of the Mary Platt Parmele LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. ChapEn.5Copyright No..... Shelf...T.^.5 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. OCT 29 lti98 BY THE SAME yiUTHOR A SHORT HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES A SHORT HISTORY OF ENGLAND A SHORT HISTORY OF FRANCE A SHORT HISTORY OF GERMANY A SHORT HISTORY OF SPAW Each 12mu. 60 cents net OCT 29 1898 A SHOET HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES BY MARY PLATT PAEMELE NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1898 17800 COPTRIGHT, 1896, BT WILLIAM BEVERLEY HARISON Copyright, 1898, by CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS ?WD COPIES RECEIVED. 2nd COPY, 18S3. TROW DIRECTOnv PRINTING AND eOOKBINDINQ COMPANY NEW TORK PREFACE. With the growing complexity of life and events, it is becoming an impossible task for the memory to carry the increasing burden of details; and even if it succeeds in performing this feat, it is at the expense of a clear and intelligent comprehension of the meaning of the whole. We may suc- ceed in reducing the mental structure to a mere store-house. But if in achieving this the mind has lost the power to grasp, and to combine, its acquisitions have been dearly purchased. To comprehend is higher than to remem- ber. The emphasis has long rested on the wrong word, and it is time it should be re- moved. In the meantime we load upon weak young shoulders, burdens we carry lightly because they have been the gradual accumulation of more years than our children lia^e lived. PREFACE. We expect them to master the intricate details of a History, — its wars, its politics — its heroes, its tangled web of incident and of cause and effect; nothing must be neglect- ed, no date, no circumstance however trivial. And what is the result? An in- telligent, eager boy or girl, — confused, be- wildered in a labyrinth of unfamiliar names and events, fails to grasp the main lines, and — '•'■does not like history.^'' And if the same method be x^ni'sued in other branches, he "■has no taste for study y Why? Simply because he has been studying, — not with a thinking mind, but with one overtaxed faculty. Memory, intended to be the humble handmaiden of the higher faculties, lias been enthroned. Of what use to know that Charles I. was beheaded in 1649, unless one understands the forces which led to this event ? In other words, the maximum of mental energy should be directed to the great lines of ten- dency, which make for righteousness and justice and human freedom. The names of the battles fought in work- ing out the grand design, the lists of heroes and of dates should be sul>ordinated, and if the memory be insuflicient, may be carried PEEFACB. in the pocket. The study of history pursued in this way has a moral basis. There is an innate sense of Justice and hatred of oppres- sion in the mind of the young. By appeal- ing to that, education has the quickening influences of the heart and of sympathy, and the life of a Nation is studied as a Human Drama. The History of America should be an in- spiration, not a task. It ought to be known in its grand simple lines by every child in the Nation in words which would only fill two such pages as these. Let it be so ac- quired first in its utmost brevity, then enlarged, and enlarged again and again, gradually approaching to a nearer view of the multiplicity of detail. Pleased at finding new truths which fit precisely into those already familiar, there will be no difficulty in keej^ing alive the in- terest nor in remembering. It will be graft- ing on to the living, not on to the dead. This volume is much too long to do justice to the theory upon which it is written. There are no apologies offered for omissions, but rather regrets that circumstances com- pelled the introduction of details which con- fuse the simi^licity of the narrative. It may PREFACE. serve, however, to point the way to what, it seems to the writer, must be the method of the future To the general reader it is offered as a short and simple story of the great Empire in the Western Hemisphere. New York, M. P. P. July 6, 1896. CONTENTS. Chapter I. PAGE The Age of Discovery —Easier Route to India the Problem of the Age— Prevailing Beliefs Regarding the Earth and Universe — Christopher Columbus.. 1 Chapter II. The Council at Salamanca — Columbus at Rabida — Ferdinand and Isabella Consent to Equip a Fleet. 10 Chapter III. Voyage from Palos on the "Sea of Darkness" — Arrival at San Salvador — The Triumph — Sorrows and Death of the Discoverer — Amerigo Vespucci. 19 Chapter IV. The "New World" an Old World — Its Prehistoric Races — Conjectures Regarding Origin of Aztecs, Incas and Mound Builders — The North American Indians — Discoveries of The Cabots —Balboa — Magellan — Verazzani — Cartier — De Soto — Cabriilo — Frobisher — Sir Francis Drake — Founding of St. Augustine 27 CONTENTS. Chapter V. PAGE Sir Walter Raleigh's Attempts at Colonization— Be- ginning of Colonial Life in America — The London Company- Settling of Jamestown— John Smith — Negro Slavery Planted in America — Massacre by Indians — Dissolution of London Company- Bacon's Rebellion - 38 Chapter VI. French Colonization and Discoveries in the North — Henry Hudson Ascends "Manhattan" River — Foundation of the Dutch Claim in America — Persecution of Puritans in England— Transforma- tion of Northeast portion of Virginia into New England— New Plymouth Company— Arrival of Mayflower — Hardships Endured- Form of Gov- ernment—Massachusetts Bay Company — New Colony at Salem -First Thanksgiving Dinner — Harvard College — Roger Williams Banished — Beginnings of Rhode Island — Maine — New Hamp- shire — Connecticut .-. - 48 Chapter VII. The Dutch in the New Netherlands— New Amsterdam — Duke of York Takes Possession of Territory Claimed by Holland -New York— The Jerseys — Delaware — Maryland — Tlie Carolinas — Pennsyl- vania— Georgia— Oglethorpe's Experiment-. 59 Chapter VIII. French Dominion Extending in America — Louisiana — King William's War— t^ueen Anne's War — King George's War — Navigation Act Massachusetts Defiant— Sir Edmund Andros— Tlie Charter Oak — The BegiiHiiiiffs of Patriotism GS CONTENTS. Chapter IX. PAGE Colonial Governments — Prevailing Social and Intellec- tual Conditions — Negro Slavery — Indentured Ap- prentices - . - 75 Chapter X. The Ohio Company — Governor Dinwiddle and George Washington — General Braddock's Defeat— Dis- persing of the French Acadians — British Vic- tories — Quebec — Treaty at Paris — 81 Chapter XI. Colonists Asked to Pay for a War in Their Behalf ! — The Stamp Act — Rebellion — Patrick Henry — Franklin — William Pitt — Stamp Act Repealed — Another Tax upon Glass, Paper and Tea— The Authority of Parliament — Constitutional Rights — Firm Attitude of Colonists — Cheap Tea — Its Fate — Port of Boston Closed — General Gage — Whigs — Tories 88 Chapter XII. First Colonial Congress — Effect of Its Action in Eng- land — Pitt and Franklin in the House of Commons — Authority of King to be Maintained 99 Chapter XIII. Preparation for War — Lexington — Paul Revere — Second Continental Congress— Howe, Clinton and Burgoyne Arrive — Bunker Hill — Washington in Command — British in Charleston Harbor— Moul- trie at Sullivan's Island — Kentucky — Washing- ton's Management Criticised— British Evacuate Boston 105 CONTENTS. Chapter XIV. PAOE Declaration of Independence — Hessian Mercenaries — Washington's Army in Retreat — Discouragement — Crossing the Delaware — Victories at Trenton and Princeton — Winter at Morristown — La Fayette— Philadelphia Occupied by the British — Burgoyne's Defeat and Surrender — Washington at Valley Forge — Overtures from Great Britain- French Alliance — Continental Money — Benedict Arnold — Andr^ and Hale 115 Chapter XV. Surrender of Cornwallis — Independence of United States Acknowledged by Great Britain -Treaty at Versailles — An Infant Republic — Constitution Adopted — Form of Government — George Wash- ington, First President - 127 Chapter XVI. National Debt — Financial Management of Alexander Hamilton — French Revolution— Jay's Treaty 138 Chapter XVII. Federalists and Republicans— War of Opinions— The Cotton Gin — John Adams President— Alien and Sedition Laws— Thomas Jefferson President. 141 Chapter XVIII. Death of Washington— Purchase of Louisiana — French Spoliation Claims— Tripoli Bombarded— War Between France and England — Milan and Berlin Decrees— Right of Search— Aaron Burr — Death of Hamilton— First Steamboat 149 CONTENTS. Chapter XIX. PAGE Territorial Development— Life in the Interior — Tecumseli and the Indian Confederacy — Tippe- canoe— War of 1812 — Hull Surrenders Detroit — Naval Victories - - - 158 Chapter XX. Indians' Last Struggle for their Continent — Massacre by British Allies — General Harrison — Lawrence — Battle of Lake Erie — Proctor's Defeat by Harrison — Death of Tecumseh — Battle of Plattsburg — Waterloo — Admiral Cockburn — Burning of Wash- ington — Andrew Jackson — Battle of New Orleans — Treaty of Peace — James Monroe President ..... 168 Chapter XXI. Florida purchased — Missouri Compromise — Monroe Doctrine — Erie Canal — John Quincy Adams — LaFayette's Visit - 177 Chapter XXII. The Tariff — Andrew Jackson President — Nullification — Clay Compromise— The National Bank — Delu- sive Prosperity — Martin Van Buren Elected — Financial Ruin — Removal of Indians to Reserva- tions — Seminole War — Sub- Treasury Bill — Will- iam Henry Harrison's Inauguration — Ashburton Treaty 185 Chapter XXIII. Death of President Harrison — John Tyler — Dorr's RebelUon — The Mormons — Texan Independence — Proposed Annexation — Magnetic Telegraph — James K. Polk Elected — Sentiment at the North — CONTENTS. PAGE Growth — First Locomotive — Mexican Boundary Question — War with Mexico — Victories— City of Mexico occupied — Capture of California 195 Chapter XXIV. Territory Ceded by Mexico — Treaty Concerning North western Boundary — Wilmot Proviso — President Taylor's Inauguration and Death — Millard Fill- more— Compromise of 1850— Fugitive Slave Law — Franklin Pierce — Uncle Tom's Cabin — Develop- ment 206 Chapter XXV. Republican Party — James Buchanan Elected — Dred Scott Decision— Kansas a Free State — John Brown at Harper's Ferry 217 Chapter XXVL Conditions North and South — Abraham Lincoln Elec- ted — Secession — A Southern Confederacy — Fort Sumter 225 Chapter XXVIL Call for Troops — Battle of Bull Run — Contrabands — Mason and Slidell — Merrimac and Monitor — Far- ragut's Designs — U. S. Grant — Fort Donelson — Victories 235 Chapter XXVIII. Gen. Robert E. Lee — Battles before Richmond — Call for 600,000 more Troops — Farragut's Ascent of the Mississippi — Antietam — Lincoln's offer of Gradual Emancipation — Slavery to Exist no more 245 CONTENTS. Chapter XXIX. PAGE Chancellorsville — Gettysburg — Vicksburg — Lookout Mountain — Grant in Command — The Wilderness — Sherman's March — Atlanta — Savannah — Grant's Advance on Richmond — Thomas destroys Hood's Army — Richmond occupied — Lee's Surrender — Peace — Assassination of Lincoln — Army dis- banded — National Clemency — Maximilian in Mex- ico 256 Chapter XXX. Reconstruction— Civil Rights Bill — President Im- peached — General Pardon — Conditions — The Paci- fic Road — Grant Elected President — Financial Panic — Arbitration and Alabama Claims. 268 Chapter XXXI. The Centennial — International Exhibition — Hayes President — James Garfield — His Assassination — Chester Alan Arthur — The Tariff— James G. Blaine — The Nevv^ West — Silver an Issue— Trusts — Tendency to Life in Cities — Spiritual Forces at Work — The Future and the Hope of America 283 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER I. The light which illumines the Fifteenth Century, is the light of geographical dis- covery. It was an age when men's minds were strangely stirred with a desire to extend the frontiers of knowledge regarding the World they inhabited, — and Portugal was the centre of this new enthusiasm. The shores of the Mediterranean and the lands extending east and north liad long been sufficient for humanity. But in the fulness of time there had come an expansion, a con- scious need of more space. That land known by the all-embracing name of India, had been for ages the treas- ure-house of the World. The nations of antiquity, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Assyri- ans and Arabians, had each in ^iirn fattened 2 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. upon its inexhaustible products. In 1275 A.D. Marco Polo, a Venetian traveller, wrote dazzling descriptions of what his eyes had seen in this mysterious land. It was teem- ing with treasures which Europe must and would have. But its gold, ivory, costly silks, shawls, perfumes, spices, and all its priceless products, must be carried to the Red Sea by caravan, — thence on the backs of camels across the desert to the Nile, — whence they were transported through Egypt, and linally conveyed in "Argosies, with portly sail," to the Merchant of Venice, Genoa and Florence. These three cities were the gates through which this opulent stream flowed into Europe. They had grown into rich and powerful States by means of this lucrative commerce, so that India had become but another name for fabulous success. A quicker and a cheaper route to India^ — was the problem of the age. The nation which should solve it, would divert this golden tide of prosperity from the Italian Republics to its own shores. Such was the magnet, which was drawing men's minds, and such the attraction which gave to maritime discovery a practical aim, HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 3 and compelling purpose; the nations all vy- ing with each other in first reaching the prize. Prince Henry of Portugal conceived the idea that by following the coast of Africa, an opening might be found through which ships could j)ass to the other side; or, — fail- ing in that, that the Continent might be circumnavigated. Few symj)athized with a scheme so daring as this last, for would they not have to jDass through the torrid zone ? which was, as every one knew, a region of fires and of heat so fierce, that the very waters boiled. And besides, had not Pto- lemy said that the African Continent ex- tended down to the southern extremity of the earth? — and that it there was joined to its Asiatic sister, standing an everlasting barrier to ships ? But Prince Henry's adventurous little crafts crept cautiously farther and farther down the coast. The equator was at last passed and divested of its fanciful terrors. Portugal became the acknowledged leader in discovery. Its importance increased and it arose to the first rank among the King- doms of Europe. Prince Henry' s dream was realized, but long after his death, when in 4 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 1500 A.D. Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and India was reached by an ocean pathway. Before this event, while Portngnese ships were still groping cautiously down the African coast, an obscure man was conceiv- ing a new and daring solution of the problem. The Atlantic ocean, or as they called it ' 'Sea of Darkness," stretched away towards the west, an untravelled waste. The sun went down upon a region of awful mystery. None so hardy as to attempt to liiid out its secrets. The maps and charts of that day pictured hideous monsters guarding this region of horrors. One represented the bony, gnarled hand of Satan, rising out of the waters ready to seize ships which should pass those limits upon the Sea of Darkness. So the expanding life within was pressing outward, through a mass of suiierstition and of misconception. A few daring thinkers in ancient times had said that the Earth was a sphere. But practical and reasonable men knew the folly of a theory which would compel our antipodes "to walk upon their heads with their feet dangling in the air," in a land where the "snow, hail and rain fell up- wards. ' ' So this foolish belief hid away from HISTOEY OF THE UNITED STATES. 5 condemnation and ridicule, lurking in dark places, while ordinary and sensible people rested content with an illimitable plane, bounded by a limitless ocean. While there might have been some diver- sity of opinion regarding the shape of the World, upon another and more important matter all were agreed. The earth was the centre of the universe, around which re- volved the Sun, Moon, planets and constel- lations. It is amazing and indeed appalling to con- template the enormous expenditure of intel- lectual power and even of genius, in con- structing a system which should bring all the observed phenomena of the Universe into harmony with — one stupendous error ! Did the movements of the stars seem to conflict with the geocentric fact, it was exj)lained by a marvellously constructed system of what were called epicycles^ which safely bridged every difficulty. Ptolemy had elaborated this system in the year 1.50 a.d., based upon the teachings of Hipparchus, two centuries earlier. Later astronomers had made additions to it, until it lind become an ingenious accretion of scien- tific subterfuges, and so difficult to compre- 6 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. hend tliat there is little wonder the intellects of the time grew preternaturally sharj^ened in mastering its intricacies. In the latter part of the Fifteenth Century it was still venerated, after having been for thirteen hundred years a lamp to the stumbling feet of poor humanity. There was at that time living in Prus- sia, a boy at whose touch fifty years later this venerable pile would crumble to ashes. Copernicus died in 1543, leaving to the world the strangest legacy ever known. (His work was published after his death that same year.) When he placed the Sun in the centre of our solar system, and sent the usurping earth into the humble orbit of a satellite, everything fell into place as if by magic. There was no need of epicycle^ nor of ingenious casuistry to explain a theory which proved itself every hour in a way convincing and irresistible. But at the time we are now considering, this illumination had not come. In this twilight of knowledge streaked with a few rays of the coming dawn, CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, a Genoese mariner, naviga- tor and adventurer, was led by circumstances to Portue:al. The current enthusiasm awoke HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 7 answering vibrations in his soul. Cosmo- graphical study had been his passion from his childhood. Every physical theory of antiquity, every ascertained truth was fa- miliar to him. He pondered over old charts and "as he mused the fire burned." The conviction grew upon him that the earth was a sphere: — and in that case the way to the east was by the west! By taking a course due west, a ship must inevitably come soon upon the eastern shores of that fabled land described by Marco Polo. The way to India, lay not across the Con- tinent of Asia — nor around that of Africa — but through the few hundreds of leagues of ocean, which without doubt on its western side washed the shores of Tartary. As he dwelt upon this new and startling conception, it grew into noon-day clearness. To his ardent mind it was not conjecture, but fact. Enthusiastic, imaginative, in- tensely religious, the predestined discoverer of an unknown world consecrated his life to the realizing of his dream, and solemnly dedicated the boundless wealth it must bring him, to the recovering of the Holy Sepul- chre ! 8 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. It was a strange mixture of trutli and error. He little imagined that on tlie other side of that waste of ocean there lay a great sleeping world, its head pillowed on the eternal Arctic snows, its feet in the Southern Pacific, 9, 000 miles away. That while Egyp- tian, Greek, and Roman civilizations had come and gone, it had peacefully slept. When Europe in its barbaric infancy had listened to the Divine message of Christ, it had not stirred. Nor yet, as she grew old and wrinkled and seamed and scarred with iniquity, was the long sleej) broken. If, as is believed, the Northmen came in the year 1000 A.D. (led by Leif, the son of Eric) and dwelt for a few years upon the vine-clad shores of Narragansett Bay, there was no thrill of awakening life in the slumbering Continent. But now, the time had come. The cruel, wicked old world deluged with tears and blood was not to be the scene of humanity' s highest development. There has been a curious significance in some epoch-making names, — Michael An- gelo — Raphael— Leonardo da Vinci— Napo- leon — are strangely suggestive; and to this list may be added — Christopher Golunibus. HISTOEY OF THE UNITED STATES. 9 Christopher^ witli its Divine suggestion, and Columba — the dove, — sent out over the w^aste of v^ater to discover a new world which perhaps shall survive the wreck of the old. CHAPTER II. There are many names linked with discov- ery, which shine as beacon-lights in history. But what gives to that of Christopher Oo- lumhus such unique splendor, is not alone the grandeur of what he accomplished, but — the fact that it was based upon a precon- ceived theory, perfectly true in principle. He did not sail blindly out into that Sea of Darkness impelled by love of adventure, and then come unexpectedly upon a Conti- nent. The man of action achieved by heroic endeavor what the man of thought had first planned in the closet. His x^enetrating ge- nius had the power to grasp and combine the phenomena of the external world, and to draw from them conclusions far-reaching and true. These conclusions once grasped remained in his mind rock-ribbed realities, upon which storms of discouragement, per- secution, and ridicule, beat for years in vain. The making of maps seems not to have I HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 11 been a bad sort of occupation in that age of geographical enthusiasm ; for we hear of Vespucius, paying $500 for a map of the world; and a curiously inaccurate thing it must have been, with no Cape of Good Hope, and no American Continent. This was the occupation by which Colum- bus earned a scanty living in Lisbon, while the growing thought was taking possession of him, and the fire was kindling in his soul. It is quite probable that a friendship was commenced at this time between the two men whose names were destined to be for- ever so strangely associated. There is contagion in a splendid enthusi- asm. His own absolute belief in his j^roject compelled people to listen to Columbus, and even bridged the gulf between him and the throne of Spain. Ferdinand smiled indul- gently as he listened to plans for bestowing wealth and kingdoms. The i)rize was allur- ing. A quick route to India would bring enormous reward. He felt almost tempted to venture something in such a lottery. The chance had been lost to Genoa and to Portu- gal, but it might be offered to them again. Genoa's prosperity was rudely menaced by all these efforts to reach India by sea; — and 12 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Portugal was ambitious to keep her j^lace in the lead of discovery. All these things passed through the unimpassioned mind of Ferdinand as he coolly weighed the visionary promises of the Genoese. But Isabella's soul was deeply stirred by the eloquence of this enthusiast, who talked of carrying the Holy Faith into the darkened east. To win the Great Khan of Tartary to the Cross, was worth venturing much. Talavera, the Queen's father confessor, warily urged that she take advice before act- ing in a matter so important. At his sugges- tion a Junta or Council of Cosmographers was invited to meet and listen to what Columbus had to say, and then to determine whether his plan was worth considering. To the childlike Columbus it seemed, when summoned to meet the learned Council at Salamanca, (148G,) that the end was at hand. He had but to ex2)lain, in order to convince. He looked with eager confidence into the faces of cosmographers, astronomers, and learned i^relates, as he disclosed his project, and the convincing truths upon which it was based. Talavera — his evil genius then and always^ — presided over their deliberations. They listened to this visionary adventurer, HISTOKY OF THE UNITED STATES. 13 who talked so liglitly of overthrowing the beliefs of centuries. Generations of men wise in nautical science had preceded him. Was it probable they could have overlooked such a truth, if it was a truth? A new thought, if it be revolutionary, is an insult to the learning of a thousand years. He was guilty not so much of building uj) a new be- lief, — as of tearing down the old. " Even admitting the earth to be round " said one, "in that case the ships could never return. For in coming back, would they not have to climb all the way up a hill ? And what winds could enable them to do that?" The fathers of the Church were cited, and scriptures quoted in proof that the earth is a plane ; Columbus saw he was in danger not alone of defeat, but even of charges of heresy. The Junta decided that '•'•the project loas vain and impossible.'''' Ferdinand, who had never been in sympathy with it, now dis- missed it; and even Isabella realized she must abandon a dream, against which science and religion Joined hands. But Columbus was not without advocates. A small minority of the Council believed in 14 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. him. He rallied from this defeat. His elo- quence, his lofty enthusiasm for carrying the Cross into heathen Cathay (northern part of China) had an irresistible charm for Isabella. Hope revived, and then came the war with the Moors, which swept him and his project into oblivion; Columbus waiting patiently for the fresh consideration prom- ised, after the war should have concluded. But, alas for those who x>ut their trust in Princes ! When peace came, the treasury was drained, and the cool, calculating Fer- dinand, was in no mood to equip a tieet, for "this pauper pilot, promising rich realms." Seven years had thus been spent in vain ef- fort. Columbus' hair had whitened, his step had grown slow and faltering. The few who had shared his enthusiasm had grown cold. Poverty and defeat are poor advocates of a waning cause. People looked pityingly af- ter him, children touched their foreheads and smiled as he passed slowly on the street. But his intrepid soul knew no defeat. He was planning fresh efforts. He would aban- don this land which for seven years had lured him with false lioj)es. Genoa had declined the undertaking. Portugal had deceived him with iDromises, HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 15 then basely using his own charts and plans, had secretly sent out a ship to test their truth. Spain had stolen from him five of the best years of his waning life. He had sent his brother three years ago to con- fer with Henry VII of England, and Bar- tholomew (who had been captured by pi- rates) had not been heard from since. To France should be offered the glory of this enterprise! History affords few pictures as striking as this old man, humiliated by unpaid bills for food and clothing, footsore, weary, knock- ing at the gate of the Monastery at Rabida, and asking for bread and shelter; the humble package he carried, containing at that moment the key to wealth immeasurable — charts and plans which within a year would bestow a Hemis'pliere ! This hour of deej)est defeat saved him to Spain. It is part of this strange romance, that the prior of the Monastery, had been before Talavera the Father Confessor to Isa- bella; — a man loved and revered by her. They talked far into the night, his interest growing more and more profound in the story of Columbus, whom he implored to wait ; to abide patiently with him while he 16 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. acquainted the Queen with his puq^ose of leaving Sj)ain, The i)rior wrote to Isabella — representing the pity and the shame of permitting such an opportunity to be enjoyed by France. Columbus waited at Rabida while letters passed and repassed. Hopes were fanned into life, only to be extinguished again, and then to be rekindled. Finally he mounted his mule and turned his face resolutely toward France. At this very moment the generous Queen had re- solved. She would equij) the expedition herself. "The enterprise is mine," she said proudly. "I undertake it for Castile! — " A royal messenger was dispatched to over- take Columbus, inviting him to come to the Court, and sending an ample sum to meet the expense of his journey and outfit. Did they expect him to come as an humble supj)liant, ready to make any concession for royal favor ? If so they were mistaken. Un- daunted by misfortunes, — with a lofty faith in what he had to confer, Columbus named his conditions, proudly and firmly. He must be made Admiral of the seas, and Viceroy of the lands he is about to discover. He must have one-tenth of the jirofits of the expedition HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 17 — and these honors and privileges must be forever hereditary in his family. Spanish Grandees listened indignantly to these arrogant demands from a half- crazy foreign adventurer, in thread-bare coat. Negotiations were broken off, Columbus proudly refusing to abate his conditions one jot again turned his face toward France. But others beside Talavera were counsel- ing the King and Queen. They urged the folly of allowing such an opportunity to be lost to Spain, and to go to France; while the 64,000 dollars required to equip the fleet, was, after all, a trifle, compared with the Ijossible results. (The force of this reason- ing was proved a generation later, when the one surviving shij) of Magellan' s expedition returned laden with spices from Molucca, which when sold realized a sum sufficient to pay the whole cost of the expedition and to leave a handsome profit besides.) And as for the honors, if he did not succeed he would not wear them; and if he did, — he deserved them. Isabella glad to be sustained dispatched another messenger to recall Columbus, and again he returned; this time, to be invested 18 HISTORY OF THE TTNTTED STATES. with all tlie honors and clothed with all the authority he had claimed. As Columbus journeyed toward Palos, he bore with him strange credentials — letters addressed to Kublai-Kahn and other oriental Kings (the names left in blank) telling these yet-undiscovered-potentates, of the affec- tion entertained for them by their Spanish Majesties, their joy at their peace and j^ros- perity, and asking them to receive Christo- pher Columbus, whom they sent to deliver this message of love. A delicious bit of diplomatic fiction which is strange reading in the light of this closing Nineteenth Cen- tury. CHAPTER III. The most memorable voyage ever made was commenced and ended on Friday. In about tliirty-six days, was accomplished what Columbus had been nearly twenty years in projecting.* On the 8d of August 1492, the three caravels, Santa-Maria, Pinta, and Nina, sailed from Palos. One hundred and twen- ty men who had with difficulty been per- suaded to venture upon a voyage so hazard- ous and unprecedented, bade farewell to weeping friends. Never were seas so peaceful, nor skies so friendly; yet as they were carried farther and farther into the unknown, vague terrors possessed them. Hitherto ships had kept near to the land. But even the gentle winds seemed to carry them now with a fatal facility, as if drawing them into a region from whence there was no return; and when * See Chronology, in Supplement. 20 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. the magnetic needle no longer pointed to the north star, a phenomenon now i^erfectly understood, Columbus was obliged to in- vent exi^lanations for what seemed even to himself sinister and unaccountable. Whether his impatient and mutinous fol- lowers would really have thrown him into the sea after the thirty- third day, it is im- possible to say. But the floating branch of thorn with fresh berries, was a blessed mes- senger of hope; quickly conlirmed by birds flying toward the southwest. These birds altered the course of history. Had Columbus followed his own unerring instincts, and steadily kept his course diie west, as he intended to do, the little fleet would have come directly upon the coast of Florida, and Spanish dominion from the lirst would have been established upon the Continent of North America. It was his yielding his own Judgment to others and following the birds to the south- west, which prevented him from being the first to reach the Western Continent, and which led him instead into the broken surface of that archipelago in the western ocean, which was thereafter the basis of Spanish Dominion in the new World. HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 21 But Columbus did not dream it was a "New World," upon which he planted the cross and the colors of Spain on that October morning, 1492. He sui^i^osed of course it was the Asiatic coast; and the dark-skinned natives who furtively and timorously watch- ed the dazzling beings who had come down to them from the skies, these he naturally called, Indians. He had little doubt they would soon aid him in finding his way to the great populous cities which must be near. Marco Polo's book was his guide in this new and strange region, which he soon dis- covered was not the mainland. In Cuba, the largest of the Islands, he joy- fully recognized the Cipango^ or Japan, of that book of marvels; and when in the soft melodious speech of the natives he heard the word "Cubanaca7i," (meaning beyond Cuba) he was sure that the great " Kublai-Khan " dwelt in the region to which they pointed, and he should soon see him face to face, and deliver his letter from the King and Queen! His winged imagination had flown over a great Continent, and then over 9000 miles of ocean beyond. One-half the circumference of the globe lay between him and Japan. 22 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. But if the round world was greater than he knew, so was his discovery ! Once the lirst thread has spanned the abyss, it is easy to send after it cords,— and then cables, — and finally iron pathways. Columbus had sj)anned the gulf of darkness and ignorance; — and now it would require daring, but no genius, for Vespucius, and the Cabots, Balboas and Magellans to fol- low, and then to strengthen and extend the bridge for the feet of the nations to tread. It would be pleasant to tell of rewards rich and ample — of generous recognition by the Nation and of grateful Sovereigns load- ing liim with honors, and only sunset-splen- dors after a troubled day. But the history of heroes is not written in tliat way. Great souls do not float down life's stream upon beds of flowery ease; and Columbus must be greatest of all, if greatness be measured by sorrows. Envy, — susxucion, — malice, — vindictive hate, — cruel misrepresentation,— all that these can inflict were his to bear. Unrea- sonable and rapacious followers demanding immediate realization of extravagant hopes, which too they must obtain without ett'ort. HISTOEY OF THE UNITED STATES. 23 Highly wrought expectation in Spain which must not be disappointed. A gentle, help- less native race, whom he believed he had a God-given mission to save, and yet from whom he must exact toil and tribute to meet the expectations of his Sov- ereigns, and whom he was helpless to pro- tect from the cruel civilization he had brought to their shores. No gentler savages ever idled in the sun. Unconscious of evil as they were of toil, seemingly exempt in their Paradise from the universal curse. Timid as fawns, con- Ming as children, equally unconscious of the value of the gems they wore on their naked persons, and of the fierce cupidity they excited. But they were to learn their cruel lesson quickly. Soon we hear them plaintively asking these superior beings, — "when they are going back to their home in the skies? ' ' In four years a third of this gentle race had perished. One of them when offered consolation by a priest as he was dying, asked if there were any Span- iards in his Heaven; and when told there were, said — then he would rather go to Hell. A few words linger in our speech as me- morials of this hapless race. 24 HISTOEY OF THE UNITED STATES. Hamac. — A net stretched across poles in which they slept. Urican. — The fierce tempests which swej)t their islands. Tabaco. — The weed they smoked, and Caniba. — A word used in speaking of their man-eating neighbors, the Caribs. If those Caravels had brought to our shores such men as came over in the May- flower 128 years later, the slumbering Con- tinent would have had a different awaken- ing. The contrasting results of planting mce and mrtue in virgin soil, were never before so obvious. Both have borne and are still bearing, abundant and convincing harvests. It may be expecting too much of one man, that he should be equally great as discoverer, law-giver, and ruler of a Province. Colum- bus may not always have acted with perfect wisdom. But he did not deserve to be the victim of mutinies, treacheries and conspira- cies, to have every misfortune in the Colony laid to his charge ; enemies in Spain eagerly spreading misrepresentations from the West Indies, undermining him in public estima- tion and with his Sovereigns. To a man con- scious of his own lofty aims what greater HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 25 suffering could be inflicted? There is ter- rible vitality in slander. Tlie dragons- teeth sown at that time have borne harvests ever since. Even as late as his fourth Centen- nial in 1892, there was fresh effort to de- ti^act from the glory of his name and achievement. There was a brief triumph when Columbus returned and was received by his Sovereigns under a golden canopy and with royal hon- ors ; its recollection only to be obliterated by another return, a few years later, loaded with irons like a common criminal. In vain did royal hands remove the manacles, and try to soothe his outraged spirit. The iron had entered into his soul. He could never forget the ignominy which had been put upon him, and kept the chains to be placed in his coffin as a memorial of a grateful country. There was a sublimity in his misfortunes which matched the magnitude of his work. A Homer well-fed and laurel-crowned, would be a less heroic figure, than a Homer blind and begging bread. And so there is a tragic grandeur in Columbus, dying in poverty and neglect at Valladolid (May 20th, 1506) unconscious of his magnificent gift to the 2G HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. world, and believing lie had outlived Ms fame. If his dying eyes fixed on those cruel chains hanging upon the wall, could have had prophetic vision of a grand pageant in New York Harbor four centuries hence, when all the nations of Europe were as- sembled to pay homage to his name; if lie could have beheld the "White City by the Lake" that evanescent creation of genius which sprang into existence as if by Magi- cian's Wand to do him honor, he would have seen that the final verdict of the world is just. Amerigo Vespucci, a friend and comrade of Columbus, guided by the great navigator's own maps and charts visited the South American coast in 1499 — (one year after Columbus). He wrote a fascinating descrip- tion of what he saw. Authorship is not often too richly rewarded. One Waldsee- Muller, a German geographer, seems to have placed these unearned and unsought honors upon the Florentine writer, by suggesting that the new land be named after him. And so it is, that millions of people pay Vespu- cius undeserved tribute, every hour, in call- ing themselves Americans. CHAPTER IV. The wall of mystery encircling the West- ern Continent had been broken down, and little streams of European civilization began to press in here and there, increasing in vol- ume, and destined in time to inundate the land. The New World which was now to be brought out of its hiding place, was in fact, a very Old World. It bore hoary secrets in its bosom, which have ever since baffled the curi- osity of man. At the time of its discovery, it contained two races, with anomalous but developed social and political systems. The Aztecs occupied a vast empire in Mexico^ stretching from ocean to ocean, in the south- ern extremity of North America, and the "Children of the Sun" in Peru, the land of the Incas, another empire nearly as large on the western coast of South America. Mildness and ferocity, refinements and bar- barities were strangely mingled in both. 28 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Temi)les blazing with gold and jewels were shambles, where thousands of human vic- tims were yearly sacrificed to their deities by a people singularly gentle and peaceful in their instincts, and simple and just in their government and laws. Amid incon- gruous refinements, fruits, flowers, perfumes and Joyous outbursts of song and dance, the victim was bound to the sacrificial stone, his breast cut open, his heart torn out, and bleeding and almost palpitating, devoured by the worshippers. But the existence of the rudiments of as- tronomy, knowledge of the cause of eclipses, the construction of the sun-dial, and divi- sions of time, identical with those in the east, all pointed to some remote connection with the early civilizations of Asia. Researches have shown that the "Tol- tecs," — a race immediately preceding the Az- tecs, — had a civilization of a higher type than they, and that in proportion with the in- crease in antiquity, there is corresponding advance in character of remains. This is ground for believing that there was a highly developed people at a time immeasurably remote, upon wliom were superimposed the sombre cruelties of lower races. HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 29 Tliat these people should have possessed astronomical knowledge sufficiently accurate to estimate the length of the year to an in- appreciable fraction is as accountable, as that sculptured elephants should be found upon their temples; an animal which has never existed in the Western Hemisj)here. For a man in solitary confinement from in- fancy, to evolve a knowledge of arbitrary systems and customs, would be no less of a miracle, and would lead us to believe he must at some time, and in some way, have held communication with the outside world. The tradition of the sudden subsidence of ' ' Atlantis ' ' in the west, was hoary with age when related to Plato by the Egyptian priests. Whether the Azores are really the mountain peaks of that drowned Continent, which once bridged the distance between the east and west, — or, whether by natural process of evolution an isolated race by law of nature came to use the same arbitrary di- visions of time, symbols, ritual, — developing upon lines identical with the nations in the east, are the two extreme theories with which speculation is still busy. In North America, stretching from the 30 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, are evi- dences of a civilization shrouded in still deeper mystery; a race so remote in time that excepting vast earthworks, — those most indestructible forms of architecture, — its traces are almost effaced. These parallelo- grams, squares, pyramids, rearing their heads some of them ninety feet high, and extending many of them over acres and some over even miles of territory, are silent and mysterious as the Sphinx. A huge ser- pent to-day winds through Ohio in graceful curves for 1000 feet, its open jaws about to swallow an egg-shaped figure 364 feet long. For what purpose millions of men toiled for centuries upon these strange structures baf- fles conjecture. But their construction shows a knowledge of principles which gives evidence of a people highly developed in some resx)ects, while beautiful designs in vases and utensils tell of advanced concep- tions in art. The North American Indian, who wan- dered careless and incurious over these vast graves of a prehistoric race, belonged to a time comparatively recent, and had not one instinct in common with his predecessors. The Mound-Builders, the Aztecs, and the HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 31 " Children of the Sun," give evidence of a common origin. They were toilers, and have left the impress of a tremendous purpose and industry in the lands where they dwelt; whereas the Indian leaves no more trace of occupation in the country through which he roams than do the elk and buffalo on the plains, or the deer in the forests. While the Mound-Builders must have been num- bered by millions, the North American Indi- ans who succeeded them were but a handful; not more than 200,000, or the contents of a city like Detroit, emptied into the vast soli- tudes east of the Mississippi. The West Indies and adjacent tropical lands, on the contrary, were when found densely j)opu- lated with the native race. Such was the Continent barring the way to India, and upon whose threshold the ra- pacious Spaniard was fiercely hunting for gold and x)earls. Tlie treasure already flowing into Spain, was only a golden promise of what lay be- yond this obstructing land. Other nations were eager to share the fruits of a discovery they had refused to aid. England, never far behind in such enter- prise, was first in the field; Henry VII send- 33 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. ing out promptly an expedition in charge of John Cahot^ a Venetian mariner. He wise- ly conjectured that on a round world, a northern course must be the shorter one. Sailing from Bristol for Cathay in 1497, he came unexpectedly upon the coast of New- foundland, and was tlie unconscious discov- erer of the Continent of America. (One year earlier than Columbus landed in South America — 1498.) While the Cabots, father and son, were searching the Northern coast for straits which would carry them to the east through the west, Spain was not idle. Ponce de Leon in search of the fabled spring of youth, had come upon a tiowery coast on Easter Sunday, — ''^ Pascua Flori- da^'''' — and gave the picturesque name Flori- da to the jieninsula (1.512). Balboa had crossed the isthmus of Darien and dramatically claimed the then nameless ocean for Sj)ain (1513). Magellan still searching for an open water- way through the land, found it — (1520) — but too far away to be of much use to commerce. He christened the Pacific Ocean — and then as he lay dead in the Philippine Islands, slain by savages, — abundant honors were at- HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 33 taclied to his name, for being the first to cir- cumnavigate the globe. That sumptuous Monarch Francis I asked "what sort of compact have Spain and Eng- land with the Almighty, that they should divide the earth between them?" Verazzani^ a Florentine mariner offered his services to France, and with a single ca- ravel, the "Dolphin," crossed the ocean reaching the coast where Wilmington now stands. The little "Dolphin" bearing this first Italian to our shores sailed into New York Harbor 1524. He pronounced it "the good- liest place his eyes had ever rested on," — a sentiment echoed since by a million (more or less) of his countrymen. We hear he had also a favorable opinion of Newport, which has also been shared by many Europeans. Cartier, in 1534, explored the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the river of that name as far as the Island which he named Mont-real, — Royal-Mount: — and planting the colors of Francis I, — he called the land "New France." Spain in the meanwhile was penetrating farther and farther into the west. Nothing in the annals of the world exceeds her 34 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. cruelties in Mexico and Peru ; the Monte- zumas in 1521 under Cortez, and the Incas in 1532 under Pizarro, perishing in her grasj), Fernando de Soto who had been trained in cruelty under Cortez in Peru, received a commission from Charles V to go in search of the "Seven Cities of Cibola." He led a glittering host into the dense forests where now are the plantations of northern Missis- sip]3i, and when instead of great potentates and sumptuous cities, forlorn Indians came out of native wigwams, offering corn, they killed them in disappointment and rage. At the i^oint where Memphis stands the King of Rivers was first seen by Eurox^ean eyes. There too De Soto died, and his hopes and ambitions were buried in the turbid waters he had discovered. (1541.) One of his followers, Menendez returned, to found the town of St. Augustine, — (1565). At the same time that Admiral Coligny's colony of Huguenot refugees was living its brief life at Port Royal, upon what is now the South Carolina coast. Cahrillo, another of Cortez' s comrades, fol- lowed the direction up the Pacific coast in- dicated by the Mexicans as a region of gold. HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 35 Their feet nnconsciously trod that El-Do- rado of three centuries later which would have satisfied their wildest dream, naming it California^ after a Kingdom in a Spanish romance then popular. So, — striving to get through or around the land, — experimenting like curious and ad- venturous ants, these pioneers of an invading host had pierced the Continent at countless points, still believing it was the Asiatic coast. Europe was disheartened by the immensity of the barriers. Martin Frohislier, in 1576, went in search of a northwest passage to India. He reported the finding of gold as he threaded his way through the icebergs and frozen islands of the Northern sea, and revived the waning interest. Sir Francis Drake, who in 1579 had sailed far uj) the western coast of the north- ern continent, discovered a new and easier way of getting treasure from the west. Dur- ing the war between Spain and England (1588) he waylaid and captured ships laden with riches wrung from the Montezumas and the Incas, and found it a much more i^rofit- able kind of gold-hunting than sifting the sands of frozen Arctic seas. It is a curious fact that the country which 36 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. contributed most largely to the discovery of tlie New World, never owned a foot of its territory. Italy gave Columbus and Vespu- cius to Sixain, the Cahots to England, and Verrazani to France, and neither territory, treasure nor renown were her reward; while even the privilege of bestowing a name upon the new Continent was by a strange freak of fortune accorded to Germany. CHAPTER V. A CENTURY after the Discovery, the Con- tinent of North America was claimed by three nations. The Spanish Claim, under the names of Florida and New Mexico, extended from ocean to ocean, and then north indefinitely. The French Claim, under the names of Acadia and New France, extended as far south as Philadelphia and thence indefi- nitely southwest and west. The English Claim, between the 34th and 45th parallels of latitude, had also an indefi- nite extension, but only toward the setting sun; the western portion being known as New Albion, and the eastern Virginia. So long as this basket work of interlacing claims existed only upon paper, it made little difference. But the time was coming when the great solitary spaces would be occupied, and many struggles would be required to adjust confiicting lines. Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1584, obtained from 38 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Queen Elizabeth a patent for a large terri- tory, with a view to iDermanent settlement, instead of random expeditions in search of treasure. The idea of being proprietor of a princely domain, with numerous tenantry yielding not alone revenue, but allegiance, appealed to the picturesque imagination of the courtly adventurer, by whom the new land was christened Virginia in honor of the Virgin Queen. The two colonies which he successively planted on the Island of Roanoke had a brief existence of suffering, starvation and tragedy. In five years there was an En- glish graveyard, but not an English town upon the American continent. Raleigh had spent $200,000 of his private fortune in an experiment of which can be recorded two results. The unfortunate set- tlers had discovered a x)lant with tuberous root (the potato, which " when boiled had a goodly taste;" and the tahaco of the na- tive Indians in the West Indies, became known to Europeans ; a plant which was destined to serve "Virginia" in an ex- traordinary manner in her early existence. Unable himself to realize his dream, Ral- eigh stimulated others to attempt it. Oos- HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, 39 nold in 1602 landed at Cape Cod, and found in Buzzard's Bay, tlie ideal home of the next settlement, while others returned from va- rious other points on the coast with various extravagant accounts of their advantages. So the interest was kept alive and at last attracted the attention of the King. The seed sown by Raleigh was to ripen and bear fruit ; — but not for him. He, the brilliant, sagacious statesman, the accomplished schol- ar and writer, his mind filled with com- prehensive plans for his age, was upon a mere pretext to be thrown into prison by a vain, pedantic, narrow-minded king; (James I) there to languish for sixteen years before the long-susiDended axe should fall. In 1618, — while men were still living who had helped to destroy the Spanish Armada, (1588) — the head of the most-variously gifted man in England was given as an offer- ing to the friendship of S^Dain! The first attempt at colonization had been under the auspices of an absentee Proprie- tor. Now a larger experiment was to be tried under the protection of the crown. In the year 1607, Colonial life in America commenced. 40 HISTORY OP THE UNITED STATES. In 1606, James I issued charters to two trading Companies, called respectively the London Company, and The Plymouth Com- pany ; the former privileged to occupy Southern Virginia, and the latter Northern Virginia ; or in other words, all the coast line between Labrador and the 34th parallel of latitude, (a little north of Charleston) excepting, — a small neutral strip to be re- served between the two Companies ; neither of which was to approach within 100 miles of the other. This Charter was worthy of the King who granted it. No less generous instrument, nor one less calculated to invite self-respect- ing men could have been devised for an en- terprise which required every virtue. For the i)rivilege of occupying a wilder- ness, subduing its forests, and meeting the perils and hardships of pioneer life among savages, Englishmen were to abandon every political right they had enjoyed at home, to be subject to the arbitrary control of a com- mercial body in London, which was in turn to be controlled by the King. They were to have no voice or influence in the manage- ment of their own affairs. The King was to receive one-fifth of all the gold and silver HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 41 obtained, and for five years every man was to labor for a common fund. Such was the first Government framed for the land which was to be the abode of liberty. Men must have been wretched indeed to accept such conditions. So it is not sur- prising that the three little sliii)S which sailed into Chesapeake Bay in 1607, brought, with few exceptions, men of desperate for- tunes hunted out of England by miseries so great, they were glad to fly to ills, they knew not of. It did not help matters that they were "gentlemen;" as some one says, "dissolute gallants, packed off to escape worse destinies at home, and more fitted to corrupt, than to found, a commonwealth." As they sailed up the river and as un- willing hands cleared the ground for their first settlement (both named after King- James), it was gold, gold, always gold of which they were thinking — believing in every shining bit of yellow earth, they had found the beginning of boundless riches. The history of such an expedition might have been written in advance, but for the saving presence of one man, whose name has not been sufficiently honored for stemming 42 HISTORY OP THE UNITED STATES. the tide of discord, folly, discouragement and even despair, and being in fact the lirst to plant the Anglo-Saxon race on this Con- tinent. John Smith is known to many people as a man who owes his chief distinction to having his life romantically saved by an Indian Princess. He had come unscathed from a hundred perils in Europe and in the Orient; but he was more than a hero of romantic ad- venture. By force of a tremendous ability he came quickly to the front, and by rare sagacity and firmness kept the unruly herd from destruction during those first years of unspeakable suffering in Jamestown. He discerned that the soil was the true gold- mine; and labor the indisi)ensable condition for existence, and had the firmness to re- quire and to compel gentlemen to work. Amid his distracting duties this coura- geous, versatile, resourceful man found time to make a voyage of exploration ; sailing 3,000 miles in his little pinnace "Dis- covery. ' ' He skirted the coast of Chesai^eake Bay, and thence up the Potomac, passing the future home of Washington and tlie city bearing his name, as far as the falls of Georgetown. He did more than anyone HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 43 else to extend the bounds of geographical knowledge in this great unexplored tract ; the accuracy of which is attested by his maps still extant. If anyone deserves to be called the ' ' Father of Virginia" it is this man, who when he returned to England fatally injured by an explosion of gunpowder, received no slight- est recognition from the Commercial Com- pany he had served. The London Company caring for nothing but quick and rich re- turns, profoundly irritated and disappoint- ed, saw nothing to commend. Some benefit came from this disappoint- ment. Many of the narrow-minded pro- jectors of the enterprise dropped out, and their places were gradually filled with others who believed in a wiser and more liberal X)olicy. There was from time to time an ex- tension of i)rivileges, and when the settler no longer toiled for a common fund, and every man might be j)roprietor of a bit of land for his own use, an incentive for individual effort was created. That clause in the Charter giving to the Crown one-fifth of the gold and silver, had the one advantage of luring men from the ruinous madness of gold-hunting toward 44 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. agriculture, wliicli was not subject to such tribute. The discovery of the value and facility of tobacco-culture (1614) was an epoch in the life of the wretched colonists. It brought the first throb of prosperity. When they found that this plant so easily cultivated brouglit sure and swift returns in things for which they had been sutfering, that it could be used to pay debts and purchase comfort, planting took the place of thriftless gold- hunting. There was nothing which tobacco would not buy. Food, clotliing, fanning imple- ments, and even wives, were exchanged for the "Aveed," which became the recognized currency of that region for 150 years. Sending a cargo of English maidens as wives for the settlers also brought enormous benefit. The lonely planters gladly paid the 100 or 150 pounds of tobacco which was the price of purchase ; or — ^to state it in terms less barbarous,— the sum required to pay the cost of passage. Unhappily the year 1619 brought another and less beneficent gift to our shores. A cargo of Africans just from their native coast were purchased, and found so efiicient HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 45 in tobacco-planting, that more were sent for, and the curse of negro-slavery was firmly rooted in American soil. With the formation of domestic ties, and other improved conditions, a stream com- posed of a better class had steadily set in from England. Instead of a little starving band in Jamestown, there were now planta- tions, and houses, and settlements ; still leading a struggling existence, none leai)ing to wealth by sudden bound, but with roots growing deeper and deeper in that soil, which is the basis of true prosperity. The colonists were controlled now by Gov- ernors aj)pointed by the London Council, and were more or less miserable, according to the qualities of the men selected. There was cruelty, injustice, oppression, hardship, — but u}3on the whole a steady movement toward enlarged j)rivileges until 1621, — ■ when Governor Yeardley invited two repre- sentatives from each of the eleven boroughs, called hurgesses, to meet with him and the Council. With this came into existence, — the first representative hody in America. On account of real and fancied wrongs in 1622, the Indians made a preconcerted at- tack upon the scattered plantations, killing 46 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. on the same day 347 men, women and chil- dren. In the long warfare which followed this tragedy, there was another massacre of 500 (1644), and by depredations and deser- tions, the Colony was reduced almost one- half. Such persistent calamities wore out the patience of the London Company, which was dissolved, and Virginia became a Royal Province. As if in fear of its becoming too prosperous, England enforced the "Navi- gation Act," which compelled her and the other colonies then existing, to send all their exj^orts to England, and also to procure from that country their imports; a jjolicy which had an important subsequent history. Governor BerTieley at the same time was devoting himself to devising tyrannical re- strictions, for the submissive colonists, and when he arbitrarily refused to give adequate protection from the Indians at a time of great peril, a feeling of profound indigna- tion for the first time found expression. An outburst of fury was led by a young law- yer, Nathaniel Bacon. It resulted in the burning of Jamestown and driving away of Berkeley, 1676 — just one hundred years before another and greater rebellion. HISTOKY OF THE UNITED STATES. 47 When Governor Berkeley later wreaked Ills vengeance upon these men, Charles II said, "That old fool has taken more lives in that naked country, than I for the murder of my father." CHAPTER VI. During the first fourteen years of bitter experiences in Southern Virginia there had been little desire to make settlements under the Charter of the Plynioutli Vompany, in the north. The French in Acadia had crept farther into the interior. Champlain in 1608, had established a trading-x^ost at Que- bec, and the year following, had given his name to the beautiful lake he explored. In the same year (1G09) Henry Hudson an English navigator, bearing a commission from the Dutch East India Com^mny "/o find an easier route to Asia,^' ui)on his little shij^ " Half -Moon " sailed into New York Harbor, past Manhattan Island, into the river now bearing his name. As he gazed wonderingly at the Palisades, and as he threaded his way through the Highlands and under the shadow of the Catskills he hojoed he had found the long-sought waterway to India, Then in disappointment at the nar- HISTOEY OF THE UNITED STATES. 49 rowing stream, lie was off and away again to the icebergs and frozen north, in Fro- bisher's footstei^s, leaving his name upon the great ice- bound bay through which he sailed. Hudson's exploration of the beautiful "Manhattan" river and of the adjacent coasts, was seized as a pretext for Coloniza- tion by Holland, which, defying the priority of Cabot's discovery (115 years earlier) gave to a territory extending from Delaware Bay, to Cape Cod, the name " New Netherlands.'''' Whether this was as England thought a lawless intrusion, or whether as Holland con- tended England had forfeited her claim to the Continent, by not having exercised it for more than a hundred years, may still be an unsettled question. At all events this "in- trusion," brought to our shores an element, without which our civilization would be im- poverished indeed. No j)art of Europe could have contributed such stability, such equi- librium, and such simple instincts, for free- dom and justice as streamed from the Netherlands during those fifty-five years of Dutch occupation. A land which was to be so plentifully sprinkled with Celtic sand, had need of just such sub-stratum of tena- 50 HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. cious clay from Holland at its foundation! — In 1613, a thriving trading-post was estab- lished on Manhattan Island which the Dutch called New Amsterdam, and another on the site of Albany was named Orange. James, that " Divinely Aj^pointed " King who "could do no wrong" had been en- gaged in "harrying out of the land" the stub- born ministers who refused to wear surplices, and to bow to the cross, and Holland had be- come an asylum for persecuted Nonconform- ists. To many of these it seemed that a home of their own in that wilderness across the ocean, would be a blessed refuge. The old Plymouth Company in England, was superseded by a new one, receiving from King James a New Charter (1620) in which for the first time, the territory lying between the 40th and 48tli degrees of lati- tude was called " New England.^'' Hence- forth the name Virginia disaj^pears from the region indicated. After the reorganiza- tion of the old company, it bestowed its first grant, npon a band of men calling themselves the Neio Flymoutli Company. One hundred and twenty souls embarked on HISTOKT OF THE UNITED STATES. 51 the ship "Mayflower" and arrived the 21st of December 1620, at a point on the American coast which they named Plymouth. Hitherto no European had ever come to the New World for any purpose but gain. It was in search of treasure, that the Span- iards carried blight and desolation into the South and West. It was for gold — or its equivalent — that the French, the Dutch and the Anglo-Saxons in Southern Virginia were enduring hardship. The Pilgrims came for something more precious than gold or pearls. They expected toil and suffering, and sacrifices. It was the price they were willing to pay, for what was beyond price. Through the awful exj^eriences of that first winter on a bleak coast, struggling with cold, mortal disease and death, they never complained. With grim fortitude they dug graves in the frozen earth for one-half their number. It seems impossible that these men be- longed to the same race as the first Anglo- Saxon band at Jamestown, whom they re- sembled as little, — as they did the men who sailed on the three caravels from Palos. They represented all the manhood which had wrung freedom from British tyranny 53 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. through centuries of resistance. They were the fruit of every struggle from King John to Oliver Cromwell. This fruit, — acrid, bitter, unlovely to the taste sometimes, had at its core — Righteousness, the most precious seed ever planted in American soil. The Pilgrims had a charter, not from the Crown, but from the parent company in England, permitting them to choose their own Governor. He was elected by universal suffrage, (which for a time meant less than 100 votes ! ) and for eighteen years the whole body of male population constituted the Legislature, until increase, and diifusion over larger territory, led to a rej^resentative system. The augmenting bitterness against the Puritans in England and the peaceful ex- periences of the Pilgrims in America, turned the hearts of many more to that refuge. In 1629 another grant was bestowed upon a trading Corporation, calling itself the '■'■ Massachttsetts Bay Cornpanyy Many valuable men, with their families flocked to Salem, the "City of Peace," under the leadership of John Endicott. It is often the case that undue severity to the first-born is followed by extreme indul- HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 53 gence to the next. Certainly the Puritan child was no favorite with the Mother Coun- try; but she was treated with an indulgence strongly contrasting with the restrictions and severity which had been shown to her older sister in South Virginia. The reason is not far to seek. James had hated the Puritans, and would gladly have banished the whole of them. Charles, too much of a gentleman to Tiate anyone, thoroughly dis- liked them, and would have rejoiced to rid his Kingdom entirely of its most trouble- some element. Then too, England owned a vast unimproved country. What better use could be made of these turbulent psalm - singing Puritans, than to have them hew down the forests and open up the resources of her American possessions, upon which the French were encroaching, and the Dutch trespassing ? But experience in South Virginia had shown that Colonies will not thrive under tyranny. So when Governor Winthrop in 1630 joined the band at Salem with 1,000 recruits, he also brought a charter more in- dulgent even, than the one possessed by the Pilgrims. They, might elect their own Gov- ernors and officers, a General Assembly of 54 HISTOEY OF THE UNITED STATES. their own choosing had snpreme authority, and the meeting of the Council was trans- ferred from London to Salem, Although in "goode hearte," Winthrop found the Colony in famishing condition, uncomplainingly subsisting upon shell-fish and acorns. A day was appointed for fast- ing and x^rayer; which prayer was heard in advance. The arrival of a ship from Eng- land loaded with ample provisions, convert- ed the fast into a feast, which Americans have commemorated ever since in bleak No- vember. The first Thanksgiving dinner was in 1631. It is not strange that with such expulsive agencies at work in England, and such at- tractive ones in America, the solitudes were filling up. Something like civilization be- gan to appear. Heartli-fires were burning in Charlestown, (1629,) Boston, (1630,) Cam- bridgeport, Roxbury, and settlements form- ing at more distant points, and an old man, John Harvard, was revolving in his mind the plan of leaving by Ids will £400, for ^'■the support of a schoale or Colledge,'" (1637). In ten years, 20,000 people had joined the Colonists. If Rigliteousness^ be indispensable in the HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 55 foundation of a state, other qualities are also needed in its administration and devel- opment. The Puritans did not understand that there are other tyrannies besides those of Kings and Parliaments ; and that the most odious of all, is tyranny in matters of religious belief. It was their misfortune to be a community without conflict from diver- sity of opinion. In 1634, Roger Williams^ for maintaining that "No one should be compelled to support a form of worship con- trary to his will or belief," was tried by the General Court, and a sentence of exile pro- nounced upon him. In order to escape being transported to England, this first apostle of intellectual freedom, fled into the wilderness and en- dured a winter of cruel exposure, being sheltered at last by the Narragansett Indi- ans. They gave to him a large tract of terri- tory, which he gratefully called Providence. This he resolved to make a refuge for all who were persecuted for oj)inion's sake, and Rhode Island, the smallest of the thirteen States, was built upon a foundation deeper and wider — with one excej^tion — than any of them. Mrs. Hutchinson, leader of a strange fanatical sect, was the first to seek this ref- 5G HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. uge. She also suffered banishment, and with a band of followers joined Williams, while many others suffering like persecu- tions started forlorn settlements in New Hampshire or sought refuge in neighboring Colonies. The Hogging and even executing of Qua- kers twenty years later, and the torturing, hanging and burning of seventy-live x^^ople accused of witchcraft between 1645 and 1690, concludes the sorriest chapter in the history of New England. All the water in Charles River could not wash those bloodstains from Boston Common, and Salem the "City of Peace," will be forever associated witli one of the most revolting episodes in history. Fleeing from ^persecution themselves, they were the most relentless of persecutors. The Reformation of which these men and deeds were the intense and bitter fruit, — was des- tined to liberate, not to enchain men's con- sciences. A democratic fomi of government is the safest, not because the individual units are to be trusted; but precisely because they are not. Twelve men are wiser than one, and perhaps the verdi(^t of one hundred would be more just than that of twelve. It is in the HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 57 general average of a large number of contrast- ing minds and characters that we escape harm from unbalanced individual traits. In New England there were no contrasting views. They were all of one mind and one heart. The Puritans were abnormally developed on the side of righteousness. They needed a thousand such men as Williams, and were to have them too. New England, founded in religious tyranny, was by the saving law of reaction to become the nursery of intellec- tual freedom in America. A large tract obtained by Fernando Gor- ges and John Mason, 1623, which they di- vided (1629) and named respectively, Maine and New Hampshire (the latter containing the future State of Vermont,) had few set- tlers. Forlorn and harassed by the Indians, these struggling Colonies crept under the protection of the vigorous Massachusetts Bay Colony, and virtually belonged to it. The more inviting region of the Connecti- cut Valley began to be colonized under a grant obtained by the Lords Say and Brooke, — 1631. — Regardless of the pretended Dutch claim it was now rapidly settling, and was the first to adopt a written Constitution. 58 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. John Winthrop, son of the first Governor of Massachusetts, was first Governor of Con- necticut. This was the destination of Oliver Crom- well, Pym, and John Hampden, when King Charles recalled the sliip bearing them away, and thereby sealed his own fate. It is inter- esting to think upon what might have been the efl'ect of such a dominating personality as Cromwell's. Certainly his infiuence would not have been confined within the nascent Colony of Connecticut, and there might have been a different history, and perhaps even another map, of New England. Faint outlines of the future States were becoming visible. In 1643 for mutual pro- tection and benefit, Massachusetts, Ply- mouth and the two Connecticut Colonies, (New Haven and Saybrook) formed a union called Tlie United Colonies of Neio Eng- land,, foreshadowing a greater Confederation which was to come. Rhode Island would have liked to join the Confederacy, but was too much of a culprit to be admitted, and those stern Puritans no doubt felt a mild j)leasure in making her feel the weight of her transsrression. CHAPTER VII. Meanwhile for more tlian fifty years there had been steadily setting in from Hol- land a stream of Dutch virtue and thrift, which extended south into Jersey, and up the Hudson river toward Albany. The Dutch Republic offered free passage to mechanics, and to men of wealth, large tracts of land if they would at their own expense bring 50 or more men to settle them, calling these proprietors "Patroons," or I)atrons of the Manor. Governors appointed at Holland resided at New Amsterdam, and had their peace-loving souls sorely tried by Swedes on the Delaware, English on the Connecticut, and Indians everywhere. But it was a thriving and happy little community, which occupied the Southern ex- tremity of Manhattan Island, composed at that time of about 1,000 souls; or a popula- tion as large as one of the great office build- ings now standing on the same site. 60 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. As Governor Peter Stuyvesant sat in his doorway, looking out upon the bay, the little island where the Statue of Liberty was to stand and upon the grey outline of Staten Island heights beyond, he complacently smoked his pipe and thrilled the souls of the Knickerbockers with the oft-told tale of liis bloodless victory over the Swedes; who had in fact quite as sound a title to the Delaware shores as had the Dutch. But in 1664 Charles II gave to his brother James, Duke of York, the territory claimed l^y the Dutch. When the squadron of four English ships entered New York Harbor, the valiant Stuyvesant, perliaps with some doubts as to the validity of the Dutch claim, discreetly surrendered without resistance. New Amsterdam, (already containing a goodly number of Englishmen from Hol- land,) became New York, and Fort Orange was changed to Albany. James, content with the portion named in his honor, gave what is known as New Jer- sey, with its Sw^edish Colony, x>hinted by Gustavus Adolphus, to his friends. Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, and later ceded the portion called Delaware, to William Penn, to be joined to Pennsylvania. HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 61 Sir Philip Carteret, brother of Sir George, the Proprietor, was the first Royal Governor of New Jersey. He married the daughter of a wealthy patentee on Long Island. This led to a large immigration of Puritan set- tlers from her home and the founding of a town, which in honor of Lady Elizabeth Carteret was named ElizahetJitoion, and was the first settlement in New Jersey. For the benefit of those ladies desiring a share in public afl'airs it should be men- tioned, that this Colonial Dame, in the ab- sence of her husband in England, was au- thorized to sign jDapers for him. And the early records of New Jersey now show Acts bearing the signature of Elizabeth Carteret. "Virginia" the name which once stood for all the English possessions fro*in Labra- dor to Florida was gradually shrinking into more modest dimensions. New England had first been hewn out of the Mother Colony; then the New Netherlands reduced it still more. In 1634 Charles I gave to Lord Bal- timore the territory extending from the mouth of the Delaware, to the mouth of the Potomac and an irregular tract which the proprietor called Maryland, still farther en- croached upon the diminishing State, which 62 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. made ineffectual resistance in what is known as the "Clayborne Rebellion," Every political revolution in the Mother Country, left corresponding record on the shores of America. As the persecution of Puritans had colonized New England, now the persecution of the Catholics under Crom- wellian rule stimulated Lord Baltimore to find asylum for them in Maryland. But no intolerance stains the memory of this en- lightened colonizer, who was catholic in the broadest sense. Going beyond Roger Will- iams in liberality, he did not restrict his invitation to Ohristians^ but invited all of whatever belief, or unbelief, to come to this, the first real home of intellectual freedom in Eurojje or America. His liberality was ungratefully repaid. Fleeing protestants accepted the invitation in such numbers that they were finally able to exclude the catholics from power, and even to drive Lord Baltimore out of his own colony; the contest continuing with varying results, until the Revolution. There was another dismemberment of Vir- ginia in 1663— when that lavish King, Char- les II, probably having dined well, gave to eight of his friends, a tract extend- HISTOEY OF THE UNITED STATES. 63 ing from tlie Savannah River to the Poto- mac. As this like the other colonies had an indefinite extension west, it will be seen that the claim covered not far from a million square miles. It is not often that so con- siderable a slice of our planet lies within the gift of one man ! The grateful Lords named their colony Carolina in honor of Charles; then in con- sultation with John Locke the philosopher, proceeded to frame what they called a "Grand Model" for its Government. Frederick of Prussia once said "if he had a Province to punish, he would give it to philosophers to govern." This "Grand Model ' ' was a sort of beneficent feudalism in which a picturesque and prosperous ten- antry paid willing tribute to a picturesque and ideal titled class. In a land of log-cabins instead of baronial castles, where settlers could have more land than they needed without rent these fanci- ful devices came quickly to grief. Governments are created, not on paper, but on the soil out of which they grow. The planting of virtues, of intelligence and re- finements by refugee Huguenots, and the planting of rice, in her low-lying coast-lands, 64 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. by imported Africans, were the chief agen- cies in developing South Carolina — or Car^ teret Colony as it was called — while North Carolina, or Albemarle Colony, was partially settled by Virginians at the time it was carved from the parent State. Charleston was founded in 1080. The mulberry, and the olive, the quaint old gardens with trimmed shrubbery, and the French names on the narrow streets, — all these tell to-day, of the gentle and cultured people who were driven out of France by Louis the Fourteenth. AVhile Puritans and Catholics were alter- nately persecuted and j)ersecutors, the Qua- kers were in all places, and at all times, hunted out of every land. William Penn, a young man of wealth and aristocratic connections in England, to the dismay of his family resolved to cast his lot in with the unpopular sect. His father had a claim against the Crown, — Charles II, who never found it convenient to pay such debts in money, was glad to set- tle this one by giving a tract of land lying west of the Delaware River to William who desired it as refuge for the Quakers. HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 65 Penn's perfect justice in dealing with the Indians insured peace ; and his generous tolerant spirit and wise administration brought speedy prosperity to the Colony ; which he called Sylvania, and which his Royal patron insisted should be Pe)insjl- vania. In 1683, in the midst of a dense forest the deer were startled by the sound of the wood- man's axe ; and the foundations of a city laid, which its founder named Philadel- phia, (brotherly love). No settlement in America had such rapid growth. In one year it had 100 homes, and in three years had left New Amsterdam far behind. The last born of the original colonies came into existence in 1732. A year still more signally honored by the birth of George Washington. The laws of England bore heavily upon debtors, and English prisons were filled with men wrecked in fortune and in hope. James Oglethorpe conceived the idea of making a refuge for this unhappy class, and obtained from George II a tract of land "in trust for the poor," which he called 66 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Georgia. This territory was carved out of South Carolina, that Colony willingly giv- ing consent for the sake of the protection of an intermediate colony between her and the Spanish in Florida, by whom she was con- stantly harassed. Oglethorpe's refuge for distressed human- ity was quickly colonized, and his plans put into operation. Slavery, now existing in all the other colonies, was to be excluded ; and also rum, and wealth, — and poverty. Ex- cluding wealth was not difficult ; but in a community where unnatural restrictions were j)laced upon industry, and where a common ownership of land took away in- centive for industry, poverty was less easily abolished. The generous and kindly ex- periment languished for twenty years. Silk- culture which was to be the industry of this Utopia was unprofitable, and in 1752 the dream of legislating human misery out of existence, was abandoned. Georgia was surrendered to the King, and with restric- tions removed entered upon a new and com- mon-place career, taking her chances in the usual struggle with the infirmities of human- ity. The generous Oglethorpe returned to England; but not before he had led his HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 67 Colonists in a war with his Spanish neigh- bors, thus realizing South Carolina's hope of finding a bulwark in Gfeorgia. CHAPTER VIII. While the English Colonies were thus de- veloping, French dominion in America was extending; Jesuit Missions, trading-i^osts, and forts — always in combination — creeping along the shores of Lake Ontario, and to- ward the south and west; another similar movement starting from the Gulf of Mexico to meet it, until between Montreal and New Orleans there was a chain of forts, more than sixty in number. New Orleans had been founded in the year 1718, under the direction of the famous Mis- sissix^pi Com^iany organized by John Law, and the French were firmly established about the mouth of the Great River. It was to her Jesuit priests, those marvel- lous pioneers in discovery, that France was most indebted in America. Marquette ex- plored the Mississippi from Prairie-du- Chien to the Arkansas River, (1673,) and La Salle, from thence, to its mouth in 1082, HISTOEY OF THE UNITED STATES. 69 claiming the vast region drained by it for the Grand Monarch, and in honor of him, calling it Louisiana. It was not the policy of France to occupy this great expanse of territory. It was not her aim to found a nation, but to make a distant possession commercially valuable, and to bring new streams of revenue into her perennially drained Treasury. By ingratiating themselves with the Indi- ans, winning their confidence, and even con- verting some to the religion of the Cross, priests and traders alike insinuated them- selves by degrees into the wilderness, estab- lishing an influence which strengthened the flimsy forts at long intervals, and secured savage allies instead of enemies. The English colonies, which as we have seen had been created one after another by internal conditions in the Mother Country, were equally sensitive now to disturbance in her foreign relations. A war between England and Spain, or France, had its im- mediate response in a conflict with Spanish Florida on the south, or the French Prov- inces on the north; so in 1689, when James II threw himself into the arms of Louis XIV, 70 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. and William and Mary ascended his dis- lionored throne and war was declared be- tween France and England, it produced for eight years a corresponding conflict, between the English and French in Canada. One midwinter night in 1690, there oc- curred one of those horrid tragedies which stain the pages of history. The jDeople in Schenectady were peacefully sleeping be- hind their palisades, defended as they be- lieved by miles of impenetrable snowdrifts, when they were surprised by the French and their savage allies. In less than a half hour from the moment they were awakened by that hideous war-whooj^, sixty men, wo- men, and children were tomahawked, while a remnant was fleeing, almost without cloth- ing over the ice and snow to Albany, (17 miles distant,) and others less fortunate were being dragged into cajitivity. New England had been made familiar with Indian barbarities by long exi)erience and by King Phillip's war in 1075. She knew what it was to flght ambuscaded savages who never came into the open fleld. In sub- duing them, she had at last simply liunted tliem like wild animals,— the only tactics possible in such a warfare. HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 71 Tlioroughly aroused by the atrocity at Schenectady, all the northern colonies met in council at New York, and had their first training in united action. Precious blood was spilled in ineffectual attacks upon Que- bec, and other strongholds, until the "Peace of Ryswick" (1697) closed the war, leaving bitterness, — but no territorial changes. This known as "King William's War," was quickly followed (1702) by another equally fruitless — "Queen Anne's War" — which for eleven years desolated miles of frontier, and countless hearts and homes. As this was a war against both France and Spain, South Carolina was at the same time struggling with Florida, the Spanish colony on her border. The "Treaty of Utrecht" (1713) brought peace, and the cession of Acadia to England, — that name being changed to Nova Scotia. King George's war (1744-1748) was the last of these rebounds from European collisions. After four years the Fortress of Louisburg on Breton Island, — the only fruit of the con- test, — was by the terms of peace restored to France. Within sixty years there had been twenty-three years of war. Thousands of heroic men slept in their graves, a young 72 HISTORY OP THE U]S"ITED STATES. civilization had been drained and impeded, — and tlie boundaries remained unclianged. The Navigation Act so odious to Virginia in 1660, was even more intolerable in Massa- chusetts, which unmolested from the first by Royal interference, and with control of her own Council, had enjoj'ed almost the free- dom of a young Republic. When it became evident that a measure so detestable was really to be enforced, indignation rose high, and there was rebellion in the air. In 1684, in open defiance of the act, trade with the West Indies was carried on by Mas- sachusetts. The punishment was swift and severe. Her Charter was annulled, 1684. She was declared a Royal Province, and for three years Sir Edmund Andros, Royal Gov- ernor, carried tilings with a higli hand, and played the insolent tyrant, in New York, the Jerseys, and all the New England States. The dethroning of his Master James IT in 1689, rid the northern colonies of this detes- ted presence, and under Sir William Phii:>ps the old liberties of Massachusetts to some extent returned, and her Charter, that most precious possession was restored. One of Connecticut's most treasured tra- HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 73 ditions is that of the spiriting away of her Charter when Governor Andros ' ' glittering with scarlet and lace," entered the Assem- bly and demanded it. The lights were sud- denly extingnished, and when relighted, the paper had disappeared, — and for three years it reposed in the hollow of a great tree known ever after as the " Charter Oak." Although Massachusetts had her Charter, the irritating presence of Royal Gfovernors, and a series of aggressions which disclosed a deliberate policy in the Mother Country, was engendering a bitterness deep and wide. Duties were imposed upon things carried from one colony to another; and not alone was their commerce to be restricted, but their industry actually to be stifled. The colonies must not make anything which would compete with English manu- factures, and in order to enforce this, no one was allowed to employ more than two ap- pii-entices. As William Pitt indignantly de- clared later, " she had not the right to manu- facture so much as a nail for a horse-shoe." Massachusetts was created in revolt. Her very birth was a struggle out of English tyr- anny. There was resistance and rebellion in her blood. Virginia on the other hand, 'J'4 HISTORY OP THE UNITEU STATES. witb small reason for gratitude to England, having received little good and much evil at her hand, was still Royalist to the core She had denounced the murder of King Charles, and exulted over the Restoration of his son. When Massachusetts was chosen as a refuge by the Regicides, she had shel- tered the adherents of Charles. Yet even she viewed with dismay, these assaults u-pon the prosi^erity of the colonies. The history of many years was a story simply of encroachments upon one side and revolt upon the other. Royal Governors, enforcing tyrannical measures, in perpetual wrangle with Assemblies, standing for the rights and liberties of the Colonists. So, while the wars on their borders were a training in endurance and heroism, and in united action, the suffering of common wrongs was establishing a bond of sympa- thy between i)<5<^>ple of widely differing creeds and character, and was a training school tov patriotism; a word of small sig- nificance then, — but destined to express something strong enough to create a Nation, and to be the very lueath of that nation's life in the future — hy wliicli it exists even now, from day to day. CHAPTER IX. By all the canons of superstition Amer- ica was doomed to failure. Not alone was the voyage for its discovery begun and ended on Friday^ but — thirteen states laid the foun- dation for the great empire in the west; two omens not yet justified by results. In the middle of the Eighteenth Century the vast wooded continent had a narrow border of civilization on its Atlantic coast, composed of thirteen colonies, extending from Acadia (Nova Scotia) to Florida, and containing something less than two million souls. It seems impossible now that less than the population of a city like New York emptied into such an expanse of territory could occupy so large a space in history, and it emphasizes the diminishing imx^ortance of individuals in our changed conditions. Almost all of Euroi)e was rej)resented in these Colonies. There were Dutch in New York; Swedes and Finns in New Jersey, 76 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. and Delaware; Germans in Pennsylvania; Scotch in tlie Carolinas and New Jer- sey; Frencli in South Carolina and Irish sprinkled throughout the entire mass — which was yet Anglo Saxon to its core. The colonies existed under three kinds of Government — Charter, Proprietary and Royal. Charter: — Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Proprietary : — Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware. Royal : — New York, New Jersey, N ew Hampshire, Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia. There were populous cities in which old world customs prevailed to a great extent. There were six colleges ; Harvard, (1636) William and Mary, Yale, Princeton, Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, and King's, or Columbia College ; founded resjiectively in the order named. There was in New England a philosojohical Divine (Jonathan Edwards) writing upon profound metaphysical and theological problems, — and in Philadelphia, which with its 2.5,000 inhabitants led the cities, another philosopher who had just arrested the atten- HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 77 tion of Europe by a tract u]3on electricity and of whom tlie future encyclopedias were to say, "Franklin attracted more notice in Europe than either Rousseau or Vol- taire;" and of whom William Pitt would say in Parliament, "He ranks with Newton and is not only an honor to England, but to human nature." This versatile philosopher and practical man of affairs was at the time we are con- sidering, (1754) organizing a Postal Service for use in all the colonies ; and striving by precept and example to keep out the incom- ing tide of thriftlessness and extravagance. Social distinctions were rigidly enforced. While the Colonial gentleman was resplen- dent in satin, velvet, gold lace, and ruffles, the working man must wear leather and linsey-woolsey, and his wife and daughters gowns of green baize. Only the gentry might use the prefix Mr. and Mrs. The rest must be addressed as Goodman and Oood- loife. In democratic New England, although plain living and high thinking j)revailed, there was still a stately social life, tempered by Puritanism but with class distinctions no less rigid than elsewhere. 78 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. New York City clung to its old Dutch customs, speech, and aristocratic traditions; while up the Hudson River were magnates like the Livingstons with great estates and tenantry and seigniorial rights similar to the "Patroons" near Albany, who kept up a stately imitation of a corresponding class in Europe ; and in New Jersey, there was a large farming class and peasantry. The social conditions in the Southern Col- onies were entirely different. Instead of numerous towns and a large intermediate industrial class there were great plantations. Each estate was a miniature principality. The slaves in sej^tarate quarters by themselves not only cultivated the land, but followed every trade and sii^jplied the common needs of the small community, while the owners, exchanged stately visits and over their wine discussed the Colonial wars, the rights and wrongs of Virginia, legislation and customs in other Colonies, and the glories of dear old England. This aristocratic paternalism had an especial charm for English gentlemen, with their fondness for country life; and numbers of wealthy and influential men had joined the colony as its prosperity grew, bringing with them old-world habits and HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 79 customs. In South Carolina, there lingered the remains of the "Grand Model." The descendants of the "landgraves" and no- bles, kept up Manorial dignities on their plantations, with stables of blooded horses, packs of hunting dogs, and rolling to church in coach and six with outriders. European luxuries abounded, and hospitality was lav- ishly dispensed by the master, who with a colony of negroes to do his bidding consid- ered work degrading to a white man. Mary- land on account of its tobacco-culture and slave labor also belonged to this Planter Class, which was to exert such an important inliuence in the future. In the matter of negro slavery, in its be- ginnings the north was no less guilty, than the south. The northern colonies made use of it, precisely to the extent of its i)ower to serve and benefit them. There is no reason to believe that with climate and soil ex- changed, they would have acted differently from the colonies ui^on which the odium now rests. Righteous New England bought and sold its house-servants with no more qualms of conscience, than the Planters in Virginia and the Carolinas their field hands. There existed, at this period too, a sort of 80 HISTORY OF THE flNITED STATES. white slavery of what were called "inden- tured ^T-pprentices," and "bond-servants," poor waifs picked up or stolen in England, and bound for a number of years, during which time they were whipped, cruelly treated, and bought and sold like slaves; and also another of caj)tive Indians, taken during the Colonial or Indian Wars, and sold into perpetual slavery. A stream cannot rise higher than its source. So it would be unreasonable to ex- pect in the English Colonies more developed sensibilities than existed in England at a corresponding i3eriod. It was an age of se- verity untempered with mercy, and we must not wonder so much at the pillory, and the stocks and whipping posts, and hangings, — which belonged to the age, rather than to the Colonies which employed them. But it is interesting to observe that Pennsylvania, the one most merciful in its laws, was the quickest in growth and the first to reach prosperity. CHAPTER X. The time had arrived when the French and English claims for more than a century harmlessly overlapping each other on paper, must be determined upon the soil itself. To which nation belonged the greater part of an unoccui)ied continent, was a question now to be answered. The territory lying immediately west and north of Virginia was in 1754 covered with forest primeval. It had felt no touch of human industry since the Mound-Builders. A number of gentlemen in Virginia and in England believing that this region offered especial advantages for colonization, organ- ized a company for that purpose, which they called "The Ohio Company." France on the alert, accepted this as a challenge. The French Commander in Can- ada immediately sent a force of 1,200 men to occupy the 600,000 acres, claimed by the fur-trading company. After conference with 82 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. other Governors, it was arranged that Gov- ernor Dinwiddle of Virginia, should send a "person of distinction" to inquire of the French Commandant, the reason for this in- vasion of British Territory. The person selected for this delicate mis- sion was a youth "ruddy" and " fair of countenance" a little more than 21 years old. We do not hear that he chose "five smooth stones" from the brook; but, though he knew it not, he had been selected from among his brethren to slay the giant of op- pression and — to rule over the people. George Washington returned with the haughty reply of General St. Pierre: — "He was there to jjrotect French territory. All west of the Alleghanys belonged to France, and she would maintain her rights." War was declared. Not an echo of for- eign complications this time, but purely and simply a struggle for a continent. The P^rench strengthened the defenses at the English trading-post, and named it Fort Du Quesne, while the colonies met in council and formed plans of action; each one offer- ing to raise and equip troops,— "provin- cials," — which would act in concert with HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 83 the British "regulars." Their hearts were fired not alone as Americans, but as Anglo- Saxons in conflict with the hereditary foe of England. The French were sure of pow- erful aid from tomahawks and scalping knives; while England relied only upon the neutrality of the "Five Nations" on her northern border. In the following eight years there were 50,000 British troops on American soil. Not to protect the colonies, be it remembered, — but to maintain the territorial rights of Great Britain in the western Continent. The plan of camj^aign was to move in three separate expeditions one toward Fort Du Quesne, another toward Fort Prontignac (on the St. Lawrence where Ogdensburg stands, ) and another upon Crown Point, on Lake Champlain. The beginning was inauspicious. General Braddock, disregarding the advice of young Colonel Washington, used precisely the same methods in his attack upon the French at Fort Du Quesne, that he would have em- ployed at Blenheim or Fontenoy. It was unbecoming in British soldiers to skulk be- hind trees. — As stubborn as he was coura- geous he felt contempt alike for "provinci- 84 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. al" allies, and Indian enemies. The result was what Washington had expected, a com- plete rout. General Braddock, — sixty-four of his officers, and half his command were killed. Indian atrocities were not the only ones in this war. During the first year, 1755, the English perpetrated an act new and unparal- leled in the history of civilized nations. An expedition into Acadia, (Nova Scotia) suc- ceeded in capturing Louisburg, the French stronghold on Breton Island, and the whole region east of the Penobscot was reduced to British authority. Fearing to leave the seeds of rebellion in the conquered lu-ovince, the English resorted to an effectual method of making them harmless. By artifice, sev- eral thousands of simple Acadians were as- sembled at one time, then forcibly driven on board ships waiting in the harbor for tliat purpose, and scattered as if by the winds of Heaven, throughout the length and breadth of the land. Longfellow's Evangel- ine is only a faint picture of the sorrows of husbands, mothers, children, lovers spending lives in hopeless and fruitless search for each other. For four years the English struggled to HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 85 break the line of connection between the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi and the French struggled to drive them back. Countless brave young Englishmen and colonists laid down their lives before Ticon- deroga, Fort William Henry, and every other stronghold ; and Frenchmen no less heroic, for whom hearts were aching and breaking in France, were lying dead on battle fields. By the year 1759, the end was drawing near. The English were in possession of Forts Du Qiiesne, Ticonderoga, Crown Point, and Niagara, and when General Wolfe's intrepid soldiers clambered up the precipi- tous bluff and reached the "Heights of Abraham," Quebec, the Gibraltar of Ameri- ca, capitulated : Wolfe and Montcalm the two commanders, both lying dead, uncon- scious alike of victory or defeat. As the victorious army marched upon Montreal and gatliered up the forts on the border, France formed an alliance with Spain, in hope that by a desperate effort she might recover her vanishing possessions. Spain had her own long-standing grievances with England, and had liad frequent collis- ions wit^^li the colonies in her West Indies. This effort to prolong the war was quick- 86 HISTOEY OF THE UNITED STATES. ly met by England. A fleet was dispatched, the City of Havana was captured, and several islands besides, — with the result of making both France and Spain willing to arrange as best they might for peace. The treaty was signed at Paris 1763. By its provisions Spain ceded to England, Florida, and every foot of territory she had claimed in North America. In exchange the King of Great Britain returned all he had conquered in the Island of Cuba, and a part of the adjacent Islands. France re- linquished her entire western possessions. She gave up to England all the territory lying on the east of the Mississippi, while to Spain she ceded New Orleans and all the territory west of the Mississii:)pi. Thus ended an attempt to chain the Eng- lish colonies to a narrow strip on the coast of the Atlantic. France had lost an Empire, and the British flag floated from the Arctic Sea to the Gulf of Mexico. But all this was preparing the way for strange and unexpected events ; events which would inflict a severer blow upon England, than that which was now humbling France. England's vassal was being trained to become her rival. She was learning the art of HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 87 War; becoming inured to hardship; and had discovered the methods and power of com- bined action ; while the thirst for revenge was leading to that anomalous act fifteen years later, — when a despotic French Sov- ereign, his own throne trembling with the spirit of freedom in the air, — lent his aid to the cause of liberty and independence. CHAPTER XL When England came to count the cost of her great American Continent, she resolved that the prosperous colonies should bear a goodly share of the burden incurred hy a •mar in their helidlf ! There were exaggerated impressions of co- lonial prosperity in England. Some Amer- ican planters and families here and theie were living in affluence ; and hospitalities shown to the English officers when serving in America, contributed to the delusion. Cities had vied with each other in entertain- ing them, and like Abimelech of old had felt a pride in disj)laying their riches to guests they desired to honor. The Prime Minister recommended that a revenue be raised from America to assist in l^aying for the late war in her defense, and in 1765 Parliament i3assed The Stamp Act. This Act imposed a tax upon paper, and de- clared that all legal documents, unless exe- HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 89 cuted upon paper having a Government stamp, should be null and void. The colonists were stunned. They waited in silent consternation, at a loss how they should treat such a monstrous oppression. They were perfectly aware that the war was not undertaken in their behalf, but to main- tain the territorial rights of Great Britain. They had shared all its hardships and sacri- fices, had spilled precious blood without measure, and out of their scanty savings the people had contributed to defray the cost of equipping their own soldiers. The small prosperity which England wanted tliem to share with her, was of their own making. It had not been fostered by a mother's hand, but had grown in spite of her ty- rannical restrictions, and the almost ruin- ous policy she had relentlessly pursued toward them. And now, — a Parliament, in which they were unrepresented and over which they had no control, had devised a tax, far more odious than " Ship-Money," for which their fathers had rent a Kingdom asunder ! Virginia, the most filial and royalist of all the colonies, was the first to declare her de- termination to resist the Act. Patrick Henry 90 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. broke the spell of silence, by introducing a set of resolutions into the legislature. In words of burning eloquence he voiced the unspoken indignation throughout the land. After iierce denunciation of the Act, he ex- claimed, " Cffisar had his Brutus, — Charles the First his Cromwell, — and George the Third" — as he paused, a voice cried "Trea- son, Treason," — "may j)roiit by their ex- ample," concluded Henry, — adding — "If that be treason, make the most of it." The effect was electrical. The latent sparks kindled into llame leaping from col- ony to colony; and in that conflagration, — patriotism was born. All local difl'erences were forgotten. Nine colonies met in a Council held in New York. The others being forbidden by their Gov- ernors to join them, sent assurances of their determination to unite witli them in what- ever course was adopted. They pledged themselves to import no article of British manufacture until the Act was rex)ealed. Domestic goods dearer and coarser were cheerfully exclianged for foreign luxuries, and lamb and mutton were abandoned as articles of food, in order to increase the supply of wool. Franklin wrote, "the sun HISTOEY OF THE UNITED STATES. 91 of liberty is set, we must light up the can- dles of industry and economy." It seems not to have occurred to the Brit- ish mind that the tax would be resisted. Englishmen might resist Kings, but not Par- liaments! Besides the law was ingenious and enforced itself in the insecurity to i)roi)erty which would follow its non-observance. But tlie i)etitions, and remonstrances, and decla- rations, and even threats, produced astonish- ment. What! Shall we who have just humbled France and Spain be dictated to by our Colonies, planted by our care, nourished by our indulgence, and protected by our arms 'i British Statesmanship was confounded. William Pitt said in the House of Commons, ' ' I rejoice that America has resisted. Three million people so lost to virtue as tamely to give up their liberties, would be fit only for slaves." More important still, manufactur- ers and merchants saw ruin staring them in the face in the sudden withdrawal of their best customers. A blow aimed at prosperity is the most convincing of arguments. The Stamj) Act was repealed 1766. The news was received in the Colonies with extravagant demonstrations of joy. 92 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. The bells were rung, there was thanksgiving in the Churches, homespun garments were given to the poor, and loyalty and affection returned. But after this first ebullition of gratitude, a careful reading of the Repeal disclosed, that it was "to avoid the inconveniences at- tending the collection of tlie revenue." The right of taxation by Parliament had not been abandoned, and might be asserted again. Almost before tJie echoes of the bells had died away, another Act was passed, less oppressive in its conditions, but firmly reasserting the principle, and vindicating a jjolicy wliicli England had deliberately de- termined to follow. The small tax upon glass, paper and tea, would probably have been paid, but for the recent tension over the Stamp Act. But that had left a sharply defined issue. The colo- nies would not be taxed by a body in which they were not represented. England by this last Act declared as firmly, that Parlia- ment had the disputed right, and would en- force it. The colonies were not ignorant of English history. They knew that this Parliament, held so sacred in England, was the creation HISTOEY OF THE UNITED STATES. 93 of just such resistance as theirs. It had been clothed with such supreme authority, because of just such wrongs as this now at- tempted ui)on them. It had become greater than Kings, precisely to maintain the prin- ciple, that the people must not he taxed without tlieir consent. This was the very central nerve of British freedom. Should they, — because they had come to a distant land, and with toil and hardship built up a young civilization, — should they for this, surrender the very principle that made them freemen? If they did, they were the sub- jects of subjects, — not the subjects of a King. It would have been well for England if she had left unbroken the relations with thirteen loyal colonies, disi)osed not to question the right of the Mother Country so long as they were treated fairly well. She made a grave mistake when she invited a searching into the title-deeds of her author- ity. An army of trained and acute intelli- gences were examining other matters be- sides taxation and representation. Some questioned whether there should be any taxing at all. By careful calculations it was demonstrated that by her monopoly of 94 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. their trade, England every year wrung from the colonies a sum in excess of their share of the public burden; and that taxation su- peradded to that, — with rein^esentation or without it, — reduced them to the condition of uncompensated slaves. And, what right had a body in which they were not repre- sented to make laws for them, any more than to tax them ! The more America read and reasoned, and talked, the more was she convinced. The vindication of her attitude and the argu- ments in su2:>port of her rights became famil- iar even to the children; and three millions of people were being educated in the princi- ples of liberty, and the ignominy of aban- doning them. So while the question of "rights" had grown far beyond its original limits, Eng- land was startled by a declaration from each of the Assemblies, that not only had slie not the right to tax, but not even to legislate for the colonies. This was in resj)onse to a cir cular letter sent by Massachusetts, that hot- bed of sedition, to the various legislatures. Massachusetts was called upon to rescind her resolutions and recall her letter, which she unequivocally refused to do. HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 95 The people had not only a clearer compre- hension of their rights than before, but a new consciousness of power. They had learned that by refusing to purchase British wares they could shake British prosperity to its centre. They returned to their home- spun; relighted "the candles of industry and economy. ' ' They would get along with- out glass, paper, and even — tea. Custom House officials had sinecures. There were no duties to collect, nor duties to perform, except that of spying upon sus- pected persons and ships, in liope of finding smuggled goods. The commissioner in Bos- ton made himself especially odious at a time when the temper of that town was not, to say the least, at its best. His house was assaulted by a jeering mob, his windows broken and some of his effects were burned on Boston Common. In punishment for this, two regiments of British soldiers were inarched into Boston and quartered upon the people, 1768. New York refused to shelter and feed a similar body of troops sent to dis- cipline her; and her legislature was at once dissolved. A collision took place in Bos- ton, between exasperated and exasperating troops, and an equally exasperated and 96 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. exasperating mob. Citizens were killed, causing fresh bitterness and rage. There were peace-makers on both sides of the Atlantic striving to heal the widening breach, — William Pitt (then in private life,) and Edmund Burke, by eloquence and argu- ment endeavoring to restrain offensive legis- lation in Parliament, and Franklin and otliers in America counselling moderation and only- peaceful modes of obtaining redress. Royal Governors were everywhere striving to carry out obnoxious instructions, Assemblies everywhere protesting, and the colonists with unbroken front declaring they would pay no taxes, except at the bidding of their own Assemblies, that these bodies, stood in the same relation to them, as did the House of Commons, to the people in England. In 1773, the tax was removed from every- thing but tea. By an arrangement with the East India Comj^any this was to be brought direct from India to America; thus lessen- ing its cost so much, that with a tax of only three pence a pound, it would yield a reve- nue to the Government and yet be cheaper than ever before. It was a cunning bribe for America to accept the principle of taxa- tion in exchange for cheap tea. HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 97 When the ships arrived, Charleston stored her tea in damp cellars, and other ports refused to admit it at all. But the cargo designed for Boston, came consigned to personal friends of the Governor, and could not be excluded. A body of men dis- guised as Indians, boarded the ship at night, and emptied the tea into the harbor. The climax was reached. The port of Boston was closed by Act of Parliament. The colony of Massachusetts was placed un- der martial law, and General Gage, the offi- cer in command of the troops, took the place of the former Royal Governor. Busi- ness was suspended and suffering and dis- tress took the place of prosperity. The Virginia Assembly appointed a day of fasting, and denounced the act as one of intolerable oi)pression to a sister colony. In punishment for this her Legislature was immediately dissolved by the Governor. Patrick Henry' s impassioned words, ' ' give me liberty or give me death," became the watcliAvord for men throughout the length and breadth of the land, who irrespective of minor differences, banded together and called themselves "Whigs," while those who failed to declare a sympathy with the 98 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. uprising against tyranny, were as in Eng- land, known as "Tories." Military com- panies were formed and "mimite men" were drilling from Maine to South Carolina. "The sons of liberty," which had been or- ganized in each of the colonies in the days of the Stamp Act, now drew into a closer union; and the thirteen colonies, — so di- verse in creeds, in tastes and in character, were fused by the white heat of patriotism. CHAPTER XII. In August, Just four months after the closing of the i)ort of Boston, delegates from all the colonies met at Philadeljohia to de- termine upon a concerted plan of action. No men sitting in the British Parliament were more loyal subjects of Great Britain than those composing the First Colonial Congress. It was not a Revolutionary body. They came together not in the heat of pas- sion, with no thought of separation nor de- sire for independence, but simj)ly as British subjects, calmly and hrmly, and with im- pressive dignity insisting upon the rights guaranteed them by the British Constitu- tion. They did not intend to examine with unfriendly eyes into the authority of the Mother Country. They were willing to abandon every point of controversy, except one. England might continue to enjoy the entire benefit of their prosperity ; she might absorb for herself the commercial advan- 100 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. tages of thirteen expanding colonies ; but, the rights of Englishmen in America must be as sacred as they would be in England. They must not be taxed without their con- sent. That power must be transferred to their own legislative bodies. There must be no standing army in their land, except by consent of these same legislatures ; and, citizens must have the privilege of trial by their peers in their own realm, — and not be, as was threatened, dragged from their homes to be tried by juries of strangers in England. Certain Acts passed in the reign of his ma- jesty George the Third, were declared to be unconstitutional, and would be resisted. A league was formed for non-importation, non-consumption, and non-exportation. The members of the Congress bound themselves by all they held sacred, not to import, nor to consume foreign goods, nor to export their own, nntil their demands were met. Foreign merchants were to be warned to send no goods, and if sent, they would be returned with packages unopened. The wearing of mourning for their dead was to be abandoned. Venders of merchan- dise were also instructed not to take advan- tage of the scarcity by raising prices. The HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 101 names of persons wlio should violate these restrictions were to be published. The proceedings of this Congress, and in- deed the creation of the Congress itself, fell as a thunderbolt in England, where an in- fatuated ministry and short-sighted King had believed they were dealing with a few troublesome malcontents in Massachusetts, and a factious minority here and there. They had always supposed they could rely upon the natural antagonisms between the colonies to prevent any permanent concerted action; and that local jealousies and aver- sions would always enable England to deal with them separately instead of collectively. But England did not comprehend the strange and unseen influence which was working upon these antagonistic j)articles. Virginia might have said to Massachusetts *'what am I to Hecuba, or Hecuba to me, that I should weep for her ? " But she did not. She rushed to her rescue, and felt the blow as if it were aimed at herself. The children of Puritan, Cavalier, and the Neth- erlands; Catholic, Calvinist and Quaker, rushed together by common impulse, and acted as if inspired by one mind and pos- sessed of one soul. Merchants without hesi- 102 HISTORY OP THE UNITED STATES. tation or regret, put behind them the hope of gain and accepted a total stoppage of business. Planters and farmers eagerly as- sented to letting their hard-earned harvests lie unsold. Pleasure-loving sons and daugh- ters, were willing to lay aside soft raiment and tempting food. And all these sacrifices were made at the bidding of a voluntary association of men, not invested with any legislative authority. The drastic measures of the King in clos- ing the port of Boston had not the approval of the whole of his people. Many prophe- sied a retaliatory course, such as had been provoked by the Stamp Act. So as a meas- ure of prudence Lord North thought it would be wise to have the impending elec- tion for new members of Parliament safely over, before receiving any news from Amer- ica, which might bring from the people a vote of censure. This worked well, and by the time the proceedings of the Colonial Congress arrived, the new Parliament was seated, constituted as before of upholders of the King and Ministry. The weight and influence of the members of the Colonial Congress, the dignity and firmness of its demands, and the declaration HISTORY OP THE UNITED STATES. 103 of an inflexible purpose to susiDend all com- mercial relations with England until these demands were met, produced a profound sensation. The repeal of a few Acts of Parliament was all that was needed to restore tranquil- lity. But to recede would be an admission that they had been wrong. The current was moving swifter and faster than they had ex- pected. It was in vain that the great Earl of Chatham, (the elder Pitt) led the party of conciliation in the House of Commons, his plans for compromise were rudely received, and consigned to what was wittily called the "Committe of Oblivion ;" in vain that Burke spake as man has rarely spoken in ancient or in modern times ; in vain that Franklin appeared before the bar of the House of Commons with ingenious conces- sions, and temperate statements, striving by gentle skill to draw the thunderbolt from the impending storm clouds. The witty satire of his pamphlet entitled ' ' Rules for reducing a Great Empire to a small one," was not for- gotten. The British lion may be prodded, but he must not be laughed at. Lord Sandwich, trembling with rage, pointed to the white haired peace maker saying: "There is the 104 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. man who is one of the bitterest and most mischievous enemies Enghmd ever knew." Argument was met by invective ; reason- ing by denunciation and insult. The record of those proceedings is nnequaled for a dis- play of passion and prejudice and party spirit, combined with a singular ignorance, or else misconcei)tion, — of the real j)oints in dispute, and proclaims those legislators, sitting in the British Parliament in 1774, to have been utterly unlit to rule the destinies of three million intelligent Anglo Saxons on the other side of the globe. The Rubicon was iDassed. The House of Commons besought the King, in view of "the Rebellion now existing in the colonies" to take the most effectual measures for enforc- ing of obedience, and declared their lixed resolution, at the hazard of their lives and property, to stand by him in the mainten- ance of his authority. The peace makers had failed. There were larger and greater plans for America than any contemplated, even by her friends and advocates. CHAPTER XIII. The American Colonies were under no glamour regarding their own unfitness to undertake a conflict with the greatest mili- tary nation in Europe; a nation which had just humbled France and Sj)ain in combina- tion. They had no army, no fortifications, nor military engineers — almost no arms or am- munition, nor means to get them. They were cut off by 3,000 miles of ocean from the sources of supply, and with British ships policing their harbors to prevent foreign importation of goods. They had no public treasury, no machinery for raising money, and the dependence of thirteen separate provinces upon England had made them un- familiar with the general finances of the country, or methods of reaching its re- sources. The revenues of England were immense. The drain upon her, caused by a war, would 106 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. not be appreciably felt by a single individ- ual in the kingdom. In America, it wonld involve sacrifices for every human being, and rnin for thousands. But was there a man dismayed? — not though they knew it would cost lives and homes and the hoarded savings of years. Men were silently and secretly busy col- lecting and storing arms for an emergency, which might at any moment arrive. Gen- eral Gage learned that quite a large amount of military stores were concealed at Con- cord, and ordered 800 men to march there during the night of April 18th (1755) and destroy them. Some such attempt had been apprehend- ed. By a preconcerted signal the neighbor- ing farmers were alarmed, and Paul Revere sped on his historic ride to awaken Charles- town and the hamlets by the way. " A hurry of hoofs in a village street, A shape iu the moonlight, a bulk in the dark, And beneath, from the pebbles, iu passing, a spark Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet: That was all ! And yet, through the gloom and the light. The fate of a nation was riding that night ; And the spark struck out by that steed, iu its flight, Kindled the land into flame with its heat." HISTORY OP THE UNITED STATES. 107 The eight "minute men" killed at the dawn of that morning, April 19th, were the first martyrs to the cause of American liber- ty. The military stores had been destroyed, but at the cost of 300 British lives, — and of one British illusion. These Americans were not "cowards." It was an amazing display of naked valor, when that undisciplined, unofficered yeo- manry, each man firing when he saw fit without word of command, put to flight troops equal in discipline to any in the world. As the news spread through the colonies, the country breathed freer. When Washington heard that the boys had not only "stood the fire of the Regulars," but reserved their own " till they saw the whites of the enemies' eyes," he exclaimed, "Then the liberties of the country are safe." A granite monument now marks the spot where the love of the colonies for their mother England was forever estranged. Cut into its base are Emerson's words : — ' ' Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world." When at the time appointed, May 10th, 1775, the Second Continental Congress as- 108 HISTORY OP THE UNITED STATES. sembled at Philadelphia, it found itself con- fronted with a tremendous responsibility, and with no regularly constituted authority. It could advise, but not legislate. There was perfect unanimity as before. An attack upon Massachusetts was an attack upon the whole. The United Colonies of America were at war with Great Britain. Each one pledged itself to contribute troops for a Continental Army of 30,000 men. Two million dollars were also pledged for the maintenance of the war, to be contributed by the colonies upon vague promises of be- ing reimbursed at some future time. Side by side with these jDreparations for a conflict, Avas a fresh Memorial to George the Third, expressing their continued desire to remain loyal subjects of Great Britain, and praying for a redress of grievances. Wash- ington sitting in this very Congress wrote to a friend that he "abhorred the idea of independence." Even while these last efforts at peace were making in Congress, the flames were spread- ing. Many thousand fresh British troops were arriving in Boston under Generals Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne, and Ethan Al- len with a handful of men was surprising the HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 109 garrison at Fort Ticonderoga which he claimed ' ' in the name of Jehovah and the Continental Congress." The capture was made in ten minutes, without the loss of one life or limb, and an immense sujiply of can- non and war material warmed the courage of the people. The British discovered in the morning of the 17th of June (1775) that earthworks had been thrown up on the heights overlooking Boston, and General Howe was ordered with a force of 2,000 men to storm the work. Ac- customed to victories over French and Span- ish legions, lighting only for a change of masters, the General supposed he had an easy task. The "embattled farmers" did not seem to him as imj^ressive as to Emerson a century later. But wlien the sun went down, although he held the heights, he had been twice reinforced from Boston, and the battle of Bunker Hill was one of the emptiest, and costliest victories ever achieved. It would have been a defeat had not the powder of the colonists been ex- hausted. One-half of Howe's command was dead, including a disproportionate number of officers. The burning of Charlestown helped to 110 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. make the day, the most momentous in the history of the Colonies. It was the first real battle of the war, and had been fought in the light of five hundred burning homes, with a fury and yet a deliberate courage which astonished the British General. Gen- eral Gage wrote home " these rebels, are not the despicable rabble many suppose them to be." The hopes of the colonists from the very first gravitated toward one man — George Wash- ington. The liberties and the very existence of America are so intertwined with the name of Washington, it is impossible to conceive what would have been its fate without him. When the Colonial Congress called into ex- istence a Continental Army, he alone was thought of as its Commander in Chief. Ever since his campaign in Ohio had termi- nated with the capture of Fort DuQuesne (1758) he had been enjoying a tranquil re- pose upon his estate at Mount Vernon. Great Britain had no more loyal, peace- loving subject than this man, to whom the very name of "independence" was ab- horrent. Still without hesitation he consented to lead an army against the Government he had HISTOKY OF THE UNITED STATES. Ill SO revered. He replied tliat lie felt unequal to the great trust — but would accept it, con- tinuing, in regard to the pay offered him, — "I beg leave to assure Congress that no pecuniary consideration would tempt me to accept this arduous position. I wish to make no profit from it, I will keep an account of my exj^enses. Those I doubt not they will discharge. That is all I desire." The "army" of which he took command on the third of July 1775, was the brave, undisciplined host intrenched about Boston, without uniform or drill. Each man brought his own musket,— if he had one, — and sub- sisted mainly uj)on food sent him from his own home. Not one of them believed that more than two or three months of service would be required, but that a determined show of resistance would bring a redress of grievances. While the Commander in Chief was trying to organize an Army out of such material, the fires were spreading in remote parts. The brave Moultrie from his fort of pal- metto logs on Sullivan' s Island, was success- fully defending the harbor of Charleston from a British fleet : and the heroic Mont- 113 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. gomery from New York was laying down liis young life in an effort to capture Quebec. Royal Governors were everywhere abdica- ting and hiding on British ships from ex- asperated colonists ; and when the news was received that England was sending 45,000 more troojis, and that of these 17,000 were Hessians hired from a German Principality for the subjection of her own colonists, every lingering sentiment of love and loyal- ty was extinguislied. North Carolina, in advance of all the rest, passed at Charlotte, a set of resolutions renouncing allegiance to King and Parliament. It is strange to relate the birth of a new colony in these days of storm and stress. The meadow lands of the Kentucky river were j)urchased from the Cherokees, and foundations laid by the adventurous Daniel Boone for the first State west of the Alle- ghanies. A letter from Lord Howe addressed to " George "Washington, Esq.," was returned by the Commander in Chief unopened, and when personally solicited to read it as it con- cerned "pardons," he calmly answered that "A pardon implied an offense. They had committed no offense, and hence desired no HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 113 pardons." There are two kinds of heroism. The heroism which dares and achieves, and the one which waits. In the long winter be- fore Boston, the men impatient to get back to farms and homes, and the colonists eager for quick results, began to express their dis- satisfaction. Washington's motives were assailed. It was said he wished to prolong the war for the sake of wearing the honors of his command. He could have answered these calumnies in a moment, by telling the country that 2,000 of his men were without muskets, and there were deficiencies in sup- plies of all kinds which would make it disas- trous to move yet. But this would reveal his weakness to the enemy, and dampen the courage of the Americans. To rule his spirit was "greater than to take a city," — and he was silent. In March he was ready for an attack. But when General Howe saw the earth- works being thrown up, on Dorchester Heights, he evacuated Boston without an engagement. Washington aware that New York would be the destination of the British prepared to meet them there. On the 7th of June, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, offered a resolution in Con- 114 HISTORY OP THE UNITED STATES. gress "that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States." The resolution was adopted, and a " Declaration of Independence" written by Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, was published to the world July the Fourth. It declared that in view of certain Acts, which it recited, "the United States of America," was "ab- solved from all allegiance to the British Crown.' ' CHAPTER XIV. One week after the Declaration of Indepen- dence, Admiral Howe arrived in New York Harbor, with a powerful fleet. His brother was encamped upon Staten Island with 30,000 British and Hessians. Such was the force with which Washington was to con- tend, with his 7,000 raw recruits, scantily fed, clothed and armed. It is not strange that the history of the next five months was one of disaster and retreat. One point after another was occupied then evacuated, and left to the pursuing army; Long Island, Harlem Heights, White Plains, Fort Wash- ington, then across the river to Fort Lee and thence on toward Philadelphia through the Jerseys, already occupied by the Hessians. There was none of the elation attending victory, only unmitigated hardship. In De- cember the patriot army was a handful of ragged disheartened fugitives, many with- out shoes, leaving bloodstained footsteps on 116 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. the frozen ground. The British General scornfully smiled and said he only asked for a Corporal's guard to keep New Jersey. New York City was in the hands of the British, and many influential people there and elsewhere, had gone over to tlie victo- rious enemy, exj)ressing penitence for dis- loyal sympathies. Washington had a dis- solving and expiring army on his hands, men half naked and hungry, impatient for their discharge, and recruiting for a new one under such disheartening circumstances was impossible. Many believed that a rash and ill-considered rebellion was nearing its end ; and that instead of glory, and liberty, and independence, history would have to relate the ignominious punishment of a few leaders who had mistaken j)assion and rest- lessness under restraint, for high-sounding virtues. But, suddenly there was a flash of light out of the darkness. — Christmas night, in a driving storm of sleet and snow, and amid drifting masses of ice, which threatened every minute to crush the boats, Washing- ton crossed the Delaware river, and surpris- ing the Hessians in the midst of their festi- vities at Trenton, captured 1,000 men with HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 117 the loss of but four of liis own ; two killed and two frozen to death. Then before Corn- wallis could recover from his astonishment, they had moved swiftly and unexpectedly upon Princeton, routed the troops and by rapid marches the exhausted army was safe in winter quarters at Morristown. The effect was electrical. Courage, hope, and patriotism were revived. Instead of being reproached for incapacity, as hitherto, Washington was called the saviour of the army. But while his praises were resound- ing, he was striving by superhuman effort to conceal the desperate condition of his command, shut up for the winter months in Morristown, men poorly clad, sullen and resentful on account of delayed payments, the inhabitants not too well pleased at hav- ing soldiers with smallx)Ox quartered in their homes, sickness and death from unaccus- tomed exposure, and no hospital service. It would have seemed that such a Winter of discontent could not be exceeded. But it was. The end was far off. There were Win- ters yet to come, which made this seem al- most like luxury. We can only dimly realize what our liberties have cost. Even to-day 70,000,000 people do not contemplate MM llt.S'lOKV (H' Till': IfNITIOIt MTATKH, :i. \v;i.i' with (irc.-il I'liL-iiti vvillioiil, ;il;ii-ni ; ;iM(l \\*'\c wcic :{,()()(),()()(), HOKH'lliiri^' iwon' Miiiii \\\i' iiili:il)il:in(s of N(!W York (Jily, m.'iiiilniiiin^- .'i, vv;ii' willi (li;il power, dcfcrKl- iii[\i (lie < !onini:i Md<>r in ('iiiid' iriiiHi. not ;ippr;il lo Hy ni|):i I liK-s ; lir ninsl. in- Hpirr, ui\i\ HprciKl llic splendid conlii^ion ol' hope. Ilf nnisl ni;ik<' Mm- connlry :uid IIh> en dclnsion rc^jirdiii^' liiH Hln^n^lli. TIm^ brilli.'iiil. vicloricH hy wliicli \V:isliin<;' ton liiid lurried upon his pursiicrs :il Iritcli'd iill<'nlion in hluropc, ns vvrll jih in Anicri*';!. It^'.'i.vc |)rrs(i;i,<' l<> ;i w.'inin^' (•.•nisc 'riicrc W('i"(f ol)\ ions rr:i,sons why h^'Mricc wjih ph'jiscd. Her pride li.'id rccciNcd ;i terrible wound in I lie loss of her Anierir.in I'iUipire. She woidd ;idore (he Ttinri or nriliori Mi:it (N)nl(l liuniiIi;iP' Mn!j,l;ind. I'esides lliis, (heir w:is soirn-l hiriL'; new :ind sh-:ini^<' in the air ol" l''r;iii('e. There was a sear<',hintit;R — nn oiit- n'.'icliiii^- :iUvy [nwAoiu. It wjih only "in t/li(! :iii'," only .'in .*ihslr.'ic,(,iori ; hut W, ph'.'iKcd Mk' I<"'r('ii(!li I'iiwr.y (,o K