage of the cover afforded by their works. …
Count D'Estaing, having committed a blunder at the beginning,
had committed a worse blunder at the end, by insisting on the
assault, as unnecessary as it was rash. … He [now] insisted on
raising the siege, and both the French and American armies
moved from their ground on the evening of the 18th of October.
D'Estaing sailed for the West Indies; and Lincoln recrossed
the Savannah at Zubly's Ferry and again encamped in South
Carolina."
_C. B. Hartley,
Life of General Marion
(Heroes and Patriots of the South),
chapter 11._
ALSO IN:
_C. C. Jones, Jr.,
History of Georgia,
volume 2, chapters 20-21._
_J. Sparks,
Life of Pulaski
(Library of American Biographies,
series 2, volume 4)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1780 (January-April).
The gloomy winter at Morristown.
Depreciation to worthlessness of the Continental Currency.
Consequent sufferings of the army and the country.
"The year 1780 opened upon a famishing camp. 'For a fortnight
past,' writes Washington, on the 8th of January, 'the troops,
both officers and men, have been almost perishing with want.
Yet,' adds he, feelingly, 'they have borne their sufferings
with a patience that merits the approbation, and ought to
excite the sympathies, of their countrymen.' The severest
trials of the Revolution, in fact, were not in the field,
where there were shouts to excite and laurels to be won; but
in the squalid wretchedness of ill-provided camps, where there
was nothing to cheer and everything to be endured. To suffer
was the lot of the revolutionary soldier. A rigorous winter
had much to do with the actual distresses of the army, but the
root of the evil lay in the derangement of the currency.
Congress had commenced the war without adequate funds, and
without the power of imposing direct taxes. To meet pressing
emergencies, it had emitted paper money, which, for a time,
passed currently at par; but sank in value as further
emissions succeeded, and that already in circulation remained
unredeemed. The several States added to the evil by emitting
paper in their separate capacities: thus the country gradually
became flooded with a 'continental currency,' as it was
called; irredeemable, and of no intrinsic value. The
consequence was a general derangement of trade and finance.
The continental currency declined to such a degree that forty
dollars in paper were equivalent to only one in specie.
Congress attempted to put a stop to this depreciation by
making paper money a legal tender, at its nominal value, in
the discharge of debts, however contracted. This opened the
door to knavery, and added a new feature to the evil. The
commissaries now found it difficult to purchase supplies for
the immediate wants of the army, and impossible to provide any
stores in advance. They were left destitute of funds, and the
public credit was prostrated by the accumulating debts
suffered to remain uncancelled. The changes which had taken
place in the commissary department added to this confusion.
The commissary-general, instead of receiving, as heretofore, a
commission on expenditures, was to have a fixed salary in
paper currency, and his deputies were to be compensated in
like manner, without the usual allowance of rations and
forage. No competent agents could be procured on such terms. …
In the present emergency Washington was reluctantly compelled,
by the distresses of the army, to call upon the counties of
the State for supplies of grain and cattle, proportioned to
their respective abilities. … Wherever a compliance with this
call was refused, the articles required were to be impressed:
it was a painful alternative, yet nothing else could save the
army from dissolution or starving. … As the winter advanced,
the cold increased in severity.
{3270}
It was the most intense ever remembered in the country. The
great bay of New York was frozen over. … The insular security
of the place was at an end. … Washington was aware of the
opportunity which offered itself for a signal 'coup de main,'
but was not in a condition to profit by it."
_W. Irving,
Life of Washington,
volume 4, chapters 1 and 4._
"Paper for $9,000,000 was issued before any depreciation
began. The issues of the separate colonies must have affected
it, but the popular enthusiasm went for something. Pelatiah
Webster, almost alone as it seems, insisted on taxation, but a
member of Congress indignantly asked if he was to help tax the
people when they could go to the printing-office and get a
cartload of money. In 1776, when the depreciation began,
Congress took harsh measures to try to sustain the bills.
Committees of safety also took measures to punish those who
'forestalled' or 'engrossed,' these being the terms for
speculators who bought up for a rise. … The enemy, perceiving
the terrible harm the Americans were doing themselves, thought
it well to help on the movement. They counterfeited the bills
and passed them through the lines. At the end of 1779 Congress
was at its wit's end for money. Its issues had put specie
entirely out of reach, and the cause was in danger of being
drowned under the paper sea. … The French alliance helped more
by giving means of procuring loans in Europe than by military
assistance. Congress promised to limit its issues to
$200,000,000, and tried a new form of note; also loan offices
and lotteries. Over 350,000,000 were issued in all, but it is
doubtful if more than 200,000,000 were out at any one time. In
the spring of 1780 the bills were worth two cents on the
dollar, and then ceased to circulate. Specie now came into
circulation, being brought by the French, and also that
expended by the English passing the lines. The paper was now
worth more for an advertisement or a joke than for any
prospect of any kind of redemption. A barber's shop in
Philadelphia was papered with it, and a dog, coated with tar,
and with the bills stuck all over him, was paraded in the
streets."
_W. G. Sumner,
History of American Currency,
pages 44-47._
ALSO IN:
_W. G. Sumner,
The Financier and Finances of the American Revolution,
chapter 4 (volume 1)._
_A. S. Bolles,
Financial History of the United States, 1774-1789,
book 1._
_J. J. Knox,
United States Notes,
chapter 2._
See, also, MONEY AND BANKING, A. D. 1775-1780.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1780 (February-August).
The siege and capture of Charleston by the British.
Defeat of Gates at Camden.
South Carolina subdued.
"After the failure of the attack on Savannah was learned by
Sir Henry Clinton, he sent a large additional force to the
South. Reinforcements were also sent on to Lincoln, while the
main body of the American army went into winter quarters near
Morristown, New Jersey. Sir Henry Clinton, as soon as his
forces, which had been dispersed by a storm, had been
collected at Savannah, proceeded to invest Charleston,"
landing his troops on St. John's Island in February. The
blockading of the port and operations for the investment of
the city were conducted cautiously and with success. On the
12th of May, the American commander, General Lincoln, "finding
himself incapable of defending Charleston, decided on
capitulating; and he acceded to the terms which the besiegers
had first offered. The fortifications, shipping, artillery,
and public stores were all surrendered. The garrison, and all
who had borne arms, were prisoners of war. The militia were
allowed to return home on parole. In the siege the British
lost 76 killed, and 189 wounded. The Americans about an equal
number. The prisoners, exclusive of sailors, amounted to
5,618, counting all the adult males of the town. To bring the
country entirely under subjection, Clinton sent forth three
detachments. The first and largest, in the northern part of
the State, was under Lord Cornwallis. He detached Colonel
Tarleton with his legion of cavalry and mounted infantry, to
disperse Colonel Buford, then encamped near the North Carolina
line. [Buford] was overtaken at the Waxhaws, and, on his
refusal to surrender, Tarleton made a furious charge on
Buford's men, when some, in dismay, threw down their arms and
asked for quarter, and some fired on the enemy. After this
partial resistance, no quarter was given. Colonel Buford, with
a few of the horse, and about 100 infantry, escaped; 113 were
killed on the spot; 150 so badly wounded as to be incapable of
being moved; and 53 were brought away as prisoners. The
American officers deny (what the British assert), that any who
had laid down their arms had again taken them up. All further
resistance to the enemy in South Carolina and Georgia seems
then to have ceased. The two other detachments of the British
army every where received the submission of the inhabitants,
who either gave their parole not again to bear arms against
the king, or took the oath of allegiance. In a proclamation
for settling the government, Sir Henry Clinton required all to
return to their allegiance on pain of being treated as rebels
and enemies. He then returned to New York, leaving Lord
Cornwallis in command, with 4,000 troops. … Lord Cornwallis,
considering South Carolina as entirely reannexed to Great
Britain, would admit of no neutrality among the inhabitants;
but insisted on their taking the oath of allegiance, which,
however, was generally taken with reluctance by the people of
the lower country. … A considerable force, under Baron de
Kalb, had been ordered for the Southern army by Congress; but,
for want of money, and a sufficient Commissary department,
they were so delayed in their march, that it was late in July
before they reached Cape Fear River. Here they were joined by
General Gates, who had been appointed to the command of the
Southern army. The men of this detachment, ill-fed, suffered
greatly from dysentery. In South Carolina, Gates was joined by
Porterfield's Virginia regiment, Rutherford's corps of North
Carolina militia, and Armaud's legion. … Gates having under
him about 4,000 men, of whom the regulars were less than
1,000, took post at Clermont. As the force of the Americans
was daily increasing, Cornwallis, having under him about 2,000
men, of whom 1,900 were regulars, decided on attacking the
American army. It so happened, that the period chosen by
Cornwallis to surprise Gates, was the very moment in which
Gates proposed to surprise his adversary; and thus the
advanced corps of both armies unexpectedly met at two o'clock
in the morning [August 6, near Camden].
{3271}
After some skirmishing, in which the British seemed to have
had a decided advantage, both parties suspended their
operations till the morning. On the first onset of the
British, the Virginia militia under General Stevens fled with
precipitation, and were followed by the infantry of Armstrong;
and, except Colonel Dixon's regiment, the whole South Carolina
division followed the example. Very few of the militia of
either State discharged a single musket. Gates was borne away
by the torrent, and, with General Caswell, retreated to
Clermont, in the hope of collecting a sufficient number of the
fugitives to cover the retreat of the regulars; but the hope
was vain. He was fain to proceed to Hillsborough, to concert
the future plan of operations. Thus left with an inadequate
force on the field, De Kalb made a stout resistance; but in an
impetuous charge he fell, after having received twelve wounds.
His troops were then unable to rally, and their discomfiture
was complete. Their loss, in killed, wounded and prisoners,
could not have been less than 1,000 men. The British lost 325
men. Just before the action, Sumter had captured a convoy, and
made 200 prisoners; but was subsequently surprised by
Tarleton, who recaptured the stores, killed 150, and took 300
prisoners. Sumter escaped with difficulty. There was no longer
any armed American force in South Carolina, and Cornwallis
resorted to energetic means of preventing disaffection. All
those who were found in arms after they had submitted to
British protection were considered as having forfeited their
lives, and several of them were hung on the spot. But these
severities, instead of their intended effect, produced a
strong reaction; and Sumter was able to collect a new force,
with which he greatly annoyed the north-western parts of the
State."
_G. Tucker,
History of the United States,
chapter 3 (volume 1)._
ALSO IN:
_D. Ramsey,
History of South Carolina,
section 7 (volume l)._
_H. Lee,
Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department,
chapter 17._
_F. Bowen,
Life of Benjamin Lincoln,
chapter 5._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1780 (July).
Fresh help from France.
The arrival of Rochambeau and his army, with a fleet.
"La Fayette's second visit to his native country [1770], was
most opportune. He arrived in Paris at the moment when the war
for the independence of America was in high popularity
throughout France. He was put in arrest a week for his
disobedience to the order not to leave France, but this was a
mere formality. Vergennes received him in private. His example
had roused the spirit of the French nobles. The stage
resounded with his applauses. Crowds followed his steps. Marie
Antoinette, with her quick, enthusiastic spirit, joyed at his
distinction. The council of state, the Parliament, the towns,
the corporations mingled in the noble excitement. The Royal
Treasury was assured support by patriotic offers of
contributions, and then was formed the auxiliary army that was
to bear succor to America. This public enthusiasm triumphed
over the hesitating reluctance of Maurepas, and the economical
prudence of Necker. The army, placed under the command of the
veteran Rochambeau, commended for his 'steadiness, wisdom,
ability and prudence,' a pupil of the Marshal de Belle Isle,
distinguished in frequent service, was to be composed of 6,000
troops. Among these shone forth the most brilliant of the
nobility."
_J. C. Hamilton,
History of the United States,
as traced in the Writings of Alexander Hamilton,
chapter 20 (volume 2)._
"La Fayette … made the ministers understand that if he was not
placed in command of the expedition, which would surprise the
Americans, at least it was imperative to place over it a
French general who would consent to serve under the American
commander-in-chief. But he knew well that his old companions
in arms in France were jealous of his rapid military fortune
and brilliant renown. He knew still better that the officers
who were his seniors in rank would be unwilling to serve under
him. His first proposition, therefore, was only made to
satisfy public feeling in America, which left the management
of this affair almost entirely in his hands. In view of the
serious difficulties that necessarily would result from the
adoption of such a decision—difficulties that might have most
disastrous consequences for the cause to which he had devoted
himself—he promised to make the Americans understand that he
had preferred remaining at the head of one of their divisions
and that he had refused the command of the French forces. But
he insisted upon this point, that, in order to avoid wounding
the self-respect of the Americans, it was indispensable to
choose a general to command the expedition, whose promotion
had been recent and whose talents were certainly equal to his
mission, but who, considering this mission as a distinction,
would consent to acknowledge General Washington's supremacy.
The choice that was made, under these conditions, of the Count
de Rochambeau was perfectly satisfactory to him, and, without
waiting for the departure of the expedition, he embarked at
Rochefort, on February the 18th, 1780, on board the frigate
Hermione, which the king had given him as being a swift
sailer. … He was anxious to inform Washington of the good news
himself, and immediately upon his landing at Boston, on April
the 28th, he hastened to Morristown to rejoin his well-beloved
and revered friend, as he called him in his letters. … General
Heath, who commanded the militia in the State of Rhode Is]and,
announced on the 11th of July, the arrival of the French
squadron to General Washington, who was then with his staff at
Bergen. La Fayette set out almost immediately, provided with
instructions from the commander-in-chief, dated the 15th, to
repair to the French general and admiral to confer with them.
For some time Washington had been considering a plan of
offensive operation for the capture of the city and the
garrison of New York. This plan, which conformed with the
wishes of the French government, was only to be carried out
upon certain conditions. First, it was necessary that the
French troops should unite with the American forces, and,
secondly, that the French should have a naval superiority over
the forces of Admirals Graves and Arbuthnot, who had effected
their junction at New York the day after the arrival of the
French at Newport. This last condition was far from being
fulfilled. … It had been foreseen that the English, who had
concentrated their land and naval forces at New York, would
not give the French time to establish themselves on Rhode
Island; and Washington informed Rochambeau that Sir Henry
Clinton was embarking his troops and would come shortly to
attack the forces of the expedition with the squadrons
assembled under the command of Admiral Arbuthnot, which were
anchored at Sandy Hook, beyond New York, at the mouth of the
Hudson River.
{3272}
The American general watched these movements, and, while he
gave frequent information to the French of the projected
attack upon them, he tried to prevent it. … At the same time,
Washington crossed the Hudson above West Point with the
greater part of his troops, and proceeded to King's Bridge, at
the northern end of the island, where he made some hostile
demonstrations. This manœuvre detained General Clinton, who
had already embarked eight thousand men upon the ships of
Arbuthnot. He landed his troops and gave up his project.
Nevertheless, the English admiral set sail and appeared before
Rhode Island with eleven ships of the line and a few frigates,
twelve days after the French had landed. … On August the 9th,
when La Fayette had returned to the headquarters of
Washington, which were at Dobb's Ferry, ten miles above King's
Bridge, on the right bank of the North River, he wrote to
Rochambeau and de Ternay an urgent dispatch, in which he
finished, in the name of the American general, by proposing to
the French generals to come at once to attempt an attack on
New York. … On the other hand, the same courier brought a
letter from Washington which made no mention of this project,
but which only replied by a kind of refusal to the request of
Rochambeau for a conference, 'wherein in an hour of
conversation they could agree upon more things than in volumes
of correspondence.' Washington said with truth that he did not
dare to leave his army in front of New York, for it might be
attacked at any moment, and that by his presence he prevented
the departure of the large body of the English forces that
might have been sent against Rhode Island. Indeed, it is
certain that if some differences had not arisen between
General Clinton and Admiral Arbuthnot, the French might have
found themselves in a dangerous position at the beginning.
From the earliest letters exchanged upon this occasion some
discord resulted between La Fayette, Rochambeau and
Washington, but, owing to the good sense of Rochambeau,
matters were soon smoothed over. He wrote in English to the
American general to ask him thereafter to address himself
directly to him, and to explain the reasons that induced him
to postpone assuming the offensive. At the same time he
urgently requested a conference. From that moment the
relations between the two leaders were excellent. The mere
presence of the French squadron and army, though they were
still paralyzed and really blockaded by Admiral Arbuthnot, had
effected a useful diversion, since the English had not been
able to profit by all the advantages resulting from the
capture of Charleston, and, instead of carrying on operations
in the Carolinas with superior forces, they had had to bring
the greater part of them back to New York."
_T. Balch,
The French in America in the War of Independence,
chapters 10-11._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1780 (August-September).
The Treason of Benedict Arnold.
"Washington contemplated the aspect of affairs with the
greatest alarm. Doubtful if the army could be kept together
for another campaign, he was exceedingly anxious to strike
some decisive blow. He proposed to Rochambeau, commanding the
French troops at Newport, an attack upon New York; but that
was not thought feasible without a superior naval force.
Letters were sent to the French admiral in the West Indies
entreating assistance; and Washington presently proceeded to
Hartford, there to meet Rochambeau, to devise some definite
plan of operations. During Washington's absence at Hartford, a
plot came to light for betraying the important fortress of
West Point and the other posts of the Highlands into the hands
of the enemy, the traitor being no other than Arnold, the most
brilliant officer and one of the most honored in the American
army. The qualities of a brilliant soldier are unfortunately
often quite distinct from those of a virtuous man and a good
citizen. … Placed in command at Philadelphia, … he [Arnold]
lived in a style of extravagance far beyond his means, and he
endeavored to sustain it by entering into privateering and
mercantile speculations, most of which proved unsuccessful. He
was even accused of perverting his military authority to
purposes of private gain. The complaints on this point, made
to Congress by the authorities of Pennsylvania, had been at
first unheeded; but, being presently brought forward in a
solemn manner, and with some appearance of offended dignity on
the part of the Pennsylvania council, an interview took place
between a committee of that body and a committee of Congress,
which had resulted in Arnold's trial by a court martial.
Though acquitted of the more serious charges, on two points he
had been found guilty, and had been sentenced to be
reprimanded by the commander-in-chief. Arnold claimed against
the United States a large balance, growing out of the
unsettled accounts of his Canada expedition. This claim was
greatly cut down by the treasury officers and when Arnold
appealed to Congress, a committee reported that more had been
allowed than was actually due. Mortified and soured, and
complaining of public ingratitude, Arnold attempted, but
without success, to get a loan from the French minister. Some
months before, he had opened a correspondence with Sir Henry
Clinton under a feigned name, carried on through Major Andre,
adjutant general of the British army. Having at length made
himself known to his correspondents, to give importance to his
treachery, he solicited and obtained from Washington, who had
every confidence in him, the command in the Highlands, with
the very view of betraying that important position into the
hands of the enemy. To arrange the terms of the bargain, an
interview was necessary with some confidential British agent;
and Andre, though not without reluctance, finally volunteered
for that purpose. Several previous attempts having failed, the
British sloop-of-war Vulture, with Andre on board, ascended
the Hudson as far as the mouth of Croton River, some miles
below King's Ferry. Information being sent to Arnold under a
flag, the evening after Washington left West Point for
Hartford he dispatched a boat to the Vulture, which took Andre
on shore, for an interview on the west side of the river, just
below the American lines. Morning appeared before the
arrangements for the betrayal of the fortress could be
definitely completed, and Andre was reluctantly persuaded to
come within the American lines, and to remain till the next
night at the house of one Smith, a dupe or tool of Arnold's,
the same who had been employed to bring Andre from the ship.
{3273}
For some reason not very clearly explained, Smith declined to
convey Andre back to the Vulture. … Driven thus to the
necessity of returning by land, Andre laid aside his uniform,
assumed a citizen's dress, and, with a pass from Arnold in the
name of John Anderson, a name which Andre had often used in
their previous correspondence, he set off toward sunset on
horseback, with Smith for a guide. They crossed King's Ferry,
passed all the American guards in safety, and spent the night
near Crom Pond, with an acquaintance of Smith's. The next
morning, having passed Pine's Bridge, across Croton River,
Smith left Andre to pursue his way alone. The road led through
a district extending some thirty miles above the island of New
York, not included in the lines of either army, and thence
known as the 'Neutral Ground,' a populous and fertile region,
but very much infested by bands of plunderers called 'Cow
Boys' and 'Skinners.' The 'Cow Boys' lived within the British
lines, and stole or bought cattle for the supply of the
British army. The rendezvous of the 'Skinners' was within the
American lines. They professed to be great patriots, making it
their ostensible business to plunder those who refused to take
the oath of allegiance to the State of New York." On the
morning of Andre's journey, the road to Tarrytown, on which he
rode, was being guarded by a small party of men, who watched
for cattle thieves, and for suspicious travelers generally.
Three of these intercepted the unfortunate young officer and
discovered his character. Arnold received intelligence of what
had happened in time to make his escape to the Vulture. Andre
was examined before a board of which Lafayette, Steuben and
Greene were members, and on his own statements was executed as
a spy. The sympathy with him was very great, among Americans
as well as among his own countrymen; but lenity in the case
appeared too dangerous to Washington and his military
advisers.
_R. Hildreth,
History of the United States,
chapter 41 (volume 3)._
ALSO IN:
_W. Irving,
Life of Washington,
volume 4, chapters 2, 7, and 9-11._
_B. J. Lossing,
The Two Spies._
_J. Sparks,
Life and Treason of Benedict Arnold
(Library of American Biographies,
volume 3, chapters 8-15)._
_W. Sargent,
Life of Major John André,
chapters 11-21._
_I. N. Arnold,
Life of Benedict Arnold,
chapters 13-18._
_J. H. Smith,
Authentic Narrative of the Causes which led
to the Death of Major André._
_B. J. Lossing,
Field-book of the Revolution,
volume 1, chapters 30-32._
See, also, WEST POINT.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1780 (August-December).
Partisan warfare in South Carolina.
Sumter and Marion.
A name "which recalls thrilling tales of desperate enterprise,
surprises at midnight, sudden attacks in the gray twilight of
morning, lurking-places in the depths of forests, restless
activity, and untiring perseverance, is the name of Thomas
Sumter. He comes before us tall, vigorous, dauntless, with a
bold bearing, and imperious brow, stern to look upon, fierce
in his self-will, arrogant in his decisions, tenacious in his
prejudices, resolute and vigorous in the execution of his own
plans, remiss and almost luke-warm in carrying out the plans
of others. Born in South Carolina just as that colony had
passed from the control of the Proprietaries to the control of
the King, he lived to see her take the first decided step
towards passing out of the Union. Little has been preserved of
his early life, although his subsequent career in the Senate
of the United States proves that he was not deficient in
education then, wherever or whenever acquired. In the
Revolution be took an early part, and soon made himself
conspicuous as a bold and enterprising officer. But it was not
till after the siege of Charleston that his talents were
brought fully into play. Then at the head of a body of
volunteers he moved rapidly from point to point, keeping alive
the hopes of the Whigs and the fears of the Tories in the
regions watered by the Broad River, the Ennoree, and the
Tiger. … History, like tradition, has her favorite characters,
on which she dwells with peculiar fondness, delighting herself
in preserving the memory of every exploit, and giving the
brightest tints to every circumstance connected with their
career. … Of these children of a happy star, no one holds in
our Revolutionary history the same place as Francis Marion.
His story, irregularly told by a friend and companion, took an
early hold upon the heart of the people; and the romantic
traits of his career, warming the imagination of a great poet,
have been recorded in beautiful verse. Impartial judgment and
sober research have left his own laurels unimpaired, although
they have dissipated the halo which tradition and fancy had
shed around his men. His life forms one of those pictures upon
which the mind loves to dwell, from the singular combination
of rare qualities which it displays. His ancestors were
Huguenot exiles, who took refuge in South Carolina, from the
dragonnades of Louis XIV. His father was a planter near
Georgetown, who, portioning out his estate to his children as
they came of age, had nothing left for Francis, the youngest,
and his next nearest brother, while they were yet children. At
sixteen Francis found himself compelled to choose a pursuit
for his support. With only a common English education, and no
money to carry him through the preparatory courses, he could
neither be a physician nor a lawyer. He resolved to be a
sailor, and started upon a voyage to the West Indies. But his
ship was burnt in a gale, and after tossing about eight days
in an open boat, without water and with nothing but the raw
flesh and skin of a single dog to eat, and seeing several of
his companions die of hunger, he, with the starving survivors,
were rescued, barely alive. He renounced the sea, returned to
Georgetown, and engaged in farming. The Cherokee war of 1759
found him hard at his work. He was now twenty-six, small in
frame, low in stature, but vigorous, active, and healthy. By
nature he was taciturn and reticent, with nothing in the
expression of his face to attract or interest a casual
observer, but still inspiring confidence and commanding
respect in those who were brought into intimate relations with
him. When, therefore, a company of volunteers was raised to
serve against the Indians, he was chosen lieutenant. In a
second expedition, which soon after became necessary, he was
made captain. Next came the War of Independence; and joining
the first South Carolina levies, he was presently made a
major; and with this rank took part in the gallant defense of
Fort Moultrie in 1776. His next promotion was to the command
of a regiment as lieutenant-colonel.
{3274}
During the siege of Charleston his leg was accidentally
broken, a lucky accident, which left him free when the city
fell, to engage in an adventurous system of warfare which was
the only possible system in that low state of our fortunes.
In the course of this he was promoted by Governor Rutledge to
a brigadiership. When he first appeared in Gates's camp, he
had but twenty men with him, or rather twenty between men and
boys. Some of them were negroes. With these he rescued 150 of
the prisoners of Camden, coming upon the British escort by
surprise and overpowering it. Early in September a body of 200
Tories attempted to surprise him. He had 53 men with him when
he heard of their intention, and instantly setting forward,
surprised an advance party of 45, killing or wounding all but
15, and then attacked the main body of 200, and put them to
flight. Before the end of the month he surprised another body
of 60 men; and in October one of 200. His force was constantly
fluctuating between 20 men and 70. Up to the 18th of October
he had never had over 70. They went and came as they chose,
their number ever ebbing and flowing like the tide. Sometimes
the very men who had fought with him were ranged in arms
against him; a few only serving from honest zeal and true love
of country. … As his slender form concealed a lion heart, so
under his cold, impassive face, there was a perpetual glow of
tender sympathies. … Without claiming for Marion those powers
of combination which belong to the highest order of military
genius, he must be allowed to have excelled in all the
qualities which form the consummate partisan,—vigilance,
promptitude, activity, energy, dauntless courage, and unshaken
self-control. … Two principles controlled all his actions, and
shaped all his ends; the love of country, pure, earnest, and
profound; the love of right, sincere, undeviating, and
incorruptible."
_G. W. Greene,
Life of Nathanael Greene,
book 4, chapter 7 (volume 3)._
"The other partisans … had been compelled to take refuge in
the mountains. Marion found his security in the swamps. This
able partisan maintained his ground below and along the Santee
river, and managed, among the defiles and swamps of that
region, to elude all the activity of his enemies. His force
had been collected chiefly among his own neighbors, were
practised in the swamps, and familiar with the country. Like
Sumter, utterly unfurnished with the means of war at first, he
procured them by similar means. He took possession of the saws
from the mills, and converted them into sabres. So much was he
distressed for ammunition that he has engaged in battle when
he had not three rounds of powder to each man of his party. …
Various were the means employed to draw off or drive away his
followers. The houses on the banks of the Pedee, Lynch's
Creek, and Black river, from whence they were chiefly taken,
were destroyed by fire, the plantations devastated, and the
negroes carried away. But the effect of this wantonness was
far other than had been intended. Revenge and despair
confirmed the patriotism of these ruined men, and strengthened
their resolution. … For months, their only shelter was the
green wood and the swamp—their only cover the broad forest and
the arch of heaven. … With a policy that nothing could
distract—a caution that no artifice could mislead—Marion led
his followers from thicket to thicket in safety, and was never
more perfectly secure than when he was in the neighborhood of
his foe. He hung upon his flanks along the march—he skirted
his camp in the darkness of the night—he lay in wait for his
foraging parties—he shot down his sentries, and, flying or
advancing, he never failed to harass the invader, and extort
from him a bloody toll at every passage through swamp,
thicket, or river, which his smaller parties made. In this
sort of warfare—which is peculiarly adapted to the
peculiarities of the country in Carolina, and consequently to
the genius of her people—he contrived almost wholly to break
up the British communications by one of the most eligible
routes between the seaboard and the interior."
_W. G. Simms,
History of South Carolina,
book 5, chapter 6._
ALSO IN:
C. B. Hartley,
Life of General Francis Marion
(Heroes and Patriots of the South),
chapters 14-15.
_W. G. Simms,
Life of Francis Marion._
_Horry and Weems,
Life of Marion._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1780-1781.
Vermont as an independent State negotiating with the British.
See VERMONT: A. D. 1781.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1780-1781.
Greene's campaign in the south.
King's Mountain.
The Cowpens.
Guilford Court House.
Hobkirk's Hill.
Eutaw Springs.
The British shut up in Charleston.
Cornwallis withdrawn to Virginia.
"After his victory at Camden, Lord Cornwallis found it
necessary to give his army some rest from the intense August
heat. In September he advanced into North Carolina, boasting
that he would soon conquer all the states south of the
Susquehanna river. … In traversing Mecklenburg county
Cornwallis soon found himself in a very hostile and dangerous
region, where there were no Tories to befriend him. One of his
best partisan commanders, Major Ferguson, penetrated too far
into the mountains. The back-woodsmen of Tennessee and
Kentucky, the Carolinas, and western Virginia were aroused;
and under their superb partisan leaders—Shelby, Sevier,
Cleaveland, McDowell, Campbell, and Williams—gave chase to
Ferguson, who took refuge upon what he deemed an impregnable
position on the top of King's Mountain. On the 7th of October
the backwoodsmen stormed the mountain, Ferguson was shot
through the heart, 400 of his men were killed and wounded, and
all the rest, 700 in number, surrendered at discretion. The
Americans lost 28 killed and 60 wounded. … In the series of
events which led to the surrender of Cornwallis, the battle of
King's Mountain played a part similar to that played by the
battle of Bennington in the series of events which led to the
surrender of Burgoyne. It was the enemy's first serious
disaster, and its immediate result was to check his progress
until the Americans could muster strength enough to overthrow
him. The events, however, were much more complicated in
Cornwallis's case, and took much longer to unfold themselves.
… As soon as he heard the news of the disaster he fell back to
Winnsborough, in South Carolina, and called for
reinforcements. While they were arriving, the American army,
recruited and reorganized since its crushing defeat at Camden,
advanced into Mecklenburg county. Gates was superseded by
Greene, who arrived upon the scene on the 2d of December.
Under Greene were three Virginians of remarkable
ability,—Daniel Morgan; William Washington, who was a distant
cousin of the commander-in-chief; and Henry Lee, familiarly
known as 'Light-horse Harry,' father of the great general,
Robert Edward Lee.
{3275}
The little army numbered only 2,000 men, but a considerable
part of them were disciplined veterans, fully a match for the
British infantry." To increase this small force, Baron
Steuben, the military organizer and disciplinarian of the
Revolutionary armies, was sent down to Virginia, for the
purpose of recruiting and organizing troops.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1777 (JANUARY-DECEMBER).
Thereupon detachments from the British army at New York were
dispatched by sea to Virginia, and Arnold, the traitor, was
given command of them. "The presence of these subsidiary
forces in Virginia was soon to influence in a decisive way the
course of events. Greene, on reaching South Carolina, acted
with boldness and originality. He divided his little army into
two bodies, one of which cooperated with Marion's partisans in
the northeastern part of the state, and threatened
Cornwallis's communications with the coast. The other body he
sent under Morgan to the southwestward, to threaten the inland
posts and their garrisons. Thus worried on both flanks,
Cornwallis presently divided his own force, sending Tarleton
with 1,100 men to dispose of Morgan. Tarleton came up with
Morgan on the 17th of January, 1781, at a grazing-ground known
as the Cowpens, not far from King's Mountain. The battle which
ensued was well fought, and on Morgan's part it was a
wonderful piece of tactics. With only 900 men in open field he
surrounded and nearly annihilated a superior force. The
British lost 230 in killed and wounded, 600 prisoners, and all
their guns. Tarleton escaped with 270 men. The Americans lost
12 killed and 61 wounded. The two battles, King's Mountain and
the Cowpens, deprived Cornwallis of nearly all his light-armed
troops, and he was just entering upon a game where swiftness
was especially required. It was his object to intercept Morgan
and defeat him before he could effect a junction with the
other part of the American army. It was Greene's object to
march the two parts of his army in converging directions
northwards across North Carolina and unite them in spite of
Cornwallis. By moving in this direction Greene was always
getting nearer to his reinforcements from Virginia, while
Cornwallis was always getting further from his supports in
South Carolina. … The two wings of the American army came
together and were joined by the reinforcements; so that at
Guilford Court House, on the 15th of March, Cornwallis found
himself obliged to fight against heavy odds, 200 miles from
the coast and almost as far from the nearest point in South
Carolina at which he could get support. The battle of Guilford
was admirably managed by both commanders and stubbornly fought
by the troops. At nightfall the British held the field, with
the loss of nearly one third of their number, and the
Americans were repulsed. But Cornwallis could not stay in such
a place, and could not afford to risk another battle. There
was nothing for him to do but retreat to Wilmington, the
nearest point on the coast. There he stopped and pondered. His
own force was sadly depleted, but he knew that Arnold in
Virginia was being heavily reinforced from New York. The only
safe course seemed to march northward and join the operations
in Virginia; then afterwards to return southward. This course
Cornwallis pursued, arriving at Petersburg and taking command
of the troops there on the 20th of May. Meanwhile Greene,
after pursuing Cornwallis for about 50 miles from Guilford,
faced about and marched with all speed upon Camden, 160 miles
distant. … Lord Rawdon held Camden. Greene stopped at
Hobkirk's Hill, two miles to the north, and sent Marion and
Lee to take Fort Watson, and thus cut the enemy's
communications with the coast. On April 23 Fort Watson
surrendered; on the 25th Rawdon defeated Greene at Hobkirk's
Hill, but as his communications were cut the victory did him
no good. He was obliged to retreat toward the coast, and
Greene took Camden on the 10th of May. Having thus obtained
the commanding point, Greene went on until he had reduced
every one of the inland posts. At last, on the 8th of
September, he fought an obstinate battle at Eutaw Springs, in
which both sides claimed the victory. … Here, however, as
always after one of Greene's battles, it was the enemy who
retreated and he who pursued. His strategy never failed. After
Eutaw Springs the British remained shut up in Charleston under
cover of their ships, and the American government was
reëstablished over South Carolina. Among all the campaigns in
history that have been conducted with small armies, there have
been few, if any, more brilliant than Greene's."
_J. Fiske,
The War of Independence,
chapter 7._
ALSO IN:
_J. Fiske,
The American Revolution,
chapter 15 (volume 2)._
_H. B. Carrington,
Battles of the American Revolution,
chapters 65-71._
_G. W. Greene,
Life of Nathanael Greene,
volume 3, chapters 1-23._
_L. C. Draper,
King's Mountain and its Heroes._
_H. Lee,
Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department,
chapters 18-34._
_J. Graham,
Life of General Daniel Morgan,
chapters 13-17._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1781 (January).
The Mutiny of the Pennsylvania Line.
"As the year 1781 opened and the prospect of a new year of
struggle became certain, and the invasion of the Southern
States began to indicate the prospect of a southern campaign,
which was at all times unpopular with northern troops, a
disaffection was developed which at last broke forth in open
mutiny, and a peremptory demand for discharge. This irritation
was aggravated by hunger, cold, and poverty. Marshall says:
'The winter brought not much relaxation from toil, and none
from suffering. The soldiers were perpetually on the point of
starvation, were often entirely without food, were exposed
without proper clothing to the rigors of winter; and had now
served almost twelve months without pay.' … On the 1st of
January the Pennsylvania line revolted; Captain Billings was
killed in an attempt to suppress the mutiny; General Wayne was
powerless to restore order, and 1,300 men, with six guns,
started to Princeton, with the declared purpose to march to
Philadelphia, and obtain redress. They demanded clothing, the
residue of their bounty, and full arrears of pay. A committee
from Congress and the State authorities of Pennsylvania at
once entered into negotiations with the troops for terms of
compromise. The American Commander-in-chief was then at New
Windsor. A messenger from General Wayne informed him on the 3d
of January of the revolt, and the terms demanded. It appears
from Washington's letters that it was his impulse, at the
first intimation of the trouble, to go in person and attempt
its control. His second impression was to reserve his
influence and authority until all other means were exhausted.
{3276}
The complaint of the mutineers was but a statement of the
condition of all the army, so far as the soldiers had served
three years; and the suffering and failure to receive pay were
absolutely universal. Leaving the preliminary discussion with
the civil authorities who were responsible for much of the
trouble, the Commander-in-chief appealed to the Governors of
the northern States for a force of militia to meet any attacks
from New York, and declined to interfere until he found that
the passion had passed and he could find troops who would at
all hazards execute his will. It was one of the most difficult
passages in the war, and was so handled that the
Commander-in-chief retained his prestige and regained control
of the army. … General Clinton received information of the
revolt as early as Washington, on the morning of the 23d, and
sent messengers to the American army with propositions,
looking to their return to British allegiance. He entirely
misconceived the nature of the disaffection, and his agents
were retained in custody. It is sufficient to say that a
portion of the troops were discharged without critical
examination of their enlistments, on their own oath; that many
promptly reenlisted, that as soon as Washington found that he
had troops who did not share in the open mutiny, he used force
and suppressed the disaffection, and that the soldiers
themselves hung several agents who brought propositions from
General Clinton which invited them to abandon their flag and
join his command. The mutiny of the American army at the
opening of the campaign of 1781, was a natural outbreak which
human nature could not resist, and whatever of discredit may
attach to the revolt, it will never be unassociated with the
fact that, while the emergency was one that overwhelmed every
military obligation by its pressure, it did not affect the
fealty of the soldiers to the cause for which they took up
arms. … La Fayette thus wrote to his wife, 'Human patience has
its limits. No European army would suffer the tenth part of
what the Americans suffer. It takes citizens to support
hunger, nakedness, toil, and the total want of pay, which
constitute the condition of our soldiers, the hardiest and
most patient that are to be found in the world.'"
_H. B. Carrington,
Battles of the American Revolution,
chapter 67._
ALSO IN:
_W. H. Egle,
History of Pennsylvania,
chapter 12._
_C. J. Stillé,
Major-General Anthony Wayne,
chapter 6._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1781 (January-May).
Benedict Arnold and the British in Virginia.
Opening of Lafayette's campaign in that state.
"In January, 1781, the news reached headquarters in the
Highlands of New York that General [Benedict] Arnold had
landed in Virginia with a considerable force, was laying waste
the country, and had already destroyed the valuable stores
collected at Richmond; opposed to him were only the small
commands of Steuben and Muhlenberg. The situation was very
alarming, and threatened to place all the Southern States in
the hands of the British. If Arnold succeeded in destroying
the few American troops in Virginia, he could then march to
the assistance of Cornwallis, who, with a superior force, was
pressing General Greene very hard in the Carolinas. To defeat
or capture Arnold before he could further prosecute his
designs was, therefore, of the utmost importance. For this
purpose it was necessary to send a detachment from the main
army against Arnold by land, and a naval force to Chesapeake
Bay to prevent his escape by sea. Washington at once
communicated the state of affairs to Rochambeau, who, with the
French fleet, had long been blockaded at Newport. Taking
advantage of the serious injuries lately suffered by the
blockading English fleet in consequence of a storm, Admiral
Destouches despatched M. de Tilly to the Chesapeake with a
ship-of-the-line and two frigates. To cooperate with these
French vessels, Washington detached 1,200 light infantry from
the main army, and placed them under the command of Lafayette.
That officer was particularly chosen for this important trust,
because the confidence reposed in him by both the American and
French troops made him, in Washington's opinion, the fittest
person to conduct a combined expedition. Thus opened the only
campaign in America which afforded Lafayette an opportunity to
show what abilities he possessed as an independent commander,
and on this campaign his military reputation must chiefly
rest. Lafayette moved rapidly southward," to Annapolis; but,
the coöperating movement of the French fleet having, meantime,
been frustrated by an attack from the English squadron, his
instructions required him to abandon the expedition and
return. He had already set his troops in motion northward when
different instructions reached him. Two more British regiments
had been sent to Virginia, under General Philips, who now took
command of all the forces there, and this had increased the
anxiety of Washington. "The situation of the Southern States
had become extremely perilous. General Greene had all he could
do to fight Lord Cornwallis's superior force in North
Carolina. Unless a vigorous opposition could be made to
Philips, he would have no difficulty in dispersing the militia
of Virginia, and in effecting a junction with Cornwallis.
With their forces so combined, the British would be masters in
the South. Washington at once determined to place the defence
of Virginia in Lafayette's hands. … Lafayette marched with
such rapidity … that he reached Richmond, where there were
valuable stores to be protected, a day in advance of General
Philips. From his post on the heights of the town he saw the
British set fire to the tobacco warehouses at Manchester, just
across the river, but there were neither men nor boats enough
to make an attack possible. Philips, on his part, was too much
impressed with the show of strength made by the Americans to
prosecute his plans on Richmond, and retreating down the James
river, burning and laying waste as he went, he camped at Hog
Island. Lafayette followed, harassing the enemy's rear, as far
as the Chickahominy. Here the situation underwent a
considerable change. Lord Cornwallis, after his long and
unsuccessful campaign against Greene in North Carolina, made
up his mind that his exhausting labors there would prove
unprofitable until Virginia should be subjugated. His men were
worn out with incessant marching and fighting, while no
substantial advantage had been gained. Hearing that General
Greene had marched to attack Lord Rawdon at Camden in South
Carolina, he determined to join Philips.
{3277}
That officer, accordingly, received orders while at Hog Island
to take possession of Petersburg and there await Cornwallis's
arrival. … On the 13th of May, General Philips died at
Petersburg of a fever. … Cornwallis arrived at Petersburg on
the 20th of May. His forces now amounted to over 5,000 men,
which number was soon increased to 8,000."
_B. Tuckerman,
Life of Lafayette,
chapter 6._
ALSO IN:
_J. E. Cooke,
Virginia,
part 3, chapter 17._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1781 (May-October).
Cornwallis in Virginia and the trap into which he fell.
Siege of Yorktown by the French and Americans.
Surrender of the British army.
"On the 24th of May, Cornwallis, having rested his troops,
marched from Petersburg, and endeavored to engage the American
forces. But Lafayette, having removed the military stores from
Richmond, retreated across the Chickahominy to Fredericksburg,
where he expected to meet General Wayne and a battalion of
Pennsylvania troops, without whose assistance he could not
venture any fighting. … Cornwallis … moved between Lafayette
and the town of Albemarle, where had been placed a great part
of the military stores from Richmond, which now seemed doomed
to destruction. But on the 10th of June Lafayette had received
his expected reënforcement of Wayne's Pennsylvanians, and thus
strengthened felt able to assume the offensive. Rapidly
crossing the Rapidan he approached close to the British army
which blocked the road to Albemarle. Nothing could have better
suited Cornwallis, who prepared for a conflict in which he
felt sure of a decisive victory. Lafayette, however, had not
lost sight of the vital feature of his campaign,—to protect
the property of the State without losing his army. Through his
scouts he discovered an old unused road to Albemarle, unknown
to the enemy. While Cornwallis was preparing for battle, he
had the road cleared, and under cover of the night marched his
men through it and took up a strong position before the town.
There he was joined by militia from the neighboring mountains,
and he showed so strong a front that the British commander did
not venture an attack. … The British commander, so far foiled
in his objects, had to march back to Richmond and thence to
Williamsburg, near the coast, thus practically abandoning
control over any part of Virginia except where naval forces
gave possession. Lafayette effected a junction with Baron
Steuben on the 18th of June, and thus increased his force to
about four thousand men. The Americans had now become the
pursuers instead of the pursued, and followed the British,
harassing their rear and flanks."
_B. Tuckerman,
Life of General Lafayette,
volume 1, chapter 6._
"There now came a pause in the Virginia Campaign, at least in
daily operations and excitements. The State north of the James
was relieved. Cornwallis crossed to the south side, at Cobham,
on the 7th [July]; and Lafayette, retiring up the river,
encamped, about the 20th, on the now historic Malvern Hill,
then described as one of the healthiest and best watered spots
in the State. … The entire British army was soon after
concentrated at Portsmouth, and preparations made to transport
a considerable portion of it to New York. Lafayette,
meanwhile, at Malvern Hill, could only await developments. He
thought of sending re-enforcements to Greene, and asked
Washington if, in case Cornwallis left Virginia, he might not
return to the Northern army. … But while the marquis and
Washington and Greene were speculating on the future movements
of Cornwallis and were persuaded, from embarkations at
Portsmouth, that he was to be deprived of a large part of his
force by Clinton, unexpected intelligence came to hand.
Instead of any part going to New York, the British force
suddenly made its appearance, during the first days in August,
at Yorktown, on the Virginia peninsula, which it had abandoned
but three weeks before. Here again was a new situation.
Cornwallis, at last, at Yorktown—the spot he was not to leave
except as a prisoner of war. Why he went there is a simple
explanation. Clinton decided, upon certain dissenting opinions
expressed by Cornwallis respecting the situation in Virginia,
not to withdraw the force in the Chesapeake which he had
called for, and which was about to sail for New York, but
permitted Cornwallis to retain the whole—all with which he had
been pursuing Lafayette and the large garrison at Portsmouth,
a total of about seven thousand, rank and file. His new
instructions, conveyed at the same time, were to the effect
that his Lordship should abandon Portsmouth, which both
generals agreed was too unhealthy for the troops, and fortify
Old Point Comfort, where Fort Monroe now stands, as a naval
station for the protection of the British shipping. In
addition, if it appeared necessary, for the better security of
the Point, to occupy Yorktown also, that was to be done.
Obeying these instructions, Cornwallis ordered a survey of Old
Point Comfort; but, upon the report of his engineers, was
obliged to represent to Clinton that it was wholly unfit and
inadequate for a naval station, as it afforded little
protection for ships, and could not command the channel, on
account of its great width. Then, following what he believed
to be the spirit of his orders, Cornwallis, before hearing
from Clinton, moved up to Yorktown, and began to fortify it in
connection with Gloucester, on the opposite shore, as the best
available naval station. Clinton made no subsequent
objections, and there Cornwallis remained until his surrender.
His occupation of the place was simply an incident of the
campaign—a move taken for convenience and in the interests of
the navy and the health of his command."
_H. P. Johnston,
The Yorktown Campaign,
chapter 3._
"The march of Lord Cornwallis into Virginia was the first
emphatic fact which enabled General Washington to plan an
efficient offensive. The repeated detachment of troops from
New York so sensibly lessened the capacity of its garrison for
extensive field service at the north, that the American
Commander-in-chief determined to attack that post, and as a
secondary purpose, thereby to divert General Clinton from
giving further aid to troops in the Southern States. As a
matter of fact, the prudent conduct of the Virginia campaign
eventually rallied to the support of General La Fayette an
army, including militia, nearly as large as that of
Washington, and the nominal strength of the allied army near
Yorktown, early in September, was nearly or quite as great as
that of Lord Cornwallis. There were other elements which, as
in previous campaigns, hampered operations at the north. The
Indians were still troublesome in Western New York, and the
Canadian frontier continued to demand attention. The American
navy had practically disappeared.
{3278}
The scarcity of money and a powerless recruiting service,
increased the difficulties of carrying on the war in a manner
that would use to the best advantage the troops of France. …
The position of the American Commander-in-chief at this time
was one of peculiar personal mortification. Appeals to State
authorities failed to fill up his army. Three thousand Hessian
reinforcements had landed at New York, and the government as
well as himself would be compromised before the whole world by
failure to meet the just demands which the French auxiliaries
had a right to press upon his attention. Relief came most
opportunely. The frigate Concorde arrived at Newport, and a
reiteration of the purpose of Count de Grasse to leave St.
Domingo on the 3d of August, for the Chesapeake direct, was
announced by a special messenger. The possibilities of the
future at once quickened him to immediate action. With a
reticence so close that the army could not fathom his plans,
he re-organized his forces for a false demonstration against
New York and a real movement upon Yorktown. … Letters to the
Governors of northern States called for aid as if to capture
New York. Letters to La Fayette and the Count de Grasse
embodied such intimations of his plans as would induce proper
caution to prevent the escape of Lord Cornwallis, and secure
transportation at Head of Elk. Other letters to authorities in
New Jersey and Philadelphia, expressly defining a plan of
operations against New York via Staten Island, with the
assurance of ample naval support, were exposed to interception
and fell into the hands of General Clinton. As late as the
19th, the roads leading to King's Bridge were cleared of
obstructions, and the army was put in readiness to advance
against New York Island. On the same day the New Jersey
regiment and that of Colonel Hazen crossed the Hudson at
Dobb's Ferry, to threaten Staten Island, and ostensibly to
cover some bake-houses which were being erected for the
purpose of giving color to the show of operations against New
York. The plan of a large encampment had been prepared, which
embraced Springfield and the Chatham Pass to Morristown, and
this was allowed to find its way to Clinton's headquarters.
General Heath was assigned to command of the Hudson-river
posts, with two regiments from New Hampshire, ten from
Massachusetts, five from Connecticut, the Third artillery,
Sheldon's dragoons, the invalid corps, all local companies,
and the militia. The following forces were selected to
accompany the Commander-in-chief, viz., the light infantry
under Colonel Scammel, four light companies from New York and
Connecticut, the Rhode Island regiment, under the new army
establishment, two New York regiments, that of New Jersey and
Hazen's regiment, (the last two already across the Hudson) and
Lamb's artillery, in all about 2,000 men. The American troops
crossed on the 21st, at King's Ferry, and encamped near
Haverstraw. The French army followed, and the army was united
on the 25th. … General Washington and suite reached
Philadelphia about noon, August 30th. The army had already
realized the fact that they were destined southward. Some
dissatisfaction was manifested; but Count de Rochambeau
advanced $20,000 in gold upon the pledge of Robert Morris that
he would refund the sum by the 1st of October, and the effect
upon the troops, who had long been without any pay, was
inspiring."
_H. B. Carrington,
Battles of the American Revolution,
chapter 74._
"Leaving Philadelphia, with the Army, on the 5th of September,
Washington meets an express near Chester, announcing the
arrival, in Chesapeake Bay, of the Count de Grasse, with a
fleet of twenty-eight ships of the line, and with 3,500
additional French troops, under the command of the Marquis de
St. Simon, who had already been landed at Jamestown, with
orders to join the Marquis de La Fayette! 'The joy' says the
Count William de Deux-Ponts, in his precious journal, 'the joy
which this welcome news produces among all the troops, and
which penetrates General Washington and the Count de
Rochambeau, is more easy to feel than to express.' But, in a
foot-note to that passage, he does express and describe it, in
terms which cannot be spared and could not be surpassed, and
which add a new and charming illustration of the emotional
side of Washington's nature. 'I have been equally surprised
and touched,' says the gallant Deux-Ponts, 'at the true and
pure joy of General Washington. Of a natural coldness and of a
serious and noble approach, which in him is only true dignity,
and which adorn so well the chief of a whole nation, his
features, his physiognomy, his deportment, all were changed in
an instant. He put aside his character as arbiter of North
America, and contented himself for a moment with that of a
citizen, happy at the good fortune of his country. A child,
whose every wish had been gratified, would not have
experienced a sensation more lively, and I believe I am doing
honor to the feelings of this rare man in endeavoring to
express all their ardor.' Thanks to God, thanks to France,
from all our hearts at this hour, for 'this true and pure joy'
which lightened the heart, and at once dispelled the anxieties
of our incomparable leader. It may be true that Washington
seldom smiled after he had accepted the command of our
Revolutionary Army, but it is clear that on the 5th of
September he not only smiled but played the boy. … 'All now
went merry,' with him, 'as a marriage bell.' Under the
immediate influence of this joy, which he had returned for a
few hours to Philadelphia to communicate in person to
Congress, … and while the Allied Armies are hurrying
southward, he makes a hasty trip with Colonel Humphreys to his
beloved Mount Vernon and his more beloved wife—his first visit
home since he left it for Cambridge in 1775. Rochambeau, with
his suite, joins him there on the 10th, and Chastellux and his
aids on the 11th; and there with Mrs. Washington, he dispenses
for two days, 'a princely hospitality' to his foreign guests.
But the 13th finds them all on their way to rejoin the Army at
Williamsburg, where they arrive on the 15th, 'to the great joy
of the troops and the people,' and where they dine with the
Marquis de St. Simon. On the 18th Washington and Rochambeau,
with Knox and Chastellux and Du Portail, and with two of
Washington's aids, Colonel Cobb of Massachusetts, and Colonel
Jonathan Trumbull, jr., of Connecticut, embark on the
'Princess Charlotte' for a visit to the French fleet. … A few
days more are spent at Williamsburg on their return, where
they find General Lincoln already arrived with a part of the
troops from the North, having hurried them as Washington
besought him, 'on the wings of speed,' and where the word is
soon given, 'On, on, to York and Gloucester!'
{3279}
Washington takes his share of the exposure of this march, and
the night of the 28th of September finds him, with all his
military family, sleeping in an open field within two miles of
Yorktown, without any other covering, as the journal of one of
his aids states, 'than the canopy of the heavens, and the
small spreading branches of a tree,' which the writer predicts
'will probably be rendered venerable from this circumstance
for a length of time to come.' … Everything now hurries,
almost with the rush of a Niagara cataract, to the grand fall
of Arbitrary Power in America. Lord Cornwallis had taken post
here at Yorktown as early as the 4th of August, after being
foiled so often by 'that boy' as he called La Fayette, whose
Virginia campaign of four months was the most effective
preparation for all that was to follow, and who, with singular
foresight, perceived at once that his lordship was now fairly
entrapped, and wrote to Washington, as early as the 21st of
August, that 'the British army must be forced to surrender.'
Day by day, night by night, that prediction presses forward to
its fulfillment. The 1st of October finds our engineers
reconnoitering the position and works of the enemy. The 2d
witnesses the gallantry of the Duke de Lauzun and his legion
in driving back Tarleton, whose raids had so long been the
terror of Virginia and the Carolinas. On the 6th, the Allied
Armies broke ground for their first parallel, and proceeded to
mount their batteries on the 7th and 8th. On the 9th, two
batteries were opened—Washington himself applying the torch to
the first gun; and on the 10th three or four more were in
play—silencing the enemy's works, and making,' says the
little diary of Colonel Cobb, 'most noble music.' On the 11th,
the indefatigable Baron Steuben was breaking the ground for
our second parallel, within less than four hundred yards of
the enemy, which was finished the next morning, and more
batteries mounted on the 13th and 14th. But the great
achievement of the siege still awaits its accomplishment. Two
formidable British advanced redoubts are blocking the way to
any further approach, and they must be stormed. The allied
troops divide the danger and the glory between them, and
emulate each other in the assault. One of these redoubts is
assigned to the French grenadiers and chasseurs, under the
general command of the Baron de Viomesnil. The other is
assigned to the American light infantry, under the general
command of La Fayette. But the detail of special leaders to
conduct the two assaults remains to be arranged. Viomesnil
readily designates the brave Count William to lead the French
storming party, who, though he came off from his victory
wounded, counts it 'the happiest day of his life.' A question
arises as to the American party, which is soon solved by the
impetuous but just demand of our young Alexander Hamilton to
lead it. And lead it he did, with an intrepidity, a heroism,
and a dash unsurpassed in the whole history of the war. … Both
redoubts were soon captured; and these brilliant actions
virtually sealed the fate of Cornwallis. 'A small and
precipitate sortie,' as Washington calls it, was made by the
British on the following evening, resulting in nothing; and
the next day a vain attempt to evacuate their works, and to
escape by crossing over to Gloucester, was defeated by a
violent and, for us … most providential storm of rain and
wind. … A suspension of hostilities, to arrange terms of
capitulation, was proposed by Cornwallis on the 17th; the 18th
was occupied at Moore's House in settling those terms; and on
the 19th the articles were signed by which the garrison of
York and Gloucester, together with all the officers and seamen
of the British ships in the Chesapeake, 'surrender themselves
Prisoners of War to the Combined Forces of America and
France.'"
_Robert C. Winthrop,
Address at the Centennial Celebration of the Surrender
of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Oct. 19, 1881._
ALSO IN:
_Marquis Cornwallis,
Correspondence,
volume 1, chapters 4-5._
_Marquis Cornwallis,
Answer to Sir H. Clinton._
_Count de Deux-Ponts,
My Campaigns in America, 1781._
_T. Balch,
The French in America during the War of Independence,
chapters 13-22._
_W. Irving,
Life of Washington,
volume 4, chapter 25-26, and 28._
_George Washington,
Writings, edited by W. C. Ford,
volume 9._
_C. Tower,
The Marquis de La Fayette in the American Revolution,
volume 2, chapters 25-28._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A, D, 1781-1782.
Practical suspension of hostilities.
Difficulty of maintaining the army.
Financial distress of the country.
"Immediately after the surrender of Yorktown Washington
returned with his army to the vicinity of New York [see
NEWBURGH], but he felt himself far too weak to attempt its
capture, and hostilities were restricted to a few indecisive
skirmishes or predatory enterprises. It is curious to notice
how far from sanguine Washington appeared even after the event
which in the eyes of most men, outside America, had determined
the contest without appeal. It was still impossible, he
maintained, to do anything decisive unless the sea were
commanded by a naval force hostile to England, and France
alone could provide this force. The difficulties of
maintaining the army were unabated. 'All my accounts,' he
wrote in April 1782, 'respecting the recruiting service are
unfavourable; indeed, not a single recruit has arrived to my
knowledge from any State except Rhode Island, in consequence
of the requisitions of Congress in December last.' He strongly
urged the impossibility of recruiting the army by voluntary
enlistment, and recommended that, in addition to the
compulsory enrolment of Americans, German prisoners should be
taken into the army. Silas Deane, in private letters,
expressed at this time his belief that it would be utterly
impossible to maintain the American army for another year; and
even after the surrender of Cornwallis, no less a person than
Sir Henry Clinton assured the Government that, with a
reinforcement of only 10,000 men he would be responsible for
the conquest of America. … Credit was gone, and the troops had
long been unpaid. 'The long sufferance of the army,' wrote
Washington in October 1782, 'is almost exhausted. It is high
time for a peace.' Nothing, indeed, except the great
influence, the admirable moderation and good sense, and the
perfect integrity of Washington could have restrained the army
from open revolt. … Holland, immediately after the surrender
of Yorktown, had recognised the independence of America, which
had as yet only been recognised by France. John Adams was
received as representative at the Hague, and after several
abortive efforts he succeeded in raising a Dutch loan. France,
as her ablest ministers well knew, was drifting rapidly
towards bankruptcy, yet two American loans, amounting together
to £600,000, were extorted in the last year of the war.
{3280}
Up to the very eve of the formal signature of peace, and long
after the virtual termination of the war, the Americans found
it necessary to besiege the French Court for money. As late as
December 5, 1782, Franklin wrote from Paris to Livingston
complaining of the humiliating duty which was imposed on him.
… The reply of Livingston was dated January 6, 1783, and it
paints vividly the extreme distress in America. 'I see the
force,' he writes, 'of your objections to soliciting the
additional twelve millions, and I feel very sensibly the
weight of our obligations to France, but every sentiment of
this kind must give way to our necessities. It is not for the
interest of our allies to lose the benefit of all they have
done by refusing to make a small addition to it. … The army
demand with importunity their arrears of pay. The treasury is
empty, and no adequate means of filling it presents itself.
The people pant for peace; should contributions be exacted, as
they have hitherto been, at the point of the sword, the
consequences may be more dreadful than is at present
apprehended. I do not pretend to justify the negligence of the
States in not providing greater supplies. Some of them might
do more than they have done; none of them all that is
required. It is my duty to confide to you, that if the war is
continued in this country, it must be in a great measure at
the expense of France. If peace is made, a loan will be
absolutely necessary to enable us to discharge the army, that
will not easily separate without pay.' It was evident that the
time for peace had come. The predatory expeditions which still
continued in America could only exasperate still further both
nations, and there were some signs—especially in the conflicts
between loyalists and revolutionists—that they were having
this effect. England had declared herself ready to concede the
independence America demanded. Georgia and South Carolina,
where the English had found so many faithful friends, were
abandoned in the latter half of 1782, and the whole force of
the Crown was now concentrated at New York and in Canada.
France and Spain for a time wished to protract negotiations in
hopes that Rodney might be crushed, that Jamaica and
afterwards Gibraltar might be captured; but all these hopes
had successively vanished. … If the war continued much longer
America would almost certainly drop away, and France, and
perhaps Spain, become bankrupt."
_W. E. H. Lecky,
History of England in the 18th Century,
chapter 15 (volume 4)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1781-1786.
The cession of Western Territory
by the States to the Federal Union.
The Western Reserve of Connecticut.
Although the Articles of Confederation were adopted by
Congress in 1777 and ratified immediately by most of the
States, it was not until 1781 that they became operative by
the assent of all. "New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland held out
against ratifying them for from two to four years. The secret
of their resistance was in the claims to the western
territory. … The three recalcitrant States had always had
fixed western boundaries, and had no legal claim to a share in
the western territory. … New Jersey and Delaware gave up the
struggle in 1778 and 1779; but Maryland would not and did not
yield, until her claims were satisfied. Dr. H. B. Adams has
shown that the whole question of real nationality for the
United States was bound up in this western territory; that
even a 'league government' could not continue long to govern a
great and growing territory like this without developing into
a real national government, even without a change of strict
law; and that the Maryland leaders were working under a
complete consciousness of these facts."
_A. Johnston,
The United States: Its History and Constitution,
sections 89-90._
The western claims of Virginia were the most sweeping and were
founded upon the oldest historical document. "The charter
granted by James I. to South Virginia, in 1600 [see VIRGINIA:
A. D. 1609-1616] … embraced the entire north-west of North
America, and, within certain limits, all the islands along the
coast of the South Sea or Pacific Ocean. … The following is
the grant: 'All those lands, countries and territories
situate, lying and being in that part of America called
Virginia, from the point of land called Cape or Point Comfort,
all along the sea-coast to the northward 200 miles; and from
the said Point or Cape Comfort, all along the sea-coast to the
southward 200 miles; and all that space and circuit of land
lying from the sea-coast of the precinct aforesaid, up into
the land throughout, from sea to sea, west and north-west; and
also all the islands lying within 100 miles along the coast of
both seas of the precinct aforesaid.' The extraordinary
ambiguity of this grant of 1609, which was always appealed to
as a legal title by Virginia, was first shown by Thomas Paine.
… The chief ambiguity … lay in the interpretation of the words
'up into the land throughout, from sea to sea, west and
north-west.' From which point was the north-west line to be
drawn, from the point on the sea-coast 200 miles above, or
from the point 200 miles below Cape Comfort? … The more
favorable interpretation for Virginia and, perhaps, in view of
the expression 'from sea to sea,' more natural interpretation,
was to draw the north-western line from the point on the
sea-coast 200 miles above Point Comfort, and the western line
from the southern limit below Point Comfort. This gave
Virginia the greater part, at least, of the entire north-west,
for the lines diverged continually. … At the outbreak of the
Revolution, Virginia had annexed the 'County of Kentucky' to
the Old Dominion, and, in 1778, after the capture of the
military posts in the north-west by Colonel George Rogers
Clarke, … that enterprising State proceeded to annex the lands
beyond the Ohio, under the name of the County of Illinois
See, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1778-1779,
CLARKE'S CONQUEST.
The military claims of Virginia were certainly very strong,
but it was felt by the smaller States that an equitable
consideration for the services of other colonies in defending
the back country from the French, ought to induce Virginia to
dispose of a portion of her western territory for the common
good. It is easy now to conceive how royal grants to
Massachusetts and Connecticut of lands stretching from ocean
to ocean, must have conflicted with the charter claims and
military title of Virginia to the great north-west. … The
claims of Massachusetts were based upon the charter granted by
William and Mary, in 1691, and those of Connecticut upon the
charter granted by Charles II., in 1662. …
{3281}
The former's claim embraced the lands which now lie in
southern Michigan and Wisconsin, or, in other words, the
region comprehended by the extension westward of her present
southern boundary and of her ancient northern limit, which was
'the latitude of a league north of the inflow of Lake
Winnipiseogee in New Hampshire. The western claims of
Connecticut [the zone lying between her northern and southern
boundaries—41° and 42° 2' north latitude—extended westward]
covered portions of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. …
The extension of charter boundaries over the far west by
Massachusetts and Connecticut led to no trespass on the
intervening charter claims of New York. Connecticut fell into
a serious controversy, however, with Pennsylvania, in regard
to the possession of certain lands in the northern part of the
latter State, but the dispute, when brought before a court
appointed by Congress, was finally decided in favor of
Pennsylvania. But in the western country, Massachusetts and
Connecticut were determined to assert their chartered rights
against Virginia and the treaty claims of New York; for, by
virtue of various treaties with the Six Nations and allies,
the latter State was asserting jurisdiction over the entire
region between Lake Erie and the Cumberland mountains, or, in
other words, Ohio and a portion of Kentucky. These claims were
strengthened by the following facts: First, that the chartered
rights of New York were merged in the Crown by the accession
to the throne, in 1685, of the Duke of York as James II.;
again, that the Six Nations and tributaries had put themselves
under the protection of England, and that they had always been
treated by the Crown as appendant to the government of New
York; moreover, in the third place, the citizens of that State
had borne the burden of protecting these Indians for over a
hundred years. New York was the great rival of Virginia in the
strength and magnitude of her western claims." In 1780,
Maryland still insisting upon the surrender of these western
land claims to the federal government, and refusing to ratify
the Articles of Confederation until such cession was made, the
claimant States began to yield to her firmness. On the 1st of
March, 1781, the offer of New York to cede her claims,
providing Congress would confirm her western boundary, was
made in Congress. "On that very day, Maryland ratified the
Articles and the first legal union of the United States was
complete. The coincidence in dates is too striking to admit of
any other explanation than that Maryland and New York were
acting with a mutual understanding. … The offer of Virginia,
reserving to herself jurisdiction over the County of Kentucky;
the offer of Connecticut, withholding jurisdiction over all
her back lands; and the offer of New York, untrammeled by
burdensome conditions and conferring upon Congress complete
jurisdiction over her entire western territory,—these three
offers were now prominently before the country. … On the 29th
of October, 1782, Mr. Daniel Carroll, of Maryland, moved that
Congress accept the right, title, jurisdiction, and claim of
New York, as ceded by the agents of that state on the first of
March, 1781. … On the 13th day of September, 1783, it was
voted by Congress to accept the cession offered by Virginia,
of the territory north-west of the Ohio, provided that state
would waive the obnoxious conditions concerning the guaranty
of Virginia's boundary, and the annulling of all other titles
to the north-west territory. Virginia modified her conditions
as requested, and on the 20th of October, 1783, empowered her
delegates in Congress to make the cession, which was done by
Thomas Jefferson, and others, March 1, 1784."
_H. B. Adams,
Maryland's Influence upon Land Cessions to the United States
(Johns Hopkins University Studies, 3d series, Number 1),
pages 9-11, 19-22, 36-39._
The Massachusetts deed of cession was executed April 19, 1785.
It conveyed the right and title of the state to all lands
"west of a meridian line drawn through the western bent or
inclination of Lake Ontario, provided such line should fall 20
miles or more west of the western limit of the Niagara River"
—that being the western boundary of New York, fixed four years
before. In May, 1786, Connecticut authorized a cession which
was not complete. Instead of beginning at the western boundary
line of Pennsylvania, her conveyance was of lands beyond a
line 120 miles west of the Pennsylvania line—thus retaining
her claim to the large tract in Ohio known subsequently as the
Western Reserve, or Connecticut Reserve. "The acceptance of
this cession was strongly opposed in Congress. … After a
severe struggle it was accepted, May 26, 1786, Maryland alone
voting in the negative."
_B. A. Hinsdale,
The Old Northwest,
chapter 13._
South Carolina executed the cession of her western claims in
1787; North Carolina in 1790, and Georgia in 1802.
_A. Johnston,
Connecticut,
chapter 15._
ALSO IN:
_T. Donaldson,
The Public Domain: its History,
chapter 3._
See, also, OHIO: A. D. 1786-1796.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1782 (February-May).
Peace Resolutions in the British House of Commons.
Retirement of Lord North.
Pacific overtures through General Carleton.
"Fortunately for the United States, the temper of the British
nation on the question of continuing the American war was not
in unison with that of its sovereign. That war into which the
nation had entered with at least as much eagerness as the
minister had now become almost universally unpopular. Motions
against the measures of administration respecting America were
repeated by the opposition, and on every new experiment the
strength of the minority increased. At length, on the 27th of
February [1782], general Conway moved in the house of commons,
'that it is the opinion of this house that a further
prosecution of offensive war against America, would, under
present circumstances, be the means of weakening the efforts
of this country against her European enemies, and tend to
increase the mutual enmity so fatal to the interests both of
Great Britain and America.' The whole force of administration
was exerted to get rid of this question, but was exerted in
vain; and the resolution was carried. An address to the king
in the words of the motion was immediately voted, and was
presented by the whole house. The answer of the crown being
deemed inexplicit, it was on the 4th of March resolved by the
commons, 'that the house will consider as enemies to his
majesty and the country, all those who should advise or
attempt a further prosecution of offensive war on the
continent of North America.' These votes were soon followed by
a change of administration [Lord North resigning and being
succeeded by Lord Rockingham, with Fox, Shelburne, Burke and
Sheridan for colleagues], and by instructions to the
commanding officers of his Brittanic majesty's forces in
America which conformed to them. …
{3282}
Early in May, Sir Guy Carleton, who had succeeded Sir Henry
Clinton in the command of all the British forces in the United
States, arrived at New York. Having been also appointed in
conjunction with admiral Digby a commissioner to negotiate a
peace, he lost no time in conveying to general Washington
copies of the votes of the British parliament, and of a bill
which had been introduced on the part of administration,
authorizing his majesty to conclude a peace or truce with
those who were still denominated the revolted colonies of
North America. These papers he said would manifest the
dispositions prevailing with the government and people of
England towards those of America, and if the like pacific
temper should prevail in this country, both inclination and
duty would lead him to meet it with the most zealous
concurrence. He had addressed to congress, he said, a letter
containing the same communications, and he solicited from the
American general a passport for the person who should convey
it. At this time, the bill enabling the British monarch to
conclude a peace or truce with America had not passed into a
law; nor was any assurance given that the present
commissioners possessed the power to offer other terms, than
those which had formerly been rejected. General Carleton
therefore could not hope that negotiations would commence on
such a basis; nor be disappointed that the passports he
requested were refused by congress, to whom the application
was, of course, referred. … The several states passed
resolutions expressing their objections to separate
negotiations, and declaring those to be enemies to America who
should attempt to treat without the authority of congress. But
the public votes which have been stated, and probably the
private instructions given to the British general, restrained
him from offensive war, and the state of the American army
disabled general Washington from making any attempt on the
posts held by the enemy. The campaign of 1782 consequently
passed away without furnishing any military operations of
moment between the armies under the immediate direction of the
respective commanders in chief."
_J. Marshall,
Life of Washington,
volume 4, chapter 11._
ALSO IN:
_Lord Mahon (Earl Stanhope)
History of England, 1713-1783,
chapter 65 (volume 7)._
See, also, ENGLAND: A. D. 1782-1783.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1782 (April).
Recognition by the Dutch Republic.
"Henry Laurens, the American plenipotentiary to the
Netherlands, having been taken captive and carried to England,
John Adams was appointed in his place. The new envoy had
waited more than eight months for an audience of reception.
Encouraged by the success at Yorktown, on the 9th of January
1782 Adams presented himself to the president of the
states-general, renewed his formal request for an opportunity
of presenting his credentials, and 'demanded a categorical
answer which he might transmit to his sovereign.' He next went
in person to the deputies of the several cities of Holland,
and, following the order of their rank in the confederation,
repeated his demand to each one of them. The attention of
Europe was drawn to the sturdy diplomatist, who dared, alone
and unsupported, to initiate so novel and bold a procedure.
Not one of the representatives of foreign powers at the Hague
believed that it could succeed;" but, beginning with
Friesland, in February, the seven states, one by one, declared
in favor of receiving the American envoy. "On the day which
chanced to be the seventh anniversary of 'the battle of
Lexington' their high mightinesses, the states-general,
reporting the unanimous decision of the seven provinces,
resolved that John Adams should be received as the minister of
the United States of America. The Dutch republic was the
second power in the world to recognise their independence."
_G. Bancroft,
History of the United States
(Author's last revision),
volume 5, page 527._
ALSO IN:
_J. Q. and C. F. Adams,
Life of John Adams,
chapter 6 (volume 1)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1782 (September).
The opening of negotiations for Peace.
The Rockingham ministry, which succeeded Lord North's in the
British government, in March, 1782 (see ENGLAND: A. D.
1782-1783), "though soon dissolved by the death of the Marquis
of Rockingham, were early distracted by a want of unanimity,
and early lost the confidence of the people. The negotiation
with America during May and June made no progress. Mr. Oswald
was the agent of Lord Shelburne, known to be opposed to the
acknowledgment, and Mr. Grenville, of Mr. Fox. This ministry
had been forced upon the king by a vote of the House of
Commons. The hopes of regaining America were again excited by
the decisive victory of Lord Rodney in the West Indies [see
ENGLAND: A. D. 1780-1782], and the unexpected successes of Sir
Eyre Coote against Hyder Ali in the East; and, if credit may
be given to the reports of the day, the government looked
forward with some confidence to the making a separate peace
with Congress by means of Sir Guy Carleton, who had been
appointed to the command of the forces in North America. … Mr.
Adams, writing from the Hague, June 13, 1782, observes, 'I
cannot see a probability that the English will ever make
peace, until their finances are ruined, and such distress
brought upon them, as will work up their parties into a civil
war.' It was not till September of the same year, under Lord
Shelburne's administration, formed upon the dissolution of the
Rockingham, that the British government took a decisive and
sincere step to make peace, and authorized their commissioner,
Mr. Oswald, at Paris, to acknowledge the independence of the
colonies. … This is the first instruction given by the British
Ministry in which it was proposed to recognize the celebrated
act of July 4th, 1776. A great and immediate progress was now
made in the preliminaries. … The commission, under which the
preliminaries of the treaty were actually concluded, was
issued by Congress in June 1781. It empowered 'John Adams,
Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Henry Laurens, and Thomas
Jefferson, or the majority of them, or such of them as may
assemble, or in case of the death, absence, indisposition, or
other impediment of the others, to any one of them, full power
and authority, general and special commission, … to sign, and
thereupon make a treaty or treaties, and to transact every
thing that may be necessary for completing, securing and
strengthening the great work of pacification, in as ample
form, and with the same effect, as if we were personally
present and acted therein.'
{3283}
All the commissioners, except Mr. Jefferson, were present
during the discussions, being in Europe at the time the
meeting was appointed. Mr. Jefferson was in America, and did
not leave it, as a report reached the government that the
preliminaries were already signed. Mr. Oswald's commission in
proper form was not issued till the 21st of September."
_The Diplomacy of the United States,
chapter 8._
"At the moment … that negotiations were set on foot, there
seemed but little hope of finding the Court of France
peaceably inclined. Fox alone among the Ministers, though
strongly opposed to a French alliance, inclined to a contrary
opinion, and imagined that the independence of America once
recognized, no further demands would be made upon England. It
was therefore his wish to recognize that independence
immediately, and by a rapid negotiation to insure the
conclusion of what he believed would prove a favourable peace.
Shelburne on the contrary believed that further concessions
would be asked by France, and that the best chance England
possessed of obtaining honourable terms, was to reserve the
recognition of independence as part of the valuable
consideration to be offered to the Colonies for favourable
terms, and to use the points where the interests of France,
Spain, and the Colonies were inconsistent, to foment
difficulties between them, and be the means of negotiating, if
necessary, a separate peace with each of the belligerents, as
opportunity might offer. The circumstances of the time
favoured the design. Vergennes had not gone to war for the
sake of American independence, but in order to humiliate
England. He not only did not intend to continue the war a day
longer than was necessary to establish a rival power on the
other side of the Atlantic, but was desirous of framing the
peace on conditions such as would leave England, Spain, and
the United States to balance one another, and so make France
paramount. He therefore intended to resist the claim which the
Colonies had invariably advanced of pushing their frontiers as
far west as the Mississippi, and proposed following the
example of the Proclamation of 1763, to leave the country
between Florida and the Cumberland to the Indians, who were to
be placed under the protection of Spain and the United States,
and the country north of the Ohio to England, as arranged by
the Quebec Act of 1774. Nor was he prepared to support the
claim of the New Englandmen to fish on the banks off
Newfoundland, over a considerable portion of which he desired
to establish an exclusive right for his own countrymen, in
keeping with the French interpretation of the Treaties of
Utrecht and Paris. Of a still more pronounced character were
the views of Spain. Her troops had recently conquered West
Florida and threatened East Florida as well. She had
determined to obtain formal possession of these territories,
and to claim that they ran into the interior till they reached
the great lakes. The United States, according to both the
French and Spanish idea, were therefore to be restricted to a
strip of land on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, bounded by
almost the same line which France had contended for against
England after the Treaty of Utrecht. In 1779, when the
alliance of France was not a year old, and the great triumph
over Burgoyne was fresh, Congress notwithstanding the pressure
of M. Gerard, the French envoy, had adopted the following
conditions as the ultimatum of peace:
(l.) The acknowledgment of the independence of the United
States by Great Britain, previous to any treaty or negotiation
for peace.
(2.) The Mississippi as their western boundary.
(3.) The navigation of that river to the southern boundary of
the States with a port below it.
They also passed a resolution to the effect that any
interference after the conclusion of peace by any power with
the fishery off Newfoundland hitherto exercised by the
inhabitants of the Colonies, should be regarded as a casus
belli. 'The advice of the allies, their knowledge of American
interests, and their own discretion,' were in other matters to
guide the American Commissioners sent to the European Courts.
As however the war progressed, and French assistance,
especially in money, became of greater and greater importance
to the Congress, the tone of their instructions became
sensibly modified, under the pressure, first of M. Gérard and
then of Count Luzerne, his successor. On the 25th January
1780, M. Gérard having obtained the appointment of a Committee
of Congress, informed them that the territories of the United
States extended no further west than the limits to which
settlements were permitted by the English proclamation of
1763; that the United States had no right to the navigation of
the Mississippi, having no territories adjoining any part of
the river; that Spain would probably conquer both Floridas,
and intended holding them; and that the territory on the east
side of the Mississippi belonged to Great Britain, and would
probably be conquered by Spain. He at the same time urged upon
Congress the immediate conclusion of an alliance with that
power, to which Jay had been sent as Commissioner in 1779. On
the 15th February, Congress having considered this
communication, resolved to instruct Jay to abandon the claim
to the navigation of the Mississippi. This practically implied
the abandonment of the claim to that river as the western
boundary. Shortly after, and again on the demand of Luzerne,
the instructions to Adams, who had been appointed Commissioner
for negotiating a peace, and was then in Europe, were altered.
Independence was to be the sole ultimatum, and Adams was to
undertake to submit to the guidance of the French Minister in
every respect. 'You are to make the most candid and
confidential communications,' so his amended instructions ran,
'upon all subjects to the Ministers of our generous ally the
King of France; to undertake nothing in the negotiations for
peace or truce without their knowledge or concurrence, and to
make them sensible how much we rely upon his Majesty's
influence for effectual support in every thing that may be
necessary to the present security or future prosperity of the
United States of America.' As a climax Count Luzerne suggested
and Congress agreed to make Jay, Franklin, Jefferson, and
Laurens, joint Commissioners with Mr. Adams. Of the body thus
appointed Jefferson refused to serve, while Laurens, as
already seen, was captured on his way to England. Of the
remaining Commissioners, John Adams was doubly odious to the
diplomatists of France and Spain, because of his fearless
independence of character, and because of the tenacity with
which as a New Englander he clung to the American rights in
the Newfoundland fisheries; Jay had been an enthusiastic
advocate for the Spanish alliance, but the cavalier treatment
he had received at Madrid, and the abandonment of the
Mississippi boundary by Congress, had forced upon him the
conviction that his own country was being used as a tool by
the European powers, for their own ulterior objects. The
French he hated.
{3284}
He said 'they were not a moral people, and did not know what
it was.' Not so Franklin, influenced partly by his long
residence in the French capital, and by the idea that the
Colonies were more likely to obtain their objects, by a firm
reliance upon France than by confidence in the generosity of
England. He also pointed to the terms of the treaty he had
negotiated with the former power, which forbade either party
to conclude a separate peace without the leave previously
obtained of the other, as imposing a moral and legal
obligation on his countrymen to follow the policy which he
believed their interests as a power required them to adopt.
Meanwhile the King of France congratulated Congress on having
entrusted to his care the interests of the United States, and
warned them that if France was to be asked to continue
hostilities for purely American objects it was impossible to
say what the result might be, for the system of France
depended not merely on America, but on the other powers at
war."
_Lord E. Fitzmaurice,
Life of William, Earl of Shelburne,
volume 3, chapter 4._
"Benjamin Franklin, now venerable with years, had been doing
at the court of Versailles a work hardly less important than
that of Washington on the battle-fields of America. By the
simple grace and dignity of his manners, by his large good
sense and freedom of thought, by his fame as a scientific
discoverer, above all by his consummate tact in the management
of men, the whilom printer, king's postmaster-general for
America, discoverer, London colonial agent, delegate in the
Continental Congress, and signer of the Declaration of
Independence, had completely captivated elegant, free-thinking
France. Learned and common folk, the sober and the frivolous
alike swore by Franklin. Snuff-boxes, furniture, dishes, even
stoves were gotten up 'à la Franklin.' The old man's portrait
was in every house. That the French Government, in spite of a
monarch who was half afraid of the rising nation beyond sea,
had given America her hearty support, was in no small measure
due to the influence of Franklin. And his skill in diplomacy
was of the greatest value in the negotiations now pending."
_E. B. Andrews,
History of the United States,
volume 1, pages 208-209._
ALSO IN:
_E. E. Hale,
Franklin in France,
volume 2, chapters 3-4._
_Lord J. Russell,
Life of Fox,
chapters 16-17 (volume 1)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1782 (September-November).
The Peace parleyings at Paris.
Distrust of French aims by Jay and Adams.
A secret and separate negotiation with England.
"The task of making a treaty of peace was simplified both by
[the change of ministry which placed Lord Shelburne at the
head of affairs in England] … and by the total defeat of the
Spaniards and French at Gibraltar in September [see ENGLAND;
A. D. 1780-1782]. Six months before, England had seemed
worsted in every quarter. Now England, though defeated in
America was victorious as regarded France and Spain. The
avowed object for which France had entered into alliance with
the Americans, was to secure the independence of the United
States, and this point was now substantially gained. The chief
object for which Spain had entered into alliance with France
was to drive the English from Gibraltar, and this point was
now decidedly lost. France had bound herself not to desist
from the war until Spain should recover Gibraltar; but now
there was little hope of accomplishing this, except by some
fortunate bargain in the treaty, and Vergennes tried to
persuade England to cede the great stronghold, in exchange for
West Florida, which Spain had lately conquered, or for Oran or
Guadaloupe. Failing in this, he adopted a plan for satisfying
Spain at the expense of the United States; and he did this the
more willingly as he had no love for the Americans, and did
not wish to see them become too powerful. France had strictly
kept her pledges; she had given us valuable and timely aid in
gaining our independence; and the sympathies of the French
people were entirely with the American cause. But the object
of the French government had been simply to humiliate England,
and this end was sufficiently accomplished by depriving her of
her thirteen colonies. The immense territory extending from
the Alleghany Mountains to the Mississippi River, and from the
border of West Florida to the Great Lakes, had passed from the
hands of France into those of England at the peace of 1763;
and by the Quebec Act of 1774 England had declared the
southern boundary of Canada to be the Ohio River. … Vergennes
maintained that the Americans ought to recognize the Quebec
Act, and give up to England all the territory north of the
Ohio River. The region south of this limit should, he thought,
be made an Indian territory, and placed under the protection
of Spain and the United States. … Upon another important point
the views of the French government were directly opposed to
American interests. The right to catch fish on the banks of
Newfoundland had been shared by treaty between France and
England; and the New England fishermen, as subjects of the
king of Great Britain, had participated in this privilege. The
matter was of very great importance, not only to New England,
but to the United States in general. … The British government
was not inclined to grant the privilege, and on this point
Vergennes took sides with England, in order to establish a
claim upon her for concessions advantageous to France in some
other quarter. … Jay [who had lately arrived in Paris to take
part in the negotiations] soon began to suspect the designs of
the French minister. He found that he was sending M. de
Rayneval as a secret emissary to Lord Shelburne under an
assumed name; he ascertained that the right of the United
States to the Mississippi valley was to be denied; and he got
hold of a dispatch from Marbois, the French secretary of
legation at Philadelphia, to Vergennes, opposing the American
claim to the Newfoundland fisheries. As soon as Jay learned
these facts, he sent his friend Dr. Benjamin Vaughan to Lord
Shelburne to put him on his guard, and while reminding him
that it was greatly for the interest of England to dissolve
the alliance between America and France, he declared himself
ready to begin the negotiations without waiting for the
recognition of independence, provided that Oswald's commission
should speak of the thirteen United States of America, instead
of calling them colonies and naming them separately.
{3285}
This decisive step was taken by Jay on his own responsibility,
and without the knowledge of Franklin, who had been averse to
anything like a separate negotiation with England. It served
to set the ball rolling at once. … Lord Shelburne at once
perceived the antagonism that had arisen between the allies,
and promptly took advantage of it. A new commission was made
out for Oswald, in which the British government first
described our country as the United States; and early in
October negotiations were begun and proceeded rapidly. On the
part of England the affair was conducted by Oswald, assisted
by Strachey and Fitzherbert, who had succeeded Grenville. In
the course of the month John Adams arrived in Paris, and a few
weeks later Henry Laurens. … The arrival of Adams fully
decided the matter as to a separate negotiation with England.
He agreed with Jay that Vergennes should be kept as far as
possible in the dark until everything was cut and dried, and
Franklin was reluctantly obliged to yield. The treaty of
alliance between France and the United States had expressly
stipulated that neither power should ever make peace without
the consent of the other. … In justice to Vergennes, it should
be borne in mind that he had kept strict faith with us in
regard to every point that had been expressly stipulated. … At
the same time, in regard to matters not expressly stipulated,
Vergennes was clearly playing a sharp game against us; and it
is undeniable that, without departing technically from the
obligations of the alliance, Jay and Adams—two men as
honourable as ever lived—played a very sharp defensive game
against him. … The treaty with England was not concluded until
the consent of France had been obtained, and thus the express
stipulation was respected; but a thorough and detailed
agreement was reached as to what the purport of the treaty
should be, while our not too friendly ally was kept in the
dark."
_J. Fiske,
The Critical Period of American History,
chapter 1._
"If his [Vergennes'] policy had been carried out, it seems
clear that he would have established a claim for concessions
from England by supporting her against America on the
questions of Canada and the Canadian border and the
Newfoundland fishery. … The success of such a policy would
have been extremely displeasing to the Congress, and Jay and
Adams defeated it. … The act was done, and if it can be
justified by success, that justification, at least, is not
wanting."
_W. E. H. Lecky,
History of England in the 18th Century,
chapter 15 (volume 4)._
"The instructions of congress, given to the American
commissioners under the instigation of the French court, were
absolute and imperative, 'to undertake nothing without the
knowledge and concurrence of that court, and ultimately to
govern themselves by their advice and opinion.' These orders,
transmitted at the time of the enlargement of the commission,
had just been reinforced by assurances given to quiet the
uneasiness created in France by the British overtures through
Governor Carleton. Thus far, although the commissioners had
felt them to be derogatory to the honor of their country, as
well as to their own character as its representatives, there
had been no necessity for action either under or against them.
But now that matters were coming to the point of a serious
negotiation, and the secondary questions of interest to
America were to be determined, especially those to which
France had shown herself indifferent, not to say adverse, it
seemed as if no chance remained of escaping a decision. Mr.
Jay, jealous of the mission of De Rayneval, of which not a
hint had been dropped by the French court, suspicious of its
good faith from the disclosures of the remarkable dispatch of
Marbois, and fearful of any advice like that of which he had
received a foretaste through M. de Rayneval, at the same time
provoked that the confidence expected should be all on one
side, the Count communicating nothing of the separate French
negotiation, came to the conclusion that the interests of
America were safest when retained in American hands. He
therefore declared himself in favor of going on to treat with
Great Britain, without consulting the French court. Dr.
Franklin, on the other hand, expressing his confidence in that
court, secured by his sense of the steady reception of
benefits by his country, signified his willingness to abide by
the instructions he had received. Yet it is a singular fact,
but lately disclosed, that, notwithstanding this general
feeling, which was doubtless sincerely entertained, Dr.
Franklin had been the first person to violate those
instructions, at the very inception of the negotiations, by
proposing to Lord Shelburne the cession of Canada, and
covering his proposal with an earnest injunction to keep it
secret from France, because of his belief that she was adverse
to the measure. … It may fairly be inferred that, whatever
Franklin might have been disposed to believe of the French
court, his instincts were too strong to enable him to trust
them implicitly with the care of interests purely American.
And, in this, there can be no reasonable cause for doubt that
he was right. The more full the disclosures have been of the
French policy from their confidential papers, the more do they
show Count de Vergennes assailing England in America, with
quite as fixed a purpose as ever Chatham had to conquer
America in Germany. Mr. Adams had no doubt of it. He had never
seen any signs of a disposition to aid the United States from
affection or sympathy. On the contrary, he had perceived their
cause everywhere made subordinate to the general
considerations of continental politics. Perhaps his
impressions at some moments carried him even further, and led
him to suspect in the Count a positive desire to check and
depress America. In this he fell into the natural mistake of
exaggerating the importance of his own country. In the great
game of nations which was now playing at Paris under the
practised eye of France's chief (for Count de Maurepas was no
longer living), the United States probably held a relative
position, in his mind, not higher than that of a pawn, or
possibly a knight, on a chess-table. Whilst his attention was
absorbed in arranging the combinations of several powers, it
necessarily followed that he had not the time to devote that
attention to any one, which its special representative might
imagine to be its due. But even this hypothesis was to Mr.
Adams justification quite sufficient for declining to submit
the interests of his country implicitly to the Count's
control. If not so material in the Count's eyes, the greater
the necessity of keeping them in his own care. He therefore
seized the first opportunity to announce to his colleagues his
preference for the views of Mr. Jay.
{3286}
After some little reflection, Dr. Franklin signified his
acquiescence in this decision. His objections to it had
doubtless been increased by the peculiar relations he had
previously sustained to the French court, and by a very proper
desire to be released from the responsibility of what might
from him be regarded as a discourteous act. No such delicacy
was called for on the part of the other commissioners. Neither
does it appear that Count de Vergennes manifested a sign of
discontent with them at the time. He saw that little
confidence was placed in him, but he does not seem to have
made the slightest effort to change the decision or even to
get an explanation of it. The truth is, that the course thus
taken had its conveniences for him, provided only that the
good faith of the American negotiators, not to make a separate
peace, could be depended upon. Neither did he ever affect to
complain of it, excepting at one particular moment when he
thought he had cause to fear that the support he relied on
might fail."
_J. Q. and C. F. Adams,
The Life of John Adams,
volume 2, chapter 7._
"The radical difference between Franklin and his colleagues
was in the question of trust. Franklin saw no reason to
distrust the fidelity of France at any time to her engagements
to the United States during the revolutionary war. His
colleagues did not share this confidence, and yet, while
impressed by this distrust of their ally, they made no appeal
for explanation. The weight of opinion, as will hereafter be
more fully seen, is now that Franklin was right, and they in
this respect wrong. But whatever may have been the correctness
of their view, it was proper that, before making it the basis
of their throwing off the burden of treaty obligation and
their own instructions, they should have first notified France
of their complaint. Obligations cannot be repudiated by one
party on the ground of the failure of the other party to
perform some condition imposed on him, without giving him
notice of the charge against him, so that he could have the
opportunity of explanation. It may be added, on the merits,
that the extenuation set up by Jay and Adams, that France was
herself untrue to her obligations, however honestly they
believed it, can not now be sustained. Livingston, who knew
more of the attitude of France than any public man on the
American side except Franklin, swept it aside as groundless.
Edward Everett, one of the most accomplished historical
writers and diplomatists the country has ever produced,
speaks, as we shall see, to the same effect, and other
historical critics of authority, to be also hereafter cited,
give us the same conclusion. Yet there are other reasons which
may excuse their course, and that of Franklin, who concurred
with them rather than defeat a peace. In the first place, such
was their isolation, that their means of communication with
Congress was stopped; and they might well have argued that if
Congress knew that the English envoys refused to treat with
them except in secret conference their instructions would have
been modified. In the second place we may accept Adams'
statement that Vergennes was from time to time informally
advised of the nature of the pending propositions. In the
third place, the articles agreed on in 1782 were not to be a
definite treaty except with the assent of France. … It now
appears that the famous Marbois letter, handed to Jay by one
of the British loyalists, and relied on by him as showing
France's duplicity, was disavowed by Marbois; and there are,
aside from this, very strong reasons to distrust its
genuineness. In the second place, we have in the
correspondence of George III a new light thrown, on the action
taken by Jay in consequence of this letter. … Benjamin
Vaughan, while a gentleman of great amiability and personal
worth, was, when Jay sent him without Franklin's knowledge on
a confidential mission to the British ministry, in the employ
of that ministry as secret agent at Paris. It is due to Jay to
say that he was ignorant of this fact, though he would have
been notified of it had he consulted Franklin. One of the most
singular incidents of this transaction is that George III,
seeking double treachery in thus sending back to him his own
agent in the guise of an agent from the American legation,
regarded it as a peculiarly subtle machination of Franklin,
which it was his duty to baffle by utterly discrediting
Benjamin Vaughan. It should be added that Franklin's
affection for Benjamin Vaughan was in no wise diminished by
Vaughan's assumption, with an honesty which no one who knew
him would question, of this peculiar kind of mediatorship. And
in Jay Franklin's confidence was unabated. He more than once
said that no one could be found more suited than Jay to
represent the United States abroad. And when, in view of
death, he prepared to settle his estate, he selected; Jay as
his executor."
_F. Wharton,
The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence
of the United States,
chapter 9, section 111,
and chapter 13, section 158 (volume 1)._
Writing to M. de la Luzerne, the French Minister in the United
States, under date of December 19, 1782, Count de Vergennes
expressed himself on the conduct of the American Commissioners
as follows: "You will surely be gratified, as well as myself,
with the very extensive advantages, which our allies, the
Americans, are to receive from the peace; but you certainly
will, not be less surprised than I have been, at the conduct
of the Commissioners. According to the instructions of
Congress, they ought to have done nothing without our
participation. I have informed you, that the King did not seek
to influence the negotiation any further than his offices
might be necessary to his friends. The American Commissioners
will not say that I have interfered, and much less that I have
wearied them with my curiosity. They have cautiously kept
themselves at a distance from me. Mr. Adams, one of them,
coming from Holland, where he had been received and served by
our ambassador, had been in Paris nearly three weeks, without
imagining that he owed me any mark of attention, and probably
I should not have seen him till this time, if I had not caused
him to be reminded of it. Whenever I have had occasion to see
anyone of them, and inquire of them briefly respecting the
progress of the negotiation, they have constantly clothed
their speech in generalities, giving me to understand that it
did not go forward, and that they had no confidence in the
sincerity of the British ministry. Judge of my surprise, when,
on the 30th of November, Dr. Franklin informed me that the
articles were signed. The reservation retained on our account
does not save the infraction of the promise, which we have
mutually made, not to sign except conjointly.
{3287}
I owe Dr. Franklin the justice to state, however, that on the
next day he sent me a copy of the articles. He will hardly
complain that I received them without demonstrations of
sensibility. It was not till some days after, that, when this
minister had come to see me, I allowed myself to make him
perceive that his proceeding in this abrupt signature of the
articles had little in it, which could be agreeable to the
King. He appeared sensible of it, and excused, in the best
manner he could, himself and his colleagues. Our conversation
was amicable."
_J. Bigelow,
Life of Benjamin Franklin,
volume 3, page 207, note._
ALSO IN:
_J. Jay,
The Peace Negotiations of 1782-3
(Narrative and Critical History of America,
volume 7, chapter 2)._
_E. Fitzmaurice,
Life of the Earl of Shelburne,
volume 3, chapter 6._
_E. E. Hale,
Franklin in France,
volume 2, chapters 5-8._
_H. Doniol,
Histoire de la Participation de la France
à l'établissement des États-Unis d'Amérique, tome 5._
See, also, ENGLAND: A. D. 1782-1783.
[Image: Map of the United States.]
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1782-1783.
Grievances of the Army.
The Newburgh Addresses.
"Nothing had been done by Congress for the claims of the army,
and it seemed highly probable that it would be disbanded
without even a settlement of the accounts of the officers, and
if so, that they would never receive their dues. Alarmed and
irritated by the neglect of Congress; destitute of money and
credit and of the means of living from day to day; oppressed
with debts; saddened by the distresses of their families at
home, and by the prospect of misery before them,—they
presented a memorial to Congress in December [1782], in which
they urged the immediate adjustment of their dues, and offered
to commute the half-pay for life, granted by the resolve of
October, 1780, for full pay for a certain number of years, or
for such a sum in gross as should be agreed on by their
committee sent to Philadelphia to attend the progress of the
memorial through the house. It is manifest from statements in
this document, as well as from other evidence, that the
officers were nearly driven to desperation, and that their
offer of commutation was wrung from them by a state of public
opinion little creditable to the country. … The committee of
the officers were in attendance upon Congress during the whole
winter, and early in March, 1783, they wrote to their
constituents that nothing had been done. At this moment, the
predicament in which Washington stood, in the double relation
of citizen and soldier, was critical and delicate in the
extreme. In the course of a few days, all his firmness and
patriotism, all his sympathies as an officer, on the one side,
and his fidelity to the government, on the other, were
severely tried. On the 10th of March, an anonymous address was
circulated among the officers at Newburgh, calling a meeting
of the general and field officers, and of one officer from
each company, and one from the medical staff, to consider the
late letter from their representatives at Philadelphia, and to
determine what measures should be adopted to obtain that
redress of grievances which they seemed to have solicited in
vain. It was written with great ability and skill [by John
Armstrong, afterwards General]. … Washington met the crisis
with firmness, but also with conciliation. He issued orders
forbidding an assemblage at the call of an anonymous paper,
and directing the officers to assemble on Saturday, the 15th,
to hear the report of their committee, and to deliberate what
further measures ought to be adopted as most rational and best
calculated to obtain the just and important object in view.
The senior officer in rank present [General Gates] was
directed to preside, and to report the result to the
Commander-in-chief. On the next day after these orders were
issued, a second anonymous address appeared from the same
writer. In this paper he affected to consider the orders of
General Washington, assuming the direction of the meeting, as
a sanction of the whole proceeding which he had proposed.
Washington saw, at once, that he must be present at the
meeting himself, or that his name would be used to justify
measures which he intended to discountenance and prevent. He
therefore attended the meeting, and under his influence,
seconded by that of Putnam, Knox, Brooks, and Howard, the
result was the adoption of certain resolutions, in which the
officers, after reasserting their grievances, and rebuking all
attempts to seduce them from their civil allegiance, referred
the whole subject of their claims again to the consideration
of Congress. Even at this distant day, the peril of that
crisis can scarcely be contemplated without a shudder. Had the
Commander-in-chief been other than Washington, had the leading
officers by whom he was surrounded been less than the noblest
of patriots, the land would have been deluged with the blood
of a civil war."
_G. T. Curtis,
History of the Constitution of the United States,
book 2, chapter 1 (volume 1)._
ALSO IN:
_J. Marshall,
Life of Washington,
volume 4, chapter 11._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1782-1784.
Persecution and flight of the Tories or Loyalists.
See TORIES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1783 (April).
Formation of the Society of the Cincinnati.
See CINCINNATI, THE SOCIETY OF THE.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1783 (September).
The definitive Treaty of Peace between Great Britain and
the United States.
The four difficult questions on which the British and American
negotiators at Paris arrived, after much discussion and wise
compromise, at a settlement of differences originally wide,
were
(1) Boundaries;
(2) Fishing rights;
(3) Payment of debts from American to British merchants that
were outstanding when the war began;
(4) Amnesty to American loyalists, or Tories, and restoration
of their confiscated property.
Within two months after the separate negotiations with England
opened an agreement had been reached, and preliminary or
provisional articles were signed on the 30th of November,
1782. The treaty was not to take effect, otherwise than by the
cessation of hostilities, until terms of peace should be
agreed upon between England and France. This occurred in the
following January, and on the 3d of September, 1783, the
definitive Treaty of Peace between Great Britain and the
United States was signed [at Paris]. Its essential provisions
were the following:
"Article 1.
His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United States,
viz. New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, and
Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina,
South Carolina, and Georgia, to be free, sovereign and
independent States; that he treats with them as such, and for
himself, his heirs and successors, relinquishes all claims to
the Government, propriety and territorial rights of the same,
and every part thereof.
{3288}
Article II.
And that all disputes which might arise in future, on the
subject of the boundaries of the United States may be
prevented, it is hereby agreed and declared, that the
following are, and shall be their boundaries, viz: From the
north-west angle of Nova Scotia, viz. that angle which is
formed by a line drawn due north from the source of Saint
Croix River to the Highlands; along the said Highlands which
divide those rivers that empty themselves into the river St.
Lawrence, from those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean, to
the northwestern most head of Connecticut River; thence down
along the middle of that river, to the 45th degree of north
latitude; from thence, by a line due west on the said
latitude, until it strikes the river Iroquois or Cataraquy;
thence along the middle of said river into Lake Ontario,
through the middle of said lake until it strikes the
communication by water between that lake and Lake Erie; thence
along the middle of said communication into Lake Erie, through
the middle of said lake until it arrives at the water
communication between that lake and Lake Huron; thence along
the middle of said water communication into the Lake Huron;
thence through the middle of said lake to the water
communication between that lake and Lake Superior; thence
through Lake Superior northward of the Isles Royal and
Philipeaux, to the Long Lake; thence through the middle of
said Long Lake, and the water communication between it and the
Lake of the Woods, to the said Lake of the Woods; thence through
the said lake to the most northwestern point thereof, and from
thence on a due west course to the river Mississippi; thence
by a line to be drawn along the middle of the said river
Mississippi until it shall intersect the northernmost part of
the 31st degree of north latitude. South, by a line to be
drawn due east from the determination of the line last
mentioned, in the latitude of 31 degrees north of the Equator,
to the middle of the river Apalachicola or Catahouche; thence
along the middle thereof to its junction with the Flint River;
thence strait to the head of St. Mary's River; and thence down
along the middle of St. Mary's River to the Atlantic Ocean.
East, by a line to be drawn along the middle of the river St.
Croix, from its mouth in the Bay of Fundy to its source, and
from its source directly north to the aforesaid Highlands,
which divide the rivers that fall into the Atlantic Ocean from
those which fall into the river St. Lawrence; comprehending all
islands within twenty leagues of any part of the shores of the
United States, and lying between lines to be drawn due east
from the points where the aforesaid boundaries between Nova
Scotia on the one part, and East Florida on the other, shall
respectively touch the Bay of Fundy and the Atlantic Ocean;
excepting such islands as now are, or heretofore have been,
within the limits of the said province of Nova Scotia.
Article III.
It is agreed that the people of the United States shall
continue to enjoy unmolested the right to take fish of every
kind on the Grand Bank, and on all the other banks of
Newfoundland; also in the Gulph of Saint Lawrence, and at all
other places in the sea where the inhabitants of both
countries used at any time heretofore to fish. And also that
the inhabitants of the United States shall have liberty to
take fish of every kind on such part of the coast of
Newfoundland as British fishermen shall use (but not to dry or
cure the same on that island) and also on the coasts, bays, and
creeks of all other of His Britannic Majesty's dominions in
America; and that the American fishermen shall have liberty to
dry and cure fish in any of the unsettled bays, harbours, and
creeks of Nova Scotia, Magdalen Islands, and Labrador, so long
as the same shall remain unsettled; but so soon as the same or
either of them shall be settled, it shall not be lawful for
the said fishermen to dry or cure fish at such settlement,
without a previous agreement for that purpose with the
inhabitants, proprietors, or possessors of the ground.
Article IV.
It is agreed that creditors on either side shall meet with no
lawful impediment to the recovery of the full value in
sterling money, of all bona fide debts heretofore contracted.
Article V.
It is agreed that the Congress shall earnestly recommend it to
the legislatures of the respective States, to provide for the
restitution of all estates, rights, and properties which have
been confiscated, belonging to real British subjects, and also
of the estates, rights, and properties of persons resident in
districts in the possession of His Majesty's arms, and who
have not borne arms against the said United States. …
Article VI.
That there shall be no future confiscations made, nor any
prosecutions commenced, against any person or persons for, or
by reason of the part which he or they may have taken in the
present war. …
Article VII.
There shall be a firm and perpetual peace between His
Britannic Majesty and the said States, and between the
subjects of the one and the citizens of the other, wherefore
all hostilities, both by sea and land, shall from henceforth
cease: All prisoners on both sides shall be set at liberty,
and His Britannic Majesty shall, with all convenient speed,
and without causing any destruction, or carrying away any
negroes or other property of the American inhabitants,
withdraw all his armies, garrisons, and fleets from the said
United States. …
Article VIII.
The navigation of the river Mississippi, from its source to
the ocean, shall forever remain free and open to the subjects
of Great Britain, and the citizens of the United States."
_Documents Illustrative of American History,
edited by H. W. Preston,
page 232._
ALSO IN:
_Treaties and Conventions between the United States
and other Powers (edition of 1889),
pages 370-379._
_Parliamentary History of England,
volume 23._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1783 (November-December).
The British evacuation of New York.
Dissolution of the Continental Army and Washington's
farewell to it.
"The definitive treaty had been signed at Paris on the 3d of
September, 1783, and was soon to be ratified by the United
States in Congress assembled. The last remnant of the British
army in the east had sailed down the Narrows on the 25th of
November, a day which, under the appellation of Evacuation
Day, was long held in grateful remembrance by the inhabitants
of New York, and was, till a few years since, annually
celebrated with fireworks and with military display. Of the
continental army scarce a remnant was then [at the beginning
of 1784] in the service of the States, and these few were
under the command of General Knox. His great work of
deliverance over, Washington had resigned his commission, had
gone back to his estate on the banks of the Potomac, and was
deeply engaged with plans for the improvement of his
plantations.
{3289}
The retirement to private life of the American Fabius, as the
newspapers delighted to call him, had been attended by many
pleasing ceremonies, and had been made the occasion for new
manifestations of affectionate regard by the people. The same
day that witnessed the departure of Sir Guy Carleton from New
York also witnessed the entry into that city of the army of
the States. Nine days later Washington bid adieu to his
officers. About noon on Thursday, the 4th of December, the
chiefs of the army assembled in the great room of Fraunces's
Tavern, then the resort of merchants and men of fashion, and
there Washington joined them. Rarely as he gave way to his
emotions, he could not on that day get the mastery of them. …
He filled a glass from a decanter that stood on the table,
raised it with a trembling hand, and said: 'With a heart full
of love and gratitude I now take leave of you, and most
devoutly wish your latter days may be as prosperous and happy
as your former ones have been glorious and honorable.' Then he
drank to them, and, after a pause, said: 'I cannot come to
each of you to take my leave, but shall be obliged if you will
each come and shake me by the hand.' General Knox came forward
first, and Washington embraced him. The other officers
approached one by one, and silently took their leave. A line
of infantry had been drawn up extending from the tavern to
Whitehall ferry, where a barge was in waiting to carry the
commander across the Hudson to Paulus Hook. Washington, with
his officers following, walked down the line of soldiers to
the water. The streets, the balconies, the windows, were
crowded with gazers. All the churches in the city sent forth a
joyous din. Arrived at the ferry, he entered the barge in
silence, stood up, took off his hat and waved farewell. Then,
as the boat moved slowly out into the stream amid the shouts
of the citizens, his companions in arms stood bareheaded on
the shore till the form of their illustrious commander was
lost to view."
_J. B. McMaster,
History of the People of the United States,
chapter 2 (volume 1)._
ALSO IN:
_W. Irving,
Life of Washington,
volume 4, chapter 33._
_Mrs. M. J. Lamb,
History of the City of New York,
volume 2, chapters 6-7._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1783-1787.
After the war.
Resistance to the stipulations of the Treaty of Peace.
National feebleness and humiliation.
Failure of the Articles of Confederation.
Movements toward a firmer Constitution.
"The revolution was at last accomplished. The evils it had
removed, being no longer felt, were speedily forgotten. The
evils it had brought pressed heavily upon them. They could
devise no remedy. They saw no way of escape. They soon began
to grumble, became sullen, hard to please, dissatisfied with
themselves and with everything done for them. The States,
differing in habits, in customs, in occupations, had been
during a few years united by a common danger. But the danger
was gone; old animosities and jealousies broke forth again
with all their strength, and the union seemed likely to be
dissolved. In this state of public discontent the House met at
Philadelphia early in January, 1784. Some days were spent in
examining credentials of new members, and in waiting for the
delinquents to come in. It was not till the 14th of the month
that the definitive treaty was taken under consideration and
duly ratified. Nothing remained, therefore, but to carry out
the stipulations with as much haste as possible. But there
were some articles which the people had long before made up
their minds never should be carried out. While the treaty was
yet in course of preparation the royal commissioners had
stoutly insisted on the introduction of articles providing for
the return of the refugees and the payment of debts due to
British subjects at the opening of the war. The commissioners
on behalf of the United States, who well knew the tempers of
their countrymen, had at first firmly stood out against any
such articles. But some concessions were afterward made by
each party, and certain stipulations touching the debts and
the refugees inserted. Adams, who wrote in the name of his
fellow-commissioners, … hoped that the middle line adopted
would be approved. The middle line to which Adams referred was
that Congress should recommend the States to make no more
seizures of the goods and property of men lately in arms
against the Confederation, and to put no bar in the way of the
recovery of such as had already been confiscated. It was
distinctly understood by each side that these were
recommendations, and nothing more than recommendations. Yet no
sooner were they made known than a shout of indignation and
abuse went up from all parts of the country. The community in
a moment was divided between three parties. The smallest of
the three was made up of the Tories, who still hoped for place
and power, and still nursed the delusion that the past would
be forgotten. Yet they daily contributed to keep the
remembrance of it alive by a strong and avowed attachment to
Great Britain. Opposed to these was the large and influential
body of violent Whigs, who insisted vehemently that every
loyalist should instantly be driven from the States. A less
numerous and less violent body of Whigs constituted the third
party." The fury of the violent Whigs proved generally
irresistible and great numbers of the obnoxious Tories fled
before it.
See TORIES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
Some "sought a refuge in Florida, then a possession of Spain,
and founded settlements which their descendants have since
raised to prosperous and beautiful villages, renowned for
groves of orange-trees and fields of cane. Others embarked on
the British ships of war, and were carried to Canada or the
island of Bermuda; a few turned pirates, obtained a sloop, and
scoured the waters of Chesapeake bay. Many went to England,
beset the ministry with petitions for relief, wearied the
public with pathetic stories of the harsh ingratitude with
which their sufferings had been requited, and were accused,
with much show of reason, by the Americans of urging the
severe restrictions which England began to lay on American
commerce. Many more … set out for Nova Scotia. … The open
contempt with which, in all parts of the country, the people
treated the recommendation of Congress concerning the refugees
and the payment of the debts, was no more than any man of
ordinary sagacity could have foretold. Indeed, the state into
which Congress had fallen was most wretched. … Each of the
thirteen States the Union bound together retained all the
rights of sovereignty, and asserted them punctiliously against
the central government.
{3290}
Each reserved to itself the right to put up mints, to strike
money, to levy taxes, to raise armies, to say what articles
should come into its ports free and what should be made to pay
duty. Toward the Continental Government they acted precisely
as if they were dealing with a foreign power. In truth, one of
the truest patriots of New England had not been ashamed to
stand up in his place in the Massachusetts House of Deputies
and speak of the Congress of the States as a foreign
government. Every act of that body was scrutinized with the
utmost care. The transfer of the most trivial authority beyond
the borders of the State was made with protestations, with
trembling, and with fear. Under such circumstances, each
delegate felt himself to have much the character, and to be
clothed with very much of the power, of ambassadors. He was
not responsible to men, he was responsible to a State. … From
beginning to end the system of representation was bad. By the
Articles of Confederation each of the thirteen little
republics was annually to send to Congress not more than seven
and not less than two delegates. No thought was taken of
population. … But this absolute equality of the States was
more apparent than real. Congress possessed no revenue. The
burden of supporting the delegates was cast on those who sent
them, and, as the charge was not light, a motive was at once
created for preferring a representation of two to a
representation of seven, or, indeed, for sending none at all.
While the war was still raging and the enemy marching and
counter-marching within the border of every State, a sense of
fear kept up the number of delegates to at least two. Indeed,
some of the wealthier and more populous States often had as
many as four congressmen on the floor of the House. But the
war was now over. The stimulus derived from the presence of a
hostile army was withdrawn, and the representation and
attendance fell off fast. Delaware and Georgia ceased to be
represented. From the ratification of the treaty to the
organization of the Government under the Constitution six
years elapsed, and during those six years Congress, though
entitled to 91 members, was rarely attended by 25. The House
was repeatedly forced to adjourn day after day for want of a
quorum. On more than one occasion these adjournments covered a
period of thirteen consecutive days. … No occasion, however
impressive or important, could call out a large attendance.
Seven States, represented by twenty delegates, witnessed the
resignation of Washington. Twenty-three members, sitting for
eleven States, voted for the ratification of the treaty. … It
is not surprising, therefore, that Congress speedily
degenerated into a debating club, and a debating club of no
very high order. Neglected by its own members, insulted and
threatened by its mutinous troops, reviled by the press, and
forced to wander from city to city in search of an abiding
place, its acts possessed no national importance whatever. It
voted monuments that never were put up, rewarded meritorious
services with sums of money that never were paid, formed wise
schemes for the relief of the finances that never were carried
out, and planned on paper a great city that never was built.
In truth, to the scoffers and malcontents of that day, nothing
was more diverting than the uncertain wanderings of Congress.
… In the coffee-houses and taverns no toasts were drunk with
such uproarious applause as 'A hoop to the barrel' and 'Cement
to the Union'; toasts which not long before had sprung up in
the army and come rapidly into vogue. … The men who, in after
years, came to eminence as the framers of the Constitution,
who became renowned leaders of the Federalists, presidents,
cabinet ministers, and constitutional statesmen, were then in
private life, abroad, or in the State Assemblies. Washington
was busy with his negroes and tobacco; Adams was minister to
Holland; Jefferson still sat in Congress, but was soon to be
sent as minister to France; Madison sat in the Virginia House
of Deputies; Hamilton was wrangling with Livingston and Burr
at the bar of New York; Jay was minister to Spain."
_J. B. McMaster,
History of the People of the United States,
volume 1, chapter 2._
Hamilton's description, in one of the papers of the
Federalist, of the state of the country in 1787, is very
graphic: "We may indeed, with propriety," he wrote, "be said
to have reached almost the last stage of National humiliation.
There is scarcely anything that can wound the pride, or
degrade the character of an independent nation, which we do
not experience. Are there engagements, to the performance of
which we are held by every tie respectable among men? These
are the subjects of constant and unblushing violation. Do we
owe debts to foreigners, and to our own citizens, contracted
in a time of imminent peril, for the preservation of our
political existence! These remain without any proper or
satisfactory provision for their discharge. Have we valuable
territories and important posts in the possession of a foreign
power, which, by express stipulations, ought long since to
have been surrendered! These are still retained, to the
prejudice of our interests not less than of our rights. Are we
in a condition to resent or to repel the aggression? We have
neither troops, nor treasury, nor Government. Are we even in a
condition to remonstrate with dignity? The just imputations on
our own faith, in respect to the same treaty, ought first to
be removed. Are we entitled by nature and compact to a free
participation in the navigation of the Mississippi? Spain
excludes us from it. Is public credit an indispensable
resource in time of public danger? We seem to have abandoned
its cause as desperate and irretrievable. Is commerce of
importance to National wealth? Ours is at the lowest point of
declension. Is respectability in the eyes of foreign powers a
safeguard against foreign encroachments? The imbecility of our
Government even forbids them to treat with us. Our ambassadors
abroad are the mere pageants of mimic sovereignty. Is a
violent and unnatural decrease in the value of land a symptom
of National distress? The price of improved land in most parts
of the country is much lower than can be accounted for by the
quantity of waste land at market, and can only be fully
explained by that want of private and public confidence, which
are so alarmingly prevalent among all ranks, and which have a
direct tendency to depreciate property of every kind. Is
private credit the friend and patron of industry? That most
useful kind which relates to borrowing and lending is reduced
within the narrowest limits, and this still more from an
opinion of insecurity than from the scarcity of money.
{3291}
To shorten an enumeration of particulars which can afford
neither pleasure nor instruction, it may in general be
demanded what indication is there of National disorder,
poverty, and insignificance, that could befall a community so
peculiarly blessed with natural advantages as we are, which
does not form a part of the dark catalogue of our public
misfortunes? … The great and radical vice in the construction
of the existing Confederation is in the principle of
legislation for States or Governments, in their corporate or
collective capacities, and as contradistinguished from the
individuals of which they consist. Though this principle does
not run through all the powers delegated to the Union, yet it
pervades and governs those on which the efficacy of the rest
depends. Except as to the rule of apportionment, the United
States have an indefinite discretion to make requisitions for
men and money, but they have no authority to raise either, by
regulations extending to the individual citizens of America.
The consequence of this is, that, though in theory their
resolutions concerning those objects are laws,
constitutionally binding on the members of the Union, yet in
practice they are mere recommendations, which the States
observe or disregard at their option. … There is nothing
absurd or impracticable in the idea of a league or alliance
between independent nations, for certain defined purposes
precisely stated in a treaty; regulating all the details of
time, place, circumstance, and quantity; leaving nothing to
future discretion; and depending for its execution on the good
faith of the parties. … If the particular States in this
country are disposed to stand in a similar relation to each
other, and to drop the project of a general discretionary
superintendence, the scheme would indeed be pernicious, and
would entail upon us all the mischiefs which have been
enumerated under the first head; but it would have the merit
of being, at least, consistent and practicable. Abandoning all
views towards a Confederate Government, this would bring us to
a simple alliance offensive and defensive; and would place us
in a situation to be alternately friends and enemies of each
other, as our mutual jealousies and rivalships, nourished by
the intrigues of foreign nations, should prescribe to us. But
if we are unwilling to be placed in this perilous situation;
if we still will adhere to the design of a National
Government, or, which is the same thing, of a superintending
power, under the direction of a common Council, we must
resolve to incorporate into our plan those ingredients which
may be considered as forming the characteristic difference
between a league and a Government; we must extend the
authority of the Union to the persons of the citizens,—the
only proper objects of Government."
_Alexander Hamilton,
The Federalist,
number 15._
"Many of the States refused or neglected to pay even their
allotted shares of interest upon the public debt, and there
was no power in Congress to compel payment. Eighteen months
were required to collect only one-fifth of the taxes assigned
to the States in 1783. The national credit became worthless.
Foreign nations refused to make commercial treaties with the
United States, preferring a condition of affairs in which they
could lay any desired burden upon American commerce without
fear of retaliation by an impotent Congress. The national
standing army had dwindled to a corps of 80 men. In 1785
Algiers declared war against the United States. Congress
recommended the building of five 40-gun ships of war. But
Congress had only power to recommend. The ships were not
built, and the Algerines were permitted to prey on American
commerce with impunity. England still refused to carry out the
Treaty of 1783, or to send a Minister to the United States.
The Federal Government, in short, was despised abroad and
disobeyed at home. The apparent remedy was the possession by
Congress of the power of levying and collecting internal taxes
and duties on imports, but, after long urging, it was found
impossible to gain the necessary consent of all the States to
the article of taxation by Congress. In 1786, therefore, this
was abandoned, and, as a last resort, the States were asked to
pass an Amendment intrusting to Congress the collection of a
revenue from imports. This Amendment was agreed to by all the
States but one. New York alone rejected it, after long debate,
and her veto seemed to destroy the last hope of a continuance
of national union in America. Perhaps the dismay caused by the
action of New York was the most powerful argument in the minds
of many for an immediate and complete revision of the
government. The first step to Revision was not so designed. In
1785 the Legislatures of Maryland and Virginia, in pursuance
of their right to regulate commerce, had appointed
Commissioners to decide on some method of doing away with
interruptions to the navigation of Chesapeake Bay. The
Commissioners reported their inability to agree, except in
condemning the Articles of Confederation. The Legislature of
Virginia followed the report by a resolution, inviting the
other States to meet at Annapolis, consider the defects of the
government, and suggest some remedy. In September, 1786,
delegates from five of the Middle States assembled, but
confined themselves to discussion, since a majority of the
States were not represented. The general conclusion was that
the government, as it then stood, was inadequate for the
protection, prosperity or comfort, of the people, and that
some immediate and thorough reform was needed. After drawing
up a report for their States and for Congress, recommending
another Convention to be held at Philadelphia, in May, 1787,
they adjourned. Congress, by resolution, approved their report
and the proposed Convention. The Convention met, as proposed,
May 14th, 1787."
_A. Johnston,
History of American Politics,
2d edition, chapter 1._
"Four years only elapsed, between the return of peace and the
downfall of a government which had been framed with the hope
and promise of perpetual duration. … But this brief interval
was full of suffering and peril. There are scarcely any evils
or dangers, of a political nature, and springing from
political and social causes, to which a free people can be
exposed, which the people of the United States did not
experience during that period."
_G. T. Curtis,
History of the Constitution,
book 3, chapter 1_.
"It is not too much to say that the period of five years
following the peace of 1783 was the most critical moment in
all the history of the American people."
_J. Fiske,
Critical Period of American History,
page 55._
ALSO IN:
_J. S. Landon,
Constitutional History and Government of the United States,
lecture 3._
{3292}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1783-1789.
Depressed state of Trade and Industry.
Commercial consequences of the want of nationality.
"The effect of the Revolutionary War on the merchant marine of
the colonies, which thereby secured their independence as the
United States, was not so disastrous as might have been
expected. Many ships were lost or captured, and the gains of
maritime commerce were reduced; but to offset these losses an
active fleet of privateers found profitable employment in the
seizure of English merchantmen, and thus kept alive the
maritime spirit of the country, and supplied a revenue to the
shipowners whose legitimate pursuits were suspended by the
war. In 1783, therefore, the American merchant marine was in a
fairly healthy condition. During the next six years the
disadvantages of the new situation made themselves felt.
Before the Revolution the colonies had had open trade with
their fellow-subjects in the British West India Islands. The
commerce thus carried on was a very profitable business. The
island colonies were supplied with lumber, corn, fish, live
stock, and surplus farm produce, which the continent furnished
in abundance, together with rough manufactured articles such
as pipe staves, and in return the ships of New York and New
England brought back great quantities of coffee, sugar,
cotton, rum, and indigo. … As a result of independence, the
West India business was entirely cut off. The merchantmen of
the United States then came in on the footing of foreign
vessels, and all such vessels, under the terms of the
Navigation Act, were rigorously excluded from trade with the
British colonies. It was evident, however, that the sudden
cessation of this trade, whatever loss it might inflict on the
newly created state, would be tenfold more harmful to the
islands, which had so long depended upon their neighbors of
the mainland for the necessaries of life. Pitt, then
Chancellor of the Exchequer, appreciated this difficulty, and
in 1783 brought a bill into Parliament granting open trade as
to articles that were the produce of either country. The
measure failed, owing to Pitt's resignation, and the next
ministry, in consequence of the violent opposition of British
shipowners, passed a merely temporary act, vesting in the
crown the power of regulating trade with America. This power
was occasionally exercised by suspending certain provisions of
the navigation laws, under annual proclamations, but it did
not serve to avert the disaster that Pitt had foreseen.
Terrible sufferings visited the population of the West India
colonies, and between 1780 and 1787 as many as 15,000 slaves
perished from starvation, having been unable to obtain the
necessary supply of food when their own crops had been
destroyed by hurricanes. Apart from the unfavorable condition
of the West India trade, another and more important cause had
operated to check the prosperous development of American
commerce. The only bond of political union at this time was
that formed by the Articles of Confederation, constituting a
mere league of independent States, any one of which could pass
laws calculated to injure the commerce of the others."
_J. R. Soley,
Maritime Industries of America
(The United States of America, edition by N. S. Shaler,
volume 1, chapter 10)._
"The general commerce of the granulated mass of communities
called the United States, from 1783 to 1780, was probably the
poorest commerce known in the whole history of the country.
England sent America £3,700,000 worth of merchandise in 1784,
and took in return only £750,000. The drain of specie to meet
this difference was very severe, and merchants could not meet
the engagements so rashly made. They had imported luxuries for
customers who were poor, and non-payment through all the
avenues of trade was the consequence. One circumstance and
detail of the internal management of this commerce added to
the distress and to the necessary difficulties of the time.
Immediately after the peace, British merchants, factors, and
clerks came across the seas in streams, to take advantage of
the new opportunities for trade. It seemed to the citizens to
be a worse invasion of their economic rights than the coming
of the troops had been to the political rights of the old
colonists. The whole country was agitated, but action was
initiated in Boston in 1785. The merchants met and discussed
all these difficulties. They pledged themselves to buy no more
goods of British merchants or factors in Boston. In about
three weeks the mechanics and artisans met in the old Green
Dragon Tavern and committed themselves to the same policy. But
the merchants went beyond mere non-intercourse with traders at
home. The root of the difficulty was in the ill-regulation or
want of regulation of our commerce with all foreign countries.
The confederation was giving and not getting. Where it should
have gotten, foreigners were getting, because the parts of the
country had not agreed to unite in acquiring for the common
benefit, lest some part should be injured in the process.
Congress made treaties for the Confederation. But if unable to
treat with any} power which excluded American shipping from
its ports, or laid duties on American produce, Congress did
not control our ports in an equivalent manner. Each individual
state was to decide whether the unfriendly power should trade
at its own ports. This in effect nullified any retaliatory
action. England, being the best market, virtually controlled
any change in commerce, as it was then conducted. Her ports
were closed to American products unless they were brought in
British vessels. France admitted our vessels to her ports, but
her merchants cried out against the competition. It was feared
that the ministers would be obliged to yield to their clamor
and close the ports. Probably the poor economic condition of
the country affected the foreign trade even more than the bad
adjustment of foreign relations. All causes combined to form
two parties, one advocating imposts upon foreign trade or a
Navigation Act, the other opposing this scheme, and insisting
upon absolute freedom of commerce. It was in this direction
that the Boston people moved, after they had instituted
non-intercourse in their own market with British traders. They
petitioned Congress to remedy these embarrassments of trade,
and sent a memorial to their own legislature. This document
urged that body to insist on action by Congress. They formed a
Committee of Correspondence to enforce these plans upon the
whole country."
_W. B. Weeden,
Economic and Social History of New England, 1620-1780,
chapter 22 (volume 2)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1784.
Plans for new States in the Northwest Territory.
See NORTHWEST TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES: A. D. 1784.
{3293}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1784.
Revolt in Tennessee against the
territorial cession to Congress.
The State of Franklin.
See TENNESSEE; A. D. 1776-1784; and 1785.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1784.
The first daily Newspaper publication.
See PRINTING and PRESS; A. D. 1784-1813.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1784.
The financial administration of Robert Morris.
Cost of the war.
From May, 1781, until April, 1785, the burden of the financial
management of the revolutionary struggle rested upon Robert
Morris, of Philadelphia, who held the office which Congress
had created and entitled "the Superintendent of Finances."
Morris's detractors argued that he deserved no great credit
for his management of the finances as compared with his
predecessors, because in his time everything turned in his
favour. It is true that if things had remained as before, he
could not have restored the finances; for the miracle of
carrying on a war without means has never yet been performed
by anybody. The events which gave him an opportunity to
restore the finances, by intelligent and energetic action,
were as follows. The first was the collapse of the paper
currency and its absolute removal from circulation, in May,
1781, just before he took office. As soon as it was out of the
way, specie came in. He was able to throw aside all the
trammels in which the treasury operations had been entangled
by the paper system. It is true that he did not succeed in his
attempt to relieve himself entirely from these anticipations,
which, inasmuch as they were anticipations, would have used up
the revenues of his time; but it was a great gain for him to
be able to conduct his current operations at least in terms of
specie. The second thing in his favour was the great help
granted by France in 1781, and especially the importation of a
part of this in specie. This enabled him to found the bank,
from which he borrowed six times what he put into it. The
chief use of the bank to him, however, was to discount the
notes which he took for bills of exchange. Then also it was
possible for him to reduce the expenses in a way which his
predecessors had not had the courage or the opportunity to
accomplish, because in their time the abuses of the old method
had not gone far enough to force acquiescence in the reforms.
In Morris's time, and chiefly, as it appears, by his exertions
and merit, the expenditures were greatly reduced for an army
of a given size. When the war came to an end, it was possible
for him to reduce the entire establishment to a very low
scale. Next we notice that the efforts to introduce taxation
bore fruit which, although it was trivial in one point of
view, was large enough to be very important to him in his
desperate circumstances. Finally, when his need was the
greatest, and these advantages and opportunities proved
inadequate, the rise of American credit made the loan in
Holland possible, and this carried him through to the result.
… By the Report of 1790 the total amount of expenditures and
advances at the treasury of the United States, during the war,
in specie value, was estimated as follows;
1775 and 1776, $20,064,666.
1777, $24,986,646.
1778, $24,289,438.
1779, $10,794,620.
1780, $3,000,000.
1781, $1,942,465.
1782, $3,632,745.
1783, $3,226,583.
1784, $548,525 to November 1.
Total $92,485,693.
This table shows how the country lapsed into dependence on
France after the alliance was formed. The round number
opposite 1780 is very eloquent. It means anarchy and
guesswork. … According to the best records we possess, the
cost of the war to the United States, reduced to specie value
year by year at the official scale of depreciation, which,
being always below the truth, makes these figures too high,
was, as above stated, $92,485,693, at the treasury. There were
also certificates of indebtedness out for $16,708,009. There
had been expended in Europe, which never went through the
treasury, $5,000,000. The States were estimated to have
expended $21,000,000. Total, $135,000,000. Jefferson
calculated it at $140,000,000, by adding the debts incurred
and the continental currency. The debt contracted by England
during the war was £115,000,000, for which £91,000,000 were
realized. The Comptroller of the Treasury of France said that
it cost 60,000,000 livres a year to support the army in
America. Vergennes told Lafayette, in November, 1782, that
France had expended 250,000,000 livres in the war. There is an
often-repeated statement that the war cost France
1,200,000,000 livres, or 1,280,000,000, or 1,500,000,000.
Arthur Young put it at £50,000,000, sterling. Probably if
60,000,000 a year for five years, or $60,000,000, was taken as
the amount directly expended for and in America by France, it
would be as fair a computation as could be made of her
contribution to American independence. She had large
expenditures elsewhere in the prosecution of her war against
Great Britain, and her incidental losses of ships, etc., were
great. When England abandoned the effort to subdue the
colonies, she was in a far better position for continuing it
than either of her adversaries. George III. was by no means
stupid in his comments and suggestions about the war. No
Englishman of the period said things which now seem wiser in
the retrospect. As early as September, 1780, he said: 'America
is distressed to the greatest degree. The finances of France,
as well as Spain, are in no good situation: This war, like the
last, will prove one of credit.' This opinion was fully
justified in 1782. French finances were then hastening toward
bankruptcy, so that France could not continue the war expenses
or the loans and subsidies to America. English credit was
high. October 2, 1782, Vergennes wrote to Montmorin, that the
English fleet was stronger than at the beginning of the war,
while the fleets of France and Spain were weaker; that French
finances were greatly weakened, while English credit was high;
that England had recovered influence in Russia, and through
Russia on Prussia and Austria. He wanted peace and
reconciliation with England in order to act with her in
eastern Europe. If England had chosen to persevere in the war,
the matter of credit would have been the most important
element in her chances of success, aside from the natural
difficulties of the enterprise."
_W. G. Sumner,
The Financier and the Finances of the American Revolution,
chapter 23 (volume 2)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1784-1788.
Disputes with England over the execution of the Treaty of Peace.
Difficulties with Spain.
The question of the Navigation of the Mississippi.
Eastern jealousy and Western excitement.
{3294}
"Serious disputes soon arose, concerning the execution of the
treaty of peace; and each nation complained of infractions by
the other. On the part of the United States, it was alleged
that negroes had been carried away, contrary to the treaty;
and as early as May, 1783, congress instructed their ministers
for negotiating peace to remonstrate to the British court
against this conduct of their commander in America, and to
take measures to obtain reparation. The United States, also,
complained that the western posts had not been sur·rendered,
agreeably to treaty stipulations. Great Britain, on her part,
alleged that legal impediments had been interposed to prevent
the collection of British debts in America; and that the 5th
and 6th articles, relating to the property of the loyalists,
had not been complied with. In June, 1784, the legislature of
Virginia not only declared that there had been an infraction
on the part of Great Britain of the 7th article, in detaining
the slaves and other property of the citizens of the United
States, but instructed their delegates in congress to request
that a remonstrance be presented to the British court against
such infraction and to require reparation. They also directed
them to inform congress that the state of Virginia conceived a
just regard to the national honor and interest obliged her
assembly to withhold their co-operation in the complete
fulfilment of the treaty until the success of such
remonstrance was known, or they should have further directions
from congress. They at the same time declared, that as soon as
reparation for such infraction should be made, or congress
should judge it indispensably necessary, such acts as
inhibited the recovery of British debts should be repealed,
and payment made, in such time and manner as should consist
with the exhausted situation of the state. In consequence of
these difficulties and disputes, congress, early in the year
1785, determined to send a minister plenipotentiary to Great
Britain; and on the 24th of February John Adams was appointed
to represent the United States at the court of London. He was
instructed 'in a respectful but firm manner to insist that the
United States be put, without further delay, into possession
of all the posts and territories within their limits which are
now held by British garrisons.' … Mr. Jefferson was soon after
appointed to represent the United States at the court of
Versailles, in the room of Dr. Franklin, who had leave to
return home, after an absence of nine years. Mr. Livingston
having resigned the office of secretary of foreign affairs,
Mr. Jay, in March, 1784, and before his return from Europe,
was appointed in his place. Mr. Adams repaired to the British
court, and was received as the first minister from the United
States since their independence was acknowledged. … In
December, 1785, Mr. Adams presented a memorial to the British
secretary of state, in which, after stating the detention of
the western posts contrary to the stipulations in the treaty
of peace, he in the name and in behalf of the United States
required 'that all his majesty's armies and garrisons be
forthwith withdrawn from the said United States, from all and
every of the posts and fortresses before enumerated, and from
every port, place and harbor, within the territory of the said
United States, according to the true intention of the
treaties.' To this memorial the British secretary, lord
Carmarthen, returned an answer, on the 28th of February, 1786,
in which he acknowledges the detention of the posts, but
alleges a breach of the 4th article of the treaty of peace on
the part of the United States, by interposing impediments to
the recovery of British debts in America. … This answer was
accompanied with a statement of the various instances in which
the 4th article had been violated by acts of the states. The
complaints of Great Britain also extended to breaches of the
5th and 6th articles of the treaty, relating to the recovery
of certain property and to confiscations. The answer of the
British secretary was submitted to congress; and in order to
remove the difficulties complained of, that body, in March,
1787, unanimously declared that all the acts, or parts of
acts, existing in any of the states, repugnant to the treaty
of peace, ought to be repealed; and they recommended to the
states to make such repeal by a general law. … A circular
letter to the states accompanied these declarations, in which
congress say, 'we have deliberately and dispassionately
examined and considered the several facts and matters urged by
Great Britain, as infractions of the treaty of peace, on the
part of America, and we regret that, in some of the states,
too little attention has been paid to the public faith pledged
by that treaty.' In consequence of this letter, the states of
New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut,
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, passed acts
complying with the recommendations contained in it. The
operation of the act of Virginia, however, which repealed all
acts preventing the recovery of debts due to British subjects,
was suspended until the governor of that state should issue a
proclamation, giving notice that Great Britain had delivered
up the western posts, and was also taking measures for the
further fulfilment of the treaty of peace by delivering up the
negroes belonging to the citizens of that state, carried away
contrary to the 7th article of the treaty, or by making
compensation for the same. … The British court was not yet
disposed to enter into any commercial treaty with the United
States. The ministers were, no doubt, satisfied that the
advantages they enjoyed under their own regulations were
greater than could be obtained by any treaty they could make
with America. And this was, probably, one of the principal
reasons of their refusal to enter into any such treaty. As the
British court declined sending a minister to the United
States, Mr. Adams, in October, 1787, at his request, had leave
to return home. … The United States had also at this period to
encounter difficulties with Spain as well as Great Britain.
The two Floridas having been ceded to his catholic majesty,
serious disputes soon arose, not only on the old subject of
the navigation of the Mississippi, but with respect to the
boundaries of Louisiana and the ceded territory. The Spanish
court still persisted in its determination to exclude the
Americans from the navigation of the Mississippi. … In
December, 1784, congress declared it necessary to send a
minister to Spain, for the purpose of adjusting the
interfering claims of the two nations respecting the
navigation of the Mississippi, and other matters highly
interesting to the peace and good understanding which ought to
subsist between them. This was prevented by the appointment of
Don Diego Gardoqui, a minister from Spain, who arrived in the
United States and was acknowledged by congress in the summer
of 1785.
{3295}
Soon after his arrival, Mr. Jay, then secretary of foreign
affairs, was appointed to treat with the Spanish minister on
the part of the United States. … As Mr. Jay, by his
instructions, was not to conclude a treaty until the same was
communicated to congress and approved by them, and was also
specially directed to obtain a stipulation acknowledging the
right of the United States to their territorial claims and the
free navigation of the Mississippi, as established in their
treaty with Great Britain, he, on the 3d of August, 1786,
submitted to congress the … plan of a commercial treaty, and
stated the difficulties in obtaining the stipulation required.
… 'Circumstanced as we are [said Mr. Jay] I think it would be
expedient to agree that the treaty should be limited to twenty
five or thirty years, and that one of the articles should
stipulate that the United States would forbear to use the
navigation of that river below their territories to the ocean.
Thus the duration of the treaty and of the forbearance in
question should be limited to the same period.' … Among other
reasons, Mr. Jay stated that the navigation of the Mississippi
was not at that time very important, and would not probably
become so in less than twenty five or thirty years, and that a
forbearance to use it, while it was not wanted, was no great
sacrifice—that Spain then excluded the people of the United
States from that navigation; and that it could only be
acquired by war, for which the United States were not then
prepared; and that in case of war France would no doubt join
Spain. Congress were much divided on this interesting subject.
The seven states at the north, including Pennsylvania, were
disposed, in case a treaty could not otherwise be made, to
forbear the use of the navigation of the Mississippi below the
southern boundary of the United States, for a limited time,
and a resolution was submitted to congress repealing Mr. Jay's
instructions of the 25th of August, 1785, and which was
carried, seven states against five. … This, however, was to be
on the express condition that a stipulation of forbearance
should not be construed to extinguish the right of the United
States, independent of such stipulation, to use and navigate
said river from its source to the ocean; and that such
stipulation was not to be made unless it should be agreed in
the same treaty that the navigation and use of the said river
above such intersection to its source should be common to both
nations—and Mr. Jay was to make no treaty unless the
territorial limits of the United States were acknowledged and
secured according to the terms agreed between the United
States and Great Britain. … As by the confederation the assent
of nine states was necessary in making a treaty the same
number was considered requisite in giving specific
instructions in relation to it; … and it was questioned
whether the previous instructions given to Mr. Jay could be
rescinded without the assent of nine states. These proceedings
in congress, though with closed doors, soon became partly
known, and excited great alarm in Virginia and in the western
settlements. … While these negociations were pending, the
fertile country at the west was settling with a rapidity
beyond the most sanguine calculations; and it is not
surprising that the news of an actual or intended abandonment
of the navigation of the Mississippi, the only outlet for
their productions, should have excited great alarm among its
inhabitants. They were much exasperated by the seizure and
confiscation of American property by the Spaniards, on its way
down the river, which took place about the same time. The
proposition made in congress was magnified into an actual
treaty, and called from the western people most bitter
complaints and reproaches. … To quiet the apprehensions of the
western inhabitants, the delegates from North Carolina, in
September, 1788, submitted to congress a resolution declaring
that 'whereas many citizens of the United States, who possess
lands on the western waters, have expressed much uneasiness
from a report that congress are disposed to treat with Spain
for the surrender of their claim to the navigation of the
river Mississippi; in order therefore to quiet the minds of
our fellow citizens by removing such ill founded
apprehensions, resolved, that the United States have a clear,
absolute, and unalienable claim to the free navigation of the
river Mississippi, which claim is not only supported by the
express stipulations of treaties, but by the great law of
nature.' The secretary of foreign affairs, to whom this
resolution was referred, reported, that as the rumor mentioned
in the resolution was not warranted by the negociations
between the United States and Spain, the members be permitted
to contradict it, in the most explicit terms. Mr. Jay also
stated, there could be no objection to declaring the right of
the United States to the navigation of the river clear and
absolute—that this had always been his opinion; and that the
only question had been whether a modification of that right
for equivalent advantages was advisable; and though he
formerly thought such a modification might be proper, yet that
circumstances and discontents had since interposed to render
it questionable. He also advised that further negociations
with Spain be transferred to the new general government. On
this report, congress, on the 16th of September, 1788, in
order to remove the apprehensions of the western settlers,
declared that the members be permitted to contradict the
report referred to by the delegates from North Carolina; and
at the same time resolved 'that the free navigation of the
river Mississippi is a clear and essential right of the United
States, and that the same ought to be considered and supported
as such.' All further negociations with Spain were also
referred to the new federal government."
_T. Pitkin,
Political and Civil History of the United States,
chapter 17 (volume 2)._
"It was important for the frontiersmen to take the Lake Posts
from the British; but it was even more important to wrest from
the Spaniards the free navigation of the Mississippi. While
the Lake Posts were held by the garrisons of a foreign power,
the work of settling the northwestern territory was bound to
go forward slowly and painfully; but while the navigation of
the Mississippi was barred, even the settlements already
founded could not attain to their proper prosperity and
importance. … The Westerners were right in regarding as
indispensable the free navigation of the Mississippi. They
were right also in their determination ultimately to acquire
the control of the whole river, from the source to the mouth.
However, the Westerners wished more than the privilege of
sending down stream the products of their woods and pastures
and tilled farms.
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They had already begun to cast longing eyes on the fair
Spanish possessions. … Every bold, lawless, ambitious leader
among the frontier folk dreamed of wresting from the Spaniard
some portion of his rich and ill-guarded domain. It was not
alone the attitude of the frontiersmen towards Spain that was
novel, and based upon a situation for which there was little
precedent. Their relations with one another, with their
brethren of the seaboard, and with the Federal Government,
likewise had to be adjusted without much chance of profiting
by antecedent experience. Many phases of these relations
between the people who stayed at home and those who wandered
off to make homes, between the frontiersmen as they formed
young States, and the Central Government representing the old
States, were entirely new, and were ill-understood by both
parties. … The attitude towards the Westerners of certain
portions of the population in the older States, and especially
in the northeastern States, was one of unreasoning jealousy
and suspicion; and though this mental attitude rarely
crystallized into hostile deeds, its very existence, and the
knowledge that it did exist, embittered the men of the West. …
In the northeastern States, and in New England especially,
this feeling showed itself for two generations after the close
of the Revolutionary War. On the whole the New Englanders have
exerted a more profound and wholesome influence upon the
development of our common country than has ever been exerted
by any other equally numerous body of our people. They have
led the nation in the path of civil liberty and sound
governmental administration. But too often they have viewed
the nation's growth and greatness from a narrow and provincial
standpoint, and have grudgingly acquiesced in, rather than led
the march towards, continental supremacy. In shaping the
nation's policy for the future their sense of historic
perspective seemed imperfect. … The extreme representatives of
this northeastern sectionalism not only objected to the growth
of the West at the time now under consideration, but even
avowed a desire to work it harm, by shutting the Mississippi,
so as to benefit the commerce of the Atlantic States. … These
intolerant extremists not only opposed the admission of the
young western States into the Union, but at a later date
actually announced that the annexation by the United States of
vast territories beyond the Mississippi offered just cause for
the secession of the northeastern States. Even those who did
not take such an advanced ground felt an unreasonable dread
lest the West might grow to overtop the East in power. … A
curious feature of the way many honest men looked at the West
was their inability to see how essentially transient were some
of the characteristics to which they objected. Thus they were
alarmed at the turbulence and the lawless shortcomings of
various kinds which grew out of the conditions of frontier
settlement and sparse population. They looked with anxious
foreboding to the time when the turbulent and lawless people
would be very numerous, and would form a dense and powerful
population; failing to see that in exact proportion as the
population became dense, the conditions which caused the
qualities to which they objected would disappear. Even the men
who had too much good sense to share these fears, even men as
broadly patriotic as Jay, could not realize the extreme
rapidity of western growth. Kentucky and Tennessee grew much
faster than any of the old frontier colonies had ever grown;
and from sheer lack of experience, eastern statesmen could not
realize that this rapidity of growth made the navigation of
the Mississippi a matter of immediate and not of future
interest to the West. … While many of the people on the
eastern seaboard thus took an indefensible position in
reference to the trans-Alleghany settlements, in the period
immediately succeeding the Revolution, there were large bodies
of the population of these same settlements, including very
many of their popular leaders, whose own attitude towards the
Union was, if anything, more blameworthy. They were clamorous
about their rights, and were not unready to use veiled threats
of disunion when they deemed these rights infringed; but they
showed little appreciation of their own duties to the Union. …
They demanded that the United States wrest from the British
the Lake Posts, and from the Spaniards the navigation of the
Mississippi. Yet they seemed incapable of understanding that
if they separated from the Union they would thereby forfeit
all chance of achieving the very purposes they had in view,
because they would then certainly be at the mercy of Britain,
and probably, at least for some time, at the mercy of Spain
also. They opposed giving the United States the necessary
civil and military power, although it was only by the
possession and exercise of such power that it would be
possible to secure for the westerners what they wished. In all
human probability, the whole country round the Great Lakes
would still be British territory, and the mouth of the
Mississippi still in the hands of some European power, had the
folly of the separatists won the day and had the West been
broken up into independent states. … This final triumph of the
Union party in these first-formed frontier States was fraught
with immeasurable good."
_T. Roosevelt,
The Winning of the West,
volume 3, chapter 3._
See FLORIDA: A. D. 1783-1787;
and LOUISIANA: A. D. 1785-1800.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1785-1787.
First troubles and dealings with the Barbary pirates.
See BARBARY STATES: A. D. 1785-1801.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1786-1787.
Shay's Rebellion in Massachusetts.
See MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1786-1787.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1787.
The, Ordinance for the Government of the Northwest Territory.
Exclusion of Slavery forever.
See NORTHWEST TERRITORY: A. D. 1787;
also, EDUCATION, MODERN: AMERICA: A. D. 1785-1880.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1787.
The framing of the Federal Constitution.
The Union constructed of compromises.
The convention of delegates appointed to revise the Articles
of Confederation, but which took upon itself the task of
framing anew a Federal Constitution for the States, assembled
at Philadelphia on the 25th of May, 1787, eleven days later
than the day appointed for its meeting. "The powers conferred
by the several states were not uniform. Virginia,
Pennsylvania, and New Jersey appointed their delegates 'for
the purpose of revising the Federal Constitution;' North
Carolina, New Hampshire, Delaware, and Georgia 'to decide upon
the most effectual means to remove the defects of the Federal
Union;' New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut 'for the sole
and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation;'
South Carolina and Maryland 'to render the Federal
Constitution entirely adequate to the actual situation.'
{3297}
Rhode Island held aloof. She was governed by a class of men
who wanted to pay their debts in paper money, and she did not
wish to surrender her power to collect duties upon the goods
that came into her port. The trade of Newport at that day
surpassed that of New York. Connecticut came in reluctantly,
and New Hampshire late in July, 1787. … Washington was made
president of the convention. … Many names great in the
revolutionary struggle were absent from the roll of delegates.
John and Samuel Adams, and John Hancock, were not there.
Patrick Henry of Virginia refused to attend. Thomas Jefferson
and John Jay were absent from the country. George Washington
and Benjamin Franklin, however, were there. … Among the
younger men was James Madison of Virginia. … Alexander
Hamilton came from New York. … Charles C. Pinckney was a
delegate from South Carolina. … James Wilson of Pennsylvania
was a Scotchman. He surpassed all others in his exact
knowledge of the civil and common law, and the law of nations.
… Oliver Ellsworth and Roger Sherman came from Connecticut. …
Many of the 55 delegates shared Hamilton's contempt for a
democracy, but the strength they would repose in a government
they preferred to retain in the states. … The first business
of the convention was the adoption of rules. Each state was to
have one vote. Such was the rule in the Confederate Congress.
Seven states made a quorum. The convention was to sit with
closed doors, and everything was to be kept secret: nothing
was to be given to the public except the completed work. This
injunction of secrecy was never removed. Fortunately James
Madison kept a pretty full account of the debates and
proceedings, all in his own hand."
_J. S. Landon,
Constitutional History and Government of the United States,
lecture 3._
"Madison tells us in his report of these debates that previous
to the opening of the Convention it had been a subject of
discussion among the members present, as to how the States
should vote in the Convention. Several of the members from
Pennsylvania had urged that the large States unite in refusing
to the small States an equal vote, but Virginia, believing
this to be injudicious if not unjust, ' discountenanced and
stilled the project.' On the 29th the real business of the
Convention was opened by Edmund Randolph, who as Governor of
Virginia was put forward as spokesman by his colleagues. He
began by saying that as the Convention had originated from
Virginia, and the delegation from this State supposed that
some proposition was expected from them, the task had been
imposed on him. After enumerating the defects of the
Confederation, he detailed the remedy proposed. This latter
was set forth in fifteen resolutions and was called afterwards
the Virginia plan of government. Charles Pinckney from South
Carolina had also a draft of a federal government, which was
read and like the former referred to a committee of the whole
House. … The Committee of the Whole … debated from day to day
the resolutions contained in the Virginia plan, and on the
13th of June they reported nineteen resolutions based upon
those of Virginia, forming a system of government in outline.
On the following day Mr. Paterson, of New Jersey, asked for
time to prepare another plan founded on the Articles of
Confederation. This was submitted to the Convention on the
15th. The Virginia and the New Jersey plan were contrasted
briefly by one of the members: Virginia plan proposes two
branches in the legislature, Jersey, a single legislative
body; Virginia, the legislative powers derived from the
people, Jersey, from the States; Virginia, a single executive,
Jersey, more than one; Virginia, a majority of the legislature
can act, Jersey, a small majority can control; Virginia, the
legislature can legislate on all national concerns, Jersey,
only on limited objects; Virginia, legislature to negative all
State laws, Jersey, giving power to the executive to compel
obedience by force; Virginia, to remove the executive by
impeachment, Jersey, on application of a majority of the
States; Virginia, for the establishment of inferior judiciary
tribunals, Jersey, no provision. Neither of these plans
commended themselves to men like Hamilton, who wanted a strong
government, and were afraid of democracy or giving power to
the people. He thought the Virginia plan 'but pork still with
a little change of the sauce.' The Articles of Confederation
amended, as in the New Jersey plan, set forth a government
approved of by the opposite wing of the Convention, consisting
of men like Lansing, who professed an ultra devotion to the
rights and autonomy of the States. … The Convention did not go
again into committee of the whole, but continued to debate the
nineteen resolutions from the 19th of June until the 23d of
July. Some of these were referred to grand committees,
consisting of one member from each State, or they were
referred to select committees consisting of five members."
_K. M. Rowland,
Life of George Mason,
volume 2, chapter 4._
"The plan presented by Mr. Patterson, called the New Jersey
plan, was concerted and arranged between the deputations of
that State, of Delaware, of New York, and of Connecticut, with
the individual cooperation of Mr. Luther Martin, one of the
delegates of Maryland. The extreme jealousy … manifested by
the representatives of the two first-named States with regard
to the equal suffrage of the States in the common councils of
the Confederacy, was the principal source of their aversion to
the plan reported by the committee of the whole. The delegates
of Connecticut, and Messrs. Lansing and Yates,—forming a
majority of the delegation of New York,—united with the
deputations of New Jersey and Delaware, not so much from an
exclusive attachment to the principle of the sovereignty and
equality of the States, as from the policy of preserving the
existing framework of the confederation, and of simply vesting
in Congress, as then organized, a few additional powers. It
was under the influence of these mixed political views that
the New Jersey plan was conceived and prepared. It proposed to
vest in the existing Congress,—a single body in which all the
States had an equal suffrage,—in addition to the powers
already given to it by the articles of confederation, that of
raising revenue by imposts and stamp and postage duties, and
also that of passing acts for the regulation of commerce with
foreign nations and between the States; leaving the
enforcement of all such acts, in the first instance, to the
State courts, with an ultimate appeal to the tribunals of the
United States.
{3298}
Whenever requisitions on the States for contributions should
be made, and any State should fail to comply with such
requisitions within a specified time, Congress was to be
authorized to direct their collection in the non-complying
States, and to pass the requisite acts for that purpose. None
of the foregoing powers, however, were to be exercised by
Congress without the concurrence of a certain number of the
States, exceeding a bare majority of the whole. The plan also
proposed the organization of a Federal executive and a Federal
judiciary. … It was, finally, provided that if any State, or
any body of men in any State, shall oppose or prevent the
carrying into execution any act of Congress passed in virtue
of the powers granted to that body, or any treaty made and
ratified under the authority of the United States, the Federal
executive shall be authorized to call forth the power of the
confederated States, or so much thereof as may be necessary,
to enforce and compel an obedience to the acts, or an
observance of the treaties, whose execution shall have been so
opposed or prevented. Such were the salient features of the
plan now brought forward as a substitute for the Virginia
propositions, as reported by the committee of the whole. … In
the progress of the discussion upon the two plans, Colonel
Hamilton, of New York, made an elaborate speech, declaring
himself to be opposed to both, and suggesting a third and more
absolute plan, which he thought was alone adequate to the
exigencies of the country. He frankly avowed his distrust of
both republican and federal government, under any
modification. He entered into a minute analysis of the various
sources and elements of political power, in order to show that
all these would be on the side of the State governments, so
long as a separate political organization of the States was
maintained, and would render them an over-match for any
general government that could be established, unless a
'complete sovereignty' was vested in the latter. He thought it
essential, therefore, to the ends of a good and efficient
government of the whole country, that the State governments,
with their vast and extensive apparatus, should be
extinguished; though 'he did not mean,' he said, 'to shock
public opinion by proposing such a measure.' He also expressed
his despair of the practicability of establishing a republican
government over so extensive a country as the United States.
He was sensible, at the same time, that it would be unwise to
propose one of any other form. Yet 'he had no scruple,' he
said, 'in declaring that, in his private opinion, the British
government was the best in the world, and that he doubted much
whether any thing short of it would do in America.' He
descanted upon the securities against injustice, violence, and
innovation, afforded, in the English system, by the permanent
constitution of the House of Lords, and by the elevated and
independent position of the monarch. He thence deduced the
necessity of as permanent a tenure as public opinion in this
country would bear, of the leading branches of the new
government. 'Let one branch of the legislature,' he said,
'hold their places for life, or at least during good behavior.
Let the executive also be for life.' In concluding, he
expressed his conviction that 'a great progress was going on
in the public mind; that the people will, in time, be
unshackled from their prejudices; and, whenever that happens,
they will themselves not be satisfied at stopping where the
plan brought forward by Mr. Randolph [the Virginia plan] would
place them, but would be ready to go as far, at least, as he
proposed.' He then read a plan of government he had prepared,
which, he said, he did not submit as a proposition to the
convention, but as giving a correct sketch of his ideas, and
to suggest the amendment which he should probably offer to the
Virginia plan in the future stages of its consideration. … The
convention now had presented for their consideration three
distinct schemes of government: one purely Federal, founded
upon the idea of preserving undiminished the sovereignty and
equality of the States, and of constituting a special
political agency in Congress for certain purposes, but still
under the dependence and control of the States; another of a
consolidated character, bottomed on the principle of a virtual
annihilation of the State sovereignties and the creation of a
central government, with a supreme and indefinite control over
both individuals and communities; the third a mixed and
balanced system, resting upon an agreed partition of the
powers of sovereignty between the States and the Union,—one
portion to be vested in the Union for certain objects of
common and national concern, the residue retained by the
States for the regulation of the general mass of their
interior and domestic interests. … On the 19th of June … Mr.
King, of Massachusetts, moved that 'the committee do now rise,
and report that they do not agree to the propositions offered
by the Honorable Mr. Patterson; and that they report to the
House the resolutions offered by the Honorable Mr. Randolph,
heretofore reported from a committee of the whole.' The motion
was carried by the votes of Massachusetts, Connecticut,
Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and
Georgia, in the affirmative,—New York, New Jersey, and
Delaware voting in the negative; and Maryland, divided."
_W. C. Rives,
Life and Times of James Madison,
chapter 29._
"It appeared," wrote Madison, in a letter to Jefferson,
October 24th "to be the sincere and unanimous wish of the
Convention to cherish and preserve the Union of the States. No
proposition was made, no suggestion was thrown out, in favor
of a partition of the Empire into two or more Confederacies.
It was generally agreed that the objects of the Union could
not be secured by any system founded on the principle of a
confederation of Sovereign States. A voluntary observance of
the federal law by all the members could never be hoped for. A
compulsive one could evidently never be reduced to practice,
and if it could, involved equal calamities to the innocent and
the guilty, the necessity of a military force, both obnoxious
and dangerous, and, in general, a scene resembling much more a
civil war than the administration of a regular Government.
Hence was embraced the alternative of a Government which,
instead of operating on the States, should operate without
their intervention on the individuals composing them; and
hence the change in the principle and proportion of
representation.
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This ground-work being laid, the great objects
which presented themselves were:
1. To unite a proper energy in the Executive, and a proper
stability in the Legislative departments, with the essential
characters of Republican Government:
2. To draw a line of demarkation which would give to the
General Government every power requisite for general purposes,
and leave to the States every power which might be most
beneficially administered by them.
3. To provide for the different interests of different parts
of the Union.
4. To adjust the clashing pretensions of the large and small
States.
Each of these objects was pregnant with difficulties. The
whole of them together formed a task more difficult than can
well be conceived by those who were not concerned in the
execution of it. Adding to these considerations the natural
diversity of human opinions on all new and complicated
subjects, it is impossible to consider the degree of concord
which ultimately prevailed as less than a miracle. The first
of these objects, as respects the Executive, was peculiarly
embarrassing. On the question whether it should consist of a
single person or a plurality of co-ordinate members, on the
mode of appointment, on the duration in office, on the degree
of power, on the re-eligibility, tedious and reiterated
discussions took place. The plurality of co-ordinate members
had finally but few advocates. Governor Randolph was at the
head of them. The modes of appointment proposed were various;
as by the people at large, by electors chosen by the people,
by the Executives of the States, by the Congress; some
preferring a joint ballot of the two Houses; some, a separate
concurrent ballot, allowing to each a negative on the other
house; some, a nomination of several candidates by one House,
out of whom a choice should be made by the other. Several
other modifications were started. The expedient at length
adopted seemed to give pretty general satisfaction to the
members. As to the duration in office, a few would have
preferred a tenure during good behaviour; a considerable
number would have done so in case an easy and effectual
removal by impeachment could be settled. It was much agitated
whether a long term, seven years for example, with a
subsequent and perpetual ineligibility, or a short term, with
a capacity to be re-elected, should be fixed. In favor of the
first opinion were urged the danger of a gradual degeneracy of
re-elections from time to time, into first a life and then a
hereditary tenure, and the favorable effect of an incapacity
to be reappointed on the independent exercise of the Executive
authority. On the other side it was contended that the
prospect of necessary degradation would discourage the most
dignified characters from aspiring to the office; would take
away the principal motive to the faithful discharge of its
duties—the hope of being rewarded with a reappointment; would
stimulate ambition to violent efforts for holding over the
constitutional term; and instead of producing an independent
administration and a firmer defence of the constitutional
rights of the department, would render the officer more
indifferent to the importance of a place which he would soon
be obliged to quit forever, and more ready to yield to the
encroachments of the Legislature, of which he might again be a
member. The questions concerning the degree of power turned
chiefly on the appointment to offices, and the controul on the
Legislature. An absolute appointment to all offices, to some
offices, to no offices, formed the scale of opinions on the
first point. On the second, some contended for an absolute
negative, as the only possible means of reducing to practice
the theory of a free Government, which forbids a mixture of
the Legislative and Executive powers. Others would be content
with a revisionary power, to be overruled by three-fourths of
both Houses. It was warmly urged that the judiciary department
should be associated in the revision. The idea of some was,
that a separate revision should be given to the two
departments; that if either objected, two-thirds, if both,
three-fourths, should be necessary to overrule. In forming the
Senate, the great anchor of the government, the questions, as
they come within the first object, turned mostly on the mode
of appointment, and the duration of it. The different modes
proposed were:
1. By the House of Representatives.
2. By the Executive.
3. By electors chosen by the people for the purpose.
4. By the State Legislatures.
On the point of duration, the propositions descended from good
behaviour to four years, through the intermediate terms of
nine, seven, six, and five years. The election of the other
branch was first determined to be triennial, and afterwards
reduced to biennial. The second object, the due partition of
power between the General and local Governments, was perhaps,
of all, the most nice and difficult. A few contended for an
entire abolition of the States; some, for indefinite power of
Legislation in the Congress, with a negative on the laws of
the States; some, for such a power without a negative; some,
for a limited power of legislation, with such a negative; the
majority, finally, for a limited power without the negative.
The question with regard to the negative underwent repeated
discussions, and was finally rejected by a bare majority. … I
return to the third object above mentioned, the adjustments of
the different interests of different parts of the continent.
Some contended for an unlimited power over trade, including
exports as well as imports, and over slaves as well as other
imports; some, for such a power, provided the concurrence of
two-thirds of both Houses were required; some, for such a
qualification of the power, with an exemption of exports and
slaves; others, for an exemption of exports only. The result
is seen in the Constitution. South Carolina and Georgia were
inflexible on the point of the slaves. The remaining object
created more embarrassment, and a greater alarm for the issue
of the Convention, than all the rest put together. The little
States insisted on retaining their equality in both branches,
unless a compleat abolition of the State Governments should
take place; and made an equality in the Senate a sine qua non.
The large States, on the other hand, urged that as the new
Government was to be drawn principally from the people
immediately, and was to operate directly on them, not on the
States; and, consequently, as the States would lose that
importance which is now proportioned to the importance of
their voluntary compliance with the requisitions of Congress,
it was necessary that the representation in both Houses should
be in proportion to their size. It ended in the compromise
which you will see, but very much to the dissatisfaction of
several members from the large States."
_J. Madison,
Letters and other Writings,
volume 1, pages 344-354._
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"Those who proposed only to amend the old Articles of
Confederation and opposed a new Constitution, objected that a
government formed under such a Constitution would be not a
federal, but a national, government. Luther Martin said, when
he returned to Maryland, that the delegates 'appeared totally
to have forgot the business for which we were sent. … We had
not been sent to form a government over the inhabitants of
America considered as individuals. … That the system of
government we were intrusted to prepare was a government over
these thirteen States; but that in our proceedings we adapted
principles which would be right and proper only on the
supposition that there were no state governments at all, but
that all the inhabitants of this extensive continent were in
their individual capacity, without government, and in a state
of nature.' He added that, 'in the whale system there was but
one federal feature, the appointment of the senators by the
States in their sovereign capacity, that is by their
legislatures, and the equality of suffrage in that branch; but
it was said that this feature was only federal in appearance.'
The Senate, the second house as it was called in the
convention, was in part created, it is needless to say, to
meet, or rather in obedience to, reasoning like this. … The
Luther Martin protestants were too radical to remain in the
convention to the end, when they saw that such a confederacy
as they wanted was impossible. But there were not many who
went the length they did in believing that a strong central
government was necessarily the destruction of the state
governments. Still fewer were those who would have brought
this about if they could. … The real difficulty, as Madison
said in the debate on that question, and as he repeated again
and again after that question was settled, was not between the
larger and smaller States, but between the North and South;
between those States that held slaves and those that had none.
Slavery in the Constitution, which has given so much trouble
to the Abolitionists of this century, and, indeed, to
everybody else, gave quite as much in the last century to
those who put it there. Many of the wisest and best men of the
time, Southerners as well as Northerners, and among them
Madison, were opposed to slavery. … Everywhere north of South
Carolina, slavery was looked upon as a misfortune which it was
exceedingly desirable to be free from at the earliest possible
moment; everywhere north of Mason and Dixon's Line, measures
had already been taken, or were certain soon to be taken, to
put an end to it; and by the Ordinance for the government of
all the territory north of the Ohio River, it was absolutely
prohibited by Congress, in the same year in which the
Constitutional Congress met. But it was, nevertheless, a thing
to the continued existence of which the anti-slavery people of
that time could consent without any violation of conscience.
Bad as it was, unwise, wasteful, cruel, a mockery of every
pretense of respect for the rights of man, they did not
believe it to be absolutely wicked. … The question with the
North was, how far could it yield; with the South, how far
could it encroach. It turned mainly an representation. … There
were some who maintained at first that the slave population
should not be represented at all. Hamilton proposed in the
first days of the convention 'that the rights of suffrage in
the national legislature ought to be proportioned to the
number of free inhabitants.'"
_S. H. Gay,
James Madison,
chapters 7-8._
"When the great document was at last drafted by Gouverneur
Morris, and was all ready far the signatures [September 17,
1787], the aged Franklin produced a paper, which was read for
him, as his voice was weak. Same parts of this Constitution,
he said, he did not approve, but he was astonished to find it
so nearly perfect. Whatever opinion he had of its errors he
would sacrifice to the public good, and he hoped that every
member of the convention who still had objections would on
this occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility, and for
the sake of unanimity put his name to this instrument.
Hamilton added his plea. A few members, he said, by refusing
to sign, might do infinite mischief. … From these appeals, as
well as from Washington's solemn warning at the outset, we see
how distinctly it was realized that the country was on the
verge of civil war. Most of the members felt so, but to some
the new government seemed far too strong, and there were three
who dreaded despotism even more than anarchy. Mason, Randolph,
and Gerry refused to sign. … In the signatures the twelve
states which had taken part in the work were all represented,
Hamilton signing alone for New York."
_J. Fiske,
The Critical Period of American History,
page 303._
A "popular delusion with regard to the Constitution is that it
was created out of nothing; or, as Mr. Gladstone puts it, that
·It is the greatest work ever struck off at any one time by
the mind and purpose of man.' The radical view on the other
side is expressed by Sir Henry Maine, who informs us that the
'Constitution of the United States is a modified version of
the British Constitution … which was in existence between 1760
and 1787.' The real source of the Constitution is the
experience of Americans. They had established and developed
admirable little commonwealths in the colonies; since the
beginning of the Revolution they had had experience of State
governments organized on a different basis from the colonial;
and, finally, they had carried on two successive national
governments, with which they had been profoundly discontented.
The general outline of the new Constitution seems to be
English; it was really colonial. The President's powers of
military command, of appointment, and of veto were similar to
those of the colonial governor. National courts were created
on the model of colonial courts. A legislature of two houses
was accepted because such legislatures had been common in
colonial times. In the English Parliamentary system as it
existed before 1760 the Americans had had no share; the later
English system of Parliamentary responsibility was not yet
developed, and had never been established in colonial
governments; and they expressly excluded it from their new
Constitution. They were little more affected by the experience
of other European nations. … The chief source of the details
of the Constitution was the State constitutions and laws then
in force. Thus the clause conferring a suspensive veto on the
President is an almost literal transcript from the
Massachusetts constitution. In fact, the principal experiment
in the Constitution was the establishment of an electoral
college; and of all parts of the system this has worked least
as the framers expected. The Constitution represents,
therefore, the accumulated experience of the time. … The real
boldness of the Constitution is the novelty of the federal
system which it set up."
_A. B. Hart,
Formation of the Union
(Epochs of American History),
section 62._
{3301}
"That a constitution should be framed in detail by a body of
uninstructed delegates, expressly chosen for that purpose, was
familiar in the States of the Union; but was perhaps
unexampled elsewhere in the world, and was certainly
unexampled in the history of federations. That the instrument
of federal government should provide for proportional
representation in one house, and for a federal court, was a
step in federal organization which marks a new federal
principle. For many purposes the Union then created was
stronger than the Prussian monarchy at that moment. In many
respects the States were left stronger than the little
nominally independent German principalities. The great merit
of the members of the convention is their understanding of the
temper of their own countrymen. They selected out Of English,
or colonial, or State usages such practices and forms as
experience had shown to be acceptable to the people. … The
Convention had further the wisdom to express their work in
general though carefully stated principles. All previous
federal governments had been fettered either by an imperfect
and inadequate statement, as in the constitution of the United
Netherlands, or by an unwritten constitution with an
accumulation of special precedents, as in the Holy Roman
Empire. The phrases of the Constitution of 1787 were broad
enough to cover cases unforeseen. A third distinction of the
federal Convention is the skill with which it framed
acceptable compromises upon the three most difficult questions
before it. The two Houses of Congress satisfied both large and
small States; the three-fifths representation of slaves
postponed an inevitable conflict; the allowance of the slave
trade for a term of years made it possible for Congress to
perfect commercial legislation. The Convention had profited by
the experience of the Confederation: on every page of the
Constitution may be found clauses which would not have stood
there had it been framed in 1781. An adequate revenue was
provided; foreign and interstate commerce was put under the
control of Congress; the charge of foreign affairs was given
entirely to the central authority; the powers of government
were distributed among three departments."
_A. B. Hart,
Introduction to the Study of Federal Government,
chapter 4._
ALSO IN:
_I. Eliot,
Debates in the Convention at Philadelphia, 1787._
_J. Madison,
Debates on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution._
_W. C. Rives,
Life and Times of James Madison,
chapters 27-33 (volume 2)._
_G. Bancroft,
History of the Formation of the Constitution of
the United States._
_G. T. Curtis,
History of the Constitution of the United States._
_C. E. Stevens,
Sources of the Constitution of the United States._
_J. H. Robinson,
The Original and Derived Features of the Constitution.
(Annals of the American Academy of Political and
Social Science, volume l)._
For the text of the Constitution.
See CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1787-1789.
The struggle for the Federal Constitution in the States.
Its ratification.
The end of the Confederation.
The fate of the proposed Constitution remained doubtful for
many months after the adjournment of the convention. Hamilton
said it would be arrogance to conjecture the result. …
Delaware was the first state to accept it, [December 7, 1787].
Gratified by the concession of equality in the federal Senate,
the ratification was prompt, enthusiastic, and unanimous.
Pennsylvania was the second [December 12]. The opposition was
sharp, but Franklin was president of the state, and Wilson a
delegate to the state convention. Their influence was great. …
The ratification was effected by a vote of 46 to 23. Then New
Jersey [December 18] and Georgia [January 2, 1788] followed
unanimously. Next came Connecticut [January 9] by a vote of
128 to 40. The result in these five states was the more easily
obtained because the friends of the Constitution were prompt
to act. With delay in the other states came a bitterness of
contention which made the result doubtful. The first close
struggle was in Massachusetts. The public creditor favored the
proposed Constitution. He saw in it some hope of his long
deferred pay. But the debtor class opposed it; for it would
put an end to cheap paper money, with which they hoped to pay
their debts, when it became still cheaper. … Hancock and Adams
scarcely favored the Constitution. They feared it infringed
upon the rights of the people, and especially upon the rights
of the states. … Hancock finally came forward as a mediator.
He proposed that the Constitution be ratified, with an
accompanying recommendation that it be amended in the
particulars in which it was thought to be defective. His
proposition was adopted, and the Constitution was ratified
[February 6] by a vote of 187 to 168. Maryland next ratified
the Constitution with much unanimity [April 28],
notwithstanding the strenuous opposition of Luther Martin. …
South Carolina followed next [May 23], and ratified the
Constitution by a majority of 76, but recommended amendments
substantially like those of Massachusetts. South Carolina was
the eighth state; and, if one more could be obtained, the
Constitution would take effect between the nine ratifying
states. There remained the five states of Virginia, New York,
New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Rhode Island. The state
convention of Virginia was called for the 2d of June 1788, of
New York for the 17th, and of New Hampshire for the 18th of
the same month. The result was expected to be adverse in
everyone of these states. In Virginia the opposition was led
by Patrick Henry. … Henry was ably seconded by Richard Henry
Lee, William Grayson, and George Mason. … James Monroe
followed their lead. James Madison and Governor Randolph were
the leading champions of the new Constitution. … John
Marshall, afterwards chief justice, came to their assistance.
… The debate lasted a month. It may be read with instruction,
as it is reported in the volumes of Elliot. The ratification
prevailed [June 25] by a majority of ten in a vote of 186.
After all, the influence of Washington procured the result. …
Meanwhile, the state of New Hampshire had ratified the
Constitution [June 21], but the fact was not known in
Virginia. The opposition to the Constitution was great and
bitter in the State of New York. Fortunately the convention
was held so late that New Hampshire, the ninth state, had
ratified while the New York convention was engaged in its
heated discussions. Two thirds of the delegates were elected
to oppose it. … The friends of the Constitution felt, long
before the convention assembled, that public discussion might
be useful in overcoming the hostile attitude of the state.
{3302}
Accordingly, a series of essays in exposition of the
Constitution was written by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay, over
the common signature of 'Publius.' These essays were published
in a newspaper, between October, 1787, and June, 1788. … They
were subsequently collected and published in a volume styled
'The Federalist.' From that day to this, 'The Federalist' has
held unequalled rank as an authority upon the construction of
the Constitution." On the 24th of June a fleet courier,
employed by Hamilton, brought from Concord to Poughkeepsie,
where the New York convention sat, news of the ratification of
the Constitution by New Hampshire, the ninth state. "Now,
indeed, the situation was changed. There was no longer a
confederacy; the Union was already formed. … The state must
either join the new system or stay out of it. New York was not
favorably situated for a separate nation. New England on the
east, and New Jersey and Pennsylvania on the south, belonged
to the new Union. Canada was on the north. … Delay, with its
altered circumstances, finally brought to Hamilton and his
party the victory that had been denied to argument and
eloquence. But the Anti-Federalists were reluctant to yield,
and the debate was prolonged," until the 26th of July, when
the ratification was carried by 30 votes against 27. "North
Carolina remained out of the Union until November, 1789, and
Rhode Island until June, 1790. … The ratification by nine
states having been certified to the Congress of the
Confederacy, that body adopted a resolution fixing the first
Wednesday of March, 1789, as the day when the new government
should go into operation. As the day fell on the 4th of March,
that day became fixed for the beginning and the end of
congressional and presidential terms."
_J. S. Landon,
Constitutional History and Government of the United States,
lecture 4._
ALSO IN:
_J. Fiske,
The Critical Period of American History,
chapter 7._
_G. T. Curtis, History of the Constitution of
the United States,
book 5 (volume 2)._
_G. Bancroft,
History of the Formation of the Constitution,
book 4 (volume 2)._
_J. Elliot, editor,
Debates in the State Convention on the Adoption
of the Federal Constitution._
_The Federalist._
_A. Hamilton,
Works,
volume 2._
_W. C. Rives,
Life and Times of Madison,
chapters 34-36 (volume 2)._
_K. M. Rowland,
Life of George Mason.
volume 2, chapters 6-8_.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1789.
The First Presidential Election.
Washington called to the head of the new Government.
"The adoption of the Federal constitution was another epoch in
the life of Washington. Before the official forms of an
election could be carried into operation a unanimous sentiment
throughout the Union pronounced him the nation's choice to
fill the presidential chair. He looked forward to the
possibility of his election with characteristic modesty and
unfeigned reluctance; as his letters to his confidential
friends bear witness. … The election took place at the
appointed time [the first Wednesday in January, 1789], and it
was soon ascertained that Washington was chosen President for
the term of four years from the 4th of March. By this time the
arguments and entreaties of his friends, and his own
convictions of public expediency, had determined him to
accept. … From a delay in forming a quorum of Congress the
votes of the electoral college were not counted until early in
April, when they were found to be unanimous in favor of
Washington 'The delay,' said he in a letter to General Knox,
'may be compared to a reprieve; for in confidence I tell you
(with the world it would obtain little credit), that my
movements to the chair of government will be accompanied by
feelings not unlike those of a culprit, who is going to the
place of his execution; so unwilling am I, in the evening of a
life nearly consumed in public cares, to quit a peaceful abode
for an ocean of difficulties, without that competency of
political skill, abilities and inclination, which are
necessary to manage the helm.' … At length on the 14th of
April he received a letter from the president of Congress,
duly notifying him of his election; and he prepared to set out
immediately for New York, the seat of government."
_W. Irving,
Life of Washington,
volume 4, chapter 37._
The secondary electoral votes, by which the Vice President
was, at that time, chosen, were scattered among eleven
candidates. John Adams received the greater number (34) though
not quite a majority of the 69, and was elected.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1789.
Passage of the Act of Congress organizing the
Supreme Court of the United States.
See SUPREME COURT.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1789-1792.
Hamilton's report on Manufactures.
See TARIFF LEGISLATION (UNITED STATES): A. D. 1789-1791.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1789-1792;
Organization of the Federal government
and first administration of Washington.
The dividing of Parties.
Federalists and Democratic Republicans.
"March 4th, 1789, had been appointed for the formal
inauguration of the new Government, but the members elect had
not yet unlearned the Confederacy's slovenly habits. It was
not until April 6th that a sufficient number of members of
Congress arrived in New York to form a quorum and count the
electoral votes. At that time, and until 1805, no electoral
votes were cast distinctively for President and
Vice-President. Each elector voted by ballot for two persons.
If a majority of all the votes were cast for any person, he
who received the greatest number of votes became President,
and he who received the next greatest number became
Vice-President. When the votes were counted in 1789 they were
found to be, for George Washington, of Virginia, 69 (each of
the electors having given him one vote), for John Adams, of
Massachusetts, 34, and 35 for various other candidates.
Washington received notice of his election, and, after a
triumphal progress northward from his home at Mount Vernon,
was sworn into office April 30th [at Federal Hall, corner Wall
and Nassau Streets, New York]. The Vice-President had taken
his place as presiding officer of the Senate a few days
before. Frederick A. Muhlenberg, of Pennsylvania, was chosen
Speaker of the House, but the vote had no party divisions, for
Parties were still in a state of utter confusion. Between the
extreme Anti-federalists, who considered the Constitution a
long step toward a despotism, and the extreme Federalists, who
desired a monarchy modeled on that of England, there were all
varieties of political opinion. … The extreme importance of
Washington lay in his ability, through the universal
confidence in his integrity and good judgment, to hold
together this alliance of moderate men for a time, and to
prevent party contests upon the interpretation of federal
powers until the Constitution should show its merit and be
assured of existence.
{3303}
The President selected his Cabinet with a careful regard to
the opposite opinions of his supporters. The Treasury
Department was given to Alexander Hamilton, of New York, a
Federalist. … The War Department was given to General Henry
Knox, of Massachusetts, also a Federalist. The State
Department was given to Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, an
Anti-federalist. … Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, also an
Anti-federalist, was appointed Attorney-General, and John Jay,
of New York, a Federalist, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Twelve Amendments were adopted by this Session of Congress, in
order to meet the conscientious objections of many moderate
Anti-federalists, and to take the place of a 'Bill of Rights.'
Ten of these, having received the assent of the necessary
number of States, became a part of the Constitution, and now
stand the first ten of the Amendments. They were intended to
guarantee freedom of religion, speech, person, and property. …
January 9th [1790] Hamilton offered his famous Report on the
Settlement of the Public Debt. It consisted of three
recommendations, first, that the foreign debt of the
Confederacy should be assumed land paid in full; second, that
the domestic debt of the Confederacy, which had fallen far
below par and had become a synonym for worthlessness, should
also be paid at its par value; and third, that the debts
incurred by the States during the Revolution, and still
unpaid, should be assumed and paid in full by the Federal
Government. Hamilton's First recommendation was adopted
unanimously. The Second was opposed, even by Madison and many
moderate Anti-federalists, on the ground that the domestic
debt was held by speculators, who had bought it at a heavy
discount, and would thus gain usurious interest on their
investment. Hamilton's supporters argued that, if only for
that reason, they should be paid in full, that holders of
United States securities might learn not to sell them at a
discount, and that the national credit might thus be
strengthened for all time to come. After long debate the
second recommendation was also adopted. Hamilton's Third
recommendation involved a question of the powers of the
Federal Government. It therefore for the first time united all
the Anti-federalists in opposition to it. They feared that the
rope of sand of the Confederacy was being carried to the
opposite extreme; that the 'money power' would, by this
measure, be permanently attached to the Federal Government;
and that the States would be made of no importance. But even
this recommendation was adopted, though only by a vote of 31
to 26 in the House. A few days later, however, the
Anti-federalists received a reinforcement of seven newly
arrived North Carolina members. The third resolution was at
once reconsidered, and voted down by a majority of two.
Hamilton secured the final adoption of the third resolution by
a bargain which excited the deep indignation of the
Anti-federalists. A National Capital was to be selected. The
Federalists agreed to vote that it should be fixed upon the
Potomac River [see WASHINGTON (CITY): A. D. 1791], after
remaining ten years in Philadelphia, and two Anti-federalist
members from the Potomac agreed in return to vote for the
third resolution, which was then finally adopted. Hamilton's
entire report was thus successful. Its immediate effects were
to appreciate the credit of the United States, and to enrich
the holders of the Continental debt. Its further effect was to
make Hamilton so much disliked by Anti-federalists that,
despite his acknowledged talents, his party never ventured to
nominate him for any elective office. … Party Organization may
be considered as fairly begun about the close [of the first
Session of the Second Congress, in 1792]. … The various
Anti-federalist factions, by union in resisting the
Federalists, had learned to forget minor differences and had
been welded into one party which only lacked a name. That of
Anti-federalist was no longer applicable, for its opposition
to the Federal Union had entirely ceased. A name was supplied
by Jefferson, the recognized leader of the party, after the
French Revolution had fairly begun its course. That political
convulsion had, for some time after 1789, the sympathy of both
Federalists and Anti-federalists, for it seemed the direct
outgrowth of the American Revolution. But, as its leveling
objects became more apparent, the Federalists grew cooler and
the Anti-federalists warmer towards it. The latter took great
pains, even by dress and manners, to show the keenness of
their sympathy for the Republicans of France, and about this
time adopted the name Democratic-Republican, which seemed
sufficiently comprehensive for a full indication of their
principles. This has always been the official party title. It
is now abbreviated to Democratic, though the name Democrat was
at first used by Federalists as one of contempt, and the party
called itself Republican, a title which it could hardly claim
with propriety, for its tendency has always been toward a
democracy, as that of its opponents has been toward a strong
republic. The name Republican, therefore, belongs most
properly to its present possessors (1879). But it must be
remembered that the party which will be called Republican
until about 1828 was the party which is now called
Democratic."
_A. Johnston,
History of American Politics,
chapter 2._
Jefferson's bitterness of hostility to the Federalists was due
to the belief that they aimed at the overthrow of the
Republic. His conviction as to these really treasonable
purposes in the leaders of the party was often expressed, but
never more distinctly than in a letter written in 1813 to an
English traveller, Mr. Melish. At the same time, he set forth
the principles and aims of his own party: "Among that section
of our citizens called federalists," he wrote, "there are
three shades of opinion. Distinguishing between the leaders
and people who compose it, the leaders consider the English
constitution as a model of perfection, some, with a correction
of its vices, others, with all its corruptions and abuses.
This last was Alexander Hamilton's opinion, which others, as
well as myself, have often heard him declare, and that a
correction of what are called its vices would render the
English an impracticable government. This government they
wished to have established here, and only accepted and held
fast, at first, to the present constitution, as a
stepping-stone to the final establishment of their favorite
model. This party has therefore always clung to England as
their prototype and great auxiliary in promoting and effecting
this change. A weighty minority, however, of these leaders,
considering the voluntary conversion of our government into a
monarchy as too distant, if not desperate, wish to break off
from our Union its eastern fragment, as being, in truth, the
hot-bed of American monarchism, with a view to a commencement
of their favorite government, from whence the other States may
gangrene by degrees, and the whole be thus brought finally to
the desired point.
{3304}
For Massachusetts, the prime mover in this enterprise, is the
last State in the Union to mean a final separation, as being
of all the most dependent on the others. Not raising bread for
the sustenance of her own inhabitants, not having a stick of
timber for the construction of vessels, her principal
occupation, nor an article to export in them, where would she
be, excluded from the ports of the other States, and thrown
into dependence on England, her direct, and natural, but now
insidious rival? At the head of this minority is what is
called the Essex Junto of Massachusetts. But the majority of
these leaders do not aim at separation. In this, they adhere
to the known principle of General Hamilton, never, under any
views, to break the Union. Anglomany, monarchy, and
separation, then, are the principles of the Essex federalists.
Anglomany and monarchy, those of the Hamiltonians, and
Anglomany alone, that of the portion among the people who call
themselves federalists. These last are as good republicans as
the brethren whom they oppose, and differ from them only in
their devotion to England and hatred of France which they have
imbibed from their leaders. The moment that these leaders
should avowedly propose a separation of the Union, or the
establishment of regal government, their popular adherents
would quit them to a man, and join the republican standard;
and the partisans of this change, even in Massachusetts, would
thus find themselves an army of officers without a soldier.
The party called republican is steadily for the support of the
present constitution. They obtained at its commencement all
the amendments to it they desired. These reconciled them to it
perfectly, and if they have any ulterior view, it is only,
perhaps, to popularize it further, by shortening the
Senatorial term, and devising a process for the responsibility
of judges, more practicable than that of impeachment. They
esteem the people of England and France equally, and equally
detest the governing powers of both. This I verily believe,
after an intimacy of forty years with the public councils and
characters, is a true statement of the grounds on which they
are at present divided, and that it is not merely an ambition
for power. An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise
of power over his fellow citizens. And considering as the only
offices of power those conferred by the people directly, that
is to say, the executive and legislative functions of the
General and State governments, the common refusal of these,
and multiplied resignations, are proofs sufficient that power
is not alluring to pure minds, and is not, with them, the
primary principle of contest. This is my belief of it; it is
that on which I have acted; and had it been a mere contest who
should be permitted to administer the government according to
its genuine republican principles, there has never been a
moment of my life in which I should have relinquished for it
the enjoyments of my family, my farm, my friends and books.
You expected to discover the difference of our party
principles in General Washington's valedictory, and my
inaugural address. Not at all. General Washington did not
harbor one principle of federalism. He was neither an
Angloman, a monarchist, nor a separatist. He sincerely wished
the people to have as much self-government as they were
competent to exercise themselves. The only point on which he
and I ever differed in opinion, was, that I had more
confidence than he had in the natural integrity and discretion
of the people, and in the safety and extent to which they
might trust themselves with a control over their government.
He has asseverated to me a thousand times his determination
that the existing government should have a fair trial, and
that in support of it he would spend the last drop of his
blood. He did this the more repeatedly, because he knew
General Hamilton's political bias, and my apprehensions from
it."
_T. Jefferson,
Letter to Mr. Melish, January 13, 1813
(Writings, edited by Washington, volume 6)._
The view taken at the present day of the Federalism and the
Federalists of the first three decades of the Union, among
those who see more danger in the centrifugal than in the
centripetal forces in government, are effectively stated in
the following: "The popular notion in regard to Federalism is
that to which the name naturally gives rise. By Federalists
are commonly understood those men who advocated a union of the
States and an efficient Federal government. This conception is
true, but is at the same time so limited that it may fairly be
called superficial. The name arose from its first object which
the friends of the Constitution strove to achieve; but this
object, the more perfect union, and even the Constitution
itself, were but means to ends of vastly more importance. The
ends which the Federalists sought formed the great principles
on which the party was founded, and it can be justly said that
no nobler or better ends were ever striven for by any
political party or by any statesmen. The first and paramount
object of the Federalists was to build up a nation and to
create a national sentiment. For this they sought a more
perfect union. Their next object was to give the nation they
had called into existence not only a government, but a strong
government. To do this, they had not only to devise a model,
to draw a constitution, to organize a legislature, executive,
and judiciary, but they had to equip the government thus
formed with all those adjuncts without which no government can
long exist under the conditions of modern civilization. The
Federalists had to provide for the debt, devise a financial
and foreign policy, organize an army, fortify the ports, found
a navy, impose and collect taxes, and put in operation an
extensive revenue system. We of the English race—whose creed
is that governments and great political systems grow and
develop slowly, are the results of climate, soil, race,
tradition, and the exigencies of time and place, who wholly
disavow the theory that perfect governments spring in a night
from the heated brains of Frenchmen or Spaniards—can best
appreciate the task with which our ancestors grappled. … Upon
a people lately convulsed by civil war, upon a people who had
lost their old political habits and traditions without finding
new ones in their stead, it was necessary to impose a
government, and to create a national sentiment. This the
Federalists did, and they need no other eulogy.
{3305}
With no undue national pride, we can justly say that the
adoption and support of the Constitution offer an example of
the political genius of the Anglo-Saxon race to which history
cannot furnish a parallel. The political party to whose
exertions these great results were due was the Federal party.
They were the party of order, of good government, and of
conservatism. Against them was ranged a majority of their
fellow-citizens. But this majority was wild, anarchical,
disunited. The only common ground on which they could meet was
that of simple opposition. The only name they had was
anti-Federalists. They had neither leaders, discipline,
objects, nor even a party cry. Before the definite aims and
concentrated ability of the Federalists, they fled in helpless
disorder, like an unarmed mob before advancing soldiers. But,
though dispersed, the anti-Federalists were still in a
numerical majority. They needed a leader, organization, and
opportunity, and they soon found all three. Thomas Jefferson
arrived in New York, not only to enter into Washington's
cabinet, and lend the aid of his great talents to the success
of the new scheme, but soon also to put himself at the head of
the large though demoralized opposition to the administration
he had sworn to support. Filled with the wild democratic
theories which his susceptible nature had readily imbibed in
France, Jefferson soon infused them into the minds of most of
his followers. Instead of a vague dislike to any and all
government, he substituted a sharp and factious opposition to
each and every measure proposed by the friends of the
Constitution."
_H. C. Lodge,
Life and Letters of George Cabot,
chapter 11._
ALSO IN:
_W. C. Rives,
Life and Times of Madison,
chapters 37-46 (volume 3)._
_J. Parton,
Life of Jefferson,
chapters 42-47._
_M. Van Buren,
Political Parties in the United States,
chapters 2-4._
_J. D. Hammond,
History of Political Parties in New York,
volume 1, chapters 1-2._
_W. Irving,
Life of Washington,
volume 5, chapters 1-16._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1789-1810.
Founding of the Roman Episcopate.
See PAPACY: A. D. 1789-1810.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1790.
The First Census.
Total population, 3,929,827,
classed and distributed as follows:
North.
White. Free black. Slave.
Connecticut. 232,581 2,801 2,759
Maine. 96,002 538 0
Massachusetts. 373,254 5,463 0
New Hampshire. 141,111 630 158
New Jersey. 169,954 2,762 11,423
New York. 314,142 4,654 21,324
Pennsylvania. 424,099 6,537 3,737
Rhode Island. 64,689 3,469 952
Vermont. 85,144 255 17
--- --- ---
Total 1,900,976 27,109 40,370
South.
White. Free black. Slave.
Delaware. 46,310 3,899 8,887
Georgia. 52,886 398 29,264
Kentucky. 61,133 114 11,830
Maryland. 208,649 8,043 103,036
North Carolina. 288,204 4,975 100,572
South Carolina. 140,178 1,801 107,094
Tennessee. 32,013 361 3,417
Virginia. 442,115 12,766 293,427
--- --- ---
Total 1,271,488 32,357 657,527
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1790-1795.
War with the Indian tribes of the Northwest.
Disastrous expeditions of Harmar and St. Clair,
and Wayne's decisive victory.
See NORTHWESTERN TERRITORY: A. D. 1790-1795.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1791.
Admission of Vermont to the Union.
See VERMONT: A. D. 1790-1791.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1791.
Incorporation of the first Bank of the United States.
See MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1791-1816.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1791.
The founding of the Federal Capital.
See WASHINGTON (CITY): A. D. 1791.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1791.
Adoption of the first ten Amendments
to the Federal Constitution.
The first ten amendments to the Constitution (see CONSTITUTION
OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA), embodying a declaration of
rights which was thought to be necessary by many who had
consented to the adoption of the Constitution, but only with
the understanding that such amendments should be added, were
proposed to the legislatures of the several States by the
First Congress, on the 25th of September, 1789. At different
dates between November 20, 1789 and December 15, 1791, they
were ratified by eleven of the then fourteen States. "There is
no evidence on the journals of Congress that the legislatures
of Connecticut, Georgia, and Massachusetts ratified them."
_Constitution,
Rules and Manual of the UNITED STATES SENATE (1885)
page 61._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1792.
Admission of Kentucky to the Union.
Slavery in the Constitution of the new State.
See KENTUCKY: A. D. 1789-1792.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1792.
Second Presidential Election.
George Washington re-elected with unanimity, receiving 132
votes of the Electoral College, John Adams, Vice President,
receiving 77 votes, with 50 cast for George Clinton, 4 for
Jefferson and 1 for Burr.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1793.
The First Fugitive Slave Law.
For some time after the adoption of the Federal Constitution,
its provision relating to the rendition of persons "held to
service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof,
escaping into another" remained without legislation to execute
it; "and it is a striking fact that the call for legislation
came not from the South, but from a free State; and that it
was provoked, not by fugitive slaves, but by kidnappers. … A
free negro named John was seized at Washington, Pennsylvania,
in 1791, and taken to Virginia. The Governor of Pennsylvania,
at the instigation of the Society for the Abolition of
Slavery, asked the return of the three kidnappers; but the
Governor of Virginia replied that, since there was no national
law touching such a case, he could not carry out the request.
On the matter being brought to the notice of Congress by the
Governor of Pennsylvania," a bill was passed which "became law
by the signature of the President, February 12, 1793. … The
act provided at the same time for the recovery of fugitives
from justice and from labor; but the alleged criminal was to
have a protection through the requirement of a requisition, a
protection denied to the man on trial for his liberty only.
The act was applicable to fugitive apprentices as well as to
slaves, a provision of some importance at the time. In the
Northwest Territory there were so-called negro apprentices,
who were virtually slaves, and to whom the law applied, since
it was in terms extended to all the Territories. Proceedings
began with the forcible seizure of the alleged fugitive. The
act, it will be observed, does not admit a trial by jury.
{3306}
It allowed the owner of the slave, his agent or attorney, to
seize the fugitive and take him before any judge of a United
States Circuit or District Court, or any local magistrate. The
only requirement for the conviction of the slave was the
testimony of his master, or the affidavit of some magistrate
in the State from which he came, certifying that such a person
had escaped. Hindering arrest or harboring a slave was
punishable by a fine of five hundred dollars. The law thus
established a system allowing the greatest harshness to the
slave and every favor to the master. Even at that time, when
persons might still be born slaves in New York and New Jersey,
and gradual emancipation had not yet taken full effect in
Rhode Island and Connecticut, it was repellent to the popular
sense of justice; there were two cases of resistance 'to the
principle of the act before the close of 1793. Until 1850 no
further law upon this subject was passed, but as the
provisions of 1793 were found ineffectual, many attempts at
amendment were made."
_M. G. McDougall,
Fugitive Slaves, 1619-1865
(Fay House Monographs, number 3), pages 17-19._
"The fugitive-slave clause in the Constitution is of course
obligatory, but there is a wide distinction between the
fugitive-slave clause and the fugitive-slave law. The
Constitution gives no power to Congress to legislate on the
subject, but imposes on the States the obligation of
rendition. Chief-Justice Hornblower, of New York, and
Chancellor Walworth, of New York, long since pronounced the
fugitive law of '93 unconstitutional on this very ground."
_William Jay,
Letter to Josiah Quincy
(quoted in B. Tuckerman's "William Jay and the
Constitutional Movement for the Abolition of Slavery")._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1793.
Popular sympathy with the French Revolution.
Washington's Proclamation of Neutrality.
Insolent conduct of the French minister, Genet.
"The French Revolution, as was natural from the all-important
services rendered by France to the United States in their own
revolutionary struggle, enlisted the warm sympathy of the
American people. … As the United States were first introduced
to the family of nations by the alliance with France of 1778,
the very important question arose, on the breaking out of the
war between France and England, how far they were bound to
take part in the contest. The second article of the treaty of
alliance seemed to limit its operation to the then existing
war between the United States and Great Britain; but by the
eleventh article the two contracting powers agreed to
'guarantee mutually from the present time and forever, against
all other powers,' the territories of which the allies might
be in possession respectively at the moment the war between
France and Great Britain should break out, which was
anticipated as the necessary consequence of the alliance. Not
only were the general sympathies of America strongly with
France, but the course pursued by Great Britain toward the
United States, since the peace of 1783, was productive of
extreme irritation, especially her refusal to give up the
western posts, which … had the effect of involving the
northwestern frontier in a prolonged and disastrous Indian
war. These causes, together with the recent recollections of
the revolutionary struggle, disposed the popular mind to make
common cause with France, in what was regarded as the war of a
people struggling for freedom against the combined despots of
Europe. Washington, however, from the first, determined to
maintain the neutrality of the country;" and, with the
unanimous advice of his cabinet, he issued (April 22, 1793) a
proclamation of neutrality. "This proclamation, though
draughted by Mr. Jefferson and unanimously adopted by the
Cabinet, was violently assailed by the organs of the party
which followed his lead. … The growing excitement of the
popular mind was fanned to a flame by the arrival at
Charleston, South Carolina [April 9], of 'Citizen' Genet, who
was sent as the minister of the French Republic to the United
States. Without repairing to the seat of government, or being
accredited in any way, in his official capacity, he began to
fit out privateers in Charleston, to cruise against the
commerce of England. Although the utmost gentleness and
patience were observed by the executive of the United States
in checking this violation of their neutrality, Genet assumed
from the first a tone of defiance, and threatened before long
to appeal from the government to the people. These insolent
demonstrations were of course lost upon Washington's firmness
and moral courage. They distressed, but did not in the
slightest degree intimidate him; and their effect on the
popular mind was to some extent neutralized by the facts, that
the chief measures to maintain the neutrality of the country
had been unanimously advised by the Cabinet, and that the duty
of rebuking his intemperate course had devolved upon the
secretary of state [Jefferson], the recognized head of the
party to which Genet looked for sympathy."
_E. Everett,
Life of Washington,
chapter 8._
A demand for "Genet's recall was determined on during the
first days of August. There was some discussion over the
manner of requesting the recall, but the terms were made
gentle by Jefferson, to the disgust of the Secretary of the
Treasury and the Secretary of War [Hamilton and Knox], who
desired direct methods and stronger language. As finally toned
up and agreed upon by the President and cabinet, the document
was sufficiently vigorous to annoy Genet, and led to bitter
reproaches addressed to his friend in the State Department. …
The letter asking Genet's recall, as desired by Washington,
went in due time, and in the following February came a
successor. Genet, however, did not go back to his native land,
for he preferred to remain here and save his head, valueless
as that article would seem to have been. He spent the rest of
his days in America, married, harmless, and quite obscure. His
noise and fireworks were soon over, and one wonders now how he
could ever have made as much flare and explosion as he did."
_H. C. Lodge,
George Washington,
volume 2, pages 155-156._
ALSO IN:
_H. S. Randall,
Life of Jefferson,
volume 2, chapter 4._
_J. T. Morse,
Life of Hamilton,
volume 2, chapter 3._
_American State Papers,
volume 1, pages 140-188, 243-246, and 311-314._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1793.
Whitney's Cotton-gin and the series of inventions
which it made complete.
Their political effect.
The strengthening of the Slave Power, and the
strengthening of Unionism.
"Some English artisans, who, about the middle of the last
century, were obtaining a scanty living by spinning, weaving
and other such occupations, turned their inventive talent to
the improvement of their art.
{3307}
Paul and Wyatt introduced the operation of spinning by
rollers; Highs, or Hargreaves, invented the jenny, by which a
great many threads could be spun as easily as one. Paul
devised the rotating carding-engine; Crompton the mule;
Arkwright the water-frame, which produced any number of
threads of any degree of fineness and hardness. These
ingenious machines constituted a very great improvement on the
spindle and distaff of ancient times, and on the
spinning-wheel, originally brought from Asia, or perhaps
reinvented in Europe. At length one spinner was able to
accomplish as much work as one hundred could have formerly
done. While the art of producing threads was undergoing this
singular improvement, Cartwright, a clergyman, invented, in
1785, the power-loom, intended to supersede the operation of
weaving by hand, and to make the production of textile fabrics
altogether the result of machinery. After some modifications,
that loom successfully accomplished the object for which it
was devised. As these inventions succeeded, they necessarily
led to a demand for motive power. In the first little cotton
factory, the germ of that embodiment of modern industry, the
cotton-mill, a water-wheel was employed to give movement to
the machinery. The establishment was, therefore, necessarily
placed near a stream, where a sufficient fall could be
obtained. The invention of the steam-engine by Watt, which was
the consequence of the new and correct views of the nature of
vapors that had been established by Dr. Black, supplied, in
due time, the required motive power, and by degrees the
water-wheel went almost out of use. Textile manufacture needed
now but one thing more to become of signal importance—it
needed a more abundant supply of raw material. … Cotton, the
fibre chiefly concerned in these improvements, was obtained in
limited quantities from various countries; but, at the time of
the adoption of the Constitution, not a single pound was
exported from the United States. What was grown here was for
domestic consumption. Every good housewife had her
spinning-wheel, every plantation its hand-loom. The difficulty
of supplying cotton fibre in quantity sufficient to meet the
demands of the new machinery was due to the imperfect means in
use for separating the cotton from its seeds—a tedious
operation, for the picking was done by hand. Eli Whitney, a
native of Massachusetts, by his invention of the cotton-gin in
1793, removed that difficulty. The fibre could be separated
from the seeds with rapidity and at a trifling cost. There was
nothing now to prevent an extraordinary development in the
English manufactures. A very few years showed what the result
would be. In 1790 no cotton was exported from the United
States. Whitney's gin was introduced in 1793. The next year
about 1½ million of pounds were exported; in 1795, about 5¼
millions; in 1860, the quantity had reached 2,000 millions of
pounds. The political effect of this mechanical invention,
which thus proved to be the completion of all the previous
English inventions, being absolutely necessary to give them
efficacy, was at once seen in its accomplishing a great
increase and a redistribution of population in England. … In
the United States the effects were still more important.
Cotton could be grown through all the Southern Atlantic and
the Gulf States. It was more profitable than any other
crop—but it was raised by slaves. Whatever might have been the
general expectation respecting the impending extinction of
slavery, it was evident that at the commencement of this
century the conditions had altogether changed. A powerful
interest had come into unforeseen existence both in Europe and
America which depended on perpetuating that mode of labor.
Moreover, before long it was apparent that, partly because of
the adaptation of their climate to the growth of the plant,
partly because of the excellence of the product, and partly
owing to the increasing facilities for interior
transportation, the cotton-growing states of America would
have a monopoly in the supply of this staple. But, though
mechanical invention had reinvigorated the slave power by
bestowing on it the cotton-gin, it had likewise strengthened
unionism by another inestimable gift—the steam-boat. At the
very time that the African slave-trade was prohibited, Fulton
was making his successful experiment of the navigation of the
Hudson River by steam. This improvement in inland navigation
rendered available, in a manner never before contemplated, the
river and lake system of the continent; it gave an
instantaneous value to the policy of Jefferson, by bringing
into effectual use the Mississippi and its tributaries; it
crowded with population the shores of the lakes; it threw the
whole continent open to commerce, it strengthened the central
power at Washington by diminishing space, and while it
extended geographically the domain of the republic, it
condensed it politically. It bound all parts of the Union more
firmly together. … In the Constitution it had been agreed that
three fifths of the slaves should be accounted as federal
numbers in the apportionment of federal representation. A
political advantage was thus given to slave labor. This closed
the eyes of the South to all other means of solving its
industrial difficulties. … To the cotton-planter two courses
were open. He might increase his manual force, or he might
resort to machinery. … It required no deep political
penetration for him to perceive that the introduction of
machinery must in the end result in the emancipation of the
slave. Machinery and slavery are incompatible—the slave is
displaced by the machine. In the Southern States political
reasons thus discouraged the introduction of machinery. Under
the Constitution an increased negro force had a political
value, machinery had none. The cotton interest was therefore
persuaded by those who were in a position to guide its
movements, that its prosperity could be secured only through
increased manual labor."
_Dr. J. W. Draper,
History of the American Civil War,
section 3, chapter 16 (volume 1)._
See, also, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1818-1821.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1794.
Resistance to the Excise.
The Whisky Insurrection in Pennsylvania.
See PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1794.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1794-1795.
Threatening relations with Great Britain.
The Jay Treaty.
"The daily increasing 'love-frenzy for France,' and the
intemperate language of the Democratic press, naturally
emphasized in England that reaction against America which set
in with the treaty of peace. On the other hand, the retention
of the frontier posts in violation of that treaty was a thorn
in the side of the young Republic. In the course of the war
England had adopted, by successive Orders in Council, a policy
ruinous to the commerce of neutral nations, especially of the
United States.
{3308}
In the admiralty courts of the various British West India
islands hundreds of ships from New England were seized and
condemned, for carrying French produce or bearing cargoes of
provisions chartered to French ports. The New England
fishermen and shipowners were vociferous for war, and the
Democratic clubs denounced every British insult and celebrated
every French victory. On March 26, 1794, an embargo against
British ships was proclaimed for thirty days, and then
extended for thirty days longer. The day after the embargo was
laid, Dayton, of New Jersey, moved in Congress to sequester
all moneys due to British creditors, and apply it towards
indemnifying shipowners for losses incurred through the Orders
in Council; and on April 21st the Republicans moved a
resolution to suspend, all commercial intercourse with Great
Britain till the western posts should be given up, and
indemnity be paid for injuries to American commerce in
violation of the rights of neutrals. The passage of such an
act meant war; and for war the United States was never more
unprepared. … Peace could be secured only by immediate
negotiation and at least a temporary settlement of the causes
of neutral irritation, and for such a task the ministers at
London and Washington were incompetent or unsuited. … In this
crisis Washington decided to send to England a special envoy.
Hamilton was his first choice, but Hamilton had excited bitter
enmities." On Hamilton's recommendation, John Jay, the Chief
Justice, was chosen for the difficult mission, and he sailed
for England in May, 1794, landing at Falmouth on the 8th of
June. Within the succeeding five months he accomplished the
negotiation of a treaty, which was signed on the 19th of
November. "The main points that Jay had been instructed to
gain were compensation for negroes [carried away by the
British armies on the evacuation of the country in 1783],
surrender of the posts, and compensation for spoliations; in
addition, a commercial treaty was desired. When Secretary for
Foreign Affairs, Jay had argued that the negroes, some 3,000
in number, who, at the time of the evacuation, were within the
British lines, relying on proclamations that offered freedom,
and who followed the troops to England, came within that
clause of the treaty of peace which provided that the army
should be withdrawn without 'carrying away any negroes or
other property.' Lord Grenville, however, insisted upon
refusing any compensation. Once within the British lines, he
said, slaves were free for good and all. … From any point of
view the matter was too insignificant to wreck the treaty upon
it, and Jay waived the claim. As to the western posts [Oswego,
Niagara, Detroit, Mackinaw, etc.], it was agreed that they
should be surrendered by June 12, 1796. But compensation for
the detention was denied on the ground that it was due to the
breach of the treaty by the United States in permitting the
States to prevent the recovery of British debts." For the
determination and payment of such debts, it was now provided
that a board of five commissioners should sit at Philadelphia;
while another similar board at London should award
compensation for irregular and illegal captures or
condemnations made during the war between Great Britain and
France. "Under this clause American merchants received
$10,345,000. … The disputed questions of boundaries, arising
from the construction of the treaty of peace, were referred to
joint commissioners: properly enough, as the confusion was due
to ignorance of the geography of the Northwest. British and
American citizens holding lands at the time respectively in
the United States and in any of the possessions of Great
Britain were secured in their rights; a clause much objected
to in America, but which was obviously just. A still more
important provision followed, a novelty in international
diplomacy, and a distinct advance in civilization: that war
between the two countries should never be made the pretext for
confiscation of debts or annulment of contracts between
individuals. In the War of 1812 the United States happened for
the moment to be the creditor nation, and the millions which
this provision saved to her citizens it would be difficult to
estimate. … It was the commercial articles which excited the
most intense hostility in America. … To unprejudiced eyes,
after the lapse of a hundred years, considering the mutual
exasperation of the two peoples, the pride of England in her
successes in the war with France, the weakness and division of
the United States, the treaty seems a very fair one. Certainly
one far less favorable to America would have been infinitely
preferable to a war, and would probably in the course of time
have been accepted as being so. The commercial advantages were
not very considerable, but they at least served as 'an
entering wedge,' to quote Jay's expression, and they were 'pro
tanto' a clear gain to America. … The treaty was not published
till July 2d. … Even before its contents were known, letters,
signed 'Franklin,' appeared abusing the treaty; and in
Philadelphia an effigy of Jay was placed in the pillory, and
finally taken down, guillotined, the clothes fired, and the
body blown up. It was clear, then, that it was not this
particular treaty, but any treaty at all with Great Britain,
that excited the wrath of the Republicans. On July 4th toasts
insulting Jay or making odious puns on his name, were the
fashion. … On June 24th the treaty was ratified by the Senate,
with the exception of the article about the West India trade.
On August 15th it was signed, with the same exception by
Washington."
_G. Pellew,
John Jay,
chapter 11._
"The reception given to the treaty cannot be fully explained
by the existing relations between the United States and
England. It was only in consequence of its Francomania that
the opposition assumed the character of blind rage."
_H. von Holst,
Constitutional and Political History of the United States,
volume 1, page 124._
ALSO IN:
_H. S. Randall,
Life of Jefferson,
volume 2, chapters 4-6._
_W. Jay,
Life of John Jay,
volume 1, chapters 8-10
and volume 2, pages 216-264._
_American State Papers,
volume 1, pages 464-525._
_J. B. McMaster,
History of the People of the United States,
volume 2, chapter 9._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1796.
Admission of Tennessee to the Union.
See TENNESSEE: A. D. 1785-1796.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1796.
Washington's Farewell Address.
"The period for the presidential election was drawing near,
and great anxiety began to be felt that Washington would
consent to stand for a third term. No one, it was agreed, had
greater claim to the enjoyment of retirement, in consideration
of public services rendered; but it was thought the affairs of
the country would be in a very precarious condition should he
retire before the wars of Europe were brought to a close.
{3309}
Washington, however, had made up his mind irrevocably on the
subject, and resolved to announce, in a farewell address, his
intention of retiring. Such an instrument, it will be
recollected, had been prepared for him from his own notes, by
Mr. Madison, when he had thought of retiring at the end of his
first term. As he was no longer in confidential intimacy with
Mr. Madison, he turned to Mr. Hamilton as his adviser and
coadjutor, and appears to have consulted him on the subject
early in the present year [1796], for, in a letter dated New
York, May 10th, Hamilton writes: 'When last in Philadelphia,
you mentioned to me your wish that I should "re-dress" a
certain paper which you had prepared. As it is important that
a thing of this kind should be done with great care and much
at leisure, touched and retouched, I submit a wish that, as
soon as you have given it the body you mean it to have, it may
be sent to me.' The paper was accordingly sent, on the 15th of
May, in its rough state, altered in one part since Hamilton
had seen it. 'If you should think it best to throw the whole
into a different form,' writes Washington, 'let me request,
notwithstanding, that my draft may be returned to me (along
with yours) with such amendments and corrections as to render
it as perfect as the formation is susceptible of; curtailed if
too verbose, and relieved of all tautology not necessary to
enforce the ideas in the original or quoted part. My wish is,
that the whole may appear in a plain style; and be handed to
the public in an honest, unaffected, simple garb.' We forbear
to go into the vexed question concerning this address; how
much of it is founded on Washington's original 'notes and
heads of topics'; how much was elaborated by Madison, and how
much is due to Hamilton's recasting and revision. The whole
came under the supervision of Washington; and the instrument,
as submitted to the press, was in his handwriting, with many
ultimate corrections and alterations. Washington had no pride
of authorship; his object always was to effect the purpose in
hand, and for that he occasionally invoked assistance, to
ensure a plain and clear exposition of his thoughts and
intentions. The address certainly breathes his spirit
throughout, is in perfect accordance with all his words and
actions, and 'in an honest, unaffected, simple garb,' embodies
the system of policy on which he had acted throughout his
administration. It was published in September [17], in a
Philadelphia paper called the Daily Advertiser. The
publication of the Address produced a great sensation. Several
of the State legislatures ordered it to be put on their
journals."
_W. Irving,
Life of Washington,
volume 5, chapter 30._
The following is the text of the Address.
"To the people of the United States.
Friends and Fellow-Citizens:
The period for a new election of a citizen, to administer the
executive government of the United States, being not far
distant, and the time actually arrived, when your thoughts
must be employed in designating the person, who is to be
clothed with that important trust, it appears to me proper,
especially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of
the public voice, that I should now apprize you of the
resolution I have formed, to decline being considered among
the number of those, out of whom a choice is to be made. I beg
you, at the same time, to do me the justice to be assured,
that this resolution has not been taken without a strict
regard to an the considerations appertaining to the relation,
which binds a dutiful citizen to his country; and that, in
withdrawing the tender of service, which silence in my
situation might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of
zeal for your future interest; no deficiency of grateful
respect for your past kindness; but am supported by a full
conviction that the step is compatible with both. The
acceptance of, and continuance hitherto in, the office to
which your suffrages have twice called me, have been a uniform
sacrifice of inclination to the opinion of duty, and to a
deference for what appeared to be your desire. I constantly
hoped, that it would have been much earlier in my power,
consistently with motives, which I was not at liberty to
disregard, to return to that retirement, from which I had been
reluctantly drawn. The strength of my inclination to do this,
previous to the last election, had even led to the preparation
of an address to declare it to you; but mature reflection on
the then perplexed and critical posture of our affairs with
foreign nations, and the unanimous advice of persons entitled
to my confidence, impelled me to abandon the idea. I rejoice,
that the state of your concerns, external as well as internal,
no longer renders the pursuit of inclination incompatible with
the sentiment of duty, or propriety; and am persuaded,
whatever partiality may be retained for my services, that, in
the present circumstances of our country, you will not
disapprove my determination to retire. The impressions, with
which I first undertook the arduous trust, were explained on
the proper occasion. In the discharge of this trust, I will
only say, that I have, with good intentions, contributed
towards the organization and administration of the government
the best exertions of which a very fallible judgment was
capable. Not unconscious, in the outset, of the inferiority of
my qualifications, experience in my own eyes, perhaps still
more in the eyes of others, has strengthened the motives to
diffidence of myself; and every day the increasing weight of
years admonishes me more and more, that the shade of
retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome.
Satisfied, that, if any circumstances have given peculiar
value to my services, they were temporary, I have the
consolation to believe, that, while choice and prudence invite
me to quit the political scene, patriotism does not forbid it.
In looking forward to the moment, which is intended to
terminate the career of my public life, my feelings do not
permit me to suspend the deep acknowledgment of that debt of
gratitude, which I owe to my beloved country for the many
honors it has conferred upon me; still more for the steadfast
confidence with which it has supported me; and for the
opportunities I have thence enjoyed of manifesting my
inviolable attachment, by services faithful and persevering,
though in usefulness unequal to my zeal. If benefits have
resulted to our country from these services, let it always be
remembered to your praise, and as an instructive example in
our annals, that under circumstances in which the passions,
agitated in every direction, were liable to mislead, amidst
appearances sometimes dubious, vicissitudes of fortune often
discouraging, in situations in which not unfrequently want of
success has countenanced the spirit of criticism, the
constancy of your support was the essential prop of the
efforts, and a guarantee of the plans by which they were
effected.
{3310}
Profoundly penetrated with this idea, I shall carry it with me
to my grave, as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that
Heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its
beneficence; that your union and brotherly affection may be
perpetual; that the free constitution, which is the work of
your hands, may be sacredly maintained; that its
administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom
and virtue; that, in fine, the happiness of the people of
these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made
complete, by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of
this blessing, as will acquire to them the glory of
recommending it to the applause, the affection, and adoption
of every nation, which is yet a stranger to it. Here, perhaps,
I ought to stop. But a solicitude for your welfare, which
cannot end but with my life, and the apprehension of danger,
natural to that solicitude, urge me, on an occasion like the
present, to offer to your solemn contemplation, and to
recommend to your frequent review, some sentiments, which are
the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable
observation, and which appear to me all-important to the
permanency of your felicity as a People. These will be offered
to you with the more freedom, as you can only see in them the
disinterested warnings of a parting friend, who can possibly
have no personal motive to bias his counsel. Nor can I forget,
as an encouragement to it, your indulgent reception of my
sentiments on a former and not dissimilar occasion. Interwoven
as is the love of liberty with every ligament of your hearts,
no recommendation of mine is necessary to fortify or confirm
the attachment. The unity of Government, which constitutes you
one people, is also now dear to you. It is justly so: for it
is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the
support of your tranquillity at home, your peace abroad; of
your safety; of your prosperity; of that very Liberty, which
you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee, that, from
different causes and from different quarters, much pains will
be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the
conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your
political fortress against which the batteries of internal and
external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though
often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite
moment, that you should properly estimate the immense value of
your national Union to your collective and individual
happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and
immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think
and speak of it as of the Palladium of your political safety
and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous
anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a
suspicion, that it can in any event be abandoned; and
indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt
to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to
enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various
parts. For this you have every inducement of sympathy and
interest. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country,
that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The
name of American, which belongs to you, in your national
capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more
than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With
slight shades of difference, you have the same religion,
manners, habits, and political principles. You have in a
common cause fought and triumphed together; the Independence
and Liberty you possess are the work of joint counsels, and
joint efforts, of common dangers, sufferings, and successes.
But these considerations, however powerfully they address
themselves to your sensibility, are greatly outweighed by
those, which apply more immediately to your interest. Here
every portion of our country finds the most commanding motives
for carefully guarding and preserving the Union of the whole.
The North, in an unrestrained intercourse with the South,
protected by the equal laws of a common government, finds, in
the productions of the latter, great additional resources of
maritime and commercial enterprise and precious materials of
manufacturing industry. The South, in the same intercourse,
benefiting by the agency of the North, sees its agriculture
grow and its commerce expand. Turning partly into its own
channels the seamen of the North, it finds its particular
navigation invigorated; and, while it contributes, in
different ways, to nourish and increase the general mass of
the national navigation, it looks forward to the protection of
a maritime strength, to which itself is unequally adapted. The
East, in a like intercourse with the West, already finds, and
in the progressive improvement of interior communications by
land and water, will more and more find, a valuable vent for
the commodities which it brings from abroad, or manufactures
at home. The West derives from the East supplies requisite to
its growth and comfort, and, what is perhaps of still greater
consequence, it must of necessity owe the secure enjoyment of
indispensable outlets for its own productions to the weight,
influence, and the future maritime strength of the Atlantic
side of the Union, directed by an indissoluble community of
interest as one nation. Any other tenure by which the West can
hold this essential advantage, whether derived from its own
separate strength, or from an apostate and unnatural connexion
with any foreign power, must be intrinsically precarious.
While, then, every part of our country thus feels an immediate
and particular interest in Union, all the parts combined
cannot fail to find in the united mass of means and efforts
greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater
security from external danger, a less frequent interruption of
their peace by foreign nations; and, what is of inestimable
value, they must derive from Union an exemption from those
broils and wars between themselves, which so frequently
afflict neighbouring countries not tied together by the same
governments, which their own rivalships alone would be
sufficient to produce, but which opposite foreign alliances,
attachments, and intrigues would stimulate and embitter.
Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those
overgrown military establishments, which, under any form of
government, are inauspicious to liberty and which are to be
regarded as particularly hostile to Republican Liberty. In
this sense it is, that your Union ought to be considered as a
main prop of your liberty, and that the love of the one ought
to endear to you the preservation of the other.
{3311}
These considerations speak a persuasive language to every
reflecting and virtuous mind, and exhibit the continuance of
the Union as a primary object of Patriotic desire. Is there a
doubt, whether a common government can embrace so large a
sphere? Let experience solve it. To listen to mere speculation
in such a case were criminal. We are authorized to hope, that
a proper organization of the whole, with the auxiliary agency
of governments for the respective subdivisions, will afford a
happy issue to the experiment. It is well worth a fair and
full experiment. With such powerful and obvious motives to
Union, affecting all parts of our country, while experience
shall not have demonstrated its impracticability, there will
always be reason to distrust the patriotism of those, who in
any quarter may endeavour to weaken its bands. In
contemplating the causes, which may disturb our Union, it
occurs as matter of serious concern, that any ground should
have been furnished for characterizing parties by Geographical
discriminations, Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western;
whence designing men may endeavour to excite a belief, that
there is a real difference of local interests and views. One
of the expedients of party to acquire influence, within
particular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims
of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much
against the jealousies and heart-burnings, which spring from
these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each
other those, who ought to be bound together by fraternal
affection. The inhabitants of our western country have lately
had a useful lesson on this head; they have seen, in the
negotiation by the Executive, and in the unanimous
ratification by the Senate, of the treaty with Spain, and in
the universal satisfaction at that event, throughout the
United States, a decisive proof how unfounded were the
suspicious propagated among them of a policy in the General
Government and in the Atlantic States unfriendly to their
interests in regard to the Mississippi; they have been
witnesses to the formation of two treaties, that with Great
Britain, and that with Spain, which secure to them every thing
they could desire, in respect to our foreign relations,
towards confirming their prosperity. Will it not be their
wisdom to rely for the preservation of these advantages on the
Union by which they were procured? Will they not henceforth be
deaf to those advisers, if such there are, who would sever
them from their brethren, and connect them with aliens? To the
efficacy and permanency of your Union, a Government for the
whole is indispensable. No alliances, however strict, between
the parts can be an adequate substitute; they must inevitably
experience the infractions and interruptions, which all
alliances in all times have experienced. Sensible of this
momentous truth, you have improved upon your first essay, by
the adoption of a Constitution of Government better calculated
than your former for an intimate Union, and for the
efficacious management of your common concerns. This
Government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and
unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature
deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the
distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, and
containing within itself a provision for its own amendment,
has a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect
for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in
its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of
true Liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right
of the people to make and to alter their Constitutions of
Government. But the Constitution which at any time exists,
till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole
people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the
power and the right of the people to establish Government
presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the
established Government. All obstructions to the execution of
the Laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever
plausible character, with the real design to direct, control,
counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the
constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental
principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize
faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to
put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the
will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising
minority of the community; and, according to the alternate
triumphs of different parties, to make the public
administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous
projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and
wholesome plans digested by common counsels, and modified by
mutual interests. However combinations or associations of the
above descriptions may now and then answer popular ends, they
are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent
engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men
will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to
usurp for themselves the reins of government; destroying
afterwards the very engines, which have lifted them to unjust
dominion. Towards the preservation of your government, and the
permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite, not
only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to
its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care
the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious
the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect, in the
forms of the constitution, alterations, which will impair the
energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be
directly overthrown. In all the changes to which you may be
invited, remember that time and habit are at least as
necessary to fix the true character of governments, as of
other human institutions; that experience is the surest
standard, by which to test the real tendency of the existing
constitution of a country; that facility in changes, upon the
credit of mere hypothesis and opinion, exposes to perpetual
change, from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion;
and remember, especially, that, for the efficient management
of your common interests, in a country so extensive as ours, a
government of as much vigor as is consistent with the perfect
security of liberty is indispensable. Liberty itself will find
in such a government, with powers properly distributed and
adjusted, its surest guardian. It is, indeed, little else than
a name, where the government is too feeble to withstand the
enterprise of faction, to confine each member of the society
within the limits prescribed by the laws, and to maintain all
in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person
and property.
{3312}
I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the
state, with particular reference to the founding of them on
geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more
comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner
against the baneful effects of the spirit of party, generally.
This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature,
having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind.
It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or
less stilled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the
popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is
truly their worst enemy. The alternate domination of one
faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge,
natural to party dissension, which in different ages and
countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is
itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a
more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and
miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to
seek security and repose in the absolute power of an
individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing
faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors,
turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation,
on the ruins of Public Liberty. Without looking forward to an
extremity of this kind, (which nevertheless ought not to be
entirely out of sight,) the common and continual mischiefs of
the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and
duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It serves
always to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the
Public Administration. It agitates the Community with
ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity
of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and
insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and
corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government
itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy
and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and
will of another. There is an opinion, that parties in free
countries are useful checks upon the administration of the
Government, and serve to keep alive the spirit of Liberty.
This within certain limits is probably true; and in
Governments of a Monarchical cast, Patriotism may look with
indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But
in those of the popular character, in Governments purely
elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their
natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of
that spirit for every salutary purpose. And, there being
constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be, by force of
public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be
quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its
bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should
consume. It is important, likewise, that the habits of
thinking in a free country should inspire caution, in those
intrusted with its administration, to confine themselves
within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in
the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon
another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the
powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create,
whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just
estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it,
which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to
satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of
reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by
dividing and distributing it into different depositories, and
constituting each the Guardian of the Public Weal against
invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments
ancient and modern; some of them in our country and under our
own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to
institute them. If, in the opinion of the people, the
distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be
in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment
in the way, which the constitution designates. But let there
be no change by usurpation; for, though this, in one instance,
may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by
which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must
always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or
transient benefit, which the use can at any time yield. Of all
the dispositions and habits, which lead to political
prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports.
In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who
should labor to subvert these great pillars of human
happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and
Citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man,
ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace
all their connexions with private and public felicity. Let it
simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for
reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation
desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation
in Courts of Justice? And let us with caution indulge the
supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion.
Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education
on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both
forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in
exclusion of religious principle. It is substantially true,
that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular
government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force
to every species of free government. Who, that is a sincere
friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts to
shake the foundation of the fabric? Promote, then, as an
object of primary importance, institutions for the general
diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a
government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that
public opinion should be enlightened. As a very important
source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One
method of preserving it is, to use it as sparingly as
possible; avoiding occasions of expense by cultivating peace,
but remembering also that timely disbursements to prepare for
danger frequently prevent much greater disbursements to repel
it; avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by
shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in
time of peace to discharge the debts, which unavoidable wars
may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity
the burthen, which we ourselves ought to bear. The execution
of these maxims belongs to your representatives, but it is
necessary that public opinion should cooperate.
{3313}
To facilitate to them the performance of their duty, it is
essential that you should practically bear in mind, that
towards the payment of debts there must be Revenue; that to
have Revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be
devised, which are not more or less inconvenient and
unpleasant, that the intrinsic embarrassment, inseparable from
the selection of the proper objects (which is always a choice
of difficulties), ought to be a decisive motive for a candid
construction of the conduct of the government in making it,
and for a spirit of acquiescence in the measures for obtaining
revenue, which the public exigencies may at any time dictate.
Observe good faith and justice towards all Nations; cultivate
peace and harmony with all. Religion and Morality enjoin this
conduct; and can it be, that good policy does not equally
enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at
no distant period, a great Nation, to give to mankind the
magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by
an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt, that, in
the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would
richly repay any temporary advantages, which might be lost by
a steady adherence to it? Can it be, that Providence has not
connected the permanent felicity of a Nation with its Virtue?
The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment
which ennobles human nature. Alas! is it rendered impossible
by its vices? In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more
essential, than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against
particular Nations, and passionate attachments for others,
should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and
amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The
Nation, which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or
an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave
to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is
sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest.
Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more
readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight
causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, when
accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence
frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody
contests. The Nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment,
sometimes impels to war the Government, contrary to the best
calculations of policy. The Government sometimes participates
in the national propensity, and adopts through passion what
reason would reject; at other times, it makes the animosity of
the nation subservient to projects of hostility instigated by
pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives.
The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of Nations has
been the victim. So likewise, a passionate attachment of one
Nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for
the favorite Nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary
common interest, in cases where no real common interest
exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other
betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and
wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or
justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite
Nation of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to
injure the Nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily
parting with what ought to have been retained; and by exciting
jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the
parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives
to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens, (who devote
themselves to the favorite nation,) facility to betray or
sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium,
sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances
of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for
public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base
of foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or
infatuation. As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable
ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly
enlightened and independent Patriot. How many opportunities do
they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practise the
arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or
awe the Public Councils! Such an attachment of a small or
weak, towards a great and powerful nation, dooms the former to
be the satellite of the latter. Against the insidious wiles of
foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me,
fellow-citizens,) the jealousy of a free people ought to be
constantly awake; since history and experience prove, that
foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of
Republican Government. But that jealousy, to be useful, must
be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very
influence to be avoided, instead of a defence against it.
Excessive partiality for one foreign nation, and excessive
dislike of another, cause those whom they actuate to see
danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the
arts of influence on the other. Real patriots, who may resist
the intrigues of the favorite, are liable to become suspected
and odious; while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and
confidence of the people, to surrender their interests. The
great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations,
is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them
as little political connexion as possible. So far as we have
already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect
good faith. Here let us stop. Europe has a set of primary
interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation.
Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the
causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns.
Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate
ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of
her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of
her friendships or enmities. Our detached and distant
situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course.
If we remain one people, under an efficient government, the
period is not far off, when we may defy material injury from
external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will
cause the neutrality, we may at any time resolve upon, to be
scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the
impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly
hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or
war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel. Why
forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our
own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our
destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace
and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship,
interest, humor, or caprice? It is our true policy to steer
clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign
world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for
let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity
to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable
to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the
best policy.
{3314}
I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed in
their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary and
would be unwise to extend them. Taking care always to keep
ourselves, by suitable establishments, on a respectable
defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances
for extraordinary emergencies. Harmony, liberal intercourse
with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and
interest. But even our commercial policy should hold an equal
and impartial hand; neither seeking nor granting exclusive
favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of
things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams
of commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing, with powers so
disposed, in order to give trade a stable course, to define
the rights of our merchants, and to enable the government to
support them, conventional rules of intercourse, the best that
present circumstances and mutual opinion will permit, but
temporary, and liable to be from time to time abandoned or
varied, as experience and circumstances shall dictate;
constantly keeping in view, that it is folly in one nation to
look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay
with a portion of its independence for whatever it may accept
under that character; that, by such acceptance, it may place
itself in the condition of having given equivalents for
nominal favors, and yet of being reproached with ingratitude
for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to
expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. It
is an illusion, which experience must cure, which a just pride
ought to discard. In offering to you, my countrymen, these
counsels of an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope
they will make the strong and lasting impression I could wish;
that they will control the usual current of the passions, or
prevent our nation from running the course, which has hitherto
marked the destiny of nations. But, if I may even flatter
myself, that they may be productive of some partial benefit,
some occasional good; that they may now and then recur to
moderate the fury of party spirit, to warn against the
mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard against the impostures
of pretended patriotism; this hope will be a full recompense
for the solicitude for your welfare, by which they have been
dictated. How far in the discharge of my official duties, I
have been guided by the principles which have been delineated,
the public records and other evidences of my conduct must
witness to you and to the world. To myself, the assurance of
my own conscience is, that I have at least believed myself to
be guided by them. In relating to the still subsisting war in
Europe, my Proclamation of the 22d of April, 1793, is the
index to my Plan. Sanctioned by your approving voice, and by
that of your Representatives in both Houses of Congress, the
spirit of that measure has continually governed me,
uninfluenced by any attempts to deter or divert me from it.
After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best lights
I could obtain, I was well satisfied that our country, under
all the circumstances of the case, had a right to take, and
was bound in duty and interest to take, a neutral position.
Having taken it, I determined, as far as should depend upon
me, to maintain it, with moderation, perseverance, and
firmness. The considerations, which respect the right to hold
this conduct, it is not necessary on this occasion to detail.
I will only observe, that, according to my understanding of
the matter, that right, so far from being denied by any of the
Belligerent Powers, has been virtually admitted by all. The
duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred, without
anything more, from the obligation which justice and humanity
impose on every nation, in cases in which it is free to act,
to maintain inviolate the relations of peace and amity towards
other nations. The inducements of interest for observing that
conduct will best be referred to your own reflections and
experience. With me, a predominant motive has been to
endeavour to gain time to our country to settle and mature its
yet recent institutions, and to progress without interruption
to that degree of strength and consistency, which is necessary
to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own fortunes.
Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am
unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too
sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may
have committed many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently
beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which
they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope, that my
Country will never cease to view them with indulgence; and
that, after forty-five years of my life dedicated to its
service with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent
abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon
be to the mansions of rest. Relying on its kindness in this as
in other things, and actuated by that fervent love towards it,
which is so natural to a man, who views in it the native soil
of himself and his progenitors for several generations; I
anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat, in which I
promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment
of partaking, in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign
influence of good laws under a free government, the ever
favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust,
of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers.
GEORGE WASHINGTON."
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1796.
Third Presidential Election.
Washington succeeded by John Adams.
After the appearance of Washington's Farewell Address, the
result of the Presidential election became exceedingly
doubtful. "There was no second man to whom the whole of the
nation could be won over. The Federalists … could not bring
forward a single candidate who could calculate on the
unanimous and cheerful support of the entire party. There
still prevailed at the time a feeling among the people that
the vice-president had a sort of claim to the succession to
the presidency. But even apart from this, Adams would have
been one of the most prominent candidates of the Federalists.
The great majority of them soon gave him a decided preference
over all other possible candidates. On the other hand, some of
the most distinguished and influential of the Federalists
feared serious consequences to the party and the country from
the vanity and violence as well as from the egotism and
irresolution with which he was charged. But to put him aside
entirely was not possible, nor was it their wish. They
thought, however, to secure a greater number of electoral
votes for Thomas Pinckney, the Federal candidate for the
vice-presidency, which, as the constitution then stood, would
have made him president and Adams vice-president.
{3315}
Although this plan was anxiously concealed from the people, it
caused the campaign to be conducted by the party with less
energy than if the leaders had been entirely unanimous. France
was naturally desirous of Jefferson's success. … Wolcott
asserted that Adet had publicly declared that France's future
policy towards the United States would depend on the result of
the election. Some did not hesitate to say that, on this
account, Jefferson should have the preference, but on the more
thoughtful Federalists it exerted the very opposite influence.
There is no reason for the assumption that the issue of the
election would have been different, had Adet behaved more
discreetly. But his indiscretion certainly contributed to make
the small majority expected for Adams completely certain,
while Hamilton's flank movement in favor of Pinckney helped
Jefferson to the vice-presidency. … The result of the
election, however, left the country in a very serious
condition. Washington's withdrawal removed the last restraint
from party passion."
_H. von Holst,
The Constitutional and Political History of the United States,
volume 1, chapter 3._
Adams received 71 votes in the Electoral College and Jefferson
68. As the constitution then provided, the majority of votes
elected the President and the next greatest number of votes
elected the Vice President.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1797-1799.
Troubles with the French Republic.
The X, Y, Z correspondence.
On the brink of war.
"Mr. Adams took his cabinet from his predecessor; it was not a
strong one, and it was devoted to Hamilton, between whom and
the new President there was soon a divergence, Hamilton being
fond of power, and Adams having a laudable purpose to command
his own ship. The figure of speech is appropriate, for he
plunged into a sea of troubles, mainly created by the
unreasonable demands of the French government. The French
'Directory,' enraged especially by Jay's treaty with England,
got rid of one American minister by remonstrance, and drove
out another [Pinckney] with contempt. When Mr. Adams sent
three special envoys [Gerry, Marshall, and Pinckney], they
were expected to undertake the most delicate negotiations with
certain semi-official persons designated in their
correspondence only by the letters X, Y, Z. The plan of this
covert intercourse came through the private secretary of M. de
Talleyrand, then French Minister for Foreign Affairs; and the
impudence of these three letters of the alphabet went so far
as to propose a bribe of 1,200,000 francs (some $220,000) to
be paid over to this minister. 'You must pay money, a great
deal of money,' remarked Monsieur Y ('Il faut de l'argent,
beaucoup de l'argent'). The secret of these names was kept,
but the diplomatic correspondence was made public, and created
much wrath in Europe as well as in America. Moreover, American
vessels were constantly attacked by France, and yet Congress
refused to arm its own ships. At last the insults passed
beyond bearing, and it was at this time that 'Millions for
defence, not one cent for tribute,' first became a proverbial
phrase, having been originally used by Charles C. Pinckney. …
Then, with tardy decision, the Republicans yielded to the
necessity of action, and the Federal party took the lead. War
was not formally proclaimed, but treaties with France were
declared to be no longer binding. An army was ordered to be
created, with Washington as Lieutenant-general and Hamilton as
second in command; and the President was authorized to appoint
a Secretary of the Navy and to build twelve new ships-of-war.
Before these were ready, naval hostilities had actually begun;
and Commodore Truxtun, in the United States frigate
Constellation, captured a French frigate in West Indian waters
(February 9. 1799), and afterwards silenced another, which
however escaped. Great was the excitement over these early
naval successes of the young nation. Merchant-ships were
authorized to arm themselves, and some 300 acted upon this
authority. … The result of it all was that France yielded.
Talleyrand, the very minister who had dictated the insults,
now disavowed them, and pledged his government to receive any
minister the United States might send. The President, in the
most eminently courageous act of his life, took the
responsibility of again sending ambassadors; and did this
without even consulting his cabinet, which would, as he well
knew, oppose it. They were at once received, and all danger of
war with France was at an end. This bold stroke separated the
President permanently from at least half of his own party,
since the Federalists did not wish for peace with France. His
course would have given him a corresponding increase of favor
from the other side, but for the great mistake the Federalists
had made in passing certain laws, called the 'Alien' law and
the 'Sedition' law."
_T. W. Higginson,
Larger History of the United States,
chapter 14._
ALSO IN:
_J. T. Austin,
Life of Elbridge Gerry,
volume 2, chapters 5-8._
_John Quincy and Charles Francis Adams,
Life of John Adams,
chapter 10 (volume 2)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1797-1800.
Early attitude of the Slavocracy in Congress.
Treatment of Free Blacks.
"Many people will not allow the least blame to be cast on this
period [the later years of the 18th century], because it does
not harmonize with their admiration of the 'fathers,' and
because they have adopted, without any proof, the common view
that the deeper shadows of slavery and slavocracy first
appeared comparatively late. … In reading through the debates
[in Congress], single striking instances of injustice do not
make the deepest impression. It is the omnipresent
unwillingness to practice justice towards colored
persons,—yes, even to recognize them as actual beings. When
the defense of their rights is demanded, then congress has
always a deaf ear. … Swanwick of Pennsylvania laid before the
house of representatives, January 30, 1797, a petition from
four North Carolina negroes who had been freed by their
masters. Since a state law condemned them to be sold again,
they had fled to Philadelphia. There they had been seized
under the fugitive slave law … and now prayed congress for its
intervention. Blount of North Carolina declared that only when
it was 'proved' that these men were free, could congress
consider the petition. Sitgreaves of Pennsylvania asked, in
reply to this, what sort of proof was offered that the four
negroes were not free. This question received no answer. Smith
of South Carolina and Christie of Maryland simply expressed
their amazement that any member whatever could have presented
a petition of 'such an unheard-of nature.'
{3316}
Swanwick and some other representatives affirmed that the
petition must be submitted to a committee for investigation
and consideration, because the petitioners complained of
violation of their rights under a law of the Union. No reply
could be made to this and no reply was attempted. This
decisive point was simply set aside, and it was voted by fifty
ayes to thirty-three noes not to receive the petition. … In
order to reach this result, Smith had produced the customary
impression by the declaration that the refusal of the demand
made by the representatives from the southern states would
drive a 'wedge' into the Union. When, three years later, the
same question was brought before congress again by a petition
of the free negroes of Philadelphia, Rutledge of South
Carolina declared in even plainer terms that the south would
be forced to the sad necessity of going its own way. … The
whites who troubled themselves about slaves or free colored
persons had no better reception. Year after year the Quakers
came indefatigably with new petitions, and each time had to
undergo the same scornful treatment. … In all the cases
mentioned, the tactics of the representatives of the
slaveholding interest were the same and they maintained them
unchanged up to the last. If congress was urged to act in any
way which did not please them, then slavery was always a
'purely municipal affair.'"
_H. von Holst,
Constitutional and Political History of the United States,
volume 1, chapter 8._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1798.
The Alien and Sedition Laws and
the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions.
"The outrages which we suffered from the injustice of England
and France gave additional bitterness to the strife between
parties at home. The anti-federal press was immoderate in its
assaults upon the administration. It so happened that several
of the anti-federal papers were conducted by foreigners.
Indeed, there were many foreigners in the country whose
sympathies were with the French, and their hostility to the
administration was open and passionate. The federal leaders
determined to crush out by the strong arm of the law these
publishers of slanders and fomenters of discontent. Hence the
famous 'alien and sedition laws' were passed. The remedy
devised was far worse than the disease. It hastened the
federal party to its tomb, and was the occasion of the
formulation of that unfortunate creed of constitutional
construction and of state sovereignty known as the 'Virginia
and Kentucky Resolutions' of 1798-99."
_J. S. Landon,
Constitutional History and Government of the United States,
lecture 6._
The series of strong measures carried by the Federalists
comprised the Naturalization Act of June 18, the Alien Act of
June 25, the second Alien Act, of July 6, and the Sedition Act
of July 14, 1798.
The text of the Naturalization Act is as follows:
June 18, 1798. Acts of the Fifth Congress,
Statute II., Chapter liv.:
"An Act supplementary to, and to amend the act, intituled 'An
act to establish an uniform rule of naturalization; and to
repeal the act heretofore passed on that subject.'
Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States of America in Congress
assembled, That no alien shall be admitted to become a citizen
of the United States, or of any state, unless in the manner
prescribed by the act, intituled 'An act to establish an
uniform rule of naturalization; and to repeal the act
heretofore passed on that subject,' he shall have declared his
intention to become a citizen of the United States, five
years, at least, before his admission, and shall, at the time
of his application to be admitted, declare and prove, to the
satisfaction of the court having jurisdiction in the case,
that he has resided within the United States fourteen years,
at least, and within the state or territory where, or for
which such court is at the time held, five years, at least,
besides conforming to the other declarations, renunciations
and proofs, by the said act required, anything therein to the
contrary hereof notwithstanding: Provided, that any alien, who
was residing within the limits, and under the jurisdiction of
the United States, before the twenty-ninth day of January, one
thousand seven hundred and ninety-five, may, within one year
after the passing of this act—and any alien who shall have
made the declaration of his intention to become a citizen of
the United States, in conformity to the provisions of the act,
intituled 'An act to establish an uniform rule of
naturalization; and to repeal the act heretofore passed on
that subject,' may, within four years after having made the
declaration aforesaid, be admitted to become a citizen, in the
manner prescribed by the said act, upon his making proof that
he has resided five years, at least, within the limits, and
under the jurisdiction of the United States: And provided
also, that no alien, who shall be a native, citizen, denizen
or subject of any nation or state with whom the United States
shall be at war, at the time of his application, shall be then
admitted to become a citizen of the United States."
_Statutes at Large of the United States, edition 1850.
volume 1, pages 566-567._
The following is the text of the two Alien Acts:
June 25, 1798. Statute II., Chapter lviii.
"An Act Concerning Aliens.
Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States of America in Congress
assembled, That it shall be lawful for the President of the
United States at any time during the continuance of this act,
to order all such aliens as he shall judge dangerous to the
peace and safety of the United States, or shall have
reasonable grounds to suspect are concerned in any treasonable
or secret machinations against the government thereof, to
depart out of the territory of the United States, within such
time as shall be expressed in such order, which order shall be
served on such alien by de·livering him a copy thereof, or
leaving the same at his usual abode, and returned to the
office of the Secretary of State, by the marshal or other
person to whom the same shall be directed. And in case any
alien, so ordered to depart, shall be found at large within
the United States after the time limited in such order for his
departure, and not having obtained a license from the
President to reside therein, or having obtained such license
shall not have conformed thereto, every such alien shall, on
conviction thereof, be imprisoned for a term not exceeding
three years, and shall never after be admitted to become a
citizen of the United States.
{3317}
Provided always and be it further enacted, that if any alien
so ordered to depart shall prove to the satisfaction of the
President, by evidence to be taken before such person or
persons as the President shall direct, who are for that
purpose hereby authorized to administer oaths, that no injury
or danger to the United States will arise from suffering such
alien to reside therein, the President may grant a license to
such alien to remain within the United States for such time as
he shall judge proper, and at such place as he may designate.
And the President may also require of such alien to enter into
a bond to the United States, in such penal sum as he may
direct, with one or more sufficient sureties to the
satisfaction of the person authorized by the President to take
the same, conditioned for the good behavior of such alien
during his residence in the United States, and not violating
his license, which license the President may revoke whenever
he shall think proper.
Section 2. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful
for the President of the United States, whenever he may deem
it necessary for the public safety, to order to be removed out
of the territory thereof, any alien who may or shall be in
prison in pursuance of this act; and to cause to be arrested
and sent out of the United States such of those aliens as
shall have been ordered to depart therefrom and shall not have
obtained a license as aforesaid, in all cases where, in the
opinion of the President, the public safety requires a speedy
removal. And if any alien so removed or sent out of the United
States by the President shall voluntarily return thereto,
unless by permission of the President of the United States,
such alien on conviction thereof, shall be imprisoned so long
as, in the opinion of the President, the public safety may
require.
Section 3. And be it further enacted, That every master or
commander of any ship or vessel which shall come into any port
of the United States after the first day of July next, shall
immediately on his arrival make report in writing to the
collector, or other chief officer of the customs of such port,
of all aliens, if any, on board his vessel, specifying their
names, age, the place of nativity, the country from which they
shall have come, the nation to which they belong and owe
allegiance, their occupation and a description of their
persons, as far as he shall be informed thereof, and on
failure, every such master and commander shall forfeit and pay
three hundred dollars, for the payment whereof on default of
such master or commander, such vessel shall also be holden,
and may by such collector or other officer of the customs be
detained. And it shall be the duty of such collector, or other
officer of the customs, forthwith to transmit to the officer
of the department of state true copies of all such returns.
Section 4. And be it further enacted, That the circuit and
district courts of the United States, shall respectively have
cognizance of all crimes and offences against this act. And
all marshals and other officers of the United States are
required to execute all precepts and orders of the President
of the United States issued in pursuance or by virtue of this
act.
Section 5. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful
for any alien who may be ordered to be removed from the United
States, by virtue of this act, to take with him such part of
his goods, chattels, or other property, as he may find
convenient; and all property left in the United States by any
alien, who may be removed, as aforesaid, shall be, and remain
subject to his order and disposal, in the same manner as if
this act had not been passed.
Section 6. And be it further enacted, That this act shall
continue and be in force for and during the term of two years
from the passing thereof.
Approved, June 25, 1798."
_Statutes at Large of the United States, edition 1850,
Volume I., pages 570-572._
July 6, 1798. Statute II., Chapter lxvi.
"An Act respecting Alien Enemies.
Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States of America in Congress
assembled, That whenever there shall be a declared war between
the United States and any foreign nation or government, or any
invasion or predatory incursion shall be perpetrated,
attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United
States, by any foreign nation or government, and the President
of the United States shall make public proclamation of the
event, all natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of the
hostile nation or government, being males of the age of
fourteen years and upwards, who shall be within the United
States, and not actually naturalized, shall be liable to be
apprehended, restrained, secured and removed, as alien
enemies. And the President of the United States shall be, and
he is hereby authorized, in any event, as aforesaid, by his
proclamation thereof or other public act, to direct the
conduct to be observed, on the part of the United States,
towards the aliens who shall become liable as aforesaid; the
manner and degree of the restraint to which they shall be
subject, and in what cases, and upon what security their
residence shall be permitted, and to provide for the removal
of those, who, not being permitted to reside within the United
States, shall refuse or neglect to depart therefrom; and to
establish any other regulations which shall be found necessary
in the premises and for the public safety; Provided, that
aliens resident within the United States, who shall become
liable as enemies, in the manner aforesaid, and who shall not
be chargeable with actual hostility, or other crime against
the public safety, shall be allowed for the recovery,
disposal, and removal of their goods and effects, and for
their departure, the full time which is, or shall be
stipulated by any treaty, where any shall have been between
the United States and the hostile nation or government, of
which they shall be natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects:
and when no such treaty shall have existed, the President of
the United States may ascertain and declare such reasonable
time as may be consistent with the public safety, and
according to the dictates of humanity and national
hospitality.
Section 2. And be it further enacted, That after any
proclamation shall be made as aforesaid, it shall be the duty
of the several courts of the United States, and of each state,
having criminal jurisdiction, and of the several judges and
justices of the courts of the United States, and they shall
be, and are hereby respectively, authorized upon complaint,
against any alien or alien enemies, as aforesaid, who shall be
resident and at large within such jurisdiction or district, to
the danger of the public peace or safety, and contrary to the
tenor or intent of such proclamation, or other regulations
which the President of the United States shall and may
establish in the premises, to cause such alien or aliens to be
duly apprehended and convened before such court, judge or
Justice; and after a full examination and hearing on such
complaint, and sufficient cause therefor appearing, shall and
may order such alien or aliens to be removed out of the
territory of the United States, or to give such sureties for
their good behaviour, or to be otherwise restrained,
conformably to the proclamation or regulations which shall or
may be established as aforesaid, and may imprison, or
otherwise secure such alien or aliens, until the order which
shall and may be made, as aforesaid, shall be performed.
{3318}
Section 3. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the
duty of the marshal of the district in which any alien enemy
shall be apprehended, who by the President of the United
States, or by the order of any court, judge or justice, as
aforesaid, shall be required to depart, and to be removed, as
aforesaid, to provide therefor, and to execute such order, by
himself or his deputy, or other discreet person or persons to
be employed by him, by causing a removal of such alien out of
the territory of the United States; and for such removal the
marshal shall have the warrant of the President of the United
States, or of the court, judge or justice ordering the same,
as the case may be.
Approved, July 6, 1798."
_Statutes at Large of the United States, edition of 1850,
Volume I, page 577._
The text of the Sedition Act is as follows:
JULY 14, 1798. Chapter lxxiv.
"An Act in addition to the act, entitled 'An Act for the
punishment of certain crimes against the United States.'
Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress
assembled, That if any persons shall unlawfully combine or
conspire together, with intent to oppose any measure or
measures of the government of the United States, which are or
shall be directed by proper authority, or to impede the
operation of any law of the United States, or to intimidate or
prevent any person holding a place or office in or under the
government of the United States, from undertaking, performing
or executing, his trust or duty; and if any person or persons,
with intent as aforesaid, shall counsel, advise or attempt to
procure any insurrection, riot, unlawful assembly, or
combination, whether such conspiracy, threatening, counsel,
advice, or attempt shall have the proposed effect or not, he
or they shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor, and on
conviction before any court of the United States having
jurisdiction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not
exceeding five thousand dollars and by imprisonment during a
term not less than six months nor exceeding five years; and
further at the discretion of the court may be holden to find
sureties for his good behavior in such sum, and for such time,
as the said court may direct.
Section 2. And be it further enacted, That if any person shall
write, print, utter, or publish, or shall cause or procure to
be written, printed, uttered or published or shall knowingly
and willingly assist or aid in writing, printing, uttering or
publishing any false, scandalous and malicious writing or
writings against the government of the United States, or
either house of the Congress of the United States, or the
President of the United States, with intent to defame the said
government, or either house of the said Congress, or the said
President, or to bring them or either of them, into contempt
or disrepute; or to excite against them, or either, or any of
them, the hatred of the good people of the United States, or
to stir up sedition within the United States, or to excite any
unlawful combinations therein, for opposing or resisting any
law of the United States, or any act of the President of the
United States, and one in pursuance of any such law, or of the
powers in him vested by the constitution of the United States,
or to resist, oppose or defeat any such law or act, or to aid,
encourage or abet any hostile designs of any foreign nation
against the United States, their people or government, then
such person, being thereof convicted before any court of the
United States having jurisdiction thereof, shall be punished
by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, and by
imprisonment not exceeding two years.
Section 3. And be it further enacted and declared, That if any
person shall be prosecuted under this act, for the writing or
publishing any libel aforesaid, it shall be lawful for the
defendant, upon the trial of the cause, to give in evidence in
his defence, the truth of the matter contained in the
publication charged as a libel. And the jury who shall try the
cause, shall have a right to determine the law and the fact,
under the direction of the court, as in other cases.
Section 4. And be it further enacted, That this act shall
continue and be in force until the third day of March, one
thousand eight hundred and one, and no longer: Provided that
the expiration of the act shall not prevent or defeat a
prosecution and punishment of any offence against the law,
during the time it shall be in force. Approved July 14, 1798."
"There has been a general effort on the part of biographers to
clear their respective heroes from all responsibility for
these ill-fated measures. The truth is, that they had the full
support of the congressmen and senators who passed, them, of
the President who signed them, and of all the leaders in the
States, who almost all believed in them; and they also met
with very general acceptance by the party in the North.
Hamilton went as far in the direction of sustaining the
principle of these laws as any one. He had too acute a mind to
believe with many of the staunch Federalist divines of New
England, that Jefferson and Madison were Marats and
Robespierres, and that their followers were Jacobins who, when
they came to power, were ready for the overthrow of religion
and society, and were prepared to set up a guillotine and pour
out blood in the waste places of the federal city. But he did
believe, and so wrote to Washington, after the appearance of
the X. Y. Z. letters that there was a party in the country
ready to 'new model' the constitution on French principles, to
form an offensive and defensive alliance with France, and make
the United States a French province. He felt, in short, that
there was a party in America ready for confiscation and social
confusion. A year later, in 1799, he wrote to Dayton, the
speaker of the national House of Representatives, a long
letter in which he set forth very clearly the policy which he
felt ought to be pursued.
{3319}
He wished to give strength to the government, and increase
centralization by every means, by an extension of the national
judiciary, a liberal system of internal improvements, an
increased and abundant revenue, an enlargement of the army and
navy, permanence in the laws for the volunteer army, extension
of the powers of the general government, subdivision of the
States as soon as practicable, and finally a strong sedition
law, and the power to banish aliens. This was what was termed
at that day a 'strong and spirited' policy; it would now be
called repressive, but by whatever name it is designated, it
was the policy of Hamilton, and is characteristic of both his
talents and temperament. Except as to the subdivision of
States, it was carried out pretty thoroughly in all its main
features by the Federalists. The alien and sedition laws,
although resisted in Congress, did not much affect public
opinion at the elections which immediately ensued, and the
Federalists came into the next Congress with a large
majority."
_Henry Cabot Lodge,
Alexander Hamilton,
chapter 9._
"The different portions of the country were affected according
to the dominant political opinion. Where the Federalists were
strong political feeling bore them headlong into prosecutions
under the new powers. In the Republican States a sense of
injury and danger went hand in hand, and the question of the
hour was how to repel the threatening destruction. Mr.
Jefferson did not fail to see that the great opportunity for
his party had come. His keen political sagacity detected in an
instant the fatal mistake the administration had made, and he
began at once to look about him for the best means to turn his
opponents' mistake to his own advantage. Naturally he felt
some delicacy in appearing too forward in assailing a
government of which he himself was the second in office.
Nevertheless he lent himself willingly to the task of
organizing, in a quiet way, a systematic assault upon these
laws of Congress, and at once opened a correspondence
calculated to elicit the best judgment of his coadjutors and
gradually drew out a programme of action. Virginia was by no
means unanimous in reprobating these laws. She had a large and
influential body of Federalists. … But the influence of
Jefferson was paramount and the result of Jeffersonian
principles soon appeared on every hand. Meetings were held in
many of the counties upon their county court days at which
were adopted addresses or series of resolutions condemning or
praying for the repeal of these laws. … New York, New Jersey,
and Pennsylvania sent petitions of appeal to Congress. … But
it was in Kentucky that the greatest resistance was evoked.
The feeling in that State was, indeed, little short of frenzy,
and a singular unanimity was displayed even in the most
extreme acts and sentiments. This grew out of no passing
passion. It was based upon the most vigorous elements in her
character as a people. Kentucky was at this time somewhat
apart from the rest of the Union. … Her complaints, just and
unjust, had been many, but hitherto she had not gained the
nation's ear. But the time was now ripe for her to assert
herself."
_E. D. Warfield,
The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798,
chapter 1._
The famous Kentucky Resolutions, substantially drafted by
Jefferson, as he acknowledged fifteen years afterwards, but
introduced in the Legislature of Kentucky by John
Breckenridge, on the 8th of November, 1798, were adopted by
that body, in the lower branch on the 10th and in the upper on
the 13th. Approved by the Governor on the 16th, they were
immediately printed and copies officially sent to every other
state and to members of Congress. They were as follows:
"I. Resolved, that the several states composing the United
States of America, are not united on the principle of
unlimited submission to their General Government; but that by
compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the
United States and of amendments thereto, they constituted a
General Government for special purposes, delegated to that
Government certain definite powers, reserving each state to
itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self
Government; and that whensoever the General Government assumes
undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and
are of no force: That to this compact each state acceded as a
state, and is an integral party, its co-states forming as to
itself, the other party: That the Government created by this
compact was not made the exclusive or final judge of the
extent of the powers delegated to itself; since that would
have made its discretion, and not the constitution, the
measure of its powers; but that as in all other cases of
compact among parties having no common judge, each party has
an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as
of the mode and measure of redress.
II. Resolved, that the Constitution of the United States
having delegated to Congress a power to punish treason,
counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United
States, piracies and felonies committed on the High Seas, and
offences against the laws of nations, and no other crimes
whatever, and it being true as a general principle, and one of
the amendments to the Constitution having also declared, 'that
the powers not delegated to the United States by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved
to the states respectively, or to the people,' therefore also
the same act of Congress passed on the 14th day of July, 1798,
and entitled 'An act in addition to the act entitled an act
for the punishment of certain crimes against the United
States;' as also the act passed by them on the 27th of June,
1798, entitled 'An act to punish frauds committed on the Bank
of the United States' (and all other their acts which assume
to create, define, or punish crimes other than those
enumerated in the constitution) are altogether void and of no
force, and that the power to create, define, and punish such
other crimes is reserved, and of right appertains solely and
exclusively to the respective states, each within its own
Territory.
{3320}
III. Resolved, that it is true as a general principle, and is
also expressly declared by one of the amendments to the
Constitution that 'the powers not delegated to the United
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the
states, are reserved to the states respectively or to the
people;' and that no power over the freedom of religion,
freedom of speech, or freedom of the press being delegated to
the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to
the states, all lawful powers respecting the same did of right
remain, and were reserved to the states, or to the people:
That thus was manifested their determination to retain to
themselves the right of judging how far the licentiousness of
speech and of the press may be abridged without lessening
their useful freedom, and how far those abuses which cannot be
separated from their use, should be tolerated, rather than the
use be destroyed; and thus also they guarded against all
abridgment by the United States of the freedom of religious
opinions and exercises, and retained to themselves the right
of protecting the same, as this state by a Law passed on the
general demand of its Citizens, had already protected them
from all human restraint or interference; and that in addition
to this general principle and express declaration, another and
more special provision has been made by one of the amendments
to the Constitution which expressly declares that 'Congress
shall make no law respecting an Establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press,' thereby guarding in the
same sentence, and under the same words, the freedom of
religion, of speech, and of the press, insomuch, that whatever
violates either, throws down the sanctuary which covers the
others, and that libels, falsehoods, and defamation, equally
with heresy and false religion, are withheld from the
cognizance of federal tribunals. That therefore the act of the
Congress of the United States passed on the 14th day of July,
1798, entitled 'An act in addition to the act for the
punishment of certain crimes against the United States,' which
does abridge the freedom of the press, is not law, but is
altogether void and of no effect.
IV. Resolved, that alien friends are under the jurisdiction
and protection of the laws of the state wherein they are; that
no power over them has been delegated to the United States,
nor prohibited to the individual states distinct from their
power over citizens; and it being true as a general principle,
and one of the amendments to the Constitution having also
declared, that 'the powers not delegated to the United States
by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the states are
reserved to the states respectively or to the people,' the act
of the Congress of the United States passed on the 22d day of
June, 1798, entitled 'An act concerning aliens,' which assumes
power over alien friends not delegated by the Constitution, is
not law, but is altogether void and of no force.
V. Resolved, that in addition to the general principle as well
as the express declaration, that powers not delegated are
reserved, another and more special provision inserted in the
Constitution from abundant caution has declared, 'that the
migration or importation of such persons as any of the states
now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be
prohibited by the Congress prior to the year 1808.' That this
Commonwealth does admit the migration of alien friends
described as the subject of the said act concerning aliens;
that a provision against prohibiting their migration, is a
provision against all acts equivalent thereto, or it would be
nugatory; that to remove them when migrated is equivalent to a
prohibition of their migration, and is therefore contrary to
the said provision of the Constitution, and void.
VI. Resolved, that the imprisonment of a person under the
protection of the Laws of this Commonwealth on his failure to
obey the simple order of the President to depart out of the
United States, as is undertaken by the said act entitled 'An
act concerning aliens,' is contrary to the Constitution, one
amendment to which has provided, that 'no person shall be
deprived of liberty without due process of law,' and that
another having provided 'that in all criminal prosecutions the
accused shall enjoy the right to a public trial by an
impartial jury, to be informed of the nature and cause of the
accusation, to be confronted with the witnesses against him,
to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his
favour, and to have the assistance of counsel for his
defence,' the same act undertaking to authorize the President
to remove a person out of the United States who is under the
protection of the Law, on his own suspicion, without
accusation, without jury, without public trial, without
confrontation of the witnesses against him, without having
witnesses in his favour, without defence, without counsel, is
contrary to these provisions also of the Constitution, is
therefore not law but utterly void and of no force. That
transferring the power of judging any person who is under the
protection of the laws, from the Courts to the President of
the United States, as is undertaken by the same act concerning
Aliens, is against the article of the Constitution which
provides, that 'the judicial power of the United States shall
be vested in Courts, the Judges of which shall hold their
offices during good behaviour,' and that the said act is void
for that reason also; and it is further to be noted, that this
transfer of Judiciary powers is to that magistrate of the
General Government who already possesses all the Executive,
and a qualified negative in all the Legislative power.
VII. Resolved, that the construction applied by the General
Government (as is evinced by sundry of their proceedings) to
those parts of the Constitution of the United States which
delegate to Congress a power to lay and collect taxes, duties,
imposts, and excises; to pay the debts, and provide for the
common defence, and general welfare of the United States, and
to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for
carrying into execution the powers vested by the Constitution
in the Government of the United States, or any department
thereof, goes to the destruction of all the limits prescribed
to their power by the Constitution—That words meant by that
instrument to be subsidiary only to the execution of the
limited powers, ought not to be so construed as themselves to
give unlimited powers, nor a part so to be taken, as to
destroy the whole residue of the instrument: That the
proceedings of the General Government under colour of these
articles, will be a fit and necessary subject for revisal and
correction at a time of greater tranquility, while those
specified in the preceding resolutions call for immediate
redress.
VIII. Resolved, that the preceding Resolutions be transmitted
to the Senators and Representatives in Congress from this
Commonwealth, who are hereby enjoined to present the same to
their respective Houses, and to use the best endeavours to
procure at the next session of Congress, a repeal of the
aforesaid unconstitutional and obnoxious acts.
{3321}
IX. Resolved lastly, that the Governor of this Commonwealth
be, and is hereby authorised and requested to communicate the
preceding Resolutions to the Legislatures of the several
States, to assure them that this Commonwealth considers Union
for specified National purposes, and particularly for those
specified in their late Federal compact, to be friendly to the
peace, happiness, and prosperity of all the states: that
faithful to that compact, according to the plain intent and
meaning in which it was understood and acceded to by the
several parties, it is sincerely anxious for its preservation:
that it does also believe, that to take from the states all
the powers of self government, and transfer them to a general
and consolidated Government, without regard to the special
delegations and reservations solemnly agreed to in that
compact, is not for the peace, happiness, or prosperity of
these states: And that therefore, this Commonwealth is
determined, as it doubts not its Co-states are, tamely to
submit to undelegated and consequently unlimited powers in no
man or body of men on earth: that if the acts before specified
should stand, these conclusions would flow from them; that the
General Government may place any act they think proper on the
list of crimes and punish it themselves, whether enumerated or
not enumerated by the Constitution as cognizable by them: that
they may transfer its cognizance to the President or any other
person, who may himself be the accuser, counsel, judge, and
jury, whose suspicions may be the evidence, his order the
sentence, his officer the executioner, and his breast the sole
record of the transaction: that a very numerous and valuable
description of the inhabitants of these states, being by this
precedent reduced as outlaws to the absolute dominion of one
man and the barrier of the Constitution thus swept away from
us all, no rampart now remains against the passions and the
power of a majority of Congress, to protect from a like
exportation or other more grievous punishment the minority of
the same body, the Legislatures, Judges, Governors, and
Counsellors of the states, nor their other peaceable
inhabitants who may venture to reclaim the constitutional
rights and liberties of the states and people, or who for
other causes, good or bad, may be obnoxious to the views or
marked by the suspicions of the President, or be thought
dangerous to his or their elections or other interests public
or personal: that the friendless alien has indeed been
selected as the safest subject of a first experiment: but the
citizen will soon follow, or rather has already followed; for
already has a Sedition Act marked him as its prey: that these
and successive acts of the same character, unless arrested on
the threshold, may tend to drive these states into revolution
and blood, and will furnish new calumnies against Republican
Governments, and new pretexts for those who wish it to be
believed that man cannot be governed but by a rod of iron:
that it would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the
men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our
rights: that confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism:
free government is founded in jealousy and not in confidence;
it is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes limited
Constitutions to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust
with power: that our Constitution has accordingly fixed the
limits to which and no further our confidence may go; and let
the honest advocate of confidence read the Alien and Sedition
Acts, and say if the Constitution has not been wise in fixing
limits to the Government it created, and whether we should be
wise in destroying those limits? Let him say what the
Government is if it be not a tyranny, which the men of our
choice have conferred on the President, and the President of
our choice has assented to and accepted over the friendly
strangers, to whom the mild spirit of our Country and its laws
had pledged hospitality and protection: that the men of our
choice have more respected the bare suspicions of the
President than the solid rights of innocence, the claims of
justification, the sacred force of truth, and the forms and
subsistence of law and justice. In questions of power then let
no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from
mischief by the chains of the Constitution. That this
Commonwealth does therefore call on its Co-states for an
expression of their sentiments on the acts concerning Aliens,
and for the punishment of certain crimes hereinbefore
specified, plainly declaring whether these acts are or are not
authorized by the Federal Compact? And it doubts not that
their sense will be so announced as to prove their attachment
unaltered to limited Government, whether general or
particular, and that the rights and liberties of their
Co-states will be exposed to no dangers by remaining embarked
on a common bottom with their own: That they will concur with
this Commonwealth, in considering the said acts so palpably
against the Constitution as to amount to an undisguised
declaration, that the compact is not meant to be the measure
of the powers of the General Government, but that it will
proceed in the exercise over these states of all powers
whatsoever: That they will view this as seizing the rights of
the states and consolidating them in the hands of the General
Government with a power assumed to bind the states (not merely
in cases made federal) but in all cases whatsoever, by laws
made, not with their consent, but by others against their
consent: That this would be to surrender the form of
Government we have chosen, and to live under one deriving its
powers from its own will, and not from our authority; and that
the Co-states recurring to their natural right in cases not
made federal, will concur in declaring these acts void and of
no force, and will each unite with this Commonwealth in
requesting their repeal at the next session of Congress."
In the month following this declaration from Kentucky, on the
21st of December, Virginia affirmed substantially the same
threatening doctrine, more temperately and cautiously set
forth in resolutions drawn by Madison as follows:
"Resolved, that the General Assembly of Virginia doth
unequivocally express a firm resolution to maintain and defend
the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of
this state against every aggression, either foreign or
domestic, and that they will support the government of the
United States in all measures warranted by the former.
That this Assembly most solemnly declares a warm attachment to
the union of the states, to maintain which, it pledges all its
powers; and that for this end it is their duty to watch over
and oppose every infraction of those principles which
constitute the only basis of that union, because a faithful
observance of them can alone secure its existence, and the
public happiness.
{3322}
That this Assembly doth explicitly and peremptorily declare
that it views the powers of the Federal Government, as
resulting from the compact, to which the states are parties;
as limited by the plain sense and intention of the instrument
constituting that compact; as no farther valid than they are
authorized by the grants enumerated in that compact, and that
in case of a deliberate, palpable and dangerous exercise of
other powers not granted by the said compact, the states who
are parties thereto have the right, and are in duty bound to
interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for
maintaining within their respective limits, the authorities,
rights and liberties appertaining to them.
That the General Assembly doth also express its deep regret
that a spirit has in sundry instances, been manifested by the
Federal Government, to enlarge its powers by forced
constructions of the constitutional charter which defines
them; and that indications have appeared of a design to
expound certain general phrases (which having been copied from
the very limited grant of powers in the former articles of
confederation were the less liable to be misconstrued), so as
to destroy the meaning and effect of the particular
enumeration, which necessarily explains and limits the general
phrases; and so as to consolidate the states by degrees into
one sovereignty, the obvious tendency and inevitable
consequence of which would be to transform the present
republican system of the United States into an absolute, or at
best a mixed monarchy. That the General Assembly doth
particularly protest against the palpable and alarming
infractions of the Constitution, in the two late cases of the
'Alien and Sedition Acts,' passed at the last session of
Congress, the first of which exercises a power nowhere
delegated to the Federal Government; and which by uniting
legislative and judicial powers to those of executive,
subverts the general principles of free government, as well as
the particular organization and positive provisions of the
federal constitution: and the other of which acts, exercises
in like manner a power not delegated by the constitution, but
on the contrary expressly and positively forbidden by one of
the amendments thereto; a power which more than any other
ought to produce universal alarm, because it is levelled
against the right of freely examining public characters and
measures, and of free communication among the people thereon,
which has ever been justly deemed the only effectual guardian
of every other right.
That this state having by its convention which ratified the
federal constitution, expressly declared, 'that among other
essential rights, the liberty of conscience and of the press
cannot be cancelled, abridged, restrained or modified by any
authority of the United States,' and from its extreme anxiety
to guard these rights from every possible attack of sophistry
or ambition, having with other states recommended an amendment
for that purpose, which amendment was in due time annexed to
the constitution, it would mark a reproachful inconsistency
and criminal degeneracy, if an indifference were now shown to
the most palpable violation of one of the rights thus declared
and secured, and to the establishment of a precedent which may
be fatal to the other.
That the good people of this commonwealth having ever felt and
continuing to feel the most sincere affection to their
brethren of the other states, the truest anxiety for
establishing and perpetuating the union of all, and the most
scrupulous fidelity to that constitution which is the pledge
of mutual friendship, and the instrument of mutual happiness:
The General Assembly doth solemnly appeal to the like
dispositions of the other states, in confidence that they will
concur with this commonwealth in declaring, as it does hereby
declare, that the acts aforesaid are unconstitutional, and
that the necessary and proper measures will be taken by each
for cooperating with this state, in maintaining unimpaired the
authorities, rights, and liberties, reserved to the states
respectively, or to the people. That the Governor be desired
to transmit a copy of the foregoing resolutions to the
executive authority of each of the other states, with a
request, that the same may be communicated to the legislature
thereof.
And that a copy be furnished to each of the Senators and
Representatives, representing this state in the Congress of
the United States."
In later years, after Calhoun and his school had pushed these
doctrines to their logical conclusion, Madison shrank from the
result, and endeavored to disown the apparent meaning of what
Jefferson had written and he had seemed to endorse in 1798. He
denounced Nullification and Secession as "twin heresies," and
denied that they were contained or implied in the resolutions
of 1798—either those adopted in Kentucky or the responsive
ones written by himself for the legislature of Virginia. The
Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 were followed in 1799 by another
series, in which the right of a sovereign State to nullify
obnoxious laws of the Federal Government was no longer
asserted by implication, but was put into plain terms—as
follows: "That the principle and construction, contended for
by sundry of the state legislatures, that the general
government is the exclusive judge of the extent of the powers
delegated to it, stop not short of despotism,—since the
discretion of those who administer the government, and not the
Constitution, would be the measure of their powers: That the
several states who formed that instrument, being sovereign and
independent, have the unquestionable right to judge of the
infraction; and, That a nullification, by those sovereignties,
of all unauthorized acts done under color of that instrument,
is the rightful remedy." It was Mr. Madison's desire to cast
on these resolutions of 1799, with which Jefferson had nothing
to do, the odium of the nullification doctrine, and to remove
the stigma from the resolutions of 1798, in which the word
"nullification" makes no appearance; "neither that," pleaded
Madison, "nor any equivalent term." But, when Madison made
this plea, in 1830, "it was not then generally known, whether
Mr. Madison knew it or not, that one of the resolutions and
part of another which Jefferson wrote to be offered in the
Kentucky legislature in 1798 were omitted by Mr. Nicholas [to
whom Mr. Jefferson had entrusted them], and that therein was
the assertion … 'where powers are assumed which have not been
delegated, a nullification of the act is the rightful remedy.'
{3323}
The next year, when additional resolutions were offered by Mr.
Breckenridge, this idea in similar, though not in precisely the
same language, was presented [as quoted above]. … In 1832,
this fact, on the authority of Jefferson's grandson and
executor, was made public; and further, that another
declaration of Mr. Jefferson's in the resolution not used was
an exhortation to the co-States, 'that each will take measures
of its own for providing that neither these acts nor any
others of the general government, not plainly and
intentionally authorized by the Constitution, shall be
exercised within their respective territories.'"
_S. H. Gay,
James Madison,
chapter 15._
"The publication of the Kentucky resolutions … was instantly
followed by a new crop of remonstrances and petitions from the
people. … Memorials by scores came in from each State, and the
signatures appended to some were as many as sixteen hundred.
Those from Pennsylvania alone bore over eighteen thousand
names. … Such memorials as reached the House were sent to a
committee, who, late in February, reported. … The report
closed with three resolutions, and these were: that it was not
in the interest of the public good to repeal either the Alien
Law, or the Sedition Law, or any of the laws respecting the
army, the navy, or the revenue of the United States. On the
twenty-fifth of February, the House being in Committee of the
Whole, the three resolutions were taken up one by one.
Gallatin spoke long and well against the first; but it was
carried. Mr. Nicholas spoke at greater length against
agree·ing to the second. But the Federalists had made up their
minds to accept the report, and, as Nicholas went on, treated
him with great disrespect. They assembled in groups about the
House, laughed, coughed, and talked at the top of their
voices; nor would the Speaker command order in the room. When
Nicholas finished, shouts of 'Question! Question!' rose from
all sides. A member from North Carolina hoped the question
would not be taken. The hour was late. Other members had
something to say. An hour or two on the morrow might well be
spent in discussion. He moved the committee should rise. … The
motion to rise was lost, the question on the second resolution
was carried, the question on the third resolution was carried,
then the committee rose. The House then agreed to the action
of the committee on each of the three resolutions. The Federal
party was now at the height of its prosperity and power. It
controlled the Senate. It controlled the House. Outwardly it
was great and powerful, but within that dispute had begun
which, in a few short months, drove Pickering and M'Henry from
the Cabinet, split the party in twain, and gave to the country
the strange spectacle of staunch and earnest Federalists
wrangling and contending and overwhelming each other with
abuse."
_J. B. McMaster,
A History of the United States,
chapter 11 (volume 2)._
ALSO IN:
_H. S. Randall,
Life of Jefferson,
volume 2, chapter 8._
_J. Madison,
Works,
volume 4, pages 95-110, and 506-555._
_T. Jefferson,
Works,
volume 7, page 229;
and volume 9, pages 464-471._
_H. von Holst,
Constitutional and Political History of the United States,
volume 1, page 148._
_J. T. Morse,
Life of Hamilton,
volume 2, chapter 6._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1800.
The convention with France and the French Spoliation Claims
incident to it.
"In the instructions to the American envoys in France they had
been directed to secure a claims commission, the abrogation of
the former treaties, and the abolition of the guarantee of
1778, as it was called, contained in Article XI. of the Treaty
of Alliance of that year, and covering 'the present
possessions of the Crown of France in America, as well as
those which it may acquire by the future treaty of peace.'
Upon none of these points were the envoys able to carry out
their instructions. In reference to claims, a distinction,
which was finally embodied in the treaty, was drawn by the
French government between two classes of claims: first, debts
due from the French government to American citizens for
supplies furnished, or prizes whose restoration had been
decreed by the courts; and secondly, indemnities for prizes
alleged to have been wrongfully condemned. The treaty provided
that the first class, known as debts, should be paid, but
excluded the second, or indemnity class. In reference to the
indemnity claims, and to the questions involved in the old
treaties, including, of course, the guarantee of 1778, as the
envoys were not able to come to an agreement, the treaty
declared that the negotiation was postponed. The Senate of the
United States expunged this latter article, inserting in its
place a clause providing for the duration of the present
convention; and this amendment was accepted by the French
government, with the proviso that both governments should
renounce the pretensions which were the object of the original
article. To this the Senate also agreed, and upon this basis
the convention was finally ratified. It thus appears that the
United States surrendered the claims of its citizens against
France for wrongful seizures, in return for the surrender by
France of whatever claim it might have had against the United
States for the latter's failure to fulfil the obligations
assumed in the earlier treaties [especially the guaranty of
the possessions of France in America, which was undertaken in
the treaty of 1778]. The United States, therefore, having
received a consideration for its refusal to prosecute the
claims of its citizens, thereby took the place, with respect
to the claimants, of the French government, and virtually
assumed the obligations of the latter. … The claims for
indemnity thus devolving upon the United States, known as the
French Spoliation Claims, have been from that day to this the
subject of frequent report and discussion in Congress, but
with no result until the passage of the act of January 20,
1885, referring them to the Court of Claims. At the present
time (1888) they are undergoing judicial examination before
that tribunal."
_J. R. Soley,
The Wars of the United States, 1789-1850
(Narrative and Critical History of America,
volume 7, chapter 6; and editor's foot-note)._
ALSO IN:
_F. Wharton,
Digest of the International Law of the United States,
section 248 (volume 2, pages 714-728)._
_D. Webster,
Works,
volume 4, pages 152-178._
_T. H. Benton,
Thirty Years' View,
volume 1, chapters 117-120._
_W. H. Seward,
Works,
volume 1, pages 132-155._
_Report of Secretary of State
(United States Senate, Ex. Doc. no. 74 and 102,
49th Congress 1st session)._
Spoliations committed by the French in the Revolutionary and
Napoleonic wars subsequently to the year 1800, were
indemnified under the provisions of the treaty for the
Louisiana purchase (see LOUISIANA: A. D. 1798-1803); under the
treaty with Spain in 1819, and under a later treaty with
France which was negotiated in Andrew Jackson's most
imperative manner in 1831. These do not enter into what have
become historically specialized as the French Spoliation
Claims.
{3324}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1800.
The Second Census.
Total population, 5,305,937, (an increase of slightly more
than 35 per cent. since 1790), classed and distributed as
follows:
North.
White. Free black. Slave.
Connecticut. 244,721 5,330 951
Indiana. 4,577 163 135
Maine. 150,901 818 0
Massachusetts. 416,793 6,452 0
New Hampshire. 182,898 856 8
New Jersey. 195,125 4,402 12,422
New York. 556,039 10,374 20,343
Ohio. 45,028 337 0
Pennsylvania. 586,094 14,561 1,706
Rhode Island. 65,437 3,304 381
Vermont. 153,908 557 0
--- --- ---
Total 2,601,521 47,154 35,946
South.
White. Free black. Slave.
Delaware. 49,852 8,268 6,153
District of Columbia. 10,066 783 3,244
Georgia. 101,678 1,019 59,404
Kentucky. 179,871 741 40,343
Maryland. 216,326 19,587 105,635
Mississippi. 5,179 182 3,489
North Carolina. 337,764 7,043 133,296
South Carolina. 196,255 3,185 146,151
Tennessee. 91,709 309 13,584
Virginia. 514,280 20,124 345,796
--- --- ---
Total 1,702,980 61,241 857,095
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1800-1801.
The Fourth Presidential Election
Inauguration of Jefferson.
"Adams, whom Dr. Franklin aptly described as 'always an honest
man, often a wise one, but sometimes and in some things
absolutely out of his senses,' was approaching the end of his
term as President, and public attention was absorbed in the
task of choosing a successor. … At the time of Adams's
election, a sectional feeling, destined in the future to work
so much evil, had already been developed; and he in
consequence received from States south of the Potomac but two
electoral votes. New York had given him her twelve, yet the
entire majority over his competitor was but three in all the
colleges. The national parties were not unequally matched in
the State; and it was evident that, could its vote be diverted
to Jefferson in the next contest, his victory would be
assured. Hence, strenuous efforts were made to accomplish this
end, and for months society was like a seething caldron. The
trouble with France had, for the moment, swelled the numbers
of the Federalists, and closed up their ranks; but the
capricious course of the President, and the violent disruption
of the cabinet, rent them asunder, never to be re-united. …
During the French excitement, it seemed almost certain that,
after the local election, they would have a majority in the
new Legislature, and thus retain for their candidate the
electoral vote of New York. This pleasing prospect was soon
obscured. When its people found Mr. Adams sternly enforcing
the Sedition Law, and exercising the power it conferred in an
unfeeling manner upon one of their most esteemed citizens
[Judge Peck], they turned with disgust from a party which they
held responsible for its enactment, as well as for this
violent procedure. The permanent ascendency which the
Republicans seemed to have acquired in the metropolis had been
wrested from them, in the spring of 1799, by the unpopularity
of a scheme of Burr's, already conspicuous in the State as an
unscrupulous political tactician. He had been a member of the
assembly the preceding year, and, under the pretence of
supplying pure and wholesome water, obtained a charter which
enabled the corporators to engage in banking. In consequence
of the feeling this aroused, he did not dare present himself
again as a candidate, but, with great tact and unwearied
efforts, succeeded in healing divisions in his party, and
nominating a delegation for the assembly, which embraced the
Republicans most eminent for wealth, station, or family
influence. Governor Clinton headed the list. … The result
followed which Burr had anticipated. The Federal majority of
the last year was overcome, and New York City secured by the
Republicans, giving them control of the State. Adams
subsequently received but four electoral votes south of
Maryland, and Jefferson became his successor. Burr, to whose
untiring exertions this great victory was due, was thereby
inducted into the office of Vice-President. At that time, the
Legislature appointed the electors for the State; and the
Republicans, then anticipating a defeat, had at a previous
session advocated that, for the future, these should be chosen
directly by the people in separate districts, hoping thus to
secure a sufficient number to elect their Presidential
candidate. The Federalists, thinking their supremacy in the
assembly assured, refused to support the plan. Now, however,
when it became known that their adversaries had gained a
majority in the Legislature on which would devolve the duty of
choosing the electors, Hamilton addressed a letter to Governor
Jay, suggesting that the present body, whose term would not
expire before July, should be again convened, in order to pass
a measure which, when before proposed by the Republicans, had
been denounced as unconstitutional. Jay had too much regard
for principle to entertain the idea. After his death, the
letter was found among his papers, endorsed, 'Proposing a
measure for party purposes which I think it would not become
me to adopt.' It is related that a noted French duellist, when
required to forgive his enemies before receiving absolution,
exclaimed, My enemies? I have none. I have killed them all!
Mr. Jefferson might have responded in the same manner, the
morrow after the Presidential election. To the one party, the
result seemed like the breaking up of an ice gorge—the
harbinger of spring. To the other it appeared as an avalanche
of French principles, destructive alike of religion and
established government. Both were at fault. President
Jefferson was quite as unable to destroy the work of his
predecessors as he was to depart from their policy of
neutrality. The Sedition and Alien Laws soon expired by
limitation; but the great measures of the former
administrations were too wise, and had struck their roots too
deep into the national sentiment, to be suddenly overturned."
_W. Whitelock,
Life and Times of John Jay,
chapter 22._
{3325}
In the Electoral College, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr,
both Democratic Republicans, received an equal number of votes
(73), and the election was carried into the House of
Representatives, where Jefferson was chosen President and Burr
Vice President. "Adams, stung to the heart by the election of
Jefferson, refused to witness the hateful spectacle of his
successor's inauguration. He spent his last hours in filling
up vacancies to place patronage out of Jefferson's reach; then
he departed, the old order in his person giving place with a
frown and a shudder to the new. Adams did not hate monarchy,
he thought that for England it was good. In the eyes of
Jefferson monarchy was the incarnate spirit of evil and to rid
mankind of it by example was the mission of the American
Republic. Every vestige of the half monarchical state which
Washington had retained was now banished from the President's
mansion and life. No more coaches-and-six, no more court
dress, no more levees. Although Jefferson did not, as legend
says, ride to his inauguration and tie his horse to the fence,
he was inaugurated with as little ceremony as possible. He
received an ambassador in slippers down at the heel, and in
the arrangement of his dinner parties was so defiant of the
rules of etiquette as to breed trouble in the diplomatic
circle. Yet with all his outward simplicity the Virginian
magnate and man of letters, though he might be a Republican,
could not in himself be a true embodiment of democracy. He was
the friend of the people, but not one of them. … The desired
day had come when the philosopher was to govern. The words of
the address which Jefferson, unlike the demagogic sons of
thunder in the present day, read in a very low voice, are the
expression by its great master and archetype of the republican
idea which has hitherto reigned supreme in the mind of the
American people. These words are monumental, 'Equal and exact
justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious
or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all
nations, entangling alliances with none; the support of the
State governments in all their rights, as the most competent
administrations for our domestic concerns and the surest
bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies, the preservation
of the general government in its whole constitutional vigour,
as the sheet-anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; a
jealous care of the right of election by the People; a mild
and safe correction of abuses which are lopped by the sword of
revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided; absolute
acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital
principle of republics, from which there is no appeal but to
force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism;
a well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for
the first movements in war, till regulars may relieve them;
the supremacy of the civil over the military authority;
economy in the public expense, that labour may be lightly
burdened; the honest payment of our debts, and sacred
preservation of the public faith; encouragement of
agriculture, and of commerce as its handmaid, the diffusion of
information, and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of
public reason; freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and
freedom of person under the protection of the "habeas corpus,"
and trial by jurors impartially selected;—these principles
form the bright constellation which has gone before us and
guided our steps through an age of revolution and
reformation.' Jefferson's wand was the pen. Yet he is
strangely apt to fall into mixed metaphors and even into
platitudes. This address has not escaped criticism."
_Goldwin Smith,
The United States,
chapter 3._
"Jefferson had reached the presidential chair at a most
fortunate moment. … The prospect of a speedy peace in Europe
promised effectual and permanent relief from those serious
embarrassments to which, during war on the ocean, American
commerce was ever exposed from the aggressions of one or of
all the belligerents. The treasury was fuller, the revenue
more abundant than at any previous period. Commerce was
flourishing, and the pecuniary prosperity of the country very
great. All the responsibility of framing institutions, laying
taxes, find providing for debts, had fallen on the ousted
administration. Succeeding to the powers and the means of the
Federal government without sharing any of the unpopularity at
the expense of which they had been attained, and ambitious not
so much of a splendid as of a quiet and popular
administration, the new president seemed to have before him a
very plain and easy path. … To the offices of Secretary of
State, Secretary of the Treasury, and Attorney General, left
vacant by the resignation of the late incumbents, Jefferson
nominated James Madison, Henry Dearborn, and Levi Lincoln, the
latter an early leader of the opposition in Massachusetts. …
As the Senate stood at present, still containing, as it did,
of the members present a majority of Federalists, Jefferson
did not think proper to make any further nominations; but,
soon after the adjournment, he appointed as Secretary of the
Treasury Albert Gallatin, all along the financial member of
the opposition. … The Navy Department, after being refused by
Chancellor Livingston, was given to Robert Smith, brother of
the Baltimore member of Congress. Livingston, however, having
reached the age of sixty, and being obliged, under a
Constitutional provision, to vacate the chancellorship of New
York, consented to accept the embassy to France. … Habersham
was continued as post-master-general for some six months, …
but he presently gave way to Gideon Granger, a leader of the
Connecticut Republicans."
_R. Hildreth,
History of the United States, 2d series,
chapter 16 (volume 2, or volume 5 of whole work)._
"The first act of the new Cabinet was to reach a general
understanding in regard to the objects of the Administration.
These appear to have been two only in number: reduction of
debt and reduction of taxes, and the relation to be preserved
between them."
_H. Adams,
Life of Albert Gallatin,
page 276._
"Under President Jefferson, the heads of the great departments
of the government were changed, nor was there any just reason
to complain of this measure; as they formed a part of his
political council; and, as the chief executive officer of
government, he had a perfect right to select his confidential
friends and advisers. But when afterwards, and within a few
months, he removed able and upright men from offices of a
subordinate grade, his conduct was considered improper and
arbitrary, and as partaking somewhat of the 'right of
prerogative,' usually claimed and exercised by royal princes.
… In his inaugural address, Mr. Jefferson said, 'We have
gained little, if we encourage a political intolerance as
wicked as impolitic. We are all brethren of the same
principles; we are all republicans, and all federalists.'
{3326}
Yet in less than fifty days he removed fourteen federal
officers; without any allegation of unfaithfulness or
inefficiency: on the plea, indeed, that his predecessor had
removed two public officers on account of their political
opinions; and had appointed none to office in the government
but such as were of the same sentiments and views as the
administration. 'Few died, and none resigned,' he said; and
therefore, to equalize public offices between the two great
political parties, it was necessary, in his opinion, to remove
a part of those then employed, and to appoint others more
friendly to the new administration. For a very few of the
removals there might have been sufficient or justifiable
reasons offered; but in most instances the changes were made
merely for political opinions."
_A. Bradford,
History of the Federal Government, 1789-1839,
chapter 6._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1801.
Appointment of John Marshall to be
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
His Constitutional decisions.
On the 31st of January, 1801, near the close of the term of
President Adams, the latter appointed John Marshall, who had
been Secretary of State in his cabinet since the previous May,
to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. It was a memorable
appointment,—the most memorable, perhaps, that has ever been
made by official and not popular selection, in America, since
Washington was appointed to the command of the continental
army. Its result was to place the new, uninterpreted, plastic
Constitution of the Federal Republic under the hands of a
master, during thirty-four years of the period in which it
hardened into practical, determined law. It decided the
character of the Constitution, and by that decision the great
instrument was made a bond of nationality, firm, strenuous and
enduring. "The abilities of the new Chief Justice were
recognized by the profession and the public at the time of his
appointment, but the attractive qualities of his heart and his
kindly manners soon caused respect and reverence to ripen into
affection. Perhaps no American citizen except Washington ever
conciliated so large a measure of popularity and public
esteem. … In surveying the results of the labors of
thirty-four years recorded in thirty-two volumes of reports,
it is obvious that it was in the decision of cases involving
international and constitutional law that the force and
clearness of the Chief Justice's intellect shone most
conspicuous. Such was the ready assent of his colleagues on
the bench to his supremacy in the exposition of constitutional
law, that in such causes a dissenting opinion was almost
unknown. Having had occasion to discuss and thoroughly study
the Constitution, both in the Virginia convention which
adopted it and afterward in the legislature, he had
preconceived opinions concerning it, as well as perfect
familiarity with it. But in the hot contest waging between the
friends of a strict and those of a liberal construction of its
language, he wished to take no part. He stated that there
should be neither a liberal nor a strict construction, but
that the simple, natural, and usual meaning of its words and
phrases should govern their interpretation. In the case of
Gibbons v. Ogden, in which he is called upon to define the
true rule of construction of the United States Constitution
regarding the rights of the States and the rights and powers
of the general government, he studiously avoids each extreme,
steering safely in the middle course. He lays down his own
rule thus clearly and definitely:—'This instrument contains
an enumeration of powers expressly granted by the people to
their government. It has been said that these powers ought to
be construed strictly; but why ought they to be so construed?
Is there one sentence in the Constitution which gives
countenance to this rule? In the last of the enumerated
powers, that which grants expressly the means for carrying all
others into execution, Congress is authorized to make all laws
that shall be necessary and proper for the purpose. But this
limitation on the means which may be used is not extended to
the powers which are conferred, nor is there one sentence in
the Constitution which has been pointed out by the gentlemen
of the bar, or which we have been able to discern, that
prescribes this rule. We do not therefore think ourselves
justified in adopting it. If they contend only against that
enlarged construction which would extend words beyond their
natural and obvious import, we might question the application
of the term but should not controvert the principle. If they
contend for that narrow construction which, in support of some
theory not to be found in the Constitution, would deny to the
government those powers which the words of the grant, as
usually understood, import, and which are consistent with the
general views and objects of the instrument; for that narrow
construction which would cripple the government, and render it
unequal to the objects for which it is declared to be
instituted, and to which the powers given, as fairly
understood, render it competent; then we cannot perceive the
propriety of this strict construction, nor adopt it as a rule
by which the Constitution is to be expounded.' … Marshall's
dictum that there must be neither a strict nor a liberal
construction of the Constitution, but that the natural meaning
of the words must govern, was undoubtedly sound and wise. The
broad proposition was above criticism; it meant only that the
language of the instrument should not be stretched or wrenched
in any direction; and however politicians or even statesmen
might feel, there was no other possible ground for a judge to
take. Jefferson might regard it as a duty to make the
Constitution as narrow and restricted as possible; Hamilton
might feel that there was an actual obligation upon him to
make it as broad and comprehensive as its words would admit.
But Jefferson and Hamilton, in a different department of
public life from Marshall, had duties and obligations
correspondingly different from his. They might properly try to
make the Constitution mean what it seemed to them for the
public welfare that it should mean. Marshall could not
consider any such matter; he had only to find and declare what
it did mean, what its words actually and properly declared,
not what they might possibly or desirably be supposed or
construed to declare. This was the real force and the only
real force of his foregoing assertion. As an abstract
statement of his function it was impregnable. But, as with
most broad principles, the difficulty lay in the application
of it to particular cases. The constitutional questions which
came before Marshall chiefly took the form of whether or not
the Constitution conferred some power or authority upon
Congress, or upon the Executive. Then the Federalist lawyers
tried to show how much the language could mean, and the
anti-Federalist counsel sought to show how little it could
mean, and each urged that public policy was upon his side.
{3327}
The decision must be yes or no; the authority did or did not
rest in the government. It was easy to talk about the natural
and proper meaning of the words; but after all it was the
question at issue; did they (not could they) say yes, or did
they (not could they) say no, to the special authority sought
to be exercised. Now it is one thing to be impartial and
another to be colorless in mind. Judge Marshall was impartial
and strongly possessed of the judicial instinct or faculty.
But he was by no means colorless. He could no more eliminate
from his mind an interest in public affairs, and opinions as
to the preferable forms of government and methods of
administration, than he could cut out and cast away his mind
itself. Believing that the Constitution intended to create and
did create a national government, and having decided notions
as to what such a government must be able to do, he was
subject to a powerful though insensible influence to find the
existence of the required abilities in the government. … The
great majority of his decisions were in accordance with
Federalist principles of construction and of policy. The
Republicans all denounced him as a Federalist, even of an
extreme type."
_A. B. Magruder,
John Marshall,
chapter 10._
ALSO IN:
_H. Flanders,
Lives and Times of the Chief Justices of the Supreme Court,
volume 2._
_J. Story,
John Marshall
(North American Review, volume 26)._
[Image: The United States in 1860.]
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1801.
First American naval demonstration against the Barbary Pirates.
See BARBARY STATES: A. D. 1785-1801.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1802.
Admission of Ohio to the Union.
See NORTHWEST TERRITORY: A. D. 1788-1802.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1802-1804.
Land cessions of Georgia annexed to Mississippi Territory.
See MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1798-1804.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1803.
The Louisiana Purchase.
Its constitutional and political aspects.
"The Mississippi question, which had played so important a
part in the times of the confederation, had arisen again and
demanded a solution, as Spain had, on the 1st of October,
1800, ceded the whole of Louisiana to France. The United
States had had experience enough already of how dangerous and
how great an obstacle in the way of the commercial development
of the country it might become, if the mouth of the
Mississippi were in the possession of a foreign power, even if
it were no stronger than Spain. Jefferson had not shared in
this experience in vain. This was one of the instances in
which he gave evidence of a really statesmanlike insight. He
wrote on the 18th of April, 1802, to his embassador Livingston
in Paris: This cession 'completely reverses all the political
relations of the United States, and will form a new epoch in
our political course. … There is on the globe one single spot,
the possessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy.'
Livingston was instructed to enter into negotiations
immediately for the cession of New Orleans and the Floridas,
in case France should consider the possession of Louisiana
indispensably necessary. As Bonaparte at this very time
entertained the idea of resuming the old French colonial
policy, the negotiations remained long without result. The
uprising of the negroes in San Domingo and the warlike turn
which the affairs of Europe began again to assume, disposed
him more favorably towards the American offer. On the 30th of
April, 1803, the treaty, ceding the whole of Louisiana to the
United States for $15,000,000, was concluded in Paris.
See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1798-1803.
Hamilton shared Jefferson's view, that the purchase of
Louisiana was a question of the greatest, and even of vital,
importance for the Union. His opposition on other occasions to
the policy of the administration, and his personal enmity to
the president, did not prevent his lending him a helping hand
in this matter when an opportunity offered. The great majority
of the Federalists opposed this increase of the territory of
the Union with as much decision as Hamilton advocated it. They
showed in their attitude towards this question a
short-sightedness which would have been astonishing even among
the doctrinarians of the opposite party."
_H. von Holst,
Constitutional and Political History of the United States,
volume 1, pages 183-185._
"Mr. Jefferson belonged to the school of strict construction,
and was in fact its leader and apostle. … Under a construction
of the Constitution as strict as he had been insisting upon,
it was plain that the government would have no power to
acquire foreign territory by purchase, and that any attempt in
that direction would be usurpation. … To give the necessary
authority an amendment of the Constitution would be essential,
and amendment would be a slow process which might not be
accomplished in time to meet the emergency. The case would be
complicated by the fact that if the territory was acquired a
considerable population would be brought into the Union and
thus made citizens by a process of naturalization not
contemplated by the Constitution. Mr. Madison, the Secretary
of State, agreed with the President in his views. To use Mr.
Jefferson's words, "The Constitution has made no provision for
our holding foreign territory; still less for incorporating
foreign nations into our Union.' But under circumstances so
imperative he thought the political departments of the
government should meet the emergency by consummating the
purchase, and 'then appeal to the nation for an additional
article in the Constitution approving and confirming an act
which the nation had not previously authorized.' He did not
conceal from himself, however, that in so doing ground would
be occupied which it would be difficult to defend, and he
proceeds to say: 'The less that is said about any
constitutional difficulty the better. Congress should do what
is necessary in silence. I find but one opinion as to the
necessity of shutting up the Constitution for some time.' Mr.
John Quincy Adams held similar views. … But it is difficult to
conceive of any doctrine more dangerous or more distinctly
antagonistic to the fundamental ideas of the American Union
than the doctrine that the Constitution may be 'shut up' for a
time in order that the government may accomplish something not
warranted by it. The political immorality was obvious and
glaring; more so in the case of the apostle of strict
construction than it could have been if advanced by any other
statesman of the day. … But Mr. Jefferson's political mistake
was scarcely greater than that committed by his opponents:
and, indeed, from a party standpoint it was no mistake
whatsoever, but a bold measure of wise policy.
{3328}
… The purchase, according to the Federal view of the
Constitution, was perfectly legitimate. … But the Federalists
in general took narrow and partisan views, and in order to
embarrass the administration resorted to quibbles which were
altogether unworthy the party which had boasted of Washington
as its chief and Hamilton as the exponent of its doctrines. …
The Federal leaders did not stop at cavils; they insisted that
the unconstitutional extension of territory was in effect a
dissolution of the Union, so that they were at liberty to
contemplate and plan for a final disruption."
_Judge T. M. Cooley,
The Acquisition of Louisiana
(Indiana Historical Society Pamphlets, number 3)._
The result of the debates on the Louisiana treaty, in the
Senate and the House, "decided only one point. Every speaker,
without distinction of party, agreed that the United States
government had the power to acquire new territory either by
conquest or by treaty; the only difference of opinion regarded
the disposition of this territory after it was acquired. Did
Louisiana belong to the central government at Washington, or
to the States? … Whether the government at Washington could
possess Louisiana as a colony or admit it as a State, was a
difference of no great matter if the cession were to hold
good; the essential point was that for the first time in the
national history all parties agreed in admitting that the
government could govern. … Even in 1804 the political
consequences of the act were already too striking to be
overlooked. Within three years of his inauguration Jefferson
bought a foreign colony without its consent and against its
will, annexed it to the United States by an act which he said
made blank paper of the Constitution; and then he who had
found his predecessors too monarchical, and the Constitution
too liberal in powers,—he who had nearly dissolved the bonds
of society rather than allow his predecessor to order a
dangerous alien out of the country in a time of threatened
war,—made himself monarch of the new territory, and wielded
over it, against its protests, the powers of its old kings.
Such an experience was final; no century of slow and
half-understood experience could be needed to prove that the
hopes of humanity lay thenceforward, not in attempting to
restrain the government from doing whatever the majority
should think necessary, but in raising the people themselves
till they should think nothing necessary but what was good."
_H. Adams,
History of the United States of America
during the first Administration of Jefferson,
volume 2, chapters 4-6._
ALSO IN:
_Treaties and Conventions between the United States
and other Powers (edition of 1889),
pages 331-342. _
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1803.
Report on the British impressment of seamen from American ships.
"In consequence of a resolution of the Senate, calling upon
the President for information respecting the violation of the
national flag, and the impressment of American seamen, he
communicated to that body a letter from the Secretary of
State, specifying all the cases of impressment which had come
to the knowledge of that Department. The Secretary had no
information of the violation of the national flag, except in
the recent aggression of Morocco. It appeared, by this report,
that 43 citizens of the United States had been impressed by
the British, of whom 12 had protections. Ten were natives of
the British dominions, and 17 of other countries, none of whom
were stated to have been naturalized. Thus a practice which,
even within the British dominions, violates the dearest rights
of personal liberty, and which their courts have never
ventured to justify, and which is excused and acquiesced in on
the plea of necessity, was unhesitatingly exercised by British
navy officers on board of American vessels."
_G. Tucker,
History of the United States,
chapter 12 (volume 2)._
"When the captain of a British frigate overhauled an American
merchant-vessel for enemy's property or contraband of war, he
sent an officer on board who mustered the crew, and took out
any seamen whom he believed to be British. The measure, as the
British navy regarded it, was one of self-protection. If the
American government could not or would not discourage
desertion, the naval commander would recover his men in the
only way he could. Thus a circle of grievances was established
on each side. … The growth of American shipping stimulated
desertions from the British service to the extent of injuring
its efficiency; and these desertions in their turn led to a
rigorous exercise of the right of impressment. To find some
point at which this vicious circle could be broken was a
matter of serious consequence to both countries, but most so
to the one which avowed that it did not mean to protect its
interest by force. Great Britain could have broken the circle
by increasing the pay and improving the condition of her
seamen; but she was excessively conservative, and the burdens
already imposed on her commerce were so great that she could
afford to risk nothing. … Conscious of her own power, she
thought that the United States should be first to give way.
Had the American government been willing to perform its
neutral obligations strictly, the circle might have been
broken without much trouble; but the United States wished to
retain their advantage, and preferred to risk whatever England
might do rather than discourage desertion, or enact and
enforce a strict naturalization law, or punish fraud, The
national government was too weak to compel the States to
respect neutral obligations, even if it had been disposed to
make the attempt. The practice of impressment brought the two
governments to a deadlock on an issue of law. No one denied
that every government had the right to command the services of
its native subjects, and as yet no one ventured to maintain
that a merchant-ship on the high seas could lawfully resist
the exercise of this right; but the law had done nothing to
define the rights of naturalized subjects or citizens. The
British government might, no doubt, impress its own subjects;
but almost every British sailor in the American service
carried papers of American citizenship, and although some of
these were fraudulent, many were genuine. The law of England,
as declared from time out of mind by every generation of her
judges, held that the allegiance of a subject was
indefeasible, and therefore that naturalization was worthless.
The law of the United States, as declared by Chief-Justice
Ellsworth in 1799, was in effect the same."
_H. Adams,
History of the United States of America, during
the first Administration of Thomas Jefferson,
volume 2, chapter 14._
{3329}
"Great Britain was clearly in the wrong. She ought to have
kept her seamen by increasing their pay and putting an end to
the grievances which produced the mutiny of the Nore. In
heartlessly neglecting to render the service just to the
common sailor, and at the same time making a brutal use of
impressment, aristocratic government showed its dark side. It
is true that impressment was conscription in a coarse form,
and that the extreme notion of indefeasible allegiance still
prevailed. But the practice, however lawful, was intolerable,
and its offensiveness was sure to be aggravated by the conduct
of British commanders full of the naval pride of their nation
and perhaps irritated by the loss of their crews; for it is
not denied that many British seamen were seduced from the
service and that the American marine, both mercantile and
national, was largely manned in this way."
_Goldwin Smith,
The United States,
chapter 3._
See, also, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1804-1809.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1803-1804.
Federalist Secession movement.
"In the winter … of 1803-4, immediately after, and as a
consequence of, the acquisition of Louisiana, certain leaders
of the Federal party conceived the project of the dissolution
of the Union, and the establishment of a Northern Confederacy.
The justifying causes to those who entertained it were, that
the annexation of Louisiana to the Union transcended the
constitutional powers of the government of the United States;
that it created, in fact, a new confederacy, to which the
States, united by the former compact, were not bound to
adhere; that it was oppressive to the interests and
destructive to the influence of the Northern section of the
Confederacy, whose right and duty it therefore was to secede
from the new body politic, and to constitute one of their own.
It was lamented that one inevitable consequence of the
annexation of Louisiana to the Union would be to diminish the
relative weight and influence of the Northern section; that it
would aggravate the evil of the slave representation; and
endanger the Union itself, by the expansion of its bulk, and
the enfeebling extension of its line of de·fence against
foreign invasion. A Northern Confederacy was thought to be the
only probable counterpoise to the manufacture of new States in
the South. This project was quietly and extensively discussed
at the time, by the members of Congress from Massachusetts and
Connecticut especially. General Hamilton, indeed, was chosen
as the person to be placed, at the proper time, at the head of
the military movement which, it was foreseen, would be
necessary for carrying the plan into execution. He was
consulted on the subject; and although it is quite certain
that he was opposed to it, he consented to attend a meeting of
Federalists in Boston in the autumn of 1804, but his untimely
death, in the summer of that year, prevented the meeting. To
whatever proportions, however, the project might otherwise
have gone, it was checked by the advantage which was evident
to all of the securing of so large a domain, by the great
desirableness of preventing France from holding the mouth of
our great river, and by the settlement of the question of our
national boundaries. These considerations gave a quietus for a
time to the suggestions of sectional jealousy."
_C. F. Robertson,
The Louisiana Purchase in its Influence
upon the American System
(Papers of the American Historical Association, volume 1),
pages 262-263._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1804.
Fifth Presidential Election.
Thomas Jefferson, Democratic Republican, reelected by the vote
of 162 Electors in the College, against 14 voting for Charles
C. Pinckney, Federalist. George Clinton was chosen Vice
President.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1804-1805.
Impeachment and trial of Judge Chase.
In the closing hours of the session of Congress which expired
March 4, 1803, proceedings of impeachment were begun for the
removal from the bench of Judge Pickering, United States
District Judge of New Hampshire, who had become mentally
incapable of discharging the duties of his office. "By the
federalists, the attack on Judge Pickering was taken as the
first of a series of impeachments, intended to revolutionize
the political character of the courts, but there is nothing to
prove that this was then the intent of the majority. The most
obnoxious justice on the supreme bench was Samuel Chase of
Maryland, whose violence as a political partisan had certainly
exposed him to the danger of impeachment; but two years had
now passed without producing any sign of an intention to
disturb him, and it might be supposed that the administration
thus condoned his offences. Unluckily, Judge Chase had not the
good taste or the judgment to be quiet. He irritated his
enemies by new indiscretions, and on May 13, 1803, nearly
three months after Pickering's impeachment, Mr. Jefferson, in
a letter to Joseph H. Nicholson, suggested that it would be
well to take him in hand:—'You must have heard of the
extraordinary charge of Chase to the grand jury at Baltimore.
Ought this seditious and official attack on the principles of
our Constitution and on the proceedings of a State to go
unpunished? And to whom so pointedly as yourself will the
public look for the necessary measures? I ask these questions
for your consideration. As for myself, it is better that I
should not interfere.' … Nicholson seems to have passed on to
Randolph the charge he had received from the President. … On
January 5, 1804, Randolph rose to move for an inquiry into the
conduct of Judge Chase. … After a long debate, the inquiry was
ordered, and Randolph, with his friend Nicholson, was put at
the head of the committee. On March 26, 1804, they reported
seven articles of impeachment. … With this the session ended,
and the trial went over to the next year. … The impeachment of
Justice Chase is a landmark in American history, because it
was here that the Jeffersonian republicans fought their last
aggressive battle, and, wavering under the shock of defeat,
broke into factions which slowly abandoned the field and
forgot their discipline. That such a battle must one day be
fought for the control of the Judiciary was from the beginning
believed by most republicans who understood their own
principles. Without controlling the Judiciary, the people
could never govern themselves in their own way; and although
they might, over and over again, in every form of law and
resolution, both state and national, enact and proclaim that
theirs was not a despotic but a restricted government, which
had no right to exercise powers not delegated to it, and over
which they, as States, had absolute control, it was none the
less certain that Chief Justice Marshall and his associates
would disregard their will, and would impose upon them his
own. The people were at the mercy of their creatures. The
Constitutions of England, of Massachusetts, of Pennsylvania,
authorized the removal of an obnoxious judge on a mere address
of the legislature, but the Constitution of the United States
had so fenced and fortified the Supreme Court that the
legislature, the Executive, the people themselves, could
exercise no control over it.
{3330}
A judge might make any decision, violate any duty, trample on
any right, and if he took care to commit no indictable offence
he was safe in office for life. On this license the
Constitution imposed only one check: it said that all civil
officers should be removed from office 'on impeachment for,
and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and
misdemeanors.' This right of impeachment was as yet undefined,
and if stretched a little beyond strict construction it might
easily be converted into something for which it had not been
intended. … Judge Chase's offences were serious. The immediate
cause of impeachment, his address to the grand jury at
Baltimore on the 2d May, 1803, proved that he was not a proper
person to be trusted with the interpretation of the laws. In
this address he said that those laws were rapidly destroying
all protection to property and all security to personal
liberty. 'The late alteration of the federal Judiciary,' said
he, 'by the abolition of the office of the sixteen circuit
judges, and the recent change in our state Constitution by the
establishing of universal suffrage, and the further alteration
that is contemplated in our state Judiciary, if adopted, will,
in my judgment, take away all security for property and
personal liberty. The independence of the national Judiciary
is already shaken to its foundations, and the virtue of the
people alone can restore it.' That by this reference to the
virtue of the people he meant to draw a contrast with the want
of virtue in their government was made clear by a pointed
insult to Mr. Jefferson: 'The modern doctrines by our late
reformers, that all men in a state of society are entitled to
enjoy equal liberty and equal rights, have brought this mighty
mischief upon us, and I fear that it will rapidly progress
until peace and order, freedom and property, shall be
destroyed.' … There was gross absurdity in the idea that the
people who, by an immense majority, had decided to carry on
their government in one way should be forced by one of their
own servants to turn about and go in the opposite direction;
and the indecorum was greater than the absurdity, for if Judge
Chase or any other official held such doctrines, even though
he were right, he was bound not to insult officially the
people who employed him. On these grounds Mr. Jefferson
privately advised the impeachment, and perhaps Randolph might
have acted more wisely had he followed Mr. Jefferson's hint to
rely on this article alone, which in the end came nearer than
any other to securing conviction. … The articles of
impeachment which Randolph presented to the House on March 26,
1804, and which were, he claimed, drawn up with his own hand,
rested wholly on the theory of Chase's criminality; they
contained no suggestion that impeachment was a mere inquest of
office. But when Congress met again, and, on December 3, the
subject came again before the House, it was noticed that two
new articles, the fifth and sixth, had been quietly
interpolated, which roused suspicion of a change in Randolph's
plan. … No one could doubt that Randolph and his friends,
seeing how little their ultimate object would be advanced by a
conviction on the old charges, inserted these new articles in
order to correct their mistake and to make a foundation for
the freer use of impeachment as a political weapon. The
behavior of Giles and his friends in the Senate strengthened
this suspicion. He made no concealment of his theories, and
labored earnestly to prevent the Senate from calling itself a
court, or from exercising any functions that belonged to a
court of law."
_H. Adams,
John Randolph,
chapters 4-6._
The doctrine of impeachment which Giles (Senator from
Virginia) and John Randolph maintained, in connection with the
trial of Judge Chase, and which seems to have been acquiesced
in by the majority of their party, is reported by John Quincy
Adams from a conversation to which he was a listener. In Mr.
Adams' Memoirs, under date of December 21, 1804, the incident
is related as follows: "There was little business to do [in
the Senate], and the adjournment took place early. Sitting by
the fireside afterwards, I witnessed a conversation between
Mr. Giles and Mr. Israel Smith, on the subject of
impeachments; during which Mr. John Randolph came in and took
part in the discussion. Giles labored with excessive
earnestness to convince Smith of certain principles, upon
which not only Mr. Chase, but all the other Judges of the
Supreme Court, excepting the one last appointed, must be
impeached and removed. He treated with the utmost contempt the
idea of an 'independent' judiciary—said there was not a word
about such an independence in the Constitution, and that their
pretensions to it were nothing more nor less than an attempt
to establish an aristocratic despotism in themselves. The
power of impeachment was given without limitation to the House
of Representatives; the power of trying impeachments was given
equally without limitation to the Senate; and if the Judges of
the Supreme Court should dare, as they had done, to declare an
act of Congress unconstitutional, or to send a mandamus to the
Secretary of State, as they had done, it was the undoubted
right of the House of Representatives to impeach them, and of
the Senate to remove them, for giving such opinions, however
honest and sincere they may have been in entertaining them.
Impeachment was not a criminal prosecution; it was no
prosecution at all. The Senate sitting for the trial of
impeachments was not a court, and ought to discard and reject
all process of analogy to a court of justice. A trial and
removal of a judge upon impeachment need not imply any
criminality or corruption in him. Congress had no power over
the person, but only over the office. And a removal by
impeachment was nothing more than a declaration by Congress to
this effect: You hold dangerous opinions, and if you are
suffered to carry them into effect you will work the
destruction of the nation. We want your offices, for the
purpose of giving them to men who will fill them better. In
answer to all this, Mr. Smith only contended that honest error
of opinion could not, as he conceived, be a subject of
impeachment. And in pursuit of this principle he proved
clearly enough the persecution and tyranny to which those of
Giles and Randolph inevitably lead. It would, he said,
establish 'a tyranny over opinions,' and he traced all the
arguments of Giles to their only possible issue of rank
absurdity. In all this conversation I opened my lips but once,
in which I told Giles that I could not assent to his
definition of the term impeachment."
_J. Q. Adams,
Memoirs,
edited by C. F. Adams,
volume 1, pages 322-323._
{3331}
The trial of Judge Chase was opened on the 9th of February,
1805, and ended on the 23d. By votes ranging from 15 to 34
(the total number of Senators being 34), he was acquitted on
each of the charges—a result attributed considerably to the
offensive and incapable manner in which the prosecution had
been conducted by John Randolph.
_J. Schouler,
History of the United States,
volume 2, page 77._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1804-1805.
Expedition of Lewis and Clark across the continent.
The first exploration of the Missouri and beyond.
Captain Meriwether Lewis and Captain William Clark "were the
first men to cross the continent in our zone, the truly golden
zone. A dozen years before them, Mackenzie had crossed in
British dominions far north, but settlements are even now
sparse in that parallel. Still earlier had Mexicans traversed
the narrowing continent from the Gulf to the Pacific, but
seemed to find little worth discovery. It was otherwise in the
zone penetrated by Lewis and Clark. There development began at
once and is now nowhere surpassed. Along their route ten
States, with a census in 1890 of eight and a half millions,
have arisen in the wilderness. … The credit of our Great
Western discovery is due to Jefferson, though he never crossed
the Alleghanies. When Columbus saw the Orinoco rushing into
the ocean with irrepressible power and volume, he knew that he
had anchored at the mouth of a continental river. So
Jefferson, ascertaining that the Missouri, though called a
branch, at once changed the color and character of the
Mississippi, felt sure that whoever followed it would reach
the innermost recesses of our America. Learning afterward that
Captain Gray had pushed into the mouth of the Columbia only
after nine days' breasting its outward current, he deemed that
river a worthy counterpart of the Missouri, and was convinced
that their headwaters could not be far apart in longitude.
Inaugurated in 1801, before his first Presidential term was
half over he had obtained, as a sort of secret-service fund,
the small sum which sufficed to fit out the expedition. He had
also selected Lewis, his private secretary, for its head, and
put him in a course of special training. But the actual voyage
up the Missouri, purchased April 30, 1803, was not begun till
the middle of May, 1804. Forty-five persons in three boats
composed the party. … After 171 days the year's advance ended
with October, for the river was ready to freeze. The distance
up stream they reckoned at 1,600 miles, or little more than 9
miles a day, a journey now made by railroad in forty-four
hours. … Winter quarters were thirty miles above the Bismarck
of our day. Here they were frozen in about five months. The
huts they built and abundant fuel kept them warm. Thanks to
their hunters and Indian traffic, food was seldom scarce.
Officials of the Hudson's Bay Company (who had a post within a
week's journey) and many inquisitive natives paid them visits.
From all these it was their tireless endeavor to learn
everything possible concerning the great unknown of the river
beyond. Scarcely one could tell about distant places from
personal observation, but some second-hand reports were
afterward proved strangely accurate, even as to the Great
Falls, which turned out to be a thousand miles away. It was
not long, however, before they learned that the wife of
Chaboneau, whom they had taken as a local interpreter, was a
captive whose birth had been in the Rocky Mountains. She,
named the Bird-woman, was the only person discoverable after a
winter's search who could by possibility serve them as
interpreter and guide among the unknown tongues and
labyrinthine fastnesses which they must encounter. Early in
April, 1805, the explorers, now numbering thirty-two, again
began to urge their boats up the river, for their last year's
labors had brought them no more than half-way to their first
objective, its source. No more Indian purveyors or pilots:
their own rifles were the sole reliance for food. Many a
wigwam, but no Indian, was espied for four months and four
days after they left their winter camp. It was through the
great Lone Land that they groped their dark and perilous way.
In twenty days after the spring start they arrived at the
Yellowstone, and in thirty more they first sighted the Rocky
Mountains. Making the portage at the Great Falls cost them a
month of vexatious delay. Rowing on another month brought them
on August 12 to a point where one of the men stood with one
foot each side of the rivulet, and 'thanked God that he had
lived to bestride the Missouri, heretofore deemed endless.'
They dragged their canoes, however, up the rivulet for five
days longer. It was 460 days since they had left the mouth of
the river, and their mileage on its waters had been 3,096
miles. A mile further they stood on the great divide, and
drank of springs which sent their water to the Pacific. But
meantime they had been ready to starve in the mountains. Their
hunters were of the best, but they found no game: buffaloes
had gone down into the lowlands, the birds of heaven had fled,
and edible roots were mostly unknown to them. For more than
four months they had looked, and lo! there was no man. It was
not till August 13 that, surprising a squaw so encumbered with
pappooses that she could not escape, and winning her heart by
the gift of a looking-glass and painting her cheeks, they
formed friendship with her nation, one of whose chiefs proved
to be a brother of their Bird-woman. Horses were about all
they could obtain of these natives, streams were too full of
rapids to be navigable, or no timber fit for canoes was within
reach. So the party, subsisting on horse-flesh, and afterwards
on dog-meat, toiled on along one of the worst possible routes.
Nor was it till the 7th of October that they were able to
embark in logs they had burned hollow, upon a branch of the
Columbia, which, after manifold portages and perils, bore them
to its mouth and the goal of their pilgrimage, late in
November. Its distance from the starting-point, according to
their estimate, was 4,134 miles. … Many an episode in this
eventful transcontinental march and countermarch will
hereafter glorify with romantic associations islands, rivers,
rocks, cañons, and mountains all along its track. Among these
none can be more touching than the story of the Bird-woman,
her divination of routes, her courage when men quailed, her
reunion with a long-lost brother, her spreading as good a
table with bones as others could with meat, her morsel of
bread for an invalid benefactor, her presence with her infant
attesting to savages that the expedition could not be hostile.
But when bounties in land and money were granted to others,
she was unthought of. Statues of her, however, must yet be
reared by grateful dwellers in lands she laid open for their
happy homes. Western poets will liken her to Ariadne and
Beatrice."
The Nation,
October 26, 1893
(Reviewing Dr. Coues' edition of "History of the
Expedition under the Command of Lewis and Clark").
{3332}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1804-1805,
Jefferson's Plans of National defense.
His Gunboat fleet.
Mr. Jefferson's views as to the measures required for national
defense, in the disturbed foreign relations of the country,
were indicated in his message to Congress, when it assembled
in November, 1804, but were afterwards communicated more fully
to Mr. Nicholson, of Maryland, chairman of the committee to
which the subject was referred. "Concerning fortifications, he
remarks that the plans and estimates of those required for our
principal harbours, made fifty millions of dollars necessary
for their completion. It would require 2,000 men to garrison
them in peace, and 50,000 in war. When thus completed and
manned, they would avail but little, as all military men agree
that when vessels might pass a fort without tacking, though it
may annoy, it cannot prevent them. Two modes of effecting the
same object might be 'adopted in aid of each other.' 1. Heavy
cannon on travelling carriages, with militia trained to the
management of them. 2. Floating batteries or gunboats. There
were, he estimated, fifteen harbours in the United States
needing and deserving defence. They would require 250
gunboats. The cost of these had been estimated at 2,000
dollars each, but he puts it down at 4,000, amounting in all
to 1,000,000 dollars. Such of them as were kept under a
shelter, ready to be launched, when wanted, would cost nothing
more than an inclosure, or sentinel; those that were afloat,
with men enough to take care of them, about 2,000 dollars a
year each; and those fully manned for action about 8,000
dollars a year. He thought twenty-five of the second
description enough, when France and England were at war. When
at war ourselves, some of the third description would be
required, the precise number depending on circumstances. There
were ten then built and building, and fifteen more it was
thought would be sufficient to put every harbour into a
respectable state of defence. Congress, neither fulfilling the
wishes of the President, nor altogether resisting them, gave
the President the means of partially trying his favourite
scheme, by the appropriation of 60,000 dollars. The
sufficiency of this species of naval defence occasioned a good
deal of discussion about this time between the opponents and
the supporters of the administration. … The scheme was
vehemently assailed by his adversaries in every form of
argument and ridicule, and was triumphantly adduced as a
further proof that he was not a practical statesman. The
officers of the navy were believed to be, with scarcely an
exception, opposed to the system of gunboats, especially those
who were assigned to this service, partly because it was found
to be personally very uncomfortable, and yet more, perhaps,
because the power they wielded was so inferior, and their
command so insignificant, compared with that to which they had
been familiarized. It was like compelling a proud man to give
up a fine richly caparisoned charger for a pair of panniers
and a donkey. To stem the current of public opinion, which so
far as it was manifested, set so strong against these
gunboats, and to turn it in their favour, Mr. Jefferson
prevailed on Paine, who had since his return been addressing
the people of the United States on various topics, through the
newspapers, to become their advocate. He set about it with his
wonted self-confidence and real talent in enforcing his views,
and proceeded to show that a gun from a gunboat would do the
same execution as from a seventy-four, and cost no more,
perhaps less; but a ship carrying seventy-four guns, could
bring only one half to bear on an enemy at once, whereas if
they were distributed among seventy-four boats, they could all
be equally effective at once. In spite of this logic, the
public, pinning its faith on experienced men, remained
incredulous; and when, soon afterwards, many of the new marine
were driven ashore in a tempest, or were otherwise destroyed,
no one seemed to regard their loss as a misfortune, and the
officers of the navy did not affect to conceal their
satisfaction: nor has any attempt been since made to replace
them. … The error of Mr. Jefferson was not, as his enemies
charged, in adopting a visionary scheme of defence, but in
limiting his views from a motive of economy, to the protection
of the harbours, and in leaving his country's commerce and
seamen, on the ocean, defenceless."
_G. Tucker,
The Life of Thomas Jefferson,
volume 2, chapter 8._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1804-1809.
Difficulties with Great Britain.
Neutral rights.
The Right of Search.
Impressment.
Blockade by Orders in Council and the Berlin and Milan Decrees.
Embargo and Non-intercourse.
For a time, after 1803, almost the whole carrying trade of
Europe was in American hands. "The merchant flag of every
belligerent, save England, disappeared from the sea. France
and Holland absolutely ceased to trade under their flags.
Spain for a while continued to transport her specie and her
bullion in her own ships protected by her men-of-war. But
this, too, she soon gave up, and by 1806 the dollars of Mexico
and the ingots of Peru were brought to her shores in American
bottoms. It was under our flag that the gum trade was carried
on with Senegal; that the sugar trade was carried on with
Cuba; that coffee was exported from Caracas; and hides and
indigo from South America. From Vera Cruz, from Carthagena,
from La Plata, from the French colonies in the Antilles, from
Cayenne, from Dutch Guiana, from the Isles of France and
Reunion, from Batavia and Manilla, great fleets of American
merchantmen sailed for the United States, there to neutralize
the voyage and then go on to Europe. They filled the
warehouses at Cadiz and Antwerp to overflowing. They glutted
the markets of Embden and Lisbon, Hamburg and Copenhagen with
the produce of the West Indies and the fabrics of the East,
and, bringing back the products of the looms and forges of
Germany to the New World, drove out the manufactures of
Yorkshire, Manchester, and Birmingham. But this splendid trade
was already marked for destruction. That Great Britain should
long treat it with indifference was impossible. … She
determined … to destroy it, and to destroy it in two ways: by
paper blockades and by admiralty decisions. In January, 1804,
accordingly, Great Britain blockaded the ports of Guadeloupe
and Martinique. In April her commander at Jamaica blockaded
Curaçoa. In August she extended the blockade to the Straits of
Dover and the English Channel."
_J. B. McMaster,
History of the People of the United States,
volume 3, pages 225-226._
{3333}
"It had not yet come to be the acknowledged law of nations
that free ships make free goods. But nearly the same purpose
was answered, if the property of belligerents could be safely
carried in neutral ships under the pretense of being owned by
neutrals. The products of the French colonies, for example,
could be loaded on board of American vessels, taken to the
United States and reshipped there for France as American
property. England looked upon this as an evasion of the
recognized public law that property of belligerents was good
prize. … It was denied that neutrals could take advantage of a
state of war to enter upon a trade which had not existed in
time of peace; and American ships were seized on the high
seas, taken into port, and condemned in the Admiralty Courts
for carrying enemy's goods in such a trade. The exercise of
that right, if it were one by the recognized law of nations,
would be of great injury to American commerce, unless it could
be successfully resisted. … A war with England must be a naval
war; and the United States not only had no navy of any
consequence, but it was a part of Mr. Jefferson's policy, in
contrast with the policy of the preceding administrations,
that there should be none, except … gunboats kept on wheels
and under cover in readiness to repel an invasion. But there
was no fear of invasion, for by that England could gain
nothing. 'She is renewing,' Madison wrote in the autumn of
1805, 'her depredations on our commerce in the most ruinous
shapes, and has kindled a more general indignation among our
merchants than was ever before expressed.' These depredations
were not confined to the seizing and confiscating American
ships under the pretense that their cargoes were contraband.
Seamen were taken out of them on the charge of being British
subjects and deserters, not only on the high seas in larger
numbers than ever before, but within the waters of the United
States. No doubt these seamen were often British subjects and
their seizure was justifiable, provided England could
rightfully extend to all parts of the globe and to the ships
of all nations the merciless system of impressment to which
her own people were compelled to submit at home. … But even if
it could be granted that English naval officers might seize
such men without recourse to law, wherever they should be
found and without respect for the flag of another nation, it
was a national insult and outrage, calling for resentment and
resistance, to impress American citizens under the pretense
that they were British subjects. But what was the remedy? As a
last resort in such cases, nations have but one. Diplomacy and
legislation may be first tried, but if these fail, war must be
the final ordeal. For this the Administration made no
preparation, and the more evident the unreadiness the less was
the chance of redress in any other way. … The first measure
adopted to meet the aggressions of the English was an act
prohibiting the importation of certain British products. This
had always been a favorite policy with Madison. … The
President and Secretary were in perfect accord; for Jefferson
preferred anything to war, and Madison was persuaded that
England would be brought to terms by the loss of the best
market for her manufactures. … But the Administration did not
rely upon legislation alone in this emergency. The President
followed up the act prohibiting the introduction of British
goods by sending William Pinkney to England in the spring of
1806, to join Monroe, the resident minister, in an attempt at
negotiation. These commissioners soon wrote that there was
good reason for hoping that a treaty would be concluded, and
thereupon the non-importation act was for a time suspended. In
December came the news that a treaty was agreed upon, and soon
after it was received by the President. … Monroe and Pinkney
were enjoined, in tho instructions written by the Secretary of
State, to make the abandonment of impressment the first
condition of a treaty. A treaty, nevertheless, was agreed
upon, without this provision. … Without consulting the Senate,
though Congress was in session when the treaty was received,
and although the Senate had been previously informed that one
had been agreed upon, the President rejected it. … As
England's need of seamen increased, the captains of her
cruisers, encouraged by the failure of negotiation, grew
bolder in overhauling American ships. … In the summer of 1807
an outrage was perpetrated on the frigate Chesapeake, as if to
emphasize the contempt with which a nation must be looked upon
which only screamed like a woman at wrongs which it wanted the
courage and strength to resent, or the wisdom to compound for.
The Chesapeake was followed out of the harbor of Norfolk by
the British man-of-war Leopard, and when a few miles at sea,
the Chesapeake being brought to under the pretense that the
English captain wished to put some dispatches on board for
Europe, a demand was made for certain deserters supposed to be
on the American frigate. Commodore Barron replied that he knew
of no deserters on his ship, and that he could permit no
search to be made, even if there were. After some further
altercation the Englishman fired a broadside, killing and
wounding a number of the Chesapeake's crew. Commodore Barron
could do nothing else but surrender, for he had only a single
gun in readiness for use, and that was fired only once and
then with a coal from the cook's galley. The ship was then
boarded, the crew mustered, and four men arrested as
deserters. Three of them were negroes,—two natives of the
United States, the other of South America. The fourth man,
probably, was an Englishman. … For this direct national
insult, explanation, apology, and reparation were demanded,
and at the same time the President put forth a proclamation
forbidding all British ships of war to remain in American
waters. … Some preparation was made for war, but it was only
to call upon the militia to be in readiness, and to order Mr.
Jefferson's gunboats to the most exposed ports. Great Britain
was not alarmed. The captain of the Leopard, indeed, was
removed from his command, as having exceeded his duty; but a
proclamation on that side was also issued, requiring all ships
of war to seize British seamen on board foreign merchantmen,
to demand them from foreign ships of war, and if the demand
was refused to report the fact to the admiral of the fleet. …
New perils all the while were besetting American commerce.
{3334}
In November, 1806, Napoleon's Berlin decree was promulgated,
forbidding the introduction into France of the products of
Great Britain and her colonies, whether in her own ships or
those of other nations. … The decree, it was declared, was a
rightful retaliation of a British order in council of six
months before, which had established a partial blockade of a
portion of the French coast. … In the autumn of 1807 [the
President] called a special session of Congress. … He sent a
special message to the Senate, recommending an embargo. An act
was almost immediately passed, which, if anything more was
needed to complete the ruin of American commerce, supplied
that deficiency. A month before this time the English ministry
had issued a new order in council—the news of which reached
Jefferson as he was about to send in his message—proclaiming a
blockade of pretty much all Europe, and forbidding any trade
in neutral vessels, unless they had first gone into some
British port and paid duties on their cargoes; and within 24
hours of the President's message, recommending the embargo,
Napoleon proclaimed a new decree from Milan, by which it was
declared that any ship was lawful prize that had anything
whatever to do with Great Britain. … Within four months of its
enactment, Josiah Quincy of Massachusetts declared, in a
debate in Congress, that 'an experiment, such as is now
making, was never before—I will not say tried—it never before
entered into the human imagination. There is nothing like it
in the narrations of history or in the tales of fiction.' …
The prosperity and tranquillity which marked the earlier years
of Jefferson's administration disappeared in its last year. …
The mischievous results of the embargo policy were evident
enough to a sufficient number of Republicans to secure, in
February, 1809, the repeal [by the Non-intercourse Bill] of
that measure, to take effect the next month as to all
countries except England and France."
_S. H. Gay,
James Madison,
chapter 17._
The Non-intercourse Bill which repealed the general provisions
of the Embargo Act "excluded all public and private vessels of
France and England from American waters; forbade under severe
penalties the importation of British or French goods; … and
gave the President authority to reopen by proclamation the
trade with France or England in case either of these countries
should cease to violate neutral rights. … Such a
non-intercourse merely sanctioned smuggling."
_H. Adams,
History of the United States:
Second Administration of Jefferson,
volume 2, page 445._
ALSO IN:
_H. S. Randall,
Life of Jefferson,
volume 3, chapters 3-7._
_E. Schuyler,
American Diplomacy,
chapters 5 and 7._
_A. T. Mahan,
Influence of Sea Power on the French Revolution,
chapters 17-18 (volume 2)._
_F. Wharton,
Digest of the International Law of the United States,
chapters 7, 16, and 21 (volume 2-3)._
See, also,
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1803;
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1812,
and FRANCE: A. D. 1806-1810.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1806-1807.
Aaron Burr's filibustering scheme.
His arrest and trial.
Aaron Burr had been chosen vice-president in 1800. But he had
lost all his friends in both parties in the election. In the
course of a bitter political quarrel in New York, in 1804, he
challenged Hamilton to a duel. Hamilton was mad enough to
accept the challenge and was killed. Burr, "after his duel
with General Hamilton, and after the term of his office as
vice-president had expired, … seemed to be left alone, and
abandoned by all political parties. The state of public
feeling in New York was such, after the death of Hamilton,
that his presence in that city could not be endured. In New
Jersey he had been indicted by a grand jury for murder. Thus
situated, his ambitious, active and restless spirit rendered
his condition intolerable to himself. On the 22nd March, but a
few days after he left forever the presidency of the United
States senate, he wrote to his son-in-law, Mr. Joseph Alston,
that he 'was under ostracism. In New York,' said he, 'I am to
be disfranchised, and in New Jersey to be hanged. Having
substantial objections to both, I shall not, for the present,
hazard either, but shall seek another country.' Accordingly,
early in May, he left Philadelphia for the western country,
and arrived at Lexington, in Kentucky, on the 20th of that
month. After travelling with great rapidity through that
state, he directed his course to Nashville, in Tennessee, and
from thence he journied through the woods to Natchez. From
Natchez he went by land to New Orleans, where he arrived on
the 25th June, 1805. At that time, General Wilkinson was in
that city, or in its neighborhood, and commanded the United
States troops stationed there. It does not appear that he
remained long in New Orleans, but soon again returned to
Lexington, in Kentucky, by the way of Nashville. He was at
Cincinnati, and at several places in Ohio, but in a very short
time made his appearance at St. Louis, in Missouri, and from
thence he travelled to Washington, at which place he arrived
on the 29th day of November. These immense journies he
performed in a little more than six months; before the great
western rivers were rendered navigable by steam, and when the
roads were badly constructed; and through a considerable part
of the country traversed by him there were no roads at all.
His movements were veiled in mystery, and all men wondered
what could be the motive which induced these extraordinary
journies. From January, 1806, to the month of August
following, he spent his time principally in Washington and
Philadelphia; but, in the month of August, he again set his
face towards the west, and was soon afterwards found in
Kentucky. About this time boats were provided, provisions and
munitions of war were collected, and men were gathering at
different points on the Ohio and Cumberland rivers. Government
now began to be alarmed. Mr. Tiffin, governor of Ohio, under
the advice of the president (Jefferson), seized the boats and
their cargo, and Burr was arrested in Kentucky; but no
sufficient proof appearing against him he was discharged. On
the 23d January, 1807, Mr. Jefferson sent a message to
congress, accompanied by several affidavits, in which he gave
the history of Burr's transactions, so far as they had come to
the knowledge of the administration. The message stated that,
on the 21st of October, General Wilkinson wrote to the
president that, from a letter he had received from Burr, he
had ascertained that his objects were, a severance of the
union on the line of the Allegany mountains, an attack upon
Mexico, and the establishment of an independent government in
Mexico, of which Burr was to be the head. That to cover his
movements, he had purchased, or pretended to have purchased,
of one Lynch, a tract of country claimed by Baron Bastiop,
lying near Natchitoches, on which he proposed to make a
settlement.
{3335}
That he had found, by the proceedings of the governor and
people of Ohio and Kentucky, that the western people were not
prepared to join him; but notwithstanding, there was reason to
believe that he intended, with what force he could collect, to
attack New Orleans, get the control of the funds of the bank,
seize upon the military and naval stores which might be found
there, and then proceed against Mexico. The president assured
congress that there was no reason to apprehend that any
foreign power would aid Colonel Burr. A considerable part of
the evidence going to show that Burr entertained criminal
designs, depended on the affidavit of Wilkinson. It is not my
intention to examine into the proofs of the guilt or innocence
of Burr, further than to remark, that from the character of
the vain, vaporing and unprincipled Wilkinson, as before and
since developed, no dependence can safely be placed upon his
statements, unless supported by strong circumstances, or other
evidence; and I believe it will not at this day be doubted,
that if Burr plotted treason, Wilkinson, in the first
instance, agreed to be his accomplice; that, as their
operations progressed, he began seriously to doubt of success,
and then communicated his knowledge of the affair to the
government, in order to save himself, and perhaps obtain a
reward. … That Burr himself was deceived by Wilkinson, there
can be no doubt. … But there was other evidence besides that
of Wilkinson, against Burr, which has never been explained. …
If his object was merely an attack upon Mexico, why did he not
openly avow it, when charged and indicted for treason against
his country? … Again, unless Colonel William Eaton, the man
who had then recently so gallantly distinguished himself on
the Barbary coasts, has perjured himself, Burr did form a
treasonable plot against his country. Colonel Eaton, on the
26th January, deposed, in open court, held before Judge Cranch
and others, at Washington, that during the preceding winter
(1806), Burr called upon him, and, in the first instance,
represented that he was employed by the government to raise a
military force to attack the Spanish Provinces in North
America, and invited Eaton to take a command in the
expedition; that Eaton, being a restless, enterprising man,
readily acceded to the proposal; that Burr made frequent calls
upon him, and in his subsequent interviews complained of the
inefficiency and timidity of the government, and, eventually,
fully developed his project; which was to separate the western
states from the union, and establish himself as sovereign of
the country. … Burr did not succeed in collecting and
organizing a force on the western waters; but, on the 1st day
of March, he was discovered wandering alone in the Tombigbee
country, near the line of Florida. … The trial of the
indictment against Burr, for treason, occupied many weeks, but
he was finally acquitted by the jury, without swearing any
witness in his defence. The acquittal seems to have been on
technical grounds. … After his acquittal, Colonel Burr appears
still to have persevered in the project of making an effort to
detach Mexico from the Spanish government. On the 7th of June,
1808, he sailed from New York for Europe, it would seem in the
hope of engaging the British government to fit out an
expedition against Mexico, in which he would take a part. In
this he was entirely unsuccessful. His application to the
French government was equally vain and useless. He spent four
years wandering about in Europe."
_J. D. Hammond,
History of Political Parties in the State of New York,
chapter 12 (volume 1)._
ALSO IN:
_W. H. Safford,
The Blennerhassett Papers,
chapters 6-15._
_M. L. Davis,
Memoirs of Burr,
volume 2, chapters 17-20._
_J. Parton,
Life of Burr,
chapters 21-26 (volume 2)._
_H. Adams,
History of the United States:
Second Administration of Jefferson,
volume 1, chapters 10-14 and 19._
_D. Robertson,
Report of Trials of Burr._
See BLENNERHASSETT'S ISLAND.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1806-1812.
The Cumberland Road.
The first National work of "Internal Improvement."
"In 1806 the United States began the Cumberland Road, its
first work of the kind; but it was intended to open up the
public lands in Ohio and the country west, and was nominally
paid for out of the proceeds of those public lands. Just as
the embargo policy was taking effect, Gallatin, encouraged by
the accumulation of a surplus in the Treasury, brought in a
report, April 4, 1808, suggesting the construction of a great
system of internal improvements: it was to include coastwise
canals across the isthmuses of Cape Cod, New Jersey, upper
Delaware and eastern North Carolina; roads were to be
constructed from Maine to Georgia, and thence to New Orleans,
and from Washington westward to Detroit and St. Louis. He
estimated the cost at twenty millions, to be provided in ten
annual instalments. Jefferson himself was so carried away with
this prospect of public improvement that he recommended a
constitutional amendment to authorize such expenditures. The
whole scheme disappeared when the surplus vanished; but from
year to year small appropriations were made for the Cumberland
Road, so that up to 1812 more than $200,000 had been expended
upon it."
_A. B. Hart,
Formation of the Union
(Epochs of American History),
section 121._
"The Cumberland Road was always a pet enterprise with Mr.
Clay. … Its eastern terminus was Cumberland on the Potomac,
from which it takes its name. Thence it was projected to
Wheeling on the Ohio, crossing the Alleganies; from Wheeling
to Columbus, Ohio; and thence westward through Indiana,
Illinois, and Missouri, to Jefferson, the capital of the
latter State. … After Mr. Clay went to Congress in 1806, and
while he was there, this great national work required and
realized his constant attention and zealous advocacy. It was
owing to his exertions chiefly that it ever reached Wheeling,
and passed on so far into the State of Ohio. The last
appropriations made for this road were in 1834 and 1835, with
a view of repairing it, and giving it over to the States
through which it passed, if they would accept it, and keep it
in repair."
_C. Colton,
Life, Correspondence, and Speeches of Henry Clay,
volume 6, page 7._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1807.
Practical beginning of steam-boat navigation.
See STEAM NAVIGATION.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1807.
Abolition of the Slave-Trade.
The measure in Congress.
Significance of Southern action.
By the terms of the Constitution, Congress was deprived of
power to interfere with the importation of slaves before the
year 1808, but no longer. The time now approached when that
restraint would cease, and the President in his annual message
brought the subject to notice.
{3336}
"It was referred to a committee of which Mr. Early of Georgia
was the chairman. There was no difference of opinion as to the
prohibition of the traffic, or at least no expression of any;
but the practical details of the law, the penalties by which
it was to be enforced, and, above all, the disposition to be
made of such negroes as might be brought into the country in
violation of it, gave rise to violent and excited debates. The
committee reported a law prohibiting the slave-trade after the
31st of December, 1807, imposing certain penalties for its
breach, and providing that all negroes imported after that
date should be forfeited. The object of this provision
undoubtedly was to obtain directly what the Constitution only
gave indirectly and by implication,—the sanction of the
government of the United States to the principle of
slave-holding, by making it hold and sell men as property. The
astuteness of the slave-holding mind on all points touching
slavery was shown in this proposition, and all the tactics of
bullying and bluster with which later Congressional campaigns
have made us familiar, were employed in the debate to which it
gave rise. It having been moved that the words 'shall be
entitled to his or her freedom' should be inserted after the
word 'forfeited,' a furious fight ensued over this amendment.
The Southern members resisted it, on the ground that the
emancipation of the imported Africans would increase the
number of free negroes, who, as Mr. Early affirmed, 'were
considered in the States where they are found in considerable
numbers as instruments of murder, theft, and conflagration.'
And so craftily was this proposition of forfeiture to the
government qualified, that its drift was not at first
discerned by the Northern members. For, strong as was their
disapprobation of slavery in the abstract, they felt no
disposition to expose their Southern brethren to all the
horrors of insurrection which it was assumed would follow the
multiplication of free negroes. Indeed, Mr. Early candidly
said, that, if these negroes were left free in the Southern
States, not one of them would be alive in a year. And although
the Federalists as a party, and Mr. Quincy eminently among
them, regarded the political element of slavery as full of
dangers to the future of the nation, these opinions had worked
no personal and social alienation between Northern and
Southern men, such as has since taken place. … There was,
therefore, quite disposition enough to arrange this matter in
the way the most satisfactory to the masters, without so rigid
a regard to the rights of the negroes as, it is to be hoped,
would have been had in later times. Mr. Quincy at first
opposed striking out the forfeiture clause, on the ground that
this was the only way in which the United States could get the
control of the Africans, so as to dispose of them in the
manner most for their own interest. … These views influenced a
majority of the Northern members until the question of the
final passage of the bill approached. At last they came to a
sense of the disgrace which the forfeiture of the negroes to
the government, and the permission to it to sell them as
slaves if it so pleased, would bring upon the nation, and the
whole matter was recommitted to a committee of one from each
State. … This committee reported a bill providing that such
imported negroes should be sent to such States as had
abolished slavery, there to be bound out as apprentices for a
term of years, at the expiration of which they should be free.
This bill produced a scene of great and violent excitement on
the part of the slaveholders. Mr. Early declared that the
people of the South would resist this provision with their
lives! This resistance to a measure which proposed doing all
the slaveholders had demanded for their own safety, to wit,
removing the imported negroes from the slaveholding domain and
providing for them in the Free States, showed that their
purpose was, at least in part, to have the negroes sold as
slaves to themselves. This object they did virtually gain at
last, as the final settlement was by a bill originating in the
Senate, providing that, though neither importer nor purchaser
should have a title to such negroes, still the negroes should
be subject to any regulation for their disposal that should be
made by the States into which they might be brought. The
design of the slaveholding party to make the United States
recognize the rightfulness of property in man was thus
avoided, but it was at the cost of leaving the imported
Africans to the tender mercies of the Slave States. The fact
that the slaveholders were greatly incensed at the result, and
regarded it as an injury and an affront, does not make this
disposition of these unfortunates any the less discreditable
to Congress or the nation."
_E. Quincy,
Life of Josiah Quincy,
chapter 5._
See, also, SLAVERY, NEGRO: A. D. 1792-1807.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1808.
The effects of the Embargo.
"The dread of war, radical in the Republican theory, sprang
not so much from the supposed waste of life or resources as
from the retroactive effects which war must exert upon the
form of government; but the experience of a few months showed
that the embargo as a system was rapidly leading to the same
effects. … Personal liberties and rights of property were more
directly curtailed in the United States by embargo than in
Great Britain by centuries of almost continuous foreign war. …
While the constitutional cost of the two systems was not
altogether unlike, the economical cost was a point not easily
settled. No one could say what might be the financial expense
of embargo as compared with war. Yet Jefferson himself in the
end admitted that the embargo had no claim to respect as an
economical measure. … As the order was carried along the
seacoast, every artisan dropped his tools, every merchant
closed his doors, every ship was dismantled. American
produce—wheat, timber, cotton, tobacco, rice—dropped in value
or became unsalable; every imported article rose in price;
wages stopped; swarms of debtors became bankrupt; thousands of
sailors hung idle round the wharves trying to find employment
on coasters, and escape to the West Indies or Nova Scotia. A
reign of idleness began; and the men who were not already
ruined felt that their ruin was only a matter of time. The
British traveller, Lambert, who visited New York in 1808,
described it as resembling a place ravaged by pestilence:—'The
port indeed was full of shipping, but they were dismantled and
laid up; their decks were cleared, their hatches fastened
down, and scarcely a sailor was to be found on board. Not a
box, bale, cask, barrel, or package was to be seen upon the
wharves.' … In New England, where the struggle of existence
was keenest, the embargo struck like a thunderbolt, and
society for a moment thought itself at an end.
{3337}
Foreign commerce and shipping were the life of the people,
—the ocean, as Pickering said, was their farm. The outcry of
suffering interests became every day more violent, as the
public learned that this paralysis was not a matter of weeks,
but of months or years. … The belief that Jefferson, sold to
France, wished to destroy American commerce and to strike a
deadly blow at New and Old England at once, maddened the
sensitive temper of the people. Immense losses, sweeping away
their savings and spreading bankruptcy through every village,
gave ample cause for their complaints. Yet in truth, New
England was better able to defy the embargo than she was
willing to suppose. She lost nothing except profits which the
belligerents had in any case confiscated; her timber would not
harm for keeping, and her fish were safe in the ocean. The
embargo gave her almost a monopoly of the American market for
domestic manufactures; no part of the country was so well
situated or so well equipped for smuggling. … The growers of
wheat and live stock in the Middle States were more hardly
treated. Their wheat, reduced in value from two dollars to
seventy-five cents a bushel, became practically unsalable. …
The manufacturers of Pennsylvania could not but feel the
stimulus of the new demand; so violent a system of protection
was never applied to them before or since. Probably for that
reason the embargo was not so unpopular in Pennsylvania as
elsewhere, and Jefferson had nothing to fear from political
revolution in this calm and plodding community. The true
burden of the embargo fell on the Southern States, but most
severely upon the great State of Virginia. Slowly decaying,
but still half patriarchal, Virginia society could neither
economize nor liquidate. Tobacco was worthless; but 400,000
negro slaves must be clothed and fed, great establishments
must be kept up, the social scale of living could not be
reduced, and even could not clear a large landed estate
without creating new encumbrances in a country bankruptcy
where land and negroes were the only forms of property on
which money could be raised. Stay-laws were tried, but served
only to prolong the agony. With astonishing rapidity Virginia
succumbed to ruin, while continuing to support the system that
was draining her strength."
_H. Adams,
History of the United States:
Second Administration of Jefferson,
volume 2, chapter 12._
"'Our passion,' said Jefferson, 'is peace.' He not only
recoiled as a philanthropist from bloodshed, but as a
politician he with reason dreaded military propensities and
sabre sway. Such preparations for war as he could be induced
to make were scrupulously defensive, and his fleet of
gun-boats for the protection of the coast to be launched when
the invader should appear excited a smile. Alone among all
statesmen he tried to make war without bloodshed by means of
an embargo on trade. … It is not the highest of his titles to
fame in the eyes of his countrymen, but it may be not the
lowest in the court of humanity, that he sacrificed his
popularity in the attempt to find a bloodless substitute for
war. His memory recovered from the shock and his reign over
American opinion endured."
_Goldwin Smith,
The United States:
An outline of Political History, 1492-1871,
chapter 3._
ALSO IN:
_H. A. Hill,
Trade and Commerce of Boston, 1780-1880
(Memorial History of Boston,
volume 4, part 2, chapter 8)._
_E. Quincy,
Life of Josiah Quincy,
chapters 6-7._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1808.
Sixth Presidential Election.
Jefferson succeeded by Madison.
"In anticipation of Jefferson's retirement there had been … no
little dispute and lively canvassing as to the next incumbency
of the presidential chair. … Upon Madison, it was generally
considered that Jefferson had fixed his personal preference. …
But Madison had many political enemies in the Republican ranks
among Virginians themselves. … Monroe was the growing
favorite. Republicans in Congress, who, from one cause or
another, had become disaffected to the Secretary of State,
made their new choice manifest. The Quids [see QUIDS], having
courted Monroe by letter when he was abroad, crowded about him
when he passed through Washington on his way home, just as the
Embargo became a law. … Monroe hesitated, unwilling to make a
breach; and rather than hazard the Republican cause, or the
future prospects of their favorite, his more temperate friends
took him off the list of candidates, so that at the usual
Congressional caucus, held at the capital, Madison was
nominated almost unanimously for President, and George Clinton
for Vice-President. But out of 139 Republican Senators and
Representatives only 89 were present at this caucus, some
being sick or absent from the city, and others keeping away
because dissatisfied. Clinton had been a disappointed
candidate, as well as Monroe, for the highest honors. … His
ambition was pursued beyond the caucus, notwithstanding his
renomination as Vice-President, until the friends of Madison,
who had profited by the diversion among competitors,
threatened to drop Clinton from the regular ticket unless he
relinquished his pretensions to a higher place than that
already assigned him. Meantime the schismatic Republicans had
united in protesting to the country against Congressional
dictation, at the same time pronouncing that the caucus which
had nominated Madison was irregularly held. This open letter
was signed by 17 Republican members of Congress. …
Unfortunately for their influence in the canvass, however,
they could not agree as to whether Monroe or Clinton should
head the ticket. Objectionable, moreover, as the Congressional
caucus might be, many more Presidential terms elapsed before
other nominating machinery superseded it. National delegates,
the national congress or convention of a party, was an idea
too huge as yet for American politics to grasp in these days
of plain frugality. … Harassed with foes within and without,
with dissensions among the friends of rival candidates for the
succession, with an odious and profitless measure to execute,
against which citizens employed both cunning and force, it
seemed, at one time, as if the administration party would go
down in the fall elections. But Jefferson's wonderful
popularity and the buoyancy of Republican principles carried
the day. The regular Presidential ticket prevailed, not
without a diminished majority."
_J. Schouler,
History of the United States,
chapter 6, section 2 (volume 2)._
James Madison, Democratic Republican, was elected, receiving
122 votes in the Electoral College; George Clinton, of the
same party, receiving 6, and Charles C. Pinckney, Federalist,
47. George Clinton was chosen Vice President.
{3338}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1808-1810.
Substitution of Non-intercourse for Embargo.
Delusive conduct of Napoleon.
"All through the year 1808 and the first two months of 1809,
the heavy hand of the embargo was laid on American commerce.
The close of Jefferson's administration was signalized by an
important change in the policy of the American Government.
Almost the last act which Jefferson performed as President was
to sign the new law which repealed the embargo, and
substituted non-intercourse—a law which instead of universal
prohibition of trade, merely prohibited commerce with Great
Britain and with the countries under French control. The
statute further authorized the President to suspend this
prohibition as to either Great Britain or France as soon as
one or the other should desist from violating neutral rights.
An excuse for renewing commercial relations was not long
delayed. On April 21, 1809, immediately upon the rather
unexpected conclusion of a liberal and satisfactory diplomatic
arrangement with Erskine, the British minister in Washington,
the non-intercourse act was suspended as to Great Britain; and
foreign trade, long dormant, suddenly sprang into excessive
activity. This happy truce was short-lived. Erskine had
effected his arrangement by a deliberate and almost defiant
disregard of Canning's instructions; and his acts were
promptly disavowed by his government. His recall was followed
by a renewal of non-intercourse under a presidential
proclamation of August 9, 1809. But notwithstanding the
disavowal of Erskine, the British Government had made an
apparent concession to the United States by the adoption of
new orders in council which revoked the stringent prohibitions
of the orders of 1807, and substituted a paper blockade of all
ports and places under the government of France—a distinction
which, on the whole, was perhaps without any important
difference. France, on the other hand, entered upon a course
of further aggressions. Louis Bonaparte was driven from his
kingdom of Holland because he refused to attack neutral
commerce, and all American ships found lying at Amsterdam were
seized. Finally, by the decree of Rambouillet, every American
ship found in any French port was confiscated and ordered
sold. England and the United States thus seemed for the moment
to be slowly drawing together in the presence of a common
enemy, when suddenly the whole situation of affairs was
changed by the formal announcement on August 5, 1810, of the
Emperor's intended revocation of the decrees of Berlin and
Milan, such revocation to take place on the first day of the
following November, provided the British Government revoked
their orders in council, or (and this was the important
provision) the United States caused their rights to be
respected. This promise, as Napoleon had privately pointed out
a few days before, committed him to nothing; but it was
accepted with all seriousness on the part of the United
States. In reliance upon the imperial word, commercial
intercourse with Great Britain—which had been once more
resumed in May, 1810—was for the third time suspended. This,
it was thought, was 'causing American rights to be respected';
and although the condemnation of American ships went on
without a pause in every continental port, the Government of
the United States clung with the strongest pertinacity to the
belief that Napoleon's declarations were sincere. The
practical effect of all this was to bar the door against any
possible settlement with Great Britain. Commerce was now
permanently suspended; there was a long list of grievances to
be redressed, and negotiation was exhausted."
_G. L. Rives, editor,
Selections from the Correspondence of Thomas Barclay,
chapter 6._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1810.
The Third Census.
Total population, 7,215,791 (being an increase of nearly 36½
per cent. over the population shown in 1800), classed and
distributed as follows:
North.
White. Free black. Slave.
Connecticut. 255,279 6,453 310
Illinois. 11,501 613 168
Indiana. 23,890 393 237
Maine. 227,736 969 0
Massachusetts. 465,303 6,737 0
Michigan. 4,618 120 24
New Hampshire. 213,390 970 0
New Jersey. 226,861 7,843 10,851
New York. 918,699 25,333 15,017
Ohio. 228,861 1,899 0
Pennsylvania. 786,804 22,492 795
Rhode Island. 73,314 3,609 108
Vermont. 216,963 750 0
------- ------ ------
Total 3,653,219 78,181 27,510
South.
White. Free black. Slave.
Delaware. 55,361 13,136 4,177
District of Columbia. 16,079 2,549 5,395
Georgia. 145,414 1,801 105,218
Kentucky. 324,237 1,713 80,561
Louisiana. 34,311 7,585 34,660
Maryland. 235,117 33,927 111,502
Mississippi. 23,024 240 17,088
Missouri. 17,227 607 3,011
North Carolina. 376,410 10,266 168,824
South Carolina. 214,196 4,554 196,365
Tennessee. 215,875 1,317 44,535
Virginia. 551,534 30,570 392,518
------- ------- -------
2,208,785 108,265 1,163,854
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1810-1812.
Continued provocation from England and France.
The "War of 1812" against Great Britain declared.
"Congress, on May 1, 1810, passed an act providing that
commercial non-intercourse with the belligerent powers should
cease with the end of the session, only armed ships being
excluded from American ports; and further, that, in case
either of them should recall its obnoxious orders or decrees,
the President should announce the fact by proclamation, and if
the other did not do the same within three months, the
non-intercourse act should be revived against that one,—a
measure adopted only because Congress, in its helplessness,
did not know what else to do. The conduct of France had
meanwhile been no less offensive than that of Great Britain.
On all sorts of pretexts American ships were seized in the
harbors and waters controlled by French power. A spirited
remonstrance on the part of Armstrong, the American Minister,
was answered by the issue of the Rambouillet Decree in May,
1810, ordering the sale of American vessels and cargoes
seized, and directing like confiscation of all American
vessels entering any ports under the control of France.
{3339}
This decree was designed to stop the surreptitious trade that
was still being carried on between England and the continent
in American bottoms. When it failed in accomplishing that end,
Napoleon instructed his Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Champagny, to inform the American Minister that the Berlin and
Milan Decrees were revoked, and would cease to have effect on
November 1, 1810, if the English would revoke their Orders in
Council, and recall their new principles of blockade, or if
the United States would 'cause their rights to be respected by
the English,'—in the first place restore the non-intercourse
act as to Great Britain. … The British government, being
notified of this by the American Minister, declared on
September 29 that Great Britain would recall the Orders in
Council when the revocation of the French decrees should have
actually taken effect, and the commerce of neutrals should
have been restored. … Madison, … leaning toward France, as was
traditional with the Republican party, and glad to grasp even
at the semblance of an advantage, chose to regard the
withdrawal of the Berlin and Milan Decrees as actual and done
in good faith, and announced it as a matter of fact on
November 1, 1810. French armed ships were no longer excluded
from American ports. On February 2, 1811, the non-importation
act was revived as to Great Britain. In May the British Court
of Admiralty delivered an opinion that no evidence existed of
the withdrawal of the Berlin and Milan Decrees, which resulted
in the condemnation of a number of American vessels and their
cargoes. Additional irritation was caused by the capture, off
Sandy Hook, of an American vessel bound to France, by some
fresh cases of search and impressment, and by an encounter
between the American frigate President and the British sloop
Little Belt, which fired into one another, the British vessel
suffering most. But was American commerce safe in French
ports? By no means. … Outrages on American ships by French
men-of-war and privateers went on as before, … The pretended
French concession was, therefore, a mere farce. Truly, there
were American grievances enough. Over 900 American ships had
been seized by the British, and more than 550 by the French. …
By both belligerents the United States had been kicked and
cuffed like a mere interloper among the nations of the earth,
who had no rights entitled to respectful consideration. Their
insolence seemed to have been increased by the irresolution of
the American government, the distraction of counsel in
Congress, and the division of sentiment among the people. …
But … young Republican leaders came to the front to interpret
the 'national spirit and expectation.' They totally eclipsed
the old chiefs by their dash and brilliancy. Foremost among
them stood Henry Clay; then John C. Calhoun, William Lowndes,
Felix Grundy, Langdon Cheves, and others. They believed that,
if the American Republic was to maintain anything like the
dignity of an independent power, and to preserve, or rather,
regain, the respect of mankind in any degree,—ay, its
self-respect,—it must cease to submit to humiliation and
contemptuous treatment; it must fight,—fight somebody who had
wronged or insulted it. The Republicans having always a tender
side for France, and the fiction of French concessions being
accepted, the theory of the war party was that, of the two
belligerents, England had more insolently maltreated the
United States. Rumors were spread that an Indian war then
going on, and resulting in the battle of Tippecanoe on
November 7, 1811, was owing to English intrigues. Adding this
to the old Revolutionary reminiscences of British oppression,
it was not unnatural that the national wrath should generally
turn against Great Britain. … Not only the regular army was
increased, but the President was authorized to accept and
employ 50,000 volunteers. Then a bill was introduced providing
for the building of ten new frigates. … The war spirit in the
country gradually rose, and manifested itself noisily in
public meetings, passing resolutions, and memorializing
Congress. It was increased in intensity by a sensational
'exposure,' a batch of papers laid before Congress by the
President in March, 1812. They had been sold to the government
by John Henry, an Irish adventurer, and disclosed a
confidential mission to New England, undertaken by Henry in
1809 at the request of Sir James Craig, the governor of
Canada, to encourage a disunion movement in the Eastern
States. This was the story. Whatever its foundation, it was
believed, and greatly increased popular excitement." On the
4th of April the President signed a bill laying an embargo on
commerce with Great Britain for ninety days. "All over the
country the embargo was understood as meaning an immediate
preparation for war. … In May, 1812, President Madison was
nominated for reelection by the congressional caucus. It has
been said that he was dragooned into the war policy by Clay
and his followers with the threat that, unless he yielded to
their views, another candidate for the presidency would be
chosen. This Clay denied, and there was no evidence to
discredit his denial. Madison was simply swept into the
current by the impetuosity of Young America. … On June 1 the
President's war message came. On June 18 a bill in accordance
with it, which had passed both Houses, was signed by the
President, who proclaimed hostilities the next day. Thus Young
America, led by Henry Clay, carried their point. But there was
something disquieting in their victory. The majority they
commanded in Congress was not so large as a majority for a
declaration of war should be. In the House, Pennsylvania and
the states south and west of it gave 62 votes for the war, and
32 against it; the states north and east of Pennsylvania gave
17 yeas and 32 nays,—in all 79 for and 49 against war. This
showed a difference of sentiment according to geographical
divisions. Not even all the Republicans were in favor of war.
… Nor were the United States in any sense well prepared for a
war with a first-class power."
_C. Schurz,
Life of Henry Clay,
volume 1, chapter 5._
ALSO IN:
_S. Perkins,
History of the Late War,
chapters 1-2._
_C. J. Ingersoll,
Historical Sketch of the Second War between
the United States and Great Britain,
volume 1, chapter 1._
_E. Quincy,
Life of Josiah Quincy,
chapters 9-12._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1811.
Refusal to re-charter the Bank of the United States.
See MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1791-1816.
{3340}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1811.
General Harrison's campaign against Tecumseh and his league.
The Battle of Tippecanoe.
"During the interval between the Tripolitan war and the war of
1812, one noticeable campaign was made against the Indians.
The operation took place in 1811, under General William H.
Harrison, governor of Indiana Territory, and was directed
against the Shawnees and other tribes which adhered to
Tecumseh. This chief, with his brother, known as 'the
Prophet,' had been engaged since 1806 in planning a species of
crusade against the whites, and had acquired great influence
among the northwestern Indians. For the previous two years
Harrison's suspicions had been aroused by reports of
Tecumseh's intrigues, and attempts had been made from time to
time to negotiate with him, but without satisfactory results.
In the summer of 1811 it was decided to strike a decisive blow
at the Indians, and in the autumn Harrison, with a regiment of
regulars under Colonel Boyd, and a force of militia, marched
upon Tecumseh's town, situated on the Tippecanoe River. On the
7th of November the Indians, in Tecumseh's absence, attempted
to surprise Harrison's camp, but in the battle which followed
they were driven off, and presently abandoned their town,
which Harrison burned. The invading force then retired. The
importance of the expedition was largely due to the military
reputation which Harrison acquired by it."
_J. R. Soley,
The Wars of the United States
(Narrative and Critical History of the United States,
volume 7, chapter 6)._
ALSO IN:
_American State Papers: Indian Affairs,
volume 1, page 776._
_E. Eggleston and L. E. Seelye,
Tecumseh,
chapters 12-23._
_H. Adams,
History of the United States:
First Administration of Madison,
volume 2, chapters 4-5._
_J. B. Dillon,
History of Indiana,
chapters 35-38._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1812 (April).
Admission of Louisiana into the Union.
See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1812.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1812 (June-October).
Rioting at Baltimore.
The opening of the war and the unreadiness of the nation for it.
Hull's disastrous campaign and surrender, at Detroit.
"It was perhaps characteristic of the conduct of the war, that
the first blood spilled should be American blood, shed by
Americans. … In the night of June 22d, three days after the
proclamation of war, a mob in Baltimore sacked the office of
the 'Federal Republican,' edited by Alexander Hanson, because
he had opposed the war policy. The mob also attacked the
residences of several prominent Federalists, and burned one of
them. Vessels in the harbor, too, were visited and plundered.
About a month later Hanson resumed the publication of his
paper, and in the night of July 26th the mob gathered again."
This time they were resisted and one was killed; whereupon the
authorities seized Hanson and his friends and lodged them in
jail. "The rioters, thus encouraged by those whose business it
was to punish them, attacked the jail the next night, murdered
General Lingan [one of Hanson's defenders], injured General
[Henry] Lee so that he was a cripple for the rest of his life,
and beat several of the other victims and subjected them to
torture. The leaders of the mob were brought to trial, but
were acquitted! In this state of affairs, the war party in the
country being but little stronger than the peace party, the
youngest and almost the weakest of civilized nations went to
war with one of the oldest and most powerful. The regular army
of the United States numbered only 6,000 men; but Congress had
passed an act authorizing its increase to 25,000, and in
addition to this the President was empowered to call for
50,000 volunteers, and to use the militia to the extent of
100,000. Henry Dearborn, of Massachusetts, was made a
major-general and appointed to command the land forces.
Against the thousand vessels and 144,000 sailors of the
British navy, the Americans had 20 war-ships and a few
gunboats, the whole carrying about 300 guns. But these
figures, taken alone, are deceptive; since a very large part
of the British force was engaged in the European wars, and the
practical question was, what force the United States could
bring against so much as England could spare for operations on
the high seas and on this side of the Atlantic. In that
comparison, the discrepancy was not so great, and the United
States had an enormous element of strength in her fine
merchant marine. Her commerce being temporarily suspended to a
large degree, there was an abundance both of ships and
sailors, from which to build up a navy and fit out a fleet of
privateers. Indeed, privateering was the business that now
offered the largest prizes to mariners and ship-owners. … War
with Great Britain being determined upon, the plan of campaign
that first and most strongly presented itself to the
Administration was the conquest of the British provinces on
our northern border. … In planning for the invasion of Canada,
the Administration counted largely upon a supposed readiness
of the Canadians to throw off their allegiance to Great
Britain and join with the United States. Such expectations
have almost never been realized, and in this instance they
were completely disappointed. In the preceding February,
William Hull, Governor of the Territory of Michigan, who had
rendered distinguished service in the Revolution, had been
made a brigadier-general and placed in command of the forces
in Ohio, with orders to march them to Detroit, to protect the
Territory against the Indians, who were becoming troublesome.
In June he was in command of about 2,000 men, in northern
Ohio, moving slowly through the wilderness. On the day when
war was declared, June 18th, the Secretary of War wrote him
two letters. The first, in which the declaration was not
mentioned, was despatched by a special messenger, and reached
General Hull on the 24th. The other informed him of the
declaration of war, but was sent by mail to Cleveland, there
to take its chance of reaching the General by whatever
conveyance might be found. The consequence was, that he did
not receive it till the 2d of July. But every British
commander in Canada learned the news several days earlier.
Hull arrived at Detroit on the 5th of July and set about
organizing his forces. On the 9th he received from the War
Department orders to begin the invasion of Canada by taking
possession of Malden, 15 miles below Detroit, on the other
side of the river, if he thought he could do so with safety to
his own posts. He crossed on the 12th, and issued a
proclamation to the Canadians." He found the enemy too
strongly fortified at Malden to be prudently assaulted with
raw troops and without artillery. "So it was decided to defer
the attack, and in a few days came the news that, on the
declaration of war, a force of over 600—British and
Indians—had promptly moved against the American post at
Michilimackinac—on the rocky little island of Mackinaw,
commanding the strait between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan—and
the garrison of 61 officers and men capitulated on the 16th of
July.
{3341}
This disaster to the Americans roused the Indians to renewed
hostility against them, while it proportionately disheartened
Hull, and seems to have been the first step in the breaking
down of his courage. After a few skirmishes, he recrossed to
Detroit on the 7th of August. Meanwhile the British Colonel
Proctor had arrived at Malden with reënforcements, and on
Hull's withdrawal to Detroit he threw a force across the river
to intercept his supplies. This force consisted of a small
number of British regulars and a considerable number of
Indians commanded by the famous Tecumseh." Two considerable
engagements occurred between this force and detachments sent
out to meet an expected supply train. In the first, the
Americans were badly beaten; in the second, they drove the
enemy to their boats with heavy loss; but the supply train was
not secured. "During this gloomy state of things at Detroit, a
bloody affair took place on ground that is now within the city
of Chicago. Fort Dearborn stood at the mouth of Chicago River,
and was occupied by a garrison of about 50 soldiers, with
several families. Captain Nathan Heald, commanding the post,
had been ordered by General Hull to abandon it and remove his
force to Detroit. "To conciliate the neighboring Indians who
professed friendliness, he promised to give them all the
property in the fort which he could not carry; but before
making the delivery to them he foolishly destroyed all the
arms, the gunpowder and the liquors. Enraged by this
proceeding, which they considered a trick, the savages pursued
Captain Heald's small party, waylaid them among the Sand-hills
on the lake shore, and massacred the greater part, twelve
children included. The scalps which they took were sold to
Colonel Proctor, "who had offered a premium for American
scalps." The same day on which this occurred, August 15th,
"the British General Isaac Brock, who had arrived at Malden a
few days before and assumed command there, formally demanded
the surrender of Detroit. This demand included a plain threat
of massacre in case of refusal. Said Brock in his letter: 'It
is far from my intention to join in a war of extermination;
but you must be aware that the numerous bodies of Indians who
have attached themselves to my troops will be beyond my
control the moment the contest commences.' … Brock's force,
according to his own testimony, numbered 1,330 men, including
600 Indians, and he had also two ships of war. Hull had
present for duty about 1,000 men. Brock sent a large body of
Indians across the river that night, at a point five miles
below the fort, and early in the morning crossed with the
remainder of his troops, and at once marched on the place." On
the approach of the attacking force Hull offered to surrender.
"The articles of capitulation were drawn up, and the American
general surrendered, not merely the fort and its garrison, but
the whole Territory of Michigan, of which he was Governor. …
Hull's officers were incensed at his action, and he was
subsequently court-martialled, convicted of cowardice, and
condemned to death; but the President pardoned him, in
consideration of his age and his services in the Revolution. …
Subsequent investigations, if they do not exonerate General
Hull, have at least greatly modified the blame attached to
him."
_R. Johnson,
History of the War of 1812-15,
chapter 2._
ALSO IN:
_J. F. Clarke,
History of the Campaign of 1812 and
Surrender of the Post at Detroit._
_B. J. Lossing,
Hull's Surrender
(Potter's American Monthly, August, 1875)._
_F. S. Drake,
Memorials of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati,
pages 341-354._
_S. C. Clark,
Hull's Surrender at Detroit
(Magazine of American History, volume 27)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1812.
The opposition of the Federalists to the war.
"Unfortunately for the Federalists, while they were wholly
right in many of their criticisms on the manner in which the
war came about, they put themselves in the wrong as to its
main feature. We can now see that in their just wrath against
Napoleon they would have let the nation remain in a position
of perpetual childhood and subordination before England. No
doubt there were various points at issue in the impending
contest, but the most important one, and the only one that
remained in dispute all through the war, was that of the right
of search and impressment. … It must be understood that this
was not a question of reclaiming deserters from the British
navy, for the seamen in question had very rarely belonged to
it. There existed in England at that time an outrage on
civilization, now abandoned, called impressment, by which any
sailor and many who were not sailors could be seized and
compelled to serve in the navy. The horrors of the
'press-gang,' as exhibited in the sea-side towns of England,
have formed the theme of many novels. It was bad enough at
home, but when applied on board the vessels of a nation with
which England was at peace, it became one of those outrages
which only proceed from the strong to the weak, and are never
reciprocated. Lord Collingwood said well, in one of his
letters, that England would not submit to such an aggression
for an hour. Merely to yield to visitation for such a purpose
was a confession of national weakness; but the actual case was
far worse than this. … We have … Cobbett's statement of the
consequences. 'Great numbers of Americans have been
impressed,' he adds, 'and are now in our navy. … That many of
these men have died on board our ships, that many have been
worn out in the service, there is no doubt.' … In 1806 the
merchants of Boston had called upon the general government to
'assert our rights and support the dignity of the United
States.' … Yet it shows the height of party feeling that when,
in 1812, Mr. Madison's government finally went to war for
these very rights, the measure met with the bitterest
opposition from the whole Federalist party, and from the
commercial States generally. A good type of the Federalist
opposition on this particular point is to be found in the
pamphlets of John Lowell. John Lowell was the son of the
eminent Massachusetts judge of that name; he was a
well-educated lawyer, who was president of the Massachusetts
Agricultural Society, and wrote under the name of 'A New
England Farmer.' In spite of the protests offered half a dozen
years before by his own neighbors, he declared the whole
outcry against impressment to be a device of Mr. Madison's
party. … He argued unflinchingly for the English right of
search, called it a 'consecrated' right, maintained that the
allegiance of British subjects was perpetual, and that no
residence in a foreign country could absolve them. …
{3342}
While such a man, with a large party behind him, took this
position, it must simply be said that the American republic
had not yet asserted itself to be a nation. Soon after the
Revolution, when some one spoke of that contest to Franklin as
the war for independence, he said, 'Say rather the war of the
Revolution; the war for independence is yet to be fought.' The
war of 1812 was just the contest he described. To this
excitement directed against the war, the pulpit very largely
contributed, the chief lever applied by the Federalist clergy
being found in the atrocities of Napoleon. … The Federalist
leaders took distinctly the ground that they should refuse to
obey a conscription law to raise troops for the conquest of
Canada; and when that very questionable measure failed by one
vote in the Senate, the nation may have escaped a serious
outbreak. … It might, indeed, have been far more dangerous
than the Hartford Convention of 1814 [see UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA: A. D. 1814 (DECEMBER)], which was, after all, only a
peaceable meeting of some two dozen men, with George Cabot at
their head—men of whom very few had even a covert purpose of
dissolving the Union, but who were driven to something very
near desperation by the prostration of their commerce and the
defencelessness of their coast."
_T. W. Higginson,
Larger History of the United States,
chapter 15._
ALSO IN:
_H. von Holst,
Constitutional and Political History of the United States,
volume 1, chapter 6._
_H. C. Lodge,
Life and Letters of George Cabot,
chapters 11-12._
_E. Quincy,
Life of Josiah Quincy,
chapters 11-14._
See, also, BLUE-LIGHT FEDERALISTS.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1812 (September-November).
The opening of the war on the New York frontier.
The Battle of Queenstown Heights.
"To put Dearborn [who commanded in the northern department] in
a condition to act with effect, Governor Tompkins [of the
state of New York] made the greatest efforts to get out the
New York quota of militia. The Democratic Legislature of
Vermont voted to add to the pay of their militia in service as
much as was paid by the United States. At the same time they
passed a stringent drafting law, and offered $30 bounty to
volunteers. By the co-operating exertions of these states and
of the war department, some 3,000 regulars and 2,000 militia
were presently assembled on Lake Champlain, under Dearborn's
immediate command. Another force of 2,000 militia was
stationed at different points along the south bank of the St.
Lawrence, their left resting on Sackett's Harbor. A third army
was collected along the Niagara River, from Fort Niagara to
Buffalo, then a village of a thousand or two inhabitants, in
the midst of a newly-settled district. This latter force of
nearly 6,000 men, half regulars and volunteers and half
militia, was under the immediate command of Major-general Van
Rensselaer, a Federalist. … The first skirmishes on the New
York frontier grew out of attempts, not unsuccessful, made
principally from Ogdensburg, a new but much the largest
village on the American side of the St. Lawrence, to intercept
the British supplies proceeding upward in boats. The militia
officer in command at Ogdensburg was General Jacob Brown. A
Pennsylvanian by birth, a Quaker by education, while employed
as a teacher in the city of New York, some newspaper essays of
his had attracted the attention of Alexander Hamilton, to
whom, during the quasi war of '98, he became military
secretary. Removing afterward to the new settlements of
Northwestern New York, his enterprise had founded the
flourishing village of Brownsville, not far from Sackett's
Harbor. … His success in repulsing a British force of 700 men,
which attempted to cross from Prescott to attack Ogdensburg,
laid the foundation of a military reputation which soon placed
him at the head of the American army. There had been built on
Lake Ontario, out of the gun-boat appropriations, but by a
fortunate improvement upon Jefferson's model, a sloop of war
of light draft, mounting 16 guns. This vessel, called the
Oneida, just before the breaking out of the war had been
furnished with a regular-bred commander and crew. She was
attacked shortly after at Sackett's Harbor by five British
vessels, three of them larger than herself, but manned only by
lake watermen. By landing part of her guns, and establishing a
battery on shore, she succeeded, however, in beating them off.
Hull's failure having shown how important was the control of
the lakes, a judicious selection was made of Captain Chauncey,
hitherto at the head of the New York Navy Yard, to take
command on those waters. Along with Henry Eckford as naval
constructor, and soon followed by ship-carpenters, naval
stores, guns, and presently by parties of seamen, he was sent
to Sackett's Harbor [September, 1812], then held by a garrison
of 200 regulars. That newly-settled region could supply
nothing but timber; every thing else had to be transported
from Albany at vast expense. … A 24-gun ship was at once
commenced; for immediate use, Chauncey purchased six of the
small schooners employed in the then infant commerce of the
lake, which, though very ill adapted for war, he armed with
four guns each. With these and the Oneida he put out on the
lake, and soon [November 8] drove the British ships into
Kingston. … While thus employed, Chauncey had sent Lieutenant
Elliot to Buffalo, with a party of seamen, to make
arrangements for a force on the upper lakes. Elliot, soon
after his arrival, succeeded in cutting out [October 9] from
under the guns of Fort Erie, nearly Opposite Buffalo, two
British vessels just arrived from Detroit. One, the late
Adams, which the British had armed and equipped, grounded, and
it became necessary to destroy her. The other, the Caledonia,
of two guns, was brought off, and became the nucleus of the
naval force of Lake Erie. Elliot also purchased several small
schooners lying in the Niagara River; but they, as well as the
Caledonia, lay blockaded at Black Rock [now a part of the city
of Buffalo], the passage into the lake being commanded by the
guns of Fort Erie. The troops along the Niagara frontier,
highly excited by Elliot's exploit, demanded to be led against
the enemy; and, under the idea that the British village of
Queenstown, at the foot of the falls [a few miles below] might
furnish comfortable winter quarters for a part of his troops,
Van Rensselaer resolved to attack it."
_R. Hildreth,
History of the United States,
2d series, chapter 25 (volume 3)._
{3343}
The Niagara River, 35 miles long, which conducts the waters of
the upper lakes through Erie into Ontario, constituted an
important military frontier in such a war; its banks sparsely
settled, and the crossing a narrow one. Below the roaring
cataracts had assembled another little army, supplied in great
measure by regiments of the New York quota, Major-General Van
Rensselaer, of the militia of that State, a prominent
Federalist, being in command. Hull's sudden surrender left
Brock free to confront this second adversary with a moderate
force from the Canada side, not without feeling uncertain as
to where the American blow would be struck. By October Van
Rensselaer had 6,000 men, half of them regulars; and, yielding
to the impatience of his volunteers and the public press, he
gave orders to cross the river from Lewiston to Queenston.
High bluffs arose on either side. There were not boats enough
provided to carry more than half the advance party at a time.
Too much reliance was placed upon militia, while regulars won
the laurels. Wool, a young captain, and Lieutenant-Colonel
Scott did gallant work on Queenston Heights; and General
Brock, the conqueror of Detroit, fell mortally wounded; but
reinforcements crossed too slowly, and with the green militia
dreading death, many of the reserve pleading legal exemption
from service in an enemy's country, their deserted comrades on
the Canada side, unable to return, were forced to surrender.
Van Rensselaer, whose advance had been premature, resigned in
disgust, leaving a less capable but more pretentious officer,
of Virginia birth, General Alexander Smyth, to succeed him.
Smyth had a gift of windy composition, which fortunately,
imposed upon the inhabitants of Western New York just long
enough to check despondency and restore a glow to the
recruiting service. 'Come on, my heroes,' was his cry, 'and
when you attack the enemy's batteries, let your rallying word
be: "The cannon lost at Detroit, or death!". All this inkshed
promised an exploit for invading Canada from the upper end of
the Niagara, between Fort Erie and Chippewa. By the 27th of
November Smyth had concentrated at Black Rock, near Buffalo, a
fair army, 4,500 troops, comprising, in addition to the
regulars, volunteer regiments from Maryland, Pennsylvania, and
New York; the last under the command of General Porter, the
representative in Congress, whose report, twelve months
before, had given the first loud note of war. The big moment
approached; but, notwithstanding the sonorous promise of
'memorable to-morrows,' and an embarkation to the music of
'Yankee Doodle,' one or two shivering attempts were made to
land on the opposite shore, and then the volunteers were
dismissed to their homes, and regulars ordered into
winter-quarters. Disorderly scenes ensued. Our insubordinate
and mortified soldiers discharged their muskets in all
directions. Porter having openly charged Smyth with cowardice,
the two crossed to Grand Island to fight a duel, and then
shook hands. … But the country could not be reconciled to such
generalship, and Smyth was presently cashiered."
_J. Schouler,
History of the United States,
volume 2, chapter 8, section 2._
ALSO IN:
_S. Van Rensselaer,
Narrative of the Affair of Queenstown._
_J. Symons,
The Battle of Queenstown Heights._
_General W. Scott,
Memoirs, by himself,
volume 1, chapter 6._
_W. H. Merritt,
Journal during the War of 1812._
_H. Adams,
History of the United States:
First Administration of Madison,
volume 2, chapter 16._
_F. B. Tupper,
Life and Correspondence of Major-General Sir Isaac Brock,
chapters 13-14._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1812.
Seventh Presidential Election.
James Madison was re-elected, receiving in the electoral
college 128 votes, against 89 cast for DeWitt Clinton,
Federalist. Elbridge Gerry was elected Vice President.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1812-1813.
Possession of West Florida taken from the Spaniards.
See FLORIDA: A. D. 1810-1813.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1812-1813.
Indifference to the Navy at the beginning of the war.
Its Efficiency and its Early Successes.
"The young leaders of the war party in congress looked to
successes on land and territorial conquest, and had an
indifference to the field which the ocean afforded. And yet
the triumphs of our young fleet in the Revolution, the alarm
which John Paul Jones excited in English homes, and, later,
the brilliant achievements in the Mediterranean, the heroes of
which were still in the prime of their service, might have
inspired better counsel. Madison's cabinet were said to have
without exception opposed the increase and use of our navy;
indeed, somewhat after Jefferson's idea in imposing the
embargo—to save our vessels by laying them up. The advice of
Captains Charles Stewart and William Bainbridge, who happened
to be in Washington at the time of the declaration of war,
determined Madison to bring the navy into active service. One
of the chief causes of the war being the impressment of our
seamen, it seems to-day surprising that their ardor in defense
of 'Free Trade and Sailors' Rights,'—the cry under which our
greatest triumphs were won—should have been either passed by
or deprecated."
_J. A. Stevens,
Second War with Great Britain
(Magazine of American History, May-June, 1893)._
"Although [the American navy] had never been regarded by the
government with favor, it happened that the three most
essential measures had been adopted to secure its efficiency,—
the ships built for it were the best of their class in the
world, the officers had been carefully selected (200 out of a
total of 500 having been retained under the Peace
Establishment Act), and they had received—at least a large
number of them—in Preble's squadron at Tripoli a training such
as had fallen to the lot of few navies, either before or
since. To these three causes the successes of 1812 were
directly due; and although Commodore Preble died in 1807, the
credit of the later war belongs more to him than to any other
one man. It was not only that he formed many of the individual
officers who won the victories of 1812-15,—for Hull, Decatur,
Bainbridge, Macdonough, Porter, Lawrence, Biddle, Chauncey,
Warrington, Charles Morris, and Stewart were all in his
squadron,—but he created in the navy the professional spirit
or idea, which was the main quality that distinguished it from
the army in the war with Great Britain. At the outbreak of the
war there were 18 vessels in the navy, ranging from 44-gun
frigates to 12-gun brigs. There were also 176 gunboats, on
which a large sum of money had been expended, but which were
of no use whatever. … Immediately after the declaration of
war, the frigates in commission in the home ports, together
with two of the sloops, put to sea as a squadron under
Commodore John Rodgers. They fell in with the English frigate
'Belvidera,' but she got away from them; and after an
ineffectual cruise across the Atlantic, they returned home,
without meeting anything of consequence.
{3344}
Three weeks later, the 'Constitution,' under Captain Hull,
sailed from Annapolis. Soon after leaving the Chesapeake she
came upon a British squadron of one sixty-four and four
frigates, and then ensued the famous three days' chase, in the
course of which, by a marvel of good seamanship and good
discipline, the American frigate escaped. After a short
respite in Boston, Hull set out again, and on the 19th of
August he fought and captured the 'Guerrière,' Captain Dacres,
in an engagement lasting about an hour. The 'Constitution,'
being armed with 24-pounders instead of 18's, threw at a
broadside a weight of shot half as large again as that of the
'Guerrière,' and her crew was numerically superior in a still
greater degree. Nevertheless, the immensely greater
disproportion in the casualties which the 'Constitution'
inflicted and received, and the short time which she took to
do the work, cannot be explained by the difference in force
alone; for the 'Guerrière' had five times as many killed and
wounded as her opponent, and at the close of the engagement
she was a dismasted wreck, while the 'Constitution' had
suffered no injury of importance. The essential point of
difference lay in the practical training and skill of the
crews in gunnery. … In the next action, in October, the sloop
'Wasp,' Captain Jacob Jones, captured the English brig
'Frolic,' of approximately the same force. The relative loss
of English and Americans was again five to one. Both vessels
were soon after taken by a seventy-four. Later in the same
month, another frigate action took place, the 'United States,'
under Decatur, capturing the 'Macedonian.' The advantage of
the Americans in men was about the same as in the first
action, while in guns it was greater. The American casualties
were 13, the English 104. This difference was not due to the
fact that the American guns were 24's and 42's, instead of
18's and 32's, or that the Americans had three more of them in
a broadside; it was really due to the way in which the guns on
both sides were handled. Shortly after this capture, a cruise
in the Pacific was projected for a squadron to be composed of
the 'Constitution,' 'Essex,' and 'Hornet.' The 'Essex' failed
to meet the other vessels at the rendezvous off the coast of
Brazil, and went on the Pacific cruise alone [having great
success]. The 'Constitution,' now commanded by Bainbridge, met
the frigate 'Java,' near Brazil, on the 29th of December. The
antagonists were more nearly matched than in the previous
frigate actions, but the fight, lasting a little over an hour,
resulted in the total defeat and surrender of the 'Java,' with
a loss of 124 to the Americans' 34. The 'Java' was a wreck,
and could not be taken into port, and Bainbridge returned
home. Two months later, February 24, 1813, the 'Hornet,'
commanded by Lawrence, met the 'Peacock' off the Demerara, and
reduced her in fifteen minutes to a sinking condition, while
the 'Hornet's' hull was hardly scratched. The English sloop
sank so quickly that she carried down part of her own crew and
three of the 'Hornet's' who were trying to save them. The
casualties, apart from those drowned, were 5 in the 'Hornet'
and 38 in the 'Peacock.' … The moral effect in England of
these defeats was very great. … In March, 1813, Admiral Sir
John Warren assumed the command of the British squadron on the
American coast. Although rather past his prime, his defects
were more than compensated by the activity of his second in
command, Rear-Admiral Cockburn, who during this summer and the
next kept the coasts of Chesapeake Bay in a continuous state
of alarm by successful raids, in which much valuable property
was destroyed. Among the more important of the actions of 1813
were the capture and destruction (in part) of Havre de Grace,
Md., early in May, and an attack on the village of Hampton,
Va., on the 25th of June. 'Acts of rapine and violence' on the
part of the invading forces characterized the latter attack,
which excited intense indignation throughout the country. … In
the summer of 1813 occurred the first serious reverse of the
navy during the war. On the 1st of June the frigate
'Chesapeake,' Captain James Lawrence, sailed from Boston to
engage the 'Shannon,' which was lying outside, waiting for the
battle. The two ships were nearly matched in guns and men,
what slight difference there was being in favor of the
'Chesapeake'; but the crew of the latter had been recently
shipped and was partly composed of disaffected men, and
Lawrence had had no time to discipline them. The engagement
was short and decisive. Ranging up alongside of the 'Shannon,'
whose crew had been brought to the highest state of efficiency
by Captain Broke their commander, the 'Chesapeake' at the
first fire received a severe injury in the loss of several of
her officers. Falling foul of the 'Shannon' she was
effectually raked, and presently a boarding party, led by
Captain Broke, got possession of her deck. The great mortality
among the officers [including Captain Lawrence, who had
received a mortal wound just before his ship was boarded, and
whose dying appeal, 'Don't give up the ship,' became the
battle cry of the American navy during the remainder of the
war], and the want of discipline in the crew, resulted in a
victory for the boarders. The battle lasted fifteen minutes
only, and the 'Chesapeake' was carried as a prize to Halifax.
During this summer the naval war on the ocean continued with
varying fortunes, two important actions being fought. The brig
'Argus,' Captain Allen, after a successful voyage in the Irish
Sea, in which many prizes were taken and destroyed, was
captured by the English brig 'Pelican,' on the 14th of August.
Early in September the brig 'Enterprise,' commanded by
Lieutenant Burrows, captured the English brig 'Boxer,' near
Portland, Me."
_J. R. Soley,
The Wars of the United States
(Narrative and Critical History of the United States,
volume 7, chapter 6)._
ALSO IN:
_T. Roosevelt,
The Naval War of 1812,
chapters 2-5._
_J. F. Cooper,
History of the Navy of the United States,
volume 2, chapters 9-22._
_A. S. Mackenzie,
Life of Decatur,
chapters 10-12._
_D. D. Porter,
Memoirs of Commander David Porter._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1812-1813.
Harrison's northwestern campaign.
Winchester's defeat.
Perry's naval victory on Lake Erie.
The Battle of the Thames and death of Tecumseh.
Recovery of Detroit and Michigan.
"Great was the indignation of the West, great the
mortification of our whole people, on learning that, instead
of capturing Upper Canada at the first blow, we had lost our
whole Michigan Territory. The task now was to retake Detroit
under a competent commander. Ohio and Kentucky went on filling
rapidly their quotas, while urging the administration to march
them under Harrison.
{3345}
The President hesitated, doubtful whether Harrison was a man
of sufficient military experience. He proposed that Monroe
should go to the scene, as a volunteer, if not to command; but
Monroe restrained his first military ardor, as was prudent,
and Winchester, of Tennessee, another of the recent
brigadiers, and a revolutionary veteran, was selected. The
selection, however, gave umbrage to the Kentuckians, whose
State government had already made Harrison a brevet
major-general of militia. The hero of Tippecanoe was finally
assigned to the chief command of the Western army, Madison
countermanding his first orders. Harrison's route for Detroit
was by way of Fort Wayne and Fort Defiance to the falls of the
Maumee. But it was late in the fall [October 1812] before the
new military arrangements could be completed; and through a
swampy wilderness, infested as it was with hostile Indians,
the progress of the column was toilsome and discouraging; and,
except for the destruction of a few Indian villages on the
way, the deeds of prowess were reserved for a winter campaign.
… The winter expedition of the Northwest army … [was] retarded
by a disaster which overtook Winchester's command near the
Maumee Rapids, at a little village on the River Raisin. By
Harrison's orders Winchester had started for these Rapids,
whence, having first concentrated troops as if for winter
quarters, the design was that he should advance 50 miles
farther, when weather permitted, cross the frozen Detroit, and
fall suddenly upon Malden. Winchester not only pushed on
incautiously to his first destination, but, with a design more
humane than prudent, undertook to protect against a British
and Indian raid the alarmed inhabitants of Frenchtown [now
Monroe, Michigan], a place 30 miles nearer Malden. Here
[January 22, 1813] he was overpowered by the enemy, which fell
upon the American force suddenly at daybreak, with yells and a
shower of bomb-shells and canister. Winchester having been
taken prisoner, Colonel Proctor, the British commander,
extorted from him the unconditional surrender of all his
troops, some 700 in number, as the only means of saving them
from the tomahawk and scalping-knife. … Our sick and wounded …
the British commander shamefully abandoned to their fate. …
Officers and men, many of them the flower of Kentucky,
perished victims to barbarities … abhorrent to civilized
warfare, of which the British Colonel Proctor and Captain
Elliott were not innocent. Besides the American loss in
prisoners at the sad affair of the Raisin, nearly 200 were
killed and missing. Hearing at the Upper Sandusky of
Winchester's intended movement, Harrison had pressed to his
relief with reinforcements, but fugitives from Frenchtown
brought the melancholy tidings of disaster; and Harrison fell
back to the Rapids, there to strengthen the post known as Fort
Meigs, and go into winter quarters. The terms of many of his
troops having now expired, the Northwestern army was for many
months too feeble to begin a forward movement. But Harrison
possessed the unabated confidence of the West, and, promoted
to be one of the new major-generals, he received, through the
zealous co-operation of Ohio and Kentucky, whose people were
inflamed to take vengeance, enough volunteer reinforcements
[May] to relieve Fort Meigs [which was twice besieged in 1813
by British and Indians] from Proctor's investment in the
spring, and at length the quota requisite for resuming the
offensive; other frontier plans of the War Department having
long deranged his own in this quarter. The splendid
co-operation of an American flotilla on Lake Erie opened the
way to Detroit and victory. For that memorable service
Commodore Chauncey had detailed an aspiring young naval
officer, Captain Oliver H. Perry, of Rhode Island. Our little
Lake squadron was tediously constructed at Presqu' Isle (now
Erie). When all at last was ready [in August, 1813], Perry,
who had long chafed in spirit while the British fleet hovered
in sight like a hawk, sailed forth to dispute the supremacy of
the broad inland waters. His heavier vessels were floated over
the bar not without difficulty. After conferring at Sandusky
upon the combined plan of operations with General Harrison,
from whom he received a small detail of soldiers to act as
marines and supply vacancies in his crews, he offered battle
to Barclay, the British commander,—the latter a veteran in
naval experience, who had served under Nelson at Trafalgar.
Barclay had lain idly for several weeks at Malden, in hopes of
procuring additional sailors, purposely avoiding an action
meanwhile. But Proctor's army having now run short of
provisions, longer delay was inexpedient. At sunrise on
September 10th Perry descried the approaching British fleet
from his look-out, a group of islands off Sandusky. Ten miles
to the north of this locality, which was known as Put-in-bay,
the two squadrons at noon engaged one another,—Perry
approaching at an acute angle, and keeping the weather-gage,
while Barclay's vessels hove to in close order. In officers
and men the fleets were about equally matched; there were 6
British vessels to the American 9, but the former carried more
guns, and were greatly superior for action from a distance.
With 30 long guns to Perry's 15, Barclay had the decided
advantage at first, and our flag-ship, the Lawrence, exposed
to the heaviest of the British cannonade, became terribly
battered, her decks wet with carnage, her guns dismounted.
Undismayed by this catastrophe, Perry dropped into a little
boat with his broad pennant and banner, and crossed to his
next largest vessel, the Niagara, the target for 15 minutes of
a furious fire while being rowed over. Climbing the Niagara's
deck, and hoisting once more the emblems of commander, our
brave captain now pierced the enemy's line with his new
flag-ship, followed by his smaller vessels, and, gaining at
last that advantage of a close engagement which for nearly
three hours had eluded him, he won the fight in eight minutes.
The colors of the Detroit, Barclay's flag-ship, struck first,
three others followed the example, and two of the British
squadron attempting to escape were overtaken and brought back
triumphantly. 'We have met the enemy and they are ours,' was
Perry's laconic dispatch to Harrison, written in pencil on the
back of an old letter, with his navy-cap for a rest; 'two
ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop.' … Barclay lay
dangerously wounded, and his next in command died that
evening. … To Harrison's expectant army, augmented by 3,500
mounted Kentuckians, whom Governor Shelby led in person, the
word of advance was now given. …
{3346}
Perry's flotilla, aided by the captured vessels, presently
landed the American troops on the Canada side. Proctor had
already begun the retreat, having first dismantled the fort at
Malden and burned the barracks. Harrison pursued him beyond
Sandwich, covered by the flotilla, until near a Moravian town,
up the river Thames [some 30 miles east of Lake St. Clair],
the enemy was overtaken, with Tecumseh's braves. Here, upon
well-chosen ground, the British made a final stand [October
5], but at the first impetuous charge of our cavalry their
line broke, and only the Indians remained to engage in a
desperate hand-to-hand fight. Among the slain was the famous
Tecumseh, dispatched, as tradition asserts, by the pistol of
Colonel Johnson, a Kentucky officer prominent in the battle.
Proctor himself escaped in a carriage with a few followers,
incurring afterwards the royal reprimand. … The baleful
British and Indian alliance was broken up by these victories,
while Detroit, Michigan, and all that Hull had lost, and a
fair portion of Upper Canada besides, passed into American
control. Among American generals in this war Harrison enjoyed
the rare felicity of having fully accomplished his
undertaking."
_J. Schouler,
History of the United States,
chapter 8, section 2
and chapter 9, section 1 (volume 2)._
"The victory of Lake Erie was most important, both in its
material results and in its moral effect. It gave us complete
command of all the upper lakes, prevented any fears of
invasion from that quarter, increased our prestige with the
foe and our confidence in ourselves, and ensured the conquest
of Upper Canada; in all these respects its importance has not
been overrated. But the 'glory' acquired by it most certainly
has been estimated at more than its worth. … The simple truth
is, that, where on both sides the officers and men were
equally brave and skilful, the side which possessed the
superiority in force, in the proportion of three to two, could
not well help winning. … Though we had nine guns less, yet, at
a broadside, they threw half as much metal again as those of
our antagonist."
_T. Roosevelt,
The Naval War of 1812,
chapter 6._
ALSO IN:
_C. D. Yonge,
History of the British Navy,
chapter 36 (volume 3)._
_E. Eggleston and L. E. Seelye,
Tecumseh,
chapters 26-34._
_I. R. Jackson,
Life of W. H. Harrison,
chapters 7-9._
_B. J. Lossing,
Field Book of the War of 1812,
chapters 16-17, and 23-26._
_G. Bancroft,
History of the Battle of Lake Erie._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1813 (April-July).
The burning of Toronto.
The capture of Fort George.
"The American fleet on Lake Ontario had been increased, and in
1813 controlled the lake. General Sheaffe had succeeded Brock
as Governor as well as commander of the forces. Some 600
troops were in York [now Toronto], the capital. York had about
1,000 inhabitants, and was not regarded as of strategic
importance. The Americans, however, set sail from Sackett's
Harbour with 16 sail and 2,500 men to attack it. The enemy
landed [April 27] to the west of the town, and General Sheaffe
evacuated the works, and retired down the Kingston Road. The
Americans invested the town, and though skirmishing took
place, had an easy victory. The land force was under General
Pike, an officer well known as having, when a lieutenant,
explored the sources of the Mississippi. Just as the Americans
had well filled the fort, the powder-magazine exploded with
violence, killing and wounding about 250. General Pike, struck
in the breast by a flying stone, died soon after. The
Americans, contrary to the articles of surrender, shamefully
burnt the town, and retired from York on the 2nd of May, 1813.
While the squadron was absent, Sackett's Harbour was attacked
by a strong force. The garrison seemed to be on the point of
surrendering the fort, when Sir George Prevost, to the
surprise of all, ordered a retreat. Little York taken,
Commodore Chauncey then crossed the lake to Fort George at the
mouth of the Niagara River. General Vincent commanded the
fort. Twenty-four of Hull's guns frowned from its bastions.
Its defender had 1,340 men. The American army on the Niagara
frontier numbered 6,000. Chauncey had eleven war-vessels and
900 seamen. On the 27th of May the expected day came. Vincent
drew his men out about a mile from the fort and awaited the
attack. He was overpowered and retired, having lost nearly 450
soldiers. The Canadian force retired to a strong position,
'Beaver Dams,' twelve miles from Niagara on the heights,
having given up Fort Erie and Chippewa and blown up Fort
George. Vincent had now 1,600 men, and with these he retired
to Burlington Heights, near the present city of Hamilton. An
American army of 2,500 men followed General Vincent to Stoney
Creek. On the night of the 8th of June, Colonel Harvey of the
British force, with upwards of 750 men, fell stealthily on the
sleeping American army, scattered the troops, killed many,
captured the American generals Chandler and Winder, and about
100 men, along with guns and stores. The adventurers then
retired to their camp. The scattered American soldiers
reassembled in the morning and retired in a disorderly manner
down the country to Fort George. Vincent now followed the
retreating army and reoccupied Beaver Dams. One of his
outposts was held by Lieutenant Fitzgibbon and 30 men.
Smarting with defeat, the American general sought to surprise
this station as a basis for future attacks. He secretly
despatched Colonel Boerstler with nearly 700 men to capture
it. A wounded militiaman, living within the lines at
Queenston, heard by chance of the expedition. … The alarm was
given [by the militiaman's wife, who travelled 20 miles
through the forest, at night] and that night the men lay on
their arms. Early next morning the American party came, but an
ambuscade had been prepared for them, and after severe
fighting 542 men surrendered into the hands of some 260.
General Dearborn soon after retired from the command of the
American army, to be succeeded by General Boyd. British
parties captured Fort Schlosser and Black Rock on the Niagara
River at this time, though at the latter place with the loss
of Colonel Bishopp, the idol of his men. Colonel Scott, in
command of troops on board Commodore Chauncey's fleet, again
scoured Lake Ontario. Landing at Burlington Heights on the
31st of July, they did nothing more than reconnoitre the works
and depart. Afterwards the second attack on York was made and
the barracks burnt. After this a trial of strength took place
between Sir James Yeo's fleet, now sent forth from Kingston
Harbour, and Chauncey's squadron. The Americans lost two
vessels in a squall, and two were captured by the British, but
the result between the two fleets was indecisive."
_G. Bryce,
Short History of the Canadian People,
chapter 8, section 5._
_ALSO IN:
R. Johnson,
History of the War of 1812-1815,
chapter 7._
{3347}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1813 (October-November).
The abortive expedition against Montreal.
"While Perry and Harrison were … reclaiming our lost ground on
Lake Erie and in the northwest, Armstrong was preparing to
carry out his favorite plan of a descent on Kingston and
Montreal. When he accepted the post of Secretary of War, he
transferred his department from Washington to Sackett's
Harbor, so that he might superintend in person the progress of
the campaign. … Although Wilkinson had superseded Dearborn, as
commander-in-chief of this district in July, he did not issue
his first orders to the army till the 23d of August. … General
Wade Hampton, who had been recalled from the fifth military
district to the northern frontier, encamped with his army,
4,000 strong, at Plattsburg, on Lake Champlain. The plan
finally adopted by the Secretary was, to have Wilkinson drop
down the St. Lawrence, and without stopping to attack the
English posts on the river, form a junction with General
Hampton, when the two armies should march at once on Montreal.
These two Generals were both Revolutionary officers, and
consequently too advanced in years to carry such an expedition
through with vigor and activity. Besides, a hostile feeling
separated them, rendering each jealous of the other's command.
… Chauncey, In the mean time, after an action with Yeo, in
which both parties claimed the victory, forced his adversary
to take refuge in Burlington Bay. He then wrote to Wilkinson
that the lake was clear of the enemy, and reported himself
ready to transport the troops down the St. Lawrence. The
greatest expectations were formed of this expedition. The
people knew nothing of the quarrel between Wilkinson and
Hampton, and thought only of the strength of their united
force. … While Wilkinson was preparing to fulfill his part of
the campaign, Hampton made a bold push into Canada on his own
responsibility. Advancing from Plattsburg, he marched directly
for St. John, but finding water scarce for his draft cattle,
owing to a severe drought, he moved to the left, and next day
arrived at Chateaugay Four Corners, a few miles from the
Canada line. Here he was overtaken by an order from Armstrong,
commanding him to remain where he was, until the arrival of
Wilkinson. But jealous of his rival, and wishing to achieve a
victory in which the honor would not be divided, he resolved
to take upon himself the responsibility of advancing alone.
Several detachments of militia had augmented his force of
4,000, and he deemed himself sufficiently strong to attack
Prevost, who he was told had only about 2,000 ill assorted
troops under him. He therefore gave orders to march, and
cutting a road for 24 miles through the wilderness, after five
days great toil, reached the British position. Ignorant of its
weakness, he dispatched Colonel Purdy at night by a circuitous
route to gain the enemy's flank and rear and assail his works,
while he attacked them in front. Bewildered by the darkness,
and led astray by his guide, Colonel Purdy wandered through
the forest, entirely ignorant of the whereabouts of the enemy
or of his own. General Hampton, however, supposing that he had
succeeded in his attempt, ordered General Izard to advance
with the main body of the army, and as soon as firing was
heard in the rear to commence the attack in front. Izard
marched up his men and a skirmish ensued, when Colonel De
Salaberry, the British commander, who had but a handful of
regulars under him, ordered the bugles, which had been placed
at some distance apart on purpose to represent a large force,
to sound the charge. The ruse succeeded admirably, and a halt
was ordered. The bugles brought up the lost detachment of
Purdy, but suddenly assailed by a concealed body of militia,
his command was thrown into disorder and broke and fled.
Disconcerted by the defeat of Purdy, Hampton ordered a
retreat, without making any attempt to carry the British
intrenchments. … Hampton, defeated by the blasts of a few
bugles, took up his position again at the Four Corners, to
wait further news from Wilkinson's division. The latter having
concentrated his troops at Grenadier Island, embarked them
again the same day that Hampton advanced, against orders,
towards Montreal. Three hundred boats, covering the river for
miles, carried the infantry and artillery, while the cavalry,
500 strong, marched along the bank. … They were two weeks in
reaching the river. Wilkinson, who had been recalled from New
Orleans, to take charge of this expedition, was prostrated by
the lake fever, which, added to the infirmities of age,
rendered him wholly unfit for the position he occupied.
General Lewis, his second in command, was also sick. The
season was already far advanced—the autumnal storms had set
in earlier than usual—everything conspired to ensure defeat;
and around this wreck of a commander, tossed an army,
dispirited, disgusted, and doomed to disgrace. General Brown
led the advance of this army of invasion, as it started for
Montreal, 180 miles distant. … When it reached the head of the
long rapids at Hamilton, 20 miles below Ogdensburg, Wilkinson
ordered General Brown to advance by land and cover the passage
of the boats through the narrow defiles, where the enemy had
established block houses. In the mean time the cavalry had
crossed over to the Canadian side and, with 1,500 men under
General Boyd, been despatched against the enemy, which was
constantly harassing his rear. General Boyd, accompanied by
Generals Swartwout and Covington as volunteers, moved forward
in three columns. Colonel Ripley advancing with the 21st
Regiment, drove the enemy's sharp shooters from the woods, and
emerged on an open space, called Chrystler's Field, and
directly in front of two English regiments. Notwithstanding
the disparity of numbers this gallant officer ordered a
charge, which was executed with such firmness that the two
regiments retired. Rallying and making a stand, they were
again charged and driven back. … At length the British retired
to their camp and the Americans maintained their position on
the shore, so that the flotilla passed the Saut in safety.
This action [called the battle of Chrystler's Farm, or
Williamsburg] has never received the praise it deserves—the
disgraceful failure of the campaign having cast a shadow upon
it. The British, though inferior in numbers, had greatly the
advantage in having possession of a stone house in the midst
of the field. …
{3348}
Nearly one-fifth of the entire force engaged were killed or
wounded. … The army, however, still held its course for
Montreal. Young Scott, who had joined the expedition at
Ogdensburg, was 15 miles ahead, clearing, with a detachment of
less than 800 men, the river banks as he went. Montreal was
known to be feebly garrisoned, and Wilkinson had no doubt it
would fall an easy conquest. He therefore sent forward to
Hampton to join him at St. Regis, with provisions. Hampton, in
reply, said, that his men could bring no more provisions than
they wanted for their own use, and informed him, in short,
that he should not co-operate with him at all, but make the
best of his way back to Lake Champlain. On receiving this
astounding news, Wilkinson called a council of war, which
reprobated in strong terms the conduct of Hampton, and decided
that in consideration of his failure, and the lateness of the
season, the march should be suspended, and the army retire to
winter quarters. This was carried into effect, and Wilkinson
repaired to French Mills, on Salmon river, for the winter, and
Hampton to Plattsburg."
_J. T. Headley,
The Second War with England,
volume 1, chapter. 13._
ALSO IN:
_W. C. Bryant and S. H. Gay,
Popular History of the United States,
volume 4, chapter 8._
_S. Perkins,
History of the Late War,
chapter 12._
_J. Armstrong,
Notices of the War of 1812,
volume 2, chapter 1._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1813 (December).
Retaliatory devastation of the Niagara frontier.
Fort Niagara surprised.
The burning of Buffalo.
"The withdrawal of troops from the Niagara frontier to take
part in Wilkinson's expedition left the defence of that line
almost entirely to militia, and the term for which the militia
had been called out expired on the 9th of December. The next
day General George McClure, who had been left in command at
Fort George, found himself at the head of but 60 effective
men, while the British General Drummond had brought up to the
peninsula 400 troops and 70 Indians—released by the failure of
Wilkinson's expedition—and was preparing to attack him.
McClure thereupon determined to evacuate the fort, as the only
alternative from capture or destruction, and remove his men
and stores across the river to Fort Niagara. He also
determined to burn the village of Newark, that the enemy might
find no shelter. The laudable part of this plan was but
imperfectly carried out; he failed to destroy the barracks,
and left unharmed tents for 1,500 men, several pieces of
artillery, and a large quantity of ammunition, all of which
fell into the hands of Drummond's men. But the inexcusable
part—the burning of a village in midwinter, inhabited by
noncombatants who had been guilty of no special offence—was
only too faithfully executed. The inhabitants were given
twelve hours in which to remove their goods, and then the
torch was applied, and not a house was left standing. This
needless cruelty produced its natural result; Drummond
determined upon swift and ample retaliation. In the night of
December 18th, just one week after the burning of Newark, he
threw across the Niagara a force of 550 men. They landed at
Five Mile Meadows, three miles above Fort Niagara, and marched
upon it at once, arriving there at four o'clock in the
morning. McClure, who had received an intimation of the
enemy's intention to devastate the American frontier, had gone
to Buffalo to raise a force to oppose him. The garrison of the
fort consisted of about 450 men, a large number of whom were
in the hospital. The command had been left to a Captain
Leonard, who at this time was three miles away, sleeping at a
farm-house. The most elaborate preparations had been made for
the capture of the fort, including scaling-ladders for
mounting the bastions. But the Americans seemed to have
studied to make the task as easy as possible. The sentries
were seized and silenced before they could give any alarm, and
the main gate was found standing wide open, so that the
British had only to walk straight in and begin at once the
stabbing which had been determined upon. The guard in the
south-east block-house tired one volley, by which the British
commander, Colonel Murray, was wounded, and a portion of the
invalids made what resistance they could. A British lieutenant
and five men were killed, and a surgeon and three men wounded.
Sixty-five Americans, two-thirds of whom were invalids, were
bayoneted in their beds; 15 others, who had taken refuge in
the cellars, were despatched in the same manner, and 14 were
wounded; 20 escaped, and all the others, about 340, were made
prisoners. … On the same morning, General Riall, with a
detachment of British troops and 500 Indians, crossed from
Queenstown." Lewiston, Youngstown, Tuscarora and Manchester
(now Niagara Falls) were plundered and burned, and the houses
and barns of farmers along the river, within a belt of several
miles, were destroyed. "The bridge over Tonawanda Creek had
been destroyed by the Americans, and at this point the enemy
turned back, and soon recrossed the Niagara to the Canada
side. The alarm at Buffalo brought General Hall, of the New
York militia, to that village, where he arrived the day after
Christmas. He found collected there a body of 1,700 men, whom
it would have been gross flattery to call a 'force.' They were
poorly supplied with arms and cartridges, and had no
discipline and almost no organization. Another regiment of 300
soon joined them, but without adding much to their efficiency.
On the 28th of December, Drummond reconnoitred the American
camp, and determined to attack it; for which purpose he sent
over General Riall on the evening of the 29th with 1,450 men,
largely regulars, and a body of Indians. One detachment landed
two miles below Black Rock, crossed Canajokaties [or
Scajaquada] Creek in the face of a slight resistance, and took
possession of a battery. The remainder landed at a point
between Buffalo and Black Rock [two villages then, now united
in one city], under cover of a battery on the Canadian shore.
Poor as Hall's troops were, they stood long enough to fire
upon the invaders and inflict considerable loss. … Both sides
had artillery, with which the action was opened. As it
progressed, however, the American line was broken in the
centre, and Hall was compelled to fall back. His subsequent
attempts to rally his men were of no avail, and he himself
seems to have lost heart, as Lieutenant Riddle, who had about
80 regulars, offered to place them in front for the
encouragement of the militia to new exertion, but Hall
declined. … Both Buffalo and Black Rock were sacked and
burned, and no mercy was shown. With but two or three
exceptions, those of the inhabitants who were not able to run
away were massacred. …
{3349}
It is related that in Buffalo a widow named St. John 'had the
address to appease the ferocity of the enemy so far as to
remain in her house uninjured.' Her house and the stone jail
were the only buildings not laid in ashes. In Black Rock every
building was either burned or blown up, except one log house,
in which a few women and children had taken refuge. … Five
vessels lying at the wharves were also burned. In this
expedition the British lost 108 men, killed, wounded or
missing. More than 50 of the Americans were found dead on the
field. Truly, an abundant revenge had been taken for the
burning of Newark. … On New Year's day of 1814 the settlers
along the whole length of the Niagara—those of them who
survived—were shivering beside the smouldering embers of
their homes."
_R. Johnson,
History of the War of 1812-1815,
chapter 9._
ALSO IN:
_C. Johnson,
Centennial History of Erie County, New York,
chapters 24-25._
_W. Ketchum,
History of Buffalo,
volume 2, chapter 15._
_O. Turner,
Pioneer History of the Holland Purchase,
pages 589-606._
_W. Dorsheimer,
Buffalo during the war of 1812
(Buffalo Historical Society Publication, volume 1)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1813-1814.
British blockade of the Atlantic coast.
"The blockade of the Atlantic coast was enforced by British
vessels from the beginning of the year 1813. At first they
were inclined to spare the coast of New England, which they
supposed to be friendly to Great Britain, but this policy was
soon abandoned, and the whole coast was treated alike. Groups
of war-vessels were stationed before each of the principal
sea-ports, and others were continually in motion along the
coast, from Halifax on the north to the West Indies. Early in
1813, they took possession of the mouth of Chesapeake Bay as a
naval station, and the American Government ordered all the
lights to be put out in the neighboring light-houses. The
Atlantic coast was thus kept in a state of almost constant
alarm, for the British vessels were continually landing men at
exposed points to burn, plunder, and destroy. … In 1813, the
defenceless towns of Lewes, Havre de Grace, and Hampton (near
Fortress Monroe) were bombarded, and Stonington, Conn., in
1814; and a number of smaller towns were burned or plundered.
Attacks on New York and other larger cities were prevented
only by fear of torpedoes, by means of which the Americans had
nearly blown up one or two British ships which ventured too
near New York. … Maine, as far as the Penobscot River, was
seized by the British in 1814, and was held until the end of
the war."
_A. Johnston,
History of the United States for Schools,
sections 384-386._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1813-1814 (August-April).
The Creek War.
General Jackson's first campaign.
The great Indian chief Tecumseh had been trying for years to
unite all the red men against the whites. There would have
been an Indian war if there had been no war with England, but
the latter war seemed to be Tecumseh's opportunity. Among the
southwestern Indians he found acceptance only with the Creeks,
who were already on the verge of civil war, because some
wanted to adopt civilized life, and others refused. The latter
became the war party, under Weatherford [Red Eagle], a very
able half-breed chief. The first outbreak in the Southwest,
although there had been some earlier hostilities, was the
massacre of the garrison and refugees at Fort Mims, at the
junction of the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers, August 30, 1813.
There were 553 persons in the fort, of whom only 5 or 6
escaped. … The result of the massacre at Fort Mims was that
Alabama was almost abandoned by whites. Terror and desire for
revenge took possession of Georgia and Tennessee. September
25th the Tennessee Legislature voted to raise men and money to
aid the people of Mississippi territory against the Creeks."
Andrew Jackson, one of the two major-generals of the Tennessee
militia, was then confined to his bed by a wound received in a
recent fight with Thomas H. Benton and Benton's brother. "As
soon as he possibly could, Jackson took the field. Georgia had
a force in the field under General Floyd. General Claiborne
was acting at the head of troops from Louisiana and
Mississippi. This Indian war had a local character and was
outside the federal operations, although in the end it had a
great effect upon them. … The Creek war was remarkable for
three things: (1) the quarrels between the generals, and the
want of concert of action; (2) lack of provisions; (3)
insubordination in the ranks. … On three occasions Jackson had
to use one part of his army to prevent another part from
marching home, he and they differing on the construction of
the terms of enlistment. He showed very strong qualities under
these trying circumstances. … In the conduct of the movements
against the enemy his energy was very remarkable. So long as
there was an enemy unsubdued Jackson could not rest, and could
not give heed to anything else. … At the end of March [1814]
Jackson destroyed a body of the Creeks at Tohopeka, or
Horse-Shoe Bend, in the northeast corner of the present
Tallapoosa County, Alabama. With the least possible delay he
pushed on to the last refuge of the Creeks, the Hickory
Ground, at the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa, and the
Holy Ground a few miles distant. The medicine men, appealing
to the superstition of the Indians, had taught them to believe
that no white man could tread the latter ground and live. In
April the remnant of the Creeks surrendered or fled to
Florida, overcome as much by the impetuous and relentless
character of the campaign against them as by actual blows.
Fort Jackson was built on the Hickory Ground. The march down
through Alabama was a great achievement, considering the
circumstances of the country at the time. … The Creek campaign
lasted only seven months. In itself considered, it was by no
means an important Indian war, but in its connection with
other military movements it was very important. Tecumseh had
been killed at the battle of the Thames, in Canada, October 5,
1813. His scheme of a race war died with him. The Creek
campaign put an end to any danger of hostilities from the
southwestern Indians, in alliance either with other Indians or
with the English. … This campaign … was the beginning of
Jackson's fame and popularity, and from it dates his career.
He was 47 years old. On the 31st of May he was appointed a
major-general in the army of the United States, and was given
command of the department of the South. He established his
headquarters at Mobile in August, 1814."
_W. G. Sumner,
Andrew Jackson as a Public Man,
chapter 2._
{3350}
ALSO IN:
_G. C. Eggleston,
Red Eagle._
_J. W. Monette,
Discovery and Settlement of the Valley of the Mississippi,
book 5, chapter 14 (volume 2)._
_B. J. Lossing,
Field Book of the War of 1812,
chapters 33-34._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1814 (July-September).
On the Niagara Frontier.
Chippewa.
Lundy's Lane.
Fort Erie.
"After the desolation of the Niagara frontier in 1813, there
appeared to be nothing for the parties to contend for in that
quarter. No object could be obtained by a victory on either
side, but the temporary occupation of a vacant territory; yet
both parties seemed to have selected this as the principal
theatre on which to display their military prowess in the year
1814. Lieutenant General Drummond, governor of Upper Canada,
concentrated the forces of that province at Fort George, and
retained the possession of Niagara. The American Generals
Smyth, Hampton, Dearborn, and Wilkinson, under whose auspices
the campaigns of 1812 and 1813, on the Canada border, were
conducted, had retired from that field; and General Brown was
appointed major general, and, with the assistance of
Brigadiers Scott and Ripley, designated to the command of the
Niagara frontier. He left Sackett's Harbour in May, with a
large portion of the American troops. … On his arrival at
Buffalo, calculating upon the co-operation of the Ontario
fleet, he determined on an attempt to expel the British from
the Niagara peninsula. With this view he crossed the river on
the 3d of July. … On the same day he invested Fort Erie, and
summoned it to surrender, allowing the commandant two hours to
answer the summons. At five in the afternoon the fort
surrendered, and the prisoners, amounting to 137, were removed
to Buffalo. On the morning of the fourth General Scott
advanced with his brigade and corps of artillery, and took a
position on the Chippewa plain, half a mile in front of the
village, his right resting on the river, and his front
protected by a ravine. The British were encamped in force at
the village. In the evening General Brown joined him with the
reserve under General Ripley, and the artillery commanded by
Major Hindman. General Porter arrived the next morning, with
the New York and Pennsylvania volunteers, and a number of
Indians of the six nations. … At four in the afternoon,
General Porter advanced, taking the woods in order to conceal
his approach, and … met the whole British force approaching in
order of battle. General Scott, with his brigade and Towser's
artillery, met them on the plain, in front of the American
encampment, and was directly engaged in close action with the
main body. General Porter's command gave way. … The reserve
were now ordered up, and General Ripley passed to the woods in
left of the line to gain the rear of the enemy; but before
this was effected, General Scott had compelled the British to
retire. Their whole line now fell back, and were eagerly
pursued. … The British left 200 dead on the ground. … The
American loss was 60 killed, and 268 wounded and missing.
After the battle of Chippewa, the British retired to Fort
George; and General Brown took post at Queenston, where he
remained some time, expecting reinforcements. … On the 20th,
General Brown advanced with his army towards Fort George,
drove in the outposts, and encamped near the fort, in the
expectation that the British would come out and give him
battle. On the 22d, he returned to his former position at
Queenston; here he received a letter from General Gaines,
informing him that the heavy guns, and the rifle regiment,
which he had ordered from Sackett's harbour, together with the
whole fleet, were blockaded in that port, and no assistance
was to be expected from them. On the 24th, he fell back to
Chippewa, and on the 25th received intelligence that the
enemy, having received large reinforcements from Kingston,
were advancing upon him. The first brigade under General
Scott, Towser's artillery, all the dragoons and mounted men,
were immediately put in motion on the Queenston road. On his
arrival at the Niagara cataract, General Scott learned that
the British were in force directly in his front, separated
only by a narrow piece of wood. Having despatched this
intelligence to General Brown, he advanced upon the enemy, and
the action commenced at six o'clock in the afternoon. … The
British artillery had taken post on a commanding eminence, at
the head of Lundy's lane, supported by a line of infantry,
out of the reach of the American batteries. This was the key
of the whole position; from hence they poured a most deadly
fire on the American ranks. It became necessary either to
leave the ground, or to carry this post and seize the height.
The latter desperate task was assigned to Colonel Miller. On
receiving the order from General Brown, he calmly surveyed the
position, and answered 'I will try, sir,' which expression was
afterwards the motto of his regiment. … Colonel Miller
advanced coolly and steadily to his object, amid a tremendous
fire, and at the point of the bayonet, carried the artillery
and the height. The guns were immediately turned upon the
enemy; General Ripley now brought up the 23d regiment, to the
support of Colonel Miller; the first regiment was rallied and
brought into line, and the British were driven from the hill.
… The British rallied under the hill, and made a desperate
attempt to regain their artillery, and drive the Americans
from their position, but without success; a second and third
attempt was made with the like result. General Scott was
engaged in repelling these attacks, and though with his
shoulder fractured, and a severe wound in the side, continued
at the head of his column, endeavouring to turn the enemy's
right flank. The volunteers under General Porter, during the
last charge of the British, precipitated themselves upon their
lines, broke them, and took a large number of prisoners.
General Brown … received a severe wound on the thigh, and in
the side, and … consigned the command to General Ripley. At
twelve o'clock, both parties retired from the field to their
respective encampments, fatigued and satiated with slaughter.
… The battle [called Lundy's Lane, or Bridgewater, or Niagara]
was fought to the west of, and within half a mile of the
Niagara cataract. … Considering the numbers engaged, few
contests have ever been more sanguinary. … General Brown
states his loss to be, killed, 171; wounded, 572; missing,
117; [total] 860. General Drummond acknowledges a loss of,
killed, 84; wounded, 559; missing and prisoners, 235; [total]
878. … General Ripley, on the 26th, fell back to Fort Erie.
General Brown retired to Buffalo, and General Scott to
Batavia, to recover from their wounds."
_S. Perkins,
History of the Late War,
chapter 17._
{3351}
"Fort Erie was a small work with two demi-bastions; one upon
the north and the other upon the south front. It was built of
stone, but was not of sufficient strength to resist ordnance
heavier than the field artillery of that day. Ripley at once
commenced to strengthen the position. Fortunately, General
Drummond delayed his advance for two days, giving the
Americans an opportunity of which they industriously availed
themselves. … Fort Erie was changed into an entrenched camp,
with its rear open toward the river. General Drummond appeared
before the fort, on the 3d of August, with a force of 5,350
men. He established his camp two miles distant, back of
Waterloo, and commenced a double line of entrenchments within
400 yards of the main work. The same morning he threw a force
of about 1,000 men across the river, and landed them below
Squaw Island, with the intention of seizing Buffalo,
destroying the stores gathered there, and interrupting the
communications of the American army. This soldierly plan was
happily frustrated by Major Morgan with a battalion of the
First Rifles, 250 strong. … During the following fortnight
several skirmishes occurred in front of Fort Erie, in one of
which the gallant Colonel Morgan was killed. General Drummond,
having been still further reinforced, determined not to wait
for the slow results of a siege, but to carry the place by
assault. At two o'clock in the morning of the 3d of August,
the British army moved to the attack in three columns. One was
ordered to carry the Douglass battery, upon the extreme right
of our position; another column was to engage the fort itself;
but the main attack was directed against the Towson battery
upon Snake Hill. Brigadier-General Gaines, who had lately
arrived, was now in command of the American forces. … The
evening before, a shell had exploded a small magazine in Fort
Erie, and General Gaines was apprehensive that the enemy would
take advantage of this disaster and attack him,—one-third of
the troops were therefore kept at their post through the
night, which was dark and rainy. His precautions were well
taken. At half-past two the tramp of a heavy column was heard
approaching Towson's redoubt. Instantly a sheet of fire
flashed from our lines, lighting up the night, and revealing
the enemy 1,500 strong. They had been ordered to attack with
the bayonet; and, to insure obedience, the flints had been
removed from their muskets. With complete courage they
approached to within reach of the light abattis, between Snake
Hill and the lake. But after a desperate struggle they fell
back. Again they advanced, and this time succeeded in planting
scaling ladders in the ditch in front of the redoubt. But
their ladders were too short, and the assailants were driven
off with severe loss. Meanwhile a detachment endeavored to
turn our position by wading out into the river, and passing
round our left. Ripley met them promptly. Numbers were killed
or wounded, and were carried off by the current, and the
remainder of the detachment were captured: Five times the
obstinate English returned to the assault, but each time
without success. … The other British columns waited until the
engagement on the left was at its height. On our right the
enemy advanced to within 50 yards of the Douglass battery, but
were then driven back. At the fort the contest was more
severe. The assailants, led by Colonel Drummond, an officer of
singular determination, advanced through a ravine north of the
fort, and attacking simultaneously all the salient points,
they swarmed over the parapet into the north bastion. … The
garrison of the fort rallied, and after a severe contest
succeeded in regaining possession of the bastion. A second and
third time Drummond returned to the assault with no better
success. But with invincible tenacity he clung to his purpose.
Moving his troops, under cover of the night and the dense
cloud of battle which hung along the ramparts, silently round
the ditch, he suddenly repeated the charge. The English ran up
their ladders so quickly that they gained the top of the
glacis before the defenders could rally to resist them. … The
garrison of the fort made repeated unsuccessful efforts to
retake the bastion; but at day-break it was still in the
enemy's possession. Powerful detachments were then brought up
from the left and center, and a combined attempt was made from
several different directions to drive the British from their
position; but, after a desperate struggle, this likewise
failed. The guns of the Douglass battery, and those under
Captain Fanning, were turned upon the bastion, and Captain
Biddle was placing a piece of artillery to enfilade it, while
several hundred of the American reserve stood ready to rush
upon it. At this moment a loud explosion shook the earth, and
the whole bastion leaped into the air, carrying with it both
its assailants and defenders. The cause of this explosion has
never been accurately ascertained. It is generally supposed to
have been accidental. … The shattered columns of the foe now
retired to their encampment. The British report stated their
loss at 905 killed, wounded and missing; of whom 222 were
killed, including 14 officers; 174 wounded; and 186 prisoners
remained in our hands. Our loss, including 11 prisoners, was
84 men. In the bombardment of the day before we had 45 killed
and wounded; swelling our total loss to 129. A few days after
this, Drummond was reinforced by two regiments, and reopened
fire along his own line. The bombardment continued through the
remainder of the month of August. On the 28th, General Gaines
was wounded by a shell, which fell into his quarters, and
General Ripley again assumed the command, but was soon
superseded by General Brown, who had recovered from the wound
received at Lundy's Lane. General Porter, by dint of
superhuman efforts, gathered a considerable body of militia at
Buffalo, to reinforce the fort. … Notwithstanding the victory
I have just described, and the reinforcements brought by
Porter, the American army at Fort Erie was in a very dangerous
situation. Their foe was daily increasing in number, and three
new batteries were thrown up, whose fire was rapidly making
the position untenable. … Under the pressure of this great
necessity, General Porter planned a sortie, which was
submitted to General Brown; who approved it, and ordered it to
be carried out. … By this enterprise, altogether the most
brilliant military event which occurred on this frontier
during the war, all of the enemy's guns in position were made
useless, and their entrenchments destroyed. We took 385
prisoners, including 11 commissioned officers, and killed or
wounded 600 men. Our own loss was 510. … Four days after this,
General Drummond raised the siege, and fell back to Fort
George."
_W. Dorsheimer,
Buffalo during the War of 1812
(Buffalo Historical Society Publications, volume 1)._
ALSO IN:
_E. Cruikshank,
The Battle of Lundy's Lane
(Lundy's Lane Historical Society)._
_Gen. W. Scott,
Memoirs by himself,
chapters 9-11 (volume 1)._
_C. Johnson,
Centennial History of Erie County, New York,
chapter 26._
_B. J. Lossing,
Field Book of the War of 1812,
chapters 35-36._
_The Attack on Fort Erie
(Portfolio, February, 1816)._
{3352}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1814 (August-September).
Capture and destruction of the national Capital.
Attempt against Baltimore.
Early in the "summer of 1814, rumors spread through the
capital of a great British armament preparing at Bermuda, some
said for an attack on New York, others on Baltimore and
Annapolis, while others asserted quite as vehemently that the
national capital was the chosen object of British vengeance.
How easy it would be, they argued, for Admiral Sir George
Cockburn, who had been a year with his fleet in Chesapeake
Bay, when reinforced by the Bermuda armament to disembark a
strong column at any point on the western shore of the
Chesapeake—but forty miles distant—and by a forced march
capture the city. But by some strange fatuity, the President
and his cabinet treated these possibilities as unworthy of
credence. 'The British come here!' a Cabinet officer is
reported to have said, in answer to the representations of
citizens. "What should they come here for?' Sure enough: a
provincial village of 6,000 inhabitants. But then there were
the state papers and public buildings, the moral effect of
capturing an enemy's capital, and the satisfaction of
chastising the city where a British minister had been obliged
to ask for his recall on the ground of ill-treatment. …
Colonel James Monroe, a gallant soldier of the Revolution, was
now Secretary of State; another Revolutionary soldier, General
Armstrong, was Secretary of War, and acting on their advice,
President Madison did substantially nothing for the defence of
his capital. Fort Washington, commanding the Potomac, which
Major L'Enfant had planned early in the war, was hurried
forward to completion; but no defences on the landward side
were erected, and no army was called out to defend it. What
was done was this: The District of Columbia, Maryland, and
that part of Virginia north of the Rappahannock, were created
a tenth military district under command of General W. H.
Winder, a brave officer, who had seen service in the
Northwest, and who had recently returned from long detention
in Canada as prisoner of war. General Winder on taking command
(June 26, 1814) found for the defence of Washington
detachments of the 36th and 38th regulars, amounting to a few
hundred men, but nothing more—no forts, no guns, no army. A
force of 13 regiments of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania
militia had been drafted, but were not to be called into
active service until the enemy should appear—an arrangement
against which General Winder protested in vain. … While these
weak and ineffectual preparations are being made, the enemy
has been marshalling his forces. Early in August Rear-Admiral
Cockburn's blockading squadron had been joined in the Potomac
by the fleet of Vice-Admiral Cochrane, who as ranking officer
at once took command." A few days later the expected Bermuda
expedition arrived bringing 4,000 troops—veterans from
Wellington's army—under General Ross. A little flotilla of
gunboats on the Chesapeake, commanded by Commodore Barney, was
driven into Patuxent River and there abandoned and burned.
Then the enemy landed in force at Benedict and marched on
Washington, while the Secretary or War still insisted that
Baltimore must be, in the nature of things, the place they
would strike, At Bladensburg they were met (August 24th) by
General Winder with some 5,000 hastily collected militia and
volunteers and less than 1,000 regular troops, sailors, and
marines—poor materials for an army with which to face 4,000
hardened veterans of the Peninsular War. The battle ended in
the utter routing of the American forces and the abandonment
of Washington to the British invaders.
_C. B. Todd,
The Story of Washington,
chapter 8._
"This battle, by which the fate of the American capital was
decided, began about one o'clock in the afternoon, and lasted
till four. The loss on the part of the English was severe,
since, out of two-thirds of the army, which were engaged,
upwards of 500 men were killed and wounded; and what rendered
it doubly severe was, that among these were numbered several
officers of rank and distinction. … On the side of the
Americans the slaughter was not so great. Being in possession
of a strong position, they were of course less exposed in
defending than the others in storming it; and had they
conducted themselves with coolness and resolution, it is not
conceivable how the battle could have been won. But the fact
is that, with the exception of a party of sailors from the gun
boats, under the command of Commodore Barney, no troops could
behave worse than they did."
_G. R. Gleig,
Campaign of the British Army at Washington and New Orleans,
chapter 9._
When Winder's troops abandoned Washington "fire was put at the
navy yard to a new frigate on the stocks, to a new
sloop-of-war lately launched, and to several magazines of
stores and provisions, for the destruction of which ample
preparations had been made. By the light of this fire, made
lurid by a sudden thunder-gust, Ross, toward evening, advanced
into Washington, at that time a straggling village of some
8,000 people, but, for the moment, almost deserted by the male
part of the white inhabitants. From Gallatin's late residence,
one of the first considerable houses which the column reached,
a shot was fired which killed Ross's horse, and which was
instantly revenged by putting fire to the house. After three
or four volleys at the Capitol, the two detached wings were
set on fire. The massive walls defied the flames, but all the
interior was destroyed, with many valuable papers, and the
library of Congress—a piece of Vandalism alleged to be in
revenge for the burning of the Parliament House at York.
[Chaplain Gleig, who was with the British forces under Ross,
states in the narrative quoted from above that the party fired
upon from Gallatin's house bore a flag of truce, and that
Ross's destructive proceedings in Washington were consequent
on that fact.] … The president's house, and the offices of the
Treasury and State Departments near by, were set on fire. …
The next morning the War Office was burned. …
{3353}
Several private houses were burned, and some private
warehouses broken open and plundered; but, in general, private
property was respected." On the night of the 20th the British
withdrew, returning as they came; but on the 29th their
frigates, ascending the Potomac, arrived at Alexandria and
plundered that city heavily. "Within less than a fortnight
after the re-embarkation of Ross's army, the British fleet,
spreading vast alarm as it ascended the Chesapeake, appeared
off the Patapsco [September 12]. … A landing was effected the
next day at North Point, on the northern shore of that
estuary, some eight miles up which was Fort M'Henry, an open
work only two miles from Baltimore, commanding the entrance
into the harbor, which found, however, its most effectual
protection in the shallowness of the water. The defense of the
city rested with some 10,000 militia. … A corps 3,000 strong
had been thrown forward toward North Point. As Ross and
Cockburn, at the head of a reconnoitering party, approached
the outposts of this advanced division, a skirmish ensued, in
which Ross was killed. … The fleet, meanwhile, opened a
tremendous cannonade on Fort M'Henry; but … at such a distance
as to render their fire ineffectual. It was under the
excitement of this cannonade that the popular song of the
'Star Spangled Banner' was composed, the author [Francis Scott
Key] being then on board the British fleet, whither he had
gone to solicit the release of certain prisoners, and where he
was detained pending the attack. An attempt to land in boats
also failed; and that same night, the bombardment being still
kept up, the British army, covered by rain and darkness,
retired silently to their ships and re-embarked."
_R. Hildreth,
History of the United States,
volume 6, pages 510-520._
ALSO IN:
_J. S. Williams,
Invasion and Capture of Washington._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1814 (September).
Prevost's invasion of New York.
Macdonough's naval victory on Lake Champlain.
Lake Champlain, "which had hitherto played but an
inconspicuous part, was now to become the scene of the
greatest naval battle of the war. A British army of 11,000 men
under Sir George Prevost undertook the invasion of New York by
advancing up the western bank of Lake Champlain. This advance
was impracticable unless there was a sufficiently strong
British naval force to drive back the American squadron at the
same time. Accordingly, the British began to construct a
frigate, the Confiance, to be added to their already existing
force, which consisted of a brig, two sloops, and 12 or 14
gun-boats. The Americans already possessed a heavy corvette, a
schooner, a small sloop, and 10 gun-boats or row-galleys; they
now began to build a large brig, the Eagle, which was launched
about the 16th of August. Nine days later, on the 25th, the
Confiance was launched. The two squadrons were equally
deficient in stores, etc.; the Confiance having locks to her
guns, some of which could not be used, while the American
schooner Ticonderoga had to fire her guns by means of pistols
flashed at the touchholes (like Barclay on Lake Erie).
Macdonough and Downie were hurried into action before they had
time to prepare themselves thoroughly; but it was a
disadvantage common to both, and arose from the nature of the
case, which called for immediate action. The British army
advanced slowly toward Plattsburg, which was held by General
Macomb with less than 2,000 effective American troops. Captain
Thomas Macdonough, the American commodore, took the lake a day
or two before his antagonist, and came to anchor in Plattsburg
harbor. The British fleet, under Captain George Downie, moved
from Isle-aux-Noix on September 8th, and on the morning of the
11th sailed into Plattsburg harbor." The American force
consisted of the ship Saratoga, Captain Macdonough, the brig
Eagle, the schooner Ticonderoga, the sloop Preble, and ten
row-galleys, or gunboats mounting one or two guns each—"in
all, 14 vessels of 2,244 tons and 882 men, with 86 guns
throwing at a broadside 1,194 lbs. of shot, 480 from long, and
714 from short guns. The force of the British squadron in guns
and ships is known accurately, as most of it was captured." It
consisted of the frigate Confiance, the brig Linnet, the
sloops Chubb and Finch, and twelve gunboats—"in all, 16
vessels, of about 2,402 tons, with 937 men, and a total of 92
guns, throwing at a broadside 1,192 lbs., 660 from long and
532 from short pieces. … Young Macdonough (then but 28 years
of age) calculated all … chances very coolly and decided to
await the attack at anchor in Plattsburg Bay, with the head of
his line so far to the north that it could hardly be turned. …
The morning of September 11th opened with a light breeze from
the northeast. Downie's fleet weighed anchor at daylight, and
came down the lake with the wind nearly aft, the booms of the
two sloops swinging out to starboard. At half-past seven, the
people in the ships could see their adversaries' upper sails
across the narrow strip of land ending in Cumberland Head,
before the British doubled the latter. … As the English
squadron stood bravely in, young Macdonough, who feared his
foes not at all, but his God a great deal, knelt for a moment,
with his officers, on the quarter-deck; and then ensued a few
minutes of perfect quiet." The fierce battle which followed
lasted about two hours and a half, with terribly destructive
effects on both sides. The British commander, Downie, was
killed early in the action. "On both sides the ships had been
cut up in the most extraordinary manner; the Saratoga had 55
shot-holes in her hull, and the Confiance 105 in hers, and the
Eagle and Linnet had suffered in proportion. The number of
killed and wounded can not be exactly stated; it was probably
about 200 on the American side, and over 300 on the British. …
The effects of the victory were immediate and of the highest
importance. Sir George Prevost and his army [which had arrived
before Plattsburg on the 6th, and which, simultaneously with
the naval advance, had made an unsuccessful attack on the
American defensive works, at the mouth of the Saranac, held by
General Alexander Macomb] at once fled in great haste and
confusion back to Canada, leaving our northern frontier clear
for the remainder of the war; while the victory had a very
great effect on the negotiations for peace. In this battle the
crews on both sides behaved with equal bravery, and left
nothing to be desired in this respect; but from their rawness
they of course showed far less skill than the crews of most of
the American and some of the British ocean cruisers. …
Macdonough in this battle won a higher fame than any other
commander of the war, British or American.
{3354}
He had a decidedly superior force to contend against, the
officers and men of the two sides being about on a par in
every respect; and it was solely owing to his foresight and
resource that we won the victory. He forced the British to
engage at a disadvantage by his excellent choice of position,
and he prepared beforehand for every possible contingency. …
Down to the time of the Civil War he is the greatest figure in
our naval history."
_T. Roosevelt,
The Naval War of 1812,
chapter 8._
ALSO IN:
_R. Johnson,
History of the War of 1812-1815,
chapter 15._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1814 (December).
The Hartford Convention.
"The commercial distress in New England, the possession by the
enemy of a large part of the District of Maine, the fear of
their advance along the coast, and the apparent neglect of the
Federal Government to provide any adequate means of
resistance, had led the Legislature of Massachusetts, in
October, to invite the other New England States to send
delegates to Hartford, Connecticut, 'to confer upon the
subject of their public grievances.' Delegates [26 in number]
from Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, and from
parts of Vermont and New Hampshire, met at Hartford in
December and remained in session for three weeks. In their
report to their State Legislatures they reviewed the state of
the country, the origin and management of the war, and the
strong measures lately proposed in Congress, and recommended
several Amendments to the Constitution, chiefly with intent to
restrict the powers of Congress over commerce, and to prevent
naturalized citizens from holding office. In default of the
adoption of these Amendments, another convention was advised,
'in order to decide on the course which a crisis so momentous
might seem to demand.' This was the famous Hartford
Convention. The peace which closely followed its adjournment
removed all necessity or even desire for another session of
it. Its objects seem to have been legitimate. But the
unfortunate secrecy of its proceedings, and its somewhat
ambiguous language, roused a popular suspicion, sufficient for
the political ruin of its members, that a dissolution of the
Union had been proposed, perhaps resolved upon, in its
meetings. Some years afterward those concerned in it were
compelled in self-defense to publish its journal, in order to
show that no treasonable design was officially proposed. It
was then, however, too late, for the popular opinion had
become fixed. Neither the Federal party which originated, nor
the Federalist politicians who composed, the assembly, were
ever freed from the stigma left by the mysterious Hartford
Convention."
_A. Johnston,
History of American Politics, 2d ed.,
chapter 8._
The language of the report of the Hartford Convention "was so
skillfully selected that it cannot be said with certainty
whether the convention deduced from the nature of the Union a
positive right in the individual states to withdraw from the
Union, or whether it claimed only a moral justification for
revolution. It was prudent enough in the declaration of its
position on the constitutional question not to venture beyond
vague, double-meaning expressions, except so far as it could
appeal to its opponents. But it went just far enough to repeat
almost verbatim the declaration of faith laid down in the
Kentucky resolutions of 1798. If the members of the
convention, and those in sympathy with them, were 'Maratists,'
they could claim that they had become so in the school of
Madison and Jefferson."
_H. von Holst,
Constitutional and Political History of the United States,
volume 1, page 268._
ALSO IN:
_T. Dwight,
History of the Hartford Convention._
_H. C. Lodge,
Life and Letters of George Cabot,
chapters 11-13._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1814 (December).
The Treaty of Peace concluded at Ghent.
"In September, 1812, Count Romanzoff suggested to Mr. [John
Quincy] Adams the readiness of the Emperor [of Russia] to act
as mediator in bringing about peace between the United States
and England. The suggestion was promptly acted upon, but with
no directly fortunate results. The American government acceded
at once to the proposition, and, at the risk of an impolitic
display of readiness, dispatched Messrs. Gallatin and Bayard
to act as Commissioners jointly with Mr. Adams in the
negotiations. These gentlemen, however, arrived in St.
Petersburg only to find themselves in a very awkward
position," since the offered mediation of the Czar was
declined by England. The latter power preferred to negotiate
directly with the United States, and presently made proposals
to that effect, intimating her readiness "to send
Commissioners to Gottingen, for which place Ghent was
afterwards substituted, to meet American Commissioners and
settle terms of pacification. The United States renewed the
powers of Messrs. Adams, Bayard, and Gallatin, … and added
Jonathan Russell, then Minister to Sweden, and Henry Clay.
England deputed Lord Gambier, an Admiral, Dr. Adams, a
publicist, and Mr. Goulbourn, a member of Parliament and Under
Secretary of State. These eight gentlemen accordingly met in
Ghent on August 7, 1814. It was upwards of four months before
an agreement was reached. … The eight were certainly an odd
assemblage of peacemakers. The ill-blood and wranglings
between the opposing Commissions were bad enough, yet hardly
equalled the intestine dissensions between the American
Commissioners themselves. … The British first presented their
demands, as follows: 1. That the United States should conclude
a peace with the Indian allies of Great Britain, and that a
species of neutral belt of Indian territory should be
established between the dominions of the United States and
Great Britain, so that these dominions should be nowhere
conterminous, upon which belt or barrier neither power should
be permitted to encroach even by purchase, and the boundaries
of which should be settled in this treaty. 2. That the United
States should keep no naval force upon the Great Lakes, and
should neither maintain their existing forts nor build new
ones upon their northern frontier; it was even required that
the boundary line should run along the southern shore of the
lakes; while no corresponding restriction was imposed upon
Great Britain, because she was stated to have no projects of
conquest as against her neighbor. 3. That a piece of the
province of Maine should be ceded, in order to give the
English a road from Halifax to Quebec. 4. That the
stipulations of the treaty of 1783, conferring on English
subjects the right of navigating the Mississippi, should be
now formally renewed. The Americans were astounded; it seemed
to them hardly worth while to have come so far to listen to
such propositions."
{3355}
But, after long and apparently hopeless wrangling, events in
Europe rather than in America brought about a change of
disposition on the part of the British government;
instructions to the commissioners were modified on both sides,
and, quite to their own surprise, they arrived at agreements
which were formulated in a Treaty and signed, December 24,
1814. "Of the many subjects mooted between the negotiators
scarcely any had survived the fierce contests which had been
waged concerning them. The whole matter of the navigation of
the Mississippi, access to that river, and a road through
American territory, had been dropped by the British; while the
Americans had been well content to say nothing of the
Northeastern fisheries, which they regarded as still their
own.
See FISHERIES, NORTH AMERICAN: A. D. 1814-1818.
The disarmament on the lakes and along the Canadian border,
and the neutralization of a strip of Indian territory, were
yielded by the English. The Americans were content to have
nothing said about impressment; nor was anyone of the many
illegal rights exercised by England formally abandoned. The
Americans satisfied themselves with the reflection that
circumstances had rendered these points now only matters of
abstract principle, since the pacification of Europe had
removed all opportunities and temptations for England to
persist in her previous objectionable courses. For the future
it was hardly to be feared that she would again undertake to
pursue a policy against which it was evident that the United
States were willing to conduct a serious war. There was,
however, no provision for indemnification. Upon a fair
consideration, it must be admitted that, though the treaty was
silent upon all the points which the United States had made
war for the purpose of enforcing, yet the country had every
reason to be gratified with the result of the negotiation."
_J. T. Morse,
John Quincy Adams,
pages 75-96._
"Instead of wearing themselves out over impracticable, perhaps
impossible, questions, the commissioners turned their
attention to the northern boundary between the two countries,
and it was by them forever settled, and in such manner as to
give the United States the foundation for its future
greatness. … The victory of the American diplomats at Ghent
was two-fold: first, they secured the benefits desired without
enumerating them—even to a greater extent than if the benefits
had been enumerated; and second, if they had insisted upon an
enumeration of the benefits obtained, it is apparent they
would have periled the entire treaty and lost all."
_T. Wilson,
The Treaty of Ghent
(Magazine of American History, November, 1888)._
ALSO IN:
_C. Schurz,
Life of Henry Clay,
chapter 6 (volume l)._
_J. Q. Adams,
Memoirs (Diary)
chapter 9 (volumes 2-3)._
Following is the text of the treaty:
Article I.
There shall be a firm and universal peace between His
Britannic Majesty and the United States, and between their
respective countries, territories, cities, towns, and people,
of every degree, without exception of places or persons. All
hostilities, both by sea and land, shall cease as soon as this
treaty shall have been ratified by both parties, as
hereinafter mentioned. All territory, places, and possessions
whatsoever, taken by either party from the other during the
war, or which may be taken after the signing of this treaty,
excepting only the islands hereinafter mentioned, shall be
restored without delay, and without causing any destruction or
carrying away any of the artillery or other public property
originally captured in the said forts or places, and which
shall remain therein upon the exchange of the ratifications of
this treaty, or any slaves or other private property. And all
archives, records, deeds, and papers, either of a public
nature or belonging to private persons, which, in the course
of the war, may have fallen into the hands of the officers of
either party, shall be, as far as may be practicable,
forthwith restored and delivered to the proper authorities and
persons to whom they respectively belong. Such of the islands
in the Bay of Passamaquoddy as are claimed by both parties,
shall remain in the possession of the party in whose
occupation they may be at the time of the exchange of the
ratifications of this treaty, until the decision respecting
the title to the said islands shall have been made in
conformity with the fourth article of this treaty. No
disposition made by this treaty as to such possession of the
islands and territories claimed by both parties shall, in any
manner whatever, be construed to affect the right of either.
Article II.
Immediately after the ratification of this treaty by both
parties, as hereinafter mentioned, orders shall be sent to the
armies, squadrons, officers, subjects and citizens of the two
Powers to cease from all hostilities. And to prevent all
causes of complaint which might arise on account of the prizes
which may be taken at sea after the said ratifications of this
treaty, it is reciprocally agreed that all vessels and effects
which may be taken after the space of twelve days from the
said ratifications, upon all parts of the coast of North
America, from the latitude of twenty-three degrees north to
the latitude of fifty degrees north, and as far eastward in
the Atlantic Ocean as the thirty-sixth degree of west
longitude from the meridian of Greenwich, shall be restored on
each side: that the time shall be thirty days in all other
parts of the Atlantic Ocean north of the equinoctial line or
equator, and the same time for the British and Irish Channels,
for the Gulf of Mexico, and all parts of the West Indies;
forty days for the North Seas, for the Baltic, and for all
parts of the Mediterranean; sixty days for the Atlantic Ocean
south of the equator, as far as the latitude of the Cape of
Good Hope; ninety days for every other part of the world south
of the equator; and one hundred and twenty days for all other
parts of the world, without exception.
Article III.
All prisoners of war taken on either side, as well by land as
by sea, shall be restored as soon as practicable after the
ratifications of this treaty, as hereinafter mentioned, on
their paying the debts which they may have contracted during
their captivity. The two contracting parties respectively
engage to discharge, in specie, the advances which may have
been made by the other for the sustenance and maintenance of
such prisoners.
{3356}
Article IV.
Whereas it was stipulated by the second article in the treaty
of peace of one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three,
between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of
America, that the boundary of the United States should
comprehend all islands within twenty leagues of any part of
the shores of the United States, and lying between lines to be
drawn due east from the points where the aforesaid boundaries,
between Nova Scotia on the one part, and East Florida on the
other, shall respectively touch the Bay of Fundy and the
Atlantic Ocean, excepting such islands as now are, or
heretofore have been, within the limits of Nova Scotia; and
whereas the several islands in the Bay of Passamaquoddy, which
is part of the Bay of Fundy, and the Island of Grand Menan, in
the said Bay of Fundy, are claimed by the United States as
being comprehended within their aforesaid boundaries, which
said islands are claimed as belonging to His Britannic
Majesty, as having been, at the time of and previous to the
aforesaid treaty of one thousand seven hundred and
eighty-three, within the limits of the Province of Nova
Scotia: In order, therefore, finally to decide upon these
claims, it is agreed that they shall be referred to two
Commissioners to be appointed in the following manner, viz:
One Commissioner shall be appointed by His Britannic Majesty,
and one by the President of the United States, by and with the
advice and consent of the Senate thereof; and the said two
Commissioners so appointed shall be sworn impartially to
examine and decide upon the said claims according to such
evidence as shall be laid before them on the part of His
Britannic Majesty and of the United States respectively. The
said Commissioners shall meet at St. Andrews, in the Province
of New Brunswick, and shall have power to adjourn to such
other place or places as they shall think fit. The said
Commissioners shall, by a declaration or report under their
hands and seals, decide to which of the two contracting
parties the several islands aforesaid do respectively belong,
in conformity with the true intent of the said treaty of peace
of one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three. And if the
said Commissioners shall agree in their decision, both parties
shall consider such decision as final and conclusive. It is
further agreed that, in event of the two Commissioners
differing upon all or any of the matters so referred to them,
or in the event of both or either of the said Commissioners
refusing, or declining, or wilfully omitting to act as such,
they shall make, jointly or separately, a report or reports,
as well to the Government of His Britannic Majesty as to that
of the United States, stating in detail the points on which
they differ, and the grounds upon which their respective
opinions have been formed, or the grounds upon which they, or
either of them, have so refused, declined, or omitted to act.
And His Britannic Majesty and the Government of the United
States hereby agree to refer the report or reports of the said
Commissioners to some friendly sovereign or State, to be then
named for that purpose, and who shall be requested to decide
on the differences which may be stated in the said report or
reports, or upon the report of one Commissioner, together with
the grounds upon which the other Commissioner shall have
refused, declined or omitted to act, as the case may be. And
if the Commissioner so refusing, declining or omitting to act,
shall also wilfully omit to state the grounds upon which he
has so done, in such manner that the said statement may be
referred to such friendly sovereign or State, together with
the report of such other Commissioner, then such sovereign or
State shall decide ex parte upon the said report alone. And
His Britannic Majesty and the Government of the United States
engage to consider the decision of such friendly sovereign or
State to be final and conclusive on all the matters so
referred.
Article V.
Whereas neither that point of the highlands lying due north
from the source of the river St. Croix, and designated in the
former treaty of peace between the two Powers as the northwest
angle of Nova Scotia, nor the north-westernmost head of
Connecticut River, has yet been ascertained; and whereas that
part of the boundary line between the dominions of the two
Powers which extends from the source of the river St. Croix
directly north to the above mentioned northwest angle of Nova
Scotia, thence along the said highlands which divide those
rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence from
those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean to the northwestern
most head of Connecticut River, thence down along the middle
of that river to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude;
thence by a line due west on said latitude until it strikes
the river Iroquois or Cataraquy, has not yet been surveyed: it
is agreed that for these several purposes two Commissioners
shall be appointed, sworn, and authorized to act exactly in
the manner directed with respect to those mentioned in the
next preceding article, unless otherwise specified in the
present article. The said Commissioners shall meet at St.
Andrews, in the Province of New Brunswick, and shall have
power to adjourn to such other place or places as they shall
think fit. The said Commissioners shall have power to
ascertain and determine the points above mentioned, in
conformity with the provisions of the said treaty of peace of
one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three, and shall cause
the boundary aforesaid, from the source of the river St. Croix
to the river Iroquois or Cataraquy, to be surveyed and marked
according to the said provisions. The said Commissioners shall
make a map of the said boundary, and annex to it a declaration
under their hands and seals, certifying it to be the true map
of the said boundary, and particularizing the latitude and
longitude of the northwest angle of Nova Scotia, of the
northwesternmost head of Connecticut River, and of such other
points of the said boundary as they may deem proper. And both
parties agree to consider such map and declaration as finally
and conclusively fixing the said boundary. And in the event of
the said two Commissioners differing, or both or either of
them refusing, declining, or wilfully omitting to act, such
reports, declarations, or statements shall be made by them, or
either of them, and such reference to a friendly sovereign or
State shall be made in all respects as in the latter part of
the fourth article is contained, and in as full a manner as if
the same was herein repeated.
{3357}
Article VI.
Whereas by the former treaty of peace that portion of the
boundary of the United States from the point where the
forty-fifth degree of north latitude strikes the river
Iroquois or Cataraquy to the Lake Superior, was declared to be
"along the middle of said river into Lake Ontario, through the
middle of said lake, until it strikes the communication by
water between that lake and Lake Erie, thence along the middle
of said communication into Lake Erie, through the middle of said
lake until it arrives at the water communication into the Lake
Huron, thence through the middle of said lake to the water
communication between that lake and Lake Superior;" and
whereas doubts have arisen what was the middle of the said
river, lakes, and water communications, and whether certain
islands lying in the same were within the dominions of His
Britannic Majesty or of the United States: In order,
therefore, finally to decide these doubts, they shall be
referred to two Commissioners, to be appointed, sworn, and
authorized to act exactly in the manner directed with respect
to those mentioned in the next preceding article, unless
otherwise specified in this present article. The said
Commissioners shall meet, in the first instance, at Albany, in
the State of New York, and shall have power to adjourn to such
other place or places as they shall think fit. The said
Commissioners shall, by a report or declaration, under their
hands and seals, designate the boundary through the said
river, lakes and water communications, and decide to which of
the two contracting parties the several islands lying within
the said rivers, lakes, and water communications, do
respectively belong, in conformity with the true intent of the
said treaty of one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three.
And both parties agree to consider such designation and
decision as final and conclusive. And in the event of the said
two Commissioners differing, or both or either of them
refusing, declining, or wilfully omitting to act, such
reports, declarations, or statements shall be made by them, or
either of them, and such reference to a friendly sovereign or
State shall be made in all respects as in the latter part of
the fourth article is contained, and in as full a manner as if
the same was herein repeated.
Article VII.
It is further agreed that the said two last-mentioned
Commissioners, after they shall have executed the duties
assigned to them in the preceding article, shall be, and they
are hereby, authorized upon their oaths impartially to fix and
determine, according to the true intent of the said treaty of
peace of one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three, that
part of the boundary between the dominions of the two Powers
which extends from the water communication between Lake Huron
and Lake Superior, to the most northwestern point of the Lake
of the Woods, to decide to which of the two parties the
several islands lying in the lakes, water communications, and
rivers, forming the said boundary, do respectively belong, in
conformity with the true intent of the said treaty of peace of
one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three; and to cause such
parts of the said boundary as require it to be surveyed and
marked. The said Commissioners shall, by a report or
declaration under their hands and seals, designate the
boundary aforesaid, state their decision on the points thus
referred to them, and particularize the latitude and longitude
of the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods, and
of such other parts of the said boundary as they may deem
proper. And both parties agree to consider such designation
and decision as final and conclusive. And in the event of the
said two Commissioners differing, or both or either of them
refusing, declining, or wilfully omitting to act, such
reports, declarations, or statements shall be made by them, or
either of them, and such reference to a friendly sovereign or
State shall be made in all respects as in the latter part of
the fourth article is contained, and in as full a manner as if
the same was herein repeated.
Article VIII.
The several boards of two Commissioners mentioned in the four
preceding articles shall respectively have power to appoint a
Secretary, and to employ such surveyors or other persons as
they shall judge necessary. Duplicates of all their respective
reports, declarations, statements and decisions and of their
accounts, and of the journal of their proceedings, shall be
delivered by them to the agents of His Britannic Majesty and
to the agents of the United States, who may be respectively
appointed and authorized to manage the business on behalf of
their respective Governments. The said Commissioners shall be
respectively paid in such manner as shall be agreed between
the two contracting parties, such agreement being to be
settled at the time of the exchange of the ratifications of
this treaty. And all other expenses attending the said
Commissions shall be defrayed equally by the two parties. And
in the case of death, sickness, resignation or necessary
absence, the place of every such Commissioner, respectively,
shall be supplied in the same manner as such Commissioner was
first appointed, and the new Commissioner shall take the same
oath or affirmation, and do the same duties. It is further
agreed between the two contracting parties, that in case any
of the islands mentioned in any of the preceding articles,
which were in the possession of one of the parties prior to
the commencement of the present war between the two countries,
should, by the decision of any of the Boards of Commissioners
aforesaid, or of the sovereign or State so referred to, as in
the four next preceding articles contained, fall within the
dominions of the other party, all grants of land made previous
to the commencement of the war, by the party having had such
possession, shall be as valid as if such island or islands
had, by such decision or decisions, been adjudged to be within
the dominions of the party having had such possession.
Article IX.
The United States of America engage to put an end, immediately
after the ratification of the present treaty, to hostilities
with all the tribes or nations of Indians with whom they may
be at war at the time of such ratification; and forthwith to
restore to such tribes or nations, respectively, all the
possessions, rights and privileges which they may have enjoyed
or been entitled to in one thousand eight hundred and eleven,
previous to such hostilities: Provided always that such tribes
or nations shall agree to desist from all hostilities against
the United States of America, their citizens and subjects,
upon the ratification of the present treaty being notified to
such tribes or nations, and shall so desist accordingly. And
His Britannic Majesty engages, on his part, to put an end
immediately after the ratification of the present treaty, to
hostilities with all the tribes or nations of Indians with
whom he may be at war at the time of such ratification, and
forthwith to restore to such tribes or nations respectively
all the possessions, rights and privileges which they may have
enjoyed or been entitled to in one thousand eight hundred and
eleven, previous to such hostilities: Provided always that
such tribes or nations shall agree to desist from all
hostilities against His Britannic Majesty, and his subjects,
upon the ratification of the present treaty being notified to
such tribes or nations, and shall so desist accordingly.
{3358}
Article X.
Whereas the traffic in slaves is irreconcilable with the
principles of humanity and justice, and whereas both His
Majesty and the United States are desirous of continuing their
efforts to promote its entire abolition, it is hereby agreed
that both the contracting parties shall use their best
endeavors to accomplish so desirable an object.
Article XI.
This treaty, when the same shall have been ratified on both
sides, without alteration by either of the contracting
parties, and the ratifications mutually exchanged, shall be
binding on both parties and the ratifications shall be
exchanged at Washington, in the space of four months from this
day, or sooner if practicable. In faith whereof we, the
respective Plenipotentiaries, have signed this treaty, and
have thereunto affixed our seals. Done, in triplicate, at
Ghent, the twenty-fourth day of December, one thousand eight
hundred and fourteen.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1814.
The last fighting at Sea.
The exploits of "Old Ironsides."
"During the latter part of the war, as might have been
foreseen, there was little opportunity for American frigates
to show that they could keep up the fame they had so
gloriously won. The British were determined that none of them
that ventured out to sea should escape; and by stationing a
squadron, which their great resources enabled them to do,
before each port where a frigate lay, they succeeded in
keeping it cooped up and inactive. … The 'Adams,' which had
been a 28-gun frigate, but which was now a corvette, managed
to slip out from Washington in January, 1814, under the
command of Charles Morris. … Six months were passed in
cruising, part of the time off the Irish coast, but with no
great success." Returning home, the "Adams" went ashore at the
mouth of the Penobscot, but was got off, much injured, and was
taken up the river for repairs. An English expeditionary force
pursued the crippled vessel, and her commander was forced to
set her on fire. "At this time the 'Constitution' [Old
Ironsides, as she was popularly called] was … lying at Boston,
watched by a squadron of the enemy. She had proved a lucky
ship, … and her present captain, Charles Stewart, who had been
one of Preble's lieutenants at Tripoli, was certainly a man
well fitted to make the most of any chance he had. The frigate
had been in port since April, at first repairing, and later
unable to get out owing to the presence of the enemy's
squadron." In December, however, the " Constitution" contrived
to give the blockaders the slip and made her way across the
Atlantic to the neighborhood of Madeira, where she fought and
captured, at one time, two British war vessels—the corvette
"Cyana" of 22 guns, and the sloop "Levant," of 20 guns. A few
days afterwards, as the "Constitution," with her two prizes,
was lying at anchor in Port Praya, Cape de Verde Islands,
Captain Stewart sighted, outside, no less than three ships of
the very blockading squadron which he had slipped away from at
Boston, and which had pursued him across the ocean. He made
his escape from the port, with both his prizes, in time to
avoid being hemmed in, and speedily outsailed his pursuers.
The latter, giving up hope of the "Constitution," turned their
attention to one of the prizes and succeeded in recovering
her. "The only other frigate that left port in the last year
of the war was less fortunate than the 'Constitution.' This
was the 'President,' now under Commodore Decatur. She was at
New York, and for some time had lain at anchor off Staten
Island watching for an opportunity to pass the blockading
squadron." On a stormy night in January, 1815 (after the
treaty of peace had been actually signed at Ghent, but before
news of it had reached America), he made the attempt, but was
discovered and chased by four of the blockading ships. After a
race which lasted from dawn until nearly midnight, and a
running fight of two hours, Decatur found escape to be
impossible and surrendered his ship.
_J. R. Soley,
The Boys of 1812,
chapter 17._
ALSO IN:
_T. Roosevelt,
The Naval War of 1812,
chapters 7-9._
_B. J. Lossing,
Field Book of the War of 1812,
chapter 41._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1815 (January).
Jackson's victory at New Orleans.
In October of the last year "dispatches from the American
envoys abroad announced that 12,000 to 15,000 British troops
would leave Ireland early in September for New Orleans and
Mobile. Intelligence reached Washington, December 9th, by way
of Cuba, that the British Chesapeake force, under Admiral
Cochrane, had united at Jamaica with these other troops, and
all were ready to sail for the mouths of the Mississippi.
'Hasten your militia to New Orleans,' now urged Monroe upon
the Executives of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Georgia; 'do not
wait for this government to arm them; put all the arms you can
find into their hands; let every man bring his rifle or musket
with him; we shall see you paid.' … Great results had been
expected by Great Britain from the secret expedition fitted
out against Louisiana. … Fifty British vessels, large and
small, bore 7,000 British land troops—comprising the invading
force from the Chesapeake and a veteran reinforcement from
England—across the Gulf of Mexico from Jamaica to the ship
channel near the entrance of Lake Borgne, thus approaching New
Orleans midway between the Mississippi River and Mobile Bay.
Here the fleet anchored; and, after dispersing a meagre
flotilla of American gunboats, which opposed their progress in
vain, the invaders took full possession of Lake Borgne, and,
by means of lighter transports, landed troops upon a lonely
island at the mouth of the Pearl River, which served as the
military rendezvous. Crossing thence to the northwestern end
of Lake Borgne, a sparsely-settled region, with plantations
and sugar-works, half of this invading army, by the 23d
[December], struck the Mississippi at a point within nine
miles of New Orleans. Not a gun had been fired since the
trifling engagement with the American flotilla. The British
believed their near approach unknown, and even unsuspected, in
the city; they meant to capture it by an assault both
brilliant and sudden. … But Jackson had received his
instructions in good season, and from the 2d of December New
Orleans had been, under his vigilant direction, a camp in
lively motion." Martial law was proclaimed; "free men of color
were enrolled; convicts were released to become soldiers; the
civic force was increased to its utmost.
{3359}
Jackson inspected and strengthened the defences in the
vicinity, erect·ing new batteries. … With his newly arrived
volunteers from neighboring States, quite expert, many of
them, in the use of the rifle and eager for fight, Jackson
found himself presently at the head of 5,000 effective men,
less than 1,000 of whom were regulars." With a portion of
these, supported by one of the two armed vessels on the river,
he boldly attacked the enemy, on the evening of the 23d, but
accomplished little more than to demonstrate the energy of the
defence he was prepared to make. On the 28th the English
(having previously destroyed one of the troublesome vessels in
the river, the Carolina, with hot shot) returned the attack,
but did not break the American lines. Then General Pakenham,
the English commander, brought up heavy guns from the fleet,
and soon convinced General Jackson that cotton bales, which
the latter had piled up before his men, were too light and too
combustible for breastworks against artillery; but the lesson
proved more useful than otherwise, and the British batteries
were answered with fully equal effect by an American
cannonade. "Pakenham's last and boldest experiment was to
carry Jackson's lines by storm on both sides of the river; and
this enterprise, fatal, indeed, to those who conceived it,
gives immortal date to the 8th of January,—the day on which
the battle of New Orleans was fought. Four days before this
momentous battle, over 2,000 Kentucky militia, under General
Adair, arrived at New Orleans, ready soldiers, but miserably
equipped. Of their number 700 were marched to the front.
Pakenham's army, swelled by a body of reinforcements,
commanded by General Lambert, another of Wellington's
officers, now consisted in all of 10,000 troops, the flower of
Brit·ish veterans. On the day of the battle Jackson had only
half as many soldiers on the New Orleans side of the river,
and of these the greater part were new recruits under
inexperienced officers. On the opposite bank General Morgan,
with about 1,500 men, among them detachments of Kentuckians
and Louisiana militia, had intrenched himself in expectation
of an assault. Jackson had penetrated the enemy's design,
which was to make the main attack upon his lines, while a
lesser force crossed the Mississippi to drive Morgan up the
bank. Jackson's grand defences, extending for a mile and a
half from the Mississippi, along his ditch or canal, to an
impassable cypress swamp, consisted of earthworks, a redoubt
next the river to enfilade the ditch, and eight batteries, all
well mounted. The schooner Louisiana and Commander Patterson's
marine battery across the river protected this line. Another
intrenchment had been thrown up a mile and a half in the rear,
as a rallying-point in case of need. There was a third line
just below the city. … The morn·ing fog rolled away on the 8th
of January. Pakenham, under the fire of a battery he had
erected during the night, advanced with the main body of
British troops to storm Jackson's position." The Americans,
behind their breastworks, withheld their fire until the
storming columns were 200 yards away, and then poured volley
on volley into the approaching mass of men. "This, with the
steady fire from the American batteries all along the line, as
the foe advanced over a large bare plain, made hideous gaps in
the British ranks, throwing them into utter confusion. It was
a fearful slaughter. Dead bodies choked the ditch and strewed
the plain. Gallant Highlanders flung themselves forward to
scale the ramparts only to fall back lifeless. Soldiers who
had served under Wellington in Spain broke, scattered, and
ran. Of the four British generals commanding, Pakenham was
killed, Gibbs mortally wounded, Keane disabled by a shot in
the neck; only Lambert remained. Thornton, across the river,
had driven Morgan from his lines meantime, and silenced
Patterson's battery; but this enterprise might have cost him
dearly, had he not in season received orders from Lambert to
return instantly. In this battle the British lost not less
than 2,600, all but 500 of whom were killed or wounded; while
only 8 were killed and 13 wounded on the American side. Having
buried his dead presently under a flag of truce, Lambert, whom
this calamity had placed in command, retreated hastily under
cover of the night, abandoning the expedition. Re-embarking at
Lake Borgne, and rejoining the fleet, he next proceeded to
invest Fort Bowyer, at the entrance of Mobile Bay, only to
learn, after its little garrison had surrendered, that a
treaty of peace [signed December 24, 1814, two weeks before
the battle of New Orleans was fought] annulled the conquest. …
Rude and illiterate as he was, Jackson showed at New Orleans
the five prime attributes of military genius: decision,
energy, forethought, dispatch, skill in employing resources."
_J. Schouler,
History of the United States of America,
chapter 9, section 1 (volume 2)._
ALSO IN:
_A. Walker,
Jackson and New Orleans._
_J. Parton,
Life of Andrew Jackson,
volume 2, chapters 1-23._
_G. R. Gleig,
Campaigns of the British Army at Washington and New Orleans,
chapters 18-23._
_M. Thompson,
The Story of Louisiana,
chapter 9._
_G. W. Cable,
The Creoles of Louisiana,
chapters 26-27._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1815.
Final war with the Algerines and suppression of their piracies.
See BARBARY STATES: A. D. 1815.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1816.
Incorporation of the second Bank of the United States.
See MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1791-1816; and 1817-1833.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1816.
Admission of Indiana into the Union.
See INDIANA: A. D. 1800-1818.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1816.
The increased Tariff.
See TARIFF LEGISLATION (UNITED STATES): A. D. 1816-1824.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1816.
Organization of the American Colonization Society.
See SLAVERY, NEGRO: A. D. 1816-1849.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1816.
Eighth Presidential Election.
James Monroe, Democratic Republican, was elected over Rufus
King, Federalist, receiving 183 out of 217 votes cast in the
electoral college. Daniel D. Tompkins was chosen Vice
President. "Opposition to the War of 1812 proved fatal to the
Federal party, which ceased to exist as a national party with
the close of Mr. Madison's administration. Not only did the
odium of opposing the war tend to annihilate that party, but
the questions upon which the two parties differed were, in a
great measure, settled or disposed of by the war; others,
relating to the general interests of the country, such as a
tariff, internal improvements, the chartering of a national
bank, erecting fortifications, etc., taking their place, and
finding advocates and opponents in both the old parties.
Candidates for President and Vice-President were then selected
by the respective parties by what was termed a Congressional
caucus.
{3360}
Mr. Monroe was placed in nomination for President by a caucus
of the Republican members of Congress, Daniel D. Tompkins, of
New York, being nominated by the same caucus for
Vice-President. Mr. Crawford, of Georgia, was Mr. Monroe's
competitor, and fell but few votes behind him in the caucus.
Rufus King was the candidate of the Federal party, or what
there was left of it, against Mr. Monroe. The latter received
183 electoral votes, the former 34. No President ever
encountered less opposition during his four or eight years'
service than Mr. Monroe. Parties and the country seemed to be
tired of contention, and desirous to enjoy repose. A most able
cabinet was selected, consisting of Mr. J. Q. Adams as
Secretary of State; William H. Crawford, Secretary of the
Treasury; John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War; Smith Thompson,
Secretary of the Navy; and William Wirt, Attorney-General."
_N. Sargent,
Public Men and Events, 1817-1853,
volume 1, chapter 1._
"Remembering only the almost unopposed election and second
election of Mr. Monroe, we are apt to think of him as the
natural and easy choice of the people. As a matter of fact he
was not a great favorite with Republican politicians. He was
first nominated by a narrow majority. … Numerous meetings were
held in various parts of the country to protest against the
caucus system, the most noteworthy of which, perhaps, was held
in Baltimore, in which meeting Roger B. Taney, afterward Chief
Justice, took a most prominent part. The nomination being
made, the presidential election was practically decided. There
was no canvass, worthy of the name."
_E. Stanwood,
History of Presidential Elections,
chapter 9._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1816-1817.
The opening of the question of "Internal Improvements."
"The passage of the bank bill in 1816 was to give the United
States a million and a half of dollars. Calhoun, therefore,
came forward, December 23, 1816, with a bill proposing that
this sum be employed as a fund 'for constructing roads and
canals and improving the navigation of watercourses.' 'We
are,' said he, 'a rapidly—I was about to say a
fearfully—growing country. … This is our pride and danger, our
weakness and our strength.' The constitutional question he
settled with a phrase: 'If we are restricted in the use of our
money to the enumerated powers, on what principle can the
purchase of Louisiana be justified?' The bill passed the House
by 86 to 84; it was strongly supported by New York members,
because it was expected that the general government would
begin the construction of a canal from Albany to the Lakes; it
had also large support in the South, especially in South
Carolina. In the last hours of his administration Madison
vetoed it. His message shows that he had selected this
occasion to leave to the people a political testament; he was
at last alarmed by the progress of his own party, and, like
Jefferson, he insisted that internal improvements were
desirable, but needed a constitutional amendment. The
immediate effect of the veto was that New York, seeing no
prospect of federal aid, at once herself began the
construction of the Erie Canal, which was opened eight years
later."
_A. B. Hart,
Formation of the Union
(Epochs of American History),
section 121._
"Mr. Monroe came out, in his first message to Congress,
coinciding, on this point, with Mr. Madison's veto. It is due
to both of them, however, to say that they were the advocates
of internal improvement, and recommended an amendment of the
constitution with that view. Nevertheless, Mr. Madison, by his
veto, had dashed the cup from the lips to the ground, as he
went out of office; and Mr. Monroe coming in, at least for
four years, probably for eight—it proved to be eight—broke the
cup in advance, so that it could not be used during his term
of office, without an amendment of the constitution. … Three
presidents successively, Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Madison, and Mr.
Monroe, had officially expressed their opinion adverse to a
power vested in Congress by the constitution for projects of
internal improvement, as contemplated by the measures
proposed. Not satisfied with these decisions, Mr. Clay and his
friends were instrumental in having a resolution brought
forward, in the fifteenth Congress, declaring that Congress
had power, under the constitution, to make appropriations for
the construction of military roads, post-roads, and canals. …
The resolution declaring the power to be vested in Congress by
the constitution, to make appropriations for the construction
of military roads, post-roads, and canals, was adopted by a
vote of 90 to 75; and the principle involved has been
practically applied by acts of Congress, from that time to the
present."
_C. Colton,
Life, Correspondence, and Speeches of Henry Clay,
volume 1, chapter 19._
ALSO IN:
_H. G. Wheeler,
History of Congress, comprising a
History of Internal Improvements,
volume 2, page 109, and after._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1816-1818.
The First Seminole War.
Jackson's arbitrary conquest of Florida.
See FLORIDA: A. D. 1816-1818.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1817.
Admission of Mississippi into the Union.
See MISSISSIPPI: A. D. 1817.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1818.
Treaty with Great Britain relating to Fisheries.
See FISHERIES: A. D. 1814-1818.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1818.
Admission of Illinois into the Union.
See INDIANA: A. D. 1800-1818.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1818-1819.
The Dartmouth College Case.
See SUPPLEMENT: DARTMOUTH COLLEGE CASE.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1818-1821.
The first bitter Conflict concerning Slavery.
The Missouri Compromise,
on the admission of Missouri to the Union.
"On March 6, 1818, a petition was presented in the House of
Representatives praying that Missouri be admitted as a state.
A bill authorizing the people of Missouri to form a state
government was taken up in the House on February 13, 1819, and
Tallmadge of New York moved, as an amendment, that the further
introduction of slavery should be prohibited, and that all
children born within the said state should be free at the age
of twenty-five years. Thus began the struggle on the slavery
question in connection with the admission of Missouri, which
lasted, intermittently, until March, 1821. No sooner had the
debate on Tallmadge's proposition begun than it became clear
that the philosophical anti-slavery sentiment of the
revolutionary period had entirely ceased to have any influence
upon current thought in the South.
See SLAVERY, NEGRO: A. D. 1776-1808.
The abolition of the foreign slave-trade had not, as had been
hoped, prepared the way for the abolition of slavery or
weakened the slave interest in any sense. On the contrary,
slavery had been immensely strengthened by an economic
development making it more profitable than it ever had been
before. The invention of the cotton-gin by Eli Whitney, in
1793, had made the culture of cotton a very productive source
of wealth.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1793.
{3361}
In 1800 the exportation of cotton from the United States was
19,000,000 pounds, valued at $5,700,000. In 1820 the value of
the cotton export was nearly $20,000,000, almost all of it the
product of slave labor. The value of slaves may be said to
have at least trebled in twenty years. The breeding of slaves
became a profitable industry. Under such circumstances the
slave-holders arrived at the conclusion that slavery was by no
means so wicked and hurtful an institution as their
revolutionary fathers had thought it to be. … On the other
hand, in the Northern States there was no such change of
feeling. Slavery was still, in the nature of things, believed
to be a wrong and a sore. … The amendment to the Missouri
bill, providing for a restriction with regard to slavery, came
therefore in a perfectly natural way from that Northern
sentiment which remained still faithful to the traditions of
the revolutionary period. And it was a great surprise to most
Northern people that so natural a proposition should be so
fiercely resisted on the part of the South. It was the sudden
revelation of a change of feeling in the South which the North
had not observed in its progress. 'The discussion of this
Missouri question has betrayed the secret of their souls,'
wrote John Quincy Adams. The slave-holders watched with
apprehension the steady growth of the Free States in
population, wealth, and power. In 1790 the population of the
two sections had been nearly even. In 1820 there was a
difference of over 600,000 in favor of the North in a total of
less than ten millions. In 1790 the representation of the two
sections in Congress had been about evenly balanced. In 1820
the census promised to give the North a preponderance of more
than 30 votes in the House of Representatives. As the
slave-holders had no longer the ultimate extinction, but now
the perpetuation, of slavery in view, the question of
sectional power became one of first importance to them, and
with it the necessity of having more Slave States for the
purpose of maintaining the political equilibrium at least in
the Senate. A struggle for more Slave States was to them a
struggle for life. This was the true significance of the
Missouri question. The debate was the prototype of all the
slavery debates which followed in the forty years to the
breaking out of the civil war. … The dissolution of the Union,
civil war, and streams of blood were freely threatened by
Southern men, while some anti-slavery men declared themselves
ready to accept all these calamities rather than the spread of
slavery over the territories yet free from it. … On February
16, 1819, the House of Representatives adopted the amendment
restricting slavery, and thus passed the Missouri bill. But
the Senate, eleven days afterwards, struck out the
anti-slavery provision and sent the bill back to the House. A
bill was then passed organizing the Territory of Arkansas, an
amendment moved by Taylor of New York prohibiting the further
introduction of slavery there having been voted down. … Thus
slavery was virtually fastened on Arkansas. But the Missouri
bill failed in the fifteenth Congress. The popular excitement
steadily increased. The sixteenth Congress met in December,
1819. In the Senate the admission of Missouri with slavery was
coupled with the admission of Maine, on the balance-of-power
principle that one free state and one slave state should
always be admitted at the same time. An amendment was moved
absolutely prohibiting slavery in Missouri, but it was voted
down. Then Mr. Thomas, a Senator from Illinois, on January 18,
1820, proposed that no restriction as to slavery be imposed
upon Missouri in framing a state constitution, but that in all
the rest of the country ceded by France to the United States
north of 30° 30', this being the southern boundary line of
Missouri, there should be neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude. This was the essence of the famous Missouri
Compromise, and, after long and acrimonious debates and
several more votes in the House for restriction and in the
Senate against it, this compromise was adopted. By it the
slave power obtained the present tangible object it contended
for; free labor won a contingent advantage in the future. …
Clay has been widely credited with being the 'father' of the
Missouri Compromise. As to the main features of the measure
this credit he did not deserve. So far he had taken a
prominent but not an originating part in the transaction."
But, at the next session of Congress, when the Missouri
question was unexpectedly reopened, and as threateningly as
ever, Clay assumed a more important part in connection with
the final settlement of it. "The bill passed at the last
session had authorized the people of Missouri to make a state
constitution without any restriction as to slavery. The formal
admission of the state was now to follow. But the Constitution
with which Missouri presented herself to Congress not only
recognized slavery as existing there; it provided also that it
should be the duty of the legislature to pass such laws as
would be necessary to prevent free negroes or mulattoes from
coming into or settling in the state." This provoked a new
revolt on the part of the Northern opponents of slavery, and
it was only through Clay's exertions as a pacificator that
Missouri was conditionally admitted to the Union at length
[March 3, 1820], the condition being that "the said state
shall never pass any law preventing any description of persons
from coming to or settling in the said state who now are, or
hereafter may become, citizens of any of the states of this
Union." The legislature of Missouri gave its assent, as
required, to this "fundamental condition," and the
"compromise" became complete. "The public mind turned at once
to things of more hopeful interest, and the Union seemed safer
than ever. The American people have since become painfully
aware that this was a delusion."
_C. Schurz,
Life of Henry Clay,
chapter 8 (volume 1)._
"The immediate contest was not over the question of the
prohibition of slavery in the Territories. The great struggle
lasted for nearly three years, but the final proposition which
closed the controversy and which prohibited slavery in almost
all the then Federal territory was probably not debated more
than three hours. It was accepted without discussion by the
great bulk of the advocates of Missouri's free admission. Very
few slavery extensionists questioned the right and power of
Congress to prevent the spread of slavery to the Territories.
{3362}
That question, in the minds of those who opposed restriction
in Missouri, was incidental to the question of the right of
Congress to impose conditions upon a State. Incidentally the
question of slavery in the Territories came up in the case of
Arkansas, a country south of Missouri, in which slavery was
already a fact. The restrictionists themselves recognized the
fact that the plain, simple issue 'of limiting the area of
human slavery would be strengthened by bringing it before the
country unincumbered with the question of imposing conditions
on a State, though most of them never wavered in their belief
that conditions might be imposed. On the one hand it was only
Southern zealots who denied to Congress the power to prohibit
slavery in the Territories; on the other hand many in the
North who opposed slavery believed that Congress might not
impose conditions upon a State. In the cabinet of Monroe, in
which sat Wirt, Crawford, and Calhoun, it was unanimously
agreed that Congress had power to prohibit slavery in the
Territories. But John Quincy Adams, also a member of that
cabinet, who hated slavery with all the strength of his soul,
thought it was unconstitutional to bind a State by conditions.
… The struggle indicated a notable change in the southern mind
on the slavery question, and that a slave power was forming
which would attempt to control all legislation of the federal
Union affecting slavery. … The struggle and the compromise
afford the first clear demarcation between the sections. From
this time the equilibrium of political power was a matter of
first concern to a section of States and to a powerful
political interest. Mason and Dixon's line is extended toward
the west, and now marks a political division. The slave States
were now, and for the first time, clearly separated from the
free. A geographical line dividing the sections was
established."
_J. A. Woodburn,
Historical Significance of the Missouri Compromise
(Report of American Historical Association, 1893),
pages 289-294._
ALSO IN:
_H. von Holst,
Constitutional and Political History of the United States,
volume 2, chapter 9._
_J. Quincy,
Life of John Quincy Adams,
chapter 5._
_H. Greeley,
The American Conflict,
volume 1, chapter 7._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1819.
Admission of Alabama into the Union.
See ALABAMA: A. D. 1817-1819.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1819-1821.
Acquisition of Florida from Spain.
Definition of the boundary of the Louisiana Purchase.
See FLORIDA: A. D. 1819-1821.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1820.
Admission of Maine into the Union as a State.
See MAINE: A. D. 1820;
also, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1818-1821.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1820.
Ninth Presidential Election.
"Monroe like Washington was re-chosen President by a vote
practically unanimous. One, however, of the 232 electoral
votes cast was wanting to consummate this exceptional honor;
for a New Hampshire elector, with a boldness of discretion
which, in our days and especially upon a close canvass, would
have condemned him to infamy, threw away upon John Quincy
Adams the vote which belonged like those of his colleagues to
Monroe, determined, so it is said, that no later mortal should
stand in Washington's shoes. Of America's Presidents elected
by virtual acclamation history furnishes but these two
examples; and as between the men honored by so unapproachable
a tribute of confidence, Monroe entered upon his second term
of office with less of real political opposition than
Washington."
_J. Schouler,
History of the United States,
chapter 10, section. 2 (volume 3)._
Daniel D. Tompkins was re-elected Vice President.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1820.
The Fourth Census.
Total population, 9,638,191 (an increase exceeding 33 per
cent. over the enumeration of 1810), classed and distributed
as follows:
North.
White. Free black. Slave.
Connecticut. 267,161 7,844 97
Illinois. 53,788 457 917
Indiana. 145,758 1,230 190
Maine. 297,340 929 0
Massachusetts. 516,419 6,740 0
Michigan. 8,591 174 0
New Hampshire. 243,236 786 0
New Jersey. 257,409 12,460 7,557
New York. 1,332,744 29,279 10,088
Ohio. 576,572 4,723 0
Pennsylvania. 1,017,094 30,202 211
Rhode Island. 79,413 3,554 48
Vermont. 234,846 903 0
--- --- ---
Total 5,030,371 99,281 19,108
South.
White. Free black. Slave.
Alabama. 85,451 571 41,879
Arkansas 12,579 59 1,617
Delaware. 55,282 12,958 4,509
District of
Columbia. 22,614 4,048 6,377
Georgia. 189,566 1,763 149,654
Kentucky. 434,644 2,759 126,732
Louisiana. 73,383 10,476 69,064
Maryland. 260,223 39,730 107,397
Mississippi. 42,176 458 32,814
Missouri. 55,988 347 10,222
North Carolina. 419,200 14,612 205,017
South Carolina. 237,440 6,826 258,475
Tennessee. 339,927 2,727 80,107
Virginia. 603,087 36,889 425,153
--- --- ---
Total 2,831,560 134,223 1,519,017
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1821.
Beginning of emigration to Texas.
See TEXAS: A. D. 1819-1835.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1821-1824.
The Era of Good Feeling.
With the closing of the war of 1812-14, and the disappearance
of the party of the Federalists, there came a period of
remarkable quietude in the political world. "Then followed the
second administration of Monroe, to which was given, perhaps
by the President himself, a name which has secured for the
whole period a kind of peaceful eminence. It was probably
fixed and made permanent by two lines in Halleck's once famous
poem of 'Alnwick Castle,' evidently written during the poet's
residence in England in 1822-23. Speaking of the change from
the feudal to the commercial spirit, he says: "'Tis what our
President Monroe, Has called "the era of good feeling."' … It
would seem from this verse that Monroe himself was credited
with the authorship of the phrase; but I have been unable to
find it in his published speeches or messages, and it is
possible that it may be of newspaper origin, and that Halleck,
writing in England, may have fathered it on the President
himself."
_T. W. Higginson,
Larger History of the United States,
page 394._
{3363}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1823.
The enunciation of the Monroe Doctrine.
One lasting mark of distinction was given to the
administration of President Monroe by the importance which
came to be attached to his enunciation of the principle of
policy since known as the "Monroe Doctrine." This was simply a
formal and official statement of the national demand that
foreign nations shall not interfere with the affairs of the
two American continents. "There has been a good deal of
dispute as to the real authorship of this announcement,
Charles Francis Adams claiming it for his father, and Charles
Sumner for the English statesman Canning. Mr. Gilman, however,
in his late memoir of President Monroe, has shown with
exhaustive research that this doctrine had grown up gradually
into a national tradition before Monroe's time, and that he
merely formulated it, and made it a matter of distinct record.
The whole statement is contained in a few detached passages of
his message of December 2, 1823. In this he announces that
'the American continents, by the free and independent
condition which they have assumed and maintain, are not to be
considered as subjects for colonization by European powers.'
Further on he points out that the people of the United States
have kept aloof from European dissensions, and ask only in
return that North and South America should be equally let
alone. 'We should consider any attempt on their part to extend
their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to
our peace and safety;' and while no objection is made to any
existing colony or dependency of theirs, yet any further
intrusion or interference would be regarded as 'the
manifestation of an unfriendly spirit towards the United
States.' This in brief, is the 'Monroe doctrine' as originally
stated; and it will always remain a singular fact that this
President—the least original or commanding of those who early
held that office—should yet be the only one whose name is
identified with what amounts to a wholly new axiom of
international law."
_T. W. Higginson,
Larger History of the United States,
chapter 16._
"At a cabinet meeting May 13, 1818, President Monroe
propounded several questions on the subject of foreign
affairs, of which the fifth, as recorded by J. Q. Adams, was
this: 'Whether the ministers of the United States in Europe
shall be instructed that the United States will not join in
any project of interposition between Spain and the South
Americans, which should not be to promote the complete
independence of those provinces; and whether measures shall be
taken to ascertain if this be the policy of the British
government, and if so to establish a concert with them for the
support of this policy.' He adds that all these points were
discussed, without much difference of opinion. On July 31,
1818, Rush had an important interview with Castelreagh in
respect to a proposed mediation of Great Britain between Spain
and her colonies. The coöperation of the United States was
desired. Mr. Rush informed the British minister that 'the
United States would decline taking part, if they took part at
all, in any plan of pacification, except on the basis of the
independence of the colonies.' 'This,' he added, 'was the
determination to which his government had come on much
deliberation.' … Gallatin writes to J. Q. Adams, June 24,
1823, that before leaving Paris he had said to M.
Chateaubriand on May 13, 'The United States would undoubtedly
preserve their neutrality provided it were respected, and
avoid every interference with the politics of Europe. … On the
other hand, they would not suffer others to interfere against
the emancipation of America.' … After Canning had proposed to
Rush (September 19, 1823) that the United States should
coöperate with England in preventing European interference
with the Spanish-American colonies, Monroe consulted Jefferson
as well as the cabinet, on the course which it was advisable
to take, and with their approbation prepared his message. …
Enough has been quoted to show that Mr. Sumner is not
justified in saying that the 'Monroe doctrine proceeded from
Canning,' and that he was 'its inventor, promoter, and
champion, at least so far as it bears against European
intervention in American affairs.' Nevertheless, Canning is
entitled to high praise for the part which he took in the
recognition of the Spanish republics, a part which almost
justified his proud utterance, 'I called the New World into
existence to redress the balance of the Old.'"
_D. C. Gilman,
James Monroe,
chapter 7._
ALSO IN:
_C. Sumner,
Prophetic Voices concerning America,
page 157._
_G. F. Tucker,
The Monroe Doctrine._
_F. Wharton,
Digest of the International Law of the United States,
section 57 (volume 1)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1824.
The Protective Tariff.
See TARIFF LEGISLATION (UNITED STATES): A. D. 1816-1824.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1824.
Tenth Presidential Election.
No choice by the People.
Election of John Quincy Adams by the House of Representatives.
"In 1823, as the Presidential election approached, the
influences to control and secure the interests predominating
in the different sections of the country became more active.
Crawford of Georgia, Calhoun of South Carolina, Adams of
Massachusetts, and Clay of Kentucky, were the most prominent
candidates. In December, Barbour of Virginia was superseded,
as Speaker of the House of Representatives, by Clay of
Kentucky; an event ominous to the hopes of Crawford, and to
that resistance to the tariff and to internal improvements
which was regarded as dependent on his success. The question
whether a Congressional caucus, by the instrumentality of
which Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe had obtained the
Presidency, should be again held to nominate a candidate for
that office, was the next cause of political excitement. The
Southern party, whose hopes rested on the success of Crawford,
were clamorous for a caucus. The friends of the other
candidates were either lukewarm or hostile to that expedient.
Pennsylvania, whose general policy favored a protective tariff
and public improvements, hesitated. … But the Democracy of
that state … held meetings at Philadelphia, and elsewhere,
recommending a Congressional caucus. This motion would have
been probably adopted, had not the Legislature of Alabama,
about this time, nominated Andrew Jackson for the Presidency,
and accompanied their resolutions in his favor with a
recommendation to their representatives to use their best
exertions to prevent a Congressional nomination of a
President. The popularity of Jackson, and the obvious
importance to his success of the policy recommended by
Alabama, fixed the wavering counsels of Pennsylvania, so that
only three representatives from that state attended the
Congressional caucus, which was soon after called, and which
consisted of only 60 members, out of 261, the whole number of
the House of Representatives; of which Virginia and New York,
under the lead of Mr. Van Buren, constituted nearly one half.
{3364}
Notwithstanding this meagre assemblage, Mr. Crawford was
nominated for the Presidency. … But the days of Congressional
caucuses were now numbered. The people took the nomination of
President into their own hands [and John Quincy Adams and
Henry Clay were brought into the field]. … The result of this
electioneering conflict was that, by the returns of the
electoral colleges of the several states, it appeared that
none of the candidates had the requisite constitutional
majority; the whole number of votes being 261—of which Andrew
Jackson had 99, John Quincy Adams 84, William H. Crawford 41,
and Henry Clay 37. [The popular vote cast as nearly as can be
determined, was: Jackson, 153,544; Adams, 108,740; Crawford,
46,618; Clay, 47,136.] For the office of Vice-President, John
C. Calhoun had 180 votes, and was elected. … Of the 84 votes
cast for Mr. Adams, not one was given by either of the three
great Southern slaveholding states. Seventy-seven were given
to him by New England and New York. The other seven were cast
by the Middle or recently admitted states. The selection of
President from the candidates now devolved on the House of
Representatives, under the provisions of the constitution.
But, again, Mr. Adams had the support of none of those
slaveholding states, with the exception of Kentucky, and her
delegates were equally divided between him and General
Jackson. The decisive vote was, in effect, in the hands of Mr.
Clay, then Speaker of the House, who cast it for Mr. Adams; a
responsibility he did not hesitate to assume, notwithstanding
the equal division of the Kentucky delegation, and in defiance
of a resolution passed by the Legislature of that state,
declaring their preference for General Jackson. On the final
vote Andrew Jackson had 7 votes, William H. Crawford 4, and
John Quincy Adams 13; who was, therefore, forthwith declared
President of the United States for four years ensuing the 4th
of March, 1825. … Immediately after his inauguration, Mr.
Adams appointed Henry Clay, of Kentucky, Secretary of State. …
General Jackson was deeply mortified and irritated by Mr.
Clay's preference of Mr. Adams. … He immediately put into
circulation among his friends and partisans an unqualified
statement to the effect that Mr. Adams had obtained the
Presidency by means of a corrupt bargain with Henry Clay, on
the condition that he should be elevated to the office of
Secretary of State. To this calumny Jackson gave his name and
authority, asserting that he possessed evidence of its truth;
and, although Mr. Clay and his friends publicly denied the
charge, and challenged proof of it, two years elapsed before
they could compel him to produce his evidence. This, when
adduced, proved utterly groundless, and the charge false; the
whole being but the creation of an irritated and disappointed
mind. Though detected and exposed, the calumny had the effect
for which it was calculated. Jackson's numerous partisans and
friends made it the source of an uninterrupted stream of abuse
upon Mr. Adams, through his whole administration."
_J. Quincy,
Memoir of the Life of John Quincy Adams,
chapters 6-7._
The new administration "stood upon the same political basis as
that of Mr. Monroe. It was but a continuance of the same party
ascendency. It looked to no change of measures, and to no
other change of men than became inevitably necessary to supply
the vacancies which the accidents of political life had
created. Mr. Clay was called to the State Department [and was
maliciously accused of having bargained for it when he threw
his influence at last in Mr. Adams' favor]. … The country …
indulged the hope of a prosperous career in the track which
had been opened by Mr. Madison, and so successfully pursued by
Mr. Monroe. Less confidently, however, it indulged the hope of
a continuance of that immunity from party contention and
exasperation which had characterized the last eight years. The
rising of an opposition was seen, at the very commencement of
this administration, like a dark cloud upon the horizon, which
gradually spread towards the zenith, not without much rumbling
of distant thunder and angry flashes of fire. It was quite
obvious to shrewd observers that the late election had
disappointed many eager spirits, whose discontent was likely
to make head against the predominant party, and, by uniting
the scattered fragments of an opposition which had heretofore
only slept, whilst the country had supposed it extinct, would
present a very formidable antagonist to the new
administration. The extraordinary popularity of General
Jackson, the defeat of his friends by the vote of the House of
Representatives, the neutrality of his political position, his
avowed toleration towards political opponents, and what was
thought to be his liberal views in regard to prominent
political measures—for as yet nothing was developed in his
opinions to set him in direct opposition to the policy or
principles which governed the administration either of Madison
or Monroe—all these considerations gave great strength to the
position which he now occupied, and, in the same degree,
emboldened the hopes of those who looked to him as the proper
person to dispute the next election against the present
incumbent. Many of those who had hoped to see the reign of
good feeling and of abstinence from party strife prolonged,
will remember with what surprise they saw this gathering of
hostile elements, and heard it proclaimed by an authoritative
political leader [Colonel Richard M. Johnson], in the first
days of the new administration, that it should be and ought to
be opposed, 'even if it were as pure as the angels at the
right hand of the throne of God.' Such a declaration was not
less ominous of what was to come than it was startling for its
boldness and its novelty in the history of the government. …
The opposition … took an organized form—became compact,
eager, intolerant and even vindictive."
_J. P. Kennedy,
Memoirs of the Life of William Wirt,
volume 2, chapter 10._
"Monroe was the last President of the Virginian line, John
Quincy Adams the last from New England. The centre of power
was passing from the east to the west. Adams was a genuine New
Englander of the Puritan stock, austerely moral, from his
boyhood laboriously self-trained, not only staid but solemn in
his teens, intensely self-conscious, ever engaged in
self-examination, the punctual keeper of a voluminous diary,
an invariably early riser, a daily reader of the Bible even in
the White House, scrupulously methodical and strictly upright
in all his ways; but testy, unconciliatory, unsympathetic,
absolutely destitute of all the arts by which popularity is
won.
{3365}
His election does the highest credit to the respect of the
electors for public virtue unadorned. The peculiar features of
his father's character were so intensified in him that he may
be deemed the typical figure rather than his father. In
opinions he was a Federalist who having broken with his party
on the question of foreign relations and the embargo had been
put out of its pale but had retained its general mould. As he
was about the last President chosen for merit not for
availability, so he was about the last whose only rule was not
party but the public service. So strictly did he observe the
principle of permanency and purity in the Civil Service, that
he refused to dismiss from office a Postmaster-General whom he
knew to be intriguing against him. The demagogic era had come
but he would not recognize its coming. He absolutely refused
to go on the stump, to conciliate the press, to do anything
for the purpose of courting popularity and making himself a
party. His obstinacy was fatal to his ambition but is not
dishonourable to his memory."
_Goldwin Smith,
The United States,
chapter 4._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1824-1825.
The visit of Lafayette.
One of the most deeply interesting events of the year 1824 was
the arrival in the country of the honored Lafayette, companion
of Washington and friend of the American Republic in its
struggle for independence. He came on the invitation of the
national Government and was entertained as its guest. "He
arrived at Staten Island on Sunday, 15th of August, 1824,
accompanied by his son, George Washington Lafayette, and his
son-in-]aw, M. Le Vasseur. Here he remained until Monday, and
was then met and welcomed by a distinguished committee from
New York, who escorted him to that city. … The arrival of
Lafayette was an event which stirred the whole country;
everybody was anxious to see him, and every State and city in
the Union extended an invitation to him to visit such State or
city; and he did so, being everywhere received with the most
enthusiastic manifestations of love and respect. … He spent a
little over a year in the United States, traveling most of the
time. … Having visited every portion of the United States and
received the affectionate homage of the people, General
Lafayette returned to Washington, where he became in fact 'the
Nation's Guest' at the Presidential mansion. Soon after the
meeting of Congress, in December, 1824, a bill was reported by
a joint committee of the two Houses granting to him a township
of land and the sum of $200,000, which became a law."
_N. Sargent,
Public Men and Events, 1817-1853,
volume 1, page 89-91._
ALSO IN:
_A. Levasseur,
Lafayette in America, in 1824-1825._
_B. Tuckerman,
Life of General Lafayette,
volume 2, chapter 7._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1824-1836.
Schemes of the Slave Power for acquiring Texas.
See TEXAS: A. D. 1824-1836.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1825-1828.
Opposition to the Administration.
The question of Internal Improvements.
Reconstruction of Parties.
Democrats and National Republicans.
The inaugural address of President Adams "furnished a topic"
against him, and "went to the reconstruction of parties on the
old line of strict, or latitudinous, construction of the
constitution. It was the topic of internal national
improvement by the federal government. The address extolled
the value of such works, considered the constitutional
objections as yielding to the force of argument, expressed the
hope that every speculative (constitutional) scruple would be
solved in a practical blessing; and declared the belief that,
in the execution of such works, posterity would derive a
fervent gratitude to the founders of our Union and most deeply
feel and acknowledge the beneficent action of our government.
The declaration of principles which would give so much power
to the government … alarmed the old republicans, and gave a
new ground of opposition to Mr. Adams's administration, in
addition to the strong one growing out of the election in the
House of Representatives. … This new ground of opposition was
greatly strengthened at the delivery of the first annual
message, in which the topic of internal improvement was again
largely enforced, other subjects recommended which would
require a liberal use of constructive powers, and Congress
informed that the President had accepted an invitation from
the American States of Spanish origin, to send ministers to
their proposed Congress on the Isthmus of Panama.
See COLOMBIAN STATES: A. D. 1826.
It was, therefore, clear from the beginning that the new
administration was to have a settled and strong opposition. …
There was opposition in the Senate to the confirmation of Mr.
Clay's nomination to the State department, growing out of his
support of Mr. Adams in the election of the House of
Representatives, and acceptance of office from him; but
overruled by a majority of two to one."
_T. H. Benton,
Thirty Years' View,
volume 1, chapter 21._
"From the very beginning of this Administration both factions
of the Strict Constructionists united in an opposition to the
President which became stronger through his whole term of
office, until it overcame him. His ill-advised nomination of
Clay to a post in his Cabinet gave color to the charge of a
corrupt bargain between him and Clay, by which Adams was to
receive the Clay vote in the House, and Clay was to be
rewarded by the position of Secretary of State, which was then
usually considered a stepping stone to the Presidency. Clay
angrily denied any such bargain, and the renewal of charges
and denials, each with its appropriate arguments, gave
abundant material for debate. The Clay and Adams factions soon
united and took the distinctive party name of National
Republicans. Some years afterward this name was changed to
that of Whigs. They maintained the loose constructionist
principles of the Federalists, and, in addition, desired a
Protective Tariff and a system of public improvements at
national expense. … In October, 1825, the Tennessee
Legislature nominated Jackson for the Presidency in 1828, and
Jackson accepted the nomination. Crawford's continued
ill-health compelled his adherents to look elsewhere for a
candidate, and they gradually united upon Jackson. At first
the resulting coalition was known as 'Jackson Men,' but, as
they began to take the character of a national party, they
assumed the name of Democrats, by which they have since been
known. They maintained the strict constructionist principles
of the Republican party, though the Crawford faction in the
South went further, and held the extreme ground of the
Kentucky Resolutions of 1799."
_A. Johnston,
History of American Politics, 2d edition,
chapter 11._
ALSO IN:
_C. Schurz,
Life of Henry Clay,
volume 1, chapters 10-12._
{3366}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1828.
The Tariff "Bill of Abominations."
Change of front in New England.
See TARIFF LEGISLATION (UNITED STATES: A. D. 1828).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1828.
Eleventh Presidential Election.
Triumph of Jackson and the new Democracy.
Andrew Jackson was again put in nomination for the Presidency,
while President Adams was supported for re-election by the
National Republicans. "The campaign was conducted, on both
sides, on very ruthless methods. Niles said it was worse than
the campaign of 1798. Campaign extras of the 'Telegraph' were
issued weekly, containing partisan material, refutations of
charges against Jackson, and slanders on Adams and Clay. The
Adams party also published a monthly of a similar character.
The country was deluged with pamphlets on both sides. These
pamphlets were very poor stuff, and contain nothing important
on any of the issues. They all appeal to low tastes and
motives, prejudices and jealousies. … In September, 1827, the
Tammany General Committee and the Albany 'Argus' came out for
Jackson, as it had been determined, in the programme, that
they should do. A law was passed for casting the vote of New
York in 1828 by districts. The days of voting throughout the
country ranged from October 31st to November 19th. The votes
were cast by the Legislature in Delaware and South Carolina;
by districts in Maine, New York, Maryland, Tennessee;
elsewhere, by general ticket. Jackson got 178 votes to 83 for
Adams. The popular vote was 648,273 for Jackson; 508,064 for
Adams. Jackson got only one vote in New England. … For
Vice-President, Richard Rush got all the Adams votes; Calhoun
[who was elected] got all the Jackson votes except 7 of
Georgia, which were given to William Smith, of South Carolina.
General Jackson was therefore triumphantly elected President
of the United States, in the name of reform, and as the
standard-bearer of the people, rising in their might to
overthrow an extravagant, corrupt, aristocratic, federalist
administration, which had encroached on the liberties of the
people, and had aimed to corrupt elections by an abuse of
federal patronage. Many people believed this picture of
Adams's administration to be true. Andrew Jackson no doubt
believed it. Many people believe it yet. Perhaps no
administration, except that of the elder Adams, is under such
odium. There is not, however, in our history any
administration which, upon a severe and impartial scrutiny,
appears more worthy of respectful and honorable memory. Its
chief fault was that it was too good for the wicked world in
which it found itself. In 1836 Adams said, in the House, that
he had never removed one person from office for political
causes, and that he thought that was one of the principal
reasons why he was not reëlected."
_W. G. Sumner,
Andrew Jackson as a Public Man,
chapter 5._
"In this election there was a circumstance to be known and
remembered. Mr. Adams and Mr. Rush were both from the
non-slaveholding, General Jackson and Mr. Calhoun from the
slaveholding States, and both large slave owners themselves,
and both received a large vote (73 each) in the free
States—and of which at least 40 were indispensable to their
election. There was no jealousy, or hostile or aggressive
spirit in the North at that time against the South!"
_T. H. Benton,
Thirty Years' View,
volume 1, chapter 38._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1828-1833.
The Nullification doctrine and ordinance of South Carolina.
The Hayne and Webster debate.
President Jackson's proclamation.
The Compromise Tariff.
"In May, 1828, a meeting of the South Carolina delegation in
Congress was held in Washington, at the rooms of General
Hayne, one of the Senators of that State, to concert measures
against the tariff and the protective policy which it
embodied. From the history of the times, and the disclosures
subsequently made, it is apparent that some violent things
were said at this meeting, but it broke up without any
definite plan. In the course of the following summer, there
were many popular meetings in South Carolina, largely
attended, at which the tariff of 1824 was treated as an act of
despotism and usurpation, which ought to be openly resisted. …
They occasioned anxiety and regret among the friends of the
Union throughout the country, though nothing more. But, in the
autumn, the Legislature of South Carolina adopted an
'Exposition and Protest,' which gave form and substance to the
doctrines which thenceforward became known as 'Nullification.'
In order to understand them, however, as a theory of the
Federal Constitution, it is necessary to state the theory to
which they are opposed, and to overthrow which they were
brought forward. The Government of the United States, under
the Constitution, had hitherto been administered upon the
principle that the extent of its powers is to be finally
determined by its supreme judicial tribunal, not only when
there is any conflict of authority between its several
departments, but also when the authority of the whole
Government is denied by one or more of the States. … Aside
from the authority of [the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions
of 1798]—an authority that was doubtful, because their
interpretation was not clear—there had been no important
assertion of the principle that a State can determine for its
citizens whether they are to obey an act of Congress, by
asserting its unconstitutional character, and that the right
to do this is implied as a right inherent in a State, under
the Constitution, and results from the nature of the
Government. This, however, was what the advocates of
nullification now undertook to establish. The remedy which
they sought, against acts which they regarded as usurpations,
was not revolution, and not the breaking up the Union, as they
claimed; but it was a remedy which they held to exist within
the Union, and to have been contemplated by the people of the
States when they established the Constitution. How far they
considered such a theory compatible with the continued
existence of the Union, I am not aware that they undertook to
explain. … Although the Legislature of South Carolina had thus
propounded a theory of resistance, and held that there was
then a case in the tariff which would justify a resort to it,
no steps were yet taken toward the immediate exercise of the
asserted power." In the great debate between General Hayne of
South Carolina and Daniel Webster, which occurred in the
Senate, in January, 1830, the doctrine of nullification
received for the first time a discussion which sank deep into
the mind of the nation.
{3367}
The original subject-matter of the debate was a resolution
relating to Western land sales; but Hayne in his first speech
made an attack on New England which drew out Webster in
vindication, and then, when the South Carolinian replied, he
boldly and broadly set forth the nullifying theory which his
State had accepted from the sophistical brain of John C.
Calhoun. It received its refutation then and there, in
Webster's final speech. "The effect of this speech upon the
country, that immediately followed its delivery, it is not
easy for us at the present day to measure. … Vast numbers of
Mr. Webster's speech were … published and circulated in
pamphlet editions, after all the principal newspapers of the
country had given it entire to their readers. The popular
verdict, throughout the Northern and Western and many of the
Southern States was decisive. A great majority of the people
of the United States, of all parties, understood, appreciated,
and accepted the view maintained by Mr. Webster of the nature
of the Constitution, and the character of the government which
it establishes."
_G. T. Curtis,
Life of Daniel Webster,
chapter 16 (volume 1)._
If Webster's speech had solidified the majority opinion of the
country in resistance to nullification, it had not paralyzed
the nullifying movement. In the summer of 1831, and again in
August, 1832, Calhoun published addresses to the people of
South Carolina, elaborating his doctrine, and "urging an
immediate issue on account of the oppressive tariff
legislation under which the South was then suffering. The
Legislature of South Carolina was convened by the governor to
meet on October 22, for the purpose of calling a convention
'to consider the character and extent of the usurpations of
the general government.' The convention met on November 19,
and adopted without delay an 'ordinance' declaring that the
tariff act of 1828, and the amendments thereto passed in 1832,
were null and void; that it should be held unlawful to enforce
the payment of duties thereunder within the State of South
Carolina; that it should be the duty of the legislature to
make laws giving effect to the ordinance; … and that, if the
general government should attempt to use force to maintain the
authority of the federal law, the State of South Carolina
would secede from the Union,—the ordinance to go into full
effect on February 1, 1833. The legislature, which met again
on November 19, passed the 'appropriate' laws. But these
enactments were not very fierce; as Webster said, they 'limped
far behind the ordinance.' Some preparation, although little,
was made for a conflict of arms;" nor was there any certain
show of readiness in other Southern States to stand by South
Carolina in the position she had taken. "President Jackson's
annual message, which went to Congress on December 4, 1832,
was remarkably quiet in tone," and neither alarmed the
nullifiers nor gave confidence to the friends of the Union;
but "six days later, on December 10, came out Jackson's famous
proclamation against the nullifiers, which spoke thus: 'The
Constitution of the United States forms a government, not a
league. … Our Constitution does not contain the absurdity of
giving power to make laws, and another power to resist them.
To say that any state may at pleasure secede from the Union is
to say that the United States are not a nation.' He appealed
to the people of South Carolina, in the tone of a father, to
desist from their ruinous enterprise; but he gave them also
clearly to understand that, if they resisted by force, the
whole power of the Union would be exerted to maintain its
authority. All over the North, even where Jackson had been
least popular, the proclamation was hailed with unbounded
enthusiasm. … The nullifiers in South Carolina received the
presidential manifesto apparently with defiance. The governor
of the state issued a counter-proclamation. Calhoun resigned
the vice-presidency, and was immediately sent to the Senate to
fight the battle for nullification there." The president, now
thoroughly roused, called on Congress for extraordinary powers
to meet the emergency, and a bill embodying his wishes—called
the "Force Bill"—was introduced. But, at the same time, while
they showed this bold front to the nullifiers, Congress and
the executive began to prepare a retreat from the ground they
had held on the tariff. Henry Clay took the field again, in
the exercise of his peculiar talents for compromise, and the
result was the nearly simultaneous passage (February 26 and
27, 1833) through Congress of the "Force bill" and of a
compromise tariff bill, which latter provided for a graduated
reduction of the duties year by year, until 1842, when they
should stand at 20 per cent., as a horizontal rate, with a
large free-list. "The first object of the measure was
attained: South Carolina repealed her nullification ordinance.
… But before long it became clear that beyond the repeal of
the nullification ordinance, the compromise had settled
nothing. The nullifiers strenuously denied that they had in
any sense given up their peculiar doctrine."
_C. Schurz,
Life of Henry Clay,
chapter 14 (volume 2)._
"The theory of nullification, as set forth by Calhoun, even
now, after it has received the benefit of careful study and
able expounding by historians, is not clear. He always avowed
a loyalty to the Union, but the arguments by which he sought
to demonstrate that nullification was compatible with the
existence of the Union, and indeed a guarantee of its
perpetuity, did not occasion much solicitude to the majority
of his party. But no one at the North understood the fallacy
of his reasoning or the real end and aim of his party more
clearly than did the Union men of his state. They reasoned
simply. Said the Camden, S. C. 'Gazette': 'We know of only two
ways, under our government, to get rid of obnoxious
legislation. We must convince a majority of the nation that a
given enactment is wrong and have it repealed in the form
prescribed by the constitution, or resist it
extra-constitutionally by the sword. … But this everlasting
cant of devotion to the Union, accompanied by a recommendation
to do those acts that must necessarily destroy it, is beyond
patient endurance from a people not absolutely confined in
their own mad-houses.' … A fact … that historians have failed
to lay any stress upon, and that nevertheless deserves some
notice, is the holding of a state convention of the Union
party of South Carolina immediately after the nullification
convention had completed its work. It was the last important
action of that party in the state.
{3368}
Randell Hunt, who presented the first resolutions, epitomized
the views of the convention and the question it should
consider in three sentences: 'That the Union party
acknowledges no allegiance to any government except that of
the United States. That in referring this resolution to the
general committee they be instructed to inquire whether it is
not expedient to give a military organization to the Union
party throughout the state. Whether it will not be necessary
to call in the assistance of the general government for
maintaining the laws of the United States against the
arbitrary violence which is threatened by the late
convention.' The resolutions which were adopted declared that
the ordinance of nullification violated the constitution of
the United States and had virtually destroyed the Union, since
by preventing the general government from enforcing its laws
within the boundaries of the state, it made the state a
sovereignty paramount to the United States. They denounced the
provisions of the ordinance as tyrannical and oppressive, and
the test oath as especially incompatible with civil liberty,
in that it disfranchised nearly half the citizens of the
state. They pointed scornfully to the project of a standing
army in the state. … They concluded by declaring the continued
opposition of the signers to the tariff, and their
determination to protect themselves against intolerable
oppression. The resolutions were signed by all the members of
the convention, about 180 in number. In point of fact, the
Unionists were not disposed to favor any compromise measures,
and looked rather with disfavor upon Mr. Clay's bill, as a
measure which was being forced upon the country. Congress,
they thought, ought not to modify the tariff until the
nullification ordinance had been repealed. But the greater
force was with the nullifiers, and the number of their
opponents was dwindling. Caught by the enthusiasm and fighting
spirit of their neighbors, some of the Unionists joined the
nullification military companies that were being organized,
and others, seeing the hopelessness of the struggle against a
superior force, in sorrow and disgust shook the dust of South
Carolina from their feet, preferring to begin life over again
in other parts of the South, less charged with sentiments that
they believed to be treasonable. … The Unionist party, crushed
and helpless, was only too anxious to bury all feuds. It never
was an active force in the state again, but the bold spirit
which had actuated its members was manifested later, when the
struggle for state sovereignty was more widespread; and some
of the most intrepid Union men of the South in the civil war
were those who had fled from South Carolina years before, when
the nullification party had triumphed."
_G. Hunt,
South Carolina during the Nullification Struggle
(Political Science Quarterly, June, 1891)._
ALSO IN:
_W. G. Sumner,
Andrew Jackson as a Public Man,
chapters 10 and 13._
_H. von Holst,
Constitutional and Political History of the United States,
volume 1, chapter 12._
_J. Parton,
Life of Andrew Jackson,
volume 3, chapters 32-34._
_T. H. Benton,
Thirty Years' View,
volume 1, chapters 78-89._
_J. C. Calhoun,
Works,
volume 6
(Reports and Public Letters)._
_O. L. Elliott,
The Tariff Controversy in the United States,
chapter 5._
The following is the text of the "Ordinance to nullify certain
acts of the Congress of the United States, purporting to be
laws laying duties and imposts on the importation of foreign
commodities," adopted by the State Convention of South
Carolina on the 24th of November, 1832:
"Whereas the Congress of the United States by various acts,
purporting to be acts laying duties and imposts on foreign
imports, but in reality intended for the protection of
domestic manufactures, and the giving of bounties to classes
and individuals engaged in particular employments, at the
expense and to the injury and oppression of other classes and
individuals, and by wholly exempting from taxation certain
foreign commodities, such as are not produced or manufactured
in the United States, to afford a pretext for imposing higher
and excessive duties on articles similar to those intended to
be protected, hath exceeded its just powers under the
constitution, which confers on it no authority to afford such
protection, and hath violated the true meaning and intent of
the constitution, which provides for equality in imposing the
burdens of taxation upon the several States and portions of
the confederacy: And whereas the said Congress, exceeding its
just power to impose taxes and collect revenue for the purpose
of effecting and accomplishing the specific objects and
purposes which the constitution of the United States
authorizes it to effect and accomplish, hath raised and
collected unnecessary revenue for objects unauthorized by the
constitution. We, therefore, the people of the State of South
Carolina, in convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and
it is hereby declared and ordained, that the several acts and
parts of acts of the Congress of the United States, purporting
to be laws for the imposing of duties and imposts on the
importation of foreign commodities, and now having actual
operation and effect within the United States, and, more
especially, an act entitled 'An act in alteration of the
several acts imposing duties on imports,' approved on the
nineteenth day of May, one thousand eight hundred and
twenty-eight, and also an act entitled 'An act to alter and
amend the several acts imposing duties on imports,' approved
on the fourteenth day of July, one thousand eight hundred and
thirty-two, are unauthorized by the constitution of the United
States, and violate the true meaning and intent thereof and
are null, void, and no law, nor binding upon this State, its
officers or citizens; and all promises, contracts, and
obligations, made or entered into, or to be made or entered
into, with purpose to secure the duties imposed by said acts,
and all judicial proceedings which shall be hereafter had in
affirmance thereof, are and shall be held utterly null and
void. And it is further ordained, that it shall not be lawful
for any of the constituted authorities, whether of this State
or of the United States, to enforce the payment of duties
imposed by the said acts within the limits of this State; but
it shall be the duty of the legislature to adopt such measures
and pass such acts as may be necessary to give full effect to
this ordinance, and to prevent the enforcement and arrest the
operation of the said acts and parts of acts of the Congress
of the United States within the limits of this State, from and
after the 1st day of February next, and the duty of all other
constituted authorities, and of all persons residing or being
within the limits of this State, and they are hereby required
and enjoined to obey and give effect to this ordinance, and
such acts and measures of the legislature as may be passed or
adopted in obedience thereto.
{3369}
And it is further ordained, that in no case of law or equity,
decided in the courts of this State, wherein shall be drawn in
question the authority of this ordinance, or the validity of
such act or acts of the legislature as may be passed for the
purpose of giving effect thereto, or the validity of the
aforesaid acts of Congress, imposing duties, shall any appeal
be taken or allowed to the Supreme Court of the United States,
nor shall any copy of the record be permitted or allowed for
that purpose; and if any such appeal shall be attempted to be
taken, the courts of this State shall proceed to execute and
enforce their judgments according to the laws and usages of
the State, without reference to such attempted appeal, and the
person or persons attempting to take such appeal may be dealt
with as for a contempt of the court. And it is further
ordained, that all persons now holding any office of honor,
profit, or trust, civil or military, under this State (members
of the legislature excepted), shall, within such time, and in
such manner as the legislature shall prescribe, take an oath
well and truly to obey, execute, and enforce this ordinance,
and such act or acts of the legislature as may be passed in
pursuance thereof, according to the true intent and meaning of
the same; and on the neglect or omission of any such person or
persons so to do, his or their office or offices shall be
forthwith vacated, and shall be filled up as if such person or
persons were dead or had resigned; and no person hereafter
elected to any office of honor, profit, or trust, civil or
military (members of the legislature excepted), shall, until
the legislature shall otherwise provide and direct, enter on
the execution of his office, or be in any respect competent to
discharge the duties thereof until he shall, in like manner,
have taken a similar oath; and no juror shall be empanelled in
any of the courts of this State, in any cause in which shall
be in question this ordinance, or any act of the legislature
passed in pursuance thereof, unless he shall first, in
addition to the usual oath, have taken an oath that he will
well and truly obey, execute, and enforce this ordinance, and
such act or acts of the legislature as may be passed to carry
the same into operation and effect, according to the true
intent and meaning thereof. And we, the people of South
Carolina, to the end that it may be fully understood by the
government of the United States, and the people of the
co-States, that we are determined to maintain this our
ordinance and declaration, at every hazard, do further declare
that we will not submit to the application of force on the
part of the federal government, to reduce this State to
obedience; but that we will consider the passage, by Congress,
of any act authorizing the employment of a military or naval
force against the State of South Carolina, her constitutional
authorities or citizens; or any act abolishing or closing the
ports of this State, or any of them, or otherwise obstructing
the free ingress and egress of vessels to and from the said
ports, or any other act on the part of the federal government,
to coerce the State, shut up her ports, destroy or harass her
commerce, or to enforce the acts hereby declared to be null
and void, otherwise than through the civil tribunals of the
country, as inconsistent with the longer continuance of South
Carolina in the Union; and that the people of this State will
henceforth hold themselves absolved from all further
obligation to maintain or preserve their political connection
with the people of the other States; and will forthwith
proceed to organize a separate government, and do all other
acts and things which sovereign and independent States may of
right do. Done in convention at Columbia, the twenty-fourth
day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight
hundred and thirty-two, and in the fifty-seventh year of the
declaration of the independence of the United States of
America."
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1829.
Introduction of the "Spoils System."
See CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1829.
The Kitchen Cabinet of President Jackson.
Major Lewis, one of the Tennessee friends of General Jackson,
who accompanied him to Washington and was persuaded to remain,
with his residence at the White House; General Duff Green,
editor of the "United States Telegraph"; Isaac Hill, editor of
the "New Hampshire Patriot," and Amos Kendall, late the editor
of a Jackson paper in Kentucky, but a native of
Massachusetts:—"these were the gentlemen … who, at the
beginning of the new administration, were supposed to have
most of the President's ear and confidence, and were
stigmatized by the opposition as the Kitchen Cabinet."
_J. Parton,
Life of Andrew Jackson,
volume 3, chapter 16._
After the breach between Jackson and Calhoun, Duff Green
adhered to the latter. The "Globe" newspaper was then founded,
to be the organ of the administration, and Francis P. Blair,
called from Kentucky to undertake the editorship, acquired at
the same time Duff Green's vacated seat in the Kitchen
Cabinet.
_J. Schouler,
History of the United States,
volume 3, page 501._
"The establishment of the 'Globe,' the rupture with Calhoun,
and the breaking up of the first cabinet had inaugurated a
bitter war between the two rival papers, though really between
the President and Mr. Calhoun, in consequence of which there
were rich revelations made to the public."
_N. Sargent,
Public Men and Events, 1817-1853,
volume 1, page 186._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1829-1832.
Rise of the Abolitionists.
"Between the years 1829 and 1832 took place a remarkable
series of debates in Virginia on the subject of slavery,
brought about by dissatisfaction with the State constitution
and by the Nat Turner massacre, in which a number of slaves
had risen against their masters. In these debates the evils of
slavery were exposed as clearly as they were afterwards by the
Abolitionists, and with an outspoken freedom which, when
indulged in by Northern men, was soon to be denounced as
treasonable and incendiary. These Southern speakers were
silenced by the Slave Power. But there were men in the North
who thought the same and who would not be silenced. Chief
among these was William Lloyd Garrison. He had begun his
memorable career by circulating petitions in Vermont in 1828
in favor of emancipation in the District of Columbia. Having
joined Lundy in Baltimore in editing the 'Genius of Universal
Emancipation,' he had suffered ignominy in the cause, in a
Southern jail; drawing from persecution and hardship only new
inspiration, he began the publication of the 'Liberator', at
Boston in January, 1831.
{3370}
In the following year, under his leadership, was formed the
New England Anti-Slavery Society, which placed itself on the
new ground that immediate, unconditional emancipation, without
expatriation, was the right of every slave and could not be
withheld by his master an hour without sin. In March, 1833,
the 'Weekly Emancipator' was established in New York, with the
assistance of Arthur and Lewis Tappan, and under the
editorship of William Goodell. In the same year appeared at
Haverhill, Massachusetts, a vigorous pamphlet by John G.
Whittier, entitled 'Justice and Expediency, or Slavery
considered with a View to its Rightful and Effectual Remedy,
Abolition.' Nearly simultaneously were published Mrs. Lydia
Maria Child's 'Appeal in Behalf of that Class of Americans
called Africans,' and a pamphlet by Elizur Wright, Jr., a
professor in the Western Reserve College, on 'The Sin of
Slavery and its Remedy.' These publications and the doctrines
of the 'Liberator' produced great excitement throughout the
country."
_B. Tuckerman,
William Jay and the Constitutional Movement for the
Abolition of Slavery,
chapter 3._
The "Liberator" "was a weekly journal, bearing the names of
William Lloyd Garrison and Isaac Knapp as publishers. Its
motto was, 'Our Country is the World, Our Countrymen are
Mankind,' a direct challenge to those whose motto was the
Jingo cry of those days, 'Our Country, right or wrong!' It was
a modest folio, with a page of four columns, measuring
fourteen inches by nine and a quarter. … The paper had not a
dollar of capital. It was printed at first with borrowed type.
Garrison and Knapp did all the work of every kind between
them, Garrison of course doing the editorials. That he wrote
them can hardly be said: his habit was often to set up without
manuscript. … The publishers announced in their first issue
their determination to go on as long as they had bread and
water to live on. In fact, they lived on bread and milk, with
a little fruit and a few cakes, which they bought in small
shops below. Garrison apologizes for the meagreness of the
editorials, which, he says, he has but six hours, and those at
midnight, to compose, all the rest of his time and the whole
of that of his companion being taken up by the mechanical
work. … It was against nothing less than the world, or at
least the world in which he lived, that this youth of
twenty-six, with his humble partner, took up arms. Slavery was
at the height of its power. … The salutatory of the
'Liberator' avowed that its editor meant to speak out without
restraint. 'I will be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising
as justice. On this subject I do not wish to think or speak or
write with moderation. No! No! Tell a man whose house is on
fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue
his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to
gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has
fallen—but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the
present. I am in earnest—I will not equivocate—I will not
excuse—I will not retreat a single inch—and I will be heard.'
This promise was amply kept. … In private and in his family he
was all gentleness and affection. Let it be said, too, that he
set a noble example to controversial editors in his fair
treatment of his opponents. Not only did he always give
insertion to their replies, but he copied their criticisms
from other journals into his own. Fighting for freedom of
discussion, he was ever loyal to his own principle. What is
certain is that the 'Liberator,' in spite of the smallness of
its circulation, which was hardly enough to keep it alive,
soon told. The South was moved to its centre. The editorials
probably would not have caused much alarm, as the slaves could
not read. What was likely to cause more alarm was the
frontispiece, which spoke plainly enough to the slave's eye.
It represented an auction at which 'slaves, horses and other
cattle' were being offered for sale, and a whipping-post at
which a slave was being flogged. In the background was the
Capitol at Washington, with a flag inscribed 'Liberty'
floating over the dome. … On seeing the 'Liberator' the realm
of slavery bestirred itself. A Vigilance Association took the
matter in hand. First came fiery and bloodthirsty editorials;
then anonymous threats; then attempts by legal enactment to
prevent the circulation of the 'Liberator' at the South. The
Grand Jury of North Carolina found a true bill against
Garrison for the circulation of a paper of seditious tendency,
the penalty for which was whipping and imprisonment for the
first offence, and death without benefit of clergy for the
second. The General Assembly of Georgia offered a reward of
five thousand dollars to anyone who, under the laws of that
State, should arrest the editor of the 'Liberator', bring him
to trial, and prosecute him to conviction. The South
reproached Boston with allowing a battery to be planted on her
soil against the ramparts of Southern institutions. Boston
felt the reproach, and showed that she would gladly have
suppressed the incendiary print and perhaps have delivered up
its editor; but the law was against her, and the mass of the
people, though wavering in their allegiance to morality on the
question of slavery, were still loyal to freedom of opinion. …
It was just at this time that the South and its clientage at
the North were thrown into a paroxysm of excitement by the
Bloody Monday, as Nat Turner's rising at Southampton was
called. The rising was easily suppressed, and Virginia saw, as
Jamaica has since seen, how cruel is the panic of a dominant
race. Not the slightest connection of the outbreak with
Northern abolitionism was traced. That Garrison or anyone
connected with him ever incited the slaves to revolt, or said
a word intentionally which could lead to servile war, seems to
be utterly untrue. His preaching to the slaves, on the
contrary, was always patience, submission, abstinence from
violence, while in his own moral code he carried
non-resistance to an extreme. Moreover, his championship held
out hope, and what goads to insurrection is despair."
_Goldwin Smith,
William Lloyd Garrison,
pages 60-65._
"Mr. Emerson once said, 'Eloquence is dog-cheap in
anti-slavery meetings.' … On the platform you would always see
Garrison; with him was … Sam May. Stephen S. Foster was always
there. … Parker Pilsbury, James Buffum, Arnold Buffum, Elizur
Wright, Henry C. Wright, Abigail Kelley, Lucy Stone, Theo. D.
Weld, the sisters Grimké, from South Carolina; John T.
Sargent, Mrs. Chapman, Mrs. Lydia M. Child, Fred Douglas, Wm.
W. Brown and Francis Jackson. The last was a stern Puritan,
conscientious, upright, clear-minded, universally respected.
Edmund Quincy also was there, and he never spoke without
saying something that had a touch of wit as well as of logic.
Oliver Johnson … was one of the very first members of the
Society. Theodore Parker, Samuel J. May, John Pierpont,
Charles L. Stearns, Charles L. Redwood, George Thompson
(another wonderfully eloquent man), and, above all, Wendell
Phillips."
_J. F. Clarke,
Anti-Slavery Days,
chapter 3._
See, also, SLAVERY, NEGRO: A. D. 1828-1832.
{3371}
A. D. 1830.
The Fifth Census.
Total population, 12,866,020 (being about 33½ per cent. more
than in 1820), classed and distributed as follows:
North.
White. Free black. Slave.
Connecticut. 289,603 8,047 25
Illinois. 155,061 1,637 747
Indiana. 339,399 3,629 3
Maine 398,263 1,190 2
Massachusetts. 603,359 7,048 1
Michigan. 31,346 261 32
New Hampshire. 268,721 604 3
New Jersey. 300,266 18,303 2,254
New york. 1,873,663 44,870 75
Ohio. 928,329 9,568 6
Pennsylvania. 1,309,900 37,930 403
Rhode Island. 93,621 3,561 17
Vermont. 279,771 881 0
Total 6,871,302 137,529 3,568
South.
White. Free black. Slave.
Alabama. 190,406 1,572 117,549
Arkansas. 25,671 141 4,576
Delaware. 57,601 15,855 3,292
District of Columbia. 27,563 6,152 6,119
Florida. 18,385 844 15,501
Georgia. 296,806 2,486 217,531
Kentucky. 517,787 4,917 165,213
Louisiana. 89,441 16,710 109,588
Maryland. 291,108 52,938 102,994
Mississippi 70,443 519 65,659
Missouri. 114,795 569 25,091
North Carolina. 472,843 19,543 245,601
South Carolina. 257,863 7,921 315,401
Tennessee. 535,746 4,555 141,603
Virginia. 694,300 47,348 469,757
Total 3,660,758 182,070 2,005,475
In the decade between 1820 and 1830 the immigrant arrivals in
the United States, as officially recorded, numbered 143,439,
of which 75,803 were from the British Islands. Prior to 1821,
there is no official record of immigration.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1830-1831.
The first railroads.
See STEAM LOCOMOTION ON LAND.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1832.
The Black Hawk War.
See ILLINOIS: A. D. 1832.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1832.
The prospective surplus and necessary tariff reduction.
Clay's delusive measure.
See TARIFF LEGISLATION (UNITED STATES): A. D. 1832.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1832.
Twelfth Presidential Election.
Re-election of General Jackson.
General Jackson, renominated by his party almost without
question, was re-elected over three competitors, the popular
vote being as follows: Andrew Jackson, Democrat, 687,502;
Henry Clay, National Republican, 530,189; William Wirt,
Anti-Masonic, 33,108; John Floyd (voted for only in South
Carolina, where electors were chosen by the legislature). The
vote in the electoral college stood: Jackson 219, Clay 49,
Floyd 11, Wirt 7. Martin Van Buren was elected Vice President.
"This election is notable for several reasons. It marks the
beginning of the system of national nominating conventions; it
gave Jackson a second term of office, in which he was to
display his peculiar qualities more conspicuously than ever;
it compacted and gave distinct character to the new Democratic
party; and it practically settled directly the fate of the
Bank of the United States, and indirectly the question of
nullification. Jackson was easily re-elected, for he had
established a great popularity, and the opposition was
divided. A new party came into the field, and marked its
advent by originating the national nominating convention. This
was the Anti-Masonic party".
See NEW YORK: A. D.1826-1832.
Both the Democratic and the National Republican parties
adopted the invention of the Anti-Masons, and made their
nominations for the first time by the agency of great national
conventions.
_W. Wilson,
Division and Reunion, 1829-1889,
page 62._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1833-1836.
President Jackson's overthrow of the United States Bank.
The removal of the Deposits.
"The torrents of paper-money issued during the revolutionary
war, which sunk in value to nothing, converted the old
prejudice against paper promises-to-pay into an aversion that
had the force of an instinct. To this instinctive aversion, as
much as to the constitutional objections urged by Mr.
Jefferson and his disciples, was owing the difficulty
experienced by Alexander Hamilton in getting his first United
States bank chartered. Hence, also, the refusal of Congress to
recharter that bank in 1811. Hence the unwillingness of Mr.
Madison to sanction the charter of the second bank of the
United States in 1816. But the bank was chartered in 1816, and
went into existence with the approval of all the great
republican leaders, opposed only by the extreme Jeffersonians
and by the few federalists who were in public life. … But,
long before General Jackson came into power, the bank appeared
to have lived down all opposition. In the presidential
campaign of 1824 it was not so much as mentioned, nor was it
mentioned in that of 1828. … At the beginning of the
administration of General Jackson, the Bank of the United
States was a truly imposing institution. Its capital was
thirty-five millions. The public money deposited in its vaults
averaged six or seven millions; its private deposits, six
millions more; its circulation, twelve millions; its
discounts, more than forty millions a year; its annual
profits, more than three millions. Besides the parent bank at
Philadelphia, with its marble palace and hundred clerks, there
were 25 branches in the towns and cities of the Union. … Its
bank-notes were as good as gold in every part of the country.
… The bank and its branches received and disbursed the entire
revenue of the nation. … There is a tradition in Washington to
this day, that General Jackson came up from Tennessee to
Washington, in 1829, resolved on the destruction of the Bank
of the United States, and that he was only dissuaded from
aiming a paragraph at it in his inaugural address by the
prudence of Mr. Van Buren. … General Jackson had no thought of
the bank until he had been President two months. He came to
Washington expecting to serve but a single term, during which
the question of re-chartering the bank was not expected to
come up.
{3372}
The bank was chartered in 1816 for twenty years, which would
not expire until 1836." But, in 1829, the influence of Isaac
Hill, one of the so-called "Kitchen Cabinet" at Washington,
involved the irascible President in an endeavor to bring about
the removal of Jeremiah Mason, a political opponent, who had
been appointed to the presidency of the branch of the United
States Bank at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. "The correspondence
began in June and ended in October. I believe myself warranted
in the positive assertion, that this correspondence relating
to the desired removal of Jeremiah Mason was the direct and
real cause of the destruction of the bank."
_J. Parton,
Life of Andrew Jackson,
volume 3, chapter 20._
"As soon as the issue between him and the Bank of the United
States was declared, Jackson resolved that the bank must be
utterly destroyed. The method was suggested by Kendall and
Blair, of the Kitchen Cabinet. It was to cripple the available
means of the bank by withdrawing from it and its branches the
deposits of public funds. In the message of December, 1832,
Jackson had expressed his doubt as to the safety of the
government deposits in the bank, and recommended an
investigation. The House, after inquiry, resolved on March 2,
by 109 to 46 votes, that the deposits were safe. The bank was
at that period undoubtedly solvent, and there seemed to be no
reason to fear for the safety of the public money in its
custody. But Jackson had made up his mind that the bank was
financially rotten; that it had been employing its means to
defeat his reëlection; that it was using the public funds in
buying up members of Congress for the purposes of securing a
renewal of its charter, and of breaking down the
administration; and that thus it had become a dangerous agency
of corruption and a public enemy. Therefore the public funds
must be withdrawn, without regard to consequences. But the law
provided that the public funds should be deposited in the Bank
of the United States or its branches, unless the Secretary of
the Treasury should otherwise 'order and direct,' and in that
case the Secretary should report his reasons for such
direction to Congress. A willing Secretary of the Treasury was
therefore needed. In May, 1833, Jackson reconstructed his
Cabinet for the second time. … For the Treasury Department
Jackson selected William J. Duane of Philadelphia, who was
known as an opponent of the bank. Jackson, no doubt, expected
him to be ready for any measure necessary to destroy it. In
this he was mistaken. Duane earnestly disapproved of the
removal of the deposits as unnecessary, and highly dangerous
to the business interests of the country. … A majority of the
members of the Cabinet thought the removal of the deposits
unwise. … In the business community there seemed to be but one
voice about it. The mere rumor that the removal of the
deposits was in contemplation greatly disturbed the money
market. But all this failed to stagger Jackson's resolution. …
The Cabinet, with the exception of the Secretary of the
Treasury, bowed to Jackson's will. But Duane would not shelter
himself behind the President's assumed responsibility to do an
act which, under the law, was to be his act. He also refused
to resign. If he had to obey or go, he insisted upon being
removed. Jackson then formally dismissed him, and transferred
Roger B. Taney from the attorney generalship to the treasury.
Benjamin F. Butler of New York, a friend of Van Buren, was
made Attorney General. Taney forthwith ordered the removal of
the deposits from the Bank of the United States; that is to
say, the public funds then in the bank were to be drawn out as
the government required them, and no new deposits to be made
in that institution. The new deposits were to be distributed
among a certain number of selected state banks, which became
known as the 'pet banks.' … The money market became stringent.
Many failures occurred. The general feeling in business
circles approached a panic." But the very disturbance was
charged upon the Bank, itself; the people rallied to the
support of their favorite, "Old Hickory," and when the
national charter of the Bank expired, in March, 1836, there
was no hope of its renewal. It obtained a charter from the
State of Pennsylvania, and continued business as a State
institution until it went to pieces in the general commercial
shipwreck of 1837-41.
_C. Schurz,
Life of Henry Clay,
chapter 15 (volume 2)._
ALSO IN:
_W. G. Sumner,
Andrew Jackson as a Public Man,
chapters 11-14._
_T. H. Benton,
Thirty Years' View,
volume 1, chapters 49, 56, 64-67, 77, and 92-111._
_M. St. C. Clarke and D. A. Hall,
History of the Bank of the United States._
See, also, MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1817-1833.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1834.
Organization of the Whig Party.
The largest section of the opposition to the Jacksonian
Democracy "was organized in 1834 as the Whig party. According
to the 'Whig Almanac' for 1838, the party as then constituted
comprised: '(1) Most of those who, under the name of National
Republicans, had previously been known as supporters of Adams
and Clay, and advocates of the American system [of
tariff-protection]; (2) Most of those who, acting in defence
of what they deemed the assailed or threatened rights of the
States, had been stigmatized as Nullifiers, or the less
virulent State Rights' men, who were thrown into a position of
armed neutrality towards the administration by the doctrines
of the proclamation of 1832 against South Carolina; (3) A
majority of those before known as Anti-Masons; (4) Many who
had up to that time been known as Jackson men, but who united
in condemning the high-handed conduct of the Executive, the
immolation of Duane, and the subserviency of Taney; (5)
Numbers who had not before taken any part in politics, but who
were now awakened from their apathy by the palpable
usurpations of the Executive and the imminent peril of our
whole fabric of constitutional liberty and national
prosperity.' It was not to be expected that a party composed
of such various elements would be able to unite on one
candidate with heartiness; and, as the event proved, it was
necessary that some time should elapse before anything like
homogeneity could be given to the organization. Nullification
was not popular among the Whigs of the North, nor did the
State Rights' people of South Carolina and other States care
about the war on the bank and the removal of the deposits."
_E. Stanwood,
History of Presidential Elections,
chapter 14._
{3373}
"It was now felt instinctively that, in the existing struggle
between the parties actually arrayed against each other, and
in the principles and doctrines of those who were in power,
there was a peculiar fitness in the revival of a term which,
on both sides of the Atlantic, had been historically
associated with the side of liberty against the side of power.
The revival of the name of Whigs was sudden, and it was a
spontaneous popular movement. In progress of time, it enabled
the public men who were leading the opposition to the party of
the Administration to consolidate an organization of distinct
political principles, and to strengthen it by accessions from
those who had found reason to be dissatisfied with the
opinions prevailing among the friends of the President."
_G. T. Curtis,
Life of Daniel Webster,
volume 1, page 499._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1835.
First Petitions for the Abolition of Slavery
in the District of Columbia.
Exclusion of Antislavery literature from the Mails.
"It was during the Twenty-third Congress, 1835, that the
abolition of slavery, especially in the District of Columbia,
may be said to have begun to move the public mind at the
North. The first petitions presented to Congress for the
abolition of slavery, at least the first to attract attention,
were presented by Mr. Dickson, from the Canandaigua district,
New York, who addressed the House in support of the prayer of
the petitioners. Perhaps his speech, more than the petition he
presented, served to stir up a feeling on the part of Southern
men, and to cause other and numerous similar petitions to be
gotten up at the North and sent to Congress. … The labors of
the enemies of slavery, or 'Abolitionists,' had commenced, and
by indefatigable men who believed they were serving God and
the cause of humanity, and consequently it was with them a
labor of conscience and duty, with which nothing should be
allowed to interfere. Instead of petitions to Congress, they
now sent large boxes of tracts, pamphlets, and various
publications which the Southern people denominated
'incendiary,' to the post-office at Charleston, South
Carolina, and other cities, to be distributed, as directed, to
various persons. This increased the complaints and
inflammatory articles in the Southern papers. The publications
thus sent were stopped in the post-office, and the postmasters
addressed the head of the department, Amos Kendall, on the
subject, who replied that though the law authorized the
transmission of newspapers and pamphlets through the mail, yet
the law was intended to promote the general good of the
public, and not to injure any section; and intimated that,
such being the effect of these publications at the South,
postmasters would be justified in withholding them."
_N. Sargent,
Public Men and Events, 1817-1853,
volume 1, page 294-295._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1835-1837.
The inflation of credits, and Speculation.
The great collapse.
"When the United States Bank lost the government deposits,
late in 1833, they amounted to a little less than $10,000,000.
On January 1, 1835, more than a year after the state banks
took the deposits, they had increased to a little more than
$10,000,000. But the public debt being then paid and the outgo
of money thus checked, the deposits had by January 1, 1836,
reached $25,000,000, and by June 1, 1836, $41,500,000. This
enormous advance represented the sudden increase in the sales
of public lands, which were paid for in bank paper, which in
turn formed the bulk of the government deposits. … The
increase in the sales of public lands was the result of all
the organic causes and of all the long train of events which
had seated the fever of speculation so profoundly in the
American character of the day. … The increase of government
deposits was only fuel added to the flames. The craze for
banks and credits was unbounded before the removal of the
deposits had taken place, and before their great increase
could have had serious effect. … The insanity of speculation
was in ample though unobserved control of the country while
Nicholas Biddle [President of the United States Bank] still
controlled the deposits, and was certain to reach a climax
whether they stayed with him or went elsewhere. … The
distribution of the surplus among the states by the law of
1836 was the last and in some respects the worst of the
measures which aided and exaggerated the tendency to
speculation. By this bill, all the money above $5,000.000 in
the treasury on January 1, 1837, was to be 'deposited' with
the states in four quarterly installments commencing on that
day. … From the passage of the deposit bill in June, 1836,
until the crash in 1837, this superb donation of thirty-seven
millions was before the enraptured and deluded vision of the
country. Over nine millions and a quarter to be poured into
'improvements' or loaned to the needy,—what a luscious
prospect! The lesson is striking and wholesome, and ought not
to be forgotten, that, when the land was in the very midst of
these largesses, the universal bankruptcy set in. During 1835
and 1836 there were omens of the coming storm. Some perceived
the rabid character of the speculative fever. William L.
Marcy, governor of New York, in his message of January, 1836,
answering the dipsomaniac cry for more banks, declared that an
unregulated spirit of speculation had taken capital out of the
state; but that the amount so transferred bore no comparison
to the enormous speculations in stocks and in real property
within the state. … The warning was treated contemptuously;
but before the year was out the federal administration also
became anxious, and the increase in land sales no longer
signified to Jackson an increasing prosperity. … So Jackson
proceeded with his sound defense of the famous specie
circular, long and even still denounced as the 'causa cansans'
of the crisis of 1837. By this circular, issued on July 11,
1836, the secretary of the treasury had required payment for
public lands to be made in specie, with an exception until
December 15, 1836, in favor of actual settlers and actual
residents of the state in which the lands were sold. …
Jackson's specie circular toppled over the house of cards,
which at best could have stood but little longer. … An
insignificant, part of the sales had been lately made to
settlers. They were chiefly made to speculators. … Of the real
money necessary to make good the paper bubble promises of the
speculators not one tenth part really existed. Banks could
neither make their debtors pay in gold and silver, nor pay
their own notes in gold and silver. So they suspended. The
great and long concealed devastation of physical wealth and of
the accumulation of legitimate labor by premature improvements
and costly personal living, became now quickly apparent.
Fancied wealth sank out of sight."
_E. M. Shepard,
Martin Van Buren,
chapter 8._
ALSO IN:
_W. G. Sumner,
History of American Currency,
pages 102-161._
_F. A. Walker,
Money,
chapter 21._
_C. Juglar,
Brief History of Panics,
page 58._
{3374}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1835-1843.
The Second Seminole War.
See FLORIDA: A. D. 1835-1843.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1836.
The Atherton Gag.
"At this time [1835-36], the Northern abolitionists sent
petitions to Congress for the abolition of slavery in the
District of Columbia. They contended that as this territory
was under the control of the United States' Government, the
United States was responsible for slavery there; and that the
Free States were bound to do what they could to have slavery
brought to an end in that District. But the Slave States were
not willing to have anything said on the subject, so they
passed what was called a 'gag' law in the House of
Representatives, and ruled that all petitions which had any
relation to slavery should be laid on the table without being
debated, printed or referred. John Quincy Adams opposed this
rule resolutely, maintaining that it was wrong and
unconstitutional. … He continued to present petitions, as
before, for the abolition of slavery in the District. When the
day came for petitions he was one of the first to be called
upon; and he would sometimes occupy nearly the whole hour in
presenting them, though each one was immediately laid on the
table. One day he presented 511."
_J. F. Clarke,
Anti-Slavery Days,
page 45._
The gag-law has sometimes taken the name of the Atherton gag
from its New Hampshire author.
_W. C. Bryant and S. H. Gay,
Popular History of the United States,
volume 4, page 338._
ALSO IN:
_J. H. Gidding,
History of the Rebellion,
pages 104-124._
_J. T. Morse, Jr.,
John Quincy Adams,
pp. 246-280._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1836.
Admission of Arkansas into the Union.
See ARKANSAS: A. D. 1819-1836.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1836.
Jackson's administration reviewed.
"What of the administration as a whole? Parton's view is as
follows: 'I must avow explicitly the belief that,
notwithstanding the good done by General Jackson during his
presidency, his elevation to power was a mistake on the part
of the people of the United States. The good which he effected
has not continued, while the evil which he began remains.'
Sumner, in commenting on 'Jackson's modes of action in his
second term,' says: 'We must say of Jackson that he stumbled
along through a magnificent career, now and then taking up a
chance without really appreciating it; leaving behind him
disturbed and discordant elements of good and ill just fit to
produce turmoil and dis·aster in the future.' Later he adds:
'Representative institutions are degraded on the Jacksonian
theory just as they are on the divine-right theory, or on the
theory of the democratic empire. There is not a worse
perversion of the American system of government conceivable
than to regard the President as the tribune of the people.'
The view of von Holst may be inferred from the following
passages: 'In spite of the frightful influence, in the real
sense of the expression, which he exercised during the eight
years of his presidency, he neither pointed out nor opened new
ways to his people by the superiority of his mind, but only
dragged them more rapidly onward on the road they had long
been travelling, by the demoniacal power of his will.' The
meaning of the bank struggle is thus defined: 'Its
significance lay in the elements which made Jackson able
actually and successfully to assert his claims, in conflict
both with the constitution and with the idea of republicanism,
to a position between Congress and the people as patriarchal
ruler of the republic.' Elsewhere he tells us that the 'curse
of Jackson's administration' is that it weakened respect for
law; that 'the first clear symptom' of 'the decline of a
healthy political spirit' was the election and re-election of
Jackson to the presidency; that his administration paved a
'broad path for the demoralizing transformation of the
American democracy'; and that 'his "reign" receives the stamp
which characterizes it precisely from the fact that the
politicians knew how to make his character, with its texture
of brass, the battering-ram with which to break down the last
ramparts which opposed their will.' According to Parton,
Sumner, and von Holst, as I understand them, the net result of
Jackson's influence upon the American people was to hasten
their progress toward political ruin. I think this conclusion
erroneous. The gravest accusation against Jackson is, that his
influence undermined respect for law. It is plausibly argued
that, since he himself was impatient of authority, his example
must have stimulated lawlessness in his followers. It may be
urged, in reply, that the history of the country does not
support the charge. The worst exhibitions of general
lawlessness which have disgraced the United States were the
anti-abolitionist mobs of Jackson's own day—for which he was
not responsible. Since then, the American people, in spite of
the demoralizations of the war and reconstruction periods,
have steadily grown in obedience to law. … It is a curious
circumstance that the relation of Jackson to sectionalism has
received very little attention; and yet the growth of
sectionalism, i. e., the tendency to divide the Union into two
portions, politically separate and independent, is the fact
which, from the Missouri Compromise of 1820 to the ordinances
of secession in 1860, gives our political history its
distinctive character. The one important question concerning
Jackson, as indeed concerning every public man during the
forty years which precede the Civil War, is: What did he do
towards saving the Union from sectionalism? … Jackson came
before the country as a disciple of Jefferson, and therefore
as a believer in state rights. There was, it is true, much in
his temper and situation which favored centralization;
nevertheless, he was an honest, though moderate and somewhat
inconsistent Jeffersonian, and he won and retained the
confidence of the state-rights element in the democratic
party. Moreover, he identified himself with the newly
enfranchised and poorer citizens just rising to political
self-consciousness. In these ways, his following came to
include a large majority of his fellow-citizens, and, what was
of the utmost importance, by far the larger proportion of
those whose political character and opinions were as yet
plastic. … Jackson became, to a degree never realized by any
other man in our history, the trusted leader and teacher of
the masses. … This intimate relation to the people, and this
unparalleled power over the people, Jackson used to impress
upon them his own love of the Union and his own hatred of
sectionalism. … His character was altogether national. It is
easy to think of Calhoun as a southerner and a South
Carolinian; but it would not be easy to think of Jackson as
belonging to Tennessee or to the border states.
{3375}
The distribution of his support in the election of 1832 is
instructive. New Hampshire, New York and Pennsylvania, as well
as Tennessee, Georgia, Missouri, were Jackson's states. He was
not looked upon as the representative of any particular
section. His policy as President showed no trace of
sectionalism. Its aim was the welfare of the masses
irrespective of section. To him state lines had little
meaning; sectional lines, absolutely none. There is another
way in which he rendered great though unconscious service to
the cause of national unity: he made the government, hitherto
an unmeaning abstraction, intelligible and attractive to the
people. … The chief value, then, of Jackson's political
career, was its educational effect. His strong conviction of
the national character of the Union, his brave words and acts
in behalf of the rights of the Union, sank deep into the
hearts of followers and opponents."
_A. D. Morse,
Political Influence of Andrew Jackson
(Political Science Quarterly, June, 1886)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1836.
Thirteenth Presidential Election.
Martin Van Buren chosen.
"As Vice-president, Van Buren was at the side of Jackson
during his second term as President. It was the period of the
first experiment in producing panics; of reckless expansions
of the currency; of extravagant speculation; of an
accumulating surplus revenue; of the last struggles of the
Bank of the United States for the continuance of its powers.
There was not a difficult question on which Jackson did not
open his mind to the Vice-president with complete and
affectionate confidence. He has often been heard to narrate
incidents illustrating the prompt decision and bold judgment
of his younger friend; and in those days of vehement conflicts
between the power of the people and interests embodied against
that power, the daring energy of the one was well united with
the more tranquil intrepidity of the other. How fully this was
recognized by the people appears from the action of the
Democratic party of the Union. In May, 1835, it assembled in
convention at Baltimore, and by a unanimous vote placed Van
Buren in nomination as their candidate for the Presidency. …
The Democracy of the Union supported Van Buren with entire
unanimity. Out of two hundred and eighty-six electoral votes
he received one hundred and seventy; and, for the first time,
the Democracy of the North saw itself represented in the
Presidential chair. Electoral votes were given for Van Buren
without regard to geographical divisions: New York and
Alabama, Missouri and Maine, Virginia and Connecticut, were
found standing together. His election seemed friendly to the
harmony and the perpetuity of the Union."
_G. Bancroft,
Martin Van Buren.
chapter 5._
Mr. Van Buren received a clear majority of the popular vote
cast at the election, namely, 762,678, against 735,651 cast in
opposition, but divided between four Whig candidates, namely,
William H. Harrison, who received 73 electoral votes, Hugh L.
White, who received 26, Daniel Webster who received 14, and
Willie P. Mangum, who received 11. Richard M. Johnson was
chosen Vice President.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1837.
Admission of Michigan into the Union.
See MICHIGAN: A. D. 1837.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1837.
The introduction of the Sub-treasury system.
"When the banks went down, they had the government deposits:
this was in May, 1837. Van Buren's administration was only two
months old. The President was a warm admirer of Jackson, and
had formally announced that he would continue his
predecessor's policy with respect to the management of the
deposits. But the 'experiment' had suddenly culminated. The
government deposits were not in its control, and could not be
regained; their transfer from one part of the country to
another had ceased. … Once more, therefore, the government was
confronted with a grave question touching its deposits and the
circulating medium. It now essayed a brand-new experiment.
This was nothing less than keeping the deposits itself, and
transferring and paying them as occasion required; while the
people were left to regulate the currency themselves. This was
a very wide departure from any former policy. The mode
proposed of keeping the public deposits may be briefly
described. The treasury building at Washington was to
constitute the treasury of the United States, and the public
money was to be kept within its vaults. The mint at
Philadelphia, the branch at New Orleans, the new custom-houses
in New York and Boston, were also to contain branch treasury
vaults. Places were also to be prepared at Charleston, St.
Louis, and elsewhere. The treasurer of the United States at
Washington, and the treasurers of the mints at Philadelphia
and New Orleans, were to be 'receivers-general,' to keep the
public money. … At the extra session of Congress in 1837, the
Executive recommended the sub-treasury experiment. Congress
refused to try it, although a majority in both Houses belonged
to the same political party as the President. Nevertheless,
the system was continued, without legislative sanction, until
1840, when Congress finally passed a bill legalizing the
measure. At the presidential election in 1840 a party
revolution occurred, and the sub-treasury system, which had
formed a prominent issue in the campaign, was unqualifiedly
condemned by the people. Congress repealed the law, and passed
a bill creating another national bank," which President Tyler
vetoed.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1841.
"Thus the keeping of the public money remained in the hands of
the government officials, without legislative regulation,
until the passage of the sub-treasury bill, in 1846. The
system established at that time has been maintained ever
since."
_A. S. Bolles,
Financial History of the United States, 1789-1860,
book 3, chapter 2._
ALSO IN:
_T. H. Benton,
Thirty Years' View,
volume 2, chapters 29, 41, 64-65._
_D. Kinley,
The Independent Treasury of the United States._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1837-1838.
Antislavery Petitions in the Senate.
Calhoun's Resolutions, forcing the issue.
"The movements for and against slavery in the session of
1837-1838 deserve to be noted, as of disturbing effect at the
time; and as having acquired new importance from subsequent
events. Early in the session a memorial was presented in the
Senate from the General Assembly of Vermont, remonstrating
against the annexation of Texas to the United States, and
praying for the abolition of slavery in the District of
Columbia—followed by many petitions from citizens and
societies in the Northern States to the same effect; and,
further, for the abolition of slavery in the Territories—for
the abolition of the slave trade between the States—and for
the exclusion of future slave States from the Union. …
{3376}
The question which occupied the Senate was as to the most
judicious mode of treating these memorials, with a view to
prevent their evil effects: and that was entirely a question
of policy, on which senators disagreed who concurred in the
main object. Some deemed it most advisable to receive and
consider the petitions—to refer them to a committee—and
subject them to the adverse report which they would be sure to
receive; as had been done with the Quakers' petitions at the
beginning of the government. Others deemed it preferable to
refuse to receive them. The objection raised to this latter
course was, that it would mix up a new question with the
slavery agitation which would enlist the sympathies of many
who did not co-operate with the Abolitionists—the question of
the right of petition. … Mr. Clay, and many others were of
this opinion; Mr. Calhoun and his friends thought otherwise;
and the result was, so far as it concerned the petitions of
individuals and societies, what it had previously been—a
half-way measure between reception and rejection—a motion to
lay the question of reception on the table. This motion,
precluding all discussion, got rid of the petitions quietly,
and kept debate out of the Senate. In the case of the memorial
from the State of Vermont, the proceeding was slightly
different in form, but the same in substance. As the act of a
State, the memorial was received; but after reception was laid
on the table. Thus all the memorials and petitions were
disposed of by the Senate in a way to accomplish the two-fold
object, first, of avoiding discussion; and, next, condemning
the object of the petitioners. It was accomplishing all that
the South asked; and if the subject had rested at that point,
there would have been nothing in the history of this session,
on the slavery agitation, to distinguish it from other
sessions about that period: but the subject was revived; and
in a way to force discussion, and to constitute a point for
the retrospect of history. Every memorial and petition had
been disposed of according to the wishes of the senators from
the slaveholding States; but Mr. Calhoun deemed it due to
those States to go further, and to obtain from the Senate
declarations which should cover all the questions of federal
power over the institution of slavery: although he had just
said that paper reports would do no good. For that purpose, he
submitted a series of resolves—six in number—which derive
their importance from their comparison, or rather contrast,
with others on the same subject presented by him in the Senate
ten years later; and which have given birth to doctrines and
proceedings which have greatly disturbed the harmony of the
Union, and palpably endangered its stability. The six
resolutions of this period (1837-1838) undertook to define the
whole extent of the power delegated by the States to the
federal government on the subject of slavery; to specify the
acts which would exceed that power; and to show the
consequences of doing anything not authorized to be done—
always ending in a dissolution of the Union. The first four of
these related to the States; about which, there being no
dispute, there was no debate. The sixth, without naming Texas,
was prospective, and looked forward to a case which might
include her annexation; and was laid upon the table to make
way for an express resolution from Mr. Preston on the same
subject. The fifth related to the territories, and to the
District of Columbia, and was the only one which excited
attention, or has left a surviving interest. It was in these
words: 'Resolved that the intermeddling of any State, or
States, or their citizens, to abolish slavery in this
District, or any of the territories, on the ground or under
the pretext that it is immoral or sinful, or the passage of
any act or measure of Congress with that view, would be a
direct and dangerous attack on the institutions of all the
slaveholding States.' The dogma of 'no power in Congress to
legislate upon the existence of slavery in territories' had
not been invented at that time; and, of course, was not
asserted in this resolve, intended by its author to define the
extent of the federal legislative power on the subject. The
resolve went upon the existence of the power, and deprecated
its abuse." Mr. Clay offered an amendment, in the nature of a
substitute, consisting of two resolutions, the first of which
was in these words: "'That the interference by the citizens of
any of the States, with the view to the abolition of slavery
in this District, is endangering the rights and security of
the people of the District; and that any act or measure of
Congress, designed to abolish slavery in this District, would
be a violation of the faith implied in the cessions by the
States of Virginia and Maryland—a just cause of alarm to the
people of the slaveholding States—and have a direct and
inevitable tendency to disturb and endanger the Union.' The
vote on the final adoption of the resolution was: (Yeas 37,
Nays 8]. … The second resolution of Mr. Clay applied to
slavery in a territory where it existed, and deprecated any
attempt to abolish it in such territory, as alarming to the
slave States, and as violation of faith towards its
inhabitants, unless they asked it; and in derogation of its
right to decide the question of slavery for itself when
erected into a State. This resolution was intended to cover
the case of Florida, and ran thus: 'Resolved that any attempt
of Congress to abolish slavery in any territory of the United
States in which it exists would create serious alarm and just
apprehension in the States sustaining that domestic
institution, and would be a violation of good faith towards
the inhabitants of any such territory who have been permitted
to settle with, and hold, slaves therein; because the people
of any such territory have not asked for the abolition of
slavery therein; and because, when any such territory shall be
admitted into the Union as a State, the people thereof shall
be entitled to decide that question exclusively for
themselves.' And the vote upon it was—[Yeas 35, Nays 9]. …
The general feeling of the Senate was that of entire
repugnance to the whole movement—that of the petitions and
memorials on the one hand, and Mr. Calhoun's resolutions on
the other. The former were quietly got rid of, and in a way to
rebuke, as well as to condemn their presentation; that is to
say, by motions (sustained by the body) to lay them on the
table. The resolutions could not so easily be disposed of,
especially as their mover earnestly demanded discussion, spoke
at large, and often himself; and 'desired to make the
question, on their rejection or adoption, a test question.'"
_T. H. Benton,
Thirty Years' View,
volume 2, chapter 33._
{3377}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1840.
The Sixth Census.
Total population, 17,069,453 (exceeding that of 1830 by nearly
33 per cent.), classed and distributed as follows:
North.
White. Free black. Slave.
Connecticut. 301,856 8,105 17
Illinois. 472,254 3,598 331
Indiana. 678,698 7,165 3
Iowa. 42,924 172 16
Maine. 500,438 1,355 0
Massachusetts. 729,030 8,669 0
Michigan. 211,560 707 0
New Hampshire. 284,036 537 1
New Jersey. 351,588 21,044 674
New York. 2,378,890 50,027 4
Ohio. 1,502,122 17,342 3
Pennsylvania. 1,676,115 47,854 64
Rhode Island. 105,587 3,238 5
Vermont. 291,218 730 0
Wisconsin. 30,749 185 11
Total 9,557,065 170,728 1,129
South.
White. Free black. Slave.
Alabama. 335,185 2,039 253,532
Arkansas. 77,174 465 19,935
Delaware. 58,561 16,919 2,605
District of Columbia. 30,657 8,361 4,694
Florida. 27,943 817 25,717
Georgia. 407,695 2,753 280,944
Kentucky. 590,253 7,817 182,258
Louisiana. 158,457 25,502 168,452
Maryland. 318,204 62,078 89,737
Mississippi. 179,074 1,366 195,211
Missouri. 323,888 1,574 58,240
North Carolina. 484,870 22,732 245,817
South Carolina. 259,084 8,276 327,038
Tennessee. 640,627 5,524 183,059
Virginia. 740,858 49,852 449,087
Total 4,632,530 215,575 2,486,326
The number of immigrants arriving in the United States between
1830 and 1840, according to official reports, was 599,125, of
whom 283,191 were from the British Islands, and 212,497 from
other parts of Europe.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1840.
Fourteenth Presidential Election.
The Log-cabin and Hard-cider campaign.
William Henry Harrison, Whig, was elected President, over
Martin Van Buren, Democrat, and James G. Birney, candidate of
the "Liberty Party." The popular vote cast was: Harrison
1,275,016, Van Buren 1,129,102, Birney 7,069. The electoral
vote stood: Harrison 234, Van Buren 60, Birney none. John
Tyler was elected Vice President. In the early part of the
campaign, a Baltimore newspaper, making a foolish attempt to
cast ridicule on General Harrison, said that a pension of a
few hundred dollars and a barrel of hard cider would content
him in his log cabin for life. This fatuous remark gave the
Whigs a popular cry which they used with immense effect, and
"the log-cabin and hard-cider campaign," as it is known in
American history, was memorable for its song-singing
enthusiasm.—"If one could imagine a whole nation declaring a
holiday or season of rollicking for a period of six or eight
months, and giving themselves up during the whole time to the
wildest freaks of fun and frolic, caring nothing for business,
singing, dancing, and carousing night and day, he might have
some faint notion of the extraordinary scenes of 1840. It
would be difficult, if not impossible, otherwise to form even
a faint idea of the universal excitement, enthusiasm,
activity, turmoil, and restlessness which pervaded the country
during the spring, summer, and fall of that memorable year.
Log cabins large enough to hold crowds of people were built in
many places. Small ones, decorated with 'coon-skins, were
mounted on wheels and used in processions. The use of the
'coon-skins soon led to the adoption of the 'coon (raccoon)
itself as an emblem and adjunct of the log cabin, and its
'counterfeit presentment' was hoisted in all the Whig papers.
Meetings were everywhere, and every day, held in
neighborhoods, school-houses, villages, towns, counties,
cities, States, varying in number from ten to one hundred
thousand; and wherever there was a gathering there were also
speaking and singing. Ladies attended these meetings, or
conventions, in great numbers, and joined in the singing.
Farmers, with big teams and wagons, would leave their fields
and travel ten, twenty, or thirty miles, accompanied by their
families and neighbors, to attend a convention or a barbecue
and listen to distinguished orators. Crowds on the road,
multitudes in big wagons drawn by four, six, or eight horses,
made the welkin ring with their log-cabin songs. Nobody slept,
nobody worked, nobody rested; at least so it seemed, for all
were on the 'qui vive' and in motion. The entire population
seemed to be absorbed in the great duty of electing General
Harrison and thus changing the government. …
What has caused this great commotion, motion, motion,
Our country through?
It is the ball a rolling on
For Tippecanoe and Tyler too,
For Tippecanoe and Tyler too.'
The original or special friends of General Harrison very
naturally claimed that it was his popularity which produced
such an unprecedented 'commotion' 'our country through.' But
in this they were mistaken. The popularity of no one man could
have produced such a universal outpouring of the people from
day to day for weeks and months unceasingly, abandoning
everything else, and giving time and money unstintedly to
carry the election. General Harrison was but the
figure-head,—the representative of the Whig party for the time
being. Few had ever heard of him. The people knew from history
and the campaign papers that he had been a general in the then
late war with England; that he had won a victory at the battle
of Tippecanoe over the British and Indians, and also at the
battle of the Thames, in Canada, where Tecumseh, the noted
Indian warrior, was killed. This was enough to make a hero of
him by those who had a purpose to serve in doing so. As to his
fitness for the Presidency, the people knew nothing and cared
nothing. A change in the government was what they desired and
were determined to have."
_N. Sargent,
Public Men and Events,
volume 2, pages 107-110._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1840-1841.
The McLeod case.
See CANADA: A. D. 1840-1841.
{3378}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1841.
The Death of President Harrison.
Breach between President Tyler and the Whig Party
which elected him.
President Harrison died suddenly on the 4th of April, 1841,
and Vice President John Tyler became President. Tyler was a
Calhoun Democrat in politics, although nominated and elected
by the Whigs, and the financial measures favored by the latter
were especially obnoxious to him. "Congress met May 31st,
1841. … A bill to abolish the Sub-Treasury of the previous
Administration was passed by both Houses and signed by the
President. A bill to incorporate 'The Fiscal Bank of the
United States' was passed by both Houses. It was weeded of
many of the objectionable features of the old United States
Bank, but was hardly less odious to the Democrats. It was
vetoed by the President. … An effort to pass the bill over the
veto did not receive a two-thirds majority. The Whig leaders,
anxious to prevent a party disaster, asked from the President
an outline of a bill which he would sign. After consultation
with the Cabinet, it was given, and passed by both Houses.
September 9th the President vetoed this bill also, and an
attempt to pass it over the veto did not receive a two-thirds
majority. The action of the President, in vetoing a bill drawn
according to his own suggestions, and thus apparently
provoking a contest with the party which had elected him,
roused the unconcealed indignation of the Whigs. The Cabinet,
with one exception [Daniel Webster, Secretary of State, who
remained in President Tyler's cabinet until May, 1843], at
once resigned. The Whig members of Congress issued Addresses
to the People, in which they detailed the reforms designed by
the Whigs and impeded by the President, and declared that 'all
political connection between them and John Tyler was at an end
from that day forth.' … The President filled the vacancies in
the Cabinet by appointing Whigs and Conservatives. His
position was one of much difficulty. His strict
constructionist opinions, which had prevented him from
supporting Van Buren, would not allow him to approve a
National Bank, and yet he had accepted the Vice-Presidency
from a party pledged to establish one. The over hasty
declaration of war by the Whigs put a stop to his
vacillations, and compelled him to rely upon support from the
Democrats. But only a few members of Congress, commonly known
as 'the corporal's guard,' recognized Tyler as a leader."
_A. Johnston,
History of American Politics, 2d ed.,
chapter 15, sections 2-4._
ALSO IN:
_L. G. Tyler,
Letters and Times of the Tylers,
volume 2, chapters 1-4._
_C. Colton,
Life and Times of Henry Clay,
chapters 14-15._
_T. H. Benton,
Thirty Years' View,
volume 2, chapters 80-85._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1842.
Victory of John Quincy Adams in defending the Right of Petition.
"January 21, 1842, Mr. Adams presented a petition from 45
citizens of Haverhill, Massachusetts, praying for the
dissolution of the Union, and moved it be referred to a select
committee, with instructions to report why the petition should
not be granted. There was at once great excitement and members
called out, 'Expel him,' 'Censure him.' After a good deal of
fruitless endeavor to accomplish something, the House
adjourned, and forty or fifty slaveholders met to decide what
kind of resolutions should be presented to meet the case.
Thomas F. Marshall of Kentucky was selected by this caucus
from Congress to propose the resolutions, which were to the
effect that for presenting such a petition to a body each of
whom had taken an oath to maintain the Constitution, Mr. Adams
was virtually inviting them to perjure themselves, and that
therefore he deserved the severest censure. Marshall supported
this with a very violent speech. Mr. Wise followed in another.
Then Mr. Adams arose and asked the clerk to read the first
paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, being the one
which recognizes the right of every people to alter or abolish
their form of Government when it ceases to accomplish its
ends. He said that those who believed that the present
Government was oppressive had the right (according to the
Declaration of Independence, on which the whole of our
national unity reposes), to petition Congress to do what they
believed was desirable; and all that Congress could properly
do would be to explain to them why such an act could not be
performed. He replied with great severity to Mr. Wise and said
that Mr. Wise had come into that Hall a few years before with
his hands dripping with the blood of one of his fellow beings.
In this he alluded to the part which Mr. Wise had taken in the
duel between Mr. Graves of Kentucky, and Cilley of Maine, in
which the latter had been killed. As for Mr. Marshall, who had
accused him of treason, he spoke of him with great scorn. 'I
thank God!' said he 'that the Constitution of my country has
defined treason, and has not left it to the puny intellect of
this young man from Kentucky to say what it is. If I were the
father of this gentleman from Kentucky, I should take him from
this House and put him to school where he might study his
profession for some years until he became a little better
qualified to appear in this place.' Mr. Adams had on his desk
a great many books and references prepared for his use by some
anti-slavery gentlemen then in Washington; after he had gone
on for some time with his speech he was asked how much more
time he would probably occupy. He replied 'I believe Mr. Burke
took three months for his speech on Warren Hastings'
indictment. I think I may probably get through in ninety days,
perhaps in less time.' Thereupon they thought it just as well
to have the whole thing come to an end and it was moved that
the matter should be laid on the table. Mr. Adams consented,
and it was done."
_J. F. Clarke,
Anti-Slavery Days,
pages 57-59._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1842.
The tariff act.
See TARIFF LEGISLATION (UNITED STATES): A. D. 1842.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1842.
The Ashburton Treaty with England.
Settlement of Northeastern boundary questions.
"It was arranged in December by the Peel ministry that Lord
Ashburton should be sent to Washington as a special minister
from Great Britain, with full powers to settle the boundary,
and all other pending disputes with the United States. …
Ashburton, formerly Alexander Baring, of the eminent banking
firm of Baring Brothers, and a son of its original founder,
was now an old man, who had retired on a princely fortune, and
being indifferent to fame, aspired only to bring these two
countries to more friendly terms. Like his father before him,
he had tact and plain good sense, and understood well the
American character, having married here during his youth. Lord
Ashburton arrived early the next April, and on the 13th of
June entered upon the duties of his mission.
{3379}
Maine and Massachusetts, the States most interested in the
disputed boundary, sent commissioners of their own to yield an
assent in this branch of the business. The whole business as
conducted at our capital had an easy and informal character.
Webster and Lord Ashburton represented alone their respective
governments; no protocols were used, nor formal records; and
the correspondence and official interviews went on after a
friendly fashion in the heat of summer, and while Congress was
holding its long regular session. … This Washington or
Ashburton treaty, as it is called to this day, bore date of
the day [August 9] when it was formally signed. It passed by
the Oregon or north-western boundary, a point on which harmony
was impossible, and this was the most pregnant omission of
all; it passed by the 'Caroline' affair; it ignored, too, the
'Creole' case, for Great Britain would not consent to
recognize the American claim of property in human beings. Nor,
on the other side, were the debts of delinquent States assumed
by the United States, as many British creditors had desired.
Mutual extradition in crimes under the law of nations, and the
delivery of fugitives from justice, were stipulated. But the
two chief features of this treaty were: a settlement of the
boundary between Great Britain and the United States on the
north-east, extending westward beyond the great lakes, and a
cruising convention for the mutual suppression of the
slave-trade. As to the northeast territory in dispute, which
embraced some 12,000 square miles, seven-twelfths, or about as
much as the King of the Netherlands had awarded, were set off
to the United States; Great Britain taking the residue and
securing the highlands she desired which frown upon the
Canadian Gibraltar, and a clear though circuitous route
between Quebec and Halifax. Our government was permitted to
carry timber down the St. John's River, and though becoming
bound to pay Maine and Massachusetts $300,000 for the strip of
territory relinquished to Great Britain, gained in return
Rouse's Point, on Lake Champlain, of which an exact survey
would have deprived us. By the cruising convention clause,
which the President himself bore a conspicuous part in
arranging, the delicate point of 'right of search' was
avoided; for instead of trusting Great Britain as the police
of other nations for suppressing the African slave-trade, each
nation bound itself to do its full duty by keeping up a
sufficient squadron on the African coast. It so happened that
Great Britain, by softening the old phrase 'right of search'
into 'right of visitation,' had been inducing other nations to
guarantee this police inspection of suspected slave vessels.
In December, 1841, ambassadors of the five great European
powers arranged in London a quintuple league of this
character. But France, hesitating to confirm such an
arrangement, rejected that league when the Ashburton treaty
was promulgated, and hastened to negotiate in its place a
cruising convention similar to ours on the slave-trade
suppression; nor was the right of search, against which
America had fought in the war of 1812, ever again invoked,
even as a mutual principle, until by 1862 the United States
had grown as sincere as Great Britain herself in wishing to
crush out the last remnant of the African traffic. This
cruising convention, however, left the abstract question of
search untouched, and in that light Sir Robert Peel defended
himself in Parliament. The Ashburton treaty was honorable, on
the whole, for each side; what it arranged was arranged
fairly, and what it omitted was deferred without prejudice. …
So satisfactory, in fine, was the treaty, despite all
criticism, that the Senate ratified it by more than a
three-fourths vote, and at a time, too, when the Whig Congress
was strongly incensed against the administration, and Webster
had made bitter enemies."
_J. Schouler,
History of the United States,
volume 4, chapter 17, pages 400-403._
ALSO IN:
_D. Webster,
Diplomatic and Official Papers._
_G. T. Curtis,
Life of Webster,
chapters 28-29 (volume 2)._
_Treaties and Conventions between the United States and
other countries (edition of 1889),
pages 432-438._
_I. Washburn, Jr.,
The Northeastern Boundary
(Maine Historical Society Collections, volume 8)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1844.
Fifteenth Presidential Election.
Choice of James K. Polk.
The Texas treaty of annexation had been held in committee in
the Senate "till the national conventions of the two parties
should declare themselves. Both conventions met in Baltimore,
in May, to name candidates and avow policies. The Whigs were
unanimous as to who should be their candidate: it could be no
one but Henry Clay. Among the Democrats there was a very
strong feeling in favor of the renomination of Van Buren. But
both Clay and Van Buren had been asked their opinion about the
annexation of Texas, both had declared themselves opposed to
any immediate step in that direction, and Van Buren's
declaration cost him the Democratic nomination. He could have
commanded a very considerable majority in the Democratic
convention, but he did not command the two-third's majority
required by its rules, and James K. Polk of Tennessee became
the nominee of his party." Polk had been Speaker of the House
of Representatives, and was honorably though slightly known to
the country. The only new issue presented in the party
"platforms" was offered by the Democrats in their resolution
demanding "'the reoccupation of Oregon and the reannexation of
Texas, at the earliest practicable period'; and this proved
the makeweight in the campaign. … The 'Liberty Party,' the
political organization of the Abolitionists, commanded now, as
it turned out, more than 60,000 votes. … Had the 'Liberty' men
in New York voted for Clay, he would have been elected."
_W. Wilson,
Division and Reunion, 1829-1889,
section 73 (chapter 6)._
Polk received of the popular votes, 1,337,243, against
1,299,062 cast for Henry Clay, Whig, and 62,300 cast for James
G. Birney, candidate of the Liberty Party. Electoral vote:
Polk, 170; Clay, 105; Birney, none. George M. Dallas was
elected Vice President.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1844-1845,
The annexation of Texas and the agitation preceding it.
See TEXAS: A. D. 1836-1845.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1844-1846.
The Oregon boundary question and its settlement.
See OREGON: A. D. 1844-1846.
{3380}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1845.
Preserving the equilibrium between Free and Slave States.
Admission of Iowa and Florida.
"The slave-masters … had long pretended that the equilibrium
between the free and slave States must be preserved at all
hazards, and twice had they resorted to the violent device of
arbitrarily linking two measures that had nothing in common
for that purpose,—in 1820 combining the bills for the
admission of Missouri and Maine, and in 1836 those for the
admission of Michigan and Arkansas. In pursuance of the same
purpose and line of policy, they were now unwilling to receive
without a consideration the free State of Iowa, which had
framed a constitution in the autumn of 1844, and was asking
for admission. Some makeweight must be found before this
application could be complied with. This they managed to
discover in an old constitution, framed by the Territory of
Florida five years before. Though Florida was greatly
deficient in numbers, and her constitution was very
objectionable in some of its features, they seized this
occasion to press its claims, and to make its admission a
condition precedent to their consent that Iowa should be
received. The House Committee on Territories reported in favor
of the admission of the two in a single measure. In the
closing hours of the XXVIIIth Congress the bill came up for
consideration. … The constitution of Florida not only
expressly denied to the legislature the power to emancipate
slaves, but gave it the authority to prevent free colored
persons from immigrating into the State, or from being
discharged from vessels in her ports." All attempts to require
an amendment of the Florida constitution in these particulars
before recognizing that ill-populated territory as a State,
were defeated, and the bill admitting Florida and Iowa became
a law on the 3d of March, 1845.
_H. Wilson,
History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America,
volume 2, chapter 1._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1845-1846.
The Slavery question in the Democratic Party.
Hunkers and Barnburners.
The Wilmot Proviso.
"With Polk's accession and the Mexican war, the schism in the
Democratic ranks over the extension of American slave
territory became plainer. Even during the canvass of 1844 a
circular had been issued by William Cullen Bryant, David
Dudley Field, John W. Edmonds, and other Van Buren men,
supporting Polk, but urging the choice of congressmen opposed
to annexation. Early in the new administration the division of
New York Democrats into 'Barnburners' and 'Old Hunkers'
appeared. The former were the strong pro-Van Buren, anti-Texas
men, or 'radical Democrats,' who were likened to the farmer
who burned his barn to clear it of rats. The latter were the
'northern men with southern principles,' the supporters of
annexation, and the respectable, dull men of easy consciences,
who were said to hanker after the offices. The Barnburners
were led by men of really eminent ability and exalted
character: Silas Wright, then governor, Benjamin F. Butler,
John A. Dix, chosen in 1845 to the United States senate,
Azariah C. Flagg, the famous comptroller, and John Van Buren,
the ex-president's son. … Daniel S. Dickinson and William L.
Marcy were the chief figures in the Hunker ranks. Polk seemed
inclined, at the beginning, to favor, or at least to placate,
the Barnburners. … Jackson's death in June, 1845, deprived the
Van Buren men of the tremendous moral weight which his name
carried, and which might have daunted Polk. It perhaps also
helped to loosen the weight of party ties on the Van Buren
men. After this the schism rapidly grew. In the fall election
of 1845 the Barnburners pretty thoroughly controlled the
Democratic party of the state [of New York] in hostility to
the Mexican war, which the annexation of Texas had now
brought. Samuel J. Tilden of Columbia county, and a profound
admirer of Van Buren, became one of their younger leaders. Now
arose the strife over the 'Wilmot proviso,' in which was
embodied the opposition to the extension of slavery into new
territories. Upon this proviso the modern Republican party was
formed eight years later; upon it, fourteen years later,
Abraham Lincoln was chosen president; and upon it began the
war for the Union, out of whose throes came the vastly grander
and unsought beneficence of complete emancipation. David
Wilmot was a Democratic member of Congress from Pennsylvania;
in New York he would have been a Barnburner. In 1846 a bill
was pending to appropriate $3,000,000 for use by the president
in a purchase of territory from Mexico as part of a peace.
Wilmot proposed an amendment that slavery should be excluded
from any territory so acquired. All the Democratic members, as
well as the Whigs from New York, and most strongly the Van
Buren or Wright men, supported the proviso. The Democratic
legislature [of New York] approved it by the votes of the
Whigs with the Barnburners and the Soft Hunkers, the latter
being Hunkers less friendly to slavery. It passed the house at
Washington, but was rejected by the senate."
_E. M. Shepard,
Martin Van Buren,
chapter 11._
In the slang nomenclature which New York politics have always
produced with great fertility Hard-Shell and Soft-Shell were
terms often used instead of Hunker and Barnburner.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1846.
The Walker Tariff.
See TARIFF LEGISLATION (UNITED STATES): A. D. 1846-1861.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1846-1847.
War with Mexico.
Conquest of California and New Mexico.
See MEXICO: A. D. 1846; 1846-1847; and 1847;
also, CALIFORNIA: A. D. 1846-1847;
and NEW MEXICO: A. D. 1846.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1847.
Calhoun's aggressive policy of agitation, forcing the
Slavery issue upon the North.
His program of disunion.
"On Friday, the 19th of February [1847], Mr. Calhoun
introduced into the Semite his new slavery resolutions,
prefaced by an elaborate speech, and requiring an immediate
vote upon them. They were in these words: 'Resolved, That the
territories of the United States belong to the several States
composing this Union, and are held by them as their joint and
common property. Resolved, That Congress, as the joint agent
and representative of the States of this Union, has no right
to make any law, or do any act whatever, that shall directly,
or by its effects, make any discrimination between the States
of this Union, by which any of them shall be deprived of its
full and equal right in any territory of the United States
acquired or to be acquired. Resolved, That the enactment of
any law which should directly, or by its effects, deprive the
citizens of any of the States of this Union from emigrating,
with their property, into any of the territories of the United
States, will make such discrimination, and would, therefore,
be a violation of the constitution, and the rights of the
States from which such citizens emigrated, and in derogation
of that perfect equality which belongs to them as members of
this Union, and would tend directly to subvert the Union
itself.
{3381}
Resolved, That it is a fundamental principle in our political
creed, that a people, in forming a constitution, have the
unconditional right to form and adopt the government which
they may think best calculated to secure their liberty,
prosperity, and happiness; and that, in conformity thereto, no
other condition is imposed by the federal constitution on a
State, in order to be admitted into this Union, except that
its constitution shall be republican; and that the imposition
of any other by Congress would not only be in violation of the
constitution, but in direct conflict with the principle on
which our political system rests.' These resolutions, although
the sense is involved in circumlocutory phrases, are
intelligible to the point, that Congress has no power to
prohibit slavery in a territory, and that the exercise of such
a power would be a breach of the constitution, and leading to
the subversion of the Union. … Mr. Calhoun demanded the prompt
consideration of his resolutions, giving notice that he would
call them up the next day and press them to a speedy and final
vote. He did call them up, but never called for the vote, nor
was any ever had. … In the course of this year, and some
months after the submission of his resolutions in the Senate
denying the right of Congress to abolish slavery in a
territory, Mr. Calhoun wrote a letter to a member of the
Alabama Legislature, which furnishes the key to unlock his
whole system of policy in relation to the slavery agitation,
and its designs, from his first taking up the business in
Congress in the year 1835, down to the date of the letter; and
thereafter. The letter was in reply to one asking his opinion
'as to the steps which should be taken' to guard the rights of
the South. … It opens with this paragraph: 'I am much
gratified with the tone and views of your letter, and concur
entirely in the opinion you express, that instead of shunning,
we ought to court the issue with the North on the slavery
question. I would even go one step further, and add that it is
our duty—due to ourselves, to the Union, and our political
institutions, to force the issue on the North. We are now
stronger relatively than we shall be hereafter, politically
and morally. Unless we bring on the issue, delay to us will be
dangerous indeed. It is the true policy of those enemies who
seek our destruction. Its effects are, and have been, and will
be to weaken us politically and morally, and to strengthen
them. Such has been my opinion from the first. Had the South,
or even my own State backed me, I would have forced the issue
on the North in 1835, when the spirit of abolitionism first
developed itself to any considerable extent. It is a true
maxim, to meet danger on the frontier, in politics as well as
war. Thus thinking, I am of the impression, that if the South
act as it ought, the Wilmot Proviso, instead of proving to be
the means of successfully assailing us and our peculiar
institution, may be made the occasion of successfully
asserting our equality and rights, by enabling us to force the
issue on the North. Something of the kind was indispensable to
rouse and unite the South. On the contrary, if we should not
meet it as we ought, I fear, greatly fear, our doom will be
fixed. It would prove that we either have not the sense or
spirit to defend ourselves and our institutions.' The phrase
'forcing the issue' is here used too often, and for a purpose
too obvious, to need remark. The reference to his movement in
1835 confirms all that was said of that movement at the time
by senators from both sections of the Union. … At that time
Mr. Calhoun characterized his movement as defensive—as done in
a spirit of self-defence: it was then characterized by
senators as aggressive and offensive: and it is now declared
in this letter to have been so. He was then openly told that
he was playing into the hands of the abolitionists, and giving
them a champion to contend with, and the elevated theatre of
the American Senate for the dissemination of their doctrines,
and the production of agitation and sectional division. All
that is now admitted, with a lamentation that the South, and
not even his own State, would stand by him then in forcing the
issue. So that chance was lost. Another was now presented. The
Wilmot Proviso, so much deprecated in public, is privately
saluted as a fortunate event, giving another chance for
forcing the issue. The letter proceeds: 'But in making up the
issue, we must look far beyond the proviso. It is but one of
many acts of aggression, and, in my opinion, by no means the
most dangerous or degrading, though more striking and
palpable.' … So that, while this proviso was, publicly, the
Pandora's box which filled the Union with evil, and while it
was to Mr. Calhoun and his friends the theme of endless
deprecation, it was secretly cherished as a means of keeping
up discord, and forcing the issue between the North and the
South. Mr. Calhoun then proceeds to the serious question of
disunion, and of the manner in which the issue could be
forced. 'This brings up the question, how can it be so met,
without resorting to the dissolution of the Union? … There is,
in my opinion, but one way in which it can be met; and that is
… by retaliation.' … Then follows an argument to justify
retaliation. … Retaliation by closing the ports of the State
against the commerce of the offending State: and this called a
constitutional remedy, and a remedy short of disunion. … The
letter proceeds with further instructions upon the manner of
executing the retaliation: 'My impression is, that it should
be restricted to sea-going vessels, which would leave open the
trade of the valley of the Mississippi to New Orleans by
river, and to the other Southern cities by railroad; and tend
thereby to detach the North-western from the North-eastern
States.' … This confidential letter from Mr. Calhoun to a
member of the Alabama legislature of 1847, has come to light,
to furnish the key which unlocks his whole system of slavery
agitation which he commenced in the year 1835. That system was
to force issues upon the North under the pretext of
self-defence, and to sectionalize the South, preparatory to
disunion, through the instrumentality of sectional
conventions, composed wholly of delegates from the
slaveholding States."
_T. H. Benton,
Thirty Years' View,
volume 2, chapters 167-168._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1848.
Peace with Mexico.
The Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo.
The acquisition of Territory.
See MEXICO: A. D. 1848.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1848.
Admission of Wisconsin into the Union.
See WISCONSIN: A. D. 1805-1848.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1848.
Increased reservation of public lands for School support.
See EDUCATION, MODERN: AMERICA: A. D. 1785-1880.
{3382}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1848.
The Free Soil Convention at Buffalo and its nominations.
The "Barnburner" Democrats of New York, or Free Soilers as
they began to be called, met in convention at Utica, February
16, 1848, and chose delegates to the approaching national
Democratic Convention at Baltimore. In April the Barnburner
members of the Legislature issued an elaborate address,
setting forth the Free Soil principles of the Democratic
fathers. The authors of the address were afterwards known to
be Samuel J. Tilden and Martin and John Van Buren. The
national Democratic Convention assembled in May, 1848. "It
offered to admit the Barnburner and Hunker delegations
together to cast the vote of the State. The Barnburners
rejected the compromise as a simple nullification of the vote
of the State, and then withdrew. Lewis Cass was nominated for
president, the Wilmot proviso being thus emphatically
condemned. For Cass had declared in favor of letting the new
territories themselves decide upon slavery. The Barnburners,
returning to a great meeting in the City Hall Park at New
York, cried 'The lash has resounded through the halls of the
Capitol!' and condemned the cowardice of northern senators who
had voted with the South. … The delegates issued an address
written by Tilden, fearlessly calling Democrats to independent
action. In June a Barnburner convention met at Utica," which
named Van Buren for the Presidency and called a national
convention of all Free Soilers to meet at Buffalo, August 9,
1848. "Charles Francis Adams, the son of John Quincy Adams,
presided at the Buffalo convention; and in it Joshua R.
Giddings, the famous abolitionist, and Salmon P. Chase, were
conspicuous. To the unspeakable horror of every Hunker there
participated in the deliberations a negro, the Rev. Mr. Ward.
Butler [Benjamin F., of New York], reported the resolutions in
words whose inspiration is still fresh and ringing. … At the
close were the stirring and memorable words: 'We inscribe on
our banner, Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, and Free Men;
and under it we will fight on and fight ever, until a
triumphant victory shall reward our exertions.' Joshua Leavitt
of Massachusetts, one of the 'blackest' of abolitionists,
reported to the convention the name of Martin Van Buren for
president." The nomination was acclaimed with enthusiasm, and
Charles Francis Adams was nominated for vice-president. "In
September, John A. Dix, then a Democratic senator, accepted
the Free-soil nomination for governor of New York. The
Democratic party was aghast. The schismatics had suddenly
gained great dignity and importance. … The Whigs had in June
nominated Taylor, one of the two heroes of the Mexican war. …
The anti-slavery Whigs hesitated for a time: but Seward of New
York and Horace Greeley in the New York Tribune finally led
most of them to Taylor, rather than, as Seward said, engage in
'guerrilla warfare' under Van Buren. … This launching of the
modern Republican party was, strangely enough, to include in
New York few besides Democrats."
_E. M. Shepard,
Martin Van Buren,
chapter 11._
"The Buffalo Convention was one of the more important
upheavals in the process of political disintegration which
went steadily on between the years 1844, when the 'Birneyites'
deprived Henry Clay of the electoral vote of New York, and
1856, when the Whig party disappeared, and the pro-slavery
Democracy found itself confronted by the anti-slavery
Republican organization of the North. In 1848, though the Whig
party was already doomed, its time had not yet come. The Free
Soil movement of 1848 was, therefore, premature; and moreover,
as the result afterwards showed, there was something almost
ludicrous in a combination of 'Conscience Whigs' of
Massachusetts, in revolt over the nomination of the
slave-owning General Taylor, with the 'Barnburning' Democrats
of New York, intent only upon avenging on Cass the defeat of
Van Buren. None the less the Free Soil movement of 1848
clearly foreshadowed the Republican uprising of 1856, and of
the men who took part in the Buffalo convention an unusually
large proportion afterwards became prominent as political
leaders."
_C. F. Adams,
Richard Henry Dana,
volume 1, chapter 7._
ALSO IN:
_H. Wilson,
History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America,
volume 2, chapter 13._
_J. W. Schuckers,
Life of Salmon P. Chase,
chapter 11._
_R. B. Warden,
Life of Salmon P. Chase,
chapter 21._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1848-1849.
Sixteenth Presidential Election.
Inauguration and death of General Taylor.
In the Presidential election of 1848, the Democratic party put
forward as its candidate Lewis Cass; the Whigs named General
Zachary Taylor; and the Free Soil Party placed Martin Van
Buren in nomination. That the Whig Party should again have set
aside its distinguished leader, Henry Clay, caused great grief
among his devoted followers and friends. "But there were those
in it who had grown gray in waiting for office under the
banner of Mr. Clay, and whose memories were refreshed with
what was effected by the éclat of military glory under General
Jackson. It was hard, and might seem ungrateful, to abandon a
great and long-tried leader. But the military feather waved
before their eyes, and they were tempted. … It needed a
leader, or a few leaders to give the signal of defection; and
they were not wanting. One after another of the great names of
the party fell off from Mr. Clay and inclined to General
Taylor; and when the national Whig Convention met at
Philadelphia, in June, 1848, to nominate a candidate for the
Presidency, the first ballot showed that seven out of twelve
of the Kentucky delegation, against the expectations and
wishes of their constituency, had deserted Mr. Clay, and gone
over to General Taylor. The influence of this fact was
great—perhaps decisive. For if Mr. Clay's own State was
against him, what could be expected of the other States? On
the fourth ballot General Taylor had 52 majority, and was
declared the nominee. … In November following, General Taylor
was elected President of the United States, and Millard
Fillmore Vice-President. As in the case of General Harrison,
who died in thirty days after his inauguration, so in the case
of General Taylor … he, too, died in sixteen months after he
had entered on the duties of his office."
_C. Colton,
Life, Correspondence and Speeches of Henry Clay,
volume 3, chapter 4._
The popular vote cast at the election was, for Taylor,
1,360,099; Cass, 1,220,544; for Van Buren, 291,263. The
electoral vote was, for Taylor, 163; for Cass, 127; for Van
Buren, none. Millard Fillmore, elected Vice President,
succeeded to the Presidency on the death of General Taylor,
July 9, 1850.
_O. O. Howard,
General Taylor,
chapters 21-24._
{3383}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1850.
The Seventh Census.
Total population, 23,191,876, nearly 36 per cent. greater than
in 1840. The remnant of slavery in the northern States which
appears in this census, still lingering in New Jersey, was not
quite extinguished in the succeeding decade. The
classification and distribution of population was as follows:
North.
White. Free black. Slave.
California. 91,635 962 0
Connecticut. 363,099 7,693 0
Illinois. 846,034 5,436 0
Indiana. 977,154 11,262 0
Iowa. 191,881 333 0
Maine. 581,813 1,356 0
Massachusetts. 985,450 9,064 0
Michigan. 395,071 2,583 0
Minnesota. 6,038 39 0
New Hampshire. 317,456 520 0
New Jersey. 465,509 23,810 236
New York. 3,048,325 49,069 0
Ohio. 1,955,050 25,279 0
Oregon. 13,087 207 0
Pennsylvania. 2,258,160 53,626 0
Rhode Island. 143,875 3,670 0
Utah. 11,354 0 26
Vermont. 313,402 718 0
Wisconsin. 304,756 635 0
13,269,149 196,262 262
South.
White. Free black. Slave.
Alabama. 426,514 2,265 342,844
Arkansas. 162,189 608 47,100
Delaware. 71,169 18,073 2,290
District of Columbia. 37,941 10,059 3,687
Florida. 47,203 932 39,310
Georgia. 521,572 2,931 381,682
Kentucky. 761,413 10,011 210,981
Louisiana. 255,491 17,462 244,809
Maryland. 417,943 74,723 90,368
Mississippi. 295,718 930 309,878
Missouri. 592,004 2,618 87,422
New Mexico. 61,547 0 0
North Carolina. 553,028 27,463 288,548
South Carolina. 274,563 8,960 384,984
Tennessee. 756,836 6,422 239,459
Texas. 154,034 397 58,161
Virginia. 894,800 54,333 472,528
Total 6,283,965 238,187 3,204,051
The immigration in the decade preceding this census had risen
to 1,713,251 in number of persons, 1,047,763 coming from the
British Islands (mostly from Ireland), and 549,739 from other
parts of Europe.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1850.
Henry Clay's last "Compromise."
Free California, and the Fugitive Slave Law.
Webster's Seventh of March Speech
and Seward's Declaration of the "Higher Law."
"In 1848 gold was discovered in California. The tide of
adventurers poured in. They had no slaves to take with them
and no desire to acquire any. In less than a year the newly
gathered people outnumbered the population of some of the
smaller states. They organized a state government with an
antislavery constitution, and demanded admission into the
Union. True, the greater part of the proposed state lies north
of 36° 30' [the dividing line of the Missouri Compromise], but
its climate, tempered by the Pacific Ocean, is of rare
mildness. If any part of the newly acquired territory should
be opened to slavery, it seemed that California was the part
best suited for it. If California repelled slavery, there was
small hope that the remainder of the new territory would
embrace it. Congress debated for ten months over the admission
of California. The threatened inequality in numbers of the
free and slave states was the central subject of contention,
and the Union seemed again in danger of disruption."
_J. S. Landon,
Constitutional History and Government of the United States,
lecture 8._
"One day toward the close of January [January 29, 1850], Henry
Clay rose from his chair in the Senate Chamber, and waving a
roll of papers, with dramatic eloquence and deep feeling,
announced to a hushed auditory that he held in his hand a
series of resolutions proposing an amicable arrangement of all
questions growing out of the subject of slavery. Read and
explained by its author this plan of compromise was to admit
California, and to establish territorial governments in New
Mexico, and the other portions of the regions acquired from
Mexico, without any provisions for or against slavery—to pay
the debt of Texas and fix her western boundary—to declare
that it was 'inexpedient' to abolish slavery in the District
of Columbia, but 'expedient' to put some restrictions on the
slave trade there, to pass a new and more stringent fugitive
slave law, and to formally deny that Congress had any power to
obstruct the slave trade between the States. Upon this plan of
compromise and the modifications afterward made in it, began
that long debate, since become historic, which engrossed the
attention of Congress and the country for eight weary months.
At the outset, many of those who had threatened 'Disunion,'
opposed 'Clay's Compromise,' because it did not go far enough,
while the 'Wilmot Proviso' men were equally resolute in
opposing it, because it went too far. Seward with many other
Northern Whigs, adhered to the 'President's Plan' [which
simply favored the admission of California and New Mexico
under constitutions which he had invited their people to
frame], as being a much more just and speedy way of solving
the problem. Avowing himself unterrified by the threats of
'Disunion,' he insisted that neither 'Compromise' nor the
'Fugitive Slave Law' was necessary, and that it was both the
right and the duty of Congress to admit the Territories as
free States, to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia,
and the slave trade between the States. Southern feeling was
predominant in the Senate Chamber, as it had been for many
years. Neither of the two great parties was opposed to
slavery, and the recognized leaders of both were men of
Southern birth. … Mr. Clay's resolutions, unsatisfactory as
they were, to anti-slavery men, at first met with objections
from Southern members. One 'deeply regretted the admission
that slavery did not exist in the territories.' Several would
'never assent to the doctrine that slaveholders could not go
there, taking their property with them.' Some questioned the
validity of the Mexican decree, abolishing slavery in New
Spain, and doubted the constitutionality of any attempt on the
part of Congress to exclude it. Prognostications and threats
of 'disunion' were freely made.
{3384}
On the other hand, there began to be signs of a growing
disposition, on the part of many Northern men, to give up the
'Proviso' for the sake of peace; and to follow the lead of Mr.
Clay. Conservative Southern Whigs were quite ready to meet
these half way. Seward's position was regarded as 'ultra' by
both classes; and it not unfrequently happened that, on
questions in the Senate relating to slavery, only three
Senators, Seward, Chase, and Hale, would be found voting
together, on one side, while all the other Senators present
were arrayed against them, on the other. Newspapers, received
from all parts of the country, showed that elsewhere, as well
as at the capital, the proposed compromise was an engrossing
topic. Great meetings were held at the North in support of it.
State Legislatures took ground, for and against it. Fresh fuel
was added to the heated discussion by a new 'Fugitive Slave
Law,' introduced by Senator Mason of Virginia, and by the talk
of Southern Conventions, and 'Secret Southern Caucuses.' …
March was an eventful month. Time enough had elapsed for each
Senator to receive, from the press and people of his State,
their response, in regard to Clay's proposed compromise.
Resolutions pro and con had come from different Legislatures.
… Each of the leaders in senatorial debate felt that the hour
had come for him to declare whether he was for or against it.
… Mr. Calhoun, though in failing health, obtained the floor
for a speech. Everybody awaited it with great interest,
regarding him as the acknowledged exponent of Southern
opinion. … An expectant throng filled the Senate Chamber. His
gaunt figure and attenuated features attested that he had
risen from a sick bed; but his fiery eyes and unshaken voice
showed he had no intention of abandoning the contest. In a few
words he explained that his health would not permit him to
deliver the speech he had prepared, but that 'his friend the
Senator behind him (Mason) would read it for him.' Beginning
by saying that he had 'believed from the first that the
agitation of the subject of slavery would, if not prevented by
some timely and effective measure, end in "disunion,"' the
speech opposed Clay's plan of adjustment; attacked the
President's plan; adverted to the growing feeling that the
South could not remain in Union 'with safety and honor';
pointed out the gradual snapping, one after another, of the
links which held the Union together, and expressed the most
gloomy forebodings for the future. Three days later a similar,
or greater, throng gathered to listen to Webster's great '7th
of March speech,' which has ever since been recorded as
marking an era in his life. He rose from his seat near the
middle of the chamber, wearing his customary blue coat with
metal buttons, and with one hand thrust into the buff vest,
stood during his opening remarks, as impassive as a statue;
but growing slightly more animated as he proceeded. Calm,
clear, and powerful, his sonorous utterances, while they
disappointed thousands of his friends at the North, lent new
vigor to the 'Compromisers,' with whom, it was seen, he would
henceforth act."
_F. W. Seward,
Seward at Washington, 1846-1861,
chapter 16._
The first and longer part of Mr. Webster's speech was an
historical review of the slavery question, and an argument
maintaining the proposition, as he afterwards stated it in a
few words, that there is "not a square rod of territory
belonging to the United States the character of which, for
slavery, or no slavery is not already fixed by some
irrepealable law." The concluding part of his speech contained
the passages which caused most grief among and gave most
offense to his friends and admirers at the North. They are
substantially comprised in the quotations following,—together
with his eloquent declamation against the thought of
secession: Mr. President, in the excited times in which we
live, there is found to exist a state of crimination and
recrimination between the North and South. There are lists of
grievances produced by each; and those grievances, real or
supposed, alienate the minds of one portion of the country
from the other, exasperate the feelings, and subdue the sense
of fraternal affection, patriotic love, and mutual regard. I
shall bestow a little attention, Sir, upon these various
grievances existing on the one side and on the other. I begin
with complaints of the South. I will not answer, further than
I have, the general statements of the honor·able Senator from
South Carolina, that the North has prospered at the expense of
the South in consequence of the manner of administering this
government, in the collecting of its revenues, and so forth.
These are disputed topics, and I have no inclination to enter
into them. But I will allude to other complaints of the South,
and especially to one which has in my opinion just foundation;
and that is, that there has been found at the North, among
individuals and among legislators, a disinclination to perform
fully their constitutional duties in regard to the return of
persons bound to service who have escaped into the free
States. In that respect, the South, in my judgment, is right,
and the North is wrong. Every member of every Northern
legislature is bound by oath, like every other officer in the
country, to support the Constitution of the United States; and
the article of the Constitution which says to these States
that they shall deliver up fugitives from service is as
binding in honor and conscience as any other article. No man
fulfils his duty in any legislature who sets himself to find
excuses, evasions, escapes from this constitutional
obligation. I have always thought that the Constitution
addressed itself to the legislatures of the States or to the
States themselves. It says that those persons escaping to
other States 'shall be delivered up,' and I confess I have
always been of the opinion that it was an injunction upon the
States themselves. When it is said that a person escaping into
another State, and coming therefore within the jurisdiction of
that State, shall be delivered up, it seems to me the import
of the clause is, that the State itself, in obedience to the
Constitution, shall cause him to be delivered up. That is my
judgment. I have always entertained that opinion, and I
entertain it now. But when the subject, some years ago, was
before the Supreme Court of the United States, the majority of
the judges held that the power to cause fugitives from service
to be delivered up was a power to be exercised under the
authority of this government. I do not know, on the whole,
that it may not have been a fortunate decision. My habit is to
respect the result of judicial deliberations and the solemnity
of judicial decisions.
{3385}
As it now stands, the business of seeing that these fugitives
are delivered up resides in the power of Congress and the
national judicature, and my friend at the head of the
Judiciary Committee has a bill on the subject now before the
Senate, which with some amendments to it, I propose to
support, with all its provisions, to the fullest extent. And I
desire to call the attention of all sober-minded men at the
North, of all conscientious men, of all men who are not
carried away by some fanatical idea or some false impression,
to their constitutional obligations. I put it to all the sober
and sound minds at the North as a question of morals and a
question of conscience. What right have they, in their
legislative capacity or any other capacity, to endeavor to get
round this Constitution, or to embarrass the free exercise of
the rights secured by the Constitution to the persons whose
slaves escape from them? None at all; none at all. Neither in
the forum of conscience, nor before the face of the
Constitution, are they, in my opinion, justified in such an
attempt. … I repeat, therefore, Sir, that here is a
well-founded ground of complaint against the North, which
ought to be removed, which it is now in the power of the
different departments of this government to remove; which
calls for the enactment of proper laws authorizing the
judicature of this government, in the several States, to do
all that is necessary for the recapture of fugitive slaves and
for their restoration to those who claim them. … Complaint has
been made against certain resolutions that emanate from
legislatures at the North, and are sent here to us, not only
on the subject of slavery in this District, but sometimes
recommending Congress to consider the means of abolishing
slavery in the States. I should be sorry to be called upon to
present any resolutions here which could not be referable to
any committee or any power in Congress; and therefore I should
be unwilling to receive from the legislature of Massachusetts
any instructions to present resolutions expressive of any
opinion whatever on the subject of slavery, as it exists at
the present moment in the States, for two reasons: first,
be·cause I do not consider that the legislature of
Massachusetts has anything to do with it; and next, because I
do not consider that I, as her representative here, have
anything to do with it. It has become, in my opinion, quite
too common; and if the legislatures of the States do not like
that opinion, they have a great deal more power to put it down
than I have to uphold it; It has become in my opinion quite
too common a practice for the State legislatures to present
resolutions here on all subjects and to instruct us on all
subjects. There is no public man that requires instruction
more than I do, or who requires information more than I do, or
desires it more heartily; but I do not like to have it in too
imperative a shape. … Then Sir, there are the Abolition
societies, of which I am unwilling to speak, but in regard to
which I have very clear notions and opinions. I do not think
them useful. I think their operations for the last twenty
years have produced nothing good or valuable. At the same
time, I believe thousands of their members to be honest and
good men, perfectly well-meaning men. They have excited
feelings; they think they must do something for the cause of
liberty; and, in their sphere of action, they do not see what
else they can do than to contribute to an Abolition press, or
an Abolition society, or to pay an Abolition lecturer. I do
not mean to impute gross motives even to the leaders of these
societies, but I am not blind to the consequences of their
proceedings. I cannot but see what mischiefs their
interference with the South has produced. And is it not plain
to every man? Let any gentleman who entertains doubts on this
point recur to the debates in the Virginia House of Delegates
in 1832, and he will see with what freedom a proposition made
by Mr. Jefferson Randolph for the gradual abolition of slavery
was discussed in that body. Everyone spoke of slavery as he
thought; very ignominious and disparaging names and epithets
were applied to it. The debates in the House of Delegates on
that occasion, I believe, were all published. They were read
by every colored man who could read, and to those who could
not read, those debates were read by others. At that time
Virginia was not unwilling or afraid to discuss this question,
and to let that part of her population know as much of the
discussion as they could learn. That was in 1832. As has been
said by the honorable member from South Carolina, these
Abolition societies commenced their course of action in 1835.
It is said, I do not know how true it may be, that they sent
incendiary publications into the slave States; at any rate,
they attempted to arouse, and did arouse, a very strong
feeling; in other words they created great agitation in the
North against Southern slavery. Well, what was the result? The
bonds of the slaves were bound more firmly than before, their
rivets were more strongly fastened. Public opinion, which in
Virginia had begun to be exhibited against slavery, and was
opening out for the discussion of the question, drew back and
shut itself up in its castle. I wish to know whether any body
in Virginia can now talk openly as Mr. Randolph, Governor
McDowell, and others talked in 1832, and sent their remarks to
the press? We all know the fact, and we all know the cause;
and everything that these agitating people have done has been,
not to enlarge, but to restrain, not to set free, but to bind
faster, the slave population of the South. Again, Sir, the
violence of the Northern press is complained of. The press
violent! Why, Sir, the press is violent everywhere. There are
outrageous reproaches in the North against the South, and
there are reproaches as vehement in the South against the
North. Sir, the extremists of both parts of this country are
violent; they mistake loud and violent talk, for eloquence and
for reason. They think that he who talks loudest reasons best.
And this we must expect, when the press is free, as it is
here, and I trust always will be. … Well, in all this I see no
solid grievance, no grievance presented by the South, within
the redress of the government, but the single one to which I
have referred; and that is, the want of a proper regard to the
injunction of the Constitution for the delivery of fugitive
slaves. There are also complaints of the North against the
South. I need not go over them particularly. The first and
gravest is, that the North adopted the Constitution,
recognizing the existence of slavery in the States, and
recognizing the right, to a certain extent, of the
representation of slaves in Congress, under a state of
sentiment and expectation which does not now exist; and that,
by events, by circumstances, by the eagerness of the South to
acquire territory and extend her slave population, the North
finds itself, in regard to the relative influence of the South
and the North, of the free States and the slave States, where
it never did expect to find itself when they agreed to the
compact of the Constitution.
{3386}
They complain, therefore, that, instead of slavery being
regarded as an evil, as it was then, an evil which all hoped
would be extinguished gradually, it is now regarded by the
South as an institution to be cherished, and preserved, and
extended; an institution which the South has already extended
to the utmost of her power by the acquisition of new
territory. Well, then, passing from that, every body in the
North reads; and every body reads whatsoever the newspapers
contain; and the newspapers, some of them, especially those
presses to which I have alluded, are careful to spread about
among the people every reproachful sentiment uttered by any
Southern man bearing at all against the North; every thing
that is calculated to exasperate and to alienate; and there
are many such things, as every body will admit, from the
South, or some portion of it, which are disseminated among the
reading people; and they do exasperate, and alienate, and
produce a most mischievous effect upon the public mind at the
North. Sir, I would not notice things of this sort appearing
in obscure quarters; but one thing has occurred in this debate
which struck me very forcibly. An honorable member from
Louisiana addressed us the other day on this subject. I
suppose there is not a more amiable and worthy gentleman in
this chamber, nor a gentleman who would be more slow to give
offence to any body, and he did not mean in his remarks to
give offence. But what did he say? Why, Sir, he took pains to
run a contrast between the slaves of the South and the
laboring people of the North, giving the preference, in all
points of condition, and comfort, and happiness, to the slaves
of the South. The honorable member, doubtless, did not suppose
that he gave any offence, or did any injustice. He was merely
expressing his opinion. But does he know how remarks of that
sort will be received by the laboring people of the North?
Why, who are the laboring people of the North? They are the
whole North. They are the people who till their own farms with
their own hands; freeholders, educated men, independent men.
Let me say, Sir, that five sixths of the whole property of the
North is in the hands of the laborers of the North; they
cultivate their farms, they educate their children, they
provide the means of independence. … There is a more tangible
and irritating cause of grievance at the North. Free blacks
are constantly employed in the vessels of the North, generally
as cooks or stewards. When the vessel arrives at a Southern
port, these free colored men are taken on shore, by the police
or municipal authority, imprisoned, and kept in prison till
the vessel is again ready to sail. This is not only
irritating, but exceedingly unjustifiable and oppressive. Mr.
Hoar's mission, some time ago, to South Carolina, was a
well-intended effort to remove this cause of complaint. The
North thinks such imprisonments illegal and unconstitutional;
and as the cases occur constantly and frequently, they regard
it as a great grievance. Now, Sir, so far as any of these
grievances have their foundation in matters of law, they can
be redressed, and ought to be redressed; and so far as they
have their foundation in matters of opinion, in sentiment, in
mutual crimination and recrimination, all that we can do is to
endeavor to allay the agitation, and cultivate a better
feeling and more fraternal sentiments between the South and
the North. Mr. President, I should much prefer to have heard
from every member on this floor declarations of opinion that
this Union could never be dissolved, than the declaration of
opinion by any body, that, in any case, under the pressure of
any circumstances, such a dissolution was possible. I hear
with distress and anguish the word 'secession,' especially
when it falls from the lips of those who are patriotic, and
known to the country, and known all over the world, for their
political services. Secession! Peaceable secession! Sir, your
eyes and mine are never destined to see that miracle. The
dismemberment of this vast country without convulsion! The
breaking up of the fountains of the great deep without
ruffling the surface! Who is so foolish, I beg every body's
pardon, as to expect to see any such thing? Sir, he who sees
these States, now revolving in harmony around a common centre,
and expects to see them quit their places and fly off without
convulsion, may look the next hour to see the heavenly bodies
rush from their spheres, and jostle against each other in the
realms of space, without causing the wreck of the universe.
There can be no such thing as a peaceable secession. Peaceable
secession is an utter impossibility. Is the great Constitution
under which we live, covering this whole country, is it to be
thawed and melted away by secession, as the snows on the
mountain melt under the influence of a vernal sun, disappear
almost unobserved, and run off? No, Sir! No, Sir! I will not
state what might produce the disruption of the Union; but,
Sir, I see as plainly as I see the sun in heaven what that
disruption itself must produce; I see that it must produce
war, and such a war as I will not describe, in its two-fold
character. Peaceable secession! Peaceable secession! The
concurrent agreement of all the members of this great republic
to separate! A voluntary separation, with alimony on one side
and on the other. Why, what would be the result? Where is the
line to be drawn? What States are to secede? What is to remain
American? What am I to be? An American no longer? Am I to
become a sectional man, a local man, a separatist, with no
country in common with the gentlemen who sit around me here,
or who fill the other house of Congress? Heaven forbid! Where
is the flag of the republic to remain? Where is the eagle
still to tower? or is he to cower, and shrink, and fall to the
ground? Why, Sir, our ancestors, our fathers, and our
grandfathers, those of them that are yet living amongst us
with prolonged lives, would rebuke and reproach us; and our
children and our grandchildren would cry out shame upon us, if
we of this generation should dishonor these ensign of the
power of the government and the harmony of that Union which is
every day felt among us with so much joy and gratitude. … Sir,
nobody can look over the face of this country at the present
moment, nobody can see where its population is the most dense
and growing, without being ready to admit, and compelled to
admit, that ere long the strength of America will be in the
Valley of the Mississippi.
{3387}
Well, now, Sir, I beg to inquire what the wildest enthusiast
has to say on the possibility of cutting that river in two,
and leaving free States at its source and on it branches, and
slave States down near its mouth, each forming a separate
government? … To break up this great government! to dismember
this glorious country! To astonish Europe with an act of folly
such as Europe for two centuries has never beheld in any
government or any people! No, Sir! no, Sir! There will be no
secession! Gentlemen are not serious when they talk of
secession."
_Daniel Webster,
Works,
volume 5, page 324._
"The speech, if exactly defined, is, in reality, a powerful
effort, not for compromise or for the Fugitive Slave Law, or
any other one thing, but to arrest the whole anti-slavery
movement, and in that way put an end to the dangers which
threatened the Union and restore lasting harmony between the
jarring sections. It was a mad project. Mr. Webster might as
well have attempted to stay the incoming tide at Marshfield
with a rampart of sand as to seek to check the anti-slavery
movement by a speech. Nevertheless, he produced a great
effect. … The blow fell with terrible force, and here … we
come to the real mischief which was wrought. The 7th of March
speech demoralized New England and the whole North. The
abolitionists showed by bitter anger the pain, disappointment,
and dismay which this speech brought. The Free-Soil party
quivered and sank for the moment beneath the shock. The whole
anti-slavery movement recoiled. The conservative reaction
which Mr. Webster endeavored to produce came and triumphed.
Chiefly by his exertions the compromise policy was accepted
and sustained by the country. The conservative elements
everywhere rallied to his support, and by his ability and
eloquence it seemed as if he had prevailed and brought the
people over to his opinions. It was a wonderful tribute to his
power and influence, but the triumph was hollow and
short-lived. He had attempted to compass an impossibility.
Nothing could kill the principles of human liberty, not even a
speech by Daniel Webster, backed by all his intellect and
knowledge, his eloquence and his renown. The anti-slavery
movement was checked for the time, and pro-slavery democracy,
the only other positive political force, reigned supreme. But
amid the falling ruins of the Whig party, and the evanescent
success of the Native Americans, the party of human rights
revived; and when it rose again, taught by the trials and
misfortunes of 1850, it rose with a strength which Mr. Webster
had never dreamed of."
_H. C. Lodge,
Daniel Webster,
chapter 9._
"A public meeting in Faneuil Hall condemned the action of
Webster. Theodore Parker, who was one of the principal
speakers, said: 'I know no deed in American history done by a
son of New England to which I can compare this but the act of
Benedict Arnold. … The only reasonable way in which we can
estimate this speech is as a bid for the presidency.' In the
main, the Northern Whig press condemned the salient points of
the speech. … Whittier, in a song of plaintive vehemence
called 'Ichabod,' mourned for the 'fallen' statesman whose
faith was lost, and whose honor was dead. … This was the
instant outburst of opinion; but friends for Webster and his
cause came with more deliberate reflections. … When the first
excitement had subsided, the friends of Webster bestirred
themselves, and soon testimonials poured in, approving the
position which he had taken. The most significant of them was
the one from eight hundred solid men of Boston, who thanked
him for 'recalling us to our duties under the Constitution,'
and for his 'broad national and patriotic views.' The tone of
many of the Whig papers changed, some to positive support,
others to more qualified censure. The whole political
literature of the time is full of the discussion of this
speech and its relation to the compromise. It is frequently
said that a speech in Congress does not alter opinions; that
the minds of men are determined by set political bias or
sectional considerations. This was certainly not the case in
1850. Webster's influence was of the greatest weight in the
passage of the compromise measures, and he is as closely
associated with them as is their author. Clay's adroit
parliamentary management was necessary to carry them through
the various and tedious steps of legislation. But it was
Webster who raised up for them a powerful and much-needed
support from Northern public sentiment. At the South the
speech was cordially received; the larger portion of the press
commended it with undisguised admiration. … On the 11th of
March, Seward spoke. … When Seward came to the territorial
question, his words created a sensation, 'We hold,' he said,
'no arbitrary authority over anything, whether acquired
lawfully or seized by usurpation. The Constitution regulates
our stewardship; the Constitution devotes the domain (i. e.
the territories not formed into States) to union, to justice,
to defence, to welfare, and to liberty. But there is a higher
law than the Constitution, which regulates our authority over
the domain, and devotes it to the same noble purposes. The
territory is a part, no inconsiderable part, of the common
heritage of mankind, bestowed upon them by the Creator of the
Universe. We are his stewards, and must so discharge our trust
as to secure in the highest attainable degree their
happiness.' This remark about 'a higher law,' while far
inferior in rhetorical force to Webster's 'I would not take
pains uselessly to reaffirm an ordinance of Nature, nor to
re-enact the will of God,' was destined to have transcendent
moral influence. A speech which can be condensed into an
aphorism is sure to shape convictions. These, then, are the
two maxims of this debate; the application of them shows the
essential points of the controversy."
_J. F. Rhodes,
History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850.
volume 1, chapter 2._
In the political controversies which accompanied and followed
the introduction of the Compromise measures, the Whigs who
supported the Compromise were called "Silver-Grays," or
"Snuff-Takers," and those who opposed it were called
"Woolly-Heads," or "Seward-Whigs."
{3388}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1850.
Mr. Clay's last compromise.
The Omnibus Bill.
The Fugitive Slave Law as passed.
On the 17th of April, "a select committee of the Senate,
headed by Mr. Clay, reported a bill consisting of 39 sections,
embodying most of the resolutions which had been discussed.
From its all-comprehensive nature it was called the Omnibus
Bill. The points comprehended in the omnibus bill were as
follows:
1st. When new states formed out of Texas present themselves,
it shall be the duty of Congress to admit them;
2d. The immediate admission of California, with the boundaries
which she has proposed;
3d. The establishment of territorial governments for Utah and
New Mexico, without the Wilmot proviso;
4th. The combination of points 2 and 3 in one bill;
5th. The excission from Texas of all New Mexico, rendering
therefor a pecuniary equivalent;
6th. The enactment of a law for the effectual rendition of
fugitive slaves escaping into the free states;
7th. No interference with slavery in the District of Columbia,
but the slave trade therein should be abolished, under heavy
penalties.
This bill was discussed until the last of July, and then
passed by the Senate, but it had been so pruned by successive
amendments that it contained only a provision for the
organization of a territorial government for Utah. In this
condition it was sent to the House. There, as a whole, the
bill was rejected, but its main heads were passed in August as
separate bills, and were designated the compromise measures of
1850, and, in their accepted shape, required:
(1) Utah and New Mexico to be organized into territories,
without reference to slavery;
(2) California to be admitted as a free state;
(3) $10,000,000 to be paid to Texas for her claim to New
Mexico;
(4) fugitive slaves to be returned to their masters; and
(5) the slave trade to be abolished in the District of
Columbia.
The compromises were received by the leaders of the two great
parties as a final settlement of the vexed questions which had
so long troubled Congress and agitated the country, but the
storm was only temporarily allayed. In accordance with these
measures California became a state of the Union September 9,
1850. The most important feature of this bill, in its bearing
upon future struggles and conflicts, was the fugitive slave
law. … In the midst of the discussion of these topics occurred
the death of the President, July 9, 1850, one year and four
months after his inauguration. … Mr. Fillmore was inaugurated
on the 10th of July, 1850. He departed from the policy of his
predecessor, organized a new cabinet, used his influence in
favor of the compromise measures," and gave his signature to
the Fugitive Slave Law.
_W. R. Houghton,
History of American Politics,
chapter 15._
"It was apparent to everyone who knew anything of the
sentiments of the North that this law could not be executed to
any extent. Seward had truly said that if the South wished
their runaway negroes returned they must alleviate, not
increase, the rigors of the law of 1793; and to give the
alleged fugitive a jury trial, as Webster proposed, was the
only possible way to effect the desired purpose. If we look
below the surface we shall find a strong impelling motive of
the Southern clamor for this harsh enactment other than the
natural desire to recover lost property. Early in the session
it took air that a part of the game of the disunionists was to
press a stringent fugitive slave law, for which no Northern
man could vote; and when it was defeated, the North would be
charged with refusing to carry out a stipulation of the
Constitution. Douglas stated in the Senate that while there
was some ground for complaint on the subject of surrender of
fugitives from service, it had been greatly exaggerated. The
excitement and virulence were not along the line bordering on
the free and slave States, but between Vermont and South
Carolina, New Hampshire and Alabama, Connecticut and
Louisiana. Clay gave vent to his astonishment that Arkansas,
Louisiana, Georgia, and South Carolina, States which very
rarely lost a slave, demanded a stricter law than Kentucky,
which lost many. After the act was passed Senator Butler, of
South Carolina, said: 'I would just as soon have the law of
1793 as the present law, for any purpose, so far as regards
the reclamation of fugitive slaves;' and another Southern
ultra never thought it would be productive of much good to his
section. Six months after the passage of the law, Seward
expresses the matured opinion 'that political ends—merely
political ends—and not real evils, resulting from the escape
of slaves, constituted the prevailing motives to the
enactment.'"
_J. F. Rhodes,
History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850,
chapter 2 (volume 1)._
"The fugitive-slave law was to make the citizens of the Free
States do for the slave-holders what not a few of the
slave-holders were too proud to do for themselves. Such a law
could not but fail. But then it would increase the
exasperation of the slave-holders by its failure, while
exasperating the people of the Free States by the attempts at
enforcement. Thus the compromise of 1850, instead of securing
peace and harmony, contained in the most important of its
provisions the seeds of new and greater conflicts. One effect
it produced which Calhoun had clearly predicted when he warned
the slave-holding states against compromises as an invention
of the enemy: it adjourned the decisive conflict until the
superiority of the North over the South in population and
material resources was overwhelming."
_C. Schurz,
Life of Henry Clay,
chapter 26 (volume 2)._
ALSO IN:
_H. von Holst,
Constitutional and Political History of the United States,
volume 3, chapters 15-16._
_H. Clay,
Life, Correspondence, and Speeches; edited by Colton,
volume 6._
_W. H. Seward,
Works,
volume 1, pages 51-131.
and volume 4._
_J. S. Pike,
First Blows of the Civil War,
pages 1-98._
_H.Wilson,
History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power,
volume 2, chapters 18-28._
_J. F. Rhodes,
History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850,
chapter. 2 (volume 1)._
See, also, HIGHER LAW DOCTRINE.
The following is the complete text of the Fugitive Slave Law:
"An act to amend, and supplementary to, the Act entitled 'An
Act respecting Fugitives from Justice, and Persons escaping
from the Service of their Masters,' approved February twelfth,
one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the
persons who have been, or may hereafter be, appointed
commissioners, in virtue of any act of Congress, by the
Circuit Courts of the United States, and who, in consequence
of such appointment, are authorized to exercise the powers
that any justice of the peace, or other magistrate of any of
the United States, may exercise in respect to offenders for
any crime or offence against the United States, by arresting,
imprisoning, or bailing the same under and by virtue of the
thirty-third section of the act of the twenty-fourth of
September seventeen hundred and eighty-nine, entitled 'An Act
to establish the judicial courts of the United States,' shall
be, and are hereby, authorized and required to exercise and
discharge all the powers and duties conferred by this act.
{3389}
SECTION 2. And be it further enacted, That the Superior Court
of each organized Territory of the United States shall have
the same power to appoint commissioners to take
acknowledgments of bail and affidavits, and to take
depositions of witnesses in civil causes, which is now
possessed by the Circuit Court of the United States; and all
commissioners who shall hereafter be appointed for such
purposes by the Superior Court of any organized Territory of
the United States, shall possess all the powers, and exercise
all the duties, conferred by law upon the commissioners
appointed by the Circuit Courts of the United States for
similar purposes, and shall moreover exercise and discharge
all the powers and duties conferred by this act.
SECTION 3. And be it further enacted, That the Circuit Courts
of the United States, and the Superior Courts of each
organized Territory of the United States, shall from time to
time enlarge the number of commissioners, with a view to
afford reasonable facilities to reclaim fugitives from labor,
and to the prompt discharge of the duties imposed by this act.
SECTION 4. And be it further enacted, That the commissioners
above named shall have concurrent jurisdiction with the judges
of the Circuit and District Courts of the United States, in
their respective circuits and districts within the several
States, and the judges of the Superior Courts of the
Territories, severally and collectively, in term-time and
vacation; and shall grant certificates to such claimants, upon
satisfactory proof being made, with authority to take and
remove such fugitives from service or labor, under the
restrictions herein contained, to the State or Territory from
which such persons may have escaped or fled.
SECTION 5. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the
duty of all marshals and deputy marshals to obey and execute
all warrants and precepts issued under the provisions of this
act, when to them directed; and should any marshal or deputy
marshal refuse to receive such warrant, or other process, when
tendered, or to use all proper means diligently to execute the
same, he shall, on conviction thereof, be fined in the sum of
one thousand dollars, to the use of such claimant, on the
motion of such claimant by the Circuit or District Court for
the district of such marshal; and after arrest of such
fugitive, by such marshal or his deputy, or whilst at any time
in his custody under the provisions of this act, should such
fugitive escape, whether with or without the assent of such
marshal or his deputy, such marshal shall be liable, on his
official bond, to be prosecuted for the benefit of such
claimant, for the full value of the service or labor of said
fugitive in the State, Territory, or District whence he
escaped: and the better to enable the said commissioners, when
thus appointed, to execute their duties faithfully and
efficiently, in conformity with the requirements of the
Constitution of the United States and of this act, they are
hereby authorized and empowered, within their counties
respectively, to appoint, in writing under their hands, any
one or more suitable persons, from time to time, to execute
all such warrants and other process as may be issued by them
in the lawful performance of their respective duties; with
authority to such commissioners, or the persons to be
appointed by them, to execute process as aforesaid, to summon
and call to their aid the bystanders, or posse comitatus of
the proper county, when necessary to insure a faithful
observance of the clause of the Constitution referred to, in
conformity with the provisions of this act; and all good
citizens are hereby commanded to aid and assist in the prompt
and efficient execution of this law, whenever their services
may be required, as aforesaid, for that purpose; and said
warrants shall run, and be executed by said officers, anywhere
in the State within which they are issued.
SECTION 6. And be it further enacted, That when a person held
to service or labor in any State or Territory of the United
States, has heretofore or shall hereafter escape into another
State or Territory of the United States, the person or persons
to whom such service or labor may be due, or his, her, or
their agent or attorney, duly authorized, by power of
attorney, in writing, acknowledged and certified under the
seal of some legal officer or court of the State or Territory
in which the same may be executed, may pursue and reclaim such
fugitive person, either by procuring a warrant from some one
of the courts, judges, or commissioners aforesaid, of the
proper circuit, district, or county, for the apprehension of
such fugitive from service or labor, or by seizing and
arresting such fugitive, where the same can be done without
process, and by taking, or causing such person to be taken,
forthwith before such court, judge, or commissioner, whose
duty it shall be to hear and determine the case of such
claimant in a summary manner; and upon satisfactory proof
being made, by deposition or affidavit, in writing, to be
taken and certified by such court, judge, or commissioner, or
by other satisfactory testimony, duly taken and certified by
some court, magistrate, justice of the peace, or other legal
officer authorized to administer an oath and take depositions
under the laws of the State or Territory from which such
person owing service or labor may have escaped, with a
certificate of such magistracy or other authority, as
aforesaid, with the seal of the proper court or officer
thereto attached, which seal shall be sufficient to establish
the competency of the proof, and with proof, also by
affidavit, of the identity of the person whose service or
labor is claimed to be due as aforesaid, that the person so
arrested does in fact owe service or labor to the person or
persons claiming him or her, in the State or Territory from
which such fugitive may have escaped as aforesaid, and that
said person escaped, to make out and deliver to such claimant,
his or her agent or attorney, a certificate setting forth the
substantial facts as to the service or labor due from such
fugitive to the claimant, and of his or her escape from the
State or Territory in which such service or labor was due, to
the State or Territory in which he or she was arrested, with
authority to such claimant, or his or her agent or attorney,
to use such reasonable force and restraint as may be
necessary, under the circumstances of the case, to take and
remove such fugitive person back to the State or Territory
whence he or she may have escaped as aforesaid. In no trial or
hearing under this act shall the testimony of such alleged
fugitive be admitted in evidence; and the certificates in this
and the first [fourth] section mentioned, shall be conclusive
of the right of the person or persons in whose favor granted,
to remove such fugitive to the State or Territory from which
he escaped, and shall prevent all molestation of such person
or persons by any process issued by any court, judge,
magistrate, or other person whomsoever.
{3390}
SECTION 7. And be it further enacted, That any person who
shall knowingly and willingly obstruct, hinder, or prevent
such claimant, his agent or attorney, or any person or persons
lawfully assisting him, her, or them, from arresting such a
fugitive from service or labor, either with or without process
as aforesaid, or shall rescue, or attempt to rescue, such
fugitive from service or labor, from the custody of such
claimant, his or her agent or attorney, or other person or
persons lawfully assisting as aforesaid, when so arrested,
pursuant to the authority herein given and declared; or shall
aid, abet, or assist such person so owing service or labor as
aforesaid, directly or indirectly, to escape from such
claimant, his agent or attorney, or other person or persons
legally authorized as aforesaid; or shall harbor or conceal
such fugitive, so as to prevent the discovery and arrest of
such person, after notice or knowledge of the fact that such
person was a fugitive from service or labor as aforesaid,
shall, for either of said offences, be subject to a fine not
exceeding one thousand dollars, and imprisonment not exceeding
six months, by indictment and conviction before the District
Court of the United States for the district in which such
offence may have been committed, or before the proper court of
criminal jurisdiction, if committed within any one of the
organized Territories of the United States; and shall moreover
forfeit and pay, by way of civil damages to the party injured
by such illegal conduct, the sum of one thousand dollars, for
each fugitive so lost as aforesaid, to be recovered by action
of debt, in any of the District or Territorial Courts
aforesaid, within whose jurisdiction the said offence may have
been committed.
SECTION 8. And be it further enacted, That the marshals, their
deputies, and the clerks of the said District and Territorial
Courts, shall be paid, for their services, the like fees as
may be allowed to them for similar services in other cases;
and where such services are rendered exclusively in the
arrest, custody, and delivery of the fugitive to the claimant,
his or her agent or attorney, or where such supposed fugitive
may be discharged out of custody for the want of sufficient
proof as aforesaid, then such fees are to be paid in the whole
by such claimant, his agent or attorney; and in all cases
where the proceedings are before a commissioner, he shall be
entitled to a fee of ten dollars in full for his services in
each case, upon the delivery of the said certificate to the
claimant, his or her agent or attorney; or a fee of five
dollars in cases where the proof shall not, in the opinion of
such commissioner, warrant such certificate and delivery,
inclusive of all services incident to such arrest and
examination, to be paid, in either case, by the claimant, his
or her agent or attorney. The person or persons authorized to
execute the process to be issued by such commissioners for the
arrest and detention of fugitives from service or labor as
aforesaid, shall also be entitled to a fee of five dollars
each for each person he or they may arrest and take before any
such commissioner as aforesaid, at the instance and request of
such claimant, with such other fees as may be deemed
reasonable by such commissioner for such other additional
services as may be necessarily performed by him or them; such
as attending at the examination, keeping the fugitive in
custody, and providing him with food and lodging during his
detention, and until the final determination of such
commissioner; and, in general, for performing such other
duties as may be required by such claimant, his or her
attorney or agent, or commissioner in the premises, such fees
to be made up in conformity with the fees usually charged by
the officers of the courts of justice within the proper
district or county, as near as may be practicable, and paid by
such claimants, their agents or attorneys, whether such
supposed fugitives from service or labor be ordered to be
delivered to such claimants by the final determination of such
commissioners or not.
SECTION 9. And be it further enacted, That, upon affidavit
made by the claimant of such fugitive, his agent or attorney,
after such certificate has been issued, that he has reason to
apprehend that such fugitive will be rescued by force from his
or their possession before he can be taken beyond the limits
of the State in which the arrest is made, it shall be the duty
of the officer making the arrest to retain such fugitive in
his custody, and to remove him to the State whence he fled,
and there to deliver him to said claimant, his agent, or
attorney. And to this end, the officer aforesaid is hereby
authorized and required to employ so many persons as he may
deem necessary to overcome such force, and to retain them in
his service so long as circumstances may require. The said
officer and his assistants, while so employed, to receive the
same compensation, and to be allowed the same expenses, as are
now allowed by law for transportation of criminals, to be
certified by the judge of the district within which the arrest
is made, and paid out of the treasury of the United States.
SECTION 10. And be it further enacted, That when any person
held to service or labor in any State or Territory, or in the
District of Columbia, shall escape therefrom, the party to
whom such service or labor shall be due, his, her, or their
agent or attorney, may apply to any court of record therein,
or judge thereof in vacation, and make satisfactory proof to
such court, or judge in vacation, of the escape aforesaid, and
that the person escaping owed service or labor to such party.
Whereupon the court shall cause a record to be made of the
matters so proved, and also a general description of the
person so escaping, with such convenient certainty as may be;
and a transcript of such record, authenticated by the
attestation of the clerk and of the seal of the said court,
being produced in any other State, Territory, or district in
which the person so escaping may be found, and being exhibited
to any judge, commissioner, or other officer authorized by the
law of the United States to cause persons escaping from
service or labor to be delivered up, shall be held and taken
to be full and conclusive evidence of the fact of escape, and
that the service or labor of the person escaping is due to the
party in such record mentioned. And upon the production by the
said party of other and further evidence if necessary, either
oral or by affidavit, in addition to what is contained in the
said record of the identity of the person escaping, he or she
shall be delivered up to the claimant.
{3391}
And the said court, commissioner, judge, or other person
authorized by this act to grant certificates to claimants of
fugitives, shall, upon the production of the record and other
evidences aforesaid, grant to such claimant a certificate of
his right to take any such person identified and proved to be
owing service or labor as aforesaid, which certificate shall
authorize such claimant to seize or arrest and transport such
person to the State or Territory from which he escaped:
Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed as
requiring the production of a transcript of such record as
evidence as aforesaid. But in its absence the claim shall be
heard and determined upon other satisfactory proofs, competent
in law. Approved, September 18, 1850."
_Statutes at Large,
ix. 462-465._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1850.
The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty with Great Britain.
See NICARAGUA: A. D. 1850.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1850-1851.
The Hülsemann Letter.
Kossuth in America.
In July, 1850, Daniel Webster became Secretary of State in the
cabinet of President Fillmore and retained that post until his
death, in October, 1852. "The best-known incident of this
period was that which gave rise to the famous 'Hülsemann
letter.' President Taylor had sent an agent to Hungary to
report upon the condition of the revolutionary government,
with the intention of recognizing it if there were sufficient
grounds for doing so. When the agent arrived, the revolution
was crushed, and he reported to the President against
recognition. These papers were transmitted to the Senate in
March, 1850. Mr. Hülsemann, the Austrian Charge, thereupon
complained of the action of our administration, and Mr.
Clayton, then Secretary of State, replied that the mission of
the agent had been simply to gather information. On receiving
further instructions from his government, Mr. Hülsemann
rejoined to Mr. Clayton, and it fell to Mr. Webster to reply,
which he did on December 21, 1850. The note of the Austrian
Chargé was in a hectoring and highly offensive tone, and Mr.
Webster felt the necessity of administering a sharp rebuke.
'The Hülsemann letter,' as it was called, was, accordingly
dispatched. It set forth strongly the right of the United
States and their intention to recognize any de facto
revolutionary government, and to seek information in all
proper ways in order to guide their action. … Mr. Webster had
two objects. One was to awaken the people of Europe to a sense
of the greatness of this country, the other to touch the
national pride at home. He did both. … The affair did not,
however, end here. Mr. Hülsemann became very mild, but he soon
lost his temper again. Kossuth and the refugees in Turkey were
brought to this country in a United States frigate. The
Hungarian hero was received with a burst of enthusiasm that
induced him to hope for substantial aid, which was, of course,
wholly visionary. The popular excitement made it difficult for
Mr. Webster to steer a proper course, but he succeeded, by
great tact, in showing his own sympathy, and, so far as
possible, that of the government, for the cause of Hungarian
independence and for its leader, without going too far. … Mr.
Webster's course, … although carefully guarded, aroused the
ire of Mr. Hülsemann, who left the country, after writing a
letter of indignant farewell to the Secretary of State."
_H. C. Lodge,
Daniel Webster,
chapter 10._
ALSO IN:
_D. Webster,
Works,
volume 6, pages 488-504._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1851.
The Lopez Filibustering expedition to Cuba.
See CUBA: A. D. 1845-1860.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1852.
Appearance of the Know Nothing or American Party.
"A new party had by this time risen to active importance in
American politics. It appeared in 1852, in the form of a
secret, oath-bound organization, of whose name, nature, and
objects nothing was told even to its members until they had
reached its higher degrees. Their consequent declaration that
they knew nothing about it gave the society its popular name
of Know Nothings. It accepted the name of the American Party.
Its design was to oppose the easy naturalization of
foreigners, and to aid the election of native-born citizens to
office. Its nominations were made by secret conventions of
delegates from the various lodges, and were voted for by all
members under penalty of expulsion in case of refusal. At
first, by endorsing the nominations of one or other of the two
great parties, it decided many elections. After the passage of
the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, the Know Nothing organization was
adopted by many Southern Whigs who were unwilling to unite
with the Democracy, and became, for a time, a national party.
It carried nine of the State elections in 1855, and in 1856
nominated Presidential candidates. After that time its
Southern members gradually united with the Democracy, and the
Know Nothing party disappeared from politics."
_A. Johnston,
History of American Politics, 2d edition,
chapter 18, section 4._
The ritual, rules, etc., of the American, or Know Nothing
party are given in the following work.
_T. V. Cooper,
American Politics,
pages 56-68._
ALSO IN:
_A. Holmes,
Parties and their Principles,
pages 287-295._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1852.
Seventeenth Presidential Election.
Franklin Pierce.
"The question of slavery, in its comprehensive bearings,
formed the turning point in the presidential canvass of 1852.
… The national democratic convention which nominated Mr.
Pierce, unanimously adopted a platform approving the
compromise of 1850 as the final decision of the slavery
question. The Whig party were widely divided on the question
of acquiescence in the compromise measures, and still more at
variance in regard to the claims of rival candidates for the
presidency. Mr. Seward's friends in the free states united in
the support of General Scott, who had, to a considerable
extent, stood aloof from the agitations of the last few years.
On the other hand, the exclusive supporters of the compromise,
as a condition of party allegiance, were divided between
Millard Fillmore, at that time acting president, and Daniel
Webster, secretary of state. The Whig convention met in
Baltimore on the 17th of June, 1852, two weeks after the
democratic convention, and nominated General Scott as their
candidate for president. A large majority of the delegates
from New York, and a considerable number from other states,
maintained their opposition to the test resolutions which were
proposed by the other branch of the party. These resolutions,
however, were adopted, and a platform was thus established
resembling, in its main features, that of the democrats. …
Supported by several advocates of this new platform on the
ground of his personal popularity, General Scott received the
nomination.
{3392}
He was, however, regarded with great suspicion by a large
number of whigs in the slaveholding states. … Many ardent
friends of the compromise … refused to rally around General
Scott, distrusting his fidelity to the compromise platform;
while a large number of the Whigs of the free states, through
aversion to the platform, assumed a neutral position or gave
their support to a third candidate. Another portion of the
Whig party nominated Mr. Webster, who died [October 24, 1852],
not only refusing to decline the nomination, but openly
avowing his disgust with the action of the party."
_G. E. Baker,
Memoir of William. H. Seward
(Seward's Works, volume 4)._
"The Democratic convention was held, first, on June 1, 1852,
at Baltimore. It was a protracted convention, for it did not
adjourn until the 6th of the month, but it was not very
interesting. … After a short contest, the two-thirds rule was
adopted by an overwhelming majority. The struggle over the
nomination was protracted. On the first ballot, General Cass
had 116; James Buchanan, 93; William L. Marcy, 27; Stephen A.
Douglas, 20; Joseph Lane, 13; Samuel Houston, 8; and there
were 4 scattering. The number necessary to a choice was 188. …
On the twenty-ninth trial, the votes were: for Cass, 27; for
Buchanan, 93; for Douglas, 91; and no other candidate had more
than 26. At this point Cass began to recover his strength, and
reached his largest number on the thirty-fifth trial, namely,
131. On that same ballot, Virginia gave 15 votes to Franklin
Pierce. Mr. Pierce gained 15 more votes on the thirty-sixth
trial; but at that point his increase ceased, and was then
slowly resumed, as the weary repetition of balloting without
effect went on. The forty-eighth trial resulted as follows:
for Cass, 73; for Buchanan, 28; for Douglas, 33; for Marcy,
90; for Pierce, 55; for all others, 8. The forty-ninth trial
was the last. There was a 'stampede' for Pierce, and he
received 282 votes to 6 for all others. Ten candidates were
voted for as a candidate for the vice-presidency.—On the
second ballot, William R. King of Alabama was unanimously
nominated. … The anti-slavery organization, the Free Soil
Democrats, though a much less important political factor than
they had been four years earlier, held their convention in
Pittsburg on August 11. Henry Wilson of Massachusetts
presided. John P. Hale of New Hampshire was nominated for
President, and George W. Julian of Indiana for Vice-President.
… The canvass was not a very spirited one. All the early
autumn elections were favorable to the Democrats, and the
result in November was a crushing defeat of the Whigs in the
popular vote and one still more decisive in the electoral
vote. … The popular and electoral votes were as follows."
Popular vote: Franklin Pierce, 1,601,274; Winfield Scott,
1,386,580; John P. Hale, 155,825. Electoral vote: Pierce, 254;
Scott, 42.
_E. Stanwood,
History of Presidential Elections,
chapter 18._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1852.
The appearance of Uncle Tom's Cabin, and its effect.
"Of the literary forces that aided in bringing about the
immense revolution in public sentiment between 1852 and 1860,
we may affirm with confidence that by far the most weighty was
the influence spread by this book. This story, when published
[1851-1852] as a serial in the 'National Era,' an anti-slavery
newspaper at Washington, attracted little attention, but after
it was given to the world in book form in March, 1852, it
proved the most successful novel ever written. The author felt
deeply that the Fugitive Slave law was unjust, and that there
was cruelty in its execution; this inspired her to pour out
her soul in a protest against slavery. She thought that if she
could only make the world see slavery as she saw it, her
object would be accomplished; she would then have induced
people to think right on the subject. The book was composed
under the most disheartening circumstances. Worn out with the
care of many young children; overstrained by the domestic
trials of a large household, worried because her husband's
small income did not meet their frugal needs; eking out the
poor professor's salary by her literary work in a house too
small to afford a study for the author—under such conditions
there came the inspiration of her life. … The effect produced
by the book was immense. Whittier offered up 'thanks for the
Fugitive Slave law; for it gave occasion for Uncle Tom's
Cabin.' Longfellow thought it was one of the greatest triumphs
in literary history, but its moral effect was a higher triumph
still. Lowell described the impression which the book made as
a 'whirl of excitement.' Choate is reported to have said:
'That book will make two millions of abolitionists.' Garrison
wrote the author: 'All the defenders of slavery have let me
alone and are abusing you.'"
_J. F. Rhodes,
History of the United States from 1850,
volume 1, pages 278-280._
Writing only nine months after the publication of "Uncle Tom's
Cabin," C. F. Briggs, in Putnam's Monthly Magazine, said:
"Never since books were first printed has the success of Uncle
Tom been equalled; the history of literature contains nothing
parallel to it, nor approaching it; it is, in fact, the first
real success in bookmaking, for all other successes in
literature were failures when compared with the success of
Uncle Tom. … There have been a good many books which were
considered popular on their first appearance, which were
widely read and more widely talked about. But what were they
all, compared with Uncle Tom, whose honest countenance now
overshadows the reading world, like the dark cloud with a
silver lining. Don Quixote was a popular book on its first
coming out, and so was Gil Blas, and Richardson's Pamela, and
Fielding's Tom Jones, and Hannah More's Cœlebs, and Gibbon's
Decline and Fall; and so were the Vicar of Wakefield, and
Rasselas, and the Tale of a Tub, and Evelina, the Lady of the
Lake, Waverley, the Sorrows of Werter, Childe Harold, the Spy,
Pelham, Vivian Grey, Pickwick, the Mysteries of Paris, and
Macaulay's History. These are among the most famous books that
rose suddenly in popular esteem on their first appearance, but
the united sale of the whole of them, within the first nine
months of their publication, would not equal the sale of Uncle
Tom in the same time. … It is but nine months since this Iliad
of the blacks, as an English reviewer calls Uncle Tom, made
its appearance among books, and already its sale has exceeded
a million of copies; author and publisher have made fortunes
out of it, and Mrs. Stowe, who was before unknown, is as
familiar a name in all parts of the civilized world as that of
Homer or Shakspeare. Nearly 200,000 copies of the first edition
of the work have been sold in the United States, and the
publishers say they are unable to meet the growing demand.
{3393}
The book was published on the 20th of last March, and on the
1st of December there had been sold 120,000 sets of the
edition in two volumes. 50,000 copies of the cheaper edition
in one, and 3,000 copies of the costly illustrated edition. …
They [the publishers] have paid to the author $20,300 as her
share of the profits on the actual cash sales of the first
nine months. But it is in England where Uncle Tom has made his
deepest mark. Such has been the sensation produced by the book
there, and so numerous have been the editions published, that
it is extremely difficult to collect the statistics of its
circulation with a tolerable degree of exactness. But we know
of twenty rival editions in England and Scotland, and that
millions of copies have been produced. … We have seen it
stated that there were thirty different editions published in
London, within six months of the publication of the work here,
and one firm keeps 400 men employed in printing and binding
it. … Uncle Tom was not long in making his way across the
British Channel, and four rival editions are claiming the
attention of the Parisians, one under the title of 'le Père
Tom,' and another of 'la Case de l'Oncle Tom.'"
_Uncle Tomitudes
(Putnam's Monthly Magazine, January, 1853)._
"In May, 1852. Whittier wrote to Garrison: 'What a glorious
work Harriet Beecher Stowe has wrought. Thanks for the
Fugitive Slave Law. Better for slavery that that law had never
been enacted, for it gave occasion for Uncle Tom's Cabin.' …
Macaulay wrote, thanking her for the volume, assuring her of
his high respect for the talents and for the benevolence of
the writer. Four years later, the same illustrious author,
essayist, and historian wrote to Mrs. Stowe: 'I have just
returned from Italy, where your fame seems to throw that of
all other writers into the shade. There is no place where
Uncle Tom, transformed into Il Zio Tom, is not to be found.'
From Lord Carlisle she received a long and earnest epistle, in
which he says he felt that slavery was by far the 'topping'
question of the world and age, and that he returned his 'deep
and solemn thanks to Almighty God, who has led and enabled you
to write such a book.' The Rev. Charles Kingsley, in the midst
of illness and anxiety, sent his thanks, saying: 'Your book
will do more to take away the reproach from your great and
growing nation than many platform agitations and
speechifyings.' Said Lord Palmerston, 'I have not read a novel
for thirty years; but I have read that book three times, not
only for the story, but for the statesmanship of it.' Lord
Cockburn declared: 'She has done more for humanity than was
ever before accomplished by any single book of fiction.'
Within a year Uncle Tom's Cabin was scattered all over the
world. Translations were made into all the principal
languages, and into several obscure dialects, in number
variously estimated from twenty to forty. The librarian of the
British Museum, with an interest and enterprise which might
well put our own countrymen to blush, has made a collection
which is unique and very remarkable in the history of books.
American visitors may see there thirty-five editions (Uncle
Tom's Cabin) of the original English, and the complete text,
and eight of abridgments and adaptations. Of translations into
different languages there are nineteen, viz.: Armenian, one;
Bohemian, one; Danish, two distinct versions; Dutch, one;
Flemish, one; French, eight distinct versions, and two dramas;
German, five distinct versions, and four abridgments;
Hungarian, one complete version, one for children, and one
versified abridgment; Illyrian, two distinct versions;
Italian, one; Polish, two distinct versions; Portuguese, one;
Roman, or modern Greek, one; Russian, two distinct versions;
Spanish, six distinct versions; Swedish, one; Wallachian, two
distinct versions; Welsh, three distinct versions."
_Mrs. F. T. McCray,
Uncle Tom's Cabin
(Magazine of American History, January, 1890)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1852-1854.
The Perry Expedition.
Opening of intercourse with Japan.
See JAPAN: A. D. 1852-1888.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1853.
The Gadsden Purchase of Arizona.
See ARIZONA: A. D. 1853.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1854.
The Kansas-Nebraska Bill.
Repeal of the Missouri Compromise.
The doctrine of "Squatter Sovereignty."
"The slavery agitation apparently had died away both in
congress and throughout the country. This calm, however, was
doomed to a sudden interruption. The prospect of … beneficent
legislation was destroyed by the introduction of a measure
which at once supplanted all other subjects in congress and in
the political interests of the people. This was the novel and
astounding proposal of Mr. Douglas [Senator Stephen A.
Douglas, of Illinois], in relation to the Kansas and Nebraska
territories. … The measure … alluded to … was a provision in
the bill for the organization of a territory in Nebraska,
declaring that the states which might at any future time be
formed in the new territory should leave the question of
slavery to be decided by the inhabitants thereof on the
adoption of their constitution,—[this being in accordance with
the doctrine which its advocates styled 'Popular Sovereignty,'
but which took the commoner name of 'Squatter Sovereignty'
from its opponents]. This provision was, as explained by the
bill itself, the application of the compromise policy of 1850
to Nebraska, and, as was evident, virtually repealed the
Missouri Compromise of 1820, which guarantied that slavery
should be forever excluded from the territory in question.
But, in order to bring the supporters of the bill and its
opponents to a more decided test, an amendment was moved
expressly annulling that portion of the Missouri Compromise
which related to the subject. Mr. Douglas, after some
deliberation, accepted the amendment, and modified his plan so
far as to introduce a new bill for the organization of
Nebraska and Kansas within the same limits, instead of the
territory of Nebraska alone, according to the original
programme. The administration lost no time in adopting this
policy as their own. It was at first proposed to hasten the
passage of the bill through both houses so rapidly as to
prevent any remonstrance on the part of the people. But the
opponents of the measure, including Mr. Seward, Mr. Chase, Mr.
Sumner, Mr. Truman Smith, Mr. Wade, Mr. Everett, Mr. Bell, Mr.
Houston, and Mr. Fessenden, combined against it such an
earnest and effective resistance that the attention of the
country was aroused, and an indignant protest called forth
from the people of the free states. The bill, however, passed
the senate on the 4th day of March, 1854, after a discussion
which had occupied nearly every day of the session since the
23d of January. …
{3394}
On the 21st of March, Mr. Richardson of Illinois, in the
house, moved to refer the bill, as it came from the senate, to
the committee on territories, of which he was the chairman.
Mr. Francis B. Cutting, of New York, moved that it be sent to
the committee of the whole, where it could be freely
discussed. His motion was carried, after a severe struggle, by
a vote of 110 to 95. This was regarded as a triumph of the
enemies of the bill and inspired hopes of its ultimate defeat
in the house. On the 22d of May, after a most exciting
contest, lasting nearly two months, in committee of the whole,
Mr. Alex. H. Stephens of Georgia, by an extraordinary
stratagem in parliamentary tactics, succeeded in closing the
debate and bringing the bill to a vote in the house, where it
finally passed, before adjournment, by a vote of 113 to 100."
Returned to the senate, on account of amendments which had
been made to it, it passed that body again "by vote of 35 to
13; and amid the firing of cannon and the shouting of its
friends, it was sent to the president for his signature, at
three o'clock in the morning of May 26, 1854. President Pierce
promptly gave it his approval, and the odious measure became
the law of the land. Thus was abrogated the Missouri
Compromise—a law enacted thirty years before with all the
solemnity of a compact between the free and the slave
states—and a territory as large as the thirteen original
states opened to slavery. The act was consummated by the
cooperation of the north. Originating with a senator from a
free state, it was passed by a congress containing in each
branch a majority of members from the free states, and was
sanctioned by the approval of a free state president. The
friends of this legislation attempted to defend it on the
pretence that it was not an original act, but only declaratory
of the true intent and significance of the compromise measures
of 1850."
_G. E. Baker,
Memoir of William H. Seward
(volume 4 of Seward's Works),
pages 24-27._
Senator Douglas' explanation of the reasons on which he
grounded his Kansas-Nebraska Bill is given in a report made by
Lieutenant-Colonel Cutts, of conversations held by him with
the Senator in 1859, and taken down in writing at the time, in
the exact language of Mr. Douglas. "There was," said Senator
Douglas, "a necessity for the organization of the Territory,
which could no longer be denied or resisted. … Mr. Douglas, as
early as the session of 1843, had introduced a bill to
organize the Territory of Nebraska, for the purpose of opening
the line of communication between the Mississippi Valley and
our possessions on the Pacific Ocean, known as the Oregon
country, and which was then under the operation of the treaty
of joint occupation, or rather non occupation, with England,
and was rapidly passing into the exclusive possession of the
British Hudson's Bay Fur Company, who were establishing posts
at every prominent and commanding point in the country. … Mr.
Douglas renewed the introduction of his bill for the
organization of Nebraska Territory, each session of Congress,
from 1844 to 1854, a period of ten years, and while he had
failed to secure the passage of the act, in consequence of the
Mexican war intervening, and the slavery agitation which
ensued, no one had objected to it upon the ground that there
was no necessity for the organization of the Territory. During
the discussions upon our Territorial questions during this
period, Mr. Douglas often called attention to the fact that a
line of policy had been adopted many years ago, and was being
executed each year, which was entirely incompatible with the
growth and development of our country. It had originated as
early as the administration of Mr. Monroe, and had been
continued by Mr. Adams, General Jackson, Mr. Van Buren,
Harrison, and by Tyler, by which treaties had been made with
the Indians to the east of the Mississippi River, for their
removal to the country bordering upon the States west of the
Mississippi or Missouri Rivers, with guaranties in said
treaties that the country within which these Indians were
located should never be embraced within any Territory or
State, or subjected to the jurisdiction of either, so long as
grass should grow and water should run. These Indian
settlements, thus secured by treaty, commenced upon the
northern borders of Texas, or Red River, and were continued
from year to year westward, until when, in 1844, Mr. Douglas
introduced his first Nebraska Bill, they had reached the
Nebraska or Platte River, and the Secretary of War was then
engaged in the very act of removing Indians from Iowa, and
settling them in the valley of the Platte River, with similar
guaranties of perpetuity, by which the road to Oregon was
forever to be closed. It was the avowed object of this Indian
policy to form an Indian barrier on the western borders of
Arkansas, Missouri, and Iowa, by Indian settlements, secured
in perpetuity by a compact that the white settlements should
never extend westward of that line. This policy originated in
the jealousy, on the part of the Atlantic States, of the
growth and expansion of the Mississippi Valley, which
threatened in a few years to become the controlling power of
the nation. … This restrictive system received its first cheek
in 1844, by the introduction of the Nebraska Bill, which was
served on the Secretary of War, by its author, on the day of
its introduction, with a notice that Congress was about to
organize the Territory, and therefore he must not locate any
more Indians there. In consequence of this notice, the
Secretary (by courtesy) suspended his operations until
Congress should have an opportunity of acting upon the bill;
and inasmuch as Congress failed to act that session, Mr.
Douglas renewed his bill and notice to the Secretary each
year, and thus prevented action for ten years, and until he
could procure action on the bill. … When Congress assembled at
the session of 1853-1854, in view of this state of facts, Mr.
Douglas renewed his Nebraska Act, which was modified, pending
discussion, by dividing into two Territories, and became the
Kansas-Nebraska Act. … The jealousies of the two great
sections of the Union, North and South, had been fiercely
excited by the slavery agitation. The Southern States would
never consent to the opening of those Territories to
settlement, so long as they were excluded by act of Congress
from moving there and holding their slaves; and they had the
power to prevent the opening of the country forever, inasmuch
as it had been forever excluded by treaties with the Indians,
which could not be changed or repealed except by a two-third
vote in the Senate.
{3395}
But the South were willing to consent to remove the Indian
restrictions, provided the North would at the same time remove
the Missouri restriction, and thus throw the country open to
settlement on equal terms by the people of the North and
South, and leave the settlers at liberty to introduce or
exclude slavery as they should think proper." The same report
gives a distinction which Senator Douglas drew between
"Popular Sovereignty" and "Squatter Sovereignty," as follows:
"The name of Squatter Sovereignty was first applied by Mr.
Calhoun, in a debate in the United States Senate in 1848,
between himself and General Cass, in respect to the right of
the people of California to institute a government for
themselves after the Mexican jurisdiction had been withdrawn
from them, and before the laws of the United States had been
extended over them. General Cass contended that in such a case
the people had a right, an inherent and inalienable right, to
institute a government for themselves and for their own
protection. Mr. Calhoun replied that, with the exception of
the native Californians, the inhabitants of that country were
mere squatters upon the public domain, who had gone there in
vast crowds, without the authority of law, and were in fact
trespassers as well as squatters upon the public lands, and to
recognize their right to set up a government for themselves
was to assert the doctrine of 'Squatter Sovereignty.' The term
had no application to an organized Territory under the
authority of Congress, or to the powers of such organized
Territory, but was applied solely to an unorganized country
whose existence was not recognized by law. On the other hand,
what is called 'Popular Sovereignty' in the Territories, is a
phrase used to designate the right of the people of an
organized Territory, under the Constitution and laws of the
United States, to govern themselves in respect to their own
internal polity and domestic affairs."
_S. A. Douglas,
Brief Treatise upon Constitutional and Party Questions
(reported by J. M. Cutts),
pages 86-92, and 123-124._
"The repeal of the Missouri Compromise was the beginning of
the end, the fatal step of the South on its road to
destruction. Throughout the North the conviction grew that
Union and slavery could not exist much longer together. On the
4th of July, 1854, Garrison publicly burned a copy of the
Constitution of the United States with the words, 'The Union
must be dissolved!' He represented only an extreme sentiment.
But the people at large began to calculate the value of this
Union for which so many sacrifices had been made. Slavery
became odious to many persons hitherto indifferent to the
subject, on the ground that it persistently and selfishly
placed the Union in peril."
_B. Tuckerman,
William Jay and the Constitutional Movement for
the Abolition of Slavery,
chapter 7._
ALSO IN:
_M. Van Buren,
Inquiry into the Origin and Course of Political Parties,
chapter 8._
_G. T. Curtis,
Life of James Buchanan,
chapter 9._
_S. A. Douglas,
Popular Sovereignty in the Territories
(Harper's Magazine, September, 1859)._
_H. von Holst.
Constitutional and Political History of the United States,
volume 4, chapters 6-8._
_H. Greeley,
History of the Struggle for Slavery Extension,
chapter 14._
_J. F. Rhodes,
History of the United States from 1850,
chapter 5._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1854.
The Ostend Manifesto.
See CUBA: A. D. 1845-1860.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1854-1855.
Solidification of Anti-slavery sentiment in the North.
The birth of the new Republican Party.
"The determined purpose of the Slave Power to make slavery the
predominating national interest was never more clearly
revealed than by the proposed repeal of the Missouri
compromise. This was a deliberate and direct assault upon
freedom. Many, indeed, under the pleas of fraternity and
loyalty to the Union, palliated and apologized for this breach
of faith; but the numbers were increasing every hour, as the
struggle progressed, who could no longer be deceived by these
hollow pretences. … Pulpits and presses which had been dumb,
or had spoken evasively and with slight fealty to truth, gave
forth no uncertain sound. … To the utterances of the sacred
desk were added the action of ecclesiastical bodies,
contributions to the press, and petitions to State
legislatures and to Congress. … These discussions from pulpit,
platform, and press, all pointed to political action as the
only adequate remedy. In the Northern States there were
Abolitionists, Free-Soilers, anti-slavery Whigs, anti-Nebraska
Democrats, and anti-slavery members of the American party,
which had just come into existence. … As the conflict
progressed, large and increasing numbers saw that no help
could be reasonably hoped but through the formation of a new
party that could act without the embarrassment of a Southern
wing. But the formation of a national and successful party
from materials afforded by the disintegration of hitherto
hostile organizations was a work of great delicacy and
difficulty. Such a party could not be made;—it must grow out
of the elements already existing. It must be born of the
nation's necessities and of its longings for relief from the
weakness, or wickedness, of existing organizations. The mode
of organizing this new party of freedom varied according to
the varying circumstances of different localities and the
convictions of different men. … One of the earliest, if not
the earliest, of the movements that contemplated definite
action and the formation of a new party, was made in Ripon,
Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, in the early months of 1854." A
public meeting, held in one of the churches of the town, was
followed by a second meeting, on the 20th of March, at which
definite proceedings were taken. "By formal vote the town
committees of the Whig and Free Soil parties were dissolved,
and a committee of five, consisting of three Whigs, one
Free-Soiler, and one Democrat, was chosen. 'The work done on
that evening,' says Mr. Bovey [one of its originators], 'was
fully accepted by the Whig and Free Soil parties of all this
section immediately; and very soon—that is to say, in a few
months—by those parties throughout the entire State.' A State
convention was held in July, by which the organization of the
party was perfected for the State, a majority of the
delegation was secured for the next Congress, and a
Free-Soiler, Charles Durkee, was elected to the Senate of the
United States. At the meeting of the 20th of March, Mr. Bovey,
though stating his belief that the party should and probably
would take the name of 'Republican,' advised against such a
christening at that time and by that small local body of men.
He, however, wrote to the editor of the New York 'Tribune,'
suggesting the name. … But that 'little eddy' on that far-off
margin was only one of many similar demonstrations,—signs of a
turn of the tide in the great sea of American politics.
{3396}
In Washington, on the morning after the passage of the
Kansas-Nebraska bill, there was a meeting of some thirty
members of the House at the rooms of Thomas D. Eliot and
Edward Dickinson, of Massachusetts, called at the instance of
Israel Washburn, Jr., of Maine, for consultation in regard to
the course to be adopted in the exigencies of the case. The
hopelessness of any further attempts through existing
organizations was generally admitted; though a few still
counselled adherence to the Whig party, in the expectation of
securing its aid for freedom. But most present had become
convinced that in a new party alone lay any reasonable hope of
successful resistance to the continued aggressions of the
arrogant and triumphant Slave Power. The name 'Republican' was
suggested, discussed, and finally agreed upon as appropriate
for the new organization. … But, whatever suggestions others
may have made, or whatever action may have been taken
elsewhere, to Michigan belongs the honor of being the first
State to form and christen the Republican Party." A mass
convention of Whigs and Free Soilers in that State was held on
the 6th of July, at which the name was formally adopted, along
with a "platform" of principles opposing the extension of
slavery and demanding its abolition in the District of
Columbia. "Though the Republican Party was not immediately
organized in all the free States, its spirit inspired and its
ideas largely pervaded the North. Within one year eleven
Republican Senators were elected and fifteen States had
secured anti-Nebraska majorities. Out of 142 Northern members
of the House, 120 were opposed to the iniquitous measure. They
were in sufficient numbers not only to control the election of
Speaker, but they were able, by a majority of 15, to declare
that 'in the opinion of this House, the repeal of the Missouri
compromise of 1820, prohibiting slavery north of 36° 30', was
an example of useless and factious agitation of the slavery
question, unwise and unjust to the American people.' Several
States which had failed to organize a Republican Party in 1854
did so in 1855."
_H. Wilson,
Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America,
volume 2, chapter 31._
"The refusal of the Whigs in many States to surrender their
name and organization, and more especially the abrupt
appearance of the Know-Nothings on the field of parties,
retarded the general coalition between the Whigs and the
Free-soilers which so many influences favored. As it turned
out, a great variety of party names were retained or adopted
in the Congressional and State campaigns of 1854, the
designation of 'anti-Nebraska' being perhaps the most common,
and certainly for the moment the most serviceable, since
denunciation of the Nebraska bill was the one all-pervading
bond of sympathy and agreement among men who differed very
widely on almost all other political topics. This affiliation,
however, was confined exclusively to the free States. In the
slave States, the opposition to the Administration dared not
raise the anti-Nebraska banner, nor could it have found
followers; and it was not only inclined but forced to make its
battle either under the old name of Whigs, or as became more
popular, under the new appellation of 'Americans,' which grew
into a more dignified synonym for Know-Nothings. … While the
measure was yet under discussion in the House in March, New
Hampshire led off by an election completely obliterating the
eighty-nine Democratic majority in her Legislature.
Connecticut followed in her footsteps early in April. Long
before November it was evident that the political revolution
among the people of the North was thorough, and that election
day was anxiously awaited merely to record the popular verdict
already decided. The influence of this result upon parties,
old and new, is perhaps best illustrated in the organization
of the Thirty-fourth Congress, chosen at these elections
during the year 1854, which witnessed the repeal of the
Missouri Compromise. Each Congress, in ordinary course, meets
for the first time about one year after its members are
elected by the people, and the influence of politics during
the interim needs always to be taken into account. In this
particular instance this effect had, if anything, been
slightly reactionary, and the great contest for the
Speakership during the winter of 1855-1856 may therefore be
taken as a fair manifestation of the spirit of politics in
1854. The strength of the preceding House of Representatives,
which met in December, 1853, had been: Whigs, 71;
Free-soilers, 4; Democrats, 159—a clear Democratic majority of
84. In the new Congress there were in the House, as nearly as
the classification could be made, about 108 anti-Nebraska
members, nearly 40 Know-Nothings, and about 75 Democrats; the
remaining members were undecided. The proud Democratic
majority of the Pierce election was annihilated."
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 1, chapter 20._
ALSO IN:
_J. D. Long, editor,
The Republican Party: its History, etc._
_A. Holmes,
Parties and their Principles,
pages 274-278._
_J. F. Rhodes,
History of the United States from 1850,
chapter 7 (volume 2)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1854-1856.
The beginning of the struggle for Kansas.
Free-state settlers against Missouri "Border-ruffians."
See KANSAS: A. D. 1854-1859.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1854-1866.
The Canadian Reciprocity Treaty and its abrogation.
See TARIFF LEGISLATION, &c.
(UNITED STATES AND CANADA): A. D. 1854-1866.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1855-1856.
Long contest for the Speakership of the House.
Election of Mr. Banks, Republican.
Mr. Giddings' account.
"The free-soil party was now rapidly increasing in numbers and
influence. The Whig organization had disbanded: Yet its
leaders had too much pride of opinion to admit that the
anti-slavery men were right in their policy or in their
construction of the Constitution. Indeed, their prejudices
were too strong to permit them to join any other existing
organization. They therefore instituted a new party called the
'Know Nothings' or 'American party.' Their leading policy was
the exclusion of foreigners from office. … It was a secret
society, known to each other by signs, grips and passwords. It
increased rapidly in numbers, and in the autumn of 1844 they
elected a large majority of officers in all of the free
States. … The effect of their success became apparent at the
assembling of the thirty-fourth Congress. It had placed the
democratic party in a very decided minority in the House of
Representatives. … And the Free-soilers or Republicans were
placed in a most critical position. Their difficulty arose
from the determination of aspiring politicians to give all
influence into the hands of the organization which had
recently sprung up.
{3397}
Members of this new party were at the city of Washington some
weeks before the assembling of Congress, making such political
arrangements as they regarded necessary to secure the success
for the 'Know Nothings.' But all were conscious that neither
they nor the Free-soilers could succeed except by uniting with
each other." A partial combination of Know Nothings with the
Republicans was effected at a meeting on Friday before the
opening of the session of Congress. "Late in the day a
resolution was introduced pledging the members to vote for any
man on whom a majority of the members should unite, provided
he stood pledged by his past life or present declarations so
to arrange the committees of the House as to give respectful
answers to petitions concerning slavery. This resolution was
adopted by a unanimous vote of more than 70 members. But the
leading members of the 'Know Nothings' did not appear at any
of the caucuses. It was in this unorganized form that members
opposed to the extension of slavery met their associates on
Monday in the Hall of Representatives, to enter upon a contest
unequalled in the previous history of our Government. The
House consisted of 234 members—225 of whom answered to their
names at the first calling of the roll. The first business in
order was the election of Speaker: And the ballots being
counted, it was found that William A. Richardson, the
democratic candidate, had 74 votes; Lewis D. Campbell, of
Ohio, the 'Know Nothing' candidate, had 53 votes; Humphrey
Marshall, of Kentucky, the southern Know Nothing candidate, 30
votes; Nathaniel P. Banks, of Massachusetts, was supported by
those Free-soilers or Republicans who refused to support any
man placed in nomination by the Know Nothings; and Hiram M.
Fuller, of Pennsylvania, received the votes of 17 members of
the Know Nothing party who refused to support any other
candidate. There were several other ballots cast during the
day, with little change. The voting continued on the second,
third, fourth and fifth days, without material change, except
that Mr. Campbell's vote rose on one occasion as high as 75.
After the result of the twenty-third ballot was announced, Mr.
Campbell withdrew his name from the list of candidates. On the
withdrawal of Mr. Campbell, Mr. Banks' rose regularly until
the 15th December, when it reached 107. … On the 19th
December, the ballot showed Mr. Banks to have 106, and Mr.
Richardson 75. Messrs. Marshall and Fuller, with their
adherents, continuing to vote by themselves. During the
debates the Republicans were constantly assailed, and as the
writer [Joshua R. Giddings, of Ohio] was the oldest member of
that party, he felt constrained to vindicate their cause. He
assured the Democrats and 'Know Nothings' that the Republicans
must soon come into power: And when once in power they would
not permit southern members to dissolve the Union. This seemed
to arouse much angry feeling. Mr. McMullen, of Virginia,
replied with much spirit, declaring that whenever a northern
President should be elected the South would dissolve the
Union. This is believed to be the first distinct enunciation
in Congress that the Union was to be dissolved upon the
election of a northern President. Northern Democrats appeared
mortified at the imprudence of Mr. McMullen. Mr. Banks, in a
public speech made some two years previously in Maine, had
said, that if we were to extend slavery or dissolve the Union,
he would say, 'Let the Union slide.' This saying was now
seized upon by southern men as an insuperable objection to Mr.
Banks' election: While, at the same time, Mr. Brooks, of South
Carolina, assured the House and the country that unless
slavery were extended he desired to see the Union slide.
Members appeared by common consent to enter upon a general
debate, which was suspended on the 24th so long as to take a
ballot, which showed no substantial change in the parties. On
the 27th, four ballots were taken with a similar result. … On
the 28th December the balloting was resumed, and continued
through that and the following day without material change of
parties, and debate was again renewed. … The President of the
United States sent his annual message to the Senate on the
31st December, and his private secretary appeared at the
entrance of the House of Representatives and announced that he
had brought with him the annual message of the President, to
be presented to that body. Aware that this was intended to
exert an influence against the Republicans, the author at once
objected to receiving it, as it was an attempt to introduce a
new practice—for up to that time no President had ever
presumed to thrust his message upon an unorganized body—and
that it could not constitutionally be received by members
until a Speaker were elected. But a majority voted to receive
it. The next attempt was to read it to the House; but it was
again objected that it was not addressed to members in their
disorganized condition, but was addressed to the Senate and
House of Representatives, which had not then been organized.
This objection was sustained, and although they had received
the message, they refused to read it. The new year found the
House unorganized, with the President's message lying upon the
Clerk's desk unopened and unread. One ballot was taken. A
motion was next made to take up and read the President's
message; but, after debate, the motion was laid on the table.
Members now began to make arrangements for continuing the
contest indefinitely. Most of them had expected to draw their
mileage to defray their current expenses; but being unable to
do that until the House were organized, found themselves out
of funds. In many Republican districts the people met in
public conventions and passed resolutions approving the action
of their Representatives, made provisions for their members to
draw on their local banks for such funds as they deemed
necessary for defraying expenses at Washington. To meet these
expenses, some State Legislatures made appropriations from
their State funds. Soon as the republican party became
consolidated, its members became more confident. Those of
greatest experience assured their friends that as the
President, officers of government, and the army and navy must
go without pay until the House should be organized, the
pressure would soon be so great upon the democratic party that
they would be compelled to submit to the election of a
republican Speaker. Some State Legislatures passed resolutions
sustaining the action of their Representatives, declaring the
issue involved to be the extension or non-extension of
slavery. …
{3398}
On the 29th January several propositions were made for an
immediate organization. They were rejected, but by such small
majorities as to indicate an organization at no very distant
period; and the Republicans now felt one, and only one doubt
in regard to success. The southern 'Know Nothings' had been
Whigs, and bitterly hated the Democrats; and the question now
presented was, whether they would unite with their old enemies
rather than see a republican Speaker elected. On the 3d
February a resolution was presented, declaring that three more
ballots should be taken and if no election were had, the
candidate having the highest number of votes on the 4th ballot
should be declared Speaker. Soon after this vote was announced
the House adjourned. Members now felt that the contest was
drawing to a close. The next morning … Mr. Aiken, of South
Carolina, was announced as the democratic candidate. And the
first ballot, under the resolution, showed little change of
parties. Banks received 102 votes; Aiken, 92; Fuller, 13;
Campbell, 4; and Wells, 2. By this time the spacious galleries
were filled with eager spectators, the lobbies and passages
were crowded by men and ladies anxious for the result. The
next ballot was taken without any change of parties. A motion
was made to adjourn, but it was voted down by 159 to 52. Mr.
Fuller announced that he was no longer a candidate. The result
now appeared to be anticipated by all, and as the Clerk
commenced calling the roll of members for the final vote,
there appeared to be the most intense interest felt on all
sides of the House. … When the roll had been called through
there was so much confusion that it was difficult for anyone
to be heard. But the clerks and tellers proceeded in their
duties, and when the count was completed, Mr. Benson, of Maine
—one of the tellers—rose, and in a loud voice proclaimed that
'On the one hundred and thirty-third ballot Nathaniel P. Banks
had received 103 votes; Mr. Aiken had received 100 votes; Mr.
Fuller had received 6 votes; and Mr. Campbell had received 4
votes. That Mr. Banks having received the highest number of
votes on this ballot, was declared duly elected Speaker of the
thirty-fourth Congress.' At this announcement the spectators
in the galleries broke forth in wild excitement. Cheer after
cheer went up, amid the waving of handkerchiefs and
demonstrations of unrestrained exultation, which were
responded to by hisses from the Administration side of the
House. … The effect of this victory was felt through the
country. … Sixteen years before this occurrence Mr. Adams and
the author of these sketches were the only representatives in
Congress of the doctrines now supported by a majority of the
House. The slaveholders and those who sympathized with them
appeared to realize that political power was gradually
escaping from their grasp, and that the day was rapidly
approaching when the people would resume control of the
Government."
_J. R. Giddings,
History of the Rebellion,
chapter 26._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1855-1860.
Walker's Filibustering in Nicaragua.
See NICARAGUA: A. D. 1855-1860.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1856.
Refusal to sign the Declaration of Paris.
Proposed amendment.
See DECLARATION OF PARIS.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1856.
Senator Sumner's speech on "The Crime against Kansas,"
and the assault upon him by Brooks of South Carolina.
"The most startling speech made during the debate [on affairs
in Kansas], and which, from the events succeeding, became the
most celebrated, was that of Charles Sumner. It was delivered
on the 19th and 20th days of May and was published under the
title of 'The Crime against Kansas.' … If there had been no
more to Sumner's speech than the invective against the slave
power, he would not have been assaulted by Preston Brooks. Nor
is it probable that the bitter attack which the senator made
on South Carolina would have provoked the violence, had it not
been coupled with personal allusions to Senator Butler, who
was a kinsman of Brooks. … It was said that Seward, who read
the speech before delivery, advised Sumner to tone down its
offensive remarks, and he and Wade regretted the personal
attack. But Sumner was not fully 'conscious of the stinging
force of his language.' To that, and because he was terribly
in earnest, must be attributed the imperfections of the
speech. He would annihilate the slave power, and he selected
South Carolina and her senator as vulnerable points of attack.
… Two days after this exciting debate (May 22d) when the
Senate at the close of a short session adjourned, Sumner
remained in the Chamber, occupied in writing letters. Becoming
deeply engaged, he drew his arm-chair close to his desk, bent
over his writing, and while in this position was approached by
Brooks, a representative from South Carolina and a kinsman of
Senator Butler. Brooks, standing before and directly over him,
said: 'I have read your speech twice over carefully. It is a
libel on South Carolina and Mr. Butler, who is a relative of
mine.' As he pronounced the last word, he hit Sumner on the
head with his cane with the force that a dragoon would give to
a sabre-blow. Sumner was more than six feet in height and of
powerful frame, but penned under the desk he could offer no
resistance, and Brooks continued the blows on his defenceless
head. The cane broke, but the South Carolinian went on beating
his victim with the butt. The first blows stunned and blinded
Sumner, but instinctively and with powerful effort he wrenched
the desk from its fastenings, stood up, and with spasmodic and
wildly directed efforts attempted unavailingly to protect
himself. Brooks took hold of him, and, while he was reeling
and staggering about, struck him again and again. The
assailant did not desist until his arm was seized by one who
rushed to the spot to stop the assault. At that moment Sumner,
reeling, staggering backwards and sideways, fell to the floor
bleeding profusely and covered with his blood. The injury
received by Sumner was much more severe than was at first
thought by his physicians and friends. Four days after the
assault, he was able to give at his lodgings his relation of
the affair to the committee of the House of Representatives.
But, in truth, the blows would have killed most men. Sumner's
iron constitution and perfect health warded off a fatal
result; but it soon appeared that the injury had affected the
spinal column. The next three years and a half was a search
for cure. … At last he went to Paris and put himself under the
care of Dr. Brown-Séquard, whose treatment of actual
cauterization of the back eventually restore him to a fair
degree of health; but he never regained his former physical
vigor.
{3399}
He was not able to enter regularly again on his senatorial
career until December, 1859. … The different manner in which
the North and the South regarded this deed is one of the many
evidences of the deep gulf between these two people caused by
slavery. … When Brooks returned to South Carolina he received
an enthusiastic welcome. He was honored as a glorious son of
the Palmetto State, and making him the present of a cane was a
favorite testimonial. … At the North the assault of Brooks was
considered brutal and cowardly; at the South, his name was
never mentioned without calling him gallant or courageous,
spirited or noble. … A committee was appointed by the House
which took a large amount of evidence, and the majority
reported a resolution in favor of the expulsion of Brooks. On
this resolution, the vote was 121 to 95; but as it required
two thirds, it was not carried. Only three Southern
representatives publicly condemned the assault; only one voted
to expel Brooks. After the decision by the House, Brooks made
a speech, which he ended by resigning his place as
representative. His district re-elected him almost
unanimously: there were only six votes against him."
_J. F. Rhodes,
History of the United States from 1850,
chapter 7 (volume 2)._
ALSO IN:
_C. Sumner,
Works,
volume 4, pages 125-342._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1856.
Eighteenth Presidential Election.
Buchanan made President.
"The presidential campaign of … 1856, showed a striking
disintegration and re-formation of political groups. Nominally
there were four parties in the field: Democrats, Whigs, Native
Americans or Know-Nothings, and Republicans. The Know-Nothings
had lately won some State elections, but were of little
account as a national organization, for they stood upon an
issue hopelessly insignificant in comparison with slavery.
Already many had gone over to the Republican camp; those who
remained nominated as their candidates Millard Fillmore and
Andrew J. Donelson. The Whigs were the feeble remnant of a
really dead party, held together by affection for the old
name; too few to do anything by themselves, they took by
adoption the Know-Nothing candidates. The Republican party had
been born only in 1854. Its members, differing on other
matters, united upon the one doctrine, which they accepted as
a test: opposition to the extension of slavery. They nominated
John C. Fremont and William L. Dayton, and made a platform
whereby they declared it to be 'both the right and the duty of
Congress to prohibit in the Territories those twin relics of
barbarism, polygamy and slavery.' … In this Convention 110
votes were cast for Lincoln for the second place on the
ticket. … In the Democratic party there were two factions. The
favorite candidate of the South was Franklin Pierce, for
reelection, with Stephen A. Douglas as a substitute or second
choice; the North more generally preferred James Buchanan, who
was understood to be displeased with the repeal of the
Missouri Compromise. The struggle was sharp, but was won by
the friends of Buchanan, with whom John C. Breckenridge was
coupled. The campaign was eager, for the Republicans soon
developed a strength beyond what had been expected and which
put the Democrats to their best exertions. The result was:
popular vote, Democrats [Buchanan] 1,838,169, Republicans
[Fremont] 1,341,264, Know-Nothings and Whigs [Fillmore]
874,534; electoral vote, Democrats 174, Republicans 114,
Know-Nothings and Whigs, 8. Thus James Buchanan became
President of the United States, March 4, 1857. … Yet, while
the Democrats triumphed, the Republicans enjoyed the presage
of the future; they had polled a total number of votes which
surprised everyone; on the other hand, the Democrats had lost
ten States which they had carried in 1852 and had gained only
two others, showing a net loss of eight States; and their
electoral votes had dwindled from 254 to 174."
_J. T, Morse, Jr.,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 1, chapter 4._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1856-1859.
The continued struggle in Kansas.
The Topeka vs. the Lecompton Constitution.
See KANSAS: A. D. 1854-1859.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1857.
The Dred Scott decision.
"Dred Scott was a negro slave, the property of Dr. Emerson, a
surgeon in the army. In 1834, Dred was carried by his master
from the slave state of Missouri, first, to the military post
at Rock Island in the free state of Illinois, where he
remained till April or May, 1836; and, thence, to Fort
Snelling, in the territory known as Upper Louisiana, and lying
north of the line of the Missouri Compromise, in both of which
places he was held as a slave. At Fort Snelling, in the year
1836, he was married to Harriet, a negro slave, who had also
been brought to Fort Snelling by her master, Major Taliaferro,
and there sold to Dr. Emerson. In 1838, Dred, with his wife
and a child which had been born to him, was carried back by
his master to the state of Missouri. Subsequently, Dred, with
his wife, his daughter Eliza, and another daughter, Lizzie,
who was born after the return of her family to Missouri, was
sold to John F. A. Sandford—the defendant in the present case.
Dred commenced his efforts for the establishment of the
freedom of himself and family in the state courts of Missouri.
The suit was brought in the Circuit Court of St. Louis county.
Before this court, the judgment was in his favor, but, on
appeal by writ of error to the Supreme Court of the state,
this judgment was reversed, and the case remanded to the court
below,—where it remained, awaiting the decision of the suit
which, in the meanwhile, Dred had brought in the United States
courts. This second suit was brought before the Circuit Court
of the United States for the district of Missouri, and thence
carried, by writ of error, to the Supreme Court at Washington.
It may be added that the first suit was brought against Dr.
Emerson, but the second against Mr. Sandford, to whom Dred had
been sold. The action, though brought to assert the title of
Dred Scott and his family to freedom, was, in form, an action
of trespass 'vi et armis,' which is the usual form employed in
that state to try questions of this kind. The plaintiff,
Scott, in his writ both makes a declaration of the acts of
trespass—which of course are the acts of restraint necessarily
implied in holding himself and family as slaves—and avers,
what was necessary to give the court jurisdiction, that he and
the defendant are citizens of different states; that is, that
he is a citizen of Missouri, and the defendant a citizen of
New York. At the April term of the court, in 1854, the
defendant Sandford pleads, that the court has not
jurisdiction, because the plaintiff is not a citizen of
Missouri, but a negro of African descent, whose ancestors, of
pure African blood, were brought into this country and sold as
slaves.
{3400}
To this plea the plaintiff demurs as insufficient; the
demurrer is argued at the same term, and is sustained by the
court, that is, the court asserts its jurisdiction over the
case." It was on this plea that the case went finally to the
Supreme Court of the United States and was decided in 1857.
"The question of negro citizenship came up in the
consideration of the question of jurisdiction. For the
question of jurisdiction was the question, whether the
plaintiff was a citizen of Missouri, as he had averred in his
declaration; and the only fact pleaded to disprove his
citizenship was the fact that Scott was a negro of African
descent, whose ancestors had been sold as slaves in the United
States. The court, however, decided that this fact did not
exclude the possibility of his being a citizen; in other
words, it decided that a negro of this description can be a
citizen of the United States. The first question before the
Supreme Court was, whether it could rejudge this determination
of the circuit court."
_W. A. Larned,
Negro Citizenship
(New Englander, August, 1857)._
The decision of the Supreme Court, delivered by Chief Justice
Taney, March 6, 1857, not only closed the door of freedom to
Dred Scott, but shut the doors of the United States courts
against him and all those of his race who were or had been
slaves, or who sprang from an ancestry in the servile state.
The opinion of Chief Justice Taney was concurred in by all the
justices except Curtis and McLean-Justice Nelson dissenting on
one point only. The arguments and the sentiments in the
opinion which gave most offence to the conscience and the
reason of the country were the following: "It becomes … our
duty to decide whether the facts stated in the plea are or are
not sufficient to show that the plaintiff is not entitled to
sue as a citizen in a court of the United States. This is
certainly a very serious question, and one that now for the
first time has been brought for decision before this court.
But it is brought here by those who have a right to bring it,
and it is our duty to meet it and decide it. The question is
simply this: Can a negro, whose ancestors were imported into
this country, and sold as slaves, become a member of the
political community formed and brought into existence by the
Constitution of the United States, and as such become entitled
to all the rights, and privileges, and immunities, guarantied
by that instrument to the citizen? One of which rights is the
privilege of suing in a court of the United States in the
cases specified in the Constitution. It will be observed, that
the plea applies to that class of persons only whose ancestors
were negroes of the African race, and imported into this
country, and sold and held as slaves. The only matter in issue
before the court, therefore, is whether the descendants of
such slaves, when they shall be emancipated, or who are born
of parents who had become free before their birth, are
citizens of a State, in the sense in which the word citizen is
used in the Constitution of the United States. And this being
the only matter in dispute on the pleadings, the court must be
understood as speaking in this opinion of that class only,
that is, of those persons who are the descendants of Africans
who were imported into this country, and sold as slaves. … The
words 'people of the United States' and 'citizens' are
synonymous terms, and mean the same thing. They both describe
the political body who, according to our republican
institutions, form the sovereignty, and who hold the power and
conduct the Government through their representatives. They are
what we familiarly call the 'sovereign people,' and every,
citizen is one of this people, and a constituent member of
this sovereignty. The question before us is, whether the class
of persons described in the plea in abatement compose a
portion of this people, and are constituent members 'of this
sovereignty? We think they are not, and that they are not
included, and were not intended to be included, under the word
'citizens' in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none
of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides
for and secures to citizens of the United States. On the
contrary, they were at that time considered as a subordinate
and inferior class of beings, who had been subjugated by the
dominant race, and, whether emancipated or not, yet remained
subject to their authority, and had no rights or privileges
but such as those who held the power and the Government might
choose to grant them. It is not the province of the court to
decide upon the justice or injustice, the policy or impolicy,
of these laws. The decision of that question belonged to the
political or law-making power. … In discussing this question,
we must not confound the rights of citizenship which a State
may confer within its own limits, and the rights of
citizenship as a member of the Union. It does not by any means
follow, because he has all the rights and privileges of a
citizen of a State, that he must be a citizen of the United
States. He may have all of the rights and privileges of the
citizen of a State, and yet not be entitled to the rights and
privileges of a citizen in any other State. … The question
then arises, whether the provisions of the Constitution, in
relation to the personal rights and privileges to which the
citizen of a State should be entitled, embraced the negro
African race, at that time in this country, or who might
afterwards be imported, who had then or should afterwards be
made free in any State; and to put it in the power of a single
State to make him a citizen of the United States, and endue
him with the full rights of citizenship in every other State
without their consent? … The court think the affirmative of
these propositions cannot be maintained. And if it cannot, the
plaintiff in error could not be a citizen of the State of
Missouri, within the meaning of the Constitution of the United
States, and, consequently, was not entitled to sue in its
courts. It is true, every person, and every class and
description of persons, who were at the time of the adoption
of the Constitution recognised as citizens in the several
States, became also citizens of this new political body; but
none other. … It becomes necessary, therefore, to determine
who were citizens of the several States when the Constitution
was adopted. And in order to do this, we must recur to the
Governments and institutions of the thirteen colonies, when
they separated from Great Britain and formed new
sovereignties, and took their places in the family of
independent nations. We must inquire who, at that time, were
recognised as the people or citizens of a State, whose rights
and liberties had been outraged by the English Government; and
who declared their independence, and assumed the powers of
Government to defend their rights by force of arms.
{3401}
In the opinion of the court, the legislation and histories of
the times, and the language used in the Declaration of
Independence, show that neither the class of persons who had
been imported as slaves, nor their descendants, whether they
had become free or not, were then acknowledged as a part of
the people, nor intended to be included in the general words
used in that memorable instrument. It is difficult at this day
to realize the state of public opinion in relation to that
unfortunate race, which prevailed in the civilized and
enlightened portions of the world at the time of the
Declaration of Independence, and when the Constitution was
framed and adopted. But the public history of every European
nation displays it in a manner too plain to be mistaken. They
had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of
an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the
white race, either in social or political relations; and so
far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was
bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully
be reduced to slavery for his benefit. He was bought and sold,
and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic,
whenever a profit could be made by it. This opinion was at
that time fixed and universal in the civilized portion of the
white race." Finally, having, with great elaboration, decided
the question of citizenship adversely to Dred Scott and all
his kind, the Court proceeded to obliterate the antislavery
provision of the Missouri Compromise, which constituted one of
the grounds on which Dred Scott claimed his freedom. "It is
the opinion of the court," wrote Chief Justice Taney, "that
the act of Congress which prohibited a citizen from holding
and owning property of this kind in the territory of the
United States north of the line therein mentioned, is not
warranted by the Constitution, and is therefore void; and that
neither Dred Scott himself, nor any of his family, were made
free by being carried into this territory; even if they had
been carried there by the owner, with the intention of
becoming a permanent resident. We have so far examined the
case, as it stands under the Constitution of the United
States, and the powers thereby delegated to the Federal
Government. But there is another point in the case which
depends on State power and State law. And it is contended, on
the part of the plaintiff, that he is made free by being taken
to Rock Island, in the State of Illinois, independently of his
residence in the territory of the United States; and being so
made free, he was not again reduced to a state of slavery by
being brought back to Missouri. Our notice of this part of the
case will be very brief; for the principle on which it depends
was decided in this court, upon much consideration, in the
case of Strader et al. v. Graham, reported in 10th Howard, 82.
In that case, the slaves had been taken from Kentucky to Ohio,
with the consent of the owner, and afterwards brought back to
Kentucky. And this court held that their status or condition,
as free or slave, depended upon the laws of Kentucky, when
they were brought back into that State, and not of Ohio; and
that this court had no jurisdiction to revise the judgment of
a State court upon its own laws. This was the point directly
before the court, and the decision that this court had not
jurisdiction turned upon it, as will be seen by the report of
the case. So in this case. As Scott was a slave when taken
into the State of Illinois by his owner, and was there held as
such, and brought back in that character, his status, as free
or slave, depended on the laws of Missouri, and not of
Illinois. … Upon the whole, therefore, it is the judgment of
this court, that it appears by the record before us that the
plaintiff in error is not a citizen of Missouri, in the sense
in which that word is used in the Constitution; and that the
Circuit Court of the United States, for that reason, had no
jurisdiction in the case, and could give no judgment in it.
Its judgment for the defendant must, consequently, be
reversed, and a mandate issued, directing the suit to be
dismissed for want of jurisdiction."
_Report of the Decision of the Supreme Court of the
United States in the case of
Dred Scott vs. John F. A. Sandford
(Howard's Reports, volume 19)._
"By this presentation of the iniquity, naked and in its most
repulsive form, Taney did no small harm to the party which he
intended to aid. It has been said that slavery plucked ruin on
its own head by its aggressive violence. It could not help
showing its native temper, nor could it help feeding its
hunger of land, insisting on the restoration of its runaways,
or demanding a foreign policy such as would fend off the
approach of emancipation. But Taney's judgment was a
gratuitous aggression and an insult to humanity at the same
time, for which, supposing that the Southern leaders inspired
it, they paid dear. If the slave was mere property, his owner
might be entitled to take him anywhere, and thus slavery might
be made national. The boast of a daring partisan of slavery
might be fulfilled, that the day would come when men might be
bought and sold in Boston as freely as any other goods. The
issue, which all the politicians had striven to keep out of
sight, was presented in its most startling and shocking form."
_Goldwin Smith,
The United States,
page 235._
ALSO IN:
_H. Wilson,
Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America,
volume 2, chapter 39._
_S. Tyler,
Memoirs of Roger B. Taney,
chapters 4-5._
_A. Johnston,
The United States: Its History and Constitution,
section 249._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1857.
Tariff reduction.
The financial collapse.
See TARIFF LEGISLATION (UNITED STATES): A. D. 1846-1861.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1857-1859.
The Mormon rebellion in Utah.
See UTAH: A. D. 1857-1859.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1858.
Treaty with China.
See CHINA: A. D. 1857-1868.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1858.
The Lincoln and Douglas debate in Illinois.
The senatorial term of Mr. Stephen A. Douglas being about to
expire, the choice of his successor became an issue which
controlled the election of members of the Illinois
Legislature, in the fall of 1858. Mr. Douglas received an
endorsement at the hands of the Democratic State Convention,
in April, which virtually nominated him for re-election.
Abraham Lincoln, who had come markedly to the front in his
state during the Kansas discussions, "was the man already
chosen in the hearts of the Republicans of Illinois for the
same office, and therefore with singular appropriateness they
passed, with great unanimity, at their convention in
Springfield on the 16th of June, the characteristic
resolution: 'That Hon. Abraham Lincoln is our first and only
choice for United States Senator to fill the vacancy about to
be created by the expiration of Mr. Douglas' term of office.'
{3402}
There was of course no surprise in this for Mr. Lincoln. He
had been all along led to expect it, and with that in view had
been earnestly and quietly at work preparing a speech in
acknowledgment of the honor about to be conferred on him. This
speech he wrote on stray envelopes and scraps of paper, as
ideas suggested themselves, putting them into that
miscellaneous and convenient receptacle, his hat. As the
convention drew near he copied the whole on connected sheets,
carefully revising every line and sentence, and fastened them
together, for reference during the delivery of the speech, and
for publication. The former precaution, however, was
unnecessary, for he had studied and read over what he had
written so long and carefully that he was able to deliver it
without the least hesitation or difficulty. … Before
delivering his speech he invited a dozen or so of his friends
over to the library of the State House, where he read and
submitted it to them. After the reading he asked each man for
his opinion. Some condemned and not one endorsed it. One man,
more forcible than elegant, characterized it as a 'd-d fool
utterance;' another said the doctrine was 'ahead of its time;'
and still another contended that it would drive away a good
many voters fresh from the Democratic ranks. Each man attacked
it in his criticism. I was the last to respond. Although the
doctrine announced was rather rank, yet it suited my views,
and I said, 'Lincoln, deliver that speech as read and it will
make you President.' At the time I hardly realized the force
of my prophecy. Having patiently listened to these various
criticisms from his friends—all of which with a single
exception were adverse—he rose from his chair, and after
alluding to the careful study and intense thought he had given
the question, he answered all their objections substantially
as follows: 'Friends, this thing has been retarded long
enough. The time has come when these sentiments should be
uttered; and if it is decreed that I should go down because of
this speech, then let me go down linked to the truth—let me
die in the advocacy of what is just and right.' The next day,
the 17th, the speech was delivered just as we had heard it
read. [The part of this famous speech which made the
profoundest impression and gave rise to the most discussion
was the opening part, contained in the following sentences:
'If we could first know where we are, and whither we are
tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it.
We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was
initiated with the avowed object and confident promise of
putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of
that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but has
constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease until a
crisis shall have been reached and passed. "A house divided
against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot
endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect
the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to
fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will
become all one thing, or all the other. Either the opponents
of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it
where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in
the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push
it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the
States, old as well as new, North as well as South. Have we no
tendency to the latter condition? Let anyone who doubts
carefully contemplate that now almost complete legal
combination—piece of machinery, so to speak—compounded of the
Nebraska doctrine and the Dred Scott decision. Let him
consider not only what work the machinery is adapted to do,
and how well adapted; but also let him study the history of
its construction, and trace, if he can, or rather fail, if he
can, to trace the evidences of design and concert of action
among its chief architects, from the beginning.'] … Lincoln
had now created in reality a more profound impression than he
or his friends anticipated. Many Republicans deprecated the
advanced ground he had taken, the more so as the Democrats
rejoiced that it afforded them an issue clear and
well-defined. Numbers of his friends distant from Springfield,
on reading his speech, wrote him censorious letters; and one
well-informed co-worker predicted his defeat, charging it to
the first ten lines of the speech. These complaints, coming
apparently from every quarter, Lincoln bore with great
patience. To one complainant who followed him into his office
he said proudly, 'If I had to draw a pen across my record, and
erase my whole life from sight, and I had one poor gift or
choice left as to what I should save from the wreck, I should
choose that speech and leave it to the world unerased.'
Meanwhile Douglas had returned from Washington to his home in
Chicago. Here he rested for a few days until his friends and
co-workers had arranged the details of a public reception on
the 9th of July, when he delivered from the balcony of the
Tremont House a speech intended as an answer to the one made
by Lincoln in Springfield. Lincoln was present at this
reception, but took no part in it. The next day, however, he
replied. Both speeches were delivered at the same place.
Leaving Chicago, Douglas passed on down to Bloomington and
Springfield, where he spoke on the 16th and 17th of July
respectively. On the evening of the latter day Lincoln
responded again in a most effective and convincing effort. The
contest now took on a different phase. Lincoln's Republican
friends urged him to draw Douglas into a joint debate, and he
accordingly sent him a challenge on the 24th of July. … On the
30th Douglas finally accepted the proposition to 'divide time,
and address the same audiences,' naming seven different
places, one in each Congressional district, outside of Chicago
and Springfield, for joint meetings. The places and dates
were, Ottawa, August 21; Freeport, August 27; Jonesboro,
September 15; Charleston, September 18; Galesburg, October 7;
Quincy, October 13; and Alton, October 15. … During the
canvass Mr. Lincoln, in addition to the seven meetings with
Douglas, filled thirty-one appointments made by the State
Central Committee, besides speaking at many other times and
places not previously advertised. … The election took place on
the second of November, and while Lincoln received of the
popular vote a majority of over 4,000, yet the returns from
the legislative districts foreshadowed his defeat. In fact,
when the Senatorial election took place in the Legislature,
Douglas received 54 and Lincoln 46 votes—one of the results of
the lamentable apportionment law then in operation."
_W. H. Herndon and J. W. Weik,
Lincoln, the True Story of a Great Life,
chapter 13 (volume 2)._
{3403}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1859.
Admission of Oregon into the Union, with a constitution
excluding free colored People.
See OREGON: A. D. 1859.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1859.
John Brown's attack on Slavery in Virginia.
The tragedy at Harper's Ferry.
"On the 17th of October, 1859, this country was bewildered and
astounded while the fifteen Slave States were convulsed with
fear, rage, and hate, by telegraphic dispatches from Baltimore
and Washington, announcing the outbreak, at Harper's Ferry, of
a conspiracy of Abolitionists and negroes, having for its
object the devastation and ruin of the South, and the massacre
of her white inhabitants. … As time wore on, further advices,
with particulars and circumstances, left no room to doubt the
substantial truth of the original report. An attempt had
actually been made to excite a slave insurrection in Northern
Virginia, and the one man in America to whom such an
enterprise would not seem utter insanity and suicide, was at
the head of it." This was John Brown, of Osawatomie, who had
been fighting slavery and the border ruffians in Kansas (see
KANSAS: A. D. 1854-1859) for five years, and had now changed
his field. "A secret convention, called by Brown, and attended
only by such whites and blacks as he believed in thorough
sympathy with his views, had assembled in a negro church at
Chatham, Canada West, May 8, 1858; at which Convention a
'Provisional Constitution and Ordinances for the People of the
United States' had been adopted. It was, of course, drafted by
Brown, and was essentially an embodiment of his political
views. … John Brown was chosen Commander-in-Chief; J. H. Kagi,
Secretary of War; Owen Brown (son of John), Treasurer; Richard
Realf, Secretary of State. Brown returned to the States soon
after his triumphal entry into Canada as a liberator. … He was
in Hagerstown, Maryland, on the 30th [of June, 1859], where he
registered his name as 'Smith, and two sons, from Western New
York.' He told his landlord that they had been farming in
Western New York, but had been discouraged by losing two or
three years' crops by frost, and they were now looking for a
milder climate, in a location adapted to wool-growing, etc.
After looking about Harper's Ferry for several days, they
found, five or six miles from that village, a large farm, with
three unoccupied houses, the owner, Dr. Booth Kennedy, having
died the last Spring. These houses they rented for a trifle
until the next March, paying the rent in advance. … After they
had lived there a few weeks, attracting no observation, others
joined them from time to time, including two of Brown's young
daughters; and one would go and another come, without exciting
any particular remark. … Meantime, the greater number of the
men kept out of sight during the day, so as not to attract
attention, while their arms, munitions, etc., were being
gradually brought from Chambersburg, in well-secured boxes. No
meal was eaten on the farm, while old Brown was there, until a
blessing had been asked upon it; and his Bible was in daily
requisition. The night of the 24th of October was originally
fixed upon by Brown for the first blow against Slavery in
Virginia, by the capture of the Federal Arsenal at Harper's
Ferry; and his biographer, Redpath, alleges that many were on
their way to be with him on that occasion, when they were
paralyzed by the intelligence that the blow had already been
struck, and had failed. The reason given for this, by one who
was in his confidence, is, that Brown, who had been absent on
a secret journey to the North, suspected that one of his party
was a traitor, and that he must strike prematurely, or not at
all. But the women who had been with them at the Kennedy
farm—the wives or daughters of one or another of the party—had
already been quietly sent away; and the singular complexion of
their household had undoubtedly begun to excite curiosity, if
not alarm, among their neighbors. … Harper's Ferry was then a
village of some 5,000 inhabitants, lying on the Virginia side
of the Potomac, and on either side of its principal tributary,
the Shenandoah, which here enters it from the South. Its site
is a mere nest or cup among high, steep mountains. … Here the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad crosses the Potomac. … Washington
is 57 miles distant by turnpike; Baltimore 80 miles by
railroad. … One of its very few streets was entirely occupied
by the work-shops and offices of the National Armory, and had
an iron railing across its entrance. In the old Arsenal
building, there were usually stored from 100,000 to 200,000
stand of arms. The knowledge of this had doubtless determined
the point at which the first blow of the liberators was to be
struck. The forces with which Brown made his attack consisted
of seventeen white and five colored men, though it is said
that others who escaped assisted outside, by cutting the
telegraph wires and tearing up the railroad track. The
entrance of this petty army into Harper's Ferry on Sunday
evening … seems to have been effected without creating alarm.
They first rapidly extinguished the lights of the town; then
took possession of the Armory buildings, which were only
guarded by three watchmen, whom, without meeting resistance or
exciting alarm, they seized and locked up in the guardhouse.
It is probable that they were aided, or, at least, guided, by
friendly negroes belonging in the village. … At a quarter-past
one, the western train arrived, and its conductor found the
bridge guarded by armed men. … A little after midnight, the
house of Colonel Washington was visited by six of Brown's men
under Captain Stevens, who captured the Colonel, seized his
arms, horses, etc., and liberated his slaves. On their return,
Stevens and party visited the house of Mr. Alstadtt and his
son, whom they captured, and freed their slaves. These, with
each male citizen as he appeared in the street, were confined
in the Armory until they numbered between forty and fifty.
Brown informed his prisoners that they could be liberated on
condition of writing to their friends to send a negro apiece
as ransom. At daylight, the train proceeded, Brown walking
over the bridge with the conductor. Whenever anyone asked the
object of their captors, the uniform answer was, 'To free the
slaves;' and when one of the workmen, seeing an armed guard at
the Arsenal gate, asked by what authority they had taken
possession of the public property, he was answered, 'By the
authority of God Almighty!' The passenger train that sped
eastward from Harper's Ferry, by Brown's permission, in the
early morning of Monday, October 17th, left that place completely
in the military possession of the insurrectionists. …
{3404}
But it was no longer entirely one-sided. The white Virginians,
who had arms, and who remained unmolested in their houses,
prepared to use them. … Several Virginians soon obtained
possession of a room overlooking the Armory gates, and fired
thence at the sentinels who guarded them, one of whom was
mortally wounded. Still, throughout the forenoon, the
liberators remained masters of the town. … Had Brown chosen to
fly to the mountains with his few followers, he might still
have done so, though with a much slenderer chance of impunity
than if he had, according to his original plan, decamped at
midnight, with such arms and ammunition as he could bear away.
Why he lingered, to brave inevitable destruction, is not
certain; but it may fairly be presumed that he had private
assurances that the negroes of the surrounding country would
rise. … At all events, if his doom was already sealed, his
delay at least hastened it. Half an hour after noon, a militia
force, 100 strong, arrived from Charlestown, the county seat,
and were rapidly disposed so as to command every available
exit from the place. … Militia continued to pour in; the
telegraph and railroad having been completely repaired, so
that the Government at Washington, Governor Wise at Richmond,
and the authorities at Baltimore, were in immediate
communication with Harper's Ferry, and hurrying forward troops
from all quarters. … Night found Brown's forces reduced to
three unwounded whites beside himself, with perhaps half a
dozen negroes from the vicinity. Eight of the insurgents were
already dead; another lay dying beside the survivors; two were
captives mortally wounded, and one other unhurt. Around the
few survivors were 1,500 armed, infuriated foes. … During that
night, Colonel Lee, with 90 United States marines and two
pieces of artillery, arrived, and took possession of the
Armory guard, very close to the engine-house. … At seven in
the morning, after a parley which resulted in nothing, the
marines advanced to the assault, broke in the door of the
engine-house by using a ladder as a battering-ram, and rushed
into the building. One of the defenders was shot and two
marines wounded; but the odds were too great; in an instant,
all resistance was over. Brown was struck in the face with a
saber and knocked down, after which the blow was several times
repeated, while a soldier ran a bayonet twice into the old
man's body."
_H. Greeley, The American Conflict,
volume 1, chapter 20._
"The Virginians demonstrated amply during the Civil War that
they were not cowards. What made them shake in their shoes was
not John Brown and his handful of men, but the shadows which
their excited imagination saw standing behind them. … The best
evidence of the frightful genuineness of the panic is the
brazen impudence with which it was brought forward as the
justifying motive for the many atrocities which marked the
trial. The brutalizing influences of slavery came to light
with terrible vividness. Kapp's statement that Brown 'enjoyed
very careful treatment' is not mistaken, but it is true only
of the later period of his imprisonment. Watson Brown, whose
life was prolonged until the early morning of the 19th of
October, complained of the hard bench he was forced to lie on,
His fellow-prisoner, Coppoc, begged for a mattress, or at
least a blanket, for the dying man, but could obtain neither.
Both Brown himself and Stevens, who was even more seriously
wounded, had nothing furnished them but wretched straw.
Redpath (page 373) assures us that 'from October 19 till
November 7 no clean clothing was given to Brown, but that he
lay in his soiled and blood-stained garments just as he had
fallen at Harper's Ferry.' On the 25th of October he was
brought before the court; he was not at first carried there on
a camp-bed, as was the case afterward, but compelled to walk,
leaning on two men. Virginia could not wait till he could
stand. … There was no such haste to carry out the sentence as
there had been to bring the trial to a close. On the 2d of
November, Brown was sentenced to suffer death by hanging on
the 2d of December."
_H. von Holst,
John Brown,
pages 139-155._
"Brown actually expected that the raid on Harper's Ferry would
be the stroke with which Moses called forth water from the
rock. The spring was to turn southward, and in its swift
course to swell to a mighty river. He declared expressly to
Governor Wise, and later still in his letters, that he had not
intended simply to break the chains of a few dozen or a few
hundred slaves, and to take them again to Canada. Emancipation
was to be spread farther and farther, and the freedmen were to
remain in the Southern States. Heaven itself could not have
brought this about, unless it had sent the angel of judgment
to cast down into the dust the whole white population from
Florida to Maine." At the last, when John Brown, wounded and a
prisoner, lay waiting his death, "he did not perceive that his
undertaking could not have succeeded under any circumstances;
but he did see that his failure and its consequences achieved
much greater results than its most complete success could have
done. … 'I can leave to God,' he writes, 'the time and manner
of my death, for I believe now that the sealing of my
testimony before God and man with my blood will do far more to
further the cause to which I have earnestly devoted myself,
than anything else I have done in my life.' And a few days
later, 'My health improves slowly, and I am quite cheerful
concerning my approaching end, since I am convinced that I am
worth infinitely more on the gallows than I could be anywhere
else.' … One year after the execution of Brown, on the 20th of
December, 1860, South Carolina declared its secession from the
Union, and on May 11, 1861, the Second Massachusetts Regiment
of infantry was raised, which was first to sing on its march
South:
'John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave,
His soul goes marching on.'"
_H. von Holst,
John Brown,
pages 139-155, 125-126, 167-175._
"Editors persevered for a good while in saying that Brown was
crazy; but at last they said only that it was 'a crazy
scheme,' and the only evidence brought to prove it was that it
cost him his life. I have no doubt that if he had gone with
5,000 men, liberated 1,000 slaves, killed a hundred or two
slaveholders, and had as many more killed on his own side, but
not lost his own life, these same editors would have called it
by a more respectable name. Yet he has been far more
successful than that."
_H. D. Thoreau,
The Last Days of John Brown
(Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers)._
ALSO IN:
_H. Wilson,
Rise and Fall of the Slave Power,
volume 2, chapter 45._
_F. B. Sanborn,
Life and Letters of John Brown,
chapters 15-17._
_J. Redpath,
Public Life of Captain John Brown._
{3405}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1860.
The Eighth Census.
Total population, 31,443,322, being an increase exceeding 35½
per cent. over the population of 1850; classified and
distributed as follows:
North.
White. Free black. Slave.
California. 361,353 4,086 0
Colorado. 34,231 46 0
Connecticut. 451,520 8,627 0
Dakota. 2,576 0 0
Illinois. 1,704,323 7,628 0
Indiana. 1,339,000 11,428 0
Iowa. 673,844 1,069 0
Kansas. 106,579 625 2
Maine. 626,952 1,327 0
Massachusetts. 1,221,464 9,602 0
Michigan. 742,314 6,799 0
Minnesota. 171,864 259 0
Nebraska. 28,759 67 15
Nevada. 6,812 45 0
New Hampshire. 325,579 494 0
New Jersey. 646,699 25,318 18
New York. 3,831,730 49,005 0
Ohio. 2,302,838 36,673 0
Oregon. 52,337 128 0
Pennsylvania. 2,849,266 56,849 0
Rhode Island. 170,668 3,952 0
Utah. 40,214 30 29
Vermont. 314,389 709 0
Washington. 11,138 30 0
Wisconsin. 774,710 1,171 0
--- --- ---
Total 18,791,159 225,967 64
South.
White. Free black. Slave.
Alabama. 526,431 2,690 435,080
Arkansas. 324,191 144 111,115
Delaware. 90,589 19,829 1,798
District of Columbia. 60,764 11,131 3,185
Florida. 77,748 932 61,745
Georgia. 591,588 3,500 462,198
Kentucky. 919,517 10,684 225,483
Louisiana. 357,629 18,647 331,726
Maryland. 515,918 83,942 87,189
Mississippi. 353,901 773 436,631
Missouri. 1,063,509 3,572 114,931
New Mexico 82,924 85 0
North Carolina. 631,100 30,463 881,059
South Carolina. 291,388 9,914 402,406
Tennessee. 826,782 7,300 275,719
Texas. 421,294 855 182,566
Virginia. 1,047,411 58,042 490,865
---- --- ---
Total 8,182,684 262,008 8,958,696
Immigration in the preceding decade added 2,598,214 to the
population, being 1,388,098 from the British Islands, and
1,114,564 from other parts of Europe.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1860.
The Southern view of Slavery.
The state of opinion and feeling on the subject of slavery to
which the people of the southern states had arrived in 1860 is
set forth with brevity and distinctness in Claiborne's Life of
General Quitman, which was published that year: "In the early
stages of African slavery in the South," says the writer, "it
was by many considered an evil, that had been inflicted upon
the country by British and New England cupidity. The Africans
were regarded as barbarians, and were governed by the lash.
The very hatred of the 'evil' forced upon us was, in a
measure, transferred to the unhappy victims. They were treated
with severity, and no social relations subsisted between them
and the whites. By degrees slavery began to be considered 'a
necessary evil,' to be got rid of by gradual emancipation, or
perhaps not at all, and the condition of the slave sensibly
improved. The natural sense of justice in the human heart
suggested that they had been brought here by compulsion, and
that they should be regarded not as savages, but as captives,
who were to be kindly treated while laboring for their
ultimate redemption. The progress of anti-slavery sentiment in
the Northern States (once regarded by the South as a harmless
fanaticism), the excesses it has occasioned, and the
unconstitutional power it claims, at length prompted a general
and searching inquiry into the true status of the negro. The
moment that the Southern mind became convinced, that slavery,
as it exists among us, instead of being a moral, social, and
political evil, is a moral, social, and political good, and is
the natural condition of the negro, as ordained by Providence,
and the only condition in which he can be civilized and
instructed, the condition of the Southern slave underwent a
thorough change. As a permanent fixture, as a hereditary
heirloom, as a human being with an immortal soul, intrusted to
us by God for his own wise purposes, his value increased, and
his relation to his owner approximated to the relation of
guardian and ward. Interest taught us that it would be wise to
cherish what was to be the permanent means of production and
profit, and religion exacted the humane and judicious
employment of the 'talent' committed to our care. Thus the
most powerful influences that sway the heart and the judgment
are in operation for the benefit of the slave, and hence his
present comfortable and constantly ameliorating condition. It
is due, almost solely, to the moral convictions of the
slaveholder. Our laws protect the slave in life and limb, and
against cruel and inordinate punishment. Those laws are
rigorously applied, though rarely necessary, for public
opinion, more formidable than law, would condemn to execration
and infamy the unjust and cruel master. Since these
convictions in regard to slavery have been adopted almost
unanimously in the South, the value of negroes has quadrupled.
This, however, is in some measure an evil, because the
tendency is to concentrate the slaves in the hands of the few,
who are able to pay the extraordinary rates now demanded. It
would be better for the commonwealth, and give additional
solidity to our system of domestic servitude, if every family
had an interest in it, secured, to a limited extent, against
liability for debt. It should constitute in the South, if
practicable, a part of every homestead, and then interest, and
household tradition, and the friendly, confidential, and even
affectionate relations that in the present state of public
feeling prevail between master and slave, would unite all men
in its defense. Neither land, nor slaves, which are here more
valuable than land, should, by either direct or indirect
legislation, be concentrated in few hands. Every citizen
should have, if possible, that immediate interest in them
which would make him feel that, in defending the commonwealth
and its institutions, he is defending his own inheritance."
_J. F. H. Claiborne,
Life and Correspondence of John A. Quitman,
volume 1, chapter 4._
{3406}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1860 (April-November).
Nineteenth Presidential Election.
Division of the Democratic Party.
Four candidates in the field.
A victory for freedom in the choice of Abraham Lincoln.
"Mr. J. W. Fell, a politician of Pennsylvania, says that after
the debates of 1858 [with Douglas] he urged Lincoln to seek
the Republican nomination for the presidency in 1860. Lincoln,
however, replied curtly that men like Seward and Chase were
entitled to take precedence, and that no such 'good luck' was
in store for him. … In the winter of 1859-60 sundry 'intimate
friends,' active politicians of Illinois, pressed him to
consent to be mentioned as a candidate. He considered the
matter over night and then gave them the desired permission,
at the same time saying that he would not accept the
vice-presidency. … With the opening of the spring of 1860 the
several parties began the campaign in earnest. The Democratic
Convention met first, at Charleston, April 23; and immediately
the line of disruption opened. Upon the one side stood
Douglas, with the moderate men and nearly all the Northern
delegates, while against him were the advocates of extreme
Southern doctrines, supported by the administration and by
most of the delegates from the 'Cotton States.' The majority
of the committee appointed to draft the platform were
anti-Douglas men; but their report was rejected, and that
offered by the pro-Douglas minority was substituted, 165 yeas
to 138 nays. Thereupon the delegations of Alabama,
Mississippi, Florida, and Texas, and sundry delegates from
other States, withdrew from the Convention, taking away 45
votes out of a total of 303. Those who remained declared the
vote of two thirds of a full Convention, i. e., 202 votes, to
be necessary for a choice. Then during three days 57 ballots
were cast, Douglas being always far in the lead, but never
polling more than 152½ votes. At last, on May 3, an
adjournment was had until June 18, at Baltimore. At this
second meeting contesting delegations appeared, and the
decisions were uniformly in favor of the Douglas men, which
provoked another secession of the extremist Southern men. A
ballot showed 173½ votes for Douglas out of a total of 191½;
the total was less than two thirds of the full number of the
original Convention, and therefore it was decided that any
person receiving two thirds of the votes cast by the delegates
present should be deemed the nominee. The next ballot gave
Douglas 181½. Herschel V. Johnson of Georgia was nominated for
vice-president. On June 28, also at Baltimore [after a meeting
and adjournment from Richmond, June 11], there came together a
collection composed of original seceders at Charleston, and of
some who had been rejected and others who had seceded at
Baltimore. Very few Northern men were present, and the body in
fact represented the Southern wing of the Democracy. Having,
like its competitor, the merit of knowing its own mind, it
promptly nominated John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky and Joseph
Lane of Oregon, and adopted the radical platform which had
been reported at Charleston. These doings opened, so that it
could never be closed, that seam of which the thread had long
been visible athwart the surface of the old Democratic party.
… In May the Convention of the Constitutional Union party met,
also at Baltimore. This organization was a sudden outgrowth
designed only to meet the present emergency. … The party died,
of necessity, upon the day when Lincoln was elected, and its
members were then distributed between the Republicans, the
Secessionists, and the Copperheads. John Bell, of Tennessee,
the candidate for the presidency, joined the Confederacy;
Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, the candidate for the
vice-presidency, became a Republican. The party never had a
hope of electing its men; but its existence increased the
chance of throwing the election into Congress; and this hope
inspired exertions far beyond what its own prospects
warranted. On May 16 the Republican Convention came together
at Chicago, where the great 'Wigwam' had been built to hold
10,000 persons. … Many candidates were named, chiefly Seward,
Lincoln, Chase, Cameron, Edward Bates of Missouri, and William
L. Dayton of New Jersey. Thurlow Weed was Seward's lieutenant.
Horace Greeley, chiefly bent upon the defeat of Seward, would
have liked to achieve it by the success of Bates. David Davis,
aided by Judge Logan and a band of personal friends from
Illinois, was manager for Lincoln. Primarily the contest lay
between Seward and Lincoln. … Upon the third ballot … those
who were keeping the tally saw that it stood:—Seward, 180;
Lincoln, 231½; Chase, 24½; Bates, 22; Dayton, 1; McLean, 5;
Scattering, 1. … Before the count could be announced, a
delegate from Ohio transferred four votes to Lincoln. This
settled the matter; and then other delegations followed, till
Lincoln's score rose to 354. … Later in the day the convention
nominated Hannibal Hamlin of Maine, on tho second ballot, by
367 votes, for the vice-presidency. … Almost from the
beginning it was highly probable that the Republicans would
win, and it was substantially certain that none of their
competitors could do so. The only contrary chance was that no
election might be made by the people, and that it might be
thrown into Congress."
_J. T. Morse, Jr.,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 1, chapter 6._
At the popular election, the votes were:
Lincoln, 1,866,452
(Free-States vote, 1,840,022, Slave States vote, 26,430);
Douglas, 1,375,157
(Free States vote, 1,211,632, Slave States vote, 163,525);
Breckenridge, 847,953
(Free States vote, 277,082, Slave States vote, 570,871);
Bell, 590,631
(Free States vote, 74,658, Slave States vote, 515,973).
In the Electoral College, the four candidates were voted
for as follows:
Lincoln, 180;
Breckenridge, 72;
Bell, 39;
Douglas, 12.
_E. Stanwood,
History of Presidential Elections,
chapter 20._
ALSO IN:
_H. W. Raymond,
Life of Lincoln,
chapter 4._
_E. McPherson,
Political History of the United States during the
Great Rebellion,
page 1._
_J. G. Holland,
Life of Lincoln,
chapters 15-16._
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 2, chapters 13-16._
_J. F. Rhodes,
History of the United States from 1850,
chapter 11 (volume 2)._
{3407}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1860 (November-December).
The plotting of the rebellion.
Secession of South Carolina.
"The long-hoped-for opportunity of trying the experiment of
secession was now at last presented. Abraham Lincoln had been
elevated to the presidency by a strictly sectional vote; and
though the fact could not be denied that he had been elected
in a perfectly constitutional manner, … yet, no sooner was it
ascertained that it was almost certain that he would receive a
majority of the electoral votes of the whole Union, than steps
began to be taken for carrying into effect a revolutionary
project which had engrossed the thoughts and sensibilities of
a small class of extreme Southern politicians, mainly confined
to the State of South Carolina, for some thirty years
preceding. … So thoroughly matured was the project of
secession in the minds of Southern extremists in South
Carolina, that they are known actually to have commenced
movements looking to this desired end before even the
presidential election had taken place, and when the result
which soon ensued was yet but a strong probability.
Accordingly we find Governor Gist, as early as the 5th of
November, 1860, addressing a message to the South Carolina
Legislature, embodying the following bold and explicit
declarations. … 'That an exposition of the will of the people
may be obtained on a question involving such momentous
consequences, I would earnestly recommend that, in the event
of Abraham Lincoln's election to the presidency, a Convention
of the people of this state be immediately called, to consider
and determine for themselves the mode and measure of redress.
My own opinions of what the Convention should do are of little
moment; but, believing that the time has arrived when
everyone, however humble he may be, should express his
opinions in unmistakable language, I am constrained to say
that the only alternative left, in my judgment, is the
secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union. The
indications from many of the Southern States justify the
conclusion that the secession of South Carolina will be
immediately followed, if not adopted simultaneously by them,
and ultimately by the entire South. … I would also
respectfully recommend a thorough reorganization of the
militia, so as to place the whole military force of the state
in a position to be used at the shortest notice and with the
greatest efficiency. … In addition to this general
preparation, I would recommend that the services of 10,000
volunteers be immediately accepted.' … I desire not to
particularize on this painful subject to an extent which might
now prove annoying, and therefore proceed briefly to state
that the Legislature of South Carolina provided for the
assemblage of a state Convention, the members of which were to
be elected on the 6th of December, while the conventional body
itself was to come together on the 19th of the same month;
that the Convention did assemble on the last-mentioned day,
and, after an excited debate of several days' continuance,
adopted an Ordinance of Secession on the 20th of December.
Commissioners were sent with a copy of the ordinance to each
of the slave states, in order to quicken co-operative action,
and notification was duly made as to these events to the
Federal government in Washington City. The next secession
movement it was expected would come off in the State of
Georgia. A Convention for this purpose had been already
called. It was known that Alexander H. Stephens, Herschel V.
Johnson, and other public men, of elevated standing and of
extended influence, would be members of the Convention, and it
was expected that they would exert themselves to the utmost to
prevent the imitation by the State of Georgia of the rash
example which had just been set by South Carolina; and it was
likewise known that eminent personages from the State of South
Carolina would attend the Convention of Georgia, in order to
urge immediate co-operation. Under these circumstances, I took
it upon myself to persuade the public men of most influence in
the city of Nashville, where I was then residing, to send ten
or fifteen delegates forthwith to Milledgeville, respectfully
and earnestly to protest against extreme action on the part of
Georgia. … I urged these views for several days most
zealously, but, I regret to say, without success; some
supposing that there was no serious danger of the Convention
of Georgia adopting an Ordinance of Secession, and others that
there was reason to fear, if we should send delegates to
Milledgeville, it might result in fatally compromising our own
attitude. The manly opposition made by Mr. Stephens to the
attempt to draw Georgia into the Secession maelstrom is well
known. This want of success is a circumstance which I shall
ever deplore as the most unfortunate event of a public nature
which has occurred within my recollection. Alabama, Florida,
Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas were now soon enrolled among
the seceded States. Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia,
Arkansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and Delaware still
stood firm, despite all the efforts essayed to shake their
constancy. It is indeed true, as Mr. Greeley has deliberately
recorded, that after the secession 'conspiracy had held
complete possession of the Southern mind for three months,
with the Southern members of the cabinet, nearly all the
Federal officers, most of the governors and other state
functionaries, and seven eighths of the prominent and active
politicians pushing it on, and no force exerted against nor in
any manner threatening to resist it, a majority of the slave
states, with two thirds of the free population of the entire
slaveholding region, was openly and positively adverse to it,
either because they regarded the alleged grievances of the
South as exaggerated if not unreal, or because they believed
that those wrongs would rather be aggravated than cured by
disunion.'"
_H. S. Foote,
War of the Rebellion,
chapter 15._
ALSO IN:
_J. G. Nicolay,
The Outbreak of Rebellion,
chapter 1._
_S. W. Crawford,
The Genesis of the Civil War,
chapters 2-5._
_F. Moore, editor,
Rebellion Record,
volume 1._
The following is the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession,
adopted December 20, together with the Declaration of Causes
which was promulgated by the Convention four days later:
"An Ordinance to dissolve the Union between the State of South
Carolina and other States united with her under the compact
entitled 'The Constitution of the United States of America.'
We, the People of the State of South Carolina, in Convention
assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared
and ordained. That the Ordinance adopted by us in Convention,
on the twenty-third day of May, in the year of our Lord one
thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, whereby the
Constitution of the United States of America was ratified, and
also, all Acts and parts of Acts of the General Assembly of this
State, ratifying amendments of the said Constitution, are
hereby repealed; and that the union now subsisting between
South Carolina and other States, under the name of 'The United
States of America,' is hereby dissolved."
{3408}
"Declaration of the immediate causes which induce and justify
the secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union:
The People of the State of South Carolina, in Convention
assembled, on the 26th day of April, A. D., 1852, declared
that the frequent violations of the Constitution of the United
States, by the Federal Government, and its encroachments upon
the reserved rights of the States, fully justified this State
in then withdrawing from the Federal Union; but in deference
to the opinions and wishes of the other slaveholding States,
she forbore at that time to exercise this right. Since that
time, these encroachments have continued to increase, and
further forbearance ceases to be a virtue. And now the State
of South Carolina having resumed her separate and equal place
among nations, deems it due to herself, to the remaining
United States of America, and to the nations of the world,
that she should declare the immediate causes which have led to
this act. In the year 1765, that portion of the British Empire
embracing Great Britain, undertook to make laws for the
government of that portion composed of the thirteen American
Colonies. A struggle for the right of self-government ensued,
which resulted, on the 4th July, 1776, in a Declaration, by
the Colonies, 'that they are, and of right ought to be, free
and independent States; and that, as free and independent
States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace,
contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other
acts and things which independent States may of right do.'
They further solemnly declared that whenever any 'form of
government becomes destructive of the ends for which it was
established, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish
it, and to institute a new government.' Deeming the Government
of Great Britain to have become destructive of these ends,
they declared that the Colonies '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.' In pursuance of this
Declaration of Independence, each of the thirteen States
proceeded to exercise its separate sovereignty; adopted for
itself a Constitution, and appointed officers for the
administration of government in all its
departments—Legislative, Executive and Judicial. For purposes
of defence, they united their arms and their counsels; and, in
1778, they entered into a League known as the Articles of
Confederation, whereby they agreed to entrust the
administration of their external relations to a common agent,
known as the Congress of the United States, expressly
declaring, in the first article, 'that each State retains its
sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power,
jurisdiction and right which is not, by this Confederation,
expressly delegated to the United States in Congress
assembled. Under this Confederation the War of the Revolution
was carried on, and on the 3d September, 1783, the contest
ended, and a definitive Treaty was signed by Great Britain, in
which she acknowledged the Independence of the Colonies in the
following terms:
'Article 1.—His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United
States, viz: New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island
and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina,
South Carolina and Georgia, to be free, sovereign and
independent States; that he treats with them as such; and for
himself, his heirs and successors, relinquishes all claims to
the government, propriety and territorial rights of the same
and every part thereof.' Thus were established the two great
principles asserted by the Colonies, namely: the right of a
State to govern itself; and the right of a people to abolish a
Government when it becomes destructive of the ends for which
it was instituted. And concurrent with the establishment of
these principles, was the fact, that each Colony became and
was recognized by the mother Country as a free, sovereign and
independent State. In 1787, Deputies were appointed by the
States to revise the Articles of Confederation, and on 17th
September, 1787, these Deputies recommended, for the adoption
of the States, the Articles of Union, known as the
Constitution of the United States. The parties to whom this
Constitution was submitted, were the several sovereign States;
they were to agree or disagree, and when nine of them agreed,
the compact was to take effect among those concurring; and the
General Government, as the common agent, was then to be
invested with their authority. If only nine of the thirteen
States had concurred, the other four would have remained as
they were—separate sovereign States, independent of any of the
provisions of the Constitution. In fact, two of the States did
not accede to the Constitution until long after it had gone
into operation among the other eleven; and during that
interval, they each exercised the functions of an independent
nation. By this Constitution, certain duties were imposed upon
the several States, and the exercise of certain of their
powers was restrained, which necessarily implied their
continued existence as sovereign States. But, to remove all
doubt, an amendment was added, which declared that the powers
not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States,
respectively, or to the people. On 23d May, 1788, South
Carolina, by a Convention of her people, passed an Ordinance
assenting to this Constitution, and afterwards altered her own
Constitution, to conform herself to the obligations she had
undertaken. Thus was established, by compact between the
States, a Government, with defined objects and powers, limited
to the express words of the grant. This limitation left the
whole remaining mass of power subject to the clause reserving
it to the States or to the people, and rendered unnecessary
any specification of reserved rights. We hold that the
Government thus established is subject to the two great
principles asserted in the Declaration of Independence; and we
hold further, that the mode of its formation subjects it to a
third fundamental principle, namely: the law of compact. We
maintain that in every compact between two or more parties,
the obligation is mutual; that the failure of one of the
contracting parties to perform a material part of the
agreement, entirely releases the obligation of the other; and
that where no arbiter is provided, each party is remitted to
his own judgment to determine the fact of failure, with all
its consequences.
{3409}
In the present case, that fact is established with certainty.
We assert, that fourteen of the States have deliberately
refused for years past to fulfil their constitutional
obligations, and we refer to their own Statutes for the proof.
The Constitution of the United States, in its 4th Article,
provides as follows: 'No person held to service or labor in
one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another,
shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be
discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered
up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be
due.' This stipulation was so material to the compact, that
without it that compact would not have been made. The greater
number of the contracting parties held slaves, and they had
previously evinced their estimate of the value of such a
stipulation by making it a condition in the Ordinance for the
government of the territory ceded by Virginia, which now
composes the States north of the Ohio river. The same article
of the Constitution stipulates also for rendition by the
several States of fugitives from justice from the other
States. The General Government, as the common agent, passed
laws to carry into effect these stipulations of the States.
For many years these laws were executed. But an increasing
hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the
Institution of Slavery has led to a disregard of their
obligations, and the laws of the General Government have
ceased to effect the objects of the Constitution. The States
of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut,
Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana,
Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, have enacted laws which either
nullify the Acts of Congress or render useless any attempt to
execute them. In many of these States the fugitive is
discharged from the service or labor claimed, and in none of
them has the State Government complied with the stipulation
made in the Constitution. The State of New Jersey, at an early
day, passed a law in conformity with her constitutional
obligation; but the current of anti-slavery feeling has led
her more recently to enact laws which render inoperative the
remedies provided by her own law and by the laws of Congress.
In the State of New York even the right of transit for a slave
has been denied by her tribunals; and the States of Ohio and
Iowa have refused to surrender to justice fugitives charged
with murder, and with inciting servile insurrection in the
State of Virginia. Thus the constitutional compact has been
deliberately broken and disregarded by the non-slaveholding
States, and the consequence follows that South Carolina is
released from her obligation. The ends for which this
Constitution was framed are declared by itself to be 'to form
a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic
tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the
general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to
ourselves and our posterity.' These ends it endeavored to
accomplish by a Federal Government, in which each State was
recognized as an equal, and had separate control over its own
institutions. The right of property in slaves was recognized
by giving to free persons distinct political rights, by giving
them the right to represent, and burthening them with direct
taxes for three-fifths of their slaves; by authorizing the
importation of slaves for twenty years; and by stipulating for
the rendition of fugitives from labor. We affirm that these
ends for which this Government was instituted have been
defeated, and the Government itself has been made destructive
of them by the action of the non-slaveholding States. Those
States have assumed the right of deciding upon the propriety
of our domestic institutions; and have denied the rights of
property established in fifteen other States and recognized by
the Constitution; they have denounced as sinful the
institution of Slavery; they have permitted the open
establishment among them of societies, whose avowed object is
to disturb the peace and to claim the property of the citizens
of other States. They have encouraged and assisted thousands
of our slaves to leave their homes; and those who remain, have
been incited by emissaries, books and pictures to servile
insurrection. For twenty-five years this agitation has been
steadily increasing, until it has now secured to its aid the
power of the Common Government. Observing the forms of the
Constitution, a sectional party has found within that article
establishing the Executive Department, the means of subverting
the Constitution itself. A geographical line has been drawn
across the Union, and all the States north of that line have
united in the election of a man to the high office of
President of the United States whose opinions and purposes are
hostile to slavery. He is to be entrusted with the
administration of the Common Government, because he has
declared that that 'Government cannot endure permanently half
slave, half free,' and that the public mind must rest in the
belief that Slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction.
This sectional combination for the subversion of the
Constitution, has been aided in some of the States by
elevating to citizenship, persons, who, by the Supreme Law of
the land, are incapable of becoming citizens; and their votes
have been used to inaugurate a new policy, hostile to the
South, and destructive of its peace and safety. On the 4th
March next, this party will take possession of the Government.
It has announced, that the South shall be excluded from the
common Territory; that the Judicial Tribunals shall be made
sectional, and that a war must be waged against slavery until
it shall cease throughout the United States. The Guaranties of
the Constitution will then no longer exist; the equal rights
of the States will be lost. The slaveholding States will no
longer have the power of self-government, or self-protection,
and the Federal Government will have become their enemy.
Sectional interest and animosity will deepen the irritation,
and all hope of remedy is rendered vain, by the fact that
public opinion at the North has invested a great political
error with the sanctions of a more erroneous religious belief.
We, therefore, the people of South Carolina, by our delegates,
in Convention assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the
world for the rectitude of our intentions, have solemnly
declared that the Union heretofore existing between this State
and the other States of North America, is dissolved, and that
the State of South Carolina has resumed her position among the
nations of the world, as a separate and independent State;
with full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract
alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and
things which independent States may of right do."
{3410}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1860 (December).
President Buchanan's surrender.
His disunion message and its evil effects.
Congress met on the first Monday of December and received from
President Buchanan "his mischievous and deplorable message …
—a message whose evil effect can never be estimated, and whose
evil character can hardly be exaggerated. The President
informed Congress that 'the long-continued and intemperate
interference of the Northern people with the question of
slavery in the Southern States has at last produced its
natural effect.' … The President found that the chief
grievance of the South was in the enactments of the Free
States known as 'personal liberty laws' [designed to protect
free citizens, black or white, in their right to trial by
jury, which the fugitive slave law denied to a black man
claimed as a slave]. … Very likely these enactments, inspired
by an earnest spirit of liberty, went in many cases too far,
and tended to produce conflicts between National and State
authority. That was a question to be determined finally and
exclusively by the Federal Judiciary. Unfortunately Mr.
Buchanan carried his argument beyond that point. … After
reciting the statutes which he regarded as objectionable and
hostile to the constitutional rights of the South, and after
urging their unconditional repeal upon the North, the
President said: 'The Southern States, standing on the basis of
the Constitution, have a right to demand this act of justice
from the States of the North. Should it be refused, then the
Constitution, to which all the States are parties, will have
been willfully violated. … In that event, the injured States,
after having used all peaceful and constitutional means to
obtain redress, would be justified in revolutionary resistance
to the government of the Union.' By this declaration the
President justified, and in effect advised, an appeal from the
constitutional tribunals of the country to a popular judgment
in the aggrieved States, and recognized the right of those
States, upon such popular judgment, to destroy the
Constitution and the Union. … Mr. Buchanan proceeded to argue
ably and earnestly against the assumption by any State of an
inherent right to secede from the government at its own will
and pleasure. But he utterly destroyed the force of his
reasoning by declaring that, 'after much serious reflection'
he had arrived at 'the conclusion that no power has been
delegated to Congress, or to any other department of the
Federal Government, to coerce a State into submission which is
attempting to withdraw, or has actually withdrawn,' from the
Union. … Under these doctrines the Government of the United
States was shorn of all power to preserve its own existence,
and the Union might crumble and fall while its constituted
authorities stood paralyzed and impotent. This construction
was all that the extremists of the South desired. With so much
conceded, they had every thing in their own hands. … Men who,
under the wholesome restraint of executive power, would have
refrained from taking aggressive steps against the National
Government, were by Mr. Buchanan's action forced into a
position of hostility. Men in the South, who were disposed to
avoid extreme measures, were by taunt and reproach driven into
the ranks of Secession. … The evil effects of Mr. Buchanan's
message were not confined to the slave States. It did
incalculable harm in the free States. It fixed in the minds of
tens of thousands of Northern men who were opposed to the
Republican party, the belief that the South was justified in
taking steps to break up the government, if what they termed a
war on Southern institutions should be continued. This feeling
had in turn a most injurious influence in the South."
_J. G. Blaine,
Twenty Years in Congress,
volume 1, chapter 10.
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21128_
ALSO IN:
_G. T. Curtis,
Life of James Buchanan,
volume 2, chapters 16-17._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1860 (December).
Vain concessions and humiliations of the North proposed.
The Crittenden compromise.
"When, in the House of Representatives, Mr. Boteler, of
Virginia, proposed to refer so much of the President's Message
as related to the perilous condition of the country to a
committee of thirty-three—one from each state—not less than
52 members from the Slave States refused to vote. 'I pay no
attention to any action taken in this body,' said one. 'I am
not sent here to patch up difficulties,' said another. The
Democratic members from the Free States did their utmost to
compose the dissension—some of them who subsequently became
conspicuous in the war—suggesting concessions which doubtless
they looked back upon with regret. It was proposed that
persons of African blood should never be considered as
citizens of the United States; that there should never be any
interference with slavery in the Territories, nor with the
interstate slave-trade; that the doctrine of state-rights
should be admitted, and power of coercion denied to the
government. Among the dissatisfied members, one would allow
any state at pleasure to secede, and allot it a fair share of
the public property and territory. Another would divide the
Union into four republics; another would abolish the office of
President, and have in its stead a council of three, each of
whom should have a veto on every public act. Propositions such
as these show to what length the allies of the slave power
would have gone to preserve it and give it perpetuity. At this
stage, Mr. Crittenden [Senator John J. Crittenden of
Kentucky], proposed in the Senate certain amendments of the
Constitution, and resolutions known subsequently as the
Crittenden Compromise. The essential features of his plan were
the re-establishing of the Missouri Compromise: that in all
territory of the United States north of 36° 30' slavery should
be prohibited; in all south of that line, not only permitted,
but protected; that from such territory north or south states
might be admitted with or without slavery, as the Constitution
of each might determine; that Congress should have no power to
abolish slavery in places under its jurisdiction in a slave
state, nor in the District of Columbia, without the consent of
the adjoining states, nor without compensation to the
slaveholders, nor to prevent persons connected with the
government bringing their slaves into the District; that
Congress should have no power to hinder the interstate or
territorial transport of slaves; that the national government
should pay a full value to the owner of a fugitive slave who
might have been rescued from the officers; that no amendments
of the Constitution should ever be made which might affect
these amendments, or other slave compromises already existing
in the Constitution.
{3411}
He also recommended to the states that had enacted laws in
conflict with the existing fugitive slave acts, their repeal;
and in four resolutions made provision for the more perfect
execution of those acts. But the dissension was too deep to be
closed by such a measure as Mr. Crittenden's, which contained
nothing that could satisfy the North. The South was resolved
not to be satisfied with any thing. It had taken what was
plainly an irreversible step. According]y, Mr. Crittenden's
proposition was eventually lost."
_J. W. Draper,
History of the American Civil War,
chapter 31 (section 6, volume 1)._
ALSO IN:
_H. Greeley,
The American Conflict,
volume 1, chapter 24._
_E. McPherson, Political History of the United States
during the Great Rebellion,
pages 48-90._
_J. A. Logan,
The Great Conspiracy,
chapter 8._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1860 (December).
Major Anderson at Fort Sumter.
Floyd's treachery in the War Department.
Cabinet rupture.
Loyalty reinstated in the national government.
"In November, 1860, the fortifications of Charleston Harbor
consisted of three works—Castle Pinckney, an old-fashioned,
circular brick fort, on Shute's Folly Island, and about one
mile east of the city; Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan's Island,
still farther to the east, and famous as being on the site of
the old fort of palmetto logs, where, during the long
bombardment by the British fleet in Revolutionary days, the
gallant William Jasper leaped from the low rampart upon the
beach below, and seizing the flag that had been shot down,
rehoisted it above the fort; and lastly, Fort Sumter, an
unfinished fortification, named after General Thomas Sumter,
the famous partisan leader of the Revolution, and who was
familiarly known as the 'gamecock of the Carolinas.' The
armament of Castle Pinckney consisted of 22 cannon, 2 mortars,
and 4 light pieces; that of Moultrie of 45 cannon and 7 light
pieces; while Sumter mounted 78 heavy guns of various calibre.
The entire force of United States troops in these
fortifications was composed of two weak companies of artillery
under command of Major Robert Anderson, and a few engineer
employees under Captain John G. Foster. Of these a sergeant
and squad of men were stationed at Castle Pinckney for the
care of the quarters and the guns; a similar handful were at
Sumter; while most of the little force were at Moultrie, where
Anderson had his headquarters. Such was the military situation
when South Carolina began to proclaim, without disguise, her
purpose to secede and to possess herself of the fortifications
on her coast. … Our Government paid no apparent heed, and yet
the authorities at Washington were fully and betimes
forewarned. … On the files of the Engineer Department I found
a letter, which still remains there, dated as early as
November 24, 1860, from Captain Foster to Colonel De Russy,
then the chief of the engineer corps, in which the captain
states that, at the request of Major Anderson, he has, in
company with that officer, made a thorough inspection of the
forts in the harbor; that, in the opinion of Anderson, one
additional company of artillery should at once be sent to
garrison Castle Pinckney, which in the terse language of the
letter, 'commands the city of Charleston.' Upon the back of
the letter is the simple but significant indorsement, in his
own hand-writing, 'Return to Governor Floyd.' You may recall
him as Mr. Buchanan's Secretary of War. On November 30,
Captain Foster again writes to Colonel De Russy, saying: 'I
think that more troops should have been sent here to guard the
forts, and I believe that no serious demonstration on the part
of the populace would have met such a course.' On this is
indorsed: 'Colonel Cooper says this has been shown to the
Secretary of War. H. G. W.' The initials, placed there by
himself, are those of the gallant Horatio G. Wright, who
succeeded to the command of the Sixth Army Corps after the
loved Sedgwick fell. On December 2, application was made by
Captain Foster for the small supply of four boxes of muskets
and sixty rounds of cartridge per man, to arm the few
civilians or hired laborers who constituted the engineer
corps. These arms and ammunition were in the United States
arsenal at Charleston, a building which still had a Federal
keeper, and over which still floated the Federal flag. On this
application is the following indorsement, also in General
Wright's handwriting: 'Handed to adjutant-general, and by him
laid before the Secretary of War on the sixth of December.
Returned by adjutant-general on the seventh. Action deferred
for the present. See Captain Foster's letter of December 4.' …
On December 17, Captain Foster, acting on his own patriotic
judgment, but without orders, went to Charleston and took from
the Federal arsenal forty muskets, with which to arm his
laborers. Early on the morning of the 19th, he received a
telegram from Secretary Floyd, directing him instantly to
return the arms to the arsenal. On the next day, the 20th, the
South Carolinians decided, in State convention, to secede, and
proclaimed their State an independent sovereignty. … All alike
were delirious with the epidemic madness of the hour, were
hopeful, resolute, enthusiastic. Bells pealed and cannon
boomed. … But few ventured to breast the storm. There was one,
whose name should live honored in in a nation's memory, a
wise, true man, the greatest lawyer of his State, James L.
Pettigrew, who, when his minister first dropped from the
service the prayer for the President of the United States,
rose in his pew in the middle aisle of Charleston's most
fashionable church, and slowly and with distinct voice
repeated: 'Most humbly and heartily we beseech Thee with Thy
favor to behold and bless Thy servant, the President of these
United States.' Then, placing his prayer-book in the rack, and
drawing his wife's arm within his own, he left the church, nor
entered it again until his body was borne there for burial. To
their honor be it said, that even the Carolinians respected
his sincerity and candor, and never molested him. … On the
night of December 26, Major Anderson evacuated Fort Moultrie,
which was untenable by his small force, spiked his guns,
burned the gun-carriages, and transferred his small command in
two schooners to Fort Sumter. This act was without orders and
against the do-nothing and helpless policy which had thus far
controlled the Government. But it showed the wisdom and prompt
decision of the trained soldier and the spirit of the loyal
citizen. … Let us recall the appearance of Sumter when
Anderson transferred his feeble garrison to its protection.
The fort was built on an artificial island, which had been
constructed by dumping stone upon a shoal that lay on the
south side of the principal ship channel to Charleston Harbor.
Sumter was pentagonal in form, and its five sides of brick,
made solid by concrete, rose 60 feet above the water. It was
pierced for an armament of 135 guns, which were to be placed
in three tiers.
{3412}
Two tiers were to be in casemates, and one 'en barbette,' or
on the top of the wall. The embrasures of the upper tier of
casemates were never completed. They were filled up with brick
during Major Anderson's occupation of the fort, and so
remained during all the succeeding operations and siege.
Seventy-eight guns of various calibre composed its then
armament, the most efficient of which were placed 'en
barbette.' On the east and west sides of the parade were
barracks for the privates, and on the south side were the
officers' quarters. These were all wooden structures. The
wharf by which access was had to the fort was on the southern
side against the gorge wall. Looking from the sea front,
Sumter lay nearly midway between Sullivan's Island on the
north and the low, sandy ridges of Morris on the south, and
about 1,400 yards from either. The main ship channel was
between Sumter and Sullivan's Island. The water between the
fort and Morris Island was for the most part comparatively
shallow. James Island lay to the west and southwest, while to
the northwest, and at a distance of three and one-third miles,
rose the steeples of Charleston. The city could have been
barely reached by the heaviest guns of the barbette battery.
Castle Pinckney lay in the direction of the city, and was
distant about two and one-third miles. Sullivan's, Morris, and
James Islands thus formed a segment of three-fourths of a
circle around Sumter. They were so close under the guns of the
fort that, with the then limited experience in the
construction of earthworks, no batteries could have been
erected under fire from Sumter sufficiently strong to prevent
the re-enforcement and supplying of the fort, had Anderson
been allowed to open fire at the first upon the rebel working
parties. … At noon of December 27, the flag of the nation was
raised over the defenders of the fort. Major Anderson knelt,
holding the halliards, while Reverend Matthew Harris, an army
chaplain, offered fervent prayer for that dear flag and for
the loyal few who stood beneath its folds. … And then all
wearily the days and weeks dragged on. New fortifications rose
day by day on each sandhill about the harbor; vessels of war,
bearing the Confederate flag, steamed insultingly near, and
the islands were white as harvest fields, with the tents of
the fast-gathering rebel soldiery; and still, by positive
orders, Anderson was bidden to stand in idle helplessness
beside his silent indignant cannon."
_General Stewart L. Woodford,
The Story of Fort Sumter
(Personal Recollections of the War of the Rebellion,
pages 259-266)._
On the 29th of December, three days after Anderson had
transferred his command to Fort Sumter, Floyd gave up his work
of treachery in the War Department, and resigned. Howell Cobb
had resigned the Treasury Department previously, on the 10th.
A few days later, January 8, Jacob Thompson withdrew from the
Interior Department. Loyal men now replaced these
secessionists in the Cabinet. Joseph Holt of Kentucky took the
place of Floyd in the War Department; John A. Dix of New York
succeeded Cobb in the Treasury, and the place of Thompson was
not filled. Edwin M. Stanton entered the Cabinet as
Attorney-General, taking the place of Jeremiah S. Black who
became Secretary of State. General Cass had held the State
Department until December 12, when he, too, resigned, but for
reasons opposite to those of Floyd and Cobb. He left the
Government because it would not reinforce the Charleston
forts.
_E. McPherson,
Political History of the United States during the
Great Rebellion,
page 28._
ALSO IN:
_S. W. Crawford,
Genesis of the Civil War: The Story of Sumter,
chapters 1, and 6-10._
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 2, chapters 18-29,
and volume 3, chapter 1-6._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1860-1861 (December-February).
Seizure of arms, arsenals, forts, and other
public property by the Southern insurgents.
Base surrender of an army by Twiggs.
"Directly after Major Anderson's removal to Fort Sumter, the
Federal arsenal in Charleston, containing many thousand stand
of arms and a considerable quantity of military stores, was
seized by the volunteers, now flocking to that city by
direction of the State authorities; Castle Pinckney, Fort
Moultrie, and Sullivan's Island were likewise occupied by
them, and their defenses vigorously enlarged and improved. The
Custom-House, Post-Office, etc., were likewise appropriated,
without resistance or commotion. … Georgia having given
[January 2, 1861] a large popular majority for Secession, her
authorities immediately took military possession of the
Federal arsenal at Augusta, as also of Forts Pulaski and
Jackson, commanding the approaches by sea to Savannah. North
Carolina had not voted to secede, yet Governor Ellis
simultaneously seized the United States Arsenal at
Fayetteville, with Fort Macon, and other fortifications
commanding the approaches to Beaufort and Wilmington. Having
done so, Governor Ellis coolly wrote to the War Department
that he had taken the step to preserve the forts from seizure
by mobs! In Alabama, the Federal arsenal at Mobile was seized
on the 4th, by order of Governor Moore. It contained large
quantities of arms and munitions. Fort Morgan, commanding the
approaches to Mobile, was likewise seized, and garrisoned by
State troops. … In Louisiana, the Federal arsenal at Baton
Rouge was seized by order of Governor Moore on the 11th. Forts
Jackson and St. Philip, commanding the passage up the
Mississippi to New Orleans, and Fort Pike, at the entrance of
Lake Pontchartrain, were likewise seized and garrisoned by
State troops. The Federal Mint and Custom-House at New Orleans
were left untouched until February 1st, when they, too, were
taken possession of by the State authorities. … In Florida,
Fort Barrancas and the Navy Yard at Pensacola were seized by
Florida and Alabama forces on the 13th; Commander Armstrong
surrendering them without a struggle. He ordered Lieutenant
Slemmer, likewise, to surrender Forts Pickens and McRae; but
the intrepid subordinate defied the order, and, withdrawing
his small force from Fort McRae to the stronger and less
accessible Fort Pickens, announced his determination to hold
out to the last. He was soon after besieged therein by a
formidable volunteer force; and a dispatch from Pensacola
announced that 'Fort McRae is being occupied and the guns
manned by the allied forces of Florida, Alabama, and
Mississippi.' … The revenue cutter Cass, stationed at Mobile,
was turned over by Captain J. J. Morrison to the authorities
of Alabama at the end of January.
{3413}
The McClellan, Captain Breshwood, stationed on the Mississippi
below New Orleans, was, in like manner, handed over to those
of Louisiana. General Dix had sent down a special agent to
secure them, but he was too late. The telegraph dispatch
whereby General Dix directed him, 'If any person' attempts to
haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot,' sent an
electric thrill through the loyal heart of the country.
Finally, tidings reached Washington, about the end of
February, that Brigadier-General Twiggs, commanding the
department of Texas, had disgracefully betrayed his trust, and
turned over his entire army, with all the posts and
fortifications, arms, munitions, horses, equipments, etc., to
General Ben. M'Culloch, representing the authorities of Texas,
now fully launched upon the rushing tide of treason. The Union
lost by that single act at least half its military force, with
the State of Texas, and the control of our Mexican frontier. …
The defensive fortifications located within the seceding
States were some 30 in number, mounting over 3,000 guns, and
having cost at least $20,000,000. Nearly all these had been
seized and appropriated by the Confederates before Mr.
Lincoln's inauguration, with the exception of Fortress Monroe
(Virginia), Fort Sumter (South Carolina), Fort Pickens
(Florida), and the fortresses on Key West and the Tortugas,
off the Florida coast."
_H. Greeley,
The American Conflict,
volume 1, chapter 26._
ALSO IN:
_Official Records of the War of the Rebellion,
series 1, volume 1._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (January-February).
Secession of Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana,
Alabama, and Texas.
Opposition of Alexander H. Stephens, in Georgia.
"On the 9th day of January, 1861, the State of Mississippi
seceded from the Union. Alabama and Florida followed on the
11th day of the same month; Georgia on the 20th; Louisiana on
the 26th; and Texas on the 1st of February. Thus, in less than
three mouths after the announcement of Lincoln's election, all
the Cotton States … had seceded from the Union, and had,
besides, secured every Federal fort within their limits,
except the forts in Charleston harbor, and Fort Pickens, below
Pensacola, which were retained by United States troops."
_E. A. Pollard,
The First Year of the War,
chapter 1._
The secession of Georgia was powerfully but vainly opposed by
the foremost citizen of that state, Alexander H. Stephens,
whose speech before the Legislature of Georgia, in protest
against the disruption of the Union, had been one of the
notable utterances of the time. "Shall the people of the
South," asked Mr. Stephens, "secede from the Union in
consequence of the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency
of the United States? My countrymen, I tell you frankly,
candidly, and earnestly, that I do not think that they ought.
In my judgment, the election of no man, constitutionally
chosen to that high office, is sufficient cause for any State
to separate from the Union. It ought to stand by and aid still
in maintaining the constitution of the country. To make a
point of resistance to the government, to withdraw from it
because a man has been constitutionally elected, puts us in
the wrong. We are pledged to maintain the constitution. Many
of us have sworn to support it. Can we, therefore, for the
mere election of a man to the presidency, and that, too, in
accordance with the prescribed forms of the constitution, make
a point of resistance to the government, without becoming the
breakers of that sacred instrument ourselves, by withdrawing
ourselves from it? Would we not be in the wrong? Whatever fate
is to befall this country, let it never be laid to the charge
of the people of the South, and especially to the people of
Georgia, that we were untrue to our national engagements. Let
the fault and the wrong rest upon others. … Let the fanatics
of the North break the constitution, if such is their fell
purpose. Let the responsibility be upon them. … We went into
the election with this people. The result was different from
what we wished; but the election has been constitutionally
held. Were we to make a point of resistance to the government
and go out of the Union on that account, the record would be
made up hereafter against us. But it is said Mr. Lincoln's
policy and principles are against the constitution, and that,
if he carries them out, it will be destructive of our rights.
Let us not anticipate a threatened evil. If he violates the
constitution, then will come our time to act. Do not let us
break it because, forsooth, he may. If he does, that is the
time for us to strike. I think it would be injudicious and
unwise to do this sooner. I do not anticipate that Mr. Lincoln
will do anything to jeopard our safety or security, whatever
may be his spirit to do it; for he is bound by the
constitutional checks which are thrown around him, which at
this time render him powerless to do any great mischief. This
shows the wisdom of our system. The President of the United
States is no emperor, no dictator—he is clothed with no
absolute power. He can do nothing unless he is backed by power
in Congress. The House of Representatives is largely in a
majority against him. In the very face and teeth of the heavy
majority which he has obtained in the northern States, there
have been large gains in the House of Representatives to the
conservative constitutional party of the country, which here I
will call the national democratic party, because that is the
cognomen it has at the North. … Is this the time, then, to
apprehend that Mr. Lincoln, with this large majority in the
House of Representatives against him, can carry out any of his
unconstitutional principles in that body? In the Senate he
will also be powerless. There will be a majority of four
against him. … Mr. Lincoln cannot appoint an officer without
the consent of the Senate—he cannot form a cabinet without the
same consent. He will be in the condition of George the Third
(the embodiment of toryism), who had to ask the whigs to
appoint his ministers, and was compelled to receive a cabinet
utterly opposed to his views; and so Mr. Lincoln will be
compelled to ask of the Senate to choose for him a cabinet, if
the democracy of that party chose to put him on such terms. He
will be compelled to do this, or let the government stop, if
the national democratic men (for that is their name at the
North), the conservative men in the Senate, should so
determine. Then how can Mr. Lincoln obtain a cabinet which
would aid him, or allow him to violate the constitution? Why
then, I say, should we disrupt the ties of this Union when his
hands are tied—when he can do nothing against us?"
_A. H. Stephens,
Speech against Secession, November 14, 1860
(in "Alexander H. Stephens in Public and Private;
by H. Cleveland")._
{3414}
But when Georgia, despite his exertions, was drawn into the
movement of rebellion, Mr. Stephens surrendered to it, and
lent his voice to the undertaking which he had proved to be
without excuse.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (MARCH).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (February).
The Peace Convention.
"The General Assembly of Virginia, on the 19th of January,
adopted resolutions inviting representatives of the several
States to assemble in a Peace Convention at Washington, which
met on the 4th of February. It was composed of 133
Commissioners, many from the border States, and the object of
these was to prevail upon their associates from the North to
unite with them in such recommendations to Congress as would
prevent their own States from seceding and enable them to
bring back six of the cotton States which had already
seceded." On the 15th of February a committee of the
Convention reported certain proposed amendments to the
Constitution which "were substantially the same with the
Crittenden Compromise;
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1860 (DECEMBER)
VAIN CONCESSIONS;
but on motion of Mr. Johnson, of Maryland, the general terms
of the first and by far the most important section were
restricted to the present Territories of the United States. On
motion of Mr. Franklin, of Pennsylvania, this section was
further amended, but not materially changed, by the adoption
of the substitute offered by him. Nearly in this form it was
afterwards adopted by the Convention. The following is a copy:
'In all the present territory of the United States north of
the parallel of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes of north
latitude, involuntary servitude, except in punishment of
crime, is prohibited. In all the present territory south of
that line, the status of persons held to involuntary service
or labor, as it now exists, shall not be changed; nor shall
any law be passed by Congress or the Territorial Legislature
to prevent the taking of such persons from any of the States
of this Union to said territory, nor to impair the rights
arising from said relation; but the same shall be subject to
judicial cognizance in the Federal courts, according to the
course of the common law. When any Territory north or south of
said line, within such boundary as Congress may prescribe,
shall contain a population equal to that required for a member
of Congress, it shall, if its form of government be
republican, be admitted into the Union on an equal footing
with the original States, with or without involuntary
servitude, as the Constitution of such State may provide.'…
More than ten days were consumed in discussion and in voting
upon various propositions offered by individual commissioners.
The final vote was not reached until Tuesday, the 26th
February, when it was taken on the first vitally important
section, as amended. This section, on which all the rest
depended, was negatived by a vote of eight States to eleven.
Those which voted in its favor were Delaware, Kentucky,
Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and
Tennessee. And those in the negative were Connecticut,
Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York,
North Carolina, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Virginia." A
reconsideration of the vote was moved, however, and on the day
following (February 27), "the first section was adopted, but
only by a majority of nine to eight States, nine being less
than a majority of the States represented. … From the nature
of this vote, it was manifestly impossible that two-thirds of
both Houses of Congress should act favorably on the amendment,
even if the delay had not already rendered such action
impracticable before the close of the session. The remaining
sections of the amendment were carried by small majorities,"
and the proposed amendment of the Constitution was reported to
Congress, with a request that it be submitted to the
Legislatures of the States, but no action upon it was taken.
_T. V. Cooper,
American Politics,
pages 106-108._
"Most of the Southerners thought these propositions worse than
nothing. Hunter preferred the present position under the
constitution, with the Dred Scott decision as its exposition.
Mason, the other Senator from the state that had issued the
call for the Peace Convention, said that he would consider
himself a traitor if he should recommend such propositions.
Wigfall of Texas, however, bore off the palm by saying: 'If
those resolutions were adopted, and ratified by three-fourths
of the states of this Union, and no other cause ever existed,
I make the assertion that the seven states now out of the
Union would go out upon that.' Many of the Republicans were
equally strong in their opposition to them. Chandler of
Michigan spoke the substance of the opinions of several on his
side of the Senate when he expressed himself in the language
of the 'stump' by saying: 'No concession, no compromise,—ay,
give us strife, even to blood,—before a yielding to the
demands of traitorous insolence.' … John Tyler, the president
of the convention that passed them, and Seddon returned to
their state and denounced the recommendations of the Peace
Convention as a delusion, a sham and an insult to the South. …
Hawkins of Florida told the House, when the question was first
touched upon, that the day of compromise was past and that he
and his state were opposed to all and every compromise. Pugh
and Clopton of Alabama both spoke boldly for secession and
against any temporizing policy. Congress had been in session
but ten days, and neither of the committees on compromise had
had time to report, when a large number of the members of
Congress from the extreme Southern States issued a manifesto
declaring that 'argument was exhausted' and that 'the sole and
primary aim of each slaveholding state ought to be its speedy
and absolute separation from an unnatural and hostile Union.'
… The boldness of these facts is startling, even when viewed
at this distance. They make it perfectly evident that it was
not the constitution which the South was desirous of saving,
but the institution of slavery which she was determined to
preserve. Likewise on the Northern side we find that those who
were courageous, logical, and intellectually vigorous in
political speculation considered the constitution of less
importance than the development of their ideas of freedom.
These people were called Abolitionists. Although their
political strength was not great, some one of their many ideas
found sympathy in the mind of almost every Northerner of
education or of clear moral intentions. This explains how John
A. Andrew could be elected governor of Massachusetts, although
known to have presided over a John Brown meeting.
{3415}
The purpose of the Abolitionists was 'the utter extermination
of slavery wheresoever it may exist.' Wendell Phillips
surprised very few Abolitionists when, knowing that the
Confederacy was forming, he rejoiced that 'the covenant with
death' was annulled and 'the agreement with hell' was broken
in pieces, and exclaimed: 'Union or no Union, constitution or
no constitution, freedom for every man between the oceans, and
from the hot Gulf to the frozen pole! You may as well dam up
Niagara with bulrushes as bind our anti-slavery purpose with
Congressional compromise.' Congress had to consider such facts
as these, as well as the compromises which were proposed.
Stephen A. Douglas felt compelled to say, as early as January,
1861, that there were Democrats in the Senate who did not want
a settlement. And it was plain to all that most of the
Republicans discouraged further concessions. Nor would a
constitutional amendment have been possible unless the
Northern members had first recognized the seven states as
being out of the Union, for it would otherwise have required
the support of all but one of the states that were still
active. That the 'personal liberty' laws were a violation of
the constitution, and that the execution of the fugitive slave
law of 1850 had been unconstitutionally obstructed, were
unquestioned facts, directly or indirectly recognized by many
of the Republican leaders. Nevertheless, the North was much
more inclined to continue in this unconstitutional position
than to yield to the demands of the South."
_F. Bancroft,
The Final Efforts at Compromise
(Political Science Quarterly, September, 1891)._
ALSO IN:
_H. A. Wise,
Seven Decades of the Union,
chapter 15._
_L. G. Tyler,
Letters and Times of the Tylers,
volume 2, chapter 20._
_L. E. Chittenden,
Report of Debates and Proceedings in Secret Session
of the Conference Convention, Washington, 1861._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (February).
Adoption of a Constitution for
"The Confederate States of America."
Election of a President and Vice President.
"Early in February, 1861, a convention of six seceding states,
South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana,
Florida, was held at Montgomery, Alabama. They were
represented by 42 persons. Measures were taken for the
formation of a provisional government. After the vote on the
provisional Constitution was taken, Jefferson Davis was
elected President, and Alexander H. Stephens Vice-President of
the Confederacy for the current year. The inauguration of Mr.
Davis took place on February 18th. Both were shortly after
re-elected permanently for six years. … The permanent
Constitution adopted for 'The Confederate States of America,'
the title now assumed, was modeled substantially on that of
the United States. It was remarked that, after all, the old
Constitution was the most suitable basis for the new
Confederacy. Among points of difference must be noticed that
the new instrument broadly recognized, even in its preamble,
the contested doctrine of state-rights. … Inducements and
threats were applied to draw Virginia and the other Border
States into the Confederacy. … With an ominous monition, the
second article reads, 'Congress shall … have power to prohibit
the introduction of slaves from any state not a member of this
Confederacy.' At this time Virginia was receiving an annual
income of $12,000,000 from the sale of slaves. In 1860 12,000
slaves were sent over her railroads to the South and
Southwest. One thousand dollars for each was considered a low
estimate. Notwithstanding this, the Ordinance of Secession did
not pass the Virginia Convention until some weeks subsequently
(April 17)."
_J. W. Draper,
History of the American Civil War,
chapter 32 (volume 1)._
The preamble of the Constitution declared that "the people of
the Confederate States, each State acting in its sovereign and
independent character, invoking the favor and guidance of
Almighty God, ordained a Constitution to form a permanent
Federal Government and for other purposes. The change in
phraseology was obviously to assert the derivative character
of the Federal Government and to exclude the conclusion which
Webster and others had sought to draw from the phrase, 'We,
the people of the United States.' In the Executive department,
the Constitution provided, in accordance with the early
agreement of the Convention of 1787, that the President should
be elected for six years and be ineligible. A seat upon the
floor of either House of Congress might be granted to the
principal officer in each of the Executive departments with
the privilege of discussing any measures appertaining to his
department. The President was empowered to remove at pleasure
the principal officer in each of the Executive departments and
all persons connected with the diplomatic service. To give
entire control of Cabinet officers and of foreign ministers
was considered to be necessary for the proper discharge of the
President's duties and for the independence of his department.
All other civil officers could be removed when their services
were unnecessary, or for dishonesty, inefficiency, misconduct,
or neglect of duty, but the removals in such cases, with the
reasons therefor, were to be reported to the Senate, and no
person rejected by the Senate could be reappointed to the same
office during the recess of the Senate. The President was
empowered, while approving portions of an appropriation bill,
to disapprove particular items, as in other like cases of
veto, the object being to defeat log-rolling combinations
against the Treasury. Admitting members of the Cabinet to
seats upon the floor of Congress with right of discussion
(which worked well during the brief life of the Confederacy),
was intended to secure greater facility of communication
betwixt the Executive and the Legislative departments and
enforce upon the heads of the departments more direct personal
responsibility. By ineligibility of the President and
restriction of the power of removal, the Congress, acting as a
convention, sought to secure greater devotion to public
interests, freedom from the corrupting influences of Executive
patronage, and to break up the iniquitous spoils system which
is such a peril to the purity and perpetuity of our
Government. The Judicial department was permitted to remain
substantially as it was in the old Government. The only
changes were to authorize a tribunal for the investigation of
claims against the Government, the withholding from the
Federal Courts jurisdiction of suits between citizens of
different States, and the enactment of a wise provision that
any judicial or other Federal officer, resident and acting
solely within the limits of any State, might be impeached by a
vote of two thirds of both branches of the Legislature
thereof.
{3416}
The provisions in reference to the election of Senators and
Representatives and the powers and duties of each House were
unaltered except that the electors of each State were required
to be citizens, and the Senators were to be chosen by the
Legislatures of the State at the session next immediately
preceding the beginning of the term of service. In reference
to the general powers of Congress, some of the changes were
more vital. The general welfare clause was omitted from the
taxing grant. Bounties from the Treasury and extra
compensation to contractors, officers, and agents were
prohibited. 'A Protective Tariff' was so far forbidden that no
duties or taxes on importations could be laid to promote or
foster any branch of industry. Export duties were allowed with
the concurrence of two thirds of both Houses. Congress was
forbidden to make internal improvements except to furnish
lights, beacons, buoys, to improve harbors, and to remove
obstructions in river navigation, and the cost of these was to
be paid by duties levied on the navigation facilitated. That
the objects might be better attained, States, with the consent
of Congress and under certain other restrictions, were allowed
to lay a duty on the sea-going tonnage participating in the
trades of the river or harbor improved. States, divided by
rivers, or through which rivers flowed, could enter into
compacts for improving their navigation. Uniform laws of
naturalization and bankruptcy were authorized, but bankruptcy
could not affect debts contracted prior to the passage of the
law. A two-thirds vote was made requisite to appropriate money
unless asked and estimated for by some one of the heads of the
departments. Every law must relate but to one subject, and
that was to be expressed in the title. To admit new States
required a vote of two thirds of each House, the Senate voting
by States. Upon the demand of any three States, legally
assembled in their several conventions, Congress could summon
a convention to consider amendments to the Constitution, but
the convention was confined in its action to propositions
suggested by the States making the call. … 'The importation of
negroes of the African race was forbidden, and Congress was
required to pass laws effectually to prevent it.' The right of
transit or sojourn with slaves in any State was secured and
fugitive slaves—called 'slaves' without the euphemism of the
old instrument—were to be delivered up on the claim of the
party to whom they belonged. Congress could prohibit the
introduction of slaves from States and Territories not
included in the Confederacy, and laws impairing the right of
property in negro slaves were prohibited. Slaves could be
carried into any Territory of the Confederacy by citizens of
the Confederate States and be protected as property. This
clause was intended to forbid 'squatter sovereignty,' and to
prevent adverse action against property in slaves, until the
Territory should emerge from a condition of pupilage and
dependence into the dignity, equality, and sovereignty of a
State, when its right to define 'property' would be beyond the
interference or control of Congress."
_J. L. M. Curry,
The Southern States of the American Union,
chapter 13._
Alexander H. Stephens, in his "Constitutional view of the late
War between the States," expresses the opinion that the
selection of Jefferson Davis for the Presidency of the
Confederacy was due to a misunderstanding. He says that a
majority of the states were looking to Georgia for the
President, and the Georgia delegation had unanimously agreed
to present Mr. Toombs, who would have been acceptable. But a
rumor got currency that Georgia would put forward Howell Cobb,
whereupon the other states took up Davis, and united upon him.
It was generally understood, says Mr. Stephens, that Davis
"did not desire the office of President. He preferred a
military position, and the one he desired above all others was
the chief command of the army."
_A. H. Stephens,
Constitutional View of the War between the States,
volume 2, page 328-333._
ALSO IN:
_R. B. Rhett,
The Confederate Government at Montgomery
(Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,
volume 1, pages 99-111)._
_Jefferson Davis,
Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government,
part 3, chapter. 5, and appendix K (volume 1)._
The text of both the Provisional and the Permanent
Constitution of the Confederate States is given in the
appendix referred to.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (February).
Urgency of South Carolina for the reduction of Fort Sumter
before the inauguration of President Lincoln.
"I am perfectly satisfied," wrote Governor Pickens of South
Carolina to Howell Cobb, "President of the Provisional
Congress" of the Confederacy, in a letter dated February 13,
1861,—"I am perfectly satisfied that the welfare of the new
confederation and the necessities of the State require that
Fort Sumter should be reduced before the close of the present
administration at Washington. If an attack is delayed until
after the inauguration of the incoming President of the United
States, the troops now gathered in the capital may then be
employed in attempting that which, previous to that time, they
could not be spared to do. They dare not leave Washington now
and do that which then will be a measure too inviting to be
resisted. Mr. Lincoln cannot do more for this State than Mr.
Buchanan has done. Mr. Lincoln will not concede what Mr.
Buchanan has refused. Mr. Buchanan has placed his refusal upon
grounds which determine his reply to six States, as completely
as to the same demand if made by a single State. If peace can
be secured, it will be by the prompt use of the occasion, when
the forces of the United States are withheld from our harbor.
If war can be averted, it will be by making the capture of
Fort Sumter a fact accomplished during the continuance of the
present administration, and leaving to the incoming
administration the question of an open declaration of war.
Such a declaration, separated, as it will be, from any present
act of hostilities during Mr. Lincoln's administration, may
become to him a matter requiring consideration. That
consideration will not be expected of him, if the attack on
the fort is made during his administration, and becomes,
therefore, as to him, an act of present hostility. Mr.
Buchanan cannot resist, because he has not the power. Mr.
Lincoln may not attack, because the cause of the quarrel will
have been, or may be, considered by him as past. Upon this
line of policy I have acted, and upon the adherence to it may
be found, I think, the most rational expectation of seeing
that fort, which is even now a source of danger to the State,
restored to the possession of the State without those
consequences which I should most deeply deplore."
_Official Records,
volume 1, page 256._
{3417}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (February-March).
The inauguration and the
inaugural address of President Lincoln.
"On the 11th of February, with his family and some personal
friends, Lincoln left his home at Springfield for Washington.
… On his way to Washington, he passed through the great states
of Indiana, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and
was everywhere received with demonstrations of loyalty, as the
representative of the national government. He addressed the
people at the capitals of these states, and at many of their
chief towns and cities. The city of Washington was surrounded
by slave territory, and was really within the lines of the
insurgents. Baltimore was not only a slaveholding city, but
nowhere was the spirit of rebellion more hot and ferocious
than among a large class of its people. The lower classes, the
material of which mobs are made, were reckless, and ready for
any outrage. From the date of his election to the time of his
start for Washington, there had often appeared in the press
and elsewhere, vulgar threats and menaces that he should never
be inaugurated, nor reach the capital alive. Little attention
was paid to these threats, yet some of the President's
personal friends, without his knowledge, employed a detective,
who sent agents to Baltimore and Washington to investigate. …
The detectives ascertained the existence of a plot to
assassinate the President elect, as he passed through
Baltimore. The first intelligence of this conspiracy was
communicated to Lincoln at Philadelphia. On the facts being
laid before him, he was urged to take the train that night
(the 21st of February), by which he would reach Washington the
next morning, passing through Baltimore earlier than the
conspirators expected, and thus avoid the danger. Having
already made appointments to meet the citizens of Philadelphia
at, and raise the United States flag over, Independence Hall,
on Washington's birthday, the 22nd, and also to meet the
Legislature of Pennsylvania at Harrisburgh, he declined
starting for Washington that night. Finally his friends
persuaded him to allow the detectives and the officers of the
railways to arrange for him to return from Harrisburgh, and,
by special train, to go to Washington the night following the
ceremonies at Harrisburgh. … He went to Harrisburgh according
to arrangement, met the Legislature, and retired to his room.
In the meanwhile, General Scott and Mr. Seward had learned,
through other sources, of the existence of the plot to
assassinate him, and had despatched Mr. F. W. Seward, a son of
Senator Seward, to apprise him of the danger. Information
coming to him from both of these sources, each independent of
the other, induced him to yield to the wishes of his friends,
and anticipate his journey to Washington. Besides, there had
reached him from Baltimore no committee, either of the
municipal authorities or of citizens, to tender him the
hospitalities, and to extend to him the courtesies of that
city, as had been done by every other city through which he
had passed. He was persuaded to permit the detective to
arrange for his going to Washington that night. The telegraph
wires to Baltimore were cut, Harrisburgh was isolated, and,
taking a special train, he reached Philadelphia, and driving
to the Baltimore depot, found the Washington train waiting his
arrival, stepped on board, and passed on without interruption
through Baltimore to the national capital. … He afterwards
declared: 'I did not then, nor do I now believe I should have
been assassinated, had I gone through Baltimore as first
contemplated, but I thought it wise to run no risk where no
risk was necessary.' … On the 4th of March, 1861, he was
inaugurated President of the United States. … In the open air,
and with a voice so clear and distinct that he could be heard
by thrice ten thousand men, he read his inaugural address, and
on the very verge of civil war, he made a most earnest appeal
for peace."
_I. N. Arnold,
Life of Abraham Lincoln,
chapters 11-12._
ALSO IN:
_J. G. Blaine,
Twenty Years of Congress,
volume 1, chapter 13._
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 3, chapters 19-21. _
_H. J. Raymond,
Life of Abraham Lincoln,
chapters 5-6._
The following is the full text of the inaugural address, from
Lincoln's "Complete Works."
"Fellow-Citizens of the United States: In compliance with a
custom as old as the government itself, I appear before you to
address you briefly, and to take, in your presence, the oath
prescribed by the Constitution of the United States to be
taken by the President 'before he enters on the execution of
his office.' I do not consider it necessary, at present, for
me to discuss those matters of administration about which
there is no special anxiety or excitement. Apprehension seems
to exist among the people of the southern states, that, by the
accession of a republican administration, their property and
their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There
has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension.
Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the
while existed and been open to their inspection. It is found
in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses
you. I do but quote from one of those speeches, when I declare
that 'I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere
with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists.
I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no
inclination to do so.' Those who nominated and elected me did
so with full knowledge that I had made this and many similar
declarations, and had never recanted them. And, more than
this, they placed in the platform, for my acceptance, and as a
law to themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution
which I now read: 'Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of
the rights of the states, and especially the right of each
state to order and control its own domestic institutions
according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to
that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of
our political fabric depend, and we denounce the lawless
invasion by armed force of the soil of any state or territory,
no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes.'
I now reiterate these sentiments; and in doing so I only press
upon the public attention the most conclusive evidence of
which the case is susceptible, that the property, peace, and
security of no section are to be in any wise endangered by the
now incoming administration. I add, too, that all the
protection which, consistently with the Constitution and the
laws, can be given, will be cheerfully given to all the states
when lawfully demanded, for whatever cause—as cheerfully to
one section as to another.
{3418}
There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugitives
from service or labor. The clause I now read is as plainly
written in the Constitution as any other of its provisions:
'No person held to service or labor in one state under the
laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of
any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service
or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to
whom such service or labor may be due.' It is scarcely
questioned that this provision was intended by those who made
it for the reclaiming of what we call fugitive slaves; and the
intention of the law-giver is the law. All members of Congress
swear their support to the whole Constitution—to this
provision as much as to any other. To the proposition, then,
that slaves whose cases come within the terms of this clause
'shall be delivered up,' their oaths are unanimous. Now, if
they would make the effort in good temper, could they not,
with nearly equal unanimity, frame and pass a law by means of
which to keep good that unanimous oath? There is some
difference of opinion whether this clause should be enforced
by national or by state authority; but surely that difference
is not a very material one. If the slave is to be surrendered,
it can be of but little consequence to him or to others by
which authority it is done. And should anyone, in any case, be
content that this oath shall go unkept on a merely
unsubstantial controversy as to how it shall be kept? Again,
in any law upon this subject, ought not all the safeguards of
liberty known in civilized and humane jurisprudence to be
introduced, so that a free man be not, in any case,
surrendered as a slave? And might it not be well at the same
time to provide by law for the enforcement of that clause in
the Constitution which guarantees that 'the citizens of each
state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of
citizens in the several states'? I take the official oath
today with no mental reservations, and with no purpose to
construe the Constitution or laws by any hypercritical rules.
And while I do not choose now to specify particular acts of
Congress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it will
be much safer for all, both in official and private stations,
to conform to and abide by all those acts which stand
unrepealed, than to violate any of them, trusting to find
impunity in having them held to be unconstitutional. It is
seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a President
under our National Constitution. During that period, fifteen
different and greatly distinguished citizens have in
succession administered the executive branch of the
Government. They have conducted it through many perils, and
generally with great success. Yet, with all this scope of
precedent, I now enter upon the same task, for the brief
constitutional term of four years, under great and peculiar
difficulty. A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only
menaced, is now formidably attempted. I hold that in the
contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution, the
union of these states is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if
not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national
governments. It is safe to assert that no government proper
ever had a provision in its organic law for its own
termination. Continue to execute all the express provisions of
our National Constitution, and the Union will endure forever,
it being impossible to destroy it except by some action not
provided for in the instrument itself. Again, if the United
States be not a government proper, but an association of
states in the nature of a contract merely, can it, as a
contract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who
made it? One party to a contract may violate it—break it, so
to speak; but does it not require all to lawfully rescind it?
Descending from these genera] principles, we find the
proposition that in legal contemplation the Union is
perpetual, confirmed by the history of the Union itself. The
Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in
fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured
and continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It
was further matured, and the faith of all the then thirteen
states expressly plighted and engaged that it should be
perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation, in 1778. And
finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining
and establishing the Constitution was 'to form a more perfect
Union.' But if the destruction of the Union by one or by a
part only of the states be lawfully possible, the Union is
less perfect than before the Constitution, having lost the
vital element of perpetuity. It follows from these views that
no state, upon its own mere motion, can lawfully get out of
the Union; that resolves and ordinances to that effect are
legally void; and that acts of violence within any state or
states against the authority of the United States are
insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances.
I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and the
laws, the Union is unbroken; and, to the extent of my ability,
I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly
enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully
executed in all the states. Doing this I deem to be only a
simple duty on my part; and I shall perform it so far as
practicable, unless my rightful masters, the American people,
shall withhold the requisite means, or in some authoritative
manner direct the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded
as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union
that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself. In
doing this there needs to be no bloodshed or violence, and
there shall be none unless it be forced upon the national
authority. The power confided to me will be used to hold,
occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the
Government, and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond
what may be necessary for these objects there will be no
invasion, no using of force against or among the people
anywhere. Where hostility to the United States in any interior
locality shall be so great and universal as to prevent
competent resident citizens from holding the federal offices,
there will be no attempt to force obnoxious strangers among
the people for that object. While the strict legal right may
exist in the Government to enforce the exercise of these
offices, the attempt to do so would be so irritating, and so
nearly impracticable withal, that I deem it better to forego,
for the time, the uses of such offices. The mails, unless
repelled, will continue to be furnished in all parts of the
Union. So far as possible, the people everywhere shall have
that sense of perfect security which is most favorable to calm
thought and reflection.
{3419}
The course here indicated will be followed, unless current
events and experience shall show a modification or change to
be proper; and in every case and exigency my best discretion
will be exercised according to circumstances actually
existing, and with a view and a hope of a peaceful solution of
the national troubles, and the restoration of fraternal
sympathies and affections. That there are persons, in one
section or another, who seek to destroy the Union at all
events, and are glad of any pretext to do it, I will neither
affirm nor deny; but if there be such, I need address no word
to them. To those, however, who really love the Union, may I
not speak? Before entering upon so grave a matter as the
destruction of our national fabric, with all its benefits, its
memories, and its hopes, would it not be wise to ascertain
precisely why we do it? Will you hazard so desperate a step,
while there is any possibility that any portion of the ills
you fly from have no real existence? Will you, while the
certain ills you fly to are greater than all the real ones you
fly from—will you risk the commission of so fearful a mistake?
All profess to be content in the Union if all constitutional
rights can be maintained. Is it true, then, that any right,
plainly written in the Constitution, has been denied? I think
not. Happily the human mind is so constituted that no party
can reach to the audacity of doing this. Think, if you can, of
a single instance in which a plainly written provision of the
Constitution has ever been denied. If, by the mere force of
numbers, a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly
written constitutional right, it might, in a moral point of
view, justify revolution—certainly would if such a right were
a vital one. But such is not our case. All the vital rights of
minorities and of individuals are so plainly assured to them
by affirmations and negations, guarantees and prohibitions in
the Constitution, that controversies never arise concerning
them. But no organic law can ever be framed with a provision
specifically applicable to every question which may occur in
practical administration. No foresight can anticipate, nor any
document of reasonable length contain, express provisions for
all possible questions. Shall fugitives from labor be
surrendered by national or by state authority? The
Constitution does not expressly say. May Congress prohibit
slavery in the Territories? The Constitution does not
expressly say. Must Congress protect slavery in the
Territories? The Constitution does not expressly say. From
questions of this class spring all our constitutional
controversies, and we divide upon them into majorities and
minorities. If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority
must, or the Government must cease. There is no other
alternative; for continuing the Government is acquiescence on
one side or the other. If a minority in such case will secede
rather than acquiesce, they make a precedent which, in turn,
will divide and ruin them; for a minority of their own will
secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be controlled
by such minority. For instance, why may not any portion of a
new Confederacy, a year or two hence, arbitrarily secede
again, precisely as portions of the present Union now claim to
secede from it? All who cherish disunion sentiments are now
being educated to the exact temper of doing this. Is there
such perfect identity of interests among the states to compose
a new Union as to produce harmony only, and prevent renewed
secession? Plainly, the central idea of secession is the
essence of anarchy. A majority held in restraint by
constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing
easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and
sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people.
Whoever rejects it, does, of necessity, fly to anarchy or to
despotism. Unanimity is impossible; the rule of a minority, as
a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that,
rejecting the majority principle, anarchy or despotism, in
some form, is all that is left. I do not forget the position
assumed by some that constitutional questions are to be decide
by the Supreme Court; nor do I deny that such decisions must
he binding in any case upon the parties to a suit, as to the
object of that suit, while they are also entitled to very high
respect and consideration in all parallel cases by all other
departments of the Government; and while it is obviously
possible that such decision may be erroneous in any given
case, still the evil effect following it, being limited to
that particular case, with the chance that it may be overruled
and never become a precedent for other cases, can better be
borne than could the evils of a different practice. At the
same time the candid citizen must confess that if the policy
of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole
people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme
Court, the instant they are made, in ordinary litigation
between parties in personal actions, the people will have
ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent
practically resigned their Government into the hands of that
eminent tribunal. Nor is there in this view any assault upon
the Court or the Judges. It is a duty from which they may not
shrink, to decide cases properly brought before them, and it
is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn their decisions
to political purposes. One section of our country believes
slavery is right and ought to be extended, while the other
believes it is wrong and ought not to be extended. This is the
only substantial dispute. The fugitive-slave clause of the
Constitution, and the law for the suppression of the foreign
slave-trade, are each as well enforced, perhaps, as any law
can ever be in a community where the moral sense of the people
imperfectly supports the law itself. The great body of the
people abide by the dry legal obligation in both cases, and a
few break over in each. This, I think, cannot be perfectly
cured; and it would be worse in both cases after the
separation of the sections than before. The foreign
slave-trade, now imperfectly suppressed, would be ultimately
revived, without restriction, in one section; while fugitive
slaves, now only partially surrendered, would not be
surrendered at all by the other. Physically speaking, we
cannot separate; we cannot remove our respective sections from
each other, nor build an impassable wall between them. A
husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence
and beyond the reach of each other; but the different parts of
our country cannot do this. They cannot but remain face to
face; and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must
continue between them. Is it possible, then, to make that
intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory after
separation than before? Can aliens make treaties easier than
friends can make laws?
{3420}
Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than
laws can among friends? Suppose you go to war, you cannot
fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides and no
gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical old
questions as to terms of intercourse are again upon you. This
country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who
inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing
government, they can exercise their constitutional right of
amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or
overthrow it. I cannot be ignorant of the fact that many
worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the
National Constitution amended. While I make no recommendation
of amendments, I fully recognize the rightful authority of the
people over the whole subject, to be exercised in either of
the modes prescribed in the instrument itself; and I should,
under existing circumstances, favor, rather than oppose, a
fair opportunity being afforded the people to act upon it. I
will venture to add that to me the convention mode seems
preferable, in that it allows amendments to originate with the
people themselves, instead of only permitting them to take or
reject propositions originated by others not especially chosen
for the purpose, and which might not be precisely such as they
would wish to either accept or refuse. I understand a proposed
amendment to the Constitution—which amendment, however, I have
not seen—has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal
Government shall never interfere with the domestic
institutions of the states, including that of persons held to
service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I
depart from my purpose not to speak of particular amendments,
so far as to say that, holding such a provision to now be
implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being
made express and irrevocable. The Chief Magistrate derives all
his authority from the people, and they have conferred none
upon him to fix terms for the separation of the states. The
people themselves can do this also if they choose, but the
Executive, as such, has nothing to do with it. His duty is to
administer the present government as it came to his hands, and
to transmit it unimpaired by him to his successor. Why should
there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of
the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? In
our present differences is either party without faith of being
in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with his
eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on
yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely
prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal, the American
people. By the frame of the Government under which we live,
this same people have wisely given their public servants but
little power for mischief; and have with equal wisdom provided
for the return of that little to their own hands at very short
intervals. While the people retain their virtue and vigilance,
no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can
very seriously injure the Government in the short space of
four years. My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well
upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by
taking time. If there be an object to hurry any of you, in hot
haste, to a step which you would never take deliberately, that
object will be frustrated by taking time; but no good object
can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied
still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and on the
sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; while
the new administration will have no immediate power, if it
would, to change either. If it were admitted that you who are
dissatisfied hold the right side in the dispute, there still
is no single good reason for precipitate action. Intelligence,
patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has
never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to
adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulty. In your
hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is
the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not
assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves
the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to
destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one
to 'preserve, protect, and defend it.' I am loth to close. W
are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though
passion may have strained, it must not break, our bonds of
affection. The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every
battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and
hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the
chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will
be, by the better angels of our nature."
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (March).
President Lincoln and his Cabinet.
Secretary Seward.
President Lincoln, "in selecting his cabinet, which he did
substantially before he left Springfield for Washington, …
thought it wise to call to his assistance the strong men of
his party, especially those who had given evidence of the
support they commanded as his competitors in the Chicago
convention. … This was sound policy under the circumstances.
It might indeed have been foreseen that among the members of a
cabinet so composed, troublesome disagreements and rivalries
would break out. But it was better for the President to have
these strong and ambitious men near him as his coöperators
than to have them as his critics in Congress, where their
differences might have been composed in a common opposition to
him. As members of his cabinet he could hope to control them,
and to keep them busily employed in the service of a common
purpose, if he had the strength to do so. Whether he did
possess this strength was soon tested by a singularly rude
trial. There can be no doubt that the foremost members of his
cabinet, Seward and Chase, the most eminent Republican
statesmen, had felt themselves wronged by their party when in
its national convention it preferred to them for the
presidency a man whom, not unnaturally, they thought greatly
their inferior in ability and experience as well as in
service. … Seward, who, as Secretary of State, considered
himself next to the Chief Executive, and who quickly
accustomed himself to giving orders and making arrangements
upon his own motion, thought it necessary that he should
rescue the direction of public affairs from hands so
unskilled, and take full charge of them himself. At the end of
the first month of the administration he submitted a
'memorandum' to President Lincoln, which has been first
brought to light by Nicolay and Hay, and is one of their most
valuable contributions to the history of those days.
{3421}
In that paper Seward actually told the President that, at the
end of a month's administration, the government was still
without a policy, either domestic or foreign; that the slavery
question should be eliminated from the struggle about the
Union; that the matter of the maintenance of the forts and
other possessions in the South should be decided with that
view; that explanations should be demanded categorically from
the governments of Spain and France, which were then
preparing, one for the annexation of San Domingo, and both for
the invasion of Mexico; that if no satisfactory explanations
were received war should be declared against Spain and France
by the United States; that explanations should also be sought
from Russia and Great Britain, and a vigorous continental
spirit of independence against European intervention be
aroused all over the American continent; that this policy
should be incessantly pursued and directed by somebody; that
either the President should devote himself entirely to it, or
devolve the direction on some member of his cabinet, whereupon
all debate on this policy must end. This could be understood
only as a formal demand that the President should acknowledge
his own incompetency to perform his duties, content himself
with the amusement of distributing post offices, and resign
his power as to all important affairs into the hands of his
Secretary of State. … Had Lincoln, as most Presidents would
have done, instantly dismissed Seward, and published the true
reason for that dismissal, it would inevitably have been the
end of Seward's career. But Lincoln did what not many of the
noblest and greatest men in history would have been noble and
great enough to do. He considered that Seward was still
capable of rendering great service to his country in the place
in which he was, if rightly controlled. He ignored the insult,
but firmly established his superiority. In his reply, which he
forthwith dispatched, he told Seward that the administration
had a domestic policy as laid down in the inaugural address
with Seward's approval; that it had a foreign policy as traced
in Seward's dispatches with the President's approval; that if
any policy was to be maintained or changed, he, the President,
was to direct that on his responsibility; and that in
performing that duty the President had a right to the advice
of his secretaries. Seward's fantastic schemes of foreign war
and continental policies Lincoln brushed aside by passing them
over in silence. Nothing more was said. Seward must have felt
that he was at the mercy of a superior man."
_Carl Schurz,
Abraham Lincoln,
pages 67-73._
ALSO IN:
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln: a History,
volume 3, chapters 22 and 26._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (March).
Surrender of Alexander H. Stephens to Secession.
His "Corner-stone" speech at Savannah.
The following is from a speech made by Alexander H. Stephens
at Savannah, on the evening after the secession of Georgia,
which he had opposed, but to which he now yielded himself
without reserve. It is a speech that became famous on account
of its bold declaration that Slavery formed the "corner-stone"
of the New Confederacy. "The new constitution," said Mr.
Stephens, "has put at rest, forever, all the agitating
questions relating to our peculiar institution—African slavery
as it exists amongst us—the proper status of the negro in our
form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late
rupture and present revolution. Jefferson, in his forecast,
had anticipated this, as the 'rock upon which the old Union
would split.' He was right. What was conjecture with him, is
now a realized fact. But whether he fully comprehended the
great truth upon which that rock stood and stands may be
doubted. The prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of
the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old
constitution, were that the enslavement of the African was in
violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in
principle, socially, morally, and politically. It was an evil
they knew not well how to deal with, but the general opinion
of the men of that day was that, somehow or other in the order
of Providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass
away. This idea, though not incorporated in the constitution,
was the prevailing idea at that time. The constitution, it is
true, secured every essential guarantee to the institution
while it should last, and hence no argument can be justly
urged against the constitutional guarantees thus secured,
because of the common sentiment of the day. Those ideas,
however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the
assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was
a sandy foundation, and the government built upon it fell when
the 'storm came and the wind blew.' Our new government is
founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are
laid, its corner-stone rests upon the great truth, that the
negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery
—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal
condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the
history of the world, based upon this great physical,
philosophical, and moral truth. This truth has been slow in
the process of its development, like all other truths in the
various departments of science. It has been so even amongst
us."
_A. H. Stephens,
Speech in Savannah, March 21, 1861
(in "Alexander H. Stephens in Public and Private;
by H. Cleveland")._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (March-April).
The breaking of rebellion into open war
by the attack on Fort Sumter.
President Lincoln's statement of the circumstances.
His first difficulties.
Attitude of the Border States.
The circumstances under which the first blow of the civil war
was struck by the rebels at Charleston were recited by
President Lincoln, in his Message to Congress, at the special
session convened July 4, 1861; "On the 5th of March (the
present incumbent's first full day in office), a letter of
Major Anderson, commanding at Fort Sumter, written on the 28th
of February and received at the War Department on the 4th of
March, was by that department placed in his hands. This letter
expressed the professional opinion of the writer that
reinforcements could not be thrown into that fort within the
time for his relief, rendered necessary by the limited supply
of provisions, and with a view of holding possession of the
same, with a force of less than 20,000 good and
well-disciplined men. This opinion was concurred in by all the
officers of his command, and their memoranda on the subject
were made inclosures of Major Anderson's letter.
{3422}
The whole was immediately laid before Lieutenant-General
Scott, who at once concurred with Major Anderson in opinion.
On reflection, however, he took full time, consulting with
other officers, both of the army and the navy, and at the end
of four days came reluctantly but decidedly to the same
conclusion as before. He also stated at the same time that no
such sufficient force was then at the control of the
government, or could be raised and brought to the ground
within the time when the provisions in the fort would be
exhausted. In a purely military point of view, this reduced
the duty of the administration in the case to the mere matter
of getting the garrison safely out of the fort. It was
believed, however, that to so abandon that position, under the
circumstances, would be utterly ruinous; that the necessity
under which it was to be done would not be fully understood;
that by many it would be construed as a part of a voluntary
policy; that at home it would discourage the friends of the
Union, embolden its adversaries, and go far to insure to the
latter a recognition abroad; that, in fact, it would be our
national destruction consummated. This could not be allowed.
Starvation was not yet upon the garrison, and ere it would be
reached Fort Pickens might be reinforced. This last would be a
clear indication of policy, and would better enable the
country to accept the evacuation of Fort Sumter as a military
necessity. An order was at once directed to be sent for the
landing of the troops from the steamship 'Brooklyn' into Fort
Pickens. This order could not go by land, but must take the
longer and slower route by sea. The first return news from the
order was received just one week before the fall of Fort
Sumter. The news itself was that the officer commanding the
'Sabine,' to which vessel the troops had been transferred from
the 'Brooklyn,' acting upon some quasi armistice of the late
administration (and of the existence of which the present
administration, up to the time the order was despatched, had
only too vague and uncertain rumors to fix attention), had
refused to land the troops. To now reinforce Fort Pickens
before a crisis would be reached at Fort Sumter was
impossible—rendered so by the near exhaustion of provisions in
the latter-named fort. In precaution against such a
conjuncture, the government had, a few days before, commenced
preparing an expedition as well adapted as might be to relieve
Fort Sumter, which expedition was intended to be ultimately
used, or not, according to circumstances. The strongest
anticipated case for using it was now presented, and it was
resolved to send it forward. As had been intended in this
contingency, it was also resolved to notify the governor of
South Carolina that he might expect an attempt would be made
to provision the fort; and that, if the attempt should not be
resisted, there would be no effort to throw in men, arms, or
ammunition, without further notice, or in case of an attack
upon the fort. This notice was accordingly given; whereupon
the fort was attacked and bombarded to its fall, without even
awaiting the arrival of the provisioning expedition. It is
thus seen that the assault upon and reduction of Fort Sumter
was in no sense a matter of self-defense on the part of the
assailants."
_Abraham Lincoln,
Complete Works,
volume 2, pages 56-57._
The President's delay of action in the case of Fort Sumter was
mainly due, on the political side of the question, to the
state of things in the border states—especially in Virginia.
"There were fifteen slave states, which those engaged in the
rebellion hoped to lead or to force into secession. At the
time of the inauguration, only seven of these fifteen—less
than a majority—had revolted. The cotton states alone had
followed the lead of South Carolina out of the Union. Several
weeks had passed since a state had seceded; and unless other
states could be dragooned into the movement, the rebellion
would be practically a failure from the start. Such a
confederacy could not hope to live a year, and would be
obliged to find its way back into the Union upon some terms.
In the meantime, two or three conventions in the border states
[Virginia, April 4, and Missouri, March], delegated freshly
from the people, had voted distinctly and decidedly not to
secede. [Kentucky and Tennessee had refused even the call of
conventions; while North Carolina, February 28, and Arkansas,
March 18, of the states farther south, had voted secession
down.] The affairs of the confederacy were really in a very
precarious condition when Mr. Lincoln came into power. The
rebel government was making very much more bluster than
progress. It became Mr. Lincoln's policy so to conduct affairs
as to strengthen the Union feeling in the border states, and
to give utterance to no sentiment and to do no deed which
should drive these states toward the confederacy. … The
confederacy found that it must make progress or die. The rebel
Congress passed a measure for the organization of an army, on
the 9th of March, and on the 12th two confederate
commissioners—Mr. Forsyth of Alabama and Mr. Crawford of
Georgia—presented themselves at the State Department at
Washington for the purpose of making a treaty with the United
States. They knew, of course, that they could not be received
officially, and that they ought to be arrested for treason.
The President would not recognize them, but sent to them a
copy of his inaugural, as the embodiment of the views of the
government. … In the meantime, Lieutenant Talbot, on behalf of
Mr. Lincoln, was having interviews with Governor Pickens of
South Carolina and with General Beauregard, in command of the
confederate forces there, in which he informed them that
provisions would be sent to Fort Sumter, peaceably if
possible,—otherwise by force. This was communicated to L. P.
Walker, then rebel Secretary of War. Before Talbot had made
his communication, Beauregard had informed Major Anderson, in
command of Fort Sumter, that he must have no further
intercourse with Charleston; and Talbot himself was refused
permission to visit that gallant and faithful officer. … The
wisdom of Mr. Lincoln's waiting became evident at a day not
too long delayed. Fort Pickens, which the rebels had not
taken, was quietly reinforced [April 12], and when the vessels
which carried the relief [to Sumter] were dispatched, Mr.
Lincoln gave official information to General Beauregard that
provisions were to be sent to Major Anderson in Fort Sumter,
by an unarmed vessel. He was determined that no hostile act on
the part of the government should commence the war, for which
both sides were preparing; although an act of open war had
already transpired in Charleston harbor"—the rebel batteries
having fired upon and driven off the unarmed steamer Star of
the West, which had been sent to convey troops and provisions
to Fort Sumter on the 9th of January, two months before
Lincoln's inauguration.
{3423}
"Beauregard laid this last intelligence before his Secretary
of War, and, under special instructions, on the 12th of April,
he demanded the surrender of Fort Sumter. He was ready to make
the demand, and to back it by force. The city of Charleston
was full of troops, and, for months, batteries had been in
course of construction, with the special purpose of compelling
the surrender of the fort. Major Anderson had seen these
batteries going up, day after day, without the liberty to fire
a gun. He declined to surrender. He was called upon to state
when he would evacuate the fort. He replied that on the 15th
he would do so, should he not meantime receive controlling
instructions from the government, or additional supplies. The
response which he received was that the confederate batteries
would open on Fort Sumter in one hour from the date of the
message. The date of the message was 'April 12, 1861, 3:30 A.
M.' Beauregard was true to his word. At half past four the
batteries opened upon the Fort, which, after a long and
terrible bombardment, and a gallant though comparatively
feeble defense by a small and half-starved garrison, was
surrendered the following day. … The fall of Sumter was the
resurrection of patriotism. The North needed just this. Such a
universal burst of patriotic indignation as ran over the North
under the influence of this insult to the national flag has
never been witnessed. It swept away all party lines as if it
had been flame and they had been flax."
_J. G. Holland,
Life of Lincoln,
chapter 18._
ALSO IN:
_F. W. Seward,
Seward at Washington,
chapter 56._
_S. W. Crawford,
Genesis of the Civil War: The Story of Sumter,
chapters 24-32._
_A. Doubleday,
Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie,
chapters 8-11._
_A. Roman,
Military Operations of General Beauregard,
volume 1, chapters 2-4._
_Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,
The Century Company,
volume 1, pages 40-83._
_S. L. Woodford,
The Story of Fort Sumter
(Personal Recollections of the War:
N. Y. Com. L. L. of the United States)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (April).
President Lincoln's call to arms.
The mighty uprising of the North.
The response of disloyal Governors.
"By the next morning (Sunday April 14) the news of the close
of the bombardment and capitulation of Sumter was in
Washington. In the forenoon, at the time Anderson and his
garrison were evacuating the fort, Lincoln and his Cabinet,
together with sundry military officers, were at the Executive
Mansion, giving final shape to the details of the action the
Government had decided to take. A proclamation, drafted by
himself, copied on the spot by his secretary, was concurred in
by his Cabinet, signed, and sent to the State Department to be
sealed, filed, and copied for publication in the next
morning's newspapers. The document bears date April 15
(Monday), but was made and signed on Sunday." It was as
follows:
"Whereas the laws of the United States have been for some time
past and now are opposed, and the execution thereof
obstructed, in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama,
Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, by combinations
too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of
judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshals
by law: Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the
United States, in virtue of the power in me vested by the
Constitution and the laws, have thought fit to call forth, and
hereby do call forth, the militia of the several States of the
Union, to the aggregate number of seventy-five thousand, in
order to suppress said combinations, and to cause the laws to
be duly executed. The details for this object will be
immediately communicated to the State authorities through the
War Department. I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor,
facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the
integrity, and the existence of our National Union, and the
perpetuity of popular government; and to redress wrongs
already long enough endured. I deem it proper to say that the
first service assigned to the forces hereby called forth will
probably be to repossess the forts, places, and property which
have been seized from the Union; and in every event the utmost
care will be observed, consistently with the objects
aforesaid, to avoid any devastation, any destruction of or
interference with property, or any disturbance of peaceful
citizens in any part of the country. And I hereby command the
persons composing the combination aforesaid to disperse and
retire peacefully to their respective abodes within twenty
days from date. Deeming that the present condition of public
affairs presents an extraordinary occasion, I do hereby, in
virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution, convene
both Houses of Congress. Senators and Representatives are
therefore summoned to assemble at their respective chambers,
at twelve o'clock noon, on Thursday the fourth day of July
next, then and there to consider and determine such measures
as, in their wisdom, the public safety and interest may seem
to demand. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand,
and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done
at the city of Washington, this 15th day of April, in the year
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and of
the Independence of the United States the eighty-fifth.
Abraham Lincoln. By the President: William H. Seward,
Secretary of State."
_Abraham Lincoln,
Complete Works,
volume 2, page 34._
"In view of the subsequent gigantic expansion of the civil
war, eleventh-hour critics continue to insist that a larger
force should have been called at once. They forget that this
was nearly five times the then existing regular army; that
only very limited quantities of arms, equipments, and supplies
were in the Northern arsenals; that the treasury was bankrupt;
and that an insignificant eight million loan had not two weeks
before been discounted nearly six per cent. by the New York
bankers, some bids ranging as low as eighty-five. They forget
that the shameful events of the past four months had elicited
scarcely a spark of war feeling; that the loyal States had
suffered the siege of Sumter and firing on the 'Star of the
West' with a dangerous indifference. They forget the doubt and
dismay, the panic of commerce, the division of counsels, the
attacks from within, the sneers from without—that faith seemed
gone and patriotism dead. Twenty-four hours later all this was
measurably changed, … The guns of the Sumter bombardment woke
the country from the political nightmare which had so long
tormented and paralyzed it.
{3424}
The lion of the North was fully roused. Betrayed, insulted,
outraged, the free States arose as with a cry of pain and
vengeance. War sermons from pulpits; war speeches in every
assemblage; tenders of troops; offers of money; military
proclamations and orders in every newspaper; every city
radiant with bunting; every village-green a mustering ground;
war appropriations in every legislature and in every city or
town council; war preparations in every public or private
workshop; gun-casting in the great foundries; cartridge-making
in the principal towns; camps and drills in the fields;
parades, drums, flags, and bayonets in the streets; knitting,
bandage-rolling, and lint-scraping in nearly every household.
Before the lapse of forty-eight hours a Massachusetts
regiment, armed and equipped, was on its way to Washington;
within the space of a month the energy and intelligence of the
country were almost completely turned from the industries of
peace to the activities of war."
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 4, chapters 4-5._
"In intelligence no army, except perhaps the Athenian, can
have ever equalled or approached that of the North. Most of
the soldiers carried books and writing materials in their
knapsacks, and mail bags heavily weighted with letters were
sent from every cantonment. Such privates would sometimes
reason instead of obeying, and they would see errors of their
commanders to which they had better have been blind. But on
the whole, in a war in which much was thrown upon the
individual soldier, intelligence was likely to prevail. In
wealth, in the means of providing the weapons and ammunitions
of war, the North had an immense advantage, which, combined
with that of numbers, could not fail, if, to use Lincoln's
homely phrase, it 'pegged away,' to tell in the end. It was
also vastly superior in mechanical invention; which was
destined to play a great part, and in mechanical skill; almost
every Yankee regiment was full of mechanics, some of whom
could devise as well as execute. In artillery and engineering
the North took the lead from the first, having many civil
engineers, whose conversion into military civil engineers was
easy. The South, to begin with, had the contents of Federal
arsenals and armouries, which had been well stocked by the
provident treason of Buchanan's Minister of War. … But when
these resources were exhausted, replacement was difficult, the
blockade having been established, though extraordinary efforts
in the way of military manufacture were made. To the wealthy
North, besides its own factories, were opened the markets of
England and the world. Of the small regular army the
Confederacy had carried off a share, with nearly half the
regular officers. The South had the advantage of the
defensive, which, with long-range muskets and in a difficult
country, was reckoned in battle as five to two. The South had
the superiority of the unity, force, and secrecy which
autocracy lends to the operations of war. On the side of the
North these were comparatively wanting."
_Goldwin Smith,
The United States,
chapter 5._
In six of the eight Slave-labor States included in the call,
the President's Proclamation and the requisition of the
Secretary of War "were treated by the authorities with words
of scorn and defiance. The exceptions were Maryland and
Delaware. In the other States, disloyal Governors held the
reins of power. 'I have only to say,' replied Governor Letcher
of Virginia, 'that the militia of this State will not be
furnished to the powers at Washington for any such purpose as
they have in view. Your object is to subjugate the Southern
States, and a requisition made upon me for such an object—an
object, in my judgment, not within the province of the
Constitution or the Act of 1795—will not be complied with. You
have chosen to inaugurate civil war, and, having done so, we
will meet it in a spirit as determined as the Administration
has exhibited toward the South.' Governor Ellis, of North
Carolina, answered:—'Your dispatch is received, and if
genuine, which its extraordinary character leads me to doubt,
I have to say in reply, that I regard the levy of troops, made
by the Administration for the purpose of subjugating the
States of the South, as in violation of the Constitution, and
a usurpation of power. I can be no party to this wicked
violation of the laws of the country, and to this war upon the
liberties of a free people. You can get no troops from North
Carolina.' Governor Magoffin, of Kentucky, replied:—'Your
dispatch is received. I say emphatically that Kentucky will
furnish no troops for the wicked purpose of subduing her
sister Southern States.' Governor Harris, of Tennessee,
said:—'Tennessee will not furnish a single man for coercion,
but 50,000, if necessary, for the defense of our rights, or
those of our Southern brethren.' Governor Rector, of Arkansas,
replied:—'In answer to your requisition for troops from
Arkansas to subjugate the Southern States, I have to say that
none will be furnished. The demand is only adding insult to
injury.' … Governor Jackson, of Missouri, responded:—'There
can be, I apprehend, no doubt that these men are intended to
make war upon the seceded States. Your requisition, in my
judgment, is illegal, unconstitutional, and revolutionary in
its objects, inhuman and diabolical, and cannot be complied
with. Not one man will the State of Missouri furnish to carry
on such an unholy crusade.' … Governor Hicks, of Maryland,
appalled by the presence of great dangers, and sorely pressed
by the secessionists on every side, hastened, in a
proclamation, to assure the people of his State that no troops
would be sent from Maryland unless it might be for the defense
of the National Capital, and that they (the people) would, in
a short time, 'have the opportunity afforded them, in a
special election for members of the Congress of the United
States, to express their devotion to the Union, or their
desire to see it broken up.' Governor Burton, of Delaware,
made no response until the 26th, when he informed the
President that he had no authority to comply with his
requisition. At the same time he recommended the formation of
volunteer companies for the protection of the citizens and
property of Delaware, and not for the preservation of the
Union. … In the seven excepted Slave-labor States in which
insurrection prevailed, the proclamation and the requisition
produced hot indignation, and were assailed with the bitterest
scorn. … Even in the Free-labor States, there were vehement
opposers of the war policy of the Government from its
inception." But, speaking generally, "the uprising of the
people of the Free-labor States in defense of Nationality was
a sublime spectacle. Nothing like it had been seen on the
earth since the preaching of Peter the Hermit and of Pope
Urban the Second filled all Christian Europe with religious
zeal, and sent armed hosts, with the cry of 'God wills it! God
wills it!' to rescue the sepulcher of Jesus from the hands of
the infidel."
_B. J. Lossing,
Field Book of the Civil War,
volume 1, chapter 14._
ALSO IN:
_F. Moore, editor,
Rebellion Record,
volume 1._
_W. J. Tenney,
Military and Naval History of the Rebellion,
chapters 4-6._
{3425}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (April).
The Morrill Tariff Act.
See TARIFF LEGISLATION: A. D. 1861-1864 (UNITED STATES).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (April).
Secession of Virginia.
See VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861 (JANUARY-JUNE).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (April).
Activity of Rebellion in Virginia and Maryland.
Peril of the national capital.
Attack on Massachusetts volunteers in Baltimore.
"Massachusetts, always the most zealous, was the first in the
field [with troops in response to the President's call], and
on the 17th [April] she forwarded a regiment of volunteers
from Boston to Washington. Pennsylvania, although nearly
one-half of her votes had been given for Mr. Breckinridge,
followed this example; and, owing to her geographical
position, her volunteers reached the shores of the Potomac in
advance of all the others. After passing through the great
city of Baltimore in the midst of an incipient insurrection,
they encamped around the Capitol, on the 18th of April. The
seceders, on their side, had not lost a moment in Virginia.
They were in possession of Richmond, where the convention was
in session. … The workshops and arsenal of Harper's Ferry,
situated at the confluence of the Potomac and the Shenandoah,
on a spot which was destined to play an important part during
the war, were only guarded by a detachment of 64 dismounted
dragoons; and the Virginia volunteers, assembled in the
valleys of the Blue Ridge, were ready to take possession of
them as soon as the ordinance for the secession of Virginia
should furnish them a pretext. They were then to cross the
Potomac and join the insurgents of Maryland, for the purpose
of attempting the capture of Washington, where their
accomplices were expecting them. On the morning of the 18th
[April], a portion of them were on their march, in the hope of
seizing the prey which was to be of so much value to the
future armies of the Confederacy. But Lieutenant Jones, who
was in command at Harper's Ferry, had been informed of the
approach of the Confederate troops under the lead of Ashby—a
chief well known since; notwithstanding their despatch, they
only arrived in sight of Harper's Ferry in time to see from a
distance a large conflagration that was consuming the
workshops, store-houses, and the enormous piles of muskets
heaped in the yards, while the Federal soldiers who had just
kindled it were crossing the Potomac on their way to
Washington. The Confederates found nothing but smoking ruins,
and some machinery, which they sent to Richmond; their allies
from Maryland had not made their appearance, and they did not
feel strong enough to venture alone to the other side of the
Potomac. During the last few days the authorities of Virginia
had been making preparations for capturing the Norfolk [or
Gosport] arsenal (navy-yard). That establishment possessed a
magnificent granite basin, construction docks, and a depot of
artillery with more than 2,000 guns; a two-decked vessel was
on the stocks, two others, with a three-decker, three
frigates, a steam sloop, and a brig, lay dismantled in the
port; the steam frigate Merrimac was there undergoing repairs;
the steam sloop Germantown was in the harbor ready to go to
sea, while the sailing sloop Cumberland was lying to at the
entrance of the port. … Commodore McCauley, the Federal
commandant, was surrounded by traitors," and, being deficient
in energy and capability, he allowed himself to be put in a
position where he thought it necessary to sink all the vessels
in the harbor except the Cumberland. As they were sinking,
reinforcements arrived from Washington, under Captain
Paulding, who superseded McCauley in command. But they came
too late. Captain Paulding could do nothing except hastily
destroy as far as possible the sinking ships and the arsenal
buildings, and then retreat. "The Confederates found abundant
resources in artillery and 'materiel' of every description in
Norfolk; the fire was soon extinguished, the docks repaired,
and they succeeded in raising the Merrimac, which we shall see
at work the following year. Fort Monroe had just been occupied
by a small Federal garrison. Its loss would have been even
more disastrous to the Federal cause than that of the Norfolk
navy-yard and arsenal, because the Confederates, instead of
having to cover Richmond, would have been able to blockade
Washington by sea and besiege it by land. … The example of
Virginia fired the enthusiasm of the secessionists everywhere,
and they applied themselves to the task of drawing into the
conflict those slave States which were still hesitating. … The
sight of the Pennsylvania volunteers had caused a great
irritation in Baltimore. That city, the largest in the slave
States, … warmly sympathized with the South. Her location on
the railway line which connects Washington with the great
cities of the North imparted to her a peculiar importance.
Consequently, the accomplices of the South, who were numerous
in Baltimore, determined to seize the first opportunity that
might offer to drag that city into the rebellion. … The
looked-for opportunity occurred … April 19. When the Sixth
Massachusetts Regiment, with a few battalions of Pennsylvania
volunteers, arrived at the northern station, an immense crowd
bore down upon them. A line of rails, laid in the centre of
the streets, connected this with the southern station, and
enabled the cars, drawn by horses, to pass through the city.
The crowd surround the soldiers of the Sixth Massachusetts,
who occupy these cars. The last cars are stopped, and the
occupants, being obliged to get out, endeavor to make their
way through the crowd. But, being hemmed in on all sides, they
are soon attacked by a shower of stones, which wound many of
them, and injure a few mortally. The soldiers have to defend
themselves, and the first discharge of musketry, which has
considerable effect, opens them a passage. But the aggressors,
being armed, rally, and a regular battle ensues. … The ground
is strewn with the wounded of both parties. At last, the
Massachusetts soldiers rejoin their comrades at the southern
station," and are conveyed to Washington. "Baltimore was
thenceforth in possession of the secessionists, who were fully
determined to take advantage of the situation of that city to
intercept all communications between Washington and the North.
{3426}
Accordingly, they hastened to burn the railroad bridges which
had been constructed over large estuaries north of Baltimore,
and to cut the telegraph wires. Deprived of all sources of
information from the North, the capital of the Union was soon
wrapped in mournful silence. For some days the occupant of the
White House was unable to forward any instructions to the
people who had remained faithful to the Union; but their zeal
did not abate on that account. Patriotism extinguished all
party animosities in the hearts of most of the Democrats who
had opposed the election of Mr. Lincoln. In the presence of
the national peril they loyally tendered their assistance to
the President; and breaking loose from their former
accomplices of the South, they assumed the name of War
Democrats in opposition to that of Peace Democrats."
_Comte de Paris,
History of the Civil War in America,
volume 1, book 2, chapter 4._
ALSO IN:
_J. W. Hanson,
History of the Sixth Massachusetts Volunteers,
pages 21-57._
_G. W. Brown,
Baltimore and the 29th of April, 1861
(Johns Hopkins University Studies, extra volume 3)._
_Official Records of the War of the Rebellion,
series 1, volume 2._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (April: South Carolina).
Monarchical cravings.
Intensity of the Carolinian hatred of New England and the North.
Mr. Russell, who was famous in his day as a correspondent of
"The Times" (London), spent some time in South Carolina at the
beginning of the war, and described the state of feeling there
in a letter from Charleston, written at the end of April:
"Nothing I could say," he wrote, "can be worth one fact which
has forced itself upon my mind in reference to the sentiments
which prevail among the gentlemen of this State. I have been
among them for several days. I have visited their plantations,
I have conversed with them freely and fully, and I have
enjoyed that frank, courteous and graceful intercourse which
constitutes an irresistible charm of their society. From all
quarters have come to my ears the echoes of the same voice. …
That voice says, 'If we could only get one of the royal race
of England to rule over us, we should be content.' Let there
be no misconception on this point. That sentiment, varied in a
hundred ways, has been repeated to me over and over again.
There is a general admission that the means to such an end are
wanting, and that the desire cannot be gratified. But the
admiration for monarchical institutions on the English model,
for privileged classes, and for a landed aristocracy and
gentry, is undisguised and apparently genuine. With the pride
of having achieved their independence is mingled in the South
Carolinians' hearts a strange regret at the result and
consequences, and many are they who 'would go back tomorrow if
we could.' An intense affection for the British connection, a
love of British habits and customs, a respect for British
sentiment, law, authority, order, civilization, and
literature, preeminently distinguish the inhabitants of this
State, who, glorying in their descent from ancient families on
the three islands, whose fortunes they still follow, and with
whose members they maintain not unfrequently familiar
relations, regard with an aversion of which it is impossible
to give an idea to one who has not seen its manifestations,
the people of New England and the populations of the Northern
States, whom they regard as tainted beyond cure by the venom
of 'Puritanism.' Whatever may be the cause, this is the fact
and the effect. 'The State of South Carolina was,' I am told,
'founded by gentlemen.' It was not established by
witch-burning Puritans, by cruel persecuting fanatics, who
implanted in the North the standard of Torquemada, and
breathed into the nostrils of their newly-born colonies all
the ferocity, blood-thirstiness, and rabid intolerance of the
Inquisition. … We could have got on with these fanatics if
they had been either Christians or gentlemen,' says [one],
'for in the first case they would have acted with common
charity, and in the second they would have fought when they
insulted us; but there are neither Christians nor gentlemen
among them!' 'Any thing on earth!' exclaims [another], 'any
form of government, any tyranny or despotism you will; but
'—and here is an appeal more terrible than the adjuration of
all the Gods—'nothing on earth shall ever induce us to submit
to any union with the brutal, bigoted blackguards of the New
England States, who neither comprehend nor regard the feelings
of gentlemen! Man, woman and child, we'll die first.' … The
hatred of the Italian for the Tedesco, of the Greek for the
Turk, of the Turk for the Russ, is warm and fierce enough to
satisfy the prince of darkness, not to speak of a few little
pet aversions among allied powers and the atoms of composite
empires; but they are all mere indifference and neutrality of
feeling compared to the animosity evinced by the 'gentry' of
South Carolina for the 'rabble of the North.' The contests of
Cavalier and Roundhead, of Vendean and Republican, even of
Orangeman and Croppy, have been elegant joustings, regulated
by the finest rules of chivalry, compared with those which
North and South will carry on if their deeds support their
words. 'Immortal hate, the study of revenge' will actuate
every blow, and never in the history of the world, perhaps,
will go forth such a 'væ victis' as that which may be heard
before the fight has begun. There is nothing in all the dark
caves of human passion so cruel and deadly as the hatred the
South Carolinians profess for the Yankees. That hatred has
been swelling for years, till it is the very life-blood of the
state. … Believe a southern man as he believes himself, and
you must regard New England and the kindred States as the
birthplace of impurity of mind among men and of unchastity in
women—the home of free love, of Fourrierism, of infidelity, of
abolitionism, of false teachings in political economy and in
social life; a land saturated with the drippings of rotten
philosophy, with the poisonous infections of a fanatic press;
without honor or modesty; whose wisdom is paltry cunning,
whose valor and manhood have been swallowed up in a corrupt,
howling demagogy, and in the marts of a dishonest commerce."
_W. H. Russell,
Letter to the Times (London), April 30, 1861._
{3427}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (April-May).
Proclamation by the Confederate President.
President Lincoln's proclamation of a Blockade of Southern ports.
The Queen's proclamation of British neutrality.
On the 17th of April, two days after President Lincoln's call
for troops, Jefferson Davis, the chief of the rebellious
Confederacy, published a counter-proclamation, giving notice
of the intention of the government at Montgomery to issue
letters of marque to privateers, for the destruction of
American commerce. It was as follows:
"Whereas, Abraham Lincoln, the President of the United States
has, by proclamation announced the intention of invading this
Confederacy with an armed force, for the purpose of capturing
its fortresses, and thereby subverting its independence, and
subjecting the free people thereof to the dominion of a
foreign power; and whereas it has thus become the duty of this
Government to repel the threatened invasion, and to defend the
rights and liberties of the people by all the means which the
laws of nations and the usages of civilized warfare place at
its disposal; Now, therefore, I, Jefferson Davis, President of
the Confederate States of America, do issue this my
Proclamation, inviting all those who may desire, by service in
private armed vessels on the high seas, to aid this Government
in resisting so wanton and wicked an aggression, to make
application for commissions or Letters of Marque and Reprisal,
to be issued under the Seal of these Confederate States. And I
do further notify all persons applying for Letters of Marque,
to make a statement in writing, giving the name and a suitable
description of the character, tonnage, and force of the
vessel, and the name and place of residence of each owner
concerned therein, and the intended number of the crew, and to
sign said statement and deliver the same to the Secretary of
State, or to the Collector of any port of entry of these
Confederate States, to be by him transmitted to the Secretary
of State. And I do further notify all applicants aforesaid
that before any commission or Letter of Marque is issued to
any vessel, the owner or owners thereof, and the commander for
the time being, will be required to give bond to the
Confederate States, with at least two responsible sureties,
not interested in such vessel, in the penal sum of five
thousand dollars; or if such vessel be provided with more than
one hundred and fifty men, then in the penal sum of ten
thousand dollars, with condition that the owners, officers,
and crew who shall be employed on board such commissioned
vessel, shall observe the laws of these Confederate States and
the instructions given to them for the regulation of their
conduct. That they shall satisfy all damages done contrary to
the tenor thereof by such vessel during her commission, and
deliver up the same when revoked by the President of the
Confederate States. And I do further specially enjoin on all
persons holding offices, civil and military, under the
authority of the Confederate States, that they be vigilant and
zealous in discharging the duties incident thereto; and I do,
moreover, solemnly exhort the good people of these Confederate
States as they love their country, as they prize the blessings
of free government, as they feel the wrongs of the past and
these now threatened in aggravated form by those whose enmity
is more implacable because unprovoked, that they exert
themselves in preserving order, in promoting concord, in
maintaining the authority and efficacy of the laws, and in
supporting and invigorating all the measures which may be
adopted for the common defence, and by which, under the
blessing of Divine Providence, we may hope for a speedy, just,
and honorable peace.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and
caused the Seal of the Confederate States to be affixed,
this seventeenth day of April 1861.
By the President,
(Signed) Jefferson Davis. R. Toombs, Secretary of State."
The response to this menace was a second proclamation by
President Lincoln, announcing a blockade of the ports of the
Confederacy, and warning all persons who should accept and act
under the proposed letters of marque that they would be held
amenable to the laws against piracy. This proclamation was in
the following language:
"Whereas an insurrection against the government of the United
States has broken out in the States of South Carolina,
Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas,
and the laws of the United States for the collection of the
revenue cannot be effectually executed therein conformably to
that provision of the Constitution which requires duties to be
uniform throughout the United States: And whereas a
combination of persons engaged in such insurrection have
threatened to grant pretended letters of marque to authorize
the bearers thereof to commit assaults on the lives, vessels,
and property of good citizens of the country lawfully engaged
in commerce on the high seas, and in waters of the United
States: And whereas an executive proclamation has been already
issued requiring the persons engaged in these disorderly
proceedings to desist therefrom, calling out a militia force
for the purpose of repressing the same, and convening Congress
in extraordinary session to deliberate and determine thereon:
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United
States, with a view to the same purposes before mentioned, and
to the protection of the public peace, and the lives and
property of quiet and orderly citizens pursuing their lawful
occupations, until Congress shall have assembled and
deliberated on the said unlawful proceedings, or until the
same shall have ceased, have further deemed it advisable to
set on foot a blockade of the ports within the States
aforesaid, in pursuance of the laws of the United States, and
of the law of nations in such case provided. For this purpose
a competent force will be posted so as to prevent entrance and
exit of vessels from the ports aforesaid. If, therefore, with
a view to violate such blockade, a vessel shall approach or
shall attempt to leave either of the said ports, she will be
duly warned by the commander of one of the blockading vessels,
who will indorse on her register the fact and date of such
warning, and if the same vessel shall again attempt to enter
or leave the blockaded port, she will be captured and sent to
the nearest convenient port, for such proceedings against her
and her cargo, as prize, as may be deemed advisable. And I
hereby proclaim and declare that if any person, under the
pretended authority of the said States, or under any other
pretense, shall molest a vessel of the United States, or the
persons or cargo on board of her, such person will be held
amenable to the laws of the United States for the prevention
and punishment of piracy. In witness whereof, I have hereunto
set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be
affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this nineteenth day
of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred
and sixty-one, and of the independence of the United States
the eighty-fifth. Abraham Lincoln. By the President: William
H. Seward, Secretary of State."
_Abraham Lincoln,
Complete Works,
volume 2, pages 35-36._
{3428}
Apparently on unofficial information of these announcements,
indicating a state of civil war in the United States, the
Government of Great Britain made haste—unfriendly haste, as
the United States complained—to declare neutrality between the
belligerents, thus placing the insurgent Confederacy on an
exactly equal footing with the United States so far as a
foreign recognition might do so. The Queen's Proclamation was
as follows:
"Whereas, We are happily at peace with all Sovereigns, Powers,
and States; And whereas hostilities have unhappily commenced
between the Government of the United States of America and
certain States styling themselves 'the Confederate States of
America'; And whereas we, being at peace with the Government
of the United States, have declared our Royal determination to
maintain a strict and impartial neutrality in the contest
between the said contending parties; We, therefore, have
thought fit, by and with the advice of our Privy Council, to
issue this our Royal Proclamation: And we do hereby strictly
charge and command all our loving subjects to observe a strict
neutrality in and during the aforesaid hostilities, and to
abstain from violating or contravening either the laws and
statutes of the realm in this behalf, or the law of nations in
relation thereto, as they will answer to the contrary at their
peril." After reciting the language of certain statutes which
forbid the subjects of Her Majesty to engage, without leave
and license from the Crown, in any foreign military or naval
service, or to furnish or equip any ship or vessel for service
against any state with which Her Majesty is not at war, the
Proclamation proceeds as follows: "Now, in order that none of
our subjects may unwarily render themselves liable to the
penalties imposed by said statute, we do hereby strictly
command, that no person or persons whatsoever do commit any
act, matter or thing whatsoever, contrary to the provisions of
the said statute, upon pain of the several penalties by the
said statute imposed, and of our high displeasure. And we do
hereby further warn all our loving subjects, and all persons
whatsoever entitled to our protection, that if any of them
shall presume, in contempt of this Royal Proclamation, and of
our high displeasure, to do any acts in derogation of their
duty as subjects of a neutral sovereign, in the said contest,
or in violation or contravention of the law of nations in that
behalf—as, for example and more especially, by entering into
the military service of either of the said contending parties
as commissioned or non-commissioned officers or soldiers; or
by serving as officers, sailors, or marines on board any ship
or vessel of war or transport of or in the service of either
of the said contending parties; or by serving as officers,
sailors, or marines on board any privateer bearing letters of
marque of or from either of the said contending parties; or by
engaging to go or going to any place beyond the seas with
intent to enlist or engage in any such service, or by
procuring or attempting to procure, within Her Majesty's
dominions, at home or abroad, others to do so; or by fitting
out, arming, or equipping, any ship or vessel to be employed
as a ship-of-war, or privateer, or transport, by either of the
said contending parties; or by breaking, or endeavoring to
break, any blockade lawfully and actually established by or on
behalf of either of the said contending parties; or by
carrying officers, soldiers, despatches, arms, military stores
or materials, or any article or articles considered and deemed
to be contraband of war according to the law of modern usage
of nations, for the use or service of either of the said
contending parties, all persons so offending will incur and be
liable to the several penalties and penal consequences by the
said statute, or by the law of nations, in that behalf imposed
or denounced. And we do hereby declare that all our subjects
and persons entitled to our protection who may misconduct
themselves in the premises will do so at their peril and of
their own wrong, and that they will in no wise obtain any
protection from us against any liability or penal
consequences, but will, on the contrary, incur our high
displeasure by such misconduct.
Given at our Court at the White Lodge, Richmond Park, this
13th day of May, in the year of our Lord 1861, and in the
24th year of our reign. God save the Queen."
In the complaint of the United States subsequently submitted
to the Tribunal of Arbitration at Geneva, the facts attending
this remarkably hastened Proclamation of Neutrality were set
forth as follows: "Before any armed collision had taken place,
there existed an understanding between Her Majesty's
Government and the Government of the Emperor of the French,
with a view to securing a simultaneous and identical course of
action of the two Governments on American questions. … The
fact that it had been agreed to by the two Governments was
communicated to Mr. Dallas, by Lord John Russell, on the first
day of May, 1861. There was nothing in the previous relations
between Great Britain and the United States which made it
necessary for Her Majesty's Government to seek the advice or
to invite the support of the Emperor of the French in the
crisis which was threatened. … When the news of the bloodless
attack upon Fort Sumter became known in Europe, Her Majesty's
Government apparently assumed that the time had come for the
joint action which had been previously agreed upon; and,
without waiting to learn the purposes of the United States, it
announced its intention to take the first step by recognizing
the insurgents as belligerents. The President's Proclamation,
which has since been made the ostensible reason for this
determination, was issued on the 19th of April, and was made
public in the Washington newspapers of the morning of the
20th. An imperfect copy of it was also telegraphed to New
York, and from thence to Boston, in each of which cities it
appeared in the newspapers of the morning of the 20th. The New
York papers of the 20th gave the substance of the
Proclamation, without the official commencement and close, and
with several errors of more or less importance. The Boston
papers of the same date, in addition to the errors in the New
York copy, omitted the very important statement in regard to
the collection of the revenue, which appears in the
Proclamation as the main cause of its issue.
{3429}
During the morning of the 19th of April, a riot took place in
Baltimore, which ended in severing direct communication, by
rail or telegraph, between Washington and New York.
Telegraphic communication was not restored until the 30th of
the month. The regular passage of the mails and trains was
resumed about the same time. … It is absolutely certain that
no full copy of the text of the Proclamation could have left
Washington by the mails of the 19th, and equally certain that
no copy could have reached New York from Washington after the
19th for several days. On the 20th the steamer Canadian sailed
from Portland, taking the Boston papers of that day, with the
imperfect copy of the Proclamation, in which the clause in
regard to the collection of the revenue was suppressed. This
steamer arrived at Londonderry on the 1st of May, and the
'Daily News' of London, of the 2d of May, published the
following telegraphic items of news: 'President Lincoln has
issued a Proclamation, declaring a blockade of all the ports
in the seceded States. The Federal Government will condemn as
pirates all privateer-vessels which may be seized by Federal
ships.' The Canadian arrived at Liverpool on the 2d of May,
and the 'Daily News,' of the 3d, and the 'Times,' of the 4th
of May, published the imperfect Boston copy of the
Proclamation. … No other than the Boston copy of the
Proclamation appears to have been published in the London
newspapers. It is not likely that a copy was received in
London before the 10th, by the Fulton from New York. It was on
this meager and incorrect information that the advice of the
British Law Officers was based, upon which that Government
acted. … On the 5th of May the steamship Persia arrived at
Liverpool with advices from New York to the 25th of April.
Lord John Russell stated on Monday, the 6th of May, in a
communication to Lord Cowley, 'that Her Majesty's Government
received no dispatches from Lord Lyons by the mail which has
just arrived, [the Persia,] the communication between
Washington and New York being interrupted.' In the same
dispatch Lord Cowley is informed 'that Her Majesty's
Government cannot hesitate to admit that such Confederacy is
entitled to be considered as a belligerent, and as such
invested with all the rights and prerogatives of a
belligerent,' and he is instructed to invite the French
Government to a joint action, and a line of joint policy with
the British Government, toward the United States."
_The Case of the United States before the Tribunal
of Arbitration at Geneva
[42d congress, 2d session, Senate ex. doc. 31],
pages 24-27._
"The British government is accustomed to preserve an attitude
of neutrality towards contending nations; but it would seem
that neutrality does not so far interfere with the sympathies
and freedom of its subjects as to compel it to issue
proclamations against Irishmen enlisting with Francis Joseph,
or Englishmen fighting for Victor Emanuel and Garibaldi. … In
the case of the United States, the laws of England and its
treaty stipulations with our Government already forbade its
subjects from engaging in a conspiracy to overthrow our
institutions. The proclamation, therefore, in forbidding
English subjects to fight in the service of the rebels against
the United States, simply declared the law as it was already
understood; while in forbidding Englishmen to fight for the
United States against the rebels, it intervened to change the
existing practice, to revive the almost obsolete act of Geo.
III. forbidding English subjects from engaging in foreign
service without the royal consent, which had slumbered in
regard to Austria and Italy, for the purpose of forbidding
Englishmen from assisting to maintain in the United States
constitutional order against conspiracy and rebellion, and the
cause of freedom against chattel slavery. The first effect of
the proclamation, therefore, was to change the position in
which England and Englishmen stood to the United States, to
the disadvantage of the latter. Before the proclamation, for
an Englishman to serve the United States Government in
maintaining its integrity was regarded honorable; after the
proclamation such service became a crime. The proclamation
makes it an offence now for an Englishman to fight for the
Government at Washington as great as it was for Englishmen
before the proclamation to fight for the rebels of Montgomery.
It thus, in a moral view, lowered the American Government to
the level of the rebel confederacy, and in the next place, it
proceeded, in an international view, to place the rebel
confederacy on a par with the American Government. … No
ingenuity can blind us to these facts:—Before the
proclamation, to support our Government was an honorable
office for the subjects of Great Britain, and the rebels were
insurgents, with no rights save under the American
Constitution. After the proclamation, for an Englishman to
serve the United States is a crime, and the rebels are
elevated into a belligerent power—and this intervention of
England, depriving us of a support which her practice
permitted, and giving the rebels a status and right they did
not possess, we are coolly told is neutrality. … What would
England have said to such a proclamation of neutrality from us
in her domestic troubles in Canada, in Ireland, or in India?
What would the English people have thought of a state paper
from Washington, declaring it the sovereign will of the people
of the United States to remain perfectly neutral in the
contest being waged in Hindostan between the British
government on the one side and the Mogul dynasty on the other,
and forbidding American citizens to enter the services of
either of the said belligerents? What would they have thought
of the American President intimating with cold etiquette that
it was a matter of profound indifference to this Government
which of the belligerents should be victorious, the King of
Oude and Nana Sahib, or Lord Canning and the immortal
Havelock?"
_John Jay,
The Great Conspiracy:
Address at Mount Kisco, July 4, 1861._
ALSO IN:
_J. H. Soley,
The Blockade and the Cruisers,
chapter 2._
_W. H. Seward,
Works,
volume 5
(Diplomatic History of the War)._
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 4, chapter 15._
_M. Bernard,
Historical Account of the Neutrality of Great Britain
during the American Civil War,
chapters 4-10._
See, also, ALABAMA CLAIMS.
{3430}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (April-May: Maryland).
The ending of rebellious trouble in Baltimore and the state.
General Butler in the field.
The Eighth Massachusetts Regiment, Colonel Monroe, arrived at
Philadelphia on the 20th of April, the day following the
passage of the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment through Baltimore,
and its battle with the rebel mob of that city. The Eighth was
accompanied by General Benjamin F. Butler, who had been
appointed by the Governor of Massachusetts to command the
first brigade from that state. At Philadelphia General Butler
"first heard of the attack on the Sixth, in Baltimore. His
orders commanded him to march through that city. It was now
impossible to do so with less than 10,000 armed men. He
counselled with Major-General Robert Patterson, who had just
been appointed commander of the 'Department of Washington,'
which embraced the States of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and
Maryland, and the District of Columbia, and whose
head-quarters were at Philadelphia. Commodore Dupont,
commandant of the Navy Yard there, was also consulted, and it
was agreed that the troops should go by water from Perryville,
at the mouth of the Susquehanna River, to Annapolis, and
thence across Maryland to Washington." This route was
accordingly taken by General Butler. Colonel Lefferts, who had
reached Philadelphia with the New York Seventh Regiment,
preferred to attempt going directly to Washington by a steamer
which he secured for the purpose; but a report of rebel
batteries on the Potomac turned him back, and his regiment,
likewise, proceeded to Annapolis, arriving there some hours
after the Eighth Massachusetts. Despite the protests and
remonstrances of the Governor of Maryland-who was striving
hard to put his state in an attitude of "neutrality," and to
persuade the national government to respect it by passing no
armed troops across Maryland soil—both regiments were landed,
and took possession of the town, where the secessionists were
making ready to capture the Naval Academy and the training
ship Constitution. The track of the railroad from Annapolis
had been torn up and the locomotives disabled. The mechanics
of the Massachusetts Eighth proceeded quickly to repair both,
and the two regiments moved forward. "The troops reached
Annapolis Junction on the morning of the 25th, when the
co-operation of the two regiments ceased, the Seventh New York
going on to Washington, and the Eighth Massachusetts remaining
to hold the road they had just opened. Before their departure
from Annapolis, the Baltic, a large steamship transport, had
arrived there with troops, and officers speedily followed.
General Scott ordered General Butler to remain there, hold the
town and the road, and superintend the forwarding of troops to
the Capital. The 'Department of Annapolis,' which embraced the
country twenty miles on each side of the railway, as far as
Bladensburg, was created, and General Butler was placed in
command of it, with ample discretionary powers to make him a
sort of military dictator. … At the close of April, General
Butler had full 10,000 men under his command at Annapolis, and
an equal number were guarding the seat of Government
[Washington]." Meantime, Baltimore had been given up to the
control of the Secessionists, though the Maryland Unionists
were numerous and strong and were gathering courage to assert
themselves. But the rebellious and riotous city was now
brought to its senses. On the 5th of May General Butler sent
two regiments to occupy the Relay House, within nine miles of
Baltimore. On the 9th, a force of 1,200 Pennsylvania troops
and regulars, ordered forward by General Patterson from
Philadelphia, were landed near Fort McHenry, under the guns of
a United States vessel, and marched through the city. On the
night of the 13th, General Butler, in person, with about 1,000
men, including the Massachusetts Sixth, entered the place and
took a commanding position on Federal Hill, which was
afterwards permanently fortified. From that day the disloyalty
in Baltimore gave no trouble to the Government.
_B. J. Lossing,
Field Book of the Civil War,
volume 1, chapter 18._
ALSO IN:
_Official Records of the War of the Rebellion,
series 1, volume 2._
_J. Parton,
General Butler in New Orleans,
chapters 4-5._
_T. Winthrop,
New York Seventh Regiment: Our March to Washington
(Life in the Open Air)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (May).
Call for additional volunteers.
On the 3d of May the President issued a call for forty
additional regiments of volunteers; directed an increase of
the regular army by ten regiments, and ordered the enlistment
of 18,000 seamen—acts subsequently legalized by Congress.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (May).
Exportation of cotton from the Confederacy,
excepting through its seaports, prohibited.
On the 21st of May, 1861, the Congress of the Confederate
States passed an act declaring that "from and after the 1st
day of June next, and during the existence of the blockade of
any of the ports of the Confederate States of America by the
Government of the United States, it shall not be lawful for
any person to export any raw cotton or cotton yarn from the
Confederate States of America except through the seaports of
the said Confederate States."
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (May).
Secession of North Carolina.
See NORTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1861 (JANUARY-MAY).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (May).
General Butler at Fortress Monroe and his "Contrabands."
The first military thrust at Slavery.
General Butler was commissioned as Major-General of Volunteers
on the 16th of May, and on the 20th he was ordered to the
command at Fortress Monroe. He arrived at the Fortress on the
22d and assumed the command. "On the evening of the second day
after his arrival at the post, the event occurred which will
for ever connect the name of General Butler with the history
of the abolition of slavery in America. Colonel Phelps's visit
to Hampton [the previous day] had thrown the white inhabitants
into such alarm that most of them prepared for flight, and
many left their homes that night, never to see them again. In
the confusion three negroes escaped, and, making their way
across the bridges, gave themselves up to a Union picket,
saying that their master, Colonel Mallory, was about to remove
them to North Carolina to work upon rebel fortifications
there, far away from their wives and children, who were to be
left in Hampton. They were brought to the fortress, and the
circumstance was reported to the general in the morning. … He
needed laborers. He was aware that the rebel batteries that
were rising around him were the work chiefly of slaves,
without whose assistance they could not have been erected in
time to give him trouble. He wished to keep these men. The
garrison wished them kept. The country would have deplored or
resented the sending of them away. If they had been Colonel
Mallory's horses, or Colonel Mallory's spades, or Colonel
Mallory's percussion caps, he would have seized them and used
them without hesitation.
{3431}
Why not property more valuable for the purposes of the
rebellion than any other? He pronounced the electric words,
'These men are Contraband of War; set them at work.' 'An
epigram,' as Winthrop remarks, 'abolished slavery in the
United States.' The word took; for it gave the country an
excuse for doing what it was longing to do. … By the time the
three negroes were comfortably at work upon the new
bake-house, General Butler received the following brief
epistle, signed 'J. B. Carey, major-acting, Virginia
volunteers': 'Be pleased to designate some time and place when
it will be agreeable to you to accord to me a personal
interview.' The general complied with the request." The
interview occurred that afternoon, and was not between
strangers; for General Butler and Major Carey were old
political allies—hard-shell democrats both. The essential part
of the conversation which ensued was as follows: "Major Carey:
'I am informed that three negroes, belonging to Colonel
Mallory, have escaped within your lines. I am Colonel
Mallory's agent and have charge of his property. What do you
intend to do with regard to those negroes?' General Butler: 'I
propose to retain them.' Major Carey: 'Do you mean, then, to
set aside your constitutional obligations?' General Butler: 'I
mean to abide by the decision of Virginia, as expressed in her
ordinance of secession, passed the day before yesterday. I am
under no constitutional obligations to a foreign country,
which Virginia now claims to be.' Major Carey: 'But you say,
we can't secede, and so you cannot consistently detain the
negroes.' General Butler: 'But you say, you have seceded, and
so you cannot consistently claim them. I shall detain the
negroes as contraband of war. You are using them upon your
batteries. It is merely a question whether they shall be used
for or against the government. Nevertheless, though I greatly
need the labor which has providentially fallen into my hands,
if Colonel Mallory will come into the fort, and take the oath
of allegiance to the United States, he shall have his negroes,
and I will endeavor to hire them from him.' Major Carey:
'Colonel Mallory is absent.' The interview here terminated,
and each party, with polite farewell, went its way. This was
on Friday, May 24. On Sunday morning, eight more negroes came
in. … They continued to come in daily, in tens, twenties,
thirties, till the number of contrabands in the various camps
numbered more than 900. A commissioner of negro affairs was
appointed, who taught, fed and governed them." General Butler
reported his action to the Government, and on the 30th of May
the Secretary of War wrote to him: "Your action in respect to
the negroes who came within your lines, from the service of
the rebels, is approved. … While … you will permit no
interference, by persons under your command, with the
relations of persons held to service under the laws of any
state, you will, on the other hand, so long as any state
within which your military operations are conducted remain
under the control of … armed combinations, refrain from
surrendering to alleged masters any persons who come within
your lines." "So the matter rested for two months, at the
expiration of which events revived the question."
_J. Parton,
General Butler in New Orleans,
chapter 6._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (May: Virginia).
First Advance of Union Troops across the Potomac.
Death of Ellsworth at Alexandria.
"Already 'Confederate' pickets were occupying Arlington
Heights and the Virginia shore of the Long Bridge, which spans
the Potomac at Washington City; and engineers had been seen on
those heights selecting eligible positions for batteries. A
crisis was evidently at hand, and the General-in-chief was now
persuaded to allow an immediate invasion of Virginia. Orders
were at once issued [May 23] for the occupation of the shores
of the Potomac opposite, and also the city of Alexandria, nine
miles below, by National troops. General Mansfield was in
command of about 13,000 men at the Capital. Toward midnight,
these forces in and around Washington were put in motion for
the passage of the river, at three different points. One
column was to cross at the Aqueduct Bridge, at Georgetown;
another at the Long Bridge, at Washington; and a third was to
proceed in vessels, and seize the city of Alexandria. The
three invading columns moved almost simultaneously. … The
troops moving by land and water reached Alexandria at about
the same time. The National frigate Pawnee was lying off the
town, and her commander had already been in negotiation for
the evacuation of Alexandria by the insurgents. A detachment
of her crew, bearing a flag of truce, now hastened to the
shore in boats, and leaped eagerly upon the wharf just before
the zouaves [the New York Fire Zouave Regiment, under Colonel
Ellsworth] reached it. They were fired upon by some Virginia
sentries, who instantly fled from the town. Ellsworth,
ignorant of any negotiations, advanced to the center of the
city, and took possession of it in the name of his Government,
while the column under Wilcox marched through different
streets to the Station of the Orange and Alexandria Railway,
and seized it, with much rolling stock. They there captured a
small company (thirty-five men) of Virginia cavalry, under
Captain Ball. Other Virginians, who had heard the firing of
the insurgent pickets, escaped by way of the railroad.
Alexandria was now in quiet possession of the National troops,
but there were many violent secessionists there who would not
submit. Among them was a man named Jackson, the proprietor of
an inn called the Marshall House. The Confederate flag had
been flying over his premises for many days, and had been
plainly seen from the President's house in Washington. It was
still there, and Ellsworth went in person to take it down.
When descending an upper staircase with it, he was shot by
Jackson, who was waiting for him in a dark passage, with a
double-barreled gun, loaded with buckshot. Ellsworth fell
dead, and his murderer met the same fate an instant afterward,
at the hands of Francis E. Brownell, of Troy, who, with six
others, had accompanied his commander to the roof of the
house. He shot Jackson through the head with a bullet, and
pierced his body several times with his saber-bayonet. …
Ellsworth was a very young and extremely handsome man, and was
greatly beloved for his generosity, and admired for his
bravery and patriotism. His death produced great excitement
throughout the country. It was the first of note that had
occurred in consequence of the National troubles, and the very
first since the campaign had actually begun, a few hours
before.
{3432}
It intensified the hatred of rebellion and its abettors; and a
regiment was raised in his native State (New York) called the
Ellsworth Avengers. Intrenching tools were sent over the
Potomac early on the morning of the 24th, and the troops
immediately commenced casting up intrenchments and redoubts,
extending from Roach's Spring, on the Washington and
Alexandria Road, across Arlington Heights, almost to the Chain
Bridge."
_B. J. Lossing,
Field Book of the Civil War,
volume 1, chapter 20._
ALSO IN:
_F. Moore,
Anecdotes, Poetry and Incidents of the War,
page 391._
_J. T. Headley,
The Great Rebellion,
chapter 5._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (May-June).
Tennessee dragged into the rebel Confederacy.
Loyal resistance of East Tennessee.
See TENNESSEE: A. D. 1861 (JANUARY-MAY) and (JUNE).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (May-July: Missouri).
The baffling of the 'Secessionists in Missouri.
Lyon's capture of Camp Jackson.
The Battle of Boonville.
See MISSOURI: A. D. 1861 (FEBRUARY-JULY).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (May-September: Kentucky).
The struggle for the state.
Secession and Neutrality overcome.
See KENTUCKY: A. D. 1861 (JANUARY-SEPTEMBER).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (June: Virginia).
The fight at Big Bethel.
"Major-General Butler and staff arrived at Fortress Monroe
Wednesday afternoon, May 22d. … Colonel Magruder—late Colonel
in the United States service, and an officer of much
distinction as an obstinate combatant—was placed in command
(rebel) of the Peninsula. … Troops rapidly poured into
Butler's department, and he soon found himself in a condition
to act on the offensive. Magruder's scouts and cavalry greatly
annoyed the two camps mentioned. They had, also, seized
several Union men. These raids became so frequent and annoying
that a night attack was concerted upon their positions at
Little Bethel and Big Bethel—the latter, near the north branch
of Back River, where it was understood Magruder's outposts
were throwing up strong works. Brigadier-General Pierce, of
the Massachusetts troops, was detailed to command the
expedition. … Approaching the enemy's position at Big Bethel,
it was found that their guns commanded all points of approach.
The road leading up to the bridge over the creek was swept by
their artillery. A thick woods to the left of the road
afforded some protection to the Federal left. An open field on
the right of the approach only offered a house and
out-buildings as a cover. The enemy occupied a hill, beyond
the creek, which almost completely secured their front. At
their rear was a dense wood. This gave them the advantage of
ground, greatly. A reconnaissance would have demonstrated the
futility of a front attack except by artillery. The only hope
for the Federals was in a flank movement, higher up the creek,
by which, the stream being passed, the enemy could be
assaulted in their works, at the point of the bayonet, if
necessary. This movement was only attempted partially at a
late hour in the day. The rebels were well prepared, and only
awaited the appearance of the head of the Federal advance to
open a sharp fire. … The fight was, from the first, extremely
unequal. A front attack was sheer folly. But, the flank
movement was not ordered. … The fortunes of the day needed but
a master-hand to direct them, to have turned in favor of the
Union troops. … Lieutenant-Colonel Washburne had … arranged
for a flank movement which, with a combined attack from the
front, must have ended the struggle; but the order for retreat
was given before the movement could be executed. … The Federal
loss was 14 killed, 49 wounded and five missing. Among the
killed were two of the most gallant and noble men in the
service—Major Theodore Winthrop, Secretary and Aid to General
Butler, and first-Lieutenant John T. Greble, of the United
States regular artillery, Second regiment. The rebels
pronounced their loss to have been but one killed and four
wounded. The retreat was accomplished in good order—the enemy
not pursuing."
_O. J. Victor,
History of the Southern Rebellion,
volume 2, division 4, chapter 18._
ALSO IN:
_W. C. Bryant and S. H. Gay,
Popular History of the United States,
volume 4, chapter 17._
_Life and Poems of Theodore Winthrop,
chapter 9._
_Official Records,
series 1, volume 2._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (June-July: West Virginia).
General McClellan's campaign in the mountains.
Rich Mountain and Carrick's Ford.
"Although some thousands of West Virginians had volunteered to
fight for the Union, none of them were encamped on the soil of
their State until after the election held [May 23] to ratify
or reject the Ordinance of Secession. …
See VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861 (JANUARY-JUNE)]
The Virginians who volunteered were mustered in and organized
at Camp Carlile, in Ohio, opposite Wheeling, under the command
of Colonel Kelly, himself a Virginian. George B. McClellan,
who had been appointed a Major-General and assigned to the
command of the Department of the Ohio, remained at Cincinnati,
his home. Three days after the election aforesaid, he issued
from that city a spirited address 'To the Union men of Western
Virginia.' … A brief and stirring address to his soldiers was
issued simultaneously with the above; and, both being read to
those in Camp Carlile that evening, the 1st Virginia, 1,100
strong, Colonel Kelly, crossed to Wheeling early next morning,
closely followed by the 16th Ohio, Colonel Irvine. The 14th
Ohio, Colonel Steedman, crossed simultaneously, and quietly
occupied Parkersburg, the terminus of the Northwestern branch
of the Baltimore and Ohio road. A Rebel force, then holding
Grafton, which connected the branch aforesaid with the main or
Wheeling division of the railroad, had meditated a descent on
Wheeling; but, finding themselves anticipated and outnumbered,
they obstructed and destroyed the railroad west of them," and
fell back to Philippi, some fifteen miles southward. "General
McClellan having ordered that Philippi be captured by
surprise, the attempt was made on the night of June 2d. Two
brigades of two regiments each approached the Rebel camp by
different roads" and dispersed it completely, with some loss
on both sides, capturing the tents, provisions and munitions.
The Rebel commander, Colonel Porterfield, "gathering up such
portion of his forces as he could find, retreated hastily to
Beverly, and thence to Huttonsville; where the Rebel array was
rapidly increased by conscription, and Governor Wise placed in
command. General McClellan arrived at Grafton on the 23d. …
His forces were rapidly augmented, till they amounted, by the
4th of July, to over 30,000 men; while the Rebels in his front
could hardly muster 10,000 in all.
{3433}
He therefore resolved to advance. The Rebel main force,
several thousand strong, under General Robert S. Garnett, was
strongly intrenched on Laurel Hill, a few miles north of
Beverly, … while a smaller detachment, under Colonel John
Pegram was intrenched upon the summit and at either base of
Rich Mountain … three or four miles distant from the Rebel
main body." General Rosecrans, sent by a detour of eight miles
through the mountains to Pegram's rear, drove the rebels (July
11) from their position, at the point of the bayonet; and the
following day their commander, with about 600 men, was forced
to surrender. "General McClellan pushed on to Beverly, which
he entered early next morning, flanking General Garnett's
position at Laurel Hill and compelling him to a precipitate
flight northward. Six cannon, 200 tents, 60 wagons and over
100 prisoners, were the trophies of this success. The Rebel
loss in killed and wounded was about 150; the Union about 50.
General Garnett, completely flanked, thoroughly worsted, and
fearfully outnumbered, abandoned his camp at Laurel Hill
without a struggle, crossing the Laurel Mountains eastward, by
a by-road, into the narrow valley of Cheat river. … At length,
having crossed the Cheat at a point known as Carrick's Ford,
which proffered an admirable position for defense. Garnett
turned [July 14] to fight." But the Union force which pursued
him was overpowering; Garnett himself was killed in the battle
at the Ford and his command fled in confusion. General
McClellan telegraphed to Washington, next day, from
Huttonsville: "We have completely annihilated the enemy in
Western Virginia. Our loss is about 13 killed and not more
than 40 wounded; while the enemy's loss is not far from 200
killed; and the number of prisoners we have taken will amount
to at least 1,000. We have captured seven of the enemy's guns
in all. A portion of Garnett's forces retreated; but I look
for their capture by General Hill, who is in hot pursuit."
"This expectation was not realized. The pursuit was only
continued two miles beyond the ford; when our weary soldiers
halted, and the residue of the Rebels, under Colonel Ramsey,
turning sharply to the right, made their way across the
mountains, and joined General Jackson at Monterey." Meantime,
simultaneously with General McClellan's advance on Beverly,
another strong Union force, under General Cox, had moved from
Guyandotte to the Kanawha, and up that river to Charleston,
which it reached on the 25th of July. Governor Wise, who
commanded the rebels in the Kanawha Valley, retreated, General
Cox pursuing, until the pursuit was checked on the 29th by
Wise's destruction of Gauley bridge. The rebels then made good
their flight to Lewisburg, in Greenbrier county, where Wise
was reinforced and superseded by General John B. Floyd.
_H. Greeley,
The American Conflict,
volume 1, chapter 32._
"The war in Western Virginia seemed to have ended with the
dispersion of Garnett's forces, and there was much rejoicing
over the result. It was premature. The 'Confederates' were not
disposed to surrender to their enemy the granaries that would
be needed to supply the troops in Eastern Virginia, without a
severer struggle. General Robert E. Lee succeeded Garnett, and
more important men than Wise and Floyd took the places of
these incompetents. Rosecrans succeeded McClellan, who was
called to the command of the Army of the Potomac, and the war
in the mountain region of Virginia was soon renewed."
_B. J. Lossing,
Field Book of the Civil War,
volume 1, chapter 22._
ALSO IN:
_Official Records of the War of the Rebellion,
series 1, volume 2, page 193-293._
_V. A. Lewis,
History of West Virginia,
chapter 28._
_J. D. Cox,
McClellan in West Virginia
(Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, volume 1)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (July).
First depredations of the Confederate cruiser Sumter.
See ALABAMA CLAIMS: A. D. 1861-1862.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (July: Virginia).
The seat of the rebel government transferred to Richmond.
See VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861 (JULY).
[Image: The Principal Theatre of War in Virginia.]
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (July: Virginia).
On to Richmond.
The First Battle of Bull Run, or Manassas.
"The Southern Government having inclined to the defensive
policy as that upon which they should act, their first object
was to prevent an advance of any Federal force into Virginia.
Early in the month of May troops were assembled in Richmond,
and pushed forward toward the northeastern boundary of the
State, to a position known as Manassas Junction. … It is here
that a railroad from Alexandria, another from Staunton up the
valley and through Manassas Gap, and another from Gordonsville
unite. At Gordonsville the railroad from Richmond and the line
from East Tennessee unite. As a point for concentration none
more eligible exists in northeastern Virginia. The advantages
for fortification are naturally such that the place can be
rendered impregnable. Here the centre of the northern force of
the Southern army was posted, with the left wing pushed
forward to Winchester [under the command of General Joseph E.
Johnston, with the Union General Patterson opposed to him] and
the right extended to the Potomac, and sustained by heavy
batteries which served to blockade the river. The Federal
force, the advance of which was assembled at Washington for
the defence of that city against any attack by the Southern
troops, was posted on the Virginia side of the Potomac, on
Arlington Heights, which were strongly fortified. Their right
was pushed some distance up the Potomac, and chiefly on the
Maryland side, while their left occupied Alexandria. The
armies of both sides consisted of raw militia hastily brought
together, and of volunteers who for the first time had put on
the uniform, and taken up the weapons of the soldier. On both
sides the forces were constantly accumulating. On the morning
of June 27th, the consolidated report of General Mansfield,
commanding the Department of Washington, gives the number of
troops in that city and vicinity. The privates, including
regulars and volunteers present for duty, numbered 22,846 men.
The grand aggregate of the force, including officers, etc.,
present and absent, was 34,160 men. The force of General
Patterson, commanding in Maryland above Washington, and also
on the Virginia side of the Potomac, on the 28th of June, was
returned, embracing officers and men enlisted and present for
duty, 15,923. Of these about 550 were reported as sick."
_W. J. Tenney,
Military and Naval History of the Rebellion,
page 67._
{3434}
"The return of Johnston's [Confederate] army for June 30th
showed his total force present for duty to have been 10,654;
but this includes some troops which, though assigned to his
army, did not join him till after July 3d. … A prime object of
Johnston in taking post at Winchester was, that he might be
enabled to join the army at Manassas in case of need. On June
2d, only a week after Johnston's arrival at Harper's Ferry,
Beauregard had reached Manassas and assumed command. He and
Johnston at once communicated with each other, and agreed in
their views of the importance of mutual support. … As soon as
Johnston ascertained … that McClellan [from West Virginia] was
not moving on Romney and Winchester, the feasibility of this
movement to Manassas at the right time became greater. The
only problem then remaining was to so time it as to arrive
just long enough before the impending battle to take part in
it, and not so long as to cause, by the news of his arrival, a
corresponding transfer of Patterson. … It was for the purpose
of gaining as much start as possible on Patterson that
Johnston had retired to Winchester, instead of remaining
opposite the Northern force at Martinsburg. He kept his
cavalry well out, in order to be informed as promptly as
possible of the slightest change in Patterson's position.
Meanwhile the grand Federal advance upon Manassas had
commenced."
_R. M. Hughes,
General Johnston,
pages 47-51._
The advance from Washington, which began on the 16th of July,
and which resulted in the grievous defeat of the Union forces
at Bull Run, or Manassas, on Sunday, the 21st, was undertaken
to appease the impatient, ignorant clamor of Northern
newspapers, and in opposition to the judgment and the plans of
General Scott, who was then at the head of the National army.
The cry "On to Richmond" was taken up by Congressmen and
Senators, and the pressure on the government became too strong
to be resisted. Instead of keeping the raw troops, hurriedly
gathered at Washington, in camps of instruction, until they
were properly drilled and until their officers had acquired
some experience in handling them, they were hurriedly pushed
into a serious campaign movement, against an enemy likewise
untrained, to be sure, but who was far better prepared to
receive an attack than the assailants were to make one.
General Irwin McDowell had been recently placed in command of
the army intended for the field, with General Mansfield
commanding the troops in Washington. The former had "entered
on his new and responsible duties with great alacrity, working
night and day to prepare his command for the approaching
conflict. … McDowell was laboring at a great
disadvantage—drilling and preparing his troops as best he
could—under the heavy pressure from the North to deliver
battle to the enemy in his front. Secretary Chase was the
champion, in the Cabinet, of the intense feeling in the North
that the war should be pushed at once, with a vigor that would
end it soon. … There is no doubt that General Scott was
weakened with the administration, for the reason that he did
not believe in the prevailing opinion that a few days would
crush the rebellion; and the more the old hero insisted, or
faithfully stood by his views, the more it antagonized the
opinion of those who hoped and said it would end speedily. At
the Cabinet meeting a week before, General Hamilton says:
'General Montgomery Blair said he would march to Richmond with
10,000 men, armed with lathes.' 'Yes,' said General Scott, 'as
prisoners of war.' Continuing General Hamilton's statement of
the events which occurred prior to the battle and during its
progress, he says: 'On the Sunday preceding the battle of Bull
Run, Scott directed me, his military secretary, to say to
McDowell that he wished him to dine with him without fail. At
the dinner, at which General McDowell appeared, General Scott
used every possible argument to dissuade General McDowell from
fighting the first battle of Bull Run under the then existing
condition of public affairs. … He then begged General McDowell
to go to Secretary Chase, his kinsman, and aid him (General
Scott) in preventing a forward movement at that moment; one of
the arguments used by General Scott being that the Union
sentiment of the South had been surprised by the suddenness
and promptitude of the movement in favor of secession; that he
(General Scott) was well advised that the Union sentiment was
recovering itself, and gaining head in the South; that from
the moment blood was shed the South would be made a unit.
General McDowell regretted that he could not agree with
General Scott in his views, and arose and retired. … In the
course of the succeeding week General McDowell reported to
General Scott his proposed plan of battle. It was hung upon
the wall, and I followed with a pointer the positions
indicated by General McDowell as those he intended the forces
under his command should occupy. After General McDowell had
gone through a detailed statement of his plan, and had
finished, General Scott remarked, "General McDowell, that is
as good a plan of battle as I ever saw upon paper." General
McDowell said in rep]y: "General Scott, the success of this
whole plan depends upon General Patterson holding General
Johnston in check at Winchester." General Scott remarked that
General Johnston was a very able soldier, that he had a
railroad at his command with which to move his troops, and if
General McDowell's plan of battle, which had just been
presented to him, depended upon General Patterson holding
General Johnston in check, his plan was not worth the paper it
was drawn upon.' That ended that interview."
_J. H. Stine,
History of the Army of the Potomac,
pages 7-10._
Says General McDowell, in his subsequent report of the
movement and the disastrous battle:
"When I submitted to the General-in-Chief, in compliance with
his verbal instructions, the plan of operations and estimate
of force required, the time I was to proceed to carry it into
effect was fixed for the 8th of July (Monday). Every facility
possible was given me by the General-in-Chief and heads of the
administrative departments in making the necessary
preparations. But the regiments, owing, I was told, to want of
transportation, came over slowly. Many of them did not come
across until eight or nine days after the time fixed upon, and
went forward without my ever seeing them and without having
been together before in a brigade. The sending re-enforcements
to General Patterson by drawing off the wagons was a further
and unavoidable cause of delay. Notwithstanding the herculean
efforts of the Quartermaster-General, and his favoring me in
every possible way, the wagons for ammunition, subsistence,
&c., and the horses for the trains and for the artillery, did
not all arrive for more than a week after the time appointed
to move.
{3435}
I was not even prepared as late as the 15th ultimo, and the
desire I should move became great, and it was wished I should
not, if possible, delay longer than Tuesday, the 10th ultimo.
When I did set out on the 10th I was still deficient in wagons
for subsistence, but I went forward, trusting to their being
procured in time to follow me. The trains thus hurriedly
gotten together, with horses, wagons, drivers, and
wagon-masters all new and unused to each other, moved with
difficulty and disorder, and was the cause of a day's delay in
getting the provisions forward, making it necessary to make on
Sunday the attack we should have made on Saturday. I could
not, with every exertion, get forward with the troops earlier
than we did. I wished them to go to Centreville the second
day, which would have taken us there on the 17th, and enabled
us, so far as they were concerned, to go in to action on the
19th instead of the 21st; but when I went forward from Fairfax
Court-House beyond Germantown to urge them forward, I was told
it was impossible for the men to march farther. They had only
come from Vienna, about 6 miles, and it was not more than 6½
miles farther to Centreville, in all a march of 12½ miles; but
the men were foot-weary, not so much, I was told, by the
distance marched, as by the time they had been on foot, caused
by the obstructions in the road and the slow pace we had to
move to avoid ambuscades. The men were, moreover, unaccustomed
to marching, their bodies not in condition for that kind of
work, and not used to carrying even the load of 'light
marching order.'"
_Brig. General I. McDowell,
Report
(Official Records, series 1, volume 2, pages 323-324)._
The advance of the Union Army was made "in five divisions,
commanded by Generals Tyler, Hunter, Heintzelman, Runyon, and
Miles. Among the brigade commanders that afterward rose to
eminence were William T. Sherman, Ambrose E. Burnside, Erastus
D. Keyes, and Oliver O. Howard. The total force was somewhat
over 34,000 men; but Runyon's division was left to guard the
line of communication with Washington, and the number that
actually moved against the enemy was about 28,000 with 49 guns
and a battalion of cavalry. So little did strict military
discipline as yet enter into the policy of the Government that
a large number of civilians, including several members of
Congress, obtained passes enabling them to ride out in
carriages, close in the rear of the army, to witness the
expected battle. … The troops marched by the Warrenton
turnpike, and found themselves in the presence of the enemy on
the banks of Bull Run on the 18th. … The enemy's outposts had
fallen back as the army advanced, and the first serious
opposition was met at Blackburn's Ford," where some sharp
fighting occurred between Tyler's division and the Confederate
troops under Longstreet. "McDowell, finding that Beauregard
was very strongly intrenched on his right, and that the roads
in that direction were not good, changed his plan and
determined to attack on the north or left wing. Another reason
for doing this lay in the fact that McDowell had distrusted
Patterson from the first, having no faith that he would hold
Johnston. … The action at Blackburn's Ford had been fought on
Thursday. Friday and Saturday were consumed in reconnoissances
and searching for a suitable ford on the upper part of the
stream, where a column could cross and, marching down on the
right bank, uncover the fords held by the enemy and enable the
remainder of the army to cross. Such a ford was found at
length, and on Sunday morning, the 21st, the army was put in
motion. McDowell did not know that Johnston had easily eluded
Patterson and with two fifths of his forces joined Beauregard
on Saturday. … The Confederate commanders had actually ordered
a forward movement of their own right wing; but as they saw
the development of McDowell's plan they recalled that, and
gradually strengthened their left to meet the onset. … The
battleground was a plateau, wooded and broken."
_R. Johnson,
Short History of the War of Rebellion,
chapter 4._
In the Report of the Confederate General Beauregard, the
plateau which now became the principal battle ground of the
conflict is described as follows: "It is inclosed on three
sides by small water-courses, which empty into Bull Run within
a few yards of each other a half a mile to the south of the
stone bridge. Rising to an elevation of quite 100 feet above
the level of Bull Run at the bridge, it falls off on three
sides to the level of the enclosing streams in gentle slopes,
but which are furrowed by ravines of irregular direction and
length, and studded with clumps and patches of young pines and
oaks. The general direction of the crest of the plateau is
oblique to the course of Bull Run in that quarter and to the
Brentsville and turnpike roads, which intersect each other at
right angles. Immediately surrounding the two houses …
[mentioned below] are small open fields of irregular outline,
not exceeding 150 acres in extent. The houses, occupied at the
time, the one by the Widow Henry and the other by the free
negro Robinson, are small wooden buildings, the latter densely
embowered in trees and environed by a double row of fences on
two sides. Around the eastern and southern brow of the plateau
an almost unbroken fringe of second-growth pines gave
excellent shelter for our marksmen, who availed themselves of
it with the most satisfactory skill. To the west, adjoining
the fields, a broad belt of oaks extends directly across the
crest on both sides of the Sudley road, in which during the
battle regiments of both armies met and contended for the
mastery. From the open ground of this plateau the view
embraces a wide expanse of woods and gently undulating open
country of broad grass and grain fields in all directions."
_General G. T. Beauregard,
Report
(Official Records, series 1, volume 2, pages 493-494)._
At an early hour in the afternoon, the Union forces had driven
the enemy from this plateau and seemed to be in a position
which promised victory to them. Says General McDowell in his
official report: "The enemy was evidently disheartened and
broken. But we had then been fighting since 10.30 o'clock in
the morning, and it was after 3 o'clock in the afternoon. The
men had been up since 2 o'clock in the morning, and had made
what to those unused to such things seemed a long march before
coming into action, though the longest distance gone over was
not more that 9½ miles; and though they had three days'
provisions served out to them the day before, many, no doubt,
either did not get them, or threw them away on the march or
during the battle, and were therefore without food. They had
done much severe fighting.
{3436}
Some of the regiments which had been driven from the hill in
the first two attempts of the enemy to keep possession of it
had become shaken, were unsteady, and had many men out of the
ranks. It was at this time that the enemy's re-enforcements
came to his aid from the railroad train (understood to have
just arrived from the valley with the residue of Johnston's
army). They threw themselves in the woods on our right, and
opened a fire of musketry on our men, which caused them to
break and retire down the hillside. This soon degenerated into
disorder, for which there was no remedy. Every effort was made
to rally them, even beyond the reach of the enemy's fire, but
in vain. The battalion of regular infantry alone moved up the
hill opposite to the one with the house, and there maintained
itself until our men could get down to and across the
Warrenton turnpike on the way back to the position we occupied
in the morning. The plain was covered with the retreating
groups, and they seemed to infect those with whom they came in
contact. The retreat soon became a rout, and this soon
degenerated still further into a panic. Finding this state of
affairs was beyond the efforts of all those who had assisted
so faithfully during the long and hard day's work in gaining
almost the object of our wishes, and that nothing remained on
that field but to recognize what we could no longer prevent, I
gave the necessary orders to protect their withdrawal, begging
the men to form a line, and offer the appearance, at least, of
organization and force. They returned by the fords to the
Warrenton road, protected, by my order, by Colonel Porter's
force of regulars. Once on the road, and the different corps
coming together in small parties, many without officers, they
became intermingled, and all organization was lost."
_Brigadier General I. McDowell,
Report
(Official Records, series 1, volume 2, page 320)._
"The battle of Bull Run was a misfortune, and not a disgrace,
to the Federal arms; but the reports of losses on both sides
prove that it was bravely disputed. … The rout—or, in other
words, the panic— … was one of those accidents to which even
victorious armies are sometimes liable, and against which old
troops are not always able to guard. The importance of the
battle of Bull Run cannot be measured by the amount of losses
sustained by the two contending parties. … Its immediate
effect upon military operations was to produce a sudden change
in the attitude of the belligerents. The possession of
Virginia, with the exception of that portion which had been
recaptured by McClellan, was secured to the Confederates.
Richmond was beyond danger of any attack, and Washington was
threatened anew. … But it was chiefly through its moral effect
that this first encounter was to exercise a powerful influence
upon the war of which it was only the prelude. The South saw
in this victory a kind of ratification of her claims. It was
not only the Federal soldiers who were vanquished on that day,
but with them all who had remained more or less openly loyal
to the Union in the Southern States. … This disaster, which
might have discouraged the North, proved, on the contrary, a
salutary lesson."
_Comte de Paris,
History of the Civil War in America,
volume 1, book 3, chapter 2._
"Those only can realize the condition of our Army, at that
time, who can recall the incidents of this memorable campaign
and the battle with which it closed. The crowds of curious and
impertinent spectators who accompanied and often rode through
our ranks; the long and fatal delay of Hunter's column, on the
morning of the battle—a delay occasioned by a few
baggage-waggons, which should have been miles in rear—the many
ludicrous, yet sad, scenes on the field; the heroic, but
fruitless, gallantry of separate regiments, each attempting,
in detail, the accomplishment of a work which required the
combined effort of all; the dread, on the part of our men, of
those terrible 'masked batteries' and 'the fierce Black-horse
Cavalry,' neither of which ever had an existence except in the
imaginative brains of our newspaper reporters, all help to
fill up the picture. … I believe the plan of this battle to
have been well-conceived, notwithstanding its disastrous
result. We were compelled to take the offensive against troops
in position, and upon a field, the topography of which was
unknown to nearly all our officers. Notwithstanding these
facts, successes would have been achieved but for the
impatient spirit which hurried us on, without the slightest
preparation. Of the march, the battle, the rout, and the
disorderly retreat to Washington, the description given by
William H. Russell was not greatly exaggerated. It was far
more truthful than many of the descriptions given by the
reporters of our own papers. Who has forgotten the newspaper
accounts of the conduct of the celebrated Fire Zouaves—of the
prodigies of valor performed by them—of their bayonet
charges—of their heroic assaults—of the fearful destruction
inflicted by them upon the enemy—and, finally, when the order
to retreat came, of the great difficulty experienced by the
officers in forcing 'these gallant, but bloodthirsty lambs,'
as they were called, to cease fighting and commence
retreating? We all remember these accounts, and many others of
a similar character; and yet, every intelligent officer who
was on the field knows that this regiment dispersed at the
first fire, and so thoroughly was it dispersed that it was
from that day never again known as a military organization.
This campaign, and every subsequent one, of the War, taught us
that the rough element of our cities—the prize-fighter, the
veteran of a score of street-fights—does not necessarily make
the most valuable soldier. On the contrary, many a pale-faced
boy, who, from a sense of duty, has left school or
counting-room to join our Army, has exhibited a degree of
endurance on the march and of bravery on the field, seldom
equalled by the rough element of our cities."
_General H. W. Slocum,
Military Lessons taught by the War
(Historical Magazine, February 1871)_.
"The failure of the Confederate army to pursue after the
battle of Manassas has been much criticised, and has caused
much acrimonious discussion. General Johnston, however, never
hesitated to assume his share of the responsibility for the
action taken, though insisting that the course pursued was
proper, and the only practicable one under the circumstances.
… The troops who had been actually engaged all day, in the hot
summer season, were in no condition to follow up the enemy.
But the great obstacle to any effective pursuit was the
weakness of the cavalry arm in the Southern army. Its entire
strength was considerably under 2,000 men, and a large
proportion of these were not in call.
{3437}
Many of those within reach had been fighting for hours, and
were in little better condition than the infantry. All who
were available were sent off in immediate pursuit, with the
result of greatly swelling the number of prisoners and
captured guns. But by the time the captors turned their prizes
over to proper guards, the Northern army had covered a
sufficient distance to be out of danger, being protected in
their retreat by large bodies of troops that had not been
engaged. This was all that could be accomplished. … The fact
that the condition of the Confederate troops put any active
pursuit out of the question is established by the official
reports. General Johnston's report says: 'Our victory was as
complete as one gained by infantry and artillery can be.' …
The same reasons apply with equal force to any attempted
advance during the few days succeeding the battle. The army
was not in a condition to make the movement, being itself much
demoralized by the engagement. Many thought the war over and
went home; many accompanied wounded comrades to their homes;
for the ties of discipline were not as strong then as in a
veteran army. But a yet stronger obstacle to an advance was
the lack of necessary transportation. … Even if the
Confederates had advanced and captured the intrenchments
opposite Washington, they could have accomplished nothing.
They could not have crossed the river on the bridge under the
fire of the Federal vessels of war. They had no artillery of
sufficient range to bombard Washington from the southern side,
even if they had been disposed to wage war in that manner.
They had no sufficient supply of ammunition."
_R. M. Hughes,
General Johnston,
chapter 6._
ALSO IN:
_W. T. Sherman,
Memoirs,
volume 1, chapter 8._
_J. G. Nicolay,
Outbreak of the Rebellion,
chapters 13-16._
_J. B. Fry and others,
Campaign of the First Bull Run
(Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, volume 1)._
_J. E. Cook,
Stonewall Jackson,
part 1, chapter 12._
_A. Roman,
Military Operations of General Beauregard,
volume 1, chapter 9._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (JULY).
Enlistment of volunteers authorized by Congress.
The enlistment of 500,000 volunteers was authorized by Acts of
Congress passed July 22 and 25.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (July-September: Missouri).
Sigel's well-conducted retreat from Carthage.
Death of Lyon at Wilson's Creek.
Siege of Lexington.
Fremont in command.
The flight of Governor Jackson and his followers from
Booneville was westward, to Warsaw, on the Osage, first, and
thence into Vernon County, where they were joined, July 3, by
General Sterling Price.
See MISSOURI: A. D. 1861 (FEBRUARY-JULY).
"Their united force is stated by Pollard, at 3,600. Being
pursued by Lyon, they continued their retreat next day,
halting at 9 P. M., in Jasper County, 23 miles distant. Ten
miles hence, at 10 A. M. next morning, they were confronted by
a Union force 1,500 strong, under Colonel Franz Sigel, who had
been dispatched from St. Louis by the 'Southwestern Pacific
road, to Rolla, had marched thence to Springfield, and had
pushed on to Mount Vernon, Lawrence County, hoping to prevent
a junction between Jackson and some forces which his
Brigadiers were hurrying to his support. Each army appears to
have started that morning with intent to find and fight the
other; and such mutual intentions are seldom frustrated. Sigel
found the Rebels, halted after their morning march, well
posted, vastly superior in numbers and in cavalry, but
inferior in artillery, which he accordingly resolved should
play a principal part in the battle. In the cannonade which
ensued, he inflicted great damage on the Rebels and received
very little, until, after a desultory combat of three or four
hours, the enemy resolved to profit by their vast superiority
in cavalry by outflanking him, both right and left. This
compelled Sigel to fall back. … The retreat was made in
perfect order … to Carthage, and through that town to
Sarcoxie, some fifteen miles eastward. It was well, indeed,
that he did so; for Jackson's force was augmented, during that
night and next morning, by the arrival of Price from the
southward, bringing to his aid several thousand Arkansas and
Texas troops, under Generals Ben McCulloch and Pearce. Our
loss in the affair of Carthage was 13 killed and 31
wounded—not one of them abandoned to the enemy; while the
Rebels reported their loss at 40 to 50 killed and 125 to 150
wounded. Sigel, now outnumbered three or four to one, was
constrained to continue his retreat, by Mount Vernon, to
Springfield; where General Lyon, who had been delayed by lack
of transportation, joined and outranked him on the 10th."
_H. Greeley,
The American Conflict,
volume 1, chapter 35._
"The month of August came, and found General Lyon at
Springfield, hoping to receive reenforcements; but the battle
of Bull Run had occurred, and rendered it impossible to send
him aid. Major General Fremont had been appointed [July 9] to
the command of the Western Department, and had reached St.
Louis (July 25). Meantime Confederate troops were pouring over
the southern frontier of Missouri, and Lyon, finding that they
were advancing upon him in two columns, determined to strike
before he should be overwhelmed by the combined Louisiana,
Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas troops. His force did not exceed
5,500, his antagonist had more than 12,000. A skirmish
occurred at Dug Spring (August 1st), in which he had the
advantage; but he could not prevent the junction of the two
columns. Hereupon he fell back to Springfield. His position
had now become one of great difficulty. Political as well as
military considerations rendered it almost impossible for him
to retreat farther. He therefore determined to resume the
offensive, and compensate for his weakness by audacity. Moving
out of Springfield on a very dark night (August 9-10), and
having ordered Sigel, with 1,200 men and six guns, to gain the
enemy's rear by their right, he was ready, as soon as day
broke, to make an attack on their front [on Wilson's Creek].
But the disparity of force was too great. Sigel was
overwhelmed. He lost five out of his six guns, and more than
half his men. The attack in front was conducted by Lyon in
person with very great energy. His horse was shot under him;
he was twice wounded, the second time in the head. In a final
charge he called to the Second Kansas Regiment, whose colonel
was at that moment severely wounded, 'Come on, I will lead
you,' and in so doing was shot through the heart. After the
death of Lyon the battle was still continued, their artillery
preserving the national troops from total defeat. News then
coming of Sigel's disaster, a retreat to Springfield, distant
about nine miles, was resolved on. It was executed without
difficulty.
{3438}
In this battle of Wilson's Creek there were 223 killed, 721
wounded, 292 missing, on the national side; and, as may be
inferred from the determined character of the assault, the
loss of the Confederates was very great. They had been so
severely handled that they made no attempt at pursuit, and the
retreat was continued by the national troops, who, on the
19th, had fallen back to Rolla. After this action, the
Confederate commanders, McCulloch and Price, quarreling with
each other, and unable to agree upon a plan for their
campaign, the former returned to Arkansas, the latter advanced
from Springfield toward Lexington. Here he found a national
force of about three thousand (2,780) under Colonel Mulligan.
Attempts were made by General Fremont to re-enforce Mulligan,
but they did not succeed. Meantime the assailing forces were
steadily increasing in number, until they eventually reached
28,000, with 13 pieces of artillery. They surrounded the
position and cut off the beleaguered troops from water. They
made repeated assaults without success until [September] 20th,
when they contrived a movable breastwork of hemp-bales, which
they rolled before them as they advanced, and compelled
Mulligan, who had been twice wounded, to surrender
unconditionally. On receiving news of this disaster, Fremont
at once left St. Louis with the intention of attacking Price,
but that general instantly retreated, making his way back to
the southwest corner of the state, where he rejoined McCulloch
and his Confederate troops."
_J. W. Draper,
History of the American Civil War,
chapter 47 (volume 2)._
ALSO IN:
_T. L. Snead,
The Fight for Missouri,
chapters 11-14._
_J. Peckham,
General Lyon and Missouri in 1861,
book 4._
_J. C. Fremont, F. Sigel and others,
Wilson's Creek, Lexington and Pea Ridge
(Battles and Leaders of the Civil War', volume 1)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (July-November).
McClellan's rise to the chief command.
Creation of the Army of the Potomac.
Reorganization of the western armies.
"Immediately after the battle of Bull Run, Major General
McClellan was assigned to the command of the Military
Department of Washington and Northeastern Virginia. Lieutenant
General Scott retained his command as general in chief of the
American army, until the end of October. 'I found,' says
General McClellan in his report, 'no army to command—a mere
collection of regiments cowering on the banks of the Potomac,
some perfectly raw, others dispirited by the recent defeat.
Nothing of any consequence had been done to secure the
southern approaches to the capital by means of defensive
works; nothing whatever had been undertaken to defend the
avenues to the city on the northern side of the Potomac. The
number of troops in and around the city was about 50,000
infantry, less than 1,000 cavalry, 650 artillerymen, with nine
imperfect field batteries of 30 pieces.' … General McClellan
at once commenced the organization of the great army
authorized by Congress. His views of the military position and
appropriate military conduct were, for the most part,
accepted, and such was the patriotism of the people, the
resolution of Congress, the energy of the executive, that the
Army of the Potomac had reached, on October 27th, a strength
of … 168,318. It was the general's opinion that the advance
upon the enemy at Manassas should not be postponed beyond the
25th of November. It was his desire that all the other armies
should be stripped of their superfluous strength, and, as far
as possible, every thing concentrated in the force under his
command. On the 31st of October, General Scott, having found
his bodily infirmities increasing, addressed a letter to the
Secretary of War requesting to be placed on the retired list.
… His desire was granted. An order was simultaneously issued
appointing General McClellan commander-in-chief under the
President. This change in his position at once produced a
change in General McClellan's views. Hitherto he had
undervalued the importance of what was to be done in the West.
He had desired the Western armies to act on the defensive. Now
he wished to institute an advance on East Tennessee, and
capture Nashville contemporaneously with Richmond. … In
preparation for this, the Department of the West was
reorganized. On the day following that of McClellan's
promotion, Fremont was removed from his command. His
department was subdivided into three: (1.) New Mexico, which
was assigned to Colonel Canby; (2.) Kansas, to General Hunter;
(3.) Missouri, to General Halleck. To General Buell was
assigned the Department of the Ohio, and to General Rosecrans
that of West Virginia. The end of November approached, and
still the Army of the Potomac had not moved. The weather was
magnificent, the roads excellent. … Winter at last came, and
nothing had been done. … Considering the military condition of
the nation when General McClellan undertook the formation and
organization of the great Army of the Potomac, the time
consumed in bringing that force into a satisfactory condition
was far from being too long. … From the resources furnished
without stint by Congress McClellan created that army. Events
showed that his mental constitution was such that he could not
use it on the battlefield. … There probably never was an army
in the world so lavishly supplied as that of the Potomac
before the Peninsular expedition. General McDowell, who knew
the state of things well, declared, in his testimony before
the Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War, 'There
never was an army in the world supplied as well as ours. I
believe a French army of half the size could be supplied with
what we waste.'"
_J. W. Draper,
History of the American Civil War,
chapters 44 and 49 (volume 2)._
"Some persons, who ought to have known better, have supposed
that in organizing the Army of the Potomac I set too high a
model before me and consumed unnecessary time in striving to
form an army of regulars. This was an unjustifiable error on
their part. I should, of course, have been glad to bring that
army to the condition of regulars, but no one knew better than
myself that, with the means at my command, that would have
been impossible within any reasonable or permissible time.
What I strove for and accomplished was to bring about such a
condition of discipline and instruction that the army could be
handled on the march and on the field of battle, and that
orders could be reasonably well carried out. … In spite of all
the clamor to the contrary, the time spent in the camps of
instruction in front of Washington was well bestowed, and
produced the most important and valuable results. Not a day of
it was wasted.
{3439}
The fortifications then erected, both directly and indirectly,
saved the capital more than once in the course of the war, and
enabled the army to manœuvre freely and independently. … No
other army we possessed could have met and defeated the
Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. And, with all the
courage, energy, and intelligence of the Army of the Potomac,
it probably would not have been equal to that most difficult
task without the advantage it enjoyed during its sojourn in
the camps around Washington."
_G. B. McClellan,
McClellan's Own Story,
chapter 6._
ALSO IN:
_G. B. McClellan,
Report on the Organization and Campaigns
of the Army of the Potomac._
_Prince de Joinville,
The Army of the Potomac._
_Report of Joint Commission on the Conduct of the War,
37th Congress, 3d session, H. R., part. 1._
_W. Swinton,
Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac,
chapter 3._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (August).
Act of Congress freeing Slaves employed
in the service of the Rebellion.
In August, Congress passed an "Act to confiscate property used
for insurrectionary purposes." As originally framed, it only
confiscated "any property used or employed in aiding, abetting
or promoting insurrection, or resistance to the laws," which
would not include slaves. A new section was added, declaring
that "whenever hereafter during the present insurrection
against the Government of the United States, any person held
to labor or service under the law of any State shall be
required or permitted by the person to whom such labor or
service is due to take up arms against the United States, or
to work in or upon any fort, dock, navy-yard, armory,
intrenchment or in any military or naval service whatever
against the Government of the United States, the person to
whom such service or labor is due shall forfeit his claim
thereto." The law further provided that, "whenever any person
shall seek to enforce his claim to a slave, it shall be a
sufficient answer to such claim, that the slave had been
employed in the military or naval service against the United
States contrary to the provisions of this Act."
_J. G. Blaine,
Twenty Years of Congress,
volume 1, page 342._
ALSO IN:
_H. Greeley,
The American Conflict,
volume 1, pages 568-570._
_E. McPherson,
Political History of the United States during the Rebellion,
page 195._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (August: North Carolina).
The Hatteras expedition.
"General Wool relieved General Butler August 16th, 1861, of
the command at Fortress Monroe. Butler was detailed to active
duty. The War and Navy Departments having arranged the first
of a series of expeditions against the Southern coast, the
command of the land forces was conferred upon Butler—Commodore
S. H. Stringham directing the naval arm. Materials for the
adventure were rapidly gathered at Fortress Monroe from the
date of August 16th to the 26th, on which day the fleet took
its departure. … Not until the vessels were at sea were any
but the directors of the enterprize aware of the point of
attack. Forts Hatteras and Clark commanded the entrance to the
Sounds of Pamlico and Albemarle, whose waters were a great
rendezvous for traders running the blockade. … Fort Hatteras
was an exceedingly formidable battery. It was nearly
surrounded by water, and was only approached by a circuitous
and narrow neck of land. … The secrecy and rapidity of
preparation by the Federals caught the rebels somewhat
unprepared for the attack. … The bombardment opened Wednesday
morning, at ten o'clock, preparatory to the landing of the
land forces on the beach above Fort Hatteras. … A heavy surf
rolled in upon the treacherous sands. After infinite labor,
and the beaching of three small boats, the landing was
suspended for the day. Those already on shore—315 in
number—were safe under the guns of the fleet. … The
bombardment continued during the entire first day. No land
assault was attempted. Fort Hatteras replied with great vigor,
but with little avail. … On the morning of the 29th, the
cannonade opened early. A cloudless sky and a clear sea
blessed the cause of the assailants. During the night a
transport heavily laden with troops reenforced the fort,
running down the Sound which was yet open. Fort Clark was
occupied by the Federal forces, and refused its aid to assist
its late confederate. The conflict soon raged with extreme
vigor on both sides. At eleven o'clock the Confederate flag
fluttered uneasily a moment—then ran down the halyards and a
white flag was slowly run to the peak. … Articles of
capitulation were signed on board the flag-ship Minnesota.
Butler then landed and took formal possession of the largest
fortification. The number of prisoners surrendered was 615,
who were all placed on the Minnesota. In four days time they
were in New York harbor. … The first design, it would appear,
was to destroy the forts, stop up the channel with old hulks,
and to return, temporarily at least, to Fortress Monroe with
the entire force; but the place proved to be so strong that
Butler left Weber and Hawkins' commands in possession."
_O. J. Victor,
History of the Southern Rebellion,
volume 2, division 5, chapter 11._
ALSO IN:
_D. Ammen,
The Navy in the Civil War: The Atlantic Coast,
chapter 8._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (August-October: Missouri).
Fremont's premature proclamation of freedom to slaves of
rebels and Lincoln's modification of it.
The change of command.
"On the 31st of August, General Fremont [commanding in the
West] issued a proclamation declaring martial law, defining
the lines of the army of occupation, and threatening with
death by the bullet all who should be found within those lines
with arms in their hands. Furthermore, the real and personal
property of all persons in the state [Missouri] who should
take up arms against the United States was declared
confiscated to the public use, and their slaves, if they had
any, were declared free men. This proclamation produced a
strong effect upon the public mind. The proclaiming of freedom
to the slaves of rebels struck the popular chord, particularly
among thoroughly loyal men in the free states. Of course, it
maddened all the sympathizers with the rebellion, infuriated
the rebels themselves, and perplexed those loyal men who had
upon their hands the task of so conducting affairs as to hold
to their allegiance the border slave states which had not
seceded. Mr. Lincoln did not approve some features of General
Fremont's proclamation. As soon as he read it, he wrote, under
date of September 2d, to the General, that there were two
points in it which gave him anxiety. The first was, that, if
he should shoot a man according to his proclamation, 'the
confederates would certainly shoot our best men in their hands
in retaliation, and so, man for man, indefinitely.'
{3440}
He therefore ordered him to allow no man to be shot under the
proclamation without first having his (the President's)
approbation or consent. The second cause of anxiety was that
the paragraph relating to the confiscation of property and the
liberation of slaves of traitorous owners would alarm
Unionists at the South, and perhaps ruin the fair prospect of
saving Kentucky to the Union. He, therefore, wished General
Fremont, as of his own motion, so to modify his proclamation
as to make it conformable to the confiscation act just passed
by the extra session of Congress, which only freed such slaves
as were engaged in the rebel service. … General Fremont
received the President's letter respectfully, and replied to
it September 8th, stating the difficulties under which he
labored, with communication with the government so difficult,
and the development of perplexing events so rapid in the
department under his command. As to the part of his
proclamation concerning the slaves, he wished the President
openly to order the change desired, as, if he should do it of
his own motion, it would imply that he thought himself wrong,
and that he had acted without the reflection which the gravity
of the point demanded. This the President did, in a dispatch
under date of September 11th, in the words: 'It is therefore
ordered that the said clause of said proclamation be so
modified, held, and constructed, as to conform to, and not to
transcend, the provisions on the same subject contained in the
act of Congress entitled, An act to confiscate property used
for insurrectionary purposes, approved August 6, 1861; and
that such act be published at length with this order.' Before
this order had been received, or on the day following its
date, General Fremont, though acquainted with the President's
wishes, manumitted two slaves of Thomas L. Snead of St. Louis,
in accordance with the terms of his proclamation. Although Mr.
Lincoln desired General Fremont so to modify his proclamation
as to make it accordant with the act of Congress approved
August 6th, it is hardly to be supposed that he did it solely
out of respect to that act. … If he had believed that the time
had come for the measure of liberating the slaves of rebels by
proclamation, the act of Congress would not have stood in his
way. This act was an embodiment of his policy at that time,
and he used it for his immediate purpose. … Complications in
the personal relations of General Fremont and Colonel F. P.
Blair, under whose personal and family influence General
Fremont had received his position, occurred at an early day.
Colonel Blair doubtless thought that he had not sufficient
weight in the General's counsels, and the General, doubtless,
exercised his right in choosing his own counselors. … It was a
very unhappy quarrel, and it is quite likely that there was
blame upon both sides, though it occurred between men equally
devoted to the sacred cause of saving the country to freedom
and justice. … Mr. Lincoln always gave to each the credit due
to his motives, and so far refused to mingle in the general
quarrel that grew out of the difficulty, that he kept the
good-will of both sides, and compelled them to settle their
own differences. … General Fremont at length took the field in
person. On the 8th of October he left Jefferson City for
Sedalia. As he advanced with his forces, Price retreated,
until it was widely reported that he would give battle to the
national forces at Springfield. Just as Fremont was making
ready to engage the enemy, he was overtaken by an order
relieving him of his command. He was succeeded by General
Hunter; but Hunter's command was brief, and was transferred at
an early day to General Halleck. General Fremont was relieved
of his command by the President not because of his
proclamation, not because he hated slavery, and not because he
believed him corrupt or vindictive or disloyal. He relieved
him simply because he believed that the interests of the
country, all things considered, would be subserved by
relieving him and putting another man in his place. The matter
was the cause of great excitement in Missouri, and of much
complaint among the radical anti-slavery men of the country:
but the imputations sought to be cast upon the President were
not fastened to him; and did not, four years later, when
Fremont himself became a candidate for the presidency, prevent
the warmest anti-slavery men from giving Mr. Lincoln their
support. The federal army under General Hunter retreated
without a battle; and thus the campaign, inaugurated with
great show and immense expense, was a flat failure."
_J. G. Holland,
Life of Abraham Lincoln,
chapter 20._
ALSO IN:
_J. C. Fremont,
In Command in Missouri
(Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, volume 1),
pages 278-288._
_W. Dorsheimer,
Fremont's Hundred Days in Missouri
(Atlantic Monthly, volume 9, 1862)._
_Official Record,
series 1, volume 3, pages 466-564._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861
(August-December: West Virginia).
Rosecrans against Lee.
Battles of Carnifex Ferry and Cheat Summit.
"When General McClellan was called [July 22] to take General
McDowell's place at the head of the Army of the Potomac,
Brigadier-General William S. Rosecrans was left in command of
the troops in West Virginia. General Robert E. Lee, the
Confederate commander, who had gathered together the forces
which had been defeated under Garnett and Pegram, and some
others, found himself in August at the head of about 16,000
men. Lee made his headquarters at Huntersville, while General
John B. Floyd … took up a position on the Gauley River for the
purpose of cutting off General Cox of Ohio, who, with a
brigade of Rosecrans's army, had just driven a Confederate
force under ex-Governor Henry A. Wise of Virginia out of the
Kanawha Valley. Floyd surprised and routed the Seventh Ohio
under Colonel Tyler, and then moved to a place on the Gauley
River called Carnifex Ferry, hoping to cut off Cox from
Rosecrans. But early in September Rosecrans, leaving part of
his army under General Joseph J. Reynolds to watch Lee,
marched southward with about 10,000 men and [September 10]
attacked Floyd, who had strongly fortified himself with about
2,000 men on the banks of the river. After a severe fight of
three or four hours, in which the Union troops lost heavily,
Rosecrans, finding the position much stronger than he
expected, gave orders at twilight to stop the assault until
morning; but when morning came no enemy was to be seen; Floyd,
finding his enemy much superior in numbers, had crossed the
river in the night over a bridge hastily built of logs, and
retreated to the mountains 30 miles away. Rosecrans followed,
but finally fell back again to the Gauley. When Rosecrans
marched against Floyd, Reynolds took up a strong position on
Cheat Mountain."
_J. D. Champlin,
Young Folks' History of the War for the Union,
chapter 10._
{3441}
"General Lee proposed first to win a victory, if possible,
over Reynolds. He was combative, anxious to strike, but many
difficulties confronted him. He fully realized he had been
sent to West Virginia to retrieve Confederate disasters, and
that he had a most difficult task to perform. The Federal
commander [his main force at Elk Water] held the center summit
of Cheat Mountain pass, the mountain having three well-defined
summits. … It was necessary first to carry this well-selected
position of the Federal troops. A citizen surveyor, in
sympathy with the South and familiar with the mountain paths,
had made a trip to an elevated point where he could clearly
see the Federal position, and reported his observations to
General Lee. Afterward he made a second reconnoissance,
accompanied by Colonel Albert Rust, of the Third Arkansas
Regiment, who was anxious to see the nature of the ground and
the strength of the position for himself. They reported to
General Lee that in their opinion the enemy's position could
be assailed with success with troops which could be guided to
the point they had reached. General Lee decided to make the
attack, and gave to Rust a column of 1,200 infantry. … The
movement was to begin at night, which happened to be a very
rainy one. All the troops, however, got in the positions
assigned to them without the knowledge of the enemy, where
they waited, every moment expecting to hear the rattle of
Rust's muskets, who had been charged with the capture of the
pass on Cheat Mountain; but hour after hour passed, and no
sounds were heard. After a delay of many hours, and the enemy
had divined the nature of the attack, the troops were ordered
back to their former position. There had been only a small
conflict between cavalry, in which Colonel John A. Washington,
General Lee's aid-de-camp, who had been sent with Major W. H.
F. Lee to reconnoiter the enemy, was killed from an ambuscade.
… Rust claims in his reports that spies had communicated the
movements of the Confederate troops to the enemy. This officer
evidently did not attack, because he found, on getting close
to the Federal position, that it was much stronger than he had
thought it was from the preliminary reconnoissances he had
made. As the attack of the whole depended on the assault of
this force, the failure to attack caused a corresponding
failure of the whole movement. … This movement having failed,
and knowing that the enemy would be prepared for any second
attempt which, from the nature of the country, would have to
be similar to the one already tried, General Lee decided to
turn his attention to the commands of Wise and Floyd in front
of Rosecrans, leaving General H. R. Jackson in Reynolds's
front. He proceeded at once to Floyd's command, which he
reached on September 20th, and then to Wise's camp, closely
inspecting both. He at once perceived that Wise's position was
the strongest and offered the best means for successful
defense, and promptly concentrated his forces at that point. …
Rosecrans had advanced to the top of Big Sewell Mountain and
had placed his army in a strong position. General Lee, with te
troops of Wise, Floyd, and Loring—about 8,000 men—occupied a
position on a parallel range. The two armies were now in close
proximity to each other, both occupying strong defensive
positions. Lee and Rosecrans, having been officers of the
engineers, were fully aware of the great disadvantage an
attacking army would have, and each waited, hoping the other
would attack. After occupying these positions for twelve days,
Rosecrans, on the night of October 6th, retreated. The
condition of the roads, the mud, the swollen streams, the
large numbers of men with typhoid fever and measles, the
condition of the horses, of the artillery, and transportation,
were such that Lee decided not to pursue. … The rapid approach
of winter and the rainy season terminated the campaign in this
section. … At the termination of this campaign of General
Lee's the Confederate Government did not bestow much attention
upon this section. The majority of the people seemed inclined
to support the Federal side. … It must be admitted that
General Lee retired from West Virginia with diminished
military reputation. Great results had been expected from his
presence there. Garnett's defeat and death were to be avenged,
and the whole of that portion of Virginia speedily wrested
from the Federal arms. The public did not understand the
difficulties of the situation, or comprehend why he did not
defeat Reynolds, or the failure to attack Rosecrans."
_F. Lee,
General Lee,
chapter 6._
After Lee left General H. R. Jackson in front of Reynolds'
position, the former established himself in a fortified camp
on Buffalo Hill, and was unsuccessfully attacked there by
Reynolds, October 3. Two months later, on the 13th of
December, the attack was repeated by Reynolds' successor in
command, General Milroy, and again without success. Meantime,
Floyd had been driven into the mountains, with little
fighting, by Rosecrans, and military operations, for the time,
were at an end.
_Comte de Paris,
History of the Civil War in America,
volume 1, book 4, chapter 2._
ALSO IN:
_V. A. Lewis,
History of West Virginia,
chapter 28._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861
(September-November: On the Mississippi).
General Grant's first battle, at Belmont.
In August, General Ulysses S. Grant, who had been serving for
a few weeks in Missouri, first as Colonel of the 21st Illinois
Regiment, and later as a brigadier-general, was assigned by
General Fremont to "the command of the district of south-east
Missouri, embracing all the territory south of St. Louis, in
Missouri, as well as all southern Illinois." On the 4th of
September he established his headquarters at Cairo, Illinois,
and the next day, having learned from a scout that the rebels
were preparing to seize Paducah, at the mouth of the Tennessee
River, he placed a couple of regiments of troops and a light
battery on board of steamers: and occupied the place on the
6th,—telegraphing meanwhile for orders, but not waiting for
them. His movement anticipated the enemy by a few hours, only,
and secured a command of the Tennessee, the importance of
which was afterward demonstrated by Grant, himself, when he
moved on Forts Henry and Donelson. In his "Memoirs" General
Grant says: "From the occupation of Paducah up to the early
part of November, nothing important occurred with the troops
under my command.
{3442}
I was reinforced from time to time and the men were drilled
and disciplined preparatory for the service which was sure to
come. By the 1st of November I had not fewer than 20,000 men.
… About the 1st of November I was directed from department
headquarters to make a demonstration on both sides of the
Mississippi River with the view of detaining the rebels within
their lines. Before my troops could be got off, I was notified
from the same quarter that there were some 3,000 of the enemy
on the St. Francis River about 50 miles west, or south-west,
from Cairo, and was ordered to send another force against
them. I dispatched Colonel Oglesby at once with troops
sufficient to compete with the reported number of the enemy.
On the 5th word came from the same source that the rebels were
about to detach a large force from Columbus to be moved by
boats down the Mississippi and up the White River, in
Arkansas, in order to reinforce Price, and I was directed to
prevent this movement if possible." To carry out these orders,
General Grant directed a demonstration to be made from Paducah
towards Columbus, while, at the same time, he conveyed some
3,000 troops down the river, in steamers, and attacked a camp
of rebels at Belmont, immediately opposite Columbus. The
battle was a severe one. "The officers and men engaged at
Belmont were then under fire for the first time. Veterans,"
says General Grant, "could not have behaved better than they
did up to the moment of reaching the rebel camp. At this point
they became demoralized from their victory and failed to reap
its full reward. … The moment the camp was reached our men
laid down their arms and commenced rummaging the tents to pick
up trophies. Some of the higher officers were little better
than the privates. They galloped about from one cluster of men
to another and at every halt delivered a short eulogy upon the
Union cause and the achievements of the command." The result
was a rallying of the defeated rebels and a reinforcement from
Columbus which forced the Unionists to retire with haste. "Our
loss at Belmont was 485 in killed, wounded and missing. About
125 of our wounded fell into the hands of the enemy. We
returned with 175 prisoners and two guns, and spiked four
other pieces. The loss of the enemy, as officially reported,
was 642 men, killed, wounded and missing. We had engaged about
2,500 men, exclusive of the guard left with the transports.
The enemy had about 7,000; but this includes the troops
brought over from Columbus who were not engaged in the first
defence of Belmont. The two objects for which the battle of
Belmont was fought were fully accomplished. The enemy gave up
all idea of detaching troops from Columbus. … If it had not
been fought, Colonel Oglesby would probably have been captured
or destroyed with his 3,000 men. Then I should have been
culpable indeed."
_U. S. Grant,
Personal Memoirs,
chapters 19-20 (volume 1)._
ALSO IN:
_A. Badeau,
Military History of U. S. Grant,
chapter 1._
_W. P. Johnston,
Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston,
chapter 24._
_Official Records,
series 1, volume 3._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (October: Virginia).
Confederate project for the invasion of the North
vetoed by Jefferson Davis.
"Between the 4th of August and the 15th of October more than
110 regiments and thirty batteries, comprising at least
100,000 men, were added to the forces in Washington and its
neighborhood, and there appeared to be no limit to the
resources and patriotism of the North. Moreover, the Northern
troops were so well provided for in all respects, owing to the
immense resources at the disposal of the United States
Government, that there was every reason to expect in the
spring of 1862 a decidedly improved condition in health and
vigor, in self-confidence, and in all soldierly qualities, on
the part of the soldiers. The army at Manassas, on the other
hand, owing to the straitened means of the Confederate
Government, was barely kept comfortable in the matter of
clothing and shelter, and its chief officers looked forward
with undisguised apprehension to the coming winter. … It was
easy for any one instructed in military matters to see that if
the Federal authorities would only be content to defer active
operations until the patriotic levies of the North should have
learned 'the trade of the soldier,'—should have acquired
familiarity with the use of arms, habits of obedience, trust
in their officers and superiors, discipline,—the Federal
general would enter on the next campaign with all those
chances of success which attend largely superior numbers,
better arms and equipment, and a sound and thorough
organization of his army. Such in fact was the view of the
situation taken by the sagacious officer who commanded the
lately victorious army at Manassas Junction, Joseph E.
Johnston. In his opinion his two corps commanders, Beauregard
… and G. W. Smith, … entirely concurred. They saw that
something must be done to break up this constantly increasing
Federal army while it was yet in the process of formation. The
Confederate generals determined to urge their views upon the
President of the Southern Confederacy. Mr. Davis responded at
once to their expressed wish for a conference upon the
military situation, and he reached Manassas on September 30,
1861. The conference was held the next day. The generals
strongly advised Mr. Davis to reinforce the army at Manassas
so that they might cross the Potomac, cut the communications
of Washington with the North, and carry the war into the
enemy's country. Johnston and Beauregard fixed the strength of
an army adequate to these tasks at 60,000 men. Smith was
content with a force of 50,000. Additional transportation and
supplies of ammunition were also demanded. The army then at
Manassas numbered about 40,000 men. With the quality of the
soldiers the generals seemed to be perfectly content. They
only asked that the additional troops sent should be of an
equal degree of efficiency,—'seasoned soldiers' as
distinguished from 'fresh volunteers.' But President Davis
decided that he could not furnish the required reinforcement
without 'a total disregard of the safety of other threatened
positions.' The project was therefore dropped, and no further
attempt was made during the ensuing autumn and winter to
interfere with the uninterrupted development of the Federal
army at and near Washington in organization and efficiency. …
It is altogether probable that the Confederate army was at
that time decidedly the superior of its antagonist in many
important respects. It had the prestige of victory. … We may
fairly say therefore, that an invasion of the North,
undertaken in October, 1861, held out a very fair promise of a
successful result for the Confederate arms."
_J. C. Ropes,
The Story of the Civil War,
chapter 10._
{3443}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (October: Virginia).
The affair at Ball's Bluff, or Leesburg.
"The true story of the affair of Ball's Bluff, is, in brief,
as follows: One of General Stone's officers, Captain
Philbrick, of the 15th Massachusetts, thought that he had
discovered a camp of the enemy about one mile beyond
Harrison's island in the direction of Leesburg. Having
completed the feint of crossing made in the course of the
20th, General Stone at 10.30 P. M. of the same day issued his
orders for the surprise of the supposed camp at daybreak of
the 21st. Colonel Devens, of the 15th Massachusetts, was
entrusted with the duty, with four companies of his regiment.
Colonel Lee, of the 20th Massachusetts, was directed to
replace Colonel Devens in Harrison's island with four
companies of his own regiment, one of which was to pass over
to the Virginia shore and hold the heights there to cover
Colonel Devens's return. Colonel Devens was directed to
'attack the camp at daybreak, and, having routed, to pursue
them as far as he deems prudent, and to destroy the camp, if
practicable, before returning.' … Having accomplished this
duty, Colonel Devens will return to his present position,
unless he shall see one on the Virginia side near the river
which he can undoubtedly hold until reinforced, and one which
can be successfully held against largely superior numbers. In
which case he will hold on and report.' In obedience to these
orders Colonel Devens crossed about midnight with five
companies (instead of four), numbering about 300 men, and
halted until daybreak in an open field near the bluffs
bordering the shore. While there he was joined by Colonel Lee
with 100 men of the 20th Massachusetts, who halted here to
cover his return. At daybreak he advanced about a mile towards
Leesburg, and then discovered that the supposed camp did not
exist. After examining the vicinity and discovering no traces
of the enemy, he determined not to return at once, but at
about half-past six A. M. sent a non-commissioned officer to
report to General Stone that he thought he could remain where
he was until reinforced. At about seven o'clock a company of
hostile riflemen were observed on the right, and a slight
skirmish ensued. A company of cavalry being soon observed on
the left, the skirmishers were drawn back to the woods, and,
after waiting half an hour for attack, the command was
withdrawn to the position held by Colonel Lee; but, after
again scouting the woods, Colonel Devens returned to his
advanced position. About eight o'clock the messenger returned
from General Stone with orders for Colonel Devens to remain
where he was, and that he would be reinforced. The messenger
was again sent back to report the skirmish that had taken
place. Colonel Devens then threw out skirmishers and awaited
reinforcements. At about ten o'clock the messenger again
returned with the information that Colonel Baker [Senator
Edward D. Baker, of California] would soon arrive with his
brigade and take command. Between nine and eleven Colonel
Devens was joined by Lieutenant-Colonel Learned with the
remainder of the 15th. bringing up his command to 28 officers
and 625 men. About midday Colonel Devens learned that the
enemy were gathering on his left, and about half-past twelve
or one he was strongly attacked; and as he was in great danger
of being outflanked, and no reinforcements had arrived, at
about a quarter-past two he fell back to the bluff, where he
found Colonel Baker, who directed him to take the right of the
position he proposed to occupy. … At about three o'clock the
enemy attacked in force, the weight of his attack being on our
centre and left. At about four our artillery was silenced, and
Colonel Devens was ordered to send two of his companies to
support the left of our line; shortly after he learned that
Colonel Baker had been killed. Colonel Coggswell then assumed
command, and, after a vain attempt to cut his way through to
Edward's Ferry, was obliged to give the order to retreat to
the river-bank and direct the men to save themselves as best
they could. I have gone thus much into detail because at the
time I was much criticised and blamed for this unfortunate
affair, while I was in no sense responsible for it."
_G. B. McClellan,
McClellan's Own Story,
chapter 11._
In connection with the disaster at Ball's Bluff (called the
battle of Leesburg by the Confederates) a great wrong seems to
have been done to General Stone. Accused of disloyalty, he was
arrested, but on no specific charge, imprisoned for six
months, denied a trial, and set free without explanation. He
went abroad and for many years was Chief of the General Staff
to the Khedive of Egypt.
_J. G. Blaine,
Twenty Years of Congress,
volume 1, chapter 17._
ALSO IN:
_R. B. Irwin,
Ball's Bluff and the arrest of General Stone
(Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,
volume 2, pages 123-134)._
_Report of Joint Commission on the Conduct of the War,
37th Congress, 3d session, H. R., part 2._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861
(October-December: South Carolina-Georgia).
The Port Royal Expedition.
Capture of Hilton Head.
Extensive occupation of the coast.
Savannah threatened.
"On the 29th of October, another and far stronger naval and
military expedition [than that against the Hatteras forts] set
forth from Hampton Roads, and, clearing the capes of Virginia,
moved majestically southward. Genera] T. W. Sherman [not to be
confused with General William T. Shennan of the Western
armies] commanded the land forces, consisting of 13 volunteer
regiments, forming three brigades, and numbering not less than
10,000 men; while the fleet—commanded by Commodore Samuel F.
Du Pont—embraced the steam-frigate Wabash, 14 gun-boats, 22
first-class and 12 smaller steamers, with 26 sailing vessels.
After a stormy passage, in which several transports were
disabled and four absolutely lost, Commodore Du Pont, in his
flag-ship, came to off Port Royal, South Carolina, during the
night of November 3d and 4th; and, after proper soundings and
reconnoissances, which developed the existence of a new fort
on either side of the entrance, the commodore brought his most
effective vessels into action at 9 A. M., on Thursday,
November 7th, taking the lead in his flagship, the Wabash—the
gunboats to follow at intervals in due order. Thus the
fighting portion of the fleet steamed slowly up the bay by the
forts, receiving and returning the fire of the batteries on
Bay Point as they passed up, and exchanging like compliments
with the stronger fort on Hilton Head as they came down. Thus
no vessel remained stationary under fire; so that the enemy
were at no time enabled to gain, by experiment and
observation, a perfect aim. The day was lovely; the spectacle
magnificent; the fight spirited, but most unequal.
{3444}
Despite the general presumption that batteries, well manned
and served, are superior to ships when not ironclad, the
terrible rain of shot and shell upon the gunners in the Rebel
forts soon proved beyond human endurance. … The battle … raged
nearly five hours, with fearful carnage and devastation on the
part of the Rebels, and very little on ours, when the
overmatched Confederates, finding themselves slaughtered to no
purpose, suddenly and unanimously took to flight. … The Rebel
forts were fully manned by 1,700 South Carolinians, with a
field battery of 500 more stationed not far distant. The
negroes, save those who had been driven off by their masters,
or shot while attempting to evade them, had stubbornly
remained on the isles."
_H. Greeley,
The American Conflict,
chapter 36._
"The effect of the battle of Port Royal was as largely felt in
the North, where it revived the hopes of her people, as in the
South, to whose people it revealed the presence of a new and
pressing danger. The Federals had conquered a strong base of
operations on the enemy's coast; they had carried the war into
South Carolina. … Sherman might, perhaps, at the first moment
of his adversary's disorder, have been able to push his
success farther, and to lead his army upon Charleston, or
Savannah. But he was afraid of risking such a venture. … The
occupation of most of the islands in the vicinity of the St.
Helena group was the natural consequence of the victory of
Hilton Head. It was effected gradually before the end of the
year. Among all the points of the coast which the Federals had
thus seized without striking a blow, thanks to the prestige of
their success, the most important was Tybee Island, at the
entrance of the Savannah River. Situated on the right bank of
the mouth of that river, and being the spot where the
lighthouse stands, Tybee Island enabled the Federals, as soon
as they became masters of it, to obstruct the passage of the
blockade-runners on their way to the great mart of Savannah.
At a distance of about 600 feet from its borders, on an islet
in the middle of the river, stood Fort Pulaski. … A few days
after, the navy extended its conquests still farther south,"
occupying the channel between the Tybee Island group and the
Warsaw Islands, "and thus opening a passage for future
operations, which would enable them to reach Savannah by
turning Fort Pulaski. … At the end of the year, Dupont's
fleet, supported by detachments from Sherman's army, was in
possession of the five large bays of North Edisto, St. Helena,
Port Royal, Tybee, Warsaw, and the whole chain of islands
which forms the coast of Carolina and Georgia between those
bays."
_Comte de Paris,
History of the Civil War in America,
book 4, chapter 3 (volume 1)._
ALSO IN:
_C. B. Boynton,
History of the Navy during the Rebellion,
volume 1, chapter 26._
_D. Ammen,
The Navy in the Civil War: The Atlantic Coast,
chapter 2._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (November).
The Trent affair.
Arrest of Mason and Slidell.
"On the 8th of November, 1861, Captain Charles Wilkes, of the
United States Steamer San Jacinto, intercepted on the ocean H.
B. M. [His Britannic Majesty] mail packet boat Trent, having
on board four rebel emissaries bound for England. Having
boarded the Trent, an officer of the San Jacinto, with an
armed guard, arrested the rebels Mason, Slidell, McFarland and
Eustis, and transferred them to the San Jacinto. The Trent
then proceeded on her voyage. Captain Wilkes conveyed his
captives to Boston, where they were consigned to Fort Warren,
then a receptacle for political prisoners. When this
transaction became known to the British government, immediate
preparations were made for war. In the United States, the act
was hailed as a victory. The Secretary of the Navy publicly
applauded Captain Wilkes, and the House of Representatives did
the same. The Secretary of State, upon whom the chief
responsibility in the matter rested, saw, more clearly than
others, that a breach of international law had been committed
by the commander of the San Jacinto. The President coincided
with Mr. Seward, and it was at once resolved to restore the
rebel captives to the protection of the British flag."
_G. E. Baker,
Biographical Memoir of William H. Seward
(volume 5 of Seward's Works, pages 10-11)._
In his diplomatic correspondence as quoted in the volume cited
above, under the caption "Diary or Notes on the War,"
Secretary Seward wrote:
"November 30, 1861.—Captain Wilkes, in the Steamer San
Jacinto, has boarded a British colonial steamer, and taken
from her deck two insurgents who were proceeding to Europe on
an errand of treason against their own country. Lord Lyons has
prudently refrained from opening the subject to me, as, I
presume, waiting instructions from home. We have done nothing
on the subject to anticipate the discussion, and we have not
furnished you with any explanations. We adhere to that course
now, because we think it more prudent that the ground taken by
the British government should be first made to us here, and
that the discussion, if there must be one, shall be had here.
In the capture of Messrs. Mason and Slidell on board a British
vessel, Captain Wilkes having acted without any instructions
from the government, the subject is therefore free from the
embarrassment which might have resulted if the act had been
specially directed by us. …
January 20, 1862.—We have reason to be satisfied with our
course in the Trent affair. The American people could not have
been united in a war which, being waged to maintain Captain
Wilkes's act of force, would have practically been a voluntary
war against Great Britain. At the same time it would have been
a war in 1861 against Great Britain for a cause directly the
opposite of the cause for which we waged war against the same
power in 1812." In a despatch to Lord Lyons, British Minister,
Mr. Seward had written: "If I decide this case in favor of my
own government, I must disavow its most cherished principles,
and reverse and forever abandon its essential policy. The
country cannot afford the sacrifice. If I maintain those
principles, and adhere to that policy, I must surrender the
case itself. It will be seen, therefore, that this government
could not deny the justice of the claim presented to us in
this respect upon its merits. We are asked to do to the
British nation just what we have always insisted all nations
ought to do to us. … By the adjustment of the present case
upon principles confessedly American, and yet, as I trust,
mutually satisfactory to both of the nations concerned, a
question is finally and rightly settled between them, which,
heretofore exhausting not only all forms of peaceful
discussion, but also the arbitrament of war itself, for more
than half a century alienated the two countries from each
other."
_W. H. Seward,
To Lord Lyons, December 26, 1861
(Works, volume 5, Diplomatic History of the War,
pages 308-309)._
ALSO IN:
_M. Bernard,
Historical Account of the Neutrality of Great Britain,
chapter 9._
_D. M. Fairfax,
Captain Wilkes's Seizure of Mason and Slidell
(Battles and Leaders, volume 2, pages 135-142)._
{3445}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861-1862
(December-March: Virginia).
Protracted inaction of McClellan.
His Plan of Campaign and its frustration by
the rebel evacuation of Centreville.
"When Congress assembled … in the beginning of December, 1861,
so successful had been the exertions of the authorities, and
so zealously had the people responded to their country's call,
that the consolidated morning reports, furnished your
committee by the adjutant general of the army, showed that,
exclusive of the command of General Dix, at Baltimore, the
army of the Potomac consisted of about 185,000 men. During the
time this large army had been collecting and organizing,
nothing of importance had transpired in connexion with it,
except the closing of the navigation of the Potomac by the
rebels, which your committee treat of more at length in
another part of this report, and the melancholy disaster of
Ball's Bluff, which is made the subject of a separate report.
The weather during the fall season, and for some weeks after
the convening of Congress, continued unusually favorable for
active military operations. As month after month passed
without anything being done by the army of the Potomac, the
people became more and more anxious for the announcement that
the work of preparation had been completed and active
operations would soon be commenced. From the testimony before
your committee it appeared that the army of the Potomac was
well armed and equipped, and had reached a high state of
discipline by the last of September or the first of October.
The men were ready and eager to commence active operations.
The generals in command of the various divisions were opposed
to going into winter quarters, and the most of them declared
they had no expectation of doing so. … Your committee
endeavored to obtain as accurate information, as possible in
relation to the strength and position of the enemy in front of
Washington. The testimony of the officers in our army here
upon that point, however, was far from satisfactory. Early in
December an order had been issued from headquarters
prohibiting the commanders in the front from examining any
persons who should come into our lines from the direction of
the enemy; but all such persons were to be sent, without
examination, to the headquarters of the army. Restrictions
were also placed upon the movements of scouts. The result was,
that the generals examined appeared to be almost entirely
ignorant of the force of the enemy opposed to them, having
only such information as they were allowed to obtain at
headquarters. The strength of the enemy was variously
estimated at from 70,000 to 210,000 men. Those who formed the
highest estimate based their opinion upon information received
at headquarters. … Subsequent events have proved that the
force of the enemy was below even the lowest of these
estimates, and the strength of their fortifications very
greatly overestimated. Your committee also sought to ascertain
what number of men could be spared from this army for
offensive operations elsewhere, assuming that the works of the
enemy in front were of such a character that it would not be
advisable to move directly upon them. The estimate of the
force necessary to be left in and around Washington to act
entirely on the defensive, to render the capital secure
against any attack of the enemy, as stated by the witnesses
examined upon that point, was from 50,000 to 80,000 men,
leaving 100,000 or upwards that could be used for expeditions
at other points. … The subject of the obstruction of the
navigation of the Potomac naturally demanded the consideration
of your committee. … As was well urged by the Navy Department,
the whole question amounted simply to this: Would the army
co-operate with the navy in securing the unobstructed
navigation of the Potomac, or, by withholding that cooperation
at that time, permit so important a channel of communication
to be closed. After repeated efforts, General McClellan
promised that 4,000 men should be ready at a time named to
proceed down the river. … The troops did not arrive, and the
Navy Department was informed of the fact by Captain Craven.
Assistant Secretary Fox, upon inquiring of General McClellan
why the troops had not been sent according to agreement, was
informed by him that his engineers were of the opinion that so
large a body of troops could not be landed, and therefore he
had concluded not to send them. Captain Fox replied that the
landing of the troops was a matter of which the Navy
Department had charge. … It was then agreed that the troops
should be sent the next night. Captain Craven was again
notified, and again had his flotilla in readiness for the
arrival of the troops. But no troops were sent down at that
time, nor were any ever sent down for that purpose. Captain
Fox, in answer to the inquiry of the committee as to what
reason was assigned for not sending the troops according to
the second agreement, replied that the only reason, so far as
he could ascertain, was, that General McClellan feared it
might bring on a general engagement. … Upon the failure of
this plan of the Navy Department, the effective vessels of the
Potomac flotilla left upon the Port Royal expedition. The
navigation of the river was almost immediately thereafter
closed, and remained closed until the rebels voluntarily
evacuated their batteries in the March following, no steps
having been taken, in the meantime, for reopening
communication by that route. On the 19th of January, 1862, the
President of the United States, as commander-in-chief of the
army and navy, issued orders for a general movement of all the
armies of the United States, one result of which was the
series of victories at Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, &c., which
so electrified the country and revived the hopes of every
loyal man in the land. After this long period of inaction of
the army of the Potomac, the President of the United States,
on the 31st of January, 1862, issued the following order: …
'Ordered, That all the disposable force of the army of the
Potomac, after providing safely for the defence of Washington,
be formed into an expedition for the immediate object of
seizing and occupying a point upon the railroad southwestward
of what is known as Manassas Junction; all details to be in
the discretion of the general-in-chief, and the expedition to
move before or on the 22d day of February next. Abraham
Lincoln.'
{3446}
To this order General McClellan wrote an elaborate reply of
the same date, objecting to the plan therein indicated as
involving 'the error of dividing our army by a very difficult
obstacle, (the Occoquan,) and by a distance too great to
enable the two portions to support each other, should either
be attacked by the masses of the enemy, while the other is
held in check.' He then proceeded to argue in favor of a
movement by way of the Rappahannock or Fortress Monroe, giving
the preference to the Rappahannock route. He stated that 30
days would be required to provide the necessary means of
transportation. He stated that he regarded 'success as
certain, by all the chances of war,' by the route he proposed,
while it was 'by no means certain that we can beat them (the
enemy) at Manassas.' … Your committee have no evidence, either
oral or documentary, of the discussions that ensued or the
arguments that were submitted to the consideration of the
President that led him to relinquish his own line of
operations and consent to the one proposed by Genera]
McClellan, except the result of a council of war, held in
February, 1862. That council, the first, so far as your
committee have been able to ascertain, ever called by General
McClellan, and then by direction of the President, was
composed of twelve generals. … To them was submitted the
question whether they would indorse the line of operations
which General McClellan desired to adopt. The result of the
deliberation was a vote of eight to four in favor of the
movement by way of Annapolis, and thence down the Chesapeake
bay, up the Rappahannock, landing at Urbana, and across the
country to Richmond. The four generals who voted against the
proposed movement were Generals McDowell, Sumner, Heintzelman,
and Barnard. General Keyes voted for it with the qualification
that no change should be made until the enemy were driven from
their batteries on the Potomac. … Before the movement by way
of Annapolis could be executed, the enemy abandoned their
batteries upon the Potomac, and evacuated their position at
Centreville and Manassas, retiring to the line of the
Rappahannock. When General McClellan, then in the city of
Washington, heard that the enemy had evacuated Manassas, he
proceeded across the river and ordered a general movement of
the whole army in the direction of the position lately
occupied by the enemy. The enemy moved on the morning of the
10th of March, the greater part of it proceeding no further
than Fairfax Court-House. A small force of the army proceeded
to Manassas and beyond to the line of the Rappahannock,
ascertaining that the enemy had retired beyond that river and
destroyed the railroad bridge across it. … On the 13th of
March General McClellan convened at Fairfax Court-House a
council of war, consisting of four of the five commanders of
army corps, (General Banks being absent,) and informed them
that he proposed to abandon his plan of movement by way of the
Rappahannock, and submitted to them instead a plan of movement
by way of the York and James rivers."
_Report of Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War,
37th Congress, 3d session, H. R. Rep.,
part 1, pages 6-12._
The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, consisting of
Senators Wade, Chandler, and Andrew Johnson, and of
Representatives Gooch, Covode, Julian, and Odell, was
appointed in December, 1861. This Committee "was for four
years one of the most important agencies in the country. It
assumed, and was sustained by Congress in assuming, a great
range of prerogative. It became a stern and zealous censor of
both the army and the Government; it called soldiers and
statesmen before it, and questioned them like refractory
schoolboys. … It was often hasty and unjust in its judgments,
but always, earnest, patriotic, and honest. … General
McClellan and his immediate following treated the committee
with something like contempt. But the President, with his
larger comprehension of popular forces, knew that he must take
into account an agency of such importance; and though he
steadily defended General McClellan and his deliberateness of
preparation before the committee, he constantly assured him in
private that not a moment ought to be lost in getting himself
in readiness for a forward movement. … December was the fifth
month that General McClellan had been in command of the
greatest army ever brought together on this continent. It was
impossible to convince the country that a longer period of
preparation was necessary before this army could be led
against one inferior in numbers, and not superior in
discipline or equipment. … McClellan reported to the Secretary
of War, that Johnston's army, at the end of October, numbered
150,000, and that he would therefore require, to make an
advance movement with the Army of the Potomac, a force of
240,000. Johnston's report of that date shows an effective
total of 41,000 men. … Aware that his army was less than
one-third as strong as the Union forces, Johnston contented
himself with neutralizing the army at Washington, passing the
time in drilling and disciplining his troops, who, according
to his own account, were seriously in need of it. He could not
account for the inactivity of the Union army. Military
operations, he says, were practicable until the end of
December; but he was never molested."
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 5, chapter 9._
McClellan says, "It certainly was not till late in November,
1861, that the Army of the Potomac was in any condition to
move, nor even then were they capable of assaulting entrenched
positions. By that time the roads had ceased to be practicable
for the movement of armies, and the experience of subsequent
years proved that no large operations could be advantageously
conducted in that region during the winter season. Any success
gained at that time in front of Washington could not have been
followed up and a victory would have given us the barren
possession of the field of battle, with a longer and more
difficult line of supply during the rest of the winter. If the
Army of the Potomac had been in condition to move before
winter, such an operation would not have accorded with the
general plan I had determined upon after succeeding General
Scott as general in command of the armies"
_G. B. McClellan,
McClellan's Own Story,
pages 199-200._
ALSO IN:
_J. E. Johnston,
Narrative of Military Operations,
chapters 3-4._
_A. S. Webb,
The Peninsula
(Campaigns of the Civil War, volume 3) chapter 2._
_Comte de Paris,
History of the Civil War in America,
book 5, chapter 4 (volume 1)._
_G. B. McClellan,
The Peninsular Campaign
(Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,
volume 2, pages 160-187)._
_G. B. McClellan,
Complete Report._
_J. G. Barnard,
The Peninsular Campaign and its Antecedents._
_J. C. Ropes,
Gen. McClellan's Plans
(Massachusetts Military Historical Society Papers, volume 1)._
{3447}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861-1862
(December-April: Virginia).
Jackson's first campaign in the Shenandoah Valley.
Battle of Kernstown.
"Soon after the battle of Bull Run Stonewall Jackson was
promoted to major-general, and the Confederate Government
having on the 21st of October, 1861, organized the Department
of Northern Virginia, under command of General Joseph E.
Johnston, it was divided into the Valley District, the Potomac
District, and Aquia District, to be commanded respectively by
Major-Generals Jackson, Beauregard, and Holmes," In November,
Jackson's force was about 10,000 men. "His only movement of
note in the winter of 1861-62 was an expedition at the end of
December to Bath and Romney, to destroy the Baltimore and Ohio
railroad and a dam or two near Hancock, on the Chesapeake and
Ohio canal. … In March Johnston withdrew from Manassas, and
General McClellan collected his army of more than 100,000 men
on the Peninsula. … Jackson's little army in the Valley had
been greatly reduced during the winter from various causes, so
that at the beginning of March he did not have over 5,000 men
of all arms available for the defense of his district, which
began to swarm with enemies all around its borders,
aggregating more than ten times his own strength. Having
retired up the Valley, he learned that the enemy had begun to
withdraw and send troops to the east of the mountains to
cooperate with McClellan. This he resolved to stop by an
aggressive demonstration against Winchester, occupied by
General Shields, of the Federal army, with a division of 8,000
to 10,000 men. A little after the middle of March, Jack·son
concentrated what troops he could, and on the 23d he occupied
a ridge at the hamlet of Kernstown, four miles south of
Winchester. Shields promptly attacked him, and a severe
engagement of several hours ensued, ending in Jackson's
repulse about dark, followed by an orderly retreat up the
Valley to near Swift Run Gap in Rockingham county. The pursuit
was not vigorous nor persistent. Although Jackson retired
before superior numbers, he had given a taste of his fighting
qualities that stopped the withdrawal of the enemy's troops
from the Valley. The result was so pleasing to the Richmond
government and General Johnston that it was decided to
reënforce Jackson by sending General Ewell's division to him
at Swift Run Gap, which reached him about the 1st of May."
_J. D. Imboden,
Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah
(Battles and Leaders, volume 2, pages 282-285)._
"The losses at Kernstown were:
Union, 118 killed, 450 wounded, 22 missing=590;
Confederate, 80 killed, 375 wounded, 263 missing=718."
_N. Kimball,
Fighting Jackson at Kernstown
(Battles and Leaders, volume 2, page 307, footnote)._
ALSO IN:
_G. H. Gordon,
Brook Farm to Cedar Mountain,
chapter 3._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861-1863.
President Lincoln's suspension of the writ of Habeas Corpus.
On the 27th of April, 1861, President Lincoln issued the
following order "To the Commanding General, Army of the United
States"—at that time, General Scott: "You are engaged in
suppressing an insurrection against the laws of the United
States. If at any point on or in the vicinity of any military
line which is now or which shall be used between the city of
Philadelphia and the city of Washington you find resistance
which renders it necessary to suspend the writ of habeas
corpus for the public safety, you personally, or through the
officer in command at the point at which resistance occurs,
are authorized to suspend that writ." On the 2d of July,
another order was issued in exactly the same language, except
that it gave authority to suspend the writ at "any point on or
in the vicinity of any military line … between the city of New
York and the city of Washington." On the 14th of October, a
third order to General Scott declared: "The military line of
the United States for the suppression of the insurrection may
be extended so far as Bangor, Maine. You and any officer
acting under your authority are hereby authorized to suspend
the writ of habeas corpus in any place between that place and
the city of Washington." On the 2d of December a specific
order to General Halleck, commanding in the Department of
Missouri, authorized the suspension of the writ within the
limits of his command; and a similar order, long previously,
had specially empowered the commander of the forces of the
United States on the coast of Florida to do the same. On the
24th of September, 1862, a general proclamation by the
President subjected to martial law "all rebels and insurgents,
their aiders and abettors within the United States, and all
persons discouraging volunteer enlistments, resisting militia
drafts, or guilty of any disloyal practice affording aid and
comfort to rebels against the authority of the United States";
and suspending the writ of habeas corpus "in respect to all
persons arrested, or who are now, or hereafter during the
rebellion shall be, imprisoned in any fort, camp, arsenal,
military prison, or other place of confinement, by any
military authority, or by the sentence of any court martial or
military commission." On the 3d of March, 1863, the authority
of the President to suspend habeas corpus (which some thought
questionable) was confirmed by act of Congress; and on the
15th of September in that year another general proclamation
was issued, referring to the act and declaring a suspension of
the writ "throughout the United States, in the cases where, by
the authority of the President of the United States, military,
naval, and civil officers of the United States, or any of
them, hold persons under their command, or in their custody,
either as prisoners of war, spies, or aiders or abettors of
the enemy, or officers, soldiers, or seamen enrolled or
drafted or mustered or enlisted in, or belonging to, the land
or naval forces of the United States, or as deserters
therefrom, or otherwise amenable to military law, or the rules
and articles of war, or the rules or regulations prescribed
for the military or naval service by authority of the
President of the United States; or for resisting a draft, or
for any other offense against the military or naval service."
_Abraham Lincoln,
Complete Works,
volume 2, pages 38, 45, 54, 85, 93, 239, 406._
{3448}
"Whether it is the President or Congress that has power under
the constitution to suspend the privilege of the writ of
habeas corpus was a burning question during the civil war. …
The case of John Merryman … was the first to come up for
judicial interpretation. Merryman lived near Baltimore, and
appears to have been suspected of being captain of a secession
troop, of having assisted in destroying railroads and bridges
for the purpose of preventing troops from reaching Washington,
and of obstructing the United States mail. By order of General
Keim of Pennsylvania he was arrested at night in his own
house, and taken to Fort McHenry at that time in command of
General George Cadwallader. Taney, who was then chief justice
of the United States, granted a habeas corpus, but Cadwallader
refused to obey it, saying that the privilege had been
suspended by the President. On the return of the writ, the
Chief Justice filed an opinion denying that the President had
any power to suspend habeas corpus and affirming that such
power rested with Congress alone. Lincoln continued to arrest
and imprison without any regard to this opinion, and indeed
was advised by his Attorney-General that he was not bound to
notice it. … The writ of habeas corpus was … not suspended by
Congress until the rebellion was half over. In other words,
Lincoln suspended it for two years of his own accord and
without authority from anyone; for two years he made arrests
without warrants and held men in prison as long as he pleased.
… There are few things in American history more worthy of
discussion than the power exercised by Lincoln in those two
years. It was absolute and arbitrary and, if unauthorized, its
exercise was a tremendous violation of the constitution.
Whether it was justifiable and necessary is another matter. If
it was unconstitutional and yet necessary in order to save the
Union, it shows that the constitution is defective in not
allowing the government the proper means of protecting itself.
That Lincoln used this power with discretion and forbearance
there is no doubt. He was the most humane man that ever
wielded such authority. He had no taste for tyranny, and he
knew the temper of the American people. But, nevertheless,
injustice was sometimes done. His subordinates had not always
their master's nature."
_S. G. Fisher,
The Suspension of Habeas Corpus
during the War of the Rebellion
(Political Science Quarterly,
September, 1888)._
The view which President Lincoln himself entertained, and
under which he assumed and exercised authority to suspend the
writ of habeas corpus, was submitted to Congress in his first
Message, when it convened in special session, July 4, 1861. He
said: "Soon after the first call for militia, it was
considered a duty to authorize the commanding general in
proper cases, according to his discretion, to suspend the
privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, or, in other words, to
arrest and detain, without resort to the ordinary processes
and forms of law, such individuals as he might deem dangerous
to the public safety. This authority has purposely been
exercised but very sparingly. Nevertheless, the legality and
propriety of what has been done under it are questioned, and
the attention of the country has been called to the
proposition that one who has sworn to 'take care that the laws
be faithfully executed' should not himself violate them. Of
course some consideration was given to the questions of power
and propriety before this matter was acted upon. The whole of
the laws which were required to be faithfully executed were
being resisted and failing of execution in nearly one third of
the States. Must they be allowed to finally fail of execution,
even had it been perfectly clear that by the use of the means
necessary to their execution some single law, made in such
extreme tenderness of the citizen's liberty that, practically,
it relieves more of the guilty than of the innocent, should to
a very limited ex·tent be violated? To state the question more
directly, are all the laws but one to go unexecuted, and the
government itself go to pieces lest that one be violated? Even
in such a case, would not the official oath be broken if the
government should be overthrown, when it was believed that
disregarding the single law would tend to preserve it? But it
was not believed that this question was presented. It was not
believed that any law was violated. The provision of the
Constitution that 'the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus
shall not be suspended, unless when, in cases of rebellion or
invasion, the public safety may require it,' is equivalent to
a provision—is a provision—that such privilege may be
suspended when, in case of rebellion or invasion, the public
safety does require it. It was decided that we have a case of
rebellion, and that the public safety does require the
qualified suspension of the privilege of the writ which was
authorized to be made. Now it is insisted that Congress, and
not the executive, is vested with this power. But the
Constitution itself is silent as to which or who is to
exercise the power; and as the provision was plainly made for
a dangerous emergency, it cannot be believed the framers of
the instrument intended that in every case the danger should
run its course until Congress could be called together, the
very assembling of which might be prevented, as was intended
in this case, by the rebellion. … Whether there shall be any
legislation upon the subject, and if any, what, is submitted
entirely to the better judgment of Congress."
_Abraham Lincoln,
Complete Works,
volume 2, pages 59-60._
Congress gave tacit approval to this view of the President's
powers by passing no act on the subject until nearly two years
afterwards, as shown above.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862
(January-February: Kentucky—Tennessee).
The first breaking of the Confederate line.
Grant's capture of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson.
"At the beginning of the new year the Union armies were over
660,000 strong, backed by a fleet of 212 vessels. McClellan
lay quiet upon the Potomac all winter, drilling, organizing,
disciplining the Army of the Potomac. In his front was Joe
Johnston, with a much smaller force, pushing forward with
equal energy the schooling of his soldiers. The Western
generals were more active. Albert Sidney Johnston, perhaps the
most promising Southern officer, was in command in the West,
with headquarters at Bowling Green. Buell lay in Johnston's
front, having superseded Sherman, whose 'crazy' suggestion
that 250,000 men would be required for operations on the
Western field had lost him the confidence of his superiors.
There was abundant method in his madness, as time all too
fully showed. In [Eastern] Kentucky the Confederate Humphrey
Marshall had been creating more or less political trouble, and
General Garfield was sent against him with some 2,000 men.
Marshall somewhat outnumbered Garfield; but in a vigorous
January campaign [beginning at Paintsville, January 7, and]
culminating at Prestonburg [January 10], Garfield quite
dispersed his forces, and drove him into the mountains.
{3449}
About the same time, Zollicoffer, with some 12,000 men, had
retreated from his post in advance of Cumberland Gap, where he
held the extreme right of the Southern line, to Mill Spring,
in Central Kentucky. General George H. Thomas was charged with
the duty of disposing of him. With about an equal force Thomas
promptly moved upon his enemy, and in a sharp action at Mill
Spring [January 19] utterly broke up his army. He thus early
showed the rare vigor he afterwards so fully developed.
Zollicoffer was killed. This first of our substantial western
victories (called 'Fishing Creek' by the enemy) [and also
called the battle of Logan Cross Roads by some Union writers]
was a great encouragement to our arms. Crittenden, who
succeeded to the command, withdrew his troops across the
Cumberland, abandoning his artillery and trains. Eastern
Kentucky was thus freed from the Confederates. Halleck's first
task as commander of the Western armies was to penetrate the
Confederate line of defense. This could be done by breaking
its centre or by turning one of its flanks. The former
appeared most feasible to Grant, and Commodore Foote, who
commanded the naval forces. Under instructions from Halleck,
seven of the gun-boat flotilla, with Grant's 17,000 men in
reserve, moved up the Tennessee river to attack Fort Henry and
essay the value of gun-boats in amphibious warfare. Grant
landed below the fort, and Foote then opened fire upon it.
Tilghman, in command, foreseeing its capture, was shrewd
enough to send off the bulk of his force to Fort Donelson. He
himself made a mock defense with a handful of men,
surrendering the fort after the garrison was well on its way.
Without the twin citadel of Donelson [distant about eleven
miles, southeastwardly, on the Cumberland River], however,
Fort Henry was but a barren triumph, for no column could
advance up the Tennessee river while this garrison threatened
its flank. It was here that Grant earned his first laurels as
a stanch soldier, by compelling, after a stubborn fight, the
surrender of this second fortress with its entire garrison.
Every effort had been made by Johnston to hold the place. He
must here fight for the possession of Nashville. Fort Donelson
was strongly fortified and garrisoned. Grant moved against it
from Fort Henry with 15,000 men; 5,000 less than the enemy.
The ground is difficult; the troops are green. But
reinforcements and the fleet come to Grant's assistance. The
fort is fully invested, under great difficulties from severity
of weather and the inexperience of the men. Happily there is
not much ability in the defense. Floyd, the senior officer,
determines to cut his way out. He falls heavily upon Grant's
right, held by McClernand and backed by Wallace, thinking to
thrust them aside from the river and to escape over the road
so won. A stubborn resistance defeats this sortie, though but
narrowly. A general assault is ordered, which effects a
lodgment in the works. Divided responsibilities between Floyd,
Buckner, and Pillow weaken the defense so as to operate a
surrender. Our loss was 2,300. The Confederates captured were
over 15,000 men. These successes broke through the centre of
the Confederate line, established with so much pains, and
compromised its flanks. Johnston found that he must retire to
a new line. This lay naturally along the Memphis and
Charleston Railroad. He had retreated from Bowling Green on
receipt of the news of the fall of Fort Henry, and was forced
thereby to cede to Buell possession of Nashville, and
practically of Kentucky. The advanced flank on the Mississippi
at Columbus was likewise compromised, and with the bulk of the
armament was withdrawn to Island No. 10, some forty miles
below Cairo. We could congratulate ourselves upon a very
substantial gain."
_T. A. Dodge,
Bird's-Eye View of Our Civil War,
chapter 6._
ALSO IN:
_U. S. Grant,
Personal Memoirs,
chapters 21-23._
_J. M. Hoppin,
Life of Rear Admiral Foote,
chapters 16-18._
_W. P. Johnston,
Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston,
chapters 26-28._
_Official Records,
series 1, volume 7._
_Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,
volume 1._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862
(January-March: Missouri-Arkansas).
Expulsion of the Confederates from Missouri.
Battle of Pea Ridge.
"Late in December General Samuel R. Curtis took command of
12,000 National troops at Rolla, and advanced against Price,
who retreated before him to the northwestern corner of
Arkansas, where his force was joined by that of General
McCulloch, and together they took up a position in the Boston
Mountains. Curtis crossed the line into Arkansas, chose a
strong place on Pea Ridge, in the Ozark Mountains, intrenched,
and awaited attack. Because of serious disagreements between
Price and McCulloch, General Earl Van Dorn, who ranked them
both, was sent to take command of the Confederate force,
arriving late in January. There is no authentic statement as
to the size of his army. He himself declared that he had but
14,000 men, while no other estimate gave fewer than twice that
number. Among them was a large body of Cherokee Indians,
recruited for the Confederate service by Albert Pike, who
thirty years before had won reputation as a poet. On March 5,
1862, Van Dorn moved to attack Curtis, who knew of his coming
and formed his line on the bluffs along Sugar Creek, facing
southward. His divisions were commanded by Generals Franz
Sigel and Alexander S. Asboth and Colonels Jefferson C. Davis
and Eugene A. Carr, and he had somewhat more than 10,000 men
in line, with 48 guns. The Confederates, finding the position
too strong in front, made a night march to the west, with the
intention of striking the Nationals on the right flank. But
Curtis discovered their movement at dawn, promptly faced his
line to the right about, and executed a grand left wheel. His
army was looking westward toward the approaching foe, Carr's
division being on the right, then Davis, then Asboth, and
Sigel on the left. But they were not fairly in position when
the blow fell. Carr was struck most heavily, and, though
reenforced from time to time, was driven back a mile in the
course of the day. Davis, opposed to the corps of McCulloch,
was more successful; that General was killed and his troops
were driven from the field. In the night Curtis reformed and
strengthened his lines, and in the morning the battle was
renewed. This day Sigel executed some brilliant and
characteristic manœvres. To bring his division into its place
on the left wing, he pushed a battery forward, and while it
was firing rapidly its infantry supports were brought up to it
by a right wheel; this movement was repeated with another
battery and its supports to the left of the first, and again,
till the whole division had come into line, pressing back the
enemy's right.
{3450}
Sigel was now so far advanced that Curtis's whole line made a
curve, enclosing the enemy, and by a heavy concentrated
artillery fire the Confederates were soon driven to the
shelter of the ravines, and finally put to rout. The National
loss in this action [called the battle of Elk Horn by the
Confederates]—killed, wounded, and missing—was over 1,300,
Carr and Asboth being among the wounded. The Confederate loss
is unknown. Generals McCulloch and McIntosh were killed, and
Generals Price and Slack wounded. Owing to the nature of the
ground, any effective pursuit of Van Dorn's broken forces was
impracticable."
_R. Johnson,
Short History of the War of Secession,
chapter 6._
ALSO IN:
_W. Baxter,
Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove._
_O. J. Victor,
History of the Southern Rebellion,
volume 3, pages 56-71._
_Official Records, series 1,
volume 8, pages 189-330._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862
(January-April: North Carolina).
Burnside's expedition to Roanoke and
capture of Newbern and Beaufort.
"Roanoke Island, lying behind Bodie's Island, the sand-bar
that shuts off Upper North Carolina from the Atlantic Ocean,
offers some of the most interesting souvenirs of early
American history. … As stated by General Wise, to whom its
defense was intrusted by the Confederate government, it was
the key to all the rear defenses of Norfolk. It unlocked two
sounds, eight rivers, four canals, two railroads. It guarded
more than four fifths of the supplies of Norfolk. The seizure
of it endangered the subsistence of the Confederate army
there, threatened the navy yard, interrupted the communication
between Norfolk and Richmond, and intervened between both and
the South. … After the capture of Hatteras Inlet in August,
1861, light-draught steamers, armed with a rifle gun, often
stealthily came out of these waters to prey upon commerce. …
An expedition for operating on this part of the North Carolina
coast was placed under command of General Burnside, who was
ordered (January 7th, 1862) to unite with Flag-officer
Goldsborough, in command of the fleet, at Fortress Monroe,
capture Newbern, seize the Weldon Railroad, and reduce Fort
Macon. The force consisted of 31 steam gun-boats, some of them
carrying heavy guns; 11,500 troops, conveyed in 47 transports;
a fleet of small vessels for the transportation of sixty days'
supplies. It left Hampton Roads on the night of January 11th,
and arrived off Hatteras in two days, as a storm was coming
on. The commander found with dismay that the draught of
several of his ships was too great to permit them to enter. …
Some dishonest ship-sellers in New York had, by
misrepresentation, palmed off on the government unsuitable
transport vessels, of which several were lost in that
tempestuous sea. … It was only by the greatest exertion and
perseverance, and not until a whole fortnight had elapsed,
that the entrance to Pamlico Sound was completed. The villainy
that led to this delay gave the Confederates ample time for
preparation. Not until the end of another week (February 7th)
had the reorganized expedition gained the entrance to Croatan
Sound, and worked through its shallow, marshy passes. The
weather was beautiful by day; there was a bright moonshine at
night. The gun-boats found a Confederate fleet drawn up behind
the obstructions, across the channel, near Pork Point. They
opened fire on the fort at that point. It was returned both
from the works and the shipping. Meantime troops were being
landed at Ashby's, a small force, which was attempting to
resist them, being driven off by the fire of the ships. The
debarkation went on, though it was raining heavily and night
had set in. It was continued until 10,000 men had been landed
on the marsh. Before dark, however, the work at Pork Point had
been silenced, and the Confederate fleet had retired to Weir's
Point. … When day broke, Burnside commenced forcing his way up
the island. He moved in three columns, the central one,
preceded by a howitzer battery, upon the only road, the right
and left through the woods. The battery that obstructed this
road was soon carried, though not without resistance. The men
had to wade waist-deep in the water of the pond that protected
it. … Toward Nag's Head the Confederate force, expelled from
the captured work, attempted to retreat. They were, however,
overtaken, and the rest of the command on the north of the
island, 2,500 strong, was compelled to surrender. The
Confederate fleet was pursued to Elizabeth City, whither it
had fled, and there destroyed. A large part of the town was
burned. A portion of the national fleet went into the harbor
of Edenton and captured that town. Winton, on the Chowan
River, shared the same fate. Burnside next made an attack
(March 14th) on Newbern, one of the most important sea-ports
of North Carolina. As the troops advanced from the place of
landing, the gun-boats shelled the woods in front of them, and
thereby cleared the way. A march of 18 miles in a rain-storm,
and over execrable roads, did not damp the energy of the
soldiers. … Newbern was captured, and with it 46 heavy guns, 3
batteries of light artillery, and a large amount of stores.
Burnside's losses were 90 killed and 466 wounded. Preparations
were next made for the reduction of Fort Macon, which commands
the entrance of Beaufort Harbor. On April 25th it was
bombarded by three steamers and three shore batteries; the
former, however, in the course of an hour and a half, were
compelled to withdraw. But the shore batteries, continuing
their attack, silenced the guns of the garrison, and, in the
course of the afternoon, compelled the surrender of the fort.
In connection with this expedition some operations of minor
importance occurred. … The chief result, however, was the
closure of the ports and suppression of commerce. General
Burnside's forces were eventually, for the most part,
withdrawn. They were taken to Alexandria, and joined the army
of General Pope."
_J. W. Draper,
History of the American Civil War,
chapter 59 (volume 2)._
ALSO IN:
_D. Ammen,
The Navy in the Civil War: The Atlantic Coast,
chapters 8-9._
_A. Woodbury,
Burnside and the 9th Army Corps,
part 1, chapters 3-5._
_B. P. Poore,
Life of Burnside,
chapters 12-14._
{3451}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862
(February-April: Georgia-Florida).
Siege and capture of Fort Pulaski.
Temporary occupation of Florida.
Discouragement of Unionists.
The blockade of Fort Pulaski may be dated from the 22d of
February. Preparations were then made on Tybee Island to
bombard it. The most of the work had to be done in the night.
The work was carried on under the supervision of General
Gillmore, who was in chief command, and on the 9th of April
eleven batteries, containing an aggregate of 36 guns, were in
readiness to open fire. General David Hunter, who had just
succeeded General Sherman in command of the Department,
arrived at Tybee on the evening of the 8th. At sunrise, on the
morning of the 10th, Hunter sent Lieutenant J. H. Wilson to
the fort, with a summons to the commander of the garrison to
surrender. The latter refused, saying: "I am here to defend
this fort, not to surrender it." At a few minutes after eight
o'clock the batteries opened fire, and at the end of thirty
hours the garrison surrendered. In reporting the capture,
General Hunter wrote: "At the end of eighteen hours' firing
the fort was breached in the southeast angle, and at the
moment of surrender, 2 p. m. on the 11th instant, we had
commenced preparations for storming. The whole armament of the
fort—47 guns, a great supply of fixed ammunition, 40,000
pounds of powder, and large quantities of commissary stores,
have fallen into our hands; also 360 prisoners, of whom the
officers will be sent North by the first opportunity that
offers. The result of this bombardment must cause, I am
convinced, a change in the construction of fortifications as
radical as that foreshadowed in naval architecture by the
conflict between the Monitor and Merrimac. No works of stone
or brick can resist the impact of rifled artillery of heavy
caliber." General Benham, immediately commanding the
operations, remarked in his report: "This siege is … the first
trial, at least on our side of the Atlantic, of the modern
heavy and rifled projectiles against forts erected and
supposed to be sufficiently strong prior to these inventions,
almost equaling, as it would appear, the revolution
accomplished in naval warfare by the iron-clad vessels
recently constructed." Captain (acting Brigadier-General) Q.
A. Gillmore, the officer immediately in charge of the works on
Tybee Island, has given, in a report made in 1865 to the
Adjutant-General of the United States of America, an account
of the difficulties under which the batteries which performed
the chief part in the siege were erected: "Tybee Island is
mostly a mud marsh, like other marsh islands on this coast.
Several ridges and hummocks of firm ground, however, exist
upon it, and the shore of Tybee Roads, where the batteries
were located, is partially skirted by low sand banks, formed
by the gradual and protracted action of the wind and tides.
The distance along this shore from the landing place to the
advanced batteries is about 2½ miles. The last mile of this
route, on which the seven most advanced batteries were placed,
is low and marshy, lies in full view of Fort Pulaski, and is
within effective range of its guns. The construction of a
causeway resting on fascines and brush-wood over this swampy
portion of the line; the erection of the several batteries,
with the magazines, gun platforms, and splinter-proof
shelters; the transportation of the heaviest ordnance in our
service by the labor of men alone; the hauling of ordnance
stores and engineer supplies, and the mounting of the guns and
mortars on their carriages and beds had to be done almost
exclusively at night, alike regardless of the inclemency of
the weather and of the miasma from the swamps. No one except
an eye-witness can form any but a faint conception of the
herculean labor by which mortars of 8½ tons' weight and
columbiads but a trifle lighter were moved in the dead of
night over a narrow causeway, bordered by swamps on either
side, and liable at any moment to be overturned and buried in
the mud beyond reach. The stratum of mud is about 12 feet
deep, and on several occasions the heaviest pieces,
particularly the mortars, became detached from the
sling-carts, and were with great difficulty, by the use of
planks and skids, kept from sinking to the bottom. Two hundred
and fifty men were barely sufficient to move a single piece on
sling-carts. The men were not allowed to speak above a
whisper, and were guided by the notes of a whistle. The
positions selected for the five most advanced batteries were
artificially screened from view from the fort by a gradual and
almost imperceptible change, made little by little every
night, in the condition and appearance of the brush-wood and
bushes in front of them. No sudden alteration of the outline
of the landscape was permitted. After the concealment was once
perfected to such a degree as to afford a good and safe
parapet behind it less care was taken, and some of the work in
the batteries requiring mechanical skill was done in the
daytime, the fatigue parties going to their labor before break
of day and returning in the evening after dark. … The three
breaching batteries—Sigel, Scott, and McClellan—were
established at a mean distance of 1,700 yards from the scarp
walls of Fort Pulaski. The circumstance, altogether new in the
annals of sieges, that a practicable breach, which compelled
the surrender of the work, was made at that distance in a wall
7½ feet thick, standing obliquely to the line of fire and
backed by heavy casemate piers and arches, cannot be ignored
by a simple reference to the time-honored military maxims that
'Forts cannot sustain a vigorous land attack,' and that 'All
masonry should be covered from land batteries.'"
_Official Records,
series 1, volume 6, pages 134-135, 155, 161._
"By this victory, won on the first anniversary of the fall of
Fort Sumter [April 12], the port of Savannah was sealed
against blockade-runners. The capture of Fort Jackson above,
and of the city, would have been of little advantage to the
Nationals then, for the forces necessary to hold them were
needed in more important work farther down the coast. While
Gillmore and Viele were besieging Fort Pulaski, Commodore
Dupont and General Wright were making easy conquests on the
coast of Florida." Fort Clinch, on Amelia Island, Fernandina,
Jacksonville, St. Augustine, and other places, were abandoned
by the Rebels on the approach of the National forces. But
these conquests proved rather unfortunate than otherwise. "At
first, the hopes they inspired in the breasts of the Union
people developed quite a widespread loyalty. A Union
convention was called to assemble at Jacksonville on the 10th
of April, to organize a loyal State Government, when, to the
dismay of those engaged in the matter, General Wright prepared
to withdraw his forces, two days before the time when the
convention was to meet. … In consequence, … very little Union
feeling was manifested in Florida during the remainder of the
war."
_B. J. Lossing,
Field Book of the Civil War,
volume 2, chapter 12._
{3452}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (February-April: Tennessee).
The advance up River.
Battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing.
"By the end of February, 1862, Major-General Halleck commanded
all the armies in the valley of the Mississippi, from his
headquarters in St. Louis. These were, the Army of the Ohio,
Major-General Buell, in Kentucky; the Army of the Tennessee,
Major-General Grant, at Forts Henry and Donelson; the Army of
the Mississippi, Major-General Pope; and that of General S. R.
Curtis, in Southwest Missouri. He posted his chief of staff,
General Cullum, at Cairo, and me [General Sherman] at Paducah,
chiefly to expedite and facilitate the important operations
then in progress up the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. …
General Buell had also followed up the rebel army, which had
retreated hastily from Bowling Green to and through Nashville,
a city of so much importance to the South that it was at one
time proposed as its capital. Both Generals Grant and Buell
looked to its capture as an event of great importance. On the
21st General Grant sent General Smith with his division to
Clarksville, 50 miles above Donelson, toward Nashville, and on
the 27th went himself to Nashville to meet and confer with
General Buell, but returned to Donelson the next day." Orders
sent by General Halleck to Grant did not reach the latter, and
a supposed disobedience occurred which caused him to be
hastily relieved from his command, which was transferred to
General C. F. Smith, on the 4th of March. Halleck's purpose
"was evidently to operate up the Tennessee River, to break up
Bear Creek Bridge and the railroad communications between the
Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers, and no doubt he was provoked
that Generals Grant and Smith had turned aside to Nashville.
In the mean time several of the gunboats, under Captain
Phelps, United States Navy, had gone up the Tennessee as far
as Florence, and on their return had reported a strong Union
feeling among the people along the river. On the 10th of
March, having received the necessary orders from General
Halleck, I embarked my division at Paducah. … I … steamed up
the Tennessee River, following the two gunboats, and, in
passing Pittsburg Landing, was told by Captain Gwin that, on
his former trip up the river, he had found a rebel regiment of
cavalry posted there, and that it was the usual landing-place
for the people about Corinth, distant 30 miles. I sent word
back to General Smith that, if we were detained up the river,
he ought to post some troops at Pittsburg Landing. We went on
up the river cautiously, till we saw Eastport and Chickasaw,
both of which were occupied by rebel batteries and a small
rebel force of infantry. We then dropped back quietly to the
mouth of Yellow River, a few miles below," where the troops
were landed and an attempt made to push out and destroy the
Memphis and Charleston railroad; but heavy rains had so
swollen all the streams that the expedition was foiled and
returned. "Once more embarked, I concluded to drop down to
Pittsburg Landing, and to make the attempt from there. During
the night of the 14th, we dropped down to Pittsburg Landing,
where I found Hurlbut's division in boats. Leaving my command
there, I steamed down to Savannah, and reported to General
Smith in person, who saw in the flooded Tennessee the full
truth of my report; and he then instructed me to disembark my
own division, and that of General Hurlbut, at Pittsburg
Landing; to take positions well back, and to leave room for
his whole army; telling me that he would soon come up in
person, and move out in force to make the lodgment on the
railroad, contemplated by General Halleck's orders. … Within a
few days, Prentiss's division arrived and camped on my left,
and afterward McClernand's and W. H. L. Wallace's divisions,
which formed a line to our rear. Lew Wallace's division
remained on the north side of Snake Creek, on a road leading
from Savannah or Crump's Landing to Purdy. General C. F. Smith
remained back at Savannah, in chief command, and I was only
responsible for my own division. I kept pickets well out on
the roads, and made myself familiar with all the ground inside
and outside my lines. … We were all conscious that the enemy
was collecting at Corinth, but in what force we could not
know, nor did we know what was going on behind us. On the 17th
of March, General U. S. Grant was restored to the command of
all the troops up the Tennessee River, by reason of General
Smith's extreme illness, and because he had explained to
General Halleck satisfactorily his conduct after Donelson; and
he too made his headquarters at Savannah, but frequently
visited our camps. … From about the 1st of April we were
conscious that the rebel cavalry in our front was getting
bolder and more saucy. … On Sunday morning, the 6th, early,
there was a good deal of picket-firing, and I got breakfast,
rode out along my lines, … and saw the rebel lines of battle
in front coming down on us as far as the eye could reach. All
my troops were in line of battle, ready, and the ground was
favorable to us. … In a few minutes the battle of 'Shiloh'
began with extreme fury, and lasted two days. … Probably no
single battle of the war gave rise to such wild and damaging
reports. It was publicly asserted at the North that our army
was taken completely by surprise; that the rebels caught us in
our tents; bayoneted the men in their beds; that General Grant
was drunk; that Buell's opportune arrival saved the Army of
the Tennessee from utter annihilation, etc. These reports were
in a measure sustained by the published opinions of Generals
Buell, Nelson, and others, who had reached the
steamboat-landing from the east, just before nightfall of the
6th, when there was a large crowd of frightened, stampeded
men, who clamored and declared that our army was all destroyed
and beaten. Personally I saw General Grant, who with his staff
visited me about 10 A. M. of the 6th, when we were desperately
engaged. But we had checked the headlong assault of our enemy,
and then held our ground. This gave him great satisfaction,
and he told me that things did not look as well over on the
left. … He came again just before dark, and described the last
assault made by the rebels at the ravine, near the
steamboat-landing, which he had repelled by a heavy battery
collected under Colonel J. D. Webster and other officers, and
he was convinced that the battle was over for that day. He
ordered me to be ready to assume the offensive in the morning,
saying that, as he had observed at Fort Donelson at the crisis
of the battle, both sides seemed defeated, and whoever assumed
the offensive was sure to win.
{3453}
General Grant also explained to me that General Buell had
reached the bank of the Tennessee River opposite Pittsburg
Landing, and was in the act of ferrying his troops across at
the time he was speaking to me. About half an hour afterward
General Buell himself rode up to where I was. … Buell said
that Nelson's, McCook's, and Crittenden's divisions of his
army, containing 18,000 men, had arrived and could cross over
in the night, and be ready for the next day's battle. I argued
that with these reënforcements we could sweep the field. Buell
seemed to mistrust us, and repeatedly said that he did not
like the looks of things, especially about the boat-landing,
and I really feared he would not cross over his army that
night, lest he should become involved in our general disaster.
… Buell did cross over that night, and the next day we assumed
the offensive and swept the field, thus gaining the battle
decisively. Nevertheless, the controversy was started and kept
up, mostly to the personal prejudice of General Grant, who as
usual maintained an imperturbable silence. … Beauregard [who
took the rebel command after General Albert Sidney Johnston
fell in the first day's battle afterward reported his entire
loss as 10,699. Our aggregate loss, made up from official
statements, shows 1,700 killed, 7,495 wounded, 3,022
prisoners; aggregate, 12,217, of which 2,167 were in Buell's
army, leaving for that of Grant 10,050. This result is a fair
measure of the amount of fighting done by each army. … The
battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing, was one of the most
fiercely contested of the war. On the morning of April 6,
1862, the five divisions of McClernand, Prentiss, Hurlbut, W.
H. L. Wallace, and Sherman, aggregated about 32,000 men. We
had no intrenchments of any sort, on the theory that as soon
as Buell arrived we would march to Corinth to attack the
enemy. The rebel army, commanded by General Albert Sidney
Johnston, was, according to their own reports and admissions,
45,000 strong."
_W. T. Sherman,
Memoirs, 4th edition,
chapter 10 (volume 1);
or 1st edition, chapter 9 (volume 1)._
ALSO IN:
_U. S. Grant,
Personal Memoirs,
chapters 23-25._
_W. P. Johnston,
Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston,
chapters 30-35._
_U. S. Grant, D. C. Buell, and others,
Shiloh
(Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, volume 1)._
_Official Records,
Series 1, volume 10._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (March).
President Lincoln's proposal of Compensated Emancipation
approved by Congress.
On the 6th of March President Lincoln addressed to Congress
the following Special Message: "Fellow-citizens of the Senate
and House of Representatives: I recommend the adoption of a
joint resolution by your honorable bodies, which shall be
substantially as follows: Resolved, That the United States
ought to cooperate with any State which may adopt gradual
abolishment of slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid, to
be used by such State, in its discretion, to compensate for
the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such
change of system. If the proposition contained in the
resolution does not meet the approval of Congress and the
country, there is the end; but if it does command such
approval, I deem it of importance that the States and people
immediately interested should be at once distinctly notified
of the fact, so that they may begin to consider whether to
accept or reject it. The Federal Government would find its
highest interest in such a measure, as one of the most
efficient means of self-preservation. The leaders of the
existing insurrection entertain the hope that this government
will ultimately be forced to acknowledge the independence of
some part of the disaffected region, and that all the slave
States north of such part will then say, 'The Union for which
we have struggled being already gone, we now choose to go with
the Southern section.' To deprive them of this hope
substantially ends the rebellion; and the initiation of
emancipation completely deprives them of it as to all the
States initiating it. The point is not that all the States
tolerating slavery would very soon, if at all, initiate
emancipation; but that while the offer is equally made to all,
the more Northern shall, by such initiation, make it certain
to the more Southern that in no event will the former ever
join the latter in their proposed confederacy. I say
'initiation' because, in my judgment, gradual and not sudden
emancipation is better for all. In the mere financial or
pecuniary view, any member of Congress, with the census tables
and treasury reports before him, can readily see for himself
how very soon the current expenditures of this war would
purchase, at fair valuation, all the slaves in any named
State. Such a proposition on the part of the General
Government sets up no claim of a right by Federal authority to
interfere with slavery within State limits, referring, as it
does, the absolute control of the subject in each case to the
State and its people immediately interested. It is proposed as
a matter of perfectly free choice with them. In the annual
message, last December, I thought fit to say, 'The Union must
be preserved, and hence all indispensable means must be
employed.' I said this not hastily, but deliberate]y. War has
been made, and continues to be, an indispensable means to this
end. A practical reacknowledgment of the national authority
would render the war unnecessary, and it would at once cease.
If, however, resistance continues, the war must also continue;
and it is impossible to foresee all the incidents which may
attend and all the ruin which may follow it. Such as may seem
indispensable, or may obviously promise great efficiency,
toward ending the struggle, must and will come. The
proposition now made, though an offer only, I hope it may be
esteemed no offense to ask whether the pecuniary consideration
tendered would not be of more value to the States and private
persons concerned than are the institution and property in it,
in the present aspect of affairs? While it is true that the
adoption of the proposed resolution would be merely
initiatory, and not within itself a practical measure, it is
recommended in the hope that it would soon lead to important
practical results. In full view of my great responsibility to
my God and to my country, I earnestly beg the attention of
Congress and the people to the subject. Abraham Lincoln,
Washington, March 6, 1862."
_Abraham Lincoln,
Complete Works,
volume 2, pages 129-130._
{3454}
"Mr. Stevens, of Pennsylvania, having moved and carried a
reference of this Message by the House to a Committee of the
Whole on the State of the Union, and Mr. R. Conkling, of New
York, having moved the resolve above recommended, a debate
sprung up thereon; which is notable only as developing the
repugnance of the Unionists of the Border Slave States, with
that of the Democrats of all the States, to compensated or any
other Emancipation. … It passed the House by 89 Yeas
(Republicans, West Virginians, and a few others not strictly
partisans) to 31 Nays." On the 2d of April, the resolution
passed the Senate, by 32 Yeas to 10 Nays. "The President of
course approved the measure; but no single Slave State ever
claimed its benefits; and its only use inhered in its
demonstration of the willingness of the Unionists to increase
their already heavy burdens to pay for the slaves of the
Border States—a willingness which the infatuation of the
ruling class in those States rendered abortive."
_H. Greeley,
The American Conflict,
volume 2, chapter 12._
ALSO IN:
_H. Wilson,
History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America,
volume 3, chapter 23._
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 5, chapter 12._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (March).
The Battle of the Monitor and the Merrimac.
"In August 1861 the Northern States had determined to obtain
ironclad steam vessels, and at the end of that month Ericsson
offered to construct in a few months a vessel which would
destroy the rebel squadron. A board of officers was appointed
to consider plans proposed, and in September it recommended
that a vessel on Ericsson's design should be built. She was
commenced in October, launched on January 30th, 1862, and
completed on February 15th, 1862. The design provided for a
hull not more than 2 ft. above the water, and with a flat
bottom, that the draught might not exceed 10 ft. The sides, to
a short distance below the water line, were protected with
4-in. plates. In the centre of the deck was built a circular
turret, revolving on a central spindle, and protected with 8
in. of iron. Inside the turret were mounted two 11-in. smooth
bore guns, pointing through port holes. They could thus fire
in any direction without turning the vessel, an obvious
advantage not only on the open sea but especially in narrow
waters, for which she was more intended. Such was the famous
'Monitor,' a name given by Ericsson to his creation to
admonish the leaders of the Southern Rebellion, and to be also
a monitor to the Lords of the Admiralty in England, suggesting
to them doubts as to the propriety of their building four
broadside ironclads at three and a half million dollars each."
_S. Eardley-Wilmot,
The Development of Navies,
chapter 4._
"While the Secretary of the Navy was urging forward the
construction of the first iron-clads, it was known that the
rebel government was making great exertions in the same
direction. Iron-clad vessels were under way at New Orleans,
Charleston, and at some other points, while at Norfolk the
Merrimack [the old frigate of that name, roofed slopingly with
railroad iron, was very near completion in the winter of
1861-62.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: 1861 (APRIL)
ACTIVITY OF REBELLION.
The formidable character of this mailed frigate constrained
the Government to make every effort to complete the Monitor
[the first of the turreted iron-clads, invented by John C.
Ericsson] in season to meet her whenever she should come out;
and it is stated that information obtained by a rebel spy of
the state of forwardness in which the Monitor was, induced the
rebels to put a double force upon their frigate, so that she
might be able to attack our fleet in Hampton Roads before the
Monitor's arrival, and, if possible, also to make a raid upon
Washington or the Northern cities. This extra labor, it is
said, gained the one day in which the Merrimack destroyed the
Cumberland and Congress. … The Monitor, commanded by
Lieutenant John L. Worden, reached the scene of late disaster
to our cause, and of her coming triumph, on the 8th of March,
at 9 o'clock P. M., and Lieutenant Worden reported for orders
to Captain Marston, the commander of the Roanoke. The
Minnesota, one of our noblest frigates, the Roanoke of the
same class, but partially disabled, the frigate Congress, and
the sloop Cumberland, had been stationed at the mouth of the
James River to watch for, to engage, and, if possible,
destroy, capture, or stop the expected rebel iron-clad frigate
then ready for sea at Norfolk. These vessels carried very
heavy batteries, and it was hoped that they would be able to
cope with the Merrimack. How vain such an expectation was, her
first day's operations fully and sadly demonstrated. It is
probably no exaggeration to say that she would have destroyed
easily, and without any material damage to herself, every
wooden ship then in our Navy, had they been within her reach,
and with none but themselves to oppose her."
_C. B. Boynton,
History of the Navy during the Rebellion,
chapter 21._
"Such was the state of affairs when the Monitor arrived at
Hampton Roads, that the sturdy commanders trembled in face of
the coming day, and all was silence and gloom. The
sloop-of-war Cumberland, having a crew of 300 men, and
mounting 24 guns, now lay on the bottom with only her
top-gallant masts and pennant above the water, marking the
spot where 117 mangled bodies lay buried beneath the waves.
The Congress, a 50-gun frigate, had also met her destruction,
and now lay on shore with the flames kindled by hot shot of
the Merrimac sweeping out her hull. The Roanoke and Minnesota,
steam frigates of 40 guns each, the pride of the navy and the
most perfect of any men-of-war of the period, laid hard and
fast on shore, with broken machinery and as powerless as if
they had been unarmed. The capture or entire destruction of
the Federal fleet at Hampton Roads and the escape of the
Merrimac and the rebel cruisers seemed inevitable." Arriving
in the evening of the 8th, the Monitor anchored near the
frigate Minnesota at Newport News. "At half-past five in the
morning all hands were called, and the ship was immediately
cleared of her sea-rig and got ready for battle. … At
half-past seven o'clock a long line of black smoke was seen,
preceded by the steamers Jamestown, Patrick Henry and Teazer.
It was the signal for battle. The crews of the different
vessels stood by their guns, fuzes in hands. The Monitor
steamed slowly from beneath the bows of the Minnesota, where
she had been partly concealed, to meet the challenger in an
open field. It was alike an astonishment to the rebels and our
own people; neither had seen her when she arrived, and many
were the conjectures of what it could be. Some said a huge
water tank; others an infernal machine; none that she had
guns, and not till they saw steam rise from her deck did they
think she had power to move herself. … The Merrimac stopped
her engines, as if to survey and wonder at the audacity of the
nondescript. The Monitor was approaching on her starboard bow.
{3455}
Then, as if seized with impulsive rage, and as if a huge
breath would waft her enemy away, the Merrimac poured a
broadside of solid shot at her. For an instant she was
enveloped in smoke, and people who were looking on held their
breath in doubt of seeing the Monitor again. It was a moment
of great suspense. Then as a gentle breeze swept over the
scene the Monitor appeared. At this instant the flash of her
own guns was seen, and then their report, louder than any
cannon that had ever been heard, thundered across the sea. It
seemed to jar the very earth, and the iron scales of the
invincible crumbled and cracked from their fastenings. One on
board the Merrimac at this time has told me that, though at
first entirely confident of victory, consternation took hold
of them all. 'D-n it!' said one, 'the thing is full of guns!'
The enthusiasm at this moment among the thousand of civilians
and soldiers, who lined the shore to witness the fight, was
beyond description and their own control. Such a spontaneous
burst of cheers was never before heard. Men were frantic with
joy. The Monitor continued her approach, reserving fire that
every shot might take effect, until she came parallel with the
Merrimac, but heading in the opposite direction. In this way
they passed slowly within a few yards of each other, both
delivering and receiving the other's fire. … Captain Worden
headed again towards the Merrimac with renewed confidence and
engaged her at close quarters. Again they joined in close
combat, the Monitor lying bow on, at times touching, both
delivering their fire as rapidly as possible. At the same time
the marines on the Merrimac poured an incessant fire of
musketry at the peek-holes about the pilot-house and turret.
The speed of the two vessels was about equal, but the light
draught of the Monitor gave her an advantage. The rebels
finding that they could make nothing of the invulnerable
cheese-box, as they called her, and foiled and maddened at the
loss of their coveted prize, turned towards the Minnesota,
determined, if possible, to destroy her. The Merrimac went
head on and received a full broadside of the Minnesota. Fifty
solid nine-inch shot struck square. Any wooden vessel that
ever floated would have gone to pieces under such a fire. The
Merrimac was unharmed. She returned the fire with her forward
rifle guns. One shell passed through four rooms, tearing away
partitions and setting the ship on tire. Another passed
through the boiler of the steamer Dragon which lay alongside,
blowing her up and killing and wounding 17 men. Before a third
was fired the Monitor interposed, compelling the Merrimac to
change her position. The two combatants then made a complete
circle in their endeavors to get a favorable position, each
seeking to discharge a broadside into some vital part. The
Merrimac then turned sharp and made a plunge towards the
Minnesota, but Worden was vigilant, and crossed the stern of
the Merrimac, sending two solid shot into her. To get back
again between her and the Minnesota, the Monitor had almost to
cross her bow. The Merrimac steamed up quickly, and finding
that the Monitor would be struck with her prow Worden sheered
towards the enemy's stern, avoiding a direct blow, and, as
they came into collision, each vessel delivered a broadside
into the other. At this point a shell from the Merrimac struck
the pilot-house exactly over the peek-hole through which
Captain Worden was looking. The shell exploding, filled his
face and eyes with powder and fragments of iron, utterly
blinding and for a time rendering him unconscious. Lieutenant
Greene, who had been in charge of the turret division,
immediately left the guns and spent full thirty minutes
nursing the wounded commander, during which time the gunners
shotted the guns, and, as the Merrimac was turning away,
discharged them at close range into her stern, a blow that
made her whole frame shudder and seemed at once to be fatal.
There was no officer to direct the movements of the vessel
except the pilot Howard. As the two combatants parted from the
struggle they were headed in opposite directions, both away
from their goal. Presuming that the fight would be continued,
Pilot Howard ran the vessel a short distance down the channel
and turning brought her again close to the protection of the
Minnesota, when Lieutenant Greene stepped into the pilot-house
and assumed command. It was then observed that the Merrimac
had taken the channel and was heading towards Norfolk. She was
soon joined by her consorts, and taken up to their refuge
under the batteries of Craney Island, the Merrimac apparently
sagging down astern. Thus ended the greatest naval battle of
the world. … The only perceptible danger to those on board the
Monitor, after the first round from the Merrimac, was to those
in the turret, who were in great danger from the flying of
bolt heads driven with great force across the turret, and from
the concussion, which would for a time paralyze a man if he
should in any way be in contact with the turret when struck by
a shot."
_F. B. Butts,
The Monitor and the Merrimac
(Soldiers' and Sailors' Historical Society of Rhode Island,
Fourth series, Number 6)._
"The engagement in Hampton Roads on the 8th of March, 1862,
between the Confederate iron-clad Virginia, or the Merrimac,
as she is known at the North, and the United States wooden
fleet, and that on the 9th, between the Virginia and the
Monitor, was, in its results, in some respects the most
momentous naval conflict ever witnessed. No battle was ever
more widely discussed or produced a greater sensation. It
revolutionized the navies of the world. … Rams and iron-clads
were in future to decide all naval warfare. In this battle old
things passed away, and the experience of a thousand years of
battle and breeze was forgotten. The naval supremacy of
England vanished in the smoke of this fight, only to reappear
some years later more commanding than ever. The effect of the
news was best described by the London 'Times,' which said:
'Whereas we had available for immediate purposes 149
first-class war-ships: we have now two, these two being the
Warrior and her sister Ironside. There is not now a ship in
the English navy apart from these two that it would not be
madness to trust to an engagement with that little Monitor.'
The Admiralty at once proceeded to reconstruct the navy. … The
same results were produced in France, which had but one
sea-going iron-clad, La Gloire, and this one, like the
Warrior, was only protected amidships. … And so with all the
maritime powers. In this race the United States took the lead,
and at the close of the war led all the others in the numbers
and efficiency of its iron-clad fleet. … Our loss [that is,
the Confederate loss on the Virginia, or Merrimac, in the
first day's battle, with the wooden ships] in killed and
wounded was 21.
{3456}
The armor was hardly damaged, though at one time our ship was
the focus on which were directed at least 100 heavy guns
afloat and ashore. But nothing outside escaped. … We slept at
our guns, dreaming of other victories in the morning. But at
daybreak we discovered, lying between us and the Minnesota, a
strange-looking craft, which we knew at once to be Ericsson's
Monitor, which had long been expected in Hampton Roads, and of
which, from different sources, we had a good idea. She could
not possibly have made her appearance at a more inopportune
time for us, changing our plans, which were to destroy the
Minnesota, and then the remainder of the fleet below Fortress
Monroe. She appeared but a pigmy compared with the lofty
frigate which she guarded. But in her size was one great
element of her success. … After an early breakfast, we got
under way and steamed out toward the enemy, opening fire from
our bow pivot, and closing in to deliver our starboard
broadside at short range, which was returned promptly from her
11-inch guns. Both vessels then turned and passed again still
closer. The Monitor was firing every seven or eight minutes,
and nearly every shot struck. Our ship was working worse and
worse, and after the loss of the smoke-stack, Mr. Ramsay,
chief engineer, reported that the draught was so poor that it
was with great difficulty he could keep up steam. Once or
twice the ship was on the bottom. Drawing 22 feet of water, we
were confined to a narrow channel, while the Monitor, with
only 12 feet immersion, could take any position, and always
have us in range of her guns. … Several times the Monitor
ceased firing, and we were in hopes she was disabled, but the
revolution again of her turret and the heavy blows of her
11-inch shot on our sides soon undeceived us. … Lieutenant
Jones now determined to run her down or board her. For nearly
an hour we manœuvred for a position. … The ship was as
unwieldy as Noah's Ark. … And so, for six or more hours, the
struggle was kept up. At length, the Monitor withdrew over the
middle ground where we could not follow. … The battle was a
drawn one, so far as the two vessels engaged were concerned.
But in its general results the advantage was with the
Monitor."
_J. T. Wood,
The First Fight of Iron Clads
(Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,
volume 1, pages 692-711)._
ALSO IN:
_J. Ericsson,
The Building of the Monitor
(Battles and Leaders. volume 1, pages 730-744)._
_W. C. Church,
Life of John Ericsson,
chapters 15-18 (volume 1)._
_Gideon Welles,
The First Iron-Clad Monitor
(Annals of the War by leading Participants),
page 17._
_C. B. Boynton,
History of the Navy during the Rebellion,
chapter 21._
On the evacuation of Norfolk by the Confederates, in May,
1862, the Merrimac was destroyed. The following December the
Monitor went down in a storm at sea, while on her way to
Charleston, and only a few of her crew were saved.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (March).
Amendment of the Military Code.
Officers forbidden to surrender fugitive Slaves.
"As the formal orders of the government regarding the
treatment of slaves who sought refuge near the armies were not
always executed, Congress determined to give them a legal
sanction; and on the 25th of February and the 13th of March
both the Senate and the House of Representatives introduced a
new article in the military code, prohibiting officers, at the
risk of dismissal, from interfering to restore fugitive slaves
to their masters. Notwithstanding the powers with which the
government was thus armed, great difficulty was experienced in
applying this law in those regiments whose commanders openly
professed their sympathies in favor of slavery."
_Comte de Paris,
History of the Civil War in America,
volume 2, page 733._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862
(March-April: On the Mississippi).
New Madrid and Island No. 10.
On the surrender of Fort Donelson to General Grant, Columbus,
on the Mississippi, was hastily abandoned by the rebels, who
fell back to Island Number Ten, thirty miles below, where
strong works had been erected. These it was hoped would
command the passage of the river. "Following the course of the
Mississippi, this island is about ten miles above New Madrid,
Missouri, which is 79 miles below Cairo; but on account of a
long bend in the river … the island is really further south
than New Madrid. New Madrid is at the most northerly part of
the bend, and its guns were so placed as to be able to fire at
vessels coming either way. Besides Fort Thompson, named after
Jeff Thompson, it was defended by several batteries and by six
gunboats, mounting heavy guns, which had come up the river
from New Orleans and were under the command of Commodore
Hollins. … As the land around New Madrid is very flat, these
gunboats could fire upon troops approaching the place by land.
On the same day when the flag of the Union was hoisted over
the deserted works of the Confederates at Columbus [March 4],
a Union army under General John Pope, who had been commanding
in eastern Missouri, appeared before New Madrid. Seeing that
he could do but little with his field artillery, he sent to
Cairo for heavy guns; and while waiting for these he built a
battery at Point Pleasant, about ten miles below New Madrid,
so as to blockade the river at that place and prevent supplies
from being sent up to the town. Meanwhile the Confederates
strengthened their works and reinforced the garrison with men
from Island Number Ten, while their fleet of gunboats was
increased to nine. Four heavy guns were sent from Bird's Point
to General Pope by the Cairo and Fulton Railway, which brought
them within 20 miles of where they were wanted. … On the night
of March 12 a thousand spades were at work within half a mile
of Fort Thompson, and at daylight the guns were in position
ready for action. Pope opened a cannonade at once on the
gunboats and on Fort Thompson, both of which replied
vigorously. The fight raged all day long; several of the gun
boats were disabled and the Union army was gradually shutting
in the Confederates on the land side, when their commander,
General McCown, seeing the danger of capture, left the place
in the night, during a heavy thunder-storm, and removed all
his troops to Island Number Ten. … General Pope lost 51 men in
killed and wounded during the day's bombardment; the loss of
the Confederates is not known, but is thought to have been
more than a hundred. About the time of the capture of New
Madrid, Commodore Foote sailed from Cairo with a fleet of
seven iron-clad gunboats, one wooden gunboat, and ten
mortar-boats, for the purpose of aiding General Pope in the
attack on Island Number Ten. He came in sight of the island on
Saturday, March 15, and on the next morning opened the
bombardment with the rifled guns of the Benton, his flag-ship.
{3457}
The mortar-boats, moored at convenient places along the shore,
soon took part in the firing, and rained bombs into the
Confederate works. … Commodore Foote kept up the bombardment
for many days, without doing much damage to the Confederate
works. But while he kept the enemy busy, General Pope had been
engaged in digging a canal across the swampy peninsula formed
by the bend of the river, so that vessels could go through to
New Madrid without having to pass Island Number Ten. … A large
number of men were employed, and after nineteen days of hard
labor a channel deep enough for light-draught vessels was cut
through. In the night of April 1 a few men from the gunboats,
aided by some of Pope's soldiers, landed on the Kentucky
shore, opposite Island Number Ten, took one of the batteries
by surprise and spiked its six guns. … A few nights afterward
the Carondelet [gunboat] ran safely by all the batteries at
midnight, during a heavy thunderstorm. … Two nights afterward
the Pittsburgh, another gunboat, performed the same feat, with
the same good fortune; and a few days later the Confederates
were astonished to see a fleet of transports laden with troops
and several floating batteries join the gunboats at New
Madrid. … The gunboats soon silenced the one-gun batteries on
the opposite side of the river below New Madrid," and the
Confederates, attempting to escape, were intercepted and
captured (April 7), both those on the mainland and those on
the Island.
_J. D. Champlin, Jr.,
Young Folks' History of the War for the Union,
chapter 16._
Said General Pope in his report: "It is almost impossible to
give a correct account of the immense quantity of artillery,
ammunition, and supplies of every description which fell into
our hands. Three generals, 273 field and company officers,
6,700 privates, 123 pieces of heavy artillery, 35 pieces of
field artillery (all of the very best character and latest
patterns), 7,000 stand of small-arms, tents for 12,000 men,
several wharf-boat loads of provisions, an immense quantity of
ammunition of all kinds, many hundred horses and mules, with
wagons and harness, &c., are among the spoils. Very few, if
any, of the enemy escaped, and only by wading and swimming
through the swamps. The conduct of the troops was splendid
throughout, as the results of this operation and its whole
progress very plainly indicate. We have crossed this great
river, the banks of which were lined with batteries and
defended by 7,000 men. We have pursued and captured the whole
force of the enemy and all his supplies and material of war,
and have again recrossed and reoccupied the camps at New
Madrid, without losing a man or meeting with any accident.
Such results bespeak efficiency, good conduct, high
discipline, and soldierly deportment of the best character far
more conclusively than they can be exhibited in pitched battle
or the storming of fortified places."
_Official Records,
series 1, volume 8._
"In the years since 1862, Island No. 10 … has disappeared. The
river, constantly wearing at its upper end, has little by
little swept away the whole. … On the other shore a new No. 10
has risen."
_A. T. Mahan,
The Navy in the Civil War: The Gulf and Inland Waters,
chapter 2._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (March-May: Virginia).
The Peninsular Campaign.
McClellan before Yorktown.
"When Manassas had been abandoned by the enemy [see UNITED
STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861-1862 (December-March: Virginia)]
and he had withdrawn behind the Rapidan, the Urbana movement
lost much of its promise, as the enemy was now in position to
reach Richmond before we could do so. The alternative remained
of making Fort Monroe and its vicinity the base of operations.
The plan first adopted was to commence the movement with the
First Corps as a unit, to land north of Gloucester and move
thence on West Point; or, should circumstances render it
advisable, to land a little below Yorktown to turn the
defenses between that place and Fort Monroe. The Navy
Department were confident that we could rely upon their
vessels to neutralize the Merrimac and aid materially in
reducing the batteries on the York River. … As transports
arrived very slowly, especially those for horses, and the
great impatience of the Government grew apace, it became
necessary to embark divisions as fast as vessels arrived, and
I decided to land them at Fort Monroe, holding the First Corps
to the last, still intending to move it in mass to turn
Gloucester. On the 17th of March the leading division embarked
at Alexandria. The campaign was undertaken with the intention
of taking some 145,000 troops, to be increased by a division
of 10,000 drawn from the troops in the vicinity of Fort
Monroe. … On the 12th of March I learned that there had
appeared in the daily papers the order relieving me from the
general command of all the armies and confining my authority
to the Department of the Potomac. I had received no previous
intimation of the intention of the Government in this respect.
… On my arrival at Fort Monroe on the 2d of April, I found
five divisions of infantry, Sykes's brigade of regulars, two
regiments of cavalry, and a portion of the reserve artillery
disembarked. Another cavalry regiment and a part of a fourth
had arrived, but were still on shipboard; comparatively few
wagons had come. … The best information obtainable represented
the Confederate troops around Yorktown as numbering at least
15,000, with about an equal force at Norfolk; and it was clear
that the army lately at Manassas, now mostly near
Gordonsville, was in position to be thrown promptly to the
Peninsula. … On my arrival at Fort Monroe I learned, in an
interview with Flag-Officer Goldsborough, that he could not
protect the James as a line of supply, and that he could
furnish no vessels to take an active part in the reduction of
the batteries at York and Gloucester or to run by and gain
their rear. He could only aid in the final attack after our
land batteries had essentially silenced their fire. I thus
found myself with 53,000 men in condition to move, faced by
the conditions of the problem just stated. Information was
received that Yorktown was already being reenforced from
Norfolk, and it was apprehended that the main Confederate army
would promptly follow the same course. I therefore determined
to move at once with the force in hand, and endeavor to seize
a point—near the Halfway House—between Yorktown and
Williamsburg, where the Peninsula is reduced to a narrow neck,
and thus cut off the retreat of the Yorktown garrison and
prevent the arrival of reenforcements.
{3458}
The advance commenced on the morning of the 4th of April, and
was arranged to turn successively the intrenchments on the two
roads; the result being that, on the afternoon of the 5th, the
Third Corps was engaged with the enemy's outposts in front of
Yorktown and under the artillery fire of the place. The Fourth
Corps came upon Lee's Mills and found it covered by the
unfordable line of the Warwick, and reported the position so
strong as to render it impossible to execute its orders to
assault. Thus all things were brought to a stand-still, and
the intended movement on the Halfway House could not be
carried out. Just at this moment came a telegram, dated the
4th, informing me that the First Corps [McDowell's] was
withdrawn from my command. Thus, when too deeply committed to
recede, I found that another reduction of about 43,000 …
diminished my paper force to 92,000, instead of the 155,000 on
which the plans of the campaign had been founded, … which
reduced the numbers actually available for battle to some
67,000 or 68,000. The order withdrawing the First Corps also
broke up the Department of the Potomac, forming out of it the
Department of the Shenandoah, under General Banks, and the
Department of the Rappahannock, under General McDowell, the
latter including Washington. … In our front was an intrenched
line, apparently too strong for assault, and which I had now
no means of turning, either by land or water. … Whatever may
have been said afterward, no one at the time—so far as my
knowledge extended—thought an assault practicable without
certain preliminary siege operations. … We were thus obliged
to resort to siege operations in order to silence the enemy's
artillery fire, and open the way to an assault. All the
batteries would have been ready to open fire on the 5th, or,
at latest, on the morning of the 6th of May; … but during the
night of the 3d and 4th of May the enemy evacuated his
positions. … Meanwhile, on the 22d of April, Franklin's
division of McDowell's corps had joined me by water, in
consequence of my urgent calls for reënforcements … [and, May
7th] disembarked near West Point and took up a suitable
position to hold its own and cover the landing of
reënforcements."
_G. B. McClellan,
The Peninsular Campaign
(Battles and Leaders, volume 2, pages 160-187)._
General Joseph E. Johnston, who assumed command of the
Confederate forces on the Peninsula, April 17, says in his
"Narrative": "I went to the Peninsula as soon as possible,
reaching General Magruder's headquarters early in the morning.
… That officer had estimated the importance of at least
delaying the invaders until an army capable of coping with
them could be formed; and opposed them with about a tenth of
their number, on a line of which Yorktown, intrenched, made
the left flank. This boldness imposed upon the Federal
general, and made him halt to besiege instead of assailing the
Confederate position. This resolute and judicious course on
the part of General Magruder was of incalculable value. It
saved Richmond, and gave the Confederate Government time to
swell that officer's handful to an army. … The arrival of
Smith's and Longstreet's divisions increased the army on the
Peninsula to about 53,000 men, including 3,000 sick. … I could
see no other object in holding the position than that of
delaying the enemy's progress, to gain time."
_J. E. Johnston,
Narrative of Military Operations,
chapters 4-5._
ALSO IN:
_J. C. Palfrey,
The Siege of Yorktown
(Massachusetts Military Historical Society Papers,
volume 1, pages 31-92)._
_Comte de Paris,
History of the Civil War in America,
volume 2, book 1, chapter 1._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (March-June).
Appointment of Military Governors in Tennessee,
North Carolina, and Louisiana.
"By the Union victories in the spring of 1862 very
considerable areas of territory in States in rebellion came
under the control and occupation of the Union armies. … The
sudden change from Confederate to Federal authority involved
everywhere either a serious derangement or total cessation of
the ordinary administration of local civil law, and the
displacement from the occupied territory of State governments
and State officials who claimed to be exercising functions
under ordinances of secession, and yielding obedience to the
self-styled Confederate States. A similar displacement had
occurred in Virginia and in Missouri during the year 1861, but
in those States prompt remedies were available," by means of
popular movements, through delegated conventions, which
abrogated the rebellious and reinstated loyal State
governments in operation. The courses pursued in Virginia and
Missouri were not practicable, however, in other cases, and "a
substitute was found in the appointment of military governors
to represent and exert such State and local authority as the
anomalous conditions made practicable, and as the supreme
military necessities might allow. The first of these
appointments occurred in Tennessee. Nashville, the capital,
having been evacuated about February 23, 1862, President
Lincoln nominated, and the Senate confirmed, Andrew Johnson
(March 4, 1862) as military governor with the rank of
brigadier-general. … Conforming to this precedent, Mr.
Lincoln, through the Secretary of War, appointed Edward
Stanley military governor of North Carolina, 'with authority
to exercise and perform, within the limits of that State, all
and singular the powers, duties, and functions pertaining to
the office of military governor (including the power to
establish all necessary offices and tribunals, and suspend the
writ of habeas corpus) during the pleasure of the President,
or until the loyal inhabitants of that State shall organize a
civil government in conformity with the Constitution of the
United States.' … In like manner, soon after news was received
of the successes in the Gulf, Colonel G. F. Shepley (of the
12th Maine Infantry) of Butler's army was appointed military
governor of Louisiana, this selection being made because
General Butler had already designated him to act as mayor of
the city of New Orleans, and it was thought best to combine
both functions in the same individual."
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 6, chapter 16._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (April: On the Mississippi).
Farragut's passage of the lower forts
and capture of New Orleans.
"About the close of the gloomy and disastrous year 1861, the
Government of the United States determined to regain control
of the Mississippi. … After long consideration, Farragut was
chosen as the naval officer to command in the Gulf. The story
of his southern birth, and of his steadfast loyalty to his
flag, is too well known to be here repeated. His formal orders
put him in command of the 'Western Gulf Blockading Squadron,'
and these were issued in January, 1862.
{3459}
But confidential instructions were also given him, by which he
was especially charged with the 'reduction of the defences
guarding the approaches to New Orleans, and the taking
possession of that city.' He was to be assisted by a
mortar-fleet of schooners, under commander D. D. Porter. … On
February 2d, 1862, Farragut sailed for the Gulf, in the
sloop-of-war Hartford, which was so long to bear his flag,
successfully, through manifold dangers. The Hartford was a
wooden screw-steamer, full ship-rigged, and of 1,900 tons
burthen. She was of comparatively light draught, and,
therefore, well suited to the service she was called upon to
perform. … The Hartford arrived at her rendezvous, Ship
Island, 100 miles north-northeast of the mouths _ of the
Mississippi, on February 20th. A military force, to co-operate
with Farragut's fleet, was sent out, under General B. F.
Butler, and arrived at Ship Island on March 25th."
_E. Shippen,
Naval Battles,
chapter 41._
"At a point about 30 miles above the head of the passes, where
the river makes its last great bend—the lowest favorable
locality for defense before reaching the Gulf—the United
States Government had erected two forts, St. Philip on the
left or north bank, and Jackson a little farther down stream
on the right. … The Confederate Government had early taken
possession of these forts, and put them in complete order.
When Farragut's fleet appeared before them, Fort Jackson, with
its water battery, mounted 75 guns, and St. Philip about 40. …
Just above the forts lay a rebel fleet of 15 vessels, under
Commodore J. K. Mitchell, including the iron-clad ram Manassas
and an immense floating battery covered with railroad iron,
called the Louisiana. Just below Fort Jackson the Confederates
had obstructed the river with a heavy chain, brought from
Pensacola. … The task that lay before Farragut was, to break
through the obstructions, pass between the forts, conquer the
rebel fleet, and then steam up to New Orleans, lay the city
under his guns, and demand its surrender. For its
accomplishment he had 6 sloops-of-war, 16 gunboats, 21
schooners, each carrying a 13-inch mortar, and 5 other
vessels. The fleet carried over 200 guns. … The schooners
sailed up partly, or were towed by steamers, and on the
morning of the 18th of April they had all reached their
positions, ready to open fire. … For six days and nights the
mortars kept up an unremitting fire, mainly on Fort Jackson,
throwing nearly 6,000 shells. The Confederates acknowledged a
loss of 14 killed and 39 wounded by the bombardment. …
Farragut's patience was sorely tried by this delay. He had
never had much faith in the mortars, and now it was evident,
as he had anticipated, that almost the only practical effect
of the bombardment was, to give the enemy long warning of the
attack by the ships. … Having decided to run by the forts, he
confided to his trusted Fleet Captain, Bell, the dangerous
mission of proceeding with the gunboats Pinola and Itasca to
make a passage for his fleet through the chain obstructions. …
A sufficient opening was made for the fleet to pass through,
in spite of the heavy fire to which the party were subjected.
… Farragut had made up his mind to run by the forts at the
close of the fifth day's bombardment; but the necessity of
repairing damages to two of his vessels delayed him
twenty-four hours longer. He had intended to lead the column
in his flag-ship Hartford; but in the final disposition he
gave that post to Captain Theodorus Bailey, at his own earnest
request, who hoisted his red flag on the gunboat Cayuga. … The
attempt to pass was to be made in the night, April 23-24;
and, as the moon would rise about half past 3 o'clock in the
morning, the fleet were warned to expect the signal for
sailing at about 2 o'clock. … Lieutenant Commanding Caldwell
sent up in the Itasca to examine the obstructions and find
whether the passage was still open. At 11 o'clock he gave the
signal that it was, and about the same time the enemy opened
fire on him, sent down burning rafts, and lighted the immense
piles of wood which they had prepared on the shore near the
ends of the chain. … It was half past 3, the hour of moonrise,
before all was ready. In the light of the blazing rafts and
bonfires, moon or no moon made little difference now. …
Captain Bailey led off with his division of 8 vessels, whose
objective was Fort St. Philip, and all of them passed through
the opening in the cable. Both forts opened fire upon his
flag-ship, the Cayuga, soon after she had passed the hulks.
Five minutes later she was pouring grape and canister into St.
Philip, and in ten minutes more she had passed beyond range of
that work, to find herself surrounded by 11 rebel gun-boats.
Three of them attempted to board her at once. An 11-inch shot
was sent through one of them at the close range of 30 yards,
and she immediately ran aground and burned up. The Parrott gun
on the forecastle drove off another; and Bailey was preparing
to close with the third, when the Oneida and Varuna, which had
run in close to St. Philip, thus avoiding the elevated guns of
the fort, while they swept its bastions with grape and
scrapnel, came up to the assistance of the Cayuga. The Oneida
ran under full steam into one of the rebel ships, cut her
nearly in two, and left her to float down stream a helpless
wreck. She fired right and left into the others, and then went
to the assistance of the Varuna, which was ashore on the left
bank, hard pressed by the Governor Moore and another, said to
be the Manassas. The Varuna was rammed by them both, and sank
at the end of 15 minutes; but in that time it is claimed that
she put three 8-inch shells into the Governor Moore, and so
crippled her with solid shot that she surrendered to the
Oneida, and drove five 8-inch shells into another, which sent
her ashore. Still another of her shells exploded the boiler of
a rebel steamer. The Pensacola steamed steadily but slowly by,
firing with great deliberation and regularity. … The
Mississippi was fought regularly in line, like the Pensacola,
but escaped with light losses. She encountered the ram
Manassas, which gave her a severe cut on the port quarter
below the water-line, and disabled her machinery. But she
riddled the ram with shot, boarded her, and set her on fire,
so that she drifted below the forts and blew up. The Katahdin
ran close to the forts, steamed by rapidly, and got near the
head of the line, where she put a few good shots into the
iron-clad Louisiana. The Kineo ran by close under St. Philip,
and then assisted the Mississippi in handling the ram
Manassas; but she was afterward attacked by three rebel gun
boats at once, and, her pivot-gun carriage becoming injured,
she withdrew and continued on up stream.
{3460}
The Wissahickon ran ashore before she reached the forts, got
off, passed them, and above ran ashore again. Most of these
operations were carried on in the darkness occasioned by the
thick smoke, lighted, however, by the lurid flashes of more
than 200 guns. The Hartford, bearing Flag-Officer Farragut,
led the second division of the fleet. … In attempting to avoid
a fire-raft, she grounded on a shoal near St. Philip. At the
same time the ram Manassas pushed a raft upon her port
quarter, and in an instant she was on fire. A part of the crew
went to 'fire quarters' and soon subdued the flames, while the
working of her guns was steadily continued, and she was then
backed off into deep water. This movement turned the ship's
head down stream, and it was with some difficulty that she was
turned around against the current; but this was finally
accomplished, and she continued to steam up the river, firing
into several of the enemy's vessels as she passed. Among these
was a steamer full of men, apparently a boarding-party. She
was making straight for the Hartford when Captain Broome's
gun, manned by marines, planted a shell in her, which
exploded, and she disappeared. … The Brooklyn got out of her
course, ran over one of the hulks, and became entangled in the
raft, where she suffered a raking fire from Fort Jackson, and
a pretty severe one from St. Philip. Scarcely was she
disentangled and on her way up stream when she was butted by
the Manassas, which, however, had not headway enough to damage
her much, and slid off in the darkness. Then she was attacked
by a large rebel steamer, but gave her the port broadside at
fifty yards and set her on fire. Groping along through a black
cloud of smoke from a fire-raft, she came close abreast of St.
Philip, into which she poured such tremendous broadsides that
by the flashes the gunners were seen running to shelter, and
for the time the fort was silenced. The Brooklyn then passed
on, and engaged several of the enemy's gunboats at short
range. One of these, the Warrior, came under the port
broadside, when eleven 5-second shells were instantly planted
in her, all of which exploded, setting her on fire, and she
was run ashore. The Brooklyn was under fire an hour and a
half, and her losses were almost as severe as those of the
Pensacola. The Richmond, a slow ship, brought up the rear of
the second division, steaming steadily and working her guns
with great regularity. … The Sciota, carrying Fleet-Captain
Bell, led the third division. She steamed by the forts, firing
as she passed, and above them burned two steamboats. … The
Iroquois passed within 50 yards of Fort Jackson without
injury, but was subjected to a terrible raking cross-fire from
St. Philip, and was also raked by the McCrea. … Her losses
were heavy. The Pinola passed up in line, firing her 11-inch
pivot-gun and Parrott rifles at the flashes of Fort Jackson's
guns, which at first were all that could be seen; then she
emerged from the cloud of smoke, stood over toward St. Philip,
and in the light of the blazing rafts received the discharges
of its 40 guns. She was the last vessel that passed the forts,
and got up in time to put one or two shells into the gunboats
of the enemy. The Kennebec got out of her course, became
entangled in the rafts, and did not get free till it was broad
daylight and too late to attempt a passage. The Itasca,
arriving in front of Fort Jackson, received a shot in her
boiler, which made it impossible for her to proceed, and was
turned down stream. The Winona got astray among the hulks, and
lost so much time that when she came within range of Fort
Jackson it was daylight, and the fleet had passed on. The
first three or four shots from the fort swept away the entire
crew of her rifled gun, save one man. Still she kept on, until
the lower battery of St. Philip opened on her at less than
point-blank range; this was too much for her, and she
prudently headed down stream and ran out of the fire. Thus was
accomplished a feat in naval warfare which had no precedent,
and which is still without a parallel except the one furnished
by Farragut himself, two years later, at Mobile. Starting with
17 wooden vessels, he had passed with all but 3 of them,
against the swift current of a river but half a mile wide,
between two powerful earthworks which had long been prepared
for him, his course impeded by blazing rafts, and immediately
thereafter had met the enemy's fleet of 15 vessels, two of
them iron-clad, and either captured or destroyed every one of
them. And all this with a loss of but one ship from his own
squadron."
_L. Farragut,
Life of Farragut,
chapters 18-19._
Commander Porter, who kept up the mortar fire while Farragut
was forcing his way, says of the battle: "No grander or more
beautiful sight could have been realized than the scenes of
that night. From silence, disturbed now and then only by the
slow fire of the mortars,—the phantom-like movements of the
vessels giving no sound—an increased roar of heavy guns began,
while the mortars burst forth into rapid bombardment, as the
fleet drew near the enemy's works. Vessel after vessel added
her guns to those already at work, until the very earth seemed
to shake from their reverberations. A burning raft added its
lurid glare to the scene, and the fiery tracks of the
mortar-shells, as they passed through the darkness aloft, and
sometimes burst in mid-air, gave the impression that heaven
itself had joined in the general strife. The succeeding
silence was almost as sudden. From the weighing of the
anchors, one hour and ten minutes saw the vessels by the
forts, and Farragut on his way to New Orleans, the prize
staked upon the fierce game of war just ended."
_D. D. Porter,
Naval History of the Civil War,
page 185._
"General Lovell, who was in command at New Orleans, had come
down the river in a steamboat to observe the operations and
was very nearly captured; he hastened back to the city to
withdraw his forces. When the news spread through the streets
that the Federal fleet had passed the forts and had destroyed
the Confederate flotilla, a strange scene followed; a scene
impossible, perhaps, in any other American city under parallel
circumstances. The brave, active, fighting men of New Orleans
were far away in the armies of the South; but they had left
behind a slinking swarm of human vermin. … These, when they
saw a hopeless panic seize the good people of the city, poured
forth from their dens and began an indiscriminate pillaging of
houses, shops, and storage-sheds. Thus while the better class
of citizens were frantically setting fire to the cotton (some
12,000 bales) the cut-throats and ruffians, the hardened women
and even the lawless children, were raging from place to
place, back and forth, here and there, wildly plundering and
aimlessly destroying. … All the public materials, consisting
of army supplies, were heaped up in the middle of the streets
and burned.
{3461}
General Lovell withdrew his soldiers on the evening of the
24th, leaving the city at the mercy of the Federal fleet,
which at 1 o'clock on the following day steamed up the river
and anchored in the middle of the stream not far from the foot
of Canal Street. … The mob which lately had been committing
such foul deeds, now swayed back and forth in the streets,
hooting, yelling and cursing, urging the people to resist the
landing of the Federals. Commodore Farragut demanded the
formal surrender of the city, but the mayor was powerless. He
could not surrender the city while the people were controlled
by an unreasoning mob. Consequently, on the 20th, a detachment
under command of Fleet Captain H. H. Bell was sent ashore to
take possession of the public buildings."
_M. Thompson,
The Story of Louisiana,
chapter 11._
"The success was almost beyond price to the Union Government
from its moral importance on both sides of the Atlantic. As to
the material advantage won, it may be best judged of by the
statement of the well-known Confederate writer, Mr. Pollard: …
'It was a heavy blow to the Confederacy. It annihilated us in
Louisiana; separated us from Texas and Arkansas; diminished
our resources and supplies by the loss of one of the greatest
grain and cattle countries within the limits of the
Confederacy; gave to the enemy the Mississippi River, with all
its means of navigation, for a base of operations.' … In
calling the capture of New Orleans 'one of the most remarkable
triumphs in the whole history of naval operations' he [Mr.
Welles, Secretary of the Navy] is fully justified."
_C. C. Chesney,
Essays in Military Biog.,
page 167-168._
ALSO IN:
_D. D. Porter, J. R. Bartlett and others,
The Capture of New Orleans
(Battles and Leaders, volume 2)._
_A. T. Mahan,
Admiral Farragut,
chapter 7._
_Official Records,
series 1, volume 6._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (April-May: Alabama).
General Mitchell's expedition.
The division of Buell's army commanded by General Ormsby M.
Mitchell left Nashville with the other divisions of that army,
late in March, but took the road to Murfreesboro, while the
latter marched toward Pittsburg Landing. On the 4th of April
General Mitchell marched from Murfreesboro to Shelbyville, 26
miles distant. "On the 7th he advanced to Fayetteville, 27
miles farther, and the next forenoon, the 8th, 15 miles
beyond, he crossed the State line of Alabama. Continuing his
march six miles farther, and being within ten miles of
Huntsville, Alabama, he halted for the artillery and infantry
to come up." At an early hour the next morning he entered the
town, taking it completely by surprise. "Before the close of
the day 100 miles of the Memphis and Charleston railroad were
in his possession, stretching in one direction as far as
Stevenson, and in the other as far as Decatur. … From Decatur
he pushed on at once to Tuscumbia. Thus, without the loss of a
single life, General Mitchell placed his army midway between
Corinth and Chattanooga, prevented the destruction of a fine
bridge at Decatur, opened communication with General Buell,
and also the navigation of the Tennessee. The occupation of
Huntsville also cut off all communication between the east and
west by the Memphis and Charleston railroad. … This extension
of General Mitchell's lines to hold the railroad rendered his
situation precarious. Soon the enemy began to gather in force
and threaten him. … He was raised to the rank of a
major-general, and ordered to report directly to the [war]
department, and his force was constituted an independent
corps. But he got no reënforcements, he was left in such a
condition that he at first hardly had anything to report but
that he had been gradually driven from those positions, the
gaining of which had made him a major-general." Subsequently
he advanced upon Chattanooga; but that important position was
not secured. A little later General Mitchell was transferred
to Port Royal, South Carolina.
_W. J. Tenney,
Military and Naval History of the Rebellion,
chapter 15._
It was in connection with General Mitchell's expedition that
the thrilling episode of the railroad raid in Georgia
occurred, narratives of which have been published by one of
the participants, Reverend William Pittenger, first under the
title of "Capturing a Locomotive," and afterwards with the
title "Daring and Suffering," and also as "The Great
Locomotive Chase." Volume Two of "Battles and Leaders of the
Civil War" also contains the story, entitled "The Locomotive
Chase in Georgia," preceded by General Buell's critical
account of Mitchell's entire operations.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862
(April-May: Tennessee-Mississippi).
The bloodless and bootless conquest of Corinth.
"General Halleck arrived at Pittsburg landing on the 11th of
April and immediately assumed command in the field. On the
21st General Pope arrived with an army 30,000 strong, fresh
from the capture of Island Number Ten in the Mississippi
River. He went into camp at Hamburg landing five miles above
Pittsburg. Halleck had now three armies: the Army of the Ohio,
Buell commanding; the Army of the Mississippi, Pope
commanding; and the Army of the Tennessee. His orders divided
the combined force into the right wing, reserve, centre, and
left wing. … I [General Grant] was named second in command of
the whole, and was also supposed to be in command of the right
wing and reserve. … Preparations were at once made upon the
arrival of the new commander for an advance on Corinth. …
Corinth, Mississippi, lies in a south-westerly direction from
Pittsburg landing and about 19 miles away as the bird would
fly, but probably 22 by the nearest wagon-road. It is about
four miles south of the line dividing the States of Tennessee
and Mississippi, and at the junction of the Mississippi and
Chattanooga Railroad with the Mobile and Ohio road which runs
from Columbus to Mobile. … Corinth was a valuable strategic
point for the enemy to hold, and consequently a valuable one
for us to possess ourselves of. We ought to have seized it
immediately after the fall of Donelson and Nashville, when it
could have been taken without a battle, but failing then it
should have been taken, without delay, on the concentration of
troops at Pittsburg landing after the battle of Shiloh. In
fact, the arrival of Pope should not have been awaited. There
was no time from the battle of Shiloh up to the evacuation of
Corinth when the enemy would not have left if pushed. … On the
30th of April the grand army commenced its advance from Shiloh
upon Corinth. The movement was a siege from the start to the
close.
{3462}
The National troops were always behind intrenchments, except
of course the small reconnoitring parties sent to the front to
clear the way for an advance. Even the commanders of these
parties were cautioned, 'not to bring on an engagement.' … For
myself, I was little more than an observer. Orders were sent
direct to the right wing or reserve, ignoring me, and advances
were made from one line of intrenchments to another without
notifying me. My position was so embarrassing in fact that I
made several applications during the siege to be relieved. …
On the 28th of May, General Logan, whose command was then on
the Mobile and Ohio railroad, said to me that the enemy had
been evacuating for several days, and that if allowed he could
go into Corinth with his brigade. … Beauregard published his
orders for the evacuation of Corinth on the 26th of May and
fixed the 29th for the departure of his troops, and on the
30th of May General Halleck had his whole army drawn up
prepared for battle and announced in orders that there was
every indication that our left was to be attacked that
morning. Corinth had already been evacuated and the National
troops marched on and took possession without opposition.
Everything had been destroyed or carried away. The Confederate
commander had instructed his soldiers to cheer on the arrival
of every train, to create the impression among the Yankees
that reinforcements were arriving. There was not a sick or
wounded man left by the Confederates, nor stores of any kind.
Some ammunition had been blown up—not removed—but the trophies
of war were a few Quaker guns, logs of about the diameter of
ordinary cannon, mounted on wheels of wagons and pointed in
the most threatening manner towards us. The possession of
Corinth by the National troops was of strategic importance,
but the victory was barren in every other particular. …
General Halleck at once commenced erecting fortifications
around Corinth on a scale to indicate that this one point must
be held if it took the whole National army to do it. … They
were laid out on a scale that would have required 100,000 men
to fully man them. … These fortifications were never used. …
After the capture of Corinth a movable force of 80,000 men,
besides enough to hold all the territory acquired, could have
been set in motion for the accomplishment of any great
campaign for the suppression of the rebellion. In addition to
this fresh troops were being raised to swell the effective
force. But the work of depletion commenced."
_U. S. Grant,
Personal Memoirs,
chapter 26 (volume 1)._
ALSO IN:
_M. F. Force,
From Fort Henry to Corinth
(Campaigns of the Civil War, volume 2),
chapter 8._
_A. Roman,
Military Operations of General Beauregard,
chapter 24 (volume 1)._
_Official Records,
series 1, volume 10._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (April-June).
Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia
and in the Territories.
On the 16th of December, 1861, Mr Wilson, of Massachusetts,
introduced in the Senate of the United States a bill for the
immediate emancipation of the slaves in the District of
Columbia; "for the payment to their loyal owners of an average
sum of $300; for the appointment of a commission to assess the
sum to be paid; and the appropriation of $1,000,000. This bill
was reported back on the 13th of February, 1862, with
amendments. On the 24th he introduced a bill which, he said,
was supplementary to that already before the Senate, to repeal
the act extending the laws of Maryland over the District, and
to annul all those statutes which gave the cities of
Washington and Georgetown authority to pass ordinances
discriminating against persons on account of color. On the
12th of March it came up for debate in committee of the whole.
The debate on these resolutions, the bill, and other cognate
measures exhibit elements of interest hardly found in any
other session of the American Congress on record. It was
emphatically a new departure. … No important change was made,
and on the 3d of April, 1862, the bill introduced by Mr.
Wilson more than three months before was passed by a vote of
29 to 14. The bill was taken up in the House the next week,
and gave rise to a brief but brilliant debate. … The bill …
passed the House by a vote of 92 to 38, and received the
approval of the President on the 16th day of April, 1862. The
President, in his message accompanying his approval of the
bill, had stated some objections to it. These objections were
that certain classes, such as married women, minors, and
persons absent from the District, were not sufficiently
protected and provided for; and he suggested that these
defects should be remedied by additional legislation"—which
was done. "On the 24th of March, 1862, Mr. Arnold, of
Illinois, introduced a bill into the House of Representatives
to render freedom national and slavery sectional. It was
referred to the Committee on Territories, was reported on the
1st of May, with an amendment, and made the order of the day
for the 8th. It provided that freedom should be the
fundamental law of the land, and that slavery should no longer
exist in all places under the direct and exclusive control of
the Federal government. It prohibited slavery in all
Territories, then or thereafter existing; in all places
purchased by the government, with the consent of the
legislatures of the several States, for forts, magazines,
arsenals, doek-yards, and other needful buildings; in all
vessels on the high seas, and on all national highways, beyond
the territory and jurisdiction of the several States. … The
difficulties, … real or seeming, constitutional or other, were
too great to secure the united action of the friends of the
underlying principle of the bill as reported by the committee.
Mr. Lovejoy, therefore, moved a substitute restricting its
action entirely to the Territories. The substitute was
accepted, and the bill as thus amended was carried by a vote
of 85 to 50. The preamble was so amended as to read, 'An act
to secure freedom to all persons within the Territories of
the United States.' In the Senate, on the 15th of May, Mr.
Browning, reported the bill from the Committee on Territories
with an amendment that, from and after the passage of the act,
there should be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in
any existing Territory, or in any Territory thereafter formed
or acquired. It was, substantially, the application of the
principle of the ordinance of 1787 to all the territory then
possessed or thereafter to be acquired. On the 9th of June the
Senate proceeded to its consideration, adopted the amendment,
and passed the bill by a vote of 28 to 10. The House agreed to
the Senate amendment, and the bill thus amended was passed on
the 17th, and approved by the President on the 19th of June."
_H. Wilson,
History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America,
volume 3, chapters 21 and 24._
ALSO IN:
_M. Tremain,
Slavery in the District of Columbia
(University of Nebraska: Seminary Papers Number 2)._
{3463}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (May).
Passage of the Homestead Act.
"The homestead bill, or the granting of free homes from and on
the public domain, became a national question in 1852. The
Free Soil Democracy, at Pittsburg, Pa., August 11, 1852, in
National Convention, nominated John P. Hale, of New Hampshire,
and George W. Julian, of Indiana, for President and
Vice-President, and adopted the following as the 12th plank or
resolution in their platform: 'That the public lands of the
United States belong to the people, and should not be sold to
individuals, nor granted to corporations, but should be held
as a sacred trust for the benefit of the people, and should be
granted in limited quantities, free of cost, to landless
settlers.' Thereafter it became a national question until its
passage in 1862, and was in the platforms of political
parties. It was petitioned for and against. Public sentiment
was aroused. It was a serious innovation and would cause an
almost entire change in the settlement laws. Instead of the
public lands being sold for cash, for profit, or being taken,
first, under the pre-emption system, which eventuated in cash
purchases, they were to be given to actual settlers who would
occupy, improve, and cultivate them for a term of years, and
then receive a patent free of acreage charges, with fees paid
by the homesteader sufficient to cover cost of survey and
transfer of title. … The rich and fertile lands of the
Mississippi Valley were fast filling up with settlers.
Agricultural lands in the Middle States, which, after the year
1824, were bought for $1.25 per acre, now sold at from $50 to
$80 per acre. Former purchasers of these Government lands in
the Middle, Western, and Southern States, were selling their
early purchases for this great advance, and moving west, to
Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Missouri, and there again
taking cheap Government lands under the pre-emption laws. The
western emigration caused a rush—a migration of neighborhoods
in many localities of the older Western States. Following the
sun, their pillar of fire, these State founders moved
westward, a resistless army of agents of American
civilization, and there was a demand for homes on the public
lands, and a strong pressure for the enactment of a law which
should confine locators to small tracts, and require actual
occupation, improvement, and cultivation. A fierce political
battle now ensued, beginning in 1854, and continuing until
1862, the year of the passage of the law. The demand of the
settlers was incessant and constant." Mr. Galusha A. Grow, of
Pennsylvania, made himself the special champion of the measure
in Congress. On the 1st of February, 1859, a bill embodying
its principles was carried in the House, but was not permitted
to reach a vote in the Senate. The slaveholding interest was
almost solidly against it. In March, 1860, a similar bill was
again passed by the House. The Senate substituted a bill
granting homesteads to actual settlers at twenty-five cents
per acre, instead of free of cost. After protracted
conferences, the House was forced to accept the Senate bill,
with slight amendments. But if the enemies of the measure had
so nearly lost their control of Congress, they still owned the
President—Buchanan—and he killed it by a veto. Then came the
rebellion and civil war, absorbing all minor questions, and
nearly two years went by before the law which opened the
public lands freely to all actual settlers was adopted. It
became a law by the signature of President Lincoln on the 20th
of May, 1862. The following are the essential provisions of
the Act: "That any person who is the head of a family, or who
has arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and is a citizen
of the United States, or who shall have filed his declaration
of intention to become such, as required by the naturalization
laws of the United States, and who has never borne arms
against the United States Government or given aid and comfort
to its enemies, shall, from and after the first January,
eighteen hundred and sixty-three, be entitled to enter one
quarter-section or a less quantity of unappropriated public
lands, upon which said person may have filed a pre-emption
claim, or which may, at the time the application is made, be
subject to pre-emption at one dollar and twenty-five cents, or
less, per acre; or eighty acres or less of such unappropriated
lands, at two dollars and fifty cents per acre, to be located
in a body, in conformity to the legal subdivisions of the
public lands, and after the same shall have been surveyed:
Provided, That any person owning or residing on land may,
under the provisions of this act, enter other land lying
contiguous to his or her said land, which shall not, with the
land so already owned and occupied, exceed in the aggregate
one hundred and sixty acres. … That the person applying for
the benefit of this act shall, upon application to the
register of the land office in which he or she is about to
make such entry, make affidavit before the said register or
receiver that he or she is the head of a family, or is
twenty-one or more years of age, or shall have performed
service in the Army or Navy of the United States, and that he
has never borne arms against the Government of the United
States or given aid and comfort to its enemies, and that such
application is made for his or her exclusive use and benefit,
and that said entry is made for the purpose of actual
settlement and cultivation, and not, either directly or
indirectly, for the use or benefit of any other person or
persons whomsoever; and upon filing the said affidavit with
the said register or receiver, and on payment of ten dollars,
he or she shall thereupon be permitted to enter the quantity
of land specified: Provided, however, That no certificate
shall be given or patent issued therefor until the expiration
of five years from the date of such entry; and if, at the
expiration of such time, or at any time within two years
thereafter, the person making such entry—or if he be dead,
his widow; or in case of her death, his heirs or devisee; or
in case of a widow making such entry, her heirs or devisee, in
case of her death—shall prove by two credible witnesses that
he, or she, or they have resided upon or cultivated the same
for the term of five years immediately succeeding the time of
filing the affidavit aforesaid, and shall make affidavit that
no part of said land has been alienated, and that he has borne
true allegiance to the Government of the United States; then,
in such case, he, she, or they, if at that time a citizen of
the United States, shall be entitled to a patent, as in other
cases provided for by law:
{3464}
And provided, further, That in case of the death of both
father and mother, leaving an infant child or children under
twenty-one years of age, the right and fee shall inure to the
benefit of said infant child or children; and the executor,
administrator, or guardian may, at any time within two years
after the death of the surviving parent, and in accordance
with the laws of the State in which such children for the time
being have their domicil, sell said land for the benefit of
said infants, but for no other purpose; and the purchaser
shall acquire the absolute title by the purchase, and be
entitled to a patent from the United States, on payment of the
office fees and sum of money herein specified. … That if, at
any time after the filing of the affidavit, … and before the
expiration of the five years aforesaid, it shall be proven,
after due notice to the settler, to the satisfaction of the
register of the land office, that the person having filed such
affidavit shall have actually changed his or her residence, or
abandoned the said land for more than six months at any time,
then and in that event the land so entered shall revert to the
Government.' … This original homestead act has been amended
several times. … The principal amendments were in the nature
of extension of its privileges, and the limit of 80 acres of
land of the double minimum class, $2.50 per acre, within
certain road limits, has since been done away with by acts of
March 3, 1879, July 1, 1879, and June 15, 1880; there now
being but one class of agricultural lands, so for as regards
the minimum quantity in homestead entries. The act of June 8,
1872, was known as the soldiers' and sailors' homestead act.
It gave honorably discharged soldiers and sailors from the
Army and Navy of the United States lands under the homestead
act in any locality, and deducted from the five years'
residence which was required to make title their term of
service in the Army and Navy during the war of the Rebellion.
One year's residence and cultivation, however, were necessary.
… The soldiers' additional homestead provision was to give
those soldiers who had had the benefit of the homestead act,
to the extent of a quantity under 160 acres, an additional
amount, so as to make their allowance 160 acres."
_T. Donaldson,
The Public Domain,
chapter 27._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (May).
General Hunter's Emancipation Order,
rescinded by President Lincoln.
Major General David Hunter, having lately succeeded to the
command at Hilton Head, South Carolina, issued, on the 9th of
May, 1862, a General Order (No. 11), declaring martial law in
Georgia, Florida and South Carolina, and adding: "Slavery and
martial law in a free country are altogether incompatible; the
persons in these States … heretofore held as slaves are
therefore declared forever free." This order was rescinded by
President Lincoln in a Proclamation, dated May 19, in which he
used the following language: "Whether it be competent for me,
as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, to declare the
slaves of any State or States free; and whether at any time,
or in any case, it shall have become a necessity indispensable
to the maintenance of the Government, to exercise such
supposed power, are questions which, under my responsibility,
I reserve to myself, and which I cannot feel justified in
leaving to the decision of commanders in the field."
_E. McPherson,
Political History of the United States during
the Great Rebellion,
pages 250—251._
ALSO IN:
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 6, ch. 5._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (May: South Carolina).
Employment of the freed Negroes as armed soldiers.
The negroes within the Union lines in South Carolina, at
Hilton Head and elsewhere, were placed under the charge, at
first, of agents appointed by the Treasury Department; but
disagreements arose between these agents and the military
authorities, and the former were recalled. "These several
agents had been replaced by a superior officer of the staff,
General Saxton, who was himself placed under the orders Of
General Hunter with the rank of a military commander. By this
action the government at Washington sustained Hunter in his
conflict with the agents Of the Treasury Department—a
conflict originating in very serious causes, for it affected
the question of slavery in its most vital points. … Mr.
Cameron [Secretary of the Treasury] had authorized General
Sherman to organize the negroes into squads and companies. The
latter had at first only been employed in manual labor, such
as the construction of forts, roads and wharves; but Hunter,
on taking Sherman's place, saw that he could give a much wider
interpretation to the Secretary's instructions. He substituted
muskets for the pick-axes used by the detachments of negro
laborers organized by his predecessor; and, instead of making
them dig the earth, he had them taught military exercises. Nor
did he stop here; but wishing to increase the number of these
new soldiers, he gathered all the adult negroes residing on
the adjoining islands at Hilton Head on the 12th of May, in
order to induce them to enter the military service. … The
civil agents complained bitterly of the trouble this measure
had created among the people entrusted to their charge, and
thence sprung the quarrel which Mr. Lincoln cut short by
deciding in favor of Hunter. The protection granted to
fugitive slaves was the first logical consequence of the war,
their enrolment in the Federal armies was the second. As
untimely and impolitic as was the proclamation by which Hunter
had taken upon himself to free the slaves outside of his
jurisdiction, the creation Of the first negro regiment was an
act skilfully conceived. It was essentially a military act; it
raised and ennobled the freedman by entrusting him with arms;
its legality was unquestionable from the moment that the
President approved of it, for there was no law to prevent him
from enlisting colored volunteers. In short, it showed to the
Confederates that the Washington government was determined not
to allow itself to be any longer paralyzed by the vain hope Of
reconciliation. … But notwithstanding the success of this
first experiment, considerable time elapsed before the Federal
government concluded to follow Hunter in this direction."
_Comte de Paris,
History of the Civil War in America,
volume 2, book 7, chapter 3._
ALSO IN:
_G. W. Williams,
History of Negro troops in the War of the Rebellion,
chapter 5._
{3465}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (May: Virginia).
The Peninsular Campaign: The Battle of Williamsburg
and the slow advance to the Chickahominy.
On the evacuation Of the rebel works at Yorktown, "our columns
followed on in pursuit, McClellan remaining in Yorktown, busy
with questions of transportation. The enemy under Longstreet
had awaited our approach at Williamsburg. Hooker first
attacked, having been brought to a stand by a work known as
Fort Magruder, and kept up a heavy pounding all the forenoon
[May 5). Kearny came to his rescue when Hooker's men were all
but spent. Hancock moved around the enemy's left, seized some
abandoned redoubts, and made a brilliant diversion. But there
was no cooperation in our attack; no one on the field was in
supreme command, and the day was fruitlessly spent in partial
blows. The enemy retreated at night. Our loss was 2,200;
theirs in all probability less."
_T. A. Dodge,
Bird's-eye View of our Civil War,
chapter 11._
"General Johnston says [' Narrative,' p. 124]:
'We fought for no other purpose than to hold the ground long
enough to enable our baggage-trains to get out of the way of
the troops. This object was accomplished without difficulty.
There was no time during the day when the slightest
uncertainty appeared.' He also says that Longstreet's and
Hill's divisions slept on the field; that what deserves to be
called fighting ceased two hours before dark, yet the
Confederates held the field until the next morning, when they
resumed their march. … There may be a little rose-color about
these statements, but the substantial facts seem to be
accurately stated. … General McClellan made no pursuit after
Williamsburg, for reasons which he who will may find stated in
his Report; and we may pass on with the single additional
remark that the battle of Williamsburg was unnecessary, for
the position might have been turned by a movement by our
right. This was actually accomplished by Hancock, after Hooker
had met with all his heavy loss; and it might as well have
been done before as after. … The three weeks which followed
the battle of Williamsburg were so devoid of incident that it
seems to be sufficient to say that the Confederates moved up
the Peninsula in two columns. The right column, composed of
the divisions of Smith and Magruder, followed the road by New
Kent Court House, and in three marches reached the Baltimore
Cross Roads, 19 miles from Barhamsville. The left column,
composed of the divisions of Longstreet and D. H. Hill,
reached in the same number of marches the Long Bridges. The
army remained five days in this position, facing to the east.
… The iron-clad Virginia [better known as the Merrimac] was
destroyed on, or just before, the 14th of May. This event
opened the James River to our navy; and, to be ready to meet
an advance up that river as well as from the direction of West
Point, the Confederate forces were ordered to cross the
Chickahominy on the 15th May. On the 17th their army encamped
about three miles from Richmond, in front of the line of
redoubts constructed in 1861. … During this period the weather
was generally fine, cool and breezy, but gradually tending
towards heat. … McClellan sent out cavalry reconnoissances
from Williamsburg on the 5th and 7th May. … The advance of the
main body began on the 8th; and on the 10th headquarters were
at Roper's Church, 19 miles from Williamsburg, with all the
troops which had arrived by land, except Hooker's, in the
vicinity of that place. … By the 15th, headquarters, and the
divisions of Franklin, Porter, Sykes, and Smith, reached
Cumberland on the Pamunkey. … On the 19th of May, headquarters
and the corps of Porter and Franklin moved to Tunstall's
Station on the railroad, five miles from White House. On the
20th, Casey's division forded the Chickahominy, where Bottom's
Bridge had been, and occupied the opposite heights. Bottom's
Bridge was immediately rebuilt. … On the 22d, headquarters
moved to Cold Harbor. On the 24th, we carried the village of
Mechanicsville, but the enemy destroyed the bridge on which
the Mechanicsville Turnpike crossed the river. On the same day
our left advance secured a position at Seven Pines, the point
of junction of the Nine-Mile Road with the Williamsburg road,
which last road crosses the Chickahominy at Bottom's Bridge. …
It is difficult to account for, or justify, the slowness of
McClellan's march. The distance from Williamsburg to the
middle of a line drawn from Bottom's Bridge to Cold Harbor,
measuring by the road, is about 40 miles. That from West Point
to the same point, measuring in the same way, is considerably
less. One might almost say that, in the three weeks which
McClellan took to accomplish this distance, he might have
marched his army all the way in order of battle, bridging
streams, felling trees, making roads, and supplying his army
as he advanced. 'I had hoped,' he says, 'by rapid movements to
drive before me, or capture, the enemy on the Peninsula, open
the James River, and press on to Richmond, before he should be
materially re-enforced.' What was there to hinder his making
the attempt? Instead of that he followed him at the average
rate of rather less than two miles a day."
_F. W. Palfrey,
After the fall of Yorktown
(Massachusetts Military Historical Society Papers,
volume 1, pages 95-114)._
ALSO IN:
_J. E. Johnston,
Narrative of Military Operations,
chapter 5._
_Report of Joint Commission on the Conduct of the War,
38th Congress 2d session, volume 1._
_Official Records,
series 1, volume 11, part 1._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (May: Virginia).
Evacuation of Norfolk by the Rebels.
Destruction of the Merrimac.
"The movement of our grand army up the Peninsula, in
connection with Burnside's successes and captures in North
Carolina, had rendered the possession of Norfolk by the Rebels
no longer tenable. … General Wool, commanding at Fortress
Monroe, having organized an expedition designed to reduce that
important city, led it thither on the 10th; finding the bridge
over Tanner's Creek on fire, but no enemy to dispute
possession of Norfolk, which was quietly surrendered by its
Mayor. The Navy Yard and Portsmouth were in like manner
repossessed; the Rebels, ere they left, destroying every thing
that would burn, partially blowing up the Dry Dock, and
completely destroying their famous iron-clad known to us as
the Merrimac. They left about 200 cannon. … Two unfinished
iron-clads were among the vessels fired by the Rebels ere they
left."
_H. Greeley,
The American Conflict,
volume 2, page 127._
{3466}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (May: Virginia).
The Peninsular Campaign: Fair Oaks, or Seven Pines.
"On the 25th of May General McClellan issued a general order,
which was read throughout the camps, directing the troops, as
they advanced beyond the Chickahominy, to be prepared for
battle at a moment's notice, and to be entirely unencumbered,
with the exception of ambulances; to carry three days rations
in their haversacks, leaving their knapsacks with their
wagons, which were on the eastern side of the river, carefully
parked. … The divisions from the corps of Generals Heintzelman
and Keyes were among the first to cross the Chickahominy. They
took a position on the right bank somewhat advanced therefrom.
The right wing rested near New Bridge, the centre at Seven
Pines, and the left flank on the White Oak Swamp. General
Sumner's corps remained on the east side of the river. On the
30th the Confederate General Johnston made arrangements for an
attack upon the Federal army, for the purpose of cutting off,
if possible, the corps of Generals Heintzelman and Keyes
before they could be joined by General Sumner. He selected the
divisions of Generals Longstreet, Huger, G. W. Smith, D. H.
Hill, and Whiting. His plan was that Generals Hill and
Longstreet should advance by the road to Williamsburg and make
the attack in front, and that General Huger should move on the
road to Charles City and attack in flank the troops assailed
by Generals Hill and Longstreet. General Smith was ordered to
the junction of the New Bridge Road and the Nine Mile Road,
and to be in readiness to fall on the right flank of General
Keyes and to cover the left of General Longstreet. The forces
of Generals Hill, Longstreet, and Smith were in position early
on the morning of Saturday, May 31, and waited until afternoon
for General Huger to get into position. Prince de Joinville,
who was a competent spectator, thus describes ['Campagne de l'
Armèe du Potomac, Mars-Juillet, 1862'] the scenes which
followed this attack: 'At the moment it was thus attacked the
Federal army occupied a position having the form of a V. The
base of the V is at Bottom's Bridge, where the railroad
crosses the Chickahominy. The left arm stretches toward
Richmond, with this railroad and the road from that city to
Williamsburg. There stood the left wing, composed of four
divisions echeloned, one behind the other, between Fair Oaks
and Savage stations, and encamped in the woods on both sides
of the road. The other arm of the V, the right, follows the
left bank of the river; that is the right wing. There are
these five divisions and the reserve. Should one desire to
communicate from one extremity to the other of those two
wings, going by Bottom's Bridge, the way is very long, not
less than 12 or 15 miles. In an air line the distance, on the
contrary, is very trifling, but between the two arms of the V
flows the Chickahominy. It was to connect both arms, in the
space between them, that the construction of 3 or 4 bridges
had been undertaken, only one of which was serviceable on the
31st of May. It had been built by General Sumner, nearly half
way between Bottom's Bridge and the most advanced point of the
Federal lines. It saved the army that day from a disaster.'
The other bridges were not ready. They were structures of
logs, and time was required to build them. The approaches were
always bad, and the tedious labor of corduroying long
distances was necessary. 'It was against the left wing of the
army that every effort of the enemy was directed. That wing
had its outposts at Fair Oaks station, on the York river
railroad, and at a place called Seven Pines, on the
Williamsburg road. There the Federals had thrown up a redoubt
in a clearing, where a few houses were to be seen, and
constructed abatis, to increase the field for sharpshooting of
the troops posted there. The rest of the country was
completely covered with woods. The previous day there had been
a frightful storm, with torrents of rain, and the roads were
frightful. All at once, about one o'clock in the afternoon,
the weather being dark and gloomy, a very spirited fusilade is
heard. The pickets and sentries are violently driven in; the
woods which surround Fair Oaks and Seven Pines are filled with
clouds of the enemy's sharpshooters. The troops rush to arms
and fight in desperation; but their adversaries' forces
constantly increase, and their losses do not stop them. The
redoubt of the Seven Pines is surrounded, and its defenders
die bravely. … Meanwhile Heintzelman rushes to the rescue with
his two divisions. As at Williamsburg, Kearney arrives in good
time to reëstablish the fight. Berry's brigade, of this
division, composed of Michigan regiments and an Irish
battalion, advances firm as a wall into the midst of the
disordered mass which wanders over the battle field, and does
more by its example than the most powerful reënforcements.
About a mile of ground has been lost, 15 pieces of cannon, the
camp of the division of the advance guard, that of General
Casey; but now we hold our own. A sort of line of battle is
formed across the woods, perpendicularly to the road and the
railroad, and there the repeated assaults of the enemy's
masses are resisted. The left cannot be turned, where is the
White Oak Swamp, an impassable morass; but the right may be
surrounded. At this very moment, in fact, a strong column of
Confederates has been directed against that side. If it
succeeds in interposing between Bottom's Bridge and the
Federal troops, which hold beyond Savage's Station, the entire
left wing is lost. It will have no retreat, and is doomed to
yield to numbers; but precisely at this moment—that is to say,
at 6 o'clock in the evening—new actors appear on the scene.
General Sumner, who has succeeded in passing the Chickahominy,
with Sedgwick's division, over the bridge constructed by his
troops, and who, like a brave soldier, has marched straight
through the woods to the sound of the cannon, arrived suddenly
on the left flank of the column with which the enemy is
endeavoring to cut off Heintzelman and Keyes. He plants in the
clearing a battery which he has succeeded in bringing with
him. … In vain Johnston sends against this battery his best
troops, those of South Carolina—the Hampton Legion among
others. In vain he rushes on it himself; nothing can shake the
Federals, who, at nightfall, valiantly led by General Sumner
in person, throw themselves upon the enemy at the point of the
bayonet, and drive him furiously, with frightful slaughter and
fear, back as far as Fair Oaks Station. Night put an end to
the combat. On both sides nothing was known of the result of
the battle but what each one had seen with his own eyes. …
Evidently Johnston had flattered himself, in throwing all his
forces on the four divisions of the left wing, that he could
annihilate them before any aid could come to them from the
main body of the army on the left bank of the Chickahominy.
For the moment he had recoiled before the energetic resistance
of those four divisions, and also before the furious and
unforeseen attack of Sumner's troops.
{3467}
No doubt he had counted on the terrible storm of the previous
day to have swelled the Chickahominy so as to render the
establishment of a bridge impossible, or to sweep away in its
overflowing waters those already established; but the
capricious river baffled his plans, as it did some hours later
those of his adversaries. The effect of the deluge was not
immediate; the rise in the water delayed its appearance 24
hours. Was this unhoped-for delay turned to account with all
desirable activity on the part of the Federals? That is a
question which will remain always in dispute. … It was not
until 7 o'clock in the evening that the idea of securing all
the bridges without delay, and causing the whole army to cross
at daybreak to the right bank of the Chickahominy, was
entertained. It was now too late. Four hours had been lost,
and the opportunity—that moment so fleeting, in war as in
other circumstances—had gone. The rise, on which Johnston had
vainly counted, and which had not hindered Sumner from
crossing, came on during the night. The river rose suddenly
from two feet, and continued to swell with rapidity, carrying
away the new bridges, tearing up and sweeping off the trees
which formed the planking of Sumner's bridges, and covering
the entire valley with its overflowing waters. Nothing could
cross. At the earliest dawn of day the combat was resumed with
great fury on the left bank. The enemy came on in a body, but
without order or method, and rushed upon the Federals, who,
knowing that they were inferior in numbers and without hope of
being supported, did not attempt to do more than resist and
hold their ground. They fought with fierce determination on
both sides, without any noise, without any cries, and whenever
they were too hardly pressed they made a charge with the
bayonet. … Toward midday the fire gradually diminished, then
ceased. The enemy retreated; but the Federals were not in a
position to pursue them. No one then knew what a loss the
Southerners had just suffered in the person of their
commander, General Johnston, who was severely wounded. It was
to his absence that was owing, in a great measure, the
unskilful attacks against the Federal army in the morning. …
Who can say what would have been the result if at this moment
the 35,000 fresh troops left on the other side of the
Chickahominy had appeared on the flank of this disordered mass
after having successfully crossed the bridges?'"
_W. J. Tenney,
Military and Naval History of the Rebellion,
chapter 19 (quoting and translating from
Prince de Joinville's "Campagne de l'Armée du Potomac")._
"After this battle of Seven Pines—or Fair Oaks, as the
Northern people prefer to call it—General McClellan made no
step forward, but employed his troops industriously in
intrenching themselves."
_J. E. Johnston,
Narrative of Military Operations,
page 142._
ALSO IN:
_G. W. Smith,
Two days of Battle at Seven Pines
(Battles and Leaders, volume 2, pages 220-263)._
_Official Records,
series 1, volume 11, part 1._
_W. Allan,
The Army of Northern Virginia in 1862,
chapter 7-8._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (May-June: Virginia).
Stonewall Jackson's second campaign in the Shenandoah Valley.
Winchester.
Cross Keys.
Port Republic.
"At the time the Army of the Potomac was toiling painfully up
the Peninsula towards Richmond, the remaining forces in
Northern Virginia presented the extraordinary spectacle of
three distinct armies, planted on three separate lines of
operations, under three independent commanders. The highland
region of West Virginia had been formed into the 'Mountain
Department' under command of General Fremont; the Valley of
the Shenandoah constituted the 'Department of the Shenandoah'
under General Banks; and the region covered by the direct
lines of approach to Washington had been erected into the
'Department of the Rappahannock,' and assigned to General
McDowell. … The Administration, growing more easy touching the
safety of the capital, determined, in response to General
McClellan's oft-repeated appeals for re-enforcements, to send
forward McDowell's corps,—not, indeed, as he desired, to
re-enforce him by water, but to advance overland to attack
Richmond in co-operation with the Army of the Potomac. … After
numerous delays, the time of advance of this column was at
length fixed for the 26th of May, a date closely coincident
with the arrival of the Army of the Potomac on the
Chickahominy. The head of McDowell's column had already been
pushed eight miles south of Fredericksburg; and McClellan, to
clear all opposition from his path, sent forward Porter's
corps to Hanover Junction, where he had a sharp encounter with
a force of the enemy under General Branch, whom he repulsed
with a loss of 200 killed and 700 prisoners, and established
the right of the Army of the Potomac within fifteen miles, or
one march, of McDowell's van. McDowell was eager to advance,
and McClellan was equally anxious for his arrival, when there
happened an event which frustrated this plan and all the hopes
that had been based thereon. This event was the irruption of
Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley. The keen-eyed
soldier at the head of the main Confederate army, discerning
the intended junction between McDowell and McClellan, quickly
seized his opportunity, and intrusted the execution of a bold
'coup' to that vigorous lieutenant who had already made the
Valley ring with his exploits." Jackson, who had been resting
for a time in a position between the south fork of the
Shenandoah and Swift Run Gap, was joined, on the 30th of
April, by Ewell's division from Gordonsville, and by other
re-enforcements, which "raised his force to about 15,000 men.
Banks' force, reduced by the detachment of Shields' division,
sent to General McDowell, to about 5,000 men, was posted at
Harrisonburg. Fremont was at Franklin, across the mountains;
but one of his brigades, under Milroy, had burst beyond the
limits of the Mountain Department, and seemed to be moving to
make a junction with Banks, with the design, as Jackson
thought, of advancing on Staunton. Jackson determined to
attack these forces in detail. Accordingly, he posted Ewell so
as to hold Banks in check, whilst he himself moved to
Staunton. From here he threw forward five brigades, under
General Edward Johnson (May 7), to attack Milroy. The latter
retreated to his mountain fastness, and took position at a
point named McDowell, where, re-enforced by the brigade of
Schenck, he engaged Johnson, but was forced to retire on
Fremont's main body at Franklin. Having thus thrown off Milroy
eccentrically from communication with Banks, Jackson returned
(May 14) to destroy the force under that officer." Banks
retreated down the Valley, followed by Jackson, who diverged a
little to capture a garrison of 700 men at Front Royal.
{3468}
On the 24th, Banks made a stand on the heights of Winchester
and gave fight, "till, being assailed on both flanks, he
retired hastily to the north bank of the Potomac (May 25),
making a march of 53 miles in 48 hours. Jackson continued the
pursuit as far as Halltown, within two miles of Harper's
Ferry, where he remained till the 30th, when, finding heavy
forces converging on his rear, he began a retrograde movement
up the Valley. The tidings of Jackson's apparition at
Winchester on the 24th, and his subsequent advance to Harper's
Ferry, fell like a thunderbolt on the war-council at
Washington. The order for McDowell's advance from
Fredericksburg, to unite with McClellan, was instantly
countermanded; and he was directed to put 20,000 men in motion
at once for the Shenandoah Valley, by the line of the Manassas
Gap Railroad. … In vain he pointed out that it was impossible
for him either to succor Banks or co-operate with Fremont; …
that it would take him a week or ten days to reach the Valley,
and that by this time the occasion for his services would have
passed by. In vain General McClellan urged the real motive of
the raid—to prevent re-enforcements from reaching him."
McDowell moved from the east and Fremont from the west,
converging on Strasburg. "The two columns moved rapidly; they
had almost effected a junction on the 31st; but that very day
Jackson, falling back from Harper's Ferry, slipped between the
two, and made good his retreat up the Valley. … The pursuers
did their best: they pushed on, Fremont following in the path
of Jackson up the Valley of the Shenandoah; while McDowell
sent forward Shields' division by the lateral Luray Valley,
with a view to head him off when he should attempt to break
through the gaps of the Blue Ridge." On the 8th of June
Ewell's division of Jackson's army "repulsed Fremont, while
Jackson held Shields in check. Early next morning, drawing in
Ewell and concentrating his forces, Jackson threw himself
across the river, burned the bridge to prevent Fremont from
following; fell upon Shields' advance, consisting of two
brigades under General Tyler, and repulsed him, capturing his
artillery. The former of these affairs figures in history as
the battle of Cross Keys, and the latter as the battle of Port
Republic. In this exciting month's campaign, Jackson made
great captures of stores and prisoners; but this was not its
chief result. Without gaining a single tactical victory he had
yet achieved a great strategic victory; for by skilfully
manœuvring 15,000 men he succeeded in neutralizing a force of
60,000. It is perhaps not too much to say that he saved
Richmond."
_W. Swinton,
Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac,
pages 122-128._
ALSO IN:
_J. D. Imboden,
Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah
(Battles and Leaders, volume 2, page 282-301)._
_J. E. Cooke,
Stonewall Jackson: a Military Biography,
part 2, chapters 8-17._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (May-July: On the Mississippi).
The first undertakings against Vicksburg.
"New Orleans once secured and handed over to General Butler,
Farragut pushed up the Mississippi, and in the course of the
next two months the Union flag was hoisted at Baton Rouge,
Natchez, and every town of importance as high as Vicksburg.
This city, strong by its natural position on high bluffs
sloping gently landward, and already partly converted into a
fortress by intrenchments heavily armed, was now (since the
surrender of Memphis on the 6th of June) the only point of
importance held by the Confederates on the banks of the great
river. It at once, therefore, assumed an importance well
warranted by its later history. Summoned on the 18th of May to
evacuate the place, General M. L. Smith, who held it, gave a
decided refusal; and Farragut found it necessary to await once
more the arrival of Porter's flotilla, which was not brought
up and reported ready until the 27th of June. On the 28th a
general attack took place, Farragut succeeding in taking two
of his three frigates and six gun-boats above the batteries,
but producing no effect on the defences. 'The enemy leave
their guns for the moment,' says his hasty report, 'but return
to them as soon as we have passed, and rake us.' About 50 men
were killed and wounded on board, and the Brooklyn frigate,
with two gun-boats, forced to retreat below the place. The
bombardment continued at intervals, pending an application to
General Halleck at Corinth for a corps of his army to aid the
fleet, and the result of an experiment (the first of three)
made to cut a ship canal through the isthmus opposite
Vicksburg, and leave the Federal ships an independent passage.
On the 15th of July their possession of the river was suddenly
challenged by a large ram, the Arkansas, which the
Confederates had been fitting on the Yazoo, a considerable
stream entering the Mississippi just above Vicksburg. … Her
plating, however, proved to be weak, and her machinery very
defective." The career of the Arkansas was brief and harmless.
In August she was knocked to pieces by the shells of the
Essex, "whose commander had taken charge of the Lower
Mississippi on the departure of Farragut. The latter officer,
in compliance with orders from Mr. Welles, had abandoned his
contest with the Vicksburg works on the 20th of July, and made
down stream for New Orleans, whence he proceeded with his
squadron to carry on operations along the coast of Texas,
where the chief posts were (for the time) recovered to the
Union by his detachments in the course of a few weeks. 'All we
want,' he wrote on the 15th of October, 'is a few soldiers to
hold the places, and we will soon have the whole coast. It is
a more effectual blockade to have the vessels inside instead
of outside.'"
_C. C. Chesney,
Essays in Military Biography,
pages 169-171._
ALSO IN:
_L. Farragut,
Life of David G. Farragut,
chapter. 20._
_D. D. Porter,
Naval History of the Civil War,
chapter 21._
_R. B. Irwin,
History of the 19th Army Corps.
chapters 2-3._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (May-December: Louisiana).
New Orleans under General Butler.
The army which accompanied Farragut's naval expedition against
New Orleans, to assist its operations and to occupy the city
and the lower Mississippi region when taken, was placed under
the command of General Benjamin F. Butler. It consisted
nominally of 18,000 men, but is said to have actually mustered
less than 14,000. It was composed of regiments which had been
raised by Butler in New England especially for the enterprise,
his preparations having commenced as early as September, 1861.
These troops were partly gathered at Ship Island, in the Gulf,
some time before Farragut made ready his fleet; the remainder
were at the rendezvous in good time, and the whole were in
waiting, on board transports, at the passes, when Farragut
carried his fleet past Forts Jackson and St. Philip.
{3469}
"General Butler … now proceeded to execute his part of the
duty. He brought his forces into the rear of St. Philip,
Porter keeping up a bombardment. On the 27th of April the
garrison had become so demoralized as to refuse to fight any
longer. The forts were therefore surrendered on the next day.
… On the 1st of May New Orleans 'was formally occupied by
United States troops. The loss on the national side in
achieving this great victory was 40 killed and 177 wounded. …
General Butler now entered on the difficult task of governing
New Orleans. Its population, though greatly diminished to
strengthen the Confederate armies in the Border States—a cause
of bitter complaint to the inhabitants—still numbered about
140,000. Almost one half of it was of foreign birth. Perhaps
no city in the world had in its lower classes a more dangerous
and desperate population. There was a wide-spread hope that a
French force would soon come to their help. By firmness,
strict yet considerate, he controlled the municipal
authorities; by severity he put down the mob. He was a terror
to tricky tradesmen, a benefactor to the starving poor. He
cleaned the streets, enforced sanitary regulations, and kept
out yellow fever. He put an effectual stop to the operations
of Confederate agents, who were illicitly obtaining supplies
for their cause. … He arrested Mumford, the person who had
hauled down the national flag at the Mint [where it had been
raised by one of Farragut's officers before the arrival of the
troops], brought him before a military commission, convicted
and executed him." This execution of Mumford (by hanging) drew
from the Confederate President, Davis, a proclamation
denouncing Butler as "an outlaw and common enemy of mankind";
directing that, if captured, he should be immediately hung;
declaring the commissioned officers of his command "not
entitled to be considered as soldiers engaged in honorable
warfare, but as robbers and criminals"; and ordering that "no
commissioned officer of the United States taken captive shall
be released on parole before exchange until the said Butler
shall have met with due punishment for his crimes." "Some
women of New Orleans, relying on the immunity of their sex,
gratified their animosity by insulting national officers in
public places. One of them ventured so far as to spit in the
face of an officer who was quietly walking in the street.
Hereupon was issued 'General Order No. 28' [known as 'the
Woman Order,' which gave notice that] … 'hereafter, when any
female shall, by word, gesture, or movement, insult or show
contempt for any officer or soldier of the United States, she
shall be regarded and held liable to be treated as a woman of
the town plying her vocation.' … The feeling of personal
hatred to Butler grew daily more and more intense. He was
accused of improper tampering with the banks, speculating in
sequestrated property, and, through the agency of his brother,
carrying on illegal but profitable transactions in sugar and
cotton. In South Carolina a reward of $10,000 had been offered
for his assassination. Throughout the Confederacy he received
an ignominious surname, and was known as 'Butler the Beast.'
The government felt constrained to send a commission to New
Orleans to investigate his transactions. Its conclusion was
that he had evidently acted 'under a misapprehension, to be
referred to the patriotic zeal which governs him.'" In
December General Butler was recalled and General Banks was
sent to take his place.
_J. W. Draper,
History of the American Civil War,
chapter 52 (volume 2)._
ALSO IN:
_B. J. Lossing,
Field Book of the Civil War,
volume 2, chapter 13._
_J. Parton,
General Butler in New Orleans,
chapters 11-32._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (June: On the Mississippi).
The capture of Memphis.
The naval fight before the city.
After the evacuation of Corinth by Beauregard, "Fort Pillow,
40 miles above Memphis, was no longer of any account, for the
Union army could take it from the rear. The Confederates,
therefore, spiked the guns, burned their barracks and what
supplies they could not take away; and the Confederate
gunboats went down the river to Memphis, where several of the
boats had been built. Commodore Montgomery commanded the
fleet. He had eight vessels. … Fort Pillow evacuated! It was
astounding news to the people of Memphis. They learned it at
noon, June 5th. The merchants closed their stores. Some of
them began to pack their goods. Some of the citizens jumped on
board the cars and fled from the city. The Confederate fleet
made its appearance. 'I shall retreat no farther,' said
Commodore Montgomery; 'I shall fight a battle in front of the
city, and to-morrow morning you will see Lincoln's gunboats
sent to the bottom.' The dawn is breaking when I step from the
Benton, the flag-ship of Commodore Davis [commanding the Union
river fleet], to the tugboat Jessie Benton. … The Union fleet
is at anchor three miles above the city. 'Drop down below the
city and see if you can discover the Confederate fleet,' is
the order to the captain of the Jessie Benton. We sweep around
the majestic bend of the river and behold the city. The first
rays of the sun are gilding the spires of the churches. A
crowd of people is upon the levee—men, women, and children—who
have come out to see the Union fleet sent to the bottom. …
Suddenly a vessel with a black cloud of smoke rolling from the
chimneys shoots into the stream. It is the Little Rebel,
Commodore Montgomery's flag-ship. One by one the other vessels
follow, forming in two lines of battle. In the front line,
nearest the city, is the Beauregard, next the Little Rebel,
then the Price and Sumter. In the second line, behind the
Beauregard, is the Lovell, then the Thompson, Bragg, and Van
Dorn. … There are five gunboats in the Union fleet. The Benton
is nearest the Tennessee shore, then the Carondelet,
Louisville, St. Louis, and Cairo. There are also two rams—the
Queen City and Monarch. The rams are river steamers, with
thick oak sides; they carry no cannon, but on each boat are
100 riflemen. 'Round to; head down stream; keep in line with
the flag-ship,' was the order which we on board the Jessie
Benton carried to each boat of the line." In the fight which
followed, and which is graphically described by the
eye-witness here quoted, the Price and the Beauregard were run
down by the rams; the Little Rebel, the Lovell, the Thompson
and the Bragg were destroyed by shot and shell; the Sumter
driven ashore, and the Van Dorn alone escaped. On the Union
side, only the ram Queen City was disabled.
{3470}
"In an hour's time the Confederate fleet was annihilated. … It
is not known how many men were lost on the Confederate side,
but probably from 80 to 100. Colonel Ellet was the only one
injured on board the Union fleet. … The victory opens the
Upper Mississippi from Cairo to Vicksburg."
_C. C. Coffin,
Drumbeat of the Nation,
chapter 10._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (June: Virginia).
The Peninsular Campaign: McClellan fortifying and Lee
preparing for a bold attack.
"When McClellan crossed the Chickahominy it was thought he
would advance immediately upon Richmond. This expectation was
disappointed, however, for instead of advancing he began to
fortify his position. The right wing rested on the
Chickahominy a little below New Bridge, and the left extended
to the White Oak Swamp, embracing a front of about four miles,
nearly parallel with that of the Confederates. The opposing
lines were separated by an interval but little exceeding a
mile, but each was obscured from the other's view by the
intervening forest. The picket-lines were often within close
musket-range of each other. … The strength of the Confederate
force was always greatly overestimated by McClellan, and his
frequent and urgent calls for reinforcements exposed his want
of confidence in his own strength. General Lee [who took
command of the Confederate army June 1, General Johnston being
disabled], knowing this uneasy, insecure feeling of his
antagonist, and McDowell's force, which had always been a
thorn in his side, being about this time withdrawn from
Fredericksburg for the support of Banks and Shields in the
Valley, prepared … to assume the offensive. He conceived the
bold plan of crossing the Chickahominy, and, attacking the
Federal right wing, to force it back and seize McClellan's
line of communication with his base of operations. This plan
being successfully executed, the Federal general would be
compelled to save his army as best he could by retreat.
Preparatory to the execution of this plan General J. E. B.
Stuart was ordered to make a reconnoissance in the rear of the
Federal position. This officer, with a force of about 1,000
cavalry, executed his instructions with great boldness and
success. He made the entire circuit of the Federal army and
gained much important information, … captured many prisoners
and destroyed Federal stores to the value of $7,000,000. … His
design being confirmed by Stuart's successful reconnoissance,
Lee proceeded to organize a force requisite for the
accomplishment of his proposed enterprise. The troops that
could be conveniently spared from North Carolina, South
Carolina, and Georgia were ordered to Richmond. … At the same
time General Jackson was ordered to withdraw secretly from the
Valley and proceed with such expedition as would enable him to
reach Hanover Junction by the afternoon of the 25th of June.
In order to mask his designs from the Federals, Lee directed
Whiting's division and Lawton's brigade to proceed to
Staunton, apparently with the view of reinforcing Jackson, but
really under orders to return immediately and join that
general on the 25th at Hanover Junction. This movement further
strengthened McClellan in his opinion of Lee's vastly superior
force, and completely blinded him in regard to the real
intentions of that general. General Lee determined to attack
the Federal right wing on the morning of the 26th of June."
_A. L. Long,
Memoirs of Robert E. Lee,
page 169._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (June-July: Virginia).
The Peninsular Campaign: The Seven Days Battle and Retreat.
Mechanicsville.
Gaines' Mill.
Savage Station.
Glendale.'
Malvern Hill.
"Since the battle of Fair Oaks the Second Corps (Sumner) had
remained on the right bank of the Chickahominy, where it had
been followed in the month of June by the Sixth Corps
(Franklin). So that only the Fifth Corps (Porter) remained on
the left bank, recently reënforced by McCall's division. All
the efforts of the enemy were made there, and there the great
seven days' contest commenced. On the 26th of June, A. P.
Hill, preceding Jackson by twenty-four hours, endeavored to
force the passage of Beaver Dam Creek, defended by the
Pennsylvanians under McCall. He was repulsed with considerable
loss on the Mechanicsville road. But, during the night, Porter
was compelled to fall back to a position more tenable against
a force become much superior to his own, Jackson and
Longstreet having united against his lines. On the 27th, then,
the Fifth Corps, with about 25,000 men, was assailed by 70,000
Confederates on Gaines' Mill Heights, and defended itself
there obstinately, until our own cavalry came fatally to the
enemy's aid. Unskilfully handled and roughly repulsed, it fell
back in disorder on our lines, where it put everything into
confusion, artillery and infantry. The Confederates, coming on
at the charge, finished the overthrow, and the Fifth Corps
would have been destroyed if the coming of the night had not
enabled our decimated troops to cross to the right bank of the
Chickahominy, destroying the bridges behind them. [This
battle, called Gaines' Mill by the Federals, was named Cold
Harbor, or Chickahominy, by the Rebels.] … As soon as Porter
had crossed safely on the 28th, the general retreat commenced.
Keyes crossed White Oak swamp first, and took position to
protect the passage of the immense army trains and the great
herds of cattle. Then, on the 29th, after having repulsed a
cavalry attack, he continued his way towards the James, where
he arrived on the 30th, at the same time that Porter reached
Haxall's Landing. Much less favored, the three other corps
suspended their march only to fight and ceased to fight only
to march. But all this was done without any general system, in
the absence of superior supervision, and of orders in
accordance with circumstances. On the 29th the enemy crossed
the Chickahominy to unite all his force on the right bank;
Franklin advised Sumner, and the two, acting together, fell
back on Savage Station, where they took up position, with the
intention, aided by Heintzelman, of repelling the dangerous
attack which menaced them. But Heintzelman, adhering to his
general instructions, after destroying the material of the
railroad, the provisions, munitions of war, arms and baggage
that there was neither time nor means of carrying away,
hastened to cross White Oak swamp, uncovering Sumner's left.
The latter learned of the retreat of the Third Corps only from
a furious attack by the enemy on the very side which he
believed protected by Heintzelman. He did not the less sustain
the shock with an unshakable solidity, and fought all the
afternoon with four divisions without being broken at any
point.
{3471}
The enemy, worn out by the useless attacks, retired at
nightfall. Then only did he receive any news from McClellan;
under the form of an order to Sumner to fall back, along with
Franklin, to the other side of White Oak swamp, abandoning our
general hospitals at Savage Station, and the 2,500 sick and
wounded in them. On the Morning of the 30th, Jackson presented
himself, to cross the swamp after us. He found the bridge
destroyed, and endeavored to force a passage at several
points. He was everywhere repulsed and kept in check the whole
day by the obstinate resistance of Franklin, while farther on,
towards the James, Longstreet was held by Heintzelman and
McCall, who prevented him from cutting our army in two at
Glendale. This was not done without hard fighting. The
Confederates, arriving by the New Market road at a right angle
to the Quaker road, which was our line of march, struck, in
the first place, the Pennsylvania reserves, broke their line,
outflanking it on the right and on the left, captured a
battery of artillery, and pushed resolutely on through that
dangerous breach. They then struck Hooker's division, which
threw them obliquely on Sumner's Corps. Soon afterward,
Kearney occupied the vacant space, and, as on the evening
before, the sun set with the rebels unsuccessful. [This day's
battle is variously named after Glendale, New Market,
Frazier's Farm, and Nelson's Farm.] But, the same evening,
Franklin, left without orders, and seeing his position was
becoming more and more dangerous, abandoned White Oak swamp
and fell back towards the James. At that news, which was
promptly sent to him from several directions, Heintzelman sent
in vain to headquarters to ask for instructions. Left to his
own devices, he concluded that the wisest course was to follow
the retrograde movement, and retreated with his corps. Sumner
still remained, and, seeing himself left alone and without
support, he decided, in his turn, to do as the others had
done. On the morning of the 31st, he arrived on the Malvern
Heights, where the three corps, the Second, Third, and Sixth,
found themselves united, not, as has been benevolently said,
by the wise combinations of General McClellan, but by the
fortunate inspiration of the commanders, who had received no
orders to that effect. 'At daylight,' said General Sumner, in
his testimony before the Congressional committee, 'I called on
General McClellan, on the banks of the James. He told me that
he had intended that the army should hold the position it had
the night before, and that no order for retreat had been sent;
but that, since the rest of the army had fallen back, he was
glad that I had done the same.' It was found that the plateau
of Malvern Hill was admirably formed for a defensive position.
General Humphreys, of the corps of topographical engineers,
was ordered to examine the position, and he traced a
formidable line with the left resting at Haxall's Landing on
the James, where it was protected by the gun-boats, while the
right was thrown back on some fields covered with thick woods,
and cut up by marshy streams. The summits and slopes of the
plateau were bristling with cannon, sweeping the plain over
the heads of our infantry deployed in front of them. In that
position, the army awaited a last attack. The enemy played
there his last card, and lost the game. … He tried his fortune
and gave battle July 1. On every point his columns were thrown
back in disorder, crushed in every attack by the double fire
of artillery and infantry. Dash was not enough now. On this
occasion, the enemy was compelled to acknowledge himself
beaten and incapable of pursuing us any further. But our men
were slow to believe in success. On receiving the order, a few
hours later, after night had put an end to the contest, to
retire to Harrison's Landing, they naturally concluded that we
were not strong enough to hold out long against the enemy. …
Worn out by fatigue and fighting, exhausted by privations and
by vigils, discouraged, and suspecting that it was not fortune
alone that had betrayed them, they dragged themselves along
without order … during that last night march, which had all
the character of a rout."
_R. de Trobriand,
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac,
chapter 13._
"If McClellan deserves sharp criticism for not having sooner
made up his mind, and still more for his failure to discover
and use the absence of the Confederates in his front, where
his advance in mass, according to General Magruder's
officially expressed opinion, 'would have insured his success,
and the occupation of the works about Richmond, and
consequently the city,' his character as a commander never
shone so brightly as in the hour of disaster and danger, when
Porter's wing was driven in upon his centre. The ill-success
of his campaign as a whole has caused his conduct at this
crisis to be done scant justice to. But there is no military
reputation in the world which would not be increased by the
manner in which that retreat to the James was conducted from
the moment it began."
_C. C. Chesney,
Essays in Military Biog.,
page 114._
ALSO IN:
_W. Allan,
The Army of Northern Virginia in 1862,
chapters 12-17._
_A. S. Webb,
Campaigns of the Civil War,
volume 3: The Peninsula, chapter 9._
_F. J. Porter, W. B. Franklin, D. H. Hill, and others,
The Seven Days' Fighting
(Battles and Leaders, volume 2)._
_G. B. McClellan,
Complete Report,
part 2._
_Official Records,
series 1, volume 11, parts. 1-2._
_Report of Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War
(Senate Reports, 37th Congress,
3d session, volume 2, part 1)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862
(June-October: Tennessee-Kentucky).
Ineffective dispersion of Western armies.
Failure to secure Chattanooga and Vicksburg.
Bragg's invasion of Kentucky.
The race for Louisville.
Battle of Perryville.
End of Buell's campaign.
"We left the Federals in possession of Corinth and Memphis,
the army of Beauregard disappearing in the depths of
semi-tropical forests where the Tombigbee takes its source,
and Montgomery's ships lying at the bottom of the Mississippi.
See, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862
(APRIL-MAY: TENNESSEE-MISSISSIPPI)
and (JUNE: ON THE MISSISSIPPI).
The part to be played by the Federal fleets was fully laid
out; Farragut, by ascending the river, and Davis, by
descending it, were to endeavor to join hands and destroy all
the obstacles which still obstructed its course. What, in the
mean time, was the large army encamped at Corinth going to do?
It had allowed Beauregard to escape at the very moment when it
felt sure of crushing him; but it could yet strike some
decisive blows either to eastward or westward, the
Confederates being nowhere sufficiently numerous to make any
strong opposition.
{3472}
Eastward, Mitchell had forced open the way to Chattanooga and
approached the gap which opens south-east of that town, before
which, at a subsequent period, so much blood was shed at the
battles of Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge. He was master of
the passes of the Tennessee, and the Federals, stationed at
Corinth, could reach Chattanooga much more speedily than their
adversary encamped at Tupelo. They might probably conquer by
the same stroke the whole upper course of the river which
waters this town. Westward, the Federals could sweep both
sides of the Mississippi, cause all the Confederate works
which defended them to fall, and perhaps prevent the enemy
from erecting the formidable citadels of Vicksburg and Port
Hudson, the capture of which, at a later period, cost so dear.
… Everything … was in favor of prompt and vigorous action. But
Halleck divided his army, and, notwithstanding the resources
he had at his disposal, allowed his adversaries to forestall
him everywhere. … The army of the Ohio left Corinth on the
10th of June, and Buell was ordered to proceed with it in the
direction of Chattanooga, where Mitchell was beginning to be
sorely pressed; but this movement was slowly executed.
Sherman, at the head of his own division and that of Hurlbut,
proceeded toward Memphis, dropping detachments of troops as
far as Holly Springs to cover his left flank. The rebuilding
of the Mobile Railway, which had been completely destroyed by
the enemy, was a considerable undertaking. Begun on the 9th of
June, it was only finished on the 26th. The Confederates had
profited by this delay. The new general-in-chief, Braxton
Bragg [who had superseded Beauregard], had boldly divided his
army and abandoned the position of Tupelo, which Halleck still
believed him to occupy. He had determined to cover at once the
two points we have already indicated as being of the greatest
importance for the future of the war, Chattanooga and
Vicksburg. He proceeded toward the first with all the old army
of Johnston, consisting of the corps of Hardee and Polk, as
rapidly as the difficulties of communication in that portion
of the Southern States allowed. He had the merit and good
fortune to reach Chattanooga before Buell. It was not too
soon, for a few days previous, the 7th of June, the Federal
General Negley, with his single brigade and some cannon, had
nearly taken possession of this city by surprise. Bragg found
it of great advantage to transfer the war to the vicinity of
Chattanooga. Master of this position, indeed, he could menace
either Tennessee or Kentucky, Nashville or Louisville and
wrest from the Federals all the conquests they had achieved
during the last few months by taking them in rear. He was also
drawing near Virginia."
_Comte de Paris,
History of the Civil War in America,
volume 2, book 2, chapter 3._
"Halleck soon leaves for Washington to assume supreme control
of the Union forces from the War Department. Grant is left in
command of the Army of the Tennessee, Buell of the Army of the
Ohio, Pope of the Army of the Mississippi. Everyone is without
definite instructions; there is no one head; and the Western
armies are practically put upon the defensive. Rosecrans
succeeds Pope, who is transferred to Virginia, and to Grant's
lot now fall the armies of the Mississippi and Tennessee,
42,000 effectives, with which to keep open his communications
with Buell and guard the railroad from Memphis to Decatur.
While Grant and Sherman devote their energies to the line of
the Mississippi, Buell is ordered to regain East Tennessee,
where the loyal population is in extreme suffering. Mitchell's
[General O. M. Mitchell] capture of Huntsville [in Alabama,
which he surprised, by a remarkable forced march, from
Nashville, in April], and some hundred miles of the Memphis
and Charleston Railroad, which he had held, together with all
territory north of the Tennessee river, had been full of
possibilities. Had he but received the authority, he might
readily have anticipated Bragg in taking possession of
Chattanooga, and have saved much subsequent blood and
treasure. For this town is the key to that entire strategic
field. … Buell supposed that Bragg would attempt to turn his
right in order to obtain possession of Nashville. He therefore
concentrated the bulk of his force at Murfreesboro. Thomas,
then commanding a wing of the Army of the Ohio, whose military
intuitions were as keen as his judgment was reliable, … was
shrewd enough to recognize Bragg's crossing of the Tennessee
river as a threat to invade Kentucky. Not so Buell, to his
sorrow. By a sudden movement, Bragg steals a march around
Buell's left, through the Sequatchie Valley [August 28], and
marches straight toward Louisville, while Kirby Smith turns
Cumberland Gap, defeats Nelson at Richmond, and makes for
Cincinnati. … Thoroughly alarmed, as is also the country,
Buell at once swings his left in pursuit of Bragg, while he
endeavors to retain his grasp on Nashville with his right.
Bragg has the shorter line and the start. But he is delayed a
day or two [September 16-17] by the capture of Mumfordsville,
and by scattering his forces instead of pushing home. This is
a serious fault on Bragg's part. He fairly holds success in
his hand, but forfeits it by this delay. After some rapid
marching and manœuvring, Buell enters Louisville just ahead of
his opponent. The authorities in Washington have lost all
confidence in Buell. He is summarily relieved from command and
Thomas appointed to succeed him. But this magnanimous soldier,
though far from always agreeing with the methods of his chief,
declines the proffered honor, and, at his earnest
solicitation, Buell is reinstated. The Army of the Ohio
marches out to meet Bragg, with Thomas second in command.
Bragg expects to defend the line of the Kentucky and Duck
rivers, but divides his forces, leaving Kirby Smith near
Frankfort. Buell makes a demonstration upon Bragg's
communications. After some cautious feeling, Buell comes upon
Hardee with only 15,000 men, at Perryville, where, had he at
once attacked, he could have punished Bragg severely for this
division. But, owing to lack of water, one-half of Buell's
army is distant from the field, and he in turn pays the
penalty of lack of concentration. Polk joins Hardee, and the
latter [October 8] falls heavily upon McCook, who holds
Buell's left, and bears him back. But he cannot break the
Union centre; and after a stubborn conflict Bragg retires,
leaving to our forces the field. Our left has not been
engaged. The loss is nearly 5,000 men on either side, a
quarter of the numbers actually engaged. On being followed up,
Bragg retreats through Cumberland Gap, and leaves Kentucky and
Tennessee once more in our possession. His retreat ends only
at Chattanooga.
{3473}
What Bragg expected to obtain in Kentucky was a vast accession
of recruits and horses, as did Lee in Maryland. Both fell
short of their calculations, though Bragg carried off a goodly
train of supplies. Forgetful of what he had really done, the
South was bitter in its criticism of Bragg's failure to hold
Eastern Tennessee and Kentucky. … Halleck now insists that
Buell shall undertake a campaign in East Tennessee, still
occupied by the enemy. But Buell alleges the utter
impossibility of subsisting his troops so far from the
railroad; and again concentrates at Nashville. Here he is
relieved [October 30] and General Rosecrans is appointed to
the command."
_T. A. Dodge,
Bird's-Eye View of Our Civil War,
chapter 15._
ALSO IN:
_D. C. Buell, J. Wheeler, and others,
The Perryville Campaign
(Battles and Leaders, volume 3)._
_T. B. Van Horne,
History of the Army of the Cumberland,
chapters 12-15 (volume 1)._
_J. B. Fry,
Operations of the Army under Buell._
_Official Records,
series 1, volume 16._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (July).
Three hundred thousand more.
On the 2d of July, 1862, the President issued his proclamation
calling for 300,000 volunteers.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (July).
Land-grant for agricultural and mechanical Colleges.
See EDUCATION, MODERN: AMERICA: A. D. 1862.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (July).
Prescription of the Ironclad Oath.
See IRONCLAD OATH.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (July).
The fitting out of the Rebel cruiser, Alabama, at Liverpool.
See ALABAMA CLAIMS: A. D. 1862-1864.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (July).
Confiscation of the property of rebels,
giving freedom to their slaves.
Immediately on the assembling of Congress at its regular
session in December, 1861, "Mr. Trumbull of Illinois
introduced a bill, providing that the slaves of all who had
taken up arms against the United States should 'become forever
thereafter free, any law to the contrary notwithstanding.' …
On the 25th of February it came up for general debate, which
was very extended. … Divergences of views, even among those
who had been most prominent and pronounced in their
antislavery action, and the general drift of the discussion,
seemed to preclude any reasonable hope of agreement upon any
motion or measure then before the Senate. It was therefore
moved by Mr. Clark of New Hampshire to refer the whole matter,
the original bill, and all motions, amendments, and
substitutes, to a select committee. This, too, gave rise to a
sharp debate. … The motion was carried by a vote of 24 to 14;
and the committee, consisting of Clark, Collamer, Trumbull,
Cowan, Wilson, Harris, Sherman, Henderson, and Willey, was
appointed. Mr. Trumbull declining, Mr. Harlan was appointed in
his place. The committee reported 'a bill to suppress
insurrection, and punish treason and rebellion'; and on the
16th of May it came up for consideration. Its main provision
was that at any time after the passage of the act, the
President might issue his proclamation that the slaves of
persons found, 30 days after the issuing of the proclamation,
in arms against the government, will be free, any law or
custom to the contrary; that no slave escaping from his master
shall be given up, unless the claimant proves he has not given
aid or comfort to the Rebellion; and that the President shall
be authorized to employ persons of African descent for the
suppression of the Rebellion. … The bill was further debated,
but did not reach a vote. In the House a substantially similar
course was pursued. On the first day of the regular session
Mr. Eliot of Massachusetts introduced a resolution
confiscating the property and freeing the slaves of those
engaged in the Rebellion. It did not, however, come up for
consideration till the close of the following week. … A motion
was finally made and carried to refer the whole subject to a
select committee of seven, consisting of Olin, Eliot, Noell,
Hutchins, Mallory, Beaman, and Cobb. Mr. Olin was excused, and
Mr. Sedgwick of New York was appointed in his place. On the
14th of May Mr. Eliot from the committee reported two
bills,—the one confiscating Rebel property, and the other
freeing the slaves of Rebels,—and opened the debate on 'the
twin measures of confiscation and emancipation.' … On the 26th
of May Mr. Eliot closed the debate, and the two bills he had
reported from the special committee were brought to a vote.
The first, or that providing for the confiscation of Rebel
property, was passed by a strong majority. The second, or that
freeing the slaves of Rebels, coming up for action, the first
business was the disposal of the several amendments that had
been offered. The amendments having all been voted down, the
original bill was lost by a vote of 74 to 78. That vote was,
however, reconsidered and the bill was recommitted. On the
18th of June Mr. Eliot moved a substitute for the bill
reported by the committee, which was accepted by the House,
and the bill, as thus amended, was passed by a vote of 82 to
54. The gist of this bill consisted in the provision, that all
slaves of persons found in rebellion 60 days after the
President shall issue his proclamation should be free; and the
President should appoint commissioners to carry its provisions
into effect. The House confiscation bill was taken up in the
Senate on the 23d of June. An amendment was moved by Mr. Clark
combining confiscation and emancipation. The amendment was
sharply debated, but was adopted on the 28th. The bill as
amended was adopted by a vote of 28 to 13. The bill as thus
amended was taken up in the House on the 3d of July, and the
House non-concurred in the Senate's amendment. … A committee
of conference was appointed, which reported, on the 11th, in
substance the Senate amendment. The report was accepted by
both bodies, … and the President gave it his approval on the
17th. It provided that all slaves of Rebels coming into the
possession or under the protection of the government should be
deemed captives of war, and made free; that fugitive slaves
should not be surrendered; that no person engaged in the
military or naval service should render fugitives on pain of
being dismissed from the service; and that the President might
employ persons of the African race for the suppression of the
Rebellion in such manner as he might deem best."
_H. Wilson,
History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America,
volume 3, chapter 25._
ALSO IN:
_J. G. Blaine,
Twenty Years of Congress,
volume 1, pages 373-377._
_E. McPherson,
Political History of the United States during the Rebellion,
pages 196-203._
{3474}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (July-August: Virginia).
The end of the Peninsular Campaign.
The army at Harrison's Landing.
Results of the Seven Days fighting.
Withdrawal from the Peninsula.
"On reaching Harrison's Landing there were scarcely 50,000 men
in the ranks, but on the 4th of July, when the corps
commanders made their reports, it was found that the net
losses of the army since the 20th of June amounted to 15,249
men, of whom 1,582 had been killed, 7,700 wounded, and 5,958
missing. This last figure comprised, besides prisoners, all
the soldiers who had been left on the field of battle, whose
fate, whether killed or wounded, could not be ascertained; to
this number may be added, without exaggeration, 6,000 sick or
lame who had gone to the hospital in consequence of the
excessive fatigues of the preceding days. McClellan therefore
found himself with about 84,000 men under arms, not counting
those who had just joined him. The losses of Lee's army during
the seven days amounted to 20,000 men, to which number must
also be added at least 5,000 rendered unfit for active service
by the same causes which had operated with his adversaries;
this army, therefore, had undergone a diminution of 25,000
men. This was more than one-fourth of its effective force on
the 26th of June. An interlude was to follow this great
struggle. While McClellan was fortifying himself at Harrison's
Landing, Lee, hampered like himself by the difficulty of
subsisting his army, was obliged to fall back as far as the
environs of Richmond. … In the estimation of those who did not
allow themselves to be troubled by foolish alarms and were not
blinded by party prejudices, McClellan's situation was far
from bad. … Planted on the James, McClellan could, either by
ascending this river or by seizing upon Petersburg, strike
much deadlier blows at Richmond than when his army lay across
the Chickahominy, far from any water communication. Such was
the position of the two armies about the 7th of July. On this
day the steamer coming from Fortress Monroe landed a passenger
at Harrison's Landing, whose dress, as simple as his manners,
did not at first attract any attention, but in whom people
soon recognized President Lincoln. He had come to consult with
the commander of the army of the Potomac about the measures to
be adopted under those grave circumstances. … On the occasion
of his interview with McClellan at Harrison's Landing, the
latter had so thoroughly demonstrated the importance of that
position that [the President] went back fully determined to
allow the chief of the army of the Potomac full freedom of
action. But General Halleck … claimed for himself, as
commander-in-chief [lately so appointed], the exclusive
direction of all the armies in the field, and Mr. Lincoln,
conscious of his own incompetency, submitted to this new
authority." Measures taken during July for placing the army of
the Potomac again upon the offensive were altered on the 3d of
August, when Halleck gave orders to McClellan to transfer his
army with all possible expedition to Aquia Creek, on the
Potomac, for the support of General Pope and the Army of
Virginia.
_Comte de Paris,
History of the Civil War in America,
volume 2, book 1, chapter 4
and book 3, chapter 1._
ALSO IN:
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 5, chapter 24._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (July-August: Virginia).
The beginning of Pope's campaign: Cedar Mountain, or Cedar Run.
"While Lee and McClellan were resting, important events were
taking place at Washington and in Northern Virginia. The
Federal administration, satisfied of the impolicy of the
separate departments and independent commands which they had
organized in that region, had determined to unite under one
leader the three armies of Banks, Fremont, and McDowell, which
Jackson had beaten or baffled in succession. … Their united
armies were henceforth to be styled the Army of Virginia,
while McClellan's forces continued to be known as the Army of
the Potomac. General John Pope, whose deeds and still more his
dispatches in the West, had given him some reputation, was
called to Washington and placed at the head of the new army.
General Pope was assigned to command on the 26th of June. …
The unification of these commands under Pope was followed by
another and still more important change of the same kind. The
dissatisfaction of the Federal administration with General
McClellan had been steadily growing for many months. This
officer's caution often exposed him, and sometimes not
unjustly, to the charge of timidity. … No doubt other causes,
such as his moderation and his conservative political views,
rendered him distasteful to the progressive radicals who at
this time predominated in Mr. Lincoln's cabinet; but it must
be confessed that McClellan's military conduct was not such as
to inspire confidence or diminish antagonisms, and it, alone,
is sufficient to account for the manner in which he was
treated by his government. … After the Seven Days' Battles,
the Federal government called General Halleck from the West …
and placed him in chief command of the armies of the United
States, the position from which McClellan had been deposed in
March. The order assigning General Halleck was dated July 11,
but the latter did not arrive in Washington and enter upon his
duties until Ju]y 23. By this appointment it was designed to
give a common head to the two armies in Virginia, and insure
the cooperation of McClellan and Pope. The first great
question that presented itself to Halleck was, what to do with
McClellan's forces, and on the day after assuming command he
left Washington to visit this army. The visit seems to have
satisfied him of the propriety of withdrawing the Army of the
Potomac at once from the Peninsula, and of placing it on the
line of the Rappahannock. … During the month of Ju]y, while
McClellan was resting at Westover, General Pope, though in
Washington, was not idle. Having devoted some days to the
reorganization and equipment of his command, he directed the
concentration of the mass of his forces at the eastern base of
the Blue Ridge Mountains in Rappahannock County, from which
position he could cover the approach to Washington, or
threaten the flank of any columns going toward the Shenandoah
Valley, while he prepared for an aggressive campaign. …
General Lee on July 13 ordered Jackson with the veteran troops
of his own and Ewell's division to Gordonsville to oppose
Pope's advance. The force thus sent numbered about 11,000 men.
Robertson's brigade of cavalry, which was already in Pope's
front, added 1,000 or 1,200 more. General Lee remained with
some 65,000 men between McClellan and Richmond. General
Jackson reached the vicinity of Gordonsville on July 19. His
arrival was opportune. The Federal reconnoitring parties had
already advanced through Culpeper to the Rapidan, and on July
14 Banks had been ordered to send forward all his cavalry
under Hatch to seize Gordonsville."
_William Allan,
The Army of Northern Virginia in 1862,
chapter 20._
{3475}
"After ascertaining that the enemy were in large force under
General Pope … Jackson applied to General Lee for
reinforcements. The division of A. P. Hill was immediately
sent to him, and, with this accession to his small army,
Jackson had no intention of remaining idle or of awaiting an
attack from so powerful a foe, but determined to strike a blow
himself before the enemy had time to concentrate all their
forces. He therefore advanced towards them on the 7th of
August. Before taking this step, it was observed that he was
much in prayer, but this was his custom previous to every
battle. … Pope's army was gathering in all its strength at
Culpepper Court-House, and on the 9th of August Jackson's
little army came in contact with his advance-guard about six
miles from the Court-House, on the borders of a little stream
called Cedar Run. Here hostilities began by a furious
cannonade on both sides, lasting two hours, when, about five
o'clock in the afternoon, the infantry of both armies became
hotly engaged. The conflict was fierce and stubborn, but the
overwhelming numbers of the enemy swept down with such
impetuosity that the weaker party were forced to yield, and it
looked as if it were doomed to destruction. Ewell, Early, A.
P. Hill, Winder, and other commanders all fought their bravest
and best—the gallant Winder receiving a mortal wound—and
still they were pressed back. 'It was at this fearful moment,'
says his late chief-of-staff, Dr. Dabney, 'that the genius of
the storm reared his head, and in an instant the tide was
turned, Jackson appeared in the mid-torrent of the highway, …
he drew his own sword (the first time in the war), and shouted
to the broken troops with a voice which pealed higher than the
roar of battle: "Rally, brave men, and press forward! Your
general will lead you! Jackson will lead you† Follow me!" This
appeal was not in vain, and the Federals, startled by this
unexpected rally, were driven from the field. They afterwards
made an attempt to retrieve the fortunes of the day, which
they had so nearly won, by an assault from a magnificent body
of cavalry, but even this was repelled, and the troopers
driven in full retreat.' … This battle of Cedar Run [called
Cedar Mountain by the Unionists] Jackson himself pronounced
the most successful of his exploits. … In this battle the
Confederates had between eighteen and twenty thousand men
engaged, while the Federals, according to their own returns,
had thirty-two thousand. Jackson, however, had one
incalculable advantage over the enemy, which he gained by his
promptitude in seizing and holding Slaughter's Mountain—an
elevation which commanded all the surrounding plains, and
enabled him to overlook the whole scene of action. … It was to
the advantage of this position as well as the bravery of his
troops that he was indebted for his complete success. By this
victory Pope received such a blow that he was deterred from
making another advance until he could gather reinforcements.
Burnside's corps was withdrawn from North Carolina and sent on
to Culpepper Court-House, and it was believed that McClellan's
remaining forces would be recalled from James River and sent
also to swell the ranks of the grand 'Army of Virginia,' as
the command of Pope was called. At all events, General Lee was
convinced that McClellan was incapable of further aggression,
and that the most effective way to dislodge him from the
Peninsula was to threaten Washington! He therefore determined
to move his army from Richmond to Gordonsville. He began his
march on the 13th, and four days after, on the 17th, McClellan
evacuated the Peninsula and removed his troops to the
Potomac." Pope's army was withdrawn behind the Rappahannock.
"General Lee now ordered Jackson to cross the Rappahannock
high up, and by a forced march go to Manassas and get in
Pope's rear. Other divisions were sent to Pope's front, and
the two hostile armies marched along on either side of the
stream, opening fire upon each other whenever the opportunity
offered. Jackson continued his march up stream until he
reached Warrenton Springs, on the 22d, where he found the
bridge destroyed, but he passed Early's brigade over on a
mill-dam, and took possession of the Springs. Before other
troops could be crossed to his support, a sudden and heavy
rainfall swelled the river so as to render it impassable, and
Early was thus cut off from his friends and surrounded by the
enemy. His situation was one of extreme peril, but he managed
to conceal his troops in the woods, and hold his foes at bay
with artillery, until Jackson had constructed a temporary
bridge, and by the dawn of the morning of the 24th the gallant
Early, with his command, had recrossed the river without the
loss of a man. While a fierce artillery duel was going on
across the river between A. P. Hill and the enemy, Jackson
left the river-bank a few miles, and marched to the village of
Jeffersonton. He was thus lost sight of by the Federals, and
to Longstreet was given the task of amusing Pope by the
appearance of a crossing at Warrenton Springs. Jackson was now
preparing to obey Lee's order to separate himself from the
rest of the army, pass around Pope to the westward, and place
his corps between him and Washington at Manassas Junction.
_Mrs. M. A. Jackson,
Life and letters of General Thomas J. Jackson,
chapter 17._
ALSO IN:
_G. H. Gordon.
History of the Campaign of the Army of Virginia,
chapters 1-3._
_W. C. Bryant and S. H. Gay,
Popular History of the United States,
volume 4, chapter 19._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862
(July-September: Missouri-Arkansas).
Warfare with the Rebel Guerrillas.
"Since the autumn of 1861, General J. M. Schofield, Lyon's
second at the battle of Wilson's Creek, had been in command of
the militia of Missouri, and in June, 1862, that State was
erected into a separate military district, with Schofield at
its head. He was vigilant and active; but when Curtis withdrew
to the Mississippi, and left Arkansas and Southern Missouri
open to the operations of guerrilla bands, then numerous in
the western part of the former State, he found his forces
inadequate to keep down the secessionists in his district.
When Price crossed the Mississippi, early in May, he sent back
large numbers of Missourians to recruit guerrilla bands for
active service during, the summer, and these, at the middle of
July, were very numerous in the interior, and were preparing
to seize important points in the State. To meet the danger,
Schofield obtained authority from the Governor to organize all
the militia of the State.
{3476}
This drew a sharp dividing line between the loyal and disloyal
inhabitants. He soon had 50,000 names on his rolls, of whom
nearly 20,000 were ready for effective service at the close of
July, when the failure of the campaign against Richmond so
encouraged the secessionists in Missouri that it was very
difficult to keep them in check. Schofield's army of
volunteers and militia was scattered over Missouri in six
divisions, and for two months a desperate and sanguinary
guerrilla warfare was carried on in the bosom of that
Commonwealth, the chief theater being northward of the
Missouri River, in McNeill's division, where insurgent bands
under leaders like Poindexter, Porter, Cobb, and others, about
5,000 strong, were very active." They were also aided by
incursions from Arkansas, under Hughes, Coffey and other
leaders. The encounters were many and fierce. At Kirksville,
August 6, and Chariton River, four days later, the loyal
forces achieved considerable victories; at Independence (which
was captured) August 11, and at Lone Jack, about the same
time, they suffered defeat. These were the principal
engagements of the month. With the cooperation of General
Blunt, commanding in Kansas, the Arkansas invasion was driven
back. Missouri was now somewhat relieved, but the Confederates
were gathering in force in Arkansas, where they were joined by
conscripts from Southern Missouri and a large number of troops
from Texas. Their entire number was estimated to be 50,000 at
the middle of September, with General T. C. Hindman in chief
command. … So threatening was this gathering that Schofield
took the field in person, and General Curtis succeeded him in
command of the District of Missouri." Schofield's vanguard,
under General Salomon, encountered the enemy at Newtonia,
September 30, and was defeated; but the Confederates retreated
before the united forces of Schofield and Blunt and "were
chased about 30 miles into Arkansas."
_B. J. Lossing,
Field Book of the Civil War,
volume 2, chapter 20._
ALSO IN:
_Comte de Paris,
History of the Civil War in America,
volume 2, book 4, chapter 3._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (August).
Draft of Militia for nine months.
By proclamation, August 4, the President ordered a draft of
300,000 militia, for nine months service unless sooner
discharged.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (August).
President Lincoln's "policy" explained to Horace Greeley.
"Executive Mansion, Washington, August 22, 1862.
Hon. Horace Greeley.
Dear Sir:
I have just read yours of the 19th, addressed to myself
through the New York 'Tribune.' If there be in it any
statements or assumptions of fact which I may know to be
erroneous, I do not, now and here, controvert them. If there
be in it any inferences which I may believe to be falsely
drawn, I do not, now and here, argue against them. If there be
perceptible in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive
it in deference to an old friend whose heart I have always
supposed to be right. As to the policy I 'seem to be
pursuing,' as you say, I have not meant to leave anyone in
doubt. I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest
way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority
can be restored, the nearer the Union will be the Union as it
was.' If there be those who would not save the Union unless
they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with
them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless
they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree
with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the
Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I
could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it;
and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do
it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others
alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the
colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the
Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe
it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I
shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do
more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause.
I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I
shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true
views. I have here stated my purpose according to my view of
official duty; and I intend no modification of my
oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be
free.
Yours, A. Lincoln."
_Abraham Lincoln,
Complete Works,
volume 2, page 227-228._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (August: Virginia.)
General Pope's campaign: Stonewall Jackson's movement
into the rear of the Federal Army.
"By the capture of Pope's papers [effected in a raid of
Stuart's cavalry to the Federal rear] Lee gained an accurate
knowledge of the situation of the Federal army. Acting on it,
he ordered Jackson to advance his corps to Jeffersonton and
secure the bridge over the Rappahannock at Warrenton Springs.
… Jackson, on arriving at Jeffersonton in the afternoon of the
22d, found that the bridge on the Warrenton turnpike had been
destroyed by the Federals. … On the 23d Lee ordered
Longstreet's corps to follow Jackson and mass in the vicinity
of Jeffersonton. The headquarters of the army was also moved
to that place. … General Longstreet made a feint on the
position of Warrenton on the morning of the 24th, under cover
of which Jackson's corps was withdrawn from the front to the
vicinity of the road from Jeffersonton to the upper fords of
the Rappahannock. Jackson was then directed to make
preparations to turn the Federal position and seize their
communications about Manassas Junction. Longstreet continued
his cannonade at intervals throughout the day, to which the
Federals replied with increasing vigor, showing that Pope was
massing his army in Lee's front. It was the object of Lee to
hold Pope in his present position by deluding him with the
belief that it was his intention to force a passage of the
river at that point, until Jackson by a flank movement could
gain his rear. Longstreet, on the morning of the 25th, resumed
his cannonade with increased energy, and at the same time made
a display of infantry above and below the bridge. Jackson
then, moved up the river to a ford eight miles above; crossing
at that point and turning eastward, by a rapid march he
reached the vicinity of Salem. Having made a march of 25
miles, he bivouacked for the night. Stuart's cavalry covered
his right flank, the movement being masked by the natural
features of the country. The next morning at dawn the march
was resumed by the route through Thoroughfare Gap. The
cavalry, moving well to the right, passed around the west end
of Bull Run Mountain and joined the infantry at the village of
Gainesville, a few miles from the Orange and Alexandria Railroad.
{3477}
Pressing forward, still keeping the cavalry well to the right,
Jackson struck the railroad at Bristoe Station late in the
afternoon, where he captured two empty trains going east.
After dark he sent a detachment under Stuart to secure
Manassas Junction, the main depot of supplies of the Federal
army. The cavalry moved upon the flanks of this position,
while the infantry, commanded by Trimble, assaulted the works
in front and carried them with insignificant loss, capturing
two batteries of light artillery with their horses and a
detachment of 300 men, besides an immense amount of army
supplies. The next morning, after effectually destroying the
railroad at Bristoe, Jackson … moved his main body to
Manassas, where he allowed his troops a few hours to refresh
themselves upon the abundant stores that had been captured.
About 12 o'clock the sound of artillery in the direction of
Bristoe announced the Federal advance. Not having
transportation to remove the captured supplies, Jackson
directed his men to take what they could carry off, and
ordered the rest to be destroyed. General Ewell, having
repulsed the advance of two Federal columns [at Bristoe
Station], rejoined Jackson at Manassas. The destruction of the
captured stores having been completed, Jackson retired with
his whole force to Bull Run, and took a position for the
night, a part of his troops resting on the battle-field of the
previous year. Pope, … upon learning that Jackson was in his
rear, … immediately abandoned his position on the Rappahannock
and proceeded with al despatch to intercept him before he
could be reinforced by Lee. His advance having been arrested
on the 27th by Ewell, he did not proceed beyond Bristoe that
day. Lee on the 26th withdrew Longstreet's corps from its
position in front of Warrenton Springs, covering the
withdrawal by a small rear-guard and artillery, and directed
it to follow Jackson by the route he had taken the day before.
… The corps bivouacked for the night in the vicinity of Salem.
On the morning of the succeeding day, the 27th, a messenger
appeared bringing the important and cheering news of the
success of Jackson at Bristoe and Manassas. … Thoroughfare Gap
was reached about noon of the 28th. It was quickly found to be
occupied by a Federal force. Some slight attempt was made to
dislodge the enemy, but without success, as their position
proved too strong, and it seemed as if the movement of the
Confederate army in that direction was destined to be
seriously interfered with. Meanwhile, nothing further had been
heard from Jackson, and there was a natural anxiety in regard
to his position and possible peril. … Under these critical
circumstances General Lee made every effort to find some
available route over the mountains," and had already succeeded
in doing so when his adversary saved him further trouble.
"Pope … had ordered McDowell to retire from the Gap and join
him to aid in the anticipated crushing of Jackson. McDowell
did so, leaving Rickett's division to hold the Gap. In evident
ignorance of the vicinity of Longstreet's corps, this force
was also withdrawn during the night, and on the morning of the
29th Lee found the Gap unoccupied, and at once marched through
at the head of Longstreet's column. … Pope had unknowingly
favored the advance of the Confederate commander. His removal
of McDowell from his position had been a tactical error of
such magnitude that it could not well be retrieved. … The
cannonade at the Gap on the 28th had informed Jackson of Lee's
proximity. He at once took a position north of the Warrenton
turnpike, his left resting on Bull Run. … About three o'clock
the Federals bore down in heavy force upon Ewell and
Taliaferro, who maintained their positions with admirable
firmness, repelling attack after attack until night. The loss
on both sides was considerable. … Jackson, with barely 20,000
men, now found himself confronted by the greater part of the
Federal army. Any commander with less firmness would have
sought safety in retreat. But having heard the Confederate
guns at Thoroughfare Gap, he knew that Lee would join him the
next day. Therefore he determined to hold his position at all
hazards. By the morning of the 29th … Hood's division had
reached the south side of the mountain, and early in the day
was joined by the remainder of Longstreet's corps, by way of
the open Gap. While these important movements were in
progress, Pope had resumed his attack upon Jackson. … On the
arrival of Lee, Pope discontinued his attack, and retired to
the position which the year before had been the scene of the
famous battle of Bull Run, or Manassas."
_A. L. Long,
Memoirs of Robert E. Lee,
chapter 11._
ALSO IN:
_R. L. Dabney,
Life and Campaigns of General Thomas J. Jackson._
_G. H. Gordon,
History of the Campaign of the Army of Virginia,
chapters 4-10._
_W. B. Taliaferro,
Jackson's Raid around Pope
(Battles and Leader, volume 2, pages 501-511)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (August-September: Virginia).
The end of General Pope's campaign: Groveton.
Second Bull Run.
Chantilly.
"By contradictory orders and the useless marches and
counter-marches they involved, Pope's opportunity was thrown
away, and instead of fighting Jackson's corps alone, it was
the entire army of Lee with which he had to deal,—this, too,
with his forces very much out of position, and he himself
ignorant both of his own situation and that of the enemy.
When, towards noon [August 29], Pope, coming from Centreville,
reached the field near Groveton, he found the situation as
follows: Heintzelman's two divisions, under Hooker and
Kearney, on the right, in front and west of the Sudley Springs
road; Reno and Sigel holding the centre,—Sigel's line being
extended a short distance south of the Warrenton turnpike;
Reynolds with his division on the left. But the commander was
ignorant of the whereabouts of both Porter and McDowell, and
he knew not that Longstreet had joined Jackson! The troops had
been considerably cut up by the brisk skirmishing that had
been going on all morning. An artillery contest had also been
waged all forenoon between the opposing lines; but it was at
long range and of no effect. The position of the troops in
front of Jackson's intrenched line was one that promised very
little success for a direct attack, and especially for a
partial attack. Nevertheless, at three o'clock, Pope ordered
Hooker to assault. The attempt was so unpromising that that
officer remonstrated against it; but the order being
imperative, he made a very determined attack with his
division," and was driven back.
{3478}
"Too late for united action, Kearney was sent to Hooker's
assistance, and he also suffered repulse. Meanwhile, Pope had
learnt the position of Porter's command, and, at half-past
four in the afternoon, sent orders to that officer to assail
the enemy's right flank and rear,—Pope erroneously believing
the right flank of Jackson, near Groveton, to be the right of
the Confederate line. Towards six, when he thought Porter
should be coming into action, he directed Heintzelman and Reno
to assault the enemy's left. The attack was made with vigor,
especially by Kearney," but the enemy brought up heavy
reserves and repelled the assault. "Turning now to the left,
where Porter was to have assailed the Confederate left
[right], it appears that the order which Pope sent at
half-past four did not reach Porter till about dusk. He then
made dispositions for attack, but it was too late. It is,
however, more than doubtful that, even had the order been
received in time, any thing but repulse would have resulted
from its execution. … Contrary to Pope's opinion, he [Porter]
had then, and had had since noon, Longstreet's entire corps
before him. So, as firing now died away in the darkling woods
on the right, a pause was put for the day to the chaos and
confusion of this mismanaged battle [known as the battle of
Groveton], in which many thousand men had fallen on the Union
side. It would have been judicious for General Pope, in the
then condition of his army, to have that night withdrawn
across Bull Run and taken position at Centreville, or even
within the fortifications of Washington. By doing so he would
have united with the corps of Franklin and Sumner, then
between Washington and Centreville. … With untimely obstinacy,
Pope determined to remain and again try the issue of battle.
To utilize Porter's corps, he drew it over from the isolated
position it had held the previous day to the Warrenton road. …
Now, by one of those curious conjunctures which sometimes
occur in battle, it so was that the opposing commanders had
that day formed each the same resolution: Pope had determined
to attack Lee's left flank, and Lee had determined to attack
Pope's left flank. And thus it came about that when
Heintzelman pushed forward to feel the enemy's left, the
refusal of that flank by Lee, and his withdrawal of troops to
his right for the purpose of making his contemplated attack on
Pope's left, gave the impression that the Confederates were
retreating up the Warrenton turnpike towards Gainesville. …
Pope … telegraphed to Washington that the enemy was
'retreating to the mountains,'—a dispatch which, flashed
throughout the land, gave the people a few hours, at least, of
unmixed pleasure. To take advantage of the supposed 'retreat'
of Lee, Pope ordered McDowell with three corps—Porter's in the
advance—to follow up rapidly on the Warrenton turnpike, and
'press the enemy vigorously during the whole day.' But no
sooner were the troops put in motion to make this pursuit of a
supposed flying foe, than the Confederates, hitherto concealed
in the forest in front of Porter, uncovered themselves." The
result of this misdirected movement was a fatal check,
Porter's troops being fearfully cut up and driven back.
"Jackson immediately took up the pursuit, and was joined by a
general advance of the whole Confederate line—Longstreet
extending his right so as, if possible, to cut off the retreat
of the Union forces." In this attempt, however, he was foiled,
and "under cover of the darkness the wearied troops retired
across Bull Run, by the stone bridge, and took position on the
heights of Centreville. Owing to the obscurity of the night,
and the uncertainty of the fords of Bull Run, Lee attempted no
pursuit." The engagement of this day is called the Second
Battle of Bull Run, or the Second Battle of Manassas, as it
was named by the Confederate victors. "At Centreville, Pope
united with the corps of Franklin and Sumner, and he remained
there during the whole of the 31st. But Lee had now yet given
up the pursuit. Leaving Longstreet on the battle-field, he
sent Jackson by a detour on Pope's right, to strike the Little
River turnpike, and by that route to Fairfax Courthouse; to
intercept, if possible, Pope's retreat to Washington.
Jackson's march was much retarded by a heavy storm that
commenced the day before and still continued. Pope, meantime,
fell back to positions covering Fairfax Courthouse and
Germantown; and on the evening of the 1st of September,
Jackson struck his right, posted at Ox Hill." The short but
severe action which then occurred (called the battle of
Chantilly) was indecisive. Jackson's attack was repelled, but
the repulse cost the lives of two excellent officers of high
rank and reputation, Generals Kearney and Stevens, besides
many men. "On the following day, September 2d, the army was,
by order of General Halleck, drawn back within the lines of
Washington."
_W. Swinton,
Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac,
pages 184-193._
"The Second Battle of Bull Hun … was a severe defeat for
General Pope; but it was nothing else. It was not a rout, nor
anything like a rout. … Lee claims to have captured in these
engagements 30 pieces of artillery and 7,000 unwounded
prisoners."
_J. C. Ropes,
The Army under Pope
(Campaigns of the Civil War, volume 4),
chapters 8-11._
ALSO IN:
_G. H. Gordon,
History of the Campaign of the Army of Virginia,
chapters 11-13._
_The Virginia Campaign of General Pope
(Massachusetts Military Historical Society Papers, volume 2)._
_J. Pope,
The Second Battle of Bull Run
(Battles and Leaders, volume 2, pages 449-494)._
_Official Records,
Series 1, volume 12, part 2._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (September: Maryland).
Lee's first invasion: His cold reception and disappointment.
"The defeat of General Pope opened the way for movements not
contemplated, probably, by General Lee, when he marched from
Richmond. … He accordingly determined to advance into
Maryland—the fortifications in front of Washington, and the
interposition of the Potomac, a broad stream easily defended,
rendering a movement in that direction unpromising. On the 3d
of September, therefore, and without waiting to rest his army,
which was greatly fatigued with the nearly continuous marching
and fighting since it had left the Rapidan, General Lee moved
toward Leesburg, crossed his forces near that place, and to
the music of the bands playing the popular air, 'Maryland, my
Maryland,' advanced to Frederick City, which he occupied on
the 7th of September. Lee's object in invading Maryland has
been the subject of much discussion. … It can only be said
that General Lee, doubtless, left the future to decide his
ultimate movements; meanwhile he had a distinct and
clearly-defined aim, which he states in plain words.
{3479}
His object was to draw the Federal forces out of Virginia. …
The condition of affairs in Maryland, General Lee says,
'encouraged the belief that the presence of our army, however
inferior to that of the enemy, would induce the Washington
Government to retain all its available force to provide for
contingencies which its course toward the people of that State
gave it reason to apprehend,' and to cross the Potomac 'might
afford us an opportunity to aid the citizens of Maryland in
any efforts they might be disposed to make to recover their
liberty.' It may be said, in summing up on this point, that
Lee expected volunteers to enroll themselves under his
standard, tempted to do so by the hope of throwing off the
yoke of the Federal Government, and the army certainly shared
this expectation. The identity of sentiment generally between
the people of the States of Maryland and Virginia, and their
strong social ties in the past, rendered this anticipation
reasonable, and the feeling of the country at the result
afterward was extremely bitter. Such were the first designs of
Lee; his ultimate aim seems as clear. By advancing into
Maryland and threatening Baltimore and Washington, he knew
that he would force the enemy to withdraw all their troops
from the south bank of the Potomac, where they menaced the
Confederate communications with Richmond; when this was
accomplished, as it clearly would be, his design was, to cross
the Maryland extension of the Blue Ridge, called there the
South Mountain, advance by way of Hagerstown into the
Cumberland Valley, and, by thus forcing the enemy to follow
him, draw them to a distance from their base of supplies,
while his own communications would remain open by way of the
Shenandoah Valley. … The Southern army was concentrated in the
neighborhood of Frederick City by the 7th of September, and on
the next day General Lee Issued an address to the people of
Maryland. … This address, couched in terms of such dignity,
had little effect upon the people. Either their sentiment in
favor of the Union was too strong, or they found nothing in
the condition Of affairs to encourage their Southern feelings.
A large Federal force was known to be advancing; Lee's army,
in tatters, and almost without supplies, presented a very
uninviting appearance to recruits, and few joined his
standard, the population in general remaining hostile or
neutral. … Lee soon discovered that he must look solely to his
own men for success in his future movements. He faced that
conviction courageously; and, without uttering a word of
comment, or indulging in any species of crimination against
the people of Maryland, resolutely commenced his movements
looking to the capture of Harper's Ferry and the invasion of
Pennsylvania."
_J. E. Cooke,
Life of Robert E. Lee,
part 5, chapters 1-2._
ALSO IN:
_A. L. Long,
Memoirs of Robert E. Lee,
chapter 12._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (September: Maryland).
Lee's first invasion: Harper's Ferry.
South Mountain.
Antietam.
"On the 2d of September the President went to General
McClellan's house in Washington, asked him to take command
again of the Army of the Potomac, in which Pope's army had now
been merged, and verbally authorized him to do so at once. The
first thing that McClellan wanted was the withdrawal of
Miles's force, 11,000 men, from Harper's Ferry—where, he said,
it was useless and helpless—and its addition to his own force.
All authorities agree that in this he was obviously and
unquestionably right; but the marplot hand of Halleck
intervened, and Miles was ordered to hold the place. Halleck's
principal reason appeared to be a reluctance to abandon a
place where so much expense had been laid out. Miles, a worthy
subordinate for such a chief, interpreted Halleck's orders
with absolute literalness, and remained in the town, instead
of holding it by placing his force on the heights that command
it. As soon as it was known that Lee was in Maryland,
McClellan set his army in motion northward, to cover
Washington and Baltimore and find an opportunity for a
decisive battle. He arrived with his advance in Frederick on
the 12th, and met with a reception in striking contrast to
that accorded to the army that had left the town two days
before. … But this flattering reception was not the best
fortune that befell the Union army in Frederick. On his
arrival in the town General McClellan came into possession of
a copy of General Lee's order, dated three days before, in
which the whole campaign was laid out. … General Lee had taken
it for granted that Martinsburg and Harper's Ferry would be
evacuated at his approach (as they should have been); and when
he found they were not, he had so far changed or suspended the
plan with which he set out as to send back a large part of his
army to capture those places and not leave a hostile force in
his rear." This was easily accomplished by Jackson and McLaws,
the latter of whom took possession of the heights commanding
the town, where Miles waited to be trapped. "A bombardment the
next day compelled a surrender when Jackson was about to
attack. General Miles was mortally wounded by one of the last
shots. About 11,000 men were included in the capitulation,
with 73 guns. … Jackson, leaving the arrangements for the
sur·render to A. P. Hill, hurried with the greater part of his
force to rejoin Lee, and reached Sharpsburg on the morning of
the 16th. The range known as the South Mountain, which is a
continuation of the Blue Ridge north of the Potomac, is about
1,000 feet high. The two principal gaps are Turner's and
Crampton's, each about 400 feet high, with the hills towering
600 feet above it. When McClellan learned the plans of the
Confederate commander, he set his army in motion to thwart
them. He ordered Franklin's corps to pass through Crampton's
Gap and press on to relieve Harper's Ferry; the corps of Reno
and Hooker, under command of Burnside, he moved to Turner's
Gap. The movement was quick for McClellan, but not quite quick
enough for the emergency. He might have passed through the
Gaps on the 13th with little or no opposition, and would then
have had his whole army between Lee's divided forces, and
could hardly have failed to defeat them disastrously and
perhaps conclusively. But he did not arrive at the passes till
the morning of the 14th; and by that time Lee had learned of
his movement and recalled Hill and Longstreet, from Boonsboro
and beyond, to defend Turner's Gap, while he ordered McLaws to
look out for Crampton's. … There was stubborn and bloody
fighting all day, with the Union forces slowly but constantly
gaining ground, and at dark the field was won," at both the
passes. The two engagements were called the battle of South
Mountain by the Federals, the Battle of Boonsboro by the
Confederates.
{3480}
At Turner's Gap there was a loss of about 1,500 on each side,
and 1,500 Confederates were made prisoners; at Crampton's Gap,
the loss in killed and wounded was some 500 on each side, with
400 Confederate prisoners taken. The Union army had forced the
passage of the mountains, but Lee had gained time to unite his
scattered forces. "He withdrew across the Antietam, and took
up a position on high ground between that stream and the
village of Sharpsburg. … Lee now had his army together and
strongly posted. But it had been so reduced by losses in
battle and straggling that it numbered but little over 40,000
combatants. … McClellan had somewhat over 70,000 men. … The
ground occupied by the Confederate army, with both flanks
resting on the Potomac, and the Antietam flowing in front, was
advantageous. The creek was crossed by four stone bridges and
a ford, and all except the northernmost bridge were strongly
guarded. The land was occupied by meadows, cornfields, and
patches of forest, and was much broken by outcropping ledges.
McClellan only reconnoitered the position on the 15th. On the
16th he developed his plan of attack, which was simply to
throw his right wing across the Antietam by the upper and
unguarded bridge, assail the Confederate left, and when this
had sufficiently engaged the enemy's attention and drawn his
strength to that flank, to force the bridges and cross with
his left and centre. … All day long an artillery duel was kept
up. … It was late in the afternoon when Hooker's corps crossed
by the upper bridge, advanced through the woods, and struck
the left flank, which was held by two brigades of Hood's men.
Scarcely more than a skirmish ensued, when darkness came on,
and the lines rested for the night where they were." At
sunrise, next morning, Hooker assaulted Jackson and was
seriously wounded in the fighting which followed. Sumner's
corps finally joined in the attack, and all the forenoon the
battle was desperate in that part of the field. "But while
this great struggle was in progress on McClellan's right, his
centre and left, under Porter und Burnside, did not make any
movement to assist. At noon Franklin arrived from Crampton's
Gap, and was sent over to help Hooker and Sumner, being just
in time to check a new advance by more troops brought over
from the Confederate right. At eight o'clock in the morning
Burnside had been ordered to carry the bridge in his front,
cross the stream, and attack the Confederate right. But,
though commanded and urged repeatedly, it was one o'clock
before he succeeded in doing this, and two more precious hours
passed away before he had carried the ridge commanding
Sharpsburg and captured the Confederate battery there. Then
came up the last division of Lee's forces (A. P. Hill's) from
Harper's Ferry, 2,000 strong, united with the other forces on
his left, and drove Burnside from the crest and re-took the
battery. Here ended the battle; not because the day was
closed, or any apparent victory had been achieved, but because
both sides had been so severely punished that neither was
inclined to resume the fight. Every man of Lee's force had
been actively engaged, but not more than two thirds of
McClellan's. The reason why the Confederate army was not
annihilated or captured must be plain to any intelligent
reader. … General McClellan reported his entire loss at
12,469, of whom 2,010 were killed. General Lee reported his
total loss in the Maryland battles as 1,567 killed and 8,724
wounded, saying nothing of the missing; but the figures given
by his division commanders foot up 1,842 killed, 9,399
wounded, and 2,292 missing—total 13,533. … Nothing was done on
the 18th, and when McClellan determined to renew the attack on
the 19th, he found that his enemy had withdrawn from the field
and crossed to Virginia by the ford at Shepherdstown. The
National commander reported the capture of more than 6,000
prisoners, 13 guns, and 39 battle-flags, and that he had not
lost a gun or a color. As he was also in possession of the
field … and had rendered Lee's invasion fruitless of anything
but the prisoners carried off from Harper's Ferry, the victory
was his."
_R. Johnson,
Short History of the War of Secession,
chapter 12._
ALSO IN:
_F. W. Palfrey,
The Antietam and Fredericksburg
(Campaigns of the Civil War, volume 5)._
_Comte de Paris,
History of the Civil War in America,
volume 2, book 3, chapter 4._
_F. A. Walker,
History of the Second Army Corps,
chapter 4._
_A. Woodbury,
Burnside and the 9th. Army Corps,
part 2, chapters 2-3._
_Official Records,
series 1, volume 19._
_G. B. McClellan,
McClellan's Own Story,
chapters 33-38._
_D. H. Hill, J. D. Cox, J. Longstreet, and others,
Lee's Invasion of Maryland
(Battles and Leaders, volume 2)._
_W. Allan,
The Army of Northern Virginia in 1862,
chapters 37-48._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (September).
President Lincoln's Preliminary Proclamation of Emancipation,
and the attitude of Northern parties on the Slavery question.
Abraham Lincoln "believed that without the Union permanent
liberty for either race on this continent would be impossible.
And because of this belief, he was reluctant, perhaps more
reluctant than most of his associates, to strike slavery with
the sword. For many months, the passionate appeals of millions
of his associates seemed not to move him. He listened to all
the phases of the discussion, and stated in language clearer
and stronger than any opponent had used, the dangers, the
difficulties, and the possible futility of the act. In
reference to its practical wisdom, Congress, the Cabinet, and
the country were divided. Several of his generals had
proclaimed the freedom of slaves within the limits of their
commands. The President revoked their proclamations. His first
Secretary of War had inserted a paragraph in his annual report
advocating a similar policy. The President suppressed it. On
the 19th of August, 1862, Horace Greeley published a letter
addressed to the President, entitled 'The Prayer of Twenty
Millions,' in which he said, 'On the face of this wide earth,
Mr. President, there is not one disinterested, determined,
intelligent champion of the Union cause who does not feel that
all attempts to put down the rebellion and at the same time
uphold its inciting cause are preposterous and futile.' To
this the President responded in that ever memorable reply of
August 22, in which he said:—'If there be those who would not
save the Union unless they could at the same time save
slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would
not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy
slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object is to
save the Union, and not either to save or to destroy slavery.
{3481}
If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would
do it. If I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would
do it,—and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving
others alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery
and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save
the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not
believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less
whenever I shall believe that what I am doing hurts the cause,
and I shall do more whenever I believe doing more will help
the cause.' Thus, against all importunities on the one hand
and remonstrances on the other, he took the mighty question to
his own heart, and, during the long months of that terrible
battle-summer, wrestled with it alone. But at length he
realized the saving truth, that great unsettled questions have
no pity for the repose of nations. On the 22d of September, he
summoned his Cabinet to announce his conclusion. It was my
good fortune, on that same day, and a few hours after the
meeting, to hear, from the lips of one who participated, the
story of the scene. As the chiefs of the Executive Departments
came in, one by one, they found the President reading a
favorite chapter from a popular humorist. He was lightening
the weight of the great burden which rested upon his spirit.
He finished the chapter, reading it aloud. And here I quote,
from the published Journal of the late Chief Justice, an
entry, written immediately after the meeting, and bearing
unmistakable evidence that it is almost a literal transcript
of Lincoln's words: 'The President then took a graver tone and
said: "Gentlemen I have, as you are aware, thought a great
deal about the relation of this war to slavery; and you all
remember that, several weeks ago, I read to you an order I had
prepared upon the subject, which, on account of objections
made by some of you, was not issued. Ever since then my mind
has been much occupied with this subject, and I have thought
all along that the time for acting on it might probably come.
I think the time has come now. I wish it was a better time. I
wish that we were in a better condition. The action of the
army against the rebels has not been quite what I should have
best liked. But they have been driven out of Maryland, and
Pennsylvania is no longer in danger of invasion. When the
rebel army was at Frederick, I determined as soon as it should
be driven out of Maryland to issue a proclamation of
emancipation, such as I thought most likely to be useful. I
said nothing to any one, but I made a promise to myself and
(hesitating a little) to my Maker. The rebel army is now
driven out, and I am going to fulfil that promise. I have got
you together to hear what I have written down. I do not wish
your advice about the main matter, for that I have determined
for myself. This I say without intending anything but respect
for any one of you. But I already know the views of each on
this question. They have been heretofore expressed, and I have
considered them as thoroughly and carefully as I can. What I
have written is that which my reflections have determined me
to say. If there is anything in the expressions I use, or in
any minor matter which any of you thinks had best be changed,
I shall be glad to receive your suggestions. One other
observation I will make, I know very well that many others
might, in this matter as in others, do better than I can; and
if I was satisfied that the public confidence was more fully
possessed by any one of them than by me, and knew of any
constitutional way in which he could be put in my place, he
should have it. I would gladly yield it to him. But though I
believe I have not so much of the confidence of the people as
I had some time since, I do not know that, all things
considered, any other person has more; and, however this may
be, there is no way in which I can have any other man put
where I am. I am here. I must do the best I can and bear the
responsibility of taking the course which I feel I ought to
take." The President then proceeded to read his Emancipation
Proclamation, making remarks on the several parts as he went
on, and showing that he had fully considered the subject in
all the lights under which it had been presented to him.' The
Proclamation was amended in a few matters of detail. It was
signed and published that day."
_J. A. Garfield,
Works,
volume 2, pages 538-540._
"I was alone with Mr. Lincoln more than two hours of the
Sunday next after Pope's defeat in August, 1802. That was the
darkest day of the sad years of the war. … When the business
to which I had been summoned by the President was over—strange
business for the time: the appointment of assessors and
collectors of internal revenue—he was kind enough to ask my
opinion as to the command of the army. The way was thus opened
for conversation, and for me to say at the end that I thought
our success depended upon the emancipation of the slaves. To
this he said: 'You would not have it done now, would you? Must
we not wait for something like a victory?' This was the second
and most explicit intimation to me of his purpose in regard to
slavery. In the preceding July or early in August, at an
interview upon business connected with my official duties, he
said, 'Let me read two letters,' and taking them from a
pigeon-hole over his table he proceeded at once to do what he
had proposed. I have not seen the letters in print. His
correspondent was a gentleman in Louisiana, who claimed to be
a Union man. He tendered his advice to the President in regard
to the reorganization of that State, and he labored zealous]y
to impress upon him the dangers and evils of emancipation. The
reply of the President is only important from the fact that
when he came to that part of his correspondent's letter he
used this expression: 'You must not expect me to give up this
government without playing my last card.' Emancipation was his
last card. He waited for the time when two facts or events
should coincide. Mr. Lincoln was as devoted to the
Constitution as was ever Mr. Webster. In his view, a military
necessity was the only ground on which the overthrow of
slavery in the States could be justified. Next, he waited for
a public sentiment in the loyal States not only demanding
emancipation but giving full assurance that the act would be
sustained to the end. As for himself, I cannot doubt that he
had contemplated the policy of emancipation for many months,
and anticipated the time when he should adopt it."
_G. S. Boutwell,
Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln by
Distinguished Men of his Time,
pages 123-125._
{3482}
"It was after all efforts for voluntary emancipation by the
states interested, with pecuniary aid from the national
treasury, had failed [that the President determined to decree
emancipation in the rebellious states by a military order]. To
Mr. Seward and myself the President communicated his purpose,
and asked our views, on the 13th of July 1862. It was the day
succeeding his last unsuccessful and hopeless conference with
the representatives in Congress from the border slave states,
at a gloomy period of our affairs, just after the reverses of
our armies under McClellan before Richmond. The time, be said,
had arrived when we must determine whether the slave element
should be for or against us. Mr. Seward … was appalled and not
prepared for this decisive step, when Mr. Lincoln made known
to us that he contemplated, by an executive order, to
emancipate the slaves. Startled with so broad and radical a
proposition, he informed the President that the consequences
of such an act were so momentous that he was not prepared to
advise on the subject without further reflection. … While Mr.
Seward hesitated and had the subject under consideration, the
President deliberately prepared his preliminary proclamation,
which met the approval, or at least the acquiescence, of the
whole Cabinet, though there were phases of opinion not
entirely in accord with the proceedings. Mr. Blair, an
original emancipationist, and committed to the principle,
thought the time to issue the order inopportune, and Mr. Bates
desired that the deportation of the colored race should be
coincident with emancipation. Aware that there were shades of
difference among his counsellors, and hesitation and doubt
with some, in view of the vast responsibility and its
consequences, the President devised his own scheme, held
himself alone accountable for the act, and, unaided and
unassisted, prepared each of the proclamations of freedom."
_G. Welles,
Lincoln and Seward,
pages 210-212._
The preliminary or monitory Proclamation of Emancipation,
issued on the 22d of September, 1862, was as follows:
"'I. Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of
America, and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy thereof,
do hereby proclaim and declare that hereafter, as heretofore,
the war will be prosecuted for the object of practically
restoring the constitutional relations between the United
States and each of the States and the people thereof, in which
States that relation is or may be suspended or disturbed. That
it is my purpose, upon the next meeting of Congress, to again
recommend the adoption of a practical measure, tendering
pecuniary aid to the free acceptance or rejection of all the
slave States, so-called, the people whereof may not then be in
rebellion against the United States, and which States may then
have voluntarily adopted, or thereafter may voluntarily adopt,
the immediate or gradual abolishment of slavery within their
respective limits; and that the effort to colonize persons of
African descent, with their consent, upon this continent or
elsewhere, with the previously obtained consent of the
governments existing there, will be continued. That on the
first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves
within any State, or designated part of a State, the people
whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States,
shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the
Executive Government of the United States, including the
military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and
maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or
acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts
they may make for their actual freedom. That the Executive
will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation,
designate the States, or parts of States if any, in which the
people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion
against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the
people thereof, shall, on that day, be in good faith
represented in the Congress of the United States by members
chosen thereto at elections, wherein a majority of the
qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall,
in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed
conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof,
are not then in rebellion against the United States.' Then,
after reciting the language of 'An act to make an additional
article of war,' approved March 13, 1862, and also sections 9
and 10 of the Confiscation Act, approved July 17, 1862, and
enjoining their enforcement upon all persons in the military
and naval service, the proclamation concludes: 'And I do
hereby enjoin upon and order all persons engaged in the
military and naval service of the United States to observe,
obey, and enforce, within their respective spheres of service,
the acts and sections above recited. And the Executive will,
in due time, recommend that all citizens of the United States,
who shall have remained loyal thereto throughout the
rebellion, shall, upon the restoration of the constitutional
relations between the United States and the people, if that
relation shall have been suspended or disturbed, be
compensated for all losses by acts of the United States,
including the loss of slaves.'"
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 6, chapters 6 and 8._
ALSO IN:
_J. G. Blaine,
Twenty Years of Congress,
volume 1, chapter 20._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862
(September-October: Mississippi).
Union successes under Grant.
Iuka and Corinth.
"In July, Pope was ordered to Virginia, and on the 17th of
that month Halleck was assigned to the command of all the
armies, superseding McClellan. He repaired at once to
Washington, and Grant was directed to establish his
headquarters at Corinth. Grant's jurisdiction was not,
however, enlarged by the promotion of Halleck: on the
contrary, the new general-in-chief first offered the command
of the Army of the Tennessee to Colonel Robert Allen, a
quarter-master, who declined it, whereupon it was allowed to
remain under Grant. He was, however, left somewhat more
independent than while Halleck had heen immediately present in
the field. Four divisions of his army (including Thomas's
command), were within the next two months ordered to Buell,
who was stretching out slowly, like a huge, unwieldy snake,
from Eastport to Decatur, and from Decatur towards
Chattanooga. This subtraction put Grant entirely on the
defensive. He had possession of Corinth, the strategic point,
but was obliged to hold the railroads from that place and
Bolivar, north to Columbus, which last, on account of the low
water in the Tennessee, he had made his base of supplies. … He
remained himself eight weeks at Corinth, narrowly watching the
enemy, who, commanded by Van Dorn and Price, harassed and
threatened him continually.
{3483}
During this time, he directed the strengthening and
remodelling of the fortifications of Corinth. … New works,
closer to the town, were … erected. … Van Dorn at last
determined to move part of his force (under Price), east of
Grant, apparently with a view to crossing the Tennessee and
reënforcing Bragg in the Kentucky campaign. Grant notified
Halleck of the probability of such a movement, and of his
intention to prevent it. … On the 13th [of September], Price
advanced from the south and seized Iuka, 21 miles east of
Corinth. … Grant had called in his forces some days before to
the vicinity of Corinth, had repeatedly cautioned all his
commanders to hold their troops in readiness, and when the
enemy's cavalry moved towards Iuka, and cut the railroad and
telegraph wires between that place and Burnsville, seven miles
to the westward, Grant began his operations. Price was at
Iuka, and Van Dorn four days off, to the southwest,
threatening Corinth. Grant's object was to destroy Price,
before the two could concentrate, and then to get back to
Corinth and protect it against Van Dorn. He accordingly
ordered Brigadier-General Rosecrans, whose troops were posted
south of Corinth, to move by way of Renzi, along the south
side of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, and attack Iuka
from that direction; while Major-General Ord, with a force
brought hurriedly from Bolivar and Jackson, was to push
towards Burnsville, and from there take roads on the north
side of the railroad, attacking Iuka from that quarter. Ord
had 8,000 men, and Rosecrans reported 9,000, a greater force
combined than Price had, according to Grant's estimate."
Rosecrans's movement was delayed, and he was attacked
(September 19) in heavy force as he neared Iuka, Ord's advance
having been held back waiting for him. He kept his ground, but
lost in the action a battery of artillery, besides 736 men,
killed and wounded. That night the enemy retreated from Iuka,
over a road which Rosecrans was expected to occupy, but did
not. "By the battle of Iuka, the enemy was simply checked in
his plans, not seriously crippled in his force. Price moved
around by a circuitous route and joined Van Dorn, and the same
state of affairs continued which had annoyed Grant for so many
weeks. He put Rosecrans in command at Corinth, and Ord at
Bolivar, and on the 23d of September removed his own
headquarters to Jackson, from which point he could communicate
more readily with all points of his district, including
Memphis and Cairo. The rebels were in force at La Grange and
Ripley. … At last it was rendered certain … that Corinth was
to be the place of attack. Grant thereupon directed Rosecrans
to call in his forces, and sent Brigadier-General McPherson to
his support from Jackson, with a brigade of troops." He also
"hurried Ord and Hurlbut by way of Pocahontas from Bolivar, 44
miles away, to be ready to strike Van Dorn in flank or rear,
as he advanced, and at least to create a diversion, if they
could not get into the town. On the 2d of October the rebel
array, under Van Dorn, Price, Lovell, Villepigue, and Rust,
appeared in front of Corinth. … On the 3d the fighting began
in earnest. Rosecrans had about 19,000 men, and the enemy had
collected 38,000 for this important movement, which was to
determine the possession of northern Mississippi and West
Tennessee. Rosecrans pushed out about five miles, towards
Chewalla, Grant having ordered him to attack, if opportunity
offered; but the enemy began the fight, and, on the afternoon
of the 3d, the battle turned in favor of Van Dorn. Rosecrans
was driven back to his defences on the north side of Corinth,
and it was now found how important was the labor bestowed on
these fortifications, by Grant's order, a month previous. The
enemy was checked until morning; but, early on the 4th, the
whole rebel army, flushed with the success of the day before,
assaulted the works. The fighting was fierce; the rebels
charging almost into the town, when an unexpected fire from
the forts drove them back in confusion. Again and again, they
advanced to the works, but each time were received with a
determination equal to their own. Once, the national troops
came near giving way entirely, but Rosecrans rallied them in
person, and the rebels were finally repulsed before noon, with
a loss admitted by themselves to be double that of Rosecrans.
The national loss was 315 killed, 1,812 wounded, and 232
prisoners and missing. Rosecrans reported the rebel dead at
1,423, and took 2,225 prisoners. … The repulse was complete,
by 11 o'clock in the morning, but unfortunately was not
followed up by Rosecrans, till the next day. The rebels,
however, started off in haste and disorder immediately after
the fight; and on the 5th, while in full retreat, were struck
in flank, as Grant had planned, by Hurlbut and Ord, and the
disaster was rendered final. This occurred early on the
morning of the 5th, at the crossing of the Hatchie river,
about ten miles from Corinth. … A battery of artillery and
several hundred men were captured, and the advance was
dispersed or drowned. … Had Rosecrans moved promptly the day
before, he would have come up in the rear of Van Dorn, either
as he was fighting Ord, or while attempting to pass this
defile [six miles up the stream, where Van Dorn finally made
his crossing]. In either event, the destruction of the rebels
must have been complete. … These two fights relieved the
command of West Tennessee from all immediate danger."
_A. Badeau,
Military History of Ulysses S. Grant,
volume 1, chapter 4._
"Satisfied that the enemy was retreating [on the 4th], I
ordered Sullivan's command to push him with a heavy skirmish
line, and to keep constantly feeling them. I rode along the
lines of the commands, told them that, having been moving and
fighting for three days and two nights, I knew they required
rest, but that they could not rest longer than was absolutely
necessary. I directed them to proceed to their camps, provide
five days' rations, take some needed rest, and be ready early
next morning for the pursuit."
_W. S. Rosecrans,
The Battle of Corinth
(Battles and Leaders, volume 2), page 753._
{3484}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862
(September-December: Missouri-Arkansas).
Social demoralizations of the Civil War.
Battle of Prairie Grove.
"The dispersion and suppression of the guerrilla bands [in
Missouri] did not serve wholly to terminate local disturbances
and offenses. The restraints of a common public opinion no longer
existed. Neighborhood good-will had become changed to
neighborhood hatred and feud. Men took advantage of the
license of war to settle personal grudges by all the
violations of law, varying from petty theft to assassination;
and parallel with this thirst for private revenge was the
cupidity which turned crime into a source of private gain. … A
rearrangement of military command appears in an order of the
President under date of September 19, 1862, directing that
Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, and the bordering Indian Territory
should constitute a new department to be called the Department
of the Missouri, to be commanded by Major-General Samuel R.
Curtis. … This new arrangement served to change the relative
positions of Schofield and Curtis. The former, gathering what
troops he could, took the field in a campaign towards
Southwest Missouri to meet the expected invasion from
Arkansas, while the latter, recalled from a short leave of
absence, came to St. Louis (September 24, 1862) to take up his
headquarters and assume the general administration of the new
Department of the Missouri. … The difficulties in the military
situation had grown primarily out of the error of Halleck … in
postponing the opening of the Mississippi River. When, in the
spring and summer of 1862, Halleck abandoned all thought of
pursuing that prime and comprehensive object, and left
Vicksburg to grow up into an almost impregnable Confederate
citadel, he blighted the possibility of successful Union
campaigns on both sides of the great river. … From the
midsummer of 1862, therefore, until the fall of Vicksburg in
midsummer of 1863, military campaigning in the
trans-Mississippi country ceases to have any general
significance. … The only action of importance which marks the
military administration of Curtis was the battle of Prairie
Grove in the northwest corner of Arkansas, where on the 7th of
December the detachments respectively commanded by the Union
generals James G. Blunt (who had been hovering all summer
along the border of Kansas) and Francis J. Herron, who,
finding Blunt pressed by the enemy coming northward with a
view of entering Missouri, advanced by forced marches from
near Springfield and formed a junction with Blunt just in the
nick of time to defeat the Confederates under General Hindman.
The losses on each side were about equal, and on the day
following the engagement the Confederates retreated southward
across the protecting barrier of the Boston Mountains. It was
in a diminished degree a repetition of the battle of Pea
Ridge, fought in the preceding March within 20 or 30 miles of
the same place. … So effectually did this engagement serve to
scatter the rebel forces that Schofield reported January 31,
1863, 'There is no considerable force of the enemy north of
the Arkansas River; indeed I believe they have all gone or are
going, as rapidly as possible, to Vicksburg. Ten thousand
infantry and artillery can be spared from Southern Missouri
and Northern Arkansas.'"
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 6, chapter 18._
ALSO IN:
_W. Baxter,
Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove._
_O. J. Victor,
History of the Southern Rebellion,
division 10, chapter 4 (volume 3)._
_W. Britton,
Memoirs of the Rebellion on the Border,
chapter 1._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (October-December: Virginia).
The final removal of McClellan.
Burnside at Fredericksburg.
"Both armies … felt the need of some repose; and, glad to be
freed from each other's presence, they rested on their
arms—the Confederates in the Shenandoah Valley, in the
vicinity of Winchester, and the army of the Potomac near the
scene of its late exploits, amid the picturesque hills and
vales of Southwestern Maryland. The movement from Washington
into Maryland to meet Lee's invasion was defensive in its
purpose, though it assumed the character of a
defensive-offensive campaign. Now that this had been
accomplished and Lee driven across the frontier, it remained
to organize on an adequate scale the means of a renewal of
grand offensive operations directed at the Confederate army
and towards Richmond. The completion of this work, including
the furnishing of transportation, clothing, supplies, etc.,
required upwards of a month, and during this period no
military movement occurred, with the exception of a raid into
Pennsylvania by Stuart. About the middle of October, that
enterprising officer, with twelve or fifteen hundred troopers,
crossed the Potomac above Williamsport, passed through
Maryland, penetrated Pennsylvania, occupied Chambersburg,
where he burnt considerable government stores, and after
making the entire circuit of the Union army, recrossed the
Potomac below the mouth of the Monocacy. He was all the way
closely pursued by Pleasonton with 800 cavalry. … On the
recrossing of the Potomac by Lee after Antietam, McClellan
hastened to seize the débouehé of the Shenandoah Valley, by
the possession of Harper's Ferry. … At first McClellan
contemplated pushing his advance against Lee directly down the
Shenandoah Valley, as he found that, by the adoption of the
line east of the Blue Ridge, his antagonist, finding the door
open, would again cross to Maryland. But this danger being
removed by the oncoming of the season of high-water in the
Potomac, McClellan determined to operate by the east side of
the Blue Ridge, and on the 26th his advance crossed the
Potomac by a ponton-bridge at Berlin, five miles below
Harper's Ferry. By the 2d November the entire army had crossed
at that point. Advancing due southward towards Warrenton, he
masked the movement by guarding the passes of the Blue Ridge,
and by threatening to issue through these, he compelled Lee to
retain Jackson in the Valley. With such success was this
movement managed, that on reaching Warrenton on the 9th, while
Lee had sent half of his army forward to Culpepper to oppose
McClellan's advance in that direction, the other half was
still west of the Blue Ridge, scattered up and down the
Valley, and separated from the other moiety by at least two
days' march. McClellan's next projected move was to strike
across obliquely westward and interpose between the severed
divisions of the Confederate force; but this step he was
prevented from taking by his sudden removal from the command
of the Army of the Potomac, while on the march to Warrenton.
Late on the night of November 7th, amidst a heavy snow-storm,
General Buckingham, arriving post-haste from Washington,
reached the tent of General McClellan at Rectortown. He was
the bearer of the following dispatch, which he handed to
General McClellan: … 'By direction of the President of the
United States, it is ordered that Major-General McClellan be
relieved from the command of the Army of the Potomac, and that
Major-General Burnside take the command of that army.' … It
chanced that General Burnside was at the moment with him in
his tent.
{3485}
Opening the dispatch and reading it, without a change of
countenance or of voice, McClellan passed over the paper to
his successor, saying, as he did so: 'Well, Burnside, you are
to command the army.' Thus ended the career of McClellan as
head of the Army of the Potomac. … The moment chosen was an
inopportune and an ungracious one; for never had McClellan
acted with such vigor and rapidity-never had he shown so much
confidence in himself or the army in him. And it is a notable
fact that not only was the whole body of the army—rank and
file as well his officers—enthusiastic in their affection for
his person, but that the very general appointed as his
successor was the strongest opponent of his removal."
_W. Swinton,
Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac,
chapter 6, sections 2-3. _
"It is dangerous to shift commanders on the eve of battle, and
our cavalry had already engaged the Confederates'; it is more
dangerous to change the plans of troops moving in the vicinity
of the enemy. But as if impelled to do some new thing … the
new commander of the Army of the Potomac determined upon a
flank movement by his left on the north of the river towards
Fredericksburg. … Only by movements equally wary and rapid, as
well as by sure means of crossing the river, could Burnside's
manœuvre possibly succeed. In this last element he counted on
Halleck, and, of course, failed. The promised pontoons did
not, and could scarcely have been expected to come. Arrived at
Fredericksburg Burnside still might have crossed by the fords,
for the water was low. And once in possession of the heights
beyond the city he could afford to wait. But, slower than even
his predecessor, Burnside sat down at Falmouth, on the north
side of the river, while Lee, having learned of his movement,
by forced marches concentrated his army on the opposite bank,
and prepared to erect impregnable defences in his front. …
Before Burnside got ready to take any active steps, Marye's
Heights, back of Fredericksburg, had been crowned by a triple
line of works, and Lee had brought together nearly 90,000
troops to man them. Two canals and a stone wall in front of
the left, as well as open, sloping ground on both flanks,
served to retain an attacking party for a long period under
fire. To assault these works in front was simple madness. To
turn them below necessitated the crossing of a wide and now
swollen river, in the face of a powerful enemy in his
immediate front. … To turn them above was practicable, but it
was a confessed return to McClellan's plan. Burnside chose the
first. Preparations foe crossing were begun. The better part
of three days [December 11-13] was consumed in throwing the
bridges and putting over the two Grand Divisions of Franklin
and Sumner, all of which was accomplished under fire. But Lee
was by no means unwilling to meet the Army of the Potomac
after this fashion. Such another happy prospect for him was
not apt soon again to occur. He did not dispute the crossing
in force. Burnside's one chance in a hundred lay in a
concentrated assault sharply pushed home before the enemy
could oppose an equal force. But in lieu of one well-sustained
attack, or of two quite simultaneous, Burnside frittered away
this single chance by putting in Franklin on the left and
Sumner on the right, without concerted action." Both assaults
were bloodily repulsed. "Hooker is ordered across. Under
protest, and yet Hooker lacked not stomach for a fight, he
obeys the useless order, and leads his men into the slaughter
pen. … All is in vain. Even the Army of the Potomac cannot do
the impossible. The defeated troops are huddled into
Fredericksburg, and gradually withdrawn across the river.
Burnside was insane enough to wish to repeat the assault next
day. But the counsels of his officers prevailed on him to
desist. No such useless slaughter, with the exception,
perhaps, of Cold Harbor, occurred during our war, and 13,000
men paid the penalty. The enemy's loss was but one in three of
ours."
_T. A. Dodge,
Bird's-Eye View of Our Civil War,
chapter 21._
ALSO IN:
A. Woodbury,
Burnside and the Ninth Army Corps,
part 2, chapters 4-8.
_F. A. Walker,
History of the Second Army Corps,
chapters 5-6._
_B. P. Poore,
Life of Burnside,
chapters 18-19._
_Official Records,
series 1, volume 21._
_J. Longstreet,
D. N. Couch, and others,
Burnside at Fredericksburg,
(Battles and Leaders, volume 3)._
_F. W. Palfrey,
The Antietam and Fredericksburg
(Campaigns of the Civil War, volume 5), pages 129-135._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (December: On the Mississippi).
The second attempt against Vicksburg.
General Sherman and Admiral Porter.
Miscarriage of Grant's plans.
"Rear-Admiral Porter took command of the Mississippi squadron
in October, 1862. … Up to this time the gun-boats had,
strictly speaking, been under the control of the Army, but now
all this was changed, and the Mississippi Squadron, like all
the other naval forces, was brought directly under the
supervision of the Secretary of the Navy. … The new
arrangement left the commander of the squadron at liberty to
undertake any expedition he thought proper, and he was not in
the least hampered by any instructions from the Navy
Department. … Before Admiral Porter left Washington he was
informed by the President that General McClernand had been
ordered to raise an Army at Springfield, Illinois, to
prosecute the siege of Vicksburg. The President expressed the
hope that the rear-admiral would co-operate heartily with
General McClernand in the operations to be carried on. But as
Vicksburg never would have been taken if it had depended on
General McClernand's raising an Army sufficient for the
purpose, the Admiral, immediately on his arrival at Cairo,
sent a message to General Grant, at Holly Springs,
Mississippi, informing him of McClernand's intention; that he,
Porter, had assumed command of the Mississippi Squadron, and
was ready to cooperate with the Army on every occasion where
the services of the Navy could be useful. A few days
afterwards General Grant arrived at Cairo and proposed an
expedition against Vicksburg, and asking the rear-admiral, if
he could furnish a sufficient force of gun-boats, to accompany
it. Grant's plan was to embark Sherman from Memphis, where he
then was, with 30,000 soldiers, to be joined at Helena,
Arkansas, by 10,000 more. Grant himself would march from Holly
Springs with some 60,000 men upon Granada. General Pemberton
would naturally march from Vicksburg to stop Grant at Granada,
until reinforcements could be thrown into Vicksburg from the
south, and while Pemberton was thus absent with the greater
part of his Army, Sherman and Porter could get possession of
the defences of Vicksburg.
{3486}
General Grant having been informed that the gun-boats would be
ready to move at short notice, and having sent orders to
Sherman to put his troops aboard the transports as soon as the
gun-boats arrived in Memphis, returned immediately to Holly
Springs to carry out his part of the programme. … The
expedition from Memphis got away early in December, 1862.
Commander Walke, in the 'Carondelet,' being sent ahead with
[three iron-clads and two so-called 'tin-clads'] … to clear
the Yazoo River of torpedoes and cover the landing of
Sherman's Army when it should arrive. This arduous and
perilous service was well performed," but one of the
iron-clads engaged in it, the Cairo, was sunk by a torpedo.
"General Sherman moved his transports to a point on the river
called Chickasaw Bayou without the loss of a man from
torpedoes or sharpshooters, his landing [December 27] being
covered in every direction by the gunboats. Sherman first made
a feint on Haines' Bluff, as if to attack the works, and then
landed at Chickasaw Bayou. Owing to the late heavy rains he
found the roads to Vicksburg heights almost impassable, and
when he attempted to advance with his Army he was headed off
by innumerable bayous, which had to be bridged, or corduroy
roads built around them. It was killing work. Even at this
time Vicksburg had been fortified at every point, and its only
approaches by land led through dense swamps or over boggy open
ground, where heavy guns were placed, so as to mow down an
advancing Army. A general has seldom had so difficult a task
assigned him, and there was little chance of Sherman's
succeeding unless Pemberton had drawn off nearly all his
forces to oppose Grant's advance on Granada. … Sherman and his
Army overcame everything and at last reached terra firma. In
the meanwhile the Navy was doing what it could to help the
Army. … Grant had left Holly Springs with a large Army at the
time he had appointed, merely with the design of drawing
Pemberton from Vicksburg and thus helping Sherman in his
attack on that place. … Grant moved towards Granada, and
everything looked well; but the Confederate General, Earl Van
Dorn, dashed into Holly Springs, 28 miles in the rear of the
Union Army, capturing the garrison and all their stores. At
the same time General Forrest pushed his cavalry into West
Tennessee, cutting the railroad to Columbus at several points
between that place and Jackson. … Due precautions had been
taken to prevent this mishap by leaving a strong force behind
at Holly Springs, but the commanding officer was not on the
alert and his capture was a complete surprise. In this raid of
the Confederates a million dollars' worth of stores were
destroyed. Under the circumstances it was impossible for Grant
to continue his march on Granada, which Pemberton perceiving,
the latter returned to Vicksburg in time to assist in
Sherman's repulse. … Sherman made all his arrangements to
attack the enemy's works on the 20th of December, 1862, and
the assault took place early on that day. One division
succeeded in occupying the batteries on the heights, and hoped
shortly to reach those commanding the city of Vicksburg, but
the division that was to follow the advance was behind time
and the opportunity was lost. A portion of Pemberton's Army
had returned from Granada just in time to overwhelm and drive
back the small force that had gained the hills. … The enemy
did not follow, being satisfied with driving our troops from
the heights, and there was nothing left for Sherman to do but
to get his Army safely back to the transports."
_D. D. Porter,
Naval History of the Civil War,
chapter 24._
ALSO IN:
_S. M. Bowman and R. B. Irwin,
Sherman and his Campaigns,
chapter 7._
_W. T. Sherman,
Memoirs,
volume 1, chapter 11._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862-1863
(December-January: Tennessee).
Bragg and Rosecrans.
The Battle of Stone River, or Murfreesborough.
"The Confederate government was greatly disappointed with the
issue of Bragg's campaign. Scarcely had he reached Chattanooga
when he was ordered to move northward again. Rosecrans, on
assuming command of Buell's army, … concentrated his forces at
Nashville, and there accumulated large supplies. … Bragg had
already reached Murfreesborough on his second northward march
from Chattanooga. Rosecrans had given out that it was his
intention to take up his winter quarters at Nashville, and
Bragg, supposing that this would be the case, sent out strong
detachments of cavalry under Morgan and Forrest, the former
being ordered to break Rosecrans's communications. As it was
about the season of Christmas, Murfreesborough was the scene
of much gayety … and the giddy Confederates danced on floors
carpeted with the American flag. Suddenly, on the 26th of
December, Rosecrans moved. His march commenced in a heavy min.
The Confederate outposts retired before his advance, the
pressure upon them being so vigorous that they had not time to
destroy the bridges on the Jefferson and Murfreesborough
turnpikes. On the 30th, Bragg, finding he was about to be
assailed, had concentrated his army a couple of miles in front
of Murfreesborough. The position of the national army, which
was 43,000 strong on the evening of that day, was on the west
side of Stone River, a sluggish stream fringed with cedar
brakes, and here flowing in a north-northwesterly course. The
line ranged nearly north and south, and was three or four
miles in length. Crittenden was on its left, with three
divisions. Wood, Vancleve, Palmer; Thomas in the centre, with
two divisions, Negley and Rousseau, the latter in reserve;
McCook on the right with three, Sheridan, Davis, Johnson. The
left wing touched the river. … Bragg's army, 62,000, stood
between Rosecrans and Murfreesborough. … Breckinridge's
division formed his right, in his centre, under Polk, were two
divisions, those of Withers and Cheatham; on his left, under
Hardee, two divisions, Cleburne and McCown. The river
separated Breckinridge from the rest of the Confederate army.
Rosecrans had concentrated two thirds of his force on his
left. His intention was that his right wing, standing on the
defensive, should simply hold its ground; but his extreme
left, the divisions of Wood and Vancleve, crossing Stone
River, should assail Breckinridge's division, exposed there,
and seize the heights. … On his part, also, Bragg had
determined to take the offensive. … Both intended to strike
with the left, and therefore both massed their force on that
wing. … In the dawn of the last day of the year (1862), while
Rosecrans's left was rapidly crossing Stone River to make its
expected attack, Bragg, with his left, had already anticipated
him. Coming out of a fog which had settled on the
battle-field, he fell furiously upon Johnson's division, and
so unexpectedly that two of its batteries were taken before a
gun could be fired.
{3487}
The Confederate success was decisive. Johnson's division,
which was on the extreme national right, was instantly swept
away. Davis, who stood next, was assailed in front and on his
uncovered flank. He made a stout resistance, but the shock was
too great; he was compelled to give way, with the loss of many
guns. And now the triumphant Confederate left, the centre also
coming into play, rushed upon the next division—but that was
commanded by Sheridan. Rosecrans's aggressive movement was
already paralyzed; nay, more, it had to be abandoned. He had
to withdraw his left for the purpose of saving his right and
defending his communications. He must establish a new line.
The possibility of doing this—the fate of the battle—rested on
Sheridan." He held his ground for an hour, until "the
cartridge-boxes of his men were empty. The time had come when
even Sheridan must fall back. But, if he had not powder, he
had steel. The fixed bayonets of his reserve brigade covered
him, and he retired, unconquered and unshaken, out of the
cedar thicket toward the Nashville road. In this memorable and
most glorious resistance he had lost 1,630 men. 'Here's all
that are left,' he said to Rosecrans, whom he had saved and
now met. After Sheridan had been pushed back, there was
nothing for Negley but to follow. … Meantime, on a knoll in
the plain to which these divisions had receded, Rosecrans had
massed his artillery. He was forming a new line, in which the
army would face southwestwardly, with the Nashville turnpike
on its rear." Against this new line the Confederates dashed
themselves, desperately but vainly, four times that day, and
were repelled with horrible slaughter. "Bragg, unwilling to be
foiled, now brought Breckinridge, who had hitherto been
untouched, across the river to make a final attempt on
Rosecrans's left flank with 7,000 fresh men. His first attack
was repulsed; he made a second; it shared the same fate. So
stood affairs when night came, … the closing night of 1862. On
New Year's Day nothing was done; the two armies, breathless
with their death-struggle, stood looking at each other. On
January 2d Rosecrans was found, not retreating, but busily
engaged in trying to carry out his original plan. He had made
his position impregnable; he had thrown a force across Stone
River, and, as he at first intended, was getting ready to
crown with artillery the heights beyond the east bank.
Hereupon Bragg brought Breckinridge back to his old position,
ordering him to drive the enemy across the river—a task which
that officer bravely tried, but only imperfectly accomplished,
for the artillery on the opposite bank tore his division to
pieces. In twenty minutes he lost 2,000 men. A violent storm
prevented the renewal of the battle on the 3d. On that night
Bragg, despairing of success, withdrew from Murfreesborough,
retreating to Tullahoma. … In these dreadful battles the
Confederates lost 14,700 men. On the national side there were
killed 1,553, wounded more than 7,000, prisoners more than
3,000; more than one third of its artillery and a large
portion of its train were taken. The losses were about one
fourth of each army. Henceforth the Confederates abandoned all
thought of crossing the Ohio River."
_J. W. Draper,
History of the American Civil War,
chapter 53 (volume 2)._
"The enemy in retiring did not fall back very far—only behind
Duck River to Shelbyville and Tullahoma—and but little
endeavor was made to follow him. Indeed, we were not in
condition to pursue, even if it had been the intention at the
outset of the campaign. … The victory quieted the fears of the
West and Northwest, destroyed the hopes of the secession
element in Kentucky, renewed the drooping spirits of the East
Tennesseans, and demoralized the disunionists in Middle
Tennessee; yet it was a negative victory so far as concerned
the result on the battle-field. Rosecrans seems to have
planned the battle with the idea that the enemy would continue
passive, remain entirely on the defensive, and that it was
necessary only to push forward our left in order to force the
evacuation of Murfreesboro'. … Had Bragg followed up with the
spirit which characterized its beginning the successful attack
by Hardee on our right wing—and there seems no reason why he
should not have done so—the army of Rosecrans still might have
got back to Nashville, but it would have been depleted and
demoralized."
_P. H. Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs,
volume 1, chapters 12-14._
ALSO IN:
_A. F. Stevenson,
Battle of Stone's River._
_T. B. Van Horne,
History of the Army of the Cumberland,
chapters 16-17 (volume 1)._
_Official Records,
series 1, volume 20._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (January).
The final Proclamation of Emancipation.
The immediate practical effect of the warning Proclamation of
Emancipation issued by President Lincoln on the 22d of
September, 1862, "did, perhaps, more nearly answer the
apprehensions of the President than the expectations of those
most clamorous for it. It did, as charged, very much 'unite
the South and divide the North.' The cry of 'the perversion of
the war for the Union into a war for the negro' became the
Democratic watchword, and was sounded everywhere with only too
disastrous effect, as was plainly revealed by the fall
elections with their large Democratic gains and Republican
losses. Indeed, it was the opinion of Mr. Greeley that, could
there have been a vote taken at that time on the naked issue,
a large majority would have pronounced against emancipation.
But Mr. Lincoln did not falter. Notwithstanding these
discouraging votes at the North, and the refusal of any
Southern State to avail itself of the proffered immunity and
aid of his Proclamation of September, he proceeded, at the
close of the hundred days of grace allowed by it, to issue his
second and absolute Proclamation, making all the slaves of the
Rebel States and parts of States forever and irreversibly
free." It was in the following words:
"Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a
proclamation was issued by the President of the United States,
containing, among other things, the following, to wit: 'That
on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as
slaves within any state, or designated part of a state, the
people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United
States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and
the Executive Government of the United States, including the
military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and
maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or
acts to repress such persons or any of them, in any efforts
they may make for their actual freedom.
{3488}
That the Executive will, on the first day of January
aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the states and parts of
states, if any, in which the people thereof respectively shall
then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact
that any state, or the people thereof, shall on that day be in
good faith represented in the Congress of the United States,
by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of
the qualified voters of such state shall have participated,
shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be
deemed conclusive evidence that such state, and the people
thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States.'
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United
States, by virtue of the power in me vested as
Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy of the United States,
in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and
government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary
war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first
day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight
hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so
to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred
days from the day first above mentioned, order and designate,
as the states and parts of states wherein the people thereof
respectively are this day in rebellion against the United
States, the following, to wit: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana
(except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson,
St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre
Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including
the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida,
Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except
the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also
the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth
City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of
Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are for the
present left precisely as if this proclamation were not
issued. And, by virtue of the power and for the purpose
aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as
slaves within said designated states and parts of states are
and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive
Government of the United States, including the military and
naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the
freedom of said persons. And I hereby enjoin upon the people
so declared to be free, to abstain from all violence, unless
in necessary self-defense; and I recommend to them that, in
all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable
wages. And I further declare and make known that such persons
of suitable condition will be received into the armed service
of the United States, to garrison forts, positions, stations,
and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said
service. And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of
justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military
necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and
the gracious favor of Almighty God.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused
the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this first day of January,
in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and
sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States
of America the eighty-seventh.
Abraham Lincoln.
By the President: William H. Seward, Secretary of State."
"Though the immediate effects of the Proclamation might not
have answered all that was expected of it, it was not many
months before its happy influences became manifest. Its
tendency from the first was to unify and consolidate the
antislavery and Christian sentiment of the land, to give
dignity and consistency to the conflict. … It strengthened,
too, the cause immensely with other nations, secured the
sympathy and moral support of Christendom, and diminished, if
it did not entirely remove, the danger of foreign
intervention."
_H. Wilson,
History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power,
volume 3, chapter 28._
"Fame is due Mr. Lincoln, not alone because he decreed
emancipation, but because events so shaped themselves under
his guidance as to render the conception practical and the
decree successful. Among the agencies he employed none proved
more admirable or more powerful than this two-edged sword of
the final proclamation, blending sentiment with force,
leaguing liberty with Union, filling the voting armies at home
and the fighting armies in the field. In the light of history
we can see that by this edict Mr. Lincoln gave slavery its
vital thrust, its mortal wound. It was the word of decision,
the judgment without appeal, the sentence of doom."
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln.
volume 6, chapter 19._
ALSO IN:
_O. J. Victor,
History of the Southern Rebellion,
division 10, chapter 9 (volume 3)._
_W. P. and F. J. Garrison,
William Lloyd Garrison,
volume 4. chapters 3-4._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (January: Arkansas).
The capture of Arkansas Post, or Fort Hindman.
Sherman withdrew his troops from the attempt against Vicksburg
on the 2d of January, and on the 4th he relinquished the
command to General McClernand, who had come down the river
with orders to assume it. On that same day "the expedition
sailed on the same transports that had brought them from
Vicksburg, convoyed by Admiral Porter's fleet of gunboats, to
attack Fort Hindman, commonly known as Arkansas Post, an old
French settlement situated on the left or north bank of the
Arkansas River, 50 miles from its mouth and 117 below Little
Rock. … The expedition moved up the White River through the
cut-off which unites its waters with those of the Arkansas, up
the latter stream to Notrib's farm, three miles below Fort
Hindman. … By noon on the 10th the landing was completed, and
the troops were on the march to invest the post. … The
gunboats opened a terrific fire upon the enemy during the
afternoon, to distract his attention. By nightfall the troops
were in position." Next morning a combined attack began, which
the garrison endured until 4 o'clock P. M. when the white flag
was raised. "Our entire loss in killed was 129; in wounded,
831; and in missing, 17; total, 977. … By the surrender there
fell into our hands 5,000 men. … After sending the prisoners
to St. Louis, having destroyed the defences and all buildings
used for military purposes, on the 15th of January the troops
re-embarked on the transports and proceeded to Napoleon,
Arkansas, whence on the 17th … they returned to Milliken's
Bend."
_S. M. Bowman and R B. Irwin,
Sherman and his Campaigns,
chapters 7-8._
{3489}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (January-April: Virginia).
Command given to Hooker.
President Lincoln's Letter to him.
Demoralized state of the Army of the Potomac,
and its improvement.
"General Burnside retired from a position he had never sought,
to the satisfaction, and, be it said to his credit, with the
warm personal regard of all. Sumner, whom the weight of years
had robbed of strength, but not of gallantry, was relieved at
his own request; Franklin was shelved. Hooker thus became
senior general officer, and succeeded to the command. No man
enjoyed a more enviable reputation in the Army of the Potomac.
… His commands so far had been limited; and he had a frank,
manly way of winning the hearts of his soldiers. He was in
constant motion about the army while it lay in camp; his
appearance always attracted attention; and he was as well
known to almost every regiment as its own commander. He was a
representative man. … Nothing shows more curiously a weak spot
in Hooker's character than the odd pride he took in Mr.
Lincoln's somewhat equivocal letter to him at the time of his
appointment: … 'I have placed you [wrote the President] at the
head of the Army of the Potomac. Of course, I have done this
upon what appears to me to be sufficient reasons, and yet I
think it best for you to know that there are some things in
regard to which I am not quite satisfied with you. I believe
you to be a brave and skilful soldier, which of course I like.
I also believe you do not mix politics with your profession,
in which you are right. You have confidence in yourself; which
is a valuable, if not an indispensable quality. You are
ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds, does good rather
than harm; but I think that, during General Burnside's command
of the army, you have taken counsel of your ambition and
thwarted him as much as you could, in which you did a great
wrong to the country and to a most meritorious and honorable
brother-officer. I have heard, in such a way as to believe it,
of your recently saying that both the army and the Government
needed a dictator. Of course, it was not for this, but in
spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only those
generals who gain success can set up dictators. What I now ask
of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship.
The Government will support you to the utmost of its ability,
which is neither more nor less than it has done or will do for
all commanders. I much fear that the spirit you have aided to
infuse into the army, of criticising their commander and
withholding confidence from him, will now turn upon you. I
shall assist you as far as I can to put it down. Neither you
nor Napoleon, if he were alive again, could get any good out
of an army while such a spirit prevails in it. And now, beware
of rashness! Beware of rashness, but with energy and sleepless
vigilance go forward, and give us victories!' … Hooker was
appointed Jan. 26, 1863; and Burnside, with a few earnest
words, took leave of the army. The troops received their new
chief with a heartiness and confidence which, since
McClellan's re-instatement, had not been equalled. Hooker was
to all the soul and embodiment of the growth and history of
this weather-beaten Army of the Potomac. And the salutary
changes he at once began to make,—for Hooker never lacked the
power of organization—were accepted with alacrity; and a
spirit of cheerful willingness succeeded speedily to what had
been almost a defiant obedience. The army was in a lamentably
low state of efficiency. Politics mingled with camp duties;
and the disaffection of officers and men, coupled with an
entire lack of confidence in the ability of the Army of the
Potomac to accomplish anything, were pronounced. Desertions
occurred at the rate of 200 a day. … Hooker states that he
found 2,922 officers, and 81,964 enlisted men, entered as
absent on the rolls of the army, a large proportion from
causes unknown. Sharp and efficient measures were at once
adopted, which speedily checked this alarming depletion of the
ranks. … The testimony of all general officers of the Army of
the Potomac concurs in awarding the highest praise to Hooker
for the manner in which he improved the condition of the
troops during the three months he was in command prior to
Chancellorsville. … On the 30th of April the Army of the
Potomac, exclusive of provost-guard, consisted of about
130,000 men under the colors,—'for duty equipped,' according
to the morning report. … While the Army of the Potomac lay
about Falmouth [opposite Fredericksburg], awaiting orders to
move, Lee occupied the heights south of the Rappahannock, from
Banks's Ford above to Port Royal (or Skenker's Neck), below
Fredericksburg, a line some 15 miles in length as the crow
flies. … Lee's forces numbered about 60,000 men, for duty."
_T. A. Dodge,
The Campaign of Chancellorsville,
chapters 3-4._
ALSO IN:
_F. A. Walker,
History of the 2nd Army Corps,
chapter 7._
_R. De Trobriand,
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac,
chapter 20._
[Image: Map of Vicksburg and Vicinity.]
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863
(January-April: On the Mississippi).
Grant's Campaign against Vicksburg.
Futile operations of the first four months.
"General Grant took personal command of the movement against
Vicksburg on the 30th of January, 1863. … The first plan made
was to dig a canal across the neck of land, or peninsula in
front of Vicksburg,—below the city,—at a point where the
isthmus was only a mile and a fifth in width. This had been
begun before General Grant's arrival. If a canal could have
been made large enough for large steamboats, then no matter
how strong were the fortifications of Vicksburg, the boats
would pass through, far away from their fire. So a canal ten
feet wide and six deep was made here, in the hope that the
freshets of the river would widen it, and so make it large
enough for large steamers. But very little came of the canal.
When the river did rise, it would not flow where it was meant
to do. It flooded the camps of the workmen. Meanwhile the
Rebels had made new batteries below it. Thus ended plan number
one. Another similar plan, to open a route by Lake Providence
and Bayou Baxter, Bayou Macon, and the Washita and Red River,
did not succeed better. The canals attempted here were both on
the west of the river. A very bold attempt was made on the
east side, by what was known as the Yazoo Pass, into the
Tallahatchee and Yazoo River. The expeditions sent out by this
route would come out above Vicksburg; but it was hoped that
thus the Rebel gunboats on the Yazoo River might be destroyed.
If a practicable route were made here, the whole army could be
moved to Haine's Bluff,—above Vicksburg,—an upland region very
desirable for occupation.
{3491}
But nothing came of this movement, though some hard work and
some hard fighting were done in it. What resulted of
importance was, that the troops found their way into the
granary from which Vicksburg had been fed; and in the
resistance, many of the Rebels were destroyed. In such
attempts February and March passed away. Meanwhile Admiral
Farragut, of the navy, ran by the Rebel batteries at Port
Hudson, so that he communicated with Grant below
Vicksburg,—and Grant could communicate with General Banks, who
was trying to do at Port Hudson what Grant was trying to do
above. The distance from Vicksburg to Port Hudson is about 120
miles in a straight line, and more than twice that by the
crooked river. Grant now determined to pass the city of
Vicksburg on the west side of the river by marching his army
by land—with the help of boats on some bayous if possible—from
Milliken's Bend, which is twenty miles above Vicksburg, to New
Carthage, which is about as far below. At his request Admiral
Porter sent seven of his iron-clads, with three steamers and
ten barges, down the river, past the Rebel batteries. They
were well laden with forage and supplies. The crews of all but
one refused to go. But volunteers from the army offered,
enough to man a hundred vessels had they been needed. On a
dark night of the 16th of April, led by Admiral Porter, they
steamed down, with the barges in tow. They turned the bend
without being noticed. Then the first batteries opened on
them. The Rebels set fire to houses so as to light up the
scene; and from the ships the crews could see the men at the
batteries and in the streets of Vicksburg. Though every vessel
was hit, all got by, except the Henry Clay steamer. Finding
she was sinking, her commander cut off the barge he was
towing, which drifted safely down, and, soon after, the vessel
herself took fire. The crew escaped in their boats,—the vessel
blazed up and lighted up all around. At last, however, after
the boats had been under fire two hours and forty minutes, the
whole fleet except the Henry Clay arrived safely below the
batteries. Grant had thus secured, not only forage and stores,
but the means of transportation. On the 26th of April five
more vessels passed successfully, one being lost as before.
Grant was now strong enough to cross the Mississippi River.
His army had to march seventy miles on the west side by muddy
roads, scarcely above the river line. He feared he might have
to go as far down as a little town called Rodney for a good
landing-place on the east side. But a friendly negro man, who
knew the country, brought in information that there was a good
road inland from Bruinsburg,—and so it proved. Grand Gulf, on
the river, where the Rebels had a post, was still between
Grant and Bruinsburg. Porter attacked it with his gunboats,
and Grant was ready to land 10,000 troops to storm the place
if the batteries were silenced. But Porter did not succeed.
Grant therefore marched his troops down on the west side of
the river. Porter ran by Grand Gulf with transports in the
night, and, on the morning of the 30th of April, Grant crossed
the river with 10,000 men. They did not carry a tent nor a
wagon. General Grant and his staff went without their horses.
It was said afterwards that his whole baggage was a
toothbrush! Other divisions followed, and on the 3d of May he
left the river, and marched, not directly on Vicksburg, but
more inland, to cut off all communication with that city. His
army took three days' rations with them, and relied
principally for provisions on the stores in the rich country
through which they marched."
_E. E. Hale,
Stories of War told by Soldiers,
chapter 7._
ALSO IN:
_F. V. Greene,
The Mississippi
(Campaigns of the Civil War, volume 8), chapter 4._
_U. S. Grant,
Personal Memoirs,
volume 1, chapters 31-32._
_G. W. Brown,
The Mississippi Squadron and the Siege of Vicksburg
(Personal Recollections of the War:
New York Com. L. L. of the United States)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D.1863(February-April: Tennessee).
Engagements at Dover and Franklin.
"In February [on the 3d], General Wheeler, Bragg's chief of
Cavalry, tried to capture Fort Donaldson, so as to stop the
navigation of the Cumberland River, by which some of
Rosecrans's supplies came in steamboats to Nashville. The fort
had not been repaired after its capture by Grant, but the
Village of Dover near it had been fortified, and it was then
held by Colonel A. C. Harding with about 600 men. The Union
men fought bravely, and in the evening the gunboat Fair Play
came up and opened a fire on the Confederates which drove them
away in confusion, with a loss of more than 500 men. Harding's
loss was 126. Early in March, General Van Dorn appeared near
Franklin [a little below Nashville] with a large force of
mounted men. Colonel Colburn, of the 33d Indiana, moved
Southward from Franklin with 2,700 men. Van Dorn and Forrest
met him, and after a fight of several hours [March 5] Colburn
had to surrender with 1,300 of his men."
_J. D. Champlin, Jr.,
Young Folks' History of the War for the Union,
chapter 31._
"Sheridan, with his division, and about 1,800 cavalry, under
Colonel Minty, first swept down toward Shelbyville, and then
around toward Franklin, skirmishing in several places with
detachments of Van Dorn's and Forrest's men. In a sharp fight
at Thompson's Station, he captured some of the force which
encountered Colburn. He finally drove Van Dorn beyond the Duck
River, and then returned to Murfreesboro', with a loss during
his ten days' ride and skirmishing of only five men killed and
five wounded. His gain was nearly 100 prisoners. On the 18th
of March, Colonel A. S. Hall, with a little over 1,400 men,
moved eastward from Murfreesboro' to surprise a Confederate
camp at Gainesville. He was unexpectedly met by some of
Morgan's cavalry, when he fell back to Milton, twelve miles
northeast of Murfreesboro' and took a strong position on
Vaught's Hill. There he was attacked by 2,000 men, led by
Morgan in person. With the aid of Harris's Battery skilfully
worked, Hall repulsed the foe after a struggle of about three
hours. Morgan lost between 300 and 400 men killed and wounded.
Among the latter was himself. Hall's loss was 55 men, of whom
only 6 were killed. Early in April, General Granger, then in
command at Franklin, with nearly 5,000 troops, was satisfied
that a heavy force under Van Dorn was about to attack him. He
was then constructing a fort (which afterwards bore his name),
but only two siege-guns and two rifled cannon, belonging to an
Ohio battery, were mounted upon it.
{3492}
The fort … completely commanded the approaches to Franklin. …
On the 10th, Van Dorn, with an estimated force of 9,000
mounted men and two regiments of foot, pressed rapidly forward
along the Columbia and Lewisburg turnpikes, and fell upon
Granger's front. The guns from the fort opened destructively
upon the assailants, and their attack was manfully met by
Granger's troops. Van Dorn soon found himself in a perilous
situation, for Stanley [commanding cavalry] came up and struck
him a heavy blow on the flank. Smith [with cavalry] was
ordered forward to support Stanley, and Baird's troops
were_thrown across the river to engage in the fight. The
Confederates were routed at all points on Granger's front,
with a heavy Joss in killed and wounded, and about 500
prisoners. Van Dorn then turned his whole force upon Stanley
before Smith reached him, and with his overwhelming numbers
pushed him back and recovered most of the captured men. By
this means Van Dorn extricated himself from his perilous
position, and, abandoning his attempt to capture Franklin, he
retired to Spring Hill, with a loss of about three hundred men
in killed, wounded and prisoners. The Union loss was about 37
killed, wounded and missing."
_B. J. Lossing,
Field Book of the Civil War,
volume 3, chapter 4._
ALSO IN:
_T. B. Van Horne,
History of the Army of the Cumberland,
chapter 18, (volume 1)._
_Official Records,
Series 1, volume 23._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (March).
The Conscription Act.
"The Rebel Congress having long since passed [April 16, 1862]
a conscription act whereby all the "White males in the
Confederacy between the ages of 18 and 35 were placed at the
disposal of their Executive, while all those already in the
service, though they had enlisted and been accepted for
specific terms of one or two years, were held to serve through
the war, our Congress was constrained to follow afar off in
the footsteps of the enemy; since our ranks, [after] our heavy
losses in the bloody struggles of 1862, were filled by
volunteers too slowly for the exigencies of the service. The
act providing 'for the enrollment of the National forces' was
among the last passed [March 3, 1863] by the XXXVIIth Congress
prior to its dissolution. It provided for the enrollment, by
Federal provost-marshals and enrolling officers, of all
able-bodied male citizens (not Whites only), including aliens
who had declared their intention to become naturalized,
between the ages of 18 and 45—those between 20 and 35 to
constitute the first class; all others the second class—from
which the President was authorized, from and after July 1, to
make drafts at his discretion of persons to serve in the
National armies for not more than three years; anyone drafted
and not reporting for service to be considered and treated as
a deserter. A commutation of $300 was to be received in lieu
of such service: and there were exemptions provided of certain
heads of Executive Departments; Federal judges; Governors of
States; the only son of a widow, or of an aged and infirm
father, dependent on that son's labor for support; the father
of dependent motherless children under 12 years of age, or the
only adult brother of such children, being orphans; or the
residue of a family which has already two members in the
service, &c., &c. The passage and execution of this act
inevitably intensified and made active the spirit of
opposition to the War. Those who detested every form of
'coercion' save the coercion of the Republic by the Rebels,
with those who especially detested the National effort under
its present aspects as 'a war not for the Union, but for the
Negro,' were aroused by it to a more determined and active
opposition. The bill passed the House by Yeas 115, Nays 49—the
division being so nearly as might be, a party one—while in the
Senate a motion by Mr. Bayard that it be indefinitely
postponed was supported by 11 Yeas (all Democrats) to 35 Nays:
consisting of every Republican present, with Messrs.
McDougall, of California, Harding and Nesmith of Oregon. The
bill then passed without a call of the Yeas and Nays."
_H. Greeley,
The American Conflict,
volume 2, chapter 21._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (April: South Carolina).
The naval attack on Charleston.
Repulse of the Monitors.
"The engagements in which turret iron-clads had been concerned
had given to the government and the public a high opinion of
their offensive and defensive qualities. It seemed as if
nothing could withstand the blow of their heavy shot, and no
projectile penetrate their invulnerable turrets. It was
supposed that a fleet of such ships could without difficulty
force a passage through Charleston Harbor, in spite of its
numerous defenses, and, appearing before the city, compel its
surrender. … On the 7th of April [1863] Admiral Dupont made
the experiment. He had seven Ericsson Monitors, the frigate
Ironsides, partially iron-clad, and a frailer iron-clad, the
Keokuk, constructed on a plan differing from that of the
Monitors. His intention was to disregard the batteries on
Morris's Island, attack the northwest face of Sumter, and
force his way up to the city. His fleet had 32 guns; the
opposing forts, in the aggregate, 300. At noon on that day the
signal was given to weigh anchor. The Weehawken, a Monitor,
took the lead. She had a raft-like contrivance attached to her
bows, for the purpose of removing obstructions and exploding
torpedoes. This occasioned some delay at the outset, through
its interference with her movements. On her way up she
exploded a torpedo, which, though it lifted her a little, did
no damage. At 2.10 P, M. she encountered obstructions
extending across the harbor from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter;
beyond these, piles were seen extending from James's Island to
the Middle Ground. At 2.50 P. M. the guns of Fort Moultrie
opened upon her, followed shortly after by all the batteries
on Sullivan's Island, Morris's Island, and Fort Sumter. Not
being able to pass the obstructions, the Weehawken, and
subsequently other Monitors, the Passaic, Nahant, etc., were
obliged to turn, which threw the line into confusion, as the
other vessels, advancing, approached. This was particularly
the case with the flag-ship Ironsides, which became entangled
with the Monitors, and could not bring her batteries to bear
upon Fort Sumter without risk of firing into them; she was
obliged, on her way up, to anchor twice to avoid going ashore,
on one of these occasions in consequence of having come into
collision with two of the Monitors. The plan of the
Confederates was, by means of obstructions, to detain the
ships, while a concentrated fire was poured upon them in this
the 'first circle,' as it was termed.
{3493}
Two other still more powerful circles of fire must be passed
before the city could be reached. While in the centre of the
first circle, it was apparent that the Monitors were at a
fearful disadvantage. The forts and earth-works were armed
with heavy guns of the best construction. No ship was exposed
to the severest fire of the enemy for more than forty minutes,
yet in that brief period time of the ironclads were wholly or
partially disabled. In these forty minutes the battle was
substantially over, the question settled. The Keokuk was
struck 99 times, of which 19 were under her water-line. She
was in a sinking condition. She had been able to return only
three shots. The Passaic was struck 27 times; her turret was
jammed, and could not for some time be turned. The Nahant was
most seriously damaged; her turret was jammed, her captain
wounded, her quarter-master killed by a bolt which flew off
and struck him on the head. Many of the bolts of both turret
and pilot-house were thus broken; the latter became nearly
untenable in consequence of the nuts and ends flying across
it. All the other Monitors had received damages more or less
severe. The mailed frigate Ironsides had lost one port
shutter, her bow was penetrated by a red-hot shot. The damage
inflicted on Fort Sumter was comparatively insignificant. It
was Dupont's belief that, had the iron-clads been in action
half an hour longer, they would all have been disabled. 'To my
regret,' he says, 'I soon became convinced of the utter
impracticability of taking the city of Charleston by the force
under my command.' … The iron-clad fleet had therefore been
unable to pass the first line of obstructions, or to get out
of 'the first circle of fire.' The slowness of its fire was no
match for the rapidity and weight of that of the forts. The
iron-clads were able to fire only 139 times from the 14 guns
they could bring into action; the forts, from 76 guns, fired
2,209 times. The projectiles they used were wrought-iron
bolts, some of them tipped with steel, solid shot, shells, of
which 40 were filled with melted cast-iron, others with
incendiary composition. The total amount of cannon-powder used
by the forts was 21,093 pounds. The government, thus satisfied
that its iron-clad fleet was insufficient for the forcing of
Charleston Harbor and the capture of the city, now changed its
purposes, restricting its attempts to a more complete
blockade, the detention of a large confederate force in the
vicinity by continually threatening military operations, and
the destruction of Fort Sumter for the sake of a moral
effect."
_J. W. Draper,
History of the American Civil War,
chapter 72 (volume 3)._
ALSO IN:
_D. D. Porter,
Naval History of the War,
chapter 33._
_C. B. Boynton,
History of the Navy during the Rebellion,
volume 2, chapter 33._
_W. C. Church,
Life of Ericsson,
chapter 21 (volume 2)._
_A. Roman,
Military Operations of General Beauregard,
chapter 30 (volume 2)._
_Official Records,
Series 1, volume 14._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (April-May: Virginia).
Hooker's disastrous movement.
Chancellorsville.
Stonewall Jackson's last flank movement.
"Being now [April 28] fully prepared for active operations,
Hooker determined to take the initiative by moving on the left
of his opponent's position. By careful study of Lee's position
he correctly concluded that his left was his most vulnerable
point. In order to mask his real design he sent forward a
force of 10,000 cavalry under General Stoneman to operate upon
Lee's lines of communication with Richmond, and sent Sedgwick
with a force of 30,000 men still further to mask his movement.
Stoneman crossed the Rappahannock at Kelly's Ford on the 29th,
and Sedgwick appeared on the 28th on the heights below
Fredericksburg. These preparatory measures having been taken,
Hooker proceeded to the execution of his plan. Swinton, after
a picturesque description of the passage of the Rappahannock
and the Rapidan, tells us 'that on the afternoon of the 30th
of April four corps of the Federal army had gained the
position of Chancellorsville, where Hooker at the same time
established his headquarters.' Chancellorsville is situated
ten miles southwest of Fredericksburg. It is not, as its name
implies, a town or village, but simply a farm-house with its
usual appendages, situated at the edge of a small field
surrounded by a dense thicket of second growth, which sprang
up after the primeval forest had been cut to furnish fuel to a
neighboring furnace. This thicket extends for miles in every
direction, and its wild aspect very properly suggests its
name, The Wilderness. The intersection of several important
roads gives it the semblance of strategic importance, while in
reality a more unfavorable place for military operations could
not well be found. Hooker, however, seemed well pleased with
his acquisition, for on reaching Chancellorsville on Thursday
night he issued an order to the troops in which he announced
that 'the enemy must either ingloriously fly or come out from
behind his defences and give us battle on our own ground,
where certain destruction awaits him.' … General Lee was fully
aware of the preparations that were being made by his
adversary, but calmly awaited the complete development of his
plans before exerting his strength to oppose him. … On the
28th … Lee ordered Jackson to concentrate his whole corps in
the immediate vicinity of Fredericksburg. Early on the morning
of the 29th Sedgwick crossed the Rappahannock below the mouth
of Deep Run, but made no other aggressive movement on that day
or the day following. On the night of the 30th, Lee was
informed of Hooker's arrival at Chancellorsville. He had been
previously informed of Stoneman's movements against his line
of operations by General Stuart, and was now satisfied that
the main attack of the enemy would come from the direction of
Chancellorsville. Therefore on the morning of the 1st of May
he made the necessary preparations to meet it. Accompanied by
his staff, he took a position on a height where one of his
batteries overlooked the Rappahannock. He there observed
carefully the position of Sedgwick, while waiting for
information from the direction of Chancellorsville. … Very
soon the sound of cannon indicated that the work had begun. At
the same time couriers arrived from Stuart and Anderson
informing the general that the enemy were advancing on the old
turnpike, the plank road, and on the river roads, and asking
for reinforcements. McLaws was immediately ordered to the
support of Anderson, and shortly after Jackson was ordered to
follow with three of his divisions, leaving … a force of about
9,000 men and 45 pieces of artillery in observation of
Sedgwick. When Jackson joined McLaws and Anderson a lively
skirmish was in progress, in which he immediately
participated.
{3494}
When General Lee arrived he found the Federals were being
driven back to Chancellorsville. At the close of the afternoon
they had retired within their lines. General Lee occupied the
ridge about three-quarters of a mile south-east and south of
Chancellorsville. The opposing armies were hidden from each
other by the intervening thicket of brushwood. … It was
obvious that the Federal position was too formidable to be
attacked in front with any hope of success; therefore Lee
proceeded to devise a plan by which the position of Hooker
might be turned and a point of attack gained from which no
danger was apprehended by the Federal commander. … The
execution of a movement so much in accordance with his genius
and inclination was assigned to General Jackson. … At dawn on
the morning of the 2d, Jackson's corps, 22,000 strong, was in
motion, and while it was making one of the most famous flank
movements on record, General Lee, with the divisions of
Anderson and McLaws, with 20 pieces of artillery, a force not
exceeding 12,000 men, occupied the position he had assumed the
previous evening, and General Hooker, with 90,000 men, lay
behind his breastworks awaiting the Confederate attack. …
After making a circuitous march of 15 miles, Jackson reached a
point on the Orange Courthouse road three miles in the rear of
Chancellorsville. Had Hooker possessed a handful of cavalry
equal in spirit to the 'Virginia horsemen' under W. H. F. Lee
that neutralized Stoneman's ten thousand, he might have
escaped the peril that now awaited him. On the arrival of
Jackson on the plank road, Fitz Lee, who had covered his
movement with his brigade of cavalry, conducted him to a
position from which he obtained a view of the enemy, which
disclosed the following scene: 'Below and but a few hundred
yards distant ran the Federal line of battle. There was the
line of defence, with abatis in front, and long lines of
stacked arms in rear. … The soldiers were in groups in the
rear, laughing, chatting, and smoking, probably engaged here
and there in games of cards and other amusements indulged in
while feeling safe and comfortable, awaiting orders. In the
rear of them were other parties driving up and butchering
beeves.' Returning from this point of observation, Jackson
proceeded to make his dispositions of attack, which by six
o'clock were completed. … Howard's corps was first assailed.
This corps, being surprised, was panic-stricken and fled
precipitately, and in its flight communicated the panic to the
troops through which it passed. Jackson's forces followed,
routing line after line, until arrested by the close of day.
The rout of the Federal army was fast becoming general, and it
was only saved from entire defeat by the interposition of
night. When compelled to halt Jackson remarked that with one
more hour of daylight he could have completed the destruction
of the Federal army. This, the most famous of all Jackson's
brilliant achievements, closed his military career. After his
troops had halted, and while the lines were being adjusted, he
rode forward with several of his staff to reconnoitre the
Federal position." The party were mistaken by some of their
own men for Federal horsemen and received a volley which
struck down Stonewall Jackson. He was wounded in both arms by
three bullets, and died from the effects eight days afterward.
"Early on the morning of the 3d the attack was resumed by the
Confederates with great vigor. Hooker, taking advantage of the
night, had restored order in his army and strengthened his
position; his troops regained courage and contested the field
with great stubbornness until ten o'clock when they yielded at
every point and rapidly retreated … within the strong line of
defences which had been previously constructed to cover the
road to the United States Ford. … While the operations above
described were in progress at Chancellorsville, General Early,
by skilful manœuvring, had detained Sedgwick at Fredericksburg
until the 3d, when that general, by a determined advance,
forced back Early, carried Marye's Heights, and proceeded
toward Chancellorsville. The condition of affairs was
communicated to General Lee during the fore·noon. Wilcox's
brigade, then at Banks's Ford, was ordered to intercept
Sedgwick and retard his advance, while McLaws's division was
ordered to support him. Wilcox on reaching Salem Church, six
miles from Chancellorsville, encountered the Federal advance,
and after a sharp conflict he repulsed it with loss. The
success of Wilcox delayed Sedgwick until Anderson and McLaws
could come up. The premeditated attack on Hooker being thus
interrupted, Lee, on the forenoon of the 4th, repaired to the
neighborhood of Fredericksburg. A combined attack was then
directed to be made by Early on the rear, while McLaws and
Anderson bore down upon the front. The battle was hotly
contested during the afternoon, in which the forces of
Sedgwick were defeated, and were only saved from destruction
by a night-passage across the Rappahannock at Banks's Ford. On
the 5th Lee collected his forces at Chancellorsville to give
the 'coup de grace' to Hooker, but that general, under cover
of a dark and stormy night, effected his retreat beyond the
Rappahannock at the United States Ford."
_A. L. Long,
Memoirs of Robert E. Lee,
chapter 14._
The Federal loss at Chancellorsville, in killed and wounded,
was 12,197; missing 5,000; total, 17,197. Confederate loss,
killed and wounded, 10,266; missing 2,753; total, 13,019.
_A. Doubleday,
Chancellorsville and Gettysburg
(Campaigns of the Civil War, volume 6), chapter 8._
ALSO IN:
_T. A. Dodge,
Campaign of Chancellorsville._
_W. Swinton,
Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac,
chapter 8._
_D. N. Couch, O. O. Howard, and others,
Chancellorsville
(Battles and Leaders, volume 3)._
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 7, chapter 4._
_Official Records,
Series 1, volume 25._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (April-May: Mississippi).
Grierson's Raid.
Reporting to headquarters at Washington, on the 5th of May,
1863, General Hurlbut, commanding at Memphis, Tennessee, said:
"As the spring opened, I was daily more and more impressed
with the feasibility of a plan, long entertained, of pushing a
flying column of cavalry through the length of Mississippi,
cutting the Southern Railroad. By consent and approval of
General Grant, I prepared a system of movements along my
entire line from Memphis to Corinth for the purpose of
covering this cavalry dash. At the same time General Rosecrans
proposed to me to cover a movement of 1,800 cavalry from
Tuscumbia down into Alabama and Georgia.
{3495}
This did not interfere with my plan, but simply required extra
force to be developed from Corinth. Delays incident to
combined movements, especially from separate commands, kept
his expeditionary column back for six days. I commenced the
movement from Corinth on the 15th [April]. … On the 17th,
Colonel B. H. Grierson, Sixth Illinois Cavalry, with his own
regiment, the Seventh Illinois, and Second Iowa, moved from La
Grange, by way of Pontotoc, with orders, after passing
Pontotoc, to proceed straight down, throwing one regiment to
the left toward Okolona, and to push for and destroy the
Chunkey River Bridge and any others they could reach, and
either return, or proceed to Baton Rouge, as might be found
advisable. On the same day, April 17, a column of infantry
1,500 strong, and one battery, moved by railroad from La
Grange to Coldwater, with orders to push rapidly between
Coldwater and the Tallahatchee, and take Chalmers in flank and
rear while attacked in front by three regiments, a battery,
and 200 cavalry from Memphis, which left here on the 18th. I
considered that the effect of these movements would be to
puzzle the enemy and withdraw his force from the central line,
which has proven to be correct. … Grierson, on the 19th,
detached the Second Iowa below Pontotoc, which fought its way
gallantly back to La Grange and came home well mounted. The
main cavalry column (Sixth and Seventh Illinois) proceeded,
without loss or engagement, to Newton, on the Southern
Mississippi Railroad, and there destroyed bridges." Colonel
Grierson, in his own full report of the remarkable expedition
thus set on foot, after narrating the proceedings of his
command until it struck Newton Station, on the 24th of April,
continues: "From captured mails and information obtained by my
scouts, I knew that large forces had been sent out to
intercept our return, and having instructions from
Major-General Hurlbut and Brigadier-General Smith to move in
any direction from this point which, in my judgment, would be
best for the safety of my command and the success of the
expedition, I at once decided to move south, in order to
secure the necessary rest and food for men and horses, and
then return to La Grange through Alabama, or make for Baton
Rouge, as I might hereafter deem best. … After resting about
three hours, we moved south to Garlandville. At this point we
found the citizens, many of them venerable with age, armed
with shot-guns and organized to resist our approach. As the
advance entered the town, these citizens fired upon them and
wounded one of our men. We charged upon them and captured
several. After disarming them, we showed them the folly of
their actions, and released them. Without an exception they
acknowledged their mistake, and declared that they had been
grossly deceived as to our real character. One volunteered his
services as guide, and upon leaving us declared that hereafter
his prayers should be for the Union Army. I mention this as a
sample of the feeling which exists, and the good effect which
our presence produced among the people in the country through
which we passed. Hundreds who are skulking and hiding out to
avoid conscription, only await the presence of our arms to
sustain them, when they will rise up and declare their
principles; and thousands who have been deceived, upon the
vindication of our cause would immediately return to loyalty."
It was not until the 2d of May that Grierson and his small
force reached the Union lines at Baton Rouge. The total
accomplishments of the expedition—aside from the important
revelation it made of the condition of things in that region
of the Confederacy—are summed up in the Colonel's report as
follows: "During the expedition we killed and wounded about
100 of the enemy, captured and paroled over 500 prisoners,
many of them officers, destroyed between 50 and 60 miles of
railroad and telegraph, captured and destroyed over 3,000
stand of arms, and other army stores and Government property
to an immense amount; we also captured 1,000 horses and mules.
Our loss during the entire journey was 3 killed, 7 wounded, 5
left on the route sick; the sergeant-major and surgeon of the
Seventh Illinois left with Lieutenant-Colonel Blackburn, and 9
men missing, supposed to have straggled. We marched over 600
miles in less than sixteen days. The last twenty-eight hours
we marched 76 miles, had four engagements with the enemy, and
forded the Comite River, which was deep enough to swim many of
the horses. During this time the men and horses were without
food or rest. Much of the country through which we passed was
almost entirely destitute of forage and provisions, and it was
but seldom that we obtained over one meal per day. Many of the
inhabitants must undoubtedly suffer for want of the
necessaries of life, which have reached most fabulous prices."
_Official Records,
series 1, volume 24, part 1, pages 520-529._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863
(April-July: On the Mississippi).
Grant's Campaign against Vicksburg.
The final operations.
His personal account of the siege and capture.
"April 30th was spent in transporting troops across the river
[to Bruinsburg]. The troops were moved out towards Port Gibson
as fast as they were landed. On the 1st of May the advance met
the enemy under Bowen about four miles west of Port Gibson,
where quite a severe battle was fought, resulting in the
defeat of the enemy, who were driven from the field. On May 2d
our troops moved into Port Gibson, and, finding that the
bridges over Bayou Pierre were destroyed, spent the balance of
the day in rebuilding and crossing them, and marching to the
North Fork, where we encamped for the night. During the night
we rebuilt the bridge across the North Fork, which had also
been destroyed, and the next day (the 3d) pushed on, and,
after considerable skirmishing, reached the Big Black, near
Hankinson's Ferry, and the Mississippi at Grand Gulf. … Here I
[General Grant] … received a letter from Banks stating that he
could not be at Port Hudson [which Grant had intended to join
Banks in attacking, before he turned against Vicksburg] for
some days, and then, with an army of only 15,000 men. As I did
not regard this force of as much value as the time which would
be lost in waiting for it, I determined to move on to
Vicksburg. The 4th, 5th, and 6th of May were spent in
reconnoitering towards Vicksburg, and also in crossing
Sherman's troops over to Grand Gulf. On the 7th, Sherman
having joined the main body of the army, the troops across the
Big Black were withdrawn, and the movement was commenced to
get in position on the Vicksburg and Jackson railroad so as to
attack Vicksburg from the rear. This occupied the army from the
7th to the 12th, when our position was near Fourteen Mile
creek, Raymond being our right flank, our left resting on the
Big Black.
{3496}
To obtain this position we fought the battle of Raymond, where
Logan's and Crocker's divisions of McPherson's corps defeated
the Confederates under General Gregg, driving him back on
Jackson; Sherman and McClernand both having some skirmishing
where they crossed Fourteen Mile creek. As the army under
Pemberton was on my left flank, and that under General Joseph
E. Johnston on my right at Jackson, I determined to move the
army rapidly on Jackson, capturing and destroying that place
as a military depot; then turn west and destroy the army under
Pemberton, or drive it back into Vicksburg. The 13th was spent
in making the first of these moves. On the 14th Jackson was
attacked with Sherman's and McPherson's corps. The place was
taken, and all supplies that could be of service to the enemy
were destroyed, as well as the railroad bridge. On the 15th
the troops were faced to the west and marched towards
Pemberton, who was near Edwards's Station. The next day, the
16th, we met the enemy at Champion's Hill, and, after a
hard-fought battle, defeated and drove him back towards
Vicksburg, capturing 18 guns and nearly 3,000 men. This was
the hardest-fought battle of the campaign. On the 17th we
reached the Big Black, where we found the enemy intrenched.
After a battle of two or three hours' duration we succeeded in
carrying their works by storm, capturing much artillery and
about 1,200 men. … We crossed on the morning of the 18th, and
the outworks of Vicksburg were reached before night, the army
taking position in their front. On the 19th there was
continuous skirmishing with the enemy while we were getting
into better positions. … At two o'clock I ordered an assault.
It resulted in securing more advanced positions for all our
troops, where they were fully covered from the fire of the
enemy, and the siege of Vicksburg began. … Most of the army
had now been for three weeks with only five days' rations
issued by the commissary. They had had an abundance of food,
however, but had begun to feel the want of bread. … By the
night of the 21st full rations were issued to all the troops.
… I now determined on a second assault. … The attack was
ordered to commence on all parts of the line at ten o'clock A.
M. on the 22d with a furious cannonade from every battery in
position. All the corps commanders set their time by mine, so
that all might open the engagement at the same minute. The
attack was gallant, and portions of each of the three corps
succeeded in getting up to the very parapets of the enemy …
but at no place were we able to enter. … As soon as it was
dark our troops that had reached the enemy's line and had been
obliged to remain there for security all day were withdrawn,
and thus ended the last assault on Vicksburg. A regular siege
was now determined upon. … The Union force that had crossed
the Mississippi river up to this time was less than 43,000
men. … The enemy had at Vicksburg, Grand Gulf, Jackson, and on
the roads between these places, quite 60,000 men. … My line
was more than 15 miles long, extending from Haines's Bluff to
Vicksburg, thence to Warrenton. The line of the enemy was
about seven. In addition to this, having an enemy at Canton
and Jackson in our rear, who was being constantly reënforced,
we required a second line of defense, facing the other way. I
had not troops enough under my command to man this. General
Halleck appreciated the situation and, without being asked for
reinforcements, forwarded them with all possible dispatch. …
Johnston … abstained from making an assault on us, because it
would simply have inflicted loss on both sides without
accomplishing any result. We were strong enough to have taken
the offensive against him; but I did not feel disposed to take
any risk of loosing our hold upon Pemberton's army, while I
would have rejoiced at the opportunity of defending ourselves
against an attack by Johnston." The siege was of six weeks'
duration, ending on the memorable 4th of July with the
surrender of Pemberton and 31,000 men, who were released on
parole. "Our men were no sooner inside the lines than the two
armies began to fraternize, We had had full rations from the
time the siege commenced to the close. The enemy had been
suffering, particularly towards the last. I myself saw our men
taking bread from their haversacks and giving it to those whom
they had so recently been engaged in starving out."
_U. S. Grant,
The Siege of Vicksburg
(Century Magazine, September, 1885)._
ALSO IN:
_U. S. Grant,
Personal Memoirs,
volume 1, chapters 31-30._
_The Vicksburg Year
(Battles and Leaders, volume 3)._
_J. E. Johnston,
Narrative of Military Operations,
chapters 6-8._
_F. V. Greene,
The Mississippi
(Campaigns of the Civil War, volume 8), chapters 5-6._
_W. Swinton,
Twelve Decisive Battles of the War,
chapter 7._
_W. T. Sherman,
Memoirs,
volume 1, chapter 12._
_Official Records,
series 1, volume 24._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (May-June).
The arrest of Vallandigham.
President Lincoln to the Copperheads.
"The man whose name became unfortunately pre-eminent for
disloyalty at this time was Clement L. Vallandigham, a
Democrat, of Ohio. General Burnside was placed in command of
the Department of the Ohio, March 25, 1863, and having for the
moment no Confederates to deal with, he turned his attention
to the Copperheads, whom he regarded with even greater
animosity. His Order No. 38, issued on April 13, … warned
persons with treasonable tongues that, unless they should keep
that little member in order, they might expect either to
suffer death as traitors, or to be sent southward within the
lines of 'their friends.' Now Mr. Vallandigham had been a
member of Congress since 1856; … he was the popular and rising
leader of the Copperhead wing of the Democracy. Such was his
position that it would have been ignominious for him to allow
any Union general to put a military gag in his mouth. Nor did
he. On the contrary he made speeches which at that time might
well have made Unionists mad with rage, and which still seem
to have gone far beyond the limit of disloyalty which any
government could safely tolerate. Therefore on May 4 he was
arrested by a company of soldiers, brought to Cincinnati, and
thrown into jail. His friends gathered in anger, and a riot
was narrowly avoided. At once, by order of General Burnside,
he was tried by a military commission. He was charged with
'publicly expressing sympathy for those in arms against the
government of the United States, and declaring disloyal
sentiments and opinions, with the object and purpose of
weakening the power of the Government in its efforts to
suppress an unlawful rebellion.' …
{3497}
The evidence conclusively sustained the indictment, and the
officers promptly pronounced him guilty, whereupon he was
sentenced by Burnside to confinement in Fort Warren. … The
Democrats throughout the North, rapidly surveying the
situation, seized the opportunity which perhaps had been too
inconsiderately given them. The country rang with plausible
outcries and high sounding oratory concerning military
usurpation, violation of the Constitution, and stifling
freedom of speech. … Mr. Lincoln only showed that he felt the
pressure of the criticism and denunciation by commuting the
sentence, and directing that Vallandigham should be released
from confinement and sent within the Confederate lines,—which
was, indeed, a very shrewd and clever move, and much better
than the imprisonment. Accordingly the quasi rebel was
tendered to and accepted by a Confederate picket, on May 25.
He protested vehemently, declared his loyalty, and insisted
that his character was that of a prisoner of war. But the
Confederates, who had no objection whatsoever to his peculiar
methods of demonstrating 'loyalty' to their opponents,
insisted upon treating him as a friend, the victim of an enemy
common to themselves and him; and instead of exchanging him as
a prisoner, they facilitated his passage through the blockade
on his way to Canada. There he arrived in safety, and thence
issued sundry manifestoes to the Democracy. On June 11 the
Democratic Convention of Ohio nominated him as their candidate
for governor, and it seems that for a while they really
expected to elect him. … On May 16 a monster meeting of 'the
Democrats of New York' was told by Governor Seymour that the
question was: 'whether this war is waged to put down rebellion
at the South, or to destroy free institutions at the North.'
Excited by such instigation, the audience passed sundry
damnatory resolutions and sent them to the President. Upon
receiving these Mr. Lincoln felt that he must come down into
the arena, without regard to official conventionality. On June
12 he replied by a full presentation of the case, from his
point of view. He had once more to do the same thing in
response to another address of like character which was sent
to him on June 11 by the Democratic State Convention of Ohio."
_J. T. Morse,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 2, chapter 6._
To the New York Democrats, Mr. Lincoln said: "It is asserted
in substance, that Mr. Vallandigham was, by a military
commander, seized and tried 'for no other reason than words
addressed to a public meeting in criticism of the course of
the administration, and in condemnation of the military orders
of the general.' Now, if there be no mistake about this, if
this assertion is the truth and the whole truth, if there was
no other reason for the arrest, then I concede that the arrest
was wrong. But the arrest, as I understand, was made for a
very different reason. Mr. Vallandigham avows his hostility to
the war on the part of the Union; and his arrest was made
because he was laboring, with some effect, to prevent the
raising of troops, to encourage desertions from the army, and
to leave the rebellion without an adequate military force to
suppress it. He was not arrested because he was damaging the
political prospects of the administration or the personal
interests of the commanding general, but because he was
damaging the army, upon the existence of which the life of the
nation depends. He was warring upon the military, and this
gave the military constitutional jurisdiction to lay hands
upon him. If Mr. Vallandigham was not damaging the military
power of the country, then his arrest was made on mistake of
fact, which I would be glad to correct on reasonably
satisfactory evidence. I understand the meeting whose
resolutions I am considering to be in favor of suppressing the
rebellion by military force—by armies. Long experience has
shown that armies cannot be maintained unless desertion shall
be punished by the severe penalty of death. The case requires,
and the law and the Constitution sanction, this punishment.
Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts, while I
must not touch a hair of a wily agitator who induces him to
desert? This is none the less injurious when effected by
getting a father, or brother, or friend into a public meeting,
and there working upon his feelings till he is persuaded to
write the soldier boy that he is fighting in a bad cause, for
a wicked administration of a contemptible government, too weak
to arrest and punish him if he shall desert. I think that, in
such a case, to silence the agitator and save the boy is not
only constitutional, but withal a great mercy. If I be wrong
on this question of constitutional power, my error lies in
believing that certain proceedings are constitutional when, in
cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety requires
them, which would not be constitutional when, in absence of
rebellion or invasion, the public safety does not require
them: in other words, that the Constitution is not in its
application in all respects the same in cases of rebellion or
invasion involving the public safety, as it is in times of
profound peace and public security. The Constitution itself
makes the distinction, and I can no more be persuaded that the
government can constitutionally take no strong measures in
time of rebellion, because it can be shown that the same could
not be lawfully taken in time of peace, than I can be
persuaded that a particular drug is not good medicine for a
sick man because it can be shown to not be good food for a
well one. Nor am I able to appreciate the danger apprehended
by the meeting, that the American people will by means of
military arrests during the rebellion lose the right of public
discussion, the liberty of speech and the press, the law of
evidence, trial by jury, and habeas corpus throughout the
indefinite peaceful future which I trust lies before them, any
more than I am able to believe that a man could contract so
strong an appetite for emetics during temporary illness as to
persist in feeding upon them during the remainder of his
healthful life. In giving the resolutions that earnest
consideration which you request of me, I cannot overlook the
fact that the meeting speak as 'Democrats.' Nor can I, with
full respect for their known intelligence, and the fairly
presumed deliberation with which they prepared their
resolutions, be permitted to suppose that this occurred by
accident, or in any way other than that they preferred to
designate themselves 'Democrats' rather than 'American
citizens.'
{3498}
In this time of national peril I would have preferred to meet
you upon a level one step higher than any party platform,
because I am sure that from such more elevated position we
could do better battle for the country we all love than we
possibly can from those lower ones where, from the force of
habit, the prejudices of the past, and selfish hopes of the
future, we are sure to expend much of our ingenuity and
strength in finding fault with and aiming blows at each other.
But since you have denied me this, I will yet be thankful for
the country's sake that not all Democrats have done so. He on
whose discretionary judgment Mr. Vallandigham was arrested and
tried is a Democrat, having no old party affinity with me, and
the judge who rejected the constitutional view expressed in
these resolutions, by refusing to discharge Mr. Vallandigham
on habeas corpus is a Democrat of better days than these,
having received his judicial mantle at the hands of President
Jackson. And still more, of all those Democrats who are nobly
exposing their lives and shedding their blood on the
battle-field, I have learned that many approve the course
taken with Mr. Vallandigham, while I have not heard of a
single one condemning it. I cannot assert that there are none
such."
_Abraham Lincoln,
Complete Works,
volume 2, pages 849-350._
To the Ohio Democrats, the President wrote as follows; "You
claim, as I understand, that according to my own position in
the Albany response, Mr. Vallandigham should be released; and
this because, as you claim, he has not damaged the military
service by discouraging enlistments, encouraging desertions or
otherwise; and that if he had he should have been turned over
to the civil authorities under the recent acts of Congress. I
certainly do not know that Mr. Vallandigham has specifically
and by direct language advised against enlistments and in
favor of desertion and resistance to drafting. We all know
that combinations, armed in some instances, to resist the
arrest of deserters began several months ago; that more
recently the like has appeared in resistance to the enrolment
preparatory to a draft; and that quite a number of
assassinations have occurred from the same animus. These had
to be met by military force, and this again has led to
bloodshed and death. And now, under a sense of responsibility
more weighty and enduring than any which is merely official, I
solemnly declare my belief that this hindrance of the
military, including maiming and murder, is due to the course
in which Mr. Vallandigham has been engaged in a greater degree
than to any other cause; and it is due to him personally in a
greater degree than to any other one man. These things have
been notorious, known to all, and of course known to Mr.
Vallandigham. Perhaps I would not be wrong to say they
originated with his special friends and adherents. With
perfect knowledge of them, he has frequently if not constantly
made speeches in Congress and before popular assemblies; and
if it can be shown that, with these things staring him in the
face, he has ever uttered a word of rebuke or counsel against
them, it will be a fact greatly in his favor with me, and one
of which is yet I am totally ignorant. When it is known that
the whole burden of his speeches has been to stir up men
against the prosecution of the war, and that in the midst of
resistance to it he has not been known in any instance to
counsel against such resistance, it is next to impossible to
repel the inference that he has counseled directly in favor of
it. With all this before their eyes, the convention you
represent have nominated Mr. Vallandigham for governor of
Ohio, and both they and you have declared the purpose to
sustain the National Union by all constitutional means. But of
course they and you in common reserve to yourselves to decide
what are constitutional means; and, unlike the Albany meeting,
you omit to state or intimate that in your opinion an army is
a constitutional means of saving the Union against a
rebellion, or even to intimate that you are conscious of an
existing rebellion being in progress with the avowed object of
destroying that very Union. At the same time your nominee for
governor, in whose behalf you appeal, is known to you and to
the world to declare against the use of an army to suppress
the rebellion. Your own attitude, therefore, encourages
desertion, resistance to the draft, and the like, because it
teaches those who incline to desert and to escape the draft to
believe it is your purpose to protect them, and to hope that
you will become strong enough to do so. After a short personal
intercourse with you, gentlemen of the committee, I cannot say
I think you desire this effect to follow your attitude; but I
assure you that both friends and enemies of the Union look
upon it in this light. It is a substantial hope, and by
consequence a real strength to the enemy. If it is a false
hope and one which you would willingly dispel, I will make the
way exceedingly easy. I send you duplicates of this letter in
order that you, or a majority of you, may, if you choose,
indorse your names upon one of them and return it thus
indorsed to me with the understanding that those signing are
thereby committed to the following propositions and to nothing
else;
1. That there is now a rebellion in the United States, the
object and tendency of which is to destroy the National Union;
and that, in your opinion, an army and navy are constitutional
means for suppressing that rebellion;
2. That no one of you will do anything which, in his own
judgment, will tend to hinder the increase, or favor the
decrease, or lessen the efficiency of the army or navy while
engaged in the effort to suppress that rebellion; and
3. That each of you will, in his sphere, do all he can to have
the officers, soldiers, and seamen of the army and navy, while
engaged in the effort to suppress the rebellion, paid, fed,
clad, and otherwise well provided for and supported.
And with the further understanding that upon receiving the
letter and names thus indorsed, I will cause them to be
published, which publication shall be, within itself, a
revocation of the order in relation to Mr. Vallandigham. It
will not escape observation that I consent to the release of
Mr. Vallandigham upon terms not embracing any pledge from him
or from others as to what he will or will not do. I do this
because he is not present to speak for himself, or to
authorize others to speak for him; and because I should expect
that on his returning he would not put himself practically in
antagonism with the position of his friends. But I do it
chiefly because I thereby prevail on other influential
gentlemen of Ohio to so define their position as to be of
immense value to the army—thus more than compensating for the
consequences of any mistake in allowing Mr. Vallandigham to
return; so that, on the whole, the public safety will not have
suffered by it. Still, in regard to Mr. Vallandigham and all
others, I must hereafter, as heretofore, do so much as the
public safety may seem to require. I have the honor to be
respectfully yours."
_Abraham Lincoln,
Complete Works,
volume 2, page 362-363._
ALSO IN:
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay, .
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 7, chapter 12._
{3499}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (May-July: On the Mississippi).
Siege and Capture of Port Hudson.
The clear opening of the great River.
"About the middle of May all the available force near the
river was concentrated at Baton Rouge, to assist in the attack
on Port Hudson. Thence Generals Augur and Sherman moved to the
south and east of that position, to cooperate with General
Banks. From Simmesport General Banks moved his army to invest
Port Hudson. … It was on the 21st of May that General Banks
landed, and on the next day a junction was effected with the
advance of Major-General Augur and Brigadier-General Sherman.
… On the 25th, the enemy was compelled to abandon his first
line of works. On the next day General Weitzel's brigade,
which had covered the rear in the march from Alexandria,
arrived, and on the morning of the 27th a general assault was
made on the fortifications. Port Hudson, or Hickey's Landing,
as it was called some years ago, is situated on a bend in the
Mississippi river, about 22 miles above Baton Rouge, and 147
above New Orleans." It was strongly fortified and well
defended by Colonel Frank Gardner. The artillery of General
Banks opened fire on the 27th, and at ten o'clock the same day
an assault was made, in which the colored soldiers showed much
firmness and bravery. The assault failed and the losses in it
were heavy. "A bombardment of the position had been made by
the fleet under Admiral Farragut, for a week previous to this
assault. Reconnoissances had discovered that the defences were
very strong, consisting of several lines of intrenchments and
rifle pits, with abatis of heavy trees felled in every
direction. The upper batteries on the river were attacked by
the Hartford and Albatross, which had run the blockade, and
the lower by the Monongahela, Richmond, Genesee, and Essex. On
the 14th of June, after a bombardment of several days, another
assault on Port Hudson was made. … All the assaulting columns
were compelled to fall back under the deadly fire of the
enemy, and the fighting finally ceased about 11 o'clock in the
morning. The loss of General Banks was nearly 700 in killed
and wounded. … After these two attempts to reduce Port Hudson
by a land assault, on the 27th of May and 14th of June, the
purpose to make another was given up by General Banks, until
he had fully invested the place by a series of irresistible
approaches. He was thus engaged in pushing forward his works
when Vicksburg was surrendered. Information of this surrender
was sent to General Banks, and it was made the occasion for
firing salutes and a general excitement in his camp, which
attracted the attention of the enemy, to whom the surrender
was communicated. General Gardner, upon receiving the
information, sent by flag of truce, about midnight of the 7th,
the following note to General Banks: … 'Having received
information from your troops that Vicksburg has been
surrendered, I make this communication to request you to give
me the official assurance whether this is true or not, and if
true, I ask for a cessation of hostilities, with a view to the
consideration of terms for surrendering this position.'"
_W. J. Tenney,
Military and Naval History of the Rebellion,
chapter 29._
ALSO IN:
_F. V. Greene,
The Mississippi
(Campaigns of the Civil War, volume 8), chapter 7._
_R. B. Irwin,
Port Hudson
(Battles and Leaders, volume 3)._
_R. B. Irwin,
History of the 19th Army Corps,
chapters 15-18._
_Official Records,
Series 1, volume. 26._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (June).
Call for Six-Months Men.
A call for 100,000 men to serve six months, for the repulse of
the invasion of Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and
Ohio, was issued June 15.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (June: Virginia).
Lee's second movement of invasion and the inducements to it.
Northern invitation and Southern clamor.
The Southern view.
"The defeat of General Hooker at Chancellorsville was the
turning-point of the war, and for the first time there was
apparently a possibility of inducing the Federal Government to
relinquish its opposition to the establishment of a separate
authority in the South. The idea of the formation of a
Southern Confederacy, distinct from the old Union, had, up to
this time, been repudiated by the authorities at Washington as
a thing utterly out of the question; but the defeat of the
Federal arms in the two great battles of the Rappahannock had
caused the most determined opponents of separation to doubt
whether the South could be coerced to return to the Union;
and, what was equally or more important, the proclamations of
President Lincoln, declaring the slaves of the South free, and
placing the United States virtually under martial law, aroused
a violent clamor from the great Democratic party of the North,
who loudly asserted that all constitutional liberty was
disappearing. This combination of non-success in military
affairs and usurpation by the Government emboldened the
advocates of peace to speak out plainly, and utter their
protest against the continuance of the struggle, which they
declared had only resulted in the prostration of all the
liberties of the country. Journals and periodicals, violently
denunciatory of the course pursued by the Government, all at
once made their appearance in New York and elsewhere. A peace
convention was called to meet in Philadelphia. … On all sides
the advocates of peace on the basis of separation were heard
raising their importunate voices. … The plan of moving the
Southern army northward, with the view of invading the Federal
territory, seems to have been the result of many
circumstances. The country [Southern] was elated with the two
great victories of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, and
the people were clamorous for active operations against an
enemy who seemed powerless to stand the pressure of Southern
steel. The army, which had been largely augmented by the
return of absentees to its ranks, new levies, and the recall
of Longstreet's two divisions from Suffolk, shared the general
enthusiasm; and thus a very heavy pressure was brought to bear
upon the authorities and on General Lee, in favor of a forward
movement, which, it was supposed, would terminate in a signal
victory and a treaty of peace. Lee yielded to this view of
things rather than urged it. … Another important consideration
was the question of supplies. … More than ever before, these
supplies were now needed; and when General Lee sent, in May or
June, a requisition for rations to Richmond, the
commissary-general is said to have endorsed upon the paper,
'If General Lee wishes rations, let him seek them in
Pennsylvania.'
{3500}
The considerations here stated were the main inducements for
that great movement northward which followed the battle of
Chancellorsville. … Throughout the month of May, Lee was
busily engaged in organizing and equipping his forces for the
decisive advance. Experience had now dictated many alterations
and improvements in the army. It was divided into three 'corps
d'armée,' each consisting of three divisions, and commanded by
an officer with the rank of lieutenant-general. Longstreet
remained at the head of his former corps. Ewell succeeded
Jackson in command of 'Jackson's old corps', and A. P. Hill
was assigned to a third corps made up of portions of the two
others. … On the last day of May, General Lee had the
satisfaction of finding himself in command of a well-equipped
and admirably-officered army of 68,352 bayonets, and nearly
10,000 cavalry and artillery—in all, about 80,000 men. … Lee
began his movement northward on the 3d day of June, just one
month after the battle of Chancellorsville. … Pursuing his
design of manœuvring the Federal army out of Virginia, without
coming to action, Lee first sent forward one division of
Longstreet's corps in the direction of Culpepper, another then
followed, and, on the 4th and 5th of June, Ewell's entire
corps was sent in the same direction—A. P. Hill remaining
behind on the south bank of the Rappahannock, near
Fredericksburg, to watch the enemy there, and bar the road to
Richmond. These movements became speedily known to General
Hooker, whose army lay north of the river near that point, and
on the 5th he laid a pontoon just below Fredericksburg, and
crossed about a corps to the south bank, opposite Hill. This
threatening demonstration, however, was not suffered by Lee to
arrest his own movements. … He continued the withdrawal of his
troops, by way of Culpepper, in the direction of the
Shenandoah Valley." On the morning of the 9th of June, "two
divisions of Federal cavalry, supported by two brigades of
'picked infantry,' were sent across the river at Kelly's and
Beverley's Fords, east of the court-house, to beat up the
quarters of Stuart and find what was going on in the Southern
camps. The most extensive cavalry fight [known as the battle
of Brandy Station, or the battle of Fleetwood], probably, of
the whole war, followed. … This reconnoisance in force … had
no other result than the discovery of the fact that Lee had
infantry in Culpepper. … This attempt of the enemy to
penetrate his designs had not induced General Lee to interrupt
the movement of his infantry toward the Shenandoah Valley. The
Federal corps sent across the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg,
still remained facing General Hill, and, two days after the
Fleetwood fight, General Hooker moved up the river with his
main body, advancing the Third Corps to a point near
Beverley's Ford. But these movements were disregarded by Lee.
On the same day Ewell's corps moved rapidly toward Chester
Gap, passed through that defile in the mountain, pushed on by
way of Front Royal, and reached Winchester on the evening of
the 13th, having in three days marched 70 miles. The position
of the Southern army now exposed it to very serious danger,
and at first sight seemed to indicate a deficiency of
soldiership in the general commanding it. In face of an enemy
whose force was at least equal to his own, Lee had extended
his line until it stretched over a distance of about 100
miles. … When intelligence now reached Washington that the
head of Lee's column was approaching the Upper Potomac, while
the rear was south of the Rappahannock, the President wrote to
General Hooker: 'If the head of Lee's army is at Martinsburg,
and the tail of it on the plank road, between Fredericksburg
and Chancellorsville, the animal must be very slim
somewhere—could you not break him?' … It would seem that
nothing could have been plainer than the good policy of an
attack upon Hill at Fredericksburg, which would certainly have
checked Lee's movement by recalling Longstreet from Culpepper,
and Ewell from the Valley. But … instead of reënforcing the
corps sent across at Fredericksburg and attacking Hill,
General Hooker withdrew the corps, on the 13th, to the north
bank of the river, got his forces together, and began to fall
back toward Manassas."
_J. E. Cooke,
Life of General Robert E. Lee,
part 6, chapters 9-12._
ALSO IN:
_H. Greeley,
The American Conflict,
volume 2, chapter 21._
_W. Swinton,
Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac,
chapter 9._
[Image: Map of the Battlefield of Gettysburg. July 1-3, 1863.]
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (June-July: Pennsylvania).
Lee's Invasion.
The Battle of Gettysburg.
"Hooker started toward Washington. Ewell gained possession of
Winchester and Martinsburg, but not of Harper's Ferry. There
is a rocky and thickly wooded range of heights called the Bull
Run Mountains, running from Leesburg south. As Hooker had not
occupied them but was farther to the East, Lee desired to do
so, for it would give him a strong position on Hooker's flank
and bring him (Lee) very near to Washington. He therefore
directed his cavalry to reconnoiter in that direction.
Stuart's reconnoitering party met the Union cavalry at Aldie,
and after a hard battle retreated. A series of cavalry combats
ensued, ending in the retreat of Stuart's cavalry behind the
Blue Ridge. Hooker was strongly posted east of the Bull Run
range and could not be attacked with much chance of success.
As Lee could not well remain inactive or retreat, he resolved
to invade Pennsylvania. This was a hazardous enterprise, for
Hooker might intervene between him and Richmond. Stuart's
cavalry was left to prevent this catastrophe by guarding the
passes in the Blue Ridge. Stuart was also directed to harass
Hooker and attack his rear should he attempt to cross the
Potomac in pursuit of Lee. Lee reached Chambersburg with
Longstreet's and Hill's corps. Ewell's corps was in advance at
Carlisle [June 27] and York," and advance bodies of cavalry
were threatening Harrisburg. The militia of Pennsylvania, New
York and Maryland were called out in force, but arms and
ammunition for them were inadequate. "On June 28th, Hooker
determined to send Slocum's corps and the garrison of Harper's
Ferry—the latter about 10,000 strong—to operate against Lee's
rear. This was an excellent plan, but Hooker's superior,
General Halleck, refused to allow him to remove the troops
from Harper's Ferry; and Hooker said if he could not manage
the campaign in his own way, he preferred to give up the
command of the army."
{3502}
He was accordingly relieved and the command was given to
Major-General George G. Meade, of the Fifth Corps. Meantime
(June 25-27) the Union army had crossed the Potomac and
advanced to Frederick, Maryland. "On June 28th, Lee learned
from a scout that the Union army was in his rear and that his
communication with Richmond was seriously endangered. … In
this emergency he concluded to threaten Baltimore. As a
preliminary measure, he directed his entire army to move on
Gettysburg. This he hoped would induce Meade to concentrate in
his front and leave his rear free; which was precisely what
Meade did do. … Under the impression that Lee's army was
spread out along the Susquehanna from Carlisle to York, Meade
threw out his own forces fan-shaped to march in that
direction. … The Union corps were marching on and getting
farther apart, while the enemy were concentrating. The advance
of Hill's corps, on the morning of July 1st, struck Buford's
division of Union cavalry a short distance to the west of
Gettysburg, and in spite of a stout resistance forced it
slowly back towards the town. The First Corps at this time was
five miles south of Gettysburg. General Reynolds went to the
support of Buford with the nearest division of the First
Corps—Wadsworth's—and directed that the others follow. While
forming his line of battle he was killed. General Howard
succeeded to the command of the field, but did not issue any
orders to the First Corps until the afternoon. In the meantime
General Doubleday continued the contest, captured a great part
of the forces that had assailed him, and cleared his immediate
front of all enemies. Before the Eleventh Corps came up the
enemy could have walked right over the small force opposed to
them, but owing to the absence of Stuart's cavalry [which, not
crossing the Potomac to follow Lee until the 27th, had
undertaken a long raid around the Union forces, and did not
succeed in joining the main body of the Confederates until
July 2d] they had not been kept informed as to the movements
Meade was making, and fearing that the whole Union army was
concentrated in their front they were overcautious. There was
now a lull in the battle for about an hour. The remainder of
the First Corps came up and was followed soon after by the
Eleventh Corps under General Schurz. About the same time the
Confederate corps of General Ewell arrived and made a junction
with that of Hill. General Howard assumed command of the Union
forces. Repeated attacks were now made against the First Corps
by Ewell from the north and Hill from the west; but the
Confederate charges were successfully repulsed. … Ewell's
attack also struck the Eleventh Corps on the right and front
with great force. … General Meade, when he heard of Reynold's
death, was 14 miles from Gettysburg at Taneytown, preparing to
form line of battle along Pipe Creek. He at once sent General
Hancock forward with orders to assume command of the field.
Hancock, perceiving that Cemetery Ridge [about half a mile
south of Gettysburg] was an admirable position for a defensive
battle, determined to hold it if possible. This was not an
easy thing to do, for the enemy were in overwhelming force,
and the feeble remnants of the First and Eleventh Corps were
not in a condition to make a prolonged resistance. … Hancock
directed Doubleday to send a force to Culp's Hill on the
right, while he instructed Buford to parade up and down on the
extreme left with his cavalry. The enemy were thus led to
suppose that the Union line was a long one and had been
heavily reënforced. As the losses on both sides had been
tremendous, probably not exceeded for the same number of
troops during the war, the enemy hesitated to advance,
particularly as some movements of Kilpatrick's cavalry seemed
to threaten their rear. They therefore deferred action until
Meade concentrated the next day. On General Hancock's
recommendation General Meade ordered his entire army to
Gettysburg. By dusk part of the Third Corps had arrived, and
soon after the Twelfth Corps and the Second Corps were close
at hand. … Most of the troops, though worn out with hard
marching, arrived by midday of July 2d. The Sixth Corps had 34
miles to march and came later in the afternoon. … The attack
as ordered by General Lee was to begin with Longstreet on the
right and be made 'en échelon.' That is, as soon as Longstreet
was fairly engaged, Hill's corps was to take up the fight and
go in, and as soon as Hill was fairly engaged, Ewell's corps
on the right was to attack. The object was to keep the whole
Union line in a turmoil at once, and prevent reënforcements
going from any corps not engaged to another that was fighting;
but Hill did not act until Longstreet's fight was over, and
Ewell did not act until Hill had been repulsed. … The enemy …
failed in every attack against Meade's main line, with the
exception of that portion south of Culp's Hill. Elated by the
fact that he had made a lodgement there, Ewell determined to
hold on at all hazards and sent heavy reënforcements during
the night to aid Johnson to make an attack in the morning. …
So ended the battle of the second day. At day dawn [July 3]
General Warren, acting for General Meade, established a cordon
of troops and batteries which drove Johnson out of his
position on the right. … Lee having failed in his attacks both
on Meade's left and right had to decide at once whether he
would give up the contest and retreat, or make another attempt
to force the Union line. As he had been reënforced by Stuart's
cavalry, and as a fresh division under Pickett was available,
he determined to try to pierce the left center of the Union
army and disperse the force opposed to him. To this end he
directed Longstreet to form a strong column of attack to be
composed of Pickett's division and Pettigrew's division and
two brigades of Pender's division, under Trimble, of Hill's
corps. To create confusion and prevent General Meade from
sending reënforcements to the menaced point, Stuart was
ordered to ride around the right of the Union army and make an
attack in rear. And still more to facilitate the attack 135
guns were to concentrate their fire against the Union center
and disperse the forces assembled there. About 1 P. M. the
terrific cannonade began and lasted for two hours, by which
time the Confederate ammunition was nearly exhausted. …
Stuart's cavalry attack proved abortive, for it was met and
frustrated by two brigades of Gregg's cavalry aided by
Custer's brigade, after a severe battle, which was hotly
contested on both sides. Stuart's further progress was checked
and he was forced to retreat. … Pickett formed his great
column of attack and came forward as soon as the fire from the
Union batteries slackened."
{3503}
Fresh guns had, however, been brought into position and swept
the ground over which Pickett moved. His charge, one of the
most desperately determined of the whole war, was heroically
met by Gibbon's division of the Second Corps and by part of
the First Corps, under the personal direction of General
Hancock, who was severely wounded in the terrible conflict.
Pickett was forced to retreat with the survivors of his
onslaught, and "the whole plain was soon covered with
fugitives; but, as no pursuit was ordered, General Lee in
person succeeded in rallying them and in re-forming the line
of battle. The next day, July 4th, General Lee drew back his
flanks and at evening began his retreat by two routes—the main
body on the direct road to Williamsport through the mountains,
the other via Chambersburg, the latter including the immense
train of the wounded. Gregg's division (except Huey's brigade)
was sent in pursuit by way of Chambersburg, but the enemy had
too much the start to render the chase effective. Kilpatrick,
however, got in front of the main body on the direct route
and, after a midnight battle at Monterey, fought during a
terrific thunder storm, succeeded in making sad havoc of
Ewell's trains. … Lee concentrated his army in the vicinity of
Williamsport, but as French had destroyed his pontoon bridge,
and as the Potomac had risen, he was unable to cross. He
therefore fortified his position. Meade did not follow Lee
directly, but went around by way of Frederick. After
considerable delay the Union army again confronted that of Lee
and were about—under orders from President Lincoln-to make an
attack, when Lee slipped away on the night of July 14th to the
Virginia side of the Potomac. This ended the campaign of
Gettysburg. The Union loss was 3,072 killed, 14,497 wounded,
5,434 missing=Total, 23,003. The Confederate loss was 2,592
killed, 12,709 wounded, 5,150 missing=Total, 20,451."
_A. Doubleday,
Gettysburg made plain (with 29 maps)._
ALSO IN:
_A. Doubleday,
Chancellorsville and Gettysburg
(Campaigns of the Civil War, volume 6, part 2)._
_J. Longstreet, H. J. Hunt and others,
Gettysburg
(Battles and Leaders, volume 3)._
_F. A. Walker,
History of the Second Army Corps,
chapter 8._
_A. L. Long,
Memoirs of Robert E. Lee,
chapter 15._
_Comte de Paris,
History of the American Civil War,
volume 3, book 3, chapter 4._
_D. X. Junkin and F. H. Norton,
Life of General Hancock,
chapters 11-13._
_Official Records,
Series 1, volume 27._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (June-July: Tennessee).
The Tullahoma campaign.
"During the first six months of the year 1863 the Army of the
Cumberland remained at Murfreesboro' and was comparatively
inactive. The troops were employed in the construction of
elaborate fortifications and in divers minor operations with
defensive or tentative objects. … Late in June the Army of the
Cumberland advanced against its old enemy, the Confederate
Army of the Tennessee, then holding the line of Duck River. In
this movement the Fourteenth Corps [General Thomas] was in the
centre, its appropriate place, and drove the enemy from
Hoover's Gap and from several positions in front of that gap.
General McCook [Twentieth Corps] on the right had a severe
combat at Liberty Gap, but finally pressed the enemy from the
hills. General Crittenden [Twenty-first Corps] on the left did
not meet much opposition. When Bragg's army had been driven
from its defensive line on Duck River, General Rosecrans moved
his army towards Manchester, and regarding this movement as
indicating either an attack upon his position at Tullahoma, or
the interruption of his communications, Bragg fell back from
that place. He did not consider himself strong enough to meet
Rosecrans in battle, and he consequently retreated first to
the Cumberland Mountains, and, soon after, across the
Tennessee River to Chattanooga. The Tullahoma campaign was
begun on the 23d of June and terminated on the 4th of July.
The enemy fought at the gaps of the mountains, but the defense
on the whole was feeble. The result was the possession by the
Army of the Cumberland of the region from Murfreesboro' to
Bridgeport, Alabama. At the close of the campaign the army
advanced to the northern base of the Cumberland Mountains, and
there halted to make preparations for a campaign south of the
Tennessee River."
_T. B. Van Horne,
Life of General George H. Thomas,
chapter 5._
ALSO IN:
_T. B. Van Horne,
History of the Army of the Cumberland,
chapter 19 (volume 1)._
_H. M. Cist,
The Army of the Cumberland
(Campaigns of the Civil War, volume 7)._
_P. H. Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs,
volume 1, chapter 14._
_D. S. Stanley,
The Tullahoma Campaign
(Sketches of War History,
Ohio Commandery L. L. of the United States, volume 3)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (July: On the Mississippi).
The Defence of Helena.
"One of the most brilliant of the minor victories of the war
was gained at Helena, Arkansas, on the west bank of the
Mississippi, on the 4th of July, General Holmes [Confederate]
had asked and received permission to take that place, in the
middle of June, and had mustered for that purpose an army of
nearly 10,000 men. The garrison of Helena consisted of a
division of the Thirteenth Corps and a brigade of cavalry
numbering in all 4000 men, commanded by Major-General B. M.
Prentiss. Holmes felt so sure of victory that he doubtless
selected the 4th of July for his attack in a mere spirit of
bravado. He assaulted at daylight with converging columns, two
of which made considerable impression upon the outworks, but
never reached the town. The defense of the Union troops was
singularly skilful and energetic, and, after a few hours of
fighting, Holmes, finding himself utterly defeated, retired at
half-past ten. The little army of Prentiss was, of course, too
small to pursue. The last Confederate attempt to hold the
Mississippi River thus ended in a complete and most
humiliating repulse."
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 7, chapter 11._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (July: Mississippi).
The capture and destruction of Jackson.
When Vicksburg surrendered, Johnston was hovering in the rear
of Grant's army, and Sherman was watching his movements. On
the very day the surrender was completed the latter marched
rapidly upon Jackson, with 50,000 men, Johnston retreating
before him. The city was invested on the 10th, and defended by
the Confederates until the night of the 16th when they
evacuated with haste. General Sherman, writing to Admiral
Porter on the 19th of July, said: "We … have 500 prisoners,
are still pursuing and breaking railroads, so that the good
folks of Jackson will not soon again hear the favorite
locomotive whistle.
{3504}
The enemy burned nearly all the handsome dwellings round about
the town because they gave us shelter or to light up the
ground to prevent night attacks. He also set fire to a chief
block of stores in which were commissary supplies, and our
men, in spite of guards, have widened the circle of fire, so
that Jackson, once the pride and boast of Mississippi, is now
a ruined town. State-house, Governor's mansion, and some fine
dwellings, well within the lines of intrenchments, remain
untouched. I have been and am yet employed in breaking up the
railroad 40 miles north and 60 south; also 10 miles east. My
10-miles break west, of last May, is still untouched, so that
Jackson ceases to be a place for the enemy to collect stores
and men."
_Official Records,
series 1, volume 24, part 3, page 531._
ALSO IN:
_J. E. Johnston,
Narrative of Military Operations,
chapter 8._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (July: Kentucky).
John Morgan's Raid into Ohio and Indiana.
"The most famous raid of this time was that made in July by
John Morgan across the Ohio River. General Buckner was then in
East Tennessee, near the borders of Kentucky, getting ready to
make another dash toward Louisville, and Morgan went ahead to
prepare the way. He crossed the Cumberland River into Kentucky
with about 3,000 mounted men, sacked Columbia, captured
Lebanon with 400 prisoners, and rode on through Bardstown to
Brandenburg on the Ohio River, plundering and destroying as he
went. Many Kentuckians had joined him on the way, and he then
had 4,000 men and ten pieces of artillery. The advance of
Rosecrans's army just at that time prevented Buckner from
joining him, and Morgan determined to cross into Indiana.
There were two gunboats in the river, but he kept them off
with his artillery while his men crossed on two captured
steamboats. Morgan then rode through Indiana toward Cincinnati
fighting home guards, tearing up railroads, burning bridges
and mills and capturing much property. The whole State was
aroused by the danger, and thousands of armed men started
after the bold riders. Morgan became alarmed, and after
passing around Cincinnati, almost within sight of its
steeples, turned toward the Ohio to cross again into Kentucky.
A large Union force was following, others were advancing on
his flanks, and gunboats and steamboats filled with armed men
were moving up the river to cut him off. The people aided the
pursuers all they could by cutting down trees and barricading
the roads to stop Morgan's march. He was so delayed by these
and other things that he did not reach the Ohio until July
19th. He hoped to cross at a place called Buffington Ford, but
the Union men were upon him and he had to turn and fight.
After a severe battle, in which the Union troops were helped
by gunboats which cut off the raiders from crossing the ford,
about 800 of Morgan's men surrendered, and the rest, with
Morgan himself, fled up the river fourteen miles to Bellville,
where they tried to cross by swimming their horses. About 300
men had succeeded in getting over when the gunboats came up
and opened fire on them. A fearful scene ensued, for it was a
struggle of life and death. … Some got across, some were shot
and some drowned. Morgan was not among the fortunate ones who
escaped. With about 200 men he fled further up the river to
New Lisbon, where he was surrounded and forced to surrender.
This was a wonderful raid, but it did not do the Confederate
cause any good. A large part of the property destroyed was
private property, and this roused the anger of all the people
of the Border States. … Morgan and some of his officers were
sent to Columbus and confined in the penitentiary, from which
he and six others escaped in the following November by making
a hole through the bottom of their cell and digging a tunnel
under the foundations of the building."
_J. D. Champlin Jr.,
Young Folk's History of the War for the Union,
chapter 31._
ALSO IN:
_B. W. Duke,
History of Morgan's Cavalry,
chapters 14-15._
_Official Records,
Series 1, volume 23._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (July: New York).
The Draft Riots.
See NEW YORK (CITY): A. D. 1863.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (July: South Carolina).
The lodgement on Morris Island, and the assault on Fort Wagner.
After Du Pont's attack upon the forts in Charleston harbor
"the Confederates enjoyed two months of undisturbed leisure
for the construction and strengthening of their works, though
all this time the matter of a new essay at the reduction of
Sumter occupied more than its proper share of the attention of
the Government.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863
(APRIL: South CAROLINA).
The forces in the Department of the South were not sufficient
to undertake a siege of Charleston by land, and the exigencies
of the more important campaigns going forward in Virginia,
Tennessee and Mississippi prevented their being reenforced. It
was resolved, therefore, to restrict operations to the harbor
and the islands immediately adjoining, and Admiral John A.
Dahlgren—after the death of Admiral Foote, who had been
designated for the purpose—and General Q. A. Gillmore were
charged with the command of the military and naval forces
engaged. … Admiral Dahlgren … assumed command on the 6th of
July. Gillmore had already been on the ground some three
weeks, and had nearly completed his preparations for a descent
upon Morris Island, when Dahlgren arrived. The admiral,
without a moment's delay, entered into the plans of the
general, and within forty-eight hours collected his scattered
monitors and steamed away to the harbor of Charleston. Morris
Island is a low strip of sandy beach, which lies to the south
of Charleston and, with Sullivan's Island to the north, guards
the entrance to the harbor, the two stretching out to sea like
the open jaws of an alligator. They are each about three and a
half miles long, separated from the mainland on the north, and
from the high ground of James Island on the south, by miry and
impracticable marshes stretching a distance of two or three
miles. Their inner ends are a little less than four miles from
the Charleston wharves, with Fort Sumter lying midway.
Gillmore resolved to make his attack from Folly Island, which
lies on the coast directly south of Morris, which it greatly
resembles in conformation, and from which it is separated by
Light House Inlet. It was occupied by a brigade under General
Israel Vogdes, who had fortified the southern end of it,
controlling the waters of Stono harbor and the approaches of
James Island.
{3505}
There was a heavy growth of underbrush at both ends of the
island; taking advantage of this, Vogdes, under Gillmore's
direction, constructed ten powerful batteries near its
southern extremity, completely masked from the enemy's view;
their purpose being to operate against the enemy's guns near
the landing place, to protect the debarkation of the troops,
and to cover their retreat in case of necessity. Most of this
work was done at night, and all of it as silently as possible.
… Alfred H. Terry's division of 4,000 and George C. Strong's
brigade of 2,500 were quietly brought together on Folly
Island, and on the afternoon of the 8th of July the former
force was sent up the Stono to make a demonstration against
James Island, while Strong's brigade was ordered to descend
upon Morris Island at daybreak of the 9th. Colonel T. W.
Higginson of the First South Carolina Volunteers, colored, was
ordered at the same time to cut the railroad between
Charleston and Savannah; a duty in which General Gillmore says
he 'signally failed.' The others punctually performed the
tasks assigned them. Terry's feint against Stono was so
imposing as to be taken for the real attack, by Beauregard,
who hastily gathered together a considerable force to resist
him, and paid little attention to the serious movement on the
beach." The Confederate troops on Morris Island, taken by
surprise, were "speedily driven out of all their batteries
south of Wagner, and abandoned to Gillmore three-fourths of
the island, with 11 pieces of heavy ordnance. The next day he
ordered Strong's brigade to assault Fort Wagner, an attempt
which failed, with slight loss on each side. On the 16th Terry
was attacked by a superior force on James Island, and although
he repulsed the enemy with the assistance of the gunboats
which accompanied him, he was recalled to Fol]y Island, the
purpose of his demonstration having been accomplished.
Although General Gillmore had as yet no conception of the
enormous strength of Fort Wagner, the assault and repulse of
the 11th of July convinced him that it could not be carried
offhand. He therefore determined, on consultation with Admiral
Dahlgren, to establish counter-batteries against it, hoping
with the combined fire of these and the gunboats to dismount
the guns of the work and so shake its defense as to carry it
by a determined assault. The preparations were made with great
energy, and by the morning of the 18th, exactly one week after
the first assault, General Gillmore was ready for the second."
The batteries and the fleet opened fire on the fort at noon of
July 18th; its defenders were soon driven from the parapets,
and "in the course of the afternoon the whole work seemed to
be beaten out of shape"; but, being constructed of fine quartz
sand, it had suffered damage only in appearance. At twilight,
the storming party, headed by Colonel Robert G. Shaw and his
Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment of colored troops, made a
most brave and resolute assault, actually climbing the parapet
of the fort, but only to leave 1500 dead, dying and wounded
upon its treacherous sands. The heroic young Colonel Shaw fell
dead among the foremost men; General Strong, Colonel Chatfield
and Colonel Putnam were killed or mortally wounded; General
Truman Seymour was wounded severely, and many other excellent
officers were in the lists of the slain or the sadly disabled.
"The death of Colonel Shaw was widely lamented, not only
because of his personal worth, but because he had become in a
certain sense the representative of the best strain of New
England anti-slavery sentiment. The Confederates recognized
this representative character by their treatment of his
corpse, replying to a request of his friends for his remains,
that they 'had buried him under a layer of his niggers.'"
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 7, chapter 15._
ALSO IN:
_T. W. Higginson,
Army Life in a Black Regiment._
_G. W. Williams,
History of the Negro Troops,
chapter 9._
_M. V. Dahlgren,
Memoirs of John A. Dahlgren,
chapter 14._
_A. Roman,
Military Operations of General Beauregard,
chapter 31 (volume 2)._
_D. Ammen,
The Navy in the Civil War,
volume 2: The Atlantic Coast, chapter 7._
_Official Records,
Series 1, volume 28._
_L. F. Emilio,
History of the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers,
chapters. 4-5._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (July-November: Virginia).
Meade and Lee on the Rapidan.
Bristoe Station.
Rappahannock Station.
Kelly's Ford.
Mine Run.
The 18th of July found the whole army of General Meade once
more on the Virginia side of the Potomac. "His plan for the
pursuit of Lee was not unlike that of McClellan a year before,
but although he displayed much greater expedition and energy
in the execution of it than were shown by his predecessor, the
results, through no fault of his own, were unimportant.
General French, who had taken no part in the battle of
Gettysburg, had been placed in command of the Third Corps; he
was an old officer of the regular army, excellent in drill, in
routine, and all the every-day details of the service, but
utterly unfit for an enterprise requiring great audacity and
celerity. He was assigned upon this expedition to the duty of
throwing his corps through Manassas Gap and attacking the
flank of the enemy as he moved southward by Front Royal. Meade
succeeded in getting French into the Gap in time to have
broken the rebel army in two; but when he attacked, it was in
so inefficient a Manner, and with so small a portion of his
force, that the day was wasted and the enemy made their way
down the Valley to the lower gaps. This failure was a source
of deep mortification to General Meade. … The pursuit of the
enemy was not continued further. … The months of August and
September were a period of repose for the Army of the Potomac.
It was in fact in no condition to undertake active operations;
a considerable body of troops had been taken from Meade for
service in South Carolina, and a strong detachment had been
sent to the City of New York for the purpose of enforcing the
draft there. General Lee had retired behind the Rapidan for
several weeks of rest; neither army was ready at that time to
attack the other." Early in September Longstreet's Corps was
detached from Lee's army and sent west to strengthen Bragg at
Chattanooga, and in the latter part of the same month about
13,000 men (Eleventh and Twelfth Corps) were taken from Meade
and sent, under Hooker's command, to the same scene of pending
conflict. "But, even with this reduction of his command, after
the return of the troops detached to the North, Meade found
himself with an army of about 68,000 men; and, knowing this
force to be somewhat superior to that of the enemy, he
resolved to cross the Rapidan and attack him; but again, as so
often happened in the history of the contending armies in
Virginia, Lee had formed the project of a similar enterprise,
and began its execution a day or two in advance. He had
learned of the departure of two corps for the West." On the
9th of October "he began a flanking movement to the right of
the Union line."
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 8, chapter 9._
{3506}
"Conceiving that the Confederates would move by the Warrenton
pike, in order to cross Bull Run and get possession of
Centreville—thus to interpose between the Federal army and
Washington—Meade retired as speedily as possible. He had, in
reality, the start in the race, notwithstanding the day's loss
in the return movement. … On the morning of the 14th, Lee
advanced from Warrenton in two columns, but not by the 'pike.'
The left, under Hill, moving by the turnpike to New Baltimore,
was ordered to strike the railroad at Bristoe Station; the
right column, under Ewell, taking a more easterly route, was
directed to effect a junction at the same point. When Hill
approached Bristoe, Meade's army, with the exception of
Warren's corps, had passed that point. As the head of this
column came up, the 5th Corps, under General Sykes, had just
crossed Broad Run. Hill at once formed a line of battle to
attack the rear of that corps, when Warren came up, and, by a
bold onset, drove the enemy back, securing 450 prisoners and 5
guns. The National army, having won the race for position, and
obtained possession of the heights of Centreville, Lee's
movement was at an end, and he had but to retire to his old
line again … and, on the 18th, began his retrograde movement.
The following day Meade commenced pursuit, with the intention
of attacking the enemy on his retreat, but did not overtake
him, being detained by a heavy ruin storm, which so raised
Bull Run as to render it unfordable. … On the 7th of November
the whole army was put in motion toward the Rappahannock,
along which river the enemy was in position at Rappahannock
Station and Kelly's Ford. In two columns Meade advanced toward
these points. General French, commanding the left
wing—composed of the 1st, 2d and 3d Corps—was directed to
cross at Kelly's Ford, while the right wing—comprising the
5th and 6th Corps, under General Sedgwick—marched upon
Rappahannock Station. The 3d Corps, under Birney, led the
advance on Kelly's Ford. Reaching that point, without waiting
for pontoons, Birney crossed his own division by wading,
carried the rifle-pits, captured 500 prisoners and prevented
the enemy re-enforcing their troops at the Ford, by means of
batteries which he planted on the hills that commanded the
crossing. At the same time the right wing was contending
against more formidable obstacles at Rappahannock Station.
Early's division of Ewell's corps occupied a series of works
on the north side of the river. … Gaining a good position,
commanding the fort from the rear, Sedgwick planted his guns
and opened a fierce cannonade upon the enemy's several
batteries. Under cover of this fire, the temporary works were
assaulted and carried at the bayonet's point. Over 1,500
prisoners, 4 guns and 8 standards were captured. Sedgwick's
loss was about 300 in killed and wounded. The right column now
crossed the river without opposition, and, uniting with
French's forces, advanced to Brandy Station. November 8th was
lost in getting forward the trains, and in reconnoitering.
Under cover of that night Lee withdrew across the Rapidan.
Taking position between the Rappahannock and the Rapidan,
Meade remained quietly and undisturbed for two weeks. Finding
Lee indisposed for action, the Federal leader resolved once
more to try and bring on a general engagement. … The
Confederate army having gone into winter quarters, was located
over a wide extent of country. … This separation of the
enemy's corps, led Meade to hope, that, by crossing the lower
fords of the Rapidan, and advancing rapidly on the plank and
turnpike roads to Orange, C. H., he could concentrate his army
against Ewell's corps, cripple or destroy it, and then be able
to turn upon Hill, and in this way break Lee's army in
detail." But delays occurred which "frustrated the object of
the movement; … disclosed Meade's intention to the enemy, who
at once concentrated his entire force behind Mine Run, having
also time given for additional entrenchments along the menaced
points. The enemy's position was found to be exceedingly
strong by nature, and further perfected by the skill of busy
hands. … In front was Mine Run, a shallow stream, but
difficult to cross on account of its steep banks, the marshy
nature of the ground, and the dense undergrowth with which it
was flanked. … 'In view of the season of the year [said
General Meade in his subsequent report], the impossibility of
moving from that place if there came on even a couple of days
of rain; having failed in my first plan, which was to attack
the enemy before they could concentrate; and then having
failed in my plan to attack them after they had concentrated,
in the manner which I have related, I concluded that, under
the circumstances, it was impossible for me to do anything
more.' And this was the end of a movement, which, like
Hooker's advance to flank Fredericksburg, opened with fair
promise of success, and, like that advance, was a failure from
incidents which the situation permitted rather than asserted."
_O. J. Victor,
History of the Southern Rebellion,
division 12, chapter 1 (volume 4)._
ALSO IN:
_W. Swinton,
Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac,
chapter 10._
_J. E. Cooke,
Life of General Robert E. Lee,
part 7._
_Official Records,
Series 1, volume 29._
_A. A. Humphreys,
From Gettysburg to the Rapidan._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (August: Missouri-Kansas).
Quantrell's guerrilla raid.
The sacking and burning of Lawrence.
"Since the fall of Vicksburg many rebel soldiers had returned
from Arkansas to their homes in Western Missouri, and under
the secret orders so frequently sent from commanders in the
South into that State, the guerrilla bands along the Kansas
border suddenly grew in numbers and audacity. Though the whole
region was patrolled almost day and night by Union detachments
and scouts, a daring leader named Quantrell, who had been for
some weeks threatening various Kansas towns, assembled a band
of 300 picked and well-mounted followers at a place of
rendezvous near the line, about sunset of August 20. His
object being divined, half a dozen Union detachments from
different points started in chase of him; but skilfully
eluding all of them by an eccentric march, Quantrell crossed
the State line, and, reaching the open prairie country, where
roads were unnecessary, pushed directly for Lawrence, Kansas.
{3507}
… This town was 40 miles in the interior, and had no reason to
apprehend an attack, and though it could have assembled
several hundred men under arms in half an hour, its
inhabitants had no dream of danger when the marauders entered
the place at sunrise of August 21. Quantrell stationed
detachments to prevent any assembling or concentration of the
citizens, and then began a scene of pillage, arson and
massacre too horrible to relate. Stores and banks were robbed,
185 buildings burned, and from 150 to 200 inhabitants murdered
with a cold-blooded fiendishness which seems impossible to
believe of Americans. The direful work occupied but three or
four hours, when the perpetrators remounted their horses and
departed. Though they managed their retreat with such skill as
to avoid a general encounter, the pursuit was so hot that in
several skirmishes, and by cutting off stragglers and
laggards, 100 or more of the band were killed. The sudden
calamity raised excitement on the Kansas border to almost a
frenzy."
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 8, page 211._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (August-September: Tennessee).
Burnside's deliverance of East Tennessee.
The Union Army in Knoxville.
"Ever since the Federals had become masters of Kentucky they
had projected all expedition into East Tennessee. … Early In
the year 1862 the Federals had taken the defile of Cumberland
Gap, the principal door to East Tennessee; but drawn into the
pursuit of their adversaries in other directions, they had
very wisely renounced proceeding beyond the gap, and shortly
thereafter the Confederates had retaken the defile. In 1863
the role of liberator of East Tennessee was reserved for
General Burnside: it was an honorable compensation accorded to
the unfortunate but gallant soldier vanquished at
Fredericksburg. Two divisions of the Ninth Corps designated to
undertake this campaign having been, on June 4th, sent to the
aid of Grant, it became necessary to commence new
preparations. The scattered troops in Kentucky, several
regiments recruited in that State or composed of refugees from
East Tennessee, and a part of the fresh levies made in Ohio
and Indiana, formed the Twenty-third Corps, under the orders
of General Hartsuff. At the end of June … this little army was
in readiness to move, when Morgan started on his raid [and
Burnside's troops were sent in the pursuit]. Six weeks were
lost. It was the beginning of August. The Ninth Corps was
coming back from Vicksburg. But the men, worn out by the
climate, had need of rest. Burnside could not wait for them."
He set out upon his movement into East Tennessee with about
20,000 men, leaving Camp Nelson, near Lexington, on the 16th
of August. The Confederate General Buckner opposed him with an
equal number, including 3000 under General Fraser at
Cumberland Gap. Instead of attempting to force the passage of
the gap, Burnside "determined to make a flank movement around
the defile, by traversing more to the south, in the State of
Tennessee, the high table-land which on that side bears the
designation of Cumberland plateau. The roads which Burnside
would have to cross were long and difficult to travel, and
that portion of the country was little known, besides being
bare of resources; but the very difficult character of the
roads warranted the belief that the Confederates would be illy
prepared for defence in that region. No precaution was
neglected to ensure the success of this laborious and perilous
march," and the success achieved was perfect. "One can
understand with what joy the Federals, after eleven days of
toilsome march, entered the rich valley, a kind of promised
land, which stretched out before them. Public rumor had
greatly exaggerated their numbers. … Bragg, fearing with
reason lest by its flanking movements it [the division which
Burnside led in person] should separate him from Buckner and
then fall upon Chattanooga, had sent his lieutenant an order
to evacuate Knoxville." Buckner withdrew and Burnside made a
triumphal entry into Knoxville on the 3d of September.
"According to the testimony of eye-witnesses, the joy of the
people was beyond description. Innumerable Federal flags which
had been preserved in secret were displayed at the windows."
Frazer, who had not been withdrawn from Cumberland Gap, found
himself entrapped, when, on the 9th of September, Burnside
appeared before his works, and he surrendered without a shot.
_Comte de Paris,
History of the Civil War in America,
volume 4, book 1, chapter 2._
ALSO IN:
_A. Woodbury,
Burnside and the 9th Army Corps,
part 3, chapters 4-5._
_T. W. Humes,
The Loyal Mountaineers of East Tennessee,
chapter 13._
_Official Records,
Series 1, volume 30, part 2._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (August-September: Tennessee).
Rosecrans's advance to Chattanooga.
Evacuation of the place by the Confederates.
Battle of Chickamauga.
"The seizure and occupation of the strategic point Chattanooga
was an essential part of the campaign by the national forces
against the Confederates. The Atlantic portion of the Southern
States is separated from the Mississippi Valley by majestic
folds of the earth's surface, constituting the Appalachian
Ranges. These folds run, in a general manner, parallel to each
other, and at intervals are crossed by transverse depressions
or gaps. Such passages or gateways are therefore of great
commercial, political and military importance. Chattanooga,
which in the Cherokee language means 'The Hawk's Nest,' is a
little town seated in one of these transverse depressions,
through which the Tennessee River and a system of railroads
pass. … From the region of Chattanooga the earth-folds range
in a southwesterly direction. Enumerating such of them as are
of interest on the present occasion, they are from west to
east as follows: Raccoon or Sand Mountain, Lookout Mountain,
Missionary Ridge, Pigeon Mountain, Chickamauga Hills. …
Chattanooga Valley … through which runs a stream of the same
name, is formed on the west by Lookout Mountain, here about
2,400 feet high, and on the east by Missionary Ridge, so
called because Catholic Missionaries had established, many
years ago, churches and schools upon it among the Cherokee
Indians. From the summit of Lookout Mountain portions of not
fewer than six States may be seen." In his Tullahoma campaign)
Rosecrans, in July, had compelled Bragg and the Confederate
army, by skilful flanking movements, to fan back to
Chattanooga.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: 1863 (June-July: Tennessee).
{3508}
He had ever since been urged from Washington to pursue his
attack and dislodge the enemy from the mountains. But he
delayed further movements for a month, repairing his railroad
communications, asking for reinforcements, and waiting for
corn to ripen for food and forage. When he advanced, it was to
turn the left of Bragg's position at Chattanooga, and "reach
his rear between Dalton and Atlanta. To do this, he had to
cross the Tennessee River below Chattanooga, and then pass the
three or four successive mountain ridges. … Rosecrans reached
the Tennessee River on the evening of the 20th of August, and
shelled Chattanooga from the heights on the north bank on the
21st. Bridges were thrown over the river at Caperton's Ferry,
mouth of Battle Creek, and Shell Mound, and the army, except
the cavalry, safely crossed in face of the enemy. By the 8th
of September" the several movements planned for Thomas, McCook
and Crittenden were successfully accomplished, and Chattanooga
was abandoned by the Confederates. "Thus the first object of
Rosecrans's campaign was accomplished: the important strategic
point Chattanooga was obtained. … Rosecrans, believing himself
perfectly secure in Chattanooga, and being convinced that
Bragg was fleeing southward, did nothing to fortify himself.
Taking measures to pursue his antagonist, he directed
Crittenden to leave one brigade at Chattanooga as a garrison,
and with the rest move forward to Ringgold. Thomas was to
march to Lafayette, and McCook upon Alpine and Summer Creek.
But Bragg, so far from continuing, had stopped his retreat—he
was concentrating at Lafayette. He had received, or was on the
point of receiving, the powerful re-enforcements directed to
join him. He was strictly ordered to check the farther advance
of the Army of the Cumberland. … Rosecrans had separated three
corps of his army by mountain ridges and by distances greater
than those intervening between each of them and the enemy.
Bragg had concentrated opposite his centre, and was holding
such a position that he could attack any of them with
overwhelming numbers. He had caused deserters and citizens to
go into Rosecrans's lines to confirm him in the impression
that the Confederates were in rapid retreat. … On the 11th of
September, Crittenden, not stopping to fortify Chattanooga,
pushed on toward Ringgold to cut off Buckner, who he had heard
was coming from East Tennessee to the support of Bragg.
Finding that Buckner had already passed, he turned toward
Lafayette to follow him, going up the east side of the
Chickamauga, but meeting a steadily increasing resistance he
took alarm, and fell back across that stream at Lee and
Gordon's Mills. The forces he had encountered were Cheatham's
and Walker's divisions. Thomas, who had now discovered Bragg's
position, directed McCook, who was advancing on Rome, to fall
back instantly and connect with him. Rosecrans's troops had
thus become scattered along an extended line from Lee and
Gordon's Mills to Alpine, a space of about forty miles. By the
17th they were brought more within supporting distance, and on
the morning of the 18th a concentration was begun toward
Crawfish Spring, but it was slowly executed. At this time the
two armies were confronting each other on the opposite banks
of the Chickamauga, a stream which, rising at the junction of
Missionary Ridge and Pigeon Mountain … empties into the
beautiful Tennessee River above Chattanooga. In the Indian
tongue Chickamauga means 'The Stagnant Stream,' 'The River of
Death'—a name, as we shall soon find, of ominous import.
Rosecrans was on the west bank of the Chickamauga. … On the
18th his right was … at Gordon's Mills, his left near the road
across from Rossville. Bragg's intention was to flank this
left and interpose between it and Chattanooga. … On the 18th
Longstreet's troops were arriving from Virginia, and Bragg was
ready. … The battle of Chickamauga commenced on the morning of
the 19th." Bragg's flanking movement, executed under General
Polk, and directed against the left of Rosecrans's line, where
Thomas had command, did not succeed. "The centre was then
assailed and pressed back, but, having been re-enforced, it
recovered its ground. Night came, and the battle was thus far
indecisive. … The night was spent in preparation. Thomas
constructed abatis and breastworks before his lines. … Bragg
was still determined to flank the national left, and intervene
between it and Chattanooga. He had ordered Polk to begin the
battle as soon as it was light enough to see," but Polk
delayed and it was not until 10 o'clock that "Breckenridge's
division, followed by Cleburne's, advanced against the
breastworks of Thomas, which were mostly in Cleburne's front.
Cleburne moved directly upon them, Breckenridge swinging round
to flank them. With so much energy were these attacks made,
that Thomas had to send repeatedly to Rosecrans for help. The
Confederates had been gaining ground, but with these
re-enforcements Thomas succeeded in driving back Cleburne with
very great loss, and even in advancing on the right of
Breckenridge." But, presently, by some blunder in the giving
or construing of an order, one division—that of General
"Wood—was withdrawn from Rosecrans line and posted uselessly
in the rear. "By this unfortunate mistake a gap was opened in
the line of battle, of which Hindman, of Longstreet's corps,
took instant advantage, and, striking Davis in flank and rear,
threw his whole division into confusion. … That break in the
line was never repaired. Longstreet's masses charged with such
terrible energy that it was impossible to check them. The
national right and centre were dispersed, flying toward
Rossville and Chattanooga. Sheridan, however, at length
succeeded in rallying a considerable portion of his division,
and managed to reach Thomas. On Thomas, who, in allusion to
these events, is often called 'The Rock of Chickamauga.' the
weight of the battle now fell. Everything depended on his
firmness. … In the flight of the right and part of the centre
from the field, Rosecrans, McCook and Crittenden were
enveloped and carried away. … Rosecrans … went to Chattanooga,
and thence telegraphed to Washington that his army had been
beaten. Thomas still remained immovable in his position," and
at a critical moment he was saved from a movement into his
rear, by General Gorden Granger, who pushed to the front with
some reserves. "Night came, and the Confederates were still
unable to shake him. But, as most of the army had retreated to
Chattanooga, he now deliberately fell back to Rossville. … The
dead and wounded he left in the hands of the enemy. On the
21st he offered battle again, and that night withdrew into the
defences of Chattanooga."
_J. W. Draper,
History of the American Civil War,
chapter 67, volume 3._
{3509}
"During the heavy fighting of the 20th, Thomas was the only
general officer on the field of rank above a division
commander. … Well was he called the 'Rock of Chickamauga,' …
There is nothing finer in history than Thomas at Chickamauga.
All things considered, the battle of Chickamauga, for the
forces engaged, was the hardest fought and the bloodiest
battle of the Rebellion. … The largest number of troops
Rosecrans had of all arms on the field during the two days'
fighting was 55,000 effective men. … Rosecrans's losses
aggregated killed, 1,687; wounded, 9,394; missing, 5,255.
Total loss, 16,336. Bragg, during the battle, when his entire
five corps were engaged, had about 70,000 effective troops in
line. … His losses, in part estimated, were 2,673 killed,
16,274 wounded, and 2,003 missing, a total of 20,950. A full
report of the rebel losses was never made."
_H. M. Cist,
The Army of the Cumberland
(Campaigns of the Civil War, volume 7), chapters 11-12._
ALSO IN:
_Comte de Paris,
History of the Civil War in America,
volume 4, book 1, chapters 2-6._
_T. B. Van Horne,
History of the Army of the Cumberland,
volume 1, chapter 20._
_T. B. Van Horne,
Life of Major-General George H. Thomas,
chapters 6-7._
_W. B. Hazen,
Narrative of Military Service,
chapters 8-9._
_D. H. Hill, E. Opdycke, and others,
Chickamauga
(Battles and Leaders, volume 3)._
_Official Records,
Series 1, volume 30._
_P. H. Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs,
volume 1, chapter 15._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863
(August-October: Arkansas-Missouri).
The breaking of Confederate authority in Arkansas.
Occupation of Little Rock by national forces.
Rebel raids into Missouri.
"After the surrender of Vicksburg, the Federal General Steele
was sent to Helena, with a considerable force, and instructed
to form a junction with General Davidson, who was moving south
from Missouri, by way of Crowley's Ridge, west of the St.
Francis, and with the combined force drive the Confederates
south of the Arkansas River. Having effected this junction and
established his depot and hospitals at Duvall's Bluff, on the
White River, General Steele, on the 1st of August, advanced
against the Confederate army, which fell back toward Little
Rock. After several successful skirmishes, he reached the
Arkansas River, and threw part of his force upon the south
side, to threaten the Confederate communications with
Arkadelphia, their depot of supplies, and flank their position
at Little Rock. General Marmaduke was sent out with a cavalry
force to beat the Federals back, but was completely routed.
Seeing what must be the inevitable result of this movement of
General Steele, the Confederate General Holmes destroyed what
property he could, and after a slight resistance retreated
with his army in great disorder, pursued by the Federal
cavalry, and on the 10th of September General Steele, with the
Federal army, entered the capital of Arkansas. His entire
losses in killed, wounded and missing, in this whole movement,
did not exceed 100. He captured 1,000 prisoners, and such
public property as the Confederates had not time to destroy.
The Federal cavalry continued to press the retreating
Confederates southward; but a small force, which had eluded
pursuit and moved eastward, attacked the Federal garrison at
Pine Bluff, on the Arkansas, south of Little Rock, hoping to
recapture it and thus cripple the Federals and break their
communications. The attempt, which was made on the 28th of
October, was repulsed with decided loss on the part of the
confederates, and the same day the Federal cavalry occupied
Arkadelphia, and the Confederates retreated toward the Red
River. This completely restored Arkansas to the Federal
authority, except a small district in the extreme southwest,
and the region of Northwest Arkansas, over which the guerrilla
and other irregular troops of the Confederates continued to
roam, in their plundering excursions into Missouri, Kansas,
and the Indian Territory. Some of these were conducted on a
large scale. … The Confederate General Cabell, collecting
together as many of the guerrillas and Indians as possible,
and some of the routed troops driven from Little Rock and its
vicinity, started with a force variously estimated at from
4,000 to 10,000, in the latter part of September, from the
Choctaw settlements of the Indian Territory, crossed the
Arkansas River east of Fort Smith, and, on the 1st of October,
a detachment of his troops, under General Shelby, joined
Coffee at Crooked Prairie, Missouri, intending to make a raid
into Southwestern Missouri. This combined force, numbering
2,000 or 2,500 men, penetrated as far as the Missouri River at
Booneville, but were pursued by the Missouri militia, and
finally brought to a stand about eight miles southwest of
Arrow Rock, on the evening of the 12th of October. General E.
B. Brown who commanded the Federal troops, fought them till
dark that evening, and during the night, having detached a
small force to attack them in the rear, renewed the battle the
next morning at eight A. M. After a sharp contest they fled,
completely routed and broken up, with a loss of several
hundred in killed, wounded and prisoners. They were pursued to
the Arkansas line and prisoners gleaned all the way. … With
these last convulsive throes, the active existence of the
Confederate authority in Arkansas died out. On the 12th of
November a meeting was held at Little Rock, to consult on
measures for the restoration of the State to the Union, and
was succeeded by others in different parts of the State."
_W. J. Tenney,
Military and Naval History of the Rebellion,
chapter 36._
ALSO IN:
_Comte de Paris,
History of the Civile war in America,
volume 4, book 3, chapter 3._
_W. Britton,
Memoirs of the Rebellion on the Border,
chapters 21-22._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863
(August-December: South Carolina).
Siege and Reduction of Fort Wagner.
Bombardment of Fort Sumter and Charleston.
After the unsuccessful assault and bloody repulse of July 18th
General Gillmore began against Fort Wagner the operations of a
regular siege.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863
(JULY: SOUTH CAROLINA)
"Trenches were dug, and by the middle of August the batteries
were within a quarter-mile of Wagner and within two and a half
miles of Sumter. The work on these batteries had to be done
mostly by night, for the forts kept up a heavy fire. Another
battery was also begun in the marsh on the west side of Morris
Island. The black mud there was so soft that it would not bear
the weight of a man, and was at least 16 feet deep. After the
site was chosen, a lieutenant was ordered to superintend the
work, and told to call for whatever materials he wanted. Being
something of a wag, he sent to the quartermaster for 100 men 18
feet high, to work in mud 16 feet deep; but as men of that
height could not be had, he had to be satisfied with workmen
of common stature.
{3510}
All the work had to be done in the dark, for it was within
range of the guns of the forts. During fourteen nights piles
were driven through the mud into the solid ground beneath, and
on them were piled 15,000 bags of sand to form a parapet.
After breaking down several trucks, a monster eight-inch
Parrott gun, a 200-pounder, was dragged across the swamp and
mounted, and about the middle of August the Swamp Angel, as
the soldiers named it, was ready to throw shells into
Charleston, nearly five miles away. On the 17th of August
twelve land-batteries and the monitors opened fire on Sumter,
Wagner, and Gregg. The heaviest of the fire was aimed at
Sumter, as General Gillmore wished to silence it before he
made another assault on Wagner. The bombardment was kept up
for seven days, when Gillmore sent a dispatch to General
Halleck, saying: 'Fort Sumter is to-day (August 24) a
shapeless and harmless mass of ruins.' On the 21st of August,
General Gillmore wrote to General Beauregard, who was in
command in Charleston, demanding the evacuation of Fort Sumter
and of Morris Island, threatening, in case of refusal, to
bombard Charleston. Not hearing from him, he ordered a few
shells to be thrown into the city from the Swamp Angel. Some
of them fell in the streets and frightened the people, but did
little damage. Beauregard then wrote him a letter in which he
accused him of barbarity in 'turning his guns against the old
men, the women and children, and the hospitals of a sleeping
city,' and called the act 'unworthy of any soldier. General
Gillmore replied that it was the duty of the commander of an
attacked place to 'see to it that the non-combatants were
removed,' and that he (Beauregard) had had forty days' time in
which to do it. But the Swamp Angel was fired only a few
times. At the thirty-sixth shot it burst and blew out the
whole of its breech, and no other gun was mounted in its
place. Gillmore then turned his attention once more to Fort
Wagner, which he determined to assault again. To do this it
was necessary to silence its guns and drive its defenders into
the bomb-proofs; so a heavy fire was opened on it by the
batteries, while the armored frigate New Ironsides poured
eleven-inch shells into it from the sea side. The bombardment
was kept up day and night, strong calcium lights being used by
night to blind the Confederates and to show all parts of their
works. The Confederates, driven from their guns, were obliged
to fly for safety to their bomb-proofs. In the morning of
September 7, the troops, under General Terry, were about ready
to make the assault, when it was reported that the fort was
empty. The garrisons of both Wagner and Gregg had fled during
the night, and the whole of Morris Island was at last in
possession of the Union troops. The next night an attack was
made on Sumter by thirty boat-loads of men from the fleet.
They reached the base of the walls and began to go up,
thinking that the garrison was asleep; but before they reached
the top a fire of musketry and hand-grenades was opened on
them by the Confederates within, aided by some gun boats
outside, and the assailants were driven off with a loss of
about 200. But little more was done against Charleston during
the rest of the year. General Gillmore thought that, as
Sumter's guns were silenced, the fleet might easily pass into
the harbor and capture Charleston. But Admiral Dahlgren did
not care to run the risk of the torpedoes and powder-mines
over which he knew he would have to pass. Besides, General
Beauregard had taken advantage of the long delay in taking
Wagner to strengthen the inner forts. Fort Johnson had been
made into a powerful earthwork, and the fleet, even if Sumter
were passed, would meet with as hot a fire as had been
experienced outside. General Gillmore therefore contented
himself with repairing Wagner and Gregg and turning their guns
on Charles·ton and the forts defending it. As they were a mile
nearer the city than the Swamp Angel battery, a slow
bombardment was kept up until near the end of the year. About
half of Charleston was reached by the shells, and many
buildings were greatly injured. As the wharfs and most of the
harbor were under fire, blockade-runners could no longer run
in, and the business of the city was thus wholly destroyed."
_J. D. Champlin, Jr.,
Young Folk's History of the War for the Union,
chapter 32._
ALSO IN:
_Comte de Paris,
History of the Civil War in America,
volume 4, book 3, chapter 2._
_A. Roman,
Military Operations of General Beauregard,
volume 2, chapters 32-34._
_C. B. Boynton,
History of the Navy during the Rebellion,
volume 2, chapter 35._
_L. F. Emilio,
History of the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers.,
chapters 6-7._
[Image: Map of the Battlefield of Chattanooga. 1863.]
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (October-November: Tennessee).
The raising of the siege of Chattanooga.
"Battle above the Clouds," on Lookout Mountain.
Assault of Missionary Ridge.
The Rout of Bragg's army.
After its defeat at Chickamauga the National Army was
practically besieged on Chattanooga. Bragg acquired strong
positions on Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, and was
able to cut off all of Rosecrans's routes of supply, except
one long and difficult wagon-road. On the 17th of October an
important reorganization of the Union armies in the West was
effected. "The departments of the Ohio, the Cumberland, and
the Tennessee, were united under the title of Military
Division of the Mississippi, of which General Grant was made
commander, and Thomas superseded Rosecrans in command of the
Army of the Cumberland. General Hooker, with two corps, was
sent to Tennessee. Grant arrived at Chattanooga on the 23d of
October, and found affairs in a deplorable condition. It was
impossible to supply the troops properly by the one
wagon-road, and they had been on short rations for some time,
while large numbers of the mules and horses were dead. Grant's
first care was to open a new and better line of supply.
Steamers could come up the river as far as Bridgeport, and he
ordered the immediate construction of a road and bridge to
reach that point by way of Brown's Ferry, which was done
within five days, the 'cracker line,' as the soldiers called
it, was opened, and thenceforth they had full rations and
abundance of everything. The enemy attempted to interrupt the
work on the road; but Hooker met them at Wauhatchie, west of
Lookout Mountain, and after a three-hours' action drove them
off [with It loss of 416 killed and wounded, the Confederate
loss being unknown]. Chattanooga was now no longer in a state
of siege; but it was still seriously menaced by Bragg's army,
which held a most singular position.
{3512}
Its flanks were on the northern ends of Lookout Mountain and
Mission Ridge, the crests of which were occupied for some
distance, and its centre stretched across Chattanooga valley.
This line was twelve miles long, and most of it was well
intrenched. Grant ordered Sherman [coming from Memphis] to
join him with one corps, and Sherman promptly obeyed, but as
he did considerable railroad repairing on the way, he did not
reach Chattanooga till the 15th of November. Meanwhile
Longstreet with 20,000 troops had been detached from Bragg's
army and sent against Burnside at Knoxville. After Sherman's
arrival, Grant had about 80,000 men."
_R. Johnson,
Short History of the War of Secession,
chapter 20._
"My orders for battle," writes General Grant, "were all
prepared in advance of Sherman's arrival, except the dates,
which could not be fixed while troops to be engaged were so
far away. The possession of Lookout Mountain was of no special
advantage to us now. Hooker was instructed to send Howard's
corps to the north side of the Tennessee, thence up behind the
hills on the north side, and to go into camp opposite
Chattanooga; with the remainder of the command, Hooker was, at
a time to be afterwards appointed, to ascend the western slope
between the upper and lower palisades, and so get into
Chattanooga Valley. The plan of battle was for Sherman to
attack the enemy's right flank, form a line across it, extend
our left over South Chickamauga River so as to threaten or
hold the railroad in Bragg's rear, and thus force him either
to weaken his lines elsewhere or lose his connection with his
base at Chickamauga Station. Hooker was to perform like
service on our right. His problem was to get from Lookout
Valley to Chattanooga Valley in the most expeditious way
possible; cross the latter valley rapidly to Rossville, south
of Bragg's line on Missionary Ridge, form line there across
the ridge facing north, with his right flank extended to
Chickamauga Valley east of the ridge, thus threatening the
enemy's rear on that flank and compelling him to reinforce
this also. Thomas, with the Army of the Cumberland, occupied
the centre, and was to assault while the enemy was engaged
with most of his forces on his two flanks. To carry out this
plan, Sherman was to cross at Brown's Ferry and move east of
Chattanooga to a point opposite the north end of Mission
Ridge, and to place his command back of the foot-hills out of
sight of the enemy on the ridge." Remaining in this concealed
position until the time of attack, Sherman's army was then,
under cover of night, to be rapidly brought back to the south
side of the Tennessee, at a point where Missionary Ridge
prolonged would touch the river, this being done by pontoons
ready provided at a spot also concealed. The execution of the
plan was delayed by heavy rains until November 23, when
Burnside's distress at Knoxville forced Grant to begin his
attack on Bragg by an advance of Thomas's army, at the center,
before the flanking preparations were completed. "This
movement [General Grant's narrative continues] secured to us a
line fully a mile in advance of the one we occupied in the
morning, and the one which the enemy had occupied to this
time. The fortifications were rapidly turned to face the other
way. During the following night they were made strong. We lost
in this preliminary action about 1,100 killed and wounded,
while the enemy probably lost quite as heavily, including the
prisoners that were captured. With the exception of the firing
of artillery, kept up from Missionary Ridge and Fort Wood
until night closed in, this ended the fighting for the first
day. … By the night of the 23d Sherman's command was in a
position to move," and by daylight two divisions of his
command were on the south side of the river, "well covered by
the works they had built. The work of laying the bridge, on
which to cross the artillery and cavalry, was now begun. … By
a little past noon the bridge was completed, as well as one
over the South Chickamauga … and all the infantry and
artillery were on the south side of the Tennessee. Sherman at
once formed his troops for assault on Missionary Ridge. … By
half-past three Sherman was in possession of the height
without having sustained much loss. … Artillery was dragged to
the top of the hill by hand, The enemy did not seem to be
aware of this movement until the top of the hill was gained.
There had been a drizzling rain during the day, and the clouds
were so low that Lookout Mountain and the top of Missionary
Ridge were obscured from the view of persons in the valley.
But now the enemy opened fire upon their assailants, and made
several attempts with their skirmishers to drive them away,
but without avail. Later in the day a more determined attack
was made, but this, too, failed, and Sherman was left to
fortify what he had gained. … While these operations were
going on to the east of Chattanooga, Hooker was engaged on the
west. He had three divisions … all west of Lookout Creek. The
enemy had the east bank of the creek strongly picketed and
entrenched. … The side of Lookout Mountain confronting
Hooker's command was rugged, heavily timbered, and full of
chasms. … Early on the morning of the 24th Hooker moved
Geary's division, supported by a brigade of Cruft's, up
Lookout Creek, to effect a crossing. The remainder of Cruft's
division was to seize the bridge over the creek, near the
crossing of the railroad. … This attracted the enemy so that
Geary's movement farther up was not observed. A heavy mist
obscured him from the view of the troops on the top of the
mountain. He crossed the creek almost unobserved, and captured
the picket of over 40 men on guard near by. He then commenced
ascending the mountain directly in his front. … By noon Geary
had gained the open ground on the north slope of the mountain,
with his right close up to the base of the upper palisade, but
there were strong fortifications in his front. The rest of the
command coming up, a line was formed from the base of the
upper palisade to the mouth of Chattanooga Creek. Thomas and I
were on the top of Orchard Knob. Hooker's advance now made our
line a continuous one. … The day was hazy, so that Hooker's
operations were not visible to us except at the moments when
the clouds would rise. But the sound of his artillery and
musketry was heard incessantly. The enemy on his front was
partially fortified, but was soon driven out of his works.
During the afternoon the clouds, which had so obscured the top
of Lookout all day as to hide whatever was going on from the
view of those below, settled down and made it so dark where
Hooker was as to stop operations for the time. At four o'clock
Hooker reported his position as impregnable.
{3513}
By a little after five direct communication was established,
and a brigade of troops was sent from Chattanooga to reinforce
him. … The morning of the 25th opened clear and bright, and
the whole field was in full view from the top of Orchard Knob.
It remained so all day. Bragg's headquarters were in full
view. … Sherman was out as soon as it was light enough to see,
and by sunrise his command was in motion. Three brigades held
the hill already gained. Morgan L. Smith moved along the east
base of Missionary Ridge; Loomis along the west base … and
Corse with his brigade was between the two, moving directly
towards the hill to be captured." The fighting was severe for
hours, and Bragg moved heavy masses of troops to resist
Sherman's advance, while a division from Thomas was sent to
reinforce the latter. "It had now got to be late in the
afternoon, and I had expected before this to see Hooker
crossing the ridge in the neighborhood of Rossville and
compelling Bragg to mass in that direction also. The enemy had
evacuated Lookout Mountain during the night, as I expected he
would. In crossing the valley he burned the bridge over
Chattanooga Creek, and did all he could to obstruct the roads
behind him. Hooker was off bright and early, with no
obstructions in his front but distance and the destruction
above named. He was detained four hours crossing Chattanooga
Creek, and thus was lost the immediate advantage I expected
from his forces. … But Sherman's condition was getting so
critical that the assault for his relief could not be delayed
any longer. Sheridan's and Wood's divisions had been lying
under arms from early morning, ready to move the instant the
signal was given. I now directed Thomas to order the charge at
once." In this splendid charge the Union troops drove the
Confederates from the first line of their works and then
pushed on, with no further orders, to the second line, with
the same success. "The retreat of the enemy along most of his
line was precipitate, and the panic so great that Bragg and
his officers lost all control over their men. Many were
captured and thousands threw away their arms in their flight.
Sheridan pushed forward until he reached the Chickamauga River
at a point above where the enemy crossed. … To Sheridan's
prompt movement the Army of the Cumberland and the nation are
indebted for the bulk of the capture of prisoners, artillery,
and small arms that day. … The enemy confronting Sherman, now
seeing everything to their left giving way, fled also. …
Hooker [pushing on to Rossville as soon as he had succeeded in
getting across Chattanooga Creek] … came upon the flank of a
division of the enemy, which soon commenced a retreat along
the ridge. This threw them on Palmer. They could make but
little resistance in the position they were caught in, and as
many of them as could do so escaped. Many, however, were
captured. … The victory at Chattanooga was won against great
odds, considering the advantage the enemy had of position."
_U. S. Grant,
Personal Memoirs,
chapters 42-44 (volume 2)._
"Grant's losses in these battles were 757 killed, 4,529
wounded, and 330 missing; total 5,616. The enemy's losses were
fewer in killed and wounded, owing to the fact that he was
protected by intrenchments, while the national' soldiers were
without cover. Grant captured 6,142 prisoners, 40 pieces of
artillery, 69 artillery carriages and caissons, and 7,000
stand of small arms; by far the greatest capture, in the open
field, which had then been made during the war. The battle of
Chattanooga was the grandest ever fought west of the
Alleghanies. It covered an extent of 13 miles, and Grant had
over 60,000 men engaged. The rebels numbered only 45,000 men,
but they enjoyed immense advantages of position in every part
of the field." Pursuit of the retreating Confederates began
early in the morning of the 26th, and considerable fighting
occurred on that day and the next. At Ringgold, Hooker was
checked by Cleburne's division, which held an easily defended
gap while the main column with its trains were moved beyond
reach. In this battle at Ringgold Hooker lost 65 killed and
377 wounded. He took three pieces of artillery and 230
prisoners.
_A. Badeau,
Military History of Ulysses S. Grant,
chapters 11-12 (volume 1)._
ALSO IN:
J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 8, chapter 5.
_H. M. Cist,
The Army of the Cumberland
(Campaigns of the Civil War, volume 7),
chapters 13-14._
_Comte de Paris,
History of the Civil War in America,
volume 4, book 2._
_W. T. Sherman,
Memoirs,
chapter 13 (volume 1)._
_P. H. Sheridan,
Memoirs,
volume 1, chapter 16._
_T. B. Van Horne,
History of the Army of the Cumberland,
chapters 21-22 (volume 1)._
_Official Records,
Series 1, volume 31._
_B. F. Taylor,
Mission Ridge and Lookout Mountain._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (October-December: Tennessee).
The Siege of Knoxville.
"The Army of the Cumberland remaining quiet at Chattanooga,
Bragg (or his superiors) conceived the idea of improving his
leisure by a movement on Burnside, which Longstreet was
assigned to lead. Burnside had by this time spread his force
very widely, holding innumerable points and places southward
and eastward of Knoxville by brigades and detachments; and
Longstreet advancing silently and rapidly, was enabled to
strike heavily [October 20] at the little outpost of
Philadelphia, held by Colonel F. T. Wolford, with the 1st,
11th, and 12th Kentucky cavalry and 45th Ohio mounted
infantry—in all about 2,000 men. Wolford … withstood several
hours, hoping that the sound of guns would bring him
assistance from Loudon in his rear; but none arrived; and he
was at length obliged to cut his way out; losing his battery
and 32 wagons, but bringing off most of his command, with 51
prisoners. … Our total loss in prisoners to Longstreet
southward of Loudon is stated by Halleck at 650. The enemy
advancing resolutely yet cautiously, our troops were withdrawn
before them from Lenoir and from Loudon, concentrating at
Campbell's Station—General Burnside, who had hastened from
Knoxville at the tidings of danger, being personally in
command. Having been joined by his old (9th) corps, he was now
probably as strong as Longstreet; but a large portion of his
force was still dispersed far to the eastward, and he
apprehended being flanked by an advance from Kingston on his
left. He found himself so closely pressed, however, that he
must either fight or sacrifice his trains; so he chose an
advantageous position and suddenly faced the foe: his
batteries being all at hand, while those of his pursuers were
behind; so that he had decidedly the advantage in the fighting
till late in the afternoon, when they brought up three
batteries and opened, while their infantry were extended on
either hand, as if to outflank him.
{3514}
He then fell back to the next ridge, and again faced about;
holding his position firmly till after nightfall; when—his
trains having meantime obtained a fair start—he resumed his
retreat, and continued it unmolested until safe within the
sheltering intrenchments of Knoxville. Our loss in this affair
was about 800; that of the enemy was probably greater. …
Longstreet continued his pursuit and in due time beleaguered
the city [November 17], though he can hardly be said to have
invested it. … The defenses were engineered by Captain Poe,
and were signally effective. Directly on getting into
position, a smart assault was delivered on our right, held by
the 12th Illinois, 45th Ohio, 3d Michigan, and 12th Kentucky,
and a hill carried; but it was not essential to the defenses.
Our loss this day was about 100; among them was General W. P.
Sanders, of Kentucky, killed. Shelling and skirmishing barely
served to break the monotony for ten weary days, when—having
been reenforced by Sam Jones, and one or two other small
commands from Virginia—Longstreet delivered an assault, by a
picked storming party of three brigades, on an unfinished but
important work known as Fort Sanders, on our left, but was
bloodily repelled by General Ferrero, who held it—the loss of
the assailants being some 800, … while on our side the entire
loss that night was about 100; only 15 of these in the fort.
And now—Bragg having been defeated by Grant before
Chattanooga, and a relieving force under Sherman being close
at hand—Longstreet necessarily abandoned the siege, and moved
rapidly eastward unassailed to Russellville, Virginia: our
entire loss in the defense having been less than 1,000; while
his must have been twice or thrice that number. Sherman's
advance reached the city, and Burnside officially announced
the raising of the siege, December 5th."
_H. Greeley,
The American Conflict,
volume 2, chapter 18._
ALSO IN:
_A. Woodbury,
Burnside and the Ninth Army Corps,
part 3, chapter 6._
_Official Records,
Series 1, volume 31, part 1._
_T. W. Humes.
The Loyal Mountaineers of East Tennessee,
chapters 14-16._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (November).
President Lincoln's Address at Gettysburg.
"By the retreat of Lee from Gettysburg and the immediate
pursuit by Meade, the burial of the dead and care of the
wounded on that great battlefield were left largely to the
military and local authorities of the State of Pennsylvania.
Governor Andrew G. Curtin gave the humane and patriotic duty
his thoughtful attention; and during its execution the
appropriate design of changing a portion of the field into a
permanent cemetery, where the remains of the fallen heroes
might be brought together, and their last resting-place
suitably protected and embellished, was conceived and begun.
The citizen soldiery from seventeen of the loyal States had
taken part in the conflict on the Union side, and the several
Governors of these States heartily cooperated in the project,
which thus acquired a National character. This circumstance
made it natural that the dedication ceremonies should be of
more than usual interest and impressiveness. Accordingly, at
the beginning of November, 1863, when the work was approaching
its completion, Mr. David Wills, the special agent of Governor
Curtin, and also acting for the several States, who had not
only originated, but mainly superintended, the enterprise,
wrote the following letter of invitation to President Lincoln:
'The several States having soldiers in the Army of the
Potomac, who were killed at the battle of Gettysburg, or have
since died at the various hospitals which were established in
the vicinity, have procured grounds on a prominent part of the
battlefield for a cemetery, and are having the dead removed to
them and properly buried. These grounds will be consecrated
and set apart to this sacred purpose, by appropriate
ceremonies, on Thursday, the 19th instant. Honorable Edward
Everett will deliver the oration. I am authorized by the
Governors of the different States to invite you to be present
and participate in these ceremonies, which will doubtless be
very imposing and solemnly impressive. It is the desire that
after the oration, you, as Chief Executive of the nation,
formally set apart these grounds to their sacred use by a few
appropriate remarks. It will be a source of great
gratification to the many widows and orphans that have been
made almost friendless by the great battle here, to have you
here personally; and it will kindle anew in the breasts of the
comrades of these brave dead, who are now in the tented field
or nobly meeting the foe in the front, a confidence that they
who sleep in death on the battlefield are not forgotten by
those highest in authority; and they will feel that, should
their fate be the same, their remains will not be uncared-for.
We hope you will be able to be present to perform this last
solemn act to the soldier dead on this battlefield.' President
Lincoln expressed his willingness to perform the duty
requested of him. … At the appointed hour on the 19th a vast
procession, with military music, moved to the cemetery grounds
where, in the midst of a distinguished auditory, the orator of
the day, Edward Everett, made an address worthy alike of his
own fame and the extraordinary occasion. … Mr. Everett ended
in a brilliant peroration, the echoes of which were lost in
the long and hearty plaudits of the great multitude, and then
President Lincoln arose to fill the part assigned him in the
programme. It was a trying ordeal to fittingly crown with a
few brief sentences the ceremonies of such a day, and such an
achievement in oratory; finished, erudite, apparently
exhaustive of the theme, replete with all the strength of
scholastic method and the highest graces of literary culture.
If there arose in the mind of any discriminating listener on
the platform a passing doubt whether Mr. Lincoln would or
could properly honor the unique occasion, that doubt vanished
with his opening sentence; for then and there the President
pronounced an address of dedication so pertinent, so brief yet
so comprehensive, so terse yet so eloquent, linking the deeds
of the present to the thoughts of the future, with simple
words, in such living, original, yet exquisitely molded,
maxim-like phrases that the best critics have awarded it an
unquestioned rank as one of the world's masterpieces in
rhetorical art.
{3515}
He said:
'Four-score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on
this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that
nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long
endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We
have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final
resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that
nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we
should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we
cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men,
living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far
above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little
note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never
forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to
be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought
here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to
be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us,—that
from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that
cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—
that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have
died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new
birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the
people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.'"
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 8, chapter 7._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (December).
The President's Message to Congress, at the opening of its
session, December 8, was accompanied by the following
Proclamation of Amnesty, which made known the terms of
political reconstruction and rehabilitation that would be
favored by the Executive, in dealing with rebellious citizens
who might return to their allegiance:
"Whereas, in and by the Constitution of the United States, it
is provided that the President 'shall have power to grant
reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States,
except in cases of impeachment;' and Whereas a rebellion now
exists whereby the loyal State governments of several States
have for a long time been subverted, and many persons have
committed and are now guilty of treason against the United
States; and 'Whereas, with reference to said rebellion and
treason, laws have been enacted by Congress declaring
forfeitures and confiscation of property and liberation of
slaves, all upon terms and conditions therein stated, and also
declaring that the President was thereby authorized at any
time thereafter, by proclamation, to extend to persons who may
have participated in the existing rebellion, in any State or
part thereof, pardon and amnesty, with such exceptions and at
such times and on such conditions as he may deem expedient for
the public welfare; and Whereas the congressional declaration
for limited and conditional pardon accords with well
established judicial exposition of the pardoning power; and
Whereas, with reference to said rebellion, the President of
the United States has issued several proclamations, with
provisions in regard to the liberation of slaves; and Whereas
it is now desired by some persons heretofore engaged in said
rebellion to resume their allegiance to the United States, and
to reinaugurate loyal State governments within and for their
respective States: Therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of
the United States, do proclaim, declare and make known to all
persons who have directly, or by implication, participated in
the existing rebellion, except as hereinafter excepted, that a
full pardon is hereby granted to them and each of them, with
restoration of all rights of property, except as to slaves,
and in property cases where rights of third parties shall have
intervened, and upon the condition that every such person
shall take and subscribe an oath, and thenceforward keep and
maintain said oath inviolate; and which oath shall be
registered for permanent preservation, and shall be of the
tenor and effect following, to wit:
'I, ------, do solemnly swear, in presence of Almighty God,
that I will henceforth faithfully support, protect, and
defend the Constitution of the United States, and the union
of the States thereunder; and that I will, in like manner,
abide by and faithfully support all acts of Congress passed
during the existing rebellion with reference to slaves, so
long and so far as not repealed, modified, or held void by
Congress, or by decision of the Supreme Court; and that I
will, in like manner, abide by and faithfully support all
proclamations of the President made during the existing
rebellion having reference to slaves, so long and so far as
not modified or declared void by decision of the Supreme
Court. So help me God.'
The persons excepted from the benefits of the foregoing
provisions are all who are, or shall have been, civil or
diplomatic officers or agents of the so-called Confederate
Government; all who have left judicial stations under the
United States to aid the rebellion; all who are, or shall have
been, military or naval officers of said so-called Confederate
Government above the rank of colonel in the Army, or of
lieutenant in the Navy; all who left seats in the United
States Congress to aid the rebellion; all who resigned
commissions in the Army or Navy of the United States, and
afterwards aided the rebellion; and all who have engaged in
any way in treating colored persons, or white persons in
charge of such, otherwise than lawfully as prisoners of war,
and which persons may have been found in the United States
service as soldiers, seamen, or in any other capacity. And I
do further proclaim, declare, and make known that whenever in
any of the States of Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi,
Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, [Virginia?], Florida, South
Carolina, and North Carolina, a number of persons, not less
than one tenth in number of the votes cast in such State at
the presidential election of the year of our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and sixty, each having taken the oath aforesaid
and not having since violated it, and being a qualified voter
by the election law of the State existing immediately before
the so-called act of secession, and excluding all others,
shall re-establish a State government which shall be
republican, and in nowise contravening said oath, such shall
be recognized as the true government of the State, and the
State shall receive thereunder the benefits of the
constitutional provision which declares that 'the United
States shall guaranty to every State in this Union a
republican form of government, and shall protect each of them
against invasion; and, on application of the Legislature, or
the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened),
against domestic violence.' And I do further proclaim,
declare, and make known that any provision which may be
adopted by such State government in relation to the freed
people of such State, which shall recognize and declare their
permanent freedom, provide for their education, and which may
yet be consistent, as a temporary arrangement, with their
present condition as a laboring, landless, and homeless class,
will not be objected to by the national Executive.
{3516}
And it is suggested as not improper, that, in constructing a
loyal State government in any State, the name of the State,
the boundary, the subdivisions, the constitution, and the
general code of laws, as before the rebellion, be maintained,
subject only to the modifications made necessary by the
conditions hereinbefore stated, and such others, if any, not
contravening said conditions, and which may be deemed
expedient by those framing the new State government. To avoid
misunderstanding, it may be proper to say that this
proclamation, so far as it relates to State governments, has
no reference to States wherein loyal State governments have
all the while been maintained. And for the same reason, it may
be proper to further say, that whether members sent to
Congress from any State shall be admitted to seats
constitutionally rests exclusively with the respective Houses,
and not to any extent with the Executive. And still further,
that this proclamation is intended to present the people of
the States wherein the national authority has been suspended,
and loyal State governments have been subverted, a mode in and
by which the national authority and loyal State governments
may be re-established within said States, or in any of them;
and, while the mode presented is the best the Executive can
suggest, with his present impressions, it must not be
understood that no other possible mode would be acceptable.
Given under my hand, at the City of Washington, the eighth day
of December, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight
hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United
States of America the eighty-eighth.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN."
In the Message Mr. Lincoln gave his reasons for the
Proclamation, and explained the grounds on which he rested the
policy declared in it, as follows: "On examination of this
proclamation it will appear, as is believed, that nothing is
attempted beyond what is amply justified by the Constitution.
True, the form of an oath is given, but no man is coerced to
take it. The man is only promised a pardon in case he
voluntarily takes the oath. The Constitution authorizes the
Executive to grant or withhold the pardon at his own absolute
discretion; and this includes the power to grant on terms, as
is fully established by judicial and other authorities. It is
also proffered that if, in any of the States named, a State
government shall be, in the mode prescribed, set up, such
government shall be recognized and guaranteed by the United
States, and that under it the State shall, on the
constitutional conditions, be protected against invasion and
domestic violence. The constitutional obligation of tire
United States to guarantee to every State in the Union a
republican form of government, and to protect the State, in
the cases stated, is explicit and full. But why tender the
benefits of this provision only to a State government set up
in this particular way? This section of the Constitution
contemplates a case wherein the element within a State,
favorable to republican government, in the Union, may be too
feeble for an opposite and hostile element external to or even
within the State; and such are precisely the cases with which
we are now dealing. An attempt to guarantee and protect a
revived State government, constructed in whole, or in
preponderating part, from the very element against whose
hostility and violence it is to be protected, is simply
absurd. There must be a test by which to separate the opposing
elements so as to build only from the sound; and that test is
a sufficiently liberal one which accepts as sound whoever will
make a sworn recantation of his former unsoundness. But if it
be proper to require, as a test of admission to the political
body, an oath of allegiance to the Constitution of the United
States, and to the Union under it, why also to the laws and
proclamations in regard to slavery? Those laws and
proclamations were enacted and put forth for the purpose of
aiding in the suppression of the rebellion. To give them their
fullest effect, there had to be a pledge for their
maintenance. In my judgment they have aided, and will further
aid, the cause for which they were intended. To now abandon
them would be not only to relinquish a lever of power, but
would also be a cruel and an astounding breach of faith. I may
add at this point, that while I remain in my present position
I shall not attempt to retract or modify the Emancipation
Proclamation; nor shall I return to slavery any person who is
free by the terms of that proclamation, or by any of the acts
of Congress. For these and other reasons it is thought best
that support of these measures shall be included in the oath;
and it is believed the Executive may lawfully claim it in
return for pardon and restoration of forfeited rights, which
he has clear constitutional power to withhold altogether, or
grant upon the terms which he shall deem wisest for the public
interest. It should be observed, also, that this part of the
oath is subject to the modifying and abrogating power of
legislation and supreme judicial decision. The proposed
acquiescence of the national Executive in any reasonable
temporary State arrangement for the freed people is made with
the view of possibly modifying the confusion and destitution
which must at best attend all classes by a total revolution of
labor throughout whole States. It is hoped that the already
deeply afflicted people in those States may be somewhat more
ready to give up the cause of their affliction, if, to this
extent, this vital matter be left to themselves; while no
power of the national Executive to prevent an abuse is
abridged by the proposition. The suggestion in the
proclamation as to maintaining the political frame-work of the
States on what is called reconstruction, is made in the hope
that it may do good without danger of harm. It will save
labor, and avoid great confusion. But why any proclamation now
upon this subject? This question is beset with the conflicting
views that the step might be delayed too long or be taken too
soon. In some States the elements for resumption seem ready
for action, but remain inactive, apparently for want of a
rallying-point—a plan of action. Why shall A adopt the plan of
B, rather than B that of A? And if A and B should agree, how
can they know but that the General Government here will reject
their plan? By the proclamation a plan is presented which may
be accepted by them as a rallying-point, and which they are
assured in advance will not be rejected here. This may bring
them to act sooner than they otherwise would. The objection to
a premature presentation of a plan by the national Executive
consists in the danger of committals on points which could be
more safely left to further developments. Care has been taken
to so shape the document as to avoid embarrassments from this
source.
{3517}
Saying that, on certain terms, certain classes will be
pardoned, with rights restored, it is not said that other
classes, or other terms, will never be included. Saying that
reconstruction will be accepted if presented in a specified
way, it is not said it will never be accepted in any other
way. The movements, by State action, for emancipation in
several of the States, not included in the Emancipation
Proclamation, are matters of profound gratulation. And while I
do not repeat in detail what I have heretofore so earnestly
urged upon this subject, my general views and feelings remain
unchanged; and I trust that Congress will omit no fair
opportunity of aiding these important steps to a great
consummation. In the midst of other cares, however important,
we must not lose sight of the fact that the war power is still
our main reliance. To that power alone we can look, yet for a
time, to give confidence to the people in the contested
regions, that the insurgent power will not again overrun them.
Until that confidence shall be established, little can be done
anywhere for what is called reconstruction. Hence our chiefest
care must still be directed to the army and navy, who have
thus far borne their harder part so nobly and well. And it may
be esteemed fortunate that in giving the greatest efficiency
to these indispensable arms, we do also honorably recognize
the gallant men, from commander to sentinel, who compose them,
and to whom, more than to others, the world must stand
indebted for the home of freedom disenthralled, regenerated,
enlarged, and perpetuated.
Abraham Lincoln."
_A. Lincoln,
Complete Works,
volume 2, pages 442-456._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863-1864
(December-April: Tennessee-Mississippi).
Winter operations.
Sherman's Meridian Expedition.
Longstreet's withdrawal from East Tennessee.
"Sherman was at Vicksburg. On a line with Vicksburg, but
almost on the eastern boundary of the State, was the town of
Meridian. Here two railroads crossed, one running north and
south, extending from Mobile into the heart of Tennessee, and
the other extending to the eastward into Alabama and Georgia.
Railroads were few in the South at that time and the junction
had made Meridian an important point. Here the Confederates
had erected great warehouses for the storage of provisions and
munitions of war. A considerable body of troops, too, was
maintained at this point, whence they could be sent speedily
by rail north or south, east or west, as the necessity might
arise. General Sherman determined to fall upon Meridian, drive
away the Confederate garrison, burn the arsenal and tear up
the railroads so as to isolate the different parts of the
Confederacy thenceforth. But in addition to accomplishing this
he desired to effect the defeat and dispersal of the
Confederate cavalry force under General Forrest, which was
operating in Northern Mississippi and Southern Tennessee.
Forrest was a brave and dashing leader. His men were hardy
troopers, used to quick marches and reckless of danger. To
crush him and annihilate his command would be a notable
victory for the Union cause. Full of this project, Sherman
boarded a steamer at Vicksburg and set out for Memphis, where
were the headquarters of General W. Sooy Smith, then chief of
cavalry in the division of the Mississippi. The river was full
of great cakes of floating ice that bumped against the prow of
the boat and ground against her sides until those on board
feared that she might be sent to the bottom. But Memphis was
reached without accident, and Sherman and the chief of cavalry
were soon in earnest consultation. General Smith was ordered
to take the field against Forrest with a force of 7,000 men. …
It was agreed that General Smith should start from Memphis on
February 1 and march southeast, while Sherman should leave
Vicksburg February 3, and march due east. Thus they would
effect a junction in the vicinity of Meridian. Sherman then
re-embarked on the icy river and made his way back to
Vicksburg. Promptly on the appointed day the head of Sherman's
column passed out through the chain of earthworks that girdled
the land ward side of Vicksburg. It was to be an expedition of
destruction—a raid. His force of 25,000 men was in light
marching order and advanced with such rapidity that the
Confederates were driven from the very first, without having
time to rally and oppose the advance of the invaders. Jackson
was reached without any fighting, other than slight
skirmishing with Polk's cavalry. The ministerial general had
but 9,000 men in all, so he dared not make a determined stand
against Sherman, but fled, without even destroying his pontoon
bridge across the Pearl River, whereby the Federal advance was
much expedited. From Jackson eastward the path of Sherman's
army was marked by a broad belt of ashes and desolation. No
public property was spared, nor anything which could be
applied to public uses. Mills, railway stations, and rolling
stock were burned. Railway tracks were torn up, the ties
heaped on roaring fires and the rails heated red· hot and
twisted out of shape. Sometimes the soldiers would twine a hot
rail about a young tree, making what they facetiously termed
'Jeff Davis's neck-ties.' To Sherman's lines came escaping
slaves in droves, old and young men, women and pickaninnies. …
The slaves still further impoverished their masters by taking
horses and mules with them when they fled, so that after
Sherman's army had passed, most of the plantations in its
track were stripped of their live-stock, both cattle and
human. When Meridian was reached its defenders were nowhere to
be seen. Sherman took possession and waited for Smith. Days
passed without any word coming from the cavalry column. After
a week in Meridian, Sherman set the torch to the public
buildings and retraced his steps toward Vicksburg. He had
taken 400 prisoners, destroyed 150 miles of track, 67 bridges,
20 locomotives and 28 cars; had burned several thousand bales
of cotton, a number of steam mills, and over 2,000,000 bushels
of corn. Over 1,000 Union white refugees and 8,000 negroes
followed in his wake. In 1866, the historian Lossing, passing
through Meridian, asked the Mayor of the town if Sherman had
done the place much injury. 'Injury!' was the emphatic reply,
'Why, he took it away with him.'"
_W. J. Abbot,
Battle Fields and Victory,
chapter 1._
{3518}
General Smith, in his report to General Sherman, gave the
reasons for the falling back of the cavalry expedition, as
follows: "We advanced to West Point and felt of the enemy, who
was posted back of the Sakatonchee on our right and the Oktibbeha
in our front, in force fully equal to my own that was
available for service, encumbered as we were with our
pack-mules and the captured stock, which by this time must
have numbered full 3,000 horses and mules. The force consisted
of mounted infantry, which was dismounted and in strong
position under good cover, and beyond obstacles which could
only be passed by defiles. To attempt to force my way through
under such circumstances would have been the height of folly.
I could not cross the Tombigbee, as there were no bridges and
the stream could not be forded. To have attempted to turn the
position by our right would have carried me all the way round
to Houston again, and Forrest could again check me at the
Houlka Swamp. I was ten days behind time; could get no
communication through to you; did not know but what you were
returning, and so determined to make a push at Forrest in
front while I retired all my incumbrances and my main body
rapidly toward Okolona, just in time to prevent a rebel
brigade from getting in my rear, which had been thrown back
for that purpose. We then retired, fighting for over 60 miles
day and night."
_Official Records,
Series 1, volume 32, part 1, page 252._
In East Tennessee, during the winter little was done by either
army. A slight encounter occurred at Dandridge, in January,
between Longstreet's forces and those of the Union General
Parke. In April Longstreet was recalled by Lee, and the Ninth
Corps, with Burnside again in command, went back to the army
of the Potomac.
_J. D. Cox,
Atlanta
(Campaigns of the Civil War, volume 9),
chapters 1-2._
ALSO IN:
_A. Badeau,
Military History of Ulysses S. Grant,
volume 1, chapter 13._
_Comte de Paris,
History of the Civil War in America,
volume 4, book 4, chapter 1._
_W. T. Sherman,
Memoirs,
volume 1, chapter 14._
_W. J. Tenney,
Military and Naval History,
chapter 38._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863-1864 (December-July).
President Lincoln's plan of reconstruction, and its
application to Louisiana.
The opposing Congressional plan.
"The proclamation which accompanied the Annual Message of the
President for 1864 embodied the first suggestions of the
Administration on the important subject of reconstructing the
Governments of those States which had joined in the secession
movement. The matter had been canvassed somewhat extensively
by the public press, and by prominent politicians, in
anticipation of the overthrow of the rebellion. … A
considerable number of the friends of the Government, in both
houses, maintained that, by the act of secession, the revolted
States had put themselves outside the pale of the
Constitution, and were henceforth to be regarded and treated,
not as members of the Union, but as alien enemies:—that their
State organizations and State boundaries had been expunged by
their own act; and that they were to be readmitted to the
jurisdiction of the Constitution, and to the privileges of the
Union, only upon such terms and conditions as the Federal
Government of the loyal States might prescribe. … After the
appearance of the President's proclamation, the movement
towards reconstruction in Louisiana assumed greater
consistency, and was carried forward with greater steadiness
and strength. On the 8th of January a very large Free State
Convention was held at New Orleans, at which resolutions were
adopted indorsing all the acts and proclamations of the
President, and urging the immediate adoption of measures for
the restoration of the State to its old place in the Union. On
the 11th, General Banks issued a proclamation, appointing an
election for State officers on the 22d of February, who were
to be installed on the 4th of March, and another election for
delegates to a convention to revise the Constitution of the
State on the first Monday in April. The old Constitution and
laws of Louisiana were to be observed, except so far as they
relate to slavery. … Under this order, parties were organized
for the election of State officers. The friends of the
National Government were divided, and two candidates were put
in nomination for Governor, Honorable Michael Hahn being the
regular nominee, and representing the supporters of the policy
of the President, and Honorable B. F. Flanders being put in
nomination by those who desired a more radical policy than the
President had proposed. Both took very decided ground against
the continued existence of slavery within the State. … The
election resulted in the election of Mr. Hahn. … Mr. Hahn was
inaugurated as Governor on the 4th of March. On the 15th he
was clothed with the powers previously exercised by General
Banks, as military governor. … On March 16th, Governor Hahn
issued a proclamation, notifying the electors of the State of
the election for delegates to the convention previously
ordered by General Banks. The party which elected Governor
Hahn succeeded also in electing a large majority of the
delegates to the convention, which met in New Orleans on the
6th of April. On the 11th of May it adopted, by a vote of 70
to 16, a clause of the new Constitution, by which slavery was
forever abolished in the State. The Constitution was adopted
on the 5th of September, by a vote of 6,836 to 1,566. Great
umbrage was taken at these proceedings by some of the best
friends of the cause, as if there had been an unauthorized and
unjustifiable interference on the part of the President. … In
Arkansas, where a decided Union feeling had existed from the
outbreak of the rebellion, the appearance of the proclamation
was the signal for a movement to bring the State back into the
Union. On the 20th of January, a delegation of citizens from
that State had an interview with the President, in which they
urged the adoption of certain measures for the
re-establishment of a legal State Government, and especially
the ordering of an election for Governor. … Meantime, a
convention had assembled at Little Rock, composed of delegates
elected without any formality, and not under the authority of
the General Government, and proceeded to form a new State
Constitution, and to fix a day for an election. … The
convention framed a constitution abolishing slavery, which was
subsequently adopted by a large majority of the people. It
also provided for the election of State officers on the day
appointed for the vote upon the constitution; and the
legislature chosen at that election elected two gentlemen,
Messrs. Fishback and Baxter, as United States Senators, and
also Representatives. These gentlemen presented their
credentials at Washington. … The whole matter was referred to
the Judiciary Committee, who … reported on the 27th of June
that on the facts it did not appear that the rebellion was so
far suppressed in Arkansas as to entitle the State to
representation in Congress, and that therefore Messrs.
Fishback and Baxter were not entitled to seats as Senators
from the State of Arkansas. And the Senate on the next day
adopted their report by a vote of 27 to 6.
{3519}
In the House, meanwhile, the Committee on Elections, to whom
the application of the Arkansas members had been referred,
reported to postpone their admission until a commission could
be sent to inquire into and report the facts of the election,
and to create a commission for the examination of all such
cases. This proposition was, however, laid on the table, and
the members were not admitted. … The cause of the rejection of
these Senators and Representatives was, that a majority in
Congress had not agreed with the President in reference to the
plan of reconstruction which he proposed. A bill for the
reconstruction of the States was introduced into the Senate,
and finally passed both Houses on the last day of the session.
It provided that the President should appoint, for each of the
States declared in rebellion, a Provisional Governor, who
should be charged with the civil administration of the State
until a State Government should be organized and such other
civil officers as were necessary for the civil administration
of the State; that as soon as military resistance to the
United States should be suppressed and the people had
sufficiently returned to their obedience, the Governor should
make an enrolment of the white male citizens, specifying which
of them had taken the oath to support the Constitution of the
United States, and if those who had taken it were a majority
of the persons enrolled, he should order an election for
delegates to a Constitutional Convention, to be elected by the
loyal white male citizens of the United States aged twenty-one
years. … The bill further provided that when a constitution
containing … provisions [excluding rebels from office,
prohibiting slavery, and repudiating Confederate debts] should
have been framed by the convention and adopted by the popular
vote, the Governor should certify that fact to the President,
who, after obtaining the assent of Congress, should recognize
this government so established as the Government of the State,
and from that date senators and representatives and electors
for President and Vice-President should be elected in the
State. … This bill thus passed by Congress was presented to
the President just before the close of the session, but was
not signed by him."
_H. J. Raymond,
Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln,
chapter 16._
The President's reasons for not signing the bill were given to
the public as well as to Congress in the following
Proclamation:
"Whereas, at the late session, Congress passed a bill to
'guarantee to certain States, whose governments have been
usurped or overthrown, a republican form of government,' a
copy of which is hereunto annexed; And whereas the said bill
was presented to the President of the United States for his
approval less than one hour before the sine die adjournment of
said session, and was not signed by him; And whereas the said
bill contains, among other things, a plan for restoring the
States in rebellion to their proper practical relation in the
Union, which plan expresses the sense of Congress upon that
subject, and which plan it is now thought fit to lay before
the people for their consideration: Now, therefore, I, Abraham
Lincoln, President of the United States, do proclaim, declare,
and make known, that, while I am (as I was in December last,
when by proclamation I propounded a plan for restoration)
unprepared, by a formal approval of this bill, to be
inflexibly committed to any single plan of restoration; and,
while I am also unprepared to declare that the free-State
constitutions and governments already adopted and installed in
Arkansas and Louisiana shall be set aside and held for nought,
thereby repelling and discouraging the loyal citizens who have
set up the same as to further effort, or to declare a
constitutional competency in Congress to abolish slavery in
States, but am at the same time sincerely hoping and expecting
that a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery throughout
the nation may be adopted, nevertheless I am fully satisfied
with the system for restoration contained in the bill as one
very proper plan for the loyal people of any State choosing to
adopt it, and that I am, and at all times shall be, prepared
to give the executive aid and assistance to any such people,
so soon as the military resistance to the United States shall
have been suppressed in any such State, and the people thereof
shall have sufficiently returned to their obedience to the
Constitution and the laws of the United States, in which cases
military governors will be appointed, with directions to
proceed according to the bill.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused
the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city
of Washington, this eighth day of July, in the year of our
Lord one thousand eight hundred an sixty-four, and of the
independence of the United States the eighty-ninth.
Abraham Lincoln. By the President: William H. Seward,
Secretary of State."
_A. Lincoln,
Complete Works,
volume 2, page 545._
ALSO IN:
_J. G. Blaine,
Twenty Years of Congress,
volume 2, chapter 3._
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 8, chapters 16-17._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (January-February: Florida).
Unsuccessful Operations.
Battle of Olustee.
"Early in the winter of 1863-64, General Gillmore, commanding
the Department of the South, … resolved upon an expedition
into Florida to take possession of such portions of the
Eastern and Northern sections of the State as could be easily
held by small garrisons. … He afterwards added another detail
to his plan: to assist in bringing Florida back into the
Union, in accordance with the President's Proclamation of
December 8, 1863. This came in time to be regarded by the
opponents of the Administration as the sole purpose of the
expedition, and Mr. Lincoln has received a great deal of
unjust censure for having made a useless sacrifice of life for
a political end. … The expedition to Florida was under the
immediate charge of General Truman Seymour, an accomplished
and gallant officer of the regular army. He landed at
Jacksonville and pushed forward his mounted force 20 miles to
Baldwin. … Gillmore himself arrived at Baldwin on the 9th of
February, and after a full conference and, as he thought,
understanding with Seymour, returned to Jacksonville. … On the
18th he was surprised at receiving a letter from Seymour,
dated the day before, announcing his intention of moving at
once to the Suwanee River without supplies, and asking for a
strong demonstration of the army and navy in the Savannah
River to assist his movement. … Gillmore wrote a peremptory
letter, ordering him to restrict himself to holding Baldwin
and the south prong of the St. Mary's River and occupying
Palatka and Magnolia, and dispatched a staff officer to
Florida with it. He arrived too late.
{3520}
Seymour had made up his mind that there was less risk in going
forward than in staying at Baldwin, and like the brave and
devoted soldier that he was had resolved to take the
responsibility. He marched rapidly out towards Olustee, where
the enemy under General Joseph Finegan was supposed to be, but
came upon them unexpectedly about two miles east of that
place. The forces were equal in numbers, about 5,500 on each
side; the advantage to the Confederates was that they were in
a strong position selected by themselves and ready for the
fight. General J. R. Hawley, who commanded a brigade of
infantry in the battle, says: 'We rushed in, not waiting for
the proper full formation, and were fought in detail.' …
Seymour's attack was constantly repulsed with heavy loss,
until at nightfall he fell back to a new line. He was not
pursued, and retired in good order and unmolested to
Jacksonville. The Union loss was 1861; the Confederate, 940.
This misadventure put an end for the moment to the attempt to
occupy Florida."
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 8, chapter 11._
ALSO IN:
_S. Jones and J. R. Hawley,
Olustee
(Battles and Leaders, volume 4)._
_L. F. Emilio,
History of the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers,
chapter 8._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (February-March: Virginia).
Kilpatrick's and Dahlgren's Raid to Richmond.
"Public feeling throughout the North had been greatly excited
by the deplorable condition of the prisoners of war held at
Richmond. Early in the year, before the opening of the great
campaign, some expeditions had been undertaken both from the
Army of the Potomac and from Fortress Monroe, with the
intention of relieving them. On February 27th, Custer, with
1500 horse, had crossed the Rapidan on a feint to the west of
the Confederate army, while Kilpatrick, starting on the
following day, moved down on its opposite flank, by
Spottsylvania Court House, to within 3½ miles of Richmond,
passing its first and second lines of defenses [March], but
being obliged to fall back from its third. Pursued by a force
of the enemy, he was compelled to cross the White House
Railroad and move down the peninsula. A detachment of
Kilpatrick's force, 400 strong, under Colonel Ulric Dahlgren,
leaving the main body at Spottsylvania, had gone to the right
through Louisa and Goochland Counties, intending to cross the
James River and enter Richmond from the south, while
Kilpatrick attacked it on the north. But the river was found
to be too deep to be forded. Dahlgren passed down the north
bank to the fortifications of Richmond, forcing his way
through the outer works, but being repulsed from the inner.
Finding that Kilpatrick's attempt had miscarried, he moved
toward King and Queen Court House; but after crossing the
Mattapony at Dabney's Ferry, he fell into an ambuscade [March
3], his command being scattered, and himself killed. Under a
false pretense that papers were found upon him showing an
intention to set fire to Richmond, and take the lives of Davis
and his cabinet, his corpse was insulted and the place of its
interment concealed. At the time of his death he was but 21
years of age."
_J. W. Draper,
History of the American Civil War,
chapter 82 (volume 3)._
"The document alleged to have been found upon the person of
Colonel Dahlgren is utterly discredited by the fact that the
signature attached to it cannot possibly be his own, because
it is not his name,—a letter is misplaced, and the real name
Dahlgren is spelled 'Dalhgren'; hence it is undeniable that
the paper is not only spurious, but is a forgery. … It is
entirely certain that no such orders were ever issued by
Colonel Dahlgren."
_Admiral J. A. Dahlgren,
Memoirs of Ulric Dahlgren,
pages 233-234._
ALSO IN:
_C. C. Chesney,
Essays in Military Biography,
page 185._
_B. J. Lossing,
Field Book of the Civil War,
volume 3, chapter 10._
_Official Records,
Series 1, volume 33._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (March-April).
General Grant in chief command of the whole army.
His plans of campaign.
"Immediate]y after the victories at Chattanooga Mr. Washburne
of Illinois, the devoted friend and firm supporter of General
Grant through good and evil report, introduced a bill in
Congress to revive the grade of lieutenant-general in the
army. The measure occasioned a good deal of discussion. This
high rank had never been conferred on any citizen of the
republic except Washington, who held it for a short time
before his death. It was discontinued for more than half a
century and then conferred by brevet only upon General Scott.
There were those who feared, or affected to fear, that so high
a military rank was threatening to the liberties of the
republic. The great majority of Congress, however, considered
the liberties of the republic more robust than this fear would
indicate, and the bill was finally passed on the 26th cf
February, and received the approval of the President on the
29th of February. … Immediately upon signing the bill the
President nominated Grant to the Senate for the office created
by it. … The Senate immediately confirmed his nomination, and
on the 3d of March the Secretary of War directed him to report
in person to the War Department as early as practicable. … He
started for Washington the next day, but in the midst of his
hurried preparations for departure he found time to write a
letter of the most warm and generous friendship to Sherman."
Grant's commission as Lieutenant-General of the Army of the
United States was formally presented to him by President
Lincoln on the 9th of March. "After the presentation of the
commission a brief conversation took place. General Grant
inquired what special service was expected of him. The
President replied that our country wanted him to take
Richmond; he said our generals had not been fortunate in their
efforts in that direction and asked if the Lieutenant-General
could do it. Grant, without hesitation, answered that he could
if he had the troops. These the President assured him he
should have. There was not one word said as to what route to
Richmond should be chosen. The next day Grant visited General
Meade at the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac at Brandy
Station. … Meade said that it was possible Grant might want an
officer to command the Army of the Potomac who had been with
him in the West, and made especial mention of Sherman. He
begged him if that was the case not to hesitate about making
the change. … Grant assured him that he had no thought of
making any change; and that Sherman could not be spared from
the West. He returned to Washington on the 11th. The next day
he was placed in command of all the armies by orders from the
War Department; but without waiting for a single day to accept
the lavish proffers of hospitality which were showered upon
him, he started West again on the evening of the 11th of
March.
{3521}
In that short time he had utterly changed his views and plans
for the future conduct of the war. He had relinquished the
purpose he had hitherto firmly held of leading the Western
armies on the great campaign to Atlanta and the sea, and had
decided to take the field with the Army of the Potomac. …
Sherman at his request was promoted to command the Military
Division of the Mississippi, McPherson succeeded to Sherman's
command of the Department of the Tennessee, and Logan was
promoted to the command of McPherson's corps." The necessary
arrangements were quickly made. General Sherman assumed his
enlarged command on the 18th of March, and General Grant a few
days later was with the Army of the Potomac. He "established
his headquarters at Culpeper Court House near the end of
March, and spent a month in preparations for the great
campaign which he, in common with the entire North, hoped
would end the war. … The plan of the Lieutenant-General, as
set forth in his report, was extremely simple. So far as
practicable, the armies were to move together, and towards one
common center. Banks was to finish his operations in
Louisiana, and, leaving a small garrison on the Rio Grande,
was to concentrate an army of some 25,000 men, and move on
Mobile. Sherman was to move simultaneously with the other
armies, General Johnston's army being his objective, and the
heart of Georgia his ultimate aim. Sigel, who was in command
in the Shenandoah, was to move to the front in two columns,
one to threaten the enemy in the Valley, the other to cut the
railroads connecting Richmond with the Southwest. Gillmore was
to be brought north with his corps, and in company with
another corps, under W. F. Smith, was to form an army under
General B. F. Butler to operate against Richmond south of the
James. Lee's army was to be the objective point of Meade,
reënforced by Burnside. As to the route by which the Army of
the Potomac was to advance, Grant reserved his decision until
just before he started upon his march. … The two armies lay in
their intrenchments on both sides of the Rapidan. The
headquarters … of Lee [were] at Orange Court House; the Army
of Northern Virginia guarded the south bank of the river for
18 or 20 miles, Ewell commanding the right half, A. P. Hill
the left. The formidable works on Mine Run secured the
Confederate right wing, which was further protected by the
tangled and gloomy thickets of the Wilderness. Longstreet had
arrived from Tennessee with two fine divisions, and was held
in reserve at Gordonsville. The two armies were not so
unequally matched as Confederate writers insist. The strength
of the Army of the Potomac, present for duty equipped, on the
30th of April, was 122,146; this includes the 22,708 of
Burnside's Ninth Corps. The Army of Northern Virginia numbered
at the opening of this campaign not less than 61,953. While
this seems like a great disparity of strength, it must not be
forgotten that the Confederate general had an enormous
advantage of position. The dense woods and the thickly
timbered swamps … were as well known to him as the lines of
his own hand, and were absolutely unknown to his antagonist."
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 8, chapters 13-14._
ALSO IN:
_U. S. Grant,
Personal Memoirs,
chapters 46-47 (volume 2)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (March-May: Louisiana).
The Red River Expedition.
"As the third year began, General Banks conceived the idea
that the trade of Western Louisiana could be opened by the
medium of the Red river, and projected an expedition to take
possession of the country adjacent to its course. This river
is open for navigation by larger vessels, only during the high
water of March and April. Porter was to command the fleet of
twenty of the finest vessels on the Mississippi, and Sherman
was persuaded to lend some of his troops for the purpose. A.
J. Smith was to start from Vicksburg with 10,000 men, while
Banks would proceed up river from New Orleans, with Franklin's
division. Steele from Little Rock was to operate towards
Shreveport to join the main army. General Taylor was in
command of the enemy's forces at Shreveport. The fleet started
up the Red river in company with the transports carrying A. J.
Smith's column. Fort De Russy was captured [March 14], the
enemy retiring before our troops, and Alexandria and
Nachitoches fell into our hands as the joint force advanced.
Banks put in an appearance a week later. There was more or
less skirmishing with the enemy's horse and outposts along the
entire route; and near Mansfield, at Sabine Cross-Roads, the
vanguard met the enemy in force. Sufficient care had not been
taken to keep the several bodies concentrated. It was on Smith
that the attack fell [April 8], and though this general's
record for endurance is of the best, he was nevertheless badly
worsted with a loss of 2,000 men out of 8,000 engaged, and
some twenty guns. Retiring to Pleasant Hill, another stand was
made for the possession of what had been so far gained. … The
fleet had meanwhile reached Grand Écore. High water was coming
to an end, and Porter was obliged to return down river, to
Alexandria. Here it was found that most of the vessels were of
too heavy draught to pass the falls below the town; and the
loss of most of them would have been certain, but for a dam
and waterway ably constructed by Colonel Bailey, an engineer
remarkably fertile in expedients. By means of this device the
fleet was safely floated over. On the retreat, Alexandria was
burned [May 15] by accident, traceable to no particular cause,
though, naturally enough laid by the Confederates to our
spirit of revenge."
_T. A. Dodge,
Bird's-Eye View of our Civil war,
chapter 31._
"We prefer not to enter into the bitter discussions to which
this disastrous campaign gave rise on both sides of the line.
A life-long quarrel sprang up between Kirby Smith and Taylor,
between Banks and Porter, while Franklin, Charles P. Stone
(Banks's chief-of-staff), and Albert L. Lee, all of whom
relinquished their commands, added their quota of
misunderstanding and resentment. … The Committee on the
Conduct of the War made an investigation of the matter in the
year 1865, at the time when the antagonism between Mr. Lincoln
and the Radicals in relation to the subject of reconstruction
had assumed an acute form. … The charge was made by the
committee against Banks, that what he had in view was to carry
out measures for the establishment of a State government in
Louisiana, and to afford an egress for cotton and other
products of that region, and that the attention directed to
the accomplishment of these objects exerted an unfavorable
influence on the expedition. … The honorable poverty in which
General Banks has passed his subsequent life is the best
answer to the reckless charges of his enemies."
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 8, chapter 11._
ALSO IN:
_D. D. Porter,
Naval History of the Civil War,
chapters 41-42._
_Report of Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War,
38th Congress, 2d Session, volume 2._
_Official Records,
Series 1, volume 33._
_R. B. Irwin,
History of the 19th Army Corps,
chapters 23-28._
{3522}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864
(March-October: Arkansas-Missouri).
Last important operations in the West.
Price's raid.
"During the winter of 1863-1864 the forces of Generals Steele
and Blunt held the Arkansas River as a Federal line of
advance. … During this period of inactivity, however, Steele
was making preparations for a vigorous spring campaign. It was
decided that the column under General Banks and the columns
under General Steele from Little Rock and Fort Smith should
converge toward Shreveport, Louisiana. The Federal columns
under Steele left Little Rock and Fort Smith the latter part
of March, moved toward the Southern part of the State, and
after some fighting and manœuvring drove General Price's
forces from Camden, Arkadelphia and Washington. In the midst
of these successful operations, Steele received information
that Banks' army had been defeated and was retreating and that
Price had received reënforcements from Kirby Smith of 5000
infantry and a complement of artillery, and would at once
assume the offensive.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864
(March-May: Louisiana).
Not feeling strong enough to fight the combined Confederate
forces, Steele determined to fall back upon Little Rock. He
had scarcely commenced his retrograde movement when Smith and
Price began to press him vigorously. A retreating fight was
kept up for several days, until the Federal army reached
Jenkins's Ferry on the Saline River," where Smith and Price
made an energetic attack on the Federal army (April 30) and
were repulsed with heavy loss. "After the battle of Jenkins's
Ferry, instead of making preparations to attack the Federal
forces at Little Rock and Fort Smith, Price commenced
organizing his forces for an expedition into Missouri. …
Price's army for the invasion of Missouri numbered some 15,000
men and 20 pieces of artillery before crossing the Arkansas
River, and consisted of three divisions, commanded by Generals
Fagan, Marmaduke and Shelby. … About the 1st of September,
while strong demonstrations were being made against Fort Smith
and Little Rock, Price, with his army, crossed the Arkansas
River about half-way between those points, at Dardanelle, and
marched to the northern part of the State without opposition,
and, in fact, without his movements being definitely known to
General Rosecrans, who then commanded the Department of the
Missouri at St. Louis," to which he had been appointed in
January. At Pilot Knob, where they arrived September 26th, the
Confederates were opposed by General Thomas Ewing, Jr., with a
small force of 1051 men. The fortifications at Pilot Knob were
strong and Ewing held them against the vigorous attacks of
Price throughout the 27th, but evacuated that night, blowing
up the magazine and retreating safely. The Confederate
invaders then marched on St. Louis and attacked the outer
defences of the city, some miles to the south of it, but found
themselves opposed by the veterans of General A. J. Smith's
division, which had been opportunely stopped on its way down
the Mississippi River to join Sherman. Foiled at St. Louis,
Price then moved upon Jefferson City, the State capital, but
was closely pursued and driven off. Advancing westward, he was
met at Lexington, October 20th, by forces from Kansas, under
General Blunt, but forced the latter to retire from the town,
after severe fighting. Thence to Independence his progress was
steadily resisted by Generals Blunt and Curtis, with
volunteers and militia from Kansas. At Independence, on the
22d, Pleasonton's cavalry, of Rosecrans's army, came up and
formed a junction with the forces of Curtis, and the next day
they engaged Price in battle near Westport. "The opposing
armies fought over an area of five or six square miles, and at
some points the fighting was furious. … About the middle of
the afternoon Price's lines began to give way, and by sundown
the entire Confederate army was in full retreat southward
along the State line, closely pursued by the victorious
Federal forces." At the crossing of the Marais des Cygnes
River he lost ten pieces of his artillery and a large number
of prisoners, including Generals Marmaduke and Cabell. "At
Newtonia in south-west Missouri, on the 28th of October, Price
made another stand, and was attacked by the pursuing forces …
and finally driven from the field with heavy loss. This was
next to the severest battle of the campaign. Blunt, and some
of the Missouri troops, continued the pursuit to the Arkansas
River, but Price did not again attempt to make a stand. His
line of march from Westport to Newtonia was strewn with the
debris of a routed army. He crossed the Arkansas River above
Fort Smith with a few pieces of artillery, with his army
demoralized and reduced by captures and dispersion to perhaps
less than 5,000 men. Most of the noted guerrilla bands
followed him from the State. The 'Price raid,' as it was
called in the West, was the last military operation of much
consequence that took place in Missouri and Arkansas. It is
certain that Price lost more than he gained in war material
and that the raid did not tend to strengthen the Confederate
cause in the West."
_W. Britton,
Résumé of Military Operations in
Missouri and Arkansas, 1864-1865
(Battles and Leaders, volume 4)._
"In General Price's report occurs the following summary of the
campaign: 'I marched 1,434 miles, fought 43 battles and
skirmishes, captured and paroled over 3,000 Federal officers
and men, captured 18 pieces of artillery, 3,000 stand of
small-arms, 16 stand of colors … and destroyed property to the
cost of $10,000,000. I lost ten pieces of artillery. 2 stand
of colors, 1,000 small arms, while I do not think I lost 1,000
prisoners. … I brought with me at least 5,000 recruits.'"
_Editor's note to above._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (April: Tennessee).
The Massacre at Fort Pillow.
After General Sherman's return from his raid to Meridian, and
General William Sooy Smith's return to Memphis, the
Confederate cavalry leader Forrest advanced into Tennessee,
devastating the country. "He captured Jackson in that State,
on the 23d of March, and moving northward, appeared before
Paducah, held by Colonel Hicks with 650 men.
{3523}
His demand for a surrender was accompanied with a threat: 'If
you surrender, you shall be treated as prisoners of war; but
if I have to storm your works, you may expect no quarter:' he
made three assaults, and then retired, having lost 1,500 men.
On the 12th of April he was at Fort Pillow, which was
garrisoned by 19 officers and 538 men, of whom 262 were
negroes. This force was not a part of the army, but a
nondescript body in process of formation, placed there to
cover a trading-post for the convenience of families supposed
to be friendly, or at least not hostile; it had been left in
violation of Sherman's peremptory orders. The attack was made
before sunrise; and after some severe fighting, Major Booth,
the commanding officer of the garrison, was killed. Major
Brodford, who succeeded him, drew the troops from the outer
line of intrenchments into the fort, and continued the contest
until afternoon. A gun-boat which had been co-operating in the
defense, withdrew to cool or clean her guns, and, the fire
slackening, Forrest sent a summons to surrender, and shortly
after a second, demanding that the surrender should be made in
twenty minutes. These terms were declined by Bradford. But
while the negotiations were in progress, the assailants were
stealthily advancing, and gaining such positions that they
could rush upon the fort. Accordingly, as soon as Bradford's
answer was received, they sprang forward. The fort was
instantly carried. Its garrison threw down their arms and
fled, seeking refuge wherever they could. And now was
perpetrated one of the most frightful acts of all recorded
history. The carnage did not cease with the struggle of the
storming, but was continued as a carnival of murder until
night, and renewed again the next morning. Without any
discrimination of color, age, or sex, the fugitives were
dragged from their hiding-places, and cruelly murdered.
Wounded men, who had made a gallant defense, were atrociously
compelled to stand up and be shot; some were burnt in their
tents, some were stabbed. For the black soldiers there was no
mercy. 'They were massacred because they were niggers,' and
the whites 'because they were fighting with niggers.' General
Stephen E. Lee, the superior of Forrest, partly denying and
partly excusing this atrocity, says, 'It is generally conceded
by all military precedent that, when the issue has been fairly
presented and the ability displayed, fearful results are
expected to follow a refusal to surrender. The case under
consideration is almost an extreme one. You had a servile race
armed against their masters, and in a country which had been
desolated by almost unprecedented outrages.' The Committee of
Congress on the Conduct of the War appointed a sub-committee
to go to such places as they might deem necessary, and take
testimony in relation to the Fort Pillow massacre. Their
report presents facts in connection with this massacre of the
deepest atrocity. Men were not only shot in cold blood and
drowned, but were even crucified, buried alive, nailed to the
floors of houses, which were then set on fire. 'No cruelty,'
says this committee, 'which the most fiendish malignity could
devise, was omitted by these murderers.' 'From 300 to 400 men
are known to have been killed at Fort Pillow, of whom at least
300 were murdered in cold blood after the post was in
possession of the rebels, and our men had thrown down their
arms and ceased to offer resistance.' … It should be mentioned
in behalf of General Forrest that one of the witnesses, who
had been rewounded, testified that 'Forrest gave orders to
stop the firing.'"
_J. W. Draper,
History of the American Civil War,
chapter 74 (volume 3)._
"I arrived off the fort at 6 a. m. on the morning of the 13th
inst. [April]. … About 8 a. m. the enemy sent in a flag of
truce with a proposal from General Forrest that he would put
me in possession of the fort and the country around until 5 p.
m. for the purpose of burying our dead and removing our
wounded, whom he had no means of attending to. I agreed to the
terms proposed. … We found about 70 wounded men in the fort
and around it, and buried, I should think, 150 bodies. … All
the wounded who had strength enough to speak agreed that after
the fort was taken an indiscriminate slaughter of our troops
was carried on by the enemy with a furious and vindictive
savageness which was never equalled by the most merciless of
the Indian tribes. Around on every side horrible testimony to
the truth of this statement could be seen. … Strewn from the
fort to the river bank, in the ravines and hollows, behind
logs and under the brush where they had crept for protection
from the assassins who pursued them, we found bodies
bayoneted, beaten, and shot to death, showing how cold blooded
and persistent was the slaughter of our unfortunate troops."
_Report of Acting-Master W. Ferguson,
United States Steamer Silver Cloud
(Official Records, Series 1, volume 32, part 1, page 571)._
ALSO IN:
_Report of Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War
(30th Congress, 1st Session, H. R. Report Number 65)._
_Comte de Paris,
History of the Civil War in America,
volume 4., book 4, chapter 1._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (April-May: North Carolina).
Exploits of the ram Albemarle.
Surrender of Plymouth.
In the squadron [of the Confederates] we were gladdened by the
success of our iron-clad ram Albemarle, which vessel, under
Captain James B. Cooke, had (after overcoming innumerable
difficulties) succeeded in descending the Roanoke river, April
19th [1864], and dispersing the Federal squadron off Plymouth,
North Carolina. She sunk the steamer Southfield, and drove the
other vessels off; and her presence led to the recapture of
Plymouth by the Confederates. On the 5th of May the Albemarle
started from Plymouth with the small steamer Bombshell in
company, on what was called a secret expedition. I think it
probable the intention was to destroy the wooden men-of-war in
the sounds, and then tow troops in barges to Hatteras and
retake it. If this could have been done the Albemarle would
have had it all her own way, and Roanoke island, Newbern and
other places would again have fallen into the hands of the
Confederates. Shortly after leaving Plymouth the Albemarle
fell in with the Federal squadron, consisting of the steamers
Mattabesett, Sassacus, Wyalusing, Whitehead, Miami, Ceres,
Commodore Hull and Seymour—all under the command of Captain
Melancton Smith, and after a desperate combat was forced to
return to Plymouth."
_W. H. Parker,
Recollections of a Naval Officer,
page 339._
ALSO IN:
J. R. Soley,
The Blockade and the Cruisers
(The Navy in the Civil War, volume 1), chapter 4.
_D. Ammen,
The Atlantic Coast
(same Series, volume 2), chapter 9._
_B. Boynton,
History of the Navy,
volume 2, chapter 36._
{3524}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (May: Virginia).
Grant's movement on Richmond.
The Battle of the Wilderness.
"The movement of the Army of the Potomac commenced early on
the morning of the 4th of May, under the immediate direction
and orders of Major-General Mead, pursuant to instructions.
Before night the whole army was across the Rapidan—the Fifth
and Sixth Corps crossing at Germanna Ford, and the Second
Corps at United States' (Ely's) Ford, the cavalry, under
Major-General Sheridan, moving in advance,—with the greater
part of its trains, numbering about 4,000 wagons, meeting with
but slight opposition. The average distance traveled by the
troops that day was about 12 miles. This I regarded as a great
success, and it removed from my mind the most serious
apprehensions I had entertained, that of crossing the river in
the face of an active, large, well-appointed, and ably
commanded army, and how so large a train was to be carried
through a hostile country and protected. Early on the 5th, the
advance corps (the Fifth, Major General G. K. Warren
commanding), met and engaged the enemy outside his
intrenchments near Mine Run. The battle raged furiously all
day, the whole army being brought into the fight as fast as
the corps could be got upon the field, which, considering the
density of the forest and narrowness of the roads, was done
with commendable promptness.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863
(April-May: Virginia).
General Burnside, with the Ninth Corps, was at the time the
Army of the Potomac moved, left with the bulk of his corps at
the crossing of the Rappahannock River and Alexandria
railroad, holding the road back to Bull Run, with instructions
not to move until he received notice that a crossing of the
Rapidan was secured, but to move promptly as soon as such
notice was received. This crossing he was apprised of on the
afternoon of the 4th. By 6 o'clock of the morning of the 6th
he was leading his corps into action near the Wilderness
Tavern, some of his troops having marched a distance of over
30 miles, crossing both the Rappahannock and Rapidan Rivers.
Considering that a large proportion (probably two-thirds), of
his command was composed of new troops, unaccustomed to
marches and carrying the accouterments of a soldier, this was
a remarkable march. The battle of the Wilderness was renewed
by us at 5 o'clock on the morning of the 6th, and continued
with unabated fury until darkness set in, each army holding
substantially the same position that they had on the evening
of the 5th. After dark the enemy made a feeble attempt to turn
our right flank, capturing several hundred prisoners and
creating considerable confusion. But the promptness of General
Sedgwick, who was personally present and commanded that part
of our line, soon reformed it and restored order. On the
morning of the 7th reconnaissances showed that the enemy had
fallen behind his intrenched lines, with pickets to the front,
covering a part of the battle-field. From this it was evident
to my mind that the two days' fighting had satisfied him of
his inability to further maintain the contest in the open
field, notwithstanding his advantage of position, and that he
would await an attack behind his works. I therefore determined
to push on and put my whole force between him and Richmond,
and orders were at once issued for a movement by his right
flank. On the night of the 7th the march was commenced toward
Spottsylvania Court House, the Fifth Corps moving on the most
direct road. But the enemy having become apprised of our
movement, and having the shorter line, was enabled to reach
there first."
_Gen. U. S. Grant,
Official Report
(Official Records, Series 1, volume 36, part 1, page 18)._
The casualties of the Army of the Potomac and Burnside's Ninth
Corps (then not incorporated with it) in the battle of the
Wilderness were "2,265 killed, 10,220 wounded, and 2,902
missing. Total, 15,387. Killed and wounded, 12,485. … The
woods took fire in many places, and it is estimated that 200
of our wounded perished in the flames and smoke. According to
the tabular statement, Part First, 'Medical and Surgical
History of the War,' the casualties in the Army of Northern
Virginia were 2,000 killed, 6,000 wounded, and 3,400 missing.
The authority for this statement is not given, and I do not
find anywhere records of the loss of that army in the
Wilderness. … Both sides lost many valuable officers in this
battle, [including, on the Union side, General Wadsworth]. …
So far as I know, no great battle ever took place before on
such ground. But little of the combatants could be seen, and
its progress was known to the senses chiefly by the rising and
falling sounds of a vast musketry that continually swept along
the lines of battle many miles in length, sounds which at
times approached to the sublime."
_A. A. Humphreys,
The Virginia Campaign of 1864 and 1865
(Campaigns of the Civil war, volume 12), chapter 2._
"All the peculiar advantages of the Army of the Potomac were
sacrificed in the jungle-fighting into which they were thus
called to engage. Of what use here were the tactical skill and
the perfection of form, acquired through long and patient
exercise; of what use here the example and the personal
influence of a Hays or a Hancock, a Brooke or a Barlow? How
can a battle be fitly ordered in such a tangle of wood and
brush, where troops can neither be sent straight to their
destination nor seen and watched over, when, after repeatedly
losing direction and becoming broken into fragments in their
advance through thickets and jungles, they at last make their
way up to the line of battle, perhaps at the point they were
designed to reinforce, perhaps far from it? … It will never
cease to be an object of amazement to me that, with such a
tract in prospect, the character of it being known, in
general, to army headquarters through the Chancellorsville
campaign … a supreme effort was not made … to carry the Army
of the Potomac either through these jungles toward Mine Run,
or past it, toward Spottsylvania."
_F. A. Walker,
History of the Second Army Corps,
chapter 13._
ALSO IN:
_E. M. Law, A. S. Webb, and others,
The Wilderness Campaign
(Battles and Leaders, volume 4)._
_U. S. Grant,
Personal Memoirs,
chapters 50-51 (volume 2)._
_W. Swinton,
The Twelve Decisive Battles of the War,
chapter 9._
_A. L. Long,
Memoirs of Robert E. Lee,
chapter 17._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (May: Virginia).
Sheridan's raid to Richmond.
"When the Army of the Potomac emerged from the Wilderness,
Sheridan was sent to cut Lee's communications. This was the
first of the remarkable raids of that remarkable leader, in
Virginia, and, though short, was a destructive one. He took
with him a greater portion of the cavalry led by Merritt,
Gregg and Wilson, and, cutting loose from the army, he swept
over the Po and the Ta, crossed the North Anna on the 9th, and
struck the Virginia Central railway at Beaver Dam Station,
which he captured.
{3525}
He destroyed ten miles of the railway; also its rolling stock,
with a million and a half of rations, and released 400 Union
prisoners, on their way to Richmond from the Wilderness. There
he was attacked in flank and rear by General J. E. B. Stuart
and his cavalry, who had pursued him from the Rapid Anna
[Rapidan], but was not much impeded thereby. He pushed on,
crossed the South Anna at Ground-squirrel Bridge, and at
daylight on the morning of the 11th, captured Ashland Station,
on the Fredericksburg road, where he destroyed the railway
property, a large quantity of stores, and the road itself for
six miles. Being charged with the duty of not only destroying
these roads, but of menacing Richmond and communicating with
the army of the James, … Sheridan pressed on in the direction
of the Confederate capital, when he was confronted by Stuart
at Yellow Tavern, a few miles north of Richmond, where that
able leader, having made a swift circuitous march, had
concentrated all of his available cavalry. Sheridan attacked
him at once, and, after a sharp engagement, drove the
Confederates toward Ashland, on the north fork of the
Chickahominy, with a loss of their gallant leader, who, with
General Gordon, was mortally wounded. Inspirited by this
success, Sheridan pushed along the now open turnpike toward
Richmond, and made a spirited dash upon the outer works.
Custer's brigade carried them at that point and made 100
prisoners. As in the case of Kilpatrick's raid, so now, the
second line of works were too strong to be carried by cavalry.
The troops in and around the city had rallied for their
defense, and in an attack the Nationals were repulsed. Then
Sheridan led his command across the Chickahominy, at Meadow
Bridge, where he beat off a considerable force of infantry
sent out from Richmond, and who attacked him in the rear,
while another force assailed his front. He also drove the foe
on his front, when he destroyed the railway bridge there, and
then pushed on southward to Haxall's Landing, on the James
River, where he rested three days and procured supplies. Then,
by way of White House and Hanover Court House, he leisurely
returned to the Army of the Potomac, which he rejoined on the
25th of May."
_B. J. Lossing,
Field Book of the Civil War,
volume 3, chapter 11._
ALSO IN:
_P. H. Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs,
volume 1, chapters 18-19._
_H. B. McClellan,
Life and Campaigns of Major-General J. E. B. Stuart,
chapter 20._
_J. B. Jones,
A Rebel War Clerk's Diary,
volume 2, pages 202-208._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (May: Virginia).
Grant's movement upon Richmond: Spottsylvania Court House.
The Bloody Angle.
"Throughout the entire day succeeding this first great
conflict [in The Wilderness], General Lee remained quiet,
watching for some movement of his adversary. His success in
the preliminary struggle had been gratifying, considering the
great disproportion of numbers, but he indulged no expectation
of a retrograde movement across the Rapidan, on the part of
General Grant. He expected him rather to advance, and
anxiously awaited some development of this intention. There
were no indications of such a design up to the night of the
7th, but at that time, to use the words of a confidential
member of Lee's staff, 'he all at once seemed to conceive the
idea that his enemy was preparing to forsake his position, and
move toward Hanover Junction via the Spottsylvania
Court-House, and, believing this, he at once detailed
Anderson's division with orders to proceed rapidly toward the
court-house. General Anderson commenced his march about nine
o'clock at night, when the Federal column was already upon its
way. A race now began for the coveted position, and General
Stuart, with his dismounted sharp-shooters behind improvised
breastworks, harassed and impeded the Federal advance, at
every step, throughout the night. This greatly delayed their
march, and their head of column did not reach the vicinity of
Spottsylvania Court-House until past sunrise. General Warren,
leading the Federal advance, then hurried forward, followed by
General Hancock, when suddenly he found himself in front of
breastworks, and was received with a fire of musketry. Lee had
succeeded in interposing himself between General Grant and
Richmond. On the same evening the bulk of the two armies were
facing each other on the line of the Po. … General Lee had
taken up his position on the south bank of one of the four
tributaries of the Mattapony. These four streams are known as
the Mat, Ta, Po, and Nye Rivers, and bear the same relation to
the main stream that the fingers of the open hand do to the
wrist. General Lee was behind the Po, which is next to the
Nye, the northern-most of these water-courses. Both were
difficult to cross, and their banks heavily wooded. It was now
to be seen whether, either by a front attack or a turning
movement, General Grant could oust his adversary, and whether
General Lee would stand on the defensive or attack. All day,
during the 9th, the two armies were constructing breastworks
along their entire fronts, and these works, from the Rapidan
to the banks of the Chickahominy, remain yet [1871] in
existence. On the evening of this day a Federal force was
thrown across the Po, on the Confederate left, but soon
withdrawn; and on the 10th a similar movement took place near
the same point, which resulted in a brief but bloody conflict,
during which the woods took fire, and many of the assaulting
troops perished miserably in the flames. The force was then
recalled, and, during that night and the succeeding day,
nothing of importance occurred, although heavy skirmishing and
an artillery-fire took place along the lines. On the morning
of the 12th, at the first dawn of day, General Grant made a
more important and dangerous assault than any yet undertaken
in the campaign. This was directed at a salient on General
Lee's right centre, occupied by Johnson's division of Ewell's
corps, and was one of the bloodiest and most terrible
incidents of the war. For this assault [made by three
divisions of Hancock's corps] General Grant is said to have
selected his best troops. These advanced in a heavy charging
column, through the half-darkness of dawn, passed silently
over the Confederate skirmishers, scarcely firing a shot, and,
just as the first streak of daylight touched the eastern
woods, burst upon the salient, which they stormed at the point
of the bayonet. The attack was a complete surprise, and
carried everything before it. The Southern troops, asleep in
the trenches, woke to have the bayonet thrust into them, to be
felled with clubbed muskets, and to find the works apparently
in secure possession of the enemy before they could fire a
shot.
{3526}
Such was the excellent success of the Federal movement, and
the Southern line seemed to be hopelessly disrupted. Nearly
the whole of Johnson's division were taken prisoners—the
number amounting to more than 3,000—and 18 pieces of artillery
fell into the hands of the assaulting column. The position of
affairs was now exceedingly critical; and, unless General Lee
could reform his line at the point, it seemed that nothing was
left him but an abandonment of his whole position. The Federal
army had broken his line; was pouring into the opening; and,
to prevent him from concentrating at the point to regain
possession of the works, heavy attacks were begun by the enemy
on his right and left wings. It is probable that at no time
during the war was the Southern army in greater danger of a
bloody and decisive disaster. At this critical moment General
Lee acted with the nerve and coolness of a soldier whom no
adverse event can shake. … Line of battle was promptly formed
a short distance in rear of the salient then in the enemy's
possession, and a fierce charge was made by the Southerners,
under the eye of Lee, to regain it. … The word ferocious best
describes the struggle which followed. It continued throughout
the entire day, Lee making not less than five distinct
assaults in heavy force to recover the works. The fight
involved the troops on both flanks, and was desperate and
unyielding. The opposing flags were at times within only a few
yards of each other, and so incessant and concentrated was the
fire of musketry that a tree of about 18 inches in diameter
was cut down by bullets, and is still preserved, it is said,
in the city of Washington, as a memorial of this bloody
struggle. The fighting only ceased several hours after dark.
Lee had not regained his advanced line of works, but he was
firmly rooted in an interior and straighter line, from which
the Federal troops had found it impossible to dislodge him."
_J. E. Cooke,
Life of General Robert E. Lee,
part 8, chapter 4._
"For the distance of nearly a mile, amid a cold, drenching
rain, the combatants [on the 12th, at the salient] were
literally struggling across the breastworks. They fired
directly into each other's faces, bayonet thrusts were given
over the intrenchments; men even grappled their antagonists
across the piles of logs and pulled them over, to be stabbed
or carried to the rear as prisoners. … Never before, since the
discovery of gunpowder, had such a mass of lead been hurled
into a space so narrow as that which now embraced the scene of
combat. Large standing trees were literally cut off and
brought to the ground by infantry fire alone; their great
limbs whipped into basket stuff that could be woven by the
hand of a girl. … If any comparisons can be made between the
sections involved in that desperate contest, the fiercest and
deadliest fighting took place at the west angle, ever
afterwards known as 'The Bloody Angle.' … All day the bloody
work went on. … The trenches had more than once to be cleared
of the dead, to give the living a place to stand. All day
long, and even into the night, the battle lasted, for it was
not till twelve o'clock, nearly twenty hours after the command
'Forward' had been given to the column at the Brown House,
that the firing died down, and the Confederates, relinquishing
their purpose to retake the captured works, began in the
darkness to construct a new line to cut off the salient."
_F. A. Walker,
History of the Second Army Corps,
chapter 15._
General Humphreys estimates Grant's losses in killed and
wounded on the 12th at 6,020; missing 800. Lee's losses that
day in killed, wounded and prisoners he concludes to have been
between 9,000 and 10,000. His estimate of losses on the 10th
is 4,100 (killed and wounded) on the Union side, and 2,000 on
the Confederate side. Major General John Sedgwick, commanding
the Sixth Army Corps, was killed in the skirmishing of the
9th.
_A. A. Humphreys,
The Virginia Campaign of 1864 and 1865,
chapter 3._
ALSO IN:
_C. N. Galloway,
Hand to Hand Fighting at Spotsylvania
(Battles and Leaders, volume 4)._
_Official Records,
Series 1, volume 36._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (May: Virginia).
Grant's movement upon Richmond:
from Spottsylvania to the Chickahominy.
"The lines of Spottsylvania remained still intact, and General
Grant, who might easily have turned the position and manœuvred
his antagonist out of it, seemed bent on carrying it by direct
attack. Accordingly, during the succeeding week [after the
battle of the 12th], various movements of corps were made from
flank to flank, in the endeavor to find a spot where the lines
could be broken. These attempts were skilfully met at every
point—the Confederates extending their line to correspond
with the shiftings of the army; so that wherever attack was
essayed, the enemy bristled out in breastworks, and every
partial assault made was repulsed. Day by day Grant continued
to throw out towards the left, in the hope of overlapping and
breaking in the Confederate right flank: so that from
occupying, as the army did on its arrival, a line extending
four or five miles to the northwest of Spottsylvania
Courthouse, it had at the end of ten days assumed a position
almost due east of that place, the left resting at a distance
of four miles at Massaponax Church. After twelve days of
effort, the carrying of the position was seen to be hopeless;
and General Grant, abandoning the attempt, resolved by a
turning operation to disengage Lee from a position seen to be
unassailable. Preparations for this movement were begun on the
afternoon of the 19th; but the enemy, observing these,
retarded its execution by a bold demonstration against the
Union right. … This attack somewhat disconcerted the
contemplated movement, and delayed it till the following
night, May 20th, when the army, moving by the left, once more
took up its march towards Richmond. Before the lines of
Spottsylvania the Army of the Potomac had for twelve days and
nights engaged in a fierce wrestle, in which it had done all
that valor may do to carry a position by nature and art
impregnable. … Language is inadequate to convey an impression
of the labors, fatigues, and sufferings of the troops. … Above
40,000 men had already fallen in the bloody encounters of the
Wilderness and Spottsylvania [General Humphreys—in 'Virginia
Campaign of 1864 and 1865,' page 117—makes the total of
killed and wounded from May 5 to 21, to be 28,207, and the
entire losses of the army, including the missing and the sick
sent back to Washington, 37,335]. … The exhausted army began
to lose its spirit.
{3527}
It was with joy, therefore, that it at length turned its back
upon the lines of Spottsylvania. … The two armies once fairly
on the march … neither … seems to have sought to deal the
other a blow … and both headed, as for a common goal, towards
the North Anna. … The advances of the 21st and 22d brought the
different corps [of the Army of the Potomac], which had moved
on parallel roads at supporting distance, within a few miles
of the North Anna River. Resuming the march on the morning of
Monday, May 23d, the army in a few hours reached the northern
bank of that stream. But it was only to descry its old enemy
planted on the opposite side." Warren's corps crossed the
river at Jericho Ford without resistance, but was furiously
assailed late in the afternoon and held its ground, taking
nearly 1,000 prisoners. The left column, under Hancock, forced
a passage in the face of the enemy, carrying a bridge by
storm. But nothing was gained by these successes. "While Lee,
after the passage of Hancock on the left, threw his right wing
back from the North Anna, and on the passage of Warren on the
right threw back his left wing, he continued to cling with his
centre to the river; so that … his army took up a very
remarkable line in the form of an obtuse-angled triangle. …
The game of war seldom presents a more effectual checkmate
than was here given by Lee; for after Grant had made the
brilliantly successful passage of the North Anna, the
Confederate commander, thrusting his centre between the two
wings of the Army of the Potomac, put his antagonist at
enormous disadvantage, and compelled him, for the
reenforcement of one or the other wing, to make a double
passage of the river. The more the position of Lee was
examined, the more unpromising attack was seen to be; and
after passing the two following days in reconnoissances, and
destroying some miles of the Virginia Central Railroad,
General Grant determined to withdraw across the North Anna and
take up a new line of advance. The withdrawal from the North
Anna was begun at dark of the 26th of May, when the Second,
Fifth and Sixth Corps retired by different bridges to the
north bank. … The Second Corps held position till the morning
of the 27th, when it covered the rear. From the North Anna the
line of march of the army made a wide circuit eastward and
then southward to pass the Pamunkey. This river is formed by
the confluence of the North and South Anna; and the Pamunkey
in turn uniting with the Mattapony forms the York River,
emptying into Chesapeake Bay. Thus the successful passage of
the Pamunkey would not only dislodge Lee from the lines of the
North and South Anna, but would bring the army in
communication with a new and excellent water-base." The
crossing of the Pamunkey, at and near Hanovertown, was
accomplished without difficulty on the 27th and 28th, "and the
routes to White House, at the head of York River, being opened
up, the army was put in communication with the ample supplies
floated by the waters of Chesapeake Bay. Grant's new turning
movement was met by a corresponding retrograde movement on the
part of Lee, and as he fell back on a direct line less than
half the distance of the great detour made by the Army of the
Potomac, it was not remarkable that, on crossing the Pamunkey,
the Confederate force was again encountered, ready to accept
the gage of battle. Lee assumed a position in advance of the
Chickahominy. … The region in which the army was now operating
revived many reminiscences in the minds of those who had made
the Peninsular Campaign under McClellan. … Gaines' Mill and
Mechanicsville were within an hour's ride; Fair Oaks could be
reached in a two hours' trot; Richmond was ten miles off. …
Reconnoissances showed Lee to be in a very strong position
covering the approaches to the Chickahominy, the forcing of
which it was now clear must cost a great battle."
_W. Swinton,
Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac,
part 11, chapters 3-5._
ALSO IN:
_A. Badeau,
Military History of Ulysses S. Grant,
chapters 18-19 (volume 2)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (May: Virginia).
The Co-operative movement of the Army of the James.
In the plan and arrangement of General Grant's campaign,
General Butler, commanding at Fortress Monroe, was instructed
"to collect all the forces of his command that could be spared
from garrison duty estimated at not less than 20,000, and
operate on the south side of James river, Richmond being his
objective. To his force 10,000 men from South Carolina, under
Gillmore, were to be added. He was ordered to take City Point
as soon as notification of movement was given, and fortify it.
By this common advance from the Rapidan and Fortress Monroe
the two armies would be brought into co-operation. … As
arranged, Butler moved from Fortress Monroe on May 4th,
Gillmore having joined him with the 10th Corps. The next day
he occupied, without opposition, both City Point and Bermuda
Hundred, his movement being a complete surprise. On the 7th he
made a reconnoissance against the Richmond and Petersburg
Railroad, destroying a portion of it after some fighting. On
the night of the 9th he received dispatches from Washington
informing him that Lee was retreating to Richmond and Grant in
pursuit. He had, therefore, to act with caution, fearing that
he might have Lee's whole army on his hands. On the evening of
the 13th and morning of the 14th he carried a portion of the
enemy's first line of defenses at Drury's Bluff, or Fort
Darling. The time thus consumed from the 6th left no
possibility of surprising and capturing Richmond and
Petersburg, enabling, as it did, Beauregard to collect his
forces in North and South Carolina, and bring them to the
defense of these places. On the 16th the Confederates attacked
Butler in his position in front of Drury's Bluff, forced him
back into his entrenchments between the forks of James and
Appomattox Rivers [in the district called Bermuda Hundred],
and, intrenching strongly in his front, not only covered the
railroads and city, but completely neutralized his forces. …
Butler's army being confined at Bermuda Hundred, most of the
re-enforcements from the South were now brought against the
Potomac Army. In addition to this, probably not less than
15,000 men, under Breckenridge, arrived from the Western part
of Virginia. The position of Bermuda Hundred being easy to
defend, Grant, leaving only enough to secure what had heen
gained, took from it all available forces under W. F. Smith,
and joined them to the Army of the Potomac."
_J. W. Draper,
History of the American Civil War,
volume 3, pages 368 and 382-385._
ALSO IN:
_A. A. Humphreys,
The Virginia Campaign of 1864 and 1865,
chapter 5._
_Official Records,
Series 1, volume 36, part 2._
{3528}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (May: Georgia).
Sherman's Movement upon Atlanta: Johnston's Retreat.
Sherman now held command of the three armies of the Tennessee,
the Cumberland, and the Ohio, having McPherson, Thomas and
Schofield for their subordinate commanders, respectively. The
main army of the rebellion in the West, Joe Johnston
commanding, was at Dalton, northern Georgia, confronting
Thomas at Chattanooga. "Grant and Sherman had agreed to act in
concert. While the former should thrust Lee back upon
Richmond, his late lieutenant was to push Johnston towards
Atlanta. And Banks was to transfer his forces from New Orleans
to Mobile and thence move towards and join hands with the
Western armies. Sherman devoted his earliest energies to the
question of transportation and railroads. Baggage was reduced
to the lowest limits, the higher officers setting the example.
Actual supplies and fighting-material were alone to be
carried. Luxuries were to be things of the past; comforts to
be forgotten. War's stern reality was to be each one's lot.
Probably no officer in such high command ever lived so
entirely from hand to mouth as did Sherman and his military
family during the succeeding campaigns. The entire equipment
of his army head-quarters would have shamed the shabbiest
regimental outfit of 1861. Spring was to open with a general
advance. It was agreed to put and keep the Confederates on the
defensive by a policy of constant hammering. Bragg had been
removed to satisfy public opinion in the South, but was
nominally called to Richmond to act as Mr. Davis'
chief-of-staff. Johnston, as commander of the Department, had
personally undertaken to hold head against Sherman. But the
fact that he possessed neither the President's good will nor
that of his new adviser, militated much against a happy
conduct of the campaign. Sherman's forces occupied a front
sixteen miles in advance of Ringgold, just south of
Chattanooga. McPherson and the Army of the Tennessee was on
his right with 25,000 men and 100 guns. Thomas and the Army of
the Cumberland held the centre with 60,000 men and 130 guns.
Schofield and the Army of the Ohio formed the left wing. His
command was 15,000 men and 30 guns. This grand total of
100,000 men and 260 guns formed an army of as good stuff as
ever bore arms, and the confidence of the leader in his men
and of the men in their leader was unbounded. Johnston himself
foresaw the necessity of a strictly defensive campaign, to
which his far from sanguine character, as well as his judgment
as to what the existing conditions demanded, made him
peculiarly suited. Counted after the same fashion as Sherman's
army, Johnston had some 75,000 men. … He intrenched every step
he took; he fought only when attacked; he invited battle only
when the conditions were largely in his favor. Subsequent
events showed how wise beyond his critics he could be. Sherman
took the measure of the intrenchments at Dalton with care,
and, though he outnumbered his antagonist, preferred not to
hazard an engagement at such odds when he might force one on
better ground. This conduct shows in strong contrast with
Grant's, when the latter first met his opponent at this same
moment in Virginia. Sherman despatched McPherson towards
Resaca, on the railroad in Johnston's rear, with instructions
to capture the town if possible. Combined with this flanking
movement, a general advance was made upon the Confederate
lines, and after tactical manœuvring of several days in front
of Rocky Face Ridge, Johnston concluded to retire from his
stronghold. McPherson had strangely failed to seize Resaca,
though an excellent chance had offered, and at this place the
Confederate army took up its new stand. … Sherman faced his
antagonist on the line of Camp Creek in front of Resaca, with
his right flank resting on the Oostanaula. From this position
he operated by unintermitted tapping upon Johnston's defences
at constantly varying points, without, however, bringing on a
general engagement [though the losses were 2,747 Union and
2,800 Confederate]. … Sherman's uniform tactics during this
campaign, varied indefinitely in details, consisted, as will
be seen, in forcing the centre of the army upon Johnston's
lines, while with the right and left he operated upon either
flank as chance or ground best offered. Johnston did not
propose to hazard an engagement unless all conditions were in
his favor. He attempted a stand at Adairsville, twenty miles
south of Resaca, but shortly withdrew to Kingston and
Cassville. Each captain manœuvred for a chance to fight the
other at a disadvantage. … From Cassville, Johnston retired
across the Etowah. So far this campaign had been one of
manœuvres. Neither combatant had suffered material loss. Like
two wrestlers, as yet ignorant of each other's strength or
quickness, they were sparring for a hold. … The Union army was
growing skillful. Local difficulties multiplied many fold by
bad maps and hostile population were overcome in considerable
measure by an able corps of topographical engineers. … Bridges
were uniformly burned and railroads wrecked by the retreating
Confederates. To save delays in rebuilding, so far as
possible, trestles were fitted in the rear to a scale with
interchangeable timbers, so that bridges could be constructed
with a speed never before dreamed of. No sooner had the
Confederates put torch to a bridge, than a new one arose as by
magic, and the whistle of the locomotive always followed hard
upon the heels of the army."
_T. A. Dodge,
Bird's-Eye View of our Civil War,
chapters 42-43._
ALSO IN:
_W. T. Sherman,
Memoirs,
chapter 15 (volume 2)._
_T. B. Van Horn,
History of the Army of the Cumberland,
chapters 25-28 (volume 2)._
_Official Records,
Series 1, volume 38, part 1._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (May-June: Virginia).
Grant's Movement upon Richmond: The Battle of Cold Harbor.
"The passage of [the Pamunkey] had been completed on May 28,
and then, after three days of marching, interspersed with the
usual amount of fighting, the army found itself again
confronted by Lee's main line on the Totopotomoy. The
operations which followed were known as the battle of Cold
Harbor. On the afternoon of May 31st, Sheridan, who was on the
left flank of the army, carried, with his cavalry, a position
near the old well and cross roads known as Old Cold Harbor,
and, with his men dismounted behind rough breast-works, held
it against Fitzhugh Lee until night. To this point, during the
night, marched the van·guard of the Army of the Potomac. …
About 9 the next day (June 1st) the head of the column reached
Sheridan's position, and the cavalry was withdrawn.
{3529}
The enemy, who had been seriously threatening Sheridan,
withdrew from our immediate front within their lines and
awaited us, occupying a strong outer line of intrenchments in
front of our center, somewhat in advance of their main
position, which included that on which the battle of Gaines'
Mill had been fought two years before. It covered the
approaches to the Chickahominy, which was the last formidable
obstacle we had to meet before standing in front of the
permanent works of Richmond. A large detachment, composed of
the Eighteenth Corps and other troops from the Army of the
James, under General W. F. Smith, had disembarked at White
House on the Pamunkey, and was expected to connect that
morning with the Sixth Corps at Cold Harbor. A mistake in
orders caused an unnecessary march and long delay. In the
afternoon, however, Smith was in position on the right of the
Sixth Corps. Late in the afternoon both corps assaulted. The
attack was made vigorously and with no reserves. The outer
line in front of the right of the Sixth and the left of the
Eighteenth was carried brilliantly, and the enemy was forced
back, leaving several hundred prisoners in our hands. … This
left the well and the old tavern at Cold Harbor in our rear,
and brought us in front of the most formidable position yet
held by the enemy. In front of him was a wooded country,
interspersed with clearings here and there, sparsely
populated, and full of swamps. Before daylight the Army of the
Potomac stood together once more almost within sight of the
spires of Richmond, and on the very ground where, under
McClellan, they had defended the passage of the river they
were now endeavoring to force. On the 2d of June our
confronting line, on which the burden of the day must
necessarily fall, consisted of Hancock on the left, Wright in
the center, and Smith on the right. Warren and Burnside were
still farther to the right, their lines refused, or drawn
back, in the neighborhood of Bethesda Church, but not
confronting the enemy. … No reconnoissance had been made other
than the bloody one of the evening before. Everyone felt that
this was to be the final struggle. No further flanking marches
were possible. Richmond was dead in front. No further wheeling
of corps from right to left by the rear; no further dusty
marches possible on that line, even 'if it took all summer.'
The general attack was fixed for the afternoon of the 2d, and
all preparations had been made, when the order was
countermanded and the attack postponed until half-past four
the following morning. Promptly at the hour named on the 3d of
June the men moved from the slight cover of the rifle-pits,
thrown up during the night, with steady, determined advance,
and there rang out suddenly on the summer air such a crash of
artillery and musketry as is seldom heard in war. No great
portion of the advance could be seen from any particular
point, but those of the three corps that passed through the
clearings were feeling the fire terribly. Not much return was
made at first from our infantry, although the fire of our
batteries was incessant. The time of actual advance was not
over eight minutes. In that little period more men fell
bleeding as they advanced than in any other like period of
time throughout the war. A strange and terrible feature of
this battle was that as the three gallant corps moved on
[necessarily diverging, the enemy's line forming an arc of a
circle, with its concave side toward them] each was enfiladed
while receiving the full force of the enemy's direct fire in
front. … At some points the slashings and obstructions in the
enemy's front were reached. Barlow, of Hancock's corps, drove
the enemy from an advanced position, but was himself driven
out by the fire of their second line. R. O. Tyler's brigade
(the Corcoran Legion) of the same corps swept over an advance
work, capturing several hundred prisoners. One officer alone;
the colonel of the 164th New York [James P. McMahon], seizing
the colors of his regiment from the dying color-bearer as he
fell, succeeded in reaching the parapet of the enemy's main
works, where he planted his colors and fell dead near the
ditch, bleeding from many wounds. Seven other colonels of
Hancock's command died within those few minutes. No troops
could stand against such a fire, and the order to lie down was
given all along the line. At points where no shelter was
afforded, the men were withdrawn to such cover as could be
found, and the battle of Cold Harbor, as to its result at
least, was over. … Shortly after midday came the order to
suspend for the present all further operations, and directing
corps commanders to intrench, 'including their advanced
positions,' and directing also that reconnoissances be made,
'with a view to moving against the enemy's works by regular
approaches'. … When night came on the groans and moaning of
the wounded, all our own, who were lying between the lines,
were heart-rending. Some were brought in by volunteers from
our intrenchments, but remained for three days uncared for
beneath the hot summer suns and the unrefreshing dews of the
sultry summer nights. … An impression prevails in the popular
mind, and with some reason perhaps, that a commander who sends
a flag of truce asking permission to bury his dead and bring
in his wounded, has lost the field of battle. Hence the
reluctance upon our part to ask a flag of truce. In effect it
was done at last on the evening of the third day after the
battle, when, for the most part, the wounded needed no further
care and our dead had to be buried almost where they fell."
_M. T. McMahon,
Cold Harbor
(Battles and Leaders, volume 4)._
"According to the report of the Medical Director, Surgeon
McParlin, the wounded brought to the hospitals from the battle
of the 3d of June numbered 4,517. The killed were at least
1,100. The wounded brought to the hospitals from the battle of
the 1st of June were 2,125; the killed were not less than 500.
The wounded on the 1st and 3d of June were, therefore, 6,642,
and the killed not less than 1,600; but, adopting the number
of killed and missing furnished General Badeau from the
Adjutant General's office, 1,769 killed, 1,537 missing
(many—most, indeed—of them, no doubt, killed), we have 8,411
for the killed and wounded, and for the total casualties,
9,948."
_A. A. Humphreys,
The Virginia Campaign of 1864 and 1865
(Campaigns of the Civil War),
page 191._
"I have always regretted that the last assault at Cold Harbor
was ever made. … At Cold Harbor no advantage whatever was
gained to compensate for the heavy loss we sustained. Indeed,
the advantages other than those of relative losses, were on
the Confederate side. … This charge seemed to revive their
hopes temporarily; but it was of short duration. The effect
upon the Army of the Potomac was the reverse. When we reached
the James River, however, all effects of the battle of Cold
Harbor seemed to have disappeared."
_U. S. Grant,
Personal Memoirs,
chapter. 55 (volume 2)._
_Official Records,
Series 1, volume 36._
{3530}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (May-June: Virginia).
The Campaigning in the Shenandoah Valley, and
Sheridan's raid to Trevillian Station.
"In the spring of 1864, the Department of West Virginia, which
included the Shenandoah Valley, was under the command of
Major-General Franz Sigel. A large portion of his forces was
in the Kanawha region, under Brigadier-General George Crook. …
In opening his Virginia campaign, Lieutenant-General Grant
directed Sigel to form two columns, whereof one, under Crook,
should break the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad at the New
River bridge, and should also, if possible, destroy the
salt-works at Saltville; while the other column, under Sigel
himself, proceeding up the Shenandoah Valley, was to distract
attention from Crook by menacing the Virginia Central Railroad
at Staunton."
_G. E. Pond,
The Shenandoah Valley in 1864
(Campaigns of the Civil War, volume 11),
chapter 2._
"Early in May, General Sigel entered the Valley with a force
of 10,000 or 12,000 men [6,000 or 7,000, according to Pond, as
above], and proceeded to advance toward Staunton. The Valley
at that time was occupied only by a small force under General
Imboden, which was wholly inadequate for its defence. General
Breckenridge was therefore withdrawn from South-Western
Virginia to oppose Sigel. On the 15th of May, Breckenridge
with a force of 3,000 men [4,600 to 5,000—Pond] encountered
Sigel at Newmarket and defeated him and compelled him to
retire behind Cedar Creek. The cadets of the Virginia Military
Institute formed a portion of Breckenridge's division, and
behaved with distinguished gallantry. … After the battle of
Newmarket Breckenridge was withdrawn from the Valley to
reinforce Lee … in the neighborhood of Hanover Junction. In
the meantime Crook and Averill had reached the Virginia and
Tennessee Railroad, where they inflicted some damage, but were
compelled to retire by a force sent against them by General
Sam Jones. They then proceeded to join the main column
operating in the Valley. After the battle of Newmarket, Sigel
was relieved by General David Hunter, who was instructed by
General Grant to advance upon Staunton, thence to
Charlottesville, and on to Lynchburg if circumstances favored
that movement. Breckenridge having been withdrawn, General W.
E. Jones was ordered to the Valley to oppose Hunter, who
slowly advanced, opposed by Imboden with an almost nominal
force. About the 4th of June, Imboden was joined by General
Jones in the neighborhood of Harrisonburg with a force of
between 3,000 and 4,000 men, which he had hastily collected in
Southwestern Virginia. … Although greatly outnumbered, he
[Jones] engaged Hunter near Port Republic [at the village of
Piedmont, which gives its name to the battle], where he was
defeated and killed. … After the fall of Jones, McCauslin
opposed Hunter with gallantry and vigor, but his small force
was no match for the greatly superior force against which he
contended. The affairs in the Valley now began to attract the
attention of the commanding generals of both armies. It was
evident that if Hunter could succeed in taking Lynchburg and
breaking up the canal and Central Railroad, it would only be
necessary to tap the Richmond and Danville and the Petersburg
and Weldon railroads to complete a line of circumvallation
around Richmond and Petersburg. On the 7th of June General
Grant detached General Sheridan, with a large cavalry force,
with instructions to break up the Central Railroad between
Richmond and Gordonsville, then proceed to the James River and
Kanawha Canal, break that line of communication with Richmond,
and then to co-operate with Hunter in his operations against
Lynchburg. About the same time General Lee sent General
Breckenridge with his division, 2,500 strong, to occupy
Rockfish Gap of the Blue Ridge to deflect Hunter from
Charlottesville and protect the Central Railroad as far as
practicable. A few days later General Early was detached by
General Lee to oppose Hunter, and take such other steps as in
his judgment would tend to create a diversion in favor of
Richmond. General Sheridan, in compliance with his
instructions, proceeded by a circuitous route to strike the
railroad somewhere in the neighborhood of Gordonsville. This
movement was, however, discovered by General Hampton, who,
with a considerable force of cavalry encountered Sheridan on
the 12th of June at Travillians [or Trevillian's] Station.
After much severe and varied fighting Sheridan was defeated,
and in order to escape was obliged to make a night-retreat.
[In his 'Memoirs,' Sheridan claims the victory, having forced
Hampton back and taken 500 prisoners; but learning that Hunter
would not meet him, as expected, at Charlottesville, he turned
back to rejoin Grant south of Richmond]. … This was one of the
most masterly and spirited cavalry engagements of the war.
Hunter, finding Rockfish Gap occupied in force, was unable to
comply with that part of his instructions which directed him
to Charlottesville. He therefore continued his march up the
Valley, with the view of reaching Lynchburg by way of some one
of the passes of the Blue Ridge south of the James River. In
the neighborhood of Staunton he was joined by Crook and
Averill, increasing his force to about 20,000 men, including
cavalry and artillery. From Staunton he advanced by way of
Lexington and Buchanan, burning and destroying everything that
came in his way, leaving a track of desolation rarely
witnessed in the course of civilized warfare." Before Hunter's
arrival at Lynchburg, General Early, who withdrew his corps
(formerly Stonewall Jackson's, and lately commanded by Ewell),
from Richmond on the 13th of June, had reached that city and
was prepared to defend it. "Hunter, finding himself
unexpectedly confronted by Early, relinquished his intended
attack upon the city and sought safety in a rapid
night-retreat."
_A. L. Long,
Memoirs of Robert E. Lee,
chapter 18._
ALSO IN:
_P. H. Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs,
volume 1. chapter 21._
[Image: Map of the Atlanta Campaign. Page 331.]
{3532}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (May-September: Georgia).
Sherman's Movement upon Atlanta: New Hope Church.
Kenesaw.
Peach Tree Creek.
The siege and capture of the city.
From Cassville, for reasons given in his memoirs, Johnston
continued his retreat behind the next spur of mountains to
Allatoona. "Pausing for a few days," writes General Sherman,
"to repair the railroad without attempting Allatoona, of which
I had personal knowledge acquired in 1844, I resolved to push
on toward Atlanta by way of Dallas; Johnston quickly detected
this, and forced me to fight him, May 25th-28th, at New Hope
Church, four miles north of Dallas, with losses of 3,000 to
the Confederates and 2,400 to us. The country was almost in a
state of nature—with few or no roads, nothing that a European
could understand; yet the bullet killed its victim there as
surely as at Sevastopol. Johnston had meantime picked up his
detachments, and had received reënforcements from his rear
which raised his aggregate strength to 62,000 men, and
warranted him in claiming that he was purposely drawing us far
from our base, and that when the right moment should come he
would turn on us and destroy us. We were equally confident,
and not the least alarmed. He then fell back to his position
at Marietta, with Brush Mountain on his right, Kenesaw his
center and Lost Mountain his left. His line of ten miles was
too long for his numbers, and he soon let go his flanks and
concentrated on Kenesaw. We closed down in battle array,
repaired the railroad up to our very camps, and then prepared
for the contest. Not a day, not an hour, not a minute was
there a cessation of fire. Our skirmishers were in absolute
contact, the lines of battle and the batteries but little in
rear of the skirmishers; and thus matters continued until June
27th, when I ordered a general assault, with the full
cooperation of my great lieutenants, Thomas, McPherson and
Schofield, as good and true men as ever lived or died for
their country's cause; but we failed, losing 3,000 men to the
Confederate loss of 630. Still, the result was that within
three days Johnston abandoned the strongest possible position
and was in full retreat for the Chattahoochee River. We were
on his heels; skirmished with his rear at Smyrna Church on the
4th day of July, and saw him fairly across the Chattahoochee
on the 10th, covered and protected by the best line of field
intrenchments I have ever seen, prepared long in advance. … We
had advanced into the enemy's country 120 miles, with a
single-track railroad, which had to bring clothing, food,
ammunition, everything requisite for 100,000 men and 23,000
animals. The city of Atlanta, the gate city, opening the
interior of the important State of Georgia, was in sight; its
protecting army was shaken but not defeated, and onward we had
to go. … We feigned to the right, but crossed the
Chattahoochee by the left, and soon confronted our enemy
behind his first line of intrenchments at Peach Tree Creek,
prepared in advance for this very occasion. At this critical
moment the Confederate Government rendered us most valuable
service. Being dissatisfied with the Fabian policy of General
Johnston, it relieved him, and General Hood was substituted to
command the Confederate army [July 18]. Hood was known to us
to be a 'fighter' … and I confess I was pleased at this
change. … I was willing to meet the enemy in the open country,
but not behind well-constructed parapets. Promptly, as
expected, General Hood sallied from his Peach Tree line on the
20th of July, about midday, striking the Twentieth Corps
(Hooker), which had just crossed Peach Tree Creek by
improvised bridges. The troops became commingled and fought
hand to hand desperately for about four hours, when the
Confederates were driven back within their lines, leaving
behind their dead and wounded. These amounted to 4,796 men, to
our loss of 1,710. We followed up and Hood fell back to the
main lines of the city of Atlanta. We closed in, when again
Hood, holding these lines with about one-half his force, with
the other half made a wide circuit by night, under cover of
the woods, and on the 22d of July enveloped our left flank 'in
air,' a movement that led to the hardest battle of the
campaign. He encountered the Army of the Tennessee—skilled
veterans who were always ready to fight, were not alarmed by
flank or rear attacks, and met their assailants with heroic
valor. The battle raged from noon to night, when the
Confederates, baffled and defeated, fell back within the
intrenchments of Atlanta. Their losses are reported 8,499 to
ours of 8,641; but among our dead was McPherson, the commander
of the Army of the Tennessee. While this battle was in
progress, Schofield at the center and Thomas on the right made
efforts to break through the intrenchments at their fronts,
but found them too strong to assault. The Army of the
Tennessee was then shifted, under its new commander (Howard),
from the extreme left to the extreme right, to reach if
possible, the railroad by which Hood drew his supplies, when,
on the 28th of July, he repeated his tactics of the 22d,
sustaining an overwhelming defeat, losing 4,632 men to our
700. These three sallies convinced him that his predecessor,
General Johnston, had not erred in standing on the defensive.
Thereafter the Confederate army in Atlanta clung to its
parapets. I never intended to assault these, but gradually
worked to the right to reach and destroy his line of supplies,
because soldiers, like other mortals, must have food. Our
extension to the right brought on numerous conflicts, but
nothing worthy of note, till about the end of August I
resolved to leave one corps to protect our communications to
the rear, and move with the other five to a point (Jonesboro')
on the railroad 20 miles below Atlanta, not fortified. This
movement was perfectly strategic, was successful, and resulted
in our occupation of Atlanta, on the 2d of September, 1864.
The result had a large effect on the whole country, at the
time, for solid and political reasons. I claim no special
merit to myself, save that I believe I followed the teachings
of the best masters of the 'science of war' of which I had
knowledge. … But I had not accomplished all, for Hood's army,
the chief 'objective,' had escaped. Then began the real
trouble. We were in possession of Atlanta, and Hood remained
at Lovejoy's Station, 30 miles south-east, on the Savannah
Railroad, with an army of about 40,000 veterans inured to war,
and with a fair amount of wagons to carry his supplies,
independent of the railroads."
_W. T. Sherman and others,
Atlanta
(Battles and Leaders, volume 4)._
ALSO IN:
_W. T. Sherman,
Memoirs,
chapters 15-18 (volume 2)._
_J. D. Cox,
Atlanta
(Campaigns of the Civil War, volume 9),
chapters 7-16._
_C. C. Chesney,
The Atlanta Campaign
(Fort. Rev., Nov. 1895)._
_J. E. Johnston,
Narrative,
chapters 9-11._
_Official Records,
series 1, volume 38._
_J. B. Hood,
Advance and Retreat,
chapters 12-13._
{3533}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (May-November).
The Twentieth Presidential Election.
Renomination and Re-election of Abraham Lincoln.
"Preparations for the nomination of candidates had begun to be
made, as usual, early in the spring of 1864. Some who saw most
clearly the necessities of the future, had for some months
before expressed themselves strongly in favor of the
renomination of President Lincoln. But this step was contested
with great warmth and activity by prominent members of the
political party by which he had been nominated and elected
four years before. Nearly all the original Abolitionists and
many of the more decidedly anti-slavery members of the
Republican party were dissatisfied, that Mr. Lincoln had not
more rapidly and more sweepingly enforced their extreme
opinions. Many distinguished public men resented his rejection
of their advice, and many more had been alienated by his
inability to recognize their claims to office. The most
violent opposition came from those who had been most
persistent and most clamorous in their exactions. And as it
was unavoidable that, in wielding so terrible and so absolute
a power in so terrible a crisis, vast multitudes of active and
ambitious men should be disappointed in their expectations of
position and personal gain, the renomination of Mr. Lincoln
was sure to be contested by a powerful and organized effort.
At the very outset this movement acquired consistency and
strength by bringing forward the Honorable S. P. Chase,
Secretary of the Treasury, a man of great political boldness
and experience, and who had prepared the way for such a step
by a careful dispensation of the vast patronage of his
department, as the rival candidate. But it was instinctively
felt that this effort lacked the sympathy and support of the
great mass of the people, and it ended in the withdrawal of
his name as a candidate by Mr. Chase himself. The National
Committee of the Union Republican party had called their
convention, to be held at Baltimore, on the 8th of June."
Those who opposed Mr. Lincoln's nomination issued a call for a
convention to be held at Cleveland, Ohio, on the 31st of May.
The Cleveland Convention, attended by about 150 persons, put
in nomination General John C. Fremont, for President, and
General John Cochrane, of New York, for Vice President.
"General Fremont's letter of acceptance was dated June 4th.
Its main scope was an attack upon Mr. Lincoln for
unfaithfulness to the principles he was elected to defend, and
upon his administration for incapacity and selfishness. … He
intimated that if the Baltimore convention would nominate
anyone but Mr. Lincoln he would not stand in the way of a
union of all upon the nominee. … The Convention, the
nomination and the letter of acceptance, fell dead upon the
popular feeling [and Fremont withdrew his candidacy in
September]. … The next form which the effort to prevent Mr.
Lincoln's nomination and election took was an effort to bring
forward General Grant as a candidate." But this was decisively
checked by General Grant, himself. The Convention at
Baltimore, when it assembled on the 8th of June, showed no
hesitation in nominating Abraham Lincoln for reelection, and
it associated with him, Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, as its
candidate for Vice President. The National Convention of the
Democratic party was held at Chicago, beginning August 29th,
The second resolution which it adopted in its platform
declared that, "after four years of failure to restore the
Union by the experiment of war … justice, humanity, liberty
and the public welfare demand that immediate efforts be made
for a cessation of hostilities, with a view to an ultimate
convention of the States or other peaceable means, to the end
that, at the earliest practicable moment, peace may be
restored on the basis of the Federal Union of the States." On
this issue, having nominated General George B. McClellan for
President, and George H. Pendleton, of Ohio, for Vice
President, the opponents of the war went to the country in the
election, in November, and were overwhelmingly defeated. "Of
all the States which voted on that day, General McClellan
carried but three—New Jersey, Delaware and Kentucky."
_H. J. Raymond,
Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln,
chapter 18._
The electoral vote was for Lincoln 212, for McClellan 21. The
popular vote cast was, for Lincoln 2,213,665, for McClellan,
1,802,237. Many of the States had made provision for taking
the votes of soldiers in the field, and the army vote was
116,887 for Lincoln against 33,748 for McClellan.
_E. Stanwood,
History of Presidential Elections,
chapter 21._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (June).
Repeal of the Fugitive Slave Laws.
At every session of Congress from 1861 to 1864 ineffectual
attempts were made in the Senate and in the House of
Representatives to accomplish the repeal of the Fugitive Slave
Laws of 1793 and 1850. It was not until June of the latter
year that the necessary bill was passed—by the House on the
6th, by a vote of 82 to 57, and by the Senate on the 22d by 27
to 12. The President approved it on the 28th, and it became a
law.
_H. Wilson,
History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power,
volume 3, chapter 29._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (June).
Revenue Measures.
The War Tariff and Internal Taxes.
See TARIFF LEGISLATION: A. D. 1861-1864 (UNITED STATES).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (June).
The destruction of the Alabama by the Kearsarge.
See ALABAMA CLAIMS: A. D. 1862-1864.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (June: Virginia).
Grant's movement to the south of James River.
The Siege of Petersburg.
"In consequence of the check at Cold Harbor, a restlessness
was becoming general among the people, which the government in
vain pretended not to notice. … Public opinion, shaken in its
confidence, already began to listen to the sinister
interpretations of the opposition journals, when, in the last
half of June, it learned that the lieutenant: general had
boldly crossed the James and laid siege before Petersburg. …
This passage of the James was … a very fine movement, as ably
executed as it was boldly conceived. It inaugurated a new
phase in the campaign. … Henceforth, the battering not having
produced the expected effect, Grant was about to try the
resources of military science, and give precedence to
strategic combinations. In the first place, he took his
measures so well to conceal his intentions from the enemy that
the latter did not recognize the character of the movement
until it was already executed. Warren was ordered to occupy
Lee's attention by the menace of an advance on Richmond from
the direction of White Oak Swamp, while Smith (W. F.)
reëmbarked from White House to return to Bermuda Hundred, and
Hancock, with the Second Corps, would be transferred to the
right bank of the James by a flotilla of large steamers
collected at Wilcox Landing for that purpose.
{3534}
At the same time, a bridge of boats was thrown across a little
below, where there were thirteen fathoms of water in the
channel, and where the river was more than 2,000 feet broad.
The Fifth and Sixth Corps crossed over on the bridge. Grant
hoped to get hold of Petersburg by a 'coup de main.' If he had
succeeded, the fall of Richmond would have soon followed in
all probability. Unfortunately, delays occurred and
contretemps which caused the opportunity to fail and
completely modified the course of events. General Smith (W.
F.), after having carried the first line, which was defended
by militia only, did not know how to take advantage of his
first success. Proceeding methodically and cautiously, where
it was, above all, necessary to act with vigor and promptness,
he put off the serious work until the next morning. Hancock,
in his turn, debarked on the right bank, did not receive the
order to march on Petersburg until he had been delayed to wait
for rations which were behind-hand, and went astray in his
march owing to false indications on a map which had been sent
to him as correct. In short, he lost precious hours in the
afternoon of June 15, and on the morning of the 16th it was
too late; Lee's troops had arrived. Nevertheless, the
intrenchments thrown up hastily by the enemy were not so
formidable that they might not be carried. In the morning, a
fresh attack, with Birney's and Gibbon's divisions, met with
some success, but with no decisive results. In the afternoon,
the Ninth Corps having arrived, the attempt was renewed on a
greater scale, and it ended by carrying the line at sundown,
after a hard fight and considerable loss. On the next morning,
a new assault, always by the Second Corps, supported by the
Ninth. The enemy lost more ground and a redoubt of importance.
In the evening, he succeeded in surprising the intrenchments
which Burnside had taken from him. All these fights were not
without cost; the loss of that day alone, on our side,
amounted to 4,000 men. The Confederates defended the ground
step by step, with such determination, only to gain the time
necessary to finish a stronger and better selected line, on
the hills immediately around the city. They retired to these
lines in the following night, and during the whole of the 18th
they sustained in them a series of attacks which met with no
success. From that day, the siege of Petersburg was resolved
upon, and regular works were begun. It must be remarked that
this siege was not a siege, properly speaking. The place was
never even invested. It lies 22 miles south of Richmond, on
the right, bank of the Appomattox, eight miles southwest of
City Point, where that river empties into the James, and where
the new base of supplies of the army was naturally
established. So that we had turned Richmond to put ourselves
across a part of the enemy's communications with the South,
and directly threaten the rest. These communications were: the
railroads to Norfolk, Weldon and Lynchburg, and the Jerusalem
and Boydton roads, all ending at Petersburg. Besides these,
the Confederate capital had only the James River Canal, to the
west, and the Dansville railroad, to the south. The latter did
not extend beyond the limits of Virginia, but it crossed the
Lynchburg railroad at Burksville, which doubled its resources.
If, then, we succeeded in enveloping Petersburg only on the
right bank of the Appomattox, the population and the
Confederate army would be reduced to draw all their supplies
from Richmond by a single-track railroad. To accomplish that
was our effort; to prevent it, the enemy's: that was the point
towards which all the operations of the siege were directed
for nine months. On the day on which we finally succeeded,
Petersburg and Richmond fell at the same blow, and the whole
structure of the rebellion crumbled with these two cities."
_R. de Trobriand,
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac,
chapter 28._
ALSO IN:
_F. A. Walker,
History of the Second Army Corps,
chapters 19-23._
_U. S. Grant,
Personal Memoirs,
chapter 56 (volume 2)._
_Official Records,
Series 1, volume 40._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (July).
The Greeley and the Jaques-Gilmore Peace Missions.
"Two abortive efforts to open a door to accommodation between
the belligerents were made during this gloomy period. One of
these originated with certain Confederates then in Canada, one
of whom wrote [July 5, 1864] to the author of this work
[Horace Greeley], averring that Messrs. Clement C. Clay, of
Alabama, James P. Holcombe, of Virginia, and George N. Sanders
(the writer) would proceed to Washington in the interest of
Peace, if full protection were accorded them. Being otherwise
confidentially assured that the two former had full powers
from Richmond, Mr. Greeley forwarded the application to
President Lincoln, urging that it be responded to, and
suggesting certain terms of reunion and peace which he judged
might be advantageously proffered to the Rebels, whether they
should be accepted or rejected. … The 'Plan of Adjustment,'
which he suggested that the President might advantageously
offer," contemplated the restoration of the Union, abolition
of slavery, with $400,000,000 paid in compensation to the
slave states, and complete amnesty for all political offenses.
"The President hereupon saw fit—alike to the surprise and the
regret of his correspondent—to depute him to proceed to
Niagara, and there communicate with the persons in question.
He most reluctantly consented to go, but under a
misapprehension which insured the failure of the effort in any
event. Though he had repeatedly and explicitly written to the
President that he knew nothing as to what the Confederates in
Canada might or would propose as a basis of adjustment … it
was expected on the President's part that he was virtually and
substantially to negotiate and settle the basis of a
pacification with them; so that their visit to Washington was,
in effect, to be the result, and not the possible occasion, of
adjustment und peace. … The whole matter thus terminated in
failure and disappointment, with some exasperation on the
Rebel side, and very decided condemnation on the part of the
opposition. … Happily, another negotiation—even more irregular
and wholly clandestine—had simultaneously been in progress at
Richmond, with a similar result. Rev. Colonel James F. Jaques,
73d Illinois, with Mr. J. R. Gilmore, of New York, had, with
President Lincoln's knowledge, but without his formal
permission, paid a visit to the Confederate capital on a Peace
errand; being allowed to pass through the lines of both armies
for the purpose.
{3535}
Arrived in Richmond they addressed a joint letter to Judah P.
Benjamin, Secretary of State, requesting an interview with
President Davis, which was accorded; and a long, familiar,
earnest colloquy ensued, wherein the Confederate chief
presented his ultimatum in these terms: … The North was mad
and blind; it would not let us govern ourselves; and so the
war came; and now it must go on till the last man of this
generation falls in his tracks, and his children seize his
musket and fight our battle, unless you acknowledge our right
to self-government. We are not fighting for Slavery, we are
fighting for Independence; and that or extermination we will
have'. … Thus it was not only incontestably settled but
proclaimed, through the volunteered agency of two citizens,
that the War must go on until the Confederacy should be
recognized as an independent power, or till it should be
utterly, finally overthrown. The knowledge of this fact was
worth more than a victory to the National cause."
_H. Greeley,
The American Conflict,
volume 2, chapter 30._
ALSO IN:
_E. McPherson,
Political History of the United States
during the Great Rebellion,
pages 301-307._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (July: Virginia-Maryland.)
Early in the Shenandoah Valley.
His invasion of Maryland and approach to Washington.
"… [General Jubal Anderson] Early had forced Hunter into the
Kanawha region far enough to feel assured that Lynchburg could
not again be threatened from that direction;
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (MAY-JUNE: VIRGINIA).
[Early then] united to his own corps General John C.
Breckenridge's infantry division and the cavalry of Generals
J. H. Vaughn, John McCausland, B. T. Johnson, and J. D.
Imboden, which heretofore had been operating in southwest and
western Virginia under General Robert Ransom, Jr., and with
the column thus formed, was ready to turn his attention to the
lower Shenandoah Valley. At Early's suggestion General Lee
authorized him to move north at an opportune moment, cross the
upper Potomac into Maryland and threaten Washington. … By
rapid marching Early reached Winchester on the 2d of July, and
on the 4th occupied Martinsburg, driving General Sigel out of
that place the same day that Hunter's troops, after their
fatiguing retreat through the mountains, reached Charlestown,
West Virginia. Early was thus enabled to cross the Potomac
without difficulty, when, moving around Harper's Ferry,
through the gaps of the South Mountain, he found his path
unobstructed till he reached the Monocacy, where Ricketts's
division of the Sixth Corps, and some raw troops that had been
collected by General Lew Wallace, met and held the
Confederates till the other reinforcements that had been
ordered to the capital from Petersburg could be brought up.
Wallace contested the line of the Monocacy with obstinacy, but
had to retire finally toward Baltimore. The road was then open
to Washington, and Early marched to the outskirts and began
against the capital the demonstrations [July 11-12] which were
designed to divert the Army of the Potomac from its main
purpose in front of Petersburg. Early's audacity in thus
threatening Washington had caused some concern to the
officials in the city, but as the movement was looked upon by
General Grant as a mere foray which could have no decisive
issue, the Administration was not much disturbed till the
Confederates came in close proximity. Then was repeated the
alarm and consternation of two years before, fears for the
safety of the capital being magnified by the confusion and
discord existing among the different generals in Washington
and Baltimore; and the imaginary dangers vanished only with
the appearance of General Wright, who with the Sixth Corps and
one division of the Nineteenth Corps, pushed out to attack
Early as soon as he could get his arriving troops in hand, but
under circumstances that precluded celerity of movement; and
as a consequence the Confederates escaped with little injury,
retiring across the Potomac to Leesburg, unharassed save by
some Union cavalry that had been sent out into Loudoun County
by Hunter, who in the meantime had arrived at Harper's Ferry
by the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. From Leesburg Early
retired through Winchester toward Strasburg, but when the head
of his column reached this place he found that he was being
followed by General Crook with the combined troops of Hunter
and Sigel only, Wright having returned to Washington under
orders to rejoin Meade at Petersburg. This reduction of the
pursuing force tempting Early to resume the offensive, he
attacked Crook at Kernstown, and succeeded in administering
such a check as to necessitate this general's retreat to
Martinsburg, and finally to Harper's Ferry. Crook's withdrawal
restored to Early the line of the upper Potomac, so,
recrossing this stream, he advanced again into Maryland, and
sending McCausland on to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, laid that
town in ashes [July 30] leaving 3,000 non-combatants without
shelter or food. … This second irruption of Early and his
ruthless destruction of Chambersburg led to many
recommendations on the part of General Grant looking to a
speedy elimination of the confusion then existing among the
Union forces along the upper Potomac, but for a time the
authorities at Washington would approve none of his
propositions. … Finally the manœuvres of Early and the raid to
Chambersburg compelled a partial compliance, though Grant had
somewhat circumvented the difficulty already by deciding to
appoint a commander for the forces in the field that were to
operate against Early. On the 31st of July General Grant
selected me as this commander. … On the evening of August 1, I
was relieved from immediate duty with the Army of the Potomac,
but not from command of the cavalry as a corps organization. I
arrived at Washington on the 4th of August, and the next day
received instructions from General Halleck, to report to
General Grant at Monocacy Junction, whither he had gone direct
from City Point, in consequence of a characteristic despatch
from the President indicating his disgust with the confusion,
disorder and helplessness prevailing along the upper Potomac,
and intimating that Grant's presence there was necessary."
_P. H. Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs,
volume 1, chapter 23._
ALSO IN:
_G. E. Pond,
The Shenandoah Valley in 1864,
chapters 4-6._
_F. Sigel,
Sigel in the Shenandoah Valley in 1864
(Battles and Leaders, volume 4)._
{3536}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (July: Virginia).
The siege of Petersburg: The Mine.
"Burnside's corps held a position directly in front of
Petersburg, including a point where our lines, owing to the
nature of the ground, had been pushed up to within 150 yards
of the enemy's, where a fort projected beyond their average
front. Under this fort a mine had been run from a convenient
ravine or hollow within our lines, which was entirely screened
from the enemy's observation; and this mine would seem to have
been completed not only without countermining by the Rebels,
but without being even suspected by them; though a report of
its existence (probably founded on the story of some deserter
or prisoner) was printed in one of the Richmond journals. All
being ready, the morning of July 30th was fixed for springing
the mine; which was to be instantly followed, of course, by
the opening of our guns all along the front, and by an assault
at the chasm opened in the enemy's defences by the explosion.
… The explosion took place; hoisting the fort into the air,
annihilating its garrison of 300 men, and leaving in its stead
a gigantic hollow or crater of loose earth, 150 feet long by
some 60 wide and 25 to 30 deep. Instantly, our guns opened all
along the front; and the astounded enemy may well have
supposed them the thunders of doom. But it was indispensable
to success that a column of assault should rush forward
instantly and resolutely, so as to clear the chasm and gain
the crest before the foe should recover from his surprise;
and, on this vital point failure had already been secured. The
9th corps, as then constituted, was not that from which any
commanding general would have selected a storming party; yet
because it was Burnside's mine, his corps was, without
discussion, allowed to furnish the column of assault. His
inspecting officer had reported that, of its four divisions,
that composed of Blacks was fittest for this perilous service;
but Grant, discrediting this, had directed that one of the
three White divisions should be chosen. Thereupon, the leaders
of these divisions were allowed to cast lots to see which of
them should go in—or rather which two of them should stay
out—and the lot fell on the 1st, Brigadier-General Ledlie—and
no man in the army believed this other than the worst choice
of the three. … Several minutes passed—precious, fatal
minutes!—before Ledlie's division, clearing with difficulty
the obstacles in its path—went forward into the chasm, and
there stopped, though the enemy at that point were still
paralyzed and the deciding crest completely at our mercy. Then
parts of Burnside's two remaining White divisions (Potter's
and Wilcox's) followed; but once in the crater, Ledlie's men
barred the way to a farther advance, and all huddled together,
losing their formation and becoming mixed up; General Potter
finally extricating himself, and charging toward the crest;
but with so slender a following that he was soon obliged to
fall back. Two hours were thus shamefully squandered, while
the Rebels recovering their self-possession, were planting
batteries on either side, and mustering their infantry in an
adjacent ravine; and now—when more men in the crater could
only render the confusion more hopeless and magnify the
disaster—Burnside threw in his Black division; which, passing
beyond and rather to the right of the crater, charged toward
the crest, but were met by a fire of artillery and musketry
which speedily hurled them back into the crater, where all
order was lost, all idea of aught beyond personal safety
abandoned, while the enemy's shells and balls poured into it
like hail, rendering it an arena of unresisted slaughter. … A
first Rebel assault on our unfortunates was repulsed in sheer
desperation; and thousands of course took the risk of darting
out of the death-trap and racing at top speed to our lines;
but our loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners was 4,400;
while that of the enemy, including 300 blown up in the fort,
was barely 1,000."
_H. Greeley,
The American Conflict,
volume 2, pages 590-591._
ALSO IN:
_W. H. Powell and others,
The Battle of the Petersburg Crater
(Battles and Leaders, volume 4)._
_A. Woodbury,
Burnside and the 9th Army Corps,
part 4, chapter 5._
_A. A. Humphreys,
The Virginia Campaign of 1864 and 1865,
chapter 9._
_Report of Joint Commission on the Conduct of the War,
38th Congress, 2d Session: volume 1._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (August: Virginia).
The Siege of Petersburg: Fighting for the Weldon Road.
Battle of Reams's Station.
The Dutch Gap Canal.
"Taking advantage of the absence of many of Lee's troops from
Petersburg, Grant made a vigorous movement for securing
possession of the Weldon road, not more than three miles from
the left flank of his lines on the Jerusalem plank road. This
movement was made by Warren, with the Fifth Corps, on the
morning of the 18th of August, and at noon he reached the
coveted railway without opposition, where he left Griffin to
hold the point seized, while with the divisions of Ayres and
Crawford he moved toward Petersburg. He had marched but a
short distance when a division of Confederates suddenly and
heavily fell upon his flank. … Warren held the ground he had
gained at a cost of 1,000 men killed, wounded and prisoners."
The next day (August 19), Lee sent Hill with a heavy force to
drive Warren from the road, and the attempt, desperately made,
was nearly successful, but not quite. Two days later it was
repeated, and the Confederates were repulsed with a loss of
1,200 men. "In his entire movement for the possession of the
road Warren lost, in killed, wounded and missing, 4,450 men.
He now rendered his position almost impregnable, and General
Lee was compelled to see one of his most important lines of
communication wrested from him. On the day of Warren's Victory
[August 21], Hancock, who … had been called from the north
bank of the James [where an unsuccessful demonstration towards
Richmond had been made from Deep Bottom], and who had moved
with part of his corps rapidly toward the Weldon road, in the
rear of Warren, struck that highway north of Reams's Station,
and destroyed the track to that point and some miles south of
it. He formed an intrenched camp at Reams's," and was attacked
there on the 25th by Hill with such determination that he was
forced back to a rear line, "where the troops had been
rallied, and when night fell Hancock withdrew from Reams's
Station. He had lost in the fight 2,400 of his 8,000 men, and
five guns; 1,700 of the men were made prisoners. Hill's loss
was but little less, and he, too, withdrew from Reams's. But
this disaster did not loosen Warren's hold upon the Weldon
road. … For about a month after the battle of Reams's Station
there was comparative quiet along the lines of the opposing
armies. … A strong party of colored soldiers had been set to
work by General Butler on the north side of the James, under
cover of a battery on that side mounting 100-pounder Parrott
guns, in digging a canal across the narrow isthmus of a
peninsula formed by a sharp bend in the river, called Farrar's
Island.
{3537}
By this canal it was intended to secure a nearer base of
operations against Richmond, and afford a passage for the
National war vessels, by which they might flank several
important works of the Confederates." The Dutch Gap Canal, as
it was called, did not prove successful, the necessary depth
of water never being secured during the war, though the canal
has been brought into use since.
_B. J. Lossing,
Field Book of the Civil War,
volume 3, chapter 13._
ALSO IN:
_P. S. Michie,
Dutch Gap Canal
(Battles and Leaders, volume 4, page 575)._
_O. B. Willcox,
Actions on the Weldon Railroad
(Battles and Leaders, volume 4, page 568)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (August: Alabama).
The Battle of Mobile Bay.
Capture of Confederate forts and fleet.
"After the capitulation of Vicksburg the vessels of the
so-called Gulf Squadron which had been cruising on the lower
Mississippi and its tributaries were in part joined to the
Upper Squadron, under the command of Admiral Porter. The
remainder were recalled to their duties on the outside
blockade. Admiral Farragut was now free to turn his whole
attention to the coast of the Gulf, whither he returned in
January, 1864, after a well-earned rest at the North. Mobile
was now the principal port in the possession of the
Confederates in this quarter, and earnestly did the Admiral
desire to attack and reduce the forts at the entrance of the
bay. But troops were required to invest the forts after the
fleet had passed them, and at this moment it seemed that there
were no troops to be spared. It was also much to be desired
that at least a few monitors should be added to the fleet, but
neither were these as yet available. So the time wore on;
winter passed into spring and spring into summer, but still
the attack was not made. This delay was of incalculable
advantage to the enemy, enabling him to complete his
preparations. The Confederate force afloat in Mobile Bay was
commanded by Admiral Franklin Buchanan. … This force consisted
of only four vessels, but they nevertheless made an important
addition to the defences of the place. Three of them were only
paddle-wheel gun-boats … while the fourth was the iron-clad
ram Tennessee … the most formidable vessel that the
Confederates had ever built. … The City of Mobile lies at the
head of a long bay, which is about 20 miles wide at its lower
end. The greater portion of the bay is very shallow, too
shallow even for vessels of moderate draft. The entrance lies
between a long sandspit … and a shoal. … The ship-channel
between the shoals, five miles in length, is perhaps half a
mile wide at its narrowest point. Two forts guarded the
passage,—on the right hand Fort Morgan, on Mobile Point, and
on the left Fort Gaines, on Dauphin Island. … In addition to
the land and naval defences, additional protection had been
given by obstructions in the water. A line of piles ran out
from Fort Gaines, which was continued nearly across the main
ship-channel by a triple line of torpedoes. The eastern end of
the row of torpedoes was marked by a red buoy, and between the
buoy and Fort Morgan the channel had been left open for
blockade runners. The open space, only 100 yards wide, lay
directly under the guns of the fort, and it was through this
narrow passage that Admiral Farragut intended to carry his
fleet. The ships were gradually assembled toward the latter
part of July. The Admiral's plan of action was simple, but in
the highest degree effective. His fleet consisted of four
monitors and fourteen wooden vessels, seven of the latter
large and seven small. The wooden vessels were arranged in
pairs, as at Port Hudson, each of the larger vessels having a
smaller one lashed to her port side, so that if one was
disabled the engines of the other would carry both past the
forts. The four monitors were placed in a flanking column
inshore, between the fleet and Fort Morgan. … At six o'clock
on the morning of the 5th of August the fleet started with the
flood tide. The Admiral took up his position in the port main
rigging of the Hartford, so that he might have a good post of
observation. [According to accounts given by officers who were
on board the Hartford, Admiral Farragut climbed the rigging,
after the battle began, in order to get above the thickest of
the smoke, and Captain Drayton sent a man to lash him where he
stood, so that, if wounded, he might not fall to the deck]. …
Above the fort, and just beyond the obstructions, lay the
Confederate ram Tennessee and her three attendant gunboats. …
Soon after half-past six the Tecumseh [the leading monitor]
fired the first two shots at Fort Morgan. For half an hour
after this, the ships advanced in silence. Then the fort
opened on the Brooklyn, and presently the whole line of
vessels was hotly engaged. Their concentrated fire kept down
that of the enemy, and all seemed at this time to be going
well with the fleet. The Tecumseh, though all the while
advancing, was now silent, reserving her fire for the
Tennessee, which lay beyond the obstructions. Captain Craven
saw the red buoy, but it seemed so close to the beach that he
thought there must have been a mistake in his orders; and
altering his course, he headed straight for the Tennessee,
passing to the westward of the buoy right over the line of
torpedoes. Suddenly there came a frightful explosion; the huge
mass of iron gave a lurch first to one side, then to the
other; her bow made one downward plunge, her screw was seen
for a moment revolving high in air, and she sank to the bottom
of the channel. Of 120 men on board only 21 were saved. … From
the Brooklyn, leading the main column, something was now
descried in the water ahead which resembled torpedo-buoys, and
the sloop, with the Octorara lashed to her side, suddenly
stopped, and in a moment they were backing down on the vessels
astern of them. The bows of the two ships turned, falling off
towards the fort, so that they blocked up the channel. The
Hartford, the Admiral's flag-ship, which was next astern, also
stopped to prevent a collision, but she was drifting fast with
the Metacomet toward the two vessels ahead, and the Richmond
and Port Royal were close upon them, followed by the others.
At that moment it seemed as if nothing could save the vessels
of the fleet from being thrown into hopeless confusion, massed
together as they were directly under the guns of the fort. It
was in that moment, at the crisis of the battle, that the calm
and dauntless spirit of the Admiral rose to its greatest
height. … 'Captain Drayton, go ahead! Jouett, full speed!'
came the command, in clear, ringing tones from the Admiral's
place in the rigging.
{3538}
In a moment the Hartford had turned, and dashing with the
Metacomet past the Brooklyn, rushed straight over the barrier.
Snap, snap, went the primers of the torpedoes under the bottom
of the ship,—the officers and men could hear them,—but no
explosion followed, and the Hartford passed safely into the
waters above. Meanwhile the four ships lay entangled under
Fort Morgan. A collision seemed inevitable, but Captain
Jenkins of the Richmond, an officer of cool head and splendid
courage, backed away from the others, and began a furious
cannonade on the fort with his whole broadside, driving the
enemy out of the water-batteries. The Brooklyn was by this
means able to recover, and presently she steamed ahead,
followed by the Richmond and the rest of the fleet. … No
sooner was the battle with the fort over than a new battle
began with the Tennessee. The moment that the ships had fairly
entered the bay, the Confederate ram … came charging down the
whole line, taking each vessel in turn," but doing no serious
injury to any. On the arrival of the monitors, which had
lagged behind, "the Tennessee took refuge under the guns of
the fort, and the fleet rejoined the Hartford, now four miles
up the bay." Meantime the Hartford and the Metacomet had
disposed of two of the Confederate gunboats: the Selma, which
surrendered, and the Gaines, which had been run ashore and set
on fire. The third, the Morgan, took shelter, with the
Tennessee, near the fort. "The Hartford had by this time come
to anchor, and her crew went to breakfast. The other ships
gradually joined her. But the battle was not yet over. It was
now a little before nine o'clock, and suddenly the Tennessee
was reported approaching." In the battle which ensued, the
stout iron-clad was rammed repeatedly by the Monongahela, the
Lackawanna, the Hartford and the Ossipee, and pounded by the
terrible guns of the monitor Chickasaw, until, with her
commander wounded, her tiller-chains and smoke stack gone, her
port shutters jammed, and her armor starting from the frame,
she raised the white flag. "A few days later the forts
surrendered, and Mobile, as a Confederate port, ceased to
exist. The fall of the city did not come about until some time
afterward; indeed no immediate attempt was made upon it, for
the capture of the forts and the occupation of Mobile Bay
served every purpose of the Federal Government."
_J. R. Soley,
The Sailor Boys of '61,
chapter 13._
"This great victory cost the Union fleet 335 men. … The losses
in the rebel fleet were 10 killed and 16 wounded—confined to
the Tennessee and Selma—and 280 prisoners taken. The loss in
the forts is unknown."
_Loyal Farragut,
Life of David Glasgow Farragut,
chapter 27._
ALSO IN:
_J. O. Kinney and J. D. Johnston;
Farragut at Mobile Bay,
and
The Ram Tennessee at Mobile Bay,
(Battles and Leaders, volume 3)._
_A. T. Mahan,
The Gulf and Inland Waters
(The Navy in the Civil War, volume 3),
chapter 8._
_A. T. Mahan,
Admiral Farragut,
chapter 10._
_Official Records,
Series 1, volume 39._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (August-October: Virginia).
Sheridan's Victories in the Shenandoah Valley.
Winchester.
Fisher's Hill.
Cedar Creek.
The famous Ride.
"The events of July showed the urgent need of unity of command
in Northern Virginia, and the lieutenant-general, in August,
consolidated these four departments [of Washington, the
Susquehanna, West Virginia and the Middle Department] into
one, named the Middle Military Division, under General Hunter.
That officer, however, before entering on the proposed
campaign, expressed a willingness to be relieved, and General
P. H. Sheridan, who had been transferred from the Army of the
Potomac to the command of the forces in the field under
Hunter, was appointed in his stead." General Sheridan was
appointed to the command on the 7th of August, and took the
field with an effective force (which included the Sixth and
Nineteenth Corps) of 40,000 men, 10,000 being cavalry. "His
operations during that month and the fore part of September
were mainly confined to manœuvres having for their object to
prevent the Confederates from gaining the rich harvests of the
Shenandoah Valley. But after once or twice driving Early
southward to Strasburg, he each time returned on his path
towards Harper's Ferry. General Grant had hesitated in
allowing Sheridan to take a real initiative, as defeat would
lay open to the enemy the States of Maryland and Pennsylvania
before another army could be interposed to check him. Finding,
however, while on a personal visit to General Sheridan, in the
month of September, that that officer expressed great
confidence of success, he authorized him to attack. At this
time the Confederate force held the west bank of Opequan
Creek, covering Winchester; and the Union force lay in front
of Berryville, twenty miles south of Harper's Ferry. The
situation of the opposing armies was peculiar: each threatened
the communications of the other, and either could bring on a
battle at any time. It would appear that General Early had
designed assuming the offensive." He made a movement which
General Sheridan was prompt to take advantage of, on the
morning of September 19th, and a battle ensued—known as the
battle of Winchester, but some times called the battle of
Opequan Creek—which resulted in a victory for the latter. "It
is due to state that there was a great disparity in the
numbers engaged—Early's force consisting of 8,500 muskets and
3,000 sabres, while Sheridan's strength was thrice that of the
aggregate Confederate force. Sheridan's preponderance in horse
enabled him to extend far beyond and overlap the Confederate
left, and when, after several hours of indecisive fighting
between the infantry, a general advance was, at four P. M.,
made by the whole line, the cavalry, by an impetuous charge,
carried the fortified heights: the Confederates … broke in
confusion, retiring from the field and through Winchester,
with the Union forces in pursuit. Night, however, prevented
Sheridan from following up the victory, among the trophies of
which were 2,500 prisoners, five pieces of artillery, and nine
battle-flags. … After his defeat at Winchester, Early did not
pause in his southward retreat till he reached Fisher's Hill,
near Strasburg, 30 miles south of Winchester. This is a very
defensible position, commanding the débouché of the narrow
Strasburg valley between the north fork of the Shenandoah
River and the North Mountain. On these obstacles Early rested
his flank. In front of this position Sheridan arrived on the
morning of the 22d and formed his force for a direct attack,
while he sent Torbert with two divisions of cavalry by the
parallel Luray Valley, to gain New Market, 20 miles in Early's
rear. After much manœuvring, and several ineffectual efforts
to force the position, an attack of cavalry was made from the
right.
{3539}
Under cover of this mask a corps of infantry was moved to that
flank, and by an impetuous assault carried the Confederate
left resting on the North Mountain. A general attack in front
then disrupted Early's whole line, and the Confederates
retired in great disorder, leaving behind 16 pieces of
artillery and several hundred prisoners. … Early's retreat was
not stayed until he reached the lower passes of the Blue
Ridge, whither he retired with a loss of half his army.
Sheridan, after pushing the pursuit as far as Staunton, and
operating destructively against the Virginia Central Railroad,
returned and took position behind Cedar Creek near Strasburg.
Previously to abandoning the country south of Strasburg, it
was laid waste by the destruction of all barns, grain, forage,
farming implements, and mills. The desolution of the
Palatinate by Turenne was not more complete. On the withdrawal
of Sheridan, Early, after a brief respite, and being
re-enforced by Kershaw's division of infantry and 600 cavalry
from Lee's army, again marched northward down the Valley, and
once more ensconced himself at Fisher's Hill. Sheridan
continued to hold position on the north bank of Cedar Creek.
Nothing more important than cavalry combats, mostly favorable
to the Federal arms, took place, until the 19th of October,
when Early assumed a bold offensive that was near giving him a
victory as complete as the defeat he had suffered. … The army
was, at this time, temporarily under the command of General
Wright—Sheridan being absent at Washington. The position held
by the Union force was too formidable to invite open attack,
and Early's only opportunity was to make a surprise. This that
officer now determined on, and its execution was begun during
the night of the 18-19th of October." A flanking column,
"favored by a heavy fog … attained, unperceived, the rear of
the left flank of the Union force, formed by Crook's Corps …
and rushed into the camp—the troops awaking only to find
themselves prisoners. To rally the men in their bewilderment
was impossible, and Crook's Corps, being thoroughly broken up,
fled in disorder, leaving many guns in the hands of the enemy.
As soon as this flank attack was developed, Early, with his
other column, emerged from behind the hills west of Cedar
Creek, and crossing that stream, struck directly the troops on
the right of Crook. This served to complete the disaster, and
the whole Union left and centre became a confused mass,
against which the Confederates directed the captured artillery
(18 guns), while the flanking force swept forward to the main
turnpike. Such was the scene on which the light of day dawned.
The only force not yet involved in the enemy's onset was the
Sixth Corps, which by its position was somewhat in rear. With
this General Ricketts quickly executed a change of front,
throwing it forward at right angles to its former position,
and firmly withstood the enemy's shock. Its chief service was,
however, to cover the general retreat which Wright now
ordered, as the only practicable means of reuniting his force.
… At the first good position between Middletown and Newtown,
Wright was able to rally and reform the troops, form a compact
line, and prepare either to resist further attack, or himself
resume the offensive. It was at this time, about half-past ten
A. M., that General Sheridan arrived upon the field from
Winchester, where he had slept the previous night. Hearing the
distant sounds of battle rolling up from the south, Sheridan
rode post to the front, where arriving, his electric manner
had on the troops a very inspiriting effect. General Wright
had already brought order out of confusion and made
dispositions for attack. … A counter-charge was begun at three
o'clock in the afternoon. … A large part of Early's force, in
the intoxication of success, had abandoned their colors and
taken to plundering the abandoned Federal camps. The refluent
wave was as resistless as the Confederate surge had been. …
The retreat soon became a rout. … In the pursuit all the
captured guns were retaken and 23 in addition, The captures
included, besides, near 1,500 prisoners. … With this defeat of
Early all operations of moment in the Shenandoah forever
ended," and most of the troops on both sides were recalled to
the main field of operations, at Petersburg.
_W. Swinton,
Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac,
chapter 12, part 8._
ALSO IN:
_P. H. Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs,
volume 2, chapters 1-4._
_G. E. Pond,
The Shenandoah Valley in 1864,
chapters 7-13._
_M. M. Granger,
The Battle of Cedar Creek
(Sketches of War History, Ohio Commandery,
L. L. of the United States, volume 3)._
_W. Merritt,
Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley._
_J. A. Early,
Winchester, Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek
(Battles and Leaders, volume 4)._
_R. B. Irwin,
History of the 19th Army Corps,
chapters 33-34._
_H. C. King,
The Battle of Cedar Creek
(Personal Recollections of the War:
New York Com. L. L. of the United States)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (September-October: Georgia)
Atlanta cleared of its former inhabitants.
Sherman's Preparations for the March to the Sea.
Hood's Raid to the rear.
"During the month of September, Sherman's army remained
grouped about Atlanta. … The Army of the Cumberland, under
Major-General Thomas, held Atlanta; the Army of the Tennessee,
commanded by Major-General Howard, was at East Point; and the
Army of the Ohio occupied Decatur. … Sherman now determined to
make Atlanta exclusively a military post. On the 4th of
September he issued the following orders: 'The city of Atlanta
belonging exclusively for warlike purposes, it will at once be
vacated by all except the armies of the United States and such
civilian employes as may be retained by the proper departments
of the Government.' … This order fell upon the ears of the
inhabitants of Atlanta like a thunderbolt." To a remonstrance
addressed to him by the mayor and two councilmen of the city,
he replied: "We must have peace, not only at Atlanta, but in
all America. To secure this we must stop the war that now
desolates our once happy and favored country. To stop the war,
we must defeat the rebel armies that are arrayed against the
laws and Constitution, which all must respect and obey. To
defeat these armies, we must prepare the way to reach them in
their recesses. … My military plans make it necessary for the
inhabitants to go away, and I can only renew my offer of
services to make their exodus in any direction as easy and
comfortable as possible. … War is cruelty and you cannot
refine it; and those who brought war on our country deserve
all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. … You
might as well appeal against the thunder-storm as against
these terrible hardships of war." A truce of ten days was
arranged, during which "446 families were moved south,
comprising 705 adults, 860 children and 79 servants, with an
average of 1,651 pounds of furniture and household goods of
all kinds to each family."
_S. M. Bowman and R. B. Irwin,
Sherman and his Campaigns,
chapter 18._
{3540}
"Gen. Hood, meanwhile, kept his forces in the neighborhood of
Jonesboro, receiving his supplies by the Macon road. His army
numbered about 40,000 men, exclusive of the Georgia militia;
and, as if to show that no immediate offensive movement was
contemplated, the latter were withdrawn from him by Governor
Brown soon after the evacuation of Atlanta. … To allow their
principal Southern army to rust in inactivity, was not however
the intention of the rebel authorities. … Something must be
done, and that speedily, to arrest the progress of the Federal
army, or Georgia and perhaps the Gulf States, would be
irretrievably lost. … The whole army of General Hood, it was
decided, should rapidly move in a compact body to the rear of
Atlanta, and, after breaking up the railroad between the
Chattahoochee and Chattanooga, push on to Bridgeport and
destroy the great railroad bridge spanning the Tennessee river
at that place. Should this be accomplished, Atlanta would be
isolated from Chattanooga, and the latter in turn isolated
from Nashville, and General Sherman, cut off from his primary
and secondary bases, would find Atlanta but a barren conquest
to be relinquished almost as soon as gained, and would be
obliged to return to Tennessee. Atlanta would then fall from
lack of provisions, or in consequence of the successful
attacks of the Georgia militia. In connection with this
movement, General Forrest, confessedly their ablest cavalry
officer, was already operating in Southern Tennessee. … A week
sufficed to complete General Hood's arrangements, and by the
2d of October his army was across the Chattahoochee and on the
march to Dallas, where the different corps were directed to
concentrate. At this point he was enabled to threaten Rome and
Kingston, as well as the fortified places on the railroad to
Chattanooga; and there remained open, in case of defeat, a
line of retreat southwest into Alabama. From Dallas he
advanced east toward the railroad, and, on the 4th, captured
the insignificant stations of Big Shanty and Ackworth,
effecting a thorough destruction of the road between the two
places. He also sent a division under General French to
capture the Federal post at Allatoona Pass, where he had
ascertained that a million and a half of rations for the
Federal army were stored, on which he probably depended to
replenish his commissariat. … General Sherman, … immediately
upon hearing that General Hood had crossed the Chattahoochee,
… despatched General Corse with reënforcements to Rome, which
he supposed the enemy were aiming at. During the previous week
he had sent General Thomas with troops to Nashville to look
after Forrest. His bridges having meanwhile been carried away
by a freshet which filled the Chattahoochee, he was unable to
move his main body until the 4th, when three pontoons were
laid down, over which the armies of the Cumberland, the
Tennessee, and the Ohio crossed, and took up their march in
the direction of Marietta, with 15 days' rations. The 20th
corps, General Slocum, was left to garrison Atlanta. Learning
that the enemy had captured Big Shanty and Ackworth, and were
threatening Allatoona, and alive to the imperative necessity
of holding the latter place, General Sherman at once
communicated by signals instruction to General Corse at Rome
to reënforce the small garrison and hold the defences until
the main body of the Federal army could come to his
assistance. Upon receiving the message General Corse placed
900 men on the cars, and reached Allatoona before the attack
of French. With this addition the garrison numbered 1,700 men,
with six guns. Early on the morning of the 5th, General
French, with 7,000 troops, approached Allatoona, and summoned
the Federal commander, 'in order to save the unnecessary
effusion of blood,' to make an immediate surrender; to which
the latter replied: 'I shall not surrender, and you can
commence the unnecessary effusion of blood whenever you
please.' The battle opened at 8 A. M., and was waged hotly
until 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Driven from fort to fort,
until they reached their last defence, the garrison fought
with an obstinacy and desperation worthy of the great stake
for which they contended. Their general was wounded early in
the action, but relaxed in no degree his efforts to repel the
enemy. … During the heat of the contest General Sherman
reached the summit of Kenesaw Mountain, whence he repeatedly
signalled to General Corse to hold out to the last. The
announcement of approaching succor animated the garrison to
renewed exertions, and they threw back the assaulting columns
of the enemy again and again, finally compelling them to
retire, beaten and disheartened, in the direction of Dallas.
Their retreat was hastened by the rapid approach of Stanley's
(4th) corps from the direction of Pine Mountain. The enemy
left 700 to 800 killed, wounded and prisoners in the hands of
the Federals, and their total loss must have exceeded 1,000.
The garrison lost 600 men. The town of Allatoona was reduced
to a mere wreck by the [severe fire of the enemy, and all the
Federal artillery and cavalry horses were killed; but the
valuable stores were saved, and the fort and pass held. The
only important injury done by the rebels, was the destruction
of six or seven miles of railroad between Big Shanty and
Allatoona, which General Sherman immediately commenced to
repair. For several days subsequent to the fight at Allatoona,
General Sherman remained in the latter place, watching the
movements of Hood, who, he suspected, would march for Rome,
and thence toward Bridgeport, or else to Kingston. … General
Hood, however, crossing the Etowah and avoiding Rome, moved
directly north, and on the 12th Stuart's corps of his army
appeared in front of Resaca, the defences of which were held
by Colonel Weaver with 600 men and three pieces of artillery.
… No serious attack was made upon the garrison, the enemy
being more intent upon destroying the railroad toward Dalton
than wasting their time or strength upon the reduction of a
post, the possession of which they wisely considered would be
of no particular advantage to them. … Meanwhile the rebel
army, pursuing its devastating march north, reached Dalton on
the 14th. … The 14th and 15th were employed by the enemy in
continuing the destruction of the railroad as far as Tunnel
Hill. …
{3541}
The approach of the Federal columns now warned General Hood to
move off to the west, and the 16th found him in full retreat
for Lafayette, followed by General Sherman. … From Lafayette
the enemy retreated in a southwesterly direction into Alabama
through a broken and mountainous country, but scantily
supplied with food for man or beast; and passing through
Summerville, Gaylesville, and Blue Pond, halted at Gadsdens,
on the Coosa River, 75 miles from Lafayette. Here he paused
for several days, receiving a few reënforcements brought up by
General Beauregard, who had on the 17th assumed command of the
Confederate military division of the West. … General Hood
still retained his special command, subject to the supervision
or direction of General Beauregard, and his army, after
remaining a few days in Gadsden, moved, about the 1st of
November, for Warrington, on the Tennessee River, 30 miles
distant. General Sherman meanwhile remained at Gaylesville,
which place his main body reached about the 21st, watching the
enemy's movements. … Whatever … might be the final result of
Hood's flanking movement, it had entirely failed to interrupt
the Federal communications to a degree that would compel the
evacuation of Atlanta. … In the light of subsequent events it
would now appear that General Sherman, making only a show of
following his adversary, deliberately lured him into Northern
Alabama, for the purpose of pursuing an uninterrupted march
with his own army through the heart of Georgia. The
ill-advised plan of General Hood had given him the very
opportunity which he desired, and he prepared at once to avail
himself of it."
_W. J. Tenney,
Military and Naval History in the United States,
chapter 45. _
ALSO IN:
_J. D. Cox,
Atlanta
(Campaigns of the Civil war, volume 9),
chapter 17._
_W. T. Sherman,
Memoirs,
chapter 19 (volume 2)._
_T. B. Van Horne,
Life of Major-General George H. Thomas,
volume 2, chapter 12._
_J. B. Hood,
Advance and Retreat,
chapter 15._
_Official Records,
1st Series, volume 39._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (October).
Admission of Nevada into the Union.
See NEVADA: A. D. 1848-1864.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (October).
Report on secret disloyal associations in the North.
Knights of the Golden Circle, etc.
"During more than a year past [this report bears date October
8, 1864], it has been generally known to our military
authorities that a secret and treasonable organization,
affiliated with the Southern Rebellion, and chiefly military
in its character, has been rapidly extending itself throughout
the West. A variety of agencies … have been employed, and
successfully, to ascertain its nature and extent, as well as
its aims and its results; and, as this investigation has led
to the arrest, in several States, of a number of its prominent
members, as dangerous public enemies, it has been deemed
proper to set forth in full the acts and purposes of this
organization. … This secret association first developed itself
in the West in the year 1862, about the period [August] of the
first conscription of troops, which it aimed to obstruct and
resist. Originally known in certain localities as the 'Mutual
Protection Society,' the 'Circle of Honor,' or the 'Circle' or
'Knights of the Mighty Host,' but more widely as the 'Knights
of the Golden Circle,' it was simply an inspiration of the
Rebellion, being little other than an extension, among the
disloyal and disaffected at the North, of the association of
the latter name, which had existed for some years at the South
[see GOLDEN CIRCLE, KNIGHTS OF], and from which it derived all
the chief features of its organization. During the Summer and
Fall of 1863, the Order, both at the North and South,
underwent some modifications as well as a change of name. In
consequence of a partial exposure which had been made of the
signs and ritual of the Knights of the Golden Circle, Sterling
Price had instituted, as its successor in Missouri, a secret
political association, which he called the Corps de Belgique,
or Southern League, his principal coadjutor being Charles L.
Hunt, of St. Louis, then Belgian Consul at that city. …
Meanwhile, also, there had been instituted at the North, in
the autumn of 1863, by sundry disloyal persons, prominent
among whom were Vallandigham and P. C. Wright, of New York, a
secret, Order intended to be general throughout the country …
and which was termed, and has since been widely known as the
O. A. K., or 'Order of American Knights.' … The secret signs
and character of the Order having become known to our military
authorities, further modifications in the ritual and forms
were introduced, and its name was finally changed to that of
the O. S. L., or 'Order of the Sons of Liberty,' or the
'Knights of the Order of the Sons of Liberty.' These later
changes are represented to have been first instituted … in May
last [1864], but the new name was at once generally adopted
throughout the West, though in some localities the association
is still better known as the 'Order of American Knights.'
Meanwhile, also, the Order has received certain local
designations. In parts of Illinois it has been called at times
the 'Peace Organization,' in Kentucky the 'Star Organization,'
and in Missouri the 'American Organization;' these, however,
being apparently names used outside of the lodges of the
Order. Its members have also been familiarly designated as
'Butternuts' by the country people of Illinois, Indiana, and
Ohio. … The 'Temples' or 'Lodges' of the Order are numerously
scattered through the States of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio,
Missouri, and Kentucky. They are also officially reported as
established, to a less extent, in Michigan and the other
Western States, as well as in New York, Pennsylvania, New
Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland,
Delaware, and Tennessee. … It has been asserted by delegates
to the Supreme Council of February last, that the number was
there represented to be from 800,000 to 1,000,000; but
Vallandigham, in his speech last summer at Dayton, Ohio,
placed it at 500,000, which is probably much nearer the true
total. … Although the Order has, from the outset, partaken of
the military character, it was not till the summer or fall of
1863 that it began to be generally organized as an armed
body.' … In March last the entire armed force of the Order
capable of being mobilized for effective service was
represented to be 340,000 men."
_J. Holt,
Judge Advocate General's Report on Secret Associations
and Conspiracies against the Government._
ALSO IN:
_E. McPherson,
Political History of the United States
during the Great Rebellion,
appendix, pages 445-454._
_J. A. Logan,
The Great Conspiracy,
page 499, and appendix chapter B._
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 8, chapter 1._
See, also, COPPERHEADS.
{3542}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (October).
The St. Albans Raid.
"Along the Northern border … the rebel agents, sent thither on
'detached service' by the Rebel Government, were active in
movements intended to terrify and harass the people. On the
19th of October, a party of them made a raid into St. Albans,
Vermont, robbing the banks there, and making their escape
across the lines into Canada with their plunder, having killed
one of the citizens in their attack. Pursuit was made, and
several of the marauders were arrested in Canada. Proceedings
were commenced to procure their extradition [which were
protracted until after the close of the war]. … The Government
received information that this affair was but one of a
projected series, and that similar attempts would be made all
along the frontier. More than this, there were threats,
followed by actual attempts, to set fire to the principal
Northern cities."
_H. J. Raymond,
Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln,
page 611._
ALSO IN:
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 8, chapter 1._
_Correspondence relating to the Fenian Invasion
and the Rebellion of the Southern States
(Ottawa, 1869), pages 117-138._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (October: North Carolina).
The destruction of the ram Albemarle.
The ram Albemarle, which had proved in the spring so dangerous
an antagonist to the blockading vessels in the North Carolina
Sounds, was still lying at Plymouth, in the Roanoke River, and
another attack from her was feared by the fleet.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864
(APRIL-MAY: NORTH CAROLINA).
"She was finally destroyed by a brave young lieutenant,
William B. Cushing, who blew her up with a torpedo. Though
only twenty years old, he was one of the most daring officers
in the navy, and he had become noted for his fearlessness in
the expeditions in the sounds and rivers of North Carolina.
One dark night (October 27) he set out from the fleet in a
steam launch—a long open boat used by naval vessels—with a
crew of thirteen officers and men. The launch was fitted with
a torpedo which could be run out forward on the end of a long
boom so as to be thrust under the vessel to be attacked.
Cushing got within sixty feet of the Albemarle before his boat
was seen. The guards then shouted the alarm, rang the boat's
bell, and began firing their muskets at the launch. There was
a raft of logs thirty feet wide around the Albemarle to
protect her from just such attacks, but Cushing ran the bow of
the launch upon the logs, lowered the boom so that the torpedo
came right under the side of the vessel, and fired it. At the
same moment a shot from one of the great guns of the ram
crashed through the launch, and it was overwhelmed by a flood
of water thrown up by the explosion of the torpedo. The
Confederates called out to Cushing to surrender, but he
refused, and ordering his men to save themselves as they best
could, he sprang into the water amid a shower of musket balls
and swam down the river. He succeeded in reaching the shore,
almost exhausted, and hid himself during the next day in a
swamp, where he was cared for by some negroes. From them he
heard that the Albemarle had been sunk by his torpedo. The
next night he found a small boat in a creek, paddled in it
down the river, and before midnight was safe on board one of
the vessels of the fleet. Only one other man of the party
escaped, all the rest being either drowned or captured. The
Albemarle being thus put out of the way, Plymouth was
recaptured a few days afterward."
_J. D. Champlin, Jr.
Young Folks' History of the War for the Union,
chapter 33._
ALSO IN:
_W. B. Cushing, E. Holden, and others,
The Confederate Ram Albemarle
(Battles and Leaders, volume 4)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (November: Tennessee).
Hood's advance Northward.
The Battle of Franklin.
When General Sherman started on his march to the sea General
Thomas was left to oppose Hood. "The force Thomas had for this
purpose was curiously small, considering how formidable Hood's
army had been in the Atlanta Campaign, and still was. All
Thomas had for immediate field service were the Fourth and
Twenty-Third Corps, numbering together about 22,000 infantry,
and also about 3,000 cavalry. These troops were sent to
Pulaski, Tennessee, in command of General Schofield, Thomas,
himself remaining at Nashville. A little after the middle of
November, 1864, Hood crossed the Tennessee River and
inaugurated his campaign by a flank movement. He made a rapid
march upon Columbia, with the view of getting in behind
Schofield, who was at Pulaski. But Schofield retired to
Columbia in time to frustrate Hood's plans. The two armies
remained in close proximity to each other at Columbia until
November 28th, when Hood made another skilfully-planned flank
movement … to Spring Hill, in rear of Schofield. Again Hood
was foiled. … General Thomas at Nashville wanted the
Confederates held back as long as possible, in order that he
might have time to receive there his expected reinforcement of
A. J. Smith's corps. It was, therefore, Schofield's duty to
check Hood's advance as long as he could. … He started General
Stanley, with a division of 5,000 men, and a great part of his
artillery, to Spring Hill (12 miles north of Columbia) early
in the morning. He put two other divisions on the road. He
held one division in front of Columbia, and prevented the
enemy from crossing the river during the entire day, and also
that night. Stanley reached Spring Hill in time to prevent
Hood from occupying that place. He skirmished and fought with
Hood's advance troops at Spring Hill during the afternoon of
November 29th. … Schofield … accomplished exactly what he
believed he could accomplish. He held back his enemy at
Columbia with one hand and fenced off the blow at Spring Hill
with the other. … The beneficial result of all this bold
management of Schofield, November 29th, was apparent the next
day in the battle of Franklin. Hood fought that great battle
practically without his artillery. He only had the two
batteries which he took with him on his detour to Spring Hill.
Those two he used. … But his vast supply of artillery had all
been detained at Columbia too long to be of any service at the
time and place it was most needed. … The Federal troops left
Spring Hill in the night for Franklin, ten miles distant.
Early in the morning of November 30th they began to arrive at
Franklin, and were placed in position covering the town. Early
the same morning the Confederates moved up from Spring Hill,
following hard upon the rearmost of the Federals. …
{3543}
General Stanley says, in his official report: 'From one
o'clock until four in the evening, the enemy's entire force
was in sight and forming for attack. Yet, in view of the
strong position we held, and reasoning from the former course
of the rebels during the campaign, nothing appeared so
improbable as that they would assault.'" The assault was made,
however, with a terrible persistency which proved the ruin of
Hood's army, for it failed. "The Confederate loss in this
dreadful battle can be estimated from data given. There is
good authority for stating the killed at 1,750. The usual
proportion of killed and wounded is four or five to one. This
would make the killed and wounded not less than 7,000 or
8,000. The attacking force numbered full 20,000. … Hood's loss
was, indeed, more than one-third of the attacking force. The
Federal loss was much smaller, being 1,222 killed and wounded.
… One of the features of this battle was the enormous
expenditure of ammunition [100 wagon loads] in the short time
of its duration. … The expenditure of so much ammunition
produced a dense smoke, which hung over the field, and brought
on sudden darkness, like an eclipse. So noticeable was this
phenomenon, it is mentioned in all the official reports. … In
the darkness of the night the battle ended. The Confederates
desisted, and the Federal line became quiet. … In their front,
and so near that the outstretched hand could almost reach
them, were thousands of men in the agonies of death. The wail
that went up from that field as the thunder of the battle
ceased can never be forgotten by those who heard it. … The
[Federal] troops were quietly withdrawn before midnight. A
silent rapid march brought them to Nashville the next morning,
and weary with fighting and marching they bivouacked in the
blue grass pastures under the guns of Fort Negley."
_T. Speed,
The Battle of Franklin
(Sketches of War History,
Ohio Commandery L. L. of the United States, volume 3). _
ALSO IN:
_T. B. Van Horne,
Life of General George H. Thomas,
chapter 13._
_J. B. Hood,
Advance and Retreat,
chapters 10-17._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (November-December: Georgia).
Sherman's March to the Sea.
"It was at Alatoona, probably, that Sherman first realized
that, with the forces at his disposal, the keeping open of his
line of communications with the North would be impossible if
he expected to retain any force with which to operate
offensively beyond Atlanta.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864
(September-October: Georgia).
He proposed, therefore, to destroy the roads back to
Chattanooga, when all ready to move, and leave the latter
place garrisoned. … Sherman thought Hood would follow him,
though he proposed to prepare for the contingency of the
latter moving the other way while he was moving south, by
making Thomas strong enough to hold Tennessee and Kentucky. I
myself [writes General Grant] was thoroughly satisfied that
Hood would go north, as he did. On the 2d of November I
telegraphed Sherman authorizing him definitely to move
according to the plan he had proposed: that is, cutting loose
from his base, giving up Atlanta and the railroad back to
Chattanooga. … Atlanta was destroyed so far as to render it
worthless for military purposes before starting, Sherman
himself remaining over a day to superintend the work and see
that it was well done. Sherman's orders for this campaign were
perfect. Before starting, he had sent back all sick, disabled
and weak men, retaining nothing but the hardy, well-inured
soldiers to accompany him on his long march in prospect. … The
army was expected to live on the country. … Each brigade
furnished a company to gather supplies of forage and
provisions for the command to which they belonged. … The skill
of these men, called by themselves and the army 'bummers,' in
collecting their loads and getting back to their respective
commands, was marvellous."
_U. S. Grant,
Personal Memoirs,
chapter 59 (volume 2)._
All preparations being completed, General Sherman caused the
foundries, mills and shops of every kind in Rome to be
destroyed on the 10th of November, and "started on the 12th
with his full staff from Kingston to Atlanta. … As Sherman
rode towards Atlanta that night he met railroad trains going
to the rear with furious speed. He was profoundly impressed
with the strange aspect of affairs: two hostile armies
marching in opposite directions, each in the full belief that
it was achieving a final and conclusive result in the great
war. 'I was strongly inspired,' he writes, 'with a feeling
that the movement on our part was a direct attack upon the
rebel army and the rebel capital at Richmond, though a full
thousand miles of hostile country intervened; and that for
better or worse it would end the war.' The result was a
magnificent vindication of this soldierly intuition. His army
consisted in round numbers of 60,000 men, the most perfect in
strength, health, and intelligence that ever went to war. He
had thoroughly purged it of all inefficient material, sending
to the rear all organizations and even all individuals that he
thought would be a drag upon his celerity or strength. His
right wing, under Howard, consisted of the Fifteenth Corps,
commanded by Osterhaus, in the absence of John A. Logan; and
the Seventeenth Corps, commanded by Frank P. Blair, Jr. The
left wing, commanded by Slocum, comprised the Fourteenth
Corps, under Jeff. C. Davis, and the Twentieth Corps, under A.
S. Williams. In his general orders he had not intimated to the
army the object of their march. 'It is sufficient for you to
know,' he said, 'that it involves a departure from our present
base and a long, difficult march to a new one.' His special
field orders are a model of clearness and conciseness. The
habitual order of march was to be, wherever practicable, by
four roads as nearly parallel as possible, and converging at
points to be indicated from time to time. There was to be no
general train of supplies; behind each regiment should follow
one wagon and one ambulance; a due proportion of wagons for
ammunition and provision behind each brigade; the separate
columns were to start at seven in the morning and make about
fifteen miles a day. The army was to subsist liberally on the
country; forage parties, under the command of discreet
officers, were to gather near the routes traveled whatever was
needed by the command, aiming to keep in the wagons a reserve
of at least ten days' provisions; soldiers were strictly
forbidden to enter dwellings of inhabitants or commit
trespasses; the power to destroy mills, houses, cotton gins,
etc., was intrusted to corps commanders alone.
{3544}
No destruction of property was to be permitted in districts
where the army was unmolested; but relentless devastation was
ordered in case of the manifestation of local hostility by the
shooting of soldiers or the burning of bridges. … Precisely at
seven o'clock on the morning of the 16th of November the great
army started on its march. A band struck up the anthem of
'John Brown's body lies a-moldering in the grave'; the
soldiers caught up the refrain, and, to the swelling chorus of
'Glory, Hallelujah,' the great march was begun. The month that
followed will always remain to those 60,000 men the most
romantic and inspiring memory of their lives. The weather was
favorable all the way; to veterans the marches were of
reasonable length; the work of destroying the Southern
railroads was so easy to their experienced hands that it
hardly delayed the day's march. With the exception of the
affair on the 22d of November, when P. J. Phillips with a
division of Smith's Georgia troops attacked C. C. Walcutt's
Brigade, which was marching as the rear-guard of the right
wing at Griswoldville, and met with a severe repulse, and a
series of cavalry fights between Wheeler and Kilpatrick near
'Waynesboro', there was no fighting to do between Atlanta and
Savannah. A swarm of militia and irregular cavalry hung, it is
true, about the front and flank of the marching army, but were
hardly a source of more annoyance than so many mosquitoes
would have been. The foragers brought in every evening their
heterogeneous supplies from the outlying plantations, and
although they had to defend themselves every day from
scattered forces of the enemy, the casualties which they
reported each evening were insignificant. The utmost efforts
of Sherman and his officers to induce the negroes to remain
quietly at home were not entirely successful. The promise of
freedom which was to come to them from the victory of the
Union cause was too vague and indefinite to content them. …
The simple-hearted freedmen gathered in an ever-increasing
cloud in rear of the army; and when the campaign was over they
peopled the sea-islands of Georgia and furnished, after the
war, the principal employment of the Freedmen's Commission.
The march produced an extraordinary effervescence throughout
the Confederacy. If words could avail anything against heavy
battalions, Sherman would have been annihilated in his first
day's march. … As Sherman drew near to Milledgeville on the
23d of November the Georgia Legislature passed an act to levy
the population en masse; but this act of desperate legislation
had no effect in checking the march of the 'Yankees,' and the
Governor, State officers, and Legislature fled in the utmost
confusion as Sherman entered the place. The Union general
occupied the Executive Mansion for a day; some of the soldiers
went to the State House, organized themselves into a
constituent assembly, and after a spirited mock-serious
debate, repealed the ordinance of secession. Sherman took the
greatest possible pains to prevent any damage to the city and
marched out on the 24th on the way to Millen. … Finding it
impossible to stop him, the Georgia State troops by sharp
marching had made their way directly to the vicinity of
Savannah, where Sherman himself arrived and invested the city
from the Savannah to the little Ogeechee River, on the 10th of
December."
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 9, chapter 20._
On the 13th, Fort McAllister, which commanded the Ogeechee
River, was stormed and taken by Hazen's division, and
communication was opened with Admiral Dahlgren, and with
General Foster, the Union commander at Port Royal. On the
17th, General Hardee, the Confederate commander at Savannah,
refused a demand for the surrender of the city, but on the
night of the 20th he escaped, with his forces, and on the 22d
General Sherman telegraphed to President Lincoln: "I beg to
present to you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah, with
150 heavy guns and plenty of ammunition; also about 25,000
bales of cotton."
ALSO IN:
_J. D. Cox,
The March to the Sea
(Campaigns of the Civil War, volume 10),
chapter 3._
_O. O. Howard, and others,
Sherman's March
(Battles and Leaders, volume 4)._
_W. T. Sherman,
Memoirs,
chapter 20 (volume 2)._
_G. W. Nichols,
The Story of the Great March._
_W. B. Hazen,
Narrative of Military Service,
chapters 21-22._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (December: Tennessee).
The Battle of Nashville and the destruction of Hood's army.
After the battle of Franklin Hood went forward to Nashville,
with his badly shaken army, and invested that place.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (NOVEMBER: TENNESSEE).
Thomas was strongly fortified, and quietly took his time to
make ready before striking his audacious antagonist, unmoved
by repeated demands for an advance, from the War Office, the
President, and General Grant. "With all just confidence in
Thomas' ability, the entire North insisted on instant action,
and Grant finally ordered Thomas either to move upon Hood at
once or else turn over the command to Schofield. Thomas
quietly replied that he would cheerfully do the latter, if
directed, but would not attack Hood until he was satisfied
that the time was ripe. He desired both favorable weather and
to increase his force of mounted men. But the enemy was
devastating a considerable part of Tennessee and was forcing
all the young men into their ranks; and everyone was fearful
of a repetition of Bragg's march to the Ohio in 1862. Logan
was finally ordered to Nashville to supplant Thomas. But
before he could reach the ground, Thomas had struck his blow.
His preparations had been two weeks before substantially
completed. Small detachments were at Murfreesboro',
Chattanooga, and along the railroad. This latter had been,
however, interrupted by Hood for a number of days. A heavy
storm of sleet and ice had made the country almost impassable
and would render the operations of the attacking party
uncertain. Thomas had made up his mind to wait for clearing
weather. Finally came sunshine and with it Thomas' advance.
Hood lay in his front, with Stewart on his left, Lee in the
centre and Cheatham on the right, while a portion of Forrest's
cavalry was operating out upon his left. He had some 44,000
men, but his check and heavy losses at Franklin had seriously
impaired the 'morale' of his army as well as thinned his
ranks. Hood could, however, not retreat. He was committed to a
death-struggle with Thomas. It was his last chance as a
soldier. The Union general had placed A. J. Smith on his
right, the Fourth corps in the centre, and Schofield on the
left. He advanced on Hood, bearing heavily with his right,
while sharply demonstrating with his left. The position of the
Confederate Army had placed A. J. Smith's corps obliquely to
their general line of battle, an advantage not to be
neglected.
{3545}
Smith pushed in, later supported by Schofield, and
successively capturing the field-works erected by the enemy's
main line and reserves, disastrously crushed Hood's left
flank. Meanwhile Wood was making all but equal headway against
Hood's right, and the first day closed with remarkable success
for the amount of loss sustained. Still this was not victory.
The morrow might bring reverse. Hood's fight promised to be
with clenched teeth. Hood seriously missed Forrest, whom he
had detached on a raiding excursion and without whose cavalry
his flanks were naked. Cheatham he moved during the night over
from the right to sustain his left, which had proved the
weaker wing. On the morning of the next day he lay intrenched
upon the hills back of his former line, with either flank
somewhat refused. Thomas sent Wilson with his cavalry to work
his way unobserved around the extreme left flank thus thrown
back. At 4 P. M. a general assault was made all along the
line. Upon our left, Wood's advance did not meet with success.
On the right, however, A. J. Smith's onset, concentrated at
the salient of Hood's left centre, proved heavy enough to
break down the Confederate defense. Sharply following up his
successes, allowing no breathing time to the exultant troops,
Smith pushed well home, and overcoming all resistance, drove
the enemy in wild confusion from the field. Meanwhile Wilson's
troopers, dismounted, fell upon the Confederate flank and rear
and increased the wreck tenfold. This advantage again enabled
Wood to make some headway, and with renewed joint effort the
rout of the enemy became overwhelming. Almost all organization
was lost in Hood's army as it fled across the country towards
Franklin. Pursuit was promptly undertaken, but though
seriously harassed, Hood saved himself beyond the Tennessee
river with the remnants of his army. Thomas' losses were 3,000
men, Hood's were never officially given, but our trophies
included 4,500 prisoners and 53 guns. Thomas had settled all
adverse speculation upon his slowness in attacking Hood by the
next to annihilation he wrought when he actually moved upon
him. No army was so completely overthrown during our war."
_T. A. Dodge,
Bird's-Eye View of our Civil War,
chapter 58._
ALSO IN:
_T. B. Van Horne,
History of the Army of the Cumberland,
chapter 35 (volume 2)._
_W. Swinton,
The Twelve Decisive Battles of the War,
chapter 11._
_J. D. Cox,
The March to the Sea, Franklin and Nashville
(Campaigns of the Civil War, volume 10),
chapters 6-7._
_H. Stone,
Repelling Hood's Invasion
(Battles and Leaders, volume 4)._
_H. Coppée,
General Thomas,
chapter 11-12._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864-1865
(December-January: North Carolina).
The Capture of Fort Fisher.
"In the latter part of 1864 two ports only, Wilmington and
Charleston, remained to the Confederates. … The northward
march of Sherman would cut off Charleston, too, so that the
Confederates would have to abandon it. The National government
now desired to complete its work by capturing Fort Fisher, and
thus finally shutting off the Confederacy from all
communication with the foreign world. The accomplishment of
this task was in no wise easy. … The army and navy co-operated
in the attempts to reduce Fort Fisher. There were more than 50
men-of-war tossing on the waves before the lowering sea-front
of the work. Six thousand five hundred men were in the
military force. They were in command of General B. F. Butler,
whom we saw last in New Orleans. The General's active and
ingenious mind conceived a plan for destroying the fort
without sacrificing a single Federal soldier. He procured an
old gun-boat, painted it white and otherwise disguised it, so
as to look like a blockade-runner, stored 250 tons of
gunpowder in its hold with fuses penetrating every part, ran
the craft in within 1,500 feet of the works and exploded it.
Butler expected that the shock would demolish the seaward face
of the fort altogether, and perhaps bury the guns under great
masses of sand, but in this he was mistaken, for the heavy
bastions were not in the least disturbed by the shock. … The
navy then took its turn, and for some hours the heavy vessels
of Admiral Porter's fleet poured so rapid and well aimed a
fire upon the work, that the garrison were driven from their
guns, and only the occasional report of a heavy cannon told
that the fort was still tenanted. But secure in their heavy
bomb-proofs, the garrison minded the storm of shells and solid
shot no more than the well-housed farmer heeds a hailstorm. It
was very clear that Fort Fisher could not be taken at long
range. … The original plan had contemplated an assault as soon
as the fire of the fleet should have silenced the guns of the
fort, and in pursuance of this 700 men had been landed from
the army transports. But the weather was too rough to permit
of landing more troops that day, and the next morning General
Butler concluded that Fort Fisher was impregnable, withdrew
his men already landed, and sailed away, greatly to the
disgust of the navy. This was on the 25th of December, 1864.
The chagrin of the whole North over the failure of the
expedition was so great that it was speedily determined to
renew the attempt. January 13th saw a new Federal force, this
time under command of General A. H. Terry, landing on the
shore of the sandy neck of land above the fort. … At early
dawn of the 15th the attack was begun. The ships arranged in a
great semicircle poured their fire upon the fort, dismantling
guns, driving the garrison to the bomb-proofs, and mowing down
the stockade. A line of sharp-shooters, each carrying a shovel
in one hand and a gun in the other, spring out from Terry's
most advanced lines, rush forward to within 175 yards of the
fort and dig pits for their protection before the Confederates
can attack them. Then the sharpshooters and the navy occupy
the attention of the enemy, while Curtis's brigade dashes
forward and digs a trench within 500 yards of the fort. By
this time too a party of 2,000 sailors and marines has been
landed from the fleet. They are to storm the sea-wall of the
fort while the army attacks its landward face. Suddenly the
thunder of the naval artillery is stilled. There is a moment
of silence, and then the shrill scream of the whistles rises
from every steamer in the fleet. It is the signal for the
assault. The sailors on the beach spring to their feet and
dash forward at a rapid run; they fire no shot, for they carry
no guns. Cutlasses and pistols, the blue-jackets' traditional
weapons, are their only arms. Toward the other side of the
fort came Terry's troops. … The fate of the naval column is
quickly determined. Upon it is concentrated the fire of the
heaviest Confederate batteries, Napoleon guns, Columbiads, and
rifles shotted with grape and cannister.
{3546}
The blue-jackets, unable to reply to this murderous fire, and
seeing their companions falling fast around them, waver, halt,
and fall back to the beach, throwing themselves upon the
ground to escape the enemy's missiles. But though repulsed
they have contributed largely to the capture of the fort.
While the chief attention of Confederates has been directed
toward them, the troops have been carrying all before them on
the other front. Colonel Lamb turns from his direction of the
defense against the naval column to see three Union flags
waving over other portions of the work. … The Confederates
were determined, even desperate. Long after the fort was
virtually in the hands of its captors they stubbornly clung to
a bomb-proof. Finally they retreated to Battery Buchanan and
there maintained themselves stoutly until late at night when,
all hope being at an end, they surrendered themselves, and the
National victory was complete."
_W. J. Abbot,
Battle-Fields and Victory,
chapter 15._
ALSO IN:
_D. D. Porter,
Naval History of the Civil War,
chapters 49-51._
_W. Lamb and T. O. Selfridge, Jr.,
The Capture of Fort Fisher
(Battles and Leaders, volume 4)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (January).
Congressional adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment.
"On the last day of [January, 1865] … one of the grandest
events of the century was witnessed in the House of
Representatives in the final passage of the Constitutional
Amendment [the Thirteenth] forever prohibiting slavery.
Numerous propositions on the subject had been submitted, but
the honor of drafting the one adopted belongs to Lyman
Trumbull, who had introduced it early in the first session of
this Congress. It passed the Senate on the 8th of April, 1864,
only six members voting against it, … but failed in the House
on the 15th of June following. It now came up on the motion of
Mr. Ashley to reconsider this vote. Congress had abolished
slavery in the District of Columbia, and prohibited it in all
the Territories. It had repealed the Fugitive Slave law, and
declared free all negro soldiers in the Union armies and their
families; and the President had played his grand part in the
Proclamation of Emancipation. But the question now to be
decided completely overshadowed all others. The debate on the
subject had been protracted and very spirited. … The time for
the momentous vote had now come, and no language could
describe the solemnity and impressiveness of the spectacle
pending the roll-call. The success of the measure had been
considered very doubtful, and depended upon certain
negotiations, the result of which was not fully assured, and
the particulars of which never reached the public. The anxiety
and suspense during the balloting produced a deathly
stillness, but when it became certainly known that the measure
had prevailed the cheering in the densely-packed hall and
galleries surpassed all precedent and beggared all
description. Members joined in the general shouting, which was
kept up for several minutes, many embracing each other, and
others completely surrendering themselves to their tears of
joy. It seemed to me I had been born into a new life."
_G. W. Julian,
Political Recollections,
chapter 11._
"The Joint Resolution passed [the House of Representatives, on
the 31st of January], 119 to 56, 8 not voting, 10 Democrats
voting aye. … It was the greatest day the House had ever seen,
nor is it likely ever to see a greater."
_O. J. Hollister,
Life of Schuyler Colfax,
page 245._
The Thirteenth Amendment, which was ratified before the close
of the year by three-fourths of the States, and its embodiment
in the Constitution of the United States proclaimed by the
Secretary of State on the 18th of December, 1865, is as
follows:
"Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except
as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any
place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article
by appropriate legislation."
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (February).
The Hampton Roads Peace Conference.
"Several informal attempts at opening negotiations for the
termination of hostilities were made in the course of this
Winter—Honorable Francis P. Blair, of Maryland, visiting
Richmond twice on the subject, with the consent, though not by
the request, of President Lincoln. At length, upon their
direct application, Messrs. Alex. H. Stephens, John A.
Campbell, and Robert M. T. Hunter, were permitted to pass
General Grant's lines before Petersburg, and proceed to
Fortress Monroe; where [on board a steamer in Hampton Roads]
they were met by Gov. [Secretary of State] Seward, followed by
President Lincoln; and a free, full conference was had."
_H. Greeley,
The American Conflict,
volume 2, chapter 30._
Secretary Seward first went to meet the three Confederate
Commissioners, with the following letter of instructions from
President Lincoln, dated January 31, 1865: "Honorable William
H. Seward, Secretary of State: You will proceed to Fortress
Monroe, Virginia, there to meet and informally confer with
Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, on the basis of my
letter to F. P. Blair, Esq., of January 18, 1865, a copy of
which you have. You will make known to them that three things
are indispensable, to wit:
1. The restoration of the national authority throughout all
the States.
2. No receding by the executive of the United States on the
slavery question from the position assumed thereon in the late
annual message to Congress, and in preceding documents.
3. No cessation of hostilities short of an end of the war and
the disbanding of all forces hostile to the government.
You will inform them that all propositions of theirs, not
inconsistent with the above, will be considered and passed
upon in a spirit of sincere liberality. You will hear all they
may choose to say, and report it to me. You will not assume to
definitely consummate anything. Yours, etc., Abraham Lincoln."
Two days later, the President followed him, persuaded by a
telegram from General Grant to meet the Commissioners
personally. In a subsequent message to the Senate, Mr. Lincoln
reported the results of the conference as follows: "On the
morning of the 3d, the three gentlemen, Messrs. Stephens,
Hunter, and Campbell, came aboard of our steamer, and had an
interview with the Secretary of State and myself, of several
hours' duration. No question of preliminaries to the meeting
was then and there made or mentioned. No other person was
present; no papers were exchanged or produced; and it was, in
advance, agreed that the conversation was to be informal and
verbal merely.
{3547}
On our part the whole substance of the instructions to the
Secretary of State, hereinbefore recited, was stated and
insisted upon, and nothing was said inconsistent therewith;
while, by the other party, it was not said that in any event
or on any condition, they ever would consent to reunion; and
yet they equally omitted to declare that they never would so
consent. They seemed to desire a postponement of that
question, and the adoption of some other course first which,
as some of them seemed to argue, might or might not lead to
reunion; but which course, we thought, would amount to an
indefinite postponement. The conference ended without result."
_A. Lincoln,
Complete Works,
volume 2, pages 644-649._
ALSO IN:
_B. J. Lossing,
Field Book of the Civil War,
volume 3, chapter 20._
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 10, chapter 6._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (February: South Carolina).
Evacuation of Charleston by the Confederates.
Federal occupation of the City.
While General Hardee, with 14,000 men, waited at Charleston
for the expected coming of General Sherman to attack that
city, the latter pursued a movement which made Charleston
untenable and shook it like a ripened apple into the hands of
General Gillmore, who was waiting at the gates. The
Confederates evacuated the city in haste and with reckless
disorder, and it was occupied by the Federal troops on the
morning of the 18th of February. The following is the report
of Colonel A. G. Bennett, who was the first to enter the city:
"On the morning of February the 18th I received information
that led me to believe the defences and lines guarding the
city of Charles·ton had been deserted by the enemy. I
immediately proceeded to Cummings Point, from whence I sent a
small boat in the direction of Fort Moultrie, which boat, when
40 yards east from Fort Sumter, was met by a boat from
Sullivan's Island, containing a full corps of band musicians
abandoned by the enemy. These con·firmed my belief of an
evacuation. I had no troops that could be available under two
hours, as, except in a few pontoon boats, there were no means
whatever of landing troops near the enemy's works or into the
city. I directed Major Hennessy to proceed to Fort Sumter and
there replace our flag. The flag was replaced over the
southeast angle of Fort Sumter at 9 o'clock A. M. I now pushed
for the city, stopping at Fort Ripley and Castle Pinckney,
from which works Rebel flags were hauled down and the American
flag substituted. … I landed at Mill's wharf, Charleston, at
10 o'clock A. M. where I learned that a part of the enemy's
troops yet remained in the city, while mounted patrols were
out in every direction applying the torch and driving the
inhabitants before them. I at once addressed to the Mayor of
the city [a communication demanding its surrender]. … My whole
force consisted of five officers and the armed crews of two
small boats, comprising in all 22 men. Both officers and men
volunteered to advance from the wharf into the city; but no
reenforcements being in sight, I did not deem it expedient to
move on. Public buildings, stores, warehouses, private
dwellings, shipping, etc., were burning and being fired by
armed Rebels, but with the force at my disposal it was
impossible to save the cotton and other property. While
awaiting the arrival of my troops at Mill's wharf, a number of
explosions took place. The Rebel commissary depot was blown
up, and with it is estimated that not less than 200 human
beings—most of whom were women and children—were blown to
atoms. These people were engaged in procuring food for
themselves and their families by permission from the Rebel
military authorities. … Observing a small boat sailing toward
the bay under a flag of truce, I put off to it, and received
from a member of the common council a letter [from the Mayor,
announcing the evacuation of the city by the Confederate
military authorities]. … The deputation sent to convey the
above letter represented to me that the city was in the hands
of either the Rebel soldiery or the mob. They entreated of me
in the name of humanity to interpose my military authority and
save the city from utter destruction. … Two companies of the
52d Pennsylvania regiment and about 30 men of the 3d Rhode
Island volunteer heavy artillery having landed, I proceeded
with them to the citadel. I here established my headquarters,
and sent small parties in all directions with instructions to
impress negroes wherever found, and to make them work the fire
apparatus, until all fires were extinguished."
_A. G. Bennett,
Report, February 24, 1865
(quoted in Tenney's Military and Naval History
of the Rebellion, chapter 49)._
At noon on the 14th of April, 1865, the fourth anniversary of
the lowering of the flag of the United States at Fort Sumter,
it was formally raised by General Anderson over the ruins of
the fort, with impressive ceremonies, in which many visitors
from the North took part. An address was delivered on the
occasion by the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865
(February-March: The Carolinas).
Sherman's march from Savannah to Goldsboro.
The burning of Columbia.
The Battle of Bentonsville.
"By the middle of January, a lodgment had been effected in
South Carolina [at Pocotaligo, on the railroad between
Savannah and Charleston], and Sherman had his whole army once
more in hand as a moving column. He had no idea of wasting
time on either Charleston or Augusta, but he determined to
play upon the fears of the rebels, and compel them to retain a
force to protect those places. … Accordingly he gave out with
some ostentation that he was moving upon either Charles·ton or
Augusta. Early in January the heavy winter rains set in,
rendering the roads almost impassable. … This flood delayed
the departure of the column for quite two weeks. … On the 1st
of February, the army designed for the active campaign from
Savannah northward was again 60,000 strong; and, as before,
was composed of two wings, the right under Howard and the left
under Slocum. Kilpatrick was once more chief of cavalry.
Sixty-eight guns accompanied the command. The wagons were
2,500 in number, and carried an ample supply of ammunition for
one great battle, forage for a week, and provisions for twenty
days. For fresh meat Sherman depended on beeves driven on the
hoof, and such cattle, hogs, and poultry as might be gathered
on the march. … Sherman … started on his northward march on
the 1st of February. On that day his right wing was south of
the Salkehatchie river, and his left still struggling in the
swamps of the Savannah, at Sister's Ferry. … The division
generals led their columns through the swamps, the water up to
their shoulders, crossed over to the pine land beyond, and
then, turning upon the rebels who had opposed the passage,
drove them off in utter disorder.
{3548}
All the roads northward had been held for weeks by Wheeler's
cavalry, and details of negro laborers had been compelled to
fell trees and burn bridges to impede the national march.
Sherman's pioneers, however, removed the trees, and the heads
of columns rebuilt the bridges before the rear could close up,
and the rebels retreated behind the Edisto river at
Branchville. … Sherman determined to waste no time on
Branchville, which the enemy could no longer hold, and turned
his columns directly north upon Columbia, where it was
supposed the rebels would concentrate. Attempts were made to
delay him at the crossings of the rivers; there were numerous
bridge-heads with earth or cotton parapets to carry, and
cypress swamps to cross; but nothing stayed his course. On the
13th, he learned that there was no enemy in Columbia except
Hampton's cavalry. Hardee, at Charleston, took it for granted
that Sherman was moving upon that place, and the rebels in
Augusta supposed that they were Sherman's object; so
Charleston and Augusta were protected, while Columbia was
abandoned to the care of the cavalry." With little or no
resistance, Sherman entered the capital of South Carolina on
the 17th of February. "Hampton had ordered all cotton, public
and private, to be moved into the streets and fired. Bales
were piled up everywhere, the rope and bagging cut, and the
tufts of cotton blown about by the wind, or lodged in the
trees and against the houses, presented the appearance of a
snow-storm. Some of these piles of cotton were burning in the
heart of the town. Sherman, meanwhile, had given orders to
destroy the arsenals and public property not needed by his
army, as well as railroad stations and machines, but to spare
all dwellings, colleges, schools, asylums, and 'harmless
private property'; and the fires lighted by Hampton were
partially subdued by the national soldiers. But before the
torch had been put to a single building by Sherman's order,
the smouldering fires set by Hampton were rekindled by the
wind and communicated to the buildings around. About dark the
flames began to spread, and were soon beyond the control of
the brigade on duty in the town. An entire division was now
brought in, but it was found impossible to check the
conflagration, which by midnight had become quite
unmanageable. It raged till about four A. M. on the 18th, when
the wind subsided, and the flames were got under control. …
Beauregard, meanwhile, and the rebel cavalry, had retreated
upon Charlotte, in North Carolina, due north from Columbia;
and on the 20th and 21st Sherman followed as far as Winnsboro.
… At Winnsboro, however, Sherman turned his principal columns
northeastward towards Goldsboro, still 200 miles away. Heavy
rains again impeded his movements … and it was not till the 3d
of March that the army arrived at Cheraw. At this point large
quantities of guns and ammunition were captured, brought from
Charleston under the supposition that here, at least, they
would be secure. Hardee had moved due north from Charleston by
his only remaining railroad, through Florence, but only
reached Cheraw in time to escape with his troops across the
Pedee river, just before Sherman arrived. … Having secured the
passage of the Pedee … Sherman had but little uneasiness about
the future. … On the 11th of March, Fayetteville was reached,
and Sherman had traversed the entire extent of South Carolina.
On the 12th, he sent a dispatch to Grant, the first since
leaving the Savannah. … On the 15th of March, the command
began its march for Goldsboro." The scattered Confederate
forces were now getting together and General Johnston had been
put in command of them. "Sherman estimated the entire rebel
force at 37,000 infantry and 8,000 cavalry; but only Hardee,
with 10,000 infantry and one division of cavalry, was in the
immediate front." On the 15th Hardee was encountered at
Averysboro, where he attempted to check Sherman's advance
while Johnston concentrated in the rear. Some sharp fighting
occurred, in which Sherman lost 77 men killed and 477 wounded.
Hardee reported his loss at 500. In the morning he had
disappeared. "From Averysboro both wings turned eastward by
different roads, and on the night of the 18th of March the
army was within 27 miles of Goldsboro, and only five from
Bentonsville. The columns were now about ten miles apart." At
Bentonsville, on the 19th, Slocum's wing was attacked by
Johnston, who had marched his whole command with great
rapidity, hoping to "overwhelm Sherman's left flank before it
could be relieved by its co-operating column." But Slocum held
his ground that day against six distinct assaults, and the
next day Sherman brought his whole army into position. He did
not push the enemy, however, either on the 20th or on the
21st, being uncertain as to Johnston's strength. During the
night of the 21st the latter retreated. "The total national
loss was 191 killed, and 1,455 wounded and missing. Johnston
states his losses to have been 223 killed, 1,467 wounded, and
653 missing; but Sherman captured 1,621 prisoners. Sherman
admits that he committed an error in not overwhelming his
enemy. Few soldiers, however, are great enough to accuse
themselves of an error, and fewer still but might accuse
themselves of greater ones than can ever be laid at Sherman's
door. At daybreak on the 22d … the army moved to Goldsboro,
where Schofield had already arrived.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: 1865
(FEBRUARY-MARCH: NORTH CAROLINA).
… Thus was concluded one of the longest and most important
marches ever made by an organized army in civilized war."
_A. Badeau,
Military History of Ulysses S. Grant,
chapter 31 (volume 3)._
At Columbia, "I observed, as I passed along the street, that
many shops had been gutted, and that paper, rags, and litter
of all kinds lay scattered on the floors, in the open
doorways, and on the ground outside. I was told on good
authority that this had been done by the Confederate troops
before our arrival. It was a windy day, and a great deal of
loose cotton had been blown about and caught on the fences and
in the branches of the shade trees along the street. It has
been said that this had something to do with spreading the
fire which afterward took place. I think this very doubtful. …
I have never doubted that Columbia was deliberately set on
fire in more than a hundred places. No one ordered it, and no
one could stop it. The officers of high rank would have saved
the city if possible; but the army was deeply imbued with the
feeling that as South Carolina had begun the war she must
suffer a stern retribution."
_W. B. Hazen,
Narrative of Military Service,
chapters 23-25._
{3549}
"I disclaim on the part of my army any agency in this fire,
but, on the contrary, claim that we saved what of Columbia
remains unconsumed."
_Sherman's Official Report
(Rebellion Record, volume 11)._
ALSO IN:
_S. M. Bowman and R. B. Irwin,
Sherman and his Campaigns,
chapters 26-29._
_H. W. Slocum and W. Hampton,
Sherman's March and The Battle of Bentonville
(Battles and Leaders, volume 4)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865
(February-March: North Carolina).
Occupation of Wilmington.
Battle of Kinston.
Junction with Sherman at Goldsboro.
On the 9th of February, General Schofield, transferred from
the west, arrived at Fort Fisher with Cox's division of the
Twenty-third Corps, and took command of the newly created
Department of North Carolina. Advancing on Wilmington, the
Confederates, under Hoke, retreating before him, he occupied
that city on the 22d. This accomplished, General Cox was sent
to Newberne to take command of forces ordered there, and to
open communication thence by railroad with Goldsboro,
preparatory to the arrival of General Sherman at that point.
In the prosecution of this undertaking, he fought the battle
of Kinston, March 10, repelling a fierce attack by Bragg with
the forces which were being collected against Sherman: "After
Bragg's retreat, Schofield steadily pressed the work of
rebuilding the railway. Kinston was occupied on March 14th."
On the 21st Schofield entered Goldsboro, "and there, in a
couple of days more, was reassembled the grand army under
Sherman, whose march from Savannah had been quite as
remarkable as the former one from Atlanta to the sea."
_J. D. Cox,
The March to the Sea
(Campaigns of the Civil War),
chapter 9._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (February-March: Virginia).
Sheridan's destroying march through Central Virginia.
Battle of Waynesborough.
"The last campaign against Lee may be said to have been
inaugurated when General Sheridan started with his cavalry
from Winchester, Virginia, on the 27th of February, 1865, with
a sort of carte blanche of destruction as to the enemy's
supply depots and communications. The general's instructions
looked to his crossing the James River above Richmond, and his
possible junction with the command of General Sherman
somewhere in North Carolina; but the swollen condition of the
James and the destruction of the bridges prevented his
crossing. … General Sheridan's command on this expedition
consisted of the first cavalry division, under Brevet
Major-General Wesley Merritt, and the third cavalry division,
under Brevet Major-General George A. Custer, to whose division
was added one brigade of the cavalry of the old army of West
Virginia, under Colonel Capehart. … They left Winchester on a
damp, disagreeable morning. … But the spirits of the bold
dragoons were not dampened, and they felt lively enough to
push on to Waynesborough to the camp of General Jubal Early,
late of the Confederacy, upon whom the brilliant Custer fell
with his division, and soon had his guns, and men, and
'materiel,' and would have had him but that he had sufficient
presence of mind to absent his person when he found how things
were going. This was General Early's last appearance in public
life. … Early's command at Waynesborough being now dispersed
or captured, … General Sheridan proceeded to occupy
Charlottesville. … Then on again toward Lynchburg and the
James River. … When it was found impossible to cross the James
River, attention was for a while directed to the demolition of
the James River and Kanawha Canal. … When the ingenious
destruction corps could devise no further damage here, the
command turned off to try its hand upon a railroad or two. All
the time the rains had descended—the flood-gates of the clouds
were up and the water kept pouring through. … Although nothing
short of a flotilla seemed likely to ride out the storm, the
cavalry rode on hopefully, and came safely to harbor at the
White House, on the Pamunkey, where supplies were furnished
them, and where the March winds blew them dry again. …
Immediately upon his arrival at this depot, General Sheridan
reported to General Grant, at City Point, for orders."
_With General Sheridan in Lee's Last Campaign;
by a Staff Officer,
chapter 2._
ALSO IN:
_G. E. Pond,
The Shenandoah Valley in 1864,
chapter 14._
_A. Badeau,
Military History of Ulysses S. Grant,
chapter 31 (volume 3)._
_P. H. Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs,
volume 2, chapter 4._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (March).
Emancipation of the families of colored soldiers.
"The President in his annual message, December, 1863, had
estimated the colored soldiers in the service at 'nearly
100,000.' They were mostly from the border States, and the
slaves of loyal masters. While they were fighting the battles
of the country, their masters, who were generally opposed to
their enlistment, could sell into perpetual slavery their
wives and children. To deter slaves from enlisting, or to
punish them when they did enlist, slave-masters made
merchandise of the wives and children of colored soldiers, and
often sold them into a harsher bondage. To put an end to a
practice so cruel, unjust, injurious, and dishonorable to the
country, Mr. Wilson introduced into the Senate on the 8th of
January [1864], in his bill to promote enlistments, a
provision declaring that when any man or boy of African
descent, owing service or labor in any State, under its laws,
should be mustered into the military or naval service of the
United States, he, and his mother, wife, and children, should
be forever free." The bill was warmly debated and its
supporters did not succeed in bringing it to a vote during
that session of Congress. At the next session, on the 13th of
December, 1864, Mr. Wilson introduced a joint resolution "to
make free the wives and children of persons who had been, or
might be, mustered into the service of the United States."
This passed the Sen·ate a few days later, by a vote of 27 to
10; was passed by the House on the 22d of February, 1865, and
signed by the President on the 3d of March.
_H. Wilson,
History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power,
volume 3, chapter 30._
{3550}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (March).
President Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address.
"The days of the Confederacy were evidently numbered. Only the
last blow remained to be struck. Then Lincoln's second
inauguration came [March 4, 1865], and with it his second
inaugural address. Lincoln's famous 'Gettysburg speech has
been much and justly admired. But far greater, as well as far
more characteristic, was that inaugural in which he poured out
the whole devotion and tenderness of his great soul. It had
all the solemnity of a father's last admonition and blessing
to his children before he lay down to die. … No American
President had ever spoken words like these to the American
people. America never had a President who found such words in
the depth of his heart."
_C. Schurz,
Abraham Lincoln: an Essay,
pages 103-104._
The following is the text of the Inaugural Address:
"Fellow-countrymen: At this second appear·ing to take the oath
of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an
extended address than there was at the first. Then a
statement, somewhat in detail, of a course to be pursued,
seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four
years, during which public declarations have been constantly
called forth on every point and phase of the great contest
which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies
of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The
progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is
as well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust,
reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope
for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. On
the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all
thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war.
All dreaded it—all sought to avert it. While the inaugural
address was being delivered from this place, devoted
altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents
were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking to
dissolve the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation. Both
parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather
than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war
rather than let it perish. And the war came. One-eighth of the
whole population were colored slaves, not distributed
generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part
of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful
interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause
of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this
interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend
the Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right
to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it.
Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the
duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated
that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even
before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an
easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding.
Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each
invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that
any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing
their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us
judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could
not be answered—that of neither has been answered fully. The
Almighty has his own purposes. 'Woe unto the world because of
offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to
that man by whom the offense cometh.' If we shall suppose that
American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the
providence of God, must needs come, but which, having
continued through his appointed time, he now wills to remove,
and that he gives to both North and South this terrible war,
as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we
discern therein any departure from those divine attributes
which the believers in a living God always ascribe to him?
Fondly do we hope—fervently do we pray—that this mighty
scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that
it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's 250
years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop
of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn
with the sword, as was said 3,000 years ago, so still it must
be said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous
altogether.' With malice toward none; with charity for all;
with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right,
let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the
nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the
battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may
achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves,
and with all nations."
_A. Lincoln,
Complete Works,
volume 2, pages 656-657._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (March-April: Virginia).
The Flanking of Lee's lines.
Battle of Five Forks.
Final assault at Petersburg and Confederate retreat.
"One of the most anxious periods of my experience during the
rebellion," wrote General Grant, "was the last few weeks
before Petersburg. I felt that the situation of the
Confederate army was such that they would try to make an
escape at the earliest practicable moment, and I was afraid,
every morning, that I would awake from my sleep to hear that
Lee had gone, and that nothing was left but a picket line. … I
was naturally very impatient for the time to come when I could
commence the spring campaign, which I thoroughly believed
would close the war. … Sherman was anxious that I should wait
where I was until he could come up, and make a sure thing of
it; but I had determined to move as soon as the roads and
weather would admit of my doing so. I had been tied down
somewhat in the matter of fixing any time at my pleasure for
starting, until Sheridan, who was on his way from the
Shenandoah Valley to join me, should arrive, as both his
presence and that of his cavalry were necessary to the
execution of the plans which I had in mind. However,
[Sheridan] having arrived at White House on the 19th of March,
I was enabled to make my plans. … It is now known that early
in the month of March Mr. Davis and General Lee had a
consultation about the situation of affairs in and about
Richmond and Petersburg, and they both agreed that these
places were no longer tenable for them, and that they must get
away as soon as possible. They, too, were waiting for dry
roads, or a condition of the roads which would make it
possible to move. General Lee, in aid of his plan of escape,
and to secure a wider opening to enable them to reach the
Danville road with greater security than he would have in the
way the two armies were situated, determined upon an assault
upon the right of our lines around Petersburg." The assault
was made by General Gordon early in the morning of March 25th,
and Fort Stedman, with three contiguous batteries, were taken
by surprise. The captured fort and batteries were soon
recovered, however, and the Confederate troops who entered
them were made prisoners.
{3551}
"This effort of Lee's cost him about 4,000 men, and resulted
in their killing, wounding and capturing about 2,000 of ours.
… The day that Gordon was making dispositions for this attack
(24th of March) I issued my orders for the movement to
commence on the 29th. Ord, with three divisions of infantry
and Mackenzie's cavalry, was to move in advance on the night
of the 27th, from the north side of the James River, and take
his place on our extreme left, 30 miles away. … Ord was at his
place promptly. Humphreys and Warren were then on our extreme
left with the 2d and 5th corps. They were directed on the
arrival of Ord, and on his getting into position in their
places, to cross Hatcher's Run and extend out west toward Five
Forks, the object being to get into a position from which we
could strike the South Side Railroad and ultimately the
Danville Railroad. There was considerable fighting in taking
up these new positions for the 2d and 5th corps, in which the
Army of the James had also to participate somewhat, and the
losses were quite severe. This was what was known as the
battle of White Oak Road. … The 29th of March came, and
fortunately, there having been a few days free from rain, the
surface of the ground was dry, giving indications that the
time had come when we could move. On that day I moved out with
all the army available after leaving sufficient force to hold
the line about Petersburg. It soon set in raining again,
however, and in a very short time the roads became practically
impassable for teams, and almost so for cavalry. … It became
necessary … to build corduroy roads every foot of the way as
we advanced, to move our artillery upon, The army had become
so accustomed to this kind of work, and were so well prepared
for it, that it was done very rapidly. The next day, March
30th, we had made sufficient progress to the south-west to
warrant me in starting Sheridan with his cavalry over by
Dinwiddie with instructions to then come up by the road
leading north-west to Five Forks, thus menacing the right of
Lee's line, … The column moving detached from the army still
in the trenches was, excluding the cavalry, very small. The
forces in the trenches were themselves extending to the left
flank. Warren was on the extreme left when the extension
began, but Humphreys was marched around later and thrown into
line between him and Five Forks. My hope was that Sheridan
would be able to carry Five Forks, get on the enemy's right
flank and rear, and force them to weaken their centre to
protect their right, so that an assault in the centre might be
successfully made. General Wright's corps had been designated
to make this assault, which I intended to order as soon as
information reached me of Sheridan's success. … Sheridan moved
back to Dinwiddie Court-House on the night of the 30th, and
then took a road leading northwest to Five Forks. He had only
his cavalry with him. Soon encountering the rebel cavalry he
met with a very stout resistance. He gradually drove them back
however until in the neighborhood of Five Forks. Here he had
to encounter other troops, besides those he had been
contending with, and was forced to give way. In this condition
of affairs he notified me of what had taken place and stated
that he was falling back toward Dinwiddie gradually and
slowly, and asked me to send Wright's corps to his assistance.
I replied to him that it was impossible to send Wright's corps
… and that I would send Warren. Accordingly orders were sent
to Warren to move at once that night (the 31st) to Dinwiddie
Court-House and put himself in communication with Sheridan as
soon as possible, and report to him. He was very slow in
moving, some of his troops not starting until after 5 o'clock
next morning. … Warren reported to Sheridan about 11 o'clock
on the 1st, but the whole of his troops were not up so as to
be much engaged until late in the afternoon. … Sheridan
succeeded by the middle of the afternoon or a little later in
advancing up to the point from which to make his designed
assault upon Five Forks itself. He was very impatient to make
the assault and have it all over before night, because the
ground he occupied would be untenable for him in bivouac
during the night. … It was at this junction of affairs that
Sheridan wanted to get Crawford's division in hand, and he
also wanted Warren. He sent staff officer after staff officer
in search of Warren, directing that general to report to him,
but they were unable to find him. At all events Sheridan was
unable to get that officer to him. Finally he went himself. He
issued an order relieving Warren and assigning Griffin to the
command of the 5th corps. The troops were then brought up and
the assault successfully made. … It was dusk when our troops
under Sheridan went over the parapets of the enemy. The two
armies were mingled together there for a time in such manner
that it was almost a question which one was going to demand
the surrender of the other. Soon, however, the enemy broke and
ran in every direction; some 6,000 prisoners, besides
artillery and small-arms in large quantities, falling into our
hands. … Pursuit continued until about 9 o'clock at night,
when Sheridan halted his troops, and knowing the importance to
him of the part of the enemy's line which had been captured,
returned. … This was the condition which affairs were in on
the night of the 1st of April. I then issued orders for an
assault by Wright and Parke at 4 o'clock on the morning of the
2d." The assault was successfully made, and the outer works of
Petersburg were soon in the hands of the National troops.
Early in the morning of the 3d the enemy evacuated Petersburg
and Grant and Meade took possession of the city. The following
day they were visited there by President Lincoln, who had been
at City Point for a week, or more, watching the course of
events.
_U. S. Grant,
Personal Memoirs,
chapters 63-65 (volume 2)._
ALSO IN:
_P. H. Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs,
volume 2, chapters 5-6._
_A. A. Humphreys,
The Virginia Campaign of 1864 and 1865,
chapters 12-13._
_H. Porter,
Five Forks and the Pursuit of Lee
(Battles and Leaders, volume 4)._
_R. de Trobriand,
Four years with the Army of the Potomac,
chapter 34._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (April 11).
President Lincoln's last public address.
His view of Reconstruction in Louisiana.
On the evening of the 11th of April, a great multitude of
people gathered about the White House, to convey their
congratulations to the President and to signify their joy at
the sure prospect of peace. Mr. Lincoln came out and spoke to
them, expressing first his participation in their gladness,
and then turning to discuss briefly the criticism which had
opened upon his policy of reconstruction, as practically
illustrated in Louisiana.
{3552}
He spoke of his message and proclamation of December, 1863
(quoted above); of the approval given to them by every member
of his cabinet; of the entire silence at the time of all who
had become critics and objectors since action under the plan
had been taken in Louisiana. He then went on as follows: "When
the message of 1863, with the plan before mentioned, reached
New Orleans, General Banks wrote me that he was confident that
the people, with his military cooperation, would reconstruct
substantially on that plan. I wrote to him and some of them to
try it. They tried it, and the result is known. Such has been
my only agency in getting up the Louisiana government. As to
sustaining it, my promise is out, as before stated. But as bad
promises are better broken than kept, I shall treat this as a
bad promise, and break it whenever I shall be convinced that
keeping it is adverse to the public interest; but I have not
yet been so convinced. I have been shown a letter on this
subject, supposed to be an able one, in which the writer
expresses regret that my mind has not seemed to be definitely
fixed on the question whether the seceded States, so called,
are in the Union or out of it. It would perhaps add
astonishment to his regret were he to learn that since I have
found professed Union men endeavoring to make that question, I
have purposely forborne any public expression upon it. As
appears to me, that question has not been, nor yet is, a
practically material one, and that any discussion of it, while
it thus remains practically immaterial, could have no effect
other than the mischievous one of dividing our friends. As
yet, whatever it may hereafter become, that question is bad as
the basis of a controversy, and good for nothing at all—a
merely pernicious abstraction. We all agree that the seceded
States, so called, are out of their proper practical relation
with the Union, and that the sole object of the government,
civil and military, in regard to those States is to again get
them into that proper practical relation. I believe that it is
not only possible, but in fact easier, to do this without
deciding or even considering whether these States have ever
been out of the Union, than with it. Finding themselves safely
at home, it would be utterly immaterial whether they had ever
been abroad. Let us all join in doing the acts necessary to
restoring the proper practical relations between these States
and the Union, and each forever after innocently indulge his
own opinion whether in doing the acts he brought the States
from without into the Union, or only gave them proper
assistance, they never having been out of it. The amount of
constituency, so to speak, on which the new Louisiana
government rests, would be more satisfactory to all if it
contained 50,000, or 30,000, or even 20,000, instead of only
about 12,000, as it does. It is also unsatisfactory to some
that the elective franchise is not given to the colored man. I
would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very
intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers.
Still, the question is not whether the Louisiana government,
as it stands, is quite all that is desirable. The question is,
will it be wiser to take it as it is and help to improve it,
or to reject and disperse it? Can Louisiana be brought into
proper practical relation with the Union sooner by sustaining
or by discarding her new State government? Some 12,000 voters
in the heretofore slave State of Louisiana have sworn
allegiance to the Union, assumed to be the rightful political
power of the State, held elections, organized a State
government, adopted a free-State constitution, giving the
benefit of public schools equally to black and white, and
empowering the legislature to confer the elective franchise
upon the colored man. Their legislature has already voted to
ratify the constitutional amendment recently passed by
Congress, abolishing slavery throughout the nation. These
12,000 persons are thus fully committed to the Union and to
perpetual freedom in the State—committed to the very things,
and nearly all the things, the nation wants—and they ask the
nation's recognition and its assistance to make good their
committal. Now, if we reject and spurn them, we do our utmost
to disorganize and disperse them. We, in effect, say to the
white man: You are worthless or worse; we will neither help
you, nor be helped by you. To the blacks we say: This cup of
liberty which these, your old masters, hold to your lips we
will dash from you, and leave you to the chances of gathering
the spilled and scattered contents in some vague and undefined
when, where, and how. If this course, discouraging and
paralyzing both white and black, has any tendency to bring
Louisiana into proper practical relations with the Union, I
have so far been unable to perceive it. If, on the contrary,
we recognize and sustain the new government of Louisiana, the
converse of all this is made true. We encourage the hearts and
nerve the arms of the 12,000 to adhere to their work, and
argue for it, and proselyte for it, and fight for it, and feed
it, and grow it, and ripen it to a complete success. The
colored man, too, in seeing all united for him, is inspired
with vigilance, and energy, and daring, to the same end. Grant
that he desires the elective franchise, will he not attain it
sooner by saving the already advanced steps toward it than by
running backward over them? Concede that the new government of
Louisiana is only to what it should be as the egg is to the
fowl, we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than
by smashing it. Again, if we reject Louisiana we also reject
one vote in favor of the proposed amendment to the national
Constitution. To meet this proposition it has been argued that
no more than three-fourths of those States which have not
attempted secession are necessary to validly ratify the
amendment. I do not commit myself against this further than to
say that such a ratification would be questionable, and sure
to be persistently questioned, while a ratification by
three-fourths of all the States would be unquestioned and
unquestionable. I repeat the question: Can Louisiana be
brought into proper practical relation with the Union sooner
by sustaining or by discarding her new State government? What
has been said of Louisiana will apply generally to other
States. And yet so great peculiarities pertain to each State,
and such important and sudden changes occur in the same State,
and withal so new and unprecedented is the whole case that no
exclusive and inflexible plan can safely be prescribed as to
details and collaterals. Such exclusive and inflexible plan
would surely become a new entanglement. Important principles
may and must be inflexible. In the present situation, as the
phrase goes, it may be my duty to make some new announcement
to the people of the South. I am considering, and shall not
fail to act when satisfied that action will be proper."
_A. Lincoln,
Complete Works,
volume 2, pages 673-675._
{3553}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (April: Virginia).
The abandonment of Richmond and retreat of Lee.
Battle of Sailor's Creek.
Surrender at Appomattox Court House.
"The success of the Federal army in breaking the lines of
Petersburg had rendered the retreat of the Confederate force
imperative. An effort to hold Richmond with every line of
communication with the South broken or in imminent danger
would have been madness. But by abandoning his works and
concentrating his army, which still amounted to about 30,000
men, General Lee might retire to some natural stronghold in
the interior, where the defensible features of the country
would enable him to oppose Grant's formidable host until he
could rally strength to strike an effective blow. This course
was at once decided upon, and early on the morning of the 2d
of April, Lee sent a despatch to the Government authorities at
Richmond informing them of the disastrous situation of affairs
and of the necessity of his evacuating Petersburg that night.
Orders were also sent to the forces north of the James to move
at once and join him, while all the preparations necessary for
the evacuation of Richmond, both as the seat of government and
as a military post, were expeditiously made. There was,
indeed, no time to be lost. … By midnight the evacuation was
completed. … As the troops moved noiselessly onward in the
darkness that just precedes the dawn, a bright light like a
broad flash of lightning illumined the heavens for an instant;
then followed a tremendous explosion. 'The magazine at Fort
Drewry is blown up,' ran in whispers through the ranks, and
again silence reigned. Once more the sky was overspread by a
lurid light, but not so fleeting as before. It was now the
conflagration of Richmond that lighted the night-march of the
soldiers, and many a stout heart was wrung with anguish at the
fate of the city and its defenceless inhabitants. The burning
of public property of little value had given rise to a
destructive fire that laid in ashes nearly one-third of the
devoted city. … The retreat of Lee's army did not long remain
unknown to the Federals. The explosion of the magazine at Fort
Drewry and the conflagration of Richmond apprised them of the
fact, and they lost no time in taking possession of the
abandoned works and entering the defenceless cities. On the
morning of the 3d of April the mayor of Richmond surrendered
the city to the Federal commander in its vicinity, and General
Weitzel took immediate possession. He at once proceeded to
enforce order and took measures to arrest the conflagration,
while with great humanity he endeavored to relieve the
distressed citizens. … As soon as Grant became aware of Lee's
line of retreat he pushed forward his whole available force,
numbering 70,000 or 80,000 men, in order to intercept him on
the line of the Richmond and Danville Railroad. Sheridan's
cavalry formed the van of the pursuing column, and was closely
followed by the artillery and infantry. Lee pressed on as
rapidly as possible to Amelia Court-house, where he had
ordered supplies to be deposited for the use of his troops on
their arrival. … The hope of finding a supply of food at this
point, which had done much to buoy up the spirits of the men,
was destined to be cruelly dispelled. Through an unfortunate
error or misapprehension of orders the provision-train had
been taken on to Richmond without unloading its stores at
Amelia Court-house. … It was a terrible blow alike to the men
and to their general. … The only chance remaining to the Army
of Northern Virginia was to reach the hill-country without
delay. Yet here it was detained by the error of a railroad
official, while the precious minutes and hours moved
remorselessly by. … Yet no murmur came from the lips of the
men to the ear of their commander, and on the evening of that
unfortunate day [April 5th] they resumed their weary march in
silence and composure. Some small amount of food had been
brought in by the foragers, greatly inadequate for the wants
of the soldiers, yet aiding them to somewhat alleviate the
pangs of hunger. A handful of corn was now a feast to the
weary veterans as they trudged onward through the April night.
… Sheridan's cavalry was already upon the flank of the
Confederate army, and the infantry was following with all
speed. … During the forenoon of [the 6th] the pursuing columns
thickened and frequent skirmishes delayed the march. These
delays enabled the Federals to accumulate in such force that
it became necessary for Lee to halt his advance in order to
arrest their attack till his column could close up, and the
trains and such artillery as was not needed for action could
reach a point of safety. This object was accomplished early in
the afternoon. Ewell's, the rearmost corps in the army, closed
upon those in front at a position on Sailor's Creek, a small
tributary of the Appomattox River. … His corps was surrounded
by the pursuing columns and captured with but little
opposition. About the same time the divisions of Anderson,
Pickett, and Bushrod Johnson were almost broken up, about
10,000 men in all being captured. The remainder of the army
continued its retreat during the night of the 6th, and reached
Farmville early on the morning of the 7th, where the troops
obtained two days' rations, the first regular supplies they
had received during the retreat. At Farmville a short halt was
made to allow the men to rest and cook their provisions. The
effective portion of the Army of Northern Virginia did not now
exceed 10,000 men. This great reduction had been caused by the
disaster of the previous day at Sailor's Creek, by desertions
on the retreat, and by an exhaustion which obliged many to
leave the ranks. Those who still remained by their colors were
veterans whose courage never failed, and who were yet ready to
face any odds. The heads of the Federal columns beginning to
appear about eleven o'clock, the Confederates resumed their
retreat." On the afternoon of the 7th, Lee received a note
from Grant calling upon him to surrender, and replied to it,
asking what terms would be offered. Further notes were
exchanged between the two commanders the following day, while
the retreat continued. Lee hoped to reach Appomattox Court
House and secure supplies that were there, which might enable
him to "push on to the Staunton River and maintain himself
behind that stream until a junction could be made with
Johnston." But when, in the afternoon of April 8th, he reached
the neighborhood of Appomattox Court House, "he was met by the
intelligence of the capture of the stores placed for his army
at the station two miles beyond.
{3554}
Notwithstanding this overwhelming news, he determined to make
one more effort to force himself through the Federal toils
that encompassed him." This attempt was made at three o'clock
on the morning of the 9th of April, General Gordon leading the
attack, which failed. Lee then yielded to his fate, and sent a
flag of truce, asking for an interview with Grant to arrange
terms of surrender. "Grant had not yet come up, and while
waiting for his arrival General Lee seated himself upon some
rails which Colonel Talcott of the Engineers had fixed at the
foot of an apple tree for his convenience. This tree was half
a mile distant from the point where the meeting of Lee and
Grant took place, yet wide-spread currency has been given to
the story that the surrender took place under its shade, and
'apple-tree' jewelry has been profusely distributed from the
orchard in which it grew. About 11 o'clock General Lee,
accompanied only by Colonel Marshall of his staff, proceeded
to the village to meet General Grant, who had now arrived. The
meeting between the two renowned generals took place at the
house of a Mr. McLean at Appomattox Court-house, to which
mansion, after exchanging courteous salutations, they repaired
to settle the terms on which the surrender of the Army of
Northern Virginia should be concluded. … The written
instrument of surrender covered the following points:
Duplicate rolls of all the officers and men were to be made,
and the officers to sign paroles for themselves and their men,
all agreeing not to bear arms against the United States unless
regularly exchanged. The arms, artillery, and public property
were to be turned over to an officer appointed to receive
them, the officers retaining their side-arms and private
horses and baggage. In addition to this, General Grant
permitted every man of the Confederate army who claimed to own
a horse or mule to retain it for farming purposes, General Lee
remarking that this would have a happy effect. … After
completion of these measures General Lee remarked that his men
were badly in need of food, that they had been living for
several days on parched corn exclusively, and requested
rations and forage for 25,000 men. These rations were granted
out of the car-loads of Confederate provisions which had been
stopped by the Federal cavalry. … Three days after the
surrender the Army of Northern Virginia had dispersed in every
direction, and three weeks later the veterans of a hundred
battles had changed the musket and the sword for the
implements of husbandry. … Thousands of soldiers were set
adrift on the world without a penny in their pockets to enable
them to reach their homes. Yet none of the scenes of riot that
often follow the disbanding of armies marked their course."
_A. L. Long,
Memoirs of Robert E. Lee,
chapter 21._
"General Grant's behavior at Appomattox was marked by a desire
to spare the feelings of his great opponent. There was no
theatrical display; his troops were not paraded with bands
playing and banners flying, before whose lines the
Confederates must march and stack arms. He did not demand
Lee's sword, as is customary, but actually apologized to him
for not having his own, saying it had been left behind in the
wagon; promptly stopped salutes from being fired to mark the
event, and the terms granted were liberal and generous. 'No
man could have behaved better than General Grant did under the
circumstances,' said Lee to a friend in Richmond. 'He did not
touch my sword; the usual custom is for the sword to be
received when tendered, and then handed back, but he did not
touch mine,' Neither did the Union chief enter the Southern
lines to show himself or to parade his victory, or go to
Richmond or Petersburg to exult over a fallen people, but
mounted his horse and with his staff started for Washington.
Washington, at Yorktown, was not as considerate and thoughtful
of the feelings of Cornwallis or his men. Charges were now
withdrawn from the guns, flags furled, and the Army of the
Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia turned their backs
upon each other for the first time In four long, bloody
years,"
_F. Lee,
General Lee,
chapter 15._
ALSO IN:
_U. S. Grant,
Personal Memoirs,
chapter 65-67._
_H. Porter,
The Surrender at Appomattox Court House
(Battles and Leaders, volume 4)._
_A. Badeau,
Military History of Ulysses S. Grant,
chapter 33-34 (volume 3)._
_J. W. Keifer,
The Battle of Sailor's Creek
(Sketches of War History,
Ohio Commandery L. L. of the United States, volume 3)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (April: Virginia).
President Lincoln at Richmond.
The assembling and dispersing of "the gentlemen who have
acted as the Legislature of Virginia."
Virtual Proclamations of the end of the war.
"President Lincoln had been at City Point and vicinity for
several days before the fall of Richmond, in constant
communication with the General-in-chief, at the front,
receiving dispatches from him and transmitting them instantly
to the Secretary of War, whence they were diffused over the
country, by the telegraph. On the day after Richmond was
evacuated, he went up to that city in Admiral Porter's
flag-ship, the Malvern, Captain Ralph Chandler, with the
Sangamon, several tugs, and 30 small boats, with about 300
men, had already cleared the channel of the river of
torpedoes, and made the navigation comparatively safe. When
near Rocketts, the President and the Admiral left the Malvern,
and proceeded to the city in the commander's gig. With its
crew, armed with carbines, they landed and walked to Weitzel's
quarters, in the late residence of Davis, cheered on the way
by the huzzas and grateful ejaculations of a vast concourse of
emancipated slaves, who had been told that the tall man was
their Liberator. They crowded around him so thickly, in their
eagerness to see him, and to grasp his hand, that a the of
soldiers were needed to clear the way, After a brief rest at
Weitzel's, the President rode rapidly through the principal
streets of Richmond, in an open carriage, and, at near sunset,
departed for City Point. Two days afterward, the President
went to Richmond again, accompanied by his wife, the
Vice-President, and several Senators, when he was called upon
by leading Confederates, several of them members of the rebel
Virginia Legislature, whose chief business was to endeavor to
arrange a compromise whereby the equivalent for submission
should be the security to the Virginia insurgents, as far as
possible, of their political power and worldly possessions.
{3555}
The President was assured by Judge Campbell a member of the
Confederate 'Government' (who, for two years, had been
satisfied, he said, that success was impossible), that the
so-called Virginia Legislature, if allowed to reassemble, with
the Governor, would work for the reconstruction of the Union,
their first step being the withdrawal of the Virginia troops
from the field, on condition that the confiscation of property
in Virginia should not be allowed. Anxious to end the war
without further bloodshed, if possible, and satisfied that the
withdrawal of the Virginia troops—in other words, nearly all
of Lee's army—would accomplish it, he left with General
Weitzel, on his departure from Richmond [April 6], authority
to allow 'the gentlemen who have acted as the Legislature of
Virginia, in support of the rebellion, to assemble at Richmond
and take measures to withdraw the Virginia troops and other
support from resistance to the General Government.' A
safeguard was given. The fugitives returned, with the
Governor, but instead of performing in good faith what had
been promised in their name, they began legislating generally,
as if they were the legal representatives of the people of
Virginia. So soon as notice of this perfidy was given to the
President after his return to Washington, he directed Weitzel
to revoke the safeguard, and allow 'the gentlemen who had
acted as the Legislature of Virginia' to return to private
life. The surrender of Lee had, meanwhile, made the
contemplated action unnecessary. The President was blamed by
the loyal people for allowing these men to assemble with
acknowledged powers; and the Confederates abused him for
dissolving the assembly. The President returned to Washington
City on the day of Lee's surrender, where he was the recipient
of a multitude of congratulations because of the dawn of
peace. On the 11th he issued proclamations, one declaring the
closing, until further notice, of certain ports in the
Southern States, whereof the blockade had been raised by their
capture, respectively; and the other, demanding, henceforth,
for our vessels in foreign ports, on penalty of retaliation,
those privileges and immunities which had hitherto been denied
them on the plea of according equal belligerent rights to the
Republic and its internal enemies. … On the following day an
order was issued from the War Department, which had been
approved by General Grant, putting an end to all drafting and
recruiting for the National army, and the purchase of
munitions of war and supplies; and declaring that the number
of general and staff officers would be speedily reduced, and
all military restrictions on trade and commerce be removed
forthwith. This virtual proclamation of the end of the war
went over the land on the anniversary of the evacuation of
Fort Sumter [April 14], while General Anderson was replacing
the old flag over the ruins of that fortress."
_B. J. Lossing,
Field Book of the Civil War,
volume 3, chapter 21._
ALSO IN:
_H. J. Raymond,
Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln,
chapter 20._
_C. C. Coffin,
Late Scenes in Richmond
(Atlantic Monthly, June, 1865)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (April 14th).
The Assassination of President Lincoln.
"From the very beginning of his Presidency, Mr. Lincoln had
been constantly subject to the threats of his enemies and the
warnings of his friends. … Although he freely discussed with
the officials about him the possibilities of danger, he always
considered them remote, as is the habit of men
constitutionally brave, and positively refused to torment
himself with precautions for his own safety. He would sum the
matter up by saying that both friends and strangers must have
daily access to him in all manner of ways and places; his life
was therefore in reach of anyone, sane or mad, who was ready
to murder and be hanged for it; that he could not possibly
guard against all danger unless he were to shut himself up in
an iron box, in which condition he could scarcely perform the
duties of a President; by the hand of a murderer he could die
only once; to go continually in fear would be to die over and
over. He therefore went in and out before the people, always
unarmed, generally unattended. … Four years of threats and
boastings, of alarms that were unfounded, and of plots that
came to nothing thus passed away; but precisely at the time
when the triumph of the nation over the long insurrection
seemed assured, and a feeling of peace and security was
diffused over the country, one of the conspiracies, not
seemingly more important than the many abortive ones, ripened
in the sudden heat of hatred and despair. A little band of
malignant secessionists, consisting of John Wilkes Booth, an
actor, of a family of famous players, Lewis Powell, alias
Payne, a disbanded rebel soldier from Florida, George
Atzerodt, formerly a coach maker, but more recently a spy and
blockade runner of the Potomac, David E. Herold, a young
druggist's clerk, Samuel Arnold and Michael O'Laughlin,
Maryland secessionists and Confederate soldiers, and John H.
Surratt, had their ordinary rendezvous at the house of Mrs.
Mary E. Surratt, the widowed mother of the last named,
formerly a woman of some property in Maryland, but reduced by
reverses to keeping a small boarding-house in Washington.
Booth was the leader of the little coterie. He was a young man
of twenty-six. … He was a fanatical secessionist; had assisted
at the capture and execution of John Brown, and had imbibed at
Richmond and other Southern cities where he had played, a
furious spirit of partisanship against Lincoln and the Union
party. After the reelection of Mr. Lincoln, which rang the
knell of the insurrection, Booth, like many of the
secessionists North and South, was stung to the quick by
disappointment. He visited Canada, consorted with the rebel
emissaries there, and at last—whether or not at their
instigation cannot certainly be said—conceived a scheme to
capture the President and take him to Richmond. He spent a
great part of the autumn and winter inducing a small number of
loose fish of secession sympathies to join him in this
fantastic enterprise. … There are indications in the evidence
given on the trial of the conspirators that they suffered some
great disappointment in their schemes in the latter part of
March, and a letter from Arnold to Booth, dated March 27,
showed that some of them had grown timid of the consequences
of their contemplated enterprise and were ready to give it up.
He advised Booth, before going further, 'to go and see how it
will be taken in R---d.' But timid as they might be by nature,
the whole group was so completely under the ascendency of
Booth that they did not dare disobey him when in his presence;
and after the surrender of Lee, in an access of malice and rage
which was akin to madness, he called them together and
assigned each his part in the new crime, the purpose of which
had arisen suddenly in his mind out of the ruins of the
abandoned abduction scheme.
{3556}
This plan was as brief and simple as it was horrible. Powell,
alias Payne, the stalwart, brutal, simple-minded boy from
Florida, was to murder Seward; Atzerodt, the comic villain of
the drama, was assigned to remove Andrew Johnson; Booth
reserved for himself the most difficult and most conspicuous
role of the tragedy; it was Herold's duty to attend him as a
page and aid in his escape. Minor parts were assigned to stage
carpenters and other hangers-on, who probably did not
understand what it all meant. Herold, Atzerodt, and Surratt
had previously deposited at a tavern at Surrattsville,
Maryland, owned by Mrs. Surratt, but kept by a man named
Lloyd, a quantity of ropes, carbines, ammunition, and whisky,
which were to be used in the abduction scheme. On the 11th of
April Mrs. Surratt, being at the tavern, told Lloyd to have
the shooting irons in readiness, and on Friday, the 14th,
again visited the place and told him they would probably be
called for that night. The preparations for the final blow
were made with feverish haste; it was only about noon of the
14th that Booth learned the President was to go to Ford's
Theater that night. It has always been a matter of surprise in
Europe that he should have been at a place of amusement on
Good Friday; but the day was not kept sacred in America,
except by the members of certain churches. It was not,
throughout the country, a day of religious observance. The
President was fond of the theater; it was one of his few means
of recreation. It was natural enough that, on this day of
profound national thanksgiving, he should take advantage of a
few hours' relaxation to see a comedy. Besides, the town was
thronged with soldiers and officers, all eager to see him; it
was represented to him that appearing occasionally in public
would gratify many people whom he could not otherwise meet. …
From the moment Booth ascertained the President's intention to
attend the theater in the evening his every action was alert
and energetic. He and his confederates, Herold, Surratt and
Atzerodt, were seen on horseback in every part of the city. He
had a hurried conference with Mrs. Surratt before she started
for Lloyd's tavern. … Booth was perfectly at home in Ford's
Theater, where he was greatly liked by all the employees,
without other reason than the sufficient one of his youth and
good looks. Either by himself or with the aid of his friends
he arranged his whole plan of attack and escape during the
afternoon. He counted upon address and audacity to gain access
to the small passage behind the President's box; once there,
he guarded against interference by an arrangement of a wooden
bar to be fastened by a simple mortice in the angle of the
wall and the door by which he entered, so that the door could
not be opened from without. He even provided for the
contingency of not gaining entrance to the box by boring a
hole in its door, through which he might either observe the
occupants or take aim and shoot. He hired at a livery stable a
small, fleet horse, which he showed with pride during the day
to barkeepers and loafers among his friends. The moon rose
that night at ten o'clock A few minutes before that hour he
called one of the underlings of the theater to the back door
and left him there holding his horse. He then went to a saloon
near by, took a drink of brandy, and, entering the theater,
passed rapidly through the crowd in rear of the dress circle
and made his way to the passage leading to the President's
box. He showed a card to a servant in attendance and was
allowed to pass in. He entered noiselessly, and, turning,
fastened the door with the bar he had previously made ready,
without disturbing any of the occupants of the box, between
whom and himself there yet remained the slight partition and
the door through which he had bored the hole. … Holding a
pistol in one hand and a knife in the other, he opened the box
door, put the pistol to the President's head, and fired;
dropping the weapon, he took the knife in his right hand, and
when Major Rathbone sprang to seize him he struck savagely at
him. Major Rathbone received the blow on his left arm,
suffering a wide and deep wound. Booth, rushing forward, then
placed his left hand on the railing of the box and vaulted
lightly over to the stage. It was a high leap, but nothing to
such a trained athlete. … He would have got safely away but
for his spur catching in the folds of the Union flag with
which the front of the box was draped. He fell on the stage,
the torn flag trailing on his spur, but instantly rose as if
he had received no hurt, though in fact the fall had broken
his leg; he turned to the audience, brandishing his dripping
knife, and shouting the State motto of Virginia, 'Sic Semper
Tyrannis,' and fled rapidly across the stage and out of sight.
Major Rathbone had shouted, 'Stop him!' The cry went out, 'He
has shot the President.' From the audience, at first stupid
with surprise, and afterwards wild with excitement and horror,
two or three men jumped upon the stage in pursuit of the
flying assassin; but he ran through the familiar passages,
leaped upon his horse, which was in waiting in the alley
behind, rewarded with a kick and a curse the call-boy who had
held him, and rode rapidly away in the light of the just risen
moon. The President scarcely moved; his head drooped forward
slightly, his eyes closed. … It was afterward ascertained that
a large derringer bullet had entered the back of the head on
the left side, and, passing through the brain, had lodged just
behind the left eye. By direction of Rathbone and Crawford,
the President was carried to a house across the street and
laid upon a bed in a small room at the rear of the hall, on
the ground floor. … The President had been shot a few minutes
past ten. The wound would have brought instant death to most
men, but his vital tenacity was extraordinary. … At twenty-two
minutes after seven he died. Stanton broke the silence by
saying, 'Now he belongs to the ages.'" At the same hour in
which the President was murdered, an attempt was made by one
of Booth's fellow conspirators to kill the Secretary of State.
Mr. Seward had been thrown from his carriage a few days before
and was prostrated by the serious injuries received.
Pretending to bring a prescription from his physician, the
assassin, Payne, made his way into the sick-room of the
Secretary and stabbed him three times, but not fatally, in the
neck and cheek. Two sons, Frederick and Augustus Seward, were
seriously wounded in defending their father, and a
soldier-nurse who was present struggled bravely with the
assassin, though weaponless, and was stabbed repeatedly.
{3557}
Payne escaped for the time, but was caught a few days later.
Booth made his way to Port Tobacco, and thence across the
Potomac, into Virginia, assisted and concealed by numerous
sympathizers. He eluded his pursuers until the 25th of April,
when he was hunted down by a party of soldiers, while sleeping
in a barn, below Fredericksburg, and, refusing to surrender,
was shot. "The surviving conspirators, with the exception of
John H. Surratt, were tried by a military commission sitting
in Washington in the months of May and June. … Mrs. Surratt,
Payne, Herold, and Atzerodt were hanged on the 7th of July;
Mudd, Arnold, and O'Laughlin were imprisoned for life at the
Tortugas, though the term was afterwards shortened; and
Spangler, the scene shifter at the theater, was sentenced to
six years in jail. John H. Surratt escaped to Canada," and
thence to England. "He wandered over Europe, enlisted in the
Papal Zouaves, deserted and fled to Egypt, where he was
detected and brought back to Washington in 1867. His trial
lasted two months and ended in a disagreement of the jury."
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 10. chapters 14-15._
ALSO IN:
_H. J. Raymond,
Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln,
chapter 21._
_J. G. Holland,
Life of Lincoln,
chapter 30._
_B. P. Poore,
Reminiscences,
volume 2, chapter 15._
_B. Pittman,
Report of the Trial of the Conspirators.
Trial of John H. Surratt._
_T. M. Harris,
Assassination of Lincoln: a History._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (April 15th).
Succession of Andrew Johnson, Vice President, to the Presidency.
"On the day after the assassination, Mr. Johnson, having been
apprised of the event, took the oath of office, at his rooms,
in the presence of the Cabinet, and of several members of
Congress, and was thus quietly inducted into the high position
so summarily vacated by the martyred President. In the few
remarks made on the occasion, as to 'an indication of any
policy which may be pursued,' he said it 'must be left for
development as the administration progresses'; and his own
past course in connection with the Rebellion 'must be regarded
as a guaranty for the future.' To several delegations which
waited upon him he was, however, more explicit. … 'I know it
is easy, gentlemen [he said to a delegation from New
Hampshire], for any one who is so disposed to acquire a
reputation for clemency and mercy. But the public good
imperatively requires a just discrimination in the exercise of
these qualities. … The American people must be taught to know
and understand that treason is a crime. … It must not be
regarded as a mere difference of political opinion. It must
not be excused as an unsuccessful rebellion, to be overlooked
and forgiven.' … It is not surprising, therefore, with
utterances like these, in such seeming harmony with his
antecedents as a Southern Unionist,—antecedents which had
secured his nomination and election to the
Vice-Presidency,—that many were disposed to regard his
advancement to the Presidency at that particular juncture as
but another evidence of Providential favor, if not of Divine
interposition, by which the nation was to be saved from what
many feared might prove Mr. Lincoln's ill-timed leniency and
misplaced confidence. … Such gratulations, however, were of
short continuance. Whatever the cause or design, the new
President soon revealed the change that had taken place and
the purpose to adopt and pursue a policy the exact reverse of
what, with such prompt and unequivocal words, he had
indicated."
_H. Wilson,
Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America,
volume 3, chapter 43._
"Johnson was inaugurated at 11 o'clock on the morning of the
15th, and was at once surrounded by radical and conservative
politicians, who were alike anxious about the situation. I
spent most of the afternoon in a political caucus, held for
the purpose of considering the necessity for a new Cabinet and
a line of policy less conciliatory than that of Mr. Lincoln;
and while everybody was shocked at his murder, the feeling was
nearly universal that the accession of Johnson to the
Presidency would prove a godsend to the country. Aside from
Mr. Lincoln's known policy of tenderness to the Rebels, which
now so jarred upon the feelings of the hour, his well-known
views on the subject of reconstruction were as distasteful as
possible to radical Republicans. … On the following day, in
pursuance of a previous engagement, the Committee on the
Conduct of the War met the President at his quarters in the
Treasury Department. He received us with decided cordiality,
and Mr. Wade said to him: 'Johnson we have faith in you. By
the gods, there will be no trouble now in running the
government!'"
_G. W. Julian,
Political Recollections,
chapter 11._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (April 26th).
General Johnston's surrender.
On the 11th of April, at Smithfield, North Carolina, General
Sherman had news of the surrender of Lee. Entering Raleigh on
the 13th, he received, next day, a communication from the
Confederate General Johnston proposing a truce "to permit the
civil authorities to enter into the needful arrangements to
terminate the existing war." In reply he invited a conference
with Johnston, which occurred on the 17th—the day on which
news of the assassination of President Lincoln was received.
"Sherman said frankly that he could not recognize the
Confederate civil authority as having any existence, and could
neither receive nor transmit to Washington any proposition
coming from them. He expressed his ardent desire for an end to
devastation, and offered Johnston the same terms offered by
Grant to Lee. Johnston replied that he would not be justified
in such a capitulation, but suggested that they might arrange
the terms of a permanent peace. The suggestion pleased General
Sherman; the prospect of ending the war without the shedding
of another drop of blood was so tempting to him that he did
not sufficiently consider the limits of his authority in the
matter." The result was that, on the 18th, Sherman and
Johnston signed a memorandum of agreement which provided for
the disbanding of all the Confederate armies, the recognition
of the State governments of the several States lately forming
the rebel Confederacy, the complete restoration of their old
status in the Union, and complete amnesty to all concerned in
the rebellion. This was forwarded to Washington, and, of
course, it was disapproved, but with an unnecessary
publication of sharp censure of General Sherman, and with
expressions that seemed to imply distrust of the loyalty of
his motives. General Grant was ordered to proceed to General
Sherman's headquarters and to direct further operations.
{3558}
He executed this mission with great delicacy, and his presence
with Sherman was hardly known. The latter held a second
conference with Johnston on the 26th, and there General
Johnston made the surrender of his army on the same terms that
had been granted to Lee.
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 10, chapter 12._
ALSO IN:
_W. T. Sherman,
Memoirs,
chapter 23 (volume 2)._
_J. W. Draper,
History of the American Civil War,
chapter 92 (volume 3)._
_J. E. Johnston,
Narrative of Military Operations,
chapter 12._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (April-May).
The end of the Rebellion.
Fall of Mobile.
Stoneman's Raid.
Wilson's Raid.
Capture of Jefferson Davis.
The final surrenders.
After the surrender of Johnson, "there were still a few
expeditions out in the South that could not be communicated
with, and had to be left to act according to the judgment of
their respective commanders. … The three expeditions which I
had tried so hard to get off from the commands of Thomas and
Canby did finally get off: one under Canby himself, against
Mobile, late in March; that under Stoneman from East Tennessee
on the 20th; and the one under Wilson, starting from Eastport,
Mississippi, on the 22d of March. They were all eminently
successful, but without any good result. Indeed much valuable
property was destroyed and many lives lost at a time when we
would have liked to spare them. … Stoneman entered North
Carolina and then pushed north to strike the Virginia and
Tennessee Railroad. He got upon that road, destroyed its
bridges at different places and rendered the road useless to
the enemy up to within a few miles of Lynchburg. His approach
caused the evacuation of that city about the time we were at
Appomattox, and was the cause of a commotion we heard of
there. He then pushed south, and was operating in the rear of
Johnston's army about the time the negotiations were going on
between Sherman and Johnston for the latter's surrender. In
this raid Stoneman captured and destroyed a large amount of
stores, while 14 guns and nearly 2,000 prisoners were the
trophies of his success. Canby appeared before Mobile on the
27th of March. The city of Mobile was protected by two forts,
besides other intrenchments—Spanish Fort, on the east side of
the bay, and Fort Blakely, north of the city. These forts were
invested. On the night of the 8th of April, the National
troops having carried the enemy's works at one point, Spanish
Fort was evacuated; and on the 9th, the very day of Lee's
surrender, Blakely was carried by assault, with a considerable
loss to us. On the 11th the city was evacuated. … Wilson moved
out [from Eastport, Mississippi] with full 12,000 men, well
equipped and well armed. He was an energetic officer and
accomplished his work rapidly. Forrest was in his front, but
with neither his old-time army nor his old-time prestige. … He
had a few thousand regular cavalry left, but not enough to
even retard materially the progress of Wilson's cavalry. Selma
fell on the 2d of April. … Tuscaloosa, Montgomery and West
Point fell in quick succession. These were all important
points to the enemy by reason of their railroad connections,
as depots of supplies, and because of their manufactories of
war material. … Macon surrendered on the 21st of April. Here
news was received of the negotiations for the surrender of
Johnston's army. Wilson belonged to the military division
commanded by Sherman, and of course was bound by his terms.
This stopped all fighting. General Richard Taylor had now
become the senior Confederate officer still at liberty east of
the Mississippi River, and on the 4th of May he surrendered
everything within the limits of this extensive command.
General E. Kirby Smith surrendered the trans-Mississippi
department on the 26th of May, leaving no other Confederate
army at liberty to continue the war. Wilson's raid resulted in
the capture of the fugitive president of the defunct
confederacy before he got out of the country. This occurred at
Irwinville, Georgia, on the 11th of May. For myself, and I
believe Mr. Lincoln shared the feeling, I would have been very
glad to have seen Mr. Davis succeed in escaping, but for one
reason: I feared that, if not captured, he might get into the
trans-Mississippi region and there set up a more contracted
confederacy. … Much was said at the time about the garb Mr.
Davis was wearing when he was captured. [Mr. Davis, in his own
narrative, and Captain G. W. Lawton, of the 4th Michigan
Cavalry, which made the capture, agree in stating that the
fugitive chief of the Confederacy wore when taken a lady's
'waterproof,' with a shawl over his head and shoulders. Mr.
Davis says that he picked up his wife's waterproof in mistake
for his own when he ran from the tent in which he was
surprised, while camping, and that his wife threw the shawl
over him. Captain Lawton asserts that he carried a tin-pail,
that he affected to be bent with age, and that when he stepped
out Mrs. Davis asked the soldiers at the tent entrance to let
her 'old mother' go to the run for water.] I cannot settle
this question from personal knowledge of the facts; but I have
been under the belief, from information given to me by General
Wilson shortly after the event, that when Mr. Davis learned
that he was surrounded by our cavalry he was in his tent
dressed in a gentleman's dressing gown. Naturally enough, Mr.
Davis wanted to escape, and would not reflect much how this
should be accomplished provided it might be done successfully.
… Every one supposed he would be tried for treason if
captured, and that he would be executed. Had he succeeded in
making his escape in any disguise it would have been adjudged
a good thing afterwards by his admirers."
_U. S. Grant,
Personal Memoirs,
chapter 69 (volume 2)._
"Davis was taken, via Savannah and the ocean, to Fortress
Monroe; where he was long closely and rigorously imprisoned,
while his family were returned by water to Savannah and there
set at liberty. Secretary Reagan—the only person of
consequence captured with Davis—was taken to Boston, and
confined, with Vice-President Stephens (captured about this
time also in Georgia), in Fort Warren; but each was liberated
on parole a few months thereafter."
_H. Greeley,
The American Conflict,
volume 2, chapter 35._
ALSO IN:
_Major-General Wilson,
How Jefferson Davis was overtaken._
_J. H. Reagan,
Flight and Capture of Jefferson Davis
(in Annals of the War by leading Participants)._
_G. W. Lawton,
"Running at the Heads"
(Atlantic Monthly, September, 1865)._
_J. Davis,
Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government,
chapter 54 (volume 2)._
_C. C. Andrews,
History of the Campaign of Mobile._
{3559}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (May).
Feeling of surrendered Confederate officers.
After the surrender of Johnston, General Jacob D. Cox was put
in command of the military district within which the surrender
occurred, and had charge of the arrangements made for paroling
and disbanding the Confederate forces. In a paper prepared for
the Ohio Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion
of the United States, General Cox has given an interesting
report of conversations which he had in that connection with
General Johnston and General Hardee. Talking with General
Hardee of the war, the latter was asked "what had been his own
expectation as to the result, and when had he himself
recognized the hopelessness of the contest. 'I confess,' said
he, laughing, 'that I was one of the hot Southerners who
shared the notion that one man of the South could whip three
Yankees; but the first year of the war pretty effectually
knocked that nonsense out of us, and, to tell the truth, ever
since that time we military men have generally seen that it
was only a question how long it would take to wear our army
out and destroy it. We have seen that there was no real hope
of success, except by some extraordinary accident of fortune,
and we have also seen that the politicians would never give up
till the army was gone. So we have fought with the knowledge
that we were to be sacrificed with the result we see to-day,
and none of us could tell who would live to see it. We have
continued to do our best, however, and have meant to fight as
if we were sure of success.' … Johnston was very warm in his
recognition of the soldierly qualities and the wonderful
energy and persistence of our army and the ability of Sherman.
Referring to his own plans, he said he had hoped to have had
time enough to have collected a larger force to oppose
Sherman, and to give it a more complete and efficient
organization. The Confederate government had reckoned upon the
almost impassable character of the rivers and swamps to give a
respite till spring—at least they hoped for this. 'Indeed,'
said he, with a smile, 'Hardee here,' giving a friendly nod of
his head toward his subordinate, 'reported the Salkehatchie
Swamps as absolutely impassable; but when I heard that Sherman
had not only started, but was marching through those very
swamps at the rate of thirteen miles a day, making corduroy
road every foot of the way, I made up my mind there had been
no such army since the days of Julius Cæsar.' Hardee
laughingly admitted his mistaken report from Charleston, but
justified it by saying that all precedent was against such a
march, and that he would still have believed it impossible if
he had not seen it done."
_J. D. Cox,
The Surrender of Johnston's Army
(Sketches of War History, Ohio Commandery,
Loyal Legion, United States,
volume 2, page 249-256)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (May).
Statistics of the Civil War.
"In a statistical exhibit of deaths in the Union army,
compiled (1885), under the direction of Adjutant-General Drum,
by Joseph W. Kirkley, the causes of death are given as
follows:
Killed in action, 4,142 officers, 62,916 men;
died of wounds received in action, 2,223 officers, 40,789 men,
of which number 99 officers and 1,973 men were prisoners of war;
died of disease, 2,795 officers and 221,791 men, of which
83 officers and 24,783 men were prisoners;
accidental deaths (except drowned), 142 officers and 3,972 men,
of which 2 officers and 5 men were prisoners;
drowned, 106 officers and 4,838 men,
of which 1 officer and 6 men were prisoners;
murdered, 37 officers and 483 men;
killed after capture, 14 officers and 90 men;
committed suicide, 26 officers and 365 men;
executed by United States military authorities, 267 men;
executed by the enemy, 4 officers and 60 men;
died from sunstroke, 5 officers and 308 men, of which 20
men were prisoners;
other known causes, 62 officers and 1,972 men,
of which 7 officers and 312 men were prisoners;
causes not stated, 28 officers and 12,093 men,
of which 9 officers and 2,030 men were prisoners.
Total 9,584 officers, and 349,944 men,
of which 219 officers and 29,279 men were prisoners.
Grand aggregate, 359,528;
aggregate deaths among prisoners, 29,498.
Since 1885 the Adjutant-General has received evidence of the
death in Southern prisons of 694 men not previously accounted
for, which increases the number of deaths among prisoners to
30,192, and makes a grand aggregate of 360,222." Total number
of men furnished to the United States Army and Navy during the
War from the several States and Territories, 2,778,304; of
which number, 2,494,592 were white troops, 101,207 were
sailors and marines, and 178,975 were colored troops. "The
work of mustering out volunteers began April 29th and up to
August 7th 640,806 troops had been discharged; on September
14th the number had reached 741,107, and on November 15th
800,963. On November 22d, 1865, the Secretary of War reported
that Confederate troops surrendered and were released on
parole" to the number of 174,223. Official returns show the
whole number of men enrolled (present and absent) in the
active armies of the Confederacy, as follows:
January 1, 1862, 318,011;
January 1, 1863, 465,584;
January 1, 1864, 472,781;
January 1, 1865, 439,675.
"Very few, if any, of the local land forces, and none of the
naval are included in the tabular exhibit. If we take the
472,000 men in service at the beginning of 1864, and add
thereto at least 250,000 deaths occurring prior to that date,
it gives over 700,000. The discharges for disability and other
causes and the desertions would probably increase the number
(inclusive of the militia and naval forces) to over 1,000,000.
Northern writers have assumed that the Confederate losses
equalled the Union losses; no data exist for a reasonably
accurate estimate."
_Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,
volume 4, pages 767-768._
"In the four years of their service the armies of the Union,
counting every form of conflict, great and small, had been in
2,265 engagements with the Confederate troops. From the time
when active hostilities began until the last gun of the war
was fired, a fight of some kind—a raid, a skirmish, or a
pitched battle—occurred at some point on our widely extended
front nearly eleven times per week upon an average. Counting
only those engagements in which the Union loss in killed,
wounded, and missing exceeded 100, the total number was
330,—averaging one every four and a half days. From the
northernmost point of contact to the southernmost, the
distance by any practicable line of communication was more
than 2,000 miles. From East to West the extremes were 1,500
miles apart.
{3560}
During the first year of hostilities—one of preparation on
both sides—the battles were … 35 in number, of which the most
serious was the Union defeat at Bull Run. In 1862 the war had
greatly 'increased in magnitude and intensity, as is shown by
the 84 engagements between the armies. The net result of the
year's operations was highly favorable to the Rebellion. In
1863 the battles were 110 in number—among them some of the
most significant and important victories for the Union. In
1864 there were 73 engagements, and in the winter and early
spring of 1865 there were 28. In fact, 1864-65 was one
continuous campaign. … Not only in life but in treasure the
cost of the war was enormous. In addition to the large
revenues of the Government which had been currently absorbed,
the public debt at the close of the struggle was
$2,808,549,437.55. The incidental losses were innumerable in
kind, incalculable in amount. Mention is made here only of the
actual expenditure of money—estimated by the standard of gold.
The outlay was indeed principally made in paper, but the faith
of the United States was given for redemption in coin—a faith
which has never been tarnished, and which in this instance has
been signally vindicated by the steady determination of the
people. Never, in the same space of time, has there been a
National expenditure so great. … For the three years of the
rebellion, after the first year, our War Department alone
expended $603,314,411.82. $690,391,048.66, and $1,030,690,400
respectively. … At the outbreak of hostilities the Government
discovered that it had no Navy at command. The Secretary, Mr.
Welles, found upon entering his office but a single ship in a
Northern port fitted to engage in aggressive operations. … By
the end of the year 1863 the Government had 600 vessels of war
which were increased to 700 before the rebellion was subdued.
Of the total number at least 75 were ironclad."
_J. G. Blaine,
Twenty Years of Congress,
volume 2, chapter 2,
and volume 1, chapter 25._
"Eleven Confederate cruisers figured in the 'Alabama claims'
settlement between the United States and Great Britain. They
were the Alabama, Shenandoah, Florida, Tallahassee, Georgia,
Chickamauga, Nashville, Retribution, Sumter, Sallie and
Boston. The actual losses inflicted by the Alabama
($6,547,609) were only about $60,000 greater than those
charged to the Shenandoah. The sum total of the claims filed
against the eleven cruisers for ships and cargoes was
$17,900,633, all but about $4,000,000 being caused by the
Alabama and Shenandoah. … In the 'Case of the United States' …
it is stated that while in 1860 two-thirds of the commerce of
New York was carried on in American bottoms, in 1863
three-fourths was carried on in foreign bottoms. The transfer
of American vessels to the British flag to avoid capture is
stated thus:
In 1861, vessels 126, tonnage 71,673;
in 1862, vessels 135, tonnage 64,578;
in 1863, vessels 348, tonnage 252,579;
in 1864, vessels 106, tonnage 92,052.
… The cruisers built or purchased in England for the
Confederate navy, were the Florida, Alabama, Shenandoah and
Rappahannock. The latter never made a cruise, and the others
were procured for the government by James D. Bulloch, naval
agent. … He also had constructed in France the armored ram
Stonewall."
_J. T. Scharf,
History of the Confederate States Navy,
chapter 26._
See ALABAMA CLAIMS.
"The greatest of all the lessons afforded to humanity by the
Titanic struggle in which the American Republic saved its life
is the manner in which its armies were levied, and, when the
occasion for their employment was over, were dismissed. Though
there were periods when recruiting was slow and expensive, yet
there were others, when some crying necessity for troops was
apparent, that showed almost incredible speed and efficiency
in the supply of men. Mr. Stanton, in his report for 1865,
says: 'After the disasters on the Peninsula in 1862, over
80,000 troops were enlisted, organized, armed, equipped, and
sent into the field in less than a month. Sixty thousand
troops have repeatedly gone to the field within four weeks;
and 90,000 infantry were sent to the armies from the five
States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin within
twenty days.'"
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 10, chapter 17._
See also, PRISONS AND PRISON-PENS, CONFEDERATE.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (May-July).
President Johnson's measures of Reconstruction
in the Insurrectionary States.
"On the 10th of May the President [Andrew Johnson] issued a
proclamation declaring substantially that actual hostilities
had ceased, and that 'armed resistance to the authority of the
Government in the insurrectionary States may be regarded at an
end.' This great fact being officially recognized, the
President found himself face to face with the momentous duty
of bringing the eleven States of the Confederacy into active
and harmonious relations with the Government of the Union. …
An extra session of Congress seemed specially desirable at the
time, and had one been summoned by the President, many of the
troubles which subsequently resulted might have been averted.
… Declining to seek the advice of Congress, in the
embarrassments of his position, President Johnson necessarily
subjected himself to the counsel and influence of his
Cabinet," in which he had made no changes since President
Lincoln's death. Among the members of the cabinet, the one who
succeeded in obtaining ascendancy was Mr. Seward, who had
rapidly recovered from his injuries and resumed the direction
of the Department of State. Mr. Seward "was firmly persuaded
that the wisest plan of reconstruction was the one which would
be speediest; that for the sake of impressing the world with
the strength and the marvelous power of self-government, with
its Law, its Order, its Peace, we should at the earliest
possible moment have every State restored to its normal
relations with the Union. He did not believe that guarantee of
any kind beyond an oath of renewed loyalty was needful. He was
willing to place implicit faith in the coercive power of
self-interest operating upon the men lately in rebellion. … By
his arguments and by his eloquence Mr. Seward completely
captivated the President. He effectually persuaded him that a
policy of anger and hate and vengeance could lead only to evil
results. … The President was gradually influenced by Mr.
Seward's arguments, though their whole tenor was against his
strongest predilections and against his pronounced and public
committals to a policy directly the reverse. … Mr. Seward's
influence was supplemented and enhanced by the timely and
artful interposition of clever men from the South. … He
[President Johnson] was not especially open to flattery, but
it was noticed that words of commendation from his native
section seemed peculiarly pleasing to him. …
{3561}
On the 29th of May … two decisive steps were taken in the work
of reconstruction. Both steps proceeded on the theory that
every act needful for the rehabilitation of the seceded States
could be accomplished by the Executive Department of the
Government. … The first of these important acts of
reconstruction, upon the expediency of which the President and
Mr. Seward had agreed, was the issuing of a Proclamation of
Amnesty and Pardon to 'all persons who have directly or
indirectly participated in the existing Rebellion,' upon the
condition that such persons should take and subscribe an
oath—to be registered for permanent preservation—solemnly
declaring that henceforth they would 'faithfully support,
protect, and defend, the Constitution of the United States and
the union of the States thereunder;' and that they would also
'abide by and faithfully support all laws and proclamations
which have been made during the existing Rebellion, with
reference to the emancipation of slaves.' … The general
declaration of amnesty was somewhat narrowed in its scope by
the enumeration, at the end of the proclamation, of certain
classes which were excepted from its benefit." Of the thirteen
classes thus excepted, the first six were nearly identical
with those excepted in President Lincoln's proclamation of
December 8, 1863.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863-1864 (DECEMBER-JULY).
The classes added were: "Seventh, 'All persons who have been,
or are, absentees from the United States for the purpose of
aiding the Rebellion.' … Eighth, 'All officers in the rebel
service who had been educated at the United-States Military or
Naval Academy.' … Ninth, 'All men who held the pretended
offices of governors of States in insurrection against the
United States.' … Tenth, 'All persons who left their homes
within the jurisdiction and protection of the United States,
and passed beyond the Federal military lines into the
pretended Confederate States for the purpose of aiding the
Rebellion.' … Eleventh, 'All persons who have been engaged in
the destruction of the commerce of the United States upon the
high seas … and upon the lakes and rivers that separate the
British Provinces from the United States.' … Twelfth, 'All
persons who, at the time when they seek to obtain amnesty and
pardon, are in military, naval, or civil confinement, as
prisoners of war, or persons detained for offenses of any kind
either before or after conviction.' … Thirteenth, 'All
participants in the Rebellion, the estimated value of whose
taxable property is over $20,000.' … Full pardon was granted,
without further act on their part, to all who had taken the
oath prescribed in President Lincoln's proclamation of
December 8, 1863, and who had thenceforward kept and
maintained the same inviolate. … A circular from Mr. Seward
accompanied the proclamation, directing that the oath might
'be taken and subscribed before any commissioned officer,
civil, military, or naval, in the service of the United
States, or before any civil or military officer of a loyal
State or Territory, who, by the laws thereof, may be qualified
to administer oaths.' Everyone who took the oath was entitled
to a certified copy of it, … and a duplicate, properly
vouched, was forwarded to the State Department. … With these
details complete, a second step of great moment was taken by
the Government on the same day (May 29). A proclamation was
issued appointing William W. Holden provisional governor of
the State of North Carolina. … The proclamation made it the
duty of Governor Holden, 'at the earliest practicable period,
to prescribe such rules and regulations as may be necessary
and proper for assembling a convention—composed of delegates
who are loyal to the United States and no others—for the
purpose of altering or amending the Constitution thereof, and
with authority to exercise, within the limit of said State,
all the powers necessary and proper to enable the loyal people
of the State of North Carolina to restore said State to its
constitutional relations to the Federal Government.' … It was
specially provided in the proclamation that in 'choosing
delegates to any State Convention no person shall be qualified
as an elector or eligible as a member unless he shall have
previously taken the prescribed oath of allegiance, and unless
he shall also possess the qualifications of a voter as defined
under the Constitution and Laws of North Carolina as they
existed on the 20th of May, 1861, immediately prior to the
so-called ordinance of secession.' Mr. Lincoln had in mind, as
was shown by his letter to Governor Hahn of Louisiana, to try
the experiment of negro suffrage, beginning with those who had
served in the Union Army, and who could read and write; but
President Johnson's plan confined the suffrage to white men,
by prescribing the same qualifications as were required in
North Carolina before the war. … A fortnight later, on the
13th of June, a proclamation was issued for the reconstruction
of the civil government of Mississippi, and William L. Sharkey
was appointed provisional governor. Four days later, on the
17th of June, a similar proclamation was issued for Georgia
with James Johnson for provisional governor, and for Texas
with Andrew J. Hamilton for provisional governor. On the 21st
of the same month Lewis E. Parsons was appointed provisional
governor of Alabama, and on the 30th Benjamin F. Perry was
appointed provisional governor of South Carolina. On the 13th
of July the list was completed by the appointment of William
Marvin as provisional governor of Florida. The precise text of
the North Carolina proclamation, 'mutatis mutandis,' was
repeated in each one of those relating to these six States. …
For the reconstruction of the other four States of the
Confederacy different provisions were made." In Virginia, the
so-called "Pierpont government"—see VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861
(JUNE-NOVEMBER)—"the shell of which had been preserved after
West Virginia's separate existence had been recognized by the
National Government, with its temporary capital at Alexandria,
was accepted by President Johnson's Administration as the
legitimate Government of Virginia. All its archives, property,
and effects, as was afterwards said by Thaddeus Stevens, were
taken to Richmond in an ambulance. … A course not dissimilar
to that adopted in Virginia was followed in Louisiana,
Arkansas, and Tennessee. In all of them the so-called
'ten-per-cent' governments established under Mr. Lincoln's
authority were now recognized. … The whole scheme of
reconstruction, as originated by Mr. Seward and adopted by the
President, was in operation by the middle of July, three
months after the assassination of Mr. Lincoln.
{3562}
Every step taken was watched with the deepest solicitude by
the loyal people. The rapid and thorough change in the
President's position was clearly discerned and fully
appreciated. His course of procedure was dividing the
Republican party, and already encouraging the hopes of those
in the North who had been the steady opponents of Mr.
Lincoln's war policy, and of those in the South who had sought
for four years to destroy the Great Republic."
_J. G. Blaine,
Twenty Years of Congress,
volume 2, chapters 3-4._
ALSO IN:
_S. S. Cox,
Three Decades of Federal Legislation,
chapters 18-20._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (July-December).
Reports of Carl Schurz and General Grant on the condition
of affairs in the lately rebellious States.
In the summer of 1865 the Honorable Carl Schurz was
commissioned by President Johnson to visit the Southern States
and investigate the condition of affairs in them. Mr. Schurz,
on returning from this mission, made a report of the result of
his observations and inquiries, and the conclusions to which
they led him, which was transmitted to the Senate, by the
President, on the 18th of December. The views thus submitted
were summarized at the close of the report, as follows: "I may
sum up all I have said in a few words. If nothing were
necessary but to restore the machinery of government in the
States lately in rebellion in point of form, the movements
made to that end by the people of the south might be
considered satisfactory. But if it is required that the
southern people should also accommodate themselves to the
results of the war in point of spirit, those movements fall
far short of what must be insisted upon. The loyalty of the
masses and most of the leaders of the southern people consists
in submission to necessity. There is, except in individual
instances, an entire absence of that national spirit which
forms the basis of true loyalty and patriotism. The
emancipation of the slaves is submitted to only in so far as
chattel slavery in the old form could not be kept up. But
although the freedman is no longer considered the property of
the individual master, he is considered the slave of society,
and all independent State legislation will share the tendency
to make him such. The ordinances abolishing slavery passed by
the conventions under the pressure of circumstances will not
be looked upon as barring the establishment of a new form of
servitude. Practical attempts on the part of the southern
people to deprive the negro of his rights as a freeman may
result in bloody collisions, and will certainly plunge
southern society into restless fluctuations and anarchical
confusion. Such evils can be prevented only by continuing the
control of the national government in the States lately in
rebellion until free labor is fully developed and firmly
established, and the advantages and blessings of the new order
of things have disclosed themselves. This desirable result
will be hastened by a firm declaration on the part of the
government, that national control in the south will not cease
until such results are secured. Only in this way can that
security be established in the south which will render
numerous immigration possible, and such immigration would
materially aid a favorable development of things. The solution
of the problem would be very much facilitated by enabling all
the loyal and free-labor elements in the south to exercise a
healthy influence upon legislation. It will hardly be possible
to secure the freedman against oppressive class legislation
and private persecution, unless he be endowed with a certain
measure of political power. As to the future peace and harmony
of the Union, it is of the highest importance that the people
lately in rebellion be not permitted to build up another
'peculiar institution' whose spirit is in conflict with the
fundamental principles of our political system; for as long as
they cherish interests peculiar to them in preference to those
they have in common with the rest of the American people,
their loyalty to the Union will always be uncertain. I desire
not to be understood as saying that there are no well-meaning
men among those who were compromised in the rebellion. There
are many, but neither their number nor their influence is
strong enough to control the manifest tendency of the popular
spirit. There are great reasons for hope that a determined
policy on the part of the national government will produce
innumerable and valuable conversions. This consideration
counsels lenity as to persons, such as is demanded by the
humane and enlightened spirit of our times, and vigor and
firmness in the carrying out of principles, such as is
demanded by the national sense of justice and the exigencies
of our situation." With the report of Mr. Schurz, the
President transmitted to the Senate, at the same time, a
letter written by General Grant after making a hurried tour of
inspection in some of the Southern States, during the last
week of November and early in December. General Grant wrote:
"Four years of war, during which law was executed only at the
point of the bayonet throughout the States in rebellion, have
left the people possibly in a condition not to yield that
ready obedience to civil authority the American people have
generally been in the habit of yielding. This would render the
presence of small garrisons throughout those States necessary
until such time as labor returns to its proper channel, and
civil authority is fully established. I did not meet anyone,
either those holding places under the government or citizens
of the southern States, who think it practicable to withdraw
the military from the south at present. The white and the
black mutually require the protection of the general
government. There is such universal acquiescence in the
authority of the general government throughout the portions of
country visited by me, that the mere presence of a military
force, without regard to numbers, is sufficient to maintain
order. The good of the country, and economy, require that the
force kept in the interior, where there are many freedmen,
(elsewhere in the southern States than at forts upon the
seacoast no force is necessary,) should all be white troops.
The reasons for this are obvious without mentioning many of
them. The presence of black troops, lately slaves, demoralizes
labor, both by their advice and by furnishing in their camps a
resort for the freedmen for long distances around. White
troops generally excite no opposition, and therefore a small
number of them can maintain order in a given district. Colored
troops must be kept in bodies sufficient to defend themselves.
It is not the thinking men who would use violence towards any
class of troops sent among them by the general government, but
the ignorant in some places might; and the late slave seems to
be imbued with the idea that the property of his late master
should, by right, belong to him, or at least should have no
protection from the colored soldier.
{3563}
There is danger of collisions being brought on by such causes.
My observations lead me to the conclusion that the citizens of
the southern States are anxious to return to self-government,
within the Union, as soon as possible; that whilst
reconstructing they want and require protection from the
government; that they are in earnest in wishing to do what
they think is required by the government, not humiliating to
them as citizens, and that if such a course were pointed out
they would pursue it in good faith. It is to be regretted that
there cannot be a greater commingling, at this time, between
the citizens of the two sections, and particularly of those
intrusted with the lawmaking power. … In some instances, I am
sorry to say, the freedman's mind does not seem to be
disabused of the idea that a freedman has the right to live
without care or provision for the future. The effect of the
belief in division of lands is idleness and accumulation in
camps, towns, and cities. In such cases I think it will be
found that vice and disease will tend to the extermination or
great reduction of the colored race. It cannot be expected
that the opinions held by men at the south for years can be
changed in a day, and therefore the freedmen require, for a
few years, not only laws to protect them, but the fostering
care of those who will give them good counsel, and on whom
they rely."
_39th Congress, 1st Session,
Senate Ex. Doc. no. 2, pages 45-46, 106-107._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (December).
The end of Slavery.
Proclamation of the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (JANUARY).
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865-1866.
The creation of the Freedmen's Bureau.
On the last day of the 38th Congress, March 3, 1865, an Act
was passed to establish a bureau for the relief of freedmen
and refugees. It was among the last Acts approved by Mr.
Lincoln, and was designed as a protection to the freedmen of
the South and to the class of white men known as "refugees,"—
driven from their homes on account of their loyalty to the
Union. The Act provided that the Bureau should have
"supervision and management of all abandoned lands, and the
control of all subjects relating to refugees and freedmen from
rebel States, or from any district of country within the
territory embraced in the operations of the army, under such
rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the head of the
bureau and approved by the President. The said bureau shall be
under the management and control of a commissioner, to be
appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent
of the Senate. … The Secretary of War may direct such issues
of provisions, clothing, and fuel as he may deem needful for
the immediate and temporary shelter and supply of destitute
and suffering refugees and freedmen, and their wives and
children, under such rules and regulations as he may direct. …
The President may, by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate, appoint an assistant commissioner for each of the
States declared to be in insurrection, not exceeding ten. …
Any military officer may be detailed and assigned to duty
under this act without increase of pay or allowances. … The
commissioner, under the direction of the President, shall have
authority to set apart for the use of loyal refugees and
freedmen such tracts of land, within the insurrectionary
States, as shall have been abandoned, or to which the United
States shall have acquired title by confiscation, or sale, or
otherwise. And to every male citizen, whether refugee or
freedman, as aforesaid, there shall be assigned not more than
40 acres of such land, and the person to whom it is so
assigned shall be protected in the use and enjoyment of the
land for the term of three years, at an annual rent not
exceeding 6 per centum upon the value of said land as it was
appraised by the State authorities in the year 1860. … At the
end of said term, or at any time during said term, the
occupants of any parcels so assigned may purchase the land and
receive such title thereto as the United States can convey. …
On the 20th of May, 1865, Major-General O. O. Howard was
appointed Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau. He gave great
attention to the subject of education; and after planting
schools for the freedmen throughout a great portion of the
South, in 1870—five years after the work was begun—he made a
report. It was full of interest. In five years there were
4,239 schools established, 9,307 teachers employed, and
247,333 pupils instructed. In 1868 the average attendance was
89,396; but in 1870 it was 91,398, or 79¾ per-cent. of the
total number enrolled. The emancipated people sustained 1,324
schools themselves, and owned 592 school buildings. The
Freedmen's Bureau furnished 654 buildings for school
purposes."
_G. W. Williams,
History of the Negro Race in America,
part 8, chapters 21-22 (volume 2)._
As the original act, "by experience, had proved somewhat
inadequate for the ends in view, Congress, in the early part
of February, 1866, submitted an act amendatory … for executive
approval. Its main features consisted in the reservation of
three millions of acres of public land in the South from the
operation of the homestead and pre-emption laws for occupation
by former slaves at a rental to be approved by designated
authorities, an extension of the former means of relief in the
way of food and clothing, and the punishment, by tribunals
composed of the agents and officials of the bureau, of all
persons who should violate the rights under this act of its
designated beneficiaries. … The President, chafing under the
non-admission to their representation in Congress of the
Southern States which under his policy had been restored,
vetoed the bill February 19 on various grounds, among the more
important of which, and the only ones of particular import,
were that the measure violated constitutional guarantees in
that no person by our organic code should be deprived of life,
liberty or property without due process of law, and that
taxation should never be imposed without representation. …
February 21st the bill was again put upon its passage, but not
obtaining a two-thirds vote in the Senate, consequently failed
to become a law. … The third Freedmen's Bureau bill, of July,
1866, was another attempt to amend the original law of March
3, 1865, as to juridical measures for the enforcement thereof,
and to perfect the distribution of the abandoned and
confiscated lands of the South among the blacks. It was much
milder in form than the one vetoed in February of the same
year, as it did not make violations of the proposed law a
criminal offence.
{3564}
It proposed to give jurisdiction of such violations, however,
to military tribunals, made up of the agents and officers of
the bureau, until the Southern States had been restored to
their representation in Congress. … July 16, 1866, the
President vetoed the bill as a matter of course. He could have
pursued no other action without self-contradiction. Congress,
moreover, could not have reasonably expected a different
result. It framed the bill not with an eye for executive
approval, but with regard to its ability to pass it over the
disapproval of that official, which it did on the same day the
veto message was received, thereby making it a law of the
land."
_O. Skinner,
The Issues of American Politics,
part 2, chapter 2._
"The law made the agents of this Bureau guardians of freedmen,
with power to make their contracts, settle their disputes with
employers, and care for them generally. The position of Bureau
agent was one of power, of responsibility, capable of being
used beneficently, and sometimes, no doubt, it was; but these
officials were subjected to great temptation. … Nearly every
one of these agents who remained South after reconstruction
was a candidate for office; and many actually became
Governors, Judges, Legislators, Congressmen, Postmasters,
Revenue officers, etc."
_H. A. Herbert,
Why the Solid South?
chapter 1._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865-1866 (December-April).
The Reconstruction question in Congress.
The Joint Committee of Fifteen.
The shaping of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The "independent measures of the Executive for reconstruction
were far from giving satisfaction to the Republican party.
Within a few days after the meeting of Congress, in December,
1865, Mr. Stevens, of Pennsylvania, asked leave to introduce a
joint resolution which provided that a committee of fifteen
members should be appointed—nine of whom were to be members of
the House and six to be members of the Senate—for the purpose
of inquiring into the condition of the states which had formed
the so-called Confederate States of America. This committee
was to report whether these states or any of them were
entitled to be represented in either house of Congress. Leave
was given to report at any time, by bill or otherwise, and
until such should be made and finally acted upon by Congress,
no member was to be received into either house from any of
those states. All papers relating to this representation in
Congress were to be referred to this committee without debate.
This resolution was adopted in the House by a vote of—yeas
133, nays 36." In the Senate it received amendments which made
it a concurrent, instead of a joint resolution, and which
struck out the clause relating to the non-admittance of
members from the States in question pending the committee's
report, and also that which required a reference of papers to
the committee without debate.
_S. S. Cox,
Three Decades of Federal Legislation,
chapter 18._
The Joint Committee on Reconstruction was constituted by the
appointment (December 14), on the part of the House, of
Thaddeus Stevens, Elihu B. Washburn, Justin S. Morrill, Henry
Grider, John A. Bingham, Roscoe Conkling, George S. Boutwell,
Henry T. Blow, and Andrew J. Rogers; and by the appointment
(December 21), on the part of the Senate, of William Pitt
Fessenden, James W. Grimes, Ira Harris, Jacob M. Howard,.
Reverdy Johnson, and George H. Williams. The most serious
question connected with the problem of reconstruction was that
arising from the great increase of representation in Congress,
and consequent augmentation of political weight and power,
that must necessarily accrue to the lately rebellious States
from the emancipation of their slaves. To this question the
Committee gave their attention first. By an original provision
of the Constitution, representation is based on the whole
number of free persons in each State and three-fifths of all
other persons. "When all become free, representation for all
necessarily follows. As a consequence the inevitable effect of
the rebellion would be to increase the political power of the
insurrectionary States, whenever they should be allowed to
resume their positions as States of the Union. As
representation is by the Constitution based upon population,
your committee [said their report, when made, on the 8th of
June, 1866] did not think it advisable to recommend a change
of that basis. … It appeared to your committee that the rights
of these persons by whom the basis of representation had been
thus increased should be recognized by the general government.
… It did not seem just or proper that all the political
advantages derived from their becoming free should be confined
to their former masters, who had fought against the Union, and
withheld from themselves, who had always been loyal. … Doubts
were entertained whether Congress had power, even under the
amended Constitution, to prescribe the qualifications of
voters in a State, or could act directly on the subject. It
was doubtful, in the opinion of your committee, whether the
States would consent to surrender a power they had always
exercised, and to which they were attached. As the best if not
the only method of surmounting the difficulty, and as
eminently just and proper in itself, your committee came to
the conclusion that political power should be possessed in all
the States exactly in proportion as the right of suffrage
should be granted, without distinction of color or race. This
it was thought would leave the whole question with the people
of each State, holding out to all the advantage of increased
political power as an inducement to allow all to participate
in its exercise." To this conclusion the committee arrived as
early as the 22d of January, when they made a preliminary
report, recommending an amendment to the constitution to the
effect that "Representatives and direct taxes shall be
apportioned among the several States which may be included
within this Union according to their respective numbers,
counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding
Indians not taxed: Provided, That whenever the elective
franchise shall be denied or abridged in any State on account
of race or color, all persons of such race or color shall be
excluded from the basis of representation." Grave objections
were found to the proposed exclusion of the colored race as a
whole from the basis of representation, in case the suffrage
should be denied to any part of it. It was shown, moreover,
that disfranchisement might be practically accomplished on
other grounds than that of race or color and the intended
effect of the constitutional provision evaded.
{3665}
Hence the proposition of the Committee failed in the Senate
(March 9, 1866), though adopted by the House (January 31). On
the 20th of February, the Committee on Reconstruction reported
a concurrent resolution, "That in order to close agitation
upon a question which seems likely to disturb the action of
the Government, as well as to quiet the uncertainty which is
agitating the minds of the people of the eleven States which
have been declared to be in insurrection, no Senator or
Representative shall be admitted into either branch of
Congress from any of said States until Congress shall have
declared such State entitled to such representation." The
House adopted this important concurrent resolution the same
evening. In the Senate it was debated until the 2d of March,
when it was passed by a vote of 29 to 18. On the 30th of April
the Reconstruction Committee reported a joint resolution
embodying a comprehensive amendment to the Constitution,
designed to protect the rights of the freedmen of the South,
as citizens of the United States, and to fix the basis of
representation in Congress, as well as to settle other
questions arising out of the Rebellion. As adopted by Congress
in June, and subsequently ratified by the legislatures of the
necessary number of States this became what appears as the
Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1866 (JUNE).
"This proposed amendment to the Constitution was accompanied
by two bills, one of which provided that when any State lately
in insurrection should have ratified the amendment, its
Senators and Representatives, if found duly elected and
qualified, should be admitted as members of Congress. The
other bill declared the high ex-officials of the late
Confederacy ineligible to any office under the Government of
the United States."
_W. H. Barnes,
History of the 39th Congress,
chapters 3, and 13-19._
ALSO IN:
_Report of Joint Committee on Reconstruction,
39th Congress, 1st session.
H. R. Report, number. 30._
_A. R. Conkling,
Life and Letters of Roscoe Conkling,
chapter 14._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1866.
The Fenian movement and invasion of Canada.
See IRELAND: A. D. 1858-1867;
and CANADA: A. D. 1866-1871.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1866 (February).
The French warned out of Mexico.
See MEXICO: A. D.1861-1867.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1866 (April).
The passage of the first Civil Rights Bill
over the President's veto.
"Immediately on the reassembling of Congress after the
holidays, January 5, 1866, Mr. Trumbull [in the Senate], in
pursuance of previous notice, introduced a bill 'to protect
all persons in the United States in their civil rights, and
furnish the means of their vindication.' This bill, having
been read twice, was referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary." A few days later the bill was reported back from
the Committee, and it came up for discussion on the 29th of
January. On the 1st of February it passed the Senate and went
to the House. In that body it was reported from the Judiciary
Committee on the 1st of March, and debate upon the measure
began. It passed the House, with some amendments, March 13th,
by a vote of 111 to 38. The amendments of the House were
agreed to by the Senate, and it went to the President, who
returned it with an elaborate veto message on the 27th of
March. In the Senate, on the 6th of April, by 33 ayes to 15
nays, and in the House three days later, by 122 affirmative
votes to 41 in the negative, the bill was passed
notwithstanding the veto, and became law. As enacted, the
Civil Rights Bill declared "that all persons born in the
United States and not subject to any foreign Power, excluding
Indians not taxed, are … citizens of the United States; and
such citizens of every race and color, without regard to any
previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude, except
as a punishment for crime, … shall have the same right in
every State and Territory of the United States to make and
enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, and give evidence, to
inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and
personal property, and to full and equal benefit of all laws
and proceedings for the security of person and property as is
enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to like
punishment, pains, and penalties, and to none other, any law,
statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom to the contrary
notwithstanding." Section 2 of the act provided penalties for
its violation. The remaining sections gave to the district and
circuit courts of the United States cognizance of all crimes
and offenses committed against the provisions of the act;
extended the jurisdiction of those courts and enlarged and
defined the powers and duties of the district attorneys,
marshals, deputy marshals and commissioners of the United
States, to that end; made it lawful for the President "to
employ such part of the land or naval forces of the United
States, or of the militia, as shall be necessary to prevent
the violation and enforce the due execution of this act;" and,
finally, provided that "upon all questions of law arising in
any cause under the provisions of this act a final appeal may
be taken to the Supreme Court of the United States."
W_. H. Barnes,
History of the 39th Congress,
chapters 9-11._
ALSO IN:
_H. Wilson,
History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power,
volume 3, chapter 48._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1866 (June).
Congressional adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The joint resolution, embodying the important amendment to the
Federal Constitution which became, when ratified, the
Fourteenth Amendment, reported to Congress on the 30th of
April, 1866, by the Joint Committee on Reconstruction was
passed by the House of Representatives on the 10th of May, and
by the Senate on the 8th of June, with amendments which the
House concurred in on the 13th of June.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865-1866 (DECEMBER-APRIL).
Having no constitutional power to veto the resolution,
President Johnson sent a message to Congress on the 22d
expressing his disapproval of it. The proposed constitutional
amendment as it passed both Houses of Congress, and as it
became part of the constitution of the United States by
subsequent ratification of the States, is as follows:
"Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United
States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens
of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No
State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor
shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or
property without due process of law; nor deny to any person
within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
{3566}
Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the
several States according to their respective numbers, counting
the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians
not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the
choice of electors for President and Vice President of the
United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and
judicial officers of a State, or the members of the
Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants
of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of
the United States, or in any way abridged, except for
participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of
representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion
which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole
number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in
Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold
any office, civil or military, under the United States, or
under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a
member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or
as a member of any State Legislature, or as an executive or
judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of
the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or
rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the
enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of
each House, remove such disability.
Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United
States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for
payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing
insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But
neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay
any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or
rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss
or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations
and claims shall be held illegal and void.
Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by
appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article."
_W. H. Barnes,
History of the 39th Congress,
chapters 17-18._
ALSO IN:
_J. G. Blaine,
Twenty Years of Congress,
volume 2, chapter 9._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1866 (July).
Restoration of Tennessee to her
"former, proper, practical relation to the Union."
See TENNESSEE: A. D. 1865-1866.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1866 (July).
The New Orleans Riot.
See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1865-1867.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1866-1867 (October-March).
The Reconstruction issue before the people.
Congress sustained by the North.
President Johnson and the South.
Rejection of the Fourteenth Amendment by the Southern States.
In the elections of 1866 the canvass turned upon the issue
between Congress and the President concerning Reconstruction,
and the popular verdict was overwhelmingly adverse to the
Presidential policy, while a new Congress was elected far more
Radical in disposition than its predecessor. Every Northern
State was swept by the Republicans, with heavily increased
majorities. Even those "which had been tenaciously Democratic
gave way under the popular pressure. … The aggregate majority
for the Republicans and against the Administration in the
Northern States was about 390,000 votes. In the South the
elections were as significant as in the North, but in the
opposite direction. Wherever Republican or Union tickets were
put forward for State or local offices in the Confederate
States, they were defeated by prodigious majorities. Arkansas
gave a Democratic majority of over 9,000, Texas over 40,000,
and North Carolina 25,000. The border slave States were
divided. Delaware, Maryland and Kentucky gave strong
majorities for the Democrats, while West Virginia and Missouri
were carried by the Republicans. The unhappy indication of the
whole result was that President Johnson's policy had inspired
the South with a determination not to submit to the legitimate
results of the war, but to make a new fight and, if possible,
regain at the ballot-box the power they had lost by war. The
result of the whole election was to give to the Republicans
143 representatives in Congress and to the Democrats but 49."
But when Congress assembled, in December, the President was
found to be inflexibly determined to pursue the line of policy
which he had marked out. In his message he reiterated his
views "with entire disregard of the popular result which had
so significantly condemned him. … The President's position …
excited derision and contempt in the North, but it led to
mischievous results in the South. The ten Confederate States
which stood knocking at the door of Congress for the right of
representation, were fully aware, as was well stated by a
leading Republican, that the key to unlock the door had been
placed in their own hands. They knew that the political
canvass in the North had proceeded upon the basis, and upon
the practical assurance (given through the press, and more
authoritatively in political platforms), that whenever any
other Confederate State should follow the example of
Tennessee, it should at once be treated as Tennessee had been
treated. Yet, when this position had been confirmed by the
elections in all the loyal States, and was, by the special
warrant of popular power, made the basis of future admission,
these ten States, voting upon the Fourteenth Amendment at
different dates through the winter of 1866-67, contemptuously
rejected it. In the Virginia Legislature only one vote could
be found for the Amendment. In the North-Carolina Legislature
only 11 votes out of 148 were in favor of the Amendment. In
the South-Carolina Legislature there was only one vote for the
Amendment. In Georgia only two votes out of 169 in the
Legislature were in the affirmative. Florida unanimously
rejected the Amendment. Out of 106 votes in the Alabama
Legislature only ten could be found in favor of it.
Mississippi and Louisiana both rejected it unanimously. Texas,
out of her entire Legislature, gave only five votes for it,
and the Arkansas Legislature, which had really taken its
action in the preceding October, gave only three votes for the
Amendment. … It was naturally inferred and was subsequently
proved, that the Southern States would not have dared to take
this hostile attitude except with the encouragement and the
unqualified support of the President."
_J. G. Blaine,
Twenty Years of Congress,
volume 2, chapter 10-11._
{3567}
"No factor in those elections [of 1866] proved more potential
than the rejection by Southern Legislatures of the pending
Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
The clauses on which its acceptance or rejection turned in
these assemblies were: Section II., which apportioned
Representatives in Congress upon the basis of the voting
population; and Section II!., which provided that no person
should hold office under the United States who, having taken
an oath as a Federal or state officer to support the
Constitution, had subsequently engaged in the war against the
Union. It was claimed by the friends of the Amendment to be
especially unfair that the South should have representation
for its freedmen and not give them the ballot. The right,
however, of a state to have representation for all its free
inhabitants, whether voters or not, was secured by the
Constitution, and that instrument even allowed three-fifths
representation for slaves. New York, Ohio, and other states
denied the ballot to free negroes; some states excluded by
property qualification and others by educational tests, yet
all enjoyed representation for all their peoples. The reply to
this was that the Constitution ought to be amended because the
South would now have, if negroes were denied the ballot, a
larger proportion of non-voters than the North. Southern
people were slow to see that this was good reason for change
in the Constitution, especially as they believed they were
already entitled to representation, and conceived that they
ought to have a voice in proposing as well as in the
ratification of amendments. Five of the restored states had
already ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, and such
ratification had been counted valid. If they were states, they
were certainly entitled to representation. So they claimed. It
was perhaps imprudent for Southern people at that time to
undertake to chop logic with their conquerors, or indeed to
claim any rights at all. … The insuperable objection, however,
to the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment was to be
found in the clause which required the people of the late
Confederate States to disfranchise their own leaders, to brand
with dishonor those who had led them in peace and in war."
_H. A. Herbert,
Why the Solid South?
(Noted Men on the Solid South)
pages 15-16._
In a letter addressed, November 25, 1866, to General Richard
Taylor, lately of the Confederate army, and brother-in-law of
Jefferson Davis, General Grant wrote: "I have talked with
several members of Congress who are classed with the Radicals;
Schenck and Bidwell for instance. They express the most
generous views as to what would be done if the Constitutional
amendments proposed by Congress were adopted by the Southern
States. What was done in the case of Tennessee was an earnest
of what would be done in all cases. Even the disqualification
to hold office imposed on certain classes by one article of
the amendment would, no doubt, be removed at once, except it
might be in the cases of the very highest offenders, such, for
instance, as those who went abroad to aid in the Rebellion,
those who left seats in Congress, etc. All or very nearly all
would soon be restored, and so far as security to property and
liberty is concerned, all would be restored at once. I would
like exceedingly to see one Southern State, excluded State,
ratify the amendments to enable us to see the exact course
that would be pursued. I believe it would much modify the
demands that may be made if there is delay." "But the
President's endeavors did not cease. … He used all the
authority of his office to dissuade the Southerners from
accepting the amendment which the entire North had ratified. …
He converted good feeling and good will on both sides into
discord, and precipitated disasters almost equal to those from
which the State had barely escaped. … This view of Johnson's
conduct was thenceforth steadily maintained by Grant."
_A. Badeau,
Grant in Peace,
chapter 5._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1866-1867 (December-March).
The Tenure-of-Office Bill.
"Against the early decision of the founders of the Government,
… against the repeatedly expressed judgment of ex-President
Madison, against the equally emphatic judgment of Chief
Justice Marshall, and above all, against the unbroken practice
of the Government for 78 years, the Republican leaders now
determined to deprive the President of the power of removing
Federal officers. Many were induced to join in the movement
under the belief that it was important to test the true
meaning of the Constitution in the premises, and that this
could be most effectively done by directly restraining by law
the power which had been so long conceded to the Executive
Department. To that end Mr. Williams of Oregon, on the first
Monday of December, 1866, introduced a bill 'to regulate the
tenure of civil offices.'"
_J. G. Blaine,
Twenty Years of Congress,
volume 2, page 270._
"After grave consideration and protracted discussion in both
houses of Congress, the [Tenure-of-Office bill] was passed
near the close of the session. On the 2d of March [1867] the
bill encountered the veto of the President, who saw in the
measure serious interference with the ability of the Executive
to keep his oath to preserve, protect, and defend the
Constitution of the United States. The bill was immediately
passed over the veto without debate. The act thus passed
provides that officers appointed by and with the advice and
consent of the Senate shall hold their offices until their
successors are in like manner appointed and qualified. Members
of the Cabinet hold their offices during the term of the
President by whom they are appointed, and for one month
thereafter, subject to removal by consent of the Senate."
_W. H. Barnes,
History of the 39th Congress,
page 560._
Soon after the inauguration of President Grant, in 1868, the
Tenure-of-Office act was so far modified as to practically
release the President from the restraint which it put upon his
power of removal.
_J. G. Blaine,
Twenty Years of Congress,
volume 2, chapter 18, and Appendix B._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1866-1869.
Organization of the Bureau of Education.
See EDUCATION, MODERN: AMERICA: A. D. 1866-1869.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1866-1871.
The Ku-Klux Klan of the Southern States and its outrages.
"It would have been contrary to the experience of mankind,
and an exception to all the teachings of history, if the
social and political revolution which the results of the war
had imposed on the states then recently insurgent had gone
into operation peacefully, harmoniously, and successfully. It
was impossible for such to be the case. The transition was
from a state in which the superiority and domination of the
white race over the colored race existed unquestioned for
centuries. It was to a condition of things in which the most
prominent whites were disfranchised and deprived of the right
to hold public offices. Their late slaves were enfranchised,
and the judicial and other offices were largely filled by
dishonest and unfriendly strangers from the North. What was
worse still, many of these places were filled by ignorant and
brutal negroes. The transition was too sudden and violent. It
was hard to submit to it quietly.
{3568}
No people, least of all such a proud and intolerant people as
that of the South, could see their local governments
transferred from their own hands into the hands of their
former slaves without being goaded into violent resistance.
This resistance took the form, in most of the Southern
States, not of armed opposition to the Federal or the state
governments, but of organized intimidation and terrorism. It
was directed against the colored people and against their
white allies and leaders. It made an objective point of the
agents of the Freedmen's Bureau, ministers of the gospel, and
school teachers,—all adventurers from the North, or men who
had, in quest of fortune, immigrated into these states. All
of these classes were regarded as public or private enemies.
They were designated by the opprobrious title of
'carpet-baggers.' The history of these outrages fills many
volumes of reports made by joint and separate committees of
the two houses of Congress. It is from these volumes, from
reports of military commanders in the South, and from other
official documents, that the following epitome, exhibiting
the lawlessness that prevailed in the Southern States during
the … decade between 1865 and 1875, is made. These documents
are so full of the details of crime and violence, and are so
voluminous, that it is exceedingly difficult to select from
them, or to convey a correct idea of their relations. Very
soon after the close of the Civil War, almost as soon as the
Reconstruction acts were begun to be put in operation, secret
societies were organized in various states of the South.
Their object, either secret or avowed, was to prevent the
exercise of political rights by the negroes. These societies
took various names, such as 'The Brotherhood,' 'The Pale
Faces,' 'The Invisible Empire,' 'The Knights of the White
Camellia'; but all these were finally merged into, or
compounded with, the formidable and dreaded society
denominated the 'Ku-Klux Klan.' Their acts of lawlessness and
cruelty have passed into local and congressional history as
'Ku-Klux outrages.' The State of Virginia was a remarkable
exception to the other states in its exemption from crimes of
this character; while the two neighboring States of North
Carolina and Tennessee furnished, perhaps, more material for
investigation into Ku-Klux outrages than any other portion of
the South. This barbarous and bloodthirsty organization is
said to have originated in 1866. There is no doubt that the
Ku-Klux Klan was organized at first only to scare the
superstitious blacks. It is true that it arose out of the
frivolities of some young Tennesseans. Horrid tales were told
to frighten the negroes from roaming about and pilfering. The
testimony before the committee on that subject, of which the
writer was a member, showed that they daily visited houses
and talked their foolish talk; that they were 'mummicking
about,'—whatever that means. … There is no doubt that
political reasons had their influence after the Ku-Klux were
under way. … Certain it is, that they soon came to be made
use of, in the most arbitrary, cruel, and shocking manner,
for the furtherance of political ends, and for the crushing
out of Republicanism in the Southern States; to which party
the colored people were almost unanimously attached. The
crimes and outrages narrated in these pages had their origin,
almost exclusively, in political causes,—in the effort on the
part of the whites to set at naught the rights of suffrage
guaranteed to the negroes, and to exclude from Federal,
state, county, and local offices all persons whose reliance
for election to such offices was mainly if not altogether, on
negro votes. General Forrest estimated the strength of the
Ku-Klux organization in Tennessee at 40,000. He expressed the
belief that it was still stronger in other states. The
members were sworn to secrecy, under the penalty of death for
breach of fidelity. Their ordinary mode of operation—as
gathered from the mass of evidence—was to patrol the country
at night. They went well armed and mounted. They wore long
white gowns. They masked their faces. Their appearance
terrified the timid and superstitious negroes who happened to
see them as they rode past, and who then regarded them as
ghostly riders. But most frequently they surrounded and broke
into the cabins of the negroes; frightened and maltreated the
inmates; warned them of future vengeance; and probably
carried off some obnoxious negro, or 'carpet-bagger,' whose
fate it was to be riddled with murderous bullets, hung to the
limb of a tree, or mercilessly whipped and tortured, for some
offense, real or imaginary, but generally because he was
active in politics or in negro schools or churches. …
According to the majority report of the Senate select
committee of March 10, 1871, the Ku-Klux associations, by
whatever name known, were instituted in North Carolina in
1867 or 1868. … The report of the Senate committee of the
10th of March, 1871, before referred to, recites a startling
number of Ku-Klux outrages. They embrace whipping,
mutilation, and murder. These cruelties took place in North
Carolina, between December, 1868, and December, 1870. The
report gives some of the horrifying details."
_S. S. Cox,
Three Decades of Federal Legislation,
chapters 25-26._
"Senator Scott, in a speech in the Senate, gave as the result
of the investigation that came to his own knowledge, as
follows: In North Carolina, in 14 counties, there were 18
murders and 315 whippings. In South Carolina, 9 counties, 35
murders and 276 other flagrant outrages. In Georgia, 20
counties, 72 murders and 126 whippings. In Alabama, 26
counties, 215 murders and 116 other outrages. In Florida, in
one county alone there were 153 cases of homicide. In
Mississippi, 20 counties, 23 homicides and 76 other cases of
outrage. In 99 counties in different States he found 526
homicides and 2,009 cases of whipping. But the committee state
that in Louisiana alone in the year 1868 there were more than
1,000 murders, and most of them were the result of the
operations of the Ku Klux."
_H. Wilson,
History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power,
volume 3, chapter 45._
ALSO IN:
_Report of Joint Select Committee
(42d Congress, 2d session, Senate Report, number 41)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1867 (January).
Negro Suffrage in the District of Columbia.
As early as the 18th of January, 1866, the House of
Representatives passed a bill extending the suffrage in the
District of Columbia, by striking out the word "white" from
all laws and parts of laws prescribing the qualification of
electors for any office in the District, and declaring that no
person should be disqualified from voting at any election in
the District on account of color.
{3569}
As it was known that the President would veto the bill if sent
to him, the Senate held it until the next session. In
December, 1866, it was called up in that body by Senator
Sumner, and after considerable debate was passed, December
13th. On the 7th of January following it was returned by the
President with his veto, but was passed over the veto by the
Senate (29 to 10) the same day, and by the House (113 to 38)
the day following, thus becoming a law.
_W. H. Barnes,
History of the 39th Congress,
chapters 4 and 21._
ALSO IN:
_G. W. Julian,
Political Recollections,
chapter 12._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1867 (March).
The Purchase of Alaska.
See ALASKA: A. D. 1867.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1867 (March).
The Military Reconstruction Acts of Congress.
"Congress had declared amply enough how the rebel States
should not be reinstated. Two years after the close of the
war, however, the Union was still unrestored, and while
claiming, under the Constitution, absolute jurisdiction of the
question, Congress had failed to prescribe the terms on which
the Union should be restored. … Both the country and Congress
were at last convinced by the course of events that
affirmative Congressional action was indispensable, involving
the sweeping away of Mr. Johnson's ex-rebel State governments
and the enfranchisement of the emancipated slaves. Mr. Stevens
had been of that opinion ever since the emasculation by the
Senate of the Fourteenth Amendment, as adopted by the House
[which had proposed to exclude from the right to vote for
Representatives in Congress and for Presidential electors,
'until the 4th day of July, in the year 1870, all persons who
voluntarily adhered to the late insurrection, giving it aid
and comfort'], and immediately thereupon proposed a measure
containing the germ of the Military Reconstruction Act. Called
up from time to time, and pressed upon the attention of the
House by Mr. Stevens, it was passed on the 13th day of
February, 1867, after a four weeks' debate upon it in
Committee of the Whole. By the 20th both Houses had agreed
upon it, and passed it. On the 2d day of March the President
returned it to the House with his veto, over which it was at
once passed by both Houses; and with only two days of the
Thirty-ninth Congress to spare, it become law."
_O. J. Hollister,
Life of Schuyler Colfax,
chapter 9._
The Military Reconstruction Act set forth in its preamble that
"Whereas, no legal State governments or adequate protection
for life or property now exists in the rebel States
[enumerating all the late Confederate States except
Tennessee]; … and whereas it is necessary that peace and good
order should be enforced in said States until loyal and
republican State governments can be legally established:
therefore, Be it enacted, … That said rebel States shall be
divided into military districts and made subject to the
military authority of the United States, as hereinafter
prescribed; and for that purpose Virginia shall constitute the
first district, North Carolina and South Carolina the second
district, Georgia, Alabama and Florida the third district,
Mississippi and Arkansas the fourth district, and Louisiana
and Texas the fifth district." Sections 2, 3 and 4 of the act
made it the duty of the President to assign to the command of
each of the said districts an officer of the army not below
the rank of brigadier-general, and defined the duties and
powers of such commander, providing for the assignment to him
of an adequate military force. Section 5 provided "That when
the people of any one of said rebel States shall have formed a
constitution of government in conformity with the Constitution
of the United States in all respects, framed by a convention
of delegates elected by the male citizens of said State 21
years old and upward, of whatever race, color, or previous
condition, who have been resident in said State for one year
previous to the day of such election, except such as may be
disfranchised for participation in the rebellion or for felony
at common law, and when such constitution shall provide that
the elective franchise shall be enjoyed by all such persons as
have the qualifications herein stated for electors of
delegates, and when such constitution shall be ratified by a
majority of the persons voting on the question of ratification
who are qualified as electors for delegates, and when such
constitution shall have heen submitted to Congress for
examination and approval, and Congress shall have approved the
same, and when said State, by a vote of its Legislature
elected under said constitution, shall have adopted the
amendment to the Constitution of the United States, proposed
by the Thirty-ninth Congress, and known as article fourteen,
and when said article shall have become a part of the
Constitution of the United States, said State shall be
declared entitled to representation in Congress, and Senators
and Representatives shall be admitted therefrom on their
taking the oath prescribed by law, and then and thereafter the
preceding sections of this act shall be inoperative in said
State." It was further provided that no person excluded from
office by the Fourteenth Amendment should be a member of the
convention to frame a constitution for any of said rebel
States, and that any civil government which might exist in any
of the said States prior to the admission of its
representatives to Congress should be deemed provisional only,
and subject to the paramount authority of the United States.
"The friends of this measure were dissatisfied with it on the
ground of its incompleteness in not containing provisions for
carrying it into effect in accordance with the purpose of its
framers. … The Fortieth Congress, meeting on the 4th of March,
immediately upon the close of its predecessor, proceeded
without delay to perfect and pass over the President's veto
[March 23, 1867] a bill supplementary to the act to provide
for the more efficient government of the rebel States." By
this supplementary act specific instructions were given as to
the course of procedure to be followed in making a
registration of the voters qualified under the act and in
conducting the elections provided for.
_W. H. Barnes,
History of the 39th Congress,
chapter 22._
ALSO IN:
_Why the Solid South?
(Noted Men on the Solid South.)_
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1868 (March-May).
Impeachment and Trial of President Johnson.
"Until the spring of 1866, a year after Mr. Johnson became
President, there was entire harmony between him and his
Cabinet. … No objection was raised even to that part of the
President's first message which treated of the suffrage
question, by any member of the Cabinet. It was in fact
approved by all, and by none more heartily than by Mr.
Stanton. A change took place soon after the Civil Rights bill
became a law over the President's veto, and bitter controversy
arose between the President and Congress.
{3570}
In this controversy, and at its commencement, Mr. Dennison
[Postmaster-general] and Mr. Harlan [Secretary of the
Interior] sided with Congress and tendered their resignations,
which were very reluctantly accepted. They resigned because
they could not heartily sustain the President, but there was
no breach of the social relations which had existed between
them. Mr. Speed [Attorney-general] soon after followed the
example of Dennison and Harlan. Mr. Stanton [Secretary of War]
also sided with Congress, but he did not resign. He was
advised by prominent political and personal friends to
'stick,' and he did so, contrary to all precedent and in
opposition to the judgment of conservative men of his party. …
He attended the Cabinet meetings, not as an adviser of the
President, but as an opponent of the policy to which he had
himself been committed, and the President lacked the nerve to
dismiss him. … In this crisis of his political life, Mr.
Johnson exhibited a want of spirit and decision which
astonished those who were familiar with his antecedents. He
knew when the Tenure-of-Office Bill was before Congress that
the object of its leading supporters was to tie his hands, and
yet he refrained from using them when they were free. … When
he did act he acted unwisely. He retained Mr. Stanton in his
Cabinet when his right to remove him was unquestionable. He
suspended him [August 12, 1867] after the Tenure-of-Office
Bill had become a law, and in accordance with its provisions,
[directing General Grant to act as Secretary of War ad
interim]; and when the Senate refused to approve of the
suspension [January 13, 1868], he issued orders for his
removal and the appointment of Lorenzo Thomas to be Secretary
of War ad interim. If he had tried to give his enemies an
advantage over him, to furnish them with weapons for his own
discomfiture, he could not have done it more effectually. … If
he had removed Mr. Stanton instead of suspending him, and
justified his action on the ground that his control of the
members of his Cabinet was a constitutional right of which he
could not be deprived by Congress, he probably would not have
been impeached. The gist of the charges against him was that
he had violated a law of Congress in removing Mr. Stanton, or
issuing an order for his removal, after the Senate had refused
to sanction his suspension. In the articles of impeachment
there were other charges against the President, the most
serious of which were that he had delivered intemperate,
inflammatory speeches, which were intended to bring into
contempt the Congress of the United States and duly enacted
laws. The speeches made by the President in Cleveland, St.
Louis, and other places in August and September, 1866—in fact,
all his public addresses during his contest with Congress—were
in the worst possible taste, derogatory to himself and to his
high position; but they … did not constitute good ground for
his impeachment; and this was the opinion of the House, which
in January, 1867, after they were made, refused to impeach him
by the decisive vote of 108 to 57. Other causes for his
impeachment were subsequently sought for. His bank account was
examined. His private conduct in Washington was carefully
scrutinized. Men were employed to investigate his public and
private character in Tennessee, but nothing was found to his
discredit. … Nothing was found to justify his impeachment but
the order which he issued for the removal of Mr. Stanton and
his appointment of General Thomas to be Secretary of the War
Department ad interim after the Senate had refused to sanction
Mr. Stanton's suspension." The formal presentment by the House
of Representatives of its Impeachment against the President,
at the bar of the Senate, sitting as a Court of Impeachment,
was made on the 5th day of March, 1868. The answer of the
President was presented on the 23d; the trial opened on
Monday, the 30th of March, and closed on the 26th of May
following. "The trial was a very interesting one, not only to
the people of the United States, but to the people of other
countries. … It was the first instance in the history of
nations of the trial of the head of a government before one of
the branches of the law-making power, sitting as a judicial
tribunal, on charges presented by another. The presiding
officer was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court—the
senators of the respective States were the jury—the House of
Representatives the prosecutor. The managers to conduct the
impeachment for the House were John A. Bingham, George S.
Boutwell, James F. Wilson, Benjamin F. Butler, Thomas
Williams, Thaddeus Stevens and John A. Logan, all members of
the House, all lawyers, and some of them distinguished in the
profession. The President entered his appearance by Henry
Stanbery, Benjamin K. Curtis, Jeremiah S. Black, William H.
Evarts, and Thomas A. K. Nelson. William S. Groesbeck, in the
course of the trial, appeared and took part as counsel for the
President in place of Mr. Black." The result of the trial was
a failure of the Impeachment. The senators who voted "guilty"
were 35 in number—being less than two-thirds of the
whole—against 19. Of those who voted in the negative, seven
were Republicans who had steadily opposed the President's
policy; four were Republicans who had adhered to him
throughout; eight were Democrats.
_H. McCulloch,
Men and Measures of Half a Century,
chapter 26._
In the opinion of Mr. Blaine, "the sober reflection of later
years has persuaded many who favored Impeachment that it was
not justifiable on the charges made," and that "the President
was impeached for one series of misdemeanors, and tried for
another series."
_J. G. Blaine,
Twenty Years of Congress,
volume 2, chapter 14._
ALSO IN:
Trial of Andrew Johnson,
(Published by Order of the Senate), 3 volumes.
Trial of Andrew Johnson,
Congressional Globe, Supplement, 40th Congress, 2d session.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1868.
The Burlingame Treaty with China.
See CHINA: A. D. 1857-1868.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1868 (November).
The Twenty-first Presidential Election.
General Ulysses S. Grant, nominated by the Republican party,
was elected President in November 1868, by 3,012,833 votes of
the people against 2,703,249 votes cast for Horatio Seymour,
ex-Governor of New York, the candidate of the Democratic
party. The electoral vote returned and counted was 214 for
Grant and 80 for Seymour, who carried the States of New York,
New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Georgia, Louisiana, Kentucky,
and Oregon. Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana, was elected Vice
President, over General Frank P. Blair.
_E. Stanwood,
History of Presidential Elections,
chapter 22._
{3571}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1868-1870.
Reconstruction complete.
Restoration of all the Southern States
to representation in Congress.
"On the 22d of June, 1868, an act was passed, with the
following preamble and resolution, for the admission of
Arkansas:—'Whereas the people of Arkansas, in pursuance of an
act entitled, An act for the more efficient government of the
Rebel States, passed March 2, 1867, and the acts supplementary
thereto, have framed and adopted a constitution of State
government, which is republican, and the legislature of said
State has duly ratified the amendment of the Constitution of
the United States proposed by the XXXIXth Congress, and known
as Article XIV.; Therefore, Be it enacted, etc., that the
State of Arkansas is entitled and admitted to representation
in Congress, as one of the States of the Union, upon the
following fundamental condition.' The 'fundamental condition,'
as finally agreed upon, was, 'That there shall never be in
said State any denial or abridgment of the elective franchise,
or of any other right, to any person by reason or on account
of race or color, except Indians not taxed.' The bill was
vetoed by the President on the 20th, but passed over the veto
on the 22d in the House by the vote of 111 to 31, and in the
Senate by a vote of 30 to 7. On the 25th of June a similar act
was passed admitting the States of North Carolina, South
Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida, in
pursuance of a similar preamble, with the conditions that they
should ratify the Fourteenth Amendment, that they should not
deprive 'any citizen, or class of citizens of the State of the
right to vote by the constitution thereof'; and that no person
prohibited from holding office by said Amendment should be
'deemed eligible to any office in either of said States unless
relieved from disability as provided in said amendment'; the
State of Georgia being also required to declare 'null and
void' certain provisions of its constitution, and 'in addition
give the assent of said State to the fundamental condition
herein before imposed on the same.' The bill passed the House,
May 14,—yeas 110, nays 35; in the Senate, June 9,—yeas 31,
nays 5. It was vetoed by the President on the 25th, and
passed, the same day, by both houses, over the Presidential
veto. On the 27th of January, 1870, Virginia was admitted into
the Union by a vote, in the House, of 136 to 58; and in the
Senate by a vote of 47 to 10. The following were the preamble,
oaths, and conditions precedent: 'Whereas the people of
Virginia have framed and adopted a constitution of State
government which is republican; and whereas the legislature of
Virginia, elected under said constitution, has ratified the
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments of the Constitution of the
United States; and whereas the performance of these several
acts in good faith is a condition precedent to a
representation of the State in Congress,' said State should be
admitted to a representation in Congress; with the additional
conditions precedent, however, that the constitution should
never be so amended as to deprive any class of citizens of the
right 'to vote,' 'to hold office,' on account of race, color,
or previous condition of servitude; neither should there be
'other qualifications' required for such reason; nor should
any be deprived of 'school rights or privileges' on such
account. On the 3d of February Mississippi was admitted by a
bill resembling the former in every particular, by
substantially the same vote. On the 30th of March Texas was
readmitted to the Union on a bill very similar, though not
identical with the above. … By this act of Congress the last
of the 'wayward sisters' was brought back and restored to the
family of States, and the fractured Union was, outwardly at
least, repaired. It was ten years, eight months, and twenty
days after South Carolina raised the banner of revolt and led
off in 'the dance of death.'"
_H. Wilson,
History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power,
volume 3, chapter 44._
ALSO IN:
_S. S. Cox,
Three Decades of Federal Legislation,
chapters 27-31._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1868-1876.
The reconstructed government of South Carolina.
See SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1865-1876.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1869.
Negotiation of the Johnson-Clarendon Treaty and
its rejection by the Senate.
See ALABAMA CLAIMS: A. D. 1862-1869.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1869.
Gold Speculation.
Black Friday.
See NEW YORK: A. D. 1869.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1869.
Founding of the Order of Knights of Labor.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1869-1883.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1869-1870.
The Fifteenth Constitutional Amendment.
"The great defect of the Fourteenth Amendment, as freely
charged during its discussion, was its at least tacit
recognition of the right of States to disfranchise the
ex-slaves, should they so elect. True, they could not do it
without sacrificing so much in the basis of their
representation in Congress; but if they were willing to make
that sacrifice, there was nothing in the amendment to prevent
such discrimination. To remedy that defect … it was resolved
to incorporate into the organic law a new provision for their
protection, and to supplement the amendments of the
Constitution already adopted by another. There were
accordingly introduced into both houses, almost
simultaneously, measures for that purpose. … In the House, on
the 11th of January, 1869, Mr. Boutwell reported from the
Committee on the Judiciary a joint resolution proposing an
amendment which provided that the right to vote of no citizen
should be abridged by the United States or any State by reason
of race, color, or previous condition of slavery." The joint
resolution was adopted in the House, 150 affirmative to 42
negative votes, on the 30th of January. Adopted in the Senate
with amendments, by 39 to 16 votes, it went to a Committee of
Conference, on whose report the joint resolution was finally
adopted by both Houses on the 25th of February, and submitted
for ratification to the legislatures of the States, in the
following form:
"Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote
shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any
State on account of race, color, or previous condition of
servitude.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate legislation."
"The amendment received the votes of 29 States, constituting
the requisite three fourths, and thus became a part of the
organic law. On the 30th of March, 1870, President Grant
communicated the fact to Congress in a special message."
_H. Wilson,
History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power,
volume 3, chapter 47._
ALSO IN:
_J. G. Blaine,
Twenty Years of Congress,
volume 2, chapters 16 and 19._
{3572}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1869-1890.
Recovery of the domination of Whites at the South.
Suppression of the Colored vote.
Prosperity of the Southern States.
"Between 1869 and 1876, the whites had in every Southern State
except South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana, regained
control of the government, and in 1876 those three States were
also recovered. The circumstances were different, according to
the character of the population in each State. In some a union
of the moderate white Republicans with the Democrats, brought
about by the disgust of all property holders at the scandals
they saw and at the increase to their burdens as tax-payers,
had secured legitimately chosen majorities, and ejected the
corrupt officials. In some the same result was attained by
paying or otherwise inducing the negroes not to go to the
polls, or by driving them away by threats or actual violence.
Once possessed again of a voting majority, the whites, all of
whom had by 1872 been relieved of their disabilities, took
good care, by a variety of devices, legal and extra-legal, to
keep that majority safe; and in no State has their control of
the government been since shaken. President Hayes withdrew, in
1877, such Federal troops as were still left at the South, and
none have ever since been despatched thither. … With the
disappearance of the carpet-bag and negro governments, the
third era in the political history of the South since the war
began. The first had been that of exclusively white suffrage;
the second, that of predominantly negro suffrage. In the
third, universal suffrage and complete legal equality were
soon perceived to mean in practice the full supremacy of the
whites. To dislodge the coloured man from his rights was
impossible, for they were secured by the Federal Constitution
which prevails against all State action. The idea of
disturbing them was scarcely entertained. Even at the election
of 1872 the Southern Democrats no more expected to repeal the
Fifteenth Amendment than the English Tories expected at the
election of 1874 to repeal the Irish Church Disestablishment
Act of 1869. But the more they despaired of getting rid of the
amendment, the more resolved were the Southern people to
prevent it from taking any effect which could endanger their
supremacy. They did not hate the negro, certainly not half so
much as they hated his white leaders by whom they had been
robbed. 'We have got,' they said, 'to save civilization,' and
if civilization could be saved only by suppressing the
coloured vote, they were ready to suppress it. … The modes of
suppression have not been the same in all districts and at all
times. At first there was a good deal of what is called
'bulldozing,' i. e. rough treatment and terrorism, applied to
frighten the coloured men from coming to or voting at the
polls. Afterwards, the methods were less harsh. Registrations
were so managed as to exclude negro voters, arrangements for
polling were contrived in such wise as to lead the voter to
the wrong place so that his vote might be refused; and, if the
necessity arose, the Republican candidates were counted out,
or the election returns tampered with. 'I would stuff a
ballot-box,' said a prominent man, 'in order to have a good,
honest government;' and he said it in good faith, and with no
sense of incongruity. Sometimes the local negro preachers were
warned or paid to keep their flocks away. … Notwithstanding
these impediments, the negro long maintained the struggle,
valuing the vote as the symbol of his freedom, and fearing to
be re-enslaved if the Republican party should be defeated.
Leaders and organizers were found in the Federal
office-holders, of course all Republicans. … After 1884,
however, when the presidency of the United States passed to a
Democrat, some of these office-holders were replaced by
Democrats and the rest became less zealous. … Their friends at
the North were exasperated, not without reason, for the gift
of suffrage to the negroes had resulted in securing to the
South a larger representation in Congress and in presidential
elections than it enjoyed before the war, or would have
enjoyed had the negroes been left unenfranchised. They argued,
and truly, that where the law gives a right, the law ought to
secure the exercise thereof; and when the Southern men replied
that the negroes were ignorant, they rejoined that all over
the country there were myriads of ignorant voters, mostly
recent immigrants, whom no one thought of excluding.
Accordingly in 1890, having a majority in both Houses of
Congress and a President of their own party, the Republican
leaders introduced a bill subjecting the control of Federal
elections to officers to be appointed by the President, in the
hope of thus calling out a full negro vote, five sixths of
which would doubtless have gone to their party. The measure
appeared to dispassionate observers quite constitutional, and
the mischief it was designed to remedy was palpable. … It
passed the House, but was dropped in the Senate under the
threat of an obstructive resistance by the (then Democratic)
minority. Secure, however, as the dominance of the whites
seems now to be against either Northern legislation or negro
revolt, the Southern people are still uneasy and sensitive on
the subject. … This horror of negro supremacy is the only
point in which the South cherishes its old feelings. Hostility
to the Northern people has almost disappeared. … Just because
they felt that they had fought well, they submitted with
little resentment, and it has become a proverb among them that
the two classes which still cherish bitterness are the two
classes that did not fight,—the women and the clergy. … Not,
however, till the whites regained control between 1870 and
1876, did the industrial regeneration of the country fairly
begin. Two discoveries coincided with that epoch which have
had an immense effect in advancing material prosperity, and
changing the current of men's thoughts. The first was the
exploration of the mineral wealth of the highland core of the
country. … The second discovery was that of the possibility of
extracting oil from the seeds of the cotton plant, which had
formerly been thrown away, or given to hogs to feed on. The
production of this oil has swelled to great proportions,
making the cultivation of cotton far more profitable. … Most
of the crop now raised, which averages eight millions of
bales, and in 1894 was expected to exceed ten millions (being
more than double that which was raised, almost wholly by slave
labour, before the war), is now raised by white farmers; while
the mills which spin and weave it into marketable goods are
daily increasing and building up fresh industrial
communities."
_J. Bryce,
The American Commonwealth
(3d edition). chapter 92 (volume 2)._
{3573}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1870.
The Ninth Census.
Total population, 38,558,371 (exceeding that of 1860
by 7,115,049), classed and distributed as follows:
North Atlantic division.
White. Black.
Maine. 624,809 1,606
New Hampshire. 317,697 580
Vermont. 329,613 924
Massachusetts. 1,443,156 13,947
Rhode Island. 212,219 4,980
Connecticut. 527,549 9,668
New York. 4,330,210 52,081
New Jersey. 875,407 30,658
Pennsylvania. 3,456,609 65,294
Total 12,117,269 179,738
South Atlantic division.
Delaware. 102,221 22,794
Maryland. 605,497 175,391
District of Columbia. 88,278 43,404
Virginia. 712,089 512,841
West Virginia. 424,033 17,980
North Carolina. 678,470 391,650
South Carolina. 289,667 415,814
Georgia. 638,926 545,142
Florida. 96,057 91,689
Total 3,635,238 2,216,705
North central division.
Ohio. 2,601,946 63,213
Indiana. 1,655,837 24,560
Illinois. 2,511,096 28,762
Michigan. 1,167,282 11,849
Wisconsin. 1,051,351 2,113
Minnesota. 438,257 759
Iowa. 1,188,207 5,762
Missouri. 1,603,146 118,071
Dakota. 12,887 94
Nebraska. 122,117 789
Kansas. 346,377 17,108
Total 12,698,503 273,080
South central division.
Kentucky. 1,098,692 222,210
Tennessee. 936,119 322,331
Alabama. 521,384 475,510
Mississippi. 382,896 444,201
Louisiana. 362,065 364,210
Texas. 564,700 253,475
Arkansas. 362,115 122,169
Total 4,227,971 2,204,106
Western division.
Montana. 18,306 183
Wyoming. 8,726 183
Colorado. 39,221 456
New Mexico. 90,393 172
Arizona. 9,581 26
Utah. 86,044 118
Nevada. 38,959 357
Idaho. 10,618 60
Washington. 22,195 207
Oregon. 86,929 346
California. 499,424 4,272
Total 910,396 6,380
Grand total. 33,589,377 4,880,009
In addition the census shows 63,199 Chinese, 65 Japanese, and
25,731 civilized Indians, making a total of 38,558,371, as
stated above. In the decade preceding this census the
immigrant arrivals numbered 2,466,752, of which 1,106,970 were
from the British Islands, and 1,073,429 from other parts of
Europe.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1871.
Renewed Negotiations with Great Britain.
The Joint High Commission, the Treaty of Washington
and the Geneva Award.
See ALABAMA CLAIMS: A. D. 1869-1871; 1871; and 1871-1872.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1871.
The first Civil-Service Reform Act.
See CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1871 (April).
The Force Bill.
At the extra session of Congress, which met March 4, 1871 a
sweeping Act was passed to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment.
"This Act allowed suit in Federal courts by the party injured
against any person who should in any way deprive another of
the rights of a citizen; it made it a penal offence to
conspire to take away from any person the rights of a citizen;
it provided that inability, neglect, or refusal by any State
to suppress such conspiracy, to protect the rights of its
citizens, or to call upon the President for aid, should be
'deemed a denial by such State of the equal protection of the
laws' under the XIVth Amendment; it declared such
conspiracies, if not suppressed by the authorities, 'a
rebellion against the Government of the United States'; it
authorized the President, 'when in his judgment the public
safety shall require it,' to suspend the privilege of the writ
of habeas corpus in any district, and suppress the
insurrection by means of the army and navy; and it excluded
from the jury-box any person 'who shall, in the judgment of
the court, be in complicity with any such combination or
conspiracy.' The authority to suspend the privilege of the
writ of habeas corpus was to cease after the end of the next
regular Session of Congress."
_A. Johnston,
History of American Politics,
2d edition, page 214._
ALSO IN:
_Annual Cyclopœdia, 1871, page 228._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1872.
Decision of the San Juan Water Boundary Question
by the Emperor of Germany.
See SAN JUAN OR NORTHWESTERN WATER-BOUNDARY QUESTION.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1872.
The Twenty-second Presidential Election.
The leading candidates for President in 1872 were General
Grant, nominated for re-election by the main body of the
Republican Party, and Horace Greeley, of New York, put forward
by a revolted section of that party and accepted and supported
by the Democratic Party. "In 1870 the Republican party in
Missouri had split into two parts. The 'Radical' wing wished
to maintain for the present the disqualifications imposed on
the late rebels by the State Constitution during the war; the
'Liberal' wing, headed by B. Gratz Brown and Carl Schurz,
wished to abolish these disqualifications and substitute
'universal amnesty and universal enfranchisement.' Supported
by the Democrats, the Liberal Republicans carried the State,
though opposed by the Federal office-holders and the influence
of the Administration. This success stimulated a reaction in
the National Republican party, many of whose members believed
that the powers of the Federal Government over the local
concerns of the States had already been enforced up to or
beyond constitutional limits, that the various enforcement
Acts were designed rather for the political advancement of
President Grant's personal adherents than for the benefit of
the country, the freedmen, or even of the Republican party;
and that the efforts to police the Southern States by the
force of the Federal Government ought to cease.
{3574}
In the spring of 1871 the Liberal Republicans and Democrats of
Ohio began to show symptoms of common feeling on these
subjects, and during the summer the 'Liberal' movement
continued to develop within the Republican party. January
24th, 1872, the Missouri Liberals issued a call for a National
Convention at Cincinnati in the following May." At the meeting
in Cincinnati the Liberal Republican Convention nominated
Horace Greeley for President, and B. Gratz Brown for Vice
President. The Democratic National Convention which met at
Baltimore, June 9th, adopted these candidates, with the
"platform" on which they were nominated. "A few recalcitrant
Democrats met at Louisville, Kentucky, September 3d, and
nominated Charles O'Conor, of New York, and John Quincy Adams,
of Massachusetts."
_A. Johnston,
History of American Politics,
2d edition., chapter 22._
The Prohibitionists put in nomination James Black, of
Pennsylvania, for President, and John Russell, of Michigan,
for Vice President. The Republican nominee for Vice President,
on the ticket with General Grant, was Henry Wilson, of
Massachusetts. The popular vote cast was 3,585,444, or
3,597,132, for Grant, and 2,843,563, or 2,834,125 for Greeley
(according to the return that may be counted from Louisiana,
where two rival returning boards disputed authority with one
another); 29,489 for O'Conor and 5,608 for Black. Mr. Greeley
died on the 29th of November, 1872, before the electoral
colleges cast their vote, the consequence being that the
Democratic votes in the colleges were scattered. The following
is the electoral vote for President as counted by Congress:
Grant, 286; Thomas A. Hendricks, 42; B. Gratz Brown 18;
Charles J. Jenkins 2; David Davis, 1. The votes of Louisiana
and Arkansas were rejected, as were three votes cast in
Georgia for Horace Greeley, deceased.
_E. Stanwood,
History of Presidential Elections,
chapter 23._
ALSO IN:
_G. W. Julian,
Political Recollections,
chapter 15._
_E. McPherson,
Handbook of Politics for 1872 and 1874._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1872-1873.
The Credit Mobilier Scandal.
See CREDIT MOBILIER SCANDAL.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1873.
The so-called "demonetization of silver."
"We have heard a great deal in later years about the
surreptitious demonetization of silver in 1873. There was,
however, vastly too much criticism wasted on the act of 1873;
for the real demonetization of silver in the United States was
accomplished in 1853. It was not the result of accident; it
was a carefully considered plan, deliberately carried into
legislation in 1853, twenty years before its nominal
demonetization by the act of 1873. … In 1853 the single
standard was gold. This was a situation which no one rebelled
against. Indeed, no one seemed to regard it as anything else
than good fortune (except so far as the subsidiary coins had
disappeared). … In the debates it was proposed that, as the
cause of the change in the relative values of gold and silver
was the increased product of gold, the proper remedy should be
to increase the quantity of gold in the gold coins. … There
was no discussion as to how a readjustment of the ratio
between the two metals might be reached, for it was already
decided that only one metal was to be retained. This decision,
consequently, carried us to a point where the ratio between
the two metals was not of the slightest concern. And so it
remained. The United States had no thought about the ratios
between gold and silver thereafter until the extraordinary
fall in the value of silver in 1876. … In the provisions of
the act of 1853 nothing whatever was said as to the silver
dollar-piece. It had entirely disappeared from circulation
years before, and acquiescence in its absence was everywhere
found. No attempt whatever was thereafter made to change the
legal ratio, in order that both metals might again be brought
into concurrent circulation. Having enough gold, the country
did not care for silver. … In 1873 we find a simple legal
recognition of that which had been the immediate result of the
act of 1853, and which had been an admitted fact in the
history of our coinage during the preceding twenty years. In
1853 it had been agreed to accept the situation by which we
had come to have gold for large payments, and to relegate
silver to a limited service in the subsidiary coins. The act
of 1873, however, dropped the dollar piece out of the list of
silver coins. In discontinuing the coinage of the silver
dollar, the act of 1873 thereby simply recognized a fact which
had been obvious to everybody since 1849. It did not introduce
anything new, or begin a new policy. Whatever is to be said
about the demonetization of silver as a fact must center in
the act of 1853. Silver was not driven out of circulation by
the act of 1873, which omitted the dollar of 412½ grains,
since it had not been in circulation for more than twenty-five
years. … The act of February 12, 1873, is known as the act
which demonetized the silver dollar. Important consequences
have been attached to it, and it has even been absurdly
charged that the law was the cause of the commercial crisis of
September, 1873. As if a law which made no changes in the
actual metallic standard in use, and which had been in use
thus for more than twenty' years, had produced a financial
disaster in seven months! To any one who knows of the
influence of credit and speculation, or who has followed the
course of our foreign trade since the Civil War, such a theory
is too absurd to receive more than passing mention. To the
year 1873 there had been coined of 412½-grain dollars for
purposes of circulation, only $1,439,457, and these were
coined before 1806."
_J. L. Laughlin,
History of Bimetallism in the United States,
part 1, chapters 5 and 7._
See, also, MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1848-1893.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1873.
The Panic.
"The panic of 1873 differed very materially from the other
great panics by which this country has been afflicted. Lack of
capital was the main difficulty in 1837 and 1857. Population
had increased so rapidly that millions of human beings were
out of work, and apprehension spread lest there might not be
food enough to go around. In 1873, however, men were well
employed. Business of all kinds was in excellent condition,
and no one doubted for a moment that there would be plenty for
every man to eat. The excellent condition of trade, in fact,
was the chief factor in the panic of 1873. Everyone was busy,
and wanted money with which to carry on his trade. For two
years before the crash, money had been in great demand.
{3575}
Railroads had recently been built to an extent such as this
country had never known before. Whereas, in 1861, railroad
construction amounted to only 651 miles, in 1871 it reached
the then unprecedented figure of 7,779 miles. This new
mileage, moreover, was mainly in the West, where the immediate
remuneration was but slight. Railroads were being pushed
forward into regions which could not be expected to return an
income for twenty years. The cost of railroad construction in
this country during the five years preceding September, 1873,
was estimated by the Comptroller of the Currency at no less
than $1,700,000,000. The money to pay for this extravagant
building was obtained, not from the earnings of the old
portions of the road, but from enormous issues of railroad
bonds, placed to a large extent among the banks of this
country, but still more among the capitalists of Europe. In
the Northern Pacific Company occurred the most flagrant abuse
of railroad credit the world has ever known. … One after
another of the Western roads defaulted in paying the interest
on its bonds. The result was, that, by the summer of 1873, the
market for new issues of railroad bonds had practically
disappeared. Meantime the banks and bankers of New York were
loaded down with railroad paper. The railroads had borrowed
money for short periods in the expectation that before their
notes fell due they would have raised the money to make
payment by the sale of bonds. A temporary relief was felt, in
June, 1873, through the customary midsummer ease in money. But
this temporary respite only made the difficulty worse. Deluded
by the momentary calm, the New York banks added still further
to their loans. … The year before, money had grown tight early
in September, and the more cautious banks began gradually to
call their loans, fearing that the experience of 1872 might be
renewed. But the rates for money did not noticeably increase,
and the only cause for excitement early in the month was the
failure, on September 8, of the Mercantile Warehouse and
Security Company, owing to advances on bonds of the Missouri,
Kansas & Texas Railroad. This was followed, on the 13th, by
the failure of Kenyon Cox & Co., of which firm Daniel Drew was
a member, caused by loans to the Canada Southern Railroad. By
this time the sky was heavily overcast. Money was now
advancing rapidly, the New York banks were calling loans on
every hand, and new loans on railroad paper were scarcely to
be had at all. Suddenly, on the 18th of September, the tempest
burst. On the morning of that dark day, Jay Cooke, the agent
of the U. S. Government, with some four millions of deposits
from all parts of the country, and his fifteen millions of
Northern Pacific paper, declared his inability to meet his
debts. The report flew down 'the street' with the ferocity of
a cyclone. Railroad shares were thrown upon the market by the
bushel, in utter disregard of their intrinsic value. … Stock
brokers continued to announce their failures all day long.
Nothing seemed able to withstand the shock, and when, on
September 19, the great banking house of Fisk & Hatch went
under, terror became universal. A run was started on the Union
Trust Co., which was believed to have close intimacy with
Vanderbilt's railroads, and on the Fourth National Bank, whose
dealings were largely with Wall street brokers. The panic, was
by this time so general that the banks began to refuse one
another's certified checks, and on the 20th a considerable
number of the New York banks suspended payment. On that day
the Union Trust Co., the National Trust Co., and the National
Bank of the Commonwealth all closed their doors. At 11 o'clock
on the 20th, the New York Stock Exchange, for the first time
in its history, closed its doors, and the Governing Committee
announced that the board would not be opened till further
notice. This high-handed measure caused an outcry for the
moment, but on calmer judgment it was generally conceded that
the measure was a good one. On the evening of that Saturday,
September 20, the Clearing House Association met and adopted a
plan similar to that adopted in the panic of 1857, and in
substance this: Any bank in the Clearing House Association
might deposit with a committee of five persons, to be
appointed for that purpose, an amount of its bills receivable,
or other securities to be approved by the committee, and the
committee were then to issue to that bank certificates of
deposit, bearing interest at 5 per cent. per annum, to an
amount not exceeding 75 per cent. of the securities or bills
receivable so deposited. These certificates could be used in
settlement of balances at the Clearing House for a period not
to extend beyond the 1st of the following November, and they
were to be received by creditor banks during that period
daily, in the proportion which they bore to the aggregate
amount of the debtor balances paid at the Clearing House. The
amount of certificates should not exceed $10,000,000. The
legal tenders belonging to the associated banks were to be
considered and treated as a common fund held for mutual aid
and protection, and the committee were given power to equalize
the same by assessment or otherwise in their discretion. This
scheme, simple as it was, proved of the utmost efficacy in
mitigating the evils that must always follow a distrust among
banks. The lull occasioned by the intervening Sunday was
employed by President Grant and Secretary of the Treasury
Richardson in a visit to New York. All day long they gave
audience to business men at the Fifth Avenue Hotel.
Suggestions of every description were offered as a remedy for
the disease. The most feasible proposition, and that which was
finally adopted, was the purchase of Government bonds. …
Shortly after his return from the Fifth Avenue Hotel,
Secretary Richardson announced his intention to buy Government
bonds, and, in a few days, $13,000,000 of the U. S. greenbacks
were thus absorbed. … On Tuesday, September 30, the Stock
Exchange was once more opened. It was expected on all hands
that this would be the signal for another onslaught. But so
general was this expectation that most persons refrained for
the moment from offering their stocks. As a result, the market
opened a trifle higher than it had closed ten days before. It
continued to advance, moreover, till October 7. On that day a
new decline set in, and on October 14 came a fearful drop,
which carried prices lower than on September 20. From this
reaction there was a gradual improvement till October 31, when
the failure of Hoyt, Sprague & Co., the great mill owners of
Providence and New York, once more shook the market and
brought stocks, on October 31 and November 1, to the lowest
prices of the year.
{3576}
With those prices it became manifest that the panic had
reached its end. Money had already begun to flow to New York
both from Europe and from the West, and the public, tempted by
the excessive decline in stocks, began to purchase freely. The
result was a steady though gradual improvement through the
remainder of the year."
_The Panic of 1873
(Banker's Magazine, November, 1891)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1875.
The Whisky Ring.
See WHISKY RING.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1875.
The second Civil Rights Bill and
its declared unconstitutionality.
"Congress, to give full effect to the fourteenth amendment to
the federal Constitution, passed an act in 1875, which
provided that all persons within the jurisdiction of the
United States shall be entitled to the full and equal
enjoyment of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, and
privileges of inns, public conveyances on land and water,
theatres and other places of public amusement, subject only to
the conditions and limitations established by law, and
applicable alike to citizens of every race and color,
regardless of any previous condition of servitude. … In 1883
the act was held unconstitutional. The Fourteenth Amendment,
says Bradley, J., does not 'invest Congress with power to
legislate upon subjects which are within the domain of State
legislation, but to provide modes of relief against State
legislation or State action of the kinds referred to. It does
not authorize Congress to create a code of municipal law for
the regulation of private rights; but to provide modes of
redress against the operation of State laws and the action of
State officers, executive and judicial, when these are
subversive of the fundamental rights specified in the
amendment.' Civil Rights Cases, 109 United States 3."
_T. M. Cooley,
Constitutional Limitations which rest upon the
Legislative Power of the States, 6th edition,
pages 733-734 and foot-note._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1876.
Admission of Colorado into the Union.
See COLORADO: A. D. 1806-1876.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1876.
The Sioux War.
Battle of Little Big Horn.
Death of General Custer.
Hostilities with a powerful confederation of Sioux or Dakota
tribes of Indians, in the northwest, were brought about, in
the spring of 1876, by gold discoveries in the Black Hills and
the consequent rush of miners into the Indian reservation. To
subdue the hostile Indians, three military expeditions were
set in motion,—from Fort Fetterman, under General Crook, from
Fort Ellis, in Montana, under General Gibbon, and from
Bismarck, in Dakota, under General Terry. These were to
converge on the upper waters of the Yellowstone, where Sitting
Bull, the able chief of the Sioux, and his camp, in the valley
of the small stream commonly known as the Little Big Horn. The
Sioux warrior used the advantages of his central position like
a Napoleon, striking his assailants in turn, as they came
near, with far stronger forces than they knew him to possess.
Crook was forced back; Gibbon was brought to a halt. Terry
came last on the ground. His command included the famous
Seventh Cavalry,—the regiment of General Custer. In ignorance
of the surprising number of braves which Sitting Bull had
collected, Custer was sent to make a detour and attack the
Indian camp from the rear. Doing so, on the 25th of June, he
rode into a death trap. Five companies of the regiment, with
its heroic commander at their head, were surrounded so
overwhelmingly that not one man escaped. The remaining seven
companies were too far from the others to cooperate in the
attack. They fortified a bluff and held their ground until the
27th, when Terry and Gibbon came to their relief. The Indians
retreated toward the mountains. The campaign was soon resumed,
and prosecuted through the fall and winter, until Sitting Bull
and some of his followers fled into British America and the
remaining hostiles surrendered.
_F. Whittaker,
Complete Life of General George A. Custer,
book 8, chapter 4-5._
ALSO IN:
_J. F. Finerty,
War Path and Bivouac,
part 1._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1876.
The Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia.
In 1871, the Congress of the United States passed an act to
provide for the commemoration, in 1876, of the centennial
anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, by holding an
exhibition, at Philadelphia, "of American and foreign arts,
products, and manufactures." The act created a commission,
composed of one delegate from each state and territory of the
United States, to which commission was committed the
"exclusive control" of the contemplated exhibition; though the
State of Pennsylvania was required to make provision for the
erection of suitable buildings. "To the surprise of those
writers who had contended that there would be no exhibits from
abroad,' there was shown a universal desire on the part of all
nations to co-operate liberally in the World's Fair of 1876.
These different governments appropriated large sums of money,
selected as commissioners men of the highest standing, loaned
to the exhibition their most valuable works of art, and in
every sense indicated a desire on the part of the Old World to
forget the past and to unite itself closely with the future of
the New. Singular as it may seem, there was no disposition on
the part of Congress to facilitate and aid in carrying out
this grand enterprise. The money had to be raised by private
subscription, from all sections of the United States, and it
was only by a determined and persistent effort with Congress
that at last a government loan was secured of $1,500,000,
which loan has been called up by the government and repaid
since that time. The City of Philadelphia appropriated
$1,000,000 and the State of Pennsylvania $1,500,000, and all
other states, notably New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, New
Hampshire, etc., subscribed to the stock issued by the
Centennial Board of Finance. In 1873, the location so well
known as Fairmount Park was selected for the exposition, and
immediate possession given by the City of Philadelphia, free
from all expense or charge, and who also liberally contributed
to the success of the World's Fair 1876 by the erection of two
magnificent bridges over the Schuylkill at a cost of over
$2,500,000, in addition to the various improvements made in
Fairmount Park. … The total number of exhibitors at the
World's Fair 1876 was estimated at 30,864, the United States
heading the list with 8,175; Spain and her colonies, 3,822;
Great Britain and colonies, 3,584; and Portugal, 2,462. …
{3577}
The exhibition opened on the 10th of May, 1876, and from that
time until November 10, 1876, there were admitted a grand
total of 9,910,966 persons, of whom 8,004,274 paid admission
fees amounting to $3,813,724.49."
_C. B. Norton,
World's Fairs, chapter 6._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1876-1877.
The Twenty-third Presidential Election and its disputed result.
The Electoral Commission.
Four candidates for the Presidency were named and voted for by
as many different parties in 1876, although the contest of the
election was practically between the Republicans and
Democrats, as in previous years. The former, after a prolonged
struggle of rival factions, put in nomination ex-Governor
Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio, with William A. Wheeler, of New
York, for Vice President. The candidates of the Democratic
party were ex-Governor Samuel J. Tilden, of New York, for
President, and Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana, for Vice
President. Before these nominations were made, the Prohibition
Reform party and the party calling itself the Independent, but
popularly known as the "Greenback party," had already brought
candidates into the field. The first named put Green Clay
Smith, of Kentucky and G. T. Stewart, of Ohio, in nomination;
the nominees of the last named were Peter Cooper, of New York,
and Samuel F. Cary, of Ohio. "Thirty-eight States participated
in the election. Colorado had been admitted to the Union in
August, 1876, and, in order to save an additional election,
the choice of electors for that occasion was conferred upon
the legislature. All the other States appointed them by
popular vote. The polls had hardly closed on the day of
election, the 7th of November, when the Democrats began to
claim the presidency. The returns came in so unfavorably for
the Republicans that there was hardly a newspaper organ of the
party which did not, on the following morning, concede the
election of Mr. Tilden. He was believed to have carried every
Southern State, as well as New York, Indiana, New Jersey, and
Connecticut. The whole number of electoral votes was 369. If
the above estimate were correct, the Democratic candidates
would have 203 votes, and the Republican candidates 166 votes.
But word was sent out on the same day from Republican
headquarters at Washington that Hayes and Wheeler were elected
by one majority; that the States of South Carolina, Florida,
and Louisiana had chosen Republican electors. Then began the
most extraordinary contest that ever took place in the
country. The only hope of the Republicans was in the perfect
defence of their position. The loss of a single vote would be
fatal. An adequate history of the four months between the
popular election and the inauguration of Mr. Hayes, would fill
volumes. Space can be given here for only a bare reference to
some of the most important events. Neither party was
over-scrupulous, and no doubt the acts of some members of each
party were grossly illegal and corrupt. … In four States,
South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, and Oregon, there were
double returns. In South Carolina there were loud complaints
that detachments of the army, stationed near the polls, had
prevented a fair and free election. Although the board of
State canvassers certified to the choice of the Hayes
electors, who were chosen on the face of the returns, the
Democratic candidates for electors met on the day fixed for
the meeting of electors and cast ballots for Tilden and
Hendricks. In Florida there were allegations of fraud on both
sides. The canvassing board and the governor certified to the
election of the Hayes electors, but, fortified by a court
decision in their favor, the Democratic electors also met and
voted. In Louisiana there was anarchy. There were two
governors, two returning boards, two sets of returns showing
different results, and two electoral colleges. In Oregon the
Democratic governor adjudged one of the Republican electors
ineligible, and gave a certificate to the highest candidate on
the Democratic list. The Republican electors, having no
certificate from the governor, met and voted for Hayes and
Wheeler. The Democratic elector, whose appointment was
certified to by the governor, appointed two others to fill the
vacancies, when the two Republican electors would not meet
with him, and the three voted for Tilden and Hendricks. All of
these cases were very complicated in their incidents, and a
brief account which should convey an intelligible idea of what
occurred is impossible. … Thus, for the first and only time in
the history of the country, the election ended in such a way
as to leave the result in actual doubt, and in two States the
number of legal votes given for the electors was in dispute. …
As soon as the electoral votes were cast it became a question
of the very first importance how they were to be counted. It
was evident that the Senate would refuse to be governed by the
22nd joint rule [under which no electoral vote to which any
member of either House objected could be counted unless both
Houses agreed to the counting of it]—in fact the Senate voted
to rescind the rule,—and it was further evident that if the
count were to take place in accordance with that rule it would
result in throwing out electoral votes on both sides on the
most frivolous pretexts. It was asserted by the Republicans
that, under the Constitution, the President of the Senate
alone had the right to count, in spite of the fact that the
joint rule, the work of their party, had assumed the power for
the two Houses of Congress. On the other hand, the Democrats,
who had always denounced that rule as unconstitutional, now
maintained that the right to count was conferred upon
Congress. A compromise became necessary, and the moderate men
on both sides determined to effect the establishment of a
tribunal, as evenly divided politically as might be, which
should decide all disputed questions so far as the
Constitution gave authority to Congress to decide them. The
outcome of their efforts was the Electoral Commission law of
1877," by which a Commission was created, consisting of
fifteen members—the Senate appointing five from its own body,
the House five, and four Associate-Justices of the Supreme
Court, designated in the bill, appointing a fifth from the
same court. The Senators selected were Edmunds, Morton,
Frelinghuysen (Republicans), and Thurman and Bayard
(Democrats). The Representatives were Payne, Hunton, Abbott
(Democrats), and Garfield and Hoar (Republicans). The four
Supreme Court Justices designated by the Act were Clifford,
Field (Democrats), Strong and Miller (Republicans). They
selected for the fifth member of the Commission Justice
Bradley, who was a Republican.
{3578}
"The natural choice of the justices would have been their
associate, David Davis; but he had been ejected only five days
before as senator from Illinois, and it was regarded by him
and by others as improper that he should serve. Thus the
commission consisted of eight Republicans and seven Democrats.
If Judge Davis had been selected, there would have been only
seven Republicans, and the result of the operation of the law
might have been different. … The count had begun on the first
day of February, and the final vote upon Wisconsin was not
reached until the early morning of March 2. As question after
question was decided uniformly in favor of the Republicans, it
became evident to the Democrats that their case was lost. They
charged gross partisanship upon the Republican members of the
Electoral Commission, in determining every point involved in
the dual returns for their own party, though as a matter of
fact there does not seem to have been much room for choice
between the two parties on the score of partisanship. Each
member of the commission favored by his vote that view which
would result in adding to the electoral vote of his own party.
But as the result of the count became more and more certainly
a Republican triumph, the anger of the Democrats arose. Some
of them were for discontinuing the count; and the symptoms of
a disposition to filibuster so that there should be no
declaration of the result gave reason for public disquietude.
But the conservative members of the party were too patriotic
to allow the failure of a law which they had been instrumental
in passing to lead to anarchy or revolution, and they sternly
discountenanced all attempts to defeat the conclusion of the
count. The summing up of the votes [Hayes, 185; Tilden, 184],
was read by Mr. Allison of Iowa, one of the tellers on the
part of the Senate, at a little after four o'clock, on the
morning of the 2d of March, amid great excitement. … Mr. Ferry
thereupon declared Rutherford B. Hayes elected President, and
William A. Wheeler Vice-President, of the United States. The
decision was acquiesced in peaceably by the whole country, and
by men of every party. But the Democrats have never ceased to
denounce the whole affair as a fraud. … It is to be hoped that
the patriotism of the American people and their love of peace
may never again be put to such a severe test as was that of
1876 and 1877." According to the Democratic count, the popular
vote stood:
Tilden, 4,300,590;
Hayes, 4,036,298;
Cooper, 81,737;
Smith, 9,522.
The Republican count gave:
Tilden, 4,285,992;
Hayes, 4,033,768.
_E. Stanwood,
History of Presidential Elections,
chapter 24._
ALSO IN:
_C. A. O'Neil,
The American Electoral System,
chapters 20-21._
_A. M. Gibson,
A Political Crime._
_Congressional Record,
volume 5 (1877), parts 1-2._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1877.
Halifax Fishery Award.
See FISHERIES, NORTH AMERICAN: A. D. 1877-1888.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1877-1891.
The Farmers' Alliance.
The Farmers' Alliance "is the outcome of a movement which
first culminated, shortly after the Civil War had ended, in
the formation of the Patrons of Husbandry, or, as they were
more commonly called, 'The Grange,' the object of which
organization was the mutual protection of farmers against the
encroachments of capital. The collapse of the Grange was due
to a mistake it had made in not limiting its membership
originally to those whose interests were agricultural. The
first 'Alliance' was formed in Texas, to oppose the wholesale
buying up of the public lands by private individuals. … For
about ten years the Alliance remained a Southern organization.
In 1887, about ten years after the first local Alliance in
Texas was formed, and five after the State Alliance, the
'Farmers' Union' of Louisiana united with it, under the name
of the 'Farmers' Alliance and Co-operative Union of America.'
Branches were quickly established," in other Southern States.
"Later in the same year, the 'Agricultural Wheel,' a similar
society operating in the States of Arkansas, Missouri,
Kentucky, and Tennessee, was amalgamated with the Alliance,
the new organization being called 'The Farmers' and Laborers'
Union of America.' The spirit of the movement had
simultaneously been embodied in the 'National Farmers'
Alliance' of Illinois, which was started in 1877, and quickly
extended into Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas,
and Dakota. A minor organization, the 'Farmers' Mutual Benefit
Association,' was started in 1887, in the southern part of
Illinois. Finally, in 1889, at a meeting held in St. Louis,
these different bodies were all practically formed into a
union for political purposes, aiming at legislation in the
interests of farmers and laborers; and the present name of the
'Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union' was chosen. … Its
main professed object is the destruction of the money power in
public affairs, and the opposition of all forms of monopoly.
It demands the substitution of legal tender treasury notes for
National bank notes; also an extension of the public currency
sufficient for the transaction of all legitimate business; the
money to be given to the people on security of their land, at
the lowest rates consistent with the cost of making and
handling it. It demands government control, not only of money,
but of the means of transportation and every other public
function."
_Quarterly Register of Current History,
volume 1, page 132._
ALSO IN:
_F. M. Drew,
The Present Farmers' Movement
(Political Science Quarterly, June, 1891)._
See, also,
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1866-1875.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1878.
The Bland Silver Bill.
The act familiarly known as the Bland Bill was passed by
Congress in 1878. "Although the silver dollar of which the
coinage was resumed in 1878 dates back as a coin to the
earlier days of the Republic, its reissue in that year marks a
policy so radically new that the experience of previous years
throws practically no light on its working. The act of 1878
provided for the purchase by the government, each month, of
not less than two million dollars' worth, and not more than
four million dollars' worth, of silver bullion, for coinage
into silver dollars at the rate of 412½ grains of standard
silver (or 371¼ grains of fine silver) for each dollar. The
amount of the purchases, within the specified limits, was left
to the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury. As every
Secretary of the Treasury, throughout the period in which the
act was in force, kept to the minimum amount, the practical
result was a monthly purchase of two million dollars' worth of
silver bullion. The act is sometimes described as having
called for a monthly issue of two million silver dollars; but
this was not the exact situation.
{3579}
The amount of silver obtainable with two million dollars
obviously varies according to the price of the metal in terms
of the dollars with which the purchases are made. In February,
1878, when the first purchases were made, those dollars were
the inconvertible United States notes, or greenbacks, worth
something less than their face in gold. … When specie payments
were resumed, on the first of January, 1879, and the
greenbacks became redeemable in gold, the measure of value in
the United States became gold, and the extent of the coinage
of silver dollars under the act of 1878 became simply a
question of how much silver bullion could be bought with two
million dollars of gold. The price of silver in 1878 was, in
terms of gold, not far from a dollar for an ounce of standard
silver. After 1878 it went down almost steadily. … The silver
dollar of 412½ grains contains less than an ounce (480 grains)
of standard silver. The monthly purchase of two million
dollars' worth of silver therefore yielded more than two
million silver dollars, the amount being obviously greater as
the price of silver went lower. On the average, the monthly
yield was not far from two and a half millions of silver
dollars. So much each month, therefore, or thirty millions of
silver dollars a year, was roughly the addition to the
currency of the community from the act of 1878. An important
provision of the act of 1878 was that authorizing the issue of
silver certificates against the deposit of silver dollars. …
The dollars and certificates between them constitute what we
may call the silver currency of the act of 1878. The passage
of that act was due to causes easily described. It was part of
the opposition to the contraction of the currency and the
resumption of specie payments, which forms the most important
episode of our financial history between 1867 and 1879. … No
doubt some additional force was given to the movement in favor
of the use of silver from the desire of the silver-mining
States and their representatives, that the price of the metal
should be kept up through a larger use of it for coinage. But
this element, while sometimes prominent in the agitation, was
not then, as it has not been in more recent years, of any
great importance by itself. The real strength of the agitation
for the wider use of silver as money comes from the conviction
of large masses of the people that the community has not
enough money."
_F. W. Taussig,
The Silver Situation in the United States,
part 1._
See, also, MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1848-1893.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1880.
The Twenty-fourth Presidential Election.
For the twenty-fourth Presidential election, in 1880, the
Republicans, meeting at Chicago, June 2, named General James
A. Garfield, of Ohio, as its candidate for President and
Chester A. Arthur, of New York, for Vice President. The
so-called Greenback party (which had appeared four years
before, in the election of 1876), meeting at Chicago on the
9th of June, put in nomination, for President, James B. Weaver
of Iowa, and, for Vice President, B. J. Chambers, of Texas.
The main object and principle of the Greenback party was set
forth in the following declarations of its platform: "That the
right to make and issue money is a sovereign power to be
maintained by the people for the common benefit. The
delegation of this right to corporations is a surrender of the
central attribute of sovereignty. … All money, whether
metallic or paper, should be issued and its volume controlled
by the government, and not by or through banking corporations,
and, when so issued, should be a full legal tender for all
debts, public and private. … Legal tender currency [the
greenback notes of the civil-war period] should be substituted
for the notes of the national banks, the national banking
system abolished, and the unlimited coinage of silver, as well
as gold, established by law." The Prohibitionists
(Temperance), in convention at Cleveland, June 17, nominated
Neal Dow, of Maine, for President, and A. M. Thompson, of
Ohio, for Vice President. On the 22d of June, at Cincinnati,
the Democratic party held its convention and nominated General
Winfield S. Hancock, of Pennsylvania, for President, and
William H. English, of Indiana, for Vice President. At the
election, in November, the popular vote cast was 4,454,416 for
Garfield, 4,444,952 for Hancock, 308,578 for Weaver, and
10,305 for Dow. The electoral votes were divided between
Garfield and Hancock, being 214 for the former and 155 for the
latter. Every former slave-state was carried by the Democratic
party, together with New Jersey, California and Nevada.
_E. McPherson,
Handbook of Politics for 1880 and 1882._
ALSO IN:
_J. C. Ridpath,
Life and Work of James A. Garfield,
chapters 10-11._
_J. G. Blaine,
Twenty Years of Congress,
chapter 29._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1880.
The Tenth Census.
Total population, 50,155,783 (exceeding that of 1870 by
11,5117,412), classed and distributed as follows:
North Atlantic division.
White. Black.
Maine. 646,852 1,451
New Hampshire. 346,229 685
Vermont. 331,218 1,057
Massachusetts. 1,763,782 18,697
Rhode Island. 269,939 6,488
Connecticut. 610,769 11,547
New York. 5,016,022 65,104
New Jersey. 1,092,017 38,853
Pennsylvania. 4,197,016 85,535
Total 14,273,844 229,417
South Atlantic division.
Delaware. 120,160 26,442
Maryland. 724,693 210,230
District of Columbia. 118,006 59,596
Virginia. 880,858 631,616
West Virginia. 592,537 25,886
North Carolina. 867,242 531,277
South Carolina. 391,105 604,332
Georgia. 816,906 725,133
Florida. 142,605 126,690
Total 4,654,112 2,941,202
North Central division.
Ohio. 3,117,920 79,900
Indiana. 1,938,798 39,228
Illinois. 3,031,151 46,368
Michigan. 1,614,560 15,100
Wisconsin. 1,309,618 2,702
Minnesota. 776,884 1,564
Iowa. 1,614,600 9,516
Missouri. 2,022,826 145,350
Dakota. 133,147 401
Nebraska. 449,764 2,385
Kansas. 952,155 43,107
Total 16,961,423 385,621
{3580}
South Central division.
White. Black.
Kentucky. 1,377,179 271,451
Tennessee. 1,138,831 403,151
Alabama. 662,185 600,103
Mississippi. 479,398 650,291
Louisiana. 454,954 483,655
Texas. 1,197,237 393,384
Arkansas. 591,531 210,666
Total 5,901,315 3,012,701
Western division.
Montana. 35,385 346
Wyoming. 19,437 298
Colorado. 191,126 2,435
New Mexico. 108,721 1,015
Arizona. 35,160 155
Utah. 142,423 232
Nevada. 53,556 488
Idaho. 29,013 53
Washington. 67,199 325
Oregon. 163,075 487
California. 767,181 6,018
Total 1,612,276 11,852
Grand total. 43,402,970 6,580,793
In addition the census shows 105,465 Chinese, 148 Japanese,
and 66,407 civilized Indians, making a total of 50,155,783, as
stated above. The immigrants arriving in the country during
the preceding ten years numbered 2,944,695, of whom 989,163
were from the British Islands and 1,357,801 from other parts
of Europe.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1881.
The brief administration of President Garfield.
His assassination.
"President Hayes had left the new administration a heritage of
hatred from the Stalwart element of the Republican party. It
was President Garfield's chief wish, politically, to heal up
the chasm which the past had opened, and not to recognize one
faction more than another. … The defeat of the Stalwarts at
Chicago, by Garfield, naturally tended to transfer their
hostility from the outgoing to the incoming President."
See STALWARTS AND HALF-BREEDS.
"For months before the inauguration, the embarrassment which
threatened Garfield was foreseen by the country." The
inevitable outbreak of hostilities occurred the moment that
the President made a nomination in New York which was
distasteful to the arrogant Senator from that State, Roscoe
Conkling, who imperiously led the Stalwart forces. This
happened upon the presentation of the name of William H.
Robertson for Collector of the Port of New York. In order to
force a division in the Republican party upon the quarrel
between himself and President Garfield, Senator Conkling
resigned his seat in the Senate of the United States and
presented himself to the Legislature of New York as a
candidate for re-election. He counted, without doubt, upon an
easy triumph, expecting to be returned to Washington, bearing
the mandate of his party, so to speak, and humbling the
President into submissive obedience to his behests. He was
disappointed; his re-election was defeated; but the furious
contest which went on during some weeks, engendered bitter
passions, which had their effect, no doubt, in producing the
awful tragedy that soon ensued. By the end of June the clamor
of the strife had greatly subsided; the Senate had adjourned,
and the weary President made ready to join Mrs. Garfield at
Long Branch, where she was just recovering from a serious
illness. "On the morning of the 2d of July … the President
made ready to put his purpose into execution. Several members
of the Cabinet, headed by Secretary Blaine, were to accompany
him to Long Branch. A few ladies, personal friends of the
President's family, and one of his sons, were of the company;
and as the hour for departure drew near they gathered at the
depot of the Baltimore and Potomac Railway to await the train.
The President and Secretary Blaine were somewhat later than
the rest. … When the carriage arrived at the station at
half-past nine o'clock, the President and Mr. Blaine left it
and entered the ladies' waiting-room, which they passed
through arm in arm. A moment afterwards, as they were passing
through the door into the main room, two pistol shots suddenly
rang out upon the air. Mr. Blaine saw a man running, and
started toward him, but turned almost immediately and saw that
the President had fallen. It was instantly realized that the
shots had been directed with fatal accuracy at the beloved
President. Mr. Blaine sprang toward him, as did several
others, and raised his head from the floor. … A moment after
the assassin was discovered … and, in the middle of B Street,
just outside of the depot, was seized by the policemen and
disarmed. A pistol of very heavy caliber was wrenched out of
his hand, and it became clear that a large ball had entered
the President's body. The assassin gave his name as Charles
Jules Guiteau. … [He] was found to be a mixture of fool and
fanatic, who, in his previous career, had managed to build up,
on a basis of total depravity, a considerable degree of
scholarship. He was a lawyer by profession, and had made a
pretense of practicing in several places—more particularly in
Chicago. … In the previous spring, about the time of the
inauguration, he had gone to Washington to advance a claim to
be Consul-General at Paris. … Hanging about the Executive
Mansion and the Department of State for several weeks, he
seemed to have conceived an intense hatred of the President,
and to have determined on the commission of the crime." The
wounded President lingered for eighty days, during which long
period of suffering there were many alternations of hope and
fear in his case. He died on the 19th of September. His
assassin was tried and executed for the crime, though much
doubt of his sanity exists. The Vice-President, Chester A.
Arthur, became President for the remainder of the term.
_J. C. Ridpath,
Life and Work of James A. Garfield,
chapters 12-13._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1882.
Passage of the Edmunds Bill, to suppress Polygamy in Utah.
See UTAH: A. D. 1882-1893.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1883.
Passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Bill.
See CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1884.
Financial Disasters.
"The month of May, 1884, concludes the prosperous period which
followed the crisis of 1873. During this period the most
gigantic speculations in railroads occurred; the zenith of the
movement was in 1880, and as early as 1881 a retrograde
movement began, only to end in the disasters in question. The
decline in prices had been steady for three years; they had
sunk little by little under the influence of a ruinous
competition, caused by the number of new lines and the
lowering of rates, but above all through the manipulations by
the managers on a scale unexampled until now.
{3581}
In connection with the disasters of May, 1884, the names of
certain speculators who misused other people's money, such as
Ward, of Grant & Ward; Fish, President of the Marine Bank; and
John C. Eno, of the Second National Bank, will long be
remembered. General Grant, who was a silent partner in Ward's
concern, was an innocent sufferer, both in fortune and
reputation."
_C. Juglar,
Brief History of Panics,
pages 102-103._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1884.
The Twenty-fifth Presidential Election.
Appearance of the Independents or "Mugwumps."
James G. Blaine, of Maine, and General John A. Logan, of
Illinois, nominated at Chicago, June 3, were the Republican
candidates for President and Vice President, in the election
of 1884. The Democratic National Convention, held, likewise,
at Chicago, July 8, put forward Governor Grover Cleveland, of
New York, as its candidate for President, with Thomas A.
Hendricks, of Indiana, for Vice President. General Benjamin F.
Butler, of Massachusetts, and General A. M. West, of
Mississippi, received double nominations, from the National or
Greenback party and an Anti-Monopoly party (so-called) for
President and Vice President, respectively; while the
Prohibitionists put in nomination John P. St. John, of Kansas,
and William Daniel, of Maryland. The election was an
exceedingly close one, its result turning upon a plurality of
only 1,149 in New York, by which that state was given to
Cleveland, with its 36 electoral votes, securing his election.
The total popular vote counted as follows: Cleveland,
4,874,986; Blaine, 4,851,981; Butler, 175,370; St. John,
150,369. The electoral vote was divided between Cleveland and
Blaine, 219 for the former and 182 for the latter.
_E. McPherson,
Hand-book of Politics, 1884 and 1886._
_Annual Cyclopœdia, 1884._
"At the presidential election of 1884 a section of the
Republican party, more important by the intelligence and
social position of the men who composed it than by its voting
power, 'bolted' (to use the technical term) from their party,
and refused to support Mr. Blaine. Some simply abstained,
some, obeying the impulse to vote which is strong in good
citizens in America, voted for Mr. St. John, the
Prohibitionist candidate, though well aware that this was
practically the same thing as abstention. The majority,
however, voted against their party for Mr. Cleveland, the
Democratic candidate; and it seems to have been the
transference of their vote which turned the balance in New
York State, and thereby determined the issue of the whole
election in Mr. Cleveland's favour." This group "goes by the
name of Mugwumps. … The name is said to be formed from an
Indian word denoting a chief or aged wise man, and was applied
by the 'straight-out' Republicans to their bolting brethren as
a term of ridicule. It was then taken up by the latter as a
term of compliment; though the description they used formally
in 1884 was that of 'Independent Republicans.' … The chief
doctrine they advocate is … the necessity of reforming the
civil service by making appointments without reference to
party, and a general reform in the methods of politics by
selecting men for Federal, State, and municipal offices, with
reference rather to personal fitness than to political
affiliations."
_J. Bryce,
The American Commonwealth (3d edition, revised),
chapter 56, with foot-note (volume 2)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1885-1888.
Termination of the Fishery Articles of the Treaty of Washington.
Renewed controversies.
The rejected Treaty.
See FISHERIES, NORTH AMERICAN: A. D. 1877-1888.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1886-1893.
The Bering Sea controversy and arbitration.
"Four serious international controversies have arisen out of
the rival claims of Russia, Great Britain, Spain, and the
United States to the shores and waters of the northwest coast
of the continent of North America. The first of these was in
consequence of an attempt of the Spanish Government, in 1790,
to prevent the British from trading with the natives of that
coast. It was settled by the Nootka Sound Convention of
October 28, 1790, by which the subjects of both powers enjoyed
equal privileges of trade to all points not already occupied.
The second controversy was the result of an attempt of Russia
in 1821 to prohibit England and the United States from trading
anywhere north of the 51st parallel, or to approach within 100
Italian miles of the coast. Both governments energetically
protested and secured treaties in 1824 and 1825, by which they
retained the right of fishing and of landing on unoccupied
points of that coast. The third controversy was as to the
division of the coast between Great Britain and the United
States, Spain having by the treaties of 1824 and 1825 accepted
the parallel of 54° 40' as her southern boundary. The rival
claims of the two remaining powers, after long diplomatic
discussion, were settled by the treaty of July 17, 1846,
according to which the parallel of 49° was made the dividing
line. By the treaty of March 30, 1867, with Russia, all the
dominions and claims of that country on the continent of North
America and the outlying islands thereof were transferred to
the United States. A further, and still pending, controversy
arose in 1886 through the seizure by United States vessels of
Canadian vessels engaged in the taking of seals in waters not
far distant from the Aleutian Islands. The claim of the United
States was that it had acquired from Russia exclusive rights
in Behring Sea, at least with regard to seal fishing. The
British Government representing the Canadians denied that
there could be any exclusive rights outside three miles off
shore. By an agreement of February 29, 1892, the question has
been submitted to arbitration," the arbitrators to give "a
distinct decision" upon each of the following five points:
"1. What exclusive jurisdiction in the sea now known as the
Behring's Sea, and what exclusive rights in the seal fisheries
therein, did Russia assert and exercise prior and up to the
time of the cession of Alaska to the United States?
2. How far were these claims of jurisdiction as to the seal
fisheries recognized and conceded by Great Britain?
3. Was the body of water now known as the Behring's Sea
included in the phrase 'Pacific Ocean,' as used in the treaty
of 1825 between Great Britain and Russia, and what rights, if
any, in the Behring's Sea, were held and exclusively exercised
by Russia after said treaty?
{3562}
4. Did not all the rights of Russia as to the jurisdiction and
as to the seal fisheries in Behring's Sea east of the water
boundary, in the treaty between the United States and Russia
of the 30th of March, 1867, pass unimpaired to the United
States under that treaty?
5. Has the United States any right, and if so, what right, of
protection or property in the fur-seals frequenting the
islands of the United States in Behring's Sea, when such seals
are found outside the ordinary three-mile limit?"
_American History Leaflets, no. 6._
The arbitrators to whom these points of the question were
submitted under the treaty were seven in number, as follows:
Justice John M. Harlan, of the Supreme Court of the United
States, and Senator John T. Morgan, of Alabama, appointed by
the United States; Rt. Hon. Lord Hannan, and Sir John S. D.
Thompson, Prime Minister of Canada, appointed by Great
Britain; Senator Baron Alphonse de Courcelles, formerly French
Ambassador at Berlin, appointed by the French government;
Senator Marquis E. Visconti Venosta, appointed by the Italian
government; and Judge Mons. Gregers Gram, Minister of State,
appointed by the government of Sweden. The Court of
Arbitration met at Paris, beginning its sessions on March 23,
1893. The award of the Tribunal, signed on the 15th of August,
1893, decided the five points submitted to it, as follows:
(1) That Russia did not, after 1825, assert or exercise any
exclusive jurisdiction in Bering Sea, or any exclusive rights
in the seal fisheries;
(2) that no such claims on the part of Russia were recognized
or conceded by England;
(3) that the body of water now known as Bering Sea was
included in the phrase "Pacific Ocean," as used in the treaty
of 1825 between Great Britain and Russia, and that no
exclusive rights of jurisdiction in Bering Sea or as to the
seal fisheries there were held or exercised by Russia after
the treaty of 1825;
(4) that all the rights of Russia as to jurisdiction and the
seal fisheries in Bering Sea east of the water boundary did
pass unimpaired to the United States under the treaty of March
30, 1867;
(5) that the United States has not any right of protection or
property in the fur seals frequenting the islands of the
United States in Bering Sea, when such seals are found outside
the ordinary three-mile limit.
Mr. Morgan alone dissented from the decision rendered on the
first and second points, and on the second division of the
third point. Justice Harlan and Mr. Morgan both dissented on
the fifth point. On the fourth point, and on the first
division of the third, the decision was unanimous. These
points of controversy disposed of, the Arbitrators proceeded
to prescribe the regulations which the Governments of the
United States and Great Britain shall enforce for the
preservation of the fur seal. The regulations prescribed
prohibit the killing, capture or pursuit of fur seals, at any
time or in any manner, within a zone of sixty miles around the
Pribilov Islands; prohibit the same from May 1 to July 31 in
all the part of the Pacific Ocean, inclusive of Bering Sea,
which is north of 35° north latitude and eastward of the 180th
degree of longitude from Greenwich till it strikes the water
boundary described in Article I. of the Treaty of 1867 between
the United States and Russia; and following that line up to
Bering Straits; allow only sailing vessels, with licenses, to
take part in fur seal fishing operations, and forbid the use
of nets, firearms and explosives, except as to shot guns
outside of Bering Sea. As promulgated, the Award bore the
signatures of all the Arbitrators.
_The Behring Sea Arbitration:
Letters to The Times._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1887-1888.
Tariff Message of President Cleveland.
Attempted revision of the Tariff.
Defeat of the Mills Bill.
See TARIFF LEGISLATION (UNITED STATES): A. D. 1884-1888.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1888.
The Twenty-sixth Presidential election.
President Cleveland was nominated for re-election by the
Democratic National Convention, held at St. Louis, June 5,
with Allen G. Thurman, of Ohio, for Vice President. The
Republican Convention, at Chicago, June 19, named Benjamin
Harrison, of Indiana, for President, and Levi P. Morton, of
New York, for Vice President. At Indianapolis, May 30, the
Prohibition party had already put in nomination General
Clinton B. Fisk, of New Jersey, and John A. Brooks, of
Missouri, for President and Vice President, respectively. The
Union Labor Party, convening at Cincinnati, May 15, had
nominated Alson J. Streeter, of Illinois, and Charles E.
Cunningham, of Arkansas; the United Labor Party, a rival
organization, had put forward Robert H. Cowdrey, of Illinois,
and William H. T. Wakefield, of Kansas; and still another
labor ticket had been brought forward in February, at
Washington, where an organization calling itself the
Industrial Reform party, put Albert E. Redstone, of
California, and John Colvin, of Kansas, in nomination. At Des
Moines, Iowa, May 15, the National Equal Rights party had
named a woman for the Presidency, in the person of Mrs. Belva
Lockwood, of Washington, with Alfred H. Love, of Philadelphia,
named for Vice President. Finally, in August, an organization
attempting to revive the American Party of former days,
convening at Washington, presented James L. Curtis, of New
York, for President, and James R. Greer of Tennessee (who
declined the honor) for Vice President. In the ensuing
election, the popular vote was distributed as follows:
Cleveland 5,540,329;
Harrison, 5,439,853;
Fisk, 249,506;
Streeter, 146,935;
Cowdrey, 2,818;
Curtis, 1,591.
Notwithstanding the greater number of votes cast for Cleveland
(his plurality being 100,476), Harrison was chosen President
by the electoral votes, receiving 233. while 168 were given
for Cleveland.
Appletons Annual Cyclopœdia, 1888,
pages 773-782, and 799-828.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1889-1890.
The opening of Oklahoma.
The Johnstown Flood.
The Pan-American Congress.
Admission of seven new States.
"In the centre of Indian Territory there is a large district
called, in the Indian language, Oklahoma, or the 'Beautiful
Land.' This tract was finally purchased from the Indians by
the United States, early in 1889. On the 22d of April, of that
year, some 50,000 persons were waiting impatiently on the
borders of Oklahoma for President Harrison's signal, giving
them permission to enter and take up lands in the coveted
region. At precisely twelve o'clock noon, of that day, the
blast of a bugle announced that Oklahoma was open to
settlement. Instantly an avalanche of human beings rushed
wildly across the line, each one eager to get the first
chance. Towns made of rough board-shanties and of tents sprang
up in all directions. The chief of these were Oklahoma City
and Guthrie. At the end of four months, the latter had a
population of about 5,000, with four daily papers and six
banks; and arrangements, doubtless since completed, were being
made to start a line of street cars, and light the city with
electricity.
{3583}
A week after the opening of Oklahoma, the centennial
anniversary of the inauguration of Washington, and of the
beginning of our government under the Constitution, was
celebrated in New York City [April 29-May 1]. … In a little
less than a month from that occasion, the most terrible
disaster of the kind ever known in our history occurred (May
31, 1889) in Western Pennsylvania. By the breaking of a dam, a
body of water forty feet high and nearly half a mile in width
swept down through a deep and narrow valley. In less than
fifteen minutes, the flood had traversed a distance of
eighteen miles. In that brief time, it dashed seven towns out
of existence, and ended by carrying away the greater part of
Johnstown. The whole valley at that place was choked with
ruins; at least 5,000 persons lost their lives, and property
worth ten million dollars was utterly destroyed. In the autumn
(October 2, 1889), representatives of the leading governments
of Central and of South America, together with the Republic of
Mexico, met representatives chosen by the United States in a
conference or congress held at Washington. The object of the
congress was to bring about a closer union of the Americas,
for purposes of trade, and of mutual advantage. The delegates
spent six weeks in visiting the principal commercial and
manufacturing cities of the United States. They then returned
to Washington, and devoted the greater part of the remainder
of the year and part of 1890 to the discussion of business."
_D. H. Montgomery,
Leading Facts of American History,
sections 390-392._
"An act to provide for the division of Dakota into two States,
and to enable the people of North Dakota, South Dakota,
Montana, and Washington, to form constitutions and State
governments … was approved by President Cleveland, February
22, 1889. This act provided that the Territory of Dakota
should be divided on the line of the seventh standard
parallel. … On the 4th of July, 1889, the four conventions
assembled-for North Dakota at Bismarck, for South Dakota at
Sioux Falls, for Montana at Helena, and for Washington at
Olympia."
_F. N. Thorpe,
Recent Constitution-making in the United States
(Annals of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science, September, 1891)._
Acceptable constitutions having been framed and adopted in the
several proposed new states, North Dakota and South Dakota
were admitted to the Union by proclamation of President
Harrison, November 3, 1889, Montana, November 8, and
Washington, November 11, in the same year. "Early in the
session of the fifty-first Congress, Wyoming presented her
claims for Statehood, asking for admission to the Union under
the Constitution of September, 1889, which was adopted by the
people on November 5 following. The bill for admission passed
the House of Representatives on March 27, 1890, passed the
Senate on June 27, and received the President's signature on
July 10. By its terms Wyoming became a state from and after
the date of the President's approval." Idaho had previously
been admitted, by a bill which received the President's
signature on the 3d of July, 1890.
_Appletons' Annual Cyclopœdia, 1890 and 1889._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1890.
McKinley Tariff Act.
See TARIFF LEGISLATION (UNITED STATES); A. D. 1890.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1890.
The Eleventh Census.
Total population 62,622,250 (exceeding that of 1880 by
12,466,467, classed and distributed as follows;
North Atlantic division.
White. Black.
Maine. 659,263 1,190
New Hampshire. 375,840 614
Vermont. 331,418 937
Massachusetts. 2,215,373 22,144
Rhode Island. 337,859 7,393
Connecticut. 733,438 12,302
New York. 5,923,952 70,092
New Jersey. 1,396,581 47,638
Pennsylvania. 5,148,257 107,596
Total 17,121,981 269,906
South Atlantic division.
Delaware. 140,066 28,386
Maryland . 826,493 215,657
District of Columbia. 154,695 75,572
Virginia. 1,020,122 635,438
West Virginia. 730,077 32,690
North Carolina. 1,055,382 561,018
South Carolina. 462,008 688,934
Georgia. 978,357 858,815
Florida. 224,949 166,180
Total 5,592,149 3,262,690
North Central division.
Ohio. 3,584,805 87,113
Indiana. 2,146,736 45,215
Illinois. 3,768,472 57,028
Michigan. 2,072,884 15,223
Wisconsin. 1,680,473 2,444
Minnesota. 1,296,159 3,683
Iowa. 1,901,086 10,685
Missouri. 2,528,458 150,184
North Dakota. 182,123 373
South Dakota. 327,290 541
Nebraska. 1,046,888 8,913
Kansas. 1,376,553 49,710
Total 21,911,927 431,112
South Central division.
Kentucky. 1,590,462 268,071
Tennessee. 1,336,637 430,678
Alabama. 833,718 678,489
Mississippi. 544,851 742,559
Louisiana. 558,395 559,193
Texas. 1,745,935 488,171
Oklahoma. 58,826 2,973
Arkansas. 818,752 309,117
Total 7,487,576 3,479,251
Western division.
Montana. 127,271 1,490
Wyoming. 59,275 922
Colorado. 404,468 6,215
New Mexico. 142,719 1,956
Arizona. 55,580 1,357
Utah. 205,899 588
Nevada. 39,084 242
Idaho. 82,018 201
Washington. 340,513 1,602
Oregon. 301,758 1,186
California. 1,111,672 11,322
Total 2,870,257 27,081
Grand Total. 54,983,890 7,470,040
{3584}
In addition the census shows 107,475 Chinese, 2,039 Japanese,
and 58,806 civilized Indians, making a total of 62,622,250, as
stated above.
Immigration in the preceding decade rose to 5,246,613 in the
total arrivals, 1,462,839 being from the British Islands and
3,258,743 from other European countries. In the single year
ending June 30, 1890, the immigrants arriving from Europe
numbered 443,225 (273,104 males, 170,121 females), of whom
57,020 were from England; 53,024 from Ireland; 12,041 from
Scotland: 92,427 from Germany; 22,062 from Hungary: 11,073
from Poland; 33,147 from Russia: 51,799 from Italy; 29,632
from Sweden; 11,370 from Norway; 9,366 from Denmark; 6,585
from France.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1890-1893.
The Silver Bill and its effect.
Financial Panic.
Extra Session of Congress.
Repeal of the Sherman Act.
"The act of July 14, 1890 [known as the Sherman Act], repealed
the silver act of 1878, and so brought to a close the precise
experiment tried under that measure. … But the new act … is
even more remarkable than that of 1878. It is unique in
monetary history. It provides that the Secretary of the
Treasury shall purchase each month at the market price four
and a half million ounces of silver bullion. In payment he
shall issue Treasury notes of the United States, in
denominations of between one dollar and one thousand dollars.
These Treasury notes, unlike the old silver certificates, are
a direct legal tender for all debts, public or private, unless
a different medium is expressly stipulated in the contract.
They differ from the silver certificates in another respect;
they are redeemable either in gold or silver coin, at the
discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury. The indirect
process of redemption which, as we have seen, was applied to
the silver certificates, is replaced for the new notes by
direct redemption. The avowed object is to keep the silver
money equal to gold, for it is declared to be 'the established
policy of the United States to maintain the two metals at a
parity with each other on the present legal ratio, or such
ratio as may be provided by law.' The act of 1878 is repealed;
but the coinage of two million ounces of silver into dollars
is to be continued for a year (until July 1, 1891). Thereafter
it is directed that only so many silver dollars shall be
coined as may be needed for redeeming any Treasury notes
presented for redemption. Practically, this means that the
coinage shall cease; redemption in silver dollars will not be
called for. The coinage of silver dollars accordingly was
suspended by the Treasury on July 1, 1891; a change which was
the occasion of some vociferous abuse and equally vociferous
praise, but which in reality was of no consequence whatever.
The monthly issues of the new Treasury notes vary, like those
of the old silver certificates, with the price of silver. But
the new issues vary directly with the price of silver, while,
as we have seen, the old issues varied inversely with the
price. The volume of Treasury notes issued is equal to the
market price of four and one half million ounces of silver. If
silver sells at $1. 20 an ounce, the monthly issue of notes
will be $5,400,000; if at $1.00 an ounce, $4,500,000. For a
month or two after the passage of the act, the price of silver
advanced rapidly, and at its highest, in August, 1890, touched
$1.21. But the rise proved to be but temporary. After
September a steady decline set in, and continued almost
without interruption through the rest of 1890, through 1891,
and through 1892. The year 1891 opened with silver at a price
of about $1.00 an ounce; by the close of the year the price
had fallen to about 95 cents. In 1892 a still further and more
marked decline set in, and by the close of the year the price
had gone as low as 85 cents."
_F. W. Taussig,
The Silver Situation in the United States,
chapter 6._
"On June 5 [1893] President Cleveland publicly declared his
purpose to call an extra session of Congress to meet in the
first half of September for the consideration of the country's
financial conditions, which seemed critical. On the 26th of
June the authorities of India closed the mints in that empire
to the free coinage of silver. The signs of a panic
immediately multiplied and four days later appeared the
president's proclamation summoning Congress to meet in extra
session August 7. The call was based on the 'perilous
condition in business circles,' which was declared to be
largely the result of a 'financial policy … embodied in unwise
laws, which must be executed until repealed by Congress.' The
issue of this proclamation was the signal for much excitement
among the Populists and in silver-producing circles. Silver
conventions were held in Denver, July 11, and in Chicago,
August 2, in which addresses were made and resolutions adopted
denouncing with much energy any proposition to repeal the
Sherman Act without some provision for the free coinage of
silver, and claiming that the existing financial crisis was a
deliberately devised scheme of British and American bankers,
with President Cleveland as their ally, to bring about the
exclusion of silver from use as money. The president's
message, presented to the houses August 8, brought the
question before Congress. The message embodied an exposition
of what Mr. Cleveland considered the evils of the Sherman Act,
concluding with an earnest recommendation that its purchase
clause be immediately repealed. While still holding that
tariff reform was imperatively demanded, the president
considered that it should be postponed to action on the silver
law. In Congress the silver men, without reference to party
lines, took an attitude of energetic resistance to any project
for unconditional repeal of the purchase clause."
_Political Science Quarterly, December, 1893._
In the House, the resistance was soon overcome by strong
pressure of unmistakable public opinion, and the repeal was
carried on the 28th of August. In the Senate the Silver
faction proved so much stronger that it blocked the bill until
the end of October, indifferent to the ruinous effect which
this action was having on the business and the industries of
the country. In September, while the fate of the bill remained
in doubt, the "Banker's Magazine" reported that the doubt had
"aggravated the money stringency, until it absolutely became
impossible for the great majority of business men to obtain
the necessary funds, or credit to transact their affairs. In
this respect, probably, no panic within the memory of the
present generation has been so severe; and yet, it has been
the least violent for one so universal and protracted. But it
is the collapse that follows an acute attack of disease, which
leaves its victim prostrated, after the crisis has been passed,
and which must precede ultimate recovery, by giving time to
restore exhausted strength. …
{3585}
This was different from most panics this country has
experienced, inasmuch as it was strictly an artificial one,
caused by bad legislation, rather than general financial kite
flying, while commercial affairs were seldom, if ever, on a
sounder or safer basis, from the fact that they had, for a
long time, been more free from speculation, with but few
exceptions, than for years. Hence it has been the financial
machinery by which commerce is transacted, rather than
commerce itself, that has been deranged; and, for this reason,
trade will revive much more rapidly when this artificial
pressure is removed, than it has revived after former panics,
which were either purely financial, or commercial, or both, as
the result of wild speculation and general inflation of
prices."
_H. A. Pierce,
A Review of Finance and Business
(Banker's Magazine, September, 1893)._
The repeal measure was finally carried in the Senate, becoming
law by the President's signature November 1, when a slow
recovery of business confidence began, much retarded and
disturbed, however, by the uncertainty attending expected
action of Congress on tariff and currency questions.
See, also, MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1848-1893.
ALSO IN:
_L. R. Ehrich,
The Question of Silver,
page 23._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1892.
Chinese Exclusion Act.
A bill "to absolutely prohibit the coming of Chinese persons
into the United States," reported by Mr. Geary, of California,
was passed by the House, April 4, 1892, yeas 179, nays 43, 107
not voting. In the Senate, a substitute, going little further
than to continue the then existing laws for the regulation of
Chinese immigration, was reported from the Committee on
Foreign Relations and adopted. The two bills were referred to
a Conference Committee, with the result that a compromise
measure, slightly modified from the House bill, was passed by
both branches of Congress, on the 3d and 4th of May, and
signed by the President on the 5th. It continues former laws
for ten years. It directs "that any Chinese person or person
of Chinese descent when convicted and adjudged under any of
said laws to be not lawfully entitled to be or remain in the
United States," shall be removed to China, or to such other
country as he may prove to be a subject or citizen of. It
declares that any such person under arrest "shall be adjudged
to be unlawfully within the United States, unless such person
shall establish, by affirmative proof, … his lawful right to
remain in the United States"; and that any such person
"convicted and adjudged to be not lawfully entitled to be or
remain in the United States shall be imprisoned at hard labor
for a period of not exceeding one year, and thereafter removed
from the United States, as hereinbefore provided." The act
denies bail, on an application for a writ of habeas corpus, by
a Chinese person seeking to land in the United States. It
requires all Chinese laborers who were within the limits of
the United States at the time of the passage of the act, and
who were entitled to remain, to obtain certificates of
residence, from district collectors of internal revenue, and
orders the deportation of those who had failed to do so at the
expiration of one year. This extraordinary measure of
exclusion has been commonly known as the "Geary Act."
_E. McPherson,
Hand-book of Politics, 1892._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1892.
Settlement of the Alaskan Boundary.
A convention between the governments of the United States and
Great Britain was entered into and ratifications exchanged in
August, 1892, providing for a coincident or joint survey, "as
may in practice be found most convenient," to determine the
boundary line between Alaska and the Canadian provinces.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1892.
Controversy with Chile.
Warlike Presidential Message.
See (in Supplement) CHILE.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1892.
First commissioning of a Papal Delegate.
See PAPACY: A. D. 1892.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1892.
The Twenty-seventh Presidential Election.
Five parties presented candidates in the presidential election
held November 8, 1892—namely: the Democratic, the Republican,
the People's, or Populist, the Prohibitionist, and the
Socialistic Labor. The nominees of the Democratic Party were
Grover Cleveland, for President, and Adlai E. Stevenson, for
Vice President; of the Republican Party, Benjamin Harrison and
Whitelaw Reid, for President and Vice President, respectively;
of the Populist Party, James B. Weaver and James G. Field; of
the Prohibition Party, John Bidwell and James B. Cranfill; of
the Socialistic Labor Party, Simon Wing and Charles H.
Matchett. The dominant Issues in the canvass were the tariff
question and the silver question. "The Democrats named no
electoral tickets in Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, North Dakota,
and Wyoming, but voted for the people's party electors with
the object of taking those States away from the Republicans.
They put out an electoral ticket in Nevada, but still voted
mostly for the Populist electors. In North Dakota also there
was a partial fusion between the Democrats and the People's
party, and in Minnesota a part of the Weaver electoral ticket
was accepted by the Democrats. In Louisiana there was a fusion
of the Republicans and the People's party, each nominating
half of the 8 electors. In Alabama there was a fusion of some
of the Republicans with the People's party. In Texas a
Republican ticket called the Lily White was set up, which
differed from the regular ticket. In Michigan a new electoral
law, which was declared constitutional by the United States
Supreme Court on October 17, 1892, provided for the separate
election of a Presidential elector in each Congressional
district, and in consequence the electoral vote of the State
was divided. In Oregon the name of one of the four electors on
the People's ticket was also placed on the Democratic ticket.
… The total popular vote cast was reported as 12,154,542," of
which Cleveland received 5,556,553; Harrison, 5,175,577;
Weaver, 1,122,045; Bidwell 279,191; Wing, 21,191. The
electoral votes of the States were cast as follows: Cleveland,
277; Harrison, 145; Weaver, 22; giving Cleveland a clear
majority of 110.
_Appletons' Annual Cyclopœdia, 1892._
"The most striking feature of the elections was the great
losses of the Republicans in the West. Illinois and Wisconsin
went Democratic by large majorities, California and Ohio were
very close, and Colorado, Idaho, Kansas and Nevada chose
Populist electors. The Democrats carried all the Northern
states generally regarded as doubtful, viz., Connecticut, New
York and Indiana, but they nearly lost Delaware.
{3586}
An unusual incident of the result was the division of the
electoral votes in several states, owing to the closeness of
the popular vote. Thus in Ohio one Cleveland elector and in
Oregon one Weaver elector was chosen, the others being
Republican; and in California and North Dakota Mr. Harrison
secured single votes in the same way. From the conditions of
fusion between the Democrats and Populists in the last-named
state, it resulted that one of her three electoral votes was
given to each of the three candidates. In Michigan, under the
district method of choosing electors recently established,
Harrison got nine votes and Cleveland five."
_Political Science Quarterly, June, 1893._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1893.
Abandonment of Polygamy by the Mormons.
See UTAH: A. D. 1882-1893.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1893.
Revolution in the Hawaiian Islands and proposed annexation.
See HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1894.
The Wilson Tariff Act.
See TARIFF LEGISLATION (UNITED STATES): A. D. 1894.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1894.
The Strike at Pullman.
The Coxey Movement.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1894.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1894-1895.
Provision for the admission of Utah as a State.
On the 17th of July, 1894, the President, by his signature,
gave effect to a bill which provides for the admission of Utah
to the Union as a State. The admission, however, cannot become
a completed fact before the later part of the year 1895, since
the bill provides for the holding of a convention in March,
1895, to frame a constitution for the proposed new State, and
for submitting such constitution to the people at the election
in November, 1895.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1895.
The Status of Civil-service Reform.
Commissioner Roosevelt's Review.
"In 1883 the civil service law was established at Washington,
and in the larger post-offices and custom-houses throughout
the country, taking in a total of some 14,000 employees. The
great extensions since have all taken place during the last
six years, a period which happens to include my own term of
service with the Commission, so that I write of them at first
hand. In 1889 the railway mail service was added, in 1893 all
the free delivery post-offices, and in 1894 all the smaller
custom-houses and the internal revenue service. Other
important but smaller extensions have been made, and the
larger offices have grown, so that now about 50,000 employees
are under the protection of the law. There are, of course, and
there always must be in a body so large, individual cases
where the law is evaded, or even violated; and as yet we do
not touch the question of promotions and reductions. But,
speaking broadly, and with due allowance for such
comparatively slight exceptions, these 50,000 places are now
taken out of the political arena. They can no longer be
scrambled for in a struggle as ignoble and brutal as the
strife of pirates over plunder; they no longer serve as a vast
bribery chest with which to debauch the voters of the country.
Those holding them no longer keep their political life by the
frail tenure of service to the party boss and the party
machine; they stand as American citizens, and are allowed the
privilege of earning their own bread without molestation so
long as they faithfully serve the public. The classified
service, the service in which the merit system is applied, has
grown fast. It is true that the outside service where the
spoils theories are still applied in all their original
nakedness, has grown only less fast. The number of offices
under the government has increased very rapidly during the
last twenty years; but the growth of the classified service
has been even more rapid, so that a constantly increasing
percentage of the whole is withdrawn from the degrading grasp
of the spoils system. Now, something like a quarter of all the
offices under the federal government in point of numbers,
representing nearly a half in point of salaries, has been put
upon the basis of decency and merit. This has been done by the
action of successive Presidents under the law of 1883, without
the necessity of action by Congress. There still remain some
things that can be done without further legislation. For
instance, the labor force in the navy yards was put on a merit
basis, and removed from the domain of politics, under
Secretary Tracy. This was done merely by order of the
Secretary of the Navy, which order could have been reversed by
his successor, Secretary Herbert. Instead of reversing it,
however, Secretary Herbert has zealously lived up to its
requirements, and has withstood all pressure for the weakening
of the system in the interests of the local party machines and
bosses. It is unsafe to trust to always having Secretaries of
the Navy like Messrs. Tracy and Herbert. The Civil Service
Commission should be given supervision over the laborers who
come under the direction of Cabinet officers. Indeed, all the
laboring force and all the employees of the District of
Columbia employed by the federal government should be put
under the Commission. When this has been done, and when a few
other comparatively slight extensions have been made, all that
can be accomplished by the unaided action of the executive
will have been accomplished. Congress must then itself act by
passing some such bill as that of Senator Lodge in reference
to fourth-class postmasters; by passing some bill in reference
to the consular service on the outlines of that suggested by
Senator Morgan (but giving power to the Civil Service
Commission itself in the matter); and then by providing that
all postmasters and similar officers shall hold office during
good behavior, including as well those nominated by the
President and confirmed by the Senate as those appointed by
the President alone. Of all the offices under the federal
government, not one in a hundred can properly be called
political."
_T. Roosevelt,
The Present Status of Civil Service Reform
(Atlantic, February, 1895)._
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1895.
President Cleveland's Special Message on
the condition of the National Finances.
In a special message to Congress, on the 28th of January,
1895, President Cleveland renewed an earnest appeal which be
had made at the opening of the session, for legislation to
correct the mischievous working of the existing currency
system of the country. The condition of the national finances,
produced by unwise laws, was set forth clearly in this
message, as follows: "With natural resources unlimited in
variety and productive strength, and with a people whose
activity and enterprise seek only a fair opportunity to
achieve national success and greatness, our progress should
not be checked by a false financial policy and a heedless
disregard of sound monetary laws, nor should the timidity and
fear which they engender stand in the way of our prosperity.
{3587}
It is hardly disputed that this predicament confronts us
to-day. Therefore, no one in any degree responsible for the
making and execution of our laws should fail to see a
patriotic duty in honestly and sincerely attempting to relieve
the situation. … The real trouble which confronts us consists
in a lack of confidence, widespread and constantly increasing,
in the continuing ability or disposition of the Government to
pay its obligations in gold. This lack of confidence grows to
some extent out of the palpable and apparent embarrassment
attending the efforts of the Government under existing laws to
procure gold, and to a greater extent out of the impossibility
of either keeping it in the Treasury or canceling obligations
by its expenditure after it is obtained. The only way left
open to the Government for procuring gold is by the issue and
sale of its bonds. The only bonds that can be so issued were
authorized nearly twenty-five years ago, and are not well
calculated to meet our present needs. Among other
disadvantages, they are made payable in coin, instead of
specifically in gold, which, in existing conditions, detracts
largely and in an increasing ratio from their desirability as
investments. It is by no means certain that bonds of this
description can much longer be disposed of at a price
creditable to the financial character of our Government. The
most dangerous and irritating feature of the situation,
however, remains to be mentioned. It is found in the means by
which the Treasury is despoiled of the gold thus obtained
without canceling a single Government obligation and solely
for the benefit of those who find profit in shipping it abroad
or whose fears induce them to hoard it at home. We have
outstanding about five hundred millions of currency notes of
the Government for which gold may be demanded, and, curiously
enough, the law requires that when presented and, in fact,
redeemed and paid in gold, they shall be reissued. Thus the
same notes may do duty many times in drawing gold from the
Treasury; nor can the process be arrested as long as private
parties, for profit or otherwise, see an advantage in
repeating the operation. More than $300,000,000 in these notes
have already been redeemed in gold, and notwithstanding such
redemption they are all still outstanding. Since the 17th day
of January, 1894, our bonded interest-bearing debt has been
increased $100,000,000 for the purpose of obtaining gold to
replenish our coin reserve. Two issues were made amounting to
fifty millions each—one in January and the other in November.
As a result of the first issue there was realized something
more than $58,000,000 in gold. Between that issue and the
succeeding one in November, comprising a period of about ten
months, nearly $103,000,000 in gold were drawn from the
Treasury. This made the second issue necessary, and upon that
more than fifty-eight millions in gold was again realized.
Between the date of this second issue and the present time,
covering a period of only about two months, more than
$69,000,000 in gold have been drawn from the Treasury. These
large sums of gold were expended without any cancellation of
Government obligations or in any permanent way benefiting our
people or improving our pecuniary situation. The financial
events of the past year suggest facts and conditions which
should certainly arrest attention. More than $172,000,000 in
gold have been drawn out of the Treasury during the year for
the purpose of shipment abroad or hoarding at home. While
nearly one hundred and three millions of this amount was drawn
out during the first ten months of the year, a sum aggregating
more than two-thirds of that amount, being about sixty-nine
millions, was drawn out during the following two months, thus
indicating a marked acceleration of the depleting process with
the lapse of time. The obligations upon which this gold has
been drawn from the Treasury are still outstanding and are
available for use in repeating the exhausting operation with
shorter intervals as our perplexities accumulate. Conditions
are certainly supervening tending to make the bonds which may
be issued to replenish our gold less useful for that purpose.
… It will hardly do to say that a simple increase of revenue
will cure our troubles. The apprehension now existing and
constantly increasing as to our financial ability does not
rest upon a calculation of our revenue. The time has passed
when the eyes of investors abroad and our people at home were
fixed upon the revenues of the Government. Changed conditions
have attracted their attention to the gold of the Government.
There need be no fear that we can not pay our current expenses
with such money as we have. There is now in the Treasury a
comfortable surplus of more than $63,000,000, but it is not in
gold, and therefore does not meet our difficulty. I can not
see that differences of opinion concerning the extent to which
silver ought to be coined or used in our currency should
interfere with the counsels of those whose duty it is to
rectify evils now apparent in our financial situation. They
have to consider the question of national credit, and the
consequences that will follow from its collapse. Whatever
ideas may be insisted upon as to silver or bimetallism, a
proper solution of the question now pressing upon us only
requires a recognition of gold as well as silver, and a
concession of its importance, rightfully or wrongfully
acquired, as a basis of national credit, a necessity in the
honorable discharge of our obligations payable in gold, and a
badge of solvency. … While I am not unfriendly to silver, and
while I desire to see it recognized to such an extent as is
consistent with financial safety and the preservation of
national honor and credit, I am not willing to see gold
entirely banished from our currency and finances. To avert
such a consequence I believe thorough and radical remedial
legislation should be promptly passed. I therefore beg the
Congress to give the subject immediate attention. In my
opinion the Secretary of the Treasury should be authorized to
issue bonds of the Government for the purpose of procuring and
maintaining a sufficient gold reserve and the redemption and
cancellation of the United States legal-tender notes and the
Treasury notes issued for the purchase of silver under the law
of July 14, 1890. We should be relieved from the humiliating
process of issuing bonds to procure gold to be immediately and
repeatedly drawn out on these obligations for purposes not
related to the benefit of our Government or our people.
{3588}
The principal and interest of these bonds should be payable on
their face in gold, because they should be sold only for gold or
its representative, and because there would now probably be
difficulty in favorably disposing of bonds not containing this
stipulation. … The Secretary of the Treasury might well be
permitted, at his discretion, to receive on the sale of bonds
the legal-tender and Treasury notes to be retired, and, of
course, when they are thus retired or redeemed in gold they
should be canceled. These bonds under existing laws could be
deposited by national banks as security for circulation; and
such banks should be allowed to issue circulation up to the
face value of these or any other bonds so deposited, except
bonds outstanding bearing only 2 per cent interest, and which
sell in the market at less than par. National banks should not
be allowed to take out circulating notes of a less
denomination than $10, and when such as are now outstanding
reach the Treasury, except for redemption and retirement, they
should be canceled and notes of the denomination of $10 and
upward issued in their stead. Silver certificates of the
denomination of $10 and upward should be replaced by
certificates of denominations under $10. As a constant means
for the maintenance of a reasonable supply of gold in the
Treasury our duties on imports should be paid in gold,
allowing all other dues to the Government to be paid in any
other form of money. I believe all the provisions I have
suggested should be embodied in our laws if we are to enjoy a
complete reinstatement of a sound financial condition." The
President's recommendations were not acted upon. The silver
interest in Congress defeated all measures introduced for the
purpose and left the situation unchanged. The Government was
forced to a new issue of bonds under the old act, for the
replenishing of its gold reserve.
----------UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: End--------
UNITED STATES BANK.
See MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1791-1816, 1817-1833;
and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1833-1836.
UNITED STATES CHRISTIAN COMMISSION.
See SANITARY COMMISSION.
UNITED STATES CONGRESS.
See CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES.
UNITED STATES OF BRAZIL.
See BRAZIL: A. D. 1889-1891.
UNITED STATES OF COLOMBIA.
See COLOMBIAN STATES.
UNITED STATES PRESIDENT.
See PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
UNITED STATES SANITARY COMMISSION.
See SANITARY COMMISSION.
UNITED STATES SENATE.
See SENATE, THE AMERICAN.
UNIVERSITIES.
See EDUCATION;
also VERMONT, VIRGINIA and WISCONSIN UNIVERSITIES,
and (in SUPPLEMENT) BROWN, MINNESOTA, and TULANE.
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION.
See EDUCATION, MODERN: REFORMS &c.;
A. D. 1873-1889, and 1887-1892.
UNKIAR-SKELESSI, Treaty of (1833).
See TURKS: A. D. 1831-1840.
UNSTRUTT, Battle of the (1075).
See SAXONY: A. D. 1073-1075.
UPCHURCH POTTERY.
The Upchurch marshes, on the Medway, above Sheerness, were the
site of extensive potteries in the time of the Roman
occupation of Britain, and remains of the ware manufactured
are abundant in the neighborhood.
_Thomas Wright,
The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon,
chapter 8._
UPPER HOUSE.
See LORDS, BRITISH HOUSE OF.
UPSALA, Battle of (1520).
See SCANDINAVIAN STATES: A. D. 1397-1527.
UPSAROKAS, OR CROWS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SIOUAN FAMILY.
UR OF THE CHALDEES.
"The Ur Kasdim, i. e. 'Ur of the Chaldæans' in the Hebrew
Scriptures, is the modern Mug-heir, southeast of Babylon; on
clay-tablets discovered in the ruins of this place we find
cuneiform symbols, which are to be read as Uru."
_M. Duncker,
History of Antiquity,
book 2, chapter 1._
URARDA
ARARAT.
See ALARODIANS.
URBAN II., Pope, A. D. 1088-1099.
Urban III., Pope, 1185-1187.
Urban IV., Pope, 1261-1264.
Urban V., Pope, 1362-1370.
Urban VI., Pope, 1378-1389.
Urban VII., Pope, 1590, September 15 to September 27.
Urban VIII., Pope, 1623-1644.
URBARIUM, of Maria Theresa, The.
See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1849-1859.
URBINO: Annexation to the States of the Church (1631).
See PAPACY: A. D. 1605-1700.
URGENDJ, Destruction by the Mongols.
See KHUAREZM: A. D. 1220.
URICONIUM,
VIROCONIUM.
An important Roman town in Britain, extensive remains of which
have been unearthed at modern Wroxeter. It was the station of
the 14th legion.
_J. C. Anderson,
The Roman city of Uriconium._
Uriconium was totally destroyed by the West Saxons in 583. "A
British poet in verses still left to us sings piteously the
death-song of Uriconium, 'the white town in the valley,' the
town of white stones gleaming among the green woodlands."
_J. R. Green,
The Making of England,
chapter 5._
URRACA,
Queen of Castile and Leon, A. D. 1109-1126.
URSINI, The.
See ROME: 13-14TH CENTURIES.
URSULINES, The.
The origin of the order of the Ursulines "is ascribed to
Angela di Brescia, about the year 1537, though the Saint from
whom it received its name, Ursula Benincasa, a native of
Naples, was born ten years afterwards. … The duties of those
holy sisters were the purest within the circle of human
benevolence—to minister to the sick, to relieve the poor, to
console the miserable, to pray with the penitent. These
charitable offices they undertook to execute without the bond
of any community, without the obligation of any monastic vow,
without any separation from society, any renouncement of their
domestic duties and virtues."
_G. Waddington,
History of the Church,
chapter 19, section 6._
----------URUGUAY: Start--------
URUGUAY:
The name.
"The Uruguay is called so after a bird, the Uru, which is
found in the woods on its banks, and the term Uruguay
signifies the country of the Uru."
_T. J. Hutchinson,
The Parana,
page 44._
URUGUAY: A. D. 1714-1777.
The settlement.
The contest for, between Spain and Portugal.
Relinquishment by the latter.
Inclusion in the viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres.
See ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1580-1777.
{3589}
URUGUAY: A. D. 1826-1828.
The subject of war between Brazil and the Argentine Republic.
Independence established and recognized.
See ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1819-1874.
----------URUGUAY: End--------
USCOCKS, The.
"During the reign of Ferdinand [Emperor, 1558-1564], several
bodies of Christians, quitting the provinces which had been
recently conquered by the Turks, obtained from the Austrian
sovereigns a refuge at Clissa, in Dalmatia, under the
condition of forming themselves into a frontier militia
continually in arms against the infidels, and, from their
emigration, received the name of Uscocks, which, in the
language of the country, signifies wanderers. They fulfilled
the purpose of their establishment; and, being at length
expelled by the Turks, received a new asylum at Senga, a
ruined fortress in Croatia, on the coast of the Adriatic
gulph. Here, their numbers increasing by the accession of
Italian banditti and other marauders, they were rendered more
formidable than before; for they no longer confined their
predatory incursions to the land, but became pirates by sea. …
Their audacity increasing with success and plunder, they
pillaged, without distinction, the vessels of all the nations
who traded in the Adriatic." They were attacked by the Turks
and the Venetians, and the latter, at length, in the early
part of the 17th century, forced the Duke of Styria, who had
protected the freebooters, to allow their stronghold at Segna
to be demolished. "The Uscocks, being transplanted to
Carlstadt, soon lost their name and distinction."
_W. Coxe,
History of the House of Austria,
chapter 42 (volume 2)._
USDIÆ, The.
See IRELAND: TRIBES OF EARLY CELTIC INHABITANTS.
USES, The Statute of.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1535, and 1557.
USHANT, Naval battle off (1794).
See FRANCE: A. D. 1794 (MARCH-JULY).
USIPETES AND TENCTHERI, Cæsar's overthrow of the.
The Usipetes and Tenctheri, two German tribes, whose home was
on the lower course of the Rhine, north and south of the
Lippe, being hard pressed by the Suevi, crossed the Rhine, B.
C. 55, and began to spread themselves along the Valley of the
Meuse. Cæsar marched against them with great promptitude,
refused to parley with them, accused them of treacherous
attempts to gain time, and was himself charged with wicked
treachery, in seizing their chiefs who met him with pacific
propositions. It is certain, at all events, that he was able
to attack them when they were deprived of leaders, and to
slaughter them with so little resistance that not one Roman
soldier was killed. Those who escaped the sword were driven
into the Rhine (probably at its point of junction with the
Moselle) and almost the entire mass of 180,000 are said to
have perished. The remnant took refuge with the Sicambri or
Sigambri, on the farther shore of the Rhine. Cæsar demanded
the surrender of them, and, when refused, he caused his
engineers to bridge the river in ten days, led his army across
it and laid waste the country of the Sigambri. This was the
first crossing of the Rhine by the Romans. The Suevi offered
battle to the Roman invaders, but Cæsar prudently returned,
and destroyed the bridge.
_Cæsar,
Gallic Wars,
book 4, chapters 1-19._
ALSO IN:
_C. Merivale,
History of the Romans,
chapter 10 (volume 1)._
----------UTAH: Start--------
UTAH: A. D. 1847.
Migration of Mormons from Nauvoo and their settlement on the
Great Salt Lake.
See MORMONISM: A. D. 1846-1848.
UTAH: A. D. 1848.
Acquisition from Mexico.
See MEXICO: A. D. 1848.
UTAH: A. D. 1849-1850.
The proposed State of Deseret.
Organization of the Territory of Utah.
Its name.
"Until the year 1849 the Mormons were entirely under the
control of their ecclesiastical leaders, regarding the
presidency not only as their spiritual head, but as the source
of law in temporal matters. … There was already in their midst
a small percentage of gentile citizens, gathered … from nearly
all the civilized nations of the earth. … Not infrequently
litigation arose among the gentiles, or between Mormon and
gentile; and though strict justice may have been done by the
bishops, it was difficult for the latter to believe that such
was the case. … Thus it became advisable to establish for the
benefit of all some judicial authority that could not be
questioned by any, whether members of the church or not, and
this authority must be one that, being recognized by the
government of the United States, would have the support of its
laws and the shield of its protection. Further than this, if
the Mormons neglected to establish such government, the
incoming gentiles would do so ere long. Early in 1849,
therefore, a convention was summoned of 'the inhabitants of
that portion of Upper California lying east of the Sierra
Nevada Mountains,' and on the 4th of March assembled at Salt
Lake City. A committee was appointed to draught a
constitution, under which the people might govern themselves
until congress should otherwise provide by law. A few days
later the constitution was adopted, and a provisional
government organized, under the name of the State of Deseret.
An immense tract of country was claimed, extending from
latitude 33° to the border of Oregon, and from the Rocky
Mountains to the Sierra Nevada, together with a section of the
territory now included in southern California, and the strip
of coast lying between Lower California and 118° 30' of west
longitude. The seat of government was to be at Salt Lake
City." In July Almon W. Babbitt was elected delegate to
Congress, and that body was petitioned to admit the
provisionally organized State into the Union. The delegate and
his petition met with a cool reception at Washington; but in
September, 1850, Congress passed an act organizing the
Territory of Utah, and Brigham Young was appointed Governor.
"The act to establish a territorial government for Utah placed
the southern boundary at the 37th parallel, the section
between that limit and the 33d parallel being included in the
Territory of New Mexico [organized at the same time], with the
exception of the part transferred to California, by which
State Utah was to be bounded on the west. On the north, Oregon
was to remain as the boundary, and on the east the Rocky
Mountains." "The word Utah originated with the people
inhabiting that region. Early in the 17th century, when New
Mexico was first much talked of by the Spaniards, the
principal nations of frequent mention as inhabiting the
several sides of the locality about that time occupied were
the Navajos, the Yutas, the Apaches, and the Comanches. Of the
Utah nation, which belongs to the Shoshone family, there were
many tribes. … The early orthography of the word Utah is
varied." "Yuta" "was a common spelling by the early
Spaniards, and might be called the proper one. Later we have
'Youta,' 'Eutaw,' 'Utaw,' and 'Utah.'"
_H. H. Bancroft,
History of the Pacific States,
volume 21 (Utah), chapter 17, and foot-note, page 34._
See, also, AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SHOSHONEAN FAMILY.
{3590}
UTAH: A. D. 1857-1859.
The Mormon Rebellion.
"To this would-be 'State of Deseret' President Fillmore had
assigned Brigham Young, the spiritual head of the church, as
territorial governor; and by 1857, when a Democratic President
showed the disposition to apply the usual temporal rule of
rotation to the office, Young was rebellious, and the whole
Mormon population, refusing allegiance to anyone but their
consecrated head, began to drill and gird on their armor for
resistance. Judges of the territorial courts had to flee for
their lives; justice, which had long been tampered with to
absolve church members from punishment, was deprived of
process. It was charged that the Mormon hierarchy had leagued
with Indian tribes to impel them to atrocities against the
Gentile inhabitants, while their own Danites, or destroying
angels, were secretly set apart and bound by horrid oath to
pillage and murder such as made themselves obnoxious to the
theocracy. … President Buchanan appointed as the new governor
of Utah Alfred Cumming, a man combining courage with
discretion, and filled the judicial and other vacancies which
existed. To protect those new officers and aid them in
discharging their functions, he ordered a detachment of
regulars to accompany them to the Salt Lake region. The need
of this was soon apparent. Early in September, 1857, a part of
the troops left Fort Laramie, and on the 15th of the same
month Brigham Young, parading audaciously the commission he
still held from the United States, forbade all armed forces
from entering the territory, and called upon his people to
defend themselves against the 'armed mercenary mob' of
invaders. His legislature, meeting later, sustained him in his
bitter diatribe against the 'profane, drunken, and corrupt
officials,' which a Washington administration was trying to
force upon Utah territory at the point of the bayonet. A
Mormon force had meanwhile advanced to impede the approach of
our regulars, capturing and burning three supply trains of
wagons laden with tents and provisions, stampeding the horses,
and so crippling Fort Bridger, which was distant some twelve
days' march from Salt Lake city, as to deprive our army, on
its arrival, of a proper winter's shelter after its long and
fatiguing march, and compel General Johnston, who commanded
this important post, to despatch part of his forces upon a
dreary and hazardous expedition to New Mexico for further
supplies. Johnston's despatches in October showed the
President that unless a large force was quickly sent out, a
long conflict would be inevitable. Buchanan and his Secretary
of War asked from the present Congress ten new regiments, of
which five might be used to bring the Mormons to subjection.
But the Lecompton controversy was raging; and the use of
Federal troops to put down the free-State movement in Kansas
had caused such mistrust and irritation that none but the
President's unshaken supporters felt inclined to place more
troops at his disposal. The bill for an army increase was
lost, though both Houses passed a measure authorizing the
President to accept for the Utah disturbances two regiments of
volunteers. The volunteers were not called out; but Buchanan
mustered a military force out of the regulars strong enough to
overawe and overpower Utah's rebellious inhabitants. Two peace
commissioners also bore to Utah a proclamation from the
President, dated April 6th, which offered free pardon, except
to those who persisted still in disloyal resistance. Governor
Cumming, upon his arrival, made a like announcement. These
conciliatory efforts, backed by an irresistible show of
military strength, brought the Mormons to a speedy
acknowledgment of allegiance. They fought not a battle, but
manifested a purpose to burn their houses and make a new and
peaceable retreat into the wilderness. From this purpose,
after some conferences, they were at length dissuaded; and it
was agreed in June between the Mormon leaders and our
commissioners that the United States soldiery should be kept
out of sight as much as possible while Utah remained tranquil.
On the last day of the same month the new governor,
accompanied by Brigham Young, came back to Salt Lake city to
assume functions which were fully recognized. A few days
earlier, and before the Mormons had begun to return to their
homes, General Johnston and his troops, leaving Fort Bridger,
reached the desolate city, marched through its streets, and,
crossing its river Jordan, encamped on the opposite bank.
While abandoning all further effort at violent resistance, the
Mormons still clung to the hope of being left to govern
themselves and preserve their institutions against the world's
contaminating touch, by gaining the indispensable condition of
practical isolation and independence. To this Congress in its
next winter's session they renewed the former petitions they
had presented for immediate admission to the Union as the
'State of Deseret.' And should this request be denied, they
prayed that the organic act of the territory might be so
amended as to give the inhabitants the right to choose their
own governor, judges, and other officers. All this Congress
quietly ignored; and in military circles it was still
generally believed that, for all this outward show of loyal
acquiescence, the Mormons felt at heart no more affection for
the United States than for any foreign nation; that the only
rule they really recognized was that of their religion and the
will of their hierarchy; and that force must still be used to
compel them. Such views were entertained by General Albert
Sidney Johnston, the military commander at Utah, destined to
later distinction in the art of war. But Cumming, the
governor, who had the temporizing instincts of a civilian,
thought differently. The two came into collision when Mormons
were brought to trial in the courts for a slaughter of
emigrants in 1857, known as the Mountain Meadow massacre.
[This was the massacre, by Indians and Mormons, of a party of
136 emigrants, from Arkansas and Missouri, who were passing
through Utah to California; it occurred in September, 1857, in
a valley called the Mountain Meadows, about 300 miles south of
Salt Lake city; only 17 young children were saved from the
slaughter.] At the request of the Federal judge, Johnston
furnished a military detachment to guard the prisoners; and
when Cumming, the governor, interposed because of the angry
remonstrance of the people, Johnston would not remove them.
Buchanan, being appealed to, sustained the governor's
authority."
_J. Schouler,
History of the United States,
chapter 22 (volume 5)._
ALSO IN:
_H. H. Bancroft,
History of the Pacific States,
volume 21, chapters 18-21._
_W. P. Johnston,
Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston,
chapter 13._
_Mrs. T. B. H. Stenhouse,
Tell it All,
chapter 23._
_Report of United States Secretary of the Interior,
36th Congress, 1st session,
Senate Ex. Doc., number 42 (volume 11)._
{3591}
UTAH: A. D. 1882-1893.
The Edmunds Act and its enforcement.
Abandonment of Polygamy by the Mormons.
Proclamation of Amnesty for past offenses against the law.
In March, 1882, an Act of Congress (known as the Edmunds Act)
was passed for the purpose of making efficient the law against
polygamy in the territories, which had stood among the
statutes of the United States for twenty years, without power
on the part of the federal courts or officials in Utah to
enforce it, as against Mormon juries. Besides repeating the
penalties prescribed In the Act of 1862, the Act of 1882
provides, in its eighth section, that "no polygamist,
bigamist, or any person cohabiting with more than one woman,
and no woman cohabiting with any of the persons described as
aforesaid in this section, in any Territory or other place
over which the United States have exclusive jurisdiction,
shall be entitled to vote at any election held in any such
Territory or other place, or be eligible for election or
appointment to or be entitled to hold any office or place of
public trust, honor, or emolument in, under, or for any such
Territory or place, or under the United States." The ninth and
last section is as follows: "Section 9. That all the
registration and election offices of every description in the
Territory of Utah are hereby declared vacant, and each and
every duty relating to the registration of voters, the conduct
of elections, the receiving or rejection of votes, and the
canvassing and returning of the same, and the issuing of
certificates or other evidence of election, in said Territory,
shall, until other provisions be made by the legislative
assembly of said Territory, as is hereinafter by this section
provided, be performed, under the existing laws of the United
States and said Territory, by proper persons, who shall be
appointed to execute such offices and perform such duties by a
Board of five persons, to be appointed by the President, by
and with the advice and consent of the Senate, not more than
three of whom shall be members of one political party, and a
majority of whom shall be a quorum. The members of said Board
so appointed by the President shall each receive a salary at
the rate of three thousand dollars per annum, and shall
continue in office until the legislative assembly of said
Territory shall make provision for filling said offices as
herein authorized. The Secretary of the Territory shall be the
secretary of said Board and keep a journal of its proceedings,
and attest the action of said Board under this section. The
canvass and return of all the votes at elections in said
Territory for members of the legislative assembly thereof
shall also be returned to said Board, which shall canvass all
such returns and issue certificates of election for those
persons who, being eligible for such election, shall appear to
have been lawfully elected, which certificates shall be the
only evidence of the right of such persons to sit in such
assembly: Provided, That said Board of five persons shall not
exclude any person otherwise eligible to vote from the polls
on account of any opinion such person may entertain on the
subject of bigamy or polygamy, nor shall they refuse to count
any such vote on account of the opinion of the person casting
it on the subject of bigamy or polygamy, but each house of
such assembly, after its organization, shall have power to
decide upon the elections and qualifications of its members.
And at or after the first meeting of said legislative assembly
whose members shall have been elected and returned according
to the provisions of this act, said legislative assembly may
make such laws, conformable to the organic act of said
Territory, and not inconsistent with other laws of the United
States, as it shall deem proper concerning the filling of the
offices in said Territory declared vacant by this act."—The
following Proclamation, issued by the President of the United
States on the 4th day of January, 1893, may be looked upon as
the sequel and consequence of the legislation recorded above:
"Whereas Congress, by a statute approved March 22, 1882, and
by statutes in furtherance and amendment thereof, defined the
crimes of bigamy, polygamy, and unlawful cohabitation in the
Territories and other places within the exclusive jurisdiction
of the United States and prescribed a penalty for such crimes;
and Whereas, on or about the 6th day of October, 1890, the
Church of the Latter-Day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon
Church, through its president, issued a manifesto proclaiming
the purpose of said church no longer to sanction the practice
of polygamous marriages and calling upon all members and
adherents of said church to obey the laws of the United States
in reference to said subject-matter; and Whereas it is
represented that since the date of said declaration the
members and adherents of said church have generally obeyed
said laws and have abstained from plural marriages and
polygamous cohabitation; and Whereas, by a petition dated
December 19, 1891, the officials of said church, pledging the
membership thereof to a faithful obedience to the laws against
plural marriage and unlawful cohabitation, have applied to me
to grant amnesty for past offenses against said laws, which
request a very large number of influential non-Mormons,
residing in the Territories, have also strongly urged; and
Whereas, the Utah Commission, in their report bearing date
September 15, 1892, recommended that said petition be granted
and said amnesty proclaimed, under proper conditions as to the
future observance of the law, with a view to the encouragement
of those now disposed to become law abiding citizens; and
Whereas, during the past two years such amnesty has been
granted to individual applicants in a very large number of
cases, conditioned upon the faithful observance of the laws of
the United States against unlawful cohabitation; and there are
now pending many more such applications: Now therefore, I,
Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States, by virtue
of the power in me vested, do hereby declare and grant a full
amnesty and pardon to all persons liable to the penalties of
said act by reason of unlawful cohabitation under the color of
polygamous or plural marriage, who have since November 1, 1890,
abstained from such unlawful cohabitation; but upon the
express condition that they shall in the future faithfully
obey the laws of the United States hereinbefore named, and not
otherwise. Those who shall fail to avail themselves of the
clemency hereby offered will be vigorously prosecuted. In
witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the
seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of
Washington this 4th day of January, in the year of our Lord
1893, and of the Independence of the United States the 117th.
Benjamin Harrison."
{3592}
UTAH: A. D. 1894-1895.
Provision for admission to the Union as a State.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1894-1895.
----------UTAH: End--------
UTAHS, UTES, PIUTES, etc.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SHOSHONEAN FAMILY.
----------UTICA: Start--------
UTICA:
Origin.
"The most ancient Phœnician colonies were Utica, nearly on the
northern-most point of the coast of Africa, and in the same
gulf (now known as the gulf of Tunis) as Carthage, over
against Cape Lilybæum in Sicily,—and Gades, or Gadeira, on
the south-western coast of Spain; a town which, founded
perhaps near one thousand years before the Christian era, has
maintained a continuous prosperity, and a name (Cadiz)
substantially unaltered, longer than any town in Europe. How
well the site of Utica was suited to the circumstances of
Phœnician colonists may be inferred from the fact that
Carthage was afterwards established in the same gulf and near
to the same spot, and that both the two cities reached a high
pitch of prosperity."
_G. Grote,
History of Greece,
part 2, chapter 18._
[Transcriber's note: The meaning of the phrase
'…name (Cadiz)…' appears to be ambiguous.
"The site of … Utica is … about 30 km from Tunis and 30 km
from Bizerte and near … Zhana, … Ghar El Melh, … El Alia,
… Metline."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utica%2C_Tunisia]
UTICA:
Relations to Carthage.
See CARTHAGE, THE DOMINION OF.
UTICA:
Curio's defeat.
Curio, the legate or lieutenant sent first by Cæsar to Africa
(B. C. 49), to attack the Pompeian forces in that quarter,
undertook with two legions to reduce the city of Utica, which
had became the capital of the Roman Province. Juba, king of
Numidia, who was personally hostile to both Curio and Cæsar,
came to the assistance of the Pompeians and forced Curio to
withdraw from its besieging lines into the neighboring
Cornelian camp, which was a famous military entrenchment left
by Scipio Africanus. There he might have waited in safety for
re-enforcements; but the wily Numidian tempted him out by a
feigned retreat and then overwhelmed him. Curio and most of
his men were slain.
_C. Merivale,
History of the Romans,
chapter 16._
ALSO IN:
_G. Long,
Decline of the Roman Republic,
volume 5, chapter 7._
UTICA:
Last stand of the opponents of Cæsar.
See ROME: B. C. 47-46.
----------UTICA: End--------
UTRAQUISTS, The.
See BOHEMIA: A. D. 1419-1434.
----------UTRECHT: Start--------
UTRECHT:
The Episcopal Principality.
"At the last ford of the Rhine a hamlet had in Roman times
been built, possibly a fort also. Nothing is preserved
regarding it but the name, which, in the mutations of
language, passed from Ultrajectum into Utrecht. Towards the
conclusion of the 7th century, Clement Willebrod, an English
priest, who had been educated at the monastery of Ripon,
coming as a missionary into those parts, succeeded, with the
aid of eleven of his fellow-countrymen, in winning over the
Frisian people to the Christian faith. He fixed his abode at
Utrecht, of which he was afterwards appointed bishop; and
gifts of land, at the time of little worth, were made to his
successors by Pepin and Charlemagne. Such was the commencement
of the temporal grandeur of the prince-bishops, whose dynasty
attained to a power little less than sovereign during the
middle ages. … With ready access to the sea, and not without
an early disposition towards these pursuits which their
kinsmen of the Rhineland towns were beginning to follow, the
inhabitants of Utrecht soon became good sailors and good
weavers, and their city throve apace. Enriched by successive
grants of privileges and lands, the bishops of Utrecht
gradually became powerful feudal lords."
_W. T. McCullagh,
Industrial History of Free Nations,
chapter 8 (volume 2)._
UTRECHT: A. D. 1456.
The bishopric grasped by the House of Burgundy.
"Utrecht was still a separate state, governed by its sovereign
bishop, who was elected by the votes of the chapter, subject
to the approval of the Pope. On the vacancy which occurred
towards the end of the year 1455, the choice of the canons
fell upon Gisbert van Brederode, who had previously been
archdeacon of the cathedral, and was held in general esteem
amongst the people as well as the clergy. The Duke of Burgundy
coveted so rich a prize, rather for its political importance,
however, … than for any direct or immediate gain." The Duke
appealed to Rome; Gisbert was put back into his archdeaconry,
with an annuity for life, and David, a natural son of Duke
Philip, was made bishop. "Thus the foundation was laid for the
permanent union of Utrecht to the other provinces, although
its final accomplishment was destined to be deferred yet many
years."
_W. T. McCullagh,
Industrial History of Free Nations,
chapter 10 (volume 2)._
UTRECHT: A. D. 1576.
The Spanish Fury.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1575-1577.
UTRECHT: A. D. 1579.
The Union of the Seven Provinces.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1577-1581.
UTRECHT: A. D. 1712-1714.
The Treaties which ended the War of the Spanish Succession,
forming the Peace of Utrecht and the Treaty of Rastadt.
The long War of the Spanish Succession was brought to a close
(except as between Germany and France) by negotiations at
Utrecht, which resulted in the concluding of a number of
treaties between the several powers concerned, constituting
collectively what is known as the Peace of Utrecht.
Negotiations to this end were begun by England and France
early in 1711, and preliminaries were settled between them and
signed in October of that year. This action of the English
compelled the other allies to consent to a general conference,
which opened at Utrecht January 20, 1712. The discussion of
terms lasted more than a year, while the war went on. Between
Germany and France the war still continued and it was at
Rastadt (March, 1714), not Utrecht, that the last named powers
came to their agreement of peace. The several treaties
concluded at Utrecht were most of them signed on the 31st day
of March. O. S., or April 11, N. S., in the year 1713, "by the
plenipotentiaries of France, England, Portugal, Prussia,
Savoy, and the United Provinces; the emperor resolving to
continue the war, and the king of Spain refusing to sign the
stipulations until a principality should be provided in the
Low Countries for the princess Ursini, the favourite of his
queen [a demand which he subsequently withdrew].
{3593}
The chief articles of this memorable pacification were to the
following purport: It was stipulated that, … Philip, now
established on the Spanish throne; should renounce all right
to the crown of France; that the dukes of Berry and Orleans,
the next heirs to the French monarchy after the infant
dauphin, should in like manner renounce all right to the crown
of Spain, in the event of their accession to the French
throne; that, on the death of Philip, and in default of his
male issue, the succession of Spain and the Indies should be
secured to the duke of Savoy; that the island of Sicily should
be instantly ceded by his Catholic majesty to the same prince,
with the title of king; that France should also cede to him
the valleys of Pragelas, Oulx, Sezanne, Bardonache, and
Château-Dauphin, with the forts of Exilles and Fenestrelles,
and restore to him the duchy of Savoy and the county of Nice;
and that the full property and sovereignty of both banks and
the navigation of the Marañan, or river of Amazons, in South
America, should belong to the king of Portugal. It was
declared that the king of Prussia should receive Spanish
Guelderland, with the sovereignty of Neufchâtel and Valengin,
in exchange for the principality of Orange and the lordship of
Châlons, and that his regal title should be acknowledged; that
the Rhine should form the boundary of the German empire on the
side of France; and that all fortifications, beyond that
river, claimed by France, or in the possession of his most
Christian majesty, should either be relinquished to the
emperor or destroyed; that the kingdom of Naples, the duchy of
Milan, and the Spanish territories on the Tuscan shore, should
be ceded to the house of Austria; that the sovereignty of the
Spanish Netherlands should likewise be secured to that family;
but that the elector of Bavaria (to whom they had been granted
by Philip) should retain such places as were still in his
possession, until he should be reinstated in all his German
dominions, except the Upper Palatinate, and also be put in
possession of the island of Sardinia, with the title of king:
that Luxemburg, Namur, and Charleroy should be given to the
states-general as a barrier, together with Mons, Menin,
Tournay, and other places; and that Lisle, Aire, Bethune, and
St. Venant, should be restored to France. It was agreed that
the French monarch should acknowledge the title of queen Anne,
and the eventual succession of the family of Hanover to the
British throne; that the fortifications of Dunkirk (the cause
of much jealousy to England, and raised at vast expense to
France) should be demolished, and the harbour filled up; that
the island of St. Christopher (which had long been possessed
jointly by the French and English, but from which the French
had been expelled in 1702) should be subject to this country
[England]; that Hudson's Bay and Straits (where the French had
founded a settlement, but without dispossessing the English,
and carried on a rival trade during the war), the town of
Placentia, and other districts of the island of Newfoundland
(where the French had been suffered to establish themselves,
through the negligence of government), and the long-disputed
province of Nova Scotia (into which the French had early
intruded, out of which they had been frequently driven, and
which had been finally conquered by an army from New England
in 1710), should be considered as the dependencies of the
British crown: that Minorca and the fortress of Gibraltar
(conquered from Spain) should remain in the possession of
Great Britain; and that the Assiento, or contract for
furnishing the Spanish colonies in South America with negroes,
should belong to the subjects of Great Britain for the term of
thirty years. That these conditions, especially on the part of
Great Britain, were very inadequate to the success and expense
of the war, will be allowed by every intelligent man, whose
understanding is not warped by political prejudices. … The
other confederates had greater cause to be satisfied, and the
emperor [Charles VI.] as much as any of them; yet was he
obstinate in refusing to sign the general pacification, though
two months were allowed him to deliberate on the terms. But he
had soon reason to repent his rashness in resolving to
continue the war alone. … The imperial army on the Rhine,
commanded by prince Eugene, was not in a condition to face the
French under Villars, who successively took Worms, Spire,
Keiserlautern, and the important fortress of Landau. He forced
the passage of the Rhine … and reduced Freyburg, the capital
of the Breisgau. Unwilling to prosecute a disastrous war, the
emperor began seriously to think of peace; and conferences,
which afterward terminated in a pacific treaty, were opened
between prince Eugene and Villars, at Ranstadt. The terms of
this treaty, concluded on the 6th of March (N. S.) 1714 [but
ratified at Baden the next September, and sometimes called the
Treaty of Baden], were less favourable to the emperor than
those which had been offered at Utrecht. The king of France
retained Landau, which he had before proposed to cede, with
several fortresses behind the Rhine, which he had agreed to
demolish [but restored Freiburg]. He procured the full
re-establishment of the electors of Bavaria and Cologne in
their dominions and dignities; the former prince consenting to
relinquish Sardinia to the emperor, in return for the Upper
Palatinate. … The principal articles in regard to Italy and
the Low Countries were the same with those settled at Utrecht.
Relaxing in his obstinacy, the king of Spain also acceded to
the general pacification."
_W. Russell,
History of Modern Europe,
part 2, letter 23 (volume 3)._
ALSO IN:
_J. W. Gerard,
The Peace of Utrecht,
chapters 24-29._
_T. Macknight,
Life of Bolingbroke,
chapters 8-9._
_G. W. Cooke,
Memoirs of Bolingbroke,
volume 1, chapter 13._
_W. Coxe,
Memoirs of Marlborough,
chapters 108-110._
_J. C. Collins,
Bolingbroke,
section 1._
_A. Hassall,
Life of Bolingbroke,
chapter 3._
See, also,
ITALY: A. D. 1701-1713;
SLAVERY, NEGRO: A. D. 1698-1776;
CANADA: A. D.1711-1713;
and NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1713.
----------UTRECHT: End--------
UTRECHT SCHOOL OF ST. MARTIN.
See EDUCATION, MEDIÆVAL: NETHERLANDS.
UXBRIDGE, Attempted Treaty of.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1645 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
UXELLODUNUM, Siege of.
See GAUL: B. C. 58-51.
UXMAL, Ruins of.
See MEXICO: ANCIENT, THE MAYA AND NAHUA PEOPLES.
UZES, The.
See PATCHINAKS.
{3594}
V.
VACALUS, The.
The ancient name of the river Waal.
VACCÆI, The.
One of the tribes of the Celtiberians in ancient Spain.
_T. Mommsen,
History of Rome,
book 4, chapter 1._
VACCINATION, The discovery of.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 18TH CENTURY.
VACOMAGI, The.
A tribe in ancient Caledonia, whose territory extended along
the border of the Highlands, from the Moray Firth to the Tay.
See BRITAIN: CELTIC TRIBES.
VACSLAV.
See WENCESLAUS.
VADIMONIAN LAKE, Battle of the.
See ROME: B. C. 295-191.
VAISYAS.
See CASTE SYSTEM OF INDIA.
VALDEMAR I. (called The Great), King of Denmark, A. D. 1157-1182.
Valdemar I., King of Sweden, 1266-1275.
Valdemar II., King of Denmark, 1202-1241.
Valdemar III., King of Denmark, 1340-1375.
VALDEVEZ, The Tourney of.
See PORTUGAL: A. D. 1095-1325.
VALEA ALBA, Battle of (1476).
See BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES:
14-18TH CENTURIES (ROUMANIA, ETC.)
VALENCIA: A. D. 1031-1092.
The seat of a Moorish kingdom.
See SPAIN: A. D. 1031-1086.
----------VALENCIENNES: Start--------
VALENCIENNES: A. D. 1566.
Crushing of the first revolt against Spanish tyranny in the
Netherlands.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1566-1568.
VALENCIENNES: A. D. 1576.
The Spanish Fury.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1575-1577.
VALENCIENNES: A. D. 1583.
Submission to Spain.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1584-1585.
VALENCIENNES: A. D. 1656.
Siege and failure of Turenne.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1653-1656.
VALENCIENNES: A. D. 1677.
Taken by Louis XIV.
See NETHERLANDS (HOLLAND): A. D. 1674-1678.
VALENCIENNES: A. D. 1679.
Cession to France.
See NIMEGUEN, THE PEACE OF.
VALENCIENNES: A. D. 1793.
Siege and capture by the Austrians.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (JULY-DECEMBER) PROGRESS OF THE WAR.
VALENCIENNES: A. D. 1794.
Recovery by the French.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1794 (JANUARY-JULY).
----------VALENCIENNES: End--------
VALENS, Roman Emperor (Eastern), A. D. 364-378.
VALENTIA.
One of the Roman provinces formed in Britain, extending from
the wall of Hadrian to the wall of Antoninus, covering
southern Scotland. It was named in honor of the Emperor
Valentinian.
See BRITAIN: A. D. 323-337; and 367-370.
VALENTINE, Pope, A. D. 827, September to October.
VALENTINIAN I., Roman Emperor (Western), A. D. 364-375.
Valentinian II., Roman Emperor (Western), 375-392.
Valentinian III., Roman Emperor (Western), 425-455.
VALERIAN, Roman Emperor, A. D. 253-260.
VALERIAN LAWS.
See ROME: B. C. 509.
VALERIO-HORATIAN LAWS, The.
See ROME: B. C. 449.
VAL-ES-DUNES, Battle of (1047).
See NORMANDY: A. D. 1035-1063.
VALLACHIA.
See BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES.
VALLACHS, The.
See WALLACHS.
VALLADOLID, Battle of (1813).
See MEXICO: A. D. 1810-1819.
VALLANDIGHAM, Clement L., The arrest of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (MAY-JUNE).
VALLEY FORGE:
Washington's army in winter quarters.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1777 (JANUARY-DECEMBER).
VALLI.
VALLUM.
See CASTRA.
VALMY, Battle of.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1792 (SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER).
VALOIS, The House of.
The direct line of the Capetian kings of France, descendants
of Hugh Capet, ended in 1328, with the death of Charles IV.
The crown then passed to the late king's cousin, Philip of
Valois, son of Charles Count of Valois, who was the second son
of Philip III. He became Philip VI. in the series of French
kings, and with him began the royal dynasty or House of
Valois, which came to an end in 1589, on the assassination of
Henry III., yielding the throne to the Bourbon family.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1314-1328.
For source of the name.
See BOURBON, THE HOUSE OF.
VALOUTINA, Battle of.
See RUSSIA: A. D. 1812 (JUNE-SEPTEMBER).
VALTELINE, Annexation to the Cisalpine Republic.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1797 (MAY-OCTOBER).
VALTELINE WAR.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1624-1626.
VAN BUREN, Martin.
Presidential election and administration.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1836, to 1841.
Defeat in Presidential Election.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1840.
The Free Soil Movement.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1848.
VANCOUVER'S ISLAND.
See BRITISH COLUMBIA.
VANDALIA, The proposed western colony of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1765-1768.
----------VANDALS: Start--------
VANDALS:
Origin and early movements.
"Gibbon declares that a striking resemblance, in manners,
complexion, religion, and language, indicates that the Goths
and Vandals were originally one great people; and he cites the
testimony of Pliny and Procopius in support of this belief.
According to this theory, therefore, the Vandals are of the
Teutonic stock. Other learned men have endeavoured to identify
them with the Wendes; and the Wendes, as we have seen,
according to the authority of Jornandes and others, were
members of the Slavic race. The question has been examined,
with great learning and ingenuity, by M. L. Marcus, Professor
at the College of Dijon, in a work upon Vandal history. His
conclusion, drawn from a comparison of what Tacitus, Pliny,
Procopius, and Jornandes have left us upon the subject, is
favourable to the hypothesis of Gibbon. Between the Wendes and
the Vindili of Pliny, who were undoubtedly Vandals, he
considers that no nearer point of union can be found than that
of the Asiatic origin common to all nations of Slavic and
Teutonic blood.
{3595}
He accounts for the fact that some confusion upon the subject
subsists in ancient writers, by the supposition that the
Slaves, after the great migration of Goths and Vandals to the
South, occupied the locality they had abandoned on the coasts
of the Baltic, and became inheritors of the name, as well as
of the land, of their predecessors. Hence they were commonly,
though incorrectly, called Vindili, or Vandals. … The earliest
locality of the tribe, so far as authentic history can trace
them, seems to have been the district between the Vistula and
the Elbe. Here they were found by the Langobardi, in their
migration towards the South. … In the time of Pliny, we have
that writer's testimony to the fact that the Vandals were
still to be found between the two rivers. But during the next
two centuries their unwarlike habits must have tended to
diminish their importance among their fierce and active
neighbours, of whom the Goths were the most formidable, and
probably the most aggressive. Tacitus, at any rate, in his
tractate upon the Germans [A. D. 100], merely notices them by
name. … Another half-century finds them in a strong position
among the mountains which form the northern frontier of
Bohemia. It is certain that they took part in the great
Marcomannic war [A. D. 168-180]. … In the treaty made by
Commodus, the son of Marcus Aurelius, with the Marcomanni [A.
D. 180], the Vandals are one of the tribes secured from the
hostility of those persevering enemies of the Roman empire. At
this time, Ptolemy informs us that the Vandals occupied the
districts lying around the sources of the Elbe; and all other
investigation confirms the statement." A hundred years later,
the Vandals appear to have been planted in a district on the
Danube, east of the Theiss; from which they were soon
afterwards driven by the Goths. They were then permitted by
the emperor Constantine to pass the frontiers of the empire
and settle in Pannonia, where they accepted Christianity and
exhibited "the greatest aptitude for commerce and the arts of
peace." Despite their Christianity, however, and despite their
aptitude for the "arts of peace," the Vandals, after seventy
years of friendly neighboring with the Romans, joined the
savage pack of Alans, Sueves and Burgundians which, on the
last day of the year 406, broke into Gaul and shattered the
empire and the civilization of Rome beyond the Alps.
_J. G. Sheppard,
The Fall of Rome,
lecture 7._
ALSO IN:
_T. Hodgkin,
Italy and her Invaders,
book 3, chapter 2 (volume 2)._
VANDALS: A. D. 406-409.
Final Invasion of Gaul.
See GAUL: A. D. 406-409.
A. D. 409-414.
Settlement in Spain.
See SPAIN: A. D. 409-414.
VANDALS: A. D. 428.
Conquests in Spain.
"After the retreat of the Goths [A. D. 418] the authority of
Honorius had obtained a precarious establishment in Spain,
except only in the province of Gallicia, where the Suevi and
the Vandals had fortified their camps in mutual discord and
hostile independence. The Vandals prevailed, and their
adversaries were besieged in the Nervasian hills, between Leon
and Oviedo, till the approach of Count Asterius compelled, or
rather provoked, the victorious barbarians to remove the scene
of war to the plains of Bætica. The rapid progress of the
Vandals soon required a more effectual opposition, and the
master-general Castinus marched against them with a numerous
army of Romans and Goths. Vanquished in battle by an inferior
enemy, Castinus fled with dishonour to Tarragona. … Seville
and Carthagena became the reward, or rather the prey, of the
ferocious conquerors."
_E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 33._
Southern Spain, the ancient Bætica, acquired from the Vandals
the name Vandalusia, which became Andalusia.
_R. G. Latham,
Ethnology of Europe,
chapter 2._
VANDALS: A. D. 429-439.
Conquests in Africa.
In May, A. D. 429, the Vandals passed from Spain into Africa,
invited by Count Boniface, the Roman governor of the African
province. The latter had been deceived by an intriguing rival,
Count Aetius, who persuaded him that the imperial Court at
Ravenna were planning his disgrace and death. Thus incited to
rebellion, as an act of self defense, he called the Vandals to
his help. The latter had just fallen under the leadership of a
new and terrible king—the bold and ruthless Genseric, who was
destined to make the name of his people a proverb through all
time for ferocity and barbarism. To the Vandals were united
the Alans, and Genseric invaded Africa with some 80,000 men.
He was joined, moreover, by great numbers of disaffected
native Mauritanians, or Moors, and was welcomed by swarms of
the fanatical Donatists, whose "vandalism" could quite equal
his own. Count Boniface shrank aghast from the terrible
invasion he had summoned, and learning, too late, how foully
he had been played upon, returned to his allegiance with
penitent energy and zeal. He turned his arms against Genseric;
but it was in vain. "The victorious barbarians insulted the
open country; and Carthage, Cirta, and Hippo Regius were the
only cities that appeared to rise above the general
inundation. … The seven fruitful provinces, from Tangier to
Tripoli, were overwhelmed. … The Vandals, where they found
resistance, seldom gave quarter; and the deaths of their
valiant countrymen were expiated by the ruin of the cities
under whose walls they had fallen. Careless of the
distinctions of age or sex or rank, they employed every
species of indignity and torture to force from the captives a
discovery of their hidden wealth." Defeated in a battle which
he ventured, Boniface retired into Hippo Regius and stood a
siege of fourteen months. A second battle, won by the Vandals,
decided the fate of the city, but its inhabitants escaped, for
the most part, by sea, before the barbarians broke in. The
great Bishop of Hippo, the venerable St. Augustine, was in the
city when the siege began, but died before it ended, in his
seventy-sixth year. "When the city, some months after his
death, was burned by the Vandals, the library was fortunately
saved which contained his voluminous writings." Hippo fell in
the summer of A. D. 431. It was not until eight years later
that Carthage succumbed,—taken treacherously, by surprise, on
the 9th of October, 439; being 585 years after the destruction
of the ancient city by the younger Scipio. The provinces of
Africa were now fully in the possession of the Vandals, and
the loss of their cor
_E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 33._
ALSO IN:
_J. C. L. de Sismondi,
Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 7._
_T. Hodgkin,
Italy and Her Invaders,
book 3, chapter 2._
VANDALS: A. D. 429-477.
In Sicily.
See SICILY: A. D. 429-525.
{3596}
VANDALS: A. D. 431-533.
Ruin of Africa under their dominion.
"The Vandals were bigoted Arians and their government was
peculiarly tyrannical; they always treated the Roman
inhabitants of Africa as political enemies, and persecuted
them as religious opponents. The Visigoths in Spain had
occupied two thirds of the subjugated lands, the Ostrogoths in
Italy had been satisfied with one third; and both these people
had acknowledged the civil rights of the Romans as citizens
and Christians. The Vandals adopted a different policy.
Genseric reserved immense domains to himself and to his sons.
He divided the densely peopled and rich districts of Africa
proper among the Vandal warriors, exempting them from taxation
and binding them to military service. … They seized all the
richest lands, and the most valuable estates, and exterminated
the higher class of the Romans. Only the poorer proprietors
were permitted to preserve the arid and distant parts of the
country. Still, the number of the Romans excited the fears of
the Vandals, who destroyed the walls of the provincial towns
in order to prevent the people from receiving succours from
the Eastern Empire. … When Genseric conquered Carthage, his
whole army amounted only to 50,000 warriors; yet this small
horde devoured all the wealth of Africa in the course of a
single century, and, from an army of hardy soldiers, it was
converted Into a caste of luxurious nobles living in splendid
villas round Carthage. In order fully to understand the
influence of the Vandals on the state of the country which
they occupied, it must be observed that their oppressive
government had already so far lowered the condition and
reduced the numbers of the Roman provincials, that the native
Moors began to reoccupy the country from which Roman industry
and Roman capital had excluded them. … As the property of the
province was destroyed, Its Roman inhabitants perished."
_G. Finlay,
Greece Under the Romans,
chapter 3, section 5._
VANDALS: A. D. 455.
The sack of Rome by Genseric.
See ROME: A. D. 455
VANDALS: A. D. 533-534.
End of the kingdom and nation.
The weakened and disordered state of the Vandal kingdom,
concurring with the revival of a military spirit in the
eastern Roman empire, which the great soldier Belisarius had
brought about, encouraged the Emperor Justinian to attempt, A.
D. 533, a reconquest of the lost Roman provinces in Africa.
With a fleet of six hundred ships, bearing 37,000 men,
Belisarius set sail from Constantinople in the month of June
and landed early in September on the African coast, about five
days journey from Carthage,—having halted at a port in Sicily
on the voyage. A few days later, he defeated the Vandal king,
Gelimer, in a battle (Ad Decimus) fought at ten miles distance
from his capital, and entered Carthage in triumph (September
15, A. D. 533), received with joy by its Roman and Catholic
inhabitants, long persecuted and humiliated by the Arian
Vandals. A second and decisive battle was fought some weeks
afterwards at Tricamaron, twenty miles away from Carthage, and
there and then the Vandal kingdom came to its end. Gelimer
fled into the wilds of Numidia, was pursued, and, having
surrendered himself in the March following, was sent to
Constantinople, and passed the remainder of his days in peace
and modest luxury on a comfortable estate in Galatia. "The
fall of the Vandal monarchy was an event full of meaning for
the future history of Africa. There can be little doubt that
in destroying it Justinian was unconsciously removing the most
powerful barrier which might in the next century have arrested
the progress of Mohammedanism."
_T. Hodgkin,
Italy and Her Invaders,
book 4, chapter 15 (v 3)._
"The bravest of the Vandal youth were distributed into five
squadrons of cavalry, which adopted the name of their
benefactor. … But these rare exceptions, the reward of birth
or valour, are insufficient to explain the fate of a nation
whose numbers, before a short and bloodless war, amounted to
more than 600,000 persons. After the exile of their king and
nobles, the servile crowd might purchase their safety by
abjuring their character, religion, and language; and their
degenerate posterity would be insensibly mingled with the
common herd of African subjects. Yet even in the present age,
and in the heart of the Moorish tribes, a curious traveller
has discovered the white complexion and long flaxen hair of a
northern race; and it was formerly believed that the boldest
of the Vandals fled beyond the power, or even the knowledge,
of the Romans, to enjoy their solitary freedom on the shores
of the Atlantic ocean."
_E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 41._
----------VANDALS: End--------
VAN DIEMEN'S LAND,
TASMANIA:
Discovery and naming.
See AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1601-1800.
VANGIONES.
TRIBOCI.
NEMETES.
"The Rhine bank itself is occupied by tribes unquestionably
German—the Vangiones, the Triboci, and the Nemetes."—"These
tribes dwelt on the west bank of the Rhine, in what is now
Rhenish Bavaria."
_Tacitus,
Germany;
translated by Church and Brodribb,
with geographical notes._
VANNES, Origin of.
See VENETI OF WESTERN GAUL.
VAN RENSSELAER, Patroon Killian,
The land purchases of.
See NEW YORK: A. D. 1621-1646.
VAN RENSSELAER, General Stephen,
and the Battle of Queenston Heights.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1812 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).
VAN RENSSELAER MANOR.
See NEW YORK: A. D. 1621-1646;
and LIVINGSTON MANOR.
VAN TWILLER, Wouter, The governorship of.
See NEW YORK: A. D. 1638-1647.
VARANGIAN SEA.
One of the ancient names of the Baltic.
_R. G. Latham,
Native-Races of Russian Empire,
chapter 16._
VARANGIANS, OR WARINGS.
THE WARING GUARD.
Varangians "was the name of the Byzantine equivalent to the
'soldiers of a free-company' In the 11th and 12th centuries.
The soldiers were almost wholly Scandinavians—to a great
extent the Swedes of Russia. The reasons against believing
Varangian to be the same word as Frank, are: 1. The mention of
Franci along with them, as a separate people. 2. The extent to
which the Varangians were Scandinavians, rather than Germans
of the Rhine. In favour of it is: The form of the present
Oriental name for Europeans—Feringi. This, in my mind,
preponderates. Connected by name only with the Franks, the
truer ethnological affinities of the Varangians were with the
Scandinavians of Russia."
_R. G. Latham,
The Germania of Tacitus, Epilegomena,
section. 17._
{3597}
"Many of the Warings and probably of the English also had
taken military service at an early period under the Byzantine
emperors. They formed a body-guard for the Emperor, and soon
gained for themselves a renown greater than that possessed by
the earlier imperial guard of the Immortals. The Byzantine
writers usually speak of them as the barbarian guard or as the
axe-bearers. Their weapon was the Danish battle-axe, or rather
bill, and seems not to have had two blades turning different
ways like those of a halberd, but to have had one with a sharp
steel spike projecting, so that the weapon could be used
either to strike or to thrust. Anna, the daughter of Alexis
the First, calls them Warings or Varangians. Nicetas speaks of
them as Germans. The Western writers call them usually Danes,
or 'English and Danes.' The conquest of England by William the
Norman caused many of the English to emigrate to Russia and so
to Constantinople, where they joined the Waring guard. …
Warings and English, while occupants of the Greek palace,
still spoke their own language, had their own laws, and chose,
with certain exceptions, their own officers. The one in
command was called the acolyth, or follower, because his place
was immediately behind the Emperor."
_E. Pears,
The Fall of Constantinople,
chapter 6. section 3._
ALSO IN:
_V. Thomsen,
The Relations between Ancient Russia and Scandinavia,
lecture 3._
See, also, RUSSIA: A. D. 862.
VARAVILLE, Battle of.
A decisive victory over the French, invading Normandy, by Duke
William—afterwards the Conqueror of England—A. D. 1058.
_E. A. Freeman,
Norman Conquest,
chapter 12, section 2 (volume 3)._
VARCHONITES, The.
See AVARS.
VARIAN LAW.
See MAJESTAS.
VARIAN MASSACRE, The.
See GERMANY: B. C. 8-A. D. 11.
VARINI, The.
See AVIONES.
VARKANA.
See HYRCANIA.
VARNA, The battle of (1444).
See TURKS: A. D. 1402-1451.
VARNA, Siege and capture (1828).
See TURKS: A. D. 1826-1829.
VARUS, and his Legions, The destruction of.
See GERMANY: B. C. 8-A. D. 11.
VASCONES, The.
See BASQUES.
VASSAL.
See FEUDALISM.
VASSAR COLLEGE.
See EDUCATION, MODERN: REFORMS, &c.: A. D. 1804-1891.
VASSILI.
See BASIL.
VASSY, The Massacre of.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1560-1563.
VATICAN, THE.
THE LEONINE CITY.
"The name Vatican was applied by the writers of the Augustan
age to the whole range of hills extending along the western
bank of the Tiber, including the Janiculum and the Monte
Mario. … But the name Vaticanus has now been restricted to the
small hill standing behind the Basilica of St. Peter's, upon
which the Vatican Museum and the Papal Gardens are situated.
This hill is a small projecting portion of the range which
includes the Janiculum and Monte Mario, and it is separated
from the Janiculum by a depression, along which the street of
the Borgo S. Spirito runs. The derivation of the name Vatican
is lost. Gellius has preserved a quotation from Varro, in
which the word is said to be derived from a deity Vaticanus,
the presiding god of the first rudiments of speech ('vagire,'
'vagitanus'). Paulus Diaconus gives a different explanation,
founded on the supposed expulsion of the Etruscans in
fulfilment of an oracle ('vatum responso expulsis Etruscis');
and from this Niebuhr and Bunsen, following him, have supposed
that an Etruscan city existed here in ancient times. There
appears to be no sufficient evidence of such a settlement."
_R. Burn,
Rome and the Campagna,
chapter 11._
In the ninth century, at the time of the pontificate of Leo
IV., "the nations of the West and North who visited the
threshold of the apostles had gradually formed the large and
populous suburb of the Vatican, and their various habitations
were distinguished, in the language of the times, as the
'schools' of the Greeks and Goths, of the Lombards and Saxons.
But this venerable spot was still open to sacrilegious insult:
the design of enclosing it with walls and towers exhausted all
that authority could command or charity would supply: and the
pious labour of four years was animated in every season and at
every hour by the presence of the indefatigable pontiff. The
love of fame, a generous but worldly passion, may be detected
in the name of the Leonine City, which he bestowed on the
Vatican; yet the pride of the dedication was tempered with
Christian penance and humility."
_E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 52._
VATICAN COUNCIL, The.
See PAPACY: A. D, 1869-1870.
VATICAN LIBRARY, The.
See LIBRARIES, MODERN: EUROPE, and ITALY.
VAUCHAMP. Battle of.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1814 (JANUARY-MARCH).
VAUDOIS.
See WALDENSES.
VAUGHT'S HILL, Battle of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863 (FEBRUARY-APRIL: TENNESSEE).
VAVASSOR,
VAVASOUR.
See FEUDAL TENURES;
also CATTANI.
VECTIGAL, THE.
VECTIGALIA.
"Pascua—Vectigalia-Publicum-are the terms employed to denote
generally the Revenues of Rome, from whatever source derived.
Pascua, i. e. Pasture lands, signified Revenue; because, in
the earliest ages, the public income was derived solely from
the rent of pastures belonging to the state. … Vectigal is the
word used more frequently than any other to denote the Revenue
of the state generally. … Publicum, in its widest acceptation,
comprehended every thing which belonged to the community at
large."
_W. Ramsay,
Manual of Roman Antiquity,
chapter 8._
"Cicero states that there was a difference between Sicily and
all the other Roman provinces in the management of the
Vectigal, which is the name for the contribution which the
provinces made to the Roman State. All the provinces except
Sicily paid either a fixed land-tax (vectigal stipendiarium)
or tenths [decumæ] or other quotæ of their produce, and these
tenths were let at Rome by the censors to the Publicani, who
paid the State a certain sum for the privilege of collecting
the tenths and made out of them what profit they could. … The
tenths of wheat and barley were let in Sicily to the
Publicani, but sometimes a community would bid for its tenths
and pay them itself."
_G. Long,
Decline of the Roman Republic,
volume 3, chapter 4._
{3598}
VECTIS.
The ancient name of the Isle of Wight.
_E. H. Bunbury,
History of Ancient Geography,
chapter 24, section 2 (volume 2)._
VEDAS.
VEDIC HYMNS.
VEDISM.
See INDIA: THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS,
and IMMIGRATION AND CONQUESTS OF THE ARYAS.
VEHMGERICHTS.
VEHMIC COURTS.
"In times when political, social, and legal life are in
process of fermentation, and struggling towards a new order of
things, the ordinary tribunals lose their authority, and from
the body of the people men spring up to protect the right in a
primitive fashion, and to punish the criminal who has escaped
the ordinary penalties of the law. Thus, at the close of the
Middle Ages, or, more precisely, the first half of the 15th
century, the Vehmgerichts (or Vehmic Courts, also called Free
Courts, Franchise Courts, Secret Courts) rose to an authority
which extended all over Germany, which knew no respect of
persons, and before which many evil-doers in high places, who
had bade defiance to the ordinary tribunals, were made to
tremble. The name 'Vehme' is derived from the old German
'vervehmen,' which means to ban, or to curse. The Vehmic
courts were peculiar to Westphalia, and even there could only
be held on the 'Red Land'—that is, the district between the
Rhine and the Weser. They were dependent on the German Emperor
alone, and their presidents, the Free-counts, received from
the Emperor in person, or from his representative, the Elector
of Cologne, the power of life and death. They traced their
origin to Charlemagne, who, respecting the legal customs of
the old heathen Saxons, introduced county courts among them
after they had been converted to Christianity. For, even in
the most ancient times, the Saxon freemen used to assemble at
an appointed season, after they had held their great
sacrifice, and hold a 'Thing' under the presidency of one of
their oldest members, called the Grave, or Count, where they
inflicted punishment and administered justice. The Vehmic
court consisted of a Free-count and a number of assessors, who
were called 'The Initiated,' because they knew the secrets of
the holy Vehme. There must be at least fourteen of these
assessors, but there were generally twice that number. As it
was no secret when a man was all assessor, and as it
contributed greatly to the safety of his person, since people
took good care not to molest a member of the holy Vehme, it
gradually came about that men from every German province
obtained admission into the number of assessors. When the
Emperor Sigismund was elected into the number of 'The
Initiated' at the Franchise Court of Dortmund, the number of
assessors is said to have amounted to 100,000, among whom were
many princes and nobles. And about a thousand assessors are
said to have been present when the ban was issued against Duke
Henry of Bavaria in 1429. … There was a 'secret court' to
which only the initiated had access, and a 'public court'
which was held in the morning in the light of day at a known
court-house. The presidents' chairs were always set in the
open air under a lime, oak, pear, or hawthorn tree, an often
near a town, castle, or village. At Dortmund the president's
chair was placed close to the town wall under a lime-tree,
which, though sadly shattered, is still standing between the
rails inside the railway station. Round the stone table were
ranged three stone benches for the assessors; on the table
there was carved in relief the German imperial eagle, and on
it was placed the sword of justice, … The Vehmic court which
was originally, and was bound to be, a public one, gradually
altered its character, enveloped itself in mysterious
darkness, and under the cloak of secrecy lent itself to all
sorts of unrighteous objects. In 1461, accordingly, princes
and cities leagued together to suppress the irregularities of
these courts, and as soon as the orderly administration of
justice came into existence with the rise of the new princely
authority, they perished from their own impotence."
_A. W. Grube,
Heroes of History and Legend,
chapter 13._
ALSO IN:
_Sir W. Scott,
Introduction to "Anne of Geierstein."_
_A. P. Marras,
Secret Fraternities of the Middle Ages,
chapter 5._
VEII.
VEIENTINE WARS.
See ROME: B. C. 406-396.
VELABRUM, The.
See FORUM BOARIUM.
VELETRI, Battle of.
See ITALY: A. D. 1744.
VELETRI, Battle of (1849).
See ITALY: A. D. 1848-1849.
VELIBORI, The.
See IRELAND. TRIBES OF EARLY CELTIC INHABITANTS.
VELITES.
The light infantry of the Roman army, as distinguished from
the heavy-armed legionaries. "The velites did not wear any
corslet or cuirass, but their tunic appears to have been
formed of leather. … It is possible also that the velites
sometimes wore, instead of leather, a tunic of quilted linen."
_C. Boutell,
Arms and Armour,
chapter 4._
VELLICA, Battle of.
See CANTABRIANS.
VELLINGHAUSEN, or
KIRCH-DEN-KERN, Battle of (1761).
See GERMANY: A. D. 1761-1762.
VELLORE, Sepoy mutiny and massacre at (1806).
See INDIA: A. D. 1805-1816.
VELOCASSES, The.
See BELGÆ.
VENATIONES.
Contests of wild beasts with each other or with men, in the
Roman amphitheatres, were called Venationes.
_W. Ramsay,
Manual of Roman Antiquities,
chapter 10._
VENDEE, The War in La.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1793
(MARCH-APRIL), (JUNE), (JULY-DECEMBER);
1793-1794 (OCTOBER-APRIL); and 1794-1796.
VENDEMIARE, The month.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (OCTOBER)
THE NEW REPUBLICAN CALENDAR.
VENDEMIARE: The 13th.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1795 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
VENEDI, The.
"The Venedi extended beyond the Peucini and Bastarnæ [around
the mouths of the Danube] as far as the Baltic Sea; where is
the Sinus Venedicus, now the Gulf of Dantzig. Their name is
also preserved in Wenden, a part of Livonia. When the German
nations made their irruption into Italy, France, and Spain,
the Venedi, also called Winedi, occupied their vacant
settlements between the Vistula and Elbe. Afterward they
crossed the Danube, and seized Dalmatia, Illyricum, Istria,
Carniola, and the Noric Alps. A part of Carniola still retains
the name of Windismarck derived from them. This people were
also called Slavi."
_Tacitus,
The Germans,
note to Oxford Translation,
chapter 46._
"The Venedi [of Tacitus] … are obviously the Wends—the name by
which the Germans always designate the neighbouring Slavonian
populations; but which is no more a national name than that of
Wälsch, which they apply in like manner to the Latin races on
their southern frontiers."
_E. H. Bunbury,
History of Ancient Geography,
chapter 26, section. 2, foot-note (volume 2)._
See, also, SLAVONIC PEOPLES, and VANDALS.
{3599}
VENEDI OF BOHEMIA, The.
See AVARS: 7TH CENTURY.
VENEDOTIA.
See BRITAIN: 6TH CENTURY.
VENETA.
See (in Supplement) COMMERCE, MEDIÆVAL.
VENETI OF CISALPINE GAUL, The.
One of the tribes or nations of Cisalpine Gaul bore the name
of the Veneti. The Veneti occupied the country between the
rivers Adige and Plavis and seem to have been considerably
civilized when they first appear in history. They became
allies of the Romans at an early day and were favorably dealt
with when Gallia Cisalpina was added to the dominions of
Rome. "No ancient writer distinctly states to what race the
Veneti belonged. They are said to have resembled the Illyrians
in dress and manners; but the very way in which this statement
is made shows that its author did not regard them as
Illyrians. … I have no doubt that the Veneti belonged to the
race of the Liburnians, and that accordingly they were a
branch of the wide-spread Tyrrheno-Pelasgians, in consequence
of which they also became so easily Latinized." The capital
city of the Veneti was Patavium (modern Padua). "Patavium was
a very ancient and large town, and it is strange that it
appears as such in Roman history all at once. It is mentioned
as early as the fifth century [B. C.], during the expedition
of the Spartan Cleonymus; it is also spoken of at the time of
Caesar and of the triumvirs. But Strabo is the first who
describes Patavium as a large town, and in such a manner as to
make it evident that it was an ancient place. He says that,
next to Rome, it was the wealthiest city of Italy. … In the
time of Augustus it was a large commercial and manufacturing
place."
_B. G. Niebuhr,
Lectures on Ancient Ethnography and Geography,
volume 2, page 246._
VENETI OF WESTERN GAUL, The.
"The Veneti were one of the Armoric states of the Celtae.
Their neighbours on the south were the Namnetes or Nannetes
(Nantes), on the east the Redones, and on the north the
Curiosolitae, and the Osismi in the north-west part of
Bretagne, in the department of Finistère. The chief town of
the Veneti was Dariorigum, now Vannes, on the bay of Morbihan
in the French department of Morbihan, which may correspond
nearly to the country of the Veneti. The Veneti were the most
powerful of all the maritime peoples who occupied the
peninsula of Bretagne. They had many vessels in which they
sailed to the island Britannia, to Cornwall and the parts
along the south coast of England, as we may assume. They
surpassed all their neighbours in skill and experience in
naval affairs."
_G. Long,
Decline of the Roman Republic,
volume 4, chapter 6._
The Veneti, "together with the Aulerci, Rhedones [or Redones],
Carnutes, Andi and Turones, occupied the whole space between
the lower Seine and the lower Loire, and were apparently
closely united among themselves."
_C. Merivale,
History of the Romans,
chapter 7._
"The Andes [Andi] are the people whom Tacitus names the
Andecavi, and the copyists of Ptolemy have named Ondicavae.
They were west of the Turones, and their position is defined
by the town Juliomagus or Civitas Andecavorum, now Angers on
the Mayenne."
_G. Long,
Decline of the Roman Republic,
volume 4, chapter 6._
"In my opinion these Veneti were the founders of the Veneti in
the Adriatic, for almost all the other Keltic nations in Italy
have passed over from the country beyond the Alps, as for
instance the Boii and Senones. … However, I do not maintain my
opinion positively; for in these matters probability is quite
sufficient."
_Strabo,
Geography;
translated by Hamilton and Falconer,
book 4, chapter 4, section 1._
VENETI OF WESTERN GAUL, The.
Cæsar's campaign.
Cæsar's third campaign in Gaul, B. C. 56, was directed against
the Veneti and their Armorican neighbors. These tribes had
submitted themselves in the previous year to Cæsar's
lieutenant, the younger Crassus; but the heavy exactions of
the Romans provoked a general rising, and Cæsar was called to
the scene in person. The Veneti were so amphibious a race, and
their towns were generally placed so much out of the reach of
a land army, that he found it necessary to build a fleet at
the mouth of the Loire and bring it up against them. But the
Veneti were better sailors than the Romans and their ships
were more strongly built, so that the advantage would have
still remained to them if Roman inventiveness had not turned
the scale. Cæsar armed his men with hooked knives at the end
of long poles, with which they cut the rigging of the Venetian
ships and brought down their clumsy sails, which were of
leather. By this means he overcame and destroyed them, in a
great naval fight. When the survivors submitted, he ruthlessly
slew the senatorial elders and sold the remnant of the people
into slavery.
_Cæsar,
Gallic Wars,
book 3, chapters 7-16._
ALSO IN:
_G. Long,
Decline of the Roman Republic,
volume 4, chapter 6._
_C. Merivale,
History of the Romans,
chapter 7._
_Napoleon III.,
History of Cæsar,
book 3, chapter 6._
VENETIA.
See VENICE.
----------VENEZUELA: Start--------
VENEZUELA:
Aboriginal inhabitants.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: CARIBS AND THEIR KINDRED,
and COAJIRO.
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1499-1550.
Discovery and naming of the province.
Its first occupation by German adventurers.
"The province contiguous to Santa Martha on the east was first
visited by Alonso de Ojeda, in the year 1499.
See AMERICA: A. D. 1499-1500.
The Spaniards, on their landing there, having observed some
huts in an Indian village, built upon piles, in order to raise
them above the stagnated water which covered the plain, were
led to bestow upon it the name of Venezuela, or little Venice.
… They made some attempts to settle there, but with little
success. The final reduction of the province was accomplished
by means very different from those to which Spain was indebted
for its other acquisitions in the new world. The ambition of
Charles V. often engaged him in operations of such variety and
extent that his revenues were not sufficient to defray the
expense of carrying them into execution. Among other
expedients for supplying the deficiency of his funds, be had
borrowed large sums from the Velsers of Augsburg, the most
opulent merchants at that time In Europe. By way of
retribution for these, or in hopes, perhaps, of obtaining a
new loan, he bestowed upon them the province of Venezuela, to
be held as an hereditary fief from the crown of Castile, on
condition that within a limited time they should render
themselves masters of the country, and establish a colony
there. …
{3600}
Unfortunately they committed the execution of their plan to
some of those soldiers of fortune with which Germany abounded
in the 16th century. These adventurers, impatient to amass
riches, that they might speedily abandon a station which they
soon discovered to be very uncomfortable, instead of planting
a colony in order to cultivate and improve the country,
wandered from district to district in search of mines,
plundering the natives with unfeeling rapacity, or oppressing
them by the imposition of intolerable tasks. In the course of
a few years, their avarice and exactions, in comparison with
which those of the Spaniards were moderate, desolated the
province so completely that it could hardly afford them
subsistence, and the Velsers relinquished a property from
which the inconsiderate conduct of their agents left them no
hope of ever deriving any advantage. When the wretched
remainder of the Germans deserted Venezuela, the Spaniards
again took possession of it."
_W. Robertson,
History of America,
book 7._
ALSO IN:
_F. Depous,
Travels in South America,
chapter 1._
See, also, EL DORADO.
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1718-1731.
Embraced in the viceroyalty of New Granada.
Raised to a distinct captain-generalship.
See COLOMBIAN STATES: A. D. 1536-1731.
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1810-1819.
The War of Independence.
Miranda and Bolivar.
The great Earthquake.
See COLOMBIAN STATES: A. D. 1810-1819.
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1821.
Beginning of the Emancipation of Slaves.
See COLOMBIAN STATES: A. D. 1821-1854.
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1821-1826.
Confederation with New Granada and Ecuador in the
Republic of Colombia, and the breaking of the Confederacy.
See COLOMBIAN STATES: A. D. 1819-1830.
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1829-1886.
Summary record of revolutions and civil wars.
The strife of the Yellows and the Blues.
"In all countries, under whatever name they may be known,
there are two great political parties; the conservatives and
the reformers. … Venezuela is no exception to the general
rule; there is the 'Oligarquia,' which desires to let things
alone, and the 'Liberal' party, which wishes to remould them
in accordance with the spirit of the age. The Spanish
misgovernment left a legacy of bitterness and anarchy that has
been the cause of much misery. Political passion runs very
high in the country, and its history for a generation between
these two parties has been a continual struggle, always more
or less warlike. The existence of Venezuela in an independent
capacity is due, in a large measure, to the personal ambition
of Paez, by whose influence the great Liberator was exiled
from his fatherland, and the republic separated from Colombia.
Whatever may have been the real wishes of the people, the
death of Bolivar put an end to all thoughts of re-union; and
Paez became its first constitutional president. The second
president was the learned Dr. José Maria Vargas, whose
election in March 1835 was said to have been irregular, and
led to the ' Revolucion de las Reformas.' He was deposed and
expelled in July, but in August recalled to power! General
Paez now took the field against the ' reformistas,' and a
civil war ensued, continuing until March 1836, when they were
completely subjugated, and treated with great rigour by order
of the Congress, but against the desire of Paez, who entreated
to be allowed to deal with them clemently. In 1836, Dr. Vargas
resigned the presidency, and after the remainder of his term
had been occupied by three vice-presidents, General Paez, in
1839, became again the legitimate head of the nation. Now that
the grave had closed over Simon Bolivar, the passions which
had prevented the recognition of his greatness died also, and
on the 17th of December 1842, the ashes of the immortal
Liberator were transferred from Santa Maria with every mark of
public respect and honour and received a magnificent national
funeral, in the Temple of San Francisco, in Caracas. The fifth
president was General Soublette, and the sixth General Jose
Tadeo Monagas, who was elected in 1847. A great part of the
Venezuelan people believe that all the evils that have fallen
upon the republic since 1846 have had their origin in the
falsification of votes, said to have taken place during the
election of Monagas for president. The liberal candidate was
Antonio Leocadio Guzman; and it is asserted that he had a
majority of votes. … Monagas did not have an easy tenure of
office, for the opposition of Paez led to two years of civil
war. Here it may be noted to the credit of the liberal party
that, at a time when many of its opponents were prisoners, it
abolished the penalty of death for political offences. To his
brother, General Jose Gregorio Monagas, afterwards president
of the republic, was due the emancipation of the slaves. The
famous law of March 24th, 1854, conceded liberty and equal
rights to all; but by a strange irony of fortune, he who had
given the precious boon of freedom to thousands died himself
incarcerated in a political prison. … At the beginning of 1859
the discontent of the liberals had reached a pitch which led
to the outbreak of the War of the Federation. It was in this
struggle that the present leader of the liberal party first
displayed his military skill." Antonio Guzman Blanco, born in
1830 and educated for the law, lived some years in the United
States, part of the time as Secretary of Legation at
Washington. Driven from Venezuela in 1858, "his expatriation
soon after brought him in contact, first in St. Thomas and
afterwards in Curazao, with General Falcon, then the head of
'los liberales.' Falcon landed in Venezuela in July 1859, and
proclaimed the Federal Republic. Many rose to support him, and
in Caracas, on the 1st of August, the president, Monagas, was
arrested; the next day the same troops declared against the
Federation, and fired upon the people! So commenced the five
years' War of the Federation, which has left, even to the
present day, its black and ruined tracks across the face of
the country. On the 30th of September was fought the battle of
Sabana de la Cruz, resulting in the fall of Barquisimeto. In
this action, so fortunate for the liberals, Guzman Blanco made
his acquaintance with war, and showed so much military talent
and energy that he was induced to leave his civil duties and
take a 'comandante's' commission. The victory of Santa Ines,
in December of the same year, followed. … The attack on San
Carlos followed soon after, and was a disaster for the
federals, who lost their general, Zamora, and were forced to
retreat.
{3601}
Falcon sought aid in Nueva Granada." The next year Guzman
Blanco won the victory of Quebrada-seca, October 21, 1862.
"Other victories followed, and were crowned by the grand and
decisive combat of the 16th, 17th, and 18th of April, which
gave the province of Caracas to the Federals, and led to a
treaty between the two parties. The peace of Coche was
arranged by Señor Pedro José Rojas, secretary to the Dictator,
as Paez was sometimes called, and Guzman Blanco, as
representative of Falcon, the chief of the revolution. Paez,
by this treaty, undertook to abdicate 30 days later, when an
assembly of 80, nominated in equal parts by the chiefs of each
party, was to decide on a programme for the future. The
assembly met in Victoria, and nominated Falcon President and
Guzman Blanco provisional vice-president of the Federation.
Falcon entered Caracas in triumph on July 24, 1863, and Guzman
Blanco became Minister of Finance and of Foreign Relations."
Guzman Blanco visited Europe in 1864 and 1867 to negotiate
loans. "Meanwhile, in Caracas, the 'oligarquia,' which now
assumed the name of the Blue party (El Partido Azul), was not
idle, and its activity was increased by dissensions in the
opposition. A section of the liberal party [or 'los
amarillos'-'Yellows'] had become greatly disaffected to
Marshal Falcon, who abdicated in favour of two revolutionary
chiefs, Bruzual and Urrutia. This led to the treaty of
Antimano, by which the 'partido azul' recognized the new
government, but directly afterwards proclaimed the presidency
of General José Tadeo Monagas. Three days' sanguinary combat,
at the end of July 1868, gave it possession of Caracas."
Guzman Blanco, returning at this juncture from Europe, was
driven to take refuge in the island of Curazao; but in
February, 1870, he reappeared in Venezuela; was supported by a
general rising; took Caracas by assault, and defeated the
Blues in several battles. "The congress of plenipotentiaries
of the states met at Valencia, and nominated Guzman Blanco
provisional president, and by the end of the year the enemy
was nearly everywhere defeated."
_J. M. Spence,
The Land of Bolivar,
volume 1, chapter 8._
From the liberation of Venezuela to the present time, "every
successive President seems to have been employed, during his
short lease of power, in trying to enrich himself and his
adherents, without the least consideration for his unfortunate
country. On paper all the laws are perfect, and the
constitution all that could be desired, but experience has
shown that the influence of the executive power is able to
subdue and absorb every other power, legislative or judicial.
One law which the Congress passed, viz:—that of division of
the National property among the defenders of the country, as
the only way of rewarding their heroic services, has become a
precedent of very bad import. At first, those who had risen
and driven out the Spaniards divided the land among
themselves, but as successive Generals strove for and gained
the Presidency they again forfeited the property of the
opposing party, and divided their possessions among their own
followers. … Paez, Vargas, Paez, Zea, Soublette, Paez, Gil,
Monagas, Falcon, Monagas, Polidor, Pulgar, Blanco, Linares,
Blanco, Crespo, and again Blanco, have succeeded each other
with marvellous rapidity, the principal occupation of the
deposed President being to conspire against his successor.
Some of them succeeded to power more than once, but Don Gusman
Blanco alone, since Bolivar, seems to have got a firm hold of
the Government, and although, by the letter of the
Constitution, he can only hold power for two years at a time,
and cannot possibly hold two terms consecutively, yet the
intervening Presidents were little more than dummies to keep
his seat warm. … At present [1886] Don Gusman Blanco is
supreme. He is reported to be immensely wealthy, and is a man
of great capacity and intelligence."
_W. Barry,
Venezuela,
chapter 5._
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1869-1892.
The constitution.
The rule of General Blanco.
The Revolution of 1889.
"The Venezuelan Constitution is modelled after the American
Constitution, with modifications grounded upon the Calhoun
doctrine of State rights.
See CONSTITUTION OF VENEZUELA.
The confederation consists of eight States, which are supreme
and coordinate in their sovereign rights. The National
Government represents, not the people, but the States. … In
1869 opened an era of peace and progress under the political
domination of General Guzman Blanco. For 20 years, whether he
was the head of a Provisional Government established by force
of arms, or the constitutional Executive, or Minister to
France, his will was the supreme force in the State. … He
suppressed Clericalism and established genuine religious
liberty. He built rail-ways, improved the public roads, and
adorned the cities. … He developed the industries and commerce
of the country, and promoted its prosperity by a policy at
once strong and pacific. It was a system of political
absolutism. … A reaction against it was inevitable. … The
signal for a political revolution was raised by university
students in October, 1889. They began operations by flinging
stones at a statue of Guzman Blanco in Caracas. … It was a
singularly effective revolution, wrought without bloodshed or
excitement. This political movement was successful because
Guzman Blanco was in Paris, and his personal representative in
the executive office was not disposed to resent public
affronts to his patron. The President, Dr. Rojas Paul, was a
wise and discreet man. … He reörganized his Cabinet so as to
exclude several of the devoted partisans of Guzman Blanco, and
brought Dr. Anduesa Palacio into the field as a candidate for
the Presidency. … Anduesa's administration, instead of being
an era of reform, reproduced all the vices and corruption of
the old order, and none of its progressive virtues. After two
years it ended in civil war, usurpation, and the enforced
resignation of Anduesa."
_I. N. Ford,
Tropical America,
chapter 12._
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1892-1893.
Constitutional Government restored.
Anduesa Palacio resigned in favor of Vice President Villegas,
and the legality of the succession was disputed by the
opposition, under ex-President Joaquin Crespo. The civil war
continued, and three short-lived dictatorships were set up in
succession; but in October, 1892, Crespo entered Caracas and
established a constitutional government. In June, 1893, a new
constitution was adopted. In October, Crespo was elected
President for a term of four years.
----------VENEZUELA: End--------
VENI, VIDI, VICI.
See ROME: B. C. 47-46.
{3602}
----------VENICE: Start--------
VENICE: A. D. 452.
The origin of the republic.
When Attila the Hun, in the year 452, crossed the Alps and
invaded Italy, "the savage destroyer undesignedly laid the
foundations of a republic which revived, in the feudal state
of Europe, the art and spirit of commercial industry. The
celebrated name of Venice, or Venetia, was formerly diffused
over a large and fertile province of Italy, from the confines
of Pannonia to the river Addua, and from the Po to the Rhætian
and Julian Alps. Before the irruption of the barbarians, fifty
Venetian cities flourished in peace and prosperity. … Many
families of Aquileia, Padua, and the adjacent towns, who fled
from the sword of the Huns, found a safe though obscure refuge
in the neighbouring islands. At the extremity of the Gulf,
where the Adriatic feebly imitates the tides of the ocean,
near a hundred small islands are separated by shallow water
from the continent, and protected from the waves by several
long slips of land, which admit the entrance of vessels
through some secret and narrow channels. Till the middle of
the 5th century these remote and sequestered spots remained
without cultivation, with few inhabitants, and almost without
a name. But the manners of the Venetian fugitives, their arts
and their government, were gradually formed by their new
situation; and one of the epistles of Cassiodorus, which
describes their condition about seventy years afterwards, may
be considered as the primitive monument of the republic. …
Fish was the common, and almost the universal, food of every
rank: their only treasure consisted in the plenty of salt
which they extracted from the sea."
_E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 35._
"The inhabitants of Aquileia, or at least the feeble remnant
that escaped the sword of Attila, took refuge at Grado.
Concordia migrated to Caprularia (now Caorle). The inhabitants
of Altinum, abandoning their ruined villas, founded their new
habitations upon seven islands at the mouth of the Piave,
which, according to tradition, they named from the seven gates
of their old city. … From Padua came the largest stream of
emigrants. They left the tomb of their mythical ancestor,
Antenor, and built their humble dwellings upon the islands of
Rivus Altus and Methamaucus, better known to us as Rialto and
Malamocco. This Paduan settlement was one day to be known to
the world by the name of Venice. But let us not suppose that
the future Queen of the Adriatic sprang into existence at a
single bound like Constantinople or Alexandria. For 250 years,
that is to say for eight generations, the refugees on the
islands of the Adriatic prolonged an obscure and squalid
existence,—fishing, salt-manufacturing, damming out the waves
with wattled vine-branches, driving piles into the sand-banks;
and thus gradually extending the area of their villages. Still
these were but fishing-villages, loosely confederated
together, loosely governed, poor and insignificant. … This
seems to have been their condition, though perhaps gradually
growing in commercial importance, until at the beginning of
the 8th century the concentration of political authority in
the hands of the first doge, and the recognition of the Rialto
cluster of islands as the capital of the confederacy, started
the Republic on a career of success and victory."
_T. Hodgkin,
Italy and Her Invaders,
book 2, chapter 4 (volume 2)._
VENICE: A. D. 554-800.
A dukedom under the Exarchs of Ravenna.
See ROME: A. D. 554-800.
VENICE: A. D. 568.
A refuge from the invading Lombards.
See LOMBARDS: A. D. 568-573.
VENICE: A. D. 697-810.
The early constitution of government.
Origin of the Doges.
Resistance to Pippin, king of the Lombards.
Removal to the Rialto and founding of the new capital city.
"Each island had at first its own magistrate: the magistrates
of the most considerable being called Tribunes Major, the
others, Tribunes Minor, and the whole being equally subject to
the council-general of the community; which thus constituted a
kind of federal republic. This lasted nearly three hundred
years, when it was found that the rising nation had fairly
outgrown its institutions. Dangerous rivalries arose among the
tribunes. … At a meeting of the Council-General in A. D. 697,
the Patriarch of Grado proposed the concentration of power in
the hands of a single chief, under the title of Doge or Duke.
The proposition was eagerly accepted, and they proceeded at
once to the election of this chief. 'It will be seen (remarks
Daru) that the Dogeship saved independence and compromised
liberty. It was a veritable revolution, but we are ignorant by
what circumstances it was brought about. Many historians
assert that the change was not effected till the permission of
the Pope and the Emperor was obtained.' The first choice fell
on Paolo Luca Anabesto. It was made by twelve electors, the
founders of what were thenceforth termed the electoral
families. The Doge was appointed for life: he named his own
counsellors: took charge of all public business; had the rank
of prince, and decided all questions of peace and war. The
peculiar title was meant to imply a limited sovereignty, and
the Venetians uniformly repudiated, as a disgrace, the bare
notion of their having ever submitted to a monarch. But many
centuries passed away before any regular or well-defined
limits were practically imposed; and the prolonged struggle
between the people and the Doges, depending mainly on the
personal character of the Doge for the time being, constitutes
the most startling and exciting portion of their history." The
third Doge, one Urso, alarmed the people by his pretensions to
such a degree that they slew him, and suppressed his office
for five years, substituting a chief magistrate called
"maestro dell a milizia." "The Dogeship was then [742]
restored in the person of Theodal Urso (son of the last Doge),
who quitted Heraclea [then the Venetian capital] for
Malamocco, which thus became the capital." In his turn,
Theodal Urso lost the favor of the people and was deposed and
blinded. "It thenceforth became the received custom in Venice
to put out the eyes of deposed Doges." Later in the 8th
century the Dogeship was secured by a family which went far
towards making it hereditary, and rendering it boldly
tyrannical; but the yoke of the would-be despots—Giovanni and
Maurice, father and son—was broken in 804, and they were
driven to flight. The head of the conspiracy which expelled
them, Obelerio, was then proclaimed Doge.
{3603}
"The events of the next five years are involved in obscurity.
One thing is clear. Pepin, King of the Lombards [son of
Charlemagne], either under the pretence of a request for aid
from the new Doge, or to enforce some real or assumed rights
of his own, declared war against the Republic, and waged it
with such impetuosity that his fleet and army, after carrying
all before them, were only separated from Malamocco, the
capital, by a canal. In this emergency, Angelo Participazio,
one of those men who are produced by great occasions to mark
an era, proposed that the entire population should remove to
Rialto, which was separated by a broader arm of the sea from
the enemy, and there hold out to the last. No sooner proposed
than done. They hastily embarked their all; and when Pepin
entered Malamocco, he found it deserted. After losing a large
part of his fleet in an ill-advised attack on Rialto, he gave
up the enterprise, and Angelo Participazio was elected Doge in
recognition of his services, with two tribunes for
counsellors. One of his first acts was to make Rialto the
capital, instead of Malamocco or Heraclea, which had each been
the seat of Government at intervals. 'There were round Rialto
some sixty islets, which the Doge connected by bridges. They
were soon covered with houses. They were girt with a
fortification; and it was then that this population of
fugitives gave to this rising city, which they had just
founded in the middle of a morass, the name of Venetia, in
memory of the fair countries from which their fathers had been
forcibly expatriated. The province has lost its name, and
become subject to the new Venice.'"
_The Republic of Venice
(Quarterly Review, October, 1874, volume 137), pages 417-420._
In 803 Charlemagne concluded a treaty, at Aix-la-Chapelle,
with Nicephorus I. the Byzantine or Eastern Emperor,
establishing boundaries between the two empires which disputed
the Roman name. "In this treaty, the supremacy of the Eastern
Empire over Venice, Istria, the maritime parts of Dalmatia,
and the south of Italy, was acknowledged; while the authority
of the Western Empire in Rome, the exarchate of Ravenna, and
the Pentapolis, was recognised by Nicephorus. The commerce of
Venice with the East was already so important, and the
Byzantine administration afforded so many guarantees for the
security of property, that the Venetians, in spite of the
menaces of Charlemagne, remained firm in their allegiance to
Nicephorus. … Venice, it is true, found itself in the end
compelled to purchase peace with the Frank empire, by the
payment of an annual tribute of thirty-six pounds of gold, in
order to secure its commercial relations from interruption;
and it was not released from this tribute until the time of
Otho the Great. It was during the reign of Nicephorus that the
site of the present city of Venice became the seat of the
Venetian government, Rivalto (Rialto) becoming the residence
of the duke and the principal inhabitants, who retired from
the continent to escape the attacks of Pepin [king of Italy,
under his father, Charlemagne]. Heraclea had previously been
the capital of the Venetian municipality. In 810 peace was
again concluded between Nicephorus and Charlemagne, without
making any change in the frontier of the two empires."
_G. Finlay,
Byzantine Empire, 716-1057,
book 1, chapter 2, section 1._
ALSO IN:
_H. F. Brown,
Venice,
chapters 1-2._
VENICE: 8th Century:
Still subject to the Eastern Empire.
See ROME: A. D. 717-800.
VENICE: A. D. 810-961.
Spread of commerce and naval prowess.
Destruction of Istrian pirates.
Conquests in Dalmatia.
"During the ninth, and the first sixty years of the tenth
centuries,—from the government of Angelo Participazio, to the
coming into Italy of Otho the Great,—the Venetian affairs,
with brief intervals of repose, were wholly occupied with
civil commotions and naval wars. The doges of the republic
were often murdered; its fleets were sometimes defeated; but,
under every adverse circumstance, the commercial activity, the
wealth, and the power of the state were still rapidly
increasing. In the ninth century the Venetians, in concert
with the Greeks, encountered, though with indifferent success,
the navies of the Saracens; but the Narentines, and other
pirates of Dalmatia, were their constant enemies, and were
frequently chastised by the arms of the republic The Venetian
wealth invited attacks from all the freebooters of the seas,
and an enterprise undertaken by some of them who had
established themselves on the coast of Istria deserves, from
its singularity and the vengeance of the republic, to be
recorded in this place. According to an ancient custom, the
nuptials of the nobles and principal citizens of Venice were
always celebrated on the same day of the year and in the same
church. … The Istrian pirates, acquainted with the existence
of this annual festival, had the boldness [A. D. 944] to
prepare an ambush for the nuptial train in the city itself.
They secretly arrived over night at an uninhabited islet near
the church of Olivolo, and lay hidden behind it with their
barks until the procession had entered the church, when
darting from their concealment they rushed into the sacred
edifice through all its doors, tore the shrieking brides from
the arms of their defenceless lovers, possessed themselves of
the jewels which had been displayed in the festal pomp, and
immediately put to sea with their fair captives and their
booty. But a deadly revenge overtook them. The doge, Pietro
Candiano III., had been present at the ceremony: he shared in
the fury and indignation of the affianced youths: they flew to
arms, and throwing themselves under his conduct into their
vessels, came up with the spoilers in the lagunes of Caorlo. A
frightful massacre ensued: not a life among the pirates was
spared, and the victors returned in triumph with their brides
to the church of Olivolo. A procession of the maidens of
Venice revived for many centuries the recollection of this
deliverance on the eve of the purification. But the doge was
not satisfied with the punishment which he had inflicted on
the Istriots. He entered vigorously upon the resolution of
clearing the Adriatic of all the pirates who infested it: he
conquered part of Dalmatia, and he transmitted to his
successors, with the ducal crown, the duty of consummating his
design."
_G. Procter,
History of Italy,
chapter 1, part 2._
{3604}
VENICE: A. D. 829.
The translation of the body of St. Mark.
The Winged Lion of St. Mark.
"In the second year of the reign of Doge Giustiniano
Particiacio there was brought to Venice from Alexandria the
body of the holy evangelist St. Mark. For, as Petrus Damianus
says, Mark was brought from Alexandria into Venice, that he
who had shone in the East like the morning star might shed his
rays in the regions of the West. For Egypt is held to be the
East and Venice the West. There he had held the rule of the
Church of Alexandria, and here, being, as it were, born again,
he obtained the sovereignty of Aquileia. Now this is how the
thing was done. The king of the Saracens wishing to build
himself a palace in Babylon, gave command that stones should
be taken from the Christian churches and other public places,
that they might build him a splendid house. And at that time
there came by chance to the Church of St. Mark, Bon, tribune
of Malamocco, and Rustico da Torcello, who had been forced by
the wind, contrary to the edicts of Venice, to put in to the
harbour of Alexandria with ten ships laden with merchandise,
and they observing the sadness of the guardians of the church
(two Greeks, by name Stauratio, a monk, and Theodoro, a
priest), inquired the cause. And they answered that by reason
of the impious edict of the king they feared the ruin of the
church. Thereupon they prayed them to give them the holy body
that they might carry it to Venice, promising them that the
Doge of Venice would receive it with great honour. But the
keepers of the church were filled with fear at their petition,
and answered reproaching them and saying: 'Know ye not how the
blessed St. Mark, who wrote the Gospel, St. Peter dictating at
his request, preached in these parts and baptised into the
faith the men of these regions? If the faithful should become
aware, we could not escape the peril of death.' But to that
they answered: 'As for his preaching, we are his firstborn
sons, for he first preached in the parts of Venetia and
Aquileia. And in peril of death it is commanded, "If they
persecute you in one city, flee ye to another," which the
evangelist himself obeyed when in the persecution at
Alexandria he fled to Pentapolis.' But the keepers said:
'There is no such persecution now that we should fear for our
persons.' But while they spake, came one and broke down the
precious stones of the church, and when they would not suffer
it they were sorely beaten. Then the keepers seeing the
devastation of the church, and their own great danger,
listened to the prayer of the Venetians and appointed them a
day when they should receive the holy body. Now the body was
wrapped in a robe of silk sealed with many seals from the head
to the feet. And they brought the body of St. Claudia, and
having cut the robe at the back and taken away the body of St.
Mark, they placed in its stead the blessed Claudia, leaving
the seals unbroken. But a sweet odour quickly spread into the
city, and all were filled with astonishment, and not doubting
that the body of the evangelist had been moved, they ran
together to the church. But when the shrine was opened and
they saw the garment with the seals unbroken, they returned
quickly to their homes. And when the body should be borne to
the boats, they covered it with herbs and spread over it
pork-flesh for the passers-by to see, and went crying,
'Khanzir, khanzir!' which is the Saracen's abomination. And
when they reached the ships they covered it with a sail while
they passed through the Saracen ships. And as they sailed to
Venice the ship which bore it with many others was saved from
peril of shipwreck. For when the ships had been driven in the
night by a tempestuous wind and were not far from Monte, the
blessed St. Mark appeared to the Monk Dominic and bade him
lower the sails of the ships. Which, when they had done, the
dawn appearing, they found themselves close to the island
which is called Artalia. And ten of them, having asked and
obtained pardon for breaking the edicts of the Doge, they came
to the port of Olivola. And the Doge, and the clergy, and the
people came to meet them, and brought the body, with songs of
thanksgiving, to the Doge's chapel."
_Old Chronicle;
translated in "The City in the Sea,"
by the Author of "Belt and Spur,"
chapter 3._
"Our fathers did not welcome the arrival of the captured
eagles of France, after the field of Waterloo, with greater
exultation than the people of Venice the relics of the blessed
Evangelist. They abandoned themselves to processions, and
prayers, and banquets, and public holidays. … The winged 'Lion
of St. Mark' was blazoned on the standards, and impressed on
the coinage of the Republic. … The Lion became the theme of
many political symbols. Thus it was represented with wings to
show that Venetians could strike with promptitude; sitting, as
a sign of their gravity in counsel—far such is the usual
attitude of sages; with a book in its paws, to intimate their
devotion to commerce; in war time the book was closed, and a
naked sword substituted."
_W. H. D. Adams,
The Queen of the Adriatic,
pages 42-43._
See, also, LION OF ST. MARK.
VENICE: A. D. 1032-1319.
Development of the constitution of the aristocratic Republic.
The Grand Council.
The Council of Ten.
The Golden Book.
"It was by slow and artfully disguised encroachments that the
nobility of Venice succeeded in substituting itself for the
civic power, and investing itself with the sovereignty of the
republic. During the earlier period, the doge was an elective
prince, the limit of whose power was vested in assemblies of
the people. It was not till 1032 that he was obliged to
consult only a council, formed from amongst the most
illustrious citizens, whom he designated. Thence came the name
given them of 'pregadi' (invited). The grand council was not
formed till 1172, 140 years later, and was, from that time,
the real sovereign of the republic. It was composed of 480
members, named annually on the last day of September, by 12
tribunes, or grand electors, of whom two were chosen by each
of the six sections of the republic. No more than four members
from one family could be named. The same counsellors might be
re-elected each year. As it is in the spirit of a corporation
to tend always towards an aristocracy, the same persons were
habitually re-elected; and when they died their children took
their places. The grand council, neither assuming to itself
nor granting to the doge the judicial power, gave the first
example of the creation of a body of judges, numerous,
independent, and irremovable; such, nearly, as was afterwards
the parliament of Paris. In 1179, it created the criminal
'quarantia'; called, also, the 'vecchia quarantia,' to
distinguish it from two other bodies of forty judges, created
in 1229. The grand council gave a more complete organization
to the government formed from among its members. It was
com·posed of a doge; of six counsellors of the red robe, who
remained only eight months in office, and who, with the doge,
formed the 'signoria'; and of the council of pregadi, composed
of 60 members, renewed each year. …
{3605}
In 1249, the sovereign council renounced the election of the
doge, and intrusted it to a commission drawn by lot from among
the whole council; this commission named another: which,
reduced by lot to one fourth, named a third; and by these
alternate operations of lot and election, at length formed the
last commission of 41 members, who could elect the doge only
by a majority of 25 suffrages. It was not till towards the end
of the 13th century that the people began to discover that
they were no more than a cipher in the republic, and the doge
no more than a servant of the grand council,—surrounded,
indeed, with pomp, but without any real power. In 1289, the
people attempted themselves to elect the doge; but the grand
council obliged him whom the popular suffrages had designated
to leave Venice, and substituted in his place Pietro
Gradenigo, the chief of the aristocratic party. Gradenigo
undertook to exclude the people from any part in the election
of the grand council, as they were already debarred from any
participation in the election of a doge. … The decree which he
proposed and carried on the 28th of February, 1297, is famous
in the history of Venice, under the name of 'serrata del
maggior consiglio' (shutting of the grand council). He legally
founded that hereditary aristocracy,—so prudent, so jealous,
so ambitious,—which Europe regarded with astonishment;
immovable in principle, unshaken in power; uniting some of the
most odious practices of despotism with the name of liberty;
suspicious and perfidious in politics; sanguinary in revenge;
indulgent to the subject; sumptuous in the public service,
economical in the administration of the finances; equitable
and impartial in the administration of justice; knowing well
how to give prosperity to the arts, agriculture, and commerce;
beloved by the people who obeyed it, whilst it made the nobles
who partook its power tremble. The Venetian aristocracy
completed its constitution, in 1311, by the creation of the
Council of Ten, which, notwithstanding its name, was composed
of 16 members and the doge. Ten counsellors of the black robe
were annually elected by the great council, in the months of
August and September; and of the six counsellors of the red
robe, composing a part of the signoria, three entered office
every four months. The Council of Ten, charged to guard the
security of the state with a power higher than the law, had an
especial commission to watch over the nobles, and to punish
their crimes against the republic. In this they were
restrained by no rule: they were, with respect to the
nobility, the depositaries of the power of the great council,
or rather of a power unlimited, which no people should intrust
to any government. Some other decrees completed the system of
the 'serrata del maggior consiglio.' It was forbidden to the
quarantia to introduce any 'new man' into power. In 1315, a
register was opened, called the Golden Book, in which were
inscribed the names of all those who had sat in the great
council. In 1319, all limitation of number was suppressed;
and, from that period, it sufficed to prove that a person was
the descendant of a counsellor, and 25 years of age, to be by
right a member of the grand council of Venice."
_J. C. L. de Sismondi,
History of the Italian Republics,
chapter 5._
"When the Republic was hard pressed for money, inscriptions in
the Golden Book were sold at the current price of 100,000
ducats. … Illustrious foreigners were admitted, as they are
made free of a corporation amongst us. … The honour was not
disdained even by crowned heads. … The original 'Libro d' oro'
was publicly burned in 1797, but extracts, registers, and
other documents are extant from which its contents might be
ascertained."
_The Republic of Venice
(Quarterly Review, volume 137, page 433)._
ALSO IN:
_E. Flagg,
Venice, the City of the Sea,
introduction._
_Mrs. Oliphant,
The Makers of Venice,
chapter 4._
_H. F. Brown,
Venice,
chapters 5 and 9._
VENICE: A. D. 1085.
Acquires the sovereignty of Dalmatia and Croatia.
See BYZANTINE EMPIRE: A. D. 1081-1085.
VENICE: A. D. 1099-1101.
The first Crusade.
"The movement of the crusades brings Venice to the very
forefront of European history. Her previous development had
been slowly preparing the way for her emergence. The Council,
held at Clermont in 1095, resolved that the armament should
leave Europe early in the following year. The Pope and the
leaders of the Crusades were obliged to turn their attention
to the question of transport for the vast and amorphous mob,
which, without discipline, with no distinction of ranks, with
no discrimination between soldier and monk, between merchant
and peasant, between master and man, was now bent on reaching
the Holy Land, almost as eager to die there as to achieve the
object of their mission, the recovery of the Sepulchre. The
three maritime states of Italy—Genoa, Pisa, and Venice—were
each ready to offer their services. Each was jealous of the
other, and each determined to prevent the other from reaping
any signal commercial advantage from the religious enthusiasm
of Europe. Venice was not only the most powerful, but also the
most eastern, of the three competitors. It was natural that
the choice should fall on her. When the Pope's invitation to
assist in the Crusade reached the city, however, it seems that
the Government did not at once embrace the cause officially in
the name of the whole Republic. There was, at first, a
tendency to leave the business of transport to private
enterprise. But on receipt of the news that Jerusalem had
fallen, the Venetian Government began to take active steps in
the matter. … The Crusade was accepted with enthusiasm. The
whole city engaged in preparing a fleet which should be worthy
of the Republic. Then, after a solemn mass in S. Mark's, at
which the standard of the Cross and the standard of the
Republic were presented to the leaders, the soldiers of the
Cross embarked on the fleet which numbered 200 ships, and set
sail down the Adriatic, making for Rhodes, where they were to
winter. At Rhodes two incidents of great significance in
Venetian history took place. The Eastern Emperors had never
viewed with favour the incursion of the Crusaders. The
creation of the kingdom of Jerusalem was really a usurpation
of Imperial territory. Alexius I. now endeavoured to persuade
the Venetians to withdraw from the enterprise. In this he
failed; Venice remained true to the Cross, and to her
commercial interests. It is at this point that we find the
beginnings of that divergence between Constantinople and the
Republic, which eventually declared itself in open hostility,
and led up to the sack of Constantinople in the fourth
Crusade.
{3606}
Alexius, finding that the Venetians were not inclined to obey
him, resolved to punish them. An instrument was ready to his
hand. The Pisans saw with disfavour the advent of their
commercial rivals in Eastern waters. They were willing to
hoist the Imperial standard as opposed to the crusading cross,
and to sail down upon the Venetians at Rhodes. They were
defeated. The Venetians released all the prisoners except
thirty of the more prominent among them who were detained as
hostages. The first fruits of the Crusade, as far as Venice
was concerned, were the creation of two powerful enemies, the
Emperor and the Pisans."
_H. F. Brown,
Venice,
chapter 6._
VENICE: A. D. 1102.
Hungarian conquest of Dalmatia.
See HUNGARY: A. D. 972-1114.
VENICE: A. D: 1114-1141.
Wars for Dalmatia with the Hungarians.
See HUNGARY: A. D. 1114-1301.
VENICE: A. D. 1127-1128.
Beginning of quarrels with the Byzantine Empire.
"Previous to this time [about 1127], the Venetian republic had
generally been a firm ally of the Byzantine empire, and, to a
certain degree, it was considered as owing homage to the
Emperor of Constantinople. That connection was now dissolved,
and those disputes commenced which soon occupied a prominent
place in the history of Eastern Europe. The establishment of
the Crusaders in Palestine had opened a new field for the
commercial enterprise of the Venetians, and in a great measure
changed the direction of their maritime trade; while the
frequent quarrels of the Greeks and Franks compelled the
trading republics of Italy to attach themselves to one of the
belligerent parties, in order to secure a preference in its
ports. For a short time, habit kept the Venetians attached to
the empire; but they soon found that their interests were more
closely connected with the Syrian trade than with that of
Constantinople. They joined the kings of Jerusalem in
extending their conquests, and obtained considerable
establishments in all the maritime cities of the kingdom. From
having been the customers and allies of the Greeks, they
became their rivals and enemies. The commercial fleets of the
age acted too often like pirates; and it is not improbable
that the Emperor John had good reason to complain of the
aggressions of the Venetians. Hostilities commenced; the Doge
Dominico Michieli, one of the heroes of the republic,
conducted a numerous fleet into the Archipelago, and plundered
the islands of Rhodes and Chios, where he wintered. Next year
he continued his depredations in Samos, Mitylene, Paros, and
Andros. … Peace was re-established by the emperor reinstating
the Venetians in the enjoyment of all the commercial
privileges they had enjoyed before the war broke out."
_G. Finlay,
History of the Byzantine and Greek Empires,
book 3, chapter 2, section 2._
VENICE: A. D. 1177.
Pretended Papal Grant of the sovereignty of the Adriatic.
Doubtful story of the humiliation of Frederick Barbarossa.
A "notable epoch in early Venetian history is the grant on
which she based her claim to the sovereignty of the Adriatic.
In the course of the fierce struggle between Alexander III.
and Frederick Barbarossa [see ITALY: A. D. 1174-1183], the
Pope, when his fortunes were at the lowest, took refuge with
the Venetians, who, after a vain effort at reconciliation,
made common cause with him, and in a naval encounter obtained
so signal a victory that the Emperor was compelled to sue for
peace and submit to the most humiliating terms. The crowning
scene of his degradation has been rendered familiar by the
pencil, the chisel, and the pen. … The Emperor, as soon as he
came into the sacred presence, stripped off his mantle and
knelt down before the Pope to kiss his feet. Alexander,
intoxicated with his triumph and losing all sense of
moderation or generosity, placed his foot on the head or neck
of his prostrate enemy, exclaiming, in the words of the
Psalmist, 'Super aspidem et basiliscum ambulabis' &c. ('Thou
shalt tread upon the asp and the basilisk' …). 'Non tibi, sed
Petro' ('Not to thee, but Peter'), cried the outraged and
indignant Emperor. 'Et mihi et Petro' ('To both me and
Peter'), rejoined the Pope, with a fresh pressure of his heel.
… Sismondi (following a contemporary chronicler} narrates the
interview without any circumstance of insult, and describes it
as concluding with the kiss of peace. There are writers who
contend that Alexander was never at Venice, and that the
Venetians obtained no victory on his behalf. But the weight of
evidence adduced by Daru strikes us to be quite conclusive in
favour of his version. … In return for the good offices of
Venice on this occasion … Alexander presented the reigning
Doge, Ziani, with a ring, saying, 'Receive this ring, and with
it, as my donation, the dominion of the sea, which you, and
your successors, shall annually assert on an appointed day, so
that all posterity may understand that the possession of the
sea was yours by right of victory, and that it is subject to
the rule of the Venetian Republic, as wife to husband.' … The
well-known ceremony of wedding the Adriatic, religiously
observed with all its original pomp and splendour during six
centuries, was in itself a proclamation and a challenge to the
world. It was regularly attended by the papal nuncio and the
whole of the diplomatic corps, who, year after year, witnessed
the dropping of a sanctified ring into the sea, and heard
without a protest the prescriptive accompaniment: 'Desponsamus
te, mare, in signum veri perpetuique domini' (we espouse thee,
sea, in sign of true and perpetual dominion)."
_The Republic of Venice
(Quarterly Review, October, 1874, volume 137),
pages 421-423._
ALSO IN:
_G. B. Testa,
History of the War of Frederick I.
against the Communes of Lombardy,
book 11._
_Mrs. W. Busk,
Mediæval Popes, Emperors, Kings, and Crusaders,
book 2, chapter 8 (volume 2)._
VENICE: A. D. 1201.
Cause of Hostility to Constantinople.
"Of late years the Venetians had had difficulties with the New
Rome. … These difficulties arose, in great measure, from the
fact that the influence of Venice in Constantinople was no
longer sufficient to exclude that of the other Italian
republics. … But the hostility to Constantinople reached its
height when the Venetians learned that Alexis had, in May
1201, received an embassy from Genoa, and was negotiating with
Ottobono della Croce, its leader, for the concession of
privileges for trade in Romania which Venice had hitherto
regarded as exclusively her own. From this time the Doge
appears to have determined to avenge the wrongs of his state
on the ruler who had ventured to favour his rivals."
_E. Pears,
The Fall of Constantinople,
chapter 8._
{3607}
VENICE: A. D. 1201-1203.
Perfidious part in the conquest of Constantinople.
See CRUSADES: A. D. 1201-1203.
VENICE: A. D. 1204.
Share of the Republic in the partition of the Byzantine Empire.
See BYZANTINE EMPIRE: A. D. 1204-1205.
VENICE: A. D. 1216.
Acquisition of the Ionian Islands.
See CORFU: A. D. 1216-1880;
and IONIAN ISLANDS: To 1814.
VENICE: A. D. 1256-1258.
Battles with the Genoese at Acre.
"At the period of the Crusades, it was usual in those cities
or towns where the Christians held sway, to assign to each of
the mercantile communities which had borne a part in the
conquest or recovery of the particular district, a separate
quarter where they might have their own mill, their own oven,
their own bath, their own weights and measures, their own
church, and where they might be governed by their own laws,
and protected by their own magistrates. … At Saint Jean
d'Acre, however, the Church of Saint Sabbas was frequented by
the Venetians and the Genoese in common; and it happened that,
in course of time, both nations sought to found a right to the
exclusive property of the building." Collisions ensued, in one
of which (1256), the Genoese drove the Venetians from their
factory at Acre and burned the church of Saint Sabbas. The
Venetians retaliated by sending a squadron to Acre which
destroyed all the Genoese shipping in the port, burned their
factory, and reduced a castle near the town which was held by
a Genoese garrison. Early in 1257 the fleets of the two
republics met and fought a battle, between Acre and Tyre, in
which the Venetians were the victors. On the 24th of June,
1258, a second battle was fought very nearly on the same spot,
and again Venice triumphed, taking 2,600 prisoners and 25
galleys. Through the efforts of the Pope, a suspension of
hostilities was then brought about; but other causes of war
were working in the east, which soon led to fresh encounters
in arms between the two jealous commercial rivals.
_W. C. Hazlitt,
History of the Venetian Republic,
chapter 11 (volume 1)._
VENICE: A. D. 1261-1263.
The supplanting of the Venetians by the Genoese at
Constantinople and in the Black Sea.
War between the Republics.
The victory at Malvasia.
See GENOA: A. D. 1261-1299.
VENICE: A. D. 1294-1299.
War with Genoa.
Disastrous defeat at Curzola.
See GENOA: A. D. 1261-1299.
VENICE: 14th Century.
Fleets.
Commerce.
Industries.
"In the 14th century Venice had 3,000 merchantmen manned by
25,000 sailors. A tenth part of these were ships exceeding 700
tons burden. There were besides 45 war-galleys manned by
11,000 hands; and 10,000 workmen, as well as 36,000 seamen,
were employed in the arsenals. The largest of the war-galleys
was called the Bucentaur; it was a state vessel of the most
gorgeous description. Every year the Doge of Venice, seated
upon a magnificent throne surmounted by a regal canopy,
dropped from this vessel a ring into the Adriatic, to
symbolise the fact that land and sea were united under the
Venetian flag. This ceremony commemorated the victory gained
over the fleet of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa In 1177,
when the Venetians obliged him to sue for peace.
See VENICE: A. D. 1177.
Ascension Day was selected for its celebration, and the
Bucentaur, glorious with new scarlet and gold, its deck and
seats inlaid with costly woods, and rowed with long banks of
burnished oars, for many years bore the Doge to plight his
troth with the words, 'We espouse thee, O Sea! in token of
true and eternal sovereignty.' The merchant fleet of Venice
was divided into companies sailing together according to their
trade. Their routes, and the days for departure and return,
their size, armament, crew, and amount of cargo, were all
defined. In those times the seas were as much infested with
pirates as the deserts with robbers; each squadron therefore
hired a convoy of war-galleys for its protection on the
voyage. There were six or seven such squadrons in regular
employment. The argosies of Cyprus and Egypt, and the vessels
engaged in the Barbary and Syrian commerce, concentrated their
traffic chiefly at Alexandria and Cairo. The so-called
Armenian fleet proceeded to Constantinople and the Euxine,
visiting Kaffa and the Gulf of Alexandretta. A Catalonian
fleet traded with Spain and Portugal, and another with France;
while the most famous of all, the Flanders galleys, connected
the seaports of France, England, and Holland with the great
commercial city of Bruges. The internal traffic with Germany
and Italy was encouraged with equal care, oriental produce
arriving from Constantinople and Egypt, and many other
commodities being distributed, at first by way of Carinthia,
and afterwards of the Tyrol. Germans, Hungarians, and
Bohemians conducted this distribution. In Venice a bonded
warehouse (fondaco dei tedeschi), or custom-house, was
accorded to the Germans, where they were allowed to offer
their wares for sale, though only to Venetian dealers. Similar
privileges were granted to the Armenians, Moors, and Turks,
but not to the Greeks, against whom a strong animosity
prevailed. … The ancient industries of preparing salt and
curing fish were never disregarded. The Adriatic sands
supplied material adapted for a glass of rare beauty and
value, of which mirrors and other articles of Venetian
manufacture were made. Venetian goldsmiths' work was
universally famed. Brass and iron foundries prepared the raw
material for the armourers, whose weapons, helmets, and
bucklers were unsurpassed for strength and beauty.
Ship-building, with a people whose principle it was always to
have more ships than any other state, was necessarily a very
important branch of industry. Not satisfied with penetrating
to every part already opened to enterprise, the Venetians
travelled into regions before unknown, and gave to the world
the record of their daring adventures. Maffeo and Nicolo Polo
spent fifteen years visiting Egypt, Persia, India, the Khan of
Tartary, and the Grand Khan or Emperor of China. Marco Polo,
son of Nicolo, as well as Barthema and Joseph Barbaro,
extended the knowledge obtained by their precursors in
northern Europe and Asia."
_J. Yeats,
Growth and Vicissitudes of Commerce,
page 98-101._
See (In Supplement) COMMERCE, MEDIÆVAL.
ALSO IN:
_A. Anderson,
Origin of Commerce,
volume 1._
_Venetian Commerce
(Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, volume 5, pages 393-411)._
VENICE: A. D. 1336-1338.
Alliance with Florence against Mastino della Scala.
Conquest of Treviso and other territory on the mainland.
See VERONA: A. D. 1260-1338.
{3608}
VENICE: A. D. 1351-1355.
Alliance with the Greeks and Aragonese in war with Genoa.
See CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 1348-1355.
VENICE: A. D. 1358.
Loss of Dalmatia.
See HUNGARY: A. D. 1301-1442.
VENICE: A. D. 1378-1379.
Renewed war with Genoa.
The defeat at Pola.
The treaty of June, 1355, between Venice and Genoa (see
CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 1348-1355), established a peace which
lasted only until April, 1378, when, "a dispute having arisen
between the rival States in relation to the island of Tenedos,
which the Venetians had taken possession of, the Signory
formally declared war against Genoa, which it denounced as
false to all its oaths and obligations. On the 26th of this
month, Vettore Pisani was invested with the supreme command of
the naval forces of the republic. … The new commander-in-chief
was the son of Nicolo Pisani, and had held a commission in the
Navy for 25 years. … Of the seamen he was the idol. … Pisani
sailed from Venice early in May, with 14 galleys; and, on the
30th of the month, while cruising off Antium, came across a
Genoese squadron of 10 galleys, commanded by Admiral Fieschi.
It was blowing a gale at the time, and five of Pisani's
vessels, which had parted company with him, and fallen to
leeward, were unable to rejoin him, while one of Fieschi's
drifted ashore, and was wrecked. Thus the battle which
immediately ensued was between equal forces; but the Genoese
admiral was no match for Vettore Pisani," and sustained a
disastrous defeat, losing four vessels, with all their
officers and crew. "During the summer, Pisani captured great
numbers of the enemy's merchantmen; but was unable to find
their fleet, which, under Luciano Doria, was actively engaged
in cutting up Venetian commerce in the East. In November he
asked permission to return to Venice to refit his vessels,
which were in a very bad condition, but this was denied him;
and, being kept constantly cruising through the winter, at its
expiration only six of his vessels were found to be seaworthy.
Twelve others, however, were fitted out at their own expense
and sent to him by his friends, who perceived that his
political enemies were making an effort to ruin him. At the
end of February, 1379, Michele Steno and Donato Zeno were
appointed by the Government' proveditori' of the fleet. These
officers, like the field deputies of the Dutch republic in
later times, were set as spies over the commander-in-chief,
whose operations they entirely controlled. On the 1st of May,
Pisani left Brindisi, bound to Venice, having a large number
of merchantmen in charge, laden with wheat; and, on the 6th
instant, as the weather looked squally, put into Pola, with
his convoy, for the night. On the following morning, at
day-break, it was reported to him that Doria was off the port
with 25 vessels; whereupon he determined not to leave his
anchorage until Carlo Zeno, whom he was expecting with a
reenforcement of 10 galleys, should be seen approaching. But
the Proveditori, loudly denouncing such a determination as a
reflection upon the valor of his officers and men, ordered
him, peremptorily, in the name of the Senate, to engage the
enemy without delay." The result was an overwhelming defeat,
out of which Pisani brought six galleys, only—" which were all
that were saved from this most terrible engagement, wherein
800 Venetians perished and 2,000 were taken prisoners. …
Pisani was now violently assailed by his enemies; although
they well knew that he had fought the battle of Pola against
his own judgment, and agreeably to the wishes of the
government, as made known to him by its accredited agents,
Michele Steno and Donato Zeno. The Great Council decreed his
immediate removal from the supreme command, and he was brought
to Venice loaded with chains." Condemned, upon trial before
the Senate, he was sentenced to imprisonment for six months.
_F. A. Parker,
The Fleets of the World,
pages 100-105._
VENICE: A. D. 1379-1381.
The war of Chioggia.
The dire extremity of the Republic and her deliverance.
After the great victory of Pola, which cost the Genoese the
life of Luciano D'Oria, they lost no time in pressing their
beaten enemy, to make the most of the advantage they had won.
"Fresh galleys were forthwith placed under the command of
Pietro, another of the noble D'Oria family; and before the
eyes of all Genoa, and after the benediction of the
archbishop, the fleet sailed from the harbour, and a great cry
was raised from roof to roof, and from window to window, and
each alley and each street re-echoed it with enthusiasm, 'to
Venice! to Venice!' On arriving in the Adriatic, Pietro D'Oria
joined the fleet already there, and prepared for his attack on
Venice. These were pitiful days for the Queen of the Adriatic,
the days of her greatest peril and humiliation. The Lord of
Padua joined the Genoese; the King of Hungary sent troops, as
did also the Marquis of Friuli, and all seemed lost to her
both by sea and land. Everywhere within the city was misery
and dismay. … To possess himself of Chioggia, which was 25
miles distant from Venice, was D'Oria's first plan. It was the
key of the capital, commanded the entrance to the harbour, and
cut off any assistance which might come from Lombardy.
Chioggia was very strong in itself, defended by bastions on
all sides; its weak point lay in being built on two sides of a
river, which was spanned by a large wooden bridge. It was the
first care of the defenders to block up the mouth of this
river. After a few days of gallant defence, and a few days of
gallant attack by sea and land, the defenders of Chioggia were
reduced to the last extremity. The entrance to the river was
broken open, and the bridge, which for some time was a
stumbling-block to the besiegers, was destroyed with all the
soldiers upon it by the bravery of a Genoese sailor, who took
a boat laden with tar and wool and other combustible
materials, and set fire to it, escaping by means of swimming.
The defenders having thus perished in the flames, and Chioggia
being taken [August, 1379], the triumph of the Genoese was at
its height. It now seemed as if Pietro D'Oria had but the word
of command to give, and Venice would have met with the same
fate as Pisa had but a century before. But with this the
fortune of the Ligurians began to wane. One small cannon of
leather, with a wooden car, brought from Chioggia as a trophy
to Genoa, is all that exists to-day to testify to their
victory." The Venetians, in consternation at the fall of
Chioggia, sent a deputation to D'Oria humbly offering to
submit to any terms of peace he might dictate; but the
insolent victor ordered them home with the message that there
could be no peace until he had entered their city to bridle
the bronze horses which stand on the Piazza of St. Mark.
{3609}
This roused the indignation and courage of Venice anew, and
every nerve was strained in the defense of the port. "Vettor
Pisani, who since the defeat at Pola had languished in prison,
was brought out by unanimous consent, and before an assembled
multitude he quietly and modestly accepted the position of
saviour of his country. … The one saving point for Venice lay
in the arrival of a few ships from Constantinople, which …
Carlo Zeno had under his command, endeavouring to make a
diversion in the favour of the Venetians at the Eastern
capital. Pending the return of this fleet, the Venetians made
an attack on Chioggia. And an additional gleam of hope raised
the spirits of Pisani's men in the disaffection of the King of
Hungary from the Genoese cause; and gradually, as if by the
magic hand of a fickle fortune, Pietro D'Oria found himself
and his troops besieged in Chioggia, instead of going on his
way to Venice as he had himself prophesied. But the Genoese
position was still too strong, and Pisani found it hopeless to
attempt to dislodge them; his troops became restless: they
wished to return to Venice, though they had sworn never to go
back thither except as conquerors. It was in this moment of
dire distress that the ultimate resort was vaguely whispered
from the Venetian Council Hall to the Piazza. A solemn decree
was passed, 'that if within four days the succour from Carlo
Zeno did not arrive, the fleet should be recalled from
Chioggia, and then a general council should be held as to
whether their country could be saved, or if another more
secure might not be found elsewhere.' Then did the law-givers
of Venice determine that on the fifth day the lagunes should
be abandoned, and that they should proceed en masse to Crete
or Negropont to form for themselves a fresh nucleus of power
on a foreign soil. It is indeed hard to realize that the fate
of Venice, associated with all that is Italian, the offspring
of the hardy few who raised the city from the very waves, once
hung in such a balance. But so it was, when towards the
evening of the fourth day [January 1, 1380] sails were
descried on the horizon, and Carlo Zeno arrived to save his
country from so great a sacrifice. Meanwhile, at Chioggia the
Genoese were day by day becoming more careless; they felt
their position so strong, they talked merrily of fixing the
day when they should bivouac on the Piazza of St. Mark. Little
did they dream of the net of misfortune into which they were
being drawn so fast. Besides reinforcements by sea, assistance
by land flocked in towards Venice. Barnabo Visconti, and his
company of the Star, a roving company of Germans, and the
celebrated Breton band under Sir John Hawkwood, the
Englishman, all hurried to assist the fallen banner of St.
Mark. Pietro D'Oria did all he could to maintain discipline
amongst his troops; but when he fell one day in an engagement,
through being struck by a Venetian arrow, a general
demoralization set in, and their only thought was how to save
themselves and abandon Chioggia. … On the 18th of February,
1380, the Venetians made another gallant attack. Both sides
fought with desperation, the Genoese for life, their rivals
for their country and their country's fame. Fearful slaughter
occurred amongst the Genoese, and they were obliged to retire
within the walls. … Driven to extremities, on the 22nd of June
In that year, 4,000 Genoese were taken to the public prisons
in Venice. … Since both parties were tired of war, and
weakened with these extreme efforts, it was no difficult
matter to establish a peace [August 8, 1381]."
_J. T. Bent,
Genoa,
chapter 8._
ALSO IN:
_W. O. Hazlitt,
History of the Venetian Republic,
chapter 20 (volume 3)._
_H. F. Brown,
Venice,
chapter 12._
VENICE: A. D. 1386.
Acquisition of Corfu.
See Corfu: A. D. 1216-1880.
VENICE: A. D. 1406-1447.
Acquisition of neighboring territory in northeastern Italy.
On the death of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, the first Duke of
Milan (see MILAN: A. D. 1277-1447), the eastern parts of his
duchy, "Padua, Verona, Brescia, Bergamo, were gradually added
to the dominion of Venice. By the middle of the 15th century,
that republic had become the greatest power In northern
Italy."
_E. A. Freeman,
Historical Geography of Europe,
page 241._
See ITALY: A. D. 1402-1406.
VENICE: A. D. 1426-1447.
League with Florence, Naples, Savoy, and other States
against the Duke of Milan.
See ITALY: A. D. 1412-1447.
VENICE: A. D. 1450-1454.
War with Milan and Florence.
Alliance with Naples and Savoy.
See MILAN: A. D. 1447-1454.
VENICE: A. D. 1454-1479.
Treaty with the Turks, followed by war.
Loss of ground in Greece and the islands.
See GREECE: A. D. 1454-1479.
VENICE: A. D. 1460-1479.
Losing struggle with the Turks in Greece and the Archipelago.
See TURKS: A. D. 1451-1481;
and ITALY: A. D. 1447-1480.
VENICE: A. D. 1469-1515.
The early Printers.
The Aldine Press.
See PRINTING AND THE PRESS: A. D. 1469-1515.
VENICE: A. D. 1489.
Acquisition of Cyprus.
See Cyprus: A. D.1489-1570.
VENICE: A. D. 1492-1496.
The invasion of Italy by Charles VIII. of France.
Alliance with Naples, Milan, Spain, the Emperor and the Pope.
Expulsion of the French.
See ITALY: A. D. 1492-1494; and 1494-1496.
VENICE: A. D. 1494-1503.
The rising power and spreading dominion of the republic.
The fears and jealousies excited.
"The disturbances which had taken place In Italy since Charles
VIII.'s advent there, came very opportunely for their [the
Venetians'] plans and policy.
See ITALY: A. D. 1494-1496; 1499-1500; 1501-1504.
On every available occasion the Venetians spread their power
all round about them. In the struggle between Charles and
Ferrantino [or Ferdinand, of Naples] they acquired five fine
cities in Apulia, excellently situated for their requirements,
which they peopled by the reception of fugitive Jews from
Spain. Moreover, in the kingdom of Naples, one party had
declared for them. … Tarento raised their standard. During the
Florentine disorders they were within an ace of becoming
masters of Pisa. In the Milanese feuds they acquired Cremona
and Ghiara d'Adda. Their power was all the more terrible, as
they had never been known to lose again anything which they
had once gotten. No one doubted that their aim was the
complete sovereignty over the whole of Italy.
{3610}
Their historians always talked as if Venice was the ancient
Rome once more. … The Turkish war, which had kept them a while
employed, now at an end, they next tried their fortune in
Romagna, and endeavoured, availing themselves of the quarrels
between the returning nobles and Cesar [Borgia, son of Pope
Alexander VI.], to become, if not the sole, at all events the
most powerful, vassals of the papal chair. … The Venetians
prepared to espouse the cause of those whom Cesar had
suppressed. The cities reflected how genuine and substantial
that peace was that the lion of Venice spread over all its
dependencies. Having appeared in this country at the end of
October, 1503, and having first promised the Malatesti other
possessions in their own country, they took Rimini, with the
concurrence of the prince and citizens. Without ado they
attacked Faenza. … They continued their conquests, and, in the
territories of Imola, Cesena, and Forli, took stronghold after
stronghold. … Then it was that the first minister of France
stated his belief that, 'had they only Romagna, they would
forthwith attack Florence, on account of a debt of 180,000
guilders owing them.' If they were to make an inroad into
Tuscany, Pisa would fall immediately on their arrival. Their
object in calling the French into the Milanese territory was,
that they considered them more fitted to make a conquest than
to keep it; and, in the year 1504, they were negotiating how
it were possible to wrest Milan again from them. Could they
only succeed in this, nothing in Italy would be able longer to
withstand them. 'They wanted,' as Macchiavelli said, 'to make
the Pope their chaplain.' But they met with the staunchest
resistance in Julius [the Pope, Julius II.], as in him they
could discover no weak point to attack. As pointedly as he
could express himself, he declared to them, on the 9th
November, 1503, that, 'though hitherto their friend, he would
now do his utmost against them, and would besides incite all
the princes of Christendom against them.'"
_L. von Ranke,
History of the Latin and Teutonic Nations,
book 2, chapter 3._
VENICE: A. D. 1498-1502.
War with the Turks.
See TURKS: A. D. 1498-1502.
VENICE: A. D. 1499-1500.
Alliance with France against the Duke of Milan.
French conquest of the duchy.
Acquisition of Cremona.
See ITALY: A. D. 1499-1500.
VENICE: 15-17th Centuries.
The decline of Venetian commerce and its causes.
"Commerce was for a long time free at Venice; and the republic
only began to decline when its government had caused the
source of its prosperity to be exhausted by monopoly. At first
all the young patricians were subjected to the most severe
ordeals of a commercial training. They were often sent as
novices on board state-vessels to try fortune with a light
venture, so much did it enter into the views of the
administration to direct all citizens toward industrial
occupations! The only reproach that can be brought against the
Venetians, is the effort to exclude foreigners from all
competition with them. Although commercial jealousy had not
yet erected prohibitions into a system, and the ports of the
republic were open to all the merchandise of the world, yet
the Venetians only permitted its transportation in their own
ships; and they reigned as absolute masters over all the
Mediterranean. War had given them security from the Pisans,
the Sicilians and the Genoese. Spain, long occupied by the
Moors, gave them little occasion of offence. France disdained
commerce; England had not yet begun to think of it; the
republic of Holland was not in existence. Under cover of the
right of sovereignty on the gulf, which she had arrogated to
herself, Venice reserved the almost exclusive right to
navigate. Armed flotillas guarded the mouths of all her
rivers, and allowed no barque to enter or depart without being
vigorously examined. But what profited that jealous solicitude
for the interests of her navigation? A day came when the
Portuguese discovered the Cape of Good Hope, and all that
structure of precautions and mistrust suddenly fell to pieces.
Here begin the first wars of customs-duties, and political
economy receives from history valuable instruction. The
Venetians had levelled all obstacles, but for themselves
alone, and to the exclusion of other nations. Their
legislation was very strict in respect to foreigners, in the
matter of commerce. The laws forbade a merchant who was not a
subject of the republic to be even received on board a vessel
of the state. Foreigners paid customs-duties twice as high as
natives. They could neither build nor buy vessels in Venetian
ports. The ships, the captains, the owners, must all be
Venetian. Every alliance between natives and strangers was
interdicted; there was no protection, no privileges and no
benefits save for Venetians: the latter, however, all had the
same rights. In Venice itself, and there alone, was it
permitted to negotiate with the Germans, Bohemians and
Hungarians. As national manufactures acquired importance, the
government departed from the liberal policy it had hitherto
pursued, and the manufacturers obtained an absolute
prohibition of such foreign merchandise as they produced. In
vain, in the 17th century, did declining commerce urge the
reestablishment of former liberties and the freedom of the
port: the attempt was made for a brief moment, but the spirit
of restriction won the day, and the prohibitory regime early
prepared the way for the death of the republic. The people of
Ita]y, however, pardoned the Venetians for their commercial
intolerance, because of the moderate price at which they
delivered all commodities. The Jews, Armenians, Greeks and
Germans flocked to Venice and engaged with safety in
speculations, which were always advantageous, because of the
security which the credit institutions gave and the recognized
probity of the merchants. But soon Venice saw numerous
manufactures spring up in Europe rivaling her own, and her
commerce encountered most formidable competition in that of
the Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish and English. The discovery of
the Cape of Good Hope took away from her the monopoly of the
spices of the Indies.
See PORTUGAL: A. D. 1463-1498.
The taking of Constantinople, by Mahomet II, had already
deprived her of the magnificent privileges which her subjects
enjoyed in that rich capital of the Orient. But the discovery
of America and the vigorous reprisals of Charles V, who, at
the commencement of his reign, in 1517, doubled the
customs-duties which the Venetians paid in his states,
completed the ruin of that fortunate monopoly which had made
all Europe tributary. Charles V raised the import and export
duties on all Venetian merchandise to twenty per cent; and
this tariff, which would to-day appear moderate, sufficed then
to prevent the Venetians from entering Spanish ports.
{3611}
Such was the origin of the exclusive system, the fatal
invention which the republic of Venice was so cruelly to
expiate. So long as she sought fortune only in the free
competition of the talent and capital of her own citizens, she
increased from age to age and became for a moment the arbiter
of Europe; but as soon as she wished to rule the markets by
the tyranny of monopoly, she saw a league formed against her
commerce, formidable for a very different reason from that of
Cambray."
_J. A. Blanqui,
History of Political Economy in Europe,
chapter 20._
See, also (in Supplement) COMMERCE, MODERN.
VENICE: A. D. 1501.
Hostile schemes of the Emperor and the King of France.
See ITALY: A. D. 1501-1504.
VENICE: A. D. 1508-1509.
The League of Cambrai.
The republic despoiled of her continental provinces.
"The craving appetite of Louis XII., … sharpened by the loss
of Naples, sought to indemnify itself by more ample
acquisitions in the north. As far back as 1504, he had
arranged a plan with the emperor for the partition of the
continental possessions of Venice. …
See ITALY: A. D. 1504-1506.
The scheme is said to have been communicated to Ferdinand [of
Aragon] in the royal interview at Savona [1507]. No immediate
action followed, and it seems probable that the latter
monarch, with his usual circumspection, reserved his decision
until he should be more clearly satisfied of the advantages to
himself. At length the projected partition was definitely
settled by the celebrated treaty of Cambray, December 10th,
1508, between Louis XII. and the emperor Maximilian, in which
the Pope, King Ferdinand, and all princes who had any claims
for spoliations by the Venetians, were invited to take part.
The share of the spoil assigned to the Catholic monarch
[Ferdinand] was the five Neapolitan cities, Trani, Brindisi,
Gallipoli, Pulignano, and Otranto, pledged to Venice for
considerable sums advanced by her during the late war. The
Spanish court, and, not long after, Julius II., ratified the
treaty, although it was in direct contravention of the avowed
purpose of the pontiff, to chase the 'barbarians' from Italy.
It was his bold policy, however, to make use of them first for
the aggrandisement of the church, and then to trust to his
augmented strength and more favorable opportunities for
eradicating them altogether. Never was there a project more
destitute of principle or sound policy. There was not one of
the contracting parties who was not at that very time in close
alliance with the state, the dismemberment of which he was
plotting. As a matter of policy, it went to break down the
principal barrier on which each of these powers could rely for
keeping in check the overweening ambition of its neighbors,
and maintaining the balance of Italy. The alarm of Venice was
quieted for a time by assurances from the courts of France and
Spain that the league was directed solely against the Turks,
accompanied by the most hypocritical professions of good will,
and amicable offers to the republic. The preamble of the
treaty declares that, it being the intention of the allies to
support the pope in a crusade against the infidel, they first
proposed to recover from Venice the territories of which she
had despoiled the church and other powers, to the manifest
hindrance of these pious designs. … The true reasons for the
confederacy are to be found in a speech delivered at the
German diet, some time after, by the French minister Hélian.
'We,' he remarks, after enumerating various enormities of the
republic, 'wear no fine purple; feast from no sumptuous
services of plate; have no coffers overflowing with gold. We
are barbarians. Surely,' he continues in another place, 'if it
is derogatory to princes to act the part of merchants, it is
unbecoming in merchants to assume the state of princes.' This,
then, was the true key to the conspiracy against Venice; envy
of her superior wealth and magnificence, hatred engendered by
her too arrogant bearing, and lastly the evil eye with which
kings naturally regard the movements of an active, aspiring
republic. To secure the co-operation of Florence, the kings of
France and Spain agreed to withdraw their protection from
Pisa, for a stipulated sum of money.
See PISA: A. D. 1494-1509.
There is nothing in the whole history of the merchant princes
of Venice so mercenary and base as this bartering away for
gold the independence for which this little republic had been
so nobly contending for more than 14 years. Early in April,
1509, Louis XII. crossed the Alps at the head of a force which
bore down all opposition. City and castle fell before him, and
his demeanor to the vanquished, over whom he had no rights
beyond the ordinary ones of war, was that of an incensed
master taking vengeance on his rebellious vassals. In revenge
for his detention before Peschiera, he hung the Venetian
governor and his son from the battlements. This was an outrage
on the laws of chivalry, which, however hard they bore on the
peasant, respected those of high degree. … On the 14th of May,
1509, was fought the bloody battle of Agnadel, which broke the
power of Venice and at once decided the fate of the war.
Ferdinand had contributed nothing to these operations, except
by his diversion on the side of Naples, where he possessed
himself without difficulty of the cities allotted to his
share. They were the cheapest, and, if not the most valuable,
were the most permanent acquisitions of the war, being
reincorporated in the monarchy of Naples. Then followed the
memorable decree by which Venice released her continental
provinces from their allegiance, authorizing them to provide
in any way they could for their safety; a measure which,
whether originating in panic or policy, was perfectly
consonant with the latter. The confederates, who had remained
united during the chase, soon quarrelled over the division of
the spoil. Ancient jealousies revived. The republic, with cool
and consummate policy, availed herself of this state of
feeling. Pope Julius, who had gained all that he had proposed,
and was satisfied with the humiliation of Venice, now felt all
his former antipathies and distrust of the French return in
full force. The rising flame was diligently fanned by the
artful emissaries of the republic, who at length effected a
reconciliation on her behalf with the haughty pontiff. The
latter … planned a new coalition for the expulsion of the
French, calling on the other allies to take part in it."
_W. H. Prescott,
History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella,
part 2, chapter 22 (volume 3)._
ALSO IN:
_T. A. Trollope,
History of the Commonwealth of Florence,
book 9, chapter 10 (volume 4)._
_The City in the Sea,
chapter 21._
_M. Creighton,
History of the Papacy during the Period of the Reformation,
book 5, chapter 14._
_L. von Ranke,
History of the Latin and Teutonic Nations from 1494 to 1514,
book 2, chapter 3._
_H. F. Brown,
Venice,
chapters 17-18._
{3612}
VENICE: A. D. 1510-1513.
The breaking of the League of Cambrai.
The" Holy League" of Pope Julius with Venice,
Ferdinand, Maximilian, and Henry VIII. against France.
The French expelled from Italy.
The Republic recovers its domain.
See ITALY: A. D. 1510-1513.
VENICE: A. D. 1517.
Peace with the Emperor Maximilian.
Recovery of Verona.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1516-1517.
VENICE: A. D. 1526.
The Holy League against the Emperor, Charles V.
See ITALY: A. D. 1523-1527.
VENICE: A. D. 1527.
Fresh alliance with France and England against the Emperor.
See ITALY: A. D. 1527-1529.
VENICE: A. D. 1570-1571.
Holy League with Spain and the Pope against the Turks.
Great battle and victory of Lepanto.
See TURKS: A. D. 1566-1571.
VENICE: A. D. 1572.
Withdrawal from the Holy League.
Separate peace with the Turks.
See TURKS: A. D. 1572-1573.
VENICE: 16th Century.
The Art of the Renaissance.
"It was a fact of the greatest importance for the development
of the fine arts in Italy that painting in Venice reached
maturity later than in Florence. Owing to this circumstance
one chief aspect of the Renaissance, its material magnificence
and freedom, received consummate treatment at the hands of
Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese. To idealise the sensualities
of the external universe, to achieve for colour what the
Florentines had done for form, to invest the worldly grandeur
of human life at one of its most gorgeous epochs with the
dignity of the highest art, was what these great artists were
called on to accomplish. Their task could not have been so
worthily performed in the fifteenth century as in the
sixteenth, if the development of the æsthetic sense had been
more premature among the Venetians. Venice was precisely
fitted for the part her painters had to play. Free, isolated,
wealthy, powerful; famous throughout Europe for the pomp of
her state equipage, and for the immorality of her private
manners; ruled by a prudent aristocracy, who spent vast wealth
on public shows and on the maintenance of a more than imperial
civic majesty: Venice with her pavement of liquid chrysoprase,
with her palaces of porphyry and marble, her frescoed façades,
her quays and squares aglow with the costumes of the Levant,
her lagoons afloat with the galleys of all nations, her
churches floored with mosaics, her silvery domes and ceilings
glittering with sculpture bathed in molten gold: Venice
luxurious in the light and colour of a vaporous atmosphere,
where sea-mists rose into the mounded summer clouds; arched
over by the broad expanse of sky, bounded only by the horizon
of waves and plain and distant mountain ranges, and reflected
in all its many hues of sunrise and sunset upon the glassy
surface of smooth waters: Venice asleep like a miracle of opal
or of pearl upon the bosom of an undulating lake:—here and
here only on the face of the whole globe was the unique city
wherein the pride of life might combine with the lustre of the
physical universe to create and stimulate in the artist a
sense of all that was most sumptuous in the pageant of the
world of sense. … The Venetians had no green fields and trees,
no garden borders, no blossoming orchards, to teach them the
tender suggestiveness, the quaint poetry of isolated or
contrasted tints. Their meadows were the fruitless furrows of
the Adriatic, hued like a peacock's neck; they called the
pearl-shells of their Lido flowers, fior di mare. Nothing
distracted their attention from the glories of morning and of
evening presented to them by their sea and sky. It was in
consequence of this that the Venetians conceived colour
heroically, not as a matter of missal-margins or of
subordinate decoration, but as a motive worthy in itself of
sublime treatment. In like manner, hedged in by no limitary
hills, contracted by no city walls, stifled by no narrow
streets, but open to the liberal airs of heaven and ocean, the
Venetians understood space and imagined pictures almost
boundless in their immensity. Light, colour, air, space: those
are the elemental conditions of Venetian art; of those the
painters weaved their ideal world for beautiful and proud
humanity. … In order to understand the destiny of Venice in
art, it is not enough to concentrate attention on the
peculiarities of her physical environment. Potent as these
were in the creation of her style, the political and social
conditions of the Republic require also to be taken into
account. Among Italian cities Venice was unique. She alone was
tranquil in her empire, unimpeded in her constitutional
development, independent of Church interference, undisturbed
by the cross purposes and intrigues of the despots, inhabited
by merchants who were princes, and by a free-born people who
had never seen war at their gates. The serenity of undisturbed
security, the luxury of wealth amassed abroad and liberally
spent at home, gave a physiognomy of ease and proud
self-confidence to all her edifices. The grim and anxious
struggles of the Middle Ages left no mark on Venice. How
different was this town from Florence, every inch of whose
domain could tell of civic warfare. … It is not an
insignificant, though a slight, detail, that the predominant
colour of Florence is brown, while the predominant colour of
Venice is that of mother-of-pearl, concealing within its
general whiteness every tint that can be placed upon the
palette of a painter. The conditions of Florence stimulated
mental energy and turned the forces of the soul inwards. Those
of Venice inclined the individual to accept life as he found
it. Instead of exciting him to think, they disposed him to
enjoy, or to acquire by industry the means of manifold
enjoyment. To represent in art the intellectual strivings of
the Renaissance was the task of Florence and her sons; to
create a monument of Renaissance magnificence was the task of
Venice."
_J. A. Symonds,
Renaissance in Italy: The Fine Arts,
chapter 7._
{3613}
VENICE: A. D. 1606-1607.
The Republic under the guidance of Fra Paolo Sarpi.
Conflict with the Pope.
The Interdict which had no terrors.
"In the Constitution of the Republic at this time [1606] there
were three permanent officials called Counsellors of Law, or
State Counsellors, whose duties were to instruct the Doge and
Senate on the legal bearings of any question in dispute in
which the Republic was involved. But at the beginning of this
year, because of the ecclesiastical element that frequently
appeared in these quarrels (for they were mostly between the
State and the Pope), the Senate resolved to create a new
office, namely, that of 'Teologo-Consultore,' or Theological
Counsellor. In looking about for one to fill this office the
choice of Doge and Senate unanimously fell upon Fra Paolo
Sarpi. … I have called Fra Paolo Sarpi the greatest of the
Venetians. … Venice has produced many great men—Doges,
soldiers, sailors, statesmen, writers, poets, painters,
travellers—but I agree with Mrs. Oliphant that Fra Paolo is 'a
personage more grave and great, a figure unique in the midst
of this ever animated, strong, stormy, and restless race'; and
with Lord Macaulay, who has said of him that 'what he did, he
did better than anybody.' … He was supreme as a thinker, as a
man of action, and as a transcript and pattern of every
Christian principle. … Foreigners who came to Venice sought
above all things to see him as 'the greatest genius of his
age.' … On the 28th of January, 1606, he entered upon his
public duties." From that time until his death, seventeen
years later, he not only held the office of Theological
Counsellor, but the duties of the three Counsellors of Law
were gradually transferred to him, as those offices were
vacated, in succession, by death. "During this time question
after question arose for settlement, many of which were of
momentous import, the resolution of which bore, not upon the
interests of Venice merely, but of Europe; and affected, not
the then living generation only, but a remote posterity. In
every case Fra Paolo's advice was sought, in every case it was
followed, and in every case it was right. The consequence was
that the history of the Republic during these seventeen years
was one unbroken record of great intellectual and moral
victories. … Never was there in any land, by any Government, a
servant more honoured and more beloved. The solicitude of the
Doge, of the dreaded Council of Ten, of the Senate, of the
whole people, for the safety and well-being of their
Consultore, was like that of a mother for her only child.
'Fate largo a Fra Paolo'—'Make room for Fra Paolo,' was often
heard as he passed along the crowded Merceria. Fra Paolo loved
Venice with an undying devotion, and Venice loved him with a
romantic and tender affection. The Pope, whose quarrels with
the Republic were the chief cause of the creation of the
office of Theological Counsellor, and of Fra Paolo's election
to it, was Paul V. … Strained relations … [had] existed
between Venice and the Vatican during the last years of
Clement VIII.'s Pontificate. His seizure of the Duchy of
Ferrara, his conduct in the matter of the Patriarch Zane's
appointment, his attempt to cripple the book-trade of Venice
by means of the Index Expurgatorius, all led to serious
disputes, in everyone of which he got the worst of it. Pope
Paul V., who was then Cardinal Borghese, chafed at what he
considered Clement's pusillanimity. Talking of these matters
to the Venetian ambassador at Rome, Leonardo Donato, he once
said, 'If I were Pope, I would place Venice under an interdict
and excommunication;' 'And if I were Doge,' was the reply, 'I
would trample your interdict and excommunication under foot.'
Curiously enough, both were called upon to fill these offices,
and both proved as good as their words. … Paul V. … found
several excuses for quarrel. The Patriarch, Matteo Zane—he
whose appointment had been a matter of dispute with Clement
VIII.—died, and the Senate appointed Francesco Vendramin as
his successor. Pope Paul claimed the right of presentation,
and demanded that he should be sent to Rome for examination
and approval. The Senate replied by ordering his investiture,
and forbidding him to leave Venice. Again, money had to be
raised in Brescia for the restoration of the ramparts, and the
Senate imposed a tax on all the citizens—laymen and
ecclesiastics alike. Pope Paul V. claimed exemption for the
latter, as being his subjects. The Senate refused to listen to
him. … These differences were causing both the Pope and the
Republic to look to their armoury and to try the temper of
their weapons, when two more serious matters occurred which
brought them into open warfare. The prologue was passed, the
drama was about to open. First, two priests in high position
were leading flagrantly wicked and criminal lives. … The
Senate sent its officers, and had the offenders seized and
brought to Venice, and locked up from further mischief in the
dungeons of the Ducal Palace. Pope Paul V. angrily
remonstrated, and peremptorily demanded their instant
liberation, on the ground that being priests they were not
amenable to the secular arm. … Secondly, two ecclesiastical
property laws were in force throughout the Republic; by one
the Church was prohibited from building any new monasteries,
convents, or churches without the consent of the Government
under penalty of forfeiture; and by the other it was
disqualified from retaining property which it might become
possessed of by donation or by inheritance, but was bound to
turn it into money. … Pope Paul V. … demanded the repeal of
these property laws. These two demands, regarding the
imprisoned ecclesiastics and the property laws, were first put
forward in October, 1605. … Early in December, the Pope,
impatient to bring the quarrel to a head, threatened to place
Venice under interdict and excommunication if it did not yield
to his demands. … It was at this acute stage of the quarrel
that the Republic laid hold of Fra Paolo Sarpi, and, as we
have already noted, made him its Theological Counsellor, and
the struggle henceforth became, to a large extent, a duel
between 'Paul the Pope, and Paul the Friar.' On the very day
that Fra Paolo accepted this office he informed the Senate
that two courses of action were open to them. They could argue
the case either de jure or de facto. First, de jure, that is,
they could appeal against the judgment of the Pope to a Church
Council. … Secondly, the Republic could adopt the de facto
course; that is, it could rely on its own authority and
strength. It could set these over against the Pope's, and
whilst willing to argue out the matter in a spirit of reason
with him, yet meet his force with opposing force. If he turned
a deaf ear to right, there was no help for it but to make it a
question of might. The de facto course was therefore the one
Fra Paolo recommended; adding very significantly, 'He who
appeals to a Council admits that the righteousness of his
cause may be questioned, whereas that of Venice is
indisputable.'
{3614}
The Senate hailed the advice thus given, and instructed him to
draw out a reply to the Pope's brief in accordance with it. …
From the moment this reply was received a bitter controversy
was set on foot. Renewed demands came from Rome, and renewed
refusals were sent from Venice. … Meanwhile the eyes of all
the Courts of Europe were directed to the great struggle, and
Venice made them more than spectators by laying its case as
prepared by their Consultore fairly and fully before them. The
time had not arrived for any nation to enter as a party into
the contest, but all frankly expressed their opinions, which
were, with the exception of that of Spain, unequivocally on
the side of Venice. … At last the Pope determined to put into
execution the threats contained in the briefs, and to place
the Republic under interdict and excommunication. On the 17th
of April, 1606, the bull of interdict and excommunication was
launched; twenty-four days being allowed Venice for
repentance, with three more added of the Pope's gracious
clemency. The die was thus cast by Pope Paul V., by which he
was either to humble the Republic, or discredit himself and
his 'spiritual arms' in the sight of Europe. The bull was a
sweeping one. … No more masses were to be said. Baptism,
marriage, and burial services were to cease. The churches were
to be locked up, and the priests could withdraw from the
devoted land. All social relationships were dissolved.
Marriages were declared invalid, and all children born were
illegitimate. Husbands could desert their wives, and children
disobey their parents. Contracts of all kinds were declared
null and void. Allegiance to the Government was at an end."
_A. Robertson,
Fra Paolo Sarpi,
chapter 5, and preface._
"It was proposed in the college of Venice to enter a solemn
protest, as had been done in earlier times; but this proposal
was rejected, on the ground that the sentence of the pope was
in itself null and void, and had not even a show of justice.
In a short proclamation, occupying only a quarto page,
Leonardo Donato made known to the clergy the resolution of the
republic to maintain the sovereign authority, 'which
acknowledges no other superior in worldly things save God
alone.' Her faithful clergy would of themselves perceive the
nullity of the 'censures' issued against them, and would
continue the discharge of their functions, the cure of souls
and the worship of God, without interruption. No alarm was
expressed, no menaces were uttered, the proclamation was a
mere expression of confidence and security. It is, however,
probable that something more may have been done by verbal
communication. By these proceedings, the question of claim and
right became at once a question of strength and of possession.
Commanded by their two superiors—the pope and the republic—to
give contradictory proofs of obedience, the Venetian clergy
were now called on to decide to which of the two they would
render that obedience. They did not hesitate; they obeyed the
republic: not a copy of the brief was fixed up. The delay
appointed by the pope expired; public worship was everywhere
conducted as usual. As the secular clergy had decided, so did
also the monastic orders. The only exception to this was
presented by the orders newly instituted, and in which the
principle of ecclesiastical restoration was more particularly
represented; these were the Jesuits, Theatines, and Capuchins.
The Jesuits, in so far as they were themselves concerned, were
not altogether decided; they first took counsel of their
Provincial at Ferrara, and afterwards of their General in
Rome, who referred the question to the pope himself. Paul V.
replied that they must either observe the interdict, or shake
the dust from their feet and leave Venice. A hard decision
assuredly, since they were distinctly informed that they would
never be permitted to return; but the principle of their
institution allowed them no choice. Embarking in their boats,
they departed from the city, and took shelter in the papal
dominions. Their example influenced the other two orders. A
middle course was proposed by the Theatines, but the Venetians
did not think it advisable; they would suffer no division in
their land, and demanded either obedience or departure. The
deserted churches were easily provided with other priests, and
care was taken that none should perceive a deficiency. … It is
manifest that the result was a complete schism. The pope was
amazed; his exaggerated pretensions were confronted by the
realities of things with the most unshrinking boldness. Did
any means exist by which these might be overcome? Paul V.
thought at times of having recourse to arms. … Legates were
despatched, and troops fitted out; but in effect they dared
not venture to attempt force. There would have been cause to
apprehend that Venice would call the Protestants to her aid,
and thus throw all Italy, nay the Catholic world at large,
into the most perilous commotions. They must again betake
themselves, as on former occasions, to political measures, for
the adjustment of these questions touching the rights of the
Church. … I have neither inclination nor means for a detailed
account of these negotiations through the whole course of the
proceedings. … The first difficulty was presented by the pope,
who insisted, before all things, that the Venetian laws, which
had given him so much offence, should be repealed; and he made
the suspension of his ecclesiastical censures to depend on
their repeal. But the Venetians, also, on their part, with a
certain republican self-complacency, were accustomed to
declare their laws sacred and inviolable. When the papal
demand was brought under discussion in January, 1607, although
the college wavered, yet at last it was decidedly rejected in
the senate. The French, who had given their word to the pope,
succeeded in bringing the question forward once more in March,
when of the four opponents in the college, one at least
withdrew his objections. After the arguments on both sides had
again been fully stated in the senate, there was still, it is
true, no formal or express repeal of the laws, but a decision
was adopted to the effect that 'the republic would conduct
itself with its accustomed piety.' However obscure these words
appear, the ambassador and the pope thought they discovered in
them the fulfilment of their wishes. The pope then suspended
his censures."
_L. Ranke,
History of the Popes,
book 6, section 12 (volume 2)._
"The moral victory remained with Venice. She did not recall
her laws as to taxation of the clergy and the foundation of
new churches and monasteries [nor permit the Jesuits to
return, until many years later]. … The hero of the whole
episode, Fra Paolo Sarpi, continued to live quietly in his
convent of the Servites at S. Fosca.
{3615}
The Government received warning from Rome that danger was
threatening. In its turn it cautioned Fra Paolo. But he paid
little or no heed." On the 25th of October, 1607, towards five
o'clock in the evening, as he was returning to his convent, he
was attacked by three assassins, who inflicted serious wounds
upon him and left him for dead. By great care, however, Fra
Paolo's life was saved, and prolonged until 1623. The would-be
assassins escaped into the Papal States, where "they found not
only shelter but a welcome."
_H. F. Brown,
Venice,
chapter 20._
ALSO IN:
_J. A. Symonds,
Renaissance in Italy: The Catholic Reaction,
chapter 10 (volume 2)._
_T. A. Trollope,
Paul the Pope and Paul the Friar._
See, also, PAPACY: A. D. 1605-1700.
VENICE: A. D. 1620-1626.
The Valteline War.
Alliance with France and Savoy against the Austro-Spanish power.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1624-1626.
VENICE: A. D. 1629-1631.
League with France against Spain and the Emperor.
The Mantuan War.
See ITALY: A. D. 1627-1631.
VENICE: A. D. 1645-1669.
The war of Candia with the Turks.
Loss of Crete.
See TURKS: A. D. 1645-1669.
VENICE: A. D. 1684-1696.
War of the Holy League against the Turks.
Siege and capture of Athens.
Conquest of the Morea and parts of Dalmatia and Albania.
See TURKS: A. D. 1684-1696.
VENICE: A. D. 1699.
Peace of Carlowitz with the Sultan.
Turkish Cession of part of the Morea and most of Dalmatia.
See HUNGARY: A. D. 1683-1699.
VENICE: A. D. 1714-1718.
War with the Turks.
The Morea lost.
Defense of Corfu.
Peace of Passarowitz.
See TURKS: A. D. 1714-1718.
VENICE: A. D. 1767.
Expulsion of the Jesuits.
See JESUITS: A. D. 1761-1769.
VENICE: A. D. 1796.
Bonaparte's schemes for the destruction of the Republic.
The picking of the quarrel.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1796 (APRIL-OCTOBER).
VENICE: A. D. 1797.
The ignominious overthrow of the Republic by Napoleon.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1796-1797 (OCTOBER-APRIL);
and 1797 (APRIL-MAY).
VENICE: A. D. 1797 (October).
City and territories given over to Austria
by the Treaty of Campo-Formio.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1797 (MAY-OCTOBER).
VENICE: A. D. 1805.
Territories ceded by Austria to the kingdom of Italy.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1805-1806.
VENICE: A. D. 1814.
Transfer of Venetian states to Austria.
Formation of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1814 (APRIL-JUNE);
VIENNA, THE CONGRESS OF; AUSTRIA: A. D. 1815-1846;
and ITALY: A. D. 1814-1815.
VENICE: A. D. 1815.
Restoration of the Bronze Horses taken away by Napoleon.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1815 (JULY-NOVEMBER).
VENICE: A. D. 1848-1849.
Insurrection.
Expulsion of the Austrians.
Provisional government under Daniel Manin.
Renewed subjugation.
See ITALY: A. D. 1848-1849.
VENICE: A. D. 1859.
Grievous disappointment in the Austro-Italian war.
See ITALY: A. D. 1856-1859; and 1859-1861.
VENICE: A. D. 1866.
Relinquishment by Austria.
Annexation to the kingdom of Italy.
See ITALY: A. D. 1862-1866.
----------VENICE: End--------
VENICONII, The.
See IRELAND, TRIBES OF EARLY CELTIC INHABITANTS.
VENLOO, Surrender of.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1585-1586.
VENNER'S INSURRECTION.
See FIFTH MONARCHY MEN.
VENNONES, The.
See RHÆTIA.
VENTA.
Three important cities in Roman Britain bore the name of
Venta; one occupying the site of modern Winchester, a second
standing near Norwich, the third at Caerwent in Wales. They
were distinguished, respectively, as Venta Belgarum, Venta
Icenorum and Venta Silurum.
_T. Wright,
Celt, Roman and Saxon._
VENTÔSE, The month.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (OCTOBER) NEW REPUBLICAN CALENDAR.
VERA CRUZ, Mexico: A. D. 1519.
Founded by Cortes.
See MEXICO: A. D. 1519 (JUNE-OCTOBER).
VERA CRUZ, Mexico: A. D. 1839.
Attacked by the French.
See MEXICO: A. D. 1828-1844.
VERA CRUZ, Mexico: A. D. 1847.
Bombardment and capture by the Americans.
See MEXICO: A. D. 1847 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).
VERAGUA: A. D. 1502.
Attempted settlement by Columbus.
See AMERICA: A D. 1498-1505.
VERAGUA: A. D. 1509.
Attempted settlement by Nicuesa.
See AMERICA: A. D. 1500-1511.
VERCELLI: A. D. 1638-1659.
Siege and capture by the Spaniards.
Restoration to Savoy.
See ITALY: A. D. 1635-1659.
VERDUN: A. D. 1552-1559.
Possession taken by France.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1547-1559.
VERDUN: A. D. 1648.
Ceded to France in the Peace of Westphalia.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1648.
VERDUN, The Treaty of: A. D. 843.
The contest and civil war which arose between the three
grandsons of Charlemagne resulted in a treaty of partition,
brought about in 843, which forever dissolved the great Frank
Empire of Clovis, and of the Pippins and Karls who finished
what he began. "A commission of 300 members was appointed to
distribute itself over the surface of the empire, and by an
exact examination of the wealth of each region, and the wishes
of its people, acquire a knowledge of the best means of making
an equitable division. The next year the commissioners
reported the result of their researches to the three kings,
assembled at Verdun, and a treaty of separation was drawn up
and executed, which gave Gaul, from the Meuse and Saone as far
as the Pyrenees, to Karl; which gave Germany, beyond the
Rhine, to Ludwig the Germanic; and which secured to Lother
Italy, with a broad strip on the Rhine, between the dominions
of Karl and Ludwig, under the names of Lotheringia or
Lorraine. This was the first great treaty of modern Europe; it
began a political division which lasted for many centuries;
the great empire of Karl was formally dismembered by it, and
the pieces of it scattered among his degenerate descendants."
_P. Godwin,
History of France: Ancient Gaul,
chapter 18._
{3616}
"The treaty of Verdun, in 843, abrogated the sovereignty that
had been attached to the eldest brother and to the imperial
name in former partitions; each held his respective kingdom as
an independent right. This is the epoch of a final separation
between the French and German members of the empire. Its
millenary was celebrated by some of the latter nation in
1843."
_H. Hallam,
The Middle Ages,
chapter 1, part 1 (volume l)._
See, also, FRANKS: A. D. 814-962.
VERGARA, Treaty of (1839).
See SPAIN: A. D. 1833-1846.
VERGENNES, Count de,
and the French alliance with the revolted American Colonies.
See UNITED STATES OF AM.: A. D. 1776-1778;
1778 (FEBRUARY): 1778-1779,
and 1782 (SEPTEMBER) and (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).
VERGNIAUD AND THE GIRONDISTS.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1791 (OCTOBER),
to 1793 (SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER).
VERGOBRET, The.
The chief magistrate of the tribe of Gauls known as the Ædui
was called the vergobret. "Cæsar terms this magistrate
vergobretus, which Celtic scholars derive from the words
'ver-go-breith,' ('homme de jugement,' O'Brien, Thierry). He
was elected by a council of priests and nobles, and had the
power of life and death. But his office was only annual."
Divitiacus, the Æduian friend of Cæsar and the Romans, had
been the vergobret of his tribe.
_C. Merivale,
History of the Romans,
chapter 6, foot-note._
VERMANDOIS, House of.
The noble House of Vermandois which played an important part
in French history during the Middle Ages, boasted a descent
from Charlemagne, through his best loved son, Pippin, king of
Italy. "Peronne and the Abbey of Saint-Quintin composed the
nucleus of their Principality; but, quietly and without
contradiction, they had extended their sway over the heart of
the kingdom of Soissons; and that antient Soissons, and the
rock of Lâon, and Rheims, the prerogative city of the Gauls,
were all within the geographical ambit of their territory. In
such enclavures as we have named, Vermandois did not possess
direct authority. Lâon, for example, had a Count and a bishop,
and was a royal domain."
_Sir F. Palgrave,
History of Normandy and England,
book 1, chapter 5, section 6 (volume 1)._
----------VERMONT: Start--------
VERMONT: A. D. 1749-1774.
Beginning of settlement.
The New Hampshire Grants and the conflict with New York.
Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys.
"Among the causes of the controversies which existed between
the colonies in early times, and continued down to the
revolution, was the uncertainty of boundary lines as described
in the old charters. … A difficulty of this kind arose between
the colony of New York and those of Connecticut,
Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. By the grant of King Charles
II. to his brother, the Duke of York, the tract of country
called New York was bounded on the east by Connecticut River,
thus conflicting with the express letter of the Massachusetts
and Connecticut charters, which extended those colonies
westward to the South Sea, or Pacific Ocean. After a long
controversy, kept up at times with a good deal of heat on both
sides, the line of division between these colonies was fixed
by mutual agreement at 20 miles east of Hudson's River,
running nearly in a north and south direction. … The
Massachusetts boundary was decided much later to be a
continuation of the Connecticut line to the north, making the
western limit of Massachusetts also 20 miles from the same
river. … Meantime New Hampshire had never been brought into
the controversy, because the lands to the westward of that
province beyond Connecticut River had been neither settled nor
surveyed. There was indeed a small settlement at Fort Dummer
on the western margin of the River, which was under the
protection of Massachusetts. … Such was the state of things
when Benning Wentworth became governor of New Hampshire, with
authority from the King to issue patents for unimproved lands
within the limits of his province. Application was made for
grants to the west of Connecticut River, and even beyond the
Green Mountains, and in 1749 he gave a patent for a township 6
miles square, near the north west angle of Massachusetts, to
be so laid out, that its western limit should be 20 miles from
the Hudson, and coincide with the boundary line of Connecticut
and Massachusetts continued northward. This township was
called Bennington. Although the governor and council of New
York remonstrated against this grant, and claimed for that
colony the whole territory north of Massachusetts as far
eastward as Connecticut River, yet Governor Wentworth was not
deterred by this remonstrance from issuing other patents,
urging in his justification, that New Hampshire had a right to
the same extension westward as Massachusetts and Connecticut."
After the British conquest of Canada, 1760, "applications for
new patents thronged daily upon Governor Wentworth, and within
four years' time the whole number of townships granted by him,
to the westward of Connecticut River, was 138. The territory
including these townships was known by the name of the New
Hampshire Grants, which it retained till the opening of the
revolution, when its present name of Vermont began to be
adopted."
_J. Sparks,
Life of Ethan Allen
(Library of American Biographies, volume 1)._
"Lieutenant Governor Colden, acting chief magistrate of New
York in the absence of General Monckton, perceiving the
necessity of asserting the claims of that province to the
country westward of the Connecticut river, wrote an energetic
letter to Governor Wentworth, protesting against his grants.
He also sent a proclamation among the people, declaring the
Connecticut river to be the boundary between New York and New
Hampshire. But protests and proclamations were alike unheeded
by the governor and the people until the year 1764, when the
matter was laid before the King and council for adjudication.
The decision was in favor of New York. Wentworth immediately
bowed to supreme authority, and ceased issuing patents for
lands westward of the Connecticut. The settlers, considering
all questions in dispute to be thus finally disposed of, were
contented, and went on hopefully in the improvement of their
lands. Among these settlers in the Bennington township were
members of the Allen family, in Connecticut, two of whom,
Ethan and Ira, were conspicuous in public affairs for many
years, as we shall hereafter have occasion to observe. The
authorities of New York, not content with the award of
territorial jurisdiction over the domain, proceeded, on the
decision of able legal authority, to assert the right of
property in the soil of that territory, and declared
Wentworth's patents all void.
{3617}
They went further. Orders were issued for the survey and sale
of farms in the possession of actual settlers, who had bought
and paid for them, and, in many instances, had made great
progress in improvements. In this, New York acted not only
unjustly, but very unwisely. This oppression, for oppression
it was, was a fatal mistake. It was like sowing dragons' teeth
to see them produce a crop of full-armed men. The settlers
were disposed to be quiet, loyal subjects of New York. They
cared not who was their political master, so long as their
private rights were respected. But this act of injustice
converted them into rebellious foes, determined and defiant. …
Meanwhile speculators had been purchasing from New York large
tracts of these estates in the disputed territory, and were
making preparations to take possession. The people of the
Grants sent one of their number to England, and laid their
cause before the King and council. He came back in August,
1767, armed with an order for the Governor of New York to
abstain from issuing any more patents for lands eastward of
Lake Champlain. But as the order was not 'ex post facto' in
its operations, the New York patentees proceeded to take
possession of their purchased lands. This speedily brought on
a crisis, and for seven years the New Hampshire Grants formed
a theater where all the elements of civil war, except actual
carnage, were in active exercise. … The hardy yeomanry who
first appeared in arms for the defense of their territorial
rights, and afterwards as patriots in the common cause when
the Revolution broke out, were called Green Mountain Boys."
_B. J. Lossing,
Life and Times of Philip Schuyler,
volume 1, chapter 12._
ALSO IN:
_S. Williams,
History of Vermont,
chapter 9._
_W. Slade, editor,
Vermont State Papers,
pages 1-49._
_Vermont Historical Society Collection,
volumes 1 and 3._
VERMONT: A. D. 1775.
Ticonderoga surprised by the Green Mountain Boys.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (MAY).
VERMONT: A. D. 1777.
Stark's victory at Bennington.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1777 (JULY-OCTOBER).
VERMONT: A. D. 1777-1778.
State independence declared and constitution framed.
Admission to the Union denied.
"The settlers in the land which this year [1777] took the name
of Vermont refused by a great majority to come under the
jurisdiction of New York; on the 15th of January 1777, their
convention declared the independence of their state. At
Windsor, on the 2d of June, they appointed a committee to
prepare a constitution; and they hoped to be received into the
American union. But, as New York opposed, congress, by an
uncertain majority against a determined minority, disclaimed
the intention of recognising Vermont as a separate state. … On
the 2d of July the convention of Vermont reassembled at
Windsor. The organic law which they adopted, blending the
culture of their age with the traditions of Protestantism,
assumed that all men are born free and with inalienable
rights; that they may emigrate from one state to another, or
form a new state in vacant countries; that 'every sect should
observe the Lord's day, and keep up some sort of religious
worship'; that every man may choose that form of religious
worship 'which shall seem to him most agreeable to the
revealed will of God. 'They provided for a school in each
town, a grammar-school in each county, and a university in the
state. All officers, alike executive and legislative, were to
be chosen annually and by ballot; the freemen of every town
and all one year's residents were electors. Every member of
the house of representatives must declare his 'belief in one
God …; in the divine inspiration of the scriptures; and in the
Protestant religion.' The legislative power was vested in one
general assembly, subject to no veto. … Slavery was forbidden
and forever; and there could be no imprisonment for debt. …
After the loss of Ticonderoga, the introduction of the
constitution was postponed [until March, 1778], lest the
process of change should interfere with the public defence."
_G. Bancroft,
History of the United States (Author's last revision),
volume 5, pages 157, and 161-162._
ALSO IN;
_Ira Allen,
History of Vermont
(Vermont Historical Society Collection,
volume 1, pages 375-393)._
_Vermont Historical Society Collection,
volume 3._
_R. E. Robinson,
Vermont: a Study of Independence,
chapters 10-14._
VERMONT: A. D. 1781.
Negotiations with the British authorities
as an independent State.
Vermont had repeatedly applied for admission into the Union;
but the opposition of her neighbors, who claimed her
territory, and the jealousy of the southern states, who
objected to the admission of another northern state, prevented
favorable action in Congress. In 1780 a fresh appeal was made
with a declaration that if it failed the people of the Green
Mountains would propose to the other New England states and to
New York, "an alliance and confederation for mutual defense,
independent of Congress and of the other states." If neither
Congress nor the northern states would listen to them, then,
said the memorial, "they are, if necessitated to it, at
liberty to offer or accept terms of cessation of hostilities
with Great Britain without the approbation of any other man or
body of men." "The British generals in America had for some
time entertained hopes of turning the disputes in relation to
Vermont to their own account, by detaching that district from
the American cause and making it a British province. But the
first intimation of their views and wishes was communicated in
a letter from Colonel Beverly Robinson to Ethan Allen; dated
New York, March 30th, 1780. In July, this letter was delivered
to Allen in the street in Arlington, by a British soldier in
the habit of an American farmer. Allen perused the letter, and
then told the bearer that he should consider it, and that he
might return. … Allen immediately communicated the contents of
this letter to Governor Chittenden and some other confidential
friends, who agreed in opinion, that no answer should be
returned. Robinson, not receiving a reply to his letter and
supposing it to have been miscarried, wrote again to Allen on
the 2d of February, 1781, enclosing his former letter. In his
second letter, after saying he had received new assurances of
the inclination of Vermont to join the king's cause, he said
that he could then write with more authority; and assured
Allen that he and the people of Vermont could obtain the most
favorable terms, provided they would take a decisive and
active part in favor of Great Britain. He requested an answer;
and that the way might be pointed out for continuing the
correspondence; and desired to be informed in what manner the
people of Vermont could be most serviceable to the British
cause.
{3618}
Allen returned no answer to either of these letters; but, on
the 9th of March, 1781, inclosed them in a letter to Congress,
informing them of all the circumstances which had thus far
attended the business. He then proceeded to justify the
conduct of Vermont in asserting her right to independence, and
expressed his determinate resolution to do every thing in his
power to establish it. … 'I am confident,' said he, 'that
Congress will not dispute my sincere attachment to the cause
of my country, though I do not hesitate to say, I am fully
grounded in opinion, that Vermont has an indubitable right to
agree on terms of a cessation of hostilities with Great
Britain, provided the United States persist in rejecting her
application for an union with them.' … During the spring of
1780, some of the scouting parties belonging to Vermont had
been taken by the British and carried prisoners to Canada. On
the application of their friends to Governor Chittenden, he,
in the month of July, sent a flag with a letter to the
commanding officer in Canada, requesting their release or
exchange. In the fall, the British came up lake Champlain in
great force, and a very favorable answer was returned by
General Haldimand to Governor Chittenden's letter. A flag was
at the same time sent to Ethan Allen, then a brigadier general
and commanding officer in Vermont, proposing a cessation of
hostilities with Vermont, during negotiations for the exchange
of prisoners."
_Z. Thompson,
History of the State of Vermont,
chapter 4, section 6._
"The immediate results were a truce, which covered not only
Vermont but the frontiers of New York to Hudson river; the
disbanding of the militia of Vermont; and the retiring of the
British troops to winter quarters in Canada. Until the truce
became generally known, the results of it occasioned much
surprise in New York. It was further agreed, that the
commissioners of both parties should meet on the subject of
the cartel, and go together to Canada. This was attempted, but
failed on account of the difficulty of getting through the ice
on Lake Champlain. After contending several days with the
elements, the commissioners separated; but 'while their men
[wrote Ira Allen] were breaking through the ice, much
political conversation and exhibits of papers took place.'
Williams ['History of Vermont'] is more definite: 'the British
agents availed themselves of this opportunity to explain their
views, to make their proposals, and offer as complete an
establishment for Vermont, from the royal authority, as should
be desired. The commissioners from Vermont treated the
proposals with affability and good humor, and though they
avoided bringing anything to a decision, the British concluded
they were in a fair way to effect their purposes.' The
subsequent negotiations at Isle aux Noix, between Ira Allen
and the British commissioners, as to matters beyond settling a
cartel, were secret, and even the commander of the post had no
knowledge of them, although he was associated with the British
commissioners on the question of an exchange of prisoners.
These facts show that the public had no knowledge except of a
truce for a humane and proper attempt to relieve citizens of
Vermont, and its officers and soldiers, who were then
prisoners in Canada; and the conclusion is that all the
suspicion that then existed of the patriotism and fidelity of
the great body of the people of the state, and all the obloquy
since drawn from the negotiation with Haldimand and cast upon
the state, were entirely unjust. If any body was really at
fault, the number implicated was very small. Williams asserted
that 'eight persons only in Vermont, were in the secret of
this correspondence;' and Ira Allen that, in May, 1781, 'only
eight persons were in the secret, but more were added as the
circumstances required.'"
_Vermont Historical Society Collection,
volume 2, introduction._
"By the definitive treaty between Great Britain and the United
States, September 3, 1783, Vermont was included within the
boundaries separating the independent American from British
territory, and thus the independence of Vermont was
acknowledged first by the mother country. The State had been
de facto independent from its organization; and therefore the
following record, with the other papers contained in this and
the first volume of the Historical Society Collections covers
the existence of Vermont as an independent and sovereign
state."
_Vermont Historical Society Collection,
volume 2, page 397._
ALSO IN:
_Vermont Historical Society Collection,
volume 2,
Haldimand Papers._
_D. Brymner,
Report on Canadian Archives, 1889,
pages 53-58._
_R. E. Robinson,
Vermont: a Study of Independence,
chapter 15._
VERMONT: A. D. 1790-1791.
Renunciation of the claims of New York
and admission of the State to the Union.
"The rapid increase of the population of Vermont having
destroyed all hope on the part of New York, of re-establishing
her jurisdiction over that rebellious district, the holders of
the New York grants, seeing no better prospect before them,
were ready to accept such an indemnity as might be obtained by
negotiation. Political considerations had also operated. The
vote of Vermont might aid to establish the seat of the federal
government at New York. At all events, that state would serve
as a counterbalance to Kentucky, the speedy admission of which
was foreseen. The Assembly of New York [July, 1789] had
appointed commissioners with full powers to acknowledge the
independence of Vermont, and to arrange a settlement of all
matters in controversy. To this appointment Vermont had
responded, and terms had been soon arranged. In consideration
of the sum of $30,000, as an indemnity to the New York
grantees, New York renounced all claim of jurisdiction
[October 7, 1790], consented to the admission of Vermont into
the Union, and agreed to the boundary heretofore claimed—the
western line of the westernmost townships granted by New
Hampshire and the middle channel of Lake Champlain. This
arrangement was immediately ratified by the Legislature of
Vermont. A Convention, which met at the beginning of the year
[1791], had voted unanimously to ratify the Federal
Constitution, and to ask admission into the Union.
Commissioners were soon after appointed by the Assembly to
wait upon Congress and to negotiate the admission. No
opposition was made to it, and [February 18, 1791] within
fourteen days after the passage of the bill for the
prospective admission of Kentucky, Vermont was received into
the Union, from and after the termination of the present
session of Congress. The Constitution under which Vermont came
into the Union, originally adopted in 1777, had been slightly
altered in 1785. Most of its provisions seem to have been
copied from the first Constitution of Pennsylvania. … The
revision of 1785 struck out the requirement of Protestantism;
another revision in 1793, still following the example of
Pennsylvania, released the members of Assembly from the
necessity of any religious subscription."
_R. Hildreth,
History of the United States,
volume 4, chapter 3._
ALSO IN:
_H. Beckley,
History of Vermont,
chapters 5-6._
_J. L. Heaton,
Story of Vermont,
chapter 4._
{3619}
VERMONT: A. D. 1812.
Vigorous support of the war with England.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1812 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).
VERMONT: A. D. 1814.
The Hartford Convention.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1814 (DECEMBER).
VERMONT: A. D. 1864.
The St. Albans Raid.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (OCTOBER)
THE ST. ALBANS RAID.
----------VERMONT: End--------
VERMONT UNIVERSITY.
"At the time of the organization of the State government, in
1798, the University of Vermont was endowed with lands which
proved subsequently to amount to 29,000 acres. In 1791 the
university was organized. … The early years of the university,
planted as it was in the wilderness, were full of struggles
and misfortunes. The State was generous in the extreme at the
beginning, but failed to support the university it had
created. The land was poor and brought little income, the
whole tract bringing but 2,500 dollars at that time. In 1813
the buildings of the university were seized by the Government
and used for the storage of United States arms, by which much
damage was suffered, and the houseless students all left, most
of them to shoulder muskets against the British invaders. The
buildings were rented in 1814 for the United States Army.
Worse misfortunes occurred in 1824, the buildings being
consumed by fire, but were restored by the citizens of
Burlington in the following year. For the first ninety-five
years of the corporate existence of the university the State
never gave anything toward the support of it more than has
been set forth in the above statements."
_F. W. Blackmar,
History of Federal and State Aid to Higher Education
in the United States
(Bureau of Education, Circ. of Information, 1890, number 1),
pages 125-126._
VERNEUIL, Battle of (1424).
See FRANCE: A. D. 1429-1431.
VERNICOMES.
A tribe in ancient Caledonia, whose territory was the eastern
half of Fife.
See BRITAIN, CELTIC TRIBES.
VEROMANDUI, The.
See BELGÆ.
----------VERONA: Start--------
VERONA: A. D. 312.
Siege, battle, and victory of Constantine.
See ROME: A. D. 805-323.
VERONA: A. D. 403.
Defeat of Alaric by Stilicho.
See GOTHS (VISIGOTHS): A. D. 400-403.
VERONA: A. D. 489.
Defeat of Odoacer by Theodoric.
See ROME: A. D. 488-526.
VERONA: A. D. 493-525.
Residence of Theodoric the Ostrogoth.
"Pavia and Verona [as well as his ordinary capital city,
Ravenna] were also places honoured with the occasional
residence of Theodoric. At both he built a palace and public
baths. … At Verona, the palace, of which there were still some
noble remains incorporated into the castle of the Viscontis,
was blown up by the French in 1801, and an absolutely modern
building stands upon its site. … It seems probable that
Theodoric's residence at both these places depended on the
state of Transalpine politics. When the tribes of the middle
Danube were moving suspiciously to and fro, and the vulnerable
point by the Brenner Pass needed to be especially guarded, he
fixed his quarters at Verona. When Gaul menaced greater
danger, then he removed to Ticinum [Pavia]. It was apparently
the fact that Verona was his coign of vantage, from whence be
watched the German barbarians, which obtained for him from
their minstrels the title of Dietrich of Bern. Thus strangely
travestied, he was swept within the wide current of the
legends relating to Attila, and hence it is that the really
grandest figure in the history of the migration of the peoples
appears in the Nibelungen Lied, not as a great king and
conqueror on his own account, but only as a faithful squire of
the terrible Hunnish king whose empire had in fact crumbled
into dust before the birth of Theodoric."
_T. Hodgkin,
Italy and Her Invaders,
book 4, chapter 8 (volume 3)._
VERONA: 11-12th Centuries.
Acquisition of Republican Independence.
See ITALY: A. D. 1056-1152.
VERONA: A. D. 1236-1259.
The tyranny of Eccelino di Romano and the crusade against him.
"In the north-eastern corner of Italy the influence of the old
Lombard lords, which had been extinguished there as in most
other parts of the peninsula, was succeeded by that of a
family that had accompanied one of the emperors from Germany.
… The eye of a traveller passing from Verona to Padua may
still be struck by one or two isolated hills, which seem as it
were designed by nature to be meet residences for the tyrants
of the surrounding plains. One of these gave birth to a person
destined to become the scourge of the neighbouring country. …
Eccelino di Romano … was descended from a German noble brought
into Italy by Otho III. The office of Podesta of Verona had
become hereditary in his family. In the wars of the second
Frederic [1236-1250], he put himself at the head of the
Ghibellines in the surrounding principalities, and became a
strenuous supporter of the emperor. Under the protection of so
powerful an ally, be soon made himself master of Padua, where
he established his headquarters, and built the dungeons, where
the most revolting cruelties were inflicted on his victims."
_W. P. Urquhart,
Life and Times of Francesco Sforza,
book 1, chapter 3 (volume 1)._
In 1237, the emperor, Frederick II., "obliged to return to
Germany, left under the command of Eccelino a body of German
soldiers, and another of Saracens, with which this able
captain made himself, the same year, master of Vicenza, which
he barbarously pillaged, and the following year of Padua. …
Eccelino judged it necessary to secure obedience, by taking
hostages from the richest and most powerful families; he
employed his spies to discover the malcontents, whom he
punished with torture, and redoubled his cruelty in proportion
to the hatred which he excited." Subsequently, the emperor
confided "the exclusive government of the Veronese marches
[also called the Trevisan marches] to Eccelino. The hatred
which this ferocious man excited by his crimes fell on the
emperor. Eccelino imprisoned in the most loathsome dungeons
those whom he considered his enemies, and frequently put them
to death by torture, or suffered them to perish by hunger. …
{3620}
In the single town of Padua there were eight prisons always
full, notwithstanding the incessant toil of the executioner to
empty them; two of these contained each 300 prisoners. A
brother of Eccelino, named Alberic, governed Treviso with less
ferocity, but with a power not less absolute." Eccelino
maintained the power which he had gathered into his hands for
several years after Frederick's death. At length, the pope,
"Alexander IV., to destroy the monster that held in terror the
Trevisan march, caused a crusade to be preached in that
country. He promised those who combated the ferocious Eccelino
all the indulgences usually reserved for the deliverers of the
Holy Land. The marquis d'Este, the count di San Bonifazio,
with the cities of Ferrara, Mantua, and Bologna, assembled
their troops under the standard of the church; they were
joined by a horde of ignorant fanatics from the lowest class."
Headed by the legate Philip, archbishop of Ravenna, the
crusaders took Padua, June 18, 1256, and "for seven days the
city was inhumanly pillaged by those whom it had received as
deliverers. As soon as Eccelino was informed of the loss he
had sustained, he hastened to separate and disarm the 11,000
Paduans belonging to his army; he confined them in prisons,
where all, with the exception of 200, met a violent or
lingering death. During the two following years, the Guelphs
experienced nothing but disasters: the legate, whom the pope
had placed at their head, proved incompetent to command them;
and the crowd of crusaders whom he called to his ranks served
only to compromise them, by want of courage and discipline. …
The following year, this tyrant, unequalled in Ita]y for
bravery and military talent, always an enemy to luxury, and
proof against the seductions of women, making the boldest
tremble with a look, and preserving in his diminutive person,
at the age of 65, all the vigor of a soldier, advanced into
the centre of Lombardy, in the hope that the nobles of Milan,
with whom he had already opened a correspondence, would
surrender this great city." But, by this time, even his old
Ghibelline associates had formed alliances with the Guelphs
against him, and he was beset on all sides. "On the 16th of
September, 1259, whilst he was preparing to retire, he found
himself stopped at the bridge of Cassano. … Repulsed, pursued
as far as Vimercato, and at last wounded in the foot, he was
made prisoner and taken to Soncino: there, he refused to
speak; rejected all the aid of medicine; tore off all the
bandages from his wounds, and finally expired, on the eleventh
day of his captivity. His brother with all his family were
massacred in the following year."
_J. C. L. de Sismondi,
History of the Italian Republics,
chapters 3-4._
ALSO IN:
_J. Miley,
History of the Papal States,
book 7, chapter 1 (volume 3)._
VERONA: A. D. 1260-1338.
Rise of the House of the Scaligeri.
Successes of Can' Grande della Scala.
Wars and Reverses of Mastino.
After the death of Eccelino, Verona, by its own choice came
under the government of the first Mastino della Scala, who
established the power of a house which became famous in
Italian history. Mastino's grandson, Cane, or Can' Grande
della Scala, "reigned in that city from 1312 to 1329, with a
splendor which no other prince in Ita]y equalled. … Among the
Lombard princes he was the first protector of literature and
the arts. The best poets, painters, and sculptors of Italy,
Dante, to whom he offered an asylum, as well as Uguccione da
Faggiuola, and many other exiles illustrious in war or
politics, were assembled at his court. He aspired to subdue
the Veronese and Trevisan marches, or what has since been
called the Terra Firma of Venice. He took possession of
Vicenza; and afterwards maintained a long war against the
republic of Padua, the most powerful in the district, and that
which had shown the most attachment to the Guelph party and to
liberty." In 1328, Padua submitted to him; and "the year
following he attacked and took Treviso, which surrendered on
the 6th of July, 1329. He possessed himself of Feltre and
Cividale soon after. The whole province seemed subjugated to
his power; but the conqueror also was subdued." He died on the
22d of the same month in which Treviso was taken.
_J. C. L. de Sismondi,
History of the Italian Republics,
chapter 6._
Can' Grande was succeeded by his nephew, the second Mastino
della Scala, who, in the next six years, "extended his states
from the northeastern frontiers of Italy to the confines of
Tuscany; and the possession of the strong city of Lucca now
gave him a secure footing in this province. He shortly made it
appear to what purpose he meant to apply this new advantage.
Under the plea of re-establishing the Ghibelin interests, but
in reality to forward his own schemes of dominion, he began to
fill all Tuscany with his machinations. Florence was neither
slow to discover her danger, nor to resent the treachery of
her faithless ally,"—which Mastino had recently been.
Florence, according]y, formed an alliance with Venice, which
Mastino had rashly offended by restricting the manufacture of
salt on the Trevisan coast, and by laying heavy duties on the
navigation of the Po. Florence agreed "to resign to Venice the
sole possession of such conquests as might be made in that
quarter; only reserving for herself the acquisition of Lucca,
which she was to obtain by attacking Mastino in Tuscany,
entirely with her own resources. Upon these terms an alliance
was signed between the two republics, and the lord of Verona
had soon abundant reason to repent of the pride and treachery
by which he had provoked their formidable union (A. D. 1336).
… During three campaigns he was unable to oppose the league in
the field, and was compelled to witness the successive loss of
many of his principal cities (A. D. 1337). His brother Albert
was surprised and made prisoner in Padua, by the treachery of
the family of Carrara, who acquired the sovereignty of that
city; Feltro was captured by the Duke of Carinthia, Brescia
revolted, and fell with other places to Azzo Visconti. … In
this hopeless condition Mastino artfully addressed himself to
the Venetians, and, by satisfying all their demands, detached
them from the general interests of the coalition (A. D. 1338).
By a separate treaty which their republic concluded with him,
and which was then only communicated to the Florentines for
their acceptance, Mastino ceded to Venice Treviso, with other
fortresses and possessions, and the right of free navigation
on the Po; he agreed at the same time to yield Bassano and an
extension of territory to the new lord of Padua, and to
confirm the sovereignty of Brescia to Azzo Visconti; but for
the Florentine republic no farther advantage was stipulated
than the enjoyment of a few castles which they had already
conquered in Tuscany."
_G. Procter,
History of Italy,
chapter 4, part 3._
ALSO IN:
_H. E. Napier,
Florentine History,
chapter 19 (volume 2)._
{3621}
VERONA: A. D. 1351-1387.
Degeneracy and fall of the Scaligeri.
Subjugation by the Visconti of Milan.
See MILAN: A. D. 1277-1447.
VERONA: A. D. 1405.
Added to the dominion of Venice.
See ITALY: A. D. 1402-1406.
VERONA: A. D. 1797.
Massacre of French Soldiers.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1797 (APRIL-MAY).
VERONA: A. D. 1814.
Surrender to the Austrians.
See ITALY: A. D. 1814.
----------VERONA: End--------
VERONA, The Congress of (after Troppau and Laybach).
"The rapid spread of revolution in Europe inspired serious
misgivings among the great powers, and impelled the Holy
Alliance [see HOLY ALLIANCE] to show its true colours. Austria
was especially alarmed by the movement in Naples [see ITALY:
A. D. 1820-1821], which threatened to overthrow its power in
Italy, and Metternich convoked a congress at Troppau, in Upper
Silesia (October, 1820), at which Austria, Russia, Prussia,
France and England were represented. Neapolitan affairs were
the chief subject of discussion, and it was soon evident that
Austria, Russia and Prussia were agreed as to the necessity of
armed intervention. England made a formal protest against such
high-handed treatment of a peaceful country; but as the
protest was not supported by France, and England was not
prepared to go to war for Naples, it was disregarded. The
three allied powers decided to transfer the congress to
Laybach and to invite Ferdinand I. to attend in person." The
result of the conference at Laybach was a movement of 60,000
Austrian troops into Naples and Sicily, in March, 1821, and a
restoration of Ferdinand, who made a merciless use of his
opportunity for revenge.
_R. Lodge,
History of Modern Europe,
chapter 25, section 8._
From Laybach, the allied sovereigns issued a circular to their
representatives at the various foreign courts, in which
portentous document they declared that "useful and necessary
changes in legislation and in the administration of states
could only emanate from the free will, and from the
intelligent and well-weighed convictions, of those whom God
has made responsible for power. Penetrated with this eternal
truth, the sovereigns have not hesitated to proclaim it with
frankness and vigour. They have declared that, in respecting
the rights and independence of legitimate power, they regarded
as legally null, and disavowed by the principles which
constituted the public right of Europe, all pretended reforms
operated by revolt and open hostilities." "These principles,
stated nakedly and without shame, were too much even for Lord
Castlereagh. In a despatch, written early in the year 1821,
while admitting the right of a state to interfere in the
internal affairs of another state when its own interests were
endangered, he protested against the pretension to put down
revolutionary movements apart from their immediate bearing on
the security of the state so intervening, and denied that
merely possible revolutionary movements can properly be made
the basis of a hostile alliance. The principles of the Holy
Alliance were not intended to remain a dead letter; they were
promptly acted upon. Popular movements were suppressed in
Naples and Piedmont; and intervention in Spain, where the
Cortes had been summoned and the despotic rule of Ferdinand
VII. had been overthrown, was in contemplation. Greece
imitated the example set in the western peninsulas of Europe.
The Congress of Verona was summoned, and Lord Castlereagh (now
the Marquis of Londonderry) was preparing to join it, when in
an access of despondency, the origin of which is variously
explained, he took his own life." He was succeeded in the
British Ministry by Mr. Canning.
_F. H. Hill,
George Canning,
chapter 20._
"The first business which presented itself to Mr. Cunning was
to devise a system by which the Holy Alliance could be
gradually dissolved, and England rescued from the consequences
of her undefined relations with its members. The adjourned
Congress was on the point of assembling at Verona, and as it
was necessary to send a representative in place of Lord
Castlereagh, who seems to have been terrified at the prospect
that lay before him, the Duke of Wellington was selected, and
dispatched without loss of time. … The very first blow he
[Canning] struck in the Congress of Verona announced to the
world the attitude which England was about to take, and her
total denial of the rights of the Alliance to interfere with
the internal affairs of any independent nation. It appeared
that France had collected a large army in the south, and not
having legitimate occupation for it, proposed to employ it in
the invasion of Spain [see Spain: A. D. 1814-1827]. This
monstrous project was submitted to Congress, and ardently
approved of by Russia. It was now that England spoke out for
the first time in this cabal of despots. … After some
interchanges of notes and discussions agreed to by the allies,
the British plenipotentiary, as he was instructed, refused all
participation in these proceedings, and withdrew from the
Congress. This was the first step that was taken to show the
Alliance that England would not become a party to any act of
unjust aggression or unjustifiable interference. A long
correspondence ensued between Mr. Canning and M. de
Chateaubriand. … The French king's speech, on opening the
Chambers, revealed the real intentions of the government,
which Mr. Canning had penetrated from the beginning. The
speech was, in fact, a declaration of war against Spain,
qualified by the slightest imaginable hypothesis. But, happily
for all interests, there was no possibility of disguising the
purpose of this war, which was plainly and avowedly to force
upon the people of Spain such a constitution as the king (a
Bourbon), in the exercise of his absolute authority, should
think fit to give them. … Against this principle Mr. Canning
entered a dignified protest. … Although he could not avert
from Spain the calamity of a French invasion, he made it clear
to all the world that England objected to that proceeding, and
that she was no longer even to be suspected of favoring the
designs of the Holy Alliance. The French army made the passage
of the Bidassoa. From that moment Mr. Canning interfered no
farther. He at once disclosed the system which he had already
matured and resolved upon. Having first protested against the
principle of the invasion, he determined to maintain the
neutrality of England in the war that followed.
{3622}
By this course he achieved the end he had in view, of severing
England from the Holy Alliance without embroiling her in any
consequent responsibilities. … Mr. Canning's 'system' of
foreign policy, as described in his own language, resolved
itself into this principle of action, that 'England should
hold the balance, not only between contending nations, but
between conflicting principles; that, in order to prevent
things from going to extremities, she should keep a distinct
middle ground, staying the plague both ways.' … The
development of this principle, as it applied to nations, was
illustrated in the strict but watchful neutrality observed
between France and Spain; and, as it applied to principles, in
the recognition of the independence of the Spanish-American
colonies. The latter act may be regarded as the most important
for which Mr. Canning was officially responsible, as that
which exerted the widest and most distinct influence over the
policy of other countries, and which most clearly and
emphatically revealed the tendency of his own. It showed that
England would recognize institutions raised up by the people,
as well as those which were created by kings. It gave the
death-blow to the Holy Alliance." The logic and meaning of Mr.
Canning's recognition of the Spanish American republics found
expression in one famous passage of a brilliant speech which
he made in the House of Commons, December 12, 1826,
vindicating his foreign policy. "If France," he said,
"occupied Spain, was it necessary, in order to avoid the
consequences of that occupation, that we should blockade
Cadiz? No, I looked another way—I sought materials of
compensation in another hemisphere. Contemplating Spain such
as our ancestors had known her, I resolved that if France had
Spain, it should not be Spain with the Indies. I called the
New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old."
_R. Bell,
Life of the Right Honourable George Canning,
chapter 13._
ALSO IN:
_F. H. Hill,
George Canning,
chapter 20._
_F. A. Châteaubriand,
The Congress of Verona._
_Sir A. Alison,
History of Europe, 1815-1852,
chapters 8 and 12 (volume l,—American edition)._
_S. Walpole,
History of England,
chapter 9 (volume 2)._
VERRAZANO, Voyages of.
See AMERICA: A. D. 1523-1524.
----------VERSAILLES: Start--------
VERSAILLES.
Louis XIV. "preferred Versailles to his other chateaux,
because Fontainebleau, Chambord, Saint-Germain, were
existences ready created, which Francois I. and Henri IV. had
stamped with the ineffaceable imprint of their glory: at
Versailles, everything was to be made, save the modest
beginning left by Louis XIII. … At Versailles, everything was
to be created, we say,—not only the monuments of art, but
nature itself. This solitary elevation of ground, although
pleasing enough through the woods and hills that surrounded
it, was without great views, without sites, without waters,
without inhabitants. … The sites would be created by creating
an immense landscape by the hand of man; the waters would be
brought from the whole country by works which appalled the
imagination; the inhabitants would be caused, if we may say
so, to spring from the earth, by erecting a whole city for the
service of the chateau. Louis would thus make a city of his
own, a form of his own, of which he alone would be the life.
Versailles and the court would be the body and soul of one and
the same being, both created for the same end, the
glorification of the terrestrial God to whom they owed
existence. … The same idea filled the interior of the palace.
Painting deified Louis there under every form, in war and in
peace, in the arts and in the administration of the empire; it
celebrated his amours as his victories, his passions as his
labors. All the heroes of antiquity, all the divinities of
classic Olympus, rendered him homage or lent him their
attributes in turn. He was Augustus, he was Titus, he was
Alexander; he was thundering Jupiter, he was Hercules, the
conqueror of monsters; oftener, Apollo, the inspirer of the
Muses and the king of enlightenment. Mythology was no longer
but a great enigma, to which the name of Louis was the only
key; he was all the gods in himself alone. … Louis, always
served in his desires by the fertility of his age, had found a
third artist, Lenostre, to complete Lebrun and Mansart. Thanks
to Lenostre, Louis, from the windows of his incomparable
gallery of mirrors, saw nought that was not of his own
creation. The whole horizon was his work, for his garden was
the whole horizon. … Whole thickets were brought full-grown
from the depths of the finest forests of France, and the arts
of animating marble and of moving waters filled them with
every prodigy of which the imagination could dream. An
innumerable nation of statues peopled the thickets and lawns,
was mirrored in the waters, or rose from the bosom of the
wave. … Louis had done what he wished; he had created about
him a little universe, in which he was the only necessary and
almost the only real being. But terrestrial gods do not create
with a word like the true God. These buildings which stretch
across a frontage of twelve hundred yards, the unheard-of
luxury of these endless apartments, this incredible multitude
of objects of art, these forests transplanted, these waters of
heaven gathered from all the slopes of the heights into the
windings of immense conduits from Trappes and Palaiseau to
Versailles, these waters of the Seine brought from Marly by
gigantic machinery through that aqueduct which commands from
afar the valley of the river like a superb Roman ruin, and
later, an enterprise far more colossal! that river which was
turned aside from its bed and which it was undertaken to bring
thirty leagues to Versailles over hills and valleys, cost
France grievous efforts and inexhaustible sweats, and
swallowed up rivers of gold increasing from year to year. …
Versailles has cost France dearly, very dearly; nevertheless
it is important to historic truth to set aside in this respect
too long accredited exaggerations. … The accounts, or at least
the abstracts of the accounts, of the expenditures of Louis
XIV. for building, during the greater part of his reign, have
been discovered. The costs of the construction, decoration,
and furnishing of Versailles, from 1664 to 1690, including the
hydraulic works and the gardens, in addition to the
appendages,—that is, Clagny, Trianon, Saint-Cyr, and the two
churches of the new city of Versailles,—amount to about one
hundred and seven millions, to which must be added a million,
or a million and a half perhaps, for the expenses of the years
1661-1663, the accounts of which are not known, and three
million two hundred and sixty thousand francs for the
sumptuous chapel, which was not built until 1699-1710.
{3623}
The proportion of the mark to the franc having varied under
Louis XIV., it is difficult to arrive at an exact reduction to
the present currency. … The expenses of Versailles would
represent to-day more than four hundred millions. This amount
is enormous; but it is not monstrous like the twelve hundred
millions of which Mirabeau speaks, nor, above all, madly
fantastic like the four thousand six hundred millions imagined
by Volney."
_H. Martin,
History of France: Age of Louis XIV.,
volume 1, chapter 3._
ALSO IN:
_L. Ritchie,
Versailles._
VERSAILLES: A. D. 1789.
Opening scenes of the French Revolution.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1789 (MAY), and after.
VERSAILLES: A. D. 1870.
Headquarters of the German court and the army besieging Paris.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1870 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER).
VERSAILLES: A. D. 1871.
Assumption of the dignity of Emperor of Germany
by King William of Prussia.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1871.
----------VERSAILLES: End--------
VERTERÆ.
A Roman city in Britain, which probably occupied the site of
the modern town of Brough, in Westmoreland, where many remains
of the Romans have been found.
_T. Wright,
Celt, Roman, and Saxon,
chapter 5._
VERTURIONES, The.
A name by which one of the Caledonian tribes was known to the
Romans.
VERULAMIUM.
VERULAM.
"The 'oppidum' of Cassivelaunus [the stronghold which Cæsar
reduced on his second invasion of Britain] is generally
believed to have been situated where the modern town of St.
Alban's now stands [but the point is still in dispute]. An
ancient ditch can still be traced surrounding a considerable
area on the banks of the River Ver, from which the Roman town
of Verulam [Verulamium] took its name. This town, which
probably originated in the camp of Cæsar, grew into an
important city in Roman times. It stands on the opposite side
of the River Ver, and is still known for its Roman remains."
_H. M. Scarth,
Roman Britain,
chapter 2._
See BRITAIN: B. C. 55-54.
VERVINS, Treaty of (1598).
See FRANCE: A. D. 1593-1598.
VESONTIO.
Modern Besançon, in France; originally the largest of the
towns of the Sequani.
_G. Long,
Decline of the Roman Republic,
volume 4, chapter 2._
VESPASIAN, Roman Emperor, A. D. 69-79.
VESPUCIUS, Americus (or Amerigo Vespucci), The voyages of.
See AMERICA: A. D. 1497-1498; 1499-1500;
1500-1514; 1503-1504.
Also (in Supplement)
AMERICA: THE ALLEGED FIRST VOYAGE OF VESPUCIUS.
VESTAL VIRGINS.
"The Vestals ('virgines Vestales,' 'virgines Vestæ') were
closely connected with the college of pontifices. They are
said to have come from Alba soon after the foundation of Rome:
at first there were two Vestals for each of the two tribes,
Ramnes and Tities; afterwards two others were added for the
Luceres, and the number of six was exceeded at no period. The
vestal, on being chosen, was not allowed to be younger than
six or older than ten years. … She was clad in white garments
and devoted to the service of Vesta for thirty years. … After
this period she was at liberty either to remain in the service
of the goddess (which was generally done) or to return to her
family and get married. Her dress was always white; round her
forehead she wore a broad band like a diadem ('infula'), with
ribbons ('vittæ') attached to it. During the sacrifice, or at
processions, she was covered with a white veil. … She was
carefully guarded against insult or temptation; an offence
offered to her was punished with death; … in public everyone,
even the consul, made way to the lictor preceding the maiden.
At public games and pontifical banquets she had the seat of
honour; and a convicted criminal accidentally meeting her was
released. Amongst her priestly functions was the keeping of
the eternal fire in the temple of Vesta, each Vestal taking
her turn at watching. … Breach of chastity on the part of the
Vestal was punished with death."
_E. Guhl and W. Koner,
Life of the Greeks and Romans,
section 103._
VESTINIANS, The.
See SABINES.
VESUVIUS:
Great eruption.
Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
See POMPEII.
VESUVIUS, Battle of (B. C. 338).
See ROME: B. C. 339-338.
VETERA: A. D. 69.
Siege and Massacre.
The most important success achieved by the Batavian patriot,
Civilis, in the revolt against the Romans which he led, A. D.
69, was the siege and capture of Vetera,—a victory sullied by
the faithless massacre of the garrison after they had
capitulated.
_C. Merivale,
History of the Romans,
chapter 58._
VETO, The Aragon.
See CORTES, THE EARLY SPANISH.
VETO:
The Polish Liberum Veto.
See POLAND: A. D. 1578-1652.
VETO:
Of the President of the United States.
See CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES,
Article I., Section 7.
VETTONES, The.
A people who occupied the part of ancient Spain between the
Tagus and the Upper Douro at the time of the Roman conquest
of that country.
_T. Mommsen,
History of Rome,
book 4, chapter 1._
VIA SACRA AT ROME, The.
"The Via Sacra began at the Sacellum Streniæ, which was on the
part of the Esquiline nearest to the Colosseum; on reaching
the Summa Via Sacra … it turned a little to the right,
descending the Clivus Sacer; at the foot of the slope it
passed under the arch of Fabius, by the side of the Regia;
thence it ran in a straight line, passing by the Basilica
Æmilia, the arch of Janus, the Curia Hostilia, till it reached
the foot of the Capitoline Hill, where, turning to the left,
it ascended the Clivus Capitolinus, and reached its
termination at the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. The Via
Sacra, as Ovid tells us, took its name from the sacred rites
which were performed on it. Along this road passed the
processions of priests with the sacred animals to be
sacrificed at the altar of Jupiter Capitolinus. … Along this
road also passed the triumphal processions of the victorious
Roman generals. The procession entered Rome by the Porta
Triumphalis, passed through the Circus Maximus, then, turning
to the left, proceeded along the road at the foot of the
southeast slope of the Palatine, when it joined the Via Sacra,
and again turned to the left and ascended the Velia; on reaching
the Summa Via Sacra it descended the Clivus Sacer, and then
passed along the rest of the Via Sacra till it reached its
destination at the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, where the
victorious general lay before the god the spoils of his
conquests."
_H. M. Westropp,
Early and Imperial Rome,
page 121._
ALSO IN:
_J. H. Parker,
Archaeology of Rome,
part 6._
{3624}
VICARS, or Vice-Præfects, of the Roman Empire.
See DIOCESES OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.
VICENZA: A. D. 1237.
Pillage by Eccelino di Romano.
See VERONA: A. D. 1236-1259.
VICKSBURG: A. D. 1862-1863.
The defense, the siege and the capture.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862 (MAY-JULY: ON THE MISSISSIPPI),
and (DECEMBER: ON THE MISSISSIPPI);
1863 (JANUARY-APRIL: ON THE MISSISSIPPI):
and 1863 (APRIL-JULY: ON THE MISSISSIPPI).
VICTOR II., Pope, A. D. 1055-1057.
Victor III., Pope, 1086-1087.
Victor Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, 1630-1637.
Victor Amadeus II.,
Duke of Savoy, 1675-1730:
King of Sicily, 1713-1720;
King of Sardinia, 1720-1730.
Victor Amadeus III.,
Duke of Savoy and King of Sardinia, 1773-1796.
Victor Emanuel I.,
Duke of Savoy and King of Sardinia, 1802-1821.
Victor Emanuel II.,
King of Sardinia, 1849-1861;
King of Italy, 1861-1878.
VICTORIA, Queen of England, A. D. 1837.
VICTORIA: A. D. 1837.
The founding of the colony.
See AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1800-1840.
VICTORIA: A. D. 1850-1855.
Separation from New South Wales.
Discovery of gold.
Adoption of a Constitution.
See AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1839-1855.
VICTORIA: A. D. 1862-1892.
Comparative view.
See TARIFF LEGISLATION (AUSTRALIA): A. D. 1862-1892;
and AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1890.
VICTORIA CROSS, The.
An English naval and military decoration, instituted after the
Crimean War, on the 29th of January, 1856, by the command of
Queen Victoria.
VICUS.
According to Niebuhr, the term "Vicus" in Roman
topography—about which there has been much controversy—"means
nothing else but a quarter or district [of the city] under the
superintendence of its own police officer."
_B. G. Niebuhr,
Lectures on Ancient Ethnography and Geography,
volume 2, page 86._
See, also, GENS.
VIDOMME.
See GENEVA: A. D. 1504-1535.
----------VIENNA, Austria: Start--------
VIENNA, Austria: Origin of.
See VINDOBONA.
VIENNA, Austria: 12th Century.
Fortification and commercial advancement by the Austrian Dukes.
See AUSTRIA: A. D. 805-1246.
VIENNA, Austria: A. D. 1485.
Siege, capture, and occupation by Matthias of Hungary.
See HUNGARY: A. D. 1471-1487.
VIENNA, Austria: A. D. 1529.
Siege by the Turks.
See HUNGARY: A. D. 1526-1567.
VIENNA, Austria: A. D. 1619.
Threatened by the Bohemian army.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1618-1620.
VIENNA, Austria: A. D. 1645.
Threatened by the Swedes.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1640-1645.
VIENNA, Austria: A. D. 1683.
Siege by the Turks.
Deliverance by John Sobieski.
See HUNGARY: A. D. 1668-1683.
VIENNA, Austria: A. D. 1805.
Surrendered to Napoleon.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1805 (MARCH-DECEMBER).
VIENNA, Austria: A. D. 1809.
Capitulation to Napoleon.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1809 (JANUARY-JUNE).
VIENNA, Austria: A. D. 1848.
Revolutionary riots.
Bombardment of the city.
See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1848-1849.
VIENNA, The Congress of.
"At the end of September [1814] the centre of European
interest passed to Vienna. The great council of the Powers, so
long delayed, was at length assembled. The Czar of Russia, the
Kings of Prussia, Denmark, Bavaria, and Würtemberg, and nearly
all the statesmen of eminence in Europe, gathered round the
Emperor Francis and his Minister, Metternich, to whom by
common consent the presidency of the Congress was offered.
Lord Castlereagh represented England, and Talleyrand France.
Rasumoffsky and other Russian diplomatists acted under the
immediate directions of their master, who on some occasions
even entered into personal correspondence with the Ministers
of the other Powers. Hardenberg stood in a somewhat freer
relation to King Frederick William: Stein was present, but
without official place. The subordinate envoys and attaches of
the greater Courts, added to a host of petty princes and the
representatives who came from the minor Powers, or from
communities which had ceased to possess any political
existence at all, crowded Vienna. In order to relieve the
antagonisms which had already come too clearly into view,
Metternich determined to entertain his visitors in the most
magnificent fashion; and although the Austrian State was
bankrupt, and in some districts the people were severely
suffering, a sum of about £10,000 a day was for some time
devoted to this purpose. The splendour and the gaieties of
Metternich were emulated by his guests. … The Congress had
need of its distractions, for the difficulties which faced it
were so great that, even after the arrival of the Sovereigns,
it was found necessary to postpone the opening of the regular
sittings until November. By the secret articles of the Peace
of Paris, the Allies had reserved to themselves the disposal
of all vacant territory, although their conclusions required
to be formally sanctioned by the Congress at large. The
Ministers of Austria, England, Prussia, and Russia accordingly
determined at the outset to decide upon all territorial
questions among themselves, and only after their decisions
were completely formed to submit them to France and the other
Powers. Talleyrand, on hearing of this arrangement, protested
that France itself was now one of the Allies, and demanded
that the whole body of European States should at once meet in
open Congress. The four Courts held to their determination,
and began their preliminary sittings without Talleyrand. But
the French statesman had, under the form of a paradox, really
stated the true political situation. The greater Powers were
so deeply divided in their aims that their old bond of common
interest, the interest of union against France, was now less
powerful than the impulse that made them seek the support of
France against one another.
{3625}
Two men had come to the Congress with a definite aim:
Alexander had resolved to gain the Duchy of Warsaw, and to
form it, with or without some part of Russian Poland, into a
Polish kingdom, attached to his own crown: Talleyrand had
determined, either on the question of Poland, or on the
question of Saxony, which arose out of it, to break allied
Europe into halves, and to range France by the side of two of
the great Powers against the two others. The course of events
favoured for a while the design of the Minister: Talleyrand
himself prosecuted his plan with an ability which, but for the
untimely return of Napoleon from Elba, would have left France,
without a war, the arbiter and the leading Power of Europe.
Since the Russian victories of 1812, the Emperor Alexander had
made no secret of his intention to restore a Polish Kingdom
and a Polish nationality. Like many other designs of this
prince, the project combined a keen desire for personal
glorification with a real generosity of feeling. Alexander was
thoroughly sincere in his wish not only to make the Poles
again a people, but to give them a Parliament and a free
Constitution. The King of Poland, however, was to be no
independent prince, but Alexander himself: although the Duchy
of Warsaw, the chief if not the sole component of the proposed
new kingdom, had belonged to Austria and Prussia after the
last partition of Poland, and extended into the heart of the
Prussian monarchy. Alexander insisted on his anxiety to atone
for the crime of Catherine in dismembering Poland: the
atonement, however, was to be made at the sole cost of those
whom Catherine had allowed to share the booty. Among the other
Governments, the Ministry of Great Britain would gladly have
seen a Polish State established in a really independent form;
failing this, it desired that the Duchy of Warsaw should be
divided, as formerly, between Austria and Prussia. Metternich
was anxious that the fortress of Cracow at any rate should not
fall into the hands of the Czar. Stein and Hardenberg, and
even Alexander's own Russian counsellors, earnestly opposed
the Czar's project, not only on account of the claims of
Prussia on Warsaw, but from dread of the agitation likely to
be produced by a Polish Parliament among all Poles outside the
new State. King Frederick William, however, was unaccustomed
to dispute the wishes of his ally; and the Czar's offer of
Saxony in substitution for Warsaw gave to the Prussian
Ministers, who were more in earnest than their master, at
least the prospect of receiving a valuable equivalent for what
they might surrender. By the treaty of Kalisch, made when
Prussia united its arms with those of Russia against Napoleon
(February 27th, 1813), the Czar had undertaken to restore the
Prussian monarchy to an extent equal to that which it had
possessed in 1805. It was known before the opening of the
Congress that the Czar proposed to do this by handing over to
King Frederick William the whole of Saxony, whose Sovereign,
unlike his colleagues in the Rhenish Confederacy, had
supported Napoleon up to his final overthrow at Leipzig. Since
that time the King of Saxony had been held a prisoner, and his
dominions had been occupied by the Allies. The Saxon question
had thus already gained the attention of all the European
Governments. … Talleyrand alone made the defence of the King
of Saxony the very centre of his policy, and subordinated all
other aims to this. His instructions, like those of
Castlereagh, gave priority to the Polish question; but
Talleyrand saw that Saxony, not Poland, was the lever by which
he could throw half of Europe on to the side of France; and
before the four Allied Courts had come to any single
conclusion, the French statesman had succeeded, on what at
first passed for a subordinate point, in breaking up their
concert. For a while the Ministers of Austria, Prussia, and
England appeared to be acting in harmony; and throughout the
month of October all three endeavoured to shake the purpose of
Alexander regarding Warsaw. Talleyrand, however, foresaw that
the efforts of Prussia in this direction would not last very
long, and he wrote to Louis XVIII. asking for his permission
to make a definite offer of armed assistance to Austria in
case of need. Events took the turn which Talleyrand expected.
… He had isolated Russia and Prussia, and had drawn to his own
side not only England and Austria but the whole body of the
minor German States. … On the 3rd of January, 1815, after a
rash threat of war uttered by Hardenberg, a secret treaty was
signed by the representatives of France, England, and Austria,
pledging these Powers to take the field, if necessary, against
Russia and Prussia in defence of the principles of the Peace
of Paris. The plan of the campaign was drawn up, the number of
the forces fixed. Bavaria had already armed; Piedmont,
Hanover, and even the Ottoman Porte, were named as future
members of the alliance. It would perhaps be unfair to the
French Minister to believe that he actually desired to kindle
a war on this gigantic scale. Talleyrand had not, like
Napoleon, a love for war for its own sake. His object was
rather to raise France from its position as a conquered and
isolated Power; to surround it with allies. … The conclusion
of the secret treaty of January 3rd marked the definite
success of his plans. France was forthwith admitted into the
council hitherto known as that of the Four Courts, and from
this time its influence visibly affected the action of Russia
and Prussia, reports of the secret treaty having reached the
Czar immediately after its signature. The spirit of compromise
now began to animate the Congress. Alexander had already won a
virtual decision in his favour on the Polish question, but he
abated something of his claims, and while gaining the lion's
share of the Duchy of Warsaw, he ultimately consented that
Cracow, which threatened the Austrian frontier, should be
formed into an independent Republic, and that Prussia should
receive the fortresses of Dantzic and Thorn on the Vistula,
with the district lying between Thorn and the border of
Silesia. This was little for Alexander to abandon; on the
Saxon question the allies of Talleyrand gained most that they
demanded. The King of Saxony was restored to his throne, and
permitted to retain Dresden and about half of his dominions.
Prussia received the remainder. In lieu of a further expansion
in Saxony, Prussia was awarded territory on the left bank of
the Rhine, which, with its recovered Westphalian provinces,
restored the monarchy to an area and population equal to that
which it had possessed in 1805. But the dominion given to
Prussia beyond the Rhine, though considered at the time to be
a poor equivalent for the second half of Saxony, was in
reality a gift of far greater value.
{3626}
It made Prussia, in defence of its own soil, the guardian and
bulwark of Germany against France. … It gave to Prussia
something more in common with Bavaria and the South, and
qualified it, as it had not been qualified before, for its
future task of uniting Germany under its own leadership. The
Polish and Saxon difficulties, which had threatened the peace
of Europe, were virtually settled before the end of the month
of January."
_C. A. Fyffe,
History of Modern Europe,
volume 2, chapter 1._
"Prussia obtained Posen with the town of Thorn in the east,
and in the west all that had been lost by the treaty of
Tilsit, the duchies of Jülich and Berg, the old electoral
territories of Cologne and Trier with the city of Aachen, and
parts of Luxemburg and Limburg. Russia received the whole of
the grand-duchy of Warsaw except Posen and Thorn, and
Alexander fulfilled his promises to the Poles by granting them
a liberal constitution. … Swedish Pomerania had been ceded by
the treaty of Kiel to Denmark, but had long been coveted by
Prussia. The Danish claims were bought off with two million
thalers and the duchy of Lauenburg, but Hanover had to be
compensated for the latter by the cession of the devotedly
loyal province of East Friesland, one of the acquisitions of
Frederick the Great. Hanover, which now assumed the rank of a
kingdom without opposition, was also aggrandised by the
acquisition of Hildesheim, Goslar, and other small districts.
Austria was naturally one of the great gainers by the
Congress. Eastern Galicia was restored by Russia, and the
Tyrol, Salzburg, and the Inn district by Bavaria. As
compensation for the Netherlands, Venetia and Lombardy became
Austrian provinces. Bavaria, in return for its losses in the
east, received Würzburg, Aschaffenburg, and its former
possessions in the Palatinate. Long discussions took place
about the constitution to be given to Germany, and here the
hopes of the national party were doomed to bitter
disappointment. … Finally a Confederation was formed which
secured the semblance of unity, but gave almost complete
independence to the separate states.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1814-1820.
The members numbered thirty-eight, and included the four
remaining free cities, Frankfort, Hamburg, Lübeck, and Bremen,
and the kings of Denmark and the Netherlands. … In Italy the
same process of restoration and subdivision was carried out.
Victor Emmanuel I. recovered his kingdom of Sardinia, with the
addition of Genoa as compensation for the portion of Savoy
which France retained. Modena was given to a Hapsburg prince,
Francis IV., son of the archduke Ferdinand, and Beatrice the
heiress of the house of Este. Tuscany was restored to
Ferdinand III., a brother of the Austrian Emperor. Charles
Louis, son of the Bourbon king of Etruria, was compensated
with Lucca and a promise of the succession in the duchy of
Parma, which was for the time given to Napoleon's wife, Maria
Louisa. Pius VII. had already returned to Rome, and the Papal
states now recovered their old extent. But Pius refused at
first to accept these terms because he was deprived of Avignon
and the Venaissin, and because Austrian garrisons were in
occupation of Ferrara and Comacchio. Naples was left for a
time in the hands of Joachim Murat, as a reward for his
desertion of Napoleon after the battle of Leipzig. Switzerland
was declared independent and neutral, but its feudal unity was
loosened by a new constitution (August, 1815). The number of
cantons were raised to twenty-two by the addition of Geneva,
Wallis (Vallais), and Neufchâtel the last under Prussian
suzerainty. The position of capital was to be enjoyed in
rotation by Berne, Zurich, and Lucerne. The kingdom of the
Netherlands was formed for the house of Orange by the union of
Holland and Belgium and the addition of Luxemburg, which made
the king a member of the German Confederation. The professed
object of this artificial union of Catholics and Protestants
was the erection of a strong bulwark against French
aggressions."
_R. Lodge,
History of Modern Europe,
chapter 24, section 52._
ALSO IN:
_E. Hertslet,
The Map of Europe by Treaty,
volume 1, number 27._
_Prince Talleyrand,
Memoirs,
part 8 (volume 2)._
_Prince Talleyrand,
Correspondence with Louis XVIII.
during the Congress of Vienna._
_Prince Metternich,
Memoirs,
volume 2, pages 553-599._
_J. R. Seeley,
Life and Times of Stein,
part 8 (volume 3)._
_Sir A. Alison,
History of Europe, 1789-1815,
chapter 92 (volume 19)._
VIENNA, Imperial Library of.
See LIBRARIES, MODERN: EUROPE.
VIENNA,
Treaty of (1725).
See SPAIN: A. D. 1713-1725.
Treaty of (1735).
See FRANCE: A. D. 1733-1735.
Treaty of (1864).
See GERMANY: A. D. 1861-1866.
VIENNE, OR VIENNA, on the Rhone.
Vienne, on the Rhone, was the chief town of the Allobroges in
ancient times,—subsequently made a Roman colony. It was from
Vienne that Lugdunum (Lyons) was originally colonized.
VIENNE on the Rhone: A. D. 500.
Under the Burgundians.
See BURGUNDIANS: A. D. 500.
VIENNE on the Rhone: 11th Century.
Founding of the Dauphiny.
See BURGUNDY: A. D. 1032.
VIENNE on the Rhone: A. D. 1349.
The appanage of the Dauphins of France.
See DAUPHINS;
also, BURGUNDY: A. D. 1127-1378.
VIGILANCE COMMITTEE OF SAN FRANCISCO, The.
See CALIFORNIA: A. D. 1856.
VIGO BAY, The Destruction of Spanish treasure ships in.
See SPAIN: A. D. 1702.
VIKINGS.
See NORMANS.—NORTHMEN: 8-9TH CENTURIES.
VILAGOS, Hungarian surrender at (1849).
See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1848-1849.
VILLA VICIOSA,
VILLA VIÇOSA, Battle of (1665).
See PORTUGAL: A. D. 1637-1668.
VILLA VICIOSA: Battle of (1710).
See SPAIN: A. D. 1707-1710.
VILLAFRANCA. Peace of.
See ITALY: A. D. 1856-1859; and 1859-1861.
VILLALAR, Battle of (1521).
See SPAIN: A. D. 1518-1522.
VILLEIN TAX, OR TAILLE.
See TAILLE AND GABELLE.
VILLEINAGE. Tenure in.
See FEUDAL TENURES; and MANORS.
VILLEINS.
VILLANI.
See SLAVERY, MEDIÆVAL AND MODERN (ESPECIALLY UNDER ENGLAND);
also, DEDITITIUS.
VILLERSEXEL, Battle of (1871).
See FRANCE: A. D. 1870-1871.
VILLMERGEN, Battles of(1656, 1712, and 1841).
See SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1652-1789: and 1803-1848.
{3627}
VIMIERO, Battle of (1808).
See SPAIN: A. D.: 1808-1809 (AUGUST-JANUARY).
VIMINAL, The.
See SEVEN HILLS OF ROME.
VIMORY, Battle of (1587).
See FRANCE: A. D. 1584-1589.
VINCENNES, Indiana: A. D. 1735.
Founded by the French.
See CANADA: A. D. 1700-1735.
VINCENNES, Indiana: A. D. 1778-1779.
Taken and retaken from the British by
the Virginian General Clark.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1778-1779
CLARK'S CONQUEST.
VINCENTIAN CONGREGATION, The.
See LAZARISTS.
VINCI, Battle of (A. D. 717).
See FRANKS: A. D. 511-752.
VINDALIUM, Battle at (B. C. 121).
See ALLOBROGES, CONQUEST OF THE.
VINDELICIANS, The.
See RHÆTIA.
VINDOBONA.
Vindobona, modern Vienna, on the Danube, originally a town of
the Celts, in Pannonia, became a Roman military and naval
station and a frontier city of importance. Marcus Aurelius
died at Vindobona, A. D. 180.
VINEÆ.
The vineæ of Roman siege operations were "covered galleries,
constructed of wicker work (vimina) generally, and sometimes
of wood, for the purpose of covering the approach of the
besiegers."
_G. Long,
Decline of the Roman Republic,
volume 4, chapter 3, foot-note._
VINLAND.
See AMERICA: 10-11TH CENTURIES.
VIONVILLE, Battle of.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1870 (JULY-AUGUST).
VIRCHOW, and Cellular Pathology.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 19TH CENTURY.
VIRGATE.
See HIDE OF LAND;
also, MANORS.
----------VIRGINIA: Start--------
VIRGINIA.
The aboriginal inhabitants.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES, POWHATAN CONFEDERACY,
ALGONQUIAN FAMILY, IROQUOIS TRIBES OF THE SOUTH,
and CHEROKEES.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1584.
The name given first to Raleigh's Roanoke settlement,
on the Carolina coast.
See AMERICA: A. D. 1584-1586.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1606-1607.
The Virginia Company of London and its charter.
The colony planted at Jamestown.
"The colonization of the North American coast had now become
part of the avowed policy of the British government. In 1606 a
great joint-stock company was formed for the establishment of
two colonies in America. The branch which was to take charge
of the proposed southern colony had its headquarters in
London; the management of the northern branch was at Plymouth
in Devonshire. Hence the two branches are commonly spoken of
as the London and Plymouth Companies. The former was also
called the Virginia Company, and the latter the North Virginia
Company, as the name of Virginia was then loosely applied to
the entire Atlantic coast north of Florida. The London Company
had jurisdiction from 34° to 38° north latitude; the Plymouth
Company had jurisdiction from 45° down to 41°; the intervening
territory, between 38° and 41° was to go to whichever company
should first plant a self-supporting colony."
_J. Fiske,
The Beginnings of New England,
chapter 2._
"The charter for colonizing the great central territory of the
North American continent, which was to be the chosen abode of
liberty, gave to the mercantile corporation nothing but a
wilderness, with the right of peopling and defending it. By an
extension of the prerogative, which was in itself illegal, the
monarch assumed absolute legislative as well as executive
powers. … The general superintendence was confided to a
council in England; the local administration of each colony to
a resident council. The members of the superior council in
England were appointed exclusively by the king, and were to
hold office at his good pleasure. Their authority extended to
both colonies, which jointly took the name of Virginia. Each
of the two was to have its own resident council, of which the
members were from time to time to be ordained and removed
according to the instructions of the king. To the king,
moreover, was reserved supreme legislative authority over the
several colonies, extending to their general condition and the
most minute regulation of their affairs. … The summer was
spent in preparations for planting the first colony, for which
the king found a grateful occupation in framing a code of
laws. The superior council in England was permitted to name
the colonial council, which was independent of the emigrants,
and had power to elect or remove its president, to remove any
of its members, and to supply its own vacancies. Not an
element of popular liberty or control was introduced. Religion
was established according to the doctrine and rites of the
church within the realm. … Then, on the 19th day of December,
in the year of our Lord 1606, one hundred and nine years after
the discovery of the American continent by Cabot, forty-one
years from the settlement of Florida, the squadron of three
vessels, the largest not exceeding 100 tons' burden, with the
favor of all England, stretched their sails for 'the dear
strand of Virginia, earth's only paradise.' … The enterprise
was ill concerted. Of the 105 on the list of emigrants, there
were but 12 laborers and few mechanics. They were going to a
wilderness, in which, as yet, not a house was standing; and
there were 48 gentlemen to 4 carpenters. Neither were there
any men with families. Newport, who commanded the ships, was
acquainted with the old passage, and sailed by way of the
Canaries and the West India Islands. As he turned to the
north, a severe storm, in April, 1607, carried his fleet
beyond the settlement of Raleigh, into the magnificent bay of
the Chesapeake. The headlands received and retain the names of
Cape Henry and Cape Charles, from the sons of King James; the
deep water for anchorage, 'putting the emigrants in good
Comfort,' gave a name to the northern point; and within the
capes a country opened which appeared to 'claim the
prerogative over the most pleasant places in the world.' … A
noble river was soon entered, which was named from the
monarch; and, after a search of seventeen days, … on the 13th
of May they reached a peninsula about 50 miles above the mouth
of the stream, where the water near the shore was so very deep
that the ships were moored to trees.
{3628}
Here the council, except Smith, who for no reason unless it
were jealousy of his superior energy was for nearly a month
kept out of his seat, took the oath of office, and the
majority elected Edward Maria Wingfield president for the
coming year. Contrary to the earnest and persistent advice of
Bartholomew Gosnold, the peninsula was selected for the site
of the colony, and took the name of Jamestown."
_G. Bancroft,
History of the United States,
part 1, chapter 6 (volume 1)._
ALSO IN:
_E. D. Neill,
History of the Virginia Company of London,
chapter 1,
and Virginia Vetusta,
chapters 1-2._
_J. Burk,
History of Virginia,
volume 1, chapter 3._
_E. M. Wingfield,
Discourse of Virginia,
edited by C. Deane (Archœologia Americana, volume 4)._
_H. W. Preston,
Documents Illustrative of American History,
page 1._
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1607-1610.
The settlement at Jamestown and the services
of Captain John Smith.
"Among the leaders of the expedition were Gosnold, the voyager
and discoverer, and a prime mover in the affair; Wingfield,
one of the first-named patentees, John Smith, Ratcliffe,
Martin, Kendall, and Percy. Of these men John Smith has become
famous. He has taken place among the founders of states, and a
romantic interest has attached itself to his name. For
centuries his character and deeds have been applauded, while
in late years they have become a theme for censure and
detraction. Modern investigation has relentlessly swept a way
the romance, and torn in pieces many of the long accepted
narratives in which Smith recorded his own achievements. Yet
it was not wholly by a false and fluent pen that Smith
obtained and held his reputation. He was something more than a
plausible writer of fiction. He was the strongest and most
representative man among the Virginian colonists. … With this
hopeful company Newport left the Downs on the 1st of January,
1607. The worthy Richard Hakluyt sent them a paper containing
much good advice and some ingenious geographical speculations,
and Drayton celebrated their departure in clumsy verses filled
with high-flown compliments. The advice of the priest and the
praise of the poet were alike wasted. By an arrangement
ingeniously contrived to promote discord, devised probably by
royal sagacity, the box containing the names of the council
was not to be opened until the voyagers reached their
destination. Dissension broke out almost immediately. Whatever
the merits of the differences, this much is certain, that
Smith was the object of the concentrated jealousy and hatred
of his companions. … On the 13th of May, 1607, the settlers
landed at Jamestown, sent out exploring parties, and began
fortifications. A fortnight later, under the command of
Wingfield, they repulsed an attack by the Indians; and on the
22d of June Newport sailed for England, and left them to their
own resources. The prospect must have been a dreary one:
nothing answered to their expectations. Instead of valuable
mines, the adventurers found only a most fertile soil; instead
of timid, trusting South American Indians, they encountered
wild tribes of hardy, crafty, and hostile savages; instead of
rich, defenceless, and barbarian cities, an easy and splendid
spoil, they found a wilderness, and the necessity of hard
work. From the miserable character of the settlers, dangerous
factions prevailed from the first, until Smith obtained
control, and maintained some sort of order—despotically,
perhaps, but still effectually. No one would work, and famine
and the Indians preyed upon them mercilessly. A small fort and
a few wretched huts, built after much quarrelling, represented
for many months all that was accomplished. The only relief
from this dark picture of incompetent men perishing, without
achievement, and by their own folly, on the threshold of a
great undertaking, is to be found in the conduct of Smith.
Despite almost insurmountable obstacles, Smith kept the colony
together for two years. He drilled the soldiers, compelled
labor, repaired the fort, traded with the Indians, outwitted
them and kept their friendship, and made long and daring
voyages of discovery. He failed to send home a lump of gold,
but he did send an excellent map of the Company's territory.
He did not discover the passage to the South Sea, but he
explored the great bays and rivers of Virginia. He did not
find Raleigh's lost colonists, but he managed to keep his own
from total destruction. The great result of all Smith's
efforts was the character of permanency he gave to the
settlement. Because he succeeded in maintaining an English
colony for two consecutive years in America, the London
Company had courage to proceed; and this is what constitutes
Smith's strongest claim to the admiration and gratitude of
posterity. To suppose that he had the qualities of a founder
of a state is a mistake, although in some measure he did the
work of one. … His veracity as a historian in the later years
of his life has been well-nigh destroyed. But little faith can
be placed in the 'Generall Historie,' and modern investigation
has conclusively relegated to the region of legend and of
fiction the dramatic story of Smith's rescue by Pocahontas.
The shadow of doubt rests upon all his unsupported statements;
but nothing can obscure his great services, to which the world
owes the foundation of the first English colony in America.
Yet, after all his struggles, Smith was severely blamed by the
Company, apparently because Virginia was not Peru. In a manly
letter he sets forth the defects of the colony, the need of
good men with families, industrious tradesmen and farmers, not
'poor gentlemen and libertines.' Before, however, the actual
orders came to supersede him, Smith resigned, or was forced
out of the government, and returned to England. The feeble
life of the colony wasted fast after his departure and during
the sickness of Percy, who succeeded to the command."
_H. C. Lodge,
Short History of the English Colonies in America,
chapter 1._
ALSO IN:
_Captain John Smith,
General Historie of Virginia,
books 2-3._
_J. Ashton,
Adventures and Discoveries of Captain John Smith,
newly ordered,
chapters 6-21._
_W. C. Bryant and S. H. Gay,
Popular History of the United States,
volume 1, chapter 11._
_E. Eggleston and L. E. Seelye,
Pocahontas._
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1609-1616.
The new Charter.
The colony taking root.
Introduction of Tobacco culture.
"The prospects of the colony were so discouraging at the
beginning of the year 1609, that, in the hope of improving
them, the Company applied for a new charter with enlarged
privileges. This was granted to them, on the 23d of May, under
the corporate name of 'The Treasurer and Company of Adventurers
and Planters of the City of London for the first Colony in
Virginia.'
{3629}
The new Association, which embraced representatives of every
rank, trade, and profession, included twenty-one peers, and
its list of names presents an imposing array of wealth and
influence. By this charter Virginia was greatly enlarged, and
made to comprise the coast-line and all islands within 100
miles of it,—200 miles north and 200 south of Point
Comfort,—with all the territory within parallel lines thus
distant and extending to the Pacific boundary; the Company was
empowered to choose the Supreme Council in England, and, under
the instructions and regulations of the last, the Governor was
invested with absolute civil and military authority. … Thomas
West (Lord Delaware), the descendant of a long line of noble
ancestry, received the appointment of Governor and
Captain-General of Virginia. The first expedition under the
second charter, which was on a grander scale than any
preceding it, and which consisted of nine vessels, sailed from
Plymouth on the 1st of June, 1609. Newport, the commander of
the fleet, Sir Thomas Gates, Lieutenant-General, and Sir
George Somers, Admiral of Virginia, were severally authorized,
whichever of them might first arrive at Jamestown, to
supersede the existing administration there until the arrival
of Lord Delaware, who was to embark some months later; but not
being able to settle the point of precedency among themselves,
they embarked together in the same vessel, which carried also
the wife and daughters of Gates. … On the 23d of July the
fleet was caught in a hurricane; a small vessel was lost,
others damaged, and the 'Sea Venture,' which carried Gates,
Somers, and Newport, with about 150 settlers, was cast ashore
on the Bermudas. … Early in August the 'Blessing,' Captain
Archer, and three other vessels of the delayed fleet sailed up
James River, and soon after the 'Diamond,' Captain Ratcliffe,
appeared, without her mainmast, and she was followed in a few
days by the 'Swallow,' in like condition. The Council being
all dead save Smith, he, obtaining the sympathy of the
sailors, refused to surrender the government of the colony;
and the newly arrived settlers elected Francis West, the
brother of Lord Delaware, as temporary president. The term of
Smith expiring soon after, George Percy—one of the original
settlers, a brother of the Earl of Northumberland, and a brave
and honorable man—was elected president. … Smith, about
Michaelmas (September 29), departed for England, or, as all
contemporary accounts other than his own state, was sent
thither 'to answer some misdemeanors.' These were doubtless of
a venial character; but the important services of Smith in the
sustenance of the colony appear not to have been as highly
esteemed by the Company as by Smith himself. He complains that
his several petitions for reward were disregarded, and he
never returned to Virginia. … At the time of his departure for
England he left at Jamestown three ships, seven boats, a good
stock of provisions, nearly 500 settlers, 20 pieces of cannon,
300 guns, with fishing-nets, working-tools, horses, cattle,
swine, etc. Jamestown was strongly fortified with palisades,
and contained between fifty and sixty houses. … No effort by
tillage being made to replenish their provisions, the stock
was soon consumed, and the horrors of famine were added to
other calamities. The intense sufferings of the colonists were
long remembered, and this period is referred to as 'the
starving time.' In six months their number was reduced to 60,
and such was the extremity of these that they must soon have
perished but for speedy succor. The passengers of the wrecked
'Sea Venture,' though mourned for as lost, had effected a safe
landing at the Bermudas, where, favored by the tropical
productions of the islands, they, under the direction of Gates
and Somers, constructed for their deliverance two vessels from
the materials of the wreck and cedar-wood, the largest of the
vessels being of 80 tons burden. … Six of the company,
including the wife of Sir Thomas Gates, died on the island.
The company of 140 men and women embarked on the completed
vessels—which were appropriately named the 'Patience' and the
'Deliverance'—on the 10th of May, 1610, and on the 23d they
landed at Jamestown. … So forlorn was the condition of the
settlement that Gates reluctantly resolved to abandon it." The
whole colony was accordingly embarked and was under sail down
the river, when it met a fleet of three vessels, bringing
supplies and new settlers from England, with Lord Delaware,
who had resolved to come out in person, as Governor and
Captain-General of Virginia. Gates and his disheartened
companions turned back with these new comers, and all were set
vigorously at work to restore the settlement. "The
administration of Delaware, though ludicrously ostentatious
for so insignificant a dominion, was yet highly wholesome, and
under his judicious discipline the settlement was restored to
order and contentment." His health failing, Lord Delaware
returned to England the following spring, whither Sir Thomas
Gates had gone. Sir Thomas Dale had already been sent out with
the appointment of high marshal, bearing a code of
extraordinary laws which practically placed the colony under
martial rule. Gates returned in June, 1611, with 300
additional settlers and a considerable stock of cows and other
cattle. During that year and the next several new settlements
were founded, at Dutch Gap, Henrico, and Bermuda Hundred,
individual grants of property began to be made, and many signs
of prosperity appeared. The year 1612 "was a marked one, in
the inauguration by John Rolfe [who married Pocahontas two
years later, having lost his first wife] of the systematic
culture of tobacco,—a staple destined to exert a controlling
influence in the future welfare and progress of the colony,
and soon, by the paramount profit yielded by its culture, to
subordinate all other interests, agricultural as well as
manufacturing." In the spring of 1613, Sir Thomas Gates left
the colony, finally, returning to England, and the government
fell to the hands of Dale, who remained at the head until
1616.
_R. A. Brock,
Virginia, 1606-1689
(Narrative and Critical History of America,
volume 3, chapter 5)._
ALSO IN:
_W. Stith,
History of Virginia,
book. 3._
_J. H. Lefroy,
Memorials of the Discovery and Early Settlement
of the Bermudas,
volume 1, chapter 1._
_J. E. Cooke,
Virginia,
chapters 13-16._
_H. W. Preston,
Documents Illustrative of American History,
page 14._
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1613.
The French settlements in Acadia destroyed by Argall
and the Dutch at New York forced to promise tribute.
See CANADA: A. D. 1610-1613;
and NEW YORK: A. D. 1610-1614.
{3630}
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1617-1619.
The evil days of Argall, and the better
administration that followed.
Meeting of the first provincial Assembly.
"A party of greedy and unprincipled adventurers headed by Lord
Rich, soon after the Earl of Warwick, acquired sufficient
influence in the Company to nominate a creature of their own
as Deputy-Governor. Their choice of Argall [Samuel Argall]
would in itself have tainted their policy with suspicion.
Whether dealing with the Indians, the French, or the Dutch, he
had shown himself able, resolute, and unscrupulous.
See CANADA: A. D. 1610-1613;
and NEW YORK: A. D. 1610-1614.
To do him justice, he seems at least to have understood the
principle of Tiberius, that a shepherd should shear his sheep,
not flay them. His first measure was to provide a sufficient
supply of corn for the maintenance of the colony. With that he
appeared to think that his duty to the settlers was at end. …
An event soon occurred which released Argall from the fear of
a superior, and probably emboldened him in his evil courses.
Lord Delaware, who had sailed in a large vessel with 200
emigrants," died on the voyage. "Argall now began to show that
his care for the well-being of the colony was no better than
the charity of the cannibal who feeds up his prisoner before
making a meal on him. Trade with the Indians was withheld from
individuals, but, instead of being turned to the benefit of
the Company, it was appropriated by Argall. The planters were
treated as a slave-gang working for the Deputy's own private
profit. The Company's cattle were sold, and the proceeds never
accounted for. During this time a great change had come over
the Company at home. An energetic and public-spirited party
had been formed, opposed alike to Sir Thomas Smith and to Lord
Rich. Their leader was Sir Edwin Sandys, a member of that
country party which was just beginning to take its stand
against the corruptions of the court policy. Side by side with
him stood one whose name has gained a wider though not a more
honourable repute, the follower of Essex, the idol of
Shakespeare, the brilliant, versatile Southampton. … The …
year 1619 was remarkable in the annals of the colony. It is
hardly an exaggeration to say that it witnessed the creation
of Virginia as an independent community. From the beginning of
that year we may date the definite ascendancy of Sandys and
his party, an ascendancy which was maintained till the
dissolution of the Company, and during which the affairs of
Virginia were administered with a degree of energy,
unselfishness, and statesmanlike wisdom, perhaps unparalleled
in the history of corporations. One of the first measures was
to send out Yeardley to supersede Argall. … When Yeardley
arrived he found that Argall had escaped. No further attempt
seems to have been made to bring him to justice. In the next
year he was commanding a ship against the Algerines." Soon
afterwards, Sir Edwin Sandys was placed officially at the head
of the Company, by his election to be Treasurer, in the place
of Sir Thomas Smith. "About the same time that these things
were doing in England, a step of the greatest importance was
being taken in Virginia. Yeardley, in obedience to
instructions from the Company, summoned an Assembly of
Burgesses from the various hundreds and plantations. At one
step Virginia, from being little better than a penal
settlement, ruled by martial law, became invested with
important, though not full, rights of self-government. Though
we have no direct evidence of the fact, there is every
probability that during the administrations of Yeardley and
Argall the number of independent planters possessing estates
of their own, with labourers employed in the service of their
masters, not of the Company, had increased. Unless such an
influence had been at work, it is scarcely possible that the
experiment of constitutional government should have succeeded,
or even have been tried. On the 30th of July, 1619, the first
Assembly met in the little church at Jamestown. … In England
the Company under its new government set to work with an
energy before unknown to it, to improve the condition of the
colony. … To check the over-production of tobacco a clause was
inserted in all fresh patents of land binding the holder to
cultivate a certain quantity of other commodities. Everything
was done to encourage permanent settlers rather than mere
traders. Apprentices, unmarried women, and neat cattle were
sent out. New forms of industry, too, were set on foot, such
as timber yards, silk manufactures, iron foundries, and
vineyards. … In the year 1619 alone over 1,200 persons were
sent out, half as private settlers or servants, half at the
expense of the Company."
_J. A. Doyle,
The English in America: Virginia, &c.,
chapter 6._
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1619.
Introduction of Negro Slavery.
"In the month of August, 1619, five years after the commons of
France had petitioned for the emancipation of every serf in
every fief, a Dutch man-of-war entered James River and landed
20 negroes for sale. This is the sad epoch of the introduction
of negro slavery; but the traffic would have been checked in
its infancy had it remained with the Dutch. Thirty years after
this first importation of Africans, Virginia to one black
contained fifty whites; and, after seventy years of its
colonial existence, the number of its negro slaves was
proportionably much less than in several of the northern
states at the time of the war of independence."
_G. Bancroft,
History of the United States (Author's last revision),
part 1, chapter 8 (volume 1)._
ALSO IN:
_G. W. Williams,
History of the Negro Race in America,
part 2, chapter 12 (volume 1)._
_G. P. Fisher,
The Colonial Era,
chapter 4._
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1622-1624.
Plot and Massacre by the Indians.
Arbitrary dissolution of the Virginia Company by King James.
"On the 22nd of March, 1622, a memorable massacre occurred in
the Colony. … On the evening before, and on that morning, the
savages as usual came unarmed into the houses of the planters,
with fruits, fish, turkies and venison to sell. In some places
they actually sate down to breakfast with the English. At
about the hour of noon, the savages rising suddenly and
everywhere at the same time, butchered the colonists with
their own implements, sparing neither age, sex, nor condition.
Three hundred and forty-seven men, women and children fell in
a few hours. … The destruction might have been universal but
for the disclosure of a converted Indian, named Chanco, who,
during the night before the massacre, revealed the plot to one
Richard Pace, with whom he lived.
{3631}
Pace … repaired before day to Jamestown and gave the alarm to
Sir Francis Wyatt, the Governor. His vigilance saved a large
part of the Colony. … The court of James I., jealous of the
growing power of the Virginia Company and of its too
republican spirit, seized upon the occasion of the massacre to
attribute all the calamities of the Colony to its
mismanagement and neglect, and thus to frame a pretext for
dissolving the charter." The Company, supported by the
colonists, resisted the high-handed proceedings of the King
and his officers, but vainly. In November, 1624, "James I.
dissolved the Virginia Company by a writ of Quo Warranto,
which was determined only upon a technicality in the
pleadings. The company had been obnoxious to the ill will of
the King on several grounds. The corporation had become a
theatre for rearing leaders of the opposition, many of its
members being also members of parliament. … Charles I.
succeeding [1625] to the crown and principles of his father,
took the government of Virginia into his own hands. The
company thus extinguished had expended £150,000 in
establishing the Colony, and transported 9,000 settlers
without the aid of government. The number of stockholders, or
adventurers, as they were styled, was about 1,000, and the
annual value of exports from Virginia was, at the period of
the dissolution of the charter, only £20,000. The company
embraced much of the rank, wealth, and talent of the kingdom.
… As the act provided no compensation for the enormous
expenditure incurred, it can be looked upon as little better
than confiscation effected by chicane and tyranny.
Nevertheless the result was undoubtedly favorable to the
Colony."
_C. Campbell,
Introduction to the History of the Colony
and Ancient Dominion of Virginia,
chapters 15-16._
ALSO IN:
_W. Stith,
History of Virginia,
books 4-5._
_E. D. Neill,
History of the Virginia Company of London,
chapters 14-17._
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1628.
Attempted settlement by Lord Baltimore.
See MARYLAND: A. D. 1632.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1635-1638.
The Clayborne quarrel with Lord Baltimore
and the Maryland colony.
See MARYLAND: A. D. 1635-1638.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1639-1652.
Loyalty to King Charles.
The Refuge of the Cavaliers.
"Under Charles I. little worthy of notice occurred in the
political history of Virginia. … Attempts were made to raise a
revenue on tobacco, and subsequently to establish a royal
monopoly of the tobacco trade. The attempts were averted, and
the king contented himself with the preemption of the
Virginian tobacco, and with enacting that no foreign vessel
should be allowed to trade with Virginia, or to carry
Virginian goods. In 1639 an attempt was made to re-establish
the authority of the company, but was strenuously and
successfully opposed by the assembly. That the royal
government sat lightly on Virginia may be inferred from the
loyal tone which had thus early become a characteristic of the
colony. After the establishment of the commonwealth, 'Virginia
was whole for monarchy and the last country belonging to
England that submitted to obedience to the commonwealth of
England,' and under Berkeley's government the plantation was a
safe refuge for the defeated cavaliers. … But as soon as two
or three parliamentary ships appeared [1652] all thoughts of
resistance were laid aside. Yet, whether from lenity or
caution, the parliament was satisfied with moderate terms. The
submission of the colonists was accepted as free and
voluntary."
_J. A. Doyle,
The American Colonies,
chapter 2._
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1644.
Fresh Indian outbreak and massacre of whites.
"After a peace of five or six years, the Indians, provoked by
continued encroachments on their lands, and instigated, it is
said, by the aged chief Opechancanough, formed a new scheme
for the extermination of the colonists. They were encouraged
by signs of discord among the English, having seen a fight in
James River between a London ship for the Parliament and a
Bristol ship for the king. Five hundred persons perished in
the first surprise, which took place, according to Winthrop,
the day before Good Friday, appointed by the governor, 'a
courtier, and very malignant toward the way of our churches,'
to be observed as a fast for the good success of the king. For
defense, the planters were concentrated in a few settlements;
… forts were built at the points most exposed; and a ship was
sent to Boston for powder, which, however, the General Court
declined to furnish. This occasion was taken by 'divers
godly-disposed persons' of Virginia to remove to New England.
… The Indians were presently driven from their fastnesses.
Opechancanough, decrepit and incapable of moving without
assistance, … was taken prisoner and carried to Jamestown,
where he was shot in the back by a vindictive soldier
appointed to guard him. The Indian towns were broken up, and
their 'clear lands possessed by the English to sow wheat in.'
Opechancanough's successor submitted; and a peace was made by
act of Assembly, the Indians ceding all the lands between
James and York Rivers. No Indian was to come south of York
River under pain of death. The Powhatan confederacy was
dissolved. The Indians of lower Virginia sunk into servile
dependence, and dwindled away, or, migrating to the south and
west, were mingled and confounded with other tribes."
_R. Hildreth,
History of the United States,
chapter 11 (volume 1)._
ALSO IN:
_J. E. Cooke,
Virginia,
part 2, chapter 5._
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1650-1660.
Under the Commonwealth and Cromwell, and the Stuart Restoration.
Two sides of the story.
Origin of the name of "The Old Dominion."
"After this, Sir William Berkeley [governor] made a new peace
with the Indians, which continued for a long time unviolated.
… But he himself did not long enjoy the benefit of this
profound peace; for the unhappy troubles of king Charles the
first increasing in England, proved a great disturbance to him
and to all the people. They, to prevent the infection from
reaching that country, made severe laws against the Puritans,
though there were as yet none among them. But all
correspondence with England was interrupted, supplies
lessened, and trade obstructed. … At last the king was
traitorously beheaded in England, and Oliver installed
Protector. However, his authority was not acknowledged in
Virginia for several years after, till they were forced to it
by the last necessity. For in the year 1651, by Cromwell's
command, Captain Dennis, with a squadron of men of war,
arrived there from the Carribbee islands, where they had been
subduing Bardoes. The country at first held out vigorously
against him, and Sir William Berkeley, by the assistance of
such Dutch vessels as were then there, made a brave
resistance.
{3632}
But at last Dennis contrived a stratagem which betrayed the
country. He had got a considerable parcel of goods aboard,
which belonged to two of the Council, and found a method of
informing them of it. By this means they were reduced to the
dilemma, either of submitting or losing their goods. This
occasioned factions among them; so that at last, after the
surrender of all the other English plantations, Sir William
was forced to submit to the usurper on the terms of a general
pardon. However, it ought to be remembered, to his praise, and
to the immortal honor of that colony, that it was the last of
all the king's dominions that submitted to the usurpation; and
afterwards the first that cast it off, and he never took any
post or office under the usurper. Oliver had no sooner subdued
the plantations, but he began to contrive how to keep them
under, that so they might never be able for the time to come
to give him farther trouble. To this end, he thought it
necessary to break off their correspondence with all other
nations, thereby to prevent their being furnished with arms,
ammunition, and other warlike provisions. According to this
design, he contrived a severe act of Parliament [1651],
whereby he prohibited the plantations from receiving or
exporting any European commodities but what should be carried
to them by Englishmen, and in English built ships. …
See NAVIGATION ACT, ENGLISH.
Notwithstanding this act of navigation, the Protector never
thought the plantations enough secured, but frequently changed
their governors, to prevent their intriguing with the people.
So that, during the time of the usurpation, they had no less
than three governors there, namely, Diggs, Bennet and Mathews.
The strange arbitrary curbs he put upon the plantations
exceedingly afflicted the people … and inspired them with a
desire to use the last remedy, to relieve themselves from this
lawless usurpation. In a short time afterwards a fair
opportunity happened; for Governor Mathews died, and no person
was substituted to succeed him in the government. Whereupon
the people applied themselves to Sir William Berkeley (who had
continued all this time upon his own plantation in a private
capacity) and unanimously chose him their governor again
[March, 1660]. Sir William … told the people … that if he
accepted the government it should be upon their solemn
promise, after his example, to venture their lives and
fortunes for the king, who was then in France. This was no
great obstacle to them, and therefore with an unanimous voice
they told him they were ready to hazard all for the king. …
Sir William Berkeley embraced their choice, and forthwith
proclaimed Charles II. king of England, Scotland, France,
Ireland and Virginia, and caused all process to be issued in
his name. Thus his majesty was actually king in Virginia
before he was so in England. But it pleased God to restore him
soon after to the throne of his ancestors."
_R. Beverley,
History of Virginia,
book 1, chapter 4._
"The government of Virginia, under the Commonwealth of
England, was mild and just. While Cromwell's sceptre commanded
the respect of the world, he exhibited generous and politic
leniency towards the infant and loyal colony. She enjoyed
during this interval free trade, legislative independence and
internal peace. The governors were men who by their virtues
and moderation won the confidence and affections of the
people. No extravagance, rapacity, or extortion, could be
alleged against the administration. Intolerance and
persecution were unknown, with the single exception of a
rigorous act banishing the Quakers. But rapine, extravagance,
extortion, intolerance and persecution were all soon to be
revived under the auspices of the Stuarts. … Richard Cromwell
resigned the protectorate in March, 1660. Matthews,
governor-elect, had died in the January previous. England was
without a monarch; Virginia without a governor. Here was a two
fold interregnum. The assembly, convening on the 13th of
March, 1660, declared by their first act that, as there was
then in England 'noe resident absolute and generall confessed
power,' therefore the supreme government of the colony should
rest in the assembly. By the second act, Sir William Berkeley
was appointed governor, and it was ordered that all writs
should issue in the name of the assembly. … No fact in our
history has been more misunderstood and misrepresented than
this reappointment of Sir William Berkeley, before the
restoration of Charles II. … Sir William was elected, not by a
tumultuary assemblage of the people, but by the assembly; the
royal standard was not raised upon the occasion, nor was the
king proclaimed. Sir William, however, made no secret of his
loyalty. … Sir William was elected on the 21st of the same
month, about two months before the restoration of Charles II.
Yet the word king, or majesty, occurs no where in the
legislative records, from the commencement of the Commonwealth
in England until the 11th of October, 1660—more than four
months after the restoration. Virginia was indeed loyal, but
she was too feeble to express her loyalty."
_C. Campbell,
Introduction to the History of the Colony
and Ancient Dominion of Virginia,
chapters 21-22._
"There is no doubt whatever that if the Virginians could have
restored the King earlier they would have done so; and
Berkeley, who is known to have been in close communication and
consultation with the leading Cavaliers, had sent word to
Charles II. in Holland, toward the end of the Commonwealth,
that he would raise his flag in Virginia if there was a
prospect of success. This incident has been called in
question. It is testified to by William Lee, Sheriff of
London, and a cousin of Richard Lee, Berkeley's emissary, as a
fact within his knowledge. Charles declined the offer, but was
always grateful to the Virginians. The country is said to have
derived from the incident the name of the 'Old Dominion,'
where the King was King, or might have been, before he was
King in England."
_J. E. Cooke,
Virginia,
part 2, chapter 10._
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1651-1672.
The English Navigation Acts and trade restrictions.
See NAVIGATION LAWS;
also UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1651-1672.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1660-1677.
The Restoration and its rewards to Virginia loyalty.
Oppression, discontent, and Bacon's Rebellion.
At the time of the restoration of the English monarchy, in the
person of Charles II., the colony of Virginia "numbered not
far from 50,000 souls, a large proportion of whom, especially,
we may suppose, those of middle life and most active habits,
were natives of the soil, bound to it by the strongest ties of
interest and affection, and by their hopes of what it was
destined to become in the opening future.
{3633}
Here was a state of things, comprising, in the apprehensions
of the people, many of the elements of the highest happiness
and prosperity. … But all this was totally and suddenly
changed, and universal distress brought upon the land, by the
new restrictive clauses added to the original Navigation Act,
by the first Parliament of Charles. By the act of the Long
Parliament it had been simply provided that foreign vessels
should import into England no other products than such as were
grown or manufactured in their own country; a shaft aimed
principally at the Dutch. … By Charles's Commons this first
hint was … expanded into a voluminous code of monopolizing
enactments, by which the trade of the world was regulated on
the principle of grasping for England every possible
commercial advantage, and inflicting upon all other nations
the greatest possible commercial injury. … Upon the colonies,
one and all, this cruel policy bore with a weight which almost
crushed them. … From 1660, when this monopolizing policy took
its beginning, the discontent of the people increased day by
day, as each new prohibition was proclaimed. Commerce lay
dead. Tobacco would no longer pay for its cultivation, much
less enrich the laborious planter; manufactures, as that of
silk, after being attempted, failed to bring the hoped-for
relief, and there seemed no prospect but starvation and ruin.
What wonder that mischief lay brewing in the hearts of a
people who, for their almost slavish loyalty, met only these
thankless returns of injury and injustice; for the Virginians
of that day were monarchists in the full meaning of the term.
… Other causes conspired with these purely political ones to
bring the public mind of Virginia into such a state of deep
exasperation as to find its relief only in insurrection. Of
these, one was particularly a source of irritation; namely,
the grants of vast tracts of territory, made by the wasteful
and profligate King to his needy and profligate favorites,
made wholly irrespective of present owners and occupiers, who
were transferred, like serfs of the soil, to any great
patentee to whom the caprice of Charles chose to consign
them." The discontent culminated in 1676, under the influence
of an excitement growing out of trouble with the Indians.
After more than thirty years of quiet, the natives became
hostile and threatening. "Various outrages were first
committed by the Indians, on whom the whites, as usual,
retaliated; murder answered to murder, burning to burning,
till, throughout the whole border country, were kindled the
flames of an exterminating Indian war, accompanied by all its
peculiar horrors. In the excited state of the public mind,
these new calamities were laid at the door of the government."
Governor Berkeley was accused of having an interest in the
profits of trade with the Indians which restrained him from
making war on them. Whether the charge was true or false, he
gave color to it by his conduct. He took no steps to protect
the colony. Nor would he authorize any self-defensive measures
on the part of the people themselves. They "went so far as to
engage that, if the Governor would only commission a general,
whomsoever he would, they would 'follow him at their own
charge.' Still they were not heard. Under such circumstances
of neglect and excessive irritation, they took the case into
their own hands." They chose for their leader Nathaniel Bacon,
a young Englishman of education, energy and talent, who had
been in the colony about three years, and who had already
attained a seat in the Governor's Council. Bacon accepted the
responsibility, "commission or no commission," and, in the
spring of 1676, put himself at the head of 500 men, with whom
he marched against the Indians. The governor, after formally
proclaiming him a rebel, raised another army and marched, not
against the Indians, but against Bacon. He was hardly out of
Jamestown, however, before the people of that neighborhood
rose and took possession of the capital. On learning of this
fresh revolt, he turned back, and found himself helpless to do
anything but submit. The result was the summoning of a new
Assembly, to which Bacon was elected from his county, and the
making of some progress, apparently, towards a curing of
abuses and the removing of causes of discontent. But something
occurred—exactly what has never been made clear—which led to
a sudden flight on Bacon's part from Jamestown, and the
gathering of his forces once more around him. Re-entering the
capital at their head, he extorted from Governor Berkeley a
commission which legalized his military office, and armed with
this authority he proceeded once more against the Indians.
"But as soon as he was sufficiently distant to relieve the
Governor and his friends from their fears, all that had been
granted was revoked; a proclamation was issued, again
denouncing Bacon as a rebel, setting a price upon his head,
and commanding his followers to disperse." Again, Bacon and
his army retraced their steps and took possession of
Jamestown, the governor flying to Accomac. A convention of the
inhabitants of the colony was then called together, which
adopted a Declaration, or Oath, in which they fully Identified
themselves with Bacon in his course, and swore to uphold him.
The latter then moved once more against the Indians; Berkeley
once more got possession of the seat of government, and, once
more, Bacon (who had fought the Indians meantime at Bloody Run
and beaten them) came back and drove him out. "The whole
country … was with Bacon, and merely a crowd of cowardly
adventurers about the Governor. Nothing would seem, at this
moment, to have stood between Bacon and the undisputed,
absolute control of the colony, had no unforeseen event
interposed, as it did, to change the whole aspect of affairs."
This unforeseen event was the sudden death of Bacon, which
occurred in January, 1677, at the house of a friend. "Some
mystery attaches to the manner of it," and there were, of
course, sinister whispers of foul play. "But, however and
wherever Bacon died, it could never be discovered where he was
buried, nor what disposition had been made of his body. … The
death of Bacon was, in effect, the restoration of Sir William
Berkeley to his lost authority, and the termination of the
war; there being not an individual, among either his
counsellors or officers, of capacity sufficient to make good
his place. … Berkeley, gradually subduing all opposition, and
making prisoners of many of the prime movers of the revolt, in
a short time saw the authority of his government completely
reestablished. … The historians of the period inform us that
no less than 25 persons were executed during the closing
period of the rebellion and the few next succeeding months."
_W. Ware,
Memoir of Nathaniel Baron
(Library of American Biographies, series 2, volume 3)._
ALSO IN:
_J. A. Doyle,
The English in America: Virginia, &c.,
chapter 9._
_J. Burk,
History of Virginia,
volume 2, chapter 4._
_G. Bancroft,
History of the United States (Author's last revision),
part 2, chapters 10-11._
_E. Eggleston,
Nathaniel Baron
(Century Magazine, July, 1890)._
{3634}
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1689-1690.
King William's War.
The first Colonial Congress.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1690;
and CANADA: A. D. 1689-1690.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1691.
The founding of William and Mary College.
See EDUCATION, MODERN: AMERICA: A. D. 1619-1819.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1696-1749.
Suppression of colonial manufactures.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1696-1749.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1710.
Colonization of Palatines.
See PALATINES.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1710-1716.
Crossing the Blue Ridge.
The Knights of the Golden Horseshoe.
Possession taken of the Shenandoah Valley.
"Lord Orkney is made Governor, but as usual sends his deputy,
and in the year 1710 appears the stalwart soldier and ruler,
Sir Alexander Spotswood. Alexander Spotswood, or Spottiswoode,
as his family were called in Scotland, rises like a landmark
above the first years of the century. When he came to Virginia
he was only 34 and in the bloom of his manhood. But he had
already fought hard, and his faculties as a soldier and ruler
were fully developed. … The Virginians received Spotswood with
open arms. He was a man after their own heart, and brought
with him when he came (June 1710) the great writ of Habeas
corpus. The Virginia people had long claimed that this right
was guaranteed to them by Magna Charta, since they were
equally free Englishmen with the people of England. Now it was
conceded, and the great writ came,—Spotswood's letter of
introduction. It was plain that he was not a new Berkeley
looking to the King's good pleasure as his law, or a new
Nicholson ready to imprison people or put halters around their
necks; but a respecter of human freedom and defender of the
right. … In … 1716, Governor Alexander Spotswood set out on an
expedition which much delighted the Virginians. There was a
very great longing to visit the country beyond the Blue Ridge.
That beautiful unknown land held out arms of welcome, and the
Governor, who had in his character much of the spirit of the
hunter and adventurer, resolved to go and explore it. Having
assembled a party of good companions, he set out in the month
of August, and the gay company began their march toward the
Blue Ridge Mountains. The chronicler of the expedition
describes the picturesque cavalcade followed by the
pack-horses and servants,—'rangers, pioneers, and Indians';
how they stopped to hunt game; bivouacked 'under the canopy';
laughed, jested, and regaled themselves with 'Virginia wine,
white and red, Irish usquebaugh, brandy, shrub, two kinds of
rum, champagne, canary, cherry-punch, and cider.' In due time
they reached the Blue Ridge, probably near the present Swift
Run Gap, and saw, beyond, the wild valley of the Shenandoah.
On the summit of the mountain they drank the health of the
King, and named two neighboring peaks 'Mt. George' and 'Mt.
Alexander,' after his Majesty and the Governor; after which
they descended into the valley and gave the Shenandoah the
name of the 'Euphrates.' Here a bottle was buried—there were,
no doubt, a number of empty ones—containing a paper to testify
that the valley of the Euphrates was taken possession of in
the name of his Majesty, George I. Then the adventurers
reascended the mountain, crossed to the lowland, and returned
to Williamsburg. This picturesque incident of the time gave
rise to the order of the 'Knights of the Golden Horseshoe.'
The horses had been shod with iron, which was unusual, as a
protection against the mountain roads; and Spotswood sent to
London and had made for his companions small golden horseshoes
set with garnets and other jewels, and inscribed 'Sic juvat
transcendere montes.'"
_J. E. Cooke,
Virginia,
part 2, chapters 21-22._
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1744.
Treaty with the Six Nations and
purchase of the Shenandoah Valley.
"The Six Nations still retained the right to traverse the
great valley west of the Blue Ridge. Just at this inopportune
moment [1743], some of their parties came into bloody
collision with the backwoodsmen of Virginia, who had
penetrated into that valley. Hostilities with the Six Nations,
now that war was threatened with France, might prove very
dangerous, and Clinton [governor of New York] hastened to
secure the friendship of these ancient allies by liberal
presents; for which purpose, in conjunction with commissioners
from New England, he held a treaty at Albany. … The
difficulties between Virginia and the Six Nations were soon
after [1744] settled in a treaty held at Lancaster, to which
Pennsylvania and Maryland were also parties, and in which, in
consideration of £400, the Six Nations relinquished all their
title to the valley between the Blue Ridge and the central
chain of the Allegany Mountains."
_R. Hildreth,
History of the United States,
chapter 25 (volume 2)._
ALSO IN:
_B. A. Hinsdale,
The Old Northwest,
page 59._
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1748-1754.
First movements beyond the mountains to
dispute possession with the French.
See OHIO (VALLEY): A. D. 1748-1754.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1754.
Opposing the French occupation of the Ohio Valley.
Washington's first service.
See OHIO (VALLEY): A. D. 1754.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1755-1760.
The French and Indian War.
Braddock's defeat and after.
See OHIO (VALLEY): A. D. 1748-1754, 1754, 1755;
CANADA: A. D. 1750-1753, to 1760;
NOVA SCOTIA: A. D. 1749-1755, 1755;
and CAPE BRETON ISLAND: A. D. 1758-1760.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1756.
Number of Slaves.
See SLAVERY, NEGRO: A. D. 1756.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1759-1761.
The Cherokee War.
See SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1759-1761.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1763.
The Parsons' Cause and Patrick Henry.
"In Virginia as well as in Pennsylvania, a vigorous opposition
to vested rights foreshadowed what was to come. A short crop
of tobacco having suddenly enhanced the price of that staple,
or, what is quite as like]y, the issue of paper money in
Virginia, first made that same year [1755], having depreciated
the currency, the Assembly had passed a temporary act,
authorizing the payment of all tobacco debts in money at
twopence per pound—the old rate, long established by usage.
Three years after, under pretence of an expected failure of
the crop, this tender act was renewed.
{3635}
Francis Fauquier, who had just succeeded Dinwiddie as
lieutenant governor, a man of more complying temper than his
predecessor, readily consented to it. The salaries of the
parish ministers, some sixty-five in number, were payable in
tobacco. They were likely to be considerable losers by this
tender law; and, not content with attacking it in pamphlets,
they sent an agent to England, and by the aid of Sherlock,
bishop of London, procured an order in council pronouncing the
law void. Suits were presently brought to recover the
difference between twopence per pound in the depreciated
currency and the tobacco to which by law the ministers were
entitled. In defending one of these suits [1763], the
remarkable popular eloquence of Patrick Henry displayed itself
for the first time. Henry was a young lawyer, unconnected with
the ruling aristocracy of the province, and as yet without
reputation or practice. The law was plainly against him, and
his case seemed to be hopeless. He had, however, a strong
support in the prevailing prejudice in favor of the tender
law, and in the dissatisfaction generally felt at the king's
veto upon it. Addressing the jury in a torrent of eloquence as
brilliant as it was unexpected, he prevailed upon them to give
him a verdict. The Assembly voted money to defend all suits
which the parsons might bring; and, notwithstanding their
clear legal right in the matter, they thought it best to
submit without further struggle."
_R. Hildreth,
History of the United States,
chapter 27 (volume 2)._
ALSO IN:
_W. Wirt,
Life of Patrick Henry,
chapter 1._
_M. C. Tyler,
Patrick Henry,
chapter 4._
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1763-1766.
The question of taxation by Parliament.
The Stamp Act and Patrick Henry's resolutions.
The First Continental Congress.
The repeal of the Stamp Act and the Declaratory Act.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1760-1775; 1763-1764; 1765; and 1766.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1766-1773.
Opening events of the Revolution.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1766-1767, to 1772-1773;
and BOSTON: A. D. 1770, to 1773.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1768.
The boundary treaty with the Six Nations at Fort Stanwix.
Pretended cession of lands south of the Ohio.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1765-1768.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1769.
Attempted prohibition of Slave Trade nullified by George III.
See SLAVERY, NEGRO: A. D. 1713-1776.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1769-1772.
The first settlement of Tennessee.
The Watauga Association.
See TENNESSEE: A. D. 1769-1772.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1774.
Western territorial claims of the Old Dominion.
Lord Dunmore's War with the Indians.
See OHIO (VALLEY): A. D. 1774;
and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1781-1786.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1774.
The Boston Port Bill, the Massachusetts Bill,
and the Quebec Act.
The First Continental Congress.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1774.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1775.
The beginning of the War of the American Revolution.
Lexington.
Concord.
The country in arms.
Ticonderoga.
The Siege of Boston.
Bunker Hill.
The Second Continental Congress.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1775.
The end of Royal Government.
Lord Dunmore's flight.
Not long after the excited demonstrations which followed
Governor Dunmore's removal of powder from the public magazine
at Williamsburg, the governor received Lord North's
"conciliatory proposition," and "he convened the House of
Burgesses, on the 1st of June, to take it into consideration.
This withdrew Peyton Randolph from Congress, as had been
anticipated, and Mr. Jefferson succeeded to the vacancy. But
the latter was not permitted to leave the Burgesses before an
answer to the ministerial proposition was framed. … How much
the answer was 'enfeebled' by the doubts and scruples of the
moderate members, we cannot say, but it rings true
revolutionary metal, and it was a noble lead off for the
Assemblies of the other Colonies. … The House, after the
customary expression of a desire for reconciliation, declare
that they have examined it (the Ministerial proposition)
minutely, viewed it in every light in which they are able, and
that, 'with pain and disappointment, they must ultimately
declare that it only changed the form of oppression without
lightening its burden.' … In the meantime events had
transpired which soon afterwards terminated the official
career of the Earl of Dunmore, and with it the royal
government in Virginia. On the 5th of June, three men who
entered the public magazine were wounded by a spring gun
placed there by the orders of the Governor, and on the 7th, a
committee of the House, appointed to inspect the magazine,
found the locks removed from the serviceable muskets, and they
also discovered the powder which had been placed in mine.
These things highly exasperated the multitude, and on a rumor
getting abroad that the same officer who had before carried
off the powder was again advancing towards the city with an
armed force, they rose in arms. The Governor's assurance that
the rumor was unfounded restored tranquillity. He, however,
left the city in the night with his family and went on board
the Fowey, lying at York, twelve miles distant. He left a
message declaring that he had taken this step for his safety,
and that thenceforth he should reside and transact business on
board of the man of war! An interchange of messages, acrid and
criminatory on his part, firm and spirited on the part of the
House, was kept up until the 24th of June; when, on his final
refusal to receive bills for signature except under the guns
of an armed vessel, the House declared it a high breach of
privilege, and adjourned to the 12th of October. But a quorum
never afterwards attended. … We soon find the Earl of Dunmore
carrying on a petty but barbarous predatory warfare against
the people he had so lately governed."
_H. S. Randall,
Life of Jefferson,
volume 1, chapter 3._
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1775-1776.
Lord Dunmore's warfare.
Norfolk destroyed.
"Having drawn together a considerable force, Dunmore ascended
Elizabeth River to the Great Bridge, the only pass by which
Norfolk can be approached from the land side; dispersed some
North Carolina militia collected there; made several
prisoners; and then, descending the river [November 1775],
took possession of Norfolk. The rise of that town had been
very rapid. Within a short time past it had become the
principal shipping port of Virginia.
{3636}
Its population amounted to several thousands, among whom were
many Scotch traders not well disposed to the American cause.
Fugitive slaves and others began now to flock to Dunmore's
standard. A movement was made in his favor on the east shore
of Maryland, which it required a thousand militia to suppress.
The Convention of Virginia, not a little alarmed, voted four
additional regiments, afterward increased to seven, all of
which were presently taken into continental pay. … Woodford,
with the second Virginia regiment, took possession of the
causeway leading to the Great Bridge, which was still held by
Dunmore's troops. An attempt to dislodge the Virginians having
failed, with loss, Dunmore abandoned the bridge and the town,
and again embarked. Norfolk was immediately occupied by
Woodford, who was promptly joined by Howe's regiment from
North Carolina. After a descent on the eastern shore of
Virginia [January, 1776], to whose aid marched two companies
of Maryland minute men, being re-enforced by the arrival of a
British frigate, Dunmore bombarded Norfolk. A party landed and
set it on fire. … The part which escaped was presently burned
by the provincials, to prevent it from becoming a shelter to
the enemy. Thus perished, a prey to civil war, the largest and
richest of the rising towns of Virginia. Dunmore continued,
during the whole summer, a predatory warfare along the rivers,
of which his naval superiority gave him the command, burning
houses and plundering plantations, from which he carried off
upward of 1,000 slaves. He was constantly changing his place
to elude attack; but watched, pursued, and harassed, he
finally found it necessary to retire to St. Augustine with his
adherents and his plunder."
_R. Hildreth,
History of the United States,
chapter 32 (volume 3)._
ALSO IN:
_C. Campbell,
Introduction to History of Virginia.,
chapter 33_.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1775-1784.
The exercise of sovereignty over Kentucky.
See KENTUCKY: A. D. 1775-1784.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1776.
Independence declared and a Constitution adopted.
Declaration of Rights.
"There was a sudden change in public sentiment; and the idea
of independence, said to be alarming to Virginians in March
[1776] was welcome to them in April. One writes on the 2d:
'Independence is now the talk here. … It will be very soon, if
not already, a favorite child.' Another, on the 12th, writes:
'I think almost every man, except the treasurer, is willing to
declare for independence.'" On the 23d, the Charlotte County
Committee charged its delegates in convention to use their
best endeavors "that the delegates which are sent to the
General Congress be instructed immediately to cast off the
British yoke." On the next day, a majority of the freeholders
of James City took similar action. "In May, the avowals for
independence were numerous. In this spirit and with such aims,
a new convention was chosen, and on the 6th of May met in
Williamsburg. It contained illustrious men,—among them, James
Madison, in the twenty-fifth year of his age; George Mason, in
the maturity of his great powers; Richard Bland, Edmund
Pendleton, and Patrick Henry, rich in Revolutionary fame. … On
the 14th of May the convention went into a committee of the
whole on the state of the colony, with Archibald Carey in the
chair; when Colonel Nelson submitted a preamble and
resolutions on independence, prepared by Pendleton. These were
discussed in two sittings of the committee, and then reported
to the House. They were opposed chiefly by delegates from the
Eastern District, but were advocated by Patrick Henry, and
passed unanimously when 112 members were present,—about 20
absenting themselves. This paper enumerated the wrongs done to
the colonies … and instructed the delegates appointed to
represent the colony in the General Congress 'to propose to
that respectable body to declare the United Colonies free and
independent States,' and to 'give the assent of the colony to
measures to form foreign alliances and a
confederation,—provided the power of forming government for
the internal regulations of each colony be left to the
colonial legislatures.' The same paper also provided for a
committee to form a plan of government for Virginia. This
action was transmitted by the President to the other
assemblies, accompanied by a brief circular. … It was hailed
by the patriots in other colonies with enthusiasm. … The
convention agreed (June 12) upon the famous Declaration of
Rights declaring all men equally free and independent, all
power vested in and derived from the people, and that
government ought to be for the common benefit; also that all
men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion
according to the dictates of conscience. It also complied with
the recommendation of Congress, by forming a constitution and
electing a governor and other officers."
_R. Frothingham,
The Rise of the Republic,
chapter 11._
ALSO IN:
_H. B. Grigsby,
The Virginia Convention of 1776._
_W. C. Rives,
Life and Times of Madison,
volume 1, chapter 5._
_K. M. Rowland,
Life of George Mason,
volume 1, chapter 7._
See, also, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776-1779.
The following is the text of the Declaration of Rights:
"A Declaration of Rights, made by the Representatives of the
good People of Virginia, assembled in full and free
Convention, which rights do pertain to them and their
posterity as the basis and foundation of government.
I. That all men are by nature equally free and independent,
and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter
into a state of society, they cannot by any compact, deprive
or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and
liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property,
and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.
II. That all power is vested in, and consequently derived
from, the people; that magistrates are their trustees and
servants, and at all times amenable to them.
III. That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the
common benefit, protection and security of the people, nation
or community; of all the various modes and forms of
government, that is best which is capable of producing the
greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is most
effectually secured against the danger of maladministration;
and that, when a government shall be found inadequate or
contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath
an indubitable, unalienable and indefeasible right to reform,
alter or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most
conducive to the public weal.
{3637}
IV. That no man, or set of men, are entitled to exclusive or
separate emoluments or privileges from the community but in
consideration of public services, which not being descendible,
neither ought the offices of magistrate, legislator or judge
to be hereditary.
V. That the legislative, executive and judicial powers should
be separate and distinct; and that the members thereof may be
restrained from oppression, by feeling and participating the
burthens of the people, they should, at fixed periods, be
reduced to a private station, return into that body from which
they were originally taken, and the vacancies be supplied by
frequent, certain and regular elections, in which all, or any
part of the former members to be again eligible or ineligible,
as the laws shall direct.
VI. That all elections ought to be free, and that all men
having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with,
and attachment to the community, have the right of suffrage,
and cannot be taxed, or deprived of their property for public
uses, without their own consent, or that of their
representatives so elected, nor bound by any law to which they
have not in like manner assented, for the public good.
VII. That all power of suspending laws, or the execution of
laws, by any authority, without consent of the representatives
of the people, is injurious to their rights, and ought not to
be exercised.
VIII. That in all capital or criminal prosecutions, a man hath
a right to demand the cause and nature of his accusation, to
be confronted with the accusers and witnesses, to call for
evidence in his favor, and to a speedy trial by an impartial
jury of twelve men of his vicinage, without whose unanimous
consent he cannot be found guilty; nor can he be compelled to
give evidence against himself; that no man be deprived of his
liberty, except by the law of the land or the judgment of his
peers.
IX. That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor
excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments
inflicted.
X. That general warrants, whereby an officer or messenger may
be commanded to search suspected places without evidence of a
fact committed, or to seize any person or persons not named,
or whose offence is not particularly described and supported
by evidence, are grievous and oppressive, and ought not to be
granted.
XI. That in controversies respecting property, and in suits
between man and man, the ancient trial by jury of twelve men
is preferable to any other, and ought to be held sacred.
XII. That the freedom of the press is one of the great
bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by
despotic governments.
XIII. That a well regulated militia, composed of the body of
the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural and safe
defence of a free State; that standing armies in time of
peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that in
all cases the military should be under strict subordination
to, and governed by, the civil power.
XIV. That the people have a right to uniform government; and
therefore, that no government separate from or independent of
the government of Virginia, ought to be erected or established
within the limits thereof.
XV. That no free government, or the blessing of liberty, can
be preserved to any people, but by a firm adherence to
justice, moderation, temperance, frugality and virtue, and by
a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.
XVI. That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator,
and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by
reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore
all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion,
according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the
duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love and
charity towards each other.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1776-1779.
The war in the north.
The Articles of Confederation.
Alliance with France.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776, to 1779.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1776-1808.
Antislavery opinion and the causes of its disappearance.
See SLAVERY, NEGRO: A. D. 1776-1808.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1778.
Suppression of the Transylvania Company in Kentucky.
See KENTUCKY: A. D. 1765-1778.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1778-1779.
Clark's conquest of the Northwest and its organization
under the jurisdiction of Virginia.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1778-1779 CLARK'S CONQUEST.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1779.
British coast raids, at Norfolk and elsewhere.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1778-1779 WASHINGTON GUARDING THE HUDSON.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1779-1786.
Settlement of boundaries with Pennsylvania.
The Pan-handle.
"In 1779 commissioners appointed by the two States met at
Baltimore to agree upon the common boundaries of Pennsylvania
and Virginia. … On both sides there was an evident desire to
end the dispute. Various lines were proposed and rejected. On
August 31 the commissioners signed this agreement: 'To extend
Mason and Dixon's line due west five degrees of longitude, to
be computed from the River Delaware, for the southern boundary
of Pennsylvania, and that a meridian line drawn from the
western extremity thereof to the northern limit of the said
State be the western boundary of Pennsylvania forever.' This
contract was duly ratified by the legislatures of the two
States. In 1785 Mason and Dixon's line was extended, and the
southwestern corner of Pennsylvania established. The
'Pan-handle' is what was left of Virginia east of the Ohio
River and north of Mason and Dixon's line, after the boundary
was run from this point to Lake Erie in 1786. … It received
its name in legislative debate from Honorable John McMillan,
delegate from Brooke County, to match the Accomac projection,
which he dubbed the Spoonhandle."
_B. A. Hinsdale,
The Old Northwest,
page 109 and foot-note._
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1780-1783.
The war in the South.
Arnold's ravages.
Lafayette's campaign.
Surrender of Cornwallis.
Peace with Great Britain.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1780, to 1783.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1784.
Cession of Western territorial claims to the United States.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1781-1786.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1787-1788.
The formation and adoption of the Federal Constitution.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1787; and 1787-1789.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1791-1792.
Separation of Kentucky and its admission
to the Union as a State.
See KENTUCKY: A. D. 1789-1792.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1798.
The Nullifying Resolutions of Madison.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1798.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1808.
The Embargo and its effects.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1804-1809; and 1808.
{3638}
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1813.
The coasts raided by British naval parties.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1812-1813 INDIFFERENCE TO THE NAVY.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1831.
The Nat Turner insurrection of Slaves.
See SLAVERY, NEGRO: A. D. 1828-1832.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1859.
John Brown's invasion at Harper's Ferry.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1859.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861 (January-June).
Attempted peace-making.
The State carried into rebellion.
Separation of West Virginia, which adheres to the Union.
"Early in January, 1861, the Virginia Assembly met at Richmond
to determine the action of the Commonwealth in the approaching
struggle. It was plain that war was coming unless the
authorities of the United States and of the seceding States
would listen to reason; and the first proceedings of the
Assembly looked to peace and the restoration of fraternal
union. Virginia recommended to all the States to appoint
deputies to a Peace Convention. …
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1861 (FEBRUARY) THE PEACE CONVENTION].
Thus ended in failure the first attempt of Virginia to
preserve the national peace; and the crisis demanded that she
should promptly decide upon her course. On February 13 (1861)
a Convention assembled at Richmond, and a Committee was
appointed on Federal Relations. On March 10 (1861), this
Committee reported fourteen resolutions protesting against all
interference with slavery; declaring secession to be a right;
and defining the grounds on which the Commonwealth would feel
herself to be justified in exercising that right, namely: the
failure to obtain guarantees; the adoption of a warlike policy
by the Government of the United States; or the attempt to
exact the payment of duties from the seceded States, or to
reënforce or recapture the Southern forts. These resolves
clearly define the attitude of Virginia at this critical
moment. After prolonged discussion, all but the last had
passed the Convention when intelligence came that war had
begun. The thunder of cannon from Charleston harbor broke up
the political discussion. … Mr. Lincoln had expressed himself
in his inaugural with perfect plainness. Secession was
unlawful, and the Union remained unbroken; it was his duty to
execute the laws, and he should perform it. To execute the
laws it was necessary to have an army; and (April 15, 1861)
President Lincoln issued his proclamation calling for 75,000
troops from the States remaining in the Union. The direct
issue was thus presented, and Virginia was called upon to
decide the momentous question whether she would fight against
the South or against the North. … As late as the first week in
April the Convention had refused to secede by a vote of 89 to
45. Virginia was conscientiously following her old traditions
and would not move. Now the time had come at last. … On the
17th of April, two days after the Federal proclamation, the
Convention passed an ordinance of secession and adhesion to
the Southern Confederacy, by a vote of 88 to 55, which was
ratified by the people by a majority of 96,750 votes, out of a
total of 161,018. West Virginia refused to be bound by the
action of the Convention, and became a separate State, but the
Virginia of the Tidewater and Valley went with the South."
_J. E. Cooke,
Virginia,
part 3, chapter 22._
"Of the 46 delegates from the territory now comprising West
Virginia, 29 voted against [the ordinance of secession], 9 for
it, 7 were absent and one excused. Those who voted against it
hastened to leave the city," and, on reaching their homes,
became generally the leaders of a movement to separate their
section of the State from the Old Dominion. On the 13th of May
a convention of delegates from the counties of Northwestern
Virginia was held at Wheeling, by the action of which a more
general convention was called and held at the same place on
the 11th day of June. The latter convention assumed the power
to reorganize the government of the State of Virginia.
_V. A. Lewis,
History of West Virginia,
chapter 21-23._
ALSO IN: J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
_Abraham Lincoln,
volume 3, chapter 25,
and volume 4, chapter 19._
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861 (April).
Governor Letcher's reply to President Lincoln's call for troops.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (APRIL).
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861 (April).
Seizure of Harper's Ferry and Norfolk Navy Yard.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1861 (APRIL). ACTIVITY OF REBELLION.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861 (June-November).
The loyal State government organized in West Virginia.
Steps taken toward separation from the old State.
A Convention held on the 11th of June in West Virginia
declared the State offices of Virginia vacant by reason of the
treason of those who had been elected to hold them, and
proceeded to form a regular State organization, with Francis
H. Pierpont for the executive head. Maintaining that the loyal
people were entitled to speak for the whole State they
declared that their government was the government of Virginia.
They subsequently admitted delegates from Alexandria and
Fairfax Counties in Middle Virginia and from Accomac and
Northampton Counties on the eastern shore. Thus organized, the
government was acknowledged by Congress as the government of
Virginia and senators and representatives were admitted to
seats. The Pierpont Government, as it was called, then adopted
an ordinance on the 20th of August, 1861, providing "for the
formation of a new State out of a portion of the territory of
this State." The ordinance was approved by a vote of the
people, and on the 26th of November the Convention assembled
in Wheeling to frame a constitution for the new government.
_J. G. Blaine,
Twenty Years of Congress,
volume 1, chapter 21._
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861 (July).
Richmond made the capital of the Southern Confederacy.
"The Conspiracy had no intention originally of establishing
its seat of government at Richmond. That was a part of the
price exacted by Virginia for her secession, and it was not
paid without reluctance. It is to be remembered that at that
time every thing seemed to turn on what the Border States
would do. … By establishing the seat of government at
Richmond, it became certain that the most powerful of the
Southern armies would always be present in Virginia. If
Virginia had been abandoned, all the Border States would have
gone with the North. … The Confederates having determined on
the transfer of their seat of government to Richmond, the
necessary preparations were completed, and their Congress
opened its first session in that city on the 20th of July,
1861."
_J. W. Draper,
History of the American Civil War,
chapter 39 (volume 2)._
{3639}
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861-1865.
The Battleground of the Civil War.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1861 (MAY: VIRGINIA), and after.
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1862 (April-November).
The separation of West Virginia consummated.
See WEST VIRGINIA: A. D. 1862 (APRIL-DECEMBER).
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1865.
The last meeting of the Secession Legislature.
President Lincoln's Permit.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (APRIL: VIRGINIA).
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1865.
Recognition of the Pierpont State Government
by President Johnson.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (MAY-JULY).
VIRGINIA: A. D. 1865-1870.
Reconstruction.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1865 (MAY-JULY), to 1868-1870.
----------VIRGINIA: End--------
VIRGINIA, University of.
"In 1816 the Legislature of Virginia authorized the president
and directors of the Literary Fund to report a plan for a
university at the next session of the Assembly. The committee
made a full report as requested, but nothing was accomplished
beyond bringing the subject of education prominently before
the people. At the legislative session of 1817-18 that part of
the bill relating to a university and the education of the
poor was passed. … In the bill authorizing the establishment
of the university, it was provided that the sum of $45,000 per
annum should be given for the education of the poor, and
$15,000 to the university. The commissioners having reported
in favor of Central College as the most convenient place in
Albemarle County, the Legislature decided, after much
discussion, to locate the university at Charlottesville, and
to assume the property and site of Central College. The
commissioners embodied in their report an exhaustive plan for
a university, chiefly from the pen of Thomas Jefferson."
_F. W. Blackmar,
History of Federal and State Aid to Higher Education
in the United States,
(Bureau of Education, Circular of Information,
1890, number 1), pages 174-175._
ALSO IN:
_H. B. Adams,
Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia
(Bureau of Education, Circular of Information,
1888, number 1)._
VIRGINIA, West.
See WEST VIRGINIA.
VIROCONIUM.
See URICONIUM.
VISCONTI, The House of the.
See MILAN: A. D. 1277-1447.
VISIGOTHS.
See GOTHS.
VITALIAN, Pope, A. D. 657-672.
VITELLIAN CIVIL WAR.
See ROME: A. D. 69.
VITELLIUS, Roman Emperor, A. D. 69.
VITEPSK, Battle of.
See RUSSIA: A. D. 1812 (JUNE-SEPTEMBER).
VITTORIA, Battle of (1813).
See SPAIN: A. D. 1812-1814.
VIZIR,
VIZIER.
"Like the Sassanian emperors, the Caliph was not only the
divinely appointed ruler, but the embodiment of the government
itself. His word was literally law, and his caprice might at
any moment overturn the most careful calculations of the
ministers, or deprive them of life, power, or liberty, during
the performance of their most active duties, or at a most
critical juncture. It was very seldom, however, that this
awful personage condescended to trouble himself about the
actual details of the executive government. The Vizier, as the
word implies [Vizier, in Arabic Wazir, means 'One who bears a
burden,'—Foot-note], was the one who bore the real burden of
the State, and it was both his interest and that of the people
at large to keep the Caliph himself as inactive as possible,
and to reduce him, in fact, to the position of a mere puppet."
_E. H. Palmer,
Haroun Alraschid, Caliph of Bagdad,
chapter. 1._
See, also, SUBLIME PORTE.
VLADIMIR I. (called The Great)
Duke of Kiev, A. D. 981-1015.
VLADIMIR II., Duke of Kiev, 1113-1126.
VOCATES, The.
See AQUITAINE: THE ANCIENT TRIBES.
VOCLAD, OR VOUGLÉ, Battle of.
See GOTHS (VISIGOTHS): A. D. 507-509.
VOCONIAN LAW.
The object of the Voconian Law, passed at Rome about 169 B. C.
under the auspices of Cato the censor, "was to limit the
social influence of women, by forbidding rich citizens to make
them heiresses of more than one half of their whole estate."
_W. Ihne,
History of Rome,
book 6, chapter 12 (volume 4)._
VODIÆ, The.
See IRELAND: TRIBES OF EARLY CELTIC INHABITANTS.
VOIVODES,
WOIWODES.
See POLAND: A. D. 1578-1652;
also BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: A. D. 1341-1350 (SERVIA).
VOLATERRÆ, Siege of.
Some remnants of the armies defeated by Sulla, in the civil
war which ended in his mastery of Rome and the Roman state (B.
C. 82), took refuge in the strong Etruscan town of Volaterræ,
and only capitulated after a siege of two years.
_W. Ihne,
History of Rome,
book 7, chapter 19 (volume 5)._
VOLCÆ, The.
"When the Romans entered the south of France, two tribes
occupied the country west of the Rhone as far at least as
Tolosa (Toulouse) on the Garonne. The eastern people, named
the Volcae Arecomici, possessed the part between the Cebenna
or Cevenna range (Cevennes), the Rhone, and the Mediterranean,
and according to Strabo extended to Narbonne. The chief town
of these Volcae was Nemausus (Nismes). The Volcae Tectosages
had the upper basin of the Garonne: their chief town was
Tolosa."
_G. Long,
Decline of the Roman Republic,
volume 1, chapter 21._
VOLSCIAN WARS OF ROME.
See ROME: B. C. 489-450.
VOLSCIANS, The.
See OSCANS; also ITALY, ANCIENT; and LATIUM.
VOLTA, Battle of (1848).
See ITALY: A. D. 1848-1849.
VOLTURNO, Battle of the (1860).
See ITALY: A. D. 1859-1861.
VOLUNTII, The.
See BRITAIN, CELTIC TRIBES;
also, IRELAND: TRIBES OF EARLY CELTIC INHABITANTS.
VRACHOPHAGOS, Battle of (1352).
See CONSTANTINOPLE: A. D. 1348-1355.
VROEDSCHAP, The.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1584-1585
LIMITS OF THE UNITED PROVINCES.
VULCANAL AT ROME, The.
"The Vulcanal, or, as it is called by Livy, the Area Vulcani,
must have been close to the Senaculum [early meeting place of
the Senate], on the slope of the Capitol. It seems to have
been originally an open space of some extent, used for public
meetings, especially those of the Comitia Tributa, and
dedicated to Vulcan. Sacrifices of small fish were offered to
Vulcan here, and a temple dedicated to that god stood also
here in the earliest times, but it was afterwards, on the
enlargement of the pomœrium beyond the Palatine, removed for
religious reasons to the Circus Flaminius, and the Vulcanal
became simply a consecrated area."
_R. Burn,
Rome and the Campagna,
chapter 6, part 1._
_C. I. Hemans,
Historic and Monumental Rome,
page 209._
{3640}
VULGAR ERA.
See ERA, CHRISTIAN.
W.
WAARTGELDERS.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1603-1619.
WABASH RIVER:
Called the River St. Jerome by the French (1712).
See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1698-1712.
WABENAKIES, OR ABNAKIS.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ABNAKIS.
WACOS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: PAWNEE (CADDOAN) FAMILY.
WAGER OF BATTLE.
TRIAL BY COMBAT.
JUDICIAL COMBAT.
"Trial by combat does not seem to have established itself
completely in France till ordeals went into disuse, which
Charlemagne rather encouraged, and which, in his age, the
clergy for the most part approved. The former species of
decision may, however, be met with under the first Merovingian
kings (Greg. Turon, l. vii. c. 19, l. x. c. 10), and seems to
have prevailed in Burgundy. It is established by the laws of
the Alemanni or Suabians. Baluz. t. i. p. 80. It was always
popular in Lombardy. … Otho II. established it in al disputes
concerning real property. … God, as they deemed, was the
judge. The nobleman fought on horseback, with all his arms of
attack and defence; the plebeian on foot, with his club and
target. The same were the weapons of the champions to whom
women and ecclesiastics were permitted to intrust their
rights. If the combat was intended to ascertain a civil right,
the vanquished party, of course, forfeited his claim and paid
a fine. If he fought by proxy, the champion was liable to have
his hand struck off: a regulation necessary, perhaps, to
obviate the corruption of these hired defenders. In criminal
cases the appellant suffered, in the event of defeat, the same
punishment which the law awarded to the offence of which he
accused his adversary. Even where the cause was more peaceably
tried, and brought to a regular adjudication by the court, an
appeal for false judgment might indeed be made to the
suzerain, but it could only be tried by battle. And in this,
the appellant, if he would impeach the concurrent judgment of
the court below, was compelled to meet in combat everyone of
its members; unless he should vanquish them all within the
day, his life, if he escaped from so many hazards, was
forfeited to the law. If fortune or miracle should make him
conqueror in every contest, the judges were equally subject to
death, and their court forfeited their jurisdiction for ever.
… Such was the judicial system of France when St. Louis [A. D.
1226-1270] enacted that great code which bears the name of his
Establishments. The rules of civil and criminal procedure, as
well as the principles of legal decisions, are there laid down
with much detail. But that incomparable prince, unable to
overthrow the judicial combat, confined himself to discourage
it by the example of a wiser jurisprudence. It was abolished
throughout the royal domains." Trial by combat "was never
abolished by any positive law, either in France [at large] or
England. But instances of its occurrence are not frequent even
in the fourteenth century."
_H. Hallam,
The Middle Ages,
chapter 2, part 2 (volume 1)._
"Nor was the wager of battle confined to races of Celtic or
Teutonic origin. The Slavonic tribes, as they successively
emerge into the light of history, show the same tendency to
refer doubtful points of civil and criminal law to the
arbitrament of the sword. The earliest records of Hungary,
Bohemia, Poland, Servia, Silesia, Moravia, Pomerania,
Lithuania, and Russia, present evidences of the prevalence of
the system." The last recorded instance of the wager of battle
in France was in 1549. "In England, the resolute conservatism,
which resists innovation to the last, prolonged the existence
of the wager of battle until a period unknown in other
civilized nations. … It was not until the time of Elizabeth
that it was even abolished in civil cases. … Even in the 17th
century, instances of the battle ordeal between persons of
high station are on record." As late as 1818 the right was
claimed and conceded by the judges, in a criminal case which
caused much excitement. "The next year the act 59 Geo. III.
chap. 46, at length put an end for ever to this last remnant
of the age of chivalry."
_H. C. Lea,
Superstition and Force,
chapter 2._
See, also, LAW, CRIMINAL: A. D. 1818.
WAGER OF LAW.
"This was the remarkable custom which was subsequently known
as canonical compurgation, and which long remained a part of
English jurisprudence, under the name of the Wager of Law. The
defendant, when denying the allegation under oath, appeared
surrounded by a number of companions—'juratores,'
'conjuratores,' 'sacramentales,' 'collaudantes,'
'compurgatores,' as they were variously termed—who swore, not
to their knowledge of the facts, but as sharers and partakers
in the oath of denial. This curious form of procedure derives
importance from the fact that it is an expression of the
character, not of an isolated sept, but of nearly all the
races that have moulded the destinies of Europe. The
Ostrogoths in Italy, and the Wisigoths of the South of France
and Spain were the only nations in whose codes it occupies no
place, and they, … at an early period, yielded themselves
completely to the influence of the Roman civilization. … The
church, with the tact which distinguished her dealings with
her new converts, was not long in adopting a system which was
admirably suited for her defence in an age of brute force."
_H. C. Lea,
Superstition and Force,
chapter 1._
On the abolition of the Wager of Law.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1833.
WAGNER, Fort,
The assault on, the siege, and the final reduction of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863 (JULY: SOUTH CAROLINA),
and (AUGUST-DECEMBER: SOUTH CAROLINA).
WAGRAM, Battle of.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1809 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).
{3641}
WAHABEES, The.
"The Wahabees derive their name from Abdul Wahab, the father
of Sheikh Muhammad, their founder, who arose about the
beginning of the last century, in the province of Najd, in
Arabia. The object of the Wahabee movement was to sweep away
all later innovations, and to return to the original purity of
Islam, as based upon the exact teaching of the Koran and the
example of Mahomet. The principles of the sect rapidly spread
among the Arab tribes, and were adopted by the sovereign
princes of Darayeh, in Najd. Impelled by religious zeal and
political ambition, and allured by the prospect of plunder,
the Wahabees soon acquired nearly the whole of Arabia, and
menaced the neighbouring Pashaliks of Turkey and Egypt. Mecca
and Medina soon fell into their hands, the shrine was
despoiled of its rich ornaments, and the pilgrim route to the
Kaaba closed for some years. Early in this century (1811),
Muhammad Ali, the Pasha of Egypt, at the bidding of the
Sultan, set himself to check the progress of this aggressive
sect; and his son Ibrahim Pasha completed the work (1818). …
The following particulars of the Wahabee reform need only be
added. They reject the decisions of the 'four orthodox
doctors,' and the intercessions of saints; they condemn the
excessive reverence paid to Mahomet, and deny his mediation,
until the last day. They also disapprove of the ornamenting of
tombs, &c."
_J. W. H. Stobart,
Islam and its Founder,
chapter 10, with foot-note._
ALSO IN:
_W. C. Taylor,
History of Mohammedanism and its Sects,
chapter 11._
_T. Nöldeke,
Sketches from Eastern History,
page 103._
WAHLSTADT, Battle of (1241).
See MONGOLS: A. D. 1229-1294;
and LIEGNITZ, THE BATTLE OF.
WAHPETONS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SIOUAN FAMILY.
WAIILATPUAN FAMILY, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: WAIILATPUAN FAMILY.
WAIKAS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: CARIBS AND THEIR KINDRED.
WAITANGI, Treaty of.
See NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1642-1856.
WAITZEN, Battles of(1849).
See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1848-1849.
WAIWODES,
WOIWODES,
VOIVODES.
See POLAND: A. D. 1578-1652;
and BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: A. D. 1341-1356 (SERVIA).
WAKASHAN FAMILY, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: WAKASHAN FAMILY.
WAKEFIELD, Battle of (1460).
Queen Margaret, rallying the loyal Lancastrians of the north
of England, met her enemy, the Duke of York, and the enemies
of her party, on Wakefield Green, December 30, 1460, and
defeated them with great slaughter, the Duke of York being
found among the slain. But her fruitless victory was soon
reversed by young Edward, Earl of March, eldest son of the
deceased Duke of York, who deposed King Henry VI. and planted
himself on the throne, before the same winter had passed.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1455-1471.
WAKEFIELD SYSTEM, The.
See AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1800-1840.
WALCHEREN EXPEDITION, The.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1809 (JULY-DECEMBER).
WALDEMAR.
See VALDEMAR.
WALDENSES,
VAUDOIS, The.
"Let me at the outset express my conviction that the whole
attempt to ascribe to the Waldenses an earlier date than the
latter half of the 12th century, to throw back their origin
some two hundred years, or sometimes much more than this, even
to the times of Claudius of Turin (d. 839), is one which will
not stand the test of historical criticism; while the
endeavour to vindicate for them this remote antiquity has
introduced infinite confusion into their whole history. The
date of Waldo, who, as I cannot doubt, is rightly recognized
as their founder, we certainly know. When it is sought to get
rid of their relation to him as embodied in the very name
which they bear, and to change this name into Vallenses, the
Men of the Valleys or the Dalesmen, it is a transformation
which has no likelihood, philological or historic, to
recommend it. … Peter Waldo,—for we will not withhold from him
this Christian name, although there is no authority for it
anterior to the beginning of the 15th century,—was a rich
citizen and merchant of Lyons [in the later half of the 12th
century]. Not satisfied with those scanty portions of
Scripture doled out to the laity in divine services, and
yearning above all for a larger knowledge of the Gospels, he
obtained from two friends among the priesthood a copy of these
last and of some other portions of Scripture translated into
the Romance language; a collection also of sayings from the
Fathers. The whole movement remained to the end true to this
its first motive—the desire namely for a fuller acquaintance
with the Word of God. That Word he now resolved to make the
rule of his life. … He …, as a first step, sells all that he
has, and bestows it upon the poor. In the name which he adopts
for himself and for the companions whom he presently
associates with him, the same fact of a voluntary poverty, as
that which above all they should embody in their lives, speaks
out. On this side of the Alps they are Poor Men of Lyons; on
the Italian, Poor Men of Lombardy. … And now he and his began
to preach in the streets of Lyons, to find their way into
houses, to itinerate the country round. Waldo had no intention
herein of putting himself in opposition to the Church, of
being a Reformer in any other sense than St. Francis or St.
Bernard was a Reformer, a quickener, that is, and reviver of
the Church's spiritual life. His protest was against practical
mischiefs, against negligences and omissions on the part of
those who should have taught the people, and did not.
Doctrinal protest at this time there was none. But for Rome
all forms of religious earnestness were suspicious which did
not spring directly from herself. … In 1178 the Archbishop of
Lyons forbade their preaching or expounding any more. Such as
did not submit had no choice but to quit Lyons, and betake
themselves elsewhere. And thus it came to pass that not the
city, already so illustrious in ecclesiastical story, where
Irenæus taught and Blandina suffered, … but the Alpine
mountains must shelter these outcasts, and in turn be made
famous by their presence." In 1209, Pope Innocent III. made an
attempt to absorb Waldo's society in an "Order of Poor
Catholics," which he instituted. "Failing this, he repeated, a
few years later, at the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), the
Church's sentence against the Waldenses, including them under
a common ban with the Cathari and the whole rabble rout of
Manichæans and others with whom they have so often since been
confounded. …
{3642}
Enemies have sought to confound, that so there might be
imputed to the Waldenses any evil which had been brought home
to the Albigenses. … Friends have sought to identify them out
of the wish to recruit the scanty number of witnesses for
Scriptural and Apostolical truth in the dark ages of the
Church; as certainly it would prove no small numerical
addition if the Albigenses might be counted among these." It
seems to be certain that the Waldenses were not spared by the
crusaders who exterminated the Albigenses of southern France
between 1209 and 1229. They fled before that storm into the
recesses of the Alps. "But they were numerous in North Italy
as well; and far more widely scattered over the whole of
central Europe than their present dwelling place and numbers
would at all suggest. They had congregations in Florence, in
Genoa, in Venice, above all in Milan; there were Waldensian
communities as far south as Calabria; they were not unknown in
Arragon; still less in Switzerland; at a later day they found
their way to Bohemia, and joined hands with the Hussites
there."
_R. C. Trench,
Lectures on Mediæval Church History,
lecture 17._
"The valleys which the Vaudois have raised into celebrity lie
to the west of Piemont, between the province of Pignerol and
Briançon, and adjoining on the other side to the ancient
Marquisate of Susa, and that of the Saluces. The capital, La
Tour, being about 36 miles from Turin, and 14 from Pignerol.
The extent of the valleys is about 12 Italian miles, making a
square of about 24 French leagues. The valleys are three in
number, Luzern, Perouse, and St. Martin. The former (in which
the chief town is now Catholic) is the most beautiful and
extensive."
_J. Bresse,
History of the Vaudois,
part 1, chapter i._
The Waldenses are sometimes confused, mistakenly, with the
Albigenses, who belonged to an earlier time.
See ALBIGENSES.
ALSO IN:
_A. Muston,
The Israel of the Alps._
_E. Comba,
History of the Waldenses of Italy._.
WALDENSES: A. D. 1526-1561.
Identification with the Calvinists.
Persecuting war of the Duke of Savoy.
The tolerant treaty of Cavour.
See SAVOY AND PIEDMONT: A. D. 1559-1580.
WALDENSES: A. D. 1546.
Massacre of the remnant in Provence and Venaissin.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1532-1547.
WALDENSES: A. D. 1655.
The second Persecution and Massacre.
Cromwell's intervention.
"They [the Vaudois, or Waldenses] had experienced persecutions
through their whole history, and especially after the
Reformation; but, on the whole, the two last Dukes of Savoy,
and also Christine, daughter of Henry IV. of France, and
Duchess-Regent through the minority of her son, the present
Duke, had protected them in their privileges, even while
extirpating Protestantism in the rest of the Piedmontese
dominions. Latterly, however, there had been a passion at
Turin and at Rome for their conversion to the Catholic faith,
and priests had been traversing their valleys for the purpose.
The murder of one such priest, and some open insults to the
Catholic worship, about Christmas 1654, are said to have
occasioned what followed. On the 25th of January, 1654-5, an
edict was issued, under the authority of the Duke of Savoy,
'commanding and enjoining every head of a family, with its
members, of the pretended Reformed Religion, of what rank,
degree, or condition soever, none excepted, inhabiting and
possessing estates in the places of Luserna … &c., within
three days, to withdraw and depart, and be, with their
families, withdrawn out of the said places, and transported
into the places and limits marked out for toleration by his
Royal Highness during his good pleasure,' … unless they gave
evidence within 20 days of having become Catholics.
Furthermore it was commanded that in every one even of the
tolerated places there should be regular celebration of the
Holy Mass, and that there should be no interference therewith,
nor any dissuasion of anyone from turning a Catholic, also on
pain of death. All the places named are in the Valley of
Luserna, and the object was a wholesale shifting of the
Protestants of that valley out of nine of its communes and
their concentration into five higher up. In vain were there
remonstrances at Turin from those immediately concerned. On
the 17th of April, 1655, the Marquis di Pianezza, entered the
doomed region with a body of troops mainly Piedmontese, but
with French and Irish among them. There was resistance,
fighting, burning, pillaging, flight to the mountains, and
chasing and murdering for eight days, Saturday, April 24,
being the climax. The names of about 300 of those murdered
individually are on record, with the ways of the deaths of
many of them. Women were ripped open, or carried about impaled
on spikes; men, women, and children, were flung from
precipices, hacked, tortured, roasted alive; the heads of some
of the dead were boiled and the brains eaten; there are forty
printed pages, and twenty-six ghastly engravings, by way of
Protestant tradition of the ascertained variety of the
devilry. The massacre was chiefly in the Valley of Luserna,
but extended also into the other two valleys. The fugitives
were huddled in crowds high among the mountains, moaning and
starving; and not a few, women and infants especially,
perished amid the snows. … There was a shudder of abhorrence
through Protestant Europe, but no one was so much roused as
Cromwell. … On Thursday the 17th of May, and for many days
more, the business of the Savoy Protestants was the chief
occupation of the Council. Letters, all in Milton's Latin, but
signed by the Lord Protector in his own name, were despatched
(May 25) to the Duke of Savoy himself, to the French King, to
the States General of the United Provinces, to the Protestant
Swiss Cantons, to the King of Sweden, to the King of Denmark,
and to Ragotski, Prince of Transylvania. A day of humiliation
was appointed for the Cities of London and Westminster, and
another for all England." A collection of money for the
sufferers was made, which amounted, in England and Wales, to
£38,000—equal to about £137,000 now. Cromwell's personal
contribution was £2,000—equivalent to £7,500 in money of the
present day. The Protector despatched a special envoy to the
court of Turin, who addressed very plain and bold words to the
Duke. Meanwhile Blake with his fleet was in the Mediterranean,
and there were inquiries made as to the best place for landing
troops to invade the Duke's dominions. "All which being known
to Mazarin, that wily statesman saw that no time was to be
lost.
{3643}
While Mr. Downing [second commissioner sent by Cromwell] was
still only on his way to Geneva through France, Mazarin had
instructed M. Servien, the French minister at Turin, to
insist, in the French King's name, on an immediate settlement
of the Vaudois business. The result was a 'Patente di Gratia e
Perdono,' or 'Patent of Grace and Pardon,' granted by Charles
Emanuel to the Vaudois Protestants, August 19, in terms of a
Treaty at Pignerol, in which the French Minister appeared as
the real mediating party and certain Envoys from the Swiss
Cantons as more or less assenting. As the Patent substantially
retracted the Persecuting Edict and restored the Vaudois to
all their former privileges, nothing more was to be done."
These events in Piedmont drew from Milton his immortal sonnet,
beginning: "Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints."
_D. Masson,
Life of John Milton,
volume 5, book 1, chapter 1, section 2._
ALSO IN:
_J. B. Perkins,
France under Mazarin,
chapter 16 (volume 2)._
_A. Muston,
The Israel of the Alps,
volume 1, part 2, chapters 6-9._
WALDENSES: A. D. 1691.
Toleration obtained by William of Orange.
"In the spring of 1691, the Waldensian shepherds, long and
cruelly persecuted, and weary of their lives, were surprised
by glad tidings. Those who had been in prison for heresy
returned to their homes. Children, who had been taken from
their parents to be educated by priests, were sent back.
Congregations, which had hitherto met only by stealth and with
extreme peril, now worshipped God without molestation in the
face of day. Those simple mountaineers probably never knew
that their fate had been a subject of discussion at the Hague,
and that they owed the happiness of their firesides and the
security of their humble temples to the ascendency which
William [of Orange] exercised over the Duke of Savoy," who had
lately joined the Grand Alliance against Louis XIV. of France.
_Lord Macaulay,
History of England,
chapter 17._
----------WALDENSES: End--------
WALDSHUT: Capture by Duke Bernhard (1637).
See GERMANY: A. D. 1634-1639.
----------WALES: Start--------
WALES:
Origin of the name.
See WELSH.
WALES:
Ancient tribes.
See BRITAIN, CELTIC TRIBES.
WALES: 6th Century.
The British states embraced in it.
See BRITAIN: 6TH CENTURY.
WALES: A. D. 1066-1135.
The Norman Conquest.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1087-1135.
WALES: A. D. 1282-1284.
The final conquest.
"All the other races had combined on the soil of Britain, the
Welsh would not. The demands of feudal homage made by the
kings of England were evaded or repudiated; the intermarriages
by which Henry II. and John had tried to help on a national
agreement had in every case failed. In every internal
difficulty of English politics the Welsh princes had done
their best to embarrass the action of the kings; they had
intrigued with every aspirant for power, had been in league
with every rebel. … The necessity of guarding the Welsh border
had caused the English kings to found on the March a number of
feudal lordships, which were privileged to exercise almost
sovereign jurisdictions, and exempted from the common
operation of the English law. The Mortimers at Chirk and
Wigmore, the Bohuns at Hereford and Brecon, the Marshalls at
Pembroke, and the Clares in Glamorgan, were out of the reach
of the King, and often turned against one another the arms
which had been given them to overawe the Welsh. … So long as
the Welsh were left free to rebel the Marchers must be left
free to fight. … Llewelyn, the prince of North Wales, had, by
the assistance given to Simon de Montfort, earned as his
reward a recognition of his independence, subject only to the
ancient feudal obligations. All the advantages won during the
early years of Henry III. had been thus surrendered. When the
tide turned Llewelyn had done homage to Henry; but when he was
invited, in 1273, to perform the usual service to the new
king, he refused; and again, in 1274 and 1275, he evaded the
royal summons. In 1276, under the joint pressure of
excommunication and a great army which Edward brought against
him, he made a formal submission; performed the homage, and
received, as a pledge of amity, the hand of Eleanor de
Montfort in marriage. But Eleanor, although she was Edward's
cousin, was Earl Simon's daughter, and scarcely qualified to
be a peacemaker. Another adviser of rebellion was found in
Llewelyn's brother David, who had hitherto taken part with the
English, and had received special favours and promotion from
Edward himself. … The peace made in 1277 lasted about four
years. In 1282 the brothers rose, seized the border castles of
Hawarden, Flint, and Rhuddlan, and captured the Justiciar of
Wales, Roger Clifford. Edward saw then that his time was come.
He marched into North Wales, carrying with him the courts of
law and the exchequer, and transferring the seat of government
for the time to Shrewsbury. He left nothing undone that might
give the expedition the character of a national effort. He
collected forces on all sides; he assembled the estates of the
realm, clergy, lords, and commons, and prevailed on them to
furnish liberal supplies; he obtained sentence of
excommunication from the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Welsh
made a brave defence, and, had it not been for the almost
accidental capture and murder of Llewelyn in December, England
might have found the task too hard for her. The death of
Llewelyn, however, and the capture of David in the following
June, deprived the Welsh of their leaders, and they submitted.
Edward began forthwith his work of consolidation. … In 1284 he
published at Rhuddlan a statute, called the Statute of Wales,
which was intended to introduce the laws and customs of
England, and to reform the administration of that country
altogether on the English system. The process was a slow one;
the Welsh retained their ancient common law and their national
spirit; the administrative powers were weak and not
far-reaching; the sway of the lords Marchers was suffered to
continue; and, although assimilated, Wales was not
incorporated with England. It was not until the reign of Henry
VIII. that the principality was represented in the English
Parliament, and the sovereignty, which from 1300 onwards was
generally although not invariably bestowed on the king's
eldest son, conferred under the most favourable circumstances
little more than a high-sounding title and some slight and
ideal claim to the affection of a portion of the Welsh people.
The task, however, which the energies of his predecessors had
failed to accomplish was achieved by Edward. All Britain south
of the Tweed recognised his direct and supreme authority, and
the power of the Welsh nationality was so far broken that it
could never more thwart the determined and united action of
England."
_W. Stubbs,
The Early Plantagenets,
chapter 10._
ALSO IN:
_D. Hume,
History of England,
chapter 13._
_J. Lingard,
History of England,
volume 3, chapter 3._
_C. Knight,
Popular History of England,
chapter 25._
_C. H. Pearson,
History of England during the Early and Middle Ages._
{3644}
WALES: A. D. 1402-1413.
Owen Glendower's Rebellion.
"Since the day when it was conquered by Edward I. Wales had
given the kings of England very little trouble. The Welsh
remained loyal to the son and grandson of their conqueror, and
were the most devoted friends of Richard II., even when he had
lost the hearts of his English subjects. But on the usurpation
of Henry [IV.] their allegiance seems to have been shaken: and
Owen Glendower, who was descended from Llewelyn, the last
native prince of Wales, laid claim to the sovereignty of the
country [A. D. 1402]. He ravaged the territory of Lord Grey of
Ruthin, and took him prisoner near Snowdon; then, turning
southwards, overran Herefordshire and defeated and took
prisoner Sir Edmund Mortimer, uncle to that young Earl of
March, who should have been heir to the crown after Richard
according to the true order of descent. In this battle upwards
of a thousand Englishmen were slain, and such was the fierce
barbarity of the victors that even the women of Wales
mutilated the dead bodies in a manner too gross to be
described, and left them unburied upon the field till heavy
sums were paid for their interment. It was necessary to put
down this revolt of Glendower, and the King collected an army
and went against him in person. It was the beginning of
September; but owing, as the people thought, to magical arts
and enchantments practised by the Welshman, the army suffered
dreadfully from tempests of wind, rain, snow, and hail before
it could reach the enemy. In one night the King's tent was
blown down, and he himself would have been killed if he had
not retired to rest with his armour on. Finally the enterprise
had to be abandoned. … Glendower continued as troublesome as
ever, and the King was unable from various causes to make much
progress against him. At one time money could not easily be
raised for the expedition. At another time, when he actually
marched into the borders of Wales [A. D. 1405], his advance
was again impeded by the elements. The rivers swelled to an
unusual extent, and the army lost a great part of its baggage
by the suddenness of the inundation. The French, too, sent
assistance to Glendower, and took Carmarthen Castle. Some time
afterwards [A. D. 1407] the King's son, Henry Prince of Wales,
succeeded in taking the castle of Aberystwith; but very soon
after Owen Glendower recovered it by stealth. In short, the
Welsh succeeded in maintaining their independence of England
during this whole reign, and Owen Glendower ultimately got
leave to die in peace." On the accession of Henry V. (A. D.
1413), "the Welsh, who had been so troublesome to his father,
admired his valour and claimed him as a true prince of Wales,
remembering that he had been born at Monmouth, which place was
at that time within the principality. They discovered that
there was an ancient prophecy that a prince would be born
among themselves who should rule the whole realm of England;
and they saw its fulfilment in King Henry V."
_J. Gairdner,
The Houses of Lancaster and York,
chapter. 4, section 3;
and chapter 5, section 1._
ALSO IN:
_J. H. Wylie,
History of England under Henry IV.,
volume 1, chapter 14._
----------WALES: End--------
WALES, Prince of.
"When Edward I. subdued Wales, he is said to have promised the
people of that country a native prince who could not speak
English, and taking advantage of the fact that his queen,
Eleanor, was delivered of a child at Carnarvon Castle, in
North Wales, he conferred the principality upon his infant son
Edward, who was yet unable to speak. By the death of his
eldest brother Alphonso, Edward became heir to the throne, to
which he afterwards succeeded as Edward II.; but from this
time forward, the principality has been appropriated solely to
the eldest sons of the kings of England, who previous to this
period had only borne the title of 'Lord Prince.' In 1841, for
the first time, the dukedom of Saxony was introduced among the
reputed titles of the Prince of Wales. This dignity his Royal
Highness derives merely in right of his own paternal descent.
… Without any new creation, and previous to his acquiring the
title of Prince of Wales, the heir-apparent of the sovereign
is Duke of Cornwall, the most ancient title of its degree in
England. Edward the Black Prince … was created the first Duke
of Cornwall in 1337. … The dukedom merges in the Crown when
there is no heir apparent, and is immediately inherited by the
prince on his birth, or by the accession of his father to the
throne, as the case may be. … The earldom of Chester is one of
the titles conferred by patent, but it was formerly a
principality, into which it had been erected by the 21st of
Richard II. In the reign of Henry IV., however, the act of
parliament by which it had been constituted was repealed, and
it has ever since been granted in the same patent which
confers the title of Prince of Wales. As the eldest sons of
the kings of Scotland have enjoyed the titles of Duke of
Rothsay, Earl of Carrick, Baron Renfrew, and Hereditary Great
Steward of Scotland, those dignities are also invariably
attributed to the Prince of Wales."
_C. R. Dodd,
Manual of Dignities,
part 2._
WALI.
An Arabian title, given to certain governors of extensive
provinces under the caliphate. It seems to have had a
viceroyal significance, marking the bearer of it as an
immediate representative of the caliph.
_T. P. Hughes,
Dictionary of Islam._
WALID I., Caliph, A. D. 705-715.
Walid II., Caliph, 743-744.
WALKER, William:
Filibustering in Nicaragua.
See NICARAGUA: A. D. 1855-1860.
WALL IN BRITAIN, Roman.
See ROMAN WALLS IN BRITAIN.
WALL OF CHINA, The Great.
See CHINA: THE ORIGIN OF THE PEOPLE.
WALL OF PROBUS.
See GERMANY: A. D. 277.
WALLACE, William, and the Scottish struggle for independence.
See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1290-1305.
{3645}
WALLACHS,
WALLACHIANS.
WALLACHIA: The name.
This is one of the forms of a name which the ancient Germanic
peoples seem to have given to non-Germanic nations whom they
associated in any wise with the Roman empire.
See WELSH.
For an account of the Wallachians of southeastern Europe, and
their country.
See BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES.
WALLENSTEIN, Campaigns of.
See GERMANY:
A. D. 1624-1626; 1627-1629; 1630; 1631-1632; and 1632-1634.
WALLHOF, Battle of (1626).
See SCANDINAVIAN STATES (SWEDEN): A. D. 1611-1629.
WALLINGFORD, Treaty of.
A treaty concluded, A. D. 1153, between King Stephen and
Matilda, who claimed the English crown as the heir of her
father, Henry I. By the treaty Stephen was recognized as king
and Matilda's son Henry (who became Henry II.) was made his
heir.
WALLOONS, The.
"In Namur, Liege, and Luxembourg, the speech is what is called
Walloon, the same word as Welsh, and derived from the German
root 'wealh,' a foreigner. By this designation the Germans of
the Flemish tongue denoted the Romano-Belgic population whose
language was akin to the French, and whom a hilly and
impracticable country (the forest districts of the Ardennes)
had more or less protected from their own arms. Now the
Walloon is a form of the Romano-Keltic so peculiar and
independent that it must be of great antiquity, i. e., as old
as the oldest dialect of the French, and no extension of the
dialects of Lorraine, or Champagne, from which it differs
materially. It is also a language which must have been formed
on a Keltic basis. … The Walloons, then, are Romano-Keltic;
whereas the Flemings are Germans, in speech and in blood."
_R. G. Latham,
Ethnology of Europe,
chapter 3._
See, also, NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1494-1519.
WALPOLE, The administration of.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1714-1721, and 1727-1741.
WALPOLE COMPANY, The.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1765-1768.
WÄLSCH, The.
See VENEDI.
WALTER, the Penniless, Crusade of.
See CRUSADES: A. D. 1096-1099.
WAMPANOAGS,
POKANOKETS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY;
also, NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1674-1675, 1675, 1676-1678.
WAMPUM.
"Wampum, or wompam, according to Trumbull was the name of the
white beads made from stems or inner whorls of the Pyrula
Carica or Canaliculata periwinkle shells so common on all the
south Coast of New England. When strung they were called
wampon or wampom—peage or peake or peg, equivalent to 'strings
of white beads,' for peage means 'strung beads.' Color was the
basis of the nomenclature, as well as of the difference in
value. 'Wompi' was white; 'Sacki' was black; 'Suckauhock' was
the black beads made from the dark part of the poquauhock, the
common quahog, Venus' mercenaria or round clam shell. The
value of the black was generally twice that of the white. …
The word generally used among the Dutch who led in introducing
the bead currency of the Indians, Sewan or Zeewand, was more
general in its application than wampum. But whatever the
difficult Indian linguistic process may have been, the New
England men soon settled on wampum and peage as the working
names for this currency. The shell cylinders, black or white,
were about one-eighth of an inch in diameter and one-quarter
long. There were shorter beads used for ornaments, but there
is hardly any trace of them in the currency. … The Indians
strung the beads on fibres of hemp or tendons taken from the
flesh of their forest meat. … The strings of peage were
embroidered on strips of deer-skin, making the 'Máchequoce,' a
girdle or belt 'of five inches thicknesse,' or more, and to
the value of ten pounds sterling or more, which was worn about
the waist or thrown over the shoulders like a scarf. More than
10,000 beads were wrought into a single belt four inches wide.
These belts were in common use like the gold and jewelry of
our day. They also played the same symbolic part which
survives in the crown jewels and other regalia of civilized
nations. … Whenever the Indians made an important statement in
their frequent negotiations, they presented a belt to prove
it, to give force to their words. … It gave to the words the
weight of hard physical facts and made the expression an
emblem of great force and significance. The philologists call
this literary office, this symbolic function of wampum, an
elementary mnemonic record. The same was fulfilled by the
quippus, knotted strings or quipu of the ancient Peruvians. …
'This belt preserves my words' was a common remark of the
Iroquois Chief in council. … The Iroquois were a mighty
nation, almost an incipient state. Their only records were in
these mnemonic beads. … Tradition gives to the Narragansetts
the honor of inventing these valued articles, valuable both
for use and exchange. … The Long Island Indians manufactured
the beads in large quantities and then were forced to pay them
away in tribute to the Mohawks and the fiercer tribes of the
interior. Furs were readily exchanged for these trinkets,
which carried a permanent value, through the constancy of the
Indian desire for them. … After the use of wampum was
established in colonial life, contracts were made payable at
will in wampum, beaver, or silver. … The use began in New
England in 1627. It was a legal tender until 1661, and for
more than three quarters of a century the wampum was current
in small transactions."
_W. B. Weeden,
Indian Money as a Factor in New England Civilization._
See, also, MONEY AND BANKING: 17th CENTURY;
QUIPU; and MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1623-1629.
WANBOROUGH, Battle of.
See HWICCAS.
WANDIWASH, Battle of (1760).
See INDIA: A. D. 1758-1761.
WAPANACHKIK, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.
WAPENING, The.
The mediæval armed assembly of Ghent and other Flemish towns.
_J. Michelet,
History of France,
book 12, chapter 1._
WAPENTAKE, The.
See HUNDRED, THE.
WAPISIANAS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: CARIBS AND THEIR KINDRED.
WAPPINGERS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.
WAR OF 1812, The.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1804-1809; 1808;
and 1810-1812, to 1815 (JANUARY).
WAR OF JENKINS' EAR, The.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1739-1741.
WAR OF LIBERATION.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1812-1813, to 1813 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
{3646}
WAR OF THE AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION.
See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1740, to 1744-1745;
NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1745, and 1746-1747;
ITALY: A. D. 1741-1743, to 1746-1747;
AIX-LA-CHAPELLE: THE CONGRESS.
WAR OF THE FEDERATION.
See VENEZUELA: A. D. 1829-1886.
WAR OF THE LOVERS, The.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1578-1580.
WAR OF THE QUEEN'S RIGHTS.
See NETHERLANDS (THE SPANISH PROVINCES): A. D. 1667.
WAR OF THE REBELLION (of the American Slave States),
or War of Secession.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1860 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER), and after.
Statistics.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (MAY) STATISTICS.
WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION.
See SPAIN: A. D. 1702, and after;
NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1702-1704, and after;
GERMANY: A. D. 1702, and after;
ITALY: A. D. 1701-1713;
NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1702-1710;
and UTRECHT: A. D. 1712-1714.
WAR OF THE THREE HENRYS.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1584-1589.
WARAUS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: CARIBS AND THEIR KINDRED.
WARBECK, PERKIN, Rebellion of.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1487-1497.
WARBURG, Battle of.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1760.
WARD, General Artemas, and the American Revolution.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1775 (APRIL-MAY), (MAY-AUGUST), and (JUNE).
WARINGS, The.
See VARANGIANS.
WARNA,
VARNA, Battle of (1444).
See TURKS: A. D. 1402-1451.
WARREN, Dr. Joseph, and the American Revolution.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1775 (MAY), and (JUNE).
WARS OF RELIGION IN FRANCE, The.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1560-1563, to 1593-1598.
WARS OF THE ROSES.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1455-1471.
WARSAW: A. D. 1656.
Three days battle with Swedes and Brandenburgers.
Defeat of the Poles.
See BRANDENBURG: A. D. 1640-1688;
and SCANDINAVIAN STATES (SWEDEN): A. D. 1644-1697.
WARSAW: A. D. 1792-1794.
Occupied by the Russians.
Their forces expelled.
Capture of the city by Souvorof.
Its acquisition by Prussia.
See POLAND: A. D. 1791-1792; and 1793-1796.
WARSAW: A. D. 1807.
Created a Grand Duchy, and ceded to the King of Saxony.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1807 (JUNE-JULY).
WARSAW: A. D. 1815.
The Grand Duchy given to Russia.
See VIENNA, THE CONGRESS OF.
WARSAW: A. D. 1830-1831.
Revolt.
Attack and capture by the Russians.
See POLAND: A. D. 1830-1832.
WARTBURG,
Luther at.
See PAPACY: A. D. 1521-1522.
German students' demonstration (1817).
See GERMANY: A. D. 1817-1820.
WARTENBURG, Battle of.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1813 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER).
WARWICK, the King-maker.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1455-1471.
WARWICK PLANTATION.
See RHODE ISLAND: A. D. 1641-1647.
WASHAKIS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES, SHOSHONEAN FAMILY.
WASHINGTON, George:
First campaigns.
See OHIO (VALLEY): A. D. 1754, and 1755.
In the War of the American Revolution.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1775 (MAY-AUGUST), to 1783 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER).
The framing of the Federal Constitution.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1787.
Presidential election and administration.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1789, to 1796.
Farewell Address.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1796.
----------WASHINGTON (City): Start--------
WASHINGTON (City): A. D. 1791.
The founding of the Federal Capital.
"One important duty which engaged the President's
[Washington's] attention during part of the recess [of
Congress] related to the purchase and survey of the new
Federal city. The site chosen on the Potomac by himself and
the commissioners, in conformity with law [see UNITED STATES
OF AMERICA: A. D. 1789-1792], lay a few miles to the north of
Mount Vernon on the Maryland side of the river, at the
confluence of the Eastern Branch, and just below Georgetown.
The tradition goes that, while a young surveyor scouring the
neighboring country, Washington had marked the advantages of
this spot for a great city. … The entire soil belonged in
large parcels to a few plain, easy, Maryland farmers, who rode
over to Georgetown for their flour and bacon. One of these
only, David Burns, was obstinate about making terms; and the
subsequent rise of land in the western quarter of the city,
which his farmhouse now occupied, rendered his little daughter
in time the heiress of Washington, and confirmed his claims to
historical consideration as the most conspicuous grantor of
the National Capital. For procuring this choice spot on behalf
of his countrymen, the President conducted the negotiations in
person, and the purchase of the Federal city was concluded
upon just and even generous terms. Each owner surrendered his
real estate to the United States with no restriction except
that of retaining every alternate lot for himself. The
government was permitted to reserve all tracts specially
desired at £25 an acre, while the land for avenues, streets,
and alleys should cost nothing. Thus the Federal Capital came
to the United States as substantially a free conveyance of
half the fee of the soil in consideration of the enhanced
value expected for the other half. … Major l'Enfant, a French
architect, was selected to plan and lay out the new city. The
highways were mapped and bounded substantially as they exist
at this day, being so spacious and so numerous in comparison
with building lots as to have admitted of no later change, in
the course of a century, except in the prudent direction of
parking, enlarging sidewalks, and leaving little plats in
front of houses to be privately cared for. Streets running due
north and south from the northern boundary to the Potomac were
intersected at right angles by others which extended east and
west.
{3647}
To mar the simplicity of this plan, however, which so far
resembled that of Philadelphia, great avenues, 160 feet wide,
were run diagonally, radiating like spokes, from such main
centres as Capitol Hill and the President's house. … This new
Capital, by the President modestly styled 'the Federal City,'
but to which the commissioners, by general acclamation,
proceeded in September to affix his illustrious name, was
America's first grand essay at a metropolis in advance of
inhabitants. … The founder himself entered with unwonted ardor
into the plans projected for developing this the new Capital.
Not only did he picture the city which bore his name as an
instructor of the coming youth in lessons of lofty patriotism,
but he prophesied for it national greatness apart from its
growth as the repository of the nation. He believed it would
become a prosperous commercial city, its wharves studded with
sails, enjoying all the advantages of Western traffic by means
of a canal linking the Potomac and Ohio rivers, so as to bring
Western produce to the seaboard. The ten-mile square which
comprised the territorial District of Columbia, inclusive of
the Capital, stretched across the Potomac, taking Georgetown
from the Maryland jurisdiction, and Alexandria from Virginia.
… The first corner-stone of this new Federal district was
publicly laid with Masonic ceremonies, and though the auction
sale of city lots in autumn proved disappointing, the idea
prevailed that the government would gain from individual
purchasers in Washington city a fund ample enough for erecting
there all the public buildings at present needed."
_J. Schouler,
History of the United States,
chapter 2, section 2 (volume 1)._
ALSO IN:
_M. Clemmer,
Ten Years in Washington,
chapters 1-3._
_C. B. Todd,
The Story of Washington,
chapters 1-2._
_J. A. Porter,
The City of Washington
(Johns Hopkins University Studies, series 3, numbers 11-12)._
WASHINGTON (City): A. D. 1814.
In the hands of the British.
Destruction of public buildings.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1814 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER).
WASHINGTON (City): A. D. 1861 (April).
The threatening activity of rebellion.
Peril of the national capital.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (APRIL)
ACTIVITY OF REBELLION.
WASHINGTON (City): A. D. 1861 (April-May).
The coming of the first defenders of the national capital.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (APRIL),
and (APRIL-MAY: MARYLAND).
WASHINGTON (City): A. D. 1862 (April).
Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (APRIL-JUNE).
WASHINGTON (City): A. D. 1864.
Approached and threatened by Early.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1864 (JULY: VIRGINIA-MARYLAND).
WASHINGTON (City): A. D. 1867.
Extension of suffrage to the Negroes.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1867 (JANUARY).
----------WASHINGTON (City): End--------
WASHINGTON, Fort: A. D. 1776.
Capture by the British.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1776 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).
WASHINGTON,
The proposed state, to be formed west of Pennsylvania.
See NORTHWEST TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1784.
WASHINGTON (State): A. D. 1803.
Was it embraced in the Louisiana Purchase?
Grounds of American possession.
See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1798-1803.
WASHINGTON (State): A. D. 1846.
Possession for the United States secured by the settlement
of the Oregon boundary question with England.
See OREGON: A. D. 1844-1846.
WASHINGTON (State): A. D. 1889.
Admission to the Union.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1889-1890.
WASHINGTON, Treaty of (1842).
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1842 THE ASHBURTON TREATY.
Treaty of (1871).
See ALABAMA CLAIMS: A. D. 1871.
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, St. Louis.
See EDUCATION, MODERN: REFORMS &c.: A. D. 1865-1886.
WASHOAN FAMILY, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: WASHOAN FAMILY.
WAT TYLER'S REBELLION.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1381.
WATAUGA ASSOCIATION, The.
See TENNESSEE: A. D. 1769-1772.
WATERFORD: A. D. 1170.
Stormed and taken by Strongbow.
See IRELAND: A. D. 1169-1175.
WATER-LILY SECT, The.
See TRIAD SOCIETY.
WATERLOO CAMPAIGN, Napoleon's.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1815 (JUNE).
WATERLOO FIELD, in Marlborough's Campaigns:
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1705.
WATERWAYS.
See (in Supplement) COMMERCE, MODERN.
WATHEK, Al, Caliph, A. D. 841-847.
WATLING STREET.
The Milky Way was known to our early English ancestors as
Watling Street, signifying the road "by which the hero-sons of
Waetla marched across" the heavens. When they settled in
England they transferred the name Watling Street to the great
Roman road which they found traversing the island, from London
to Chester. Portions of the road, in London and elsewhere,
still bear the name. Even in Chaucer's time the Milky Way
appears to have been sometimes called Watling Street.
_J. R. Green,
The Making of England,
page 166._
ALSO IN:
_T. Wright,
The Celt, the Roman and the Saxon._
See ROMAN ROADS IN BRITAIN.
WATT, James, and the Steam Engine.
See STEAM ENGINE: A. D. 1765-1785.
WATTIGNIES, Battle of (1793).
See FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (JULY-DECEMBER) PROGRESS OF THE WAR.
WAUHATCHIE, Battle of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER: TENNESSEE).
WAYNE, General Anthony, and the storming of Stony Point.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1778-1779 WASHINGTON GUARDING THE HUDSON.
Chastisement of the Northwestern Indians.
See NORTHWEST TERRITORY: A. D. 1790-1795.
WAYNESBOROUGH, Battle of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1865 (FEBRUARY-MARCH: VIRGINIA).
WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE.
See CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES.
WEALH.
See THEOW.
WEAVING BROTHERS, The.
See BEGUINES.
{3648}
WEBSTER, Daniel, and the Dartmouth College case.
See (in Supplement) DARTMOUTH COLLEGE.
The Tariff Question.
See TARIFF LEGISLATION (UNITED STATES):
A. D. 1816-1824; and 1828.
Debate with Hayne.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1828-1833.
In the Cabinet of President Tyler.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1841; and 1842
THE ASHBURTON TREATY.
Seventh of March Speech.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1850.
In the Cabinet of President Fillmore.
The Hülsemann Letter.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1850-1851.
WECKQUAESGEEKS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ALGONQUIAN FAMILY.
WEDMORE, Peace of.
A treaty of peace concluded between King Alfred and the Danes,
by which the latter were bound to remain peacefully on that
side of England which lay north and east of "Watling Street"
(the Roman road from London to Chester) and to submit to
baptism.
_E. A. Freeman,
Norman Conquest,
chapter 2, section 4 (volume l)._
See ENGLAND: A. D. 855-880.
WEHLAU. Treaty of (1657).
See BRANDENBURG: A. D. 1640-1688.
WEIMAR.
For an account of the origin of the Duchy of Saxe Weimar;
See SAXONY: A. D. 1180-1553.
"Small indeed is the space occupied on the map by the Duchy of
Saxe-Weimar; yet the historian of the German Courts declares,
and truly, that after Berlin there is no Court of which the
nation is so proud. … Small among German princes is mine, poor
and narrow his kingdom, limited his power of doing good.' Thus
sings Goethe in that poem, so honourable to both, wherein he
acknowledges his debt to Karl August. … Weimar is an ancient
city on the Ilm, a small stream rising in the Thuringian
forests, and losing itself in the Saal, at Jena; this stream
on which the sole navigation seems to be that of ducks,
meanders peacefully through pleasant valleys, except during
the rainy season, when mountain-torrents swell its current and
overflow its banks. The Trent, between Trentham and
Stafford—'the smug and silver Trent' as Shakespeare calls
it—will give an idea of this stream. The town is charmingly
placed in the Ilm valley, and stands some eight hundred feet
above the level of the sea. 'Weimar,' says the old
topographer, Mathew Merian, 'is Weinmar, because it was the
wine market for Jena and its environs. Others say it was
because some one here in ancient days began to plant the vine,
who was hence called Weinmayer. But of this each reader may
believe just what he pleases.' On a first acquaintance, Weimar
seems more like a village bordering a park, than a capital
with a Court, having all courtly environments. … Saxe-Weimar
has no trade, no manufactures, no animation of commercial,
political, or even theological activity. This part of Saxony,
be it remembered, was the home and shelter of Protestantism in
its birth. Only a few miles from Weimar stands the Wartburg,
where Luther, in the disguise of Squire George, lived in
safety, translating the Bible, and hurling his inkstand at the
head of Satan, like a rough-handed disputant as he was. In the
marketplace of Weimar stand, to this day, two houses from the
windows of which Tetzel advertised his indulgences, and Luther
afterwards in fiery indignation fulminated against them. These
records of religious struggle still remain, but are no longer
suggestions for the continuance of the strife. … The theologic
fire has long burnt itself out in Thuringia. In Weimar, where
Luther preached, another preacher came, whom we know as
Goethe. In the old church there is one portrait of Luther,
painted by his friend Lucas Kranach, greatly prized, as well
it may be; but for this one portrait of Luther, there are a
hundred of Goethe. It is not Luther, but Goethe, they think of
here; poetry, not theology, is the glory of Weimar. And,
corresponding with this, we find the dominant characteristic
of the place to be no magnificent church, no picturesque
ancient buildings, no visible image of the earlier ages, but
the sweet serenity of a lovely park. The park fills the
foreground of the picture, and always rises first in the
memory. … Within its limits Saxe Weimar displayed all that an
imperial court displays in larger proportions: it had its
ministers, its army, its chamberlains, pages, and sycophants.
Court favour, and disgrace, elevated and depressed, as if they
had been imperial smiles, or autocratic frowns. A standing
army of six hundred men, with cavalry of fifty hussars, had
its War Department, with war minister, secretary, and clerk.
As the nobles formed the predominating element of Weimar, we
see at once how, in spite of the influence of Karl August, and
the remarkable men he assembled round him, no real public for
Art could be found there. Some of the courtiers played more or
less with Art, some had real feeling for it; but the majority
set decided faces against all the beaux esprits. … Not without
profound significance is this fact that in Weimar the poet
found a Circle, but no Public. To welcome his productions
there were friends and admirers; there was no Nation. Germany
had no public."
_G. H. Lewes,
The Life and Works of Goethe.
book 1, chapter 1._
WEISSENBURG, Battle of.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1870 (JULY-AUGUST).
WELATABIANS, The.
See WILZEN.
WELDON RAILROAD,
Battles on the.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1864 (AUGUST: VIRGINIA).
WELFS.
See GUELFS.
WELLESLEY, MARQUIS OF.
The Indian Administration of.
See INDIA: A. D. 1798-1805.
WELLESLEY COLLEGE.
See EDUCATION, MODERN: REFORMS &c.: A. D. 1804-1891.
WELLINGHAUSEN,
KIRCHDENKERN, Battle of(1761).
See GERMANY: A. D. 1761-1762.
WELLINGTON.
Campaigns of.
See INDIA: A. D. 1798-1805;
SPAIN: A. D. 1808-1809, to 1812-1814;
and FRANCE: A. D. 1815.
Ministry.
See ENGLAND: A. D.1827-1828; 1830.
WELSH, The Name of the.
"The Germans, like our own ancestors, called foreign, i. e.
non-Teutonic nations, Welsh. Yet apparently not all such
nations, but only those which they in some way associated with
the Roman Empire: the Cymry of Roman Britain, the Romanized
Kelts of Gaul, the Italians, the Roumans or Wallachs of
Transylvania and the Principalities. It does not appear that
either the Magyars or any Slavonic people were called by any
form of the name Welsh."
_J. Bryce,
The Holy Roman Empire,
chapter 17, foot-note._
"Wealhas, or Welshmen; … it was by this name, which means
'strangers,' or 'unintelligible people,' that the English knew
the Britons, and it is the name by which the Britons, oddly
enough, now know themselves."
_J. R. Green,
The Making of England,
page 122._
{3649}
WENCESLAUS,
WENZEL,
VACSLAV I.,
King of Bohemia, A. D. 1230-1253.
Wenceslaus I., King of Hungary, 1301-1305;
Wenceslaus III. of Bohemia, 1305-1306.
Wenceslaus II., King of Bohemia, 1278-1305.
Wenceslaus IV., King of Bohemia, 1378-1419;
King of Germany, 1378-1400.
WENDS, The.
"The Germans call all Slavonians Wends.
No Slavonian calls himself so."
_R. G. Latham,
The Germany of Tacitus; Prolegomena,
section 15._
See, also, SLAVONIC PEOPLES;
VENEDI; VANDALS; and AVARS: 7TH CENTURY.
WENTWORTH, Thomas (Earl of Strafford).
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1634-1637, 1640, 1640-1641;
and IRELAND: A. D. 1633-1639.
WENZEL.
See WENCESLAUS.
WERBACH, Battle of.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1866.
WERBEN, The camp of Gustavus Adolphus at.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1631.
WERGILD.
"The principle that every injury to either person or property
might be compensated by a money payment was common to all the
northern nations. It was introduced into Gaul by the
conquering Franks, and into Britain by the English invaders.
Every man's life had a fixed money value, called the
'wergild.' In the case of a freeman, this compensation for
murder was payable to his kindred; in that of a slave, to his
master. The amount of the wergild varied, according to a
graduated scale, with the rank of the person slain."
_T. P. Taswell-Langmead,
English Constitutional History,
page 41._
WEROWANCE.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: POWHATAN CONFEDERACY.
WESLEYS, The, and early Methodism.
See METHODISTS.
WESSAGUSSET, Weston's settlement at.
See MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1622-1628.
WESSEX, The Kingdom of.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 477-527.
WEST INDIA COMPANY, The Dutch.
See NEW YORK: A. D. 1621-1646.
WEST INDIA COMPANY, The French.
See CANADA: A. D. 1663-1674.
WEST INDIES, The.
"The name West Indies recalls the fact that the discovery of
the new world originated in an attempt to find a western route
to the eastern seas, and that, when Columbus crossed the
Atlantic and sighted land on the other side, he fancied he had
reached the further coasts of the Indies.
See AMERICA: A. D. 1484-1492, and 1492.
'In consequence of this mistake of Columbus,' says Adam Smith,
'the name of the Indies has stuck to those unfortunate
countries ever since.' The islands, or some of them, have long
borne the name of Antilles. Antillia or Antigua was a mythical
island [see ANTILLES] which found a place on mediæval maps,
and the name was applied by geographers to Hispaniola and Cuba
upon their first discovery. In modern times Cuba, Hispaniola
or Hayti, Jamaica, and Porto Rico have usually been known as
the Greater Antilles; and the ring of smaller islands,
including the Windward and the Leeward Islands, as the Lesser
Antilles. The terms Windward and Leeward themselves demand
some notice. The prevailing wind in the West Indies being the
north-east trade wind, the islands which were most exposed to
it were known as the Windward islands, and those which were
less exposed were known as the Leeward. According]y, the
Spaniards regarded the whole ring of Caribbean islands as
Windward islands, and identified the Leeward islands with the
four large islands which constitute the Greater Antilles as
given above. The English sailors contracted the area of
Windward and Leeward, subdividing the Caribbean islands into a
northern section of Leeward islands and a southern section of
Windward islands, which project further into the Atlantic. In
1671 this division was made a political one, and the English
Caribbean islands, which had before constituted one
government, were separated into two groups, under two
Governors-in-chief; the islands to the north of the French
colony of Guadeloupe forming the government of the Leeward
islands, the islands to the south of Guadeloupe forming the
government of the Windward islands. Latterly the signification
has been again slightly modified; and, for administrative
purposes under the Colonial Office, the Leeward islands group
now includes the more northerly section of the Caribbean
islands belonging to Great Britain, from the Virgin islands to
Dominica [embracing Antigua, St. Christopher or St. Kitts,
Nevis, Montserrat, the Virgin Islands, Dominica, Barbuda,
Redonda, and Anguilla]; while the Windward islands are
artificially restricted to St. Lucia, St. Vincent, the
Grenadines, and Grenada, the two most windward of all,
Barbados and Tobago, being separated from the group." Barbados
is a distinct crown colony, and Tobago is joined with Trinidad
to form another.
_C. P. Lucas,
Historical Geography of the British Colonies,
volume 2, section 2. chapters 1, and 4-7._
ALSO IN:
_C. H. Eden,
The West Indies._
_T. Southey,
Chronological History of the West Indies._
See, also, CUBA; HAYTI; and JAMAICA.
WEST POINT.
"The importance of fortifying the Hudson River at its narrow
passes among the Highlands was suggested to the Continental
Congress by the Provincial Assembly of New York at an early
period of the war [of Independence]. On the 6th of October,
1775, the former directed the latter to proceed to make such
fortifications as they should deem best. On the 18th of
November, Congress resolved to appoint a commander for the
fortress, with the rank of colonel, and recommended the New
York Assembly, or Convention, to empower him to raise a body
of 200 militia from the counties of Dutchess, Orange, and
Ulster, and a company of artillery from New York city, to
garrison them." As the result of these proceedings a fort
named "Constitution" was constructed on Martelaer's Rock (now
Constitution Island) opposite West Point, under the direction
of an English engineer, Bernard Romans. "After the capture of
Forts Clinton and Montgomery, near the lower entrance to the
Highlands, in 1777, and the abandonment of Fort Constitution
by the Americans a few days afterward, public attention was
directed to the importance of other and stronger
fortifications in that vicinity. … Washington requested
General Putnam to bestow his most serious attention upon that
important subject. He also wrote to Governor Clinton, at the
same time, desiring him to take the immediate supervision of
the work; but his legislative duties, then many and pressing,
made it difficult for him to comply. Clinton … made many
valuable suggestions respecting the proposed fortifications.
He mentioned West Point as the most eligible site for a strong
fort."
{3650}
In the spring of 1778, "a committee of the New York
Legislature, after surveying several sites, unanimously
recommended West Point as the most eligible. Works were
accordingly commenced there under the direction of Kosciuszko.
… Kosciuszko arrived on the 20th of March, and the works were
pushed toward completion with much spirit. The principal
redoubt, constructed chiefly of logs and earth, was completed
before May, and named Fort Clinton. … At the close of 1779,
West Point was the strongest military post in America. In
addition to the batteries that stood menacingly upon the
hilltops, the river was obstructed by an enormous iron chain.
… West Point was considered the keystone of the country during
the Revolution, and there a large quantity of powder, and
other munitions of war and military stores, were collected.
These considerations combined made its possession a matter of
great importance to the enemy, and hence it was selected by
Arnold as the prize which his treason would give as a bribe.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1780 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER)].
When peace returned, it was regarded as one of the most
important military posts in the country, and the plateau upon
the point was purchased by the United States Government. … The
Military Academy at West Point was established by an act of
Congress which became a law on the 16th of March, 1802. Such
an institution, at that place, was proposed by Washington to
Congress in 1793; and earlier than this, even before the war
of the Revolution had closed, he suggested the establishment
of a military school there. But little progress was made in
the matter until 1812."
_B. J. Lossing,
Field-book of the Revolution,
volume 1, pages 702-706._
ALSO IN:
_E. C. Boynton,
History of West Point._
----------WEST VIRGINIA: Start--------
WEST VIRGINIA: A. D. 1632.
Partly embraced in the Maryland grant to Lord Baltimore.
See MARYLAND: A. D. 1632.
WEST VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861 (April-June).
Opposition to Secession.
Loyal State Government organized.
See VIRGINIA; A. D. 1861 (JANUARY-JUNE).
WEST VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861 (JUNE-JULY).
General McClellan's successful campaign.
The Rebels driven out.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1861 (JUNE-JULY: WEST VIRGINIA).
WEST VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861 (JUNE-NOVEMBER).
Steps taken toward separation from Virginia.
Constitutional Convention at Wheeling.
See VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861 (JUNE-NOVEMBER).
WEST VIRGINIA: A. D. 1861 (AUGUST-DECEMBER).
The campaign of Rosecrans against Lee.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1861 (AUGUST-DECEMBER: WEST VIRGINIA).
WEST VIRGINIA: A. D. 1862 (APRIL-DECEMBER).
The completed separation from Old Virginia.
Admission to the Union.
The work of the convention at Wheeling which framed a
constitution for the new State of West Virginia was
satisfactorily performed, and "on the first Thursday of April,
1862, the people approved the constitution by a vote of 18,862
in favor of it with only 614 against it. The work of the
representatives of the projected new State being thus
ratified, the Governor called the Legislature of Virginia
together on the 6th day of May, and on the 13th of the same
month that body gave its consent, with due regularity, to 'the
formation of a new State within the jurisdiction of the said
State of Virginia.' A fortnight later, on the 28th of May,
Senator Willey introduced the subject in Congress by
presenting a memorial from the Legislature of Virginia,
together with a certified copy of the proceedings of the
Constitutional Convention and the vote of the people. The
constitution was referred to the Committee on Territories and
a bill favorable to admission was promptly reported by Senator
Wade of Ohio. The measure was discussed at different periods,
largely with reference to the effect it would have upon the
institution of slavery, and Congress insisted upon inserting a
provision that 'the children of slaves, born in the State
after the 4th day of July, 1863, shall be free; all slaves
within the said State who shall at that time be under the age
of ten years shall be free when they arrive at the age of
twenty-one years all slaves over ten and under twenty-one
shall be free at the age of twenty-five years; and no slave
shall be permitted to come into the State for permanent
residence therein.' This condition was to be ratified by the
convention which framed the constitution, and by the people at
an election held for the purpose, and, upon due certification
of the approval of the condition to the President of the
United States, he was authorized to issue his proclamation
declaring West Virginia to be a State of the Union. … On the
14th of July, three days before Congress adjourned, the bill
passed the Senate by a vote of 23 to 17. Mr. Rice of Minnesota
was the only Democrat who favored the admission of the new
State. … Mr. Chandler and Mr. Howard of Michigan voted in the
negative because the State had voluntarily done nothing
towards providing for the emancipation of slaves; Mr. Sumner
and Mr. Wilson, because the Senate had rejected the
anti-slavery amendment [proposed by Mr. Sumner, declaring
immediate emancipation in the new State]; Mr. Trumbull and Mr.
Cowan, because of the irregularity of the whole proceeding.
The bill was not considered in the House until the next
session. It was taken up on the 9th of December," and was
warmly debated. "On the passage of the bill the ayes were 96
and the noes were 55. The ayes were wholly from the Republican
party, though several prominent Republicans opposed the
measure. Almost the entire Massachusetts delegation voted in
the negative, as did also Mr. Roscoe Conkling, Mr. Conway of
Kansas and Mr. Francis Thomas of Maryland. The wide difference
of opinion concerning this act was not unnatural. But the
cause of the Union was aided by the addition of another loyal
commonwealth, and substantial justice was done to the brave
people of the new State. … To the old State of Virginia the
blow was a heavy one. In the years following the war it added
seriously to her financial embarrassment, and it has in many
ways obstructed her prosperity."
_J. G. Blaine,
Twenty Years of Congress,
volume 1, chapter 21._
In the legislative Ordinance of 1861 the proposed new State
was called Kanawha; but in the Constitutional Convention this
name was changed to West Virginia.
ALSO IN:
_V. A. Lewis,
History of West Virginia,
chapters 25-26._
_E. McPherson,
Political History of the United States during
the Great Rebellion,
pages 377-378._
_J. G. Nicolay and J. Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
volume 6, chapter 14._
WEST VIRGINIA: A. D. 1862 (MAY-JUNE).
Fremont's Mountain Department.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862 (MAY-JUNE: VIRGINIA).
{3651}
WESTERN AUSTRALIA.
See AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1800-1840.
WESTERN EMPIRE, The.
See ROME: A. D. 394-395, and 423-450;
and GERMANY: A. D. 800.
WESTERN LANDS, Cession of, to the United States by the States.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1781-1786.
WESTERN RESERVE OF CONNECTICUT.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1781-1786;
PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1753-1799;
and OHIO (VALLEY): A. D. 1786-1796.
WESTFALIA.
See WESTPHALIA.
WESTMINSTER, Provisions of.
See OXFORD, PROVISIONS OF.
WESTMINSTER, Statutes of.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1275, and 1285.
WESTMINSTER, Treaty of.
See NETHERLANDS (HOLLAND): A. D. 1674.
WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES.
See ENGLAND: A. D.1643 (JULY); and 1646 (MARCH).
WESTMINSTER PALACE.
"Westminster was from the days of Edward the Confessor the
recognised home of the great council of the nation as well as
of the king. How this came about, history does not record; it
is possible that the mere accident of the existence of the
royal palace on the bank of the Thames led to the foundation
of the abbey, or that the propinquity of the abbey led to the
choice of the place for a palace; equal obscurity covers the
origin of both. … At Westminster Henry I held his councils,
and Stephen is said to have founded the chapel of his patron
saint within the palace. … From the very first introduction of
representative members the national council had its regular
home at Westminster. There, with a few casual exceptions, …
all the properly constituted parliaments of England have been
held. The ancient Palace of Westminster, of which the most
important parts, having survived until the fire of 1834 and
the construction of the New Houses of Parliament, were
destroyed in 1852, must have presented a very apt illustration
of the history of the Constitution which had grown up from its
early simplicity to its full strength within those venerable
walls. It was a curious congeries of towers, halls, churches,
and chambers. As the administrative system of the country had
been developed largely from the household economy of the king,
the national palace had for its kernel the king's court, hall,
chapel, and chamber. … As time went on, every apartment
changed its destination: the chamber became a council room,
the banquet hall a court of justice, the chapel a hall of
deliberation. … The King's Chamber, or Parliament Chamber, was
the House of Lords from very early times until the union with
Ireland, when the peers removed into the lesser or White Hall,
where they continued until the fire. The house of commons met
occasionally in the Painted Chamber, but generally sat in the
Chapter House or in the Refectory of the abbey, until the
reign of Edward VI, when it was fixed in S. Stephen's chapel.
… After the fire of 1834, during the building of the new
houses, the house of lords sat in the Painted Chamber, and the
house of commons in the White Hall or Court of Requests. It
was a curious coincidence, certainly, that the destruction of
the ancient fabric should follow so immediately upon the great
constitutional change wrought by the reform act, and scarcely
less curious that the fire should have originated in the
burning of the ancient Exchequer tallies, one of the most
permanent relics of the primitive simplicity of
administration."
_W. Stubbs,
Constitutional History of England,
chapter 20, sections 735-736 (volume 3)._
WESTMINSTER SCHOOL.
See EDUCATION, MODERN: EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.—ENGLAND.
WESTPHALIA:
The country so named.
See SAXONY: THE OLD DUCHY.
WESTPHALIA, The Circle of.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1493-1519.
WESTPHALIA, The Kingdom of.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1807 (JUNE-JULY);
1813(SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER), and (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
WESTPHALIA, The Peace of.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1648.
WESTPORT, Battle of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1864 (MARCH-OCTOBER: ARKANSAS-MISSOURI).
WETTIN, House of.
See SAXONY: A. D. 1180-1553.
WEXFORD: Stormed by Cromwell (1649).
See IRELAND: A. D. 1649-1650.
WHIG PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1834.
WHIGS (WHIGGAMORS):
Origin of the name and the English Party.
"The southwest counties of Scotland have seldom corn enough to
serve them round the year: and the northern parts producing
more than they need, those in the west come in summer to buy
at Leith the stores that come from the north: and from a word
'whiggam,' used in driving their horses, all that drove were
called the 'whiggamors,' and shorter the 'whiggs.' Now in that
year [1648], after the news came down of Duke Hamilton's
defeat [at the battle of Preston—see ENGLAND: A. D. 1648
(APRIL-AUGUST)], the ministers animated their people to rise
and march to Edenburgh; and they came up marching on [at] the
head of their parishes, with an unheard-of fury, praying and
preaching all the way as they came. The marquis of Argile and
his party came and headed them, they being about 6,000. This
was called the 'whiggamors' inroad; and ever after that all
that opposed the court came in contempt to be called 'whiggs':
and from Scotland the word was brought into England, where it
is now one of our unhappy terms of distinction."
_G. Burnet,
History of My Own Time,
book 1 (Summary), section 43 (volume 1)._
"We find John Nicoll, the diarist, in 1666, speaking of the
west-country Presbyterians as 'commonly called the Whigs,
implying that the term was new. The sliding of the appellation
from these obscure people to the party of the opposition in
London a few years later, is indicated by Daniel Defoe as
occurring immediately after the affair of Bothwell Bridge in
1679. The Duke of Monmouth then returning from his command in
Scotland, instead of thanks for his good service, found
himself under blame for using the insurgents too mercifully.
'And Lauderdale told Charles, with an oath, that the Duke had
been so civil to the Whigs because he was himself a Whig in
his heart. This made it a court-word; and in a little while
all the friends and followers of the Duke began to be called
Whigs.'"
_R. Chambers,
Domestic Annals of Scotland,
volume 2, page 172._
ALSO IN:
_J. H. Burton,
History of Scotland,
chapter 74 (volume 7)._
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1680.
{3652}
WHIPS, Party.
The "party whips," in English politics, are "an extremely
useful and hard-working body of officials. Being charged with
the duty of keeping the respective sides in readiness for all
emergencies, they are generally to be found in the lobby,
where they make themselves acquainted with the incomings and
outgoings of members, and learn a good deal as to their
prospective movements. The whips are the gentlemen who issue
those strongly underlined circulars by which legislators are
summoned on important nights; and who, by their watchfulness
and attention, can generally convey reliable intelligence to
the party chiefs. If the Ministers, for example, are engaged
in any controversy, and their whips are not absolutely certain
of a majority, they would make arrangements for a succession
of men to keep on talking till the laggards could be brought
to their places." The whips also arrange "pairs," by which
members of opposite parties, or on opposite sides of a given
question, agree in couples, not to vote for a certain fixed
period of time, thereby securing freedom to be absent without
causing any loss of relative strength to their respective
parties. This arrangement is common in most legislative
bodies. "In addition to these duties, the whips of the
opposing forces have to move for the issue of new writs in the
place of deceased members—task never undertaken till they
have a candidate ready for the fray."
_Popular Account of Parliamentary Procedure,
page 18._
ALSO IN:
_E. Porritt,
The Englishman at Home,
page 198, and appendix K._
WHISKY INSURRECTION, The.
See PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1794.
WHISKY RING, The.
The Whisky Ring, so called, brought to light in the United
States in 1875, "was an association, or series of
associations, of distillers and Federal officials for the
purpose of defrauding the Government of a large amount of the
tax imposed on distilled spirits, and, further, of employing a
part of the proceeds in political corruption. On the trial of
the indictments a number of Federal officers were convicted."
_A. Johnston,
History of American Politics,
chapter 23._
ALSO IN:
_The Whisky Frauds: Testimony Taken
(44th Congress, 1st Session,
H. R. Mis. Doc's, Number 186, volume 9)._
WHITE BOYS.
See IRELAND: A. D. 1760-1798.
WHITE CAMELLIA, Knights of the.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1866-1871.
WHITE CASTLE OF MEMPHIS, The.
See ATHENS: B. C. 460-449.
WHITE CITY, The.
See BELGRADE.
WHITE COCKADE, The.
"This is the badge at the same time of the House of Stuart and
of the House of Bourbon."
_E. E. Morris,
The Early Hanoverians,
page 138._
WHITE COMPANY, The.
See ITALY: A. D. 1343-1393.
WHITE CROSS, Order of the.
An order founded by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, 1814.
WHITE EAGLE, Order of the.
A Polish order of knighthood, instituted in 1325 by
Ladislaus IV., and revived by Augustus in 1705.
WHITE FRIARS.
See CARMELITE FRIARS.
WHITE GUELFS (Bianchi).
See FLORENCE: A. D. 1295-1300, and 1301-1313.
WHITE HOODS OF FRANCE.
"The Caputiati, or Capuchons, or White Hoods, [was] a sect
originating with a wood-cutter of Auvergne, by name Durand,
about the year 1182. Their primary object was the maintenance
of peace, and the extermination of the disbanded soldiery,
whom the English kings had spread over the south of France,
and [who] were now ravaging the country under the name of
Routiers or Cotereaux. The members of this religious
association were bound by no vow, and made no profession of
any particular faith; they were only distinguished by the
white head-gear that gave them their name, and wore a little
leaden image of the Virgin on their breast. They found favour
at first with the bishops, especially in Burgundy and the
Berri, and were even, from the best political causes,
countenanced by Philip Augustus. They thus rose to such a
degree of power that on the 20th of July, 1183, they
surrounded a body of 7,000 of the marauding party, and
suffered not one man to escape. They were, however, soon
intoxicated with success, and threw out some hints about
restoring the primæval liberty of mortals and universal
equality; thereby incurring the displeasure of Hugo Bishop of
Auxerre, who took arms against them, and put an end to the
sect by the might of the sword in 1186."
_L. Mariotti,
Frà Dolcino and his times,
chapter 1._
WHITE HOODS OF GHENT, The.
See FLANDERS: A. D. 1379-1381.
WHITE HOUSE, The.
The plain white freestone mansion at Washington in which the
President of the United States resides during his term of
office is officially styled the "Executive Mansion," but is
popularly known as the White House. "It was designed by James
Hoban in 1792. The corner-stone was laid on October 13, 1792,
and its construction went on side by side with that of the
Capitol. … President John Adams and his wife, on arriving … in
November, 1800, found it habitable, although but six of its
rooms were furnished. … In his design Hoban copied closely the
plan of a notable Dublin palace, the seat of the Dukes of
Leinster."
_C. B. Todd,
The Story of Washington,
page 264._
ALSO IN:
_M. Clemmer,
Ten Years in Washington,
chapter 19._
WHITE HUNS, The.
See HUNS, WHITE.
WHITE MONKS.
See CISTERCIAN ORDER.
WHITE MOUNTAIN, Battle of the (1620).
See GERMANY: A. D. 1620.
WHITE OAK ROAD, Battle of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1865 (MARCH-APRIL: VIRGINIA).
WHITE OAK SWAMP, Retreat through.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862 (JUNE-JULY: VIRGINIA).
WHITE PENITENTS,
WHITE COMPANIES.
"The end of the 14th century witnessed a profound outburst of
popular devotion. The miserable condition of the Church,
distracted by schism, and the disturbed state of every country
in Europe, awoke a spirit of penitence and contrition at the
prospect of another great Jubilee, and the opening of a new
century.
{3653}
Bands of penitents wandered from place to place, clad in white
garments; their faces, except the eyes, were covered with
hoods, and on their backs they wore a red cross. They walked
two and two, in solemn procession, old and young, men and
women together, singing hymns of penitence, amongst which the
sad strains of the 'Stabat Mater' held the chief place. At
times they paused and flung themselves on the ground,
exclaiming 'Mercy,' or 'Peace,' and continued in silent
prayer. All was done with order and decorum; the processions
generally lasted for nine days, and the penitents during this
time fasted rigorously. The movement seems to have originated
in Provence, but rapidly spread through Italy. Enemies were
reconciled, restitution was made for wrongs, the churches were
crowded wherever the penitents, or 'Bianchi' ['White
Penitents,' 'White Companies,' 'Whitemen' are various English
forms of the name] as they were called from their dress, made
their appearance. The inhabitants of one city made a
pilgrimage to another and stirred up their devotion. The
people of Modena went to Bologna; the Bolognese suspended all
business for nine days, and walked to Imola, whence the
contagion rapidly spread southwards. For the last three months
of 1399 this enthusiasm lasted, and wrought marked results
upon morals and religion for a time. Yet enthusiasm tended to
create imposture."
_M. Creighton,
History of the Papacy during the Period of the Reformation,
volume 1, pages 145-146._
ALSO IN:
_T. A. Trollope,
History of the Commonwealth of Florence,
volume 2, page 297._
See, also, FLAGELLANTS.
WHITE PLAINS, Battle of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1776 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).
WHITE RUSSIA.
See RUSSIA, GREAT, &c.
WHITE SEA, The.
See ÆGEAN.
WHITE SHIP, The sinking of the.
William, the only legitimate son of Henry I. of England,
accompanied his father on a visit to Normandy (A. D. 1120).
"When they were about to return by the port of Barfleur, a
Norman captain, Thomas Fitz-Stephen, appeared and claimed the
right of taking them in his ship, on the ground that his
father had been captain of the 'Mora,' in which the Conqueror
crossed to invade England. The king did not care to alter his
own arrangements, but agreed that his son should sail in the
'Blanche Nef' [the White Ship] with Fitz-Stephen. William
Ætheling, as the English called him, was accompanied by a
large train of unruly courtiers, who amused themselves by
making the sailors drink hard before they started, and
dismissed the priests who came to bless the voyage with a
chorus of scoffing laughter. It was evening before they left
the shore, and there was no moon; a few of the more prudent
quitted the ship, but there remained nearly 300—a dangerous
freight for a small vessel. However, fifty rowers flushed with
wine made good way in the waters; but the helmsman was less
fit for his work, and the vessel struck suddenly on a sunk
rock, the Raz de Catteville. The water rushed in, but there
was time to lower a boat, which put off with the prince. When
in safety, he heard the cries of his sister, the countess of
Perche, and returned to save her. A crowd of desperate men
leaped into the boat; it was swamped, and all perished."
_C. H. Pearson,
History of England during the Early and Middle Ages,
volume 1, page 445._
WHITE TERROR, The.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1794-1795 (JULY-APRIL).
WHITE TOWER, The.
See TOWER OF LONDON.
WHITE TOWN, The.
See ROCHELLE.
WHITE VALLEY, Battle of the (1476).
See BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: 14-18TH CENTURIES.
WHITNEY, Eli, and the invention of the cotton-gin.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1793 WHITNEY'S COTTON-GIN; and 1818-1821.
WICHITAS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: PAWNEE (CADDOAN) FAMILY.
WIDE AWAKES.
In the American presidential canvass of 1860, there were
organized among the supporters of Abraham Lincoln numerous
companies of young Republicans who undertook the parades and
torchlight processions of the campaign in a systematic and
disciplined way that was then quite new. They were simply
uniformed in glazed-cloth caps and capes and took the name of
Wide Awakes.
WIGHT, Isle of: Conquest by the Jutes.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 449-473.
WIGHT, Isle of: A. D. 1545.
Occupation by the French.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1532-1547.
WILDCAT BANKS.
"During Jackson's struggle with the Bank of the United States
[see UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1833-1836, and 1835-1837]
many new banks had been formed in various States, generally
with little or no capital to pay the notes which they issued.
They bought large quantities of cheaply printed bills. As
these bills had cost them very little, they could afford to
offer a higher price in paper money for lands in distant
States and Territories than others could afford to offer in
gold and silver. Having bought the lands for this worthless
money, the wildcat bankers sold them for good money, hoping
that their own bills would not soon find their way back for
payment. If they were disappointed in this hope, the bank
'failed,' and the managers started a new one."
_A. Johnston,
History of the United States for Schools,
section 496._
See, also: MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1837-1841.
WILDERNESS, Hooker's Campaign in the.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863 (APRIL-MAY: VIRGINIA).
WILDERNESS, Battle of the.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1864 (MAY: VIRGINIA) GRANT'S MOVEMENT.
WILHELMINA, Queen of the Netherlands, A. D. 1890-.
WILKES, John, The case of.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1762-1764; and 1768-1774.
WILKINSON, General James, and Aaron Burr.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1806-1807.
Command on the Northern frontier.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1813 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER).
WILLIAM (of Holland),
King of Germany: A. D. 1254-1256.
William (called The Silent), Prince of Orange, Count of Nassau,
Stadtholder of the United Provinces, 1558-1584.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1555-1559, to 1581-1584.
William I.,
German Emperor, 1870-1888;
King of Prussia, 1861-1888.
William I. (called The Conqueror),
King of England (and Duke of Normandy), 1066-1087.
William I., King of Naples and Sicily, 1154-1166.
William I., King of the Netherlands, 1815-1840.
William II., German Emperor and King of Prussia, 1888-.
William II. (called Rufus or The Red), King of
{3654}
England, 1087-1100.
William II., King of Naples and Sicily, 1166-1189.
William II., King of the Netherlands, 1840-1849.
William II., Prince of Orange,
Stadtholder of the United Provinces, 1647-1650.
William III., King of Naples and Sicily, 1194.
William III., King of the Netherlands, 1849-1890.
William III., Prince of Orange and
Stadtholder of the United Provinces, A. D. 1672-1702;
King of England (with Queen Mary, his Wife), 1689-1702.
William IV., King of England, 1830-1837.
William IV. (called The Lion), King of Scotland, 1165-1214.
WILLIAM HENRY, Fort: A. D. 1757.
The French capture and the massacre of prisoners.
See CANADA: A. D. 1756-1757.
WILLIAMS, Roger,
Founder of Rhode Island and Apostle of Religious Liberty.
See MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1636;
and RHODE ISLAND: A. D. 1631-1636, to 1683.
WILLIAMS COLLEGE.
See EDUCATION, MODERN: AMERICA: A. D. 1793.
WILLIAMSBURG, Canada, Battle of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1813 (OCTOBER-NOVEMBER).
WILLIAMSBURG, Virginia, Battle of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (MAY: VIRGINIA).
WILLOWS, Battle of the.
See GOTHS (VISIGOTHS): A. D. 378.
WILMINGTON, Delaware: A. D. 1638.
The founding of the city.
See DELAWARE: A. D. 1638-1640.
WILMINGTON, Delaware: A. D. 1865.
Occupied by the National forces.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1865 (FEBRUARY-MARCH: NORTH CAROLINA).
WILMOT PROVISO, The.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1845-1846.
WILSON, James, and the framing of the Federal Constitution.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1787.
WILSON TARIFF ACT, The.
See TARIFF LEGISLATION (UNITED STATES): A. D. 1894.
WILSON'S CREEK, Battle of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1861 (JULY-SEPTEMBER: MISSOURI).
WILSON'S RAID.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (APRIL-MAY).
WILZEN,
WELATABIANS, The.
"The Wilzen, as the Franks called them, or the Welatabians, as
they called themselves, were perhaps the most powerful of the
Sclavonian tribes, and at [the time of Charlemagne] occupied
the southern coast of the Baltic; their immediate neighbors
were the Abodrites, old allies of the Franks, whom they
harassed by continual raids." Charlemagne led an expedition
into the country of the Wilzen in 789 and subdued them.
_J. I. Mombert,
History of Charles the Great,
book 2, chapter 4._
WIMPFEN, Battle of (1622).
See GERMANY: A. D. 1621-1623.
WINCEBY FIGHT (1643).
The sharp encounter known as Winceby Fight, in the English
civil war, was one of Cromwell's successes, which drove the
royalist forces out of the Lincolnshire country, and compelled
the Marquis of Newcastle, who was besieging Hull, to abandon
the siege. "Cromwell himself was nearer death in this action
than ever in any other; the victory, too, made its due figure,
and 'appeared in the world.' Winceby, a small upland hamlet,
in the Wolds, not among the Fens, of Lincolnshire, is some
five miles west of Horncastle. The confused memory of this
Fight is still fresh there." The Fight occurred October 10,
1643.
_T. Carlyle,
Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches,
letter 18 (volume 1)._
See HULL.
WINCHESTER, General:
Defeat at the Raisin.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1812-1813 HARRISON'S NORTHWESTERN CAMPAIGN.
WINCHESTER, England:
Origin of.
"There can be little doubt that a town, of greater or less
importance, has existed since the earliest dawn of English
history on the same place where stands the Winchester of
to-day. … If the first founders of the ancient city were
Celtic Britons, covering with their rude dwellings the summit
and sides of S. Catherine's Hill they were certainly conquered
by the Belgæ, also probably of Celtic origin, who, crossing
over from Gaul, established themselves in a large district of
southern England. But whether in their time Winchester was
called Caer Gwent is doubtful; very probably it was simply
Gwin or Gwent, the white place. … But as there is no question
of the Roman occupation of Britain, first by Julius Cæsar,
later on by Claudius and Vespasian, so we know that the
settlement on the Itchen was turned into Venta Belgarum, and
S. Catherine's Hill converted into a Roman camp. … Venta, as
well as many other towns, was completely Romanised. … But the
time arrived when Rome could no longer defend herself at home,
and was thus forced to leave Britain to contend with the wild
Northmen who had already begun their inroads. The Britons
implored their former masters to come back and help them, but
in vain. … We know how Vortigern, chief among the southern
British kings, invited the Saxon adventurers to help him
against the Picts and Scots, who encroached more and more in
Britain. … In 495 (as we learn from the Brito-Welsh
Chronicle), there · came two ealdormen to Britain, Cerdic and
Cymric,' who landed at Hamble Creek, and eventually, after
many battles much extolled in the Saxon Chronicle, became
kings of the West Saxons. Cerdic is said to have been crowned
in Venta, to have slaughtered most of the inhabitants and all
the priests, and to have converted the cathedral into a
heathen temple. … The name Venta now becomes Wintana, with the
affix of 'ceaster,' Saxon for fortified place."
_A. R. R. Bramston and A. C. Leroy,
Historic Winchester,
chapter I._
See, also, VENTA.
WINCHESTER, Virginia: A. D. 1862.
Defeat of General Banks.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (MAY-JUNE: VIRGINIA).
WINCHESTER, Virginia: A. D. 1864.
Sheridan's victory.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1864 (AUGUST-OCTOBER: VIRGINIA).
WINCHESTER SCHOOL.
See EDUCATION, MODERN: EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.—ENGLAND.
WINDSOR CASTLE:
Rebuilt by Edward III.
See GARTER, KNIGHTS OF THE.
WINDWARD ISLANDS, The.
See WEST INDIES.
WINEDI.
See VENEDI.
{3655}
WINGFIELD, Battle of.
Fought, A. D. 655, between King Oswin of Northumberland and
King Penda of Mercia, the latter being defeated and slain.
WINKELRIED, Arnold von, at the battle of Sempach.
See SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1386-1388.
WINNEBAGOES, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SIOUAN FAMILY.
WINSLOW, Edward, and the Plymouth colony.
See MASSACHUSETTS: A. D.1623-1629 (PLYMOUTH), and after.
WINTHROP, John, and the colony of Massachusetts Bay.
See MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1629-1630, and after.
WINTHROP, John, Jr., and the founding of Connecticut.
See CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1634-1637.
WINTHROP, Theodore:
Death at Big Bethel.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (JUNE: VIRGINIA).
WIPPED'S-FLEET, Battle of.
The decisive battle fought, A. D. 465, between the Jutes under
Hengest and the Britons, which settled the conquest of Kent by
the former.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 449-473.
WISBY, Its Code of Maritime Laws.
See HANSA TOWNS.
WISBY: A. D. 1361.
Taken and plundered by the Danes.
See SCANDINAVIAN STATES: A. D. 1018-1397.
----------WISCONSIN: Start--------
WISCONSIN:
The aboriginal inhabitants.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES:: SIOUAN FAMILY.
WISCONSIN: A. D. 1634-1673.
Visited by Nicolet, and traversed by Marquette and Joliet.
See CANADA: A. D. 1634-1673.
WISCONSIN: A. D. 1763.
Cession to Great Britain.
See SEVEN YEARS WAR: THE TREATIES.
WISCONSIN: A. D. 1763.
The King's proclamation excluding settlers.
See NORTHWEST TERRITORY OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1763.
WISCONSIN: A. D. 1774.
Embraced in the Province of Quebec.
See CANADA: A. D. 1763-1774.
WISCONSIN: A. D. 1784.
Included in the proposed states of Sylvania, Michigania
and Assenisipia.
See NORTHWEST TERRITORY OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1784.
WISCONSIN: A. D. 1785.
Partially covered by the western land claims of
Massachusetts, ceded to the United States.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1781-1786.
WISCONSIN: A. D. 1787.
The Ordinance for the Government of the Northwest Territory.
Perpetual exclusion of Slavery.
See NORTHWEST TERRITORY: A. D. 1787.
WISCONSIN: A. D. 1805-1848.
Territorial vicissitudes.
Admission into the Union as a State.
From 1805 to 1809, Wisconsin formed a part of Indiana
Territory. From 1809 to 1818 her territory was embraced In the
Territory of Illinois, excepting a small projection at the
northeast which was left out of the described boundaries and
belonged nowhere. When Illinois became a State, in 1818, and
her present boundaries were established, an the country north
of them was joined to Michigan Territory. In 1834 that huge
Territory was still further enlarged by the temporary addition
to it of a great area west of the Mississippi, embracing the
present states of Iowa, Minnesota and part of Dakota. It was
an unwieldy and impracticable territorial organization, and
movements to divide it, which had been on foot long before
this last enlargement, soon attained success. In 1836, the
year before Michigan became a State, with her present limits,
the remaining Territory was organized under the name of
Wisconsin. Two years later, "by act of June 12, 1838, congress
still further contracted the limits of Wisconsin by creating
from its trans-Mississippi tract the Territory of Iowa. This,
however, was in accordance with the original design when the
country beyond the Mississippi was attached to Michigan
Territory for purposes of temporary government, so no
objection was entertained to this arrangement on the part of
Wisconsin. The establishment of Iowa had reduced Wisconsin to
her present limits, except that she still held, as her western
boundary, the Mississippi river to its source, and a line
drawn due north therefrom to the international boundary. In
this condition Wisconsin remained until the act of congress
approved August 6, 1846, enabling her people to form a state
constitution. … Wisconsin was admitted into the Union, by act
approved May 29, 1848, with her present limits."
_R. G. Thwaites,
The Boundaries of Wisconsin
(Wisconsin State Historical Society Collections,
volume 11, pages 455-468)._
ALSO IN:
_B. A. Hinsdale,
The Old Northwest,
chapter 17._
WISCONSIN: A. D. 1832.
The Black Hawk War.
See ILLINOIS: A. D. 1832.
WISCONSIN: A. D. 1854.
Early formation of the Republican Party.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1854-1855.
----------WISCONSIN: End--------
WISCONSIN, University of.
"In 1838, two years after organization as a Territory,
Wisconsin petitioned Congress for aid to establish a
university. The request was granted, the usual seventy-two
sections of land were set aside for this object, and the
Territorial Legislature at once passed a law establishing the
University of the Territory of Wisconsin. The organization of
a board of trustees was, however, the only other action which
took place previous to the adoption of the State Constitution
In 1848; this provided for the establishment of a State
university 'at or near the seat of government,' and stated,
emphatically, that the lands granted for a university should
constitute a perpetual fund, the income of which should be
devoted to the support of this institution. This declaration
was apparently to little purpose, as the State has treated
these domains as granted absolutely, and not as held in trust.
There is probably no worse example of mismanaged public
educational funds on record than is to be found in connection
with this institution. … The entire sum realized from the
46,080 acres was only 'about $150,000.' The University of
Wisconsin was established in 1850 on the basis of the funds
thus secured, but even while passing laws for the sale of the
university lands the Legislature realized that the income
would be insufficient to support the institution, and they
therefore petitioned Congress for seventy-two additional
sections in lieu of the saline lands granted to the State in
1848 but never located. Congress granted this petition in
1854. … An opportunity to atone for past errors was now
afforded the Legislature. It began to be realized, after it
was too late to enact suitable laws to remedy the evil, that
the best lands had been sold at a disadvantage.
{3656}
It was felt that, whereas the policy pursued had benefited the
State at large, it was not faithful to the increase of the
seminary fund. … After fully examining the claims of the
regents and the condition of the university in 1872 for four
years, this body granted $10,000 annually, to atone for the
injustice done by the State in selecting for an endowment
unproductive lands."
_F. W. Blackmar,
History of Federal and State Aid to Higher Education
in the United States (Bureau of Education,
Circular of Information, 1890, number 1), pages 250-251._
WISHOSKAN FAMILY, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: WISHOSKAN FAMILY.
WISIGOTHS.
See GOTHS (VISIGOTHS).
WISMAR.
See HANSA TOWNS.
WITCHCRAFT, Salem.
See MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1692; and 1692-1693.
WITE-THEOW.
See THEOW.
WITENAGEMOT, The.
"The Witenagemot or assembly of the wise. This [in old English
history] is the supreme council of the nation, whether the
nation be Kent or Mercia as in the earlier, or the whole gens
Anglorum et Saxonum, as in the later history. The character of
the national council testifies to its history as a later
development than the lower courts, and as a consequence of the
institution of royalty. The folkmoot or popular assembly of
the shire is a representative body to a certain extent: it is
attended by the representatives of the hundreds and townships,
and has a representative body of witnesses to give validity to
the acts that are executed in it. … The council of the
aggregated state is not a folkmoot but a witenagemot. … On
great occasions … we must understand the witenagemot to have
been attended by a concourse of people whose voices could be
raised in applause or in resistance to the proposals of the
chiefs. But that such gatherings shared in any way the
constitutional powers of the witan, that they were organised
in any way corresponding to the machinery of the folkmoot,
that they had any representative character in the modern
sense, as having full powers to act on behalf of constituents,
that they shared the judicial work, or except by applause and
hooting influenced in any way the decision of the chiefs,
there is no evidence whatever. … The members of the assembly
were the wise men, the sapientes, witan; the king, sometimes
accompanied by his wife and sons; the bishops of the kingdom,
the ealdormen of the shires or provinces, and a number of the
king's friends and dependents. … The number of the witan was
thus never very large."
_W. Stubbs,
Constitutional History of England,
chapter 6, sections 51-52 (volume 1)._
The constitution and powers of the witenagemot are very fully
discussed by Mr. Kemble, who gives also a list of the recorded
witenagemots, with comments on the business transacted in
them.
_J. M. Kemble,
The Saxons in England,
book 2, chapter 6 (volume 2)._
ALSO IN:
_R. Gneist,
The English Parliament._
See, also, PARLIAMENT, THE ENGLISH:
EARLY STAGES OF ITS EVOLUTION; and ENGLAND: A. D. 958.
WITIGIS, King of the Ostrogoths.
See ROME: A. D. 535-553.
WITT, John De, The administration and the murder of.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1647-1650; 1651-1660, to 1672-1674.
WITTELSBACH, The House of.
See BAVARIA: A. D. 1180-1356.
WITTENBERG, Luther at.
See PAPACY: A. D. 1017, and after.
WITTENBERG UNIVERSITY.
See EDUCATION, MEDIÆVAL: GERMANY.
WITTENWEIHER, Battle of (1638).
See GERMANY: A. D. 1634-1639.
WITTSTOCK, Battle of (1636).
See GERMANY: A. D. 1634-1639.
WITUMKAS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: MUSKHOGEAN FAMILY.
WIZA.
See THRACIANS.
WOCCONS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SIOUAN FAMILY.
WOIPPY, Battle of.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1870 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER).
WOIWODES,
VOIVODES,
WAIWODES.
See POLAND: A. D. 1078-1652;
and BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: A. D. 1341-1356 (SERVIA).
WOLFE, General, Victory and death of.
See CANADA: A. D. 1759.
WOLFENBÜTTEL, Duchy of.
See SAXONY: A. D. 1178-1183.
WOLSEY, The ministry and fall of.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1513-1529; and 1527-1534.
WOMAN ORDER, General Butler's.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862 (MAY-DECEMBER: LOUISIANA).
----------WOMAN'S RIGHTS: Start--------
WOMAN'S RIGHTS.
WOMAN SUFFRAGE: A. D. 1790-1849.
The pioneer advocates.
"In 1790, Mary Wollstonecraft's 'Vindication of the Rights of
Women,' published in London, attracted much attention from
liberal minds. She examined the position of woman in the light
of existing civilizations, and demanded for her the widest
opportunities of education, industry, political knowledge, and
the right of representation. … Following her, came Jane
Marcet, Eliza Lynn, and Harriet Martineau—each of whom in the
early part of the 19th century exerted a decided influence
upon the political thought of England. … Frances Wright, a
person of extraordinary powers of mind, born in Dundee,
Scotland, in 1797, was the first woman who gave lectures on
political subjects in America. When sixteen years of age she
heard of the existence of a country in which freedom for the
people had been proclaimed; she was filled with joy and a
determination to visit the American Republic where the
foundations of justice, liberty, and equality had been so
securely laid. In 1820 she came here, traveling extensively
North and South. She was at that time but twenty-two years of
age. … Upon her second visit she made this country her home
for several years. Her radical ideas on theology, slavery, and
the social degradation of woman, now generally accepted by the
best minds of the age, were then denounced by both press and
pulpit, and maintained by her at the risk of her life. … In
1832, Lydia Maria Child published her 'History of Woman,'
which was the first American storehouse of information upon
the whole question, and undoubtedly increased the agitation.
In 1836, Ernestine L. Rose, a Polish lady—banished from her
native country by the Austrian tyrant, Francis Joseph, for her
love of liberty—came to America, lecturing in the large cities
North and South upon the 'Science of Government.' She
advocated the enfranchisement of woman. Her beauty, wit, and
eloquence drew crowded houses.
{3657}
About this period Judge Hurlbut, of New York, a leading member
of the Bar, wrote a vigorous work on 'Human Rights,' in which
he advocated political equality for women. This work attracted
the attention of many legal minds throughout that State. In
the winter of 1836, a bill was introduced into the New York
Legislature by Judge Hertell, to secure to married women their
rights of property. This bill was drawn up under the direction
of Honorable John Savage, Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court,
and Honorable John C. Spencer, one of the revisers of the
statutes of New York. It was in furtherance of this bill that
Ernestine L. Rose and Paulina Wright at that early day
circulated petitions. The very few names they secured show the
hopeless apathy and ignorance of the women as to their own
rights. As similar bills were pending in New York until
finally passed in 1848, a great educational work was
accomplished in the constant discussion of the topics
involved. During the winters of 1844-5-6, Elizabeth Cady
Stanton, living in Albany, made the acquaintance of Judge
Hurlbut and a large circle of lawyers and legislators, and,
while exerting herself to strengthen their convictions in
favor of the pending bill, she resolved at no distant day to
call a convention for a full and free discussion of woman's
rights and wrongs. … In 1840, Margaret Fuller published an
essay in the Dial, entitled 'The Great Lawsuit, or Man vs.
Woman: Woman vs. Man.' In this essay she demanded perfect
equality for woman, in education, industry, and politics. It
attracted great attention and was afterward expanded into a
work entitled 'Woman in the Nineteenth Century.' … In the
State of New York, in 1845, Reverend Samuel J. May preached a
sermon at Syracuse, upon 'The Rights and Conditions of Women,'
in which he sustained their right to take part in political
life, saying women need not expect 'to have their wrongs fully
redressed, until they themselves have a voice and a hand in
the enactment and administration of the laws.' … In 1849,
Lucretia Mott published a discourse on woman, delivered in the
Assembly Building, Philadelphia, in answer to a Lyceum lecture
which Richard H. Dana, of Boston, was giving in many of the
chief cities, ridiculing the idea of political equality for
woman. … It was her early labors in the temperance cause that
first roused Susan B. Anthony to a realizing sense of woman's
social, civil, and political degradation, and thus secured her
life-long labors for the enfranchisement of woman. In 1847 she
made her first speech at a public meeting of the Daughters of
Temperance in Canajoharie, New York. The same year Antoinette
L. Brown, then a student at Oberlin College, Ohio, the first
institution that made the experiment of co-education,
delivered her first speech on temperance in several places in
Ohio, and on Woman's Rights, in the Baptist church at
Henrietta, New York. Lucy Stone, a graduate of Oberlin, made
her first speech on Woman's Rights the same year in her
brother's church at Brookfield, Massachusetts. Nor were the
women of Europe inactive."
_E. C. Stanton, S. B. Anthony, and M. J. Gage, editors,
History of Woman Suffrage,
chapter 1._
WOMAN'S RIGHTS: A. D. 1804-1891.
The higher Education of women in America.
See EDUCATION, MODERN: REFORMS &C.: A. D. 1804-1891.
WOMAN'S RIGHTS: A. D. 1839-1848.
Legal emancipation of women in the United States.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1839-1848.
WOMAN'S RIGHTS: A. D. 1840-1890.
The organized agitation.
"In 1840 a 'World's Antislavery Convention' was held in
London, and all Antislavery organizations throughout the world
were invited to join in it, through their delegates. Several
American societies accepted the invitation, and elected
delegates, six or eight of whom were women, Lucretia Mott and
Mrs. Wendell Phillips among them. The excitement caused by
their presence in London was intense, for the English
Abolitionists were very conservative, and never dreamed of
inviting women to sit in their Convention. And these women who
had come among them had rent the American Anti-slavery
Societies in twain, had been denounced from the pulpit,
anathematized by the press, and mobbed by the riffraff of the
streets. … A long and acrimonious debate followed on the
admission of the women. … When the vote was taken, the women
delegates were excluded by a large majority. William Lloyd
Garrison did not arrive in London until after the rejection of
the women. When he was informed of the decision of the
Convention he refused to take his seat with the delegates. And
throughout the ten days' sessions he maintained absolute
silence, remaining in the gallery as a spectator. … The London
Convention marked the beginning of a new era in the woman's
cause. Hitherto, the agitation of the question of woman's
equal rights had been incidental to the prosecution of other
work. Now the time had come when a movement was needed to
present the claims of woman in a direct and forcible manner,
and to take issue with the legal and social order which denied
her the rights of human beings, and held her in everlasting
subjection. At the close of the exasperating and insulting
debates of the 'World's Antislavery Convention,' Lucretia Mott
and Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton agreed to hold a Woman's
Rights Convention on their return to America, and to begin in
earnest the education of the people on the question of woman's
enfranchisement. Mrs. Stanton had attended the Convention as a
bride, her husband having been chosen a delegate. Accordingly
the first Woman's Rights Convention of the world was called at
Seneca Falls, New York, on the 19th and 20th of July, 1848. It
was attended by crowds of men and women, and the deepest
interest was manifested in the proceedings. 'Demand the
uttermost,' said Daniel O'Connell, 'and you will get
something.' The leaders in the new movement, Lucretia Mott and
Mrs. Stanton, with their husbands, and Frederick Douglass,
acted on this advice. They demanded in unambiguous terms all
that the most radical friends of women have ever claimed. …
The Convention adjourned to meet in Rochester, New York,
August 2, 1848. … A third Convention was held at Salem, Ohio,
in 1850; a fourth in Akron, Ohio, in 1851; a fifth in
Massillon, Ohio, in 1852; another at Ravenna, Ohio, in 1853,
and others rapidly followed. The advocates of woman suffrage
increased in number and ability. Superior women, whose names
have become historic, espoused the cause—Frances D. Gage,
Hannah Tracy Cutler, Jane G. Swisshelm, Caroline M. Severance,
Celia C. Burr, who later be·came Mrs. C. C. Burleigh,
Josephine S. Griffing, Antoinette L. Brown, Lucy Stone, Susan
B. Anthony, Paulina W. Davis, Caroline H. Dall, Elizabeth
Oakes Smith, Ernestine L. Rose, Mrs. C. H. Nichols, Dr.
Harriot K. Hunt; the roll-call was a brilliant one,
representing an unusual versatility of culture and ability.
{3658}
The First National Woman Suffrage Convention was held in
Worcester, Massachusetts, October 23 and 24, 1850. It was more
carefully planned than any that had yet been held. Nine States
were represented. The arrangements were perfect—the addresses
and papers were of the highest character—the audiences were at
a white heat of enthusiasm. The number of cultivated people
who espoused the new gospel for women was increased by the
names of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Theodore Parker, Bronson and
Abby May Alcott, Thomas W. Higginson, William I. Bowditch,
Samuel E. and Harriet W. Sewall, Henry Ward Beecher, Henry B.
Blackwell, Ednah D. Cheney, Honorable John Neal, Reverend
William H. Channing, and Wendell Phillips. … A dozen years
were spent in severe pioneer work and then came the four years
Civil War. All reformatory work was temporarily suspended, for
the nation then passed through a crucial experience, and the
issue of the fratricidal conflict was national life or
national death. The transition of the country from peace to
the tumult and waste of war was appalling and swift, but the
regeneration of its women kept pace with it. … The development
of those years, and the impetus they gave to women, which has
not yet spent itself, has been wonderfully manifested since
that time. … It has been since the war, and as the result of
the great quickening of women which it occasioned, that women
have organized missionary, philanthropic, temperance,
educational, and political organizations, on a scale of great
magnitude. … In 1869, two great National organizations were
formed. One styled itself 'The National Woman Suffrage
Association,' and the other was christened 'The American Woman
Suffrage Association.' The first established its headquarters
in New York, and published a weekly paper, 'The Revolution,'
which was ably edited by Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony. 'The
American' made its home in Boston, and founded 'The Woman's
Journal,' which was edited by Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, Mrs.
Julia Ward Howe, Mrs. Lucy Stone, William Lloyd Garrison and
Thomas W. Higginson. … After twenty years of separate
activities, a union of the two national organizations was
effected in 1890, under the composite title of 'The National
American Woman Suffrage Association.'"
_M. A. Livermore,
Woman in the State
(Woman's Work in America, chapter 10)._
WOMAN'S RIGHTS: A. D. 1842-1892.
Women in the Medical profession.
"The first advocate for women medical students, Miss Elizabeth
Blackwell, after many years of struggle obtained entrance into
the medical faculty of Geneva in 1842; in 1847 she received
her doctor's degree, and went to England, Germany, and finally
to Paris, to complete her studies. Her example fired others.
In that same year a medical college for women was founded in
Boston, in 1850 a similar one in Philadelphia, one in New York
in 1868, and in Chicago in 1870. Soon after, the greater
number of universities in America were thrown open to women,
and by this their studies were largely extended. The
difficulties proved far greater in Europe. The universities of
Zurich in 1864, and of Berne in 1872, were the first to
receive lady students for the study of medicine. In 1868 the
Medical Faculty of Paris, chiefly through the intervention of
the Empress Eugenie, first admitted lady students to follow
the medical course. In Italy, in 1876, they obtained equal
success; in Russia, an ukase of the Czar Alexander II., of
November 2nd, 1872, conferred upon ladies the right to attend
the medical courses in the Medico-Chirurgical Academy of St.
Petersburg, but this permission was subsequently withdrawn on
political grounds, on the accession of a new government. In
1874 the first school of medicine for women was started in
London; in 1876 they were admitted to the study of medicine in
Dublin. In Germany and Austro-Hungary women are not allowed to
enter the universities, although ladies' associations have
obtained thousands of signatures to petition both parliaments
on the subject. From statistical sources, we learn that there
are seventy lady doctors in practice in London, five in
Edinburgh, and two in Dublin. Seven hundred lady doctors
practise in Russia, of whom fifty-four are the heads of
clinical schools and laboratories. In Italy, at the same time,
there were only six. Spain has but two qualified lady doctors.
Roumania, also, has two. Sweden, Norway, and Belgium have
likewise comparatively few. In Berlin there are Dr. Franziska
Tiburtius and Dr. Lehmus (who founded a poly-clinical school
which is increasing year by year), Dr. Margaret
Mengarin-Traube and Fraulein Kuhnow. In Austria, Dr. Rosa
Kerschbaumer is the sole possessor of Government authority to
practise her profession. In India, where native religion
forbids their women calling in men doctors, there has been a
strong movement in favour of ladies, and they have now one
hundred lady doctors, three of whom are at the head of the
three most important hospitals. The largest number of women
practising medicine is in America."
_A. Crepaz,
The Emancipation of Women,
pages 99-103._
"The medical faculty of the University of Paris opened its
doors to women in 1868, but at first only a very few availed
themselves of the privileges thus offered. In 1878 the number
in attendance was 32; during the next ten years (1878-1888) it
increased to 114, and is at present 183, of whom the great
majority (167) are Russians. The remainder are Poles,
Rumanians, Servians, Greeks, and Scotch, and only one German."
_The Nation,
February 14, 1895._
WOMAN'S RIGHTS: A. D. 1865-1883.
The higher Education of Women in England.
See EDUCATION, MODERN: REFORMS &c.: A. D. 1865-1883.
WOMAN'S RIGHTS: A. D. 1869-1894.
Progress in Europe and America.
A certain number of the English cities "occupy a privileged
position, under the title of 'municipal boroughs.' These alone
are municipal corporations, enjoying a considerable degree of
autonomy by virtue of charters of incorporation granted in the
pleasure of the crown. … The other cities have as such no
legal existence: they are simply geographical units. In past
times the privilege of incorporation was often granted to
wretched little hamlets. But whether they were once of
consequence or not, the municipal corporations degenerated
everywhere into corrupt oligarchies. The municipal reform of
1835 destroyed these hereditary cliques and extended the
municipal franchise to all the inhabitants who paid the poor
tax as occupants of realty.
{3659}
But in doing this … it was expressly provided in the Municipal
Corporations Act of 1835 that the electoral franchise in the
municipal boroughs should belong to male persons only. Before
long the unorganized condition of the larger towns that were
not municipal boroughs received the attention of Parliament.
It did not grant them communal autonomy,—there could be no
question of that,—but conceded special powers to establish
sanitary systems and to undertake works of public utility such
as lighting, paving, sewerage, etc. The special acts passed
for these purposes from time to time, as the necessity for
them arose, were consolidated and made general in two
statutes: the Public Health Act of 1848, for a class of towns
designated as 'local government districts,' and the
Commissioners' Clauses Act of 1847, for the cities described
as 'improvement commissions districts.' These acts gave to
these urban agglomerations an incipient municipal
organization, by establishing boards of health in some, and in
others commissions to direct the public works. In both these
classes of 'nascent, half-developed municipalities,' which had
scarcely emerged from the parochial phase of local
self-government, the authorities—i. e. the members of the
boards of health and the commissioners—were elected, as in
the parishes, by the rate-payers without distinction of sex.
As these cities enlarged and developed, they were admitted to
the honor of municipal incorporation. But since the Municipal
Corporations Act limited the franchise to men, it resulted
that while the city which was promoted to the rank of
municipal borough saw its rights increased, a part of its
inhabitants—the women—saw theirs suppressed. This anomaly gave
the advocates of woman suffrage a chance to demand that the
ballot be granted to women in the municipal boroughs. In 1869
Mr. Jacob Bright introduced such a measure in the House of
Commons, and it was adopted almost without discussion. … But
when the English legislator placed the administration of the
'nascent, half-developed municipalities'—which were only
temporarily such and which might become cities of the first
rank—on the same plane, as far as the suffrage of women was
concerned, with the government of the parishes, he substituted
a fluctuating for a permanent test, and as a result wiped out
his own line of demarcation. When this fact was brought out,
Parliament could not but recognize and bow to it. This
recognition was decisive: it resulted in the overthrow of the
electoral barriers against women in the entire domain of local
self-government. The clause which, upon the proposal of Mr.
Jacob Bright, was inserted in section 9 of the municipal act
of 1869, found its way into the revised municipal act of 1882.
Section 63 of this latter act reads: 'For all purposes
connected with and having reference to the right to vote at
municipal elections, words importing in this act the masculine
gender include women.' This clause gave women the ballot in
the municipal boroughs, but did not make them eligible to
office. And as the general qualification for municipal
suffrage is the occupancy by the elector in his own name of a
house subject to the poor tax, the law includes independent
women only, not married women. … When in 1881 the municipal
suffrage was extended to women in Scotland, the question
whether the separated woman could vote was decided in her
favor. But of course this does not change the position of
married women in England. A year after the introduction of the
municipal suffrage of women they obtained (in 1870) the school
vote also, in connection with the establishment of the
existing system of primary instruction. … It still remained
for women to make their way into the local government of the
county; but county government, although representative, was
not elective. In 1888 county councils were established, chosen
by the ratepayers. The analogy of the municipal councils
demanded that women should be included among the electors of
the new local assemblies. Accordingly the Local Government Act
of 1888 admits women to the electorate in England, and the act
of 1889 gives them the same right in Scotland. … In Sweden
local self-government is exercised in first instance, in the
city and country communes, by the tax-payers in general
assembly, or town meeting, where their votes are reckoned in
proportion to the taxes paid, according to a graded scale,
just as in the English vestries. In the cities with a
population above 3,000 the taxpayers elect a communal council.
… In the full assemblies of the communes that have no
councils, and in the elections at which councillors are
chosen, unmarried women have the same right of participation
as men. … The next higher instance of local self-government
consists of provincial councils (landstings). All the
municipal electors, women not excepted, vote for the members
of these councils. … In Norway women have no share in local
government, except in the school administration. … In Denmark
women are entirely excluded from local government; but they
have been admitted to it in one Danish dependency—Iceland. …
Finland, which was attached to Sweden for centuries before it
fell under the sway of Russia, is still influenced by the
movement of legislation in the former mother-country. … The
law of February 6, 1865, concerning the rural communes,
admitted women to communal rights under almost the same
conditions as in Sweden. … The law of April 14, 1856,
concerning the organization of the rural communes in the six
eastern provinces of the kingdom of Prussia (section 6), as
well as the analogous law of March 19, 1856, for the province
of Westphalia (section 15), provide that persons of female sex
who possess real property carrying with it the right to vote
shall be represented—the married women by their husbands, the
single women by electors of the male sex. A similar provision
was adopted for the province of Schleswig-Holstein, after its
annexation by Prussia (law of September 22, 1867, section 11).
But in the Rhine province, where the administrative and the
private law still show deep traces of the French influence,
women are expressly excluded from the communal franchise. … In
Saxony women are admitted to the communal vote in the country
districts on the same terms as men. … Eligibility to communal
office is denied to women in all the countries enumerated
above. In Austria, as one consequence of the revolutionary
movement of 1848, the legislator endeavored to infuse fresh
life into the localities by giving a liberal organization to
the rural communes. The law of 1849 granted communal rights to
all persons paying taxes on realty and industrial enterprises,
and also to various classes of 'capacities'—ministers of
religion, university graduates, school principals and teachers
of the higher grades, etc.
{3660}
Among the electors of the first and most important group,
based wholly upon property, were included women, minors,
soldiers in active service and some other classes of persons
who, as a rule, were excluded from suffrage, on condition that
their votes be cast through representatives. … The Russian
village community, the mir, which has come down across the
centuries into our own time with very few changes in its
primitive organization, is a typical example of rudimentary
local self-government, where all who have an interest, not
excepting the women, have a right to be heard in the common
assemblies. … In the Dominion of Canada local suffrage has
only recently been granted to women. The first law regulating
this matter was passed in the province of Ontario (Upper
Canada) in 1884. This law has served as an example, and in
part also as a model, for the other provinces. The electoral
rights granted to women by the legislation of the province of
Ontario may be grouped under four heads:
(a) participation in municipal elections,
(b) participation in municipal referenda,
(c) participation in school-board elections, and
(d) eligibility to office.
All unmarried women and widows twenty-one years of age,
subjects of her Majesty and paying municipal taxes on real
property or income, may vote in municipal elections. …
Finally, all taxpayers resident in the school district are
recognized by the laws of 1885 and 1887 as eligible to the
office of school trustee. … Female suffrage does not exist in
the great French-speaking province of Quebec (Lower Canada),
in New Brunswick or in Prince Edward Island. … In almost all
the continental [Australasian] colonies the municipal suffrage
rests upon the same basis as does the parish franchise of the
mother-country, i. e. the possession or occupation of real
property. … [In the United States] several States have granted
to women simply the right of being elected to school offices,
provided always that they possess the qualifications
prescribed for men. The question is thus decided in
California, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine,
Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. … At the present time the
system of granting to women both rights—eligibility and
suffrage—in school matters has been adopted in the following
states besides Massachusetts: Colorado, North and South
Dakota, Idaho, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire,
New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and
Wisconsin and the territory of Arizona. Of course to this list
must be added Wyoming, where women vote at all elections, and
Kansas, where they possess complete local suffrage. Finally,
Kentucky and Nebraska admit women only to the school
franchise, and that only under special conditions."
_M. Ostrogorski,
Local Woman Suffrage
(Political Science Quarterly, December, 1891)._
"In three Territories … the right of voting at legislative
elections was given by the legislature of the Territory, and
in one of these, Wyoming, it was retained when the Territory
received Statehood in 1890. In Utah it was abolished by a
Federal statute, because thought to be exercised by the Mormon
wives at the bidding of their polygamous husbands, and thus to
strengthen the polygamic party. In Washington Territory the
law which conferred it in 1883 was declared invalid by the
courts in 1887, because its nature had not been properly
described in the title, was re-enacted immediately afterwards,
and was in 1888 again declared invalid by the United States
Territorial Court, on the ground that the Act of Congress
organizing the Territorial legislature did not empower it to
extend the suffrage to women. In enacting their State
Constitution (1889) the people of Washington pronounced
against female suffrage by a majority of two to one; and a
good authority declared to me that most of the women were well
pleased to lose the privilege. In 1893 the legislature of
Colorado submitted to the voters (in virtue of a provision in
the Constitution) a law extending full franchise for all
purposes to women, and it was carried by a majority of 6,347.
… In Michigan in 1893, women received the suffrage in all
municipal elections. In Michigan, however, the law has since
been declared unconstitutional. … In Connecticut, the latest
State which has extended school suffrage to women (1893), it
would appear that the women have not, so far, shown much
eagerness to be registered. However, while the advanced women
leaders and Prohibitionists started a campaign among the women
voters, the husbands and brothers of conservative proclivities
urged their wives and sisters to register, and not without
success. In Wyoming (while it was still a Territory) women
served as jurors for some months till the judges discovered
that they were not entitled by law to do so, and in Washington
(while a Territory) they served from 1884 to 1887, when the
legislature, in regranting the right of voting, omitted to
grant the duty or privilege of jury service. … As respects the
suffrage in Wyoming, the evidence I have collected privately
is conflicting. … No opposition was offered in the Convention
of 1889, which drafted the present Constitution, to the
enactment of woman suffrage for all purposes. The opinion of
the people at large was not duly ascertained, because the
question was not separately submitted to them at the polls,
but there can be little doubt that it would have been
favourable. … The whole proceedings of the Convention of 1889
leave the impression that the equal suffrage in force since
1869 had worked fairly, and the summing up of the case by a
thoughtful and dispassionate British observer (Mr. H.
Plunkett) is to the same effect."
_J. Bryce,
The American Commonwealth (3d edition),
chapter 96 (volume 2)._
"No complete and reliable statistics have ever been obtained
of the number of women who register and vote on school
questions. This varies greatly in different localities, and in
the same localities in different years. With women, as with
men, the questions connected with the schools do not suffice
to bring out many voters as a rule. Those few who have voted
hitherto have been of more than average character and ability,
and influenced wholly by public spirit. But comparatively few,
even of suffragists, have as yet availed themselves of the
privilege. To secure any general participation of women in
elections, a wider range of subjects must be thrown open to
them. Wherever, as in Kansas, party issues and moral questions
are involved, the women show a greater interest. In several
States, as in Kansas, Iowa, and Rhode Island, prohibition
amendments are said to have been carried by the efforts of
women-workers at the polls, although not themselves voters."
_The Nation,
April 28, 1887,
page 362._
{3661}
WOOL, General John E.: In the war of 1812.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1812 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).
WOOD'S HALFPENCE.
See IRELAND: A. D. 1722-1724.
WOOLLY-HEADS, The.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1850.
WOOLSACK, The.
"Perhaps you have noticed, when paying a visit to the House of
Lords in holiday time, a comfortable kind of ottoman in front
of the throne. This is the Woolsack, the seat of the Lord
Chancellor [who presides in the House of Lords]. In the reign
of Elizabeth an Act of Parliament was passed to prevent the
exportation of wool, and to keep in mind this source of our
national wealth, woolsacks were placed in the House of Lords,
whereon the judges sat."
_A. C. Ewald,
The Crown and its Advisers,
lecture 3._
WORCESTER, Marquis of, The inventions of.
See STEAM ENGINE.
WORCESTER, Battle of.
See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1651 (AUGUST).
WORDE, Wynkyn de, The Press of.
See PRINTING &c.: A. D. 1476-1491.
WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION, The.
See CHICAGO: A. D. 1892-1893.
[Transcriber's note]
See
_C. D. Arnold and H. D. Higinbotham,
Official Views Of The World's Columbian Exposition
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22847_
WORLD'S FAIR, The First.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1851.
WORMS.
"Worms (Wormatia) (Borbetomagus), situated on the left bank of
the Rhine, existed long before the Roman conquest, and is
supposed to have been founded by the Celts, under the name of
Borbetomagus. … In the 4th and 5th centuries it was a
flourishing town in the possession of the Burgundians. Under
their King Gundahar, the vicinity of Worms was the scene of
the popular legend handed down in the romantic poem known as
the Nibelungen-lied. In 496, by the victory of Tolbiacum, it
formed a part of the empire of Clovis."
_W. J. Wyatt,
History of Prussia,
volume 2, page 447._
WORMS: A. D.406.
Destruction by the Germans.
See GAUL: A. D. 406-409.
WORMS: A. D. 1521.
The Imperial Diet.
Luther's summons and appearance.
See PAPACY: A. D. 1521-1522.
WORMS: A. D. 1713.
Taken by the French.
See UTRECHT: A. D. 1712-1714.
WORMS: A. D. 1743.
Treaty between Austria, Sardinia and England.
See ITALY: A. D. 1743;
and AUSTRIA: A. D. 1743-1744.
WORMS: A. D. 1792.
Occupied by the French Revolutionary Army.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1792 (SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER).
WORMS, Concordat of(1122).
See PAPACY: A. D. 1056-1122.
WÖRTH, Battle of.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1870 (JULY-AUGUST).
WRANGLERS, Senior.
At Oxford and Cambridge Universities, "by a strange relic of
the logical and disputatory studies of the Middle Ages, the
candidates for University honors maintained in public some
mathematical thesis, about which they disputed in Latin,
never, as it may be supposed, of the best. To keep up the
illusion of the monkish time, and the seven liberal arts, a
little metaphysics and a good deal of theology were thrown in
at the time of the examination; but the real business of the
'schools' at Cambridge was mathematics. The disputing,
however, was so important a part of the performances that the
first division of those to whom were awarded honors were
called by distinction,'the wranglers'; and the head man—the
proud recipient of all the glory which at the end of a four
years' course the ancient University showered on the son she
possessed most distinguished in her favorite studies—was
called the senior wrangler. In process of time, the
disputations and Latin were all done away with. An examination
from printed papers was made the test. Yet, still, every year,
at the end of the arduous eight days' trial, the undergraduate
who takes his bachelor's degree in virtue of passing the best
examination in mathematics, is called the senior wrangler; and
attains the proudest position that Cambridge has to bestow."
_W. Everett,
On the Cam,
lecture 2._
WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS.
WRIT OF MAINPRISE.
WRIT DE HOMINE REPLEGIANDO.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1679.
WRITS OF ASSISTANCE.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1761;
and MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1761.
WROXETER, Origin of.
See URICONIUM.
----------WÜRTEMBERG: Start--------
WÜRTEMBERG:
Early Suevic population.
See SUEVI.
WÜRTEMBERG: Founding of the Dukedom.
"Conrad of Beutelsbach, the first of this family that appears
upon record, got the County of Würtemberg from the Emperor
Henry IV. in 1103, and was succeeded by his son Ulrick I. as
Count of Würtemberg, in 1120. Henry, the fourteenth in lineal
descent from Ulrick, was made Duke of Würtemberg in 1519.
Frederick II., and eighth Duke of Würtemberg, succeeded his
father in 1797, and was proclaimed King of Würtemberg in
1805."
_Sir A. Halliday,
Annals of the House of Hanover,
volume 1, page 430._
WÜRTEMBERG: A. D. 1801-1803.
Acquisition of territory under the Treaty of Luneville.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1801-1803.
WÜRTEMBERG: A. D. 1805-1806.
Aggrandized by Napoleon.
Created a Kingdom.
Joined to the Confederation of the Rhine.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1805-1806; and 1806 (JANUARY-AUGUST).
WÜRTEMBERG: A. D. 1809.
Incorporation of the rights and revenues of the Teutonic
Order with the Kingdom.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1809 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).
WÜRTEMBERG: A. D. 1813.
Abandonment of the Rhenish Confederacy and the French Alliance.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1814 (JANUARY-MARCH).
WÜRTEMBERG: A. D. 1816.
Accession to the Holy Alliance.
See HOLY ALLIANCE.
WÜRTEMBERG: A. D. 1866.
The Seven Weeks War.
Indemnity to Prussia.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1866.
WÜRTEMBERG: A. D. 1870-1871.
Treaty of union with the Germanic Confederation,
soon transformed into the German Empire.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1870 (SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER); and 1871.
----------WÜRTEMBERG: End--------
WÜRTZBURG, Battle of.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1796 (APRIL-OCTOBER).
WUZEER,
VIZIR.
See OUDE; and VIZIR.
WYANDOT CONSTITUTION, The.
See KANSAS: A. D. 1854-1859.
WYANDOTS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: HURONS OR WYANDOTS.
{3662}
WYAT'S INSURRECTION.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1554.
WYCLIF'S REFORMATION.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1360-1414;
BOHEMIA: A. D. 1405-1415,
and BEGUINES.
WYOMING:
The Name.
"Wyoming is a corruption of the name given to the locality by
the Indians. They called it 'Maughwauwame.' The word is
compounded of 'maughwau,' large, and 'wame,' plains. The name,
then, signifies 'The Large Plains.' The Delawares pronounced
the first syllable short, and the German missionaries, in
order to come as near as possible to the Indian pronunciation
wrote the name M'chweuwami. The early settlers, finding it
difficult to pronounce the word correctly, spoke it Wauwaumie,
then Wiawumie, then Wiomic, and, finally, Wyoming,"
_G. Peck,
Wyoming: Its History &c.,
chapter 1._
WYOMING (State): A. D. 1803.
Eastern portion embraced in the Louisiana Purchase.
See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1798-1803.
WYOMING (State): A. D. 1890.
Admission to the Union as a State.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: 1889-1890.
WYOMING (Valley): A. D. 1753-1799.
Connecticut claims and settlements.
The Pennamite and Yankee War.
See PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1753-1799.
WYOMING (Valley): A. D. 1755.
The Grasshopper War of the Delaware and Shawanese tribes
of American Indians.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SHAWANESE.
WYOMING (Valley): A. D. 1778.
The Tory and Indian invasion and massacre.
Its misrepresentation by historians and poets.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1778 (JULY).
X.
X, Y, Z, CORRESPONDENCE, The.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1797-1799.
XENOPHON'S RETREAT.
See PERSIA: B. C. 401-400.
XERES DE LA FRONTERA, Battle of (A. D. 711).
See SPAIN: A. D. 711-713.
XERXES.
See PERSIA: B. C, 486-405,
and GREECE: B. C. 480-479.
Y.
YAKOOB BEG, The Dominion of.
The Chinese obtained possession of Kashgar or Chinese
Turkestan (see TURKESTAN) about 1760, and held it for a
century, overcoming much revolt during the last forty years of
that period. In 1862, the revolt assumed a more formidable
character than it had borne before. Its beginning was among a
neighboring people called, variously, the Tungani, Dungani, or
Dungans. These were "a Mahomedan people settled in the
north-west province of Kansuh and in a portion of Shensi. Many
of them had migrated westward at the time of the wars of Keen
Lung, and had colonized various parts of the Chinese
conquests. During a century this movement westward had
continued, and in 1862 the Tungani represented the majority of
the population, not only in parts of Kansuh, but also in the
country to the west, as far as Ili and the city of Turfan.
Although Mahomedans, they had acted as the soldiers of the
Chinese. They had won their battles, laid down their roads,
and held the Tartar population in check. From the Tungani the
Chinese never for an instant expected danger. They were
certainly heretics; but then they were part and parcel of
themselves in every other respect. They hated the Khokandians
and the people of Kashgar with a hatred that was more bitter
than that they bore to the Khitay or Buddhist Chinese. In all
essentials the Tungani were treated exactly like the most
favoured children of the empire. … The only cause that it is
possible to assign for their rebellion is that vague one of
the religious revival which was then manifesting itself among
the Mahomedans all over the world. But whatever the cause, the
consequences were clear enough. In 1862 a riot occurred at a
village in Kansuh. Order was restored with some small loss of
life; and the momentary alarm which had been caused by it
passed away. The alarm was, however, only too well founded. A
few weeks afterwards a more serious riot took place at the
town of Houchow or Salara. This was the signal for the rising
of the Tungani in all directions. The unanimity shown by the
various Tungani settlements proved that there had been a
preconcerted arrangement amongst them; but the Chinese had
known nothing of it. … The few Imperial troops remaining in
the province of Kansuh were unable to withstand the desperate
and unanimous assault of the Mahomedans. They were swept out
of existence, and with them the larger portion of the Khitay
population as well. The Mahomedan priests took the lead in
this revolt, and the atrocities which they and their followers
enacted were of the most horrible and blood-thirsty character.
The butchery of tens of thousands of their Buddhist subjects
in Kansuh appealed loudly to the Chinese Government for
revenge; and it was not long before their troops restored
Kansuh to its allegiance. Those of the Tungani who were
captured were given over to the executioner. But a large
number escaped, fleeing westward to those cities beyond the
desert, where other Mussulmans had imitated, with like
success, the deeds of their kinsmen in Kansuh. … No sooner
then did the tidings of the events in Kansuh reach Hamil and
Barkul, Turfan and Manas, than risings at once took place
against the Khitay. In all cases the movement was successful.
The Manchus were deposed: the 'mollahs' were set up in their
stead. After a short interval the other cities of Karashar,
Kucha, and Aksu, followed the example, with an identical
result. The Tungan revolt proper had then reached its limit. …
The communications between Pekin and Jungaria were cut, and a
hostile territory of nearly 2,000 miles intervened. To restore
those communications, to reduce that hostile country, would
demand a war of several campaigns; and China was not in a
condition to make the slightest effort. All that her statesmen
could hope for was, that she would not go irretrievably to
pieces.
{3663}
The Tungani flourished on the misfortunes of the empire. …
During some months after the first successes of the Tungani,
the people of Kuldja and Kashgaria remained quiet, for the
prestige of China's power was still great. But when it became
evident to all, that communication was hopelessly cut off
between the Chinese garrisons and the base of their strength
in China, both the Tungan element and the native population
began to see that their masters were ill able to hold their
own against a popular rising. This opinion gained ground
daily, and at last the whole population rose against the
Chinese and massacred them. … But no sooner had the Chinese
been overthrown, than the victors, the Tungani and the
Tarantchis, began to quarrel with each other. Up to the month
of January, 1865, the rising had been carried out in a very
irregular and indefinite manner. … It was essentially a blind
and reckless rising, urged on by religious antipathy; and,
successful as it was, it owed all its triumphs to the
embarrassments of China. The misfortunes of the Chinese
attracted the attention of all those who felt an interest in
the progress of events in Kashgaria. Prominent among these was
a brother of Wali Khan, Buzurg Khan [heir of the former
rulers, the exiled Khojas], who resolved to avail himself of
the opportunity afforded by the civil war for making a bold
attempt to regain the place of his ancestors. Among his
followers was Mahomed Yakoob, a Khokandian soldier of fortune,
already known to fame in the desultory wars and feuds of which
Central Asia had been the arena. His previous career had
marked him out pre-eminently as a leader of men, and he now
sought in Eastern Turkestan that sphere of which Russian
conquests had deprived him in its Western region. There is
little to surprise us in the fact that, having won his
battles, Yakoob deposed and imprisoned his master Buzurg. In
several campaigns between 1867 and 1873 he bent back the
Tungani from his confines, and established an independent
government in the vast region from the Pamir to beyond Turfan,
and from Khoten and the Karakoram to the Tian Shan. He treated
on terms of dignity with the Czar, and also with the
Government of India. He received English envoys and Russian
ambassadors, and his palace was filled with presents from
London and St. Petersburg. … Urged on by some vague ambition,
he made war upon the Tungani, when every dictate of prudence
pointed to an alliance with them. He destroyed his only
possible allies, and in destroying them he weakened himself
both directly and indirectly. In the autumn of 1876 Yakoob Beg
had indeed pushed forward so far to the east that he fancied
he held Barkul and Hamil in his grasp; and the next spring
would probably have witnessed a further advance upon these
cities had not fate willed it otherwise. With the capture of
the small village of Chightam, in 92° E. longitude, Yakoob's
triumphs closed. Thus far his career had been successful; it
may then be said to have reached its limit. In the autumn of
1876, the arrival of a Chinese army on his eastern frontier
changed the current of his thoughts. … From November, 1876,
until March, 1877, the Chinese generals were engaged in
massing their troops on the northern side of the Tian Shan
range. … Yakoob's principal object was to defend the Devan
pass against the Chinese; but, while they attacked it in
front, another army under General Chang Yao was approaching
from Hamil. Thus outflanked, Yakoob's army retreated
precipitately upon Turfan, where he was defeated, and again a
second time at Toksoun, west of that town. The Chinese then
halted. They had, practically speaking, destroyed Yakoob's
powers of defence. That prince retreated to the town of Korla,
where he was either assassinated or poisoned early in the
month of May. … Korla was occupied on the 9th of October
without resistance; and towards the end of the same month,
Kucha, once an important city, surrendered. The later stages
of the war were marked by the capture of the towns of Aksu,
Ush Turfan, and Kashgar. With the fall of the capital, on the
17th of December, 1877, the fighting ceased. The Chinese
authority was promptly established in the country as far south
as Yarkand, and after a brief interval in Khoten."
_D. C. Boulger,
Central Asian Questions,
chapter 12._
YALE COLLEGE.
See EDUCATION, MODERN: AMERICA: A. D. 1701-1717.
YAMASIS AND YAMACRAWS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: MUSKHOGEAN FAMILY.
YAMCO, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ANDESIANS.
YANACONAS.
MAMACONAS.
"The Yanaconas were a class existing [in Peru] in the time of
the Incas, who were in an exceptional position. They were
domiciled in the houses of their masters, who found them in
food and clothing, paid their tribute, and gave them a piece
of land to cultivate in exchange for their services. But to
prevent this from degenerating into slavery, a decree of 1601
ordered that they should be free to leave their masters and
take service elsewhere on the same conditions." The Mamaconas
of Peru were a class of domestic servants.
_C. R. Markham,
Colonial History of South America,
(Narrative and Critical History of America,
volume 8, page 296)._
YANAN FAMILY, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: YANAN FAMILY.
YANKEE:
Origin of the term.
"The first name given by the Indians to the Europeans who
landed in Virginia was 'Wapsid Lenape' (white people); when,
however, afterwards, they began to commit murders on the red
men, whom they pierced with swords, they gave to the
Virginians the name 'Mechanschican' (long knives), to
distinguish them from others of the same colour. In New
England they at first endeavoured to imitate the sound of the
national name of the English, which they pronounced
'Yengees.'" After about the middle of the Revolutionary War
the Indians applied the name "Yengees" exclusively to the
people of New England, "who, indeed, appeared to have adopted
it, and were, as they still are, generally through the country
called 'Yankees,' which is evidently the same name with a
trifling alteration. They say they know the 'Yengees,' and can
distinguish them by their dress and personal appearance, and
that they were considered as less cruel than the Virginians or
'long knives.' The proper English they [for 'they' read 'the
Chippeways and some other nations.'—Editor's foot-note] call
'Saggenash.'"
_J. Heckewelder,
History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian Nations
(Pennsylvania Historical Society Memoirs, volume 12)
pages 142-143._
{3664}
"The origin of this term [Yankees]. so frequently employed by
way of reproach to the New England people, is said to be as
follows. A farmer, by name Jonathan Hastings, of Cambridge,
about the year 1713, used it as a cant, favorite word, to
express excellency when applied to any thing; as a Yankee good
horse, Yankee cider, &c., meaning an excellent horse and
excellent cider. The students at college, having frequent
intercourse with Mr. Hastings, and hearing him employ the term
on all occasions, adopted it themselves, and gave him the name
of Yankee Jonathan; this soon became a cant word among the
collegians to express a weak, simple, awkward person, and from
college it was carried and circulated through the country,
till, from its currency in New England, it was at length taken
up and unjustly applied to the New Englanders in common, as a
term of reproach: It was in consequence of this that a
particular song, called 'Yankee doodle,' was composed in
derision of those scornfully called Yankees."
_J. Thatcher,
Military Journal during the Revolutionary War,
page 19._
"Dr. William Gordon, in his History of the American War,
edition 1789, volume i., pages 324,325, says it was a
favourite cant word in Cambridge, Massachusets, as early as
1713, and that it meant 'excellent.' … Cf. Lowland Sc.
'yankie,' a sharp, clever, forward woman; 'yanker,' an agile
girl, an incessant speaker; 'yanker,' a smart stroke, a great
falsehood; 'yank,' a sudden and severe blow, a sharp stroke;
'yanking,' active, pushing (Jamieson). … If Dr. Gordon's view
be right, the word 'yankee' may be identified with the Sc.
'yankie,' as above; and all the Scotch words appear to be of
Scandinavian origin, due, ultimately Icel. 'jaga,' to move about. …
The fundamental idea is that of 'quick motion'; see 'yacht.'
But the word cannot be said to be solved."
_W. W. Skeat,
Etymological Dictionary._
"The best authorities on the subject now agree upon the
derivation of this term from the imperfect effort made by the
Northern Indians to pronounce the word 'English.'"
_M. Schele de Vere,
Americanisms,
page 22._
ALSO IN:
Notes and Queries,
series 1, volume 6, page 57.
YANKTONS. The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SIOUAN FAMILY.
YARD-LAND.
An ancient holding of land in England equivalent to the
virgate.
See HIDE OF LAND;
and MANORS.
YATASSEES. The.
See TEXAS: THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS.
YEAR BOOKS, English.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1307-1509.
YEAR OF ANARCHY, The.
See ATHENS: B. C. 404-403.
YEAR OF METON, The.
See METON, THE YEAR OF.
YELLOW FEVER, Appearance of.
See PLAGUE: 18TH CENTURY.
YELLOW FORD, Battle of the (1598).
See IRELAND: A. D. 1559-1603.
YELLOW TAVERN, Battle of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1864 (MAY: VIRGINIA) SHERIDAN'S RAID.
YELLOWS (of Venezuela) The.
See VENEZUELA: A. D. 1829-1886.
YEMAMA, Battle of.
See ACRABA.
YENIKALE, Attack on (1855).
See RUSSIA: A. D. 1854-1856.
YEOMEN.
"A 'yeoman' is defined by Sir Thomas Smith (Rep. Anglor. lib.
1. c. 24) as he whom our law calls 'legalem hominem,' a
free-born man that may dispend of his own free land in yearly
revenues to the sum of forty shillings. But it had also a more
general application, denoting like 'valet' a higher kind of
service, which still survives in the current phrase to do
'yeoman's service.' In the household of the mediæval knight or
baron the younger sons of yeomen would form a large proportion
of the servitors, and share with the younger sons of knight or
squire the common name of 'valetti.' The yeomen too who lived
on their own land, but wore the 'livery of company' of some
baron or lesser territorial magnate, would also be his
'valets.' The mediæval 'yeoman' was the tenant of land in free
socage. The extent of his holding might be large or small."
_T. P. Taswell-Langmead,
English Constitutional History,
page 343, foot-note._
"At the period when the higher gentry began to absorb what
remained of the feudal nobility, and established themselves
definitely as an upper class, the small landowners—freeholders
holding estates of inheritance or for life—long leaseholders
and the larger copyholders made corresponding progress, and
the yeomen (the common term applied to all of them) began in
their turn to fill the position and take the rank of an
agricultural middle class. The reign of Henry VI. had marked
the zenith of their influence; they had by that time fully
realized the fact of their existence as a body. The inferior
limit of their class was approximately determined by the
electoral qualification of the forty-shilling freeholder
(under the Act of 1430), or by the £4 qualification for the
office of juror. The superior limit was marked from a legal
point of view by the property qualification of a magistrate,
but socially there was not on this side any definite boundary
line. In 1446 it was considered necessary to forbid the county
electors to return 'valetti,' that is yeomen, to the House of
Commons, a proof that custom and opinion left to themselves
did not look upon the higher section of their class as
unworthy of a seat in Parliament, an honour originally
confined to the knights. Fortescue testifies almost with
triumph to the fact that in no country of Europe were yeomen
so numerous as in England."
_E. Boutmy,
The English Constitution,
part 2, chapter 4._
In later English use the word "yeoman" has signified "a man of
small estate in land, not ranking among the gentry."
YEOMEN OF THE GUARD.
"This corps was instituted by Henry VII. in 1485. It now
consists of 100 men, six of whom are called Yeomen Hangers,
and two Yeomen Bed-goers; the first attending to the hangings
and tapestries of the royal apartments, and the second taking
charge of all beds during any royal removals. The yeomen of
the guard carry up the royal dinner, and are popularly
designated as 'beef-eaters, 'respecting the origin of which
name some differences of opinion exist, for many maintain that
they never had any duties connected with the royal beaufet. A
yeoman usher and a party of yeomen attend in the great chamber
of the palace on drawing-room and levee days, to keep the
passage clear."
_C. R. Dodd,
Manual of Dignities,
part 2, section 1._
YERMOUK, Battle of (A. D. 636).
See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 632-639.
YEZID I., Caliph, A. D. 679-683.
Yezid II., Caliph, 720-724.
Yezid III., Caliph, 744.
YNCAS,
INCAS.
See PERU.
{3665}
YNGAVI, Battle of (1841).
See PERU: A. D. 1826-1876.
YORK: The Roman capital of Britain.
See EBORACUM.
YORK:
The capital of Deira and Northumbria.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 547-633.
YORK: A. D. 1189.
Massacre of Jews.
See JEWS: A. D. 1189.
YORK: A. D. 1644.
Parliamentary siege raised by Prince Rupert.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1644 (JANUARY-JULY).
YORK, Pennsylvania: A. D. 1777.
The American Congress in session.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1777 (JANUARY-DECEMBER).
YORKINOS, The.
See MEXICO: A. D. 1822-1828.
YORKISTS.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1455-1471.
YORKTOWN: A. D. 1781.
Surrender of Cornwallis and his army to Washington.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1781 (MAY-OCTOBER).
YORKTOWN: A. D. 1862.
McClellan's siege.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862 (MARCH-MAY: VIRGINIA).
YOUNG, Brigham, and the Mormons.
See MORMONISM: A. D. 1830-1846, 1846-1847;
and UTAH: A. D. 1849-1850, and 1857-1859.
YOUNG IRELAND MOVEMENT, The.
See IRELAND: A. D. 1841-1848.
YOUNG ITALY.
See ITALY: A. D. 1831-1848.
YPRES: A. D. 1383.
Unsuccessful but destructive siege by the English.
See FLANDERS: A. D. 1383.
YPRES: A. D. 1648.
Taken by the French.
See NETHERLANDS (SPANISH PROVINCES): A. D. 1647-1648.
YPRES: A. D.1659.
Restored to Spain.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1659-1661.
YPRES: A. D. 1679.
Ceded to France.
See NIMEGUEN, THE PEACE OF.
YPRES: A. D. 1713.
Ceded to Holland.
See NETHERLANDS (HOLLAND): A. D. 1713-1715.
YPRES: A. D. 1744-1748.
Taken by the French and restored to Austria.
See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1743-1744;
and AIX-LA-CHAPELLE: THE CONGRESS.
YPRES: A. D. 1794.
Siege and capture by the French.
See FRANCE; A. D. 1794 (MARCH-JULY).
YUCATAN:
The aboriginal inhabitants, their civilization
and its monuments.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: MAYAS, and QUICHES;
also MEXICO, ANCIENT.
YUCATAN:
Discovery.
Disputed origin of the name.
See AMERICA: A. D. 1517-1518.
YUCHI.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: UCHEAN FAMILY.
YUGUARZONGO, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ANDESIANS.
YUKIAN FAMILY, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: YUKIAN FAMILY.
YUMAN FAMILY, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: YUMAN FAMILY.
YUMAS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: APACHE GROUP.
YUNCAS, The.
See PERU: THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS.
YUNGAY, Battle of (1839).
See PERU: A. D. 1826-1876.
YUROKS,
EUROCS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: MODOCS.
Z.
ZAB, Battle of the (A. D. 750).
See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 715-750.
ZACHARIAS, Pope, A. D. 741-752.
ZAGONARA, Battle of (1424).
See ITALY: A. D. 1412-1447.
ZAHARA: A. D. 1476.
Surprise, capture and massacre by the Moors.
See SPAIN: A. D. 1476-1492.
ZALACCA, Battle of (1086).
See ALMORAVIDES;
and PORTUGAL: EARLY HISTORY.
ZAMA, Battle of (B. C. 202).
See PUNIC WARS: THE SECOND.
ZAMBESIA.
See SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1885-1893.
ZAMINDARS, OR ZEMINDARS.
See TALUKDARS;
also INDIA: A. D. 1785-1793.
ZAMZUMMITES, The.
See JEWS: EARLY HEBREW HISTORY.
ZANCLE.
See MESSENE IN SICILY, FOUNDING OF.
ZANZIBAR: A. D. 1885-1886.
Seizure of territory by Germany.
See AFRICA: A. D. 1884-1891.
ZAPORO, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ANDESIANS.
ZAPOTECS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ZAPOTECS, etc.
ZARA: A. D. 1203.
Capture and Destruction.
See CRUSADES: A. D. 1201-1203.
ZARAGOSSA.
See SARAGOSSA.
ZARAKA, The.
See SARANGIANS.
ZARANGIANS, The.
See SARANGIANS.
ZARATHUSTRA,
ZOROASTER.
See ZOROASTRIANS.
ZEA.
See PIRÆUS.
ZEALOTS, The.
A party among the Jews which forced on the great struggle of
that people with the Roman power,—the struggle which ended in
the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. A party of ardent
patriots in its origin, and embracing the flower of the
nation, it degenerated, by enlistment of the passions of the
populace, into a fierce, violent, desperate faction, which
Ewald (History of Israel, book 7) compares to that of the
Jacobins of the French Revolution.
_Josephus,
The Jewish War._
ZEEWAND.
See WAMPUM.
ZEGRIS, The.
See SPAIN: A. D. 1238-1273; and 1476-1492.
ZELA, Battle of (B. C. 47).
See ROME: B. C. 47-46.
ZEMINDARS,
ZAMINDARS.
See TALUKDARS;
also INDIA: A. D. 1785-1793.
{3666}
ZEMSTVO, The.
"The Zemstvo (in Russia] is a kind of local administration
which supplements the action of the rural communes [see MIR],
and takes cognizance of those higher public wants which
individual communes cannot possibly satisfy. Its principal
duties are to keep the roads and bridges in proper repair, to
provide means of conveyance for the rural police and other
officials, to elect the justices of peace, to look after
primary education and sanitary affairs, to watch the state of
the crops and take measures against approaching famine, and in
short to undertake, within certain clearly-defined limits,
whatever seems likely to increase the material and moral
well-being of the population. In form the institution is
parliamentary—that is to say, it consists of an assembly of
deputies which meets at least once a year, and of a permanent
executive bureau elected by the assembly from among its
members. … Once every three years the deputies are elected in
certain fixed proportions by the landed proprietors, the rural
communes, and the municipal corporations. Every province
(guberniya) and each of the districts (uyezdi) into which the
province is subdivided has such an assembly and such a
bureau."
_D. M. Wallace,
Russia,
chapter 14._
ZENDAVESTA, The.
See ZOROASTRIANS.
ZENDECAN, Battle of (1038).
See TURKS: A. D. 999-1183.
ZENGER'S TRIAL.
See NEW YORK: A. D. 1720-1734.
ZENO, Roman Emperor (Eastern). A. D. 474-491.
ZENOBIA, The Empire of.
See PALMYRA.
ZENTA, Battle of (1697).
See HUNGARY: A. D. 1683-1699.
ZEPHATHAH, Battle of.
Fought by Asa, king of Judah, with Zerah the Ethiopian, whom
he defeated.
_2 Chronicles, xiv. 9-15._
ZEUGITÆ, The.
See ATHENS: B. C. 594.
ZEUGMA.
See APAMEA.
ZIELA, Battle of.
A battle fought in the Mithridatic War, B. C. 67, in which the
Romans were badly defeated by the Pontic king.
_T. Mommsen,
History of Rome,
book 5, chapter 2._
ZIGANI.
ZIGEUNER.
ZINCALI.
ZINGARRI.
See GYPSIES.
ZINGIS KHAN, The conquests of.
See MONGOLS: A. D. 1153-1227;
and INDIA: A. D. 977-1290.
ZINGLINS.
See HAYTI: A. D. 1804-1880.
ZINZENDORF, Count, and the Moravian Brethren.
See MORAVIAN OR BOHEMIAN BRETHREN.
ZION.
See JERUSALEM: CONQUEST AND OCCUPATION BY DAVID.
ZNAIM, Armistice of.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1809 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).
ZOAN.
TANIS.
SAN.
These are the names which, at different periods, have been
given to an ancient city near the northeastern borders of
Egypt, the ruins of which have been identified and are being
explored, on the east bank of the canal that was formerly the
Tanitic branch of the Nile. Both in Egyptian history and
Biblical history Zoan was an important place. "The whole
period of the Hebrew sojourn is closely interwoven with the
history of Zoan. Here ruled the king in whose name Egypt was
governed by the Hebrew, who was no less than regent; here
ruled those who still favoured the people of Israel. Under the
great Oppression, Zoan was a royal residence."
_R. S. Poole,
Cities of Egypt,
chapter 5._
ALSO IN:
_W. M. F. Petrie,
Tanis (2d Mem., Egypt Expl. Fund)._
See, also, JEWS: THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL IN EGYPT.
ZOBAH, Kingdom of.
A kingdom of brief importance, extending from the Orontes to
the Euphrates, which appears among the allies of the
Ammonites, in their war with David King of Israel.
_H. Ewald,
Lectures on the History of Israel,
volume 3, pages 150-152._
ZOE AND THEODORA, Empresses in the East
(Byzantine, or Greek). A. D. 1042.
ZOHAR, The.
See CABALA.
ZOHARITES, The.
A singular Jewish sect which sprang up in Poland during the
seventeenth century, taking its name from the Zohar, one of
the books of the Cabala, on which it founded its faith.
_H. H. Milman,
History of the Jews.
book 28._
ZOLLPARLAMENT, The.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1866-1870.
ZOLLVEREIN, The German.
See TARIFF LEGISLATION AND CONVENTIONS (GERMANY): A. D. 1833.
Also (in Supplement) GERMANY: A. D. 1815-1848.
ZOQUES, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ZAPOTECS. etc.
ZORNDORF, Battle or.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1758.
ZOROASTRIANS.
MAGIANS.
PARSEES.
"The Iranians were in ancient times the dominant race
throughout the entire tract lying between the Suliman
mountains and the Pamir steppe on the one hand, and the great
Mesopotamian valley on the other. … At a time which it is
difficult to date, but which those best skilled in Iranian
antiquities are inclined to place before the birth of Moses,
there grew up, in the region whereof we are speaking, a form
of religion marked by very special and unusual features. …
Ancient tradition associates this religion with the name of
Zoroaster. Zoroaster, or Zarathrustra, according to the native
spelling, was, by one account, a Median king who conquered
Babylon about B. C. 2458. By another, which is more probable,
and which rests, moreover, on better authority, he was a
Bactrian, who, at a date not quite so remote, came forward in
the broad plain of the middle Oxus to instil into the minds of
his countrymen the doctrines and precepts of a new religion. …
His religion gradually spread from 'happy Bactra,' 'Bactra of
the lofty banner,' first to the neighbouring countries, and
then to all the numerous tribes of the Iranians, until at last
it became the established religion of the mighty empire of
Persia, which, in the middle of the 6th century before our
era, established itself on the ruins of the Assyrian and
Babylonian kingdoms, and shortly afterwards overran and
subdued the ancient monarchy of the Pharaohs. In Persia it
maintained its ground, despite the shocks of Grecian and
Parthian conquest, until Mohammedan intolerance drove it out
at the point of the sword, and forced it to seek a refuge
further east, in the peninsula of Hindustan. Here it still
continues, in Guzerat and in Bombay, the creed of that
ingenious and intelligent people known to Anglo-Indians—and
may we not say to Englishmen generally?—as Parsees [see
PARSEES]. The religion of the Parsees is contained in a volume
of some size, which has received the name of 'the Zendavesta.'
… 'Anquetil Duperron introduced the sacred book of the Parsees
to the knowledge of Europeans under this name; and the word
thus introduced can scarcely be now displaced.
{3667}
Otherwise, 'Avesta-Zend' might be recommended as the more
proper title. 'Avesta' means 'text,' and Zend means 'comment.'
'Avesta u Zend,' or 'Text and Comment,' is the proper title,
which is then contracted into 'Avesta-Zend.' … Subjected for
the last fifty years to the searching analysis of first-rate
orientalists—Burnouf, Westergaard, Brockhaus, Spiegel, Haug,
Windischmann, Hübschmann,—this work has been found to belong
in its various parts to very different dates, and to admit of
being so dissected as to reveal to us, not only what are the
tenets of the modern Parsees, but what was the earliest form
of that religion whereof theirs is the remote and degenerate
descendant. Signs of a great antiquity are found to attach to
the language of certain rhythmical compositions called Gâthâs
or hymns; and the religious ideas contained in these are found
to be at once harmonious, and also of a simpler and more
primitive character than those contained in the rest of the
volume. From the Gâthâs chiefly, but also to some extent from
other, apparently very ancient, portions of the Zendavesta,
the characteristics of the early Iranian religion have been
drawn out by various scholars, particularly by Dr. Martin
Haug. … The most striking feature of the religion, and that
which is generally allowed to be its leading characteristic,
is the assertion of Dualism. By Dualism we mean the belief in
two original uncreated principles, a principle of good and a
principle of evil. … Both principles were real persons,
possessed of will, intelligence, power, consciousness, and
other personal qualities. To the one they gave the name of
Ahura-Mazda, to the other that of Angro-Mainyus. … The names
themselves sufficiently indicated to those who first used them
the nature of the two beings. Ahura-Mazda was the
'all-bountiful, all-wise, living being' or 'spirit,' who stood
at the head of all that was good and lovely, beautiful and
delightful. Angro-Mainyus was the 'dark and gloomy
intelligence' that had from the first been Ahura-Mazda's
enemy, and was bent on thwarting and vexing him. And with
these fundamental notions agreed all that the sacred books
taught concerning either being. … The two great beings who
thus divided between them the empire of the universe were
neither of them content to be solitary. Each had called into
existence a number of inferior spirits, who acknowledged their
sovereignty, fought on their side, and sought to execute their
behests. At the head of the good spirits subject to
Ahura-Mazda stood a band of six dignified with the title of
Amesha-Spentas, or 'Immortal Holy Ones.' … In direct
antithesis to these stood the band, likewise one of six, which
formed the council and chief support of Angro-Mainyus. …
Besides these leading spirits there was marshalled on either
side an innumerable host of lesser and subordinate ones,
called respectively 'ahuras' and 'devas,' who constituted the
armies or attendants of the two great powers, and were
employed by them to work out their purposes. The leader of the
angelic hosts, or 'ahuras' was a glorious being, called
Sraosha or Serosh—'the good, tall, fair Serosh,' who stood in
the Zoroastrian system where Michael the Archangel stands in
the Christian. … Neither Ahura-Mazda nor the Amesha-Spentas
were represented by the early Iranians under any material
forms. The Zoroastrian system was markedly anti-idolatrous:
and the utmost that was allowed the worshipper was an
emblematic representation of the Supreme Being by means of a
winged circle, with which was occasionally combined an
incomplete human figure, robed and wearing a tiara. … The
position of man in the cosmic scheme was determined by the
fact that he was among the creations of Ahura-Mazda. Formed
and placed on earth by the Good Being, he was bound to render
him implicit obedience, and to oppose to the utmost
Angro-Mainyus and his creatures. His duties might be summed up
under the four heads of piety, purity, industry, and veracity.
Piety was to be shown by an acknowledgment of Ahura-Mazda as
the One True God, by a reverential regard for the
Amesha-Spentas and the Izeds, or lower angels, by the frequent
offering of prayers, praises, and thanksgivings, the
recitation of hymns, the occasional sacrifice of animals, and
the performance from time to time of a curious ceremony known
as that of the Haoma or Homa [see SOMA.—HAOMA). … The purity
required of the Iranians was inward as well as outward. … The
duty of veracity was inculcated perhaps more strenuously than
any other. … If it be asked what opinions were entertained by
the Zoroastrians concerning man's ultimate destiny, the answer
would seem to be, that they were devout and earnest believers
in the immortality of the soul, and a conscious future
existence. … The religion of the early Iranians became
corrupted after a time by an admixture of foreign
superstitions. The followers of Zoroaster, as they spread
themselves from their original seat upon the Oxus over the
regions lying south and south-west of the Caspian Sea, were
brought into contact with a form of faith considerably
different from that to which they had previously been
attached, yet well adapted for blending with it. This was
Magism, or the worship of the elements [see MAGIANS). The
early inhabitants of Armenia, Cappadocia, and the Zagros
mountain-range, had, under circumstances that are unknown to
us, developed this form of religion, and had associated with
its tenets a priest-caste. … The four elements, fire, air,
earth, and water, were recognised as the only proper objects
of human reverence. … When the Zoroastrians came into contact
with Magism, it impressed them favourably. … The result was
that, without giving up any part of their previous creed, the
Iranians adopted and added on to it an the principal points of
the Magian belief, and all the more remarkable of the Magian
religious usages. This religious fusion seems first to have
taken place in Media. The Magi became a Median tribe, and were
adopted as the priest-caste of the "Median nation." This
"produced an amalgam that has shown a surprising vitality,
having lasted above 2,000 years—from the time of Xerxes, the
son of Darius Hystaspis (B. C. 485-465) to the present day."
_G. Rawlinson,
Religions of the Ancient World,
chapter 3._
"As the doctrines of Zoroaster bear in several points such a
striking resemblance to those of Christianity, it is a
question of grave importance to ascertain the age in which he
lived. … Since there can be no doubt that … we must assign to
Zarathustra Spitama a date prior to the Median conquest of
Babylon by a Zoroastrian priest king, the only question
remaining to be solved is, whether he lived only a short time,
or long, before that event.
{3668}
I am inclined to believe that he lived only about 100 or 200
years before that time, and that the conquest of Babylon was
one of the last consequences of the great religious enthusiasm
kindled by him. He preached, like Moses, war and destruction
to all idolaters and wicked men. … According to this
investigation we cannot assign to Zarathustra Spitama a later
date than about 2300 B. C. Thus he lived not only before
Moses, but even, perhaps, before Abraham. … He was the first
prophet of truth who appeared in the world, and kindled a fire
which thousands of years could not entirely extinguish."
_M. Haug,
Lectures on an Original Speech of Zoroaster
(Yasna 45),
pages 17, 26._
_M. Haug,
Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings
and Religion of the Parsees._
"Prof. Darmesteter has published a new translation [of the
Zend Avesta] with a most ably written introduction, in which
he maintains the thesis that not a line of our Avesta text is
older than the time of Alexander's conquest, while the greater
part belongs to a much later date. We may briefly remind our
readers that, according to the traditional view, the old
Zoroastrian books, which belong to the times of the
Achæmenidæ, were destroyed at the Macedonian conquest, but
that portions were preserved by the people, who retained the
old faith, during the long period of the Arsacidan rule,
though the Court favoured Greek civilization. … According to
this view, we still possess the genuine remains of the old
pre-Alexandrine literature, mutilated and corrupted during the
period of Arsacidan indifference, but yet, so far as they go,
a faithful representative of the sacred text of the Achæmenian
time. … Professor Darmesteter, on the contrary, maintains that
all our texts are post-Alexandrine in form and in substance.
Some may belong to the 1st century B. C. or A. D., and some,
as the legislative parts of the Vendidad, may be founded on
older texts now lost; but a large portion was composed by the
priests of Ardashir's Court in the 3d century. The Gâthâs,
which till now have been generally considered as the ancient
nucleus of the whole system and ascribed to Zoroaster himself,
are, in the Professor's opinion, certainly modern, and are
relegated to the 1st century of our era."
_The Athenæum,
June 30, 1894_
ALSO IN:
_W. Geiger,
Civilization of the Eastern Iranians._
_W. Geiger, and F. von Spiegel,
The Age of the Avesta._
_D. F. Karaka,
History of the Parsis._
_S. Johnson,
Oriental Religions: Persia._
ZOTTS.
See GYPSIES.
ZOUAVES, The.
During the wars of the French in Algeria, there arose a body
of soldiers "who, both in the campaign in Algeria and in the
contest in the Crimea, have acquired the very highest renown.
The name of the Zouaves will never be forgotten as long as the
story of the siege of Sebastopol endures. … They were
originally intended to be regiments composed of Frenchmen who
had settled in Algeria, or their descendants; but the
intermixture of foreigners in their ranks ere long became so
considerable, that when they were transported to the shores of
the Crimea, though the majority were French, they were rather
an aggregate of the 'Dare-devils' of all nations. In their
ranks at Sebastopol were some that held Oxford degrees, many
those of Göttingen and Paris, crowds who had been ruined at
the gaming-table, not a few who had fled from justice, or
sought escape from the consequences of an amorous adventure.
Yet had this motley crowd, composed of the most daring and
reckless of all nations, become, in the rude school of the
wars in Algeria, an incomparable body of soldiers, second to
none in the world in every military duty, perhaps superior to
any in the vehemence and rush of an assault."
_Sir A. Alison,
History of Europe, 1815-1852,
chapter 45._
ZÜLPICH, Battle of (A. D. 496).
See ALEMANNI: A. D. 496-504;
also FRANKS: A. D. 481-511.
ZULUS,
AMAZULU.
The Zulu War.
See SOUTH AFRICA: ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS:
and SOUTH AFRICA, A. D. 1877-1879.
ZUÑI.
See AMERICA, PREHISTORIC;
also AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ZUÑIAN FAMILY, and PUEBLOS.
ZURICH: A. D. 1519-1524.
Beginning of the Swiss Reformation, under Zwingli.
See PAPACY: A. D. 1519-1524;
and SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1528-1531.
ZURICH: A. D. 1799.
Battle of French and Russians.
Carnage in the city.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1799 (AUGUST-DECEMBER).
ZURICH, Treaty of (1859).
See ITALY: A. D. 1859-1861.
ZUTPHEN: A. D. 1572.
Massacre by the Spaniards.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1572-1573.
ZUTPHEN: A. D. 1586.
Battle of English and Spaniards.
Death of Sir Philip Sidney.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1585-1586.
ZUTPHEN: A. D. 1591.
Capture by Prince Maurice.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1588-1593.
ZUYDERZEE, Naval battle on the (1573).
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1573-1574.
ZWINGLI, and the Swiss Reformation.
See PAPACY: A. D. 1519-1524;
and SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1528-1531.
ZYP, Battle of the.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1799 (APRIL-SEPTEMBER).
{3669}
SUPPLEMENT.
This Supplement contains:
1. Some passages translated from German and French writings,
touching matters less competently treated in the body of the
work, where the compilation is restricted to "the literature
of history in the English language," either originally or in
published translations.
2. Some postscripts on recent events, and some excerpts from
recent books.
3. Treatment of some topics that were omitted from their
places in the body of the work, either intentionally or by
accident, and which it seems best to include.
4. Some cross-references needed to complete the
subject-indexing of the work throughout.
5. A complete series of chronological tables, by centuries.
6. A series of dynastic genealogies, in a form different from
the usual plan of their construction, and which, it is hoped,
may be found more easily intelligible.
7. Select bibliographies, partly annotated, of several of the
more important fields of history.
8. A full list of the works quoted from in this compilation of
"History for Ready Reference and Topical Reading," with the
names of the publishers.
The selections and translations from the German, excepting
Bismarck's speeches, have been made by Ernest F. Henderson,
A. M., Ph. D., author of "A History of Germany in the Middle
Ages." Mr. Henderson has also prepared and annotated the
bibliography of German and French writings.
---------- A --------
ABELARD AND THE RISE OF THE UNIVERSITIES.
See EDUCATION, MEDIÆVAL (page 692).
ABHORRERS.
Charles II. and his court, in England, were troubled about
1680 with numerous petitions for the calling of parliament.
"As the king found no law by which he could punish those
importunate, and, as he deemed them, undutiful solicitations,
he was obliged to encounter them by popular applications of a
contrary tendency. Wherever the church and court party
prevailed, addresses were framed, containing expressions of
the highest regard to his majesty, the most entire
acquiescence in his wisdom, the most dutiful submission to his
prerogative, and the deepest abhorrence of those who
endeavoured to encroach upon it, by prescribing to him any
time for assembling the parliament. Thus the nation came to be
distinguished into 'petitioners' and 'abhorrers.'"
_D. Hume,
History of England,
chapter 68._
ACCAD.
ACCADIANS.
See SEMITES: PRIMITIVE BABYLONIA (page 2888).
ADAIS.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: ADAIS (page 77).
ADAMS, John Quincy.
His defense of the right of petition.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1842 (page 3378).
ADELBERT COLLEGE.
See EDUCATION (page 743).
ADMIRALTY LAW, History of.
See LAW (page 1955).
ADVENTURERS, Merchant.
See MERCHANT ADVENTURERS (page 2153).
----------AFRICA: Start--------
AFRICA.
A chronological record of European Exploration,
Missionary Settlement, Colonization and Occupation.
AFRICA: 1415.
Conquest of Ceuta by the Portuguese.
AFRICA: 1434-1461.
Portuguese explorations down the western coast, from Cape
Bojador to Cape Mesurado, in Liberia, under the direction of
Prince Henry, called the Navigator.
AFRICA: 1442.
First African slaves brought into Europe by one
of the ships of the Portuguese-Prince Henry.
AFRICA: 1471-1482.
Portuguese explorations carried beyond the Guinea Coast,
and to the Gold Coast, where the first settlement was
established, at El Mina.
AFRICA: 1482.
Discovery of the mouth of the Zaire or Congo by the
Portuguese explorer, Diogo Cao, or Diego Cam.
AFRICA: 1485-1596.
Establishment of Roman Catholic missions on the western coast,
and creation, by Pope Clement VIII., of the diocese of Mbazi
(San Salvador), embracing Congo, Angola and Benguela.
AFRICA: 1486.
Unconscious rounding of the Cape of Good Hope by
Bartholomew Diaz.
AFRICA: 1490-1527.
Visit to Abyssinia of Pedro da Covilhão, or Covilham,
the Portuguese explorer.
AFRICA: 1497.
Voyage of Vasco da Gama round the Cape of Good Hope to India.
{3670}
AFRICA: 1505-1508.
Portuguese settlements and fortified stations' established on
the eastern coast, from Sofala to Zanzibar.
AFRICA: 1506.
Discovery of Madagascar by the Portuguese.
AFRICA: 1520-1527.
Portuguese embassy to Abyssinia, narrated by Father Alvarez.
AFRICA: 1552-1553.
Beginning of English voyages to the Guinea and Gold Coasts.
AFRICA: 1560.
French trading to the Senegal and Gambia begun.
AFRICA: 1562.
First slave-trading voyage of Sir John Hawkins to the Guinea
Coast.
AFRICA: 1569.
Expedition of Barreto up the Zambesi from its mouth to Sena
and beyond.
AFRICA: 1578.
Founding of St. Paul de Loando, the capital of the Portuguese
possessions on the west coast.
AFRICA: 1582 (about).
Founding of the French post, St. Louis, at the mouth of the
Senegal.
AFRICA: 1588.
First (English) African Company chartered by Queen Elizabeth.
AFRICA: 1595.
Opening of trade on the western coast by the Dutch.
AFRICA: 1618-1621.
Exploration of the River Gambia by George Thompson and Captain
Richard Jobson, for the Royal Niger Company of England.
AFRICA: 1625.
Jesuit mission of Father Lobo and his companions to Abyssinia.
AFRICA: 1637.
Visit of Claude Jannequin, Sieur de Rochfort, to the River
Senegal.
AFRICA: 1644.
Fort Dauphin founded by the French in the island of Madagascar.
AFRICA: 1652.
Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope.
AFRICA: 1662.
British African Company chartered by Charles II.
and fort built on the Gambia.
AFRICA: 1664-1684.
Wars of France with the Algerines.
AFRICA: 1681-1683.
Brandenburg African Company formed by "the Great Elector";
settlements established and trade opened on the western coast.
AFRICA: 1694-1724.
Explorations of the River Senegal and interior by André Brue,
the French governor, for the Royal Senegal Company.
AFRICA: 1698.
Arab conquests from the Portuguese on the eastern coast,
breaking their ascendancy.
AFRICA: 1702-1717.
Captivity of Robert Drury in Madagascar.
AFRICA: 1723.
Exploration of the Gambia by Captain Bartholomew Stibbs, for
the English Royal African Company.
AFRICA: 1736.
Moravian Mission planted on the Gold Coast.
AFRICA: 1737.
Moravian Mission planted by George Schmidt among the
Hottentots; suppressed by the Dutch government in 1744, and
revived in 1792.
AFRICA: 1754.
Substantial beginning of the domination in Madagascar of the
Hovas, a people of Malay origin.
AFRICA: 1758.
British conquest of the French establishments on the Senegal.
AFRICA: 1761-1762.
Dutch expedition from Cape Colony beyond the Orange River into
Namaqualand.
AFRICA: 1768-1763.
Journey of James Bruce to the fountains of the Blue Nile in
Abyssinia.
AFRICA: 1774.
Founding of a French colony in Madagascar by Count Benyowsky.
AFRICA: 1775-1776.
Explorations of Andrew Sparrman from Cape Town to Great Fish
River.
AFRICA: 1778.
Cession by Portugal to Spain of the island of Fernando Po.
AFRICA: 1779.
Recovery of Senegal from the English by the French.
AFRICA: 1781-1785.
Travels of M. Le Vaillant from the Cape of Good Hope into the
interior of South Africa, among the Hottentots and Kafirs.
AFRICA: 1787.
Founding of the English settlement for freed slaves at Sierra
Leone.
AFRICA: 1788.
Formation of the African Association in England, under the
presidency of Sir Joseph Banks, for systematic exploration in
the interest of geographical science.
AFRICA: 1789-1794.
Fruitless attempts by agents of the African Association to
reach the Niger and Timbuctoo from the west coast and from the
Nile.
AFRICA: 1795.
The Cape Colony taken from the Dutch by the English.
AFRICA: 1795-1797.
The first exploring journey of Mungo Park, in the service of
the African Association, from the Gambia, penetrating to the
Niger, at Sego.
AFRICA: 1798.
Mission of Dr. John Vanderkemp to the Kafirs, with the support
of the London Missionary Society.
AFRICA: 1798.
Journey of the Portuguese Dr. Lacerda from the Lower Zambesi
to the kingdom of Cazembe, on Lake Moero.
AFRICA: 1800.
Unsuccessful attempts of the Dutch Missionary Society in Cape
Town among the Bechuanas.
AFRICA: 1801-1805.
War of the United States with the pirates of Tripoli.
AFRICA: 1802-1806.
Restoration of Cape Colony to the Dutch and its reconquest by
the English.
AFRICA: 1802-1811.
Journey of the Pombeiros, Baptista and Jose (negroes) across
the continent from Angola to Tete, on the Zambesi River.
AFRICA: 1804.
Founding of the Church of England Mission in Sierra Leone.
AFRICA: 1805.
Second expedition of Mungo Park from the Gambia to the Niger,
from which he never returned.
AFRICA: 1805.
Travels of Dr. Lichtenstein in Bechuanaland.
AFRICA: 1806.
Missionary journey of Christian and William Albrecht beyond
the Orange River.
AFRICA: 1809.
Second conquest of Senegal by the English.
AFRICA: 1810.
Missions in Great Namaqualand and Damaraland begun by the
London Missionary Society.
AFRICA: 1812.
Exploration of the Orange River and the headwaters of the
Limpopo by Campbell, the missionary.
AFRICA: 1812-1815.
Journey of Burckhardt under the auspices of the African
Association, up the Nile, through Nubia, to Berbera, Shendy,
and Suakin; thence through Jidda to Mecca, in the character of
a Mussulman.
AFRICA: 1815.
Senegal restored to France by the Treaty of Paris.
AFRICA: 1815.
War of the United States with the piratical Algerines.
AFRICA: 1815.
Shipwreck and enslavement of Captain James Riley in Morocco.
AFRICA: 1816.
Bombardment of Algiers by a British fleet under Lord Exmouth.
AFRICA: 1816-1818.
Fatal and fruitless attempts of Tuckey, Peddie, Campbell, Gray
and Dochard to explore the lower course and determine the
outlet of the Niger.
{3671}
AFRICA: 1818.
Mission in Madagascar undertaken by the London Missionary
Society.
AFRICA: 1818.
Beginning, on the Orange River, of the missionary labors of
Robert Moffat in South Africa.
AFRICA: 1818.
Exploration of the sources of the Gambia by Gaspard Mollien,
from Fort St. Louis, at the mouth of the Senegal.
AFRICA: 1818-1820.
Exploration of Fezzan to Its southern limit, from Tripoli, by
Captain Lyon.
AFRICA: 1820.
First Wesleyan Mission founded in Kafirland.
AFRICA: 1820.
Treaty abolishing the slave-trade in Madagascar.
AFRICA: 1821.
Mission-work in Kaffraria undertaken by the Glasgow Missionary
Society.
AFRICA: 1822.
Founding of the republic of Liberia by the American
Colonization Society.
AFRICA: 1822.
Official journey of Lieutenant Laing from Sierra Leone in the
"Timannee, Kooranko and Soolima" countries.
AFRICA: 1822-1825.
Expedition of Captain Clapperton, Dr. Oudney, and Colonel
Denham, from Tripoli to Lake Tchad and beyond.
AFRICA: 1825-1826.
Expedition of Major Laing, in the service of the British
Government, from Tripoli, through the desert, to Timbuctoo,
which he reached, and where he remained for a month. Two days
after leaving the city he was murdered.
AFRICA: 1825-1827.
Expedition of Captain Clapperton from the Bight of Benin to
Sokoto.
AFRICA: 1827.
Moravian Mission settled in the Tambookie territory, South
Africa.
AFRICA: 1827.
Journey of Linant de Bellefonds, for the African Association,
up the White Nile to 18° 6' north latitude.
AFRICA: 1827-1828.
Journey of Caillé from a point on the west coast, between
Sierra Leone and the Gambia, to Jenna and Timbuctoo; thence to
Fez and Tangier.
AFRICA: 1828.
Undertakings of the Basle Missionary Society on the Gold
Coast.
AFRICA: 1830-1831.
Exploration of the Niger to the sea by Richard and John
Lender, solving the question as to its mouth.
AFRICA: 1830-1846.
French conquest and subjugation of Algiers.
AFRICA: 1831.
Portuguese mission of Major Monteiro and Captain Gamitto to
the court of Muata Cazembe.
AFRICA: 1831.
Absorption of the African Association by the Royal
Geographical Society of London.
AFRICA: 1832-1834.
First commercial exploration of the lower Niger, from its
mouth, by Macgregor Laird, with two steamers.
AFRICA: 1833.
Mission in Basutoland established by the Evangelical
Missionary Society of Paris.
AFRICA: 1834.
Beginning of missionary labors under the American Board of
Missions in South Africa.
AFRICA: 1834.
Mission founded at Cape Palmas on the western coast, by the
American Board for Foreign Missions.
AFRICA: 1834.
The Great Trek of the Dutch Boers from Cape Colony and their
founding of the republic of Natal.
AFRICA: 1835.
Mission among the Zulus established by the American Board of
Foreign Missions.
AFRICA: 1835-1849.
Persecution of Christians in Madagascar.
AFRICA: 1836-1837.
Explorations of Captain Sir James E. Alexander in the
countries of the Great Namaquas, the Bushmen and the Hill
Damaras.
AFRICA: 1839-1811.
Egyptian expeditions sent by Mehemet Ali up the White Nile to
latitude 6° 35' North; accompanied and narrated in part by
Ferdinand Werne.
AFRICA: 1839-1843.
Missionary residence of Dr. Krapf in the kingdom of Shoa, in
the Ethiopian highlands.
AFRICA: 1840.
Arrival of Dr. Livingstone in South Africa as a missionary.
AFRICA: 1841.
Expedition of Captains Trotter and Allen, sent by the British
Government to treat with tribes on the Niger for the opening
of commerce and the suppression of the slave trade.
AFRICA: 1842.
Travels of Dr. Charles Johnston in Southern Abyssinia.
AFRICA: 1842.
Gaboon Mission, on the western coast near the equator, founded
by the American Board of Foreign Missions.
AFRICA: 1842.
The Rhenish Mission established by German missionaries at
Bethanien in Namaqualand.
AFRICA: 1842.
Wesleyan and Norwegian Missions opened in Natal.
AFRICA: 1842-1862.
French occupation of territory on the Gaboon and the Ogowé.
AFRICA: 1843.
British annexation of Natal, and migration of the Boers to
found the Orange Free State.
AFRICA: 1843.
Exploration of the Senegal and the Falémé by Huard-Bessinières
and Raffenel.
AFRICA: 1843-1845.
Travels and residence of Mr. Parkyns in Abyssinia.
AFRICA: 1843-1848.
Hunting journeys of Gordon Cumming in South Africa.
AFRICA: 1844.
Mission founded by Dr. Krapf at Mombassa, on the Zanzibar
coast.
AFRICA: 1845.
Duncan's journey for the Royal Geographical Society from
Whydah, via Abome, to Adofudia.
AFRICA: 1845.
Mission to the Cameroons established by the Baptist Missionary
Society of England.
AFRICA: 1846.
Unsuccessful attempt of Raffenel to cross Africa from Senegal
to the Nile, through the Sudan.
AFRICA: 1846.
Mission of Samuel Crowther (afterwards Bishop of the Niger), a
native and a liberated slave, to the Yoruba country.
AFRICA: 1846.
Mission on Old Calabar River founded by the United
Presbyterian Church in Jamaica.
AFRICA: 1847-1849.
Interior explorations of the German missionaries Dr. Krapf and
Mr. Rebmann, from Mombassa on the Zanzibar coast.
AFRICA: 1848.
Founding of the Transvaal Republic by the Boers.
AFRICA: 1849.
Missionary journey of David Livingstone northward from the
country of the Bechuanas, and his discovery of Lake Ngami.
AFRICA: 1849-1851.
Journey of Ladislaus Magyar from Benguela to the kingdoms of
Bihe and Moluwa on the interior table-land, and across the
upper end of the Zambesi valley.
AFRICA: 1850.
Sale of Danish forts at Quetta, Adds, and Fingo, on the
western coast, to Great Britain.
AFRICA: 1850-1851.
Travels of Andersson and Galton from Walfish Bay to
Ovampo-land and Lake Ngami.
AFRICA: 1850-1855.
Travels of Dr. Barth from Tripoli to Lake Tchad, Sokoto and
the Upper Niger to Timbuctoo, where he was detained for nine
months.
AFRICA: 1851.
Discovery of the Zambesi by Dr. Livingstone.
{3672}
AFRICA: 1852-1863.
Hunting and trading journeys of Mr. Chapman in South Africa,
between Natal and Walfish Bay and to Lake Ngami and the
Zambesi.
AFRICA: 1853.
Founding of the Diocese of Natal by the English Church and
appointment of Dr. Colenso to be its bishop.
AFRICA: 1853-1856.
Journey of Dr. Livingstone from Linyanti, the Makololo
capital, up the Zambesi and across to the western coast, at
St. Paul de Loando, thence returning entirely across the
continent, down the Zambesi to Quilimane at its mouth,
discovering the Victoria Falls on his way.
AFRICA: 1853-1858.
Ivory-seeking expeditions of John Petherick, up the
Bahr-el-Ghazel.
AFRICA: 1853-1859.
Roman Catholic mission established at Gondokoro, on the Upper
Nile.
AFRICA: 1854.
Exploration of the Somali country—the "eastern horn of
Africa"—by Captains Burton and Speke.
AFRICA: 1855.
Beginning of attempts by the French governor of Senegal,
General Faidherbe, to carry the flag of France into the
Western Sudan.
AFRICA: 1856-1859.
Journeys of Du Chaillu in the western equatorial regions, on
the Gaboon and the Ogobai.
AFRICA: 1857-1858.
Expedition of Captains Burton and Speke, from Zanzibar,
through Uzaramo, Usagara, Ugogo, and Unyamwezi, to Ujiji, on
Lake Tanganyika—making the first European discovery of the
lake; returning to Kazé, and thence continued by Speke alone,
during Burton's illness, to the discovery of Lake Victoria
Nyanza.
AFRICA: 1858.
Journey of Andersson from Walfish Bay to the Okavango River.
AFRICA: 1858.
English mission station founded at Victoria on the Cameroons
coast.
AFRICA: 1858-1863.
Expedition of Dr. Livingstone, in the service of the British
Government, exploring the Shiré and the Rovuma, and
discovering and exploring Lake Nyassa—said, however, to have
been known previously to the Portuguese.
AFRICA: 1860-1861.
Journey of Baron von Decken from Mombassa on the Zanzibar
coast, to Kilimanjaro mountain.
AFRICA: 1860-1862.
Return of Speke, with Captain Grant, from Zanzibar to Lake
Victoria Nyanza, visiting Karagwe, and Uganda, and reaching
the outlet of the Nile; thence through Unyoro to Gondokoro,
and homeward by the Nile.
AFRICA: 1861.
Establishment of the Universities Mission by Bishop Mackenzie
on the Upper Shiré.
AFRICA: 1861-1862.
English acquisition of the town and kingdom of Lagos on the
Bight of Benin by cession from the native ruler.
AFRICA: 1861-1862.
Sir Samuel Baker's exploration of the Abyssinian tributaries
of the Nile.
AFRICA: 1861-1862.
Journey of Captain Burton from Lagos, on the western coast, to
Abeokuta, the capital of the Akus, in Yoruba, and to the
Camaroons Mountains.
AFRICA: 1861-1862.
Journey of Mr. Baines from Walfish Bay to Lake Ngami and
Victoria Falls.
AFRICA: 1862.
Resumption of the Christian Mission in Madagascar, long
suppressed.
AFRICA: 1862-1867.
Travels of Dr. Rohlfs in Morocco, Algeria and Tunis, and
exploring journey from the Gulf of the Syrtes to the Gulf of
Guinea.
AFRICA: 1863.
Travels of Winwood Reade on the western coast.
AFRICA: 1863.
Incorporation of a large part of Kaffraria with Cape Colony.
AFRICA: 1863.
Second visit of Du Chaillu to the western equatorial region
and journey to Ashangoland.
AFRICA: 1863-1864.
Official mission of Captain Burton to the King of Dahomey.
AFRICA: 1863-1864.
Exploration of the Bahr-el-Ghazel from Khartoum by the wealthy
Dutch heiress, Miss Tinné, and her party.
AFRICA: 1863-1865.
Expedition by Sir Samuel Baker and his wife up the White Nile
from Khartoum, resulting in the discovery of Lake Albert
Nyanza, as one of its sources.
AFRICA: 1864.
Mission of Lieutenant mage and Dr. Quintin, sent by General
Faidherbe from Senegal to the king of Segou, in the Sudan.
AFRICA: 1866.
Founding of a Norwegian mission in Madagascar.
AFRICA: 1866-1873.
Last journey of Dr. Livingstone, from the Rovuma River, on the
eastern coast, to Lake Nyassa; thence to Lake Tanganyika, Lake
Moero, Lake Bangweolo, and the Lualaba River, which he
suspected of flowing into the Albert Nyanza, and being the
ultimate fountain head of the Nile. In November, 1871,
Livingstone was found at Ujiji, on Lake Tanganyika, by Henry
M. Stanley, lender of an expedition sent in search of him.
Declining to quit the country with Stanley, and pursuing his
exploration of the Lualaba, Livingstone died May 1, 1873, on
Lake Bangweolo.
AFRICA: 1867.
Mission founded in Madagascar by the Society of Friends.
AFRICA: 1867-1868.
British expedition to Abyssinia for the rescue of captives;
overthrow and death of King Theodore.
AFRICA: 1868.
British annexation of Basutoland in South Africa.
AFRICA: 1869.
Christianity established as the state religion in Madagascar.
AFRICA: 1869.
Fatal expedition of Miss Tinné from Tripoli into the desert,
where she was murdered by her own escort.
AFRICA: 1869-1871.
Explorations of Dr. Schweinfurth between the Bahr-el-Ghazel
and the Upper Congo, discovering the Wellé River.
AFRICA: 1869-1873.
Expedition of Dr. Nachtigal from Tripoli through Kuka,
Tibesti, Borku, Wadai, Darfur, and Kordofan, to the Nile.
AFRICA: 1870-1873.
Official expedition of Sir Samuel Baker, in the service of the
Khedive of Egypt, Ismail Pasha, to annex Gondokoro, then named
Ismalia, and to suppress the slave-trade in the Egyptian
Sudan, or Equatoria.
AFRICA: 1871.
Transfer of the rights of Holland on the Gold Coast to Great
Britain.
AFRICA: 1871.
Annexation of Griqualand West to Cape Colony.
AFRICA: 1871.
Scientific tour of Sir Joseph D. Hooker and Mr. Ball in
Morocco and the Great Atlas.
AFRICA: 1871.
Missionary journey of Mr. Charles New in the Masai country and
ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro.
AFRICA: 1871-1880.
Hunting journeys of Mr. Selous in South Africa, beyond the
Zambesi.
AFRICA: 1872-1875.
Travels of the naturalist, Reinhold Buchholz, on the Guinea
coast.
AFRICA: 1872-1879.
Trave]s of Dr. Holub between the South African diamond fields
and the Zambesi.
AFRICA: 1873-1875.
Expedition of Captain V. L. Cameron, from Zanzibar to Lake
Tanganyika, and exploration of the Lake; thence to Nyangwe on
the Lnalaba, and thence across the continent, through Ulunda,
to the Portuguese settlement at Benguela, on the Atlantic
coast.
{3673}
AFRICA: 1873-1875.
Travels of the naturalist, Frank Oates, from Cape Colony to
the Victoria Falls.
AFRICA: 1873-1876.
Explorations of Güsfeldt, Falkenstein and Pechuel-Loesche,
under the auspices of the German African Association, from the
Loango coast, north of the Congo.
AFRICA: 1874.
British expedition against the Ashantees, destroying their
principal town Coomassie.
AFRICA: 1874.
Mission of Colonel Chaillé-Long from General Gordon, at
Gondokoro, on the Nile, to M'tesé, king of Uganda, discovering
Lake Ibrahim on his return, and completing the work of Speke
and Baker, in the continuous tracing of the course of the Nile
from the Victoria Nyanza.
AFRICA: 1874-1875.
Expedition of Colonel C. Chaillé-Long to Lake Victoria Nyanza
and the Makraka Niam-Niam country, in the Egyptian service.
AFRICA: 1874-1876.
First administration of General Gordon, commissioned by the
Khedive as Governor of Equatoria.
AFRICA: 1874-1876.
Occupation and exploration of Darfur and Kordofan by the
Egyptians, under Colonels Purdy, Mason, Prout and Colston.
AFRICA: 1874-1877.
Expedition of Henry M. Stanley, fitted out by the proprietors
of the New York Herald and the London Daily Telegraph, which
crossed the continent from Zanzibar to the mouth of the Congo
River; making a prolonged stay in the empire of Uganda and
acquiring much knowledge of it; circumnavigating Lakes
Victoria and Tanganyika, and exploring the then mysterious
great Congo River throughout its length.
AFRICA: 1874-1877.
Explorations of Dr. Junker in Upper Nubia and in the basin of
the Bahr-el-Ghazel.
AFRICA: 1875.
Expedition of Dr. Pogge, for the German African Association,
from the west coast, south of the Congo, in the Congo basin,
penetrating to Kawende, beyond the Ruru or Lulua River,
capital of the Muata Yanvo, who rules a kingdom as large as
Germany.
AFRICA: 1875.
Expedition of Colonel Chaillé-Long into the country of the
Makraka Niam-Niams.
AFRICA: 1875.
Founding by Scottish subscribers of the mission station called
Livingstonia, at Cape Maclear, on the southern shores of Lake
Nyassa; headquarters of the mission removed in 1881 to
Bandawé, on the same lake.
AFRICA: 1875.
Mission founded at Blantyre, in the highlands above the Shiré,
by the Established Church of Scotland.
AFRICA: 1875-1876.
Seizure of Berbera and the region of the Juba River, on the
Somali Coast, by Colonel Chaillé-Long, for the Khedive of
Egypt, and their speedy evacuation, on the remonstrance of
England.
AFRICA: 1876.
Conference at Brussels and formation of the International
African Association, under the presidency of the king of the
Belgians, for the exploration and civilization of Africa.
AFRICA: 1876.
Voyage of Romolo Gessi around Lake Albert Nyanza.
AFRICA: 1876.
Mission in Uganda established by the Church Missionary Society
of England.
AFRICA: 1876-1878.
Scientific explorations of Dr. Schweinfurth in the Arabian
Desert between the Nile and the Red Sea.
AFRICA: 1876-1880.
Explorations and French annexations by Svorgnan de Brazza
between the Ogowé and the Congo.
AFRICA: 1877.
The Livingstone Inland Mission, for Christian work in the
Congo valley, established by the East London Institute for
Home and Foreign Missions.
AFRICA: 1877-1879.
Second administration of General Gordon, as Governor-General
of the Sudan, Darfur and the Equatorial Provinces.
AFRICA: 1877-1879.
War of the British in South Africa with the Zulus, and
practical subjugation of that nation.
AFRICA: 1877-1879.
Journey of Serpa Pinto across the continent from Benguela via
the Zambesi.
AFRICA: 1877-1880.
Explorations of the Portuguese officers, Capello and Ivens, in
western and central Africa, from Benguela to the territory of
Yacca, for the survey of the river Cuango in its relations to
the hydrographic basins of the Congo and the Zambesi.
AFRICA: 1878.
Founding in Glasgow of the African Lakes Company, or "The
Livingstone Central Africa Company," for trade on Lakes Nyassa
and Tanganyika; by which company the "Stevenson Road" was
subsequently built between the two lakes above named.
AFRICA: 1878.
Walfish Bay and fifteen miles around it (on the western coast,
in Namaqualand) declared British territory.
AFRICA: 1878.
Journey of Paul Soleillet from Saint-Louis to Segou.
AFRICA: 1878-1880.
Royal Geographical Society's East Central African expedition,
under Joseph Thomson, to the Central African lakes,
Tanganyika, Nyassa and Leopold, from Zanzibar.
AFRICA: 1879.
Establishment, by the Belgian International Society, of a
station at Karema, on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika.
AFRICA: 1879.
Formation of the International Congo Association and the
engagement of Mr. Stanley in its service.
AFRICA: 1879.
Missionary expeditions to the Upper Congo region by the
Livingstone Inland Mission and the Baptist Missionary Society.
AFRICA: 1879.
Journey of Mr. Stewart, of the Livingstonia Mission, on Lake
Nyassa, from that lake to Lake Tanganyika.
AFRICA: 1879.
Discovery of the sources of the Niger, in the hills about 200
miles east of Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, by the
French explorers, Zweifel and Moustier.
AFRICA: 1879-1880.
Journey of Dr. Oskar Lenz, under the auspices of the German
African Society, from Morocco to Timbuctoo, and thence to the
Atlantic coast in Senegambia. The fact that the Sahara is
generally above the sea-level, and cannot therefore be
flooded, was determined by Dr. Lenz.
AFRICA: 1879-1881.
Expedition of Dr. Buchner from Loanda to Kawende and the
kingdom of the Muata Yanvo, where six months were spent in
vain efforts to procure permission to proceed further into the
interior.
AFRICA: 1880.
Mission established by the American Board of Foreign Missions
in "the region of Bihé and the Coanza," or Quanza, south of
the Congo.
AFRICA: 1880-1881.
War of the British with the Boers of the Transvaal.
AFRICA: 1880-1881.
Official mission of the German explorer, Gerhard Rohlfs,
accompanied by Dr. Stecker, to Abyssinia.
{3674}
AFRICA: 1880-1884.
Campaigns of Colonel Borgnis-Desbordes in Upper Senegal,
capturing Bamakou and extending French supremacy to the Niger.
AFRICA: 1880-1884.
German East African Expedition, under Kaiser, Böhm, and
Reichard, to explore, in the Congo Basin, the region between
the Lualaba and the Luapula.
AFRICA: 1880-1886.
Explorations of Dr. Junker in the country of the Niam-Niam,
seeking to determine the course and the outlet of the great
river Wellé, and his journey from the Equatorial Province held
by Emin Pasha against the Mahdl, through Unyoro and Uganda, to
Zanzibar.
AFRICA: 1880-1889.
Journey of Captain Casati, as correspondent of the Italian
geographical review, "L' Exploratore," from Suakin, on the Red
Sea, into the district of the Mombuttu, west of Lake Albert,
and the country of the Niam-Niam; in which travels he was
arrested by the revolt of the Mahdi and forced to remain with
Emin Pasha until rescued with the latter by Stanley, in 1889.
AFRICA: 1881.
French Protectorate extended over Tunis.
AFRICA: 1881.
Portuguese expedition of Captain Andrada from Senna on the
Zambesi River to the old gold mines of Manica.
AFRICA: 1881.
Journey of F. L. and W. D. James from Suakin, on the Red Sea,
through the Base country, in the Egyptian Sudan.
AFRICA: 1881.
Founding of a mission on the Congo, at Stanley Pool, by the
Baptist Missionary Society of England.
AFRICA: 1881-1884.
Expedition of Dr. Pogge and Lieutenant Wissmann to Nyangwe on
the Lualaba, from which point Lieutenant Wissmann pursued the
journey to Zanzibar, crossing the continent, while Dr. Pogge,
returning, died soon after his arrival at St. Paul de Loanda.
AFRICA: 1881-1885.
Revolt of the Mahdl in the Sudan; the mission of General
Gordon to Khartoum to effect the evacuation of the country;
his beleaguerment there by the Mahdists; the unsuccessful
expedition from England to rescue him; the fall of the city
and his death.
AFRICA: 1881-1887.
French protectorate established over territory on the Upper
Niger and Upper Senegal.
AFRICA: 1882.
Italian occupation of Abyssinian territory on the Bay of
Assab.
AFRICA: 1882.
Formation in England of the National African Company for the
development of trade in the region of the Niger.
AFRICA: 1882.
Missionary visit to the Masal people by Mr. J. T. Last.
AFRICA: 1882-1883.
German scientific expedition, under Dr. Böhm and Herr
Reichard, to Lakes Tanganyika and Moero.
AFRICA: 1882-1883.
Journey of Mr. H. H. Johnston on the Congo.
AFRICA: 1882-1885.
Mr. Stutfield's travels through Morocco.
AFRICA: 1883.
German acquisition of territory on Angra Pequeña Bay, in Great
Namaqualand.
AFRICA: 1883.
Exploration of Masailand by Dr. Fischer, under the auspices of
the Hamburg Geographical Society.
AFRICA: 1883.
Explorations of Lieutenant Giraud in East Central Africa,
descending for some distance the Luapula, which flows out of
Lake Bangweolo, but driven back by hostile natives.
AFRICA: 1883.
Geological and botanical investigation of the basins of Lakes
Nyassa and Tanganyika, by Mr. Henry Drummond, for the African
Lakes Company.
AFRICA: 1883.
Journey of Mr. O'Neill to Lake Shirwa and the sources of the
Lujenda.
AFRICA: 1883.
Journey of Mr. Révoil in the South Somali country to the Upper
Jub.
AFRICA: 1883-1884.
Explorations of Mr. Joseph Thomson from Mombassa, through
Masailand, to the northeast corner of the Victoria Nyanza,
under the auspices of the Royal Geographical Society.
AFRICA: 1883-1885.
War of the French with the Hovas of Madagascar, resulting in
the establishment of a French Protectorate over the island.
AFRICA: 1883-1885.
Exploration of Lieutenant Giraud in the lake region—Lake
Nyassa to Lake Bangweolo, Lake Moero and Lake Tanganyika.
AFRICA: 1883-1886.
Austrian expedition, under Dr. Holub, from Cape Colony,
through the Boer states, Bechuanaland and Matabeleland to the
Zambesi, and beyond, to the borders of the Mashukulumbe
territory, where the party was attacked, plundered, and driven
back.
AFRICA: 1884.
Annexation by Germany of the whole western coast (except
Walfish Bay) between the Portuguese Possessions and those of
the British in South Africa.
AFRICA: 1884.
German occupation of territory on the Cameroons River, under
treaties with the native chiefs. English treaties securing
contiguous territory to and including the delta of the Niger.
AFRICA: 1884.
German Protectorate over Togoland on the Gold Coast declared.
AFRICA: 1884.
Expedition of Dr. Peters, representing the Society of German
Colonization, to the coast region of Zanzibar, and his
negotiation of treaties with ten native chiefs, ceding the
sovereignty of their dominions.
AFRICA: 1884.
Crown colony of British Bechuanaland acquired by convention
with the South African Republic.
AFRICA: 1884.
Portuguese Government expedition, under Major Carvalho, from
Loanda to the Central African potentate called the Muata
Yanvo.
AFRICA: 1884.
Exploration of the Benué and the whole region of the Adamawa,
by Herr Flegel, for the German African Society.
AFRICA: 1884.
Scientific expedition of Mr. H. H. Johnston to Kilimanjaro
mountain, sent by the British Association for the Advancement
of Science and the Royal Society.
AFRICA: 1884.
Discovery of the M'bangi or Ubangi River (afterwards
identified with the Wellé—see below, 1887), by Captain Hansens
and Lieutenant Van Gèle.
AFRICA: 1884.
Exploration of Reichard in the southeastern part of the Congo
State.
AFRICA: 1884-1885.
The Berlin Conference of Powers, held to determine the limits
of territory conceded to the International Congo Association;
to establish freedom of trade within that territory, and to
formulate rules for regulating in future the acquisition of
African territory.
AFRICA: 1884-1885.
Journey of Mr. Walter M. Kerr from Cape Colony, across the
Zambesi, to Lake Nyassa, and down the Shiré River to the
coast.
AFRICA: 1884-1885.
Travels of Mr. F. L. James and party in the Somali country.
AFRICA: 1884-1887.
Exploration by Dr. Schinz of the newly acquired German
territories in southwest Africa.
AFRICA: 1885.
Transfer of the rights of the Society of German Colonization
to the German East Africa Company, and extension of imperial
protection to the territories claimed by the Company. German
acquisition of Witu, north of Zanzibar.
{3675}
AFRICA: 1885.
Agreement between Germany and France, defining their
respective spheres of influence on the Bight or Biafra, on the
slave coast and in Senegambia.
AFRICA: 1885.
Transformation of the Congo Association into the Independent
State of the Congo, with King Leopold of Belgium as its
sovereign.
AFRICA: 1885.
British Protectorate extended to the Zambesi, over the country
west of the Portuguese province of Sofala, to the 20th degree
of east longitude.
AFRICA: 1885.
British Protectorate extended over the remainder of
Bechuanaland.
AFRICA: 1885.
Italian occupation of Massowa, on the Red Sea.
AFRICA: 1885.
Mission of Mr. Joseph Thomson, for the National African
Company, up the Niger, to Sokoto and Gando, securing treaties
with the sultans under which the company acquired paramount
rights.
AFRICA: 1885-1888.
Mission of M. Borelli to the kingdom of Shoa (Southern
Ethiopia) and south of it.
AFRICA: 1885-1889.
When, after the fall of Khartoum and the death of General
Gordon, in 1885, the Sudan was abandoned to the Mahdi and the
fanatical Mohammedans of the interior, Dr. Edward Schnitzer,
better known as Emin Pasha, who had been in command, under
Gordon, of the province of the Equator, extending up to Lake
Albert, was cut off for six years from communication with the
civilized world. In 1887 an expedition to rescue him and his
command was sent out under Henry M. Stanley. It entered the
continent from the west, made its way up the Congo and the
Aruwimi to Yambuya; thence through the unexplored region to
Lake Albert Nyanza and into communication with Emin Pasha;
then returning to Yambuya for the rearguard which had been
left there; again traversing the savage land to Lake Albert,
and passing from there, with Emin and his companions, by way
of Lake Albert Edward Nyanza (then ascertained to be the
ultimate reservoir of the Nile system) around the southern
extremity of the Victoria Nyanza, to Zanzibar, which was
reached at the end of 1889.
AFRICA: 1886.
Settlement between Great Britain and Germany of the coast
territory to be left under the sovereignty of the Sultan of
Zanzibar, and of the "spheres of influence" to be appropriated
respectively by themselves, between the lakes and the eastern
coast, north of the Portuguese possessions.
AFRICA: 1886.
Agreement between France and Portugal defining limits of
territory in Senegambia and at the mouth of the Congo.
AFRICA: 1886.
Transformation of the National African Company into the
British Royal Niger Company, with a charter giving powers of
administration over a large domain on the River Niger.
AFRICA: 1886.
Mission station founded by Mr. Arnot at Bunkeya, in the
southeastern part of the Congo State.
AFRICA: 1886-1887.
Journey of Lieutenant Wissmann across the continent, from
Luluaburg, a station of the Congo Association, in the dominion
of Muata Yanvo, to Nyangwe, on the Lualaba, and thence to
Zanzibar.
AFRICA: 1886-1889.
Expeditions of Dr. Zintgraff in the Cameroons interior and to
the Benue, for the bringing of the country under German
influence.
AFRICA: 1887.
Annexation of Zululand, partly to the Transvaal, or South
African Republic, and the remainder to the British
possessions.
AFRICA: 1887.
French gunboats launched on the Upper Niger, making a
reconnoissance nearly to Timbuctoo.
AFRICA: 1887.
Identity of the Wellé River with the M'bangi or Ubangi
established by Captain Van Gèle and Lieutenant Liénart.
AFRICA: 1887.
First ascent of Kilimanjaro by Dr. Hans Meyer.
AFRICA: 1887-1889.
Exploration by Captain Ringer of the region between the great
bend of the Niger and the countries of the Gold Coast.
AFRICA: 1887-1890.
Expedition of Count Teleki through Masailand, having for its
most important result the discovery of the Basso-Narok, or
Black Lake, to which the discoverer gave the name of Lake
Rudolf, and Lake Stefanie.
AFRICA: 1888.
Chartering of the Imperial British East Africa Company, under
concessions granted by the sultan of Zanzibar and by native
chiefs, with powers of administration over a region defined
ultimately as extending from the river Umba northward to the
river Jub, and inland to and across Lake Victoria near its
middle to the eastern boundary of the Congo Free State.
AFRICA: 1888.
British supremacy over Matabeleland secured by treaty with its
King Lobengula.
AFRICA: 1888.
British Protectorate extended over Amatongaland.
AFRICA: 1888.
Ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro by Mr. Ehlers and Dr. Abbott; also
by Dr. Hans Meyer.
AFRICA: 1888.
Travels of Joseph Thomson in the Atlas and southern Morocco.
AFRICA: 1889.
Royal charter granted to the British South Africa Company,
with rights and powers in the region called Zambesia north of
British Bechuanaland and the South African Republic, and
between the Portuguese territory on the east and the German
territory on the west.
AFRICA: 1889.
Will of King Leopold, making Belgium heir to the sovereign
rights of the Congo Free State.
AFRICA: 1889.
Protectorate of Italy over Abyssinia acknowledged by the
Negus.
AFRICA: 1889.
Portuguese Roman Catholic Mission established on the south
shore of Lake Nyassa. Portuguese exploration under Serpa Pinto
in the Lake Nyassa region, with designs of occupancy
frustrated by the British.
AFRICA: 1889.
Journey of M. Crampel from the Ogowé to the Likuala tributary
of the Congo, and return directly westward to the coast.
AFRICA: 1889.
Dr. Wolf's exploration of the southeast Niger basin, where be
met his death.
AFRICA: 1889.
Major Macdonald's exploration of the Benue, sometimes called
the Tchadda (a branch of the Niger), and of its tributary the
Kebbi.
AFRICA: 1889.
Journey of Mr. H. H. Johnston north of Lake Nyassa and to Lake
Leopold.
AFRICA: 1889.
Journey of Mr. Sharpe through the country lying between the
Shiré and Loangwa Rivers.
AFRICA: 1889.
Mr. Pigott's journey to the Upper Tana, in the service of the
Imperial British East Africa Company.
AFRICA: 1889-1890.
British Protectorate declared over Nyassaland and the Shiré
Highlands.
{3676}
AFRICA: 1889-1890.
Italian Protectorate established over territory on the eastern
(oceanic) Somali coast, from the Gulf of Aden to the Jub
River.
AFRICA: 1889-1890.
Imperial British East Africa Company's expedition, under
Jackson and Gedge, for the exploring of a new road to the
Victoria Nyanza and Uganda.
AFRICA: 1889-1890.
Captain Lugard's exploration of the river Sabakhi for the
Imperial British East Africa Company.
AFRICA: 1889-1890.
Journey of Lieutenant Morgen from the Cameroons, on the
western coast to the Benue.
AFRICA: 1889-1890.
French explorations in Madagascar by Dr. Catat and MM. Maistre
and Foucart.
AFRICA: 1890.
Anglo-German Convention, defining boundaries of the
territories and "spheres of influence" respectively claimed by
the two powers; Germany withdrawing from Vitu, and from all
the eastern mainland coast north of the river Tana, and
conceding a British Protectorate over Zanzibar, in exchange
for the island of Heligoland in the North Sea.
AFRICA: 1890.
French "sphere of influence" extending over the Sahara and the
Sudan, from Algeria to Lake Tchad and to Say on the Niger,
recognized by Great Britain.
AFRICA: 1890.
Exploration of the river Sangha, an important northern
tributary of the Congo, by M. Cholet.
AFRICA: 1890.
Exploring journey of M. Hodister, agent of the Upper Congo
Company, up the Lomami river and across country to the
Lualaba, at Nyangwe.
AFRICA: 1890.
Journey of Mr. Garrett in the interior of Sierra Leone to the
upper waters of the Niger.
AFRICA: 1890.
Journey of Dr. Fleck from the western coast across the
Kalihari to Lake Ngami.
AFRICA: 1890-1891.
Italian possessions in the Red Sea united in the colony of
Eritrea.
AFRICA: 1890-1891.
Mission of Captain Lugard to Uganda and signature of a treaty
by its king acknowledging the supremacy of the British East
Africa Company.
AFRICA: 1890-1891.
Exploration by M. Paul Crampel of the central region between
the French territories on the Congo and Lake Tchad, ending in
the murder of M. Crampel and several of his companions.
AFRICA: 1890-1891.
Journey of Mr. Sharpe from Mandala, in the Shiré Highlands, to
Garenganze, the empire founded by an African adventurer,
Mshidi, in the Katanga copper country, between Lake Moero and
the Luapula river on the east, and the Lualaba on the west.
AFRICA: 1890-1891.
Journey of Lieutenant Mizon from the Niger to the Congo.
AFRICA: 1890-1891.
Journey of Captain Becker from Yambuya, on the Aruwimi,
north-northwest to the Wellé.
AFRICA: 1890-1892.
Italian explorations in the Somali countries by Signor
Robecchi, Lieutenant Baudi di Vesme, Prince Ruspoli, and
Captains Bottego and Grixoni.
AFRICA: 1890-1893.
Expedition of Dr. Stuhlmann, with Emin Pasha, from Bagamoyo,
via the Victoria Nyanza and the Albert Edward, to the plateau
west of the Albert Nyanza. From this point Dr. Stuhlmann
returned, while Emin pursued his way, intending it is said, to
reach Kibonge, on the right bank of the Congo, south of
Stanley Falls. He was murdered at Kinena, 150 miles northeast
of Kibonge, by the order of an Arab chief.
AFRICA: 1891.
Extension of the British Protectorate of Lagos over the
neighboring districts of Addo, Igbessa, and Ilaro, which form
the western boundary of Yoruba.
AFRICA: 1891.
Treaty between Great Britain and Portugal defining their
possessions; conceding to the former an interior extension of
her South African dominion up to the southern boundary of the
Congo Free State, and securing to the latter defined
territories on the Lower Zambesi, the Lower Shiré, and the
Nyassa, as well as the large block of her possessions on the
western coast.
AFRICA: 1891.
Convention between Portugal and the Congo Free State for the
division of the disputed district of Lunda.
AFRICA: 1891.
Convention of the Congo Free State with the Katanga Company,
an international syndicate, giving the Company preferential
rights over reputed mines in Katanga and Urua, with a third of
the public domain, provided it established an effective
occupation within three years.
AFRICA: 1891.
French annexation of the Gold Coast between Liberia and the
Grand Bassam.
AFRICA: 1891.
Opening of the Royal Trans-African Railway, in West Africa,
from Loanda to Ambaca, 140 miles.
AFRICA: 1891.
Survey of a railway route from the eastern coast to Victoria
Lake by the Imperial British East Africa Company.
AFRICA: 1891.
Exploration of the Jub River, in the Somali country, by
Commander Dundas.
AFRICA: 1891.
Exploration by Captain Dundas, from the eastern coast, up the
river Tana to Mount Kenia.
AFRICA: 1891.
Mr. Bent's exploration of the ruined cities of Mashonaland.
AFRICA: 1891.
Journey of M. Maistre from the Congo to the Shari.
AFRICA: 1891.
Journeys of Captain Gallwey in the Benin country, West Africa.
AFRICA: 1891.
Mission established by the Berlin Missionary Society in the
Konde country, at the northern end of Lake Nyassa.
AFRICA: 1891-1892.
Incorporation of the African Lakes Company with the British
South Africa Company. Organization of the administration of
Northern Zambesia and Nyassaland.
AFRICA: 1891-1892.
Expedition of the Katanga Company, under Captain Stairs, from
Bagamoyo to Lake Tanganyika, thence through the country at the
head of the most southern affluents of the Congo, the Lualaba
and the Luapula.
AFRICA: 1891-1892.
Belgian expeditions under Captain Bia and others to explore
the southeastern portion of the Congo Basin, on behalf of the
Katanga Company, resulting in the determination of the fact
that the Lukuga River is an outlet of Lake Tanganyika.
AFRICA: 1891-1892.
Journey of Dr. James Johnston across the continent, from
Benguela to the mouth of the Zambesi, through Bihe, Ganguela,
Barotse, the Kalihari Desert, Mashonaland, Manica, Gorongoza,
Nyassa, and the Shiré Highlands.
AFRICA: 1891-1892.
Expedition of Mr. Joseph Thomson, for the British South Africa
Company, from Kilimane or Quillimane on the eastern coast to
Lake Bangweolo.
{3677}
AFRICA: 1891-1892.
Journey of Captain Monteil from the Niger to Lake Tchad and
across the Sahara to Tripoli.
AFRICA: 1891-1892.
Exploration by Lieutenant Chaltin of the river Lulu, and the
country between the Aruwimi and the Welle Makua rivers, in the
Congo State.
AFRICA: 1891-1893.
Journey of Dr. Oscar Baumann from Tanga, a port on the eastern
coast, in the northern part of the German Protectorate;
passing to the south of Kilimanjaro, discovering two lakes
between that mountain and the Victoria Nyanza; exploring the
southeastern shores of the Victoria, traversing the Shashi
countries lying east of the lake, and the Urundi country
between the Victoria and Tanganyika.
AFRICA: 1891-1894.
Expedition under the command of Captain Van Kerckhoven and M.
de la Kéthulle de Ryhove, fitted out by the Congo Free State,
for the subjugation of the Arabs, the suppression of the slave
trade and the exploration of the country, throughout the
region of the Wellé or Ubangi Uellé and to the Nile.
AFRICA: 1892.
Decision of the Imperial British East Africa Company to
withdraw from Uganda.
AFRICA: 1892.
Practical conquest of Dahomey by the French, General Dodds
taking possession of the capital November 16.
AFRICA: 1892.
Journey of M. Méry in the Sahara to the south of Wargla,
resulting in a report favorable to the construction of a
railway to tap the Central Sudan.
AFRICA: 1892.
French expedition under Captain Binger to explore the southern
Sudan and to act conjointly with British officials in
determining the boundary between French and English
possessions.
AFRICA: 1892.
Journey of Mr. Sharpe from the Shiré River to Lake Moero or
Mweru and the Upper Luapula.
AFRICA: 1892-1893.
Construction of a line of telegraph by the British South
African Company, from Cape Colony, through Mashonaland, to
Fort Salisbury, with projected extension across the Zambesi
and by the side of Lakes Nyassa and Tanganyika to Uganda,—and
ultimately down the valley of the Nile.
AFRICA: 1892-1893.
French scientific mission, under M. Dècle, from Cape Town to
the sources of the Nile.
AFRICA: 1892-1893.
Italian explorations, under Captain Bòttego and Prince
Ruspoli, in the upper basin of the River Jub.
AFRICA: 1893.
Brussels Antislavery Conference, ratified in its action by the
Powers.
AFRICA: 1893.
Official mission of Sir Gerald Porter to Uganda, sent by the
British Government to report as to the expediency of the
withdrawal of British authority from that country.
AFRICA: 1893.
Scientific expedition of Mr. Scott-Elliot to Uganda.
AFRICA: 1893.
Scientific expedition of Dr. Gregory, of the British Museum,
from Mombassa, on the eastern coast, through Masailand to
Mount Kenia.
AFRICA: 1893.
Journey of Mr. Bent to Aksum, in Abyssinia, the ancient
capital and sacred city of the Ethiopians.
AFRICA: 1893.
Journey of M. Foureau in the Sahara, crossing the plateau of
Tademait from north to south.
AFRICA: 1893-1894.
German scientific survey of Mount Kilimanjaro, under Drs. Lent
and Volkens.
AFRICA: 1893-1894.
Expedition of Mr. Astor Chanler and Lieutenant von Höhnel from
Witu, on the eastern coast, to the Jombini Range and among the
Rendile.
AFRICA: 1893-1894.
Explorations of Baron von Uechtritz and Dr. Passarge on the
Benue.
AFRICA: 1893-1894.
Journey of Baron von Schele from the eastern coast to Lake
Nyassa, and thence by a direct route to Kihsa.
AFRICA: 1893-1894.
Journey of Count von Götzen across the continent, from
Dar-es-Salaam, on the eastern coast, to the Lower Congo.
AFRICA: 1894.
Treaty between Great Britain and the Congo Free State,
securing to the former a strip of land on the west side of the
Nile between the Albert Nyanza and 10° north latitude, and to
the latter the large Bahr-el-Ghazel region, westward. This
convention gave offense to France, and that country
immediately exacted from the Congo Free State a treaty
stipulating that the latter shall not occupy or exercise
political influence in a region which covers most of the
territory assigned to it by the treaty with Great Britain.
AFRICA: 1894.
Franco-German Treaty, determining the boundary line of the
Cameroons, or Kamerun.
AFRICA: 1894.
Treaty concluded by Captain Lugard, November 10, at Nikki, in
Borgu, confirming the rights claimed by the Royal Niger
Company over Borgu, and placing that country under British
protection.
AFRICA: 1894.
Agreement between the British South Africa Company and the
Government of Great Britain, signed November 24, 1894,
transferring to the direct administration of the Company the
Protectorate of Nyassaland, thereby extending its domain to
the south end of Lake Tanganyika.
AFRICA: 1894.
Renewed war of France with the Hovas of Madagascar.
AFRICA: 1894.
Expedition of Dr. Donaldson Smith from the Somali coast,
aiming to reach Lakes Rudolf and Stefanie, but stopped and
turned back by the Abyssinians, in December.
AFRICA: 1894.
Visit of Mr. Cecil Rhodes to England to arrange financially
for the extension of the Cape railway system northwards from
Mafeking into Matabeleland.
AFRICA: 1894.
Completed conquest of Dahomey by the French; capture of the
deposed king, January 25, and his deportation to exile in
Martinique. Decree of the French Government, June 22,
directing the administrative organization of the "colony of
Dahomey and Dependencies"; with a ministerial order of the
same date which divides the new conquest into "Territoirés
annexés; Territoirés protégés; Territoirés d'action
politique."
AFRICA: 1894.
Occupation of Timbuctoo by a French force.
AFRICA: 1894.
Journey of Count von Götzen across the continent, from the
eastern coast, through Ruanda and the Great Forest to and
along the Lowa, an eastern tributary of the Congo, reaching
the Lower Congo in December.
AFRICA: 1894.
Exploration of the Upper Congo and the Lukuga by Mr. R. Dorsey
Mohun, American Agent on the Congo, and Dr. Hinde.
AFRICA: 1894.
Scientific to the Zambesi and Lake Tanganyika.
AFRICA: 1894-1895.
War of the Italians in their colony of Eritrea with both the
Abyssinians and the Mahdists. Italian occupation of Kassala as
a base of operations against the Mahdists.
{3678}
AFRICA: 1895.
Franco-British agreement, signed January 21, 1895, respecting
the "Hinterland" of Sierra Leone, which secures to France the
Upper Niger basin.
AFRICA: 1895.
Convention between Belgium and France signed February 5,
recognizing a right of pre-emption on the part of the latter,
with regard to the Congo State, in case Belgium should at any
time renounce the sovereignty which King Leopold desires to
transfer to it.
AFRICA: 1895.
Russian scientific expedition to Abyssinia, under Lieutenant
Leontieff.
----------AFRICA: End--------
AKKADIANS,
ACCADIANS.
See SEMITES: PRIMITIVE BABYLONIA (page 2888).
ALEXANDRIA:
Early Christian Church.
See CHRISTIANITY: A. D. 33-100,
and 100-312 (pages 43 and 445).
ALEXANDRIA:
Library.
See LIBRARIES, ANCIENT (page 2003).
AMANA COMMUNITY, The.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1843-1874 (page 2945).
----------AMERICA: Start--------
AMERICA:
The discoverers of the Northern Continent.
Mr. Harrisse's conclusions.
"The main points attained in this elaborate survey of all the
facts and documents known can be recapitulated as
follows,—perhaps with less assurance than a desire to be
succinct may undesignedly impart to our expressions:
1. The discovery of the continent of North America, and the
first landing on its east coast were accomplished not by
Sebastian Cabot, but by his father John, in 1497, under the
auspices of King Henry VII.
2. The first landfall was not Cape Breton Island, as is stated
in the planisphere made by Sebastian Cabot in 1544, but eight
or ten degrees further north, on the coast of Labrador; which
was then ranged by John Cabot, probably as far as Cape
Chudley.
3. This fact was tacitly acknowledged by all pilots and
cosmographers throughout the first half of the 16th century;
and the knowledge of it originated with Sebastian Cabot
himself, whatever may have been afterwards his contrary
statements in that respect.
4. The voyage of 1498, also accomplished under the British
flag, was likewise carried out by John Cabot personally. The
landfall on that occasion must be placed south of the first;
and the exploration embraced the northeast coast of the
present United States, as far as Florida.
5. In the vicinity of the Floridian east coast, John Cabot, or
one of his lieutenants, was detected by some Spanish vessel,
in 1498 or 1499.
6. The English continued in 1501, 1502, 1504, and afterwards,
to send ships to Newfound·land, chiefly for the purpose of
fisheries. …
7. The Portuguese mariners who lived in the Azores were the
first who probed the Atlantic in search of oceanic islands and
continents. Their objective, after the discovery achieved by
Christopher Columbus, was the north-east coast of the New
World.
8. The earliest authentic records of Lusitanian transatlantic
expeditions begin only with Gaspar Corte-Real, who made three,
and not two voyages only; all to the same regions, as follows:
The first voyage of that navigator was undertaken previous to
May, 1500, in the direction of Greenland and Newfoundland, and
proved an absolute failure. The second voyage lasted from the
early part of the summer of 1500 until the autumn of that
year, and embraced the east coast of Newfoundland, from its
northernmost point down to Cape Race. The third expedition set
out from Lisbon early In the spring of 1501. It was composed
of three vessels. One of these returned to port On the 8th or
9th of October, the second on the 11th following. As to the
third, which was under the Immediate command of Gaspar
Corte-Real, it was ice-bound or shipwrecked, we do not know
when nor where, but probably in Hudson Bay, during the winter
of 1501-1502. The country visited during the first part of the
expedition seems to have been the northern extremity of
Newfoundland and the coast of Labrador.
9. The expedition of Miguel Corte-Real in search of his
brother, sailed May 10, 1502, and was also lost. …
10. Portugal continued to send ships to the fishing banks; and
the region south of Newfoundland was explored, particularly by
João Alvares Fagundes before 1521. …
11. The assertion that already in the time of Christopher
Columbus navigators and geographers believed in the existence
of a continent interposed between the West Indies and Asia,
and which was not Cathay, stands uncontroverted either by
contemporary authorities, or by the early Spanish charts. Nay,
it is corroborated by that class of proofs.
12. The absolute insularity of Cuba was an acknowledged fact
years before the periplus made by Sebastian de Ocampo, in
1508.
13. The mainland of the New World was believed to be a
continent distinct from Cathay and from India the moment
navigators commenced to search after a strait leading from the
Atlantic Ocean to the Asiatic seas.
14. The idea that America was a mere prolongation of Asia
ceased therefore to be entertained almost immediately after
the discovery of its east coast; by John Cabot in 1497; by
Americus Vespuccius, before 1501; by Gaspar Corte-Real, before
1502.
15. Christopher Columbus himself soon ceased to think that he
had discovered Cathay, or the Asiatic coast.
16. So early as October, 1501, the notion prevailed in Europe
that from Circulus articus to Pollus Antarticus, the newly
discovered land formed a single coast line belonging to a
separate continent."
_H. Harrisse,
Discovery of North America,
part 1, book 8, chapter 5._
AMERICA:
The alleged first voyage of Vespucius.
In the first volume of this work (page 52) the argument in
support of the disputed claim for Amerigo Vespucci, or
Vespucius, that he made a voyage in 1497-8 during which he
coasted the American continent from Honduras to Cape Hatteras,
is given in an excerpt from Dr. Fiske's "Discovery of
America." The following, from a paper by Mr. Clements R.
Markham, read before the Royal Geographical Society in June,
1892, presents, in part, the counter argument: "Vespucci's
account of his alleged first voyage is briefly as follows. He
says that he went to Spain to engage in mercantile pursuits,
but that after some years he resolved to see the world and its
marvels. King Ferdinand having ordered four ships to go forth
and make discoveries to the westward, Vespucci was chosen by
His Highness to go in the fleet, to assist in the work of
discovery. They sailed from Cadiz on May 10th, 1497, and
reached Grand Canary, which, he says, is in 27° 30' North, and
280 leagues from Lisbon.
{3679}
There they remained eight days, and then sailed for
thirty-seven (twenty-seven, Latin version) days on a W. S. W.
course ('Ponente pigliando una quarta di libeccio'), reaching
land when they were nearly 1,000 leagues from Grand Canary.
For they found, by their instruments, that they were in 16°
North latitude and 75° West longitude. Vespucci then gives a
long account of the natives. After some days they came to a
village built over the water, like Venice, about forty-four
houses resting on very thick poles. Sailing along the land for
80 leagues, they came to another people, speaking a different
language, where Vespucci saw an iguana being roasted, which he
describes. He made an excursion inland for 18 leagues, and
found the country very populous. This place was on the Tropic
of Cancer, where the latitude is 23° North. The province is
called 'Parias' (Latin version), 'Lariab' (Italian version).
Thence they sailed, always in sight of the land, on a
Northwest course ('verso el maestrale') for 870 leagues,
having intercourse with many tribes, and finding some gold.
When they had been absent thirteen months the ships begun to
leak, and required caulking, so they entered the best harbour
in the world, where there were many friendly people. Here they
refitted, and remained for thirty-seven days. They then sailed
eastward for seven days, and carne to some islands 100 leagues
off the mainland, inhabited by fierce people called 'Iti.'
They had encounters with the natives, when one of their men
was killed and twenty-two were wounded. They then sailed for
Spain with 222 slaves, arriving at Cadiz on October 15th,
1498, where they sold their slaves, and were well received.
This is the story of Vespucci. It has been considered to be a
fabrication from that time to this, for the following reasons.
Vespucci was at Seville or San Lucar, as a provision merchant,
from the middle of April, 1497, to the end of May, 1498, as is
shown by the official records, examined by Muñoz, of expenses
incurred in fitting out the ships for western expeditions.
Moreover, no expedition for discovery was despatched by order
of King Ferdinand in 1497; and there is no allusion to any
such expedition in any contemporary record. The internal
evidence against the truth of the story is even stronger.
Vespucci says that he sailed West South West for nearly 1,000
leagues from Grand Canary. This would have taken him to the
Gulf of Paria, which is rather more than 900 leagues West
South West from Grand Canary. It would never have taken him
near the land at 16° North. Even with a course direct for that
point, instead of a West North West course, and disregarding
intervening land, the distance he gives would leave him 930
miles short of the alleged position. No actual navigator would
have made such a blunder. He evidently quoted the dead
reckoning from Ojeda's voyage, and invented the latitude at
random. It is useless for the defenders of Vespucci to refer
to the faulty reckonings of those days, and to pilots thinking
they were near the Canaries when they were off the Azores.
This is a different matter. It is the case of a man alleging
that he has fixed his position by observations, and giving a
dead reckoning nearly a thousand miles out, in the belief that
it would bring him to the same point. It is fudging, but the
fudging of a man ignorant of a pilot's business. His statement
that he went Northwest for 870 leagues (2,610 miles) from a
position in latitude 23° North, is still more preposterous.
Such a course and distance would have taken him right across
the continent to somewhere in British Columbia. The chief
incidents in the voyage are those of the Ojeda voyage in 1499.
There is the village built on piles called Little Venice.
There is the best harbour in the world, which was the Gulf of
Cariaco, where Ojeda refitted. There was the encounter with
natives, in which one Spaniard was killed and 22 were wounded.
These numbers are convincing evidence. … Vespucci does not
mention the commanders of the expedition, nor any Spanish name
whatever, and only gives two names of places, namely, 'Parias'
or 'Lariab,' and 'Iti,' both imaginary. Humboldt was aware of
the proofs that Vespucci could not have been absent from Spain
in 1497-98, and that the incidents of his alleged first voyage
belonged to that of Ojeda; but he was reluctant to believe in
actual fraud. He therefore suggested that there were misprints
with regard to the dates; that the first voyage of Vespucci
was that of Ojeda; and that the Florentine merchant returned
home from Española in time to join the voyage of Pinzon in
1500, which was the second voyage. But no one was allowed to
land from Ojeda's ships at Española, and the dates are too
detailed, and occur too clearly in both versions, to admit of
the wholesale alterations demanded by this theory. The Baron
Varnhagen, in his defences of Vespucci, published in 1865 at
Lima, and in 1869 at Vienna, takes a bolder course. He adopts
the whole of the statements of Vespucci as perfectly true,
including the dates; but his defence does not amount to much.
He was evidently unaware of the extent of the error in
Vespucci's reckoning, and did not realise the inevitable
inference. He got over the Little Venice difficulty by
suggesting that there were many other villages built on piles,
and that there might have been one on the coast of Tabasco.
That is true. There was also the old Quebec hotel in
Portsmouth Harbour; but this is not the point, and he failed
to see where the difficulty lies. The Little Venice was a
discovery in Ojeda's voyage when Vespucci was present. Its
recurrence here, and its omission in the version of Ojeda's
voyage by Vespucci, are the suspicious points which Varnhagen
fails to explain away. Of the words 'Parias' and 'Lariab' in
the two versions, Varnhagen prefers the latter. It is quite
impossible to tell which form, or whether either, was in the
original manuscript. Although there is no such place as
'Lariab,' yet a Mexican author, named Orozco, said that some
of the names of places near Tampico, where the Huasteca
language is spoken, ended in 'ab.' This is a point, so far as
it goes—which is not very far. Even the voyage of 870 leagues
Northwest from latitude 23°, does not daunt the Baron. He
ignores Vespucci's course, and takes him a marvellous voyage
round the shores of the Gulf of Mexico and the peninsula of
Florida, to Cape Hatteras, where he certainly does not find
the best harbour in the world. Thence Vespucci is taken to
Bermuda, identified as 'Iti,' and so home. It is well known
that Bermuda was uninhabited before its settlement by
Europeans, and that there were no signs of previous
inhabitants; while the 'Iti' of Vespucci was densely peopled
with fierce savages. But this is ignored by Varnhagen.
{3680}
It would certainly have been a most extraordinary voyage, and
it is still more extraordinary, that though the secret must
have been known to many people at the time, it should have
been inviolably kept without any object in such secrecy, and
that the discoveries should have appeared on no map and in no
narrative. Yet Vespucci's story, though a bold flight, bears
no comparison with the grandeur of Varnhagen's conception of
it."
_C. R. Markham,
Fourth Centenary of his Discovery,
note 2 (Royal Geographical Society,
Proceedings, 1892, September)._
AMERICA:
Monetary effects of the discovery of America.
See MONEY AND BANKING: 16-17TH CENTURIES (page 2208).
----------AMERICA: End--------
AMERICAN ABORIGINES:
Iroquois Confederacy.
Hiawatha the founder.
See IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY (page 1802).
AMERICAN COLONIAL TRADE.
See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE, MODERN.
AMERICAN LIBRARIES.
See LIBRARIES, MODERN (page 2017, and after).
AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION.
See LIBRARIES, MODERN (page 2021).
AMHERST COLLEGE, The founding of.
See EDUCATION, MODERN (page 733).
AMPERE'S ELECTRO-MAGNETIC DISCOVERIES.
See ELECTRICAL DISCOVERY AND INVENTION:
A. D. 1820-1825 (page 772).
[Transcriber's note: For a detailed look at electrical
theory of 1892.]
_T. O'Conor Sloane,
The Standard Electrical Dictionary,
www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26535._
AMSTERDAM, The founding of the Bank of.
See MONEY AND BANKING (page 2208).
ANÆSTHETICS, The discovery of.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 19TH CENTURY (page 2143).
ANARCHISM AND NIHILISM.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1839-1894;
and 1860-1870 (pages 2941 and 2948).
ANDORRA.
"The pastoral and picturesque valley of Andorra, a jumble of
hills, enclosed on all sides by the Pyrenean spurs, extends
about 7 L. long by 6 broad, and is bounded by the French and
Spanish ridges, by Puigcerdá to the South and East, by the
Comté de Foix (départ. de l'Ariège) to the North, and by the
Corregimiento of Talaru to the West. Watered by the Balira [or
Valira], Ordino, and Os, it is one of the wildest districts of
the Spanish Pyrenees, abounding in timber, which is floated
down the Balira and Segre to Tortosa. The name Andorra is
derived from the Arabic Aldarra, 'a place thick with trees,'
among which is found the Cabra Montaraz, with bears, boars,
and wolves."
_R. Ford,
Handbook for Travellers in Spain,
part 1, section 6._
"The republic of Andorra is said to owe its existence to a
defeat of the Saracens by Charlemagne or Louis le Débonnaire,
but in reality up to the French Revolution the valley enjoyed
no sovereign rights whatever. It was a barony of the Counts of
Urgel and of Aragon. In 1278 it was decided that Andorra
should be held jointly by the Bishops of Urgel and the Counts
of Foix. In 1793 the French republic declined to receive the
customary tribute, and in 1810 the Spanish Cortes abolished
the feudal regime. Andorra thus became an independent state.
The inhabitants, however, continue to govern themselves in
accordance with old feudal customs, which are not at all
reconcilable with the principles of modern republics. The land
belongs to a few families. There is a law of entail, and
younger brothers become the servants of the head of the
family, whose hospitality they enjoy only on condition of
their working for him. The tithes were only abolished in 1842.
The 'liberty' of these mountaineers consists merely in
exemption from the Spanish conscription and impunity in
smuggling; and, to increase their revenues, they have recently
established a gambling-table. Their legitimate business
consists in cattle-breeding, and there are a few forges and a
woollen factory. The republic of Andorra recognises two
suzerains, viz. the Bishop of Urgel, who receives an annual
tribute of £25, and the French Government, to whom double that
sum is paid. Spain and France are represented by two provosts,
the commandant of Séo de Urgel exercising the functions of
viceroy. The provosts command the militia and appoint the
bailiffs, or judges. They, together with a judge of appeal,
alternately appointed by France and Spain, and two
'rahonadores,' or defenders of Andorran privileges, form the
Cortes. Each parish is governed by a consul, a vice-consul,
and twelve councillors elected by the heads of families. A
General Council, of which the consuls and delegates of the
parishes are members, meets at the village of Andorra. But in
spite of these fictions Andorra is an integral part of Spain,
and the carabineers never hesitate to cross the frontiers of
this sham republic. By language, manners, and customs the
Andorrans are Catalans. Exemption from war has enabled them to
grow comparatively rich."
_E. Reclus,
The Earth and its Inhabitants: Europe, Spain,
section 6._
ANN ARBOR, University at.
See EDUCATION, MODERN (page 732).
ANNAM.
See TONKIN (page 3114).
ANSELM: Dispute with William Rufus.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1087-1135 (page 796).
ANTIOCH, The early Christian Church in.
See CHRISTIANITY: A. D. 33-100 (page 435).
ANTIOCH COLLEGE.
See EDUCATION (page 744).
ANTI-SEMITE MOVEMENT, The.
See JEWS: 19TH CENTURY (page 1931).
APOSTLES, Missionary labors of the.
See CHRISTIANITY: A. D. 33-100 (page 433).
ARABS:
Ancient and Mediæval Commerce.
See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE.
ARABS:
Medical Science.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 7-11TH CENTURIES (page 2129).
----------ARCTIC EXPLORATION: Start--------
ARCTIC EXPLORATION:
A Chronological Record.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1500-1502.
Discovery and exploration of the coast of Labrador and the
entrance of Hudson Strait by the Cortereals.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1553.
Voyage of Willoughby and Chancellor from London, in search of
a northeast passage to India. Chancellor reached Archangel on
the White Sea, and opened trade with Russia, while Willoughby
perished with all his crew.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1556.
Exploring voyage of Stephen Burroughs to the northeast, approaching Nova Zembla.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1576-1578.
Voyages of Frobisher to the coast of Labrador and the entrance
to Davis Strait, discovering the bay which bears his name, and
which he supposed to be a strait leading to Cathay; afterwards
entering Hudson Strait.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1580.
Northeastern voyage of Pet and Jackman, passing Nova Zembla.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1585-1587.
Three voyages of John Davis from Dartmouth, in search of a
northwestern passage to India, entering the strait between
Greenland and Baffinland which bears his name and exploring it
to the 72nd degree north latitude.
{3681}
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1594-1595.
Dutch expeditions (the first and second under Barentz) to the
northeast, passing to the north of Nova Zembla, or Novaya
Zem]ya, but making no progress beyond it.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1596-1597.
Third voyage of Barentz, when he discovered and coasted
Spitzbergen, wintered in Nova Zembla with his crew, lost his
ship in the ice, and perished, with one third of his men, in
undertaking to reach the coast of Lapland in open boats.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1602.
Exploration for a northwest passage by Captain George
Weymouth, for the Muscovy Company and the Levant Company,
resulting in nothing but a visitation of the entrance to
Hudson Strait.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1607.
Polar voyage of Henry Hudson, for the Muscovy Company of
London, attaining the northern coast of Spitzbergen.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1608.
Voyage of Henry Hudson to Nova Zembla for the Muscovy Company.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1610.
Voyage of Henry Hudson, in English employ, to seek the
northwest passage, being the voyage in which he passed through
the Strait and entered the great Bay to which his name has
been given, and in which he perished at the hands of a
mutinous crew.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1612-1614.
Exploration of Hudson Bay by Captains Button, Bylot, and
Baffin, practically discovering its true character and shaking
the previous theory of its connection with the Pacific Ocean.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1614.
Exploring expedition of the Muscovy Company to the Greenland
coast, under Robert Fotherby, with William Baffin for pilot,
making its way to latitude 80°.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1616.
Voyage into the northwest made by Captain Baffin with Captain
Bylot, which resulted in the discovery of Baffin Bay, Smith
Sound, Jones Sound, and Lancaster Sound.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1619-1620.
Voyage of Jens Munk, sent by the King of Denmark to seck the
northwest passage; wintering in Hudson Bay, and losing there
all but two of his crew, with whom he succeeded in making the
voyage home.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1632.
Voyages of Captains Fox and James into Hudson Bay.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1670.
Grant and charter to the Hudson Bay Company, by King Charles
II. of England, conferring on the Company possession and
government of the whole watershed of the Bay, and naming the
country Prince Rupert Land.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1616.
Voyage of Captain John Wood to Nova Zembla, seeking the
northeastern passage.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1728.
Exploration of the northern coasts of Kamtschatka by the
Russian Captain Vitus Behring, and discovery of the Strait
which bears his name.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1741.
Exploration of northern channels of Hudson Bay by Captain
Middleton.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1743.
Offer of £20,000 by the British Parliament for the discovery
of a northwest passage to the Pacific.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1746.
Further exploration of northern channels of Hudson Bay by
Captains Moor and Smith.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1753-1754.
Attempted exploration of Hudson Bay by the colonial Captain
Swaine, sent out from Philadelphia, chiefly through the
exertions of Dr. Franklin.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1765.
Russian expedition of Captain Tchitschakoff, attempting to
reach the Pacific from Archangel.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1768-1769.
Exploration of Nova Zembla by a Russian officer, Lieutenant
Rosmyssloff.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1769-1770.
Exploring journey of Samuel Hearne, for the Hudson Bay
Company, from Churchill, its most northern post, to Coppermine
River and down the river to the Polar Sea.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1773.
Voyage of Captain Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave, toward the
North Pole, reaching the northeastern extremity of
Spitzbergen.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1779.
Exploration of the Arctic coast, east and west of Behring
Strait, by Captain Cook, in his last voyage.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1789.
Exploring journey of Alexander Mackenzie, for the Northwest
Company, and discovery of the great river flowing into the
Polar Sea, which bears his name.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1806.
Whaling voyage of Captain Scoresby to latitude 81° 30' and
longitude 19° east.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1818.
Unsatisfactory voyage of Commander John Ross to Baffin Bay and
into Lancaster Sound.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1818.
Voyage of Captain Buchan towards the North Pole, reaching the
northern part of Spitzbergen.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1819-1820.
First voyage of Lieutenant Parry, exploring for a northwest
passage, through Davis Strait, Baffin Bay, Lancaster Sound,
and Barrow Strait, to Melville Island.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1819-1822.
Journey of Captain (afterwards Sir John) Franklin, Dr.
Richardson, and Captain (afterwards Sir George) Back, from
Fort York, on the western coast of Hudson Bay, by the way of
Lake Athabasca, Great Slave Lake, and Coppermine River, to
Coronation Gulf, opening into the Arctic Ocean.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1819-1824.
Russian expeditions for the survey of Nova Zembla.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1820-1824.
Russian surveys of the Siberian Polar region by Wrangel and
Anjou.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1821-1823.
Second voyage of Captain Parry, exploring for a northwest
passage to the Pacific Ocean, through Hudson Strait and Fox
Channel, discovering the Fury-and-Hecla Strait, the northern
outlet of the Bay.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1821-1824.
Russian surveying expedition to Nova Zembla, under Lieutenant
Lutke.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1822.
Whaling voyage of Captain Scoresby to the eastern coast of
Greenland, which was considerably traced and mapped by him.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1822-1823.
Scientific expedition of Captain Sabine, with Commander
Clavering, to Spitzbergen and the eastern coast of Greenland.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1824-1825.
Third voyage of Captain Parry, exploring for a northwest
passage, by way of Davis Strait, Baffin Bay, and Lancaster
Sound, to Prince Regent Inlet, where one of his ships was
wrecked.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1825-1827.
Second journey of Franklin, Richardson, and Back, from Canada
to the Arctic Ocean; Franklin and Back by the Mackenzie River
and westward along the coast to longitude 149° 37'; Richardson
by the Mackenzie River and the Arctic coast eastward to
Coppermine River.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1826.
Voyage of Captain Beechey through Behring Strait and eastward
along the Arctic coast as far as Point Barrow.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1827.
Fourth voyage of Captain Parry, attempting to reach the North
Pole, by ship to Spitzbergen and by boats to 82° 45' north
latitude.
{3682}
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1829-1833.
Expedition under Captain Ross, fitted out by Mr. Felix Booth,
to seek a northwest passage, resulting in the discovery of the
position of the north magnetic pole, southwest of Boothia, not
far from which Ross' ship was ice-bound for three years.
Abandoning the vessel at last, the explorers made their way to
Baffin Bay and were rescued by a whale-ship.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1833-1835.
Journey of Captain Back from Canada, via Great Slave Lake, to
the river which he discovered and which bears his name,
flowing to the Polar Sea.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1836-1837.
Voyage of Captain Back for surveying the straits and channels
in the northern extremity of Hudson Bay.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1837-1839.
Expeditions of Dease and Simpson, in the service of the Hudson
Bay Company, determining the Arctic coast line as far east as
Boothia.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1845.
Departure from England of the government expedition under Sir
John Franklin, in two bomb-vessels, the Erebus and the Terror,
which entered Baffin Bay in July and were never seen
afterward.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1848.
Expedition of Sir John Richardson and Mr. John Rae down the
Mackenzie River, searching for traces of Sir John Franklin and
his crews.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1848-1849.
Expedition under Sir James Clarke Ross to Baffin Bay and
westward as far as Leopold Island, searching for Sir John
Franklin.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1848-1851.
Searching expedition of the Herald and the Plover, under
Captain Kellett and Commander Moore, through Behring Strait
and westward to Coppermine River, learning nothing of the fate
of the Franklin party.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1850.
Searching expedition sent out by Lady Franklin, under Captain
Forsyth, for the examination of Prince Regent Inlet.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1850-1851.
United States Grinnell Expedition, sent to assist the search
for Sir John Franklin and his crew, consisting of two ships,
the Advance and the Rescue, furnished by Mr. Henry Grinnell
and officered and manned by the U. S. Government, Lieutenant
De Haven commanding and Dr. Kane surgeon. Frozen into the ice
in Wellington Channel, in September, 1850, the vessels drifted
helplessly northward until Grinnell Land was seen and named,
then southward and westward until the next June, when they
escaped in Baffin Bay.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1850-1851.
Franklin search expedition, sent out by the British
Government, under Captain Penny, who explored Wellington
Channel and Cornwallis Island by sledge journeys.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1850-1851.
Discovery of traces of Franklin and his men at Cape Riley and
Beechey Island, by Captain Ommaney and Captain Austin.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1850-1852.
Franklin search expedition under Captain Collinson, through
Behring Strait and eastward into Prince of Wales Strait,
sending sledge parties to Melville Island.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1850-1854.
Franklin search expedition under Captain McClure, through
Behring Strait and westward, between Banks Land and Prince
Albert Land, attaining a point within 25 miles of Melville
Sound, already reached from the East; thus demonstrating the
existence of a northwest passage, though not accomplishing the
navigation of it. McClure received knighthood, and a reward of
£10,000 was distributed to the officers and crew of the
expedition.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1851.
Expedition of Dr. Rae, sent by the British Government to
descend the Coppermine River and search the southern coast of
Wollaston Land, which he did, exploring farther along the
coast of the continent eastward to a point opposite King
William's Land.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1851-1852.
Franklin search expedition sent out by Lady Franklin under
Captain Kennedy, for a further examination of Prince Regent
Inlet and the surrounding region.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1852-1854.
Franklin search expedition of five ships sent out by the
British Government under Sir Edward Belcher, with Captains
McClintock, Kellett, and Sherard Osborn under his command.
Belcher and Osborn, going up Wellington Channel to
Northumberland Sound, were frozen fast; McClintock and Kellett
experienced the same misfortune near Melville Island, where
they had received Captain McClure and his crew, escaping from
their abandoned ship. Finally all the ships of Belcher's fleet
except one were abandoned. One, the Resolute, drifted out into
Davis Strait in 1855, was rescued, bought by the United States
Government and presented to Queen Victoria.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1853-1854.
Hudson Bay Company expedition by Dr. Rae, to Repulse Bay and
Pelly Bay, on the Gulf of Boothia, where Dr. Rae found Eskimos
in possession of articles which had belonged to Sir John
Franklin, and his men, and was told that in the winter of 1850
they saw white men near King William's Land, traveling
southward, dragging sledges and a boat, and, afterwards saw
dead bodies and graves on the mainland.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1853-1855.
Grinnell expedition, under Dr. Kane, proceeding straight
northward through Baffin Bay, Smith Sound and Kennedy Channel,
nearly to the 79th degree of latitude, where the vessel was
locked in ice and remained fast until abandoned in the spring
of 1855, the party escaping to Greenland and being rescued by
an expedition under Lieutenant Hartstein which the American
Government had sent to their relief.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1855.
Cruise of the U. S. ship Vincennes, Lieutenant John Rodgers
commanding, in the Arctic Sea, via Behring Strait to Wrangel
Land.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1855.
Expedition of Mr. Anderson, of the Hudson Bay Company, down
the Great Fish River to Point Ogle at its mouth, seeking
traces of the party of Sir John Franklin.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1857-1859.
Search expedition sent out by Lady Franklin, under Captain
McClintock, which became ice-bound in Melville Bay, August,
1857, and drifted helplessly for eight months, over 1,200
miles; escaped from the ice in April, 1858; refitted in
Greenland and returned into Prince Regent Inlet, whence
Captain McClintock searched the neighboring regions by sledge
journeys, discovering, at last, In King William's Land, not
only remains but records of the lost explorers, learning that
they were caught in the ice somewhere in or about Peel Sound,
September, 1846; that Sir John Franklin died on the 11th of
the following June; that the ships were deserted on the 22d of
April, 1848, on the northwest coast of King William's Land,
and that the survivors, 105 in number, set out for Back or
Great Fish River. They perished probably one by one on the
way.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1860-1861.
Expedition of Dr. Hayes to Smith Sound; wintering on the
Greenland side at latitude 78° 17'; crossing the Sound with
sledges and tracing Grinnell Land to about 82° 45'.
{3683}
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1860-1862.
Expedition of Captain Hall on the whaling ship George Henry,
and discovery of relics of Frobisher.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1864-1869.
Residence of Captain Hall among the Eskimos on the north side
of Hudson Strait and search for further relics of the Franklin
expedition.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1867.
Tracing of the southern coast of Wrangel Land by Captains Long
and Raynor, of the whaling ships Nile and Reindeer.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1867.
Transfer of the territory, privileges and rights of the Hudson
Bay Company to the Dominion of Canada.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1868.
Swedish Polar expedition, directed by Professor Nordenskiöld,
attaining latitude 81° 42', on the 18th meridian of east
longitude.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1869.
Yacht voyage of Dr. Hayes to the Greenland coasts.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1869-1870.
German Polar expedition, under Captain Koldewey, one vessel of
which was crushed, the crew escaping to an ice floe and
drifting 1,100 miles, reaching finally a Danish settlement on
the Greenland coast, while the other explored the east coast
of Greenland to latitude 77°.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1871-1872.
Voyage of the steamer Polaris, fitted out by the U. S.
Government, under Captain Hall; passing from Baffin Bay,
through Smith Sound and Kennedy Channel, into what Kane and
Hayes had supposed to be open sea, but which proved to be the
widening of a strait, called Robeson Strait by Captain Hall,
thus going beyond the most northerly point that had previously
been reached in Arctic exploration. Wintering in latitude 81°
38' (where Captain Hall died), the Polaris was turned homeward
the following August. During a storm, when the ship was
threatened with destruction by the ice, seventeen of her crew
and party were left helplessly on a floe, which drifted with
them for 1,500 miles, until they were rescued by a passing
vessel. Those on the Polaris fared little better. Forced to
run their sinking ship ashore, they wintered in huts and made
their way south in the spring, until they met whale-ships
which took them on board.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1872-1874.
Austro-Hungarian expedition, under Captain Weyprecht and
Lieutenant Payer, seeking the northeast passage, with the
result of discovering and naming Franz Josef Land, Crown
Prince Rudolf Land and Petermann Land, the latter (seen, not
visited) estimated to be beyond latitude 83°. The explorers
were obliged to abandon their ice-locked steamer, and make
their way by sledges and boats to Nova Zembla, where they were
picked up.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1875.
Voyage of Captain Young, attempting to navigate the northwest
passage through Lancaster Sound, Barrow Strait and Peel
Strait, but being turned back by ice in the latter.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1875-1876.
English expedition under Captain Nares, in the Alert, and the
Discovery, attaining by ship the high latitude of 82° 27', in
Smith Sound, and advancing by sledges to 83° 20' 26", while
exploring the northern shore of Grinnell Land and the
northwest coast of Greenland.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1876-1878.
Norwegian North-Atlantic expedition, for a scientific
exploration of the sea between Norway, the Faroe Islands,
Iceland, Jan Mayen, and Spitzbergen.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1878.
Discovery of the island named "Einsamkeit," in latitude 77°
40' North and longitude 860 East, by Captain Johannesen, of
the Norwegian schooner Nordland.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1878-1879.
Final achievement of the long-sought, often attempted
northeast passage, from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean, by
the Swedish geographer and explorer, Baron Nordenskiöld, on
the steamer Vega, which made the voyage from Gothenburg to
Yokohama, Japan, through the Arctic Sea, coasting the Russian
and Siberian shores.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1878-1883.
Six annual expeditions to the Arctic Seas of the ship Willem
Barentz, sent out by the Dutch Arctic Committee.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1879.
Cruise of Sir Henry Gore-Booth and Captain Markham, R. N., in
the cutter Isbjorn to Nova Zembla and in Barentz Sea and the
Kara Sea.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1879-1880.
Journey of Lieutenant Schwatka from Hudson Bay to King William
Island, and exploration of the western and southern shores of
the latter, searching for the journals and logs of the
Franklin expedition.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1879-1882.
Polar voyage of the Jeannette, fitted out by the proprietor of
the New York Herald and commanded by Commander De Long, United
States Navy. The course taken by the Jeannette was through
Behring Strait towards Wrangel Land, and then northerly, until
she became ice-bound when she drifted helplessly for nearly
two years, only to be crushed at last. The officers and crew
escaped in three boats, one of which was lost in a storm; the
occupants of the other two boats reached different mouths of
the river Lena. One of these two boats, commanded by Engineer
Melville, was fortunate enough to find a settlement and obtain
speedy relief. The other, which contained commander De Long,
landed in a region of desolation, and all but two of its
occupants perished of starvation and cold.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1880-1882.
First and second cruises of the United States Revenue Steamer
Corwin in the Arctic Ocean, via Behring Strait, to Wrangel
Land seeking information concerning the Jeannette and
searching for two missing whaling ships.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1880-1882.
Two voyages of Mr. Leigh Smith to Franz Josef Land, in his
yacht Eira, in the first of which a considerable exploration
of the southern coast was made, while the second resulted in
the loss of the ship and a perilous escape of the party in
boats to Nova Zembla, where they were rescued.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1881.
Expedition of the steamer Rodgers to search for the missing
explorers of the Jeannette; entering the Arctic Sea through
Behring Strait, but abruptly stopped by the burning of the
Rodgers, on the 30th of November, in St. Lawrence Bay.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1881.
Cruise of the United States Alliance, Commander Wadleigh, via
Spitzbergen, to 79° 3' 36" north latitude, searching for the
Jeannette.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1881-1884.
International undertaking of expeditions to establish Arctic
stations for simultaneous meteorological and magnetic
observations: by the United States at Smith Sound and Point
Barrow; by Great Britain at Fort Rae; by Russia at the mouth
of the Lena and in Nova Zembla; by Denmark at Godhaab, in
Greenland; by Holland at Dickson's Haven, near the mouth of
the Yenisei; by Germany in Cumberland Sound, Davis Strait; by
Austro-Hungary on Jan Mayen Island; by Sweden at Mussel Bay in
Spitzbergen. The United States expedition to Smith Sound,
under Lieutenant Greeley, established its station on Discovery
Bay. Exploring parties sent out attained the highest latitude
ever reached, namely 83° 24'. After remaining two winters and
failing to receive expected supplies, which had been
intercepted by the ice, Greeley and his men, twenty-five in
number, started southward, and all but seven perished on the
way. The survivors were rescued, in the last stages of
starvation, by a vessel sent to their relief under Captain
Schley, United States Navy.
{3684}
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1882-1883.
Danish Arctic expedition of the Dijmphna, under Lieutenant
Hovgaard; finding the Varna of the Dutch Meteorological
Expedition beset in the ice at 69° 42' North latitude and 64°
45' East longitude; both vessels becoming frozen in together
and drifting for nearly twelve months, being carried to 71°
North; the Dijmphna taking the crew of the Varna, which
succumbed to the ice pressure and went down; the Danish ship
finally being liberated, August 1, 1893, and regaining Vardo,
Norway, in October of that year.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1883.
Expedition of Lieutenant Ray, United States Navy, from Point
Barrow, on the Arctic Ocean, to Meade River.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1883.
Expedition of Baron Nordenskiöld to Greenland, making
important explorations in the interior, but failing to find
the temperate central valleys which the Baron's theoretical
studies had led him to expect.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1883-1885.
East Greenland expedition of Captain Holm and Lieutenant
Garde, surveying and mapping the coast from 59° 49' to 68° 45'
North latitude, and studying its geology, meteorology and
natural history.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1884.
Second cruise of the U. S. Revenue Marine Steamer Corwin in
the Arctic Ocean.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1886.
Reconnoissance of the Greenland inland ice by Civil Engineer
R. E. Peary, United States Navy, "to gain a practical
knowledge of the obstacles and ice conditions of the
interior," and "to put to the test of actual use certain
methods and details of equipment."
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1888.
Journey of Dr. Nansen across South Greenland, from the
icebound eastern coasts to the Danish settlements on the
western.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1890.
Swedish expedition to Spitzbergen, under G. Nordenskiöld and
Baron Klinkowström.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1890.
Danish scientific explorations in North and South Greenland.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1890.
Russian exploration of the Malo-Zemelskaya, or Timanskaya
tundra, in the far north of European Russia, on the Arctic
Ocean.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1891-1892.
Expedition of Lieutenant Peary, United States Navy, with a
party of seven persons, including Mrs. Peary, establishing
headquarters on McCormick Bay, on the north side of Murchison
Sound, north west Greenland; thence making sledge journeys to
the northeastern coast of Greenland, at Independence Bay and
northward from it to latitude 82°, and following the coast
southward to Cape Bismarck. The surveys of Lieutenant Peary
have gone far toward proving Greenland to be an island.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1891-1892.
Danish East Greenland expedition of Lieutenant Ryder,
wintering on Denmark Island in Scoresby's Sound, from which
boat journeys were made and the interior ramifications of the
Sound surveyed and mapped.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1891-1893.
Expeditions of Dr. Drygalski to Greenland for the study of the
movement of the great glaciers.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1892.
Swedish expedition of Bjorling and Kallstenius, the last
records of which were found on one of the Cary Islands, in
Baffin Bay, in the autumn of 1892.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1892.
French expedition under M. Ribot to explore the islands of
Spitzbergen and Jan Mayen.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1893.
Expedition of Dr. Nansen, who sailed June 24, in the Fram from
Christiania, for the New Siberian Islands, thence aiming to
enter a current which flows, in Dr. Nansen's belief, across
the Arctic region to Greenland, touching the North Pole, or
nearly, in its course.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1893.
Russian expedition, under Baron Toll, to the New Siberian
Islands and the Siberian Arctic coasts.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1893.
Danish expedition to Greenland, under Lieutenant Garde, for a
geographical survey of the coast and study of the inland ice.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1893-1894.
Expedition of Lieutenant Peary and party (Mrs. Peary again of
the number), landing in Bowdoin Bay, Inglefield Gulf, north of
McCormick Harbor, in August, 1893; attempting in the following
March a sledge journey with dogs to Independence Bay, but
compelled to turn back when no more than a quarter of the
distance had been traversed. An auxiliary expedition brought
back most of the party to Philadelphia in September, 1894; but
Lieutenant Peary with two men remained in Greenland to
continue explorations.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1893-1894.
Scientific journey of Mr. Frank Russell, under the auspices of
the State University of Iowa, from Lake Winnipeg to the mouth
of Mackenzie River and to Herschel Island.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1894.
Expedition of Mr. Walter Wellman, an American journalist,
purposing to reach Spitzbergen via Norway, and to advance
thence towards the Pole, with aluminum boats, weighing only
400 pounds each, and provided with runners for use on the ice.
The party left Tromsoë May 1, but were arrested before the end
of the month by the crushing of their vessel in the ice at
Walden. They were picked up and brought back to Norway.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1894.
Departure of what is known as the Jackson-Harmsworth North
Polar Expedition, which sailed from Greenhithe, in England,
July 11, under the command of Mr. F. G. Jackson, Mr.
Harmsworth equipping the expedition at his personal cost. Its
plan is to make Franz Josef Land a base of operations from
which to advance carefully and persistently towards the Pole.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1895.
Preparations of Herr Julius von Payer, the explorer of Franz
Josef Land, for an artistic and scientific expedition to the
east coast of Greenland, in which he will be accompanied by
landscape and animal painters, photographers, and savants.
----------ARCTIC EXPLORATION: End--------
ARGENTINE REPUBLIC, The Constitution of.
See CONSTITUTION OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC (page 511).
ARMENIA, Atrocities in.
See TURKS: A. D. 1895 (page 3157).
ARYAN NATIONS OF EUROPE.
See EUROPE (page 990, and after).
ASCHAM, Roger, and "The Scholemaster."
See EDUCATION, RENAISSANCE (page 708).
{3685}
ASCLEPIADÆ, The.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE, GREEK (page 2124).
ASIA MINOR, Missionary journeys of St. Paul in.
See CHRISTIANITY: A. D. 33-100 (page 436).
ASOKA, and the rise of Buddhism.
See INDIA: B. C. 312 (page 1704).
ASSIGNATS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
See MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1789-1796 (page 2212).
ASSYRIAN EDUCATION, Ancient.
See EDUCATION, ANCIENT (page 674).
ASSYRIAN LIBRARIES.
See LIBRARIES, ANCIENT (page 2000).
ASSYRIAN MONEY AND BANKING.
See MONEY AND BANKING (page 2199).
ATHENS: Outline sketch of ancient history.
See EUROPE (pages 992-996).
ATLANTIC CABLE, The laying of the.
See ELECTRICAL DISCOVERY AND INVENTION:
A. D. 1854-1866 (page 776).
ATTAINDER.
BILL OF ATTAINDER.
"An attainder ('attinctura') is a degradation or public
dishonouring, which draws after it corruption of blood. It is
the consequence of any condemnation to death, and induces the
disherison of the heirs of the condemned person, which can
only be removed by means of parliament. A bill of attainder,
or of pains and penalties, inflicts the consequences of a
penal sentence on any state criminal. … By the instrumentality
of such bill the penalties of high treason are generally
imposed. Penalties may, however, be imposed at pleasure,
either in accordance with, or in contravention of, the common
law. No other court of law can protect a person condemned in
such manner. The first bill of the kind occurred under Edward
IV., when the commons had to confirm the statute condemning
Clarence to death. This convenient method of getting rid of
disagreeable opponents was in high favour during the reign of
Henry VIII. The bills of pains and penalties were hurried
through the parliament, and the parties accused were not even
put upon their trial. Thus were the illustrious Sir Thomas
More and Bishop Fisher, for misprision of treason, without
regular trial, without examination of witnesses, or hearing
the accused in their self-defence, legally consigned to the
scaffold. Anne Boleyn was formally tried for high treason by
the house of peers; but the head of Catharine Howard was
disposed of by a simple bill of attainder. This was the first
case in which the offence charged was created by the very bill
against which the pretended criminal was held to have
offended. Under Philip and Mary the benefit of clergy was, by
means of a bill, withheld from a certain Rufford. What had
been an instrument of kingly despotism, under Tudor sway, was
converted, under the Stuarts, into a parliamentary engine
against the crown. The points of indictment against Strafford
were so weak that the lords were for acquitting him.
Thereupon, Sir Arthur Haselrig introduced a bill of attainder
in the commons. The staunch friends of freedom, such as Pym
and Hampden, did not support this measure; but yet it passed
through the commons with only 59 dissentient voices. After the
35 peers opposed to the trial of Strafford had withdrawn, the
terror-stricken lords accepted the bill by 26 against 19
votes. … This parliamentary administration of justice has by
no means been relinquished. A bill of attainder may refer
simply to a concrete case, and contrive penalties for acts
which are not specially punishable by statute, whereas an
impeachment applies to some violation of recognized legal
principles, and is a solemn indictment preferred by the
commons to the house of lords."
_E. Fischel,
The English Constitution,
book 7, chapter 9._
"By the 33 & 34 Vict. c. 23, forfeiture and attainder for
treason or felony have been abolished."
_T. P. Taswell-Langmead,
English Constitutional History,
chapter 10 (2d edition, page 393), foot-note._
----------AUSTRIA: Start--------
AUSTRIA: A. D. 1273-1349.
The House of Hapsburgh in the earlier period of its fortunes.
"It was just now [1273] that the German monarchy received once
more a real king [in the person of Rudolph of Hapsburgh]. It
is evident that Ottocar's remarkable rise into power was due
essentially to the previous excessive weakness of German
kingship. He had acquired Austria and Styria by doubtful right
according to German notions, Carinthia and Carniola without
any acquiescence at all on the part of the empire. … In the
election of Rudolph he was not willing to take part and
afterwards he refused him recognition. No wonder that from the
very beginning the German princes felt the necessity of
driving him from his usurped position. … For the German cause
it was the greatest gain that through Ottocar's fall (1278)
room was won on the Middle Danube for a national rule: the
House of Austria was enabled there to found that power which
played so great a part in the world's history. The victory on
the marchfeld was a victory of the renewed imperial might over
a recalcitrant vassal whose power had extended the due measure
of that of a prince of the realm. Looked at in this light the
fall of Ottocar reminds one of the fall of Henry the Lion a
hundred years before; the gain for Rudolph, however, was still
greater and more essential than it had been at that former
time for Frederick I. His position was for the first time now
actually assured; for if the battle had resulted unfavorably
it is doubtful if he could have continued to command
obedience. Besides this the possibility presented itself now
of using the position of ruler, conferred on him personally,
to the lasting advantage of his house; at the same time he
could only go to work in the matter very slowly and
cautiously. … At his departure from these parts in 1281 he
conferred the regency in Austria proper and in the other lands
to his own son Albrecht. The latter appears already as a
matured man with a certain talent for ruling. He overthrew all
those who opposed them but, having done this, he bore no
malice and cherished no hostility. No one could be in doubt
but that for Albrecht, and for his house altogether, the king
thought to found there a separate territorial principality. To
begin with, the fiefs which the dukes of Austria had held of
the neighboring bishoprics, especially the Bavarian ones, were
conferred by Rudolph on his sons, other privileges in
compensation being granted to the bishoprics. The consent of
the electors, according to the new order of things, was
necessary in such a case, and the king next sought to gain
them over. … On December 27, 1282, he invested his sons
Albrecht and Rudolph in common with Austria, Styria, Carniola
and the Windischmark. …
{3686}
At the request of the Estates of those lands, who wished
neither a joint rule nor a separation from each other, Rudolph
in 1283 invested his son Albrecht alone with those four
provinces. To the younger Rudolph the promise of another
appanage or at least of a compensation was held out—a fatal
matter! For the son of this Rudolph was John the Parricide. It
was an event of the greatest import that in these
south-eastern marks of the empire the Babenbergers were
replaced by the Hapsburghs. The latter now, in consequence of
their all-decisive victory, turned their attention at the same
time to Bohemia and Hungary. Although neither in the one land
nor the other did they now actually attain their goal, yet
their efforts in this direction deserve our close attention as
being the first tokens of a policy that was most strongly to
affect the world's history. … One sees, even in these
unsuccessful attempts, the bold dynastic ambition of King
Rudolph; the kingdom of Arles, also, he had had in view for
one of his sons. The acquisition of Austria alone, indeed,
marks an epoch in itself; all the more so as only through this
did he gain the prestige which he needed to enable him to do
justice to his task as king of Germany. If this task be
regarded as having consisted chiefly in restoring and
maintaining the public peace after thirty years of utter
confusion, then, indeed, he showed himself completely equal to
it. … In short, through valor and steadfastness he strongly,
in internal matters, upheld the power of the empire.
Rebellions, indeed, were not wanting; now the archbishop of
Cologne, now the duke of Savoy revolted; now Bern or Colmar,
now the counts in Suabia and Burgundy. He overcame and humbled
them all. … He was a very tall, thin man, pale of countenance
and with very little hair on his small head; in all things
moderate and of a genial nature as was shown by his offering
to become the guest of artisans and by his darning his own
doublet. … When giving Austria to his son Albrecht who was to
try and establish here a dynastic power (Hausmacht), Rudolph
had really intended to give the German crown to his younger
son, Rudolph, and he might have put this through had not this
son died before himself. In May 1291 the king then held a diet
at Frankfort for the purpose of inducing the electors now to
give their vote to his son Albrecht. This he was unable to
bring about and with his hopes unrealized he died on the 15th
of July 1291. … After long preliminary negotiations between
the separate electors … the election took place on May 5th,
1292. Albrecht had not yet abandoned hope and had appeared in
the vicinity. … The electors laid down the principle that it
was not right for the son to directly follow the father on the
throne of the empire. … They chose again a simple count,
Adolphus of Nassau. … The less Adolphus fulfilled the
expectations of his electors … the more did he lose his
authority. … In short it appears that Adolphus's whole
attitude, his league with England, his conception of the
rights of the empire, the way he insulted ecclesiastical and
secular princes, his policy with regard to the majority of the
cities, caused a general ferment. … It was at a great assembly
of princes in Prague, where Mainz, Bohemia, Brandenburg and
Saxony met together that Albrecht's influence began to gain
the upper hand. Albrecht promised, in case he should become
king, to give to King Wenzel the conquests made by Adolphus in
Meissen. Albrecht and all his friends then girded themselves
up to conquer the empire. In April 1298 we find him in Alsace
opposing Adolphus who, however, still had the upper hand. The
archbishop of Mainz then summoned the electors to Mainz for
June 15 to consult about the disturbances in the empire. …
They determined now to depose the king whom they had elected.
This was done in the Thiergarten near Mainz on June 23, 1298.
… The battle for the possession of the empire took place on
July 2nd at Göllheim, where a stone cross still marks the
spot. … The kings wore the same coat-of-arms—yellow with a
black eagle—and bore the same banner. According to one
account, for which Albert of Strassburg is voucher, they came
into hand to hand conflict with each other. Adolphus cried
out: 'Here you will relinquish the Empire!' Albrecht answered
'The decision lies in the hand of God.' The one-eyed Albrecht
struck the surer blow, hitting his antagonist directly over
the eye. The blood ran down Adolphus s face; he fell and died.
Albrecht would never acknowledge that he had been the slayer
of the Lord's anointed. Be that as it may he won the crown for
himself on the battle-field. … Albrecht is altogether a
striking figure in German history. Everywhere, in the lowest
plains of Switzerland or in the highest mountains of
Switzerland he is busy in founding his dynastic power. Under
him the House of Austria made a vigorous beginning in the
matter of establishing a great and extensive authority in all
parts of the empire. … It was fatal for him that the harsh
want of consideration which forms the chief feature of his
sway as a statesman should have raised up a murderer against
him in his own immediate vicinity—in the person of his own
nephew."
_L. Ranke,
Weltgeschichte
(translated from the German),
volume 8, pages 566-601._
See, also, AUSTRIA (pages 199-201).
AUSTRIA: A. D. 1648-1715.
Relations with Germany and France.
See (in this Supplement) GERMANY: A. D. 1648-1715.
AUSTRIA: A. D. 1780-1790.
Joseph II., the enthroned Philosopher.
"The prince who best sums up the spirit of the century, is not
Frederic [the Great, of Prussia), it is Joseph II. [the
emperor]. Frederic was born a master, Joseph II. a disciple,
and it is by disciples that we judge schools. The king of
Prussia dammed up the waters, directed their flow, made use of
the current: the emperor cast himself upon them and permitted
himself to be carried. With Frederic the statesman always
dominates, it is he who proposes and finally decides; the
philosopher is subordinate: he furnishes to the results
brought about by policy their abstract cause for existence and
their theoretical justification. With Joseph II. rational
conception precedes political calculation and governs it. He
had breadth of mind, but his mind was superficial; ideas
slipped from it. He had a taste for generosity, a passion for
grandeur; but there was nothing profound in him but ambition,
and it was all counter-stroke and reflection. He wished to
surpass Frederic; his entire conduct was but an awkward,
imprudent and ill-advised imitation of this prince whom he had
made his hero, whom history made his rival and whom he copied
while detesting him.
{3687}
The political genius of Frederic was born of good sense and
moderation: there was nothing in Joseph II. but the
immoderate. He was a man of systems: he had only great
velleities. His education was mediocre, and, as to methods,
entirely jesuitical. Into this contracted mould he cast
confusedly notions hastily borrowed from the philosophers of
France, from the economists especially. He thus formed a very
vague ideal of political aspirations and an exaggerated sense
of the power at his disposition to realize them. 'Since I
ascended the throne and have worn the first crown of the
world,' wrote he in 1781, 'I have made Philosophy the lawmaker
of my empire. Her logical applications are going to transform
Austria.' He undertakes reforms in every direction at once.
History is null for him, traditions do not count, nor do facts
acquired. There is no race, nor period, nor surrounding
circumstances: there is the State which is everything and can
do everything. He writes in 1782, to the bishop of Strasbourg:
'In a kingdom governed conformably to my principles,
prejudice, fanaticism, bondage of mind must disappear, and
each of my subjects must be reinstated in the possession of
his natural rights.' He must have unity, and, as a first
condition, the rejection of all previous ideas. Chance makes
him operate on a soil the most heterogeneous, the most
incoherent, the most cut up, parceled out and traversed by
barriers, that there is in Europe. Nothing in common among his
subjects, neither language, nor traditions, nor interests. It
is from this, according to him, that the defect of monarchy
arises. 'The German language is the universal language of my
empire. I am the emperor of Germany, the states which I
possess are provinces which form but one body with the State
of which I am the head. If the kingdom of Hungary were the
most important of my possessions, I should not hesitate to
impose its tongue on the other countries.' So he imposes the
German language on the Hungarians, the Croats, the Tchèques,
the Poles, on all the Slavs. He suppresses the ancient
territorial divisions; they recall the successive
agglomerations, the irregular alluvions which had formed the
monarchy; he establishes thirteen governments and divides them
into circles. The diets disappear; the government passes into
the hands of intendants according to the French formula. In
the cities the burgomaster appointed by the government becomes
a functionary. The nobles lose the part, already much
curtailed, that they still had, here and there, in the
government. He taxes them, he taxes the ecclesiastics; he
meditates establishing a tax proportional to incomes and
reaching all classes. He protects the peasants, alleviates
serfdom, diminishes the corvées, builds hospitals, schools
above all, in which the state will form pupils to obey her.
His ideal would be the equality of his subjects under the
uniform sway of his government. He unifies the laws; he
institutes courts of appeal with a supreme court for the
entire empire. He makes regulations for manufactures, binds
commerce to the most rigorous protective system. Finally he
puts a high hand on the church and decrees tolerance. … This
immense revolution was accomplished by means of decrees, in
less than five years. If we compare the state of cohesion
which the Bourbon government had brought about in France in
1789, with the incoherence of the Austrian monarchy on the
death of Maria Theresa in 1780, it will be seen that the
revolution which caused the Constituent Assembly was a small
matter compared with that which Joseph II. intended to
effect."
_A. Sorel,
L'Europe et la Rêvolution française
(translated from the French),
part 1, pages 119-122._
----------AUSTRIA: End--------
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY, Libraries of.
See LIBRARIES, MODERN (page 2013).
AUSTRIAN SCHOOLS.
See EDUCATION, MODERN (page 709).
AVICENNA AND ARABIAN MEDICAL SCIENCE.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 7-11TH CENTURIES (page 2130).
B.
BÂB, The.
The word Bâb, "meaning, in Arabic, 'a gate,' is the title of a
hero of our own days, the founder, if not of a new religion,
at least of a new phase of religious belief. His history, with
that of his first followers, as told by M. le Comte de
Gobineau in his 'Religions et Philosophies dans l'Asie
Centrale,' presents a picture of steadfast adherence to truth
(as they held it), of self-denial, of joyful constancy in the
face of bitterest suffering, torture and death, as vivid and
touching as any that are found in the records of the heroic
days of old. … Among the crowd of pilgrims who flocked to
Mecca in the summer of 1843 was a youth who had then hardly
completed his nineteenth year. He had come from the far
distant city of Shiraz, where his family held an honourable
position, claiming, indeed, to trace their descent from the
great Prophet himself. Thoughtful and devout from his
childhood, Mirza Ali Mohammed had zealously and regularly
practised all religious duties considered binding on an
orthodox Mussulman. He had received a liberal education, and
while still a mere boy had eagerly examined and weighed every
new set of ideas with which he came in contact. Christians,
Jews, Fire-worshippers—he conversed with them all, and studied
their books. … Up to the time of his visiting the shrine of
the Prophet there had been no indication of any departure from
the faith of his fathers. But this pilgrimage, instead of
confirming his faith in Islam, had a quite contrary effect.
While still in the holy city, and still more on the return
journey, he had begun to confide to a select few views which
attracted and delighted them, not more, perhaps, by their
breadth and freedom than by the vague mystery in which they
were still wrapped. His decisive breach with the old faith was
not far distant. … Arrived at Shiraz, his first overt act was
to present to his friends his earliest written works. These
were two: a journal of his pilgrimage and a commentary on a
part of the Korân. In the latter the readers were amazed and
charmed to find meanings and teachings of which they had never
dreamed before. From this time he began to teach more
publicly; and day by day larger crowds flocked around him.
{3688}
In public he still spoke with reverence of the Prophet and his
laws; while in more private conferences he imparted to his
disciples those new ideas which were, perhaps, not yet very
clearly defined in his own mind. Very soon he had gathered
round him a little band of devoted followers, ardently
attached to himself, and ready to sacrifice wealth, life, all,
in the cause of truth. And throughout the great empire men
began everywhere to hear of the fame of Mirza Ali Mohammed.
There was much in the young teacher himself, apart from the
subject of his teaching, to account for this rapid success. Of
blameless life; simple in his habits; strict and regular in
all pious observances, he had already a weight of character to
which his extreme youth added a tenfold interest. But in
addition to these things, he was gifted with striking beauty
of person, and with that subtle, winning sweetness of manner
so often possessed by leaders of men, and to which, more than
to the most weighty arguments, they have often owed their
power. … Ere long, Mirza assumed the title by which he has
since been known throughout Persia—the Bâb—that is, the Door,
the only one through which men can reach the knowledge of God.
It may be well to give here an outline of what the Bâb did
teach. He believed in one God, eternal, unchangeable, Creator
of all things, and into whom all shall finally be reabsorbed.
He taught that God reveals His will to men by a series of
messengers, who, while truly men, are not mere men, but also
divine; that each of these messengers—Moses, Jesus,
Mohammed—is the medium of some new truth, higher than that
brought by the one who preceded him; that he himself, the Bâb,
though claiming divine honours while he lived, was but the
forerunner of one greater than he, the great Revealer—'He whom
God shall manifest, who should complete the revelation of all
truth, and preside at the final judgment, at which all the
good shall be made one with God, and all evil annihilated. One
of the most marked and singular characteristics of his system
is the prominence given in it to that mysterious and fanciful
theory of numbers which had always had so great a charm for
him. Taking various forms of the name of God—'ahyy,' meaning
'the giver of life'; 'wahed,' 'the only One'; or that which is
a most sacred formula, 'Bismillah elemna elegdous,' 'in the
name of God, highest and holiest'—he shows that the letters
composing each of those names, taken by their numerical value,
make up the number 19. This he therefore concludes is the
number which lies at the foundation of all things in heaven
and earth, the harmony of the universe, the number which must
rule in all earthly arrangements. The year should have 19
months, the month 19 days, the day 19 hours. … There are three
points in particular in which the reforms proposed by the Bâb
cannot fail, so far as they gain ground, to have a mighty
effect on society. In the first place, he abolished polygamy;
that is, he so strongly discountenanced it that his followers
universally regard it as a prohibition. In close
connection—almost as a necessary accompaniment of this—he
forbade divorce; that festering sore which corrupts the mass
of Persian society to its very heart, and makes pure family
life almost impossible. His third revolutionary step was in
the same direction. He abolished the veiling of the women. …
While the fame and popularity of the young preacher were daily
increasing, his bold exposure of the vices of the clergy
aroused against him their bitterest enmity." This hostility
soon became influential enough to prevail on the king and his
ministers to silence the Bâb. Mirza was placed under
confinement in his own house; but a chosen band of apostles
went forth to do missionary work throughout the empire, and
their success was great. Ere long, they began to combine
political with religious aims, and one of them, Moulla
Houssein, organized a movement which assumed a revolutionary
character and spread to formidable proportions. The government
became greatly alarmed, and an energetic minister took
measures to suppress the Bâbys, which was done with merciless
vigor. The Bâb, himself, though he had taken no part in the
political doings of his disciples, and had remained a quiet
prisoner on parole at Shiraz, was put to death, after being
brutally exposed for several hours to the insults of a mob.
This was in 1851. The following year witnessed the martyrdom
of a large number of the surviving Bâbys of prominence, all of
whom died for their faith without shrinking—as exalted in
spirit, it would seem, as the early Christian martyrs. But
Bâbism was not extinguished. It is said to have spread
secretly and continually throughout Persia, and to be of
unknown extent at the present day."
_M. F. Wilson,
The Story of the Bâb
(Contemporary Review, December, 1885)._
BABŒUF, Conspiracy of.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1753-1797 (page 2934).
BABYLONIA: Captivity of the Jews.
See JEWS: B. C. 604-536;
and 537 (page 1907).
BABYLONIA:
Commerce.
See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE, ANCIENT.
BABYLONIA:
Education, ancient.
See EDUCATION, ANCIENT (page 674).
BABYLONIA:
Libraries.
See LIBRARIES, ANCIENT (page 2000).
BABYLONIA:
Medical Science.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE, BABYLONIAN (page 2122).
BABYLONIA:
Money and banking.
See MONEY AND BANKING (page 2199).
BACK, Captain, Northern explorations of.
See (in this Supplement)
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1833-1835; and 1836-1837.
BACTERIOLOGY, Development of the science of.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 19TH CENTURY (page 2146).
BALOCHISTAN,
BALUCHISTAN.
"Balochistan, in the modern acceptation of the term, may be
said, in a general sense, to include all that tract of country
which has for its northern and north-eastern boundary the
large kingdom of Afghanistan, its eastern frontier being
limited by the British province of Sindh, and its western by
the Persian State, while the Arabian Sea washes its southern
base for a distance of nearly six hundred miles. … In area
Balochistan had long been supposed to cover in its entirety
quite 160,000 square miles, but the latest estimates do not
raise it higher than 140,000 square miles, of which 60,000 are
said to belong to what is termed Persian Balochistan, and the
remaining 80,000 to Kalāti Balochistan, or that portion which
is more or less directly under the rule of the Brāhui Khān of
Kalāt. …
{3689}
Balochistan may be said to be inhabited chiefly by the Baloch
tribe, the most numerous in the country, and this name was
given to the tract they occupy by the great Persian monarch,
Nadir Shah, who, as St. John remarks, after driving the Afghan
invaders from Persia, made himself master in his turn of the
whole country west of the Indus, and placed a native chief
over the new province, formed out of the districts bounded on
the north and south by the Halmand valley and the sea, and
stretching from Karmān on the west to Sindh on the east. This
newly formed province he called Balochistan, or, the country
of the Baloch, from the name of the most widely spread and
numerous, though not the dominant, tribe. According to Masson,
who, it must be admitted, had more ample opportunities of
obtaining correct information on this subject than any other
European, the Balochis are divided into three great classes,
viz.,
(1) the Brahuis;
(2) the Rinds; and
(3) the Lumris (or Numris);
but this must be taken more in the sense of inhabitants of
Balochistan than as divisions of a tribe, since the Brahuis
are of a different race and language and call the true
Balochis 'Nhāruis,' in contradistinction to themselves as
'Brahuis.' … The origin of the word 'Baloch' is evidently
involved in some obscurity, and has given rise to many
different interpretations. Professor Rawlinson supposes it to
be derived from Belūs, king of Babylon, the Nimrod of Holy
Writ, and that from 'Kush,' the father of Nimrod, comes the
name of the Kalāti eastern district, 'Kachh.' Pottinger
believes the Balochis to be of Turkoman lineage, and this from
a similarity in their institutions, habits, religion—in
short, in everything but their language, for which latter
anomaly, however, he has an explanation to offer. But be this
as it may, the very tribe themselves ascribe their origin to
the earliest Muhammadan invaders of Persia, and are extremely
desirous of being supposed to be of Arab extraction. They
reject with scorn all idea of being of the same stock as the
Afghan. They may possibly be of Iranian descent, and the
affinity of their language, the Balochki, to the Persian,
bears out this supposition; but the proper derivation of the
word 'Baloch' still remains an open question. … The Brahuis,
who, as a race, are very numerous in Balochistan, Pottinger
considers to be a nation of Tartar mountaineers, who settled
at a very early period in the southern parts of Asia, where
they led an ambulatory life in Khels, or societies, headed and
governed by their own chiefs and laws for many centuries, till
at length they became incorporated and attained their present
footing at Kalāt and throughout Balochistan generally. Masson
supposes that the word 'Brahui' is a corruption of Ba-roh-i,
meaning, literally, of the waste; and that that race entered
Balochistan originally from the west. … The country may be
considered as divided into two portions—the one, Kalāti
Balochistan, or that either really or nominally under the rule
of the Khān of Kalāt; and the other as Persian Balochistan, or
that part which is more or less directly under the domination
of the Shah of Persia. Of the government of this latter
territory, it will suffice to say that it is at present
administered by the Governor of Bam-Narmashir, a deputy of the
Kermān Governor; but the only district that is directly under
Persian rule is that of Banpur—the rest of the country, says
St. John, is left in charge of the native chiefs, who, in
their turn, interfere but little with the heads of villages
and tribes. … It would … appear that the supremacy of the Shah
over a very large portion of the immense area (60,000 square
miles) known as Persian Balochistan is more nominal than real,
and that the greater number of the chiefs only pay revenue to
their suzerain when compelled to do so. As regards Kalāti
Balochistan, the government is, so to speak, vested
hereditarily in the Brahui Khān of Kalāt, but his sovereignty
in the remote portions of his extensive territory (80,000
square miles), though even in former times more nominal than
real, is at the present moment still more so, owing to the
almost constant altercations and quarrels which take place
between the reigning Khān and his Sardārs, or chiefs. … In …
the modern history of Kalāti Balochistan under the present
dynasty, extending from about the commencement of the 18th
century, when Abdula Khān was ruler, down to the present time,
a period of, say, nearly 180 years, there is not much to call
for remark. Undoubtedly the Augustan age of Balochistan was
the reign of the first Nasir Khān [1755-1795], the Great
Nasir, as he is to this day called by the Balochis. Of his
predecessors little seems to be known; they were indeed simply
successful robbers on a large scale, with but few traces of
any enlightened policy to gild over a long succession of deeds
of lawlessness, rapine, and bloodshed. … Had his successors
been of the same stamp and metal as himself, the Kalāti
kingdom of to-day would not perhaps show that anarchy and
confusion which are now its most striking characteristics."
_A. W. Hughes,
The Country of Balochistan,
pages 2-48, and 285._
BANKING, History of.
See MONEY AND BANKING (page 2198).
BANKS, Nathaniel P.
His election to the Speakership.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1855-1856 (page 3396).
BAPTIST CHURCH, The first in Rhode Island.
See RHODE ISLAND: A. D. 1639 (page 2641).
BAPTISTS.
The name 'Baptist' was not a self-chosen one. In the early
Reformation time those who withdrew from the dominant
churches because of the failure of these churches to
discriminate between the church and the world, between the
regenerate and the unregenerate, and who sought to organize
churches of believers only, laid much stress on the lack of
Scriptural warrant for the baptism of infants and on the
incompatibility of infant baptism with regenerate membership.
Following what they believed to be apostolic precept and
example, they made baptism on a profession of faith a
condition of church-fellowship. This rejection of infant
baptism and this insistence on believers' baptism were so
distinctive of these Christians that they were stigmatized as
'Anabaptists,' 'Catabaptists,' and sometimes as simply
'Baptists'; that is to say, they were declared to be
'rebaptizers,' 'perverters of baptism,' or, as unduly
magnifying baptism and making it the occasion of schism,
simply 'baptizers.' These party names they earnestly
repudiated, preferring to call themselves Brethren,
Christians, Disciples of Christ, Believers, etc. …
{3690}
Baptists have, for the most part, been at one with the Roman
Catholic, the Greek Catholic, and most Protestant communions
in accepting for substance the so-called Apostles', Nicene,
and Athanasian creeds, not, however, because they are
venerable or because of the decisions of ecclesiastical
councils, but because, and only in so far as, they have
appeared to them to be in accord with Scripture. … As regards
the set of doctrines on which Augustin differed from his
theological predecessors, and modern Calvinists from
Arminians, Baptists have always been divided. … The great
majority of the Baptists of today hold to what may be called
moderate Calvinism, or Calvinism tempered with the
evangelical anti-Augustinianism which came through the
Moravian Brethren to Wesley and by him was brought powerfully
to bear on all bodies of evangelical Christians. Baptists are
at one with the great Congregational body and with most of
the minor denominations as regards church government."
_A. H. Newman,
A. History of the Baptist Churches in the United States,
introduction._
"Baptist principles are discoverable in New England from the
very earliest colonial settlements. The Puritans of Plymouth
had mingled with the Dutch Baptists during the ten years of
their sojourn in Holland, and some of them seem to have
brought over Baptist tendencies even in the Mayflower. Dutch
Baptists had emigrated to England and extended their
principles there; and from time to time a persecuted Baptist
in England sought refuge in America, and, planted here,
brought forth fruit after his kind. But as every offshoot of
these principles here was so speedily and vigorously beaten
down by persecution, and especially as, after the banishment
of Roger Williams, there was an asylum a few miles distant,
just over Narraganset Bay, where every persecuted man could
find liberty of conscience, Baptist principles made little
progress in the New England colonies, except Rhode Island, for
the first hundred and twenty years. A little church of Welsh
Baptists was founded in Rehoboth, near the Rhode Island line,
in 1663, and shortly afterwards was compelled by civil force
to remove to Swanzea, where, as it was distant from the
centres of settlement, it was suffered to live without very
much molestation. It still exists, the oldest Baptist church
in the State. In 1665, the First Baptist Church in Boston was
organized, and, alone, for almost a century, withstood the
fire of persecution,—ever in the flames, yet never quite
consumed. In 1693, a second church was constituted in Swanzea,
not as a Regular, but as a Six-Principle, Baptist Church. In
1705, a Baptist church was formed in Groton, Connecticut.
These four churches, three Regular and one Six-Principle,
having in the aggregate probably less than two hundred
members, were all the Baptist churches in New England outside
of Rhode Island previous to the Great Awakening."
_D. Weston.
Early Baptists in Massachusetts
(The Baptists and the National Centenary),
pages 12-18._
"The representative Baptists of London and vicinity, who in
1689 put forth the Confession of Faith which was afterward
adopted by the Philadelphia Association, and is therefore
known in this country as the Philadelphia Confession, copied
the Westminister Confession word for word, wherever their
convictions would permit, and declared that they would thus
show wherein they were at one with their brethren, and what
convictions of truth made impossible a complete union. And
wherever Baptists appeared however or by whomsoever they were
opposed, the ground of complaint against them was their
principles. Some of these principles were sharply antagonistic
to those of existing churches, and also to those on which the
civil governments were administered. They were widely
disseminated, especially in Holland, England, and Wales, and
there were separate churches formed. From purely doctrinal
causes also came divisions among 'the Baptized churches'
themselves. The most notable one was that in England between
the General or Arminian Baptists, and the Particular or
Calvinistic Baptists. With the latter division do the Regular
Baptists of America hold lineal connection. … The churches of
Philadelphia and vicinity kept the closest connection with the
mother country, and were most affected by it. In New England,
in 'the Great Reformation' under the lead of Jonathan Edwards,
there was made from within the Congregational churches a most
vigorous assault against their own 'half-way Covenant' in the
interest of a pure church. Along his lines of thought he
started multitudes who could not stop where he himself
remained and would fain have detained them. They separated
from the Congregational churches, and were hence called
Separates. A large proportion of them became Baptists, and
formed themselves into Baptist churches. Through the labors of
earnest men who went from them to Carolina and Virginia, their
principles were widely disseminated in those and the
neighboring colonies, and, in consequence, many churches came
into existence."
_G. D. B. Pepper,
Doctrinal History and Position (The same),
pages 51-52._
BARDI, The.
See MONEY AND BANKING (page 2206).
BARENTZ, Voyages of.
See (in this Supplement) ARCTIC EXPLORATION:
1594-1595; and 1596-1597.
BARNARD COLLEGE.
See EDUCATION (page 743).
BARRE, Colonel Isaac.
Speech against the Stamp Act.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1765 (page 3186).
BATTLE, Trial by.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1077,
and CRIMINAL: A. D. 1818 (pages 1957 and 1985).
BELCHER, Sir Edward,
Franklin search expedition of.
See (in this Supplement) ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1852--1854.
BELGIUM:
Constitutional revision of 1893.
See (in this Supplement) CONSTITUTION OF BELGIUM.
BELGIUM:
King Leopold's legacy of the Congo State.
See (in this Supplement) AFRICA: 1889.
BELGIUM:
Libraries.
See LIBRARIES, MODERN (page 2013).
BELGIUM:
Schools.
See EDUCATION, MODERN (page 709).
BELL TELEPHONE, The invention of the.
See ELECTRICAL DISCOVERY AND INVENTION:
A. D. 1876-1892 (page 776).
[Transcriber's Note.]
_T. O'Conor Sloane
The Standard Electrical Dictionary,
www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26535._
BELLAMY, Edward, and the Nationalist Movement.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1888-1893 (page 2956).
BENTHAM, Jeremy, and reforms in the Law of Evidence.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1851 (page 1979).
{3691}
BERNADOTTE:
Election to the throne of Sweden.
See (in this Supplement) SWEDEN: A. D. 1810.
BIBLIOTHÈQUE NATIONALE.
See LIBRARIES, MODERN: FRANCE (page 2010).
BICHAT, and the progress of physiological science.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 18TH CENTURY (page 2142).
BILL OF ATTAINDER.
See (in this Supplement) ATTAINDER
BILLS OF EXCHANGE.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1603 (page 1968).
BIORKO.
See (in this Supplement), COMMERCE, MEDIÆVAL.
BISMARCK'S POLICY AND SPEECHES.
See (in this Supplement) GERMANY: A. D. 1862-1890.
BLACK FRIDAY.
See NEW YORK: A. D. 1869 (page 2347).
BLAKE, Admiral Robert, Victories of.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1652-1654 (page 885).
BLANC, Louis, and his scheme of stateaided co-operation.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1840-1848 (page 2942).
BLUE LAWS OF CONNECTICUT, The.
"Just when or by whom the acts and proceedings of New Haven
colony were first stigmatized as Blue Laws, cannot now be
ascertained. The presumption, however, is strong that the name
had its origin in New York, and that it gained currency in
Connecticut, among episcopalian and other dissenters from the
established church, between 1720 and 1750. … In the colony of
New Haven, before the union with Connecticut, the privileges
of voting and of holding civil office were, by the
'fundamental agreement,' restricted to church-members. This
peculiarity of her constitution was enough to give color to
the assertion that her legislation was, pre-eminently, blue.
That her old record-book contained a code of 'blue laws' which
were discreditable to puritanism and which testified to the
danger of schism—became, among certain classes, an assured
belief. To this imaginary code wit and malice made large
additions, sometimes by pure invention, sometimes by borrowing
absurd or arbitrary laws from the records of other colonies.
And so the myth grew—till the last vestige of truth was lost
in fable. The earliest mention of the 'New Haven Blue Laws'
that I remember to have seen in print, is in a satirical
pamphlet published in 1762, entitled; 'The Real Advantages
which Ministers and People may enjoy, especially in the
Colonies, by conforming to the Church of England,' etc. … From
the manner in which this allusion is introduced it is evident
that reproach of New Haven for her 'blue laws' was already a
familiar weapon of religious controversy. A few years later—in
1767—William Smith, Chief-Justice of New York, had the
curiosity to inspect 'the first records of the colony of New
Haven, vulgarly called the Blue Laws.' In the continuation of
his history of New York, he gives (p. 93) the result of his
examination: 'A note ought not to be suppressed concerning
these records, to correct a voice of misplaced ridicule. Few
there are, who speak of the Blue Laws, … who do not imagine
they form a code of rules for future conduct, drawn up by an
enthusiastic, precise set of religionists; and if the
inventions of wits, humorists, and buffoons were to be
credited, they must consist of many volumes. The author had
the curiosity to resort to them, when the Commissaries met at
New Haven, for adjusting a partition line between New York and
the Massachusetts in 1767; and a parchment-covered book of
demi-royal paper was handed to him for the laws asked for, as
the only volume in the office passing under this odd title. …
It contains the memorials of the first establishment of the
colony, which consisted of persons who had wandered beyond the
limits of the old charter of the Massachusetts Bay, and who,
as yet unauthorized by the crown to set up any civil
government in due form of law, resolved to conduct themselves
by the Bible. As a necessary consequence, the judges they
chose took up an authority similar to that which every
religious man exercises over his own children and domestics.
Hence their attention to the morals of the people, in
instances with which the civil magistrate can never
intermeddle under a regular well-policied institution;
because, to preserve liberty, they are cognizable only by
parental authority. … So far is the common idea of the blue
laws being a collection of rules from being true, that they
are only records of convictions, consonant, in the judgment of
the magistrates, to the word of God, and dictates of reason.'
… Occasional allusions to the 'Blue Laws' are found in
newspapers and pamphlets printed before the Revolution, but no
specimens of the laws so stigmatised seem to have been
published before 1781, when 'a sketch of some of them' was
given to the world by the Rev. Samuel Peters, in 'A General
History of Connecticut, from its First Settlement under George
Fenwick, Esq.,' etc.: 'By a Gentleman of the Province:'
printed in London, 'for the Author.' … As the sole authority
for the only 'New Haven Blue Laws' that are now popularly
known by the name, he and his book are entitled here to a
larger notice. The late Professor J. L. Kingsley, in the notes
to his Historical Discourse at New Haven (1838), was at the
pains of pointing out 'a few errors'—as he charitably named
them—of 'the work which, more than any other, has given
currency to various misrepresentations respecting the New
Haven colony:' and in this connection he quoted a remark made
by the Rev. Dr. Trumbull, the historian, who was a townsman of
Peters and had known him from childhood,—that, 'of all men
with whom he had ever been acquainted, Dr. Peters, he had
thought, from his first knowledge of him, the least to be
depended upon as to any matter of fact, especially in
story-telling.' The best excuse that can be made for him is,
that he was a victim of pseudomania; that his abhorrence of
truth was in fact a disease, and that he was not morally
responsible for its outbreaks. He could not keep even his name
clear of falsification. It passes into history with doubtful
initials and fictitious titles. … In 1774, his obstinate and
aggressive toryism rendered him very obnoxious to his
neighbors and finally provoked the resentment of the Sons of
Liberty. A party of two or three hundred men paid him a visit,
threatened him (so he averred) with tar and feathers, handled
him somewhat roughly when they detected him in falsehood, and
drew from him a promise that he would not again meddle in
public affairs. … He found his only comfort in the
anticipation that, if his plans of vengeance should succeed,
Connecticut might be blotted out: 'the bounds of New York may
directly extend to Connecticut river, Boston meet them, New
Hampshire take the Province of Maine, and Rhode Island be
swallowed up as Dathan.'
{3692}
In October, 1774, he sailed for England, where he remained
until 1805. He obtained a small pension from the crown, and
some compensation for the property he professed to have lost
in Connecticut: and it was perhaps in the hope of eking out a
livelihood, as well as of gratifying his resentment, that he
employed his pen in abuse of the colony which gave him birth,
and the religion of his fathers. He did not, says Mr.
Duykinck, 'carry his point of dismembering Connecticut, but he
punished the natives almost as effectually by writing a
book—his History of the State.'"
_J. H. Trumbull,
Introduction to "The True-Blue Laws of
Connecticut and New Haven."_
"In this 'History' were collected all the extravagant stories
that had been set afloat during the previous fifty years to
gratify the stupidity of those among the lower classes in New
York who were descended from the Dutch, or the hatred of the
most bitter of the British royalists. This 'History' is the
first and the only 'authority' for the 'Blue Laws' which were
attributed to the early New Haven colonists. … No person in
America who knew anything about the history of his country
ever seriously quoted Dr. Peters's 'History' as an authority
on any subject whatever. The 'Comic History of England,' or
the 'Travels of Baron Munchausen,' would be as little likely
to be quoted in England for any serious purpose. And yet this
falsehood about the 'Blue Laws,' which was thus first
concocted for a purpose, has a vitality which, in some of its
aspects, is amusing."
W. L. Kingsley,
Blackwood's Magazine on the "Blue Laws"
(New Englander, April, 1871), pages 296-299.
BODLEIAN LIBRARY, The.
See LIBRARIES, MODERN (page 2016).
BOERHAAVE, and humoral pathology.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 17TH CENTURY (page 2136).
BOLOGNA, University of.
See EDUCATION, MEDIÆVAL (page 696).
"BOMBA," King.
See ITALY: A. D. 1848-1849 (page 1862).
BOOTH, Reverend General William, and the Salvation Army.
See (in this Supplement) SALVATION ARMY.
BOROUGH FRANCHISE, English.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1884-1885 (pages 973-978).
BOSTON LATIN SCHOOL.
See EDUCATION, MODERN (page 727).
BOTHWELL, James Hepburn, Earl of, and Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots.
See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1561-1568 (page 2857).
BOWDOIN COLLEGE.
An act of the Legislature of the province of Maine, approved
in 1794, incorporated the above-named institution. The
management of the college was placed under a board of
trustees, with full powers of control. … That the institution
might not want for proper support, it was further enacted,
'That the clear rents, issues, and profits of all the estate,
real and personal, of which the said corporation shall be
seized or possessed, shall be appropriated to the endowment of
the said college, in such manner as will most effectually
promote virtue, piety, and the knowledge of such of the
languages and the useful and liberal arts and sciences as
shall hereafter be directed from time to time by said
corporation.' Five townships of land, each six miles square,
were granted to the college for Its endowment and vested in
the trustees, provided that fifteen families be settled in
each of the said townships within a period of twelve years,
and provided further that three lots containing 320 acres each
be reserved, one for the first settled minister, one for the
use of the ministry, and one for the support of schools within
the township where it is located. These townships were to be
laid out and assigned from any of the unappropriated lands
belonging to the commonwealth of the district of Maine. The
first money endowment was instituted by a general law of
Massachusetts, approved February 24, 1814, which reads as
follows: 'Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
Representatives in General Court now assembled, That the tax
which the president, directors and company of the
Massachusetts Bank are and shall be liable to pay to the
commonwealth, shall be and hereby is granted to and
appropriated as follows, viz: ten-sixteenths parts thereof to
the president and fellows of Harvard College; and
three-sixteenths parts thereof to the president and trustees
of Williams College; and three-sixteenths thereof
to the president and trustees of Bowdoin College.'"
_F. W. Blackmar,
History of Federal and State Aid to Higher Education in
the United States (Bureau of Education, Circular of Information, 1890, number 1), pages 123-124._
The college was named in honor of Governor James Bowdoin, of
Massachusetts, whose son made valuable gifts to it.
BRACTON, Henry de, and early English Law.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1216-1272 (page 1961).
BRADFORD PRESS, The.
See PRINTING AND PRESS: A. D. 16815-1693:
and 1704-1729 (page 2597).
BRAZIL: A. D. 1891.
Adoption of the Constitution.
For text see CONSTITUTION OF BRAZIL (page 518).
BRAZIL: A. D. 1893-1894.
Triumph of the Peixoto government.
"The civil war In Brazil resulted in the complete triumph of
the Peixoto government in the spring. During November [1893]
the insurgents held their own in the harbor of Rio Janeiro,
and in the following month occupied a number of islands in the
bay. On December 1 Admiral Mello, their leader, with two of
his ships, ran past the government batteries and out to sea,
leaving in command in the harbor Admiral da Gama, who up to
that time had remained neutral. The latter shortly after
issued a manifesto pointing to a restoration of the monarchy
as the ultimate purpose of the rebels. This seems to have
tended rather to weaken the insurgent cause, and a month later
da Gama tried in another proclamation to explain away the
interpretation that had been put upon the first. The
government, meanwhile, confined itself to strengthening its
positions in the city and along the shore so as to make any
attempt to land unsuccessful. Desultory hostilities continued
throughout December and January, incidentally to which the
American commander on one occasion enforced respect for
merchant vessels bearing his flag by firing on an insurgent
vessel. On February 12 da Gama made his most elaborate attempt
to gain a foothold on the main land at Armacao, but was repulsed
with severe losses.
{3693}
By this time the insurgent cause was clearly on the decline.
On the first of March a presidential election was held, which
resulted in the choice of Prudente Moraes, a civilian. This
removed the leading grievance of the rebels, that Piexoto was
perpetuating a regime of pure militarism. On the 11th of March
the fleet which the government had been fitting out in the United
States and Europe appeared at the entrance to the harbor of
Rio, and Peixoto gave notice of an active movement against the
rebels. Da Gama promptly offered to surrender on certain
conditions, which being refused, he and his officers sought
asylum on first a French and later a Portuguese war vessel.
Thus deserted, the crews of the insurgent vessels surrendered
without resistance when the government batteries opened fire
on the 13th. Admiral Mello, meanwhile, had been operating with
some success in connection with the insurgents on land in the
southern states of Brazil. In the first part of April,
however, the government forces totally defeated the rebels in
Rio Grande do Sul, and Mello, about the middle of the month,
surrendered himself and his command to the Uruguayan
authorities, by whom they were disarmed."
_Political Science Quarterly,
June, 1894._
BREAKSPEAR, Nicholas.
Pope Hadrian IV., 1154-1159.
BRETHREN OF THE COMMON LIFE, Schools of the.
See EDUCATION, RENAISSANCE (page 705).
BRISBANE, Albert, and Fourierism in America.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1832-1847,
and 1841-1847 (pages 2940 and 2944).
BRITANNIC FEDERATION, Proposed.
See FEDERAL GOVERNMENT (page 1112).
BRITISH MUSEUM LIBRARY, The.
See LIBRARIES, MODERN: ENGLAND (page 2014).
BROCTON COMMUNITY, The.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1867-1875 (page 2951).
BROOK FARM.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS; A. D. 1841-1847 (page 2943).
BROTHERHOOD OF THE NEW LIFE, The.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1867-1875 (page 2951).
BROWN UNIVERSITY.
"Brown University, the oldest and best endowed institution of
learning connected with the Baptist denomination, dates back
for its origin to a period anterior to the American
Revolution, when in all the thirteen colonies there were less
than 70 Baptist churches, with perhaps 4,000 communicants. It
is not surprising that, at the memorable meeting of the
Philadelphia Association, held on the 12th of October, 1762,
when the members were finally led to regard it, in the words
of Backus, as 'practicable and expedient to erect a College in
the Colony of Rhode Island, under the chief direction of the
Baptists, in which education might be promoted and superior
learning obtained, free from any sectarian tests,' the mover
in the matter should at first have been laughed at, the thing
being looked upon as, under the circumstances, an utter
impossibility. But lenders at that time, like Morgan Edwards
and Isaac Eaton, Samuel Jones, Abel Morgan, Benjamin Griffith,
John Sutton and John Gano, were men of faith. … At the time of
which I speak, there was graduated from Princeton, with the
second honors of his class, a man of wonderful mental and
physical endowments, an early pupil of Isaac Eaton at
Hopewell, James Manning, of Elizabethtown, New Jersey. To him
the enterprise of the college was by common consent intrusted.
… The first commencement of the college, which was held in the
then new Baptist meeting-house of the town of Warren, on the
7th of September, 1769, has already been regarded as a Red
Letter Day in its history. Five years previous, the General
Assembly, begun and holden by adjournment at East Greenwich,
on the last Monday in February, 1764; after various
difficulties and delays, in consequence of the determined
opposition of those who were unfriendly to the movement, had
granted a charter for a 'College or University in the English
Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in New
England in America.' Such is the language of the act of
incorporation. But though Rhode Island had been selected for
its home by the original projectors of the institution, and a
liberal and ample charter had thus been secured, the college
itself was still in embryo. Without funds, without students,
and with no present prospect of support, a beginning must be
made where the president could be the pastor of a church, and
thus obtain an adequate compensation for his services. Warren,
then as now, a delightful and flourishing inland town,
situated 10 miles from Providence, seemed to meet the
requisite requirements and thither, accordingly, Manning
removed with his family in the spring of 1764. He at once
commenced a Latin School, as the first step preparatory to the
work of college instruction. Before the close of the year a
church was organized, over which he was duly installed as
pastor. The following year, at the second annual meeting of
the corporation, held in Newport, Wednesday, September 3d, he
was formally elected, in the language of the records,
'President of the College, Professor of Languages and other
branches of learning, with full power to act in these
capacities at Warren or elsewhere.' On that same day, as
appears from a paper now on file in the archives of the
Library, the president matriculated his first student, William
Rogers, a lad of fourteen, the son of Captain William Rogers,
of Newport. Not only was this lad the first student of the
college, but he was also the first freshman class. Indeed, for
a period of nine months and seventeen days, as appears from
the paper already referred to, he constituted the entire body
of students. From such feeble beginnings has the university
sprung."
_R. A. Guild,
The First Commencement of Rhode Island College
(Rhode Island Historical Society Collections, v. 7),
pages 269-271._
Six years after the founding of the University it was removed
from Warren to Providence, and its name changed from Rhode
Island College to Brown University, in honor of John Brown, of
Providence, who was its most liberal benefactor.
_G. W. Greene,
Short History of Rhode Island,
page 196._
Although founded by the Baptist Church, the charter of the
University "expressly forbids the use of religious tests. The
corporation is divided into two Boards—the Trustees, 36 in
number, of whom 22 must be Baptists, 5 Quakers, 5
Episcopalians, and 4 Congregationalists, and the Fellows, 12
in number, of whom 8, including the President, must be
Baptists, and the remainder of other denominations. Twelve
Trustees and 5 Fellows form a quorum. The college estate, the
students, and the members of the faculty, with their families,
are exempt from taxation and from serving as jurors."
_S. G. Arnold,
History of the State of Rhode Island,
chapter 18 (volume 2)._
{3694}
BRUCHION, Library of the.
See LIBRARIES, ANCIENT (page 2003).
BRUNONIAN SYSTEM, The.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 18TH CENTURY (page 2141).
BRYN MAWR COLLEGE.
See EDUCATION (page 743).
BUBBLE ACT, The.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1710 (page 1971).
BULGARIANS, The conversion of the.
See CHRISTIANITY: 9TH CENTURY (page 464).
BUREAU OF EDUCATION, The United States.
See EDUCATION, MODERN (page 735).
BURKE, Edmund.
Speech on Conciliation of the American Colonies.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1775 (pages 3218-3221).
BYNG, Admiral John, Execution of.
See MINORCA: A. D. 1756 (page 2187).
BYZANTINE TRADE.
See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE, MEDIÆVAL.
CABOTS, Voyages of the.
See (in this Supplement) AMERICA.
C.
CALHOUN, John C., The aggressive proslavery policy of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1837-1838, and 1847 (pages 3375 and 3380).
CAMBOJA.
See TONKIN (page 3114).
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY.
See EDUCATION (pages 701, 706 and 710).
CAMPBELLITES, The.
See (in this Supplement) DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
CANADA:
Constitution of the Dominion.
See CONSTITUTION OF CANADA (page 526).
CANADA:
Libraries.
See LIBRARIES, MODERN: CANADA (page 2023).
CANADA:
The Ontario school system.
See EDUCATION, MODERN (page 733).
CANALS.
See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE, MODERN.
CANULEIAN LAW, The.
See ROME: B. C. 445-400 (page 2667).
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.
See LAW, CRIMINAL: A. D. 1600,
and 1660-1820 (pages 1983 and 1984).
CARNATIC, The.
See (in this Supplement) KARNATIC.
CARNOT, President Sadi, The assassination of.
See (in this Supplement) FRANCE: A. D. 1894-1895.
CARTHAGINIAN COMMERCE.
See (In this Supplement) COMMERCE, ANCIENT.
CASHGAR.
See TURKESTAN (page 3130);
and YAKOOB BEG (page 3662).
CASIMIR-PERIER,
Election to the Presidency of the French Republic,
and resignation.
See (in this Supplement) FRANCE: A. D. 1894-1895.
CATHOLIC REACTION IN GERMANY, The.
See (in this Supplement) GERMANY: 16TH CENTURY;
also, page 2457.
CAUCASUS, The Races of the.
"One of the most remarkable characteristics of the Caucasus is
that, while it has acted as a barrier between the north and
the south, stopping and turning aside the movements of
population, it has also preserved within its sheltered
recesses fragments of the different peoples who from time to
time have passed by it, or who have been driven by conquest
into it from the lower country. Thus it is a kind of
ethnological museum, where specimens may be found of countless
races and languages, some of which probably belong to the
early ages of the world; races that seem to have little
affinity with their present neighbours, and of whose history
we know nothing except what comparative philology can reveal.
Even before the Christian era it was famous for the variety of
its peoples. … No more inappropriate ethnological name was
ever propounded than that of Caucasian for a fancied division
of the human family, the cream of mankind, from which the
civilized peoples of Europe are supposed to have sprung. For
the Caucasus is to-day as it was in Strabo's time, full of
races differing in religion, language, aspect, manners,
character."
_J. Bryce,
Trans-caucasia and Ararat,
chapter 2._
CELESTINES,
CELESTINIANS.
A religious order founded by the hermit, Peter of Morone, who
afterwards, in 1294, became Pope, and took the name Celestine
V. The rules of the order were austere. It became widespread
throughout Europe, but was suppressed in France in 1766.
CENSORSHIP OF THE PRESS, in England and Germany.
See PRINTING AND PRESS: A. D. 1695 (pages 2597 and 1602).
CENSUS, United States.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1790 (page 3305); 1800 (page 3324), and after.
CHANCELLOR.
CHANCERY.
See LAW, EQUITY (page 1988).
CHARLEMAGNE'S EMPIRE.
See GERMANY: A. D. 687-800, 800, and
814-843 (pages 1436-1438); and (in this Supplement) ROME.
CHARLEMAGNE'S PALATINE SCHOOL.
See EDUCATION, MEDIÆVAL (page 689).
CHARTERHOUSE SCHOOL.
See EDUCATION, MODERN (page 712).
CHASE, Judge, Impeachment and trial of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1804-1805 (page 3329).
CHATHAM, John Pitt, Earl of, and the Walcheren expedition.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1809 (page 947).
CHATHAM, William Pitt, Earl of,
Speech on the repeal of the Stamp Act.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1766 (page 3201).
CHICAGO UNIVERSITY, The founding of the.
See EDUCATION, MODERN (page 738).
CHILE.
The account of Chilean affairs given in volume 1 (pages
411-415) ends with the overthrow and suicide of the
dictatorial usurper, Balmaceda (September 20, 1891), the
triumph of the Congress party, and the election to the
Presidency of Admiral Jorge Montt. During the civil war which
had this termination, the representative of the United States,
Minister Egan, showed marked favor to Balmaceda and his party,
which irritated the Chileans and produced among them a hostile
feeling towards Americans and the American government. This
was increased by the action of Mr. Egan, after the defeat of
the Balmacedists, in sheltering a large number of refugees of
that party within the walls of the American legation.
{3695}
The same was done by other foreign representatives, but to no
such extent, except in the case of the Spanish legation. A
telegram sent by Mr. Egan on the 8th of October to the State
Department at Washington stated: "80 persons sought refuge in
his legation after the overthrow of the Balmaceda government;
about the same number in the Spanish legation, 8 in the
Brazilian, 5 in the French, several in the Uruguayan, 2 in the
German and 1 in the English. Balmaceda sought refuge in the
Argentine. All these have gone out except 15 in his own
legation, 1 in the German and 5 in the Spanish." Not venturing
to violate the privileges of the American Minister's
residence, the Chilean authorities placed it under police
surveillance, and arrested a number of persons entering the
premises. The Minister complained, and was supported in his
complaints at Washington, causing further irritation in Chile.
This was again greatly increased by his claiming the right,
not only to shelter the refugees in his residence, but to
protect them in their departure from the country. In that,
too, he was sustained by his government, and the refugees were
safely sent away. Meantime a more serious cause of quarrel
between the two countries had risen. A party of sailors on
shore at Valparaiso, from the United States ship Baltimore,
had been assailed by a mob, October 16, and two were killed,
while eighteen were wounded. The United States demanded
satisfaction, and much angry correspondence ensued, made
particularly offensive on the Chilean side by an insulting
circular which Señor Matta, the Chilean Foreign Minister,
issued December 13, and which he caused to be published in the
Chilean newspapers. But Señor Matta disappeared from the
Foreign Department soon after and his successor made
apologies. "On January 16th the Chilean authorities notified
Mr. Egan that they would withdraw any offensive passages in
the Matta circular, and had instructed their Minister in
Washington to express regret. The apology, thus expressed both
in Washington and Santiago, was stiff and ungraceful, perhaps
inadequate; but it was made in good faith. On January 20th,
evidently feeling that all was now serene, the Chileans
ventured, acting on a hint of Mr. Blaine's, to ask for Egan's
withdrawal as a 'persona non grata.' What, therefore, must
have been the dismay of the Chileans on January 23d, to
receive an official notice, which the newspapers dubbed an
'ultimatum,' containing the statement that the United States
Government was not satisfied with the result of the judicial
investigation at Valparaiso and still asked 'for a suitable
apology;' that for the Matta note there must be still another
'suitable apology,' without which the United States would
terminate diplomatic relations; and that the request for Mr.
Egan's withdrawal could not at that time be considered. It was
a bitter draught for any government; but threats of war were
resounding through the United States; American naval vessels
were hurriedly being made ready; coal and supplies were going
into the Pacific. There was power behind the note, and Chile
prepared to bend to the storm. The 'ultimatum' appears to have
reached the Chileans on Saturday, January 23d. On Monday,
January 25th, they sent an answer which could not possibly be
read as anything but a complete and abject apology on all the
three points." But on the same day on which this answer was
being forwarded, the President of the United States sent a
warlike message to Congress. "It rehearsed the whole
controversy at great length, submitted copious correspondence,
and ended with the significant phrase: 'In my opinion I ought
not to delay longer to bring these matters to the attention of
Congress for such action as may be deemed appropriate.' … It
is an unprofitable controversy as to whether the authorities
in Washington knew that an answer was on its way: if they had
read the correspondence they knew that an answer must come,
and that the Chilean Ministry must sent a peaceful answer. It
is therefore difficult to understand the purpose of the
President's message. … The effect … was to inflict an
unnecessary humiliation on Chile. Spanish-Americans have good
memories. Mexico still cherishes resentment for the war begun
against her forty-five years ago; and forty-five years hence
the Chileans are likely to remember the Balmaceda affair as
Americans remembered the impressment of American seamen by
Great Britain. We have the apology, but with it we have the
ill-will."
_A. B. Hart,
Practical Essays on American Government,
essay 5._
CHINA,
Education in.
See EDUCATION (pages 675 and 724).
CHINA,
Imperial Library of.
See LIBRARIES, MODERN: CHINA (page 2024).
CHINA,
Mediæval trade with India and the West.
See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE, MEDIÆVAL.
CHINA,
Paper Money, ancient.
See MONEY AND BANKING: CHINA (page 2200}.
CHINA,
War with Japan.
See (in this Supplement) COREA.
CHOLERA, Asiatic, The visitations of.
See PLAGUE: 19TH CENTURY (page 2543).
CHRISTIAN BROTHERS, The.
See EDUCATION, MODERN (page 739).
CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1816-1886 (page 2939).
CID, The.
See (in this Supplement)
SPAIN: A. D. 1034-1090.
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM:
Progress in the United States.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1895 (page 3586).
CLARK UNIVERSITY, The founding of.
See EDUCATION, MODERN (page 738).
CLEVELAND, Grover.
Message on the Tariff question.
See TARIFF LEGISLATION: A. D. 1884-1888 (page 3083).
Special Message on the National Finances.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1895 (page 3586).
COCHIN-CHINA.
See TONKIN(page 3141).
CODES, New York.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1848-1883, and 1848 (page 1979).
COINAGE.
See MONEY, &c. (page 2198).
COLET, John, and St. Paul's School.
See EDUCATION, RENAISSANCE (page 707).
COLLECTIVISM.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: DEFINITION OF TERMS (page 2933).
COLLEGES.
See EDUCATION (page 673) and the same in this Supplement.
COLUMBIA COLLEGE, The founding of.
See EDUCATION, MODERN (page 730).
COMENIUS, and Educational Reform.
See EDUCATION, MODERN (page 739).
{3696}
----------COMMERCE: Start--------
COMMERCE:
Ancient.
The Earliest Records of Trade.
Probably the oldest commercial record that exists was found
sculptured on the rocks in the valley of Hammamat, east from
Koptos on the Nile. It relates to an expedition which was sent
out by the Pharaoh Sankh-ka-ra, to trade in the "land of
Punt." Dr. Brugsch fixes the reign of Sankh-ka-ra at about
2500 B. C., which is five or six centuries before the time
when Abraham is supposed to have lived. The "land of Punt" he
considers to have been the Somali coast of Africa, south of
the extremity of the Red Sea, on the Gulf of Aden. Other
writers maintain that it was southern Arabia. It was the "Holy
Land" of the Egyptians, from which their gods were supposed to
have anciently come. The trading expedition of Sankh-ka-ra was
commanded by one Hannu (a name which has a Phœnician sound)
and it is he who tells the story of it in the inscription at
Hammamat. "I was sent," he says, "to conduct ships to the
country of Punt, to bring back odoriferous gums." He then
describes the army of 3,000 men which accompanied him, and
narrates their march from Koptos to the Red Sea, through the
desert, at several stations in which they dug reservoirs for
water. "I arrived," he continues, "at the port Seba [believed
to be the harbor now called Koseir or Quosseir] and I made
transport vessels to bring back all kinds of products. I made
a great offering of oxen, cows and goats. When I returned from
Seba I executed the order of his Majesty; I brought him back
all kinds of products which I met with in the ports of the
Holy Land. I came back by Uak and Rohan. I brought back
precious stones for the statues of the temples. Never was a
like thing done since there were kings." It would seem from
this that Hannu's expedition opened the first direct trade of
the Egyptians with the land of Punt. But it is evident that
they already had knowledge of the country and of its products,
and it is probable they had formerly been receiving its gums
and precious stones through the traders of some other country.
Some seven or eight centuries after Hannu's voyage to Punt was
made, we obtain in the Bible a most interesting glimpse of the
trade then going on between Egypt and surrounding countries.
It is found in the story of Joseph. When Joseph's brethren
threw him into a pit, intending that he should be left there
to die, their plans were changed by seeing a "Company of
Ishmaelites from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and
balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt." Then Judah
said, "let us sell him to the Ishmaelites," and when these
"Midianites, merchantmen," as they are called in the next
verse, came near, the heartless brothers of Joseph drew him
out of the pit and sold him, to be taken as a slave into
Egypt. Now this story is found to agree well with other facts
that have been learned, and which go to show that some, at
least, among the ancient tribes in northern Arabia—the
Ishmaelites of the Bible—were great traders between the richer
countries that surrounded them. The Midianites and Edomites,
who occupied the region near the head of the Red Sea, were
especially the masters of that trade. Their poor land, which
gave them little to subsist upon, had one gift for its people
that went far toward making up for its barren poverty. It gave
them the camel—that strange and homely beast, which is better
fitted than any other for bearing burdens and for making long
journeys without food or drink. At a later day they acquired
the horse, from Media or from Mesopotamia, and bred that noble
animal to such perfection that Arabia was long supposed to be
its native home. But in Joseph's time the horse can hardly
have been in use among the Arabs, since it seems to have been
unknown in Egypt, which they constantly visited, until a
considerably later day. However that may be, the camel was
always the Arab's most useful servant—his carrier, his patient
burden-bearer, his "ship of the desert," as Eastern poets have
fitly named it. By the poverty of their country, by their
wandering disposition, by their possession of the camel, and
by their geographical situation, intermediate between several
of the richest regions of antiquity, these Arabs of the olden
time must have naturally been made a trading people, as early
as it became possible for trade to exist. To the west of them
was Egypt, with its fertile basin of the Nile and its
remarkable people, probably first among all races that we know
to rise out of barbarism and acquire order and industrial
arts. To the east, in the valley of the Euphrates and Tigris,
were the fertile plains of Mesopotamia, where the second
oldest civilization that Is known was growing up. To the north
were Canaan and Gilead, the Scripture "land of promise," full
of vineyards, of pastures and of harvest fields, with wide
Syria beyond, and with Phœnician merchant cities just rising
along the coast of the sea. To the south, in their own
peninsula, was Arabia Felix, or Arabia the Blest, a famous
land of pleasantness and plenty in ancient days. With their
caravans of camels they traveled back and forth, very busily,
no doubt, through the desert, which needed no building of
bridges or making of roads. In one direction they carried the
barley, wheat, millet, flax and woven goods of Egypt; in
another, the honey, wine, wax, wool, skins, gums, resins and
asphalt of Canaan and Syria; in still another the more costly
freight of gold ornaments, precious stones, pearls, ivory,
ebony, spices and fragrant gums from the south. In all
directions, it is probable, they dragged poor unfortunates
like Joseph, whom they bought or kidnapped from home and
friends, to sell as slaves.
COMMERCE:
Babylonia.
"The industry of the Babylonians quickly attained great skill
and wide development. They were famous for their weaving in
wool and linen. The nations of the West agree in acknowledging
the excellence of the cloths and coloured stuffs of Babylonia.
Their pottery was excellent and the manufacture active; the
preparation of glass was not unknown; the ointments prepared
in Babylon were famous and much sought after, and the stones
cut there were highly valued. The products of Babylonian skill
and industry were first brought to their kinsmen in Syria, who
could offer oil and wine in exchange. In the Hebrew scriptures
we find Babylonian cloaks in use in Syria before the
immigration of the Hebrews into Canaan. … The rough material
required by Babylonian industry was supplied in the first
place by the Arabs, who exchanged their animals, skins, and
wool for corn and weapons.
{3697}
Wine, and more especially wood, of which there was none in
Babylonia, were brought by the Armenians from their valleys in
the north down the Euphrates to Babylon. Before 1500 B. C. the
commerce of the Arabs brought the products of South Arabia,
the spices of Yemen, and even the products and manufactures of
India, especially their silks, which reached the coasts of
Southern Arabia, to Babylon. The Babylonians required the
perfumes of Arabia and India to prepare their ointments. …
When the cities of Phenicia became great centres of trade
which carried the wares of Babylonia by sea to the West in
order to obtain copper in exchange, the trade between
Babylonia and Syria must have become more lively still. It was
the ships of the Phenicians which brought the cubic measure,
and the weights, and the cubit of Babylonia to the shores of
Greece, and caused them to be adopted there."
_M. Duncker,
History of Antiquity,
book 2, chapter 3 (volume 1)._
See, also, MONEY AND BANKING (page 2199).
COMMERCE:
Egypt.
"In ancient Egypt agricultural counted for more than
manufactures, and manufactures were of more importance than
commerce. The trade which existed was brisk enough as far as
it went, but it aimed at little more than the satisfaction of
local wants by the more or less direct exchange of commodities
between producers. The limited development of internal traffic
was due to two principal causes: the natural products of
different parts of the country were too much alike for much
intercourse to be necessary for purposes of exchange, and the
conformation of the country, in itself scarcely larger than
Belgium, was such as to give the longest possible distance
from north to south. … The Nile was the only known highway, so
much so that the language scarcely possessed a general word
for travelling; going southward was called 'going up stream,'
and a journey to the north, even by land into the desert, was
described by a term meaning to sail with the current. … While
internal traffic was thus brought to a minimum by natural
causes, foreign commerce can scarcely be said to have existed,
before the establishment of peaceable intercourse with Syria
under the new empire. The importation of merchandize from
foreign countries was a political rather than a commercial
affair. Such foreign wares as entered the country came as
tribute, as the spoil of war, or as memorials of peaceful
embassies. … The list of the spoil taken by Thothmes III.
gives a tolerably exhaustive account of the treasures of the
time. It includes, of course, bulls, cows, kids, white goats,
mares, foals, oxen, geese, and corn; then follow strange
birds, negroes, men and maid-servants, noble prisoners and the
children of defeated kings, chariots of copper, plated with
gold and silver, iron armour, bows, swords and other
accoutrements, leather collars ornamented with brass, gold and
silver rings, cups, dishes and other utensils, vessels of iron
and copper, statues with heads of gold, ell-measures with
heads of ivory, ebony, and cedar inlaid with gold, chairs,
tables and footstools of cedar wood and ivory, a plough inlaid
with gold, blocks of bluestone, greenstone and lead, 'a golden
storm-cap inlaid with bluestone,' jars of balsam, oil, wine
and honey, various kinds of precious woods, incense,
alabaster, precious stones and colours, iron columns for a
tent with precious stones in them, bricks of pure brass,
elephants' tusks, natron, and, finally, by way of curiosity,
from the land of the kings of Ruthen, three battle-axes of
flint."
_E. J. Simcox,
Primitive Civilizations,
book 1, chapter 3, section. 1 (volume 1)._
See, also, MONEY AND BANKING (page 2199).
COMMERCE:
India.
"It is said in the Rig-Veda that 'merchants desirous of gain
crowd the great waters with their ships.' And the activity in
trade, thus early noted, has continued ever since to be
characteristic of the country. Professor Lassen considers it
remarkable that Hindus themselves discovered the rich,
luxurious character of India's products. Many of the same
beasts, birds, and fragrant oils are produced in other
countries, but remain unnoticed until sought for by
foreigners; whereas the most ancient of the Hindus had a keen
enjoyment in articles of taste or luxury. Rajas and other rich
people delighted in sagacious elephants, swift horses,
splendid peacocks, golden decorations, exquisite perfumes,
pungent peppers, ivory, pearls, gems, &c.; and, consequently,
caravans were in constant requisition to carry these, and
innumerable other matters, between the north and the south,
and the east and the west, of their vast and varied country.
These caravans, it is conjectured, were met at border
stations, and at out-ports, by western caravans or ships bound
to or from Tyre and Egypt, or to or from the Persian Gulf and
the Red Sea. To the appearance of India goods in Greece,
Professor Lassen attributes the Greek invasion of India. … The
indirect evidence afforded by the presence of India's products
in other ancient countries, coincides with the direct
testimony of Sanskrit literature, to establish the fact that
ancient Hindus were a commercial people. The code of Manu
requires the king to determine the prices of commodities, and
also the trustworthiness of the weights and measures used. And
that the transactions contemplated were not restricted to
local products is evident from reference to the charges for
freight for articles in river boats, and the undetermined and
larger charges to which sea-borne goods were liable. The
account of King Yudhishthira's coronation in the Mahâbhârata
affords an instance of precious articles from distant lands
brought into India. So also in the Ramayana, we read that when
Rama and his brothers were married, the brides were clad in
silk from China. … Merchants are constantly being introduced
into Sanskrit fiction, and equally often into Buddhist legend.
They seem to have been always at hand to give variety and
movement to the monotony of daily life."
_Mrs. Manning,
Ancient and Mediæval India,
chapter 40 (volume 2)._
COMMERCE:
Phœnicians and Carthaginians.
"The Phœnicians for some centuries confined their navigation
within the limits of the Mediterranean, the Propontis, and the
Euxine, land-locked seas, which are tideless and far less
rough than the open ocean. But before the time of Solomon they
had passed the pillars of Hercules, and affronted the dangers
of the Atlantic. Their frail and small vessels, scarcely
bigger than modern fishing-smacks, proceeded southwards along
the West African coast, as far as the tract watered by the
Gambia and Senegal, while northwards they coasted along Spain,
braved the heavy seas of the Bay of Biscay, and passing Cape
Finisterre, ventured across the mouth of the English Channel
to the Cassiterides.
{3698}
Similarly, from the West African shore, they boldly steered
for the Fortunate Islands (the Canaries), visible from certain
elevated points of the coast, though at 170 miles distance.
Whether they proceeded further, in the south to the Azores,
Madeira, and the Cape de Verde Islands, in the north to the
coast of Holland, and across the German Ocean to the Baltic,
we regard as uncertain. It is possible that from time to time
some of the more adventurous of their traders may have reached
thus far; but their regular, settled and established
navigation did not, we believe, extend beyond the Scilly
Islands and coast of Cornwall to the north-west, and to the
south-west Cape Non and the Canaries. The commerce of the
Phœnicians was carried on, to a large extent, by land, though
principally by sea. It appears from the famous chapter [xxvii]
of Ezekiel which describes the 'riches and greatness of Tyre
in the 6th century B. C., that almost the whole of Western
Asia was penetrated by the Phœnician caravans, and laid under
contribution to increase the wealth of the Phœnician traders.
… Translating this glorious burst of poetry into prose, we
find the following countries mentioned as carrying on an
active trade with the Phœnician metropolis:—Northern Syria,
Syria of Damascus, Judah and the laud of Israel, Egypt,
Arabia, Babylonia, Assyria, Upper Mesopotamia, Armenia,
Central Asia Minor, Ionia, Cyprus, Hellas or Greece, and
Spain."
_G. Rawlinson,
History of Phœnicia,
chapter 9._
"Though the invincible industry and enterprise of the
Phenicians maintained them as a people of importance down to
the period of the Roman empire, yet the period of their widest
range and greatest efficiency is to be sought much
earlier—anterior to 700 B. C. In these remote times they and
their colonists [the Carthaginians especially] were the
exclusive navigators of the Mediterranean: the rise of the
Greek maritime settlements banished their commerce to a great
degree from the Ægean Sea, and embarrassed it even in the more
westerly waters. Their colonial establishments were formed in
Africa, Sicily, Sardinia, the Balearic Isles, and Spain. The
greatness as well as the antiquity of Carthage, Utica, and
Gades, attest the long-sighted plans of Phenician traders,
even in days anterior to the first Olympiad. We trace the
wealth and industry of Tyre, and the distant navigation of her
vessels through the Red Sea and along the coast of Arabia,
back to the days of David and Solomon. And as neither
Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians, or Indians, addressed
themselves to a sea-faring life, so it seems that both the
importation and the distribution of the products of India and
Arabia into Western Asia and Europe were performed by the
Idumæan Arabs between Petra and the Red Sea—by the Arabs of
Gerrha on the Persian Gulf, joined as they were in later times
by a body of Chaldæan exiles from Babylonia—and by the more
enterprising Phenicians of Tyre and Sidon in these two seas as
well as in the Mediterranean."
_G. Grote,
History of Greece,
part 2, chapter 18._
"The Commerce of Carthage may be conveniently considered under
its two great branches—the trade with Africa, and the trade
with Europe. The trade with Africa … was carried on with the
barbarous tribes of the inland country that could be reached
by caravans, and of the sea-coast. Of both we hear something
from Herodotus, the writer who furnishes us with most of our
knowledge about these parts of the ancient world. … The goods
with which the Carthaginian merchants traded with the African
tribes were doubtless such as those which civilized nations
have always used in their dealings with savages. Cheap finery,
gaudily coloured cloths, and arms of inferior quality, would
probably be their staple. Salt, too, would be an important
article. … The articles which they would receive in exchange
for their goods are easily enumerated. In the first place
comes … gold. Carthage seems to have had always at hand an
abundant supply of the precious metal for use, whether as
money or as plate. Next to gold would come slaves. … Ivory
must have been another article of Carthaginian trade, though
we hear little about it. The Greeks used it extensively in
art. … Precious stones seem to have been another article which
the savages gave in exchange for the goods they coveted. …
Perhaps we may add dates to the list of articles obtained from
the interior. The European trade dealt, of course, partly with
the things already mentioned, and partly with other articles
for which the Carthaginian merchants acted as carriers, so to
speak, from one part of the Mediterranean to another. Lipara,
and the other volcanic islands near the southern extremity of
Italy, produced resin; Agrigentum, and possibly other cities
of Sicily, traded in sulphur brought down from the region of
Etna; wine was produced in many of the Mediterranean
countries. Wax and honey were the staple goods of Corsica.
Corsican slaves, too, were highly valued. The Iron of Elba,
the fruit and the cattle of the Balearic islands, and, to go
further, the tin and copper of Britain, and even amber from
the Baltic, were articles of Carthaginian commerce. Trade was
carried on not only with the dwellers on the coast, but with
inland tribes. Thus goods were transported across Spain to the
interior of Gaul, the jealousy of Massilia (Marseilles) not
permitting the Carthaginians to have any trading stations on
the southern coast of that country."
_A. J. Church and A. Gilman,
The Story of Carthage,
part 3, chapter 3._
A high authority on questions of intercourse in ancient times
throws doubt on the supposed African caravan trade of the
Carthaginians—as follows: "There seems no doubt that the
existing system of caravan trade dates only from the
introduction of Islamism into Africa. It was the Arabs who
first introduced the camel into Northern Africa, and without
camels any extensive intercourse with the interior was
impossible. The Negro races have never shown any disposition
to avail themselves of this mode of transport, and at the
present day the commerce of the interior is carried on almost
entirely by Moorish, that is, by Mohammedan, traders. The
spread of Islamism has doubtless led to increased
communication from another cause, the necessity for the
Mohammedan inhabitants of the outlying and detached regions of
the continent to make the pilgrimage to Mecca. Even in the
most flourishing times of the Carthaginians they do not appear
to have made any use of camels; and as late as the days of
Strabo the communications with the tribes of Western Africa
who dwelt beyond the Sahara were scanty and irregular. In the
time of Herodotus there is certainly no indication that either
the Carthaginians or the Greeks of the Cyrenaica had any
commercial intercourse with the regions beyond the Great
Desert."
_E. H. Bunbury,
History of Ancient Geography,
chapter 8, note I (volume 1)._
See, also, PHŒNICIANS (pages 2530-2534);
and CARTHAGE (pages 392-395).
{3699}
COMMERCE:
Jews.
Beginning early in his reign, Solomon made great and
enlightened efforts to promote the commerce and industries of
the people of Israel. "To increase the land traffic, he had
small cities built in advantageous localities, in which goods
of all sorts in large quantities were kept in suitable
storehouses; a practice similar to that which had from ancient
times prevailed in Egypt. … They were established chiefly in
the most northern districts of Israel, towards the Phœnician
boundaries, as well as in the territories of the kingdom of
Hamath, which was first conquered by Solomon himself.—The main
road for the land traffic between Egypt and the interior of
Asia must have been the great highway leading past Gaza and
further west of Jerusalem to the Northern Jordan and Damascus.
Here it was joined by the road from the Phœnician cities, and
continued as far as Thapsacus, on the Euphrates. This was
entirely in the dominions of the king; and here, under the
peaceful banner of a great and powerful monarchy, commerce
could flourish as it had never flourished before. It was
clearly for the improvement of this route, which had to
traverse the Syrian desert on the north, that Solomon built,
in a happily chosen oasis of this wilderness, the city of
Thammor, or Tadmor, of which the Greek version is Palmyra.
There is not a single indication that this city was of
importance before Solomon's time, but from that era it
flourished for more than a thousand years. … For any distant
navigation, however, Solomon was obliged to rely on the aid of
the Phœnicians, inasmuch as they were in that age the only
nation which possessed the necessary ability and inclination
for it. It is true that the idea of competing with the
Phœnicians upon the Mediterranean could hardly have occurred
to him, since they had long before that time attracted all the
commerce upon it to themselves, and would scarcely have
desired or even tolerated such a rival. … But the Red Sea,
which had been thrown open to the kings of Israel by the
conquest of the Idumeans, offered the finest opportunity for
the most distant and lucrative undertakings, the profit of
which might perfectly satisfy a nation in the position of
Israel in the dawn of maritime activity; and on their part,
the Phœnicians could not fail to be most willing helpers in
the promotion of undertakings which it lay in the hands of the
powerful king of Israel entirely to cut off from them, or at
any rate to encumber with great difficulties. In this way the
mutual desires and needs of two nations coincided without any
injury to the one or the other. … Phœnician sailors were at
first, it is true, the teachers of the Israelite. It was they
who aided them in constructing and manning the tall ships,
which, destined to distant voyages upon uncertain seas, needed
to be strongly built; but yet how many new ideas and what
varied knowledge the nation would in this way acquire! The
ships were built in Ezion-geber, the harbour of the town of
Elath (or Eloth), probably on the very spot where Akaba now
stands. The cargo brought back each time from the three years'
voyage consisted of 420 talents of gold, besides silver,
ivory, red sandal-wood, apes, and peacocks, probably also nard
and aloe."
_H. Ewald,
History of Israel,
volume 3, page 261-264._
COMMERCE:
Greeks.
"When the Greeks had established themselves, not only on the
peninsula, but also on the islands and on the east coast of
the Ægean Sea, their navigation was greatly extended. That
this, even in the first half of the 8th century, was
profitable in its results, we see from the instance of Dius of
Cyme, the father of Hesiod, who maintained himself in this
manner. The works of art in which Lydia and Caria excelled,
together with the products and manufactures of the east, which
reached the western coasts of Asia, the products of these
coasts, and wine and oil from Lesbos and Samos—all these could
be shipped from the Greek maritime cities of Asia Minor, and
carried to the peninsula. It was through this commerce … that
Chalcis and Eretria laid the foundation of their greatness. To
what proportions it had attained, even in the course of the
8th century, we find from the mint marks of Phocæa and Cyme,
the standards of Chalcis and Eretria, the coins and weights
and measures of Phidon of Argos. … From the middle of the 8th
century, the Greeks no longer merely practised navigation;
they became, in an eminent sense, a maritime nation. At the
time when Sinope and Trapezus were founded in the east, Naxos,
Catana, and Syracuse in Sicily, and Cyme in Campania, a
nautical discovery had already been made, by means of which
the Greeks surpassed the Phœnicians, the ancient voyagers of
Syria; this was the building of triremes. To what an extent
and proficiency must seamanship have attained, what importance
naval battles must have assumed, to give rise to the attempt
to replace the ancient war vessels by others of a far more
powerful kind! When the first triremes were built at Corinth
and Samos, about the year 700 B. C., Greek cities already
existed on the southern shore of the Black Sea, on the coasts
of Thrace, in Corcyra and Sicily; the southern coast of Italy
had also been colonised. The products of Greek industry,
pottery, implements, and weapons, were advantageously bartered
on the coasts of the Thracians, Scythians, Illyrians,
Sicilians, and Oscans, for the fruits of the soil, and for the
cattle of those regions. The need of the means of exchange
must have given great encouragement and impetus to
manufactures in the Greek cities of the peninsula, on the
coasts of Asia, and in the newly-founded Asiatic settlements
themselves. … Navigation and commerce must have become
permanent occupations. And the great increase of manufactures
must also have given employment to numbers of the country
people. Thus there grew up under the very rule of the
aristocracy a powerful rival to itself; a nautical, artisan,
commercial class, side by side with the land population. If
the protecting walls of the chief place of the canton had
previously been sought only in time of need, in case of
surprises or hostile landings, the new industrial classes were
now settled together in the harbours and centres of trade.
Handicrafts, navigation, and commerce, could not exist without
one another. In the maritime cantons on the east of the
peninsula, and in the cantons on the coasts of the
Peloponnesus, there sprang up simultaneously with the burgher
class a town population."
_M. Duncker,
History of Greece,
book 4, chapter 2 (volume 2)._
{3700}
"Between 700 B. C. and 530 B. C., we observe … an immense
extension of Grecian maritime activity and commerce—but we at
the same time notice the decline of Tyre and Sidon, both in
power and traffic. The arms of Nebuchadnezzar reduced the
Phenician cities to the same state of dependence as that which
the Ionian cities underwent half a century later from Crœsus
and Cyrus; while the ships of Miletus, Phokæa and Samos
gradually spread over all those waters of the Levant which had
once been exclusively Phenician. In the year 704 B. C., the
Samians did not yet possess a single trireme: down to the year
630 B. C. not a single Greek vessel had yet visited Libya. But
when we reach 550 B. C. we find the Ionic ships predominant in
the Ægean, and those of Corinth and Korkyra in force to the
west of Peloponnesus—we see the flourishing cities of Kyrene
and Barka already rooted in Libya, and the port of Naukratis a
busy emporium of Grecian commerce with Egypt. The trade by
land—which is all that Egypt had enjoyed prior to
Psammetichus, and which was exclusively conducted by
Phenicians—is exchanged for a trade by sea, of which the
Phenicians have only a share, and seemingly a smaller share
than the Greeks. Moreover the conquest by Amasis of the island
of Cyprus, half-filled with Phenician settlements and once the
tributary dependency of Tyre—affords an additional mark of the
comparative decline of that great city. In her commerce with
the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf she still remained without a
competitor, the schemes of the Egyptian king Nekos having
proved abortive. Even in the time of Herodotus, the spices and
frankincense of Arabia were still brought and distributed only
by the Phenician merchant. But on the whole, both political
and industrial development of Tyre are now cramped by
impediments, and kept down by rivals, not before in operation.
… The 6th century B. C., though a period of decline for Tyre
and Sidon, was a period of growth for their African colony
Carthage, which appears during this century in considerable
traffic with the Tyrrhenian towns on the southern coast of
Italy, and as thrusting out the Phokæan settlers from Alalia
in Corsica."
_G. Grote,
History of Greece,
part 2, chapter 21._
"It is a remarkable fact in the history of Greek colonies that
the exploration of the extreme west of the Mediterranean was
not undertaken either by the adventurers who settled at Cyme,
or by the powerful cities of Sicily. A century or more elapsed
from the foundation of Syracuse before any Greek vessel was
seen on the coast of Spain or Liguria, and when the new
beginning was made, it was not made by any of the colonies,
Chalcidian, Dorian, or Rhodian, which had taken part in the
discovery of the West. It was the Phocaeans of Ionia,
Herodotus tells us, who first made the Greeks acquainted with
the Hadriatic, with Tyrrhenia, Iberia (Spain), and Tartessus
(the region round Cadiz). The first impulse to these distant
voyages arose from a mere accident. At the time of the
foundation of Cyrene, about the year 630 B. C., a Greek of
Samos, by name Colaeus, when on his way to Egypt, was carried
by contrary winds beyond the pillars of Heracles to Tartessus.
There he found a virgin market, from which he returned to
realise a profit of 60 talents (£12,000), an amount only
surpassed by the gains of Sostratus of Aegina, who was the
premier of Greek merchants. But this was the beginning and the
end of Samian trade to the West; why they left it to the
Phocaeans to enter into the riches which they had discovered,
we cannot say, but within thirty years of this date, the
enterprising Ionian town sent out a colony to Massilia near
the mouth of the Rhone, in the district known as Liguria. …
The mouth of the Rhone was the point where all the routes met
which traversed France from the English Channel to the Gulf of
Genoa. Of these Strabo specifies three. Merchandise was
carried by boats up the Rhone and Saône, from which it was
transferred to the Seine, and so passed down the river; or it
was taken by land from Marseilles (or Narbo) to the Loire; or
again carried up the Aude and transported thence to the
Garonne. By one or other of these routes, the wares collected
by the Gaulish merchants—more especially the tin, which they
imported from Britain—was brought into the Greek market, if
indeed it was not carried on pack-horses straight across the
narrowest part of the country. The importance of these lines
of transit at a time when the western Mediterranean was held
by the Carthaginians, and the northern Hadriatic by the
Tyrrhenians, can hardly be over-estimated. The colonists
extended their borders by degrees, though not without severe
contests with the Ligurians and Tyrrhenians by sea and land.
New cities were founded to serve as outposts against the
enemy; Agatha in the direction of the barbarians of the Rhone;
Olbia, Antipolis, and Nicaea in the direction of the Salyans
and Ligurians of the Alps. They also spread themselves down
the coast of Spain."
_E. Abbott,
History of Greece,
part 2, chapter 13._
COMMERCE:
Rome.
"Rome, placed like a mightier Mexico in the centre of her
mighty lake, was furnished with every luxury and with many of
her chief necessaries from beyond the waters; and cities on
every coast, nearly similar in latitude and climate, vied in
intense rivalry with each other in ministering to her
appetite. First in the ranks of commerce was the traffic in
corn, which was conducted by large fleets of galleys, sailing
from certain havens once a year at stated periods, and pouring
their stores into her granaries in their appointed order. Gaul
and Spain, Sardinia and Sicily, Africa and Egypt were all
wheat-growing countries, and all contributed of their produce,
partly as a tax, partly also as an article of commerce, to the
sustentation of Rome and Italy. The convoy from Alexandria was
looked for with the greatest anxiety, both as the heaviest
laden, and as from the length of the voyage the most liable to
disaster or detention. The vessels which bore the corn of
Egypt were required to hoist their topsails on sighting the
promontory of Surrentum, both to distinguish them from others,
and to expedite their arrival. These vessels moreover,
according to the institution of Augustus, were of more than
ordinary size, and they were attended by an escort of war
galleys. The importance attached to this convoy was marked by
the phrases, 'auspicious' and 'sacred,' applied to it. … A
deputation of senators from Rome was directed to await its
arrival at the port where it was about to cast anchor, which,
from the bad condition of the haven at Ostia, was generally at
this period Puteoli in Campania.
{3701}
As soon as the well-known topsails were seen above the horizon
a general holiday was proclaimed, and the population of the
country, far and near, streamed with joyous acclamations to
the pier, and gazed upon the rich flotilla expanding gaily
before them. The vessels engaged in this trade, however
numerous, were after all of small burden. The corn-fleets did
not indeed form the chief maritime venture of the
Alexandrians. The products of India, which had formerly
reached Egypt from Arabia, and were supposed indeed in Europe
to have come only from the shores of the Erythræan Sea, were
now conveyed direct to Cleopatris or Berenice from the mouths
of the Indus and the coast of Malabar, and employed an
increasing number of vessels, which took advantage of the
periodical trade winds both in going and returning. The
articles of which they went in quest were for the most part
objects of luxury; such as ivory and tortoise shell, fabrics
of cotton and silk, both then rare and costly, pearls and
diamonds, and more especially gums and spices. The consumption
of these latter substances in dress, in cookery, in the
service of the temples, and above all at funerals, advanced
with the progress of wealth and refinement. The consignments
which reached Alexandria from the East were directed to every
port on the Mediterranean; but there was no corresponding
demand for the produce of the West in India, and these
precious freights were for the most part exchanged for gold
and silver, of which the drain from Europe to Asia was
uninterrupted. The amount of the precious metals thus
abstracted from the currency or bullion of the empire, was
estimated at 100,000,000 sesterces, or about £800,000 yearly.
The reed called papyrus, the growth of which seems to have
been almost confined to the banks of the Nile, was in general
use as the cheapest and most convenient writing material, and
the consumption of it throughout the world, though it never
entirely superseded the use of parchment and waxen tablets,
must have been immense. It was converted into paper in Egypt,
and thence exported in its manufactured state; but this
practice was not universal, for we read of a house at Rome
which improved on the native process, and produced what Pliny
calls an imperial or noble out of a mere plebeian texture.
With respect to other articles of general use, it may be
remarked that the most important, such as corn, wine, oil, and
wool, were the common produce of all the coasts of the
Mediterranean, and there was accordingly much less interchange
of these staple commodities among the nations of antiquity
than with ourselves, whose relations extend through so many
zones of temperature. Hence, probably, we hear of none of
their great cities becoming the workshops or emporiums of the
world for any special article of commerce. The woollens indeed
of Miletus and Laodicea, together with other places of Asia
Minor, were renowned for their excellence, and may have been
transported as articles of luxury to distant parts; but Africa
and Spain, Italy and parts of Greece, were also breeders of
sheep, and none of these countries depended for this prime
necessary on the industry or cupidity of foreigners. The
finest qualities of Greek and Asiatic wines were bespoken at
Rome, and at every other great seat of luxury. The Chian and
Lesbian vintages were among the most celebrated. … Again,
while the clothing of the mass of the population was made
perhaps mainly from the skins of animals, leather of course
could be obtained abundantly in almost every locality. When we
remember that the ancients had neither tea, coffee, tobacco,
sugar, nor for the most part spirits; that they made little
use of glass, and at this period had hardly acquired a taste
for fabrics of silk, cotton, or even flax, we shall perceive
at a glance how large a portion of the chief articles of our
commerce was entirely wanting to theirs. Against this
deficiency, however, many objects of great importance are to
be set. Though the ruder classes were content with wooden cups
and platters fashioned at their own doors, the transport of
earthenware of the finer and more precious kinds, and from
certain localities, was very considerable. Though the Greeks
and Romans generally were without some of our commonest
implements of gold and silver, such for instance as watches
and forks, it is probable that they indulged even more than we
do in personal decoration with rings, seals, and trinkets of a
thousand descriptions. … The conveyance of wild animals,
chiefly from Africa, for the sports of the amphitheatres of
some hundreds of cities throughout the empire, must alone have
given occupation to a large fleet of ships and many thousand
mariners. Nor were the convoys smaller which were employed to
transport marble from the choicest quarries of Greece and Asia
to many flourishing cities besides the metropolis. … After due
deduction for the more contracted sphere of ancient commerce,
and the lesser number of articles, for the extent also to
which the necessaries and conveniences of life were
manufactured at home in the establishments of wealthy slave
owners, we shall still readily believe that the
inter-communication of the cities of the Mediterranean, such
as Corinth, Rhodes, Ephesus, Cyzicus, Antioch, Tyrus,
Alexandria, Cyrene, Athens, Carthage, Tarraco, Narbo and
Massilia, Neapolis and Tarentum, Syracuse and Agrigentum, and
of all with Rome, must have been a potent instrument in fusing
into one family the manifold nations of the empire. … In the
eyes of the Orientals and the Greeks, the mistress of lands
and continents, the leader of armies, and the builder of roads
was regarded as the greatest of all maritime emporiums, and
represented in their figurative style as a woman sitting
enthroned upon the waves of the Mediterranean. The maritime
aspect thus assumed by Rome in the eyes of her subjects beyond
the sea, is the more remarkable when we consider how directly
her ancient policy and habits were opposed to commercial
development. … The landowners of Rome, in the highday of her
insolent adolescence, had denounced both commerce and the arts
as the business of slaves or freedmen. So late as the year 535
a law had been passed which forbade a senator to possess a
vessel of burden, and the traffic which was prohibited to the
higher class was degraded in the eyes of the lower. … It was …
by following the natural train of circumstances, and by no
settled policy of her own, that Rome secured her march across
the sea, and joined coast to coast with the indissoluble chain
of her dominion. On land, on the contrary, she constructed her
military causeways with a fixed and definite purpose. … The
population of Gaul crept, we know, slowly up the channel of
the rivers, and the native tracks which conveyed their traffic
from station to station were guided by these main arteries of
their vital system.
{3702}
But the conquerors struck out at once a complete system of
communication for their own purposes, by means of roads cut or
built as occasion required, with a settled policy rigidly
pursued. These high roads, as we may well call them, for they
were raised above the level of the plains and the banks of the
rivers, and climbed the loftiest hills, were driven in direct
lines from point to point, and were stopped by neither forest
nor marsh nor mountain."
_C. Merivale,
History of the Romans,
chapter 39._
COMMERCE:
Gaul under the Romans and after the fall of the Empire.
"In the second century of our era, in the time of Trajan and
the Antonines, Gaul with its fertile fields, its beautiful
meadows, its magnificent forests, was one of the best
cultivated countries of the Roman world. It exported into
Italy grain from Aquitaine, Celtique and from the country of
the Allobroges (Dauphiné), flax from Cadurques (Quercy) and
Bituriges (Berry), hemp from Auvergne and the valley of the
Rhône, spikenard from Provence (valeriana celtica according to
M. Littré) renowned in the Roman pharmacopœia, oak and pine
from the immense forests which still covered the Pyrenees, the
Cevennes, the Alps, the Jura, the Vosges and nearly all the
north of Gaul (forest of Ardennes), horses from Belgium, wool
from the Narbonnaise, cheese from the Alps and from Nîmes,
hams and salt provisions from Séquanaise (Franche-Comté), and
the Pyrenees. The wines of the Narbonnaise and the valley of
the Rhône, often adulterated and little relished by the
Italians, were notwithstanding one of the principal objects of
commerce in the interior of Gaul, in Great Britain and
Germany. The oysters of the Mediterranean and even those of
the Atlantic and the Channel which the ancients had perhaps
found means of keeping in fresh water, figured upon the tables
of the gourmets of Rome. We know that long before the
conquest, the Gauls took gold from the sands of their rivers
and that in certain regions (Upper Pyrenees), territory of the
Tarbelles, and Val d'Aoste, territory of the Salasses, they
extracted gold from the auriferous rocks by processes quite
analogous to those which are now employed by the great
Californian companies. These mines which were yet in existence
under Augustus were not long in being exhausted, but the iron
of Berry, Sénonais, Perigord, Rouergue, the valley of the
Rhône and of the Saône, the copper of the Pyrenees
(Saint-Etienne-de-Baïgorry), of the Alps (country of the
Centrons, now Upper Savoy), of the Cevennes (Cabrieres in
Hérault and Chessy in Rhône), the tin of Limousin, the
argentiferous lead of the territory of the Rutènes (Rouergue),
of the Gabales (Gévaudan), of the Centrons, etc., were mined
and wrought with a skill which placed the metallurgy of Gaul
in the first rank of the industries of the empire. These
mining operations, superintended by the State, although they
belonged to the proprietors of the soil, were often directed
by companies which combined the working of the metal with its
extraction from the ore. One which had its seat at Lyons is
known to us by many inscriptions. Textile industries were not
less flourishing than metallurgy, the manufacture of
sail-cloth was carried on all over Gaul; the bleached linens
of Cahors, the carpets of the Narbonnaise, the sagums of
mingled bright colors were renowned even in Italy. The
progress of commerce had followed that of agriculture and
manufacture. The network of Roman roads planned by Agrippa was
completed and four roads accessible to carriages or beasts of
burden, crossed the Alps by the passes of the Little (Graius
Mons) and of the Great Saint-Bernard (Summus Penninus), of
Mount Genèvre (Mons Matrona) and of the Argentière: the
Corniche road stretched along the Mediterranean from Genoa to
Marseilles: those of the pass of Pertus (Summa Pyrenoeco), of
the valley of Aran, of the Somport, of Roncevaux, and from
Lapurdum (Bayonne) to Pampeluna connected Gaul to Spain. …
Notwithstanding the competition of new roads, river navigation
had retained all its activity. … We know from inscriptions of
a certain number of associations for water transportation
which appear to have played a great rôle in the interior
commerce of Gaul from the first century of our era. The
boatmen of the Rhône, the Saône, the Durance, the Seine, the
Loire, the Aar, an affluent of the Rhine, formed corporations
recognized by the State, organized on the model of cities,
having their regulations, property, elective chiefs, and
patronized by great personages who charged themselves with
defending their interests against the Roman authorities. The
most celebrated, If not the most important of these
associations, is that of the Nautæ Parisiaci, the memory of
which has been preserved to us by the remains of an altar
raised, under Tiberius, at the point of the Isle of the City
(the ancient Lutetia) and found in 1711 under the choir of
Notre-Dame. … The two great commercial ports of the
Mediterranean were Narbonne and Arles, after Marseilles had
lost her maritime preponderance and was only a city of
science, luxury and pleasure. … Immense labor upon embankments
and canalization which had thrown within Narbonne the mass of
the river and deepened the maritime channel made of the
metropolis of the Narbonnaise one of the safest ports upon the
coast of Gaul. It communicated with the Rhône by the
navigation of the lakes (étangs) which at that time extended
without interruption to the western mouth of the river, with
the ocean by the course of the Garonne, navigable from
Toulouse (Tolosa). The port of the Garonne was then as now
Bordeaux (Burdigala) which already had intercourse with Great
Britain and Spain. Aries, connected with the sea by the canal
of Marius and perhaps also by the small arm of the Rhône and
the navigation of the lakes (étangs), was a maritime port and
at the same time the outlet for the navigation of the Rhône
which was prolonged by the Saône as far as Chalon
(Cabillonum). Upon the banks of the river rose the wealthy
cities of Tarascon, Avignon (Avenio), Orange (Arausio),
Vienne. Lyons is the commercial and also the political
metropolis of Gaul, the seat of the most powerful
manufacturing and commercial companies; the boatmen of the
Saône and the Rhône, the wine merchants, the mining and
smelting company of the valley of the Rhône. Above Chalon,
four great commercial routes start from the valley of the
Saône. The first ascends the Doubs as far as Besançon
(Vesuntio) and terminates at the Rhine near Augst (Augusta
Rauracorum), where the river is already navigable.
{3703}
The second follows the valley of the Saône and descends by the
Moselle, navigable above Trèves (Augusta Trevirorum), and by
the Meuse, toward the middle and lower valley of the Rhine. …
The third route, that from the Saône to the Loire, set out
from Chalon, crossed Autun (Augustodunum), and reached the
Loire above Orleans (Genabum, later Aurelianum). Goods
embarked upon the river arrived, after a voyage of 870
kilometers (2,000 stades), at Nantes (Portus Namnetum) which
appears to have been substituted, about the beginning of the
first century, for the ancient port of Corbilo and which was
also in intercourse with Great Britain. The fourth route, that
from the Saône to the Seine, crossed Autun, was there divided
into two branches which went by way of Avallon and Alise to
meet at Sens (Agedincum) on the Yonne, and descended the Seine
to its mouth by Melun (Melodunum), Paris (Lutetia) and Rouen
(Rotomagus). This was the shortest route between the new
province of Britani and the Mediterranean; but the ancients,
notwithstanding the progress in navigation, always distrusted
long passages by sea; so the principal emporium of commerce
with Britani was not Caracotinum (Harfleur), the port of the
Seine, but Gesoriacum, later Bononia (Boulogne), which is
distant only 50 kilometers from the English coast. It was
there that Caligula erected that gigantic pharos known to the
middle-ages under the name of the tower of Odre and which
existed until 1645. … When one thinks of Gaul in the second
half of the 5th century, after those great streams of invasion
which swept it for fifty years, one easily fancies that the
flood has carried everything away, that the Roman institutions
have disappeared, that private fortunes are swallowed up in a
frightful catastrophe, that the barbarians have enslaved the
Gallo-Romans, that social life is suspended, manufactures
ruined, commerce interrupted. This picture which responds to
the idea we form of a barbarian conquest, is necessarily
exaggerated, because the Germanic invasion was not a conquest.
The Germans who established themselves upon the Roman
territory, those even who had employed force to make a place
for themselves within it, did not consider themselves
conquerors, but subjects and soldiers of the Empire: they
dreamed so little of destroying it that they aspired to serve
it whether it would or no. Notwithstanding the decadence of
manufactures and the inevitable disorders which weakness of
the central power brings in its train, commerce appears to
have preserved a certain amount of activity. In the 6th
century, post stages still existed. Upon the Roman roads,
maintained and repaired by the Merovingians, heavy wagons
which served for the transportation of goods and travelers
circulated with their teams of oxen or horses. Royal decrees
commanded the preservation of towing-paths along navigable
rivers; the rivers had remained the high-ways of interior
commerce, and the boatmen's companies of Roman Gaul had
perhaps survived the fall of the imperial domination. The
ports of the Atlantic, Bordeaux and Nantes, those of the
Channel, Alet (between Saint-Malo and Saint-Servan), Rouen,
Quantovic (Etaples or Saint-Josse-sur-Mer?) on the bay of the
Canche, Boulogne, were in relations with the Visigoths and the
Suevi of Spain, the Irish, the Frisians, and received in
exchange for the wines, honey, madder, grains and linens of
Gaul, oils and lead from Spain, metals and slaves from Great
Britain, coarse cloths from Ireland and finer fabrics which
they were beginning to make in Frisia. Marseilles, Arles,
Narbonne, the great ports of the Mediterranean, were always
the depots for the trade of the Orient, where their vessels
went for spices, silks, papyrus from Alexandria, cloths and
carpets from Antioch and Laodicea, which their merchants
exchanged in part for money, in part for metals, honey,
saffron, almonds and linens from southern Gaul, coral brought
from Italy, and amber brought overland from the borders of the
Baltic. The conquests of the Franks, masters of central and
southern Germany, had opened to commerce two new roads: one,
by the Danube, stretched away to the frontiers of the Eastern
Empire and to Constantinople through the countries occupied by
the fierce tribes of the Avars and the Bulgarians; the other
arrived by Thuringia in the regions where the Slav tribes,
Sorbs (Mecklenburg, Brandenburg, Pomerania) and Wends
(Bohemia, Moravia, Austria, Carinthia) dominated. In these
uncultivated countries, covered with forests and marshes, in
the midst of these warlike peoples, the merchants could risk
themselves only in large caravans, sword at the side and lance
in hand. These distant and perilous expeditions were
attractive to the adventurous spirit of the Frank race. …
Faith, as well as ambition, found its account in these
journeys to the countries of the pagan. On the way, they
distributed religious images to the heathen, they tried to
convert them while profiting by them. … This mingling of
commerce and religion is one of the characteristic traits of
the middle ages, as it is of antiquity. The most ancient fairs
of Gaul, that of Troyes which was in existence as early as the
5th century, that of Saint-Germain-des-Pres, that of
Saint-Denis, which goes back to the time of Dagobert (629),
were at the same time pilgrimages. This latter the most
celebrated of all, under the Merovingians, was held outside
the walls of Paris, between the churches of Saint-Martin and
Saint-Laurent, upon the lands watered by the brook
Ménilmontant; it was opened on the festival of Saint-Denis and
continued four weeks, in order to permit, says its charter,
merchants from Spain, Provence and Lombardy and even those
from beyond the sea, to take part in it. … The fair of
Saint-Denis was the rendezvous of merchants from all parts of
Gaul and Europe. Beside the wines and oils of the South might
be seen the honey and wax of Armorica, the linens and madder
of Neustria, the metals of Spain and England, the furs of the
North, the products of the royal manufactories; but the
choicest goods were the spices, pepper, tissues of silk and of
cotton, jewels, enamels, goldsmiths' work, which came from the
Orient by the Mediterranean ports, more rarely by way of the
Danube, and whose guardians were the Syrians or Jews destined
to hold so great a place in the commerce of the middle ages.
The Syrians,—and under this name the Franks comprehended,
without doubt, all merchants native to Egypt or Roman
Asia,—formed powerful communities at Marseilles, Narbonne,
Bordeaux; at Paris they had sufficient influence to enable one
of them, Eusebius, to succeed in purchasing the episcopate, in
591. … As to the Jews, a great number were already established
in Gaul before the fall of the Roman Empire, but their
prosperity dates only from the epoch of disorganization which
followed the barbarian invasion."
_H. Pigeonneau,
Histoire du Commerce de la France
(translated from the French), tome 1, livre 1._
{3704}
COMMERCE: Mediæval.
Early trade with China.
"During the Tang Dynasty the intercourse between China and
other considerable powers was not only closer but conducted on
more nearly equal terms than at any other time. … The
neighbouring kingdom of Tibet is first mentioned in the annals
for 634 A. D. as sending ambassadors with tribute and being
able to raise a large and formidable army. … Appeals from
Persia and India for help against the Saracens were addressed
to China more than once in the 7th and 8th centuries; and the
heir apparent to the Persian throne resided for a time as
hostage at the court of China. … But for the physical
structure of the continent, which isolates India and China,
while freezing Tibet and nomadizing Tartary, the spread of
Arab conquest round or across the desert would have reached a
point near enough to bring about a collision with China. As it
was, a general impetus was given to foreign travel and foreign
commerce; and … colonies of traders established themselves in
the southern ports, as well as along the continental trade
routes. … About the year 700 A. D. a market for strangers was
opened at Canton, and an imperial commission appointed to levy
duties. In 714 A. D. we hear of a petition of foreign
merchants, arriving by way of the southern sea, which is
forwarded from the coast in quite modern fashion for the
emperor's consideration. It set forth all the precious things
which the merchants could bring from the countries of the
West, and represented them as only desirous of collecting
medicinal drugs and simples. Unfortunately for the traders,
they arrived at the beginning of a new reign, when a vigorous
attempt had been made to put down the luxury of the court. …
It was concluded to take no further notice of the petition.
Foreign trade continued to exist on sufferance, but so far as
the Chinese were concerned, it was limited by the attitude of
the Government to a moderate exportation of staple
commodities, paid for in foreign coin or precious metals. What
China had to sell was much more important to the Western
nations than anything she or her rulers could be prevailed
upon to buy; and so long as the trade dealt with surplus
manufactures, like silk, or natural products, like musk or
rhubarb, and did not endanger the local food supply, it was
not interfered with. In 794 A. D. complaints were made that
trade was leaving Canton for Cochin China, but the traders'
schemes for recovering or pursuing it were discouraged by the
Government, which opined that there must have been intolerable
extortions used to drive it away, or a want of natural
inducements to bring it, and quoted the Shoo: 'Do not prize
strange commodities too much, and persons will come from
remote parts.' Arab geographers and travellers of the 9th
century show what a development had been reached by foreign
commerce under this modified freedom. The Jewish merchants
described by Ibn Khordadbeh as speaking Persian, Latin, Greek,
Arab, Spanish, Slavonic, and Lingua franca, and trading by sea
and land to the remotest regions, had their representatives at
Canton; and the four trade routes, enumerated by Sir Henry
Yule, enabled all the great commercial communities to try
their hand at the China trade. The first of these routes led
from the Mediterranean over the Isthmus of Suez, and onwards
by sea; another reached the Indian sea viâ Antioch, Bagdad and
Bussora and the Persian Gulf; a third followed the coast of
Africa by land from Tangiers to Egypt and thence by Damascus
to Bagdad, while the fourth led south of the Caspian Sea and
north of the central Asian desert to the gates of the Great
Wall. The Chinese traders either met the Western merchants at
Ceylon, or themselves came as far as the mouth of the
Euphrates."
_E. J. Simcox,
Primitive Civilizations,
book 4, chapter 12, section 2 (volume 2)._
COMMERCE: Mediæval.
The Arabs.
The earliest date to which any positive statement of
intercourse between the Arabs and the Chinese "appears to
refer is the first half of the 5th century of our era. At this
time, according to Hamza of Ispahan and Masudi, the Euphrates
was navigable as high as Hira, a city lying south-west of
ancient Babylon, near Kufa, (now at a long distance from the
actual channel of the river), and the ships of India and China
were constantly to be seen moored before the houses of the
town. Hira was then abounding in wealth, and the country
round, now a howling wilderness, was full of that life and
prosperity which water bestows in such a climate. A gradual
recession took place in the position of the headquarters of
Indian and Chinese trade. From Hira it descended to Obolla,
the ancient Apologos, from Obolla it was transferred to the
neighbouring city of Basra, built by the Khalif Omar on the
first conquest of Irak (636), from Basra to Siraf on the
northern shore of the gulf, and from Siraf successively to
Kish and Hormuz. Chinese Annals of the Thang dynasty of the
7th and 8th centuries, describe the course followed by their
junks in voyaging to the Euphrates from Kwangcheu (Canton). …
The ships of China, according to some authorities, used to
visit Aden as well as the mouths of Indus and Euphrates. I do
not think that either Polo or any traveller of his age speaks
of them as going further than Malabar, the ports of which
appear to have become the entrepôts for commercial exchange
between China and the west, nor does it appear what led to
this change. Some time in the 15th century again they seem to
have ceased to come to Malabar. … The Arabs at an early date
of Islam, if not before, had established a factory at Canton,
and their numbers at that port were so great by the middle of
the 8th century that in 758 they were strong enough to attack
and pillage the city, to which they set fire and then fled to
their ships. Nor were they confined to this port. … In the 8th
century also the Arabs began to know the Chinese not only as
Sinæ, but as Seres, i. e. by the northern land route. …
Besides … communication by land and sea with Arabia, and with
the various states of India, … there existed from an old date
other and obscurer streams of intercourse between China and
Western Asia, of which we have but fragmentary notices, but
which seem to indicate a somewhat fuller mutual knowledge and
freer communication than most persons probably have been
prepared to recognise. Thus, China appears to have been well
known from an early period to the Armenians."
_H. Yule,
Cathay and the Way thither, preliminary essay
(volume 1), pages lxxvii-lxxxii._
{3705}
After the Arabs began their career as a conquering people,
under Mahomet and his successors, and took possession of the
great ancient fields of Asiatic and African commerce, with its
highways and its capital seats, from Ispahan to Palmyra,
Damascus, Baalbec, Tyre, Alexandria, and the old Carthaginian
ports, they quickly caught the large ideas of trade that were
then opened up to them. They improved the early caravan routes
and established new ones in many directions. They dug wells,
made cisterns and built caravansaries, or public places of
shelter for travelers and traders, along the important desert
roads. The pilgrimages which their religion encouraged had a
lively traffic connected with them, and by spreading one
language and one set of customs and laws over the wide region
which they ruled, they helped commerce as the Romans had done.
From Bagdad, the new capital city which they built on the
Tigris, nearly opposite the deserted ruins of Babylon, on the
other side of the Chaldean plain, they carried on direct trade
with India, through Afghanistan; with China by three routes
through Bokhara, or Tartary; with Siberia and with Russia, to
the very center of it, through the agency of the Turkish and
Tartar races. This city of Bagdad became a marvel of
magnificence under the early Arabian caliphs. Other cities of
Asia that acquired importance in manufactures or trade, or
both, during the period of Arabian power, were Ispahan, in
Persia, the woolens and linens from which were equally noted
for their fineness; Damascus, in Syria, which produces cutlery
of steel, and especially sword blades, that have never been
surpassed, and which gave the name of "damasks" to certain
raised patterns in linen that are well known by that term to
this day; Herat, in Afghanistan, which was famous for its
carpet looms and for its cultivation of saffron and
assafœtida; Balkh and Khotan, in Bokhara, the former of which,
on the banks of the Oxus, was a populous seat of trade between
China, India and the West. From its great antiquity, Balkh was
called "the mother of cities." In their native country, the
Arabs, during this brilliant period of their history,
increased the ancient trade which they had carried on by sea,
with India, on one hand, and with the eastern coasts of
Africa, on the other. They extended the latter far south of
the limits of ancient Ethiopia, and even to the island of
Madagascar. There are few settlements now existing on the east
African coast, below the straits of Babel-Mandeb, which were
not of Arabian origin. The pilgrimages to Mecca, their holy
city, where the remains of Mahomet were interred, made that a
great market and both industry and commerce were enlivened
throughout the Arabian peninsula. As masters of Egypt, the
Arabians reorganized with fresh vigor the ancient caravan
traffic with central Africa and with the countries on the
Upper Nile. Alexandria, it is true, lost much of its former
importance. This was owing, in part, to the bitter hostility
that existed between the Mahometans and the European
Christians, which broke up, for a long period, nearly all open
commerce between the two. But Alexandria was also hurt by the
rise of new Arabian cities, in Egypt and on the Barbary coast,
which drew away some of the trade that had centered almost
wholly at Alexandria before. Cairo, the modern capital of
Egypt, stood first among these and became a wealthy seat of
many manufactures and of much commercial exchange. The
interior caravan traffic of Egypt centered principally at
Syene, while Temnis and Damietta were busy productive towns.
Within the old Carthaginian dominions, west of Egypt, on the
Mediterranean, the Arab conquerors revived a traffic quite as
extensive, perhaps, as the greatest that ancient Carthage had
controlled. Not far from the site of that ancient emporium,
and twelve miles from the modern city of Tunis, they built the
now forgotten city of Kirwan, which was one of the largest and
most magnificent of its time. It was a point from which
numerous caravan routes led southward into the heart of the
African continent, even beyond the great desert, as well as
eastward to Egypt and westward to the Atlantic coasts and
Spain. Many flourishing towns surrounded this African
metropolis and were the centers of many different activities,
such as the cultivation of grain, the making of salt, the
rearing of silk-worms and the production of silk. In
Mauritania, which embraced the modern empire of Morocco and
part of Algiers, the Arabs introduced the same spirit of
enterprise. In their hands, the barren country—which has
since become almost a desert again—was made fertile, through
wide regions, by extensive irrigation, and produced wheat,
olives, grapes, dates and other fruits in great abundance,
besides feeding flocks and herds of sheep, goats, horses,
asses and camels in rich pastures. The people became skilful
in several manufactures, including weaving and dyeing, the
making of silk and gold thread, the mining and smelting of
copper and iron, the preparation of soap and the tanning of
leather. From the Atlantic coast of their Mauritanian
dominion, the Arabs pushed their traffic far down the western
shores of the continent, while they opened caravan routes to
the interior quite as widely, perhaps, as they did from Kirwan
and from Egypt. The chief city that they founded in Mauritania
was Fez, which still bears witness to its former glory in a
lingering university, or collection of Mahometan schools; in
the remains of many mosques, and in a vast number of
caravansaries. The native inhabitants whom the Arabs found in
Mauritania derived from their country the name of Moors. They
embraced the Mahometan religion and joined their Saracen
conquerors in invading Spain, A. D. 712. This led, in Europe,
to the applying of the name "Moors" to the whole of the mixed
races which took possession of southern Spain, and finally
gave that name to all the Mahometans on the western
Mediterranean coasts. But the Moors and the Arabs were
distinct races of people. The conquest of southern Spain gave
the Arabs the finest field in which their energy and genius
were shown. They made the most of its mineral treasures, its
delightful climate and its fertile soil. On the remains of
Roman civilization, which Vandals and Visigoths had not wholly
destroyed, they built up, with wonderful quickness, a new
culture—of industry, of manners and of taste, of art, of
literature, of government and of social life—that was
splendidly in contrast with the rude state of Europe at large.
The trade of the Spanish Moors was considerably extended
among the Christians of Europe, notwithstanding the religious
enmities that opposed it.
{3706}
The products of their skilful workmanship were so eagerly
desired, and they controlled so many of the coveted luxuries
found in Africa and the East that their Christian neighbors
could not be restrained, by war nor by the commands of the
church nor by the hatred which both stirred up, from dealings
with them. With other parts of the Mahometan dominion, and
with the countries in commercial connection with it, the trade
of Moorish Spain was active and large. In exchange for the
varied products which they received, they gave the fine
fabrics of their looms; exquisite work of their goldsmiths and
silversmiths; famous leather; iron, quicksilver and silver
from the old Spanish mines, which they worked with new
knowledge and skill; sugar, the production of which they had
learned and introduced from India; olive oil, raw silk,
dye-stuffs, sulphur and many commodities of less worth. The
career of the Arabs, in the large region of the world which
they conquered, was brilliant but not lasting. The energy
which carried them for a time far ahead of their slower
neighbors in Europe showed signs of decay before two centuries
of their career had been run.
COMMERCE: MEDIÆVAL.
Byzantine Trade.
"The commerce of Europe centred at Constantinople in the 8th
and 9th centuries more completely than it has ever since done
in any one city. The principles of the government, which
reprobated monopoly, and the moderation of its duties, which
repudiated privileges, were favourable to the extension of
trade. While Charlemagne ruined the internal trade of his
dominions by fixing a maximum of prices, and destroyed foreign
commerce under the persuasion that, by discouraging luxury, he
could enable his subjects to accumulate treasures which he
might afterwards extort or filch into his own treasury,
Theophilus prohibited the persons about his court from
engaging in mercantile speculations, lest by so doing they
should injure the regular channels of commercial intercourse,
by diminishing the profits of the individual dealer. … During
this period the western nations of Europe drew their supplies
of Indian commodities from Constantinople, and the Byzantine
empire supplied them with all the gold coin in circulation for
several centuries. The Greek navy, both mercantile and
warlike, was the most numerous then in existence. Against the
merchant-ships of the Greeks, the piratical enterprises of the
Egyptian, African, and Spanish Arabs were principally
directed. Unfortunately we possess no authentic details of the
commercial state of the Byzantine empire, nor of the Greek
population during the Iconoclast period, yet we may safely
transfer to this time the records that exist proving the
extent of Greek commerce under the Basilian dynasty. Indeed,
we must remember that, as the ignorance and poverty of western
Europe was much greater in the 11th and 12th centuries than in
the 8th and 9th, we may conclude that Byzantine commerce was
also greater during the earlier period. The influence of the
trade of the Arabians with the East Indies on the supply of
the markets of western Europe has been overrated, and that of
the Greeks generally lost sight of. … The Byzantine markets
drew their supplies of Indian and Chinese productions from
Central Asia, the trade passing north of the caliph's
dominions through the territory of the Khazars to the Black
Sea. This route was long frequented by the Christians, to
avoid the countries in the possession of the Mohammedans, and
was the highway of European commerce for several centuries.
Though it appears at present a far more difficult and
expensive route than that by the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean,
it was really safer, more rapid, and more economical, in the
8th, 9th, and 10th centuries. This requires no proof to those
who are acquainted with caravan life in the East, and who
reflect on the imperfections of ancient navigation, and the
dangers and delays to which sailing vessels of any burden are
exposed in the Red Sea. When the Venetians and Genoese began
to surpass the Greeks in commercial enterprise, they
endeavoured to occupy this route; and we have some account of
the line it followed, and the manner in which it was carried
on, after the East had been thrown into confusion by the
conquests of the Crusaders and Tartars, in the travels of
Marco Polo. For several centuries the numerous cities of the
Byzantine empire supplied the majority of the European
consumers with Indian wares, and it was in them alone that the
necessary security of property existed to preserve large
stores of merchandise. Constantinople was as much superior to
every city in the civilised world, in wealth and commerce, as
London now is to the other European capitals. And it must also
be borne in mind, that the countries of central Asia were not
then in the rude and barbarous condition into which they have
now sunk, since nomade nations have subdued them. On many
parts of the road traversed by the caravans, the merchants
found a numerous and wealthy population ready to traffic in
many articles sought after both in the East and West; and the
single commodity of furs supplied the traders with the means
of adding greatly to their profits. Several circumstances
contributed to turn the great highway of trade from the
dominions of the caliphs to Constantinople. The Mohammedan
law, which prohibited all loans at interest, and the arbitrary
nature of the administration of justice, rendered all
property, and particularly commercial property, insecure.
Again, the commercial route of the Eastern trade, by the way
of Egypt and the Red Sea, was suddenly rendered both difficult
and expensive, about the year 767, by the Caliph Al Mansur,
who closed the canal connecting the Nile with the Red Sea. The
harvests of Egypt, which had previously filled the coast of
Arabia with plenty, could no longer be transported in quantity
to the ports of the Red Sea; living became expensive; the
population of Arabia declined; and the carrying trade was
ruined by the additional expenditure required. The caliph
certainly by this measure impoverished and depopulated the
rebellious cities of Medina and Mecca to such a degree as to
render their military and political power less dangerous to
the central authority at Bagdat, but at the same time he
ruined the commerce of Egypt with India and the eastern coast
of Southern Africa. Since that period, this most important
line of communication has never been restored, and the coarser
articles of food, of which Egypt can produce inexhaustible
stores, are deprived of their natural market in the arid
regions of Arabia.
{3707}
The hostile relations between the caliphs of Bagdat and Spain
likewise induced a considerable portion of the Mohammedan
population on the shores of the Mediterranean to maintain
close commercial relations with Constantinople. A remarkable
proof of the great wealth of society at this period is to be
found in the immense amount of specie in circulation. … The
poverty of Europe at a later period, when the isolation caused
by the feudal system had annihilated commerce and prevented
the circulation of the precious metals, cannot be used as an
argument against the probability of this wealth having existed
at the earlier period of which we are treating."
_G. Finlay,
History of the Byzantine Empire, 716-1057,
book 1, chapter 4, section 1._
COMMERCE: MEDIÆVAL.
Venice and Genoa.
In the slow revival of commerce which took place in Christian
Europe, during the later half of the middle ages, no one city
or people can be said to have taken a lead from the beginning.
At various points, north and south, on the Mediterranean and
the Adriatic, on the Baltic, on the Rhine and other rivers
which flow into the North Sea, and on the Danube, the Dnieper
and the Don, centers of trade were growing up in a gradual
way, out of which it would be hard to name one that ranked
much above the rest for many generations. But the 11th century
brought a great commercial leader to the front. This was
Venice. The circumstances of the founding of Venice, in the
5th century, and the history of the rise of the singular
republic, are given elsewhere.
See VENICE (page 8602).
The condition of the unfortunate refugees, who sought shelter
from invading savages on a few small mud banks, barely
separated from the shore of their Adriatic coast, did not seem
to be a promising one. Nor was it so. While the neighboring
parts of Italy were being overrun by Huns, Goths and Lombards
in succession, and while the settlement of the barbarous new
races was going on over all Southern Europe, in the midst of
great disorder and constant war, these islanders and their
descendants, for generations, were protected as much by their
poverty as by the shallow waters that surrounded them. They
had nothing to tempt either plunder or conquest. They lived by
salt-making, fishing and fish-salting. They began trade in a
small way by exchanging their salt and salted fish for other
articles. It grew in their hands from year to year, for they
were enterprising, industrious and courageous. Procuring
timber on the opposite Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic, they
became expert ship builders and sailors. The safety of their
situation caused increasing numbers of their Italian fellow
countrymen to join them. The islands of the Venetian lagune
were, in time, all occupied, and bridges between several of
them were built. From the selling of salt and fish to their
neighbors, the Venetians went on to more extensive commercial
business. By slow degrees, they took the occupation of general
merchants, buying goods here and there to sell again. They
became friendly with the Greeks on the eastern side of the
Adriatic, in Dalmatia and Albania, and this led them into
important relations, both commercial and political, with the
Byzantine Empire and its capital city, Constantinople. By the
time they had gained wealth and consequence enough to attract
the notice of their rough neighbors and invite attack, they
had also gained strength enough to defend themselves. They
took part then in the wars of the Byzantines, rendering
valuable services in Italy and elsewhere, and they joined the
Greeks in destroying the pirates who infested the Adriatic
Sea. The early important trade of the Venetians was with
Constantinople, where they enjoyed, for a long period, the
peculiar favor of the Byzantine rulers. After the Saracens had
mastered Syria and Persia, and taken possession of Alexandria
(A. D. 640), Constantinople became the emporium of Eastern
trade, adding it to a great traffic which the Byzantine
capital had always carried on with the Tartar and Russian
territories in Asia and Europe. When the Venetians gained a
footing there, as political friends and favored merchants,
their fortunes were made. While the Greeks were busy in
desperate wars with their Mahometan neighbors, these
enterprising Italians took into their own hands more and more
of the profitable trade which the Greeks had opened to them.
They soon had the handling of Byzantine commerce in western
Europe almost wholly. From partners they became rivals, and
especially in the Russian traffic, which they drew away from
Constantinople, to a large extent, by opening direct dealings
with the Russian traders, at a market place established on the
Dnieper. From the beginning of the Crusades, in the 11th
century, the rise of Venetian commerce and Venetian power was
very rapid. The Venetians were prepared, as no other people
were, at the time, to furnish fleets, both for transportation
and for naval war. They enlisted in the crusading enterprises
with a zeal which was not, perhaps, purely pious. Their
carrying ships were busy conveying men and supplies; their war
galleys were in the front of some sea fighting with the
Moslems, and more with Christian rivals; their shrewd
politicians were alert, at all points and among all parties,
looking after the interests of the republic; their merchants
were everywhere ready to improve the new opportunities of
trade which these times of excitement opened up. In all
directions, and throughout the whole of Europe, new activities
were awakened, and especially such as led to a busier trade.
The crusaders who lived to return, into France, Flanders,
Italy, Germany, and England, brought home with them many ideas
which they had picked up in the East, and much new knowledge
of oriental products and arts, all of which became widely
diffused and produced great effects. The result was to
stimulate and improve the industries and to increase the
commerce which the Europeans carried on among themselves, as
well as to greatly enlarge their demand for the products of
the Asiatic world. A new era in European commerce was opened,
therefore, by the Crusades, and the Venetians, by their
enterprise, their energy and their early experience, took the
lead in its activities. They organized the traffic between the
East and the West, the North and the South, upon a great
scale, and centered the larger part of it in their island
city. By sea and by land they managed it with equal vigor.
Their merchant fleets were under the protection of the state
and made voyages, at regular and appointed times, under the
convoy of vessels of war. On the landward side, they arranged
an extensive trade with the interior of Germany, Hungary and
Bohemia, through the Tyrol and Carinthia.
{3708}
As the first bitterness of hatred between Christians and
Mahometans wore away, they grew willing to trade with one
an·other, though the Popes still forbade it. The Venetians
were among the first in such willingness. Having many quarrels
with the Byzantine Greeks, they were eager to reopen the old
eastern market at Alexandria, and did so at the earliest
opportunity. From that beginning they spread their trade with
Arabs, Moors and Turks, along the whole Mahometan line, in
Asia and Africa. But, though Venice took the lead in the
reviving commerce of the middle ages and held it substantially
to the end of that period of history, she had powerful rivals
to contend with, and the strongest were among her near
neighbors in Italy. The same commercial spirit was alive in
several other Italian cities, which had grown up in the midst
of those disorderly times and had contrived to acquire more or
less of independence and more or less of power to defend
themselves. Amalfi, Genoa and Pisa were the earliest of these
in growing to importance, and Florence at a somewhat later day
rose to high rank. Florence, which did not become a free city
until near the end of the 12th century, gained its subsequent
wealth more by manufactures and by banking than by trade. Its
chief products were woolens, silk and jewelry, and its
money-lenders were everywhere in Europe.
See FLORENCE (pages 1130-1143).
The commercial career of Amalfi was cut short in the 12th
century by events connected with the Norman conquest of
Southern Italy. Pisa, an ancient city, whose history goes back
to Etruscan times, was a considerable seat of trade while
Venice was little known; but she fell behind both Venice and
Genoa, soon after those vigorous republics were fairly entered
in the race. The Pisans prospered highly for some time, by
going into partnership or alliance with the Venetians, first,
and afterwards with the Genoese; but they quarreled with the
latter and were ruined in the wars that ensued. After the
thirteenth century Pisa had no commercial importance.
See PISA (pages 2537-2539).
The great rival of Venice was Genoa, a city which claims to
be, like Pisa, of more than Roman antiquity. In the trade of
the Levant—that is, the eastern ports of the Mediterranean
Sea—the Genoese pushed themselves into competition with the
Venetians at an early day, and they seemed for some time to
hold an equal chance of controlling the prize. During the
later part of the 12th century, such unfriendly feelings had
grown up between the Venetians and the Byzantine court that
the latter transferred its commercial favors to the merchants
of Genoa, Pisa and Amalfi, and gave them many privileges at
Constantinople. The Venetians were thus placed at a
disadvantage in the Bosphorus and the Black Sea; but they did
not long submit. In 1204 they persuaded one of the crusading
expeditions to join them in attacking Constantinople, which
was taken, and the dominions of the ancient Empire of the East
were divided among the captors, Venice receiving a goodly
share.
See CRUSADES (page 631).
This was a golden era for Venice and she improved it to the
utmost. For almost sixty years she triumphed over her rivals
completely. But in 1261 her merchants were again expelled from
Constantinople and the Black Sea. The Greeks had continued to
hold a large part of the ancient domain of the Byzantine
Empire in Asia Minor, and now, with the help of the Genoese,
they succeeded in retaking their old capital city. The Frank
Empire, or Latin Empire as it was differently called, which
the Crusaders and the Venetians had set up, was extinguished
and the Genoese again took the place of the Venetians as
masters of the Byzantine trade, including that of the Black
Sea and the Asiatic traffic which was carried on from its
ports. But by this time the better disposition to deal
commercially with one another had grown up between the
Christians and the Mahometans. So the Venetians, when they
lost their footing at Constantinople, very promptly went over
to Alexandria and made excellent arrangements with the
Saracens there, for supplying Europe once more with the
commodities of the East, by those easier and shorter ancient
routes which Christian commerce had not used for several
hundred years. This opening of trade with the Mahometan races,
at Alexandria, and elsewhere soon afterwards, may easily have
repaid the Venetians for what they lost in the Byzantine
direction; but they did not give up the latter. A long series
of desperate wars between the competitors ensued, with such
shiftings of victory that Venice seemed sometimes to be almost
in a hopeless strait; but, in the end, she broke the power of
her rival completely. The final peace, which was concluded in
1381, left her quite undisputed]y, for a time, the mistress of
the Mediterranean and its trade.
See GENOA: A. D. 1261-1299 (page 1419);
and VENICE: A. D. 1378-1379, and 1379-1381 (page 3608).
Both the northward and the southward lines of traffic between
Asia and Europe, through Alexandria and through
Constantinople, were now chiefly in the hands of the
Venetians. Between those great courses were important minor
currents of commerce, along caravan routes through Asia Minor
and Syria, which they mainly controlled. The trade of the rich
islands of the Levant and of Moorish Africa was under their
management for the most part, and they found on the northern
shores of the Black Sea a commerce with the Russian region
which the Genoese had increased while they ruled in those
waters. For three quarters of a century the Venetians enjoyed
this large extent of commerce with the East. Then the Turks
came, besieged and captured Constantinople (A. D. 1453) and
spread over the country which they now occupy. For the next
two centuries the Venetians were at war with the Turks
—defending Christendom in the Mediterranean with little help.
At the same time they had to encounter an almost fatal attack
from Christian princes who had become jealous of their
formidable wealth and power and who united against the
republic in the League of Cambrai.
See VENICE: A. D. 1508-1509 (page 3611).
They might have recovered from this attack, for they still
held the Mediterranean trade; but a great event had occurred,
just ten years before the League of Cambrai, which was more
fatal than war, not to Venice alone, but to most of her rivals
in trade as well. This was the discovery, by Vasco da Gama, of
the ocean passage to the Eastern world around the Cape of Good
Hope. The toiling traffic of desert caravans, to Alexandria,
to Constantinople, to Tyre, Antioch, Ephesus and Erzeroum, was
soon reduced to insignificance. The rich trade of the Indies
and of all the farther East—the trade of the silk countries
and the cotton countries, of the spice islands, of the pearl
fisheries, of the lands of ivory, of ebony, of gold, of
precious stones, of fragrant gums, of curious things and
curious arts—was quickly swept into a different course—into
broader seas than the Mediterranean and into new hands.
{3709}
COMMERCE: MEDIÆVAL.
Northern Europe.
The Baltic Cities.
The Hansa.
The earliest commercial seaports of northwestern Europe had
their rise, not on the North Sea, but on the Baltic and the
straits which enter it. The Northmen of that region were not
alone in the traffic which grew up there, for the Wends (a
Slavonic people), who occupied most of the southern shores of
the Baltic, east of the Elbe, appear to have stoutly rivalled
them from the first. Biorko, on an island in Lake Maelar,
Sweden (the inlet upon which Stockholm is situated), was one
of the first of the seats of commerce at the North. It is
supposed to have been destroyed about 1008. But the most
famous was the city of Winet, or Vineta, on the island of
Usedom, at the mouth of the river Oder. It may not have been
quite as rich and magnificent a town as some would infer from
accounts given in early chronicles; but no doubt it was
remarkable for the age, in that part of the world, and carried
on a large trade. The Swedes and Danes were the destroyers of
Vineta, before the middle of the 9th century, and the former
people are said to have carried away from it great quantities
of marble, brass and iron work, with which they gave splendor
to their own newer city of Wisby, then just rising on the
island of Gothland. The career of Wisby lasted several
centuries and it was prominent in commerce throughout the
Middle Ages. All that can be said of that most ancient
commerce in northern Europe is gathered from sources which are
uncertain and obscure. It is not until the 12th century that
much of the real history of trade in the Baltic region opens.
In 1140 the modern city of Lubeck was founded, on the site of
a more ancient town, known as Old Lubeck, which is supposed to
have been a thriving port of trade in its day but which had
been utterly destroyed by its rivals or enemies. The new
Lubeck established close relations with the Genoese and soon
took the lead in the commerce of the north, among a large
number of enterprising towns which, about that time, came into
prominence on the northern coast and on the rivers which run
to it. The city of Hamburg, on the Elbe, lying inland and not
very distant from Lubeck, was one of the earliest of these.
Like Lubeck, it had suffered destruction, in the constant
warfare of the earlier time, and had made a new beginning of
existence about 1013. Hamburg had access to the North Sea by
the Elbe and Lubeck to the Baltic by the Trave. Trading in
different directions, therefore, by sea, they carried on an
active traffic with one another, across the narrow stretch of
land which divides them,—as they still do to this day. But
this inland commerce was greatly disturbed by robbers who
infested the country, until the two cities, Lubeck and
Hamburg, in 1241, agreed to establish and support in common a
body of soldiers for the protection of their merchants. That
agreement is believed to have been the beginning of a
wide-spread union which afterwards took shape among the
commercial cities of northern Europe, and which became
powerful and famous in the later history of the Middle Ages,
under the name of the Hanseatic League.
See HANSA TOWNS: (pages 1624-1626),
and (in this Supplement) GERMANY, 13-15th,
and 15-17th CENTURIES.
COMMERCE: MEDIÆVAL.
Frisians and Flemings.
The early Netherlands.
The two peoples who inhabit the region called the
Netherlands—a purely Germanic stock in the north (modern
Holland) and a mixed but largely Celtic population in the
south (modern Belgium)—have had a history so much in common
that it cannot well be divided, though they have differed in
experiences as widely as in character. The struggle with
nature for a foothold in the lowland itself was harder in the
north than in the south, and no doubt that is why the Teutonic
Frisians led the way in industrial training. It was among them
that the arts of weaving and dyeing were cultivated first to a
notable excellence. As early as the age of Charlemagne (8-9th
centuries), Frisian robes, of white and purple woolen stuffs,
are mentioned among the choice gifts which the Emperor
sometimes sent to foreign princes, and even to the great
caliph, Haroun al Raschid. In the 9th century, Frisian weavers
are said to have been persuaded by an enterprising count of
Flanders to settle in his dominions, at Ghent, and introduce
there a better knowledge of their art. But if the Flemish
people borrowed from the Frisians in this matter, they soon
outran their teachers and made the loom their own peculiar
property. The shuttle, ere long, was in the hands of a very
large part of the whole south Netherland or Belgian
population, and they became almost a nation of weavers. The
same Count Baldwin of Flanders who brought the Frisian weavers
into Ghent established annual markets, or fairs, in various
towns, which drew merchants from abroad, promoted trade and
stimulated manufacturing industries throughout the country.
Woolen, linen, and finally silk looms multiplied to a
prodigious extent, and the weavers in all these branches
acquired remarkable skill. The working of metals was also
learned with great aptness, and Flemish cutlery, weapons and
armor became very nearly as renowned as those of Milan and
Damascus. Tanning was another valuable art which the Flemings
and their Netherland neighbors cultivated, and the tilling of
the soil was so industriously pursued that flax, hemp, grain
and other farm products were raised quite abundantly for sale
abroad. In the north Netherlands—the Hollow-land of the sturdy
"Free Frisians" and Batavians, who were afterwards called the
Dutch—the hard working energy of the people had been pushed in
some different directions. The old trade of weaving was still
vigorously carried on, in nearly every important town, and
Dutch woolens, damask linens, carpets, velvets, etc., were
largely produced and widely sought after; but this industry
was never so prominent as it became in the Belgian provinces.
The fortunes of the Hollanders were founded to a large extent
upon their fisheries, and especially the herring fishery,
which assumed great importance in their hands after the middle
of the 12th century. Before that time, they appear to have
been obliged to seek the herring in other waters than their
own—along the shores of England, Scotland and Norway. But some
change in the movements of those curiously swarming fish, about
the time above mentioned, brought great shoals of them to the
Dutch coast, and the herring harvest thereafter was a rich
source of gain to the Hollanders.
{3710}
They discovered some secrets of salting or curing the fish
which were very much valued, and the Dutch herring were
eagerly bought for all parts of Europe. The making of pottery
was another industry to which the Dutch applied themselves
with success, and particularly at the town of Delft, which
gave its name for many centuries to the common earthenware
used in western Europe. In dairy farming and skilful
horticulture, or gardening, the Hollanders were superior to
all other people at an early time. Wherever sea-fisheries are
extensive, sailors and ship builders are trained and ocean
navigation and commerce are sure, in time, to be prosperously
pursued. It was so with the Dutch. Their Frisian ancestors had
suffered so much on their coasts from the harassing raids of
the Norse pirates, or Vikings, that they did not figure very
early in seafaring enterprise. But they fought the
free-booters in their stubborn and stout-hearted way and were
able at last to make the harbors of their coast tolerably
safe. From that time the seaport towns of Holland grew
rapidly, and Dutch merchants and merchant ships, trading with
the cities of the Baltic, with England and with Flanders and
France increased in number. The Hollanders had an advantage in
this matter over their Flemish neighbors of the South
Netherlands. They were provided with better harbors and they
held the outlets of the great rivers in their hands. This
latter was the cause of incessant quarrels between the two
peoples. The 15th century found the whole Netherlands, both
north and south, in a thriving state, so far as industry and
trade were concerned, notwithstanding bad government and
disorderly times. The people were counted among the richest in
Europe. Many great and wealthy cities had grown up, containing
large populations and very busy ones. In the north, there were
Dordrecht or Dort, Hoorn, Zierikzee, Haarlem, Delft, Leyden,
Deventer, Enkhuizen, Middelburg, Nimeguen, Utrecht, Rotterdam,
and Amsterdam, which last named city eclipsed them all in the
end, though it was one of the latest to rise. In the south
there was Ghent, with forty thousand weavers inside its strong
walls, who were always as ready to string the bow as to throw
the shuttle, and whose hot-tempered revolts against tyranny
and wrong are among the most exciting incidents of history.
There was Bruges, which became for a time the great emporium
of the commerce of northern and southern Europe, but which
lost its importance before the 15th century closed. There was
Antwerp, which succeeded to the trade of Bruges and rose to
unrivalled rank; and there were Lille, Mechlin (or Malines),
Courtrai, Ypres, Louvain, and other towns, all centers of
flourishing manufactures, chiefly those of the loom.
COMMERCE: MEDIÆVAL.
Trade Routes, west and north from the Mediterranean.
"The connection between the two great divisions of European
commerce, the northern including the Hansa and the Flemish
towns, and the southern the Italian republics and
Mediterranean ports, was effected by two chief routes. One was
by sea from the Mediterranean through the Straits of
Gibraltar, up the coasts of Spain and France to Flanders. This
route was used more by the southern, and especially by
Venetian, merchants than by the northern traders, for … Venice
sent every year a large fleet to Flanders and the English
Channel, which fleet would meet at Bruges, the great Hansa
depot, the most important merchants of North Europe and the
Hansa traders. Bruges was indeed for a long time the central
mart in the north for the commercial world, till 1482, when
the canal connecting it with the port of Sluys was blocked up.
But at Bruges also the maritime trade just mentioned met the
overland trade through central Europe, a trade that was very
important, and which enriched many a city upon the Rhine and
farther south, from Augsburg to Cologne. We must consider this
overland route more carefully. The great centre from which it
started, or to which it tended, was Venice, where as we know
were collected most of the products of the East, coming both
via Egypt and via the lands round the Black Sea. … Starting …
from Venice, the merchants used to cross the Alps by the
Brenner or Julier Passes, and then would make for the Upper
Danube or one of its tributaries, and thence get on to the
stream of the Rhine. Their object was generally to utilise a
natural waterway wherever possible, rather in contrast to the
old Roman traders, who preferred the roads. But the roads of
the Middle Ages were far inferior to the old Roman highways.
One of the first great cities which the mediæval trader passed
on this route, coming from Venice, was Augsburg. … Thence he
might go down the stream to Regensburg (Ratisbon) and Vienna;
or he might go up to Ulm and then make a short land journey
till he reached the Rhine, and so right away down that
convenient stream. This was perhaps the main route from north
to south. But many others converged from central Europe to
Italy, and many important cities owed their wealth to the
stream of trade. In Karl the Great's time the cities on the
great waterway to the East along the Danube became very
flourishing; Regensburg, Passau, and Vienna being the most
important. From Regensburg there ran north and west two great
commercial highways into the interior of Germany, one by way
of Nürnberg and Erfurt and the other past Nürnberg to the
Rhine. Another route from Regensburg, by river, to Trentschin
on the river Waag took its merchants through Galicia into
Russia, whither they went as far as Kief, the centre of
Russian trade. Along this great waterway of the Danube and its
tributaries came the products of the East from Constantinople
and the Black Sea. … Another important route was that from the
cities of the Rhine, such as Coblenz and Basle, up that river
and on to Chur and then by the Julier Pass and the Engadine
and the Etschthal to Venice; or again, after passing Chur,
through the Septimer Pass and the Bergeller Thal to Genoa.
These Rhine cities were very flourishing, from Basle to
Cologne. … Like most trading towns in the Middle Ages, the
Rhine cities were compelled to form themselves into a
confederacy to resist the robbery and extortions of feudal
nobles, whose only idea of trade seems to have been that it
providentially existed as a source of plunder to themselves.
But besides this Confederacy of the Rhine there was another
great Confederacy of the Swabian cities, arising from the same
causes. … That of the Rhine included ninety cities, and
existed in a fully organised form in 1255.
{3711}
The Swabian Confederacy was formed a little later, about 1300
or 1350, under the leadership of Augsburg, Ulm, and Nürnberg,
and was in close political and commercial relations both with
Venice and Genoa. … If now we turn from trade routes in Europe
itself to those which led to Europe from the East, we find
that at the time of which we are now speaking there were three
main streams of commerce. In the 12th century the caravan
trade in Central Asia had passed along several different
paths; but after the Crusades, and the decline of the Eastern
empire by the capture of Constantinople (1204), the various
tribes of Central Asia, rendered more fanatical and warlike
than ever by these military and religious events, caused
caravan trading to become very unsafe. The first of the three
routes which now remained in the 13th century was from India
and the western coasts of Asia, past Basra on the Persian Gulf
to Bagdad by water. From Bagdad merchants went, still by
water, along the Tigris to the point on that river nearest to
Seleucia and Antioch, and so to Orontes, and then to the coast
of the Levant. The second route followed the same course as
the first till the point of leaving the Tigris, and then
proceeded over the Highlands of Asia Minor and Armenia to the
port of Trebizond on the Black Sea, where Venetian vessels
used to meet Asiatic traders. For both these routes Bagdad
formed a very important centre. … The third route from the far
East was from India by sea to Aden, then by land across the
desert to Chus on the Nile, which took nine days, and then
again by water down the Nile to Cairo, a journey of thirteen
days. From Cairo there was a canal, 200 miles long, to
Alexandria, where again Venetian and Genoese merchants were
ready to receive the rich spices, sugar, perfumes, precious
stones, gum, oil, cotton, and silk brought from the East."
_H. de B. Gibbins,
History of Commerce in Europe,
book 2, chapter 5._
COMMERCE: MEDIÆVAL:
The English.
"Whilst the Italians were vigorously pursuing their trade in
India and Europe, and Spain was renowned for her manufactures;
whilst the Hanse merchants were extending their factories, and
Portuguese navigators were bent upon maritime discoveries;
whilst the Dutch were struggling for independence, and France
was planting the seeds of her industries; England was only
known as possessing a few articles of commerce of great value.
Her wools and her metals were eagerly sought by foreign
traders, but she had no ships of her own to carry them abroad.
She had many raw materials, but she produced no manufactures
for exportation. Nor was her policy respecting foreign trade
the most wise. The chief concern of the legislature in those
days seemed to be to prevent foreign nations doing with
English produce what, after all, the English could not do
themselves. Again and again the export of wool was prohibited,
or was hindered by prohibitory duties. … The people regarded
the introduction of foreigners with the utmost jealousy. They
resented their competition, they grudged their profits and
their advantages. The guilds would not admit them as members,
and it was hard for the poor strangers to establish a footing
in England, even although Magna Charta had long before
declared that all merchants shall have safety in coming to or
going out of England, and in remaining and travelling through
it, by land or water, for buying or selling, free from any
grievous imposition. Anyhow, whatever the opposition of cities
and corporations, the nation was benefited by the foreign
merchants. Thankful, indeed, might England have been for the
Lombards, who brought hither money and merchandise, banking
and insurance; for the Flemings, who, driven by intestine
dissension, found refuge on British soil, and became the
founders of the woollen manufacture; and for the Huguenots,
who brought with them the silk manufacture. … But a new era
advanced. The discovery of the American continent by Columbus,
and of a maritime route to India by Vasco da Gama, altered the
course and character of commerce. Till then trade was
essentially inland, thenceforth its most conspicuous triumphs
were to be on the ocean. Till then, the Mediterranean was the
centre of international trading. From thenceforth the tendency
of trade was towards the countries bordering on the Atlantic.
… It was not long … before England followed the lead of Spain
and Portugal. John Cabot and his sons went in quest of land to
North America; Drake went to circumnavigate the globe;
Chancellor sailed up the White Sea to Russia; Willoughby went
on his ill-fated voyage in search of a north-eastern passage
to India; Sir Walter Raleigh explored Virginia; the Merchant
Adventurers pushed their adventures to Spain and Portugal; and
English ships began to be seen in the Levant. Meanwhile,
English trade enlarged its sphere, English bravery at sea
became most conspicuous, and English industry advanced apace."
_L. Levi,
History of British Commerce,
2d edition, introduction._
"In the 14th century the whole of the external, and much of
the internal, trade of the country had been in the hands of
foreigners; in the 15th our merchants began to push their way
from point to point in the Mediterranean and the Baltic; in
the 16th they followed slowly in the wake of other
adventurers, or tried to establish themselves in unkindly
regions which had attracted no one else. When Elizabeth
ascended the throne England appears to have been behind other
nations of Western Europe in the very industrial arts and
commercial enterprise on which her present reputation is
chiefly based."
_W. Cunningham,
Growth of English Industry and Commerce,
volume 2, page 2._
COMMERCE: MEDIÆVAL:
Trade and Piracy.
"It would be wrong to infer from the prevalence of piracy at
this period [the 15th century] that commerce must have
declined. On the contrary, it was probably the increase of
commerce, unaccompanied by the growth of adequate means for
its defence, which made the pirate's calling so profitable.
Nor was the evil confined to the professional pirate class, if
we may use the expression. Even recognised associations of
merchants frequently indulged in practices which can only be
characterised as piracy. Commerce, in fact, was deeply imbued
with the spirit of lawlessness, and in these circumstances it
is probable that the depredations of pirates did not excite
the same alarm nor discourage trade in the same degree as
would be the case in more law-abiding times. In the 15th
century the profession of Christianity and extreme
respectability were not incompatible with a life of violence
and outrage, and it is to be feared that in some cases the
Governments which should have repressed pirates by the
severest measures, encouraged their depredations.
{3712}
Certainly they have never enjoyed such immunity from the
strong arm of the law as in the 15th century. Outrage and
robbery went on unchecked along the coasts and in the track of
merchant vessels. No trader was safe even in the rivers and
ports of his own country. The pirates burnt and sacked towns
as important as Sandwich and Southampton; they carried off not
only the goods they could lay their hands on, but men and
women, and even children, whom they held to ransom. Unable to
look to the Government for protection of life and property
while they were engaged in trade, the merchants were thrown
upon their own resources to provide security. The best method
of grappling with the pirates, and that which was most
frequently adopted, was for merchant vessels to sail together
in such numbers that they could repel attack; and these
voluntary efforts were sometimes aided by the Government. In
1406 Henry IV. granted the merchants 3s. on every cask of wine
imported, and certain payments on Staple exports for purposes
of defence. Two Admirals were appointed, one for the north and
the other for the south, with full jurisdiction in maritime
affairs and power to organise naval forces. But this scheme
was unsuccessful. A similar expedient was tried in 1453, but
abandoned two years afterwards. The only satisfactory remedy
would have been a strong navy, but the conditions necessary
for this had not yet been realised. The country could not have
supported the charge of maintaining a strong naval force. …
That merchants were beginning to realise the importance of the
subject, and were becoming wealthy enough to build vessels of
a considerable size, is evident from the operations of John
Taverner, of Kingston-upon-Hull, and the famous William
Cannynges of Bristol, the latter of whom is said to have
possessed 2,470 tons of shipping and some vessels of 900 tons
burthen."
_W. A. S. Hewins,
Industry and Commerce
(in "Social England," edited by H. D. Traill,
chapter 7, volume 2)._
COMMERCE: MEDIÆVAL:
The Portuguese, and the finding of the Ocean Way to the Indies.
It was not by accident that the Portuguese rose all at once,
in the closing years of the 15th century and the early years
of the 16th, to a position in which they controlled and
directed the main current of trade between Europe and the
Eastern world. The discovery by Vasco da Gama of an ocean
route to the Indies, and all the results (hereafter
described), which it yielded to his countrymen for the time,
were a reward of enterprise which the Portuguese had fully
earned. They had worked for it, patiently and resolutely,
through almost a hundred years. The undertaking was begun, at
about the commencement of the 15th century, by a Portuguese
prince who ought to enjoy greater fame than if he had
conquered an empire; because his ambition was nobler and the
fruits were of higher worth to the world. He was known as
"Prince Henry the Navigator," and he was the third son of the
Portuguese King John I. who was called the Great, on account
of his success in wars with the Castillians and the Moors. But
this young son, Prince Henry, was much the greater man of the
two. He could not endure the ignorance of his time with regard
to the mysterious ocean that stretched westward and southward
from the shores of the little country which his father ruled.
He was bent on knowing more about it; and he was specially
bent on having the Portuguese sailors make their way down the
shores of the African continent, to learn where it ended and
what track to the farther side might be found. Beyond Cape
Nun, at the southern extremity of the modern empire of
Morocco, nothing was known of the western coast of Africa when
Prince Henry began his work. The Phœnicians and Carthaginians,
two thousand years earlier, had probably known more about it;
but their knowledge was lost. Prince Henry studied everything
that could give him light and became well convinced that round
the continent of Africa there was a way to the Indies for bold
sailors to find. Then he applied himself, with a zeal which
never flagged, to the working out of that achievement. He was
a young man when he began, and during more than forty years of
his life he devoted his time and his means almost wholly to
the fitting out and directing of exploring ships and he fixed
his residence upon the most southerly promontory of Portugal,
to watch their going and coming. But the art of navigation was
so little understood and the navigators were so timid, that
slow progress was made. Each explorer only ventured a little
farther than the one before him; and so they went feeling
their way, league by league, down the African coast. The
forty-three years of Prince Henry's endeavors were consumed in
reaching what is now the settlement of Sierra Leone, near the
head of the gulf of Guinea. But even this added more than a
thousand miles of the western coast of Africa to the maps of
the 15th century and was a greater advance in geographical
knowledge than had been made since Carthage fell. Before he
died (A. D. 1460), Prince Henry secured from the Pope (who was
supposed to have the giving of all heathen countries) a grant
to Portugal of all these discoveries, both island and
mainland, and of all which the Portuguese explorers might make
in the future, between Europe and India. So he died well
content, let us hope, with the work which he had done for his
country and for mankind. The enthusiasm for exploration which
Prince Henry had awakened in Portugal did not die with him,
though his efforts had met with unending opposition and
excited very much discontent. Repeated expeditions were still
sent down the African coast, and they crept farther and
farther toward the goal of desire. At last, in 1486,
Bartholomew Diaz, with three ships, actually rounded the Cape
of Good Hope without knowing it, and only learned the fact
when he turned backward from his voyage, discouraged by
storms. Eleven years later, Vasco da Gama set out, fired with
fresh determination, by the great discovery of a new world
which Columbus had so lately made for Spain, and this time
there was no failure. He passed the Cape, sailed up the
eastern shores of the African continent to Melinda, in
Zanguebar, and thence across the Indian Ocean to Calicut in
Hindostan. The ocean route to India was now fully proved; the
new era was opened and its grand prize plucked by the
Portuguese—thanks to Prince Henry the Navigator.
See, also, PORTUGAL: A. D. 1415-1460
and 1463-1498 (pages 2571-2573).
{3713}
COMMERCE: MODERN:
New Routes and New Marts.
There is nothing at all imaginary in the line which is drawn
in history across the later years of the 15th and the early
years of the 16th century, to mark the beginning of a new era
in human affairs. It is a line very real and very distinct,
dividing one state of things, known as the mediæval, from
another state of things, known as the modern. It was fixed by
the occurrence of a series of extraordinary events, which came
quickly, one after the other, and which brought about, either
singly or together, the most tremendous changes, in many ways,
that ever happened to the world in the same space of time. The
first of these was the invention of printing, which dates as a
practical art from about 1454. The second was the discovery of
the new world by Columbus, A. D. 1492. The third was the
passage around the Cape of Good Hope by the Portuguese
navigator, Vasco da Gama, A. D. 1497. The fourth was the
religious reformation set in motion by Martin Luther, at
Wittenberg, A. D. 1517. The combined effect of these great
events was to make really a new starting point in almost every
particular of human history, and to do so very quickly. The
commercial changes which resulted are among the most
remarkable. No sooner had the route by sea to southern and
eastern Asia and the islands of the Indian ocean been found,
than almost the whole traffic of Europe with that rich eastern
world abandoned its ancient channels and ran into the new one.
There were several strong reasons for this. In the first
place, it cost less to bring goods by ship from India, Ceylon
or China direct to European ports, than to carry them over
long distances by land to the eastern shores of the
Mediterranean and there ship them to the West. In the second
place, by taking its new route, this commerce escaped the
Moorish pirates in the Mediterranean, who had long been very
troublesome. And, lastly, but not least in importance, the
European merchants gained a great advantage in becoming able
to deal directly with the East Indians and the Chinese,
instead of trading at second hand with them, through Arabs and
Mahometan Turks, who controlled the Asiatic and African
routes. So the commerce of the Indies, as it was generally
called, fled suddenly away from the Mediterranean to the
Atlantic; fled away from the Venetians, the Genoese, the
Marseillaise, and the Barcelonians; from Constantinople,
lately conquered by the Turks; from Antioch and Alexandria;
and from many cities of the Hansa League in the north, which
had learned the old ways of traffic and were slow to learn
anything new. Soon many of the great marts which had been
busiest, grew silent and deserted and fell into slow decay.
The most enriching commerce of the world was passing to
different hands and bringing younger races into the front of
history.
COMMERCE: MODERN:
The Portuguese in the lead.
Having found the way to India by sea, the Portuguese were
prompt in taking measures to make themselves strong in that
part of the world and to control the trade with it. They were
helped in this effort by the grant of imagined rights which
Prince Henry had obtained from the Pope, long before. But they
strengthened the rights which the Pope gave them, by the older
fashioned methods of conquest and possession. They began at
once to plant themselves firmly at important points in the
eastern seas and on the Indian coast. They sent out one of
their ablest military men, Francesco d'Almeida, with a strong
force of ships and volunteers, and appointed him Viceroy of
India. He took possession of several parts of the Malabar
coast (the western coast of the southern extremity of
Hindostan) and built forts in which garrisons were placed. He
similarly established the Portuguese power in Ceylon, took
possession of the Maldive Islands and founded trading
settlements in Sumatra. The Venetians, who saw that their
ancient trade with the East was doomed unless this new rivalry
could be crushed, now joined their Mahometan allies of Egypt
in a great effort to drive the Portuguese back. A formidable
fleet was fitted out on the Red Sea and sent against Almeida.
He was unfortunate in his first encounter with these allied
enemies and lost the squadron that opposed them. But the
resolute viceroy was undaunted. Recalled from his command, he
refused to give it up until he had equipped and led another
fleet against the navy of the Egyptians and completely
destroyed it. The successor of Almeida, as viceroy of India,
was a remarkable personage who is known in the annals of his
time as "the great Afonso D'Albuquerque." The chronicle of his
exploits in Africa and India, compiled by his son from his own
letters and records, and entitled "The commentaries of the
great Afonso D'Albuquerque," has been translated into English
and published by the Hakluyt Society. He was a remarkably
energetic commander, and very honest in his way, according to
the notions of his time; but he did the work of subjugation
and conquest which he was sent to do in a cruel and rapacious
style. He was not rapacious on his own account; but he saw no
wrong in anything done for the profit of his country. In the
course of seven years he spread the Portuguese power so widely
and fixed it so firmly on the East Indian coasts and in the
neighboring seas that there was hardly an attempt for many
years to disturb it. None but Portuguese ships dared enter the
Indian ocean without special permits, and the few which
received admission were forbidden to trade in spices—the most
precious merchandise of the region. From the Indies the
Portuguese made their way to the coasts of China and put
themselves on friendly terms with its people. They were
permitted to occupy the port of Macao and have possessed it
ever since. Some years later they discovered the islands of
Japan and opened the earliest European commerce with that
singular country. So they held for a time the complete mastery
of eastern trade and enlarged it to greater bounds than it had
ever reached before. But they were satisfied with keeping the
sources of the supply of eastern goods to Europe in their own
hands. The first handling of the commodities was all that they
tried to control. They brought to Lisbon the spices, silks,
cotton, pearls, ivory, sugar, aromatic drugs and the like,
which their ships and merchants gathered up, and there sold
them to other traders, Dutch, English and German for the most
part, who found the final markets for them and who enjoyed a
good half of the profits of the trade. These latter derived
great advantages from the arrangements—much more than they had
gained in their trading with Genoa and Venice—and the commerce
of Holland and England grew rapidly as the result.
{3714}
But the glory and prosperity of the Portuguese, as masters of
the rich traffic of the eastern world, were not of long
duration. Before the 16th century closed, they had lost the
footholds of their power and were slipping into the background
very fast. By misfortunes and by folly combined, all the
fruits of the patient wisdom of Prince Henry, the persevering
courage of Vasco da Gama, the bold energy of Almeida, and the
restless enterprise of Albuquerque, were torn out of their
hands. Almost from the first, a greedy and jealous court had
done all that could be done to destroy the grand opportunities
in trade which the country had gained. Private enterprise was
discouraged; the crown claimed exclusive rights over large
parts of the commerce opened up, and these rights were sold,
given to favorites and dealt with in many ways that are
ruinous to successful trade. Royal jealousy sent three
viceroys to divide among them the government of the Portuguese
possessions in the East, when there should have been but one,
and the same jealousy kept these vice-royalties ever changing.
Of course, there was nowhere good government nor thrifty
management of trade. In the midst of this bad state of things,
the royal family of Portugal died out, in 1580, and Philip II.
of Spain set up claims to the crown which he was strong enough
to make good. Portugal thus became joined to Spain, for the
next sixty years, and was dragged into Philip's wicked war
with the Netherlands. Her Spanish masters did what they could
to draw her trade away from Lisbon to Cadiz and Seville. The
Dutch and English, her former customers and friends, made
enemies now by Philip of Spain, pushed their way into the
eastern seas, defying the mandates of the Pope, and broke down
her supremacy there. When the Portuguese, in 1640, threw off
the Spanish yoke and asserted their independence again,
calling a prince of the house of Braganza to the throne, there
was not much left of their former power or their former trade.
They still held Goa, on the western coast of Hindostan, and
the Chinese port of Macao—as they do to the present day; and
they retained, as they still do, considerable possessions in
Africa. But their brief importance in navigation, in
colonization and trade, was quite gone and they dropped back
to a humble position in the history of the world. Even the
management of their home trade with other countries fell
mostly, after a time, into the hands of the English, who
became their special allies and friends.
COMMERCE: MODERN:
The Spaniards.
While the Portuguese were pursuing glory and gain in the track
of Vasco da Gama, which led them south and east, the Spaniards
were doing the same in the wake of the three little ships
which Columbus, with a bolder hand, had steered westward, to
strange shores which he never dreamed of finding. These newly
opened regions of the globe, in the Atlantic and on both sides
of it, were divided between the two nations by the Pope, and
it was a bold matter in those days to dispute his right. He
gave to the Spaniards all islands and countries found west of
a meridian line drawn 27½° west of the island of Ferro, in the
Canary group. This nearly corresponds with the meridian 45½°
west of Greenwich. To the Portuguese he assigned all
discoveries east of it. So they both went on their appointed
ways, with pious hearts and untroubled consciences, busily
hunting for heathen lands to seize and despoil. But the
eastern field, in which the Portuguese did most of their work,
was one where commerce was old and where something of Europe
and its people was already known. They were forced to look
upon trade as the chief object of their pursuit. With the
Spaniards the case was different. They found their way to a
quarter of the world which Europe had never heard of and came
upon people who never saw the faces of white men until then.
These strange races of the new world were some of them quite
as civilized, in certain respects, as the Spaniards who
invaded them, and even more so, it would seem, in their
notions of truth and in the refinement of their manners and
modes of life. But they were simple and unsuspecting; they
were not warlike in disposition and they were rudely and
poorly armed. So the mail-clad cavaliers of Spain crushed them
into helpless slavery with perfect ease. From the islands of
the West Indies, which they discovered and occupied first, the
Spaniards had soon made their way to the shores of the two
continents of America, North and South. They found cities and
nations which astonished them by their splendor and wealth and
set them wild with greedy desires. Europe looked poor in
comparison with the shining wealth of Mexico and Peru. The
Spaniards went mad with the lust of gold. They lost human
feeling and common sense in their greediness to grasp the
metal treasures of the new world. They were indifferent to the
more precious and abounding products that it offered, and
neglected to build up the great commerce which might have
filled their hands with lasting riches. They made the old
fable of the goose which laid golden eggs a piece of real
history. They killed the goose; they destroyed their source of
wealth in Peru and Mexico by their eager extortions. Of true
commerce between the old world and the new there was little
while the Spaniards controlled it. They did, in the course of
time, ship considerable quantities of sugar, tobacco, hides,
logwood, indigo, cochineal, cocoa, cinchona, or Peruvian bark
(from which quinine is extracted) and other American products,
from their various colonies; but to no such extent as a wise
and enterprising people would have done, having the same
opportunities. Once a year, or once in two years, a fleet of
ships was sent from Seville, at first, and afterwards from
Cadiz, to Vera Cruz, for freights from Mexico, and another to
Porto Bello, on the Isthmus of Panama, for the South American
freights. The ships which made the latter voyage were
distinguished from the Mexican fleet by being called the
galleons. For a long time, twelve galleons in the one squadron
and fifteen ships in the other, making their voyage once a
year, and sometimes only every other year, conveyed all the
trade that passed between Spain and America; which shows how
little the Spaniards drew from their great possessions, except
the enormous treasure of silver and gold which a few ships
could transport. This glittering treasure formed, in fact, the
main cargo of the Peruvian galleons and the Mexican fleet.
Before the close of the reign of Philip II. the number of
galleons was increased to about forty and that of the fleet to
fifty or sixty.
{3715}
It is quite certain that no country had ever before received
such a quantity of gold and silver as came into Spain during
the 16th century. Instead of enriching, it ruined the nation.
Neither rulers nor people had sense enough to see what a
treacherous and delusive kind of wealth it formed, if trusted
to alone. They vainly fancied that, with such a store of
precious metals to draw upon, they could afford to despise the
homely labors by which other people lived. With such mad
notions as these, the honest industries of Spain were treated
with neglect or worse. Her trade with neighboring countries
was looked upon as a business too insignificant for Spaniards
to care for or trouble themselves about. It was mostly given
over to the Dutch and Flemings, while they remained under
Spanish rule, and it was afterwards kept up in great part by
smugglers, Dutch and English. Agriculture decayed, and its
destruction was helped by the formation of a great
aristocratic company of sheep-farmers, called the Mesta, to
which such tyrannical rights and privileges were given by the
crown that the most fertile parts of Spain were finally turned
into sheep-pasture, under its control. The best artisans and
the most enterprising merchants of the kingdom were driven
out, because they were Moors and Jews, or they were burned for
Christian beliefs which the Church did not approve. The
Inquisition was so busy, with its racks and its fires, that no
other business could thrive. Every kind of production
dwindled, and for the supplying of all descriptions of wants
the Spaniards were soon driven to look to other countries. The
few who laid hands upon the riches coming in from the plunder
of America spent it recklessly, in extravagant ways, while
costly foreign wars which had no success, and plots in France
and England which came to nothing, drained the coffers of the
king. And thus the great stream of gold and silver which
flowed into Spain from the new world ran out of it quite as
fast, until nearly every other country in Europe held more of
it than Spain herself. The strong hand with which the
Spaniards were able at first, and for some time, to hold the
vast domain of sea and land which the Pope had given them and
which their own sailors and soldiers had explored and seized,
grew weak before the end of a hundred years after the
memorable voyage of Columbus was made. The hardy Dutch, driven
to revolt and enmity by tyrannical government and by cruel
religious persecutions, attacked them everywhere, in the
eastern and western world. The English, just beginning to grow
ambitious and bold on the ocean, and constantly threatened by
the armadas of Spain, did the same. But these were not the
only enemies who harassed the Spanish colonies and fleets. In
a general way, the whole world went to war with the insolent
nation which claimed the lordship of the earth. There came
into existence, in the 17th century, a powerful organization
of pirates or freebooters, made up of daring men of all
nations, who carried on for many years a villainous warfare of
their own against the Spaniards at sea and against their
American settlements. These Buccaneers, as they were called,
gained strongholds in several islands of the West Indies, from
which the Spaniards were not able to dislodge them. Under the
attacks of all these enemies, combined with her own
misgovernment and her contempt and abuse of thrifty industries
and fair trade—which no people can neglect without ruin—Spain
steadily and rapidly sank.
COMMERCE: MODERN:
The Flemings and the Dutch.
In the first half of the 16th century, the people of the
Netherlands were the tolerably contented subjects of that
famous monarch, the Emperor Charles V., who ruled in Spain, in
Naples, in Germany (the old Empire), and in Burgundy, as well
as in the Lowland principalities, Flanders, Holland, and the
rest. They were already very prosperous, working hard at many
callings, trading shrewdly and busily with the rest of the
world, and diligently picking up all kinds of knowledge
everywhere. In the southern provinces (which we may call the
Belgian, because they are mostly now embraced in the modern
kingdom of Belgium) the chief industries were those of the
loom, in all branches of weaving; and in skilful workmanship
of every kind the people were tasteful and apt. These
provinces were the seat of a much greater and more general
activity in manufactures than appeared in the states to the
north of them (which we will call the Dutch states, without
distinction, because they are now included in the kingdom of
Holland). The latter were more extensively employed in
fisheries, in navigation and in ship building, although most
kinds of industry, manufacturing and agricultural, were
thriftily and successfully carried on. At the time when
Charles V. ruled the Netherlands, the city of Antwerp, in the
Belgian circle of provinces, was the great metropolis of
Netherland trade. It was much more than that. It was the
foremost commercial capital of the world. The traffic which
slipped away from Venice and Genoa, had fixed its central seat
in this younger town on the Scheldt. It was sure to plant its
new emporium somewhere in the Netherlands, because there was
nowhere else in Europe so much energy, so much enterprise, so
much industry, so much commercial wisdom, so much activity of
domestic trade. Spain and Portugal held the wealth of the
Indies and the Americas in their hands, but we have seen how
incapable they were of using the commercial advantage it gave
them. Lisbon, Cadiz and Seville were only depots for the
transfer of merchandise; it was impossible to make them real
capitals of trade, because they could not and would not
furnish either the spirit, or the genius, or the organized
agencies that it demands. The Netherlands, with their long
schooling in commerce upon a smaller scale, were ready to meet
every requirement when the new era opened and gave them their
greater chance. There was no other mercantile organization so
well prepared. The league of the Hansa Towns was breaking and
failing; the English were just beginning to show their
aptitude for manufactures and trade. Some one of the
Netherland cities was sure to win the sovereignty in
commercial affairs which Venice gave up, and Antwerp proved
the winner, for a time. During most of the 16th century, it
was the business center of Europe. It was the gathering-place
of the merchants and the seat of the money-changers and
bankers. Two and three thousand ships were often crowded in
its harbor, at one time. It distributed the merchandise of the
East and West Indies, which it took from Portugal and Spain,
and the manifold wares of the many manufacturing towns of
Flanders, Brabant, southern Germany, to a great extent, and
northern France.
{3716}
At the same time, its own looms, anvils, tanneries,
glass-works, dyeing-vats and mechanic shops of various kinds
were numerous and busy. Its thriving population was rapidly
increased, for it welcomed all who came with skill or
knowledge or money or strong hands to take part in its work.
Such was Antwerp during the reign of Charles V., and at the
time (A. D. 1555-1556) when that weary monarch gave up his
many crowns to his evil son, Philip II. of Spain, and went
away to a Spanish monastery to seek for rest. The government
of Charles in the Netherlands had been hard and heavy, but the
people were left free enough to prosper and to grow
intelligent and strong. Under Philip the prospect changed. The
story of his malignant persecutions and oppressions, of the
revolt to which they drove the Netherland provinces, of the
long, merciless war in which he strove to ruin or subdue them,
of the independence which the Dutch provinces achieved and the
prosperous career on which they entered, is told in another
place.
See NETHERLANDS (page 2256, and after).
Antwerp, the great capital of trade, stood foremost in the
struggle, as became its greatness, and it suffered
correspondingly. The death-blow to its fortunes was given in
1585, when, after a siege that is almost unexampled, it was
taken by the Spaniards under Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma,
and given up to pillage and slaughter. Its surviving
inhabitants fled in large numbers, the greater part of them to
Holland, some to England, and some to other countries.
Commerce abandoned the port. The chief merchants who had made
it the center of their undertakings chose Amsterdam for their
future seat of business, and that city rose at once to the
commercial rank of which Antwerp had been stripped by the
stupid malice of its Spanish sovereign. While the Belgian
Netherlands fell hopelessly under the fatal despotism of
Spain, the Dutch Netherlands fought their way slowly to
independence, which Spain was forced to acknowledge in 1648.
But long before that time the Dutch Republic had become a
power in Europe—much greater in every way than Spain. Its
foundations had been laid by the union of the seven provinces
of Holland, Zealand, Friesland, Utrecht, Groningen, Overyssel
and Gelderland. It had grown firmer and stronger year by year,
and the people, after a time, had not only found themselves
able to thrive generally in the midst of their desperate war
with Spain, but the war itself opened their way to wealth and
power. They learned, early, as we have seen, that they could
attack their enemy to the best advantage at sea. In pursuing
this ocean warfare they were led on to the East and West
Indies, and soon broke, in both regions, the exclusive power
which the Spanish and Portuguese had held. When Portugal was
dragged into a fatal union with Spain, under Philip II., it
had to suffer the consequences of Philip's wars, and it bore
more than its share of the suffering. The Dutch and the
English forced their way pretty nearly together into the
eastern seas, and, between them, the Portuguese were mostly
driven out. They divided the rich commerce of that great
Asiatic and Oceanic region, and, for a time, the most
lucrative part of it was gained by the Dutch. While the
English got their footing on the coasts of Hindostan and were
laying the foundations of their future empire in India, the
Dutch gained control of the spice-growing islands, which, in
that day, were the richer commercial prize. The first Dutch
fleet that rounded the Cape of Good Hope and made its way into
East Indian waters, sailed under the command of one Cornelius
Houtmann, who had been in the service of the Portuguese and
learned the route. He started in 1595 with four ships and
returned, after a voyage of eighteen months, with only two. He
had lost more than half his men, and he brought back very
little cargo to pay for the adventurous undertaking. But the
Dutch were well satisfied with the experiment; they knew that
more experience would lead to better success. Another fleet of
eight ships was sent out in 1598 and when four of them
returned the next year with a precious cargo of spices and
other merchandise from Java, which they had procured very
cheaply in exchange for the cloths, the metal wares and the
trinkets that they took out, the delight of the nation can
hardly be described. Part of the fleet had remained in the
East to hold and strengthen the position they had gained, and
other ships were sent speedily to join them. Very soon the
armed merchantmen of the Dutch were thickly swarming in that
part of the world, ready for fight or for trade, as the case
might be. So many companies of merchants became engaged in the
business that too lively competition between them occurred and
they threatened to ruin one another. But that danger was
overcome in 1602 by joining the rival interests together in
one strong association, to which the government gave exclusive
rights of trade in the East. Thus the Dutch East India Company
was formed, in which the merchants of Amsterdam, Rotterdam,
Delft and other cities of the republic put their capital
together. By its charter, this great company held powers of
war as well as of commerce and it used them both with
prodigious energy. At first, the chief trading stations of the
Dutch in the East were at Bantam, in Java, and Amboyna, one of
the group of the Moluccas or Spice Islands; but the city of
Batavia, which they founded in Java in 1619, became afterwards
their principal seat of trade and the capital of their
surrounding possessions. The chief aim of the Dutch was to
gather into their hands the profitable commerce of the island
world of the Eastern Archipelago, but they did not fail to
pursue their Spanish and Portuguese enemies in other quarters,
where the chances of traffic looked inviting. They seized
positions on the Guinea coast of western Africa and took their
full share of the trade with its savage natives, who gave gold
dust, ivory, ebony, gums, wax, ginger, pepper, palm oil,
various choice kinds of wood, and slaves (for the West Indies
and America, when the plantations there began to want labor),
in exchange for trinkets and cheap goods. They also occupied
and colonized the Cape of Good Hope, which the Portuguese had
neglected, and made it, in time, a very prosperous and
valuable possession. That they should carry their war with
Spain into the West Indies and to the American coasts, was a
matter of course. In 1623 a Dutch West India Company was
chartered, to organize these operations in the western world,
as the East India Company had organized undertakings in
the East.
{3717}
But the West India Company was much less commercial and much
more warlike in its aims than the corporation of the orient.
Its first object was to take spoils from the enemy, and it
found the prizes of war so rich that not much else was thought
of. On the North American continent, a most important lodgment
was made, as early as 1614, at the mouth of the Hudson River,
where the colony of New Netherland was founded. In this
quarter, as everywhere, the Dutch and English were rivals, and
before many years they came to open war. In the series of wars
which followed (1652, 1665, 1672), and in the long contest
with Louis XIV. of France which they shared with England, the
Dutch expended more of their energies than they could afford.
The English, with their well protected island, rich in soil
and in minerals, had heavy advantages on their side, when once
they had acquired the knowledge of commerce and the ability in
labor which enabled them to compete with the Dutch. To the
latter nature had always been wholly unfriendly. They had
fought against circumstances at every step in their history,
and had won their wealth, their knowledge, their high
importance and influence in the world, by sheer hard work,
tireless patience and indomitable will. But the natural
advantages against which they struggled were sure to overcome
them in the end. It must be said, too, that they did not grow
in character as their fortunes rose. It is not difficult,
therefore, to account for the fact that the Dutch nation
slowly slipped back, during the 18th century, from the high
and leading position in civilization to which it had climbed,
and lost by degrees its commercial supremacy, while the
English nation came to the front.
COMMERCE: MODERN:
The English:
16-17th Centuries.
Commercial progress.
The East India Company.
As English commerce slowly freed itself from foreign hands, it
fell under the control of monopolies at home. The merchants of
the Middle Ages, in England and elsewhere, had formed
themselves into societies, or guilds, just as the artisans and
mechanics in different trades had done. Such associations had
originally grown out of the disorderly state of the times,
when government and law were weak, and when men who had common
interests were forced to unite to protect themselves, and to
establish customs and rules for regulating their business
affairs. But the guilds almost always became, in time,
oppressive monopolies, each acquiring, in its own department
of business, such exclusive rights and privileges as
practically shut out from that business all persons not
admitted to its membership. This occurred among the merchants,
as it did elsewhere, and English commerce grew up under the
control of various societies of "Merchant Adventurers," as
they were called.
See MERCHANT ADVENTURERS (page 2153).
The disputes and contests of these companies, at home and
abroad, and their suppression of individual enterprise, appear
to have hindered the growth of English commerce for a long
period. But it did grow steadily, notwithstanding, and through
the reigns of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, the number of English
ships set afloat and of English merchants trading abroad, was
rapidly multiplied. Meantime the English people gained skill
in weaving, dyeing and other arts, and were fast extending the
manufacture at home of their own famous Wool. This, in turn,
made the sheep farming more profitable, and so much land was
taken for that purpose that other products were diminished and
most articles of food rose in price. That occurrence caused
grave anxiety, and the meddling statesmen of the time, who
thought that nothing could go well if their wisdom did not
regulate it by law (as too many meddling statesmen think yet)
began to frame acts of Parliament which directed how farming
lands should be managed and how many sheep a single farmer
should be permitted to own. The same kind of statesmanship
took alarm at the spread of weaving, in a small way, among
industrious villagers and country people, who set up looms and
made and sold cloth, outside of the guilds of the town
weavers. So the complaints of the latter were listened to, and
Parliament forbade weaving to be done outside of certain
towns, except for home use in the family of the weaver. There
was much of that sort of legislation during Tudor times, and
the industry and enterprise of the country had to struggle
long and hard for freedom to fairly exercise themselves. But
in spite of meddling statesmen and tyrannical monopolies, the
people went all from year to year, learning more, doing more,
producing more, wanting more, buying and selling more, and
living in a better way. After about 1511, there appears to
have been a considerable direct trade growing up between
England and the countries of the eastern Mediterranean (the
Levant), and consuls, to look after the rights and interests
of English merchants, began to be appointed, at Candia, and
elsewhere, as early as 1530. The voyage from London to the
Levant and return then occupied from eleven months to a year.
About 1535 the English made their appearance as traders on the
Guinea coast of West Africa, disputing the exclusive rights
which the Portuguese claimed there, and in 1537 they opened
trade with the Moors of the Barbary coast, in northern Africa.
In 1553 a chartered company of London merchants was formed
with the object of exploring for a northeastern passage to
China, around Europe, through the Arctic seas, as a means of
dividing the trade of the East with the Portuguese, who
controlled the southern route, around Africa. This is believed
to have been the first joint stock corporation of shareholders
that was organized in England. Sebastian Cabot, then "Grand
Pilot of England," was at the head of it. The northwestern
passage was not found, but the company opened a trade with
Russia which proved to be exceedingly valuable. Accepting
this, in lieu of the China trade which it could not reach, it
became, as the Russia Company, a rich and powerful
corporation. The success of the Russia Company stimulated the
adventurous disposition of the English people and set other
enterprises in motion. But still more energy was roused by the
hostility of national feeling toward Spain. The destruction of
the Armada broke the Spanish naval power and made the English
bold. They began to navigate the sea from that time with
intent to become its masters, though the Dutch were still
superior to them in maritime strength and experience. During
the reign of Elizabeth there rose a new race of Vikings, very
much like the old Norse heroes of the sea, and pursuing a very
similar career.
{3718}
The most daring and most famous among them, such as Grenville,
Drake and Hawkins, were more than half pirates, and their
voyages were chiefly expeditions for plunder, directed against
the Spaniards and Portuguese. The trade which they first gave
attention to was the trade in negro slaves. But those
piratical adventurers of the 16th century made England the
"mistress of the seas." They trained for her a body of sailors
who were able in time to more than cope with the Dutch, and
they opened the newly known regions of the world for her
merchants and colonists to spread over them. Before the end of
the 17th century, the English had become the foremost power in
the western world and were making the most of its
opportunities for production and trade. Meantime they were
pushing their way with equal energy in the East. On the last
day of the year 1600 the "Company of Merchants of London
trading into the East Indies," which became afterwards so
great and famous as the "East India Company" of England, was
chartered by the Queen. The Company sent out its first fleet
of five vessels in 1601. The expedition returned, after an
absence of two years and seven months, richly laden, in part
with pepper from Sumatra and in part with the spoils of a
Portuguese ship which it had captured in the straits of
Malacca. It had settled a trading agency, or factory, at
Bantam—and that was the beginning of the vast empire which
England now rules in the East.
See INDIA: A. D. 1600-1702 (page 1709).
COMMERCE: MODERN: The English:
17-18th Centuries.
The Colonial or Sole Market Commercial System.
"The doctrine that the commercial prosperity of a country
depends on the creation, maintenance, and extension of a sole
market for its products and for its supplies, was prevalent
from the discovery of the New World and the Cape Passage down
to the war of American Independence. This was the principal
object of Borgia's Bulls. This was what animated the Dutch, in
their successful, in the end too successful, struggle, after a
monopoly of the Spice islands. This was the motive which led
to the charters of the Russian Company, the Levant Company,
the East India Company, the Turkey Company, the Hudson's Bay
Company, in England. The theory was organized in the colonial
system, which Adam Smith examined, attacked, and as far as
argument could go, demolished in his great work. But the dream
of a sole market is still possessing the Germans and the
French. … The early wars of Europe were wars of conquest. …
After them came the wars of religion, from the outbreak of the
Insurrection in the Low Countries, and the civil wars in
France, down to the Peace of Westphalia in the middle of the
17th century. From that day to our own, European wars have
been waged on behalf of the balance of power, the principal
mischief-maker in the contest being France. The English, the
French, and the Dutch were the competitors in the wars for a
sole market. But Holland was practically ruined at the peace
of Aix-la-Chapelle, and France was stripped … of her colonies
at the peace of Paris, and England became not only the
principal maritime, but the principal manufacturing and
mercantile country in the world. As regards English trade,
however, though India was an outlet to some extent for English
goods, its trade was in the hands of a chartered company, whom
the Seven Years' War had left in serious straits. The most
important sole market which Great Britain had acquired by her
wars was the seaboard of North America. To support the
finances of the chartered company, the British Parliament
determined on taxing the inhabitants of her sole market, and
the result as you know was the war of American Independence. …
The colonial or sole-market system was based on a strict
reciprocity. The English Government admitted colonial produce
into the English markets at differential duties, or prohibited
the produce of foreign nations and foreign colonies
altogether. The Colonies were not only the customers of
English manufacturers only, to the absolute exclusion of
foreign manufactures, but were prohibited from undertaking
those manufactures themselves. The English Government adopted
with their colonies the policy which they adopted with Irish
manufactures, which they also prohibited, but with this
difference, that they disabled the Irish from having any trade
whatever with England, with the Colonies, and with foreign
countries. They wished to extinguish, with one exception,
every Irish product, and to constitute themselves the sole
manufacturers and shopkeepers for the Irish. They allowed only
the linen manufacture of Ulster. The Irish were to be, with
this exception, agriculturists only, but they were to be
disabled from selling their agricultural produce in England,
or elsewhere. They were practically denied the right of trade.
… It was the doctrine of the sole market in its most
exaggerated form. … The colonial system, under which
advantages were secured to the colonial producer by giving him
a preferred market in Great Britain, while the colonist was
debarred from engaging in manufactures, was a selfish one on
the part of the English merchants and manufacturers. It gave
the colonist a sole market, it is true. But it does not follow
that a sole market is a high market. On the contrary, it is
probable that the offer of a sole market is intended to secure
a low market. The Virginian planter sent the whole of his
tobacco to England. The English trader re-exported it to other
countries, say Holland or Germany. It may be presumed that he
made a profit on the original consignment, and on the
re-exportation, or he would not have undertaken the business.
… The colonial system did not preclude the plantations from
sending, under the strict conditions of the Navigation Act,
certain kinds of produce to other countries than England.
These were called non-enumerated commodities, the principal
being corn, timber, salted provisions, fish, sugar, and rum.
There was a reason for this, which was to be found in the
fiscal system of England. We did not want colonial corn, for
there were duties on corn, levied in the interest of the
landlords, nor colonial timber, salted meat and salted fish,
for the home produce of these articles were similarly
assisted. Sugar and rum were allowed to be exported, for the
owners of the plantations in the Leeward isles were chiefly
absentee English proprietors, who had already a monopoly of
English supply, and were powerful enough in Parliament to get
an extended market elsewhere. But in 1769, just before the
troubles broke out with the American plantations, an Act was
passed, disabling the colonists from sending even the
non-enumerated commodities to any country north of Cape
Finisterre, in Northern Spain. … The enumerated goods, and
there was a long list of them, could be exported to Great
Britain only. They consisted, as Adam Smith says, of what
could not be produced in this country, and what could be
produced in great quantity in the Colonies."
_J. E. T. Rogers,
The Economic Interpretation of History,
lecture 15._
{3719}
COMMERCE: MODERN: The Americans:
Colonial Trade.
"We are a nation of land-traffickers, but our ancestors in the
colonies traded and traveled almost entirely by water. There
were but twelve miles of land-carriage in all the province of
New York; beyond Albany the Indian trade was carried on by
'three-' or 'four-handed batteaus,' sharp at both ends, like
the Adirondack boat of to-day. Yachts, with bottoms of black
oak and sides of red cedar, brought wheat in bulk and peltries
down the Hudson; other craft carried on the domestic trade of
New York town with the shores of Long Island, Staten Island,
and the little ports beyond the Kill von Kull. … The first
regular wagon-carriage from the Connecticut River to Boston
did not begin until 1697; Massachusetts had then been settled
seventy years. The flat-bottomed boat, which has since played
so important a part in the trade of the Ohio and the
Mississippi, and whose form was probably suggested by that of
the 'west country barges' of England, appears to have been
used for floating produce down the Delaware before 1685. In
the Chesapeake colonies, until late in the provincial period,
there were almost no roads but the numerous bays and
water-courses, and almost no vehicles but canoes, row-boats,
pinnaces and barks. Places of resort for worship or business
were usually near the waterside. … But of all means of travel
or trade the Indian canoe was the chief. … Roads in the
colonies were hardly ever laid out, but were left where Indian
trail or chance cart-track in the woods had marked them. …
From England, along with bad roads, the colonists brought the
pack-horse which, in Devon and Cornwall, at the close of the
last century, still did the carrying, even of building-stones
and cord-wood. Most of the inland traffic of the colonial
period was done by packing. … The Germans, whose ancestors had
four-wheeled vehicles in the days of Julius Cæsar, made good
roads wherever they planted themselves. While their English
neighbors were content to travel on horseback and to ford and
swim streams, the Salzburgers in Georgia began by opening a
wagon-road twelve miles long, with seven bridges, 'which
surprised the English mightily.' Pennsylvania, the home of the
Germans, alone of the colonies built good straight roads; and
the facility which these afforded to ten thousand
freight-wagons was the main advantage that gave Philadelphia
the final preeminence among the colonial sea-ports, and made
Lancaster the only considerable inland mart In North America.
… Proximity to the wampum-making savages at one end of Hudson
River navigation and to the beaver-catchers at the other made
New York the chief seat of the fur trade. Wagon-roads, soil,
climate, and an industrious people made Philadelphia the
principal center of the traffic in bread and meat. The
never-ending line of convenient shore that bordered the
peninsulas of Maryland and Virginia, and gave a good
landing-place at every man's door, with a tobacco currency,
rendered it difficult to build towns or develop trade among
the easy-going planters of the Chesapeake and Albemarle
regions. A different coast-line, and rivers less convenient,
made Charleston the rich and urbane commercial and social
center of southern Carolina. Until about 1750 Boston was the
leading sea-port, and its long wharf, 2,000 feet in length
with warehouses on one side of it, was the New World wonder of
travelers. Five or six hundred vessels annually cleared out of
Boston in the middle of the 18th century for the foreign trade
alone, and the city contained between twenty and thirty
thousand people at the outbreak of the Revolution. But
Newport, with its thirty distilleries to make rum of the
molasses brought from the islands, and its seventeen sperm-oil
and candle factories to work up the results of the whaling
industry, had nearly half as many ships in foreign trade as
Boston, and three or four hundred craft of all sorts in the
coast-wise carrying trade. He was thought a bold prophet who
said then that 'New York might one day equal Newport'; for
about 1750 New York sent forth fewer ships than Newport, and
not half so many as Boston. … But Philadelphia—planted late in
the 17th century—outstripped all rivals, and for the last
twenty years of the colonial period was the chief port of
North America. … The imports and exports of the two tobacco
colonies together were far larger than those of Philadelphia,
but their profits were far less."
_E. Eggleston,
Commerce in the Colonies
(Century, June, 1884)._
COMMERCE: MODERN: The English:
18-19th Centuries.
Rising prosperity and commercial supremacy.
Successful War, Free Trade and Steam Power.
"If we look at the state of the European powers after the
conclusion of the Seven Years' War in 1763, we shall see how
favourable our position then was. In the first place, England
had seriously crippled her commercial rival, France, both in
her Indian and American possessions, and thereby had gained
extensive colonial territories which afforded a ready market
for British goods. Spain, which had been allied with France,
had lost at the same time her position as the commercial rival
of England in trade with the New World. Germany had for some
time ceased to be a formidable competitor, and was now being
ravaged by internal conflicts between the reigning houses of
Austria and Prussia. Holland, which had once been England's
most serious rival—especially in foreign commerce—was at this
time in a similar condition, and had greatly declined from the
prosperity of the 16th and 17th centuries. Hence England alone
had the chance of 'the universal empire of the sole market.'
The supply of this market was in the hands of English
manufacturers and English workmen, so that the great
inventions which came into operation after 1763 were thus at
once called into active employment, and our mills and mines
were able to produce wealth as fast as they could work,
without fear of foreign competition. It is not surprising,
therefore, to find that in the ten years, from 1782 to 1792,
our entire foreign trade was nearly doubled, the exact figures
being:
1782, imports £10,341,628, exports £13,009,458;
1792, Imports £19,659,358, exports £24,905,200.
And this remarkable progress was still kept up even during the
great continental wars which were caused by the French
Revolution, and which lasted for almost a quarter of a
century. …
{3720}
In spite of the almost entire loss of our trade in some
directions, English commerce improved in others; and, in fact,
any loss was more than counterbalanced by an increase in
regard to the (now independent) United States, Russia, Venice,
Germany, and Northern Europe, as well as with the West and
East Indian colonies, both British and foreign. In fact, many
of the countries whom France had compelled to become our
enemies found themselves unable to do without British
manufactures, especially as their own industries were
suffering from the warfare that was going on on the Continent,
and therefore had to find means to procure our goods. … The
close of the 25 years of continental war (1815) is sometimes
taken as being the date when the modern system of commerce may
be said to have had its beginning. Up to that time, although
great changes and advances had been made, the spirit of
monopoly and the general restrictive policy which
characterised previous centuries, were still, to some extent,
in force. But not very long after the peace that was won by
the battle of Waterloo, a remarkable change was made in the
commercial policy of England. … We now come to the beginnings
of freedom of trade."
_H. de B. Gibbins,
British Commerce and Colonies,
pages 91-102._
"When the wars of the French Revolution began, the foundations
of a great empire had already been broadly laid; and when it
ended, England stood out as a power which had grown greater in
the struggle. … Dutchman, Dane, and Spaniard, Frenchman and
Venetian, all ancient competitors of England, fell before her;
and, when the sword was sheathed in 1815, it was no
exaggerated boast to call her mistress of the seas. These
facts should never be lost sight of in any consideration of
the causes which have led us to where we now are. Without
these preparatory steps, both in domestic industries and in
foreign wars and conquests, England would not, with all her
material advantages, have been so entirely the gainer by the
progress of the last fifty years as she has so far proved to
be. … There is the more need to remember this because the time
immediately following the war was one of severe domestic
suffering, and of much retrograde legislation, conceived with
a view to, if possible, lessen that suffering. … The worst of
all the laws which then restricted trade were those relating
to the exports and imports of corn, which the younger men of
to-day have well-nigh forgotten. … It was not till after long
years of agitation by John Bright, Richard Cobden, and other
leaders of the Anti-Corn Law League, that the landed party
gave way sullenly, and assented, amid the most gloomy
predictions of impending ruin, to the repeal of the sliding
scale altogether, and the virtual abolition of all corn laws
by the substitution of a fixed duty of 1 s. per quarter. Thus
recently was one of the most oppressive pieces of fiscal
legislation that man could have conceived withdrawn; and not
until 1849, when that law came into force, could the
industries of the country be said to be anything like
unfettered. Yet twenty years more passed before this shilling
duty—the last rag of protection—was itself flung aside, and
the import of corn became perfectly free. … But many other
changes had in the meantime taken place, all tending more and
more to throw off the shackles of trade. … As late as 1840 our
customs tariff was described in the report of a committee of
the House of Commons as 'presenting neither congruity nor
unity of purpose;' as 'often aiming at incompatible ends,'
seeking both to produce revenue and to protect interests in
ways incompatible with each other. There were no fewer than
1,150 different rates of duty chargeable on imported articles,
… and the committee gave a list of 862 of such articles which
were subject to duty, seventeen of which then produced 94 per
cent. of a revenue amounting to £23,000,000. … The present
customs tariff contains less than two dozen articles all told,
and including those on which duty is imposed to countervail
the excise charges on internal products. The ordinary import
articles on which duty is charged number only seven. … But
there is yet another hindrance the removal of which has to be
noticed, and which, till removed, cramped England very
seriously, viz. the navigation laws and the great trade
monopoly of the East India Company. … It took longer time … to
accomplish the complete deliverance of our mercantile marine
from the baneful influence of 'protective' jealousy than to
accomplish any other great free-trade reform. A tentative
effort to lessen the consequences of confining the carrying
trade of England to English ships was made in 1825 by Mr.
Huskisson; but it was not till 1854 that complete free trade
on the sea was granted by the abolition of any restriction as
to the nationality of vessels engaged in the coasting trade of
the kingdom. … Here, then, we have noted briefly the various
steps and leading characteristics of the commercial reforms
which, in this country, either paved the way for or secured
the benefit of the great outburst of enterprise and influx of
wealth which began in the second quarter of the present
century. These various reforms constitute, so to say, the
negative side of the modern commercial prosperity which this
country built upon the foundations of her world-wide empire;
and, in order to get a complete outline of the position which
we at present occupy, we must now revert briefly to the
positive side of the subject; we must find out where the great
modern wealth has come from, and on what it has been based.
Freedom of trade no doubt did much to call wealth and
enterprise into being; but in what did this wealth consist?
Happily the leading features are not difficult to trace.
Although the foundations of the great manufacturing industries
of this country lie far back in the past, their development,
like the growth of free-trade principles, is quite modern, and
dates in reality from the day when George Stephenson won the
competition at Liverpool with his locomotive 'the Rocket,'
settling thereby the question of railroad travelling by steam
beyond dispute. The mere stimulus to all kinds of mining and
manufacturing industries which this victory and the subsequent
railway operations gave, was itself enough to cause the trade
of this country to press forward by 'leaps and bounds.' Since
November 1830, it may be said to have done so; and the mere
fact that England was the originator of the railway systems of
the world, and that she contained within herself almost
boundless materials wherewith to supply those systems, would
itself suffice to explain the pre-eminence which from that day
to this has been unquestionably hers.
{3721}
The great natural resources of the country were first employed
in supplying the materials for home development, and then
gradually the wealth thus acquired by digging in the bowels of
the earth was utilised in tempting or leading other nations
into a career of 'progress' similar to our own. In spite of
the many losses which individuals suffered in the early days
of this progress, the nation grew steadily richer and its
stores of realised wealth increased with every new enterprise
almost that it took up. … Each year the realised wealth of the
one before told, as it were, in swelling the working power of
the nation, and in enlarging the business capacities and scope
of its credit. … Side by side with the increased produce of
the country, the increased manufactures, and the increasing
wealth, there were growing up facilities for
intercommunication with all parts of the world, and with that
an increasing tendency to emigration. The home hives were
constantly throwing off young swarms, which, settling now in
America, now in Australia, now in Africa, became so many new
centres of demand, so many links in the trade chain that we
had bound round the world."
_A. J. Wilson,
British Trade
(Fraser's Magazine, September, 1876),
pages 271-277._
"The almost unlimited expansion which becomes marked about
1850 and culminates in 1873, has been pointed to by many
different people as proof of the great effect of different
measures or inventions; as a matter of fact, it was due to no
one cause, but was rather the result of multitudinous
discoveries and events, acting and reacting on each other.
Perhaps the following list of dates shows this most clearly;—
Opening of first English railway, 1830;
Wheatstone's telegraph, 1837;
first ocean steamer, 1838;
settlement in New Zealand, 1840;
reduction of duties on raw materials, 1842;
repeal of Corn Laws, 1846;
commercial treaty with France, 1860.
Here are seven events of widely different natures, each of
which must have had its effect in the period under
consideration, and it would be useless, even if it were
possible, to weigh the separate result of each. We cannot
estimate, we can obtain no criterion of the vast effects of
the adoption of Free Trade. Three things, however, are clear;—
First, that till the suffocating restrictions were removed,
trade could not expand; when exports were prohibited, imports
could not be plentiful; when imports were taxed, the demand at
enhanced prices could not be great. Secondly, if every
restriction was removed from every branch of trade, there
would be no increase without natural causes of manufacture and
demand, no increased demand without a cheapening or
improvement of supply; that, in fact, Free Trade is the
method, not the source, of commerce, and that the claim of
this increase as the direct result of freedom and a proof of
its expediency is an inaccurate exaggeration. Thirdly, that
the date of the marked commencement of the expansion coincides
exactly with the reductions and abolitions of duties, pointing
to the fact, borne out by all concurrent events, that the
adoption of Free Trade was the opening of the valve which
allowed the forces of commerce full play. … It was in the
trades of comparatively recent establishment, in England
especially, that there were immense outputs (of cotton goods
and machinery, for instance), in great excess of the home
demand; and this could only pay if the foreign demand grew in
proportion to the growing efficiency; that is to say, our
newer industries became the most important, and were marked as
our division of international labour. The foreign demand,
indeed, for our manufactures and our machines was
extraordinary. Now, every country is trying to rival our
goods, and each to produce for herself the manufactures she
requires; then, rivalry was out of the question. … On every
side new markets were opened; old trades were increased, new
developed. The railways built with our materials opened up
districts hitherto inaccessible; this acted as a fresh
stimulus to our manufacturers—more capital was forthcoming,
and more railways were built. Not only were countries, with
which we had already established some trade, brought nearer
and in closer relation, but new countries were discovered.
Australia and New Zealand were ready to take our surplus
population, and were not behindhand in the new system of
development. Our older colonies also increased. With each
emigration the number of our customers abroad was multiplied.
In 1850 and 1852 this process was accelerated by the news of
the gold discoveries in California and Australia. So great was
the emigration and the consequent demand for ships that all
freights were increased, and, with a short lull, this
continued till 1856. … The last great impetus was given by the
Suez Canal, by which the journey to India and the East was
quickened by one-half, and, at the same time, rendered more
secure."
_A. L. Bowley,
England's Foreign Trade in the Nineteenth Century.
chapter 4._
See, also, TARIFF LEGISLATION (pages 3073-3077).
COMMERCE: MODERN:
The Americans: A. D, 1856-1895.
Decay of American shipping interests.
"Down to the year 1856, the United States had rapidly advanced
in commercial greatness, and had overcome all the obstacles
which had clustered about their path. At that time we were
close upon the heels of England, and everything pointed to our
speedily passing her in the race for commercial supremacy.
Since then our commerce has steadily declined,—a misfortune
usually attributed to the civil war, and subsequently to the
competition of more profitable forms of investment. These
circumstances no doubt hastened the loss of our commerce; but,
as Lieutenant Kelley points out, they are not the true causes
of its decline, inasmuch as that began before the civil war.
The origin of our difficulties lay in the abandonment of our
old policy, which, from the beginning of the century,
consisted in surpassing all the world in the quality and speed
of our ships and in our naval architecture. With the
substitution of iron for wood we began to drop behind, until,
with a population of 55,000,000, we have a tonnage but little
greater than we had when half as numerous. Moreover, our
percentage of wrecks is larger than that of any other
seafaring people, and our ships and steamers are
shorter-lived.
_The Question of Ships
(Atlantic Monthly, June, 1884, pages 859-861)._
{3722}
"The first symptoms of the decadence appeared in 1856, in the
falling-off in the sales of American tonnage to foreigners;
the reduction being from 65,000 in 1855 to 42,000 in 1856, to
26,000 in 1858, and to 17,000 in 1860. During the war,
however, the transfers of American tonnage to foreign flags
again increased very largely, and, for the years 1862 to 1865
inclusive, amounted to the large aggregate of 824,652 tons, or
to more than one-fourth of all the registered tonnage (the
tonnage engaged in foreign trade) of the United States in
1860. But these transfers, it is well understood, were not in
the nature of ordinary business, but for the sake of obtaining
a more complete immunity from destruction upon the high seas
than the United States at that time was able to afford. The
year 1856 also marks the time when the growth of our foreign
steam-shipping was arrested, and a retrograde movement
inaugurated; so that … our aggregate tonnage in this
department was 1,000 tons less in 1862 than it was in 1855.
The total tonnage of every description built in the United
States also declined from 583,450 tons in 1855 (the largest
amount ever built in any one year) to 469,393 in 1856, 378,804
in 1857, and 212,892 in 1860, a reduction of 68 per cent in
five years. During the year 1855, American vessels carried
75.6 per cent of the value of the exports and imports of the
United States. After 1855 this proportion steadily declined to
75.2 per cent in 1856, 70.5 in 1857, 66.9 in 1859, and 65.2 in
1861, the year of the outbreak of the war. … Of the enormous
increase in the foreign commerce of the United States since
1860, as above noted, every maritime nation of any note, with
the exception of the United States, has taken a share.
American tonnage alone exhibits a decrease. Thus, comparing
1880 with 1856, the foreign tonnage entering the seaports of
the United States increased nearly 11,000,000 of tons; whereas
the American tonnage entered during the same period exhibits a
decrease of over 65,000 tons. British tonnage increased its
proportion from 935,000 tons in 1856 to 7,903,000 in 1880;
Germany, during the same time, from 166,000 to 1,089,000; and
Sweden and Norway from 20,662 to 1,234,000. Austria, limited
to almost a single seaport, jumped up from 1,477 tons in 1856
to 206,000 tons in 1880, and had, in 1879, 179 large-class
sailing-vessels engaged in the American trade. Sleepy Portugal
increased during the same period from 4,727 tons to 24,449
tons. … How is it, that the United States, formerly a maritime
power of the first class, has now no ships or steamers that
can profitably compete for the carrying of even its own
exports; not merely with the ships of our great commercial
rival, England, but also with those of Italy, Sweden, Norway,
Germany, Holland, Austria, and Portugal? … The facts already
presented fully demonstrate that the war was not the cause,
and did not mark the commencement, of the decadence of
American shipping; although the contrary is often and perhaps
generally assumed by those who have undertaken to discuss this
subject. The war simply hastened a decay which had already
commenced. … The primary cause was what may be termed a
natural one, the result of the progress of the age and a
higher degree of civilization; namely, the substitution of
steam in place of wind as an agent for ship-propulsion, and
the substitution of iron in the place of wood as a material
for ship-construction. … The means and appliances for the
construction of iron vessels did not then [in 1855] exist in
the United States; while Great Britain, commencing even as far
back as 1837 (when John Laird constructed his first iron
steamers of any magnitude for steam navigation), and with
eighteen years of experience, had become thoroughly equipped
in 1855 for the prosecution of this great industry. The
facilities for the construction of steam machinery adapted to
the most economical propulsion of ocean vessels, furthermore,
were also inferior in the United States to those existing in
Great Britain; and, by reason of statute provisions, citizens
of the United States interested in ocean commerce were
absolutely prevented and forbidden from availing themselves of
the results of British skill and superiority in the
construction of vessels when such a recourse was the only
policy which could have enabled them at the time to hold their
position in the ocean carrying trade in competition with their
foreign rivals. … The inability of the ships of the United
States to do the work which trade and commerce required that
they should do as well and cheaply as the ships of other
nations having been demonstrated by experience, the decadence
of American shipping commenced and was inevitable from the
very hour when this fact was first recognized, which was about
the year 1856. Here, then, we have the primary cause of the
decay of the business of ship-building in the United States
and of our commercial marine. … The question which next
naturally presents itself in the order of this inquiry and
discussion is, Why is it that the people of the United States
have not been permitted to enjoy the privileges accorded to
other maritime nations, of adjusting their shipping interests
to the spirit and wants of the age? Why have they alone been
debarred from using the best tools in an important department
of commerce, when the using meant business retained, labor
employed, and capital rewarded, and the non-using equally
meant decay, paralysis, and impoverishment? The answer is,
Because of our so-called navigation laws."
_D. A. Wells,
Our Merchant Marine,
chapters 2-3._
"Somewhat curtailed, the navigation laws may be summarized as
follows: No American is allowed to import a foreign-built
vessel in the sense of purchasing, acquiring a registry, or
using her as his property; the only other imports, equally and
forcibly prohibited, being counterfeit money and obscene
goods. An American vessel ceases to be such if owned in the
smallest degree by a naturalized citizen, who may, after
acquiring the purchase, reside for more than one year in his
native country, or for more than two years in any other
foreign state. An American ship owned in part or in full by an
American citizen who, without the expectation of relinquishing
his citizenship, resides in any foreign country except as
United States Consul, or as agent or partner in an exclusively
American mercantile house, loses its register and its right to
protection. A citizen obtaining a register for an American
vessel must make oath that no foreigner is directly or
indirectly interested in the profits thereof, whether as
commander, officer, or owner. Foreign capital may build our
railroads, work our mines, insure our property, and buy our
bonds, but a single dollar invested in American ships so
taints as to render it unworthy of the benefit of our laws. No
foreign-built vessel can, under penalty of confiscation, enter
our ports and then sail to another domestic port with any new
cargo, or with any part of an original cargo, which has once
been unladen previously, without touching at some port of some
foreign country.
{3723}
This law is construed to include all direct traffic between
the Atlantic and Pacific ports of the United States via Cape
Horn, the Cape of Good Hope, or the Isthmus of Panama; and
being a coasting trade, foreigners cannot compete. An American
vessel once sold or transferred to a foreigner, can never
again become American property, even if the transaction has
been the result of capture and condemnation by a foreign power
in time of war. Vessels under 30 tons cannot be used to import
anything at any seaboard town. Cargoes from the eastward of
the Cape of Good Hope are subject to a duty of 10 per cent. in
addition to the direct importation duties. American vessels
repaired in foreign ports must pay a duty on the repairs equal
to one-half the cost of the foreign work or material, or pay
50 per cent. ad valorem, the master or owner making entry of
such repairs as imports. This liberal provision, which dates
from 1866, is made to include boats obtained at sea, from a
passing foreign vessel, in order to assure the safety of our
own seamen. … All other nations have the power of buying ships
for foreign trade in the cheapest market, and the effort to
protect our shipbuilders by the denial of this right forbids
the return of commercial prosperity."
_J. D. J. Kelley,
The Question of Ships,
chapters 4-5._
COMMERCE: MODERN:
The recent revolution in Commerce.
"All economists who have specially studied this matter are
substantially agreed that, within the period named
[1860-1885], man in general has attained to such a greater
control over the forces of Nature, and has so compassed their
use, that he has been able to do far more work in a given
time, produce far more product, measured by quantity in ratio
to a given amount of labor, and reduce the effort necessary to
insure a comfortable subsistence in a far greater measure than
it was possible for him to accomplish 20 or 30 years anterior
to the time of the present writing (1889). In the absence of
sufficiently complete data, it is not easy, and perhaps not
possible, to estimate accurately, and specifically state the
average saving in time and labor in the world's work of
production and distribution that has been thus achieved. In a
few departments of industrial effort the saving in both of
these factors has certainly amounted to 70 or 80 per cent; in
not a few to more than 50 per cent. … Out of such results as
are definitely known and accepted have come tremendous
industrial and social disturbances, the extent and effect of
which—and more especially of the disturbances which have
culminated, as it were, in later years—it is not easy to
appreciate without the presentation and consideration of
certain typical and specific examples. … Let us go back, in
the first instance, to the year 1869, when an event occurred
which was probably productive of more immediate and serious
economic changes—industrial, commercial, and financial—than
any other event of this century, a period of extensive war
excepted. That was the opening of the Suez Canal. … The old
transportation had been performed by ships, mainly
sailing-vessels, fitted to go round the Cape, and as such
ships were not adapted to the Suez Canal, an amount of
tonnage, estimated by some authorities as high as two million
tons, and representing an immense amount of wealth, was
virtually destroyed. The voyage, in place of occupying from
six to eight months, has been so greatly reduced that steamers
adapted to the canal now make the voyage from London to
Calcutta, or vice versa, in less than 30 days. The notable
destruction or great impairment in the value of ships
consequent upon the construction of the canal did not,
furthermore, terminate with its immediate opening and use; for
improvements in marine engines, diminishing the consumption of
coal, and so enabling vessels to be not only sailed at less
cost, but to carry also more cargo, were, in consequence of
demand for quick and cheap service so rapidly effected, that
the numerous and expensive steamer constructions of 1870-1873,
being unable to compete with the constructions of the next two
years, were nearly all displaced in 1875-1876, and sold for
half, or less than half, of their original cost. And within
another decade these same improved steamers of 1875-1876 have,
in turn, been discarded and sold at small prices. … Again,
with telegraphic communication between India and China, and
the markets of the Western world, permitting the dealers and
consumers of the latter to adjust to a nicety their supplies
of commodities to varying demands, and with the reduction of
the time of the voyage to 30 days or less, there was no longer
any necessity of laying up great stores of Eastern commodities
in Europe; and with the termination of this necessity, the
India warehouse and distribution system of England, with all
the labor and all the capital and banking incident to it,
substantially passed away. Europe, and to some extent the
United States, ceased to go to England for its supplies. …
Importations of East Indian produce are also no longer
confined in England and other countries to a special class of
merchants; and so generally has this former large and special
department of trade been broken up and dispersed, that
extensive retail grocers in the larger cities of Europe and
the United States are now reported as drawing their supplies
direct from native dealers in both China and India. … In
short, the construction of the Suez Canal completely
revolutionized one of the greatest departments of the world's
commerce and business; absolutely destroying an immense amount
of what had previously been wealth, and displacing or changing
the employment of millions of capital and thousands of men. …
The deductions from the most recent tonnage statistics of
Great Britain come properly next in order for consideration.
During the ten years from 1870 to 1880, inclusive, the British
mercantile marine increased its movement, in the matter of
foreign entries and clearances alone, to the extent of
22,000,000 tons; or, to put it more simply, the British
mercantile marine exclusively engaged in foreign trade did so
much more work within the period named; and yet the number of
men who were employed in effecting this great movement had
decreased in 1880, as compared with 1870, to the extent of
about 3,000 (2,990 exactly). What did it? The introduction of
steam hoisting-machines and grain-elevators upon the wharves
and docks, and the employment of steam-power upon the vessels
for steering, raising the sails and anchors, pumping, and
discharging the cargo; or, in other words, the ability,
through the increased use of steam and improved machinery, to
carry larger cargoes in a shorter time, with no increase—or,
rather, an actual decrease—of the number of men employed in
sailing or managing the vessels. …
{3724}
Prior to about the year 1875 ocean-steamships had not been
formidable as freight-carriers. The marine engine was too
heavy, occupied too much space, consumed too much coal. … The
result of the construction and use of compound engines in
economizing coal has been illustrated by Sir Lyon Playfair, by
the statement that 'a small cake of coal, which would pass
through a ring the size of a shilling, when burned in the
compound engine of a modern steamboat would drive a ton of
food and its proportion of the ship two miles on its way from
a foreign port.' … Is it, therefore, to be wondered at, that
the sailing-vessel is fast disappearing from the ocean? …
Great, however, as has been the revolution in respect to
economy and efficiency in the carrying-trade upon the ocean,
the revolution in the carrying-trade upon land during the same
period has been even greater and more remarkable. Taking the
American railroads in general as representative of the
railroad system of the world, the average charge for moving
one ton of freight per mile has been reduced from about 2.5
cents in 1869 to 1.06 in 1887; or, taking the results on one
of the standard roads of the United States the (New York
Central), from 1.95 in 1869 to 0.68 in 1885. … One marked
effect of the present railroad and steamship system of
transportation has been to compel a uniformity of prices for
all commodities that are essential to life. … For grain
henceforth, therefore, the railroad and the steamship have
decided that there shall be but one market—the world."
_D. A. Wells,
Recent Economic Changes,
pages. 27-47._
A recent English writer says: "Formerly we [the English] were
the great manufacturers of the world; the great distributors
and the great warehousemen of the world. Our country was the
point on which the great passenger traffic impinged from
America and from our Colonies, and from which passengers
distributed themselves over the continent of Europe. The
products of the world as a general rule came to English ports,
and from English ports were distributed to their various
markets. All this has much changed. Probably the alteration is
more marked in our distributing trade than in that of our
manufacturing trade or in any other direction. About twenty
years ago all the silk that was manufactured or consumed in
Europe was brought to England from the East, mostly in a raw
state, and was thence distributed to continental mills.
Notwithstanding the increased consumption in Europe, silk now
coming to England for distribution is only about one-eighth of
the quantity that came here some twelve years ago. This is one
single example of an Oriental product. The same diversion of
our distributing trade can be traced in almost every other
commodity. Many people believe that the opening of the Suez
Canal has caused this diminution of our distributing trade,
and it cannot be denied that the Suez Canal has done much to
divert Oriental trade from this country, and to send goods
direct through the Canal to the continental ports, where they
are consumed, or where they can be placed on railways and be
forwarded without break of bulk to their destinations. But
whatever the Suez Canal may have done to divert trade in
Oriental goods such as tea or silk, it cannot account for the
diversion of the trade coming from America. Yet we find the
same diversion of American products which formerly came to
England for distribution. With cotton the same result is
found, and with coffee from the Brazil. Nor does the diversion
of these articles merely demonstrate that our distributing
trade is being lost to us: it also shows that the
manufacturers of England now permit the raw material of their
industries to be sent straight to the factories of their
competitors on the Continent. It shows that the great
manufactures of the world are being transferred from England
to Belgium, France, Germany, and even to Portugal and Spain.
In the train of these manufactures are rapidly following all
the complex and complicated businesses which are the
hand-maidens of commerce. For instance, the financial business
which used to centre in London is being transferred to Paris,
Antwerp, and Germany, mainly because the goods to which this
business relates are now consigned to continental countries
instead of as formerly being brought to England to be
distributed therefrom. … The loss of our distributing trade is
to my mind in a great measure due to the fact that goods
consigned to continental ports can be there put upon railways
and sent straight to their destination; while goods sent to
English ports must be put upon a railway, taken to our coast,
there taken out of the railway, put on board a vessel, taken
across to the Continent, there unloaded, then put on the
railway and sent off to their ultimate destination. These
transhipments from railway to vessel and from vessel to
railway are always costly, always involve time, and in the
case of some perishable articles render the transaction almost
prohibitive. To get over this difficulty and to retain our
distributing trade, there appears to me to be only one course
open, and that is in some way to obtain direct
railway-communication from Liverpool, from London, from
Bristol, from Hull, from Glasgow, and from Dundee, to the
continental markets where the goods landed at those ports are
consumed."
_H. M. Hozier,
England's Real Peril
(Macmillan's Magazine, July, 1888)._
COMMERCE: MODERN:
Waterways and Railways in modern inland commerce.
"There are three great epochs in the modern history of canal
navigation, each marked by characteristics peculiar to itself,
and sufficiently unlike those of either of the others to
enable it to be readily differentiated. They may be thus
described:
1. The era of waterways, designed at once to facilitate the
transport of heavy traffic from inland centres to the
seaboard, and to supersede the then existing systems of
locomotion—the wagon and the pack-horse. This era commenced
with the construction of the Bridgewater Canal between 1766
and 1770, and terminated with the installation of the railway
system in 1830.
2. The era of interoceanic canals, which was inaugurated by
the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, and is still in
progress.
3. The era of ship-canals intended to afford to cities and
towns remote from the sea, all the advantages of a seaboard,
and especially that of removing and dispatching merchandise
without the necessity of breaking bulk.
{3725}
The second great stage in the development of canal transport
is of comparatively recent origin. It may, in fact, be said to
date only from the time when the construction of a canal
across the Isthmus of Suez was proved to be not only
practicable as an engineering project, but likewise highly
successful as a commercial enterprise. Not that this was by
any means the first canal of its kind. On the contrary, … the
ancients had many schemes of a similar kind in view across the
same isthmus. The canal of Languedoc, constructed in the reign
of Louis XIV., was for that day as considerable an
undertaking. It was designed for the purpose of affording a
safe and speedy means of communication between the
Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean; it has a total length of
148 miles, is in its highest part 600 ft. above the level of
the sea, and has in all 114 locks and sluices. In Russia,
canals had been constructed in the time of Peter the Great,
for the purpose of affording a means of communication between
the different inland seas that are characteristic of that
country. The junction of the North and Caspian Seas, of the
Baltic and the Caspian, and the union of the Black and the
Caspian Seas, had all been assisted by the construction of a
series of canals which were perhaps without parallel for their
completeness a century ago. In Prussia a vast system of inland
navigation had been completed during the last century, whereby
Hamburg was connected with Dantzic, and the products of the
country could be exported either by the Black Sea or by the
Baltic. In Scotland the Forth and Clyde Canal, and the
Caledonian Canal, were notable examples of artificial
navigation designed to connect two seas, or two firths that
had all the characteristics of independent oceans; and the
Erie Canal, in the United States, completed a chain of
communication between inland seas of much the same order. But,
although a great deal had been done in the direction of
facilitating navigation between different waters by getting
rid of the 'hyphen' by which they were separated anterior to
the date of the Suez Canal, this grand enterprise undoubtedly
marked a notable advance in the progress of the world from
this point of view. The work was at once more original and
more gigantic than any that had preceded it. … The Suez Canal
once completed and successful, other ship canal schemes came
'thick as autumnal leaves in Vallombrosa.' Several of these
were eminently practical, as well as practicable. The Hellenic
Parliament determined on cutting through the tongue of land
which is situated between the Gulfs of Athens and Lepantus,
known as the Isthmus of Corinth. This isthmus divides the
Adriatic and the Archipelago, and compels all vessels passing
from the one sea to the other to round Cape Matapan, thus
materially lengthening the voyages of vessels bound from the
western parts of Europe to the Levant, Asia Minor and Smyrna.
The canal is now an accomplished fact. Another proposal was
that of cutting a canal from Bordeaux to Marseilles, across
the South of France, a distance of some 120 miles, whereby
these two great ports would be brought 1,678 miles nearer to
each other, and a further reduction, estimated at 800 miles,
effected in the distance between England and India. The Panama
Canal (projected in 1871, and actually commenced in 1880) is,
however, the greatest enterprise of all, and in many respects
the most gigantic and difficult undertaking of which there is
any record. The proposed national canal from sea to sea,
proposed by Mr. Samuel Lloyd and others for Great Britain, the
proposed Sheffield Ship Canal, the proposed Irish Sea and
Birkenhead Ship Canal, and the proposed ship canal to connect
the Forth and the Clyde, are but a few of many notable
examples of the restlessness of our times in this direction. …
There are not a few people who regard the canal system almost
as they might regard the Dodo and the Megatherium. It is to
them an effete relic of a time when civilisation was as yet
but imperfectly developed. … Canals do, indeed, belong to the
past. … That canals also belong to the present, Egypt, the
American isthmus, Manchester, Corinth, and other places, fully
prove, and, unless we greatly err, they are no less the
heritage of the future."
_J. S. Jeans,
Waterways and Water Transport,
section 1, chapter 1._
"'The sea girt British Isles have upwards of 2,500 miles of
canals, in addition to the Manchester Ship Canal, which is
thirty-five and one-half miles, and is said to be one of the
most remarkable undertakings of modern times.' … In 1878,
Germany had in operation 1,289 miles of canals, and had
ordered the construction of 1,045 miles of new canals. Belgium
has forty-five canals. Italy, Hungary, Sweden, Holland and
Russia have their respective systems of canals. France has
expended a larger amount of money than any other European
nation, to provide for canal navigation, and in 1887 the total
length of its canals was 2,998 miles. About forty-eight per
cent of the tonnage of that Republic was transported on its
waterways. The average capacity of boats used therefor was 300
tons. The total length of the canals in operation in the
United States in 1890 was upwards of 2,926 miles."
_H. W. Hill,
Speech on Canals in New York
Constitutional Convention of 1894._
"In most of the leading countries of the world, a time arrived
when the canal system and the railway system came into strong
competition, and when it seemed doubtful on which side the
victory would lie. This contest was necessarily more marked in
England than in any other country. England had not, indeed,
been the first in the field with canals, as she had been with
railways. … But England having once started on a career of
canal development, followed it up with greater energy and on a
more comprehensive scale than any other country. For more than
half a century canals had had it all their own way. … But the
railway system, first put forward as a tentative experiment,
and without the slightest knowledge on the part of its
promoters of the results that were before long to be realised,
was making encroachments, and proving its capabilities. This
was a slow process, as the way had to be felt. The first
railway Acts did not contemplate the use of locomotives, nor
the transport of passenger traffic. The Stockton and
Darlington Railway, constructed in 1825, was the first on
which locomotives were employed.
See Steam Locomotion (page 3029).
Even at this date, there were many who doubted the expediency
of having a railroad instead of a canal, and in the county of
Durham … there was a fierce fight, carried on for more than
twenty years. In the United States, the supremacy of waterways
was maintained until a much later date. …
{3726}
A keen and embittered struggle was kept up between the canal
and the railroad companies until 1857; and even in the latter
year the Legislature of the State of New York, finding that
railway competition was making serious inroads upon their
canal traffic, were considering whether they should not either
entirely prohibit the railways from carrying freight, or
impose such tolls upon railway tonnage as would cripple the
companies in their competition with canals. … The agitation,
however, came to nothing. It had no solid bottom. It was an
agitation similar in kind to that which had disturbed Europe
when Arkwright's spinning machine and Compton's mule were
taking the place of hand labour. The clamour suddenly
collapsed, and was never heard of afterwards. Meanwhile the
railway system proceeded apace. The records of human progress
contain no more remarkable chapter than that which tells of
the growth of American railroads. … In the annals of
transportation, there is no more interesting chapter than that
which deals with the contest that has been carried on for
nearly half a century between the railways and the lakes and
canals for the grain traffic between Chicago and New York.
This contest is interesting, not only to Americans, as the
people who are engaged in it, and whom it more directly
concerns; but also to the people of Europe, and of Great
Britain in particular, the cost of whose food supplies is
affected thereby. … The circumstances of the Erie Canal are,
however, exceptional. Seldom, indeed, do railway freights run
so low as they do on the 950 miles of rail way that separate
Chicago from New York. Over this distance, the great trunk
lines have recently been carrying freight at the rate of 15
cents, or 7½ d. per 100 lbs. This is equivalent to about 14 s.
per ton, or exactly 0.174 d. per ton per mile. There is
probably no such low rates for railway transport in the world.
But this low rate is due entirely to the competition of the
lakes, rivers, and canals."
_J. S. Jeans,
Waterways and Water Transport,
chapters 26-27._
"The early railroad engineers overestimated the speed which
could be readily attained. Fifty years ago it was generally
expected that passenger trains would soon run at rates of from
seventy-five to one hundred miles an hour—a prediction which
has as yet remained unfulfilled. On the other hand, they
underestimated the railroad's capacity for doing work cheaply.
It was not supposed that railroads would ever be able to
compete with water-routes in the carriage of freight, except
where speedy delivery was of the first importance. Nor was it
at that time desired that they should do so. The first English
railroad charter contained provisions expressly intended to
prevent such competition. A generation later, in the State of
New York itself, there was a loud popular cry that the New
York Central must be prohibited from carrying freight in
competition with the Erie Canal. The main field of usefulness
of railroads, and the means by which that field was to be
developed, were not merely ignored, they were positively
shunned. This period of railroad infancy ended about the year
1850. The crisis of 1847 marked its close in England. The
Revolution of 1848-51 was the dividing line on the continent
of Europe. The land grants of 1850, and the formation of three
trunk lines from the seaboard to the interior may be taken as
the beginning of the new era in the United States. It began to
be seen and felt that a steam railroad was something more than
an exaggerated turnpike or horse railroad, and that it had
functions and laws of its own. The changes were: first, the
consolidation of old roads; second, the construction of new
ones in a great variety of conditions; third, and most
important, the development of traffic by cheap rates and new
methods. … Under all these influences the railroad mileage of
the world increased from 20,000 in 1850 to 66,000 in 1860,
137,000 in 1870, 225,000 in 1880, and [406,416 in
1893.—'Archiv für Eisenbahnwesen']. … Rapid as has been the
growth of the railroad mileage, traffic has kept pace with it.
It is estimated that the total number of tons moved in 1875
was about 800,000,000. At present [1885] it is about
1,200,000,000 annually, while the passenger movement has
increased from 1,400,000,000 to 2,400,000,000. If we could
take distance as well as quantity into account, the change
(for freight at any rate) would be still greater. To a certain
extent this increased intensity of use of railroads is due to
improvements in engineering; to a much greater extent it is
the result of improved business methods. … Between 1850 and
1880 rates were reduced on an average to about one half their
former figures, in spite of the advance in price of labor and
of many articles of consumption. A variety of means were made
to contribute to this result. The inventions of Bessemer and
others, by which it became possible to substitute steel rails
for iron, made it profitable for the railroads to carry larger
loads at a reduction in rates. Improvements in management
increased the effective use of the rolling stock, while the
consumption of fuel and the cost of handling were diminished.
By other changes in railroad economy it became possible to
compete for business of every kind, with the best canals or
with natural water-courses. The railroad rates of to-day are
but a small fraction of the canal charges of two generations
ago; while in volume of business, speed, and variety of use
there is an inestimable advance."
_A. T. Hadley,
Railroad Transportation,
chapter 1._
"The railway mileage in the United States on June 30, 1893,
was 176,461.07 miles. This shows an increase during the year
of 4,897.55 miles, being an increase of 2.80 per cent. The
previous report showed an increase during the year ending June
30, 1892, of 3,160.78, being an increase of 1.88 per cent over
the mileage of the year 1891. The rate of increase from 1886
to 1887 was 9.08 per cent; from 1887 to 1888, 6.05 per cent;
from 1888 to 1889, 3.22 per cent; from 18139 to 1890, 4.78 per
cent; and from 1890 to 1891, 2.94 per cent. … The total number
[of men] in the service of railways in the United States on
June 30, 1893, was 873,602, being an increase of 52,187 over
the number employed the previous year."
_Interstate Commerce Commission,
Statistics of Railways, 1883
pages 11 and 31_.
----------COMMERCE: End--------
COMMON LAW, History of.
See LAW (page 1956).
COMMUNISM.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS (page 2932).
COMPURGATION, Disappearance of.
See LAW, CRIMINAL: A. D. 1166 (page 1981).
CONGO STATE, The.
See (in this Supplement) AFRICA.
{3727}
CONNECTICUT, Early provision for education in.
See EDUCATION, MODERN (page 729).
CONNECTICUT BLUE LAWS.
See (in this Supplement) BLUE LAWS.
CONSTANTINOPLE: LIBRARIES.
See LIBRARIES, ANCIENT (page 2006).
Mediæval Commerce.
See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE, MEDIÆVAL.
----------CONSTITUTION OF BELGIUM: Start--------
On page 2304 of this work, under NETHERLANDS (BELGIUM): A. D.
1892-1893, there is given some account of the revision of the
constitution of the kingdom, in 1893, and the peculiar new
features introduced in its provisions, relative to the
elective franchise. The following is a translation of the text
of the revised constitution:
Title I.
Of the Territory and of its Divisions.
Article 1.
Belgium is divided into provinces, these provinces are:
Antwerp, Brabant, Western Flanders, Eastern Flanders, Hainaut,
Liège, Limburg, Luxemburg, Namur. It is the prerogative of
law, if there is any reason, to divide the territory into a
larger number of provinces. Colonies, possessions beyond the
seas or protectorates which Belgium may acquire, are governed
by particular laws. The Belgian forces appointed for their
defense can only be recruited by voluntary enlistment.
Article 2.
The subdivisions of the provinces can be established only by
law.
Article 3.
The boundaries of the State, of the provinces and of the
communes can be changed or rectified only by a law.
Title II.
Of the Belgians and their Rights.
Article 4.
The title Belgian is acquired, preserved and lost according to
the regulations determined by civil law. The present
Constitution, and other laws relating to political rights,
determine what are, in addition to such title, the conditions
necessary for the exercise of these rights.
Article 5.
Naturalization is granted by the legislative power. The great
naturalization, alone, assimilates the foreigner to the
Belgian for the exercise of political rights.
Article 6.
There is no distinction of orders in the State. Belgians are
equal before the law; they alone are admissible to civil and
military offices, with such exceptions as may be established
by law in particular cases.
Article 7.
Individual liberty is guaranteed. No person can be prosecuted
except in the cases provided for by law and in the form which
the law prescribes. Except in the case of flagrant
misdemeanor, no person can be arrested without the order of a
judge, which must be served at the time of the arrest, or, at
the latest, within twenty-four hours.
Article 8.
No person can be deprived, against his will, of the judge
assigned to him by law.
Article 9.
No punishment can be established or applied except by
provision of law.
Article 10.
The domicile is inviolable; no domiciliary visit can be made
otherwise than in the cases provided for by law and in the
form which it prescribes.
Article 11.
No person can be deprived of his property except for public
use, in the cases and in the manner established by law, and
with prior indemnity.
Article 12.
The penalty of confiscation of goods cannot be imposed.
Article 13.
Civil death is abolished; it cannot be revived.
Article 14.
Religious liberty, public worship, and freedom of expressed
opinion in all matters are guaranteed, with a reserve for the
repression of offenses committed in the exercise of these
liberties.
Article 15.
No person can be compelled to join, in any manner whatsoever,
in the acts and ceremonies of any worship, nor to observe its
days of rest.
Article 16.
The State has no right to interfere in the appointment nor in
the installation of the ministers of any religion, nor to
forbid them to correspond with their superiors and to publish
their acts under the ordinary responsibility of publication.
Civil marriage shall always precede the nuptial benediction,
with the exceptions to be prescribed by law in case of need.
Article 17.
Teaching is free; all preventive measures are forbidden; the
repression of offenses is regulated only by law. Public
instruction given at the expense of the State is also
regulated by law.
Article 18.
The press is free; censorship can never be re-established;
caution-money from writers, editors or printers cannot be
required. When the author is known and is a resident of
Belgium, the editor, the printer or the distributor cannot be
prosecuted.
Article 19.
Belgians have the right to meet peaceably and without arms, in
conformity with such laws as may regulate the use of their
right but without the requirement of a previous authorization.
This stipulation does not apply to open air meetings, which
remain entirely subject to police regulations.
Article 20.
Belgians have the right of association; this right cannot be
subject to any preventive measure.
Article 21.
It is the right of every person to address to the public
authorities petitions signed by one or several. The
constituted authorities alone have the right to address
petitions in a collective name.
Article 22.
The secrecy of correspondence is inviolable. The law
determines who are the agents responsible for violation of the
secrecy of letters confided to the post.
Article 23.
The use of the languages spoken in Belgium is optional; it can
be prescribed only by law, and only for acts of public
authority and for judicial transactions.
Article 24.
No previous authorization is necessary for the undertaking of
proceedings against public officials, on account of acts in
their administration, except that which is enacted concerning
ministers.
Title III. Of Powers.
Article 25.
All powers are derived from the nation. They are exercised in
the manner prescribed by the Constitution.
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Article 26.
Legislative power is exercised collectively by the King, the
Chamber of Representatives and the Senate.
Article 27.
The initiative belongs to each one of the three branches of
the legislative power. Nevertheless, all laws relating to the
revenue or to the expenditures of the State, or to the
contingent of the army must be voted first by the Chamber of
Representatives.
Article 28.
The interpretation of laws by authority belongs only to the
legislative power.
Article 29.
The executive power, as regulated by the Constitution, belongs
to the King.
Article 30.
The judicial power is exercised by the courts and tribunals.
Decrees and judgments are executed in the name of the King.
Article 31.
Interests exclusively communal or provincial, are regulated by
the communal or provincial councils, according to the
principles established by the Constitution.
Chapter First.—Of The Chambers.
Article 32.
Members of both Chambers represent the nation, and not merely
the province or the subdivision of province which has elected
them.
Article 33.
The sittings of the Chambers are public. Nevertheless, each
Chamber forms itself into a secret committee on the demand of
its president or of ten members. It then decides by absolute
majority whether the sitting on the same subject shall be
resumed publicly.
Article 34.
Each Chamber verifies the powers of its members and decides
all contests on the subject that may arise.
Article 35.
No person can be at the same time a member of both Chambers.
Article 36.
A member of one of the two Chambers who is appointed by the
government to any salaried office, except that of minister,
and who accepts the same, ceases immediately to sit, and
resumes his functions only by virtue of a new election.
Article 37.
At every session, each Chamber elects its president and its
vice-presidents and forms its bureau.
Article 38.
Every resolution is adopted by the absolute majority of the
votes, excepting as may be directed by the rules of the
Chambers in regard to elections and presentations. In case of
an equal division of votes, the proposition brought under
deliberation is rejected. Neither of the two Chambers can
adopt a resolution unless the majority of its members is
present.
Article 39.
Votes are given by the voice or by sitting and rising; on
"l'ensemble des lois" the vote is always taken by the call of
the roll of names. Elections and presentations of candidates
are made by ballot.
Article 40.
Each Chamber has the right of inquiry [or investigation].
Article 41.
A bill can be passed by one of the Chambers only after having
been voted article by article.
Article 42.
The Chambers have the right to amend and to divide the
articles and the amendments proposed.
Article 43.
The presenting of petitions in person to the Chambers is
forbidden. Each Chamber has the right to refer to ministers
the petitions that are addressed to it. Ministers are required
to give explanations whenever the Chamber requires them.
Article 44.
No member of either Chamber can be prosecuted or called to
account for opinions expressed or votes given by him in the
performance of his duties.
Article 45.
No member of either Chamber can be prosecuted or arrested in
affairs of repression, during the session, without the
authorization of the Chamber of which he is a member, except
the case be "de flagrant delit." No bodily constraint can be
exercised against a member of either Chamber during the
session, except with the same authorization. The detention or
the prosecution of a member of either Chamber is suspended
during the whole session if the Chamber so requires.
Article 46.
Each Chamber determines by its rules the mode in which it will
exercise its powers.
Section I.—Of the Chamber of Representatives.
Article 47.
Deputies to the Chamber of Representatives are elected
directly under the following conditions: A vote is conferred
on citizens who have completed their 25th year, who have
resided for at least one year in the same commune, and who are
not within one of the cases of exclusion provided for by law.
A supplementary vote is conferred on each citizen who fulfills
one of the following conditions:
1. To have completed 35 years of age, to be married, or to be
a widower having legitimate offspring, and to pay to the State
a tax of not less than 5 francs on account of dwelling-houses
or buildings occupied, unless exempted by reason of his
profession.
2. To have completed the age of 25 years and to be owner:
Either of real property, valued at not less than 2,000 francs
to be rated on the basis of the "revenu cadastral," or of a
"revenu cadastral" proportioned to that value; Or of an
inscription in the great book of the public debt, or of a
"carnet de rente Belge" at the savings bank of at least 100
francs of "rente." The inscriptions and bank books must have
belonged to the incumbent for at least two years and a half.
The property of the wife is assigned to the husband; that of
children under age, to the father. Two supplementary votes are
assigned to citizens fully 25 years of age who are included in
one of the following cases: A. To be the holder of a diploma
of higher instruction or of a similar certificate of
attendance on a complete course of medium instruction of the
higher degree, without distinction between public and private
establishments. B. To fill or to have filled a public office,
to occupy or to have occupied a position, to practise or to
have practised a private profession, which implies the
supposition that the titulary has at least an average
education of the higher degree. The law determines these
functions, positions and professions, as well as, in given
cases, the time during which they shall have been occupied or
practised. No person can accumulate more than three votes.
Article 48.
The constitution of the electoral colleges is regulated by law
for each province. The vote is obligatory and takes place in
the commune with exceptions to be determined by law.
Article 49.
The electoral law fixes the number of deputies according to
the population; this number cannot exceed the proportion of a
deputy for 40,000 inhabitants. It determines also the
qualifications of an elector and the mode of the electoral
operations.
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Article 50.
To be eligible, it is necessary:
1. To be a Belgian by birth or to have received the "grand
naturalization";
2. To enjoy civil and political rights;
3. To have completed 25 years of age;
4. To reside in Belgium.
No other condition of eligibility can be required.
Article 51.
The members of the Chamber of Representatives are elected for
four years. Half of them are changed every two years,
according to the order of the series determined by the
electoral law. In case of dissolution, the Chamber is entirely
renewed.
Article 52.
Each member of the Chamber of Representatives receives a
yearly indemnity of 4,000 francs. He is, besides, entitled to
free travel on the State railways and on the "conceded"
railways, from his residence to the city where the session is
held.
Section II.—Of the Senate.
Article 53.
The Senate is composed:
1. Of members elected in proportion to the population of each
province, conformably to Article 47; though the law may
require that the electors shall be 30 years of age, the
provisions of Article 48 are applicable to the election of
these senators.
2. Of members elected by the provincial councils, to the
number of two from each province having less than 500,000
inhabitants, of three from each province having from 500,000
to 1,000,000 of inhabitants, and of four from each province
having more than one million of inhabitants.
Article 54.
The number of senators elected directly by the electoral body
is equal to half the number of the members of the Chamber of
Representatives.
Article 55.
Senators are elected for eight years; half of them are changed
every four years, according to the order of the series
determined by the electoral law. In case of dissolution, the
Senate is entirely renewed.
Article 56.
To be eligible for election and to remain a senator, it is
necessary:
1. To be a Belgian by birth or to have received the "grande
naturalization";
2. To enjoy civil and political rights;
3. To reside in Belgium;
4. To be at least 40 years of age;
5. To pay into the treasury of the State at least 1,200 francs
of direct taxes, patents included; Or to be either proprietor
or usufructuary of real property situated in Belgium, the
cadastral revenue from which is at least 12,000 francs. In the
provinces where the number of those eligible does not attain
the proportion of one in 5,000 inhabitants, the list is
completed by adding the heaviest tax-payers of the province to
the extent of that proportion. Citizens whose names are
inscribed on the complementary list are eligible only in the
province where they reside.
Article 56 bis.
Senators elected by the provincial councils are exempted from
all conditions of census; they cannot belong to the assembly
which elects them, nor can they have been a member of it
during the year of the election, nor during the two previous
years.
Article 57.
Senators receive neither salary nor indemnity.
Article 58.
The King's sons, or in their absence the Belgian Princes of
the branch of the Royal family called to reign, are by right
senators at 18 years of age. They have a deliberative voice
only at 25 years of age.
Article 59.
Any assembly of the Senate which may be held outside the time
of the session of the Chamber of Representatives is null and
void.
Chapter II.—Of the King and his Ministers.
Section II.—Of the King.
Article 60.
The constitutional powers of the King are hereditary in the
direct, natural and legitimate descent from His Majesty
Leopold-George-Christian-Frederick of Saxe-Coburg, from male
to male, by order of primogeniture, and to the perpetual
exclusion of the females of their line. The prince who marries
without the consent of the King or of those who, in his
absence, exercise his powers, in the cases provided for by the
Constitution, shall forfeit his rights. Nevertheless he can be
restored to his rights by the King or by those who, in his
absence, exercise his authority in the cases provided for by
the Constitution, with the consent of both Chambers.
Article 61.
In default of male descendants of his Majesty
Leopold-George-Christian-Frederick of Saxe-Coburg, the King
can name his successor, with the assent of the Chambers,
expressed in the manner prescribed by the following article.
If no nomination has been made according to the proceeding
here stated, the throne will be vacant.
Article 62.
The King cannot be, at the same time, the chief of another
State, without the consent of both Chambers. Neither of the
two Chambers can deliberate on this subject if two-thirds at
least of the members who compose it are not present, and the
resolution is adopted only if it receives two-thirds at least
of the votes cast.
Article 63.
The person of the King is inviolable; his ministers are
responsible.
Article 64.
No act of the King can have effect if it is not countersigned
by a minister, who, thereby, makes himself responsible.
Article 65.
The King appoints and dismisses his ministers.
Article 66.
He confers the grades in the army. He appoints to the offices
of general administration and of foreign relations, with the
exceptions determined by law. He appoints to other offices
only by virtue of express provisions of a law.
Article 67.
He makes the regulations and decrees necessary to the
execution of the laws, without power to suspend the laws
themselves, nor to exempt from their execution.
Article 68.
The King commands the land and naval forces, declares war,
makes treaties of peace, of alliance, and of commerce. He
announces them to the Chambers as soon as the interest and the
safety of the State admit of it, adding to them appropriate
communications. Treaties of commerce and those which might
burden the State or bind Belgians individually become
effective only after having received the approval of the
Chambers. No cession, nor exchange, nor addition of territory
can take place without authority of a law. In no case can the
secret articles of a treaty be destructive to the open
articles.
Article 69.
The King sanctions and promulgates the laws.
Article 70.
The Chambers meet by right every year, on the 2d Tuesday in
November, unless previously summoned by the King. The Chambers
must remain in session at least 40 days in each year. The King
declares the closing of the session. The King has the right to
call extra sessions of the Chambers.
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Article 71.
The King has the right to dissolve the Chambers, either
simultaneously or separately; the act of dissolution to
contain a convocation of the electors within forty days and of
the Chambers within two months.
Article 72.
The King may adjourn the Chambers. The adjournment, however,
cannot exceed the term of one month, nor be renewed in the
same session, without the consent of the Chambers.
Article 73.
He has the right to remit or to reduce penalties pronounced by
the judges, except those which are enacted concerning the
ministers.
Article 74.
He has the right to coin money, in execution of the law.
Article 75.
He has the right to confer titles of nobility, without power
to attach any privilege to them.
Article 76.
He confers the military orders, observing in that regard what
the law prescribes.
Article 77.
The law fixes the civil list for the duration of each reign.
Article 78.
The King has no other powers than those formally conferred on
him by the Constitution, and by laws enacted pursuant to the
Constitution.
Article 79.
On the death of the King, the Chambers meet without
convocation, not later than the tenth day after that of his
decease. If the Chambers had been previously dissolved, and if
the convocation had been fixed in the act of dissolution for a
later date than the tenth day, the old Chambers resume their
functions until the meeting of those which are to take their
place. If one Chamber only had been dissolved, the same rule
is followed with regard to that Chamber. From the death of the
King and until his successor on the throne or the regent has
taken the oath, the constitutional powers of the King, are
exercised, in the name of the Belgian nation, by the ministers
assembled in council and under their responsibility.
Article 80.
The King is of age when he has completed his 18th year. He
takes possession of the throne only after having solemnly
taken, in the midst of the Chambers assembled together, the
following oath: "I swear to observe the Constitution and the
laws of the Belgian people, to maintain the national
independence and to preserve the integrity of the territory."
Article 81.
If, on the death of the King, his successor is a minor, both
Chambers meet in one body for the purpose of providing for the
regency and the guardianship.
Article 82.
If it is impossible for the King to reign, the ministers,
after having caused that inability to be established, convoke
the Chambers immediately. Guardianship and regency are to be
provided for by the Chambers convened.
Article 83.
The regency can be conferred on one person only. The regent
enters upon his duties only after he has taken the oath
prescribed by Article 80.
Article 84.
No change can be made in the Constitution during a regency.
Article 85.
In case of a vacancy on the throne, the Chambers deliberating
together, arrange provisionally for the regency until the
meeting of new Chambers, that meeting to take place within two
months, at the latest. The new Chambers deliberating together
provide definitely for the vacancy.
Section II.—Of the Ministers.
Article 86.
No person can be a minister who is not a Belgian by birth, or
who has not received the "grande naturalization."
Article 87.
No member of the royal family can be a minister.
Article 88.
Ministers have a deliberative voice in either Chamber only
when they are members of it. They have free admission into
each Chamber and must have a hearing when they ask for it. The
Chambers may require the presence of ministers.
Article 89.
In no case, can the order of the King, verbal or written,
relieve a minister of responsibility.
Article 90.
The Chamber of Representatives has the right to accuse
ministers and to arraign them before the Court of Cassation
[Appeal], which alone has the right to judge them, the united
Chambers reserving what may be enacted by law concerning civil
action by a party wronged, and as to crimes and misdemeanors
which ministers may have committed outside of the performance
of their duties. A law shall determine the cases of
responsibility, the penalties to be inflicted on the
ministers, and the manner of proceeding against them, either
upon the accusation admitted by the Chamber of
Representatives, or upon prosecution by parties wronged.
Article 91.
The King may pardon a minister sentenced by the Court of
Cassation only upon the request of one of the two Chambers.
Chapter III.—Of the Judiciary Power.
Article 92.
Contests concerning civil rights are exclusively within the
jurisdiction of the tribunals.
Article 93.
Contests concerning political rights are within the
jurisdiction of the tribunals, with exceptions determined by
law.
Article 94.
No tribunal can be established otherwise than by law. Neither
commissions nor extraordinary tribunals, under any
denomination whatever, can be created.
Article 95.
There is for the whole of Belgium one Court of Cassation. This
Court does not consider the ground of causes, except in the
judgment of ministers.
Article 96.
Sittings of the tribunals are public, unless such publicity be
dangerous to order or morals, and in that case the tribunal
declares it by a judgment. In the matter of political or press
offenses, the exclusion of the public must be voted
unanimously.
Article 97. The ground of every judgment is to be stated. It
is pronounced in public sitting.
Article 98.
The jury is established in all criminal cases, and for
political and press offenses.
Article 99.
The judges of the peace and judges of the tribunals are
appointed directly by the King. Councillors of the Courts of
appeal and presidents and vice-presidents of the courts of
original jurisdiction are appointed by the King, from two
double lists, presented, one by those courts and the other by
the provincial Councils. Councillors of the Court of Cassation
are appointed by the King from two double lists, one presented
by the Senate and the other by the Court of Cassation. In
these two cases the candidates whose names are on one list may
also be inscribed on the other. All presentations are made
public at least fifteen days before the appointment. The
courts choose their presidents and vice-presidents from among
their members.
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Article 100.
Judges are appointed for life. No judge can be deprived of his
position or suspended, except by a judgment. The displacement
of a judge can take place only through a new appointment and
with his consent.
Article 101.
The King appoints and dismisses the public prosecutors to the
courts and tribunals.
Article 102.
The salaries of the members of the judicial order are fixed by
law.
Article 103.
No judge may accept salaried offices from the government
unless he exercises them gratuitously, and excluding the cases
of incompatibility defined by law.
Article 104.
There are three courts of appeal in Belgium. The law
determines their jurisdiction and the places in which they
shall be established.
Article 105.
Special enactments regulate the organization of military
courts, their powers, the rights and obligations of the
members of such courts, and the duration of their functions.
There are tribunals of commerce in the places determined by
law, which regulate their organization, their powers, the mode
of appointment of their members and the term of the latters'
duties.
Article 106.
Conflicts of jurisdiction are settled by the Court of
Cassation, according to proceedings regulated by law.
Article 107.
Courts and tribunals shall apply general, provincial and local
decisions and regulations only so far as they are conformable
to the laws.
Chapter IV.—Of Provincial and Communal Institutions.
Article 108.
Provincial and communal institutions are regulated by the
laws. These laws sanction the application of the following
principles:
1. Direct election, with the exceptions which the law may
establish in regard to the chiefs of communal administration
and the government commissioners to the provincial councils;
2. The assigning to provincial and communal councils of all
which is of provincial and communal interest without prejudice
to the approval of their acts in the cases and according to
the proceedings which law determines;
3. The publicity of the sittings of the provincial and
communal councils within the limits established by law;
4. The publicity of budgets and accounts;
5. The intervention of the King' or of the legislative power
to prevent the provincial and communal councils from going
beyond their powers and injuring the general welfare.
Article 109.
The drawing up of certificates of birth, marriage and death,
and the keeping of the registers, are the exclusive
prerogatives of communal authorities.
Title IV. Of the Finances.
Article 110.
No tax for the profit of the State can be imposed otherwise
than by a law. No charge or provincial assessment can be
imposed without the consent of the provincial council. No
charge or communal assessment can be imposed, without the
consent of the communal council. The law must determine those
exceptions of which experience will show the necessity in the
matter of provincial and communal impositions.
Article 111.
Taxes for the profit of the State are voted annually. The laws
which impose them are valid for one year only, unless renewed.
Article 112.
There can be no creation of privilege in the matter of taxes.
No exemption from nor diminution of taxes can be established
otherwise than by a law.
Article 113.
Beyond the cases expressly excepted by law, no payment can be
exacted from citizens, otherwise than in taxes levied for the
profit of the State, of the province, or of the commune. No
innovation is made on the actually existing system of the
polders and the wateringen, which remain subject to the
ordinary legislation.
Article 114.
No pension, nor gratuity at the expense of the public treasury
can be granted without authority of law.
Article 115.
Each year, the Chambers determine the law of accounts and vote
the budget. All the receipts and expenditures of the State
must be entered in the budget and in the accounts.
Article 116.
The members of the court of accounts are appointed by the
Chamber of Representatives and for the term fixed by law. That
court is intrusted with the examination and the settlement of
the accounts of the general administration and of all the
accountants for the public treasury. It sees that no article
of the expenses of the budget has been exceeded and that no
transfer has taken place. It determines the accounts of the
different administrations of the State and is required for
that purpose to gather all information, and all documents that
may be necessary. The general account of the State is
submitted to the Chambers with the observations of the court
of accounts. This court is organized by law.
Article 117.
The salaries and pensions of the ministers of religion are
paid by the State; the sums required to meet these expenses
are entered annually in the budget.
Title V. Of the Army.
Article 118.
The mode of recruiting the army is determined by law. The law
also regulates promotions, and the rights and obligations of
the military.
Article 119.
The contingent of the army is voted annually. The law that
fixes it is of force for one year only, unless renewed.
Article 120.
The organization and the powers of the gendarmerie are the
subject of a law.
Article 121.
No foreign troops can be admitted to the service of the State,
nor to occupy or pass through its territory, except by
provision of law.
Article 122.
There is a civic guard; its organization is regulated by law.
The officers of all ranks, up to that of captain at least, are
appointed by the guards with exceptions judged necessary for
the accountants.
Article 123.
The mobilization of the civic guard can occur only by
direction of law.
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Article 124.
Military men can be deprived of their grades, honors, and
pensions only in the manner determined by law.
Title VI. General Provisions.
Article 125.
The Belgian nation adopts the colors red, yellow and black,
and for the arms of the kingdom the Belgic lion with the
motto: "L'Union fait la Force" ["Union is Strength"].
Article 126.
The city of Brussels is the capital of Belgium and the scat of
its government.
Article 127.
No oath can be imposed except by law. The law also determines
its formula.
Article 128.
Any foreigner who is within the territory of Belgium enjoys
the protection accorded to persons and goods, with the
exceptions defined by law.
Article 129.
No law, decree, or administrative regulation, general,
provincial, or communal, is obligatory until it has been
published in the form prescribed by law.
Article 130.
The Constitution cannot be suspended, either wholly or in
part.
Title VII. Of the Revision of the Constitution.
Article 131.
The legislative power has the right to declare that there is
occasion for revising such constitutional provision as it
designates. After such declaration, the two Chambers are
dissolved. Two new Chambers shall then be convoked, in
conformity with Article 71. These Chambers act, in concurrence
with the King, on the points submitted for revision. In such
case, the Chambers cannot deliberate unless two-thirds at
least of the members composing each one of them are present,
and no change which does not receive at least two-thirds of
the votes in its favor shall be adopted.
Title VIII.—Temporary Provisions.
Article 132.
For the first choice of the chief of the State, the first
stipulation of Article 80 may be departed from.
Article 133.
Foreigners who settled in Belgium before the 1st of January
1814, and who have continued to reside in the country, are
considered as Belgians by birth, on condition that they
declare their intention to enjoy the benefit of this
provision. The declaration must be made within six months,
dating from the day when the present Constitution becomes
obligatory, if they are of age, and in the year following
their majority if they are under age. The declaration must be
made before the provincial authority within whose jurisdiction
they reside. It must be made in person or through a
representative bearing a special and authentic power of
attorney.
Article 134.
Until otherwise provided for by a law, the Chamber of
Representatives shall have a discretionary power to accuse a
minister, and the Court of Cassation to judge him,
characterizing the offense and determining the penalty.
Nevertheless the penalty cannot exceed that of imprisonment,
without prejudice to the cases expressly provided for by penal
laws.
Article 135.
The staff of courts and tribunals is maintained as it actually
exists, until it shall have been provided for by law. Such law
shall be enacted during the first legislative session.
Article 136.
A law enacted in the same session shall determine the mode of
the first appointment of members of the Court of Cassation.
Article 137.
The fundamental law of the 24th of August 1815, is hereby
repealed, as well as the provincial and local statutes; but
the provincial and local authorities will exercise their
powers until the law shall have otherwise provided.
Article 138.
From the day on which this Constitution goes into effect, all
laws, decrees, decisions, regulations, and other acts that are
in conflict with it are abrogated.
Supplementary Provisions.
Article 139.
The National Congress declares that it is necessary to provide
by separate laws and with the least possible delay for the
following objects:
1. The Press;
2. The organization of the jury;
3. The finances;
4. Provincial and communal organization;
5. The responsibility of ministers and
other agents of authority;
6. The organization of the judiciary;
7. The revision of the pension list;
8. Proper measures for preventing the
abuse of plurality of offices;
9. Revision of the laws of bankruptcy and suspension;
10. The organization of the army, the rights of
promotion and retirement, and the military penal code;
11. Revision of the codes.
The executive power is charged with the execution of the
present decree.
----------CONSTITUTION OF BELGIUM: End--------
----------CONSTITUTION OF ITALY: Start--------
The kingdom of Italy is still governed under the constitution
which was granted in 1848, by Charles Albert, to his Sardinian
subjects. It remains unchanged in form, but in practice has
been modified by legislation. The following translation of the
instrument, made by S. M. Lindsay, Ph. D., and L. S. Howe, Ph.
D., University of Pennsylvania, is borrowed, under permission,
from the:
_"Annals of the American Academy
of Political and Social Science,"
November, 1894, Supplement._
In their historical introduction to the instrument, the
translators say: "The extension of this constitution to the
various parts of the present Kingdom of Italy was effected by
a series of Plebiscites:
Lombardy, December 7, 1859;
Emilia by decree of March 18, 1860, and law of April 15, 1860;
Neapolitan Provinces, December 17, 1860;
Tuscany, decree March 22, and law April 15, 1860;
Sicily, Marches and Umbria, December 17, 1860;
Province of Venice, decree July 28, 1866;
Roman Provinces, decree October 9 and law December 31, 1870.
… Although no provision is to be found in this constitution
for amendment, most Italian constitutional jurists have held
that Parliament, with the approval of the King, has the power
to make laws amending the constitution, for an immutable
constitution is sure in time to hamper the development of a
progressive people. It is hardly necessary to add that such an
instrument is contrary to the true conception of an organic
law.
{3733}
As a matter of fact several provisions have been either
abrogated or rendered null and void through change of
conditions. Thus the second clause of Article 28, requiring
the previous consent of the bishop for the printing of Bibles,
prayer books and catechisms, has been rendered of no effect
through subsequent laws regulating the relations of Church and
State. Article 76, which provides for the establishment of a
communal militia, has been abrogated by the military law of
June 14, 1874. The fact that no French-speaking provinces now
form part of the kingdom has made Article 62 a dead-letter. So
also Articles 53 and 55 are no longer strictly adhered to. At
all events their observance has been suspended for the time
being."
The translated text of the Constitution is as follows:
(Charles Albert, by the Grace of God, King of Sardinia, Cyprus
and Jerusalem, Duke of Savoy, Genoa, Monferrato, Aosta, of the
Chiablese, Genovese and of Piacenza; Prince of Piedmont and
Oneglia; Marquis of Italy, Saluzzo, Ivrea, Susa, Ceva, of the
Maro, of Oristano, of Cesana and Savona; Count of Moriana,
Geneva, Nice, Trenda, Romonte, Asti, Alexandria, Goceano,
Novara, Tortona, Vigevano and of Bobbio; Baron of Vaud and
Faucigny; Lord of Vercelli, Pinerolo, Tarantasia, of the
Lomellina and of the Valley of Sesia, etc., etc., etc.) With
the fidelity of a king and the affection of a father, we are
about to-day to fulfill all that we promised our most beloved
subjects in our proclamation of the eighth of last February,
whereby we desired to show, in the midst of the extraordinary
events then transpiring throughout the country, how much our
confidence in our subjects increased with the gravity of the
situation, and how, consulting only the impulse of our heart,
we had fully determined to make their condition conform to the
spirit of the times and to the interests and dignity of the
nation. We, believing that the broad and permanent
representative institutions established by this fundamental
statute are the surest means of cementing the bonds of
indissoluble affection that bind to our crown a people that
has so often given us ample proof of their faithfulness,
obedience and love, have determined to sanction and promulgate
this statute. We believe, further, that God will bless our
good intentions, and that this free, strong and happy nation
will ever show itself more deserving of its ancient fame and
thus merit a glorious future. Therefore, we, with our full
knowledge and royal authority and with the advice of our
Council, have ordained and do hereby ordain and declare in
force the fundamental perpetual and irrevocable statute and
law of the monarchy as follows:
Article 1.
The Catholic, Apostolic and Roman religion is the only
religion of the State.
See Law of the Papal Guarantees,
under PAPACY: A. D. 1870 (page 2478)].
Other cults now existing are tolerated conformably to the law.
Article 2.
The State is governed by a representative monarchical
government, and the throne is hereditary according to the
Salic law.
Article 3.
The legislative power shall be exercised collectively by the
King and the two Chambers, the Senate and the Chamber of
Deputies.
Article 4.
The person of the King is sacred and inviolable.
Article 5.
To the King alone belongs the executive power. He is the
supreme head of the State; commands all land and naval forces;
declares war; makes treaties of peace, alliance, commerce and
other treaties, communicating them to the Chambers as soon as
the interest and security of the State permits, accompanying
such notice with opportune explanations; provided that
treaties involving financial obligations or change of State
territory shall not take effect until they have received the
consent of the Chambers.
Article 6.
The King appoints to all the offices of the State and makes
the necessary decrees and regulations for the execution of the
laws, provided that such decrees do not suspend or modify
their observance.
Article 7.
The King alone sanctions and promulgates the laws.
Article 8.
The King may grant pardons and commute sentences.
Article 9.
The King convokes the two Chambers each year. He may prorogue
their sessions and dissolve the Chamber of Deputies, in which
case he shall convoke a new Chamber within a period of four
months.
Article 10.
The initiative in legislation belongs both to the King and the
two Houses. All bills, however, imposing taxes or relating to
the budget shall first be presented to the Chamber of
Deputies.
Article 11.
The King shall attain his majority upon completion of his
eighteenth year.
Article 12.
During the King's minority, the Prince who is his nearest
relative in the order of succession to the throne, shall be
regent of the realm, provided he be twenty-one years of age.
Article 13.
Should the Prince upon whom the regency devolves be still in
his minority and this duty pass to a more distant relative,
the regent who actually takes office shall continue in the
same until the King becomes of age.
Article 14.
In the absence of male relatives, the regency devolves upon
the Queen-Mother.
Article 15.
In the event of the prior decease of the Queen-Mother, the
regent shall be elected by the legislative Chambers, convoked
within ten days by the Ministers of the Crown.
Article 16.
The preceding provisions in reference to the regency are also
applicable in case the King has attained his majority, but is
physically incapable of reigning. Under such circumstances, if
the heir presumptive to the throne be eighteen years of age,
be shall be regent of full right.
Article 17.
The Queen-Mother has charge of the education of the King until
he has completed his seventh year; from this time on his
guardianship passes into the hands of the regent.
Article 18.
All rights pertaining to the civil power in matters of
ecclesiastical benefices and in the execution of all
regulations whatsoever coming from foreign countries shall be
exercised by the King.
Article 19.
The civil list of the Crown shall remain, during the present
reign, at an amount equal to the average of the same for the
past ten years. The King shall continue to have the use of the
royal palaces, villas, gardens and their appurtenances, and
also of all chattels intended for the use of the Crown, of
which a speedy inventory shall be made by a responsible
ministerial department. In the future the prescribed dotation
of the Crown shall be fixed for the duration of each reign by
the first Legislature subsequent to the King s accession to
the throne.
{3734}
Article 20.
The property that the King possesses in his own right, shall
form his private patrimony, together with that to which he may
acquire title either for a consideration or gratuitously in
the course of his reign. The King may dispose of his private
patrimony either by deed or will exempt from the provisions of
the civil law as to the amount thus disposable. In all other
cases, the King's patrimony is subject to the laws that govern
other property.
Article 21.
The law shall provide an annual civil list for the heir
apparent to the throne when he has attained his majority, and
also earlier on occasion of his marriage; for the allowances
of the Princes of the royal family and royal blood within the
specified conditions; for the dowries of the Princesses and
for the dowries of the Queens.
Article 22.
Upon ascending the throne, the King shall take an oath in the
presence of the two Chambers to observe faithfully the present
constitution.
Article 23.
The regent, before entering on the duties of that office,
shall swear fidelity to the King and faithful observance of
this constitution and of the laws of the State.
Article 24.
All the inhabitants of the Kingdom, whatever their rank or
title, shall enjoy equality before the law. All shall equally
enjoy civil and political rights and be eligible to civil and
military office, except as otherwise provided by law.
Article 25.
All shall contribute without discrimination to the burdens of
the State, in proportion to their possessions.
Article 26.
Individual liberty is guaranteed. No one shall be arrested or
brought to trial except in cases provided for and according to
the forms prescribed by law.
Article 27.
The domicile shall be inviolable. No house search shall take
place except in the enforcement of law and in the manner
prescribed by law.
Article 28.
The press shall be free, but the law may suppress abuses of
this freedom. Nevertheless, Bibles, catechisms, liturgical and
prayer books shall not be printed without the previous consent
of the bishop.
Article 29.
Property of all kinds whatsoever shall be inviolable. In all
cases, however, where the public welfare, legally ascertained,
demands it, property may be condemned and transferred in whole
or in part after a just indemnity has been paid according to
law.
Article 30.
No tax shall be levied or collected without the consent of the
Chambers and the sanction of the King.
Article 31.
The public debt is guaranteed. All obligations between the
State and its creditors shall be inviolable.
Article 32.
The right to peaceful assembly, without arms, is recognized,
subject, however, to the laws that may regulate the exercise
of this privilege in the interest of the public welfare. This
privilege is not applicable, however, to meetings in public
places or places open to the public, which shall remain
entirely subject to police law and regulation.
Article 33.
The Senate shall be composed of members, having attained the
age of forty years, appointed for life by the King, without
limit of numbers. They shall be selected from the following
categories of citizens:
1. Archbishops and Bishops of the State.
2. The President of the Chamber of Deputies.
3. Deputies after having served in three Legislatures, or
after six years of membership in the Chamber of Deputies.
4. Ministers of State.
5. Secretaries to Ministers of State.
6. Ambassadors.
7. Envoys Extraordinary after three years of such service.
8. The First Presidents of the Courts
of Cassation and of the Chamber of Accounts.
9. The First Presidents of the Courts of Appeal.
10. The Attorney-General of the Courts of Cassation
and the Prosecutor-General, after five years of service.
11. The Presidents of the Chambers of the Courts of Appeal
after three years of service.
12. The Councillors of the Courts of Cassation and of the
Chamber of Accounts after five years of service.
13. The Advocates-General and Fiscals-General of the Courts
of Appeal after five years of service.
14. All military officers of the land and naval forces with
title of general. Major-generals and rear-admirals after five
years of active service in this capacity.
15. The Councillors of State after live years of service.
16. The members of the Councils of Division after three
elections to their presidency.
17. The Provincial Governors (Intendenti generali) after seven years of service.
18. Members of the Royal Academy of Science
of seven years standing.
19. Ordinary members of the Superior Council of Public
Instruction after seven years of service.
20. Those who by their services or eminent merit have done
honor to their country.
21. Persons who, for at least three years, have paid direct
property or occupation taxes to the amount of 3,000 lire.
Article 34.
The Princes of the Royal Family shall be members of the
Senate. They shall take rank immediately after the President.
They shall enter the Senate at the age of twenty-one and have
a vote at twenty-five.
Article 35.
The President and Vice-Presidents of the Senate shall be
appointed by the King, but the Senate chooses from among its
own members its secretaries.
Article 36.
The Senate may be constituted a High Court of Justice by
decree of the King for judging crimes of high treason and
attempts upon the safety of the State, also for trying
Ministers placed in accusation by the Chamber of Deputies.
When acting in this capacity, the Senate is not a political
body. It shall not then occupy itself with any other judicial
matters than those for which it was convened; any other action
is null and void.
Article 37.
No Senator shall be arrested except by virtue of an order of
the Senate, unless in cases of flagrant commission of crime.
The Senate shall be the sole judge of the imputed misdemeanors
of its members.
Article 38.
Legal documents as to births, marriages and deaths in the
Royal Family shall be presented to the Senate and deposited by
that body among its archives.
Article 39.
The elective Chamber is composed of deputies chosen by the
electoral colleges as provided by law.
{3735}
["The election law long in force was that of December 17,
1860, which was subsequently modified in July, 1875, and in
May, 1877. In January, 1882, a comprehensive electoral
reform was inaugurated by which the electoral age
qualification was reduced from twenty-five to twenty-one
years, and the tax qualification to an annual payment of
nineteen lire eighty centesimi as a minimum of direct
taxes. This law introduced a new provision requiring of
electors a knowledge of reading and writing. It is an
elaborate law of 107 articles. The provisions relating to
the elections by general ticket were further revised by law
of May and decree of June, 1882, and the text of the whole
law was co-ordinated with the preceding laws by Royal
Decree of September 24, 1882. It was again modified May
5th, 1891, by the abolition of elections on general tickets
and the creation of a Commission for the territorial
division of the country into electoral colleges. The number
of electoral colleges is at present fixed at 508, each
electing one Deputy. Twelve articles of this law of 1882,
as thus amended, have been again amended by a law dated
June 28, 1892, prescribing further reforms in the control
and supervision of elections, and by law of July 11, 1894,
on the revision of electoral and registration
lists."—Foot-note.]
Article 40.
No person shall be a member of the Chamber who is not a
subject of the King, thirty years of age, possessing all civil
and political rights and the other qualifications required by
law.
Article 41.
Deputies shall represent the nation at large and not the
several Provinces from which they are chosen. No binding
instructions may therefore be given by the electors.
Article 42.
Deputies shall be elected for a term of five years; their
power ceases ipso jure at the expiration of this period.
Article 43.
The President, Vice-presidents and Secretaries of the Chamber
of Deputies shall be chosen from among its own members at the
beginning of each session for the entire session.
Article 44.
If a Deputy ceases for any reason whatsoever to perform his
duties, the electoral college that chose him shall be convened
at once to proceed with a new election.
Article 45.
Deputies shall be privileged from arrest during the sessions,
except in cases of flagrant commission of crime; but no Deputy
may be brought to trial in criminal matters without the
previous consent of the Chamber.
Article 46.
No warrant of arrest for debts may be executed against a
Deputy during the sessions of the Chamber, nor within a period
of three weeks preceding or following the same.
["This article has been practically abolished by
the Mancini law of December 6, 1877, doing
away with personal arrest for debts."—Footnote.]
Article 47.
The Chamber of Deputies shall have power to impeach Ministers
of the Crown and to bring them to trial before the High Court
of Justice.
Article 48:
The sessions of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies shall begin
and end at the same time, and every meeting of one Chamber, at
a time when the other, is not in session, is illegal and its
acts wholly null and void.
Article 49.
Senators and Deputies before entering upon the duties of their
office shall take an oath of fidelity to the King and swear to
observe faithfully the Constitution and laws of the State and
to perform their duties with the joint welfare of King and
country as the sole end in view.
Article 50.
The office of Senator or Deputy does not entitle to any
compensation or remuneration.
Article 51.
Senators and Deputies shall not be held responsible in any
other place for opinions expressed or votes given in the
Chambers.
Article 52.
The sessions of the Chambers shall be public. Upon the written
request of ten members secret sessions may be held.
Article 53.
No session or vote of either Chamber shall be legal or valid
unless an absolute majority of its members is present.
[This article is not observed in actual parliamentary
practice.—Foot-note.]
Article 54.
The action of either Chamber on any question shall be
determined by a majority of the votes cast.
Article 55.
All bills shall be submitted to committees elected by each
House for preliminary examination. Any proposition discussed
and approved by one Chamber shall be transmitted to the other
for its consideration and approval; after passing both
Chambers it shall be presented to the King for his sanction.
Bills shall be discussed article by article.
Article 56.
Any bill rejected by one of the three legislative powers
cannot again be introduced during the same session.
Article 57.
Every person who shall have attained his majority has the
right to send petitions to the Chambers, which in turn must
order them to be examined by a committee; on report of the
committee each House shall decide whether they are to be taken
into consideration, and if voted in the affirmative, they
shall be referred to the competent Minister or shall be
deposited with a Government Department for proper action.
Article 58.
No petition may be presented in person to either Chamber. No
persons except the constituted authorities shall have the
right to submit petitions in their collective capacity.
Article 59.
The Chambers shall not receive any deputation, nor give
hearing to other than their own members and the Ministers and
Commissioners of the Government.
Article 60.
Each Chamber shall be sole judge of the qualifications and
elections of its own members.
Article 61.
The Senate as well as the Chamber of Deputies shall make its
own rules and regulations respecting its methods of procedure
in the performance of its respective duties.
Article 62.
Italian shall be the official language of the Chambers. The
use of French shall, however, be permitted to those members
coming from French-speaking districts and to other members in
replying to the same.
Article 63.
Votes shall be taken by rising, by division, and by secret
ballot. The latter method, however, shall always be employed
for the final vote on a law and in all cases of a personal
nature.
Article 64.
No one shall hold the office of Senator and Deputy at the same
time.
Article 65.
The King appoints and dismisses his ministers.
Article 66.
The Ministers shall have no vote in either Chamber unless they
are members thereof. They shall have entrance to both Chambers
and must be heard upon request.
Article 67.
The Ministers shall be responsible. Laws and decrees of the
government shall not take effect until they shall have
received the signature of a Minister.
{3736}
Article 68.
Justice emanates from the King and shall be administered in
his name by the judges he appoints.
Article 69.
Judges appointed by the King, except Cantonal or District
judges (di mandamento), shall not be removed after three years
of service.
Article 70.
Courts, tribunals and judges are retained as at present
existing. No modification shall be introduced except by law.
Article 71.
No one shall be taken from his ordinary legal jurisdiction. It
is therefore not lawful to create extraordinary tribunals or
commissions.
Article 72.
The proceedings of tribunals in civil cases and the hearings
in criminal cases shall be public as provided by law.
Article 73.
The interpretation of the laws, in the form obligatory upon
all citizens, belongs exclusively to the legislative power.
Article 74.
Communal and provincial institutions and the boundaries of the
communes and provinces shall be regulated by law.
Article 75.
The military conscriptions shall be regulated by law.
Article 76.
A communal militia shall be established on a basis fixed by
law.
Article 77.
The State retains its flag, and the blue cockade is the only
national one.
Article 78.
The knightly orders now in existence shall be maintained with
their endowments, which shall not be used for other purposes
than those specified in the acts by which they were
established. The King may create other orders and prescribe
their constitutions.
Article 79.
Titles of the nobility are guaranteed to those who have a
right to them. The King may confer new titles.
Article 80.
No one may receive orders, titles or pensions from a foreign
power without the King's consent.
Article 81.
All laws contrary to the provisions of the present
constitution are hereby abrogated.
Given at Turin on the fourth day of March, in the year of Our
Lord, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, and of Our
Reign the eighteenth.
Transitory Provisions.
Article 82.
This statue shall go into effect on the day of the first
meeting of the Chambers, which shall take place immediately
after the elections. Until that time urgent public service
shall be provided for by royal ordinances according to the
mode and form now in vogue, excepting, however, the
ratifications and registrations in the courts which are from
now on abolished.
Article 83.
In the execution of this statute the King reserves to himself
the right to make the laws for the press, elections, communal
militia and organization of the Council of State. Until the
publication of the laws for the press, the regulations now in
force on this subject remain valid.
Article 84.
The Ministers are entrusted with, and are responsible for the
execution and full observance of these transitory provisions.
----------CONSTITUTION OF ITALY: End--------
CONSTITUTION OF NEW YORK STATE, and its Revisions.
See NEW YORK: A. D. 1777, 1821, 1846, 1867-1882,
and 1894 (page 2339, and after).
CONSTITUTION OF RHODE ISLAND.
See RHODE ISLAND: A. D. 1888 (page 2646).
CONTRACT TABLETS, BABYLONIAN.
See MONEY AND BANKING (page 2199).
COOKE AND WHEATSTONE, Telegraphic Inventions of.
See ELECTRICAL DISCOVERY AND INVENTION:
A. D. 1825-1874 (page 773).
CO-OPERATION.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D). 1816-1886, 1840-1848,
1848-1883 (pages 2938, 2942, 2946).
COPYRIGHT.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1499;
and EQUITY: A. D. 1875 (pages 1965 and 1994).
COREA.
The war between Japan and China.
"The peninsula which projects between the Japanese and Yellow
Seas southwards in the direction of the southern islands of
Nippon is completely limited landwards. Like Italy, with which
it may be compared in extent, and even to some degree in its
orographic configuration, it is separated from the mainland by
the Alpine Taipeishan or 'Great White Mountains,' of
Manchuria. It has also its Apennines stretching north and
south, and forming the backbone of the peninsula. … Like most
regions of the extreme East, Korea is known to foreigners by a
name which has little currency in the country itself. This
term, belonging formerly to the petty state of Korié, has been
extended by the Chinese and Japanese to the whole peninsula,
under the forms of Kaokiuli, Korai, Kaoli. When all the
principalities were fused in one monarchy, towards the close
of the 14th century, the country, at that time subject to
China, took the official title of Chaosien (Tsiosen)—that is,
'Serenity of the Morning'—in allusion to its geographical
position east of the empire. Thus it is now designated by a
poetical expression which exactly indicates its position
between China and Japan. While for the people of the continent
Japan is the land of the Rising Sun, Korea is the 'Serene'
land, illumined by the morning rays. Although washed by two
much-frequented seas, and yearly sighted by thousands of
seafarers, Korea is one of the least known Asiatic regions. …
From its very position between China and Japan, Korea could
not fail to have been a subject of contention for its powerful
neighbours. Before its fusion in one state it comprised
several distinct principalities, whose limits were subject to
frequent changes. These were, in the north, Kaokiuli (Kaoli),
or Korea proper; in the centre, Chaosien and the 78 so-called
'kingdoms' of Chinese foundation, usually known as the San Kan
(San Han), or 'Three Han'; in the south, Petsi, or Hiaksaï
(Kudara), the Sinlo of the Chinese, or Siragi of the Japanese;
beside the petty state of Kara, Zinna, or Mimana, in the
south-east, round about the Bay of Tsiosan. The northern
regions naturally gravitated towards China, whose rulers
repeatedly interfered in the internal affairs of the country.
But the inhabitants of the south, known in history by the
Japanese name of Kmaso, or 'Herd of Bears,' were long subject
to Japan, while at other times they made frequent incursions
into Kiu-siu and Hondo, and even formed settlements on those
islands. The first conquest of the country was made by the
forces of the Queen Regent Zingu in the 3d century.
{3737}
Towards the end of the 16th the celebrated Japanese dictator
and usurper Taïkosama, having conceived the project of
conquering China, began with that of Korea, under the pretext
of old Japanese rights over the country of the Kmaso. After
wasting the land he compelled the King to become his
tributary, and left a permanent garrison in the peninsula. A
fresh expedition, although interrupted by the death of
Taïkosama, was equally successful. Tsu-sima remained in the
hands of the Japanese, and from that time till the middle of
the present century Korea continued in a state of vassalage,
sending every year presents and tribute to Nippon. … Thanks to
the aid sent by the Ming dynasty to Korea, in its victorious
struggle with the other petty states of the peninsula, and in
its resistance to Japan, its relations with China continued to
be of the most friendly character. Admirers of Chinese
culture, the native rulers felt honoured by the investiture
granted them by the 'Son of Heaven.' But after the Manchu
conquest of the Middle Kingdom, Korea remaining faithful to
the cause of the Mings, the new masters of the empire invaded
the peninsula, and in 1637 dictated a treaty, imposing on the
Koreans a yearly tribute. … But although since that time the
native ruler takes the title of 'Subject,' China exercises no
real sovereign rights in Korea."
_E. Reclus,
The Earth and its Inhabitants: Asia,
volume 2, chapter 6._
"Since the conclusion of that treaty [of 1637], Corea has been
at peace with both her neighbours and able, till within the
last twenty years, to maintain the seclusion she so much
desired. Until the beginning of the present century—when the
doctrine preached by Roman missionaries in China began to
filter across the frontier, and to provoke a fitful and
uncertain intercourse between them and the few Coreans who had
been attracted by the new religion—the only fresh glimpse we
obtain of the interior of the country and its inhabitants is
afforded by the well-known story of Henry Hamel, who was
wrecked off the Corean coast in 1653, and detained there
twelve years as a prisoner at large. … We come now to events
nearer our own time, in which the propaganda of Rome and the
proceedings of its emissaries begin to play a prominent and
interesting part. In the year 1784, a young Corean named Le,
who had come to Peking in the suite of the tribute-bearing
embassy, applied to the Roman Catholic Mission for books and
instruction in the science of mathematics, of which he was
naturally fond. The missionaries profited by the occasion to
lend him books on religion, which awakened his interest and
led to his eventual conversion. As usual in such cases, the
neophyte set himself, directly on his return, to propagate the
new creed he had learned, among his relations and friends; and
with so much success that, in less than five years, he had,
according to Mgr. Govéa, gained 4,000 adherents. As may be
imagined, however, the doctrine acquired from a convert who
had had only a few months' instruction, and disseminated again
at second-hand by men who had caught the crude idea from his
conversation, was of a somewhat obscure description. … Neither
letter nor news was received from the Corean Christians for
more than two years; but two converts made their way to
Peking, at the close of 1793, with news of a severe
persecution which had occurred in the interval. … No sooner
had the persecution … subsided, than a priest was successfully
introduced across the frontier, to instruct and impart new
life to the converts. Nor, it is affirmed, has the flock ever
since been left unguarded. Persecution has followed
persecution; but from Jacques Velloz, the first missionary to
cross the frontier, who suffered martyrdom in 1800, to Mgr.
Ridel, who has returned to Europe with health shattered by the
anxieties and hardships undergone during the latest outbreak,
there have always been some priests alternately tolerated or
hiding in the country, and the spark lighted by the young
Corean attache has never been quite extinguished. … On July
7th, 1866, a Roman Catholic missionary arrived in a Corean
boat at Chefoo, with a tale of dire persecution. Two bishops,
nine priests, and a number of Christians of both sexes had
been massacred, many of them after judicial tortures of
atrocious cruelty. Three members of the mission only survived,
and M. Ridel had been chosen to carry the news to China, and
endeavour to procure assistance. It was to the French
authorities, naturally, that he addressed himself; and both
Admiral Roze, the Commandant of the French fleet in Chinese
waters, and M. de Bellonet, then charge-d'affaires at Peking,
lent a sympathetic ear to his protest. … An expedition was
accordingly resolved on. … Admiral Roze started from Chefoo
with the expeditionary force on October 11th, arrived off
Kang-hwa on the 14th, and occupied it, after a merely nominal
resistance, two days later. The Coreans were apparently taken
by surprise, having perhaps thought that the danger had
passed. … The forts along the banks of the river were found
ungarrisoned, and Kang-hwa itself, a considerable fortress
containing large stores of munitions of war, was practically
undefended. A letter was received, a few days later, inviting
Admiral Roze to come or send delegates to Söul, to talk over
matters in a friendly spirit; but he replied that, if the
Corean authorities wished to treat, they had better come to
Kang-hwa. This attitude was meant, no doubt, to be impressive,
but the event proved it to be slightly premature. So far all
had gone well; but the expedition was about to collapse with a
suddenness contrasting remarkably with the expectations raised
by M. de Bellonet's denunciations and Admiral Roze's hauteur.
… The disastrous termination of … two movements appears to
have persuaded Admiral Roze that the force at his disposal was
insufficient to prosecute the enterprise to a successful
issue, in face of Corean hostility. It was no longer a
question whether he should go to Söul or the Coreans come to
him: the expedition was at a deadlock. He had rejected the
first overtures, and was not strong enough to impose terms. A
retreat was accordingly decided on. The city of Kang-hwa was
burned, with its public offices and royal palace."
_R. S. Gundry,
China and her Neighbours,
chapter 9._
In 1866, when the French threatened Corea, the latter sought
help from Japan and received none. Two years later, after the
Japanese revolution which restored the Mikado to his full
sovereignty, the Coreans declined to acknowledge his
suzerainty, and bitterly hostile feelings grew up between the
two peoples. The Japanese were restrained from war with
difficulty by their more conservative statesmen.
{3738}
Without war, they obtained from Corea, in 1876, an important
treaty, which contained in the first article "the remarkable
statement that 'Chosen, being an independent State, enjoys the
same sovereign rights as does Japan'—an admission which was
foolishly winked at by China from the mistaken notion that, by
disavowing her connection with Korea, she should escape the
unpleasantness of being called to account for the
delinquencies of her vassal. This preliminary advantage was
more than doubled in value to Japan when, after the revolution
in Söul in 1884, by which her diplomatic representative was
compelled to flee for the second time from the Korean capital,
she sent troops to avenge the insult and declined to remove
them until China had made a similar concession with regard to
the Chinese garrison, which had been maintained since the
previous outbreak in 1882 in that city. By the Convention of
Tientsin, which was negotiated in 1885 by Count Ito with the
Viceroy Li Hung Chang, both parties agreed to withdraw their
troops and not to send an armed force to Korea at any future
date to suppress rebellion or disturbance without giving
previous intimation to the other. This document was a second
diplomatic triumph for Japan. … It is, in my judgment, greatly
to be regretted that in the present summer [1894] her
Government, anxious to escape from domestic tangles by a
spirited foreign policy, has abandoned this statesmanlike
attitude, and has embarked upon a headlong course of
aggression in Korea, for which there appears to have been no
sufficient provocation, and the ulterior consequences of which
it is impossible to forecast. … Taking advantage of recent
disturbances in the peninsula, which demonstrated with renewed
clearness the impotence of the native Government to provide
either a decent administration for its own subjects, or
adequate protection to the interests of foreigners, and
ingeniously profiting by the loophole left for future
interference in the Tientsin Agreement of 1885, Japan … (in
July 1894) landed a large military force, estimated at 10,000
men, in Korea, and is in armed occupation of the capital. Li
Hung Chang … responded by the despatch of the Chinese fleet
and of an expeditionary force, marching overland into the
northern provinces."
_G. N. Curzon,
Problems of the Far East,
chapter 7._
"The ostensible starting-point of the trouble that resulted in
hostilities was a local insurrection which broke out in May in
one of the southern provinces of Corea. The cause of the
insurrection was primarily the misrule of the authorities,
with possibly some influence by the quarreling court factions
at the capital. The Corean king applied at once to China as
his suzerain for assistance in subduing the insurgents, and a
Chinese force was sent. Japan, thereupon, claiming that Corea
was an independent state and that China had no exclusive right
to interfere, promptly began to pour large forces into Corea,
to protect Japanese interests. By the middle of June a whole
Japanese army corps was at Seoul, the Corean capital, and the
Japanese minister soon formulated a radical scheme of
administrative reforms which he demanded as indispensable to
the permanent maintenance of order in the country. This scheme
was rejected by the conservative faction which was in power at
court, whereupon, on July 23, the Japanese forces attacked the
palace, captured the king and held him as hostage for the
carrying out of the reforms. The Chinese were meanwhile
putting forth great efforts to make up for the advantage that
their rivals had gained in the race for control of Corea, and
to strengthen their forces in that kingdom. On the 25th a
Chinese fleet carrying troops to Corea became engaged in
hostilities with some Japanese war vessels, and one of the
transports was sunk. On August 1 the Emperor of Japan made a
formal declaration of war on China, basing his action on the
false claim of the latter to suzerainty over Corea, and on the
course of China in opposing and thwarting the plan of reforms
which were necessary to the progress of Corea and to the
security of Japanese interests there. The counter-proclamation
of the Chinese Emperor denounced the Japanese as wanton
invaders of China's tributary state, and as aiming at the
enslaving of Corea. On August 26 a treaty of offensive and
defensive alliance against China was made between Japan and
Corea. … A severe engagement at Ping-Yang, September 16,
resulted in the rout of the Chinese and the loss of their last
stronghold in Corea. A few days later the hostile fleets had a
pitched battle off the mouth of the Yalu River, with the
result that the Japanese were left in full control of the
adjacent waters. On the 26th of October the Japanese land
forces brushed aside with slight resistance the Chinese on the
Yalu, which is the boundary between Corea and China, and began
their advance through the Chinese province of Manchuria,
apparently aiming at Pekin."
_Political Science Quarterly,
December, 1894._
On the 3d of November, Port Arthur being then invested by the
Japanese land and naval forces, while Marshal Yamagata, the
Japanese commander, continued his victorious advance through
Manchuria, Prince Kung made a formal appeal to the
representatives of all the Powers for their intervention,
acknowledging the inability of China to cope with the
Japanese. On the 21st of November, Port Arthur, called the
strongest fortress in China, was taken, after hard fighting
from noon of the previous day. In retaliation for the murder
and mutilation of some prisoners by the Chinese, the Japanese
gave no quarter, and are accused of great atrocities. To the
advance of the Japanese armies in the field, the Chinese
opposed comparatively slight resistance, in several
engagements of a minor character, until the 19th of December,
when a battle of decided obstinacy was fought at Kungwasai,
near Hai-tcheng. The Japanese were again the victors.
Overtures for peace made by the Chinese government proved
unavailing; the Japanese authorities declined to receive the
envoys sent, for the reason that they were not commissioned
with adequate powers. Nothing came of an earlier proffer of
the good offices of the Government of the United States.
Obstinate fighting occurred at Kai-phing, which was captured
by the Japanese on the 10th of January, 1895. On the 26th of
January the Japanese began, both by land and sea, an attack on
the stronghold of Wei-hai-wei, which was surrendered, with the
Chinese fleet in its harbor on the 12th of February. Shortly
afterwards, China made another effort to obtain peace,
commissioning her able Statesman, Li-Hung-Chang, as a special
envoy to Japan, with full power to negotiate terms. At the
time of this writing, the result has not appeared.
{3739}
CORNELL UNIVERSITY, The founding of.
See EDUCATION, MODERN (page 735).
CORONER AND CORONER'S JURY.
See LAW, CRIMINAL LAW: A. D. 1215, and 1276 (page 1982).
CORRUPT AND ILLEGAL PRACTICES AT ELECTIONS,
The English Act to prevent.
See England: A. D. 1883 (page 972).
CORTEREALS, Voyages of the.
See (in this Supplement) AMERICA.
COTTON-GIN, Whitney's, and its effect.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1793 (page 3306).
COURTS, Origin of the English Criminal.
See LAW, CRIMINAL: A. D. 1066-1272 (page 1981).
COURTS OF OYER AND TERMINER.
See LAW, CRIMINAL: A. D. 1285 (page 1982).
COXEY MOVEMENT, The.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1894 (page 2956).
CRIMINAL LAW.
See LAW, CRIMINAL (page 1981).
CRUSADES:
The initial movements.
"The pious legend according to which Peter the Hermit is
supposed to have been miraculously chosen by God Himself to
call Christendom to arms for the purpose of freeing the Holy
Sepulchre has long since been proved unhistorical by
scientific investigators. That account of the matter may have
given suitable expression to the religious enthusiasm which
the crusades called forth in those circles that were
especially strongly influenced by the church; but it is
entirely without any actual foundation in fact, nay, more; the
religious element altogether did not play nearly so important
a part in the origin of the crusades as it would seem to have
done to judge by the later character of the great movement.
For if in those days church influences and the religious
impulses on which they were based made a mighty impression and
in many ways produced an almost overwhelming effect;
nevertheless the reason for all this lay essentially herein
that the whole age, more than any other, was in a condition,
through crying agricultural, social and political needs, to
give itself up without reserve to the influence of similar
impelling forces, and that just for this reason it took up
with such enthusiasm the impulse furnished by the church. In
its most general form the thought which lies at the base of
the crusades springs from the idea of the calling of
Christendom to have and to hold the rule of the world. The
desire to practically carry out this idea was especially
active whenever the Christian ideal of world-rule,
incorporated as it was in a double form in the empire and in
the papacy, seemed near to realization; then it was that its
inherent magic unfolded most irresistibly its animating and at
the same time ensnaring power. Thus did Otto II, already, plan
a great undertaking for the protection of Christendom against
the Arabs. Thus did the fantastic mind of his immature son
busy itself with plans for a great crusade. Neither one nor
the other carried out his intention. But, little more than two
generations later, the commanding position which the empire
had at that time held, passed into the holding of the
hierarchical papacy. The creator of this hierarchical papacy,
who was beyond a doubt a reformer of genius, but revolutionary
in his means and hostile to the state as regarded his final
ends, was far from contenting himself with the spiritual power
which belongs uncontestedly to the church, but strove for an
actual, secular rule of the world. He thought to bring into
his own hands the complete political guidance of Christendom
as well as the command over its war-forces. … Plans for
widening his political and ecclesiastical sphere of power
formed the pith of Gregory VIIth's crusading plans. … Already
the victorious course had come to a stand-still in which the
Arabs up to the beginning of the eleventh century had
threatened to flood southwestern Europe. It was to rid
themselves of their troublesome enemies and their deeds of
violence, but not, however for the sake of the Faith, that
those who were threatened had determined to help themselves.
This led to the rapid rise of the naval power of Pisa and
Genoa, which soon won brilliant victories on the north coast
of Africa, and at the same time the brave Normans struggled
with growing success against the Arabs for the possession of
fair Sicily. There and not in Rome was the thought of a holy
war against the power of the Crescent first taken hold of; it
sprang from the knightly zeal for action and the political
genius of Robert Guiscard. … About the same time, moreover,
the Christians of the Pyrenean peninsula had energetically
roused themselves to a new attack against the Mohammedans.
Along the whole line therefore, in southwestern Europe, the
Christian arms were already victoriously pressing forward
against the followers of the prophet when the call from Rome
to the crusades first sounded out. Regarded as a whole,
therefore, the crusades cannot simply be looked upon as the
exclusive work of the church. The movement was already in full
progress and had, independently of the church, most successful
results to show, when that church's head undertook through a
skillful act to concentrate the separate movements and to
unite and organize them under his own guidance. This policy
was cleverly carried out by Urban. The church succeeded
effectually in bringing under her own undivided direction the
undertakings which different peoples of the Occident had
separately begun against their Mohammedan adversaries. For on
the one hand the empire, to which even then the opinion of the
world ascribed the first right of leadership in such a
struggle, lay prostrate in abject weakness and degradation; it
was incapable of fulfilling its calling. The whole age on the
other hand was so thoroughly roused to its depths and so
exhausted through the mighty spiritual struggles by which
church-life especially was shaken to its very foundation that
it submitted without opposition and even willingly to a
churchly right of guidance emphatically asserted; the more so
as this new guide promised to show the individual the way to
inward rest and peace of soul. The deeply sunken church had
been reformed by Cluny ideas; in place of the worldly doings
and sensual pleasures which had formerly engrossed her
servants and dignitaries, stern asceticism and saintly
enthusiasm ruled the day. Although it was among the clergy of
the eleventh century that the effect of this was primarily to
be seen, yet it was not without influence on the great body of
laymen.
{3740}
Not seldom do princes and nobles emulate each other in strict
ecclesiasticism, in monkish practices and pilgrimages. An age
without a parallel began of founding monasteries and churches.
Was it to be wondered at that the people also, otherwise bound
fast by the barren monotony of toilsome existence, turned
their thoughts often in the same direction? The more frequent
coming forward of popular saints and popular preachers, the
overwhelmingly rapid increase in the worship of relics, which
assumed a hitherto unheard-of significance for the catholic
system of religious observance, and the astonishing renewal of
life which came about in the matter of pilgrimages and sacred
undertakings customary though they had been of old: all these
show clearly how the enthusiastic frame of mind which had been
aroused by Cluny won for itself wider and wider circles even
beyond the pale of the clergy. And in an age like this, so
deeply excited about church matters, fell now the
world-rousing struggle between the papacy and the empire. It
appeared to annihilate the foundations on which church and
state had hitherto been reared. With bitterness men saw those
powers in conflict with each other on whose concord they had
believed the peace and happiness of the world to depend. …
Most impressively of all, as far as the uneducated masses were
concerned, was the wretchedness of the age betokened by the
outward evils and ravagings which the termination of the reign
of Henry IV brought about: by the vanishing of discipline and
order, the utter prostration of law, the loosing even of the
holy ties of family. The vassal broke faith with the feudal
lord, the subject warred with the authorities, the son rose up
against the father. Heavily did the chastening hand of God
rest upon land and people. Everywhere did men suffer from
feuds, robbery and violence; everywhere did the common man
find himself in a position which he felt that he could no
longer endure. In France the rural population was utterly
prostrated under the galling oppressions of the nobles who
were their landlords. In Germany, to add to similar evils,
came the loosing of all bonds of order through the civil war
which had sprung from the conflict concerning the investiture.
… In short, wherever in the Occident one turns his gaze,
everywhere did dissatisfaction and an impulse towards
improvement, or at least towards change, rule the day;
everywhere an eager desire with one stroke to break free from
the uncomfortable, indeed in many cases unbearable, present!
The dissatisfied and revolutionary mood which possessed high
and low in almost all parts of occidental Christendom is one
of the essential reasons why the call to the crusade at once
set hundreds of thousands in motion and called forth a very
wandering of the nations. … Hierarchical ideas and asceticism
ruled the spirit of the age; in mind and in mood they had
prepared Europe for the crusades. Most emphatically was this
made evident by the fact that the crusaders marched out under
the banner of the hierarchical papacy—that same red cross
which Erlembald Cotta, the 'knight of the church' had borne on
his white standard during the religious civil war in Lombardy,
and which in 1066 had been bestowed by the pope on the
conqueror of England. But on the other hand the political,
social and agricultural needs, which were not to be put off
and which kept calling for speedy change, were no less
effective agents in the same direction. Not religious
enthusiasm alone was it that ever anew, at the end of the
eleventh century, impelled hundreds of thousands towards the
Orient; how many would have staid at home quietly if they had
had enough to eat and had otherwise rejoiced in an existence
fit for a human being. But for years one bad harvest had
succeeded another; almost everywhere there was want almost
bordering on famine; to eke out their scanty existence
countless of those of the lower classes had had to squander
their possessions. They stood there now utterly without means;
they were forced to emigrate if they would not starve at home.
From all such oppressions, however, he was released who obeyed
the call to the crusade. Brilliant gains seemed assured to him
so soon as he allowed the red cross to be affixed to his
garment. The serf became free, the debtor shook off his
creditor or at any rate needed to pay him no interest. The
monk escaped from the strict discipline of the monastery, he
who had been under the ban was received again into the
communion of the church. What wonder then if countless numbers
hastened to join the adventurous expedition to the East which
promised them such blessings; and to the outward advantages
that allured the crusaders, to the expectation of the toilless
acquisition of land and subjects, of money and possessions,
must be added still the rich spiritual blessings and
ecclesiastical rewards which were solemnly assured to the
warriors of Christ. … Human nature at that time would have had
to be actually raised out of itself, to have become to a
certain extent untrue to itself if, in contrast to the misery
at home, the alluring prospects which began to show themselves
in the unknown distance had not worked an irresistible charm
on the great masses of the people. Nor did the church have any
scruples in putting in motion exactly these incentives to
action; she declared that the prevailing misery arose from the
thickness of the population in an impoverished land; she
unchained the popular greed by representing what riches would
be captured from the infidels, and even roused the sensual
passions by the seductive praise of Greek female beauty. That
such language should fairly carry away the great masses may
easily be imagined. For we may surely not regard the people as
of better moral fibre, and therefore more susceptible to ideal
motives, than the princes and commanders who led the crusading
armies. Of these, however, only the hot-blooded nobles of
southern France can primarily pass for representatives of that
churchly enthusiasm with which, according to the tradition
well-tinged with legend, the crusaders as a whole are said to
have been seized. And it is well known that their churchly
narrow-mindedness brought the people of southern France, under
Raymond of Toulouse, soon enough into direct opposition to the
other participants in the first crusade. For the majority of
the princes who had taken the cross were by no means willing
to work for the sole advantage of the church, but wished to
further their own worldly interests at least as much as they
did those of the pope. Indeed the Norman princes whose race
had been the first to take up the idea of a holy war against
the infidels had joined the crusade without religious
enthusiasm, after sober consideration and entirely following
out their own selfish, world]y plans. And it was exactly into
their hands that the leadership of the great undertaking
primarily came: the more completely therefore did the worldly,
political and dynastic points of view weigh down the churchly
intentions of the pious fanatics who, under the influence of
asceticism, wished only to serve the hierarchy."
_Hans Prutz,
Kulturgeschichte der Kreuzzüge,
(translated from the German)
pages 12-17._
See, also, CRUSADES, page 626.
{3741}
CUMBERLAND ROAD, The.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1806-1812 (page 3335).
CURIA REGIS.
See LAW (page 1957).
CY PRES DOCTRINE.
See LAW, EQUITY: A. D. 1601 (page 1991).
CYRUS, King, and the Jews.
See JEWS: B. C. 604-536, and 537 (pages 1908-1910).
D.
D'ALBUQUERQUE, Afonso,
and the domination of the Portuguese in the East.
See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE, MODERN.
DARNLEY, Lord, The murder of.
See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1561-1568 (page 2857).
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE CASE, The.
"Dartmouth College … was originally a charity school for the
instruction of Indians in the Christian religion, founded by
the Rev. Eleazer Wheelock, D. D., about the year 1754, at
Lebanon, in Connecticut. Its success led Dr. Wheelock to
solicit private subscriptions in England, for the purpose of
enlarging it, and of extending its benefits to English
colonists. Funds having been obtained for this purpose from
various contributors, among whom the Earl of Dartmouth,
Secretary for the Colonies, was a large donor, Dr. Wheelock
constituted that nobleman and other persons trustees, with
authority to fix the site of the college. The place selected
was on the Connecticut River, at what is now the town of
Hanover, in New Hampshire, where large donations of land were
made by the neighboring proprietors. A charter for the college
was obtained from the crown, in 1769, creating it a perpetual
corporation. The charter recognized Dr. Wheelock as founder,
appointed him to be the president, and empowered him to name
his successor, subject to the approval of the trustees; to
whom was also imparted the power of filling vacancies in their
own body, and of making laws and ordinances for the government
of the college, not repugnant to the laws of Great Britain or
of the province, and not excluding any person on account of
his religious belief. Under this charter, Dartmouth College
had always existed, unquestioned and undisturbed in its rights
as a corporation, down to the Revolution, and subsequently
until the year 1815. Whether from political or personal
motives springing up outside of the board of trustees of that
period, or from some collisions arising within the body
itself, it appears that … legislative interference with the
chartered rights of this college was threatened. … In the
following year (1816), the difficulties, which had become
mixed with political interests, culminated in a direct
interference by the Legislature. In that year an act was
passed, changing the corporate name from 'The Trustees of
Dartmouth College' to 'The Trustees of Dartmouth University;'
enlarging the number of trustees, vesting the appointment of
some of them in the political bodies of the State, and
otherwise modifying the ancient rights of the corporation as
they existed under its charter derived from the crown of
England. A majority of the existing trustees refused to accept
or to be bound by this act, and brought an action of trover in
the Supreme Court of the State, in the name of the old
corporation, against a gentleman, Mr. W. H. Woodward, who was
in possession of the college seal and other effects, and who
claimed to hold them as one of the officers of the
newly-created 'university.' The argument in this case was made
in the State court, for the college, by Mr. Mason and Mr.
Jeremiah Smith, assisted by Mr. Webster. The decision was
against the claim of the college. It was then determined to
remove the cause, by writ of error, to the Supreme Court of
the United States, under the provisions of the Federal
Constitution and laws creating in that tribunal an appellate
jurisdiction in cases which, although originating in a State
court, involved the construction and operation of the Federal
Constitution. This was supposed to be such a case, because it
was claimed by the college that the act of the Legislature,
modifying its charter, impaired the obligation of a contract;
an exercise of power which the Constitution of the United
States prohibits to the Legislature of a State. As soon as it
was known in New Hampshire that this very interesting cause
was to come before the Supreme Court of the United States, the
friends of the college, including their other counsel in the
State court, unanimously desired to have it committed to the
hands of Mr. Webster. He consented to take charge of it in the
autumn of 1817; but the cause was not argued at Washington
until February, 1818. … Before the case of Dartmouth College
vs. Woodward occurred, there had been no judicial decisions
respecting the meaning and scope of the restraint in regard to
contracts, excepting that it had more than once been
determined by the Supreme Court of the United States that a
grant of lands made by a State is a contract within the
protection of this provision, and is, therefore, irrevocable.
These decisions, however, could go but little way toward the
solution of the questions involved in the case of the college.
… Was the State of New Hampshire—a sovereign in all respects
after the Revolution, and remaining one after the Federal
Constitution, excepting in those respects in which it had
subjected its sovereignty to the restraints of that
instrument—bound by the contracts of the English crown? Is the
grant of a charter of incorporation a contract between the
sovereign power and those on whom the charter is bestowed? If
an act of incorporation is a contract, is it so in any case
but that of a private corporation? Was this college, which was
an institution of learning, established for the promotion of
education, a private corporation, or was it one of those
instruments of government which are at all times under the
control and subject to the direction of the legislative power?
All these questions were involved in the inquiry whether the
legislative power of the State had been so restrained by the
Constitution of the United States that it could not alter the
charter of this institution, against the will of the trustees,
without impairing the obligation of a contract. …
{3742}
On the conclusion of the argument, the Chief Justice intimated
that a decision was not to be expected until the next term. It
was made in February, 1819, fully confirming the grounds on
which Mr. Webster had placed the cause. From this decision,
the principle in our constitutional jurisprudence, which
regards a charter of a private corporation as a contract, and
places it under the protection of the Constitution of the
United States, takes its date."
_G. T. Curtis,
Life of Daniel Webster,
volume 1, chapter 8._
See, also, LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1819 (page 1976).
DAVY, Sir Humphrey, and the discovery of the electric arc light.
See ELECTRICAL DISCOVERY: A. D. 1810-1890 (page 772).
DENMARK: Libraries.
See LIBRARIES, MODERN (page 2013).
DENMARK: Schools.
See EDUCATION (page 710).
DESCARTES, and modern physiological Science.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 17TH CENTURY (page 2134).
DIPHTHERIA, Appearance of.
See PLAGUE: 18TH CENTURY (page 2543).
DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
"This body, often called also Christians, was one of the
results of the great revival movement which began in Tennessee
and Kentucky in the early part of the present century. Rev.
Barton W. Stone, a Presbyterian minister who was prominent in
the revival movement, withdrew from the Presbyterian Church,
and in 1804 organized a church with no other creed than the
Bible and with no name but that of Christian. One of his
objects was to find a basis for the union of all Christian
believers. A little later Thomas and Alexander Campbell,
father and son, who came from Ireland, where the former had
been a Presbyterian minister, organized union societies in
Pennsylvania. Changing their views as to baptism, they joined
the Redstone Association of Baptists. Shortly after, when
Alexander Campbell was charged with not being in harmony with
the creed, he followed the Burch Run Church, of which he was
pastor, into the Mahoning Baptist Association, which, leavened
with his teachings, soon ceased to be known as a Baptist
association. In 1827, after some correspondence with Rev. B.
W. Stone and his followers of the Christian Connection, there
was a union with a large number of congregations in Ohio,
Kentucky, and Tennessee, and the organization variously known
as 'Disciples of Christ' and 'Christians' [also, popularly
designated 'Campbellites'] is the result."
_H. K. Carroll,
Religious Forces of the United States,
chapter 18._
DUNKARDS, The.
"The Dunkards, or German Baptists, or Brethren, are of German
origin, and trace their beginning back to Alexander Mack, of
Schwartzenau, Germany. Early in the 18th century Mack and
several others formed a habit of meeting together for the
study of the New Testament. They were convinced that its
doctrines and principles of church order were not being
faithfully followed, either by the Lutheran or the Reformed
Church. They therefore resolved to form a society of their
own. Alexander Mack was chosen as their pastor. Persecution
soon arose, and they were scattered. In 1719 most of them got
together and came to the United States, settling in
Pennsylvania, where their first church was organized about
1723."
_H. K. Carroll,
Religious Forces of the United States,
chapter 19._
DUTCH, Commerce of the.
See (In this Supplement) COMMERCE, MEDIÆVAL, and MODERN.
DYNAMO-ELECTRIC MACHINES, The invention of.
See ELECTRICAL DISCOVERY AND INVENTION:
A. D. 1831-1872 (page 774).
E.
EBENEZER AND AMANA COMMUNITIES.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: 1843-1874 (page 2945).
ECCLESIASTICAL LAW.
See LAW, ECCLESIASTICAL (page 1986).
EDISON, Electrical Inventions of.
See ELECTRICAL DISCOVERY AND INVENTION:
A. D. 1841-1880, and 1876-1892 (pages 775-776).
EDMUNDS ACT, The.
See UTAH: A. D. 1882-1893 (page 3591).
EDUCATION.
See (in addition to pages 673-748),
VERMONT UNIVERSITY (page 3619),
VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY (page 3639),
WISCONSIN UNIVERSITY (page 3655);
and, (in this Supplement)
BOWDOIN COLLEGE, BROWN UNIVERSITY,
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE, HAMILTON COLLEGE,
MINNESOTA UNIVERSITY, OBERLIN COLLEGE,
OHIO UNIVERSITY, PRINCETON COLLEGE,
RUTGERS COLLEGE, TULANE UNIVERSITY, UNION COLLEGE.
EGIBI AND COMPANY, The House of.
See MONEY AND BANKING:
ANCIENT EGYPT AND BABYLONIA (page 2199).
EGYPT, ANCIENT: Chronology.
Modern reckoning of Egyptian Chronology is by two modes: "(1)
that by 'dead reckoning,' or adding the dynasties up one on
another: (2) by certain fixed astronomical data, into the
interpretation and calculation of which various uncertainties
may enter. The more apart these modes can be kept the better,
as then they serve to check each other. The fundamental fact
on which all of our astronomically fixed points depend is the
imperfection of the Egyptian calendar. Using a year of 365
days, it followed that the nominal beginning of each year was
a quarter of a day too soon: just as if we were to neglect the
29th of February in leap years, and go on always from 28th
February direct to 1st March. Thus every four years a day was
slipped, and the nominal months of the year were begun a day
too soon. In 4 x 7 = 28 they began, then, a week too soon. In
4 x 30 = 120 years they began & month too soon; and after
twelve months and five days thus slipped, or in 1,460 years,
they began a year too soon, and so had rotated the nominal
months through all the seasons. … This loss of the day in four
years was … soon known to the Egyptians, and used by them as a
mode of constructing a great cycle, which in Ptolemaic times
became very prominent, and entered into all their fanciful
adjustments of history and myths.
{3743}
Some mode of noting the absolute months, as related to the
seasonal periods, became a necessity; and, of course, the
place of the sun among the stars most truly shows the exact
length of the year. But how to observe both sun and stars,
when without any mode of time-dividing,—such as clepsydra or
clock,—was an essential difficulty. This was got over by
noting on what day a particular star could be first seen, at
its emerging from the glow of the sunlight. In actual practice
they observed Sirius (or Sothis), the dog-star; and as the
stars all rise and set earlier and earlier every night, they
observed what was the first night in the year on which Sirius
could just be seen emerging from the glow of sunlight at dawn,
and this was entitled the heliacal rising. Hence, from using
Sothis for this observation, the whole period during which the
months rotated in the seasons was called the Sothic period of
1,460 years. We have some definite statements as to this in
Roman times. Censorinus, writing in 239 A. D., states that the
Egyptian New Year's day, 1st of Thoth, fell on the 25th of
June; and a hundred years before, in 139 A. D., it fell on the
21st July, 'on which day Sirius regularly rises in Egypt.'
Hence the beginning of a Sothic period of 1,460 years, or the
New Year's day falling on the 21st of July at the heliacal
rising of Sirius, took place in 139 A. D.; likewise in 1322 B.
C., in 2784 B. C., and in 4242 B. C., or thereabouts. From
this it is plain, that, as the nominal months rotated round
all the seasons once In each of these cycles, therefore, if we
only know the day of the nominal month in which any seasonal
event happened,—such as the rising of Sirius, or the
inundation,—we can find on what part of the cycle of 1,460
years such a coincidence can have fallen. It is from data such
as this that Mahler has lately calculated, by the rising of
Sirius, and also the new moons, that Tahutmes III. reigned
from 20th March 1503 B. C., to 14th February 1449. … Merenptah
celebrated in the second year of his reign a festival of the
rising of Sirius on the 29th of the month Thoth. Mahler has
fixed the rising of Sirius, recorded on 28th Epiphi under
Tahutmes III., as in 1470 B. C. From 28th Epiphi to 29th Thoth
is 66 days, which the heliacal rising would change to in the
course of 4 x 66 years, or 264 years. This, from 1470, gives
1206 B. C. for the second year of Merenptah, or 1208 B. C. for
his accession, which is just the date we have reached by the
approximate summing of the reigns. Another datum on the other
side is the calendar of the Ebers papyrus, which records the
rising of Sirius on the 9th of Epiphi in the ninth year of
Amenhotep I. The reading of the king's name has been much
debated; but this is the last, and probable, conclusion. Now,
from the 28th to the 9th of Epiphi is 19 days, which Sirius
would change through in 76 years; so that the rising on the
9th of Epiphi took place in 1470+76 = 1546 B. C.; and the
first year of Amenhotep I. would be thus fixed in 1555 B. C.
The date before reached is 1562 B. C., equal to a difference
of less than 2 days in the time of Sirius' rising. This, at
least, shows that there is no great discrepancy. Thus there
are three data for the rising of Sirius, which agree within a
few years, though at considerably different epochs. … We …
have as a starting-point for our backward reckoning the
accession of the XVIIIth dynasty about 1587 B. C. From this we
can reckon in the dynastic data given by Manetho; following
this account rather than the totals of reigns, as he appears
to have omitted periods when dynasties were contemporary, as
in the 43 years for the XIth after the close of the Xth. Thus,
from the above starting-point of 1587 B. C., we reach the
following results, solely by using material which has been
discussed and settled in this history on its own merits alone,
and without any ulterior reckoning in total periods.
Dynasty Years. B. C.
I. 263 4777
II. 302 4514
III. 214 4212
IV. 277 3998
V. 218 3721
VI. 181 (T. P.) 3503
VII. 70 3322
VIII. 146 3252
IX. 100 3106
X. 185 3006
XI. 43 2821
XII. 213 (T. P.) 2778
XIII. 453 2565
XIV. 184 2112
XVI. 190 1928
XVII. 151 1738
XVIII. 260 1587
XIX. 1327
… In the present rough state of the astronomical data, and the
doubts as to the MS. authorities, we have reached quite as
close an equivalence as we may hope for; and at least there is
enough to show us that we may trust to the nearest century
with fair grounds of belief. These dates then, are what I have
provisionally adopted in this history; and though they are
stated to the nearest year, for the sake of intercomparison,
it must always be remembered that they only profess to go
within a century in the earlier parts of the scale."
_W. M. Flinders Petrie,
A History of Egypt from the Earliest Times
to the XVIth Dynasty,
chapter 11._
EGYPT.
Commerce.
See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE: THE EARLIEST RECORDS,
and EGYPT.
EGYPT.
Medical Science, Ancient.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE (page 2120).
EGYPT.
Money and banking.
See MONEY AND BANKING (page 2199).
EJECTMENT, Action of.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1499 (page 1966).
ELDON, Lord, and the rules of Equity.
See LAW, EQUITY: A. D. 1801-1827 (page 1993).
ELECTOR, The Great.
See (in this Supplement) GERMANY: A. D. 1618-1700;
also page 309.
ELECTORS, Rise of the German College of.
See (in this Supplement) GERMANY: A. D. 1175-1272.
EMIGRES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1789 (JULY-AUGUST), (AUGUST-OCTOBER),
and 1781-1791 (pages 1264, 1265, and 1268).
EMPLOYER'S LIABILITY.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1837 (page 1977).
ENGLAND: Outline sketch of general history.
See EUROPE (page 1014, and after).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1622.
First printed newspaper publication.
See PRINTING AND PRESS: A. D. 1622-1702 (page 2593).
{3744}
ENGLAND: A. D. 1702.
First daily newspaper publication.
See PRINTING AND PRESS: A. D. 1622-1702 (page 2594).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1844.
The Bank Charter Act.
See MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1844 (page 2216).
ENGLAND: A. D. 1881-1882.
The Irish Coercion Bill and Land Act.
Arrest of Irish leaders.
Alleged Kilmainham Treaty and release of Mr. Parnell and others.
See IRELAND: A. D. 1881-1882 (page 1797).
ENGLAND:
Commerce.
See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE, MEDIÆVAL, and MODERN.
ENGLAND:
Libraries.
See LIBRARIES, MODERN (page 2014).
ENGLAND:
Possessions in Africa.
See (in this Supplement) AFRICA.
ENGLAND, Bank of.
See MONEY AND BANKING (page 2209).
EQUITY.
See LAW, EQUITY (page 1988).
ERITREA, The Italian colony of.
See (in this Supplement) AFRICA: 1890-1801.
ESSENES, The.
"Apart from the great high road of Jewish life, there lived in
Palestine in the time of Christ a religious community which,
though it grew up on Jewish soil, differed essentially in many
points from traditional Judaism, and which, though it
exercised no powerful influence upon the development of the
people, deserves our attention as a peculiar problem in the
history of religion. This community, the Essenes or Essaeans,
is generally, after the precedent of Josephus, placed beside
the Pharisees and Sadducees as the third Jewish sect. But it
scarcely needs the remark, that we have here to deal with a
phenomenon of an entirely different kind. While the Pharisees
and Sadducees were large political and religious parties, the
Essenes might far rather be compared to a monastic order.
There is indeed much that is enigmatical in them as to
particulars. Even their name is obscure. … The origin of the
Essenes is as obscure as their name. Josephus first mentions
them in the time of Jonathan the Maccabee, about 150 B. C.,
and speaks expressly of one Judas an Essene in the time of
Aristobulus I. (105-104 B. C.). According to this, the origin
of the order would have to be placed in the second century
before Christ. But it is questionable whether they proceeded
simply from Judaism, or whether foreign and especially
Hellenistic elements had not also an influence in their
organization. … Philo and Josephus agree in estimating the
number of the Essenes in their time at above 4,000. As far as
is known, they lived only in Palestine, at least there are no
certain traces of their occurrence out of Palestine. … For the
sake of living as a community, they had special houses of the
order in which they dwelt together. Their whole community was
most strictly organized as a single body. … The strongest tie
by which the members were united was absolute community of
goods. 'The community among them is wonderful [says Josephus],
one does not find that one possesses more than another. For it
is the law, that those who enter deliver up their property to
the order, so that there is nowhere to be seen, either the
humiliation of poverty or the superfluity of wealth, but on
the contrary one property for all as brethren, formed by the
collection of the possessions of individuals.' 'They neither
buy nor sell among each other; but while one gives to another
what he wants, he receives in return what is useful to
himself, and without anything in return they receive freely
whatever they want.' … 'There is but one purse for all, and
common expenses, common clothes and common food in common
meals. For community of dwelling, of life and of meals is
nowhere so firmly established and so developed as with them.
And this is intelligible. For what they receive daily as wages
for their labour, they do not keep for themselves, but put it
together, and thus make the profits of their work common for
those who desire to make use of it. And the sick are without
anxiety on account of their inability to earn, because the
common purse is in readiness for the care of them, and they
may with all certainty meet their expenses from abundant
stores.' … The daily labour of the Essenes was under strict
regulation. It began with prayer, after which the members were
dismissed to their work by the presidents. They reassembled
for purifying ablutions, which were followed by the common
meal. After this they again went to work, to assemble again
for their evening meal. The chief employment of members of the
order was agriculture. They likewise carried on, however,
crafts of every kind. On the other hand, trading was forbidden
as leading to covetousness, and also the making of weapons or
of any kind of utensils that might injure men. … The Essenes
are described by both Philo and Josephus as very connoisseurs
in morality. … Their life was abstemious, simple and
unpretending. 'They condemn sensual desires as sinful, and
esteem moderation and freedom from passion as of the nature of
virtue.' They only take food and drink till they have had
enough; abstaining from passionate excitement, they are 'just
dispensers of wrath.' At their meals they are 'contented with
the same dish day by day, loving sufficiency and rejecting
great expense as harmful to mind and body.' … There is not a
slave among them, but all are free, mutually working for each
other. All that they say is more certain than an oath. They
forbid swearing, because it is worse than perjury. … Before
every meal they bathe in cold water. They do the same after
performing the functions of nature. … They esteem it seemly to
wear white raiment at all times. … They entirely condemned
marriage. Josephus indeed knew of a branch of the Essenes who
permitted marriage. But these must at all events have formed a
small minority. … A chief peculiarity of the Essenes was their
common meals, which bore the character of sacrificial feasts.
The food was prepared by priests, with the observance probably
of certain rites of purification; for an Essene was not
permitted to partake of any other food than this. … In their
worship, as well as in that of other Jews, the Holy Scriptures
were read and explained; and Philo remarks, that they
specially delighted in allegorical interpretation. They were
extraordinarily strict in the celebration of the Sabbath. They
did not venture on that day to move a vessel from its place,
nor even to perform the functions of nature. In other respects
too they showed themselves to be Jews. Though they were
excluded from the temple they sent gifts of incense there. …
Concerning their doctrine of the soul and of its immortality,
Josephus expresses himself most fully.
{3745}
If we may trust his account, they taught that bodies are
perishable, but souls immortal, and that the latter dwelt
originally in the subtlest aether, but being debased by
sensual pleasures united themselves with bodies as with
prisons; but when they are freed from the fetters of sense
they will joyfully soar on high, as if delivered from long
bondage. To the good (souls) is appointed a life beyond the
ocean. … But to the bad (souls) is appointed a dark cold
region full of unceasing torment."
_E. Schürer,
A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ,
volume 2, pages 190-205._
EXEMPTION LAWS.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1836 (page 1977).
EXPLORATION, African and Arctic.
For a complete chronological record.
See (in this Supplement) AFRICA; and ARCTIC EXPLORATION.
F.
FAMILISTÈRE OF M. GODIN, The.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1859-1887 (page 2947).
FAURE, François Felix.
Election to the Presidency of the French Republic.
See (in this Supplement) FRANCE: A. D. 1894-1895.
FEDERALIST SECESSION MOVEMENT.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1803-1804 (page 3329).
FEUDAL AIDS.
"In theory the duty of the noble vassal towards his lord was a
purely personal one and to commute it for a money payment was
a degradation of the whole feudal relation. The payment of
money, especially if it were a fixed and regular payment,
carried with it a certain ignoble idea against which, in the
form of state taxation, the feudal spirit rebelled to the
last. When the vassal agreed to pay something to his lord, he
called it, not a tax, but an 'aid' (auxilium), and made it
generally payable, not regularly, like the tax-bill of the
citizen, but only upon certain occasions—a present, as it
were, coming out of his good-will and not from compulsion; e.
g., whenever a fief was newly granted, when it changed its
lord, and sometimes when it changed its vassal, it was from
the beginning customary to acknowledge the investiture by a
small gift to the lord, primarily as a symbol of the grant;
then, as the institution grew and manners became more
luxurious, the gift increased in value and was thought of as
an actual price for the investiture, until finally, at the
close of our period, it suffered the fate of all similar
contributions and was changed into a definite money payment,
still retaining, however, its early name of 'relief.' … The
occasions for levying the aids were various but always, in
theory, of an exceptional sort. The journey of a lord to the
court of his suzerain, or to Rome, or to join a crusade, the
knighting of his eldest son, the marriage of his eldest
daughter and his ransom from imprisonment are among the most
frequent of the feudal 'aids.' The right of the lord to be
entertained and provisioned, together with all his following,
was one of the most burdensome and, at the same time, most
difficult to regulate. Its conversion into a money-tax was,
perhaps for this reason, earlier than that of many other of
the feudal contributions."
_E. Emerton,
Mediaeval Europe,
chapter 14._
FEUDAL SYSTEM: Origin.
"The 'benefice,' … emerges from the struggles of the eighth
century as a form of grant originated by the ruling house and
remaining at its disposal. It was a form of grant which was at
all times revocable and which would thus necessarily prompt
the grantee to avoid any act which could displease the
sovereign. It entailed the reversion of the benefice at the
death of the grantee as well as of the person granting. The
benefice … was now chiefly made use of by the Carolingians of
the 8th century to win the military aid of the nobles against
internal and external enemies and especially against the
Saracens. Army commanders and counts or other important
officials would receive wide stretches of ecclesiastical or
royal land. They would organize these into 'manors,' would
collect a large 'following,' and would call in free tenants to
do service in their armies in return for their protection.
Thus they themselves became the stays and props of the new
form of government. As the reorganization of the military
forces went on this process was repeated more and more often,
and as a matter of course the same vital principles which
these holders had carried through with regard to those under
them came to be applied to their own position as regarded
their military duties to the king: namely that they should
become vassals. This accordingly happened. The vassal system
and the benefice system blended together into a new form of
actual and personal union of the nobles with the crown. In
receiving a benefice they swore to the king the special oath
of fidelity of the 'following'; this fidelity on the other
hand seemed assured through the power of the king to revoke
the benefice. Quickly enough did this connection of the vassal
system and the benefice system, which is commonly called
vassalism, become so common that it began to extend downwards
also. It had already become usual for rich landholders no
longer, in the old Germanic manner, to provide for all their
vassals at their own court, but to provide sustenance for them
in various other ways—notably by granting them estates. Now,
after the royal model, it came to be the custom to grant
benefices and thus to found personal responsibilities. The
results of this development were extraordinary. If on the one
hand, in spite of all Charles the Great's measures to the
contrary, the old army organization based on the service of
all freemen fell into decay and the contingents from the land
holders began to constitute the great mass of the army: on the
other hand the bond of vassalism with its different variations
became of prime importance for the administration of the land.
No longer did the king by virtue of his royal ban or
jurisdiction issue his commands to all freemen in common. He
issued his commands to the nobles and they by virtue of their
feudal prerogatives commanded the vassals who were subject to
them. The evenly distributed mass of freemen subject to
military duty had vanished; a high-towering structure of those
bound in vassalage had taken its place. The military
organization had assumed its position under the banner of the
feudal state. The administration, too, was soon to be
undermined by the system of vassalage and to change its
structure from the very foundation."
_Lamprecht,
Deutsche Geschichte,
volume 2, pages 104-105._
{3746}
"The latest investigations of Brunner … have established the
proof that feudalism originated in consequence of the
introduction of cavalry service into the military system of
the Frankish kingdom and that it retained its original
character until well on towards the close of the Middle Ages.
The Franks like the Lombards learned the use of cavalry from
the Moors or Saracens. Charles Martel was led by his
experiences after the battle of Poictiers to the conclusion
that only with the help of mounted armies could these enemies
be opposed with lasting success. It was between 732 and 758
that the introduction of cavalry service into the Frankish
army took place; it had hitherto consisted mainly of infantry.
The attempt was first made, and with marked success, in
Aquitaine and Septimania; almost contemporaneously also among
the Lombards. In order to place the secular nobles in
condition to fit out larger masses of cavalry a forced loan
from the church was carried through by Charles Martel and his
sons, it being under the latter that the matter was first
placed upon a legal footing. The nobles received
ecclesiastical benefices from the crown and regranted them in
the way of sub-loans. The custom of having a 'following' and
the old existing relationships of a vassal to his lord
furnished a model for the responsibilities of those receiving
benefices at first and at second hand. The secular nobles
became thus at once vassals of the crown and lords (seigneurs)
of those to whom they themselves in turn made grants. The duty
of the vassals to do cavalry service was based on the
'commendation': their fief was not the condition of their
doing service but their reward for it. Hence the custom of
denominating the fief (Lehn) as a 'fee' (feudum)—a designation
which was first applied in southern France, and which in
Germany, occasionally in the eleventh and ever more frequently
in the twelfth century, is used side by side with the older
term 'benefice,' until in the course of the first half of the
13th century it completely displaces it. With the further
development of cavalry service that of the feudal system kept
regular pace. Already in the later Carolingian period Lorraine
and Burgundy followed southern France and Italy in becoming
feudalized states. To the east of the Rhine on the contrary
the most flourishing time of cavalry service and of the feudal
system falls in the time of the Hohenstaufens, having
undoubtedly been furthered by the crusades. Here even as late
as the middle of the twelfth century the horsemen preferred
dismounting and fighting with the sword because they could not
yet manage their steeds and the regular cavalry weapons, the
shield and the spear, like their western neighbors. But never
in Germany did feudalism make its way into daily life as far
as it did in France where the maxim held true: 'nulle terre
sans seigneur.' There never was here a lack of considerable
allodial possessions, although occasionally, out of respect
for the feudal theory, these were put down as 'fiefs of the
sun.' The principle, too, was firmly maintained that a fief
granted from one's own property was no true fief; for so
thoroughly was feudal law the law governing the realm that a
true fief could only be founded on the fief above it, in such
manner that the king was always the highest feudal lord. That
was the reason why a fief without homage, that is, without the
relationship of vassalage and the need of doing military
service for the state, could not be looked upon as a true
fief. The knight's fee only (feudum militare) was such, and
only a man of knightly character, who united a knightly manner
of living with knightly pedigree, was 'perfect in feudal
law,'—in possession, namely, of full feudal rights or of the
'Heerschild.' Whether or not he had been personally dubbed
knight made no difference; the fief of a man who was still a
squire was also a true fief. … The object of the feudal grant
could be anything which assured a regular
emolument,—especially land, tithes, rents and other sources of
income, tolls and jurisdictions, churches and monasteries;_
above all, offices of state. In course of time the earlier
distinction between the office and the fief which was meant to
go with the office ceased to be made. … The formal course of
procedure when granting was a combination, exactly on the old
plan, of the act of commendation, now called Hulde, which was
the basis of vassalage, and the act of conferring
(investiture) which established the real right of the man to
the fief. … The Hulde consisted in giving the hand (=the
performing of mannschaft, homagium, hominium, Hulde) often
combined with the giving of a kiss and the taking of an oath
(the swearing of fidelitas or Hulde) by which the man swore to
be 'true, loyal and willing' as regarded his lord. The custom
earlier connected with commendation of presenting a weapon had
lost its former significance and had become merged in the
ceremony of investiture: the weapon had become a symbol of
investiture. … These symbols of investiture were in part the
same as in territorial law: the glove, the hat, the cape, the
staff, the twig; occasionally probably also a ring, but quite
especially the sword or spear. As regarded the principalities
it had quite early become the custom to fasten a banner on the
end of the spear in token of the royal rights of supremacy
that were to be conferred. Thus the banner became the sole
symbol of investiture in the granting of secular
principalities and the latter themselves came to be called
'banner fiefs.' The installation of the ecclesiastical princes
by the king took place originally without any distinction
being made between the office and the appanage of the office.
It was done by conferring the pastoral staff (ferula, virga
pastoralis) of the former bishop or abbot; in the case of
bishops since the time of Henry III by handing the ring and
crosier. In the course of the struggle concerning the
ecclesiastical investitures both sides came to the conviction
that a distinction could be made between the appanaging of the
church with secular estates and jurisdictions on the one hand,
and the office itself and the immediate appurtenances of the
church—the so-called 'sacred objects' on the other. A union
was arrived at in the Concordat of Worms which provided that
for the granting of the former (the so-called Regalia) the
secular symbol of the sceptre might replace the purely
ecclesiastical symbols. As this custom was retained even after
the incorporation of the ecclesiastical principalities in the
feudalized state-system the ecclesiastical principalities, as
opposed to the secular banner-fiefs, were distinguished as
'sceptre-fiefs.'"
_Schröder,
Lehrbuch der deutschen Rechtsgeschichte (1889),
pages 381-388._
{3747}
"By the time at which we have arrived (the Hohenstaufen
Period) the knights themselves, 'ordo equestris major:' had
come to form a class so distinct and so exclusive that no
outsiders could enter it except in the course of three
generations or by special decree of the king. Only to those
whose fathers and grandfathers were of knightly origin could
fiefs now be granted; only such could engage in judicial
combat, in knightly sports and, above all, in the tournament
or joust. … Feudalism did much to awaken a moral sentiment:
fidelity, truth and sincerity were the suppositions upon which
the whole system rested, and a great solidarity of interests
came to exist between the lord and his vassals. The latter
might bring no public charges against their master in matters
affecting his life, limb or honor; on three grand occasions,
in case of captivity, the knighting of his son, the marriage
of his daughter, they were obliged to furnish him with
pecuniary aid. Knightly honor and knightly graces come in the
twelfth century to be a matter of fashion and custom; a new
and important element, too, the adoration of woman, is
introduced. A whole literature arises that has to do almost
exclusively with knightly prowess and with knightly love.
Altogether we see the dawn of a new social life."
_E. F. Henderson,
A History of Germany in the Middle Ages,
page 424-425._
See, also, FEUDALISM (page 1117);
and EUROPE (pages 1019-1020).
FIELD, Cyrus, and the ocean telegraph.
See ELECTRICAL DISCOVERY AND INVENTION:
A. D. 1854-1866 (page 776).
FINNISH POPULAR POETRY.
See KALEVALA (page 1935).
_John Martin Crawford,
Kalevala,
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5186
One of several versions._
FLEMINGS, Commerce of the.
See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE, MEDIÆVAL.
FLORENTINE BANKERS AND MONEY CHANGERS.
See MONEY AND BANKING (pages 2205 and 2206).
FORMOSA.
"Formosa, or Taiwan, as it is called by the Chinese, is about
400 miles south of the mouth of the Yang-tse, and 100 from the
mainland of China. It lies between 25° 20' and 21° 50' north
latitude, is nearly 240 miles long, by an average of 75 miles
wide, and has an area of about 12,000 square miles. It is
remarkable for its beauty and fertility, and also for the
variety of its products. It was formerly attached to the
province of Fohkien, and governed by a resident commissioner;
but since the Franco-Chinese War, during which the French,
under Admiral Courbet, were foiled in their efforts to take
possession of it, it has been erected into an independent
province by imperial decree, and is now [1887] governed by Liu
Ming-Ch'uan, an able and progressive man, with the title and
almost unlimited authority of governor-general. The island was
once in the possession of the Spaniards, who called it Formosa
(beautiful), but did not colonize it. It then passed into the
hands of the Dutch, who built Fort Zealandia, and established
a trading-post on the southwest coast, near the present city
of Taiwan-fu, and another known as the Red Fort, at Tamsui, on
the northwest coast. But the Dutch in turn abandoned the
island about the year 1660, immediately after which it was
occupied and colonized by the Chinese from Amoy and other
points on the coast of Fohkien. The population is now
estimated by the governor-general at 4,000,000 Chinese and
60,000 savages, but the first figures are doubtless much too
large. The savages are a fine race of men of the Malay or
Polynesian type, who hold nearly all the east coast and the
mountain region, covering over one half the island. They live
mostly by hunting and fishing, or upon the natural products of
the forest, and cultivate but little land. They wear scarcely
any clothing, use bows, arrows, and knives, together with a
few old-fashioned matchlocks, and yet withal they have up to
the present time successfully resisted all efforts to
subjugate them or to take possession of their fastnesses. They
are brave, fierce, and active, but have made scarcely any
progress in the arts of civilization. They are naturally kind
and hospitable to Europeans, but look upon the Chinese as
their deadly enemies."
_J. H. Wilson,
China,
chapter 18._
In 1874, in order to obtain redress for a murder of Japanese
sailors by savages on the eastern coast of Formosa, the
Japanese Government undertook to take possession of the
southern part of Formosa, "asserting that it did not belong to
China because she either would not or could not govern its
savage inhabitants. … The expedition was called a High
Commission, accompanied by a force sufficient for its
protection, sent to aboriginal Formosa to inquire into the
murder of fifty-four Japanese subjects, and take steps to
prevent the recurrence of such atrocities. A proclamation was
issued April 17, 1874, and another May 19th, stating that
General Saigo was directed to call to an account the persons
guilty of outrages on Japanese subjects. As he knew that China
was not prepared to resist his landing at Liang-kiao, his
chief business was to provide means to house and feed the
soldiers under his command. The Japanese authorities do not
appear very creditably in this affair. No sooner did they
discover the wild and barren nature of this unknown region
than they seemed fain to beat an incontinent and hasty
retreat, nor did the troops landed there stand upon the order
of their going. … The aborigines having fled south after the
first rencontre, the Japanese leader employed his men as best
he could in opening roads through the jungle and erecting
houses. Meanwhile the Peking authorities were making
preparations for the coming struggle, and though they moved
slowly they were much in earnest to protect their territory.
General Shin Pao-chin having been invested with full powers to
direct operations against the Japanese forces, began at once
to draw together men and vessels in Fuhchau and Amoy. The
Japanese consuls at Amoy and Shanghai were allowed to remain
at their posts; and during the year two envoys arrived at
Pelting to treat with the Court. … The probabilities were
strong against any settlement, when the parties were induced
to arrange their quarrel by the intervention and wise counsel
of Sir T. F. Wade, the British minister. The Japanese accepted
500,000 taels for their outlays in Formosa for roads, houses,
and defences; agreeing thereupon to retire and leave the
further punishment of the aborigines to the Chinese
authorities. The two envoys left Peking, and this attempt at
war was happily frustrated. … The civilization of all parts of
Formosa has since rapidly advanced by the extension of tea and
sugar culture, the establishment of Christian missions, and
the better treatment of the native tribes."
_S. W. Williams,
The Middle Kingdom,
chapter 26 (volume 2)._
FOURIER AND FOURIERISM.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1832-1847,
and 1841-1847 (pages 2939 and 2943).
{3748}
----------FRANCE: Start--------
FRANCE:
Outline Sketch of general history.
See EUROPE (page 1015. and after).
FRANCE: 1ST-5TH CENTURIES.
The early routes and marts of trade.
See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE, ANCIENT.
FRANCE: 12TH-13TH CENTURIES.
Rise of the Privileged Bourgeoisies and the Communes.
The double movement of Urban Emancipation.
"The 12th and 13th centuries saw the production of that
marvelous movement of emancipation which gave liberty to
serfs, created privileged bourgeoisies and independent
communes, caused new cities and fortresses to issue from the
earth, freed the corporations of merchants and artisans, in a
word placed at the first stroke, beside royalty, feudality and
the church, a fourth social force destined to absorb one day
the three others. While the cultivator of the soil passed by
enfranchisement from the category of things sold or given away
into that of the free people (the only ambition permitted to
the defenseless unfortunates who inhabited isolated farms or
unwalled villages), the population grouped in the urban
centers tried to limit or at least to regulate the intolerable
exploitation of which it was the object. The bourgeois, that
is to say the inhabitants of walled cities, born under the
shelter of a donjon or au abbey, and the citoyens of the
ancient episcopal cities, rivaled each other in efforts to
obtain from the seigneurial power a condition more endurable
in point of taxation, and the suppression of the most
embarrassing hindrances to their commerce and manufactures.
These inhabitants of towns and cities constituted, if only by
being grouped together, a force with which feudality was very
soon obliged to reckon. Divided, besides, into merchants'
societies and companies of workmen they found within
themselves the germ of organization which permitted collective
resistance. The seigneur, intimidated, won by an offer of
money, or decided by the thought that his domination would be
more lucrative if the city became more prosperous, made the
concessions which were asked of him. Thanks to a favorable
concurrence of circumstances, charters of franchises were
multiplied in all parts of France. At the end of the 12th
century, the national territory, in the north as well as the
south, was covered with these privileged cities or
bourgeoisies, which, while remaining administered, judicially
and politically, by seigneurial officers, had acquired, in
matters financial, commercial and industrial, the liberties
necessary to their free development. Feudality very soon found
such an advantage in regulating thus the exploitation of the
bourgeois, that it took the initiative itself in creating, in
the uninhabited parts of its domains, privileged cities,
complete in all their parts, designed to become so many
centers of attraction for foreigners. It is the innumerable
bourgeoisies and 'villes neuves' which represent the normal
form of urban emancipation. Certain centers of population
obtained at the first stroke the most extensive civil and
financial liberties; but, in the majority of cases, the
bourgeois could win their franchises only bit by bit, at the
price of heavy pecuniary sacrifices, or as the result of an
admirable perseverance in watching for opportunities and
seizing them. The history of the privileged cities, whose
principal virtue was a long patience, offers nothing moving or
dramatic. … But the spectacle of these laborious masses
persisting, in obscurity and silence, in the demand for their
right to security and well-being, does not the less merit all
our attention. What forces itself upon the meditations of the
historian, in the domain of municipal institutions, is just
the progress slow and obscure, but certain, of the dependent
bourgeoisie. … The development of the seigneurial cities
offers such a variety of aspects, their progressive and
regular conquests were so important in the constitution of our
rights public and private, that too much care and effort
cannot be devoted to retracing minutely their course. This
history is more than any other that of the origin of our third
estate. It was in the privileged cities, to which the great
majority of the urban population belonged, that it began its
political education. The city charters constituted the durable
lower stratum of its first liberties. In other words the third
estate did not issue suddenly from the more or less
revolutionary movement which gave birth to the independent
communes: it owes its formation and its progress above all to
this double pacific evolution: the possessors of fiefs
enfranchising their bourgeoisie and the latter passing little
by little entirely from the seigneurial government under that
of royalty. This was not the opinion which prevailed at the
time when the founder of the science of municipal
institutions, Augustin Thierry, published in the 'Courrier
Français' his admirable 'Lettres ' on the revolutions of the
communes. The commune, a city dowered with judicial and
political privileges, which conferred upon it a certain
independence, administered by its elected magistrates, proud
of its fortified inclosure, of its belfry, of its militia,—the
commune passed at that time as the pre-eminent type of the
free city of the middle ages. That great movement of urban and
rural emancipation which stirred the France of the 12th
century to its very depths was personified in it. So the
commune concentrated historical interest upon itself, leaving
in the shade all other forms of popular evolution. Guizot, who
had the sense of truth rather than that of the picturesque,
tried to combat this exclusive tendency. In the brilliant
lessons that he gave at the Sorbonne on the history of the
origins of the third estate, he showed, with his customary
clearness, that the development of the bourgeois class was not
accomplished by any single method; that the progress realized
in the cities where the communal regime had never succeeded in
establishing itself must also be taken into account. The
impression left by the highly colored and dramatic recitals of
Augustin Thierry remained for a long time the stronger. …
Contemporary science has not only assigned to itself the
mission of completing the work of the historians of the
Restoration: it has desired also to improve it by rectifying,
upon many points, the exaggerated opinions and false judgments
of which the history of our urban institutions was at first
the victim. It has been perceived that the communal movement
properly so called did not have, upon the destinies of the
popular class, the decisive, preponderant influence which was
attributed to it 'a priori.' The commune, a brilliant but
ephemeral form of the emancipation of the bourgeoisie, has
been set back little by little into its true place.
{3749}
It is now no longer regarded as an essential manifestation of
our first democratic aspirations. One might be tempted to see
on the contrary, in that collective seigneury, often hostile
to the other social elements, impregnated with the spirit of
'particularisme,' made for war and agitated without cessation
by warlike passions, an original but tardy product of the
feudal principle. … We must be resigned to a fact in regard to
which nothing can be done: the absence of documents relative
to the municipal constitution of cities and towns during four
hundred years, from the 7th century to the 11th. From all
appearances, this enormous hiatus will never be overcome. …
Facts being lacking, scholars have had recourse to conjecture.
Some among them have supposed that the principal
characteristics of the Gallo-Roman municipalities were
perpetuated during this period. At bottom, their hypothesis
rests principally upon analogies of names. … From the point of
view of positive science, the Germanic origin of the communes
is not more easy of demonstration. … It is even doubtful
whether the essential element of the communal institution, the
confederation formed by the inhabitants, under the guaranty of
the mutual oath, belongs exclusively to the customs of the
Germans. The theory of Augustin Thierry, which made of the
commune a special application of the Scandinavian gilde, has
been judged too narrow by contemporary scholars. They have
reproached him with reason for having localized an institution
which belongs entirely to the Germanic race. But the principle
of association, applied in the cities, is not a fact purely
German. … Association is a fact which is neither Germanic nor
Roman; it is universal, and is produced spontaneously among
all peoples, in all social classes, when circumstances exact
and favor its appearance. The communal revolution then is a
national event. The commune was born, like other forms of
popular emancipation, from the need which the inhabitants of
the cities had of substituting a limited and regulated
exploitation for the arbitrary exploitation of which they were
the victims. Such is the point of departure of the
institution. We must always return to the definition of it
given by Guibert de Nogent. It is true as a basis, although it
does not embrace all the characteristics of the object
defined: 'Commune! new name, detestable name! By it the
censitaires are freed from all service in consideration of a
simple annual tax; by it they are condemned, for the
infraction of the law, only to a penalty legally determined;
by it, they cease to be subjected to the other pecuniary
charges by which the serfs are overwhelmed.' At certain
points, this limitation of the seigneurial power was made
amicably, by pacific transaction between the seigneur and his
bourgeois. Elsewhere, an insurrection, more or less prolonged,
was necessary in order to establish it. When this popular
movement had as a result, not only the assuring to the people
the most necessary liberties which were demanded, but besides
that of abating to their advantage the political position of
the master, by taking from him a part of his seigneurial
prerogatives, there arose not only a free city, but a commune,
a bourgeois seigneury, invested with a certain political and
judicial power. This definition of the commune implies that
originally it was not possible to establish it otherwise than
by a pressure exerted, more or less violently, upon the
seigneurial authority. We have the direct proof of it for some
of our free municipalities, but it is presumable that many
other communes whose primitive history we do not know have
owed equally to force the winning of their first liberties. …
We do not mean that, in the first period of the history of
urban emancipation, all the communes, without exception, were
obliged to pass through the phase of insurrection or of open
resistance. There were some which profited (as the cities of
the Flemish region in 1127) by a combination of exceptional
circumstances to attain political liberty without striking a
blow. Among these circumstances must be mentioned in the first
rank the prolonged vacancy of an episcopal see and the
disappearance of a laic lord, dead without direct heir,
leaving a succession disputed by numerous competitors. But,
ordinarily, the accession of the bourgeoisie to the rank of
political power did not take place pacifically. Either the
seigneur struggled against his rebellious subjects, or he
feared the struggle and bent before the accomplished fact. In
all cases it was necessary that the people were conscious of
their power and imposed their will. This is proven by the
dramatic episodes which the narrations of Augustin Thierry
have forever rendered celebrated. … Later, in the decline of
the 12th century, it must be recognized that the opinion of
the dominant class ceased to be as hostile to the communes.
When the conviction had been acquired that the popular
movement was irresistible, it was tolerated; the best means
even were sought to derive advantage from it. The Church
always remained upon the defensive; but the king and the great
feudal lords perceived that in certain respects the commune
might be a useful instrument. They accepted then the communal
organization, and they even came to create it where it was not
spontaneously established. But it is easy to convince one's
self that the communes of this category, those which owe their
creation to the connivance or even to the initiative of the
seigneur, did not possess the same degree of independence as
the communes of the primitive epoch, founded by insurrection.
On the whole, the communal revolution was only one of the
aspects of the vast movement of political and social reaction
which the excesses of the feudal regime engendered everywhere
from the 11th to the 14th century. … One would like to possess
the text of one of those oaths by which the bourgeois of the
northern communes bound themselves together, for the first
time, with or without the consent of their seigneur, in the
most ancient period of the communal evolution. It would be of
the highest interest for the historian to know how they set
about it, what words were pronounced to form what the
contemporary writers called a 'conjuration,' a 'conspiration,'
a 'confederation.' No document of this nature and of that
primitive epoch has come down to us. … The sum total of the
sworn bourgeois constituted the commune. The commune was most
often called 'communia,' but also, with varying termination,
'communa,' 'communio,' 'communitas.'
{3750}
Properly speaking and especially with reference to the origin,
the name commune was given not to the city, but to the
association of the inhabitants who had taken oath. For this
reason also the expression 'commune jurée' was used. Later the
acceptation of the word was enlarged; it designated the city
itself, considered as a geographical unit. … The members of
the commune, those who formed part of the sworn association,
were properly called 'the sworn of the commune,' 'jurati
communie,' or, by abridgment, 'the sworn,' 'jurati.' They were
designated also by the expression: 'the men of the commune,'
or, 'those who belong to the commune,' 'qui sunt de communia.'
They were also entitled 'bourgeois,' 'burgenses,' more rarely
'bourgeois jurés'; sometimes also 'voisins,' 'vicini,' or even
'friends,' 'amici.' … We are far from having complete light on
the question as to what conditions were exacted from those who
entered the communal association, and to what classes of
persons the access to the bourgeoisie was open or interdicted.
The variety of local usages, and above all the impossibility
of finding texts which apply to the most ancient period of
urban emancipation, will always embarrass the historian. To
find upon these matters clear documents, developed and
precise, we must come down, generally, to the end of the 18th
century or even to the century following, that is to say to
the epoch of the decadence of the communal regime. … The
bourgeois could not be diseased, that is to say, undoubtedly,
tainted with an incurable malady and especially a contagious
malady, as leprosy. … The communal law excluded also bastards.
On this point it was in accord with the customary law of a
very great number of French regions. … They refused also to
receive into their number inhabitants encumbered with debts.
The condition of debtor constituted in effect a kind of
servitude. He no longer belonged to himself; his goods might
become the property of the creditor, and he could be
imprisoned. … With still more reason does it appear
inadmissible that the serf should be called to benefit by the
commune. The question of urban serfdom, in its relations with
the communal institution, is extremely obscure, delicate and
complex. There are however two facts in regard to which
affirmation is allowable. It cannot be doubted that at the
epoch of the formation of the communes, at the opening of the
12th century, there were no longer any serfs in many of the
urban centers. It may be held also as certain that the desire
to bring about the disappearance of this serfdom was one of
the principal motives which urged the inhabitants to claim
their independence. … The inhabitant who united all the
conditions legally required for admission to the bourgeoisie
was besides obliged to pay a town-due, ('droit d'entrée'). …
If it was not always easy to enter a communal body, neither
could one leave it as easily as might have been desired. The
'issue de commune' exacted the performance of a certain number
of troublesome formalities. … So, it was necessary to pay to
become a communist, and to pay yet more in order to cease to
be one. The bourgeois was riveted to his bourgeoisie. … Up to
this point we have examined only half the problem of the
formation of the commune, approaching it on its general side.
There remains the question whether all the popular element
which existed in the city formed part of the body of
bourgeoisie, and whether the privileged class, that of the
nobles and clergy, was not excluded from it. … We shall have
to admit as a general rule, that the nobles and the clergy
while taking oath to the commune, did not in reality enter it.
What must be rejected, is the sort of absolute, inviolable
rule which has been formed on this opinion. In the middle ages
especially there was no rule without exception. … The commune
was an institution rather ephemeral. As a really independent
seigneury, it scarcely endured more than two centuries. The
excesses of the communists, their bad financial
administration, their intestine divisions, the hostility of
the Church, the onerous patronage of the 'haut suzerain,' and
especially of the king: such were the immediate causes of this
rapid decadence. The communes perished victims of their own
faults, but also of the hate of the numerous enemies
interested in their downfall. … The principal cause of the
premature downfall of the communal regime is without any doubt
the considerable development of the monarchical power in
France at the end of the 18th century. The same force which
annihilated feudality, to the profit of the national unit, was
also that which caused the prompt disappearance of the
independence of the bourgeois seigneuries. With its privileges
and its autonomy, the commune impeded the action of the
Capetains. Those quarrelsome and restless republics had no
reason for existence, In the midst of the peaceful and
obedient bourgeoisie upon which royalty had laid its hand. The
commune then was sacrificed to the monarchical interest. In
Italy and in Germany, the free cities enjoyed their
independence much longer, by reason of the absence of the
central power or of its weakness."
_Achille Luchaire,
Les Communes Francaises a l'époque des Capétiens directs
(translated from the French),
pages 1-16, 45-56, 65, and 288-290._
FRANCE: A. D. 1226-1270.
The reign of Saint Louis.
The monarchy in his time and its kingdom.
"The fundamental institution upon which all the social edifice
rested, in the time of Saint Louis, was royalty. But this
royalty, from the double point of view of theory and practice,
was very different from what it had been originally. In
principle it was the divine right, that is, it was an
emanation from the Most High, and the king held of no other
seigneur. This is what the feudal maxim expressed after its
fashion; 'The king holds only of God and his sword.' … Royalty
was transmitted by heredity, from father to son, and by
primogeniture. However, this heredity, which had formerly
needed a sort of election to confirm It, or at least popular
acclamation, needed now to be hallowed by the unction of the
church. Consecration, joined to the privilege of being the
eldest of the royal race, made the king. … It must not be
thought however that the ideas of the time attributed to the
hereditary principle a force absolute and superior to all
interests. Theologians could say to kings that the son should
succeed the father if he imitated his probity; that power was
transferred into other hands in punishment of injustice. …
Christian tradition was, in fact, greatly opposed to what was
then called tyranny. … Not only must royalty not be tyranny,
but it must admit the representatives of the nation, in a
certain measure, to a participation in the government. …
{3751}
In practice, without doubt, these salutary principles were
often disregarded; but it is still much that they were
professed, and this fact alone constitutes an enormous
difference between the middle ages and the later centuries.
The royal power, besides, had not yet a material force
sufficiently great to dominate everywhere as absolute master.
Under the two first lines, it was exercised in the same degree
over all points of the territory; from the accession of the
third, on the contrary, it was only a power of two degrees,
having a very unequal action according to the territory and
the locality. A part of France composed the royal domain; it
was the patrimony of the Capetian house, increased by conquest
or successive acquisitions. There, the king exercised an
authority almost without limit; he was on his own ground. All
the rest formed duchies, counties, or seigneuries of different
sorts, possessed hereditarily by great vassals, more or less
independent originally. Here the king was only the suzerain;
he had scarcely any rights excepting to homage, to military
service, to pecuniary assistance in certain stated cases, and
to some privileges called royal, as that of coining money. The
entire royal policy, from Philip Augustus to Louis XI.,
consisted in skilfully increasing the first of these parts by
absorbing little by little the second. … The kingdom of
France, in the time of Saint Louis, was still very nearly as
the treaty of Verdun had established it. On the north and
east, it was bounded by the Empire of Germany. The frontier
line passed a little beyond the cities of Ghent, Audenarde,
Tournai, Douai, Guise, Mézières, Grandpré, Vitry, Joinville,
Fay, Mirabeau; then it followed the course of the Saône and
the Rhône, from which it diverged only in two places in order
to attribute to the Empire the, at least, nominal possession
of part of Lyonnais and Vivarais. On the south, the Pyrenees
formed, as originally, the natural limit; but from the treaty
of Corbeil (1258) Roussillon remained with the king of Aragon,
in exchange for his right over the county of Foix, the
territory of Sault, Fenouilhedès and Narbonnais. On the other
hand, the vast duchy of Guienne, comprising Bearn and the
county of Bigorre, came … under the suzerainty of the king of
France only by virtue of the treaty of Paris (1259). On the
west the kingdom was bounded only by the ocean, Brittany also
having rendered homage to the crown from the time of Philip
Augustus. Thus Saint Louis and his son left it, on the whole,
more extensive than it was before them, and if it was more
limited than the France of the present, on the east, it
reached, on the contrary, farther to the north. The royal
domain embraced in 1226 only the half of this immense
perimeter. It was composed of the primitive nucleus of the
Capetian possessions: that is, of the Isle of France and of
Orleannais; then of French Vexin. Gâtinais and the viscounty
of Bourges, brought by Philip I.; of the county of Corbeil and
the seigneury of Monthléry, acquired by Louis VI.; of Artois,
Vermandois (with the county of Amiens), Valois, Norman Vexin,
of the counties of Evreux, Meulan, Alençon, Perché, Beaumont
sur Oise, acquired by Philip Augustus and Louis VIII.; finally
the territory obtained by the former from John Lackland by war
or by confiscation, that is, all Normandy, Touraine, Perigord,
Limousin, and the viscounty of Turenne. Anjou, Maine, Poitou,
Auvergne, Angoumois, included in the same conquest, had since
been detached from the crown to form princely appanages. The
profitable domain of Perigord of Limousin and of the viscounty
of Turenne, was reconveyed, in 1259, to the king of England, …
in order to bring all the region of the southwest within the
pale of the royal suzerainty. But Saint Louis compensated for
this diminution by acquiring successively the two great
seneschalates of Nîmes and of Carcassonne, the counties of
Clermont, of Mortain, of Macon, and Philip the Bold did more
than redeem it, by realizing the annexation, so skilfully
prepared by Blanche of Castile, of the last domains of the
count of Toulouse, which had become those of Alphonse of
Poitiers, that is, of nearly all Languedoc. The possessions of
the crown thus formed two or three separate groups, cut up in
the most fantastic fashion, and connected only as the result
of long effort. All the rest of the kingdom was composed of
great fiefs escaping the direct action of royalty, and
themselves subdivided into lesser fiefs, which complicated
infinitely the hierarchy of persons and lands. The principal
were the counties of Flanders, Boulogne, Saint Pol, Ponthieu,
Aumale, Eu, Soissons, Dreux, Montford-l'Amaury; the bishoprics
of Tournai, Beauvais, Noyon, Laon, Lisieux, Reims, Langres,
Chalons, the titularies of which were at the same time counts
or seigneurs; the vast county of Champagne, uniting those of
Réthel, Grandpré, Roucy, Brienne, Joigny and the county
Porcien; the duchy of Burgundy, so powerful and so extensive;
the counties of Nevers, Tonnerre, Auxerre, Beaujeu, Forez,
Auvergne; the seigneury of Bourbon; the counties of Blois and
of Chartres; the county or duchy of Brittany; Guienne, and,
before 1271, the county of Toulouse; the bishoprics of Albi,
Cahors, Mende, Lodève, Agde, Maguelonne, belonging temporally
as well as spiritually to their respective bishops; finally
the seigneury of Montpellier, holding of the last of these
bishoprics. To which must yet be added the appanages given by
Louis VIII. to his younger sons, that is, the counties of
Artois, Anjou, Poitiers, with their dependencies. … So when
the government of the kingdom at this epoch is spoken of, it
must be understood to mean that of only the least considerable
part of the territory,—that is, of the part which was directly
submitted to the authority of the king. In this part the
sovereign himself exercised the power, assisted, as ordained
by the theories examined above, by auxiliaries taken from the
nation. There were neither ministers nor a deliberative corps,
properly speaking; however there was very nearly the
equivalent. On one side, the great officers of the crown and
the royal council, on the other the parliament and the chamber
of accounts (exchequer), or at least their primitive nucleus,
constituted the principal machinery of the central government,
and had, each, its special powers. The great officers, of whom
there had at first been five, were only four from the reign of
Philip Augustus, who had suppressed the seneschal owing to the
possibility of his becoming dangerous by reason of the
progressive extension of his jurisdiction; they were the
bouteiller, who had become the administrator of the royal
expenditure; the chambrier, elevated to the care of the
treasury; the connétable, a kind of military superintendent;
and the chancelier, who had the disposition of the royal seal.
{3752}
These four personages represented in a certain degree,
secretaries of state. The two latter had a preponderant
influence, one in time of peace, the other in time of war. To
the chancellor belonged the drawing up and the proper
execution (legalization) of the royal diplomas; this power
alone made him the arbiter of the interests of all private
individuals. As to the constable he had the chief direction of
the army, and all those who composed it, barons, knights, paid
troops, owed him obedience. The king, in person, had the
supreme command; but he frequently allowed the constable to
exercise it, and, in order not to impose too heavy a burden
upon him, or rather to prevent his taking a too exclusive
authority, he had appointed as coadjutors two 'maréchaux de
France' who were second in command. … The king's council had
not yet a very fixed form. Saint Louis submitted important
questions to the persons about him, clerics, knights or men of
the people; but he chose these advisers according to the
nature of the questions, having temporary counsellors rather
than a permanent council. Among these counsellors some were
more especially occupied with justice, others with finance,
others with political affairs. These three categories are the
germ of the parliament, of the exchequer, and of the council
of state; but they then formed an indistinct ensemble, called
simply the king's court. They were not completely separated so
as to form independent institutions until the time of Philippe
le Bel. The first, that which later constituted the
parliament, belongs especially to the judicial department. …
The second, while not yet elevated into a distinct and
permanent body, is already delegated to special duties, being
charged with examining the accounts of the baillis and
seneschals. The 'gentlemen of the accounts' ('gentes quae ad
nostros computos deputantur') began under Saint Louis to meet
periodically in the Temple, at Paris, and to exercise a
regular control over the public finances; so that this new
creation, which was, later, to render services so important,
was an outcome of the scrupulous probity with which the royal
conscience was filled. … The superior jurisdiction is
represented by the parliament. The organization of this famous
body was begun in the lifetime of Philip Augustus. Under the
reign of this prince [Saint Louis] and notably as a result of
his absence, the 'cour du roi' had begun to render more and
more frequent decisions. The section which was occupied with
judicial affairs, appears to have taken on, in the time of
Saint Louis, an individual and independent existence. Instead
of following the sovereign and meeting when he thought it
expedient, it became sedentary. … The date at which the series
of the famous registers of the parliament, known under the
name of Olim begins may be considered that of the definitive
creation of this great institution. It will be remarked that
it coincides with the general reform of the administration of
the kingdom undertaken by the good king on his return from
Syria. … From its birth the parliament tended to become, in
the hands of royalty, a means of domination over the great
vassals. Not only were the seigneurs insensibly eliminated
from it, to the advantage of the clergy, the lawyers, and the
officers of the crown, but by a series of skilful victories,
its action was extended little by little over all the fiefs
situated outside the royal domain, that is over all France. It
is again Saint Louis who caused this great and decisive
advance toward the authority of the suzerain. He brought it
about especially by the abolition of the judicial duel and by
the multiplication of appeals to the parliament. … As for the
appeals the interdiction of 'fausser jugement' (refusal to
submit to the sentence pronounced) was not the only cause of
their multiplication. Many of the great vassals were led to
bring their affairs before the king's court, either on account
of the confidence inspired by the well known equity of Saint
Louis, or by the skill of the royal agents, who neglected no
opportunity to cause the acceptance of the arbitration of the
crown; and those who did not resign themselves to it were
sometimes compelled to do so. The appeals of their subjects
naturally took the same route; however they continued to
employ the medium of the seneschal's court or that of the
bailli, while those of the barons and the princes of the blood
went directly to Paris. No general law was promulgated in
regard to the matter. Royalty was content to recover little by
little, by partial measures, the superior jurisdiction
formerly usurped by the feudality. … Above and outside of the
parliament justice was rendered by the king in person. … Saint
Louis, always thoughtful of the interests of the lowly, had a
liking for this expeditious manner of terminating suits.
Nearly every morning, he sent two or three members of his
council to inquire, at the palace gate, if there were not some
private individuals there wishing to discuss their affairs
before him; from this came the name 'plaids de la porte' given
to this kind of audience. If his counsellors could not bring
the parties to an agreement, he called the latter into his own
room, examined their case with his scrupulous impartiality,
and rendered the final sentence himself on the spot.
Joinville, who took part more than once in these summary
judgments, thus describes to us their very simple mechanism.
'The king had his work regulated in such a way, that
monseigneur de Nesle and the good count de Soissons, and the
rest of us who were about him, who had heard our masses, went
to hear the 'plaids de la porte,' which are now called
'requêtes' (petitions). And when he returned from the
monastery, he sent for us, seated himself at the foot of his
bed, made us all sit around him, and asked us if there were
any cases to despatch which could not be disposed of without
him; and we named them to him, and he sent for the parties and
asked them: Why do you not take what our people offer you? And
they said: Sire, because they offer us little. Then he said to
them: You should take what they are willing to give you. And
the saintly man labored in this way, with all his might to set
them in a just and reasonable path.' Here the great
peace-maker is clearly seen; private individuals as well as
princes, he desired to reconcile all, make all agree. These
patriarchal audiences often had for theater the garden of the
palace or the wood of Vincennes. The legendary oak which
sheltered the modern Solomon remains in all memoirs as the
symbol of his kindly justice and of his popularity, well
acquired."
_A. Lecoy de la Marche,
La France sous Saint Louis et sous Philippe le Hardi,
liv. 1, chapter 2, and liv. 2, chapters 1 and 3._
_François Guizot,
Great Christians of France: Saint Louis and Calvin,
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62518._
{3753}
FRANCE: A. D. 1423-1429.
The family and circumstances of Jeanne d' Arc.
"What were the worldly circumstances, what was the social
position, of the parents of Jeanne d'Arc? Questioned on these
points, the people of the country, called to testify at the
public inquiry, in the course of the rehabilitation
proceedings, all made the same reply; they said that the
father and mother of the maid were unassuming husbandmen and
possessed with their cottage only a moderate patrimony.
According to a memorandum, made out with the assistance of
papers and family traditions, a memorandum transmitted by the
abbé Mandre, curé of Damvillers (Meuse), who died about 1820,
to his nephew Mr. Villiaumé, father of the historian of Jeanne
d' Arc and of the Revolution, the real estate belonging to
Jacques d'Arc and Isabelle Romée represented about twenty
hectares, of which twelve were cultivated, four were meadow
and four woodland, and in the latter the 'bois Chesnu'; they
had beside their house, their furniture and a reserve of two
or three hundred francs which they kept carefully in view of
the possibility of a flight before some invasion, such as they
had been obliged to take to Neufchâteau. By cultivating,
themselves, what they possessed, they could obtain from it an
annual revenue equivalent to four or five thousand francs of
our money, which permitted them to distribute alms to the
poor, notwithstanding their moderate patrimony, and to give
hospitality to the mendicant friars as well as to the
travelers who often passed through that country. If these
valuations are not rigorously exact, they appear to us at
least quite reasonable, though we are ignorant of the data
upon which they rest. In a parochial register of Domremy,
transcribed in 1490, we read that Jacob d'Arc and Ysabellot,
his wife, had established an annual income of two gros [gros
of Lorraine, coin worth 1/8 oz. of silver] in favor of the
curé of Domremy from a 'fauchée' and a half [day and a half's
mowing] of field situated in the 'ban' of Domremy, above the
bridge, between the heirs Janvrel and the heirs Girardin, on
condition of the celebration of two masses each year during
the week of the Fontaines for anniversary services for the
dead. The property of these honest people constituted, if we
may judge by the different replies of the Maid compared with
one another, what was called then in the Barrois a 'gagnage'
or little farm; now, what distinguished the gagnage from the
simple 'conduit,' was that the first always employed for the
needs of cultivation a certain number of horses. The usage was
at that time, in that region, to attach three or four mares to
the plough, and they even had, at least in the great gagnages,
a special horse to drag the harrow. Besides this property
situated at Domremy, it may be supposed that Jacques d'Arc
possessed in right of his wife some pieces of land at Vouthon,
for we see by a register of the writs of court of the
provostship of Gondrecourt that the eldest of his sons named
Jacquemin made his residence from 1425 in this village of the
Barrois holding where he cultivated undoubtedly the little
patrimony of Isabelle Romée. Jacques d'Arc and Isabelle de
Vouthon had three sons, Jacquemin, Jean and Pierre, and two
daughters, the elder named Catherine, the younger Jeanne or
rather Jeannette, she who was by her heroism to immortalize
her line. Two documents … prove with evidence that Jacques
d'Arc figured in the first rank of the notables of Domremy. In
the first of these, dated Maxey-sur-Meuse, October 7, 1423, he
is styled 'doyen' of that village and by this title comes
immediately after the mayor and alderman. 'In general,' says
M. Edward Bonvalot, speaking of the villages in the region of
the Meuse governed by the famous charter of Beaumont in
Argonne, 'there is but one doyen or sergeant in each village,
who convokes the bourgeois to the electoral assemblies and to
the sittings of the court; it is he also who convokes the
mayor, aldermen and the men of the commune to their reunions
either periodical or special; it is he who cries the municipal
resolutions and ordinances; it is he who commands the day and
night watch; it is he who has charge of prisoners. Among the
privileges which he enjoys must be cited the exemption from
the taxes (deniers) of the bourgeoisie. At Linger, he has the
same territorial advantages as the clerk of the commune.' It
is seen by various documents that the doyens were also charged
with the collection of the 'tailles,' 'rentes' and
'redevances,' and that they were appointed to supervise bread,
wine and other commodities as well as to test weights and
measures. In the second document, drawn up at Vaucouleurs
March 31, 1427, Jacques d'Arc appears as the agent of the
inhabitants of Domremy in a suit of great importance which
they then had to sustain before Robert de Baudricourt, captain
of Vaucouleurs. … The situation of Domremy was privileged,
and, thanks to this situation, humble peasants who had few
needs found even in the soil which they cultivated nearly
everything which was necessary for their subsistence. The
heights crowned with beeches and venerable oaks, which shut in
on the west the valley where the village lies, furnished
fire-wood in abundance; the acorns permitted the fattening of
droves of hogs; the beautiful vineyard of Greux, exposed to
the east and climbing the slopes of these heights since the
14th century, produced that light wine, excessively acid,
which is not the less agreeable to the somewhat harsh palate
of the children of the Meuse; the fields lying at the foot of
these slopes and contiguous to the houses were reserved for
the cultivation of the cereals, of wheat, of rye and of oats;
finally, between these cultivated fields and the course of the
Meuse, over a breadth of more than a kilometer stretched those
verdant meadows whose fertility equals their beauty and from
which is still taken the best and most renowned hay of all
France. The principal wealth of the inhabitants of Domremy was
the cattle which they pastured in these meadows, where each,
after the hay-harvest, had the right to pasture a number of
heads of cattle proportioned to that of the 'fauchées de pré'
[days mowings of field] that he possessed. This is what was
called the 'ban de Domremy' the care of which was confided, by
turns, to a person taken from each 'conduit' or household. It
may be seen by certain replies of Jeanne to her judges at
Rouen that she had been more than once appointed to this
charge, when the turn of her parents came, and her enemies had
not failed to seize upon this circumstance to pretend to see
in her only a shepherdess by profession. …
{3754}
Most of the historians of Jeanne d'Arc have made a great
mistake when they have imagined Domremy an out-of-the-way
corner and isolated, so to speak, from the rest of the world;
on the contrary, a road much frequented toward the end of the
middle ages crossed this village. This was the old Roman road
from Langres to Verdun which passed through Neufchâteau,
Domremy, Vaucouleurs, Void, Commercy and Saint-Mihiel; it had
acquired yet more importance since the marriage of Philip the
Bold and Margaret, daughter of Louis de Male, had brought into
the same hand Flanders, Artois and Burgundy. This marriage had
had the effect of giving increased activity to the exchanges
between the extreme possessions of the Burgundian princes. …
It may be seen by what precedes that, like the legendary beech
of her native village, the childhood of the virgin of Domremy
sprang out of a soil full of vigor and was in the main haunted
by beneficent fairies. Born in a fertile and smiling corner of
the earth, the issue of an honest family, whose laborious
mediocrity was elevated enough to touch nobility when
ennobling itself by alms-giving, and humble enough to remain
in contact with all the poor; endowed by nature with a robust
body, a sound intelligence and an energetic spirit, the little
Jeannette d'Arc became under these gentle influences all
goodness and all love. Certain facts which are related of her
early years show her religiously enamored of country life. She
gave some wool from her sheep to the bell-ringer of Domremy to
render him more zealous in fulfilling his office, so much did
the silvery chiming of his church bell, sounding suddenly in
the quiet of the valley, enchant her ear. And the inspiring
virtue of the cool shadows, of the 'frigus opacum' of Virgil,
who had better felt it than she who replied to her judges at
Rouen: 'If I were in the midst of the woods, I should hear my
voices better.' … One of the consequences of the treaty of
Troyes was the occupation of Champagne by the [English]
invaders.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1417-1422 (page 1175).
It is certain, notwithstanding the assertions to the contrary
of many historians of Jeanne, that from this date the English
were rendered absolutely masters of the bailiwick of Chaumont.
The principal fortresses of Bassigny, notably Nogent-le-Roi
and Montigny-le-Roi, received garrisons of the enemy. The
'registres du Trésor des Chartes,' preserved in our National
Archives, where the acts emanating from the English government
[chancellorship] during this period are registered, are full
of letters of pardon or of remission granted in the name of
Henry V. and Henry VI. to different inhabitants of this
bailiwick, and nothing proves better to what degree the
authority of the king of England was at that time received and
accepted in this region. Some of these letters were given on
account of offenses committed in the provostship of Andelot,
of which the châtellenie of Vaucouleurs held, as is known.
This châtellenie was, in truth, the last fragment of French
soil that Charles VII. had kept at the eastern extremity of
his kingdom, as he had succeeded in keeping Mont-Saint-Michel
at the western extremity. Pressed upon by the
Anglo-Burgundians on the south, by the restless and violent
Robert of Saarbruck, seigneur of Commercy, on the north,
hemmed in, on the east and west, between the possessions of
the dukes of Bar and of Lorraine, who were unceasingly at war
with their neighbors, this little corner of the earth was a
sort of arena where all parties came into collision; and
during the four or five years which immediately preceded the
first apparition of the archangel Michael to the Maid, toward
the middle of 1425, ten or twelve leaders of bands may be
counted who emulated each other, as it were, in ravaging it in
all directions. During the first half of the 15th century, the
men at arms of the marches of Lorraine had the reputation of
being, with the Bretons, the greatest pillagers in the world.
… We know now in all its details a curious episode which
particularly concerns the native village of Jeanne. This
episode had remained completely unknown up to the present day,
and it was a fortunate accident which, in the beginning of our
researches, commenced in 1878, caused us to discover in the
National Archives, in the 'registres du Trésor des Chartes,'
the document in which the relation of it is found. There is
question in this document of a remission of penalty granted by
King Charles VII. to a certain Burthélemy de Clefmont for the
murder of an Anglo-Burgundian band-leader who had carried away
the cattle from two villages of the châtellenie of
Vaucouleurs; now, these two villages are precisely Greux and
Domremy. … Different circumstances of the narrative, compared
with several documents relative to the leader killed by
Barthélemy de Clefmont, do not permit us to place the incident
at any other date than 1425. … The principal, not to say the
only wealth of the inhabitants of Domremy, was the cattle
which they pastured in the meadows of the Meuse. The
configuration of the soil permits the cultivation only of some
fields situated along the border of these meadows, at the foot
of the wooded hill against which the village is set; so, the
little grain that was harvested there would not have sufficed
to feed the population. … We understand then the important
injury done to these unfortunate peasants by taking from them
at one stroke all the communal flock; they were completely
ruined; they were stripped between one day and another of the
most precious of their possessions; they were almost condemned
to die of poverty with very brief delay. Such a disaster would
have cast down a spirit of ordinary temper; it had no other
effect than to exalt the profound faith and to awaken the
already extraordinary energies of the little Jeannette d'Arc.
Endowed, notwithstanding her tender years, with that almost
superhuman moral force of which we read that it transports
mountains, she called Heaven confidently to the assistance of
her people, and our readers already know that Heaven heard her
voice. Jeanne de Joinville, lady of Ogéviller, the good
châtelaine of Domremy, must have been keenly touched by the
unfortunate situation caused to her people, and she had
besides the greatest interest in making the brigands in the
pay of Henri d'Orly disgorge, in order to assure the payment
of her taxes. This is why she complained to her cousin Antoine
de Lorraine, count of Vaudemont, who had in his immediate
tenure the château of Doulevant, occupied by the chief of
these brigands. The count hastened to give satisfaction to the
demands of his relative; he sent Barthélemy de Clefmont, one
of his men at arms, in pursuit of the marauders.
{3755}
The expedition was a complete success. Though the cattle had
already been taken as far as Dommartin-le-Franc, twenty
leagues distant from the shores of the Meuse, they were
recovered. Antoine de Lorraine then caused them to be restored
to the lady of Ogéviller whose people, those of Greux as well
as of Domremy, thus came again into possession of the precious
booty which had been stolen from them and which they believed
irreparably lost. What a signal favor of Providence, a
miracle, these poor people in general and Jeannette d'Arc in
particular must have seen in a restitution so unhoped for! In
the meantime,—we may reasonably suppose this, if not affirm it
with certainty,—the news of a great defeat inflicted on the
English before Mont-Saint-Michel, toward the end of June 1425,
by sea as well as by land, must have arrived at Domremy.
Almost at the same time, that is in the last days of the
following August, they learned that these same English had
just invaded Barrois and that they had burned dwellings at
Revigny as well as in the ban of Chaumont, near Bar-le-Duc.
Never had Jeanne felt more sorrowfully 'the pity it was for
the kingdom of France,' and never also had she had a more
entire faith in God to assure the salvation of her country.
The theft, then the restitution of the cattle of Greux and
Domremy, the victory won by the defenders of
Mont-Saint-Michel, the invasion of Barrois by the English,
here are the three principal occurrences which immediately
preceded and which explain, at least in a certain degree, the
first apparition of the archangel Michael to the little
Jeannette d'Arc."
_S. Luce,
Jeanne d'Arc a Domremy
(translated from the French),
chapters 2-3._
FRANCE: A. D. 1582.
Footing secured at the mouth of the Senegal.
See (in this Supplement) AFRICA: 1582.
FRANCE: A. D. 1631.
First printed newspaper publication.
See PRINTING AND PRESS: A. D. 1631 (page 2594).
FRANCE: A. D. 1648-1715.
Relations with Germany and Austria.
See (in this Supplement) GERMANY: A. D. 1648-1715.
FRANCE: A. D. 1682-1693.
Contest of the King and the Gallican Church with the Papacy.
See PAPACY: A. D. 1682-1693 (page 2462).
FRANCE: A. D. 1715-1770.
The fatal policy in Europe which lost to the French their
opportunity for colonial aggrandizement.
"Louis XIV. had made France odious to her neighbors and
suspected by all Europe. Those who succeeded him required much
prudence and wisdom to diminish the feelings of fear and
jealousy which this long reign of wars and conquests had
inspired. They were fortunate in that the moderation demanded
of them was for France the most skilful and advantageous
policy. France kept Alsace, Franche-Comte, Flanders,
Roussillon, and beyond this enlarged frontier she was no
longer menaced by the same enemies. The treaty of Utrecht had
modified the entire balance of power. There is henceforward no
house of Austria excepting in Germany. It is too often
forgotten, in speaking of this house and its rivalry with that
of France, that the most ardent center of hatred was in Spain.
It was Spain which cherished that violent rancor which, for
lack of words as much as of ideas, is placed to the account of
Austria alone. Spain is no longer to be feared; she is
weakened, she is becoming dependent. A cadet of France, a
Bourbon, reigns at Madrid, and the roles, in that direction,
are exchanged. As to Austria even, she has increased
undoubtedly: she has taken the Low Countries, Milan, Naples,
very soon she adds Sicily to them; but she is scattered. In
multiplying her outposts, she presents so many points of
aggression to her adversaries. France has the Low Countries
under her hand: Savoy threatens Milan: and, in Germany,
Prussia, which is growing, groups the opponents of the Empire.
France completes her work by the annexation of Lorraine. The
house of Lorraine is transported to Tuscany, and by the effect
of the same treaty, that of Vienna in 1738, Naples and Sicily
pass to the Spaniards. It seems that henceforward France has
only to conserve on the continent. She presents to it the most
compact power. Her principal enemy in it is greatly reduced.
She is surrounded by states, weaker than she, who defer to her
and fear her; she can resume that fine role of moderator and
guardian of the peace of Europe which Richelieu had prepared
for her, and bear elsewhere, into the other hemisphere, the
superabundance of her forces and that excess of vigor which in
great nations is precisely the condition of health. The future
of her grandeur is henceforward in the colonies. There she
will encounter England. Upon this new stage their rivalry will
be revived, more ardent than in the days of the hundred years
war. To maintain this struggle which extends over the entire
world, France will not be too strong with all her resources.
When she is engaged in Canada and the Indies at the same time,
she will not need to carry her armies across the Rhine. Peace
on the continent is the condition necessary to the magnificent
fortune which awaits her in America and Asia. If she wishes to
obtain it she must renounce continental ambitions. She can do
it; her defense is formidable. No one about her would dare to
fire a gun without her permission. But, alas! she is far
removed from this wisdom, and, in attempting to establish
colonies, and make changes in the kingdoms of Europe at the
same time, she will compromise her power in both worlds at
once. The French desire colonial conquests, but they can not
abstain from European conquests, and England profits by it.
Austria becomes her natural ally against France. These
powerful diversions keep the French on the ground. However,
they can yet curb Austria; they have Prussia, Savoy, Poland
and Turkey if necessary. Diplomacy is sufficient for this
game; but this game is not sufficient for the French
politicians. The hatred of the house of Austria survives the
causes of rivalry. This house seems always 'the monster' of
which Balzac speaks. One is not satisfied to have chained it;
one can cease only after having annihilated it. 'There is
always,' writes Argenson, 'for politicians a fundamental rule
of reducing this power to the point where the Emperor will not
be a greater landholder than the richest elector.' Charles VI.
dies in 1740; he leaves only a daughter; the opportunity seems
favorable, and noisily sounding the death-cry (l'hallali) they
take the field at the head of all the hunters by inheritance.
See AUSTRIA: A. D.1740, and after (pages 212-220).
{3756}
They go 'to make an emperor, to conquer kingdoms!' The
Bavarian whom they crown is a stage emperor, and, as for
conquests, they are considered only too fortunate that Maurice
of Saxe preserves to France those of Louis XIV. The coalition
has no other result than to enlarge Prussia. Meanwhile France
is beaten on the sea and abandons solely to the resources of
his genius Dupleix, who with a handful of men was founding an
empire. There was besides another small matter; after having
exposed Canada in order to conquer Silesia for the king of
Prussia, it was lost in order to have the pleasure of giving
back that province to the queen of Hungary. France had played
the game of England in the war of the succession of Austria,
she played that of Austria in the seven years war.
See GERMANY: A. D. 1755-1756, and after (pages 1495-1502).
Frederic was the most equivocal of allies. In 1755, he
deserted cynically and passed over to the English, who had
just recommenced war against France. England having Prussia,
it was important in order to maintain the equilibrium, that
France have Austria. Maria Theresa offered her alliance and
France accepted it. Thus was concluded the famous treaty of
May 1, 1756. The object of this alliance was entirely
defensive. This is what France did not understand, and she did
not cease to be a dupe for having changed partners. Louis XV.
made himself the defender of Austria with the same blindness
as he had made himself her adversary. The continental war
which was only the accessory became the principal. From a
ruling power, France fell to the rank of a subordinate. She
did not even attain the indirect result to which she
sacrificed her most precious interests. Frederic kept Silesia,
France lost Canada and abandoned Louisiana; the empire of the
Indies passed to the English. Louis XV. had thus directed a
policy the sole reason for which was the defeat of England, in
such a way as to assure the triumph of that country. 'Above
all,' wrote Bernis to Choiseul, then ambassador at Vienna,
'arrange matters in such a way that the king will not remain
in servile dependence on his allies. That state would be the
worst of all.' It was the state of France during the last
years of the reign of Louis XV. The alliance of 1756 which had
been at its beginning and under its first form, a skilful
expedient, became a political system, and the most disastrous
of all. Without gaining anything in territory, France lost her
consideration in Europe. She had formerly grouped around her
all those who were disturbed by the power of Austria; forced
to choose between them and Austria, she allowed the Austrians
to do as they chose. To crown the humiliation, immediately
after a war in which she had lost everything to serve the
hatred of Maria Theresa for Frederic, she saw those
unreconcilable Germans draw together without her knowledge,
come to an understanding at her expense and, in concert with
Russia, divide the spoil of one of the oldest clients of the
French monarchy, Poland. There remained to France but one
ally, Spain. They were united in 1761 by the Family Pact, the
only beneficial work which had been accomplished in these
years of disaster. … To the anger of having felt herself made
use of during the war, to the rancor of having seen herself
duped during the peace, was joined the fear of being despoiled
one day by an ally so greedy and so little scrupulous. 'I
foresee,' wrote Mably some years later, 'that the Emperor will
demand of us again Lorraine, Alsace and everything which may
please him.'—'Who can guaranty France, if she should
experience a complicated and unfortunate war,' said one of the
ministers of Louis XVI., 'that the Emperor would not reclaim
Alsace and even other provinces?' It was in this way that the
abuse made by Austria of the alliance revived all the
traditions of rivalry. Add that Maria Theresa was devout, that
she was known to be a friend of the Jesuits, an enemy of the
philosophers, and that at the King's court, the favorites were
accounted as acquired from Austria: everything thus
contributed to render odious to public opinion the alliance
which, in itself, already seemed detestable. At the time when
they were beginning to style the partisans of new ideas
'patriots,' they were in the habit of confounding all the
adversaries of these ideas with the 'Austrian party.' … The
marriage of Marie Antoinette with the Dauphin was destined to
seal forever the alliance of 1756. The unfortunate princess
accumulated on her head the hatreds and prejudices heaped up
by three centuries of rivalry and excessively stimulated by
the still smarting impression of recent wrongs. Even the cause
of her coming to France rendered her suspected by the French;
they imputed to her as a crime her attachment to the alliance,
which was, notwithstanding, the very reason of her marriage.
To understand the prodigious unpopularity which pursued her in
France, it is necessary to measure the violence of the
passions raised up against her mother and her country; it was
summed up, long before the Revolution, in that word which
became for Marie Antoinette a decree of forfeiture and of
death: the Austrian."
_A. Sorel,
L'Europe et la Révolution française
(translated from the French),
part 1, pages 288-297._
FRANCE: A. D. 1776-1778.
Disposition to aid the revolt of the
English colonies in America.
The American embassy.
Dealings of Beaumarchais and Silas Deane.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1776-1778 (pages 3241, 3244).
FRANCE: A. D. 1777.
The first daily newspaper.
See PRINTING AND PRESS: A. D. 1777 (page 2600).
FRANCE: A. D. 1788-1789.
Paris in the Revolution.
The part of the Nobodies.
"The history of the revolution can no more be understood
without understanding the part played in it by Paris, than one
can conceive of the tragedy of Hamlet with the part of Hamlet
left out; and to understand the part played by Paris in the
revolution is equally impossible. … Let us commence at the
bottom with the nobodies. They are no specialty of Paris.
There are many of them in every city, but the larger the city
the greater the percentage. Paris, therefore, has the highest.
They are isolated particles. In the ushering in of the new era
they have no part. The regulations concerning the elections to
the States-General contain no provision in regard to them. …
It was simply a matter of course, that these nobodies went for
nothing in the question at hand. Whether they were likely to
continue to be nothing in it, nobody seems to have asked. …
The existence of this class was partly due to natural causes,
the working of which the wit of man can to a degree mitigate,
but never prevent.
{3757}
In the 'ancien régime,' however, the wit of man had altogether
been bent upon stimulating it. The privilege-bane had also
been extended over the domain of labor. When, in 1776, Turgot
broke down the guilds, the Parliament of Paris strenuously
opposed the government, declaring: all Frenchmen are divided
into established corporations, forming one continuous chain
from the throne down to the lowest handicraft, indispensable
to the existence of the state, and not to be abolished, lest
the whole social order break asunder. That was but too true.
Since the days of Henry III. (1574-1589) the forcing of all
industrial pursuits into the strait-jacket of guildships had
been carried to the extreme of utter absurdity. Here, too, the
chronic financial distress had been the principal cause. At
first the handicrafts, which everybody had been at liberty to
practice, were withdrawn from free competition and sold as a
privilege, and then, when nothing was left to be sold, the old
guilds were split up into a number of guildlets, merely to
have again something to put on the counter. And it was not
only left pretty much to the masters whom they would admit to
the freedom of the guild, but besides the charges for it were
so high that it was often absolutely out of the reach even of
the most skillful journeyman. Even a blood-aristocracy was not
lacking. In a number of guilds only the sons of masters and
the second husbands of masters' widows could become masters.
Thus an immense proletariat was gradually formed, which to a
great extent was a proletariat only because the law
irresistibly forced it into this position. And the city
proletariat proper received constant and ever-increasing
additions from the country. There such distress prevailed,
that the paupers flocked in crowds to the cities. … In 1791,
long before the inauguration of the Reign of Terror, there
were in a population of 650,000, 118,000 paupers (indigents).
Under the 'ancien régime' the immigrant proletariat from the
country was by the law barred out from all ways of earning a
livelihood except as common day-laborers, and the wages of
these were in 1788, on an average, 26 cents for men and 15 for
women, while the price of bread was higher than in our times.
What a gigantic heap of ferment!"
_H. von Holst,
The French Revolution,
lecture 2._
FRANCE: A. D. 1789-1792.
Effects of the Revolution in Germany.
See (in this Supplement) GERMANY: A. D. 1789-1792.
FRANCE: A. D. 1789-1794.
Myths of the Revolution.
"The rapid growth and the considerable number of these myths
are one of the most curious features of the Revolution, while
their persistent vitality is a standing warning for historical
students. I claim to show that Cazotte's vision was invented
by Laharpe, that Sombreuil's daughter did not purchase his
liberty by quaffing blood, that the locksmith Gamain was not
poisoned, that Labussière did not save hundreds of prisoners
by destroying the documents incriminating them, that the
Girondins had no last supper, that some famous ejaculations
have been fabricated or distorted, that no attempt was made to
save the last batch of victims, that the boys Barra and Viala
were not heroes, that no leather was made of human skins, that
no Englishmen plied the September assassins with drink, that
the 'Vengeur' crew did not perish rather than surrender, that
the ice-bound Dutch fleet was not captured, that Robespierre's
wound was not the work of Merda, but was self-inflicted, and
that Thomas Paine had no miraculous escape."
_J. G. Alger,
Glimpses of the French Revolution,
preface._
FRANCE: A. D. 1789-1796.
The Assignats of the Revolution.
See MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1789-1796 (page 2212).
FRANCE: A. D. 1796-1807.
Napoleon and Germany.
See (in this Supplement) GERMANY: A. D. 1796-1807.
FRANCE: A. D. 1855-1895.
Acquisitions in Africa.
(See in this Supplement)
AFRICA: 1855, 1864, 1876-1880, and after.
FRANCE: A. D. 1858-1886.
Conquest of Tonkin and Cochin China.
See TONKIN (page 3114).
FRANCE: A. D. 1871-1892.
Advance in the policy of Protection.
See TARIFF LEGISLATION: A. D. 1871-1892 (page 3082).
FRANCE: A. D. 1894-1895.
Assassination of President Carnot.
Election and resignation of M. Casimir-Périer.
Election of M. Faure to the Presidency.
"The most startling of all the deeds in the recent revival of
anarchistic activity was the assassination of M. Carnot,
President of the French Republic, on the 24th of June. While
driving through the streets of Lyons, where he was taking part
in the opening ceremonies of an exposition, he was mortally
stabbed by an Italian Anarchist named Santo Caserio. The
assassin was immediately captured, and was executed August 16.
His trial did not reveal any accomplices, though there was
evidence tending to show that the deed was resolved upon by a
band of Anarchists. Caserio boasted of his identification with
the sect. … According to the constitutional prescription, a
joint convention of the two chambers of the legislature was
immediately summoned for a presidential election. The
convention met at Versailles, June 27, M. Challemel-Lacour,
president of the Senate, in the chair, and on the first ballot
chose M. Casimir-Périer by 451 out of a total of 851 votes, M.
Brisson, the Radical candidate, stood second, with 195, and M.
Dupuy third, with 97."
_Political Science Quarterly,
December, 1894._
On the 15th of January, 1895, M. Casimir-Périer astonished the
world and threw France into consternation, almost, by suddenly
and peremptorily resigning the Presidency. The reason given
was the intolerable powerlessness and practical inutility of
the President under the existing constitution. The exciting
crisis which this resignation produced was passed through
without disorder, and on the 17th the National Assembly
elected M. François Felix Faure to the office of President.
FRANCE: Libraries.
See LIBRARIES (page 2010).
FRANCE, Bank of.
See MONEY (page 2212).
FRANKLIN, Benjamin,
and the first subscription library.
See LIBRARIES, MODERN (page 2017).
FRANKLIN, Benjamin:
Electrical discovery.
See ELECTRICAL DISCOVERY AND INVENTION:
A. D. 1745-1747 (page 770).
FRANKLIN, Benjamin:
Examination before Parliament.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1766 (pages 3192-3201).
FRANKLIN, Sir john.
Northern explorations and voyages of.
Loss and search for.
See (in this Supplement)
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1819-1822, and after.
{3758}
FREDERICK BARBAROSSA, in Italy.
See (in this Supplement)
GERMANY: A. D. 1154-1190, and 1162-1177;
also, pages 1811-1813.
FREE CITIES OF GERMANY, The.
See (in this Supplement)
GERMANY: 13-15th CENTURIES; also, page 473.
FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE.
See below: TOLERATION, RELIGIOUS.
FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW,
The first.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1793 (page 3305).
The Second.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1850 (pages 3388-3391).
GALEN, and the development of anatomy and physiology.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 2d CENTURY (page 2128).
GALVANI'S ELECTRICAL DISCOVERIES.
See ELECTRICAL DISCOVERY AND INVENTION:
A. D. 1786-1800 (page 771).
GAUL: Ancient commerce.
See (In this Supplement) COMMERCE, ANCIENT.
GENOA: The Bank of St. George.
See MONEY AND BANKING (page 2207).
GENOA: Mediæval Commerce.
See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE, MEDIÆVAL.
GEORGE III.:
Conversation with Governor Hutchinson
on affairs in the colonies.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1774 (pages 3210-3213).
His absolute notions of Kingship.
See England: A. D. 1760-1763 (page 927).
GEORGE, Henry, and the Single Tax movement.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1880 (page 2955).
GERM THEORY OF DISEASE, Origin and development of the.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 17-18TH CENTURIES,
and 19TH CENTURY (pages 2138, 2144, and after).
----------GERMANY:Start--------
GERMANY:
Outline sketch of general history.
See EUROPE (page 1015, and after).
GERMANY: A. D. 962.
Otto I. and the Restoration of the Empire.
"And now it came about that out of the midst of the Germanic
nations a new monarchy arose which wrested itself free from
the immediate influence of the papacy and its antiquated
pretensions and broke a new path for the idea of the empire,
an idea that seemed to have been fully crushed. This was the
empire of Otto the Great. It was not to be compared with the
old Roman empire, it did not at all come up to what the
Carolingian had been. But it did give strong and irrevocable
expression to the idea of a highest authority in Germany, an
authority bound up with religion, yet independent in itself. …
The foundation of the Germanic empire, that is of an
organization which, resting on the internal development of the
German nations had won a universal position through the
extension of the power of the Ottos over Italy, forms the
event of world-wide importance of the tenth century. … This
Germanic empire had no genealogical origin that was entirely
indisputable, but it did in so far have an advantage over the
Carolingian empire that the right of heredity in the German
monarchy decided of itself the question of succession to the
empire. Besides this it had a sort of overlordship over its
neighbors to maintain which was different from that earlier
one: the attempts at Christianizing and at the same time
reducing to submission took in other regions extending far
beyond the limits of the former ones. It was a resuscitation
of the idea of the old Roman empire but by no means of its
form. On the contrary, through constant struggles new
constitutional forms had developed themselves of which the old
world had as yet no conception. Not that it is the proper
place here to enter more deeply into the question of the
feudal system which gave to public life an altogether changed
aspect. But, in a word or two at least, we must characterize
this transformation. Its essence is that an attempt was made
to adjust the conception of obedience and military service to
the needs of the life of the individual. All the arrangements
of life changed their character so soon as it became the
custom to grant land to local overlords who, in turn, provided
with possessions according to their own several grades, could
only be sure of being able to hold these possessions in so far
as they kept faith and troth with the lord-in-chief of the
land. It was through and through a living organization, which
took in the entire monarchy and bound it together into a
many-membered whole; for the counts and dukes for their own
part entered into a similar relationship with their own
sub-tenants. Therewith the possession of land entered into an
indissoluble connection with the theory of the empire, a
connection which extended also to those border nations which
were in contact with and subordinate to the monarchy. That an
empire so constituted could not reckon on such unconditional
obedience as had been paid to the old Roman empire is clear as
day. Nevertheless the whole order of things in the world
depended on the system of adjusted relationships, the keystone
or rather commanding central point of which was formed by this
same empire. It could scarcely claim any longer to be
universal but it did nevertheless hold the chief place in the
general state-system of Europe, and it proved a powerful
upholder of the independence of the secular power. It was just
this idea of universal power, and altogether of ascendancy
over the Christian world, that was indelibly implanted in the
German empire. But could this idea be actually realized, was
Germany strong enough to carry it through? Otto the Great
originated it, but by no means carried it to its completion.
He passed his life amid constant internal and external
struggles; no lasting form of constitution was he able to
leave behind. That is, one might almost say, what is most
characteristic of great natures: they can originate, indeed,
but they cannot complete."
_L. von Ranke,
Weltgeschichte,
(translated from the German),
volume 7, pages. 5-7._
{3759}
"For what else did he (Otto I) wish to found but a
world-monarchy like that of the Caesars? Emperor of the Romans
and Augustus did he call himself and at Rome he had received
his imperial crown. And was not for him the most sacred spot
in the universe the grave of St. Peter at Rome? Was not this
Saxon in armor an equally eager apostle of the Roman church
with that Anglo-Saxon monk who as servant of the pope had
planted Christianity in North German lands? While Otto was
determined to extend the power of his empire as far as to the
most distant peoples of the still unexplored north and east,
he at the same time purposed to bear to the end of the world
Christianity in the form in which Rome had given it him. The
bones of the Roman martyrs he carried over the Alps and
through faith in them he worked wonders; woods were cleared,
marshes dried, cities built, victories won over the most
dangerous enemies. Not only did the language of Rome sound
forth from the altars of Saxony: it became at the same time
the language of affairs in the emperor's chancery, and in it
the commands of the all-powerful Augustus were issued to the
whole world. Thus did Otto, although through and through a
Saxon warrior of the old stamp, live wholly at the same time
in those Roman ideas against which, in times gone by, his
forefathers had struggled. The mightiest contradictions which
have affected the course of the world's history met together
in his personality in full force, and reconciled themselves
there just as they did in the great onward course of events. …
In all the movements of the time Otto took part with force and
with success; the imperial title was now no empty name as it
had been in the last years of the Carolingian period. But not
through laws, not through an artificial state system, not
through a great army of officials did Otto rule Western
Europe, but more than all through the wealth of military
resources which his victories had placed in his hands. Through
the great army of his German vassals who were well versed in
war he overthrew the Slavonians, kept the Danes in check,
compelled the Hungarians to relinquish their nomadic life of
plunder and to seek settled dwelling places in the plains of
the Danube; so that now the gates of the East through which up
till then masses of peoples threatening everything with
destruction had always anew broken in upon the West were
closed forever. The fame of his victories and his feudal
supremacy, extending itself further and further, made him also
protector of the Burgundian and French kingdoms, and finally
lord of Lombardy and of the City of Rome. With the military
resources of Germany he holds in subjection the surrounding
peoples; but through the power thus won, on the other hand, he
himself gains a proud ascendancy over the multitude of his own
vassals. Only for the reason that he wins for himself a truly
royal position in Germany is he enabled to gain the imperial
crown; but this again it is which first really secures and
confirms his own and his family's rule in the German lands. On
this rests chiefly his preeminent position, that he is the
first and mightiest lord of Western Christendom, that as such
he is able at any moment to bring together a numerous military
force with which no people, no prince can any longer cope. But
not on this alone. For the Catholic clergy also, spreading far
and wide over the whole west, serves him as it were like a new
crowd of vassals in stole and cassock. He nominates the
archbishops and bishops in his German and Italian kingdoms as
well as in the newly converted lands of the North and East; he
rules the successor of St. Peter and through him exercises a
decisive influence on church progress even in the western
lands where he does not himself install the dignitaries of the
church. Different as this German empire was from the Frankish,
faulty as was its organization, its resources seemed
nevertheless sufficient in the hand of a competent ruler to
maintain a far-reaching and effectual rule in the West; the
more so as it was upheld by public opinion and supported by
the authority of the church. But one must not be led into
error; these resources were only sufficient in the hands of a
so powerful and active prince as Otto. From the Elbe marshes
he hastened to the Abruzzian Mountains; from the banks of the
Rhine now to the shores of the Adriatic, now to the sand-dunes
of the Baltic. Ceaselessly is he in motion, continually under
arms—first against the Wends and Hungarians, then against the
Greeks and Lombards. No county in his wide realm, no bishopric
in Catholic Christendom but what he fixed his eye upon and
vigilantly watched. And wherever he may tarry and whatever he
may undertake his every act is full of fire, force and vigor
and always hits the mark. With such a representative the
empire is not only the highest power in the Western world but
one which on all its affairs has a deep and active influence—a
power as much venerated as it was dreaded."
_W. von Giesebrecht,
Deutsche Kaiserzeit
(translated from the German).
volume 1, pages 476-484._
"He (Otto) now permanently united the Roman empire to the
German nation and this powerful and intelligent people
undertook the illustrious but thankless task of being the
Atlas of universal history. And soon enough did the connection
of Germany with Italy result in the reform of the church and
the revival of the various sciences, while in Italy itself it
was essentially the Germanic element which brought into being
the glorious civic republics. Through a historical necessity,
doubtless, Germany and Italy, the purest representatives of
the antique and the Teutonic types and the fairest provinces
in the kingdom of human thought, were brought into this
long-lasting connection. From this point of view posterity has
no right to complain that the Roman empire was laid like a
visitation of Fate on our Fatherland and compelled it for
centuries to pour out its life-blood in Italy in order to
construct those foundations of general European culture for
which modern humanity has essentially Germany to thank."
_Gregorovius,
Geschichte der Stadt Rom
(translated from the German),
volume 3, page 334._
See, also, GERMANY: A. D. 936-973 (pages 1439-1441).
GERMANY: 11-12th Centuries.
The question of the Investitures.
See (in this Supplement) PAPACY: A. D. 11-12TH CENTURIES.
{3760}
GERMANY: A. D. 1125-1272(?).
The Rise of the College of Electors.
"At the election of Rudolph [1272 or 1273?] we meet for the
first time the fully developed college of electors as a single
electoral body; the secondary matter of a doubt regarding what
individuals composed it was definitely settled before
Rudolph's reign had come to an end. How did the college of
electors develop itself? … The problem is made more difficult
at the outset from the fact that, in the older form of
government in Germany there can be no question at all of a
simple electoral right in a modern sense. The electoral right
was amalgamated with a hereditary right of that family which
had happened to come to the throne: it was only a right of
selection from among the heirs available within this family.
Inasmuch now as such selection could,—as well from the whole
character of German kingship as in consequence of its
amalgamation with the empire—take place already during the
lifetime of the ruling member of the family, it is easy to
understand that in ages in which the ruling race did not die
out during many generations, the right came to be at last
almost a mere form. Usually the king, with the consent of
those who had the right of election, would, already during his
lifetime, designate as his successor one of his heirs,—if
possible his oldest son. Such was the rule in the time of the
Ottos and of the Salian emperors. It was a rule which could
not be adhered to in the first half of the 12th century after
the extinction of the Salian line, when free elections, not
determined beforehand by designation, took place in the years
1125, 1138 and 1152. Necessarily the clement of election now
predominated. But had any fixed order of procedure at
elections been handed down from the past? The very principle
of election having been disregarded in the natural course of
events for centuries, was it any wonder that the order of
procedure should also come to be half forgotten? And had not
in the meantime social readjustments in the electoral body so
disturbed this order of procedure, or such part of it as had
been important enough to be preserved, as necessarily to make
it seem entirely antiquated? With these questions the
electoral assemblies of the year 1125 as well as of the year
1138 were brought face to face and they found that practically
only those precedents could be taken from what seemed to have
been the former customary mode of elections which provided
that the archbishop of Mainz as chancellor of the empire
should first solemnly announce the name of the person elected
and the electors present should do homage to the new king.
This was at the end of the whole election, after the choice
had to all intents and purposes been already made. For the
material part of the election, on the other hand, the part
that preceded this announcement, they found an apparently new
expedient. A committee was to draw up an agreement as to the
person to be chosen; in the two cases in question the manner
of constituting this committee differed. Something essential
had now been done towards establishing a mode of procedure at
elections which should accord with the changed circumstances.
One case however had not been provided for in these still so
informal and uncertain regulations; the case, namely, that
those taking part in the election could come to no agreement
at all with regard to the person whose choice was to be
solemnly announced by the archbishop of Mainz. And how could
men have foreseen such a case in the first half of the 12th
century? Up till then double elections had absolutely never
taken place. Anti-kings there had been, indeed, but never two
opposing kings elected at the same time. In the year 1198,
however, this contingency arose; Philip of Suabia and Otto IV
were contemporaneously elected and the final unanimity of
choice that in 1152 had still been counted on as a matter of
course did not come about. As a consequence questions with
regard to the order of procedure now came up which had hardly
ever been touched upon before. First and foremost this one:
can a better right of one of the elected kings be founded on a
majority of the votes obtained? And in connection with it this
other: who on the whole has a right to cast an electoral vote?
Even though men were inclined now to answer the first question
in the affirmative, the second, the presupposition for the
practical application of the principle that had been laid down
in the first, offered all the greater difficulties. Should
one, after the elections of the years 1125 and 1152 and after
the development since 1180 of a more circumscribed class of
princes of the realm, accept the existence of a narrower
electoral committee? Did this have a right to elect
exclusively, or did it only have a simple right of priority in
the matter of casting votes, or perhaps only a certain
precedence when the election was being discussed? And how were
the limits to be fixed for the larger circle of electors below
this electoral committee? These are questions which the German
electors put to themselves less soon and less clearly than did
the pope, Innocent III, whom they had called upon to
investigate the double election of the year 1198. … He speaks
repeatedly of a narrower electoral body with which rests
chiefly the election of the king, and he knows only princes as
the members of this body. And beyond a doubt the repeated
expressions of opinion of the pope, as well as this whole
matter of having two kings, at the beginning of the 13th
century, gave men in Germany cause for reflection with regard
to these weighty questions concerning the constitutional forms
of the empire. One of the most important results of this
reflection on the subject is to be found in the solution given
by the Sachsenspiegel which was compiled about 1230. Eike von
Repgow knows in his law-book only of a precedence at elections
of a smaller committee of princes, but mentions as belonging
to this committee certain particular princes: the three
Rhenish archbishops, the count Palatine of the Rhine, the duke
of Saxony, the margrave of Brandenburg and,—his right being
questionable indeed—the king of Bohemia. … So far, at all
events, did the question with regard to the limitation of the
electors seem to have advanced towards its solution by the
year 1230 that an especial electoral college of particular
persons was looked upon as the nucleus of those electing. But
side by side with this view the old theory still held its own,
that certainly all princes at least had an equal right in the
election. Under Emperor Frederick II, for instance, it was
still energetically upheld. A decision one way or the other
could only be reached according to the way in which the next
elections should actually be carried out. Henry Raspe was
elected in the year 1246 almost exclusively by ecclesiastical
princes, among them the three Rhenish archbishops. He was the
first 'priest-king' (Pfaffenkönig). The second 'priest-king'
was William of Holland. He was chosen by eleven princes, among
whom was only one layman, the duke of Brabant. The others were
bishops; among them, in full force, the archbishops of the
Rhine.
{3761}
Present were also many counts. But William caused himself
still to be subsequently elected by the duke of Saxony and the
margrave of Brandenburg, while the king of Bohemia was also
not behindhand in acknowledging him—that, too, with special
emphasis. What transpired at the double election of Alphonse
and Richard in the year 1257 has not been handed down with
perfect trustworthiness. Richard claimed later to have been
elected by Mainz, Cologne, the Palatinate and Bohemia;
Alphonse by Treves, Saxony, Brandenburg and Bohemia. But in
addition to the princes of these lands, other German princes
also took part,—according to the popular view by assenting,
according to their own view, in part at least, by actually
electing. All the same the lesson taught by all these
elections is clear enough. The general right of election of
the princes disappears almost altogether; a definite electoral
college, which was looked upon as possessing almost
exclusively the sole right of electing, comes into prominence,
and the component parts which made it up correspond in
substance to the theory of the Sachsenspiegel. And whatever in
the year 1257 is not established firmly and completely and in
all directions, stands there as incontrovertible at the
election of Rudolph. The electors, and they only, now elect;
all share of others in the election is done away with.
Although in place of Ottocar of Bohemia who was at war with
Rudolph Bavaria seems to have been given the electoral vote,
yet before Rudolph's reign is out, in the year 1290, Bohemia
at last attains to the dignity which the Sachsenspiegel, even
if with some hesitation, had assigned to it. One of the most
important revolutions in the German form of government was
herewith accomplished. From among the aristocratic class of
the princes an oligarchy had raised itself up, a
representation of the princely provincial powers as opposed to
the king. Unconsciously, as it were, had it come into being,
not exactly desired by anyone as a whole, nor yet the result
of a fixed purpose even as regarded its separate parts. It
must clearly have corresponded to a deep and elementary and
gradually developing need of the time. Undoubtedly from a
national point of view it denotes progress; henceforward at
elections the danger of 'many heads many minds' was avoided;
the era of double elections was practically at an end."
_K. Lamprecht,
Deutsche Geschichte
(translated from the German),
volume 4, pages 23-28._
See, also, GERMANY: A. D. 1125-1152 (page 1444).
GERMANY:A. D. 1154-1190.
Frederick Barbarossa in Italy.
See (in this Supplement) ITALY: A. D. 1154-1190.
GERMANY:A. D. 1162-1177.
The Emperor and the Pope.
See (in this Supplement) PAPACY: A. D. 1162-1177.
GERMANY:12th-17th Centuries.
Causes of the Disintegration of the Empire.
"The whole difference between French and German constitutional
history can be summed up in a word: to the ducal power, after
its fall, the crown fell heir in France; the lesser powers,
which had been its own allies, in Germany. The event was the
same, the results were different: in France centralization, in
Germany disintegration. The fall of the power of the
stem-duchies is usually traced to the subjugation of the
mightiest of the dukes, Henry the Lion, who refused military
service to the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa just when the
latter most needed him in the struggle against the Lombards.
See SAXONY: A. D. 1178-1183 (page 2813).
… The emperor not only banned the duke, he not only took away
his duchy to bestow it elsewhere, but he entirely did away
with this whole form of rule. The western part, Westphalia,
went to the archbishops of Cologne; in the East the different
margraves were completely freed from the last remnants of
dependence that might have continued to exist. In the
intervening space the little ecclesiastical and secular lords
came to be directly under the emperor without a trace of an
intermediate power and with the title of bishop or abbot,
imperial count, or prince. If one of these lords, Bernard of
Ascanium, received the title of Saxon duke, that title no
longer betokened the head of a stem or nation but simply an
honorary distinction above other counts and lords. What
happened here had already begun to take place in the other
duchy of the Guelphs, in Bavaria, through the detachment from
it of Austria; sooner or later the same process came about in
all parts of the empire. With the fall of the old stem-duchies
those lesser powers which had been under their shadow or
subject to them gained every where an increase of power:
partly by this acquiring the ducal title as an honorary
distinction by the ruler of a smaller district, partly by
joining rights of the intermediate powers that had just been
removed to their own jurisdictions and thus coming into direct
dependence on the empire. … Such was the origin of the idea of
territorial supremacy. The 'dominus terrae' comes to feel
himself no longer as a person commissioned by the emperor but
as lord in his own land. … As to the cities, behind their
walls remnants of old Germanic liberty had been preserved.
Especially in the residences of the bishops had artisans and
merchants thriven and these classes had gradually thrown off
their bondage, forming, both together, the new civic
community. … The burghers could find no better way to show
their independence of the princes than that the community
itself should exercise the rights of a territorial lord over
its members. Thus did the cities as well as the principalities
come to form separate territories, only that the latter had a
monarchical, the former a republican form of government. … It
is a natural question to ask, on the whole, when this new
formation of territories was completed. … The question ought
really only to be put in a general way: at what period in
German history is it an established fact that there are in the
empire and under the empire separate territorial powers
(principalities and cities)? As such a period we can designate
approximately the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th
centuries. From that time on the double nature of imperial
power and of territorial power is an established fact and the
mutual relations of these two make up the whole internal
history of later times. … The last ruler who had spread abroad
the glory of the imperial name had been Frederick II. For a
long time after him no one had worn the imperial crown at all,
and of those kings who reigned during a whole quarter of a
century not one succeeded in making himself generally
recognized. There came a time when the duties of the state, if
they were fulfilled at all, were fulfilled by the territorial
powers.
{3762}
Those are the years which pass by the name of the interregnum.
… Rudolph of Hapsburgh and his successors, chosen from the
most different houses and pursuing the most different
policies, have quite the same position in two regards: on the
one hand the crown, in the weak state in which it had emerged
from the interregnum, saw itself compelled to make permanent
concessions to the territorial powers in order to maintain
itself from one moment to another; on the other hand it finds
no refuge for itself but in the constant striving to found its
own power on just such privileged territories. When the kings
strive to make the princes and cities more powerful by giving
them numerous privileges, and at the same time by bringing
together a dynastic appanage to gain for themselves an
influential position: this is no policy that wavers between
conceding and maintaining. … The crown can only keep its place
above the territories by first recognizing the territorial
powers and then, through just such a recognized territorial
power by creating for itself the means of upholding its
rights. … The next great step in the onward progress of the
territorial power was the codification of the privileges which
the chief princes had obtained. Of the law called the 'Golden
Bull' only the one provision is generally known, that the
seven electors shall choose the emperor; yet so completely
does the document in question draw the affairs of the whole
empire into the range of its provisions that for centuries it
could pass for that empire's fundamental law. It is true that,
for the most part it did not create a new system of
legislation but only sanctioned what already existed. But for
the position of all the princes it was significant enough that
the seven most considerable among them were granted an
independence which comprised sovereign rights, and this not by
way of a privilege but as a part of the law of the land. A
sharply defined goal, and herein lies the deepest
significance, was thus set up at which the lesser territories
could aim and which, after three centuries, they were to
attain. … This movement was greatly furthered when on the
threshold of modern times the burning question of church
reform, after waiting in vain to be taken up by the emperor,
was taken up by the lower classes, but with revolutionary
excesses. … The mightiest intellectual movement of German
history found at last its only political mainstay in the
territories. … This whole development, finally, found its
political and legal completion through the Thirty Years War
and the treaty of peace which concluded it. The new law which
the Peace of Westphalia now gave to the empire proclaimed
expressly that all territories should retain their rights,
especially the right of making alliances among themselves and
with foreigners so long as it could be done without violating
the oath of allegiance to the emperor and the empire. Herewith
the territories were proclaimed to be what they had really
been for a long time—states under the empire."
_I. Jastrow,
Geschichte der deutschen Einheitstraum und seiner Erfüllung
(translated from the German).
pages 30-37._
GERMANY: 13th-15th Centuries.
The rise of the Free Cities and their Leagues.
"Under cities we are to understand fortified places in the
enjoyment of market-jurisdiction (marktrecht), immunity and
corporate self-government. The German as well as the French
cities are a creation of the Middle Ages. They were unknown to
the Frankish as well as to the old Germanic public law; there
was no organic connection with the Roman town-system. … All
cities were in the first place markets; only in
market-jurisdiction are we to seek the starting point for
civic jurisdiction. The market-cross, the same emblem which
already in the Frankish period signified the market-peace
imposed under penalty of the king's ban, became in the Middle
Ages the emblem of the cities. … After the 12th century we
find it to be the custom in most German and many French cities
to erect a monumental town-cross in the market-place or at
different points on the city boundary. Since the 14th century
the place of this was often taken in North-German cities by
the so-called Roland-images. … All those market-places
gradually became cities in which, in addition to yearly
markets, weekly markets and finally daily markets were held.
Here there was need of coins and of scales, of permanent
fortifications for the protection of the market-peace and the
objects of value which were collected together; here merchants
settled permanently in growing numbers, the Jews among them
especially forming an important element. Corporative
associations of the merchants resulted, and especially were
civic and market tribunals established. … From the beginning
such a thing as free cities, which were entirely their own
masters, had not existed. Each city had its lord; who he was
depended on to whom the land belonged on which they stood. If
it belonged to the empire or was under the administration
(vogtei) of the empire the city was a royal or imperial one.
The oldest of these were the Pfalz-cities (Pfalzstädte) which
had developed from the king's places of residence
(Königspfälze). … Beginning with the 12th century and in
course of the 13th century all cities came to have such an
organ [i. e. a body of representatives] called the Stadtrath
(consilium, consules) with one or more burgomasters (magistri
civium) at their head. Herewith did the city first become a
public corporation, a city in the legal sense. … Of the royal
cities many since the time of Frederick II had lost their
direct dependence on the empire (Reichsunmittelbarkeit) and
had become territorial or provincial cities, through having
been sold or pledged by the imperial government. As soon as
the view had gained ground that the king had no right to make
such dispositions and thus to disregard the privileges that
had been granted to the cities, people spoke no longer of
royal cities but of cities of the empire. These had, all of
them, in course of time, even where the chief jurisdiction
remained in the hand of an imperial official, attained a
degree of independence approximating to the territorial
supremacy of the princes. They had their special courts as
corporations before the king. Since the second half of the
13th century they rejoiced in an autonomy modified only by the
laws of the realm; they had the disposal of their own armed
contingents and the sole right of placing garrisons in their
fortresses. They had accordingly also the right of making
leagues and carrying on feuds, the right to lordless lands
(Heimfallsrecht) … and other prerogatives. The cities of the
empire often ruled at the same time over extensive
territories. …
{3763}
Among the cities of the empire were comprised after the 14th
century also various cities of bishoprics which had been able
to protect themselves from subjection to the territorial power
of the bishop, and which only stood to it in a more or less
loose degree of subordination. … For the majority of the
cities of bishoprics which later became cities of the empire
the denomination 'Free Cities' came up in the 14th century
(not till later 'Free Cities of the Empire'). … Among the
leagues of cities, which especially contributed to raise their
prestige and paved the way to their becoming Estates of the
Empire or of the principalities, the great Rhenish civic
confederation (1254-1256) lasted too short a time to have an
enduring effect. The Swabian civic league was for purely
political purposes—the maintenance of the direct dependence on
the empire (Reichsunmittelbarkeit) against the claims of
territorial sovereignty of the princes, and its unfortunate
ending served rather to deteriorate than to improve the
condition of the cities. It was different with the Hansa. This
name, which signified nothing else than gild or brotherhood,
was first applied to the gild of the German merchants in the
'stahlhof' in London. This gild, having originated from the
amalgamation of various national Houses of German merchants in
England, had finally, under the name of 'Hansa of Germany' or
'Gildhall of the Germans in England,' come to comprise all
Germans who carried on trade with England. Similar
associations of the German merchants were the 'German House'
in Venice, the 'German Counting-house' in Bruges and the
German Hansas in Wisby on Gotland, in Schonen, Bergen, Riga
and Novgorod. The chief purpose of these Hansas was the
procuring of a 'House' as a shelter for persons and for wares,
the maintaining of peace among, the Hansa brothers, legal
protection, the acquisition of commercial privileges, etc. The
Hansas were gilds with several elected aldermen at their heads
who represented them in external matters and who administered
the property. … Quarrels among the brothers might not, under
penalty, be brought before external tribunals; they were to be
brought before the Hansa committee as a gild-tribunal. This
committee had also an extended penal jurisdiction over the
members; under certain circumstances they had even the power
of life and death in their hands. An especially effective
punishment was the Hansa Bann, which occasioned, besides
expulsion from the Hansa, a complete boycott on the part of
the Hansa brothers. … The community of interests thus founded
among these cities led repeatedly, already as early as the
second half of the 13th century, to common steps on their
part; so that in Hansa affairs a tacit league existed, even
although it had not been expressly sanctioned. After this had
become more clearly apparent in the troubles with Flanders
(1356-1358) the name Hansa was also applied to this
league-relationship, so that henceforward besides the Hansa of
the German merchants there existed a Hansa of the German
cities. The Hanseatic League received a firm organization
through the Greifswald and Cologne confederations of 1361 and
1367, both of which were at first only entered into for a
single warlike undertaking (against Waldemar of Denmark), but
which were then repeatedly renewed and finally looked upon as
a permanent league. The Hanseatic League … came forward in
external matters, even in international relationships, as an
independent legal entity. It carried on war and entered into
treaties with foreign nations; it had a league army at its
disposal and a league fleet; it acquired whole territorial
districts and saw to the building of fortresses. In itself it
was not a defensive and offensive league; it did not concern
itself with the feuds of single cities with outsiders. The
sphere of activity of the league was essentially confined to
the province of commerce: protection of commerce, … the
closing of commercial treaties, etc. … The head of the League
was and continued to be Lubeck. Its kernel, as it were, was
formed by the Wendish (i. e. Mecklenburg and Pomeranian)
cities which were united under Lubeck. Originally any city of
Lower Germany which asked to be taken in was received into the
League. … Hansa cities which did not fulfil their federal
obligations came under the penalty of the Hansa bann and the
general commercial ostracism consequent upon it. … The federal
power was exercised by civic diets, which were assemblies of
delegates from the members of the council [Rath] of the
individual cities. The summons was sent by Lubeck. The decrees
were passed in the form of 'recesses.' … Within the League
again were narrower leagues with their own common affairs and
their own civic diets. After numerous changes the four
'quarters' were recognized as such: the Wendish under Lubeck
as its head, the Saxon under Brunswick, the Cologne under
Cologne, the Prussian-Livonian under Danzig.
_R. Schröder,
Lehrbuch der deutschen Rechtsgeschichte
(translated from the German),
pages 588-609._
See, also, HANSA TOWNS (page 1624),
and CITIES, IMPERIAL AND FREE (page 473).
GERMANY: 15th-17th Centuries.
The decay of the Hansa.
"The complete ruin of the empire in the course of the 15th
century necessarily entailed at last the ruin also of its
members. Nowhere did this elementary truth make itself felt in
a more terrible manner than in northeastern Germany, in those
colonial districts which in consequence of the extraordinary
development of the Hansa had risen in importance to the extent
of having an influence on the whole east and northeast of
Europe. Here the year 1370 had denoted for the Hansa a climax
without a parallel. After a glorious war it had closed with
the Danish king, Waldemar Atterdag, a peace which seemed about
to keep the northern kingdoms, for a long time to come, under
the power of its will. But, soon after, the Lubeck-Hanseatic
policy began to degenerate. … The Hansa had looked on without
interfering at the struggle which began between the Teutonic
Order and Poland. This freed it from the threatening maritime
supremacy of the Order; besides this it had just become
involved, itself, in conflicts in the North. … A long and
tedious war ensued … which ended to the disadvantage of the
Hansa. … Within the Hansa, during the struggle, the divergency
of interests between the Wendish, Prussian and Livonian cities
had for the first time become so pronounced as to amount to
complete disunion, and already in 1431 in Hanseatic circles
the fear could be expressed … 'that the noble confederation of
our Hansa will be dissolved and destroyed.' Such being the
case it soon became evident that the struggle with King Erich
had actually cost the Hansa the 'Dominium maris Baltici.'
{3764}
For one thing the English and the Dutch, more and more
unopposed, began to carry on in the East a commerce which was
hostile to the Hansa. … While the Western enemies of the Hansa
thus appeared in districts on the Baltic, which had hitherto
been reserved for the Hanseatic merchant, the influence on the
North Sea of the Baltic Hansa cities diminished also more and
more. It was possible indeed, for some time to come, still to
hold on to Norway. But further to the southwest the Hansa
ships, in the war which England in union with Burgundy had
been waging with France since the year 1415, saw themselves
attacked on all sides in spite of the neutral flag. It was
well-known that the empire would not protect the German flag.
It was worse still that in England a more and more violent
opposition arose against the Hanseatic privileges, for the
progress of this movement laid bare once and for all the
fundamental contrast between the commercial interests in
England of the Rhenish Hansa cities and those of the
'Osterlings' [Eastern cities]. If the English were prepared
perhaps to further extend the rights of the Hansa in their
land in return for the simultaneous free entry of their flag
in the Baltic, that was a condition which pleased the German
western cities as much as it seemed unacceptable to the
Osterlings, Lubeck at their head. The English had succeeded in
carrying discord into the enemy's camp. Affairs in Flanders
were on a footing equally dangerous to the continued existence
of the Hansa as a whole. … Lubeck, in a diet of the year 1466,
recommended the members of the Hansa to consider the merchants
of Cologne as not belonging to the Hansa when in the lands of
the Duke of Burgundy. A complete breach could not now fail to
come. It occurred, very unfortunately for Cologne and the
western cities, on English territory. In 1468 English ships
were plundered in the 'Sund,' at the bidding, as was claimed,
of the Hansa. The result was that King Edward IV took prisoner
all German merchants who happened to be in England and forbade
commercial intercourse with Germany. From this restriction,
however, the Cologners were able to free themselves through
separate negotiations with the king. It was an inconsiderate
step thus to separate themselves from the rest of the Hansa,
and that, too, in such a question as this. Cologne stood there
fully isolated now even from the western cities. Lubeck at
once profited by the occasion to have Cologne placed under the
Hansa bann and soon after the Hansa, almost entirely united
now except for Cologne, began the war against England. In the
year 1472 a great fleet sailed out against the island-kingdom;
it had complete success. The peace of Utrecht of February 18th
1474 restored once more the old Hanseatic privileges in
England and opened up the prospect of damages amounting to
£10,000. Cologne had to submit; in 1478 it returned to the
Hansa. But all the same there was no complete restoration of
the old unity. The mercantile differences between the west and
the east cities not only continued but increased, and a
dominion over the Baltic, not to mention the North Sea, was,
in spite of the momentary success in England, no longer to be
thought of. … After about 1490 the interests also of the
Wendish cities including, say, Bremen, Hamburg and Lüneburg,
became divided. … Thus towards the end of the 15th century the
Hansa bore the stamp of decline in all directions, … the
political-mercantile preponderance on land, as well as the
'Dominium maris Baltici,' was broken and the league itself was
torn by internal dissensions. In the years from 1476 to 1494
only one common Hansa diet was held; complete ruin was now
only a question of time. The 16th century and a part still of
the 17th century comprise the period of the slow wasting away
of the Hansa. While at the beginning of this period the South
German merchant-princes developed a German world-commerce, the
satiated mercantile houses of the North showed themselves
incapable of progressing even on purely commercial paths. They
remained in the ruts of old-fashioned commerce." In England
"less and less regard was paid to the warnings and plaints of
this antiquated piece of retrogression, until Queen Elisabeth
made use of the incautious promulgation of an imperial edict
forbidding English merchants to settle in the Hansa cities to
simply abrogate the Hanseatic privileges in England. It was
the key-stone on the tomb of the Hanseatic relations with
England, once so close and full of import."
_K. Lamprecht,
Deutsche Geschichte
(translated from the German),
volume 4, pages 468-484._
"The unmerciful fate which had overtaken the German nation
[the 30 years war], like a storm wind descending upon the
land, gave also the death-blow to that proud communal system
which when in its prime showed better than any other
institution the greatness of the German power in the Middle
Ages. He who does not know the history of the Hansa does not
know how to estimate the true significance of our people. He
does not know that no goal was too distant for it, no task too
great; that at the same time it could belong to the first
commercial nations of the world and intellectually absorb and
work over the idea of humanism, could offer defiance to the
kings of the Danes and challenge the pope for usurping the
rule of the world. How did things still look on the Thames
when in Dantzig, day after day, four or five hundred ships
were running in and out, when the merchants of Soest, Dortmund
and Osnabrück were opening their counting-houses in the
Warangian city of Novgorod? It is in truth nothing new if the
German nation today again begins to reckon itself among the
naval powers. … In those days it was also the baneful
religious schism which hindered the great commercial centres
on the German northern coast from making use of the favoring
constellations which presented themselves. The evangelical
burghers of Lubeck and Rostock could not make up their minds
for the sake of advantageous trade connections with Spain to
become bailiffs of their brothers of the faith in Holland;
they could put no trust in the brilliant promises with which
the emperor's Jesuits tried to turn them away from the cause
of Denmark and Sweden, and herewith probably the last
opportunity was missed of breathing new life in the already
aging commercial league. The attempt made in 1641 to renew the
league by ten cities remained ineffectual. Lubeck which
already in 1629 had lost 96 ships could no longer keep itself
from ruin; its great commercial houses became bankrupt and
drew down the smaller ones with them in their fall; Dantzig,
which still in 1619 had been able to show an export of grain
to the amount of 102,981 tons, exported in 1655 only 11,361,
and in 1659 not more than 542 tons."
_Zwideneck-Sü-denhorst,
Deutsche Geschichte, 1648-1740
(translated from the German),
volume 1, page 50._
{3765}
GERMANY: 16th Century.
At the beginning of the Reformation Movement.
"An increase in pilgrimages first begins to mark a new phase
of religious life which was encouraged by the admonitions of
preachers of repentance like Capistrano. Like an avalanche did
the numbers grow of the pilgrims who streamed together from
all parts of Upper and Central Germany, from the foot of the
Alps to the Harz Mountains. Thirty, even seventy thousand
might have been counted of those who assembled at Niklashausen
to hear the words of the prophet (Boeheim) who was already
reverenced as a saint. … This 'saint' was burned with an Ave
Maria upon his lips. … It might have been supposed that the
sad outcome of these movements would have frightened men away,
but no; one can boldly maintain on the contrary that never,
save during the crusades, were so many pilgrimages made as in
the last 60 or 70 years before the reformation. … If that way
of striving after righteousness before God, vain and mistaken
as it seems to us, may be looked upon as religion, then the
last fifty or sixty years before the reformation show an
exceptionally high degree of religious feeling, or at least of
religions need; a feeling ever increasing through lack of
means to satisfy it. With regard to the clergy, indeed, things
looked dark enough, especially in North and Central Germany.
One does not know which was greater, their lack of knowledge
or their lack of morality. … The most incredible facts were
brought to light by the later visitations. … The result might
have been a complete return to heathenism had such a clergy,
which could show, especially in the larger South German
cities, but few redeeming exceptions, had the whole spiritual
guidance of the people in its hands. But it did not; and the
doings of the secular clergy by no means affected the
religious life of the community as they would have done
to-day. The exponents and fosterers of this religious life at
that time in Germany were the mendicant friars: Franciscans,
Dominicans, Augustinian friars. … Many things in the outer
world, especially at the end of the century, came to aid the
church's efforts: the needs of an age in which so much was
unstable; the anger of Heaven which, as the monks so
drastically preached and the multitude piously believed, so
evidently threatened to vent itself. That period of history,
indeed, might be called a prosperous one by anyone regarding
merely superficially the condition of social and political
affairs. It is well known how German commerce prospered at
that time, extending to all parts of the world and ever having
new paths opened up for it by the new discoveries. Frenchmen
and Italians, astounded at the riches and princely splendor
which the commercial magnates in the South German
trade-centres were able to display, sang the praises of the
prosperity and culture of the land. Industry and commerce were
on the increase and art, realizing its highest aims, found an
abiding-place and self-sacrificing patrons in the houses of
the citizens. With every year the number of high and low-grade
schools on the Rhine and in South Germany increased in number,
and were still scarcely able to do justice to the pressing
educational needs. An undercurrent of fresh and joyous
creative impulse, full of promise for the future, can be
traced among the burghers. But if one regards the age as a
whole one sees everywhere not only a threatening, but actually
a present decline. The abundant popular literature, more even
than the writings of scholars, gives a clear insight into
these matters. … Since the days of antiquity, on the eve of
the French Revolution alone do we find the opposing principles
so sharply contrasted with each other as they were at the end
of the Middle Ages. In the rich commercial cities themselves
there was already an immense proletariat as opposed to the
excessive wealth; and there is reason to believe that never,
even counting the present day, have there been so many beggars
as in those decades. It must be borne in mind that, both
practically and theoretically, beggary was furthered by the
church. Much from her rich table fell into the lap of the poor
man, and actually not only was it no shame to beg but beggary
was a vocation like any other. The man who ate the bread of
beggary stood morally higher than he who toiled to gain a
living. … Men did, on the other hand, have the consciousness
that the great accumulation of capital in the hands of
individuals furthered poverty as it always does. The
complaints are general against 'selfishness'; the pauper, the
town artisan, the noble and the scholar are remarkably in
accord on this one point, that deception, usury and cheating
are the only explanation of the prosperity of the merchant.
When the knight attacked the goods-waggons of the traders he
believed that he was only taking what rightfully belonged to
himself. The merchants and the rich prelates were responsible
to his mind for the deterioration of his own class or estate
which can no longer hold its own against the rich civilians.
All the more does he oppress his own serfs. Only seldom among
the higher classes do we hear a word of pity for the poor man,
a word of blame against the fleecing and harrassing of the
peasants; much oftener bitter scorn and mockery, which
nevertheless is founded on fear; for men know well enough in
their inmost souls that the peasant is only waiting for a
suitable moment in which to strike out and take bloody
vengeance, and anxiously do they await the future. Even among
the citizens themselves those who were without possessions
were filled with hatred against the rich and against those of
high degree. The introduction of Roman law, unintelligible to
the burgher and peasant, made the feeling of being without law
a common one. The more firmly did men pin their faith on that
future in which the Last Judgment of God was to come and
annihilate priests and lords. Such impressions, which were
kept vivid by an ever spreading popular literature, by word of
mouth and by pictorial representations, could only be
heightened by the state of political affairs in the last
decades of the 15th century and the first years of the 16th.
Well known are the many struggles for the firmer organization
of the empire, for the carrying through of the reform-plans of
a Berthold of Mainz. The publicists of the time, and to no
small degree the Emperor Maximilian himself, who, if he wanted
to carry through any measure addressed himself directly to the
people, cast broadside among the populace numerous pamphlets
containing the most unintelligible ideas and promises.
{3766}
And what a host of plans and ideas did this much loved,
knightly emperor not have! How beautifully could he talk of
old German might and glory and draw pictures of a rosy future.
With intense interest did men follow the transactions of the
diets which promised to better affairs. One plan of taxation
followed on the heels of another. What project was left
undiscussed for the better carrying out of the Peace of the
Land! In the end everything remained as it had been save the
want and general discomfort which increased from year to year.
Bad harvests and consequent rise in prices, famine, severe
sicknesses and plagues are once more the stock chapters in the
chronicles. Frightful indeed were the ravages caused by the
first, almost epidemic, appearance of the Syphilis; with
regard to which, during the whole period of the reformation,
the moral judgment wavered. … It is a wondrous, gloomy time,
torn by contradictions, a time in which all is in a ferment,
everything seems to totter. Everything but one institution,
the firmly welded edifice of the Roman church. To Germany also
came the news of the horrible vices with which the popes just
at this time disgraced the Holy See: people knew that no deed
was too black for them when it was a question of satisfying
their greed of power and their lust. But nevertheless they
remained the successors of Peter and the representatives of
Christ, and so little can one speak of a process of
dissolution in the church, that the latter appears on the
contrary the only stable power and the
religious-ecclesiastical idea is rather the one that rules all
things. Although men to a great extent scorn and mock her
servants and long often with burning hatred for their
annihilation, yet it continues always to be the church that
holds the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and that can avert the
wrath of God; the church, to which the anxious soul turns as
the last anchor of hope and tries to outdo itself in her
service. It is not indeed pious reverence for a God who is
holy and yet gracious that draws the sinners to their knees,
but the dread of the tortures of purgatory and of the wrath of
Him who sits above the world to judge it. This causes the
soul, restless, dissatisfied, to be ceaseless in its endeavors
to conciliate the Angry One through sacrificial service—the
whole religious activity being one half-despairing 'Miserere'
called forth by fear. Such was the spirit of the age in which
Martin Luther was born and in which he passed his youth."
_Kolde,
Martin Luther
(translated from the German),
volume 1, pages 5-27._
See, also, PAPACY: A. D. 1471-1513, to 1517-1521
(pages 2441-2450).
GERMANY: 16th Century.
The Catholic Reaction.
"Altogether about the year 1570 the spread of protestantism in
Germany and the lands under its influence had reached its
zenith. It had been accepted by the great majority of the
nation—already in 1558 about seven tenths; the gaining over of
the rest also seemed only a question of the near future. Yet
beyond a doubt its lasting success was only legally assured in
places where it had won over the governing power and could
stand on the generally recognized basis of the religious
peace. This was the case in the secular principalities of the
protestant dynasties, but not in the Wittelsbach and Hapsburgh
lands, where its lawful existence depended only on the
personal concessions of the existing ruler, and still less in
the ecclesiastical territories. … To give it here the secure
legal basis which it lacked was the most important problem, as
regarded internal German affairs, of the protestant policy. …
The only way to attain this was to secure the recognition on
the part of the empire of the free right of choosing a
confession in the bishoprics; in other words the renunciation
of the 'Ecclesiastical reservation.' … This goal could only be
attained if the protestants advanced in a solid phalanx. This
is, however, just what they could not do. For they themselves
were torn by bitter contentions with regard to the faith. …
From this point of view it was no boon that Calvinism, the
specifically French form of protestantism, found entrance also
into Germany. … Under its influence, to begin with, the
Saxon-Thuringian church became divided in its interpretation
of the teachings concerning justification and the Lord's
Supper. … The complications were still further increased when
Frederick III of the Palatinate, elector since 1559, disgusted
at the quarrelsomeness of the Lutheran theologians, dismissed
the zealot Tilemann in August 1560, and in 1563 gave over the
recognized church of the Palatinate to Calvinism. Herewith he
completely estranged the Lutherans who did not regard the
Calvinists as holding the same faith. … Germany could no
longer count itself among the great powers and at home the
discord was ever increasing. The motion of the Palatinate in
the electoral diet of October 1575 to incorporate in the
religious peace the so-called 'Declaration of King Ferdinand'
with regard to it, and thus to secure the local option with
regard to a creed in the bishoprics, was opposed not only by
the ecclesiastical members of the electoral college but also
by the electorate of Saxony. In consequence of the same party
strife a similar motion of the Palatinate, made in the diet of
Regensburg, was lost. … On the one hand hostilities grew more
bitter among the German protestants, on the other the Roman
church, supported by the power of the Spanish world-monarchy,
advanced everywhere, within and without the German empire, to
a well-planned attack. … She had won her first victory in the
empire with the refusal in 1576 to grant the local option of
creed, for this was almost equivalent to a recognition on the
protestant side of the 'Ecclesiastical Reservation.' The more
eagerly did Rome, by demanding the oath drawn up in the
council of Trent, strive to chain fast her bishops to her, to
remove those who made opposition even if it had to happen by
disregarding the law of the land and the religious treaties,
to bring zealous catholic men into the episcopal
sees—everywhere to set the reaction in motion. The manner of
proceeding was always the same: the protestant pastors and
teachers were banished; the catholic liturgy, in which the
utmost splendor was unfolded, was reintroduced into the
churches, and competent catholic clergy were put in office.
The members of the community, left without a leader, had now
only the choice allowed to them of joining the catholic church
or of emigrating; the protestant officials were replaced by
catholic ones; new institutions of learning, conducted by
Jesuits, were founded for the purpose of winning the rising
generation, inwardly also, for Catholicism.
{3767}
Beyond a doubt this whole work of restoration put an end in
many cases to a confused and untenable state of affairs, but
at least as often it crushed down by force a healthy, natural
development and wrought havoc in the moral life of the people.
Thus did the reaction gain the ascendancy in most of the
ecclesiastical principalities of the South; in the North the
scale still hung in the balance. … And in this condition of
affairs the discord among the protestants grew worse year by
year! 'Their war is our peace' was the exultant cry of the
Catholics when they looked upon this schism. In order to
preserve pure Lutheranism from any deviation, the electoral
court of Saxony caused the 'Formula of Concord' to be drawn up
by three prominent theologians in the monastery of Bergen near
Madgeburg (20 May 1577), and compelled all pastors and
teachers of the land to accept them under pain of dismissal
from office. As this necessarily accentuated the differences
with the Calvinists, John Casimir of the Palatinate
endeavored, in the Convention of Frankfort on the Main in
1577, to unite the protestants of all denominations and all
lands … in a common effort at defence; but his appeal and the
embassy which he sent to the evangelical princes met with no
very favorable reception. On the contrary in course of time 86
estates of the empire accepted the Formula of Concord which
was now published in Dresden, together with the names of those
who had signed it, on the 25th of June 1580, the 50th
anniversary of handing in the Augsburg Confession. What a pass
had matters come to since that great epoch! … At any rate the
unity of the German protestants was completely at an end, and
especially any joint action between Saxony and the Palatinate
had been rendered impossible. … In 1582 the Roman party opened
a well-planned campaign for the purpose of putting itself in
full possession of the power in the empire. The emperor
belonged as it was to their confession, so all depended on the
manner in which the diet should be made up; and this again
depended on who should be members of the college of princes:
for in the college of electors the votes of the protestants
and catholics were equal inasmuch as the Bohemian vote was
'dormant,' and of the imperial cities only a few were still
catholic. In the electoral college, then, the protestants
possessed the majority so long as the 'administrators' [of the
bishoprics] maintained as hitherto their seat and their vote.
In the first place the catholics succeeded in the diet of 1582
in persuading Magdeburg for the nonce to renounce in favor of
Salzburg its presidency in the assembly of the princes;
herewith, however, a precedent was given, not only for this
ecclesiastical foundation but for all the evangelical
administrators, that permitted of the most fateful conclusions
being drawn to the disadvantage of the protestants. Scarcely
had this happened when the Roman party gave a decisive turn to
affairs on the Lower Rhine. Archbishop Gebhard of Cologne
prepared to follow the example of his predecessor Hermann of
Wied, chiefly induced, it must be said, by the wish to gain
the hand of the fair countess Agnes of Mansfeld. Relying on
the Cologne protestants and the Counts of the Wetterau and
reckoning on help from the Netherlands he formally went over
to the protestant church on the 19th of December 1582,
proclaimed the local option of a creed for his diocese on the
16th of January 1583, and married the Countess Agnes a few
weeks later in Bonn. While on the one hand, now, the diet of
the duchy of Westphalia declared for him and the local option
was here put through, the Cologne diet, on the other, called
together by the cathedral chapter, declared against him, under
pressure as it was from both Spain and Rome. Pope Gregory XIII
deposed him … and on the 23rd of May the pupil of the Jesuits,
Ernest of Bavaria, who already since 1566 had been bishop of
Freisingen, since 1573 of Hildesheim, since 1581 also of
Liege, was placed in the see of Cologne. The war began. On the
one side Spanish and Bavarian troops marched into the land, on
the other forces from the Netherlands and the Palatinate, led
by John Casimir in person under the approval of Louis VI. …
The fortunes of war soon turned completely against him
[Gebhard], … he himself was beaten and compelled to flee to
the Netherlands, and Westphalia was then conquered. This
victory was decisive not only for Northern Germany, but for
the fate of the bishoprics altogether—indeed for the whole
form which the administration of the empire was to take. Had
Gebhard held his own, the majority in the electoral college
would have become protestant; the bishoprics in the northwest
which had not yet taken a decisive stand, and probably others
also, would have followed the example of Cologne and would
never have allowed their seats in the assembly of princes to
be taken from them; the Lower Rhenish-Westphalian provinces
would then have been gained for protestantism. The opposite of
all this now happened. In the first place Archbishop Ernest
restored the Roman church by the most oppressive means in
Westphalia; he called the Jesuits to Bonn, Neuss, Emmerich and
Hildesheim. His election as bishop of Munster (May 1585)
decided the victory in that bishopric also. … The Roman party
succeeded now, actually, in driving the administrators from
the diet. In order not to cause the violent dissolution of the
diet which met in April 1594 for the purpose of granting a tax
which was pressingly needed for the Turkish war, Magdeburg
renounced once more Its presidency in the college of princes;
and when, in December 1597, the diet was again called for the
same purpose, the catholic estates, in spite of all protests
to the contrary, regarded the matter as having been settled by
the precedents of the last two diets. Herewith the
administrators lost their seats in the diet, and in the
college of princes the majority was in the hands of the
catholics. Inasmuch also as the evangelical members of the
college of electors did not hold together, the total majority
of the diet was at the disposal of the catholics. … On the
27th of April 1608 the Palatinate, together with Brandenburg
and nine lesser protestant estates, but without the electorate
of Saxony [Luther's state!], declared to Duke Ferdinand of
Styria, the emperor's representative, that they would leave
the diet but would maintain the possession of the
ecclesiastical estates by force if necessary. The schism with
the church had already paralyzed the judicial system of the
empire; it now paralyzed also its highest political
corporation."
_Käemmel,
Deutsche Geschichte
(translated from the German),
pages 701-715._
See, also, PAPACY: A. D. 1537-1563 (page 2458).
{3768}
GERMANY: A. D. 1615.
First newspaper publications.
See PRINTING AND PRESS: A. D. 1612-1650 (page 2592).
GERMANY: A. D. 1618-1700.
The rise of Prussia.
"King Frederick [the Great] has good reason for it when he
says in his memoirs: 'Just as a river first becomes valuable
when it gets to be navigable, so the history of Brandenburg
first gains more serious importance towards the beginning of
the 17th century.' It was under the elector John Sigismund
that three decisive occurrences took place which opened up a
great future for the Marks—a totally different development
from the growth of the other lands of the empire. These were
the joining to Brandenburg of the secularized provinces of the
Teutonic Order, the going over of the ruling house itself to
the reformed church, finally the acquisition of the Lower
Rhenish border lands. Other princes of the empire also,
catholics as well as protestants, had enlarged their power by
means of the lands of the old church. But in the matter of the
territory of the Order the policy of the German protestants
ventured its boldest move; by Luther's advice the Hohenzollern
Albrecht snatched away from the Roman church the largest of
all its clerical belongings. The whole territory of the new
duchy of Prussia was alienated ecclesiastical land; the pope's
anathema and the emperor's ban fell on the head of the
renegade prince. Never was the Roman See willing to recognize
such robbery. In uniting the ducal crown of their Prussian
cousins with their own electoral hat the Hohenzollerns of the
Mark broke forever with the Roman church. Their state stood
and fell henceforward with the fortunes of Protestantism. At
the same time John Sigismund adopted the reformed creed. … At
the same time of thus gaining a firm footing on the Baltic
John Sigismund acquired the duchy of Cleve together with the
counties of Mark and Ravensberg,—a territory narrow in
circumference but highly important for the internal
development as well as for the European policy of the state.
They were lands which were strongholds of old and proven
peasant and civic freedom, richer and of higher capacities for
culture than the needy colonies of the East, outposts of
incalculable value on Germany's weakest frontier. In Vienna
and Madrid it was felt as a severe defeat that a new
evangelical power should establish itself there on the Lower
Rhine where Spaniards and Netherlanders were struggling for
the existence or non-existence of protestantism—right before
the gates of Cologne which was the citadel of Romanism in the
empire. … A power so situated could no longer have its horizon
bounded by the narrow circle of purely territorial policy; it
was a necessity for it to seek to round off its widely
scattered provinces into a consistent whole; it was compelled
to act for the empire and to strike for it, for every attack
of strangers on German ground cut into its own flesh. … For
the House of Brandenburg, too, tempting calls often sounded
from afar, … but a blessed providence, which earnest thinkers
should not regard as a mere chance, compelled the
Hohenzollerns to remain in Germany. They did not need the
foreign crowns, for they owed their independent position among
other states to the possession of Prussia, a land that was
German to the core, a land the very being of which was rooted
in the mother-country, and yet at the same time one that did
not belong to the political organization of the empire. Thus
with one foot in the empire, the other planted outside of it,
the Prussian state won for itself the right to carry on a
European policy which could strive for none but German ends.
It was able to care for Germany without troubling itself about
the empire and its superannuated forms. … The state of the
Hohenzollerns plunged once again headlong from the position of
power which it had so recently attained; it was on the sure
road to ruin so long as John Sigismund's successor looked
sleepily into the world out of his languid eyes. This new
attempt, too, at forming a German state seemed again about to
end in the misery of petty-stateism as had been the case
formerly with the political constellations of the Guelphs, the
Wettiners, the Counts Palatine, which had arisen under
immeasurably more favorable auspices. It was at this juncture
that the elector Frederick William, the greatest German man of
his day, entered the chaos of German life as a prince without
land, armed only with club and sling, and put a new soul into
the slumbering forces of his state by the power of his will.
From that time on the impulse of the royal will, conscious of
its goal, was never lost to the growing chief state of the
Germans. One can imagine English history without William III,
the history of France without Richelieu; the Prussian state is
the work of its princes. … Already in the first years of the
rule of the Great Elector the peculiar character of the new
political creation shows out sharply and clearly. The nephew
of Gustavus Adolphus who leads his army to battle with the old
protestant cry of 'with God' resumes the church policy of his
uncle. He it is who first among the strife of churches cries
out the saving word and demands general and unconditional
amnesty for all three creeds. This was the program of the
Westphalian peace. And far beyond the provisions of this
treaty of peace went the tolerance which the Hohenzollerns
allowed to be exercised within their lands. … While Austria
drives out its best Germans by force, the confines of
Brandenburg are thrown open with unequalled hospitality to
sufferers of every creed. How many thousand times has the song
of praise of the Bohemian exiles sounded forth in the Marks! …
When Louis XIV revokes the Edict of Nantes the little
Brandenburg lord steps forth boldly against him as the
spokesman of the protestant world, and offers through his
Potsdam Edict shelter and protection to the sons of the
martyred church. … Thus year after year an abundance of young
life streamed over into the depopulated East Marks; the German
blood that the Hapsburghs thrust from them fructified the land
of their rivals, and at the death of Frederick II about a
third of the inhabitants of the state consisted of the
descendants of immigrants who had come there since the days of
the Great Elector. … The particularism of all estates and of
all territorial districts heard with horror how the Great
Elector forced his subjects to live as 'members under one
head,' how he subjected the multiplicity of rule in the diets
to the commands of his own territorial jurisdiction and
supported his throne on the two columns of monarchical
absolutism: the miles perpetuus and permanent taxation.
{3769}
In the minds of the people troops and taxes still passed for
an extraordinary state burden to be borne in days of need. But
Frederick William raised the army into a permanent institution
and weakened the power of the territorial estates by
introducing two general taxes in all his provinces. On the
country at large he imposed the general hide-tax
(general-hufenschoss), on the cities the accise, which was a
multiform system of low direct and indirect imposts calculated
with full regard for the impoverished condition of agriculture
and yet attacking the taxable resources at as many points as
possible. In the empire there was but one voice of execration
against these first beginnings of the modern army and finance
system. Prussia remained from the beginning of its history the
most hated of the German states; those imperial lands that
fell to this princely dynasty entered, almost all of them,
with loud complaints and violent opposition into this new
political combination. All of them soon afterwards blessed
their fate. … Frederick William's successor by acquiring the
royal crown gained for his house a worthy place in the society
of the European powers and for his people the common name of
Prussians. Only dire need, only the hope of Prussia's military
aid, induced the imperial court to grant its rival the new
dignity. A spasm of terror went through the theocratic world:
the electorate of Mainz entered a protest; the Teutonic Order
demanded back again its old possession, which now gave the
name to the heretical monarchy while the papal calendar of
states, for nearly a hundred years to come, was to know only a
'margrave of Brandenburg.'"
_H. von Treitschke,
Deutsche Geschichte im 19ten Jahrhundert
(translated from the German),
volume 1, pages 26-36._
See, also, GERMANY: A. D. 1608-1618 (page 1466),
and PRUSSIA: A. D. 1700 (page 2613).
GERMANY: A. D. 1648.
The effects of the Thirty Years War.
"The national recollection holds fast to the great German war
as a thirty years continuance of universal warlike ravagings.
As a matter of fact, however, the separate parts of the empire
were directly affected by it in very different degrees; some
parts only seldom and to a small extent, many at frequent
intervals or through long-enduring periods: no part however to
such an extent that during the whole three decades it stood
always under the immediate pressure of military events and of
military burdens. Devastation and exhaustion worked their
immediate results in all directions, but we must not leave out
of consideration that the local differences were naturally
very great. An incalculable number of details concerning the
horrors of the war and concerning its destructive effects lies
before us. … So undoubtedly well-founded as on the whole the
majority of these details may be said to be, impressively as
they are apt to be brought forward, they are none the less not
such as to suffice to enable us to gain from them an
exhaustive representation of the condition of things. We have
hundreds who give testimony to all the ravagings and the
misery of the time, and the voices of such witnesses are
almost the only ones that are heard. It is natural that there
are no equally eloquent reports concerning those periods of
time and those places in which people found themselves in
medium and comparatively bearable circumstances. For the most
part only what was exceptional—although, indeed, that happened
only too often—is depicted in the complaining reports. … It
cannot be denied too that amid the fearful needs of that time
the German language succumbed to a certain propensity for what
is monstrous. In all the writings which speak of war and the
ravages of war one sees an exuberance, which comes to be a
fixed mannerism, of almost whiny tones of complaint. … The
superlative of horror predominates almost exclusively; and
with an exceedingly fertile faculty of invention men surpass
themselves in ever new, ever more blood-curdling variations of
the one theme of blood and arson, of wretchedness and famine.
… The most severe of all evils, indeed, as a matter of fact,
were those to which the peasant element was subjected. … The
profits of all agricultural labor were most perceptibly
diminished on account of the extraordinary highness of wages,
which, a natural result of the lack of workmen, formed the
subject for the chief complaints after the war, especially of
those classes which possessed land. Everywhere we meet with
the fact that those entirely without property, such as serving
men and maids are really better off than the peasant who has
land. They draw the highest wages in money and in natural
products, they must be treated with the greatest consideration
by their employers to prevent them from quitting their
service, for everywhere they are sought after and easily do
they find work. … If the evils hitherto touched upon concerned
chiefly the peasant holdings, there was another and no less
important one which concerned all property holders and
especially the nobles, whether feudatory or directly under the
empire. This was the general burden of debt on landed
property. … The noble as well as the peasant had, from of old,
mortgages resting upon his property; those who made the loans
were chiefly the large and the small capitalists in the
cities. … As a matter of fact, already during the war itself
in large parts of the empire the landed property had been in a
condition of insolvency."
_B. Erdmannsdörffer,
Deutsche Geschichte, 1648-1740
(translated from the German),
volume 1, pages 100-109._
"How bitterly the decrease of population was felt in many
regions is proved by a decree of the local diet [kreistag] in
Franconia, transmitted to us by Hormayr, according to which
any man might take two wives, priests (catholic) might marry
and no man under 60 years of age might enter a monastery.
Quite incalculable was the loss of domestic animals; we have
but very incomplete statistics on the subject, but according
to these few the assertion is not unjustifiable that at most
one fifth of the number existing before the war remained. The
lack of working people being so great it was therefore
inevitable that famine should break out in very many regions.
The memoranda in chronicles and diaries contain truly
horrible, heart-breaking representations on the subject. J. J.
Rayser's 'Historischer Schauplatz der Stadt Heidelberg'
reports from the Palatinate: … 'Many rejoiced if they could
only get oxhides, cowhides, the skins of horses, sheep and
other animals, and eat them. Indeed cruel hunger drove them to
other things too, towards which human nature is apt to feel
horror and disgust. They ate dogs, cats, rats, mice, frogs and
other animals in order to appease their bitter hunger.
{3770}
Nor did they refrain from such animals as had already lain for
several weeks on the roads, or in pools and streams and which
gave forth a horrible odor. … The starving people even killed
each other and ate up the corpses; they ransacked the
cemeteries, broke open graves, climbed up on the gallows and
on the wheel and took the dead away to eat them.' … The
reports of single cases of cannibalism from neighborhoods
where otherwise the most friendly and contented people lived,
are too disgusting to allow us to quote any further examples.
… There is no other example of a destruction of civilization
such as the Thirty Years War in Germany produced. There is no
other case where a whole people in all parts of the land was
uniformly exposed to such severe losses, so that in numbers it
was reduced to one half; where, from riches, luxury and
abundance such as had undoubtedly prevailed at the beginning
of the century men had come to poverty and to the want of even
the necessaries of life. … The dissolution of the numerous
military organizations and the dismissal of the regiments had
created an enormous number of tramps of the most dangerous
sort and still continued to do much towards increasing
vagabondage. The grade of intelligence among the people of the
lowlands had decreased most alarmingly; while superstition was
continually on the increase. Witch-trials flourished both in
the city and in the country. Beggary had long ceased to be a
cause for shame; the war, which had brought down to it in a
short time even those who had been formerly the richest,
caused even the most dishonorable trade to be held in honor.
Whoever by daily labor could earn his daily bread might think
himself fortunate. In the place of the horses which war had
carried away, human beings took to dragging carts in the
street. … With the ruin of the trade and of the art industry
of Germany, which in the 16th century would for so many
objects have probably needed to fear no rivalry and which was
only surpassed by that of Italy, went hand in hand the rise
and increase of French industry. This was due in no small part
to the fact that an extensive market was opened up for it in
Germany. From the great and small courts of the secular and
ecclesiastical princes, from the estates of the nobles, where
the plunder of the generals and colonels of all nations and
confessions had at last indeed been unloaded, the money
contributed by the subjects flowed into the strong-boxes of
the Paris manufactories, which dictated the fashions for the
whole continent. Thus did the industrial triumph of France
supplement its political supremacy; thus did Germany's
misfortune become the cause of enriching her western neighbor,
France having known how to secure its existence as a state by
itself three centuries earlier than the Germans had done."
_H. von Zwiedineck-Südenhorst,
Deutsche Geschichte, 1648-1740
(translated from the German),
volume 1, pages 45-49._
"Through the complete destruction of its old civilization,
through an unexampled devastation of its prosperity and ruin
of its moral life the fatherland of the Reformation had saved
for that part of the world the freedom of faith. Strangers
played with the strongest people of Europe. That language
which in Luther's and Hutten's time had gloried at once in the
purity of its origin and in the terse power of its national
plainness had become Gallicized and full of flourishes, a
disgusting mixture of flatness and bombast, of artificiality
and coarseness, so servile, so incapable of expressing in
simple grandeur what was high and noble that in answer to the
question what German writings of those times can we read
to-day the honest reply must be, with the exception of some
poems by Simon Dach, Logau and Paul Gerhard, solely the droll
adventures of Simplicissimus and the merry sermons of Father
Abraham a Santa Clara. The terror and need of the time, the
rule of brute force and the intrusion of foreign customs, had
jarred and disturbed the inner life of the nation to its very
depths. Truth and fidelity had vanished, as well as the proud
frankness and bright enjoyment of life of the older
generation. A hideous greed of gold had taken hold of high and
low; the boastful pride of luxurious extravagance continued in
the midst of the general poverty."
_Essay by Heinrich von Treitschke,
quoted by Zwiedineck,
page 52._
See, also, GERMANY: A. D. 1648, to 1648-1780
(pages 1484-1489).
GERMANY: A. D. 1648-1715.
Relations of Austria, Germany and France
after the Thirty Years War.
"After 1648 it was the natural policy of the Hapsburgh
emperors to maintain the status quo of the Westphalian
treaties. … After the emperor had once lost the prospect of
gaining for himself the undivided rule over Germany, all his
endeavors were needed at least to hinder it from passing to
another. The efforts of the separate territorial sovereigns to
enlarge and round off their lands, their attempts to extend
their power externally and at the same time to tighten their
hold on their own subjects found henceforward a counterpoise
in Austria."
_L. Häusser,
Deutsche Geschichte
(translated from the German),
volume 1, page 21._
"The whole shamefulness of this disintegration of Germany,
showed itself in the defenceless state of the empire. … Right
under the greedy hands of France lay the weakest, the most
unguarded members of the empire. All along that priest-avenue
the Rhine, from Munster and Osnabrück up to Constance,
stretched a confused mass of tiny states, incapable of in any
way seriously arming themselves, compelled to betray their
country through the feeling of their own utter weakness.
Almost all the Rhenish courts held pensions from Versailles. …
Fully one-third of Germany served in the wars of the empire as
a dead burden. … The weakness of Germany was to blame for the
new growth of power in Austria and France; … the foreigners
laughed at the 'querelles allemandes' and the 'misère
allemande'; the Frenchman Bonhours mockingly asked the
question if it was possible that a German could have
intellect. … As the born antagonist of the old order of things
in Europe the basis of which was Germany's weakness, Prussia
stood in a world of enemies whose mutual jealousies formed her
only safeguard. She was without any natural ally, for the
German nation had not yet come to understand this budding
power. … Just as the House of Savoy was able to tread its way
through the superiority of the Hapsburghs on the one hand and
of the Bourbons on the other, so did Prussia, although
immeasurably harder pressed, have to find a path for herself
between Austria and France, between Sweden and Poland, between
the maritime powers and the inert mass of the German empire.
{3771}
She had to use every means of remorseless egoism, always ready
to change front, always with two strings to her bow. The
electorate of Brandenburg felt to the very marrow of its being
how deeply foreign ideas had eaten into Germany. All the
disorganized forces … which opposed the strong lead of the new
monarchy placed their faith in foreign help. Dutch garrisons
were stationed on the Lower Rhine and favored the struggle of
the Cleve estates against their German lords. The diets of
Magdeburg and of the electoral Mark counted on Austria. …
Frederick William breaks down the barriers of the
Netherlanders in the German Northwest; he drives their troops
from Cleve and from East Friesland. … Then he calls out to the
deaf nation his warning words, 'Remember that you are
Germans,' and seeks to drive the Swedes from the soil of the
empire. Twice did the ill-will of France and Austria succeed
in robbing the Brandenburg prince of the reward of his
victories, of the rule in Pomerania: the fame of the day at
Fehrbellin they could not take from him.
See BRANDENBURG: A. D. 1640-1688 (page 310).
… When the republic of the Netherlands threatened to fall
before the attack of Louis XIV Brandenburg caught the raised
arm of the conqueror.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1674-1678 (page 2289).
Frederick William carried on the only serious war that the
empire ventured on for the recovery of Alsace.
See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1672-1714 (page 209)].
… With the rise of Prussia began the long bloody work of
freeing Germany from foreign rule. … In this one state there
awoke again, still half unconscious as if drunken with long
sleep, the old hearty pride in the fatherland. … The House of
Hapsburgh recognized earlier than the Hohenzollerns did
themselves how hostile this modern North German state was to
the old constitution of the Holy Empire. In Silesia, in
Pomerania, in the Jülich-Cleve war of succession—everywhere
Austria stood and looked with distrust on its dangerous rival.
… Equally dangerous to Hapsburgh and to the German empire were
the French and the Turks; how natural was it for Hapsburgh to
seek support from Germany, to involve the empire in its wars,
to use it as a bulwark towards the west or for diversions
against France in case the Turks threatened the walls of
Vienna. … Only it cannot be denied that in this common action
the Austrian policy, under a more centralized guidance and
backed by a firmer tradition, looked out for its own advantage
better than did the German empire—loose, heavy, and without
consistent leadership. When the might of Louis XIV began to
oppress Germany the policy of the Hapsburghs was to remain for
a long time luke-warm and inactive. This policy led Austria
indeed even to make a league with France and, when she did at
last decide to help the great elector of Brandenburg against
the enemy of the empire, this happened so charily and
equivocally as to give rise to the doubt whether the Austrian
army was not placed there to keep watch over the Brandenburg
forces or even to positively hinder their advance. An Austrian
writer himself assures us that Montecuculi was in secret
commanded only to make a show of using his weapons against the
French. For a long time Austria stood by inactive while the
Reannexations were going on.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1679-1691 (page 1236).
… The whole war as conducted by Austria on the Rhine and in
the West was languid and sleepy;
See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1672-1714 (page 209);
the empire and individual warlike princes were left to protect
themselves. What an entirely different display of power did
Austria make when it was a question of fighting for its own
dynastic interests!"
_H. von Treitschke,
Deutsche Geschichte im 19ten Jahrhundert
(translated from the German),
volume 1, pages 21-33._
"As in the wars so in the diplomatic negotiations the
separation of the Austrian dynastic interests from the
advantage and needs of the German empire often enough came to
light. It is only necessary to revert to the attitude which
the emperor's diplomacy took at Nimeguen and Ryswick.
See NIMEGUEN (page 2362);
and FRANCE: A. D. 1697 (page 1243)].
… When in the conferences at Gertruidenburg (1710) Louis XIV
was reduced to being willing not only to give up the
'Reannexations' and Strassburg but even to restore Alsace and
the fortress of Valenciennes, it was also not the interests of
the empire but solely those of the House of Hapsburgh which
led to the rejection of these offers and to the continuance of
a war by which, as it turned out eventually, not one of these
demands was gained. No wonder that in Germany, restricted
though the imperial authority already was, men still did not
feel secure so long as the emperor continued to have even the
power of making peace independently of the empire."
_L. Häusser,
Deutsche Geschichte
(translated from the German).
volume 1, page 23._
"Louis XIV regarded himself not exactly as enemy of the German
empire and of the imperial power of the House of Hapsburgh,
but rather as a pretendant to the throne. As he explains it in
the political directions meant for his son the empire of the
West, the heritage of Charles the Great, belongs not of right
to the Germans but to the kings who are crowned at Rheims. …
The Germans have ruined the empire, only a ruler with the
power of the French king can bring it again to honor. … If
Louis XIV by means of the Rhine Confederation of 1658 saw
himself bound in a close communion with German princes and
electors, if his troops rushed in at the decisive moment
before Erfurt and at Saint Gothard, if his omnipresent
diplomacy sought to find starting-points everywhere, even in
the Hofburg at Vienna: all this seemed to him activity in a
field which he really felt belonged to himself. The rendering
of the German princes dependent on the French court, the
loosening of the bonds which held the empire together, the
isolation of the Hapsburghs from the rest of the empire: these
were tasks which presented themselves as a matter of course if
taken in connection with those views of the right of the
French to the empire. … Already in Richelieu's time the king's
councillor, Jacques de Cassan, had brought forward the proof,
in a writing dedicated to the cardinal, that the greater part
of the existing European states, including Germany, were lands
which had unjustly been estranged from the French crown. …
This idea d'Auberry now carried further: as a matter of fact
Germans and French were to be considered one people as they
had been under the Merovingians and Carolingians; … the true
ruler, in the sense of the original world-organization was not
the emperor but the French king."
_B. Erdmannsdörffer,
Deutsche Geschichte (1648-1740)
(translated from the German),
volume 1, page 509._
{3772}
GERMANY: A. D. 1789-1792.
Germany and the French Revolution.
"What enthusiasm prevailed when France proclaimed the equality
of everything that bears human form, when the prophecies of
Rousseau, who spoke as no other Frenchman could, to the
hearts, to the courage, to the ideals of the German youth,
seemed about to be realized! All the cravings of the time, the
noble eagerness to recognize the dignity of man and the
heaven-storming defiance of the sovereign ego, found
themselves satisfied by the bold sophism of the Genevan
philosopher who declared that, in a condition of absolute
equality, everyone should obey himself only. The sins of the
Revolution appeared to the harmless German spectators as
hardly less seductive than its great deeds. The taste which
had been educated on Plutarch's lives of heroes grew loyally
excited over the broad Catonism of the new apostles of
freedom: the unhistorical abstractions of their political
creed were in keeping with the philosophical self-satisfaction
of the age. The over-zealous youths in whose ears still
sounded the stirring words of the robber Moor felt themselves
drawn along by the rhetorical pathos of the French and
unsuspectingly admired the republican virtue of the Girondists
at the very time when this party with unhallowed frivolity was
instigating a war against Germany. … In Hamburg and several
other cities the festival of confraternity was celebrated and
the liberty pole erected on the anniversary of the storming of
the Bastille. … Even in Berlin women of rank were seen adorned
with the tricolored ribbon and the rector of the Joachimsthal
gymnasium, in a solemn official address held on the occasion
of the king's birthday, praised the glorious Revolution to the
lively applause of Minister Hertzberg. … But this enthusiasm
of the German cultivated world for revolutionary France was
and remained purely theoretical; … the German admirers of the
Revolution never once laid before themselves the question how
their feelings on the subject should take on flesh and blood.
The wise man of Konigsberg [Kant] unconditionally and harshly
rejected all right of resistance. Even Fichte, the most
radical of his disciples, who even in the days of Robespierre
still dared to defend French liberty, warned emphatically
against the carrying out of his own ideas. He saw no bridge
between the 'level high road of natural law' and the 'dark
defile of a half-barbaric policy,' and he closed with the
renunciatory declaration: 'Worthiness to attain liberty can
only come upwards from below; freedom itself, if there is to
be no disturbance, can only descend from above.' … When the
struggle of parties continued to rage ever more fiercely and
with more cruelty, when the fanatic zeal for equality took
upon itself to annihilate even the last aristocracy of all,
that of life itself, then the faithful and unchanging mind of
the German found it impossible any longer to follow the
unaccountable contortions of French passion. The German
enthusiast turned weeping away from the barbarian who had
defiled his sanctuary. … Only in the minor states, which
lacked the sense of justice of a monarchy, did the sins of the
old French regime find an echo. There in the Germany of the
religious foundations (the Rhine bishoprics) there still
flourished the catholic unity of faith and the pride of
cathedral chapters which were recruited from nobles. In the
cities of the empire the haughtiness and corruption of old
civilian confraternity held sway, in the territories of the
princes, counts and imperial knights, the arrogance of little
corner tyrants. The whole existence of these ruined and
ossified forms of government cried shame on the ideas of the
century. Almost solely in these tiniest provinces did a slight
popular ferment show itself when the glad news of the great
peasant emancipation came from France. It chanced that the
abbess of Frauenalbe was hunted from her lands by her
subjects, that the oath of allegiance was refused to her
sister-abbess in Elten. Small peasant revolts broke out here
and there. … All this betokened little; in reality nowhere was
the political slumber of the empire deeper than in these
regions. … The weak and weaponless small states were entirely
without power of resistance against foreign violence. …
Neither was the emperor nor were the Prussian statesmen blind
to the immeasurable dangers of a war in the condition in which
things were. Leopold's cold-blooded, calculating nature
remained long unmoved by the appeals for help written by his
unhappy sister Marie Antoinette, who allowed herself to be
carried to the very verge of betraying her country by her
woman's passion and her princely pride. The Prussian cabinet
was at first very well pleased with the steps taken by the
constitutional parties; its envoy, von der Goltz, made no
secret of acknowledging the righteousness of the cause of the
revolution and showed that he had kept his eyes open to the
accumulated acts of folly of the blinded court. The mad doings
of the emigres were condemned with equal severity in Vienna
and in Berlin. Not until the spring of 1791, not until King
Louis had had to atone for his unsuccessful flight by unheard
of personal humiliations, did the two courts begin to think
seriously of protecting themselves against acts of
revolutionary violence. … Frederick William's chivalrous soul
was aglow with the thought of avenging with his sword the
offended majesty of France. Single clever heads among the
émigrés succeeded after all in gaining secret influence at
court. … In his circular from Padua Leopold invited the
European powers to enter the lists for his ill-used
brother-in-law, to avenge by forcible means every insult to
the dignity of the king, to recognize no constitution of
France of which the crown should not voluntarily approve.
Bischoffswerder, of his own accord and contrary to his
instructions, then signed the Vienna treaty of the 25th of
July by which both parties (Prussia and Austria) mutually
guaranteed each other's possessions and promised each other
help in case of internal disturbances. … Public opinion in
Prussia greeted the Austrian alliance with deep mistrust, …
but King Frederick William approved the arbitrary steps of his
friend (Bischoffswerder). He met Leopold soon after in
Pillnitz … and rejoiced in the thought that the league of the
two chief powers in Germany would last eternally, to the weal
of coming generations. In all of these mistaken acts there was
no immediate threat against France. In Pillnitz those émigrés
who urged war were sternly thrust aside and all that was
obtained was the empty declaration of August 27; the two
powers announced that they considered King Louis's cause a
matter common to all sovereigns; in case all European powers
should agree, there should be interference in France's
internal affairs.
{3773}
This meant nothing whatever, for everyone knew that England
would have nothing to do with armed intervention. And even
these obscure conditions were abandoned in Vienna when King
Louis, in the autumn, was reinstated in his dignities and
voluntarily accepted the new constitution. The Revolution
seemed to have come to a standstill, the emperor was
completely pacified. … It was France and France alone that, in
the face of this peaceable attitude of the German powers,
forced the war upon them. … The antipathy of a great majority
of the nation [France] to the republic was to be overcome by
the glamor of military successes, by the old darling
dream-project of natural boundaries. The financial needs of
the state were to be remedied by a mighty plundering
expedition. … While the war-like mood in the legislative
assembly increased from day to day, in the negotiations with
the emperor paltry disdain was shown; not even was a definite
indemnity offered to the estates of the empire in Alsace. It
was then that the House, carried away by the stirring speeches
of the Gironde, demanded a solemn declaration from the emperor
that he would give up the plan of a European league and would
show his readiness to support France according to the old
treaties of alliance with the Bourbons. The penalty of refusal
was to be immediate war. Upon Leopold giving a dignified and
temperate reply war was declared against Austria on April 20th
1792. … A doctrinary speech of Condorcet's announced to the
world that the principles of republican liberty had risen up
against despotism. The glove was thus thrown down to the whole
of ancient Europe: for Prussia, moreover, the Vienna Treaty
now became binding, having meanwhile been supplemented by a
formal defensive league."
_H. von Treitschke,
Deutsche Geschichte im 19ten Jahrhundert
(translated from the German),
volume 1, page 114-124._
See, also, FRANCE: A. D. 1791 (pages 1271-1275).
GERMANY: A. D. 1796-1807.
Germany and Napoleon.
"With the Italian campaign of 1796 began the second epoch of
the revolutionary era, the more fruitful one for the world at
large. The propaganda of the revolution now first began to
take actual effect and in Central Europe a new order of things
superseded the old division of lands, the traditional forma of
state and society. It was through Bonaparte's victories that
the weapons of France first acquired an indisputable
ascendancy. … As was the case with her manner of making war,
so did France's European policy take on a new character in the
hands of the victor of Montenotte and Rivoli. … In the head of
the great man without a home, to whom the soul-life of
nations, the ideal world, ever remained an unknown quantity,
the horrible conception of a new world-monarchy had already
found a place. The images of the Cæsars and the Carolingians
stood in dazzling splendor before his mind. The rich history
of a thousand years was to be annihilated by a single grand
adventure; the multiform culture of the West was to yield to
the sway of one gigantic man. This new and altogether
un-French policy of conquest rushed to its goals with a
wonderful assurance and want of conscience. Bonaparte's
perspicuity recognized at once by what means Austria,
victorious in Germany but worsted in Italy, could be forced
into a temporary peace: … he offered the imperial court the
possession of Venice in return for Milan, Belgium and the left
bank of the Rhine. … Under such conditions the Peace of Campo
Formio was entered into on October 17th 1797. Once more the
Holy Empire was to pay the penalty for Austria's defeats, and
once more, with greater hypocrisy than ever before, there rang
out in the diet those unctuous, imperially-paternal phrases
with which the un-German imperial power was wont to bemantle
its dynastic policy. Whereas among the conditions of the
secret articles of Campo Formio were the mutilation of the
German western boundary, the secularization of ecclesiastical
territory, the compensation of foreign princes at the cost of
the empire: the published version of the treaty spoke only of
the unviolated integrity of the empire. … At last, however,
the unhallowed secret had to come out. At Christmas-tide 1797
Mainz was vacated by the imperial troops. There came to light
the whole hopelessly confused relationships of the two
similarly-fortuned nations of central Europe when, at the same
time, the French occupied the unconquered bulwark of the Rhine
provinces and the conquered Austrians marched into the city of
St. Mark. Soon afterwards the envoys of France at Rastadt
openly came forward with the demand for the left bank of the
Rhine. It was the first official forewarning of the
annihilation of the Holy Empire. … So deep was the empire
sunken when the dreaded 'Italicus,' on the occasion of a
flying visit to Rastadt first cast a glance into German life.
On the shallow intrigues of this fruitless congress did
Bonaparte base his judgment of our fatherland. He saw through
the absolute nullity of the imperial constitution and
complacently came to the opinion that if such a constitution
had not existed it would have been necessary to invent it in
the interests of France. … It seemed to him high time to win
the petty dynasts entirely for France by gratifying their
greed of land, and thus to rob sundered Germany of its
nationality (dépayser l'Allemagne). … On February 9th, 1801,
the Peace of Luneville proclaimed openly and unequivocally
that which the treaty of Campo Formio had only secretly and
obscurely provided: that the Rhine was henceforward to be
Germany's boundary. A district of nearly 1,150 square miles
and containing nearly four million inhabitants was thus lost
to Germany. … With uncanny cold-bloodedness the German nation
accepted the fearful blow. Scarcely a sound of patriotic wrath
was heard when Mainz and Cologne, Aachen and Treves, the
broad, beautiful lands that had been the scene of our earliest
history, passed into the hands of the stranger. How many
bitter tears had the decrepit generation of the Thirty Years
War once poured forth for the sake of Strassburg alone! … The
first consul resumed the plan which Sièyes as ambassador in
Berlin had sketched already ill 1798. He prepared a threefold
division of Germany and, in order to bring the defenceless
minor states wholly in his power, sought first to thrust back
the two chief German powers as far as possible towards the
east. … The great man-scorner now invented an infallible means
of gaining sway over these south and west German provinces.
{3774}
Not in vain had he probed the German higher nobility at
Rastadt into the inmost recesses of their hearts. He created
our new intermediate states for the purpose, through them, of
securing forever Germany's disintegration. The host of petty
princes, counts and imperial knights, were burdensome to him
because they belonged mostly to the Austrian party and were of
no use in war. Among the electors and dukes, on the contrary,
there was useful material enough for the formation of a crowd
of French vassals; … they had almost all, during the recent
wars, made separate treaties with the enemies of the empire.
As rebels against that empire and its emperor they had
abandoned the ground of legality and broken their bridges
behind them. If the man who was omnipotent now took under his
protection these political hermaphrodites who were fit neither
to live nor die; if he satisfied their greed by throwing them
some crumbs from the belongings of their lesser co-estates and
tickled their vanity by means of pretentious titles and a show
of independence; if he rolled together the hundreds of tiny
territories into some dozens of new accidental states with a
history of yesterday and entirely without a legal title,
living solely from the favor of France; if he then led his
satraps to audacious wars against their fatherland and hurried
them on from one felony to another, rewarding new
lackey-services by new booty—where was the wonder? They had
sold their souls to him and he was able to reckon on it that
they would rather kiss the boots of the stranger than ever
submit to subordinate themselves to a German commonwealth. …
Bonaparte, meanwhile, had long made up his mind to resume the
war with his unassailable enemy [England]. Already in March
1803, long before the breach occurred between the two western
powers, he sent his confidant Duroc to Berlin with the notice
that he saw himself compelled to seize Hanover. … Therewith
the last and sole pride of the Prussian policy, the neutrality
of North Germany, was threatened with its death-blow. … And
meanwhile the Holy Empire was made to drink the cup of shame
to the very dregs. When Bonaparte caused the Duke of Enghien,
seized within the limits of Baden, to be led to execution,
only foreign powers like Russia, Sweden and England dared in
Regensburg to demand satisfaction for the scandalous breach of
the peace of the empire. Baden on the contrary, by Napoleon's
command, begged most earnestly that the painful matter might
not be followed up any further; while the rest of the
plenipotentiaries took their holiday before the time and thus
by their flight cut off all further negotiations. In May 1804
the Napoleonic empire was founded. … A hard, distrustful
foreign rule weighed upon Germany even before its princes had
formally made their submission to the emperor. … Thus
prepared, Napoleon proceeded to realize in his own way the
idea of a German triad with which Hardenberg had just been
amusing himself. Not in bond with Austria and Prussia but
independently and in opposition to them was France's old
protegée, 'la troisième Allemagne,' to take political form and
shape. … In the spring of 1806 the rumor spread at the German
courts that a new and extensive mediatization was to take
place. Once more, as had happened four years previously, the
envoys of our high nobility hastened to Paris on behalf of
their lords, to secure by flattery and bribery their share of
the booty. … The Rhine confederation of Louis XIV was
resuscitated in an incomparably more pronounced form. Sixteen
German princes renounced the empire, declared that they
themselves were sovereigns and that every law of the venerable
old national commonwealth was null and void. They recognized
Napoleon as their protector and placed at his disposal an army
of 63,000 men to be used in any continental war in which
France should engage. … German particularism entered into the
bloom-time of its sins. … The anarchy of a new interregnum
broke in upon Germany. Faustrecht held sway, exercised no
longer by bandit nobles but by princely courts. Napoleon
regarded with mistrust any and every expression of national
feeling in the enslaved land. The interest of France, he wrote
to his Talleyrand, demands that opinion in Germany remain
divided. A certain Yelin of Ansbach published an anonymous
pamphlet, 'Germany at its lowest Depth,' a well-meant writing,
full of feeling, and one which, in an age of iron, had only
the peaceful advice to give: 'Weep aloud, oh noble, honest
German!' But even this pious ejaculation of a harmless petty
citizen seemed to the emperor a matter for alarm and he caused
the book-seller Palm, who is said to have aided in spreading
the book, to be court-marshalled and shot. It was the first
judicial murder of Napoleonism on German ground, and the
clever people in Bavaria began to doubt whether the Rhine
Confederation had, after all, really brought about the victory
of freedom and enlightenment. … A new act of treason on the
part of Napoleon led at last to the out-break of the
inevitable war. Often and solemnly had Napoleon assured to his
Prussian ally the possession of Hanover. It was now suddenly
reported in Berlin that the emperor, who all through the
summer had been carrying on peace-negotiations with England
and Russia, had not scrupled to offer to deliver back to the
Guelphs their hereditary lands. When this news reached him
Frederick William at once (August 9) wrote to the Czar: 'If
Napoleon treats with England concerning Hanover he will ruin
me.' The king foresaw that in a short time the miserable
condition in which things had been in February would recur
again and that Prussia had only the choice left of once more
in silence suffering herself to be shamefully plundered or of
opposing by arms the ingress of the grand army. That was why
the Prussian army was placed on a war-footing and made to
assemble in Magdeburg's territory. With this step of
justifiable self-defence the war was decided. … Nothing could
have been more honest than the unsparingly upright defiance of
the king to Napoleon; nothing more righteous than the three
demands of the Prussian ultimatum of October: withdrawal of
the French from Germany, recognition of the North German
Confederation, a peaceful agreement as to the remaining
questions at issue between the two powers. Even from the
verbose, clumsy war-manifesto there breaks forth occasionally
a tone of dignified national pride: the king takes up arms 'to
free unhappy Germany from the yoke under which it is being
crushed. Nations have certain rights independent of an
treaties!' … Already on the 15th of October (1806) Napoleon
laid a contribution on all the Prussian provinces this side
the Weichsel of 159 million francs, declaring that the result
of the battle of the former day (Jena) had been the conquest
of all these lands.
{3775}
Never had the man of fortune boasted so outrageously, and yet,
through a strange turn of fortune, the most unhallowed of his
lies was to become literally true. Immediately after the
defeat the court of Saxony carried out its long-planned
desertion and went over to Napoleon. A week after the battle
the Prussian territory to the left of the Elbe, and the
possessions of the House of Orange and of the electors of
Hesse, were provisionally incorporated in the French empire. …
On July 7-9, 1807, the Peace of Tilsit was signed, the most
cruel of all French treaties of peace, unprecedented in form
as well as in contents. It ran, not that the lawful king of
Prussia ceded certain lands to the victor, but that the
conqueror, out of regard for the emperor of all the Russias,
granted back to its sovereign the smaller half of the Prussian
state. And this scandalous phrase, which contemporaries only
looked upon as a freak of Napoleonic arrogance, expressed
simply the naked truth. … Alexander did not wish the last
narrow dam which separated the Russian empire from the lands
of the vassals of France, to be torn away. … Prussia retained,
outside of the 5,700 square miles which the state, exclusive
of Hanover, had owned before the war, only about 2,800, … of
9¾ million inhabitants only 4½ million. The work of Frederick
the Great seemed undone."
_H. von Treitschke,
Deutsche Geschichte im 19 Jahrhundert
(translated from the German),
volume 1, pages 164-265._
See FRANCE: A. D. 1796 (APRIL-OCTOBER),
and after (pages 1314-1349.)
GERMANY: A. D. 1815-1848.
After the struggle.
The Zollverein.
"In Austria, in the decades succeeding the wars of liberation,
their reigned the most immovable quiet. The much-praised
system of government consisted in unthinking inactivity. The
Emperor Francis, a man with the nature of a subaltern
official, hated anything that approached to a constitution and
a saying of his was often quoted: 'Totus mundus stultizat et
vult habere constitutiones novas.' Metternich's power rested
on the 'dead motionlessness' of affairs. As far as his German
policy was concerned his aim was to hold fast to the
preponderating influence of Austria over the German states,
but not to undertake any responsibilities towards them. … As
for Prussia, in spite of the great sacrifices which she had
made, she emerged from the diplomatic negotiations and
intrigues of the Vienna Congress with the most unfavorable
disposition of territory imaginable. To the five million
inhabitants that had remained to her five and a half millions
were added in districts that had belonged to more than a
hundred different territories and had stood under the most
varied laws. There began now for this state a time well filled
with quiet work, the aim and object being to create a whole
out of the various parts. … The founding of the Burschenschaft
[student league] in Jena, the antagonistic attitude of the
Weimar press, the Wartburg festival with its extemporized
conflagration scene, excited scruples and fears in the ruling
circles. The murder of Kotzebue and the attempt on Ibell's
life showed the growing fanaticism and called forth stronger
measures from the governments. … Metternich recognizes their
usefulness for the carrying through of his reactionary
measures. … At a meeting in Teplitz he succeeds in winning
Frederick William III for his plans. In Carlsbad, over the
heads of the members of the federal diet, the most decisive
regulations were adopted which culminated in the appointment
of the Mainz Central-Investigation-Committee … and confirmed
Metternich's unhallowed rule in Germany as well as the reign
of that most miserable reaction which called forth a burst of
indignation even from the most moderate-minded patriots, and
which laid the land open to the scorn of the foreigner."
_Bruno-Gebhardt,
Lehrbuch der deutschen Geschichte
(translated from the German),
volume 2, pages 501-504._
"The Congress of Vienna created in 1815 a form of government
for Germany which was very unsatisfactory in character. It
was, however, so constituted that a national development at
some future time was not rendered an utter impossibility. The
German confederation was rather, on the whole, provisional in
its character; this fact comes out more and more plainly with
each thorough analysis and illustration of its constitution
and of its institutions. The main thing was that the German
confederation preserved unimpaired the dualism in Germany.
Technically the emperor of Austria had the honorary direction
of the confederation; practically he possessed as emperor of
Germany little r no power. In point of fact the German
imperial title was only a decoration for the ruler over a
variegated mixture of peoples, in the midst of which German
nationality was hard pressed by the national strivings of the
other races. In reality the strongest member of the German
confederation was the kingdom of Prussia, although according
to the federal laws it stood on a like footing with Bavaria,
Saxony, Hanover and Würtemberg. … This German confederation
was only capable of eking out its existence in a long period
of freedom from European disasters. … Only gradually, in the
various heads, did the opinion begin to form of the historical
vocation of Prussia to take her place at the head of the
German confederation or, possibly, of a new German empire.
Gradually this opinion ripened into a firmer and firmer
conviction and gained more and more supporters. The more
evidently impossible an actual guidance of Germany by Austria
became, the more conscious did men grow of the danger of the
whole situation should the dualism be allowed to continue. In
consequence of this the idea of the Prussian hegemony began to
be viewed with constantly increasing favor. A great step
forward in this direction was taken by the Prussian government
when it called into being the Zollverein [or customs-union].
The Zollverein laid iron bands around the separate parts of
the German nation. It was utterly impossible to think of
forming a customs-union with Austria, for all economic
interests were as widely different as possible; on purely
material grounds the division between Austria and Prussia
showed itself to be a necessity. On the other hand the
economic bonds between Prussia and the rest of the German
lands grew stronger from day to day. This material union was
the prelude to the political one: the Zollverein was the best
and most effectual preparation for the German federal state or
for the German empire of later days."
_W. Maurenbrecher,
Gründung des Deutschen Reichs,
pages 4-5._
{3776}
"Paul Pfizer wrote in 1831 his 'Correspondence of Two
Germans,' the first writing in the German language in which
liberation from Austria and union with Prussia was put down as
the solution of the German question and in which faith in
Prussia was made a part of such love to the German fatherland
as should be no longer a mere dream. … 'So little as the dead
shall rise again this side the grave, so little will Austria,
which once held the heritage of German fame and German glory,
ever again become for Germany what she has once been.'"
_W. Oncken,
Das Zeitalter des Kaisers Wilhelm
(translated from the German),
volume 1, pages 69-70._
The formation of the Zollverein "was the most important
occurrence since the wars of liberation: a deed of peace of
more far-reaching consequences and productive of more lasting
results than many a battle won. The economic blessings of the
Zollverein soon began to show themselves in the increasing sum
total of the amount of commerce and in the regularly growing
customs revenues of the individual states. These revenues for
example increased between 1834 and 1842 from 12 to 21 million
thalers. Foreign countries began to look with respect and in
part also with envy on this commercial unity of Germany and on
the results which could not fail to come. … A second event
happened in Germany in 1834, less marked in its beginnings and
yet scarcely less important in its results than the
Zollverein. Between Leipzig and Dresden the first large
railroad in Germany was started, the first mesh in that
network of roads that was soon to branch out in all directions
and spread itself over all Germany. … A direct political
occurrence, independent of the Zollverein and the railroads,
was, in the course of the thirties, to assist in awakening and
strengthening the idea of unity in the German people by making
evident and plain the lack of such unity and its disastrous
consequences. This was the Hanoverian 'coup d'etat' of the
year 1837. … In that year William IV of England died without
direct successors. … Hanover came into the hands of the Duke
of Cumberland, Ernest Augustus. … The new king, soon after his
inauguration, refused to recognize the constitution that had
been given to Hanover in 1833, on the ground that his
ratification as next heir to the throne had not been asked at
that time. … By persistent efforts Ernest Augustus … in 1840
brought about a constitution that suited him. Still more than
this constitutional struggle itself did a single incident
connected with it occupy and excite public opinion far and
wide. Seven professors of the Gottingen university protested
against the abrogation of the constitution of 1833. … Without
more ado they were dismissed from their positions. … The brave
deed of the Gottingen professors and the new act of violence
committed against them caused intense excitement throughout
all Germany. … A committee composed both of conservatives and
liberals was formed in Leipzig and raised collections, in
order by honorable gift to replace at least the material
losses of the banished professors. … In the course of the
forties the idea of nationality penetrated more and more all
the pores of German opinion and gave to it more and more, by
pressure from all sides, the direction of a great and common
goal. At first there were only isolated attempts at reform …
but soon the national needs outgrew such single expressions of
good will. … A tendency began to show itself in the public
opinion of Germany to accept the plan of a Prussian leadership
of all un-Austrian Germany."
_K. Biedermann,
Dreissig Jahre Deutscher Geschichte.
volume 1, pages 9-91._
See, also, GERMANY: A. D. 1814-1820,
to 1819-1847 (pages 1531-1533).
GERMANY: A. D. 1862-1890.
The Bismarck policy.
"Blood and iron" speech of the Prussian Premier.
On the question of the reorganization of the army, which was
brought forward early by Prince William (afterwards King and
Emperor) after he assumed the Regency in 1858, the Prussian
Diet placed itself in determined opposition to the government.
At a session of the Budget Commission of the House of
Representatives, September 30, 1862, Deputy Forckenbeck
offered the following resolution: "Whereas it is also feared
that after the declaration of the royal state government made
the 29th inst. the same would continue the expenditures for
the organization of the army on its own responsibility which
have already been rejected by the House for the year 1862 and
the rejection of which is likewise to be expected for 1863,
according to the acknowledgment of the government itself, and
Whereas a direct insistence of the prerogatives of the
people's representatives is urgently required, the House of
Representatives declares as follows:
1. The royal government is requested to lay the estimates for
1863 before the House as speedily as possible for their
constitutional consideration, so that the amount of the same
may be constitutionally fixed before January 1st 1863.
2. It is unconstitutional for the royal government to direct
expenditures which were by resolution of the House of
Representatives definitely and expressly rejected."
The Minister of State, Herr von Bismarck, spoke on these
resolutions as follows: "I would willingly accept the
estimates for 1862, if I could do so without entering upon
explanations which might prove prejudicial. Either side might
abuse its constitutional rights and be met by a reaction in
kind from the opposite side. The crown, for instance, might
decree dissolution twelve times in succession without
violating the letter of the constitution, yet would it be an
abuse of power. It may refuse to accept a striking out of
estimates without measure. Where will you draw the line? At 6
millions? at 16? or at 60? There are members of the National
Verein [National Union]—an organization highly respected for
the well known fairness of its demands,—very estimable
members—who declare all standing armies as superfluous. Well
then, if the House of Representatives should hold such view
must not the government repudiate it? The 'cool headedness' of
the Prussian people has been referred to. Well, it is a fact,
the great self-assertion of individuality among us makes
constitutional government very hard in Prussia; in France,
where this individual self-assertion is wanting, it is
otherwise. There a constitutional conflict was no disgrace,
but all honor. We are perhaps too 'cultured' to tolerate a
constitution; we are too critical; the ability to pass
judgment on measures of the government or acts of the
legislature is too universal; there is a large number of
'Catilinarian Characters' [existences in the original] in the
land whose chief interest is in revolutions. All this may
sound paradoxical; yet it proves how hard constitutional life
is in Prussia.
{3777}
The people are too sensitive about the faults of the
government; as if the whole did not suffer when this or that
individual minister blunders. Public opinion is changeable,
the press is not public opinion; everyone knows how the press
originates; the representatives have the higher task of
directing opinion, of being above it. To return once more to
our people: our blood is too hot, we are fond of bearing an
armor too large for our small body; now let us utilize it.
Germany does not look at Prussia's liberalism but at its
power. Let Bavaria, Würtemberg, Baden indulge in liberalism,
yet no one will assign to them the rule of Prussia; Prussia
must consolidate its might and hold it together for the
favorable moment, which has been allowed to pass unheeded
several times. Prussia's boundaries, as determined by the
Congress of Vienna, are not conducive to its wholesome
existence as a sovereign state. Not by speeches and
resolutions of majorities the mighty problems of the age are
solved—that was the mistake of 1848 and 1849—but by Blood and
Iron. Last year's grants have been made, no matter on what
grounds; I am seeking sincerely for a road to harmony: the
finding of it does not depend on me alone. It were better, the
House of Representatives had not made an accomplished fact.
When the appropriations are not passed, then the way is clear.
The constitution affords no relief, for interpretation is
opposed to interpretation, 'summum ius, summa iniuria' [the
highest law, greatest injustice], 'the letter killeth.' I am
glad that the chairman by certain turns of speech admits the
possibility of an understanding, of a different vote of the
house on a new proposition of the government; I am searching
for the same bridge; when it will be found is uncertain. The
establishment of a budget for this year is barely possible;
the time is too short; our conditions are exceptional. The
government concedes the principle of the earliest possible
handing down of the estimates. But you say, this has been
promised so often and has not been done. Well 'You must trust
us for honest people.' I do not share in the interpretation
that it was unconstitutional to make expenditures that have
been denied, all three factors [i. e. Commons, Upper House and
Crown] must agree upon an interpretation, before it stands."
_Die Politischen Reden des Fürsten Bismarck
(translated from the German),
volume 2, pages 20, 28-30._
"Otto von Bismarck-Schoenhausen, born April 1, 1815, was a
Junker [squire, aristocrat] from top to toe, but from the very
first, as was the case with all the Junkers of Prussia,
Pomerania and the Mark, his life had been thoroughly merged in
that of the Prussian state. He had first called attention to
himself in 1847 at the general diet (Vereinigter Landtag]. In
1849 he came forward in the chamber of deputies, in 1850 in
the Union Parliament at Frankfort—always as the goad of the
extreme right, and each time his appearance gave the signal
for a violent conflict. Perfectly unsparing of all his
opponents, very anti-liberal but very Prussian, very
national-minded, in spite of being such a Junker, Bismarck
flared up with especial violence against the democratic
attacks on the army and the monarchy. … To Frankfort Bismarck
came as the sworn defender of the policy of reaction. The
Austrian party, thinking him to be a man of no consequence,
greeted his coming with joy. He soon made himself unpleasant
enough, especially to the Austrian presidents of the federal
diet. … He refused to accept the servile role which Austria
had apportioned to him; his objections in matters of form and
on unimportant occasions prepared the great fundamental
anti-Austrian uprising. A feeling of pain came over him at the
sight of the Prussian submission to Austria, but at the same
time he was seized with a thirst for vengeance. … In
Frankfort, too, he learned thoroughly to know German affairs:
the utter weakness of the Confederation and the misery of
having so many petty states. … To his mind the goal of
Prussian policy was to drive Austria out of Germany and then
to bring about a subordination of the other German states to
Prussia. … Nor did he make the least secret of his warlike
attitude towards Austria. When an Austrian arch-duke, who was
passing through, once asked him maliciously whether all the
many decorations which he wore on his breast had been won by
bravery in battle: 'All gained before the enemy, all gained
here in Frankfort,' was the ready answer. In the year 1859
came the complications between Austria and Italy, the latter
being joined by France. This Italian war between Austria and
France thoroughly roused the German nation. … Many wanted to
protect Austria, others showed a disinclination to enter the
lists for Austria's rule over Italy. … Bismarck's advice at
this time was that Prussia should side against Austria and
should join Italy. In the spring of 1859, however, he was
transferred from Frankfort on the Main to St. Petersburg: 'put
on ice on the Neva,' as he said himself, 'like champagne for
future use.' … In June 1859, in view of the Italian war, it
had been decreed in Prussia that the army should be mobilized
and kept in readiness to fight. … When, later, in the summer
of this year, the probability of war had gone by, the Landwehr
was not dismissed but, on the contrary, a beginning was made
with a new formation of regiments which had already been
planned and talked over. … On February 10, 1860, the question
of the military reorganization was laid before the diet, where
doubts and objections were raised against it. … On the 4th of
May, at the same time when the law about civil marriages was
rejected, the land-tax, by which the cost of the
army-reorganization was to have been covered, was refused by
the Upper House. The liberals were disappointed and angered.
The ministry was soon in a bad dilemma: should it give way to
the liberal opposition and dissolve the newly formed
regiments? The expedient that was thought of seemed clever
enough but it led in reality to a blind alley and was
productive of the most baneful consequences. The ministry
moved a single grant of 9,000,000 thalers for the purpose of
completing the army and maintaining its efficiency on the
former footing. The motion was carried on May 15, 1860, by a
vote of 315 against two. … The new elections for the house of
deputies in December 1861 produced a diet of an entirely
different stamp from that of 1858. … The moderate majority was
now to atone for the sin of not having come to any real
arrangement with the ministry on the army question; for the
new majority came to Berlin with the full intention of
crushing the army-reform. … The chief task of the newly formed
ministry of 1862 was to solve the military question, for the
longer it had remained in abeyance the more complicated had
the matter become.
{3778}
The newly-elected diet had been in session since the 19th of
May. The majority was determined to draw the conclusion from
the provisional nature of the army-reorganization grants that
no such grants were any longer to be made. The battle cry of
the majority of the diet was that all further demands of the
government for the military reform were to be refused. … But
how would this result? … The new officers had an actionable,
legal claim to their salaries; who was to pay them? The budget
for 1862 was already in great part expended. … Were the
ministers themselves to pay the damages? Such seems to have
been the idea of the fanatics in the parliament. … By
September 1862 the belligerent and uncompromising attitude of
the liberal majority had induced King William to lay aside his
earlier distrust of Bismarck. He allowed him to be summoned
and placed him at the head of the ministry. Most stirring was
the first audience which Bismarck had with his king in the
Park of Babelsberg on September 23. The king first of all laid
before Bismarck the declaration of his abdication. Very much
startled, Bismarck said: 'To that it should never be allowed
to come!' The king replied that he had tried everything and
knew no other alternative. His convictions, contrary to which
he could not act, contrary to which he could not reign,
forbade him to relinquish the army-reorganization. Thereupon
Bismarck explained to the king his own different view of the
matter and closed with the request that his Majesty might
abandon all thoughts of abdication. The king then asked the
minister if he would undertake to carry on the government
without a majority and without a budget. Bismarck answered
both questions in the affirmative and with the utmost
decision. … The alliance between the king and his minister was
closed and cemented on that 23rd of September in Babelsberg to
endure for all time. … To this bond of allegiance which joined
king and minister, Prussia and Germany owe all the glory that
has fallen to their share. … In the summer of 1863 was
originated the famous Austrian project of reform. … The
proposals of Prussia that there should be one central head of
Germany with popular representation from the whole nation was
entirely thrust aside and, on the contrary, a federal
directory was recommended with a parliament of delegates from
the separate diets. … In spite of Prussia's absence the
assembly of princes took place at Frankfort. King John of
Saxony again travelled to Baden to urge King William to attend
but the latter again declined. Not but that this refusal cost
him a great struggle. … Bismarck had to threaten with his
resignation before he could make the king remain firm; … he
did not breathe freely again until the Saxon king had taken
his leave. Then with his powerful hand he demolished a plate
of glasses that stood before him; that cooled his anger and
his excitement and he was once more the polished courtier. …
Bismarck's policy now met with a great piece of good fortune.
Through the death of the king of Denmark, namely, the
Schleswig-Holstein question was forced to a final solution and
this offered Bismarck an opportunity of trying his diplomatic
skill, while at the same time it gave the Prussian army a
brilliant occasion for showing what it could accomplish. In a
series of bold moves Bismarck steered through the
complications of the Schleswig-Holstein question; it is the
first stage in his great career of victory. … But in spite of
all the successes of the Danish war the diet continued in its
opposition. A loan for the war was refused; any loan made
without the consent of the diet was declared unconstitutional
and not binding. … The subsequent grant for the costs of the
war was refused. … Naturally the Prussian war-budget could not
be made up, and the land continued to be governed without a
budget. The details of the debates on these subjects are today
only of minor interest. Much time was lost in mutual insults
between Bismarck on the one hand and Virchow and Gneist on the
other. Bismarck challenged Virchow to a duel, Virchow refused
the challenge. … By April 1866 Bismarck had cleared the
political field for his war against Austria; the necessity for
that war had long been apparent to him. … That the German
question could only be settled by the separation of Austria
from Germany and that this separation could only be brought
about by a war between Prussia and Austria had, in the course
of years, become clear to all patriots who knew anything of
history. With incomparable perspicuity the statesman who had
led Prussia's policy since the autumn of 1862 had grasped the
idea and had seen to carrying it out with the whole force of
his iron will. Already in the autumn of 1863 he had drawn up
the program of what he intended that the German Confederation
should be. … The history of the world had not for centuries
seen such a war as 1866. … It was then that King William and
his minister, crowned with victories, asked the Prussian diet
for indemnity: i. e. for an acknowledgment of their good
purposes in spite of their illegal acts. … In point of fact
the diet had been wrong and the king and his minister had
acted wisely and well; in point of form they had broken the
letter of the law. … In the years 1862-1866 Bismarck had held
off Napoleon with incomparable political skill. He had always
refused the French demands, but so that Napoleon in each case
could cherish some hope and could venture again and again to
approach Prussia with some new lure. Not until August 1866 did
Napoleon receive a thorough and open repulse. Bismarck then
answered every threat of the French with the counter-threat of
a German war. The refusal of Bismarck and his king brought
Napoleon into a very bad position as regarded the French
people. In the minds of the latter a war against Germany was a
foregone conclusion since 1866. … On the 8th of July (1870)
the French envoy came to King William in Ems and demanded that
he should forbid Prince Leopold to accept the crown of Spain.
… It is a popular fiction that the king turned his back on
Benedetti, or that he answered that he 'had nothing more to
say to him,' or that he out and out refused him an audience.
An extra of the German papers of July 14th did indeed read to
that effect: Bismarck himself had drawn up the notice for the
papers. He had made no false additions, but here and there he
had erased and omitted some of the words spoken at Ems, thus
rendering possible at least the whole false conception of the
matter. Bismarck ventured on such a step, having clearly
counted the costs; the result showed how closely he had made
his calculations. …
{3779}
It was the war of 1870 that fundamentally changed the
relations of the chancellor to the mass of the people. After
1871 he was immensely popular. … People believed that he could
do anything, that he could make possible what was impossible
for other men. … Bismarck was very soon surrounded with an
almost mythical halo."
_W. Maurenbrecher,
Gründung des Deutschen Reichs
(translated from the German),
pages 13-258._
See, also, GERMANY:
A. D. 1861-1866, and after (pages 1537-1548).
GERMANY: A. D. 1863.
Formation of the first Socialist party by Lassalle.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1862-1864 (page 2949).
GERMANY: A. D. 1870-1874.
The "Kulturkampf" in its first stages.
Speeches of Bismarck.
"For reasons relating to its own internal affairs the state,
even though it took no special attitude to the dogma of
infallibility in itself, could not avoid being drawn into the
conflicts which that dogma was bound to call forth between its
upholders and its opponents. It was the duty of the state to
prevent the evil results to its citizens of the anathema which
the bishops hurled at those who denied the infallibility; it
was necessary for it to interfere and, by introducing civil
marriages, to render marriage possible to those apostates who
were not allowed to receive the sacraments; it was necessary
for it to protect in the exercise of their office those of its
public teachers who rejected the new dogma, even if their
spiritual superiors should declare them unfit to hold such
office. In cases, finally, where whole congregations, or
majorities of them, remained true to the old teachings it was
necessary for the state to protect them in the possession of
their churches of which the bishops tried to deprive them.
Already in November and December 1870 the first cases had
occurred with regard to which the Prussian minister of
education had been obliged to draw these conclusions.
Professors of the Bonn and Breslau universities who, because
they denied the infallibility, had been forbidden to lecture
by Archbishop Melchers of Cologne and Prince-bishop Forster of
Breslau, appealed to the protection of the minister. Certain
pastors and teachers of gymnasiums, who had joined in a
declaration drawn up at Nuremberg (August 25, 1870) against
the new dogma, and who had in consequence been threatened with
ecclesiastical punishments, did the same. Mühler had no other
course than to declare that, so far as officials appointed by
the state were concerned, the state must maintain its
exclusive disciplinary power, and that he would continue in
future to regard as catholics those whom he had so regarded
before the decree of infallibility was passed, even if they
saw fit to reject that dogma. Similar conflicts broke out in
Bavaria where the minister, Lutz, upheld the pastor Renftle,
of Mering near Augsburg, in the enjoyment of his benefices in
the face of the bishop, and where the Munich professors,
Döllinger, Friedrich, Huber and others courageously refused
such assent to the dogma as the Archbishop Scherr, on October
20, 1870, demanded from them. Döllinger's written
justification of himself, published on March 20, 1871, seemed
to give a firm basis and a distinguished leader to the whole
movement. … Twelve thousand signatures were collected in a few
weeks for an address to the king of Bavaria and an appeal was
made to the catholics of Germany, Austria and Switzerland in
favor of common action. … Meanwhile the other party had been
busy enough. Hundreds and hundreds of ecclesiastics protested
against Döllinger's assertion that thousands of the clergy
thought as he did. A lay assembly in Munich, held on April 23,
which expressed itself in favor of infallibility, was the
forerunner of countless similar ones. … Already some weeks
earlier the archbishop of Munich had ventured to excommunicate
Döllinger. … On August 27 Lutz sent a writing to Archbishop
Scherr claiming the right to regulate afresh the relations
with the church as the dogma of infallibility was something
essentially new: at the same time he announced that the
government would do its utmost to protect the upholders of the
old teachings and to secure the independence of civil affairs
from ecclesiastical right of compulsion. In Munich such
decisive measures would probably not have been adopted had not
matters in Prussia taken a similar turn. The conflict had been
brought to a climax here by the demand of Bishops Krementz and
Ermeland that two teachers in Braunsberg, Wollmann and
Treibel, should be dismissed for denying the infallibility.
This demand the minister had refused on March 18, 1871, and on
June 29 had even given his approval to the regulation that
scholars who should obey the orders of the bishop to absent
themselves from the class in religious instruction of these
teachers should be expelled from the gymnasium. The bishop had
retaliated by excommunicating the two teachers in question, as
well as Professor Michelis, one of the chief opponents of
infallibility. In the dioceses of Cologne, Paderborn and
Breslau also, the conflicts had become more fierce on account
of excommunications imposed by the bishops. Still more
important was it that the chancellor of the empire had now
personally entered the lists. As his cool attitude already
before the council had given reason to expect, the Vatican
dogma did not much trouble him. All the more alarming seemed
to him the agitation which the clergy were stirring up among
the Polish nobles, and the league of Guelphism and Catholicism
as illustrated by Windhorst's position in the Centre. … He
[Bismarck] caused the announcement to be made in an article of
the Kreuzzeitung that the government would not only continue
on the defensive against the Centre, but in turn would proceed
to attack it. The ultramontanes had better consider whether
such a struggle could turn out to the advantage of the Roman
Church. If, he concluded, three hundred years ago Teutonism in
Germany was stronger than Romanism, how much stronger would it
be now when Rome is no longer the capital of the world, but on
the point of becoming the capital of Italy, and when the
German imperial crown no longer rests on the head of a
Spaniard but of a German prince. … In the Federal Council Lutz
moved an amendment to the criminal code which should threaten
any clergyman with imprisonment up to two years if he should
misuse his office and discuss state affairs so as to disturb
the peace. … This 'pulpit-paragraph' was accepted with 179 to
108 votes and became law December 14th 1871. … The Prussian
diet was opened on November 27, 1871, with the announcement of
four new laws which should regulate marriages, the
registration of civil personal matters, the withdrawal from
existing churches, and the supervision of schools. …
{3780}
The conservative party was in wild excitement over these
measures and the Kreuzzeitung became the organ of decided
opposition, especially against the school-supervision law
which was chosen as the first object of attack. The
conservatives collected petitions from all parts of the land
to kill this law which they prophesied would make the schools
a tool of atheism, a hot-bed of revolution, unnationality and
immorality. They succeeded in getting together more than
300,000 signatures. … At the first reading in the House of
Deputies the school-supervision law was passed, although by a
majority of only 25 votes. … At the second reading the
majority increased to 52. … The chief struggle was expected in
the House of Lords. … The vote here was favorable beyond all
hopes, resulting on March 8th in a majority in favor of the
law almost as great as that in the House of Deputies. … By no
means calm was the attitude of the pope towards the increasing
complications, and when, a few weeks later, on June 24th,
1872, he received the German 'Leseverein' in Rome he
complained bitterly of the prime minister of a powerful
government who, after marvellous successes in war, should have
placed himself at the head of a long-planned persecution of
the church; a step which would undoubtedly tarnish the glory
of his former triumphs. 'Who knows if the little stone shall
not soon be loosened from above that shall destroy the foot of
the Colossus!' The chief cause of this embitterment lay in the
expulsion of the Jesuits which had meanwhile been decreed by
the diet. … The more the national opposition to the Roman
claims increased, the more passionate did the frame of mind of
the ultramontanes become; and also, in no small degree, of the
pope. An allocution addressed to the cardinals on December 22,
1872, surpassed in violence anything that had yet been heard.
… Even Reichensperger found it advisable in excusing a
vehemence that thus went beyond all bounds to call to mind
that the Latinized style of the papal chancery was not to be
taken too literally. The German government, after such a
demonstration, had no other alternative than to recall the
last representative of its embassy to the papal court. …
Already in November Minister Falk had laid before the House a
draft of a law concerning the limits of ecclesiastical
punishments and disciplinary measures; on January 9, 1873,
followed the drafts of three new laws. … Still more
passionately than in the debate concerning the change in the
Constitution did Bismarck come forward in the discussion of
April 24-28. … Windhorst and Schorlemer-Alst answered him back
in kind. … With violent attacks on Bismarck they prophesied
that these Draconic laws would rebound against the passive
opposition of the people; that dawn was glimmering in men's
minds and that the victory of the Church was near. To the
great majority of the German people, who had followed the
political-ecclesiastical debates with the liveliest interest,
such assurances seemed almost laughable. They felt sure of
victory now that Bismarck himself had seized the standard with
such decision. The 'May Laws' which the king signed on May 11,
1873, were considered a weapon sure to be effectual, and even
the advanced-liberals, who had followed many of the steps of
the Government with hesitation and doubt, declared in an
appeal to their electors on March 23 that the conflict had
assumed the proportions of a great struggle for enlightenment
(Kulturkampf) in which all mankind were concerned, and that
they themselves, in junction with the other liberal parties,
would accordingly support the Government. … On August 7 (1873)
Pius IX sent a letter to the emperor under pretext of having
heard that the latter did not sympathize with the latest
measures of his government. He declared that such measures
seemed to aim at the annihilation of Catholicism and warned
him that their final result would be to undermine the throne.
He deduced his right to issue this warning from the fact that
he was bound to tell the truth to all, even to non-catholics:
for in one way or another—exactly how this was not the place
to make clear—everyone who had received baptism belonged to
the pope. The emperor answered on September 3rd in a most
dignified tone. … 'We can not pass over in silence the remark
that everyone who has been baptized belongs to the pope. The
evangelical faith which I, as your Holiness must know, like my
forefathers and together with the majority of my subjects,
confess, does not allow us to accept any other Mediator in our
relations with God save our Lord Jesus Christ.' … Among
protestants this royal answer was greeted with jubilant
acclamations and even in foreign lands it found a loud echo.
The aged Earl Russell organized a great meeting in London on
January 27, 1874. … Soon after the opening of the Prussian
diet Falk could bring forward the draft of a law which handed
over to state-officials [Standesbeamte] all matters referring
to the celebration of marriages and the registration of civil
personal matters. This draft was sure from the first of a good
majority. … On March 9th 1874 the law could be proclaimed. In
the same month still the deputies Hinschius and Völk made a
motion in the diet to introduce civil marriages throughout the
whole empire. … It furthermore seemed necessary to take
stronger measures against bishops and priests unlawfully
appointed and whom the state had either deposed or refused to
recognize. The mildest measure was to remove them from their
dioceses or parishes, to banish them to certain fixed places
and, in the worst cases, to expel them altogether from the
lands of the empire. … The draft of the law (to this effect)
was warmly supported and at last, April 25, 1874, was accepted
by a vote of 214 to 208. … On July 13th, 1874, as Prince
Bismarck, who had gone to take the cure in Kissingen, was
driving to the Saline the twenty-one year old
cooper's-apprentice Kullmann, of Magdeburg, fired a pistol at
him, and wounded him in his right hand which he had just
raised for the purpose of saluting. At once arrested, Kullmann
declared to the chancellor, who visited him an hour later in
his prison, that he had wished to murder him on account of the
laws against the church. … The reading of ultramontane papers
and the violent discourses of the catholic clergy had driven
him to the deed. He atoned for it with fourteen years in the
House of Correction. Not alone did public opinion make
ultramontanism accountable for the deed, but Bismarck himself
laid very strong emphasis on the fact that the criminal had
spoken of the Centre as 'his party.' 'You may try as hard as
you please to rid yourselves of this murderer,' he cried out
in the diet of December 4th, 'he none the less holds fast to
your coat-tails!'"
_C. Bulle,
Geschichte der neuesten Zeit
(translated from the German),
volume 4, pages 20-41._
{3781}
At the Session of the Lower House of the Prussian Diet January
30, 1872, Deputy Windthorst spoke in opposition to the royal
order for the abolition of the separate Roman Catholic section
of the department of worship and public instruction and Prince
Bismarck, in reply, said: "The party to which the gentleman
belongs has contributed its share to the difficulty of
obliterating the denominational standpoint in matters
political. I have always considered it one of the most
monstrous manifestations in politics, that a religious faction
should convert itself into a political party. If all the other
creeds were to adopt the same principle, it would bring
theology into the parliamentary sessions and would make it a
matter of public debate. … It has always been one of my
fundamental principles that every creed ought to have full
liberty of development, perfect liberty of conscience. But for
all that I did not think it was a necessary corollary that a
census of each denomination be taken merely for the purpose of
giving each its proportional share in the Civil Service. …
Where will you stop? You begin with a Cabinet; then you count
the Chiefs of Division. I do not know what your ratio is—I
think you claim four to seven—nor do I care to know. The
subordinates in the Civil Service follow next. It is a fact,
moreover, that the Evangelicals are by no means united in one
denomination. The contrast is not merely between Protestants
and Catholics. The United Prussian Established Church, the
Lutheran Church, the Reformed Church, all have claims
analogous to those of the Catholics. As soon as we cut up the
state into denominational sections, giving each creed its
proportional share, then the large Jewish population will come
in for its part, a majority of which, distinguished by its
special capacity, skill and intelligence, is peculiarly fitted
for the business of the State. … We cannot admit the claim of
the ecclesiastical authorities to a further share in the
administration and in the interest of peace we are obliged to
restrict the share they already have; so that we may have room
beside each other and be obliged, as little as possible, to
trouble ourselves about theology in this place."
_Die politischen Reden des Fürsten Bismarck
(translated from the German),
volume 5, pages 231-240._
In the German Parliament, May 14, 1872, on the question of a
grant of 19,350 thalers for the German embassy at the See of
Rome, Prince Bismarck spoke as follows: "I can easily
understand how in considering this item of the estimates, the
opinion may be held that the expenditure for this embassy was
superfluous, as it does no longer consider the protection of
German citizens in foreign parts. Still I am glad that no
motion for the striking out of this post was made, which would
be unpleasant to the Government. The duties of an embassy
consist not merely in affording protection to their
countrymen, but also in keeping up the political relations of
the Government which it represents with that to which it is
accredited. Now there is no foreign sovereign, who, in the
present state of our laws, might be called upon to exercise,
in accordance with those laws, prerogatives in the German
empire like those of His Holiness, approaching almost to
sovereignty, limited by no constitutional responsibility.
There is therefore great importance for the German empire in
the character that is given to our diplomatic relations with
the head of the Roman Church, wielding, as he does, an
influence in this country unusually extensive for a foreign
potentate. I scarcely believe, considering the spirit dominant
at present in the leading circles of the Catholic Church, that
any ambassador of the German empire could succeed, by the most
skilful diplomacy, or by persuasion (comminatory attitudes
conceivable between secular powers are out of the question
here)—I say no one could succeed by persuasion in exerting an
influence to bring about a modification of the position
assumed by His Holiness the Pope towards things secular. The
dogmas of the Catholic Church recently announced and publicly
promulgated make it impossible for any secular power to come
to an understanding with the church without its own
effacement, which the German empire, at least, cannot accept.
Have no fear; we shall not go to Canossa, either in body or in
spirit. Nevertheless it cannot be concealed that the state of
the German empire (it is not my task here to investigate the
motives and determine how much blame attaches to one party or
the other; I am only defending an item in the Budget)—that
the feeling within the German empire in regard to religious
peace, is one of disquietude. The governments of the German
empire are seeking, with all the solicitude they owe to their
Catholic as well as Lutheran subjects for the best way, the
most acceptable means, of changing the present unpleasant
state of affairs in matters of religion to a more agreeable
one, without disturbing to any degree the creedal relations of
the empire. This can only be done by way of legislation—of
general imperial legislation—for which the governments have to
rely upon the assistance of the Reichstag. That this
legislation must not in the least infringe upon the liberty of
conscience,—must proceed in the gentlest, most conciliatory
manner; that the government must bend all its energies in
order to prevent unnecessary retardation of its work, from
incorrect recording or errors in form, you all will admit.
That the governments must spare no efforts for the
establishment of our internal peace, in a manner least
offensive even to the religious sensitiveness of those whose
creed we do not share, you will also admit. To this end,
however, it is before all things needful that the Roman See be
at all times well informed of the intentions of the German
governments, much better than it has been hitherto. The
reports made in the past to His Holiness, the Pope, on the
state of affairs in Germany, and on the intentions of the
German governments, I consider as one of the chief causes of
the present disturbances of denominational relations; for
those presentations were both incorrect and perverted, either
by personal bias, or by baser motives. I had hoped that the
choice of an ambassador, who had the full confidence of both
parties, both on account of his love of truth and reliability,
and on account of the nature of his views and his
attitude—that the choice of such an ambassador as His Majesty
had made in the person of a distinguished prince of the church
[Cardinal Prince Hohenlohe] would be welcomed at Rome; that it
would be taken as an earnest of our peaceable and conciliatory
intentions; that it would be utilized as a means to our mutual
understanding.
{3782}
I had hoped that it would afford the assurance that we would
never ask anything of His Holiness, but what a prince of the
church, sustaining the most intimate relations to the Pope,
could present before him; that the forms with which one
sacerdotal dignitary confers with another would continue to
prevail and that all unnecessary friction in a matter so
difficult in itself would be avoided. … All this we had hoped
to attain. But alas! for reasons which have not yet been
submitted to us, a curt refusal on the part of the Papal See
frustrated the intentions of His Majesty. I dare say such an
incident does not often occur. It is customary, when a
sovereign has made choice of an ambassador, out of courtesy to
make inquiry at the court to which the chosen ambassador is to
be accredited, whether he be persona grata or not. The case of
a negative reply, however, is extremely rare, bringing about,
as it must, a revocation of the appointment made not
provisionally, but definitely, before the inquiry. Such a
negative reply is equal to a demand to annul what has been
done, to a declaration: 'You have chosen unwisely.' I have now
been Foreign Minister for ten years; have been busy in matters
of higher diplomacy for twenty-one years; and I can positively
assert that this is the first and only case in my experience
of such an inquiry receiving a negative reply." Deputy
Windthorst, in reply, criticised the procedure of the German
Government in this affair, and justified the position taken by
the papal court, saying: "I believe, gentlemen, for my part,
that it was the duty of the Cardinal to ask the permission of
his master, the Pope, before accepting the post. The Cardinal
was the servant of the Pope, and as such, could not accept an
office from another government without previous inquiry. … The
case would be the same if His Holiness had appointed an
adjutant general of His Majesty as papal nuncio, only more
flagrant, for you will admit that a Cardinal is quite a
different person from an adjutant general." Prince Bismarck
replied: "I do not wish to discuss here the personal criticism
which the gentleman made on His Eminence, the Cardinal, but I
would say a word about the expression 'master' which was used.
The gentleman is certainly well versed in history, especially
ecclesiastical history, and I wish to ask him, who was the
master of Cardinal Richelieu or Cardinal Mazarin. Both of
these dignitaries were engaged in controversies and had to
settle important differences with the See of Rome, in the
service of their sovereign, the king of France; and yet they
were Cardinals. … If it should please His Holiness to appoint
an adjutant general of His Majesty as papal nuncio, I should
unconditionally advise His Majesty to accept him. … I am an
enemy to all conjectural politics and all prophesies. That
will take care of itself. But I can assure the gentleman that
we will maintain the full integral sovereignty of the law with
all means at our disposal, against assumptions of individual
subjects of His Majesty, the king of Prussia, be they priests
or laymen, that there could be laws of the land not binding
upon them; and we are sure of the entire support of a great
majority of the members of all religious confessions. The
sovereignty can and must be one and integral,—the sovereignty
of the law; and he who declares the laws of his country as not
binding upon himself, places himself outside the pale of the
law."
_Die politischen Reden des Fürsten Bismarck
(translated from the German),
volume 5, pages 337-344._
The following is from a speech of Prince Bismarck in the Upper
House, March 10, 1873, during the discussion of the May Laws:
"The gentleman who spoke before me has entered on the same
path which the opponents of these bills followed in the other
house by ascribing to them a confessional, I might say, an
ecclesiastical character. The question we are considering is,
according to my view, misconstrued, and the light in which we
consider it, a false light if we look upon it as a
confessional, a church question. It is essentially a political
one; it is not, as our catholic fellow citizens are made to
believe, a contest of an evangelical dynasty against the
Catholic Church; it is not a struggle between faith and
unbelief; it is the perennial contest, as old as the human
race, between royalty and priestcraft, older than the
appearance of our Savior on earth. This contest was carried on
by Agamemnon at Aulis, which cost him his daughter and
hindered the Grecian fleet from going to sea. This contest has
filled the German history of the Middle Ages even to the
disintegration of the German Empire. It is known as the
struggles of the popes with the emperors, closing for the
Middle Ages when the last representative of the noble Suabian
imperial dynasty died on the block beneath the axe of the
French conqueror, that French conqueror being in league with
the then ruling pope. We were very near an analogous solution
of this question, translated into the manners of our own time.
Had the French war of conquest been successful, the outbreak
of which coincided with the publication of the Vatican
Decrees, I know not what would have been narrated in Church
circles of Germany of 'gestis Dei per Francos' ['Gesta Dei per
Francos,' 'Deeds of God by the French' is the title of a
collection by Bongars, containing the sources of the history
of the crusades.—Footnote]. … It is in my opinion a
falsification of history and politics, this attitude of
considering His Holiness, the Pope, exclusively as the high
priest of a religious denomination, or the Catholic Church as
the representative of Churchdom merely. The papacy has at all
times been a political power, interfering in the most resolute
manner and with the greatest success in the secular affairs of
this world, which interference it contended for and made its
program. These programs are well known. The aim which was
constantly present in its mind's eye, the program which in the
Middle Ages was near its realization, was the subjection of
the secular powers to the Church, an eminently political aim,
a striving as old as mankind itself. For there have always
been either some wise men, or some real priests who set up the
claim, that the will of God was better known to them than to
their fellow beings and in consequence of this claim they had
the right to rule over their fellowmen. And it cannot be
denied that this proposition contains the basis of the papal
claims for the exercise of sovereign rights. …
{3783}
The contention of priesthood against royalty, in our case, of
the Pope against the German Emperor, … is to be judged like
every other struggle; it has its alliances, its peace
conventions, its pauses, its armistices. There have been
peaceful popes, there have been popes militant, popes
conquerors. There have been even peace-loving kings of France,
though Louis XVI. was forced to carry on wars; so that even
our French neighbors have had monarchs who preferred peace to
war. Moreover in the struggles of the papal power it has not
always been the call that Catholic powers have been
exclusively the allies of the pope; nor have the priests
always sided with the pope. We have had cardinals as ministers
of great powers at a time when those great powers followed an
antipapal policy even to acts of violence. We have found
bishops in the military retinue of the German emperors, when
moving against the popes. This contest for power therefore is
subject to the same condition as every other political
contest, and it is a misrepresentation of the issue,
calculated to impress people without judgment of their own,
when it is characterized as aiming at the oppression of the
church. Its object is the defense of the State, to determine
the limits of priestly rule, of royal power, and this limit
must secure the existence of the State. For in the kingdom of
this world the rule and the precedence is the State's. We in
Prussia have not always been the pre-eminent object of this
struggle. The papal court for a long time did not consider us
as its principal opponent. Frederic the Great was at perfect
peace with the Roman See while the contemporary emperor of
Catholic Austria [Joseph II.] was engaged in the most violent
contention with the Catholic Church. I wish to prove thereby
that the question is entirely independent of creed. I will
further add that at the Vienna Congress it was King Frederic
William III., thoroughly and most strictly evangelical, nay,
it might be said, anticatholic in his belief, that it was he
who insisted upon and carried through the restoration of the
secular rule of the pope; nevertheless he departed this world
while engaged in a struggle with the Catholic Church. In the
paragraphs of the constitution we have under consideration we
found a 'modus vivendi,' an armistice, concluded at a time
when the State was in need of help and thought to obtain this
help or at least some support in the Catholic Church. This
hope was based upon the fact that at the election for the
national assembly of 1848 the districts in which the Catholic
population preponderated elected, if not royalists, yet
friends of order,—which was not the case in evangelical
districts. Under this impression the compromise between the
ecclesiastical and secular arms was concluded, though, as
subsequent events proved, in miscalculation as to its
practical effects. For it was not the support of the electors
who had thus voted but the Brandenburg ministry and the royal
army that restored order. In the end the State was obliged to
help itself; the aid that might have been given by the
different churches did not pull it through. But at that time
originated the 'modus vivendi' under which we lived in peace
for a number of years. To be sure, this peace was bought only
by an uninterrupted yielding of the State, by placing its
rights in regard to the Catholic Church, without reservation,
in the hands of a magistracy which was originally intended to
be the guardian of the royal Prussian prerogatives against the
Catholic Church, but which in fact ultimately became a
magistracy in the service of the pope, in order to guard the
rights of the church against the encroachments of the Prussian
State. Of course, I refer to the Catholic section in the
Supreme Church Council [the Church Council is a Protestant
body.—Foot-note]. I mean of the Ministry of worship. … When we
were yet in Versailles I was somewhat surprised to learn, that
Catholic members of parliamentary bodies were asked to declare
whether they were ready to join a religious party, such as we
have now in the Party of the Center, and whether they would
agree to vote and agitate for the insertion of the paragraphs
we are at present considering into the constitution of the
Empire. I was not much alarmed then at that program; I was a
lover of peace to such a degree. I knew from whom it emanated;
partly from an eminent prince of the church [Bishop Ketteler
of Mayence] whose chief task it was to do for the papal policy
what he could. … I was completely deceived. … When I returned
here I saw how strong was the organization of this party of
the church militant, against the state. … What, was this
program? Read it. There are pamphlets in everybody's hand,
written with spirit, pleasant to read. Its object was the
introduction of a state dualism in Prussia, the erection of a
state within the state to bring it about that all Catholics
should follow the guidance of this Party of the Center in
their private as well as their political conduct, a dualism of
the worst kind. Under different conditions a dualistic
constitution might work well in an empire. Witness the
Austro-Hungarian monarchy. But yonder it is no religious
dualism. With us the construction of two denominational states
is aimed at, to be engaged in a dualistic struggle, one of
which was to have for its supreme ruler a foreign church
potentate, whose seat is in Home, a potentate who by the
latest changes in the constitution of the Catholic Church has
become more powerful than ever before. If this program were
carried out, we were to have instead of the one formerly
integral state of Prussia, instead of the German Empire then
at the point of realization—we were to have two state
organizations, running side by side in parallel lines; one
with the Party of the Center as its general staff, the other
with its general staff in the guiding secular principle, in
the government and the person of his Majesty the Emperor. This
situation was absolutely unacceptable for the government whose
very duty it was to defend the state against such a danger. It
would have misunderstood and neglected this duty if it had
looked on calmly at the astounding progress which a closer
examination of the affair brought to light. … The Government
was obliged to terminate the armistice, based upon the
constitution of 1848, and create a new 'modus vivendi' between
the secular and sacerdotal power. The State cannot allow this
situation to continue without being driven into internal
struggles that may endanger its very existence. The question
is simply this: Are those paragraphs of the constitution [of
1848] dangerous to the State, as is contended for by the
government of His Majesty, or are they not?
{3784}
If they are, then it is your duty as conservatives to vote
against the retention of those paragraphs. If you think them
entirely harmless then you hold a conviction which the
government of His Majesty does not share, and as it is not
able to assume the responsibility for the administration of
the affairs of the State with these articles of the
constitution in force, it must surrender it to those who
consider them harmless. The Government, in its struggle for
the defense of the State, applies to the Upper House for aid
and assistance for the strengthening of the State and its
defense against attacks and machinations that undermine its
peace and endanger its future. We trust and believe that this
assistance will not fail us with the majority of the Upper
House."
_Die politischen Reden des Fürsten Bismarck
(translated from the German),
volume 5, pages 384-391._
GERMANY: A. D. 1871-1873.
Adoption of the gold standard.
See MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1871-1873 (page 2220).
GERMANY: A. D. 1871-1895.
The organization of the modern German Empire.
"The idea of the unity of the empire in its purest and most
unadulterated form is most clearly typified by the German
diet. This assembly, resulting from general elections of the
whole people, shows all the clefts and schisms which
partisanship and the spirit of faction have simultaneously
brought about among the different classes of the people and
among their representatives. But there is not one among all
the prominent factions of the German diet which owes its
formation to territorial differences. The changing majorities
and minorities have assumed their form more curiously in our
parliament than in any other in the world, but there never has
been a single case where in taking a vote North Germans have
come forward in a body against South Germans or vice versa, or
where small and medium states have been pitted against the one
large state. If the constitution of the empire reminds each
deputy that he is a representative of the whole people, the
best part of the provision is that it comes to be looked upon
as a matter of course; it belongs to the very essence of a
parliamentary assembly that it should see in a particular
constellation of opposing factions only something exceptional.
How indispensable a parliamentary organ which actually
represents the unity of the people is to every state in a
confederation is best shown by the energy with which the
Prussian government again and again demanded a German
parliament at the very time when it fairly despaired about
coming to an understanding with its own body of
representatives. In the middle between the head of the empire
and such a diet as we have described is the place occupied by
the Federal Council (Bundesrath): not until we have made this
clear to ourselves can we fully understand the nature of this
latter institution. Each of its members is the plenipotentiary
of his sovereign just as were the old Regensburg and Frankfort
envoys. It is a duty, for instance, for Bavaria's
representative to investigate each measure proposed and to see
whether it is advantageous or not for the land of Bavaria. The
Federal Council is and is meant to be the speaking-tube by
which the voice of the separate interests shall reach the ear
of the legislator. But all the same, held together as it is by
the firm stability of the seventeen votes which it holds
itself and by the balancing power of the emperor and of the
diet, it is the place where daily habit educates the
representatives of the individual states to see that by
furthering the welfare of the common fatherland they take the
best means of furthering their own local interests. Taken each
by himself the plenipotentiaries represent their own
individual states; taken as a whole the assembly represents a
conglomeration of all the German states. It is the upholder of
the sovereignty of the empire. If, then, the federal council
already represents the whole empire, still more is this true
of the general body of officials, constituted through
appointment by the emperor although with a considerable amount
of co-operation on the part of the federal council. The
imperial chancellor is the responsible minister of the emperor
for the whole of the empire. At his side is the imperial
chancery, a body of officials who, in turn, have to do in each
department with the affairs of the whole empire. The imperial
court, too, in spite of all its limitations, is none the less
a court for the whole empire. Not less clearly is the
territorial unity expressed in the unity of legislation. In
the circumstances in which we left the old empire there could
scarcely be any question any longer of real imperial
legislation. Under the confederation beginnings were made, nor
were they unsuccessful; but once again it was primarily the
struggle against the strivings for unity that chiefly impelled
the princes to united action. The 'Carlsbad decrees' placed
limits to separate territorial legislation to an extent that
even the imperial legislation of to-day would not venture upon
in many ways. The empire of the year 1848 at once took up the
idea of imperial legislation; a 'Reichsgesetzblatt' [imperial
legislative gazette] was issued. In this the imperial
ministry, after first passing them in the form of a decree,
published among other things a set of rules regulating
exchange. The plan was broached of drawing up a code of
commercial law for all Germany for the benefit of that class
of the population to which a uniform regulation of its legal
relationships was an actual question of life and death. So
firmly rooted was such legislation in the national needs that
even the reaction of the fifties did not venture to undo what
had been done. Indeed the idea of a universal code of
commercial law was carried on by most of the governments with
the best will in the world. A number of conferences were
called and by the end of the decade a plan had been drawn up,
thoroughly worked out and adopted. It has remained up to this
very day the legal basis for commercial intercourse. It is
true it was not the general decrees of these conferences that
gave legal authority to this code, but rather its subsequent
acceptance by the governments of the individual states. But
the practical result nevertheless was that, in one important
branch of law, the same code was in use in all German states.
Never before, so long as Germany had had a history, had a
codification of private law been introduced by means of
legislation into the German states in common; for the first
time princes and subjects learned by its fruits the blessing
of united legislation. But a few years later they were ready
enough to give over to the newly established empire all actual
power of legislation: only, indeed, for such matters as were
adapted for common regulation, but, so far as these were
concerned, so fully and freely that no local territorial law
can in any way interfere.
{3785}
What the lawgiver of the German empire announces as his will
must be accepted from the foot of the Alps to the waves of the
German Ocean. Thus after long national striving the view had
made a way for itself that, without threatening the existence
of the individual states, the soil of the empire nevertheless
formed a united territorial whole. But not only the soil, its
inhabitants also had to be welded together into one
organization. The old empire had lost all touch with its
subjects—a very much graver evil than the disintegration of
its territory. So formidable an array of intermediate powers
had thrust itself in between the emperor and his subjects that
at last the citizen and the peasant never by any chance any
more heard the voice of their imperial master. … In three ways
the German emperor now found the way to his subjects. Already
as king of Prussia the emperor of the future had been obeyed
by 19 millions of the whole German population as his immediate
subjects. By the entrance of a further 8 millions into the
same relationship on the resignation of their own territorial
lords by far the majority of all Germans became immediate
subjects of the emperor. The German empire, secondly, in those
branches of the administration which it created anew or at
least reorganized, made it a rule to preserve from the very
beginning the most immediate contact with its subjects: so in
the army, so in the department of foreign affairs. The empire,
finally, even where it left the administration to the
individual states, exercised the wholesome pressure of a
supreme national authoritative organization by setting up
certain general rules to be observed. The empire, for
instance, will not allow any distinctions to be made among its
subjects which would interfere with national unity. If the
Swabian comes to Hesse, the Hessian to Bavaria, the Bavarian
to Oldenburg, his inborn right of citizenship gives him a
claim to all the privileges of one born within those limits.
For all Germany there is a common right of citizenship; and
this common bond receives its true significance through
numerous actual migrations from one state to another, the
right of choosing a domicile being guaranteed. … It belongs in
the nature of a federative state that it should not claim for
itself all state-duties but should content itself with
exercising only such functions as demand a centralized
organization. In consequence we see the individual states
unfolding great activity in the field of internal
administration, in the furtherance of education, art and
science, in the care of the poor: matters with which the
empire as a whole has practically nothing to do. All those
affairs of the states, on the other hand, which by their
nature demand a centralized administration have been taken in
hand by the empire, and the unity of public interests to which
the activity of the empire gives utterance is shown in the
most different ways. There are certain affairs administered by
the empire which it has brought as much under a central
organization as ever the Prussian state did the affairs of the
amalgamated territories within its limits. With regard to
others the empire has preserved for itself nothing more than
the chief superintendence; with regard to others still it is
content to set up principles which are to be generally
followed and to exercise a right of supervision. It would be
wrong, however, to imagine that the two last-mentioned
prerogatives are only of secondary importance. The
superintendence which the German emperor exercises over the
affairs of the army, the chief part of which, indeed, is under
his direction as king of Prussia, is sufficient in its
workings to make the land-army, in time of war, as much of a
unit as is the consolidated navy. … Customs' matters form a
third category, with regard to which the empire possesses only
the beginnings of an administrative apparatus: all the same we
have seen in the last years how the right of general
supervision was sufficient in this field to bring about a
change in the direction of centralization, the importance of
which is recognizable from the loud expressions of approval of
its supporters and also in equal measure from the loud
opposition of its antagonists. … In the field of finance the
empire has advanced with caution and consideration and at the
same time with vigor. In general the separate states have
retained their systems of direct and indirect taxation. Only
that amount of consolidation without which the unity of the
empire as a whole would have been illusory was firmly decreed:
'Germany forms one customs and commercial unit bounded by
common customs limits.' The internal inter-state customs were
abolished. The finances that remained continued to belong to
the individual states—the direct taxes in their entirety, the
indirect to a great extent. The administration of the customs
on the borders even remained in the hands of the local
customs-officials, only that when collected they were placed
to the general account. But the unconditional right of the
empire to lay down the principles of customs legislation gave
it more and more of an opportunity to create finances of its
own and to become more and more independent of the scheduled
contributions from the separate states. … Judicial matters are
the affair of the individual state. With his complaints and
with his accusations the citizen whose rights have been
infringed turns to the court established by his territorial
lord. But already it has been found possible to organize a
common mode of procedure for this court throughout the whole
empire; the rules of court, the forms for criminal as well as
civil suits are everywhere the same. … The general German
commercial code and the exchange regulations, which almost all
the states had proclaimed law on the ground of the conferences
under the confederation, were proclaimed again in the name of
the empire and were supplemented in certain particulars. As to
criminal law a general German criminal code has unified the
more important matters and, with regard to those of less
importance, has legally fixed the limits to be observed by the
individual states. Work is constantly going on at a civil code
which is to be drawn up much on the same lines. The German
nation is busily engaged in creating a German legal system
according to which the Prussian as well as the Bavarian, Saxon
or Swabian judge is to render his decisions. Furthermore, a
century-long development in our civilized states has brought
it about that a supervision, itself in the form of legal
decisions, should be exercised over the legality of judicial
sentences. Here again it was in commercial matters that the
jurisdiction of a supreme court first showed itself to be an
unavoidable necessity.
{3786}
Then it was, however, that after a slumber of seventy years
the old imperial court rose again from the dead, not entirely
without limitations, but absolutely without the power to make
exceptions. The imperial court at Leipzig is a court for the
whole empire and for one and all of its subjects. If we turn
to the internal administration it is chiefly matters
concerning traffic and intercommunication which call by their
very nature for regulation under one system. Although the
management of local and to some extent also of provincial
postal affairs is left as far as possible to the individual
states themselves, the German post is nevertheless imperial,
all the higher officials are appointed by the emperor, the
imperial post office passes its rules and regulations and sees
that they are carried out with reference to the whole empire.
Just this branch of the administration indeed has had to halt
at the Würtemberg and Bavarian frontiers, but in these two
states also the legal foundations of the postal system have
been adopted in all essential points. And if in the actual
administration the differences likewise begin to vanish, the
reason for this is more gratifying than is the fact itself:
the extraordinary triumphs, namely, of our imperial post,
which of themselves invite imitation and a breaking down of
barriers. The introduction of the penny tariff has increased
the amount of mail matter to four or five times what it was
before. Postcards, invented by the director of our postal
system, are already [1885], issued annually by the 150
million. The parcels-post, made cheaper and more convenient,
has attained such importance that it has actually come to
serve as a regulator of prices for the retail business of
mercantile houses. Great differences of price in different
parts of the empire become more and more an impossibility so
soon as one only has to pay ten pfennigs per kilo (2 pounds)
to procure the same goods in two or three days from the
cheapest place, be it ever so far off. What is true of the
post is true also of the telegraph which has come again to be
one with it. Here, too, we can observe how the centralization
in the empire has been of especial advantage to just those
places which lie most out of the way. Chiefly in connection
with existing or newly created post offices, the imperial post
office, in the first five years after the direction of the
telegraph came into its hands, opened more than four thousand
telegraph counters—on an average two new counters a day!
Through an extended system of treaties the German imperial
post has regulated its relations to foreign lands and paved
the way for the World-postal-association, the first such
association in the history of the world to take in states from
all four quarters of the globe. … Compared with the postal
system the other branches of inter-communication and of
internal administration seem to be only in the first stages of
centralization; but here, too, much has been accomplished. The
railroads stand under the direction or supervisory
administration of the individual states, but unity with regard
to time-tables, connections, fares and forwarding has been in
so far preserved that differences which might interrupt
traffic are avoided as far as possible. The governments of the
confederated states are under obligations 'to allow the German
railroads, in the interests of general communication, to be
administered as one unbroken network.' A separate Imperial
Railroad Bureau watches over the fulfillment of this
agreement. Nothing, however, has given clearer expression to a
unified system of intercommunication in Germany than the
equalization of the coinage. In old times, when all or at
least the chief territorial lords possessed the unrestricted
right of coinage, each state did not, indeed, have its own
standard, for how would it have been possible to invent
several hundred standards of coinage? But when the territorial
lord did make up his mind to adopt some existing system he
usually chose one that was not in vogue in the state next to
him, so that the boundaries of his own state might be the more
clearly defined. That was how it came about that a map of the
coinage standards of Germany looked almost as variegated as
the map of its states. … Still worse than with regard to
coined money—which, after all, always had a natural regulator
in the actual market value of the silver or gold—did the want
of unity show itself in the matter of paper money. Not only
did the various states have different principles on which they
issued it, and a different system of securities in funding it,
but one and the same state would continue to use its old paper
money even when issuing new on another principle. Hundreds of
different bank-notes were in use, many which had long been
called in continued still to circulate until some unfortunate
last holder had to pay the costs. He who had thus learned a
lesson at his own expense became very cautious and would
refuse even the best paper money. The black Schwarzburg notes
looked so grimy that the petty folk in their own land
considered them out of date and preferred Prussian money. … In
the matter of coins the empire found no general European model
to go by. The mark, which was finally chosen as the unit of
coinage, had the double advantage of facilitating a transition
from the old thaler days and of inaugurating a firm
relationship to the franc of the Romanic coinage system, the
pound of the English world, the gulden of the Austrian empire
(so soon as the latter power resumed metal coinage). The
introduction of a gold basis gave the young coinage system a
solid basis on the most precious metal. The mints remained in
the hands of the separate states, but the coin was issued 'on
account with the empire.' The coins accordingly bear on one
side the image of the territorial lord who issues them, on the
other, to give them general validity, the coat of arms of the
empire. … Founded thus on a system of firm finances, on the
uniform administration of justice in all lands, on an internal
administration which, however varied, nevertheless fulfills
the necessary demands of unity, the German empire shows a
measure of consolidation the best outward expression to which
is given by its army. Among the two million men on land and on
sea who are ready to protect the Fatherland's boundaries there
is not one who has not sworn fidelity to his imperial master:
among the generals, not one who has not been appointed by the
emperor. The most cherished of all duties binds the German to
his German Fatherland. If, as regards the land-army, the
princes still have a certain right of administration over
their own contingents: on the man-of-war, where the sons of
all the states that border on the sea come together, every
possible distinction vanishes. The German navy knows no other
flag, no other cockade, than the black-white-and-red."
_I. Jastrow,
Geschichte des deutschen Einheitstraumes und seiner Erfüllung (translated from the German),
pages 285-303._
{3787}
GERMANY: A. D. 1883-1889.
Bismarck's Sickness, Accident and Old-Age Insurance Laws.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1883-1889 (page 2955).
GERMANY: A. D. 1883-1894.
Acquisitions in Africa.
See (in this Supplement) AFRICA: 1883, and after.
GERMANY: Libraries.
See LIBRARIES, MODERN (page 2010).
----------GERMANY: End--------
GHENT, Treaty of (the text).
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1814 (pages 3355-3358).
GIRTON COLLEGE.
See EDUCATION (page 745).
GODIN, and his Social Palace at Guise.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1859-1887 (page 2947).
GODOY, The Ministry of.
See (in this Supplement) SPAIN: A. D. 1788-1808.
GOLD AND SILVER, Production of.
See MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1848-1893 (page 2217).
GORTON, Samuel, in Rhode Island.
See RHODE ISLAND: A. D. 1641-1647 (page 2641).
GRANGERS, The.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1866-1875 (page 2951).
GRANT, General U. S.: Report on affairs in the South.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (page 3562).
GREAT SEAL, Lord Keeper of the.
See LAW, EQUITY: A. D. 1538 (page 1990).
GREECE: Outline Sketch of ancient history.
See EUROPE (pages 991-996).
GREECE: Commerce, ancient.
See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE, ANCIENT.
GREECE: Libraries.
See LIBRARIES, ANCIENT (page 2002.)
GREECE: Medical Science.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE, GREEK (page 2124).
GREECE: Money and Banking.
See MONEY AND BANKING (pages 2201 and 2202).
GREELEY, Lieutenant, Polar expedition of.
See (in this Supplement) ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1881-1884.
GREGORY I., Pope (called the Great).
See PAPACY: A. D. 461-604 (page 2422).
GREGORY VII., Pope, and the Empire.
See PAPACY: A. D. 1056-1122 (page 2427);
GERMANY: A. D. 973-1122 (page 1441);
and CANOSSA (page 386).
GRINNELL EXPEDITIONS.
See (in this Supplement)
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1850-1851, 1853-1855.
GRIPPE, La, Early appearances of.
See PLAGUE, ETC.; A. D. 1485-1593,
and 18TH CENTURY (page 2542).
GUILDS, OR GILDS.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1720-1800 (page 2933).
GUNBOATS, Jefferson's.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1804-1805 (page 3332).
H.
HABEAS CORPUS, President Lincoln's suspension of the writ of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861-1863 (page 3447).
HAHNEMANN, and the system of Homœopathy.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 17-18TH CENTURIES (page 2139).
HALL, Captain Charles F., Arctic explorations of.
See (in this Supplement)
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1860-1862; 1864-1869; and 1871-1872.
HALLER, Albrecht von, The medical system of.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 18TH CENTURY (page 2141).
HANSA, The.
See (in this Supplement)
COMMERCE, MEDIÆVAL;
and GERMANY: 13-15TH, and 15-17TH CENTURIES.
Also, HANSA TOWNS (page 1624).
HAPSBURG, Early fortunes of the family of.
See (in this Supplement) AUSTRIA: A. D. 1273-1349.
HARMONY SOCIETY, The.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1805-1827 (page 2937).
HARVEY, and the discovery of the Circulation of the Blood.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 17TH CENTURY (page 2133).
HAYES, Dr. Isaac I., Arctic explorations of.
See (in this Supplement)
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1860-1861, and 1869.
HELMONT, John Baptist, The medical system of.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 16TH CENTURY (page 2133).
HENRY, Professor Joseph,
Invention of the electric telegraph.
See ELECTRICAL DISCOVERY AND INVENTION:
A. D. 1825-1874 (page 772).
For other work of Henry;
_T. O'Conor Sloane
The Standard Electrical Dictionary
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26535_
HERCULANEUM, Libraries of.
See LIBRARIES, ANCIENT (page 2005).
HIGHER-LAW SPEECH, Seward's.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1850 (page 3387).
HINDU MEDICAL SCIENCE.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE, HINDU (page 2123).
HIPPOCRATES.
The Hippocratic Oath.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE, GREEK (page 2125).
HOFFMANN, Frederic, and Humoral Pathology.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 17TH CENTURY (page 2136).
HOLLAND: Commerce.
See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE, MEDIÆVAL, and MODERN.
HOLLAND: Libraries.
See LIBRARIES, MODERN (page 2013).
HOLT, Lord, and the Law of Bailments.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1698-1710 (page 1971).
HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE, The.
See (in this Supplement) GERMANY: A. D. 9)62;
also, page 2652.
HOMŒOPATHY, Origin of the system of.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 17-18TH CENTURIES (page 2139).
HUDSON, Henry, Northern voyages of.
See (in this Supplement)
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1607, and after.
HUNTER, Dr. John, The work of.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 18TH CENTURY (page 2139).
HUTCHINSON, Governor Thomas.
Conversation with King George.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1774 (pages 3210-3213).
{3788}
I.
ICARIA.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1840-1883 (page 2943).
ICILIAN LAW, The.
See ROME: B. C.456 (page 2665).
INDIA, Ancient Commerce.
See (In this Supplement) COMMERCE, ANCIENT.
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS, The question of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1807. and 1816-1817 (pages 3335 and 3360).
INTERNATIONAL, The.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1862-1872,
and 1872-1886 (pages 2950 and 2953).
INVESTITURES, The question of.
See (in this Supplement) PAPACY: 11-12TH CENTURIES;
also page 2427.
----------ITALY: Start--------
ITALY: 11-15th Centuries.
Commerce of the city republics.
See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE, MEDIÆVAL.
ITALY: A. D. 1154-1190.
Invasions of Frederick Barbarossa.
"In November Frederick appeared in Lombardy and hung up his
shield on a high post as a token that he was to hold a review
of the army and a general court. The most of the complaints of
the cities were directed against Milan, but on complaint of
Pavia the emperor first attacked Tortona. … A horrible
chastisement was inflicted on the city; … the inhabitants were
driven away. … Now at length Frederick turned his attention to
Rome. On June 18, 1155, he marched into the Leonine City and
was at once crowned in St. Peter's. … The results of this
first Italian expedition were nevertheless small. The emperor
had not conquered Rome; William I of Naples was more
independent than ever; in northern Italy after Frederick's
departure Milan was pre-eminent. By her authority Tortona was
built up again. The Milanese sent the city a brass trumpet
with which to call her inhabitants together once more. … The
emperor was determined to put an end forever to all this
opposition. In July 1158 an immeasurably greater expedition
started with the express purpose of restoring the authority of
the empire in Italy. … The Milanese in addition (having after
a short siege recognized the emperor's claims) paid a fine,
gave 300 hostages, … and afterwards made their submission in
the humblest manner: the nobles with drawn swords across their
shoulders, the people with cords around their necks, fell down
before the emperor and did him homage. … It was in pursuance
of Frederick's intention, and of his desire to settle the
matter once and for all, that to his purposed diet in the
Roncaglian plains he also summoned some teachers of law from
Bologna. … Enough, in the assembly at Roncaglia through a well
authorized judicial sentence, those regalia [royal rights]
which had gone over to the civic communes were adjudged to the
emperor, save in cases where by special privilege they had
been relinquished to special cities. The emperor was
recognized as the highest legislative power. … Frederick had
set himself the great problem of uniting together authority
and freedom. In the best possible monarchical spirit he
expressed it that he wished an empire resting on a legal
foundation in order to maintain every man in his freedom. But
it is none the less evident that he wished the centre of
gravity to lie in his own authority. It was not the demand of
the regalia alone that caused the trouble, but just this
principle, and it comes to the fore in the clearest manner in
his relations with Milan. The agreement on the occasion of the
peace with Milan had been that the civic authorities should be
freely elected but should be invested by the emperor. In
Roncaglia on the other hand it was decreed that the emperor
should nominate the authorities subject to the assent of the
people. A slight change, but one which in reality betokened an
immense difference. Thus at the diet of Roncaglia did the
empire unfold once more its full glory. But in the carrying
out of these decrees, and especially in the matter of
nominating the authorities; immeasurable difficulties now
showed themselves. … On this matter, then, it had to come to
blows. At the very first attempt in Milan a popular tumult
arose. Frederick instituted proceedings which ended with a new
banning of the city. … Large as the city was a way was found
of cutting off from it all supplies. Through extreme want it
was at last compelled to surrender and to beg for mercy. … The
city was actually made to cease to exist. It was to be divided
into four different places. If every trace of it was not
completely obliterated this was solely due to regard for
certain churches. The Milanese were treated like a tributary
people on conquered territory. … In November 1166 the emperor
started out to drive Pope Alexander from Rome. But already
under his eyes the Lombard cities were bestirring themselves
against him. They were discontented on account of oppressions
which they were obliged to suffer more through the violence of
the imperial officials than from any fault of the laws. … The
Lombards considered that if the pope were again to be beaten
they should find no more help against the power which was
holding them down. What especially goaded them on was the
firmness of the imperial rule, its methodical and stern manner
of proceeding against every one who opposed it. … It was after
the imperial governors in consequence of the growing
disaffection had claimed and received new hostages that the
representatives of Cremona, Brescia, Ferrara and Mantua came
together in Pontida (April 1167). … The decision of the
Lombards was, not to consider due to the emperor any more than
had been considered due to him at the death of Henry V and to
oppose him by force should he demand more. They restored
Milan, which joined them, compelled Lodi to go over to their
side and captured, as they had once done before, the treasure
of the emperor which was in Trezzo. … Frederick thought to
crush all opposition in Upper Italy if he could only withdraw
from it the help of the Greeks and of the pope. He therefore
turned first against Ancona which the emperor Manuel had
captured and compelled the city to give him hostages. … He
then attacked Rome. … They (the Germans) conquered the Leonine
City after a bloody fight. The emperor himself appeared,
installed his own pope and caused his queen to be crowned
(August 1, 1167). Alexander fled, the city of Rome consented
to make peace. … Thus had the main point been gained and the
emperor prepared to renew the struggle against the Lombards.
{3789}
It was then that his brilliant army, beyond a doubt the most
efficient of its age, was struck down by the hand of fate. A
plague broke out which ravaged the city as well as the army,
but which almost annihilated the latter. … He could no longer
strike an effective blow at the Lombards. But he did not on
that account lose his head. In Pavia he pronounced the bann
against the cities; they answered by now first strengthening
their bonds of union on a large scale. The cities which had
previously been allied with Venice, and all the others,
entered into a league which all were to swear to uphold; at
the head of it was Venice. They were to make common cause in
war and peace and to perform no services other than the
customary ones. … The emperor felt that he could not cope with
this new development and left Pavia. Only after great perils
did he escape. They strove quite openly to take his life. With
only a few companions he rescued himself. … In March 1172 the
emperor represented to the princes that the contagion of
faithlessness with which Italy had contaminated herself was
seeking to spread itself out over Greece and Sicily. The term
for the imperial campaign nevertheless was only set for two
years later. … In July 1174 the emperor with his army crossed
the Alps over the Mt Cenis. At this very time the Italians had
opposed to him a new bulwark—a new city which they called
Allessandria in honor of the pope. The emperor first attacked
this but met with an opposition similar to that which
Archbishop Christian experienced before Ancona. … Many
conferences took place between the imperial plenipotentiaries,
the delegates of the cities and the papal legates. But these
latter, standing as they did at the same time in league with
the Greek emperor and the king of Sicily, felt themselves to
be the stronger. … Everything depended on his [Frederick's]
procuring new help. … The great all-deciding question was
whether Frederick would have Henry the Lion on his side; not
indeed exclusively on account of the actual help that he would
render but because his name in itself would increase the
prestige of the emperor. … The power of an emperor in its full
development seemed unbearable to Henry the Lion, even as in
earlier times it had been unbearable to the German princes. …
Henry's defection gave courage to the Italian cities. … On May
29, 1176, a battle took place near Legnano. … Brave as the
emperor was he nevertheless suffered a complete defeat. … The
letter is extant which the Milanese wrote to the Bolognese
concerning the battle. Countless, so they exclaim, are the
slain, the drowned, the prisoners. We have the shield, the
standard, the lance and the cross of the emperor. Incalculable
is the booty. … It is the battle through which the freedom and
the progress of Italian nationality were founded. … Here [in
Venice] now, with the pope and the king of Sicily a peace,
with the Lombards a truce of six years was brought about. Then
took place that famous meeting of the pope and the emperor in
Venice, on the 24th of July 1177. … With the cities the
emperor closed the peace of Constance in the year 1183. He
acknowledged therein the extension of their jurisdiction over
the surrounding territory and sanctioned their league but
retained for himself three things:
1. his regalia, of which however an estimate was to be made
according to their value and which were to be compensated for
by payment of a fixed sum from each city;
2. the investiture of the consuls; …
3. the right that appeals should be made within Italy to
imperial representatives.
It does not appear that these reservations greatly interfered
with the liberty of the cities. … In a word, the two opponents
of the empire in Italy had achieved great victories. The
emperor had abandoned the idea of maintaining the old
supremacy of the empire over the church and of subjecting the
cities to his administration; he did not however on that
account break off his connection with them. In 1184 he again
came to Italy; for a yearly sum of 300 lire he abandoned all
the rights that he had hitherto claimed from the cities and
allied himself with them. … Meanwhile the emperor succeeded in
making the greatest possible acquisition in Lower Italy. For
that Norman kingdom which the Germans had so often attacked in
vain there was only an heiress left, Constance, aunt of the
ruling king. Bitterly as the pope opposed it the emperor was
nevertheless able to bring about a marriage between her and
his son Henry VI. and thus to secure for him the sure prospect
of succeeding to Naples and Sicily. … Without knowing it
Frederick thus tied a new knot which was to be decisive for
the fate of his house and, we might even say, of Germany
itself."
_L. von Ranke,
Weltgeschichte
(translated from the German).
volume 8. pages 171-209._
ALSO IN:
_K. Lamprecht,
Deutsche Geschichte._
See, also, ITALY: A. D. 1154-1162, to 1174-1183
(pages 1811-1813).
ITALY: A. D. 1644.
First publication of gazettes, or newspapers.
See PRINTING AND PRESS: A. D. 1612-1650 (page 2592).
ITALY: A. D. 1870.
Law of the Papal Guarantees.
See PAPACY: A. D. 1870 (page 2477).
ITALY: A. D. 1882-1895.
Acquisitions in Abyssinia.
See (in this Supplement) AFRICA:
1882, 1885, 1889, 1889-1890, 1890-1891, 1894-1895.
ITALY: Constitution.
For a translation of the text,
see (in this Supplement) CONSTITUTION OF ITALY.
ITALY: Libraries.
See LIBRARIES, RENAISSANCE, and MODERN (page 2012).
----------ITALY: End--------
J.
JAPAN: A. D. 1894-1895.
War with China.
See (in this Supplement) COREA.
JAPAN: Libraries.
See LIBRARIES, MODERN: JAPAN (page 2024).
JEANNE D'ARC, The family, the home and the circumstances of.
See (in this Supplement) FRANCE: A. D. 1423-1429;
also, page 1175.
JEANNETTE, Polar voyage of the.
See (in this Supplement) ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1879-1882.
JEFFERSON'S GUNBOATS.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1804-1805 (page 3332).
JENNER, Dr. Edward, and the discovery of Vaccination.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 18TH CENTURY (page 2140).
{3790}
JEWS:
Ancient commerce.
Connection with the Phœnicians.
See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE, ANCIENT.
JEWS:
Ancient money.
See MONEY AND BANKING: JEWS (page 2203).
JEWS:
Medical Science.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE, JEWISH (page 2124).
JOAN OF ARC, The family, the home and the circumstances of.
See (in this Supplement) FRANCE: A. D. 1423-1429;
also, page 1175.
JOSEPH II., Emperor: His character and his reforms.
See (in this Supplement) AUSTRIA: A. D. 1780-1790.
JUDICATURE ACTS, The.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1873 (page 1981).
JURY, Trial by.
See LAW, COMMON (page 1956, and after).
JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.
See LAW, CRIMINAL: A. D. 1344 (page 1983).
JUSTICIARY, Chief: Disappearance of the office.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1265 (page 1962).
K.
KANE, Dr. Elisha Kent,
Polar expeditions and adventures of.
See (in this Supplement) ARCTIC EXPLORATION:
1850-1851, and 1853-1855.
KARNATIC, The.
"Bishop Caldwell says: 'When the Muhammadans arrived in
Southern India, they found that part of it with which they
first became acquainted-the country above the Gháts, including
Mysore and part of Telingána—called the Karnataka country. In
course of time, by a misapplication of terms, they applied the
same name Karnatak, or Carnatic, to designate the country
below the Gháts, as well as that which was above. The English
have carried the misapplication a step further, and restricted
the name to the country below the Gháts, which never had any
right to it whatever. Hence the Mysore country, which is
properly the true Karnatic, is no longer called by that name;
and what is now geographically termed "the Karnatic" is
exclusively the country below the Gháts, on the Coromandel
coast, including the whole of the Tamil country and the
Telugu-speaking District of Nellore.'"
_W. W. Hunter,
Imperial Gazetteer of India: Karnatic
(volume 5)._
KASHGAR.
See TURKESTAN (page 3130),
and YAKOOB BEG (page 3662).
KASSHITE, OR KASSITE, DYNASTY, The.
See SEMITES: THE FIRST BABYLONIAN EMPIRE (page 2890).
KENT, Chancellor, and American jurisprudence.
See LAW, EQUITY: A. D. 1814-1823 (page 19(3).
KILMAINHAM TREATY, The.
See IRELAND: A. D. 1881-1882 (page 1797).
KING'S LIBRARY, The.
See LIBRARIES, MODERN (page 2014).
KING'S PEACE, The.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 871-1066, 1100, 1135, and 1300
(pages 1956, 1958 and 1963).
KNIGHTS OF LABOR, The.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1869-1883 (page 2952).
KOCH, Dr. Robert, Bacteriological studies of.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 19TH CENTURY (page 2146).
KOLDEWY, Captain, Polar expedition of.
See (in this Supplement) ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1869-1870.
KOREA.
See (in this Supplement) COREA.
KULTURKAMPF, The.
See (in this Supplement) GERMANY: A. D. 1870-1874.
L.
LAFAYETTE, General: Visit to the United States.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1824-1825 (page 3365).
LAND, Ultimate property in.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1776 (page 1974).
LAND, Indian right of occupancy.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1823 (page 1976).
LAND ACT OF 1881, The Irish.
See IRELAND: A. D. 1881-1882 (page 1797).
LAND REGISTRATION.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1630-1641 (page 1969).
LAND-TRANSFER REFORM.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1854-1882, and 1889
(pages 1980-1981).
LASSALLE, Ferdinand, and German Socialism.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1862-1864 (page 2949).
LATIN UNION, The.
See MONEY and BANKING: A. D. 1853-1874 (page 2218).
LAW, Roman.
See ROMAN LAW (page 2652).
LEE, Arthur, in France.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776-1778
(pages 3242-3244).
LEGAL TENDER NOTES.
See MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1861-1878 (page 2219).
LEO THE GREAT, Pope.
See PAPACY: A. D. 42-461 (page 2421);
and HUNS: A. D. 452 (page 1689).
L'ESTRANGE, Roger, and the early newspaper press in England.
See PRINTING AND PRESS: A. D. 1654-1694 (page 2596).
LEVANT, The.
A term applied to the eastern coasts of the Mediterranean,
from the western part of Greece round to the western border of
Egypt—more specifically to the coasts and islands of Asia
Minor and Syria. The name—which signifies "rising" hence "the
East"—was given to this region by the Italians.
LIBEL, The Criminal Law of.
See LAW, CRIMINAL: A. D. 1770, and 1843
(pages 1984 and 1986).
LIBERTY, Religious.
See in this Supplement:
TOLERATION, RELIGIOUS. (page 3807)
LINCOLN, Abraham:
Debate with Douglas.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1858 (page 3401).
First Inaugural Address.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: (page 3417).
First Message.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: (pages 3421 and 3448).
First call for troops.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: (page 3423).
Proclamation of Blockade.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: (page 3427).
Suspensions of Habeas Corpus.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: (page 3447).
Message proposing compensated Emancipation.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: (page 3453).
{3791}
Letter to Horace Greeley.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: (page 3476).
Preliminary Proclamation of Emancipation.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: (page 3480).
Final Proclamation of Emancipation.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: (page 3487).
Letter to General Hooker.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: (page 3489).
Letters to New York and Ohio Democrats.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: (page 3407).
Address at Gettysburg.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: (page 3514).
Proclamation of Amnesty and Message.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: (page 3515).
Plan of Reconstruction.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: (page 3518).
Re-election.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: (page 3533).
Hampton Roads Peace Conference.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: (page 3546).
Second Inaugural Address.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: (page 3549).
Last Speech.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: (page 3551).
At Richmond.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: (page 3554).
Assassination.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: (page 3(55).
LINE-OF-BATTLE SHIP.
See SHIP OF THE LINE (page 2901).
LISTER, and Antiseptic Surgery.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 10TH CENTURY (page 2145).
LIVINGSTONE, David, Explorations of.
See (in this Supplement) AFRICA: 1840, 1840, and after.
LOBENGULA, War of the English with.
See SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1885-1893 (page 2965).
LOMBARD BANKERS AND MONEY-CHANGERS.
See MONEY AND BANKING (pages 2205 and 2206).
LORD KEEPER OF THE GREAT SEAL, The.
See LAW, EQUITY: A. D. 1538 (page 1000).
LOUIS IX., King of France (called St. Louis).
See (in this Supplement) FRANCE: A. D. 1226-1270.
_François Guizot,
Great Christians of France: Saint Louis and Calvin.
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62518_
LOUIS XV., King of France, Fatal foreign policy of the reign of.
See (in this Supplement) FRANCE: A. p. 1715-1770.
McCLINTOCK, Captain, Franklin search expeditions of.
See (in this Supplement) ARCTIC EXPLORATION:
1852-1854, and 1857-1859.
McCLURE, Captain, Franklin search expedition of.
See (in this Supplement) ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1850-1854.
McKINLEY TARIFF ACT, The.
See TARIFF LEGISLATION: A. D. 1890 (page 3085).
MADAGASCAR.
See (in this Supplement) AFRICA.
MANCHUS.
MANCHURIA.
"The Manchus, from the earliest period of Chinese history,
have occupied the country bounded on the east by the Japanese
Sea, which is drained in its southern portion by the Tumun, by
the right affluents of the Ya-lu-kiang, and by the upper
portions of the left affluents of the Liau; and in its
northern portion by the right affluents of the Upper Soongari,
and the Lower Soongari, and Lower Amoor, with their affluents
on both sides. This extent of country may be fitly called
Manchuria Proper, to distinguish it from the present political
Manchuria. This latter embraces not only the real Manchuria,
but also a tract on the east side of the Liau, composed of the
lower valleys of its left affluents, and of the Liau
peninsula, and another on the west of the Liau, lying between
its right bank and the Great Wall. Now these two tracts, known
severally as Liau-tung or Liau East and Liau-se or Liau West,
have, from the earliest historical periods, been occupied by a
Chinese population, with the settled habits of their nation:
agriculturists, artisans, and traders, dwellers in villages
and cities. Hence, though situated beyond the Great Wall, it
has always been a part, though a very exposed and often
politically separated part, of China Proper. Manchuria Proper,
as above defined, is a mountainous, well-watered tract,
formerly altogether covered with forests, of which large
portions still remain. The principal mountain range is the
Chang-pih-shan, or Shan-a-lin, or Long White Mountains. … As
the great arid plateau, the Shamo, has given to the Mongols
their national characteristics, so the Long White Mountains,
with their northerly spurs, separating the Upper Soongari, the
Hurka, and the Usuri, have constituted the character-giving
home and stronghold of the Manchus. These, unlike the Mongols,
who have 'moved about after grass and water,' have always been
a settled people, who in ancient times dwelt during the cold
season in holes excavated in the sides of dry banks, or in
pits in the earth, and during summer in huts formed of young
trees and covered with bark or with long wild grass. They
have, unlike the Mongols, from the earliest periods been
somewhat of agriculturists; like them they have always reared
domestic animals. … It has hitherto been the custom among
Occidentals to speak of the Manchus as 'Tartars;' but if, as I
believe, this name generally conveys the idea of a people of
nomadic herdsmen, and usually large owners of camels, it will
be seen from the foregoing sketch that it is altogether a
misnomer as applied to the Manchus. … In the 11th century
before Christ this nation appeared at the court of the Chow
dynasty as Suh-chin, and presented tribute, a portion of which
consisted of stone-headed arrows. In the 3d century after
Christ they reappeared as Yih-low. … In the 5th, 6th, and 7th
centuries after Christ we find them under the names of
Wuh-keihs, and Mo-hos, still described as rude barbarians, but
politically organized as a confederation of seven large tribes
or seven groups of tribes. At length, in the beginning of the
8th century, a family named Ta, belonging to the Suhmo-Mo-hos,
that member of the confederation whose territory lay
immediately on the north of Corea and north-east of Liau East,
established themselves as rulers over the whole of Manchuria
Proper, over Liau East, and over a large portion of Corea. In
A. D. 712, the then Whang-ti, or Emperor of China, conferred
the title of Prince of Po-hae on the head of the family; but
the immediate successors of this prince shook off even the
form of vassalage, and by their conquest of Northern Corea and
Liau East, assumed a position of hostility to the Whang-ti.
Po-hac, the name adopted by the new rulers, became the name of
the Manchu Nation; which under it for the first time takes a
place in history, as constituting a civilized State with a
centralized administration. … It was overthrown by the Ketans.
About these the Chinese accounts conflict as to whether they
were a Manchu or a Mongol tribe: I consider them more of the
former than of the latter. They took their rise in the valleys
of the Hu-lan, a small northern branch of the Soongari, which
falls into the latter about 100 miles below its junction with
the Nonni.
{3792}
The Ketans had possessed themselves of Eastern Mongolia, and
been engaged in successful war on China before they, in A. D.
926, attacked the Po-hae state, which they speedily overthrew,
incorporating into their own dominions all Manchuria Proper
and the East of the Liau. Before the middle of the 10th
century, they had conquered nearly all Mongolia and Northern
China. … They assumed for their dynasty the name of Liau, that
of the river which flows past this port. Under the eighth of
the line, their power had sunk so much that it fell easily
before the attacks of A-kuh-ta, the chief of a purely Manchu
tribe or commune, the Neu-chins, whose original seat was the
country between the Upper Soongari and the Hurka. The
Neu-chins rebelled against the Ketans or Liaus in A. D. 1113.
Within 15 years, they had possessed themselves of the whole of
Manchuria, Mongolia, and Northern China, driving the Chinese
Whang-ti to the south of the Great River, and themselves
establishing a rival line under the name of Kin, or Golden;
adopted because their own country Manchuria 'was a
gold-producing one.' The Neu-chins or Kins were in their turn
overthrown by the Mongols, under Ghenghis Khan and his
immediate successors. Manchuria came under their power about
A. D. 1217, Northern China, about A. D. 1233, and Southern
China, about A. D. 1280, when they established—it was the
first time the thing had happened—a line of non-Chinese
Whang-tis in undisputed possession of that dignity. … The
Mongol dynasty maintained itself in China for about 90 years,
when (in A. D. 1368) the last Whang-ti of the line was driven
to the north of the Great Wall by the forces of a Chinese
rebel, who established himself at Nanking as the first
Whang-ti of the Ming dynasty."
_T. T. Meadows
(Quoted in A. Williamson's "Journeys in North China,"
volume 2, chapter 4)._
In 1644 the Ming dynasty was overthrown by a domestic
rebellion in China, and a Manchu prince, called in by one of
the generals of the fallen government, established himself on
the throne, where his descendants have reigned to this day.
See CHINA:A. D. 1294-1882 (page 420) and after.
MANSFIELD, Lord, and Commercial Law.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1756-1788, and 1783 (page 1973).
MARSHALL, John, as Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court of the United States.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1801 (page 3326).
MARX, Karl, and the socialistic movements of his time.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1839-1894, 1843-1883, 1862-1872 (pages 2941, 2945, 2951).
MASAILAND, Exploration of.
See (in this Supplement) AFRICA: 1860-1861, 1871 and after.
MASHONALAND, English occupation of.
See SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1885-1893 (page 2965);
also (in this Supplement) AFRICA.
MASSACHUSETTS, Free Libraries in.
See LIBRARIES, MODERN (page 2021).
MASTER OF THE ROLLS.
See LAW, EQUITY: A. D. 1066 (page 1988).
MATABELELAND, English occupation of.
See SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1885-1893 (page 2965);
also (in this Supplement) AFRICA: 1888.
MEDICAL PROFESSION, Women in the.
See WOMAN'S RIGHTS: A. D. 1842-1892 (page 3658).
MENNONITES, The.
"The Mennonites take their name from Menno Simons, born in
Witmarsum, Holland, in 1492. He entered the priesthood of the
Roman Catholic Church, and in 1524 was appointed chaplain in
Pingium. Two years later he began to read the Scriptures,
which he had hitherto ignored. Becoming a close student of
them, his views on various doctrines soon changed, and he was
known as an evangelical preacher. … He renounced Catholicism
early in 1536, and was baptized at Leeuwarden. In the course
of the following year he was ordained a minister in what was
then known as the Old Evangelical or Waldensian Church. From
this time on to his death, in 1559, he was active in the cause
of evangelical truth, traveling through northern Germany, and
preaching everywhere. The churches which he organized as a
result of his labors rejected infant baptism and held to the
principle of non-resistance. A severe persecution began to
make itself felt against his followers, the Mennonites; and,
having heard accounts of the colony established in the New
World by William Penn, they began to emigrate to Pennsylvania
near the close of the 17th century. … Successive immigrations
from Holland, Switzerland, Germany, and, in the last
twenty-five years, from southern Russia, have resulted in
placing the great majority of Mennonites in the world on
American soil, in the United States and Canada."
_H. K. Carroll,
The Religious Forces of the United States,
chapter 28._
MICHIGAN WILD CAT BANKS.
See MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1837-1841 (page 2215).
MIDDLE AGES, Commerce of the.
See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE, MEDIÆVAL.
MILLS TARIFF BILL, The.
See TARIFF LEGISLATION: A. D. 1884-1888 (page 3085).
MINNESOTA, University of.
"Two years after the organization of the territory, the
Legislature petitioned Congress for a grant of 100,000 acres
of land to endow a university, and on the very day of this
petition two townships were set aside for that purpose. The
Legislature went on to enact that the University of Minnesota
should be established at or near the Falls of St. Anthony and
should have the income from all land thereafter granted by the
United States for University purposes. Under this grant the
regents selected a large portion of the lands and erected a
costly edifice, but they were soon obliged to mortgage both
building and lands in order to meet the obligations incurred.
Affairs were in this condition when Congress passed the act
admitting Minnesota to the Union, by which two townships of
land were granted for the use and support of a State
university. … Efforts were at once made to open the
university, but the financial crisis of 1857 and the Civil War
checked further action and encumbered the university with
debt. … The present organization of the university dates from
1868, when an act was passed 'to reorganize the University of
Minnesota and to establish an agricultural college therein.'
In the following year college classes were first organized.
The act of 1868 provided that the university should have the
income from the agricultural college grant. … From the
university lands that have been sold something over $800,000
has been received, from which there is an annual income of
about $37,000."
_F. W. Blackmar,
History of Federal and State Aid to Higher Education
in the United States
(Bureau of Education, Circular of Information, 1890, no. 1),
pages 295-297._
{3793}
MISSIONS, Christian, in Africa.
See (in this Supplement) AFRICA.
MISSISSIPPI RIVER: The question of navigation in dispute with Spain.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1784-1788 (page 3293).
MORMONS: Abandonment of Polygamy.
See UTAH: A. D. 1882-1893 (page 3591).
MORRISON TARIFF BILL, The.
See TARIFF LEGISLATION: A. D. 1884-1888 (page 3083).
MORSE, SAMUEL F. B., Telegraphic inventions of.
See ELECTRICAL DISCOVERY AND INVENTION:
A. D. 1825-1874 (page 773).
_T. O'Conor Sloane
The Standard Electrical Dictionary
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26535_
MORTON, Dr., and the discovery of Anæsthetics.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 19th CENTURY (page 2144).
MOSQUITO COUNTRY.
See (in this Supplement) NICARAGUA.
N.
NANSEN, Dr., Arctic expeditions of.
See (in this Supplement) ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1888, and 1893.
NAPOLEON I., and Germany.
See (in this Supplement) GERMANY: A. D. 1796-1807.
NARES, Captain, Polar voyage of.
See (in this Supplement) ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1875-1876.
NATIONALIST MOVEMENT, The.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1888-1893 (page 2956).
NETHERLANDS, Commerce of the.
See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE, MEDIÆVAL, AND MODERN.
NEUTRALITY, The Queen of England's Proclamation of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (page 3428).
NEW CHURCH, The.
See (in this Supplement) SWEDENBORG.
NEW HARMONY COMMUNITY. The.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1800-1824,
and 1805-1827 (pages 2936-2937).
NEW JERSEY, College of.
See (in this Supplement) PRINCETON COLLEGE.
NEW LANARK, Robert Owen's experiment at.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1800-1824 (page 2935).
NEWNHAM HALL.
See EDUCATION (page 746).
NICARAGUA, AND THE MOSQUITO INDIANS.
The question of the sovereignty of Nicaragua over the Mosquito
country was settled affirmatively by a convention concluded in
November, 1894. Great Britain at the same time gave assurances
to the United States that she asserts no rights of sovereignty
or protection over the country in question.
NIHILISM.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1860-1870 (page 2948).
NILE, Exploration of the sources of the.
See (in this Supplement) AFRICA.
NON-INTERCOURSE, The Jefferson policy of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1804-1809.
and 1808-1810 (pages 3332 and 3338).
NORDENSKIÖLD, Professor (Baron),
Achievement of the Northeast Passage by.
See (in this Supplement) ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1878-1879.
NORTH AMERICA, The Bank of.
See MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1780-1784 (page 2212).
NORTHEAST AND NORTHWEST PASSAGE, Search for.
See (in this Supplement) ARCTIC EXPLORATION.
NORWAY, Libraries of.
See LIBRARIES, MODERN (page 2013).
O.
OBERLIN COLLEGE.
"Oberlin is a development from the missionary and reform
movements of the early quarter of our century. Its direct
impulse was the new spirit of active benevolence which tested
old doctrines by experience and by their fitness for organized
philanthropy. Its foundations were laid 23 years after the
organization of the American Foreign Missionary Association, 7
years after the first American temperance society, 15 years
before the first public move to extend the rights of women,
and in the same year with the American Anti-Slavery Society.
All of these reform movements were more or less united in the
Oberlin movement. The founders were themselves home
missionaries in the West and among the Indians, and Oberlin
has ever since been vital with the missionary spirit. From the
first, alcoholic beverages have been excluded. Although not
adopting the extreme doctrine of woman's rights, yet Oberlin
was the first college in the world to admit young women to all
its privileges on equal terms with young men; and as for its
anti-slavery leanings, it had received colored students into
its classes 28 years before emancipation. Such bold disregard
of the old landmarks was not attractive to the power and
wealth of the country, and so for 50 years Oberlin owed its
life to the sacrifice and devotion of its founders and
instructors. … In 1831 John J. Shipherd, under commission from
the American Home Missionary Society, entered upon his work as
pastor of the church at Elyria, Ohio. … In the summer of 1832
he was visited by Philo P. Stewart, an old school friend in
the days when they both attended the academy at Pawlet,
Vermont. Stewart, on account of the failing health of his
wife, had returned from mission work among the Choctaws in
Mississippi, but his heart was still burning with zeal for
extending Christian work in the West. The two men, after long
consultations and prayer, finally concluded that the needs of
the new country could best be met by establishing a community
of Christian families with a Christian school, … the school to
be conducted on the manual labor system, and to be open to
both young men and young women.
{3794}
It was not proposed to establish a college, but simply an
academy for instruction in English and useful languages, and,
if Providence should favor it, in 'practical theology.' In
accordance with this plan the corporate name 'Oberlin
Collegiate Institute' was chosen. Not until 1851 was a new and
broader charter obtained, this time under the name of 'Oberlin
College.' The name 'Oberlin' was chosen to signify the hope
that the members of the new enterprise might be moved by the
spirit of the self-sacrificing Swiss colporteur and pastor,
John Friederich Oberlin."
_J. R Commons,
Oberlin College
(in Bureau of Education,
Circular of Information, 1801, no. 5),
pages 55-56._
OERSTED, and his discovery of the Electro-Magnet.
See ELECTRICAL DISCOVERY AND INVENTION:
A. D. 1820-1825 (page 772).
_T. O'Conor Sloane
The Standard Electrical Dictionary
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26535_
OHIO UNIVERSITY.
"Ohio University bears the double distinction of being the
first college in the United States founded upon a land
endowment from the national Government, and also of being the
oldest college in the Northwest Territory. … The university
owes its origin and endowment to the Ohio Company of
Associates, who in 1787 purchased a large tract of land from
the old board of treasury for the purpose of colonizing it
with pioneers from New England. … The honor of obtaining this
endowment belongs to Dr. [Manasseh] Cutler. … In 1795 the
lands to be devoted to the support of the university were
located. The townships selected were those now called Athens
and Alexander, in Athens County. General Rufus Putnam, who was
deeply interested in the proposed institution, used his
influence to secure settlers for the college lands. … December
18, 1799, the Territorial legislature appointed Rufus Putnam,
Benjamin Ives Gilman, and Jonathan Stone 'to lay off, in the
most suitable place within the townships, a town plat, which
should contain a square for the colleges; also lots suitable
for house lots and gardens for a president, professors,
tutors, etc., bordering on or encircled by spacious commons,
and such a number of town lots adjoining the said commons and
outlots as they shall think will be for the advantage of the
university.' … In 1802 the legislature of the Northwest
Territory passed an act establishing a university and giving
to it in trust the land grant."
_G. W. Knight and J. R. Commons,
History of Higher Education in Ohio
(Bureau of Education,
Circular of Information, 1891, number 5)._
ONEIDA COMMUNITY, The.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1848 (page 2946).
ONTARIO SCHOOL SYSTEM.
See EDUCATION, MODERN (page 733).
OTHO THE GREAT, and the restoration of the Empire.
See (in this Supplement) GERMANY: A. D. 962.
OWEN, Robert, and his social experiments.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1800-1824, 1805-1827,
and 1816-1886 (pages 2935, 2937, and 2938).
OYER AND TERMINER, Courts of.
See LAW, CRIMINAL: A. D. 1285 (page 1982).
P.
PAMIR, The.
The Pamir and Tibet, which converge north of India and east of
the Oxus, form jointly the culminating land of the continent.
Disposed at right angles, and parallel, the one to the
equator, the other to the meridian, they constitute the
so-called 'Roof,' or 'Crown of the World,' though this
expression is more usually restricted to the Pamir alone. With
its escarpments, rising above the Oxus and Tarim plains west
and east, the Pamir occupies, in the heart of the continent,
an estimated area of 30,000 square miles. With its
counterforts projecting some 300 miles, it forms the western
headland of all the plateaux and mountain systems skirting the
Chinese Empire; it completely separates the two halves of
Asia, and forms an almost impassable barrier to migration and
war-like incursions. Yet notwithstanding its mean elevation of
13,000 feet above arable land, it has been frequently crossed
by small caravans of traders or travellers, and by light
columns of troops. The attempt could not fail to be frequently
made to take the shortest route across the region separating
the Oxus from Kashgaria, and Europe from China. Hence the
Pamir has often been traversed by Greeks, Romans, Arabs,
Italians, Chinese, some as traders, some as explorers, some
inspired by religious zeal. But of these travellers very few
have left any record of their journey, and all took the lowest
routes across the plateau."
_E. Reclus,
The Earth and its Inhabitants: Asia,
volume 1, chapter 3, section 2._
PANIC OF 1873, The.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1873 (page 3574).
----------PAPACY: Start--------
PAPACY: 11th Century.
The Church and the first Crusading movement.
See (in this Supplement) CRUSADES.
PAPACY: 11-12th Centuries.
The Question of the Investitures.
"By investiture in mediaeval church law is meant the act of
bestowing a church office, with the use of symbols, on the
clergyman who has been appointed to fill it. It is especially
to signify the act by which secular princes conferred on the
chosen candidates the offices of bishop and abbot that the
word is used since the eleventh century. The struggle which
the papacy and the church carried on in the last half of the
11th and on into the 12th century for the purpose of doing
away with this same right of the princes to confer such
offices is called in consequence the war of the investitures.
That the nomination of the bishops was a right pertaining to
the sovereign was a view of the matter which had gained ground
already in the time of the Frankish monarchy. The German kings
up to the eleventh century insisted all the more on this right
from the fact that the bishoprics and imperial abbacies had in
course of time lost their original character of church
organizations. They had been appanaged with imperial and other
lands, with political and public rights, with immunities,
rights of coinage etc. … They had, in consequence, become
transformed into political districts, on a par with those of
the secular princes and obliged, like the latter, to bear the
public burdens, especially that of providing war-contingents
and supplies. It Is true that in the period in question,
although for the most part the king openly and freely filled
the bishoprics and abbacies of his own accord, some elections
had been carried through by the cathedral chapter, the other
secular canons, the nobles, vassals and ministeriales of the
bishopric. This was usually on the ground of royal privileges,
of special royal permission, or of a designation of the
candidate by the king.
{3795}
However the person might have been elected he could only enter
into possession of the bishopric or abbacy after the king had
formally conferred the office upon him. The death of a bishop
would be announced to the king by envoys from the episcopal
residence who at the same time, handing over the episcopal
crosier and ring, would beg that the king would see to the
refilling of the vacant office. It need hardly be said that
any new candidate who might in the meantime have been elected
presented himself likewise at court. The king discussed the
matter of the bestowal of the vacant bishopric or abbacy with
his secular and ecclesiastical nobles and councillors. His
next step was to confer the office on the candidate he had
chosen by means of investiture, that is by handing him the
episcopal crosier and ring. The candidate in return had to
take the oath of fealty and to perform the act of homage, the
so-called hominium. This is how an episcopal office, at that
time regarded as a conglomeration of ecclesiastical and
secular rights, was regularly filled. … After the middle of
the 11th century there began to show itself within the
reform-party, which at that time gave the tone at Rome, a
tendency, ever growing stronger, in favor of achieving the
complete liberation of the church from the secular influence.
The German kingdom and empire were to be subordinated to the
papacy as to the proper controlling power. Those who held
these views declared that the investiture of the bishops and
abbots by the king was simony because, as was the custom on
the part of those receiving other feudal grants, certain
presents were made in return. It was demanded that the
episcopal symbols, the ring and the crosier, should no longer
be disposed of at the hand of a layman. As a matter of fact
there had frequently been carried on an unworthy traffic with
the bishoprics in consequence of the manner of conferring
them. The ecclesiastical legislators, besides passing general
laws against simony, came forward at first cautiously enough
with the regulation that the clergy should accept no churches
from the hands of a layman. The direct clash with the German
court came later, in 1068, where the king had conferred the
bishopric of Milan as usual through investiture, while the
people, under the influence of the papal reform-party,
demanded a bishop elected canonically and with Rome's consent.
The king did not give way and Gregory VII, in the Roman synod
of 1074, increased the severity of the earlier laws against
simony, opening the struggle in a synod of the following year
by ordaining that the people should not be present at
ecclesiastical functions performed by those clergy who had
gained office through simony, the reference being to those
bishops who adhered to the king. Furthermore the royal right
of conferring bishoprics by investiture was now directly
denied. With this attack on an old and customary prerogative
of the German king, one to which in earlier times had even
been expressly acknowledged by the pope, an attempt was made
to thoroughly undermine the foundations of the German empire
and to rob the royal power of one of its chief supports. The
bishops and abbots were princes of the realm, possessing,
besides a number of privileges, the large feudal and allodial
holdings which went with their churches. They had, on behalf
of their bishoprics, to sustain the largest share of the
empire's burdens. The crown found in them the chief props and
supports of its power, for the ecclesiastical principalities
could be freely granted to devoted adherents without regard to
the hereditary dynastic claims of families. The only legal
bond by which these princes were bound to the crown was the
investiture with its oath of fealty and homage. The
prohibition of this, then, denoted the cessation of the
relationship which assured the dependence of the
ecclesiastical princes on the king and on the empire and the
performance of their duties to that empire. It delivered over
the considerable material wealth and power of the imperial
bishoprics and abbacies to a clergy that was loosed from all
connection with the crown. With regard to the manner in which
in future, according to the opinion of Gregory VII or the
church-reform party, the bishoprics were to be filled, the
above-mentioned synod does not express itself. The decrees of
the Roman synod of 1080, as well as Gregory's own further
attitude, however, make it appear unquestionable that, with
the formal restoration of the old so-called canonical election
by clergy and people in common with the metropolitan and his
suffragans, he purposed the actual subjection to the pope of
the episcopacy and of the resources which in consequence of
its political position stood at its command. From the election
of a secular clergy which should be freed from national and
state interests by the carrying out of the celibacy laws—an
election in which metropolitans who were to be kept in
dependence on the papal throne were to play their part—there
could result as a rule only bishops submissive to the papal
court. All the more so as the Roman synod of 1080, in a form
probably intentionally vague, gave the pope a right,
concurrent with that of the archbishop, of testing the
elections and of hindering any such as might be objectionable
to the court of Rome. That the bishops and abbots elected in
this way were to retain their former possessions and
privileges in the empire was taken by Gregory VII as a matter
of course. But were this the case their considerable resources
stood wholly at the disposition of the papal chair; on the
pope it depended what amount of services he would still allow
for the benefit of the empire. Nay, more, as regards the
ecclesiastical princes the pope would actually have taken the
place of the emperor and king and could command the movements
of the most insignificant vassal of a bishopric. … The dispute
was finally ended by the concordat agreed to at Lobweisen
(near Lorsch) and announced at Worms: … In the concordat the
emperor renounced wholly the former investing with the
bishop's and abbot's office by means of crosier and ring, and
granted that in all churches these offices should be filled by
canonical election and by the free consecration of the person
elected. On the other hand the pope granted that the election
of bishops and abbots belonging to the German kingdom might
take place in presence of the emperor but without simony or
violence, and that the emperor should have a right, employing
the sceptre as a symbol and causing homage to be rendered, to
perform the investiture—before the consecration, namely—with
regard to the regalia, i. e. the totality of the landed
possessions and rights which belonged to the individual
bishopric or abbacy. …
{3796}
With the Concordat of Worms the church and the papacy, after a
long struggle, had gained the victory over the empire. Even
though the papal party had not been able to put through all
its demands with regard to the question of investitures, yet
the empire was compelled to renounce rights which had been
exercised unassailed for centuries, and thereby to confirm the
emancipation of the papacy from the former imperial
overlordship, thus stamping its position as an independent
political power. This success was the more considerable for
the reason that the agreement of Worms had established the
ecclesiastical and imperial rights only in the most general
terms and in an equivocal form, but had left the further
development of the new manner of conferring the offices to be
decided by practice. … If already the Hohenstaufens of the
12th century had succeeded only with great efforts in
protecting themselves against such interpretation of the
Concordat as infringed on the imperial rights, there was,
naturally, in the 13th century,—in view of the condition of
the empire, the political situation of Germany, and the
predominating supremacy of the papacy,—no further question of
such an attitude. … In this form of interpretation, given to
it by usage and derogatory to the imperial rights, the
Concordat of Worms remained the basis of the German imperial
law regarding the collation of bishoprics and imperial
abbacies until the dissolution of the German empire in 1806."
_Hinschius,
Investiturstreit
(Herzog's Realencyklopaedie für protestantische
Theologie und Kirche, volume 6)._
See, also, PAPACY: A. D. 1056-1122 (pages 2427-2431).
PAPACY: A. D. 1162-1177.
The Pope and the Emperor.
"In this fullness of his power [after the destruction of
Milan, 1162] the emperor came anew into conflict with the
papacy. Reason enough for it was that the emperor intended to
treat Rome also as a city of the empire like the rest. …
Between the claims of the two powers there was an ineradicable
fundamental difference which showed itself at every moment.
What the papacy did, to continually bring forward and maintain
new rights, the empire could, after all, do also. Among other
ways the remarkable contradiction finds utterance thus, that
the emperor claims to be above the law, the pope above
tribunals; the one is the chief, unrestricted lawgiver, the
other the chief judge over all. The emperor rose up in injured
self-esteem when the pope used the word 'benefice' in speaking
of his relations with the empire. The pope was forced to
explain the word, which had two meanings, in its more harmless
sense. The Lombard cities always maintained that they had been
strengthened in their opposition by Adrian IV. It is probable
that already between the emperor and this pope a struggle
would have taken place; but Adrian died (at Anagni, September
1, 1159), and after his death there was a disputed papal
election. There was a powerful imperial faction among the
cardinals but a still more powerful anti-German one. At the
election it came to a hand to hand fight, as it were, between
the two candidates. The purple mantle was just about to be
laid on the shoulders of the anti-imperial cardinal Roland
when the imperial candidate Octavian rushed in and tore it
away from him. The latter was first proclaimed in Rome as
Victor IV, the former was consecrated in Ninfa as Alexander
III. The emperor saw here an opportunity of extending his
power, indirectly at least, over the papacy also. He ordered
both popes to appear at a council which he called. He took
occasion to recall to remembrance an old right of the empire,
the right of holding councils and passing judgment on the
papacy. He accordingly appointed a church assembly to be held
in Pavia and invited to it, as he says in his summons, all the
bishops of England, France, Hungary, Denmark and his own
kingdom. What a conception he had of his own dignity is shown
by the words: 'It is enough to have one God, one pope, one
emperor, and it is proper that there should be only one
church.' In venturing once more to pass judgment on
Frederick's actions and to inquire, solely from a historical
point of view, how far his ideas deviated from previous ones I
find that in this case he went to work exactly as he did
against the cities. From the oldest times church conflicts had
been settled by the emperor with the assistance of a council;
since the days of Otto I immense achievements had been made in
this way; but never yet had a German emperor called together
at the same time the bishops of all other kingdoms.
Frederick's deviation lay herein, that he appropriated to
himself this right. He did not stop at what was customary and
a matter of precedent but, on the basis of his own ideal
conception of the imperial rights, extended his claim until it
became altogether universal. It might have been possible to
maintain this claim; but, so much is certain, it could only
have happened after previous arrangement with the other
monarchs. The council was attended from all parts of the
empire on the one side or the other of the Alps. The emperor
left the deliberations in the hands of the clergy. They
declared in a body for Victor; the emperor spoke last and
accepted him. Thus did he understand the imperial power, thus
did he wish to exercise it. But it is evident that herewith
the whole conflict with the papacy came into an entirely new
stage. The emperor with his council wished to decide which
pope all Europe should obey. Naturally he met with opposition.
John of Salisbury expresses the point at issue very well;
'who,' he says, 'has made the Germans judges over the
nations?' One might almost say this had been their claim. In
so far as they appointed the emperor they wished also to have
the precedence over other nations. … Of the popes only one,
the favored one, Victor, submitted; the other, Alexander III,
declared the pope should summon and not be summoned, should
judge and not be judged. He was not willing to plunge the
church into a new slavery. For the time being Victor
maintained the supremacy in Italy. … The Romans dated their
legal documents according to the years of his pontificate.
Meanwhile Alexander III fled to France. He found support here
mainly from the fact that the western nations would not accord
to the emperor the supremacy over Europe which was implied in
his decision regarding the papacy. … For a moment the kingdom
of England seemed about to join in the church policy of the
German empire; they formed as it were a Germanic party. The
strict papistical idea was more the Romanic; but at the same
time it was that of the expanding freedom of the people.
{3797}
That is why Alexander III had also on his side the Lombard
cities which were opposing the emperor. Here too it was not a
mere faction but a grand idea. The cities, with their striving
for a constitution to a certain degree autonomic and resting
on a basis of free elections, sided with the idea of the
independence of the European kingdoms. From the depths of
European life arose mighty strivings which opposed the idea of
the emperor to renew the Roman empire and its prerogatives. …
In the year 1165 Alexander, coming from Salerno, was escorted
by William I [of Sicily] into Rome. This great opposition
against the German empire was joined also by the Greek
emperor, Manuel. He wished himself to attain the rule of the
Roman empire and in return the Greek and the Roman churches
were to be united. All at once Emperor Frederick found himself
involved in a most dangerous struggle, but he was determined
to fight it out. And he had the empire of the Germans on his
side in the matter. At a great diet in Wurzburg, at the
especial prompting of the imperial chancellor Raynald,
archbishop elect of Cologne, the emperor and the princes swore
never to acknowledge either Alexander III or any pope elected
by his party. Indeed no future emperor was to be elected who
would not promise to act accordingly. Stern obligations were
further attached to this oath. … In November 1166 the emperor
began his expedition for the purpose of driving out Pope
Alexander. But already under his very eyes the Lombard cities
were bestirring themselves against him."
_L. von Ranke,
Weltgeschichte
(translated from the German)
volume 8, pages 179-185._
"The battle of Legnano, fought on May 29th, 1176, ended in
disaster and defeat. Frederick himself, who was wounded and
thrown from his horse, finally reached Pavia after days of
adventurous flight, having meanwhile been mourned as dead by
the remnant of his army. All was not yet lost, indeed, … but
Frederick, although he at first made a pretense of continuing
the war, was soon forced by the representations of his nobles
to abandon the policy of twenty-four years, and to make peace
on the best terms obtainable with Alexander III, and through
him with the Lombard cities. The oath of Wurzburg was broken
and the two treaties of Anagni and Venice put an end to the
long war. … The terms of the treaty were finally assented to
by the emperor at Chioggia, July 21st, 1177. Alexander now
prepared to carry out his cherished project of holding a
mighty peace congress at Venice; and there, at the news of the
approaching reconciliation, nobles and bishops and their
retinues came together from all parts of Europe. Now that the
peace was to become an accomplished fact Venice outdid herself
in preparing to honor the emperor. The latter, too, was
determined to spare no expense that could add to the splendor
of the occasion. He had negotiated for a loan with the rich
Venetians, and he now imposed a tax of 1,000 marks of silver
on his nobles. Frederick's coming was announced for Sunday,
July 24th, and by that time the city had donned its most
festive attire. … A platform had been constructed at the door
of the church, and upon it was placed a raised throne for the
pope. … Having reached the shore Frederick, in the presence of
an immense crowd, approached the papal throne, and, throwing
off his purple mantle, prostrated himself before the pope and
kissed the latter's feet. Three red slabs of marble mark the
spot where he knelt. It was a moment of world-wide importance;
the empire and the papacy had measured themselves in mortal
combat, and the empire, in form at least, was now surrendering
at discretion. No wonder that later ages have fabled much
about this meeting. The pope is said, with his foot on the
neck of the prostrate king, to have exclaimed aloud, 'The lion
and the young dragon shalt thou trample under thy feet!'"
_E. F. Henderson,
History of Germany in the Middle Ages,
pages 277-279._
PAPACY: A. D. 1870-1874.
The "Kulturkampf" in its first stages.
See (in this Supplement) GERMANY: A. D. 1870-1874.
----------PAPACY: End--------
PARIS: A. D. 1788-1789.
The city during the Revolution.
See (in this Supplement) FRANCE: A. D. 1788-1789.
PARIS: Municipal Libraries.
See LIBRARIES, MODERN: (page 2011).
PARRY, Captain, Northern voyages of.
See (in this Supplement)
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1819-1820, and after.
PATENT-RIGHT.
See LAW, EQUITY: A. D. 1875 (page 1994).
PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY, The.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1866-1875 (page 2951).
PEARY ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS.
See (in this Supplement) ARCTIC EXPLORATION:
1886, 1891-1892, and 1893-1894.
PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1785.
The first Protective Tariff.
See TARIFF LEGISLATION: A. D. 1785 (page 3065).
PENNSYLVANIA BANK, The.
See MONEY AND BANKING: A, D. 1780-1784 (page 2212).
PENNSYLVANIA GERMANS.
"At the close of the Thirty Years' war there ran through
Protestant Germany a broad line; upon the one side of that
line stood the followers of Luther and Zwingli, of Melanchthon
and Calvin—these were the Church people; upon the other side
stood Menno Simon and 'The Separatists'—these were the Sect
people. It was a line which divided persecution by new
boundaries, and left the faggot and the stake in new hands,
for the Peace of Westphalia had thrown the guarantees of its
powerful protection only over the one side of this Protestant
division. … When 'the news spread through the Old World that
William Penn, the Quaker, had opened an asylum to the good and
the oppressed of every nation, and Humanity went through
Europe gathering up the children of misfortune,' our
forefathers came out from their hiding places in the forest
depths and the mountain valleys which the sun never
penetrated, clad in homespun, their feet shod with wood, their
dialects ofttimes unintelligible to each other. There was
scarcely a family among them which could not be traced to some
ancestor burned at the stake for conscience sake. Judge
Pennypacker says: 'Their whole literature smacks of fire.
Beside a record like theirs the sufferings of Pilgrim and
Quaker seem trivial.' … The thousands of Germans, Swiss and
Dutch who migrated here on the invitation of Penn, came
without ability to speak the English language, and without any
knowledge, except that derived from general report, of the
customs and habits of thought of the English people.
{3798}
They went vigorously to work to clear the wilderness and
establish homes. They were sober, religious, orderly,
industrious and thrifty. The reports the earlier settlers made
to their friends at home of the prosperity and liberty they
enjoyed in their new homes, induced from year to year many
others to come. Their numbers increased so much as to alarm
the proprietary officials. Logan wanted their immigration
prevented by Act of Parliament, 'for fear the colony would in
time be lost to the crown.' He wrote a letter in which he
says: 'The numbers from Germany at this rate will soon produce
a German colony here, and perhaps such a one as Britain
received from Saxony in the 5th Century.' As early as 1747,
one of the proprietary Governors attributed the prosperity of
the Pennsylvania colony to the thrift, sobriety and good
characters of the Germans. Numerous as they were, because this
was in its government a purely English colony, the part they
took in its public affairs was necessarily limited. The
Government officials and the vast majority of the members of
the Assembly were all English. During the long struggle in the
Colonies to adjust the strained relations with Great Britain,
the Germans were seemingly indifferent. They saw no practical
gain in surrendering the Penn Charter, and Proprietary
Government, under which they had obtained their homes, for the
direct rule of the British King. They could not understand the
distinction between King and Parliament. … When, therefore, in
1776, the issue was suddenly enlarged into a broad demand for
final separation from Great Britain, and the creation of a
Republic, all their traditional love of freedom was fully
aroused. Under the Proprietary rule, although constituting
nearly one-half the population of the colony, they were
practically without representation in the General Assembly,
and without voice in the Government. The right of 'electing or
being elected' to the Assembly was confined to natural born
subjects of England, or persons naturalized in England or in
the province, who were 21 years old, and freeholders of the
province owning fifty acres of seated land, and at least
twelve acres improved, or worth clear fifty pounds and a
resident for two years. Naturalization was not the simple
thing it now is. The conditions were exceptionally severe, and
comparatively few Germans qualified themselves to vote. The
delegates to the Colonial Congress were selected by the
General Assembly. In November, 1775, the Assembly instructed
the Pennsylvania delegates not to vote for separation from
Great Britain. The majority of the delegates were against
separation. … At the election for new members in May, 1776, in
Philadelphia, three out of four of those elected were opposed
to separation. The situation was most critical. Independence
and union were not possible without Pennsylvania.
Geographically, she was midway between the Colonies. She was
one of the wealthiest and strongest. Her government was in the
hands of those opposed to separation. One course only
remained. Peaceful efforts in the Assembly to enfranchise the
Germans, by repealing the naturalization laws and oath of
allegiance, had failed, and now this must be accomplished by
revolution, because their enfranchisement would give the
friends of liberty and union an overwhelming and aggressive
majority. This was the course resolved on. The Philadelphia
Committee called a conference of committees of the Counties.
On the 18th of June, 1776, this provincial conference,
numbering 104, met in Philadelphia. The German counties were
represented no longer by English tories. There were leading
Germans in the delegations from Philadelphia, Lancaster,
Northampton, York, Bucks and Berks. In Berks, the royalist
Biddle gives place to eight prominent Germans, headed by
Governor Heister, Colonels Hunter, Eckert and Lutz. The
proprietary government of Pennsylvania, with its Tory
Assembly, was overthrown—foundation, pillar and dome. This
conference called a Provincial Convention to frame a new
Government. On the petition of the Germans, the members of
that Convention were to be elected by persons qualified to
vote for Assembly, and by the military associators
(volunteers), being freemen 21 years of age, resident in the
province one year. This gave the Germans the right to vote.
Thus says Bancroft: 'The Germans were incorporated into the
people and made one with them.' The 19th of June, 1776,
enfranchised the Germans, and made the Declaration of
Independence possible. … It is absolutely true, that, as the
English people of the province were divided in 1776, the
Germans were the potential factors in securing the essential
vote of Pennsylvania for the Declaration of Independence. …
Throughout the Revolution, these Germans … were the steadfast
defenders of the new Republic. Dr. Stille, in his recent
admirable 'Life of Dickinson,' concedes that 'no portion of
the population was more ready to defend its homes, or took up
arms more willingly in support of the American cause.'
Washington, when in Philadelphia after the war, testified his
high appreciation of the hearty support the Germans gave him,
and the cause he represented, by worshiping with his family in
the old German church on Race street. The descendants of the
Pennsylvania-Germans have settled all over the West,
contributing to Ohio, Illinois and other Western States, the
same sturdy, honest population that characterizes
Pennsylvania. From Revolutionary times until now, they have
borne an honorable part In the Nation's history and progress."
_E. K. Martin and G. F. Baer,
Addresses
(Proceedings,
Pennsylvania-German Convention, April 15, 1891),
pages 14-24._
PENNY NEWSPAPERS, The beginning of.
See PRINTING AND PRESS: A. D. 1830-1888,
and 1853-1870 (page 2601).
PETER, ST., and the Church at Rome.
See PAPACY (page 2417).
PETER THE HERMIT, and the first Crusade.
See (in this Supplement) CRUSADES.
PHŒNICIAN COMMERCE.
See (In this Supplement) COMMERCE, ANCIENT;
also PHŒNICIANS (page 2530).
PINEL, and the treatment of the Insane.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 18-19TH CENTURIES (page 2142).
PITT, William.
See CHATHAM.
{3799}
PLYMOUTH BRETHREN, The.
"The rise of Plymouth Brotherism was almost contemporaneous
with that of Tractarianism, and, far apart as the two systems
appear to be, they were partly due to the action of similar
causes. In both cases there was a dissatisfaction with the
state of spiritual life, and a longing for something more
real, more elevated in tone, more practical in results. … The
society or 'assembly,' as the Brethren love to call it, was a
development. There was no purpose on the part of its founders
of establishing any new sect or party. A few men with
spiritual affinities, desiring a religious fellowship which
they could not find in the ordinary services of their Church,
grouped themselves in small companies and held periodical
meetings for the study of the Scriptures, for Christian
conference, and for prayer. From the very beginning the
movement had attractions for devout men of high social
position and some culture. Mr. Darby, who was one of the
leading spirits in Dublin, and who is said by those who have
had personal acquaintance with the inner life of the Brethren
to wield a power over his followers to which there is no
parallel among ecclesiastics, except in the case of the Pope
himself, was originally a curate of the Church of Ireland. Mr.
Benjamin W. Newton, who was one of the principal members of
the similar society in Plymouth, which has given its name to
the movement, was a fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. Dr.
Tregelles, another of the Plymouth company, was a
distinguished Biblical scholar. Mr. A. Groves, who, perhaps,
rather than Mr. Darby or Mr. Newton, may be regarded as the
promoter of these meetings, but who early withdrew from the
party when, on a return from a visit to the East, he found
that their social religious gatherings were rapidly developing
into a distinct sectarian organization, was a student for the
Anglican ministry at Trinity College, Dublin. The Brethren
despise culture, and yet apart from men of culture it is hard
to see how the movement could have had such success."
_J. G. Rogers,
The Church Systems of England in the 19th Century,
lecture 10._
POLAR EXPLORATION.
See (in this Supplement) ARCTIC EXPLORATION.
POLARIS, Voyage of the.
See (in this Supplement) ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1871-1872.
PORTUGAL: Commerce.
See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE, MEDIÆVAL, AND MODERN.
PORTUGAL: Exploration, and colonization in Africa.
See (in this Supplement) AFRICA.
PRINCETON COLLEGE.
The College of New Jersey, more commonly called Princeton
College, "originated in the plan of Jonathan Dickinson, John
Pierson, Ebenezer Pemberton, Aaron Burr, with others, to found
an institution 'in which ample provision should be made for
the intellectual and religious culture of youth desirous to
obtain a liberal education, and more especially for the
thorough training of such as were candidates for the holy
ministry.' Its first charter was granted in 1746 by the
Honorable John Hamilton, President of His Majesty's Council,
and is noteworthy as the first college charter ever given in
this country by a Governor or acting Governor with simply the
consent of his Council. A second and more ample charter was
granted September 14th, 1748, by the 'trusty and well-beloved'
Jonathan Belcher, Esquire, Governor and Commander-in-chief of
the province of New Jersey. After the war of the Revolution,
the charter was confirmed and renewed by the Legislature of
New Jersey. The Corporation is styled in that instrument 'the
Trustees of the College of New Jersey.' … On April 27th, 1747,
the Trustees made a public announcement that they had
'appointed the Rev. Jonathan Dickinson, President,' and that
the college would be opened in the fourth week of May next at
Elizabethtown. President Dickinson having died on the 7th of
October following, the Rev. Aaron Burr assumed the duties of
the Presidency and the college was removed from Elizabethtown
to Newark. Soon after, it was removed from Newark to
Princeton, where in 1754-1755 the first college building was
erected. … The College of New Jersey, as now constituted,
includes the John C. Green School of Science. This
institution, which has its own professors and instructors, was
founded in 1873 upon an endowment of Mr. John C. Green. The
first college building, erected in 1754-5, was named Nassau
Hall, at the request of Governor Belcher."
_College of New Jersey,
Catalogue, 1893-4,
pages 8-9._
ALSO IN:
_J. F. Hageman,
History of Princeton and its Institutions._
PROFIT-SHARING EXPERIMENTS.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1842-1889,
and 1859-1887 (pages 2944 and 2947).
PROUDHON, and the doctrines of Anarchism.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1839-1894 (page 2941).
PROVISIONS OF OXFORD.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1258 (page 1962).
PRUSSIA, The rise of.
See (in this Supplement) GERMANY: A. D. 1618-1700;
also, page 309.
PULLMAN STRIKE, The.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1894 (page 2957).
R.
RAE, Dr., Franklin search expeditions of.
See (in this Supplement) ARCTIC EXPLORATION:
1851, and 1853-1854.
RAILWAYS, in modern inland commerce.
See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE, MODERN.
RAPP, George, and the Rappites.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1805-1827 (page 2937).
REDWOOD LIBRARY.
See LIBRARIES, MODERN:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: (page 2019).
REFORMATION, The Protestant: Outline sketch.
See EUROPE (pages 1053-1065).
REFORMATION, The Protestant:
The beginning in Germany.
See (in this Supplement) GERMANY: 16TH CENTURY;
also, page 1456.
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.
See below: TOLERATION, RELIGIOUS.
RENAISSANCE, Libraries of the.
See LIBRARIES, RENAISSANCE (page 2008).
ROCHDALE SOCIETY, The Co-operative.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1816-1886 (page 2938).
ROME:
Outline sketch of the history of the Republic and the Empire.
See EUROPE (pages 996-1013).
{3800}
ROME:
Charlemagne's restoration of the Empire in the West.
His imperial coronation and its significance.
"The Germans, who had destroyed the Western Empire, now, after
having been received into Roman civilisation and the bosom of
the Church, effected its restoration. And the Church, whose
laws controlled the West, created anew from within herself the
Roman Empire, as the political form of her cosmopolitan
principle, and that spiritual unity within which the Popes had
embraced so many nations. Her supremacy over all churches of
the West could, moreover, only attain complete recognition
through the Emperor and the Empire. The restoration of the
Empire was rendered necessary by the formidable power of
Islam, which not only harassed Byzantium, but, from the side
of Sicily and Spain, also threatened Rome. The Greek Emperors
could rule the West together with the East so long as the
Roman Church was weak, so long as Italy lay sunk in lethargy,
and the German West swarmed with lawless barbarians. It was no
longer possible to do so when the Church attained
independence, Italy consciousness of her nationality, and
Europe had become united in the powerful Frankish Empire, at
the head of which stood a great monarch. Thus the idea of
proclaiming Charles Emperor arose, and thus was carried out
the scheme with which the irate Italians had threatened Leo
the Isaurian at the beginning of the Iconoclastic controversy.
The West now demanded the occupation of the Imperial throne.
True, the Byzantine Empire had, in the course of time,
acquired a legal sanction. Byzantium, however, was but the
daughter of Rome. From Rome the Imperium had proceeded; here
the Cæsars had their seat. The illustrious mother of the
Empire now resumed her rights, when, as in ancient times, she
offered the Imperial crown to the most powerful ruler of the
West. … A transaction so momentous, and rendered necessary by
the ideas of the time and the demands of the West, but which,
nevertheless, bore the semblance of a revolt against the
rights of Byzantium, could scarcely have been the work of the
moment, but more probably was the result of a sequence of
historic causes and resolutions consequent upon them. Can we
doubt that the Imperial crown had been the goal of Charles's
ambition and the ideal of such of his friends as cherished
Roman aspirations? He himself came to Rome evidently to take
the crown, or, at least, to form some decisive resolution with
regard to it, and during his sojourn in France the Pope had
declared himself ready to help in the accomplishment of this
great revolution. … We may suppose that Charles's clerical
friends were the most zealous supporters of the scheme, which
perhaps was not received by the Pope with a like degree of
enthusiasm. Alcuin's letter proves that he, at least, had
already been initiated into the idea; and the Frankish envoys,
after a year spent in Rome, had doubtless come to an
understanding with the Romans, on whose vote the election
mainly depended. The Romans it was who, exercising the ancient
suffrages of the Senate and people, had elected Charles their
Patricius, and who now, in virtue of the same rights, elected
him Emperor. And only as Emperor of the Romans and of Rome did
he become Emperor of the entire State. A decree of the Roman
nobility and people had undoubtedly preceded the coronation;
and Charles's nomination as Roman Emperor (in strict
accordance with the plan of a papal election) was effected by
the three traditional elective bodies. The great revolution
which extinguished the ancient rights of the Byzantines was
not to appear the arbitrary deed of either King or Pope, but
the act of God Himself, and therefore the legal transaction of
Christendom, as expressed by the voice of the Roman people, of
the parliament of the united clergy, optimates, and citizens
assembled in Rome, Germans as well as Latins. The Frankish
chroniclers themselves say that Charles was made Emperor by
the election of the Roman people, quote the united parliament
of the two nations, and enumerate the list of the members who
took part in the parliament: the Pope, the entire assembly of
bishops, clergy, and abbots, the Frankish senate, the Roman
optimates, and the rest of the Christian people. The
resolution of the Romans and Franks was announced to Charles
in the form of a request. Are we to believe that, like
Augustus in former days, he made a feint of reluctance to
accept the supreme dignity, until it was forced upon him as an
accomplished fact? Are we to receive as hypocritical the
assurance of a man so pious and heroic, when he asserts that
the Imperial crown came upon him wholly as a surprise, and
adds that he would not have entered S. Peter's had he known of
Leo's intention? Had not Charles's son, Pipin, been purposely
recalled from the war against Benevento, in order to witness
the Imperial coronation? An explanation of these conflicting
statements has been sought in the statement of Eginhard, who
maintains that Charles's hesitation was dictated by respect
for Byzantium; that he had not yet assented to the scheme, and
had sought by negotiations to gain the recognition of the
Greeks to the election; that, therefore, the coronation really
did take him by surprise, and, with regard to the time chosen,
seemed inopportune. This view is supported by reasons of
probability, which, however, solely concern the occasion
chosen for the coronation, since to his elevation to the
Imperial throne Charles had already long given his consent. …
When, in later times, the German Empire came into conflict
with the Papacy, doctors of canon law advanced the theory that
the Emperor received the crown solely by favour of the Pope,
and traced the investiture to Charles's coronation at the
hands of Leo the Third. The Emperors, on the other hand,
appealed to the shout of the people: 'Life and victory to the
Emperor of the Romans, crowned by God,' and asserted that they
derived the crown, the inalienable heritage of the Cæsars,
from God alone. The Romans, on their side, maintained that
Charles owed the crown entirely to the majesty of the Roman
Senate and people. The dispute as to the actual source of
Empire continued throughout the entire Middle Ages, and, while
exercising no actual change in the world's history, revealed
an indwelling need of mankind; the necessity, namely, of
referring the world of facts back to a rudimentary right by
which power becomes legalised. Pope Leo the Third as little
possessed the right to bestow the crown of Empire, which was
not his, as Charles did to claim it.
{3801}
The Pope, however, regarded himself as the representative of
the Empire and of Romanism; and undoubtedly, as the head of
Latin nationality, and still more as the recognised spiritual
overseer of the Christian republic, he possessed the power of
accomplishing that revolution which, without the aid of the
Church, would have been impossible. Mankind at large regarded
him as the sacred intercessor between the world and the
Divinity; and it was only through his coronation and unction
at the papal hands that the Empire of Charles received divine
sanction in the eyes of men. The elective right of the Romans,
on the other hand, in whatever form it may appear, was
uncontested, and in no later Imperial election could it have
been of so decisive legal significance."
_F. Gregorovius,
History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages,
book 4, chapter 7, section 3 (volume 2)._
ROME: Ancient commerce.
See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE, ANCIENT.
ROME: Money and banking.
See MONEY AND BANKING: ROME (page 2203).
RONALDS, Sir Francis, The telegraphic experiments of.
See ELECTRICAL DISCOVERY AND INVENTION: A. D. 1753-1820
(page 771).
ROSS, Captain, Polar Expeditions of.
See (in this Supplement)
ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1829-1833 and 1848-1849.
RUSSIA, Libraries of.
See LIBRARIES, MODERN (page 2013).
RUTGERS COLLEGE.
"Rutgers College, located at New Brunswick, was chartered by
George III. in 1770, and was called Queen's College, in honour
of his consort. The present name was substituted by the
legislature of the State, in 1825, at request of the trustees,
in honour of Colonel Henry Rutgers, of New York, to whom the
institution is indebted for liberal pecuniary benefactions.
The charter was originally granted to such Protestants as had
adopted the constitution of the reformed churches in the
Netherlands, as revised by the national synod of Dordrecht, in
the years 1618 and 1619. … The Theological College of the
Reformed Dutch Church is established here and intimately
blended with the literary institution."
_T. F. Gordon,
Gazetteer of the State of New Jersey.
(bound with "History of New Jersey"),
page 86._
S.
SAINT SIMON, and Saint-Simonism.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1817-1825 (page 2939).
SALVATION ARMY, The.
"Some people of to-day seem to have the idea that the Rev.
William Booth was Jove, and that the Salvation Army sprang
from his brain full-grown and fully armed. Far from it; a boy
trained in the Church of England is converted among Wesleyan
Methodists, and, believing thoroughly in what he professes, is
constrained to feel interested in the salvation of others. He
is much moved by some revival services that he hears conducted
by the Rev. James Caughey, an American evangelist, and the
effect of the straightforward, conversational style of
preaching, makes an impression upon him that is never
forgotten. Through all the years that follow, among all the
scenes of his labors as a Methodist minister, he never forgets
that simple, open-air preaching, that pushing home of the
truth, with its wonderful results, and year after year only
increases the conviction that the masses can only be reached
by going to them, and never, never saved by waiting until they
come to us. Years passed away before William Booth and his
wife came to the point where they could step out, shake off
traditional methods and means, and begin to carry out
evangelistic work on lines forbidden by the churches. …
'Nothing succeeds like success,' and when the first results
were between three and four thousand souls in four little
towns of Cornwall, there was a decided leaning toward them,
overpowered, though, at a meeting of the Wesleyan Conference,
which promulgated the strange formula that 'evangelistic
movements are unfavorable to Church order.' However, the work
was carried on steadily, until that memorable Sunday [July
5th, 1865] on Mile End Waste, East London, from which William
Booth consecrated himself to the salvation of the ignorant,
and from which he dates all statistics referring to his work
as an independent movement in the religious world. From this
time forward, without interrupting in the least the open-air
work, one shelter after another was secured and appropriated
for mission work, here a tent or an old stable, there a
carpenter's shop, until the movement was strong enough to
warrant the lease of 'The Eastern Star,' a notorious
beer-house, which was used as book-store, hall, and classroom.
From this place, with its name of good hope, hundreds of souls
went forth to make the wilderness blossom like the rose, so
far as their humble homes were concerned. Sheds, lofts,
alleys, tumble-down theatres, well-known places of resort or
of refuge were preferred as being familiar to the class of men
who were to be reached. Such was the Salvation Army in its
early years, merely a 'mission.' with no more idea of
development into an 'army,' with military rule and
nomenclature, than we at the present time have of what may
come to us in the next twenty years."
_M. B. Booth,
Beneath Two Flags,
chapter 2._
"In 1873 Mrs. Booth, overcoming her own intense reluctance,
began to preach. In 1874 and the two following years the work
spread to Portsmouth, Chatham, Wellingborough, Hammersmith,
Hackney, Leeds, Leicester, Stockton, Middlesborough, Cardiff,
Hartlepool, and other towns, where recent converts of the
humblest rank—tinkers, railway guards, navvies—took charge of
new stations. In 1876, shaking itself more and more free from
the trammels of custom and routine, the Army deliberately
utilized the services of women. In 1877 it spread still
further. In 1878 it 'attacked' no less than fifty towns,
and—more by what we should call 'accident' than by
design—assumed the title of the Salvation Army. It also
adopted, for good or for evil, the whole vocabulary of
military organization, which has caused it to be covered with
ridicule, but which may undoubtedly have aided its discipline
and helped its progress. In 1879 advance was marked by the
imprisonment of three Salvationists—who refused, as always, to
pay the alternative fine—for the offence of praying in a
country road near a public-house, which was regarded as
'obstructing the thoroughfare.'
{3802}
In this year began also the establishment of training homes
for the instruction and equipment of the young officers; the
printing of the 'War Cry'; the use of uniforms and badges; and
the extension of the work to Philadelphia and the United
States. In 1880 the United Kingdom was mapped into divisions.
In 1881 the work was extended to Australia and the colonies,
and so stupendous had become the religious energy of the
soldiers that they began to dream of the religious rescue of
Europe as well as of Great Britain and its empire-colonies.
Since that year its spread, in spite of all opposition, has
been steady and continuous, until, in 1890, it excited the
attention of the civilized world by that immense scheme of
social amelioration into which we shall not here enter
particularly. At the present moment [1891] the Army has no
less than 9,349 regular officers, 13,000 voluntary officers,
30 training homes; with 400 cadets, and 2,864 corps scattered
over 32 different countries. In England alone it has 1,377
corps, and has held some 160,000 open-air meetings. This
represents a part of its religious work. Besides this it has
in social work 30 rescue homes, 5 shelters, 3 food depots, and
many other agencies for good."
_F. W. Farrar,
The Salvation Army
(Harper's Magazine, May, 1891)._
In one of his addresses, delivered during his visit to the
United States, in February, 1895, General Booth said: "We
have, with God's help, been able to carry our banner and hoist
our flag in 45 different countries and colonies, and we are
reaching out day by day. We have been able to create and bring
into harmonious action, with self-supporting and self-guiding
officers, something like 4,000 separate societies. We have
been able to gather together something like 11,000 men and
women, separated from their earthly affiliations, who have
gone forth as leaders of this host." In the same address,
General Booth gave the number of the Army newspapers as 27,
with a circulation of 50,000,000,—presumably meaning the total
issues of a year.
SARACENS, Medical Science of the.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 7-11TH CENTURIES (page 2129).
SARDANAPALUS.
See SEMITES: THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE (page 2892).
SCHULZE-DELITZSCH, and the Cooperative movement in Germany.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1848-1883 (page 2946).
SCHURZ, Carl.
Report on affairs in the South.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865 (page 3562).
SCHWATKA, Lieutenant, Polar explorations of.
See (in this Supplement) ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1879-1880.
SECESSION, The Federalist Movement of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1803-1804 (page 3329).
SERVIA, A. D. 1893. Royal Coup d'Etat.
"A great sensation was created by the announcement, January
19, that Milan and Natalie, the divorced parents of King
Alexander, had become reconciled at Biarritz. Whether this had
political significance was unknown, but rumor connected it
with various incidents bearing on the pending elections. The
Skupshtina was dissolved in November, and the Liberal
government, by energetic measures, put the electoral machinery
in such shape that at the voting in March a small Liberal
majority was secured in the place of the enormous Radical
majority that had controlled the former legislature. When the
Skupshtina assembled, April 6, the Radicals, in resentment at
certain proceedings of the government designed to increase its
majority, left the hall and refused to take part in the
session. The troublesome situation thus produced was wholly
abolished by a coup d'etat of King Alexander, April 13. At a
banquet in the palace, at which the regents and cabinet were
present, the king suddenly accused them of misrule and
demanded their resignations, saying that he would assume the
government himself. On the refusal of the regents to resign he
ordered them under guard, and on the following day a new
ministry was appointed, with M. Dokitch, a Radical, at its
head. Careful arrangement of the troops had insured that no
resistance could be made to the king's acts, and no blood was
shed. The constitution makes eighteen the age at which the
king attains his majority, but Alexander is not yet seventeen.
His action was greeted with general favor throughout the
country. An explanation of the affair is found in the
ill-disguised relations of the Radicals with the pretender
Karageorgiewitch, and the dread of Milan and Natalie that the
hostile policy of the regents toward the Radicals, who are in
a majority in the land, would precipitate an overthrow of the
reigning dynasty." The elections which followed the coup d'
état gave the Radicals an overwhelming majority in the
Skupshtina—122 members out of 134.
_Political Science Quarterly,
June and December, 1893._
SEWARD, William H.,
The "higher law" speech of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1850 (page 3387).
SIEMENS, Dr. W., and his dynamo-electric inventions.
See ELECTRICAL DISCOVERY AND INVENTION:
A. D. 1831-1872 (page 774).
_T. O'Conor Sloane,
The Standard Electrical Dictionary
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26535_
SINGLE TAX MOVEMENT, The.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1880 (page 2955).
SLAVE TRADE: Abolition in the United States.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1807 (page 3335).
SLAVERY, Petitions against, in the American Congress.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1835, 1836, 1837-1838, and 1842,
(page 3373, and after).
SOCIAL PALACE AT GUISE, The.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1859-1887 (page 2947).
SOCIALIST PARTIES IN GERMANY.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1862-1864,
and 1875-1893 (pages 2949 and 2953).
SOLOMON.
SOLOMON'S TEMPLE.
See JEWS: (page 1902);
and TEMPLE OF SOLOMON (page 3093).
SOMMERING'S TELEGRAPH.
See ELECTRICAL DISCOVERY AND INVENTION:
A. D. 1753-1820 (page 771).
SOUTH CAROLINA: A. D. 1861.
Monarchical cravings.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (page 3426).
SPAIN: Outline Sketch of general history.
See EUROPE
(pages 1016, 1034-1035, 1050-1051, 1055-1065, and after).
{3803}
SPAIN: A. D. 1034-1090.
The exploits of the Cid.
"Rodrigo Diez de Bivar, who came of an old Castilian stock,
was born in 1026—others say 1040—and was thus a contemporary
of William the Conqueror, of England. Diez was his patronymic,
meaning the son of Diego (in English James), and Bivar, the
village of his birth, near Burgos, where the site of his house
is still shown. His name of 'El Cid,' the Lord, or 'Mio Cid,'
which is exactly 'Monseigneur,' was given him first by the
Moors, his own soldiers and subjects, and universally adopted
by all Spaniards from that day to this. Such a title is
significant, not only of the relations between the two
peoples, but of Rodrigo's position as at once a Moorish and a
Spanish chief. 'El Campeador,' the name by which Rodrigo is
also distinguished, means in Spanish something more special
than 'champion.' A 'campeador' was a man who had fought and
beaten the select fighting-man of the opposite side, in the
presence of the two armies; which points to a custom derived,
as much else of early Spanish, from the East. Rodrigo earned
the name, not at the expense of any Moor but of a Christian,
having when quite a youth slain a Navarrese champion in a war
between Castile and Navarre. The first mention of his name
occurs in a deed of Fernando I., of the year 1064."
_H. E. Watts,
Christian Recovery of Spain,
chapter 3._
"Sancho III. of Navarre, who died in 1034, had united almost
all the Christian states of the Peninsula under one dominion,
having married the heiress of the county of Castile, and
obtained the hand of the sister of Bermudez III., the last
king of Leon, for his second son, Ferdinand. The Asturias,
Navarre, and Aragon, were all subject to him, and he was the
first who assumed the title of King of Castile. To him the
sovereign houses of Spain have looked up as their common
ancestor, for the male line of the Gothic Kings became extinct
in Bermudez III. … D. Sancho divided his states amongst his
children: D. Garcia became King of Navarre, D. Ferdinand, King
of Castile, and D. Ramirez, King of Aragon. The Cid, who was a
subject of D. Ferdinand, entered upon his military career
under that monarch's banners, where he displayed that
marvellous strength and prodigious valour, that constancy and
coolness, which raised him above all the other warriors of
Europe. Many of the victories of Ferdinand and the Cid were
obtained over the Moors, who being at that time deprived of
their leader and without a central government, were much
exposed to the attacks of the Christians. … The arms of
Ferdinand and the Cid were not, however, always directed
against the infidels. The ambitious Monarch soon afterwards
attacked his brother-in-law, Bermudez III. of Leon, the last
of the descendants of D. Pelagius, whom he despoiled of his
states, and put to death in 1037. He subsequently attacked and
dethroned his eldest brother, D. Garcia, and afterwards his
younger brother, D. Ramirez, the former of whom he likewise
sacrificed. The Cid, who had received his earliest
instructions under D. Ferdinand, made no scrupulous enquiries
into the justice of that prince's cause, but combating blindly
for him, rendered him glorious in the eyes of the vulgar by
these iniquitous conquests. It is also in the reign of
Ferdinand that the first romantic adventures of the Cid are
said to have occurred; his attachment to Ximena, the only
daughter of Count Gormaz; his duel with the Count, who had
mortally injured his father; and lastly his marriage with the
daughter of the man who had perished by his sword. The
authenticity of these poetical achievements rests entirely on
the romances [of the Chronicle of the Cid]; but though this
brilliant story is not to be found in any historical document,
yet the universal tradition of a nation seems to stamp it with
sufficient credit. The Cid was in habits of the strictest
friendship with the eldest son of Ferdinand, D. Sancho,
surnamed the Strong, and the two warriors always combated side
by side. During the lifetime of the father, the Cid, in 1049,
had rendered tributary the Musulman Emir of Saragossa. He
defended that Moorish prince against the Aragonese, in 1063;
and when Sancho succeeded to the throne in 1065, he was
placed, by the young King, at the head of all his armies,
whence, without doubt, he acquired the name of 'Campeador.' D.
Sancho, who merited the friendship of a hero, and who always
remained faithful to him, was, notwithstanding, no less
ambitious and unjust than his father, whose example he
followed in endeavouring to deprive his brothers of their
share of the paternal inheritance. To the valour of the Cid he
owed his victories over D. Garcia, King of Galicia, and D.
Alfonso, King of Leon, whose states he invaded. The latter
prince took refuge amongst the Moors, with the King of Toledo,
who afforded him a generous asylum. D. Sancho, after having
also stripped his sisters of their inheritance, was slain in
1072, before Zamora, where the last of his sisters, D. Urraca,
had fortified herself. Alfonso VI., recalled from the Moors to
ascend the vacant throne, after having taken an oath,
administered by the hands of the Cid, that he had been in no
degree accessary to his brother's death, endeavoured to attach
that celebrated leader to his interests by promising him in
marriage his own niece Ximena, whose mother was sister-in-law
to Ferdinand the Great and Bermudez III. the last King of
Leon. This marriage, of which historical evidence remains, was
celebrated on the 19th of July, 1074. The Cid was at that time
nearly fifty years of age, and had survived his first wife
Ximena, the daughter of Count Gormaz, so celebrated in the
Spanish and French tragedies. Being soon afterwards despatched
on an embassy to the Moorish princes of Seville and Cordova,
the Cid assisted them in gaining a great victory over the King
of Grenada; but scarcely had the heat of the battle passed
away when he restored all the prisoners whom he had taken,
with arms in their hands, to liberty. By these constant acts
of generosity he won the hearts of his enemies as well as of
his friends. He was admired and respected both by Moors and
Christians. He had soon afterwards occasion to claim the
protection of the former; for Alfonso VI., instigated by those
who were envious of the hero's success, banished him from
Castile. The Cid upon this occasion took refuge with his
friend Ahmed el Muktadir, King of Saragossa, by whom he was
treated with boundless confidence and respect. He was
appointed by him to the post of governor of his son, and was
in fact intrusted with the whole administration of the kingdom
of Saragossa, during the reign of Joseph El Muktamam, from
1081 to 1085, within which period he gained many brilliant
victories over the Christians of Aragon, Navarre, and
Barcelona. Always generous to the vanquished, he again gave
liberty to the prisoners. Alfonso VI. now began to regret that
he had deprived himself of the services of the most valiant of
his warriors; and being attacked by the redoubtable Joseph,
the son of Teschfin, the Morabite, who had invaded Spain with
a new army of Moors from Africa, and having sustained a defeat
at Zalaka, on the 23d of October, 1087, he recalled the Cid to
his assistance.
{3804}
That hero immediately repaired to his standard with 7,000
soldiers, levied at his own charge; and for two years
continued to combat for his ungrateful sovereign; but at
length, either his generosity in dismissing his captives, or
his disobedience to the orders of a prince far inferior to
himself in the knowledge of the art of war, drew upon him a
second disgrace about the year 1090. He was again banished;
his wife and son were imprisoned, and his goods were
confiscated. It is at this period that the poem … commences.
It is in fact the fragment of a complete history of the Cid,
the beginning of which has been lost."
_J. C. L. S. de Sismondi,
Literature of the South of Europe,
chapter 23 (volume 2)._
ALSO IN:
_R. Southey,
Chronicle of the Cid, from the Spanish._
_R. Markham,
Chronicle of the Cid, edited with introduction._
_G. Ticknor,
History of Spanish Literature,
period 1, chapter 2 (volume 1)._
SPAIN: 15-17th Centuries.
The waste of the commercial opportunities of the Spaniards.
See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE, MODERN.
SPAIN: A. D. 1788-1808.
Charles IV., Marie Louise, and Godoy.
"Charles III. had just died when the French Revolution
commenced. He was the best sovereign that Spain had had in a
long time; he left good ministers: Aranda, Campomanès, Florida
Blanca; but it was not given to them to continue his work.
This reparative reign was followed by one the most
disintegrating. Spain, elevated anew for an instant by an
intelligent prince, was, in a few years, under the government
of an imbecile one, to founder in an ignoble intrigue. The web
of this latter was begun immediately upon the accession of the
new king. Charles IV. was forty years old; corpulent and
weak-minded, simple and choleric, incapable of believing evil
because he was incapable of conceiving it: amorous, chaste,
devout, and consequently the slave of his wife even more than
of his temperament, the first years of his marriage blinded
him for his entire life. Scrupulous to the point of separating
himself from the queen when he no longer hoped to have
children by her, he took refuge in the chase, manual labor,
violent exercise, caring only for the table, music and
bull-fights, exhausted when he had followed his trade of king
for half an hour. Small and without beauty, dark of
complexion, but with some grace, with elegance and above all
carriage, Marie Louise of Parma was at once superstitious and
passionate, ignorant, uneasy, with a very frivolous soul as a
foundation, with obstinacy without firmness, with artifice
without intelligence, with intrigue leading to no result, more
covetousness than ambition, much emptiness of mind, still more
of heart. Her husband seemed to her coarse and brutish; she
despised him. She detested her eldest son and cared moderately
for her other children. She was thirty-four years old, of
perturbed imagination, of uneasy senses, without any curb of
religion or virtue, when she ascended the throne and the
fortune of Godoy threw him in her way. He was a small
provincial gentleman; for lack of something better, he had
entered the life-guards at seventeen. He was then twenty-one.
He was very handsome, with a grave beauty frequent in the men
of the south, which gives to youth that air of restrained and
imperious passion, to mature age that impenetrable and
imposing exterior so well calculated to conceal mediocrity of
mind, barrenness of heart, despotic selfishness, and all the
artifices of a corruption the more insinuating because it
seems to be unaware of itself. The queen fell in love with
him, and abandoned herself wildly; he took advantage of it
without shame. She was not satisfied to make of Godoy her
lover, she desired to make a great man of him, a minister, to
make him a partner in her power. She introduced him to the
court and into the intimacy of the royal household, where
Charles IV. tractably became infatuated with him. Marie Louise
had at first some circumspection in the gradation of the
honors which she lavished upon him, and which marked, by so
many scandals, the progress of her passion; but she was very
soon entirely possessed by it. Godoy obtained over her an
ascendancy equal to that which she arrogated to herself over
Charles IV. Thus on the eve of the French Revolution, these
three persons, so strangely associated, began, in court
costume, and under the austere decorum of the palace of Philip
II., that comedy, as old as vice and stupidity, of the
compliant husband duped by his wife and of the old mistress
exploited by her lover. At the beginning of the reign, Charles
IV. from scruple, the queen from hypocrisy, Godoy from policy,
became devout. The queen wished power for Godoy, and Godoy
wished it for lucre. It was necessary to set aside the old
counsellors of Charles III. They were philosophers, the nation
had remained catholic. Marie Louise and Godoy relied on the
old Spanish fanaticism. The ministers very soon lost
influence, and after having secluded them for some time, the
queen disgraced them. A complete reaction took place in Spain.
The church regained its empire; the Inquisition was
re-established. It would appear then that the Revolution must
necessarily have found Spain hostile; a Bourbon king and a
devout government could but detest it. But before being a
Bourbon the king was a husband, and Marie Louise was devout
only to mask her intrigues. The same passions led her to
desire by turns, war to make her lover illustrious and peace
to render him popular. This debilitated and corrupt court
found itself given over in advance to all the suggestions of
fear, to all the temptations of avidity. Those who had to
treat with it did not fail to profit by its feebleness to
dominate it. We see it successively linked to England, then to
France; treat the Revolution with consideration, condemn it
with violence, combat it without vigor; seek an alliance with
the Directory, and abandon itself to Napoleon who annihilated
it. France found at Madrid only too much docility to her
designs; the illusions that she conceived from it became more
fatal for her than were for Spain the incapacity and turpitude
of its rulers. The French were led by the habits and
traditions of the 'ancien regime' to treat the Spaniards as a
subordinate nation consigned to the role of auxiliary. Holding
the court of Spain as cowardly and venal, the politicians of
Paris neglected to take account of the Spanish people. They
judged them to be divisible and governable at mercy.
{3805}
It was not that they despised them nor that they intended to
reduce them to servitude as a conquered people; but they
thought that the last Austrian kings had enervated and
enfeebled them, that they had been uplifted from this
decadence only by the Bourbons, that that dynasty was
degenerating in its turn; that another foreign government,
more intelligent, more enlightened, more resolute, alone could
take up again the work of reparation and bring it to a
successful result by means of rigorous treatment and
appropriate applications. What Louis XIV. had undertaken
solely in the interest of despotism, France, herself
regenerated by the Revolution, had the right and the power to
accomplish, for the highest good of Spain and of humanity.
These calculations in which the essential element, that is to
say the Spanish character, was suppressed, deceived the
Convention, led the Directory astray, and ended by drawing
Napoleon into the most fatal of his enterprises."
_A. Sorel,
L'Europe et la Revolution française
(translated from the French),
part 1, pages 373-377._
SPAIN: Libraries.
See LIBRARIES, MODERN (page 2013).
----------SPAIN: End--------
STAMP TAX ON NEWSPAPERS, English.
See PRINTING AND PRESS: A. D. 1712,
and 1853-1870 (pages 2599 and 2602).
STANLEY, Henry M., Explorations of.
See (in this Supplement) AFRICA: 1866-1873, and after.
SUEZ CANAL, Effects of the opening of the.
See (in this Supplement)
COMMERCE, MODERN: THE RECENT REVOLUTION IN COMMERCE.
SUMERIAN.
See SEMITES: PRIMITIVE BABYLONIA (page 2888).
SUMNER, Senator Charles, The assault of Preston Brooks on.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1856 (page 3398).
SUMTER, Thomas, in the War of the American Revolution.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1780 (page 3273).
----------SWEDEN: Start--------
SWEDEN: A. D. 1810.
The election of Bernadotte.
"It was necessary to look out for a new successor to the
throne. Adlersparre desired the brother of the deceased crown
prince, Frederic Christian, duke of Augustenborg, thinking by
this means to secure the fruits of the revolution and to keep
in view the union between Sweden and Norway. He succeeded in
persuading Charles XII. to give his voice for this prince, and
the council of State even sustained this idea, with the
exception of Adlercreutz who proposed the emperor Alexander's
brother-in-law, the Duke of Oldenburg. A third candidate was
King Frederic VI. of Denmark, and even Napoleon himself worked
in secret for him as he had by this time realized the
advantage of the formation of a strong Northern power as a
balance against Russia. But the king of Denmark as a candidate
was far from popular among the Swedes, and still less prospect
was there of the election of prince Gustaf. The Swedish
government which had made its determination sent a writing to
Napoleon in order to gain his influence in favor of the
prince. The message was sent in duplicate by different roads.
The choice of the Swedish government did not meet his
approval; still he declared that he would not oppose it. One
of the couriers who brought the above writing to Paris, was
lieutenant in Upland's regiment, baron Carl Otto Mörner. This
young officer was no friend of the candidacy of the Duke of
Augustenborg; like many other Swedes, especially in the army,
he desired as a successor to the throne a warrior, above all a
French marshal, persuaded that in that way Sweden would most
readily gain the alliance with France, and revenge upon
Russia. Among the French marshals Bernadotte, prince of Ponte
Corvo, was particularly known in Sweden through his contact
with them during the last wars and to him their thoughts had
turned in the first place. Young, bold, and forward, at the
same time full of the wish to be useful to his country, Mörner
had contrived to obtain the office of courier in order to find
a successor to the crown at his own risk. He calls on a
certain Captain La Pie whose acquaintance he had made on a
former visit to Paris, and explains his plans, and La Pie
strengthens him in his ideas, that Bernadotte would be
preferable before Macdonald, Eugene Beauharnais, and others
whom Mörner had in his mind. Through La Pie and the Swedish
general consul Signeul, Mörner obtains the necessary
information which enables him to meet the Marshal. He calls on
Bernadotte and finds him, however careful in his utterance
regarding the matter, not opposed to the project; nay
Bernadotte hastens immediately after the conference with
Mörner to the emperor to impart it to him. Napoleon, who had
officially been informed of the thoughts of the Swedish
government, looked on the whole matter as a ghost of the
brain, but declared that he would not meddle with it. At
Mörner's last visit (27 June 1810) Bernadotte gave him leave
to communicate that the emperor had nothing against
Bernadotte's election and that he himself was ready to accept
if the choice fell on him. It is easy to imagine the
astonishment of Engström, the minister of state, when he heard
Mörner's description of his bold attempt in Paris. 'What do
you bring from Paris?' Engström asked, when Mörner came into
the foreign Minister's cabinet in Stockholm. 'That I have
induced the prince of Ponte Corvo to accept the Swedish
crown.' 'How could you speak to him about it without being
commissioned?' 'Our only safety lies in the prince of Ponte
Corvo.' 'Are you sure that he will receive it so that we are
not doubly committed?' 'Certainly. I have a letter here.'
'From him to you?' 'No, from me to him.' 'Boy.' exclaimed
Mörner's relation, his excellency Von Essen, at the end of the
conference, 'You ought to sit where neither sun nor moon will
shine on you.' But Mörner's project won more and more favor in
the country though he himself was arrested in Orebro, whereby
the government desired to prevent his presence as a member of
the house of knights at the special diet called at Örebro for
election. Through messengers and a pamphlet on the succession
in Sweden he though absent worked for his plan even among the
estates which met the 23d July 1810."
_Sveriges Historia, 1805-1875
(translated from the Swedish by L. G. Sellstedt),
pages 29-31._
See, also,
SCANDINAVIAN STATES: A. D. 1810 (page 2831).
SWEDEN: Libraries.
See LIBRARIES, MODERN (page 2013).
----------SWEDEN: End--------
{3806}
SWEDENBORG, and the New Church.
"Swedenborg was born in 1688, and died in 1772. The son of a
Lutheran Bishop of Sweden, a student at several universities,
and an extensive traveler throughout all the principal
countries of Europe, he had exceptional opportunities for
testing the essential quality of contemporaneous Christianity.
… Until he was more than fifty years of age, Swedenborg had
written nothing on religious subjects, and apparently given
them no special attention. He was principally known, in his
own country, as Assessor Extraordinary of the Board of Mines,
and an influential member of the Swedish Diet; and not only
there, but throughout Europe, as a writer on many branches of
science and philosophy. In this field he acquired great
distinction; and the number and variety of topics which he
treated was remarkable. Geometry and algebra, metallurgy and
magnetism, anatomy, physiology, and the relation of the soul
to the body were among the subjects which received his
attention. There is to be noticed in the general order of his
publications a certain gradual, but steady, progression from
lower to higher themes,—from a contemplation of the mere
external phenomena of nature to a study of their deep and
hidden causes. He was always full of devout spiritual
aspirations. In all his scientific researches he steadfastly
looked through nature up to nature's God. … Maintaining this
inflexible belief in God and revelation, and in the essential
unity of truth, Swedenborg, in his upward course, at last
reached the boundary line between matter and spirit. Then it
was that he entered on those remarkable experiences by which,
as he affirms, the secrets of the other world were revealed to
him. He declares that the eyes of his spirit were opened, and
that he had, from that time forward, conscious daily
intercourse with spirits and angels. His general teaching on
this subject is that the spiritual world is an inner sphere of
being,—not material, and in no wise discernible to natural
senses, yet none the less real and substantial,—and that it is
the ever-present medium of life to man and nature."
_J. Reed,
Why am I a New Churchman?
(North American Review, January, 1887)._
"The doctrine of Correspondence is the central idea of
Swedenborg's system. Everything visible has belonging to it an
appropriate spiritual reality. The history of man is an acted
parable; the universe, a temple covered with hieroglyphics.
Behmen, from the light which flashes on certain exalted
moments, imagines that he receives the key to these hidden
significances,—that he can interpret the 'Signatura Rerum.'
But he does not see spirits, or talk with angels. According to
him, such communications would be less reliable than the
intuition he enjoyed. Swedenborg takes opposite ground. 'What
I relate,' he would say, 'comes from no such mere inward
persuasion. I recount the things I have seen. I do not labour
to recall and to express the manifestation made me in some
moment of ecstatic exaltation. I write you down a plain
statement of journeys and conversations in the spiritual
world, which have made the greater part of my daily history
for many years together. I take my stand upon experience. I
have proceeded by observation and induction as strict as that
of any man of science among you. Only it has been given me to
enjoy an experience reaching into two worlds—that of spirit,
as well as that of matter.' … According to Swedenborg, all the
mythology and the symbolisms of ancient times were so many
refracted or fragmentary correspondences—relics of that better
day when every outward object suggested to man's mind its
appropriate divine truth. Such desultory and uncertain links
between the seen and the unseen are so many imperfect attempts
toward that harmony of the two worlds which he believed
himself commissioned to reveal. The happy thoughts of the
artist, the imaginative analogies of the poet, are exchanged
with Swedenborg for an elaborate system. All the terms and
objects in the natural and spiritual worlds are catalogued in
pairs."
_R. A. Vaughan,
Hours with the Mystics,
book 12, chapter 1, (volume 2)._
"It is more than a century since the foundation of this church
[the New-Church] was laid, by the publication of the
theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. For more than half
of that time, individuals and societies have been active in
translating them, and in publishing them widely. There have
been many preachers of these doctrines, and not a few writers
of books and periodicals. The sale of Swedenborg's writings,
and of books intended to present the doctrines of the church,
has been constant and large. How happens it, under these
circumstances, that the growth of this church has been and is
so slow, if its doctrines are all that we who hold them
suppose them to be? There are many answers to this question.
One among them is, that its growth has been greater than is
apparent. It is not a sect. Its faith does not consist of a
few specific tenets, easily stated and easily received. It is
a new way of thinking about God and man, this life and
another, and every topic, connected with these. And this new
way of thinking has made and is making what may well be called
great progress. It may be discerned everywhere, in the
science, literature, philosophy, and theology of the times;
not prevalent in any of them, but existing, and cognizable by
all who are able to appreciate these new truths with their
bearings and results. … Let it not be supposed that by the
New-Church is meant the organized societies calling themselves
by that name. In one sense, that is their name. Swedenborg
says there are three essentials of this Church: a belief in
the Divinity of the Lord, and in the sanctity of the
Scriptures, and a life of charity, which is a life governed by
a love of the neighbor. Where these are, there is the Church.
Whoever holds these essentials in faith and life is a member
of the New-Church, whatever may be his theological name or
place. Only in the degree in which he so holds these
essentials is anyone a member of that church. Those who,
holding or desiring to hold these essentials in faith and
life, unite and organize that they may be assisted and may
assist each other in so holding them, constitute the visible
or professed New-Church. But very false would they be to its
doctrines, if they supposed themselves to be exclusively
members of that Church, or if they founded their membership
upon their profession or external organization. For there is
no other true foundation for this membership than every man's
own internal reception of the essentials of the Church, and
his leading the life which its truths require."
_T. Parsons,
Outlines of the Religion and Philosophy of Swedenborg,
chapter 14, section 5._
ALSO IN:
_E. Swedenborg,
The four leading Doctrines of the New Church._
_G. F. E. Le Boys Des Guays,
Letters to a Man of the World._
_B. F. Barrett,
Lectures on the New Dispensation._
SWITZERLAND, Libraries of.
See LIBRARIES, MODERN (page 2013).
{3807}
T.
TAORMINA.
TAUROMENION.
About 392 B. C. Dionysios, the tyrant of Syracuse, expelled
the Sikels, or natives of Sicily, from one of their towns,
Tauromenion (modern Taormina) on the height of Tauros,
overlooking the site of the old Greek city of Naxos, which
Dionysios had destroyed ten years before. He peopled the town
anew with some of his mercenaries; but after his death the
scattered Naxians were brought together in it, and made it
their home. "The city thus strengthened by new colonists grew
and prospered, and became specially remarkable for the wealth
of its citizens. Greek Tauromenion ran through the usual
course of a Sikeliot city in later times. Settled again by a
Roman colony, it lived on till the days of its greatest glory,
as the last of Sikeliot cities to hold out for Christ and
Cæsar against the assaults of the besieging Saracens. But even
that greater memory does not shut out the thoughts of the
stirring early days of the city. … The rocks and the heights
are there still, and not the rocks and the heights only. There
is the wall with the work of the Sikel and the Greek side by
side. There is the temple of the Greek changed into the church
of the Christian apostle of Sicily. There is the theatre, the
work of the Greek enlarged and modified by the Roman; the
theatre which, unlike those of Syracuse and Argos, still keeps
so large a part of its scena, 'and where we hardly mourn the
loss of the rest as we look out on the hills and the sea
between its fragments. … The matchless site would be something
even without a story, but at Taormina the story is for ever
written on the site. On the long ridge of the town, on its
walls and gates, on the rocks on which it stands, on the
prouder rocks which rise above it, we may truly say that, of
all who have assailed or defended the mountain-city, alongside
of the names of Ibrahim and of Roger, the first names in the
long story of Tauromenion dwell there also."
_E. A. Freeman,
History of Sicily,
chapter 11, section 2 (volume 4)._
ALSO IN:
_The Century,
September 1893._
TELEGRAPH, Invention of the Electrical.
See ELECTRICAL DISCOVERY AND INVENTION (pages 771-772).
_T. O'Conor Sloane,
The Standard Electrical Dictionary
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26535_
THIRTY YEARS WAR, The effects of.
See (in this Supplement)
GERMANY: A. D. 1648; also page 1484.
"TIPPECANOE AND TYLER TOO."
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1840 (page 3377).
----------TOLERATION, Religious: Start--------
TOLERATION, Religious: A. D. 1631-1661.
Denied in Massachusetts.
See MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1631-1636, to 1656-1661
(pages 2103 to 2109).
TOLERATION, Religious: A. D. 1636.
Established by Roger Williams in Rhode Island.
See RHODE ISLAND: A. D. 1638-1647 (page 2639).
TOLERATION, Religious: A. D. 1649.
Enacted in Maryland.
See MARYLAND: A. D. 1649 (page 2094).
TOLERATION, Religious: A. D. 1689.
Partial enactment in England.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1689 (page 909).
TOLERATION, Religious: A. D. 1778.
Repeal of Catholic penal laws in England.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1778-1780 (page 936).
TOLERATION, Religious: A. D. 1827-1829.
Removal of disabilities from Dissenters and Emancipation
of Catholics in England and Ireland.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1827-1828 (page 952);
and IRELAND: A. D. 1811-1829 (page 1784).
TOLERATION, Religious: A. D. 1869.
Disestablishment of the Irish Church.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1868-1870 (page 969).
TOLERATION, Religious: A. D. 1871.
Abolition of religious tests in English Universities.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1871 (page 970).
----------TOLERATION, Religious: End--------
TORQUEMADA.
See INQUISITION (page 1751).
TRADE.
See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE.
TRADE-MARKS, Protection of.
See LAW, EQUITY: A. D. 1875 (page 1994).
TRADES UNIONS.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS:
A. D: 1720-1800 (page 2933), and after.
TSIAM NATION, The.
See TONKIN (page 3115).
TULANE UNIVERSITY, or University of Louisiana.
"This institution had its origin in certain land grants made
by the United States 'for the use of a seminary of learning.'
By an act of the General Government passed in 1806 one
township of land was granted for the above named purpose, and
in 1811 another township was added to this and both were
confirmed by an act (of 1824) which also authorized their
location. The first movement toward the utilization of these
grants was made in 1845, when the following clause was adopted
in the amended Constitution: 'A university shall be
established in the city of New Orleans. It shall be composed
of four faculties, to wit: one of law, one of medicine, one of
natural sciences, and one of letters.' … The university was
chartered in 1847. … For many years the university received
but meagre support from the State. … By the Constitution of
1879 the institution was endowed permanently by authorizing
the sum of not more than $10,000 payable annually [for five
years] to the university. At the expiration of this period the
university was united with the Tulane University (in 1884).
Since that time no appropriations have been made by the
Legislature."
_F. W. Blackmar,
History of Federal and State Aid to Higher Education
in the United States
(Bureau of Education, Circular of Information,
1890. number 1), pages 272-273._
TYPHOID FEVER, Appearance of.
See PLAGUE; 18TH CENTURY (page 2543).
U.
"UNCLE TOM'S CABIN," The effect of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1852 (page 3392).
-----------UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Start--------
{3808}
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Historical Geography.
The historical geography of the United States possesses, in a
unique degree, a two-fold character. These divisions of the
subject are best described by the words exterior and interior.
While such a classification is, of course, inevitable in the
history of every nation, the fact remains that, with the
United States, these divisions stand in a different relation
to each other from any that appear usually in the historical
geography of other countries. The difference is chiefly one of
relative importance. The internal historical geography of the
Old World nations, barring the feudal period, involves so
largely questions concerning mere provincial administration
that it has no claim, from a geographical standpoint, to an
importance equal to the shifting of the great national
frontiers. Examples of this are found in the Roman and
Byzantine empires, and in the majority of the modern states.
In our own case however the order of interest is reversed. Our
internal geography has attracted the chief attention of the
student, not so much from the greater difficulty of the
subject as from its vast importance in the early history of
our government. It is not, indeed, too much to say that the
organization of the present government under the constitution
is an event of scarcely greater importance than the
determination of the final policy of the states and the nation
concerning the unoccupied western lands. It is this fact alone
which gives the higher degree of relative importance to our
internal historical geography. The general facts concerning
our external geography are quickly told. The outlines of the
entire subject are contained in the enumeration of the eight
cessions, as follows:
the original territory ceded by Great Britain at the
peace of Paris in 1783 (see page 3287);
the Louisiana purchase from France in 1803
(pages 2049, and 3327);
the acquisition of Florida from Spain by the treaty of 1819
(page 1154);
the admission of Texas in 1845 (page 3102);
the undisputed acquisition of the Oregon country by treaty
with Great Britain in 1846 (page 2402);
the first Mexican cession by the peace of Guadalupe
Hidalgo in 1848 (page 2175);
the second Mexican cession, known as the Gadsden purchase, in
1853 (page 133);
and the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867 (page 30).
The enumeration of these eight acquisitions, all of which,
save the final one are shown on the first United States map,
affords a complete picture of the successive stages of our
territorial growth. The occasion of these different
annexations, as well as their exact territorial extent, would
involve us in a series of details which are beyond the purpose
of the present article. It should be observed, however, that
in several cases the map shows the territories in question as
finally determined by treaty or survey, rather than their
actual extent as understood at the time the annexations were
made. This is one of the inevitable disadvantages in the
purely cartographic treatment of such a subject. The
historical map is compelled from its nature to give a tangible
appearance to matters which are often very intangible in fact.
In the case, for example, of what we may call the first United
States, the country as recognized by the treaty of Paris, the
western line of the Mississippi was the only boundary which
was not the subject of future discussion. The southern
frontier as arranged at Paris was affirmed by treaty with
Spain in 1795. On the other side, however, Great Britain
retained a number of posts in the Old Northwest up to the Jay
treaty of 1794; the boundary between the upper Mississippi and
the Lake of the Woods, imperfectly described in the Paris
treaty, was not settled until 1818; the line from the
intersection of the St. Lawrence to the Sault Ste. Marie was
established in 1822 by joint commission under the treaty of
Ghent; while the Maine frontier question, the most difficult
and obstinate of all our boundary disputes, was not finally
settled until the year 1842. The Louisiana purchase of 1803
brought in fresh questions concerning our territorial limits.
On three sides, the North, West and Southwest the frontiers of
this vast area were undefined. On the northern side the
boundary was settled with Great Britain by the treaty of 1818
which carried the line along the forty-ninth parallel to the
Rocky Mountains, while the treaty of 1819 with Spain, which
ceded Florida to the United States, also defined the limits of
Louisiana on the South-West. This line of 1819 has an
additional importance, in that it drew the frontier between
Spain and the United States along the forty-second parallel to
the Pacific coast. The importance of this lay in the fact that
it gave us a clear title on the Spanish side to the so-called
Oregon country. The exact connection, real or supposed,
between this territory and the Louisiana country was for many
years one of the disputed points in American historical
geography. The belief in this connection, at one time general,
undoubtedly had its origin in the undefined character of
Louisiana at the time of the purchase, and the fact that our
government turned this indefiniteness to its own purpose in
advancing its Oregon claims. It is now clear, however, from
the evidence of the old maps, the official statement of the
limits of the region, of which there is but one in existence
(the Crozat grant of 1712) and lastly the understanding of
France herself at the time of the cession, that Louisiana did
not include in its limits any part of the Pacific watershed. A
map published in a subsequent work of the French
plenipotentiary placed the western boundary of Louisiana at
the one hundred and tenth meridian. A line drawn in this
arbitrary fashion and unsanctioned by the terms of the treaty
itself may be regarded merely as one of convenience. If this
view is correct it is certainly more convenient and, at the
same time, more logical, to consider the western boundary as
extending to the Rocky Mountain watershed,—a line which would
not deviate to any radical extent from the meridian in
question. The historical connection however between the
Louisiana purchase and our subsequent acquisition of the
Oregon country is perfectly clear. The exploration of the
latter followed almost immediately but its final annexation
was delayed by the opposing claim of Great Britain. In this
controversy the claim of the United States was merely relative
as opposed to that of England. The just claimant was
undoubtedly the king of Spain, whose rights, based on
discovery, antedated those of either of the contesting powers.
The Spanish title, however, having, as we have seen, been
relinquished by the treaty of 1819, the issue between Great
Britain and the United States became clearly defined. A joint
occupation of the disputed territory by the two powers ensued
from 1818 to 1846. In the latter year was negotiated the
compromise treaty, which continued our northern line of 1818
on the forty-ninth parallel from the Rocky Mountains to the
Pacific coast. From the treaty of 1846 we may date the
completion of our northern frontier, although the ownership of
certain islands between Vancouver and the mainland was not
settled until 1872.
{3809}
A few more years witnessed the completion of our southern
frontier, as well. In 1845 Texas was admitted to the Union.
The western boundary of the Rio Grande, claimed by the new
state under her constitution of 1836, led directly to the war
with Mexico, and by that war to the great additional cession
at Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. The southern boundary was
finally completed by the Gadsden purchase of 1853. Coming now
to the study of our internal geography, we find ourselves in
contact with what is practically a distinct subject. Here we
encounter a whole series of those weighty questions, the
solution of which figures so prominently in the early history
of the American government. We have already noted that the
first western boundary of the United States was placed by the
treaty of 1783 at the Mississippi river. But during the Paris
negotiations our ally France and quasi ally Spain both opposed
this westward extension of our territory and it was long an
open question, even after our independence itself was assured,
whether we should not be compelled to accept a western
boundary on the Appalachian range. Years before the final
settlement of the question at Paris, the expectancy of the
Mississippi boundary had given rise to questions which caused
an undercurrent of dissension between the states during the
entire period of the Revolutionary War. In their relation to
the western land question, the thirteen original states divide
themselves into two classes, the claimant and non-claimant
states. In the first class were Massachusetts, Connecticut,
New York, Virginia, the two Carolinas and Georgia; in the
second, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Delaware and Maryland. The claims of the seven first named
states covered every inch of our prospective western domain
and in the country north of the Ohio, known as the Old
Northwest there were opposing claims of two and in some
districts of even three states to the same territory. The
extent of these claims is indicated on the map of the
Federated states in 1783. They rested for the most part upon
the royal grants and charters to the colonies, and, in the
case of New York, upon the treaties with the Iroquois. Their
relative merits where conflicting, or their collective merit
as a whole, are questions which we will not attempt to
discuss. It is sufficient to observe that if insisted upon in
their entirety they would have presented an insuperable
obstacle to the formation of an American federate government.
In the proceedings of the Continental Congress, as well as in
the state legislative bodies, touching this western domain, we
may find the germs of nearly all the political and
constitutional questions which have made the greater part of
our subsequent history. The relative rank and power of the
states, the obligation of one state towards another, the
individual rights of states as opposed to the collective
rights of the Union; all of these questions entered into the
great problem which the nation was now called upon to solve.
The objections to the western claims by the non-claimant
states, though urged with varying degrees of vehemence and
accompanied with many widely differing alternatives, may be
fairly resolved into the two following contentions: that it
was unjust that so vast a domain, whose acquisition at the
peace could only be insured through the joint labor of all the
states, should thereafter become the property of a certain
favored few, and also that the claims if allowed would in the
end give the claimant states a preponderating power which
would be extremely prejudicial if not dangerous to the others.
Of all the non-claimant states, Maryland was the most
determined in her opposition, and it is to her that Professor
Herbert B. Adams in his monograph on "Maryland's Influence
upon Land Cessions to the United States," assigns the chief
credit for the final creation of the first national domain
(see page 3280). The claim though a just one cannot be
asserted without an important qualification. The proposition
advanced by Maryland, that a national title to the western
lands be asserted by a clause in the Articles of
Confederation, was manifestly one to which the claimant states
would never give their consent. It was due, however, to the
action of Maryland,—which refused for more than three years,
from November 1777 to March 1781, to ratify the articles,—
that the question was kept open until the claimant states, in
order to complete the circle of the Union, found it necessary
to adopt the policy of voluntary cessions, suggested by
Congress. The history in detail of the several state cessions
involves many questions concerning the distribution and sale
of public lands which need not concern us. Some of the offers
of cession, at first conditional and partial, were made
absolute and final, as, one by one, the besetting difficulties
were cleared away. The dates of the final cessions by the
seven claimant states in order were as follows:
New York 1781,
Virginia 1783,
Massachusetts 1785,
Connecticut 1786,
South Carolina 1787,
North Carolina 1790,
Georgia 1802.
Certain land reservations north of the Ohio, as shown on the
map of the United States in 1790, were made by both Virginia
and Connecticut; but Virginia renounced jurisdiction over
these lands in the cession, and Connecticut did likewise in
1800, the two states reserving merely the property rights. The
territory south of the Ohio was not included in the Virginia
cession of 1783 but the district of Kentucky was made the
subject of a second cession in 1789. The completion of this
list closed the interesting chapter in our history covered by
the state cessions and gave to the United States the
sovereignty over its first great western public domain. Before
pursuing this subject further, let us see in what relation the
cessions stand to the present form of the thirteen original
states. Some boundary contentions still remained, but these
are not of historic importance. The claim of Massachusetts in
what is now "Western New York was settled by joint commission
in 1786, while Pennsylvania purchased a tract of land on lake
Erie from the general government in 1792. At the present day
sixteen states stand upon the territory which remained to the
original thirteen, the three additional ones each springing
from the partition of one of the older states. In 1790 New
York assented to the independence of Vermont, which was
admitted to the Union in the following year; in 1820 Maine was
separated from Massachusetts and admitted; and finally, in
1862, West Virginia was set off from Virginia and became a
state in 1863. We will now resume the subject of the
disposition of the western lands.
{3810}
We have already noted the termination of that stage of their
history which involves the territorial claims of individual
states. The second stage concerns itself with the evolution of
what may be called the American system of territorial
government. The first, indeed, had not reached its completion
before the second began to receive the greater measure of
public attention. The western land cessions to the government
were made with the general understanding, tacit in most cases,
but in that of Virginia explicitly stated, that the ceded
territory should eventually be formed into additional states.
The first national domain may therefore be regarded as a
district held in trust by the government for a special
purpose. This view, which was not only required by the terms
of the Virginia cession, but also represented the general
sentiment of the time, has formed the basis of our entire
subsequent policy in dealing with the national domain,—a
policy which has remained unaltered even in the case of the
immense territories that afterwards came into the direct
possession of the government by treaty with foreign powers.
The one question remaining was the erection of the legislative
machinery which should provide for the government of the
territories during their preparation for statehood. The
problem was finally solved by the Ordinance of 1787 for the
government of the Northwest territory. This famous ordinance,
the first of the long series of acts concerning territorial
government, was the last noteworthy piece of legislation under
the old Articles of Confederation, and the year which
witnessed both the successful inauguration of our territorial
policy and the adoption of the new constitution is the most
memorable in the entire history of American institutions. The
history of the enactment of the Ordinance, for many years
veiled in obscurity, has been fully elucidated by the late W.
F. Poole (monograph on "The Ordinance of 1787"); the full text
is printed in its proper place in this work (page 2380). Many
of its provisions, suited only for the special occasion of
their use, are now antiquated and obsolete, and neither their
letter nor spirit find a place in subsequent territorial
legislation. But the fact remains that this act was in a
certain sense the great proto-type; it was the first to
organize and set in motion the machinery of our territorial
policy. A policy that has provided without friction for the
tremendous national expansion which has ensued during the
present century may justly be regarded as one of the greatest
achievements in the political history of the American
government. In our own day, when the admission of a new state
or the erection of a new territory is regarded as hardly more
than a routine event in the working of our political system,
it is easy for us to underestimate the vital importance of the
first steps which were taken concerning the regulation of the
national domain. It was because those steps were to determine
in a measure our entire future policy, that the history of the
old Continental Congress should form an absorbing theme for
every student of our internal geography. It is unnecessary to
follow this subject in detail through its later history, which
is simply a monotonous record of legislative enactments for
the organization of new territories or the admission of new
states. The principle had been fully established; the history
of the next century, followed step by step, can show very
little beyond its consistent application. Political
considerations have, it is true, often delayed or prematurely
hastened the admission of new states, but there has been one
case only where we have been called upon again to face a
question similar to that which was solved by the old congress.
The circumstances of the admission of the republic of Texas
bear no analogy to that of any other state received into the
Union since the formation of the government. Here was, not a
state created by mere legislative enactment, but an
independent foreign sovereignty, admitted to the Union at its
own solicitation, bringing with it as a dower a territory
immeasurably greater than the national policy had ever before
assigned to a single state. Once more therefore we have the
old question of a troublesome state sovereignty in immense
unoccupied lands. The comparative absence of friction in the
solution of this new problem proves again the efficiency of
the old policy in dealing with all such questions. No cession
of territory was wrung from Texas or in this case even
solicited. The state was admitted to the Union in 1845
claiming a continuous western boundary on the Rio Grande. In
1850, after the peace of Guadalupe Hidalgo had determined our
boundary on the Mexican side, Texas sold to the General
Government, for the sum of $10,000,000, all of her territorial
claims north and west of her present boundaries. With some
modifications the history of the original cessions repeats
itself in this transaction, which was the last occasion of a
great transfer of territory to the Union by one of its
members. There are many other features in our internal
geography, among the most notable the institution of slavery,
which would be worthy of attention were the space to permit.
In view of this limitation, however, we cannot pursue the
subject beyond this general review of its main outlines. There
is a dearth of works on American historical geography
subsequent to the Declaration of Independence. It is a
subject, indeed, which cannot be very satisfactorily studied
simply through the literature dealing exclusively with the
topic. Of the atlases Professor Albert Bushnell Hart's. "Epoch
Maps Illustrating American History" is the best; the most
serviceable of the text works is Henry Gannett's pamphlet on
"Boundaries of the United States and of the several States and
Territories, with a Historical Sketch of the Territorial
Changes," published as bulletin Number 13 of the United States
Geological Survey. Townsend MacCoun's "Historical Geography of
the United States" and the later chapters of Walter B.
Scaife's "America, its Geographical History" are also useful.
An excellent account of our geographical history during the
early years of the Government, covering the period of the
state cessions, may be found in B. A. Hinsdale's Old
Northwest, with a View of the Thirteen Colonies as constituted
by the, Royal Charters." For a more careful study there is of
course no substitute for the texts of the grants, charters,
treaties and legislative acts of Congress, and the more
important of these are freely quoted from in Mr. Gannett's
work.
Alan C. Reiley.
UNITED STATES: A. D. 1863.
Adoption and Organization of the National Bank System
of the United States.
See MONEY AND BANKING: A. D. 1861-1878 (page 2219).
{3811}
UTOPIAS.
See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS (page 2932).
UZBEGS.
A Turkish branch of the Tatars of Turkestan.
V.
VOLAPUK.
A proposed universal language, invented in 1879 by a
Swabian pastor, named Schleyer.
VOLTA, The electrical discoveries of.
See ELECTRICAL DISCOVERY AND INVENTION:
A. D. 1786-1800 (page 771).
W.
WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY.
See EDUCATION (page 743).
WHEATSTONE, Prof., Inventions of.
See ELECTRICAL DISCOVERY (page 773).
_T. O'Conor Sloane,
The Standard Electrical Dictionary
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26535_
{3812}
CHRONOLOGY OF IMPORTANT AND INDICATIVE EVENTS.
TO THE CHRISTIAN ERA. [BEFORE]
B. C. 4777.
Beginning of the Egyptian dynasties as given by Manetho,
according to the latest computations. [Uncertain date]
2250.
Beginning of the reign of Hammurabi, or Chammurabi, the
first important king of Babylonia. [Uncertain date]
1500.
Independence of Assyria as a kingdom separate from
Babylonia, and rise of Nineveh. [Uncertain date]
1330.
Beginning of the reign in Egypt of Ramses II.,
the Sesostris of the Greeks. [Uncertain date]
1260.
Death of Ramses II., king of Egypt, and accession of
Merneptah or Merenptah, supposed by many writers to be
the Pharaoh of the Oppression. [Uncertain date]
1200.
Exodus of the Children of Israel from Egypt.
[Uncertain date]
1120.
Beginning of the reign of Tiglathpileser I.,
king of Assyria. [Uncertain date]
1000.
Beginning of the reign of King David. [Uncertain date]
960.
Death of David and beginning of the reign of Solomon.
[Uncertain date]
776.
Beginning of the Olympiads.
753.
The founding of Rome. [Uncertain date]
745.
First war between Sparta and Messenia.
734.
Founding of Syracuse by Greeks from Corinth.
725.
End of first Messenian War.
722.
Overthrow of the kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians.
Captivity of the Ten Tribes.
685.
The second war between Messenia and Sparta.
668.
End of the second Messenian war.
640.
Birth of Thales. [Uncertain date]
624.
Supposed date of the legislation of Draco, at Athens.
[Uncertain date]
612.
Conspiracy of Cylon at Athens.
608.
Accession of Nebuchadnezzar in Babylonia.
606.
Destruction of Nineveh and overthrow of the Assyrian
empire by the Medes. [Uncertain date]
601.
First invasion of Palestine by Nebuchadnezzar.
598.
Invasion of Palestine by Nebuchadnezzar.
594.
The Constitution of Solon adopted at Athens.
586.
Capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar.
End of the kingdom of Judah and exile of the remnant
of the people to Babylon.
560.
Tyranny of Pisistratus established at Athens.
551.
Birth of Confucius [Uncertain date] (d. 478).
549.
Overthrow of the Median monarchy by Cyrus,
and founding of the Persian.
546.
Overthrow of Crœsus and the kingdom of Lydia by Cyrus,
king of Persia.
538.
Conquest of Babylon by Cyrus.
529.
Death of Cyrus and accession of Cambyses
to the throne of Persia.
525.
Conquest of Egypt by Cambyses, king of Persia.
Birth of Æschylus (d. 456).
521.
Accession of Darius I., king of Persia.
520.
Birth of Pindar. [Uncertain date]
516.
Invasion of Scythia by Darius, king of Persia.
[Uncertain date]
514.
Birth of Themistocles [Uncertain date]
(d. 449 [Uncertain date]).
510.
Expulsion of the Pisistratids from Athens.
509.
Expulsion of the Tarquins from Rome. [Uncertain date]
Founding of the Republic (Roman chronology).
508.
Political reorganization of Athens by Cleisthenes.
506.
Subjection of Macedonia to Persia.
500.
Rising of the Greek colonies in Ionia, against the Persians.
495.
Birth of Sophocles (d. 405 [Uncertain date]).
493.
League of the Romans and Latins.
492.
First secession of the Roman Plebs.
Creation of the Tribunes of the People.
490.
First Persian expedition against Greece.
Destruction of Naxos by the Persians.
Their overwhelming defeat at Marathon.
489.
Condemnation and death of Miltiades at Athens.
[Uncertain date]
486.
Accession of Xerxes to the throne of Persia.
484.
Birth of Herodotus. [Uncertain date]
480.
Second Persian invasion of Greece.
Thermopylæ.
Artemisium.
Salamis.
Retreat of Xerxes.
Carthaginian invasion of Sicily.
Battle of Himera.
Birth of Euripides. [Uncertain date]
479.
Battles of Platæa and Mycale and end of
the Persian invasion of Greece.
478.
Beginning of the tyranny of Hieron at Syracuse.
477.
Formation of the Confederacy of Delos, under Athens.
471.
Exile of Themistocles from Athens.
Birth of Thucydides (d. 401 [Uncertain date]).
{3813}
469.
Birth of Socrates [Uncertain date]
(d. 399 [Uncertain date]).
466.
Naval victory of the Greeks over the Persians at Eurymedon.
Outbreak of the Plague at Rome.
Revolt of Naxos from the Delian Confederacy.
Fall of the tyrants at Syracuse.
465.
Murder of Xerxes I., and accession of Artaxerxes I.
to the throne of Persia.
464.
Great earthquake at Sparta.
Rising of the Helots,
or beginning of the third Messenian War.
460.
Birth of Hippocrates.
458.
Commencement of the Long Walls of Athens.
457.
Beginning of war of Corinth, Sparta, and Ægina with Athens.
Battle of Tanagra.
456.
Athenian victory at Œnophyta.
455.
End of the third Messenian War.
450.
End of war against Athens.
Framing of the Twelve Tables of the Roman Law.
The Decemvirs at Rome.
Birth of Alcibiades [Uncertain date] (d. 404).
447.
Defeat of the Athenians by the Bœotians at Coronea.
445.
Conclusion of the Thirty Years Peace between Athens
and Sparta and their allies.
Ascendancy of Pericles at Athens.
Peace of Callias between Greece and Persia.
Birth of Xenophon. [Uncertain date]
444.
Creation of Consular Tribunes at Rome.
Exile of Thucydides from Athens.
435.
War between Corinth and Corcyra.
432.
Complaints against Athens.
Peloponnesian Congress at Sparta.
Revolt of Potidæa.
431.
Beginning of the Peloponnesian War.
Invasion of Attica.
430.
Second invasion of Attica.
The Plague at Athens.
429.
Death of Pericles at Athens.
Capture of Potidæa.
Birth of Plato (d. 347).
427.
Destruction of Platæa by the Peloponnesians.
Massacre at Corcyra.
425.
Surrender of Spartans to the Athenians at Sphacteria.
Accession of Xerxes II., king of Persia.
421.
Peace of Nicias between Athens and Sparta.
End of the first period of the Peloponnesian War.
415.
Expedition of the Athenians against Syracuse.
Mutilation of the Hermæ at Athens.
Accusation and flight of Alcibiades.
413.
Disaster to the Athenians before Syracuse.
Renewal of the Peloponnesian War.
411.
Oligarchical revolution at Athens.
The Four Hundred and their fall.
Recall of Alcibiades.
409.
Carthaginian invasion of Sicily.
406.
Victory of the Athenians over the Peloponnesians in
the battle of Arginusæ.
Execution of the generals at Athens.
405.
Defeat of the Athenians at Aigospotamoi.
Successful revolt of the Egyptians against the Persians,
and independence established.
404.
Fall of Athens.
End of the Peloponnesian War.
401.
Expedition of Cyrus the Younger.
400.
Retreat of the Ten Thousand under Xenophon.
Birth of Timoleon [Uncertain date] (d. 337).
391).
Condemnation and death of Socrates at Athens.
War of Sparta with Persia.
395.
League of Greek cities against Sparta.
The Corinthian War.
390.
Rome destroyed by the Gauls.
389.
Birth of Æschines [Uncertain date] (d. 314).
387.
Peace of Antalcidas between the Greeks and Persians.
385.
Birth of Demosthenes [Uncertain date] (d. 322).
384.
Birth of Aristotle (d. 322).
383.
Betrayal of Thebes to Sparta.
War of Syracuse with Carthage.
379.
Overthrow of the Olynthian League by Sparta.
Deliverance of Thebes.
371.
Defeat of Sparta at Leuctra.
Ascendancy of Thebes.
Arcadian Union.
370.
Peloponnesian expedition of Epaminondas.
361.
Adoption of the Licinian Laws at Rome.
362.
Victory and death of Epaminondas at Mantinea.
359.
Accession of Philip to the throne of Macedonia.
357.
Outbreak of the Ten Years Sacred War in Greece.
356.
Burning of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus.
Birth of Alexander the Great (d. 323).
353.
Final conquest of Egypt by the Persians.
352.
Interference of Philip of Macedonia in the Greek Sacred War.
First Philippic of Demosthenes.
343.
Deliverance of Syracuse by Timoleon.
First Samnite War in Italy.
341.
End of first Samnite War.
340.
Adoption of the Publilian Laws at Rome.
338.
League of Greek cities against Philip of Macedonia.
His victory at Chæronea.
His domination established.
Subjugation of the Latins by Rome.
336.
Assassination of Philip of Macedonia,
and accession of Alexander the Great.
335.
Revolt of Thebes.
Alexander's destruction of the city.
334.
Alexander's expedition against Persia.
His victory at the Granicus.
333.
Alexander's victory over the Persians at Issus.
332.
Alexander's sieges of Tyre and Gaza.
His conquest of Egypt and founding of Alexandria.
331.
Alexander's victory at Arbela.
Overthrow of the Persian empire.
{3814}
330.
Alexander's destruction of Persepolis.
326.
Alexander in India.
Defeat of Porus.
Beginning of second Samnite War in Italy.
323.
Death of Alexander the Great at Babylon.
Partition of his dominion among the generals.
Revolt in Greece.
The Lamian War.
322.
Subjugation of Athens by the Macedonians.
Death of Demosthenes.
321.
Beginning of the Wars of the Successors of Alexander.
Founding of the kingdom of the Ptolemies In Egypt.
Defeat of the Romans by the Samnites at the Caudine Forks.
317.
Execution of Phocion at Athens.
307.
Athens under the rule of Demetrius Poliorcetes.
306.
Royal titles assumed by Antigonus (as king of Asia),
Ptolemy, in Egypt, Seleucus Nicator, in Syria, Lysimachus,
in Thrace, and Cassander, in Macedonia.
305.
Siege of Rhodes by Demetrius Poliorcetes.
304.
End of the second Samnite War in Italy.
301.
Battle of Ipsus.
Overthrow and death of Antigonus.
298.
Beginning of third Samnite War.
295.
Roman defeat of the Gauls at Sentinum.
290.
End of the third Samnite War.
287.
Birth of Archimedes [Uncertain date] (d. 212).
286.
Adoption of the Hortensian Laws at Rome.
280.
Invasion of Italy by Pyrrhus, king of Epirus.
Invasion of Greece by the Gauls.
Rise of the Achaian League.
278.
Pyrrhus in Sicily, in war against Carthage.
275.
Defeat of Pyrrhus at Beneventum.
264.
Beginning of the first Punic War between Rome and Carthage.
263.
Athens captured by Antigonus Gonatus.
255.
Defeat and capture of Regulus in Africa.
250.
Founding of the kingdom of Parthia by Arsaces.
[Uncertain date]
247.
Birth of Hannibal [Uncertain date] (d. 183).
241.
End of the first Punic War.
Roman conquest of Sicily.
Revolt of the Carthaginian mercenaries.
234.
Birth of Cato the Elder (d. 149).
Birth of Scipio Africanus the Elder [Uncertain date](d. 183).
227.
War of Sparta with the Achaian League.
222.
Roman conquest of Cisalpine Gaul completed.
221.
Battle of Sellasia.
Sparta crushed by the king of Macedonia.
218.
Beginning of the second Punic War between Rome and Carthage.
Hannibal in Italy.
217.
Hannibal's defeat of the Romans at the Trasimene Lake.
Cœle-Syria and Palestine ceded to Egypt by
Antiochus the Great.
216.
Great defeat of the Romans by Hannibal at Cannæ.
214.
Beginning of war between Rome and Macedonia.
212.
Siege and reduction of Syracuse by the Romans.
211.
Hannibal at the Roman gates.
210.
Ægina taken by the Romans and the inhabitants
reduced to slavery.
207.
Defeat of Hasdrubal on the Metaurus.
206.
Birth of Polybius. [Uncertain date]
205.
End of first Macedonian War.
202.
Scipio's decisive victory at Zama, in Africa,
ending the second Punic War.
201.
Subjection of the Jews to the Seleucid monarchy.
200.
Roman declaration of war against the king of Macedonia.
197.
Decisive Roman victory over the Macedonians at Cynoscephalæ.
196.
Freedom of the Greeks proclaimed by the
Roman general Flamininus.
195.
Birth of Terence [Uncertain date] (d. 158 [Uncertain date]).
191.
Romans defeat Antiochus of Syria at Thermopylæ in Greece.
Final subjugation of Cisalpine Gaul by the Romans.
190.
Decisive defeat of Antiochus at Magnesia, by the Romans.
Beginning of Roman conquest in Asia.
189.
Fall of the Ætolian League.
185.
Birth of Scipio Africanus the Younger (d. 129).
171.
The third war between Rome and Macedonia.
168.
Roman victory at Pydna;
extinction of the Macedonian kingdom.
Birth of Tiberius Gracchus [Uncertain date] (d. 133).
167.
Revolt of the Jews under Judas Maccabæus,
against Antiochus, king of Syria.
165.
Judas Maccabæus in Jerusalem; the Temple purified.
161.
Defeat and death of Judas Maccabæus.
157.
Birth of Marius (d. 86).
149.
Opening of the third Punic War between Rome and Carthage.
146.
Roman destruction of Carthage and Corinth.
Greece absorbed in the dominion of Rome.
138.
Birth of Sulla (d. 78).
135.
Assassination of Simon Maccabæus;
accession of John Hyrcanus to the High Priesthood.
133.
Outbreak of the Servile War in Sicily.
Attempted reforms and death of Tiberius Gracchus at Rome.
Reduction of Numantia.
121.
Death of Caius Gracchus at Rome.
111.
Beginning of the Jugurthine War between Rome and Numidia.
{3815}
106.
Birth of Cicero (d. 43).
Birth of Pompey the Great (d. 48).
105.
Great defeat of the Romans by the Cimbri at Arausio.
Royal title taken by Aristobulus in Judea.
104.
Ending of the Jugurthine War by Marius.
102.
Destruction of the Teutones at Aquæ Sextiæ by the
Romans under Marius.
101.
Destruction of the Cimbri by Marius.
100.
Adoption of the Apuleian Law at Rome.
Birth of Julius Cæsar (d. 44).
95.
Birth of Lucretius (d. 55).
90.
Outbreak of the Social War, or struggle of the Italians.
88.
Beginning of the first civil war (Marius and Sulla) at Rome,
and of war with Mithridates, king of Pontus.
Unsuccessful siege of Rhodes by Mithridates.
87.
Campaigns of the Romans under Sulla against Mithridates in Greece.
Marian proscriptions at Rome.
Birth of Catullus [Uncertain date] (d. 47 [Uncertain date]).
86.
Sulla's capture of Athens and victory at Chæronea.
Death of Marius.
Birth of Sallust (d. 34 [Uncertain date]).
84.
End of the first Mithridatic War.
83.
Return of Sulla to Italy;
burning of the Temple of Jupiter;
civil war at Rome.
82.
Sulla master of Rome;
the Sullan reign of terror.
80.
War with Sertorius in Spain.
79.
Sulla's resignation of the dictatorship.
78.
Death of Sulla.
74.
Opening of third Mithridatic War between Rome and
the king of Pontus.
73.
Rising of the Roman gladiators under Spartacus.
72.
Assassination of Sertorius in Spain;
Pompey in command.
71.
Defeat of the gladiators and death of Spartacus.
70.
Consulship of Pompey and Crassus at Rome.
Cicero's impeachment of Verres.
61.
Pompey's campaign against the pirates of Cilicia.
66.
Command of Pompey in the East.
Overthrow of Mithridates.
65.
Birth of Horace (d. 8).
64.
Extinction of the Seleucid kingdom by Pompey.
63.
Consulship of Cicero at Rome;
Conspiracy of Catiline.
Pompey's siege and conquest of Jerusalem;
the Asmonean kingdom made tributary to Rome.
60.
The first Triumvirate at Rome.
59.
Consulship of Cæsar at Rome.
58.
Beginning of Cæsar's campaigns in Gaul.
Exile of Cicero from Rome.
57.
Recall of Cicero.
56.
Roman conquest of Aquitaine.
55.
Cæsar's first invasion of Britain.
53.
Roman war with Parthia;
defeat and death of Crassus at Carrhæ.
51.
Cæsar's conquest of Gaul completed.
50.
Beginning of the second Civil War at Rome;
Cæsar's passage of the Rubicon.
49.
Cæsar's campaign against the Pompeians in Spain;
his conquest of Massilia.
48.
Cæsar's victory at Pharsalia;
death of Pompey in Egypt;
Cæsar in Alexandria.
46.
Cæsar's victory at Thapsus;
death of Cato.
45.
Cæsar's victory in Spain.
44.
Assassination of Cæsar at Rome.
43.
The second Triumvirate at Rome;
murder of Cicero.
Birth of Ovid (d. A. D. 18).
42.
Battles of Philippi;
destruction of the Liberators.
40.
Herod proclaimed King of Judea.
37.
Conquest of Jerusalem by Herod.
31.
War of Antony and Octavius;
victory of Octavius at Actium, establishing his supremacy.
30.
Death of Antony and Cleopatra;
annexation of Egypt to the Roman dominion.
29.
Triumph of Octavius celebrated at Rome;
title of Imperator given to him;
closing of the Temple of Janus.
27.
Title of Augustus assumed by Octavius at Rome.
12.
Expedition of the Romans under Drusus into Germany.
9.
Last German campaign and death of Drusus.
8.
First campaign of Tiberius
(afterward Roman emperor) in Germany.
4.
Probable date of the birth of Jesus.
Death of Herod, king of Judea.
CHRISTIAN ERA.
First Century.
1.
Beginning of the Christian Era.
4.
Campaign of the Emperor Tiberius in Germany.
6.
Deposition of the Herodian ethnarch Archelaus;
Judea made a district of the Roman prefecture of Syria.
9.
Destruction of Varus and his Roman legions
by the Germans under Arminius.
14.
Death of Augustus;
Tiberius made Emperor of Rome.
Expedition of Germanicus into Germany.
23.
Birth of Pliny the Elder (d. 79).
26.
Pontius Pilate, Roman procurator in Judea.
{3816}
27.
Completion of the Pantheon at Rome.
29.
Crucifixion of Jesus. [Uncertain date]
Martyrdom of Saint Stephen.
35.
Conversion of Saint Paul. [Uncertain date]
37.
Death of the Emperor Tiberius.
Accession of Caius, called Caligula.
Birth of Agricola (d. 93).
Birth of Josephus (d. 95 [Uncertain date]).
40.
Birth of Martial. [Uncertain date]
41.
Murder of the Emperor Caligula;
elevation of Claudius to the throne.
Restoration of the Herodian kingdom of Judea
under Herod Agrippa.
43.
Roman invasion of Britain by Aulius Plautius
and the Emperor Claudius.
44.
Death of Herod Agrippa;
extinction of the kingdom of Judea.
50.
First missionary journey of Saint Paul. [Uncertain date]
51.
Capture of Caractacus, king of the Trinobantes, in Britain.
Adoption of Nero by Claudius.
52.
Second missionary journey of Saint Paul. [Uncertain date]
Birth of Trajan [Uncertain date] (d. 117).
53.
Felix, procurator of Judea.
54.
Murder of the Emperor Claudius and accession of Nero.
Saint Paul at Athens. [Uncertain date]
55.
Third missionary journey of Saint Paul. [Uncertain date]
Birth of Tacitus. [Uncertain date]
59.
Festus made governor of Judea.
Arrest of Saint Paul.
Murder of Agrippina.
61.
Destruction of the Druids of Britain;
revolt under Boadicea.
Saint Paul in Rome. [Uncertain date]
62.
Birth of Pliny the Younger. [Uncertain date]
64.
The burning of Rome;
first persecution of Christians.
65.
Conspiracy of Piso.
Execution of Lucan and Seneca by the command of Nero.
66.
Revolt of the Jews.
67.
Campaign of Vespasian against the insurgent Jews.
68.
Suicide of the Emperor Nero;
Galba proclaimed Emperor.
69.
Murder of Galba;
brief reigns of Otho and Vitellius;
Vespasian raised to the throne.
Revolt of the Batavians under Civilis.
70.
Siege and destruction of Jerusalem by Titus.
78.
Beginning of Agricola's campaign in Britain.
79.
Death of the Emperor Vespasian and accession of Titus.
Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Pestilence in the Roman Empire.
81.
Death of the Emperor Titus and accession of Domitian.
96.
Murder of the Emperor Domitian;
Nerva raised to the throne.
97.
Adoption of Trajan by Nerva.
98.
Death of the Emperor Nerva and accession of Trajan.
Second Century.
106.
Completed Roman conquest of Dacia by Trajan.
115.
War of Rome with Parthia.
Trajan's conquests in Asia.
Martyrdom of St. Ignatius.
Great earthquake at Antioch.
116.
Rising of the Jews in Cyrene, Cyprus and Egypt.
117.
Death of the Emperor Trajan and accession of Hadrian.
Relinquishment of Asiatic conquests.
118.
Campaign of Hadrian in Mœsia.
119.
Hadrian's visit to Britain.
121.
Birth of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (d. 180).
131.
Birth of Galen.
132.
Savage revolt of the Jews, savagely repressed;
name of Jerusalem changed to Ælia Capitolina;
complete dispersion of the Jews.
138.
Death of the Emperor Hadrian and
succession of Antoninus Pius.
161.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus made Emperor on
the death of Antoninus Pius.
Roman war with Parthia begun.
165.
End of war between Rome and Parthia.
Sack of Seleucia and Ctesiphon.
Acquisition of Mesopotamia by Rome.
166.
Great plague in the Roman Empire.
167.
Beginning of the wars of Rome with the Marcomanni and Quadi.
174.
Great victory of Marcus Aurelius over the Quadi.
180.
Death of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius;
and accession of his Bon Commodus.
186.
Birth of Origen [Uncertain date] (d. 253).
192.
Murder of the Emperor Commodus (December 31).
193.
Pertinax made Emperor, and murdered;
sale of the throne of the Roman Empire to Didius Julianus;
contest of rivals;
accession of Septimius Severus.
198.
Siege and capture of the Parthian city Ctesiphon
by the Romans.
Third Century.
208.
Campaign of Severus against the Caledonians of Britain.
211.
Death of the Emperor Severus;
accession of his sons, Caracalla and Geta.
212.
Murder of Geta by Caracalla.
213.
First collision of the Romans with the Alemanni.
215.
Massacre at Alexandria commanded by Caracalla.
217.
Murder of the Emperor Caracalla;
elevation of Macrinus.
218.
Overthrow of Macrinus by Elagabalus.
{3817}
222.
Murder of Elagabalus;
Alexander Severus made Emperor.
226.
The new monarchy of Persia;
fall of the Parthian power;
rise of the Sassanidæ.
235.
Murder of the Emperor Alexander Severus;
accession of Maximin.
237.
Fate of the two Gordians at Rome.
238.
Overthrow and death of the Emperor Maximin;
elevation of the third Gordian.
244.
Death of the Emperor Gordian;
accession of Philip.
249.
Death of the Emperor Philip;
accession of Decius.
250.
Decian persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire.
Gothic invasion of Mœsia.
251.
Victory of the Goths over the Romans;
death of Decius in battle;
accession of Gallus to the imperial throne.
253.
Murder of the Emperor Gallus;
accession of Æmilianus.
First appearance of the Franks in the Empire.
Murder of Æmilianus and accession of Valerian.
259.
Invasion of Gaul and Italy by the Alemanni.
260.
Roman war with Persia.
Defeat and capture of the Emperor Valerian;
accession of Gallienus.
267.
Accession of Zenobia, queen of Palmyra.
268.
Murder of the Emperor Gallienus;
accession of Claudius II.
Invasion of Thrace and Macedonia by the Goths
checked by Claudius.
270.
Death of the Emperor Claudius II.;
accession of Aurelian.
Dacia yielded to the Goths.
Italy invaded by the Alemanni.
273.
Defeat and capture of Zenobia, queen of Palmyra,
by the Emperor Aurelian.
275.
Murder of the Emperor Aurelian;
accession of Tacitus.
276.
Death of the Emperor Tacitus;
accession of Probus.
277.
Roman repulse of the Franks.
Invasion of Germany by Probus.
282.
Murder of the Emperor Probus;
accession of Carus.
283.
War of Rome with Persia.
Death of Carus;
accession of Numerian.
284.
Murder of the Emperor Numerian;
accession of Diocletian.
286.
Maximian made imperial colleague of Diocletian.
287.
Insurrection of the Bagauds in Gaul.
288.
Revolt of Carausius in Britain.
292.
Galerius and Constantius Chlorus created "Cæsars."
296.
Revolt of the African provinces of Rome;
siege of Alexandria.
Birth of Athanasius [Uncertain date] (d. 373).
297.
Roman war with Persia;
defeat of Galerius.
298.
Victorious peace of Rome with Persia;
extension of the Empire.
Fourth Century.
303.
Persecution of Christians by the Emperor Diocletian.
305.
Abdication of the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian;
Galerius and Constantius Chlorus become "Augusti";
Maximin and Severus made "Cæsars."
306.
Constantius Chlorus succeeded as "Cæsar"
by his son Constantine;
beginning of civil war between Constantine and his rivals;
defeat of the Salian Franks by Constantine.
312.
Conversion of the Emperor Constantine to Christianity.
313.
Constantine and Licinius share the Empire.
Toleration Edict of Milan.
316.
Birth of Saint Martin of Tours (d. 397).
318.
Opening of the Arian controversy.
325.
First general Council of the Church at Nicæa.
330.
Removal of the capital of the Empire from Rome to
Byzantium (Constantinople).
337.
Death of the Emperor Constantine;
partition of the Empire.
340.
Beginning of Civil War between the
three sons of Constantine.
348.
Defeat of the Romans by the Persians at Singara.
353.
Constantius sole Emperor.
Synod of Aries.
354.
Birth of Saint Augustine, bishop of Hippo (d. 430).
355.
Julian made Cæsar;
his defense of Gaul.
361.
Death of the Emperor Constantius and accession of Julian;
revival of Paganism.
363.
Expedition of Julian into Persia;
his retreat and death;
accession of Jovian;
Christianity again ascendant.
364.
Death of the Emperor Jovian;
accession of Valentinian I. in the West
and of Valens in the East.
365.
Great earthquake in the Roman world.
367.
First campaigns of Theodosius against the Picts and Scots.
368.
Repulse of the Alemanni, from Gaul.
375.
Death of Valentinian;
accession of Gratian and Valentinian II. in the West.
376.
The Visigoths, driven by the Huns, admitted to the Empire.
377.
Rising of the Goths in Mœsia and
indecisive battle of Ad Salices.
378.
Death of the Emperor Valens in battle with the Goths at
Adrianople.
Invasion of Gaul by the Alemanni and
their repulse by Gratian.
379.
Theodosius named Emperor in the East by Gratian.
380.
Trinitarian edict of Theodosius.
381.
Second general council of the Church, at Constantinople.
382.
Conclusion of peace with the Goths by the Emperor Theodosius;
final settlement of the Goths in Mœsia and Thrace.
{3818}
388.
Overthrow of the usurper, Maximus.
Formal vote of the Senate establishing Christianity in the
Roman Empire.
389.
Destruction of the Serapeum at Alexandria.
390.
Sedition at Thessalonica and massacre ordered by Theodosius.
392.
Final suppression of Paganism in the Empire, by law.
Murder of Valentinian II., Emperor in the West;
usurpation of Eugenius.
394.
Overthrow of the usurper Eugenius.
395.
Death of the Emperor Theodosius;
accession of his sons, Arcadius and Honorius;
final division of the Empire.
Invasion of Greece by Alaric;
capture of Athens.
398.
Suppression by Stilicho of Gildo's revolt in Africa.
400.
Alaric's invasion of Italy.
Fifth Century.
402.
Defeat of Alaric by Stilicho.
Birth of Phocion [Uncertain date] (d. 317).
404.
Removal of the capital of the Western Empire
from Rome to Ravenna. [Uncertain date]
Banishment of the Patriarch, John Chrysostom,
from Constantinople;
burning of the Church of St. Sophia.
406.
Barbarian inroad of Radagaisus into Italy.
Breaking of the Rhine barrier by German tribes;
overwhelming invasion of Gaul by Vandals, Alans,
Suevi, and Burgundians.
407.
Usurpation of Constantine in Britain and Gaul.
408.
Death of the Eastern Emperor, Arcadius,
and accession of Theodosius II.
Execution of Stilicho at Ravenna;
massacre of barbarian hostages in Italy;
blockade of Rome by Alaric.
409.
Invasion of Spain by the Vandals, Suevi, and Alans.
410.
Siege, capture and pillage of Rome by Alaric;
his death.
Abandonment of Britain by the Empire.
The barbarian attack upon Gaul joined by the Franks.
412.
Gaul entered by the Visigoths.
Cyril made Patriarch of Alexandria.
414.
Title of Augusta taken by Pulcheria at Constantinople.
415.
Visigothic conquest of Spain begun.
Persecution of Jews at Alexandria;
death of Hypatia.
418.
Founding of the Gothic kingdom of Toulouse in Aquitaine.
420.
Death of Saint Jerome, in Palestine.
422.
War between Persia and the Eastern Empire;
partition of Armenia.
423.
Death of Honorius, Emperor in the West;
usurpation of John the Notary.
425.
Accession of the Western Emperor, Valentinian III.,
under the regency of Placidia;
formal and legal separation of the
Eastern and Western Empires.
428.
Conquests of the Vandals in Spain.
Nestorius made Patriarch of Constantinople.
429.
Vandal conquests in Africa begun.
430.
Siege of Hippo Regius In Africa;
death of Saint Augustine, bishop of Hippo.
431.
Third general Council of the Church, held at Ephesus.
433.
Beginning of the reign of Attila, king of the Huns.
[Uncertain date]
435.
Nestorius exiled to the Libyan desert.
439.
Carthage taken by the Vandals.
440.
Leo the Great elected Pope.
441.
Invasion of the Eastern Empire by Attila and the Huns.
443.
Conquest and settlement of Savoy by the Burgundians.
446.
Thermopylæ passed by the Huns;
humiliating purchase of peace with them
by the Eastern Emperor.
449.
Landing in Britain of the Jutes under Hengist and Horsa.
[Uncertain date]
Meeting of the so-called Robber Synod at Ephesus.
450.
Death of the Eastern Emperor, Theodosius II.,
and accession of Pulcheria.
451.
Great defeat of the Huns at Chalons;
retreat of Attila from Gaul.
Fourth General Council of the Church, held at Chalcedon.
452.
Invasion of Italy by Attila;
origin of Venice.
453.
Death of Attila;
dissolution of his empire.
Death of Pulcheria, Empress in the East.
455.
Murder of Valentinian III., Emperor in the West;
usurpation of Maximus.
Rome pillaged by the Vandals.
Birth of Theodoric the Great (d. 526).
456.
Supremacy of Ricimer, commander of the barbarian
mercenaries, in the Western Empire;
Avitus deposed.
457.
Marjorian, first of the imperial puppets of Ricimer,
raised to the throne of the Western Empire.
Accession of Leo I., Emperor in the East.
461.
Marjorian deposed;
Severus made Emperor in the West.
Death of Pope Leo the Great and election of Pope Hilarius.
467.
Anthemius made Emperor in the West.
472.
Siege and storming of Rome by Ricimer;
death of Anthemius, and of Ricimer;
Olybrius and Glycerius successive emperors.
473.
Ostrogothic invasion of Italy diverted to Gaul.
474.
Julius Nepos Emperor in the West;
accession of Zeno in the Eastern Empire.
475.
Romulus Augustulus made Emperor in the West.
476.
Romulus Augustulus dethroned by Odoacer;
extinction for more than three centuries of
the Western line of emperors.
477.
Beginning of Saxon conquests in Britain.
480.
Birth of Saint Benedict (d. 543).
481.
Founding of the Frank kingdom by Clovis.
{3819}
483.
Election of Pope Felix II.
486.
Overthrow of the kingdom of Syagrius,
the last Roman sovereignty in Gaul.
488.
Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, commissioned by the
Eastern Emperor to invade Italy.
489.
Defeat of Odoacer by Theodoric at Verona.
491.
Accession of Anastasius, Emperor in the East.
Capture of Anderida by the South Saxons.
492.
Election of Pope Gelasius I.
493.
Surrender of Odoacer at Ravenna; his murder:
Theodoric king of Italy.
494.
Landing of Cerdic and his band of Saxons in Britain.
[Uncertain date]
496.
Defeat of the Alemanni at Tolbiac by Clovis,
king of the Franks;
baptism of Clovis.
Election of Pope Anastasius II.
Sixth Century.
504.
Expulsion of the Alemanni from the Middle Rhine by the Franks.
505.
Peace between Persia and the Eastern Empire.
501.
Overthrow of the Gothic kingdom of Toulouse by Clovis.
511.
Death of Clovis;
partition of the Frank kingdom among his sons.
Monophysite riot at Constantinople.
512.
Second Monophysite riot at Constantinople.
515.
Publication of the monastic rule of Saint Benedict.
518.
Death of the Eastern Emperor, Anastasius,
accession of Justin I.
519.
Cerdic and Cynric become kings of the West Saxons.
525.
Execution of Boethius and Symmachus by Theodoric,
king of Italy.
526.
Death of Theodoric and accession of Athalaric.
Great earthquake at Antioch.
War between Persia and the Eastern Empire.
527.
Accession of Justinian in the Eastern Empire.
528.
Conquest of Thuringia by the Franks.
529.
Defeat of the Persians, at Dara,
by the Roman general Belisarius.
Closing of the schools at Athens.
Publication of the Code of Justinian.
531.
Accession of Chosroes, or Nushirvan,
to the throne of Persia.
532.
End of war between Persia and the Eastern Empire.
Nika sedition at Constantinople.
533.
Overthrow of the Vandal kingdom in Africa by Belisarius.
Publication of the Pandects of Justinian.
534.
Conquest of the Burgundians by the Franks.
535.
Recovery of Sicily from the Goths by Belisarius.
536.
Rome taken from the Goths by Belisarius for Justinian.
537.
Unsuccessful siege of Rome by the Goths.
539.
Destruction of Milan by the Goths.
Invasion of Italy by the Franks.
540.
Surrender of Ravenna to Belisarius;
his removal from command.
Invasion of Syria by Chosroes, king of Persia;
storming and sacking of Antioch.
Formal relinquishment of Gaul to the Franks by Justinian.
Vigilius made Pope.
541.
Gothic successes under Totila, in Italy.
End of the succession of Roman Consuls.
Defense of the East by Belisarius.
542.
Great Plague in the Roman Empire.
543.
Surrender of Naples to Totila.
Death of Saint Benedict.
Invasion of Spain by the Franks.
544.
Belisarius again in command In Italy.
546.
Totila's siege, capture and pillage of Rome.
547.
The city of Rome totally deserted for six weeks.
Founding of the kingdom of Bernicia
(afterward included in Northumberland) in England.
Subjection of the Bavarians to the Franks.
548.
Death of the Eastern Empress, Theodora.
549.
Second siege and capture of Rome by Totila.
Beginning of the Lazic War.
552.
Totila defeated and killed by the
imperial army under Narses.
553.
End of the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy;
restoration of the imperial sovereignty.
Fifth General Council of the Church, at Constantinople.
Establishment of the Exarch at Ravenna,
representing the Emperor at Constantinople.
555.
Pelagius I. made Pope.
558.
Reunion of the Frank empire under Clothaire I.
560.
John III. made Pope.
563.
Founding of the monastery of Iona, in Scotland,
by Saint Columba.
565.
Death of Belisarius and of the Eastern Emperor Justinian;
accession of Justin II.
566.
Conquest of the Gepidæ in Dacia by the Lombards and Avars.
567.
Division of the Frank dominion into the three kingdoms
of Austrasia, Neustria and Burgundy.
568.
Invasion of Italy by the Lombards;
siege of Pavia.
570.
Birth of Mahomet. [Uncertain date]
572.
Renewed war of the Eastern Empire with Persia.
573.
Murder of Alboin, king of the Lombards.
Subjugation of the Suevi by the Visigoths in Spain.
574.
Benedict I. made Pope.
578.
Accession of the Eastern Emperor Tiberius Constantinus.
Pelagius II. made Pope.
582.
Accession of Maurice, Emperor in the East.
{3820}
588.
Kingdom of Northumberland, in England,
founded by the union of Bernicia and Deira under Æthelric.
589.
Abandonment of Arianism by the Goths in Spain.
590.
Gregory the Great elected Pope.
591.
Peace between Persia and the Eastern Empire.
597.
Mission of Saint Augustine to England.
Death of Saint Columba.
Seventh Century.
602.
Revolt in Constantinople;
fall and death of Maurice;
accession of Phocas.
604.
Death of Pope Gregory the Great.
Death of St. Augustine of Canterbury. [Uncertain date]
608.
Invasion of Asia Minor by Chosroes II., king of Persia.
610.
Death of the Eastern Emperor Phocas;
accession of Heraclius.
Venetia ravaged by the A vars.
614.
Invasion of Syria by Chosroes II.;
capture of Damascus.
615.
Capture of Jerusalem by Chosroes;
removal of the supposed True Cross.
616.
First expulsion of the Jews from Spain.
Advance of the Persians to the Bosphorus.
622.
The flight of Mahomet from Mecca (the Hegira).
Romans under Heraclius victorious over the Persians.
626.
Siege of Constantinople by Persians and Avars.
627.
Victory of Heraclius over Chosroes of Persia, at Nineveh.
Conversion of Northumbria to Christianity.
628.
Recovery of Jerusalem and of the supposed True Cross,
from the Persians, by Heraclius.
630.
Submission of Mecca to the Prophet.
632.
Death of Mahomet;
Abu Bekr chosen caliph.
634.
Death of Abu Bekr;
Omar chosen caliph.
Battle of Hieromax or Yermuk;
Battle of the Bridge. [Uncertain date]
Defeat of Heraclius.
Compilation and arrangement of the Koran. [Uncertain date]
635.
Siege and capture of Damascus by the Mahometans;
invasion of Persia;
victory at Kadisiyeh. [Uncertain date]
Defeat of the Welsh by the English in the
battle of the Heavenfield.
636.
Mahometan subjugation of Syria;
retreat of the Romans.
637.
Siege and conquest of Jerusalem by the Moslems;
their victories In Persia.
639.
Publication of the Ecthesis of Heraclius.
640.
Capture of Cæsarea by the Moslems:
invasion of Egypt by Amru.
641.
Death of the Eastern Emperor Heraclius;
three rival emperors;
accession of Constans II.
Victory at Nehavend and final conquest of Persia
by the Mahometans;
end of the Sassanian kingdom;
capture of Alexandria [Uncertain date];
founding of Cairo.
643.
Publication of the Lombard Code of Laws.
644.
Assassination of Omar:
Othman chosen caliph.
646.
Alexandria recovered by the Greeks and lost again.
648.
Publication by Constans II. of the edict called "The Type."
649.
Mahometan invasion of Cyprus.
650.
Conquest of Merv, Balkh, and Herat by the Moslems.
[Uncertain date]
652.
Conversion of the East Saxons in England.
653.
Seizure and banishment of Pope Martin I.
by the Emperor Constans II.
656.
Murder of Caliph Othman;
Ali chosen caliph;
rebellion of Moawiyah;
civil war;
Battle of the Camel.
657.
Ali's transfer of the seat of government to Kufa.
658.
Syria abandoned to Moawiyah;
Egypt in revolt.
661.
Assassination of Ali;
Moawiyah, first of the Omeyyads, made caliph;
Damascus his capital.
663.
Visit of the Emperor Constans to Rome.
668.
Assassination of Constans at Syracuse [Uncertain date];
accession of Constantine IV. to the throne
of the Eastern Empire.
Beginning of the siege of Constantinople by the Saracens.
670.
The founding of Kairwan, or Kayrawan. [Uncertain date]
673.
First Council of the Anglo-Saxon Church, at Hereford.
Birth of the Venerable Bede (d. 735).
677.
The raising of the siege of Constantinople;
treaty of peace. [Uncertain date]
680.
Sixth General Council of the Church, at Constantinople;
condemnation of the Monothelite heresy.
Massacre at Kerbela of Hoseyn, son of Ali, and his followers.
685.
Death of the Eastern Emperor, Constantine IV.,
and accession of Justinian II.
The Angles of Northumbria, under King Ecgfrith,
defeated by the Picts at Nectansmere.
687.
Battle of Testri;
victory of Pippin of Heristal over the Neustrians.
695.
Fall and banishment of Justinian II.
696.
Founding of the bishopric of Salzburg.
697.
Election of the first Doge of Venice.
698.
Conquest and destruction of Carthage by the Moslems.
[Uncertain date]
Eighth Century.
704.
Recovery of the throne by the Eastern Emperor Justinian II.
705.
Accession of the Caliph Welid.
709.
Accession of Roderick to the Gothic throne in Spain.
711.
Invasion of Spain by the Arab-Moors.
Moslem conquest of Transoxiana and Sardinia.
Final fall and death of the Eastern Emperor Justinian II.
{3821}
712.
Surrender of Toledo to the Moslem invaders of Spain.
717.
Elevation of Leo the Isaurian to the throne
of the Eastern Empire.
Second siege of Constantinople by the Moslems.
Great defeat of the Moslems at
the Cave of Covadonga in Spain.
718.
Victory of Charles Martel at Soissons;
his authority acknowledged in both Frankish kingdoms.
719.
Mahometan conquest and occupation of Narbonne.
721.
Siege of Toulouse;
defeat of the Moslems.
725.
Mahometan conquests in Septimania.
726.
Iconoclastic edicts of Leo the Isaurian;
tumult and insurrection in Constantinople.
731.
Death of Pope Gregory II.;
election of Gregory III.;
last confirmation of a Papal election by the Eastern Emperor.
732.
Great defeat of the Moslems by the Franks
under Charles Martel at Poitiers, or Tours.
Council held at Rome by Pope Gregory III.;
edict against the Iconoclasts.
733.
Practical termination of Byzantine imperial authority.
735.
Birth of Alcuin (d. 804).
740.
Death of Leo the Isaurian, Emperor in the East;
accession of Constantine V.
741.
Death of Charles Martel.
Death of Pope Gregory III.;
election of Zacharias.
742.
Birth of Charlemagne (d. 814).
744.
Defeat of the Saxons by Carloman;
their forced baptism.
Death of Liutprand, king of the Lombards.
747.
The Plague in Constantinople.
Pippin the Short made Mayor in both kingdoms of the Franks.
750.
Fall of the Omeyyad dynasty of caliphs and
rise of the Abbassides.
751.
Extinction of the Exarchate of Ravenna by the Lombards.
752.
End of the Merovingian dynasty of Frankish kings;
assumption of the crown by Pippin the Short.
Death of Pope Zacharias;
election of Stephen II.
754.
First invasion of Italy by Pippin the Short.
Rome assailed by the Lombards.
755.
Subjugation of the Lombards by Pippin;
his donation of temporalities to the Pope.
Martyrdom of Saint Boniface in Germany.
756.
Founding of the caliphate of Cordova by Abderrahman.
757.
Death of Pope Stephen II.;
election of Paul I.
758.
Accession of Offa, king of Mercia.
759.
Loss of Narbonne, the last foothold of the
Mahometans north of the Pyrenees.
763.
Founding of the capital of the Eastern Caliphs at Bagdad.
[Uncertain date]
767.
Death of Pope Paul I.;
usurpation of the anti-pope, Constantine.
768.
Conquest of Aquitaine by Pippin the Short.
Death of Pippin;
accession of Charlemagne and Carloman.
Deposition of the anti-pope Constantine;
election of Pope Stephen III.
771.
Death of Carloman, leaving Charlemagne
sole king of the Franks.
772.
Charlemagne's first wars with the Saxons.
Death of Pope Stephen III.;
election of Hadrian I.
774.
Charlemagne's acquisition of the Lombard kingdom;
his enlargement of the donation of
temporalities to the Pope.
Forgery of the "Donation of Constantine." [Uncertain date]
775.
Death of the Eastern Emperor Constantine V.;
accession of Leo IV.
778.
Charlemagne's invasion of Spain;
the "dolorous rout" of Roncesvalles.
780.
Death of the Eastern Emperor Leo IV.;
accession of Constantine VI.;
regency of Irene.
781.
Italy and Aquitaine formed into separate
kingdoms by Charlemagne.
785.
Great struggle of the Saxons against Charlemagne;
submission of Wittikind.
786.
Accession of Haroun al Raschid in the eastern caliphate.
787.
Seventh General Council of the Church
(Second Council of Nicæa).
First incursions of the Danes in England.
788.
Subjugation of the Bavarians by Charlemagne.
Death of Abderrahman.
790.
Composition of the Caroline books. [Uncertain date]
791.
Charlemagne's first campaign against the Avars.
794.
Accession of Cenwulf, king of Mercia.
795.
Death of Pope Hadrian I.;
election of Leo III.
797.
Deposition and blinding of the Eastern
Emperor Constantine VI., by his mother Irene.
800.
Imperial coronation of Charlemagne;
revival of the Empire.
Accession of Ecgberht, king of Wessex,
the first king of all the English.
Ninth Century.
801.
Conquest of Barcelona from the Moors by the Franks.
805.
Charlemagne's subjugation of the Avars.
Creation of the Austrian march.
806.
Division of the Empire by Charlemagne between
his sons formally planned.
809.
Death of the Caliph Haroun al Raschid.
812.
Civil war between the sons of the Caliph Haroun al Raschid;
siege of Bagdad.
814.
Death of Charlemagne, and accession of Louis the Pious,
his only surviving son.
816.
Death of Pope Leo III.;
election of Stephen IV.
817.
Partition of the Empire of the Franks by Louis the Pious.
826.
Grant of a county between the Rhine and Moselle to Harold,
king of Jutland, by the Emperor.
827.
Beginning of Moslem conquest of Sicily.
830.
First rebellion of the sons of the Emperor Louis the Pious.
{3822}
833.
Second rebellion of the Emperor's sons;
the "Field of Lies";
deposition of the Emperor Louis the Pious.
Death of the Caliph Mamun, son of Haroun al Raschid.
834.
Restoration of Louis the Pious.
835.
Invasion of the Netherlands and sacking
of Utrecht by the Northmen.
836.
Burning of Antwerp and ravaging of Flanders by the Northmen.
Death of Egbert, the first king of all the English.
837.
First expedition of the Northmen up the Rhine.
838.
Asia Minor invaded by the Caliph Motassem;
the Amorian War.
840.
Third rebellion of the sons of the Frankish
Emperor Louis the Pious;
his death;
civil war.
841.
Expedition of the Northmen up the Seine;
their capture of Rouen.
842.
The Oath of Strasburg.
843.
Conquest by the Mahometans of Messina in Sicily.
Partition Treaty of Verdun between the sons of the
Emperor Louis the Pious;
formation of the realms of Louis the German and
Charles the Bald, which grew into the kingdoms of
Germany and France.
845.
First attack of the Northmen on Paris;
their destruction of Hamburg.
846.
Rome attacked by the Moslems.
847.
Siege and capture of Bordeaux by the Northmen.
849.
Birth of Alfred the Great.
852.
Revolt against the Moslems in Armenia.
854.
Ravages of the Northmen on the Loire checked at Orleans.
855.
Death of Lothaire, Emperor of the Franks,
and civil war between his sons.
First footing of the Danes established in England.
857.
Deposition of Ignatius, Patriarch of Constantinople,
and elevation of Photius.
860.
Discovery of Iceland by the Northmen. [Uncertain date]
861.
Formation of the Duchy of France;
origin of the House of Capet.
Paris surprised by the Northmen.
863.
Papal decree against the Eastern Patriarch, Photius.
Creation of the County of Flanders by Charles the Bald.
864.
Mission of Cyril and Methodius to the Slavonians.
865.
First Varangian or Russian attack on Constantinople.
866.
Beginning of the permanent conquests of the Danes in England.
871.
Moslem fortress of Bari, in southern Italy,
surrendered to the Franks and Greeks.
Accession of Alfred the Great to the throne of Wessex.
875.
Death of Louis II., Emperor of the Franks and king of Italy;
imperial coronation of Charles the Bald.
876.
The Seine entered by the Northmen under Rollo.
877.
Death of the Emperor, Charles the Bald,
and accession of Louis the Stammerer.
Founding of the kingdom of Provence by Count Boso.
878.
Capture by the Moslems of Syracuse in Sicily.
880.
Ravages of the Northmen in Germany;
battles of the Ardennes and Ebbsdorf.
Defeat of the Danes by the English King Alfred at Ethandun;
Peace of Wedmore. [Uncertain date]
881.
Accession of Charles the Fat, king of Germany and Italy.
884.
Temporary reunion of the Empire of the Franks
under Charles the Fat.
885.
Siege of Paris by the Northmen under Rollo.
887.
Deposition of the Emperor, Charles the Fat.
888.
Death of Charles the Fat and
final disruption of the Empire of the Franks;
founding of the kingdom of Transjurane Burgundy.
The crown of France in dispute between Eudes, Count
of Paris, and the Caroling heir, Charles the Simple.
889.
Second siege of Paris by Rollo.
890.
Third siege of Paris and siege of Bayeux by Rollo.
891.
Defeat of the Danes at Louvain by King Arnulf.
894.
Arnulf of Germany made Emperor.
895.
Rome taken by the Emperor Arnulf.
898.
Death of Eudes, leaving Charles the Simple
sole king of France.
899.
Death of the Emperor Arnulf;
accession of Louis the Child to the German throne.
900.
Italy ravaged in the north by the Hungarians.
Tenth Century.
901.
Death of the English king, Alfred the Great, and
accession of his son, Edward the Elder.
Founding of the Samanide dynasty in Khorassan.
904.
Sergius III. made Pope;
beginning of the rule of the courtesans at Rome.
909.
Founding of the Fatimite caliphate in Africa.
910.
Founding of the monastery of Clugny in France.
911.
Death of the Emperor Louis the Child, extinguishing the
Carolingian dynasty in Germany, and election of
Conrad the Franconian.
Defeat of the Northmen at Chartres in France;
cession of Normandy to Rollo.
912.
Baptism of the Norman Duke Rollo.
914.
Elevation of John X. to the papal throne by
the courtesan, Theodora. [Uncertain date]
916.
Imperial coronation in Italy of Berengar.
919.
Election of the Saxon Duke, Henry the Fowler,
to the kingship of Germany.
Establishment of the Danish kingdom of Dublin.
{3823}
923.
The crown of France disputed with Charles the Simple
by Rudolph, of Burgundy.
924.
Devastation of Germany by the Hungarians;
truce agreed upon for nine years.
Lapse of the imperial title on the death of Berengar.
Commendation of Scotland to the West Saxon king.
925.
Death of the English king, Edward the Elder,
and accession of his son Ethelstan.
928.
Overthrow and imprisonment of Pope John X. by
the courtesan Marozia. [Uncertain date]
929.
Death of Charles the Simple in France.
931.
John XI., son of the courtesan Marozia, made Pope.
[Uncertain date]
932.
Domination of Rome by the Pope's brother, Alberic.
936.
Election of Otho, called the Great,
to the throne of Germany.
Death of Rudolph of Burgundy and restoration of the
Carolingians to the French throne.
937.
Ethelstan's defeat of Danes, Britons and Scots
at the battle of Brunnaburgh.
Invasion of France by the Hungarians.
940.
Death of the English king, Ethelstan, and
accession of his brother Edmund.
946.
Death of the English king, Edmund, and
accession of his brother Edred.
951.
First expedition of Otho the Great into Italy;
founding of the Holy Roman Empire (afterwards so called).
954.
Death of Alberic, tyrant of Rome, his son, Octavian,
succeeding him.
Death of the Carolingian king of France, Louis IV.,
called" d'Outremer";
accession of Lothaire.
955.
Germany invaded by the Hungarians;
their decisive defeat on the Lech.
Death of the English king, Edred, and
accession of his nephew, Edwig.
956.
Assumption of the Papal throne by Octavian, as John XII.
957.
Revolt against the English king Edwig;
division of the kingdom with his brother Edgar.
[Uncertain date]
959.
Death of Edwig and accession of Edgar;
Abbot Dunstan made Archbishop of Canterbury.
961.
The crown of Italy taken by Otho the Great, of Germany.
962.
Imperial coronation of Otho the Great at Rome;
revival of the Western Empire.
963.
Expulsion and deposition of Pope John XII.;
election of Leo VIII.
964.
Expulsion of Pope Leo VIII.;
return and death of John XII.;
siege and capture of Rome by the Emperor.
965.
Death of Pope Leo VIII.;
election, expulsion, and forcible restoration of John XIII.
967.
Conquest of Egypt by the Fatimite caliph. [Uncertain date]
969.
Murder of the Eastern Emperor Nicephorus Phocas
by John Zimisces, his successor.
972.
Marriage of Otho, the Western Emperor's son,
to the Byzantine princess, Theophano.
Death of Pope John XIII., and election of Pope Benedict VI.
973.
Death of the Emperor Otho the Great;
accession of Otho II.
974.
Murder of Pope Benedict VI.
975.
Election of Pope Benedict VII.
Death of the English king Edgar;
accession of his son Edward the Martyr.
979.
Death of Edward the Martyr;
accession of Ethelred the Unready. [Uncertain date]
983.
Death of the Emperor Otho II.;
accession of Otho III. to the German throne,
under the regency of his mother, Theophano.
Death of Pope Benedict VII.
First visit of Erik the Red to Greenland.
984.
Election of Pope John XIV.
985.
Murder of Pope John XIV.;
election of Pope John XV.
986.
Death of Lothaire, king of France;
accession of his son Louis V.
987.
Death of Louis V., the last of the Carolingian kings;
election of Hugh Capet.
988.
Death of Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Cherson acquired by the Romans.
991.
Invasion of England by Vikings from Norway;
battle of Maldon.
996.
Death of Hugh Capet, king of France;
accession of his son, Robert II.
Death of Pope John XV.;
election of Gregory V.
Imperial coronation of Otho III.
997.
Insurrection of peasants in Normandy.
Rebellion of Crescentius in Rome;
expulsion of the Pope.
998.
Overthrow of Crescentius at Rome.
Excommunication of King Robert of France.
999.
Gerbert raised by the Emperor to the Papal chair,
as Sylvester II.
1000.
Expectations of the end of the world.
Pilgrimages of the Emperor Otho.
Royal title conferred on Duke Stephen of Hungary,
by the Pope.
Christianity formally adopted in Iceland.
Eleventh Century.
1002.
Massacre of Danes in England on St. Brice's Day.
Death of the Emperor Otto III., and election of Henry II.
1003.
Invasion of England by Sweyn of Denmark.
1005.
Birth of Lanfranc [Uncertain date] (d. 1089).
1013.
Flight to Normandy of the English king, Ethelred.
The West and North of England submissive to Sweyn.
Imperial coronation of Henry II.
1014.
Death of Sweyn.
Return of Ethelred to England;
his war with Sweyn's son Canute.
Defeat of the Danes at the battle of Clontarf in Ireland;
death of King Brian.
1016.
Death of the English kings, Ethelred and his son,
Edmund Ironside.
Submission of the kingdom to Canute, king of Denmark.
1017.
The Saracens driven from Sardinia by the Pisans and Genoese.
1024.
Death of the Emperor Henry II., and election of Conrad II.
1027.
Imperial coronation of Conrad II.
1031.
End of the Ommeyyad caliphate of Cordova, in Spain.
Death of Robert II., king of France;
accession of Henry I.
{3824}
1033.
Birth of Saint Anselm. [Uncertain date] (d. 1109).
1035.
Death of Canute, king of England and Denmark,
and accession of his son Harold.
Creation of the kingdom of Aragon in Spain.
1039.
Death of Conrad II., and election of Henry III.,
king of Germany.
Murder of Duncan, king of Scotland,
by his successor, Macbeth.
1040.
Death of Harold, king of England,
and accession of Hardicanute.
1042.
Death of Hardicanute, and end of Danish rule in England.
Accession of Edward the Confessor.
1044.
Sale of the papal see by Benedict IX. to Gregory VI.
1046.
Three rival popes suppressed by the Emperor Henry III.
Election of Pope Clement II.
Imperial coronation of Henry III.
1049.
Election of Pope Leo IX.
The monk Hildebrand made Administrator of
the Patrimony of St. Peter.
1051.
Exile of Earl Godwine of Wessex.
Visit of William of Normandy to England.
1052.
Return of Earl Godwine to England.
1053.
Defeat of Pope Leo IX. by the Guiscards.
The Norman conquests in southern Italy conferred
on them as a fief of the Church.
Death of Earl Godwine.
1054.
Death of Pope Leo IX.
Final separation of the Eastern and Western Churches.
1055.
Election of Pope Victor II.
1056.
Death of the Emperor Henry III.
Election of Henry IV., king of Germany,
under the regency of his mother.
1060.
Death of Henry I., king of France;
accession of Philip I.
1066.
Invasion of England by the Norwegian king, Harold Hardrada,
and Tostig, the English king Harold's brother;
their defeat at Stamford Bridge.
Invasion of England by William, duke of Normandy;
defeat of the English at Senlac or Hastings;
death of Harold, last of the Saxon kings.
1071.
Final overthrow of the English at Ely.
The Norman conquest of England completed.
1073.
Election of Hildebrand (Gregory VII.) to the papal throne.
1075.
Synod of Pope Gregory and its decrees against clerical
incontinence, and decrees against simony.
Beginning of strife between the Pope and Henry IV.
Great defeat of the Saxons, by Henry IV., at Langensalza.
1076.
Council at Worms, called by Henry IV. of Germany,
which pronounces the deposition of the Pope.
Excommunication of Henry by Pope Gregory VII.
Jerusalem captured by the Seljuk Turks.
1077.
Humiliation of Henry IV. before Pope Gregory at Canossa;
election of the anti-king Rudolph.
Donation of the Countess Matilda to the Holy See.
Accession of Ladislaus (called Saint), king of Hungary.
1078.
Building of the Great or White Tower at London.
[Uncertain date]
1079.
Birth of Abelard (d. 1142).
1080.
Renewal of the Pope's ban against Henry IV.
Defeat and death of his rival Rudolph.
Election of the anti-pope, Clement III.
1081.
Unsuccessful attacks on the city of Rome by Henry IV.
Invasion of Greece by the Norman duke, Robert Guiscard.
Constantinople sacked by the army of Alexius Comnenus;
coronation of Alexius.
1084.
Henry IV. in Rome.
Seating of the anti-pope, Clement III.
Imperial coronation of Henry IV.
Sack and burning of Rome by the Normans under Robert Guiscard.
Founding of the Carthusian Order by Saint Bruno.
1085.
Death of Pope Gregory VII. in exile at Salerno.
Death of Robert Guiscard.
1086.
Completion in England of King William's Domesday Survey
and Domesday Book.
1087.
Death of William the Conqueror;
accession of William Rufus to the English throne.
1091.
Rebellion of Conrad, eldest son of the German emperor,
Henry IV.
Birth of Saint Bernard (d. 1153).
1094.
The Council of Clermont.
Address of Pope Urban II.
1095.
Death of (Saint) Ladislaus of Hungary.
1096.
Movement of the first armies of the Crusades;
massacre of Jews in Europe.
1099.
Coronation of Henry v., second son of the emperor,
as King of the Romans.
Recovery of the Holy City by the Crusaders;
founding of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem.
1100.
Death of William Rufus, king of England,
and accession of Henry I.
Twelfth Century.
1101.
Disastrous crusading expeditions from
Italy, France and Germany.
Agreement between King Henry I. of England and
his brother Robert.
1104.
Rebellion against the Emperor, Henry IV., headed by his son.
1135.
Imprisonment and abdication of the Emperor, Henry IV.
1106.
English conquest of Normandy;
defeat and capture of Duke Robert.
Death of the Emperor, Henry IV.
1108.
Death of Philip I., king of France,
and accession of Louis VI. (the Fat).
1109.
Death of Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury.
1110.
Expedition of Henry V. to Italy.
1111.
Insurrection at Rome;
attack on the Germans;
imperial coronation of Henry V.
Concession of the right of investiture by the Pope.
1112.
Repudiation of the Pope's concession and
renewal of the War of Investitures.
{3825}
1115.
Death of the Countess Matilda of Tuscany:
her vast possessions bequeathed to the Church.
1118.
Death of Pope Pascal II.
Election of Pope Gelasius II.
and the anti-pope Gregory VIII.
Founding of the Order of the Templars.
1119.
Battle of Noyon, in Normandy.
Death of Pope Gelasius II. and election of Callistus II.
1120.
The sinking of "the White Ship";
drowning of the English King Henry's son.
1121.
Condemnation of Abelard in France.
1122.
Settlement of the question of investitures;
Concordat of Worms.
1123.
First Lateran Council of the Church.
1124.
Death of Pope Callistus II. and election of Honorius II.
1125.
Death of the Emperor Henry V. and election of Lothaire,
of Saxony, to the German throne.
Opening of the strife between Guelfs and
Hohenstaufens or Ghibellines.
1130.
Death of Pope Honorius II.;
election of Innocent II., and the anti-pope, Anacletus II.
1131.
Birth of Maimonides [Uncertain date]
(d. 1201 [Uncertain date]).
1133.
Coronation of the Emperor Lothaire at Rome.
1135.
Death of Henry I., king of England;
civil war between Stephen and Matilda.
1136.
Progress of the Emperor Lothaire through the
peninsula of Italy;
submission of the cities.
1137.
Death of the Emperor Lothaire.
Death of Louis VI. of France and accession of Louis VII.;
his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Birth of Saladin (d. 1193).
1138.
Election in Germany of Conrad of Hohenstaufen.
Second invasion of England by David of Scotland.
Battle of the Standard.
1139.
Banishment from Italy of Arnold of Brescia.
Defeat of the Moors in Portugal by Affonso Henriques,
at the battle of Orik or Ourique.
Second Lateran Council of the Church.
1140.
Siege of Weimsberg.
First use of the party names, Welf or Guelf and
Waiblingen or Ghibelline.
Portugal separated from Castile,
and made a separate kingdom.
1142.
Death of Abelard at Clugny.
1143.
Death of Pope Innocent III.
Election of Celestine II.
1144.
Turkish capture of Edessa.
Jerusalem threatened.
Appeal to Europe.
Death of Pope Celestine II.
Election of Lucius II.
1145.
Death in battle of Pope Lucius II. and
election of Eugenius II.
Establishment of the republic of Arnold of Brescia at Rome.
1146.
Massacre of Jews by Crusaders and mobs in Germany.
Sack of Thebes and Corinth by the Norman
King Roger of Sicily.
1147.
The Second Crusade, from France and Germany.
Lisbon taken from the Moors and
made the capital of Portugal.
Founding of Moscow.
1148.
Unsuccessful siege of Damascus by the Crusaders.
1152.
Death of the Emperor Conrad of Hohenstaufen and
election of Frederick I. (Barbarossa).
Marriage of Prince Henry, afterward Henry II. of England,
to Eleanor of Aquitaine.
1153.
Death of Pope Eugenius III. and election of Anastasius IV.
1154.
Death of Stephen, king of England,
and accession of Henry II.
First expedition of Frederick Barbarossa into Italy.
Death of Pope Anastasius IV. and election of Hadrian IV.
Ireland granted to the English crown by Pope Hadrian IV.
1155.
Overthrow of the republic of Arnold of Brescia at Rome;
his death.
Tumult at the imperial coronation of Frederick Barbarossa.
1158.
Second expedition of Frederick Barbarossa into Italy.
Siege of Milan.
1159.
Death of Pope Hadrian IV.;
election of Alexander III. and the anti-pope Victor IV.
1162.
Thomas Becket made Archbishop of Canterbury.
Destruction of Milan by Frederick Barbarossa.
Birth of Genghis Khan [Uncertain date] (d. 1227).
1163.
Third visitation of Frederick Barbarossa to Italy.
1164.
Enactment of the Constitutions of Clarendon in England.
Death of the anti-pope Victor IV. and election of
the anti-pope Pascal III.
1166.
The Assize of Clarendon in England.
Fourth Italian expedition of Frederick Barbarossa.
1167.
Formation of the League of Lombardy;
rebuilding of Milan.
Storming of Rome by Frederick Barbarossa;
seating of the anti-pope Pascal.
1168.
Death of the anti-pope Pascal III. and
election of the anti-pope Callistus III.
1169.
Beginning of Strongbow's conquest of Ireland.
1170.
Murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket in England.
Birth of Saint Dominic (d. 1221).
1174.
Invasion of England by King William of Scotland.
His defeat and capture.
Last visitation of Italy by Frederick Barbarossa.
The leaning tower of Pisa commenced.
1175.
Anglo-Norman conquest of Ireland completed;
limits of the English pale defined.
1176.
Defeat of Frederick Barbarossa by the
Lombard League at Legnano.
1177.
The peace of Venice;
submission of the Emperor to the Pope, Alexander III.
1179.
Submission of the anti-pope, Callistus III.,
to Pope Alexander III.
Third Lateran Council of the Church.
1180.
Death of Louis VII., king of France,
and accession of Philip Augustus.
Sentence against Henry the Lion in Germany.
1181.
Death of Pope Alexander III. and election of Lucius III.
1182.
Birth of Saint Francis of Assisi (d. 1226).
1183.
Peace of Constance between Germany and Italy.
Independence of the Lombard Republics.
{3826}
1184.
Birth of Saadi [Uncertain date] (d. 1291).
1185.
Death of Pope Lucius III. and election of Urban III.
1187. Saladin's victory at Tiberias;
recovery of Jerusalem by the Moslems.
Death of Pope Urban III.;
election and death of Gregory VIII.;
election of Clement III.
End of the Ghaznavide dynasty in Afghanistan.
1188.
Imposition of the Tithe of Saladin in England.
1189.
Death of King Henry II. of England and
accession of Richard I. (Cœur de Lion).
Crusade of King Richard of England, Philip Augustus
of France, and Frederick Barbarossa of Germany.
Massacre of Jews in England.
1190.
Death, by drowning, of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa,
in Asia Minor;
accession of Henry VI., king of Germany.
1191.
Death of Pope Clement III. and election of Celestine III.
Imperial coronation of the Emperor Henry VI.
1192.
Captivity of King Richard of England.
1195.
Birth of Matthew Paris [Uncertain date] (d. 1259).
1196.
Crusade of German barons to the Holy Land.
1199.
Death of King Richard I. of England;
accession of John.
Thirteenth Century.
1201.
Crusade to the Holy Land urged by Pope Innocent III.
Institution of the Order of the Sword for crusading
against the heathen of the Baltic region.
Cession to the Papacy by the Emperor, Otho IV., of all
the territory claimed by Innocent III. as constituting
the States of the Church.
Chartering of the University of Paris by Philip Augustus.
1202.
The Crusaders at Venice;
their bargain with the Venetians and attack on Zara.
1203.
Attack on Constantinople by the Crusaders and Venetians.
1204.
Capture and pillage of Constantinople by
the Crusaders and Venetians;
creation of the Latin Empire of Romania and election of
Baldwin of Flanders to the throne.
Loss of Normandy by King John of England.
Founding of the Monastery of Port Royal.
1205.
Genghis Khan proclaimed by a great assembly Khakan
or Emperor of Tartary.
1206.
Founding of the Greek empire of Nicæa by Theodore Lascaris.
1209.
First crusade against the Albigenses,
instigated by Pope Innocent III.
Imperial coronation of Otho IV. at Rome.
1210.
Second crusade against the Albigenses.
Founding of the Franciscan Order of Friars.
1212.
Children's Crusade from France and Germany.
Great defeat of the Moors by the Christians on
Las Navas de Tolosa, in Spain.
1213.
Subjugation of the Albigenses by Simon de Montfort,
who receives the principality of Toulouse.
Submission of John of England to the Pope as a vassal.
1214.
Battle of Bouvines, in Flanders;
defeat of the English king, John, and the German
king and emperor Otho IV., by Philip Augustus of France.
Birth of Roger Bacon (d. 1292).
1215.
The Great Charter extorted from King John by
the barons of England.
Founding of the Dominican Order of Friars.
Beginning, in Florence, of the fierce quarrel
of Guelfs and Ghibellines.
1216.
Election of Pope Honorius III.
Crusade to the Holy Land led by King Andrew of Hungary.
Death of King John of England and accession of Henry III.
1217.
Revolt of the Toulousans;
death of Simon de Montfort.
1218.
Death of the Emperor Otho IV.
Attack of the Crusaders on Egypt;
siege of Damietta.
1220.
Imperial coronation of Frederick II., the Hohenstaufen.
Evacuation of Egypt by the Crusaders.
Destruction of Bokhara by Genghis Khan.
1222.
The charter called the Golden Bull conferred on Hungary
by King Andrew.
1223.
Death of Philip Augustus, king of France, and
accession of Louis VIII.
1224.
Birth of Sire de Joinville (d. 1317).
1226.
Renewed crusade against the Albigenses;
invasion of Languedoc by the French king, Louis VIII.,
after buying the rights of Simon de Montfort's son.
Death of Louis VIII. and accession in France of Louis IX.
(Saint Louis) under the regency of Blanche of Castile.
1227.
Election of Pope Gregory IX.
Death of Genghis Khan.
Birth of Thomas Aquinas [Uncertain date] (d. 1274).
1228.
Crusade led by the Emperor Frederick II.
His treaty with the Sultan recovering Jerusalem.
1229.
Cession, by treaty, of two thirds of the dominions of the
expelled Count of Toulouse to the king of France.
Frederick II. in Jerusalem.
1230.
Castile and Leon united under Ferdinand III.
1235.
Recovery of Cordova from the Moors by Ferdinand III.
of Leon and Castile.
1236.
Defeat of the Lombard League by Frederick II. at Cortenuova.
1238.
Founding of the Moorish kingdom of Granada, in Spain.
1240.
Birth of Cimabue (d. 1302 [Uncertain date]).
1241.
Election and death of Celestine IV.
Invasion and desolation of Russia, Hungary and Poland
by the Mongols, or Tatars.
1242.
Sack of Jerusalem by the Carismians.
1243.
Election of Pope Innocent IV.
1244.
Earliest use of the name Parliament in England.
1245.
Decree of the Council at Lyons, held by Pope Innocent IV.,
deposing Frederick II.
{3827}
1248.
Expulsion of the Guelfs from Florence.
Crusade of Saint Louis.
Recovery of Seville from the Moors by
King Ferdinand III. of Leon and Castile.
1249.
Commencement of the building of Cologne cathedral.
1250.
Death of the Emperor Frederick II.
Rising of the people and establishing of a popular
constitution in Florence.
Defeat and captivity of Saint Louis and
his crusaders in Egypt.
1252.
Crusading movement of "the Pastors" in France.
1254.
Election In Germany of William of Holland to be
King of the Romans.
Election of Pope Alexander IV.
Return of the Guelfs to Florence,
driving out the Ghibellines.
1257.
Double election in Germany of Richard, Earl of Cornwall,
and King Alfonso X. of Castile, rival Kings of the Romans.
1258.
Formulation in England of the Provisions of Oxford.
Founding of the Mongol empire of the Ilkhans,
embracing Persia and Mesopotamia.
1259.
Beginning of the reign of the great Mongol sovereign,
Kublai Khan, whose empire covered most of Asia.
1260.
Defeat of the Florentine Guelfs at Montaperte by the
exiled Ghibellines;
expulsion of Guelfs from Florence and Lucca.
1261.
Fall of the Latin Empire of Romania;
recovery of Constantinople by the Greeks of Nicæa.
Election of Pope Urban IV.
1263.
Norwegian invasion of Scotland and defeat at Largs.
1264.
Battle of Lewes, in England;
victory of the Barons.
Summoning of Simon de Montfort's Parliament.
1263.
Election of Pope Clement IV.
Battle of Evesham in England;
defeat and death of Simon de Montfort.
Birth of Dante (d. 1321).
Birth of Duns Scotus (d. 1308).
1266.
Conquest of Sicily by Charles of Anjou.
Exclusion of the Florentine Grandi, or nobles,
from all part in the government of the commonwealth.
1268.
Execution of Conradin, the last Hohenstaufen, in Sicily.
1269.
Restoration of the Guelfs in Florence,
with help from Charles of Anjou.
1270.
Second Crusade of Saint Louis;
his attack on Tunis;
his death;
accession in France of Philip III.
1271.
Election of Pope Gregory X.
Crusade of Prince Edward, of England.
1272.
End of the Great Interregnum in the Empire;
election of Rudolf of Hapsburg, King of the Romans.
Death of Henry III. king of England, during the absence
in the Holy Land of his son and successor, Edward I.
1276.
Election and death of Popes Innocent V. and Hadrian V.;
election of Pope John XXI.
Birth of Giotto (d. 1337 [Uncertain date]).
1277.
Election of Pope Nicholas III.
1278.
Defeat, at Marschfeld, of Ottocar, king of Bohemia,
by Rudolf of Hapsburg.
Ghibellines permitted to return to Florence.
1281.
Election of Pope Martin IV.
1282.
Settlement of Austria, Styria and Carniola on the
Hapsburg family, thus founding the House of Austria.
Massacre of French in Sicily, called "the Sicilian Vespers";
acquisition of the crown of Sicily by Pedro of Aragon.
1284.
Completed conquest of Wales by Edward I. of England.
1285.
Election of Pope Honorius IV.
Death of Philip III., in France, and accession cf Philip IV.
1288.
Election of Pope Nicholas IV.
1289.
Victory of the Florentines at Campaldino over the
Ghibellines of Arezzo and their allies.
1290.
Expulsion of Jews from England by Edward I.
Death of Margaret, queen of Scotland,
called "The Maid of Norway";
disputed succession to the Scottish throne.
Birth of John Tauler (d. 1361).
1291.
Death of Rudolf of Hapsburg;
election of Adolf of Nassau, King of the Romans.
Siege and conquest of Acre by the Sultan of Egypt and Syria;
end of the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem;
rally of the Knights Hospitallers in Cyprus.
Confederation of the three Forest Cantons of Switzerland.
1294.
Election and abdication of Pope Celestine V.;
election of Boniface VIII.
1295.
The "first perfect and model Parliament" of England
summoned by King Edward I.
1296.
Fulmination of the bull "Clericis laicos" by Pope
Boniface VIII. against the taxation of the clergy by
Philip the Fair of France.
Invasion and conquest of Scotland by Edward I. of England.
1297.
Defeat of the English at Stirling by
the Scottish hero Wallace.
1298.
Deposition of Adolf of Nassau by the German Electors,
and election of Albert of Austria.
1299.
Alliance of the Templars with the Mongols,
and defeat of the Turks at Hems;
momentary recovery of Jerusalem.
Invasion of the Greek Empire by the Ottoman Turks.
1300.
Institution of the Jubilee by Pope Boniface VIII.
Rise of the factions of the Neri and Bianchi at Florence.
Birth of William Occam (d. 1347).
Fourteenth Century.
1301.
The papal bulls, "Salvator mundi" and "Ausculta fill,"
launched by Pope Boniface VIII. against Philip IV.,
king of France.
First meeting of the States-General of France,
convened by the king.
Death of Andrew III., king of Hungary, ending the Arpad
line of sovereigns, and leaving the crown contested for
several years.
{3828}
1302.
Banishment of Dante and his party from Florence.
1303.
Seizure of Pope Boniface VIII. at Agnani; his death;
election of Benedict XI.
Submission of Scotland to Edward I. of England.
1304.
Birth of Petrarch (d. 1374).
1305.
Election of Pope Clement V.
Establishment of the papal court at Lyons, France;
beginning of the so-called "Babylonish Captivity."
1306.
Rising in Scotland under Robert Bruce against the rule
of the English king.
1307.
Arrest of the Knights Templars in France by King Philip V.
Death of Edward 1., king of England,
and accession of Edward II.
Ravages of the Catalan Grand Company in Greece.
1308.
Election in Germany of Henry of Luxemburg (Henry VII.).
1309.
Removal of the papal court to Avignon.
1310.
The burning of 59 Templars at Paris.
Expedition of Henry VII. into Italy.
Acquisition of the crown of Hungary by the Neapolitan House
of Anjou, in the person of Charles Robert, or Charobert.
Conquest of Rhodes from the Turks by the
Knights Hospitallers of St. John.
1311.
Sovereignty of Milan secured by Matteo Visconti.
1312.
Abolition of the Order of the Templars.
Imperial coronation of Henry VII. at Rome.
1313.
Death of the Emperor Henry VII. at Pisa.
Birth of Boccaccio (d. 1375).
1314.
Death in France of Philip IV., called "the Fair,"
and accession of Louis X., called "Hutin."
Election in Germany of rival Kings of the Romans,
Frederick of Austria and Louis of Bavaria (Louis V.).
Great defeat of the English by the Scots at Bannockburn.
Invasion of Ireland by Edward Bruce.
1315.
Edict of the French king, Louis Hutin, emancipating all
serfs within the royal domains, on payment of a just composition.
Defeat of Frederick of Austria by the Swiss at Morgarten.
1316.
Election of Pope John XXII.
Death, in France, of Louis Hutin, and
accession of his brother Philip V.
1318.
Defeat and death of Edward Bruce,
in the battle of Dundalk, Ireland.
1320.
Establishment of the tyranny of Castruccio at Lucca.
Composition of the Old English poem, "Cursor Mundi."
[Uncertain date]
1322.
Death of the French king, Philip V.,
and accession of his brother, Charles IV.
Triumph of Louis V. over Frederick at the battle of
Muhldorf in Germany;
excommunication of Louis.
Departure of Sir John Maundeville on his travels in the East.
1324.
Birth of Wyclif [Uncertain date] (d. 1384).
Birth of William of Wykeham (d. 1404).
1325.
Birth of John Gower [Uncertain date] (d. 1408).
1326.
First admission of burgesses into the Scottish parliament.
1327.
Death of Edward II., king of England,
and accession of Edward III.
Expedition of Louis V., of Germany, into Italy;
his Imperial coronation at Rome.
1328.
Death of Charles IV., king of France, and accession of
Philip VI., the first of the House of Valois.
Peace of Northampton between the English and the Scotch.
Death of Castruccio, of Lucca.
Birth of Chaucer [Uncertain date] (d. 1400).
1329.
Death of Robert Bruce, king of Scotland and
accession of his infant son, David.
1330.
Surrender of Nicæa to the Ottoman Turks.
1332.
Acquisition of the throne of Scotland by Edward Balliol,
with English aid.
1333.
Defeat of the Scots by Edward III. of England,
at Halidon Hill.
Accession in Poland of Casimir the Great,
last king of the Piast line.
1334.
Election of Pope Benedict XII.
1336.
Birth of Timour, or Tamerlane (d. 1405).
1337.
Revolt of the Flemings under Jacques Van Arteveld.
Birth of Froissart, the chronicler
(d. 1410 [Uncertain date]).
1338.
Declaration by the German Diet of the independence of
the Empire in temporal matters.
1339.
Beginning of the Hundred Years War between the English
and French kings.
1340.
Successful war of the Hanseatic League with Denmark.
1341.
Return of King David II. to Scotland,
Edward Balliol retiring.
1342.
Walter de Brienne, Duke of Athens,
proclaimed sovereign lord of Florence.
Death of Charles Robert, king of Hungary,
and accession of Louis, called the Great.
Election of Pope Clement VI.
1343.
Expulsion of the duke of Athens from Florence.
Death of Robert, king of Naples.
Accession of Queen Joanna I.
1345.
Downfall and death of Jacques Van Arteveld at Ghent.
1346.
Great English victory over the French at Crecy.
Defeat of the Scots by the English at Neville's Cross,
and captivity of King David II.
1347.
Outbreak in Europe of the plague called "the Black Death."
Death, in Germany, of Louis V. and election of Charles IV.
Revolution of Rienzi, in Rome.
1348.
Purchase of the sovereignty of Avignon by Pope Clement VI.
from Joanna, queen of Naples and countess of Provence.
Founding of the University of Prague.
1350.
Death of Philip VI. of France and accession of King John.
1352.
Election of Pope Innocent VI.
1353.
Downfall and death of Rienzi, at Rome.
1356.
Defeat of the French by the English Black Prince at Poitiers.
Promulgation in Germany of the Golden Bull of Charles IV.
1357.
Meeting of the States-General of France and popular
movement in Paris under Stephen Marcel.
{3829}
1358.
Insurrection of the Jacquerie in France.
1360.
The Peace of Bretigny between England and France,
suspending for a time the Hundred Years War.
Outbreak of the Children's Plague in England.
First distinct appearance of Wycliffe in English history,
as an Oxford lecturer.
1361.
Adrianople taken by the Turks and made the capital of Solyman.
1362. Election of Pope Urban V.
Conjectured composition or beginning of Langland's
"Piers Plowman," in its first form. [Uncertain date]
1364.
Death of King John of France;
accession of Charles V.
1366.
Birth of the painter Hubert van Eyck (d. 1426).
1367.
Victory of the Black Prince at Navarette, in Spain,
restoring Peter the Cruel to the throne of Castile.
Passage of the Kilkenny Act, in Ireland.
1369.
Reopening of the Hundred Years War in France.
Death, in Poland, of Casimir the Great, passing the
crown to Louis of Anjou, king of Hungary.
1370.
Beginning of the Stuart dynasty on the Scottish throne.
1371.
Election of Pope Gregory XI.
1373.
Birth of John Huss [Uncertain date] (d. 1415).
1374.
Appearance in Europe of the Dancing Mania.
1375.
Appointment at Florence of the Eight Saints of War.
1376.
Death, in England, of the Black Prince.
1377.
Return of the papal court to Rome from Avignon.
Death, in England, of Edward III.,
and accession of Richard II.
Birth of Brunelleschi (d. 1444).
1378.
Election of rival popes, Urban VI. and Clement VII.;
beginning of the Great Schism.
Death of the Emperor Charles IV., in Germany, and succession
of Wenceslaus (elected King of the Romans in 1376).
Tumult of the Ciompi in Florence.
1379.
War of the factions of the rival popes In Rome.
Revolt of the White Hoods in Flanders.
1380.
Death, in France, of Charles V.,
and accession of Charles VI.
Post messengers established in Germany by
the Teutonic Knights.
Birth of Thomas a Kempis [Uncertain date] (d. 1471).
1381.
Capture of Naples by Charles of Durazzo, who became
king as Charles III.
Insurrection of the Maillotins in Paris.
Rise to power in Flanders of Philip Van Arteveld.
Wat Tyler's rebellion in England.
1382.
Death of Louis the Great, king of Hungary and Poland;
accession of his daughter Mary in Hungary,
and of Hedvige, daughter of Casimir the Great, in Poland.
Death, in prison, of Queen Joanna, of Naples.
Defeat and death of Philip Van Arteveld at Rosebecque.
1383.
Incorporation of Flanders in the dominions of
the Duke of Burgundy.
Birth of Donatello (d. 1466).
1385.
Acquisition of the crown of Portugal by John I.,
founder of the House of Avis.
1386.
Marriage of the Emperor Sigismund to Mary, Queen of Hungary.
Assassination, in Hungary, of Charles III. of Naples;
accession in Naples of Ladislas, contested by Louis of Anjou.
Marriage of Hedvige, queen of Poland, to Jagellon,
duke of Lithuania, uniting the states and founding the
Jagellon dynasty.
Victory of the Swiss over the Austrians at Sempach.
1387.
Birth of Fra Angelico (d. 1455 [Uncertain date]).
1388.
Battle of Otterburn between the Scots and the English.
Defeat of the Austrians by the Swiss at Naefels.
Death of the Persian poet Hafiz. [Uncertain date]
1389.
Turkish conquest of Bulgaria and Servia by Amurath I.;
decisive battle of Kossova.
Election, at Rome, of Pope Boniface IX.
1390.
War of Florence with the duke of Milan.
Birth of Jan van Eyck [Uncertain date]
(d. 1440 [Uncertain date]).
1392.
Appearance of insanity in the young French king,
Charles VI.
1394.
Birth of the Portuguese Prince Henry, "the Navigator"
(d. 1460).
1395.
The Milanese dominion of the Visconti created a duchy
of the Empire by the Emperor Wenceslaus.
1396.
Great defeat at Nicopolis of the Christian defenders of
Hungary by the Turkish Sultan Bajazet.
1397.
Union of the three crowns of Sweden, Denmark and Norway,
called the Union of Calmar.
1398.
Invasion of India by Timour, or Tamerlane.
1399.
Deposition of Richard II. from the English throne by
Henry of Bolingbroke, duke of Lancaster, who became
king as Henry IV.
1400.
Deposition of Wenceslaus by the electoral college of Germany.
Invasion of Scotland by Henry IV. of England.
Fifteenth Century.
1402.
Birth of Masaccio (d. 1428).
1403.
Hotspur's rebellion in England.
1405.
Sale of Pisa to Florence by the Visconti.
Capture by the English of the heir to the Scottish crown,
afterwards James I.
1406.
Surrender of the Pisans to Florence after a year of war.
1407.
Founding of the Bank of St. George at Genoa.
1409.
Chartering of the University of Leipsic.
Meeting of the Council of Pisa.
1411.
Defeat of the Scottish Lord of the Isles and
the Highland clans at the battle of Harlaw.
Founding of the University of St. Andrew's.
1412.
Meeting of the Council called at Rome by Pope John XXIII.
Birth of Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans (d. 1431).
Birth of Filippo Lippi (d. 1469).
{3830}
1414.
Meeting of the Council of Constance;
summons to John Huss to appear before the Council.
1415.
Condemnation and martyrdom of Huss.
Renewal of the Hundred Years War with France
by Henry V. of England;
his great victory at Agincourt.
Capture of Ceuta from the Moors by the Portuguese.
1417.
Massacre of Armagnacs at Paris.
Creation of the Electorate of Brandenburg by
the Emperor Sigismund and its bestowal on Frederick,
Count of Zollern, or Hohenzollern.
Deposition of the rival popes by the Council of Constance,
and ending of the Great Schism;
election of Pope Martin V.
1419.
Rising of the Hussites in Bohemia.
Assassination of the duke of Burgundy, at the Bridge of
Montereau, and alliance of the Burgundians with the
English invaders of France.
1420.
First crusade against the Bohemian Hussites
summoned by the Pope.
Treaty of Troyes between the English king, Henry V.,
in France, and the Burgundians;
marriage of Henry V. to Princess Catherine, of France.
1421.
Second crusade against the Bohemians.
1422.
Date of the first in the collection of Paston Letters.
Death of Henry V., king of England, and claiming
to be king of France;
accession of his infant son Henry VI.
Death of Charles VI., king of France;
the succession of his son, Charles VII.,
disputed in favor of the Infant Henry VI. of England.
1424.
Release of James I. of Scotland from his
long captivity in England.
1429.
Siege of Orleans by the English, repelled,
under the influence of Jeanne d'Arc;
coronation of Charles VII., king of France.
1430.
Capture of Jeanne d'Arc by the English.
Acquisition of the greater part of the Netherlands
by Philip of Burgundy.
1431.
Condemnation and burning of Jeanne d'Arc for witchcraft
by the English.
Election of Pope Eugenius IV.
Meeting of the Council of Basle.
Birth of Mantegna (d. 1506).
1433.
Treaty of the Council of Basle with the insurgent Bohemians.
1434.
Organization of the Utraquist national church in Bohemia.
Attainment of power in Florence by Cosmo de' Medici.
First expedition sent out by the Portuguese Prince Henry
to explore the western coast of Africa.
Birth of Boiardo [Uncertain date] (d. 1494).
1437.
Recovery of Paris from the English by the French king,
Charles VII.
Death of Sigismund, emperor, and king of Hungary;
election of Albert of Austria to the Hungarian throne.
1438.
Election of Albert II. of Austria by the German
electoral princes.
1439.
Death of Albert II., of Germany and Hungary;
election of Ladislaus III., king of Poland,
to the Hungarian throne.
1440.
Election of Frederick III., of Austria,
by the electoral princes of Germany.
1442.
Ladislaus, posthumous son of Albert of Austria,
acknowledged king of Bohemia, and prospective king of
Hungary, on the attainment of his majority.
First modern Importation of negro slaves into Europe,
by the Portuguese.
1444.
Defeat of the Hungarians by the Turks at Varna and
death of Ladislaus III., king of Poland and Hungary;
government in Hungary entrusted to John Huniades,
during the minority of Ladislaus Posthumus.
1445.
Destruction of Corinth by the Turks.
Birth of Comines, the chronicler (d. 1509).
1446.
Birth of Perugino (d. 1524).
1447.
Election of Pope Nicholas V., founder of the Vatican Library.
Death of the last of the ducal family of Visconti,
leaving the duchy in dispute.
1450.
Rebellion of Jack Cade in England.
Possession of Milan and the duchy won by Francesco Sforza.
1451.
Rebellion of Ghent against Philip of Burgundy.
Founding of the University of Glasgow.
1452.
Birth of Savonarola (d. 1498).
Birth of Leonardo da Vinci (d. 1519).
1453.
Conquest of Constantinople by the Turks.
Defeat of the men of Ghent at Gaveren and their
submission to the duke of Burgundy.
Austria raised to the rank of an archduchy by the
Emperor Frederick III.
Unsuccessful rising in Rome, against the Papacy,
under Stefano-Porcaro.
1454.
Production of the first known Printing with movable type
by Gutenberg and Fust, at Mentz.
Treaty of Venice with the Turks, securing trade privileges
and certain possessions in Greece.
1455.
Beginning of the Wars of the Roses in England.
1456.
The Turks in possession of Athens.
Siege of Belgrade by the Turks and their defeat by Huniades;
death of Huniades.
Publication at Mentz of the first printed Bible,
now called the Mazarin Bible. [Uncertain date]
1457.
Organization of the church of the Unitas Fratrum in Bohemia.
Death of Ladislaus Posthumus, king of Bohemia and of
Hungary and archduke of Austria.
1458.
Submission of Genoa to the king of France.
Election of Matthias, son of Huniades, king of Hungary,
and George Podiebrad, leader of the church-reform party,
king of Bohemia.
Division of the crowns of Naples and Sicily (the Two Sicilies)
on the death of Alfonso of Aragon.
1460.
Death of Prince Henry the Navigator.
1461.
Death of Charles VII., king of France,
and accession of Louis XI.
Emancipation of Genoa from the yoke of France.
Surrender of Trebizond, the last Greek capital,
to the Ottoman Turks.
Deposition of Henry VI. declared by a council of lords in
England and Edward Duke of York crowned king (Ed ward IV.);
defeat of Lancastrians at Towton.
{3831}
1463.
War between Turks and Venetians in Greece.
Birth of Pico della Mirandola (d. 1494).
1464.
Submission of Genoa to the duke of Milan.
1465.
League of the Public Weal, in France, against Louis XI.;
battle of Montlehery.
Siege, capture and pillage of Athens by the Venetians.
1467.
Accession of Charles the Bold to the dukedom of Burgundy;
beginning of his war with the Liégois.
Crusade against George Podiebrad, king of Bohemia,
proclaimed by the Pope.
Birth of Erasmus [Uncertain date] (d. 1536).
1468.
Visit of Louis XI. to Charles the Bold, at Peronne;
capture and destruction of Liege by Charles.
War of the king of Bohemia with Austria and Hungary.
1469.
Beginning of the rule of Lorenzo de' Medici
(the Magnificent) in Florence.
Marriage of Isabella of Castile to Ferdinand of Aragon.
Birth of Machiavelli (d. 1527).
1470.
Restoration of Henry VI. to the English throne
by Earl Warwick;
flight of Edward IV.
Siege and capture of Negropont by the Turks, and massacre
of the inhabitants.
1471.
Acquisition of Cyprus by the Venetians.
Return of Edward IV. to England;
his victories at Barnet and Tewksbury and
recovery of the throne;
death of Henry VI. in the Tower.
Death of George Podiebrad, king of Bohemia, and election
of Ladislaus, son of the king of Poland, to succeed him.
Translation by Caxton of "Recueil des Histoires de Troyes,"
by Raoul le Fèvre.
Birth of Albert Durer (d. 1528).
Birth of Cardinal Wolsey (d. 1530).
1473.
Birth of Copernicus (d. 1543).
1474.
Birth of Las Casas (d. 1566).
Birth of Ariosto (d. 1533).
1475.
Birth of the Michael Angelo (d. 1564).
Birth of the Chevalier Bayard (d. 1524).
1477.
Marriage of Maximilian, son of the Emperor Frederick III.,
to Mary of Burgundy.
Invasion of Italy by the Turks, approaching to within
sight of Venice.
Production from Caxton's press of the "Dictes or Sayengis
of the Philosophers," the first book printed in England.
War with the Swiss, defeat and death of Charles the Bold.
Grant of the Great Privilege of Holland and Zealand by
Duchess Mary of Burgundy, daughter of Charles the Bold.
Birth of Giorgione (d. 1511).
Birth of Titian (d. 1576).
1478.
Conspiracy of the Pazzi in Florence.
Overthrow of the city-republic of Novgorod by
Ivan III. of Russia.
1480.
Birth of Sir Thomas More (d. 1535).
1481.
Founding of the Holy Office of the Inquisition at Seville.
Printing in England of Caxton's translation of
"Reynard the Fox." [Uncertain date]
1482.
Death of Mary of Burgundy and succession of her infant son,
Duke Philip, to the sovereignty of the Netherlands.
1483.
Death of Edward IV. king of England;
murder of the princes, his sons, and usurpation of the
throne by his brother Richard.
Death of Louis XI., of France, and accession of Charles VIII.
Appointment of Torquemada Inquisitor General for Castile
and Aragon.
Birth of Luther (d. 1546).
Birth of Raphael (d. 1520).
1484.
Birth of the Swiss reformer, Zwingli (d. 1531).
1485.
Arrival of Columbus in Spain, seeking help for a westward
voyage to find the Indies.
Overthrow and death of Richard III. in England,
on Bosworth Field;
accession of Henry VII., the first of the Tudor line.
Appearance in England of the Sweating Sickness.
Capture of Vienna by Matthias of Hungary and expulsion of
the Emperor Frederick III. from his hereditary dominions.
Printing of Malory's "Morte d' Arthur." [Uncertain date]
1486.
Election of Maximilian, son of the Emperor, Frederick III.,
King of the Romans.
Unconscious doubling of the Cape of Good Hope by
Bartholomew Diaz.
1487.
Rebellion of Lambert Simnel in England.
Birth of Andrea del Sarto (d. 1531).
1488.
Capture and confinement for four months of Maximilian,
then King of the Romans, by the citizens of Bruges.
Rebellion in Scotland and defeat and death of James III.
at Sauchie Burn.
1490.
Beginning of the preaching of Savonarola at Florence.
Death of Matthias, king of Hungary, and election to the
Hungarian throne of the Bohemian king, Ladislaus II.
Birth of Thomas Cromwell [Uncertain date] (d. 1540).
Birth of Vittoria Colonna (d. 1547).
1491.
Union of Brittany with France, by marriage of the
Duchess Anne to Charles VIII.
Conquest of Granada by Ferdinand and Isabella;
end of Moorish dominion in Spain.
Birth of Loyola (d. 1556).
1492.
First voyage of Columbus westward, resulting in the
discovery of the Bahamas, Cuba and Hayti.
Death of Lorenzo de' Medici at Florence.
Outbreak of the Bundschuh insurrection in Germany.
Expulsion of Jews from Spain.
Election of Pope Alexander VI. (Roderigo Borgia).
1493.
Papal bull granting to Spain the New World found by
Columbus and defining the rights of Spain and Portugal.
Second voyage of Columbus.
Death of the Emperor Frederick III.;
assumption of the title (without coronation at Rome),
of "emperor elect" by his son Maximilian, already elected
King of the Romans.
Birth of Paracelsus (d. 1541).
1494.
Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal,
partitioning the ocean.
Expedition of Charles VIII. into Italy.
Expulsion of Pietro de' Medici, son of Lorenzo,
from Florence;
formation of the Christian Commonwealth at Florence
under Savonarola.
Passage of the Poynings Laws in Ireland.
Birth of Hans Sachs (d. 1578 [Uncertain date]).
Birth of Correggio Granada (d. 1534).
1495.
Abolition of the right of private warfare (diffidation)
in Germany.
Easy conquest of Naples by Charles VIII. of France,
and his quick retreat.
Birth of Rabelais [Uncertain date] (d. 1553).
Birth of Clement Marot [Uncertain date] (d. 1544).
1496.
Marriage of Philip, son of Maximilian of Austria and
Mary of Burgundy, to Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand and
Isabella of Spain.
Rebellion of Perkin Warbeck in England.
Establishing of the Estienne or Stephanus press in Paris.
{3832}
1497.
Discovery of the continent of North America by John Cabot.
Disputed first voyage of Americus Vespucius to the New World.
Discovery of the passage to India round the Cape of
Good Hope by Vasco da Gama.
Excommunication of Savonarola by the Pope.
Birth of Melancthon (d. 1560).
1498.
Third voyage of Columbus, to the northern coast
of South America;
his arrest and return to Spain in irons.
Arrest and execution of Savonarola at Florence.
Death of Charles VIII., king of France,
and accession of Louis XIII.
Birth of Hans Holbein (d. 1559).
1499.
Voyage of Americus Vespucius, with Ojeda,
to the Venezuela coast.
Conquest of Milan and the duchy by Louis XII. of France.
Founding of the Sefavean dynasty in Persia and
establishment of the Shiah sect in ascendancy.
1500.
Voyage of the Cortereals to Newfoundland.
Discovery of Brazil by the Portuguese navigator, Cabral.
Birth of Charles, eldest son of Philip of Burgundy and
Joanna of Spain, who became, the Emperor Charles V.
and who united the sovereignties of Austria, Burgundy and Spain.
Birth of Benvenuto Cellini (d. 1570).
Sixteenth Century.
1501.
Voyage of Americus Vespucius, in the Portuguese service,
to the Brazilian coast.
Creation of the Aulic Council by the Emperor Maximilian.
Joint conquest and partition of the kingdom of Naples by
Louis XII. of France and Ferdinand of Aragon.
1502.
Fourth and last voyage of Columbus coasting Central America.
Election of Montezuma to the military chieftainship
of the Aztecs.
Marriage of King James IV. of Scotland to Margaret,
daughter of Henry VII. of England, which brought the
Stuarts to the English throne.
Quarrel and war between the French and Spaniards in Naples.
1503.
Election of Pope Julius II.
Birth of Garcilaso de la Vega (d. 1536).
1504.
Expulsion of the French from Naples by the Spaniards,
under the Great Captain.
Suppression of the independence of the Scottish
Lord of the Isles.
1505.
Birth of John Knox (d. 1572).
1506.
Death of Columbus.
Death of Philip, consort of Queen Joanna of Castile,
and acting sovereign.
Beginning of the building of St. Peter's at Rome
by Pope Julius II.
Birth of Saint Francis Xavier (d. 1552).
1507.
Unsuccessful revolt of Genoa against the French.
1508.
Formation of the League of Cambrai against Venice
by the kings of France and Aragon, the Emperor, the Pope
and the republic of Florence.
Birth of the duke of Alva, or Alba (d. 1582).
1509.
First Spanish settlement on the American mainland.
Death of Henry VII., king of England, and
accession of Henry VIII.
Publication of Barclay's "Ship of Fools."
Birth of Calvin (d. 1564).
1510.
Portuguese occupation of Goa on the coast of India.
Dissolution of the League of Cambrai, and alliance of
Pope Julius II. with Venice and the Swiss against France.
Birth of Palissy the potter (d. 1590).
1511.
Spanish conquest of Cuba.
Formation of the Holy League of Pope Julius II. with
Venice, Aragon and England against France.
1512.
Discovery of Florida by Ponce de Leon.
Restoration of the Medici to power in Florence.
Birth of Tintoretto (d. 1594).
1513.
Discovery of the Pacific Ocean by Vasco Nunez de Balboa.
Beginning of the ministry of Wolsey in England.
Invasion of France by Henry VIII. of England, and his
victory in the Battle of the Spurs.
War of the Scots and English and defeat of
the Scots at Flodden.
Peasant insurrection of the Kurucs in Hungary.
Complete expulsion of the French from Italy.
Death of Pope Julius II. and election of the Medicean, Leo X.
1515.
Death of Louis XII., king of France, and accession of
Francis I.; his invasion of Italy, victory over the Swiss
at Marignano, and occupation of Milan.
Death of Ladislaus II., king of Hungary and of Bohemia,
and succession of his son. Louis II., on both thrones.
Birth of Saint Philip Neri (d. 1595).
1516.
Founding of the piratical power of the Barbarossas at Algiers.
Treaty and Concordat of Francis I. of France with the Pope,
guaranteeing to the former the duchy of Milan and securing
to him the duchies of Parma and Piacenza, and taking away
the liberties of the Gallican Church.
Appointment of Las Casas Protector of the Indians by
Cardinal Ximenes.
Publication of the "Utopia" of Sir Thomas More.
1517.
Appearance of Tetzel in Germany, selling papal indulgences;
Luther's denunciation of the traffic;
posting of the Ninety-five Theses on the
church-door at Wittenberg.
Preaching of reformed doctrines at Zurich by Zwingli.
Execution of Balboa by Pedrarias Davila, in the colony
of Darien.
Discovery of Yucatan by Cordova.
Birth of Camoëns [Uncertain date] (d. 1579).
1519.
Landing of Cortes in Mexico and advance to the capital.
Sailing of Magellan on his voyage of circumnavigation.
Luther's disputation with Eck.
Death of the Emperor Maximilian and election of his
grandson, Charles V., already sovereign of Spain, the Two
Sicilies, the Netherlands, and the Austrian possessions.
Cession of the Austrian sovereignty by Charles V. to his
brother Ferdinand.
Discovery of the mouth of the Mississippi by Garay.
1520.
Long battle of Cortés with the Aztecs in the city of Mexico;
death of Montezuma;
retreat of the Spaniards.
Rebellion of the Holy Junta in Spain.
Birth of William Cecil, Lord Burleigh (d. 1598).
1521.
Siege and conquest of the Mexican capital by Cortés
and the Spaniards.
Conquest of Belgrade by the Turks.
Promulgation of the first of the edicts of
Charles V. against heresy in the
{3833}
Netherlands, called Placards.
Excommunication of Luther by the Pope;
his appearance before the Diet at Worms;
his abduction by friends and concealment at Wartburg.
1522.
Appointment of Cortés to be Governor, Captain-General,
and Chief Justice of New Spain (Mexico).
Conquest of Rhodes by the Turks from the
Knights of St. John.
Election of Pope Adrian VI.
1523.
Treason of the Constable of Bourbon, escaping from France
to take command of the Imperial army.
Abrogation of the mass and image worship at Zurich.
Organization of the reformed Church in northern Germany.
Election of Pope Clement VII.
Publication of Lord Berner's translation of Froissart.
Publication of Luther's translation of the New Testament.
1524.
Voyage of Verrazano, in the service of France,
to the North American coast.
Death of the Chevalier Bayard in battle with the
imperialists under Bourbon.
Invasion of Italy by Francis I. of France;
Outbreak of the Peasants' War, in Thuringia.
1525.
Bloody suppression of the Peasants' revolt, in Germany,
and execution of Münzer.
Battle of Pavia;
defeat and captivity of Francis I. of France.
Marriage of Luther to Catherine Bora.
Protestant League of Torgau.
1526.
Great defeat of the Hungarians by the Turks at Mohacs and
death of King Louis II.
Election of John Zapolya to the vacant throne of Hungary,
and rival election of Ferdinand of Austria.
Treaty of Madrid, for the release of Francis I.
from his captivity, and its perfidious repudiation by the
king of France when free.
Victory of Babar the Mongol at Panipat in India.
Printing (at Worms) of Tyndale's English version of the
New Testament.
1527.
Expulsion of Zapolya from Hungary by Ferdinand,
archduke of Austria, who wins the Hungarian crown.
Capture and sack of Rome by the Spanish and German
imperialists, commanded by the Constable Bourbon.
The republic restored in Florence by a popular rising.
1528.
Alliance of John Zapolya, king of Hungary, with the Turkish
sultan Solyman, against his rival, Ferdinand of Austria.
Deliverance of Genoa from the French by Andrea Doria.
Marriage of Marguerite d'Angoulême, sister of Francis I.
of France, to the king of Navarre.
Birth of Paul Veronese (d. 1588).
1529.
Fall of Wolsey from power in England.
Unsuccessful siege of Vienna by the Turkish sultan, Solyman.
Siege of Florence by the imperialists;
surrender of the city and restoration of the Medici.
Peace of Cambrai, or the Ladies' Peace, between Francis I.
of France and the Emperor Charles V.
Protest of the German reformers (against action of the
Diet of Spires) which caused them to be called Protestants.
1530.
German Diet at Augsburg;
formulation of the Protestant Confession of Faith;
the condemnatory Augsburg Decree;
formation of the Protestant League of Smalkalde.
Cession of Malta by the Emperor to the
Knights Hospitallers of St. John.
Siege of Buda by the Austrians.
1531.
Breach of Henry VIII. with the Pope on the question of
the annulling of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
1532.
Religious peace, with freedom of worship, restored in
Germany by the Pacification of Nuremberg.
Conquest of Peru by Pizarro.
1533.
Annulment of the marriage of Henry VIII. to Catherine of
Aragon by Cranmer;
marriage of the English king to Anne Boleyn.
Murder of the Ynca, Atahualpa, by Pizarro.
Birth of Montaigne (d. 1592).
1534.
First voyage of Jacques Cartier, to the St. Lawrence.
The Anabaptist seizure of the city of Munster.
Passage by the English Parliament of the Act of Supremacy,
establishing independence of Rome in the English Church.
Beginning of fierce persecution of the reformers in France.
Election of Pope Paul III.
1535.
Expedition of Charles V. against Tunis.
Execution of Sir Thomas More in England.
Suppression of the English monasteries.
Establishing of Protestantism in Geneva.
Printing of Coverdale's English version of the Bible.
Second voyage of Jacques Cartier and exploration of the
St. Lawrence to Montreal.
1536. Trial and execution of Anne Boleyn,
and marriage of Henry VIII. to Jane Seymour.
Martyrdom of Tyndale.
Renewed war between Charles V. and Francis I.
Publication of the "Institutions" of Calvin.
1537.
Death in childbed of Jane Seymour, the English queen.
Brief of Pope Paul III. forbidding further enslavement
of Indians in America.
1538.
Treaty of Peace between Charles V. and Francis I.
Formation of the Holy League of the Catholic
Princes of Germany.
Birth of Cardinal Borromeo (d. 1584).
1539.
Enactment of the Bill of the Six Articles in England.
Landing of Hernando de Soto in Florida and beginning
of his explorations.
Revolt of Ghent against the exactions of
the Emperor Charles V.
1540.
Marriage and divorce of Anne of Cleves by Henry VIII.
and his marriage to Catherine Howard.
Submission of Ghent to the Emperor, annulling of its
charter and removal of the great bell Roland.
Death of John Zapolya, king of Hungary, and support given
by the Turkish sultan to the claims of his son, against
Ferdinand (now emperor).
Expedition of Coronado from Mexico into New Mexico,
seeking the "Seven Cities of Cibola."
Papal sanction of the Society of Jesus,
founded by Ignatius Loyola.
First known Printing done in America (in Mexico).
1541.
Disastrous expedition of Charles V. against Algiers.
Buda occupied by the Turks, becoming the seat of a pasha
who ruled the greater part of Hungary.
Assassination of Pizarro.
Third and last voyage of Cartier to the St. Lawrence.
{3834}
1542.
Execution of Catherine Howard, fifth queen of Henry VIII.
Death of Hernando de Soto on the shores of the Mississippi.
Renewed war between Charles V. and Francis I.
Alliance of the latter with the Turks, who ravaged the
coasts of Italy.
Organization of Calvin's religious state in Geneva.
Mission of Saint Francis Xavier to Goa.
War of the Scots and English;
Scottish panic at Solway Firth;
death of James V.;
birth of Mary Stuart.
Promulgation of the "New Laws" of Charles V., prohibiting
the enslavement of Indians in America.
1543.
Marriage of Henry VIII. to Catherine Parr.
1544.
Victory of the French at Cerisoles over the Imperialists;
treaty of Crespy, terminating the war.
Birth of Torquato Tasso (d. 1595).
1545.
Assembling of the Council of Trent (called in 1542).
1546.
Massacre of Waldenses in southeastern France.
Death of Luther.
Treaty of the Emperor Charles V. with the Pope,
binding the former to make war on the Protestants of Germany.
Murder of Cardinal Beatoun in Scotland.
Birth of Tycho Brahe (d. 1601).
1547.
Death of Henry VIII. and accession of Edward VI., in England;
repeal of the Six Articles and completion of the
English Reformation.
Death of Francis I. king of France,
and accession of Henry II.
Defeat of the Elector of Saxony by the Emperor,
at the battle of Muhlberg;
his imprisonment and deposition;
bestowal of the Electorate of Saxony on Duke Maurice of Saxony.
The Interim of Augsburg.
Marriage of Jeanne d'Albret, heiress to the crown of
Navarre, to Antoine de Bourbon.
Assumption of the title of Czar, or Tzar, by the Grand
Prince of Moscow, Ivan IV., called the Terrible.
Siege of the Castle of St. Andrew's in Scotland;
captivity and condemnation of John Knox to the French galleys.
Birth of Cervantes (d. 1616).
1549.
Mission of Xavier to Japan.
Election of Pope Julius III.
Publication of the English Book of Common Prayer
(First Book of Edward VI).
1550.
Promulgation of the most infamous of the edicts of
Charles V. against heresy in the Netherlands.
Election of Pope Julius III.
Birth of Coke (d. 1634).
1551.
Alliance of the French king, Henry II.,
with the Protestants of Germany.
Narrow escape of the Emperor Charles V. from capture by
Maurice of Saxony.
1552.
French seizure of Les Trois Évéchés, Metz, Toul and Verdun.
Treaty of Passau between the Emperor and
the German Protestants.
Unsuccessful efforts of the Emperor to recover
Metz from the French.
Ravages of the Turks on the coast of Italy and blockade of
Naples by their galleys.
Birth of Sir Walter Raleigh (d. 1618).
Birth of Paolo Sarpi (d. 1623).
Birth of Spenser [Uncertain date] (d. 1599 [Uncertain date]).
1553.
Death of Edward VI. and accession of Queen Mary, in England;
unsuccessful attempt to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne.
Battle of Sievershausen in Germany and death of Maurice
of Saxony;
religious Peace of Augsburg, giving religious supremacy to
each German prince in his own dominions.
1554.
Wyat's insurrection in England;
execution of Lady Jane Grey;
marriage of Queen Mary to Philip of Spain.
Birth of Sir Philip Sidney (d. 1586).
1555.
Beginning of Queen Mary's persecution of
Protestants in England;
burning of Rogers, Latimer and Ridley.
Return of John Knox to Scotland.
First act of the abdication of the Emperor, Charles V.,
performed in Brussels;
accession of his son Philip in the Netherlands.
Election of Pope Paul IV. (Cardinal Caraffa).
1556.
Burning of Cranmer in England.
Unsuccessful expedition of the duke of Guise against Naples.
Completed abdication of all his crowns by Charles V.;
succession of his son Philip II. in Spain, Naples and Milan;
succession of his brother, Ferdinand I.,
to the imperial throne.
Second Mongol victory at Panipat, by Akbar, founder of the
Mongol or Mogul empire in India.
1557.
Battle and siege of St. Quentin, with success for the
Spaniards, invading France.
Signing of the first Scottish Covenant by the Lords
of the Congregation.
1558.
Recovery of Calais by the French from the English.
Death of Queen Mary and accession of Queen Elizabeth,
in England.
Marriage of Mary Stuart, queen of Scots, to the French
dauphin, afterwards Francis II.
1559. Passage of the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity in England.
Treaties of Cateau Cambresis, restoring peace between
France, Spain and England.
Death of Henry II., king of France,
and accession of Francis II.;
dominating influence of the Guises in France.
Institution of the Papal Index of prohibited books.
Election of Pope Pius IV.
1560.
Huguenot Conspiracy of Amboise, in France;
death of Francis II. and accession of Charles IX., under
the controlling influence of Catherine de' Medici.
Death of Melancthon.
Election of Pope Pius V.
Successful rebellion of the Scottish Lords
of the Congregation;
adoption in Scotland of the Geneva Confession of Faith.
Printing of the Geneva Bible.
Birth of the Duke of Sully (d. 1641).
1561.
Return of Queen Mary Stuart from France to Scotland.
Birth of Francis Bacon, Baron Verulam (d. 1626).
1562.
First slave-trading voyage of John Hawkins.
First attempt of Coligny to found a Huguenot colony in Florida.
Massacre of Huguenots at Vassy, beginning the
War of Religion in France;
capture of Orleans by Condé for the Huguenots;
battle of Dreux.
Birth of Lope de Vega (d. 1635).
1563.
Assassination of the Duke of Guise while besieging Orleans;
treaty and Edict of Amboise, restoring peace between
Catholics and Huguenots in France.
Closing of the Council of Trent.
Publication of Foxe's "Book of Martyrs."
1564.
Huguenot colony settled on the St. John's river in Florida.
Death of the Emperor, Ferdinand I., and accession of his
son Maximilian II., the tolerant emperor.
Birth of Shakespeare (d. 1616).
Birth of Marlowe (d. 1593).
Birth of Galileo (d. 1642).
1565.
Destruction of the Huguenot colony in Florida
by the Spaniards;
Spanish settlement of St. Augustine.
Great defense of Malta against the Turks by the
Knights of St. John.
Marriage of Mary Queen of Scots to Lord Darnley.
{3835}
1566.
Beginning of organized resistance to Philip II. in the
Netherlands by the signing of "The Compromise" and
formation of the league of the Gueux, or Beggars;
rioting of image-breakers in Flemish cities.
Sack of Moscow by the Crim Tatars.
Murder of Rizzio, secretary to the queen of Scots.
Publication of Udall's "Ralph Royster Doyster," the first
printed English comedy.
1567.
Renewal of the religious civil war in France;
battle of St. Denis, before Paris, in which the Constable
Montmorency was slain.
Peace in Hungary with the Turks, and between the Emperor
and Zapolya, rival claimants of the crown.
Arrival of the duke of Alva, with his army,
in the Netherlands;
arrest of Egmont and Horn, and retirement of the Prince
of Orange into Germany.
Creation of Alva's Council of Blood.
Murder of Lord Darnley, husband of the queen of Scots;
marriage of the queen to Earl Bothwell;
rising of the Scottish barons, imprisonment and deposition
of the queen, and accession of her son, James VI.
Birth of Saint Francis de Sales (d. 1622).
1568.
Treacherous Peace of Longjumeau and gathering of Huguenots
at Rochelle, joined there by Jeanne d'Albret, queen of Navarre.
Decree of the Inquisition condemning the whole population
of the Netherlands to death;
opening of war against the Spaniards by the Prince of Orange.
Escape of Mary, queen of Scots, to England.
Printing of the Bishop's Bible in England.
1569.
Creation of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, under the
sovereignty of the Medici.
Defeat of the French Huguenots at Jarnac and murder of Condé;
choice of young Henry of Navarre for the Huguenot command;
second Huguenot defeat at Moncontour.
1570.
Peace of St. Germain-en-Laye between the warring
religions in France.
Assassination of the regent, Murray, in Scotland, and
outbreak of civil war.
Publication of Ascham's "Scholemaster."
1571.
Holy League of Venice, Spain and the Pope against the Turks;
Turkish conquest of Cyprus;
sea-fight of Lepanto and defeat of the Turks by
Don John of Austria.
Death of Zapolya in Hungary.
The Thirty-nine Articles of the English Church made
binding on the clergy.
Birth of Kepler (d. 1630).
1572.
Marriage of Henry of Navarre to Margaret of Valois;
massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day in France;
death of Jeanne d'Albret;
submission of Henry of Navarre and the young Prince of
Condé to the Catholic Church.
Election to the Hungarian throne of Rudolph, eldest
son of the Emperor Maximilian.
Capture of Brill by the "Beggars of the Sea," and rapid
expulsion of the Spaniards from Holland and Zealand.
Election of Pope Gregory XIII.
Restoration of episcopacy in Scotland.
1573.
Siege of the Huguenots gathered in Rochelle,
followed by the Peace of Rochelle.
Election of Henry of Valois, duke of Anjou,
to the throne of Poland.
Spanish siege and capture of Haarlem.
Retirement of Alva from the Spanish command in the
Netherlands and appointment of Requesens.
Publication of Tusser's
"Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry."
1574.
Death of Charles IX. of France and accession of his
brother, Henry III. (the lately crowned king of Poland).
Siege and relief of Leyden, commemorated by the founding
of the University.
Birth of Ben Jonson (d. 1637).
1575.
Election of Rudolph, the Emperor's son,
to the throne of Bohemia, and, as King of the Romans,
to the imperial succession.
Election of Stephen Batory to the throne of Poland.
Offer of the sovereignty of the Netherlands to Queen
Elizabeth of England.
1576.
Escape of Henry of Navarre from the French court and
return to the Huguenots and their faith;
negotiation of the Peace of Monsieur;
rise of the Catholic League in France.
Death of the Emperor, Maximilian II., and accession of
his son Rudolph.
Death of Requesens;
the "Spanish Fury" at Antwerp and elsewhere;
union of the Protestant and Catholic provinces of the
Netherlands by the treaties called the Pacification of
Ghent and the Union of Brussels;
appointment of Don John of Austria to the Spanish
government of the Netherlands.
Birth of St. Vincent de Paul (d. 1660).
1577.
The sailing of Sir Francis Drake on his voyage which
encompassed the world.
Renewed war and renewed peace between the religious
factions in France.
Publication, in England, of Holinshed's "Chronicle."
Birth of Rubens (d. 1640).
1578.
Death of Don John of Austria and appointment of Alexander
Farnese, of Parma, Spanish governor of the Netherlands.
1579.
Treaty of Nerac arranged by Catherine de' Medici with
Henry of Navarre.
Constitution of the United Provinces or Dutch Republic
by the Union of Utrecht;
submission of the Walloon provinces of the Netherlands
to the Spanish king.
1580.
Final founding of the city of Buenos Ayres.
Jesuit mission dispatched to England from the continent.
Protestant persecution of Jesuits and Seminary priests
in England.
War of the Lovers, reopening the civil conflict in France;
suspended by the Treaty of Fleix.
Outlawry of the Prince of Orange by Philip II. of Spain,
inviting his assassination.
Seizure of the crown of Portugal by Philip II. of Spain.
Publication of the first two books of Montaigne's Essays.
1581.
Formal declaration of independence by the Dutch provinces
of the Netherlands.
The Second Covenant, or first National Covenant, in Scotland.
Publication of Tasso's "Gerusalemme Liberata."
1582.
Sovereignty of Brabant and other Netherland provinces
conferred on the French duke of Anjou.
Raid of Ruthven and confinement of King James, in Scotland.
Founding of the University of Edinburgh.
1583.
Colonizing expedition of Sir Humphrey Gilbert to
Newfoundland, returning from which he perished.
Treacherous attempt of Anjou to seize Antwerp.
Introduction of the Gregorian Calendar in most Catholic
countries of Europe.
Birth of Grotius (d. 1645).
Birth of Oxenstiern (d. 1654).
Birth of Wallenstein (d. 1634).
{3836}
1584.
Assassination of the Prince of Orange by instigation of
Philip II. of Spain.
1585.
First colonizing attempt of Sir Walter Raleigh in America,
at Roanoke.
Alliance of the Catholic League of France with Philip II.
of Spain, and renewal of war with the Huguenots;
the War of the Three Henrys.
Siege and capture of Antwerp by Parma.
Practical recovery of Flanders and Brabant by the Spaniards.
Arrival of the Earl of Leicester in the Netherlands with
delusive aid from England.
Election of Pope Sixtus V.
Birth of Cardinal Richelieu (d. 1642).
1586.
Battle of Zutphen in the Netherlands and death of
Sir Philip Sidney.
Beginning of the reign in Persia of Shah Abbass,
called the Great.
Election of Sigismund of Sweden to the Polish throne.
Publication of Camden's "Britannia."
1587.
Second colony planted by Raleigh on Roanoke island.
Execution of Mary Stuart, queen of Scots, in England.
Defeat of the Catholic League by Henry of Navarre at Coutras.
1588.
Destruction of the Spanish Armada.
Insurrection in Paris in favor of the duke of Guise;
escape of the king (Henry III.) from Paris;
assassination of the duke of Guise at Blois by
order of the king;
alliance of Henry III. with Henry of Navarre
against the League.
Birth of Hobbes (d. 1679).
1589.
Death of Catherine de' Medici;
siege of Paris by Henry III. and Henry of Navarre;
assassination of Henry III., the last of the Valois,
leaving Henry of Navarre (first of the Bourbons)
the nearest heir to the French crown.
Publication of the first volume of Hakluyt's
"Voyages and Discoveries. "
1590.
Continued war of the League, in France,
against Henry of Navarre;
his victory at Ivry and siege of Paris;
summons of the duke of Parma from the Netherlands to
save Paris from Henry.
Publication of the first three books of Spenser's
"Faerie Queene," Sidney's "Arcadia," and part of
Marlowe's "Tamburlane."
1591.
Siege of Rouen by Henry of Navarre and second interference
by the Spaniards in aid of the League.
Death of the duke of Parma.
1592.
Election of Pope Clement VIII.
Birth of Sir John Eliot [Uncertain date] (d. 1632).
1593.
Abjuration of the Protestant religion by Henry of Navarre.
Publication of Shakespeare's "Venus and Adonis."
1594.
Coronation of Henry of Navarre as Henry IV.,
king of France, and his reception in Paris.
Publication of four books of Hooker's" Ecclesiastical
Polity" and Shakespeare's "Lucrece."
1595.
Expulsion of Jesuits from Paris.
War of the French king with Spain.
First expedition of Sir Walter Raleigh in
search of El Dorado.
1596.
Frightful defeat of the Austrians and Transylvanians
by the Turks, on the plain of Cerestes, in Hungary.
Capture of Cadiz by the Dutch and English.
Birth of Descartes (d. 1650).
1597.
Abolition of the privileges of the Hansa
merchants in England.
Irish rebellion under Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone.
Annexation of Ferrara to the States of the Church.
Publication of Bacon's Essays, also of a pirated copy of
Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," and of the first editions
of "King Richard II." and "King Richard III."
1598.
The Edict of Nantes, issued by Henry IV., of France,
securing religious freedom to the Huguenots;
peace with Spain by the Treaty of Vervins.
Publication of Shakespeare's" Love's Labor Lost,"
of Stowe's" Survey of London," and of Drayton's "England's
Heroical Epistles."
1599.
Birth of Oliver Cromwell (d. 1658).
Birth of Van Dyck (d. 1641).
Birth of Velasquez (d. 1660).
1600.
First charter granted to the English East India companies.
Gowrie Plot in Scotland.
Publication of Shakespeare's "King Henry V."
(pirated and imperfect), "King Henry IV.," part 2,
"Much Ado about Nothing," "Midsummer Night's Dream," and
"Merchant of Venice."
Death of Giordano Bruno at the stake.
Birth of Calderon de la Barca (d. 1683 [Uncertain date]).
Birth of Claude Lorraine (d. 1682).
Seventeenth Century.
1601.
Suppression of the rebellion in Ireland.
Enactment of the first English Poor Law.
1602.
Chartering of the Dutch East India Company.
Beginning of the long imprisonment of Sir Walter Raleigh
in the Tower on charge of treason.
First acting of Shakespeare's "Hamlet."
Founding of the Bodleian Library.
Birth of Cardinal Mazarin (d. 1661).
1603.
Death of Queen Elizabeth of England and accession of
the Scottish king, James I. of England and VI. of Scotland.
First publication of "Hamlet."
1604.
Founding of a French colony at Port Royal in Acadia
(Nova Scotia).
The Hampton Court Conference of King James with the
English Puritans.
1605.
Gunpowder plot of English Catholics against
King and Parliament.
Election of Pope Paul V.
Death of Akbar, founder of the Mogul empire in India,
and accession of Jahangir.
Publication of Bacon's "Advancement of Learning,"
and part 1 of Cervantes' "Don Quixote."
1606.
Charter granted by King James I. of England to the London
and Plymouth companies, for American colonization.
Venice placed under interdict by the Pope;
beginning of the public service of Fra Paolo Sarpi.
Peace of Sitvatorok, ending the war with the Turks in Hungary.
Deposition of the Emperor Rudolph from the headship of the
House of Austria, by a family conclave, in favor of his
brother Matthias.
Surrender of Austria and Hungary to Matthias by Rudolph.
Organization of the Independent church of Brownists at
Scrooby, England.
Birth of Corneille (d. 1684).
Birth of Rembrandt (d. 1669).
1607.
Settlement of Jamestown, Virginia.
Migration of the Independents of Scrooby to Holland.
Birth of Roger Williams [Uncertain date] (d. 1683).
{3837}
1608.
Formation of the Evangelical Union among the
Protestant princes of Germany.
First French settlement, by Champlain, at Quebec.
Publication of Shakespeare's "King Lear."
Birth of Milton (d. 1674).
Birth of Thomas Fuller (d. 1661).
Birth of Edward Hyde, earl of Clarendon (d. 1674).
1609.
Discovery of the Hudson River by Henry Hudson.
Arrangement of a twelve years truce between Spain and
the United Provinces.
Final expulsion of the Moriscoes from Spain.
Opening of the Julich-Cleve contest in Germany.
Settlement of the exiled Pilgrims of Scrooby at Leyden.
Publication of the Douay translation of the Bible.
The royal charter called the Letter of Majesty granted to
Bohemia by Rudolph.
Founding of the Bank of Amsterdam.
Discovery by Champlain of the lake which bears his name.
Construction of the telescope by Galileo and discovery
of Jupiter's moons. [Uncertain date]
1610.
Assassination of Henry IV. of France and accession of
Louis XIII., under the regency of Marie de Medici.
Formation of the Catholic League in Germany.
Beginning of trade with the Indians on the Hudson
by the Dutch.
First acting of Shakespeare's "Macbeth";
publication of twelve books of Chapman's translation
of the Iliad.
1611.
Founding of Montreal by Champlain.
Death of Charles IX., king of Sweden, and accession
of Gustavus Adolphus.
Publication in England of the King James or
Authorized version of the Bible.
Plantation of Ulster by English courtiers and London
livery companies.
Birth of Turenne (d. 1675).
1612.
Death of the Emperor Rudolph and coronation of Matthias.
Birth of Samuel Butler (d. 1680).
1613.
Destruction of the French colony at Port Royal, Acadia,
by Argall of Virginia.
Election to the throne of Russia of Michael Romanoff,
founder of the reigning dynasty.
Birth of Jeremy Taylor (d. 1667).
Birth of Gerard Dow (d. 1680 [Uncertain date]).
1614.
Last meeting of the States General of France
before the Revolution.
Beginning of the extermination of Christianity in Japan.
Publication of Raleigh's "History of the World."
Birth of Cardinal de Retz (d. 1679).
1615.
Visit of the first English ambassador to the court of
the Great Mogul.
Appearance at Frankfort-on-the-Main of the first known
weekly newspaper, regularly printed and published.
Birth of Salvator Rosa (d. 1673).
1616.
Opening of war between Sweden and Poland.
Death of Shakespeare and Cervantes.
1617.
Election of Ferdinand, duke of Styria, to the thrones
of Bohemia and Hungary.
Cession of territory on the Baltic to Sweden by Russia.
Second expedition of Sir Walter Raleigh
in search of El Dorado.
Opening of the famous reunions at the Hotel de Rambouillet.
1618.
Rising of Protestants in Bohemia,
beginning the Thirty Years War.
Union of Prussia with the electorate of Brandenburg.
Execution of Sir Walter Raleigh.
Adoption of the Five Articles of Perth by the Assembly
of the Scottish Church.
Birth of Murillo (d. 1682).
1619.
Death of the Emperor Matthias, and succession in the
Empire of his cousin, Ferdinand II., already for several
years his imperial colleague, and also king of
Bohemia and Hungary.
Deposition of Ferdinand in Bohemia and election of
Frederick, elector palatine, to the Bohemian throne.
Meeting of the Synod of Dort and condemnation of
Arminianism in the United Provinces.
Trial and execution of John of Barneveldt.
Introduction of slavery in Virginia.
Birth of Colbert (d. 1683).
1620.
Decisive defeat of the Protestants of Bohemia in the battle
of the White Mountain, and flight of Frederick,
the newly elected king.
Annexation of Navarre and Bearn to France.
Rising of the French Huguenots at Rochelle.
Final migration of the Pilgrims from Leyden to America,
landing at Plymouth in New England.
Incorporation by King James I. of England of the Council
for New England, successor to the Plymouth Company of 1606.
Publication of Bacon's "Novum Organum."
1621.
The Elector Palatine under the ban of the Empire.
Invasion and subjugation of the Palatinate.
Dissolution of the Evangelical Union.
Peace of Montauban between the French king and the Huguenots.
Renewed war of the United Provinces with Spain.
Grant of Nova Scotia to Sir William Alexander.
Formation of the Dutch West India Company.
The first Thanksgiving Day in New England.
1622.
Founding of the College of the Propaganda at Rome.
Grant to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason
of a province embracing parts of New Hampshire and Maine.
Appearance of the first known printed newspaper in
England—"The Weekly Newes."
Birth of Molière (d. 1673).
1623.
Conquest and transfer of the Palatine electorate to
Maximilian, duke of Bavaria.
Erection of a fort on Manhattan Island by the Dutch West
India Company.
Publication of "The First Folio" edition of
Shakespeare's plays.
Birth of Pascal (d. 1662).
1624.
Alliance of England, Holland and Denmark, to support
the Protestants of Germany.
Beginning of Richelieu's ministry, in France.
Birth of George Fox (d. 1690).
1625.
First Jesuit mission to Canada.
Death of James I. of England, and accession of Charles I.
Beginning of the English struggle between
King and Parliament.
Opening of the Valtelline War by Richelieu, to expel the
Austrians and Spaniards from the Valtelline passes.
Fresh insurrection of the French Huguenots.
Engagement of Wallenstein and his army in the service of
the Emperor against the Protestants.
1626.
Peace of Monzon between France and Spain.
End of the Valtelline War.
Purchase of Manhattan Island from the Indians by the Dutch
West India Company.
1627.
Seizure of a part of Brazil by the Dutch.
Death of the Mogul Emperor Jahangir and accession of
Shah Jahan, builder of the Taj Mahal, at Agra.
Alliance of England with the French Huguenots.
Siege of Rochelle by Richelieu.
Birth of Bossuet (d. 1704).
{3838}
1628.
Unsuccessful siege of Stralsund by Wallenstein.
Passage by the English Parliament of the act
called the Petition of Right.
Assassination of the duke of Buckingham.
Surrender of Rochelle to Richelieu.
Outbreak of the war of the Mantuan succession between
France, Spain, Savoy and the Emperor.
Publication of Harvey's discovery of the
circulation of the blood.
Birth of Bunyan (d. 1688).
1629.
The Emperor's Edict of Restitution, requiring the
Protestant princes of Germany to surrender sequestrated
church property.
Tumult in the English Parliament and forcible detention
of the Speaker;
dissolution by the king and arrest of Eliot and others.
Division of the grant made in New England to Gorges and
Mason, giving New Hampshire to the latter.
Introduction of the Patroon system in New Netherland
by the Dutch West India Company.
First conquest of Canada by the English.
1630.
Dismissal of Wallenstein by the Emperor.
Appearance in Germany of Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden,
as the champion of Protestantism.
Settlement of the colony of Massachusetts Bay,
in New England, and founding of Boston.
The Day of the Dupes in France and triumph of Richelieu.
1631.
Siege, capture and sack of Magdeburg by the imperial
general, Tilly.
Treaty of Bärwalde between Gustavus Adolphus and
the king of France.
Defeat of Tilly on the Breitenfeld, at Leipzig,
by Gustavus Adolphus.
End of the war concerning Mantua.
Appearance of the first printed newspaper in France.
Birth of Dryden (d. 1700).
1632.
Defeat and death of Tilly, in battle with the
Swedish king on the Lech.
Victory and death of Gustavus Adolphus in battle with
Wallenstein at Lützen;
accession in Sweden of Queen Christina;
Chancellor Oxenstiern invested with the supreme direction
of Swedish affairs in Germany.
Patent to Lord Baltimore by James I., king of England,
granting him as a palatine principality the territory in
America called Maryland.
Restoration of Canada and Nova Scotia by England to France.
First Jesuit mission to Canada.
Birth of John Locke (d. 1704).
Birth of Spinoza (d. 1677).
Birth of Bourdaloue (d. 1704).
Birth of Christopher Wren (d. 1723).
1633.
Union of Heilbronn formed by Oxenstiern, consolidating
Protestant interests.
Appointment of Wentworth to be Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.
1634.
Conspiracy against Wallenstein,
resulting in his assassination.
Defeat of the Swedish army in Germany, by imperialists and
Spaniards, at Nördlingen.
Terms of peace with the Emperor made by Saxony
and Brandenburg.
Levy of Ship-money in England.
Naming the town on Manhattan island New Amsterdam.
Acting of Milton's "Comus."
1635.
Active interference of Richelieu in the Thirty Years War.
Unsuccessful French expedition into Italy for
the expulsion of the Spaniards from Milan.
First settlements in the Connecticut valley.
Dissolution of the Council for New England and
partitioning of its territory.
1636.
Banishment of Roger Williams from Massachusetts, and his
founding of Providence.
Migration of the Newtown congregation from Massachusetts
to the Connecticut valley, founding Hartford.
Founding of Harvard College in Massachusetts.
Campaign of Duke Bernhard of Weimar in Alsace and Lorraine,
in the pay of France.
Success of the Swedish general, Baner, at Wittstock,
over Saxons and imperialists.
Birth of Boileau (d. 1711).
1687.
Death of the Emperor Ferdinand II. and accession of his
son Ferdinand III.
The Pequot War in New England.
Introduction of Land's Service-book in Scotland;
tumult in St. Giles' church.
Publication of Descartes' "Discours de la Méthode."
1638.
Planting of the Swedish colony on the Delaware
river in America.
Banishment of Anne Hutchinson from Massachusetts.
Settlement and naming of Rhode Island.
Opening of New Netherland to free colonization and trade.
Rising in Scotland against the Service-book;
organization of the Tables;
signing of the National Covenant.
Planting of New Haven colony in New England.
Turkish siege and capture of Bagdad and horrible massacre
of its people.
1639.
Adoption of the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut and the
Fundamental Agreement of New Haven.
Grant of Maine as a palatine principality to
Sir Ferdinando Gorges.
The First Bishops' War of the Scotch with King Charles I.
Birth of Racine (d. 1699).
1640.
Meeting of the Long Parliament in England.
English settlement of Madras in India.
Recovery of national independence by Portugal,
with the House of Braganza on the throne.
Extraordinary double siege of Turin.
Introduction in Europe of Peruvian bark (cinchona).
1641.
Impeachment and execution of Strafford and adoption
of the Grand Remonstrance by the English Parliament.
Catholic rising in Ireland and alleged massacres
of Protestants.
1642.
King Charles' attempt, in England, to arrest the
Five Members, and opening of the Civil War at Edgehill.
Conspiracy of Cinq Mars in France.
Death of Cardinal Richelieu.
Second battle of Breitenfeld in Germany,
won by the Swedes under Torstenson.
Birth of Sir Isaac Newton (d. 1727).
1643.
Confederation of the United Colonies of New England.
Meeting of the Westminster Assembly of Divines.
Subscription of the Solemn League and Covenant
between the Scotch and English nations.
Siege of Gloucester and first battle of Newbury.
Death of Louis XIII. of France and accession of Louis XIV.
under the regency of his mother, Anne of Austria, and the
ministry of Cardinal Mazarin.
Victory of the Duke d' Enghien (afterwards called
the Great Condé) over the Spaniards at Rocroi.
Alliance of Denmark with the Emperor and
disastrous war with Sweden.
1644.
Battles of Marston Moor and the second Newbury, and siege
of Lathom House, in the English civil war.
Charter granted to the colony of Providence Plantations.
Invention of the barometer by Torricelli.
Birth of William Penn (d. 1718).
1645.
Oliver Cromwell placed second in command of the English
Parliamentary army.
His victory at Naseby.
The storming of Bridgewater and Bristol.
Exploits of Montrose in Scotland.
Victory of Torstenson and the Swedes over the imperialists
at Jankowitz in Bohemia.
Defeat of the imperialists by the French near Allerheim.
Peace of Bromsebro between Sweden and Denmark.
Beginning of the War of Candia (Crete).
{3839}
1646.
Adoption of Presbyterianism by the English Parliament.
Surrender of King Charles to the Scottish army.
Capture of Dunkirk from the Spaniards by
the French and Dutch.
Birth of Leibnitz (d. 1716).
1647.
Surrender of King Charles by the Scots to the English, his
imprisonment at Holdenby House and his seizure by the Army.
Insurrection of Masaniello at Naples.
Truce of the Elector of Bavaria with the Swedes and French.
Election of Ferdinand, son of the Emperor,
to the throne of Hungary.
Beginning of the administration of Peter Stuyvesant
in New Netherland.
1648.
The second Civil War in England.
Cromwell's victory at Preston.
Treaty of Newport with the king, Grand Army Remonstrance,
and Pride's Purge of Parliament, reducing it to "the Rump."
Conflict of the French crown with the Parliament of Paris,
and defeat of the crown.
Last campaigns of the Thirty Years War.
Peace of Westphalia;
cession of Alsace to France;
separation of Switzerland from the Empire;
division of the Palatinate;
acknowledgment of the independence of the United Provinces
by Spain.
Election of John Casimir king of Poland.
1649.
Trial and execution of King Charles I., of England,
and establishment of the Commonwealth.
Mutiny of the Levellers in the Parliamentary Army.
Campaign of Cromwell in Ireland.
First civil war of the Fronde in France,
ended by the treaty of Reuil.
Passage of the Act of Toleration in Maryland.
1650.
Charles II. in Scotland.
War between the English and the Scotch.
Victory of Cromwell at Dunbar.
The new Fronde in France, in alliance with Spain.
Its defeat by Mazarin at Rethel.
Suspension of the Stadtholdership in the United Provinces.
Publication of Baxter's "Saint's' Everlasting Rest," and
Jeremy Taylor's "Holy Living."
Birth of Marlborough (d. 1722).
1651.
Invasion of England by Charles II. and the Scots;
Cromwell's victory at Worcester;
complete conquest of Scotland.
Passage of the Navigation Act by the English Parliament.
Banishment of Mazarin from France and restoration of peace. Renewal of civil war by Condé.
Adoption of the Cambridge Platform in Massachusetts.
Beginning of the rule, in the United Provinces,
of John De Witt, Grand Pensionary of Holland.
Publication of Hobbes' "Leviathan," and Jeremy Taylor's
"Holy Dying."
Birth of Fenelon (d. 1715).
1652.
Victorious naval war of the English with the Dutch.
Battle of Porte St. Antoine, Paris,
between the armies of Condé and Turenne.
End of the Fronde, and departure of Conde to enter the
service of Spain.
Recovery of Dunkirk by the Spaniards.
Institution of the Liberum Veto in Poland.
Transfer of the allegiance of the Cossacks of the Ukraine
from Poland to Russia.
Legislation to restrict and diminish slavery in Rhode Island.
Settlement of a Dutch colony at the Cape of Good Hope.
1653.
Expulsion of "the Rump" by Cromwell, and establishment
of the Protectorate in England.
Adoption of the Instrument of Government.
Return of Mazarin to power in France.
The Cromwellian settlement of Ireland.
Concession of municipal government to
New Amsterdam (New York).
Establishment of a penny post in Paris by M. de Velayer.
Publication of Walton's "Complete Angler."
1654.
Incorporation of Scotland with the English Commonwealth,
under Cromwell.
Peace between the English and Dutch.
Conquest of Nova Scotia by the New England colonists.
Death of Ferdinand, king of Hungary,
and election of his brother Leopold.
Abdication of Queen Christina of Sweden;
accession of Charles X.
1655.
Conquest of the Swedish colony on the Delaware by
the Dutch of New Netherland.
Alliance of England and France against Spain.
English conquest of Jamaica from Spain.
Occurrence in the Russian Church of the great schism
called the Raskol.
Publication of the first of Pascal's" Provincial Letters."
1656.
Beginning of the Persecution of the Quakers in Massachusetts.
1657.
Death of the Emperor Ferdinand III.
Intrigues of Louis XIV. of France
to secure the imperial crown.
1658.
Siege and capture of Dunkirk from the Spaniards and
possession given by the French to the English.
Death of Cromwell and succession of his son
Richard as Protector.
Election of Leopold I., son of the late emperor,
to the imperial throne.
Seizure of the Mogul throne in India by Aurungzebe.
1659.
Meeting of a new Parliament in England;
its dissolution;
resuscitation and re-expulsion of the Rump, and formation
of a provisional government by the Army.
Treaty of the Pyrenees between France and Spain,
and marriage of Louis XIV. to the Spanish infanta.
Production of Molière's "Les Précieuses Ridicules."
1660.
March of the English army under Monk from
Scotland to London.
Call of a new Parliament by Monk, and restoration of
the monarchy, in the person of Charles II.
Abrogation of the incorporated union with Scotland.
Renewed war of Austria with the Turks.
Closing of the schools of Port Royal through Jesuit influence.
Death of Charles X. of Sweden and accession of Charles XI.
Publication of Dryden's "Astræa Redux."
1661.
Restoration of the Church of England and passage of a new
Act of Uniformity, ejecting 2,000 nonconformist ministers.
Personal assumption of government by Louis XIV. in France.
Beginning of the ministry of Colbert.
Cession of Bombay by the Portuguese to the English.
Birth of Defoe (d. 1731).
1662.
Royal charter to Connecticut colony, annexing New Haven.
Sale of Dunkirk to France by Charles II.
Beginning of the attacks of the Mahrattas on the Mogul empire.
Restoration of episcopacy in Scotland and persecution of
the Covenanters.
Publication of Fuller's "Worthies of England."
1663.
Grant of the Carolinas by Charles II. of England to
Clarendon and others.
Erection of New France (Canada) into a royal province.
Publication of the first part of Butler's "Hudibras."
Birth of Prince Eugene of Savoy (d. 1736).
{3840}
1664.
Passage of the Conventicle Act in England, for suppression
of the nonconformists.
Seizure of New Netherland (henceforth New York) by the
English from the Dutch and grant of the province to the
duke of York.
Grant of New Jersey to Berkeley and Carteret,
by the duke of York.
War by France upon the piratical Barbary states.
Great defeat of the Turks by the Austrians and French,
in the battle of St. Gothard.
Publication of the first Tariff of Colbert, in France.
1665.
Passage of the Five Mile Act, in continued persecution of
the English nonconformists.
Outbreak of the great Plague in London.
Formal declarations of war between the English and the Dutch.
1666.
The great fire in London.
Tremendous naval battles between Dutch and English and
defeat of the former.
Production of Molière's "Le Misanthrope."
1667.
Ravages by a Dutch fleet in the Thames.
Peace treaties of Breda, between England, Holland,
France and Denmark.
War of Louis XIV., called the War of the Queen's Rights,
in the Spanish Netherlands.
Restoration of Nova Scotia to France.
Augmentation of Colbert's Protective Tariff in France.
Publication of Milton's "Paradise Lost,"
and Dryden's "Annus Mirabilis."
Production of Racine's "Andromaque."
Birth of Swift. (d. 1745).
1668.
Triple alliance of England, Holland and Sweden against France.
Abdication of John Casimir, king of Poland.
Birth of Vico (d. 1744).
Birth of Boerhaave (d. 1738).
1669.
First exploring journey of La Salle from
the St. Lawrence to the West.
Adoption of the fundamental constitutions framed by
John Locke for the Carolinas.
Surrender of Candia to the Turks.
1670.
Treaty of the king of England with Louis XIV. of France,
betraying his allies, the Dutch, and engaging to profess
himself a Catholic.
Publication of Spinoza's "Tractatus Theologico-politicus."
1671.
Publication of Milton's "Paradise Regained."
Birth of Steele (d. 1729).
1672.
Declaration of Indulgence by Charles II. of England.
Alliance of England and France against the Dutch.
Restoration of the Stadtholdership in Holland to the
Prince of Orange, and murder of the DeWitts.
Birth of Joseph Addison (d. 1719}.
Birth of Peter the Great (d. 1725).
1673.
Discovery of the Upper Mississippi by Joliet and Marquette.
Recovery of New Netherland by the Dutch from the English.
Sale of West Jersey by Lord Berkeley to Quakers.
1674.
Treaty of Westminster, restoring peace between the Dutch
and English and ceding New Netherland to the latter.
Purchase of Pondicherry, on the Carnatic coast of India,
by the French.
Election of John Sobieski to the throne of Poland.
Birth of Isaac Watts (d. 1748).
1675.
War with the Indians in New England,
known as King Philip's War.
Defeat of the Swedes by the Elector of Brandenburg at
the battle of Fehrbellin.
1676.
Bacon's rebellion in Virginia.
Birth of Sir Robert Walpole (d. 1745).
1677.
Tekeli's rising in Hungary against oppression and
religions persecution.
Production of Racine's" Phèdre."
1678.
The pretended Popish Plot in England.
Treaties of Nimeguen between France, Rolland and Spain.
Publication of the first part of Bunyan's
"Pilgrim's Progress."
Birth of Bolingbroke (d. 1751).
1679.
Passage of the Habeas Corpus Act in England.
Oppression of Scotland and persecution of the Covenanters.
Murder of Archbishop Sharp.
Defeat of Claverhouse by the Covenanters at Drumclog.
Defeat of Covenanters by Monmouth at Bothwell Bridge.
Treaty of Nimeguen between France and the Emperor.
Building of the Griffon on Niagara river by La Salle.
1680.
First naming of the Whig and Tory parties in England.
Complete incorporation of Alsace and Les Trois Évéchés,
and seizure of Strasburg, by France.
Imprisonment of the Man with the Iron Mask.
Founding of Charleston, S. C.
1681. Merciless despotism of the duke of York in Scotland.
Beginning of "dragonnade" persecution of Protestants in France.
Alliance of Tekeli and the Hungarian insurgents with the
Turks and the French.
Proprietary grant of Pennsylvania by Charles II. to
William Penn.
Publication of Dryden's "Absalom and Achitophel."
1682.
Exploration of the Mississippi to its mouth by La Salle.
Purchase of East Jersey by Penn and other Quakers.
Penn's treaty with the Indians.
Accession of Peter the Great in association with
his brother Ivan.
1683.
The Rye-house Plot, and execution of Lord Russell and
Algernon Sidney, in England.
Great invasion of Hungary and Austria by the Turks;
their siege of Vienna, and the deliverance of the city by
John Sobieski, king of Poland.
Establishment of a penny post in London by Robert Murray.
Founding of Philadelphia by William Penn.
1684.
Forfeiture of the Massachusetts charter.
Holy League of Venice, Poland, the Emperor and the Pope
against the Turks.
Birth of Bishop Berkeley (d. 1753}.
Birth of Händel (d. 1759).
1685.
Death of Charles II., king of England, and accession
of his brother James II., an avowed Catholic.
Rebellion of the duke of Monmouth, crushed at Sedgemoor
and in the Bloody Assizes of Judge Jeffreys.
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV. of France.
First lighting of the streets of London.
Demand upon Connecticut for the surrender of its charter;
concealment of the instrument in the Charter Oak.
Birth of Johann Sebastian Bach (d. 1750).
1686.
Revival of the Court of High Commission in England.
Consolidation of New England under a royal governor-general.
League of Augsburg against Louis XIV. of France, formed by
the Prince of Orange and including Holland, Spain, Sweden,
the Emperor, and several German princes.
Recovery of Buda by the Austrians from the Turks and
end of the Hungarian insurrection.
Introduction of Bradford's Printing Press in Pennsylvania.
1687.
Action of the Hungarian diet making the crown of Hungary hereditary in the Hapsburg family.
Second battle of Mohacs, disastrous to the Turks.
Siege of Athens by the Venetians;
bombardment of the Acropolis and
partial destruction of the Parthenon.
Rule in Ireland of Richard Talbot, earl of Tyrconnel.
Publication of Newton's "Principia."
{3841}
1688.
Declaration of Indulgence by James II. of England,
and imprisonment and trial of the seven bishops for
refusing to publish it.
Invitation to William and Mary of Orange to accept the
English crown.
Arrival in England of the Prince of Orange and
flight of James.
Battle of Enniskillen in Ireland.
Recovery of Belgrade from the Turks by the Austrians.
Union of New York and New Jersey with New England under
Governor-general Sir Edmund Andros.
Birth of Swedenborg (d. 1772).
Birth of Pope (d. 1744).
1689.
Completion of the English Revolution.
Settlement of the crown on William and Mary.
Passage of the Toleration Act and the Bill of Rights.
Landing of James II. in Ireland and war in that island;
siege and successful defense of Londonderry;
battle of Newton Butler.
Battle of Killiecrankie, in Scotland,
and death of Claverhouse.
Revolution in New York led by Jacob Leisler.
Birth of Montesquieu (d. 1755).
1690.
Destruction of Schenectady, New York, by French and Indians.
The first congress of the American colonies.
The League of Augsburg against Louis XIV. of France
developed into the Grand Alliance of England, Holland,
Spain, Savoy and the Emperor.
Second devastation of the Palatinate by the French.
Reconquest of Belgrade by the Turks.
English conquest of Acadia and unsuccessful
attempt against Quebec.
French naval victory off Beachy Head, over the English
and Dutch fleets.
Battle of the Boyne in Ireland;
defeat and flight of James II.
Publication of Locke's
"Essay concerning Human Understanding."
1691.
Battle of Aughrim and surrender of Limerick, completing
the Orange conquest of Ireland.
The violated Treaty of Limerick.
Execution of Jacob Leisler in New York.
1692.
Ernst Augustus, duke of Hanover and of Brunswick, raised
to the rank of Elector.
New Hampshire settlements, in New England, separated from
Massachusetts.
Defeat of King William by the French at Steinkirk.
Beginning of the Salem Witchcraft madness in Massachusetts.
Massacre of Glencoe in Scotland.
Attempted invasion of England from France defeated by the
English and Dutch fleets at the battle of La Hogue.
Destructive earthquake in Jamaica.
1693.
Founding of the College of William and Mary in Virginia.
Removal of Bradford's Press from Philadelphia to New York.
French victories at Neerwinden and Marsaglia.
Absolutism established in Sweden by Charles XI.
Discovery of the fixed temperature of boiling water.
1694.
The founding of the Bank of England.
Birth of Voltaire (d. 1778).
1695.
Passage of the first of the Penal Laws,
oppressing Catholics in Ireland.
Expiration of the Press-censorship law in England.
1696.
Death of John Sobieski and purchase of the Polish crown by Frederick Augustus, elector of Saxony.
1697.
Peace of Ryswick, ending the war of the Grand Alliance.
Cession of Strasburg and restoration of Acadia to France.
Campaign of Prince Eugene against the Turks and his
decisive victory at Zenta.
Death of Charles XI. of Sweden and accession of Charles XII.
Sojourn of Peter the Great in Holland.
Publication of Bayle's Dictionary.
Birth of Hogarth (d. 1764).
1698.
Grant to the English by the Mogul of the site on which
Calcutta grew up.
Undertaking, in Scotland, of the Darien scheme of
colonization and commerce.
Visit of Peter the Great to England.
Publication of Algernon Sidney's "Discourse on Government."
Birth of Metastasio (d. 1782).
1699.
Peace of Carlowitz, between Turkey, Russia, Poland,
Venice, and the Emperor, which reduced the European
dominions of the Sultan nearly half.
Settlement of Iberville's French colony in Louisiana.
Publication of Fénélon's "Télémaque."
1700.
Prussia raised in rank to a kingdom.
First campaigns of Charles XII. of Sweden, against the
Danes and the Russians.
Death of Charles II. of Spain, bequeathing his crown to
Philip, duke of Anjou, second son of the Dauphin of France.
Eighteenth Century.
1701.
English Act of Settlement, fixing the succession to the
throne in the Electress Sophia of Hanover and her heirs.
Death of James II., of England, at St. Germains.
Possession of the crown of Spain taken by Philip of Anjou,
as Philip V.
Founding of Yale College at New Haven, Connecticut.
1702.
Death of William III., king of England and stadtholder of Holland.
Accession in England of Queen Anne.
The Camisard rising in France.
Beginning of the War of the Spanish Succession
(called in America Queen Anne's War).
Battle of Friedlingen in Germany.
Dutch and English expedition against Cadiz.
Attack on the treasure fleet in Vigo Bay.
Victories of Prince Eugene in Italy, followed by reverses
and retreat into the Tyrol.
Savoy overrun by the French.
Union of rival English East India Companies.
Publication of the first daily newspaper in England,
the "Courant."
Legislative separation of Delaware from Pennsylvania.
Union of East and West Jersey in one royal province.
1703.
The Methuen Treaty between England and Portugal.
The Aylesbury Election case in England.
Birth of Jonathan Edwards (d. 1758).
Birth of John Wesley (d. 1791).
1704.
Campaign of Marlborough and Prince Eugene on the Danube.
Victory of Blenheim.
Capture of Gibraltar by the English from Spain.
Insurrection in Hungary under Rakoczy.
Publication (at Boston) of the first newspaper in
the English American colonies.
Completed subjugation of Poland by Charles XII. of Sweden.
Publication of Swift's "Tale of a Tub," and of the first
part of Clarendon's "History of the Great Rebellion" (England).
1705.
Capture of Barcelona by the Earl of Peterborough.
1706.
Marlborough's victory at Ramillies over the French
under Villeroy.
Expulsion of the French from Antwerp, Ghent, and other
strong places of Flanders.
Madrid lost and regained by the Bourbon king of Spain.
French siege of Turin.
Deliverance of the city by Prince Eugene.
Birth of Benjamin Franklin (d. 1790).
{3842}
1707.
Union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland.
Victories of Marlborough and Prince Eugene at Oudenarde
and Malplaquet, over Vendôme and Villars.
Victory of Berwick, for the French and Spaniards, at Almanza.
Disastrous expedition of Prince Eugene against Toulon.
Death of Aurungzebe, the last important Mogul emperor.
Subjugation of Saxony by Charles XII.
Birth of Buffon (d. 1788).
Birth of Fielding (d. 1754).
1708.
English conquest of Majorca and Minorca, by General Stanhope.
Renewed persecution of the Jansenists.
Dispersion of the nuns of Port Royal of the Fields.
Invasion of Russia by Charles XII.
Birth of Charles Wesley (d. 1788).
Birth of William Pitt, Lord Chatham (d. 1778).
1709.
The first Barrier Treaty between Holland and Great Britain.
Dispersion of the nuns of Port Royal.
Defeat of Charles XII. at Pultowa by the Russians and his
escape into Turkish territory.
Publication of the first numbers of Steele and Addison's
"Tatler," and of Berkeley's "New Theory of Vision."
Birth of Dr. Samuel Johnson (d. 1784).
1710.
Trial of Dr. Sacheverell in England.
Peace conferences at Gertruydenberg between France,
Great Britain, Holland, Spain and Austria.
Madrid again lost and recovered by Philip V.
Franco-Spanish victories of Villa Viciosa and Brihuega.
Capture of Port Royal, Acadia, by the New Englanders;
final English conquest of Acadia and change of name to
Nova Scotia.
1711.
Fall of the Whigs from power, in England.
Passage of the Occasional Conformity Act.
Death, in Austria, of the Emperor Joseph I.
Election and coronation of Charles VI.
Opening of negotiations for peace between England and France.
Peace of Szathmar, ending the revolt in Hungary.
Publication of the first numbers of "The Spectator," by
Addison, Steele, and others; also of Pope's
"Essay on Criticism."
Birth of David Hume (d. 1776).
1712.
Dismissal of Marlborough from his command,
by the British Government.
Peace Conference at Utrecht.
Imposition of the Stamp Tax on newspapers in England.
Birth of Frederick the Great (d. 1786).
Birth of Jean Jacques Rousseau (d. 1778).
1713.
The Peace of Utrecht, ending the War of the Spanish
Succession except as between France and the Emperor;
cession of Sicily by Spain to the duke of Savoy, with the
title of king;
restoration of Savoy and Nice to the same prince,
by France, with cessions of certain valleys and forts;
exchange by the king of Prussia of the principality of
Orange and the lordship of Châlons for Spanish Guelderland
and the sovereignty of Neufchatel and Valengin;
cession by Spain to the House of Austria of the kingdom
of Naples, the duchy of Milan, the Spanish Tuscan territories,
and the sovereignty of the Spanish Netherlands, reserving
certain rights of the elector of Bavaria;
agreement for the destruction of the fortifications and
harbor of Dunkirk;
relinquishment to Great Britain of Newfoundland, Nova
Scotia, Gibraltar, Minorca, Hudson Bay, and the island of
St. Christopher;
concession of the Assiento or Spanish slave-trading
contract to Great Britain for thirty years.
Second Barrier Treaty between Great Britain and Holland.
The papal Bull Unigenitus against the doctrines
of the Jansenists.
Production of Addison's "Cato."
Birth of Sterne (d. 1768).
Birth of Diderot (d. 1784).
1714.
Death of Queen Anne of England;
accession of George I.
Treaty of Rastadt or Baden, establishing peace between
France and the Emperor;
relinquishment of Sardinia by the Elector of Bavaria to
the Emperor, in return for the Upper Palatinate.
Opening of war with the Turks by the Emperor, Charles VI.
Return of Charles XII. to Sweden.
Invention of Fahrenheit's Thermometer.
Birth of Condillac (d. 1780).
Birth of Helvetius (d. 1771).
Birth of Vauvenargues (d. 1747).
1715.
Jacobite rising in Great Britain.
Death of Louis XIV. in France;
accession of Louis XV., under the regency of the
duke of Orleans.
Barrier treaty of Holland with the Emperor.
Publication of the first books of Pope's translation of
the "Iliad," and the first books of Le Sage's "Gil Blas."
1716.
Passage of the Septennial Act, extending the term of the
British Parliament to seven years.
Victory of Prince Eugene over the Turks, at Petervardein.
1717.
Launching of the Mississippi scheme of John Law, in France.
Triple Alliance of France, Great Britain and Holland to
oppose the projects of Alberoni and Queen Elizabeth Farnese,
in Spain.
Spanish capture of Sardinia.
Final recovery of Belgrade from the Turks by the Austrians.
Birth of D' Alembert (d. 1783).
1718.
Promulgation of the Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VI.,
defining the Austrian succession in favor of his daughter,
Maria Theresa.
Spanish conquest of Sicily from the duke of Savoy.
Quadruple Alliance of France, Great Britain, Holland and
the Emperor against Spain.
Peace of Passarowitz between the Emperor and the Porte.
Removal of the capital of Russia to St. Petersburg.
Death of Charles XII. of Sweden.
Founding of the city of New Orleans by Bienville.
1719.
French and English attacks on Spain.
Submission of Philip V. to the Quadruple Alliance.
Banishment of Alberoni.
Spanish evacuation of Sicily and Sardinia.
Restoration of the oligarchical constitution of Sweden.
Publication of the first part of De Foe's
"Robinson Crusoe," and of Watts' "Psalms and Hymns."
1720.
The South Sea Bubble in England.
Forced exchange by the duke of Savoy, with the Emperor,
of Sicily for Sardinia, the latter being raised to the rank
of a kingdom.
Reversion of the duchies of Parma and Placentia and of the
Grand Duchy of Tuscany to Don Carlos, son of the king
of Spain.
Publication of Vico's "Jus Universale."
1721.
Rise of Walpole to ascendancy in the British Government.
Introduction of preventive inoculation against smallpox
in England by Lady Montague.
Election of Pope Innocent XIII.
1722.
Grant of Wood's patent for supplying Ireland with
a copper coinage.
Conquest of Persia by the Afghans.
Birth of Samuel Adams (d. 1803).
1723.
Majority of Louis XV., king of France.
Termination of the Regency.
Publication of Ramsay's "Gentle Shepherd."
Birth of Adam Smith (d. 1790).
{3843}
1724.
Election of Pope Benedict XIII.
Publication of Swift's "Drapier's Letters" against
Wood's halfpence, in Ireland.
Birth of Kant (d. 1804).
1725.
Treaty of Spain with Austria guaranteeing the
Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VI.
Alliance of Hanover between France,
Great Britain and Holland.
Death of Peter the Great, of Russia, and accession of his
empress, Catherine I.
Birth of Clive (d. 1774).
1726.
Treaty of Russia with Austria guaranteeing the Pragmatic
Sanction of Charles VI.
Publication of Swift's "Gulliver's Travels."
1727.
Death of George I. of England.
Accession of George II.
Hostilities without formal war between
Great Britain and Spain.
Siege of Gibraltar by the Spaniards.
Deliverance of Persia from the Afghans by Nadir Kuli.
Birth of Turgot (d. 1781).
1728. Treaty of Prussia with Austria guaranteeing the Pragmatic
Sanction of Charles VI.
Birth of Goldsmith (d. 1774).
1729.
End of proprietary government in the Carolinas.
Birth of Edmund Burke (d. 1797).
Birth of Lessing (d. 1781).
Birth of Moses Mendelssohn. (d. 1786).
1730.
Election of Pope Clement XII.
Founding of Baltimore in Maryland.
Opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway;
accidental death of Mr. Huskisson, prime minister of England.
Birth of Edmund Burke [Uncertain date] (d. 1797).
1731.
Treaty of Seville between Great Britain, France, and Spain.
Don Carlos established in the duchies of Parma and Placentia.
Treaties of England and Holland with Austria, guaranteeing
the Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VI.
Founding of the "Gentleman's Magazine."
Birth of William Cowper (d. 1800).
1732.
Usurpation of the Persian throne by Nadir Kuli,
thenceforward entitled Nadir Kuli Khan, or Nadir Shall.
Grant of Georgia in America to General Oglethorpe by
George II., of England.
Founding, at Philadelphia, of the first Subscription
Library in the United States, by Franklin.
Publication of the first part of Pope's" Essay on Man."
Birth of Washington (d. 1799).
Birth of Haydn (d. 1809).
1733.
The first Bourbon Family Compact between the French
and Spanish sovereigns.
Death of Augustus II. of Poland.
War of the Polish Succession between France and Austria.
John Kay's invention of the fly-shuttle for weaving.
Founding of Savannah, Georgia, by General Oglethorpe.
Birth of Wieland (d. 1813).
Birth of Joseph Priestley (d. 1804).
1734.
Conquest of Naples and Sicily by Don Carlos, son of the
king of Spain, and assumption by him of the kingship of
the Two Sicilies, under the name and style of Charles III.
Zenger's trial in New York and vindication of the freedom
of the English colonial press.
1735.
Treaty of Vienna between France, Austria and Spain,
confirming Charles III. in possession of the kingdom
of the Two Sicilies; ceding Lorraine to France and
Tuscany in reversion to the former duke of Lorraine.
First Moravian (Unitas Fratrum) settlement in America
planted in Georgia.
Birth of John Adams (d. 1826).
1736.
Founding of the short-lived realm of King Theodore in Corsica.
Publication of Butler's "Analogy of Religion."
Porteous riots in Edinburgh.
Birth of Lagrange (d. 1813).
1737.
Birth of Edward Gibbon (d. 1794).
1738.
Treaty of France with Austria guaranteeing the Pragmatic
Sanction of Charles VI.
1739.
War of Jenkins' Ear, between Great Britain and Spain.
Capture of Delhi, in India, with sack and massacre,
by Nadir Shah, the Persian conqueror.
1740.
Accession of Frederick the Great in Prussia.
Death of the Emperor Charles VI.
Treachery of the Powers which had guaranteed the Austrian
succession to Maria Theresa.
Opening of the War of the Succession.
Invasion of Silesia by Frederick of Prussia.
Election of Pope Benedict XIV.
Settlement of the Moravians (Unitas Fratrum) in
Pennsylvania, at Bethlehem.
First performance of Händel's "Messiah."
1741.
Battle of Mollwitz.
Alliance of Prussia, France and Bavaria.
Appeal of Maria Theresa to the Hungarians.
Franco-Bavarian invasion of Bohemia and Austrian
invasion of Bavaria.
Secret bargain of Frederick with Maria Theresa, and
abandonment of his allies.
Pretended Negro Plot in New York.
Publication of the first volume of Hume's
"Essays Moral and Political."
1742.
Resignation of Walpole from the British Ministry.
Imperial election and coronation of the elector of Bavaria
as Charles VII.
Reversing of the treachery of Frederick and renewal of
his war with Austria.
Battle of Chotusitz.
Treaty of Breslau between Austria and Prussia.
Cession of Silesia and Glatz to Frederick.
Continuation of the war of Austria and France.
Expulsion of the French from Bohemia.
Birth of Scheele (d. 1786).
1743.
The second Bourbon Family Compact between the sovereigns
of France and Spain.
Great Britain involved in the War of the Austrian
Succession, supporting the cause of Maria Theresa.
Victory of the "Pragmatic Army" (English and Hanoverian)
at Dettingen.
Birth of Thomas Jefferson (d. 1826).
Birth of Toussaint L' Ouverture (d. 1803).
Birth of Lavoisier (d. 1794).
1744.
Renewal of war with Austria by Frederick of Prussia.
His invasion of Bohemia, his capture of Prague and
his forced retreat.
Birth of Herder (d. 1803).
1745.
The last Jacobite rebellion in Great Britain.
Death of Sir Robert Walpole.
Capture of Louisburg and the island of Cape Breton from
France by the New England colonists.
Death of the Emperor Charles VII.
Defeat of the British and Dutch by the French at Fontenoy.
Peace made by Austria with Bavaria, and alliance with
Saxony against the king of Prussia.
Prussian victories at Hohenfriedberg, Sohr, Hennersdorf,
and Kesselsdorf.
Election of the husband of Maria Theresa to the Imperial
throne, as Francis I.
Peace between Austria and Prussia.
Success of the French, Spaniards, and Genoese in Lombardy,
expelling the Austrians from every part except the
citadel of Milan and the fortress of Mantua.
Invention of the Leyden jar.
{3844}
1746.
French conquest of the Austrian Netherlands.
Retreat of Spaniards and French from North Italy.
Surrender of Genoa to the Austrians, and their expulsion
by a popular rising.
Capture of Madras by the French.
Birth of Pestalozzi (d. 1827).
Birth of Henry Grattan (d. 1820).
1747.
French invasion of the United Provinces (Holland);
risings of the Orange party;
restoration of the Stadtholdership,
in the person of William IV.
Unsuccessful siege of Genoa by the Austrians and Sardinians.
Franklin's identification of lightning with electricity.
Murder of Nadir Shah, the Persian conqueror.
1748.
Treaty of Aix-Ia-Chapelle, ending the War of the
Austrian Succession;
general restoration of conquests made during the war;
confirmation of Silesia and Glatz to Frederick of Prussia;
general guarantee of the Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VI.
Beginning of excavations at Pompeii.
Birth of Jeremy Bentham (d. 1832).
1749.
Formation of the Ohio Company, with a royal grant of lands
in the Ohio Valley.
Founding of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Publication of Montesquieu's "Esprit des Lois";
of Fielding's "Tom Jones," and of John Wesley's
"Plain account of the people called Methodists."
Birth of Charles James Fox (d. 1806).
Birth of Goethe (d. 1832).
Birth of Mirabeau (d. 171)1).
Birth of Vittorio Alfieri (d. 1803).
Birth of Laplace (d. 1827).
Birth of Jenner (d. 1823).
1751.
Beginning of the military career of Clive in India by the
taking of Arcot from the French.
Introduction of the Gregorian Calendar, or change from
Old Style to New, in England.
Publication of Gray's "Elegy in a Country Churchyard,"
and of the first volume of "L' Encyclopedie."
Birth of R. B. Sheridan (d. 1816).
Birth of James Madison (d. 1836).
1754.
Founding of King's College (now Columbia) at New York.
Congress of the American Colonies at Albany and
plans of Union.
Building of Fort Duquesne by the French and Washington's
expedition against them.
Publication of the first volume of
Hume's "History of England."
Birth of Talleyrand (d. 1838).
1755.
Beginning of the Seven Years War, called in America
the French and Indian War;
Braddock's defeat by the French and Indians in America;
battle of Lake George and defeat of the French;
dispersion in exile of the French Acadians from Nova Scotia.
Birth of Hahnemann, the originator of Homœopathy.
Great earthquake at Lisbon.
Birth of John Marshall (d. 1835).
1756.
Formal declarations of war by Great Britain and France;
conquest of Minorca by the French from the English.
Invasion and occupation of Saxony by Frederick of Prussia.
Frederick under the Ban of the Empire.
Capture of Delhi by the Afghan Durances;
capture of Calcutta by Shrajah Dowlah,
and tragedy of the Black Hole.
Birth of Mozart (d. 1791 [Uncertain date]).
1757.
Execution in England of Admiral Byng.
Beginning of the administration of the elder Pitt.
Invasion of Bohemia by Frederick;
his victory at Prague, his defeat at Kolin, convention of
Closter-Seven, battles of Rossbach and Leuthen.
Capture of Fort William Henry in America, by the French.
Franklin's mission to England for the Pennsylvanians.
Clive's overthrow of Surajah Dowlah at the battle of
Plassey, in India.
Birth of Canova (d. 1822).
Birth of Alexander Hamilton (d. 1804).
Birth of Lafayette (d. 1834).
Birth of Baron von Stein (d. 1831).
1758.
Siege of Olmutz by Frederick;
his victory over the Russians at Zorndorf;
his defeat by the Austrians at Hochkirch.
Election of Pope Clement XIII.
Repulse of the British at Ticonderoga, in America;
capture of Louisburg and Fort Du Quesne (afterwards
Pittsburg) by the English from the French.
Beginning of the publication of Dr. Johnson's "Idler."
Birth of Lord Nelson (d. 1805).
Birth of Robespierre (d. 1794).
1759.
Naval battles of the English and French off Lagos and in
Quiberon Bay.
Battles of Bergen and Minden in Germany;
defeat of Frederick at Kunersdorf;
loss of Dresden;
capitulation of Maxen.
Expulsion of the Jesuits from the Portuguese dominions.
Capture of Quebec, in Canada, from the French,
by General Wolfe;
British capture of Fort Niagara, Ticonderoga and Crown Point.
Opening of the British Museum.
Publication of Dr. Johnson's "Rasselas," Adam Smith's
"Moral Sentiments," the first volumes of Sterne's
"Tristram Shandy," and the first volume
of the "Annual Register," edited by Burke.
Birth of Schiller (d. 1805).
Birth of Robert Burns (d. 1796).
Birth of William Wilberforce (d. 1833).
Birth of William Pitt (d. 1806).
1760.
Death of George II., king of England;
accession of George III.
Frederick's bombardment of Dresden.
Battles of Liegnitz, Torgau and Warburg.
Completion of the English conquest of Canada.
Defeat of the French by the English,
in India, at Wandiwash.
Publication of Rousseau's "Nouvelle Heloise," and
Goldsmith's "Citizen of the World."
1761.
Resignation of Pitt from the British Ministry.
The third Bourbon Family Compact of
the French and Spanish kings.
Campaigns in Saxony and Silesia.
Battle of Panniput in India and defeat of the Mahrattas
by the Afghans.
Speech of Otis, at Boston, against the Writs of Assistance.
Surrender of Pondicherry to the English by the French.
1762.
Ascendancy of Lord Bute in the British Ministry;
publication of Wilkes' "North Briton;"
declaration of war against Spain;
siege and conquest of Havana.
Death of the Empress Elizabeth of Russia;
accession, deposition and murder of Peter III.;
elevation of Catherine II. to the throne.
Decree of the Parliament of Paris for the suppression of
the Society of Jesus.
Publication of Macpherson's "Poems of Ossian,"
and of Rousseau's "Contrat Social."
Birth of Fichte (d. 1814).
1763.
Peace of Paris and Peace of Hubertsburg,
ending the Seven Years War:
cession to Great Britain of Canada, Nova Scotia and
Cape Breton by France, and of Florida by Spain;
transfer of Louisiana to Spain by France.
First English measure (the Sugar Act) for taxing the
American colonies.
Proclamation of King George excluding settlers from the
Northwest territory in America.
Outbreak in America of the Indian war called Pontiac's War.
Resignation of Lord Bute from the British Ministry and
formation of the Grenville Ministry.
Death of Augustus III. of Poland.
Birth of Jean Paul Frederick Richter (d. 1825).
{3845}
1764.
Expulsion of Wilkes from the British House of Commons.
Election of Joseph II., King of the Romans.
Election of Stanislaus Poniatowsky to the Polish throne,
under the protection of Russia.
Ordonnance of Louis XV. forbidding the existence of the
Society of Jesus in France.
Beginning of the survey of Mason and Dixon's line,
determining the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Publication of Goldsmith's "The Traveller," and
of Rousseau's "Emile."
1765.
First derangement of the English king, George III.
Dismissal of Grenville.
Formation of the Rockingham Ministry.
Death, in Austria, of the Emperor Francis I.;
imperial coronation of Joseph II.
Passage of the English Stamp Act for the taxation of
the American colonies;
formation in the colonies of the Sons of Liberty, and
convening of the Stamp Act Congress.
Publication of the first volume of
Blackstone's "Commentaries."
1766.
The Grafton-Chatham Ministry in power in Great Britain.
Repeal of the colonial Stamp Act.
Discovery of hydrogen, by Cavendish.
Publication of Lessing's "Laokoön," and of
Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield."
Birth of John Dalton (d. 1844).
1761.
Suppression of the Jesuits in Spain.
Beginning of the first war of the English in
India with Hyder Ali.
The Townshend measures of the British Parliament for
taxation of the colonies.
Birth of August Wilhelm von Schlegel (d. 1845).
Birth of Wilhelm von Humboldt (d. 1835).
Birth of Andrew Jackson (d. 1845).
Birth of John Quincy Adams (d. 1848).
1768.
The Middlesex elections in England;
repeated expulsion and re-election of Wilkes;
withdrawal of Chatham from the Ministry.
Religious disturbances in Poland.
Confederation of Bar.
Turkish interference against Russia.
Circular letter of Massachusetts to the
other American colonies.
Cession of Corsica (in revolt) by Genoa to France.
1769.
Demand of Spain, France and Naples at Rome for the
abolition of the Society of Jesus.
Election of Pope Clement XIV.
Patents issued in Great Britain to James Watt for his first
improvements in the steam engine, and to Richard Arkwright
for his roller-spinning "water-frame";
publication of the first "Letters of Junius."
Migration of Daniel Boone from North Carolina into Kentucky.
Birth of Wellington (d. 1852).
Birth of Napoleon Bonaparte in Corsica (d. 1821).
Birth of Alexander von Humboldt (d. 1850).
Birth of Cuvier (d. 1832).
1770.
Patenting in Great Britain of Hargreave's spinning-jenny.
Beginning of the administration of Lord North in Great Britain.
Publication of Burke's "Thoughts on the Present Discontents,"
of Goldsmith's "Deserted Village," and of the first edition
of the "Encyclopædia Britannica."
Birth of Thorwaldsen (d. 1844).
Birth of Wordsworth (d. 1850).
Birth of Hegel (d. 1831).
Birth of George Canning (d. 1827).
Birth of Beethoven (d. 1827).
1771.
Freedom of the reporting of proceedings conceded by
the British Parliament.
Insurrection of the Regulators in North Carolina and
battle of the Alamance.
Constitutional revolution in Sweden carried out
by Gustavus III.
Birth of Bichat (d. 1802).
Birth of Sir Walter Scott (d. 1832).
1772.
Treaty for the first Partitioning of Poland arranged
between Prussia, Austria and Russia.
The institution in the American colonies of Committees
of Correspondence.
Forming of the Watauga Association, from which grew the
State of Tennessee.
Decision by Lord Mansfield, in the case of the negro
Somersett, that a slave cannot be held in England.
Birth of Coleridge (d. 1834).
Birth of Ricardo (d. 1823).
1773.
Papal decree of Pope Clement XIV. abolishing
the Society of Jesus.
Appointment of Warren Hastings, the first English
Governor-General in India.
Resistance in the English American colonies to
the duty on tea;
the Boston tea-party.
Publication of Goethe's "Götz von Berlichingen."
Birth of Metternich (d. 1859).
1774.
Death of Louis XV., king of France;
accession of Louis XVI.
Passage of the Boston Port Bill, the Massachusetts Act,
and the Quebec Act by the British Parliament.
Meeting of the first Continental Congress of the
American colonies;
organization of the revolutionary Provincial Congress in
Massachusetts, and of the Committee of Safety.
Lord Dunmore's War with the Indians;
murder of the family of Logan, the chief.
Publication of Goethe's "Werther."
Discovery of oxygen by Priestley.
Birth of Southey (d. 1843).
1775.
Speech of Burke on "Conciliation with America."
Beginning of the War of the American Revolution:
battles of Lexington and Concord;
siege of Boston;
surprising of Ticonderoga and Crown Point;
battle of Bunker Hill;
creation of the Continental Army;
appointment of Washington Commander-in-Chief;
expedition to Canada.
Execution of Nuncomar in British India.
Election of Pope Pius VI.
Production of Sheridan's "The Rivals" and
of Beaumarchais' "Barbière de Seville."
Birth of Daniel O'Connell (d. 1847).
Birth of Charles Lamb (d. 1834).
Birth of Walter Savage Landor (d. 1864).
Birth of Turner (d. 1851).
1776.
Dismissal of Turgot in France by Louis XVI., yielding to
the intrigues of the French court.
Evacuation of Boston, Massachusetts, by the British army;
repulse of the British from Charleston;
retreat of Arnold from Canada;
Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress;
battle of Long Island and defeat of the Americans;
retreat of Washington into New Jersey and
his success at Trenton.
Publication of Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations,"
of Paine's "Common Sense,"
of Bentham's "Fragment on Government,"
and of the first volume of Gibbon's"
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire."
Birth of Niebuhr (d. 1831).
Birth of Herbart (d. 1841).
1777.
Washington's victory over Cornwallis at Princeton;
British occupation of Philadelphia, and victories over
the Americans at Brandywine and Germantown;
arrival in America of Lafayette and Steuben;
Burgoyne's expedition from Canada and surrender at Saratoga;
the winter of Washington's army at Valley Forge;
the Conway Cabal.
Production of Sheridan's "School for Scandal."
Birth of Henry Clay (d. 1852).
1778.
War of the Bavarian Succession between Austria and Prussia.
Alliance of France with the American colonies.
British evacuation of Philadelphia and defeat at Monmouth;
Tory and Indian savagery at Cherry Valley and Wyoming;
arrival of a French fleet and army in America;
capture of Savannah by the British.
Publication of Fanny Burney's "Evelina."
Birth of Humphry Davy (d. 1829).
Birth of Guy-Lussac (d. 1850).
{3846}
1779.
Clark's conquest of the Northwest for Virginia;
storming of Stony Point on the Hudson by General Wayne;
expedition of General Sullivan against the Seneca Indians
in western New York;
sea-fight of the Bon Homme Richard (Paul Jones) and
the Serapis;
repulse of French and Americans from Savannah.
Publication of Lessing's "Nathan der Weise."
Birth of Joseph Story (d. 1845).
Birth of Thomas Moore (d. 1852).
Birth of Berzelius (d. 1848).
1780.
The Gordon No-Popery Riots in England.
Death of Maria Theresa of Austria.
Second war of the British in India with Hyder Ali.
British siege and capture of Charleston, S. C., and defeat
of the Americans at Camden;
treason of Benedict Arnold;
American victory at King's Mountain.
Insurrection of Tupac Amaru in Peru.
Gradual emancipation act passed in Pennsylvania.
Birth of Béranger (d. 1857).
1781.
Dismissal of Neckar by the French king.
Edict of Toleration in the Austrian dominions and
abolition of serfdom, by Joseph II.
Reconquest of West Florida from the English by Spain.
Defeat of British troops by the Americans at the Cowpens
and Guilford Court House;
British victory at Hobkirk's Hill;
drawn battle of Eutaw Springs;
surrender of Cornwallis and the British army at Yorktown;
final ratification of the Articles of Confederation of the
United States of America.
Extinction of slavery in Massachusetts.
English and Dutch naval battle off the Dogger Banks.
Publication of Kant's "Critique of the Pure Reason."
Production of Schiller's "Die Räuber."
Birth of George Stephenson (d. 1848).
Birth of Sir David Brewster (d. 1868).
1782.
English naval victory by Rodney, in the West Indies,
over the French fleet.
Fall of Lord North;
the Rockingham Ministry.
Destruction of the Barrier Fortresses in the Netherlands,
by the Emperor.
The first Sunday School opened by Robert Raikes,
in Massachusetts.
Concession of legislative independence to Ireland by England.
Peace overtures from the British Government to the
United States, and opening of negotiations.
Publication of Priestley's "Corruptions of Christianity."
Birth of Froebel (d. 1852).
Birth of Lamennais (d. 1854).
Birth of John C. Calhoun (d. 1850).
Birth of Daniel Webster (d. 1852).
1783.
Treaty of peace signed at Paris, between Great Britain
and the United States of America;
evacuation of New York by the British army.
Fall of the Coalition Ministry in Great Britain;
beginning of the administration of the younger Pitt.
Seizure of the Crimea by Catherine II. of Russia.
Birth of Bolivar (d. 1830).
Birth of Washington Irving (d. 1859).
1784.
The affair of the Diamond Necklace, in France.
Founding, at Philadelphia, of the first Daily Newspaper
in America.
Appearance of the Peep-o'-Day Boys in Ireland.
Birth of Manzoni (d. 1873).
1785.
Negotiation of the United States with Spain for the free
navigation of the Mississippi river.
Publication of Cowper's "The Task,"
Paley's "Moral and Political Philosophy,"
and Reid's "Essays on the Intellectual Powers."
Birth of De Quincey (d. 1859).
1786.
Electrical discoveries of Galvani.
Publication of Burns' "Poems chiefly
in the Scottish Dialect."
1787.
Meeting of the Assembly of Notables in France.
Conflict of the French Crown with the Parliament of Paris.
Impeachment of Warren Hastings by the British
House of Commons.
Suppression of Shay's rebellion in Massachusetts.
Passage by the American Congress of the Ordinance for the
Government of the Northwest Territory.
Meeting of the Convention which framed the Federal
Constitution of the United States of America.
Birth of Archbishop Whately (d. 1863).
Birth of Guizot (d. 1874).
1788.
Second derangement of George III. of England.
Revolt in the Austrian provinces in the Netherlands.
State ratification and complete adoption of the Federal
Constitution of the United States of America.
Opening of the trial of Warren Hastings.
Establishment of an English settlement of convicts
at Botany Bay.
Publication of St. Pierre's "Paul and Virginia."
Birth of Sir Robert Peel (d. 1850).
Birth of Schopenhauer (d. 1860).
Birth of Lord Byron (d. 1824).
Birth of Sir William Hamilton (d. 1856).
1789.
Meeting of the States-General of France;
seizure of power by the Third Estate;
insurrection of Paris;
taking of the Bastille;
formation of the National Guard;
emigration of the nobles;
rising of the women;
escorting of the king to Paris;
appropriation of Church property.
War of the English in India with Tippoo Saib.
Organization of the Government of the United States of
America under its new Constitution,
with George Washington chosen President.
Erection, at Baltimore, of the first Roman Catholic
episcopal see in the United States.
Founding of the Tammany Society in New York.
Publication of White's "Natural History of Selborne."
Birth of James Fenimore Cooper (d. 1851).
1790.
Issue of French Assignats.
Feast of the Federation;
rise of the revolutionary clubs.
Death, in Austria, of the Emperor Joseph II., and
accession of Leopold II.
1791.
Flight and arrest of the French king at Varennes;
completion of the French Constitution and its acceptance
by the king;
tumult in the Champs de Mars;
dissolution of the Constituent National Assembly;
meeting of the Legislative Assembly;
appearance of the Girondins;
repeal in France of all enactments against the Jews.
Reformed Constitution for Poland suppressed by Russia.
Organization in Ireland of the Society of United Irishmen.
Passage of the Canadian Constitutional Act, dividing the
province into Upper and Lower Canada.
Incorporation of the first Bank of the United States;
report of Hamilton on manufactures;
adoption of the first ten Amendments to the Constitution
of the United States of America.
Insurrection of slaves in Hayti.
Separation of Kentucky from Virginia and admission to the
American Union as a State.
Publication of Boswell's "Life of Dr. Johnson,"
of Paine's "Rights of Man,"
of Burke's "Thoughts on French Affairs,"
and of Schiller's "Thirty Years War."
Birth of Faraday (d. 1867).
Birth of S. F. B. Morse (d. 1872).
{3847}
1792.
Declaration of war by France with Austria and Prussia;
dismissal of Girondin ministers;
mob attack on the Tuilleries and massacre of the Swiss;
deposition and imprisonment of the king;
seizure of power by the insurgent Commune of Paris;
strife of Jacobins and Girondins;
withdrawal of Lafayette from the country;
the September Massacres;
meeting of the National Convention;
proclamation of the Republic;
battle of Valmy;
annexation of Savoy and Nice;
trial of the king.
Death, in Austria, of the Emperor Leopold II.
Accession of Francis II.
Beginning of Pinel's reform in the treatment of the insane.
Re-election of George Washington,
President of the United States.
Birth of Shelley (d. 1822).
Birth of Cousin (d. 1867).
1793.
Execution of Louis XVI.;
declaration of war with England;
invasion of Holland;
formation of the Revolutionary Tribunal and the Committee
of Public Safety;
fall of the Girondins;
formation of the European Coalition;
revolt in La Vendée, and in Lyons, Toulon,
and other cities;
assassination of Marat;
beginning of the Reign of Terror;
execution of the queen, and the Girondins;
institution of the "worship of Reason";
the "Noyades" at Nantes.
Partial concession of rights to Catholics in Ire]and.
Second Partition of Poland.
Passage of the first Fugitive Slave Law by the
United States Congress.
Invention of the cotton-gin by Eli Whitney.
Emancipation of slaves proclaimed by the French in Hayti,
and alliance formed with the blacks, under Toussaint
L'Ouverture, against Spaniards and English.
Publication of Wordsworth's "An Evening Walk" and
"Descriptive Sketches."
1794.
Destruction of the Hébertists in France;
fall and death of Danton;
Feast of the Supreme Being;
conquest of the Austrian Netherlands;
climax of the Terror;
downfall and end of Robespierre and of the Jacobin Club;
reaction;
the White Terror;
subjugation of Holland;
Chouannerie in Brittany.
Whisky Insurrection in Pennsylvania.
Negotiation of the Jay Treaty between Great Britain
and the United States.
Decisive victory of General Wayne over the
Indians on the Maumee.
Publication of Fichte's "Wissenschaftslehre"
and of Goethe's "Reinecke Fuchs."
Birth of William Cullen Bryant (d. 1878).
Birth of Meyerbeer (d. 1864).
1795.
Suppression of insurrection by the Paris bourgeois;
adoption of the Constitution of the Year III.;
peace with Spain;
acquisition of Spanish San Domingo;
Austrian victory at Loana;
insurrection of the 13th Vendemiare put down by
Napoleon Bonaparte;
dissolution of the National Convention;
government of the Directory.
Formation of the Orange Society, in Ireland.
Third Partition of Poland.
Sale of the Western Reserve of Connecticut (in Ohio).
Publication of the first part of Goethe's
"Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre" and of Richter's "Hesperus."
Birth of Keats (d. 1821).
Birth of Carlyle (d. 1881).
Birth of Dr. Arnold (d. 1842).
1796.
Bonaparte sent to command in Italy;
submission of Sardinia;
expulsion of the Austrians from Lombardy;
formation of the Cispadane Republic.
Unsuccessful French expedition under Hoche to Ireland.
Death of Catherine II. of Russia and accession of Paul.
Publication of Washington's Farewell Address;
election of John Adams to the Presidency
of the United States.
Publication of Southey's "Joan of Arc" and
of Coleridge's first volume of "Poems."
1797.
Bonaparte's Treaty of Tolentino with the Pope;
his invasion of Austria;
peace preliminaries of Leoben;
overthrow and enslavement of Venice, delivered to Austria;
creation of the Ligurian and Cisalpine Republics.
Peace of Campo Formio;
revolutionary Coup d'Etat at Paris.
Difficulties between the American and the French republics.
Suspension of specie payments in England.
Mutiny of the British fleet.
British naval victories, of Cape Vincent, over the fleet of
Spain, and of Camperdown over that of Holland.
Birth of Schubert (d. 1828).
Birth of Joseph Henry [Uncertain date] (d. 1878).
1798.
French intrigues at Rome;
imprisonment of the Pope and formation of the Roman Republic.
Subjugation of Switzerland by the French, and formation of
the Helvetian Republic.
Expedition of Bonaparte to Egypt;
his seizure of Malta and expulsion of the Knights of St. John.
Destruction of the French fleet by Lord Nelson in the
battle of the Nile;
siege and conquest of Malta by Nelson.
Declaration of war against France by Turkey.
Expulsion of the king from Naples and creation of the
Parthenopeian Republic.
Suppressed rebellion in Ireland and imprisonment and
suicide of Wolfe Tone.
Publication in England of Jenner's work on Vaccination.
Passage of the Alien and Sedition Laws in the United States,
and adoption of the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions.
Publication of the "Lyrical Ballads" of Wordsworth and
Coleridge, of Landor's "Gebir,"
of Schiller's "Wallenstein's Lager,"
and of Malthus' "Principles of Population."
Discovery that Heat is a mode of Motion, by Count Rumford.
Birth of Thomas Hood (d. 1845).
Birth of Comte (d. 1857).
1799.
Bonaparte's advance into Syria and repulse from Acre;
his victory at Aboukir.
The armies of Austria and Russia in Italy and Switzerland.
Expedition from England against Holland;
capture of the Dutch fleet.
Fall of the new republics in Italy.
Return of Bonaparte from Egypt;
overthrow of the Directory;
creation of the Consulate;
Bonaparte First Consul.
Gradual emancipation enacted in New York.
Invention of Volta's Pile.
Birth of Balzac (d. 1850).
Birth of Pushkin (d. 1837).
1800.
Legislative Union of Great Britain and Ireland.
Creation of the United Kingdom.
Bonaparte's Marengo campaign in Italy.
Moreau's victory at Hohenlinden.
Assassination of Kleber in Egypt.
Retrocession of Louisiana to France by Spain.
Convention of the United States with France from which
arose the French Spoliation Claims.
Election of Thomas Jefferson President of the United States.
Beginning of Robert Owen's social experiments at New Lanark.
Decomposition of water with the Voltaic pile,
by Nicholson and Carlisle.
Publication of Richter's "Titan,"
Birth of Moltke (d. 1891).
Birth of Macaulay (d. 1859).
Birth of Heine (d. 1856).
{3848}
Nineteenth Century.
1801.
Defection of the Russian czar, Paul, from the European
coalition, and his alliance with Napoleon.
Treaty of Luneville between Napoleon and the Emperor
Francis, and of Foligno between France and Naples.
Formation of the northern league of neutrals.
English bombardment of Copenhagen.
Murder of the czar, Paul, and accession, in Russia,
of Alexander I.
Surrender of the French army in Egypt to the English.
Concordat between Napoleon and the Pope.
Imposition by Napoleon of new constitutions on the Dutch
and Cisalpine republics.
Cession of Louisiana to France by Spain.
Resignation of Pitt from the British premiership;
formation of the Addington Ministry.
Passage of the first English Factory Act.
Appointment of John Marshall to be Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court of the United States.
Inauguration of Jefferson as President of the United States.
Opening of war by the United States with the pirates of Tripoli.
Independence of Hayti proclaimed by Toussaint L' Ouverture.
Birth of Farragut (d. 1870).
1802.
Peace of Amiens between England and France.
Voting of the First Consulate for life to Napoleon
by the French people;
his election to the presidency of the Cisalpine republic.
Subjection of Switzerland, and annexation of Piedmont,
Parma and Elba to France.
Complaints of Napoleon against the English press;
the Peltier trial.
Founding of the United States Military Academy at West Point.
Subjection of Hayti by the French and treacherous capture
of Toussaint L'Ouverture.
Founding of the Edinburgh Review.
Birth of Victor Hugo (d. 1885).
Birth of Kossuth (d. 1894).
Birth of Harriet Martineau (d. 1876).
Birth of Father Lacordaire (d. 1861).
1803.
Renewal of war between Great Britain and France;
detention of English in France.
Secularization of the spiritual principalities in Germany
and absorption of free cities.
Purchase of Louisiana by the United States from France.
Report to the Congress of the United States on the British
impressment of seamen from American ships.
Introduction of sheep-farming in Australia.
Defeat of the Mahrattas at Assaye and Argaum by Wellesley
(afterward Wellington).
The Emmet insurrection in Ireland.
Birth of Emerson (d. 1882).
Birth of Francis Deak (d. 1876).
Birth of Ericsson (d. 1889).
1804.
Napoleon's abduction and execution of the Due d'Enghien.
His elevation to the throne as emperor;
his coronation by the Pope.
Completion of the civil Code for France.
Return of Pitt to the head of government in England.
Federalist secession movement in the United States;
re-election of President Jefferson;
undertaking of the exploring journey of Lewis and Clark
across the American continent.
Death of Hamilton in duel with Burr.
Birth of Hawthorne (d. 1864).
Birth of Richard Cobden (d. 1865).
Birth of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield (d. 1881).
Birth of George Sand (d. 1876).
Birth of Sainte-Beuve (d. 1869).
1805.
Bestowal of the crown of Italy on Napoleon;
formation of the third European Coalition against him;
his abortive plans for the invasion of England;
his extraordinary march to the Danube;
his capture of the army of Mack;
his occupation of Vienna;
his victory at Austerlitz.
Nelson's victory and death at Trafalgar.
Treaty of Presburg between France and Austria.
Creation of the kingdoms of Bavaria and Würtemberg and
the grand duchy of Baden.
Impeachment trial of Judge Chase in the United States.
Treaty of the United States with Tripoli,
ending the payment of tribute.
Publication of Scott's "Lay of the Last Minstrel."
Birth of Hans Christian Andersen (d. 1875).
1806.
Death of Pitt;
formation of the British Ministry of All the Talents;
death of Fox.
British Order in Council declaring a blockade of the
continental coast from Brest to the Elbe;
Napoleon's Berlin Decree declaring the British islands
under blockade and interdicting all intercourse with them.
Formation of the Confederation of the Rhine.
Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire;
resignation of its sovereignty by Francis II., and his
assumption thenceforth of the title of "Emperor of Austria."
Humiliation and oppression of Prussia by the French emperor;
the nation driven to war and subjugated at Jena.
Advance of the French into Poland;
war with Russia.
Dethronement of the Bourbon dynasty in Naples and bestowal
of the crown on Joseph Bonaparte.
Creation of the kingdom of Holland, with Louis Bonaparte
on the throne.
Acquisition of the Cape of Good Hope by England from the Dutch.
Filibustering scheme of Aaron Burr in the United States.
Publication of Coleridge's "Christabel."
Birth of John Stuart Mill (d. 1873).
1807.
British Order in Council, retaliating the Berlin Decree,
followed by the Milan Decree of Napoleon.
Battles of Eylau and Friedland between the French and
the Russians.
Meeting of Napoleon and Alexander I. of Russia on
the raft at Tilsit;
their public treaty and their secret agreements.
British bombardment of Copenhagen and seizure of
the Danish fleet.
Creation of the kingdom of Westphalia for Jerome Bonaparte.
Baron von Stein placed at the head of affairs in Prussia.
Delusive arrangement of Napoleon with the king of Spain
for the partition of Portugal;
occupation of Lisbon by the French;
flight of the royal family of Portugal to Brazil.
Passage of an Act of the British Parliament for the
suppression of the Slave-trade;
fall of the Ministry of All the Talents;
formation of the Portland Ministry.
Arrest and trial of Burr in the United States.
British outrage on the United States frigate Chesapeake;
passage of Embargo Act by the American Congress.
Abolition of the Slave-trade in the United States.
Deposition of the reforming sultan, Selim III.,
by the Turkish Janissaries;
elevation of his nephew Mustapha to the throne.
First publication of Dalton's Atomic theory of Chemistry.
First trips of Fulton's steamboat "Clermont."
Birth of Longfellow (d. 1882).
Birth of Garibaldi (d. 1882).
1808.
Erfurt conference and treaty of Napoleon and the Czar.
Formation of the Tugendbund in Germany;
Fichte's addresses on the state of that country.
Napoleon's crime against Spain;
knavish acquisition of the throne for his brother Joseph;
the Spanish national revolt;
English troops in the peninsula;
Napoleon's crushing campaign.
Opening of the French siege of Saragossa.
Transfer of the crown of Naples from
Joseph Bonaparte to Murat;
appearance of the Carbonari.
Conquest of Finland by Russia from Sweden.
Murder of the deposed Turkish sultan, Selim III., and
repeated revolutions at Constantinople.
Election of James Madison President of the United States.
Founding of the Quarterly Review.
Birth of Mazzini (d. 1872).
Birth of General Robert E. Lee (d. 1870).
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1809.
Renewal of war between Austria and France;
revolt in the Tyrol;
Napoleon again in Vienna;
his defeat at Aspern and victory at Wagram;
arrangement of peace by the Treaty of Schonbrunn, taking
an enormous territory from the Austrian empire.
Sir John Moore's advance in Spain;
his retreat and death;
fall of Saragossa.
Wellington (then Sir Arthur Wellesley) in command
of the British forces in the Peninsula;
his passage of the Douro and battle of Talavera;
his retreat into Portugal and construction of the Lines
of Torres Vedras.
The British Walcheren expedition.
Inauguration of President Madison, in the United States;
substitution of Non-intercourse for the Embargo.
Publication of Byron's "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers."
Birth of Abraham Lincoln (d. 1865).
Birth of Gladstone.
Birth of Charles Darwin (d. 1882).
Birth of Tennyson (d. 1892).
Birth of Elizabeth Barrett (Mrs. Browning) (d. 1861).
Birth of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, (d. 1894).
Birth of Mendelssohn (d. 1847).
1810.
Abdication of the throne of Holland by Louis Bonaparte.
Annexation of Holland, the Hansa towns and the Swiss Valais
to France
Suppression of the Tyrolese revolt and
execution of Andrew Hofer.
Napoleon's divorce from Josephine and marriage to the
arch-duchess Maria Louisa of Austria.
Massena's defeat at Busaco;
his recoil from the Lines of Torres Vedras.
Unceasing guerilla war in Spain.
Final insanity of George III. of England.
Revolution in Buenos Ayres and Chile, establishing
complete separation from Spain.
Election of Bernadotte to be Crown Prince of Sweden
and successor to the throne.
Founding of the University of Berlin.
Birth of Cavour (d. 1861).
Birth of Freiligrath (d. 1876).
Birth of William Henry Channing (d. 1883).
1811.
Defeat of Massena at Fuentes de Onoro.
Regency of the Prince of Wales instituted in Great Britain.
War in the United States against the Indian chief
Tecumseh and his league.
Declaration of the independence of Venezuela.
Treacherous destruction of the Mamelukes in Egypt
by Mehemet Ali.
Birth of Thackeray (d. 1863).
Birth of John Bright (d. 1889).
Birth of Lord Lawrence (d. 1879).
Birth of Edgar A. Poe (d. 1849).
1812.
Rupture of Napoleon with the czar;
his invasion of Russia;
battles of Smolensk and Borodino;
advance to Moscow and occupation of the city;
burning of Moscow and disastrous retreat of the French.
Wellington's victory at Salamanca and entry into Madrid;
his retreat into Portugal.
Establishment of a Constitution in Spain.
Assassination of Mr. Perceval, prime minister of England;
formation of the Ministry of Lord Liverpool.
Declaration of war by the United States
against Great Britain;
opposition of Federalists;
surrender of Hull at Detroit;
battle of Queenstown Heights;
naval victories by the U. S. frigates Constitution and
United States.
Re-election of President Madison.
Admission of the state of Louisiana to the American Union.
Appalling earthquake at Caraccas.
Publication of the first and second cantos of
Byron's "Childe Harold."
Publication of "Kinder und Haus-Märchen" by
the brothers Grimm.
Birth of Dickens (d. 1870).
Birth of Robert Browning (d. 1889).
1813.
The War of Liberation In Germany;
Austria and Great Britain in a renewed Coalition;
battles of Lützen, Bautzen, Kulm, Gross-Beeren, the
Katzbach, Dennewitz, Leipsic (Battle of the Nations), Hanau;
retreat of Napoleon beyond the Rhine.
Fall of the kingdom of Westphalia.
Wellington's victory at Vittoria;
expulsion of the French from Spain;
restoration of Ferdinand VII. to the throne.
Recovery of independence by Holland.
Luddite riots in England.
Naval battle of Lake Erie In the war between England and
the United States;
defeat and death of Tecumseh;
burning of Toronto;
American expedition against Montreal;
British surprise of Fort Niagara and burning of Buffalo;
outbreak of the Creek Indians.
Publication of Shelley's "Queen Mab."
Birth of Henry Ward Beecher (d. 1887).
Birth of Richard Wagner (d. 1883).
1814.
Desertion of Napoleon by Murat.
Invasion of France by the Allies;
Napoleon's unsuccessful campaign of defense;
surrender of Paris;
abdication of the fallen emperor;
treaty of Fontainebleau;
retirement of Napoleon to Elba;
return of the Bourbons to the throne of France,
in the person of Louis XVIII.
Treaty of Paris.
Battle of Toulouse, ending the Peninsular War.
Meeting of the Congress of Vienna.
Return of Pope Pius VII. to Rome;
restoration of the Jesuits.
Union of Belgium and Holland in the
Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Union of Norway and Sweden.
Abrogation in Spain of the Constitution of 1812
by Ferdinand;
abolition of the Cortès;
re-establishment of the Inquisition.
Restoration of Austrian despotism in Northern Italy.
Battles of Chippewa and Lundy's Lane, siege of Fort Erie,
British capture of Washington, and naval fight on Lake
Champlain, in the war between England and the United States;
Hartford Convention of Federalists opposed to the war;
treaty of peace negotiated at Ghent.
Temporary recovery of Chile by the Spaniards.
Dictatorship of Dr. Francia established in Paraguay.
Building of the first locomotive of George Stephenson.
Publication of Scott's "Waverley."
Birth of Motley (d. 1877).
Birth of Edwin M. Stanton (d. 1869).
1815.
Return of Napoleon from Elba;
flight of Louis XVIII;
the Hundred Days of restored Empire;
the Waterloo campaign and end of the Corsican's career;
his final abdication, surrender to the English,
and captivity at St. Helena.
Second Bourbon restoration and second Treaty of Paris.
Execution of Marshal Ney.
Formation of the Holy Alliance.
Reconstruction of Germany;
formation of the Germanic Confederation.
Fall and death of Murat.
Establishment of the protectorate of Great Britain over
the Ionian Islands.
Enactment of the British Corn Law, to maintain high prices
for bread-stuffs.
Repulse of the British at New Orleans by General Jackson.
War of the United States with the Dey of Algiers.
Birth of Bismarck.
1816.
Agitation for Parliamentary Reform;
multiplication of Hampden Clubs.
Admission of Indiana into the American Union.
Charter granted to the second Bank of the United States.
Election of James Monroe President of the United States.
Bombardment of Algiers by Lord Exmouth.
First Seminole War.
Publication of Bryant's "Thanatopsis."
{3850}
1817.
Rioting in England;
march of the Blanketeers from Manchester.
Inauguration of James Monroe,
President of the United states.
Admission of Mississippi to the American Union.
Formation of the Burschenschaft in Germany.
Birth of Theodor Mommsen.
1818.
Complete establishment of Chilean independence.
General Jackson's invasion of Florida.
Publication of Irving's "Sketch Book."
1819.
"Peterloo Massacre" at Manchester, England.
Assassination of Kotzebue by the student, Sand.
Admission of Alabama to the American Union as a state.
First voyage across the Atlantic by a vessel
(the "Savannah ") using steam.
Discovery of Electro-magnetism, by Oersted.
Complete attainment of independence in Venezuela and
New Granada, under the lead of Bolivar.
Publication of Schopenhauer's
"Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung."
Birth of Marian Evans (George Eliot) (d. 1880).
Birth of Charles Kingsley (d. 1875).
Birth of James Russell Lowell (d. 1891).
1820.
Death of George III. of England;
accession of George IV.;
trial of Queen Caroline.
Adoption in the United States of the Missouri Compromise,
excluding slavery from the territories
north of latitude 36° 30';
admission of Maine to the Union.
Re-election of Monroe to the American presidency.
Assassination of the duke of Berry in France.
Revolution in Spain, restoring the constitution of 1812.
Revolution in Portugal,
instituting a constitutional government.
Revolution in Naples and Sicily, extorting a constitution
from the king.
Congress of sovereigns of the Holy Alliance at Laybach.
Publication of Keats' "Lamia," "Isabella,"
"Eve of St. Agnes," "Hyperion."
Birth of General Sherman (d. 1891).
Birth of Professor Tyndall (d. 1893).
1821.
Revolution in Mexico, establishing independence.
Liberation of Peru by San Martin and the Chileans.
Return of King John VI. from Brazil to Portugal.
Union of Venezuela, New Granada and Ecuador in the
Republic of Colombia.
Cession of Florida to the United States by Spain.
Admission of Missouri to the American Union.
Revolt in Greece against the rule of the Turks.
Suppression of the constitutional movement in the Two
Sicilies by Austrian arms acting for the Holy Alliance.
Constitutional rising in Piedmont;
abdication of Victor Emmanuel I. in favor of his
brother Charles Felix;
interference of Austria;
suppression of the revolution.
Publication of De Quincey's "Confessions of an Opium Eater,"
and Cooper's "The Spy."
Birth of Jenny Lind (d. 1887).
1822.
Meeting of the Congress of Verona.
Canning made foreign Secretary in the British Government.
Proclamation of the independence of Brazil;
Dom Pedro crowned emperor.
Pronunciamento in Mexico, making Iturbide emperor.
Turkish massacre of the Greeks of Chios.
Publication of Lamb's "Essays of Elia," Heine's "Gedichte,"
and Wilson's "Noctes Ambrosianæ."
Birth of General Grant (d. 1885).
Birth of Matthew Arnold (d. 1888).
Birth of Pasteur.
Birth of Rosa Bonheur.
1823.
Enunciation of the "Monroe Doctrine," in the annual message
of the President of the United States.
Death of Marco Bozzaris, hero of the Greek insurrection.
Fall of Iturbide In Mexico;
establishment of a republic.
Intervention of France in Spain and overthrow
of the Constitution.
Birth of Renan (d. 1892).
1824-.
Presidential election in the United States,
resulting in no choice by the popular vote;
election of John Quincy Adams by the House of Representatives.
Visit of Lafayette to the United States.
Death of Louis XVIII., the restored king of France,
and accession of Charles X.
Death of Lord Byron in Greece.
The first Anglo-Burmese war.
Formation of the Catholic Association in Ireland.
Decisive battle of Ayacucho,
securing the independence of Brazil.
Founding of the Westminster Review.
Birth of Stonewall Jackson (d. 1863).
Birth of George W. Curtis (d. 1892).
1825.
Opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in
England—the first undertaking for the conveyance of
passengers and goods by steam locomotion.
Opening of the Erie Canal, from Lake Erie to
the Hudson River.
Publication of De Vigny's "Cinq Mars," Cooper's "Last
of the Mohicans," and Heine's "Reisebilder."
Birth of Huxley.
1826.
Abduction of William Morgan and Anti-Masonic
excitement in New York.
Meeting of the Congress of Panama.
Creation of the republic of Bolivia in Upper Peru.
Insurrection and destruction of the Turkish Janissaries.
1827.
Canning's brief premiership in England and sudden death.
Intervention of Russia, England and France
in favor of the Greeks;
battle of Navarino and destruction of the Turkish fleet;
national independence of Greece established.
Extinction of slavery in the state of New r York.
Publication of Hallam's "Constitutional History of England,"
Keble's "Christian Year," and Alfred and Charles Tennyson's
"Poems by Two Brothers."
1828.
Formation of the Ministry of the duke of Wellington
in Great Britain.
Removal of political disabilities from Dissenters in England.
Election of General Andrew Jackson President of
the United States.
Beginning of the construction of the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
Russo-Turkish war;
siege and capture of Varna by the Russians.
Birth of Taine (d. 1893).
1829.
Inauguration of President Jackson;
introduction of the "Spoils System"
in American national politics.
Acknowledgment of Greek independence by the Porte.
Passage by the British Parliament of the
Catholic Emancipation Act for Ireland.
Abolition of slavery in Mexico.
Ending of the Russo-Turkish war by the Treaty of Hadrianople.
1830.
Death, in England, of George IV.;
accession of William IV.;
opening of the final agitation for Parliamentary Reform;
resignation of the Wellington Ministry, succeeded by that
of Earl Grey.
Debate between Webster and Hayne in the United States Senate.
French conquest of Algiers.
Revolution in Paris;
flight of Charles X.;
elevation of Louis Philippe, duke of Orleans, to the throne.
Revolt in Poland.
Recognition of the autonomy of Servia by the Ottoman Porte.
Constitution of the Kingdom of Greece, with Prince Otho
of Bavaria on the throne.
Belgian revolt and separation from Holland.
Publication of the "Book of Mormon" at Palmyra, N. Y.
Publication of the first part of Comte's
"Cours de Philosophie."
{3851}
1831.
Introduction in the British Parliament and defeat of the
first ministerial bill for Parliamentary Reform;
dissolution of Parliament and appeal to the people.
Assumption of the name Conservatives by the English Tories.
Nat Turner's slave-rising in Virginia.
First publication of William Lloyd Garrison's anti-slavery
paper, "The Liberator."
Forced abdication of Dom Pedro I. in Brazil;
accession of Dom Pedro II.
Founding of the system of National Schools in Ireland.
Revolt in the Papal States and in Modena and Parma
suppressed by Austrian troops;
exile of Mazzini from Italy.
Creation of the Kingdom of Belgium, Prince Leopold of
Saxe Coburg king.
Rebellion of Mehemet Ali, Pasha of Egypt, against the Porte.
Discovery of Magneto-electricity, by Faraday.
Publication of Poe's "The Raven."
Birth of General Sheridan (d. 1888).
1832.
Passage by the British Parliament of the bill to
Reform the Representation.
Passage of the Nullification Ordinance of South Carolina;
proclamation of President Jackson against the nullification
movement;
re-election of President Jackson.
The Indian war in America, called the Black Hawk War.
Resistance of Holland to the separation of Belgium;
bombardment of Antwerp by the French and English.
Merciless suppression of the Polish rebellion.
Civil war in Portugal.
Birth of Castelar.
1833.
Compensated emancipation of slaves in the
British West Indies.
Passage of the Compromise Tariff Bill in the United States;
removal of government deposits from the United States
Bank by President Jackson.
Beginning of the revolt of Abd-el-Kader against the French
in Algiers.
Election of Santa Anna to the Presidency of Mexico.
Death of Ferdinand VII. of Spain;
regency of Maria Christina;
insurgent proclamation of Don Carlos;
beginning of the civil war between Carlists and Christinos.
First Prussian treaty which formed the German Zollverein.
Treaty of Unkiar Skelessi between Russia and Turkey.
Publication of Carlyle's "Sartus Resartus," and
Faraday's "Experimental Researches in Electricity."
Birth of General Gordon (d. 1885).
1834.
Resignation of Earl Grey from the premiership in the
English Ministry, succeeded first by Lord Melbourne and
after a brief interval by Sir Robert Peel.
Abolition of slavery in the British colonies.
Organization of the Whig party in the United States.
End of civil war in Portugal.
Publication of Dickens' "Sketches by Boz," and
Balzac's "Père Goriot."
1835.
Recall of Lord Melbourne to the English Ministry, and
retirement of Peel.
Exclusion of anti-slavery literature from the
United States mails;
passage of the act against anti-slavery petitions called
the "Atherton Gag."
Beginning of the second Seminole War.
Death of the Emperor Francis of Austria and accession
of Ferdinand I.
Publication of Browning's" Paracelsus," Thirlwall's
"History of Greece," Strauss's" Das Leben Jesu," and
De Tocqueville's "La Democratie en Amerique."
1836.
Election of Martin Van Buren President of the United States.
Admission of Arkansas to the American Union.
Texan independence of Mexico declared and won at San Jacinto.
First futile attempt of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte to effect
a revolution in France.
Publication of Dickens' "Pickwick."
1837.
Death of William IV. of England, and
accession of Queen Victoria.
Great commercial collapse In the United States;
Introduction of the sub-treasury system.
Founding of Melbourne in Australia.
Outbreak of the rebellion in Canada called
"the Patriot War."
Publication of Carlyle's" French Revolution,"
and Thackeray's "Yellowplush Papers."
Birth of Grover Cleveland.
Birth of Swinburne.
1838.
Beginning of the Chartist agitation in England.
Interference of England in affairs of Afghanistan.
The burning of the "Caroline" in Niagara river;
suppression of the Canadian rebellion.
Beginning of practically successful steam navigation
on the ocean.
Beginning of Cobden's agitation for the repeal of the
English Corn Laws.
1839.
Resignation of Lord Melbourne from the Government in England;
wreck of Peel's Ministry on the "Bedchamber Question";
return of Melbourne to office.
Invasion of Afghanistan by British forces and
dethronement of Dost Mahomed.
Daguerre's discoveries in photography.
1840.
Marriage of Queen Victoria of England to
Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg.
Adoption of Penny Postage in England.
Election of General William Henry Harrison
President of the United States;
the "Log-cabin and Hard-cider campaign."
Settlement of the Mormons at Nauvoo.
Second revolutionary attempt of
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte in France;
his imprisonment at Ham.
Reunion of Upper and Lower Canada.
Opium War of England with China.
Quadruple alliance for the settlement
of the Egyptian question;
British bombardment of Alexandria;
hereditary possession of the pashalik of Egypt secured
to Mehemet Ali.
1841.
Fall of the Melbourne Ministry in England;
Peel made Prime Minister.
Death of President Harrison;
advancement of Vice President John Tyler to the
Presidency of the United States;
his breach with the Whig party.
Revolt in Afghanistan;
frightful retreat and destruction of the British.
Founding of the Brook Farm Association in Massachusetts.
Birth of the Prince of Wales.
1842.
Negotiation of the Ashburton Treaty between Great Britain and
the United States, settling the northeastern boundary question.
Return of British forces to Cabul, Afghanistan.
End of the Opium War;
treaty of peace between England and China.
The Dorr Rebellion in Rhode Island.
1843.
Disruption of the Church of Scotland.
Publication of Ruskin's "Modern Painters."
1844.
Election of James K. Polk President of the United States.
Completion, between Washington and Baltimore, of the first
line of electric telegraph, under the direction of Prof.
Morse.
Passage of the English Bank Charter Act.
Murder of Joe Smith, the founder of Mormonism, by a mob.
Publication of Dumas' "Trois Mousquetaires."
{3852}
1845.
Annexation of Texas to the American Union;
splitting of the Democratic party of the United States into
Hunkers and Barnburners, or Hard-Shells and Soft-Shells.
Beginning of the war of the English with the Sikhs.
Arctic expedition of Sir John Franklin from which he never
returned.
Publication of Carlyle's "Cromwell's Letters and Speeches,"
and Hawthorne's "Mosses from an Old Manse."
1846.
Repeal of the British Corn Laws.
The Potato Famine in Ireland.
War of the United States with Mexico;
defeat in the United States Senate of the "Wilmot Proviso,"
to exclude slavery from territory about to be acquired
from Mexico;
American conquest of California;
migration of the Mormons from Nauvoo to Great Salt Lake.
Settlement of the Oregon boundary dispute.
Adams' and Le Verrier's discovery of the planet Neptune
by mathematical calculation.
Patenting of the Sewing-machine by Elias Howe.
End of resistance to the French in Algiers;
surrender and imprisonment of Abd-el-Kader.
Publication of the first volume of Grote's
"History of Greece."
1847.
Successful campaign of General Scott in Mexico.
Civil war in Switzerland;
suppression of the Sonderbund.
Death of Daniel O'Connell.
Publication of Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre," the first
part of Thackeray's "Vanity Fair,"
and Longfellow's "Evangeline."
Birth of Edison.
1848.
Revolution in France:
abdication and flight of the king;
creation of the National Workshops;
insurrection of the workmen, suppressed by General Cavaignac;
organization of the Second Republic,
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte President.
Revolutionary movement in Germany:
rioting in Berlin;
meeting of National Assembly at Frankfort;
election of Archduke John of Austria to be
Administrator of Germany;
forcible dispersion of the Prussian National Assembly.
Revolutionary risings in Austria and Hungary:
bombardment of Prague and Vienna;
abdication of the Emperor Ferdinand and accession of
Francis Joseph.
Revolutionary movements in Italy:
Neapolitan insurrection crushed by King Ferdinand II.;
expulsion of Austrians from Milan and Venice;
undertaking of Charles Albert, king of Sardinia, to support
and head the revolution, and his defeat by the Austrian
general Radetzky;
ineffectual concessions of Pope Pius IX. to the Romans;
his flight to Gaeta;
expulsion of the dukes of Modena and Parma and extortion
of a constitution from the grand-duke of Tuscany.
Suppression of the "Young Ireland" rebellion.
Schleswig-Holstein war in Denmark.
Revision of the constitution of the Swiss Confederation.
Last demonstration of the Chartists in England.
Organization of the Free Soil party of the United States
in convention at Buffalo;
election, by the Whigs, of General Zachary Taylor President
of the United States.
Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo between the United States and
Mexico;
purchase and cession of New Mexico and California to the
United States;
discovery of gold in California;
admission of Wisconsin to the American Union.
Publication of the first two volumes of Macaulay's
"History of England."
Birth of Arthur J. Balfour.
1849.
Framing of a constitution for a new Empire of Germany by
the National Assembly at Frankfort;
offer of the imperial crown to the king of Prussia and
its refusal;
failure of the work of the Assembly and end of the
revolutionary movement in Germany.
Declaration of Hungarian independence and formation of the
Hungarian Republic, with Louis Kossuth for its President;
interference of Russia to aid the Austrians in suppressing
the Magyar revolt;
surrender of Görgei;
escape of Kossuth and other leaders into Turkey.
Renewed attempt of Charles Albert of Sardinia against the
Austrians in Lombardy and his crushing defeat at Mortara
and Novara;
his resignation of the crown in favor of his son,
Victor Emmanuel II.;
siege and subjugation of Venice by Haynau.
End of the Schleswig-Holstein war.
Annexation of the Punjab to British India.
Repeal of the English Navigation Laws.
First explorations of Dr. Livingstone in Africa.
Determination of the mechanical equivalent of heat, by Joule.
Publication of the first part of Dickens'
"David Copperfield," Kingsley's "Alton Locke," and
Emerson's "Representative Men."
Sainte-Beuve's "Causerie du Lundi" begun
in the "Constitutionel."
1850.
Death of General Taylor, President of the United States,
and succession of the Vice President, Millard Fillmore;
slavery agitation on the question of the admission of
California;
Clay's Compromise measures;
Webster's Seventh of March Speech;
Seward's Higher Law Speech;
the Omnibus Bill;
passage of the Fugitive Slave Law.
Negotiation of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty between the
United States and Great Britain.
Restoration of the Roman episcopate in England.
Publication of Mrs. Browning's "Sonnets from the Portuguese,"
and Tennyson's "In Memoriam."
1851.
The Coup d' Etat of Louis Napoleon, destroying the French
Republic and making himself dictator.
Dismissal of Lord Palmerston from the British cabinet.
Discovery of gold in Australia;
separation of the colony of Victoria from New South Wales.
Outbreak of the Taiping Rebellion in China.
The Lopez filibustering expedition to Cuba.
Passage of the Massachusetts Free Public Library Act.
The first World's Fair, in London.
Visit of Kossuth to America.
Publication of Spencer's "Social Statics."
1852.
Defeat and resignation of the Russell Ministry;
the first Derby-Disraeli Ministry:
the Aberdeen Ministry.
Rise of the Know Nothing or American party in the
United States;
election by the Democratic party of Franklin Pierce
President of the United States.
Publication of "Uncle Tom's Cabin."
Promulgation of a new Constitution for France by the dictator,
Louis Napoleon, soon followed by the revival of the Empire.
Second Anglo-Burmese War;
annexation of Pegu to British India.
1853.
Expedition of Commodore Perry to Japan.
Dispute between Russia and Turkey, leading to the Crimean War.
1854.
Repeal of the Missouri Compromise, in the United States,
by the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill;
rise of the Republican Party.
Negotiation of the Reciprocity Treaty between the United
States and Canada.
Treaties of Japan with the United States and Great Britain,
opening the former country to trade.
Promulgation by Pope Pius IX. of the dogma of the Immaculate
Conception of the Virgin Mary.
Alliance of England, France and Sardinia with Turkey
against Russia in the Crimean War;
siege of Sebastopol;
battles of the Alma, Balaclava, and Inkerman;
siege of Kars.
{3853}
1855.
Fall of the Aberdeen Ministry in England;
rise of Palmerston to the head of government.
Continued siege of Sebastopol.
Beginning of the struggle for Kansas between the supporters
and the opponents of Slavery in the United States.
Rise to power in Abyssinia of an adventurer afterwards
known as King Theodore.
Introduction of Civil Service Reform in Great Britain.
Walker's first filibustering invasion of Nicaragua.
Abolition of the Stamp tax on newspapers in England.
1856.
Assault on Mr. Sumner in the United States Senate by
Preston Brooks of South Carolina;
continued struggle in Kansas;
election of James Buchanan President of the United States.
Operations of the San Francisco Vigilance Committee.
Quarrel of England with China over the affair of the "Arrow."
Congress of Paris and treaty ending the Crimean War.
Publication of first part of Lotze's "Mikrokosmos."
1857.
Dred Scott decision by the Supreme Court of the United States.
Triumphant appeal of Palmerston to English voters on the
question of war with China;
alliance with France in the war;
capture of Canton.
The Sepoy Mutiny in India:
siege and capture of Delhi;
massacre of English at Cawnpore;
siege and relief of Lucknow.
Mountain Meadows Massacre and Mormon rebellion in Utah.
Publication of the first volume of Buckle's
"History of Civilization."
1858.
Fall of Palmerston, consequent on his Conspiracy Bill;
second Derby-Disraeli Ministry in England.
Debate between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, as
candidates for the United States Senate, from Illinois.
Regency of Prussia assumed by Prince William in consequence
of the mental incapacity of the king.
Treaty of peace between England, France and China.
Discovery of gold in Colorado.
Laying of the first Atlantic Cable, which quickly failed.
Assumption of the government of India by the British crown.
Beginning of the Fenian movement in Ireland.
Discovery of Lake Victoria Nyanza by Captain Speke.
Publication of George Eliot's "Scenes of Clerical Life,"
Tennyson's "Idylls of the King," and Holmes' "Autocrat of
the Breakfast Table."
1859.
War of Sardinia and France with Austria;
battles of Montebello, Magenta and Solferino;
defeat of Austria;
treaties of Villafranca and Zurich;
cession of Lombardy to Sardinia.
John Brown's invasion of Virginia and
seizure of Harper's Ferry;
his capture, trial and execution.
Admission of Oregon to the American Union.
Publication of Darwin's "Origin of Species,"
and George Eliot's "Adam Bede."
Return of Palmerston to the English premiership.
Separation of the colony of Queensland from New South Wales.
Renewed war of England and France with China.
Nationalization of Church property in Mexico;
suspension of payments on foreign debts.
1860.
Election of Abraham Lincoln President of the United States;
secession of South Carolina;
disunion message of President Buchanan;
the Crittenden Compromise and its failure;
treachery of Floyd, Secretary of War; occupation of
Fort Sumter by Major Anderson.
Franco-English capture of Pekin and destruction of
the summer palace.
Annexation of the Central Italian states to Sardinia
by popular vote;
cession of Savoy and Nice to France.
Negotiation of the Cobden-Chevalier commercial treaty
between England and France.
1861.
Secession of Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana,
Alabama and Texas from the American Union;
seizure of United States arsenals, arms and forts in
the seceded States;
abortive Peace Convention at Washington;
admission of Kansas to the Union;
adoption of a Constitution for the "Confederate States
of America," and organization of a Confederate government;
inauguration of Abraham Lincoln President of the United States;
outbreak of civil war by the attack of Confederate forces
on Fort Sumter;
rising of the North on President Lincoln's call to arms;
attack on Massachusetts Volunteers in Baltimore;
Secession of Virginia and North Carolina;
blockade of Southern ports;
proclamation of British neutrality by Queen Victoria;
declaration of General Butler that slaves are
Contraband of War;
fight at Big Bethel;
Secession of West Tennessee;
campaign of General McClellan in West Virginia;
Union advance from Washington and defeat at Bull Run;
depredations by the Confederate cruiser Sumter;
struggle with secession in Missouri, battles of Boonville
and Wilson's Creek;
appointment of General McClellan to the chief command
of the Union forces;
creation of the Army of the Potomac;
expedition against Fort Hatteras;
Fremont's emancipation proclamation modified by the President;
campaign of Rosecrans against Lee in West Virginia;
General Grant's first battle at Belmont;
Union disaster at Ball's Bluff;
Port Royal expedition;
the Trent affair (arrest of Mason and Slidell on a
British steamer) and its settlement.
Death of King Frederick William IV. of Prussia and
accession of his brother, William I.
Liberation of Sicily and Naples by Garibaldi;
Sardinian occupation of Umbria and the Marches;
proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy;
death of Cavour.
Polish insurrection at Warsaw.
1862.
Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley,
battle of Kernstown;
capture of Forts Henry and Donelson by General Grant;
expulsion of the Confederates from Missouri,
battle of Pea Ridge;
expedition of Burnside to Roanoke and capture of Newbern;
siege and capture of Fort Pulaski;
Union advance up the Tennessee and battle of Shiloh;
proposal of compensated emancipation by President Lincoln,
approved by Congress;
battle of the Monitor and the Merrimac in Hampton Roads;
capture of New Madrid on the Mississippi and Island No. 10;
movement of McClellan against Richmond by way of the
peninsula, battles of Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, or Seven
Pines, Mechanicsville, Gaines' Mill, Savage Station,
Glendale and Malvern Hill;
forcing of the lower Mississippi and capture of New Orleans;
separation of West Virginia from the Old Dominion;
abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia;
passage of the Homestead Act and the Legal Tender Act;
arming of freed negroes, evacuation of Norfolk by the
Confederates and destruction of the Merrimac;
second campaign of Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley;
first undertakings against Vicksburg;
capture of Memphis;
Confederate invasion of Kentucky by Bragg, battle of Perryville:
confiscation of the slave property of rebels;
beginning of the destructive career of the
Confederate cruiser Alabama;
end of the peninsular campaign and withdrawal of the
Army of the Potomac;
campaign under General Pope, battles of Cedar Mountain,
Second Bull Run and Chantilly;
Lee's invasion of Maryland and check by McClellan at
South Mountain and Antietam;
preliminary Proclamation of Emancipation by President Lincoln;
successes by Grant at Iuka and Corinth;
battle of Prairie Grove in Arkansas;
removal of McClellan from command of the Army of
the Potomac and appointment of Burnside;
disastrous attack on Fredericksburg;
second Union attempt against Vicksburg;
victory of Rosecrans at Stone River.
Land-grant of the United States for industrial colleges.
Intervention of Louis Napoleon in Mexico;
creation of the empire under Maximilian of Austria.
Bismarck made chief minister of the king of Prussia.
Revolution in Greece;
deposition of King Otho;
election of Prince George of Denmark to the Greek throne;
annexation of the Ionian Islands.
Attempt of Garibaldi against Rome checked by the
Italian government;
his defeat and capture at Aspromonte.
Publication of Spencer's "First Principles."
{3854}
1863.
President Lincoln's final Proclamation of Emancipation;
passage of the National Bank Act, and the Conscription Act;
Hooker's disaster at Chancellorsville;
death of Stonewall Jackson;
naval attack on Charleston;
Grierson's raid;
Grant's siege and capture of Vicksburg;
Banks' siege and capture of Port Hudson;
Lee's second invasion of the North;
battle of Gettysburg;
Draft riots in the city of New York;
Morgan's raid into Ohio and Indiana;
assault on Fort Wagner;
battles of Bristol Station and Rappahannock Station;
Burnside's advance into East Tennessee;
defeat of Rosecrans at Chickamauga;
siege and reduction of Fort Wagner;
Grant's victory at Chattanooga;
siege of Knoxville;
President Lincoln's Address at Gettysburg, and
Proclamation of Amnesty.
Death of Frederick VII. of Denmark and
accession of Christian IX.;
reopening of the Schleswig-Holstein question;
coalition of Prussia and Austria against Denmark.
Appointment of General Gordon to command in China.
Confederation of the United States of Colombia.
Rebellion in Poland.
Political organization of Socialism in Germany by Lassalle.
Publication of Huxley's "Man's Place in Nature,"
and Renan's "Vie de Jesus."
1864.
Reconstruction in Louisiana and Arkansas, the President's
plan and the Congressional plan;
Sherman's Meridian expedition;
Kilpatrick and Dahlgren's raid to Richmond;
appointment of General Grant to
the chief command of the army;
Banks' Red River expedition;
Price's invasion of Missouri;
Forrests' capture of Fort Pillow and massacre
of colored soldiers;
Grant's movement on Richmond, battles of the Wilderness,
Spottsylvania Court House, and Cold Harbor;
Sherman's movement on Atlanta, battles of New Hope Church,
Kenesaw and Peach Tree Creek;
Sheridan's raids to Richmond and Trevelyan Station;
Grant's siege of Petersburg, battle of Reams' station;
destruction of the Alabama by the Kearsarge;
Greeley and Jaques-Gilmore peace missions;
Early's invasion of Maryland;
Farragut's great battle in Mobile Bay;
Sheridan's campaign against Early in the Shenandoah Valley,
battles of Winchester, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek;
Sherman's clearing of Atlanta;
Hood's movement into Tennessee and defeat by Thomas at
Franklin and Nashville;
re-election of President Lincoln;
St. Albans raid from Canada;
Cushing's destruction of the ram Albemarle;
Sherman's March to the Sea and occupation of Savannah.
Schleswig-Holstein war: Austro-Prussian
conquest of the duchies.
Detention and imprisonment of foreigners in Abyssinia
by King Theodore.
End of the Taiping Rebellion in China.
Publication of the Encyclical "Quanta cura" and the
Syllabus of Pope Pius IX.
Organization at London of the International.
1865.
Adoption by the Congress of the United States of the
Thirteenth Constitutional Amendment, prohibiting
slavery forever;
creation of the Freedman's Bureau;
Hampton Roads Peace Conference;
evacuation of Charleston by the Confederates;
Sherman's northward march from Savannah;
battle of Bentonsville;
occupation of Wilmington by Schofield;
battle of Kinston;
second inauguration of President Lincoln;
battle of Five Forks;
evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond by the Confederates;
battle of Sailor's Creek;
surrender of Lee at Appomattox Court House;
assassination of President Lincoln;
succession of Andrew Johnson, Vice President,
to the Presidency;
surrender of General Johnston;
fall of Mobile;
capture of Jefferson Davis;
end of the Rebellion;
opening of the conflict between Congress and
President Johnson on questions of Reconstruction.
Death of Lord Palmerston in England;
premiership of Lord John Russell.
Transfer of the capital of Italy to Florence.
Ferocious suppression of an insurrection in Jamaica
by Governor Eyre.
Beginning of war between Paraguay and Brazil.
1866.
Quarrel of Austria and Prussia over the administration
of Schleswig and Holstein;
alliance of Prussia with Italy;
outbreak of the Seven Weeks War;
decisive Prussian victory at Sadowa, or Königgrätz;
treaty of Prague;
exclusion of Austria from the Germanic political system;
formation of the North German Confederation;
incorporation of the kingdom of Hanover, the electorate of
Hesse, the duchies of Nassau, Schleswig and Holstein, and
the free city of Frankfort, by Prussia.
Success of Austria in the war with Italy, at Custozza on
the land and at Lissa on the sea;
success of Italy in the settlement of peace, receiving
Venetia, on the demand of Prussia.
Wreck of the Ministry of Lord John Russell on a reform bill;
third Derby-Disraeli administration.
Fenian invasion of Canada from the United States.
Laying of the first successful Atlantic Cable.
Beginning of the struggle of the Cretans for deliverance
from the Turkish yoke.
Reconstruction riot in New Orleans.
Organization of the Patrons of Husbandry in the United States.
Passage of the first Civil Rights Bill by the Congress of
the United States over the President's veto;
Congressional adoption of the Fourteenth Constitutional
Amendment.
Formation of the Ku-Klux Klan in the Southern States.
1867.
Passage of the Disraeli Reform Bill by the British Parliament.
Purchase of Alaska by the United States from Russia.
Federation of Austria and Hungary in the Austro-Hungarian
Empire.
Federation of the provinces of British America, forming
the Dominion of Canada.
Purchase of the title of Khedive from the Sultan by Ismail
Pasha of Egypt.
Fenian risings in Ireland.
Renewed attempt by Garibaldi to liberate Rome from the
Papal government;
his defeat by the French at Mentana.
Withdrawal of the French from Mexico;
fall of the empire;
execution of Maximilian.
Passage of the Military Reconstruction Acts by the
Congress of the United States;
extension of suffrage to blacks in the District of Columbia.
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1868.
Withdrawal of Lord Derby from the British Ministry;
advancement of Disraeli to the premiership;
passage of reform bills for Scotland and Ireland;
defeat of the ministry on the Irish Church question;
resignation of Disraeli;
first administration of Mr. Gladstone.
Revolution in Spain and flight of Queen Isabella to France.
British expedition for the rescue of captives in Abyssinia;
storming of Magdala;
suicide of King Theodore.
Negotiation of the Burlingame Treaty between China and
the United States.
Revolution in Japan;
abolition of the Shogunate;
restoration of the authority of the Mikado.
Occupation of Samarcand by the Russians
Impeachment, and trial of President Johnson in
the United States;
election of General Grant to the American Presidency.
Ratification by the States of the Fourteenth Amendment
to the Constitution of the United States.
1869.
Disestablishment of the Irish Church.
Negotiation of the Johnson-Clarendon Treaty between the
United States and Great Britain, rejected by the
United States Senate.
Expiration of the charter of the Hudson Bay Company and
incorporation of its territory in the Dominion of Canada.
Creation of the United States Bureau of Education.
Opening of the Suez Canal.
"Black Friday" in New York.
Organization of the Knights of Labor.
Congressional adoption of the Fifteenth Amendment to the
Constitution of the United States.
Adoption of a monarchical constitution in Spain;
regency of Marshal Serrano.
Adoption of Woman Suffrage at municipal elections in
England, and at all elections in Wyoming Territory.
Publication of Hartmann's "Philosophie des Unbewusstens."
1870.
Sudden occurrence of the Franco-German War:
invasion of France by the Germans;
victories at Wörth, Spichern, Gravelotte, and Sedan;
captivity of the French emperor;
revolution at Paris;
fall of the Empire;
investment and siege of Paris by the Germans;
surrender of Bazaine at Metz;
unsuccessful resistance in the provinces.
Completion of the new Germanic Confederation, embracing the
states of South Germany, with the North German Confederation,
and having the king of Prussia for its president.
Passage of Mr. Gladstone's first Irish Land Bill by
the British Parliament.
Passage of the Education Bill in England.
Occupation of Rome by the troops of the king of Italy;
plebiscite for annexation to the Italian kingdom;
end of the temporal sovereignty of the Pope.
Election of Amadeo, of Italy, to the Spanish throne.
Completed reconstruction of the American Union;
ratification of the Fifteenth Constitutional Amendment.
1871.
Capitulation of Paris;
peace preliminaries of Versailles and treaty of Frankfort;
French cession of Alsace and part of Lorraine, with five
milliards of francs indemnity;
election and meeting of a National Assembly at Bordeaux;
organization of the Third Republic with Thiers
as its President;
evacuation of Paris by the Germans, followed by the
insurrection of the Communists and their seizure of the city;
siege and reduction of Paris by the national government.
Assumption by King William of Prussia of the title
"German Emperor";
proclamation of the constitution of the new Empire.
Negotiation and ratification of the Treaty of Washington,
between the United States and Great Britain;
meeting of the Tribunal of Arbitration at Geneva, for the
settlement of the Alabama claims.
Gradual emancipation of slaves enacted in Brazil.
First attempts at Civil Service Reform in the United States,
made by President Grant.
Exposure of the Tweed Ring in New York.
The Great Fire in Chicago.
Transfer of the capital of Italy from Florence to Rome.
Abolition of feudalism in Japan.
Passage of the Force Bill by the Congress of the United States.
The finding of Dr. Livingstone in Africa by Henry M. Stanley.
Publication of Darwin's "Descent of Man," and
Swinburne's "Songs before Sunrise."
1872.
Award of the Geneva Tribunal of Arbitration in settlement
of the Alabama Claims.
Re-election of General Grant, President of the United States.
The Credit Mobilier Scandal in the United States Congress.
1873.
Resignation of President Thiers in France and
election of Marshall MacMahon.
Passage of the May Laws in the Prussian Diet, opening the
contest with the Catholic Church known as the Kulturkampf.
Appearance of the Home Rule movement in Irish politics.
Abdication of the throne of Spain by Amadeo;
unsuccessful attempt at republican government.
Financial panic in the United States.
1874.
Fall of the Gladstone Government in England;
return of Disraeli to power.
General Gordon's first appointment in the Sudan.
Restoration of monarchy in Spain, under Alphonso XII.,
son of Queen Isabella.
Publication of the first volume of Stubb's
"Constitutional History."
1875.
Adoption of a constitution in France.
Revolt against Turkish rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Passage of the second Civil Rights Bill by the
Congress of the United States.
1876.
Founding of the International African Association by
King Leopold of Belgium.
Insurrection in Bulgaria, suppressed with atrocious
cruelty by the Turks.
Holding of the United States Centennial Exhibition
at Philadelphia.
First exhibition of the Telephone, by Professor Graham Bell.
Disputed Presidential Election in the United States.
1877.
War of Servia with the Turks;
defeat of the Servians.
Russo-Turkish War;
sieges of Plevna and Kars.
Assumption by Queen Victoria of the
title "Empress of India."
First election of Porfirio Diaz to the Presidency of
the Mexican republic.
Creation of the Electoral Commission in the United States;
award of the Presidential election to Rutherford B. Hayes.
Return of Stanley from his expedition across Africa,
exploring the Congo.
1878.
Second war of the English in Afghanistan.
End of the Russo-Turkish war;
Treaty of San Stefano, superseded by the Congress and
Treaty of Berlin;
independence secured to Servia and Roumania;
transfer of Bosnia to Austria;
division of Bulgaria into two states.
Election of Pope Leo XIII.
Passage of the Bland Silver Bill in the United States.
1879.
Resignation of the Presidency of the French Republic
by Marshal MacMahon and election of M. Jules Grevy.
Massacre of English in Cabul;
occupation of the Afghan capital by British forces;
deposition of the Ameer.
Beginning of war between Chile and Peru.
Organization of the Land League in Ireland.
Zulu War in South Africa.
Formation of the International Congo Association.
{3856}
1880.
Resignation of Disraeli from the British Ministry and
return of Gladstone to power;
passage of Gladstone's Second Irish Land Act.
Renewed war against the English in Afghanistan.
Election of James A. Garfield
President of the United States.
1881.
Occupation of Tunis by the French.
Evacuation of Afghanistan by the British forces.
Submission of Peru to Chile.
Advent of the Mahdi in the Sudan.
Arabi's revolt in Egypt.
Suppression of the Irish Land League and arrest of
Mr. Parnell and others.
Institution of local assemblies in Japan.
Assassination of the Czar Alexander II.
Capture of Geok Tepe by Skobeleff, the Russian general.
War of Great Britain with the Boers.
Assassination of President Garfield;.
succession of Vice President Arthur to the
Presidency of the United States.
1882.
Death M. Gambetta, in France.
Elevation of Servia to the rank of a kingdom.
British bombardment of Alexandria.
Phœnix Park murders, of Lord Frederick Cavendish and
Mr. Burke, at Dublin.
Beginning of work on De Lesseps' Panama Canal.
1883.
Death of the Comte de Chambord (called Henry V. by his
supporters), claimant of the crown of France and last of
the elder line of the Bourbons.
Passage in England of the Act for Prevention of
Corrupt and Illegal Practices at Elections.
Destruction of Hicks Pasha and his army by the
Mahdists of the Sudan.
Passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Bill in
the United States.
Suppression of Arabi's rebellion;
British occupation of Egypt.
1884.
War of the French in Tonquin and with China.
Passage in England of the Third Reform Bill.
Meeting of the Berlin Conference to settle questions of
acquisition in Africa.
Beleaguerment of General Gordon at Khartoum by the Mahdists;
British rescue expedition.
Occupation of Merv by the Russians and completed conquest
of the Turcomans.
Election of Grover Cleveland President of the United States.
1885.
Overthrow of the Gladstone Government in Great Britain and
brief reign of Lord Salisbury.
Revolutionary reunion of the two Bulgarias.
Fall of Khartoum and death of Gordon.
Transformation of the Congo Association into the
Independent State of Congo.
1886.
Banishment of the Bourbon princes from France.
Recall of Gladstone to the head of
the Government in England;
his Home Rule Bill for Ireland and its defeat;
resignation of Gladstone and return of Salisbury;
division of the Liberal Party.
Anarchist crime in Chicago.
Undertaking of the "Plan of Campaign" in Ireland.
1887. Forced resignation of President Grevy, in France,
and election of M. Sadi Carnot.
Revision of the constitution of the
kingdom of the Netherlands.
Tariff Message of President Cleveland.
African expedition of Stanley to rescue Emin Pasha.
1888.
Threatening intrigues of General Boulanger in France;
his prosecution and flight.
Bankruptcy of the Panama Canal Company.
Death of the German Emperor William I.;
accession and death of Frederick III.,
and accession of William II.
Incorporation in the German Zollverein of Hamburg and
Bremen, the last of the Free Cities.
Final abolition of slavery in Brazil.
Inquiry into Irish matters by the Parnell Commission.
Defeat of the Mills Tariff Bill in the United States Senate.
Election of General Benjamin Harrison
President of the United States.
1889.
Abdication of King Milan of Servia in favor of his young son.
Revolution in Brazil;
expulsion of the Emperor and royal family from the country.
Promulgation of the Constitution of Japan.
Opening of Oklahoma to settlement.
Destruction of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, by flood.
Admission of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and
Washington, to the American Union.
Chartering of the British South Africa Company.
Publication of Bryce's "American Commonwealth."
1890.
Dismissal of Bismarck from office by the
German Emperor William II.
Commercial collapse and political revolution in the
Argentine Republic.
Organization of the Republic of the United States of Brazil.
Expulsion of Jews from Russia.
Passage of the McKinley Tariff Act in the United States.
Admission of Idaho and Wyoming to the American Union.
Passage of the Sherman Silver Act.
Anglo-German Convention defining boundaries in Africa.
1891.
Dictatorship proclaimed by President Fonseca of Brazil,
producing revolt;
resignation of the President;
installation of Floriano Peixoto.
Civil war in Chile;
defeat and suicide of President Balmaceda.
Establishment of free schools in England.
Death of Mr. Parnell.
1892.
The Panama Canal Scandal in France.
Election in Great Britain of a Parliament favorable to
Home Rule for Ireland;
resignation of the Salisbury Ministry;
reascendency of Gladstone;
passage of the Irish Home Rule Bill by the House of Commons
and its defeat by the Lords.
Evacuation of Uganda by the British East Africa Company.
Passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act by the Congress
of the United States.
Election of Grover Cleveland President of the United States.
Revolution in Venezuela.
Difficulty between the United States and Chile.
1893.
The World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago.
Revolution in the Hawaian Islands.
Suspension of free coinage of silver in India.
Repeal of the Sherman Silver Act by the
Congress of the United States.
Revision of the Belgian Constitution.
War of the British South Africa Company with the Matabele.
Popular vote in Colorado for the extension of equal
suffrage to women.
1894.
Assassination of President Carnot, in France;
election of M. Casimir-Périer.
War between Japan and China.
The strike at Pullman, Illinois, and the "sympathy strike"
of the American Railway Union.
The "Coxey movement" in the United States.
Passage of the Wilson Tariff Act.
Turkish atrocities in Armenia.
Passage of enabling act for the admission of Utah
to the American Union.
Triumph of the Peixoto government over the insurgents in Brazil.
Opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Ship Canal.
Death of Alexander III., Czar of Russia;
accession of Nicholas II.
1895.
Resignation of M. Casimir-Périer,
President of the French Republic;
election of M. François Felix Faure to succeed him.
Armistice pending negotiations between China and Japan.
{3857}
[Image: LINEAGE OF THE WEST SAXON KINGS OF ENGLAND and
LINEAGE OF THE DUKES OF NORMANDY TO THE CONQUEST OF ENGLAND.]
{3858}
{3859}
[Image: LINEAGE OF THE SOVEREIGNS OF ENGLAND
FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST.]
{3860}
[Image:THE GUELF LINE OF DESCENT OF THE HOUSE OF HANOVER.
{3861}
[Image: THE CAROLINGIANS.]
{3862}
{3863}
[Image: LINEAGE OF THE KINGS OF GERMANY AND EMPERORS.]
HOUSE OF HAPSBURG.]
{3864}
{3865}
[Blank]
{3866}
{3867}
[Image: LINEAGE OF THE SOVEREIGNS OF FRANCE.]
{3868}
[Image: GENEALOGY OF THE BONAPARTE FAMILY.]
{3869}
[Image: LINEAGE OF THE DUKES OF BURGUNDY.]
{3870}
{3871}
[Image: THIRD HOUSE OF ANJOU.]
{3872}
[Image: LATER HOUSE OF LORRAINE.]
{3873}
[Blank]
{3874}
{3875}
[Image: LINAGE OF THE SOVEREIGNS OF CASTILE AND ARAGON
TO THE UNION OF THE CROWNS.]
{3876}
[Image: LINEAGE OF THE HAPSBURG AND
BOURBON SOVEREIGNS OF SPAIN.]
{3877}
[Image: THE HOUSE OF SAVOY.]
{3878}
[Image: THE FAMILY OF THE MEDICI, IN FLORENCE.]
{3879}
[Image: THE HOUSE OF ORANGE-NASSAU.]
{3880}
[Image: LINEAGE OF THE SOVEREIGNS OF SWEDEN.]
{3881}
[Image: LINEAGE OF THE SOVEREIGNS OF DENMARK.]
{3882}
[Image: LINEAGE OF THE ROMANOFF SOVEREIGNS OF RUSSIA.]
{3883}
[Image: THE SELJUK TURKISH SULTANS.]
[Image: THE OTTOMAN TURKISH SULTANS.]
{3884}
[Blank]
{3885}
A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
WITH OCCASIONAL NOTES.
ANCIENT HISTORY: ORIENTAL.
BLISS, FREDERICK J.
A mound of many cities, or Tell el Hesy excavated.
London and New York: Macmillan & Co. 1894.
BRUGSCH, HENRY.
History of Egypt under the Pharaohs,
derived entirely from the monuments.
London: J. Murray. 1879. 2 volumes.
History of Egypt under the Pharaohs,
derived entirely from the monuments.
A new edition, condensed and revised by Mr. Brodrick.
London: J. Murray. 1891.
Corrected in some particulars by later discoveries, the
work of Dr. Brugach is still the most comprehensive
summary of Egyptian history derived from the study of
the monuments.
BUDGE, E. A. WALLIS.
Babylonian life and history.
London: R. T. S. 1884.
Number IV. In the series entitled
"By-paths of Bible Knowledge."
The Mummy: chapters on Egyptian funeral archaeology.
Cambridge: University Press. 1893.
CHEYNE, T. K.
Jeremiah: his life and times.
London: J. Nisbet & Co. [1888.]
CHURCH, ALFRED J.
The story of the last days of Jerusalem.
London: Seeley & Co. 1881.
The narrative of Josephus translated in the
happy style for which Mr. Church Is famous.
CONDER, CLAUDE R.
Heth and Moab, explorations in Syria In 1881-82.
London: R. Bentley & Son. 1883.
Syrian stone-lore; or the monumental history of Palestine.
London: Bentley & Son. 1886.
Published for the Committee of the
Palestine Exploration Fund.
DARMESTETER, JAMES.
Les Prophètes d'Israel.
Paris: C. Lévy. 1892.
DUNCKER, MAX.
History of Antiquity;
translated by Evelyn Abbott.
London. 1877-82. 6 volumes.
EDWARDS, AMELIA B.
Pharaohs, fellahs and explorers.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1891.
A thousand miles up the Nile.
London: Longmans. 1877.
EGYPT EXPLORATION FUND.
Memoirs.
London: Trübner & Co. 1885.
The Store-city of Pithom and the route of the Exodus;
by E. Naville.
Tanis;
by W. M. Flinders Petrie, parts 1 and 2.
Naukratis;
by W. M. F. Petrie, parts 1 and 2.
The Shrine of Saft el Henneh and the Land of Goshen;
by E. Naville;
The Mound of the Jew and the City of Onias;
by E. Naville;
Bubastis;
by E. Naville.
The festival Hall of Osorkon II.
in the great temple of Bubastis;
by E. Naville.
Ahnas el Medineh (Heracleopolis Magna);
by E. Naville.
ERMAN, ADOLF,
Life in ancient Egypt.
London and New York: Macmillan &Co.
EVETTS, BASIL T. A.
New light on the Bible and the Holy Land, being an
account of some recent discoveries in the East.
New York: Cassell Co. [1894.]
EWALD, HEINRICH.
History of Israel.
London: Longmans. 1869-86. 8 volumes.
GEIGER, W.
Civilization of the Eastern Iranians in ancient times;
with an introduction on the Avesta religion.
London: H. Frowde. 1885. 2 volumes.
GRAETZ, H.
History of the Jews, from the earliest times
to the present day.
London: D. Nutt. 1891. 5 volumes.
Sketches the ancient history of the Jews very slightly
but is full from the Roman Period down to 1870.
GRANT Sir ALEXANDER. Xenophon.
(Ancient Classics for English Readers.)
Edinburgh: W. Blackwood & Sons.
Philadelphia: Lippincott & Co. 1811.
HARPER, HENRY A.
The Bible and modern discoveries,
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1890.
HERODOTUS.
Stories of the East from Herodotus;
by A. J. Church.
London: Seeley & Co. 1881.
The story of the Persian War from Herodotus;
by A. J. Church.
London: Seeley & Co. 1882.
HERODOTUS.
History; a new English version;
edited with notes, etc.,
by George Rawlinson and G. Wilkinson.
London: J. Murray. 1858. 4 volumes.
A work of great value, in which Canon Rawlinson and Mr.
Wilkinson were assisted by Sir Henry Rawlinson, the
Assyriologist. It in not every reader who has leisure two
master such a book as Rawlinson's English 'Herodotus.' But;
something of this fountain of history all may know; Even
such pleasant boy's as Mr. Church's 'Stories from the East'
and 'Stories from Herodotus' we get some flavour of the
fine old Greek traveller. There are three great sections of
Herodotus which are of special interest:
1. the history of the foundation of Cyrus' kingdom;
2. the books on the history, antiquities and customs of Egypt;
3. the immortal story of Marathon, Thermopylæ and Salamis."
Frederic Harrison, The Meaning of History, page 90.
JOSEPHUS, FLAVIUS.
Works; Whiston's translation,
revised by A. R. Shilleto.
London: Bell & Sons. 1889.
LACOUPERIE, TERRIEN DE.
Western origin of the early Chinese civilization.
London: Asher & Co. 1894.
A definite presentation of the view long urged by Dr.
Lacouperie, that the Akkadian or primitive Babylonian
culture was communicated at an early day to the Chinese.
LEWIN, THOMAS.
The siege of Jerusalem by Titus.
London: Longmans. 1863.
LOCKYER, J. N.
The dawn of Astronomy; a study of the temple-worship
and mythology of the ancient Egyptians.
London and New York: Macmillan & Co.
McCURDY, JAMES FREDERICK.
History, Prophecy and the Monuments.
London and New York: Macmillan & Co. 1894.
A work in which the latest researches and studies
in the East are made fruitful.
MARIETTE, AUGUSTE.
Outlines of ancient Egyptian history.
London: Gilbert & Rivington. 1890.
MASPERO, G.
The dawn of Civilization: Egypt and Chaldæa;
edited by A. H. Sayee.
London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1894.
Egyptian archæology;
translated from the French by Amelia B. Edwards.
London: H. Grevel & Co.
Hlstoire ancienne des peuples de l'Orient.
Paris: Hachette. 1886.
MILMAN, HENRY HART.
History of the Jews.
London: J. Murray. 3 volumes.
Bringing the modern account of the Jews throughout
the world down to about 1860.
MORRISON, W. D.
The Jews under Roman rule.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
London: T. F. Unwin. 1890.
In the series of "The Story of the Nations."
MYERS, P. V. N.
Eastern nations and Greece.
(Ancient history for colleges and high schools.)
Boston: Ginn & Co. 1890.
NEWMAN, FRANCIS W.
History of the Hebrew Monarchy, from the administration of
Samuel to the Babylonish captivity.
2d edition London: J. Chapman. 1853.
PERROT, GEORGES, and CHARLES CHIPIEZ.
History of Art in ancient Egypt;
translated from the French.
London: Chapman & Hall. 1883. 2 volumes.
History of Art In Chaldea and Assyria.
London. 1884. 2 volumes.
History of Art In Phœnicia and its dependencies.
London. 1885. 2 volumes.
History of Art in primitive Greece.
London. 1894.
PETRIE, W. M. FLINDERS.
History of Egypt from the earliest times to the XVIth dynasty.
London: Methuen & Co. 1894.
"This volume is but the first of a series which is intended
to embrace the whole history of Egypt down to modern times.
It is expected that three volumes will treat of the period
of the Pharaohs, one volume of the Ptolemies, one volume of
the Roman age, and one volume of Arabic Egypt. So far as
practicable, the same system will be maintained throughout,
though by different writers; and the aim of all will be to
provide a general history, with such fulness and precision
as shall suffice for the use of students."
From the Author's Preface.
{3886}
PETRIE, W. M. FLINDERS.
Tell el Amarna;
with chapters by A. H. Sayce and others.
London: Methuen & Co. 1894.
Ten years' digging in Egypt, 1881-1891.
London: R. T. S. 1892.
POOLE, REGINALD STUART.
The cities of Egypt.
London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1882.
RAGOZIN, ZENAÏDE A.
The story of Chaldea, to the rise of Assyria.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
London: T. F. Unwin. 1886.
Story of Assyria: to the fall of Nineveh.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
London: T. F. Unwin. 1887.
The story of Media, Babylonia and Persia, to the Persian War.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
London: T. F. Unwin.
Three good popular histories in the series entitled
"The Story of the Nations."
RAMSAY, W. M.
Historical geography of Asia Minor.
London: J. Murray. 1890.
RAWLINSON, GEORGE.
The Five Great Monarchies of the ancient eastern world
[Chaldea, Assyria, Babylon, Media and Persia].
London: Murray. 1862.
The Sixth Great Oriental Monarchy [Parthia].
London: Longmans. 1873.
The Seventh Great Oriental Monarchy
[Sassanian or New Persian].
London: Longmans. 1876.
In the light of later discoveries, Rawlinson's history of
the five earlier oriental monarchies is very defective;
but the history of Parthia and of the revived Persian
monarchy retains its value.
RECORDS OF THE PAST;
being English translations of the
Assyrian and Egyptian monuments.
London: S. Bagster & Sons. 1873-81, 12 volumes.,
and 1889-1893. 6 volumes.
RENAN, ERNEST.
History of the People of Israel till
the time of King David.
London: Chapman & Hall. 1888. 3 volumes.
SAYCE, A. H.
The Ancient Empires of the East. Herodotus I-III.
With notes, introductions, and appendices.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1883.
Assyria, its princes, priests and people.
London: R. T. S. 1885.
Fresh light from the ancient monuments.
London: R. T. S. [1883.]
Numbers VII. and III. in the series entitled
"By-path of Bible Knowledge."
The Hittites: the story of a forgotten empire.
London: R. T. S. 1888.
Introduction to the books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther.
London: R. T. S. 1885.
Life and times of Isaiah,
as illustrated by contemporary monuments.
London: R. T. S. 1889.
Number XIII. in the series of small monographs entitled
"By-paths of Bible Knowledge."
A primer of Assyriology.
New York: F. H. Revell Co. [1894.]
SCHÜRER, EMIL.
History of the Jewish people in the time of Christ.
Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. 1885.
5 volumes and index.
SHARPE, SAMUEL.
History of Egypt from the earliest times
till the conquest of the Arabs.
London: Moxon & Co. 1859. 2 volumes.
Important as covering the Ptolemaic and Roman
periods in Egyptian history more fully than any other
work in English.
SIMCOX, EDITH J.
Primitive civilizations; or outlines of
the history of ownership in archaic communities.
London: S. Sonnenschein & Co. 1894. 2 volumes.
SMITH, GEORGE ADAMS.
Historical geography of the Holy Land.
London: Hodder & Stoughton. 1894.
SMITH, R. BOSWORTH.
Carthage and the Carthaginians.
London: Longmans. 1878.
SMITH, W. ROBERTSON.
The Prophets of Israel and their place in history,
to the close of the 8th century B. C.
Edinburgh: A. & C. Black. 1882.
SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL ARCHÆOLOGY.
Transactions, 1872-1894. 10 volumes.
Proceedings, 1878-1894. 16 volumes.
TIELE, C. P.
Babylonische-Assyrische Geschichte.
Gotha: F. A. Perthes. 1886. 2 volumes.
Western Asia, according to the most recent discoveries.
Rectorial address, Leyden University, 1893.
London: Luzac & Co.
TOMKINS. H. G.
Life and times of Joseph, in the light of Egyptian lore.
London: R. T. S. 1891.
In the series entitled "By-paths of Bible Knowledge."
Studies on the times of Abraham.
London: Bagster & Sons. [1879.]
TWENTY-ONE YEARS' WORK IN THE HOLY LAND
(a record and a summary); 1865-1886.
London: R. Bentley & Son. 1886.
Published for the Committee of the
Palestine Exploration Fund.
WELLHAUSEN, J.
Sketch of the history of Israel and Judah.
3d edition. London: A. & C. Black. 1891.
A republication of the article "Israel" contributed to
the Encyclopædia. Britannica.
WENDEL, F. C. H.
History of Egypt.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1890.
An extremely condensed and not very readable sketch of the
history of ancient Egypt, but one which specialist have
commended for correctness of knowledge.
WILKINSON, Sir J. GARDNER.
Manners and customs of the ancient Egyptians.
New edition, revised and corrected by Samuel Birch.
London: J. Murray. 1878. 2 volumes.
WRIGHT, W. B.
Ancient cities; from the dawn to the daylight.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1886.
ANCIENT HISTORY: GREECE AND ROME.
ABBOTT, EVELYN.
History of Greece.
London: Rivingtons. 1888. volumes 1-2.
The first volume carries the narrative to the Ionian
revolt, the second to the Thirty Years Peace. "When
completed, it will supply a want long felt, that of a good
history of Greece of a size intermediate between Thirlwall,
Grote, and Curtius, on the one hand, and the smaller text
books and manuals on the other."
_English Historical Review,
January, 1889._
Pericles and the Golden Age of Athens.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1891.
In the series entitled "Heroes of the Nations."
ARCHÆOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF AMERICA. Papers:
Classical Series. Boston. 1882.
Including "Papers of the American School of Classical
Studies at Athens."
ARISTOTLE.
On the Constitution of Athens;
translated by E. Poste.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1891.
A translation of the lately-found treaties believed to be
by Aristotle. "While putting us in possession of more facts
concerning the constitutional history of Athens than have
been known hitherto, this treatise presents very great
difficulties, both critical and historical. … We must
receive the new information with caution, and far from
looking on it as superseding our older authorities, we must
remember that much of it may not be the work of Aristotle
or of Aristotle's time."
E. Abbott, History of Greece, part 2, appendix 2.
Politics;
translated by B. Jowett: with essays, notes, etc.
Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1885. 2 volumes.
ARNOLD, THOMAS.
History of Rome; new edition.
London: T. Fellowes. 1871. 3 volumes.
Dr. Arnold's History is founded on Niebuhr's. The fact is
frankly stated in his preface: " When Niebuhr died, and
there was now no hope of seeing his great work completed in
a manner worthy of its beginning, I was more desirous than
ever of executing my original plan, of presenting in a more
popular form what he had lived to finish, and of continuing
it afterwards with such advantages as I have derived from a
long study and an intense admiration of his example and
model." It was Dr. Arnold's hope to cover the whole stretch
of Roman history, to Charlemagne; but he had only reached
the narrative of the second Punic War when death arrested
his work.
BARTHÉLEMY, Abbé.
Travels of Anacharsis the younger in Greece, 4th century, B. C.
BLÜMNER, H.
The home life of the ancient Greeks;
translated from the German.
London: Cassell Co. 1890.
BURY, J. B.
History of the later Roman Empire, from Arcadius to Irene.
(395 to 800 A. D.),
London: Macmillan & Co., 1889. 2 volumes.
A work written with more knowledge and carefulness
than literary art.
BUTCHER, S. H.
Some aspects of Greek genius.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1891.
CÆSAR, CAIUS JULIUS.
Commentaries on the Gallic and Civil Wars,
with the supplementary books attributed to Hirtius;
literally translated, with notes [Bohn edition].
CICERO.
Life and letters;
the life by Dr. Conyers Middleton;
letters translated by W. Melmoth and Dr. Heberden.
Edinburgh: W. P. Nimmo. 1892.
CURTIUS, ERNST.
History of Greece;
translated from the German by A. W. Ward.
London: R. Bentley & Son. 1871-74. 5 volumes.
Professor Curtius ends his History at the attainment of
supremacy in Hellas by Philip of Macedonia. See note to
Thirlwall's "History of Greece," below.
DAVIDSON, THOMAS.
The education of the Greek people and
its influence on civilization.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1894.
{3887}
DODGE, THEODORE A.
Alexander: a history of the origin and growth of the art
of war, to the battle of Ipsus, B. C. 301.
Boston: Houghton; Mifflin & Co. 1890.
Cæsar: a history of the art of war among the
Romans down to the end of the Roman Empire.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1892.
Hannibal: a history of the art of war among the Carthaginians
and Romans, down to the battle of Pydna, 168 B. C.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1891.
DUNCKER, MAX.
History of Greece;
translated, from the German.
London: R. Bentley & Son. 1883-86. volumes 1-2.
An unfinished work.
DURUY, VICTOR.
History of Greece and of the Greek people,
to the Roman conquest;
translated from the French.
Boston: Estes & Lauriat. 1892. 4 volumes.
History of Rome and the Roman people, to the
establishment of the Christian Empire;
translated from the French;
edited by J. P. Mahaffy.
Boston: Estes & Lauriat. 1883.
Works both scholarly and popular, and made exceedingly
attractive by admirable illustrations.
DYER, THOMAS H.
Ancient Athens: its history, topography and remains.
London: Bell & Daldy. 1873.
EPOCHS OF ANCIENT HISTORY;
edited by Rev. Sir G. W. Cox, Bart., and C. Sankey.
London: Longmans.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons.
The Greeks and the Persians;
by Rev. Sir G. W. Cox.
The Athenian Empire, to the fall of Athens;
by Rev. Sir G. W. Cox.
The Spartan and Theban Supremacies;
by Charles Sankey;
The rise of the Macedonian Empire;
by Arthur M. Curteis:
Rome to its capture by the Gauls;
by Wilhelm Ihne.
Rome and Carthage;
by R. Bosworth Smith.
The Gracchi, Marius and Sulla;
by A. H. Beesly.
The Roman Triumvirates;
by Charles Merivale.
The Early Roman Empire, from the assassination
of Cæsar to that of Domitian;
by W. W. Capes.
The Roman Empire of the second century,
or the age of the Antonines;
by W. W. Capes.
FALKE, JACOB VON.
Greece and Rome; their life and art;
translated from the German.
New York: H. Holt & Co. 1882.
FELTON, C. C.
Greece, ancient and modern.
Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1867. 2 volumes.
FINLAY, GEORGE.
Greece under the Romans.
Edinburg: W. Blackwood & Sons.
FOWLER, W. WARDE.
The city-state of the Greeks and Romans.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1893.
Julius Cæsar and the foundation
of the Roman imperial system.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1892.
In the series entitled "Heroes of the Nations."
FREEMAN, EDWARD A.
History of Federal Government. volume 1.
General Introduction.
History of the Greek Federations.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1863.
"This noble work, in some respects the grandest of the
author's conceptions, was never completed. … The war of
1866 between Prussia and Austria marked the beginning of
organic changes in Germany which Mr. Freeman was anxious to
watch for awhile before finishing his book. He therefore
turned aside and took up the third of his three great
works[the History od Sicily being the second]—the only one
that he lived to complete—the History of the Norman
Conquest of England."
_J. Fiske. Edward Augustus Freeman
(Atlantic Monthly; January, 1893)._
History of Sicily.
Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1891. volumes 1-4.
Left unfinished at Professor Freeman's death. The fourth
volume, prepared by other hands, from the materials that he
had made ready, carries the history to the death of
Agathokles.
FROUDE, JAMES ANTHONY.
Cæsar: a sketch.
London: Longmans. 1879.
A brilliant and fascinating piece of historical writing,
but tainted with Carlylean hero worship.
FUSTEL DE COULANGES, N. D.
The ancient city: a study of the religion, laws and
institutions of ancient Greece and Rome;
translated from the French.
Boston: Lee & Shepard. 1874.
GARDNER, PERCY.
New chapters in Greek history: historical results of
recent excavations in Greece and Asia Minor.
London: J. Murray. 1892.
GIBBON, EDWARD.
History of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire;
with notes by Milman, Guizot, and Dr. William Smith.
"We may correct and improve in detail from the stores which
have been opened since Gibbon's time; we may write again
large parts of his story from other, and often truer and
more wholesome, points of view. But the work of Gibbon, as
a whole, as the encyclopædic history of thirteen hundred
years, as the grandest of historical designs carried out
alike with wonderful power and with wonderful accuracy,
must ever keep its place. Whatever else is read, Gibbon
must be read too."
_E. A. Freeman, Historical Essays, pages 307-308._
"It is no personal paradox but the judgment of all
competent men, that the 'Decline and Fall' of Gibbon is the
most perfect historical composition that exists in any
language: at once scrupulously faithful in its facts;
consummate in its literary art; and comprehensive in
analysis of the forces affecting society over a very long
and crowded epoch."
_Frederic Harrison,
The Meaning of History, page 101._
GLADSTONE, WILLIAM E.
Juventus Mundi; the gods and men of the heroic age.
London: Macmillan. 1869.
GROTE, GEORGE.
History of Greece, to the close of the generation
contemporary with Alexander the Great.
London: J. Murray. 12 volumes.
"A business man, foreign to university life and its
traditions, a skeptic in religion, a positivist in
philosophy and, above all, an advanced Radical in
politics," Grote. "was persuaded that the great social and
political results of Greek history were because of, and not
in spite of, the prevalence of democracy among its states.
He would not accept the verdict of all the old Greek
theorist who voted for the rule of the one or enlightened
few; and he wrote what may be called a great political
pamphlet in twelve volumes in vindication of democratic
principles. It was this idea which not only marshalled his
facts, but lent its fire to his argument; and when combined
with his Radicalism in religion and philosophy, produced a
book so remarkable, that, however much it may be corrected
and criticised, it will never be superseded. It is probably
the greatest history among the many great histories
produced in this century; and though very inferior in style
to Gibbon's 'Decline and Fall,' will rank next to it as a
monument of English historical genius."
_J. P. Mahaffy,
Problems in Greek History, chapter 1._
GUHL, E. and W. KONER.
The life of the Greeks and Romans;
translated from the German. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1875.
HODGKIN, THOMAS.
The dynasty of Theodosius;
or eighty years' struggle with the barbarians;
a series of lectures.
Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1889.
HORTON, R. F.
History of the Romans.
London: Rivingtons. 1885.
A short history of republican Rome, containing more of the
tracing of influences, constitutional and institutional,
and more of the interpreted meaning of events, than are
found in any other work of its modest class.
IHNE, WILHELM.
History of Rome.
English edition.
London: Longmans. 1871-77. 5 volumes.
Closes with the death of Sulla., where Dean Merivale begins
his "History of the Romans under the Empire." "As the book
maintains in all its parts a strictly judicial attitude, it
is far less entertaining than the brilliant advocacy of
Mommsen; but for this very reason it is to be held as a
safer authority."
_C. K. Adams,
Manual of Historical Literature,
page 124,_
LANCIANI, RODOLFO.
Ancient Rome in the light of recent discoveries.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1888.
LEWIS, GEORGE CORNEWALL.
An inquiry into the credibility of early Roman history.
London: J. W. Parker & Sons. 1855. 2 volumes.
LIDDELL, HENRY G.
History of Rome, to the establishment of the Empire.
London: J. Murray. 1855. 2 volumes.
LIVIUS, TITUS.
History of Rome,
literally translated by Dr. Spillan, C. Edmonds,
and others [Bohn edition].
London: G. Bell & Son.
Stories from Livy;
by A. J. Church.
London: Seeley & Co. 1883.
LONG, GEORGE.
Decline of the Roman Republic.
London: Bell & Daldy. 1864. 5 volumes.
MAHAFFY, J. P.
Greek life and thought from the age of Alexander
to the Roman conquest.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1887.
The Greek world under Roman sway, from Polybius to Plutarch.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1890.
History of classical Greek literature.
London: Longmans. 1880. 2 volumes.
Old Greek life. (History Primer.)
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1878.
Problems in Greek history.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1892.
Social life in Greece, from Homer to Menander.
3d edition revised and enlarged.
London: Macmillan & Co.
The story of Alexander's Empire.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
London:. T. F. Unwin. 1887.
One of the very good books in the series of
"The Story of the Nations."
MERIVALE, CHARLES.
The fall of the Roman Republic;
a short history of the last century of the Commonwealth.
London: Longmans.
History of the Romans under the Empire.
London: Longmans. 8 volumes.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 7 volumes.
"His [Merivale's] history is a great work in itself, and it
must be a very great work indeed which can outdo it within
its own range. In days of licensed blundering like ours, it
is delightful indeed to come across the sound and finished
scholarship; the unwearied and unfailing accuracy, of Mr.
Merivale. … On some points we hold that Mr. Merivale's
views are open to dispute; but it is, always his views,
never his statements."
_E. A. Freeman,
Historical Essays; page. 309._
{3888}
MOMMSEN, THEODOR.
History of Rome;
translated by W. P. Dickson;
new edition revised throughout and embodying recent additions.
London: R. Bentley & Son. 1894-95. 4 volumes.
The Provinces, from Cæsar to Diocletian.
London: R. Bentley & Son. 1886.
"The Roman History of Mommsen is, beyond all doubt, to be
ranked among those really great historical works which do
so much honour to our own day. We can have little doubt as
to calling it the best complete Roman History that we have.
… We have now, for the first time, the whole history of the
Roman Republic really written in a way worth of the
greatness of the subject."
_E. A. Freeman,
Historical Essays,
pages. 239-240._
MÜLLER, C. O.
History and Antiquities of the Doric race;
translated from the German by H. Tufuell and G. C. Lewis.
2d edition revised.
London: J. Murray. 1839., 2 volumes.
NIEBUHR, B. G.
History of Rome;
translated by J. C. Hare and C. Thirlwall.
London: Walton. 1859. 3 volumes.
Lectures on the history of Rome,
to the fall of the Western Empire.
London: Walton. 3 volumes.
OMAN, C. W. C.
History of Greece, to the Macedonian conquest.
London: Rivingtons. 1890.
"This is the best school history of Greece which has
appeared for many a day. While the style is never heavy,
nothing of importance has been omitted."
_English Historical Review, October 1890._
PELHAM, H. F.
Outlines of Roman history.
London: Percival.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1893.
PLUTARCH.
Lives,
the translation called Dryden's corrected from the Greek
and revised by A. H. Clough.
London: S. Low, Marston & Co. 1859. 5 volumes.
POLYBIOS.
Histories;
translated from the text of Hultsch by E. S. Shuckburgh.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1889. 2 volumes.
Polybios, "the historian of the Decline and Fall of Ancient
Greece," "is like a writer of our own times; with far less
of inborn genius, he possessed a mass of acquired knowledge
of which Thucydides could never have dreamed. He had, like
a modern historian, read many books and seen many lands. …
He had, himself personally a wider political experience than
fell to the lot of any historian before or after him. … He
could remember Achaia a powerful federation, Macedonia a
powerful monarchy, Carthage still free, Syria still
threatening; he lived to see them all subject provinces or
trembling allies of the great municipality Rome."
_E. A. Freeman,
History of Federal Government,
page 226._
RAMSAY, WILLIAM.
Manual of Roman antiquities;
revised and partly rewritten by R. Lanciani.
London: C. Griffin.
SCHLIEMANN, Dr. H.
Ilios: the city and country of the Trojans.
London: J. Murray. 1880.
Troja: results of the latest researches and discoveries
on the site of Homer's Troy.
London: J. Murray. 1884.
Mycenæ: a narrative of researches and discoveries.
London.
Tiryns, the prehistoric palace of the King of Tiryns.
London: John Murray. 1885.
SCHÖMANN, G. F.
A dissertation on the assemblies of the Athenians;
translated from the Latin.
Cambridge: W. P. Grant. 1838.
The antiquities of Greece;
translated from the German.
London: Rivingtons, 1880.
Only the first volume, treating of "The State,"
has been published.
SCHUCHHARDT, C.
Schliemann's excavations;
an archæological and historical study;
translated from the German.
London: Macmillan & Co.
SUETONIUS, C. TRANQUILLUS.
Lives of the Twelve Cæsars [Bohn edition].
London: Bell & Sons.
TACITUS, C. CORNELIUS.
The Annals, The History, The Germany, The Agricola,
The Dialogue on Oratory;
translated by A. J. Church and W. J. Brodribb;
revised edition, with notes.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1877-82. 3 volumes.
The annals of Tacitus extend over most of the period from
the death of Augustus to Nero, with important parts lost.
The fragments preserved of the history gives us only four
and a half out of fourteen books which made up the original
work. These books contain the history of the years 69 and
70, not quite complete, and tell the story of the Vitellian
conflict.
THIRLWALL, CONNOP.
History of Greece.
London: Longmans. 1835. 8 volumes.
Bishop Thirlwall's History covers the whole national life
of the Greeks, down to the Roman conquest. “The strength of
Thirlwall as clearly lies in the history of Alexander and
his successors as the strength of Grote lies in the
political history of Athenian and Syracusan democracy, as
the strength of Curtius lies in the geography, in the
artistic side of things, in the general picture of that age
which was the glory of Athens, but which, as the disciples
of Finlay know, was an age of decline for Hellas in the
wider sense."
_E. A. Freeman,
The Methods of Historical Study,
page 287._
"The student of to-day who is really intimate with
Thirlwall's history may boast that he has a sound and
accurate view of all the main questions in the political
and social development of the Hellenic nation. But he will
never have been carried away with enthusiasm."
_J. P. Mahaffy,
Problems in Greek History,
chapter 1._
THUCYDIDES.
History;
translated into English, with introduction and notes,
by B. Jowett.
Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1881. 2 volumes.
"Thucydides is much more than a great historian; or,
rather, he was what every great historian ought to be—he
was a profound philosopher. His history of the
Peloponnesian War is like a portrait by Titian; the whole
mind and character, the inner spirit and ideals, the very
tricks and foibles, of the man or the age come before us in
living reality. No more memorable, truthful and profound
portrait exists than that wherein Thucydides has painted
the Athens of the age of Pericles."
_Frederic Harrison,
The Meaning of History,
page 92._
TORR, CECIL.
Rhodes in ancient times.
Cambridge: University Press. 1885.
TROLLOPE, ANTHONY.
Life of Cicero.
London: Chapman & Hall. 1880. 2 volumes.
Written in vindication of Cicero against the injustice done
to the great patriotic orator in Froude's Cæsar. Both books
are writings of advocacy rather than history.
WHIBLEY, L.
Political parties in Athens during the Peloponnesian War.
Cambridge, Warehouse. 1889.
XENOPHON.
Works;
translated by H. G. Dakyns.
London and New York: Macmillan & Co. 1890. volumes 1-2.
Volume I. contains books 1 and 2 of the Hellenica, and the
Anabasis; volume 2 contains books 3 to 7, with Agesilaus,
The Politics, and Revenues. Two more volumes are yet to be
published.
MEDIÆVAL AND MODERN EUROPE.
ADAMS, CHARLES.
Great campaigns: a succinct account of the principal
military operations which have taken place in Europe
from 1796 to 1870.
Edinburg: W. Blackwood & Sons. 1877.
Edited from lectures delivered by Major C. Adams at
the Royal Military and Staff Colleges, England.
ADAMS, GEORGE BURTON.
Civilization during the Middle Ages,
especially in relation to modern civilization.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1894.
ADDISON, C. G.
The Knights Templars. 3d edition.
London: Longman. 1854.
ALISON, Sir ARCHIBALD.
History of Europe, 1789 to 1815, and 1815 to 1852.
Edinburg: W. Blackwood & Sons. 1853. 28 volumes.
"We are not unaware … of the surpassing greatness of the
external events of which his history is composed, nor do we
complain of the minute and laborious zeal with which he has
gathered every particular concerning them, ransacking
archives and measuring fields of slaughter; but we do
complain that he has allowed the tumult and dust of these
vast contests to stop his ears and blind his eyes to every
object but themselves."
_Parke Godwin,
Out of the Past;
page 207._
BALZANI, UGO.
The Popes and the Hohenstaufen.
London: Longmans.
In the series entitled "Epochs of Church History."
BEARD, CHARLES.
The Reformation of the 16th Century
in its relation to modern thought.
London: Williams and Norgate. 1883.
Hibbert Lectures for 1883.
BRADLEY, HENRY.
The story of the Goths, to the end of the
Gothic dominion in Spain.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
London: T. F. Unwin. 1888.
One of the better books in the series of
"The Story of the Nations."
BRYCE, JAMES.
The Holy Roman Empire.
London: Macmillan & Co.
CAYLEY, EDWARD S.
The European revolutions of 1848.
London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1856. 2 volumes.
CHEETHAM, S.
History of the Christian Church
during the first six centuries.
London and New York: Macmillan & Co. 1894.
CHURCH, R. W.
The beginning of the Middle Ages.
London: Longmans.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1877.
An admirable brief survey of early mediæval history, in
the series entitled "Epochs of Modern History."
COMYN, Sir ROBERT.
History of the western empire,
from Charlemagne to Charles V. [800-1520].
London: W. H. Allen & Co. 1841. 2 volumes.
COX, GEORGE W.
The Crusades.
London: Longmans.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1874.
In the series entitled "Epochs of History."
CREIGHTON, MANDELL.
History of the Papacy during the period of the Reformation.
London and New York: Longmans. 1882-94. volumes 1-5.
{3889}
CUTTS, EDWARD L.
Scenes and characters of the Middle Ages.
London: Virtue & Co. 1872.
DEMOMBYNES, G.
Constitutions Européennes.
Paris: L. Larose et Forcel. 1881. 2 volumes.
DILKE, Sir CHARLES W.
Position of European politics, 1887.
London: Chapman & Hall. 1887.
DÖLLINGER, JOHN IGNATIUS VON.
Addresses on historical and literary subjects;
translated by Margaret Warre.
London: J. Murray. 1894.
Containing as follows:
Universities past and present;
Founders of Religions;
the Empire of Charles the Great and his Successors;
Anagni;
the Suppression of the Knights Templars;
the History of Religious Freedom;
various estimates of the French Revolution;
the part taken by North America in Literature.
Studies in European history;
translated by Margaret Warre.
London: John Murray. 1890.
Academical addresses on the following subjects:
The significance of Dynasties in the history of the world;
the House of Wittelsbach and its place in German history;
the relation of the City of Rome to Germany in
the Middle Ages;
Dante as a Prophet;
the struggle of Germany with the Papacy under the
Emperor Ludwig of Bavaria;
Aventin an his Times;
on the Influence of Greek Literature and Culture upon
the Western World in the Middle Ages;
the origin of the Eastern Question;
the Jews in Europe;
upon the Political and Intellectual development of Spain;
the Policy of Louis XIV.;
the most influential Woman of French history
(Madame de Maintenon).
DUFF, MOUNTSTUART E. GRANT.
Studies in European politics.
Edinburg: Edmonston & Douglas. 1866.
These well-named "Studies" in the political history of the
Continent, by an English statesman, are mostly devoted to
the important but little understood period between 1815 and
1848, in Spain, Russia Austria, Prussia, Holland, and
Belgium. They are deficient in attention to the social
conditions of the time.
DURUY, VICTOR.
History of modern times, from the
fall of Constantinople to the French Revolution;
translated and revised, with notes, by E. A. Grosvenor.
New York: H. Holt & Co. 1894.
History of the middle ages;
translated by E. H. and M. D. Whitney,
with notes and revisions by G. B. Adams.
New York: Henry Holt & Co. 1891.
DYER, THOMAS HENRY.
History of modern Europe, 1453-1857.
London: John Murray. 4 volumes.
Geo. Bell & Sons. 4 volumes.
Dyer's History of Modern Europe "represented the labour of
years, and chronicled the period from the fall of
Constantinople to the end of the Crimean "War. It was a
clear and painstaking compilation, whose main object was to
expound the origin and nature of the European concert."
_G. Barnett Smith.
Biographical Sketch
(in the Dictionary of National-Biography)._
EGINHARD.
Life of Charlemagne;
translated by S. E. Turner.
New York: Harper & Bros.
EMERTON, EPHRAIM.
Introduction to the study of the Middle Ages (A. D. 375-814).
Boston: Ginn & Co. 1888.
Mediæval Europe, 814-1300.
Boston: Ginn & Co. 1894.
FISHER, GEORGE PARK.
History of the Christian Church.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1887.
The Reformation.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1883.
FLINT, ROBERT.
Philosophy of history in Europe.
volume 1, France and Germany.
Edinburg: Blackwood & Sons. 1874.
FREEMAN, EDWARD A.
The Chief Periods of European History;
six lectures, Oxford, 1885.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1886.
The "chief periods" treated of are "those which concern the
growth and the dying out" of the Roman power: "Europe
before the growth of Rome—Europe with Rome, in one shape or
another, as her centre—Europe since Rome has practically
ceased to be."
_Author's Preface._
Fifty years of European history: four Oxford lectures.
[Also] The Teutonic conquest of Gaul and Britain.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1888.
The fifty years of European history reviewed in the first
four of these lectures are those that had been spanned by
the reign of Queen Victoria when its jubilee was
celebrated, in 1887.
General sketch of European history.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1872.
Historical Essays.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1871-92. 4 volumes.
Volume 1.
The Mythical and Romantic Elements in early English History;
the continuity of English History;
Relations between the Crowns of England and Scotland;
Saint Thomas of Canterbury and his Biographers;
the Reign of Edward III.;
the Holy Roman Empire;
the Franks and the Gauls;
the early Sieges of Paris;
Frederick I., King of Italy;
the Emperor Frederick II.;
Charles the Bold;
Presidential Government.
Volume 2.
Ancient Greece and Mediæval Italy;
Mr. Gladstone's "Homer and the Homeric Age";
the Historians of Athens;
the Athenian Democracy;
Alexander the Great;
Greece during the Macedonian Period;
Mommsen's History of Rome;
Sulla;
the Flavian Cæsars.
Volume 3.
First Impressions of Rome;
the Illyrian Emperors and their Land;
Augusta Treverorum;
the Goths at Ravenna;
Race and Language;
the Byzantine Empire;
First impressions or Athens;
Mediæval and Modern Greece;
the Southern Slaves;
Sicilian Cycles;
the Normans at Palermo.
Volume 4.
Carthage;
French and English Towns;
Aquæ Sextiæ;
Orange;
Augustodunum;
Perigueux and Cahors;
the Lords of Ardres;
Points in the History of Portugal and Brazil:
Alter Orbis;
Historical Cycles;
Augustan Ages;
English Civil Wars.
The historical geography of Europe.
London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1881.
1 volume text; 1 volume maps.
The object of this remarkably valuable work is to "trace
out the extent of territory which the different states and
nations of Europe and the neighbouring lands have held at
different times in the world's history, to mark the
different boundaries which the same country has had, and
the different meanings in which the same name has been
used.
_Author's Introduction._
FROISSART, SIR JOHN.
Chronicles [1326-1400];
translated by T. Johnes.
London: Wm. Smith. 2 volumes.
Same;
edited for boys, with an introduction, by Sidney Lanier.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1879.
FYFFE, C. A.
History of modern Europe.
London: Cassell. 1880-1889.
New York: Henry Holt & Co. 1881-90. 3 volumes.
Covers the period from the beginning of the war with
revolutionary France, in 1792, to the Berlin Congress and
Treaty, 1878; a well-constructed and well-written piece of
history.
GERARD, JAMES W.
The peace of Utrecht, 1713-14.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1885.
GRUBE, A. W.
Heroes of history and legend.
London: Griffith & Farran. 1880.
A translation of the second part of Grube's
"Charakterbilder aus der Geschichte und Sage."
GUIZOT, F. P.
History of civilization, to the French revolution;
translated from the French.
London: Geo. Bell & Sons. 3 volumes.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 2 volumes.
"The originality of M. Guizot's work consists in the truly
scientific spirit and character of his method. He was the
first to dissect a society, in the same comprehensive,
impartial, and thorough way in which an anatomist dissects
the body of an animal, and the first to study the functions
of the social organism in the same systematic and careful
manner in which the physiologist studies the functions of
the animal organism."
_R. Flint,
The Philosophy of History in France and Germany,
Page 240._
HALLAM, HENRY.
View of the state of Europe during the Middle Ages.
London: J. Murray. 3 volumes.
New York: W. J, Widdleton. 3 volumes.
"He [Hallam] never thoroughly took in either the Imperial
or the ecclesiastical element in history; if I say that he
did not thoroughly take in the Teutonic element either, it
might seem that I leave him no standing-ground at all. And
whither shall he seem to vanish, if I add that he never
shows that same kind of thorough knowledge of original
authorities, that mastery of them that delight in them,
which stands out in every line of Kemble and Palgrave?
Hallam had nothing of the spirit of the antiquary; he had
not, I should say very much of the spirit of the historian
proper. Yet Hallam was a memorable writer, whose name ought
to be deeply honoured, and a large part of whose writings
are as valuable now as when they were first written."
_E. A. Freeman.
Methods of Historical Study,
page 282_.
HÄUSSER, LUDWIG.
The period of the Reformation, 1517-1648,
edited by W. Oncken;
translated by Mrs. Sturge.
London: Strahan. 1873.
New York: Robert Carter & Bros.
Unquestionably the best comprehensive survey of the
Reformation and the Reformation period that has yet
been placed before English readers.
HEEREN. A. H. L.
A manual of the history of the political system of Europe
and its colonies; from the close of the 15th century to
the fall of Napoleon;
translated from the German.
London: H. G. Bohn. 1846.
HENDERSON, ERNEST F.,
Select historical documents of the middle ages;
translated and edited.
London: Geo. Bell & Sons. 1892.
New York: Macmillan & Co.
HODGKIN, THOMAS.
Italy and her Invaders.
Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1880-85. 4 volumes.
A very satisfactory work, narrating that part of the
barbaric avalanche of the fifth and sixth centuries which
crushed the Empire in its western seat. The first volume
deals with the Visigothic invasion, the second with the
Hunnish, Vandal and Herulian, the third with the
Ostrogothic, the fourth with Justinian's recovery of Italy.
Theodoric the Goth; the barbarian champion of civilization.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1891.
In the series entitled "Heroes of the Nations."
JOHNSON, A. H.
The Normans in Europe.
London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1877.
New York: Chas. Scribner's Sons.
JOHNSTONE, C. F.
Historical abstracts.
London: C. Kegan Paul & Co. 1880.
Excellent outline sketches of the history of Denmark,
Norway, Sweden, the kingdom of the Netherlands, Belgium,
the Ottoman Empire, Greece, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, and
the Swiss Confederation.
{3890}
KEARY, C. F.
The Vikings in western Christendom, 789-888.
London: T. F. Unwin. 1891.
KINGTON, T. L.
History of Frederick II., Emperor of the Romans.
London: Macmillan & Co; 1862. 2 volumes.
LACROIX, PAUL.
The eighteenth century [1700-1789]: its institutions, &c.
London: Chapman & Hall. 1876.
LATHAM, ROBERT. G.
Ethnology of Europe.
London: J. Van Voorst. 1852.
The nationalities of Europe. volume 2.
London: W. H. Allen & Co. 1863. 2 volumes.
LAVISSE, ERNEST.
General view of the political history of Europe;
translated by Charles Gross.
London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1891.
"While giving the essential facts of universal history, he
[Lavisse] aims above all, to describe the formation and
political development of the states of Europe, and to
indicate the historical causes of their present condition
and mutual relations. In other words, he shows how the
existing political divisions of Europe, with their peculiar
tendencies, were created. … The ability of Professor
Lavisse to compress the essence of a great event or
sequence of events into a few comprehensive and expressive
sentences, has enabled him to accomplish his difficult task
with signal success."
_Translator's Preface._
LEA, HENRY CHARLES.
History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1888. 3 volumes.
LODGE, RICHARD.
History of Modern Europe, 1453-1878.
London: J. Murray. 1885.
New York:, Harper Bros.
MACKENZIE, ROBERT.
The Nineteenth Century; a history.
London: Nelson & Sons. 1880.
McLAUGLIN, EDWARD TOMPKINS.
Studies in mediæval life and literature.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1894.
MACLEAR, G. F.
The conversion of the West.
London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
MAXWELL, Sir WILLIAM STIRLING.
Don John of Austria;
or, passages from the history of the 16th Century, 1547-1578.
London: Longmans. 1883. 2 volumes.
MAY, Sir THOMAS E.
Democracy in Europe.
London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1877. 2 volumes.
New York: A. C. Armstrong & Son. 2 volumes.
MERIVALE, CHARLES.
The conversion of the northern nations:
Boyle lectures. 1865.
London: Longmans.
New York: D. Appleton & Co.
MERLE D'AUBIGNE, J. H.
History of the great Reformation of the 16th century.
New York: Carter & Bros. 1863-77. 8 volumes.
MICHAUD, J. F.
History of the Crusades;
translated from the French.
London: G. Routledge & Co. 1852. 2 volumes.
MICHELET, JULES.
Summary of Modern History;
translated from the French and continued by M. C. M. Simpson.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1875.
MILMAN, HENRY HART.
History of Latin Christianity,
including that of the Popes to Nicholas V.
London: J. Murray. 1854. 6 volumes.
"I know few books more delightful and more instructive to
read than Milman's 'History of Latin Christianity.' And
none better discharges the work of a guide, both to the
original authorities, and what we cannot neglect, to modern
German writers."
_E. A. Freeman,
Methods was of historical study,
page 283._
MOELLER, WILHELM.
History of the Christian Church, A.D. 1-600;
translated from the German.
London: S. Sonnenschein. 1892.
History of the Christian Church, in the Middle Ages.
London: S. Sonnenschein. 1893.
MONSTRELET, ENGUERRAND DE.
Chronicles;
translated by T. Johnes.
London: Geo. Routledge & Sons. 1867. 2 volumes.
A chronicle which continues that of Froissart, from
1400 to 1467, and is continued by others to 1516,
especially narrating events in the Hundred Years War.
MONTALEMBERT, CHARLES F., Count de.
The Monks of the West, from St. Benedict to St. Bernard;
authorized translation.
London: W. Blackwood & Sons. 1861-79. 7 volumes.
"His pages bring before us tales handed down by oral
tradition alone for perhaps two or three generations,
together with documents and letters as genuine as the
despatches of the Duke of Wellington. But there is little
or no effort to show that one is more valuable than the
other, or to determine where the poetry which is lavish of
marvellous incidents ends, and where the region of fact
begins."
_Edinburgh Review, v. 127, page. 404._
MÜLLER, W.
Political history of recent times. 1816-1875;
translated [and continued to 1881] by J.,P. Peters.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1882.
"For many years—as Professor of Modern History, first at
the State University of Michigan, afterward at Cornell
University—I had been seeking a work which should give to
thoughtful students a view, large but concise, of the
political history of Continental Europe in the nineteenth
century. … At last I came upon the 'Politische Geschichte
der Neuesten Zeit,' by Professor Wilhelm Miller, of
Tübingen. … Three readings of it satisfied me that it is
what is needed in America. … It is not an abridgment; it is
a living history."
_Andrew D. White,
Prefatory Note._
MURDOCK, HAROLD.
The reconstruction of Europe [1852-1870].
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1889.
NATIONAL LIFE AND THOUGHT.
London: T. F. Unwin. 1891.
A volume of lectures delivered at South Place Institute,
London, in 1889-90, designed "to give information, in a
popular form, with regard to the national development and
modes of political action among the different nations
throughout the world." The lecturers were generally men
specially well informed on their several subjects, such as
Professor J. E. Therold Rogers, Professor Pulszky. J. T.
Bent, J. C. Cotton Minchin, Eirikr Magnusson, and others.
NEANDER, AUGUSTUS.
General history of the Christian religion and Church;
translated from the German by Joseph Torrey.
"He … made church history a book of instruction,
edification and comfort, on the firm foundation of profound
and accurate learning, critical mastery of the sources,
spiritual discernment, psychological insight, and sound,
sober judgment."
_P. Schaff,
Saint Augustin Melanchthon,
Neander, page 136._
PALGRAVE, Sir FRANCIS.
History of Normandy and England.
London: Macmillan & Co. 4 volumes.
PASTOR, LUDWIG.
History of the Popes from, the close of the Middle Ages;
translated from the German.
London: J. Hodges.
A history written from the Roman Catholic standpoint.
PERIODS OF EUROPEAN HISTORY;
edited by Arthur Hassal.
London and New York: Macmillan & Co.
Period 1, A. D. 476-918; by Charles W. C. Oman.
Period 5, A. D. 1598-1715; by Henry O. Wakeman.
Period 7, A.D. 1789-1815; by H. Morse Stephens.
Other periods not yet published.
RANKE, LEOPOLD VON.
History of the Latin and Teutonic nations from 1494 to 1514;
translated from the German.
London: G. Bell & Sons. 1887.
History of the Popes in the 16th and 17th centuries;
translated from the German by Mrs. Austin.
London: J. Murray. 2 volumes.
ROBERTSON, JAMES C.
History of the Christian Church;
from the Apostolic Age to the Reformation.
London: J. Murray. 1875. 8 volumes.
ROBERTSON, WM.
History of the reign of the emperor Charles V.;
with life of the emperor after his abdication,
by W. H. Prescott.
London: George Routledge & Sons. 2 volumes.
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co. 3 volumes.
ROBINSON, A. MARY F. (Madame Darmesteter).
The end of the middle ages.
London: T. F. Unwin. 1889.
"Essays and questions in History," as follows:
the Beguines and the Weaving Brothers;
the Convent of Helfta;
the attraction of the Abyss (Mysticism);
the Schism;
Valentine Visconti;
the French claim to Milan;
the Malatestas of Rimini;
the Ladies of Milan;
the Flight of Piero de' Medici;
the French at Pisa.
ROSE, J. H.
A century of continental history, 1780-1880.
London: Edward Stanford. 1889.
Aims only at "giving an outline of the main events
which have brought the Continent of Europe to its
present political condition," and does so acceptably.
SCHLOSSER, F. C.
History of the eighteenth century, etc.;
translated by D. Davison.
London: Chapman & Hall. 1843-52; 8 volumes.
SHEPPARD, JOHN G.
The fall of Rome and the rise of the new nationalities.
London and New York: Routledge. 1861.
"One of the best manuals for the use of a student or the
Middle Ages. Perhaps its most striking characteristic is in
its large dependence on original authorities, and in the
stress winch it lays on the use of such authorities in the
study of the period under examination."
_C. K. Adams,
Manual of Historical Literature.
3d edition, page 168._
SMITH, I. GREGORY:
Christian Monasticism, from the 4th to the 9th centuries.
London: A. D. Innes & Co. 1892.
SMYTH, WM.
Lectures on modern history.
London: H. G. Bohn. 2 volumes.
SOREL, ALBERT.
L'Europe et la Revolution française.
Paris: Plon. 1885.
STEPHENS, W. R. W.
Hildebrand and his Times.
London: Longmans. 1888.
In the series entitled "Epochs of Church History."
STILLÉ, CHARLES J.
Studies in mediæval history.
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1882.
On the following topics:
General characteristics of the mediæval era;
the Barbarians and their invasions;
the Frankish conquests and Charlemagne;
Mohammed and his System;
mediæval France;
Germany, feudal and imperial;
Saxon and Danish England;
England after the Norman conquest;
the Papacy to the reign of Charlemagne;
the Papacy and the Empire;
the struggle for Italian nationality;
Monasticism, Chivalry and the Crusades:
Scholastic philosophy—the Schoolmen—Universities;
the laboring classes in the Middle Ages;
mediæval Commerce;
the era of Secularization.
{3891}
STUBBS, WILLIAM.
Seventeen lectures on the study of mediæval and
modern history and kindred subjects.
Oxford: Clarendon Press: 1886.
New York: Macmillan & Co. 1887.
Inaugural Lecture;
on the Present State and Prospects of Historical Study;
the Purposes and Methods of Historical Study;
Learning and Literature at the court of Henry II.;
the Mediæval Kingdoms of Cyprus and Armenia;
on the Characteristic Differences between Mediæval
and Modern History;
the Reign of Henry VIII.;
Parliament under Henry VIII.;
history of the Canon Law in England;
the Reign of Henry VII.;
last statutory public lecture.
SYBEL, HEINRICH VON.
History and literature of the Crusades;
translated from the German.
London: Chapman & Hall. 1861.
SYMONDS, JOHN ADDINGTON.
The Catholic reaction.
London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1886. 2 volumes.
These are the concluding volumes of Symonds'
"Renaissance in Italy."
TRENCH, RICHARD C.
Lectures on mediæval Church history.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1878.
VAN PRAET, JULES.
Essays on the political history of the 15th, 16th,
and 17th centuries
[translated from the French].
London: Richard Bentley. 1868.
VILLEMAIN, A. F.
Life of Gregory VII. [Hildebrand];
preceded by a sketch of the Papacy to the 11th century;
translated from the French.
London: R. Bentley & Son. 1874. 2 volumes.
VOLTAIRE, F. M. AROUET DE.
Annals of the empire, from the time of Charlemagne.
(Works, translated by Smollett and others,
1761, volumes 20-22).
WARD, A., W.
The Counter-Reformation.
London: Longmans. 1889.
In the series entitled "Epochs of Church History."
WOODHOUSE, F. C.
The military religious orders of the Middle Ages.
London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1879.
GREAT BRITAIN: GENERAL.
BRIGHT, J. F.
History of England.
London: Rivingtons. 1880-1888. 4 volumes.
A very carefully written history, brought down to 1880;
quite full in detail, and necessarily, therefore,
condensed in the narrative.
BUCKLE, HENRY THOMAS.
History of civilization in England.
London: Longmans.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 2 volumes.
A work which has lost the great influence that it exerted
when it first appeared, but which is full of suggestion,
nevertheless, to one who reads it thoughtfully.
BUCKLEY, ARABELLA B.
History of England for beginners.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1887.
BURROWS, MONTAGU.
Commentaries on the history of England
from the earliest times to 1865.
Edinburg: W. Blackwood & Sons. 1893.
A successful "attempt to interpret the History of England
in accordance wit the latest researches"; "a digest and a
commentary rather than an abstract or an epitome.
BURTON, JOHN HILL.
History of Scotland from Agricola's invasion to the
last Jacobite insurrection;
new and enlarged edition.
Edinburg: W. Blackwood & Sons. 8 volumes.
CALLCOTT, Lady M.
Little Arthur's history of England.
London: J. Murray.
Very high in the esteem of those who judge books for
children most carefully.
DICEY, ALBERT V.
The Privy Council: the Arnold prize essay.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1887.
DUFFY, Sir CHARLES GAVAN.
Bird's-eye view of Irish history.
Dublin: J. Duffy & Son. 1882.
ENGLISH WORTHIES;
edited by Andrew Lang.
London: Longmans. 1885.
Raleigh; by Edmund Gosse.
Blake; by David Hannay.
Claverhouse; by Mowbray Morris
Marlborough; by George Saintsbury.
Shaftesbury; by H. D. Traill.
Canning; by F. H. Hill.
Darwin; by Grant Allen.
FORSYTH, WILLIAM;
History of Trial by Jury.
London: J. W. Parker. 1852.
FREEMAN, EDWARD A.
The growth of the English constitution.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1872.
GAIRDNER, JAMES, and JAMES SPEDDING.
Studies in English history.
Edinburgh. 1881.
A volume of collected essays, on the Lollards, the
Historical element in Shakespeare's Falstaff, Katharine of
Aragon's first and second marriages, history of the
doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings, Sundays, ancient and
modern, and other topics.
GARDINER, SAMUEL RAWSON.
Historical biographies.
London: Longmans. 1884.
Contains brief but excellent biographies of Simon de
Montfort, Edward the Black Prince, Sir Thomas More, Sir
Francis Drake, Cromwell, and William III.
A student's history of England, from the earliest
times to 1885.
London: Longmans. 1890—1. 3 volumes.
Professor Gardiner, being a specialist distinctly, in the
one period of English history to which he has devoted
himself—the period of the Stuarts—would not claim
authority, of course, as an original investigator of other
times; and some parts of this general text-book have been
found open to criticism. But, on the whole, it can claim
the first rank among text-books of its class.
GNEIST, RUDOLPH.
History of the English Constitution;
translated from the German.
London: W. Clowes & Son. 1886. 2 volumes.
The English Parliament in its transformations through
a thousand years.
London: Grevel & Co. 1886.
"The work of Gneist on the English Constitution is scarcely
less indispensable to the English student than the works of
Stubbs and Hallam, while, as a distinguished jurist and
politician in Germany, he surveys his subject from a
different standpoint."
_S. R. Gardiner and J. B. Mullinger,
Introduction to the study of English' History,
page 410._
GREEN, JOHN RICHARD.
Short history of the English people.
Illustrated edition, edited by Mrs. J. R. Green and
Miss Kate Norgate.
London: Macmillan & Co.
New York: Harper & Bros. 4 volumes.
"The success of the 'Short History' was rapid and
overwhelming. Everybody read it. It was philosophical
enough for scholars, and popular enough for school boys. No
historical book since Macaulay's has made its way so fast.
… The characteristic note of his [Green's] genius was also
that of Gibbon's, the combination of a perfect mastery of
multitudinous details with a large and luminous view of
those far-reaching forces and relations which govern the
fortunes of peoples and guide the course of empire."
_J. Bryce,
John Richard Green
(Macmillan's Magazine, May, 1883)._
History of the English people.
London: Macmillan & Co.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1878. 4 volumes.
An enlargement of the "Short History."
JOYCE, P. W.
Short history of Ireland, from the earliest times to 1608.
London: Longmans. 1893.
KNIGHT, CHARLES.
Popular history of England;
London: Bradbury & Evans. 8 volumes.
A work of great merit as a popular history, making no
pretensions to original research; liberal in spirit and
admirable in tone. It was one of the first works of the
kind to be pictorially illustrated in a really historical
way.
LANGMEAD, THOMAS P. TASWELL.
English constitutional history, from the Teutonic conquest to
the present time. 2d edition revised, with additions.
London: Stevens & H. 1880.
LINGARD, JOHN.
History of England from the first invasion by the Romans.
London: Burns & Oates; 10 volumes.
English history written with general fairness from the
Roman Catholic standpoint.
LOFTIE, W. J.
History of London.
London: E. Stanford. 1883-1884.
2 volumes with supplement.
MACAULAY, THOMAS BABINGTON, Baron.
History of England from the accession of James II.
London: Longmans.
A brief survey of previous events introduces the history
proper which begins with the accession of James II., in
1685. As the death of the author brought his work to an
abrupt end before he had finished his account of the reign
of William III. (1689-1702), the history covers a period of
less than eighteen years. Its extraordinary brilliancy, on
the one and, and its defects of partisan prejudice and
misjudgment on the other, are well known. "I can see
Macaulay's great and obvious faults as well as any man; I
know as well as any man the cautions with which his
brilliant pictures must be studied; but I cannot feel that
I have any right to speak lightly of one to whom I owe so
much in the matter of actual knowledge, and to whom I owe
more than to any man as the master of historical
narrative."
_E. A. Freeman,
Methods of Historical Study,
page 105._
POWELL, F. YORK.
History of England, to the death of Henry VII.
London: F. Rivingtons.
An excellent school text-book of the early centuries of
English history, presenting really one of the best succinct
studies that can be found of the four centuries from the
first Norman to the first Tudor. It belongs to a series of
three volumes, only one other of which (the third, by
Professor Tout) has appeared.
RANNIE, DAVID W.
Historical outline of the English Constitution, for beginners.
London: Longmans. 1882.
SKOTTOWE, B. C.
A short history of Parliament.
London: Sonnenschein & Co. 1892.
SMITH, G. BARNETT.
History of the English Parliament;
with an account of the Parliaments of Scotland and Ireland.
London: Ward, Lock, B., & Co. 1892. 2 volumes.
{3893}
SOUTHEY, ROBERT.
Lives of the British admirals;
completed by Robert Bell:
London: Longmans. 1833. 5 volumes.
TRAILL, HENRY D., editor
Social England; a record of the progress of the people in
religion, laws, learning, arts, industry, commerce, science,
literature, and manners, from the earliest times to the
present day, by, various writers.,
London: Cassell & Co.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1894-5.
A work somewhat unequally executed by the different writers
engaged; but generally admirable, and exceedingly
interesting. Three volumes have thus far been issued.
TWELVE ENGLISH STATESMEN.
London: Macmillan & Co; 1888-.
William the Conqueror; by Edward, A. Freeman.
Henry the Second; by Mrs. J. R. Green.
Edward the First; by Prof. T. F. Tout.
Henry the Seventh; by James Gairdner.
Cardinal Wolsey; by Bishop Creighton.
Elizabeth; by E. S. Beesly.
Oliver Cromwell; by Frederic Harrison.
William the Third; by H. D. Traill.
Walpole; by John Morley.
Chatham [in preparation]; by John Morley.
Pitt; by Lord Rosebery.
Peel; by J. R. Thursfield.
YONGE, CHARLOTTE M.
Cameos from English history.
London: Macmillan. 1871-1890.
Philadelphia.: Lippincott & Co.
Seven series of clear-cut historical narratives, each quite
distinct in subject, but following one another in close
relations of time. Many of the subjects are from
Continental events which have some close connection with
English history. The periods covered by the several series
are defined and entitled as follows:
1. Rollo to Edward II.
2. The wars in France.
3. The wars of the Roses.
4. Reformation times.
5. England and Spain.
6. Forty years of Stewart rule.
7. Rebellion and Restoration.
GREAT BRITAIN: EARLY AND MEDIÆVAL.
BROWNE: MATTHEW.
Chaucer's England.
London: Hurst & Blackett. 1869. 2 volumes.
CHURCH, R. W. Saint Anselm.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1870.
CREIGHTON, MANDELL.
Life of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester.
London: Rivingtons. 1876.
ELTON, CHARLES.
Origins of English history.
London: B. Quaritch. 1882.
"An attempt to rearrange in a convenient form what is known
of the history of this country from those obscure ages
which preceded the Roman invasions to the time when the
English accepted the Christian religion."—
_Author's opening chapter._
ENGLISH HISTORY FROM CONTEMPORARY WRITERS:
The misrule of Henry III.
Edward III. and his wars.
Strongbow's conquest of Ireland.
Simon de Montfort and his cause.
The Wars of York and Lancaster.
London: D. Nutt. 5 volumes.
FREEMAN, EDWARD A.
History of the Norman Conquest of England; its causes
and its results.
Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1870. 5 volumes and index.
Old English history for children.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1869.
An attempt by the late Professor Freeman to make
"Old English history" interesting to children, and one
in which he did not fail.
The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henry I.
Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1882. 2 volumes.
"Taken as a whole, the seven volumes ['Norman Conquest' and
'William Rufus'] give us such a masterly philosophic
analysis and such a picturesque and vivid narrative of the
history of England in the eleventh century that it must be
pronounced the monumental work upon which Mr. Freeman's
reputation will chiefly rest."
_John Fiske,
Edward Augustus Freeman
(Atlantic Monthly, January 1893)._
GAIRDNER, JAMES.
History of the life and reign of Richard III.
London: Longmans. 1878.
"I have, in working out this subject, always adhered to the
plan of placing my chief reliance on contemporary
information; and so far as I am aware, I have neglected
nothing important that is either directly stated by
original authorities and contemporary records, or that can
be reasonably inferred from what they say."
_Author's preface._
The Houses of Lancaster and York, with the conquest
and loss of France.
London: Longmans.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons.
Belonging in the excellent series of the
"Epochs of Modern History"—small, but satisfactory.
GREEN, J. R.
The making of England.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1881.
The conquest of England.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1883.
In the first of these books, Mr. Green has told the story
of the Saxons and Angles in England down to the union of
the land under, Ecgberht; the period of their settlement,
"in which their political and social life took the form
which it still retains." In the second work he continues
the narrative to the Norman conquest.
GREEN, Mrs. J. R.
Town life in the fifteenth century.
London and New York: Macmillan & Co. 1894. 2 volumes.
"Every page gives proof of careful research, skilful
arrangement of facts, and felicitous treatment."
_C. J. Robinson,
Review (Academy, June 16, 1894)._
GROSS, CHARLES.
The Gild Merchant; a contribution to British municipal history. Oxford. 1890.
Concededly the best work on the subject.
KEMBLE, JOHN M.
The Saxons in England.
New edition, edited and revised by W. De Gray Birch.
London: B. Quaritch. 1876. 2 volumes.
"An account of the principles upon which the public and
political, life of our Anglosaxon forefathers was based;
and of the institutions in which those principles were most
clearly manifested."
_Author's Preface._
"Kemble has no narrative work to compare with that of
Palgrave; but the 'Saxons in England' may fairly be
compared with the 'History of the English Commonwealth.'
They are two great works, works of two great scholars,
who assuredly are not yet superseded. They will give you
two sides of the same general story."
_E. A. Freeman,
Methods of Historical Study,
page 281._
LECHLER, G.
John Wiclif and his English precursors;
translated from the German.
London: C. K. Paul & Co. 1878. 2 volumes.
LONGMAN, WILLIAM.
History of the life and times of Edward III.
London: Longmans. 1869.
MAURICE, C. EDMUND.
Lives of English popular leaders in the Middle Ages.
London: H. S. King, 1872-5. 2 volumes.
Stephen Langton, Wat Tyler, John Ball and Sir John
Oldcastle are the subjects.
NORGATE, KATE.
England under the Angevin kings.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1887. 2 volumes.
"In point of historical scholarship it is rarely indeed
that Miss Norgate gives anything to complain of. What
strikes us before all things is her firm grasp of facts and
authorities. … It is a sterling book, one which places its
writer very high indeed in the ranks of real scholars."
_E. A. Freeman,
Review (English History Review, October., 1887)._
OMAN, CHARLES W.
Warwick, the Kingmaker.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1891.
An excellent small book on the Wars of the Roses, written
for a series entitled, "English Men of Action."
PALGRAVE, Sir FRANCIS.
History of Normandy and England.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1851 and 1878. 4 volumes.
A work which can almost be described as the history of
Western Europe from the eighth to the end of the eleventh
century, viewed especially in its connection with the
movements and settlements of the Northmen.
History of the Anglo Saxons.
London: W. Tegg.
Written from studies made more than sixty years ago, and
subject now to considerable modification; but it is still
valuable, and no later work has quite replaced it.
The rise and progress of the English Commonwealth:
Anglo-Saxon period.
London: Murray. 1831. 2 volumes.
See note to Kemble's "Saxons in England," above.
PASTON LETTERS, THE; 1422-1509;
a new edition, edited by James Gairdner.
London: [E. Arber.] 1872. 3 volumes.
"A collection of family letters written during the Wars of
the Roses, which are now commonly known as the 'Paston
Letters,' because most of them were written by or to
particular persons of the family of Paston in Norfolk. …
Mr. Gardner's Introduction of 130 closely printed pages to
the first volume, 50 to the second, and 60 to the third, is
a book in itself, giving a clear record of the public and
private life of England from 1422 to 1509, so far as they
are illustrated by, or illustrate, the 'Paston letters.'"
_H. Morley,
English Writers,
volume 6, pages 253 and 261._
PAULI, R.
Life of Alfred the Great;
translated from the German by B. Thorpe.
London: Bohn. 1853.
PEARSON, CHARLES H.
History of England during the Early and Middle Ages.
London: Bell & Daldy. 1867. 2 volumes.
A work of ability which presents views of early English
history considerably antagonistic to those of Stubbs,
Freeman and Green, especially concerning the
destructiveness of the Saxon conquest and the completeness
of the break in institutional history which that event
produced; also touching the results of the Norman conquest.
PROTHERO, GEORGE W.
Life of Simon De Montfort.
London: Longmans. 1877.
RAMSAY, Sir JAMES H.
Lancaster and York:
a century of English history (A. D.1399-1485).
Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1892. 2 volumes.
"'Lancaster and York' is essentially a book of reference,
to be at the elbow of every careful student who would know
the honest fact, or would be saved indefinite quest through
a score of records. … We must admit that it is not a
readable book."
_G. Gregory Smith.
Review (Academy, October 29, 1892)._
{3893}
RHYS, J.
Celtic Britain.
London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1882.
A small book, but probably the best that can be found
on the subject.
ROUND, J. H.
Geoffrey de Mandeville; a study of the Anarchy.
London: Longmans. 1892.
Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex, played a
dishonorable but important part in the strife for the
English crown between the Empress Matilda and Stephen of
Blois. He is used by Mr. Round as merely a central figure
in the most thorough study that has been made of that
distressing time of anarchy.
ROWLEY, JAMES.
The rise of the People and the growth of Parliament, 1215-1485.
London: Longmans.
An interesting outline of the period in which the popular
institutions of England were rooted. It is one of the
little volumes in the series of the "Epochs of English
History."
SCARTH, H. M.
Roman Britain.
London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
SKENE, W. F.
Celtic Scotland.
Edinburgh: Edmonston & Douglas. 1876. 3 volumes.
STUBBS, WILLIAM.
Constitutional history of England
in its origin and development.
Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1874-7. 3 volumes.
"In along and careful study of the Bishop of Chester's
writings I will not say that I have always agreed with
every inference that he has drawn from his evidence; but I
can say that I have never found a flaw in the statement of
his evidence. … After five-and-thirty years' knowledge of
him and his works, I can say without fear that he is the
one man among living scholars to whom one may most freely
go as to an oracle, that we may feel more sure with him
than with any other that in his answer we carry away words
of truth which he must be rash indeed who calls in
question."
_E. A. Freeman,
Methods of historical study, page 10._
The Early Plantagenets.
London: Longmans. 1877.
A little volume in the series of "Epochs of Modern History,"
contributed by one of the master-historians.
WARBURTON, W.
Edward the Third.
London: Longmans.
In the series of the "Epochs of Modern History."
WRIGHT, THOMAS.
The Celt, the Roman and the Saxon:
a history of the early inhabitants of Britain.
London: Trübner & Co. 1875.
Particularly a good summary of what is known of the
Celtic and Roman periods.
History of domestic manners and sentiments in England
during the Middle Ages.
London: Chapman & Hall. 1862.
WYLIE, JAMES HAMILTON.
History of England under Henry IV.
London: Longmans. 1881-94.
2 volumes. (a third volume to come).
An elaborate and painstaking investigation of the period,
producing a useful but not an interesting work.
GREAT BRITAIN: MODERN.
AIRY, OSMUND.
The English restoration and Louis XIV.;
from the Peace of Westphalia to the Peace of Nimwegen.
London: Longmans. New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1889.
ANSON, Sir W. R.
Law and custom of the Constitution.
Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1886.
BACON, FRANCIS, Lord.
History of the reign of Henry VII.
[Works, edited by Spedding, et al., volume 6.]
London: Longmans, 1857-62.
BAGEHOT, WALTER.
The English Constitution.
London: Chapman & Hall.
Not a history of the English constitution, but an essay
in exposition and elucidation of its principles and its
practical working. The book is one of the classics of
political literature.
BAYNE, PETER.
The chief actors in the Puritan Revolution; 2d edition.
London: J. Clarke & Co. 1879.
BOURNE, H, R. FOX.
English seamen under the Tudors.
London: R. Bentley. 1868. 2 volumes.
Sir Philip Sidney.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1891.
London: T. F. Unwin.
In the series entitled "Heroes of the Nations."
BOUTMY, ÉMILE.
The English Constitution;
translated from the French,
with an introduction by Sir Fredrick Pollock.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1891.
BREWER, J. S.
The reign of Henry VIII. from his accession to
the death of Wolsey.
London: J. Murray. 1884. 2 volumes.
This work "consists of four different treatises, which were
originally published as prefaces to the four volumes of
'Letters an Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII.,' edited by
Professor Brewer for the Master of the Rolls. … They do not
… contain a detailed systematic narrative of all that was
done in the times of which they treat; but they certainly
do contain a review of the reign of Henry VIII. down to the
death of Wolsey, as clear sighted as it is comprehensive,
drawn from the latest sources of information, carefully
collected and arranged by the author himself."
_Preface, by James Gairdner._
BRIDGET, T. E.
Life and writings of Sir Thomas More.
London: Burns & Oates; 1891.
BURKE, S. HUBERT.
Historical portraits of the Tudor dynasty and
the Reformation period.
London: J. Hodges. 1879-83. 4 volumes.
An interesting, view of Tudor times and people by a well
instructed and fairly candid Roman Catholic student.
BURNET, Bishop.
History of his own time.
London: W. Smith. 1839. 2 volumes.
BURTON, THOMAS [member in the Parliaments
of Oliver and Richard Cromwell from 1656 to 1659].
Diary;
edited by J. T. Rutt.
London: H. Colburn. 1828. 4 volumes.
CARLYLE, THOMAS.
Oliver Cromwell's letters and speeches, with elucidations.
London: Chapman & Hall. 5 volumes.
CHAMBERS, ROBERT.
History of the rebellion of 1745-6.
Edinburgh 1847.
CHARLES I.
Letters to Queen Henrietta Maria;
edited by 'J. Bruce.
London: Camden Society 1856.
CLARENDON, EDWARD HYDE, Earl of.
History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England.
Oxford. 1849. 7 volumes.
"What is unique in his case is the value of his facts, as
contrasted with, nay as demonstrating, the inconsequence of
his reasonings. Other historians, when they go wrong, can
be refuted only by reference to other authorities;
Clarendon can be answered out of his own lips."
_P. Bayne,
Chief Actors in the Puritan Revolution,
page 475._
COOKE, GEORGE W.
History of Party, from the rise of the Whig and Tory factions,
in the reign of Charles II., to the passing of the Reform Bill.
London: J. Macrone. 1836. 2 volumes.
CORDERY, B. MERITON, and J. S. PHILLPOTTS.
King and Commonwealth; a history of Charles I.
and the great rebellion.
London: Seeley & Co.
Philadelphia: J. H. Coates & Co.
The principal author of this bit of compact, careful
historical writing is now better known as Mrs. Bertha M.
Gardiner, wife of the historian, Samuel Rawson Gardiner.
CREIGHTON, LOUISE.
Life of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough.
London: Rivingtons. 1879.
Life of Sir Walter Raleigh.
London: Rivingtons. 1877.
DICEY, A. V.
Lectures introductory to the study
of the law of the Constitution.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1885.
EPOCHS OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
London: Longmans.
New York: C. Scribner & Co. 8 volumes or 1 volume.
Early England to the Norman Conquest; by F. York Powell.
England a Continental Power from the Conquest
to the Great Charter, 1055-1215; by Mrs. M. Creighton.
The rise of the People and the growth of Parliament,
from the Great Charter to the accession of Henry VII.,
1215-1485; by James Rowley.
The Tudors and the Reformation, 1485—1603,
by Rt. Rev. M. Creighton
The struggle against absolute Monarchy 1603-1088;
by Mrs. S. R. Gardiner.
The settlement of the Constitution, 1689-1781:
by James Rowley.
England during the American and European wars, 1763—1820;
by O. W. Tancock.
Modern England, 1820-1885; by Oscar Browning.
FORSTER, JOHN.
Statesmen of the Commonwealth of England.
London: Longmans. 1840. 7 volumes.
Biographies of Eliot, Strafford, Pym, Hampden, Vane,
Marten, Cromwell. It is now known that the biography of
Strafford was written for Forster by Robert Browning, and
it has been separately published as Browning's work. "Mr.
Forster … was not only an historical writer, but his time
and energies were also largely absorbed in the journalism
of the Whig party of his day, and his treatment of
important questions too often betrays the influence of a
strong feeling of partisanship."
_S. R. Gardiner and J. B. Mullinger,
Introduction to the study of English History, page 354._
FROUDE, J. A.
History of England, from the fall of Wolsey
to the death of Elizabeth.
London: Longmans. New York: C. Scribner & Co. 12 volumes.
“The well-known work of Mr. Fronde abounds with graphic
descriptions accompanied by much admirable and just
criticism. In its composition he was largely aided by his
researches among the archives at Simancas, collections
which at that time had been very imperfectly investigated.
Unfortunately, the conception he has formed of the
character and conduct of Henry VIII. is of so strange and
unreal a kind as to deprive this portion of his History of
much of its value. The reign of Edward VI. is described
with more impartiality, but the policy of Somerset is
somewhat harshly judged. … The volumes that relate to the
reign of Elizabeth are the most valuable part of the work."
_S. R. Gardiner and J. B. Mullinger,
Introduction to the study of English History, page 325._
Life and times of Thomas Becket.
New York: C. Scribner.
GARDINER, S. R.
The first two Stuarts and the Puritan revolution, 1603-1660.
London: Longmans.
In the series entitled "Epochs of Modern History."
History of England from the accession of James I. to
the outbreak of the civil war, 1603-1642.
London: Longmans. 1883-4. 10 volumes.
History of the Great Civil War, 1642-1649.
London: Longmans. 1886-94. 3 volumes.
{3894}
GARDINER, S. R.
History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate, 1649-1660.
London and New York: Longmans. 1894. volume 1.
editor, The constitutional documents of the Puritan revolution.
Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1889.
GASQUET, FRANCIS AIDAN.
Henry VIII. and the English monasteries.
London: J. Hodges. 1888. 2 volumes.
An investigation of facts connected with the suppression
of the monasteries, by a learned Roman Catholic.
GEIKIE, C.
The English Reformation.
London: Strahan & Co. 1879.
GEORGE III. Correspondence with Lord North, from 1768 to 1783.
London: J. Murray. 1867. 2 volumes.
GREVILLE, CHARLES C. F.
Memoirs: a journal of the reigns of George IV., William IV.,
and Victoria.
London: Longmans. 1874-88.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 8 volumes.
The journal is brought to a close in the year 1860.
GUIZOT, F. P.
History of Richard Cromwell and the restoration of Charles II.;
translated by A. R. Scoble.
London: R. Bentley's Sons. 1856. 2 volumes.
History of the English revolution of 1640, commonly
called the great rebellion;
translated by William Hazlitt.
London: H. Bohn.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1846. 2 volumes.
Monk: or the fall of the Republic and the restoration
of the Monarchy in England in 1660;
translated by A. R. Scoble.
London: Bell & Daldy. 1866.
HALE, E.
The fall of the Stuarts and Western Europe from 1678 to 1697.
London: Longmans. 1876.
A small book in the series entitled
"Epochs of Modern History."
HALL, HUBERT.
Society in the Elizabethan Age.
London: Sonnenschein & Co. 1887.
HALLAM, HENRY.
Constitutional history of England, from the accession
of Henry VII. to the death of George II.
London: J. Murray. 3 volumes.
HAMILTON, J. A.
Life of Daniel O'Connell.
London: W. H. Allen & Co., 1888.
HEATON, WILLIAM.
The three reforms of Parliament: a history, 1830-1885.
London: T. F. Unwin. 1885.
HERBERT OF CHERBURY, EDWARD, Lord.
History of England under Henry VIII.
London: A. Herbert. 1870.
HOSMER, JAMES K.
Life of Young Sir Henry Vane, Governor of Massachusetts Bay
and leader of the Long Parliament.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1888.
A careful study from original sources of the political
career of Sir Henry Vane on both sides of the sea.
HUGHES, THOMAS.
Alfred the Great.
London: Macmillan & Co.
HUTCHINSON, LUCY.
Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson:
revised, with additional notes, by C. H. Firth.
London: Nimmo. 1885.
"Hutchinson represented Nottinghamshire in the Long
Parliament, taking the parliamentary side; and the
narrative throws much light on the conduct of the
committees through which Parliament worked, and the
machinery whereby it maintained its authority over the
whole kingdom."
_S. R. Gardiner and J. B. Mullinger,
Introduction to the study of English History, page 318._
JEPHSON, HENRY.
The Platform: its rise and progress.
London and New York: Macmillan & Co. 1892. 2 volumes.
"In 1820 we find the word 'platform' used as describing the
place from which the speakers addressed the meeting, and
gradually, as we advanced into the present century, the
word 'platform' by a perfectly simple and natural
transition, came into general use and acceptation, not
merely in the technical sense, as the place from which the
Speech was made, but as descriptive of the spoken
expression of public opinion outside Parliament."
_H. Jephson, The Platform,
its rise and progress, introduction._
LECKY, W. E. H.
History of England in the 18th century.
London: Longmans. 1878-87.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1878-90. 8 volumes.
"Mr. Lecky's book ought to have been entitled 'Essays on
the Growth of the British Empire during the Eighteenth
Century.' … He has seized more clearly than most writers
the fruitful idea that the importance of the eighteenth
century in English history lies in the transformation of
England into the British Empire, and further, that no part
of British history can be understood unless the development
of the Empire be regarded as a whole."
A. V. Dicey,
Lecky's History
(Nation, April 18, 1878, page 261).
LETTERS AND PAPERS, foreign and domestic, of the
reign of Henry VIII., preserved in the Public Records
Office, the British Museum and elsewhere in
England;
arranged and catalogued by J. S. Brewer
[after his death by James Gairdner],
under the direction of the Master of the Rolls.
London: Longmans. 1862-93. 12 volumes in 18.
LYALL, Sir ALFRED.
Warren Hastings.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1889.
McCARTHY, JUSTIN.
The epoch of Reform, 1830-1850.,
London: Longmans. 1882.
In the series entitled "Epochs of Modern History."
History of our own times, from the accession of
Queen Victoria to the Berlin Congress.
London: Chatto & Windus. 1879. 4 volumes.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1880. 2 volumes.
A most readable narrative of recent history: colored
by the national and partisan prejudices of the writer,
as every contemporary writing of history is sure to be;
but manifestly honest in intention, and a praiseworthy
piece of work.
MACKINTOSH, Sir JAMES.
History of the Revolution in England in 1688:
comprising a view of the reign of James II.;
completed, to the settlement of the crown, by the editor.
"Almost all the distinguished writers who have treated of
English history are advocates. Mr. Hallam and Sir James
Mackintosh alone are entitled to be called judges. But the
extreme austerity of Mr. Hallam takes away something from
the pleasure of reading his learned, eloquent and judicious
writings. He is a judge, but a hanging judge, the Page or
Buller of the High Court of Literary Justice. His black cap
is in constant requisition. … Sir James, perhaps, erred a
little on the other side. He liked a maiden assize and came
away with white gloves, after sitting in judgment on
batches of the most notorious offenders."
_Lord Macaulay, Sir James Mackintosh (Essays)._
MAHON, Lord (afterwards Earl Stanhope).
History of England, comprising the reign of Queen Anne
until the Peace of Utrecht, 1701-1713.
London: J. Murray. 1870.
History of England from the Peace of Utrecht [1713]
to the Peace of Versailles [1783].
London: J. Murray. 7 volumes.
"Though the volumes of Lord Mahon are distinguished by
research and varied learning, by a spirit at once candid,
patient, and investigating—though his lordship possesses
considerable ability as a narrator, and is a master of a
style at once easy, flowing, and thoroughly English, yet
with all his calm discrimination, and all his spirit of
truth and justice, there 18 something of the leaven of old
Toryism about his tone of thought."
_Fraser's Magazine, volume 51, page 128._
Life of William Pitt. 2d edition.
London: J. Murray. 1862. 4 volumes.
MALLESON, Colonel G. B.
Lord Clive.
Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1893.
MARTINEAU, HARRIET.
History of England, A. D. 1800-1815; being an introduction
to the history of the peace.
London: G. Bell & Sons. 1878.
History of the Thirty Years' Peace, A. D. 1816-1846.
London: G. Bell & Sons. 1877. 4 volumes.
A work which is exceedingly heavy reading, and which does
not at all sustain the literary reputation of Miss
Martineau. It gives, however, the most complete account we
have of the thirty years following the Napoleonic wars.
MASSEY, WILLIAM.
History of England during the reign of George III.
2d edition, revised and corrected.
London: Longmans. 1865. 4 volumes.
"Mr. Massey is clear, succinct and nervous. He is a careful
and conscientious inquirer, who searches into original and
contemporary documents, and who does not take facts or
adopt opinions at second hand. Mr. Massey is not a decided
party man, though a Liberal in the best sense of the word."
_Fraser's Magazine,
volume 51, page 144._
"The work is dispassionate and impartial in its tone."
_J. B. Mullinger,
Introduction to the Study of English History,
part 2, page 394._
MASSON, DAVID.
Life of John Milton, narrated in connection with the
political, ecclesiastical and literary history of his time.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1858-80. 6 volumes and index.
"Professor Masson's 'Life of Milton' is an elaborate and
often highly interesting study of all the contemporary
movements—religious, political, and social—which may be
supposed to have influenced the poet's genius or to have
moulded the national history."
_S. R. Gardiner and J. B. Mullinger,
Introduction to the study of English History,
page 336._
MAY, THOMAS ERSKINE.
Constitutional history of England since the accession
of George III., 1760-1860.
London: Longmans. 1861-2.
Boston: Crosby & Nichols. 2 volumes.
A continuation of Hallam's "Constitutional History."
MIGNET, F. A.
History of Mary, Queen of Scots.
London: R. Bentley & Son. 1887.
MOBERLY, C. E.
The early Tudors: Henry VII.; Henry VIII.
London: Longmans. New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1887.
A small book in the series entitled
"Epochs of Modern History."
MOLESWORTH, WILLIAM NASSAU.
History of England from 1830 to 1874.
London: Chapman & Hall. 1874. 3 volumes.
MORLEY, JOHN.
Edmund Burke: a historical study.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1867.
{3895}
MORLEY, JOHN.
Life of Richard Cobden.
London: Chapman & Hall. 1881.
A fine piece of biographical writing and the best account
existing, of the Anti-Corn-Law League and the struggle for
free trade in England.
MORRIS, EDWARD E.
The age of Anne.
London: Longmans.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1877.
The early Hanoverians.
London: Longmans. New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1886.
In the series entitled "Epochs of Modern History."
NAPIER, MARK.
Montrose and the Covenanters.
London: J. Duncan. 1838. 2 volumes.
PAUL, ALEXANDER.
History of reform; a record of the struggle for the
representation of the people in Parliament. 2d edition.
London: Routledge & Sons. 1884.
PEPYS, SAMUEL.
Diary, completely transcribed by the late Rev. Mynors Bright,
with Lord Braybrooke's notes;
edited with additions by H.B. Wheatley.
London: George Bell & Sons. 1893. 3 volumes.
PERRY, GEORGE G.
History of the Reformation in England.
London: Longmans. 1886.
PORRITT, EDWARD.
The Englishman at home; his responsibilities and privileges.
New York: T. Y. Crowell & Co. 1893.
PRIME MINISTERS OF QUEEN VICTORIA;
edited by Stuart J. Reid.
London: S. Low, Marston & Co. 1890.
New York: Harper & Bros.
Lord Beaconsfield; by J. A. Froude.
Lord Melbourne; by Henry Dunckley.
Sir Robert Peel; by Justin McCarthy.
Gladstone; by G. W. E. Russell.
Marquis of Salisbury; by H. D. Traill.
Viscount Palmerston; by the Marquis of Lorne.
The Earl of Derby; by George Saintsbury.
The Earl of Aberdeen; by Sir A. Gordon.
RANKE, LEOPOLD VON.
History of England, principally in the 17th century;
translated from the German.
Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1875. 6 volumes.
The broadest and most philosophical study that has been
made of English history in the important period from the
Reformation to the Revolution.
SEELEY, J. R.
The expansion of England.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1883.
A comprehensive and highly suggestive survey of the
colonial system of England and of her historical relations
to the vast dependent empire that has been organized around
her.
SMITH, GOLDWIN.
Three English statesmen; a course of lectures on the
political history of England.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1867.
New York: Harper & Bros.
The three English statesmen discussed are Pym,
Cromwell and Pitt.
SMITH, R. BOSWORTH.
Life of Lord Lawrence.
London: Smith, Elder & Co; 1883. 2 volumes.
SOUTHEY, ROBERT.
Life of Nelson.
London: J. Murray.
SOUTHEY, ROBERT.
Life of Wesley: the rise and progress of Methodism.
London: Bell & Daldy. 1864.
STEBBING, W.
Sir Walter Raleigh: a biography.
Oxford. 1891.
SYDNEY, WILLIAM CONNOR.
England and the English in the 18th century.
London and New York: Macmillan & Co. 1891. 2 volumes.
THACKERAY, W. M.
The four Georges: sketches of manners, morals,
court and town life.
London: Smith & Elder. 1861.
New York: Harper & Bros.
THORNBURY, G. W.
Shakespeare's England;
or sketches of our social history in the reign of Elizabeth.
London: Longmans. 1856. 2 volumes.
TODD, ALPHEUS.
Parliamentary government in England;
its origin, development and practical operation;
new edition, abridged and revised by Spencer Walpole.
London: Low, Marston & Co. 1892. 2 volumes.
A work which has grown steadily in reputation
since it first appeared.
TREVELYAN, GEORGE OTTO.
Early history of Charles James Fox.
London: Longmans. 1880.
TULLOCH, JOHN.
English Puritanism and its Leaders.
Edinburgh: W. Blackwood & Sons.
Biographical essays on Cromwell, Milton, Baxter and Bunyan.
TWO CENTURIES OF IRISH HISTORY; with introduction by James Bryce.
London: K. Paul & Co. 1888.
WAITE, ROSAMUND.
Life of the Duke of Wellington.
London: Rivingtons. 1878.
WAKELING, G. H.
King and Parliament (A. D. 1603-1714).
London: Blackie & Son. 1894.
One of a promising series of small books lately undertaken,
entitled "Oxford Manuals of English History."
WALPOLE, SPENCER.
History of England from the conclusion of the great war in 1815.
London: Longmans. 1878-86. 5 volumes.
"His treatment does not exhibit any of the higher powers of
philosophic generalisation; but his research is extensive;
and the commercial, economic, and financial questions which
now begin to enter more largely than ever into the
political history of the nation, are treated with sound
judgment and conspicuous moderation."
_S. R. Gardiner and J. B. Mullinger,
Introduction to the study of English History, page 403._
WOLSELEY, G. J., Viscount.
Life of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough,
to the accession of Queen Anne.
London: R. Bentley & Son. 1894. 2 volumes.
WRIGHT, THOMAS, editor.
Queen Elizabeth and her times: a series of original letters.
London: H. Colburn. 1838. 2 volumes.
Letters selected from the unpublished private
correspondence of the Lord Treasurer Burghley, the Earl of
Leicester, and other distinguished persons of the time.
GERMANY AND AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.
ARNDT, E. M.
Werke. Leipzig. 1892-.
Geist der Zeit. Erinnerungen, etc.
All-important for age of Napoleon.
ARNETH, A. V.
Geschichte Maria Theresias.
Wien. 1863-79. 10 volumes.
BAUMGARTEN, H.
Geschichte Karls V. volumes 1-8.
Stuttgart. 1885-92.
Extends only to 1639.
BENEDETTI, V., Comte.
Ma Mission en Prusse.
Paris. 1871.
BEUST, FRIEDRICH F., Count von.
Memoirs [1830-/ 1885].
London: Remington & Co. 1887. 2 volumes.
The memoirs of a statesman who bore the leading part in the
reconstruction and reconstitution of the Austrian empire
after the Seven Weeks War of 1866 are necessarily important
and interesting.
BEZOLD, F. VON.
Geschichte der Deutschen Reformation.
Berlin. 1887-90.
Theil von Oncken, Allgem. gesch. in Einzeldarstellungen.
Highly praised.
BIEDERMANN, K.
Dreissig jahre Deutscher geschichte;
von der Thronbesteigung Friedrich Wilhelms IV
bis zur aufrichtung des neuen Deutschen Kaiserthums.
Breslau. 1881-2. 2 volumes.
Mein Leben und ein Stück Zeitgeschichte.
Breslau. 1886-7. 2 volumes.
BISMARCK, Furst.
Gesammelte werke: briefe, reden und aktenstücke;
herausg. von B. Walden. 5 volumes.
Berlin. 1892.
Briefe. Eb. 1892.
Politische reden. Historisch-kritische gesammtausgabe
besorgt von H. Kohl.
Stuttgart. 1892-4. 9 volumes.
BLUM, Dr. Hans.
Das Deutsche Reich zur zeit Bismarcks;
politische geschichte von 1871 bis 1890.
Leipzig und Wien. 1893. volumes 1-2.
BOYEN, HERMANN V.
Erinnerungen aus dem Leben.
Herausgegeben von F. Nippold.
Leipzig. 1889-90.
Important for the war of Liberation.
BRACE, CHARLES LORING.
Hungary in 1851.
New York: C. Scribner. 1852.
BRACKENBURY, Colonel C. B.
Frederick the Great.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1884.
A succinct, clear, well studied military history.
BROGLIE, JACQUES V. A., Duc de.
Frederick the Great and Maria Theresa;
translated by Mrs. Hoey and J. Lillie.
London: Low, Marston & Co. 1883. 2 volumes.
"Piquant, readable, and full of interesting revelations."
_Herbert Tuttle, Preface to
"History of Prussia under Frederick the Great."_
BROSIEN, H.
Preussische geschichte: Abth. 1.
Geschichte der Mark Brandenburg im Mittelalter.
Leipzig. 1887.
Das wissen der gegen wart.
BUCHWALD, G. V.
Deutsches gesellschaftsleben im endenden Mittelalter.
Kiel. 1885-7. 2 volumes.
BULLE, C.
Geschichte der neuesten zeit, 1815-1871.
Leipzig. 1886'-7. 4 volumes.
BUNSEN, CH. K. J., Freiherr v.
Aus seinen Briefen und nach eigener Erinnerung geschildert,
von seiner Witwe. 3 auf., vermehrt von F. Nippold.
Leipzig. 1868-71. 3 volumes.
CARLYLE, THOMAS.
History of Friedrich II. of Prussia.
London: Chapman & Hall.
New York: Harper & Bros.
See note to Tuttle's "History of Prussia." below.
COXE, WILLIAM.
History of the house of Austria, 1218-1792.
London: H. G. Bohn. 3 volumes.
"Besides being a work of real intrinsic merit, it has the
greater distinction of being the only complete history of
the House of Austria accessible to the reader of English."
_C. K. Adams. Manual of Historical Literature,
3d edition; page 283._
{3896}
DAHLMANN-WAITZ.
Quellenkunde der Deutschen geschichte.
Gottingen. 1894.
6,550 titles.
DEBIDOUR, A.
Histoire diplomatique de l'Europe
depuis l'ouverture du congrès de Vienne jusqu' à
la clôture du congrès de Berlin (1814-1878).
Paris. 1891. volumes 1-2.
DELBRÜCK, H.
Das Leben des Feldmarshalls Grafen Neithardt von Gneisenau.
Berlin. 1882. 2 volumes.
DICEY, EDWARD.
The battlefields of 1866.
London: Tinsley Bros. 1866.
The campaign [of 1866] in Germany.
(Macmillan's Magazine, 14:386. 1866.)
DÖLLINGER, J. V.
Das Papstthum.
München: 1892.
Briefe und Erklärungen über die Vatikanischen Dekrete, 1869-87.
Herausg. von F. H. Reusch.
Münch. 1890.
DROYSEN, G.
Gustav Adolf.
Leipzig. 1869-70. 2 volumes.
Well written and by a great authority.
DROYSEN, J. G.
Das Leben des Feldmarshalls Grafen Yorck von Wartenburg.
9 auf. Berlin. 1884. 2 volumes.
DUNHAM, S. A.
History of the Germanic empire.
London: Longmans. 1834. 3 volumes.
EGELHAAF, G.
Deutsche Geschichte im zeitalter der Reformation.
Berlin. 1885.
A prize work.
EHERRIER, C. DE.
Histoire de la lutte des papes et des
empereurs de la maison de Souabe;
Paris. 1858-9. 3 volumes.
ERDMANNSDÖRFFER, B.
Deutsche Geschichte vom Westphälischen Frieden bis zum
Regierungsantritt Friedrichs des grossen, 1648-1740.
Berlin. 1892-4. 2 volumes.
Theil von Oncken, Allgem. gesch.
FORBES, ARCHIBALD.
William of Germany.
London: Cassell & Co. 1888.
FORSTER, FLORENCE. A.
Francis Deak, Hungarian statesman: a memoir;
with a preface by M. E. Grant Duff.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1880.
FREDERIC, HAROLD.
The young emperor, William II. of Germany.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
London: T. F. Unwin. 1891.
FREDERICK II. (called the Great.)
History of my own times [1740-1745].
(Posthumous works; translated by Thomas Holcroft. volume 1.
London. 1789. 13 volumes.).
FREYTAG,
G. Bilder aus der Deutschen Vergangenheit.
Leipzig. 18th edition. 1892. 5 volumes.
Excellent as history and as literature.
GARDINER, SAMUEL R.
The Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648.
(Epochs of history.)
London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1874.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1876.
GERMANY, FEDERAL. CONSTITUTION OF;
with an historical introduction;
translated from the German.
Philadelphia 1890.
Published in the Political Economy and Public Law Series of
the University of Pennsylvania.
GERVINUS, G. G.
Geschichte des XIX Jahrhunderts
seit den Wiener Verträgen.
Leipzig. 1855-66. 8 volumes.
GIESEBRECHT, W. v.
Geschichte der Deutschen Kaizerzeit;
Braunschweig u. Leipzig.
Five editions, last one in 1888.
Extends from 911 to c. 1180.
GINDELY, ANTON.
History of the Thirty Years' War;
translated by A. Ten Brook.
London: R. Bentley & Sons. 1884.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1884. 2 volumes.
GODKIN, EDWIN L.
History of Hungary and the Magyars.
London: Cassell & Co. 1853.
GÖRGEI, ARTHUR.
My life and acts in Hungary, 1848-9;
translated.
London: D. Bogue.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1852.
GÖTZ VON BERLICHINGEN.
Eigne Lebensbeschreibung.
In Götz Graf von Berlichingen-Rossach:
geschichte des Ritters G. v. B. und seiner Familie.
Leipzig. 1861.
(Also in Reclam library.)
GOULD, S. BARING.
The story of Germany.
London: T. F. Unwin.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1886.
In the series entitled "Story of the Nations."
HALLWICH, H.
Wallenstein's Ende: ungedruckte Briefe und Akten.
Leipzig. 1879. 2 volumes.
HAÜSSER, L.
Deutsche geschichte vom Tode Friedrichs des grossen bis zur
gründung des Deutschen Bundes.
Berlin. 1869. 4 volumes.
HENDERSON, ERNEST F.
A history of Germany in the Middle Ages.
London: George Bell & Sons. 1894.
This is the only book which brings to English readers the
latest fruits of the thorough-going German investigation of
German mediæval history.
HOFER, ANDREW.
Memoirs of the life of; containing an account of the
transactions in the Tyrol, 1809;
from the German, by C. H. Hall.
London: J. Murray. 1820.
HOZIER, H. M.
The Seven Weeks' War.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1867. 2 volumes.
HUDSON, E. H.
The life and times of Louisa, Queen of Prussia.
London: Hatchards. 2 volumes.
JASTROW, I.
Geschichte des Deutschen Einheitstraums und seiner Erfüllung.
Berlin. 1891.
A prize essay.
KLAPKA., General GEORGE.
Memoirs of the war of independence in Hungary;
translated by O. Wenckstern.
London: C. Gilpin. 1850. 2 volumes.
KOSER, R.
Friedrich der grosse als Kronprinz.
Stuttgart. 1886.
König Friedrich der grosse. volumes 1. 1893. Bibl. D. G.
Greatest modern authority on Frederick.
KÖSTLIN, J.
Luthers Leben.
Leipzig. 1882.
LENZ, M.
Martin Luther.
Berlin. 1883.
Short, scholarly and well written.
KRAUSE, GUSTAV.
The growth of German unity,
London: David Nutt. 1892.
KUGLER, B.
Wallenstein.
Leipzig. 1884.
Der Neue Plutarch.
LAMPRECHT, K.
Deutsche geschichte.
Berlin. 1891. volumes 1-5.
Extends as yet to the Reformation.
LEGER, LOUIS.
History of Austro-Hungary;
translated by Mrs. Birkbeck Hill.
London: Rivingtons.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1889.
LEHMANN, M.
Scharnhorst.
Leipzig. 1886-7.
LEWIS, CHARLTON T.
History of Germany.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1874.
Based on Muller's History of the German People.
LIPPERT J.
Deutsche Sittengeschichte.
Leipzig. 1889. 3 volumes.
Das Wissen der gegenwart.
LÖHER, F. V.
Kulturgeschichte der Deutschen im Mittelalter.
Münich. 1891-4. 3 volumes.
LONGMAN, F. W.
Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' War.
London:. Longmans, Green & Co.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1881.
LOWE, CHARLES.
Prince Bismarck; an historical biography.
London: Cassell & Co. 1885. 2 volumes.
MACAULAY, Lord.
Frederick the Great. [Essays.]
London: Longmans, Green & Co.
Boston: Estes & Lauriat. 3 volumes.
This fascinating essay does not in all matters represent
the facts and the personages of the story as less brilliant
but more careful historians of the present day depict them.
[sic.]
MALET, Sir ALEXANDER.
The overthrow of the Germanic confederation, 1866.
London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1870.
MALLESON, Colonel G. B.
Battle-fields of Germany.
London: V. H. Allen & Co. 1884.
Life of Prince Metternich.
London: W. H. Allen & Co.
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott &; Co. 1888.
Loudon [Austrian field-marshal, 1743-1790].
London: Chapman & Hall. 1884.
The refounding of the German empire, 1848-1871.
London, Seeley & Co. 1893.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons.
MAURENBRECHER, W.
Gründung des Deutschen Reichs, 1859-1871,
Leipzig. 1892.
MAURICE, C. EDMUND.
Revolutionary movement of 1848-9 in Italy,
Austria-Hungary, and Germany.
London: George Bell and Sons. 1887.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
MAXIMILIEN I. et MARGUERITE D' AUTRICHE.
Correspondence, 1507-19.
Paris: A. G. LeGlay. 1839. 2 volumes.
MAZADE, CH. DE.
Un chancelier d' ancien régime.
Le règne diplomatique de Metternich.
Paris. 1889.
MENZEL, WOLFGANZ.
History of Germany;
translated from 4th German edition by Mrs. G. Horrocks.
London: H. G. Bohn. 1848. 3 volumes.
METTERNICH, Prince.
Memoirs [1773-1835];
translated by Mrs. Napier.
London: Bentley & Son. 1880.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons.
{3897}
MITCHELL, Lieutenant-Colonel J.
Life of Wallenstein.
London: Jas. Fraser. 1837.
MOLTKE, HELMUTH, Graf von.
Gesammelte Schriften und Denkwürdigkeiten.
Berlin. 1891-2. 7 volumes.
Essays, speeches and memoirs;
translated from the German.
New York; Harper & Bros. 1893.
MORRIS, WILLIAM O'CONNOR.
Moltke: a biographical and critical study.
London; Ward & Downey. 1894.
MÜLLER, W.
Field Marshal Count Moltke, 1800-1878;
translated from the German.
London: Sonnenschein & Co. 1870.
NIEBUHR, B. G.
Lebensnachrichten über N. Herausg. von D. Hensler.
Hamburg. 1838-9. 3 volumes.
ONCKEN, W.
Das Zeitalter der Revolution, des Kaiserreiches
und der Befreiungskriege.
Berlin. 1881-87. 2 volumes.
Das Zeitalter des Kaisers Wilhelm.
Berlin. 1890-02. 2 volumes.
Both in Oncken, Allg-geschichte in Einzeldarstellungen.
RANKE, LEOPOLD VON.
Ferdinand I. and Maximilian II. of Austria;
translated by Lady Duff Gordon.
London: Longmans. 1862.
An essay on the State of Germany immediately after
the Reformation.
Geschichte Wallensteins. 4 auf.
Leipzig. 1880.
History of the Latin and Teutonic nations, 1494-1514;
translated by Philip A. Ashworth.
London: George Bell & Sons. 1887.
History of the reformation in Germany;
translated by Sarah Austin.
London: Longman. 1845-7. 3 volumes.
Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg and history of
Prussia during the 17th and 18th centuries;
translated by Sir A. and Lady Duff Gordon.
London: J. Murray. 1849. 3 volumes.
Weltgeschichte, herausg. von A. Dove u. G. Winter.
Leipzig. 1886-8. 9 volumes.
Extends to 15th century.
SCHACK, A. F. Graf von.
Ein halbes Jahrhundert Lebenserinnerungen.
Stuttgart. 1880.
SCHERER, W.
Geschichte der Deutschen Literatur.
Berlin. 1891.
SCHILLER, FREDERICK.
History of the Thirty Years' War;
[also] History of the revolt of the Netherlands
to the confederacy of the Gueux;
translated from the German.
London: H. G. Bohn.
SEELEY, J. R.
Life and times of Stein,
or Germany and Prussia in the Napoleonic age.
Cambridge: University Press. 1878. 3 volumes.
The only full, clear, broadly studied account that we have
in the English language of the remarkable work of national
development, by education and organization, that was begun
in Prussia after her prostration by Napoleon, and which
made her the nucleus of the Germanic consolidation that has
taken place in our own time.
SÉGUR, L. P.
History of the reign of Frederic William II., King of Prussia;
translated from the French.
London: Longmans. 1801. 3 volumes.
SIME, JAMES.
History of Germany.
London: Macmillan & Co.
New York: H. Holt & Co. 1874.
An excellent brief sketch of German history by one who had
been gathering material, during many years, for a larger
work, but who died recently without fulfilling his purpose.
SIMON, E.
Histoire du Prince de Bismarck (1847-1887).
Paris. 1887.
L'empereur Guillaume et son règne.
Paris. 1886.
L'empereur Frederic.
Paris. 1888.
L'empereur Guillaume II et la première année de son règne.
Paris. 1880.
Emperor William and his reign;
translated from the French.
London: Remington & Co. 1886. 2 volumes.
SMITH, THOMAS.
Arminius: a history of the German people and of their customs
from the days of Julius Cæsar to the time of Charlemagne.
London: J. Blackwood & Co. 1861.
STILES, WILLIAM. H.
Austria in 1848-49.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1852-3. 2 volumes.
STOCKMAR, FRH. v.
Denkwürdigkeiten.
Braunschweig. 1872.
STOFFEL, Colonel Baron.
Military reports addressed to the French war minister, 1800-70:
translated at the [English] war office, by Captain Home.
London: 1873.
These are the reports on the organization and efficiency of
the Prussian army which might have deterred France from her
insane declaration of war in 1870, and saved her from her
great humiliation, it Napoleon III. and his reckless
ministers had given attention to them.
STRAUSS, G. L. M.
Men who have made the new German empire.
London: Tinsley Bros. 1875. 2 volumes.
SYBEL, HEINRICH VON.
The founding of the German empire, by William I.;
translated by M. L. Perrin.
New York: T. Y. Crowell & Co. 1890—4. 5 volumes.
SZABAD, EMERIC.
Hungary, past and present.
Edinburg: A. & C. Black. 1854.
TAYLOR, BAYARD.
School history of Germany.
New York: Appleton & Co. 1874.
A compilation from David Müller's "History of the German
People" more condensed than that of Charlton T. Lewis.
TESTA, GIOVANNI B.
History of the war of Frederick I. against the communes
of Lombardy.
London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1877.
TREITSCHKE, H. v.
Deutsche Geschichte im 19 Jahrhundert.
Leipzig. 1870-95. 5 volumes.
Extends as yet to 1847.
TRENCH, RICHARD C.
Gustavus Adolphus in Germany. 2d edition.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1872.
Lectures, two only of which were published in 1865.
TURNER, SAMUEL EPES.
Sketch of the Germanic constitution from early times to the
dissolution of the empire.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1898.
TUTTLE, HERBERT.
Brief biographies: German political leaders.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons 1876.
Prince Bismarck;
Dr. Falk;
President Delbrück;
Herr Camphausen;
Prince Hohenlohe;
Count von Arnim;
Herr von Bennigsen;
Dr. Simson;
Herr Lasker;
Herr Windthorst;
Dr. Lewe;
Herr Schulze-Delitzsche;
Herr Jacoby;
Herr Hasselmann;
Herr Sonnemann;
Professors Gneist, Virchow, Treitschke, and Von Sybel.
History of Prussia to the accession
of Frederick the Great, 1134-1740.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1864.
History of Prussia Under Frederick the Great, 1740-1756.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1888. 2 volumes.
In the preface to these last two volumes of his work, which
he did not live to complete, Professor Tuttle remarked:
"The great name of Carlyle is associated so commandingly
with the reign of Frederic the Great that any other writer,
who ventures to treat the same subject, is bound to make
good in advance his claim to a hearing. … But my own faith
was shaken when during a residence of several years in
Berlin I discovered how inadequate was Carlyle's account,
and probably also his knowledge, of the working system of
the Prussian government in the last century,—a system which
it is absolutely necessary to understand if one desires to
know as well why Frederic was able to accomplish what he
did, as why his successors failed to accomplish what they
undertook.
VÁMBÉRY, ARMINIUS, and LOUIS HEILPRIN.
The story of Hungary.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1886.
London: T. F. Unwin.
In the series entitled "Story of the Nations."
VARNHAGEN v. ENSE, K. A.
Denkwürdigkeiten und vermischten Schriften.
Leipzig. 1871. 3 volumes.
VICKERS, ROBERT H.
History of Bohemia.
Chicago: C. H. Sergel & Co. 1894.
VOIGT, J.
Geschichte des Deutschen Ritterordens.
Berlin. 1857-59. 2 volumes.
VOSS, Gräfin von.
Neunundsechzig Jahre am preussischen Hofe. 5 auf.
Leipzig. 1887.
WEINHOLD, K.
Die Deutschen Frauen in dem mittelalter.
Wien. 1882. 2 volumes.
WHITMAN, SIDNEY.
The realm of the Habsburgs.
London: William Heinemann. 1893.
WILLIAMS. W. K.
The Communes of Lombardy from the 6th to the 10th century.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University. 1891.
WINTER, G.
Geschichte des dreissigjährigen Krieges.
Berlin. 1893.
Theil von Oncken, Allgem. gesch.
ZIMMERMANN, Dr. William.
A popular history of Germany;
translated by H. Craig.
New York: H. J. Johnson. 1877. 4 volumes.
A much better history than its form of publication
might lead one to suppose.
ZIMMERN, HELEN.
The Hansa towns.
London: T. F. Unwin.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1889.
In the series entitled "Story of the Nations."
FRANCE: GENERAL.
BINGHAM, D.
The Bastille.
London: Chapman & Hall. 1888. 2 volumes.
CHAVANNE, DARESTE DE LA.
Histoire de France.
Paris. 1868-73. 8 volumes.
CREIGHTON, LOUISE.
First history of France.
London and New York: Longmans. 1893.
DURUY, VICTOR.
History of France:
abridged and translated by Mrs. Carey [to 1889].
New York: T. Y. Crowell & Co.
{3898}
JERVIS, W. H.
The Gallican Church.
London: John Murray. 1872. 2 volumes.
KITCHIN, G. W.
History of France [to 1793].
Oxford: Clarendon Press. 3 volumes.
The best general history of France that one can now
find in English.
LACOMBE, PAUL.
The growth of a people;
translated from the French.
New York: Henry Holt & Co. 1883.
MARTIN, HENRI.
Histoire de France.
Paris: Furne, Jouvet et Cie. 26 volumes.
MICHELET, JULES.
Histoire de France.
Paris: C. Marpon et E. Flammarion. 1879. 19 volumes.
Extends to 1789.
History of France [to 1483],
translated from the French.
London: Whittaker. 2 volumes.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 2 volumes.
MONOD, G.
Bibliographie de l'histoire de France.
Paris: Hachette. 1888.
Contains 4542 titles.
Les maîtres de l'histoire: Renan, Taine, Michelet.
Paris: Calmann-Lévy. 1894.
RAMBAUD.
Histoire de la civilization française.
Paris: Colin. 1885-87. 2 volumes.
Full of new facts and views.
SOREL, A.
Lectures historiques.
Paris: Plon. 1894.
Covers 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries; is highly praised.
STEPHEN, Sir JAMES.
Lectures on the history of France.
London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1851.
New York: Harper & Bros. 2 volumes.
"The lectures giving most important presentations are
those in which the parliaments and States-general are
described."
_C. K. Adams,
Manual of Historical literature, 3d edition,
page 383._
FRANCE: TO THE REVOLUTION.
ARMSTRONG, E.
The French wars of religion; their political aspects.
London: Percival & Co. 1892.
AUMALE, Due d'.
History of the princes de Condé, 16th and 17th centuries;
translated by R. B. Borthwick.
London: Richard Bentley & Sons. 2 volumes.
BAIRD, HENRY M.
History of the rise of the Huguenots of France.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1879. 2 volumes.
London: Hodder & Stoughton. 2 volumes.
The Huguenots and Henry of Navarre.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1886. 2 volumes.
London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co. 2 volumes.
BEAUCOURT, G. DU FRESNE DE.
Histoire de Charles VII.
Paris: Alphonse Picard. 1891. 6 volumes.
Work crowned by the Academy.
BÉMONT, C., et G. MONOD.
Histoire de l'Europe et en particulier de France de 395 à 1270.
Paris: F. Alcan. 1891.
The best summary of the period.
BESANT, WALTER.
Gaspard de Coligny.
London: Marcus Ward & Co. 1879.
BROC, Vicomte de.
La France sous l'ancien regîme.
Paris: Plon. 1887-89. 2 volumes.
BROGLIE, Duc de.
Frederic II et. Louis XV.
Paris. 1885. 2 volumes.
Collected articles from the "Revue des deux mondes."
CANET.
Jeanne d'Arc.
Lille: Desclee. 1887.
CARRÉ, H.
La France sous Louis XV.
An interesting study.
CHANTELAUZE, R.
Portraits historiques [De Commynes, Condé, Mazarin, etc.].
Paris. 1886.
CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH, Princess Palatine.
Life and letters, 1652-1672.
London: Chapman & Hall. 1889.
CLERMONT, LOUIS DE.
Un mignon de la cour de Henri III.
Paris. 1885.
The life of a rascally but attractive governor of Anjou:
"le brave Bussy."
COIGNET, Madame C.
François I.
Paris: Plon. 1885.
COMBES, F.
Madame de Sevigne, historien.
Paris. 1885.
COMINES, PHILIP DE.
Memoirs [Louis XI. and Charles VIII.]
London: George Bell & Sons (Bohn). 2 volumes.
COSNAC, JULES, Comte de.
Mazarin et Colbert.
Paris: Plon. 1892. 2 volumes.
Souvenirs du règne de Louis XIV.
Paris. 1874-81. 8 volumes.
COSTELLO, LOUISA S.
Jacques Cœur: the French Argonaut and his times.
London: R. Bentley & Co. 1847.
DECRUE, FRANCIS.
Anne de Montmorency, grand maître et
grand connetable de France.
Paris: Plon. 1885.
FERRIÈRE, HECTOR DE LA.
La Saint-Barthélmy.
Paris: Calmann-Lévy. 1892.
GEFFROY, A.
Madame de Maintenon d'aprés sa correspondance authentique.
Paris: Hachette. 1887.
GODWIN, PARKE.
History of France: Ancient Gaul.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1860.
HANOTAUX, GABRIEL.
Études historiques sur Ie XVI et XVII siècle en France.
Paris: Hachette. 1886.
Essays on Francis I;, Catherine de Medicis, etc.
Histoire du cardinal de Richelieu:
La jeunesse de Richelieu, 1585-1614.
Paris. 1893.
HOZIER, Captain H. M.
Turenne.
London: Chapman & Hall. 1885.
JAMISON, D. F.
Life and times of Bertrand du Guesclin;
a history of the 14th century.
London: Trübner & Co. 1864. 2 volumes.
JOINVILLE, Sire de.
Saint Louis, king of France [1254-1317];
translated by J. Hutton.
London: Low, Marston & Co.
LARCHEY, LOREDAN.
History of Bayard;
compiled by The Loyal Serviteur;
translated from the French.
London: Chapman & Hall. 1883.
LECESTRES, L.
Memoires de gourville.
Paris. 1894.
Published by La société de l'histoire de France.
Covers period from 1646-1697, and is most curious.
LEMONNIER.
L'art français au temps de Richelieu et de Mazarin.
Paris: Hachette. 1893.
A study of art in connection with history.
LUCE, SIMÉON.
La France pendant la guerre de cent ans.
Paris. 1890.
Public and private life in 14th and 15th centuries.
Jeanne D'Arc à Domremy; recherches critiques sur les
origines de la mission de la Pucelle.
Paris: H. Champion. 1886.
LUCHAIRE, ACHILLE.
Les communes françaises à l'époque des Capétiens directs.
Paris: Hachette et Cie. 1890.
MARTIN, HENRY.
History of France: age of Louis XIV.;
translated by Mrs. Booth.
Boston: Walker, Wise & Co. 2 volumes.
MERLE D'AUBIGNE, J. H.
History of the reformation in the time of Calvin:
translated from the French.
London: Longmans.
New York: Robert Carter & Bros. 8 volumes.
MONTPENSIER, M'lle de.
Memoirs [1627-1683];
translated from the French.
London: Henry Colburn. 3 volumes.
MORRISON, J. COTTER.
Madame de Maintenon: an étude.
London: Field & Tuer.
PARIS, PAULIN.
Études sur François I.
Paris: Leon Téchener. 1885. 2 volumes.
PERKINS, JAMES BRECK.
France under Mazarin.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1886. 2 volumes.
"About a third of the work is given to Richelieu; about a
third (six chapters out of twenty) to the Fronds; and three
chapters at the end are of a general nature, upon the
administration, society, and religion. The reader lays
aside the book with a higher estimate of Mazarin's ability
and character. The style is for the most part excellent—
serious and perspicuous in discussion and in the
delineation of character, animated in narration."
_The Nation, September 9, 1886._
France under the regency.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1892.
London: Macmillan & Co.
PERRY, WALTER C.
The Franks.
London:. Longmans, Green & Co. 1857.
RANKE, LEOPOLD VON.
Civil wars and monarchy in France, 16th-17th centuries:
translated by M. A. Garvey.
London: Richard Bentley & Son. 1852.
New York: Harper & Bros.
RETZ, Cardinal de.
Memoirs [1614-1655];
translated from the French. 3 volumes.
ROBINSON, A. MARY F. (Madame Darmesteter).
Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre.
London: W. H. Allen & Co. 1886.
SAINT-SIMON, Duc de.
Mémoires, p. p. de Boislisle.
Paris: Hachette. 10 volumes.
The edition published in the collection entitled
"Grands Ecrivains de France."
Memoirs on the reign of Louis XIV. and the regency [1692-1723].
Abridged from the French by Bayle St. John.
London: Chapman & Hall. 1857. 4 volumes.
SEPET, MARIUS.
Jeanne d'Arc.
Tours: Alfred Marne. 1891.
SMILES, SAMUEL.
The Huguenots.
London: John Murray: 1867.
New York: Harper & Bros.
TAINE, H. A.
The ancient regime;
translated from the French.
New York: H. Holt & Co. 1876.
{3899}
THIERRY, AUGUSTIN.
Formation and progress of the tiers état in France;
translated.
London: T. Bosworth. 1855. 2 volumes.
THIERS, ADOLPHE.
The Mississippi Bubble; a memoir of John Law.
New York: W. A. Townsend & Co. 1859.
WEILL, G.
Saint-Simon et ses oeuvres.
Paris: Perrin. 1894.
WILLERT, P. F.
Henry of Navarre and the Huguenots in France.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons; 1893.
In the series entitled "Heroes of the Nations."
FRANCE: THE REVOLUTION AND AFTER.
ABRANTES, Duchess d' (Madame Junot).
Memoirs of Napoleon, court and family;
translated from the French.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 2 volumes.
ADAMS, CHARLES K.
Democracy and monarchy in France.
New York: H. Holt & Co. 1874.
ALGER, JOHN G.
Glimpses of the French Revolution;
myths, ideals and realities.
London: S. Low, Marston & Co. 1894.
BARANTE, CLAUDE DE.
Souvenirs du Baron de Barante.
Paris: Calmann-Lévy. 1893-4. 4 volumes.
Correspondence with Chateaubriand, Guizat,
M. de Rémusat, etc.
BERTIN, ERNEST.
La société du Consulat et de l'Empire.
Paris. 1890.
A work brilliant and distinguished in its style.
BERTRAND, P.
Lettres inédites de Talleyrand à Napoleon.
Paris: Perrin. 1889.
BLANC, LOUIS.
History of ten years, 1830-1840;
translated by W. K. Kelly.
London: Chapman & Hall. 1845. 2 volumes.
Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard. 2 volumes.
BLENNERHASSET, Lady.
Talleyrand;
translated from the German.
London: J. Murray. 1894. 2 volumes.
BOURRIENNE, FAUVELET DE.
Private memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte;
[translated from the French].
London: Henry Colburn & R. Bentley. 4 volumes.
New York: T. Y. Crowell & Co. 4 volumes.
BRETTE, ARMAND.
Serment du Jeu de Paume.
Paris. 1894.
BROC, Vicomte de.
La France pendant la revolution.
Paris: Plon. 2 volumes.
A work crowned by the Academy.
BROWNING, OSCAR.
Modern France, 1814-1879.
London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1880.
New York: Harper & Bros.
BURKE, EDMUND.
Reflections on the Revolution in France;
edited, with notes, by F. G. Selby.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1890.
CARLYLE, THOMAS.
The French revolution.
London: Chapman & Hall. 3 volumes.
"The great name of Carlyle has made men wary of seeming to
tread in his path, and the mass of English readers are
therefore left in ignorance of the many points in which he
erred, not wilfully, but from the scantiness of the
information at his disposal."
_H. Morse Stephens,
Preface to "History of the French Revolution." _
CAVAIGNAC, Madame.
Memoires d'une inconnue.
Paris: Plon. 1894.
Manners and customs at beginning of century.
CLARETIE, JULES.
Camille Desmoulins and his wife.
London: Smith, Elder & Co.
CLÉRY, J. B. C. H.
Journal at the Temple during confinement of Louis XVI.
London. 1798.
CROKER, JOHN W.
Essays on the early period of the French revolution.
London: John Murray. 1857.
DICKINSON, G. LOWES.
Revolution and reaction in modern France.
London: George Allen. 1892.
DUMONT, ETIENNE.
Recollections of Mirabeau;
[translated from the French].
Philadelphia: Carey & Lea.
FAURIEL, CLAUDE.
The last days of the consulate;
edited by Lalanne.
London: Low, Marston & Co. 1885.
FLERS, DE:
Le comte de Paris.
Paris: Perrin. 1887.
FOURNIER, Dr. A.
Napoleon I.
Leipzig: Freytag. 1888-9.
FRANCO-GERMAN WAR, 1870-1871;
translated from the German official account.
London. 1874-84. 5 volumes.
GARDINER, BERTHA M.
The French revolution.
London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1882.
A sketch condensed to the last degree, and yet not
lifeless, nor without suggestions of meaning and relation
in the events narrated.
GAUTIER. HIPPOLYTE.
L'an 1789.
Paris: Delagrave. 1889.
GORCE, PIERRE DE LA.
Histoire de la séconde république française.
Paris: Plon. 1887. 2 volumes.
HAUSSONVILLE, Vicomte d'.
The Salon of Madame Necker;
translated by H. M. Trollope.
London: Chapman & Hall. 1882.
HAZLITT, WILLIAM.
Life of Napoleon.
London: 4 volumes.
HOLST, HERMANN VON.
The French Revolution tested by Mirabeau's career;
lectures at the Lowell Institute.
Chicago: Callaghan & Co. 1894.
HOOPER, GEORGE.
Campaign of Sedan.
London: George Bell & Sons. 1887.
HOZIER, Captain H. M., editor.
The Franco-Prussian War.
London: W. Mackenzie. 2 volumes.
HUGO, VICTOR.
The history of a crime;
[translated from the French].
London: Low, Marston & Co. 1877-1879. 4 volumes.
JERVIS, W. H.
The Gallican church and the revolution.
London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co. 1882.
JOMINI, Baron H. DE.
Life of Napoleon;
translated by H. W. Halleck.
New York: D. Van Nostrand. 4 volumes.
Of value, no doubt, to military students, but absurdly
written as though narrated by Napoleon in the other world
to a ghostly audience of the great warriors of the past.
LAMARTINE, ALPHONSE DE.
History of the Girondists.
London: George Bell & Sons (Bohn).
New York: Harper & Bros. 3 volumes.
LANFREY, P.
History of Napoleon I.
[translated from the French].
London: Macmillan & Co. 1871-9. 4 volumes.
A review of the career of Napoleon by a stern judge, but
one who is generally just. The author died before his work
was finished.
LA ROCHEJAQUELEIN, Marchioness de.
Memoirs [1792-1802];
translated from the French.
Edinburgh: Constable & Co. (1827).
LA ROCHETERIE, MAXIME DE.
Life of Marie Antoinette;
translated from the French.
New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. 1893.
LATIMER, ELIZABETH W.
France in the nineteenth century, 1830-1890.
Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co. 1892.
A useful compilation of recent French history.
LEVY, ARTHUR.
The private life of Napoleon, from the French.
London: R. Bentley & Son.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons.
LEWES, GEORGE H.
Life of Robespierre.
London: Chapman & Hall.
Philadelphia: Carey & Hart. 1849.
LISSAGARAY, P. O.
History of the commune of 1871;
translated by E. M. Aveling.
London: Reeves & Turner. 1886.
LOCKWOOD, HENRY C.
Constitutional history of France, 1789-1889.
Chicago: Rand, McNally & Co. 1890.
LOMÉNIE, LOUIS DE.
Beaumarchais and his times;
translated by H. S. Edwards.
London: Addey & Co. 1856. 4 volumes.
New York: Harper & Bros.
LOWELL, EDWARD J.
The eve of the French-revolution.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1892.
In Mr. Lowell's view, the year 1789 is a date which "marks
the outbreak in legislation and politics of ideas which had
already been working for a century, and which have changed
the face of the civilized world." His book is a thoughtful
study of those ideas in their rise and development.
MACDONALD, Marshal.
Recollections;
translated from the French.
London: R. Bentley & Son. 1892. 2 volumes.
MACDONELL, JAMES.
France since the first empire.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1879.
MAHAN, Captain ALFRED T.
The influence of sea power upon the French
revolution and Empire.
Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1892. 2 volumes.
A book which has produced a new conception of the
importance of naval power in history.
MARBOT, Baron de.
Memoirs [1793-1814];
translated by A. J. Butler.
London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1892. 2 volumes.
"It is as the vivacious exponent of the spirit of the
Grande Armée that he possesses the most serious interest
for the historical student. Others have chronicled the
deeds of that army, others have contributed to its
anecdotic history, others have surpassed him in the skilful
narration of its military achievements; but no one except
Marbot has so unwittingly but so truly revealed its spirit
in all its heroism and its weakness."
_H. M. Stephens, Review (Academy, May 21, 1892)._
MARCEAU, SERGENT.
Reminiscences of a regicide [1751-1847];
edited by M. C. M. Simpson.
London: Chapman & Hall. 1889.
MARIE LOUISE [wife of Napoleon].
Correspondance.
Paris: Klinckzieck. 1887.
{3900}
MARZIALS, FRANK T.
Life of Leon Gambetta.
London: Allen & Co. 1890.
MAULDE-LA-CLAVIÈRE, R; DE.
Les origines de la revolution française.
Paris: Leroux. 1889.
MÉNEVAL, Baron de.
Memoirs illustrating the history of Napoleon I.,
from 1802 to 1815;
translated from the French.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1894.
MÉZIÈRES, A.
Vie de Mirabeau.
Paris: Hachette. 1892.
MIGNET, FRANÇOIS A. M.
History of the French revolution, 1789-1814;
translated from the French.
London: George Bell & Sons.
MITCHELL, Lieutenant-Colonel J.
The fall Of Napoleon.
London: G. W. Nickisson. 1845. 3 volumes.
MOLTKE, Count von.
Franco-German war of 1870-1871.
London: Osgood, McIlvaine & Co. 1891. 2 volumes.
New York: Harper & Bros.
MORRIS, GOUVERNEUR.
Diary and letters [1788-1794];
edited by A. C. Morris.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1888.
London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co. 2 volumes.
Gouverneur Morris succeeded Jefferson as American Minister
to Franca in 1792; but he had been in France most of the
time since 1789, and he remained until 1794. His diary of
the events of those terrible years is the most valuable
record that has come down from them.
NAPIER, Lieutenant-General. Sir William. F. P.
History of the war in the Peninsula. 1807-1814.
London: G. Routledge & Sons. 6 volumes.
NAPOLEON I.
Oeuvres litteraires.
Tancrède Martel.
Paris: 1888. 4 volumes.
Contains letters, memoirs, etc.
NOLHAC, DE.
Marie Antoinette.
Paris: Alph. Lemerre. 1892.
PALLAIN, G.
Correspondance diplomatique de Talleyrand.
Paris: Plon. 1891.
PASQUIER, ETIENNE DENIS, Duc.
History of my time: memoirs;
translated from the French,
New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1893-4. volumes 1-2.
The Chancellor Pasquier was an observer and a prominent
actor in events during the whole period of, the Revolution,
the Consulate and the Empire.
PONCHALON, HENRI DE.
Souvenirs de guerre.
Paris. 1893.
Written by a colonel who fought at Sedan.
PRESSENSÉ, EDMOND DE.
Religion and the reign of terror;
translated by J. P. Lacroix.
New York: Carlton & Lanahan.
RÉMUSAT, Madame de.
Memoirs, 1802-1808;
translated by Mrs. Hoey and J. Lillie.
London: Low, Marston & Co. 2 volumes.
New York: D. Appleton & Co; 3 volumes.
RÉMUSAT, PAUL DE.
Thiers;
translated from the French.
Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co. 1889.
ROCHECHOUART, DE.
Souvenirs sur la revolution, l'empire et la restauration.
p. p. son fils.
Paris. 1889.
ROCQUAIN, FELIX.
The revolutionary spirit preceding the French revolution;
translated by J. D. Hunting;
with introduction by Professor Huxley.
London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co. 1891.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons.
A work warmly commended by Mr. Lecky, as well as by
Professor Huxley.
ROLAND, Madame M. J. P.
An appeal to impartial posterity;
translated from the French.
London: J. Johnson. 2 volumes.
ROPES, JOHN CODMAN.
The campaign of Waterloo; a military history. 2d edition.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1893.
ROSE, J. H.
The Revolutionary and Napoleonic era, 1789-1815.
Cambridge: University Press.
New York: Macmillan & Co. 1894.
In the "Cambridge Historical Series."
SAY, LÉON.
Turgot;
translated by M. B. Anderson.
Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co.
SEELEY, JOHN R.
Short history of Napoleon the First.
Boston: Roberts Bros. 1886.
An excellent sketch of the career of Napoleon, written
with severity but righteousness of judgment.
SEPET, MARIUS.
Napoléon.
Paris. Perrin. 1894.
SIMON, JULES.
The government of M. Thiers, 1871-1873;
translated from the French.
London: Low, Marston & Co. 1879. 2 volumes.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 2 volumes.
SOREL, ALBERT.
L'Europe et la révolution française.
Paris: Plon. 1892. 4 volumes.
STAEL-HOLSTEIN, Madame de.
Considerations on the French revolution;
translated from the French. 2 volumes.
STEPHENS, H. MORSE.
History of the French revolution.
London: Rivingtons.
New York: C. Scribner' Sons. 1886. volumes 1-2.
editor.
Principal speeches of the statesmen and orators
of the French revolution. 1789-1795.
Oxford: Clarendon Press.
New York: Macmillan & Co. 1892. 2 volumes.
In the two volumes which have appeared, Mr. Stephens has
fully justified his undertaking to write a history of the
French Revolution based on the abundant new material that
has come to light since Thiers, Carlyle Sybel, Michelet and
Mignet wrote.
SYBEL, HEINRICH VON.
History of the French revolution:
translated from the German by W. C. Perry,
London: John Murray. 4 volumes.
A philosophical study of the Revolution especially in its
relations to European politics.
TAINE, HIPPOLYTE A.
The French revolution;
translated by J. Durand.
London: Low, Marston & Co. 2 volumes.
New York: H. Holt & Co. 3 volumes.
The modern regime;
translated by J. Durand; volume 1.
New York: H. Holt & Co. 1890.
London: Low, Marston & Co. 2 volumes.
TALLEYRAND; Prince de.
Memoirs;
translated by R. L. de Beaufort.
London: Griffith, Farran & Co.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1891. 5 volumes.
These memoirs, long waited for, were a disappointment when
they appeared, containing little that was not well
understood before.
TÉNOT, EUGENE.
Paris in December, 1851: the coup d' état;
translated from the 13th French edition.
New York: Hurd & Houghton.
THIERS, LOUIS ADOLPHE.
History of the French revolution;
translated by F. Shoberl.
London: R. Bentley & Son. 5 volumes.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 4 volumes.
History of the consulate and the empire of France
under Napoleon;
translated from the French.
London: G. Bell & Sons (Bohn).
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 5 volumes.
The histories of M. Thiers have been losing their early
reputation under criticisms which challenge their accuracy
and question their spirit. He wrote as a champion of the
Revolution and an admirer of the "glory" of the Napoleonic
period,—not always in the temper of a scrupulous historian.
THOUVENEL.
Episode d' histoire contemporaine.
Paris: Calmann-Lévy. 1893.
THUREAU-DANGIN.
Historie de la monarchie de Juillet.
Paris: Plon. 7 volumes.
Twice crowned by the Academy.
TOCQUEVILLE, ALEXIS DE.
On the state of society in France before 1789;
translated by H. Reeve.
London: John Murray. 1856.
Souvenirs.
Paris: Calmann-Lévy. 1893.
TUCKERMAN, BAYARD.
Life of Lafayette.
New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. 1889. 2 volumes.
London: Low, Marston & Co.
VÉSINIER, P.
History of the commune of Paris;
translated by J. V. Weber.
London: Chapman & Hall. 1872.
VYRÉ, F. DE.
Marie Antoinette, sa vie, sa mort.
Paris: Plon. 1889.
WASHBURNE, ELIHU B.
Recollections of a minister to France, 1869-1877.
London: Low, Marston & Co.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1887. 2 volumes.
YOUNG, ARTHUR.
Travels in France 1787-1789;
edited by M. B. Edwards.
London; G. Bell & Sons. 1889. 2 volumes.
ITALY.
Works in the Italian language were selected for this list
by Mr. William Roscoe Thayer, author of "The Dawn of
Italian Independence."
ARRIVABENE, Count CHARLES.
Italy under Victor Emmanuel.
London: Hurst & Blackett. 1862. 2 volumes.
BALBO, C.
Storia d'Italia [476-1848].
BENT, J. T.
Genoa.
London: C. K. Paul & Co. 1881.
BERSEZIO, V.
Regno di Vittorio Emanuele II.
1878. 4 volumes.
BONGHI, R.
Vita di Valentino Pasini.
BOSSI.
Istoria d'Italia. 1819.
BOTTA, C.
Storia dei popoli italiani [300-1789].
BROWN, HORATIO F.
Venice; an historical sketch of the republic.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1893.
BROWNING, OSCAR.
Guelphs and Ghibellines;
a short history of mediæval Italy, 1250-1409.
London: Methuen & Co. 1893.
BURCKHARDT, JACOB.
The civilization of the period of the Renaissance in Italy;
translated from the German.
London: C. K. Paul & Co. 1878. 2 volumes.
CANTU, C.
Cronistoria dell' Indipendenza Italiana.
Gli eretici d'Italia.
{3901}
CAVOUR, C.
Lettere edite ed inedite. 1887. 6 volumes.
CESARESCO, Countess EVELYN M.
The liberation of Italy, 1815-1870.
London: Seeley & Co. 1894.
DENINA, C.
Rivoluzioni d'Italia. 3 volumes.
FARINI, L. C.
La stato Romano.
GALLENGA, ANTONIO.
History of Piedmont.
London: Chapman & Hall. 1855. 3 volumes.
GARIBALDI, GIUSEPPE.
Autobiography;
translated by A. Werner.
London: W. Smith & Innes. 1889. 3 volumes.
GIANNONE, P.
Istoria civile del regno di Napoli. 1873.
GIESEBRECHT, F. G. B. VON.
Geschichte der Deutschen Kaiserzeit.
GODKIN, G. S.
Life of Victor Emmanuel II., first King of Italy.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1879. 2 volumes.
GUALTEIRO, F. A.
Gli ultimi Revolgimenti italiani.
GUICCIARDINI, F.
Storia florentina.
HUNT, WILLIAM.
History of Italy.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1873.
New York: H. Holt & Co.
A sketch of Italian history in "Freeman's Historical
Course for Schools."
LA FARINA, G.
Storia d' Italia dal 1789.
LANGE.
Geschichte der Römischen Kirche.
MACHIAVELLI, NICCOLO.
Historical, political and diplomatic writings;
translated by C. E. Detmold.
Boston: Osgood & Co. 1882. 3 volumes.
Life of Machiavelli.
History of Florence.
The Prince.
Discourses on Livius.
Thoughts of a statesman.
Missions.
Miscellaneous.
MARRIOTT, J. A. R.
The makers of modern Italy: Mazzini, Cavour, Garibaldi.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1889.
MARTIN, H.
Vie de D. Manin.
MAZADE, CHARLES DE.
Life of Count Cavour;
translated from the Italian.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1877.
MURATORI, L. A.
Annali d' Italia dal principio dell' êra volgare sino al 1750.
Milano: 1818. 18 volumes.
NAPIER, HENRY E.
Florentine history.
London: E. Moxon. 1846. 6 volumes.
OLIPHANT, Mrs. M. O. W.
The Makers of Florence.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1877.
PERRENS, F. T.
History of Florence, from the domination of the Medici
to the fall of the republic;
translated from the French.
London: Methuen & Co. 1892.
PROBYN, J. W.
Italy from the fall of Napoleon I., in 1815, to 1890.
London: Cassell & Co. 1891.
QUINET, E.
Révolutions d' Italie (1852).
RAUMER, FRIEDRICH L. G. YON.
Geschichte der Hohenstaufen.
REUCHLIN.
Geschichte Italiens.
REUMONT, ALFRED VON.
Historie de Florence.
Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent;
translated from the German.
London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1876. 2 volumes.
ROBERTSON, ALEXANDER.
Fra Paoli Sarpi, the greatest of the Venetians;
London: S. Low, Marston & Co. 1894.
ROCQUAIN.
La Papauté an moyen âge.
ROMANIN, S.
Storia documentata di Venezia. 1853.
ROSCOE, WILLIAM.
Life and pontificate of Leo X.
London: H. G. Bohn. 2 volumes.
Life of Lorenzo de' Medici, called the Magnificent.
London: H. G. Bohn.
SCHIRRMACHER.
Kaiser Friedrich II.
SISMONDI, J. C. L. DE.
Les republiques italiennes. 1826.
History of the Italian Republics.
London: Longmans. New York: Harper & Bros.
A greatly abridged translation at Sismondi's work.
SYMONDS, JOHN A.
Renaissance in Italy.
London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1875-86. 7 volumes.
The Age of the Despots.
The Revival of Learning.
The Fine Arts.
Italian Literature.
The Catholic Reaction.
THAYER, WILLIAM ROSCOE.
The dawn of Italian independence.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1893. 2 volumes.
A history of Italy from the Congress of Vienna, 1814, to
the fall of Venice, 1849, which leaves nothing more to be
desired for that important period.
TIRABOSCHI, G.
Storia della letteratura italiana. 3d edition.
Venezia: 1823-5. 27 volumes.
TROLLOPE, T. A.
History of the Commonwealth of Florence.
London: Chapman & Hall. 1865. 4 volumes.
TROYA, C.
Italia nel medio-evo.
URQUHART, W. P.
Life and times of Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan.
Edinburgh: W. Blackwood & Sons. 1852. 2 volumes.
VILLANI, G. M. e F.
Cronaca.
VILLANI, P.
Niccolò Machiavelli.
La storia di Girolamo Savonarola.
VILLARI, PASQUALE.
History of Girolamo Savonarola and of his times;
translated from the Italian.
London: Longmans. 1863. 2 volumes.
Niccolo Machiavelli and his times;
translated from the Italian.
London: C. K. Paul & Co. 1878-83. 4 volumes.
The two first centuries of Florentine history.
London: T. F. Unwin. 1894.
Ed. Storia politica, 476-1878. 8 volumes.
ZELLER, J. S. Abérge de l'historie d'Italie (476-1864).
OTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.
BURKE, U. R.
History of Spain.
London and New York: Longmans. 1805.
CARLYLE, THOMAS.
The early kings of Norway.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1875.
COPPÉE, HENRY.
History of the conquest of Spain by the Arab-Moors.
Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1881. 2 volumes.
CREASY, Sir EDWARD S.
History of the Ottoman Turks;
revised edition.
London: R. Bentley & Son. 1877.
New York: H. Holt & Co.
DAVIES, C. M.
History of Holland to the end of the 18th century.
London: J. W. Parker. 1841. 3 volumes.
DU CHAILLU, PAUL B.
The Viking age.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1889. 2 volumes.
FINLAY, GEORGE.
History of Greece;
new edition, revised by H. F. Tozer.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1877. 7 volumes.
"George Finlay, more perhaps than any other modern writer,
belongs to the same class as these earlier historians who
began a story of remote ages and carried it on into times
and scenes in which they were themselves spectators and
actors. … While Grote put forth volume after volume amid
the general applause of scholars, Finlay toiled on at his
thankless task, amid every form of neglect and
discouragement, till he made a few here and there
understand that there was a Roman Empire of the East. Full
of faults his book is, in form, in matter, in temper; but
it is a great work all the same."
_E. A. Freeman,
Methods of Historical Study,
pages 285-286._
FLETCHER, C. R. L.
Gustavus Adolphus and the struggle of Protestantism
for existence.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1890.
In the series entitled "Heroes of the Nations."
FREEMAN, EDWARD A.
The Ottoman power in Europe.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1877.
GEIJER, ERIC GUSTAVE.
History of the Swedes, first part;
translated from the Swedish.
London: Whittaker & Co.
GRIFFIS, W. E.
Brave little Holland, and what she has taught us.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1894.
HAMLEY, General Sir EDWARD.
The war in the Crimea.
London: Seeley & Co. 1891.
In the series entitled "Events of Our Own Time."
HUG, Mrs. LINA and R. STEAD.
Switzerland.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
London: T. F. Unwin. 1890.
In the series entitled "The Story of the Nations."
KEARY, C. F.
Norway and the Norwegians.
London: Percival. 1892.
KINGLAKE, A. W.
The invasion of the Crimea.
Edinburgh: W. Blackwood & Sons. 1863-80.
N. Y.: Harper & Bros. 6 volumes.
MOLTKE, Count HELMUTH VON.
Poland: an historical sketch:
translated from the German.
London: Chapman & Hall. 1885.
MORFILL, W. R.
The story of Poland.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
London: T. F. Unwin. 1893.
The story of Russia.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
London: T. F. Unwin. 1890.
In the series entitled "The Story of the Nations."
MOTLEY, JOHN LOTHROP.
The rise of the Dutch Republic.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1856. 3 volumes.
History of the United Netherlands, from the death of
William the Silent to the Synod of Dort.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1861-8. 4 volumes.
Life and death of John of Barneveld.
New York: Harper & Bros. 2 volumes.
"He paints the confused scenes of the period he has
chosen to describe—its great and little passions, its
atrocious and its noble men, its terrible sieges and
picturesque festivals, bridals in the midst of
massacres, its fights upon the sea and under the sea,
its torture-fires and blood-baths—in vivid colors, with
a bold free hand, and with a masterly knowledge of
effect. Whatever was dramatic in those fierce conflicts
he has seized; whatever is peculiar or striking in
character, he has penetrated; whatever is significant of
time or place, he appropriates: while he has never
forgotten the great purpose of history, which is the
illustration of moral power."
_P. Godwin, Out of the Past, page 439._
{3902}
PONTALIS, A. L.
John DeWitt, Grand Pensionary of Holland.
London: Longmans. 1885. 2 volumes.
POOLE, STANLEY LANE.
The story of Turkey.
New York: G. P. Putnam s Sons.
London: T. F. Unwin. 1888.
In the series entitled "The Story of the Nations."
PRESCOTT, W. H.
History of the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic;
revised edition.
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1882. 3 volumes.
PRESCOTT, W. H.
History of the reign of Philip II., king of Spain.
Boston: 1855-8. volumes 1-3 [left unfinished].
RAMBAUD, ALFRED.
History of Russia, to 1877;
translated from the French.
London: S. Low, Marston & Co. 1879. 2 volumes.
RANKE, LEOPOLD VON.
History of Servia;
translated from the German.
London: H. G. Bohn. 1853.
SCHUYLER, EUGENE.
Peter the Great, emperor of Russia.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1884. 2 volumes.
STEPHENS, H. MORSE.
The story of Portugal.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1891.
One of the best books in the series entitled
"The Story of the Nations."
VOLTAIRE, M. DE.
History of Charles XII.;
edited by O. W. Wight.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1881.
WATSON, PAUL B.
The Swedish revolution under Gustavus Vasa.
Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1889.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: GENERAL.
A considerably extensive bibliography of Aboriginal America
and of the European discovery and exploration, will be
found in Appendix F. to volume 1.
AMERICAN COMMONWEALTHS;
edited by Horace E. Scudder.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 14 volumes.
Virginia; by John Esten Cooke.
Oregon; by William Barrows.
Maryland; by William Hand Browne.
Kentucky; by N. S. Shaler.
Michigan; by T. M. Cooley.
Kansas; by L. W. Spring.
California; by Josiah Royce.
New York; by Ellis H. Roberts (2 volumes.).
Connecticut; by Alexander Johnston.
Missouri; by Lucien Carr.
Indiana; by J. P. Dunn. Jr.
Ohio; by Rufus King.
Vermont; by Rowland E. Robinson.
AMERICAN HISTORY SERIES.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1892.
The Colonial Era; by George Park Fisher.
The French War and the Revolution;
by William Milligan Sloane.
(Other volumes in preparation.)
AMERICAN STATESMEN;
edited by John T. Morse, Jr.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1882-93. 25 volumes.
George Washington; by Henry Cabot Lodge.
Benjamin Franklin; by John T. Morse. Jr.
Samuel Adams; by James K. Hosmer.
Patrick Henry; by Moses Colt Tyler.
John Adams; by John T. Morse, Jr.
Alexander Hamilton; by Henry Cabot Lodge.
Thomas Jefferson; by John T. Morse. Jr.
John Jay; by George Pellew.
Gouverneur Morris; by Theodore Roosevelt.
James Madison; by Sidney Howard Gay.
John Marshall; by Allan B. Magruder.
Albert Gallatin; by John Austin Stevens.
James Monroe; by Daniel C. Gilman.
John Quincy Adams; by John T. Morse, Jr.
John Randolph; by Henry Adams.
Andrew Jackson; William G. Sumner.
Martin Van Buren; by Edward M. Shepard.
Thomas H. Benton; by Theodore Roosevelt.
Daniel Webster; by Henry Cabot Lodge.
Henry Clay: by Carl Schurz (2 volumes).
John C. Calhoun; by Dr. H. von Holst.
Lewis Cass; by Andrew C. McLaughlin.
Abraham Lincoln; by John T. Morse, Jr.(2 volumes).
ANDREWS, ELISHA BENJAMIN.
History of the United States.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1894. 2 volumes.
Not such a history, either in style of writing or skill of
handling, as should have been expected from the President
of Brown University, but yet to be welcomed until something
better comes to supply the need of an intermediate work,
between the school textbooks and the histories of special
periods.
BANCROFT, GEORGE.
History of the United States of America from the discovery
of the Continent: author's last revision.
New York: Appleton & Co. 1883-5. 5 volumes.
[See, also, next page.]
Ends at the closing of the War of Independence. "The last
volumes are limited in scope, giving a history of little
but military and diplomatic movements during the
Revolution. Perhaps it is as well. Bancroft's talents for
the narration of military and diplomatic history were of a
very high order. He had great skill in marshalling large
arrays of facts, good judgment, and a lucid and picturesque
style. On the other hand, a history of popular movements,
of public opinion and of tie internal development of the
United States, would exhibit at the greatest disadvantage
the author's faults."
_J. F. Jameson,
History of Historical Writing in America,
page 108._
BANCROFT, HUBERT H.
History of the Pacific States of North America.
San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft & Co. 1882-90. 34 volumes.
"From twelve to twenty accomplished linguists, we are told,
have been constantly employed in Mr. Bancroft's service
since 1869. Secretaries have all this time been reading,
translating, summarizing, cataloguing, and indexing the
whole collection. The result, attained at the cost of half
a million dollars, is a mass of systematized information,
such as must make the users and the desirers of historical
materials elsewhere deeply envious. … Mr. Bancroft has
prepared from these materials, and published, a gigantic
'History of the Pacific States of America,' in thirty-four
unusually large volumes."
_J. F. Jameson,
History of Historical Writing in America,
page 153._
BOLLES, ALBERT S.
Financial history of the United States.
N. Y.: D. Appleton & Co. 1879-85. 3 volumes.
BROOKS, ELBRIDGE S.
The Century book for young Americans.
New York: Century Co. 1894.
Descriptive of the machinery of government at Washington,
in its practical working, as seen by an imaginary party of
young visitors.
BROOKS. NOAH.
Short studies in party politics.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1895.
Some first things in American politics.
The passing of the Whigs.
When Slavery went out of Politics.
The Party Platforms of Sixty Years.
BRYANT, WILLIAM CULLEN, and SYDNEY H. GAY.
Popular history of the United States, to the end
of the first century of the Union.
New York: Scribner, A. & Co. 1876. 4 volumes.
Understood to have been substantially the work of Mr. Gay.
Mr. Bryant's contribution to it having been very slight.
Although it brings nowhere, perhaps, new light from
original studies to bear on American history, it is a work
of much merit.
BRYCE, JAMES.
The American Commonwealth; 3d edition, completely revised,
with additional chapters.
London and New York: Macmillan & Co. 1895. 2 volumes.
"One may doubt if such a living picture of Democracy in all
its ways, in its strength and its weakness, its dangers and
its future, in all its strange nakedness of appearance, and
its amazing vitality and force, in its golden hopes, and
its simplicity and limitations as of a raw, lucky,
inexperienced youth entering on a matchless inheritance for
good or for evil, has ever yet been drawn by a competent
hand."
_Frederic Harrison,
Mr.Bruce's "American Commonwealth"
(Nineteenth Century, January 1889)._
CAMPBELL, DOUGLAS.
The Puritan in Holland, England and America.
A work which has commanded attention to the influence
exerted by the Dutch on the development of ideas and
institutions in the United States, and which has done so
with good effect, though with some exaggeration.
COFFIN, CHARLES CARLETON.
Building the nation: from the Revolution to the beginning
of the war between the states.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1883.
For young readers, especially.
DAWES, ANNA L.
How we are governed; an explanation of the constitution
and government of the United States, for young people.
Boston: Lothrop & Co. 1885.
DRAKE, SAMUEL ADAMS.
The making of the Great West, 1512-1888.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1887.
The making of the Ohio Valley States, 1660-1837.
New York: C. Scribner & Sons. 1894.
EPOCHS OF AMERICAN HISTORY;
edited by Albert Bushnell Hart.
New York and London: Longmans. 1891-3. 3 volumes.
The colonies, 1492-1750; by Reuben Gold Thwaites.
Formation of the Union, 1750-1829: by Albert Bushnell Hart.
Division and reunion, 1829—1889; by Woodrow Wilson.
FISKE, JOHN.
Civil government in the United States considered with some
reference to its origins.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1890.
History of the United States for schools.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1894.
FOSTER, W. E.
References to the history of
Presidential administrations, 1789-1885.
New York: Society for Political Education. 1885.
HART, ALBERT BUSHNELL.
Topical outline of the courses in constitutional and political
history of the United States given at Harvard College, 1887-88.
Part 1 (1783-1829). Cambridge. 1886.
HIGGINSON, THOMAS WENTWORTH.
Larger history of the United States,
to the close of Jackson's administration.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1886.
{3903}
HIGGINSON, THOMAS WENTWORTH.
Young folks' history of the United States.
Boston: Lee & Shepard. 1875-83.
Always attractive to young readers.
HILDRETH RICHARD.
History of the United States
[to the end of the 16th Congress].
New York: Harper & Bros. 1849-51. 6 volumes.
"A man of very decided convictions, and ardently interested
in politics, the Whig editor wrote the 'History of the
United States' with a strong partisan bias."
_J. F. Jameson,
The History of Historical Writing in America,
page 112._
HINSDALE, B. A.
How to study and teach history, with particular reference
to the history of the United States.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1894.
The Old Northwest.
New York: T. MacCoun. 1888.
HOLST, Dr. H. VON.
Constitutional and political history of the United States;
translated from the German.
Chicago: Callaghan & Co. 1876-85. 7 volumes.
Volume 1. 1750-1833.
State sovereignty and slavery.
Volume 2. 1828-1846.
Jackson's administration;
annexation of Texas.
Volume 3. 1816-1850.
Annexation of Texas;
Compromise of 1850.
Volume 4. 1850-1851:
Compromise of 1850;
Kansas-Nebraska Bill.
Volume 5. 1851-1856.
Kansas-Nebraska Bill;
Buchanan's election.
Volume 6. 1856-1859.
Buchanan's election;
end of the 35th Congress
Volume 7. 1859—1861.
Harper's Ferry;
Lincoln's inauguration.
JOHNSTON, ALEXANDER.
History of American politics. 2d edition.
New York: H. Holt & Co. 1881.
Parties and party politics in the United States sketched
with a brevity which spoils neither the instructiveness nor
the interest.
History of the United States for schools.
New York: H. Holt & Co. 1885.
The United States; its history and constitution.
New York: C. Scribner s Sons. 1889.
Originally written for the latest edition of the
Encyclopædia Britannica, the remarkable excellence of this
compact account of the history and constitution of the
United States caused its republication separately.
LALOR. J. J., editor.
Cyclopædia of political science, political economy,
and of the political history of the United States.
Chicago: Rand, McNally & Co. 1881. 3 volumes.
MACLAY, EDGAR STANTON.
History of the United States navy from 1775 to 1893.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1894. 2 volumes.
McMASTER, JOHN BACH.
History of the people of the United States from the
Revolution to the Civil War.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1883-95. volumes 1-4.
"Mr. McMaster's book is a valuable contribution to our
history, and will be the cause of work better than its own.
His industrious collection of materials, and his effective
arrangement and courageous presentation of them, cannot
fail to stimulate other workers in the same field. But he
does not always discriminate as to the value of
authorities, and his history suffers somewhat in
consequence."
_Mellen Chamberlain,
McMaster's History
(Andover Review, June. 1886)._
POPULAR HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
New York: A. S. Barnes & Co. 1875-8.
A book which has been successful in interesting young
readers in American history.
PRATT, MARA L.
American history stories.
Boston: Educational Publishing Company. 1890. volumes 1-4.
For readers of the youngest class, and happily adapted
to their taste.
PRESTON, HOWARD W.
Documents illustrative of American history (1606—1863).
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1886.
ROOSEVELT, THEODORE.
The Winning of the West.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1889-94. 3 volumes.
"Before Mr. Roosevelt began his work, there was no
satisfactory account of our westward expansion as a whole.
… Mr. Roosevelt had the historical insight and the good
fortune to make use of a vast mass of original material. …
These abundant materials [he] has used with the skill of a
practised historian."
_The Nation, March 28, 1895._
SCHOULER, JAMES.
History of the United States of America under the Constitution.
New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. volumes 1-5.
A sound, painstaking piece of historical work,
but without much literary attractiveness.
SMITH, GOLDWIN.
The United States; an outline of political history, 1492-1871.
New York: Macmillan & Co. 1893.
There is probably no other living man who could put so much
into a bird's-eye view of American history, and put it into
English of such classical fineness, as Professor Goldwin
Smith has done in this little book.
STANWOOD, EDWARD.
History of Presidential elections.
2d edition, revised.
Boston: Ticknor & Co. 1888.
TUCKER, GEORGE.
History of the United States.
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1856. 4 volumes.
By a southern writer and representing the better-minded
southern view of events and movements in the first halt
century of American national history.
WASHINGTON, GEORGE.
Writings;
collected and edited by Worthington C. Ford.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1889-91. 14 volumes.
WILSON, WOODROW.
Congressional government: a study in American politics.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1885.
WINSOR, JUSTIN, editor.
Narrative and critical history of America.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1886-9. 8 volumes.
"With its chapters of historical narrative by our most
learned and able historical scholars, each writing upon his
own special field, and with its critical essays upon the
sources of information, it seems without doubt to be the
most important and useful contribution over yet made to
American historical science. It splendidly sums up the
historical labors of a century."
_J. F. Jameson,
History of Historical Writing in America, p. 156._
UNITED STATES: TO THE CIVIL WAR.
ADAMS HENRY.
History of the United States of America
[during the administrations of Jefferson and Madison].
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1889-90. 9 volumes.
ADAMS, JOHN QUINCY.
Lives of James Madison and James Monroe,
with historical notices of their administrations.
Buffalo: G. H. Derby & Co. 1850.
Memoirs, comprising portions of his diary from 1795 to 1848;
edited by Charles Francis Adams.
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1874-5. 12 volumes.
ADAMS, JOHN QUINCY and CHARLES FRANCIS.
Life of John Adams;
revised and corrected.
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1871. 2 volumes.
ARNOLD, SAMUEL G.
History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1859. 2 volumes.
BANCROFT, GEORGE.
History of the formation of the Constitution
of the United States.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1882. 2 volumes.
BEER, GEORGE LOUIS.
The commercial policy of England toward the American colonies.
New York 1893.
One of the "Studies in History, Economics and Law," edited
by the Faculty of Political Science of Columbia College.
BENTON, THOMAS H.
Thirty Years' View; or a history of the working of the
American government from 1820 to 1850, chiefly taken from the
Congress debates, private papers of General Jackson and
speeches of Senator Benton.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1856. 2 volumes.
BEVERLEY, ROBERT.
History of Virginia [to 1706];
reprinted from the 2d revision edited. (London, 1722).
Richmond: J. W. Randolph. 1855.
BRODHEAD, JOHN R.
History of the State of New York.
New York: Harper & Bros: 1853-71. 2 volumes.
BROWN, ALEXANDER, editor.
The Genesis of the United States;
a narrative of the movement in England, 1605-1616.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1890.
A collection of historical manuscripts now first printed,
with a reissue of rare contemporaneous tracts, accompanied
by brief biographies, portraits, etc.
BUTLER, NICHOLAS MURRAY.
Effect of the War of 1812 upon the consolidation of the Union.
Baltimore: 1887.
Published among the Johns Hopkins University Studies
in History and Political Science.
CARRINGTON. HENRY B.
Battles of the American Revolution, 1775-1781:
historical and military criticism.
New York: A. S. Barnes & Co. 1876.
A volume of battle-maps and charts, with notes, to
supplement the above, was issued by the same publishers in
1881.
COFFIN, CHARLES CARLETON.
The boys of '76: a history of the battles of the Revolution.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1877.
Old times in the colonies.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1880.
CURTIS, GEORGE T.
History of the origin, formation and adoption of the
constitution of the United States.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1854. 2 volumes.
DOYLE, J. A.
The English in America: Virginia, Maryland and the Carolinas.
London: Longmans. 1882.
The English in America: The Puritan Colonies.
London: Longmans. 1887. 2 volumes.
DWIGHT, THEODORE.
History of the Hartford Convention.
New York: N. & J. White. 1833.
ELLIS, GEORGE E.
The Puritan age and rule in the colony of
Massachusetts Bay, 1629-1685.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1888.
{3904}
FISKE, JOHN.
The American Revolution.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1891. 2 volumes.
The War of Independence.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1889.
The last named of these two is a small book which preceded
Dr. Fiske's larger history of the American Revolution,
treating the same subject in a simpler way, especially for
young readers. There is the same delightful clearness of
narrative, and the same large intelligence of view, in both
works, and they easily take the first place among histories
of the Revolution.
The beginnings of New England: or the Puritan theocracy in
its relations to civil and religious liberty.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1889.
The critical period of American history, 1783-89.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1888.
"It is not too much to say that the period of five years
following the peace of 1783 was the most critical moment in
all the history of the American people. The dangers from
which we were saved in 1788 were even greater than the
dangers from which we were saved in 1865.' This proposition
Mr. Fiske makes abundantly good and he has turned it into a
text for one of the most interesting chapters of history
that has been written for many a day."
_John Morley,
Review (Nineteenth Century, August, 1889)._
FORCE, PETER.
American Archives; a collection of authentic state papers
[etc.], forming a documentary history of the
North American colonies.
Washington 1837-48. 9 volumes.
Only part of the collection, forming the 4th series
(1774-1776) and 3 volumes of the 5th series, was published.
FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN.
Life, written by himself; now first edited, from original mss.
and from his printed correspondence, by John Bigelow;
2d edition revised and corrected.
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott. 1884. 3 volumes.
FROTHINGHAM, RICHARD.
The rise of the Republic of the United States.
Boston: Little, Brown &; Co. 1886.
GOODWIN, JOHN A.
The Pilgrim republic; an historical review of the
colony of New Plymouth.
Boston: Ticknor & Co. 1888.
GRAHAME, JAMES.
History of the United States of North America from the
plantation of the British colonies to their assumption
of national independence.
2d edition revised and enlarged.
Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard. 1846. 2 volumes.
GREENE, GEORGE W.
The German element In the War of American Independence.
New York: Hurd & Houghton. 1876.
Contains biographical sketches or Baron von Steuben
and General John Kalb, and an account of the German
mercenaries.
Life of Nathanael Greene, major-general in the army
of the Revolution.
New York: Hurd & Houghton. 1871. 3 volumes.
HAMILTON, ALEXANDER, JAMES MADISON and JOHN JAY.
The Federalist: a commentary on the
Constitution of the United States;
edited by Henry Cabot Lodge.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1892.
HAMILTON, JOHN C.
Life of Alexander Hamilton, by his son.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1840. 2 volumes.
HENRY, WILLIAM WIRT.
Patrick Henry: life, correspondence and speeches.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1891. 3 volumes.
HUTCHINSON, THOMAS.
History of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, 1628-1691.
Boston. 1764.
History of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, 1691-1750.
Boston. 1767.
History of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, 1749-1774.
London: J. Murray. 1828.
IRVING, WASHINGTON.
Life of George Washington.
New York: G. P. Putnam. 5 volumes.
Life of Washington; abridged for schools, with a brief
outline of United States history, by John Fiske.
Boston: Ginn & Co. 1887.
JOHNSON, ROSSITER.
History of the French war, ending in the conquest of Canada.
New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. [1882.]
History of the war of 1812-1815.
New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. [1882.]
JOHNSTON, HENRY P.
The campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn.
Brooklyn: Long Island Historical Society. 1878.
The Yorktown campaign and the surrender of Cornwallis, 1781.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1881.
JONES, THOMAS.
History of New York during the Revolutionary War, and of the
leading events in the other colonies at that period;
edited by E. F. De Lancey.
New York: New York Historical Society. 1879. 2 volumes.
A loyalist history of the Revolution, by one of the Judges
of the Supreme Court of the Province of New York, who wrote
his account soon after the close of the war, being then in
exile.
KAPP, FRIEDRICH.
Life of Frederick William von Steuben.
New York: Mason Bros. 1859.
LADD, HORATIO O.
History of the War with Mexico.
New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. 1883.
LODGE, HENRY CABOT.
Life and letters of George Cabot.
Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1877.
Short history of the English colonies in America.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1881.
LOSSING, BENSON J.
Life and times of Philip Schuyler.
New York: Sheldon & Co. 2 volumes.
Pictorial field book of the War of 1812.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1868.
Chiefly valuable for its descriptions and illustrations of
the scenes of the war, personally visited by the writer.
LOWELL, EDWARD J.
The Hessians, and the other German auxiliaries of Great
Britain in the Revolutionary War.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1884.
MANSFIELD, E. D.
The Mexican War. 10th edition.
New York: Barnes & Co. 1819.
MOORE, FRANK, editor.
Diary of the American Revolution,
from newspapers and original documents.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1860. 2 volumes.
MORRIS, GOUVERNEUR.
Diary and letters;
edited by Anne C. Morris.
London: K. Paul, Trench & Co. 1889. 2 volumes.
MORSE, JOHN T., JR.
Life of Alexander Hamilton.
Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1876. 2 volumes.
O'CALLAGHAN, E. B.
History of New Netherland; or New York under the Dutch.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1846-8. 2 volumes.
PALFREY, JOHN G.
History of New England during the Stuart dynasty.
Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1858-64. 3 volumes.
History of New England, from the revolution of the
17th century to the revolution of the 18th.
Boston: Little. Brown & Co. 1875-90. 2 volumes.
PARKMAN, FRANCIS.
Works [historical].
Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 11 volumes.
Pioneers of France in the New World.
The Jesuits in North America.
La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West.
The Old Regime in Canada.
Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV.
A half century of conflict (2 volumes).
Montcalm and Wolfe (2 volumes.).
The conspiracy of on Pontiac.
QUINCY, EDMUND.
Life of Josiah Quincy, by his son.
Boston: Ticknor & Field. 1868.
RANDALL, HENRY S.
Life of Thomas Jefferson.
New York: Derby & Jackson. 1858. 3 volumes.
RHODES, JAMES FORD.
History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1893. 2 volumes.
RIEDESEL, Major General.
Memoirs, letters and journals;
translated from the German by W. L. Stone.
Albany: J. Munsell. 1868. 2 volumes.
RIEDESEL, Mrs. General.
Letters and journals relating to the
War of the American Revolution;
translated from the German by W. L. Stone.
Albany: J. Munsell. 1867.
ROOSEVELT, THEODORE.
The naval war of 1812.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1882.
SABINE, LORENZO.
The American Loyalists.
Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1864. 2 volumes.
SCHUYLER, GEORGE W.
Colonial New York: Philip Schuyler and his family.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1885. 2 volumes.
SCOTT, EBEN G.
Development of constitutional liberty in the
English colonies of America.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1882.
SEWARD, F. W.
Story of the life of William H. Seward.
New York: Derby & Miller. 1891. 3 volumes.
SHEA, JOHN G.
Discovery and exploration of the Mississippi Valley.
New York: Redfield. 1852.
SOLEY, JAMES RUSSELL.
The boys of 1812 and other naval heroes.
Boston: Estes & Lauriat. 1887.
For young readers.
STEDMAN, C.
History of the origin, progress and termination
of the American War.
London. 1794. 2 volumes.
A contemporary history of the war of the Revolution written
from the British standpoint, by one who served under Howe,
Clinton and Cornwallis.
STEVENS, B. F.
Facsimiles of manuscripts in European archives relating
to America, 1773-1783; with descriptions, editorial notes,
collations, references and translations.
London. 1889-05. 25 volumes.
STEVENS, CHARLES ELLIS.
Sources of the Constitution of the United States considered
in relation to colonial and English history.
London and New York: Macmillan & Co. 1894.
{3905}
STILLÉ, CHARLES J.
Major-General Anthony Wayne and the Pennsylvania Line in
the Continental Army.
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1893.
Life and times of John Dickinson, 1732-1808.
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1891.
STONE, WILLIAM L.
Life and times of Sir William Johnson.
Albany: J. Munsell. 1865. 2 volumes.
STORY, JOSEPH.
Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States.
Boston: Hilliard, G. & Co. 1833. 3 volumes.
SUMNER, WILLIAM G.
The financier [Robert Morris] and the finances
of the American Revolution.
New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. 1891.
TARBOX, INCREASE N.
Life of Isreal Putnam.
Boston: Lockwood, B. & Co. 1876.
TOCQUEVILLE, ALEXIS DE.
Democracy in America;
translated by Henry Reeves.
London: Saunders & Co. 1886. 4 volumes.
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/815 (volume 1)
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/816 (volume 2)
Same [under the title of "American Institutions"];
revised and edited by F. Bowen. 7th edition.
Boston: J. Allyn., 1874.
UNITED STATES, DEPARTMENT OF STATE.
Documentary history of the Constitution of the
United States of America, 1787-1870; derived from the
records, manuscripts and rolls deposited in the
Bureau of Rolls and library of the Department of State.
Washington. 1894. volume 1.
WELLS, WILLIAM V.
Life and public services of Samuel Adams.
Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1865. 3 volumes.
WHARTON, FRANCIS. editor.
The Revolutionary diplomatic correspondence
of the United States.
Washington. 6 volumes.
WINSOR, JUSTIN.
Reader's handbook of the American Revolution, 1761-1783.
Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co. 1880.
It seems safe to say that no period in the history of any
other country has so perfect a guide to the literature
relating to it as this which Mr. Winsor has prepared for
the period of the American Revolution.
WINTHROP ROBERT C.
Life and letters of John Winthrop,
Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company.
2d edition.
Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1869. 2 volumes.
UNITED STATES: THE CIVIL WAR AND AFTER.
BADEAU, ADAM.
Military history of Ulysses S. Grant, 1861-65.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1868-81. 3 volumes.
BATTLES AND LEADERS OF THE CIVIL WAR;
contributions by Union and Confederate officers;
edited by R. U. Johnson and Clarence C. Buell.
New York: Century Co. 1887-9. 4 volumes.
BLAINE, JAMES G.
Twenty years of Congress: from Lincoln to Garfield;
with a review of the events which led to the political
revolution of 1860.
Norwich, Connecticut: The Henry Bill Publishing Co. 1884-6.
2 volumes.
Mr. Blaine's contribution to the history or his own time is
unquestionably to be counted among the works of permanent
value.
BOWMAN, Colonel S. M., and Lieutenant Colonel R. B. IRWIN.
Sherman and his campaigns: a military biography.
New York: C. B. Richardson. 1865.
BOYNTON, CHARLES B.
History of the navy during the Rebellion.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1868. 2 volumes.
CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1881-8. 13 volumes.
1. The outbreak of rebellion; by J. G. Nicolay.
2. From Fort Henry to Corinth; by M. F. Force.
3. The Peninsula: McClellan's campaign of 1862;
by Alexander S. Webb.
4. The Army under Pope; by J. C. Ropes.
5. The Antietam and Fredericksburg; by F. W. Palfrey.
6. Chancellorsville and Gettysburg; by Abner Doubleday.
7. The Army of the Cumberland; by Henry M. Cist.
8. The Mississippi; by F. V. Greene
9. Atlanta; by Jacob D. Cox
10. The March to the Sea; by Jacob D. Cox.
11. The Shenandoah Valley in 1864; by George E. Pond.
12. The Virginia campaign of '61 and '65;
by A. A. Humphreys.
(Supplementary volume) Statistical record of the armies
of the United States.
CHAMPLIN, JOHN D., JR.
Young folks' history of the War for the Union.
New York: H. Holt & Co.
COFFIN, CHARLES CARLETON.
The drum-beat of the nation.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1888.
Marching to victory.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1889.
Redeeming the Republic.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1890.
Freedom triumphant.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1891.
The first of the four books last named narrates the history
of the Civil War to the close of 1862; the second relates
the events of 1863, the third those of 1864, and the fourth
to the end of the war. They are great favorites among young
readers.
The boys of '61, or four years of fighting; personal
observation with the army and navy.
Boston: Estes & Lauriat. 1831.
COOKE, JOHN ESTEN.
Stonewall Jackson; a military biography.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1876.
DAVIS, JEFFERSON.
The rise and fall of the Confederate Government.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1881. 2 volumes.
DODGE, THEODORE A.
A bird's-eye view of our Civil War.
Boston: Osgood & Co. 1888.
DOUBLEDAY, A.
Gettysburg made plain.
New York: Century Co. 1888.
DRAPER, JOHN W.
History of the American Civil War.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1867. 3 volumes.
FAMOUS ADVENTURES AND PRISON ESCAPES OF THE CIVIL WAR.
New York: Century Co. 1893.
FARRAGUT, LOYALL.
Life of David Glasgow Farragut.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1879.
GIDDINGS, JOSHUA R.
History of the Rebellion, its authors and causes.
New York: Follett, Foster & Co. 1864.
Really a Congressional history of the years preceding
the Rebellion.
GORDON, GEORGE H.
History of the campaigns of the Army of Virginia
under John Pope, 1862.
Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co. 1880.
GRANT, ULYSSES S.
Personal memoirs.
New York: C. L. Webster & Co. 1885-6. 2 volumes.
"Nine-tenths of the value of autobiography is in the
revelation of the writer himself to the world. This book is
no exception to the rule. The history of his campaigns may
be got elsewhere. Badeau's book is more full and has
scarcely less of Grant's authority, for he revised its
statements and certified that it contained his views. … It
is, then, for the new light which they throw upon Grant
himself that these memoirs will be prized. His personality
was too strong to be hidden. When he took his pen to tell
the story of his career, the things which flowed most
easily from his mind were the judgments and opinions of men
and of events in the gross and not the detailed incidents
which the experienced writer would use to fill and color
his narrative. … As to his style, it has the principal
element of thoroughly good writing, since we are made to
feel that the writer's only thought, in this regard, is how
to express most directly and simply the thing he has to
say."
_J. D. Cox,
Review (Nation, February 25. 1886)._
GREELEY, HORACE.
The American conflict: a history of the Great Rebellion in the
United States of America, its causes, incidents and results.
Hartford: O. D. Case & Co. 1867. 2 volumes.
A hurried and careless piece of work: poor in style and
quite unworthy of the eminent journalist who produced it,
but valuable as a document representing the views and
feelings of the time.
HALE, EDWARD E., editor.
Stories of war, told by soldiers.
Boston: Roberts Bros. 1879.
HARRIS, T. M.
The assassination of Lincoln: a history
of the great conspiracy, trial of the conspirators
by a military commission, and a review of the
trial of John H. Surratt; by a member of the
commission.
Boston: American Citizen Co. 1892.
HIGGINSON, THOMAS W.
Army life in a black regiment.
Boston: Fields, Osgood & Co. 1870.
HUGHES, ROBERT M.
General [Joseph E.] Johnston.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1893.
HUMPHREYS, ANDREW A.
From Gettysburg to the Rapidan: the Army of the Potomac,
July, 1863, to April, 1864.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1888.
IRWIN, RICHARD B.
History of the Nineteenth Army Corps.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1892.
JOHNSON, ROSSITER.
Short history of the War of Secession.
Boston: Ticknor & Co. 1888.
KIEFFER, HARRY M.
Recollections of a drummer-boy.
7th edition revised and enlarged.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1890.
LINCOLN, ABRAHAM.
Complete works; comprising his speeches, letters,
state papers, and miscellaneous writings;
edited by John G. Nicolay and John Hay.
New York: Century Co. 1894.
LIVERMORE, MARY A.
My story of the War: a woman's narrative of experience as
nurse in the Union Army.
Hartford: A. D. Worthington & Co. 1868.
LONG, A. L.
Memoirs of Robert E. Lee.
New York: Stoddard & Co. 1886.
McCLELLAN, GEORGE B.
McClellan's own story: the war for the Union, the soldiers who
fought it, the civilians who directed it, and his relations to
it and to them.
New York: C. L. Webster & Co. 1887.
{3906}
MAHAN, Captain A. T.
Admiral Farragut.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1892.
McPHERSON, EDWARD.
Political history of the United States
during the great Rebellion.
Washington: Philip & Solomon. 1865.
A valuable collection of state papers, Congressional
enactments and other documents of the Rebellion history.
MILITARY HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MASSACHUSETTS.
Papers read, 1876-&1.
Boston: 1881-86. 2 volumes.
Volume 1. Peninsular campaign of General McClellan in 1862.
Volume 2. Virginia campaign of General Pope.
NAVY IN THE CIVIL WAR, The.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1883. 3 volumes.
1. The blockade and the cruisers; by J. R. Soley.
2.The Atlantic Coast}; by Daniel Ammen.
3. The Gulf and inland waters; by A. T. Mahan._
NICHOLS, GEORGE WARD.
The story of the great march.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1865.
Descriptive of Sherman's march from Atlanta to the Sea.
NICOLAY, JOHN G., and JOHN HAY.
Abraham Lincoln: a history.
New York: Century Co. 1890. 10 volumes.
PARIS, Comte de.
History of the Civil War in America;
translated from the French.
Philadelphia: J. H. Coates & Co. 1875-83. volumes 1-4.
The most competent and thorough military history of the
war, and its incompleteness must forever be regretted.
PARTON, JAMES.
General Butler in New Orleans.
New York: Mason Bros. 1864.
PITTENGER, WILLIAM.
Capturing a locomotive; a history of secret service.
Washington: National Tribune. 1885.
An extraordinarily thrilling true story of war adventure;
but the writer has exploited it in too many forms and under
too many different titles.
PORTER, DAVID D.
Naval history of the Civil War.
New York: Sherman Publishing Co. 1886.
ROPES, JOHN CODMAN.
The story of the Civil War.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1894. part 1.
SCHARF J. T.
History of the Confederate States navy.
Albany: J. McDonough. 1894.
SCHURZ, CARL.
Abraham Lincoln: an essay.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1892.
SHERIDAN, PHILIP H.
Personal memoirs.
New York: C. L. Webster & Co. 1883. 2 volumes.
SHERMAN, GENERAL WILLIAM T.
Memoirs, by himself; with an appendix, bringing his life
down to its closing scenes.
4th edition.
New York: C. L. Webster & Co. 1891.
A memoir of very great value in the literature of the
history of the Civil War, owing to its straightforward,
frank dealing with the events in which the Writer took
part.
SOLEY, J. R.
The sailor boys of '61.
Boston: Estes & Lauriat. 1888.
SWINTON, WILLIAM.
Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac: a critical history.
New York: University Publishing Co. 1871.
The twelve decisive battles of the War.
New York: Dick & Fitzgerald. 1871.
TENNEY, W. J.
Military and naval history of the Rebellion in
the United States.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1886.
UNITED STATES, WAR DEPARTMENT.
War of the Rebellion: a compilation of the Official Records of
the Union and Confederate Armies.
Washington. Series 1. volumes 1—46.
VAN HORNE, THOMAS B.
History of the Army of the Cumberland.
Cincinnati: R. Clarke & Co. 1875. 2 volumes and atlas of maps.
A history largely based on the private military journal
of General George H. Thomas, and written at his request.
Life of Major General George H. Thomas.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1882.
WALKER, FRANCIS A.
History of the Second Army Corps in the Army of the Potomac.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1886.
WILLIAMS, GEORGE W.
History of the negro troops in the War of the Rebellion.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1888.
WILSON, HENRY.
History of the rise and fall of the slave power in America.
Boston: Osgood & Co. 1872-7. 3 volumes.
WOODBURY, AUGUSTUS.
Major General Ambrose E. Burnside and the Ninth Army Corps.
Providence: S. S. Rider & Bro. 1867.
HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY.
This, bibliography has been prepared by Mr. Alan C. Reiley,
who writes the following explanatory note: "The original
purpose of this bibliography was simply to bring together in a
group by themselves the atlas works on historical geography;
but the fact that all of the contributions to the literature
of the subject do not exist in map form requires a slight
expansion of the original plan. The list contains, therefore,
in addition to the atlases, a number of carefully chosen text
works, some of them not devoted exclusively to historical
geography, but that subject forming in all them a predominant
feature. The term 'historical geography' as here used refers
distinctly to the geography of history, preferably the
political geography of history and all of the much more
numerous class of works on what may be called the history of
geography, save as they may in some feature fall within the
strict interpretation of this definition, have been carefully
excluded."
Mr. Reiley is not responsible for the typographical style in
which German titles are printed.
ADAMS, SEBASTIAN C.
Chronological chart of ancient, modern and biblical history;
with thirteen historical maps by J. A. Paine.
New York: Colby & Co. No date.
ANDRÄ, J. C.
Kleiner historischer schul-atlas.
Twelve maps, covering 19 pages, with text.
Leipzig: Voigtländer. 1890.
ANDRIVEAU-GOUJON, G. G.
Atlas classique et universel de géographie,
ancienne et moderne.
Paris: Andriveau-Goujon. 1865.
ANSART, FELIX.
Atlas historique et géographique
dressé pour l'usage des lycées, des colléges, etc.,
nouvelle édition par Edmond Ansart fils. 121 maps.
Paris: Fourant.
Cours d'histoire et de géographie, à l'usage de tous
les établissements d'instruction secondaire.
Paris: Fourant. 5 volumes.
Atlas historique universel dressé d'apres l'atlas
historique des états Européens de Kruse. 19 maps.
Paris: Andriveau-Goujon. 1861.
ANTHON, CHARLES.
A system of ancient and mediaeval Geography.
New York: Harper. 1850.
ANVILLE, J. B. B. d'.
Compendium of ancient geography. 9 maps.
London and New York. 1814. 2 volumes.
ARNOLD, WILHELM.
Ansiedelungen und wanderungen deutscher stämme.
Marburg. 1875. 8 volumes.
BARBARET, C., and C. PÉRIGOT.
Atlas général de géographie physique et politique, ancienne,
du moyen âge, et moderne.
Paris: Tandou et Cie. 1864.
BAZIN, FRANÇOIS.
Atlas spécial de géographie physique, politique et
historique de la France.
Paris: Delalain. 1856.
BECK, J.
Historisch-geographischer atlas für schule und haus. 26 maps.
Freiburg: Herder. 1877. 3 parts.
BEDEUS VON SCHARBERG, JOSEPH.
Historisch-genealogisch-geographischer atlas zur uebersicht
der geschichte des ungrischen Reichs, seiner nebenländer und
der angrenzenden staaten und provinzen.
Hermannstadt. 1853.
BIANCO, ANDREA.
Der atlas vom jahre 1436 in 10 tafeln. 9 plates and text.
Venice: Münster. 1869.
BOECKH. R., und H. KIEPERT.
Historische karte von Elsass und Lothringen zur uebersicht
der territorialen veränderung im 17 und 18 jahrhundert;
Berlin: D. Reimer. 1871.
BOUFFARD, L.
Atlas politique de l'Europe, 1814-1864, exposant le
développement des principes de '89, etc.,
accompagné d'un texte par Alexandre Bonneau.
Paris: Dentu. 1864.
BOUILLET, NICOLAS.
Atlas universel d'histoire et de géographie.
88 cartes gravées et coloriées.
Paris: Hachette et Cie. 1872.
Dictionnaire universel d'histoire et de géographie.
Paris: Hachette et Cie. 1878.
BRASELMANN, J. E.
Bibel-atlas zum schul und privat gebrauche.
Düsseldorf: H. Michels. 1892.
BRECHER, ADOLF.
Darstellung der gebietsveränderungen in den ländern Sachsens
und Thüringens von dem zwölften jahrhundert bis heute.
Berlin: D. Reimer. 1883.
Darstellung der geschichtlichen entwickelung des bayerischen
staatsgebietes.
Berlin: D. Reimer. 1890.
Darstellung der territorialen entwickelung des
brandenburgisch-preussischen staates von 1415 bis jetzt.
Berlin: D. Reimer. 1893.
Historische wandkarte von Preussen. 9 blätter.
Berlin: D. Reimer. 1888.
BRETSCHNEIDER.
See Spruner-Bretschneider.
BRUÉ, ADRIEN.
Atlas universel de géographie physique, politique, ancienne,
du moyen âge et moderne, etc.;
nouvelle édition par C. Piquet, complétée par E. Grangez.
Paris: Barthélemier 1858.
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BUNBURY, E. H.
A history of ancient geography among the Greeks and Romans
from the earliest ages to the fall of the Roman empire.
20 maps.
London: John Murray. 1883. 2 volumes.
BUTLER, GEORGE.
The public schools atlas of ancient geography.
London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1889.
BUTLER, SAMUEL.
Atlas of ancient geography.
21 maps.
Philadelphia: Carey & Lea. 1831.
CHEVALLIER, HENRI.
Atlas de géographie historique, politique et physique;
composé de 14 cartes.
Paris: Delalain. 1865.
COLBECK, C.
The public schools historical atlas.
101 maps, covering 69 pages.
London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1885.
COLEMAN, LYMAN.
Historical text book and atlas of biblical geography.
7 maps and text.
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1867.
COLLEGIATE ATLAS.
See International atlas.
COLLIER, W. F.
See Library atlas, also International atlas.
CORTAMBERT, E.
Atlas (petit) de géographie ancienne, du moyen age et moderne;
composé de 66 cartes.
Paris: Hachette et Cie. 1861.
Atlas (nouvel) de géographie ancienne, du moyen âge, et
moderne: compose de 100 cartes in 4to.
Paris: Hachette et Cie.
Cours de géographie, comprenant la description
physique et politique et la géographie historique
des diverses contrées du globe.
Paris: Hachette et Cie. 1873.
COUREN, A.
Atlas classique d'histoire universelle ancienne et moderne.
Paris: Putois-Cretté. 1880.
CURTIUS, ERNEST.
Peloponnesos: eine historisch-geographische beschreibung.
Gotha: J. Perthes. 1851. 2 volumes.
DAHN, FELIX.
Urgeschichte der germanischen und romanischen völker.
With maps.
Berlin: 1881-1889. 4 volumes.
DELAMARCHE, A.
Atlas de géographie physique, politique
et historique; revue et augmenté par Grosselin.
Paris: Grosselin 1865.
DENAIX, A.
Atlas historique de la France,—depuis la
conquête des Francs jusqu' à nos jours.
Paris: A. Delahays. 1860.
DESJARDIN, E.
Atlas géographique de l' Italie ancienne.
Composé de 7 cartes et d'un dictionaire, etc.
Paris: Hachette et Cie. 1852.
Geographie historique et administrative de la Gaule Romaine.
With map and tables.
Paris: Hachette et Cie. 1876-1893. 4 volumes.
DITTMAR, G.
Sieben geschichts-karten zum leitfaden
der weltgeschichte von H. Dittmar.
Heidelberg: C. Winter. 1888.
DITTMAR-VÖLTER'S historischer atlas. 19 maps.
Heidelberg: C. Winter. 1884.
DROYSEN, G.
Allgemeiner historischer hand atlas.
96 maps and text.
Leipzig: Velhagen & Klasing; 1886.
DUFOUR, A. H.
Le globe: atlas classique universel de géographie
ancienne et moderne. 44 maps.
Paris: J. Renouard. 1861.
DUFOUR, A. H. et T. DUVOTENAY.
La terre: atlas de géographie ancienne,
du moyen age, et moderne. 44 maps and text.
Paris: A. Logerot. 1864.
DUSSIEUX, L.
Atlas de géographie ancienne, du moyen âge, et moderne.
68 maps.
Paris: Lecoffre. 1848.
Atlas general de géographie, physique, politique et historique.
163 maps.
Paris: Lecoffre. 1848.
Les grands faits de l'histoire de la géographie.
Paris: Lecoffre. 1882-1884. 6 volumes.
FIX, W.
Territorialgeschichte des brandenburgisch-preussischen staates.
Berlin. 1884.
Übersichts-karte zur geschichte des preussischen
staates und der übrigen staaten des deutschen reiches.
Berlin: Schropp. 1890.
FORBIGER, ALBERT.
Handbuch der alten geographie, aus den quellen bearbeitet.
Hamburg: Haendcke & Lehmkuhl. 1877. 3 volumes.
FREEMAN, E. A.
Historical geography of Europe.
London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1881. 2 volumes;
volume 1: text;
volume 2: 65 maps.
FREUDENFELDT, H.
Erwerbungen Preussens und Deutschlands:
eine karte in farbendruck.
Berlin: Seehagen. 1892.
FREUDENFELDT, H. und C. L. OHMANN.
Karte des preussischen staates in seiner territorialen
entwickelung unter den Hohenzollern. In farb.
Berlin: Friedberg & Mode. 1892.
FREYHOLD, A. VON.
Historisch-geographische karts von Preussen.
Berlin: D. Reimer. 1850.
Vollständiger atlas zur universalgeschichte. 3 maps.
Berlin: D. Reimer. 1850.
GAEBLER, E.
Historische karte von Preussen.
Leipzig: Lang. 1890.
GAGE, W. L.
A modern historical atlas. 14 maps.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1869.
GANNETT, HENRY.
Boundaries of the United States and of the several states and
territories, with a historical sketch of the territorial changes.
Washington: Government Printing Office. 1885.
GARDINER, SAMUEL R.
School atlas of English history.
66 colored maps, 22 battle plans.
London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1892.
GAZEAU, A.
Histoire de la formation de nos frontières.
Paris: H. E. Martin. 1881.
GESTER, J. S.
Karten zur schweizer-geschichte. 8 maps and text.
Zürich: Hofer & Burger. 1886.
GOVER, EDWARD.
The historic geographical atlas of the middle and modern ages.
17 maps (based on Spruner).
London: Varty & Owen. 1853.
GRABOWSKY, WILHELM VON.
Territorialgeschichte des preussischen staates.
Berlin. 1845.
HANNAK, EMAN und F. UMLAUFT.
Historischer schul-atlas in 30 karten.
Vienna: Hölder. 1891.
HART, ALBERT BUSHNELL.
Epoch maps illustrating American history.
14 maps.
New York: Longmans, Green & Co. 1891.
HERMANS, H. und J. WOLTJER.
Atlas der algemeene en vaderlandsche geschiedenis.
68 large and small maps, and text.
Groningen.: J. B. Wolters. 1891.
HERTSLET, EDWARD.
The map of Europe by treaty showing the various political and
territorial changes which have taken place since the general
peace of 1814; nearly 700 state papers, numerous maps.
London. 1875-1891. 4 volumes.
HIMLY, AUGUSTE.
Histoire de la formation territoriale des états
de l'Europe centrale.
Paris: Hachette et Cie. 1876.
HINSDALE, B. A.
The old northwest, with a view of the thirteen colonies as
constituted by the royal charters.
10 maps.
New York: Townsend MacCoun. 1888.
HOPF, CARL.
Historiseh-genealogischer atlas, seit Christi geburt bis
auf unsere zeit.
Abtheilung: Deutschland.
Gotha: F. A. Perthes. 1858-1866.
HUBAULT, G.
Atlas pour servir à l'histoire des guerres de lá République
et de l'Empire.
Paris: Berlin. 1860.
HUGHES, WILLIAM.
Atlas of classical geography;
edited by George Long.
26 plates containing 62 maps.
Philadelphia: Blanchard & Lea. 1858.
HURLBUT, J. L.
Manual of biblical geography;
27 full page maps, text, etc.
Chicago: Rand, McNally & Co.
IMBERT DES MOTTELETTES, CHARLES.
Atlas pour servir à l'étude de l'histoire moderne de
l'Europe (1615-1815).
Paris: Chez l'autenr. 1834-1849.
INTERNATIONAL ATLAS.
Contains 62 maps. The classical and historical maps of
Schmitz and Collier respectively in this atlas, are, with
some color variations, identical with those in the "Library
Atlas." The "Collegiate Atlas" is the International
with a few omissions.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
ISSLEIB, WILHELM.
Historiseh-geographischer schul-atlas. 36 maps.
Gera: Issleib & Rietschel. 1874.
ISSLEIB, WILHELM und T. KONIG.
Atlas zur biblischen geschichte.
8 maps.
Gera: Issleib & Rietschel. 1878.
JACOBI, C.
Bibel-atlas. 9 maps and text.
Gera: Hofmann. 1891.
JAUSZ, G.
Historisch-geographischer schul-atlas.
3 parts: Die alte welt, das mittel-alter, die neue
und neueste zeit. 32 maps and text.
Vienna: Hölzel. 1876.
JOHNSON, T. B.
Historical geography of the clans of Scotland,
1 large and 5 small maps.
Edinburgh: W. & A. K. Johnston. 1873.
JOHNSTON, A. K.
Atlas to Alison's history of Europe, 108 maps,
mostly battle maps.
Edinburgh: Blackwood. 1875.
JOHNSTON, KEITH.
Half-crown atlas of British history, 30 maps.
Edinburgh: W. & A. K. Johnston.
Physical, historical, political and descriptive geography.
21 maps, the first 12 historical.
London: E. Stanford. 1890.
JONES'S classical atlas. 18 maps.
London: Jones & Co. 1830.
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KAEMMEL, OTTO und G. LEIPOLD.
Handkarte zur geschichte der wettinischen lande.
Also "Schulwandkarte" of the same.
Dresden: Huhle. 1891.
KAMPEN, ALBERT VON.
Atlas antiquus.
Taschen atlas der alten welt. 24 maps.
Gotha: J:Perthes. 1893.
Descriptiones nobilissimorum apud classicos locorum.
First series: Caesar's Gallic war. 15 maps with tables.
Gotha: J. Perthes. 1879.
Orbis terrarum antiquus in scholarum usum descriptus.
16 maps with text.
Gotha: J. Perthes. 1888.
Tabulae maximae quibus illustrantur terrae veterum
in usum scholarum descriptae. Tabula I-IV.
Gotha: J. Perthes. 1888.
KARTENSKIZZE der alten welt zur allgemeinsten übersicht der
alten und mittleren geschichte, mit besond. rücksicht auf F. v.
W.'s schlachten und gefechts-tafeln entworfen und zeittafel der
wichtigsten kämpfe und einiger besonders interessanten momente
von 1.500 v. Chr. bis 1492 n. Chr. 5 tab.
Vienna: Artaria, 1888.
KEPPEL, CARL.
Atlas zur geschichte des deutschen volkes für mittelschulen.
13 maps.
Hof: Büching. 1876.
Geschichts-atlas In 27 karten.
Nuremberg: Büching. 1889-1892.
KIENITZ, O.
Historische karte des grossherzog.
Baden. 6 nebenkarten.
Karlsruhe: Bielefleld. 1886.
KIEPERT, HEINRICH.
Atlas antiquus. 12 maps.
Berlin: D. Reimer. 1892.
Formae orbis antiqui. Part 1, 6 maps.
To be completed in six parts.
Berlin: D. Reimer. 1894.
Historisch-geographischer atlas der alten welt. 16 maps.
Weimer: Geograph. Institut. 1878.
Historische karte des brandenburgisch-preussischen
staates nach seiner territorial-entwickelung unter
den Hohenzollern.
Berlin: Paetel. 1889.
Lehrbuch der alten geographie.
Berlin: D. Reimer. 1878.
Leitfaden der alten geographie.
Berlin: D. Reimer. 1879.
Neuer atlas von Hellas und den hellenischen colonien. 15 maps.
Berlin: Nicolai. 1872.
Numerous historical maps (including wall maps);
each published separately.
Berlin: D. Reimer.
KIEPERT, HEINRICH und C. WOLFF.
Historischer schul-atlas zur alten, mittleren
und neueren geschichte. 36 maps.
Berlin: D. Reimer. 1893.
KIEPERT, HEINRICH und R. BOECKH.
See BOECKH, R.
KIRCHNER, M.
Spezialkarten.
I: Elsass im jahre 1648 (mit Abhandlung).
II: Elsass im jahre 1789.
III: Das reichsland Lothringen im jahre 1766. Wandkarte.
Das reichsland Elsass Lothringen 1648-1789.
Strassburg: Trübner. 1878.
KÖNIG, TH.
See Issleib.
KŒPPEN, A. L.
The world in the middle ages: an historical geography.
Text and six maps.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1854.
KRUSE, CHRISTIAN.
Atlas und tabellen zur übersicht der geschichte aller
europäischen länder und staaten.
Friedrich Kruse, editor. Halle. 1834.
LABBERTON, ROBERT H.
New historical atlas and general history.
71 maps and text.
New York: Townsend MacCoun. 1888.
LANCIZOLLE, C. W. VON.
Geschichte der bildung des preussischen staates.
Berlin. 1828.
LANESSAU, J. L. DE.
L'expansion coloniale de la France.
Paris. 1886.
LANGHANS, PAUL.
Deutscher kolonial-atlas.
Gotha: J. Perthes. 1893-1895.
LAPIE.
Atlas universel de géographie ancienne et moderne. 50 maps.
Paris: Lehuby. 1851.
LEEDER, E.
Atlas zur geschichte des preussischen staates. 10 plates.
Geographisches Institut. zu Weimar. 1875.
Schul-atlas zur biblischen geschichte.
6 maps and text.
Essen: Baedeker. 1892.
LEIPOLD, G.
See Kaemmel.
LEJOSNE, L. A.
Géographie physique, politique, historique et économique de la
France et de ses colonies: revue et corrigée par A. Dufresne.
Paris: Bertaux. 1877.
LELEWEL, JOACHIM.
Geographie du moyen age.
Brussels. 1852-57. 5 volumes and atlas.
LEVESQUE, P. C.
Atlas de l'histoire de Russie et des principales nations
de l'empire Russe. 60 maps.
Paris. 1812.
LIBRARY ATLAS.
Contains 90 maps, including 16 of historical geography
by W. F. Collier and 14 of classical geography by
Leonhard Schmitz.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1876.
(See International Atlas).
LONG, GEORGE.
See Hughes.
LONGNON, A.
Atlas historique de la France depui César jusqu' à nos jours.
Paris: Hachette et Cie. 1884-1889.
To be completed in 7 parts containing 5 plates each;
3 parts Issued.
Geographie de la Gaule au VI siècle.
With atlas containing 11 maps.
Paris: Hachette et Cie. 1878.
LUCAS, C. P.
Historical geography of the British colonies. 31 maps.
Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1890. 3 volumes.
MacCOUN, TOWNSEND.
Historical geography charts of Europe.
37 charts, 18 ancient and 19 mediaeval and modern.
New York: Townsend MacCoun. 1894.
Historical geography charts of the United States. 18 charts.
New York: Silver, Burdett & Co. 1889.
An historical geography of the United States.
New York: Silver, Burdett & Co. 1892.
MANDROT, A VON.
Historischer atlas der Schweiz vom jahre 1300 bis 1798.
Geneva: Kessman. 1855.
MEES, A.
Historische atlas van Noord Nederland.
Rotterdam. 1852-1865.
MEISSAS, A., et MICHELET.
Atlas universel de geographie ancienne, du moyen age
et moderne, et de geographie sacrée, composé de 54 cartes
écrites avec 8 cartes muettes.
Paris: Hachette et Cie.
MENKE, THEODOR.
Bibel-atlas. 8 plates.
Gotha: J. Perthes. 1868.
Orbis antiqui descriptio. 18 maps.
Gotha: J. Perthes. 1865.
Historico-geographical hand-atlas
[continuation of the above]. 27 maps.
Gotha: J. Perthes. 1872.
See also Spruner-Menke.
MEYER, C. F. und A. KOCH.
Atlas zu Caesar's bellum Gallicum.
Essen: Baedeker. 1889.
MEYER VON KNONAU, GEROLD.
See Vögelin.
MOMMSEN, THEODOR.
The provinces of the Roman empire from Caesar to Diocletian:
translated by Wm. P. Dickson, with 10 maps by Kiepert.
New York: Charles Scribner's' Sons. 1887. 2 volumes.
OHMANN, C. L.
Palaestina zur zeit Jesu und der Apostel.
II. Das königreich Jerusalem zur zeit der kreuzzüger.
Berlin: Wruck. 1868.
OHMANN, C. L.
See. Freudenfeldt.
PAQUIER, J. B.
Histoire de l'unité politique et territoriale de la France.
Paris: Hachette et Cie. 1879-1880. 3 volumes.
PAWLOWSKI, J .N.
Historisch-geographische karte vom alten Preussen und
Pommerellen während der herrschaft des deutschen Ritterordens.
Graudenz: Gaebel. 1890.
PEARSON, CHARLES H.
Historical maps of England during the first thirteen centuries.
5 maps and text.
London: Bell & Daldy. 1870.
PERIGOT, C.
See BARBARET.
PLÄNE DER SCHLACHTEN UND TREFFEN.
Feldzügen der jahre 1813, 1814, und 1815.
(Herausgegeben vom Königl. Preuss. Generalstab.) 15 plans.
Berlin: Reimer. 1821-82.
PORPHYROGENITUS, CONSTANTINUS.
De thematibus et de administrando imperio.
(In "Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae," 3rd volume.)
Bonn. 1840.
PORSCHKE, E.
Schulwandkarte der brandenburgisch-preussichen geschichte.
Elberfeld: Loewenstein. 1891.
PÜTZ, WILHELM.
Historisch-geographischer schul-atlas. 20 maps and text.
Regensburg: Manz. 1882.
Manual of ancient geography and history;
translated by T. K. Arnold.
New York: Appleton. 1851.
Manual of mediaeval geography and history:
translated by R. B. Paul.
New York: Appleton. 1863.
Manual of modern geography and history:
translated by R. B. Paul.
New York: Appleton. 1851.
PUTZGER, F. W.
Historischer schul-atlas der alten, mittleren
und neuren geschichte.
32 large and 51 small maps.
Leipzig: Velhagen & Klasing. 1887.
Kleiner geschichtsatlas. 17 large and 23 small maps.
Leipzig: Velhagen & Klasing. 1889.
QUIN, EDWARD.
Atlas of universal history. 21 maps on uniform scale.
London and Glasgow: R. Griffin & Co.
RAFFY, CASIMIR.
Atlas classique des repetitions et des lectures d'histoire
et de geographie. 40 maps.
Toulouse: Durand. 1863.
RAMSAY, WILLIAM M.
Historical geography of Asia Minor.
(Royal Geographical Society. Supplementary papers, volume 4.)
London: John Murray. 1890.
RASCHE, R., und R. ZIMMERMANN.
Historischer atlas. 12 maps.
Annaberg: Rudolph & Dieterici. 1874.
{3909}
RHEINHARD, H.
Atlas orbis antiqui. 12 maps.
Struttgart. 1886.
RHODE, C. E.
Historischer schul-atlas der alten, mittleren
und neueren geschichte. 30 plates containing 89 maps.
Glogau: Flemming. 1875.
RIESS, RICH. VON.
Atlas historique et géographique de la Bible. 10 maps.
Freiburg: Herder. 1892.
ROLLAND DE DEN US, ANDRÉ.
Les anciennes provinces de la France.
Paris: Le Chevalier. 1885.
ROPES, JOHN CODMAN.
Atlas to the campaign of Waterloo. 14 maps.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1893.
RUSTOW, WILHELM.
Atlas zu Caesar's gallischem krieg. 15 maps.
Struttgart: Hoffman. 1868.
SALÉ, RENÉ.
Geographie physique, politique, historique, etc.,
de la France et de ses colonies.
Paris: Nouvelle librarie scientifique et littéraire. 1884.
SCAIFE, WALTER B.
America: its geographical history. 1492-1892.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press. 1892.
SCHADE, T.
Atlas zur geschichte des preussischen staates.
12 maps and text.
Glogau: Flemming. 1881.
SCHLACHTEN
ATLAS des 19ten jahrhundert.
Zeitraum, 1820 bis zur gegenwart. 63 maps.
Iglau: Bäuerle. 1889-92.
SCHMITZ, LEONHARD.
See LIBRARY ATLAS, also INTERNATIONAL ATLAS.
SCHRADER, F.
Atlas de geographie historique.
18 parts of 3 map each.
Paris: Hachette et Cie. en cours de publication.
SCHROEDEL'S
Atlas zum religions-und kirchen-geschichtlichen unterricht.
9 maps.
Halle: H. Schroedel. 1891.
SCHUBERT, F. W.
Atlas antiquus. Historisch-geographischer schul-atlas
der alten welt.
Vienna: Hölzel. 1887.
SCHUBERT, F. W. und W. SCHMIDT.
Historisch-geographischer schul-atlas des mittel alters.
19 maps.
Vienna: Hölzel. 1889.
SCHURIG, G.
Karten-atlas, historischer, zunächst zur ergänzung von
G. Schurig's lehrbüchern der geschichte.
14 large and 15 small maps.
Breslau: F. Hirt. 1886.
SEIBERT, A. E.
Geschichts-karten für volks-und bürgerschulen. 4 maps.
Vienna: Hölzel. 1879.
SELOSSE, RENÉ.
Traité de l'annexion au territoire français et de son
démembrement, etc.
Paris: Larose. ]879.
SEYFFERTH, J. A.
Atlas der biblischen länder für volks und mittelschulen.
Hof: Büching. 1876.
SHEAHAN, JAMES W.
The universal historical atlas; genealogical, chronological
and geographical. 25 maps, statistical charts, tables, etc.
New York and Chicago: Warren, Cockcroft & Co. 1873.
SIEGLIN, W.
Karte der entwickelung des römischen reiches; with text.
Leipzig: Schmidt & Günther. 1885.
See also SPRUNER-SIEGLIN.
SMITH, GEORGE ADAM.
The historical geography of the Holy Land, especially in
relation to the history of Israel and of the early church.
6 maps.
New York: A. C. Armstrong & Son. 1894.
SMITH, WILLIAM.
Atlas of ancient geography.
43 maps by Dr. Charles Müller, and descriptive text.
London: John Murray. 1874.
Dictionary of Greek and Roman geography.
London: 1854.
Student's manual of ancient geography.
London: 1861.
SPRUNER, K. VON.
Atlas zur geschichte von Bayern.
Gotha: J. Perthes. 1838.
Historisch-geographischer atlas. 23 maps.
Gotha: J. Perthes.
Historisch-geographischer schul-atlas des gesammt-staates
Oesterreich von der ältesten bis auf die neuesten zeiten.
13 maps.
Gotha: J. Perthes. 1860.
Historisch-geographischer schul-atlas von Deutschland.
12 maps.
Gotha: J. Perthes. 1866.
SPRUNER-BRETSCHNEIDER.
Historischer wand-atlas. 10 maps.
Gotha: J. Perthes. 1877.
SPRUNER-MENKE.
(part 1) Atlas antiquus. 31 colorirte karten.
Gotha: J. Perthes. 1865.
(Part 2). Hand-atlas für die geschichte des mittelalters
und der neueren zeit. 90 colorirte karten in kupferstich
mit 376 nebenkarten.
Gotha: J. Perthes. 1879.
(part 3). Atlas zur geschichte Asiens, Afrikas,
Amerikas und Australiens. 18 colorirte karten mit 9 nebenkarten.
Gotha: J. Perthes. 1855.
SPRUNER-SIEGLIN.
Atlas antiquus. (Atlas zur geschichte des alterthums.)
34 colorirte karten in kupferstich, 94 historische karten und
73 nebenkarten. To be completed in 8 parts, 3 parts issued.
Gotha: J. Perthes. 1893-94.
SÜSSMILCH-HÖRNIG, M. VON.
Historisch-geographischer atlas von Sachsen und Thüringen.
Dresden: Von Bötticher. 1863.
TARDIEU, AMÉDÉE.
Atlas universel de geographie ancienne et moderne;
revue et corrigé par A. Vuillemin.
Paris: Furne. 1863.
UKERT, FRIEDRICH.
Geographie der Griechen und Roemer von d. frühesten zeiten
bis auf Ptolemäus.
Weimar: Geograph-Institut. 1816-1846. 3 volumes.
UMLAUFT, F.
Wandkarte zum studien der geschichte
der österr.-ungar. monarchie.
Vienna: Hölzel. 1890.
UMLAUFT, F. und E. HANNAK.
See Hannak, E.
VAT, L.
Nouvel atlas classique, politique, historique et commercial.
Paris: Alexandre. 1863. 3 volumes.
VIVIEN DE SAINT MARTIN, L.
Description historique et géographique de l'Asie Mineure,
comprenant les temps anciens, le moyen age et les temps
modernes, précédée d'un tableau de l'histoire géographique
de l'Asie depuis les plus anciens temps jusqu' à nos jours.
Paris: Bertrand. 1852. 2 volumes.
VIVIEN DE SAINT MARTIN, L. und F. SCHRADER.
Atlas universel de geographie moderne, ancienne et
du moyen age. 110 maps and text.
Paris: Hachette et Cie. 1891.
VÖGELIN, J. K., und G. MEYER VON KNONAU.
Historisch-geographischer atlas der Schweiz.
Zürich: Schulthess. 1868.
VOIGHT, F.
Historischer atlas der Mark Brandenburg. 7 maps.
Berlin: D. Reimer. 1845.
Historisch-geographischer schul-atlas der mittleren und
neueren zeit. 17 maps.
Berlin: Nicolai. 1877.
Schul-atlas der alten geographie. 16 maps.
Berlin: Nicolai. 1877.
WELLER. EDWARD.
The student's atlas of classical geography.
15 maps, with text by L. Schmitz.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
WENDT, G.
Schul-atlas zur brandenburgisch-preussischen geschichte.
12 maps and text.
Glogau: Flemming. 1889.
WILTSCH, J. E. T.
Atlas Sacer. 5 maps.
Göttingen. 1843.
Kirchliche geographie und statistik.
Gottingen. 1846. 2 volumes.
English translation by John Leitch.
London. 1859.
WITZLEBEN, A. F. VON.
Geschichtlich-geographische entwickelung des zuwachses und der
abnahme des polnischen reiches vom jahre 992 bis zum jahre
1831.
5 maps and text.
Berlin: D. Reimer. 1831.
WOLFF, C.
Historischer atlas zur mittleren und neueren geschichte.
19 maps.
Berlin: D. Reimer. 1877.
Karte des ehemaligen königreich Polen, nach den grenzen von
1772. Mit angabe der theilungslinien von 1772, 1793, und 1795.
Hamburg: Friederichsen. 1872.
Die mitteleuropaeischen staaten nach ihren geschichtllchen
bestandtheilen des ehemaligen römisch-deutschen kaiser-reiches.
Berlin: Habel. 1872.
WOLFF, C. und H. KIEPERT.
See KIEPERT, H.
ZIMMERMANN, R.
See RASCHE.
{3910}
A LIST OF THE WORKS FROM WHICH PASSAGES HAVE BEEN QUOTED IN
"HISTORY FOR READY REFERENCE AND TOPICAL READING."
ABBOT, J. WILLIS.
Battle-fields and victory.
New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. (c. 1891).
ABBOTT, EVELYN.
History of Greece.
London: Rivingtons. 1888-92. volumes 1-2.
Pericles and the Golden Age of Athens.
New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1891.
ACADEMY, The.
London.
ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.
Revised version.
ADAMS, BROOKS.
The emancipation of Massachusetts.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1887.
ADAMS Major CHARLES.
Great campaigns In Europe from 1796 to 1870.
Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons. 1877.
ADAMS, CHARLES FRANCIS.
Massachusetts: its historians and its history.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1893.
Railroads: their origin and problems.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1878.
Richard Henry Dana.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1890. 2 volumes.
ADAMS, CHARLES KENDALL.
Democracy and monarchy in France.
New York: Henry Holt & Co. 1874.
Manual of historical literature.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1882.
ADAMS, FRANCIS.
Preliminary discourse
[Genuine works of Hippocrates.
London: Sydenham Society. 1849. 2 volumes.].
ADAMS, Sir FRANCIS O., and C. D. CUNNINGHAM.
The Swiss Confederation.
London and New York: Macmillan & Co. 1889.
ADAMS, GEORGE BURTON.
Civilization during the Middle Ages.
New York: C. Scribner s Sons. 1894.
ADAMS, HENRY.
History of the United States [1801-1817].
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1889-91. 9 volumes.
John Randolph.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1882.
Life of Albert Gallatin.
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1879.
ADAMS, HERBERT B.
Maryland's influence upon land cessions to the United States.
(Johns Hopkins University Studies, 3d series number 1.)
Baltimore. 1885.
Methods of historical study.
(Johns Hopkins University Studies, 2d series 1-2.).
Baltimore. 1884.
ADAMS, JOHN QUINCY.
Life of John Adams, completed by Charles Francis Adams.
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1871. 2 volumes.
Memoirs; edited by Charles Francis Adams.
Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1874-5.
ADAMS, W. H. DAVENPORT.
The Queen of the Adriatic.
Boston: D. Lothrop & Co. 1869.
ADDISON, C. G.
The Knights Templars. 3d edition.
London: Longman. 1854.
ADLER, G. J.
Introduction to Fauriel's "History of Provençal poetry"
New York: Derby & Jackson, 1860.
ADOLPHUS, JOHN.
History of England, reign of George III.
London: John Lee. 1840. 7 volumes.
ADVOCATE, The.
AIRY, OSMUND.
The English restoration and Louis XIV.
London: Longman, Green & Co. 1888.
New York: C. Scribner s Sons. 1889.
AITCHISON, Sir CHARLES.
Lord Lawrence.
Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1892.
ALBANY LAW JOURNAL, The.
ALEXANDER, W. D.
Brief history of the Hawaiian people.
New York: American Book Co. (c. 1891).
ALGER, JOHN G.
Glimpses of the French Revolution.
London: S. Low, Marston & Co. 1894.
ALISON, Sir ARCHIBALD.
History of Europe, 1789-1815. 10 volumes.
1815-1852. 6 volumes.
Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons.
New York: Harper & Bros.
Epitome of History of Europe.
Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons. 1880.
ALISON. Sir ARCHIBALD.
Military life of John, Duke of Marlborough.
Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons. 1847.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1848.
ALLAN, WILLIAM.
The Army of Northern Virginia in 1862.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1892.
ALLEN, JOSEPH HENRY.
Christian history in its three great periods.
Boston: Roberts Bros. 1883.
Hebrew men and times.
London: Chapman & Hall.
Boston: Walker, Wise & Co. 1861.
ALLEN, WALTER.
Governor Chamberlain's administration in South Carolina.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1888.
ALLEN, WILLIAM B.
History of Kentucky.
Louisville, Kentucky: Brady & Gilbert. 1872.
ALLIES, THOMAS W.
The Holy See and the Wandering of the Nations.
London: Burns & Oates.
New York: Catholic Publication Society. 1888.
ALZOG, JOHN.
Manual of universal Church History.
Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son. 1879-82. 4 volumes.
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE.
Annals. Philadelphia.
AMERICAN ANNALS OF EDUCATION.
Boston: Otis, Broaders & Co.
AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION.
Reports.
AMERICAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION.
Publications.
Baltimore.
AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL CYCLOPÆDIA.
New York: J. W. Schermerhorn & Co. 1875.
AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.
Annual reports.
Washington: Government Printing Office.
Papers.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
AMERICAN LAW REVIEW, The.
Boston and St. Louis.
AMERICAN NATURALIST, The.
Philadelphia.
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CHURCH HISTORY.
Papers.
New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
ANDERSON, RASMUS B.
America not discovered by Columbus.
Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co. 1874.
Norse mythology.
Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co. 1875.
ANDOVER REVIEW.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
ANDREWS, CHARLES McLEAN.
The old English manor.
(Johns Hopkins Studies, extra volume 12.)
Baltimore. 1892.
ANDREWS, E. BENJAMIN.
History of the United States.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1894. 2 volumes.
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1870, 1887, 1889, 1891.
London: Longmans, Green & Co.
ANSON, Sir WILLIAM R.
Law and custom of the Constitution.
Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1896-92. 2 volumes.
APPLETONS' ANNUAL CYCLOPÆDIA.
New York: D. Appleton & Co.
APPLETONS' JOURNAL.
New York: D. Appleton & Co.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL JOURNAL, The.
London.
ARGYLL, Duke of.
Scotland as it was and as it is.
Edinburgh: David Douglas. 1887. 2 volumes.
ARISTOTLE.
On the Constitution of Athens;
translated by E. Poste.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1891.
Politics;
translated by Jowett.
Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1885. 2 volumes.
ARNOLD, EDWIN.
Marquis of Dalhousie's administration of British India.
London: Saunders, Otley & Co. 1862-5. 2 volumes.
ARNOLD, ISAAC N.
Life of Abraham Lincoln.
Chicago: Jansen, McClurg & Co. 1885.
ARNOLD, MATTHEW.
Higher schools and universities in Germany.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1874.
Isaiah of Jerusalem.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1883.
Schools and universities on the continent.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1868.
ARNOLD, SAMUEL GREENE.
History of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1859-60. 2 volumes.
{3911}
ARNOLD, THOMAS.
History of Rome.
London. 1871. 3 volumes.
History of the later Roman commonwealth.
London: Bickers & Son. 1882. 2 volumes.
ARNOLD. W. T.
The Roman system of provincia] administration.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1879.
ASHLEY, W. J.
Introduction to English economic history and theory.
London: Rivingtons. 1888.
ASHWORTH, HENRY.
Recollections of Richard Cobden.
London and New York: Cassell. [1877.]
ATHENÆUM, The.
London.
ATKINSON, PHILIP.
Elements of electric lighting.
New York: D. Van Nostrand Co. 1890.
ATLANTIC MONTHLY, The.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
AUMALE, Due d'.
History of the Princes de Condé.
London: Richard Bentley & Son. 1872. 2 volumes.
AUSTIN, GEORGE LOWELL.
History of Massachusetts.
Boston: Estes & Lauriat. 1876.
AUSTIN, JOHN.
Lectures on jurisprudence.
London: John Murray. 2 volumes.
BAAS, JOH. HERMANN.
Outlines of the history of medicine.
New York: J. H. Vail & Co. 1889.
BADEAU, ADAM.
Grant In peace.
Hartford: S. S. Scranton & Co. 1887.
Military history of Ulysses S. Grant.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1868-81. 3 volumes.
BAGEHOT, WALTER.
Biographical studies.
London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1881.
Lombard street.
London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co.
New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co. 1873.
Physics and politics.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1873.
BAIRD, CHARLES W.
History of the Huguenot emigration to America.
New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. (c. 1885.) 2 volumes.
BAIRD, HENRY M.
History of the rise of the Huguenots of France.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1879. 2 volumes.
The Huguenots and Henry of Navarre.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1886. 2 volumes.
BALBO, CESARE.
Life and times of Dante.
London: Richard Bentley. 1852. 2 volumes.
BALCH, THOMAS.
The French in America during the War of Independence.
Philadelphia: Porter & Coates. 1891.
BALZANI, UGO.
The Popes and the Hohenstaufen.
London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1888.
New York: A. D. F. Randolph & Co.
BANCROFT, GEORGE.
History of the United States: author's last revision.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1883-5. 6 volumes.
Martin Van Buren.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1889.
BANCROFT, HUBERT HOWE.
History of the Pacific states of North America.
San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft & Co. 1882-90. 34 volumes.
Native races of the Pacific states.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1874-1876. 5 volumes.
BANDELIER, ADOLF F.
A historical introduction to studies among the sedentary
Indians of New Mexico.
(Papers of the Archæological Institute of America:
American series, volume 1.)
Boston: A. Williams & Co. 1881.
BANKER'S MAGAZINE, The.
New York: Homans Publishing Co.
BAPTISTS AND THE NATIONAL CENTENARY, The.
Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society. 1876.
BARCLAY, THOMAS.
Selections from the correspondence of Thomas Barclay.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1894.
BARMBY, J.
Gregory the Great.
London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1879.
BARNARD, HENRY.
National education in Europe. 2d edition.
New York: Charles B. Norton. 1854.
editor. American Journal of Education.
Hartford.
editor. Letters, essays and thoughts on studies and conduct.
2d edition.
Hartford: American Journal of Education. 1873.
editor. Papers on Froebel's kindergarten.
Hartford: American Journal of Education. 1881.
BARNARD, J. G.
The Peninsular campaign.
New York: D. Van Nostrand. 1864.
BARNES, THURLOW WEED.
Memoir of Thurlow Weed.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1884.
BARNES, WILLIAM H.
History of the 39th Congress of the United States.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1868.
BARROWS, WILLIAM.
Oregon.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1884.
BARRY, JOHN STETSON.
History of Massachusetts.
Boston. 3 volumes.
BARRY, WILLIAM.
Venezuela.
London: Marshall Bros. 1886.
BARSTOW, G.
History of New Hampshire.
Boston: Little & Brown. 1853.
BARY. A. DE.
Lectures on bacteria.
Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1887.
BASTABLE, C. F.
Commerce of nations.
London: Methuen & Co. 1892.
BATTLES AND LEADERS OF THE CIVIL WAR:
edited by Robert U. Johnson and Clarence C. Buel.
New York: The Century Co. (c.1884-1888.) 4 volumes.
BAUR, FERDINAND C.
Church history of the first three centuries.
London: Williams & Norgate. 1878-1879. 2 volumes.
BAYNE, PETER.
Martin Luther.
London: Cassell & Co. 1887. 2 volumes.
BAZAN, E. P.
Russia.
Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co. 1890.
BEARD, CHARLES.
Martin Luther and the Reformation in Germany.
London: Kegan Paul, French & Co. 1889.
The Reformation.
(Hibbert lectures, 1883.)
London: Williams & Norgate. 1883.
BEDE, The Venerable.
Ecclesiastica] history of England:
edited by A. Giles.
London: George Bell & Sons. 1849.
BEER, GEORGE L.
Commercial policy of Eng]and toward the American colonies.
(Columbia College Studies, volume 3, number 2.) 1893.
BEESLY, EDWARD SPENCER.
Queen Elizabeth.
London and New York: Macmillan & Co. 1892.
BELL, ROBERT.
History of Russia.
London: Longman. 1836. 3 volumes.
Life of Rt. Hon. George Canning.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1846.
BENJAMIN, PARK.
The age of electricity.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1886.
BENJAMIN, S. G. W.
Story of Persia.
New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1887.
BENT, J. THEODORE.
Genoa.
London: C. Kegan Paul & Co. 1881.
BENTLEY'S MISCELLANY.
London.
BENTON, T. H.
Thirty Years' View.
New York: D. Appleton and Co. 1856. 2 volumes.
BERDOE, EDWARD.
Origin and growth of the healing art.
London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co. 1893.
BESANT, WALTER.
Gaspard de Coligny.
London: Marcus Ward & Co.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1879.
Readings in Rabelais.
Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons. 1883.
BESANT, WALTER. and E. H. PALMER.
Jerusalem.
London: Richard Bentley & Son. 1871.
BEVERLEY, ROBERT.
History of Virginia.
Richmond: J. W. Randolph. 1855.
BEZOLD, C.
Oriental diplomacy: being the transliterated text of the
cuneiform despatches.
London: Luzac & Co. 1893.
BIEDERMANN, KARL.
Dreissig jahre Deutscher geschichte.
Breslau. 1881-2. 2 volumes.
BIGELOW, L. J.
Bench and bar.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1867.
BIGELOW, MELVILLE M.
History of procedure.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1880.
Boston: Little, Brown & Co.
BIGG, CHARLES.
The Christian Platonists of Alexandria.
(Bampton Lectures, 1886.)
Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1886.
BIGLAND, JOHN.
History of Spain.
London: Longman. 1810. 2 volumes.
BIKELAS, DEMETRIOS.
Seven essays on Christian Greece.
Paisley and London: Alexander Gardner. 1890.
BINGHAM, ANSON.
Law of real property.
Albany: W. C. Little & Co. 1868.
BINGHAM, JOSEPH.
Antiquities of the Christian Church.
London: Henry G. Bohn. 1865. 2 volumes.
BISHOP, J. LEANDER.
History of American Manufactures.
Philadelphia: Edward Young & Co.
London: S. Low, Son & Co. 1864. 2 volumes.
BISMARCK-SCHÖNHAUSEN. KARL OTTO, Prince.
Politischen reden.
Stuttgart. 1892-4. volumes 1-12.
BLACK, ALEXANDER.
Story of Ohio.
Boston: D. Lothrop Co. (c. 1888).
BLACK, CHARLES INGHAM.
The proselytes of Ishmael.
London: W. H. Allen & Co. 1881.
BLACKIE JOHN STUART.
Four phases of morals.
London: Hamilton & Co.
What does history teach?
London: Macmillan & Co. 1886.
{3912}
BLACKSTONE, Sir WILLIAM.
Commentaries on the laws of England.
London: John Murray. 4 volumes.
BLACKWOODS' EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
Edinburgh: Wm. Blackwood & Sons.
BLADES, WILLIAM.
Books in chains.
London: Elliot Stock. 1892.
BLAINE, JAMES G.
Twenty years of Congress.
Norwich, Connecticut: The Henry Bill Publishing Co. 1886.
2 volumes.
BLANQUI, JÉRÔME-ADOLPHE.
History of political economy in Europe.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1880.
BLÜMNER, H.
Home life of the ancient Greeks.
London: Cassell & Co. 1893.
BLUNT, JOHN HENRY.
Reformation of the Church of England, 1514-1547.
London: Rivingtons. 1869.
BOCCACCIO, GIOVANNI.
The Decameron.
London: George Routledge & Son.
BOECKH, AUGUSTUS.
Public economy of the Athenians.
London: S. Low, Son & Co.
Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1857.
BOLLES, ALBERT S.
Financial history of the United States.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1879-86. 3 volumes.
BONNECHOSE, EMILE DE.
History of France.
London: Ward, Lock & Co.
BOONE, RICHARD G.
Education In the United States.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1889.
BOOTH, MARY L.
History of the city of New York.
New York: W. R. C. Clark. 1866.
BOOTH, MAUD B.
Beneath two flags.
New York and London: Funk & Wagnalls. 1889.
BORROW, G.
The Zincali.
London: John Murray. 1841. 2 volumes.
BOSANQUET, BERNARD.
The civilization of Christendom, etc.
London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co.
New York: Macmillan & Co. 1893.
BOTTA, CARLO.
Italy during the Consulate and Empire of Napoleon.
Philadelphia. 1829.
BOUCHOT, HENRI.
The printed book.
London: H. Grevel & Co. 1887.
BOULGER, DEMETRIUS C.
Central Asian questions.
London: T. Fisher Unwin. 1685.
History of China.
London: W. H. Allen & Co. 1881-84. 3 volumes.
BOURINOT, JOHN G.
Federal Government In Canada.
(Johns Hopkins University Studies, 7th series, nos. 10-12.)
Baltimore. 1889.
Manual of the constitutional history of Canada.
Montreal: Dawson Bros. 1888.
BOURNE, H. R. FOX.
The romance of trade.
London: Cassell.
BOURRIENNE, F. DE.
Private memoirs of Napoleon.
London: H. Colburn & R. Bentley. 1880. 4 volumes.
BOUTELL, CHARLES.
Arms and armour; from the French of Lacombe.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1870.
BOUTMY, ÉMILE.
The English constitution.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1891.
BOWEN, CLARENCE W.
Boundary disputes of Connecticut.
Boston: James R. Osgood & Co. 1882.
BOWEN, J. E.
The conflict of East and West in Egypt.
New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1887.
BOWLEY, ARTHUR L.
Short account of England's foreign trade In the 19th century.
London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1893.
BOWMAN, S. M., and R. B. IRWIN.
Sherman and his campaigns.
New York: Charles B. Richardson. 1865.
BOWRING, Sir JOHN.
Kingdom and people of Siam.
London: John W. Parker & Son. 1857. 2 volumes.
BOYCE, WILLIAM B.
Introduction to the study of history.
London. 1884.
BOYNTON, CHARLES B.
History of the navy during the Rebellion.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1868. 2 volumes.
BOZMAN. JOHN L.
History of Maryland, 1683-1660.
Baltimore: Lucas & Deaver. 1837.
BRACKENBURY, Colonel C. B.
Frederick the Great.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1884.
BRACKENRIDGE, H. M.
Voyage to South America.
Baltimore. 1819. 2 volumes.
BRACKETT, ANNA C., editor.
Woman and the higher education.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1893.
BRADFORD, ALDEN.
History of the federal government.
Boston: Samuel G. Simpkins. 1840.
BRADLEY, HENRY.
Story of the Goths.
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
London: T. Fisher Unwin. 1888.
BRAMSTON, A. R. and A. C. LEROY.
Historic Winchester.
London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1882.
BRANDES, GEORG.
Impressions of Russia.
New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. (c. 1889).
BRESSE, J.
History of the Vaudois.
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BRETT, REGINALD BALIOL.
Footprints of statesmen during the 18th century.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1892.
BRETT. Rev. W. H.
Indian tribes of Guiana.
London: Bell & Daldy. 1868.
BREVAL., JOHN.
History of the House of Nassau.
Dublin. 1784.
BREWER, J. S.
English studies.
London: John Murray. 1881.
Reign of Henry VIII.
London: John Murray. 1884. 2 volumes.
BREWER, W.
Alabama.
Montgomery, Alabama: Barrett & Brown. 1872.
BRIGHT, J. FRANCK.
History of England.
London: Rivingstons. 1880-88.
New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. 4 volumes.
BRINTON, DANIEL G.
American hero-myths.
Philadelphia: H. C. Watts & Co. 1882.
The American race.
New York: N. D. C. Hodges. 1891.
Essays of an Americanist.
Philadelphia: Porter & Coates. 1890.
The Lenâpé and their legends.
Philadelphia: D. G. Brinton. 1885.
Myths of the new world.
New York: Leypoldt & Holt. 1868.
Notes on the Floridian peninsula.
Philadelphia: Jos. Sabin. 1859.
Races and peoples.
New York: N. D. C. Hodges. 1890.
The Maya chronicles. editor.
Philadelphia: D. G. Brinton. 1882.
BRITANNIC CONFEDERATION:
a series of papers; edited by Arthur Silva White.
London: George Philip & Son. 1892.
BRITISH MUSEUM.
List of books of reference in the reading room.
3d edition. 1889.
BRODHEAD, JOHN R.
History of the state of New York.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1858. 2 volumes.
BROUGHAM, HENRY, Lord.
History of England and France under the House of Lancaster.
London: Griffin, Bohn & Co. 1861.
BROWN, HORATIO F.
Venice, New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
London: Percival & Co. 1893.
BROWN, JOHN.
Locke and Sydenham.
Edinburgh: D. Douglas. 1882.
BROWN, JOHN, editor.
The Stundists.
London: James Clarke & Co. 1893.
BROWN, RICHARD.
History of the Island of Cape Breton.
London: Sampson Low, Son & Marston. 1869.
BROWN, ROBERT.
Countries of the world.
London and New York: Cassell. 4 volumes.
BROWN, ROBERT.
The great Dionysiak myth.
London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1877. 2 volumes.
BROWNE, IRVING.
Short studies of great lawyers.
Albany: Albany Law Journal. 1878.
BROWNE, R. W.
History of Rome from A. D. 96.
London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
BROWNE, WILLIAM HAND.
Maryland.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1884.
BROWNELL, HENRY.
North and South America Illustrated.
Hartford: Hurlbut, Kellogg & Co. 1860. 2 volumes.
BROWNING, OSCAR.
Guelphs and Ghlbellines.
London: Methuen & Co. 1893.
Introduction to the history of educational theories.
London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co. 1881.
BROWNING, ROBERT.
Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford
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London: Longman. 1886].
BROWNLOW, W. G.
Sketches of the rise, progress and decline of Secession.
Philadelphia: George W. Childs. 1862.
BROWNLOW, W. R.
Lectures on slavery and serfdom in Europe.
London: Burns & Oates. 1892.
BRUGSCH-BEY, HENRY.
History of Egypt under the Pharaohs.
London: John Murray. 1879. 2 volumes.
History of Egypt under the Pharaohs. edited by Brodrick.
London: John Murray. 1891.
BRUNO-GEBHARDT.
Lehrbuch der Deutschen geschichte.
Stuttgart: Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft. 1892.
BRYANT, SOPHIE.
Celtic Ireland.
London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co. 1889.
BRYANT, WILLIAM C.
Interesting archæological studies in and about Buffalo.
[Buffalo. 1890.]
BRYCE, GEORGE.
Short history of the Canadian people.
London: Low, Marston & Co. 1887.
BRYCE, JAMES.
The American commonwealth.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1889. 2 volumes.
The American commonwealth. 3d edition.,
revised 1895. 2 volumes.
{3913}
BRYCE, JAMES.
Holy Roman Empire.
London: Macmillan & Co.
Transcaucasia and Ararat.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1877.
BUCK, A. H., editor.
Treatise on hygiene and public health.
New York: William Wood & Co. 1879. 2 volumes.
BUCKLE, HENRY THOMAS.
History of civilization in England.
London: Longmans, Green & Co. 3 volumes.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 2 volumes.
BUCKLEY, ARABELLA B. (Mrs. Fisher).
History of England.
London and New York: Macmillan & Co. 1892.
History of England for beginners.
London and New York: Macmillan & Co. 1887.
BUDGE, E. A. WALLIS.
Babylonian life and history.
London: Religious Tract Society. 1884.
Dwellers on the Nile.
London: Religious Tract Society. 1885.
The Mummy.
Cambridge: University Press. 1893.
BUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Publications.
BULLE, CONSTANTINE.
Geschichte der neuesten zeit, 1815-1871.
Leipzig: 1886-7. 4 volumes.
BULWER, Sir EDWARD LYTTON.
Athens.
London: Saunders & O. 2 volumes.
New York: Harper & Bros. 2 volumes.
BULWER, Sir HENRY LYTTON.
Historical characters.
London: Richard Bentley. 1868. 2 volumes.
BUNBURY, E. H.
History of ancient geography.
London: John Murray. 1879. 2 volumes.
BURCKHARDT, JACOB.
Civilisation of the period of the Renaissance in Italy.
London: C. Kegan Paul and Co. 1878. 2 volumes.
BURKE, Sir BERNARD.
Book of orders of knighthood.
London: Hurst and Blackett. 1868.
BURKE, EDMUND.
Works, volume 2.
Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 12 volumes.
BURKE, S. HUBERT.
Historical portraits of the Tudor dynasty
and Reformation period.
London: John Hodges. 1879-83. 4 volumes.
BURN, ROBERT.
Rome and the Campagna.
London: George Bell & Co. 1876.
BURNE, General Sir OWEN TUDOR.
Clyde and Strathnairn.
Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1891.
BURNET, GILBERT.
History of his own time.
Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1833. 6 volumes.
BURNS, WILLIAM.
The Scottish war of independence.
Glasgow: James Maclehose. 1874. 2 volumes.
BURROWS, MONTAGU.
The Cinque Ports.
London and New York: Longmans Green & Co. 1888.
Commentaries on the history of England.
Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons. 1893.
BURTON, J. H.
History of Scotland.
Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons. 1867-70. 7 volumes.
BURTON, R. F.
Ultima Thule.
London: William P. Nimmo. 1875. 2 volumes.
BURY, J. B.
History of the later Roman empire.
London and New York: Macmillan & Co. 1889. 2 volumes.
BURY, WILLIAM COUTTS KEPPEL, Viscount.
Exodus of the western nations.
London: Richard Bentley. 1865. 2 volumes.
BUSH, GEORGE GARY.
Harvard.
Boston: Cupples, Upham & Co. 1886.
BUSH, R. W.
St. Athanasius.
London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1888.
BUSK, M. M.
History of Spain and Portugal.
London: Baldwin & Cradock. 1833.
BUSSEY, GEORGE MOIR, and THOMAS GASPEY.
Pictorial history of France.
London: W. S. Orr & Co. 1843. 2 volumes.
BUTCHER, S. H.
Some aspects of the Greek genius.
London and New York: Macmillan & Co. 1891.
BUTLER, CHARLES.
Historical memoirs respecting the English, Irish,
and Scottish Catholics.
London: John Murray. 1819. 2 volumes.
BUTLER, WILLIAM.
Mexico in transition.
New York: Hunt & Eaton. 1893.
BUTT, ISAAC.
History of Italy.
London: Chapman & Hall. 1860. 2 volumes.
BUTTS, FRANK B.
The Monitor and the Merrimac.
(Soldiers' and Sailors' Historical Society of Rhode Island,
4th series, number 6.)
Providence. 1890.
CABLE, GEORGE W.
The Creoles of Louisiana.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1884.
CÆSAR, JULIUS.
Commentary on the Gallic War.
CAIRNES, J. E.
Essays In political economy.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1873.
CALAMY, EDMUND.
The nonconformist's memorial. 2d edition.
London. 1802. 3 volumes.
CALDECOTT, ALFRED.
English colonization and empire.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1891.
CALLCOTT, MARIA.
Short history of Spain.
London: John Murray. 2 volumes.
CAMDEN, WILLIAM.
History of Queen Elizabeth;
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CAMPBELL, CHARLES.
Introduction to the history of the colony and ancient
dominion of Virginia.
Richmond: B. B. Minor. 1847.
CAMPBELL, DOUGLAS.
The Puritan in Holland, England and America.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1892. 2 volumes.
CAMPBELL, JOHN, Lord.
Lives of the Lord Chancellors.
London: John Murray. 10 volumes.
CAPES, W. W.
Roman history: The early empire.
London: Longmans, Green & Co. N. Y.: Scribner, A. & Co. 1876.
University life in ancient Athens.
London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1877.
New York: Harper & Bros. [1877.]
CAPPER, JOHN.
The three presidencies of India.
London: Ingram, Cooke & Co. 1853.
CARLYLE, THOMAS.
Works
[Critical and miscellaneous essays. 6 volumes.
Early kings of Norway.
French Revolution. 3 volumes.
Heroes and hero-worship.
History of Friedrich II. 10 volumes.
Oliver Cromwell's letters and speeches. 5 volumes.].
London: Chapman and Hall.
CARPENTER, W. H.
History of Tennessee.
Philadelphia: Lippincott. 1854.
CARR, ARTHUR.
The Church and the Roman empire.
London: Longmans, Green & Co.
New York: A. D. F. Randolph & Co. 1887.
CARR, LUCIEN.
Missouri.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1888.
CARREL, A.
History of the Counter-Revolution in England.
London: David Bogue. 1846.
CARRINGTON, HENRY B.
Battles of the American Revolution.
New York: A. S. Barnes & Co. 1876.
CARROLL. H. K.
Religious forces of the United States.
New York: Christian Literature Co. 1893.
CARWITHEN, J. B. S., and A. LYALL.
History of the Christian Church.
London: Richard Griffin & Co. 1856.
CASSELL'S ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
London and New York: Cassell & Co. 10 volumes.
CAYLEY, EDWARD S.
The European revolutions of 1848.
London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1856. 2 volumes.
CENTURY MAGAZINE, The.
New York: The Century Co.
CHALMERS, M. D.
Bills of exchange.
CHAMBERLAIN, BASIL HALL.
Things Japanese.
London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. 1890.
CHAMBERLAIN, MELLEN.
John Adams: address before the Webster Historical Society,
Boston, January 18, 1884.
CHAMBERS, ROBERT.
Domestic annals of Scotland.
2d edition. Edinburgh:
W. & R. Chambers. 1859. 3 volumes.
CHAMBERS, W.
France, its history and revolutions.
Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers. 1871.
Stories of old families.
Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers. 1878.
CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL.
Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers.
CHAMBERS'S MISCELLANY.
Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers.
CHAMPLIN, JOHN D., JR.
Young folks' history of the war for the Union.
New York: Henry Holt & Co. 1881.
CHAPMAN, B.
History of Gustavus Adolphus.
London: Longmans. 1856.
CHAPMAN, T. J.
The French in the Allegheny valley.
Cleveland: W. W. Williams. (c. 1887).
CHARLEVOIX, Father.
History of New France;
translated by Shea.
New York: J. G. Shea. 1866-72. 2 volumes.
History of Paraguay.
London: L. Davis. 1769. 2 volumes.
CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH, Princess Palatine.
Life and letters.
London: Chapman & Hall. 1889.
CHAUTAUQUAN, The.
Meadville, Pennsylvania: T. L. Flood Publishing House.
CHEAP-MONEY EXPERIMENTS.
Reprinted from The Century Magazine.
New York: The Century Co. 1892.
CHEETHAM, S.
History of the Christian Church during
the first six centuries.
London and New York: Macmillan & Co. 1891.
CHESNEY, CHARLES C.
Essays in military biography.
London: Longmans.
New York: Henry Holt & Co. 1874.
CHESTER, HENRIETTA M.
Russia.
London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1881.
CHEVALIER, MICHEL.
Mexico, ancient and modern.
London: J. Maxwell & Co. 1864. 2 volumes.
On the probable fall In the value of gold.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1859.
{3914}
CHICAGO, UNIVERSITY OF.
Official bulletin, number. 1.
Chicago. 1891.
CHICAGO LAW TIMES, The.
CHISHOLM, H. W.
On the science of weighing and measuring.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1877.
CHURCH, ALFRED J.
Henry the Fifth.
London and New York: Macmillan & Co. 1889.
CHURCH, ALFRED J. and ARTHUR GILMAN.
Story of Carthage.
New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1886.
CHURCH, F. J.
Introduction to "Trial and Death of Socrates"
(London: Macmillan. 1886).
CHURCH, R. W.
Beginning of the Middle Ages.
London: Longmans, Green & Co.
New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co. [1877.]
Dante and other essays.
London and New York: Macmillan & Co. 1888.
The gifts of civilisation.
London: Macmillan & Co. 1891.
CITIES OF THE WORLD.
London, and New York: Cassell & Co. 4 volumes.
CITY IN THE SEA, The.
London: Seeley, Jackson & Halliday. 1884.
CLAIBORNE, J. F. H.
Life and correspondence of John A. Quitman.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1860. 2 volumes.
Mississippi: volume 1.
Jackson, Mississippi: Power & Barksdale. 1880.
CLARENDON, EDWARD, Earl.
History of the Rebellion.
Oxford: University Press. 1849. 7 volumes.
CLARKE, JAMES FREEMAN.
Anti-slavery days.
New York: R. Worthington. 1884.
CLARKSON, THOMAS.
History of the abolition of the African slave-trade.
London: Longman. 1808. 2 volumes.
Memoirs of the life of William Penn.
Philadelphia: 1814. 2 volumes.
CLAY, HENRY.
Life, correspondence, and speeches;
by Calvin Colton.
New York: A. S. Barnes & Co. 1857. 6 volumes.
CLAYDEN, P. W.
England under the Coalition.
London: T. F. Unwin. 1892.
CLERKE, AGNES M.
Familiar studies in Homer.
London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1892.
CLEVELAND, HENRY.
Alexander H. Stephens in public and private.
Philadelphia: National Publishing Co. (c. 1866).
CLINTON, H. R.
From Crécy to Assye.
London: Frederick Warne & Co. [1881].
The war in the Peninsula and Wellington's campaign
in France and Belgium.
London: Frederick Warne & Co. [1890.]
COBBETT'S
Parliamentary history of England
[continued as "Parliamentary debates"].
London. 1806-16. 32 volumes.
COCKAYNE, T. OSWALD.
Life of Marshal Turenne.
London: Longman. 1864.
COFFIN, CHARLES CARLTON.
Drum-beat of the nation.
New York: Harper & Bros. 1888.
COGGESHALL, GEORGE.
History of the American privateers.
New York 1856.
COIGNET, C.
Francis the First and his times.
London: R. Bentley & Son. 1888.
COLERIDGE, HARTLEY.
Biographia Borealis.
London: Whitaker, Treacher & Co. 1833.
COLLIER, WILLIAM F.
History of England.
London: T. Nelson & Sons. 1868.
History of Ireland.
London: Marcus Ward & Co. [1885.]
COMINES, PHILIP DE.
Memoirs.
London: H. G. Bohn. 1855. 2 volumes.
COMPAYRÉ, GABRIEL.
Abelard and the origin and early history of universities.
New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1893.
History of pedagogy;
translated by W. H. Payne.
Boston: D. C. Heath & Co. 1886.
COMYN, Sir ROBERT.
History of the Western Empire.
London: W. H. Allen & Co. 1841. 2 volumes.
CONDER, CLAUDE R.
Syrian stone-lore.
London: Richard Bentley & Son. 1886.
CONNECTICUT.
Public records of the colony.
Hartford: Brown & Parsons. 1850-1852. 2 volumes.
CONTEMPORARY REVIEW, The.
London: Isbister & Co.
COOKE, GEORGE W.
History of party.
London: J. Macrone. 1886-7. 3 volumes.
Memoirs of Lord Bolingbroke.
London: R. Bentley. 1835. 2 volumes.
COOKE, JOHN ESTEN.
Life of Robert E. Lee.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1871.
Stonewall Jackson.
New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1866.
Virginia.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1883.
COOLEY, THOMAS McINTYRE.
Acquisition of Louisiana.
(Indiana Historical Society Pamphlets, no. 3).
Constitutional limitations which rest upon the legislative
power of the states. 6th edition.
Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1890.
Michigan.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1885.
COOLIDGE, SUSAN, pseudo (S. C. WOOLSEY).
Short history of the city of Philadelphia.
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The critical period of American history.
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The discovery of America.
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The War of Independence.
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History of Illinois.
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A lady's tour In Corsica.
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FOREIGN QUARTERLY REVIEW. The.
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FORSTER, JOHN.
Historical and biographical essays.
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Statesmen of the Commonwealth.
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Medical economy during the Middle Ages.
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The golden bough.
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Historical geography of Europe.
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Lectures to American audiences.
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Methods of historical study.
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Old English history for children.
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The Ottoman power in Europe.
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Short history of the Norman conquest of England.
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Sketches from the subject and neighbour lands of Venice.
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Story of Sicily.
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William the Conqueror.
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GALLENGA, ANTONIO C. N.
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History of the English people.
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The making of England.
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Short history of the English people.
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British barrows.
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Geschichte der stadt Rom.
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History of the Dominion of Canada.
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Electricity and magnetism;
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History of Civilization.
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History of Oliver Cromwell.
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Memoirs to illustrate the history of my own time.
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https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28169 (Volume 1)
Popular history of France.
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https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11951
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11952
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https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11954
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Introduction to Roman law.
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Story of Spain.
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History of Wisconsin under the dominion of France.
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HECKER, J. F. C.
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Historic and monumental Rome.
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History of Germany in the Middle Ages.
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HENDERSON, T. F.
The Casket Letters and Mary Queen of Scots.
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HISTORICAL MAGAZINE, The.
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HURST, JOHN F.
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OCEAN STEAMSHIPS;
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History of the Italian Revolution.
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OLDEST SCHOOL IN AMERICA
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Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1885.
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History of New England.
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History of Normandy and of England.
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History of the Anglo-Saxons.
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PALMER, E. H.
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History of the Jewish nation.
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PALMER, H. S.
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Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin.
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PASTOR, LUDWIG.
History of the Popes from the close of the Middle Ages.
London: John Hodges. 1891. 2 volumes.
PATON, A. A.
History of the Egyptian Revolution.
London: Trübner & Co. 1870. 2 volumes.
Researches on the Danube and the Adriatic.
London: Trübner & Co. 1862. 2 volumes.
PATTISON, Mrs. MARK.
The renaissance of art in France.
London: Kegan Paul & Co. 1879. 2 volumes.
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Concise history of the American people.
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History of European colonies.
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English history in the 14th century.
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History of England during the early and middle ages.
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National life and character.
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English journalism.
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History of Newfoundland.
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Outlines of Roman history.
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