^ '' *..-k V ^' K ■1. V.I CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY •CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 088 421 460 The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924088421460 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES E. BENJAMIN ANDEEWS PRESIDENT OP EKOWN CNIVEKSITY WITH MAPS Volume I. NEW YORK OHAELES SCBIBNER'9 SONS : C/ , _ 1894 \', COPTBIGHT, 1894, BT CHARLES SCEIBNBE'8 SONS 'r\V I' J I TROW DIRECTORY PRINTlflO AMD BOOKBINOINO COMMll^ NEW YORK ^Wv TO MY WIFE PREFACE Notwithstanding the number of United States histories abeady in existence, and the excellence of many of them, I venture to think that no apol- ogy is needed for bringing forward another. 1. The Tolume now presented to the pubhc is believed to utilize, more than any of its predeces- sors, the many valuable researches of recent years into the rich archives of this and other nations. 2. Most of the briefer treatments of the subject are manuals, intended for pupil$ in schools, the conspicuous articulation so necessary for this pur- pose greatly lessening their interest for the gen- eral reader. The following narrative will be found continuous as well as of moderate compass. 3. I have sought to make more 'prominent than popular histories have usually dOne, at the same time the political evolution of our country on the one hand, and the social culture, habits, and life of the people on the other. 4. The work strives to observe - scrupulous pro- portion in treating the different parts and phases Ti PREFACE of our national career, neglecting none and over- emphasizing none. Also,' wliile pronouncedly na- tional and patriotic, it is carefid^ to be perfectly fair and kind to the people of all sections. 5. Effort has been made to present the matter in the most natural periods and divisions, and to give such a title to each of these as to render the table of contents a truthful and ihstructive epit- ome of our national past. 6. With the same aim the Fore-history is ex- hibited in sharp separation from the United States history proper, calling due attention to what is too commonly missed, the truly epochal character of the adoption of our present Constitution, in 1789. 7. No pains has been spared to secure perfect accuracy in all references to dates, persons, and places, so that the volume may be used with con- fidence as a work of reference. I am persuaded that much success in this has been attained, despite the uncertainty still attaching to many matters of this sort in United States history, especially to dates. Brown Univbrsitt, September 15, 1894. CONTENTS INTR OD UGTION Ameeioa before Columbus .... xxi Age and Origin of Man in America. — Primordial Americans unlike Present Asiatics. — Resemblances between their Various Branches — Two Great Types.— The Mound-builders' Age. — De- sign of the Mounds. — Different Forms. — Towns and Cities. — Proofs of Culture.— Arts.— Fate of the Mound-builders.— The Indians.— Their Number. — Degree of Civilization. — Power of Endurance. — Religion. — The Various Nations. — Original Brute Inhabitants o£ North America. — Plants, Fruits, and Trees. — Indian Agriculture. THE FORE-HISTORY PERIOD I DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT 1492-1660 Chapter I. Columbus 1 Bretons and Normans in the New World. — The Northmen Question. — Marco Polo's Trarels. — His Pictures of Eastern Asia. — Influence on Columbus. — Early Life of Columbus. — His Cruises and Studies. — Asia to ba Reached by Sailing West. — viii CONTENTS Appeals for Aid.— Rebuffs— Success.— Sails from Pales.— The Vo^'age. — America Discovered. — Columbus's Later Voyages and Discoveries. — Illusion Respecting the New Land. — Amerigo Vespucci. — Rise of the Name "America." FAGB Chapter II. Eahly Spanish America . . 13 Portugal and Spain Divide the Newly Discovered World. — Spain gets most of America. — Voyage of de Solis. — Balboa Dis- covers the Pacific. —Ponce de Leon on the Florida Coast. — Ex- plorations by Grijalva. — Cortez Invades Mexico. — Subjugates tlie Country. — De Ayllon's Cruise. — Magellan Circumnavigates the Globe.— Narvaez's Expedition into Florida. — Its Sad Fate. — De Soto. — His March. — Hardships. — Discovers the Mississip- pi. — His Death. — End of His Expedition. ^French Settlement in Florida. — St. Augustine. — French-Spanish Hostilities. — Rea- sons for Spain's Failure to Colonize far North. — Her Treatment of the Natives. — Tyranny over her own Colonies. Chapter III. Exploration and Coloniza- tion BY THE French and the English 33 Verrazano. — "New France."— Cartier Discovers St. Lawrence Gulf and River, — Second Voyage. — Montreal. — Third. — De Mouts. — Champlain. — Founds Quebec. — Westward Explora- tions. — John Cabot, Discoverer of the Nortli American Main. — Frobisher. — Tries for a Northwest Pjissage,— Second Expedition for Gold.— Third,— Eskimo Tradition of Frobisher's Visits.— Drake Sails Round the World, — Cavendish Follows. — Raleigh's Scheme. — Colony at Roanoke Island, — " Virginia." — Second Colony, — Its Fate, Chapter IV. The Planting of Virginia . 31 The Old Virginia Charter,— Jamestown Settled, — Company and Colony. — Character of Early Virgiiiiii. Population. — Prog- ress. -Products. —Slavery.— Agriculture the Dominant In- dustry.— No Town Life.— Hardships and Dissensions.— John Smith.— New Charter.— Delaware Governor.— The "Starving CONTENTS IX Time."— Severe Rule of Dale and Argall.— TheCliange of 1613. — Pocaliontas. — Indian Hostilities. — First American Legislature. — Sir Thomas Wyatt.— Self-government.— Virginia Reflects English Political Progress.— Dissolution of the Company. — Charles I. and Virginia. — Harvey, Wyatt,= Berkeley.— Virginia under Cromwell. FAGS Chapter V. Pilgkui and Pueitan" at the NoETii 39 The first "Independents." — John Smyth's Church at Gains- liorough. — The Scrooby Church. — Plymouth Colony. — Settles Plymouth. — Hardships. — Growth. — Cape. Ann Settlement. — Massachusetts Bay. — Size. — Polity. — Roger Williams.— His Views. — His Exile. — ^Anne Hutchinson. — Rhode Island Pound- ed.— Settlement of Hartford, Windsor, Wethersfield. — Say- brook. — New Haven, — New Hampshire. — ^Maiue. — New Eng- land Confederation. — Its Function. — Its Failure. Ohaptee VI. Baltimoeb and his Maryland 48 Sir George Calvert Plants at Newfoundland. — Is Ennobled.^ Sails for Virginia.— Giant of Maryland. — Lord Baltimore Dies. — Succeeded by Cecil. — Government of Maryland. — Conflict with Virginia.— Baltimore Comes to Maryland. ^Religious Freedom in the Colony. — Clayborne's Rebellion. — First Maryland As- sembly. — Anarchy. — Romanism Established. — Baltimore and Roger Williams. — Maryland during the Civil War in England. — Death of Baltimore. — Character. — Maryland under the Long Parliament. — Puritan Immigration, — Founds Annapolis. — Re- bellion. — Clayborne Again. — Maryland and the Commonwealth. — Deposition of Governor Stone. — Anti-Catholic Laws. — Balti- more Defied. — Sustained by Cromwell. — Fendall's Rebellion. — Fails. — Maryland at the Restoration. Chaptee VII. New Nexheeland . . 56 Henry Hudson and his Explorations. — Enters Hudson River. — His Subsequent Career. — And His Fate.— ^Dutch Trade on the X CONTENTS Hudson. — "New Netherland. " — Dutcli West India Company. — Albany Begun. — New Amsterdam. — Relations with Plymoutli. -De Vries on tlie Delaware. — Dutch Fort at Hartford. — Con- flict of Dutch with English. — Giistavus Adolphus. — Swedish Beginnings at Wilmington, Delaware. — Advent of Kieft. — Mal- treats Indians.— New Netherland in 1647.— Stuyvesant's Excel- lent Rule. — Conquers New Sweden. — And the Indians. — Con- quest of Dutch America by England.—" New York. "—Persist- ence of Dutch Influence and Traits. PAGE Chapter VIII. The First Indian Wars . 62 Beginning of Indian Hostility.— Of Pequot War.— Mason"3 Strategy. — And Tactics. — Capture of Pequot Fort. — Back to Say- brook. — Extermination of Pequot Tribe. — Peace. — Miautino- moh and Unoas. — Dutch War with Indians. — Caused hy Kieft's Impolicy. — Liquor. — Underbill Comes. — Mrs. Hutchinson's Fate. — Dehorah Moody. — New Haven Refuses Aid. — Appeal to Holland. — UnderhiU's Exploits. — Kieft Removed. — Sad Plight of New Netherland.- Subsequent Hostilities and Final Peace. PEEIOD II ENGLISH AMERICA TILL THE END OF THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 1660-1763 Chapter I. New England under the Last Stuarts 71 Charles II. and Massachusetts. — Massachusetts about 1660. — Its View of its Political Eights. — The King's View. — And Com- mands. — Commission of 1664. — Why Vengeance was Delayed. — Boldness of the Colony. — It Buys Maine. — Fails to Get New Hampshire. — The King's Eage. — The Charter Vacated. — Charles II. and Connecticut. — Prosperity of this Colony. — Rhode Island. — Boundary Disputes of Connecticut. — Of Rhode Island. — CONTENTS xi George Fox and Roger Williams. — James II. King. — Andres Governor. — Andros and Southern New England. — In Massa- ohtisetts. — Revolution of 1G88. — New Charter for Massachusetts. — Defects and Merits. FAGK Chapter II. Kikg Philip's "Wak . . 8-Z Whites' Treatment of Red Men. — Indian Hatred. — Causes. — Alexander's Death. — Philip King. — Scope of his Conspiracy. — Murders Sausaman. — War Begun. — Nipmuoks take Part. — War in Connecticut Valley. — Bloody Brook. — The Swamp Fight at South Kingston, R. I. — Central M'assachusetts Aflame. — The Rowlaudson History. — S. E. Massachusetts and Rhode Island Again. — Connecticut Valley once more Invaded. — Tur- ner's Falls. — Philip's Death. — Horrors of the War. — Philip's Character. — Fate of his Family. Chapter III. The Salem Witchcraft. . 93 New England Home Life. — Religion its Centre. — The Farm- house. — Morning Devotions. — Farm Work. — Tools. — Diet. — Neighborlinesa. — New England Superstitions. — Not Peculiar to New England. — Sunday Laws. — Public Worship. — First Case of Sorcery. — The Witch Executed, — Cotton Mather. ^ — His Experi- ments. — His Book. — The Parris Children Bewitched. — The Manifestations! — The Trial. — Executions. — George Burroughs. — Rebecca Nurse. — Reaction. — Forwardness of Clergy. — "'Dev- il's Authority."— The End. Chapter IV. The Middle Colonies . . 103 English Conquest of New Netherland. — Duke of York's Gov- ernment. — Andros. — Revolution of 1688,— Leisler. — Problems which Teased Royal Governors. — New Jersey.— Its Political Vi- cissitudes. — William Penn. — Character.— Liberality of Pennsyl- vania Charter.- Penn and James II.— Penn's Services for his Colony — Prosperity of the Latter. — Fletcher's Rule. — Gabriel Thomas's History of Pennsylvania.— Penn's Trials— And Vic- tory. — Delaware. xii CONTENTS PAGE Chapter V. Makyland, Vikginia, Caro- lina . • • 110 Maryland after the Stuart Eestoration,— Navigation Act.— Boundary Disputes.— Liberality of Religion,— Agitation to Es- tablish Anglicanism. — Maryland under William and Mary. — English Church Established.— Not Oppressive.— Fate of Virginia after the Restoration.— Virginia's Spirit, Numbers, Resources. — Causes of Bacon's Rebellion. — Evil of t^ie Navigation Acts. . —Worthless Officials,— Course of the Rlbellion.— Result,— Dulness of the Subsequent History.— William and Mary College. — Governor Spotswood. — Blackbeard. — Carolina. — Its Constitu- tion. — Conflict of Parties. — Georgia. Chapter VI. Goverxmental Institutions IN THE Colonies 119 Origin of American Political Institutions. — Local Self-gov- ernment, — Representation, — Relation of Colonies to England. — Classification of Colonies,— Changes, — Conflict of Legal Views, — Colonists' Contentions, — Taxation. Chapter VII. Social Culture in Colo- ■ NiAL Times 123 Population of the Colonies at Difljereut Dates.- — Differences according to Sections, — Intellectual Ability. — Free Thought. — Political Bent. — English Church in the Colonies. — Its Clergy. — In New York. — The New England Establishment. — Hatred to Episcopacy. — Counter-hatred. — Colleges and Schools. — News- papers. — Libraries. — Po.stal System. — Learned Professions. — Epidemics, — Scholars and Artists. — Travelling. — Manufactures and Commerce. — Houses. — Food and Dress. — Wigs. — Opposi- tion to Them. — Social Cleavage. — Redemptioners. — Penal Legislation. — Philadelphia Leads in Social Science. Chapter VIII. England and France in America 136 The French in the Heart of the Continent, — GroseillierS, Ead- isson, La Salle, — Joliet and Marquette Reach the Mississippi, — CONTENTS xiii Baxidin and Du Llint.— La Salle DeseendiS to tlie Gulf. — " Clii- cago." — The Portages. — La Salle's Expedition from France to the Mississippi. — Its Fate. — French, Indians, and English. — France's Advantage. — Numbers of each Race in America. — ■ Causes of England's Colonial Strength. — King William's 'War. — The Schenectady Massacre. — Other Atrocities. — Anne's War, — Deerfield. — Plans for Striking Back. — Second Capture of Port Royal. — Rasle's Settlement Raided. — George's War. — Capture of Louisburg. — Saratoga Destroyed. — Scheme to Retaliate. — Fail- ure. — French Vigilance and Aggression. PAGE Chapter IX. The French and Indian War 146 struggle Inevitable. — George Washington. — Fights at Great Meadows. — War Begun. — English Plans of Campaign, — Brad- dock's March. — Defeat and Death. — Prophecy Regarding Wash- ington. — The " Evangeline" History. — Loudon's Incompetence, — Pitt at the Head of Affairs. — Will Take^ Canada, — Louisburg Recaptured, — "Pittsburgh." — Triple Movement xipon Canada, — The Plains of Abraham. — Quebec Capitulates, — Peace of Paris, — Conspiracy of Pontiac, PEEIOD III REVOLUTION AND THE OLD CONFEDER- ATION 1763-1789 Chapter I. Eesults of the French and In- dian War 154 How Important. — Vergennes's Prophecy, — England in Debt. — Tempted to Tax Colonies. — Colonies Strengthened. — Mili- tary Experience Gained. — Loaders Tr-iin^d. — Fighting Power Revealed. — Best of All, Union, — How Developed, — Nothing but War could have done This. — Scattered Condition of Popu- lation Then. ^Difficulties of Communication. — Other Centrifu- xii CONTENTS Chapter V. Maryland, Virginia, Caro- lina . . • 110 Maryland after tlie Stuart Restoration.— Navigation Act. — Boundary Disputes. — Liberality of Religion. — Agitation to Es- tablish Anglicanism. — Maryland nnder William and Mary. — English Church Established. — Not Oppressive. — Fate of Virginia after the Restoration. — Virginia's Spirit, Numbers, Resources. — Causes of Bacon's Rebellion. — Evil of the Navigation Acts. — Worthless Officials. — Course of the Rebellion. — Result. — Dulness of the Subsequent History.— Willi.am and Mary College. — Governor Spotswood. — Blackbeard. — Carolina. — Its Constitu- tion. — Conflict of Parties. — Georgia. Chapter VI. Goveenjiental Institutions IN THE Colonies ..... 119 Origin of American Political Institutions. — Local Self-gov- ernment. — Representation. — Relation of Colonies to England. — Classification of Colonies. — Changes. — Conflict of Legal Views. — Colonists' Contentions. — Taxation. Chapter VII. Social Culture in Colo- - NIAL TlltES 133 Population of the Colonies at Different Dates. — Differences according to Sections. — Intellectual Ability. — Free Tlionght. — Political Bent. — English Church in the Colonies. — Its Clergy. — In New York. — Tlie New England Establishment. — Hatred to Episcopacy. — Counter-hatred. — Colleges and Schools. — News- papers.— Libraries. — Postal System. — Learned Professions. — Epidemics. — Scholars and Artists. — Travelling. — Manufactures and Commerce. — Houses. — Food and Dress. — Wigs. — Opposi- tion to Them. — Social Cleavage. — Redemptioners. — Penal Legislation. — Philadelphia Leads in Social Science. Chapter VIII. England and France in America 136 The French in the Heart of the Continent. — Groseilliers, Rad- isson, La Salle. — Joliet and Marquette Reach the Mississippi. — • CONTEXTS xiii Baudin and Du Llint.— La Salle Descends to the Gulf. — " Clii- cago." — The Portages. — La Salle's Expedition from France to the Mississippi. — Its Fata. — French, Indians, and English. — France's Advantage. — Nnmhers of each Race in America. — Causes of England's Colonial Sti'ength. — King William's War. — The Schenectady Massacre. — Other Atrocities.— Anne's War. — Deerfleld. — Plans for Striking Back. — Second Capture of Port Koyal. — Rasle's Settlement Raided. — George's War. — Capture of Louisburg. — Saratoga Destroyed. — Scheme to Retaliate, — Fail- ure. — French Vigilance and Aggression. P4GE Chapter IX. The Feestch ajstd Iudiax Wak 146 Struggle laevitable. — George Washington. — Fights at Great Meadows. — War Begun. — English Plans o/ Campaign. — Brad- dock's March. — Defeat and Death. — Prophecy Regarding Wash- ington. — The " Eyangeline" History. — Loiidon's Incompetence. — Pitt at the Head of Affairs. — Will Take 'Canada. — Louisburg Recaptured. — "Pittsburgh." — Triple Movement upon Canada. —The Plains of Abraham. — Quebec Capitulates. — Peace of Paris. — Conspiracy of Pontiac. PEEIOD III MJEVOLUTJOJY AAW THE OLD COXFEDER- ATION 1763-1789 Chapter I. Eesults of the Fkexch axd In- dian War 154 How Important. — Vergennes's Prophecy. — England in Debt. — Tempted to Tax Colonies, — Colonies Strengthened. — Mili- tary Experience Gained. — Leaders Trained. — Fighting Power Revealed. — Best of All, Union. — How Developed. — Nothing but War could have done This, — Scattered Condition of Popu- lation Then. — Difficulties of Communication. — Other Centrifu- xiv CONTENTS gal Influences.— France no longer a Menace to tlie Colonies.-- Bat a Natural Friend and Ally.— Increase of Territory at the Colonies' Disposal. PAa£ Ohapteb II. George III. and His Ameeicau CoLon^iES . . . • • • • l*^! Character of the Young King.— Policy.— Advisers.— Indefinite Causes Separating Colonies from England.— England Blind to These.— Ignorant of the Colonies.— Stricter Enforcement of Navi- gation Laws.— Writs of Assistance.— James Otis.— Stamp Act. —Opposition.— Vigorous and Widespread Retaliation by Non- importation.— England Recedes.— Her Side of the Question.— Lord Mansfield's Argument. —Pitt's. —Constitutional andHistori- cal Considerations not Sufficient.- George III.'s Case Better Legally than Practically. — Natural Rights. — Townshend's Duties. — Massachusetts Opposition. — Samuel Adams. — Committees of Correspondence. — The Billeting Act. — Boston Massacre. — State- ment of Grievances. — The Tea. — Coercion Resolved Upon. — First Continental Congress. — Drifting into War. Chapter III. In^dependence and the New States 171 Slow Growth of Desire for Independence. — Why, — Early Schemes of Union. — New York Convention of 1690. — Albany Convention of 1754. — Franklin's Plan for a Confederation of Colonies. — Even in 1774 no Hint of Independence. — Hardly in 1775.— Swift Change at Last. — All the Colonies Turn to the New Idea. — Causes. — Dickinson and Harrison. — The King's Barbar- ity. — The Gaspe Affair. — Capture of Fort William and Mary. — Paine's '' Common Sense." — Declaration of Independence Moot- ed. ^Debated. — Drafted. — Passed and Signed. — Jefferson. — How far he Followed Earlier Utterances. — Effect of the Declara- tion. -Anarchy in the Colonies. —New State Governments. — New Constitutions. — Their Provisions. — Changes from the Old Order. — General Character of the Documents. CONTENTS XV PAGE Chapter IV. Outbbeak of War : Washing- TON'S MoVBMElfTS 181 General Gage in Boston. — Lexington. — Concord. — The Re- treat. — Siege of Boston. — Bunker Hill. — Warren's Fall. — Losses of tlie two Sides. — Washington Commander-in-Chief. — His Character. — Difficulties. — Bad Military System. — Gage Evacu- ates Boston. — Moultrie's Defence of Charleston Harbor. — New York the Centre of Hostilities. — Long Island Given Up. — New York City also. — Forts Washington and Lee Captured. — Re- treat Across New Jersey. — Splendid Strokeat Trenton. — Prince- ton. — Brandywine and Germantown. — The Winter at Valley Forge. — Hardships. — Steuben's Arrival and Drill. — Battle of Monmouth. Chapter V. The Northern Ca-mpaign . . 189 On to Canada, — Ethan Allen takes "OldTi. " — Montgomery's Advance. — Benedict Arnold's. — They Attack Quebec —Mont- gomery Falls. — Morgan in the Lower Town. — The Siege Raised. — Retreat. — Burgoyne's Advance. — The British Plan. — Ticon- deroga Again in British Hands. — On to Fort Edward. — St. Leger's Expedition. — Battle of Oriskany.^St. Leger Driven Back. — Baume's Expedition. — Battle of Bennington. — Stark. — — Burgoyne in a Cid-de-sac. — Gates Succeeds Schuyler. — First Battle of Bemis's Heights or Stillwater. — Burgoyne's Position Critical. — No Tidings from Clinton. — Second Battle — Arnold the Hero. — The Briton Retreats. — Capitulates.^Little Thanks to Gates. — Importance of Burgoyne's Surrender. Chapter VI. The Southern Campaigns . . 196 Massacres of Wyoming and Cherry 'Valley. — Battle of Rhode Island. — Raids. — Wayne takes Stony Point. — Paul Jones and his Naval Victory. — The War in the South. — Lincoln Surren- ders. — All South Carolina Gone. — Clinton's Severity. — Bravely withstood by Southern Leaders and People.— Washington Sends Aid. — Gates and De Kalb. — Battle of Camden. — Exit Gates. — De Kalb's Valor aiid Death. — Arnold's Treason. — The South xvi CONTENTS Prostrate. — Colonial Victory of King's Mountain. — General Greene to the South. — His History. — His Plan. — Morgan Beats Carleton at Cowpens. — Cornwallis Sweeps Northward. — Greene's Skilful Estreat. — Battle of Guilford Court-house. — Cornwallis to Virginia. — The Caroliuas and Georgia Kecovered. — Washington to Yorktown. — French Aid. — Cornwallis Sur- renders. — Effects. ''•"" PAGE Chaptek VII. Peace 205 Peace Sentiment in England. — Reasons. — 111 Conduct of the War. — Expense. — Vain Concession. — France Aids America. — Spain Too. — Lord North Wavers. — Holland Joins the Colonies. — Cornwallis's Surrender. — Franklin in France. — Influence and Skill. — Joy. — Negotiations for a Treaty of Peace. — The Treaty Signed. — Its Provisions. — Peace a Benediction. — Cessa- tion of Hostilities. — Redcoats Depart. — New York Bvaonated. — Washington's Adieu to the Army. — Resigns his Commission. — Re-visits Mount Vernon. Chaptee VIII. Amebican Manhood in the Kevolution 31,3 Character of Revolutionary Soldiers. — Causes. — Physical Basis and Previous Training. — Bunker Hill. — Moultrie. — Mary- landers at Long Island. — At Monmouth.— Nathan Hale. — An- dre. — Paul Jones and his Exploit. — Ethan Allen. — Prescott. — "Old Put." — Richard Montgomery. — General Greene. — Stark. ^Dan Morgan. — Other Generals. — Colonel Washington. — De Kalb. — Robert Morris, Financier. — Franklin Diplomatist. — Washington. — Military Ability. — Mental aiid Moral Character- istics. — Honesty. — Modesty.— Encomia upon Him. Chapter IX. The Old Confederation . . 233 The Revolutionary Congress.— The Articles of Confedera- tion.— Synopsis.— Congress.— Its Powers.— Advantages of the Confederation.— Critical State of Affairs after the War.— State Sovereignty.— Antagonized by Existence of the Articles,— CONTENTS xvii Faults of the Confederation.^No Power over Individuals. — Treaties. — Taxatiou. — War Debt. — Mutinous Spirit in Army. — Washington's Steadfastness. — Congress Menaced. — Discord of Commercial Laws. — England's Hostile Attitude. — Needed Amendments to the Articles. — Lack of a Central Power. — North- west Territory. — Ordinance of 1787. — Its Excellence. — The Ohio Company. — Settlement at Marietta. PAGE Chapter X. Kisb of the New Coitstitution 330 Anarchy after the Revolution. — Shays's Kebellion. — Wash- ington's Influence. — Continental Sects. — Hamilton's Motion for a Stronger Government. — Massachusetts's Motion. — For- wardness of "Virginia. — Of Madison. — Origin of Annapolis Con- vention, 1786. — Its Action. — Meeting of tlie Constitutional Convention, 1787.— The Virginia Plan. — New Jersey Plan. — Growth of the Constitution.^ — Personnel of the Convention. — Its Distinguished Men. — Subsequent Careers of Many. — Rut- ledge. — Rufus King. — Completion of the Constitution. — Ratifi- cation. — Struggle in Massachusetts. — In' Virginia. — In New York. — In North Carolina. — In Rhode Island. — " More Perfect Union " at Last. XTiii CONTENTS THE UNITED STATES UNDER THE CONSTITUTION PERIOD I THE UNITED STATES AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 1789-1814 PAGE Chapier I. The New GovERN-JiiENT . . 343 Launching the Constitution. — Washington's First Inaugura- tion, — Distribution of our Population in 1790. — In the States. — Cities. — New York City. — Difference between the Old Govern- ment and the New. — Status of the State. — Benefits of the New Order. — Popularity of the Constitution. — iThoroughness of First Congress. — Origin of Post ofiice Department. — Treasury. — Revenue and Monetary System. — Judiciary. — Secretary of War. — Leaders in First Congress. Chapter II. Federalism as^d Anti-fed- eralism 354 Origin and Development of the Two Terms. — Policy of Fed- eralism. — Federalists Aristocratic. — Two Stripes of Federal- ists. — Policy of the Anti-federalista. — Close and Liberal Con- structionists. — Argument of the Federalists on Article I., Section 8. — Reply of Anti-federalists. — Historical Facts in Support of the Latter. Chapter III. Domestic Questions of Wash- ington's Administrations . . . 258 I. Taripp : Restrictive Policy after the Revolution. — Object of its Advocates to Strengthen the Central Government. — Re- CONTENTS xix taliatory Spirit against England. — Desire for Independence aa to Military Supplies. II. FdMUihG the Debt : Debt at Close of Revolution. — Congress Liquidates the Domestic Federal Debt. — Assumes State Debts. — Debate ou This. — Secured by a " Deal." — Scheme for Payment. III. — The Excise : Excise on Spirits. — Opposition in Penn- sylvania.— Result. IV. The Bank: Chartered by Congrtss.— Hostility.— Jef- ferson's Argument. — Hamilton's. — Good Influence of the Bank. PAGE Chaptek IV. Kelatiosts with En-gland . 363 Revolution in France. — Washington's Proclamation of Neu- trality. — Jefferson's Criticism. — Rives's. — Arguments for Aid- ing France. — Results of Neutrality. — Federalist Leaning to- ward Great Britain. — Attitude of Great Britain. — Impressment of our Seamen. — War Imminent.— Jay's Treaty. — Fisher Ames Urges Ratification. Chapter V. Eelations with ^hb Feench Eepublic 269 Federalists Condemn, Kepublicaus Favor the French Revo- lution. — Causes of its Popularity. — Justification of the Admin- istration's Policy. — France Violates the Treaty. — Genet's High- handed Action. — His Insolence and Final Removal. — Effect of Jay's Treaty upon France. — Further Overtures to France. — Re- sult. — Anti-federalists Confounded. — War Feeling in this Country. — Adams's Patriotic Course. — War Averted. Chapter VI. Decline of the Federalist Party 375 Federalist Excesses. — Alien and Sedition Acts. — Conviction of Matthew Lyon. — Results of the Federalist Policy. — Its Animus. — Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. — These Criticised. — Un- popularity of the Federalist Measures. — This Dooms Federal- ism. — Federalist Dissensions. — Federalist Opposition to the Ad- ministration, — ^Waning Power of Federalism. — Its Good After- influence. XX CONTENTS FAQE Chapteb VII. The West . . . .282 Kentucky and Tennessee become States. — Unorganized and Organized Territory.— Settlements in thft Northwest.— Centres of Population.— Early Land System.— Indian Outbreaks.— Harmar's Expedition.— Treaty with the Creeks.— Expedition of St. Clair.— Forts Built.— St. Clair's Deleat.— His Deposition from Military Command, — Wayne's Victory. — Pioneer Life. — Indiana Territory Formed. — Ohio a State.=-^System of Market- ing Public Lands.— Mississippi Territory Organized. Chapter VIII. Social Oultukb at the Turn of the Century .... 291 Population. — Rural Life. — Theatres. — Sports. — Lotteries. — Steam Navigation. — The Old-fashioned Muster. — Intemperance. — Introduction of Sunday-schools. — ^Spaiiish Coins. — Colonial Money still in Use. — "Pip," "Levy," "Pistareen." — News- papers and Postal Arrangements. — Party Strife. — Innovations and Inventions. — Beginnings of the American Factory System. — Oliver Evans. — Samuel Slater. Chapter IX. Democracy at the Helm . 305 Jefferson's Election. — Xllth Amendment to the Constitution. — Power of Democracy. — Its Policy. — Jefferson the Typical Democrat. — His Character. — His Civil Service Policy. — Burr's Rise. — Shoots Hamilton in a Duel, — His Treason. — His Arrest. ^Purchase of Louisiana. — Immense Increase of Territory. — Trouble with the Barbary Powers. — Their Insolence. — Dale's Expedition. — Further Successes. Chapter X. The War of 181^ . . .315 Great Britain Ignores International Law.- — Impresses Amer- ican Seamen. — The Chesapeake Affair. — Navigation Act and Berlin Decree. — England Questions our Neutrality. — Prepara- tions for War. — 111 Success of Land Operations. — Harrison's Victory over Proctor. — Jackson Conquers the Creeks. — Battle CONTENTS xxi of New Orleans.— Naval Victories.— Battle of Lake Erie.— Opposition of tiie Federalists to the War.— New England Re- monstrances.— Attitude of Sects.— Treaty of Ghent.— Its Pro- PERIOD II WHIGS AND DEMOCRATS TILL THE DOMINANCE OF THE SLAVERY CONTRO VERSY 1814-1840 FAQB Chapter I. The Whig Party akd Its Mis- sion 335 The Word "Whig" — Republican Prestige. — Schism. — Adams's Election. — Five Doctrines t)f Whiggism. — I. Broad Construction of the Constitution. — II. The Bank. — Death of Old and Birth of New. — Opposition by Jackson*. — III. The Tariff of 1816. — Its Object. — IV. Land. — Whig versus Democratic Pol- icy. — V. Internal Improvements. — Rivers-and Harbors. — Need of Better Inland Communication. — Contention between the Parties. — Whig Characteristics. — Adams. — Webster. — His Polit- ical Attitude. — Clay. — His Power as an Orator. — His Duel with Randolph. — His Wit. — His Influence. Chapter II. Florida and the Monroe Doc- trine 336 Florida's Disputed Boundary. — West Florida Occupied. — Jackson Seizes Bast Florida. — Puts to Death Ambrister and Arbuthnot. — His Excuse. — Defended by Adams. — Sale of Flor- ida. — Revolt of Spauish America. — Monroe's Declaration. — Its Origin. Chapter III. The Missouri Compromise . 341 Missouri Wishes Statehood. — Early History of Slavery. — Hos- tility to it. — First Abolitionist Societies. — Ordinance of 1787. — xxii CONTENTS Slaverv in the North.— 'In the South.— Pleas for its Existence. — Missouri Compromise.— Pro-slavery Arguments. — The Policy Men.— Anti-slavery Opinions.— Difficulties of the Case.— Tlie Anti-slavery Side Ignores These. Fi.OE Chapter IV. The Geeat Nullification . 348 Rise of Tariff Rates after 1816.— Relations of Parties and Sections to the Tariff. — Minimum Priuoiple. — Tariif of Abom- inations Adopted. — Harmful to the South. — Nullification Proj- ect. — Calhoun's Life and Pet Political Theory. — South Carolina Recedes.— Compromise Tariff. — State Rights and Central Gov- ernment. — Webster's Plea. Chaptbe V. MiNOE Public Question's of Jackson's " Eeign " 355 Jackson's Life.^ — Mistaken Ideas. — Civil Service Reform. — Perfecting of Party Organization in the Coantry. — Jackson and the United States Bank. — His Popularity. — Revival of West In- dian Trade. — French Spoliation Claims. — Paid. — Our Gold and Silver Coinage. — Gold Bill, — Increased Circulation of Gold. — Specie Circular. Chapter "VI.. The First Whig Triumph . 363 Election of Harrison in 1840. — Causes. -r Jackson's Violence. — Sub-treasury Policy. — Panic of 1837.— Decrease of Revenue. — Whig Opposition to Slavery. — Seminole War. — Amistad Case. — Texan Question. — "Tippecanoe and Tyler too." Chapter VII. Life and Manners in the Fourth Decade 370 Population and Area. — The West. — The East. — An American Literature. — Newspaper Enterprise, Mails, Eleemosynary Insti- tutions. — American Character. — Temperance Reform. — The Land of the Free. — Religion. — Anti-masonic Movement. — CONTENTS xxiii Banking Craze. — Moon Hoax. — Party Spirit. — Jackson as a Kniglit Errant. — His Self-will. — Enmity between Adams and Jackson, — Costumes. PAGE Chapter VIII. Industrial Advance by 1840 382 F. C. Lowell and his Waltham Power-loom. — Growth of Factory System. — New Corporation Laws. — Gas, Coal, and Other Industries, — The Same Continued. — The National Koad. — Stages and Canals. — Ocean Lines, — Beginning of Railroads. — Opposition. — First Locomotive. — Multiplication of Railroads. LIST OF MAPS FACE PAGE EuEOPEAN Provinces, 1655 60 The United Colonies at the Beoinning OF THE EeVOLUTION 180 Map showing the Progressive Acquisition OF Territory by the United States . 350 mTRODUCTION AMEBIC A BEFORE COLUMBUS Man made his appearance on the western conti- nent unnumbered ages ago, not unlikely before the close of the glacial period. It is possible that hu- man life began in Asia and western North America sooner than on either shore of the Atlantic. Noth- ing wholly forbids the belief that America was even the cradle of the race, or one of several cradles, though most scientific writers prefer the view that om- species came hither from Asia. De Nadaillac judges it probable thajt the ocean was thus crossed not at Behring Strait alone, but along a belt of eqaatorial islands as well. We may think of successive waves of such immigra- tion — perhaps the easiest way to, account for cer- tain differences among American races. It is, at any rate, an error to speak of the pri- mordial Americans as derived from any Asiatic stock at present existing or known to history. The old Americans had scarcely= an Asiatic feat- ure. Their habits and customs were emphatically peculiar to themselves. Those in which they agreed with the trans-Pacific populations, such as fashion of weapons and of fortifications, elements of folk-lore, religious ideas, traditions of a flood. xxvi INTRODUGTIOK belief in the destruction of the world by fire, and so on, are nearly all found the world over, the spontaneous creations of our common human in- telligence. The original American peoples, various and un- like as they were, agreed in four traits, three of them physical, one mental, which mark them off as in all likelihood primarily of one stock after all, and as different from any Old "World men : 1. They had low, retreating foreheads. 2. Their hair was black. 3. It was also of a peculiar text- ure, lank and cylindrical in section, never wavy. And 4, their languages were polysynthetic, form- ing a class apart from all others in the world. The peoples of America, if from Asia, must date back to a time when speech itseH was in its in- fancy. The numerous varieties of anoient Americans reduce to two distinct types — the Dolicocephalous or long-skulled, and the Brachycephalous or short- skulled. Morton names these types respectively the Toltecan and the American proper. The Tol- tecan type was represented by the primitive in- habitants of Mexico and by the Mound-builders of our Mississippi Valley ; the American proper by the Indians. The Tolteeans made far the closer approach to civilization, though 'the others pos- sessed a much greater susceptibility therefor than the modem Indians of our prairies would indicate. Of the Mound-builders painfully little is known. Many of their mounds still remain, not less mys- terious or interesting than the pyramids of Egypt, perhaps almost equally ancient. The skeletons AMERICA BEFORE GOhUMBVS xxvii exhumed from them often fly inta dust as soon as exposed to air, a rare occurrence with, the oldest bones found in Europe. On the parapet-crest of the Old Fort at Newark, O., trees certainly five hundred years old have been cut, and they could not have begun their growth till long after the earth- works had been deserted. In some mounds, equally aged trees root in the decayed trunks of a still anterior growth. Much uncertainty continues to shroud the de- sign of these mounds. Some were for military defence, others for burial places, others for look- out stations, others apparently for religious uses. Still others, it is supposed, formed parts of human dwellings. That they proceeded from intelligence and reflection is clear. Usually, whether they are squares or circles, their construction betrays nice, mathematical exactness, unattainable save by the use of instruments. Many constitute effigies — of birds, fishes, quadrupeds, men. In Wisconsin is a mound 135 feet long and well proportioned, much resembling an elephant ; in Adams County, O., a gracefully curved serpent, 1,000 feet long, with jaws agape as if to swallo*vv an egg-shaped figure in front ; in Granville, in the same State, one in the form of a huge crocodile ; in Greenup County, Ky., an image of a bear, which seems leaning forward in an attitude of observation, measuring fifty-three feet from the top of the back to the end of the foreleg, and 105^ feet from the tip of the nose to the rear of the hind foot. The sites of towns and cities were artfully se- lected, near navigable rivers and their confluences. xxviii INTRODUCTION as at Marietta, Cincinnati, and in Kentucky oppo- site the old mouth of the Scioto. Points for de- fence were chosen and fortified with scientific precision. The labor expended upon these mul- titudinous structures must have been enormous, implying a vast population and extensive social, economic, and civil organization. The Oahokia mound, opposite St. Louis, is ninety feet high and 900 feet long. The Mound-builders made elegant pottery, of various design and accurate shapes, worked bone and all sorts of stones, and even forged copper. There are signs that they understood smelting this metal. They certainly mined it in large quanti- ties and carried it down the Mississippi hundreds of miles from its source on Lake Superior. They must have been masters of river navigation, but their mode of conveying vast burdens overland, destitute of efficient draft animals as they appar- ently were, we can hardly even conjecture. The Mound-bixilders, as we have said, were re- lated to the antique populations of Mexico and Central America, and the most probable explana- tion of their departure from their Northern seats is that in face of pestilence, or of some overpow- ering human foe, they retreated to the Southwest, there to lay, under better auspices, the founda- tions of new states, and to develop that higher civilization whose relics, too little, known, astound the student of the past, as greatly as do the stu- pendous pillars of Carnac or the grotesque animal figures of Khorsabad and Nimrud. So much has been written about the American AMERICA BEFORE COLUMBUS xxix Indians that we need not discuss them at length. They were misnamed Indians by Columbus, who supposed the land he had discovered to be India. At the time of his arrival not more than two hun- dred thousand of them lived east of the Missis- sippi, though they were doubtless far more nu- merous West and South. Whence they came or whether, if this was a human deed at all, they or another race now extinct drove out the Mound- builders, none can tell. Of arts the red man had but the rudest. He made wigwams, canoes, bone fish-hooks with lines of hide or twisted bark, stone tomahawks, arrow- heads and spears, clothing of skins, wooden bows, arrows, and clubs. He loved fighting, finery, gam- bling, and the chase. He domesticated no ani- mals but the dog and possibly the hog. Some- times brave, he was oftener treacherous, cruel, revengeful. His power of endurance on the trail or the warpath was incredible, and if captured, he let himself be tortured to death without a quiver or a cry. Though superstitious, he believed in a Great Spirit to be worshipped without idols, and in a future life of happy hunting and feasting. Whether, at the time of which we now speak, the Indians were an old race, already beginning to decline, or a fresh race, which contact with the whites balked of its development, it is difficult to say. Their career since best accords with the former supposition. In either pase we may as- sume that their national groupings and habitats were nearly the same in 1500 as later, when these became accurately known. In the eighteenth cen- XXX . INTRODUCTION^ tury the Algonquins occupied all the East from Noya Scotia to North Carolina, and stretched west to the Mississippi. At one time they numbered ninety thousand. The Iroquois or Five Nations had their seat in Central and Western New York. North and west of them lived the Hurons or Wy- andots. The Appalachians, embracing Chero- kees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles, and a number of lesser tribes, occupied all the southeastern portion of what is now the United States. West of the Mississippi- were the Dako- tas or Sioux. Since the white man's arrival upon these shores, very few changes have occurred among the brute inhabitants of North America. A few species, as the Labrador duck and the great auk, have per- ished. America then possessed but four animals which had appreciable economic "value ; the dog, the reindeer at the north, which the mound-build- ers used as a draft animal but the Indians did not, and the llama and the paco south of the equator. Every one of our present domestic animals orig- inated beyond the Atlantic, being imported hither by our ancestors. The Indians of the lower Mis- sissippi Valley, when De Soto came, had dogs, and also what the Spaniards called hogs, perhaps pec- caries, but neither brute was of any breed now bred in the country. A certain kind of dogs were native also to the Juan Fernandez and the Falk- land Islands. Mr. Edward John Payne is doubtless correct in maintaining, in his "History of the New World called America," that the backwardness of the AMERICA BEFORE COLUMBUS xxxi American aborigines was largely due to their lack of animals suitable for draft or travel or producing milk or flesh good for food. Frpm the remotest antiquity Asiatics had the horse, ass, ox and cow, camel and goat — netting ten times the outfit in useful animals which the Peruvians, Mexicans, or Indians enjoyed. The vegetable kingdom of Old America was equally restricted, which also helps explain its low civilization. At the advent of the Europeans the continent was covered with forests. Then, though a few varieties may have since given out and some imported ones run wild, the undomesticated plants and trees were much as now. Not so the culti- vated kinds. The Indians were wretched hus- bandmen, nor had the Mound-builders at all the diversity of agricultural products so famihar to us. Tobacco, Indian-corn, cocoa, sweet potatoes, po- tatoes, the custard apple, the Jerusalem artichoke, the guava, the pumpkin and squash, the papaw and the pineapple, indigenous to North America, had been under cultivation here before Columbus came, the first four from most ancient times. The manioc or tapioca-plant, the red-pepper plant, the marmalade plum and the tomatq were raised in South America before 1500. The persimmon, the cinchona-tree, millet, the Virginia and the Chili strawberrj' are natives of this continent, but have been brought under cultivation .only within the last three centuries. The three great cereals, wheat, rye, oats, and rice, constituting all our main food crops but corn, have come to us from Europe. So have cherries, xxxii INTRODVCTIOlf quinces, and pears, also hops, currants, chestnuts, and mushrooms. The banana, regarded by von Humboldt as an original AmericsCn fruit, modern botanists derive from Asia. With reference to apples there may be some question. Apples of a certain kind flourished in New England so early after the landing of the Pilgrims that it is difficult to suppose the fruit not to have been in- digenous to this continent. Champlain, in 1605 or 1606, found the Indians about the present sites of Portland, Boston, and Plymouth in considerable agricultural prosperity, Avith fields of corn and to- bacco, gardens rich in melons, squashes, pumpkins, and beans, the culture of none of which had they apparently learned from white men. Mr. Payne's generalization, that superior food-supply occasioned the Old World's primacy in civilization, and also that of the Mexicans and Peruvians here, seems too sweeping, yet it evidently contains large truth. PART FIRST THE FORE-HISTORY PERIOD I. DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT 1493-1660 CHAPTEE I. COLUMBUS Thebe is no end to the accounts of alleged dis- coveries of America before Columbus. Most of these are fables. It is, indeed, nearly certain that hardy Basque, Breton, and Norman fishermen, adventuring first far north, then west, had sighted Greenland and Labrador, and become well ac- quainted with the rich fishing-grounds about New- foundland and the Saint Lawrente Gulf. Many early charts of these regions, without dates, and hitherto refej-red to Portuguese navigators of a time so late as 1500, are now thought to be the work of these earlier voyagers. They found the New World, but considered it a part of the Old. Important, too, is the story of supposed Norse sea-rovers hither, derived from certain Icelandic manuscripts of the fourteenth century. It is a pleasing narrative, that of Lief Ericson's sail in 1000-1001 to Helluland, Markland, and at last to Vineland, and of the subsequent tours by Thor- wald Ericson in 1002, Thorfinn Karlsefne, 1007- 2 DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT [1000 1009, and of Helge and Finnborge in 1011, to points still farther away. Siicli voyages probably occun-ed. As is well known, Helluland has been interpreted to be Newfoundland ; Markland, Nova Scotia ; and Vineland the country bordering Mount Hope Bay in Bristol, E. I. These identifications are possibly correct, and even if they are mis- taken, Vineland may still have been somewhere upon the coast of what is now the United States. In the present condition of the evidence, how- ever, we have to doubt this. No scholar longer believes that the A^riting on Dighton Eock is Norse, or that the celebrated Skeleton in Armor found at Fall Eiver was a Northnian's, or that the old Stone Mill at Newport was constructed by men from Iceland. Even if the manuscripts, com- posed between three and four hundred years after the events which they are alleged to narrate, are genuine, and if the statements contained in them are true, the latter are far too indefinite to let us be sure that they are applicable to United States localities. But were we to go so far as to -admit that the Northmen came here and began the settlements ascribed to them, they certainly neither appreciated nor published their exploits. Their colony, wher- ever it was, endured but for a day, and it, with its locality, speedily passed from knowledge in Scan- dinavia itself. America had not yet, in effect, been discovered. We must remember that long anterior to Co- lumbus's day unbiassed and thoughtful men had come to believe the earth to be rqtxnd. They also 1300] COLUMBUS 3 knew that Europe constituted but a small part of it. In the year 1260 the Venetian brothers Nic- colo and Maffeo Polo made their way to China, the first men from Western Europe ever to travel so far. They returned in 1269, but in 1271 set out again, accompanied by Niccolo's son, a youth of seventeen. This son was the famous Marco Polo, whose work, " The Wonders of the World," reciting his extended journeys through China and the extreme east and southeast of Asia, and his eventful voyage home by sea, ending in 1295, has come down to our time, one of the most interest- ing volumes in the world. Friar Orderic's eastern travels in 1322-1330, as appropriated by Sir John Mandeville, were published before 1371. Columbus knew these writings, and the reading and re-reading of them had made him an enthusiast. In Polo's book he had learned of Mangi and Far Cathay, with their thousands of gorgeous cities, the meanest finer than any then in Europe ; of their abounding mines pouring forth infinite wealth, their noble rivers, happy populations, curious arts, and benign government. Polo had told him of Cambalu (Peking), winter residence of the Great Khan, Kublai — Cambalu with its^palaces of mar- ble, golden-roofed, its guard of ten thousand sol- diers, its imperial stables containing five thousand elephants, its unnumbered army, navy, and mer- chant marine ; of oxen huge as elephants ; of richest spices, nuts large as melons, canes fifteen yards long, silks, cambrics, and the choicest furs ; and of magic Cipango (Japan), island of pearls, whose streets were paved with gold. 4 DISCOVEBY AND SETTLEMENT [l^'^'S Columbus believed all this, and it co-operated with his intense and even bigoted religious faith to kindle in him an all-consumipg ambition to reach this distant Eden by sea, that he might carry the Gospel to those opulent heathen and partake their unbounded temporal riches in re- turn. Poor specimen of a saint as Columbus is now known to have been, he believed himself divinely called to this grand enterprise. Christopher Columbus, or Christobal Colon, as he always signed himself after he entered the ser- vice of Spain, was born in Genoa about 1456. Little is certainly known of his early life. His father was a humble wool-carder. The youth possessed but a sorry education, spite of his few months at the University of Pavia. At the age of fourteen he became a sailor, knoeking about the world in the roughest manner, half the time prac- tically a pirate. In an all - day's sea fight, once, his ship took fire and he had to leap overboard ; but being a strong swimmer he swam, aided by an oar, eight leagues to land. From 1470 to 1484 we find him in Portugal, the country most interested and engaged then in ocean- going and discovery. Here he must have known Martin Behem, author of the famous globe, fin- ished in 1492, whereon Asia is exhibited as reach- ing far into the same hemisphere with Europe. Prince Henry of Portugal earnestly patronized all schemes for exploration and discovery, and the daughter, Philippa, of one of his, captains, Peres- trello, Columbus married. Witl|, her he lived at Porto Santo in the Madeiras, where he became 1475] COLUMBUS 5 familiar with Correo, her sister's husband, also a distinguished navigator. The islanders fully be- lieved in the existence of lands in the western At-, lantic. West winds had brought to them strange woods curiously carved, huge cane - brakes like those of India described by Ptolemy, peculiarly fashioned canoes, and corpses with skin of a hue unknown to Europe or Africa. Eeflecting on these things, studying Perestrello's and Correo's charts and accounts of their voyages, corresponding with Toscanelli add other savans, himself au adept in drawing maps and sea-charts, for a time his occupation in Lisbon, cruising here and there, once far northward to Iceland, and talking with navigators from every Atlantic port, Columbus became acquainted with the best geo- gi-aphical science of his time. This had convinced him that India could be reached by sailing westward. The theoretical possibility of so doing was of cotirse admitted by all who held the earth to be a sphere, but most regarded it practically impossible in the then con- dition of navigation, to sail the necessary distance. Columbus considered the earth far smaller than was usually thought, a belief which we find hinted at so early as 1447, upon the famous maiype- monde of the Pitti Palace in Florence, whereon Europe appears projected far round to the north- west. Columbus seems to have viewed this ex- tension as a sort of yoke joining India to Scandi- navia by the north. He judged that Asia, or at least Cipango, stretched two-thirds of the way to Europe, India being twice as near westward as 6 DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT [1484 eastward. Thirty or forty days he deemed suffi- cient for making it. Toscanelli and Behem as well as he held this belief ; he dared boldly to act upon it. But to do so required resources. There are in- dications that Columbus at some time, perhaps more than once, urged his scheme upon Genoa and Venice. If so it was in vain. Nor can we tell whether such an attempt, if made, was earlier or later than his plea before the court of Portugal, for this cannot be dated. The latter was probably in 1484. King John II. was impressed, and re- ferred Columbus's scheme to a, council of his wisest advisers, who denounced it as visionary. Hence in 1485 or 1486 Columbus proceeded to Spain to lay his project before Ferdinand and Isabella. On the way he stopped at a Franciscan convent near Palos, begging bread for himself and son. The Superior, Marchena, became interested in him, and so did one of the Pinzons — famous navi- gators of Palos. The king and queen were at the time holding court at Cordova, and thither Co- lumbus went, fortified with a recommendation from Marchena. The monarchs were engrossed in the final conquest of Granada, and Columbus had to wait through six weary and heart-sick- ening years before royal attention was turned to his cause. It must have been during this delay that he despatched his brother Bartholomew to England with an appeal to Henry VII. Chris- topher had brought Alexander Geraldinus, the scholar, and also the Aa-chbishop of Toledo, to 1493] COLUMBUS 7 espouse his mission, and finally, at the latter's instance, Ferdinand, as John of Portugal had done, went so far as to convene, at Salamanca, a council of reputed scholars to pass judgment upon Co- lumbus and his proposition. By these, as by the Portuguese, he was declared a misguided enthu- siast. They were too much behiiid the age even to admit the spherical figure of the earth. Ac- cording to Scripture, they said, the earth is flat, adding that it was contrary to reason for men to walk heads downward, or snow and rain to ascend, or trees to grow with their roots upward. The war for Granada ended, Santangel and others of his converts at court secured Columbus an interview with Isabella, but his demands seem- ing to her arrogant, he was dismissed. Nothing daunted, the hero had started for Prance, there to plead as he had pleaded in Portugal and Spain already, when to his joy a messenger overtook him with orders to come once more before the queen. Fuller thought and argument had convinced this eminent woman that the experiment urged by Columbus ought to be tried, and a contract was soon concluded, by which, on condition that he should bear one-eighth the expense of the expedi- tion, the public chest of Castile wiis to furnish the remainder. The story of the crown jewels having been pledged for this purpose is now discredited. If such pledging occurred, it was earlier, in prose- cuting the war Avith the Moors. The whole sum needed for the voyage was about fifty thousand dol- lars. Columbus was made admiral, also viceroy of whatever lands should be discovered, and he was 8 DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT [1493 to have ten per cent, of all the revenues from such lands. For his contribution to the outfit he was indebted to the Pinzons. This arrangement was made in April or May, 1492, and on the third of the nfext August, after the utmost difficulty in shipping crews for this sail into the sea of darkness, Columbus put out from Palos with one hundred and twenty men, on three ships. These were the Santa Maria, the Nina, and the Pinta. The largest, the Santa Maria, was of not over one hundred tons, having a deck-length of sixty-three feet, a keel of fifty-one feet, a draft of ten feet six inches, and her mast-head sixty feet above sea -level. She probably had four anchors, with hemp cables. From Palos they first bore southward to the Canary Islands, into the track of the prevalent east winds, then headed west, for Cipango, as Columbus supposed, but really toward the northern part of Florida. When a little beyond what he regarded the longitude of Cipango, noticing the flight of birds to the southwest, he was induced to follow these, which accident made his landfall occur at Guanahani (San Salvador), in the Bahamas, in- stead of the Florida coast. Near midnight, between October 11th and 12th, Columbus, being on the watch, descried a light ahead. About two o'clock on the morning of the 12th the lookout on the Pinta distinctly saw land through the moonlight. When it was day they went on shore. The 12th of October, 1492, therefore, was the date on which for the first time, so far as history attests with assurance, a 1500] COLUMBUS 9 European foot pressed the soil of thiw coutiueut. Adding nine days to this to translate it into Ncan- Style, we have October 21st as the day answering to that on which Columbus first became sure that his long toil and watching had not been in vain. The admiral having failed to note its latitude and longitude, it is not known which of the Ba- hamas was the San Salvador of Columbus, whether Grand Turk Island, Cat (the present San Salvador), Watling, Mariguana, Acklin, or Samana, though the last named well corresponds with his descrip- tion. Mr. Justin Winsor, however; and with him a majority of the latest critics, believes that Wat- ling's Island was the place. Before returning to Spain, Columbus discovered Cuba, and also Hayti or Espagnola (Hispaniola), on the latter of which islands he built a fort. In a second voyage, from Cadiz, 1493-1496, the great explorer discovered the Lesser Antilles and Jamaica. In a third, 1498-150Q, he came upon Trinidad and the mainland of South America, at the mouth of the Orinoco. This was later by thirteen months and a week than the Cabots' land- fall at Labrador or Nova Scotia, though a year be- fore Amerigo Vespucci saw the coast of Brazil. It was during this third absence that Columbus, hated as an Italian and for his undeniable greed, was superseded by Bobadilla, who sent him and his brother home in chains. Soon free again, he sets off in 1502 upon a fourth cruise, in which he reaches the coast of Honduras. To the day of his death, however, the discoverer of America never suspected that he had brought to 10 DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT [1500 light a new continent. Even during this his last expedition he maintained that the ooast he hud touched was that of Mangi, contiguous to Cathay, and that nineteen days of travel overland would have taken him to the Ganges. He arrived in Spain on September 12, 1504, and died at Segovia on May 20th of the next year. His bones are be- lieved to rest in the cathedral at Santo Domingo, transported thither in 1641, the Columbus-remains till recently at Havana being those of his son Diego. The latter, under the belief that they were the father's, were transferred to Genoa in 1887, and deposited there on July 2d of that year with the utmost ecclesiastical pomp. As Columbus was ignorant of. having found a new continent, so was he denied the honor of giv- ing it a name, this falling by accident, design, or carelessness of truth, to Amerigo Vespucci, a na- tive of Florence, whose active years were spent in Spain and Portugal. Vespucci made three voy- ages into the western seas. In the second, 1501, he visited the coast of Brazil, and pushed farther south than any navigator had yet done, probably so far as the Island of South Geprgia, in latitude 54°. His account of this voyage found its way in- to print in 1504, at Augsburg, Germany, the first published narrative of any discovery of the main- land. Although, as above noted, it was not the earliest discovery of the main, it was widely re- garded such, and caused Vespucci to be named for many years as the peer, if not the superior of Columbus. The publication ran through many editions. That of Strassburg, 1505, mentioned 1507J C0LU3IBUS 11 Vespucci on its title-page as having discovered a new " Southern Laud." This is the earliest known utterance hinting at the continental nature of the new discovery, as separate from Asia, an idea which grew into a conviction only, after Magellan's voyage, described in the next chapter. In 1507 appeared at St. Die, near Strassburg, a four -page pamphlet by one Lud, secretary to the Duke of Lorraine, describing Yespucci's voyages and speak- ing of the Indians as the " American race." This pamphlet came out the same year in another form, as part of a book entitled " Introduction to Cos- mography," prepared by Martin Waldseemiiller, under the nom de plume of "Hylacomylus." In this book the new " part of the world " is distinctly called " The Land op Amerious, on America." There is some evidence that Vespucci at least connived at the misapprehension which brought him his renown — as undeserved as it has become permanent — but this cannot be regarded as proved. -^ CHAPTEE II. EAELY SPANISH AMERICA As we haye seen, Spain by no means deserves the entird' credit of bringing tlie 'western continent to men's knowledge. Columbus -himself was an Italian. So was Marco Polo, his inspirer, and also Toscanelli, his instructor, by whose chart he sailed his ever-memorable voyage. To Portugal as well Columbus was much indebted, despite his rebuff there. Portugal then led the world in the art of navigation and in enthusiasm for discovery. Nor, probably, would Columbus have asked her aid in vain, had she not previously committed herself to the enterprise of reaching India eastward, a pur- pose brilliantly fulfilled when, in 1498, Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope and sailed to Calicut, on the coast of Malabar. Already be- fore this Spain and Portugal were rivals in the search for new lands, and Pope Alexander VI. had had to be appealed to, to fix their fields. By his bull of May 3, 4, 1493, he ordained as the separat- ing line the meridian passing through a point one hundred leagues west of the Azores, where Co- lumbus had observed the needle of his compass to point without deflection toward: the north star. Portugal objecting to this boundary as excluding 1510] EARLY SPANISH AMEBIC A 13 her from the longitude of the newly found Indies, by the treaty of Tordesillas, June 7, 1494, the two powers, with the Pope's assent, moved the line two hundred aud seventy leagues still farther west. At this time neither party dreamed of the compli- cations destined subsequently to arise in reference to the position of this meridian on the other side of the globe. The meridian of the Tordesillas convention had been supposed still to give Spain all the American discoveries likely to be made, it being ascertained only later that by it Portugal had obtained a con- siderable part of the South American mainland. Brazil, we know, was, till in 1822 it became inde- pendent, a Portuguese dependency. Spain, how- ever, retained both groups of the Antilles with the entire main about the Gulf of Mexico, and became the earliest great principality in the western world. Before the death of Columbus, Spain had taken firm possession of Cuba, Porto Eico, and St. Domingo, and she stood ready to seize any of the adjoining islands or lands so soon as gold, pearls, or aught else of value should be found there. Cruises of discovery were made in every direction, first, indeed, in Central and South America. In 1506 de Soils sailed along the eastern coast of Yucatan. In 1513 the governor of a colony on the Isthmus of Darien, Vasco Nunez de Balboa, from the top of a lofty mountain on the isthmus, saw what is now called the Pacific Ocean.. He designated it the South Sea, a name which it habitually bore till far into the eighteenth century. From this time the exploration and settlement of 14 DISCO VEEV AND SETTLEMENT [1513 the western coast, both up and down, went on with little interruption, but this history, somewhat foreign to our theme, we cannot detail. The same year, 1513, Ponoe de Leon, an old Spanish soldier in the wars with the Moors, a com- panion of Columbus in his second voyage, and till now governor of Porto Kico, began exploration to the northward. Leaving Porto Rico with three ships, he landed on the coast of an unknown country, where he thought to find not only infinite gold but also the much-talked-abput fountain of perpetual youth. His landing occurred on Easter Sunday, or Pascua Florida, MarOh 27, 1513, and so he named the country Florida. The place was a few miles north of the present town of St. Au- gustine. Exploring the coast around the southern extremity of the peninsula, he sailed among a group of islands, which he desigrlated the Tortu- gas. Returning to Porto Rico, he was appointed governor of the new country. He made a second voyage, was attacked by the natives and mortally wounded, and returned to Cuba to die. Juan de Grijalva explored the south coast of the Gulf of Mexico, from Yucatan toward the Panuco. Interest attaches to this enterprise mainly because the treasure which Grijalva collected aroused the envy and greed of the future concfueror of Mexico, Hernando Cortez. In 1518, Velasquez, governor of Cuba, sends Oortez westward, with eleven ships and over six hundred men, for the purpose of exploration. He landed at Tabasco, thence proceeded to the Island of San Juan de Uliia, nearly opposite Vera Cruz, 1520] EARLY SPANISH AMERICA 15 where he received messengers aud gifts from the Emperor Montezuma. Ordered to leave the coun- try, he destroyed his ships and marched directly upon the capital. He seized Montezuma and held him as a hostage for the peaceable conduct of his subjects. The Mexicans took up arms, only to be defeated again and again by the Spaniards. Mon- tezuma became a vassal of the Spanish crown, and covenanted to pay annual tribute. Attempting to reconcile his people to this agreement he was himself assailed and wounded, and, refusing all nourishment, soon after died. With re-enforce- ments, Cortez completed the conquest of the coun- try, and Mexico became a province of Spain, Vasquez de Ay lion, one of the auditors of the Island of Santo Domingo, sent two ships from that island to the Bahamas for Indians to be sold as slaves. Driven from their course by the wind, they at length reached the shore of South Caro- lina, at the mouth of the Wateree River, which they named the Jordan, calling the country Chi- cora. Though kindly treated by the natives, the ruthless adventurers carried away some seventy of these. One ship was lost, and most of the cap- tives on the others died during the voyage. Vas- quez was, by the Emperor, Charles V., King of Spain, made governor of this new province, and again set sail to take possession. *But the natives, in revenge for the cruel treatment which they had previously received, made a furious attack upon the invaders. The few survivors of the slaughter re- turned to Santo Domingo, and the expedition was abandoned. These voyages were in 1520 and 1526. 16 DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT [1530 In connection with the subject of Spanish voy- ages, a passing notice should be given to one, who, though not of Spanish birth, yet did much to fur- ther the progress of discovery on the part of his adopted country. Magellan was a Portuguese nav- igator who had been a child when Columbus came back in triumph from the West Indies. Refused consideration from King Emmanuel, of Portugal, for a wound received under his flag during the war against Morocco, he renounced his native land and offered his services to the sagacious Charles V., of Spain, who gladly accepted them. With a magnifi- cent fleet, Magellan, in 1519, set sail from Seville, cherishing Columbus's bold purpose, which no one had yet realized, of reaching the Bast Indies by a westward voyage. After touching at the Canaries, he explored the coast of South America, passed through the strait now called by his name, dis- covered the Ladi'one Islands, and' christened the circumjacent ocean the Pacific. The illustrious navigator now sailed for the Philippine Islands, so named froni Philip, son of Charles V., who succeeded that monarch as Philip II. By the Tordesillas division above described, the islands were properly in the Portuguese hemi- sphere, but on the earliest maps,, made by Span- iards, they were placed twenty-five degrees too far east, and this circumstance, whether accidental or designed, has preserved them to Sf»ain even to the present time. At the Philippine Islands Magellan was killed in an affray with the natives. One of his ships, the Victoria, after sailing around the Cape of Good Hope, arrived in Spain, having been 1530] EARLY SPANISH AMERICA 17 the first to circumnavigate the globe. The voyage had taken three years and twenty-eight days. The disastrous failure of the expedition of Vas- quez de Ayllon to Florida did not discourage at- tempts on the part of others in the same direction. Yelasquez, governor of Cuba, jealous of the suc- cess of Cortez in Mexico, had sent Pamphilo de Narvaez to aiTest him. In this attempt Narvaez had been defeated and taken prisoner. Unde- terred by this failure he had solicited and received of Charles V. the position of governor over Flor- ida, a territory at that time embracing the whole southern part of what is now the United States, and reaching from Cape Sable to the Panuco, or River of Palms, in Mexico. With three hundred men he, in 1528, landed near Appiilachee Bay, and marched inland with the hope of opening a coun- try rich and populous. Bitterly was he disap- pointed. Swamps and forests, wretched wigwams with their squalid inmates everywhere met his view, but no gold was to be found. Discouraged, he and his followers returned to the coast, where almost superhuman toil and skill enabled them to build five boats, in which they hoped to work westward to the Spanish settlements. Embarking, they stole cautiously along the eojast for some dis- tance, but were at last driven by a storm upon an island, perhaps Galveston, perhaps Santa Eosa, where Narvaez and most of his men perished. Four of his followers survived to cross Texas to the Gulf of California and reach the town of San Miguel on the west coast of Mexico. Here they found their countrymen, searching as usual for 2 18 DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT [1540 pearls, gold, and slaves, and by their help they made a speedy return to Spain, heroes of as re- markable an adventure as history records. These unfortunates were the first Europeans to visit New Mexico. Their narrative led to= the exploration of that country by Coronado and others, and to the discoveries of Cortez in Lower California. Ferdinand de Soto, eager to rivaj the exploits of Cortez in Mexico, and of his former commander, Pizarro, in Peru, offered to conquer Florida at his own expense. Appointed governor-general of Florida and of Cuba, he sailed with seven large and three small vessels. From Espiritu Santo Bay he, in 1539, marched with six himdred men into the country of the Appalachians and discovered the harbor of Pensacola. After wintering at Appa- lachee he set out into the interior, said to abound in gold and silver. Penetrating northeasterly as far as the Savannah, he found only copper and mica. From here he marched first northwest into north- ern central Georgia, then southwest into Alabama. A battle was fought with the natives at Mavila, or Mobile, in which the Spaniards suffered serious loss. Ships that he had ordered arrived at Pen- sacola, but de Soto determined not to embark un- til success should have crowned his eflbrts. He turned back into the interior, into the country of the Chickasaws, marched diagonally over the present State of Mississippi to its northwest corner, and crossed the Mississippi River near the lowest Chickasaw Bluff. From this point the general direction of the Spanish progress was southwest, through what is now Arkansas, past 1562J EARLY SPANISH AMERICA 19 the site of Little Rock, till at last a river which seems to have been the Washita was reached. Down this stream de Soto and his decimated force floated — ^two hundred and fifty of his men had succumbed to the hardships aild perils of his march — arriving at the junction of the Eed with the Mississippi River on Suudaj, April 17, 1542. At this point de Soto sickened amd died, turning- over the command to Luis de Moscoso. Bury- ing their late leader's corpse at night deep in the bosom of the great river, and constructing them- selves boats, the survivors of this ill-fated expe- dition, now reduced to three hundred and seventy- two persons, made the best of their way down the Mississippi to the Gulf, and along its coast, finally reaching the Spanish town near the mouth of the Panuco in Mexico. Thus no settlement had as yet been made. in Florida by the Spanish. The first occupation destined to be permanent was^ brought about through religious jealousy inspired by the estab- lishment of a French Protestant (Huguenot) colony in the territory. Ribault, a French captain com- missioned by Charles IX., was put in command of an expedition by that famous Huguenot, Admiral Coligny, and landed on the coast of Florida, at the mouth of the St. John's, which he called the River of May. This was in 1562. The name Caro- lina, which that section still bears, was given to a fort at Port Royal, or St. Helena. Ribault re- turned to France, where civil war was then raging between the Catholics and the Protestants or Huguenots. His colony, waiting for promised aid 20 DISGOVERY AND SETTLEMENT [1565 and foolishly making no attempt to cultivate the soil, soon languished. Dissensions arose, and an effort was made to return home. Famine having carried off the greater number, the- colony came to an end. In 1564 Coligny sent out Laudonniere, who built another fort, also named Carolina, on the Eiver of May. Again misfortunes gathered thickly about the settlers, when Ribault arrived bringing supplies. But Spain claimed this territory, and Pedro Melendez, a Spanish soldier, was in 1565 sent by Philip II. to conquer it from the French, doubly detested as Protestants. He landed in the harbor and at the mouth of the river, to both of which he gave the name St. Augustine. Melendez lost no time in attacking Fort Carolina, which he surprised, putting the garrison mercilessly to the sword. The destruction of the French colony Avas soon after avenged by Dominic de Gourgues, who sailed from France to punish the enemies of his country. Having accomplished his purpose by the slaughter of the Spanish garrison he returned home, but the French Protestants made no further effort to colonize Florida. Spain claimed the land by right of discovery, but, although maintaining the feeble settlement at St. Augustine, did next to nothing after this to ex- plore or civilize this portion of America. The na- tion that had sent out Columbus was not destined to be permanently the great power of the New World. The hap of first landing upon the Antilles, and also the warm climate and the peaceable nature of the aborigines, led Spain to fix Ker settlements in 1570] EARLY SPANISH ABIERIGA 21 latitudes that were too low for the best health and the greatest energy. Most of the settlers were of a wretched class, criminals and adventurers, and they soon mixed largely with the natives. Spain herself greatly lacked in vigor, partly from nation- al causes, partly from those obscure general causes which even to this day keep Latin Europe in mili- tary power and political accomplishments inferior to Teutonic or Germanic Europe. Moreover, the Spaniards found tlieir first Amer- ican conquests too easy and the rewards of these too great. This prevented all thought of develop- ing the country through industry, concentrating expectation solely upon waiting fortunes, to be had from the natives by the sword or through forced labor in mines. Their treatment of the aborigines was nothing'short of diabolical. Well has it been said : " The Spaniards had sown desolation, havoc, and misery in and around their track. They had depopulated some of the best peopled of the isl- ands and renewed them with victims deported from others. They had inflicted upon .hiiudreds of thousands of the natives all the forms and agonies of fiendish cruelty, driving them to self- starvation and suicide, as a way of mercy and re- lease from an utterly wretched existence. They had come to be viewed by their victims as fiends of hate, malignity, and all dark and cruel despera- tion and mercilessness in passion. The hell which they denounced upon their victims was shorn of its worst terror by the assurance that these tormen- tors were not to be there. Las Casas, the noble missionary, the true soldier of the cross, and the 22 DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT [1570 few priests and monks who sympathized with him, in vain protested against these cruelties." To all these causes we must add the narrow co- lonial policy of Spain. Imitating Venice and an- cient Carthage instead of Greece, she held her dependencies under the straitest servitude to her- self as conquered provinces, repressing all political or commercial independence. A- similar restric- tive policy, indeed, hampered the colonies of other nations, but it was nowhere else so irrational or blighting as in Spanish America. CHAPTER III. EXPLOEATION AND COLONIZATION BY THE PEENCH AND THE ENGLISH How the French fought for foothold in Florida and were routed by the Spaniards has just been related. So early as 1504, and possibly much earlier, before Cabot or Columbus, French sailors were familiar with the fisheries of Newfoundland. To the Isle of Cape Breton they gave its name in remembrance of their own Brittany. The atten- tion of the French Government was thus early di- rected toward America, and it at length determined to share in the new discoveries along with the Spanish and the English. In 1524 Verrazano, a Florentine navigator, was sent by Francis I. on a voyage of discovery to the New World. Sighting the shores of America near the present Wilmington, North Caroliiia, he explored the coast of New Jersey, touched land near New York Bay, and anchored a few days in the harbor of Newport. In this vicinity he came upon an island, which was probably Block Island. Sailing from here along the coast as far north as Newfoundland, he named this vast terri- tory New France. In 1534 Cartier, a noted voyager of St. Malo, 24 DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT [1550 coasted along the north of Newfoundland, passed through the Straits of Belle Isle into the water now known as St. Lawrence Gulf, and into the mouth of the St. Lawrence Eiver. Erecting a cross, he took possession of the shores in the name of the king of France. In the following year he made a second voyage, going up as far as the mouth of a small river which the year before he had named St. John's. He called the waters the Bay of St. Lawrence. As- cending this, he came to a settlement of the natives near a certain hill, which he called Mont Roija], now modified into " Montreal." Cartier returned to France in 1530, only a few of his men having survived the winter. In 1540 Lord Eoberval fitted out a fleet, with Cartier as subordinate. Cartier sailed at once — his third voyage — Roberval following the next year. A fort was built near the present site of Quebec. Roberval and Cartier disagreed and re- turned to France, leaving the reiil foundation of Quebec to be laid by Champlain, much later. In 1604 De Monts arrived on the coast of Nova Scotia and erected a fort at the mouth of the St. Croix, New Brunswick. He also inade a settlement on the shore of the present harbor of Annapolis, naming it Port Koyal, and the country around it Acadia. De Monts is famous largely because under him the Sieur de Champlain, the real father of French colonization in America, began his illustri- ous career. He had entered the; St. Lawrence in 1603. In 1608 he founded Quebec, the first per- manent colony of New France. The next year he 1497] ENGLISH AND FBENCH 25 explored the lake which perpetuates his name. In 1615 he saw Lake Huron, Le Caron, the Francis- can, preceding him in this only by a few days. Fired with ardor for discovery, Ghamplain joined the Hurons in an attack upon the Iroquois. This led him into what is now New York State, but whether the Indian camp first attacked by him Avas on Onondaga or on Canandaigua Lake is still in debate. These were but the beginning of Cham- plain's travels, by which many other Frenchmen, some as missionaries, some as teaders, were in- spired to press far out into the then unknown West. We shall resume the narrative in Chap- ter VII. of the next period. Champlain died at Quebec in 1635. Turn back now to Columbus's time. England, destined to dominate the continent of North Amer- ica, was also practically the discoverer of the same. On St. John's day, June 24, 1497, thirteen months and a week before Columbus saw South America, John Cabot, a Venetian in the service of King Henry VTL, from the deck of the good ship Mat- thew, of Bristol, descried land somewhere on the coast either of Labrador or of Nova Scotia. Cabot, of course, supposed this prima vista of his to belong to Asia, and expected to reach Cipango next voy- age. So late as 1543 Jean Allefonsce, on reaching New England, took it for the border of Tartary. Andre Thev'et, in 1515, in a pretended voyage to Maine, places Cape Breton on the west coast of Asia. This confusion probably explains the tradi- tion of Norumbega as a great city, and of other populous and wealthy cities in the newly found 26 DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT [1576 land. Men transferred ideas of Eastern Asia to this American shore. The subsequent year Cabot made a second voy- age, inspecting the American coast northward till icebergs were met, southward to the vicinity of Albemarle Sound. Possibly in his first expedi- tion, probably in the second, John Cabot was ac- companied by his more famous* son, Sebastian. For many years after the Cabots, England made little effort to explore the New World. Henry VII. was a Catholic. He therefore submitted to the Pope's bull which gave America to Spain. Henry VIII. had married Catherine of Aragon. He al- lowed Ferdinand, her father, to employ the skill and daring of Sebastian Cabot in behalf of Spain. It was reserved for the splendid reign of Elizabeth to show what English courage and endurance could accomplish in extending England's power. Like those before him, Martin Frobisher was in earnest to find the northwest passage, in whose existence all navigators then fully believed. Like Columbus, he vainly sought friends to aid him. At last, after he had waited fifteen years in vain, Dudley, the Earl of Warwick, helped him to an outfit. His little fleet embraced the Gabriel, of thirty-five tons, the Michael of thirty, and a pin- nace of ten. As it swept to sea past Greenwich, the Queen waved her hand in token of good-will. Sailing northward near the Shetland Isles, Fro- bisher passed the southern shore of Greenland and came in sight of Labrador, 1576. He effected a landing at Hall's Island, at the mouth of the bay now called by his name, but 1577] ENGLISH AND FRmCH 27 which he thought to be a strait, hiw discovery thus ytreugthening his belief in the possibility of reach- ing Asia by this westward cours.e. He sailed up the bay as far as Butcher's Island, where five of his men were taken prisoners by the natives. All effort to rescue them was made, but to no purpose. Among the curiosities which he brought home was a piece of stone, or black ore, which gave rise to the belief that gold was to be found in this new country. A second and larger expedition sailed in 1577. The Queen gave X1,000 and lent the royal ship Aid, of two hundred tons. The Gabriel and the Michael of the former year were again made ready, besides smaller craft. This voyage was to seek gold rather than to discover the north- west passage. The fleet set sail May 27th, and on July 18th arrived off North Foreland, or Hall's Island, so named for the man Who had brought away the piece of black earth. Search was made for this metal, supposed to be so valuable, and large quantities were found. The fleet sailed back to England with a heavy cargo of it. In 1578 a third and the last voyage was made to this region, to which the name mda incognita was given. Two large ships were furnished by the Queen, and these were accompanied by thirteen smaller ones. It was now the purpose to found a colony. The expedition set sail May 31st, going through the English Channel, and reaching the coast of Green- land June 21st. Frobisher and a few of his sailors landed where, perhaps, white men had never trod- den before. As ho came near the bay he was 28 DTSGOVERY AND SETTLEMENT [1578 driven south by stormy weather, and entered, not knowing his whereabouts, the waters of Hudson's Straits, which he traversed a distance of sixty miles. He succeeded at length in retracing his course, and anchored on the southern shore of Frobisher's Bay, in the Countess of Warwick's Sound. But the desire for gold, the bleak winds, barren shores, aud drifting icebergs, all combined to dispel the hopes of making a successful settle- ment, and the adventurers turned ttieir faces home- ward, carrying once more a cargo of ore, which proved, like the first, to be of no value whatever. ■ Almost three hundred years later Captain Hall, the American explorer, visited the Countess's Island and Sound. Among the Eskimos, from 1860 to 1862, he learned the tradition of Frobisher's vis- its, which had been preserved and handed down. They knew the number of ships ; tkey spoke of the three times that white men had come ; how five of these strangers had been taken captive, and how, after remaining through the winter, they had been allowed to build a boat, and to launch themselves upon the icy seas, never to be heard of more. Captain Hall was shown many relics of Frobisher's voyages, some of which he sent to the Eoyal Geo- graphical Society of London, a part to the Smith- sonian Institute at Washington. The small Eng- lish house of lime and stone on this island was still standing in good condition, and there was also a trench where they had built their ill-fated boat. A contemporary of Frobisher, Sir Francis Drake, also entertained the idea of making the northwest passage. While engaged in privateering or piratical 1580] ENGLISH AND FRENGIi 29 expeditions against the Spanish, Drake landed on the Isthmus of Panama, saw the Pacific for the first time, and determined to enter it by the Straits of Magellan. In 1577 he made his way through tlie straits, plundered the Spanish along the coast of Chili and Peru, and sailed as far north as the iSth parallel, or Oregon, calling the country New Al- bion. Steering homeward by the Cape of Good Hope, he arrived at Plymouth, his starting-point, in 1580, having been absent about two years and ten months. Thomas Cavendish had been with Grenville in the voyage of 1585 to Virginia. Frobisher's at- tempts inspired him with the ambition of the age. In 1586 he, too, sailed through the Straits of Magel- lan, burning and plundering Spanish ships, round- ed the Cape of Good Hope, and reached Plymouth in 1588, having been gone about two years and fifty days. These half -piratical attempts against Spain led continually into American waters, till the notion of forming a permanent outpost here as base for such adventures suggested to Sir Humphrey Gilbert the plan, which he failed to realize, of founding an American settlement. Gilbert visited otir shores in 1579, and again in 1583, but was lost on his re- turn from the latter voyage. In 1584 Sir Walter Ealeigh sent two captains, Amidas and Barlow, to inspect the coast off what is now North Carolina. They reported so favor- > ably that he began, nest year, a qolony on Roan- oke Island. England was now a Protestant land, and no longer heeded Spanish claims to the trans- 30 DISCOVERY AND SETTDEMENT [1587 atlantic continent, save so far as actual settlements had been made. Sir Richard Grenville commanded this expedi- tion, but was to return on seeing the one hundred and eight colonists who accompanied him well es- tablished. Queen Elizabeth gave the name ViE- GINIA to the new country. Drake", tending home- ward from one of his raids on the Spanish coast, in 1586, offered the settlers supplies, but finding them wholly discouraged, he carried them back to Eng- land. Determined to plant an agricultural commimity, Raleigh nest time, 1587, sent men with their fam- ilies. A daughter to one of these, named Dare, was the first child of English parents born in Amer- ica. Becoming destitute, the colony despatched its governor home for supplies. He returned to find the settlement deserted, and no tidings as to the fate of the poor colonists have ever been heard from that day to our own. The Jamestown settlers mentioned in the next chapter found among their Indian neighbors a boy whose whitish complexion and wavy hair induced the interesting suspicion that he was descended from some-one of these lost colonists of Roanoke. Thus Sir Walter's enterprise had to be aban- doned. In the X40,000 spent upon it his means were exhausted. Besides, England was now at war with Spain, and the entire energies of the na- tion were in requisition for the overthrow of the Spanish Armada. CHAPTEE IV. THE PLANTING OP YIEGINIA We have now arrived at the seventeenth century. In 1606 King James I. issued the first English colo- nial charter. It created a first and a second Vir- ginia Company, the one having its centre in Lon- don, and coming to be known as the Loudon Company ; the other made up of Bristol, Exeter, and Plymouth men, and graduallj' taking the title of the Plymouth Company. This latter company, the second, or Plymouth Oompaay, authorized to plant between 38° and 45° north, effected a settle- ment in 1607 at the mouth of the Kennebec River. Little came of it but suffering, thp colonists, after a severe winter, retiirning to England. A colony of one hundred and five planters sent out by the first or London Company, proceeded, also in 1607, to Chesapeake Bay, entering James River, to which they indeed gave this name, and planted upon its banks Jamestown, the first per- manent English colony on the continent. This London Company consisted of a council in Eng- land, appointed by the king, having the power to name the members of a local couneil which was to govern the colony, the colonists themselves having no voice. 32 BISGOVERY AND SETTLEMENT [1607 It is well known that the very earliest population of the Old Dominion was not of the highest, but predominantly idle and thriftless. Vagabonds and homeless children picked up in the streets of Lon- don, as well as some convicts, were sent to the colony from England to be indented as servants, permanently, or for a term of years. Persons of the better class, to be sure, came as well, and the qual- ity of the population, on the whole, improved year by year. Settlement here followed a centrifugal tendency, except as this was repressed by fear of the Indians. In 1616 the departments of Yirginia were Henrico, up the James above the Appomattox mouth. West and Shirley Hundreds, Jamestown, Kiquoton, and King's Gift on the coast near Cape Charles — a wide reach of territory to be covered by a total population of only three hundred and fifty. A little exporting was immediately begun. So early as May 20, 1608, Jamestown sent to Eng- land a ship laden with iron ore, sassafras, cedar posts, and walnut boards. Another followed on June 2d, with a cargo all of cedar wood. This year or the next, small quantities of pitch, tar, and glass were sent. Erom 1619 tobacco was so common as to be the currency. About 1650 it was largely exported, a million and a half pounds, on the average, yearly. The figure had risen to twelve million pounds by 1670. At the middle of the century, corn, wheat, rice, hemp, flax, and fifteen varieties of fruit, as well as excellent wine were produced. A wind-mill was set up about 1620, the first in America. It stood at Falling Creek on the James River. The pioneer iron works on IfiSO] THE PLANTING OF VURGINIA 33 tlie continent were in this colony, liailing from about tli,e date last named. Community of prop- erty prevailed at Jamestown in all tlie earliest yearSj as it did at Plymoutli. After the event noted by John Eolfe : " about the last of August [1619] came in a Dutch man of warre that sold us twenty Negars," slavery was a continual and in- creasing curse, as is attested by the laws concern- ing slaves. It encouraged indolence and savagery of habit and nature. Yirginian slaves, however, were better treated than those farther south. They were tolerably clothed, fed, and housed. There was in Virginia little of that healthful social and political contact which did so much to develop civilization at the North. Of town life there was practically nothing. Even so late as 1716 Jamestown had only a sorry half-dozen structures, two of which were church and court- house. Fifteen years later Fredericksburg had, besides the manor house of Colonel Willis and its belongings, only a store, a tailor shop, a black- smith shop, a tavern or " ordinary," and a co£fee- house. Eichmond and Petersburg still existed only on paper, and if we come down to the middle of the eighteenth century, Williamsburg, the cap- ital of the province, was nothing but a straggling village of two hundred houses, without a single paved street. Only the College and the governor's "palace" were of brick. The county-seats were mostly mere glades in the woods containing each its court-house, prison, whipping-post, pillory, and ducking-stool, besides the wretched tavern where court and attendants put up, audpossibly a church. 3 34 DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT [1609 Hardships and dissensions marked the whole early history of this infant state. At one time only forty settlers remained alive, at another meal and water were the sole diet. Hoping for instant riches in gold, poor gentlemen and vagabonds had come, too much to the exclusion of mechanics and laborers. For relief from the turbulence and external dan- gers of this period, the colony owed much to Cap- tain John Smith, who, after all allowance for his boasting, certainly displayed great courage and energy in emergencies. He, too, it was who did most to explore the country up' the James and upon Chesapeake Bay. A new charter was granted in 1609, the council in England being now appointed by the stockhold- ers instead of the king, and the governor of the colony being named by this council. Lord Dela- ware was made Governor and Captain-General of Virginia, and many more colonists sent out. By a wreck of two of the vessels there was delay in the arrival of the newly chosen officers. Smith, then Percy, meantime continued to exercise authority. This, again, was a critical period*. Indians were troublesome. Tillage having been neglected from the first, provisions became exhausted, and a crisis long referred to as " the starving' time " ensued. The colony had actually abandoned Jamestown and shipped for England, when met in James Eiver by Lord Delaware, coming with relief. They at once returned, and an era of, hope dawned. This was in June, 1610. One hundred and fifty new settlers accompanied Delaware. Planting was vigorously prosecuted, the Indians placated, and 1613] THE PLANTING OF VIRGINIA 35 still further accessions of people and cattle secured from England. Delaware's brief, mild sway was always a bene- diction, in pleasing contrast with the severities of Dale and Argall, who successively governed after his departure. Under Dale, death was the pen- alty for slaughtering cattle, even one's own, except with the governor's leave, also of exporting goods without permission. A baker giving short weight was to lose his ears, and on second repetition to suffer death. A laundress purloining linen was to be flogged. Martial law alone prevailed; even capital punishment was ordained without jury. Such arbitrary rule was perhaps necessary, so law- less were the mass of the population. It at any rate had the excellent eifect of rousing the Virginians to political thought and to the assertion of their rights. In 1612 a change took place in the Com- pany's methods of governing its colony. The superior council was abolished, its authority trans- ferred to the corporation as a whole, which met as an assembly to elect officers and enact laws for the colony. The government thus became more democratic in form and spirit. The year 1614 was distinguished by the mar- riage of Pocahontas, daughter of the native chief, Powhatan, to the English colonist Eolfe. With him she visited England, dying there a few years later. The alliance secured the valuable friend- ship of Powhatan and his subjects — only till Pow- hatan's death, however. Thenceforth savage hos- tilities occurred at frequent intervals. In 1622 they were peculiarly severe, over three hundred 36 DISG0VEB7 AND SETTLEMENT [1619 settlers losing their lives through them. Another outbreak took place about 1650,,this tinae more quickly suppressed. We shall see in a later chap- ter how Bacon's Eebellion was occasioned by Ind- ian troubles. As James I. broke with Parlianient, a majority of the Virginia shareholders proved Liberals, and they wrought with signal purpose and effect to re- alize their ideas in their colony. fTo this political complexion of the Virginia Company not only Virginia itself but, in a way, all America is in- debted for a start toward free institutions. During the governorship of George Yetardley, was sum- moned an assembly of burgesses, consisting of two representatives, elected by the inhabitants, from each of the eleven boroughs or districts which the colony had by this time come to embrace. It met on June 30, 1619, the earliest legislative body in the New World. This was the dawn of another new era in the colony's history. In 1622 arrived Sir Thomas Wyatt, bringing a written constitution from the Company, which con- firmed to the colony representative government and trial by jury. The assembly was given authority to make laws, subject only to the Governor's veto. This enlargement of political rights was due to the growth of the sentiment of pepular liberty in England. In the meetings of the London Com- pany debates were frequent and spirited between the court faction and the supporters of the politi- cal rights of the colonists. James I., dissatisfied with the authority which he had himself granted, appointed a commission to inquire into the Com- 1640] THE PLANTING OF VIRGINIA 37 pany's management, and also into the circum- stances of the colony. A change was recommended, the courts decided as the king wished, and the Company was dissolved. The colony, while still allowed to govern itself by means of its popular assembly, was thus brought directly under the supervision of the Crown. Charles I., coming to the throne in 1625, gave heed to the affairs of the colony only so far as necessary to secure for him- self the profits of the tobacco trade. It was doubtless owing to his indifference that the colo- ny continued to enjoy civil freedom. He again appointed Yeardley Governor, a choice agreeable to the people ; and in 1628, by asking that the as- sembly be called in order to vote him a monopoly of the coveted trade, he explicitly recognized the legitimacy and authority of that body. Yeardley was succeeded by Harvey, who rendered himself unpopular by defending in all land dis- putes the claims arising under royal grant against those based upon occupancy. Difficulties of this sort pervaded all colonial history. In 1639 Wyatt held the office, succeeded iu 1642 by Berkeley, during whose administration the colony attained its highest prosperity. Virginians now possessed constitutional rigliis and privileges in even a higher degree than Englishmen in the northern colonies. The colonists were most loyal to the king, and were let alone. They were also attached to the Church of England, ever manifest- ing toward those of a different faith the spirit of intolerance characteristic of the age. During the civil war in England, Virginia, of 38 DISCOVERT AND SETTLEMENT [16S0 course, sided with the king. When Cromwell had assumed the reins of government he sent an expe- dition to reqxiire the submission of the colony. An agreement was made by which the authority of Parliament was acknowledged, while the colony in return was left unmolested in the management of its own affairs. CHAPTEE V. PILGEIM AND PUEITAN AT THE NOBTH The Pilgrims who settled New England were Independents, peculiar in their ecclesiastical tenet that the single congregation of godly persons, how- ever few or humble, regularly organized for Christ's work, is of right, by divine appointment, the highest ecclesiastical authority on earth. A church of this order existed in Loudon by 1568 ; another, possibly more than one, the " Bro^nists," by 1580. Barrowe and Greemvood began a third in 1588, which, its founders being executed, went exiled to Amsterdam in 1593, subsequently uniting with the Presbyterians there. These churches, though in- dependent, were not strictly democratic, like those next to be named. Soon after 1600 John Smyth gathered a church at Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, England, which persecution likewise drove to Amsterdam. Here Smyth seceded and founded a Baptist church, which, returning to London in 1^11 or 1612, be- came the first church of its kind known to have ex- isted in England. From Smyth's church at Gains- borough sprang one at Scrooby, in Nottingham- shire, and this, too, exiled like its parent, crossed to Holland, finding home in Leyden in 1607 and 40 DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT [1630 1608. Of this cliurch John Eobinson was pastor, and from its bosom came the Plymouth Colony to New England. This little band set out for America with a patent from the Virginia Company, according to James I.'s charter of 1606, but actually began here as labor-share holders in a sub-corporation of a new organization, the Plymouth Company, chartered in 1620. Launching in the Mayflower from Ply- mouth, where they had paused in their way hither from Holland, they arrived off the coast of Cape Cod in 1620, December 11th, Old Style, December 21st New Style, and began a settlement, to which they gave the name Plymouth. Before landing they had formed themselves into a political body, a government of the people with "just and equal laws." They based their civil authority upon this May- flower compact, practically ignoring England. Carver was the first governor, Bradford the second. The colony was named Plymouth in memory of hospitalities which its members had received at Plymouth, England, the name having no connec- tion with the " Plymouth " of the Plymouth Com- pany. The members of the Plytnouth Company had none but a mercantile interest in the advent- ure, merely fitting out the colonists and bearing the expense of the passage for all but the first. On the other hand, the stock was not all retained in England. Shares were allotted to the Pilgrims as well, one to each emigrant with or without moans, and one for every £10 invested. Plymouth early made a treaty with Massasoit, 1639] PILORUI AND PURITAN 41 the chief of the neighboring Wampanoags, the peace lasting with benign effects to both parties for fifty years, or tiU the outbreak of Philip's War, discussed in a later chapter. The first winter in Plymouth was one of dreadful hardships, of fam- ine, disease and death, which spring relieyed but in part. Yet Plymouth grew, surely if slowly. It acquired rights on the Kennebec, on the Connecti- cut, at Cape Ann. It was at first a pure democ- racy, its laws all made iu mass-meetings of the entire body of male inhabitants ; nor was it till 1639 that increase of numbers forced resort to the principle of representation. In 10-13 the popula- tion was about three thousand. Between 1620 and 1G30 there were isolated set- tlers along the whole New Englanld coast. White, a minister from Dorchester, England, founded a colony near Cape Ann, which removed to Salem in 1626. The Plymouth Company granted them a patent, which Bndicott, in charge of more emi- grants, brought over in 1628. It = gave title to all land between the Merrimac and Charles Eivers, also to all within three miles beyond each. These men formed the nucleus of the colony to which in 1629 Charles I. gr-anted a royal charter, styling the proprietors " the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England." Boston was made the capital. Soon more emigrants came, and Charlestown was settled. It was a momentous step when the government of this colony was transferred to New England. Winthrop was chosen governor, others of the Com- pany elected to minor offices, and they, with no fewer 4^ DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT [1650 than one thousand new colonists, skiled for this side the Atlantic. In Massachusetts, therefore, a trad- ing company did not heget, as elsewhere, but liter- ally became a political state. Many of the Massa- chusetts men, in contrast with those of Plymouth, had enjoyed high consideration at home. Yet democracy prevailed here too. The Governor and his eighteen assistants were chosen by the freemen, and were both legislature and court; As population increased and scattered in towns, these chose deputies to represent them, and a"lower house ele- ment was added to the General Court, though as- sistants and deputies did not sit separately till 1644. At this time Massachusetts had a popula- tion of about 15,000. To all New England 21,200 emigrants came between 1628 and 1643, the total white population at the latter date being about 24,000. So early as 1631 this colony decreed to admit none as freemen who were not also church mem- bers. Thus Church and State were made one, the government a theocracy. The Massachusetts set- tlers, though in many things less extreme than the Pilgrims, were decided Puritans, sincere but for- mal, precise, narrow, and very superstitious. They did not, however, on coming hither, affect or wish to separate from the Church of England, earnestly as they deprecated retaining the sign of the cross in baptism, the surplice, marriage with ring, and kneeling at communion. Yet soon they in effect became Separatists as well as Puritans, building independent churches, like those at Plymouth, and repudiating episcopacy utterly. 1635] PILGRIM AND FURlTAN 43 Much as these Puritans professed and tried to exalt reason in certain matters, in civil and relig- ious affairs, where they took the Old Testament as affording literal and minute directions for all sorts of human actions for all time, they could allow little liberty of opinion. This was apparent when into this theocratic state came Roger Williams, after- ward the founder of Ehode Island. Born in Corn- wall, England, about 1600, of good family, lie was placed by his patron, Coke, at the Charter House School. From there he went to Pembroke Col- lege, Cambridge. In 1631 he arrived in Boston. Somewhat finical in his political, moral, and re- ligious ideas, he found it impossible, having separ- ated from the Chtirch of England^ in which he Iiad been reared, to harmonize here with those still favoring that communion. At Salem he was in- vited by a little company of separatists to become their teacher. His views soon offended the au- thorities. He declared that the king's patent could confer no title to lands possessed by Indians. He denied the right of magistrates tp punish heresy, or to enforce attendance upon religious services. " The magistrate's power," he saill-, " extends only to the bodies, goods, and outward state of men." Alarmed at his bold utterances, the General Court of Massachusetts, September 2, 1635, de- creed his banishment for "new and dangerous opin- ions, against the authority of magistrates." His fate was not, therefore, merely because of his re- ligious views. The exile sought" refuge at See- konk, but this being within the Plymouth juris- diction, he, on Governor WIusIqw's admonition, 44 DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT [1640 moved farther into the wilderness, settling at Prov- idence. He purchased land of the natives, and, joined by others, set up a pure democracy, insti- tuting as a part thereof the " lively experiment " for which ages had waited, of porfect liberty in matters of religious belief. Not for the first time in history, but more clearly, earnestly, and consist- ently than it had ever been done before, he main- tained for every man the right of absolute freedom in matters of conscience, for all forhis of faith equal toleration. Some friends of Mrs. Anne Hutchinson estab- lished a colony on Aquidneck, the; Indian name for Rhode Island. Williams went to England and secured from Parliament a patent which united that plantation with his in one government. Charles II.'s charter of 1663 added Warwick to the first two settlements, renewing and enlarging the patent, and giving freest scope for government according to Williams's ideas. Mrs. Hutchinson, a woman of rare intellect and eloquence, who maintained the right of private judgment and pre- tended to an infallible inner light of revelation, was, like Williams, a victim of Puritan intoler- ance. She and her followers were banished, and some of them, returning, put to death, 1659-60. She came to Providence, then went to Aquidneck, where her husband died in 1642. She next settled near Hurl Gate, within the Dutch limits, where herself and almost her entire family were butch- ered by the Indians in 1643. In 1633 the Dutch erected a fort where Hart- ford now is, but some English emigrants from 1635] PILGRIM AND PUBITAN 45 Plymoutli Colony, in defiance of a th.reatened can- nonade, sailed past and built a trading-liouae at Windsor, where, joined by colonists, from about Boston, they soon effected a settlement. Weth- ersfield and Hartford were presently founded. In 1630 the Plymouth Company had granted Connec- ticut to the Earl of Warwick, who turned it over to Lord Brooke, Lord Say-and-Seal, and others. AVinthrop the Younger, son of Governor Winthrop, of Massachusetts, commissioned by these last, built a fort at Saybrook. Till the expiration of his com- mission the towns immediately upon the Connecti- cut were under the government of Massachusetts. Their population in 1643 Avas three thousand. A convention of these towns met at Hartford, Jan- uary 14, 1639, and formed a constitution, like that of Massachtisetts Bay, thoroughly republican in nature. Connecticut breathed a freer spirit than either Massachusetts or New Haven, being in this respect the peer of Plymouth. At Hartford Roger Williams was always welcome. Meantime, in 1638, having touched at Boston the year before, Davenport, Eaton, and others from London began planting at New Haven. The Bible was adopted as their guide in both civil and religious affairs, and a government organ- ized in which only church members could vote or be elected to the General Court. The colonj^ flourished, branching out into several towns. In 1643 it numbered twenty-five hundred inhabitants. As early as 1622, Mason and Gorges were grant- ed land partly in what is now Maine, partly in what is now New Hampshire ; and in 1623 Dover 46 DISCOVERT AND SETTLEMENT [1636 and Portsmoutli were settled. Wlieelwright, a brother-in-law of Mrs. Hutchinson, with others, purchased of the natives the southeast part of New Hampshire, between the Merrimac and the Piscataqua, and in 1638 Exeter was founded. In the same year with Wheelwright's purchase, Mason obtained from the council of the Plymouth Com- pany a patent to this same section, and the tract was called New Hampshire. These conflicting claims paved the way for future controversies and lawsuits. The settlers here were not Puritans, nor were they obliged to be church metabers in order to be deputies or freemen. The settlement of Maine goes back to 1626, when the Plymouth Company granted lands there both to Alexander and to Gorges. In 1639 Gorges secured a royal charter to re-enforce his claim. Large freedom, civil and religiousj was allowed. For many years the Maine settlements were small and scattered, made up mostly of such as came to hunt and fish for a season only. From 1643 to 1684 Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven formed a confedera- tion under the style of the United Colonies of New England. Maine, Providence, and Ehode Island sough^t membership, but were refused as being civilly and religiously out of harmony with the colonies named. Connecticut, offensive to the Dutch, and exposed to hostilities from them, was the most earnest for the union, while at the same time the most conservative as to its form. It was a loose league, leaving each colony independent save as to war and peace, Indian affairs, alliances 1650] PILGRIM AND PURITAN 47 and boundaries. Questions pertaining to these were to be settled by a commission oi two dele- gates from each of the four colonies, meeting yearly, voting man by man, six out of the eight votes being necessary to bind. The confederacy .settled a boundary dispute be- tween New Haven and ISfew Netkerland in 1650. It received and disbursed moneys, amounting some years to ^600, for the propagation of the gospel in New England, seat over by the society which Parliament incorporated for that purpose in 1649. It was also of more or less ser- vice in securing united action against the savages in Philip's War. The union was, however, of Httle immediate service, useful rather as an example for the far future. Its failure was due partly to the distance of the colonies apart, and to the strength of the instinct for local self-government, a dis- tinguishing political trait of New England till our day. Its main weakness, however, was the over- bearing power and manner of Massachusetts, espe- cially after her assumption of Maine in 1652. In 1653 the Plymouth, New Haven, and Connecticut commissioners earnestly wished war with New Netherland, but Massachusetts proudly forbade — a plain violation of the articles. After this there Avas not much heart in the alliance. The last meeting of the commissioners occurred at Hart- ford, September 5, 1684. CHAPTER VI. BALTIMOKE AND HIS MAEYLAND The very year that witnessed tlie landing of the Pilgrims records the beginning of another attempt to colonize the New World. While Secretary of State, having been appointed in 1619, Sir George Calvert, a member of the Virginia Company from 1609 until its dissolution in 1624, determined to plant a colony for himself. In the memorable year 1620 he bought of Lord Vaughan the patent to the southeastern peninsida of Newfoundland, the next he sent colonists thither with a generous supply of money for their support. In 1623 King James gave him a patent, making him proprietary of this region. In 1625 Calvert boldly declared himself a Catholic, and resigned his office of Sec- retary. Spite of this he was soon afterwards en- nobled, and his new title of Lord Baltimore is the name by which he is best known. Visiting his lit- tle settlement in 1627 he quickly came to the con- clusion that the severity of the climate would make its failure certain. He therefore gave up this en- terprise, but determined to repeat the attempt on the more favorable soil of Virginia. Confident of the good-will of Charles I., to whom he had writ- ten for a grant of land there, hef did not await a 1630] BALTIMORE AND HIS miRYLAND 49 reply, but sailed for Virginia, where he arrived in 1629. In 1632 the king issued a patent granting to Baltimore and his heirs a territory north and east of the Potomac, comprising what we now call Maryland, all Delaware, and a part of Pennsyl- vania. The name Maryland was given it by the king in honor of his queen, Henrietta Maria. But before this chai'ter had received royal signature Lord Baltimore had breathed his last, and his son Cecil succeeded to his honors and possessions. The Maryland charter made the proprietary the absolute lord of the soil. He was merely to ac- knowledge fealty by the delivery of two Indian arrows yearly to the king at Windsor. He could make laws with the consent of the citizens, declare war or peace, appoint officers of government ; in fact in most respects he had regal power. The colonists were, however, to remain English sub- jects, with all the privileges of such. If they were not represented in Parliament, neither were they taxed by the crown. If the proprietary made laws for them, these must not be contrary to the laws of England. And they were to enjoy freedom of trade, not only with England but with foreign countries. This charter, as will be readily seen, could not please the Virginians, since the entire territory conveyed by it was part of the grant of 1609 to the London Company for Virginia. But as this and subsequent charters had been annulled in 1624, the new colony was held by the Privy Council to have the law on its side, and Lord Baltimore was left to make his preparations undisturbed. He fitted 4 50 DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT [1635 out two vessels, the Ark and the Dove, and sent them on their voyage of colonization. They went by the way of the West Indies, arriving off Point Comfort in 1634. Sailing up the Potomac, they landed on the island of St. Clement's, and took formal possession of their new home. Calvert ex- plored a river, now called the St. Mary's, a tribu- tary of the Potomac, and being pleased with the spot began a settlement. He gained the friend- ship of the natives by purchasing the land and by treating them justly and humanely. The proprietary was a Catholic, yet, whether or not by an agreement between him and the king, as Gardiner supposes, did not use either his influ- ence or his authority to distress adherents of the Church of England. The two creeds stood practi- cally upon an equality. But if rpligious troubles were avoided, difficulties of another sort were not slow in arising. About the year 1631, Claybome, who had been secretary of the Virginia colony, had chosen Kent Island in Chesapeake Bay as a sta- tion for trading with the Indians. This post was in the very midst of Maryland, and Calvert notified Clayborne that he should consider it a part of that province. Clayborne at once showed himself a bitter enemy. The Indians became' suspicious and unfriendly, Claybome, so it was believed, being the instigator of this temper. Aji armed vessel was sent out, with orders from Clayborne to seize ships of the St. Mary's settlement. A fight took place, Clayborne fleeing to Virginia. Calvert de- manded that he should be given up. This was re- fused and in 1637 he went to England. A com- 1640] BALTIMORE AND HIS MARYLAND 51 mittee of the Privy Council decided that Kent Island belonged to Maryland. In 1635 the first Maryland assembly met, con- sistiag of the freemen of the colony and the Gov- ernor, Leonard Calvert, the proprietary's brother, who was presiding officer. Lord Baltimore repu- diated its acts, on the ground that they were not proposed by him, as the charter directed. The as- sembly which gathered in 1638 retaliated, rejecting the laws brought forward by the proprietary. For a time the colony was without laws except the common law of England. But Baltimore was too wise and conciliatory to allow such a state of affairs to continue. He gave authority to the Gov- ernor to assent to the acts of the assembly, which he himself might or might not cdnfirm. Accord- ingly in 1639 the assembly met and passed various acts, mostly relating to civil affairs. One, however, was specially noteworthy, as giving to the " Holy Church" " her rights and libertifes," meaning by this the Chxirch of Home, for, as Gardiner says, the title was never applied to the Church of Eng- land. It was at the same time expressly enacted that all the Christian inhabitants should be in the enjoyment of every right and privilege as free as the natural-born subjects of England. If Roger Williams was the first to proclaim absolute re- ligious liberty. Lord Baltimore was hardly behind him in putting this into practice. As has been neatly said, " The Ark and the ©ove were names of happy omen : the one saved from the general wreck the germs of political liberty, and the other bore the olive-branch of religious peace." 52 DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT [1650 During the civil war in England the affairs of Maryland were in a very disturlDed condition. Clayborne, Maryland's evil geniug, seized the op- portunity to foment an insurrection, possessed himseK once more of Kent Island, and compelled the governor to flee to Virginia. Beturning in 1646, Calvert was fortunate enough to recover the reins of government, but the following year wit- nessed the close of his administration and his short though useful and eventful life. Few men in- trusted with almost absolute authority have exer- cised it with so much firmness and at the same time with so much ability, discretion, and upright- ness. His successor, Greene, a Catholic, was not likely to find favor with the Puritan Parliament of Eng- land, and Baltimore, in 1648, to conciliate the rul- ing powers and to refute the charge that Maryland was only a retreat for Eomanists, removed the governor and appointed instead one who was a Protestant and a firm supporter of Parliament. The council was also changed so as to place the Catholics in the minority. The oath of the new governor restrained him from molesting any person, especially if of the Roman Catholic persuasion, on account of religious profession. The way was thus opened for the Act of Toleration* passed in 1649. This law, after specifying certain speeches against the Trinity, the Virgin, or the saints as punish- able offences, declared that equal privileges should be enjoyed by Christians of all creeds. Whatever the motives of Baltimore, his policy was certainly wis© and commendable. 1650] BALTIMORE AND HIS MAItYLAND 53 A uew and troublesome element was now in- troduced into the colony. Some Puritans who had not been tolerated among the stanch Church-of- Bngland inhabitants of Virginia were invited by Governor Stone to Maryland. Their home here, which they named Providence, is. now known as Annapolis. The new-comers objetted to the oath of fidelity, refused to send burgesses to the as- sembly, and were ready to overthrow the govern- ment whose protection they were enjoying. Op- portunity soon offered. Parliament had already in 1652 brought Virginia to submission. Maryland was now accused of disloyalty, and when we notice among the commissioners appointed by the Coun- cil of State, the name of Claybome, it is not difficult to understand who was the^ author of this charge. The governor was removed, bujt being popular and not averse to compromise, was quickly re- stored. Then came the accession of Cromwell to power as Protector of England. Parliament was dissolved. The authority of its commissioners of course ceased. Baltimore seized this opportunity to regain his position as proprietary. He bade Stone to require the oath of fidelity to the pro- prietary from those who occupied lands, and to issue all writs in his name. Hei maintained that the province now stood in the same relations to the Protectorate which it had borne to the royalist government of Charles I. So thought Cromwell, but not so Claybome or the Maryland Puritans. They deposed Stone, and put in power Fuller, who was in sympathy with their designs. There resulted a reversal of the acts 54 DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT [1656 of former assemblies, and legislation hostile to the Catholics. The new assembly, frdm which Cath- olics were carefully excluded by disfranchisement, at once repealed the Act of Toleration. Protection was withdrawn from those who professed the po- pish religion, and they were forbidden the exercise of that faith in the province. Severe penalties were threatened against " prelacy " and " licentious- ness," thus restricting the benefits of their " Act concerning Religion " to the Puritan element now in power. The authority of the proprietary him- self was disputed, and colonists were invited to take lands without his knowledge or consent. Baltimore adopted vigorous measures. By his orders Stone made a forcible attempt to regain control of the province,' but was defeated at Provi- dence and taken prisoner. His life was spai-ed, but four of his men were condemned and executed. Baltimore again invoked the powerful intervention of Cromwell, and again were the enemies of Mary- land sternly rebuked for their interference in the affairs of that province, and told in plain language to leave matters as they had found them. In 1656, after an inquiry by the Commissioners of Trade, the claims of Baltimore were admitted to be just, and he promptly sent his brother Philip to be a member of the coimcil and secretary of the prov- ince. The legislation of the usurping Puritans was set aside, religious toleration once more had full sway, and a general pardon was proclaimed to those who had taken part in the late disturbances. In the meantime, FendaU, who had been ap- pointed governor by Baltimore, plotted to make 1660] BALTIMORE AND HIS MARYLAND 55 himself independent of his master, and, with the connivance of the assembly, proceeded to iisurp the authority which was lawfully vested in the proprie- tary. But the attempt was a miserable failure. Philip Calvert was immediately made governor by the now all-powerfiil proprietary, who had the favor and support of Charles II., just coming to the throne. Peace and prosperity came back to the colony so sorely and frequently vexed by civil dis- sensions. The laws were just and liberal, encour- aging the advent of settlers of whatever creed, while the rule of the Calverts was; wise and benigti, such as to merit the respect and admiration of pos- terity. In 1643 Virginia and Maryland together had less than twenty thousand inhabitants. In 1660 Maryland alone, according to Fuller, had eight thousand. Chalmers thinks there were no fewer than 12,000 at this date. CHAPTEE VII.. NEW NETHEELAND While tlie French explorer, Champlain, was sailing along the shores of the lake which bears his name, another equally adventurous spirit, Hen- ry Hudson, was on his way to the western world. Hoping to open a passage to India by a voyage to the north, Hudson, an Enghsh navigator, of- fered in 1609 to sail under the authority of the Dutch East India Company. Driven back by ice and fog from a northeast course, he turned north- west. Searching up and down near the parallel of 40°, he entered the mouth of the great river which perpetuates his name. He found the countiy ia- viting to the eye, and occupied by natives friendly in disposition. The subsequent career of this bold mariner has a mournful interest. He never re- turned to Holland, but, touching at Dartmouth, was restrained by the Enghsh authorities, and for- bidden longer to employ his skill and experience for the benefit of the Dutch. Again entering the Enghsh service and sent once more to discover the northwest passage, he sailed into the waters of the bay which still bears his name, where cold and hunger transformed the silent discontent of his crew into open mutiny, and they left the fear- 1030] NjEW NETHERLARD 57 less navigator to perish amid tW icebergs of the frozen north. Hudson had sent to Holland a report of the Great River and the coimtry bordering it, rich in I'ur- bearing animals, and it had excited eager interest. Private individuals sent expeditions thither and carried on a profitable trade with the natives. A few Dutch were here when, in 1G13, Captain Argall sailed from Virginia against the French at Port Eoyal, Acadia, now Annapolis in Nova Scotia, who were encroaching upon the English possessions on the coast of Maine. He compcll6d them to sur- render. On his return, he visited the Dutch trad- ers of Manhattan Island, and forced them also, as it had been discovered by Cabot iu 1497, to acknowledge the sovereignty of England over this entire region. It was in 1614 that the Dutch States-General, in the charter given to a company of merchants, named the Hudson Valley New Netherland. To facilitate trade this company made a treaty with the Five Nations and subordinate tribes, memora- ble as the first compact formed bqtween the whites and the savages. In it the Indians were regarded as possessing equal rights and privileges with their white brethren. The treaty was renewed in 1645 and continued in force till the English occupation, 1664. In 1618, the charter of the New Netherland Company having expired, the Dutch West India Company was offered a limited incorporation, but it was not until 1621 that it received its charter, and it was two years later that it was completely organized and approved by the States-General. 58 DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT [1630 By this company were sent out Mey, as Director, to tlie Delaware or Soutli River, and Tienpont to the Hudson or North River. Four miles below Phila- delphia Fort Nassau was erected, and where Alba- ny now stands was begun the trading-post called Fort Orange. In 1G26 Tienpont's successor, Peter Minuit, a German, born at Wesel, was appointed Director- General of New Netherland. Hfe bought of the Indians, for the sum of twenty-four dollars, the entire island of Manhattan, and a fort called New Amsterdam was built. The State of New York dates its beginning from this transaction. By their usually honest deahag with the na- tives the Dutch settlers gained the friendship of the Five Nations, whose good-will was partly on this account transferred to the English colonists later. The Dutch were not only friendly to the red men, but tried to open social and commercial relations with the Plymouth colonists as well. Governor Bradford replied, mildly urging the Dutch to " clear their title " to a territory which the Eng- lish claimed by right of discovery. The present State of Delaware soon became the scene of attempts at settlement. De Vries began, in 1632, a colony on the banks of the Delaware, but it was quickly laid waste by the savages, who had been needlessly provoked by the insolence of the commander left in charge of the colony. In 1633 Minuit was succeeded by Yan TwiUer, and a fort was erected at Hartford, though the English claimed this country as theirs. Emigrants from the Plymouth colony began the settlement of Wind- 1635] NEW NETHERLAND 50 sor, in spite of the protests of the Dutch. Long Isl- and was invaded by enterprising New Englanders, regardless of the claim of New Netherland thereto. This " irrepressible conflict " between two races was by no means abated by the introduction of a third. As early as 1626, Gustavus Adolphus, Kmg of Sweden and the hero of the Thirty Years' War, had entertained the idea of establishing colonies in America, and in pursuance of that' object had en- couraged the formation of a company, not only for trading pm'poses but also to secure a refuge for the "oppressed of all Christendom;" To Usselinx, an Antwerp merchant, the oiiginator of the Dutch West India Company, belongs the honor of fir§t suggesting to the king this enterprise. The glori- ous death of Gustavus on the victorious field of Liitzen in 1632 deferred the execution of a purpose which had not been forgotten evep in the midst of that long and arduous campaign. But a few days before he fell the Protestant hero had spoken of the colonial prospect as " the jewel of his kingdom." In 1638 Miauit, who had already figured as gov- ernor of New Netherland, having offered his ser- vices to Sweden, was intrusted with the leadership of the first Swedish colony to America. After a few days' stay at Jamestown the new-comers final- ly reached their wished-for destination on the west shore of the Delaware Bay and River. Pro- ceeding up the latter, one of their first acts was to build a fort on a little stream about two miles from its junction with the Delalvare, which they named Fort Christina, in honor of the young queen of Sweden. Near this spot standi the present city 60 DISOOVERY AND SETTLEMENT [1650 of Wilmington. The country from Cape Ilenlopen to the falls at Trenton received the title of New Sweden. It was in this very year that Kieft came to super- sede Van TwiUer, who had given just cause for complaint by his eagerness to enridi himself at the expense of the West India Company. During the administration of Kieft occurred the long and doubtful conflict with the natives detailed in the succeeding chapter. Arbitrary and exacting, he drove the Indians to extremities, and involved the Dutch settlements in a war which for a time threat- ened their destruction. Not till 1645 was peace re-established, and in 1647 the unpopular governor was recalled. In 1647 not more than three hun- dred fighting men remained in the whole province. Its total population was between fifteen hundred and two thousand. In 1652 New Amsterdam had a population of seven or eight hundred. In 1664 Stuyvesant put the number in the province at ten thousand, about fifteen hundred of whom were in New Amsterdam. The next governor, Stuyvesant, was the last and much the ablest ruler among tho§e who directed the destinies of New Netherland. His administra- tion embraced a period of seventeen years, during which he renewed the former friendly relations with the savages, made a treaty with New Eng- land, giving up pretensions to Connecticut as well as rehnquishing the east end of Long Island, and compelled the Swedes, in 1655, to acknowledge the Dutch supremacy. It was whUe he was absent on his expedition against the Swedes, leaving New 1064] NEW NETHERLAND 61 Amsterdam unprotected, that tHe river Indians, watcMul of theii- opportunity, invaded and laid waste the surrounding country. In 1663 the sav- ages attacked the viUage on tbe Esopus, now Kingston, and almost destroyed it.. It was not un- til the energetic governor made a vigorous campaign against the Esopus tribe, whom he completely sub- dued, that peace was established on a firm footing. But the Dutch sway in their little part of the New World was about to end. The English had never given over their claim to the country by virt- ue of their first discovery of the 'North American continent. The New Netherlanders, tired of arbi- trary rule, sighed for the larger "freedom of their New England neighbors. Therefore, when in 1664 Charles II. granted to his brother, the Duke of York, the territory which the Dutch were occupy- ing, and sent a fleet to demand its submis- sion, the English invader was welcomed. Almost the only resistance came from the stout-hearted governor, who could hardly be dissuaded from fighting the English single-handed, and who signed the agreement to surrender only when his magis- trates had, in spite of him, agreed to the proposed terms. But the founders of the Empire State have left an indelible impress upon the Union, which their descendants have helped to strengthen and perpetuate. They were honest, thrifty, devout, tolerant of the opinions of others. As Holland sheltered the English Puritans from ecclesiastical intolerance, so New Netherland welcomed within her borders the victims of New England bigotry and narrowness. CHAPTEE VIII. THE FIEST INDIAN WAKS Teoubles between the Indians and the whites arose so early as 1636. John Oldham was mur- dered on Block Island by a party of Peqiiot Ind- ians. Yane of Massachusetts sent Endicott to inflict pimishment. The Pequots in turn attacked the fort at Saybrook, and in 1637 threatened Wethersfield. They were planning a imion with the Narragansetts for the destruction of the Eng- lish, when Roger WiUiams informed the Massa- chusetts colony of their designs and, at the urgent request of the governor and council, hastened to the chief of the Narragansetts and dissuaded him from entering into the alliance. The moment was critical. Captain Mason with about ninety English and seventy Mohegans, under their sachem, Unoas (a sub-chief, who with his dis- trict, Mohegan, had rebelled against the Pequot sachem, Sassacus) was sent from Hartford down the Connecticut Eiver. Entering' the Sound, he sailed past the mouth of the Thames and anchored in Narragausett Bay, at the foot of ^Tower Hill, near Point Judith. He knew that keen-eyed scouts from the Pequot stronghold on the west bank of the Mys- tic Eiver, near Groton, had, as his three Httle ships 1637] THE FIRST INDIAN WARS 63 skirted the shore, been ■watching him, to give warning of his apjiroach. He therefore resolved to come upon the enemy from an unlooked-for quar- ter. This plan was directly contrary to his in- structions, which required him to land at the mouth of the Thames and attack the fort from the west side. He hoped, marching westward across the country, to take the enemy by surprise on their tmprotected rear, while the Indians, trusting in the strength of their fort, as it fronted the west, should believe themselves secure. Thirteen men had been sent back to the Thames with the vessels. Two hundred Narragansetts had joined the expedition, though theii' sachem, Mi- antinomoh, thought the English too weak to fight the dreaded Pequots. Mason's euteriDrise was ad- mirably planned, and he was as fortunate as he was bold and skiU'ul. He divided his men into two parties. One, led by UnderhiU, climbed the steep ascent on the south side of the Indian village ; the other, directed by Mason himseM, mounted the northern slope. The garrison was buried in slum- ber, made more profound by carousals the pi'eced- ing night. One Indian was heard to cry out " Eng- lishmen " before the voUey of musketry from the attacking ' force told that the white enemy had come. Mason entered a wigwam and fought, as did the others, hand-to-hand with the now awak- ened and desperate foe. Coming out with a fire- brand and exclaiming " we must Ijum them," he set fire to the wigwam. The flames were quickly carried through the fort by the northeast wind. UnderhiU from his side applied powder. So rap- 64 DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT [1637 idly did the flames spread that the English had difficulty in making good their escape, while the Pequots who escaped the sword were doomed to perish by fire. In an hour's time from four hun- dred to six hundred had fallen, more than half of them women and children. Of the Englishmen two were killed and about twent?7 wounded. In this dreadful slaughter the Narragansetts had little share, for they had shown such fear that Mason had said to Uncas, " Tell them not to fly, but stand at what distance they please and see whether Eng- lishmen will now fight or not." With the approach of day three hundred Pequots advanced from a second fort intending to fight, but they were struck with horror at the sight of their dead fellow-warriors. Keeping the enemy at bay, the English marched to the vessels, which had ar- rived at Pequot Harbor, and, placing the wounded on board, continued their march to Say brook. The remnant of the Pequots sought to escape from the country, moviag westward along the Sound. Cap- tain Stoughton, sent with one hundred and twenty Massachusetts men, was guided by the Narragan- setts to a swamp in which a little band of those hostile savages had hidden. The men were slain, offering little resistance. The women and children were divided among the Indian allies or sold iato slavery by the colonists of Massachusetts Bay. Mason and Stoughton together sailed from Say- brook along the shore, while Uncas with his men tracked the fugitives by land. Ai; GuiKord a Pe- quot sachem was entrapped, shot, and his head thrust into the crotch of an oak-tree near the har- 1638] THE FIRST INDIAN WARS 65 bor, giving the place the name of Sachem's Head. Near the town of Fairfield a last stand was made by the hunted redskias, in a swamp, to which the English were guided by a renegade Pequot. The tribe with whom the Pequots had taken shelter, also the women and children, were allowed to give themselves up. The men were shot down or broke through and escaped. The wife of Mononotto fell- into the hands of the English. This Indian squaw had once shown kindness to two captive girls, and by Winthrop's orders she was kindly treated in re- turn. The Pequots, once so powerful, were well- nigh exterminated. Those taken prisoners were spared only to be held in bondage, Mononotto's wife with the rest. Some were ^.bsorbed by the Narragansctts, others by the MohBgans, while the settlers of Connecticut, upon whom the war had fallen so heavily, came into possession of the Pe- quot land. For nearly forty years the New England colonies were not again molested, the merciless vigor with which they had fought making a lasting impression upon their blood-thirsty foes. The cruel slavery to which the surviving natives were subjected, the English justified by the example of the Jews in their treatment of the Canaanites. The NaiTagansett chief, Miantinomoh, had be- come the friend and ally of the English by a treaty ratified in 1636, mainly through the good ofiices of Roger "WUliams. In 1638, after the destruction of the Pequots, there was a new treaty, embracing Uncas with his bold Mohegans, and stipulating that any quarrel between Miantinomoh and Uncas should 5 66 DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT [1643 be referred to the English. In. 1642 Miantinomoh was accused of plotting against the English, and summoned before the General Court at Boston. Though acquitted he vowed revenge upon Uncas as the instigator of the charge. His friendship for Eoger Williams, as also for Samuel Gorton, the purchaser of Shawomet, or Warwick, E. I., which was claimed by Massachtfsetts, had per- haps created a prejudice against him. At any rate, when a quarrel arose between Uncas and Sequasson, Miantinomoh's friend and ally, while the latter naturally sided with Sequasson, the sym- pathies of the English were with Uncas, who had aided them against the Pequots. With the con- sent of Connecticut and Massachusetts Miantino- moh took the field against Uncas, who had attacked Sequasson. He was defeated and taken prisoner. Cai-ried to Hartford he was held' to await the de- cision of the Commissioners of the United Colonies at Boston. They would not release him, yet had no valid ground for putting him to death. The case was referred to five clergymen, and they voted for his execution. For this purpose the com- missioners gave orders to turn the brave warrior over to Uncas, English witnesses to be present and see that no cruelty was perpetrated. The sentence was carried into effect near Norwich. Cut- ting a piece of flesh from the shoulder of his mur- dered enemy, Uncas ate it with savage relish, de- claring it to be the sweetest meat he had ever tasted. The Dutch, too, as we have to Some extent seen already, felt the horrors of Indian warfare. Kieft, 1040] THE FIRST INDIAN WARS 67 the Dutch director-general, a man cruel, avaricious, and obstinate, angered the red me*n by demandiag tribute from them as their protector, while he re- fused them gims or ammunition. The savages re- plied that they had to thek own cost shown kind- ness to the Dutch when in need of food, but would not pay tribute. Kieft attacked. Some of the Indians were killed and their crops destroyed. This roused their revengeful passions to the ut- most. The -Raritan savages visited the colony of De Vries, on Staten Island, with death and devas- tation. Reward was offered for the head of any one of the murderers. An Indian never forgot an injury. The nephew of one of the natives who twenty years before had been wantonly killed went to sell furs at Fort Amsterdam, and while there revenged his uncle's murder by the slaughter of an unoffending colonist. Spite of warlike prepara- tions by Kieft and his assembly in 1641^2, the tribe would not give up the culprit. The foUowiag year another settler was knifed by a drunken Ind- ian. Wampum was indeed offered in atonement, while an indignant plea was urged by the savages against the liquor traffic, which demoralized their young men and rendered them dangerous alike to friend and foe. But remonstrance and blood- money could not satisfy Kieft. At Pavonia and at Corlaer's Hook' the Dutch fell venomously up- on the sleeping and unsuspecting enemy. Men, women, and children were slaughtered, none spared. In turn the tribes along the lower Hudson, to the ' Soyr in the New York City limits, jnst below Broadway Ferry, East Kiver. 68 DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT [1643 number of eleven, united and desperately attacked the Dutch wherever found. Only near the walls of Fort Amsterdam was there safety. The governor appointed a day of fasting, which it seems was kept with effect. The sale of liquor to the red men was at last prohibited, and peace for a time secured. Soon, however, the redskins along the Hudson were again up in arms. The noted Underbill, who with Mason had been the scourge of the Pequots, came to the fight with fifty Englishmen as allies of the Dutch. Not waiting to be attacked, the Ind- ians laid waste the settlements, even threatening- Fort Amsterdam itself. At a place now known as Pelham Neck, near New Rochelle, lived the famous but unfortunate Mrs. Hutchinson, a fugi- tive from the persecuting zeal of Massachusetts. Here the implacable savages butchered her and her family in cold blood. Her little granddaughter alone was spared, and led captive' to a far-off wig- wam prison. Only at Gravesend, on Long Island, was a successful stand made, and that by a woman, Lady Deborah Moody, another exile from religious persecution, who with forty stoutthearted men de- fended her plantation and compelled the savages to beat a retreat. The colony was in extremity. New Haven re- fused to aid, because, as a member of the New Eng- land confederacy, it could not act alone, and be- cause it was not satisfied that the Dutch war was just. An appeal was made by Kieft's eight advis- ers to both the States-General and the West India Company in Holland. The sad condition of the 1645] THE FIRST INDIAN WARS G9 colonists was fully set forth, and the responsibility directly ascribed to the mismanagement of Kieft. At the same time, undismayed by^ the gloomy out- loot, the courage of the sturdy Dutchmen rose with the emergency. Small parties were sent out agaiast the Connecticut savages iu the vicinity of Stamford. Indian villages on Long Island were surprised and the natives put to the sword. In two instances at least the victors disgraced humanity by torturing the captured. In these engagements UnderhiU was conspicu- ous and most energetic. Having made himself familiar with the position of the Indians near Stamford, he sailed from Manhattan with one hun- dred and fifty men, landed at Greenwich, and, marching all day, at midnight drew near the enemy. His approach was nqt whoUy unan- nounced, for the moon was full. The fight was desperate and bloody. The tragedy that had made memorable the banks of the Mystic in the destruc- tion of the Pequot fort was now almost equalled. After the example of his old comrade Mason, Un- derhiU fired the village. By flame, shot, or sword more than five hundred human beings perished. While New Netherland was awaiting some mes- sage of cheer from Holland, a company of Dutch soldiers came from Cura§oa, but they did little to follow up the successes already gained. Again the Eight sent a memorial to the company, boldly con- demning the conduct of the director and demand- ing his recall. Their remonstrances were at last heeded and the removal of the unpopular governor resolved upon. In 1647 Kieft set sail for Holland, 70 DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT [1650 but the ship was wrecked and he with nearly all on board was drowned. It was high time for a change. In the two years, 1643-45, while sixteen hundred Indians had been slain, Manhattan had become nearly depopulated. In 1645 peace was concluded, not only with the smaller tribes in the \dcinity, but also with the powerful Mohawks about Fort Orange, and finally with all the Indians belonging to the Five Nations or acknowledging their authority.- A pleasing in- cident of this treaty was the promise of the Ind- ians to restore the eight-year-old granddaughter of Mrs. Hutchinson, a promise which they faithfully performed in 1646. The great compact was made under the shadow of the Fort Amsterdam walls, and the universal joy was expressed by a day of thanksgiving. An inteiTal of peace for ten years was now en- joyed, when the killing of a squaw for stealing some peaches led to an attack by several hundred of the infuriated savages upon New Amsterdam, They were repulsed here, but crossing to the shore of New Jersey they laid waste the settlements there. Staten Island, too, was swept with fire and sword. One hundred people were slain, 150 more taken captive, 300 made homeless. Peace was again ef- fected and maintained for three years, when fresh quarrels began. It was not until 1660 that a more general and lasting treaty was brought about, on which occasion a Mohawk and a Minqua chief gave pledges in behalf of the Indians, and acted as me- diators between the contending parties. PERIOD 11. ENGLISH AMERICA TILL THE END OF THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 1660-1763 CHAPTEE I. NEW ENGLAND UNDEE THE LAST STUAETS The Commonwealth in England went to pieces at the death of Oliver Cromwell, it's founder. The Stuart dynasty came back, but, alas ! unimproved. Charles II. was a much meaner man than his fa- ther, and James II. was more detestable stiU. The rule of such kings was destined to work sad changes in the hitherto free condition of Massachusetts. This colony had sympathized with the Common- wealth more heartily than any of the others. Hith- er had fled for refuge Goffe and Whalley, two of the accomplices in the death of Charles I. Con- gregational church polity was here established by law, to the exclusion of all others, even of episco- pacy, for whose sake Charles was harrying poor Covenanters to death on every hillside in Scotland. Nor would his lawyers let the king forget Charles I.'s attack on the Massachusetts charter, begun so early as 1635, or the grounds therefor, such as the unwarranted transfer of it to Boston, or the like- 72 ENGLISH AMERICA [1660 lihood that but for the outbreak of the Civil War it would have been annulled by the Long Parliament itself. Obviously Massachusetts eould not hope to be let alone by the home government which had just come in. At first the king, graciously responding to the colony's humble petition, confirmed the charter granted by his father ; but no sooner had he done so than the hot royalists about him began plotting to overthrow the same, and their purpose never slumbered till it was accomplished. Massachu- setts was too prosperous and too visibly destined for great power in America to be suffered longer to go its independent way as hitherto. The province — as yet, of course, excluding Ply- mouth with its twelve towns and five thousand inhabitants — contained at this time, 1660, about twenty-five thousand souls, living in fifty-two towns. These were nearly all on the coast ; Ded- ham, Concord, Brookfield, Lancaster, Marlbor- ough, and the Connecticut Valley hamlets of Springfield, Hadley, and Northampton being the most noteworthy exceptions. Though agriculture was the principal business, fishing was a staple industry, its product going to France, Spain, and the Straits. Pipe-staves, fir-boards, much mate- rial for ships, as masts, pitch and tar, also pork and beef, horses and com, were shipped from this colony to Virginia, in return for tobacco and sugar either for home consumption or for export to Eng- land. Some iron was manufactured. The province enjoyed great prosperity. Boston stood forth as a lively and growing centre, and an English traveller 1661] NEW ENGLAND UNDER -STUARTS 73 about this time declared some of its merchants to be " damuable rich." As their most precious possession the colonists prized their liberties, which they claimed in virtue of their original patent. In a paper which it put forth on June 10, 1661, the General Court as- serted for the colony the right to elect and em- power its own officers, both high and low, to make its laws, to execute the same without appeal so long as they were not repugnant to those of Eng- land, and to defend itself by force and arms when necessary, against every infringement of its rights, even from acts of Parliament or of the king, if prej- udicial to the country or contrary to just colonial legislation. In a word, Massachusetts, even so early, regarded itself to all intents and purposes an independent State, and would have proclaimed accordingly had it felt sufficiently strong. Manifestly the king would not. grant so much. On the occasion of his confirming the charter he demanded that the oath of allegiance be taken by the people of the colony ; that justice be adminis- tered there in his name ; and that the franchise be extended to all freemen of sufficient substance, with the liberty to use in worship, public and pri- vate, the forms of the English Church. The people obeyed but in part, for they would not even appear to admit the king's will to be their law. The fran- chise was slightly extended, in a grudging way, but no new religious privileges were at this time conceded. Unfortunately politieal and religious liberty were now in conflict. It was worse for the Baptists and Quakers that the king favored them, 74 ENGLISH AMERICA [1664 and the treatment wliich they received in the col- ony inclined them to the royalist side in the con- troversy. In July, 1664, commissioners arrived in Boston with full authority to investigate the administra- tion of the New England charters. Such a pro- cedure not being provided for in the Massachusetts document, the General Court, backed by the citi- zens almost to a man, successfully prevented com- plainants from appearing before the commission. The commissioners having summoned the colony as defendant in a certaiu case, a herald trumpeted proclamation through the streets, on the morning set for the trial, inhibiting all from aiding their designs. The trial collapsed, and the gentlemen who had ordered it, baffled and disgusted, moved on to New Hampshire, there also to be balked by a decree of the Massachusetts Governor and Coun- cil forbidding the towns so much as to meet at their behest. Vengeance for such defiance |vas delayed by Charles II. 's very vices. Clarendon's fall had left him surrounded by profligate aides, too timid and too indolent to face the resolute men of Massachu- setts. They often discussed the contumacy of the colony, but went no further than words. Massa- chusetts was even encouraged, in 1668, forcibly to re-assert its authority in Maine, against rule either by the king or by Sir Ferdinando Gorges's heir as proprietary. Its charter had assigned to the eolony land to a point three miles north of the Merfimac. Bold in the favor of the Commonwealth, the authorities 1675] NEW ENGLAND UNDER 8TUABT8 75 measured from the head-waters of that river. But Plymouth had originally claimed all the territory west of the Kennebec, and had sold it to Gorges. Charles II. favored the Gorges heirs against Mas- sachusetts, and for some years previous to 1668 Massachusetts' power over Maine had been in abeyance. Ten years later, in 1678, to make assur- ance doubly sure, Massachusetts bought off the Gorges claimants, at the round price of twelve hundred and fifty pounds sterling. From 1641 Massachusetts had borne sway in New Hampshire as well, ignorirfg John Mason's claim under Charles I.'s chai-ters of 1629 and 1635, still urged by one of Mason's grandsons, backed by Charles II. Here Massachusetts was beaten. In July, 1679, New Hampshire was permanently sepa- rated from her, and erected into a royal province, of a nature to be explained in a subsequent chap- ter, being the earliest government of this kind in New England. These territorial assumptions on the part of Massachusetts much increased the king's hostility. This probably would not have proved fatal had it not been re-enforced by the determination of the merchants and manufacturers of the mother-coun- try to crush what they feared was becoming a rival power beyond seas. They insisted upon full en- forcement of the Navigation Laws, which made America's foreign trade in a cruel' degree subser- vient to English interest. So incorrigible was the colony, it was found that this end could be com- passed only by the abrogation of the charter, so that English law might become immediately valid 76 ENGLISH AMERICA [1663 in Massachusetts, colonial laws to the contrary notwithstanding. Accordingly, in 1684, the char- ter was vacated and the colonists ceased to be free, their old government -with its popular rep- resentation giving away to an arbitrary com- mission. The other New England colonies — Plymouth, Ehode Island, Connecticut, and Hew Haven — had made haste to proclaim Charles II. so soon as re- stored to the throne, and to begin ^carrying on their governments in his name. That beautiful and able man, the younger Winthrop, sped to London on Connecticut's behalf, and, aided by his colo- ny's friends at court, the Earls of Clarendon and Manchester and Viscount Say and Seal, in 1662 secured to Connecticut, now made to include New Haven, a charter so liberal that it continued till October 5, 1818, the ground law of the State, then to be supplanted only by a close vote. Under this paper, which declared all lands between the Narra- ganset River and the Pacific Ocean Connecticut territory, Connecticut received every whit of that right to govern itself which Charles was so sternly challenging in the case of Massachusetts. From this time on, as indeed earlier, Connect- icut was for many years perhaps the most de- lightful example of popular government in all his- tory. Connecticut and New Haven together had about ten thousand inhabitants. Their rulers were just, wise, and of a mind truly to serve the people. Here none were persecuted for their faith. Education was universal. Few Avere poor, none very rich. Nearly all supplies wdre of domestic 1080] NJSW ENGLAND UNDER STUARTS 77 production, nothing as yet bemg= exported but a few cattle. Under the second Charles Ehode Island fared quite as well as Connecticut. This was remarkable, inasmuch as the little colony of three thousand souls, in their four towns of Providence, Newport, Ports- mouth, and Warwick, insisted on " holding forth the lively experiment " — and it proved lively in- deed — " of full liberty in religious concernments." Charles did not oppose this, and Clarendon favored it, a motive of both here, as with Connecticut, be- ing to rear in New England a power friendly to the crown, that should rival and check Massachu- setts. Both these commonwealths were granted absolute independence in all but name. No oath of allegiance to the king was demanded. Appeals to England were not provided for. Though having no quarrel with the king, the two southern colonies were not without their trials. Connecticut, besides continual fear of the Dutch and the Indians, was much agitated by the contro- versy over the question whether children of moral parents not church members should be baptized, a question at length settled affirmatively by the so- called Half-Way Covenant. It also had its boun- dary disputes with Massachusetts, with Ehode Isl- and — for Connecticut took the Narraganset River of its charter to be the bay of that name — and with New York, which, by the Duke of York's new pat- ent, issued on the recovery of that province from the Dutch in 1674, reached the Connecticut Eiver. During England's war with Holland, 1672-74, all the colonies stood in some fear of = Dutch attacks. 78 ENGLISH AMERIG'A [1685 Bliode Island had worse troubles than Connect- icut. It, too, had boundary disputes, serious and perpetual ; but graver by much were its internal feuds, caused partly by the mutual jealousy of its four towns, partly by the numerous and jarring re- ligious persuasions here represented. Govern- ment was painfully feeble. Only with utmost difficulty could the necessary taxes be raised. Warwick in particular was for some time in ar- rears to John Clark, of Newport, for his invalu- able services in securing the charter of 1663. Quakers and the divers sorts of Baptists valiantly warred each against other, using, with dreadful address, those most deadly of carnal weapons, tongue and pen. On George Fox's visit to the colony, Roger Williams, zealou^ for a debate, pursued the eminent Quaker from Providence to Newport, rowing thither in his (janoe and arriv- ing at midnight, only to find that his intended opponent had departed. The latter's champion was ready, however, and a discussion of four days ensued. Before its sentence of death reached Massachu- setts Charles II. was no more, and James II., his brother, had ascended the throne. It was for a time uncertain what so];i; of authority the stricken colony would be called to accept. Already, as Duke of York, James II. had been Proprietaiy of Maine east of the Kennebec (Sagadahoc), as well as of Delaware, New Jersey, and New York, Now that he had the problem of ruling Massachusetts to solve, it naturally occurred to the king to make Sir Edmund Andros, already Governor of 1685] NUW ENGLAND UNDEW STUARTS 79 New York, master also over the wliole of Englisli America from the Saint Croix to the Delaware. In southern New England the reign of Andros wrought no downright persecution. He suspended the charters, and, with an irresponsible council in each colony, assumed all legislative as well as administrative power. Rhode Island submitted tamely. Her sister colony did the same, save that, at Hartford, according to good tradition, in the midst of the altercation about delivering the char- ter, prolonged into candle-light, suddenly it was dark and the precious document disappeared to a secure place in the hollow trunk of an oak. This tree, henceforth called the Charter Oak, stood till prostrated by a gale on August 20th, 1856. But in Massachusetts the colonists' worst fears were realized. Andros, with a council of his own creation, made laws, levied taxes, and controlled the militia. He had authority to suppress all printing-presses and to encourage Episcopacy. In the latter interest he opened King's Chapel to the Prayer Book. His permission was required for any one to leave the colony. Extortionate fees and taxes were imposed. Puritans had to swear on the Bible, which they regarded wicked, or be dis- franchised. Personal and proprietary rights were summarily set at naught, and all deeds to land were declared void till renewed — for money, of course. The citizens were reduced to a condition hardly short of slavery. There is no describing the joy which pervaded New England as the news of the Revolution of 1688 flew from colony to colony. Andros slunk 80 ENGLISH A3IERIGA [1690 away from Boston, glad to escape alive. Drums beat and gala-day was kept. Old magistrates were reinstated. Town meetings were resumed. All believed that God had interposed, in answer to prayer, to bring deliverance to liis people from popery and thraldom. This revolution, ushering in the liberal monarchy of William and Mary, restored to Ehode Island and Connecticut their old charter governments in full. New Hampshire, after a momentary union with Massachusetts again, became once more a royal province. As to Massachusetts itself, a large party of the citizens now either did not wish the old state of things renewed, or were too timid to agree in demanding back their charter as of right. Had they been bold and united, they might have succeeded in this ^vithout any opposition from the crown. Instead, a new charter" was conferred, creating Massachusetts also a royal province, yet with government more liberal than the other prov- inces of this order enjoyed. The governor was appointed by the crown, and could convene, ad- journ, or dissolve the Legislature. With the con- sent of his counsel he also created the judges, from whose highest sentence appeal could be taken to the Privy Council. The governor could veto legis- lation, and the king annul any law under three years old. If in these things the new polity was inferior to the old, in two respects it was superior : Suffrage was now practically imiversal, and every species of religious profession, save Catholicism, made legal. Also, Massachusetts territory was enlarged south- 1690] NEW ENGLAND UNDER STUAETS 81 ward to take in all Plymouth, eastward to em- brace Maine (Sagadahoc) , and Nova Scotia. Maine, henceforth including Sagadahoc, that is, all land eastward to the Saint Croix, remained part of Mas- sachusetts till March Ifr, 1820, when it became a member of the Union by itself. Nova Scotia, over which Phips's conquest of Port Royal in 1690 had established a nominal rather than a real Eng- lish authority, was assigned to France again by the Treaty of Eyswick, 1697. CHAPTEE II. KING Philip's wae Simultaneously -with the Stuart-Eestoration an- other cloud darkened the New England sky. Since the Pequot War, Indians and whites had in the main been friendly. This by itself is proof that our fathers were less unjust to the red men than is sometimes charged. They did assume the right to acquire lands here, and they had this right. The Indians were not in any proper sense owners of New England. They were few — by 1660 not more numerous than the pale-faces — and, far from settling or occupying the land, roamed from place to place. Had it been otherwise they, as barba- rians, would have had no such claim iipon the ter- ritory as to justify them in barring put civilization. However, the colonists did not plead this consider- ation. Whenever districts were c^esired to which Indians had any obvious title, it was both law and custom to pay them their price. In this Eoger Williams and William Penn were not peculiar. If individual white men sometimes cheated in land trades, as in other negotiations, the aggi-ieved side could not, and did not, regard this as the white man's policy. Yet little by little the Indians came to distrust 1675] KING PHILIP'S WAR 83 and hate the rival race. It did not matter to the son of the forest, even if lie thought so far, that the neighborhood of civilization greatly bettered his lot in many things, as, for instance, giving him market for corn and peltry, which he could ex- change for fire-arms, blankets, and all sorts of valuable conveniences. The efforts to teach and elevate him he appreciated still less. As has been said, he loved better to disfurnish the outside of other people's heads than to furnish the inside of his own. What he felt, and keenly, was that the new-comers treated him as an inferior, were day by day narrowing his range, and slowly but surely reducing his condition to that of a subject people. Dull as he was he saw that one of three fates con- fronted him : to perish, to migrate, or to lay aside his savage character and mode of life. Such thoughts frenzied him. The beautiful fidelity of Massasoit to the people of Plymouth is abeady familiar. Ilis son Alexan- der, who succeeded him, was of a spirit diametri- cally the reverse. Convinced that he was plotting with the Narraganssts for hostile action, the Gov- ernor and Council of Plymouth sent Major Wins- low to bring him to court — for it must be remem- bered that Massasoit's tribe, the Pokanokets, had through him covenanted, though probably with no clear idea of what this meant, to be subject to the Plymouth government. Alexander, for some rea- son, became fatally ill while at Plymouth under arrest, dying before reaching home.. The Indians suspected poison. His brother Philip now became sachem. Philip 84 ENGLISH AMERIGA [1675 akeady had a grudge against the whites, and was rendered trebly bitter by the in^gnity and vio- lence, if nothing worse, to which Alexander had been subjected. He resolved upon war, and in 1675 war was begun. We shall never certainly know to what extent Philip was an organizer. We believe correct the view of Hubbard, the contemporary historian, that he had prepared a wide- spread and pretty well ar- ranged conspiracy among the main tribes of New England Indians, which might have been fatal but for " the special providence of God," causing hos- tilities to break out ere the savages were ready. Palfrey challenges this view of the case, but on in- sufficient grounds. One Sausaman, an educated Indian, previously Philip's secretary, had left him and joined the Christian Indians settled at Natick. There were by this time several such communities, and also, accord- ing to Cotton Mather, many able Indian preachers. At the risk of his life, as he insisted, Sausaman had warned the Plymouth magistrates that danger impended. He was soon murdered, apparently by Philip's instigation. At least, Philip never de- nied this, nor did he after this time ever again coui't friendly relations with Plymouth, which he had constantly done hitherto. On the contrary, re-enforcements of strange Indians, all ready for the war-path, were continually flocking to his camp, squaws and children at the same time going to the Narraganset country, manifestly for security. The Plymouth authorities, preparing for war, yet sent a kind letter to the sachem advising him 1675] KING PHILIP'S WAB 85 to peace. In vain. At Swanzey, the town near- est Mount Hope, Philip's home, Indians at- once began to kiU and ravage, and Majors Bradford and Oudworth marched thither with a force of Ply- mouth soldiers. A Massachusetts contingent re- enforced them there, and they prepared to advance. Seerag it impossible to hold his own against so many, Philip crossed to Pocasset, now Tiverton, and swept rapidly round to Dartmouth, Middle- borough, and Taunton, burning and murdering as he went. He then retired again to Tiverton, but in a few days started with aU his warriors for cen- tral Massachusetts. Here the Nipmucks, already at war, which indi- cated an understanding between them and the Poka- nokets, had attacked Mendon. The day after Philip joined them there was a fight at Brookfield, the Nipmucks and their allies being victorious. They proceeded to bum the town nearly entire, though the inhabitants who survived, after a three days' siege in a fortified house, were relieved by troops from Boston just in the nick of time. The Connecticut Valley was next the theatre of war. Springfield, Hatfield, Deerfield, and North- field were attacked, the last two having to be aban- doned. At Hadley the onset occurred on a fast- day. The men rushed from their worship with their muskets, which were ready to hand in church, and hastily formed for battle. Bewildered by the un- expected assault, they were on the point of yielding, when, according to tradition, an aged hero with long beard and queer clothing appeared, placed himself at their head and directed their move- 86 ENGLISH AMERICA [1675 ments. His evident acquaintance with fighting re- stored order and courage. The savages were driven pell-mell out of town, but the pursuers looked in vain for their deliverer. If the account is correct, it was the regicide, General Goffe, who had been a secret guest in the house of the Eev. Mr. Eussell. He could not in such danger refrain from engaging once again, as he had so often done during the Civil War in England, in the defence of God's people. Prom Hadley a party went to Deerfield to bring in the wheat that had been left when the town was deserted. Ninety picked men, the " flower of Es- sex," led by Captain Lothrop, attended the wagons as convoy. On their return, about seven o'clock in tEo morning, by a little stream in the present vil- lage of South Deerfield, since called Bloody Brook in memory of the event, the soldiers dispersed somewhat in quest of grapes, then ripe, when a sudden and fatal volley from an ambush was de- livered upon them. The men had left their mus- kets in the wagons and could not regain them. Lothrop was shot dead, and but seven or eight of his company escaped alive. A monument maorks the spot where this tragic affair occurred. So early as July, 1675, Massachusetts and Con- necticut, actiug for the New England Confedera- tion, had effected a treaty with the strong tribe of the Narragansets in southern Bhode Island, en- gaging them to remain neutral and to surrender any of Philip's men coming within their jurisdic- tion. This agreement they did not keep. After the attacks on Springfield and Hatfield in October, 1675] KING PHILIP'S WAR 87 great numbers of the Pokanoket braves came to them, evidently welcomed. To prevent their be- coming a centre of mischief, Connecticut, Mas- sachusetts, and Plymouth despatched a thousand men to punish the Narragansets. They met the foe at the old Pahsade, hi the midst of a dense swamp in what is now South Kingstown, Khode Island. The terrible cold which rendered this Narraganset campaign so severe had turned the marsh into a bridge, and at once on their arrival the soldiers, weary and hungry as they were from their long march, and spite of its bemg Sunday, advanced to the attack. Massachusetts was in front, then Ply- mouth, then Connecticut. Long and bitter was the fight. The Indians, perfect marksmen, took deadly aim at the leaders. Five captains were kiUed out- right and as many more mortally wounded. The fort was taken, ro-taken, and taken again, the whites at last, to make sure work, setting fire to the wig- wams. The storming party lost in killed and woimded one-fifth of its number. This Swamp Fight, as it was called, broke forever the strength of the Narragansets, the tribe and its aUies dis- persing in all directions. In 1676 central Massachusetts Avas again aflame. Lancaster was sacked and burned, its inhabitants nearly all either carried captive 43r put to death with indescribable atrocities. Mrs. Eowlandson, wife of the Lancaster minister, also her son and two daughters, were among the captives. We have this brave woman's story as subsequently detailed by herself. Her youngest, a little girl of six, wounded by a bullet, she bore in her arms wlier- 88 ENGLISH AMERIGA [167G ever they marched, till the poor creature died of cold, starvation, and lack of care. The agonized raother begged the privilege of tugging along the corpse, but was refused. She -with her son and living daughter were ransomed, after wandering up and down with the savages eleven weeks and five days. From Mrs. Eowlandson's narrative we have many interesting facts touching the Indians' hab- its of life. They carried ample stores from Lan- caster, but soon squandered them, and were re- duced to a diet of garbage, horses' entrails, eai-s, and liver, with broth made of horses' feet and legs. The liver they seemed to prefer raw. Their chief food was ground nuts. They also ate acorns, arti- chokes, beans, and various sorts of roots. They especially delighted in old bones, which, being heated to drive out maggots and worms, they first boiled for soup, then ground for use as m.eal. The captive lady often saw Philip. At his re- quest she made a shirt and a cap for his son, for which he paid her. Says Hubbardj " such was the goodness of God to these poor captive women and children that they found so much favor in the sight of their enemies that they offered no wrong to any of their persons save what they could not help, being in many wants themselves. Neither did they offer any uncivil carriage to any of the females, nor ever attempt the chastity of any of them." So soon as negotiations Were opened for Mrs. Eowlandson's release, Philip told her of this, and expressed the hope that they would succeed. When her ransom had arrived he met her with a 1070] KINO PHILIP'S W-AR 89 smile, saying : "I have pleasant words for j-oii this morning ; would you like to hear them ? You are to go home to-morrow." Twenty pounds Avere paid for her, raised by some ladies of Boston, aided by a Mr. Usher. Hostilities now bore southeastward. Philip was in his glory. All the towns of Rhode Island and eastern Massachusetts were in terror, nearly all in actual danger. At Medfield twenty whites were killed. Deserted Mendon was burned. Wey- mouth was attacked and eleven persons were mas- sacred in the edge of Plymouth. In Groton and Marlborough every house was laid- in ashes, as were all in lower Rhode Island up to "Warwick, and in Warwick all but one. Sachem Canonchet of the Narragansets drew into ambush at Pawtuxet a band of Plymouth soldiers, of whom only one escaped. Canonchet was subsequently taken by Captain Den- ison and executed. Rehoboth lost forty houses, Providence nearly as many. The Connecticut Valley was invaded afresh. Springfield, Hadley, Northampton, and Hatfield were once more startled by the war whoop and the whiz of the tomahawk. Captain Turner, hearing of an Indian camp at the falls of the Connecticut, now called by his name, in Montague, advanced with a troop of one hundred and eighty horse, arriving in sight of the encampment at daylight. Dis- mounting and proceeding stealthily to within sure shot, they beat up the Indians' quarters with a ringing volley of musketry. Resistance was im- possible. Those who did not fall by bullet or sword rushed to the river, many being carried 90 ENGLISH AMERICA [W^S over the falls. Three hundred savages perished, the English losing but one man. A large stock of the enemy's food and ammunition was also de- stroyed. Though so splendidly successful, the par- ty did not return to Hadley without considerable loss, being set upon much of the way by Indians who had heard the firing at the falls and sped to the relief of their friends. Turner was killed in the meadows by Green Eiver, his subordinate, Hol- yoke, then commanding the retreat. Turner's victory brought the war to a crisis. The red men lacked resources. The whites had learned the secrets of savage warfare. They could no longer be led into ambush, while their foe at no time during the war ventured to engage them in open field. Large parties of Indians began to surrender; many roving bands were captured. Hostilities continued still many months in Maine, the whites more and more uniformly successful, till the Treaty of Casco, April 12, 1678, at last terminated the war. Hunted by the English backward and forward, Philip was at last driven to his old home upon Mount Hope. Here Captain Church, one of the most practised of Indian fighters, surprised him on the morning of August 12, 1676, encamped upon a little upland, which it is believed has been exactly identified near a swamp at the foot of the moun- tain. By residents in the neighborhood it is known as Little Guinea. At the first firing Philip, but partially dressed, seized gun and powder-horn and made for the swamp. Captain Church's am- bush was directly in his front. An Englishman's 1076] KING PHILIP'S Vmn 91 piece missed fire, but an Indian's sent a bullet through the Great Sachem's heart; In this fearful war at least six hundred of the English inhabitants either fell in battle or were murdered by the enemy. A dozen or more towns were utterly destroyed, others greatly damaged. Some six hundred buildings, chiefly dwelling- houses, were consumed by fire, and over a hundred thousand pounds of colonial money expended, to say nothing of the immense losses in goods and cattle. Not without propriety has the Pokanoket chief been denominated a king. If not a Charlemagne or a Louis XIV., he yet possessed elements of true greatness. While he lived his ;mind evidently guided, as his will dominated and prolonged, the war. This is saying much, for the Indian's dis- inclination to all strenuous or continuous exertion was pronounced and proverbial. Philip's treat- ment of Mrs. Eowlandson must be declared mag- nanimous, especially as, of course, he was but a sav- age king, who might reasonably request us not to measm^e him by our rules. The other party to the war we have a right to judge more rigidly, and just sentence in their case must be severe. Philip's sorrowing, innocent wife and son were brought prisoners to Plymouth, and their lot re- ferred to the ministers. After long deliberation and prayer it was decided that they should be sold into slavery, and this was their fat6. CHAPTEE III. THE SALEM WITCHCRAET The home life of colonial New England was unique. Its like lias appeared nowhere else iia human histoiy. Mostwise it was beautiful as well. In it religion was central and "Supreme. The General Court of Plymouth very early passed the following order : " Noe dwelling-howse shal be builte above haKe a myle from the meeting-howse in any newe plantacion without leave from the Court, except mylle-howses and fferme-howses." In layiag out a village the meeting-house, as the hub to which eveiything was to be referred, was located first of all. The minister's lot commonly adjoined. Then a sufficiency of land was par- celled off to each freeholder whereon to erect his dwellmg. Massachusetts from the first, and Ply- mouth beginning somewhat later, also made emi- nent provision for schools — all in the interest of religion. The earliest residences were necessarily of logs, shaped and fitted more or less rudely according to the skill of the builder or the time and means at his disposal. There was usually one large room below, which served as kitchen, dining-room, sit- ting-room, and parlor, and on the same floor with 1675] THE SALEM WITCHCRAFT 93 this one or two lodging-rooms. An unfinished attic constituted the dormitory for the rising gen- eration. A huge stone chimney, termiuating below in a still more capacious fireplace, that would admit logs from four to eight feet in length, con- veyed away the smoke, and with it much of the heat. This involyed no loss, as wood was a drug. Communicating with the chimney was the great stone baking-oven, whence came the bouncing loaves of corn-bread, duly " brown," the rich- colored " pompion " pies, and the loin of venison, beef, or pork. Over these bounties — and such they were heartily esteemed, however meagre — often as the family drew around the table, its head offered thanks to the heavenly Giver. Each morning, after they had eaten, he read a goodly portion of God's Word, never less than a chapter, and then, not kneeling but standing, led his household in rev- erent and believing prayer for protection, guid- ance, stimulus in good, and for every needed grace. What purity, what love of rectitude, what strength of will did not the builders of America carry forth from that family altar ! He who would understand the richest side and the deepest mov- ing forces of our national life and development must not overlook those New England fireside scenes. Prayers ended, the " men folks " went forth to the day's toil. It was hard, partly from its then rough character, partly from poverty of appli- ances. For the hardest jobs neighbors would join hands, fighting nature as they had to fight the 94 ENGLISH AMERICA [1700 Indians, unitedly. Farming tools, if of iron or steel, as axe, mattock, spade, and the iron nose for the digger or the plough, the village blacksmith usually fashioned, as he did the bake-pan, griddle, crane, and pothooks, for indoor use^ Tables, chairs, cradles, bedsteads, and those straight - backed " settles " of which a few may yet be seen, were either home-made or gotten up by the village car- ' penter. Mattresses were at first of hay, straw, leaves, or rushes. Before 1700, however, feather- beds were common, and houses and the entire state of a New England farmer's home had become some- what more lordly than the above picture might in- dicate. The colonists made much use of berries, wild fruits, bread and milk, game, fish, and shell- fish. The stock wandered in the forests and about the brooks, to be brought home at night by the boys, whom the sound of the cow-bell led. In autumn bushels upon bushels of nuts were laid by, to serve, along with dried berries and grapes, salted fish and venison, as food for the winter. Every phase and circumstance of this pioneer life reminded our fathers of their dependence upon nature and the Supreme Power behind nature, while at the same time the continual need and ap- plication of neighbor's co-operation with neighbor brought out brotherly love in charming strength and beauty. But to old New England religion, as a clerical, public, and organized affair, there is a far darker side. In the eighteenth century belief in witch- craft was nearly universal. In 1683 one Margaret Matron was tried in Pennsylvania on a charge of 1700] THE SALEM WITGHGRAFT 95 bewitching cows and geese, and placed under bonds of one hundred pounds ioi good behayior. In 1705 Grace Sherwood was ducked iu Virginia for the same offence. Cases of the kind had oc- curred in New York. There was no colony where the belief in astrology, necromancy, second sight, ghosts, haunted houses and spots, loye-spells, charms, and peculiar jaowers attaching to rings, herbs, etc., did not prevail. Such credtility was not peculiar to America but cursed Europe as well. It seemed to flourish, if anything, after the Refor- mation more than before. Luther firmly believed in witchcraft. He professed to have met the Evil One in personal conflict,, and to have vanquished him by the use of an inkstand as missile. Per- haps every land in Europe had laws making witch- craft a capital crime. One was enacted in Eng- land under Henry YIII., another in James I.'s first year, denouncing death against lall persons " in- voking any evil spirit, or consulting, covenanting with, entertaining, employing, feeding, or rewarding any evil spirit, or taking up dead bodies from their graves to be used in any witchcraft, sorcery, charm, or enchantment, or killing or otherwise hurting any person by such infernal arts." A similar statute was contained in the " Fundamentals " of Massa- chusetts, probably inspired by tlie command of Scripture, " Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." This law, we shall see, was not a dead letter. No wonder such a law was of more effect in New England than anywhere else on earth. The of&cial religion of the Puritans was not only su- perstitious in general but gloomy in particular, 96 ENGLISH AMERICA [1700 and most gloomy in New England. Its central tenet, here at least, seemed to bo that life ought to furnish no joy, men seeking to " merit heaven by making earth a hell." Sunday laws were severe, and rigidly enforced from six o'clock Saturday evening till the same hour the next. Not the least work was allowed unless absolutely necessary, nor any semblance of amusement. Boys bringing home the cows were cautioned to " let down the bars softly, as it was the Lord's day." Sunday travellers were arrested and fined. Men might be whipped for absence from churchy A girl at Ply- mouth was threatened exile as a street-walker for smiling in meeting. Increase Mather traced the great Boston fire of 1711 to the sin of Sunday labor, such as carrying parcels and baking food. In Newport, some men having been drowned who, to say good-by to departing friends, had rowed out to a ship just weighing anchor, Eev. John Comer prayed that others might take warning and " do no more such great wickedness." Sermons were often two hours long ; public prayer half an hour. Worse stilt was what went by the name of music — doggerel hymns full of the most sulphurous theology, uttered congregation- ally as "lined off" by the leader — ^nasal, dissonant, and discordant in the highest imaginable degree. The church itself was but a barn, homely-shaped, bare, and in winter cold as out-of-doors. At this season men wrapped their feet in bags, and wom- en stuffed their muffs with hot stones. Sleepers were rudely awakened by the tithing-man's baton thwacking their heads ; or, if females, by its fox-tail 1688] THE SALEM WITGHGRAFT 97 eud brushing their cheeks. Fast-days were com- mon. Prayer opened every public meeting, secular as well as religious. The doctrine of special provi- dences was pressed to a ridiculous extreme. The devil was believed in no less firmly than God, and indefinitely great power ascribed to him. The Catechism — book second in authority only to the Bible — contained of his Satanic Majesty a cut, which children were left, not to say taught, to sup- pose as correct a likeness as that of Cromwell, which crowned the mantels of so many homes. In a people thus trained the miracle is not that witchcraft and superstition did sq much mischief, but so little. Had it not been for their sturdy Saxon good sense its results must have proved infinitely more sad. The first remarkable case of sorcery in New England occurred at Boston, in 1688. Four children of a pious family were af- fected in a peculiar manner, imitating the cries of cats and dogs, and complaining of pains all over their bodies. These were the regulation symp- toms of witch-possession, which presumably they had often heard discussed. Au old Irish serving- woman, indentured to the family, who already bore the name of a witch, was charged with having be- witched them, and executed, the four ministers of Boston having first held at the house a day of prayer and fasting. Young Cotton Mather, grands(|n of the distin- guished Rev. John Cotton, a man of vast erudition and fervent piety, was at this time colleague to his father, Increase Mather, as pastor of the Boston North Church. His imagination had been abnor- 7 98 ENGLISH AMERICA [1693 mally developed by fasts and vigils, in which he beheved himself to hold uncommonly close com- munication with the Almighty. His desire to provide new arms for faith against the grow- ing unbelief of his time led him to take one of the " bewitched " children to his house, that he might note and describe the ways of the devil in her case. The results he soon after published in his " Memorable Providences Kdlating to Witch- crafts and Possessions." This work admitted no doubt as to the reality of the demoniac posses- sions, which indeed it affected to demonstrate for- ever. All the Boston ministers signed its preface, certifying to its " clear information " that " both a God and a devil, and witchcraft " existed. " Noth- ing too vile," it alleged, " can be- said of, nothing too hard can be done to, such a horrible iniquity as witchcraft is." The publication excited great at- tention, and to it in no small measUi-e the ensuing tragedy may be traced. In February, 1692, three more subjects, children of Eev. Mr. Parris, minister at Danvers, then called Salem Village, exhibited bad witchcraft symptoms. The utmost excitement prevailed. Neighboring clergymen joined the village in fasting and prayer. A general fast for the colony was ordered. But the " devilism," as Cotton Mather named it, spread in- stead of abating, the children having any number of imitators so soon as they became objects of gen- eral notice and sympathy. Old Tituba, an Indian crone, who had served in Parris's family, was the first to be denounced as the cause. Two other aged females, one crazy, the other'bed-ridden, were 1693] THE SALEM WITOHGRAFT 99 also presently accused, and after a little while sev- eral ladies of Parris's church. Whoso uttered a whisper of incredulity, general or as to the blame- worthiness of any whom Parris called guilty, was instantly indicted with them. On April 11th, the Deputy Governor held in the meeting-house in Salem Village a court for a pre- liminary examination of the prisoners. A scene at once ridiculous and tragic followed. When they were brought in, their alleged victims appeared overcome at their gaze, pretending to be bitten, pinched, scratched, choked, burned, or pricked by their invisible agency in revenge for refusing to subscribe to a covenant with the devil. Some were apparently stricken down by the glance of an eye from one of the culprits, others fainted, many writhed as in a fit. Tituba was beaten to make her confess. Others were tortured. Finally all the accused were thrown into irons. Numbers of ac- cused persons, assured that it was their only chance for life, owned up to deeds of which they must have been entirely innocent. They hg,d met the devil in the form of a small black man, had attended witch sacraments, where they renounced their Christian vows, and had ridden through the air on broomsticks. Such were the confessions of poor women who had never in their lives done any evil except possibly to tattle. On June 2d, a special court waS held in Salem for the definite trial. Stoughton, Lieutenant Gov- ernor, a man of small mind and bigoted temper, was president. The business began by the con- demnation and hanging of a helpless woman. A 100 ENGLISH AMERTGA [1693 jury of women had found on her person a wart, which was pronounced to be unquestionably a "dev- il's teat,"and her neighbors remembered that many hens had died, animals become lame, and carts up- set by her dreadful "devilism." By September 23d, twenty persons had gone to the gallows, eight more were under sentence, and fiffy-five had" con- fessed "and turned informers as their only hope. The "afflicted " had increased to fifty. Jails were crammed with persons under accu'sation, and fresh charges of alliance with devils were brought for- ward every day. Some of the wretched victims, displayed great fortitude. Goodman Procter lost his life by nobly and persistently — ^vainly as well, alas ! — maintain- ing the innocence of his. accused wife. George Burroughs, who had formerly preached in Salem Village, was indicted. His physical strength, which happened to be phenomenal, was adduced as lent him from the devil. Stoughton browbeat him through his whole trial. What sealed his con- demnation, however, was his offer to the jury of a paper quoting an author who denied the possibil- ity of witchcraft. His fervent prayers when on the scaffold, and especially his correct rendering of the Lord's prayer, shook the minds of many. They argued that no witch cotild have gotten through those holy words correctly — a test upon which several had been condemned. Cotton Ma- ther, present at the gallows, restored the crowd to faith by reminding them that the devil had the power to dress up like an angel of light. Kebecca Nurso, a woman of unimpeachable character hith- 1692] THE SALEM WITUHGUAFT 101 erto, unable from partial deafness to understand, so as to explain, the allegations made against her, was con'victed notwithstanding every proof in her favor. Reaction now began. Public opinion commenced to waver. No one knew whose turn to be hanged would come next. Bmboldenecj by their fatal success, accusers whispered of people in high places as leagued with the Evil One. An Andover minister narrowly escaped death. The Beverly minister. Hale, one of the most active in denounc- ing witches, was aghast when his own wife was accused. Two sons of Governor Bradstreet were obliged to flee for their lives, on"e for refusing, as a magistrate, to issue any more warrants, the other charged with bewitching a dog. Several hurried to New York to escape conviction. The property of such was seized by their towns. A reign of ter- ror prevailed. People slowly awoke to the terrible travesty of jus- tice which was going on. Magistrates were seen to have overlooked the most flagrant instances of falsehood and contradiction on the part of both accusers and accused, using the baseless hypothe- sis that the devil had warped their senses. The disgusting partiality shown in the accusations was disrelished, as was the resort that had been had to torture. One poor old man of eighty they crushed to death because he would plead guilty to nothing. The authorities quite disregarded the fact that everyone of the self-accusations had been made in order to escape punishment. These considerations effected a revolution in the minds of most peo- 102 ENGLISH AMERIOA [1693 pie. Eemoustrances were presented to the courts, securing reprieve for those under sentence of death at Salem. This so irritated the despicable Stoughton that he resigned. The forwardness of the ministers therein turned many against the persecution. After the first vic- tims had fallen at Salem, Governor Phips took their advice whether or not to proceed. Cotton Mather indited the reply. It thankfully acknowl- edges "the success which the merciful God has given to the sedulous and assiduo.us endeavors of our honorable rulers to defeat the abominable witchcrafts which have been committed in the coun- try, humbly praying that the discovery of those mysterious and mischievous wickednesses may be perfected." It is pleasant to note, after all, the ministers' advice to the civil ruler§ not to rely too much on " the devil's authority " — on the evidence, that is, of those possessed. The court heeded this injunction aU too little, but by and by it had weight with the public, who judged that, as the trials ap- peared to be proceeding on devil's evidence alone, the farce ought to cease. The Superior Court met in Boston. April 25, 1693, and the grand jury de- clined to find any more bills against persons ac- cused of sorcery. King William vetoed the Witch- craft Act, and by the middle of 1693 all the prison- ers were discharged. CHAPTEE IV. THE MIDDLE COLONIES The English conquest of New Netherland from the Dutch speedily followed the Stuarts' return to the throne. CromweU had mooted an attack on Dutch America, and, as noticed in Chapter I., Connecticut's charter of 1662 extended that colony to include the Dutch lands. England based her claim to the territory on alleged priority of discov- ery, but the real motives were the value of the Hudson as an avenue for trade, and the desire to range her colonies along the Atlantic coast in one unbroken line. The victory was not bloody, ncn- was it offensive to the Dutch themselves^ who in the matter of liberties could not lose. King Charles had granted the conquered tract to his brother, the Duke of York, subsequently JameS II., and it was in his honor christened with its present name of New York. The Duke's government was no't popular, espe- cially as it ordered the Dutch land-patents to be renewed — for money, of course ; and in 1673, war again existing between England and Holland, the Dutch recovered their old possession. They held it however for only fifteen months, since at the Peace of 1674 the two belligerent nations mutually restored all the posts which they had won. 104 ENGLISH AMEElOA [1090 The reader already has some idea of Sir Edraond Andros's rale in America. New York was the first to feel this, coming under the gentleman's govern- orship immediately on being the second time sur- rendered to England. Such had been the political disorder in the province that Andros's headship, stern as it was, proved beneficial. He even, for a time, 1683-86, reluctantly permitted an elective legislature, though discontinuing it when the legis- latures of New England were suppressed. This taste of freedom had its effect afterward. When news of the Revolution of 1688 in England reached New York, Andros was in Boston. Nich- olson, Lieutenant-Governor, being a Catholic and an absolutist, and the colony now in horror of all Catholics through fear of French invasion from Canada, Jacob Leisler, a German adventurer, partly anticipating, partly obeying the popular wish, assumed to function in Nicholson's stead. All the aristocracy, English or Dutch, and nearly all the English of the lower rank were against him. Leisler was passionate and needlessly bitter to- ward Catholics, yet he meant well. He viewed his office as only transitory, and stood ready to sur- render it so soon as the new king's will could be learned ; but when Sloughter arrived with commis- sion as governor, Leisler's foes succeeded in com- passing his execution for treason. This unjust and cruel deed began a long feud between the popular and the aristocratic party in the colony. From this time till the American devolution New York continued a province of the crown. Royal governor succeeded royal governor, some of 1700] THE MIDDLE COLONIES 105 them better, some worse. Of the entire line Bello- mont was the most worthy official, Combury the least so. One of the problems which chiefly wor- ried all of them was how to execule the navigation acts, which, evaded everywhere, were here unscrup- ulously defied. Another care of the governors, in which they succeeded but very imperfectly, was to establish the English Church in the colony. A third was the disfranchisement of Catholics. This they accomplished, the legislature concurring, and the disability continued during the entire colonial period. Hottest struggle of all occurred over the question of the colony's right of self-taxation. The democ- racy stood for this with the utmost firmness, and even the higher classes favored rather than op- posed. The governors, Cornbury and Lovelace, most frantically, but in vain, expostulated, scolded, threatened, till at last it became admitted by law in the colony that no tax whatever could, on any pretext, be levied save by act of the people's repre- sentatives. Dutch America, it wiE. be remembered, liad reached southward to the Delaware River, and this lower portion passed with the rest to the Duke of York in 1664. The territory between the Hudson and the Delaware, under the name of New Jersey, he made over to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Car- teret, proprietaries, who favored the freest institu- tions, civil and religious. The population was for long very sparse and, as it grew, very miscellane- ous, Dutch, Swedes, English, Quakers, and Puri- tans from New England were represented. 106 ENGLISH AMERtGA [I'^OO After the English recovery Berkeley disposed of his undivided half of the province, subsequently set off as West Jersey, to one Bylling, a Quaker, who in a little time assigned it to Lawrie, Lucas, Penn, and other Quakers. West Jersey became as much a Quaker paradise as Pennsylvania. Penn, with eleven of his brethren, also, bought, of Car- teret's heirs. East Jersey, but here Puritan rather than Quaker influence prevailed. The Jersey plantations came of course under Andros, and after his fall its proprietors did not recover their political authority. For twelve years, while they were endeavoring to do this, partial an- archy cursed the province, and at length in 1702 they surrendered their rights to the crown, the Jer- seys, now made one, becoming directly subject to Queen Anne. The province had its own legisla- ture and, till 1741, the same governors as New York. It also had mainly the same political vicis- situdes, and with the same result. William Penn, the famous Quaker, received the proprietorship of Pennsylvania in payment of a claim for sixteen thousand pounds against the English Government. This had been left him by his father, Sir William Penn, a distinguished naval commander in the Dutch war of 1665-67, when he had borne chief part in the conquest of Jamaica. WiUiam Penn was among the most cultivated men of his time, polished by study and travel, deeply read in law and philosopby. He had fort- une, and many friends at court, including Charles II. himself. Ho needed but to conform, and great place was his. But conform he would not. True 170O] THE MIDDLE COLONIES 107 to the inner light, braving the scoffs of all his friends, expelled from Oxford University, beaten from his own father's door, imprisoned now nine months in London Tower, now- six in Newgate, this heroic spirit persistently went the Quaker May. In despair of securing in England freedom for dis- tressed consciences he turned his thoughts toward. America, there to try his " holy experiment." The charter from Charles IL was drawn by Penn's own hand and was nobly liberal. It or- dained perfect religious toleration for all Chris- tians, and forbade taxation save by the provincial assembly or the English Parliamojit. Under Will- iam and Mary, greatly to his grief, Penn was forced to sanction the penal laws against Catho- lics ; but they were most leniently administered, which brought upon the large-minded jiroprietary much trouble with the home government. As Pennsylvania, owing to the righteous and loving procedure of Penn toward them, suffered nothing from the red men to the west, so was it fortunately beyond Andros's jurisdiction on the east. Once, from 1692, for two years, the land was snatched from Penn and placed under a royal commission. Returning to England in 1684, after a two years' sojourn in America to get his colony started, the Quaker chief became intimate and a favorite with James II., devotedly supporting his Declaration of Indulgence toward Catholics as well as toward all Protestant dissenters. He tried hard but vainly to win William and Mary to the same policy. This attitude of his cost him dear, rendering him an object of suspicion to the men 108 ENGLISH AMERWA [IVOO now ill power in England. Twice was he accused of treasonable correspondence with the exiled James II., though never proved guilty. From 1699 to 1701 he was in America again, thereafter residing in England till his death in 1718. He had literally given all for his colony, his efforts on its behalf having been to him, so fre wrote in 1710, a cause of grief, trouble, and poverty. But the colony itself was amazingly prosperous. There were internal feuds, mainly petty, some se- rious. George Keith grievously divided the Qua- kers by his teachings against slavery, going to law, or service as magistrates on the part of Qua- kers, thus implying that only infidels or chui-chmen could be the colony's officials. Fletcher's governorship in 169,3-94, under the royal commission, evoked contipual opposition, colonial privileges remaining intact in spite of him. The people from time to time subjected their ground-law to changes, only to render it a fitter in- strument of freedom. In everything save the he- reditary function of the proprietary, it was demo- cratic. For many years even the governor's council was elective. The colony grew, immigrants crowd- ing in from nearly every European country, and wealth multiplied to correspond. We have, dating from 1698, a history of Penn- sylvania by one Gabriel Thomas, full of inter- esting information. Philadelphia, was already a " noble and beautiful city," containing above 2,000 houses, most of them "stately," made of brick; three stores, and besides a town house, a market house, and several schools. Three fairs were held 1700] THE MIDDLE COLONIES 109 there yearly, and two weekly markets, which it required twenty fat bullocks, besides many sheep, calves, and hogs to supply. The city had large trade to New York, New England, Virginia, West India, and Old England. Its exports were horses, pipe- staves, salt meats, bread-stuffs, poultry, and to- bacco ; its imports iir, rum, sugar, molasses, sil- ver, negroes, salt, linen, household goods, etc. Wages were three times as high as in England or Wales. All sorts of " very good paper " were made at Germantown, besides linen, druggets, crapes, camplets, serges, and other woollen cloths. All religious confessions were represented. In 1712, such his poverty, the good proprietary was willing to sell to the crown, but as he insisted upon maintenance of the colonists' full rights, no sale occurred. English bigots and revenue offi- cials would gladly have annulled his charter, but his integrity had gotten him influence among English statesmen, which shielded the heritage he had left even when he was gone. It is particularly to be noticed that till our In- dependence Delaware was most intimatelj- related to Pennsylvania. Of Delaware the fee simple be- longed not to Penn but to the Duke of York, who had conquered it from the Dutch, as they from the Swedes. Penn therefore governed here, not as proprietary but as the Duke's tenant. In 1690- 92, and from 1702, Delaware enjoyed a legislature by itself, though its governors were appointed by Penn or his heirs during the entire colonial pe- riod. CHAPTER V. MARYLAND, VIRGINIA, CABOLINA The establishment of Charles II. as king fully restored Lord Baltimore as proprietary in Mary- land, and for a long time the colony enjoyed much peace and prosperity. In 1660 it boasted twelve thousand inhabitants, in 1665 sixteen thousand, in 1676 twenty thousand. Plantation life was uni- versal, there being no town wortjiy the name till Baltimore, which, laid out in 1739, grew very slow- ly. Tobacco was the main production, too nearly the only one, the planters sometimes actually suf- fering for food, so that the raising of cereals need- ed to be enforced by law. For long the weed was also the money of the province, not disused for this even when paper cixrrency was introduced, be- ing found the less fluctuating in value of the two. Partly actual over-production and partly the navi- gation acts, forcing all sales to be effected through England, fatally lowered the price, and Maryland with Virginia tried to establish a "trust " to regu- late the output. In its incessant and on one occasion bloody boundary disputes with Pennsylvania and Dela- ware, Maryland had to give in and suffer its north- em and eastern boundaries to be shortened. mo] MARYLAND, VIRGINIA, CAROLINA 111 One of the most beautiful traits of early Mary- land was its perfect toleration in religion. Prac- tically neither Pennsyh'ania nor Khode Island sur- passed it in this. Much hostility to the Quakers existed, yet they had here exceptional privileges, and great numbers from Virginia and the North utilized these. All sorts of dissenters indeed flocked hither out of all Europe'an countries, in- cluding many Huguenots, and were made wel- come to all the rights and blessings of the laud. But from the accession of Charles Calvert, the third Lord Baltimore, in 1675, the colony wit- nessed continual agitation in favor of establishing the English Church. False word reached the Privy Council that immorality was rife in the colony owing to a lack of religious instruction, and that Catholics were preferred in its offices. This movement succeeded, in spite of its intrinsic de- merit, by passing itself off as part of the rising in favor of William and Mary in 1688-89. James II. had shown no favor to Maryland. If its proprietary, as a Catholic, pleased him, its civil and religious liberty offended him more. He was hence not popular here, and the Marylanders would readily have proclaimed the new monarchs but for the accidental failure of the Proprietary's commands to this effect to reach them. This gave occasion for one Coode, with a few abettors, to form, in April, 1689, an " Association in Ar-ms for the Defence of the Protestant Eeligion, and for Assert- ing the Eight of King William and Queen Mary to the Province of Maryland." The exaggerated representations of these conspirators prevailed in 112 ENGLISH AMERIGA [1675 England. The proprietary, retaining his quit rents and export duty, was deprived of his political prerogatives. Maryland became a crown province, Sir Lionel Copley being the first royal governor, and the Church of England received establishment therein. The new ecclesiastical rule did not oppress Protestant dissenters, though very severe on Cath- olics, whom it was supposed necessary, here as all over America, to keep under, lest they should rise in favor of James II., or his son the Pretender. The third Lord Baltimore died in 1714-15. The proprietaries, after this being Protestants, were entrusted agaia with their old political head- ship. By this time a spirit of independence and self-assertion had grown up among the citizens, en- forcing very liberal laws, and the vices of the sixth Lord, succeeding in 1751, made his subjects more than willing that he should, as he did, close the proprietary line. Virginia, passionately loyal, at first gloried in the Bestoration. This proved premature. It was found that the purely selfish Charles II. cared no more for Virginia than for Massachusetts. The Commonwealth's men were displaced from power. Sir William Berkeley again became governor, this time, however, by the authority of the assembly. A larger feeling of independence from England had sprung up in the colony in consequence of re- cent history at home and in the mother-land. It was developed still further by the events now to be detailed. The Old Dominion contained at this time 40,- 1676] MARYLAND, VIRGINIA, (fAROLINA 113 000 people, 6,000 being white ser-vants and 2,000 negro slaves, located mainly upon the lower waters of the Eappahannock, York, and James Eivers. Between 1650 and 1670, through large immigra- tion from the old country, the population had in- creased from 15,000 to 40,000, some of the first families of the State in subsequent times arriving at this jvmcture. About eighty ships of commerce came each year from Great Britain, besides many from New England. Virginia herself built no ships and owned few ; but she could muster eight thousand horse, had driven the Indians far into the interior, possessed the capacity for boundless wealth, and had begun to experience a decided sense of her own rights and importance. The last fact showed itself in. Bacon's Mebellion, which broke out in 1676, Just one hundred years before the Declaration of Independence. The causes of the insurrection were not far to seek. The navigation acts were a sore grievance to Virginia as to the other colonies. Under Crom- well they had not been much enforced, and the Virginians had traded freely with all who came. Charles enforced them with all possible rigor, con- fining Virginia's trade to England and English ships manned by Englishmen. This gave England a grinding monopoly of tobacco, Virginia's sole export, making the planters commercially the slaves of the home government and of English traders. Duties on the weed wer^ high, and mer- cilessly collected without regard to lowness of price. All supplies from abroad also had to be purchased in England, at prices' set by English 8 114 ENGLISH AMERICA [1676 sellers. Even if from other part^ of Europe, they must come through England, thus securing her a profit at Virginia's expense. This was not the worst. The colonial govern- ment had always been abused for the ends of worthless ofltice - holders from England. Now it was farmed out more offensively' than ever. In 1673 Charles II. donated Virginia to two of his favorites. Lords Axlington and Oulpeper, to be its proprietaries like Penn in Pennsylvania and Baltimore in Maryland. They were to have all the quit rents and other revenues, the nomination of ministers for parishes, the right of appointing public officers, the right to own and sell all public or escheated lands : in a word, they now owned Virginia. This shabby treatment awoke the most intense rage in so proud a people. The king re- lented, revoked his donation, made out and was about to send a new charter. But it was too late : rebellion had already broken out. The Indians having made some attacks on the upper plantations, one Nathaniel Bacon, a spirited young gentleman of twenty-eighi, recently from England, applied to Sir William Berkeley for a commission against them. The Governor declined to give it, fearing, in the present excited condition of the colony, to have a body of armed men abroad. Bacon, enraged, extorts the commission by force. The result is civil war in the colony. The rebels are for a time completely victorious. Berkeley is driven to Accomac, on the eastern shore of the Ches- apeake, but, succeeding in capturing a fleet sent to oppose him, he returns with this and captures 1690] MARYLAND, VIRGTNTA, CAROLINA 115 Jamestown. Beaten by Bacon in a pitched battle, he again retires to Aocomac and the colony comes fully under the power of his antagonist, the colon- ists agreeing even to fight England should it in- terpose on the governor's side, when a decisive change in affairs is brought about by the rebel leader's death. The rebellion was now easily subdued, but it had soured and hardened old Governor Berkeley's spirit. Twenty -three in all were executed for participation in the movement. Charles II. re- marked : " That old fool has hanged more men in that naked country than I for the murder of my father." After Bacon's Bebellion the colonial annals show but a dull succession of royal governors, with few events specially interesting. Under the governorship of Lord Howard of Effingham, which began in 1684, great excitement x^revailed in Vir- ginia lest King James II. should subvert the Eng- lish Church there and make Catholicism dominant, which indeed might possibly have occurred but for James's abdication in 1688. Under Governor Nicholson, from 1690, the capi- tal was removed from Jamestown to Williamsburg, and the College of William and Mary founded, its charter dating from 1693. The Attorney-General, Seymour, opposed this project on the ground that the money was needed for " better purposes " than educating clergymen. Kev. Dr. Blair, agent and advocate of the endowment, pleading : " The peo- ple have souls to be saved," Seymour retorted : "Damn your souls, make tobacco." But Blair 116 ENGLISH AMEBIGA [1'730 persisted and succeeded, himself becoming first president of the college. The initial commence- ment exercises took place in 1700. Governor Spotswood, who came in 1710, did much for Virginia. He built the first iron fur- naces in America, introduced wine-culture, for which he imported skilled Germans, and greatly interested himself in the civilization of the Ind- ians. He was the earliest to explore the Shen- andoah Valley. It was also by his energy that the famous pirate " Blackboard " was captured and executed. Lieutenant Maynard, sent with two ships to hunt him, attacked and boarded the pi- rate vessel in Pamlico Sound, 1718. A tough fight at close quarters ensued. Blackboard was shot dead, his crew crying for quarter. Thirteen of the men were hung at Williamsburg. Blackbeard's skull, made into a drinking-cup, is preserved to this day. The great corsair's fate, Benjamin Franklin, then a printer's devil m Boston, cele- brated in verse. Carolina was settled partly from England, France, and the Barbadoes, and partly from New England ; but mainly from Virginia, which col- ony furthermore furnished most of its political ideas. In March, 1663, Carolina was constituted a ter- ritory, extending from 36° north latitude south- ward to the river San Matheo, aiid assigned to a company of seven distinguished proprietaries, in- cluding General Monk, who had been created Duke of Albemarle, and John Locke's patron, the famous Lord Ashley Cooper, subsequently Earl of naoj MARYLAND, VIRGINIA, CAROLINA 117 Shaftesbury. Governor Sir AVilliara Berkeley, of Virginia, was also one of the proprietaries. Locke drew up for the province a minute feudal constitution, but it was too cumbersome to work. Rule by the proprietaries proved radically bad. They were ignorant, callous to wrongs done by their governors, and indifferent to everything save their own profits. Many of the Settlers too were turbulent and criminals, fugitives from the justice of other colonies. The difficulty was aggravated by Indian and Spanish wars, by negro slavery, so profitable for rice culture, especially in South Car- olina, by strife between dissenters and churchmen, by the question of revenue, and by that of repre- sentation. A proprietary party and a largpr popular party were continually at feud, not seldom with arms, support of the Church allying itself mainly with the former, dissent with the latter. Zealots for the Church wished to exclude disS'enters from the assembly. Their opponents would keep Huguenot immigrants, whom the favor of the proprietaries rendered unwelcome, entirely from the franchise. The popular party passed laws for electing repre- sentatives in every county instead of at Charles- ton alone, and for revenue tariffs to pay the debt entailed by war. The proprietaries vetoed both. They even favored the pirates who harried the coast. Civil commotions were frequent and growth slow. Interference by the crown was therefore most happy. From the time the Carolinas passed into royal hands, 1729, remarkable prosperity at- tended them both. 118 ENGLISH AMERICA [1^30 Assuming charge of Carolina, tlie Crown reserved to itself the Spanish frontier, and here, in 1732, it settled Oglethorpe, the able and unselfish founder of Georgia, under the auspices of an organization in form much like a mercantile company, but benevo- lent in aim, whose main purpose was to open a home for the thousands of Englishmen who were in prison for debt. Many Scotch and many Austrians also came. Full civil liberty was promised to all, religious liberty to all but papists. Political strife was warm here, too, particularly respecting the ad- mission of rum and slaves. Government by the corporators, though well-meaning, was ill-informed and a failure, and would have been ruinous to the colony but for Oglethorpe's genius and exertions. To the advantage of all, therefore, on the lapse of the charter in 1752, Georgia, like the Carolinas, as- sumed the status of a royal colony. CHAPTEK VI, GOVEENMENTAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE COLONIES The political life, habits, and forms familiar to our fathers were such as their peculiar surround- ings and experience had developed out of English originals. This process and its results form an interesting study. The political unit at the South was the parish ; in the North it was the toAvn. Jury trial prevailed in all the colonies. Local self-government was vig- orous everywhere, yet the most so in the North. The town regulated its affairs, such as the schools, police, roads, the public lands, the poor, and iu Massachusetts and Connecticut also religion, at first by pure mass meetings where each citizen rep- resented himself and which were both legislative and judicial in function, then by combining these meetings in various ways with the agency of select- men. Wliere and so soon as a colony came to em- brace several towns, representative machinery was set in motion and .a colonial legislature formed, having two chambers nearly everywhere, like Par- liament. The county, with the same character as at present, was instituted later than the oldest towns and parishes, but itself subsequently became, in thinly settled parts, the unit .of governmental 120 ENGLISH AMERIGA [1V50 organization and political action, Ipeing divided in- to towns or parishes only gradually. Voting was subject to a property qualification, in some colonies to a religious one also ; but no nobility of blood or title got foothold. The relation of the colonial governments to Eng- land is a far more perplexing matter. From the preceding chapters it appears thaj} we may distin- guish the colonies, if we come down to about 1750, as either (1) seK-goveming or charter colonies, in which liberty was most complete and subjection to England little more than nominal, and (2) non-self- governing, ruled, theoretically at any rate, in con- siderable measure from outside themselves. Ehode Island and Connecticut made up the former class. Of the latter there were two groups, the royal or provincial, including New Hampshire, Massachu- setts, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, the Caro- linas, and Georgia, and the proprietary, viz., Penn- sylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. Yet we are to bear in mind that many important constitutional and governmental changes had oc- curred by 1750. Massachusetts, as we have seen, had ceased to be self-governing as at first, yet it retained a charter which conferred large liberty. All the provincial colonies began as proprietary, and all the proprietary were for a time provincial. Under Andros, New England stretched from the St. Croix to Delaware Bay. After 1689 the ten- dency in all parts of the country was strong toward civil freedom, which, favored by the changes and apathy of proprietaries and the ignorance and quar- rels of the English ministry, gradually rendered 1750] GOVERNMENTAL INSTITUTIONS 121 the other colonies in effect about as well off in this respect as Bhode Island and Connecticut. But unfortunately the legal limits and meaning of this freedom were never determined. Had they been, our Revolution need not have come. Mon- archs continually attempted to stretch hither the royal prerogative, but how far this was legal was not then, and never can be, decided. The consti- tutional scope of a monarch's prerogative in Eng- land itself was one of the great questions of the seventeenth century, and remained serious and un- settled through the eighteenth. Applied to America the problem became angrier still, partly because giving a charter — and the colonies were all found- ed on such gift — was an act of prerogative. Enghsh lawyers never doubted that acts of Par- hament were valid in the colonies. The colonists opposed both the king's and the Parliament's pre- tensions, and held their own legislatures to be co- ordinate with the Houses at Westminster. They claimed as rights the protection of habeas corpus, freedom from taxation without their consent, and all the great charter's guarantees. It was the habit of Enghsh theorizing on the subject to allow them these, if at all, as of grace. Repudiating the pretense that they were represented in Parliament, they likewise denied all wish to be so, but desired to have colonial legislatures recognized as concur- rent with the English — each colony joined to the mother-country by a sort of pejrsonal union, or through some such tie as exists between England and her colonies to-day. Massachusetts theorists used as a valid analogy the relation of ancient Nor- 122 ENGLISH AMERICA [1750 mandy to the French kings. Though no longer venturing to do so at home, nionarchs freely vetoed legislation in all the colonies except Rhode Island and Connecticut. It was held that' even these col- onies were after all somehow subject to England's oversight. On the subject of taxation there was continual dispute, misunderstanding, recrimination. The col- onies did not object to providing for their own de- fence. They were wilHng to do this under English direction if asked, not commanded. Direct taxa- tion for England's behoof was never once con- sented to by America, and till late never thought of by England. The English navigation laws, however, though amounting to taxajtion of America in aid of England, and continually evaded as un- just, were allowed by the colonies' legislative acts, and never seriously objected to in" any formal way. CHAPTBE VII. SOCIAL CULTURE IN COLONIAL TIMES American society rose oiTt of nfere untitled hu- manity ; monarchy, guilds, priests, and all aristoc- racy of a feudal nature having been left behind in Europe. The year 1700 found in aU the Ameri- can colonies together some 300,000 people. They were distributed about as follows : New England had 115,000 ; New York, 30,000 ; New Jersey, 15,- 000 ; Pennsylvania and Delaware, 20,000 ; Mary- land, 35,000 ; Virginia, 70,000 ; the Carolina coun- try, 15,000. Perhaps 50,000 were negro slaves, of whom, say, 10,000 were held north of Mason and Dixon's line. What is now New York City had, in 1697, 4,302 inhabitants. Passing on to 1754, we find the white popula- tion of New England increased to 425,000 ; that of the middle colonies, including Maryland, to 457,- 000 ; that of Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia to 283,000. Massachusetts alone now had 207,- 000; Ehode Island, 35,000; Connecticut, 133,000; New York State (1756), 83,744. There were now not far from 263,000 negroes, of whom 14,000 lived in New England, 4,500 in Ehode Island. The total population of the thirteen colonies amounted to nearly a million and a half. At this 124 ENGLISH AMERICA [1750 time Philadelphia about equalled Boston in size, each having 25,000 inhabitants. At the Eevolu- tion Boston had grown to be the larger. New York, with from 15,000 to 18,000, .constituted the centre of trade and of politics. The city and county of New York together numbered 13,046 inhabitants in 1756 ; 21,862 in 1771 ; 23,614 in 1786. The whole State, in 1771, h$,d 146,144. Con- necticut, in 1774, had 197,856. There are said to have been, so late as 1763, Avoods where the New York City Hall now stands. From North to South the population decreased in density, but it increased in heterogeneity and non-English elements, and in illiteracy. The South had also the stronger aristocratic feeling. Slaves, as the above figures show, were far more numerous in that section. Their condition Avas also worse there. A large proportion of the white population everywhere was of Saxon-Teutonic blood. The colonial leaders, and many others, at least in the North, were men who would have been eminent in England itself. Not a few New England theolo- gians and lawyers were peers to the ablest of their time. Numbers of the common people read, re- flected, debated. While profoundly rehgious, the colonists, being nearly all Protestants, were bold and progressive thinkers in every line, prizing dis- cussion, preferring to settle questions by rational methods rather than through authority and tradi- tion. We have observed that there are exceptions to this rule, like the treatment of Koger Williams, but they were exceptions. The colonists pos- 1V50] SOCIAL GULTUHJE 125 sessed in eminent degree energy,, determination, power of patient endurance and sacrifice. Their political genius, too, was striking! in itself, and it becomes surprising if one compares Germany, in the unspeakable distraction of the Thirty Years' "War, with America at the same period, 1618-1648, successfully solving by patience and debate the very problems which were Germany's despair-. In all the southern colonies the English Church was established, a majority of the people its mem- bers, its clergy supported by tithes and glebe. William and Mary secured it a sort of establish- ment also in New York and Maryland. Yet at no moment of the colonial period was there a bishop in America. No church building was consecrated with episcopal rites, no resident of America taken into orders without going to London.* Even in Virginia, till a very late colonial period, the clergy retained many Puritan forms. Some would not read the Common Prayer. For more than a hun- dred years the surplice was apparently unknoAs^n there, sacraments administered without the proper ornaments and vessels, parts of the liturgy omitted, marriages, baptisms, churchings, and funerals sol- emnized in private houses. In some parishes, so late as 1724, the communion was partaken sitting. Excellent as were many of the clergymen, there were some who never preached, and not a few even bore an ill name. It ^va.s worst in Maryland, and "bad as a Maryland parson" became a proverb. The yearly salary in the best Virginia parishes was tobacco of about £100 value. * See, for these facts, The Century for May, 1888. 126 ENGLISH AMEBIGA [1750 The Carolina clergy at first formed a superior class, as nearly all the early ministers were men carefully selected and sent out fronj England by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Here there was special interest in the religious welfare of the slaves. All over the South the Church miuisters owed much to competition with those of sects, es- pecially those of the Presbyterians, to which body belonged many of the Scotch and Irish immi- grants after 1700. Dissent was dominant every- where at the North. A vast majority of the peo- ple even in New York were dissenters, though the Episcopal clergy there successfully resisted aU ef- forts against the Church tax, notwithstanding the fact that the same injustice in Massachusetts and Connecticut oppressed their brethren in those col- onies. The New York clergy also fought every sort of liberal law, as to enable dissenting bodies of Christians to hold property. It was in good de- gree this attitude of theirs that filled the country, Virginia too, with such hatred of bishops. But this spirit was fully matched by that of the Independent ministers in New England. Their dissent was aggressive, persecuting, puritanical. Meeting-houses were cold, sermons long and dry, music vocal only. Religious teaching and the laws it procured, foolishly assumed to regulate all the acts of life. Extravagance was denounced and fined. In 1750, the Massachusetts Assembly for- bade theatres as " likely to encoiirage immorality and impiety." Rhode Island took similar action in 1762. The ministers of Boston viewed bishops almost 1750] SOCIAL CULTURE 127 as emissaries of tlie devil. Herein in fact lay the primary, some have tliought the deepest and most potent, cause of the Revolution, since kings and the bishops of London incessantly sought to es- tablish Anglicanism in Massachusetts, and Eng- lish politicians deemed it outrageous that con- formists should be denied any of that colony's privileges. For some time, under "William and Mary's charter, in this province where Congrega- tionalism had till now had evefrything its own way, only Church clergymen could celebrate mar- riage. In New York and Maryland, too, hostility to the establishment greatly stimulated disloyalty. This was true even in Anglican Virginia, where the Church found it no easier to keep power than it was in Massachusetts to get power, and where the clergy were unpopular, concerned more for tithes than for souls. Colleges were founded early inseveral colonies. Harvard dates from 1638 ; William and Mary, in Yirginia, from 1693 ; Yale, from 1701 ; the Col- lege of New Jersey from 1746, its old Nassau Hall, built in 1756 and named in honor of William III. of the House of Nassau, being then the largest structure in British America. The University of Pennsylvania dates from 1753 ; King's College, now Columbia, from 1754 ; Ehode Island College, now Brown University, from 1764. Educational facili- ties in general varied greatly with sections, being miserable in the southern colonies, fair in the cen- tral, excellent in the northern. In Virginia, during the period now under our survey, schools were al- most unknown. In Maryland, fr.om 1728, a free 128 ENGLISH AMERICA [1750 scliool was established by law in each county. These were the only such schools in the South be- fore 1770. Philadelphia and New York had good schools by 1700, rural Pennsylvania none of any sort tin 1750, then only the poorest. A few New York and New Jersey towns of New England ori- gin had free schools before the Revolution. Many Southern planters sent their sons to school in Eng- land. In popular education Newi England led not only the continent but the world, there being a school-house, often several, in each town. Every native adult in Massachusetts ahd Connecticut was able to read and write. In this matter Rhode Island was far behind its next neighbors. Newspapers were distributed much as schools were. The first printing-press was set up at Cam- bridge in 1639. The first newspaper, PuUicJc Occur- Ti'nces Foreign and Domestic, was started in Boston in 1690. The first permanent newspaper, the Bos- ton Neivs Letter, began in 1704, and it had a Boston and a Philadelphia rival in 1719.. The Maryland Gazette was started at Annapolis in 1727, a weekly at Williamsburg, Va., in 1736. In 1740 there were eleven newspapers in aU in the colonies : one each in New York, South Carolina, and Virginia (from 1736), three in Pennsylvania, one of them German, and five in Boston. The Connecticut Oasette was started at Ncav Haven in 1755 ; TVie Summary, at New London, in 1758. The Rhode Island Gazette was begun by James Frankhn, September 27, 1732, but was not permanent. The Providence Gazette and Country Journal put forth its first issue Octo- ber 20, 1762. In- 1775, Salem, Newburyport, and 1750] SOCIAL CULTURE 129 Portsmouth had each its newspaper. The first daily in the country, the Pennsyhania Packet, be- gan in 1784. Other literature of American origin flourished in New England nearly alone. It consisted of ser- mons, social and poHtical tracts, poetry, history, and memoirs. The clergy were the chief but not the sole authors. Of readers, New York, Phila- delphia, and Charleston had many. Much reading matter came from England. Charleston enjoyed a public library from 1700. About 1750 there were several others. That left to Philadelphia in 1751, by James Logan, comprised 4,00Q volumes. WiUiam and Mary had established a postal sys- tem for America, placing Thomas Neale, Esquire, at its head. The service hardly became a system till 1738. In ordinary weather a post-rider would receive the Philadelphia mail at the Susquehan- nah Eiver on Saturday evening, be at Annapolis on Monday, reach the Potomac Tuesday night, on Wednesday arrive at New Post, near Fredericks- burg, and by Saturday evening at Williamsburg, whence, once a month, the mail went still farther south, to Edenton, N. C. Thus a: letter was just a week in transit between Philadelphia and the capi- tal of Virginia. In New England, from here to New York, and between New York and Philadel- phia, despatch was much better. The learned professions also were best patron- ized and had the ablest personnel in New England, where all three, but particularly the clergy, were strong and honored. Outside of NeSv England, till 1750, lawyers and physicians, especially in the 9 130 ENGLISH AMEBICA [1750 country parts, were poorly educated and little re- spected. Bacli formidable disease had the people at its mercy. Diphtheria, then known as the throat disease, swept through the land once in about thirty years. Small-pox was another fre- quent scourge. In 1721 it attacked nearly six thousand persons in Boston, about half the popu- lation, killing some nine hundred. The clergy, almost to a man, decried vaccination when first vented, proclaiming it an effort to thwart God's will. Clergymen, except perhaps' in CaroHna and Yirginia, were somewhat better educated, yet those in New England led all others in this respect. Colonial America boasted many great intellect- ual lights. President Edwards won European re- putation as a thinker, and so did Franklin as a statesman and as a scientist. Linno3us named our Bartram, a Quaker farmer of Pfennsylvania, the greatest natural botanist then living. Increase Mather read and wrote both Greek and Hebrew, and spoke Latin. He and his son Cotton were veritable wonders in literary attainment. The one was the author of niuety-two books, the other of three hundred and eighty-three. The younger Winthrop was a member of the Boyal Society. Copley, Stuart, and West became distinguished painters. Except for mails, there were in the colonies no public conveyances by land till just before the Revolution. After stage lines were introduced, to go from Philadelphia to Pittsburg required seven days ; from Philadelphia to New York at first three, later two. The earliest coach to attain the 1750] SOCIAL CULTUHE 131 last-named speed was advertised as "the flying machine." From Boston one would be four days travelling to New York, two to Portsmouth. Packet-boats between the main points on the coast were as regular and speedy as wind allowed. Stage-drivers, inn-keepers, and ship-captains were the honored and accredited purveyors of news. Everywhere was great prosperity, little luxury. Paucity of money gave rise to that habit of barter and dicker in trade which was a mannerism of our fathers. Agriculture formed the basal industry, especially in the Southern colonies; yet in New England and Pennsylvania both manufactures and commerce thrived. Pennsylvania's yearly foreign commerce exceeded 1,000,000 pounds sterling, re- quiring 500 vessels and more than 7,000 seamen. From Pennsylvania, in 1750, 3,000 tons of pig-iron were exported. The annual production of iron in Maryland just before the Kevolution reached 25,- 000 tons of pig, 500 of bar. The business of ma- rine insurance began in this country at Philadel- phia in 1721, fire insurance at Boston in 1724, New England produced timber, ships, rum, paper, hats, leather, and linen and woollen cloths, the first three for export. In country places houses were poor save on the great estates, south, but in the iities there were many fine mansions before 1700. From this year stoves began to be used. Glass windows and paper hangings were first seen nOt far from 1750. The colonists ate much flesh, and nearly all used tobacco and liquor freely. Finest ladies snuffed, sometimes smoked. Little coffee, was drunk, and 132 ENGLISH AMERICA [1V50 no tea till about 1700. Urban life was social and gay. In the country the games of. fox and geese, three and twelve men morris, husking bees and quilting bees were the chief sparts. Tableware was mostly of wood, though many had pewter, and the rich much silver. The people's ordinary dress was of home-made cloth, but not a few country people stiU wore deerskin. The clothing of the rich was imported, and often gaudy with taste- less ornament. Wigs were comrnon in the eigh- teenth century, and all head-dress stupidly elab- orate. William Lang, of Boston, advertises in 1767 to provide all who wish with wigs " in the most gen- teel and polite taste," assuring judges, divines, lawyers, and physicians, " because of the impor- tance of their heads, that he can assort his wigs to suit their respective occupations and inclinations." He tells the ladies that he can furnish anyone of them with " a nice, easy, genteel, and polite con- struction of rolls, such as may tend to raise their heads to any pitch they desire." " Everybody wore wigs in 1750i except convicts and slaves. Boys wore them, servants wore them, Quakers wore them, paupers wore them. The making of wigs was an important branch of indus- try in Great Britain. Wigs were of many styles and prices. Some dangled with curls ; and they were designated by a great variety of names, such as tyes, bobs, majors, spencers, foxtails, twists, tetes, scratches, full-bottomed dress boBs, cues, and per- ukes. The people of Philadelphia dressed as the actors of our theatres now dress in old English com- 1752] SOCIAL CULTURE 133 edj. They walked the streets in bright-colored and highly decorated coats, three-cornered hats, ruffled shirts and wrist-bands, knee-breeches, silk stockings, low shoes, and silver buckles."* Lord Stirling, one of Washington's generals, had a cloth- ing inventory like a king : a " pompidou " cloth coat and vest, breeches with gold lace, a crimson and figured velvet coat, seven scarlet vests, et cetera, et cetera. The wigs encoxintered the zealous hostility of many, among these Judge Samuel Sewall. His highest evilogy on a departed worthy was : " The welfare of the poor was much upon his spirit and he abominated periwigs." A member of the church at Newbury, Mass., refused to attend communion because the pastor wore a Avig, believing that all who were guilty of this practice would be damned if they did not repent. A meeting of Massachu- setts Quakers solemnly expressed the conviction that the wearing of extravagant and superfluous wigs was wholly contrary to the truth. There was an aristocracy, of its kind, in all the colonies, but it was far the strongest in the South. Social lines were sharply drawn, an " Esquire " not liking to be accosted as " Mr.," and each looking down somewhat upon a simple " Goodman." These gradations stood forth in college catalogues and in the location of pews in churches. The Tale trien- nial catalogue until 1767 and the Harvard triennial till 1772 arrange students' names not alphabetically or according to attainments, but so as to indicate * Mrs. M. J. Lamb, in Magazine of Am. history, August, 1888. 134 ENGLISH AMERIGA [l^SO the social rank of their families.- Memoranda of President Clap, of Yale, against the names of youth when admitted to college, such as " Justice of the Peace," "Deacon," "of middling estate much impoverished," reveal how hard it sometimes was properly to grade students socially. At the South, regular mechanics, like all free laborers, were few and despised. The indentured servants, very nu- merous in several colonies, differed little from slaves. David Jamieson, attorney-general of New York in 1710, had been banished from Scotland as a Covenanter and sold in New Jersey as a four years redemptioner to pay transportation ex- penses. Such servants were continually running away, which may have aided in abolishing the sys- tem. Paupers and criminals were fewest in New England. All the colonies imprisoned insolvent criminals, thoiigh dirt and damp made each prison a hell. All felonies were awarded capital punish- ment, and many minor crimes incurred barbarous penalties. Whipping - post, pillbry, and stocks were in frequent use. So late as 1760 women were piiblicly whipped. At Hartford, in 1761, David Campbell and Alexander Pettigrew, for the burg- lary of two watches, received each fifteen stripes, the loss of the right ear, and the brand-mark " B " on the forehead. Pettigrew came near losing his life from the profuse bleeding which ensued. A husband kilhng his wife was hanged. A wife kill- ing her husband was burned, as were slaves who slew their masters. In care for the unfortvinate and in the study and in all applications of social scieace, Philadelphia l'i'50] SOGJtAL CULTUE-M 13S led. The Pennsylvania Hospital, the first institu- tion of the kind in America, was fbunded in 1751. The Philadelphia streets were the first to be light- ed; those of New York next; those of Boston not till 1773. Before the end of the period now before ns Philadelphia and New York also had night patrols. CHAPTEE VIII. ENGLAND AND FKANCE IN AMERICA WoBKiNG tipward from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the source of this and of the Missis- sippi, and then down the latter river, Franciscans and Jesuits their pioneers, braving dreadful hard- ships and dangers in efforts, more courageous than successful, to convert the Indians, the French had come to control that great continental high- way and boldly to claim for France the entire heart of North America. In 1659, Groseilliers and Eadisson penetrated beyond Lake Superior, and dwelt for a time among the Sioux, who knew of the Mississippi Eiver. Next year Groseilliers went thither again, accom- panied by the Jesuit Menard and his servant, Gu^rin. In 1661 Menard and Guerin pushed into what is now Wisconsin, and may have seen the Mississippi. These explorations made the French familiar with the copper mines of Lake Superior, and awakened the utmost zeal to see the Great Eiver of which the Indians spoke. La Salle probably discovered the Ohio in 1670, and traced it down to the falls at Louisville. His main eulogist holds that he even reached the Mis- sissippi at that time, some three years earlier than 1665] ENGLAND AND FRANCE 137 Joliet, but this is not substantiated. We also re- ject the belief that he reached the stream by way of the Chicago portage in 1671. In 1672 Count Frontenac, Governor of New France, despatched Louis Joliet to discover the Great Kiver. He reached the Strait of Mackinaw in December, and there Pere IHarquette joined him. In May, nest year, they paddled their can- oes up the Fox River and tugged them across the portage into the Wisconsin, which they descended, entering the Father of Waters June 17, 1673. They floated down to the mouth of the Arkansas and then returned, their journey back being up the Illinois and Desplaines Hivers. Joliet gave his name to the peak on the latter stream which the city of Joliet, 111., near by, still retains. Joliet arrived at Quebec in August, 1674, having in four months journeyed over twenty-five hun- dred miles. It thus became known how close the upper waters of the great rivers, St. Lawrence and Mis- sissippi, were to each other, and that the latter emptied into the Gulf of Mexico instead of the South Sea (Pacific) ; yet, as the Kocky Mountains had not then been discovered, it was for long be- lieved that some of the western tributaries of the Great Eiver led to that western ocean. In 1676 Eaudin, and three years later, Du Lhut, visited the Ojibwas and Sioux west of Lake Su- perior. Du Lhut reached the upper waters of the Mississippi at Sandy Lake. He went there again in 1680. In 1682 La Salle crossed the Chi- cago portage and explored the Ipwer Mississippi 1^8 MGLISjS AMERtGA [1675 all the way to the Gulf, taking possession of the entire valley in the name of France and naming it Louisiana. Nicholas Perrot travelled by way of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers to the upper Mis- sissippi in 1685, and again in 1688. It is in his writings that the word " Chicago " first appears in literature. There were thus between the two great valleys, 1, the Superior route ; 2, the Wisconsin and Fox route ; 3, the Illinois Eiver route, whether by the Kankakee, La Salle's way, or by the south branch of the Chicago Eiver, Joliet's way; and 4, the route by the Wabash and Ohio. The Wabash, too, could be approached either from Lake Erie or from Lake Michigan, through St. Joseph's Biver. At high water, canoes often passed from Lake Michigan into the Mississippi without por- tage. La Salle had the ambition to get to the South Sea from the Mississippi. G ovemor De la Barre, who followed Frontenac, opposing him, he re- paired to France, where he succeeded in winning Louis XIV. to his plan. At the head of a well- equipped fleet he sailed for the mouth of the Mis- sissippi, reachhig land near Matagorda Bay on the first day of the year 1685. Not finding the Mis- sissippi, La Salle's officers mutinied. The expe- dition broke up into parties, wandering here and there, distressed by Indian attacks and by treach- ery among themselves. La Salle was shot by his own men. Nearly all his followers perished, but a small party at last discovered the river and as- cended it to Fort St. Louis on the Illinois, reach- 1690] ENGLAND AND FRANCE 139 ing France via Quebec. In this expedition France took possession of Texas, nor did she ever relin- quish the claim till, in 1763, the whole of Louis- iana west of the Mississippi was ceded to Spain. La Salle's ill-starred attempt led later to the planting of French colonies by D'Iberville at Bi- loxi Island, in Mobile Bay, soon abandoned, and at Poverty Point, on the Mississippi ; and still later to the settlement of New Orleans and vicinity. Growth in these parts was slow, however. So late as 1713 there were not over three hundred whites in the entire Mississippi Valley. By this time French traders liad set foot on every shore of the great lakes and. explored near- ly every stream tributary thereto. The English, pushing westward more and more, were trying to divide with them the lucrative business of fur- trading, and each nation sought to win to itself all the Indians it could. The Mohawks and their confederates of the Five Nations, now equipped and acquainted with fire-arms, spite of alternate overtures and threats from the French, remained firm friends to the English, who* more and more invaded those vast and fertile western ranges. It grew to be the great question of the age this side the Atlantic, whether England or France should control the continent. King William's war, de- clared in 1689, was therefore certain to rage in America as well as in Europe. One sees by a glance at the map what advantage France had in this struggle. It possessed the best fishing grounds and fur-producing districts, and fish and furs were at first the only exports of 140 ENGLISH AMERIGA [1690 value from the north of America. The French, too, held all the water-ways to the heart of the continent. Coming up Lake Ohamplain they could threaten New York and New England from the rear. The colonies farther south they shut in almost as straitly, French bullets, whistling about any Englishman's ears the instant he appeared be- yond the mountains. In other respects England had the advantage. In population English America had become as superior as French America was territorially, hav- ing 1,116,000 white inhabitants in 1750, to about 80,000 French. The English colonies were also more convenient to the mother-country, and the better situated for commerce both coastwise and across the ocean. Among the English, temper for mere speculation and adventure decayed very early, giving way to the conviction that successful planting depended wholly upon persistent, ener- getic toil. A piece of fortune more importapt yet was their relatively free religious and political system. Tol- eration in religion was large. Self-government was nearly complete internally, and indeed externally, till the navigation acts. Canada, on the other hand, was oppressed by a feudal constitution in the state, settlers being denied the fee simple of their lands, and by Jesuits in Church. " New France could not grow," says Parkman, " with a priest on guard at the gate to let in none but such as pleased him. In making Canada a citadel of the state religion, the clerical monitors of the crown robbed their country of a transatlantic empire." Thus the Hu- 1690] ENGLAND AND FRANCE 141 guenots, France's best emigrants to America, did not come to New France, but to New England and the otlier Protestant colonies. Tke Indian hostilities which' heralded King William's War began August 13, 1688. Frontenac prepared to capture Albany and even Manhattan. He did not accomplish so much ; but on the night of February 8, 1689-90, his force of ninety Iroquois and over 100 Frenchmen fell upon Schenectady, killed sixty, and captured eighty or ninety more. Only a corporal's guard escaped to Albany with the sad news. This attack had weighty influence, as occasioning the first American congress. Seven delegates from various colonies assembled at New York on May 1, 1690, to devise defence against the northern invaders. The eastern Indians were hardly at rest from Philip's War when roused by the French to en- gage in this. An attack was made ujDon Haverhill, Mass., and Hannah Dustin, with a child only a few days old, another woman, and a boy, was led captive to an Indian camp up the Merrimac. The savages killed the infant, but thereby steeled the mother's heart for revenge. One night the three prisoners slew their sleeping guards and, seizing a canoe, floated down to their home. Dover was at- tacked June 27, 1689, twenty-three persons killed, and twenty-nine sold to the French in Canada. Indescribable horrors occurred at Oyster River, at Salmon Falls, at Casco, at Exeter, and elseivhere. In 1702 Queen Anne's War began, and in this again New England was the chief sufferer. The barbarities which marked it were worse than those 142 ENGLISH AMEBIC A [l^S of Philip's War. De Eouville, Avith a party of French and savages, proceeded from Canada to Deei'iield, Mass. Fearing an attack, the villagers meant to be vigilant, but early on a February morning, 1704, the wily enemy, skulking tiU the sentinels retired at daylight, managed to effect a surprise.' Fifty were killed and one hundred hurried off to Canada. Among these were the minister, Mr. Williams, and his family. Twenty years later a white Avoman in Indian dress entered Deerfield. It was one of the Williams daughters. She had married an Indian in Canada and now refused to desert him. Oases like this, of which there were many in the course of these frightful wars, seemed to the settlers harder to bear than death. Massachusetts came so to dread the atro- cious foe that fifteen pounds werd offered by pub- lic authority for an Indian man's scalp, eight for a child's or a woman's. Governor Spotswood urged aggression on the French to the west. Governor Hunter of New York had equal zeal for a movement northward. New York raised 600 men and the same number of Iro- quois, voting 10,000 pounds of paper money for their sustenance. Connecticut and New Jersey sent 1,600 men. A force of 4,000 in all mustered at Albany under Nicholson of New York. They were to co-operate against Montreal with the naval expedition of 1711, commanded by Sir Hoveden Walker. Walker failed ignominiously, and Nich- olson, hearing of this betimes, saved himself by retreating. Sir William Phips had captured Port Eoyal in I'^IO] ENGLAND AND FBJ:NGE 143 1690, and Acadia was annexed to Massachusetts in 1692. In 1691 the French again took formal pos- session of Port Koyal and the neighboring coun- try. In 1692 an ineffectual attempt was made to recover it, but by the Treaty of Ryswick, 1697, it was explicitly given back to France. At the inception of Queen Anne's War, in 1702, there were several expeditions from New England to Nova Scotia ; in 1704 and 1707 without result. That of 1710 was more successful.- It consisted of four regiments and thirty-six vessels, besides troop and store ships and some marines. Port Koyal capitulated and its name was changed to Annapo- lis, in honor of Queen Anne. Acadia never again came under French control, and was regularly ceded to England by the Treaty of Utrecht, 1713. Notwithstanding this, however, French America stiU remained substantially intact. If the great struggle for the Ohio Valley now became a silent one, it was none the less earn- est. Spotswood had opened a road across the Blue Eidge in 1716. In 1721 New Yorkers began set- tling on Oswego Kiver, and they finished a fort there by 1726. Closer alliance was formed with the Five Nations. The French governor of Que- bec in 1725 pleaded that Niagara nnust be fortified, and on his successor was urged the necessity of reducing the Oswego garrison. It was partly to flank Oswego that the French pushed up Lake Champlain to Crown Point and built Fort St. Frederick. The Treaty of Utrecht had left Cape Breton Island to France. The French at once strongly 144 ENGLISH AMERICA [1745 fortified Louisburg and invited thither the French inhabitants of Acadia and Newfoundland, which had also been ceded to Great Britain. Many went, though the British goTernors did much to hinder removal. This irritated the French au- thorities, and the Indian atrocities of 1723-24 at Dover and in Maine are known to have been stimulated from Montreal. Father Easle, an as- tute and benevolent French Jesuit who had set- tled among the Indians at Norridgewock, became an agent of this hostile influence. In an English attack, August 12, 1724, Easle's settlement was broken up and himself killed. The Indians next year made a treaty, and peace prevailed till King George's War. This opened in 1744, England against France once more, and in 1745 came the capture of Louis- burg, then the Gibraltar of America. This was brought about through the energy of Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts, the mqst efficient Eng- lish commander this side the Atlantic. That com- monwealth voted to send 3,250 men, Connecticut 500, New Hampshire and Ehodo Island each 800. Sir William Pepperill, of Kittery, Me., command- ed, Eiohard Gridley, of Bunker Hill fame, being his chief of artillery. The expedition consisted of thirteen armed vessels, commanded by Captain Ed- ward Tyng, with over 200 guns, and about ninety transports. The Massachusetts troops sailed from Nantasket March 24th, and reached Canso April 4th. " Ehode Island," says Hutchinson, " waited until a better judgment could be made of the event, their three hundred not arriving until after the 1745] ENGLAND AND FRANCE 145 place had surrendered." The expedition was very costly to the colonies participating, and four years later England reimbursed theni- in the sum of 200,000 pounds. Yet at the disgraceful peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, she surrendered Louis- burg and all Cape Breton to France again. In 1746 French and Indians from Crown Point destroyed the fort and twenty houses at Saratoga, killing thirty persons, and capturing sixty. Orders came this year from England to advance on Crown Point and Montreal, upon Shirley's plan, all the colonies as far south as Virginia being commanded to aid. Quite an army mustered at Albany. Sir WUliam Johnson succeeded in rousing the Iro- quois, whom the French had been courting with unprecedented assiduity. But D'Anville's fleet threatened. The colonies wanted their troops at home. Inactivity discouraged the soldiers, alien- ated the Indians, At last news came that the Can- ada project was abandoned, and in 1748 the Peace of Aix-la-ChapeUe was declared. This very year France began new efforts to fiU the Ohio Valley with emigrants. Virginia did the same. To anticipate the English the French sent Bienville to bury engraved leaden plates at the mouths of streams. They also fortified the pres- ent sites of Ogdensburg and Toronto. Even now, therefore, France's power this side the Atlantic was not visibly shaken. The continental problem remained unsolved. 10 CHAPTEE IX. THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAK The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle had been made only because the contestants were tired of fighting. In America, at least, each at once began taking breath and preparing to renew the struggle. Not a year passed that did not witness border quarrels more or less bloody. The French authorities filled the Ohio and Mississippi valleys with military posts ; Eng- lish settlers pressed persistently into the same to find homes. In this movement Virginia led, hav- ing in 1748 formed, especially to aid western set- tlement, the . Ohio Company, which received from the king a grant of five hundred thousand acres beyond the AUeghanies. A road was laid out be- tween the upper Potomac and the present Pitts- burgh, settlements were begun along it, and efforts made to conciliate the savages. One of the frontier villages was at what is now Franklin, Penn., and the location involved Vir- ginia with the colony of Pennsylvania. As com- missioner to settle the dispute GFeorge Washing- ton was sent out. The future Father of his Country was of hum- ble origin. Born in Westmoreland County, Va., " about ten in ye morning of ye 11th day of Feb- 1755] THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 147 ruary, 1731-32," as recorded in his mother's Bible, he had been an orphan from his earliest youth. His education was of the slenderest. At sixteen he became a land surveyor, leading a life of the roughest sort, beasts, savages, and hardy frontiers- men his constant companions, sleeping under the sky and cooking his own coarse food. No better man could have been chosen to thread now the Alleghany trail. Washington reported the French strongly post- ed in western Pennsylvania on lands claimed by the Ohio Company. Virginia fitted out an expedi- tion to dislodge them. Of this Washington com- manded the advance. Meeting at Great Mead- ows the French under Contrecceur, commander of Fort Du Quesne (Pittsburgh), he was at first vic- torious, but the French were re-enforced before he was, and Washington, after a gallant struggle, had to capitulate. This was on July 3, 1754. The French and Indian War had begun. The English Government bade the colonies de- fend their frontier, and in this interest twenty-five delegates from the seven northern colonies met at Albany on June 19, 1754. Benjamin Franklin represented Pennsylvania, and it was at this con- ference that he presented his well considered plan, to be described in our chapter on Independence, for a general government over English America. The Albany Convention amounted to little, but did somewhat to renew alliance with the Six Nations.* In this decisive war England had in view four great objects of conquest in America : 1. Fort * Increased from five to six by the accession of the Tusoaroras. 148 ENGLISH AMERICA [1755 Du Quesne ; 2. The Ontario basin with Oswego and Fort Niagara ; 3. The Champlain Valley ; 4. Louisburg. The British ministry seemed in earn- est. It sent Sir Edward Braddpok to this side with six thousand splendidly equipped veterans, and ofifered large sums for fitting out regiments of provincials. Braddock arrived in February, 1755, but moved very languidly. This was not alto- gether his fault, for he had difficulties with the governors and they with their legislatures. At last off for Fort Du Quesne, he took a need- lessly long route, through Virginia instead of Penn- sylvania. He scorned advice, marching and fight- ing stiffly according to the rules of the Old World military art, heeding none of Franklin's and Wash- ington's sage hints touching savage modes of war- fare. The consequence was this brave Briton's defeat and death. As he drew near to Fort Du Quesne, he fell into a carefully prepared ambus- cade. Four horses were shot under him. Mount- ing a fifth he spurred to the front to inspire his men, forbidding them seek the slightest cover, as Washington urged and as the provincials success- fully did. The regulars, obeying, were half of them killed in their tracks, the remainder retreating, in panic at first,, to Philadelphia. Braddock died, and was buried at Great Meadows, where his grave is still to be seen. Washington was the only mounted officer in this action who was not killed or fatally wounded, a fact at the time regarded specially providential. On his return, aged twenty-three, the Bev. Samuel Davies, afterward President of the College of New 1757] THE FBENGH AND INDIAN WAR 149 Jersey, referred to Mm in a sermoh as " that heroic youth, Colonel Washington, -whom I cannot but hope Providence has preserved in so signal a man- ner for some important service to his country." The early part of this war witnessed the tragic occurrence immortalized by Longfellow's " Evange- line," the expulsion of the French from Acadia. The poem is too favorable to these people. They had never become reconciled to English rule, and were believed on strong evidence to be active in promot- ing French schemes against the English. It was resolved to scatter them among the Atlantic settle- ments. The act was savage, and became doubly so through the unmeant cruelties attending its exe- cution. The poor wretches were huddled on the shore weeks too soon for their transports. Families were broken up, children forcibly separated from parents. The largest company was carried to Massachusetts, many to Pennsylvania, some to the extreme South. Not a few, crushed in spirit, be- came paupers. A number found their way to France, a number to Louisiana, a handfid back to Nova Scotia. Braddock was succeeded by the fussy and in- competent Earl of Loudon, 1756-57, whom Frank- lin likened to Saint George on the sign-posts, "always galloping but never advancing." He gathered twelve thousand men for the recapture of Louisburg, but exaggerated reports of the French strength frightened him from the attempt. Simi- lar inaction lost him Fort William Henry on Lake George. The end of the year 1757 saw the Eng- lish cause on this side at low ebb, Montcalm, the 150 ENGLISH AMERIGA [Ita? tried and brilliant French commander, having out- witted or frightened the English oiEcers at every point. From this moment all changes.. "William Pitt subsequently Lord Chatham, now became the soul of the British ministry. George III. had dis- missed him therefrom in 1767, but Newcastle found it impossible to get on without him. The great commoner had to be recalled, this time to take entire direction of the war. Pitt had set his mind on the conquest of Canada- He superseded Loudon early in 1758 by General Amherst, who was seconded by 'Wolfe and by Ad- miral Boscawen, both with large re-enforcements. They were to reduce Louisburg. It was an inno- vation to assign important commands like these to men with so little fame and iniluence, but Pitt did not care. He believed his appointees to be brave, energetic, skilful, and the event proved his wisdom. Louisburg fell, and with it the whole of Cape Bre- ton Island and also Prince Edward. Unfortunately General Abercrombie had not been recalled with Loudon. The same year, 1758, he signally failed to capture TicOnderoga, leaving the way to Montreal worse blocked than before. Fort Du Quesne, however. General Forbes took this year at little cost, rechristening it Pittsburgh in honor of the heroic minister who had ordered the enterprise. In the year 1759 occurred a grand triple move- ment upon Canada. Amherst, now general -in - chief, was to clear the Champlain Valley, and Prideaux Avith large colonial forces to reduce Fort 1759] THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAB 151 • Niagara. Both had orders, being successful in these initial attacks, to move down the St. Law- rence and unite with Wolfe, who was to sail up that river and beset Quebec. Prideaux was splen- didly successful, as indeed was Amherst in time, though longer than he anticipated in securing Ticonderoga and Crown Point. Meantime Wolfe at Quebec W9,s trying in aU ways to manoeuvre the crafty Montcalm out of his impregnable works. Failing, he in his eagerness suffered himself to attempt an assault upon the city, which proved not only vain but terribly cost- ly. A weaker commander would now have given up, but Wolfe had red hair, and the grit usually accompanying. Undaunted, he planned the haz- ardous enterprise of rowing up the St. Lawrence by night, landing with five thousand picked men at the foot of the precipitous ascent to the Plains of Abraham, and scaling those heights to face Montcalm from the west. The Frenchman, stunned at the sight which day brought him, lost no time in attacking. In the hot battle which ensued, September 13, 1759, both commanders fell, Wolfe cheering his heroes to sure victory, Montcalm urg- ing on his forlorn hope in vain. The English re- mained masters of the field and in five days Quebec capitulated. Vaudreuil, the French commander at Montreal, soisght to dislodge the English ere the ice left the river in the spring of 1760, and succeeded in driv- ing them within their works. Each side then waited and hoped for help from beyond sea so soon as navigation opened. It came the earlier to the 152 ENGLISH AMERICA [1763 English, who were gladdened on May 11th by the approach of a British frigate, the forerunner of a fleet. They now chased Vaudreuil back into Mon- treal, where they were met by Haviland from Crown Point and by 'Amherst from Oswego. France's days of power in America wore ended. Her fleet of twenty-two sail intended for succor met total destruction in the Bay des Chaleurs, and by the Peace of Paris, 1763, she surrendered to her vic- torious antagonist every foot of h^r American ter- ritory east of the Mississippi, save the city of New Orleans. The Indians were thus left to finish this war alone. Pontiac, the brave and cunning Chief of the Ottawas, aghast at the rising might of the Eng- lish, and the certain fate of his race without the French for helpers, organized a conspiracy includ- ing nearly every tribe this side the Mississippi ex- cept the Six Nations, to put to the sword all the English garrisons in the West. Fatal success wait- ed upon the plan. It was in 1763. Forts San- dusky, St. Joseph (southeast of Lake Michigan), Miami (Fort Wayne), Presque Isle (Erie, Pa.), Le Boeuf, Yenango, and Pittsburgh were attacked and all but the last destroyed, soldiers and settlers murdered with indescribable barbarities. Pitts- burgh held out till re-enforced, at dreadful cost in blood, by Colonel Bouquet and his Highlanders, who marched from Philadelphia. The hottest and longest conflict was at Detroit, Major Gladwyn commanding, where Pontiac him- self led the onset, heading perhaps a thousand men. The siege was maintained with fearful venom from 1763] THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 153 May 11th till into October. The English tried a number of sallies, brave, fatal, vain, and were so hard pressed by their blood-thirsty foe that only timely and repeated re-enforcements saved them. At last the savages, becoming, as always, disunited and straitened for supplies, sullenly made peace ; and at the call of the rich and now free North- west, caravans of English immigrants thronged thither to lay under happiest auspices the foun- dations of new States. PERIOD III. REVOLUTION AND THE OLD CONFED- E BAT ION 1763-1789 CHAPTER I. EESULTS OF THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR The results of the French and Indian "War were out of all proportion to the scale of its military- operations. Contrasted with the campaigns which were then shaking all Europe, it sank into insig- nificance ; and the world, its eyes strained to see the magnitude and the issue of those European wars, little surmised that they would dictate the course of history far less than yonder desultory campaigning in America. Yet h6re and there a political prophet foresaw some of these momen- tous indirect consequences of the War. " England will erelong repent," said Vergennes, then the French ambassador at Constantinople, "of hav- ing removed the only check that could keep her colonies in awe. They no longei* stand in need of her protection. She will call on them to con- tribute toward supporting the burdens they have helped to bring upon her, and they will answer by 1763] FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR 155 striking off all dependence." Tliis is, in outline, the history of the next twenty jeAxa. The war in Europe and America had been a heavy di-ain upon the treasury of' England. Her national debt had doubled, amounting at the con- clusion of peace to £140,000,000 sterling. The Government naturally desired to lay upon its American subjects a portion of this burden, which had been incurred partly on their behalf. The result was that new system of taxation which the king and his ministers sought to impose upon the colonies, and which was the immediate cause of the Revolution, The hated taxes cannot, of course, be traced to the French and Indian War alone as their soru'ce. England had for years shown a growing purpose to get revenue out of her American dependencies ; but the debt incurred by the war gave an animus and a momentum to this policy which carried it forward in the face of opposition that might otherwise have warned even George II. to pause ere it was too late. While the war thus indirectly led England to encroach upon the rights of the colonies, it also did much to prepare the latter to resist such en- croachment. It had this effect mainly in two ways : by promoting union among the colonies, and by giving to many of their citizens a good training in the duties of camp, march, and battle- field. The value to the colonists of their mihtary ex- perience in this war can hardly be over-estimated. If the outbreak of the Kevolution had found the Americans a generation of civilians, if the colonial 156 THE OLD CONFEDERATION [1765 cause had lacked the privates who had seen hard service at Lake George and Louisburg, or the officers, such as Washington, Gates, Montgomery, Stark, and Putnam, who had learned to fight suc- cessfully against British regulars by fighting with them, it is a question whether the uprising would not have been stamped out, for a time at least, almost at its inception. Especially at the begin- ning of such a war, when the first necessity is to get a peaceful nation under arms as quickly as possible, a few soldier - citizens are invaluable. They form the nucleus of the risin'g army, and set the standard for military organization and disci- pline. In fact, the French and Indian War would have repaid the colonies all it cost even if its only result had been to give the youthful Washington that schooling in arms which helped fit him to command the Continental armies. Without the Washington of Fort Necessity and of Braddock's defeat, we could in all likelihood never have had the Washington of Trenton and Yorktown. Be- sides Washington, to say nothing of Gates, Gage, and Mercer, also there, Dan Morgan, of Virginia, began to learn war in the Braddock campaign. Again, the war prepared the colonists for the Revolution by revealing to them their own rare fighting quality, and by showing that the dreaded British regulars were not invincible. No foe would, at Saratoga or Monmouth, see the backs of the men who had covered the redcoats' retreat from the field of Braddock's death, scaled the abatis of Louisburg, or brained Dieskau's regulars on the parapet of Fort William Henry, 1765] FBENGH AND INDIAN WAR 157 But there was one thing even more necessary to the Eevolutionists than skill at arms, and that was union. Their onily hope of successful resistance against the might of England lay in concerted ac- tion, and perhaps the most important result of the long war through which they had been passing was the sense of union and of a common cause with which it had inspired the thirteen colonies. This feeling was of coiu'se stUl none too intense. But during the long war the colonies had drawn nearer to one another than ever before". Soldiers from New Hampshire and North Carolina, from Vir- ginia and Massachusetts, bivouacked together, and fought shoulder to shoulder. Col'onial officers for- got local jealousies in a common resentment of the contempt and neglect shown them all alike by the haughty subalterns of the king. Mutual good-will was fostered by the money and troops which the southern and less exposed colonies sent to their sister commonwealths on the frontier. In these and numberless minor ways a community of sen- timent was engendered which, imperfect as it was, yet prepared the way for that hearty co-operation which was to carry the infant States through the fiery trial just before them. It is important to remember, as well, not only that the war built up this conviction of a common interest, but that nothing except the war could have done it. The great forces of nineteenth-cen- tury civilization — the locomotive, the telegraph, the modern daily newspaper — which now bind sixty millions of people, spread over half a con- tinent, into one nation, were then unknown. The 158 THE OLD CONFEDERATION [1765 means of communication and transportation be- tween tlie colonies were very primitive. Eoads were rough, full of steeps and cuts, and in many places, especially near cities, almost impassable witli mire. It took seven days to go by stage from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, four days from Boston to New York, The mail service was correspond- ingly inadequate and slow. At times in winter a letter would be five weeks in going from Phil- adelphia to Yirginia. The newspapers were few, contained little news, and the circulation of each was necessarily confined to a very limited area. It has been estimated that the reading-matter in all the forty-three papers which existed at the close of the Revolution would not fill ten pages of the New York Herald now. In connection viith this state of things consider the fact that the idea of colonial solidarity had not then, as now, merely to be sustained. It had to be created outright. Local pride and jealousy were still strong. Each colony had thought of itself as a complete and iso- lated political body, in a way which it is difficult for us, after a hundred years of national unity, to conceive. Plainly a lifetime of peace would not have begotten the same degree of consolidation among the colonies which the war, with its com- mon danger and common purpose, called into being in a half-dozen years. The war did yet another important service by removing a dangerous neighbor pi the colonies. So long as France, ambitious and warlike, kept foot-hold in the New World, the colonies had to look to the mother-country for protection. But 1765] FBENGE AND INDIAN WAR 159 ttis danger gone, England ceased to be necessary to the safety of the embryo political communities, and her sovereignty was therefore: the more readi- ly renounced. English statesmen foresaw this dan- ger before the Peace of Paris, and but for the mag- nanimity of Pitt our western territory might after all have been left in the hands of France. And the cession of Canada, besides removing an enemy, helped to transform that enemy into an active friend. Had France r-etained her pos- sessions in America, she would still have had an interest in maintaining the colonial system, and it is doubtful if even her hatred of England would have induced her to aid the rebellious colonies. But, her dream of a great Western empire forever dispelled, she had much to gain and nothing to lose by drawing sword for the American cause. The British defeated the French at Quebec only to meet them again at Yorktown. One more result remains to be noted, Avithout which what has preceded would lose half its sig- nificance. By the Peace of Paris England suc- ceeded to all of France's possessions in America east of the Mississippi; but the most valuable part of this great territory she won only to hold in trust a few years for her colonial children. The redcoats under Amherst and Wolfe, who thought they were fighting for King George, were in reality winning an empire for the Youijg Eepublic. It is not easy to feel the full significance of this. The colonies might, indeed, have won independ- ence even if France had retained her grasp on the valley of the Mississippi ; but so long as the new- 160 THE OLD GONFEDERATION [1765 born nation was shut up to a narrow strip along the Atlantic coast, it would have been a lion caged. The "conquest of Canada," says Green, "by . . . flinging open to their energies in the days to come the boundless plains of the West, laid the founda- tion of the United States." OHAPTEE II. GEORGE III. AND HIS AMERICAN COLONIES The year after the capture of Quebec a young king ascended the throne of England, whose action was to affect profoundly the fortunes of the Amer- ican colonies. Of narrow mental range and ple- beian tastes, but moral, sincere, and stout-hearted, George III. assumed the crown with one domuiant purpose — to rule personally ; and the first decade of his reign was a constant struggle to free himself from the dictation of cabinet ministers. In 1770, during the premiership of North, who was little more than his page, the king gained the day ; and for the next dozen years he had his own way per- fectly. All points of policy, foreign and domestic, even the management of debates in Parliament, he was crafty enough to get into his hands. To this meddling of his with state affairs, his imprac- ticable and fickle plans, and the. stupidity of the admirers whom his policy forced upon him, may be traced in very large measure the breach be- tween England and the colonies. The Revolution, however, cannot be wholly ac- counted for by any series of events which can be set down and labelled. The ultimate causes lie deeper. Three thousand miles of ocean rolled be- ll 162 THE OLD CONFEDERATION [1760 tween England and the colonies. A considerable measure of colonial seli-government was inevita- ble from tlie first, and this, by fostering the spirit of independence, c:feated a demand for more and more freedom. The social ties which had bound the early Pilgrims to their native land grew stead- ily weaker with each new generation of people who knew no home but America. The colonists had begun to feel the stirrings of an independent national life. The boundless possibilities of the future on this new continent, with its immense territory and untold natural wealth, were begin- ning to dawn upon them. Their infancy was over. The leading - strings which bound them to the mother-country must be either lengthened or cast off altogether. But England did not see this. Most English- men at the beginning of George* III.'s reign re- garded the colonies as trading-corporations rather than as political bodies. It was taken for gTanted that a colony was inferior to the' mother-country, and was to be managed in the interests of the commercial classes at home. Conflict was there- fore inevitable sooner or later. We have to trace briefly the chief events by which it was precipi- tated. In 1760-61 England tried to enforce the navi- gation laws more strictly. Writs of assistance issued, empowering ofSoers to enter any house at any time, to search for smuggled goods. This measure aroused a storm of indignation. The pop- ular feeling was voiced, and at the same time in- tensified, by the action of James Otis, Jr., a young 1764] GEORGE III. 163 Boston lawyer, who threw up his position as advo- cate-general rather than defend the hated writs, which he denounced as " instruments of slavery." " Then and there," said John Adams, " the trum- pet of the Revolution was sounded." In May, 1764, a report reached Boston that a stamp act for the colonies had been proposed in Parliament, to raise revenue by forcing the use in America of stamped forms for all sorts of public papers, such as deeds, warrants, and the like. A feeling of mingled rage and alarm seized the colo- nists. It seemed that a deliberate blow was about to be struck at their liberties. From the day of their founding the colonies had never been taxed directly except by their own legislatures. Massa- chusetts, New York, Ehode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Virginia at once sent humble but earnest protests to Parliament against the proposed ianovation. The act was nevertheless passed in March of the next year, with almost no opposition. By its pro- visions, business documents were illegal and void unless written on the stamped paper. The cheap- est stamp cost a shilling, the price ranging upward from that according to the importance of the docu- ment. The prepared paper had to be paid for in specie, a hardship indeed in a cbmmunity where lawsuits were very common, and whose entire solid coin would not have sufficed to pay the revenue for a single year. Even bitterest Tories declared this requirement indefensible. Another flagrant feature of the act was the provision that violators of it should be tried without a jury, before a judge 164 THE OLD GONFEDERATION [1765 whose only pay came from his own condemna- tions. The effect upon the colonies was like that of a bomb in a powder-magazine. TKe people rose up en masse. In every province the stamp-distributor was compelled to resign. In Portsmouth, N. H., the newspaper came out in mourning, and an effigy of the Goddess of Liberty was carried to the grave. The Connecticut legislature ordered a day of fasting and prayer kept, and an inventory of powder and ball taken. In New York a bonfire was made of the stamps in the public square. The bells in Charles- ton, S. C, were tolled, and the flags on the ships in the harbor hung at half-mast. The colonists en- tered into agreements to buy no goods from England until the act was repealed. Even mourning clothes, since they must be imported, were not to be worn, and lamb's flesh was abjured that more wool might be raised for home manufacture. England's colo- nial trade fell off so alarmingly in consequence that Manchester manufacturers petitioned Parlia- ment to repeal the act, asserting that nine-tenths of their workmen were idle. Besides these popular demonstrations, delegates from nine colonies met in New York, in October, 1765, often called the Stamp Act Congress, and adopted a declaration of rights, asserting that England had no right to tax them without their consent. During the days of the Stamp Act excitement, the term " colonist " gave way to "American" and "English" to "Brit- ish," a term of the deeper opprobrium because Bute, the king's chief adviser, was a Briton. Startled by this unexpected resistance, Parlia- 1765] GEORGE in. 165 ment, in January of the next year, began to debate repeal. "We must in fairness to England look at both, sides of the problem of colonial taxation. As general administrator of colonial affairs, the Eng- lish Government naturally desired a fixed and cer- tain revenue in America, both for frontier defence against Indians and French and for the payment of colonial governors. While each stood ready to defend its own territory, the colonies were no doubt meanly slow about contributing to any com- mon fund. They were frequently at loggerheads, too, with their governors over the question of sal- aries. On the other hand, the colonists made the strong plea that self-taxation was= their only safe- guard against tyranny of ting. Parliament, or gov- ernor. In the great debate which now ensued in Parlia- ment over England's right to tax America, Mans- field, the greatest constitutional lawyer of his day, maintained— /?rsi, that America was represented in Parliament as much as Manchester and several other large cities in England which elected no members to the House of Commons, and yet were taxed ; and second, that an internal tax, such as that on stamps, was identical in principle with customs duties, which the colonies had never re- sisted. In reply, Pitt, the great champion of the colonies, asserted— j^rsi, that the case of the colonies was not at all like that of Manchester ; the latter happened not to be represented at that time be- cause the election laws needed reforming, while the colonies, being three thousand miles away, could in the nature of the case never be adequately 166 THE OLD CONFEDERATION [Hes represented in an English Parliament ; and, second, that as a matter of fact a sharp distinction had al- ways, since the Great Charter, been made between internal taxation and customs duties. Had the colonies rested their case upon con- stitutional argument alone it would have been rel- atively weak. While it was then a question, and will be forever, whether the American settlements were king's colonies, Parliament's colonies, or neither, but peculiar communities which had re- sulted from growth, the English lawyers had a good deal of logic on their side. Unconstitutional measures had indeed been resorted to — ^the writs of assistance, taking Americans beyond sea for trial, internal taxation ; yet the real grievance lay far less in these things than in the fact that the English con- stitution itself was working in a manner contrary to colonial interests. Social considerations, too, accounted for more bitterness than has usually been thought. Our fathers hated the presence here of a privileged class. George III.'s policy was therefore wiser legally than politically. This was, in fact, his ministry's capital mistake — like Lord Salisbuiy's in respect to Ireland in 1888 — that it had too great regard for the mere legal aspect of the question, ignoring the practical. The colonists were too numerous, powerful, and far away longer to be governed from home, at least by the old plan. To attempt per- petuation of the old regime might be lawful, but was certainly impracticable and. stupid. Hence Americans like Jefferson showed themselves con- summate politicians in going beyond Pitt's con- 1767] GEORGE III. 167 tention from the constitution and from precedent, and appealing to the " natural rights " of the colonists. "Our rights," said Otis, iu substance, " do not rest on a charter, but are inherent in us as men." "The people," said John Adams in 1765, " have rights antecedent to: all earthly gov- ernment." The Stamp Act was repealed in February. Its principle, however, was immediately re-asserted by the "Declaratory Act," in which Parliament claimed power over the colonies " in all cases whatsoever." The repeal caused great rejoicing iu America ; but neither king nor Parliament had changed policy respecting colonial affairs. There soon followed, in rapid succession, that series of blundering acts of oppression v^hich completed the work begun by the Stamp Act, and drove the colonists into rebellion. In 1767 duties were laid upon glass, paper, painters' colors, and tea. Massachusetts, again taking the lead, sent a circular-letter to all the colonies, proposing a united supplication to the throne. For refusal to rescind this letter the Massachusetts assembly was dissolved at the com- mand of the angry king. This refusal was the first denial of the king's prerogative ; only the authority of Parliament had been resisted before. The sovil of the colonial cause in Massachusetts at this time was Samuel Adams, of Boston, " the last of the Puritans," a man of powerful and logical mind, intrepid heart, and incorruptible patriotism. America's debt to him for his work in these early years cannot be estimated. At this juncture he 168 THE OLD CONFEVEBATION [1V70 organized committees of safety and correspond- ence throughout Massachusetts, which led to the formation of such committees in *the other colo- nies. They did an invaluable work in binding the scattered sections together, and providing for emergencies. The Billeting Act, which required the colonists to lodge and feed the British troops quartered among them, added fuel to the flames. In 1768 the New York legislature refused to comply, and Parliament suspended its legislative functions. In the fall of the same year, seizing as a pre- text two ship-riots which had occurred in the sum- mer, the king stationed four regiments in Boston. Public sentiment was shocked and indignant at this establishment of a military guard over a peaceable community. The presence of the sol- diers was a constant source of irritation. Fre- quent altercations occurred between the soldiers and the lower class of citizens. The trouble cul- minated in the Boston Massacre of March 5, 1770. A squad of soldiers, set upon by a mob of men and boys, fired into the crowd, killing three persons and wounding eight others. That the soldiers had considerable justification is proved by the fact that a jury acquitted all but two, who were convict- ed of manslaughter, and branded. But exagger- ated reports of the occurrence spread like wildfire throughout the colonies, and wrought powerfully for hatred against England. During the next two or three years there was comparative quiet. Massachusetts, it is true, un- der the tutelage of Samuel Adams, grew more 1^73] GEORGE III. 169 radical in its demands. In 1772 the committee of Boston issued a statement of grievances, adding, as new complaints, the sending of persons to Eng- land for trial, restraints upon colonial manufact- urers, and a rumored plan to establish bishops oYer America. This statement was approved by all the colonies, and was sent to Franklin in London. The country as a whole, however, was weary of the strife, and would gladly have returned to the old cordial relations with the mother-land. But George III. could not rest without assert- ing -his supremacy over America. He made an arrangement with the Bast India Company by which tea could be bought in America, spite of the hated tax, cheaper than in England. Then, at the king's instigation, large shipments of tea were made to America. The colonists saw through the cunning attempt, and the tide of resistance rose higher than ever. At New York and Philadelphia the tea-ships were forced to put to sea again with- out unlading. At Charleston the tea was stored in damp cellars and soon spoiled. At Boston there was a deadlock ; the people would not let the tea be landed. The governor would not let the ships sail without unlading. On the evening of Decem- ber 16, 1773, the tax falling due on the nest day, a party of fifty citizens, disguised as Indians, boarded the ships, and threw three hundred and forty-two chests of tea into the harbor. The Boston tea-party aroused all the blind obsti- nacy of George III. "Blows must decide," he exclaimed ; " the guilty rebels are to be forced to submission." The king's anger led to the Boston 170 THE OLD OONFEDEMTION , [1774 Port Bill, which was passed the next year, and closed Boston harbor to all comniercG. Changes were also made in the government of Massachu- setts, rendering it almost entirely independent of the people. Town meetings were forbidden ex- cept for elections. Poor Massacbusetts, her liber- ties curtailed, her commerce ruined, appealed to her sister colonies for support, and they responded right heartily. In three weeks from the news of the Port Bill all the colonies had made the cause of Massachusetts their own. Expressions of sym- pathy and liberal gifts of money and provisions, poured into Boston from all over the country. The first Continental Congress assembled at Phil- adelphia in September. All the colonies but Georgia were represented. An earnest statement of grievances was drawn up, with a prayer to the king for redress. The action of Massachusetts was approved, and an agreement entered into to suspend all commerce with England. Things now hastened rapidly toward open war. British troops were stationed in Boston, and began fortification. Military preparations were making everywhere among the colonists. The train was laid. Only a spark was needed to bring the dread- ed explosion. CHAPTER III. INDEPENDENCE AND THE NE\V STATES The thouglit of independence in the minds of the colonists was of surprisingly slow growth. The feehng of dependence on the mother-country and of loyalty to the king were deep-rooted and died hard. Even union, which was a pre-requisite to a successful struggle for independence, came slowly. The old New England Confederation, in 1643-84, between Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecti- cut, and New Haven, for defence against Indians, Dutch, and French, ended without ever having manifested the slightest vigor. In the latter half of the seventeenth century Virginia had alliances with some sister colonies for protection against Indians ; but there was no call f qr a general con- gress until the French and Indian attack on Schenectady, in 1690, during King William's War. Eepresentatives from New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Plymouth met that year at New York ; letters came from Virginia, Maryland, and Ehode Island. But no permanent union was proposed here, nor at any of the similar meetings, seven at least, which occurred between 1690 and 1750. The Albany Convention, which met in 1754 to 172 THE OLD CONFEDERATION [1775 prepare for the French and Indiad War, adopted a plan for union presented by Franklin, providing for a president-general appointed and supported by the crown, and for a grand council of delegates elected triennially by the colonies according to population, and empowered, within limits, to lay taxes and make laws for the common interest of English America. Franklin believed that the adop- tion of this scheme would have postponed the Eevolution a century. But, as it gave so much power to the king, it was rejected by the people in every colony. Even after English oppression and the diligent agency of committees of correspondence had brought union, and delegates from the colonies had met again and again in Congress, the thought of breaking away from the mother-land was strange to the minds of nearly all. The instructions to the delegates to the first Congress, in September, 1774, gave no suggestion of independence. On the con- trary, colony after colony urged its representatives to seek the restoration of "harmony and union" vrith England. This Congress branded as " cal- umny " the charge that it wished "independency." Washington Avrote, from the Congress, that inde- pendence was then not " desired by any thinking man in America." The feeling was mucli the same;in 1775. Penn- sylvania " strictly " commanded her representatives to dissent from any " proposition that may lead to separation." Maryland gave similar instruc- tions in January, 1776. Independence was neither the avowed nor the conscious object in defending 1776] INDEPENDENCE 173 Bunker Hill, Juae 17, 1775. Washington's com- mission as commander-in-chief, two days later, gave no hint of it. And the New Hampshire legislature so late as December 25, 1775, in the very act of framing a new state government, "totally disa- vowed " all such aim. In the fall of 1775 Congress declared that it had " not raised armies with the ambitious design of separation from Great Brit- ain." The swift change which, a little more than six months later, made the Declaration of Independ- ence possible and even popular, has never yet been fully explained. In May, 1775, .fohn Adams had been cautioned by the Philadelphia Sons of Lib- erty not to utter the word indepfendence. "It is as unpopular," they said, in " Pennsylvania and all the Middle and Southern States ats the Stamp Act itself." Early in 1776 this same great man wrote that there was hardly a newspaper in America but openly advocated independence. In the spring of 1776 the conservative Washington declared, " Re- conciliation is impracticable. Nothing but inde- pendence will save us." Statesmen began to see that longer delay was dangerous, that permanent imion turned upon independence, and that, with- out a government of their own, people would by and by demand back their old constitution, as the English did after Cromwell's death. " The coun- try is not only ripe for independence," said Wither- spoon, of New Jersey, debating in Congress, " but is in danger of becoming rotten for lack of it." Colony after colony now came rapidly into line. Massachusetts gave instructions to her delegates 174 THE OLD CONFEDERATION [l^TS in Congress, vii'tually favoring independence, in January, 1776. Georgia did the same in Feb- ruary, South Carolina in March. Express author- ity to " concur in independency " came first from North Carolina, April 12th, and the following May 31st Mecklenburg County in that State explicitly declared its independence of England. On May 1st Massachusetts began to disuse the king's name in public instruments. May 4th, Rhode Island re- nounced allegiance almost in terms. On May 15th brave old Virginia ordered her delegates in Congress to bite right into the sour apple and propose inde- pendence. Connecticut, New Hampshire, Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania took action in the same direction during the following month. The king's brutal attitude had much to do with this sudden change. The colonists had nursed the belief that the king was misled by his minis- ters. A last petition, couched in respectful terms, was drawn up by Congress in the summer of 1775, and sent to England. Out of respect to the feel- ings of good John Dickinson, of Pennsylvania, who still clung to England, this address was tempered with a submissiveness which offended many mem- bers. On its being read, Dickinson remarked that but one word in it displeased him, the word " Con- gress ; " to which Colonel Ben Harrison, of Yir- ginia, retorted that but one word in it pleased him, and that " Congress " was precisely the word. The appeal was idle.' The king's only answer was a violent proclamation denouncing the Ameri- cans as rebels. It was learned at the same time that he was preparing to place Indians, negroes. l'i'73] INDEPENDENCE 175 and German mercenaries in arms against them. The truth was forced upon the most reluctant that the root of England's obduracy was in the king per- sonally, and that further supplications were use- less. The surprising success of the colonial arms, the shedding of blood at Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill — all which, remember, antedated the Declaration — the increase and the ravages of the royal army and navy in America, were all efficient in urging the colonists to break utterly and forever from the mother-country. The behavior of the Gasp<^ ofi&cers in Narragan- sett Bay, their illegal seizures, plundering expedi- tions on shore, and wanton manners in stopping and searching boats, illvistrate the spirit of the king's hirelings in America at this time. At last the Rhode Islanders could endure it no longer. Early on the morning of June 9, 1772, Captain Abraham "Whipple, with a few boat-loads of trusty aides, dropped down the river from Providence to what is now called Gaspe Point, six or seven miles below the city, where the offending craft had run aground the previous evening in- giving chase to the Newport-Providence packet-boat, and after a spirited fight mastered the Gaspe's company, put them on shore, and burned the ship. There would be much propriety in dating the Revolution from this daring act. Nor was this the only case of Rhode Island's forwardness in the struggle. December 5, 1774, her General Assembly ordered Colonel Nightin- gale to remove to Providence all the cannon and ammunition of Fort George, except three guns, 176 THE OLD CONFEDEBATION [1776 and this was done before the end of the next day. More than forty cannon, with much powder and shot, were thus husbanded for service to come. News of this was carried to New Hampshire, and resulted in the capture of Fort William and Mary at New Castle, December 14, 1774, which some have referred to as the opening act of the Revolu- tion. This deed was accomplished by fourteen men from Durham, who entered the fort at night when the officers were at a ball in Portsmouth, The powder which they captured„ is said to have done duty at Bunker Hill. Most potent of all as a cause of the resolution to separate was Thomas Paine's pamphlet, " Com- mon Sense," published in January, 1776, and cir- culated widely throughout the colonies. Its lucid style, its homely way of putting things, and its appeals to Scripture must have given it at any rate a strong hold upon the masses of the people. It was doubly and trebly triumphant from the fact that it voiced, in clear, bold terms, a long-growing, popular conviction of the propriety of indepen- dence, stronger than men had dared to admit even to themselves. On June 7, 1776, Eichard Henry Lee, of Vir- ginia, rose in Congress, and, in obedience to the command of his State, moved a resolution " that the united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States." John Adams sec- onded the motion. It led to great debate, which evinced that New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and South Carolina were not yet quite ready for so radical a step. Postponement was 1776] INDEPENDENCE 111 therefore had till July 1st, a committee meantime being appointed to draft a declaration. On July 2d, after further long debate, participated in by John Adams, Dickinson, Wilson, and many other of the ablest men in Congress, not all, even now, favorable to the measure, the famous Declara- tion of Independence was adopted by vote of all the colonies but New York, whose representatives ab- stained from voting for lack of sufficiently definite instructions. We celebrate July 4th because on that day the document was authenticated by the sig- natures of the President and Secretary of Congress, and pubhshed. Not until August 2d had all the representatives affixed their names. EUery stood at the secretary's side as the various delegates signed, and declares that he saw only dauntless resolution in every eye. " Now wc must hang to- gether," said Franklin, " or we shall hang sep- arately." The honor of writing the Declaration belongs to Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, who was to play so prominent a part in the early political history of the United States. At this time he was thirty- three years old. He was by profession a lawyer, of elegant tastes, well read in literature, deeply versed in political history and philosophy. He was chosen to draft the instrument chiefly because of the great ability of other state papers from his pen. It is said that he consulted no books duriug the composition, but wrote from the overflowing fulness of his mind. It is an interesting inquiry how far the language of the document was determined by utterances of 12 178 THE OLD CONFEDERATION [i776 a like kind already put forth by towns and counties. There had been many of these, and much discus- sion has occurred upon the question which of them was first. Perhaps the honor belongs to the town of Sheffield, Mass., which so early as January 12, 1773, proclaimed the grievances and the rights of the col- onies, among these the right of self-government. Mendon, in the same State, in the same year passed resolutions containing three fundamental proposi- tions of the great Declaration itself : that all men have an equal right to hfe and Liberty, that this right is inalienable, and that government must originate in the free consent of the people. It is worthy of note that the only important change made by Congress in what Jefferson had prepared was the striking out, in deference to South Caro- lina and Georgia, of a clause reflecting on slavery. Copies of the immortal paper were carried post- haste up and down the land, and Congress's bold deed was everywhere hailed with enthusiastic dem- onstrations of joy. The stand for independence wrought powerfully for good, both at home and abroad. At home it assisted vacillating minds to a decision, as well as bound all the colonies more firmly together by committing them irreconcilably to an aggressive policy. Abroad it tended to lift the colonies out of the position *of rebels and to gain them recognition among the nations of the earth. Let us now inquire into the political character of these bodies of people which this Declaration by their delegates had erected into " free and indepen- dant States." i'i'76] INDEPENDENCE 179 Eive colonies had adopted constitutions, revolu- tionary of course, before the decisiye manifesto. There was urgent need for such action. The few remaining fragments of royal governments were powerless and decadent. Anarchy was threaten- ing everywhere. Some of the royal governors had fled. In South Carolina the judges refused to act. In other places, as western Massachusetts, they had been forcibly prevented from acting. In most of the colonies only small parts of the old assem- blies could be gotten together. New Hampshire led off with a new constitution in January, 1776. South Carolina followed in March. By the close of the year nearly aU the colonies had established governments of their own. New York and Georgia did not formally adopt new constitutions until the nest year. In Massachu- setts a popular assembly assumed legislative and executive powers from July, 1775, till 1780, when a new constitution went into force. Connecticut and Ehode Island, as we have seen already, con- tinued to use their royal charters — the former till 1818, the latter till 1842. Nowhere was the general framework of govern- ment greatly changed by independence. The gov- ernors were of course now elected by the people, and they suffered some diminution of power. Legis- latures were composed of two houses, both elective, no hereditary legislators being recognized. All the States stiU. had Sunday laws ; most of them had religious tests. In South Carolina only mem- bers of a church could vote. In New Jersey an office-holder must profess belief in the faith of 180 THE OLD CONFEDERATION [1776 some Protestant sect. Pennsylvania required members of the legislature to avow faith in God, a future state, and the inspiration of the Script- ures. The new Massachusetts constitution pro- vided that laws against plays, extravagance in dress, diet, etc., should be passed, Projaerty qual- ifications confciaued to limit suffrage. Virginia and Georgia changed their land laws, abolishing entails and primogeniture. The sole momentous novelty was that every one of the new constitutions proceeded upon the theory of popular sovereignty. The new govern- ments derived their authority solely and directly from the people. And this authority, too, was not surrendered to the government, but simply — and this only in part — intrusted to it as the tempo- rary agent of the sovereign people, who remained throughout the exclusive source of political power. The new instruments of government were neces- sarily faulty and imperfect. All have siace been amended, and several entirely Remodelled. But they rescued the colonies from imiaending anarchy and carried them safely through the throes of the Eevolution. 9u Longitude "West CHAPTEE IV. OUTBEEAK OF WAR: WASHINGTON'S MOVEMENTS By the spring of 1775 Massachusetts was prac- tically in rebellion. Every village green was a drill-ground, every church a town arsenal. Gener- al Gage occupied Boston with 3,000 British regu- lars. The flames were smouldering ; at the slight- est puff they would flash out into open war. On the night of April 18th people along the road from Boston to Concord were roused from sleep by the cry of flying couriers — " To arms ! The red- coats are coming ! " When the British advance reached Lexington at early dawn, it found srsty or seventy minute-men draAvn up on the green. " Disperse, ye rebels ! " shouted the British officer. A volley was fired, and seven Americans fell dead. The king's troops, with a shout, pushed on to Concord. Most of the military stores, however, which they had come to destroy had been removed. A British detachment advanced to Concord Bridge, and in the skirmish here the Americans returned the British fire. " By the rude bridge that arched-the flood, Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world." * * From R. W. Emerson's Concord Hymn, sung at the completion of the Battle Monument near Concord North Bridge, April 19, 1836. 182 THE OLD CONFEDEEM.TION [1775 The whole country was by this time swarming with minute-men. The crack of the rifle was heard from behind every wall and fence and tree along the line of march. The redcoats kept falling one by one at the hands of an invisible foe. The march became a retreat, the retreat almost a rout. At sunset the panting troops found shelter in Bos- ton. Out of 1,800 nearly 300 were killed, wounded, or missing. The American loss was about ninety. The war of the rebellion had begun. All that day and the next night the tramp of minute -men marching to Boston was heard throughout New England, and by: April 20th Gage was cooped up in the city by an American army. May 25th, he received large re-enljproements from England. On the night of June 16th a thoilsand men armed with pick and spade stole out of the American camp. At dawn the startled British found that a redoubt had sprung up in the night on Breed's Hill (henceforward Bunker Hill) in Charlestown. Boston was endangered, and the rebels must be dislodged. About half-past two 2,500 British reg- ulars marched silently and in perfect order up the hill, expecting to drive out the "rustics" at the first charge. Colonel Prescott, the commanding American officer, waited till the regulars were within ten rods. " Fire ! " A sheet of flame burst from the redoubt. The front ranks of the British melted away, and His Majesty's invincibles re- treated in confusion to the foot of the hill. Again they advance. Again that terrible fire. Again they waver and fall back. Once more the plucky ITO] OVTBREAK OF WjLR 183 fellows form for the charge, this time with bayonets alone. When they are within twenty yards, the muskets behind the earthworks send forth one deadly discharge, and then are silent. The am- mimition is exhausted. The British swarm into the redoubt. The Continentals reluctantly retire, Prescott among the last, his coat rent by bayonets. Joseph Warren, of Boston, the idol of Massachu- setts, was shot while leaving the redoubt. The British killed and wounded amounted to 1,054 — 157 of them being officers; the American loss was nearly 500. The battle put a,n end to further offensive movements by Gage. It was a virtual victory for the untrained farmer troops, and all America took courage. Two days before. Congress had chosen George Washington commander-ia-chief, and on July 2d he arrived at Cambridge. Washington was forty-three years old. Over six feet in height, and well-propor- tioned, ho combined great dignity with ease. His early life as smwoyor ia a wild country had devel- oped in him marvellous powers of endurance. His experience in the French and Indian War had given him considerable military knowledge. But his best title to the high honor now thrust upon him lay ia his wonderful self-control, soimd judgment, lofty patriotism, and sublime courage, which were to carry him, calm and unflinching, through per- plexities and discouragements that would have overwhelmed a smaller or a meaner man. Washington fought England with his hands tied. The Continental government was the worst possible for carrying on war. There was no executive. The 184 THE OLD CONFEDERATION [1776 action of legislative committees was slow and va- ciUating, and at best Congress could not enforce obedience on the part of a colony; Congress, too, afraid of a standing army, would authorize only short enhstments, so that Washington had fre- quently to discharge one army and form another in the face of the enemy. His troops were ill-dis- cipUned, and scantily supplied with clothing, tents, weapons, and ammunition. Skilled officers were few, and these rarely free from local and personal jealousies, impairing their efficiency. Washington found that the army around Boston consisted of about 14,500 men fit for duty. He estimated the British forces at 11,000. All the f^-U and winter he was obliged to lie inactive for want of powder. Meantime he distressed the British as much as possible by a close siege. In the spring, having got more powder, he fortified Dorchester Heights. The city was now untenable, and on March 17, 1776, all the British trOops, under com- mand of Howe, who had succeeded Gage, sailed out of Boston harbor, never again to set foot on Massa- chusetts soil. June 28th, a British fleet of ten vessels opened fire on Fort Moultrie, in Charleston harbor, S. C. The fort, commanded by Colonel Moultrie, returned the fire with remarkable accuracy,, and after an en- gagement of twelve hours the fleet withdrew, bad- ly crippled. This victory gave security to South Carolina and Georgia for three years. The discomfited fleet sailed for New York, where the British forces were concentrating. The plan was to seize the Middle States, andthus keep North ITO] OUTBREAK OF Wm 185 and South from helping one another. August 1st, 2,500 English troops and 8,000 Hessians arrived. The effective British force was now aboat 25,000. Washington was holding New York City with about 10,000 men fit for duty. Driven from Long Island by the battle of August 27th, and forced to abandon New York September 15th, Washington retreated up the Hudson, and took up a strong position at White Plains. Here the British, attacking, were defeated in a well-fought engagement ; but as they were strongly re-enforced on October 30th, Washington fell back to New- castle. Early in November, guessiug that they intended to invade New Jersey and advance on Philadelphia, he threw his main force across the Hudson. The fortunes of the American army were now at the lowest ebb, so that had Howe been an efficient general it must have been either captured or en- tirely destroyed. Through the treason of Adjutant Demont, who had deserted to Lord Percy with com- plete information of their weakness, Forts Wash- ington and Lee were captured, Novfember 16th and 20th, with the loss of 150 kiUed apd wounded, and 2,634 prisoners, besides valuable stores, small arms, and forty -three pieces of artillery. Manhattan Isl- and was lost. General Charles Lee, with a consid- erable portion of the army, persistently refused to cross the Hudson. Washington, with the troops remaining, was forced to retreat slowly across New Jersey, the British army, under ComwaUis, at his very heels, often within cannon-shot. The New Jersey people were lukewarm, and many accepted 186 THE OLD COMfEDBRATION il'?^8 Comwallis's offers of amnesty. Congress, fearing that Philadelphia would be taken, adjourned to Baltimore. December 8th, Washington crossed the Delaware with less than 3,000 men. The British encamped on the opposite bank of the river. The American army was safe for the present, having secured aU the boats and burned all the bridges within seventy miles. Washington was soon re-enforced, and now had between five and six thousand troops. He deter- mined to strike a bold blow that would electrify the drooping spirits of the army and the country. At Trenton lay a body of 1,200 Hessians. Christmas night Washington crossed the Delaware with 2,400 picked men. The current was swift, and the river full of iloating ice ; but the boats were handled by Massachusetts fishermen, and the passage was safely made. Then began the nine-mile march to Trenton, in a blinding storm of sleet and hail. The soldiers, many of whom were almost barefoot, stumbled on over the slippery road, shielding their muskets from the storm as best they could. Tren- ton was reached at eight o'clock on the morning of the 26th. An attack was made by two columns simultaneously. The surprise was complete, and after a half hour's struggle the Hessians surren- dered. Nearly 1,000 prisoners we're taken, besides 1,200 small arms and six guns. Washington safely retreated across the Delaware. ComwaUis, mth 7,000 men, hurried from Prince- ton to attack the American army.= But Washing- ton, on the night of January 2, 1777, leaving his camp-fires burning, slipped around the British im\ OUTBREAK OF WAB 187 army, routed the regiments left at Princeton, and pushing on northward went into winter quarters at Morristown. The next campaign opened late. It was the last of Augiist when Howe, with 17,000 men, sailed from New York into Chesapeake Bay, and ad- vanced toward Philadelphia. Washington flung himself in his path at Brandywine, September 11th, but was beaten back with heavy loss. September 26th the British army marched into Philadelphia, whence Congress had fled. October 4th, Washing- ton attacked the British camp at Germantown. Victory was almost his when two" of the attack- ing parties, mistaking each other, in the fog, for British, threw the movement into confusion, and Washington had to fall back, with a loss of 1,000 men. In December the American commander led his ragged army into winter quarters at Valley Forge, twenty-one miles from Philadelphia. It was a period of deep gloom. The war had been waged now for more than two years, and less than nothing seemed to have been accomplished. Distrust of Washington's ability sprang up in some minds. " Heaven grant us one great soul ! " exclaimed John Adams after Brandywine. Certain officers, envious of Washington, began to intrigue for his place. Meanwhile the army was shivering in its log huts at Valley Forge. Nearly three thousand were barefoot. Many had to sit by the fires aU night to keep from freezing. One day there was a dinner of officers to which none were admitted who had whole trousers. For days together there was no 188 THE OLD CONFEDERATION [1778 bread in camp. The death-rate increased thirty- three per cent, from week to week. Just now, however, amid this terrible winter at Valley Forge, Baron Steuben, a trained German soldier, who had been a pupil of Frederick the Great, joined our army. Washington made him inspector - general, and his rigorous daily drill vastly improved the discipline and the spirits of the American troops. When they left camp in the spring, spite of the hardships past, they formed a mihtary force on which Washington could reckon with certainty for efficient work. The British, after a gay winter in Philadelphia, startled by the news that a French fleet was on its way to America, marched for New York, June 18, 1778. The American army overtook them at Mon- mouth on the 28th, General Charles Lee — a traitor as we now know, and as Washington then suspect- ed, forced into high place by influence in Oongi'ess — General Lee led the party intended to attack, but he delayed so long that the British attacked him instead. The Americans were retreating through a narrow defile when Washington came upon the field, and his herculean efforts, brilliantly seconded by Wayne, stayed the rout. A stout stand was made, and the British were held at bay till evening, when they retired and continued their march to New York. Washington followed and took up his station at White Plains. CHAPTER V. THE NOETHEEN CAMPAIGN At the outbreak of hostilities the thoughts of the colonists naturally turned to the Canadian bor- der, the old battle-ground of the French and Ind- ian "War. Then and now a hostility was felt for Canada which had not slumbered since the burning of Schenectady in 1690. May 10, 1775, Ethan Allen, at the head of a party of " Green Mountain Boys," surprised Fort Ticon- deroga. Crown Point was taken two days later. Two hundred and twenty cannon, besides other much-needed military stores, fell into the hands of the Americans. Some of these heavy guns, hauled over the Green Mountains on ox-sleds the next winter, were planted by Washington on Dorches- ter Heights. In November, 1775, St. Johns and Montreal were captured by a small force under General Montgom- ery. The Americans now seemed in a fair way to get control of all Canada, which contained only 700 regular troops. It was even hoped that Can- ada would make common cause with the colonies. Late in the fall Benedict Arnold led 1,000 men? up the Kennebec Eiver and through the wilderness — a terrible journey— to Quebec. Here he was joined 190 TEE OLD CONFEDERATION [1776 by Montgomery. On the night of December 30th, ■which was dark and stormy, Montgomery and Ar- nold led their joint forces, numbeang some 3,000, against the city. Arnold was to attack the lower town, while Montgomery sought to gain the citadel. Montgomery had hardly passed the first line of barricades when he was shot dead, and his troops retreated in confusion. Arnold, too, was early wounded. Morgan, with 500 of his famous rifle- men, forced an entrance into the lower town. But they were not re-enforced, and after a desperate street fight were taken prisoners. A dreary and useless blockade was maiatained for several months ; until ta May the garrison saUied forth and routed the besiegers. The British were successful in several small engagements dur- ing the summer of 1776 ; and the Americans finally had to fall back to Crown Point and Ticonderoga. In. June of the next year a splendid expedition set sail from St. Johns, and swept proudly up Lake Champlain. Eight thousand British and Hessian troops, under strict discipline and ably ofiicered, forty cannon of the best make, a horde of merciless Indians — with these forces General Bur- gojTie, the commander of the expedition, expected to make an easy conquest of upper New York, form a junction with Cliuton at Albany, and, by thus isolating New England from the Middle and Southern States, break the back of the rebellion. Ticonderoga was the first point of attack. Sugar Loaf Mountain, which rose six hundred feet above the lake, had been neglected as too difficult of ac- cess. Burgoyne's skilful engineers easily fortified 1777] THE NORTHERN CAMPAIGN 191 this on the night of July 4th, and Fort Ticonde- roga became untenable. General St. Clair, with his garrison of 3,000, at once evacuated it, and fled south under cover of the night. He was pur- sued, and his rear guard of 1,200 men was shat- tered. The rest of his force reached Fort Edward. The loss of Ticonderoga spread alarm through- out the North. General Schuylerj the head of the northern department, appealed to Washington for re-enforcements, and fell back from Fort Edward to the junction of the Mohawk and- Hudson. Meanwhile Burgoyne was making a toilsome march toward Fort Edward. Schuyler had de- stroyed the bridges and obstructed the roads, so that the invading army was twenty-four days in going twenty-six miles. Up to this point Bur- goyne's advance had been little less than a trium- phal march ; difficulties now began to surround him like a net. Burgoyne had arranged for a branch expedition of 700 troops and 1,000 Indians under St. Leger, to sail up Lake Ontario, sweep across western New York, and join the main body at Albany, August 3d, this expedition reached Fort Schuyler, and besieged it. A party of 800 militia, led by General Herkimer, a veteran German soldier, while marching to relieve the fort, was surprised by an Indian ambush. The bloody battle of Oriskany followed. St. Leger's further advance was checked, and soon after, alarmed by exaggerated reports of a second relief expedition under Arnold, he hurried back to Canada. '^ At Bennington, twenty-five miles east of Bur- 192 THE OLD GONFEDEBATION [1'?'!"!' goyne's line of march, the Americans had a depot of stores and horses. Burgoyne, who was rimning short of provisions, sent a body of 500 troops, under Baume, to capture these stores, and overawe the in- habitants by a raid through the Connecticut valley. About 2,000 militia hastened to the defence of Ben- nington. General Stark, who had' fought gallantly at Bunker Hill and Trenton, took command. August 16th, Baume was attacked on thr6e sides at once, Stark himself leading the charge against the en- emy's front. Again and again his men dashed up the hill where the British lay behind breastworks. After a fight of two hours Baume surrendered, overpowered by superior numbers. Be-enforce- ments which came up a little later were driven back with considerable loss. The Americans took 700 prisoners and 1,000 stands of arms. Burgoyne's situation was becoming dangerous. The failure of St. Leger and the heavy loss at Bennington seriously disarranged his plans. The troops detached to defend the posts iu his rear had reduced his force to about 6,000. He was greatly hampered by lack of provisions. Meanwhile the American army had increased to 9,000. Schuyler had been supplanted by Gates, who on September 12th advanced to a strong position on Bemis Heights in the town of Stillwater. The right wing of the army rested on the Hudson, the left on ridges and wood. In front was a ravine. On the 19th Burgoyne advanced to the attack in three columns. That led by General Fraser, which tried to turn the American left, was the first to engage. Ar- nold's wing, including Morgan's riflemen, met Fra- 1777] Tm NORTHERN CAMPAIGN 193 ser's skirmishers a mile from the American liaes. They were soon forced to fall back; Burgoyne's central column came up, and the fight became general. The battle-ground was covered by thick woods, with occasional clearings, and the troops fought at close range. Four hoiTrs the battle raged hotly. The British artillery was taken and retak- en again and again. Thirty-six of the forty-eight British gunners were either killed or wounded. At sunset the Americans withdrew tp their fortified lines, leaving Burgoyne in possession of the field. It was a di'awn battle, but virtually a victory for the Americans. The British lost about 600, the Americans half as many. Burgoyne's situation was now critical in the extreme. In the heart of the enemy's country, his forces melting away while his opponents were in- creasing, nearly out of provisions and his connec- tions with his base of supplies threatened by a party assailing Ticonderoga, Burgoyne's only hope was that CUnton would force a passage up the Hudson. But the latter, after captm-ing Forts Chnton and Montgomery early in October, fell back to the lower Hudson and left Burgoyne to his fate. October 7th, Burgoyne advanced a picked body of 1,500 men to reconnoitre the American lines. Morgan's riflemen were sent out to "begin the game." The fighting soon became even hotter than in the previous battle. In an hour the whole Brit- ish line was retreating toward the camp. At this point Arnold, whom, because of his preference for Schuyler, Gates had deprived of his command, 13 194 TEE OLD CONFEDERATION [1777 filled with the fury of battle, dashefl upon the field and assumed his old command. The soldiers greeted him with cheers, and he led them on in one impetuous charge after another. The enemy everywhere gave way in. confusion^ and at dusk the Germans were even driven from their entrenched camp. The British loss was fully 600. The next day Burgoyne retreated to Saratoga, followed by Gates. The fine army, which had set out with such high hopes only four months before, was now almost a wreck. Eight hundred were in the hospital. On the 12th the army had but five days' rations. Burgoyne could neither advance nor retreat, and on the 17th he surrendered. The army were allowed free passage to England on con- dition that they would not re-engage in the war. The Americans got thirty-five superb cannon and 4,000 muskets. The Sunday after the surrender, Timothy Dwight, afterward President of Yale Col- lege, preached to Gates's soldiers from Joel ii. 20, "I will remove far off from you the northern army." Gates deserved httle credit for the defeat of Bur- goyne. Put forward by New England influence against Schuyler, the favorite of New York, he but reaped the results of the labors of Herkimer at Oriskany, of Stark at Bennington, and of Schuyler in obstructing Burgoyne's advance and in raising a suf- ficient army. Even in the two battles of Stillwater Gates did nest to nothing, not even appearing on the field. Arnold and Morgan were the soul of the army on both days. Arnold's gallant conduct was at once rewarded by a major-genqralship. Schuy- 1777J THE NORTHERN CAMPAIGN 195 ler, underrated and even maligned in his day, had to wait for the approval of ppsterity, which he has now fully obtained. The surrender of Burgoyne was the most impor- tant event of the war up to that time. It was of immense service at home, raising the coimtry out of the despondency which followed upon Brandy- wine and Germantown. Abroad it disheartened England, and decided France to actnowledge the independence of America and to send military aid. From the end of this year, 1777, victory over Eng- land was a practical certainty. CHAPTER VI. THE SOUTHEBN CAMPAIGNS Aftee the summer of 1778 little of military im- portance occurred at the North. July and NoTem- ber of that year were marked by bloody Indian massacres at Wyoming, Pa., and Cherry Valley, N. Y., the worst in all that border warfare which was incessant from the beginning to the end of the EeYolution. In August an unsuc"cessful attempt to regain Newport was made by General Sullivan, co-operating with a French fleet under D'Estaing. In the spring and summer of 1779, Clinton, who lay at New York with a considerable army, closely watched by Washington, sent out to Connecticut and the coasts of Virginia a number of plunder- ing expeditions which did much damage. " Mad Anthony Wayne" led a brilliant attack against Stony Point on the Hudson, captured the British garrison, and destroyed the fortifications. This year was also marked by a great naval victory. Paul Jones lashed his vessel, the Bonhomme Richard, to the British Serapis, off the northeast coast of England, and after a desperate fight of three hours forced the Serapis to surrender. But the brunt of the war now fell on the South, 1780] THE SOUTHERN CAMPAIGNS 197 where the British, unsuccessful in the Northern and Middle States, hoped for an easy conquest. The capture of Savannah in December, 1778, and of Augusta the next month, laid Georgia prostrate. The royal government was re-instated by Prevost, the British general. Our General Lincoln, who had been placed in command of the Southern army, assisted by D'Estaing with his fleet, besieged Sa- vannah, but On October 9, 1779, was repulsed with heavy loss. In the spring of 1780 Clinton arrived from New York with a fleet and troops. Charleston, S. C, was besieged by land and sea. Lincoln was com- pelled to surrender with his whole army. Beau- fort, Ninety-Six, and Camden capittdated in rapid succession. Marauding expeditions overran the State. President Andrew Jackson carried to his grave scars of hurts, one on his head, another on his hand, given him by Tarleton's men when he was a boy at Waxhaw. The patriots lay= helpless. The loyalists organized as militia and joined the Brit- ish. Clinton, elated by success, hoped to force the entire population into allegiance to the king. The estates of patriots were sequestered. Any Carolinian found in arms against the king might be, and multitudes were, hung for treason. Clinton even issued a proclamation requiring all inhabitants to take active part on the royalist side. Sumter, Marion, and other leaders, gathering around them little companies of bold men, carried on a guerilla warfare which proved very annoying to the British. They would sally forth from their hiding-places in the swamps, surprise . some British outpost or cut 198 THE OLD CONFEDERATION [nso off some detachment, and retreat with their booty and prisoners before pursuit could "be made. But the British army in South Carolina and Georgia was 7,000 strong. Help, must come from without. And help was coming. Washington de- tached from his scanty army 2,000 Maryland troops and the Delaware regiment — all veterans — and sent them south under De Kalb, a brave officer of Ger- man blood, who had seen long service in France. Virginia, though herself exposed, nobly contributed arms and men. Gates, the laurels of Saratoga still fresh upon his brow, was, against "Washington's judgment, appointed by Congress to succeed Lin- coln. Comwallis, whom the return of Clinton to New York had left in command, lay at Camden, S. C. Gates, as if he had but to look the Briton in the eye to beat him, pompously assumed the offensive. On August 15th ho made a night march to seciu'e a more favorable position near Camden. Comwallis happened to have chosen the same night for an at- tack upon Gates. The two armies unexpectedly met in the woods, nine miles from Camden, early in the morning of the 16th. Gates'is force, increased by North Carolina militia, was between 3,000 and 4,000. Comwallis had about 2,000. The Ameri- can position was strong, a swamp protecting both flanks, but at the first bayonet charge of the British veterans the raw militia threw away their guns and "ran like a torrent." The Maryland and Del- aware Continentals stood their ground bravely, but were finally obliged to retreat. Dp Kalb fell, with eleven wounds. 1780] THE SOUTHERN CAMPAIGNS 199 TMs heroic foreigner had beeii sent hither by Ohoiseul before the l-levolution to report to the French minister on American affairs, and at the outbreak of war had at great cost cast in his lot with our fathers. Sent south to aid Lincoln, he arrived only in time to be utilized by Gates. De Kalb was the hero of Camden. Wounded and his horse shot from under him, on foot he led his stanch division in a charge which drove Kawdon's men and took fifty prisoners. Believing his side victorious he would not yield, thou'gh literally rid- den down by Cornwallis's dragoons, till his wounds exhausted him. Two-fifths of his noble division fell with him. The whole army was pursued for miles and com- pletely scattered. Arms, knapsacks, broken wag- ons, dead horses strewed the Ime. of retreat. The Americans lost 900 killed and as many more pris- oners. The British loss was less than 500. Gates, who had been literally borne off the field by the panic-stricken militia, rode in all haste two hun- dred miles north to Hillsborough, N. C, where he tried to organize a new army. The gloom created at the North by this defeat was deepened by the startling news that Benedict Arnold, the hero of Saratoga, had turned traitor. Smarting under a reprimand from Washington for misconduct, Arnold agreed with Chnton to surren- der West Point. The plot was discovered by the capture of Clinton's agent, Major Andre, who was hung as a spy. Arnold escaped to the British lines. There was now no organized American force in 200 THE OLD CONFEDERATION [1'"''80 the Carolinas, and Cornwallis began a triumpliant mareli nortliward. The brave mountaineers of North Carolina and Virginia rose in arms. Octo- ber 7th, a thousand riflemen fell upon a detach- ment of 1,100 British, strongly posted on King's Mountain, N. C, and after a sharp struggle killed and wounded about 400, and took the rest prison- ers. In this battle fell one of the Tory ances- tors of the since distinguished American De Pey- ster family. The King's Mountain victory filled the patriots with new hope and zeal, and kept the loyalists from rising to support the British. Com- waUis marched south again. Gates was now removed and General Nathaniel Greene placed in charge of the Southern depart- ment. Greene was one of the most splendid figures in the Kevolution. Son of a Rhode Island Quaker, bred a blacksmith, ill- educated save by private study, which in mathematics, history, and law he had carried far, he was in 1770 elected to the legis- lature of his colony. Zeal to fight England for colonial liberty lost him his place in the Friends' Society. Heading Rhode Island's contingent to join "Washington before Boston at the first shock of Revolutionary arms, he was soon made brigadier, the initial step in his rapid promotion. Showing himself an accomplished fighter at Trenton, Prince- ton, Germantown, Monmouth, and the battle of Rhode Island, and a first-rate organizer as quarter- master-general of the army, he had long been Wash- ington's right-hand man ; and his superior now sent him south with high hopes and ringing words of recommendation to the army and people there. 1781] THE SOUTHERN CAMPAIGNS 201 Greene's plan of campaign was the reverse of Gates's. He meant to harass and hinder the enemy at every step, avoiding pitched battles. January 17, 1781, a portion of his army, about 1,000 strong, under the famous General Daniel Morgan, of Virginia, another hero of Saratoga, was attacked at Cowpens, S. C, by an equal number of British under the dashing Tarleton. The British, riddled by a terrible cross-fire from Morgan's un- erring riflemen, followed up by a bayonet charge, fled, and were for twenty-four miles pm-sued by cavaky. The American loss was trifling. Tarleton lost 300 in killed and wounded, and 500 prisoners, besides 100 horses, 35 wagons, and 800 muskets. Cornwallis began a second march northward. Greene's force was too weak to risk a battle. His soldiers were poorly clad, and most of them were without tents or shoes. He therefore skilfully re- treated across North Caroliaa, chased by Corn- wallis. Twice the rivers, rising suddenly after Greene had crossed, checked his pursuers. But on March 15th, re-enforced to about 4,000, the Quaker general offered battle to Cornwallis at Guilford Court-House, N. C. H^ drew up his forces on a wooded hill in three lines one behind the other. The first Hne, consisting of raw North Carolina militia, fled before the British bayonet charge, hardly firing a shot. The Virginia brigade constituting the second line made a brave resist- ance, but was soon driven back. On swept the British columns, flushed with victory, against the third line. Here Greek met Greek. The Conti- nentals stood their ground like the veterans they 202 THE OLD CONFEDERATION [1781 were. After a long and bloody fight the British were driven back. The fugitives, however, pres- ently rallied under cover of the artillery, when Greene, fearing to risk more, withdrew from the field. The British lost 500 ; the Americans, 400, besides a large part of the militia, who dispersed to their homes. Cornwallis, with„ his " victorious but ruined army," retreated to the southern part of the State. The last of April he forsook Carolina, and marched into Virginia with 1,400 men. Greene, his force reduced to 1,800, caixied the war into South Carolina. Defeated at Hobkirk's Hill, near Camden, and compelled. by the approach of General Rawdon to raise the siege of Ninety- Six, he retreated north. Meantime Marion and Lee had brought about the evacuation of Camden and Augusta. Rawdon soon evacuated Ninety- Six, and moved toward the coast, followed by Greene. A ceaseless guerilla warfare was kept up, at- tended with many barbarities. Slave-stealing was a favorite pursuit on both sides. It is noteworthy that the followers of Sumter, fighting in the cause of freedom, were paid largely in slaves. The whole campaign was marked by severities unknown at the North. The British shot as deserters aU who, having once accepted royal protection, were taken in arms against the king. In a few cases Ameri- cans dealt similarly with Americans fighting for the British, but in general their procedure was in- finitely the more humane. The battle of Eutaw Springs practically ended the war in the South. The British were victorious, 1781] THE SOUTHERN CAMPAIGNS 203 but all the advantages of the battle accrued to the Americans. The British loss was nearly 1,000 ; the American, 600. In ten months Greene had driven the British from all Georgia and the Car- olinas except Wilmiugton, Charleston, and Savan- nah. Destiny decreed that Washington should strike the last blow for his country's freedom on the soil of his own State. GomwaUis found himself in Vir- ginia, the last of May, at the head„of 7,000 troops. He ravaged the State, destroying $10,000,000 worth of property. Lafayette, pitted against him with 3,000 men, could do little. In August ComwaUis withdrew into Yorktown, and began fortifications. Lafayette's quick eye saw that the. British general had caged himself. Posting his army so as to pre- vent Comwallis's escape, he advised Washington to hasten with his army to Virginia. Meanwhile a French fleet blocked up the mouth of Chesapeake Bay and of James Eiver and York Eiver, cutting off Comwallis's escape by water. The last of Sep- tember Washington's army, accompanied by the French troops under Rochambeau, appeared before Yorkto'^vn. Clinton, deceived by Washington into the belief that New York was to be attacked, was still holding that city with 18,000 men. The Amer- ican army, 16,000 strong — 7,000 French — began a regular siege. Comwallis was doomed. Two advanced redoubts of the British works were soon carried by a brilliant assault in which the French and the American troops won equal honors. On the 19th ComwaUis surrendered. The captive army, numbering 7,247, marched with cased colors 204 THE OLD GONFEDERJiTION [1781 between two long lines of American and Frencli troops, and laid down their arms. The news of Comwallis's surrender flew like wild-fire over the country. Everywhere the vic- tory was hailed as virtually ending the war. Bon- fires and booming cannon told of the joy of the people. Congress assembled, and marching to church in a body, not as a mere form, vre may well believe, gave thanks to the God of battles, so pro- pitious at last. CHAPTER VII. PEACE The peace paxty and spirit in England increased month by mouth. Burgoyne's suTrender had dis- sipated the hope of speedily suppressing the re- bellion. And as the war dragged on and English- men by bitter experience came to realize the bravery, endurance, and national feeling of the Americans, the conviction spread that three mill- ions of such people, separated from the mother- country by three thousand miles of boisterous ocean, could never be conquered , by force. Dis- couragement arose, too, from the ill conduct of the war. There was no broad plan or consistency in management. Generals did not agree or co-oper- ate, and were changed too often. Clinton and Oornwallis hated each other. Burgoyne super- seded Carleton, a better man. But for Lord Ger- main's " criminal negligence " in- waiting to go upon a visit before sending the proper orders, Clinton might have met and saved Burgoyne. There were enormous and needless expenses. By 1779 England's national debt had increased £63,000,000; by 1782 it had doubled. Rents were declining. The price of land had fallen one- third. Hence the war became unpopular with the 206 THE OLD GONFEDEBATION [1782 landed aristocracy. British manxifacturers suf- fered by tlie narrowing of their foreign markets. American privateers, prowling in all seas, had cap- tured hundreds of British merchantmen. English sentiment, too, revolted at certain features of the war. Bavaging and the use of mercenaries and Indians were felt to be barbarous. Time made clearer the initial error of the government in in- voking war over the doubtful right of taxing Amer- ica. An increasing number of lawyers took the American view. Practical men figured out that each year of hostilities cost more than the pro- posed tax would have yielded in a century. In February, 1778, Parliament almost unanimous- ly adopted proposals to restore the state of things which existed in America before the war, at the same time declaring its intention not to exercise its right of taxing the colonies. Washington spoke for America when he said, "Nothing but inde- pendence will now do." The proposals were re- jected by Congress and by the States separately. England's difficulties were greatly increased by the help extended to America from abroad. France, eager for revenge on England, early in the war lent secret aid by money and rpilitary supplies. Later, emboldened by the defeat of Burgoyne, the French Government recognized the United States as an independent nation. By a treaty, offensive and defensive, the two nations bound themselves to fight together for that independence, neither to conclude a separate peace. The benefit from this treaty was moral and finan- cial rather than martial. At Torktown, to be sure, 1782] PEACE 207 the French forces rendered invaluable aid. With- out De Grasse's French fleet at the mouths of the York and James rivers, the British might have relieved Cornwallis by sea. But Congress needed money more than foreign soldiers, and without France's liberal loans it is difficult to see how the government could have struggled through. Spain, too, joined the alliance of France and the United States and declared war against England, though from no love for the young republic. This action hastened the growth of public opinion in England against the continuance of the American war. In the House of Commons, Lord Cavendish made a motion for ordering home the troops. Lord North, prime minister, threw out hints that it was useless to continue the war. But George III., summoning his ministers, declared his un- changing resolution never to yield to the rebels, and continued prodding the wavering North to stumble on in his stupid course. It was struggling against fate. The next year saw Holland at war with England, while Catherine, Empress of Eussia, was actively organizing the Armed Neutrality, by which all the other states of Europe leagued together to resist England's prac- tice of stopping vessels on th« high seas and searching them for contraband goods. England was now involved in four wars, with- out raonej to carry them on. North's majorities in Parliament grew steadily smaller. No doubt much of the opposition was simply factious and partisan, but it had, after all, solid basis in princi- ple. England was fighting her own policy — eco- 208 THE OLD CONFEDERATION [1783 nomically, for she was destined to free trade, and politically, inasmuch as the freedom which our fathers sought was nothing but English freedom. The surrender of Cornwallis tipped the scale. Lord North, when he heard the news, paced the room in agony, exclaiming again *and again, " O God, it is all over ! " The House of Commons, without even a division, resolved to " consider as enemies to His Majesty and the country " all who should advise a further prosecution of the war. North resigned, and Shelbume, Secretary of State in the new ministry, hastened to open peace ne- gotiations with Franklin at Paris. 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 print- er, king's postmaster-general for America, dis- coverer, London colonial agent, delegate in the Continental Congress, and signer of the Declara- tion of Independence, had completely captivated elegant, free-thinking France. Learned and com- mon folk, the sober and the frivolous alike swore by Franklin. Snuff-boxes, furniture, dishes, even stoves were gotten up d la Franlclin. 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 1783] PEAGE 209 small measure due to the influence of Franklin. And his skill in diplomacy was of the greatest value in the negotiations now pending. These were necessarily long and tedious, but Jay, Franklin's colleague, made them needlessly so by his finical refusal to treat till England had acknowledged our independence by a separate act. This, indeed, jeopardized peace itself, since Shel- burne's days of ministerial power were closing, and his successor was sure to be less our friend. Jay at last receded, a compromise being arrived at by which the treaty was to open with a virtual recog- nition of independence in acknowledging Adams, Franklin, and Jay as " plenipotentiaries," that is, agents of a sovereigTi power. Boundaries, fishery rights, and the treatment of loyalists and their property were the chief bones of contention. As the negotiations wore on it became apparent that Spain and France, now that their vengeance was sated against England by our independence, were more unfriendly to our territorial enlarge- ment than England itself. There still exists a map on which Spain's minister had indicated what he wished to make our western bound. The line fol- lows nearly the meridian of Pittsburgh. This atti- tude of those powers excused our plenipotentiaries, though boimd by oui" treaty with France not to conclude peace apart from her, for making the pre- liminary arrangements with England privately. At last, on November 30, 1782, Franklin, Jay, and John Adams set their signatures to preliminary articles, which were incorporated in a treaty of peace be- tween Great Britain and the United States, France, 14 210 THE OLD CONFEDERATION [1783 and Spain, signed at Paris on September 3, 1783. David Hartley signed for England.- Our Congress ratified on February 14, 1784. The treaty recognized the independence of the ■ United States. It established as boundaries near- ly the present Canadian line on the north, the Mississippi on the west, and Florida, which now returned to Spain and extended to the Mississippi, on the south. Despite the wishes of Spain, the free navigation of the Mississippi-, from source to mouth, was guaranteed to the United States and Great Britain. Fishery rights received special at- tention. American fishermen were granted the privilege of fishing, as before the war, on the banks of Newfoundland, in the Gulf of St. LaAvrence, and in all other places in the sea where the inhabi- tants of both countries had been accustomed to fish. Liberty was also granted to tdlie fish on such parts of the coast of Newfoundland as British fish- ermen should use, and on the coasts, bays, and creeks of all other British dominions in America. American fishermen could dry and cure fish on the unsettled parts of Nova Scotia, Labrador, and the Magdalen Islands. America agreed, for the pro- tection of British creditors, that debts contracted before the war should be held valid, and should be payable in sterling money. It was also stipulated that Congress should earnestly recommend to the several States the restitution of all confiscated property belonging to loyalists. Peace came like a heavenly benediction to the country and the army, exhaiisted by so long and so fierce a struggle. No general engagement took 1783] PEACE 211 place after the siege of Yorktown"; but the armies kept close watch upon each other, and minor skir- mishes were frequent. "Washington's 10,000 men were encamped near the Hudson, to see that Clin- ton's forces in New York did no harm. In the South, Greene's valiant band, aided by Wayne and his rangers, without regular food or pay, kept the British cooped up in Charleston and Augusta. Congress in due time declared cessation of hos- tilities, and on April 19, 1783, just eight years from the battle of Lexington, Washington read the declaration at the head-quarters of his army. The British had evacuated Charleston the previous December. In July, Savannah saw the last of the redcoats file out, and the British troops were col- lected at New York. On November 25th, Sir Guy Carleton, who had superseded Clinton, embarked with his entire army, besides a throng of refugees, in boats for Long Island and Staten Island, where they soon took ship for England. "The imperial standard of Great Britain fell at the fort over which it had floated for a hundred and twenty years, and in its place the Stars and Stripes of American Independence flashed in the sun. Fleet and army, royal flag and scarlet uniform, coronet and ribbon, every sign and symbol of foreign au- thority, which from Concord to Saratoga, and from Saratoga to Yorktown had sought to subdue the colonies, vanished from these shores. Colo- nial and provincial America hadj ended, national America had begun." The American troops took possession of New York amid the huzzas of the people and the roar 212 THE OLD GONFEDEIUTION [l^SS of cannon. On November 25th Washington with his suite, surrounded by grateful and admiring throngs, made a formal entry into the city whence he had been compelled to flee seven years before. The time had now come when the national hero might lay down the great burden which he had borne with herculean strength and courage through so many years of distress and gloom. On December 4th he joined his principal officers at the popular Fraunces's Tavern, near the Battpry, to bid them farewell. Tears filled every eye. Even Washing- ton could not master his feelings,* as one after an- other the heroes who had been with him upon the tented field and in so many moments of dreadful strife drew near to press his hand. They followed him through ranks of parading infantry to the Whitehall ferry, where he boarded his barge, and waving his hat in a last, voiceless farewell, crossed to the Jersey shore. Arrived at Annapolis after a journey which had been one long ovation, the saviour of his country appeared before Congress, December 23d, to resign the commission which he had so grandly fulfilled. His address was in noble key, but abbreviated by choking emotion. The President of Congress hav- ing replied in fitting words, Washington withdrew, and continued his journey to the long-missed peace and seclusion of his Mount Vernon home. CHAPTEE YIII. AMEEICAN MANHOOD IN THE KEVOLUTION It -would be foolish to say that the revolution- ary soldiers never quailed. Militia too often gave way before the steady bayonet charge of British regulars, at times fleeing panic-stricken. Troops whose term of service was out wbuld go home at critical moments. Hardships and lack of pay in a few instances led to mutiny and desertion. But the marvel is that they fought so bravely, endured so much, and complained so little. One reason was the patriotism of the^ people at large behind them. Soldiers who turned their backs on Boston, leaving Washington in the lurch, were re- fused food along the road home. Women placed rifles in the hands of husbands, sons, or lovers, and said " Go ! " The rank and file in this war, coming from farm, work-bench, logging-camp, or fisher's boat, had a superb physical basis for camp and field life. Used to the rifle from boyhood, „ they kept their powder dry and made every one of their scanty bullets tell. The revolutionary seldier's splendid courage has glorified a score of bajttle-fields ; while Valley Forge, with its days of hunger and nights of cold, its sick-beds on the damp- ground, and its 214 THE OLD CONFEDERATION \X'1in-9,\ bloody footprints in tlie snow, tell of his patient endurance. At Bunker Hill an undisciplined body of farm- ers, ill-armed, weary, hungry and thirsty, calmly awaited the charge of old British campaigners, and by a fire of dreadful precision drove them back. " They may talk of their Mindens and their Fon- tenoys," said the British general, Howe, "but there was no such fire there." At Charleston, while the wooden fort shook with the British broadsides, Moultrie and his South Carolina boys, half naked in the stifling heat, through twelve long hours smoked their pipes and carefully point- ed their guns. At Long Island, to gain time for the retreat of the rest, five Maryland companies flew again and again in the face of the pursuing host. At Monmouth eight thousand British were in hot pursuit of the retreating Americans. Square in their front Washington planted two Pennsylvan- ia and Maryland regiments, saying, " Gentlemen, I depend upon jou to hold the ground until I can form the main army." And hold it they did. Heroism grander than that of the battle-field, which can calmly meet an ignominious death, was not lacking. Captain Nathan Hale, a quiet, studi- ous spirit, just graduated from Yale College, vol- unteered to enter the British lines on Long Island as a spy. He was caught, and soon swung from an apple - tree in Colonel Butgers' orchard, a corpse. Bible and religious mim=strations denied him, his letters to mother and sister destroyed, women standing by and sobbing, he met his fate without a tremor. " I only regret," comes his 1^5-81] AMEBtGAN MAMHOOD 215 voice from yon rude scaffold, " that I have but one life to give for my country." It is a shame that America so long had no monument to this heroic man. One almost rejoices that the British captain, Cunningham, author of the cruelty to Hale, himself met death on the gallows, in London, 1791. How different fi'om Hale's the treatment bestowed up- on Andre, the British spy who fell into our hands. He was fed from Washington's table and supported to his execution by every manifestation of sympa- thy for his suffering. The stanch and useful loyalty of the New Eng- land clergy in the Revolution has been much dwelt upon — none too much, however. With them should be mentioned the Rev. James Caldwell, Presbyterian pastor at Elizabeth, N. J., who, when English soldiers raided the town, and its de- fenders were short of wadding, tore up his hymn- book for their use, urging : " Give them Watts, boys, give them Watts." No fiercer naval battle was ever fought than when Jones, in the old and rotten Bonhomme Rich- ard, grappled with the new British frigate Sera- pis. Xard-arm to yard-arm, port-hole to port- hole, the fight raged for hours. Three times both vessels were on fire. The Serapis's guns tore a complete breach in the Richard from main- mast to stern. The Richard was sinking, but the intrepid Jones fought on, and the Serapis struck. As the roll of revolutionary officers is called, what matchless figures file past the mind's eye. We see stalwart Ethan Allen entering Ticonder- oga too early in the morning to find its com- 216 THE OLD CONFEDERATION [1775-81 mander in a presentable condition^ and demanding possession " in the name of Almighty God and the Continental Congress " — destined,' himself, in a few months, to be sailing down the St. Lawrence in irons, bound for long captivity in England. We behold gallant Prcscott leisurely promenading the Bunker Hill parapet to inspirit his men, shot and shell hurtling thick around. There is Israel Put- nam — " Old Put " the boys dubbed him. He was no general, but we forgive his costly blunders at Brooklyn Heights and Peekskill aa we think of him leaving plough in furrow at the drum-beat to arms, and speeding to the deadly front at Boston, or with iron firmness stemming the retreat from Bunker Hill. Young Eichard Montgomery might have been next to Washington in the war but for Sir Guy Carleton's deadly grape-shot from the Que- bec walls the closing moments of 1775. Buried at Quebec, his remains were transferred by the State of New York, July 8, 1818, to their present rest- ing-place in front of St. Paul's, New York City, the then aged widow tearfully watching the fun- eral barge as it floated past Montgomery Place on the Hudson. During a four years' apprenticeship under Washington, General Greene had caught more of his master's spirit and method than did any other American leader, and one year's separate command at the South gave him a martial fame second only to Washington's own. In him the great chief's word was fulfilled, "I send you a general." A naked, starving army, an empty military chest, the surrounding country impoverishe4 and full of loy- 1770-81J AMERICAN MANHOOD 111 alists — these were his diiEculties. Three States practically cleared of the royal army in ten months —this was his achievement. He retreated only to advance, was beaten only to fight again. One hardly knows which to admire most, his tireless energy and vigilance, his prudence in retreat, his boldness and vigor in attack, his cheerful cour- age in defeat, or his mingled kindness and firm- ness toward a suffering and mutinous army. John Stark, eccentric but true, famous for cool courage — how stubbornly, with his New Hampshire boys, he held the rail fence at Blanker Hill, and covered the retreat when ammunition was gone ! But Stark's most brilliant deed was at Benning- ton. " There they are, boys — the red-coats, and by night they're ours, or Molly Stark's a widow." Those "boys," without bayonets, their artillery shooting stones for balls, were little more than a mob. But with confidence in him, on they rush, up, over, sweeping Baume's Hessians from the field like a tornado. The figure of General Schuyler comes before us — quieter but not less noble, an invalid, set to hard tasks with little glory. His magnanimous soiil forgets self in country as he cheerfully gives all possible help to Gates, his supplanter, and puts the torch to his own grain- fields at Saratoga lest they feed the foe. And matchless Dan Morgan of Virginia, with his band of riflemen, tall, sinewy fellows, in hunting- shirts, leggins, and moccasins, each with hatchet, hunter's knife, and rifle, dead sure to hit a man's head every time at two hundred and fifty yards. It was one of these men who shot the gallant 218 THE OLD CONFEDERATION [1775-81 Briton, Fraser, at Bemis's Heights. Morgan be- came the ablest leader of light troops then living. How gallantly he headed the forlorn hope under the icy walls of Quebec, where he was taken pris- oner, and at Saratoga with his shrill whistle and stentorian voice called his dauntless braves where the fight was thickest ! But Cowpens was Mor- gan's crowning feat. Inspiring militia and vet- erans alike with a courage they liad never felt before, he routs Tarleton's trained band of horse, and then, skilful in retreat as he had been bold in fight, laughs at baffled Cornwallis's rage. Gladly would one form fuller acquaintance with other revolutionary leaders : Stirling, Sullivan, Sumter, Mad Anthony Wayne, of Monmouth and Stony Point fame, Glover with his brave following of Marblehead fishermen, who, able to row as well as shoot, manned the oars that critical night when General Washington crossed to, Trenton. But space is too brief. Colonel Washington, the dash- ing cavalryman, was the Custer of the Eevolution. All the patriot ladies idolized him. In a hot sword- fight with the Colonel, Tarleton had had three fingers nearly severed. Subsequently in conver- sation with a South Carolina lady Tarleton said : " Why do you ladies so lionize Cplonel Washing- ton ? He is an ignorant fellow. He can hardly write his name." " But you are a witness that he can make his mark," was the reply. DeKalb was an American, too — by adoption. It is related that he expostulated with Gates for fight- ing so unprepared at Camden, and that Gates inti- mated cowardice, " To-morrow will tell, sir, who 1775-81] AMERICAN MANHOOD 219 is the coward," the old fellow rejoined. And to- morrow did tell. As the battle reddened, exit Gates from Camden and from history. We have recounted elsewhere how like a bull DeKalb held the field. A monster British grenadier rushed on him, bayonet fixed. DeKalb parried, at the same time burying his sword in the grenadier's breast so deep that he was unable to extract it. Then seizing the dead man's weapon he fought on, thrusting right and left, till at last, oyerpowered by numbers, he slipped and fell, mortally hurt. Among the civilian heroes of the Revolution, Robert Morris, the financier, deserves exceeding praise. Now tmrning over the lead ballast of his ships for bullets, now raising $50,000 on his pri- vate credit and sending it to Washington in the nick of time, now leading the country back to spe- cie payment in season to save the national credit, the Philadelphia banker aided the cause as much as the best general in the field. Paithful and successful envoys as Jay and John Adams were, the Revolution brought to light one, and only one, true master in the difficult art of di- plomacy — Franklin. Wise with a lifetime's shrewd observation, venerable with years, preceded by his fame as scientist and revolutionary statesman, grand in his plain dignity, the Philadelphia printer stood unabashed before the throne of France, and carried king and diplomats with an art that sur- prised Europe's best -trained courtiers. Never missing an opportunity, he yet knew, by delicate intuition, when to speak and when to hold his tongue. Through concession, intrigue, and delay. 220 THE OLD CONFEDERATION [1775-81 his resolute will kept steady to its purpose. To please by yielding is easy. To carry one's point and be pleasing stiU, requires" genius. This Franklin did — how successfully, our treaty of alli- ance with France and our treaty of peace with Eng- land splendidly attested. Towering above revolutionary soldier, general, and statesman stands a figure summing up in him- self all these characters and much more. That figure is George Washington, the most perfect human personality the world has known. Wash- ington's military ability has been much un- derrated. He was hardly more First in Peace than First in War. That he had physical courage and could give orders calmly while bullets whizzed all about, one need not repeat. He was strategist and tactician too. Trenton and Yorktown do not cover his whole military record. With troops infe- rior in every single respect except natural valor, he outgeneralled Howe in 1776, and he almost never erred when acting upon his own good judgment instead of yielding to Congress or to his subordi- nates. His movements on the Delaware even such a captain as Frederick the Great declared "the most brilliant achievements in the annals of military ac- tion." Washington advised against the attempt to hold Fort Washington, which failed ; against the Canada campaign, which failed ; against Gates for commander in the South, who failed ; and in favor of Greene for that post, who succeeded. His army was indeed driven back in several battles, but never broken up. At Monmoilth his plan was perfect, and it seems that he must have captured 1775-81] AMERIGAN MANHOOD 221 Clinton but for tlie treason of Charles Lee, set, by Congress's wish, to command the van. Indeed, of Washington's military career, " take it all in all, its long duration, its slender means, its vast theatre, its glorious aims and results, there is no parallel in history."" Yet we are right in never thinking of the Great Man first as a soldier, he was so much besides. Washington's consummate intellectual trait was sound judgment, only matched by the magnificent balance which subsisted between his mental and his moral powers. " George had always been a good son," his mother said. Nature had endowed him with intense passions and ambitions, but neither could blind him or swerve him one hair from the line of rectitude as he saw it. And he made painful and unremitting effort to see it and see it correctly. He was approachable, but repelled familiarity, and whoever attempted this was met with a perfectly withering look. He rarely laughed, and he was without humor, though he wrote and conversed well. He had the integrity of Aristides. His account with Congress while general shows scrupulousness to the uttermost farthing. To sub- ordinate, to foe, even to malicious plotters against him, he was almost guiltily magnanimous. He loved .popularity, yet, if conscious that he was right, would face public murmuring with heart of flint. Become the most famous man alive, idol- ized at home, named by every toilgue in Europe, praised by kings and great ministers, who com- pared him with Cffisar, Charlemagne, and Alfred * Winthrop, Washington Monument Oration,: February aS, 1885. 222 THE OLD GONFEDERATION [1775-81 the Great, Ms head swam not, but with steadfast heart and mind he moved ou in the simple pursuit of his country's weal. " In Washington's career," said Fisher Ames, "mankind perceived some change in their ideas of greatness; the splendor of power, and even the name ofi conqueror had grown dim in their eyes." Lord Erskine wrote him : " You are the only being for whom I have an awful reverence." " Until time shall be no more," said Lord Brougham, "will a test of the progress which our race has made in Wisdom and Virtue be derived from the veneration paid to the immortal name of Washington." And Mr. Glad- stone : "If among aU the pedestals supplied by history for public characters of extraordinary no- bility and purity I saw one higher than all the rest, and if I were required at a moment's notice to name the fittest occupant for it, my choice would light upon Washington." * * See Winthrop's Oration for these and other encomia. CHAPTEE IX. THE OLD CONPEDEBATION The revolutionary Congress was less a govern- ment than an exigency committee. It had no au- thority save in tacit general consent. Need of an express and permanent league was felt at an early date. Articles of Confederation, framed by Dick- inson, of Pennsylvania, were adopted by Congress in November, 1777. They were then submitted to the State Legislatures for ratification. By the spring of 1779 all the States but Maryland had given their approval. Upon the accession of the latter, on March 1, 1781, the articles went into ef- fect at once. The Confederation bound the States together into a " firm league of friendship " for common defence and welfare, and this " union " was to be " perpetual." Each State retained its " sover- eignty " and " independence," as well as every power not " expressly delegated " to the central Government. Inhabitants of each State were en- titled to all the privileges of citizens in the sev- eral States. Criminals fleeing from one State to another were to be returned. Congress was composed of delegates chosen an- nually, each State being represented by not less 224 THE OLD CONFEDERATION [ITOl than two or more than seven. Each State had but one vote, whatever the number of its dele- gates. Taxation and the regulation of commerce were reserved to the State Governments. On the other hand, Congress alone could declare peace or war, make treaties, coin money, establish a post-ofSce, deal with Indians outside of the States, direct the army, and appoint generals and naval oificers. Many other things affecting all the States alike Congress alone could do. It was to erect courts for trial of felonies and piracies on the high seas, and appoint judges for the settlement of disputes between the States. It was to make estimates for national expenses, and request of each State its quota of revenue. To amend the Articles, the votes of the entire thirteen States were demanded. Important lesser measures — such as those regarding war or peace, treaties, coinage, loans, appropriations — required the consent of nine States. Upon other questions a majority was sufficient. A committee, composed of one delegate from each State, was to sit during the recess of Congress, having tl(,e general super- intendence of national affairs. The faults of the Confederation were numerous and great. Three outshadowed the rest : Congress could not enforce its mil, could not collect a rev- enue, could not regulate commerce. Congress could not touch individuals ; it must act through the State Governments, and these it had no power to coerce. Five States, for instance, passed laws which violated the treaty provision 1781] THE OLD GONFEDEBATION 225 about payment of British creditors ; yet Con- gress could do nothing but remonstrate. Hence its power to make treaties was almost a nullity. European nations did not wish to treat with a Government that could not enforce its promises. Congress could make requisition upon the States for revenue, but had no authority to collect a single penny. The States complied or not as they chose. In October, 1781, Congress asked for $8,000,000 ; in January, 1783, it had received less than half a million. Lack of revenue made the Government continually helpless and often con- temptible. Yet in spite of their looseness and other favilts, the adoption of the Articles of Confederation was a forward step in American public law. Their greatest value was this : they helped to keep before the States the thought of union, Avhile at the same time, by their very inefficiency, they proved the need of a stronger government to make union something more than a thought. The years immediately after the war were an extremely critical period. The colonies had indeed passed through the Eed Sea, but the wilderness still lay before them. The great danger which had driven them into union being past, state pride and jeal- ousy broke out afresh. " My State," not " my country," was the foremost thought in most minds. There was serious danger that each State would go its own way, and firm union: come, if at all, only after years of weakness and disaster, if not of war. The unfriendly nations of Europe were eagerly anticipating such result. At this juncture 15 226 THE OLD CONFEDERATION [1785 the Articles of Confederation, framed during the war when union was felt to be imperative, did in- valuable service. They solemnly committed the States to perpetual union. Their provisions for extradition of criminals and for inter-state citizen- ship helped to break down the barriers between State and State. Congress, by discharging its various duties on behalf of all the States, kept steadily before the public mind the idea of a na- tional government, armed with at least a sem- blance of authority. The war had cost about $150,000,000. In 1783 the debt was $42,000,000— $8,000,000 owed in France and Holland, and the rest at home. . The States contributed in so niggardly a way that even the interest could not be paid. Five millions were owing to the army. Deep and ominous discon- tent spread among officers and men. An obscure colonel, supposed to be the agent of more promi- nent men, wrote to Washington, advocating a mon- archy as the only salvation for t^le country, and inviting him to become king. In the spring of 1783 an anonymous address, of menacing tone, was circulated in the army, calling upon it for meas- ures to force its rights from an ungrateful country. That the army disbanded quietly at last, with only three months' pay, in certificates depreciated nine-tenths, was due almost wholly to the bound- less influence of "Washington. How powerless the Government would have been to resist an uprising of the army was shown by a humiliating incident. In June, 1783, a handful of Pennsylvania troops, clamoring for their pay, besieged the doors of 1V85] THE OLD GONFEDEMTION 227 Congress and that august body had to take refuge in precipitate flight. The country suffered greatly for lack of uniform commercial laws. So long as each State laid its own imposts, and goods free of duty in one State might be practically excluded from another, Con- gress could negotiate no valuable treaties of com- merce abroad. The chief immediate distress! was from this wretchedness of our commercial relations, whether foreign or between the States at home. If our fathers would be independent, king and parliament were determined to make them pay dearly for the privilege. Accordingly Great Britain laid tariffs upon all our exports thither. What was much harder to bear, an order of the king in coun- cil, July 2, 1783, utterly forbade = American ships to engage in that British West-Indian trade which had always been a chief source of our wealth. The sole remedy for these abuses in dealing with Eng- land at that time was retaliation, but Congress had no authority to take retaliatory steps, while the separate States could not or would not act suffi- ciently in harmony to do so. If one imposed cus- toms duties, another would open wide its ports, filling the markets of the first with British goods by overland trade, so that the custom's law of the first availed nothing. If Pennsylvania and New York laid tariffs on foreign commodities, New Jersey and Connecticut people, in buyii:^ imported arti- cles from Philadelphia or New York, were paying taxes to those greater States. North Carolina was in the same manner a forced tributary to South 228 THE OLD CONFEDERATION [1787 Carolina and Virginia, as were portions of Con- neotioTit and Massachusetts to Ehode Island. We also needed a complete system of courts, departments for foreign and Indian affairs, and an efficient executive. The single vole for each State was unfair, allowing one-third of the people to defeat the will of the rest. The article requir- ing the consent of nine States made it almost im- possible to get important measures through Con- gress. Delegates should not have been paid by their respective States. In consequence of this provision, coupled with other things, Congress decreased in numbers and importance. In No- vember, 1783, less than twenty delegates were present, representing but seven States, and Con- gress had to appeal to the recreant States to send back their representatives before the treaty of peace could be ratified. But the one grand defect of the Confederation, underlying all others, was lack of power. The Government was an engine without steam. The States, just escaped from the tyranny of a king, would brook no new authority strong enough to endanger their liberties. The result was a thin ghost of a government set in charge over a lot of lusty flesh-and-blood States. The Confederation, however, did one piece of solid work worthy of everlasting praise. The Northwest Territory, embracing what is now Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin) had been ceded to the Union by the States which originally claimed it. July 13, 1787, Congress adopted for the gov- ernment of the territory the famous Ordinance of 1787] THE OLD CONFEDERATION 229 1787. It provided for a governor, council, and_ judges, to be appointed by Congress, and a house of representatives elected by the people. Its shin- ing excellence was a series of compacts between the States and the territory, which guaranteed re- ligious liberty, made grants of land and other lib- eral provisions for schools and colleges, and for- ever prohibited slavery in the territory or the States which should be made out of it. Thus were laid broad and deep the foundation for the full and free development of humanity in a region larger than the whole German Empire. The passing of the Ordinance was probably due in large measure to the influence of the Ohio Company, a colonist society organized in Boston the year before. It was composed of the flower of the revolutionary army, and had wealth, energy, and intelligence. When its agent appeared before Congress to arrange for the purchase of flve mill- ion acres of land in the Ohio Valley, a bill for the government of the territory, containing neither the anti-slavery clause nor the immortal principles of the compacts, was on the eve of passage. The Company, composed mostly of Massachusetts men, strongly desired their future home to be upon free soil. Their influence prevailed with Congress, eager for revenue from the sale of lands, and even the Southern members voted unanimously for the remodelled ordinance. The establishment of a strong and enlightened government in the terri- tory led to its rapid settlement. Marietta, O., was founded in April, 1788, and other colonies followed in rapid succession. CHAPTEE X. KISE OF THE NEW CONSTITUTION The anarcliy succeeding the Eevolution was as sad as the Eevolution itself had been glorious. The Articles of Confederation furnished practically no government with which foreign nations could deal ; England still clung to the western posts, contrary to the treaty of peace, with no power any- where on this side to do more than protest ; the debt of the Confederacy steadily piled up its un- paid interest ; the land was flooded with irredeem- able paper money, state and national ; the con- federacy's laws and constitution were ignored or trampled upon everywhere ; and the arrogance and self-seeking of the several States surpassed every- thing but their own contemptible weakness. In 1786 Shays' rebellion broke out in Massachu- setts. Solid money was very scarce, and paper all but worthless, yet many debts contracted on a paper basis were pressed for payment in hard money. The farmers swore that the incidence of taxes upon them was excessive, and upon the merchants too light. But the all-powerful grievance was the sudden change from the distressing monetary injustice during the Eevolution, with the consequent increase of debts, to a rigid enforcement of debtors' claims afterward. At this period men were imprisoned for 1787] BISE OF THE NEW CONSTITUTION 231 debt, and all prisons were frightful holes, which one would as lief die as enter. Meetings were held to air the popular griefs, and grew violent. In August the court house at Northampton was seized by a body of armed men and the court pre- vented from sitting. Similar uprisings occurred at "Worcester, Springfield, and Concord. The leader in these movements was Daniel Shays, a former captain in the continental army. Governor Bowdoin finally called for volunteers to put down the rebellion, and placed General Lincoln in com- mand. After several minor engagements, in which the insurgents were worsted, the decisive action took place at Petersham, where, in February, 1787, the rebels were surprised by Lincoln. A large number were captured, many more fled to their homes, and the rest withdrew into the neighboring States. Vermont and Rhode Island alone offered them a peaceful retreat, the other .States giving up the fugitives to Massachusetts. The Shays commotion, for a long time shaking one of the stanchest States in the Confederation, well showed the need of a far stronger central gov- ernment than the old had been or could be made. Other influences concurred to the same conviction. Washington's influence, which took effect mainly throiigh his inspired letter to the States on leaving the army, was one of these. National feeling was also furthered by the spread of two religious sects, the Baptists and the Methodists, up and down the continent, whose missionary preachers, ignor- ing state lines and prejudices, helped to destroy the latter in their hearers. 232 THE OLD CONFEDERATION [1785 During the Eevolution, American Methodism had been an appanage of England. Wesley had discountenanced our effort at independence, and when war broke out, all the Methodist preachers left the countiy, save Asbury, who secreted him- self somewhere in Delaware, waiting for better days. But in 1784 this zealous= body of Chris- tians was organized as an American affair, its clergy and laity after this displaying loyalty of the most approved kind. Schemes had been mooted looking to a changed political order. A proposition for a convention of the States to reform the Confederation passed the New York Legislature in July, 1782, under the influence of Alexander Hamilton ; another passed that of Massachusetts, Ju-ly, 1785, urged by Governor Bowdoin ; but becanse of too great love for state independence and too little apprecia- tion as yet of the serious nature of the crisis, both motions failed of effect. The idea of reform which found most favor, the only one which at first had any chance of getting itself realized, was that of giving Congress simply the additional power of regulating commerce. Even so moderate a proposal as this had many enemies, especially in. the South. Greatly to her credit therefore as a Southern State, the purpose of amending the old articles in the direction indicated was first taken up in earnest by Virginia. Her Legislature, soon after opening session in October, 1785, listened to memorials from Norfolk, Suffolk, Portsmouth, and Alexandria, upon the gloomy pros- pects of American trade, which led to a general de- 1V85] RISE OF THE NEW CONSTITUTION 233 bate upon the subject. In this, Mr. Madison, by a speech far exceeding in ability any other that was made, began that extended and memorable career of efforts for enlarged function in our cen- tral government which has earned him the title of the Father of the Constitution. The result of this discussion was a bill directing the Virginia delegation in Congress to propose amendment to the constitution giving to Congress the needed additional power. The enemies of the bill, however, succeeded in so modifying it by lim- iting the proposed grant of power to a period of thirteen years, that Madison and its other abettors turned against it and voted to lay it on the table. There was in existence at this very time a joint commission representing Yirginia and Maryland, which had been raised for the purpose of deter- mining what jurisdiction each of the two States had over the Potomac and in Chesapeake Bay. Madison was one of the Virginia commissioners. A meeting had been held on March 17, 1785, at which the commissioners agreed in their report to transcend their instructions and to recommend to the two States uniform monetary and commercial regulations entire, including common export and import duties. They thus reported, adding the still further recommendation thai commissioners to work out the details of such a plan be appointed each year till it should be completed. The Mary- land Legislature adopted the report, adding the proposition that Delaware and Pennsylvania also should be invited to enter the system and to send commissioners. 234 THE OLD CONFEDERATION [1780 Wlien the commissioners' report,' with Maryland's action thereon, came before the Virginia Legisla- ture, Madison moved, as a substitute for the mutilat- ed bill which had been tabled previously, that the invitation to take part in the commission go to all the States. The motion passed by a large majority. Thus originated the Annapolis Convention of 1786. Nine States appointed delegates ; all but Connecticut, Maryland, and the two Carolinas ; but of the nine only Virginia, Delaware, Pennsyl- vania, New Jersey, and New York actually sent them. As the powers granted the commissioners presupposed a deputation from each of the States, those present, after mature deliberation, deemed it inadvisable to proceed, drawing up instead an urgent address to the States to take " speedy measures " for another, fuller, convention to meet on the second Monday of May, 1787, for the same purposes as had occasioned this one. Such was the mode in which the memorable Federal Convention came about. The second Monday of May, 1787, which should have witnessed the opening, was the 14th, but on that day too few deputies had assembled. So late as the 25th only nine States? were represent- ed. They, however, effected an organization on the 25th and chose officers. On the 28th eleven States were present, so that on the next day busi- ness began in earnest. Governor Randolph read and expounded the Virginia plan for a new gov- ernment, and Charles Pinckney the South Caro- lina plan. Both of these were referred to a com- mittee of the whole to sit next daj. 1787] BISE OF THE NEW CONSTITUTION 235 This Virginia plan was substantially the work of Madison, and was the earliest sketch of the present Constitution of the United States. With the Pinckney plan, it was worked over, debated, and amended in the committee ol the whole, until June 13th, on which day the committee rose and reported to the Convention nineteen resolutions based almost wholly upon the Virginia plan. These were the text for all the subsequent doings of the Convention. The so-called New Jersey plan was brought for- ward on June 15th, the gist of it being a recur- rence to the foolish idea of merely repairing the Confederation that then was. Its strength, which was slight, consisted in its accord with the letter of the credentials which the delegates had brought. It was, however, emphatically rejected, the Conven- tion stretching instructions, ignoring the old gov- ernment, and proceeding to build from the foun- dations. On July 24th and 26th the resolutions, now increased to twenty-three, were put in the hands of a committee of detail to be reported back in the form of a constitution. Tiey reappeared in this shape on August 6th, and this new docu- ment was henceforth the basis of discussion. On September 8th a new committee was appointed to revise style and arrangement, and brought in its work September 13th, after which additions and changes were few. The Constitution received signature September 17th. The Federal Convention of 1787 was the most remarkable gathering in all our national history thus far. Sixty-five delegates were elected, but as 236 THE OLD OONFEDERATION [1787 ten never attended, fifty-five properly made up the body. Even these were at no time all present to- gether. From July 5th to August 13th New York was not represented. Rhode Island was not repre- sented at all. Washington was President ; Frank- lin, aged eighty-one, the oldest member ; Gillman, of New Hampshire, aged twenty-fiVe, the youngest. Each State sent its best available talent, so that the foremost figures then in American political life were present, the chief exceptions being John Adams, Jefferson — both abroad at the time — Sam- uel Adams, not favorable to the Convention, John Jay, and Patrick Henry. Bight of the members had signed the great Declaration, six the Articles of Confederation, seven the Annapolis appeal of 1786. Washington and a good half dozen others had been conspicuous military leaders in the Eevolu- tion. Five had been or still were governors of their respective States. Nearly all had held im- portant offices of one sort or another. Forty of the fifty-five had been in Congress, a large propor- tion of them coming to the Convention directly from the congressional session just ended in New York. It is interesting to note how high many from this Constituent Assembly rose after the adoption of the paper which they had indited. Washing- ton and Madison became Presideijts, Gerry Vice- President, Langdon senator and President of the Senate, with duty officially to notify him who was already First in War that the nation had made him also First in Peace. Langdon was candidate for Vice-President in 1809. Randolph was the 1787J RISE OF THE NEW CONSTITUTION 237 earliest United States Attorney-General, Hamil- ton earliest Secretary of the Treasury, M'Henry second Secretary of War, succeeding General Knox. Dayton was a representative from New Jersey in the lid, Illd, IVth, and Vth Con- gresses, being Speaker during the last, then sena- tor in the Vlth, Yllth, and Ylllth. Ellsworth and Johnson were Connecticut's first pair of senators, Johnson passing in 1791 to the presidency of Co- lumbia College, Ellsworth to the national chief- justiceship to succeed Jay. Kutledge was one of the first associate justices of the Supreme Court. Subsequently, in July, 1795, Washington nomi- nated him for chief justice, and he actually pre- sided over the Supreme Court at its term in that year; but, for his ill-mannered denunciation of Jay's treaty, the Senate declined to confirm him. Wilson and Patterson also each held the position of associate justice on the supreme bench of the nation. Eufus King, after the adoption of the constitu- tion, removed to New York. He was a senator from that State between 1789 and 1795, and again between 1813 and 1826 ; and Minister to England from 1796 to 1803, and again after 1826 till his failing health compelled his resignation. He was the federalist candidate for vice-pfesident in 1804 and 1808, and for President in 1816. Sherman of Connecticut, Gillman of New Hampshire, and Baldwin of Georgia, went into the House of Rep- resentatives and were promoted thence to the Sen- ate. Robert Morris of Pennsylvania, Gouvemeur Morris, now again of New York, Caleb Strong of 238 THE OLD CONFEDERATION [1787 Massachusetts, Patterson of New Jersey, Dickin- son and Bassett of Delaware, Alexander Martin and Blount of North Carolina, Charles Pinckney and Butler of South Carolina, and Colonel Few of Georgia, all became senators. Madison, Gerry, Fitzsimmons of Pennsylvania, OarroU of Mary- land, and Spaight and WiUiamson of North Caro- lina, all wrought well in the House, but did not reach the Senate. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was nominated for the presidency in 1800, on the ticket with John Adams, again in 1804 and still agaiu in 1808. Jared IngersoU was the federalist candidate for Vice-president in 1812, on the ticket with DeWitt Clinton, against Madison and Gerry. Yates rose to be Chief Justice of the State of New York, Lan- sing to be its Chancellor. Gerry and Strong of Massachusetts, Patterson of New Jersey, Bassett of Delaware, Spaight and Davie of North Caro- lina, and Charles Pinckney of South Carolina, be- came Governors of their States, as did Alexander Martin, of North Carolina, a second time. Having received final revision and signature, the Constitution was transmitted, with a commendatory letter from Washington, to the old Congress. Sug- gestions were added relating to the mode of launch- ing it. Congress was requested to lay the new Great Charter before the States, and, so soon as it should have been ratified by nine of them, to fix the date for the election by these of presidential elec- tors, the day for the latter to cast their votes, and the time and place for commencing proceedings un- der the revised constitution. Congress complied. 1788] EISE OF THE NEW CONSTITUTION 239 Tke debates of the Convention, only more hot, at- tended ratification, which was carried in several States only by narrow majorities. Delaware was the first to ratify, December 7, 1787. Pennsylvania and New Jersey soon fol- lowed, the one on the 12th of the same month, the other on the 18th. Delaware and New Jersey voted unanimously; Pennsylvania ratified by a vote of forty-six to twenty-three. During the first month of the new year, 1788, Georgia and Con- necticut ratified, on the 2d and 9th respectively. New Hampshire next took up the question, but adjourned her convention to await the action of Massachusetts. In this great State the people were divided almost equally. Of the western coun- ties the entire population that had sympathized or sided with Shays was bitter against the Constitu- tion. The larger centres and in general the eastern part of the State favored it. The vote was had on February 6th, and showed a majority of only nine- teen out of 355 in favor of the Constitution. The good work still remained but half done. It was a crisis. Accordingly, early in this year, Ham- ilton, Madison, and Jay published their weighty articles, since collected in the immortal volume known as "The Federalist." These discussions seemed to have much effect. Maryland ratified on April 28th, and South Carolina on May 23d. New Hampshire fell into line, the necessary ninth State to ratify, June 21st. Thus the Constitution be- came binding, yet it was still painfully uncertain what the action of Virginia and New York would be. In both States the Constitution was opposed 240 THE OLD CONFEDERATION [1790 by many of the most influential men, and after a long and heated canvass adoption occurred in Vir- ginia by a majority of only ten in a vote of 168 ; in New York by the narrow majority of two. Even now North Carolina and Ehode Island remained aloof. The former, not liking the prospect of isola- tion, came into the Union November 21, 1789, after the new government had been some time at work. Ehode Island, owing to her peculiar history in the matter of religious liberty, which she feared a closer union would jeopardize, as weU as to the strength of the paper-money fanaticism within her borders, was more obdurate. The chief difficulty here was to get the legislature to call a convention. The New York Packet of February 20, 1790, in a letter from Rhode Island, tells how this was accom- plished. Among the anti-adoptionists in the sen- ate was a rural clergyman who, prompted by his conscience, or, as one account runs, by exhorta- tion and the offer of a conveyance by an influ- ential member of the adoption jjarty, was, when Sunday came, absent upon his sacred work. The occasion was seized for a ballot. The senate was a tie, but the Governor threw the casting vote for a convention. This was called as soon as possible, and on May 29, 1790, Rhode Isla.nd, too, at the eleventh hour, made the National Constitution her own. Not only had a Moee Perfect Union been formed at last, but it included all the Old Thir- teen States. PART SECOND THE UNITED STATES UNDER THE CONSTITUTION IG PERIOD I. THE UNITED STATE 8 AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 1789-1814 CHAPTBE I. THE NEW GOVBBNMENT Notified on July 2, 1788, tliat nine States liad voted approval of the Constitution, Congress, on September 13th, set the first Wednesday in Jan- uary, 1789, for the choice of electors, the first in February for theii- ballot, and the; first in March for putting the new government in motion. The first Wednesday in March, 1789, happening to fall on the 4:th, this date has since remained as the in- itial one for presidencies and congresses. The First Congress had no quorum in either branch on March 4th, and did not complete its organization till April 6th. Washington was inaugurated on April 30th, in New York, where the First Congress, proceeding to execute the Constitution, held its entire first session. Its second session was in Philadelphia, the seat of Congress thence till the second session of the YIth Congress, 1800, since which time Congress has always met in Washing- ton. 244 THE UNITED STATES [1789 The inauguration of our first President was an imposing event. As the hero moved from his house on Franklin Square, through Pearl Street to Broad, and through Broad to Federal Hall, corner of Wall Street, people thronged every sidewalk, door- way, window, and roof along the entire line of march. About him on the platf ornt after his arrival stood John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Baron Steuben, Generals St. Olair and Knox, Roger Sher- man, and Chancellor Livingston. Washington ad- vanced to the rail, placed his hand upon his breast, and, bowing low, said audibly, as the Chancellor in his robes solemnly recited the words, " I swear, so help me God," reverently kissing the Bible as if to add solemnity to his oath. " It is done," cried the Chancellor ; " long live George Washington, Pres- ident of the United States ! " The great crowd repeated the cry. It was echoed outside in the city, off into the country, far north, far south, till the entire land took up that w'atchword, which his own generation has passed on to ours and to all that shall come. Long .live George Washing- ton. Let us study for a moment the habitat of the people over which the new Chief Magistrate was called to bear sway. By the census of 1790, the population of the thirteen States and of the terri- tory belonging to the Union numbered 3,929,214. It resided almost wholly on the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida. Not more than five per cent. of it was west of the mountains. The liue of in- ner settlement, now farther, now nearer, ran at an average distance from the coast, of two hundred 1789] THE NEW GOVERNMENT 245 and fifty-five miles. The coast land of Massa- chusetts, southern New England, and New York was the most densely covered. The Hudson Val- ley was well peopled as far as Albany. Farms and hamlets were to be met all the way from New York across New Jersey to the Delaware, and far up the Delaware Valley westward from that river. Maine, still belonging to Massachusetts, had few settlements except upon her coast and a little way inland along her great rivers. Vermont, not yet a State and claimed by both New Hamp- shire and New York, was well filled up, as was all New Hampshire but the extreme north. The westward movement of population took mainly four routes, the Mohawk and Ontario, the Upper Potomac, the Southwestern Virginia, and the Western Georgia. The Mohawk Valley was settled, and pioneers had taken up much land on Lake Ontario and near the rivers and lakes trib- utary to it. Elmira and Binghamton had been begun. Pennsylvania settlers had pressed west- ward more or less thickly to the lower elevations of the Alleghanies, while beyond, in the Pittsburgh regions, they were even more numerous. What is now West Virginia had squatters= here and there. Virginian pioneers had also beijaken themselves southwestward to the head of the Tennessee. North and South Carolina were inhabited as far west as the mountains, though the population was not dense. In Northern Kentucky, along the Ohio, lay considerable settlements, and in Tennessee, where Nashville now is, there was another centre of civ- ilization. In the Northwest Territory, Detroit, 246 THE UNITED STATES [1789 Viiicennes, Kaskaskia, Prairie du Chien, Mackinac, and Green Eiver were outposts, at each of which a few white men might have been found. The following table shows pretty nearly the population of the several States about the end of the Revolution : New Hampshire 102,000 Massachusetts 330,000 Ehode Island [1783] ,. . . . 51,869 [2,842 of them negroes, 464 mulattoes, 525 Indians,] Oonneotiotit [1782] ^ 208,870 New York [1786] 215,283 New Jersey [1785] 138,934 [10,500 of them negroes.] Pennsylvania 330,000 Delaware 37,000 Maryland 250,000 [80,000 of them negroes.] Virginia 632,000 [280,000 of them negroes.] North Carolina , 224,000 [60,000 of them negroes.] South Carolina 188,000 [80,000 of them negroes.] Georgia [rough estimate] 80,000 [20,000 of them negroes.] Another table exhibits approximately the num- ber of houses in the principal cities of the country in 1785-86. It was customary then in estimating population to allow seven persons to each house. This multiplier is probably too large rather than too small. 1789] THE NEW GOVERNMENT 247 Hbuees. Portsmouth, N. H 450 Newburyport 510 Salem, Mass 730 Boston 2,200 Providence 560 Newport 790 Hartford 300 New Haven 400 New York 3,340 Albany and suburbs 650 Trenton 180 Philadelphia and suburbs 4,500 Wilmington 400 Baltimore 1,950 Annapolis 260 Frederick, Md ; 400 Alexandria 300 Kichmond 310 Petersburg 280 Williamsburg 230 Charleston 1,540 Savannah 200 Population, multiplying number of houses by seven. 3,150 3,570 5,210 15,400 3,920 5,530 2,100 2,800 23,380 3,850 1,260 31,500 2,800 13,650 1,820 2,800 2,100 2,170 1,960 1,610 10,780 1,400 The first New York City Directory appeared in 1786. It had eight hundred and forty-six names, not going above Eoosevelt and Cherry Streets on the East side, or Dey Street on the West. There were then in the city three Putch Eeformed churches, four Presbyterian, three Episcopal, two German Lutheran, and one congregation each be- longing to the Catholics, Friends, Baptists, Mo- ravians, and Jews. In 1789 the Methodists had two churches, and the Friends two new Meetings. 248 THE UNITED STATES [1789 The houses in the city were generally of brick, with tile roofs, mostly English in- style, but a few Dutch. The old Fort, where the provincial gov- ernors had resided, still stood in the Battery. The City Hall was a brick structure, three stories high, with wings, fronting on Broad Street. Want of good water greatly inconvenienced the citizens, as there was no aqueduct yet, and wells were few. Most houses supplied themselves by casks from a pump on what is now Pearl Street, this being re- plenished from a pond a mile north of the then city limits. New York commanded the trade of nearly all Connecticut, half New Jersey, and all Western Massachusetts, besides that of New York State itself. In short it did the importing for one-sixth of the population of the Union. Penn- sylvania and Maryland made the best flour. In the manufacture of iron, paper, and cabinet ware, Pennsylvania led all the States. Over this rapidly growing portion of the human race in its widely separated homes there was at last a central government worthy the name. The old Articles of Confederation had bee!ti no fundament- al law, not a foundation but a homely botch-work of superstructure, resembling more a treaty be- tween several States than a ground-law for one. In the new constitution a genuine foundation was laid, the Government now holding direct and im- mediate relations with each subject of every State, and citizens of States being at the same time cit- izens of the United States. Hitherto the central power could act on individuals only through States. Now, by its own marshals, aided if" need were by its 1789] THE NEW GOVERNMENT 249 army, it could itself arrest and l)y its own courts try and condemn any transgressor of its laws. But if the State relinquished the technical sover- eignty which it had before, it did not sink to the level of an administrative division, but increased rather in all the elements of real dignity and sta- bility. Over certain subjects the new constitution gave the States supreme, absolute, and uncontroll- able power. The range of this supreme state pre- rogative is, in fact, wider on the" whole than that of national. For national action there must be demonstrable constitutional warrant, for that of States this is not necessary. In more technical phrase : to the United States what is not granted is denied, to the State what is not denied is grant- ed. It is a perpetual reminder of original state sovereignty that no State can without its consent be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. Each State also must have at least one' representative. States cannot be sued by private persons or cor- porations. Even upon subjects constitutionally reserved for national law, if Congress has not leg- islated state statute is valid. Precisely as its advocates had prophesied, this revised order worked well, bringing a blessed new feeling of security. On commerce and business it conferred immense benefits, which rapidly became disseminated through all classes of the popula- tion. The sense and appearance of unity and con- sequent strength which the land had enjoyed in the early days of the Revolution came back in greater completeness, and was most gratifying to all. There was still a rankling hatred tpward England, 250 THE UNITED STATES [1789 and men hostile to central government on otlier grounds were reconciled to it as tlie sole condition of successful commercial or naval competition with that country. The consequence was a wide-spread change of public feeling in reference to the Constitution very soon after its adoption. Bitterest hostihty turned to praise that was often fulsome, reducing to in- significance an opposition that had probably com- prised a popular majority during the very months of ratification. Many shifted their ground mere- ly to be on the popular side. With multitudes Washington's influence had more weight than any argument. The Constitution's unfortunate elasticity of in- terpretation also for the time woirked well. Peo- ple who had fought it saw how their cherished views could after all be based upon it. All parties soon began, therefore, to swear by the Constitu- tion as their political Bible. Thp fathers of the immortal paper were exalted into' demigods. Fi- delity to the Constitution came to be pre-eminently the watchword of those till now against its adop- tion. They in fact shouted this cry louder than the Federalists, who had never regarded it a perfect instrument of government. It came to pass ere long that nothing would blast a public measure so instantly or so completely as the cry of its uncon- stitutionality. Few can form any idea of the herculean work performed by the First Congress ih setting up and starting our present governmental machinery.. The debt which we owe the public men of that \map showing the \Z^ \pbogklissite acquisition of tereitoky EY'THE , UNITED STATES. \ ^., C" -^ ■* ,S0 100 200 ^ 3Q0 \H U 60 100 200 3 W5 E^v^. U _r 1 -.1784 ' C^-^ l-*i '*/norH»3>^~VI s •TWA " ii 97 from Greenwich W 1789] THE NEW GOVERNMENT 251 time is measureless. With such care and wisdom did they proceed that little done by them has re- quired alteration, the departments having run on decade after decade till now essentially in their original grooves. The Senate formed itself into its three classes, so that one-third of its members, and never more than this, should retire at a time. Four executive departments were created, those of State, the Treasury, War, and the Attorney-Gen- eralship. The first occupants w^re, respectively, Jefferson, Hamilton, Knox, and Randolph. Of the present departments of government the post-office alone has come dowh from colonial times, Benjamin Franklin having been general superintendent thereof under the British Govern- ment. He was re-appointed by the second Con- tinental Congress, in July, 1775. The First Con- gress under the Constitution erected a general post-office, but its head attained the dignity of a regular cabinet officer not till about 1830, and then only by custom. To begin with, in fact, there was strictly no cabinet in the modern sense. Washington's habit was to consult his ministers separately. Under the Articles of Confederation there had been a treasury board of several commissioners, and a superintendent of finance. The new ar- rangement, making one man responsible, was a great improvement. A law was passed forbidding the Secretary of the Treasury to be concerned in trade or commerce, that is, to be a merchant. The late A. T. Stewart, appointed by President Grant to the office, was rejected as ineligible under this 252 TEE UNITED STATES [1T90 law. Yet no department of our Government has had a finer record than the Treasury. Not only had the First Congress to vote revenue, but to make provision for the collection of this. Eevenue districts had to be mapped out, the proper officers appointed, and light-houses, buoys, and public piers arranged for along the whole coast. Salaries were to be fixed, and a multitude of questions relating to the interpretation and ap- plication of the constitution to be solved by pa- tient deliberation. The United States Mint was erected, and our so felicitous monetary system, based upon the decimal principle along with the binary, established in place of th& desperate mone- tary chaos prevailing before. Hitherto there were four sorts of colonial money of account all differ- ing from sterling, while Mexican dollars and niim- berless other forms of foreign money were in actual circulation. The noblest part of all this work was the organ- ization of the federal judiciary, through an act drawn up with extraordinary ability by Oliver Ells- worth of Oonnecticnt. A Chief Justice — the first one was John Jay — and five associates were to con- stitute the Supreme Court. District courts were ordained, one per State and one each for Kentucky and Maine, not yet States; also three circuit courts, the eastern, the middle, and the southern ; and the jurisdiction of each grade was accurately fixed. As yet there were no special circuit judges, nor, excepting the temporary ones of 1801, were there till some eighty years later. Clerks, marshals, and district-attorneys were part. of this first ax- 1790] THE NEW GOVERNMENT 253 rangement. Originally the Attorney-General was little but an honorary officer. He kept his prac- tice, had no public income but his fees, and resided where he pleased. As his title implies, the Secretary of War was to have charge of all the nation's meg,ns of offence and defence, there being imtil April 30, 1796, no sepa- rate secretary for the navy. We had indeed in 1789 little use for such a functionary, not a war-vessel then remaining in Government's possession. In 1784 our formidable navy consisted of a single ship, the Alliance, but the following year Congress ordered her sold. The senators most active in the creations just re- viewed were Langdon, King, and Robert Morris, besides Ellsworth. In the House, Madison outdid all others in toil as in ability, though worthily sec- onded by distinguished men like Fisher Ames, Gerry, Clymer, Fitzsimmons, Boudinot, and Smith. The three Connecticut representatives, Sherman, Trumbull, and Wadsworth, made up perhaps the ablest state delegation in the body. CHAPTEE II. FEDERALISM AND ANTI-FEDEEAXISM Eably in the life of our Constitution two parties rose, whicli, under Yarious names^ liave continued ever since. During the strife for and against adop- tion, those favoring this had been styled Federal- ists, and their opponents, Anti-Federalists. After adoption — no one any longer really antagonizing the Constitution — the two words little by little shifted their meaning, a man being dubbed Feder- alist or Anti-Federalist according to his prefer- ence for strong national government or for strong state governments. The Federalist Party gave birth to the Whig Party, and this to the modern Re- publican Party. The Anti-Federalists came to be called " Eepublicans," then " Democratic-Republi- cans," then simply " Democrats." The central plank of the federalist platform was vigorous single nationality. In aid of this the Federalists wished a considerable army and navy, so that the United States might he capable of am- ple self-defence against all foes abroad or at home. Partly as a means to this, partly to build up na- tional feeling, unity, self-respect, and due respect for the nation abroad, they sought to erect our. na- tional credit, which had fallen so low, and to plant 1790] FEDERALISM— ANTI-FEDEBALISM 255 it on a solid and permanent basis. As still fur- ther advancing these ends they proposed so to enforce regard for the national authority and laws and obedience to them, that within its sphere the nation should be absolutely and beyond question paramount to the State. In many who cherished them these noble pur- poses were accompanied by a certain aristocratic feeling and manner, a carelessness of popular opin- ion, an inchnation to model governmental polity and administration after the English, and an im- patience with what was good in our native Ameri- can ideas and ways, which, however natural, were . unfortunate and unreasonable. Puffed up with pride at its victory in carrying the constitution against the opposition of the ignorant masses, this party developed a haughtiness and a lack of re- publican spirit amounting in some cases to deficient patriotism. The early Federalists were of twO widely different stripes. There were among them convinced and thorough patriots, theoretical believers in a con- solidated authority, like Washington, Adams, Ham- ilton, and Jay ; and there were the interested and practical advocates of the same, made up of busi- ness men and the wealthy and leisurely classes, who, without intending to be selfish, were gov- erned in political sympathy and action mainly by their own interests. The greatest early Anti-Federalists were Jeffer- son, Madison, and Randolph, all of whom had been ardent for the Constitution. The party as a whole, indeed, not only acquiesced in the re-creation of 256 THE UNITED STATES [1790 the general Government but was devotedly friendly to the new order. But while Eepublicans admitted that a measure of governmental centralization was indispensable, they prized the individual State as still the main pillar of our political fabric, and were hence jealous of all increased function at the cen- tre. It became more and more their theory that the States, rather than the individuals of the na- tional body politic, had been the parties to the Constitution, so making this to be a compact like the old Articles, and the govempient under it a confederacy as before 1789. Another issue divided the parties, that between the strict and the more free interpretation of the Constitution — between the close constructionists and the liberal constructionists. The question di- viding them was this : In matters relating to the powers of the general Government, ought any un- clear utterance of the Constitution to be so ex- plained as to enlarge those powers, or so as to confine them to the narrowest possible sphere ? Each of the two tendencies in construction has in turn brought violence to our fundamental law, but the sentiment of nationality and the logic of events have favored liberality rather than narrowness in interpreting the parchment. When in charge of the government, even strict constructionists have not been able to carry out their theory. Thus Jef- ferson, to purchase Louisiana, was obliged, from his point of view, to transcend constitutional warrant ; and Madison, who at first opposed such an insti- tution as unconstitutional, ended by approving the law which chartered the Second United States Bank. 1790] FEDERALISM~ANTI-FEDI!RALISM 257 The Federalists used to argue that Article 1, Section VIII., the part of the Constitution upon which debate chieiiy raged, could not have been intended as an exhaustive statement of congres- sional powers. The Government would be unable to exist, they urged, to say nothing of defending itself and accomplishing its work, unless permitted to do more than the eighteen things there enumer- ated. They further insisted that plain utterances of the Constitution presuppose the exercise by Congress of powers not specifically enumerated, explicitly authorizing that body to make all laws necessary for executing the enumerated powers " and all oilier powers vested in tlie Government of the United States or in any department or officer thereof." In reply the Anti-Federalists made much of the titles " United States," " Federal," and the like, in universal use. They appealed to concessions as to the nature of our system made by statesmen of known national sympathies. Such concessions were plentiful then and much later. Even Web- ster in his immortal reply to Hayne calls ours a government of " strictly limited," even of " enumer- ated, specified, and particularized " powers. Two historical facts told powerfully for the anti-fed- eralist theory. One was that the government pre- vious to 1789 was unquestionably a league of States ; the other was that many voted for the present Constitution supposing it to be a mere re- vision of the old. Had the reverse been com- monly believed, adoption would have been more than doubtful. CHAPTEK III. DOMESTIC QUESTIONS OE WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRA- TIONS I. Tariff. — Upon declaring their independence the United States threw open their ports, inviting trade from all nations. During the Revolution foreign commerce had become an important inter- est, and at its close the inclination of all, the more so from memory of England's accursed navigation acts, would have been to leave it untrammelled. Several motives, however, induced resort to a re- strictive policy which, beginning with 1789, and for years expected to be temporary, has been pur- sued with little deviation ever since. Of course the Grovernment needed revenue, and the readiest means of securing this was a tax on imports. Eates were made low, averaging until 1808 only 11^ per cent. As a consequence the revenues were large. The movers of this first tariff, especially Hamil- ton, also wished by means of it to make the cen- tral Government felt as a positive power through- out the land. It had this effect. All custom- houses passed to the United States, and United States officers appeared at every port, having an authority, in its kind, paramount to that of state functionaries. 1790] WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATIONS 259 A stronger consideration still was to retaliate against England. In spite of America's political independence the old country was determined to retain for her merchant marine its former monop- oly here. Orders in council practically limited all the commerce of England and her remaining colo- nies with this country to English ships, although, from the relations of the two lands and the nature of their productions, our chief foreign trade must still be with England. There was no way to meet this selfish policy but to show that it was a game which we too could play. Besides, however we behaved toward the mother- land, we needed to be prepared for war, because it was evident that George III. and his ministers had only too good a will to reduce us 'again to subjec- tion if opportunity offered. Should we, by taxing imports, become independent in the production of war material, a fresh struggle for life would be much more hopeful than if we continued depend- ent upon foreign lands for military supplies. II. Funding the Debt. — In the first years after they had set up their new constitution the people of this country staggered under a terrible finan- cial load. Besides the current expenses of Gov- ernment, there were : 1, the federal debt due abroad, over thirteen million dollars, including arrears ; 2, the federal debt held at home, about forty-two and one-half million ; 3, the state revo- lutionary debts, aggregating nearly twenty-five millions. Each of these sums was largely made up of unpaid interest. The foreign debt Congress unanimously deter- 260 THE UNITED STATES [1-90 mined to pay in full. In respect to the domestic federal debt two opinions prevailed. Hamilton was for liquidating this also to the last copper. But these securities had mostly" changed hands since issue, so that dollar for dollar payment would not advantage original holders but only speculators. As soon as Hamilton's recommenda- tion became public this class of paper rose from about fifteen cents per dollar to fifty cents, and enterprising New York firms hurried their couriers, relay horses, and swift packets to remote parts of the Union to buy it up. Madison, supported by a strong party, proposed, therefore, to pay only original debtors at par, allowing secondary hold- ers barely the highest market value previous to the opening of the question in Congress. He was oveiTuled, however, and this part .of the debt, too, was ordered paid according to its literal terms. Even the motion that the United States should assume and discharge the state debts finally pre- vailed, though against most violent and resolute opposition. This came especially from Virginia, who had gone far in the payment of her own war debt, and thought it unjust to have to help the de- linquent States. Her objection was strengthened by the fact that most of the debt was owned in the North. The victory was secured by what is now termed a " deal," northern votes being promised in favor of a southern location for the national capital, in return for enough southern votes to pass the bill assuming state debtsl These gigantic measures had origin in the mind of Hamilton. To many they appeared and appear 1*91] WASHIJSTGTON'S ADMINIST&ATIONS 261 to-day like a grand government job. But they worked well, laying tlie foundation* of our national credit. Interest arrears and back instalments of the foreign debt were to be paid at once with the proceeds of a fresh loan, supplemented by income from customs and tonnage. The remaining debt was to be refunded. Federal stocks shot up in value, moneyed interests became, attached to the Government, and the nation began to be looked to as a more reliable bulwark of sound finance than any of the States. III. The Excise. — Unexpectedly productive as the tariff had proved, public income still fell short of what these vast operations required. Direct tax- ation or a higher tariff being out of the question, Hamilton proposed, and Congress voted, an excise on spirits, from nine to twenty-five cents a gallon if from grain, from eleven to thirty if from imported material, as molasses. Excise was a hated form of tax, and this measure awakened great opposition in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and New Eng- land, and most of aU in Pennsylvania, in whose western counties distilling was the staple industry. Here, far from the seats of powser, even the state government had asserted itself Uttle. The gen- eral Government was defied. A nieeting in Wash- ington County voted to regard as an enemy any per- son taking office under the excise law. September 6, 1791, a revenue officer was tarred and feathered. Other such cases followed. Secret societies were formed to oppose the law. Whippings and even murders resulted. At last there was a veritable reign of terror. The President proceeded slowly 262 THE UNITED STATES [1791 but with firmness, accounting this a, good oppor- tunity vividly to reveal to the people the might of the new Government. Militia and volunteers were called out, who arrived in the rebellious districts in Novembex', 1794. Happily, their presence svif- ficed. The opposition faded aAvay before them, not a shot being fired on either side. IV. The Bank. — The Secretary of the Treasury pleaded for a United States Bank as not only prof- itable to Government but indispensable to the proper administration of the national finances. Congress acquiesced, yet with so violent hostility on the part of many that before approving the Char- ter Act Washington required the written opinions of his official advisers. Jefferson powerfully op- posed such an institution as unconstitutional, his acute argument being the arsenal whence close constructionists have gotten their weapons ever since. Eandolph sided with Jefferson, Knox mth Hamilton. The President at last signed, agreeing with Hamilton in the view that Congress, being the agent of a sovereignty, is not, within any sphere of action constitutionally open to it, shut up to specific or enumerated modes of attaining its ends, but has choice among all those that nations customarily use. The Supreme Court has pro- ceeded on this doctrine ever siAce. The bank proved vastly advantageous. Three-fourths of every private subscription to its stock had to be in government paper, which raised this to par, while it naturally became the interest of all stock- holders to maintain and increase the stability and credit of the Government. CHAPTEE IV. RELATIONS WITH ENGLAND In 1789 France adopted a constitution. Pro- voked at this, the friends of absolute monarchy withdi-ew from France, and incited the other powers of Europe to interpose in effort to restore to Louis XVI. his lost power. The result was that Louis lost his head as well as his power, and that France became a republic. War with all Europe followed, which elevated that matchless military genius. Napoleon Bonaparte, first to the head of France's armies, then to her throne, to be toppled thence in 1814, partly by his own indiscretions, partly by the forces combined against him. From the beginning to the end of this revolu- tionary period abroad, European politics deter- mined American politics, home a^ well as foreign, causing dangerous embarrassment and complica- tions. War having in February, 1793, been de- clared by England and France against each other, what attitude the United States should assume toward each became a pressing question. Wash- ington's proclamation of neutrality, April 22, 1793, in effect, though not so meant, annulled our treaty of 1778 with France, which bound us to certain armed services to that monarchy in case of a rupt- 264 THE UNITED STATES tl793 ure between her and EnglancL Washington's paper alleged that "the duty and interests of the United States " required impartiality, and assumed "to declare the disposition of the|United States to observe " this. "The proclamation," wrote Jefferson, "was in truth a most unfortunate error. It wounds the popular feelings by a seeming indifference to the cause of liberty. And it seems to violate the form and spirit of the Constitution by making the execu- tive magistrate the organ of the ' disposition ' ' the duty ' and ' the interest ' of the nation in relation to war and peace — subjects appropriated to other departments of the Government." " On one side," says Mr. Rives, in his " Life of Madison," " the people saw a power which had but lately carried war and desolation, fire and sword, through their own country, and, since the peace, had not ceased to act toward them in the old spirit of unkindness, jealousy, arrogance, and injustice ; on the other an ally who had rendered them the most generous assistance in war, had evinced the most cordial dispositions for a liberal and mutual- ly beneficial intercourse in peace, and was now set upon by an unholy league of the monarchical powers of Europe, to overwhelm and destroy her, for her desire to establish institutions congenial to those of America." The more sagacious opponents, of the adminis- tration believed true policy as well as true honesty to demand rigid and pronounced adherence to the letter of the French treaty. They were convinced from the outset that France would vanquish her i;-93| RELATIONS WITH ENGLAND 26S enemies, and that close alliance with her -was the sure and the only sure way to coerce either Great Britain to justice or Spain to a reasonable attitude touching the navigation of the Mississippi ; while by offending France, they argued, we should be forced to wrestle single-handed with England first, then with victorious France, meantime securing no concession whatever from Spain. This was a shrewd forecast of the actual event. The Federalists, destitute of idealism, proved to have been overawed by the prestige of England and to have under-estimated the might which free- dom would impart to the French people. After Napoleon's great campaign of 1796-97, Pitt seeks peace, which the French Directory feels able to decline. In 1802 the Peace of Amiens is actually concluded, upon terms dictated by France. Had we been still in France's friendship, the two repub- lics might have compelled England's abandonment of that course which evoked the war of 1812. As it was, ignored by England, to whom, as detailed below, we cringed in consenting to Jay's treaty, we were left to encounter the French navy alone, es- caping open and serious war with France only by a readiness to negotiate which all but compro- mised our dignity. The Mississippi we had at last to open with money. The federalist leaning toward Great Britain probably did not to so great an extent as was then alleged and widely believed, spring from monar- chical feeling. It was due rather to old memories, as pleasant as they were tenacious, that would not be dissociated from England ; to the individual- 266 THE UNITED STATES P'^'^S istic tendencies of republicanism, alarming to many ; and to conservative habits of political think- ing, the dread of innovation and of theory. The returned Tories had indeed all become Federal- ists, which fact, with many others, lent to this atti- tude the appearance of deficient patriotism, of syco- phancy toward our old foe and persecutor. Great Britain had refused to surrender the west- ern posts according to the peace- treaty of 1783, unjustly pleading in excuse the treatment of loy- alists by our States. Not only the presence but the active iniiuence of the garrisons at these posts en- couraged Indian hostilities. England had also seized French goods in American (neutral) vessels, though in passage to the United States, and treated as beBigerent all American ships plying between France and her West Indian colonies, on the ground that this commerce had. been opened to them only by the pressure of war. The Enghsh naval officers were instructed to regard bread-stuffs as contraband if bound for France, even though owned by neutrals and in neutral ships ; such car- goes, howevei:, to be paid for by England, or re- leased on bonds being 'given to land them else- where than in France. In this practice England followed France's example, except that she actually paid for the cargoes, while France only promised. Worst of all, Britain claimed and acted upon the right to press into her naval service British-bom seamen found anywhere outside the territory of a foreign State, halting our ships on the high Seas for this purpose, often leaving them half-manned, and sometimes recklessly and cruelly impressing 1795] RELATliWH WITH ENGLAND 267 uative - born Americans — an outrageous policy which ended in the war of 1812. The ignorance and injustice of the English admiralty courts ag- gravated most of these abuses. Genet's proceedings, spoken of in the next chap- ter, which partly public sentiment, partly lack of army and navy made it impossible for our Gov- ernment to prevent, enraged Great Britain to the verge of war. After the British orders in council of November 6, 1793, intended to destroy all neutral commerce with the French colonies, and Congress's counter-stroke of an embargo the following March, war was positively imminent. The President re- solved to send Jay to England as envoy extraordi- nary, to make one more effort for an understand- ing. The treaty negotiated by this gentleman, and ratified June 24, 1795 (excepting Article XII., on the French West India trade), was doubtless the most favorable that could have been secured under the circumstances ; yet it satisfied no one and was humiliating in the extreme. The western posts were indeed to be vacated by June 1, 1796, though without indemnity for the past, but a British right of search and impressment was implicitly recog- nized, the French West Indian trade not rendered secure, and arbitrary liberty accorded to Great Britain in defining contraband. Opposition to ratification was bitter and nearly universal. The friends of France were jubilant. Jay was burned in effigy, Washington himself attacked. The ut- most that Hamilton in his powerful " Letters of Camillus " could show was that the treaty seemed 268 THE UNITED STATES [1796 preferable to war. Plainly we had then little to hope and much to fear from war with Great Britain, yet even vast numbers of Federalists de- nounced the pact as a base surrender to the na- tion's ancient tyrant, and wished an appeal to arms. Fisher Ames's eloquence decided the House for the treaty. An invalid, with but a=span of life be- fore him, he spoke as from the tomb. " There is, I beheve," so ran his peroration, " no member who will not think his chance to be a witness of the consequences (should the treaty fail of ratification) greater than mine. If, however, the vote should pass to reject, and a spirit should rise, as it ■«'ill, with the public disorders, to make confusion worse confounded, even I, slender and almost broken as my hold on life is, may outlive the Government and Constitution of my country ! " It was the most delicate crisis of Washington's presidency, and no other Ameifcan then alive, being in his place, could have passed through it successfully. After the fury gradually subsided, men for a long time acquiesced rather than be- lieved in the step which had been taken. In the end the treaty proved solidly advantageous, rather through circumstances, however, than by its in- trinsic excellence. CHAPTER V. EELATIONS WITH THE FBENCli EEPUBEIC At its beginning all Americans hailed the Revo- lution ill France with jo}', but its terrible excesses, when they appeared, produced here the same effect as in England, of alienating every one conservatively inclined. This included the mass of the federalist party. On the contrary, most of the Republicans, now more numerous, now less, actuated partly by true insight into the struggle, and partly by the magic of the words " revolution " and "repubUo," favored the revolutionists with a devotion which even the Reign of Terror in France scarcely shook. It was in consequence of this attitude on its part that the party came to be dubbed " democratic-re- publican " instead of " republican," the compound title itself giving way after about 1810 to simple " democratic." Hostility to England, the memory of France's aid to us in our hour of need, the doctrine of ** the rights of man," then so much in vogue, the known sympathies of Jefferson and Madison, who were already popular, and, alas, a mean wish to hamper the admiuistration, aU helped to swell the ranks of those who swung their hate for France. A far deeper motive with the more thoughtful was the 270 THE UNITED STATES [1703 belief that neutrality violated our treaty of 1778 with France, a conclusion at present beyond ques- tion. Politically our policy may have been wise, morally it was wrong. The administration, at least its honored head, was doubtless innocent of any intentional injustice ; and it could certainly urge a great* deal in justifica- tion of its course. The form and the aims of the French Government had changed since the treaty originated, involving a state of things which that instrument had not contemplated. France herself defied international law and compact, revolutioniz- ing and incorporating Holland and Geneva, and assaulting our commerce. And war with England then threatened our ruin. Yet the pleading of these considerations in that so trying hour, even had they been wholly pertinent, could not but seem to Frenchmen treason to the cause of liberty. As to many Federalists, trucklers to England, such a charge would have been true. France was not slow to reciprocate in the matter of grievances. In fact, so early as May, 1793, be- fore the proclamation of neutrality could have been heard of in that country, orders had been issued there, wholly repugnant to the treaty (which had ordained that neutral ships could carry what goods they pleased — free ships, free goods), to capture and condemn English merchandise on American vessels. Provisions owned by Americans and en route to England were also to be forfeited as con- traband. Even the most reasonable French offi- cials seemed bent on treating our country as a de- pendency of Prance. 1793] THE FRENCH REPUBLIC 271 "VVe see this in the actions of Genet, the first envoy to America from the French constitutional monarchy, accredited hither by a iiinistry of high- minded Republicans while Louis XVI. still sat upon his throne. Genet arrived in Charleston in 1793, before our neutrality had been proclaimed. Immediately, before presenting his credentials to our Government, he set about fitting out privateers, manning them with Americans, and sending them to prey upon British ships, some of which they capt- ured in American waters. All this was in utter derogation of the treaty, which ©nly guaranteed shelter to honafde French vessels. Under a law of the French National Convention, Genet assumed to erect the French consulates iu this country into so many admiralty courts for the trial of British prizes. We could not have allowed this without decidedly violating international law at least in spirit. He also devised and partly aiTanged ex- peditions of Americans, to start, one from Geor- gia to invade Florida, another from Kentucky to capture New Orleans, both as means of weakening Spain, which up to this time and for several years later was France's foe. But Genet's worst gall came out in his conduct toward Washington. Him he insulted, challeng- ing his motives and his authority for his acts and threatening to appeal from him to the people. He tried to bully and browbeat the whole cabinet as if they had been so many boys. So ludicrous did he make himself by such useless bluster, that his friends, at first numerous and many of them influ- ential, gave him the cold shouldei;, and the ardor 272 THE UNITED STATES [1795 for France greatly cooled. At length Washington effected his removal, the more easily, it would seem, as he was not radical enough for the Jacobins, who had now succeeded to the helm in France. The officious Frenchman did not return to his own country, but settled down in New York, marrying a daughter of Governor Clinton. He was succeed- ed by Adet. Upon learning that the United States had rati- fied Jay's treaty, France went iusane with rage. A declaration of war by us could hot have angered her more. Adet was called home and the alliance with America declared at an end. Barras dismissed Mr. Monroe, our minister, in a contemptuous speech, and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, sent as Monroe's successor, was not only not received but ordered from the land. New and worse decrees went forth against American commerce. Our ships were confiscated for carrying English goods though not contraband. Arbitrary and unheard- of tests of neutrality were trumped up, wholly con- trary to the treaty, which indeed was now de- nounced. American sailors found serving, though compelled, on British armed vessels, were to be condemned as pirates. These brutal measures, coupled, with Napoleon's increasing power, begot in America the belief, even among Republicaiis, that France's struggle was no longer for liberty but for conquest. The insolence of the French Government waxed insufferable. President Adams, to a special session of the Vth Congress, on May 19, 1797, announced the insult to the nation in the person of Pinckney, and urged 1797] THE FRENCH REPUBLIC 273 preparation for war. A goodly loan, a direct tax, and a provisional army, Washington again leader, were readily voted. Our Navy Department was created at this time. The navy was increased, and several captures were made of French vessels guilty of outrage. Adams, however, to make a last over- ture for peace, despatched John Marshall and El- bridge Gerry to the aid of Pinckney, the three to knock once more at France's doors for a becoming admission. In vain. The only effect was a new chapter of French mendacity and insolence, further- ing America's wish and preparations for war. Na- poleon's recent Italian victories, terrifying Europe, had puifed up France with pride. Talleyrand as- sumed to arraign us as criminals, and what was worse, pressed us, through his agents, to buy his country's forgiveness with gold. " You must pay money," our envoys were told, and " a good deal of it, too." All this was duly made known at Washington, and the President assured Congress that no terms were obtainable from France " compatible with the safety, honor, and general interest of the nation." The opposition thought this an exaggeration and called for the despatches, expecting refusal or abridgment. The President sent every word. Confusion seized the Eepublicans. Federalists were again in the ascendant, the Vlth Congress being much more strongly federalist than the Vth. For once proud, reserved John Adams was popu- lar, and anti-French feeling iri'esistible. " Millions for defence but not a cent for tribute," echoed through the land. Hosts of Eepublicans went 18 274 THE UNITED STATES [1797 over to the administration side. Patriotism be- came a passion. Each night at the theatre rose a universal call for the " President's March " * and " Yankee Doodle," the audience rising, cheering, swinging hats and canes, and roaring " oicore." The black cockade, American, on all hands sup- planted the tricolor cockade worn by the " Gallo- maniacs ; " and bands of " Associated Youth," or- ganizing in every town and city, deluged the President with patriotic addresses; Seeing that we could not be bullied and that the friends of France here were Americans first ; ashamed, on their publication, of the indignities which he had offered our envoys, and after all not wishing war with what he saw to be potentially another naval power like England, the sly Talley- rand neatly receded from his arrogant demands, and expressed a desire to negotiate. * The music was that of our " Hail Columbia." CHAPTER VI., THE DECLINE OF THE FEDEBALIST PAETY The heat of the nation's wrath evoked by this conflict with France betrayed the Federahsts in Congress into some pieces of tyrannical legislation. These were especially directed against refugees from France, lest they should attempt to re-enact here the bloody di'ama just played out there. Combinations were alleged, without proof, to exist between American and French democrats, danger- ous to the stability of this Goverrlment. A new naturalization act was passed, requiring of an immigrant, as prerequisite to citizenship, foui- teen years of residence instead of the five hereto- fore sufficient. Next came three alien acts, empow- ering the President, at his discretion, without trial or even a statement of his reasons, to banish for- eigners from the land ; any who should return un- bidden being liable to imprisonment for three years, and cut off from the possibihty of citizenship for- ever. A " sedition act " followed, to fine in the sum of $5,000 each and to imprison for five years any persons stirring up sedition, combining to oppose governmental measures, resisting United States law, or putting forth " any false, scandalous, or malicious writings " against Congress, the Presi- dent, or the Government. 276 THE UNITED STATES [179^ To President Adams's credit, lie was no abettor of these hateful decrees, and did little to enforce them. The sedition law, however, did not rest with him for execution, and was applied right and left. Evidently its champions were swayed large- ly by political motives. Matthew Lyon, a fiery Republican member of Congress from Vermont, had, in an address to his constituents, charged the President with avarice and with "thirst for ridic- ulous pomp and foolish adulation." He was con- victed of sedition, fined $1,000, and sentenced to four months in prison. This impoverished him, as well as took him from his place in Congress for most of a session. Adams refused pardon, but in 1840 Congress paid back the fine to Lyons's heirs. It is now admitted that these measures were un- constitutional, as invading freedom of speech and of the press, and assigning to the Federal Judi- ciary a common-laW jurisdiction in criminal mat- ters. But they were also highly unwise, subject- ing the Federalist Party to the odium of fearing free speech, of declining a discussion of its policy, and of hating foreigners. The least opposition to the party in power, or criticism of its official chiefs, became 'criminal, under the head of "op- posing " the Government. A joke or a caricature might send its author to jail as " seditious." It was surely a travesty upon liberty when a man could be arrested for expressing the wish, as a salute was fired, that the wadding might hit John Adams behind. Even libels iipon government, if it is to be genuinely free, must be ignored — a prin- ciple now acted upon by all constitutional States, 1798] THE FEDHMLIST PASTY 277 But the Federalists were blind to considerations like these. As Schouler well remarks : " A sort of photophobia afflicted statesmen, who, allowing little for the good sense and spirit of Americans, or our geographical disconnection with France, were crazed with the fear that this Union might be, like Venice, made over to some European po- tentate, or chained in the same g^alley with Swit- zerland or Holland, to do the Directory's bidding. That, besides this unfounded fear, operated the desire of ultra-Federalists to take revenge upon those presses which had assailed the British treaty and other pet measures, and abuaed Federal lead- ers, and the determination to entrench themselves in authority by forcibly disbanding an opposition party which attracted a readier support at the polls from the oppressed of other countries, no candid writer can at this day question." It was next the turn of the Republicans to blun- der. In November, 1798, the. Kentucky Legisla- ture passed a series of resolutions, drawn up by John Breckenridge upon a sketch by Jefferson, in effect declaring the alien and sedition acts not law, but altogether void and of nq force. In De- cember the Virginia Legislature put forth a sim- ilar series by Madison, milder in tone and more cautiously expressed, denouncing those acts as " palpable and alarming infractions of the con- stitution." A year after their first utterance, the Kentucky law-makers further "resolved that the several States who formed (the constitution), be- ing sovereign and independent, have the unques- tionable right to judge of its infraction ; and that 278 THE UNITED STATES [1798 a nullification by those sovereignties, of all unau- thorized acts done under color of that instrument, is the rightful remedy." Virginia again declared it a State's right " to interpose " in such cases. These resolutions were intended to stir reflec- tion and influence opinion, and, if possible, elicit a concurrent request to Congress from the variovis States to repeal the obnoxious acts. They do not hint at the use of force. Their execration of the hated laws is none too strong, and their argument as a whole is masterly and unanswerable. But at least those of Kentucky suggest, if they do not contain, a doctrine respecting the constitution which is untenable and baneful, in kernel the same that threatened secession in Jackson's time and brought it in Buchanan's. The State, as such, is not a party to the Constitution. Still less is the Legislature. Nor is either, but the Su- preme Court, the judge whether in any case the fundamental law has been infringed. Procuring the resolutions, however, proved a crafty political move. The enorinity of the des- picable acts was advertised as nefver before, while the endorsement of them by federalist legislators went upon record. Petitions for repeal came in so numerous and numerously sign'ed that the Vlth Congress could not but raise a committee to con- sider such action. It reported ad-versely, and the report was accepted, the majority in the House, fifty-two to forty-eight, trying contemptuously to cough down every speaker lifting his voice on the opposite side. This sullen obstinacy in favor of a miserable 1799] THE FEDERALIST PARTY 279 experiment sealed the doom of Federalism. In vain did the party orators plead that liberty of speech and the press is not license, but only the right to utter "the truth," that hence ' this lib- erty was not abridged by the acts in question, and that aliens had no constitutional rights, but enjoyed the privileges of the land only by favor. The fact remained, more and more appreciated by ordinary people, that a land ruled by such maxims could never be free. So a deep distrust of Federalism sprung iip, as out of sympathy with popular government. It was furthered by the attachment of prominent Federalists to England. Several of them are on record as ready to involve the United States in an expedition planned by one Miranda, to conquer Spanish America in aid of Great Britain, Spain and ourselves being perfectly at peace. The fed- eralist chieftains were too proud, ignoring too much the common voter. They often expressed doubt, too, as to the permanence of popular institutions. Federalism had too close affinity with Puritanism to suit many outside New Eng- land. And then — deadly to the party even had nothing else concurred — there was a quarrel among its leaders. Hamilton, the Essex Junto (Pickering, Cabot, Quincy, Otis), and their supporters were set against Adams and his friends. This rivalry of long standing was brought to a head by Adams's noble and self-sacrificing independence in accept- ing France's overtures for peace, when Hamilton, Pickering, King, and all the rest, out of private or party interest rather than patriotism, wished war. 280 THE UNITED STATES [1800 Toward 1800, Democracy bade fair soon to come into power, but the Federalists learned no ■wisdom. Rather were they henceforth more factious than ever, opposing Jefferson and Madison even when they acted on purely federalist principles. Tooth and nail they fought against the acquisition of Louisiana, the War of 1812, and the protective tariff of 1816, which was earned by Republicans. A worse spirit stiU was shown in their disunion scheme of 1804, after the purchase of Louisiana, and in the Hartford Convention of 1814. Feder- alism had further lost ground by its mean and revolutionary devices on resigning power in 1801, first to make Burr President instead of Jeiferson, and, failing in this, to use its expiring authority in creating needless ofJfices for its clients. In consequence of such ill-advised steps, feder- alist strength waned apace. In 1804 Connecticut, Delaware, and Maryland alone chose federalist electors, the last only two such. In 1808 these were joined by the remaining New England States, North Carolina also casting three federalist votes. In 1812, indeed, Clinton received eighty-nine votes to Madison's one hundred and twenty-eight ; but in 1816 again only Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Delaware were federalist. In 1820 not a State had a federalist majority. State elections in Maryland, North Carolina, Delaware, and Connecticut com- monly went federalist till 1820, and in Massachu- setts till 1823, when the Republicans swept this commonwealth too, Essex Coimty and all. Yet Federalism did not die without fixing its stamp indelibly upon our institutions. Not to men- 1800] THE FEDEBALIST PARTY 281 tion the Whig and the modern EepubUcan Parties, close reproductions of it, or the public credit, its child, methods of administration passed with little change from Adams to Jefferson and his succes- sors, and federalist principles modified the entire temper, and directed in no small degree the action of the Democratic Party while in power. The na- tion was exalted more, state rights subordinated, and the Constitution construed ever more broadly. Thus there was silently and gradually imparted to our governmental fabric a consistency and a so- lidity which were of incalculable worth agaiast storms to come. CHAPTEE VII. THE WEST A SIMPLE resolution of the Continental Congress in 1780 has proved of the highest consequence for the subsequent development of our country. It declared that all territorial land should be national domain, to be disposed of for the common benefit of the States, with the high privilege of itself grow- ing into States coequal with the old Thirteen. The treaty of 1783 carried this domain north to the Lakes, west to the Mississippi. The Ohio divided it into a northwestern and a southwestern part. The land to the west of themselves Virginia and North Carolina claimed, and it became Kentucky and Tennessee, respectively, erected into state- hood, the one June 1, 1792, the other June 1, 1796, these being the fifteenth and sixteenth States in order. Vermont, admitted in 1791, was the four- teenth. Virginia never released Kentucky till it became a State. The Tennessee country, ceded to the United States by North Carolina in 1784, the cession revoked and afterward repeated, had already, under the name of Frankland, enjoyed for some time a separate administration. The nucleus of Kentucky civilization was on the northern or Ohio River border, that of Tennessee in the Cum- 1790] THE WEST 283 berland Valley about Nashville ; Ijut by 1800 the borders of these two oases had joined. United States land has since broadened .west- ward to the Pacific, over the infinite areas which in 1800 belonged to Spain. From an early period there have been, as now, unorganized territory and also partially organized and fully organized terri- tories, the last being inchoate States, ready to be admitted to full membership in the Union when sufficiently populous, on condition of framing each for itself a republican constitution. The great ordinance of 1787, re-enacted by the First Congress, forever sealing the same to civil and religious liberty, opened the Northwest for im- mediate colonization, twenty thousand people set- tling there in the next two years. The territory was organized and General St. Clair made Governor. In 1788 Marietta was founded, named from Marie Antoinette, also Columbia near the mouth of the Little Miami. In the same year Losantiville, sub- sequently called Fort Washington, and now Cincin- nati, was laid out, the fi^rst houses having gone up in 1780. Louisville, settled so early as 1773, con- tained in 1784 over one hundred houses. Emi- grants in hundreds and thousands yearly poured over the monntains and down the Ohio. By the census of 1790 there were 4,280 whites northwest of this river, 1,000 at Vincennes, 1,000 on the lands of the Ohio Company, 1,300 on- Symmes's pur- chase between the Great and the Little Miami, Cincinnati being part of this purchase. In 1800 these numbers had much increased. The settle- ments which had Pittsburgh for a nucleus had also 284 THE UNITED STATES [1790 greatly extended, reaching the Ohio. Northern and Central Pennsylvania west of the Susquehanna Valley was yet a wilderness. St. Louis, in Span- ish hands, but to become French= next year, had been founded, and opposite it were the beginnings of what is now Alton, 111. The centre of United States population in 1790 was twenty-three miles east of Baltimore. It has since moved westward, not far from the thirty- ninth parallel, never more than sixteen miles north of it, or three to the south. In 1800 it was eigh- teen miles west of Baltimore ; in 1810 it was for- ty-three miles northwest by west of "Washing- ton ; in 1820 sixteen miles north of Woodstock, Va. ; in 1830, nineteen miles west-southwest of Mooi-field, W. Va. ; in 1840, sixteen miles south of Clarksburg, same State; in 1850, twenty-three miles southeast of Parkersburg, game State ; in 1860, twenty miles south of Chillicothe, O.; in 1870, forty-eight miles east by norili of Cincinnati ; in 1880, eight miles west by south of that city ; in 1890, twenty miles east of Columbus, Ind., west by south of Greensburg. It has never since been so far north as in 1790, and it has described a total westward movement of four hundred and fifty- seven miles. The land system of the United States was at first a bad one, intended to secure immediate revenue from the sale of immense pieces at auc- tion, on long credit, at very few points, the land to find its way into the hands of actual settlers only through mercenary speculators. The honest pioneer was therefore at the mercy of these 1790] THE WEST 285 land -sharks, greedy and unpatriotic in the ex- treme. The western movement aroused the Indians, of whom there were, in 1790, from 20,000 to 40,000 north of the Oliio. The idea of amalgamating or- even civilizing these people had long been prac- tically given up.- Settlers agreed in denouncing them as treacherous, intractable, bloodthirsty, and faithless. So incessant and terrific were their on- slaughts, the Ohio Valley had come to be known as " the dark and bloody ground." The British, still occupying the western posts, used their influ- ence to keep up and intensify Indian hostility to the United States settlers and Government. In September, 1790, Governor St. Clair sent Harmar against the Indians on the Miami and Mau- mee. He had about fifteen hundred men, two-thirds of them militia. The expedition was ill-managed from the first, and, after advancing as far as the present Fort Wayne, came back with great loss to itself, having exasperated rather than injured the red men. Harmar, chagrined, soon resigned. The Indians south of the Ohio were perhaps twice as numerous as those north, and partly civihzed. The Ghickasaws and Choctaws, nearest the Missis- sippi, gave little trouble. Not so the Cherokees and Creeks, whose seats were nearer the whites. The Creeks claimed parts of Tennessee, Georgia, and the Carolinas, justified herein by acts of the Continental Congress. However; the whites in- vaded this tenitory, provoking a fierce war, where- in the Cherokees allied themselves with the Creeks of Alabama and Georgia. This brave tribe had 286 THE UNITED STATES [1791 border troubles of its own with Georgia. These various hordes of savages, having the Florida Spaniards to back them with counsel, arms, and ammunition, were a formidable foe, which might have annihilated Georgia but for aid from the gen- eral Government. McGiUivray, the half-breed chief of the Creeks, was enticed, to New York, where the kindness of Washington and the evi- dent desire of Congress to deal with his people fairly, resulted in a treaty, August 13, 1790, which secured peace to the Southwest for a long time. Touching the northwestern redskins, Harmar's defeat had convinced Washington that mild meas- ures were not yet the thing. A larger force was fitted out against them under St, Clair in person, whom, as an old revolutionary comrade, Washing- ton 'still trusted. General Butler was second in command. The two thousand regulars and one thousand militia rendezvoused at Cincinnati in the autumn of 1791. Part object of the expedi- tion was to build a military road, with forts at in- tervals, all the way to the upper Wabash. Prog- ress was therefore slow. A fort was constructed on the present site of Hamilton, O.; then one to the northwest, near Greenville, O., close to the present Indiana line. From here the army pressed northwesterly still farther. St. Clair was heroic, but incompetent through age and the gout. Some of his miUtia deserted. Chills and fever shook the remainder of his too slender host. His orders were not well obeyed. On 1791] THE WEST 287 November 9th, encamping by a small branch of the Wabash, St. Clair's force was most vehemently at- tacked by Indians, under the redoubtable Joseph Brant or Thayendanegea — famed for his bloody ex- ploits against us during the Kevolution — and well- nigh annihilated. Five high officers, including Butler, were killed, and as many more sank from wounds. Cannons, guns, accoutrements, in fact the whole equipment of the army, were lost. After a four hours' fight St. Clair, sick but brave as a tiger, horse after horse shot beneath him, part of the time carried in a litter, his gray locks stream- ing in the breeze, put himself at the head of the five hundred who remauied unscathed, and hewed his way through walls of savages to the rear. Six o'clock that night found the sm-vivors back at Greenville, twenty-nine miles from the scene of carnage. Had the Indians pursued instead of stopping to mutilate the slain, every soul must have perished. The announcement of this disaster called forth in the East a universal howl of rage at the un- fortunate commander. Even Washington went beside himself : " To suffer that army to be cut to pieces, hacked, butchered, tomahawked, by a surprise— the very thing I guarded him against ! O God ! O God, he is worse than a murderer ! How can he answer it to his country? The blood of the slain is upon him, the cm^se of widows and orphans, the curse of Heaven." St. Clair came East to explain. Hobbling into Washing- ton's presence, he grasped his hand in both his own and sobbed aloud. He was continued as gov- 288 THE UNITED STATES [1703 ernor, but had to resign his major-generalship, which passed to Anthony Wayne. "Wayne was every inch a warrior. Cautiously advancing over the road St. Clair's fugitives had reddened with their blood, he reached Fort Jeifer- son, at Greenville, in June, 1793. Next year he ad- vanced to the junction of the Au Glaize with the Maumee. The Indians fleeing, he pursued to the foot of the Maumee Eapids, where he encoun- tered them encamped by a fort which the English, defying the treaty, still held, fifty miles inside our lines. Wayne, agreeably to Washington's policy, tried to treat. Failing, he attacked, routed the enemy, and mercilessly ravaged the country, burn- ing crops and villages. Building Fort Wayne as an advanced post, he came back and made his head- quarters at Fort Jefferson. The Indians' spirit and opposition were at last broken. Their dele- gates flocked to Wayne, suing for peace. Cap- tives were surrendered. The whole Ohio Terri- tory now lay open to peaceful occupation, and emigrants crowded northward from the Ohio in great companies. The pioneer bought land wherever he found a vacant spot that pleased him, building his hut, breaking up any open land for crops, and as rap- idly as possible clearing for more. His white neighbors, if any were near, lent their assistance in this work. His rough dwelling of logs, with one room, floored with puncheon, caulked with mud, and covered with bark or thatch, however uncomfortable from our point of view, made him a habitable home. When this primitive mansion 1800] THE WEST 289 was no longer sufficient, he was usually able to rear another out of hewn logs, with glass win- dows and a chimney. Then he felt himself an aristocrat, and who wiU deny that he was so ? A large family grew up aroimd him, neighbors moved in, the forest disappeared, the savages and wild beasts that at first harassed him slunk away, while the fruitful soil, with such exchanges and mail privileges as were speedily possible, yielded him all the necessaries and many of the comforts of life. So rapid was the increase of population hence- forth, that Congress, in 1800, divided the territory, the hne running north from the junction of the Kentucky with the Ohio. All west of this was to be known as the Indiana Territory, William Hen- ry Harrison its governor, and a territorial legis- lature to, follow so soon as a majority of the in- habitants should desire. On February 19, 1803, Ohio became a State. Mainly through Governor Harrison's exertions a better system of marketing public land was begun, in healthy contrast with the old. It allowed four land-offides in Ohio and Indiana. Lands once offered at auction and not sold could be pre-empted directly by private indi- viduals on easy terms. Actual settlement and cul- tivation were thus furthered, speculation curbed, and the government revenues vastly increased. We have spoken mostly of the Northwest. The present States of Alabama and Mississippi north of 31°, except a narrow strip at the extreme north owned by South Carolina, were claimed by Geor- gia, but the part of this territory south of 32° 30' 19 290 THE UNITED STATES [1800 the United States also claimed as having before the Eevolution been separated from Georgia by the king and joined to West Florida, so that it, like the Northwest, passed to the United States at the treaty of 1783. This section was organized in 1798 as the Mississippi Territory. In 1802 Geor- gia relinquished all claim to the northern pai-t as ■well, which Congress added to the Mississippi Ter- ritory. At this date there were settlements along the Mississippi bluffs below the ¥azoo bottom. CHAPTEE VIII. SOCIAL CULTUBE AT THE TUKN OF THE CENTURY In 1800 the population of our lanrd was 5,305, 482, of whom 896,849 were slaves. New York City had 60,489; Philadelphia, 40,000; Boston, 24,937; Baltimore, 23,971; Charleston, 18,712; Provi- dence, 7,614 ; Washington, 3,210. The population of Vermont, Northern and "Western New York, and the Susquehanna Valley of Pennsylvania had grown considerably more dense since 1790. The social life, ideas, and habits of thg rural districts had not altered much from those prevalent in colonial days, but in the more favol-ed centres groat improvements, or, at any rate, changes, might have been marked. Even far in the country framed, buildiags were now the most common, the raising of one being a great event. The village school gave a half hol- iday. Every able-bodied man and boy from the whole country-side received ah iuvitation — all being needed to " heave up," at the boss carpen- ter's pompous word of command, the ponderous timbers seemingly meant to last forever. A feast followed, with contests of strength and agility wor- thy of description on Homer's page. Skating was not yet a frequent pastime, nor 292 THE UNITED STATES [1800 dancing, save in cities and large towns. Balls every pious New Englander abhorred as sinful. The theatre was similarly tabooed — in Massachu- setts, so late as 1784, by law. New York and Philadelphia frowned upon it then, though jolly Baltimore already gave it patrons enough. When, in 1793, yeUow fever desolated Philadelphia, one theory ascribed the affliction to the admission of the theatre. In other cities passion for the theatre was growing, and even Massachusetts tolerated it by an act passed in 1793. President Washington, while in New York, oftener than many thought proper, attended the old, sonily furnished play-house in John Street, the only one which the city could then boast. John Adams also went now and again. Both were squinted at through opera-glasses, which were just coming into use and thought by the crowd to be infinitely ridiculous. Good hours were kept, as the play began at five. AU sorts of shows, games, and sports which the country could afford or devise Were immensely popular, the most so, and the roughest, in the South. Horse - racing, cock-fighting, shooting matches, at aU which betting was high, were there fashionable, as weU as most brutal man-fights, in which ears were bitten off and eyes gouged out. President Thomas Jefferson was exceedingly fond of menageries and circuses, his diary abounding in such entries as : " pd for seeing a lion 21 months old 11^ d.; " " pd seeing a smaU seal .125 ; " " pd see- ing elephant .5 ; " " pd seeing elk .75 ; " " pd seeing Caleb PhOlips a dwarf .25 ; " " pd seeing a painting .25." 1800] SOCIAL GULTUEE 293 Lotteries were universal, and put to uses which now seem excessively queer. Whenever a bridge or a ptiblic edifice, as a school-house, was to be built, a street paved or a road repaired, the money was furnished through a lottery. In the same way manufacturing companies were started, churches aided, coUege treasuries replenished. It was with money collected through a lottery" that Massachu- setts first encouraged cotton spinning ; that the City Hall of New York was enlarged, the Court House at Elizabeth rebuilt, the Harvard Univer- sity library increased, and many pretentious build- ings put up at the Federal City.' This was but a single form of the sporting mania. The public stocks, as well as the paper of the numerous canals, turn-pikes, and manufacturing corporations now springing up, were gambled in in a way which would almost shock Wall Street to-day. Anthracite coal had been discovered and was just beginning to be mined, but on account of the plen- tifulness of wood was not for a long time largely used. The first idea of steam navigation was em- bodied in an English patent taken but by Jonathan Hulls in 1736. The initial experiment of the kind in this country was by William Henry, on the Con- estoga Eiver, Pennsylvania, in 1763. John Fitch navigated the Delaware steam-wise in 1783-84. In 1790 one of Fitch's steam paddle-boats made regular trips between Philadelphia and Trenton for four months. In 1785-86 Oliver Evans experi- mented in this direction, as did Rumsey, in Vir- ginia, in 1787. One Morey ran a stem-wheeler of 1 1 MoMaster'a United States, 588. 294 THE UNITED STATES [1800 his own make from Hartford to New York in 1794. Chancellor Livingston built a steamer on the Hud- son in 1797. It was only in 1807 that Fulton fin- ished his " Clermont " and made a passage up the Hudson to Albany from New York. It took thirty-three hours, and was the earliest thoroughly successful steam navigation on record. He subse- quently built the " Orleans " at Pittsburgh. It was completed and made the voyage to=New Orleans in 1811. No steamboat ruffled the waters of Lake Ontario till 1816. The pioneer steam craft on Lake Erie was launched at Black Rock, May 28, 1818. It is recorded as wonderful that in less than two hours it had gotten fifteen miles from shore. At the North the muster or general training was, for secular entertainment, the day of days, when the local regiment came out to raveal and to per- fect its skill in the manual and in the evolutions of the line. Side-shows and a general good time constituted for the crowds its chief interest. Cider, cakes, pop-corn, and candy drained boys' pockets of pennies, those who could afford the fun going in to see the one-legged revolutionary soldier with his dancing bear, the tattooed man, the ven- triloquist, or the then "greatest show on earth." College commencements, too, at that time usually had all these festive accompaniments, and many a boy debated whether to spend his scant change here or at the muster. In New England, Christ- mas was not observed ; it was hardly known, in fact. Thanksgiving taking its place, proclaimed with the utmost formality by the Governor some weeks in advance. 1800] SOCIAL CVLTUBE 295 Intemperance was still terribly common ; worst in the newer sections of the country. There is ex- tant a message of "William Henry Hanison, while Governor of Indiana Territory, to his legislature, against this evil, urging better sm-veillance of pub- lic-houses. " The progress of intemperance among us," it runs, " outstrips all calculation, and the con- sequences of its becoming general I shudder to unfold. Poverty and domestic embarrassment and distress are the present effects, and prostration of morals and change of government must inevitably foUow. The virtue of the citizens is the only sup- port of a Kepublican Government. Destroy this and the country will become a prey to the first daring and ambitious chief which it shall produce." To counteract this and other vices, which were justly viewed as largely the results of ignorance, philanthropic people M'ere at this period estab- lishing Sunday-schools, following the example of Eobert Eaikes, who began the movement at Gloucester, England, in 1781. They had been al- ready introduced in New England, but were now making their way in Philadelphia and elsewhere. The first Methodist bishop, Asbury, zealously furthered them. They had, to begin with, no distinctive religious character, and churches even looked upon them with disfavor ;= but their num- bers increased and their value became more ap- parent until the institution was adopted by all denominations. Before 1800 the new United States coinage, with nearly the same pieces as now, had begun to circu- late, but had had little success at that date in 296 THE UNITED STATJ38 [1800 driving out the old foreign coins of colonial times. Especially were there still seen Spanish dollars, halves, quarters, fifths or pistareens, and eighths^ the last being the Spanish " real," "ryall," or "roy- all," worth twelve and a half cents — and tenths or half-pistareens, worth six and one-quarter cents each. Many of these pieces were sadly worn, pass- ing at their face value only when the legend could be made out. Sometimes they were heated to aid in this. Many wore so worn that a pistareen would bring only a Yankee shilling, sixteen and two-thirds cents ; the half - pistareen only eight cents ; the real, ten ; the half-real, five. The denominations of the colonial money of ac- count were also still in daily use, and, indeed, might be heard so late as the Civil "War. The " real," twelve and one-half cents, was in New York a shilling, being one-twentieth of the pound once prevalent in the New York colony. In New England it was a " nine-pence," constituting nearly nine-twelfths, or nine of the twelve pence of an old New England shilling of sixteen and two-thirds cents. Twenty such shillings had been required for the New England pound, which was so much more valuable than the pound of the New York colony. But neither one or any colonial pound was the equivalent of the pound sterling. In the middle colonies, including Pennsylvania, the pound had possessed still a different value, the Spanish dollar, in which the Continental Congress kept its accounts, there equalling ninety pence. This is why those accounts stand in dollars and ninetieths, a notation so puzzling to many. A 1800] SOCIAL GULTUBE 297 " real " would here be about one-eleTenth of ninety pence, hence called the "eleven -penny -piece," shortened into "levy." Dividing a levy by two would give five (and a fraction) \ hence the term " five-penny-piece," " fippenny," or " fip," for the half real or six and one-quarter cent piece. There are doubtless yet people in Virgiraa and Maryland who never say " twenty-five cents," but instead, " two levies and a fip." General intelligence had improved, partly from the greater number, better quality, and quicker and fuller distribution of newspapers. Correspond- ents were numerous. Intelligent persons visiting at a distance from home were wont to write long letters to their local newspapers, containing all the items of interest which they could scrape together. Papers sprung up at every considerable hamlet. Even the Ohio Valley did not lack. Perhaps four and a half million copies a year were issued in the whole country by 1800. They were admitted now — not so, however, under the original postal law — • as a regular part of the mails, and thus found their way to nearly all homes. The news which they brought was often old news, of course, post riders requiring twenty-nine and one-half hours between Philadelphia and either New York or Baltimore ; but they were read with none the less avidity. Its first mail reached Buffalo in 1803, on horse- back. Mail went thither bi-weekly till 1806, then weekly. Postal rates were high, ranging for let- ters from six cents for thirty mile's to twenty-five for four hundred and fifty miles or over. So late as 1796 New York City received mails from North 298 THE UNITED STATES [1800 and from South, and sent mails in both directions, only twice weekly between November 1st and May 1st, and but thrice weekly the ](est of the year. In 1794 the great cities enjoyed carriers, who got two cents for each letter delivered. In 1785 there were two dailies, The Pennsylvania Packet and The New York Advertiser, but, as yet, no Sunday paper appeared, nor any scientific, religious, or illus- trated journal, nor any devoted to literature or trade. The Neto Yorle Medical Repository began in 1797, the first scientific periodicaLin America. In 1801 seventeen dailies existed. Paper was scarce and high, so that appeals were published in most of the news sheets imploring people to save their rags. The press was more violently partisan and in- decently personal than now. To oppose the federalist United States Gazette the republican National Gazette had been started, which, with brilliant meanness, assailed not only Washington's public acts, but his motives and character. Him, and still more Adams, Hamilton, and the other leading Federalists, it, in nearly every issue, charged with conspiracy to found a monarchy. Republican journals reeked with such doggerel as : " See Johnny at the helm of State, Head itching for a crowny ; He longs to be, like Georgy, great, And pull Tom Jeffer downy." ' Federalists were not behind in warfare of this sort. Jefferson was the object of their continual 1 g McMastei, 383. 1800] SOCIAL CULTURE 299 and vilest slander. In New England, the strong- hold of Federalism, nearly every Sunday's sermon "vvas an arraignment of the French, and impliedly of their allies, the Republicans.' From Jefferson's election — he was a conservative free - thinker — they seemed to anticipate the utt^r extermination of Christianity, though the man paid in charities, mostly religious, as for Bibles, missionaries, chap- els, meeting-houses, etc., one year of his presidency, $978.20 ; another year, $1,585.60. One preacher likened the tribute which Talleyrand demanded of Adams's envoys to that which Sennacherib required of Hezekiah.^ Another compared Hamilton, killed in a duel, to Abner, the son of Ner, slain by Joab. Another took for his text the message which Hezekiah sent to the Prophet Isaiah : " This is a day of trouble and of rebuke and of contumely," etc. Another attacked Republican- ism outright from the words : " There is an ac- cursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel." The coolest federalist leaders could fall prey to this partisan temper. Lafayette meditated set- tling in this country. Such was his popularity here that no one would have dared to oppose this openly. Hamilton, however, while favoring it publicly, yet, lest the great Frenchman's coming should help on the republican cause, secretly did his utmost to prevent it. Even Washington, who was human after all, connived, if seems, at this piece of duplicity. According to a federalist sheet, Hamilton's > 2 McMaster, 383. ^ Isaiah, 36. ■' Ibid., 37 ; 3 eeq. < Josliua,.? : 13. 300 THE UNITED STATES [1800 death called forth " the voice of deep lament " save from " the rancorous Jacobin, the scoffing deist, the snivelling fanatic, and the imported scoundrel." " Were I asked," said an apologist, " whether General Hamilton had vices, in the face of the world, in the presence of my God, I would answer, No." Another poetized of the ' ' Great day When Hamilton — disrobed of mortal clay — At God's riglat band shall sit with face benign. And at his murderer cast a look divine." In 1800 instrumental music might have been heard in some American churches. There were Roman Catholic congregations in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Baltimore had its Catholic bishop. The Protestant Epis- copal Church in America had been organized. Methodism, independent of Engla,nd since 1784, was on its crusade up and down the land, already strong in New York and the South, and in 1790 a Methodist church had been gathered in Boston. The manufacture of corduroys, bed-ticking, fus- tian, jeans, and cotton-yarn had been started. Iron ore and iron ware of nearly aU sorts was pro- duced. Syracuse was manufacturing salt. Lynn already made morocco leather, and Dedham, straw braid for hats. Cotton was regularly exported in small quantities from the South. In New York one could get a decayed tooth filled or a set of false teeth made. Four daily stages ran between New York and Philadelphia. The Boston ship Colum- bia had circumnavigated the glo|)e. The United 1800J SOCIAL CULTURE 301 States Mint was still working by horse-power, not employing steam till 1815. Whitney's cotton-gin had been invented in 1793. Terry, of Plymouth, Conn., was making clocks. There were in the land two insurance companies, possibly more. Cast iron ploughs, of home make, were displacing the old ones of wood. Morse's " Geography," and Webster's " Spelling-book " were on the market, and extensively used. The great industrial inventions which were to color the entire civilization of mankind had a pow- erful effect upon America. So early as 1775, in England, Crompton's mule-jenny had superseded Hargreaves's spinning machine. The latter had improved on the old spinning-wheel by making eight, and later eighty, threads with the effort and time the old arrangement had required for one ; but the threads were no better, and could be used only for woof, linen being required for warp. Aikwright's roller arrangement Was an improve- ment upon Hargreaves's. It bettered the quality of the threads, making them evener, so that they could serve for warp as well as woof. Crompton's mule was another quantitative improvement, com- bining the excellencies of both Hargreave and Arkwright. One man could with this machinery work twenty-two hundred spindles, and they went much faster than by the ancient wheel. Then came steam-power. Watts's engine was adapted to spinning and cardiug cotton at Manchester in 1783. Two years later the cylinder printing of cottons was invented, and a little after began the use of acid in bleaching. 302 THE UNITED STATES [1800 These mighty industrial devices did not cross to America immediately, but were all here before the time of which we now write. A spinning- jenny was indeed exhibited in Philadelphia so early as 1775. During the Eevolution, Philadel- phia was a seat of much manufacture. We have in an earlier chapter remarked that Beverly, Mass., had a cotton factory in 1787. Oxen fur- nished its power, as a horse did that for the first Philadelphia mill. A cotton mill was also started very early at Worcester, but whether in 1780 or 1789 may admit of doubt. There is some evi- dence that before July, 1790, a cotton factory run by water, with ginning, carding, and spinning machines, the last of eighty-four spindles apiece, was in operation near Statesburg, S. 0. ; but whether it was successful or not is not known. Oliver Evans was operating a single-flue boUer for steam-power by 1786. Soon after he had one with two flues, and in 1779 a high -pressure or non- condensing engine, the principle of which he is by many believed to have invented. He was the earliest builder of steam-engines in the United States, having in 1804 secured a patent for the high-pressure device. His factory furnished en- gines to all parts of the country. England did her best to preven*t all knowledge of the new manufacturing machinery from crossing the Atlantic. The Act 21 George III., c. 37, de- nounced upon any one who should aid toward giv- ing America any tool, machine, or secret relating to manufacture in any branch, a. penalty of £200 and one year's imprisonment. In vain. Partly 1800] SOCIAL GULTUBE 303 by smuggling, partly by invention, the new arts soon flourished here as there. Some Scotch arti- sans who came to Bridgewater, Mass., by invita- tion from Mr. Hugh Orr, of that town, con- structed, about 1786, the first cotton - spinning machines in America, including the Arkwright ia- ventions. To build and launch the English machinery with full success was, however, reserved for Sam- uel Slater, a native of Belper, Derbyshire, Eng- land, who, in 1790, erected at Pawtucket, E. I., the Old Mill in rear of Mill Street, which still stands and runs. Slater had served his time at the making of cotton-manufacturing machinery with J. Strutt, who had been Arkwright's partner. In Strutt's factory he had risen to be overseer. So thoroughly had he mastered the business that, on arriving here, he found himself able to imitate the foreign machines from memory alone, without model, plan, or measurement. Having gotten his gear in readiness, almost solely with his own hands, December 20, 1790, he started three cards, drawing and roving, also seventy-two spindles, all on the Arkwright plan, the first of the kind ever triumphantly operated on this side of the ocean. President Jackson styled Slater " the father of American manufactures," and 1790 may be taken as the birth-year of the American factory system. The Tariff, the embargo policy of President Jef- ferson, and the hatred toward England, taking form in organizations pledged to wear only home- made clothing, all powerfully stimulated the erec- tion of factories. A report in 1810, of Albert 304 TEE UNITED STATES [1800 Gallatin, Madison's Secretary of the Treasury, states that by the end of the year preceding, eighty-seven cotton factories had arisen in this country, calculated for eighty thousand spindles. The power loom, however, not used in England till about 1806, did not begin its work here till after the War of 1812.* *See, further, Period n., Chap. VHI. CHAPTER IX.- DEMOCKACY AT THE HELM By the original mode of election, President and Vice-President could not be separately designated on electors' tickets, so that, soon as party spirit led each elector to vote for the same two men, these two were tied for the first place. This occurred in 1801. The Republican candidates were Jeffer- son and Burr. Each had the same number of electoral votes, seventy-three, against sixty-five for Adams, sixty-four for Pinckney, and twenty-one for Jay. There being no choice, the election went to the House. This had a federalist majority, but was, by the parity of the two highest candidates, constitutionally shut up to elect between these, both of them Republicans. Jefferson as the abler and from the South, was more than Burr an object of federalist hate. Against Hamilton's advice, to his honor be it remembered, the Federalists agreed to throw their votes for Burr. But the vote then, as . to-day in such a case, had to be by States. There were sixteen States, nine being necessary to a choice. In nineteen ballots on February 11th, nine the 12th, one the 13th, fopr the 14th, one each the 16th and 17th, thirty-five in all, Jefferson every time carried eight States and Burr six, while so 306 THE UNITED STATES [1801 Maryland and Vermont were equally divided, and therefore powerless. The fear at last began to be feljt that the Union would go to pieces and the Federalists be to blame. Accordingly, on the 36th ballot, five Fed- eralists from South Carolina, four from Maryland, one from Vermont, and one from Delaware — Mr. Bayard, grandfather to President Cleveland's first Secretary of State — did not vote, enabling the re- publican members from Vermont and Maryland to cast the votes of those States for Jefferson. Thus, with ten States, he was elected. Burr becoming Vice-President. This crisis led, in 1804, to the Xllth Amendment to the Constitution, which di- rects each elector to vote for Vice-President as such. There can hardly now be a tie between the two leading presidential candidates, and if there is for any reason delay in electing the President, the Senate may proceed, to elect the Vice-President at once. The improvement became" manifest when, in 1825, the House again had to elect President, and chose John Quincy Adams, over Clay and Jackson. The Democratic Party proved to have entered upon a long lease of power. For forty years "its hold upon affairs was not relaxed, and it was in no wise broken even by the elections of Harrison in 1840 and Tyler in 1848. Nor did it ever ap- pear probable that the Whigs, upon any one of the great issues which divided them from the Demo- crats, were in a way to win permanent advantage. Not till after 1850 had the ruling dynasty true reason to tremble, and then only at the rise of a 1801J DEMOCRACY AT THE" HELM 307 new party, the modern Republicans, inspired by the bold cry of anti-slavery, which the Whigs had never dared to raise. As to its main outlines, the democratic policy was well foreshadowed in Jefferson's first inaugural. It favored thrift and simplicity va. government, in- volving close limitation of army, navy, and diplo- matic corps to positive and tangible needs. It pro- fessed peculiar regard for the rights and interests of the common man, whether of foreign or of na- tive parentage. Strict construction of the Consti- tution, which was to a great extent viewed as a compact of States, was another of its cherished ideas. It also maintained special friendliness for agriculture and commerce. From its strict con- structionism sprung, further, its hostility to inter- nal improvements ; from this and from its regard to agriculture and commerce res^ilted its dislike to restrictive tariffs. Particularly after the whig schism, about 1820, did these ideas stand forth de- finite and pronounced as the authoritative dem- ocratic creed. In and from Jackson's time they were more so still. Yet in most respects Jefferson has remained the typical Democrat. He had genuine faith in the people, in free government, in unlettered individ- uality. His administration was frugal almost to a fault. He insisted upon making the civil power supreme over the military, and scorned all pre- tensions on the part of any particular class to rule. In two points only was his democracy ideal rather than illustrative of that which followed, viz., adroit- ness in giving trend and consistency to legislation, 308 THE UNITED STATES [ISOl and non-partisan administration of the civil ser- vice. In the former no executive has equalled him, in the latter none since Quincy Adams. Growing up as a scholar and a gentleman-farmer, with refined tastes, penning the great Declaration, which was early scouted for its abstractions, long minister to France, where abstract ideas made all high politics morbid, the sage of Monticello turned out to be one of the most practical presidents this nation has ever had. If he overdid simplicity in going to the Capitol on horseback to deliver his first inaugural, tying his magnificent horse. Wild- air, to a tree with his own hands, he yet enter- tained elegantly, and his whole state as President, far from humiliating the nation, a's some feared it would, was in happy keeping with its then de- velopment and nature. His ca"binet, Madison, Gallatin, Dearborn, Smith, and Granger, was in liberal education superior to any other the nation has ever had, every member a college graduate, and the first two men of distinguished research and attainments. As to the civil service, Jefferson, it is true, made many removals from office, some doubtless unwise and even unjust; but in judging of these we must remember his profound and unquestionably honest conviction that the Federalists lacked patriotism. It was this belief which dictated bis prosecution, almost persecution, of Burr, whom Federalists openly befriended and defended. Aaron Burr was the brilliant grandson of Presi- dent Edwards. Graduating at Princeton at the, early age of seventeen, he studied -theology a year, 1804] DEMOCRACY AT THK HELM 309 then law, which on the outbreak of the Eevolution he deserted for army life at Boston. He went in Arnold's expedition to Canada, was promoted to be colonel, and served on Washington's staff. In Canada he did service as a spy, disguised as a priest and speaking French or Latin as needed. His legal studies completed, 1783 found him in practice in New York, office at No. 10 Little Queen Street. Both as lawyer and in politics he rose like a meteor, being Hamilton's peer in the one, his superior in the other. Organizing his " Little Band" of young Republicans, spite of federalist opposition and sneers from the old republican chiefs, he became Attorney-general of New York in 1789. In 1791, superseding Schuyler, he was United States senator from that State and in 1800, Vice-President. Higher he could not mount, as federalist favor cursed him among his own party, yet was too weak to aid him independently. It was kept down by Hamilton, who saw through the rnan and opposed him with all his might. For this Burr forced him to a duel, and fatally shot him, July 11, 1804. Indicted for murder. Burr now disappears from politics, but only to emerge in a new role. Dur- ing all the early history of our Union the parts beyond the AUeghanies were attached to it by but a slender thread, which Spanish intrigue inces- santly sought to cut. At this very time Spain was pensioning men in high station there, including General Wilkinson, commanding our force at New Orleans. Could not Burr detach this district or a 310 THE UNITED STATES [1806 part of it from our Government and mate here an empire of his own ? Or might he not take it as the base of operations for an attack on Spanish America that should give him an empire there ? Some vision of this sort danced before the mad genius's vision, as before that of Hamilton in the Miranda scheme. Many influential persons en- couraged him, with how much insight into his plan we shall never know. Wilkinson was one of these. Blennerhassett, whose family and estate Burr ir- reparably blasted, was another. He expected aid from Great Britain, and from disaffected Mexi- cans. From the outset the West proved more loyal than he hoped, and when, at the critical moment, AVilkiuson betrayed him, he knewithat all was lost. Sinking his chests of arms in. the river near Natchez, he took to the Mississip|)i woods, only to be recognized, arrested by Jefferson's order, and dragged to Richmond to jail. As no overt act was proved, he could not be convicted of treason ; and even the trial of him for misdemeanor broke down on technical points. The Federalists stood up for Burr as if he had been their man, while Jefferson on his part pushed the prosecution in a fussy and personal way, ill becoming a President. Jefferson's most lasting work as national chief- magistrate was his diplomacy in purchasing for the Union the boundless territory beyond the Mississippi, prized then not for its extent or re- sources, both as yet unknown, but as assuring us free navigation of the river, which sundry French and Spanish plots had demonstrated essential to 1803] DEM0GRAG7 AT THE- HELM 311 the solid loyalty of tlie West. Ijouisiana, ceded by France to Spain in 1762, became French again in 1801. Napoleon had intended it as the seat of a colonial power rivalling Great Britain's, but, pressed for money in his new war with that king- dom, concluded to sell. He wished, too, the friendship of the United States against Great Britain, and knew not the worth of what he was bargaining away. Willing to take fifty million francs, he offered for one hundred million, speed- ily closing with Livingston aiid Monroe's tender of eighty, we to assume in addition the French spoliation claims of our citizens. The treaty of purchase was signed May 2, 1803, and ratified by the Senate the 17th of the following October. This stupendous transaction assured to our Ee- publio not only leading hand in the affairs of this continent, but place among the great powers of the world. Its 1,124,685 square miles doubled the national domain. It opened path well tow- ard, if not to, the Pacific, and made ours meas- ureless tracts of agricultural and mining lands, rich as any under the sun. If it originated many of the most perplexing questions, which have agi- tated our national politics, as those relating to slavery in this territory itself, to the acquisitions from Mexico, to the Pacific railways, and to the Indians and the Chinese, all this has been amply compensated by the above and countless other benefits. Equally brilliant if less impressive was another piece of Jefferson's foreign policy. He might be over-friendly to France, but elsewhere he certainly 312 THE UNITED STATES [1795 did not believe in peace at any price. The Bar- bary powers had begun to annoy our commerce soon after Independence. The Betsey was cap- tured in 1784, next year the Maria, of Boston, and the Dauphin, of Philadelphia, and their crews of twenty-one men carried to a long and disgraceful captivity in Algiers. The Dey's bill for these captives* held by him as slaves, was : 3 Captains at $6,000 $18,000 2 Mates at $4,000 8,000 2 Passengers at $4,000 8,000 14 Seamen at |1,400 9,600 $53,600 For custom, eleven per cent 5,896 $59,496 Later a single cruise lost ns ten vessels to these half civilized people. Following European precedent, Washington had made, in 1795, a ransom-treaty with this nest of pirates, to carry out which cost lis a fat million. The captives had meantime increased to one him- dred and fifteen, though the crews of the Maria and the Dauphin had wasted away to ten men. Nearly a million more went to the other North-African freebooters. The policy of ransoming was, indeed, cheaper than force. Count d'Estaing nsed to say that bombarding a pirate town was like breaking windows with guineas. The old Dey of Algiers, learning the expense of Du Quesne's expedition to 1801] DEMOGRAGY AT TRE: HELM 313 batter his capital, declared that he himself would have burnt it for half the sum. Yet it makes one's blood hot to-day to read how our fathers paid tribute to those thieves. The Dey had, in so many words, called us his slaves, and had actually terrorized Captain Bainbridge, of the Man- of-War George Washington, into carrying dis- patches for him to Constantinople, flying the Alge- rine pirate flag conspicuously at the fore. After anchoring — this was some requital — Bainbridge was permitted to hoist the Stars; and Stripes, the first time that noble emblem ever kissed the breeze of the Golden Horn. Jefferson loathed such submission, and vowed that it should cease. Commodore Dale was or- dered to the Mediterranean Avith a squadron to protect our ships there from further outrage. One of his vessels, the Experiment, soon captured a Tripoli cruiser of fourteen guns, the earliest stroke of any civilized power for many years by way of showing a bold front to these pe&tilent corsairs. This was on August 6, 1801. In 1803 Preble was placed in command of the Mediterranean fleet, with some lighter ships to go farther up those shallow harbors. Bainbridge had the mis- fortune while in pursuit of a Tripoli frigate to run his ship, the Philadelphia, on a rock, and to be taken prisoner with aU his crew. The sailors were made slaves. Lieutenant Decatur penetrated the Tripoli harbor under cover of night, and burned the Philadelphia to the water's edge. Tripoli was bombarded, and many of its vessels taken or sunk. Commodore Barron, who had succeeded Preble, , 314 TMH UNITED STATES [1803 1 co-operated with a land attack which some of the Pasha's disaffected subjects, led by the American General Eaton, made upon Tripoli. The city was captured, April 27th, and the pirate prince forced to a treaty. Even now, ho-^ever, we paid $60,000 in ransom money. CHAPTEE X. THE WAE OF 1812 Although paying, so long as Jay's treaty was in force, for certain invasions of our commerce, Great Britain liad never adopted a just attitude toward neutral trade. She persisted in loosely defining contraband and blockade, and in de- nouncing as unlawful all commerce which was opened to ua as neutrals merely by war or carried on by us between France and French colonies through our own ports. The far more flagrant abuse of impressment, the forcible seizure of American citizens for service in the British navy, became intolerably prevalent during Jefferson's administration. Not content with reclaiming deserters or asserting the eternity of British citizenship. Great Britain, through her naval authorities, was compellirig thousands of men of unquestioned American birth to help fight her battles. Castlereagh himself admitted that there had been sixteen hundred honajide cases of this sort by January 1, 1811. And in her mode of asserting and exercising even her just claims she ignored international law, as well as the dig- nity and sovereignty of the United States. The odious right of search she most shamefully 316 TEE UNITED STATES [1807 abused. The narrow seas about England were assumed to be Britisli waters, and acts performed in American harbors admissible only on the open ocean. When pressed by us for apology or re- dress, the British Government showed no serious willingness to treat, but a brazen resolve to utilize our weak and too trastful policy of peace. One instance of this shall suffipe. Commodore Barron, in command of the United States war vessel Chesapeake, was attacked by the Leopard, a British two-decker of fifty guns, outside the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, to recover three sail- ors, falsely alleged to be British-born, on board. Their surrender being refused, the! Leopard opened fire. The Chesapeake received twenty-one shots in her hull, and lost three of her cr:ew killed and eighteen wounded. She had been shamefuUy unprepared for action, and was hence forced to strike, but Humphreys, the Leopard's command- er, contemptuously declined to take her a prize. There was no excuse whatever for this wanton and criminal insult to our flag, yet the only reparation ever made was formal, tardy, and lame. Bad was changed to worse with the progress of the new and more desperate war between Great Britain and Napoleon. The Emperor shut the North-German ports to Britain ; Britain declared Prussian and all "West European harbors in a state of blockade. The Emperor's Berlin decree, No- vember, 1806, paper-blockaded the British Isles ; his Milan decree, December, 1807, declared for- feited all vessels, wherever found, proceeding to or from any British port, or having submitted to Brit- 1810] THE WAB OF 1812 317 ish search or tribute. lu fine, Britain would treat as illicit all commerce with the continent, France all with Britain. But while Napoleon, in fact, though not avowedly, more and more receded from his position, England maintained hers mth iron tenacity. Sincere as was our Government's desire to main- tain strict neutrality in the European conflict, it naturally found difliculty in making England so believe. Their opponents at home ceaselessly charged Jefferson, Madison, and all the Repub- licans with partiality to France, so that Canning and Castlereagh were misled ; and they were con- firmed in their suspicion by Napoleon's crafty assumption that our embargo or non-intercourse policy was meant to act, as it confessedly did, favorably to France. Napoleon's confiscation of our vessels, at one time sweeping, he advertised as a friendly proceeding in aid of our embargo. Yet all this did not, as Castlereagh captiously pretend- ed, prove our neutrality to be other than strict and honest. At this time it certainly was both. So villainously had Napoleon treated us that all Amer- icans now hated him as heartily tts did any people in England. The non-intercourse mode of hostility, a boom- erang at best, had played itself* out before Jef- ferson's retirement; and since George's ministry showed no signs whatever of a changed temper, gailtily ill-prepared as we were, no honorable or safe course lay before us but to fight Great Britain. Clay, Calhoun, Quincy Adams, aijd Monroe — the last the soul of the war — deserved the credit of 318 TEE UNITED STATES [1813 seeing this first and clearest, and of tlie most sturdy and consistent action accordingly. Their spirit proved infectious, and the Kepublicans swiftly became a war party. Most of the " war-hawks," as they were deri- sively styled, were from the South and the south- ern Middle States. Fearing that, if it were a naval war, glory would redound to New England and New York, which were hotbeds of the peace party, they wished this to be a land war, and shrieked, "On to Canada." They made a great mistake. The land operations were for the most part in- describably disgraceful. Except the exploits of General Brown and Colonel Winfield Scott, sub- sequently the head of the national armies, not an action on the New York border but ingloriously failed. The national Capitol was captured and burnt, a deed not more disgraceful to England in the commission than to us in the permission. Of the officers in command of armies^ only Harrison and Jackson earned laurels. Harrison had learned warfare as Governor of Indiana, where, on November 7, 1811, he had fought the battle of Tippecanoe, discomfiting Te- cumseh's braves and permanently -quieting Indian hostilities throughout that territory. In -the new war against England, after HulPs pusillanimous surrender of Detroit, the West loudly and at length with success demanded " Tippecanoe " as commander for the army about to advance into Canada. Their estimate of Harrison proved just. Overcoming many difficulties and aided by Perry's flotilla on Lake Erie, he pursued Proctor, his re- 1813] THE WAR OF 1&12 319 treating British antagonist, up the Eiver Thames to a point beyond Sandwich. Here the British made a stand, but a gallant charge of Harrison's Kentucky cavaby irreparably broke their lines. The Indians, led by old Tecum^seh in person, made a better fight, but in vain. The victory was complete, and Upper Canada lay at our mercy. Andrew Jackson also began his military experi- ence by operations against Indians. The south- ern redskins had been incited to war upon us by British and Spanish emissaries along the Florida line. Tecumseh had visited them in the same in- terest. The horrible massacre at Fort Mims, east of the Alabama above its junction with the Tom- bigbee, was their initial work. Five hundred and fifty persons were there surprised, four hundred of them slain or burned to death. Jackson took the field, and in an energetic campaign, with sev- eral bloody engagements, forced them to peace. By the battle of the Horse-Shoe, March 27, 1814, the Creek power was entirely crushed. Subsequently placed in command of our force at New Orleans, Jackson was attacked by a numerous British army, made up in large part of veterans who had seen service under Wellington in Spain. Pakenham, the hero of Salamanca, commanded. Jackson's position was well chosen and strongly fortified. After several preliminary engagements, each favorable to the American arms, Pakenham essayed to carry the American works by storm. The battle occurred on January 8, 1815. It was desperately fought on both sides, but at its close Jackson's loss had been trifling and his line had 320 T3E UNITED STATES [1813 not been broken at a single point, while the Brit- ish had lost at least 2,600, all but 500 of these killed or wounded. The British immediately with- drew from the Mississippi, leaTing Jackson en- tirely master of the position. But the naval operations of this war were far the most famous, exceeding in their success all that the most sanguine had dared to hope,, and forever dis- pelling from our proud foe the charm of naval in- vincibility. The American frigate Constitution captured the British Guerriere. The Wasp took the Frolic, being soon, however, forced to sur- render with her prize to the Poitiers, a much larger vessel. The United States" vanquished the Macedonian, and the Constitution the Java. One of the best fought actions of the war was that of McDonough on Lake Champlain, with his craft mostly gun-boats or galleys. His victory restored to us the possession of Northern New York, which our land forces had not been able -to maintain. The crowning naval triumph during the war, one of the most brilliant, in fact, in all naval annals, was won by Oliver Hazard Perry near Put-in-Bay on Lake Erie, September 10, 1813, over the Briton, Barclay, a naval veteran who had served under Nelson at Trafalgar. The fleets were well matched, the American numbering the more vessels but the fewer guns. Barclay greatly exceeded Perry in long guns, having the latter at painful disadvan- tage until he got near. Perry's flag-ship, the Law- rence, was early disabled. Her decks were drenched with blood, and she had hardly a= gun that could be served. Undismayed, Perry, with his insignia 1812] THE WAR OF 1»12 321 of command, crossed in a little boat to the Niagara. Again proudly hoisting his colors, aided by the wind and followed by his whole squadron, he pressed for close quarters, where desperate fight- ing speedily won the battle. Barclay and his next in command were wounded, the latter dying that night. " We have met the enemy and they are ours," Perry wrote to Harrison, "two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop." Triumph far more complete might have attend- ed the war but for the perverse and factious fed- eralist opposition to the administration. Some Federalists favored joining England out and out against Napoleon. Having with justice denounced Jeiferson's embargo tactics as too tame, yet when the war spirit rose and even the South stood ready to resent foreign affronts by force, they changed tone, harping upon our weakness and favoring peace at any price. Tireless in magnifying the im- portance of commerce, they would not lift a hand to defend it. The same men who had cursed Adams for avoiding war with France easily framed excuses for orders in council, impressment, and the Chesapeake affair. Apart from Randolph and the few opposition Re- publicans, mostly in New York, this Thersites band had its seat in commercial New England, where em- bargo and war of course sat hardest, more than a sixth of our entire tonnage belonging to Massachu- setts alone. From the Essex Junto and its sympa- thizers came nullification utterances not less point- ed than the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions, although, considering the sound rebukes which the 31 322 THE UNITED STATES [1813 latter had evoked, they were far- less defensible. Disunion was freely threatened and actions either committed or countenanced bordering hard upon treason. The Massachusetts Legislature in 1809 declared Congress's act to enforce embargo " not legally binding." Governor Trumbull of Connect- icut declined to aid, as requested by the President, in carrying out that act, summoning the Legisla- ture " to interpose their protecting shield " between the people and " the assumed power of 'the general Government." " How," wrote Pickering, referring to the Constitution, Amendment X., "are the powers reserved to be maintained, but by the re- spective States judging for themselves and putting their negative on the usurpations of the general Government ? " A sermon of President D wight's on the text, " Come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord," even Federalists depre- cated as hinting too strongly at secession. This unpatriotic agitation, from which,- be it said, large numbers of Federalists nobly abstained, came to a head in the mysterious Hartford Convention, at the close of 1814, and soon began to be sed- ulously hushed in consequence of the glorious news of victory and peace from Ghent and New Orleans. WhUe the Congregationalists, especially their clergy, were nearly all stout Federalists, opposing Jefferson, Madison, and the war, the Methodists and Baptists 1 almost to a man stood up for the ' The writer's grandfather, a Baptist minister, was as good as drivea from his pulpit and charge at Templeton, Mass., because of his federalist sympathies in this war. 1814J TEE WAR OF im 323 administration and its war policy with tlie utmost vigor, rebuking the peace party as traitors. Tim- othy Merritt, a mighty Methodist preacher on the Connecticut circuit, has left us from these critical times a stirring sermon on the text, Judges v. 23, " Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty." Meroz was the federalist party and England's ministry and army were " the mighty." Czar Alexander, regarding our hostility as dan- gerous to England, with whom he then stood allied against Napoleon, sought to end the war. The Russian campaign of 1812 practically finished Na- 'poleon's career, so leaving Englahd free to press operations in America. In April, 1814, Paris was captured. The United States therefore accepted Alexander's offices. Our commissioners, Adams, Clay, Gallatin, Marshall, Bayard, and Eussell met the Enghsh envoys at Ghent, and after long dis- cussions, in which more than once it seemed as if the war must proceed, the treaty of Ghent was executed, December 24, 1814, some months before the battle of New Orleans. It was an honorable peace. If we gained no territory we yielded none. The questions of Mis- sissippi navigation and the fisheries were ex- pressly reserved for future negotiations. Upon impressment and the abuse of neutrals, exactly the grievances over which we had gone to war, the treaty was silent, and peace men laughed at the war party on this account, calling the war a failure. 324 THE UNITED STATES [1814 The ridicule was unjust. Had Napoleon been still on high, or the negotiations been subsequent to the New Orleans victory, England would doubt- less have been called upon to renounce these prac- tices. But experience has proved that such a de- mand would have been unnecessary. No outrage of these kinds has occurred since, nor can anyone doubt that it was our spirit as demonstrated in the war of 1812 which changed England's temper. Hence, in spite of our military inexperience, finan- cial distress, internal dissensions, and the fall of Napoleon, which unexpectedly turned the odds against us, the war was a success. PERIOD 11. WHIGS AND DEMOCRATS TILL THE DOMINANCE OF THE SLAVERY CONTROVERSY 1814^1840 CHAPTER I. THE WHIG PABTY AND ITS MISSION The term " wbig" is of Scotcli origin. During the bloody conflict of the Covenanters with Charles II. nearly all the country people of Scotland sided against the king. As these peasants drove into Edinburgh to market, they were observed to make great use of the word " whiggam " in talking to their horses. Abbreviated to " whig," it speedily became, and has in England and Scotland ever since remained, a name for the opponents of royal power. It was so employed in America in our revolutionary days. Sinking out of hearing after Independence, it reappeared for fresh use when schism came in the overgrown Democratic Party. The republican predominance after 1800, so complete, bidding so fair to be permanent, drew all the more fickle Federalists speedily to that side. Since it was evident that the new party was 326 WHIGS AND DEMOCRATS [1820 quite as national in spirit as the ruling element of the old, the Adams Federalists, those most patri- otic, least swayed in their politics by commercial motives, including Marshall, the War Federalists, and the recruits enlisted at the South during Adams's administration, also went over, in sympa- thy if not in name, to Eepublicanism. The for- tunate issue of the war silenced every carper, and the ten years following have been well named the " era of good feeling." But though for long very harmonious, yet, so soon as Federalists began swelling their ranks, the Republicans ceased to be a strictly homogeneous party. Incipient schism appeared by 1812, at once announced and widened by the creation of the pro- tective system and the new United States Bank in 1816, and the attempted launching of an inter- nal improvements regime in 1821, all three the plain marks of federalist survival, however men might shun that name. Eepublicans like Clay, Calhoun in his early years, and Quincy Adams, while somewhat more obsequious to the people, as to political theory differed from old Federalists in little but name. The same is true of Clinton, can- didate against Madison for the Presidency in 1812, and of many who supported him. But to drive home fatally the wedge between " democratic " and " national " Eepublicans, re- quired Jackson's quarrel with Adams and Clay in 1825, when, the election being thrown into the House, although Jackson had ninety-nine electoral votes to Adams's eighty-four, Crawford's forty- one, and Clay's thirty-seven. Clay's supporters, 1825] THE WHIG PARTY 327 by a " corrupt bargain," as Old Hickory alleged, voted for Adams and made him President. Hick- ory's idea — an untenable one — was that the House was bound to elect according to the tenor of the popular and the electoral vote. After all this, however, so potent the charm of the old party, the avowal of a purpose to build up a new one did not work well, Clay polling in 1832 hardly half the electoral vote of Adams in 1828. This democratic gain was partly owing, it is true, to Jackson's pop- ularity, to the belief that he had been wronged in 1825, and to the widening of the franchise which had long been going on in the n£|,tion. Calhoun's election as Vice-President in 1828, by a large ma- jority, shows that party crystallization was then far from complete. From abou|; 1834, the new political body thus gradually evolved was regularly called the Whigs, though the name had been heard ever since 1825. The doctrines characteristic of Whiggism were chiefly five : I. Broad Construction of the Constitution. This has been sufficiently explained in' the chapter on Federalism and Anti-Federalism, and need not be dwelt upon. The whig attitude upon it appears in all that follows. II. Tlie Bank. The First United States Bank had perished by the expiration of its charter in 1811. It had been very useful, indeed almost in- dispensable, in managing the national finances, and its decease, with the consequent financial dis- order, was a most terrible drawback in the war. Ee-charter was, however, by a very small majority, 328 WHIGS AND DEMOGBATS [1833 refused. The eyils flowing from this perverse step manifesting themselves day by day, a new Bank of the United States, modelled closely after the first, was chartered on April 10, 1816,. Clay, Calhoun, and "Webster being its chief champions. Eepubli- can opponents, Madison among them, were brought around by the plea that war had proved a national bank a necessary and hence fi constitutional helper of the Government in its appointed work. In the management of this second bank there were disorder and dishonesty, which greatly limited its usefulness. This, notwithstanding, was consid- erable. The credit of the nation was restored and its treasury resumed specie payments. But confi- dence in the institution was shaken. We shall see how it met with President Jackson's opposition on every possible occasion. In 1832 he vetoed a bill for the renewal of its charter, tq expire in 1836, and in 1833 caused all the Government's depos- its in it, amounting to ten milhon dollars, to be removed. These blows were fatal to the bank, though it secured a charter from Pennsylvania and existed, languishing, till 1839. III. Tlie Tariff. Until the war of 1812 the main purpose of our tariff policy had been rev- enue, with protection only as an incident. During the war manufacturing became largely developed, partly through our own embargo, partly through the armed hostilities. Manufacture had grown to be an extensive interest, comparing in importance with agriculture and commerce. Therefore, in the new tariff of 1816, the old relation was reversed, protection being made the main aim and revenue 1830] THE WHIG PARTY 329 the incident. It is curious to note that this first protective tariif was championed ajid passed by the Eepublioans and bitterly opposed by the Federal- ists and incipient Whigs. Webster argued and inyeighed vehemently against it, appealing to the curse of commercial restriction and of government- al interference with trade, and to; the low charac- ter of manufacturing populations. But very soon the tables were turned : the Whigs became the high-tariff party, the Democrats more and more opposing this policy in favor of a low or a revenue tariff. It should be marked that even now the idea of protection in its modern form was not the only one which went to make a high tariff popular. There were, besides, the wish to be prepared for war by the home production of war material, and also the spirit of commercial retortion, paying back in her own coin England's burdensome tax upon our exports to her shores. IV. Land. What may not improperly be styled the whig land policy sprang from the whig senti- ment for large customs duties. Cheap public lands, offering each poor man a home„ for the taking, constantly tended to neutralize the effect of duties, by raising wages in the manufacturing sections, people needing a goodly bribe to enter mills in the East when an abimdant hving was theirs with- out money and without price on- removing west. As a rule, therefore, though this question did not divide the two parties so crisply as the others, the Whigs opposed the free sale of government land, while the Democrats favored that poUcy, In spite of this, however, eastern people who moved 330 WHIGS AND DEMOCRATS [is30 westward — and they constituted the West's main poptdation — quite commonly retained their whig pohtics even upon the tariff question itself. V. Internal Improvements. It has always been admitted that Congress may lay taxes to build and improve light-houses, public docks, and aU , such properties whereof the United States is to hold the title. The general improvement of har- bors, on the other hand, the constitution meant to leave to the States, allowing each to cover the ex- pense by levying tonnage duties. The practice for years corresponded with this. The inland com- monwealths, however, as they were admitted, justly regarded this unfair unless offset by Government's aid to them in the construction of roads, canals, and river ways. The War of 1812 revealed the need of better means for direct communication with the remote sections of the Union. Transportation to Detroit had cost fifty cents per pound of ammunition, sixty dollars per barrel of flour. All admitted that im- proved internal routes were necessary. The ques- tion was whether the general Government had a right to construct them without amendment to the constitution. The Whigs, Hke the old Federalists, affirmed such right, appealing to Congress's power to es- tablish post-roads, wage war, supervise inter-state trade, and conserve the common defence and gen- eral welfare. As a rule, the Democrats, being strict constructionists, denied such right. Some of them justified outlay upon national rivers and commer- cial harbors under the congressional power of 1830] THE WHIG FARTY 331 raising revenue and regulating commerce. Others conceded tlie rightfulness of subsidies to States even for bettering inland routes: Treasury sur- plus at times, and the many appropriations which, by common consent, had been made under Monroe and later for the old National Eoad, encouraged the whig contention ; but the whig policy had never met general approval down to the time when the whole question was taken out of politics by the rise of the railroad system after 1832, The Na- tional Eoad, meantime, extending across Ohio and Indiana on its way to St. Louis, was made over in 1830 to the States through which it passed. The Whig Party deserves great praise as the especial repository, through several decades, of the spirit of nationality in our country. It cher- ished this, and with the utmost boldness pro- claimed doctrines springing from it, at a time when the Democracy, for no other reason than that it had begun as a state rights party, foolishly combated these. Yet 'Whiggism=was mightier in theories than in deeds, in political cunning than in statesma^nship. It was far too fearful, on the whole, lest the country should not be sufficiently governed. To secure power it alUed itself now with the Anti-Masons, strong after 1826 in New England, New York, and Pennsylvania ; and again with the Nullifiers of South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee, led by Calhoun, Troup, and White. It did the latter by making TylerJ an out-and-out NuUifier, its Yice-President in 1840. A leading Whig during nearly all his political career was John Quincy Adams, one of the ablest, 332 WHIGS AND DEMOGfiATS [1830 most patriotic, and most successful president this country has ever had. He possessed a thorough education, mainly acquired abroad, where, so- journing with his distinguished fg,ther, he had en- joyed while still a youth better opportunities for diplomatic training than many of our diplomatists have known in a lifetime. He went to the United States Senate in 1803 as a Federalist. Disgusted with that party, he turned Republican, losing his place. From 1806 to 1809 he was professor in Harvard College. In the latter year Madison sent him Minister to St. Petersburg. He was commis- sioner at Ghent, then Minister to England, then Monroe's Secretary of State, then President. But Mr. Adams's best work was done in the House of Representatives after he was elected to that body in 1830. Ho sat in the House until his death, in 1848 — its acknowledged leader in ability, in activity, and in debate. Friend and foe hailed him as the " Old Man Eloquent," nor were any there anxious to be pitted against„him. He spoke upon almost every great national question, each time displaying general knowledge, legal lore, and keenness of analysis surpassed by no American of his or any age. "Webster was, however, the great orator of the party. Reared upon a farm and educated at Dart- mouth College, he went to Congress from New Hampshire as a Federalist in 1813. Removing to Boston, he soon entered Congress, from Massachu- setts, first as representative, then as senator, and from 1827 was in the Senate almost continuously till 1850. He was Secretary of State under Harri- 1830] THE WHIG PARTY 333 son and Tyler, and again in the Taylor-Fillmore cabinet from 1850. As an orator Webster had no peer in his time, nor have the years since evoked his peer. He was an influential party leader, and repeatedly thought of for President, though too prominent ever to be nominated. On two momentous questions, the tariff and slavery, he vacillated, his dubious action concerning the latter costing him his place in the Senate and his popidarity in New* England. Yet in many respects the most interesting figure in the party was Henry Olay. He- was born amid the swamps of Hanover County, Va., and had grown up in most adverse surroundings. His father, a Baptist clergyman, died while he was an infant, leaving him destitute. In " The Slashes," as the neighborhood where Olay passed his child- hood was called, he might often have been seen astride a sorry horse with a rope bridle and no saddle, carrying his bag of grain to the mill. He had attended only district schools. After obtaining the rudiments of a legal education in Eichmond by service as a lawyer's clerk, he removed to Ken- tucky. He was soon famous as a criminal lawyer, and a little later as a politician. The rest of his life was spent in Congress or cabiiiet. Clay's speeches read ill, but were powerful in their delivery. He spoke directly to the heart. As he proceeded, his tall and awkward form swayed with passion. His voice was sweet and winsome. Once Tom Marshall was to face^ him in joint de- bate over a salary grab for which Clay had voted. Clay had the first word, and as he warmed to his 334 WEIGS AND DEMOGBATS [1840 work Marshall alunk away through the crowd in despair. " Come back," said Clay's haters to him ; " you can answer every point." " Of course," re- plied Marshall, " but I can't get up there and do it now." The common people shouted for Clay as they shouted for neither Webster nor Adams. He had infinite fund of anecdote, remembered every- one he had ever seen, and was kindly to all. John Tyler is said to have wept when Clay failed of the presidential nomination in the Whig Convention of 1839. Clay's vices and inconsistencies were readily forgiven. He had denounced duelling as barbar- ous, yet when sharp-tongued John Eandolph re- ferred to him and Adams as having, in 1825, formed " the coalition of Blifil and Black George, the combination of the Puritan and the blackleg " — for Clay gambled — Clay challenged him. They met, the diminutive Eandolph being in his dress- ing-gown. Neither was hurt, as Randolph fired in air and Clay was no shot. Being asked why he did not kill Eandolph, Clay said : " I aimed at the part of his gown where I thought he was, but when the buUet got there he had moved." In 1842, when Lord Ashburton was in Washington, there was a famous whist game, my lord, with Mr. Crittenden, playing against Clay and the Eussian Minister, Count Bodisco, while Webster looked on. " What shall the stake be ? " asked his lordship. " Out of deference to Her Majesty," said Clay, " we will make it a sovereign." Emphatically patriotic, super-eminent in debate, ambitious, adventurous in political diplomacy, a im] THE WHIG PARTY 335 hard worker, incessant in activity for his party, temperate upon the slavery question, whole-souled in every measure or policy calculated to advance nationality, this versatile man may be put down as foremost among the leaders of the Whig Party from its origin tiU his death. CHAPTEE II. FLORIDA AND THE MONEOE DOCTEINE It was a delicate question after the Louisiana purchase how much territory it enibraced east of the Mississippi. Louisiana had under France, till 1762, reached the Perdido, Florida's western bound- ary at present, and was " retroceded " by Spain to France in 1800 " with the same extent that it had when France possessed it." The United States of course succeeded to whatever France thus recov- ered. Spain claimed still to own West Florida, the name given by Great Britain on receiving it from France in 1763 to the part of Louisiana be- tween the Perdido and the Mississippi. Spain had never acquired the district from France but obtained it by conquest from Great Britain during our Revolution. This claim by Spain, based only on the " retro " in the treaty of 1800, our Government viewed as fanciful, regarding West Florida undoubtedly ours through the Louisiana purchase. Spain was in- tractable, first of herself, later still more so through Napoleon's dictation. Hence our offer, in Jeffer- son's time, to avoid war, of a lump sum for the two Floridas was spumed by her. In 1810 and 1811, to save it from anarchy — also to save it from Great Britain or France, now in the whitest heat of their 1818] THE 310NR0E DOCTRINE 337 contest for Spain — we occupied West Florida, as certainly entitled to it against those powers, yet with no view of precluding further negotiations with Spain. Wlien in 1812 Louisiana became a State, its eastern boundary ran as now, including a goodly portion of the region in debate. The necessity of acquiring East Florida, too, was more and more apparent. That country was without rule, full of filibusterers, privateers, hostile refugee Creeks and runaway negroes, of whose ser- vices the English had availed themselves freely during the war of 1812, when Spaniards and Eng- lish made Florida a perpetual base for hostile raids into our territory. A fort then built by the English on the Appalachicola and left iatact at the peace with some arms and ammunition, had been occu- pied by the negroes, who, from this retreat, men- aced the peace beyond the line. Spain could not preserve law and order here. This was perhaps a sufficient excuse for the act of General Gaines in crossing into Florida and bombarding the negro fort, July 27, 1816. Amelia Island, on the Florida coast, a nest of lawless men from every nation, was in 1817 also seized by the United States with the same propriety. Knowledge that'Spaia resented these acts encouraged the Floridians. Collisions continually occurred all along the line, finally grow- ing into general hostility. Such was the origin of the First Seminole "War. December, 1817, Jackson was placed in command in Georgia. To clear out the filibusterers, the chief source of the Indians' discontent ever since before the Creek War, the hero of New Orleans, 33 338 WHIGS AND DEMOGBATS [1818 mistakenly supposing Mmself to be fortified by his Government's concurrence, boldly took forcible possession of all East Florida. Ambrister and Arbutkaot, two officious Englisli! subjects found there, he put to death. This procedure was quite characteristic of Old Hickory. He acted upon the theory that by the law of nations any citizen of one land making war upon another land, the two being at peace, becomes an outlaw. International law has no such doctrine, and most likely the maxim occurred to Jackson rather as an excuse after the act than in the way of forethought. Nor was it ever proved that the two victims were guilty as Jackson alleged. With him this probably made little diilerence. Having undertaken to quiet the Floridian outbreaks he was determined to accomplish his end, whatever the consequences of some of his means. With the country the New Orleans victor, who had now dared to hang a British subject, was ten times a hero, but the deed confused and troubled Monroe's cabinet not a little. Calhoun wished General Jackson censured, while all his cabinet colleagues disapproved his high-handed acts and stood ready to disavow them with reparation. On this occasion Jackson owed much to one whom he subsequently hated and denounced, viz., Quincy Adams, by whose bold and acute defence of his doubtful doings, managed with a fineness of argu- ment and diplomacy which no then American but Adams could command, he was formally vindi- cated before both his own Government and the Governments of England and Spain, 1823] THE MONROE DOGTBINE 339 The posts seized had of cours& to be given up, yet our bold invasion had rendered Spain willing at last to sell Florida, while Great Britain, wishing our countenance in her opposition, to the anti-pro- gressive, misnamed Holy Alliance of continental monarchs, concurred. Spain after all got the bet- ter of the bargain, as we surrendered all claim to Texas, which the Louisiana purchase had really made ours. The Florida imbroglio nursed to its first pubHc utterance a sentiment which has ever since been spontaneously taken as a principle of American public policy, almost as if it were a part of our law itself. Spain's American dependencies had been sensible enough to avail themselves of that land's distraction in Napoleon's time, to set up as states on their own account. She naturally wanted them back. Ferdinand VII. withheld till 1820 his sig- nature of the treaty ceding Florida, in order to pre- vent — which, after aU, it did not— our recognition of these revolted provinces as independent nations. Backed by the powerful Austrian minister, Metter- nich, and by the Holy Alliance^ France, having aided Ferdinand to suppress at home the liberal rebellion of 1820-23, began to moot plans for sub- duing the new Spanish- American States. Great Britain opposed this, out of motives partly com- mercial, partly philanthropic, partly relating to in- ternational law, yet was unwilling so early to rec- ognize the independence of those nations as the United States had done. Assured at least of England's moral support. President Monroe in his message of December, 340 WHIGS AND DEMOCRATS [1833 1823, declared tliat we should consider any attempt on tlie part of the allied monarchs " to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety," and any inter- position by them to oppress the young republics or to control their destiny, "as a manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States." This, in kernel, is the first part of Mon- roe's doctrine. The second part added : " The American conti- nents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are hence- forth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers." The meaning of this was that the mere' hap of first oc- cupancy on the continent by the citizens of any country would not any longer be recognized by us as giving that country a title to the spot occupied. These important doctrines — for though akin in principle they are really two — ^were no sudden creation of individual thought, but the result rather of slow processes in the public mind. Germs of the first are traceable to Washington ; express statements of both, yet not essentially de- tracting from Monroe's originality, to Jefferson. Both were put in form by Quiney Adams, Mon- roe's Secretary of State. Especially Monroe's, we believe, is the second, a resolution to which Rus- sia's advance down the Pacific coast, and more still the recent vexations from the proximity of Spain in Florida, had pushed him. CHAPTEE III, THE MISSOURI COMPEOMISE Louisiana having become a State in 1812, that portion of the purchase north of the thirty-third de- gree took the name of the Missouri Territory. St. Louis was its centre of population and of influ- ence. Being found in this extensive domain at the purchase, slavery had never been^ hindered in its growth. It had therefore taken firm root and was popular. The application, early in 1818, of the densest part of Missouri Territory for admission into the Union as a slave State, called attention to this threatening status of slavery beyond the Mis- sissippi, and occasioned in Congress a prolonged, able, angry, and momentous debate. Jefferson, still alive, wrote, "The Missouri question is the most portentous which has ever threatened the Union. In the gloomiest hour of the Revolu- tionary War I never had apprehensions equal to those which I feel from this source." To see the bearing of the tremendous question thus raised, we have need of a retrospect. Prop- erty in man is older than history and has been nearly universal. It cannot be doubted that in an early stage of human development slavery is a 342 WHIGS AND DEMOCRATS [1818 means of furthering civilization. Negro slavery originated in Africa, spread to Spain before the discovery of America, to America soon after, and from the Spanish colonies to the English. The first notice we have of it in English America is that in 1619 a Dutch ship landed, twenty blacks at Jamestown for sale. The Dutch West India Com- pany began importing slaves into Manhattan in 1626. There were slaves in New England by 1637. Newport was subsequently a great harbor for slavers. Georgia offered the strongest resistance to the introduction of the system, but it was soon overcome. Till about 1700, Virginia had a smaller proportion of slave population than some northern colonies, and the change later was mostly due to considerations not of morality but of profit. Anti- slavery cries were indeed heard from an early pe- riod, but they were few and faint. Penn held slaves, though ordering their emancipation at his death. Whitfield thought slavery to be of God. But its most culpable abettor was the English Government, moved by the profits of the slave trade. A Koyal African Company, with the Duke of York, afterward James II., for some time its president, was formed to monopolize this business, which monarchs and ministries furthered to the utmost, of their power. Thus the Revolution found slavery in all the colonies, north as well as south. But it was then, so far south as Virginia, thought" to be an evil. That commonwealth had passed many laws to re- strain it, but the King had commanded the Gov- ernor not to assent to any of them. The Legisla- ture, replying, stigmatized the trapc as inhuman 1818] THE MISSOURI GOMPROMISE 343 and a threat to the very existence of the colony. Hostility extended from the trade to slavery it- self. Jefferson was for emancipation with depor- tation, and trembled for his country as he reflected upon the wrong of slavery and the justice of God. Patrick Henry, George Mason, Peyton Randolph, "Washington, Madison, in a word all the great Vir- ginians of the time held similar fiews. The Quakers of Pennsylvania were, however, the most aggressive of slavery's foes. So early as 1775 a society, the first in America if not in the world for promoting its abolition, was formed in Pennsylvania. In 1789 it was incorporated, with Franklin for president. Similar organizations soon rose in several Northern States, numbering among their members many of the most eminent men in the land. The British Abolition Society, formed in 1787, and the labors of Wilberforce, Clarkson, and Zachary Macaulay against the slave trade in the West Indies, had iiifluence here, as had still more the French Assenibly's bold proc- lamation of the Rights of Man. The Ordinance of 1787 for the Northwest Terri- tory marked a most decisive point in the history of slavery. By its decree, in Jefferson's language, there was never to be either slavery or involuntary servitude in the said territory otherwise than in punishment for crimes. It is to the everlasting honor of the southern members then in the Conti- nental Congress that they all voted for this inhi- bition. Virginia, whose assent as a State was nec- essary to its validity, she having at this time rights over much of the domain in question, also con- Mi WHIGS AND DE3I0GRATS [1818 curred. Whatever the strictly legal weight of this prohibition over the immense Louisiana purchase, it certainly aided much in confirmuig freedom as the presupposition and maxim of our law over aU our national territory. Vermont had never recognized slavery save to prohibit it in its first constitution. In New Hamp- shire it existed but nominally. The Massachusetts constitution of 1780 virtually ended it in that State. Gradual abolition statutes passed in Penn- sylvania in 1780, in Ehode Island and Connecticut in 1784. The constitution made it possible to forbid the importation of slaves in 1808. A national law to that effect was passed in 1807, making the trade illegal and affixing to it heavy penalties. The American Colonization Society was formed in 1816 for the purpose of negro de- portation. It did little of this, but rendered some service toward carrying out the act against slave importation. A new law in 1820, which made this traffic piracy, punishable with d^ath, was partly due to its influence. Also many, like Bimey, Gerrit Smith and the Tappans, who began as col- onizationists, subsequently became abolitionists. Notwithstanding all these influences slavery increased in strength every year. South Carolina and Georgia were finding it exceedingly profitable for cotton and rice culture, and tTie income from slave traffic into the vast opening lands of Tennes- see and Kentucky constituted an irresistible temp- tation. In spite of the law of 1807 and of the in- describable horrors of the business, even the foreign slave trade went on. The institution found many 1818] THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 345 defenders in the Federal Convention of 1787, and in the first and subsequent Congresses. The pleas began to be raised, so current later, that the ne- gro was an inferior being, slavery God's ordinance, a blessing to slaves and masters alike, and eman- cipation a folly. Now began also that policy of bravado by which, for sixty years, the friends of slavery bulKed their opponents into shameful in- action upon that accursed thing politically as well as morally, which was so nearly to cost the nation its life. Thus stood matters when the Mis- souri Compromise was mooted in the national Leg- islature. We hardly need say that this strife ended in a compromise. Missouri was created a slave State, balanced by Maine as a free State, but at the same time slavery was to be excluded forever from all the remainder of the Louisiana purchase north of 36° 30', the southern line of Virginia and Ken- tucky as well as of Missouri itself. The land be- tween Missouri and Louisiana had been in 1819 erected into the " Territory of Arkansaw." In the memorable discussion over this issixe, in- volving the country as well as Congress, two sorts of argumentation were heard in favor of the suit of Missouri. The genuine pro-slavery men urged the sacredness of property as such, and the special sacredness of property-right in slaves as tacitly guaranteed by the constitution. They also made much of the third article of the Louisiana purchase treaty. This read as follows : "The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated in the Union of the United States and admitted as soon 346 WHIGS AND DEMOCRATS [1818 as possible, according to the principles of the Fed- eral Constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens of the United States ; and in the meantime they shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and the religion which they profess." There were with these, men who acted from mere policy, thinking it best to admit the slave State because of the difficulty and also the danger to the Union of suppressing slavery there. They appealed as well to the sacred compromises in the constitution, meaning the permission at first to im- port slaves, the three-fifths rule for slave repre- sentation in Congress, and the fugitive slave clause. They spoke much of the necessity of preserving the balance of power within the Union, and of Congress's inaction as to slavery in the Louisiana purchase hitherto, and also in Florida. These arguinents won many professed foes of slavery, as Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and' Quincy Adams. In all Congress Clay was the most earnest pleader for the compromise. To all these arguments the unbending friends of free soil replied that property right was subordi- nate to the national good, and that Congress had full power over territorial institutions and should never have permitted slavery to Qurse the domain in question. If it had committed error in the past, that could not excuse continuance in error. The terms of the Louisiana purchase, it was further urged, could not, even if they had been meant to do so, which was not true, detract from this sovereign 1818] THE MISSOUni COMPROMISE 347 power. It was pointed out that in every case in which a State had been admitted thus far, Congress had prescribed conditions. It was boldly said, still further, that if slavery threatened disunion unless allowed its way, it ought all the more to be denied its way. The chief strength of slavery in" this crisis lay in the distressing practical difficulty, if the prayer of Missouri were refused, of dealing with slaves and slave proprietorship there, and of quieting a nu- merous and spirited population bent upon statehood and slavery together. The more decided foes of slavery did not sufficiently consider these compli- cations. Nor did they duly reflect upon the sweep- ing triumph which freedom had withal secured in the pledge that the vast bulk of the Louisiana pur- chase should be forever free. The pledge was in- deed broken in 1854, but not until such a sense of its sacredness had been impressed upon the country that the breach availed slavery nothing. CHAPTEE IV. THE GREAT NULLIFICATION The tariff rates of 1816 on cottons and woollens were to be twenty-five per cent, for three years, after that twenty. Instead of this the cotton tariif was in 1824 replaced at twenty-five per cent., the same as that upon wooUens costing thirty-three and a third cents or less per square yard ; woollens over this price bearing thirty per cent. Wool, which by the tariff of 1816 was free, now bore, some grades fifteen, some twenty, some thirty per cent. Iron duties were piit up in 1818 and again in 1824, from which date for ten years they ranged between forty and one hundred per cent. The whole ten- dency of tariff rates was strongly upward. The duty upon all dutiables averaged between 1816 and 1824 only twenty -four and a half per cent. ; from 1824 to 1828 the average was thirty-two and a half per cent. Importation remained copious, notwith- standing, which made the cry for protection loud- er than ever. From Quincy Adams's presidency the tariff ques- tion becomes on the one hand • political, dividing Whigs from Democrats about exactly, which had never been the case before, and on the other, sec- tional, the West, the Centre, and now also the East, 1828] THE GREAT NULLIFICATION 349 pitted against the solid South, except Louisiana. The year 1824 heard Webster's last speech for free trade and saw Calhoun's and Jackson's last vote for protection. However, so strong was the pro- tectionist sentiment in the XXth Congress, though democratic, that free-traders could hope to defeat the new tariff biU of 1828 only by rendering it odious to New England. They therefore conspired to make prohibitive its rates for Smyrna wool, and nearly so those on iron, hemp, and cordage for ship-building ; also on molasses, the raw material for rum, whereon no drawback was longer to be allowed if it was exported. The Whigs had arranged, to be now passed, a series of minimum rates on woollens, by which all costing over fifty cents a square yard were to pay as if costing $2.50, and aU over this as if costing $4.00. The rate was to be forty per cent, the first year, forty-five the second, and fifty thereafter. This illustrates the famous " minimum principle," which has played such a figure in all our tariff his- tory since 1816, its effect being always to make the tariff much higher than it seems. Thus in the case before us, most of the woollens then imported cost about ninety cents. If based on this price, the tariff would be 36 per cent., but if based on $2.50 as the price, it would mount up to 110 per cent. To prevent this and to render the biU still more un- palatable to the Whigs, the Democrats introduced a dollar " minimum," so that the tariff on the bulk of our imported woollens, costing, as just stated, about ninety cents, would come in at forty-four and four-tenths per cent. 350 WHIGS AND DEMOGBATS [1830 But as this was after all more -vigorous protec- tion than woollens had before received, amounting, through minima, in some cases to over 100 per cent., sixteen out of the thirty-nine New England members, led by Webster, accepted this uniYersally odious tariff bill — the Tariff of Abominations, it was called — as the preferable evil, and, aided by a few Democrats in each house, made it a law. The average duty on dutiables was now about forty- three and a third per cent. No one can question that this high tariff worked injustice to the South. It forced from her an un- due share of the national taxes, as well as exten- sive tribute to northern manufacturers. But in resenting the evil she exaggerated it, mistakenly referring all the relative decrease in her prosperity to tariff legislation, when a great part of it was due simply to slavery. The South complained that self- ishness and political ambition, not patriotism or reason, determined the dominant policy, and there was of course some truth in this. Moreover, as New England now favored it, this policy bade fair to become permanent, and since the tariff bills did not announce protection as their purpose, the constitutionality of them could not be gotten be- fore the courts. Nearly all the Southern Legislatures consequent- ly denounced the tariff as unjust and as hostile to our fundamental law. Most of them were, how- ever, prudent enough to suggest no illegal reme- dies. Not so with fiery South Carolina, where a large party, inspired by Calhoun, proposed a bold nullification of the tariff act, virtually amounting 1832] THE GREAT NULLIFICATION 351 to secession. At a dinner ia this interest at Washington, April 13, 1830, Calhoun offered the toast : " The Union ; next to our liberty the most dear ; only to be preserved by respecting the rights of the States." John C, Calhoun was now, except, perhaps. Clay, the ablest and most influential politician in all the South. ' Born in South Caroliaa in 1782, of Irish-Presbyterian parentage, though poor and in youth ill-educated like Clay and Jai3kson, his energy carried him through Yale College, and through a course of legal study at Litchfield, Conn., where stood the only law-school then m America. No- vember, 1811, found him a member of Congress, on fire for war with Britain. Monroe's Secretary of War for seven years from 1817, he was in 1825 elected Vice-President, and re-elected in 1828. He had meantime turned an ardent free-trader, and seeing the North's predominance in the Union steadily increasing, had built up a nuUification theory based upon that of the Virginia and Ken- tucky resolutions and the Hartford Convention, and upon the history of the formation of our con- stitution. He had worked out to his own satisfac- tion the untenable view that each State had the right, not in the way of revolution but under the constitution itself — as a contract between parties that had no superior referee — to veto national laws upon its own judgment of their unconstitu- tionality. On this doctrine South Carolina presently pro- ceeded to act. November 24, 1832, the convention of that State passed its nullification ordinance, de- 352 WHIGS AND DEMO CB ATS [1833 daring the tariff acts of 1828 and 1832 "null, void, and no law," defying Congress to execute them there, and agreeing, upon the first use of force for this purpose, to form a separate govern- ment. This was the quintessence of foUj even had good theory been behind it. The tone of the proceeding was too hasty and peremptory. The decided turn of public opinion and of congressional action in favor of large reduction in duties was ignored. But the theory appealed to was clearly wrong, and along with its advocates was sure to be reprobated by the nation. A precious opportunity effectively to redress the evil complained of was wantonly thrown away. Worst of aU, from a tactical point of view, South Carolina had niiscalculated the spirit of President Jackson. At the dinner referred to, his toast had been the memorable words : " Our Federal Union ; it must be preserved." Men now saw that Old Hickory was in earnest. General Scott, with troops and war ships, was ordered to Charleston. The nulUfiers receded, a course made easier by Clay's " compromise tariff" of 1833, gradually re- ducing duties for the next ten years, and enlarging the free list. From all duties of over twenty per cent, by the act of 1832, one-tenth of the excess was to be stricken off on September 30, 1835, and another tenth every other year till 1841. Then one half the excess remaining was to fall, and in 1842 the rest, so that the end of the last named year should find no duty over twenty per cent. This episode, threatening as it was for a time, 1833] THE QREAT NULLIFIGATION 353 drew in its train results the most happy, revealing with unprecedented vividness to most, both the original nature of the constitution as not a com- pact, and also the might which national sentiment had attained since the War of 1812. The doctrine of state rights was seen to havfe gradually lost, over the greater part of the country, all its old vitality. Nearly every State Legislature con- demned the ' South Carolina pretensions, Demo- crats as hearty in this as Whigs. Jackson's proclamation agaiast them — impressive and un- answerable — ran thus : " The constitution of the United States forms a government, not a league ; and whether it be formed by compact between the States, or in any other manner, its character is the same. ... I consider the power to annul a law of the United States incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the constitution, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed. . . . 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." The congressional debates which the nullifica- tion question evoked, among the ablest in our par- liamentary history, held the like high national tenor. Calhoun's idea, though advocated by him with consummate skill, was shown to be wholly chimerical. The doughty South Carolinian, from this moment a waning force in American politics, was supported by Hayne almost alone, the argu- 23 354 WEIGS AND DEMOGBATS [1833 ments of both melting into air before Webster's masterful handling of constitutional history and law. Not questioning the right of revolution, ad- mitting the general government, to be one of " strictly limited," even of " enumerated, specified, and particularized powers," the Massachusetts ora- tor made it convincingly apparent that the Cal- houn programme could lead to nothing but an- archy. It was seen that general and state gov- ernments emanate from the people with equal im- mediacy, and that the language of 'the clause, " the Constitution and the laws of the United States made in pursuance thereof " are " the supreme law of the land, anything in the constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding," means precisely what it says. To this language little at- tention had apparently been paid till this time. CHAPTEE V. MINOR PUBLIC QUESTIONS OF JACESON'S " REIGN " Andrew Jackson was born March 15, 1767. His parents had come from Carriekfergiis, Ireland, two years before. He was without any education worthy the name. As a boy he went into the War for Independence, and was for a time a British prisoner. He studied law in North Carolina, moved west, and began legal practice at Nashyille. He was one of the framers of the Tennessee con- stitution in 1796. In 1797 he was a senator from that State, and subsequently he was a judge on its supreme bench. His exploits in the Creek "War, the War of 1812, and the Seminole War are already familiar. They had brought him so prominently and favorably before the country that in 1824 his vote, both popular and electoral, was larger than that of any other candidate. As we have seen, he himself and multitudes throughout the coun- try thought him wronged by the election over him of John Quinoy Adams. This contributed largely to his popularity later, a,nd in 1828 he was elected by a popular vote of' 647,231, against 509,097 for Adams. Four years^ later he was re- elected against Clay by a still larger majority. Nor did his popularity to any extent wane during 356 WHIOS AND DEMOCRATS [1838 his double administration, notwithstanding his many violent and indiscreet acts as President. Much of Jackson's arbitrariness sprung from a foolish whim of his, taking his election as equiva- lent to the enactment of all his peculiar ideas into law. Ours is a government of the people, he said ; the people had spoken in his election, and had willed so and so. Woe to any senator or repre- sentative who opposed ! This was, of course, to mistake entirely the nature of ccAistitutional gov- ernment. After all, Jackson was by no means the ignorant and passionate old man, controlled in everything by Yan Buren, that many people, especially in New England, have been accustomed to think him. Il- literate he certainly was, though Adams exagger- ated in calling him " a barbarian who could not write a sentence of grammar and could hardly spell his own name." He was never popular in the federalist section of the Union. Yet with all his mistakes and self-wiU, often inexcusable, he was one of the most patriotic and clear-headed men who ever administered a government. If he resorted to unheard-of methods within the law, very careful was he never to transgress the law. The most just criticism of Jackson in his time and later related to the civil service. It was during his administration that the cry, " turn the rascals out," first arose, and it is well known that, adopting the policy of New York and Pennsyl- vania politicians in vogue sinoe< 1800, he made nearly a clean sweep of his political opponents from the offices at his disposal. This was the 1830] MINOR PUBLIC QUESTIONS 357 more shameful from being so in contrast with the policy of preceding presidents. Washington re- moved but two men from office, one of these a de- faulter; Adams, ten, one of these also a defaulter; Jefferson but thirty-nine ; Madison five, three of them defaulters ; and Monroe nine. The younger Adams removed but two, both of them for cause. Yet of Jackson's procedure in this matter it can be said, in partial excuse, so bitter had been the opposition to him by office-holders as well as others, that many removals were undoubtedly in- dispensable in order to the efficiency of the public service. It is not at all necessary for the rank and file of the civil service to be of the same party with the Chief Magistrate, but it is neeessary that they should not be so utterly opposed to him as to feel bound in conscience to be working for his defeat. The fine art of party organization, semi-military in form, has come to us from Jackson and his workers. Before his time, candidates for high state offices had usually been nominated by legisla- tive caucuses, and those for national posts by con- gressional caucuses. State party conventions had been held in Pennsylvania and New York. Soon after 1830 such a device for national nominations began to be thought of, and the history of national party conventions may be said to begin with the campaign of 1832. Jackson's dearest foe while in office was the United States Bank. Magnifying the dishonesty which had, as everyone knew, disgraced its man- agement, he attacked it as a monster, an engine of the moneyed classes for grinding the face of the 358 WHIGS AND DEMOCRATS [1833 poor. Like Jefferson, like Madison at first, lie dis- believed ia its constitutionality. In his first inau- gural and continually in his official utterances he inveighed against it as a public danger, using its funds and patronage for party ends. This made him unpopular with many who had been his friends, so that in the campaign of 1832 Clay forced the bank question to the front as one on which Jackson's attitude would greatly advantage the whig cause. He accepted Clay's challenge with pleasure and from this moment gave the bank no quarter. We may call the contest of this year a pitched battle between Jackson and the bank. In 1832 he vetoed a bill for a renewal of its charter, which was to expire in 1836, and in 1833 he proceeded to break it by removing the United States deposits which it held. Such removal was by law within the power of the Secretary of the Treasury. Secretary McLane refused to execute Jackson's will. He was removed and Duane ap- pointed. Then Duane was removed and Roger B. Taney appointed, who obeyed the President's be- hest. The bank was emptied by checking out the public money as wanted, at the same time deposit- ing no more, the funds being instead placed in "pet " state banks, as they were called because of the government favor thus shown them. The financial distress rightly or wrongly as- cribed to this measure throughout the country, instead of injuring Jackson, probably, on the whole, made him still more popular, as showing the power of the bank. When Congress met in 1833, the Senate passed a vote of censui'e upon him for what 1830] MINOB PUBLIC QUESTIONS 359 he had done. Rancorous wranglings and debates pervaded Congress and the whole laud. Aiter per- sistent effort by Jackson's bosom friend, Senator Benton, of Missouri, this censure-vote was ex- punged by the XXXIVth Congress, second ses- sion, January 16, 1837. This was before Jackson left office, and he accounted it the greatest triumph of his public life. Jackson was somehow fortunate in dealing with foreign nations. It was he who recovered for American ships that British West Indian trade which had been so long denied. Negotiations were opened with Great Britain, whieh, in 1830, had the result of placing American vessels in the Brit- ish West Indian ports at an equal advantage with British vessels sailing thither from the United States — terms which, through the contiguity of those islands to us, gave us a trade there better than that of any other nation. This diplomacy brought the administration much applause. When Jackson became President, France was still in our debt on account of her spoliations upon American commerce after the settlement of 1803. The matter had been in negotiation ever since 1815, but hitherto in vain. Jackson took it up with zeal, but with his usual apparent recklessness. A treaty had been concluded in 1831, as a final settlement between the two countries, binding France to pay twenty-five million francs and therUnited States to pay one and one-half million. The first instalment from France became due February 2, 1833, but was not paid. Jackson's message to Congress in 1834, not an instalment having yet been received, con- 360 WHIGS AND DEM00BAT8 [-1835 tainecl a distinct threat of war slioiild not payment begin forthwith. He also bade Edward Living- ston, minister at Paris, in the same contingency to demand his passports and leave Paris for London. Most public men, even those in his cabinet, thought this action foolhardy and useless; but Quincy Adams, neither expecting nor receiving any thanks for it, just as in the Seminole War difficulty, nobly stood up for the President. A telling speech by him in the House led to its unanimous resolu- tion, March 2, 1835, that the execution of the treaty should be insisted on. The French ministry blus- tered, and for a time diplomatic relations between the two countries were entirely ruptured. But France, affecting to see in the message of 1835, though voiced in precisely the same tone as its predecessor, some apology for the menace contained in that, began its payments. This money, as also all due from the other states included in Napoleon's continental system, was paid during Jackson's ad- ministration, a result which brought him and his party great praise, not more for the money than for the respect and consideration secured to the United States by insistence upon its rights. The President's message to Congress in, 1835 announced the entire extinguishment of the public debt — the first and the last time this has occurred in all our national history. An, important measure touching the hard-money system of our country was passed in large part through the influence of President Jackson. By the Mint Law of 1792 our silver dollar was made to contain three hundred and SQventy-one and a 1834] 3UN0B FUBLIG QUESTIONS 361 quarter grains of fine silver, or four hundred and sixteen of standard silver. The amount of pui-o silver in this venerable coin has remained im- changed ever since ; only, in 1837, by a reduction of the alloy fraction to exactly one-tenth, the total weight of the coin became what it now is, four hundred and twelve and a half grains, nine-tenths fine. The same law of 1892 had given the gold dollar just one-fifteenth the weight of the silver dollar. This proportion, which Hamilton had ar- rived at after careful investigation characteristic of the man, was exactly correct at the time, but within a year, as is now known, on account of in- crease in the relative value of gold, the gold dollar at fifteen to one became more ■wiluablo than its silver mate. The consequence was that the gold brought to the United States mint for coinage fell off year by year, until some of the years between 1820 and 1830 it had been almost zero. Gold money had nearly ceased to circulate. Jackson resolved to restore the yellow metal to daily use. In this he was opposed by many Whigs, who, so zealous were they for the United States Bank, had become paper money- men. The so- called Gold Bill was carried through Congress in 1834, changing the proportion of silver to gold in our currency from fifteen to one to sixteen to one. It should have been fifteen and a half to one. Now gold in its turn was over-valued, so that silver gradually ceased to circulate, as gold had almost ceased before. This result was made worse after 1848, when there was a still further appreciation of silver through the discovery of gold in California 362 WHIGS AND DEMOCMATS [1836 and Australia. Silver dollars did not again circu- late freely in the country until 1878, though they were full legal tender till 1873. Gold, on the other hand, was everywhere seen after 1834, though not abundant in circulation, owing to the large amounts of paper money then in use. In 1836 the President ordered his Secretary of the Treasury to put forth the famous Specie Cir- cular, declaring that only gold, silver, or land scrip should be received in payment for public lands. The occasion of this was that while land sales were very rapidly increasing, the receipts hitherto had consisted largely in the notes of insolvent banks. Land speculators would organize a bank, procure for it, if they could, the favor of being a " pet " bank, issue notes, borrow these as individ- uals and buy land with them. The notes were de- posited, when they would borrow them again to buy land with, and so on. As there was little spe- cie in the West, the circular broke up many a fine plan, and evoked much ill-feeling. Grold was drawn from the East, where, as many of the banks had none too much, the drain caused not a few of them to collapse. The condition of business at this time was generally unsound, and this westward movement of gold was all that was needed to pre- cipitate a crisis. A crisis accordingly came on soon after, painfully severe. It is unfair, however, to arraign Jackson's order as wholly responsible for the evils which accompanied this monetary cataclysm. It was rather an occasion than the cause. CHAPTEE VI. THE FIKST WHIG TEltMPH Eaetly Jackson's personal influence, partly his able aides, partly favoring circumstances had, dur- ing his administrations, brought the Democracy into excellent condition, patriotic, national in gen- eral spirit, with a creed that, however imperfect- close construction being its integrating idea — was, after all, definite, consistent, and thoughtful. Yet in 1840 the Democrats, who four years before had chosen Van Buren by an electoral vote of 170 to seventy-three, had to surrender, with the same Van Buren for candidate, to the Whigs by a majority of 234 electoral votes to sixty, only five States, and but two of them northern, going for the democratic candidate. There were several causes for this defeat. Jack- son had made many enemies as well as many friends, some of these within his own party, while the entire opposition to him was indescribably bitter on account of the personal element entering into the struggle. The commendably national spirit of the Whig Party told well in its favor. Upon this point its attitude proved far more in ac- cord with the best sentiment of the nation than that of the Democracy, sound as the latter was. at 364 WHIGS AND DEMOCRATS [1837 the core and nobly as its chief had behaved in the nullification crisis. More influential still was the financial predic- ament into which on Jackson's retirement his successor and the country were plunged. The commercial distress which seemed to spring from Jackson's measures was now first fully realized. Anger and pain from the death of the bank had not abated. Ardent hatred prevailed toward the " pet " banks, extending to the party whose dar- lings they were, while the Specie Gii-cular was held to have ruined most of the others. The subse- quent legislation for distributing the treasury sur- plus among the States, by removing the deposits from the pet banks destroyed many of these as well. They had been using this government money for the discount of loans to business men, and were not in condition instantly to pay it back. Hence the panic of 1837. First the New York City banks suspended, soon followed by the others throughout that State, all sustained in their course by an act of the Legislature. Suspension pres- ently occurred everywhere else. The financial pressure continued through the entire summer of 1837, banks, corporations, and business men going to the wall, and all values greatly sinking. Boston sufiered one hundred and sixty-eight business fail- ures in six months. One of Van Buren's earliest acts after assuming . office was to call an extra session of Congress for September 4, 1837, to consider the financial con- dition of the country. When it convened, an in- crease of the whig vote was apparent, though the 1837] THE FIRST WHIG TBIUMPH 365 Democrats were still in the majority. On tlae Pres- ident's recommendation, agitation now began in favor of the sub-treasury or independent treasury plan, still in use to-day, of keeping the government moneys. This had been first broached in 1834-35 by Whigs. The Democrats then opposed it; but now they took it vip as a means of counteracting the whig purpose to revive a national bank. There was soon less need of any such special arrangement, as the treasury was swiftly running dry. In June of the preceding year, 1836, both parties concurring, an act had passed providing that after January 1, 1837, all surplus revenue should be distributed to the States in proportion to their electoral votes. It was meant to be a loan, to be recalled, however, only by vote of Congress, but it proved a donation. Twenty-eight millions were thus paid in all, never to return. Such a dispo- sition of the revenue had now to be stopped and re- verse action instituted. Importers called for time on their revenue bonds, which had to be allowed, and this checked income. This> special session was needed to authorize an issue of ten million in treasury notes to tide the Government over the crisis. Another influence which now worked powerfully against the Democracy was hostility to slavery. This campaign — it was the first-^saw a " Liberty Party " in the field, with its own candidates, Bir- ney and Lemoyne. The abolition sentiment, of which more will be said in a subsequent chapter, was growing day by day, and little as the Whigs could be called an anti-slavery party on the whole, 366 WHIGS AND DEMOCRATS [1840 their rank and file were very much more of that mind than those of the opposition. Jackson had ranted wildly against the dispatch of abolition lit- erature through the mails. The second Seminole War, 1835-42, was waged mainly in deference to slave-holders, to recover for them their Florida runaways, and, by removal of the Seminoles be- yond the Mississippi, to break up a popular resort for escaped negroes. The Indians, under Osceola, whose wife, as daughter to a slave-mother, had been treacherously carried back into bondage, fought like tigers. After their massacre of Major Dade and Ms detachment, Generals Gaines, Jesup, Taylor, Armistead, and Worth sucoessively marched against them, none but the last-named successful in subduing them. Over 500 persons had been re- stored to slavery, each one costing the Government, as was estimated, at least $80,000 and the lives of three white soldiers. Van Buren was to the slavocrats even more obsequious than Jackson. His spirit was shown, among other things, by the Amistad case, in 1839. The schooner Amistad was sailing between Ha- vana and Puerto Principe with a cargo of negroes kidnapped in Africa. Under the lead of a bright negro named Cinque the captives revolted and killed or confined aU the crew but two, whom they commanded to steer the ship for Africa. Instead, these directed her to the United States coast, where she was seized off Long Island by a war vessel and brought into New London. The ne- groes were, even by Spanish law, not slaves but free men, as Spain had prohibited the slave trade. 1839] THE FIRST WHIG TRIUMPH 367 Yet when their case was tried before the district court, Mr. Van Buren spared no effort to procure their release to the Spanish claimants. He even had a government vessel all ready to convey the poor victims back to Cuba. The district court having decided for the blacks, the government attorney appealed to the circuit court, thence also to the supreme court. Final judgment happily re-affirmed that the men were free. The supreme court trial was the occasion of one of John Quincy Adams's most splendid forensic victories, he being the counsel for the negroes. The attitude of the administration in this affair greatly injured the party in the North, the more as it but illustrated a spirit and policy which had grown characteristic of the party's head. In sev- eral instances previous to this time, when ships conveying slaves from one of the United States to another, entered the ports of the Bahama Islands through stress of weather, England had, while freeing them, allowed some compensation. Now, having emancipated the slaves in her own West Indian possessions, she declined longer to con- tinue that practice. Her first refusal touched the slaves on the ship Enterprise, which had put in at Port Hamilton in 1835. Jackson's administration in vain sought indemnity. Van Buren, then Secre- tary of State, designating this business as " the most immediately pressing " before the English embassy. In the same pro-slavery interest an increasing proportion of the Democracy, though not Van Buren himself, had come to favor the annexation of Texas. The southwestern boundary of the United 368 WHIGS AND DEMO OS ATS [1840 States liad ever since the purchase of Florida in 1819 been recognized as the Sabine Kiver, west of this lying the then foreign country ®f Texas. France had claimed the Kio Grande as Louisiana's western bound, but Mr. Monroe, to placate the North in the Florida annexation, had receded from this claim. Texas and Coahuila became a state in the new Mexican republic, which Spain recognized in 1821 ; but in 1836 Texas declared itself independent. It was ill-governed and weighed down with debt, and hence almost immediately, in 1837, asked member- ship in the American Union. Its annexation was bitterly opposed all over the North, so bitterly in fact that the northern Democrats^ would not have dared, even had they wished, to favor the scheme. Yet so strong was the southern influence in the party by 1840 that the democratic platform that year urged the " re-annexation " of Texas, the term assuming that as a part of Louisiana it had always been ours since 1803. This was a fact, but it was now asseverated by the Democracy for a selfish sectional purpose, and the cry brought thousands of votes to the "Whigs. It proved good politics for the Whigs in 1840 to pass over Clay and adopt as their candidate Will- iam Henry Harrison. He had indeed been unsuc- cessful in 1836, owing to the great popularity of Jackson, all whose influence went for Van Buren ; but now that " Little Van," or " Matty," as Jack- son used to call him, stood alone, Harrison had a better chance. His political record had been in- conspicuous but honorable. Nothing could be al- leged against his character. He was a gentleman 1840] THE FIBST WHIG TRIUMPH 369 of some ability, while Ms brilliant military record in 1812, now revived to the miantest detail, gave him immense popularity. Every surviving Tippe- canoe or Thames veteran stumped his vicinity for the old war-horse. Many wavering Democrats in the South, especially those of the nullification stripe, were toled to the whig ticket by the nomination of John Tyler for "Vice-President. " Tippecanoe and Tyler too " rang through the land as the whig watchword for the campaign. During the election- eering every hamlet was regaled with portrayals of Harrison's simple farm life at North Bend, where, a log cabin his dwelling, and hand cider — so one would have supposed — his sole beverage, he had been a genuine Cincinnatus. "Tippecanoe and Tyler " were therefore elected ; their popular vote numbering 1,275,017, against 1,128,702 polled for Van Buren. However, this whig success, for a moment so imposing, proved superficial and brief. Harrison died at the end of his first month in office, and Tyler, coming in, showed that though training un- der the whig banner, he had not renounced a sin- gle one of his democratic principles. The Whigs scorned and soon officially repudiated him. Dur- ing the entire four years that he held office there was constant deadlock between him and the slight whig majority in Congress, which gave the Demo- crats main control in legislation. The panic of 1837 was forgotten, while the hold of the Democ- racy upon the country was so firm that its gains in Congress and its triumphs in the States once more went steadily on. 24 CHAPTEE VII, LIFE AND MANKEES IN THE POUETH DECADE By the census of 1830 the United States had. a population of 12,866,020, the increase having been for the preceding ten years about sufficient to double the inhabitants in thirty years. There were twenty -four States, Indiana having been taken into the Union in 1816, Mississippi in 1817, Illinois in 1818, Alabama in 1819, Maine in 1820, and Missouri, the last, in 1821. Florida, Mich- igan, and Arkansas were the Territories. The area, now that Florida had been annexed, was 725,406 square miles. Comparatively little of the soil of Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin had as yet been occupied, though settlements were making on most of the larger streams. The Southwest had at this time filled up more rapidly than the Northwest. In 1830 the centre of population for the Union was farther south than it has ever been at any other time. Except in Louisiana and Missouri, not over thirty thousand inhabitants were to be found west of the Mississippi. The vast outer ranges of the Louisiana purchase remained a mys- terious wilderness. Indianapolis in 1827 con- tained twenty-five brick houses, sixty frame, and 1835] LIFE AND MANNERS 371 about eighty log houses ; also a court-house, a jail, and three churches. Chicago was laid out in 1830. Thither in 1834 went one mail per week, from Niles, Mich., on horseback. In 1838 it was incor- porated as a town, having 175 houses and 550 in- habitants. That year it began publishiag a news- paper and organized two chui'ches. In 1837 it was a city, with 4,170 inhabitants. The Territory of Iowa had in 1836, 10,500 inhabitants; in 1840, 43,000. At this time Wisconsin had 31,000. So early as 1835 Ohio had nearly or quite one million inhabitants. Sixty-five of its towns had together 125 newspapers. Between 1830 and 1840 Ohio's population rose from 900,000 to 1,500,000 ; Mich- igan's from 30,000 to 212,000 ; and the whole coun- try's from thirteen to seventeen millions. Before 1840, eight steamers connected Chicago with Buf- falo. By 1840 nearly all the land of the United States this side the Mississippi had been taken up by settlers. The last districts to be occupied were Northern Maine, the Adirondack region of New York, a strip in Western Virginia from the Poto- mac southward through Kentucky nearly to the Tennessee line, the Pine Barrens of Georgia, and the extremities of Michigan and Wisconsin. Be- yond the Father of Waters his shores were mostly occupied, as well as those of his main tributaries, a good way from their mouths. The Missouri Valley had population as far as Kansas City. Ar- kansas, Missouri, and Iowa Territory had many settlements at some distance from the streams. The aggregate population of the country was 17,- 372 WHIGS AND DEMOGBATS [1835 069,453, the average density twenty-one and a tenth to the square mile. The mass of westward immigration was as yet native, since the great rush from Europe only began about 1847. This was fortunate, as fixing forever the American stamp upon the institutions of western States. To com- pensate each new commonwealth for the non-tax- ation of the United States land it contained, it received one township in each thirty-six as its own for educational purposes, a provision to which is due the magnificent school system of Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and their younger sisters. Farther east, too, there had, of course, been growth, but it was slower. In 1827 Hartford had but 6,900 inhabitants ; New Haven, 7,100 ; New- ark, N. J., 6,500, and New Brunswick about the same. The State of New York paid out, between 1815 and 1825, nearly $90,000 for the destruction of wolves, showing that its rural population had attained little density. The entire country had vastly improved in all the elements of civilization. A national literature had sprung up, crowding out the reprints of foreign works which had pre- viously ruled the market. Bryant, Cooper, Dana, Drake, Halleck, and Irving were now re-enforced by writers like Bancroft, Emerson, Hawthorne, Holmes, Longfellow, Poe, Prescott,- and Whittier. Educational institutions were multiplied and their methods bettered. The number of newspapers had become enormous. Several religious journals were established previous to 1830, among them the New York Observer, which dates from 1820, 1835] LIFE AND MANNERS 373 and the Christian Register, from 1821. Steam printing had been introduced in 1823. The year 1825 saw the first Sunday paper ; it was the Neiu York Sunday Courier. Greeley began his New York Tribune only in 1841. Fresh news had begun to be prized, as shown by the competition between the two great New York sheets, the Journal of Commerce and the Morning Enquirer, each of which, in 1827, estab- lished for this purpose swift schooner lines and pony expresses. The Journal of Commerce in 1833 put on a horse express between Philadelphia and New York, with relays of horses, enabling it to publish congressional news a day 'earlier than any of its New York contemporaries. Other papers soon imitated this example, whereupon the Journal extended its relays to Washington, Mails came to be more numerous and prompt. More letters were written, and, from 1839, letters were sent in envel- opes. Postage - stamps were not used till 1847. Most of the principal cities in the country, includ- ing Rochester and Cincinnati, published dailies before 1830. Baltimore and LouisviUe had each a public school in 1829. This year witnessed in Boston the beginning work of the first blind asy- lum in the country. In Hartford instruction had already been given to the deaf and dumb since 1817. By the fourth decade of the century the Amer- ican character had assumed a good deal of defi- niteness and greatly interested foreign travellers. There was, by those who knew what foreign man- ners were, much foolish aping of the same. Eng- 374 WHIGS AND DEM0GBAT8 [1835 lish visitors noted Brotter Jonathan's drawl in talking, his phlegmatic temperament, keen eye, and blistering inqnisitiveness. Jonathan was a rover and a trader, everywhere at home, everywhere bent upon the main chance. He ate too" rapidly, chewed and smoked tobacco, and spat indecently. He drank too much. During the first quarter of the century nearly everyone used liquor, and drunken- ness was shamefully common. Every public en- tertainment, even if religious, set out provision of free punch. At hotels, brandy was placed upon the table, free as water to all. ThB smaller sects often held preaching services in bar-rooms for lack of better accommodations. On such occasions the preacher was not infrequently observed, without affront to anyone, to refresh himself from behind the bar just before announcing his text. In 1824 commenced in Boston a temperance movement which accomplished in this matter the most happy reform. It swept New England, pass- ing thence to all the other parts of the Union. By the end of 1829 over a thousand temperance so- cieties were in existence. The distilling and impor- tation of spirits fell off immensely. It became fashionable not to drink, and little by little drinking came to be stigmatized as immoral. By the time of which we now speak, the old habit of expressing solicitude for the fate of the Union had passed away. Whig like Democrat — so different from old Federalist — swore by " the peo- ple." Every American believed in America. Travel- ling abroad, the man from this country was wont to assume, and if opposed to contend, ill-man- 1835] LIFE AND MANNERS 875 neredly sometimes, that its institutions were far the best in the world. No one wished a change. The unparalleled prosperity of all contributed to this satisfaction. Cities and towns came up in a day. Public improvements were to be seen mak- ing in every direction. There w.as no idle aris- tocracy on the one hand, no beggars on the other. Self-respect was universal. The people held the power. If men attained great wealth, as not a few did, they usually did not waste= it but invested it. Business enterprise was intense and common. Character entered into credit as an element along with financial resources. People did not crowd into cities, but loved and built up the country rather. Laws and penalties were become more mild. In 1837 a man was flogged at the whip- ping-post in Providence, E. I., for horse-stealing, perhaps the last case of the kind in the coun- try. Prisons were now made clean and healthy, and the idea of reforming the criminal instead of taking vengeance upon him was spreading. Re- formatories for children had been opened in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. There were insti- tutions for homeless children, for the sick poor, for the insane, and for other unfortunate classes. By this time the Methodists and Baptists had become extremely strong in numbers. In 1833 the Massachusetts constitution was altered, abolishing obligatory contributions for the support of the ministry of the standing order. Connecticut had made the same change fifteen years before, in its constitution of 1818. In many localities the newer denominations, hitherto sects, were more influen- 376 WHIGS AND DEMOCRATS [1835 tial than the old one, and in this abolition of eccle- siastical taxes they had with them Jews, atheists, deists, agnostics, and heathen. About 1825 began a period of peculiar relig- ious enthusiasm. Missions to the heathen were instituted. Eevivals were numerous and often shook whole neighborhoods for weeks and months. About this date Millerism began to make con- verts. William Miller, from whom it took its name, preached far and wide that the world would be destroyed in 1843, securing multitudes of dis- ciples, who clung to his general belief even after his prophecy as to the specific date for the final catastrophe was seen to have failed. Mormonism was also founded in 1830, and the Book of Mor- mon published by Joseph Smith. A church of this order, organized this year at Manchester, N. Y., removed the next to Kirtland, O., and thence to Independence, Mo. Driven from here by mob violence, they built the town of Nauvoo, 111. Meeting in this place too with what they regarded persecution, several of their members being pros- ecuted for polygamy, they were obliged to migrate to Salt Lake City, where, however they were not fully settled until 1848. As part of the same general stir we may perhaps register the Anti-Masonic movement. One Will- iam Morgan, a Mason residing in Western New York, was reported about to expose in a publica- tion the secrets of that order. The Masons were desirous of preventing this and made several forci- ble efforts to that end. Morgan was soon missing, and the exciting assumption was- almost univer- 1835J LIFE AND MANNERS 377 sally made that the Masons had taken him off. There was much evidence of this ; but conviction was found impossible because, as was alleged, judges, juries, and witnesses were nearly all Masons. An intense and wide-spread feeling was developed that Masonry held itself superior to the laws, was therefore a foe to the Government and must be destroyed. The Anti- Masons became a mighty political party. Masons were driven from office. In 1832 anti-masonic nominations were made for President and Vice-president, which had much to do with the small vote of Clay in that year. It was this party that brought to the front politically WiUiam H. Seward, Millard Fillmgre, and Thurlow Weed. In 1833 Massachusetts, New York, and Penn- sylvania passed laws suppressing lotteries, but the gambling mania seemed to transform itself into a craze for banks. In many parts this was such that actual riots took place when subscriptions to the stock of banks were opened, the earliest com- ers subscribing the whole with the purpose of sell- ing to others at an advance. To make a bank was thought the great panacea for every ill that could befall. In this we see that the American people, bright as they were, could be duped. Less wonder, then, at the success of the Moon Hoax, perpetrated in 1835. It was generally known that Sir John Herschel had gone to the Cape of Good Hope to erect an observatory. One day the New York Sun came out with what purported to be part of a supplement to the Edinburgh Journal of Science, giving an account of Herschel's remarkable 378 WHIGS AND DEMOCRATS [1835 discoveries. The moon, so the bogus relation ran, had been found to be inhabited bj human beings ■with wings. Herschel had seen flocks of them flying about. Their houses were triangular in form. The telescope had also revealed beavers in the moon, exhibiting most remarkable intelligence. Pictures of some of these and of moon scenery ac- companied the article. The fraud was so clever as to deceive learned and unlearned aUke. The sham story was continued through several issues of the Bun, and gave the paper an enormous sale. As it arrived in the different places, crowds scram- bled for it, nor would those Avho failed to secure copies disperse until some one more fortunate had read to them all that the paper said upon the sub- ject. Several colleges sent profiessorial deputa- tions to the Sun office to see the article, and partic- ularly the appendices, which, it was alleged, had been kept back. Richard Adams Locke was the author of this ingenious deception, which was not exploded until the arrival of authentic intelligence from Edinburgh. Party spirit sometimes ran terribly high. A New York City election in 1834 was the occasion of a riot between men of the two parties, disturbances continuing several days. Political meetings were broken up and the militia had to: be called out to enforce order. Citizens armed themselves, fearing attacks upon banks and business houses. When it was found that the Whigs were triumphant in the city, deafening salutes were fired. Philadelphia Whigs celebrated this victory with a grand barbe- cue, attended, it was estimated, \pf fifty thousand 1835] LIFE AND MANNERS 379 people. The death of Harrison was malignantly ascribed to over-eating in Washington, after his long experience with insufficient diet in the West. Whigs exulted over Jackson's cabinet difficulties. Jackson's "Kitchen Cabinet," the power behind the throne, gave umbrage to his official advisers. Duff Green, editor of the United States Telegraph, the President's " organ," was one member ; Isaac Hill, of New Hampshire, and Amos Kendall, first of Massachusetts, then of Kentucky, were others, these three the most influential. All had long worked, written, and cheered for Old Hickory. In return he gave thom good places at Washington, and now they enjoyed dropping in at the White House to take a smoke with the grizzly hero and help him curse the opposition as foes of " the peo- ple." Major Eaton, Old Hickory's first Secretary of War, had married a beautiful widow, maiden name Peggy O'Neil, of common birth, and much gossipped about. The female members of other cabinet families refused to associate with her, the "Vice-President's wife leading. Jackson took up Mrs. Eaton's cause with all knightly zeal. He berated her traducers and persecutors in long and fierce personal letters. His niece and house- keeper, Mrs. Donelson, one of tlie anti-Eatonites, he turned out of the White House, with her hus- band, his private secretary. The breach was se- rious anyway, and might have been far more so but for the heahng offices of Van Buren, who iised all his courtliness and power of place to help the President bring about the social recognition of 380 WEIGS AND DEMOGBATS [1835 Mrs. Eaton. He called upon her, made parties in her honor, and secured her entree to the families of the greatest foreign ministers. Mrs. Baton tri- umphed, but the scandal would not down. When Jackson wrote bis foreign message upon the French spoliation claims, his cabinet were aghast and begged him to soften its tone. Upon his refusal, it is said, they stole to the printing- office and did it themselves. But the proofs came back for Jackson's perusal. The lad who brought them was the late Mr. J. S. Ham, of Providence, E. I. He used to say that he had never known what profane swearing was tiU helistened to Gen- eral Jackson's comments as those proofs were read. Jackson and Quincy Adams were personal as well as political foes. When the President visited Boston, Harvard College bestowed on him the de- gree of Doctor of Laws. Adams, one of the over- seers, opposed this with all his might. As "an affectionate child of our Alma Mater, he would not be present to witness her disgrace in conferring her highest literary honors upon a barbarian." Subsequently he would refer, with, a sneer, to " Dr. Andrew Jackson." The President's illness at Boston Adams declared " four-fifths trickery " and the rest mere fatigue. He was^like John Ean- dolph, said Adams, Avho for forty years was always dying. " He is now alternately giving out his chronic diarrhoea and making Warren bleed him for a pleurisy, and posting to Cambridge for a doctorate of laws, mounting the monument of Bunker's Hill to hear a fulsome address and re- ceive two cannon-balls from Edward Everett." 1835] LIFE AND MANNERS 381 To be sure, manifestations of a contrary spirit ' between the political parties were not wanting. The entire nation mourned for Madison after his death in 1836, as it had on the decease of Jefferson and John Adams, both on the same day, July 4, 1826. A note or two upon costume may not uninterest- ingly close this chapter. Enormous bonnets were fashionable aboxit 1830. Ladies also wore Leghorn hats, with very broad brims rolled up behind, tricked out profusely with ribbons and artificial flowers. Dress-waists were short and high. Skirts were short, too, hardly reaching the ankles. Sleeves were of the leg-of- mutton fashion, very full above the elbows but tightening toward the wrist. Gentlemen stiU dressed for the street not so differently from the revolutionary style. Walking-coats were of broad- cloth, blue, brown, or green, to suit the taste, with gilt buttons. Bottle-green was a very stylish col- or for evening coats. Blue and the gilt buttons for street wear were, however, beginning to be dis- carded, Daniel Webster being one of the last to walk abroad in them. The buff waistcoat, white cambric cravat, and ruffled shirt still held their own. Collars for full dress were worn high, cov- ering half the cheek, a fashion which persisted in parts of the country till 1850 or later. OHAPTEE YIII. INDUSTRIAL ADVANCE BY 1840 DuEiNG the War of 1812 we had in England an industrial spy, whose campaign there has perhaps accomplished more for the country than all our armies did. It was Francis C. Lowell, of Boston. Great Britain was just introducing the power- loom. The secret of structure was guarded with all Yigilance, yet Lowell, passing from cotton fac- tory to cotton factory with Yankee eyes, ears, and wit, came home in 1814, belieTing, with good rea- son, as it proved, that he could set up one of the machines on American soil. Broad Street in Bos- ton was the scene of his initial experiments, but the factory to the building of which they led was at Waltham. It was o^vned by a company, one of whose members was Nathan Appleton. Water furnished the motive power. By the autumn of 1814 Lowell had perfected his looms and placed them in the factory. Spinning machinery was also built, mounting seventeen hundred spindles. English cotton-workers did not as yet spin and weave under the same roof, so that the Lowell Mill at Waltham may, with great probability, be pronounced the first in the world to carry cloth manufacture harmoniously through all its several 1840] INDUSTRIAL ADVANCE' BY 18Jfi 383 successive steps from the raw stuff to the finished ware. From this earliest establishment of the power- loom here, the cotton-cloth business strode rapidly forward. Fall Eiver, Holyoke, Lawrence, Lowell, and scores of other thriving towns sprung into be- ing. Every year new mills were built. In 1831 there were 801 ; in 1840, 1,240 ;• in 1850, 1,074. Henceforth, through consolidation, the number of factories decreased, but the number of spindles grew steadily larger. This rise of great manufact- uring concerns was facilitated by a new order of corporation laws. There had been corporations in the country before 1830, as the Waltham case shows; but the system had had little evolution, as incorporation had in each case, to proceed from a special legislative act. In 1837 Connecticut passed a statute making this unnecessary and en- abling a group of persons to become a corporation on complying with certain simple requirements. New York placed a similar provision in its consti- tution of 1846. The Dartmouth College decision of the United States Supreme Court in 1819, in- terpreting an act of incorporation as a contract, which, by the Constitution, no State can violate, still further humored and aided the corporation system. In 1816 the streets of Baltimore were lighted with gas. A gas-light company was incorporated in New York in 1823. Not till 1836, however, did the Philadelphia streets have gas lights. The first savings-banks were established in Philadel- phia and Boston in 1816, Baltimore had one two 384 WHIGS AND DEMOGBATS [1840 years later. Portable fire-proof safes were used in 1820. The Lehigh coal trade- flourished this year, and also the manufacture of iron with coal. The whale fishery, too, was now beginning. The first factory in Lowell started in 1821. In 1822 there was a copper rolling mill in Baltimore, the only one then in America, and Paterson, N. J., began the manufacture of cotton duck. Patent leather was made in the United Btates by 1819. In 1824 Amesbury, Mass., had a water-power man- ufactory of flannel. The next year the practice of homoeopathy began in America, and matches of a rude sort were displacing the old tinder-box. The next year after this Hartford produced axes and other edged tools. Lithography, of which there had been specimens so early as 1818, was a Boston business in 1827. Pittsburgh manufact- ured damask table linen in 1828. The same year saw paper made from straw, and planing machin- ery in operation. The insuring ©f lives began in this country in 1812. The first figured muslin woven by the power- loom in America, and perhaps in the world, was produced at Central Falls, K. I., in 1829. Calico printing began at Lowell the same year, also the manufacture of cutlery at Worcester, of sewing- silk at Mansfield, Conn., of galvanized iron in New York City. With the new decade chloroform was invented, in 1831, being first used as a medicine, not as an anaesthetic. Eeaping machines were on trial the same year, and three years later machine- made wood screws were turned out at Provi- dence. About the same time, =1832, pins were 1840] INDUSTRIAL ADVANCE BY 18Jfi 385 made by machinery, hosiery was woven by a power -loom process, and Colt perfected his re- volver. In 1837 brass clocks were put upon the American market, and by 1840 extensively ex- ported. Also in 1837 Nashua was making ma- chinists' tools. By 1839 the manufacture of iron with hard coal was a pronounced success. In 1840 daguerreotypes began to appear. Steam fire- engines were seen the next year. So early as 1816 the New York and Philadel- phia stages made the distance from city to city between smi and sun. The National Hoad from Cumberland was finished to Wheeling in 1820, having been fourteen years in construction and costing $17,000,000. It was subsequently ex- tended westward across Ohio and Indiana. It was thirty-five feet wide, thorbughly macada- mized, and had no grade of above five degrees. Over parts of this road no less than 150 six-horse teams passed daily, besides four or five four- horse mail and passenger coaches. In Jackson's time, when for some months there was talk of war with France and extra measures were thought proper for assuring the loyalty of^ Louisiana, swift mail connections were made with the Mississippi by the National Eoad. Its entire' length was laid out into sections of sixtj^-three miles a-piece, each with three boys and nine horses, only six hours and eighteen minutes being allowed for travers- ing a section, viz., a rate of about ten miles an hour. Great men and even presidents travelled by the public coaches of this road, though many of them used their own carriages. James K. Polk 25 386 WHIGS AND DEMOCRATS [1840 often made the jom-ney from Nashyille to Wash- ington in his private carriage. Keeping down the Cumberland Eiver to the Ohio, and up this to Wheeling, he would strike into the National Eoad eastward to Cumberland, Md. He came thus so late as 1845, to be inaugurated as President ; only at this time he used the new railway from Cum- berland to the Relay House, where he changed to the other new railway which had already joined Baltimore with Washington. The first omnibus made its appearance in New York in 1830, the name itself originating from the word painted upon this vehicle. The first street railway was laid two years later. The era of the stage coach was at this time beginning to end, that of canals and railroads opening. Yet in the remoter sections of the country the old coach was destined to hold its place for decades still. Where roads were fair it would not uncommonly make one hundred miles between early morning and late evening, as between Boston and Springfield, Springfield and Albany. So soon as available the canal packet was a much more easy and elegant means of travel. The Erie Canal was begun in 1817, finished to Rochester in 1823, the first boat arriving October 8th. The year 1825 carried it to Bufialo, The Blackstone Canal, l>etween Worces- ter and Providence, was opened its whole length in 1828 ; the next year many others, as the Chesa- peake and Delaware, the Cumberland and Oxford in Maine, the Farmington in Connecticut, the Oswego, connecting the Erie Canal with Lake On- tario, also the Delaware and Hudson, one hun- 1840] INDUSTRIAL ADVANCE BY IS^O 387 dred and eight miles long, from Houesdale, Pa., to Hudson Elver. The WelUmd Caual was com- pleted in 1830. Salt-water transportation had meantime been much facilitated by the use of steam. It had been thought a great achievement when, in 1817, the Black Ball line of packet ships between New York and Liverpool was regularly established, con- sisting of four vessels of from four hundred to five hundred tons apiece. But two years later a steamship crossed the Atlantic to Liverpool from Savannah, It took her twenty-five days — longer than the time in which the distance often used to be accomplished under sail. In 1822 there was a regular steamboat between Norfolk and New York, though no steamboat was owned in Boston till 1828. The Atlantic was first crossed exclusively by steam - power in 1838, and the first successful propeller used in 1839. The last-named year also witnessed the beginning of a permanent express line between Boston and New York, by the Ston- ington route. The next year, the Adams Express Company was founded, doing its first business be- tween these two cities over the Springfield route, in competition with that by the Stonington. But all these improvements were soon to be overshadowed by the work of the railway and locomotive. The first road of rails in America was in the Lehigh coal district of Pennsylvania. Its date is uncertain, but not later than 1825. In 1826, October 7th, the second began operation, at Quincy, Mass., transporting' granite from the quan'ies to tide-water, about three miles. This 388 WHIGS AND DEMO GR ATS [1840 Gxperiment attracted great attention, showing how much heavier loads could be transported over rails than upon common roads, and with how much greater ease and less expense ordinary weights could be carried. The same had been demon- strated in England before. Locomotives were not yet used in either country, but only horse-power. The conviction spread rapidly that not only high- way transportation but even that by canals would soon be, for all large burdens, either quite super- seded or of secondary importance. In 1827 the Maryland Legislature chartered-^ railroad from Baltimore to Wheeling. The projectors, though regarding it a bold act, promised an average rate between the two cities of at least four miles per hour. Subscriptions were offered for more than twice the amount of the stock. The Massachu- setts Legislature the same year appointed com- missioners to look out a railway route between Boston and Hudson River. Also in this year a railway was completed at Maucli Chunk, Pa., for transporting coal to the landing on the Lehigh. The descent was by gravity, mules being used to haul back the cars. In most country parts, the new railway projects encountered great hostility. Engineers were not infrequently clvibbed from the fields as they sought to survey. Learned articles appeared in the papers arguing against the need of railways and exhibiting the perils attending them. When steam came to be used, these scruples were re- enforced by the alleged danger that the new sys- tem of travel would do away with the market for 1840] INDUSTRIAL ADVANCE BY 18Jfi 389 oats and for horses, and that stage-drivers would seek wages in vain. The first trip by a locomotive was in 1828, over the Carbondale and Honesdale route in Pennsyl- vania. The engine was of English make, and run by Mr. Horatio Allen, who had had it built. This Avas a year before the first steam railroad was opened in England. July 4, 1828, construction upon the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad was begun. It, like the other early roads, was built of stone cross-ties, with wooden rails topped with heavy straps of iron. Such ties were soon replaced by wooden ones, as less likely to be split by frost, but the wooden rail with its iron strap might be seen on branch lines, for instance, between Monocacy Bridge and Frederick City, Md., so late as the Civil War. The first railroad for passengers in this country went into operation between Charleston and Ham- burg, S. C, in 1830. The locomotive had been gotten up in New York, the first of American make. It had four wheels and an upright boiler. This year the railroad between Albany and Sche- nectady was begun, and fourteen miles of the Baltimore & Ohio opened for use. In 1831 Philadelphia was joined to Pittsburgh by a line of communication consisting of a railway to Colum- bia, a canal thence to HoUidaysburg, another rail- way thence over the Alleghanies to Johnstown, and then on by canal. The railway over the mountains consisted of inclined planes mounted by the use of stationary engines. It is interesting to notice the view which universally prevailed at 390 WHIGS AND DEMOCRATS [1840 first, that the locomotive could uot climb grades, and that where this was necessary stationary en- gines would have to be used. Not till 1836 was it demonstrated that locomotives could climb. Up to the same date, also, locomotives had burned wood, but this was now found inferior to coal, and began to be given up except where- it was much the cheaper fuel. From 1832 the railway system grew marvel- lously. The year 1833 saw completed the South Carolina Eailroad between Charleston and the Sa- vannah River, one hundred and thirty-six miles. This was the first railway line in this country to carry the mails, and the longest, continuoiis one then in the world. Two years later Boston was connected by railway with Providence, with Low- ell, and with Worcester, Baltimore, with Washing- ton, and the New York and Erie commenced. In 1839 Worcester was joined to Springfield in the same manner, and in 1841 a passenger could travel by rail from Boston to Rochester, changing cars, however, at least ten times. I