department of the interior. / //?i c COLUMBUS THE DISCOVEKEK A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE' BY ARTHUR OILMAN, M. A. ii AUTHOR OF FIRST STEPS IN GENERAL HISTORY," "FIRST STEPS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE," EDITOR OF THE "POETICAL WORKS OF GEOFFREY CHAUCER," " THE KINGDOM OF HOME," ETC., ETC. / was born an American , / will live an American ; I shall die an Ameri- can, and I intend to perform the duties incumbent upon me in that charac- ter to the end of my career. — Daniel Webster WITH ILLUSTRATIONS CHICAGO The Interstate Publishing Company BOSTON : 30 FRANKLIN STREET 4- y ! Copyright, 1883. D. LoTHRop & Company. ^fg 4IMMMMI PREFACE. AMONG the great events that marked the world's revival from the sleep of the Dark Ages, none was more remarkable than the revelation of the American continent. From the moment when the ship of Columbus was sighted off the coast of Spain, bearing the proofs of his discovery, the mere mention of the marvellous land brought up vis- ions of wealth, of adventure, of freedom. No tale was too romantic for belief, if its scenes were laid in the New World, and the popular enthusiasm of the Crusades was repeated in the stir and excitement that ensued when the early adven- turers prepared to set out on their quests for the Terres- trial Paradise, the Fountaiii"of^Youth, and the treasures of gold which were suppos'ecTlto'be in the possession of the savages. '^ *^ The story of the discovery and exploration of America presents to us, one after another, the deluded searchers after gold, the martyrs who paid for their knowledge of a new continent with their lives, and the devotees of religion, who earnestly endeavored to carry the Christian faith to a people whose blank heathenism they honestly commis- erated. The records of the early settlers have furnished an unfailing source of romantic themes for the poet and the novelist, and now, as we close the fourth century in America's history as a factor in modern civilization, all past predictions of wealth and greatness sink into insignificance in the presence of accomplished facts, and the future of our country looms up before the world in grander propor- tions and with more commanding promise than ever before. Vi ♦ PREFACE. The name America, which, by accident or mistake, was given to the Western World, fell, in the process of time, to the principal nation on the Continent, and for more than a century, the inhabitants of the United States have been known the world over as the American people. It is the history of this people that the present volume is interested with. The author desires to tell, in brief, how the country was first settled, what motives incited the adventurers who left European civilization to plant colo- nies on our shores ; how those colonies gradually learned that there was strength in union, and that it was to their credit before the world to be one nation ; how the early fear that a Republican form of government was not adapted to a large country was dissipated, and how the whole land was gradually developed until its present position among the nations was reached. It is interesting to note how the name America has taken hold upon the people. There has been natural growth in this respect. The colonies of France, Spain, and England, were the "American'" colonies, and as the States which took their places became the chief nation on the continent, they assumed the name American at an early period. The war by which they achieved their independ- ence was always " the " American revolution, and into that struggle the people entered in the spirit of the words of Christopher Gadsden of South Carolina, uttered in 1765, " There ought to be no New England man, no New Yorker, known on the continent, but all of us Americans." At its close, when Washington addressed the Governors of the different States to urge upon them the formation of an " indissoluble union," he referred to the people as " the cit- izens of America." In laying down his office at the close of his Presidential terms, he said, " The name of America, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism." The reader of the speeches of later statesmen will PREFACE. vii remember how this sentiment became a general inheritance, and with what frequency the talismanic name American was used by them to stir the patriotic heart. This is especially exemplified by Webster, who said on one occa- sion, " I am an American, and I know no locality in Amer- ica : that is my country ; " and again, with even more emphasis, "I was born an American; 1 will live an Ameri- can ; I shall die an American." Never was the sense of nationality so strong in America as at present, and one of the results is seen in the revived interest in the study of all topics connected with our history, no less than in the philosophic spirit in which they are approached. One of the chief difficulties encountered in prepar- ing a small history of this kind, and one which con- stantly presents itself, is the question, "What shall be omitted .? " The difference between the various single- volume histories of America consists largely in the selection of topics, in their arrangement, in the degree in which their statements are self-explanatory, in the underlying and controlling thought, as well as in the political, moral and social bias of the writer. Special passages have been devoted to the manners and habits of the past, and the work has been illustrated throughout with extracts from letters, diaries, newspapers and other contemporary writings, which enliven the narra- tive and enable the reader to put himself in sympathy with the people who act in the history as it passes before him. Many of these appear in the form of notes, which are placed for convenient reference at the bottom of the pages to which they refer. Among the subjects^ presented with a certain degree of fulness, which have been sometimes slightly considered in single-volume histories of America, are the following, which seem to lie at the foundation of a true conception of the subject. viii PREFACE. I. The growth of the belief that the world is a globe, the discus- sions regarding its size, and the influence that these investi- gations exerted upon Columbus, II. The efforts towards union put forth by the Colonies and the States, from 1637 to the adoption of the Constitution, and the difficulties encountered. III. The jealousies between the Colonies at first, and States after- wards, and the Federal unions to which they belonged. The repeated threats of secession, from 1643 ^^ 1861. IV. The various theories of the Constitution and Government arising from differences of opinion regarding the powers dele- gated, by the Colonies and the States, to the Federal Govern- ments, and the reserved powers. V. The growth of the National or American feeling, as shown by the Declaration of Rights made by Congress, in 1765, and the more general declaration of the principles on which those rights were based, made by Virginia in 1776. VI. The various plans for Union. VII. The delay in adopting the Articles of Confederation and the important reasons for it. The basis on which the difficulties growing out of the nature and extent of the grants of territory to the original colonies, were finally adjusted. VIII. The nature of the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions of 1798 and 1799, ^^^ their long and important influence. IX. The principles of the country from the beginning rega. "« fugitives from service, and the enactments made by the Ne\» England Confederation in 1643, in the Constitution in 1787, and in the fugitive slave acts of 1793 ^"'^ '^SO' during the ad- ministrations of Washington and Fillmore. X. The opposition of the North to war, in 1861, and the efforts to preserve peace. The specious sophistries and deceptions by which demagogues precipitated the conflict. XI. In order to enable the reader more readily to study some of these subjects, the volume is furnished with copies of original documents not readily accessible. ^ PREFACE. IX The publishers have endeavored to make the volume mechanically excellent. A clear type has been used and illustrations have been supplied in considerable numbers. Tn selecting subjects for these cuts, scenes of battle and carnage have been avoided, and preference has been given to pictures of rioted persons, buildings and natural scenery of the different parts of the country, and to sketches illus- trating the manners and work of the people at different periods. Much labor has been expended to arrive at exactness in dates, but even the most painstaking assiduity and the best intentions are insufficient to ensure perfection in this regard when hundreds of dates are given. The reader who detects errors of this kind is requested to communicate with the publishers, in order that the necessary changes may be made, should other editions be called for. Cambridge, /z/;/!?, 1883. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I.— COLUMBUS THE DISCOVERER. Plato's Story of Atlantis, l. Notions of the P^orm and Size of the Earth, 2. Mandeville, 3. Seneca, 4. Lactantius refuted, 4. Fabled Islands, 7. Columbus appears, 8, Applies to Portugal, — to Spain, to. At Palos, 13. Agrees with Ferdinand and Isabella, 14. His Motives, 17. America discovered, 17. Columbus dies, 23. The Northmen, 24. CHAPTER II.— THE CABOTS AND OTHER DISCOVERERS. The Age of maritime Discovery, 28. The Cabots, 29. The Amer- ican Continent discovered, 29. Northeastern Route to the Indies. 31. Nordenskiold, 31. Amerigo Vespucci, 32 Cortereal, 32. Ponce de Leon, 35. Balboa, 35. Cortes, 35. Magalhaens, 36, Verazano, 39. Coronado, Cabeza de Vaca, 41. Zuni, 41. CHAPTER III.— THE EARLY AMERICANS. The Early Americans, 43. The Various Tribes, 47. Characteristics, 48. Cliff-Dwellings, 48. Mounds, 55. Mexican Remains, 63. Uxmal, Palenque, 63. Peruvian Remains, 64. CHAPTER IV. — DE SOTO ON THE MISSISSIPPI. De Soto, 67. Orellana on the Amazon, 68. Pizzarro, 69. Battle at Mavilla, 72. De Soto's romantic Burial, 72. Religious Motives of Explorers, 74. Coligni's Efforts, 76. Ribault, 76. Menendez, 78. Dominic de Gourgues, 79. CHAPTER v.— ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. Frobisher, 80. Drake, 81. Raleigh, 82. "Eastward Ho! " 84. Hak- luyt, 84. Jamestown, 87. Pocahontas, 88. Representative Government, 89. New England, 90. The Social Compact, 95. Landing at Plymouth, 96. Gosnold, 100. Gorges, loi. Maine, xi CONTENTS. 102. Winthrop arrives, 105. Roger Williams, 106. Anne Hutch- inson, 107. Connecticut, 108. Saybrook settled, no. Connecti- cut's Co.istitution, 112. Pequot War, 112. The New England Confederation, 113. CHAPTER VI. — SETTLEMENTS OF THE FRENCH. Cartier on the St. Lawrence, 115. Intention to extend the Christian Religion, 1 1 5. French Names on the Map of America, 1 19. Car- tier on the St. Lawrence, 117. Samuel de Champlain in Canada, 118. Jesuit Missionaries, 119. Jacques Marquette, 120. Jolliet and La Salle, i2r. The Mississippi explored, 122. Louisiana 123. Death of La Salle, 124. CHAPTER VII.— THE DUTCH SETTLERS AND LATER COLONISTS. Henry Hudson, 125. Manhattan Island, 127. Stuyvesant, 128. Swed ish Settlements, 129. Maryland, 132. Calvert, Baltimore, Clay- bourne, 133. Religious Freedom, 133. Carolina, 134. Locke's Government, 135, George Fox, 136. Penn, 136. Georgia, 141. Oglethorpe, 142. CHAPTER VIIL — COLONIAL LIFE AND CUSTOMS. Style of Living, 144. Glass, Coaches, Forks, 146. Religious Motives of Settlers, 147. Intolerance, 147. Degrees of Tolerance, 148, Quakers and Baptists, 151. Mary Fisher and Ann Austin, 152. Mary Dyer, 153 Shattuck and the King's Missive, 154. Witch- craft, 155. Margaret Jones, 156. Giles Corey, 157. Mather, 158. Laws about Fashions, 158. Home Manufactures, 159. Tobacco, 159. Quakers Care for the Sick and Insane, 160. Sun- day Observances, 160. Schools and Colleges, 161. The so-called l>lue-Laws, 161. Authorship, 162. CHAPTER IX. — RELATIONS BETWEEN THE SETTLERS AND THE INDIANS AND THE FRENCH. Land bought of the Indians, 163. Ill Treatment of the Indians, 164. Treaty with Powhatan, 164. Pequots exterminated, 165. Massa- cre in Virginia. 165. John Eliot, the Missionary, 166. Massa- soit, 168. V/ar with the Narragansetts, 168. Towns burned, i6r CONTENTS. xiii Goffe's apochryphal Appearance, 169. Massacres in Maine, 170. King William's VVar, 172. Queen Anne's War, 173. King George's War, 175. Father Rasle, 176. Mississippi Bubble, 178. Louisiana Territory, 179. Louisburg, 183. Moravians, 185, Ohio Claims and War, 185 Braddock, 187. Acadie devastated, 189. Wolfe, 190. Northwestern Struggles, 192. CHAPTER X.— THE PEOPLE AND THEIR RULERS. Republican Government at Jamestown, 195. Difference between the Colonies, 196. Slavery, 196. Assiento Treaty, 199. Whitefield approves Slavery, 199. England forces Slavery upon America, 199. Jefferson protests, 201. New Englanders and Virginians, 202. Teutonic Communities, 206. The Southern Gentleman, 207, Proprietary Governments, Charter Governments, and Colonies, 208. Traits of New Yorkers, 209. A Massachusetts Contro- versy, 210. The Government of Andros, 211. The Charter Oak, 214. Colonial Governors, 216. CHAPTER XL— LOOKING TOWARDS INDEPENDENCE. ,< Independence not desired at First, 218. .tJnion needed, 216. First American Congress, 219. Plans for a general Union, 220. Franklin's Plan, 221. Halifax's Plan, 224. Growth of the Spirit of Independence, 225. English Jealousy, 226. The Sugar Law, 226. Writs of Assistance, 227. England stimulates the Slave Trade, 228. Stamp Act, 230 The British Ministers, 230 Virginia declares against Taxation without Representation, 231. Boston impresses herself upon the foreign Mind, 232. New York stirred, 232. South Carolina suggests a Congress, 233. "All of us Americans," 233. The "paltry Tax on Tea," 235. The Boston Massacre, 239. The Boston Tea Party, 240. Colonial Society, 240. A Committee of Correspondence, 241. Gage in Boston, 242. The Quebec Act, 243. Congress at Philadelphia, 244. CHAPTER XII.— WAR BEGUN. The Importance of Towns, 247 A Congress at Charleston, 248. Joseph Warren at the Old South, Boston, 250, Pitt and Burke against Wesley and Johnson, 252. Going to Lexington, 254. Revere's Ride, 255. At Lexington and Concord, 257. Flying from Lexington, 258. Boston besieged, 260. Tories flee, 260. Ticon- deroga captured, 262. The second Continental Congress in Phil- ^^^ CONTENTS. adelphia, 263. Washington at the Head of the Army, 264. Bunker Hill, 264. Georgia enters the Union, 266. CHAPTER XHI.— INDEPENDENCE. The Spirit of Washington, 267. Washington leaves Philadelphia, 267. Hears of the Battle of Bunker Hill, 268. Schuyler in command at New York, 269. Headquarters at Cambridge, 269. Distinc- tions of Colonies to be laid aside, 271 The Nancy captured, 271. Howe in command at Boston, 272. Dorchester Heights fortified, 276. Boston evacuated, 277. Royalists leave for England, 278. Success in Canada, 279. Arnold at Quebec, 280. Southern Operations, 280. Virginia asserts a Desire for Independence, 283. Makes a Declaration of Rights, 284. Declaration of Indepenence, 285. First Fourth of July, 287. The indefinite Grants form an Obstacle to Union, 288. Western Territory ceded to the United Colonies, 291. The National Domain, 294. CHAPTER XIV.— NORTHERN OPERATIONS. Washington in New York, 296. The Howes detested, 297. The Retreat from Long Island, 298. Across New Jersey, 299. Con- gress migrates, 300. Help from France, 301. Success at Sara- toga, 302. Winter at Valley Forge, 303. Articles of Confedera- tion, 304. Wyoming and Cherry Valley, 307. Virginia conquers the West, 308. American Sympathizers in England, 310. CHAPTER XV.— SOUTHERN OPERATIONS — PEACE. Savannah captured, 311. Wayne takes Stony Point, 312. Nava' Success, 313. Paul Jones, 314. Washington at Morristown, 315- Currency depreciates, 316. Charleston taken by Clinton, 318. Southern Patriots, 31S. Arnold and Andre, 320. Cowpens, 324. Cornwallis surrenders, 328. George III. announces Independ- ence, 321. The Cincinnati, 333. Washington's Farewells, 335. CHAPTER XVI — FORMING A NEW GOVERNMENT. A disunited Country, 337. Virginia acts, 339. Northwestern Terri- tory formed, 340. The Constitutional Convention, 341. Plans for the new Government, 342. The national Plan adopted, 344. Disunion, 345. Parties form, 347. The Ciovernnient formed, 349 CONTENTS. -^' CHAPTER XVII.— THE FIRST PRESIDENT. Inauguration, 353. Amendments to the Constitution, 353. The Cabinet, 355.. National Bank, 355. Second Election, 356. Tariff Discussion, 357. Slavery in the Territories, 357. Fugitive Slave Laws, 357. Foreign Relations, 358. Proclamation of Neutrality, 361. Trouble with England, 362. Attacks upon Washmgton, 365. Washington's Court, 366. Philadelphia Society, 368. CHAPTER XVIIL— FEDERALIST AND REPUBLICAN. Bitter Party strife, 370. Alien and sedition Acts, 371. Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, 373. Madison on Nullification, 373 Talleyrand regrets his Rashness, 375. Washington's Death, 376. Jefferson President, 376. First Inauguration in Washington, 378. Louisiana Purchase, 379. Internal improvements, 381. Pirates of the Mediterranean, 382. Burr and Blennerhassett, 384. Foreign Commerce, 385. The great Embargo, 387. Fulton's Steamboat, 388. E.xploration of the West, 391. Internal Im- provements, 393. CHAPTER XIX.— WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. Madison President, 394. John Henry's Scheme, 395. Orleans and Disunion, 396. Clay and Calhoun, 397. War declared, 398. Disunion again, 399. Naval Success, 400. Tecumseh and the Prophet, 403. Washington Burned, 407. Battle of New Orleans, 409. Hartford Convention, 410. Treaty of Ghent, 414. Med- iterranean Pirates, 415. Commercial Distress, 415. CHAPTER XX.— THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING. Monroe President, 417. Erie Canal, 418. Increase of States, 421. Missouri applies for Admission, 424. Slavery Excitement, 425. Clay's Compromises, 426. Monroe's Mission, 427. Adams chosen President, 427. Development of the Country, 428. Cum- berland Road, 428. Panama Mission, 429. Rotation in Office, 429, CHAPTER XXL— NULLIFICATION, TREATY OF WASH- INGTON, ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. Jackson President, 431. The Tariff of 1828, 431 - An innocent inquiry, 432. Hayne and Webster, 432. South Carolina Acts.. xvi CONTENTS. 433. Jackson issues a Proclamation, 436. Whig and Locofoco, 437. Pet Banks favored, 438. Van Buren President, 439. Sub- Treasury System, 440. Tlie Hard Cider Campaign, 441. Harri- son President, 441. Tyler President, 442. Treaty of Washing- ton, 443. Texas Settled, 444. Indian Wars, 446. Seminole War, 447. Rebellion in Canada, 448. The Mormons, 449. The Dorr Rebellion, 450. CHAPTER XXn.— WAR WITH MEXICO. Polk President, 452. The Oregon Region, 454. Origin of the Mex- ican War, 455. Lincoln's " Spot " Resolutions, 456. Taylor in Mexico, 457. Scott's Plans, 458. Fremont's Success, 459. Wil- mot Proviso, 461. Garrison and Slavery, 462. The War ended, 466. The Taylor Presidential Campaign, 467. Califor- nia and Gold, 468. CHAPTER XXIII.— FROM COMPROMISE TO SECESSION. Western Growth, 469. A " United States South " called for, 470. Henry Clay and Compromise, 470. Slavery Discussions, 472, Webster's Union Speech, 472. Robert Toombs, 473. Fugitive Slave Law, 474. Election of Pierce, 476. Arizona purchased, 477. The Kansas -Nebraska Bill, 478. John Brown in Kansas, 481. War ahead, 482. Election of Buchanan, 4S4. Dred Scott Decision, 485. John Brown at Harper's Ferry, 486. Sumner assaulted, 488. Lincoln elected, 492. Secession, 493. Jefferson Davis elected, 494. Political Delusions fostered by Dema- gogues, 498. CHAPTER XXIV.— WAR FOR UNION. Northern Opposition to War, 501. Efforts for Peace, 502. Senator Crittenden, 505. The Star of the West, 508. Sketch of Lin- coln, 508. The Confederate Policy as laid down by the Leaders, 510. Sumter attacked, 511. The loyal North, 513. "On to Washington," 514. Bull Run and its Effects, 514. The Ala- bama, 516. Operations of the Mississippi, 517. The Monitors, 519. McClellan on the Potomac, 520. Conscription, 522. Grant at Vicksburg, 523. Battles of Chickamauga and Chattanooga, 525. Battles of the Wilderness, 528. The North invaded, 529. Sherman's March to the Sea, 531 Emancipation, 533. Rich- mond evacuated, 537. The Confederates surrender, 538. Cap. CONTENTS. XTlI ture of Uavis, 541. Effects of the War in the South, 542. Union is safety, 543. CHAPTER XXV.— THE ERA OF PROGRESSIVE NA- TIONAL LIFE. Lincoln's reconstruction Policy, 545. Johnson impeached, 547. Heavy Taxes, 548. Ocean Telegraphy, 548. Purchase of Alaska, 551. Constitutional Amendments, 552. The Pacific Railway completed, 554. Monentary Troubles, 557. The Ku-klux Klan 558. Great Fires in Chicago and Boston, 559. Grant re-elected 560. Financial Troubles, 561. Western Railways, 562. The Centennial Exhibition, 563. A political Crisis, 565. Sketch of President Hayes, 566. Railway Riots, 567. The South scourged, 567. Northern Sympathy, 568. The Negro Exodus, 569. Gold Payments resumed, 570. Election of Garfield, 571. President Arthur takes his Place, 572. Civil Service Reform, 573. Review of the Tariff, 573. A Retrospect, 576. Religious Bodies, 580. Invention and Manufactures, 582. The Telegraph, 585. Colleges, 587. American Literature, 590. Herbert Spencer on America, 596. Daniel Webster on the Union, 597. DOCUMENTS — ILLUSTRATING THE CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. The Social Compact signed in the Cabin of the Mayflower, 6oi. The Articles of Confederation of the New England Colonies, 601. The Declaration of Independence, 607. Articles of Confedera- tion of the Thirteen Colonies, 611. A Declaration of Rights made by the Representatives of the Good People of Virginia, 618. The Constitution of the United States, 621. Amend- ments to the Constitution, 632. The Virginia Resolutions of 1798, 637, The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, 640. The Ken- tucky Resolutions of 1799, passed in Response to the Resolutions of the other States in Reply to the Resolutions of 1798, 645. INDEX 647 ILLUSTRATIONS. Columbus the Discoverer Frontispiece. Caravels of Columbus * Martin Behaim's Map (1492) 5 Christopher Columbus (medallion) 8 Columbus before the Junta J° A Ship of Columbus, from a drawing attributed to Him . . 14 Columbus welcomed to Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella . . 19 Ruins of Columbus' House, St. Domingo .... 21 Arms of Columbus .22 The Round Tower at Newport 25 Watch Tower, Yucatan 26 Portrait of Sebastian Cabot 27 Medallion, Amerigo Vespucci 32 Map showing the Routes of the early Discoverers • . • 33 Ruins of Tuloom, Yucatan, on the Route of Cortes ... 37 Old Drawing of a Ship of the Early Discoverers ... 40 The Pueblo of Zuni 42 The Governor of Zuni '43 Modern Indians 44 The Pueblo of Zuni, New Mexico 45 Manufactures of California Indians 47 Ground Plan of a Pueblo in Chaco Canon, Northern New Mexico 49 Cliff-dwellings in Southwestern Arizona 51 Indian Pappoose ... 54 Grand Canon, Arizona, looking East 56 Interior of a Zuni House 61 Indian Weapons 65 On the Route of Pizarro 67 The Inca Huascar 69 Guatemalian Idol . • . ...#•• 7* A Mexican Temple • • 75 The Mayflower 80 Map of Cape Cod 8« six XX ILLUSTRATIONS. Sir Francis Drake's Chair 82 Leyden Street, Plymouth, Mass 86 Chair of Elder Brewster 91 The first New England Washing-Day 93 Autograph of William Bradford 95 Burial Hill, Plymouth, Mass. 97 Autograph of Miles Standish, also His Kettle, Sword and Dish 99 The busy Loom of the early Settlers 102 A Puritan Daughter 11 1 A Colonial Interior 114 Jacques Cartier 116 A garrison House 120 La Salle on a Voyage . 122 Map of the early American Settlements 125 Entering New York Harbor in modern Times .... 126 New Amsterdam . 128 New York in 1720 131 The Natural Bridge, Virginia 137 An old-time Home 143 The Ligleside . 144 The early American Woman at Work 145 The early New England Schoolmaster and His Pupils . . 149 The weaving Room . . . . . . '157 The early American Boy out of School (swingling Flax) . . 161 Grandfather's Trunk ......... 162 A Pioneer's Home ......... 165 Building a Wigwam . 171 Statue of Benjamin Franklin ....... 18: Braddock's Headquarters in Western Virginia .... 187 Death of General Wolfe 190 Monument to General Wolfe at Quebec , , . . . 193 A Southern Mansion. The Arlington House, overlooking Wash- ington 197 An humble New England Home. Birthplace of the Author of the " Old Oaken Bucket." 200 The old Capital of Virginia 203 An American Schoolhouse in a pioneer Settlement . . . 205 An erring young Colonist ........ 207 Washington's Home at Mount Vernon 208 The Old South Church, Boston 213 The colonial Shoemaker's Infrequent Visit .... 214 Breaking Fla.\ 217 Map of the eastern Colonies ' • 2l8 ILLUSTRATIONS. xxi Benjamin Franklin's Birthplace 220 Map of the Colonies at the Time of the Revolution . . . 235 Faneuil Hall, Boston 237 House of Lieutenant-Governor Oliver, in Cambridge. Now the Home of James Russell Lowell 243 Beating Damask 247 Pulpit Window of the Old South, through which Warren entered 251 General Gage 253 Headquarters of the Committee of Safety, Cambridge, Birth- place of the Poet Holmes 255 The old Battle Ground, Concord, Mass 257 Portrait of Israel Putnam 259 The old Manse, Concord, through which the Wife of the Rev. William Emerson watched the Battle .... 262 Map of Boston and Vicinity 265 British Stamps for the American Market 267 Portrait of Martha Washington 268 The Washington Elm, Cambridge, Mass 270 The Minute Man. 273 Washington reviewing the Continental Army (after a painting by Wadsworth Thompson) 281 House in which the Declaration of Independence was written 285 Autographs of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence 292 Saratoga Lake -301 Kosciusko's Monument, Fort Clinton, West Point . . . 306 Bartholdi's Statue of the young Lafayette, Union Square, New York 309 Continental Currency 313 Lord Cornwallis 317 John Andre 320 Monument to Paulding, Williams and Van Wart . . . 322 View from West Point 323 Headquarters of Cornwallis at Yorktown . . . -32 House in which the Articles of Capitulation were signed at York- town 329 Washington's Headquarters at Newburg 334 Cooking the Turkey in the old Times 336 President Washington ........ 350 Monticello, the home or Jefferson 3C6 Northern Scenery. The Conway Meadows, New Hampshire 359 Southern Scenery. On the Savannah River .... 363 The House of John Hancock, Beacon street, Boston. Removed in 1863 36JI ILLUSTRATIONS. The University of Virginia . . Wasliington's Tomb Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va. Pike's Peak, in the Heart of the Continent Mount of the Holy Cross, Colorado Coaching revived Lake Erie, opposite the City of Erie, Pa. . Niagara Falls Statue of President Jackson at New Orleans Boston Harbor. Taking a Pilot in rough Weather In an old Drawing-Room The Capitol at Washington The Presidential Mansion at Washington Starting for the West Bunker Hill Monument A Post Station on the Prairies Webster at Marshfield Charleston, South Carolina The first House built in Chicago President Harrison's Grave at North Bend, Ohio The Mormon Temple, Salt Lake City House of the late Brigham Young, Salt Lake City Portrait of James Russell Lowell Portrait of Ralph Waldo Emerson The Home of Emerson, Concord, Mass. Some American Coins San Francisco in 1849 .... San Francisco at a later Period Standing Rocks on the Brink of Mu-av Canon, Colorado Western Indians Gambling . The Home of Washington Irving, Sunnyside, Irvingtc Crossing the Continent a Generation ago Paul Hamilton Hayne, the Poet of the South Harper's Ferry, Va. Southern Scenery. Lake Roland, near Baltimore Suspension Bridge and Niagara Falls Fort Sumter .... President Lincoln Portrait of John G. Whittier Fort Sumter after the Bombardment The House of John G. Whittier Southern Scenery. View from Lookout Mountain Petersburg, Va. . . ' . Md ILLUSTRATIONS. xxui Logging in the far West 535 Richmond, Va., and the Washington Monument . . .539 Flowers of Peace 544 Silver Mining in Nevada 549 The Product of the Pacific Silver Mines 553 Inspection Car on the Great Pacific Railway, approaching St. Lake 555 Horace Greeley's Birthplace 559 The Art Gallery at the Centennial Exhibition . . . .564 Portrait of William CuUen Bryant 5^8 Portrait of President Garfield 57^ Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y 577 Vassar College Observatory 579 An American Railway Station 5^3 An Ocean Steamer 5^4 Principal Building of Wellesley College, seen over Lake Waban 586 Longfellow — His Portrait and Birthplace in Portland, Me. . 591 Stone Hall, Wellesley College 595 Portrait of William Dean Howells 596 Symbols of our Age 59^ HISTORY ^<^F - : n ) 1 O V? r; THEAMERICAN PEOPLE CHAPTER I. COLUMBUS THE DISCOVERER. There shall come a time in later ages, when Ocean shall relax his chains and a vast continent appear, and a pilot shall find new world; and Thule shall be no more Earth's hound. — Seneca's Medea, ii. 371. '-y^HE history of the New World is entered by the gate of Romance. For many centuries the in- habitants of the East- ern continents had been looking to the westward for an undiscovered land of marvels. Plato had told the story of the famous island of Atlan tis, describing with fas- cinating minuteness, the salubrity of the climate, the beauty of the natural cAKAVELs OF COLUMBUS. sccncry, the lofty moun- tains, abundant rivers, useful animals, rich mineral resources, the happiness of the sturdy and wealthy people who had the good fortune to be its inhabitants. The information regard- mg this fortunate land he asserted had been derived 2 COL UMB US THE DISCO VEBEB. by Solon from an old priest in Egypt. It cannot now be determined that there was any other founda- tion than the imagination for the belief that there existed another continent beyond the Pillars of Her- cules, but certain it is that as the idea that the earth was spherical in form became more and more firmly fixed in the minds of men, the opinion rapidly gained ground that the Eastern continents were but com- paratively a small portion of the land of the world. The growth of this belief constitutes an interesting study. Both the shape and the size of the globe were unknown in ancient times. The earth was at first supposed to be a stationary plain, but at as early a date as the seventh century before Christ, Anaximan- der of Miletus, held that it was of cyUndrical form. Four centuries later, Eratosthenes, the learned librarian of Alexandria, the founder of geodesy, who first raised geography to the rank of a science, consid- ered the globe an immovable sphere, and constructed maps on mathematical principles, using for the first time, parallels of longitude and latitude. Ptolemy, the Alexandrian astronomer, in the second century after Christ, re-asserted the spherical form of the earth, using the good reasons that were afterwards presented by Copernicus ( 1 543 )• They had been proved true by the circumnavigation of the globe by Magalhaens, in 1 5 19. Eratosthenes calculated that the earth was 252,000 " stadia " in circumference, but the unit of his measure is lost; and Pliny estimated this at 31,500 Roman miles, or a little over 28,000 English miles. In the ninth century, during the caliphate of Almamoun the Arabian astronomers fixed the circumference of THE TEt^^iESTRIAL PARADISE. 3 the earth at about 24,000 miles. Sir John Mande- ville, the English traveller, placed it at 20,425 miles «in roundness and circuit above and beneath, bu Columbus thought it considerably less, and believed that the shores of Asia were proportionally nearer to the Azores. The ancient estimates were too great and the later measures too small, but the mistakes of Columbus exerted an important influence upon history, for had he known the actual distance from Europe to Asia, measured westward, he would never have ven- tured to try to cross the vast distance in his insignih- cant vessels. r , • *. One of the most marked utterances of the ancients regarding the fabled land to the westward, is that of •Se'neca, a translation of which by archbishop Whately, is o-iven at the head of this chapter. This philosopher, a n'ative of .Cordova in Spain, and teacher of the Em- peror Nero, died in the year 65. His lines crys- tallize the thoughts that had long been current, perhaps giving them a more prophetic tone than any other than a philosopher and a poet would have used. Readers of Dante are familiar with the belief that the Terrestrial Paradise existed on the other side oi --" -lobe, at the antipodes of Jerusalem —a point by vay, in the Pacific Ocean, near Tahiti. The 2 to know where Paradise had been was one of lost firmly fixed in the mediaeval mind. It was ssed in the fourth century with rapturous elo- ce by St. Basil and St. Ambrose, in their works aradise They represented that there pure and ,al pleasures were furnished to every sense, the ^as always balmy, the skies serene, and the inhaoi- ; enjoyed perpetual youth and bliss without a care. 4 COLUMBUS THE DISCOVEREB. In the century before the discovery of our conti- nent, Sir John Mandeville had come home from the East (1356) with particular descriptions of the region about the Terrestrial Paradise. He described the noise, the roughness of the country, the fierceness of the beasts, and the other obstacles put in the way of adventurous travellers who would penetrate the abode of our first parents. The same traveller had told his wondering countrymen the marvellous tale of the wealth and grandeur of the Grand Khan, of the province of Cathay and the city of Cambalu.* Marco Polo, a few years earlier had gone farther, and had described the magnificence of the island of. Cipango (Japan), which he said lay fifteen hundred miles to the eastward of China. Besides, the imagination had firmly fixed in men's minds a belief in the existence of lands of fabulous wealth to the westward of Europe. On the maps of the time of Columbus, we find the island of St. Bran- dan laid down at a distance of some six hundred miles beyond the Canary Islands, and the Island of * Mandeville said that experience and understanding prove that a ship might sail " all round the earth, above and beneath, " but that the globe is so great that it would not be apt to return to the place from which it set out, " unless by chance, or by the grace of God." He showed that when it is day in England, it is night' on the other side of the earth, ana assured "simple and unlearned men " that they need have no fear of falling off towards the heavens, thereby confuting the ridicule that Lactantius, in the fourth century, sought to cast upon the doctrine of antipodes, when he said : " Is there any one so foolish as to believe that there are antipodes with their feet opposite to ours people who walk with their heels upward and their heads hanging down ? That there is a part of the world in which all things are tops}-- turvy: where the trees grow with their branches downward, and where it rains, hails and snows upward ? " THE FABLED ISLANDS. f the Seven Cities further to the north. This island had not disappeared from the maps as late as 1755, when a French geographer placed it upon his chart. With both of these islands there were associated mar- vellous stories. Concerning the first, it was related that St. Brandan, a Scotch or Irish abbot of the sixth century, sailed out into the great ocean in search of an island of which he had heard that enjoyed the delights of Paradise, but was inhabited by infidels. Before he arrived at the spot, he found, on another island, the body of a giant lying in a sepulchre. This he resus- citated, and the giant, after giving accounts of the sufferings of Jews and Pagans in the infernal regions, was converted and baptized. He told the saint that be knew the island for which he was seeking, and undertook to direct him to it. The search proved unsuccessful ; but the island that the people of the Canaries supposed they could see from their shores, long bore the name of St. Brandan.* At a later period it was the subject of much grave official inquiry, and so satisfactory was the evidence of its existence, that in 1526, 1570, 1605, and even 1721, expeditions were actually sent to search for it, though it always refused to be discovered. The Island of the Seven Cities was connected with the Moorish conquest of Spain, in the eighth century, when the inhabitants fled in all directions. Seven bishops, with a great number of people, founded seven cities on a large island in the ocean. Mariners were found who related that they had actually visited the * See Longfellow's " The Poets and Poetry of Europe," page 372 ; also poems by Matthew Arnold and Denis Florence McCarthy, on St. Brandan ; and the appendix to Irving's " Columbus," vol. iii p. 403. 8 COLUMBUS THE DISCOVERER. island ; and their story of the strange inhabitants gained much currency. The island was laid down on the maps under the name of Antilla. Romance had connected itself also with the island of Maderia, which was said to have been discovered by an Englishman, who in the reign of Edward III. (about 1350) had fallen in love with a maiden above him in social importance. The marriage being impos- sible in England, the lovers took ship surreptitiously, intending to land in France ; but after a voyage of four- teen days found themselves in a country of Arcadian loveliness, A tempest destroyed their vessel, leaving the lovers alone in a strange land. The lady died, reproaching herself at being the cause of the misfor- tune, and her lover soon followed her to the grave. In this age of romance, at about the middle of the fif- teenth century, there ap- peared from the ob^urity of an humble social position, a young Italian seaman who was destined to revolutionize the world. He was inured to hardship, and had passed the apprenticeship of a rigid discipline on board a ship engaged in pred- atory warfare against the enemies of Genoa. He had studied geography, geometry and astronomy in the great school of Pavia, and in the northern and south- ern seas, for he had sailed to Iceland, and a hundred leagues beyond it,* curious to know if that frozen land *Huinbolt asserts that in Scandanavia Columbus learned traditions which confirmed him in his views reeardiiiG; a Western continent. THE DISCO VEBEB'S PREPARATION. 9 were inhabited, and had visited the gold coast of Guinea. He appears to us at the age of about thirty- five, in the city of Lisbon, tall, well formed and mus- cular, with hair prematurely white — a man of dignified demeanor and the air of authority. Italy had held up the torch of learning during the ages of darkness, and had carried the civilizing influence of commerce to other parts ; but at this time the court of Portugal was the most attractive to one of the spirit of Colum- bus, for Prince Henry, the third son of John the Great, known as " the Navigator," had made the coun- try foremost among the powers of Europe in enlarg- ing the scope of geographical knowledge. Columbus married the daughter of a noted Italian navigator, Palestrello, and through this connection added to his opportunities for knowledge of the sort that he had before most loved. He studied the rude maps at his disposal, listened to the stories of roman- tic travellers, and read the prophecies in the Bible of the universal diffusion of the gospel. This inspired him with a desire to recover the holy sepulchre and to carry the gospel to the countries to the eastward. As he looked westward, and thought of the Summer isles of Eden lying in dark purple spheres of sea, he yearned to sail in that direction also, confident that he should arrive at the famed island of Cipango (Japan), and the country of the great Cham. He considered the stories of the islands of St. Brandan and of the Seven Cities as mere illusions, charming as they were to the fancy ; but he did not give up a hope of being able to get near the confines of the Terres- trial Paradise. 10 COLUMBUS THE DISCOVERER. His application to Portugal for aid in equipping a fleet to sail west to find the coast of the Indies, was defeated through the jealousy of the maritime junta and the council of John the Great ; and Columbus sent his brother to repeat the proposals to Henry VH. of England, while he went to Spain. That country was then ruled by Ferdinand and Isabella and was engaged in the closing struggles which led to the fall of Granada, in the first month of 1492. For seven years the earnest advocate of western dis- covery remained in Spain, subject to alternations of hope and discouragement, and it is asserted that he took active and honorable part in the operations of -ihe army of Ferdinand and Isabella against the Moors. In 1485 he had an audience with the Grand Cardi- nal of Spain, at Cordova. This prelate was at first inclined to the opinion that the views propounded by Columbus controverted the Scriptures; but finally, impressed by the grandeur of the proposition of the simple navigator, he decided that it was worthy of being brought to the notice of the sovereigns. Fer- dinand was impressed as his cardinal had been, but he felt that prudence demanded that he should obtain the opinions of others. He therefore convened a con- ference of clerical sages at the convent of St. Stephen at Salamanca, before which Columbus argued his cause — the cause, as it proved, of a new world. He had before him the wisdom of the time, which was supported on the greatest authorities of the past, both lay and clerical. It was not known that the theory of Ptolemy was to be overthrown by Copernicus, who, then a mere boy, was pursuing his preliminary studies COLUMBUS BEGGING BREAD. 13 in a town of West Prussia. St. Augustine and Lac- tantius, besides other ancient writers, were quoted in opposition to tlie theory that there were antipodes ; and Columbus was asked how his theory could be made to conform to the statements of David and St. Paul, who speak of the heavens as spread out as a curtain and as a tent ? Though some of the members of the council were convinced of the force of the navi- gator's arguments, there proved to be a mass of bigotry in others too great for him to overcome. His petition was postponed and his heart was sick. With his little boy, he one day asked bread and water at the door of the convent of Santa Maria de Rabida, just out of the seaport of Palos, in Andalusia.* His appearance attracted the attention of the prior, who listened to his story, and finally obtained for him an audience at court, where his enterprise would have received support, had it not been for the fact that Columbus refused to listen to any but princely terms. He was again on the point of turning from Spain, when the sympathies of the queen were excited, and she offered to pledge her jewels to aid the venture. The keeper of the crown ecclesiastical revenues, Luis de St. Angel, assured her that this was unnecessary, as he was ready to advance the money. The offer was accepted, and the funds were provided from the coffers of Arragon. Columbus was actually on his way to Cordova from Santa Fe, when this decision was reached, and was loth to return with the messenger who had been summoned to call him back, lest he should meet more sickening delays. * For an interesting account of a visit to Palos, see Irving's " Colum- bus," vol. iii., Appendix. 14 COL UMB US THE DISCO VEBEB. On the seventeenth of April, 1492, the agreement between Ferdinand and Isabella, proud sovereigns of A SHIP OF COLUMBUS FROM A DRAWING ATTRIBUTED TO HIM. Castile and Arragon on the one part, and Christopher Columbus, mariner, on the other, were signed at Granada ; and on Friday, the third of August, 1492, MOTIVES OF COl.UMBUS. 15 Columbus set sail from the port of Palos on his mo- mentous quest, bearing letters to the Grand Khan of Tartary, whose subjects he expected to convert to the Christian religion. Though this was one of the ciiief ends aimed at by Columbus, in which the gracious Isabella sympathized with him, it is probably true that Ferdinand was actuated by a desire to further the limits of his power, for all heathen peoples were then considered fair spoil by the Christians, and Fer- dinand was familiar with the stories of the fabulous wealth of Ormus and of Ind, which had fired the mediaeval imagination for ages. The motives of Columbus are best stated in the words that he recorded in his diary, as he started on the voyage. They are the impressive words of a man deeply in earnest. It begins thus : In Nomine d. n. Jesu Christ:. Whereas, most Christian, most high, most excellent, and most powerful princes, king and queen of the Spains, and of the islands of the sea, our sovereigns, in the present year of 1492, after your highnesses had put an end to the war with the Moors who ruled in Europe, and had concluded that warfare in the great city of Granada, where, on the second of January, of this present year, I saw the royal banners of your highnesses placed by force of arms on the towers of the Alhambra, which is the fortress of that city, and beheld the Moorish king sally forth from the gates of the city, and kiss the royal hands of your highnesses and of my lord the prince ; and immediately in that same month, in consequence of the informa- tion which I had given to your highnesses of the lands of India, and ot a prince who is called the Grand Khan, which is to say, in our lan- guage, ' King of Kings ' ; how that many times he and his predeces- sors had sent to Rome, to entreat for doctors of our holy faith to in- struct him in the same ; and that the holy father had never provided him with them, and thus so many people were lost, believing in idola- tries, and imbibing doctrines of perdition; therefore your highnesses, as Catholic Christians and princes, lovers and promoters of the holy Christian faith, and enemies of the sect of Mahomet, and of all idola- tries and heresies, determined to send mc, "Christopher Colunibus, t(i 16 COL UMB US THE DISCO VERER. the said parts of India, to see the said princes and the people and lands, and discover the nature and disposition of them all, and the means to be taken for the conversion of them to our holy faith ; and ordered that I should not go by land to the East, by which it is the custom to go, but by a voyage to the West, by which course, unto the present time, we do not know for certain that any one hath passed. Your highnesses, therefore, having expelled all the Jews from your kingdoms and territories, commanded me, in the same month of Janu- ary, to proceed with a sufficient armament to the said parts of India ; and for this purpose bestowed great favors upon me, ennobling me, that thenceforward I might style myself Don, appointing me high ad- miral of the Ocean sea, and perpetual viceroy and governor of all the islands and continents I should discover and gain, and which hence- forward may be discovered and gained in the Ocean sea, and that ray eldest son should succeed me, a>id so on from generation to genera- tion forever. I departed, therefore, from the city of Granada, on Sat- urday, the twelfth of May, of the same year, 1492, to Palos, a seaport, where I armed three ships, well calculated for such service, and sailed from that port well furnished with provisions and with many seamen, on Friday, the third of August, of the same year, half an hour before sun- rise and took the route for the Canary Islands of your highnesses, to steer my course thence, and navigate until I should arrive at the Indies and deliver the embassy of your highnesses to those princes, and ac- complish that which you had commanded. In these words we have set before us the lofty motives with which Columbus started on his voyage. They convey no intimation of the conflicting feelings which were at work in his heart. They do not express the exultation with which he was filled, nor the dan- ger in which he stood from his own men. We can scarcely appreciate the loneliness of the admiral on this voyage. His fellow-voyagers had little sympathy with his faith in the possibilities of the enterprise. One of the Pinzons, the commander of the Pinta, one of the three vessels which set sail with the Santa Maria, on which Columbus hoisted his flag as admiral, deserted off the coast of Cuba and hastened home, apparently to anticipate Columbus in giving to the EXULTANT JOY AT PALOS. 17 sovereigns the startling intelligence of the discovery of a new world. We are to think of this man of faith standing on the deck of his frail vessel day after day, surrounded by men whose minds, clouded by superstition, were ready to accept every appearance as portentous with some omen, ready to unite against their commander, to cast him into the sea and to turn their backs on his prophetic visions. Seventy times the sun rose and went down in the shoreless ocean. Often were efforts made to turn the leader from his determination to steer straight west- ward. Often did hope rise, but to be followed by de- spair, as the signs of land melted away in the waste of waters; but the hero was not to be deterred. He pressed forward, and, on the evening of the eleventh of October, had the satisfaction of catching a glimpse of lights. Scarce able to believe that his hopes were already fulfilled, Columbus called others to look in the distance. They supported his testimony ; and on the morning of the twelfth, the gun of the Pvita ga.vQ the signal that Rodrigo de Triana had actually descried land. On that Friday morning, with appropriate insignia of authority, the admiral set foot on the Wes- tern Hemisphere, taking possession of the country with religious ceremonies, in the name of Ferdinand and Isabella. On the thirteenth of the following March, Columbus landed again at Palos and was received with that agitation and exultant joy with which a superstitious people in that age would be expected to greet the return of those long mourned as lost, who at last had come back in triumph. It is said that as the bells of 1 8 COL UMB US THE JDIS CO VERER. Palos were sounding out the peals of welcome to Co- lumbus, the deserter Pinzon entered the port. His heart sank within him as he understood the cause of the sounds with which his ears were greeted ; and he soon after died, a victim of chagrin. We cannot give an account of the princely honors that were showered upon Columbus. He was re- ceived by the sovereigns, seated in state, and, as a special mark of honor, was ordered to be himself seated in their presence. Isabella listened with in- terest to his story of adventure, and the people hailed him with the same applause that would have been awarded to a great conqueror. It was an island upon which Columbus had landed in 1492, and he did not touch upon our contiaent until August, 1498, when he visited Paria, in South America. He had been anticipated in discovering the mainland by Sebastian Cabot, who had seen the shores of Labrador, in June, 1497. We have nothing to do here with the expeditions of the Northmen, who are said to have visited America in the eleventh century, for, admitting that the records found in the sagas are true statements of historic facts, their visits did not lead to settlements of lasting importance. To Columbus belongs the undivided honor of first making real the grand idea of the Western World. His discovery led to all that has since been achieved on our continent. He experienced to the utmost the solitude of greatness, and he will be forever honored in the annals of men as the foremost among dis coverers. He was alone, however, only in the indefatigable pursuit of the 2^'e,at idea that he hn/J. ma.de Ms own THE RIVER OF LIFE. 21 In other respects he shared the superstitions and prejudices of his age. A marked token of this is found in the fact that he made, in 1501, elaborate plan5 for an expedition to recover the holy sepulchre from the Moslems. This was before his fourth voyage, when he was at Granada trying to put his affairs into BUINS OF COLUMBUS' HOUSE, ST. DOiMINQO. order, after the great confusion into which they had fallen subsequent to his third voyage. That voyage was one of the sad experiences of his sad life. He had fondly thought that he had actually discovered the River of Life flowing from the Tree of Life in the midst of the Terrestrial Paradise, when sailing off the Oronoco river, and while in this exalted state, he had 2-2 COLUMBUS THE DlaCOVKHER. been involved through the jealousy. of courtiers in Spain, and the dissensions of his own men, had been superseded in command and taken to Spain in irons. The burst of popular indignation caused b\' his arrival in this condition, forced Ferdinand to disa- vow connection with the transaction, and Columbus ARMS OF COLUMBUS. went to the New World again, but he never regained his prestige. He had vowed that he would furnish within seven years after the discovery of the Western Continent, a force of fifty thousand foot and five thousand horse, to recover the holy sepulchre. He had not derived DEATH OF COLUMBUS. 23 from his discoveries the expected means to do this ; but he endeavored to incite the sovereigns to the en- terjjrise. He set himself to the study of the Bible, the Fathers, and all other works from which he could hope for arguments to support his scheme. He said that he had been set apart from infancy by Heaven for the accomplishment of the discovery of the New World and the rescue of the sepulchre. He argued with the court with eloquence ; and when Vasco de Gama had achieved the signal success of sailing to India around the Cape of Good Hope, the old desire revived ; he was roused to emulation, and pleaded for an equipment to enable him to search for a strait, which he supposed he should find near the Isthmus of Darien, that would give him a direct route to the Indies. He thus worked upon the cupidity of Ferdi- nand, and was sent on his fourth voyage May 9, 1502. He did not forget his other project, however, and wrote a letter of apology to the Pope, in which he gave the reasons for postponing his pious enterprise. Columbus returned from his fourth voyage in No- vember, 1504, and died in neglect, poverty, and pain, at Valladolid, on the twentieth of May, 1506. He- was honored with a pompous funeral, and on his mon- ument the inscription was put, — A Castilla y a Leon Nucvo 111 undo dio Co/on.* The body of Columbus was destined to almost as many vicissitudes after death as it had experienced in life. Deposited first in the parochial church at Val- * To Castile and Leon Columbus gave a new world. 24 COLUMBUS THE DISCOVERER. ladolid, it was afterwards transferred to Seville, where that of his son Diego was also deposited; and in 1536, both were removed to Hispaniola and buried in the chief chapel of the Cathedral of San Domingo. There the remains of Columbus are supposed to rest still, a box containing them having been found with evidences of its authenticity, in September, 1877, though it is believed that the remains of Diego were removed to Havana, in 1795. Beautiful realm beyond the western main, That hymns thee ever with resounding wave, Thine is the glorious sun's peculiar reign ! Fruits, flowers, and gems, in rich mosaic pave Thy paths; like giant altars o'er the plain Thy mountains blaze, loud thundering, 'mid the rave Of mighty streams, that shoreward rush amain, Like Polypheme from his Etnean cave. Joy, joy, for Spain ! A seaman's hand confers These glorious gifts, and half the world is hers! But where is he — that light whose radiance glows The loadstar of succeeding mariners ? Behold him ! crushed beneath o'ermastering woes — Hopeless, heartbroken, chained, abandoned to his loci ! — Sir Aubrey de Vere. The legends of the Norsemen whom the Sagas tell us came to these shores five hundred years before Columbus, belong rather to the domain of the antiquary or the poet than to that of the historian. While, as Dr. Palfrey says, it is nowise unlikely that these sturdy voy- agers pushed their keels as far as the Western, continent, it is surely true that they left nothing which has impressed our civilization or our history. The Round Tower at Newport, and the skeleton found at Fall River, Mass., gave Mr. Longfellow an opportunity to bring a romantic voice from the past, though it related a tale that the Sagas had forgotten ; but the acute criticism of Dr. Palfrey has conclusively THE ROUND TOWER AT NEWPORT. 25 shown that the Tower was rather built by a man of peace than by " A Viking old," being modelled after the windmill of Chesterton, Eng- land, of which he gives a cut.* An unshapely block of stone dug up on the banks of the Merrimac has given Mr. VVhittier ground for his charming verses "The Norse- men," and we may thank him that his poetic mind is so fashioned that it, — ^ From the waste of time behind A simple stone or mound of earth Can summon the departed forth ; Quicken the past to life again. Though we must add with him, — If it be the chiselled limb. Of Berserker or idol grim, — A fragment of Valhalla's Thor, The stormy Viking's god of war. Or Praga of the Runic lay, Or love awakening Siona, I know not. Neither can we get satisfaction from the so-called " writing " on riiE ROUND TOWEK AT .XEWi'oKT. the rockat Berkeley, opposite Dighton on the Taunton River, which can hardly be tortured into anything of historic value, nor traced to a time anterior to 1680. ■ " History of New England," vol. i. p. 58. CHAPTER II. THE CABOTS AND OTHER DISCOVERERS. . . . The black northeaster, Through the snowstorm hurled, Drives our English hearts of oak Seaward round the world. A T this period there was a centre of interest in maritime discovery in the west of England, as well as in Spain and Portugal, and it was from the city of Bristol that the navigator went out who achieved the first discov- WATCH TOWER, TiTCATAK. ^^^ ^f ^^^. continent. The history of the American people is but a con- tinuation of the history of the people of England, and it was fitting that the voyager who discovered our land should have sailed from the shores of the Mother Country. The offer which Columbus had authorized his brother to make to King Plenry VII., was prof- fered at about the time that the Red Rose and the White had been united {in the persons of that monarch and Elizabeth, daughter of King Edward IV.) at the close of the disastrous War of the Roses.* * Bartholomew Columbus started for England in 14S4 and returned to his famous brother ten years later. The War of the Roses closed in 1485. SEBASTIAN CABOT, PRIMA VISTA. 29 The peace that ensued had given a new impetus to commerce as well as to enterprise, and it is said, in a letter of Don Pedro de Azala, written in 1498, that for seven years the people had been sending out vessels from Bristol to find the islands of Brazil and the island of the Seven Cities. In 1495 a patent was granted to John Cabot (or Kabotte) and his sons Lewis, Sebas- tian and Sanctus, authorizing them to go in search of islands, provinces or regions hitherto unseen by Chris- tians, and to take possession of them for the English crown, the exclusive right of trade being awarded to them on condition that one fifth of their gains should be paid to the King. Under this authority John Cabot, accompanied by his son Sebastian, sailed from Bristol in May, 1497, and at the distance of "some seven hundred leagues," according to his computation, arrived, as he supposed, at the shores of the kingdom of the Grand Cham. He must have suffered a revul- sion of feelings as he saw the land, for he had actually come upon the dreary shores of Cape Breton Island, or possibly of Labrador, which he called " Prima Vista." * It was the twenty-fourth of June. Cabot set up a large cross, planted the banner of England with that of Venice, and took possession of the coun- try in the name of King Henry VII. After coasting along the shores for three hundred leagues, and seeing no inhabitants, he returned to England, arriving at Bristol in August. * Mr. Richard Biddle, in his " Memoir of Sebastian Cabot," contends that " Prima Vista" was Labrador, but on the " Mappe-Monde " of Cabot, made in 1544, the name is given to the end of Cape Breton Is- land. See proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, for April, 1867, remarks of Charles Deane, LL. D. 30 THE CABOTS AND OTHER DISCOVERERS. Henry received Cabot with honor, furnished him money, and encouraged him to continue his expeditions. A Ucense was given him for this purpose by the king, but he does not appear to have made any voyages by virtue of it. The origin and end of John Cabot the dis- coverer of the American continent, are ahke involved in obscurity. It is not certainly known of what coun- try he was a native. He was not an Englishman, and though he had long lived in Venice, the fruitful foster-mother of adventurous discoverers, he was not a native of that city. Not an original like Columbus, he was a wise and skilful navigator, and though he probably took his suggestion from Columbus, he deserves credit for the sagacity which led him to accept the conclusions of that navigator, and to risk life and fortune in the effort to find the Indies by sailing westward. Sebastian Cabot, the second son of John, born probably about 1475, perhaps in Venice, was bred to the profession of his father, and early took up with enthusiasm the work which he, to us, so mysteriously had laid down. It is supposed, and there is no good reason for doubting the supposition, that he had accompanied his father on the voyage which resulted in the discovery of our continent ; and though little over twenty-one, he started again on the search for a northwest passage to India, in 1498, at nearly the same time that Columbus embarked on the third voyage, from which he came home in irons. Cabot encountered icebergs as he steered to the northwest, and, turning to the southward, sailed along the Ameri- can coast, where he saw the copper-tinted aborigines and made some observations on their customs. He THE NORTHEASTERN ROUTE. 81 returned to England, considering his voyage to have been a failure, which, indeed, it was, so far as the dis- covery of a northwest passage is concerned, but in no other sense. He was unfortunate in having his achievements brought to notice at the time when Europe was ringing with reports of the discovery by Vasco de Gama, of the route to India by the Cape of Good Hope. The date of the death of Sebastian, like that of his birth, is unknown. He probably drew his latest breath near the time that Elizabeth ascended the throne ; when he was about eighty-five years of age. He was honored as a great seaman during all of his long life. In 15 18 he was invited, by Ferdinand of Spain, to come to that country, where he was made " Pilot Major" of the realm, and one of the Council for the "New Indies." In 1526 he commanded an expedi- tion which was sent out to find a passage to India by a southwestern route, and he then entered the La Plata and discovered Paraguay. In 1547, the first year of the reign of Edward VI., he was recalled to England, and pensioned, for the good work that he had done and was yet to do. In 1553 he directed an unsuccessful expedition to find a passage to India by a northeastern route.* On the accession of Queen Mary he was invited by Charles V., to go again to Spain, but he refused to leave England. In 1556, he appears for the last time in authentic records * This attempt has been often repeated since the day of the Cahots, and it was left for a daring explorer of our own day to succeed in it. Baron Adolf Eric Nordenskiold, sailed from Gothenburg in July, 1878, and arrived at Yokohama in September, 1879. He considers the voyage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, in the Siberian Sea, practica- ble, but useless to commerce. 32 THE CABOTS AND OTHEB DISCOVEEEHS. as president of a new company formed for discovery. Octogenarian that hie was, he so much rejoiced at the prospects of a new expedition, that he actually joined in a dance on the occasion of the banquet which was given as the vessel was about to start. The long and eventful life of Sebastian Cabot com- prised almost the whole century of discovery that followed the first expedition of Columbus. He saw Amerigo Vespucci make his four voyages, * and have his name given to the new con- tinent, in 1507. Vespucc/' was an astronomer of Ven- ice, who accompanied the expeditions with which his name is associated in infe- rior capacities. In later years he was a warm friend jf Columbus, and he was always an honest man, an enthusiastic discoverer, a good manager and a superior astronomer. His name was given to the country by a German geographer, Martin Waldseemuller, who pub- lished an account of the four voyages of Vespucci at St. Die, Lorraine, in 1507. In 1 501 Caspar Cortereal was sent to the Western Hemisphere by the King of Portugal. He made two expeditions, returned from the first with a cargo of the natives, whom he sold as slaves, and was never heard of after he left Portug il the second time. Some three years later the French made voyages to New- *The vovnscs of Vc^iiucci are clouded in obscurity, and it is by many doul:)ted if he made four. See Irving's " Columbus," vol. iii- P- 344- SPANISH DISCOVERERS. 36 foundland, and left there names which remain still as witnesses of their adventurous spirit. In 15 12 Juan Ponce de Leon, a Spanish navigator who had accompanied Columbus on his second voyage, having: heard the Indian tradition of the Fountain of Youth, went in search of it, and discovered Florida on Palm Sunday {Pasqua Florida, feast of flowers) of that year. He visited it again four years later, in search of gold, but was driven away. In 15 13 Vasco Nuilez de Balboa, a companion of Columbus, explored the Isthmus of Darien, and hear- ing that there was beyond the mountains a mighty sea navigated by people with great vessels, the streams entering it abounding in gold, that precious metal being as plenty as iron in Europe, he gave him- self up to the discovery of the Pacific Ocean. Reach- ing the mountain from the summit of which he was told that the marvellous sea was to be descried, this daring, and sometimes cruel adventurer, made the ascent alone, and, gazing upon a new world with a palpitating heart, sank upon his knees in thankfulness to God who had given him the privilege of being the first European to see the sight. He promised his followers that they should be the richest men on earth, and they on their part, in the spirit of mediae- val knight-errant, vowed to follow him to the death, whereupon they all fell upon their knees and united in singing the Te Deiiin Landamus with pious enthu- siasm and great iov. " In 1 5 19 Hernando Cortes, tne toremost among the adventurers who had come lb the Kfew World, a man of decided genius, but of unrelenting cruelty, was sent from Cuba by Diego Velasquez, the Spanish governor 36 THE CABOTS AND OTHEU DISCOVERERS. of that island, to conquer Mexico. His adventures on this remarkable expedition possess all the interest of romance, and have been often recounted. Cortes arrived at the capital of Mexico on the eighth of November, 15 19, and he and his men were received as divinities. On a slight pretext, he made a prisoner of Montezuma, the ruler, loaded him with irons, burned many of his subjects alive, and, after much fierce fighting and many vicissitudes, succeeded in gaining possession of the country, which for three centuries was a bright gem in the crown of Castile. The idea of getting to the Indies by sailing west- ward was revived by Fernando Magalhaens, a naviga- tor and discoverer inferior to Columbus only. His scheme was favorably received by the wise cardinal Ximenes, and afterwards approved by Charles V., of Spain, who enabled him to fit out a squadron, which left Spain in the autumn of 15 19. First making land on the shores of Brazil, he steered southward and entered the river La Plata, but soon found that it was not a passage through the continent.* Sailing still to the southward, Magalhaens passed through the strait now called Magellan (a corruption of his name), which he called the " Strait of the eleven thousand Virgins," and on the twenty-eighth 01 November, 1520, entered the Pacific Ocean. For many months he sailed from point to point in this great expanse, giving it the name " Pacific " on account of the smoothness of its waters and the gentleness of its breezes, and was finally killed in an unnecessary * For a cenlnrv longer the explorers were constant in their efforts tf) pierce the continent, and we find them frequenlly sailing up rivers and bays with this object in view. i VEBBAZANO OF FLOEENCE. 39 quarrel when endeavoring to force baptism upon the natives of one of the islands.* His voyage haa occupied five hundred and thirty-three days, while that of Columbus was less than one half that time, and he had actually circumnavigated the globe, for he had reached, by sailing westward, a point which he had in a former voyage passed in saihng to the eastward. The next figure which appears on the scene is that of Giovanni da Verrazano, a Florentine corsair, employed by the French government. He is said to have become an expert navigator by sailing to the Indies, and to have captured one of the treasure-ships ^f Cortes, bearing a portion of the personal spoils taken from Montezuma, valued at a million and a half dollars. According to the somewhat confused and questionable statement of Verrazano, he sailed from the Madeira Islands January ij, 1524, and after a tempestuous voyage of fifty days, discovered land near Cape Fear, whence he coasted to the northward (dis- covering New York harbor and Narragansett Bay), and returned to France after an absence of six months, where he made a report to King Francis I., who thus derived a claim to much territory. The history of this man is of doubtful character, and much discussion has been brought out by letters and maps alleged to relate to them.f *The discoverers who followed Columbus were as desirous as he to extend the Christian religion, and, in their zeal, they often deter mined to convert the heathen or to kill them in the attempt. tSee "Verrazano the Navigator," by J. C. Brevoort (1874), arti- cles by the same in the " Magazine of American History, 1882, p. 48 1 ; " The Voyage of Verrazano," by H. C. Murphv (1875) ; and the coUec tion of the New York Historical Society for 1841. 40 THE CABOTS AJSD OTHER mtil.QVEUERti. One of those who looked from the mountain-top with Balboa, over the Pacific, when he saw it for the nrst time, was a young Spaniard named Francisco Pizarro, a native of Truxillo, one of the most courao-e- ous, enterprising and hardy of the group. He heard rf a rich country to the south, called Peru, and in or.D DliAWJXG OF A SHIP OF THE EAIILV DlM.O VEliEKS. November, 1524, set out with a small ship, and eighty men, to conquer it. It was a remarkable enterprise, and It was carried out with unflinching perseverance in the face of difficulties almost insurmountable. After three years, Pizarro found himself again in Panama, with unbroken spirits, and he gave glowing accounts FllAMlSCO FIZAHRO. 41 of the richness of Peru. With help from Cortes he was able to equip a force and to sail from Spain again, tc renew the attempt under authority of Charles V. In 1*534, he landed in Spain on his return, with a large sum of gold which he had wrenched from the native king, whom he had put to death after accepting the ffold as ransom for his life. He afterwards returned to Peru with almost absolute power, and ruled the land until he was killed by disaffected conspirators, June 26th, 1 541. His vision of the wealth of the country had been satisfied, but his natural passions were too powerful for him to control, and he did not keep in peace that which he had obtained by unscrup- ulousness and treachery. Between 1527 and 1542, two Spanish adventur- ers, Cabeza de Vaca and Francisco Vasquez Coro- nado, had traversed the interior of the continent separately, discovering New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona, and visiting the Pueblo of Zuni. Cabeza arrived at the Pacific Ocean at Sonora, and returned to Spain in 1537, and it was his stories that stirred De Soto to undertake his voyage the next year. Sebastian Cabot was living during all these stirring- times, and it was still many years before his death that Jacques Cartier was sent out from France — in 1534 — to make explorations west of Newfoundland. He discovered the St. Lawrence River, and laid the foundation of the subsequent power of France in the Canadas. The advantage thus gained was followed up for a few years, but the last half of the sixteenth century was barren of results for France, and Samuel Champlain, in 1603, became the real father of French settlements in that region. 42 THE CABOTS AND OTHER DISCOVERERS. This succession of enthusiastic adventurers and their marvellous discoveries must have been familiar to Sebastian Cabot, and it is difficult to put ourselves in the position of a man, who, year after year, listened to the story of the progress of discovery. The account reads, at our distance of time, like the records of the Knights of the Round Table, and we involun- tarily elevate the actors to the lofty position occupied in romance by the searchers for the Sangrail. There are many features common to both. So they uniolled the volume of the book, v • And filled the fields of the Evangelist With antique thoughts that breathed of Pa'radise! Uprose they for the quest ! The bounding men, Of the siege perilous and the magic ring ! ' Comrades in arms ! Mates of the Table Round I Fair sirs, my fellows in the bannered ring — Ours is a lofty tryst ! This day we meet Not under shield, with scarf and knightly gage, To quench our thirst of love in ladies' eyes : Nay, but a holier theme, a mightier quest — Ho 1 for the Sangrail, vanished vase of God I' THE PUKBLO OF ZUNI. CHAPTER III. THE EARLY AMERICANS. F ^OR the discoverers of America the question, o what race the people whom they found on the continent belonged, was answered in ad- vance. India was the land they sought, India was the land they supposed they had found, and the inhabitants were for them Indians, and in spite of its confessed impropriety, the name has been retained. Few subjects are involved in more obscurity than the question, What is the origin of the native races of America ? Did they come from Asia, or did the Asiatics go from the American continent ? Dr. Latham had said that he knew no reasons valid to prove that the New World wasnot older than the Old; long before Agassiz had made his positive statement that the hypothesis was truth,* and it is now pretty generally accepted that at least a part of the Americans * See the Atlantic l^ronthly, March 1863, P- 3^3- 43 THE GDVKRNOR OF ZUKI. 44 THE EABLY AMERICANS. belong to the great Mongolian race. The most advanced of our ethnologists infer that there have been migrations from Asia at various times, both by north- ern and southern routes. Mr. Putnam of the anthro- pological museum of Harvard University has advanced MODERN INDIANS. the theory that the invaders from trans-Pacific lands were met by a primitive people in America. Among the wild vagaries of enthusiasts we find the belief that the Indians were descended from "the Ten Tribes," headed by Prester John, the wonderful priest (presby- ter) whose people were supposed to have inhabited the interior of Asia. When first known to Europeans, the inhabitants were scattered over the continent from the extreme Arctic regions to Terra Del Fuego, and though the THE VARIOUS TRIBES. 47 different tribes bore great resemblance to each other and seemed to belong to one race, they differed much in degree of civilization, in appearance and in habits. Beginning at the north, we find the Innuits (Eskimos), and, bordering on them, the great Tinneh family, con- taining many distinct tribes, all of them in a state of savagery. To the south and extending across the central portion of the continent, were the Iroquois, the Mohegans, Pequots, Lenni-lenapes, Miamis, Shaw- nees, Kickapoos, Illinois, Pottawattomies, Sacs and MANUFACTURES OF CALIFOKNIA INDIANS. Foxes, Chippewas, Mohawks, Oneidas, Onandagas, Cayugas, Senecas, Eries, Tuscaroras, Hurons, Winne bagos, and many others. Still further south were the Natches, Catawbas, Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choc- taws, Creeks, Seminoles and numerous other tribes-, while to the west were the Shoshones, Utes, Sioux and other well known tribes. 48 THE EAKLY AMEEICAN8. These all showed some improvement over the Innuits and other northern peoples, and were to a greater or less extent, cultivators of the ground ; but many tribes lived principally by fishing and the chase. Many others cultivated Indian corn, and agriculture was general among those to the south. Many of the tribes practised cannibalism to a certain extent and under certain circumstances.* As we go southward, we find increasing evidences of progress towards civilization. While the majority of these people lived in wigwams and other habitations of slight structure, there were those who erected large houses of logs and bark, or covered a framework of logs and branches with clay. It is not, however, until we reach the Pueblo (Village) Indians of New Mexico and Arizona, that we find a people who have for ages made substantial and lasting houses of stone and adobe (sun-dried blocks of clay) and who are far advanced towards civilization. These people cultivate the soil, and for a great part, depend upon their crops for their living. Long before they were discovered by the Spaniards (about the middle of the sixteenth cen- tury) they were advanced in the arts of weaving and pottery. In many of the canons of Colorado, Arizona, and Utah, there are houses built in natural and artificial excavations in the perpendicular sides of the lofty walls. These houses are made of stones skilfully laid, *In his introduction to The Jesuits in North America, Mr. Francis Parkmaii makes interesting remarks on the subject of cannibalism as connected with religious rites among the Hurons (p. xxxix) and inti- mates that the wandering Algonquins were sometimes pressed into the practice by the desperation of extreme famine. THE CLIFF DWELLINGS. 49 400 YARDS TO THE ^lAll/j/V, BED OF THE CHACO 'W,. 1 'In INSIDE OF THIS COURT FULL OF DEPRESSIONS, AS IF A NUMBER OF UNDER-GROUND ROOMS ONCE EXISTED. OUTER WALIS - -.^, MUCH BROKEN DOWN. '.'->■' 1 1 1 1 1 SECTION THaOUGH A B .^^ GKOUND-PLAN OF A PUEBLO IN CHACO CANON, NORTHERN NEW MEXICO. and on many walls the remains of a coating of white plaster-like clay is still to be seen. The size of these houses varies, some being two stories in height and of 50 THE EARLY AMERICANS. considerable extent, others rising to but one story, and containing only a few rooms. They are well adapted to resist attack, and must have been admirable resorts in time of danger. It is very difficult to generalize upon the subject of the customs and characteristic traits of the Indians of North America. They were first seen by men utterly unable to understand their actions, and who could interpret them only by reading in them meanings sug- gested by European customs. Many statements that have gained currency were made originally by men who had actually never seen an Indian. In an annual address as President of the Anthropological Society of Washington, Mr, J. W. Powell corrects some of these errors, made by Herbert Spencer and other writers of repute, and says that the instances given "illustrate the worthlessness of a vast body of anthro- pological material to which even the best writers resort." The same thing had been done by Colonel Garrick Mallery, at the meeting of the Philosophical Society of Washington, in December, 1877. Colonel Mallery showed that the Indians were neither "red" nor " copper-colored," but had been so called from the fact that those first seen were accustomed to color their bodies. Their prevailing color is really brown. He also controverted the notion that the Indians believed in and worshipped one God, the Great Spirit, as, trusting the dictum of the Jesuit missionaries, all subsequent writers have stated. They can scarcely be said to have any religion, as we use the word, but seem to have in their Pantheon many gods and more devils, and to be governed rather by superstition than ClirFP DWELLINGS IN SOUTHWESTERN ARIZONA. ^t THE INUIAN CHARAVTEU. 53 by a monotheistic faith. But in this, as in other things, there is great variation among tribes in differ- ent parts of the country.* In the same manner the Indians have been described as cunning, ever on the alert, stoical under pain, cruel to those they captured, with the animal propensities predominating over the intellectual, haughty and taci- turn, but eloquent and full of fire when aroused. While all of these traits may be predicated of certain Indians, it is not true that they are possessed by all. History proves that the same traits may be found in the most intelligent peoples of antiquity also ; and on the other hand, many of the kindly virtues have been nowhere more beautifully exhibited than by some swarthy son of the American forest. Cruelty to the captured and hatred of enemies is by no means the universal rule among the Indians. In some instances they have shown a noble appreciation of the valor of an enemy, and a willingness that a captive should have a new opportunity to enjoy life with his own people. * Mr. Parkman, in his exceedingly interesting introduction to The Jesuits in North America, already says : " To sum up the results of this examination, mentioned [of the native tribes], the primitive Indian was as savage in his religion as in his life. He was divided between fetich worship and that next degree of religious development which consists in the worship of deities embodied in the human form. His conception of their attributes was such as might have been expected. His gods were no whit better than himself. Even when he borrows from Chris- tianity the idea of a Supreme and Universal Spirit, his tendency is to reduce him to a local habitation and a bodily shape ; and this tendency disappears only in tribes that have been long in contact with civilized white men. The primitive Indian, yielding his untutored homage to one All-pervading and Omnipotent Spirit, is a dream of poets, rhetori- cians and sentimentalists." 64 THE EARLY AMEIUCANS. The dress of the Indians varied with the climate, many tribes covering but small portions of their bodies, others being entirely naked, while the greater portion were well clothed in blankets and garments of ~2 »v3 INDIAN PAPPOOSE. various kinds made of skins or woven fabrics. As a rule, they were given to painting their bodies or deck- ing themselves with beads, shells, or feathers. Somf tribes carried the art of weaving to great perfectior using various ve2:etable fibres with great skill. MOUNDS AND EARTH WORKS. 55 The men engaged in war, hunted and fished ; and the women cooked, made pottery, wove, cultivated the fields, gathered seeds and acorns for food, the men often assisting them in these labors, however, as they had opportunity when not engaged in other occupa- tions. It has been said that disease and war had begun to carry off some tribes before Columbus arrived in America, and this is probably true ; and since that time others have very much diminished in numbers, and even, in a few instances, been nearly exterminated ; still warfare has been in great part prevented in many tribes since they came in contact with the whites, and under a peaceful life many have increased during the last century, so that the poet's words, while often applicable, do not apply to all of them when he says, speaking in the person of an Indian : Then a darker, drearier vision Passed before me, vague and cloud-like . I beheld our nation scattered, All forgetful of my councils, Weakened, warring with each other; Saw the remnants of our people Sweeping westward, wild and woeful. Like the cloud-rack of a tempest, Like the withered leaves of autumn. The mounds and extensive earthworks which are found in many parts of the country, have generally been supposed to be remains of a people who were not only superior to the Indians in every way, but who long ago occupied the land and were extermin- ated by the latter race. Recent investigations of the more careful archaeologists, and particularly the method 66 THE EARLY AMEKT(JAN8. of the large mound collection in the Museum of Arch- aeology at Cambridge, Mass., show that while many of the mounds and earthworks, particularly of the -^ Ohio valley, are unqestionably of great antiquity, others, as, for instance, many in Florida, are of recent times. It has also been shown that some of the present Indian tribes made fortifications and erected burial mounds. Therefore, it is very likely that the mounds were made by distant nations at various times, and that there have been successive peoples, or tribes, in almost every valley in our country ; and, as Mr. Putnam has said : " We must always use the term 'mound-builders' with a qualification and the story that each mound and earthwork tells must be read with caution. Simply because one is found to be very ancient, there is no reason, from that fact, to prove that another of a similar character may not be comparatively recent." That the mounds and earthworks were built on the sites of permanent towns, or for the purpose of fortifications, cannot be questioned, and there is no doubt but that the tribes who erected them were in every case, no matter of what time, truly village peoples, and probably corresponded in culture to the village Indians met by the early explorers throughout the southern portions of the country, " and, like them, were agriculturists, worked in stone, bone, shell and copper, made finely woven fabrics, and were expert potters." The largest mound in the United States is in the Mississippi valley opposite St. Louis.* It covers * Models of this Mound, — called the "Cahokia Mound," — are in the Peabody Museum of Archaeology, at Camljridge, Mass. GKAiXD CJ^moN, AlilZU.XA, LOOiilJNG EAST. 67 THE GEE AT SERPENT. 59 more than twelve acres and rises to the height of ubout one hundred feet. It is in the midst of a group of some sixty, which vary in height from thirty to sixty feet, besides many that are smaller. It has not been explored, but is considered by Mr. Putnam to have been used primarily as a site for a town. In the Cumberland valley, near Nashville, Tenn., and Lebanon, several mounds have been very care- fully explored by Professor Putnam, and the remark- able relics there found are described and illustrated in his Report as curator, published in 1878. In Adams County, Ohio, there is an earthwork called the " Great Serpent," from a resemblance which has been traced to the form of a serpent about to swallow an immense egg, one hundred and sixty feet long by eighty feet wide. This so-called serpent extends more than seven hundred feet along the summit of a hill, the embankment which forms its outline being five or six feet high and twenty or more feet wide at its base. Observers differ in their reports of the appearance of this earthwork, some being able to see the outlines of the serpent with dis- tinctness, while others observe but faint traces of it. In some parts of Wisconsin, there are many large earthworks several feet in height, made in the form of men, birds, buffaloes and other animals. The purpose for which these singular mounds were made, with so great labor, is not understood, and there is nothing known of the particular people who made them. In Georgia similar effigy mounds representing birds have been described by Colonel Jones ; but these, while of large size, are made of stones. In some places embankments have been erected of great 60 THE EARLY AMERICANS. size, and extending for many miles. One of the mos celebrated of these large earthworks is in Ohio, and i, known as Fort Ancient. Other hills have been forti fied by high embankments of earth, or by walls o stone. A singular ancient stone fort was, a centun ago, to be seen near Lake Winnepesaukee in Nev Hampshire ; other similar forts are known to exist ii Indiana and Ohio, and all tell the story of ancien wars, long before the days of European colonization. Strange record of a people passed away ! Once numerous as the leaves the forests shed, As mindful of man's frailty and decay, Upon their mounds, and grave hills of their dead. Here lived, and planned, and toiled, another race, A pre-historic race, forgotten long, Who in the speech of men have left no trace, Unknown alike to story and to song. Yet were they to ourselves, as men, allied. In God's own image made, though of the earth ; And, though the help of learning's stores denied, Destined with us to an immortal birth ; With reverence may we ope their graves, and tread With thoughtful minds the cities of the dead. — Jones Very.* The archaeology and ethnology of America are nol yet sufficiently well known to permit much safe gen eralization regarding the pre-historic races of the continent, though it has been abundantly proved that there were inhabitants, and, in many parts, dense populations, centuries before the continent became known to Europeans. * This heretofore unpulilished sonnet, entitled by the author "The Mound Builders," was written hv the late Mr. Very in 1S73, after read- ing " The Pre-historic Races of the United States of America," by the late J. W. Foster. LL. D. MEXICAN REMAINS. 63 In Mexico the remains of an ancient civilization show that Mexicans had made considerable progress in culture, and when Cortes appeared in the country accurate information of his men, equipments and pur- poses were promptly communicated to Montezuma by a system of picture-writing. The progress in archi- tecture is well authenticated by the testimony of the earliest adventurers, and the ruins in Southern Mexico and Yucatan sufficiently attest the ,':ame. There is an extensive group of ruins at Uxmal which has attracted much attention. The buildings are very large, and many are ornamented with elab- orate sculptures. If some of these buildings of stone were used as communal houses, as Mr. Morgan thinks, they would accommodate some six hundred to a thousand persons, living in the fashion practised by the Pueblos of New Mexico. At Zayi, like Uxmal in Yucatan, there is a ruin that was capable of accom- modating more than two thousand persons. The Temple of the Sun in the^ city of Mexico is said to have been so large that five thousand priests were accommodated in it, besides which there was room for eight or ten thousand person? to dance in it on solemn festivals ; but this must je taken with con- siderable allowance. The most remarkable ruins of this sort are those found at Palenque in the Mexican State of Chiapas. This place appears to have been forgotten as long ago as the time that Cortes invaded the country, for he passed near it without mentioning its existence. It was discovered in 1750, but not explored until 1784, since which date the ruins have been several times visited and described, though they are yet to 64 THE EARLY AMERICANS. be thoroughly investigated. They exhibit the great- est skill in architecture, carving in stone and design- ing displayed in the remains of the early Americans in either North or South America. The buildings are of massive stone work, and comprise extensive corridors, numerous courts, subterranean vaults, huge stone tablets covered with sculptures and hieroglyph- ics and ornamented with bas-reliefs. The intricacy and delicacy of the carved designs, the extent of the remains and the accuracy with which the whole is constructed, are astonishing when examined in draw- ings and photographs, and testify to an advance in the arts which is simply wonderful. Lo, o'er the dense, black mass of giant trees, The moon upsprings and sighs the midnight breeze : Now looks Palenque — ruin on ruin piled — August, yet spectral, beautiful, yet wild I Such ruins give to New Mexico and Central America an interest not less than that of f^gypt. In South America we come to the remains of another people to whom the term Incas has generally been applied. The Spaniards exhausted their lan- guage in attempting to describe the wondrous archi- tecture of the Temple of the Sun at Cuzco. But besides this, Peru contains remains of extensive aque- ducts, bridges and roads, and the most remarkable remains of a former civilization to be found on the American continent are on Lake Titicaca, which hes about thirteen thousand feet above the sea, between Peru and Bolivia. On the islands in the lake are many ancient ruins of massive buildings of stone, and at the southern portion of the lake are the famous SOUTH AMEBIC A^' REMAINS. 65 ruins of Tiahuanaco, which are so old that the Peru- vians of the time of the Conquest knew nothing of their INDIAN WEAPONS. origin. The buildings were constructed with great skill, and show evidence of considerable artistic taste. The sculptures are different from any others that 66 THM EAELY AMERICANS. have been found on the continent. Further south the evidences of culture are gradually lost, and in Brazil and Patagonia there are tribes resembling the North American Indians, while in Terra del Fuego the people are probably the most degraded of any on the Continent of America. They left no history, but lived and died Like the wild animals round them which they slew ; The woods and streams their ravenous wants supplied, To hunger and to thirst were all they knew. The skins of beasts about their loins they drew. And made themselves rude weapons out of stone, Sharp arrow-heads and lances. CHAPTER IV. DE SOTO ON THE MISSISSIPPI. THE next chapter in the progress of adventure in the New World, leads us into the same realm of ro- mance that the visions of Columbus had opened. The natives of Porto Rico had a tradition that there lay far ON THE KOUTE OF I'IZAItUO. . • ,i ^ „ • 1 J out in the ocean an island named Biminf, on which there was a fountain possess- ing the power of restoring youth to the aged. The leafy Bimini, A land of grottos and bovvers Is there ; and a wonderful fountain Upsprings from its gardens of flowers. That fountain gives life to the dying, And youth to the aged restores ; They flourish in beauty eternal, Who set but their foot on its shores! A knowledge of this tradition came to Fernando De Soto, one of the companions of Pizarro, at about the time that another adventurer of the company, Fran- cisco Orellana, became infatuated with the belief that there was a land of fabulous wealth in the heart of 67 . 68 DE SOTO ON THE MISSISSIPPI. South America called El Dorado (the Golden Land). In 1540, Orellana set out to find the Golden Land. He travelled through the valley of the Amazon, dis- covering that river, which for a time bore his name, and then went to Spain to get permission to colonize the country. On his return he was attacked by a fever, and died in 1549, on the banks of the river that he had discovered, a martyr to the delusive search. In roaring cataracts down Andes' channelled steeps Mark how enormous Orellana sweeps. Monarch of mighty floods, supremely strong, Foaming from cliff to cliff, he whirls along, Swol'n with an hundred hills' collected snows : Thence over nameless regions widely flows, Round fragrant isles and citron groves. Where still the naked Indian roves. And safely builds his leafy bower. De Soto was one of the more worthy (?f the followers of Pizarro. He had been educated in the University of Saragossa, and was an accomplished knight, as well as a scholar of no mean pretentions. He began his career as explorer as early as 15 19, before he was twenty years old (for he was born in the year 1500, at Xeres, in Estremadura), and explored Darien, and Nicaragua, before 1528, when he was sent to Guata- mala and Yucatan to find a strait which was supposed to connect the two oceans. He travelled seven hun- dred miles along the coast in this vain search. In 1532 it was that Pizarro invited him to join the party that went to conquer Peru. He performed many val- orous deeds, and engaged in the scandalous plot to capture Atahuallpa, the Inca (king) of the country who had the same year usurped the throne of his PIZAEBO'S TEEAVHERY. 69 brother Huascar, the lawful Inca. Pizarro agreed to accept as ransom for the Inca, a sufficient amount of gold to fill the room in which the conference with him was held, which was seventeen feet wide and twenty- two feet long. After the gold had been delivered, Pizarro treacherously refused to set Atahuallpa free, THE IKCA TIIASCAR. and, on a pretext, condemned him to be burned alive. De Soto having obtained his share of the ransom, v/as very wealthy. He protested with great vigor against the bad faith of his leader, but without success. The sentence pronounced against the Inca was, however, commuted, and he was executed by strangling. After the conquest of Peru had been completed, TO I>E SOTO ON THE MISSISSIPPI. De Soto hastened to Spain with his fortune, and was received by the great emperor Charles V., with the honors accorded to a conqueror. No request that he could proffer was considered too extravagant, and when he asked it, permission was freely given him to go to conquer that great region then called "Florida," extending from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, and to the north and northwest to an unlimited extent, of which Cabeza de Vaca had told the wonders Over all this territory De Soto was given absolute authority. The excitement in Spain produced by the publication of the plans of De Soto can be likened to nothing but the great upheaval that followed the preaching of the first Crusade by Peter the Hermit. As at that time men hastened to join the expe- dition against the infidels with motives combining avarice and superstitious reverence for the holy places, so now the flower of Spanish chivalry, wild with expectation as they dreamt of the El Dorado, of the Fountain of Youth, and of the wealth that they sup- posed was within their easy grasp, recklessly parted with houses and lands to enter upon the new expe- dition. With six hundred picked men, and twenty officers, besides twenty-four ecclesiastics, De Soto sailed from San Lucaz, Spain, (the same port from which Colum- bus had set out on his third voyage, and Magalhaens on the one during which he circumnavigated the world,) in the spring of 1538. He stopped at Cuba, leaving the ladies of the expedition at Havana until the conquest should be effected, and arrived at Tampa Bay, after sailing around Cape Sable, and through the Gulf of Mexico, in May, 1539. The entire summer A WINTEB IN FLORIDA. 71 was employed in wandering along the western shore of Florida, and by October, the gay explorers found themselves in the vicinity of the site on which Talla- hassee was afterwards built, east of the Appalachicola GUATEMAI.IAN IDOL. River. There they spent the winter. The company were all dispirited, and would have turned back, had De Soto been less determined. He had found no 72 UE SOTO ON THE MISSISSIPPI. gold, and there was little real promise of any, but he said that he was determined to see the povert)' of the country with his own eyes. His wish in this respect was amply realized before his death. The Indians, ever desirous to put as great distance as possible between themselves and the invaders, con- stantly held out delusive hopes of gold in the dis- tance, and now pointed to the northeast as the wealth)- region. In that direction the wanderers pursued their perilous way, suffering much in the wildernesses from a lack of proper supplies. After having gone far to the north, De Soto arrived by the middle of October at an Indian village on the Alabama, called Mavilla, or Mobile, distant some forty miles from the • present site of Selma, and about one hundred milesji north of Pensacola. Here a battle occurred, in which it is said that twenty-five hundred natives lost their lives. It is supposed to have been the most san- guinary conflict in all the struggles between the Europeans and the original owners of the soil. ^ The invaders lost their baggage, which was in the town, and was burned. Despite his disasters, De Soto refused to send infor- mation of his condition to Cuba, though vessels had arrived on the coast from the Island. His firm spirit was not broken, and in the spring of 1541, after hav- ing wintered in the territory of the Chickasaws, to the north, he prepared anew for his journey. The Chick- asaws refused a demand for men to carry his baggage, and burned their village and with it also the Span- ish camp, many of the invaders perishing in the flames and in the ensuing skirmish. De Soto and his followers were now reduced almost to nakedness, but A ROMANTIC BURIAL. 73 they pushed on to the northwest, losing a number of men by fever soon aft€r their start. A march of a week brought them to the Mississippi, between Mem- phis and Helena. A delay of a month was made necessary becaw^e the Indian boats were insufficient for the transpart of the army, but the river was finally crossed, and De Soto continued on to the northwest, touching the present Indian Territory. Thence, going southerly, he passed the hot springs of Arkansas, which his followers at first thought were identical with the Fountain of Youth. The winter was passed on the Washita River, and in the spring of 1542, the journey to the Atlantic was begun. The leader never reached that goal. He was attacked by a fever on the banks of the great river that he 'had explored, and died May 21, 1542, not far from the sil!fe.on which the city of Natchez now stands. He was at first buried on the shore of the river, but because his fol- lowers did not want the Indians to find his body, and thus know that he had died, he was, with poetic propriety, solemnly deposited in the river itself. The remnant of the army, which, when it entered upon its fruitless march, was larger and better equipped than those that had been sent against Mexico and Peru, now determined to seek Mexico through the forests ; but the effort was not successful, and the almost •worn-out wanderers again found themselves on. the banks of the Father of Waters, not far from the junction of the Red River. There they built boats, though the task was one of the most difficult, sailed down the stream, and, after coasting to the southwest, reached Panuco, in Vera Cruz, in Septem- ber, I54>. The Mississippi River had been discov- 74 DE SOTO OX THE MISSISSIPPI. ered, but no glory had accrued to Spain. The Fountain of Youth was yet to be found, and the famed El Dorado had not been even heard of. Misery, distress, cruelty, death had marked the march of the Spaniards through the country which had been supposed to be a second Peru for grandeur, and a Mexico for wealth. More bloodshedding and strife were yet to follow the efforts of the Spaniards to obtain a secure foothold in the New World. Though it was theirs, in some sort, bv right of discover)^ it was destined not to be Xew Spain, but Xew England. The site of the new struggle was to be on the Atlantic shore of the Land of Flowers, near the present city of St. Augustine. In the realm of flowers, a perfumed land. Girt by the sea, by soft winds fanned. Ravaged by war in years grown old. The former glory a tale long told. Stands the quaint old Spanish city. Religious motives have had a strong influence in the histor}- of the settlement of both North and South America. The earliest explorers, no less than Colum- bus, looked to the spread of the religion that they professed. They thought it their mission to convert the natives, or, as we have seen, to kill them in the attempt. The men with whom we have had to do thus far were all devoted to the service of the Church of Rome. Columbus wished to promulgate its doc- trines. Cortereal was a son of the same church. Ponce de Leon, Balboa, Cortes, Pizarro, Verazzano, Cartier, Champlain, all were loyal to the Pope, and we have seen that De Soto took with him a goodly number of FRENCH HUGUENOTS. 75 ecclesiastics. These latter performed the solemn offices of the Church, with the magnificence which attended them in the rich cathedrals of Spain, as they pursued their hopeless pilgrimage through the wilds of Alabama, Florida and Arkansas. Now the Protestants appear for the first time on the scene. The followers of Calvin made attempts to fix A MEXICAN TEMPLE. settlements of their body on the coast of Brazil, and with the assistance of the renowned French Hugue- not, Gaspard de Coligni, a large company of emi- grants left France July 12, 1555, and founded the tity of Rio Janeiro. The effort was not successful, and most of the colonists either returned to France, 76 i^E SOTO ON THE MISSISSIPPI. owing to the perfidy of their leader, Nicholas, Chevalier de Villegagnon, who renounced Protestantism, or were driven home by the Portuguese a few years later. This failure did not daunt the Admiral de Coligni, and he determined to make another effort, this time sending the colony to a point far removed from the habitations of civilized men. Under patent from the boy-king, Charles IX., Coligni sent out an expedition under command of Jean Ribault, a native of Dieppe. Ribault arrived off the shores of Florida on the last of April, 1562, and sailed along the coast viewing it " with unspeakable pleasure of the odorous smell and beauty of the same, and did behold to and fro the goodly order of the woods wherewith God had decked every way the said land." One point reached by this party was probably just south of the present city of St. Augustine. On the morning of the first of May, Ribault and his men landed, were kindly received by the natives, and, pros- trating themselves on the earth, rendered thanks to God for their safe arrival, and asked his protection in the strange land. They were amazed at the beauty of the scenery about them, and were deluded by the gold and silver ornaments that the savages were adorned with into the belief that there were rich mines of the precious metals not far distant. They did not then know that the gold mines the Indians worked were the wrecks of Spanish vessels cast upon their shores by the sea. After his pleasant interviews with the natives, Ribault sailed to the northward, and discovered Port Roy£.l, which he named, and there he cast anchor on the twenty-seventh of May. He took possession of lilBA UL T AT FOR T ROYAL. 77 the country in the name of the king of France, plant- ing a column of stone to testify to the ownership. The same ceremony had been performed at their first land- ing-place. Erecting a fort called Carolme, and leaving a colony of twenty-six persons to occupy it, Ribault sailed to the north, on the eleventh of June, but he soon turned again towards France, where he arrived in July. The colonists had not remained in the wil- derness long before they had grown tired of their life, and, building a frail vessel, sailed also in the same direction. They suffered great distress, and but a portion of them ever again saw their Mother Country. When Ribault arrived at home he found France involved in religious war; but on the first opportunity, Coligni presented the case of the colonists to the king, and obtained ships to be sent to the succor of those whom Ribault had left behind. The fleet, commanded by Captain Laudonniere, who had accom- panied Ribault on the first voyage, sailed on the twenty-second of April, 1564, and reached Florida on the twenty-second of June, but seems not to have sought for the colonists at all. It is possible, how- ever, that the return of the party had been heard of before Ribault left France. Thanks were rendered to God for the safe voyage and happy arrival, and the company united in singing hymns to his praise, praying that the enterprise might redound to his glory and to the advancement of the Protestant faith.* *The fort which was built was named, like that at Port Royal, Caro- line, after King Charles (in Latin Carolus), and the entire region after- wards took the name Carolina, not from this sovereign, but from the English King Charles, who gave the charters to the English companies which effected the permanent settlements in the State. 78 DE SOTO ON THE MISSISSIPPI. This party proved to be no more successful than the former one, and after suffering from seditions and desertion, it was determined by Laudonniere to return to France. After all preparations had been made for the voyage, a sail was descried in the distance which proved to be the harbinger of a fleet of Ribault, who had taken advantage of a partial cessation of the hos- tilities between Charles IX. and the Protestants to prosecute the scheme for the colonization of America with greater vigor. It was about the end of August, 1565. A fleet of war vessels was observed coming from the sea. They proved to be an expedition sent from Spain, to sweep away the Huguenot settlement, fitted out by Pedro Menendez de Aviles, with the sup- port of Philip II., for the conquest and colonization of Florida. Menendez had received almost unlimited authority, and was accompanied by more than twenty-five hun- dred persons. He came in sight of the shores he sought on the day marked in on the calendar with the name of St. Augustine, and for that reason gave the name of the saint to the harbor and stream, and the town of St. Augustine, which he founded, became the first permanent settlement within the limits of the United States. The chaplain of the Spaniards says that when Menendez came within speaking distance of the French, he asked, " What are you doing in the terri- tories of King Philip.?" and promptly told them that he had been sent by his master to hang and destroy all the Lutherans whom he should find either on land or sea. Ribault did not wait to be attacked, but set sail to encounter the Spaniards. He was hardly at MUBDER0U8 UEVENGE. 79 sea before his fleet was overtaken by a severe storm which destroyed every vessel, though the men mostly were saved. Menendez saw that his opportunity had' arrived, and despite the arduous nature of the at- . tempt, led his men across the country towards the French settlement, which he knew was in a defence- less condition. A sudden attack and a short fight made him master of the destinies of the French, and he massacred all who were unable to escape to the woods or the sea. Over the remains of the French- men Menendez placed the inscription, "Not as French- men, but as Lutherans." He returned to Spain the next year in triumph, but with the loss of his fortune. This disaster did not close the attempts of the French to establish a colony in Florida. The court did not make any effort to revenge the loss of its citi- zens, but Dominic de Gourgues, a gentleman of Gas- cony, sold his property, and, by the aid of his friends, fitted out a fleet of three vessels, on which he em- barked one hundred and fifty men with the purpose of destroying the Spaniards. De Gourgues captured the Spanish forts near the mouth of the St. Matheo, and hanged his prisoners, placing over them the inscrip- tion, " Not as Spaniards or mariners, but as traitors, robbers and assassins." Too weak to risk an attack from the Spaniards at St. Augustine, De Gourgues hastily sailed for home in May, 1568 ; and with his butchery closed the efforts of the French to possess themselves of the Floridas or Carolinas.* *Mr. Parkman, in his "Pioneers of France in the New World," treats the subject of this chapter. CHAPTER V. ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. HE efforts of the English to plant col- onies in America were to be continued for more than a century, and in time they re- sulted in mak- ing the new land e s s e n- tially English. The first name which presents itself to our notice is that of the gallant Sir Martin Frobisher, who fitted out an expedition to dis- cover a northwest passage to China, under the patron- age of the Earl of Warwick, and was .the first English- man to make this attempt. He did not succeed, but he left his name on " Frobisher's Strait." His expedition left England June 8th, 1576, being bidden Godspeed by Queen Elizabeth, who waved her hand towards the vessels as they passed Greenwich. Fro- 80 THE MAYFLOWEB. SIR FBANCIS DRAKE. 81 bisher discovered in the New World something that he considered gold, and the queen lent him a vessel for a second voyage, which he made in 1578, but without greater success than he had on the first occa- sion. He accompanied Sir Francis Drake to the West Indies in 1585, and in 1588 battled bravely against the Spanish Armada at home, but did not visit America again. British progress in naval domination was accel- MAP OF CAPE COD. erated by the irregular expeditions of Sir Francis Drake, who appears to us now as little better than a pirate, but who by his voyage around the world, and his raids on the ships of Spain, had exceedingly 82 ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. excited the spirit of adventure and the cupidity of his countrymen. Two step-brothers, Sir Humphrey Gil- bert and Sir Walter Raleigh, courtiers of Queen Eliz- abeth and true Protestants, appear next among the venturous discoverers. Gilbert had obtained a patent in' 1578, authorizing him to make a plantation in Amer- ica, when Raleigh returned from assisting Admiral Col- igni and the Huguenots in France, and the Prince of Orange in the Netherlands , and the two put to s e a,, but were obliged to re- turn without having made land. In 1583, another expe- dition set out. Raleigh wat jD r e V e n t e d from accom- panying it, but sub- scribed the very generous sum of two thousand pounds towards its expenses. It was no more successful than the former venture. Newfoundland was reached and silt FRANCIS brake's CHAIR. SIB WALTER RALEIGH. 83 taken possession of in the name of the queen, but on the return voyage Gilbert went down witli one of the vessels.* Raleigh was not daunted, and having himself obtained another patent, in 1584 sent out two vessels, which, under the command of Sir Philip Amidas and Arthur Barlow, touched on the coast of North Caro- lina, named the land " Virginia," after the virgin queen, and returned to England. In 1585, 1586 and 1587, Raleigh sent out colonies, a town called Raleigh, on Roanoke Island, being founded by John White in the last mentioned year. The colonists all disappeared in a manner not now known, and with the colony perished the first child of English parents ever born on American soil, Virginia Dare, grand- daughter of John White, the Governor of the settle- ment. The era of colonization in America is coincident with the Stuart dynasty (1603-1727), though the abortive efforts of Raleigh had occurred in the reign of Elizabeth, and though the colonization of Georgia was not begun by Oglethorpe until 1733. As the reign of Elizabeth was closing, Bartholomew Gosnold, one of those who had accompanied Raleigh to Vir- ginia, was placed by the Earl of Southampton in command of an expedition to plant a colony in "Vir- ginia." He sailed directly west, starting March 26th, 1602, and in seven weeks reached Massachusetts Bay, making land probably not far from Nahant. He visited and named Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, and anchoring at the mouth of Buzzard's Bay, began his colony on an island that is now known by its ♦See Longfellow's "Sir Humphrey Gilbert." 84 ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. Indian name, Cuttybunk. It was not long, however, before disputes arose, and dangers from the Indians and from scarcity of food, and the colony returned to England, where they arrived • by the eighteenth of June. The reports of Gosnold excited much curiosity and desire to see the land of "Virginia," an indication of which is found in one of the plays of John Marston, long popular, entitled " Eastward Ho." In it there is a conversation about the wondrous land, in which the following words occur : I tell thee, gold is more plentiful there than copper is with us, and for as much red copper as I can bring, I'll have thrice the weight in gold. Why, man, all their dripping-pans are pure gold, and all the chains with which they chain up their streets are massy gold ; all the prisoners they take are fettered in gold; and for rubies and diamonds, they go forth in holidays and gather 'em by the seashore to hang on their children's coats and stick in their children's caps as commonly as our children wear saffron gilt brooches, and groats with holes in 'em. . . (It is as pleasant a country withal) as ever the sun shined on, temperate, and full of all sorts of excellent viands. . . Then for your means to advancement, there it is simple and not preposter- ously mixt. You may be an alderman there, and never be scavenger ; you may be any other officer, and never be a slave. . . Besides, there we shall have no more law than conscience, and not too much of either ; serve God enough, eat and drink enough, and " enough is as good as a feast." The conversation from which the above is taken, occurred in a tavern by "Billingsgate," and gives a clue to the persons interested in Virginia, as well as the sort of expectations they desired to satisfy. The persons were "Seagull," " Spendall," and "Scape- thrift." The interest was not limited to such charac- ters, for Raleigh and Sir Richard Hakluyt united to further an investigation of the country by Martin THE FIRST VIS GIN I A CHARTER. 85 Pring, who left England in 1603, and the earl of Southampton and Lord Arundel promoted another expedition which went out in 1605, Both of these parties returned with glowing accounts of the new country. Aside from the titled patrons of discovery and colonization, Hakluyt was no ordinary man. Having been interested in cartography in his school-days by seeing a map on the table of a friend in the Inner Temple, he devoted himself very largely to the study of geography when he was at Oxford, and became one of the best geographers of the day. He was deeply interested in the voyage of Sir Francis Drake, and became historiographer to the East India Com- pany, whose work was much influenced by his advice. In 1606 he was prebendary of Westminster, but did not give up his fondness for his favorite study. It was owing to his influence that King James was induced to grant a patent for the colonization of Vir- ginia. Hakluyt became the historian of English nav- igation at this period, and his works are a mine of information to the historical student. April 10, 1606, King James granted the privilege of planting colonies to two companies, at any point be- tween South Carolina and New Brunswick ; the " Lon- don Company" being limited to the territory lying south of Maryland, and the "Plymouth Company " to that north of the present site of New Haven, the intermediate region being open to both, subject to the restriction that neither should plant a colony within one hundred miles of one of the other com- pany. No limit was put to progress westward. Each company sent out a colony in the year 1607 , 86 ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. that of the London Company reaching the coast of Virginia and entering Chesapeake Bay on the twenty- sixth of April, and the other, under the direction of George Popham, arriving at the Kennebec River in LRYPRN STREET, PLYMOUTH, MASS. the following August. The latter party did not remain long, and returned to England with the report that "Virginia" was too cold for comfort. VIRGINIA TOO COLD. 87 The ships of the London Company named the headlands at the entrance of Chesapeake Bay, Cape Charles and Cape Henry, after the two sons of the king, and the point near Fortress Monroe, " Comfort," from the satisfaction they found in "the goodly bay." On the thirteenth of May the voyagers stopped at a peninsula some fifty miles up the river, which had received the name of the king, and the town they founded there was called Jamestown. The chief genius of this company was Captain John Smith, though he was not at first the official leader of the colonists. On the twenty-second of June the largest of the ships returned to England, with its commander, Christopher Newport, and two months later the navi- gator, Bartholomew Gosnold, died. In 1608, two women reached the colony, besides a considerable number of men, but the new-comers were not of the sort adapted to establish a "plantation." It would have been well if the Company had paid attention to the principles laid down in Bacon's essay on Plantations, written at about this time. He said, "It is a shameful and unblessed thing to take the scum of people and wicked condemned men to be the people with whom you plant;" and yet it was from this class that the Virginian colony was largely recruited for a hundred years. Among the earliest settlers were no small number of men of idle habits entirely unaccustomed to work, and unable to endure the hardships of pioneers. Smith was able to force the reluctant idlers to work, but he was obliged to return to England in 1609, ostensibly for treat- ment, having received a severe wound by the explo- sion of gunpowder. He explored the bays and rivers, 88 ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. and on one occasion (because the Company had givcii ' the usual direction that a passage to the South Sea should be sought in streams running to and from the northwest*) sailed up the Chickahominy as far as his boats would go',' and was then captured by the Indi- ans. Smith's first account of his explorations was published in 1608, and in it he stated that "King" Powhatan received him with kindness ; but some years later, when he was writing an account of his captivity for Queen Anne,t wife of James I., he embellished it with the well-known story of the dramatic saving of his life by Pocahontas, which is not consistent with the earlier narrative, and is now generally deemed apocryphal. J The colony suffered many distresses. At one time the number was in a period of six months reduced from nearly five hundred to sixty. The London Company had been desirous of sudden wealth, and had been disappointed. In 1609, a new charter wa? granted, and Lord de la Ware was appointed gover nor. The wretched remnant of the colony was oii the point of returning to England, when the ships of the Governor appeared. De la Ware was, however, * The rapids in the St. Lawrence at Montreal were named Za Chine because the French explorers supposed that by continuing up the river they should reach China. t Queen Anne died in 1619, and the "little book" which is said to have been written for her, was probably printed in 1616 or 1617. The story was repeated in Smith's "Generall Historie," published in 1624. } The inconsistency of the story of Pocahontas and its improba- bility were first brought to notice by Charles Deane, LL. D., of the Massachusetts Historical Society, in 1859, in his note to Edward Maria Wingfield's " Discourse of Virginia." See also " North American Review," January, 1867. FIRST REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT. 89 attacked by disease, and returned to England, but the colony was repeatedly augmented by new emigrants, and in i6i2, anew charter was given it, this being the third. It gave a democratic form to the government, but did not really improve the condition of the colonists. In 1619, Sir George Yeardley arrived and took up the reins of government. He found affairs in a bad state. The London Company had by that time lost much of their interest in it, and the colonists had long suffered from bad local management. Yeardley abrogated the cruel laws of former rulers, and established a representative government, direct ing that a " General Assembly," consisting of the gov ernor and council and two burgesses from each "plan tation " should meet yearly and make laws for the gen- eral good. The first meeting of this body, the first representative assembly ever held in America, was convened at Jamestown, July 30, 16 19. It took steps for the establishment of a college, ordained that the Church of England should be the church of Virginia, that the Sabbath should be observed, and that the colonists were expected to attend service twice a day. Measures were initiated for the education of the Indians, and various other needful laws were framed, which went into immediate force. Thus the first per- manent settlement of Englishmen was established in America. It was not composed of families, for the original settlers came without women, though families grew up, for many women were sent out from time to time who became wives and mothers of children. A bad element was introduced in 1619, when one hun- dred convicts arrived, having be ju sent from English prisons by order of the king, to be sold as servants. 90 ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. The same year is marked by the arrival of the first African slaves, twenty of whom were brought to Jamestown by a Dutch trading vessel. The cultiva- tion of tobacco had already been prosecuted, and at about this time the culture of cotton was also entered upon.* The name " New England" was first given to terri tory in America by Captain John Smith, who, in 1614, examined the coast from the Penobscot to Cape Cod, made a map of it, and called it New England. If we pass over the records of the Sagas,| on the basis of which it is said that Lief, son of Eric the Red, entered Boston harbor in the year 1004, we find that the northerly coast of the United States was first dis- covered by Cabot, in 1497 ; that it was visited by Cortereal, Verazzano and others, and that in 1602, Bartholomew Gosnold built the first house within the limits of Massachusetts, on the island of Cuttyhunk, near Martha's Vineyard. Martha's Vineyard was next touched, but not settled, in 1603, by Martin *To this period belongs the romantic story of Pocahontas, the daughter of Powhatan. Reference has already been made to her reputed interference to save Captain John Smith from death at the hands of her father. When a child, Pocahontas was wont to play about the streets of Jamestown, indulging in romping games with the town boys, that were quite unworthy of a king's daughter. In 1609, she travelled a long distance through the woods at night to inform Smith of a plot of her father against his life. For this she seems to have suffered her father's resentment. In 1613, she was stolen from her father and held for ransom, but while negotiations were in progress she was married, with her father's consent, to John Rolfe, who formed an attachment for her that was reciprocated. In 1616, she went to England, was presented at court, attracted much attention, and died as she was regretfully preparing to go back to Virginia. She left a son, who settled in Virginia and became founder of a family of note. t See page 24. THE PILGRIMS OF PLYMOUTH. 91 Pring, and the expedition under the patronage of Popham, in 1607, made a settlement in Maine, which did not endure. Smith made great exertions to establish a colony there, but without success. The most positive advance that had yet been made in colonization was that of 1620, when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. A patent was granted by King James to a body called " The Council established at Plymouth, in De- von, for the plant- ing, ruling, order- ing and governing New England," but it was not signed for two months after the Pilgrims sailed for America, and it was, therefore, not under that docu- ment that the new settlement was made. The " Pil- grims " were those Puritans who hav- ing broken away from the Church of England, had, in 1608, emigrated to Holland, and, after living a dozen years in Leyden, had determined to go to the wildernesses of the New World, in order that they might feel less as strangers in a strange country, and might bring their children up where the language of their mothers was spoken-; they had left their homes because they would not con- CHAIR OF ELDEK BREWSTER. ^ ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. form to the established Church, and were persecuted for it, and because they disapproved the laws that their king forced upon them. They were men of strong character, and fixed determination ; they were men of prayer, and before every step looked up to Heaven for guidance. Having left England before the King had issued the patent to the new company, and as they made land north of the limits of the Vir- ginia company,* the passengers on the Mayflower considered it necessary to enter into a covenant that should bind all to obey such laws as should be enacted for the common weal. . On the day that the vessel entered Cape Cod harbor (Nov. 21st, n. s.), they solemnly put their names to a covenant (as loyal subjects of King James who had undertaken to plant the first colony in the " northern part of Virginia," for the " glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith " f), authorizing the enactment of such "just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time," as should be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony, unto which they promised all due submission and obedience. In 1843, John Ouincy Adams said : " The Plymouth Colony is remarkable for having fur- nished the first example in modern times, of a social compact or system of government, instituted by volun- tary agreement, conformably to the laws of nature, by men of equal rights and about to establish their per- manent habitation in a new country." *The intention had been to settle near the Hudson River, within the limits of the Virginian colony, where they would have been under existing laws. t The Rev. George E. Ellis says, " Oui fathers never meditated the A SKIRMISH. 96 On the day that this Social Compact was signed, the Pilgrims set on shore a party of explorers, con- sisting of sixteen armed men, under the command of Captain Miles Standish, not far from the present site of Provincetown, at the end of Cape Cod. On Mon- day some of the women went ashore and inaugurated the New England "washing-day," while the men " refreshed themselves," as their journal says they had "great need" of both changes from the long confinement of shipboard. On Wednesday, Stan- dish started out with his exploring party again, land- ing at " Long Point," and soon encountered the first savages, who fled at their approach. On the seventeenth of December a third exploring party of eighteen, including Standish, and William Bradford, afterwards for eighteen years governor of the colony, left the ship and soon came in sight of the Indians again. A day or two later they have a skirmish with them, one being slightly wounded. On Saturday, December 19, they explored " Clark's Island," and on the next day, they rested and engaged in social worship. On the twenty-first, being Monday, they sounded the harbor, and landed on the mainland, setting their feet on a large rock embedded in the sand just n at the water's edge^ This ^'jf^ii^ ^YoM^A. rock has become historic «i^ 7 " and is protected with care, a costly canopy of stone free opening of their patented and purchased territory as a place of refuge to all sorts of consciences, but designed it, as a man designs his house, as a place of peace, comfort and discipline, for those who are of one mind, and feeling, and interest." They are not to be condemned for inconsistency, therefore, in not tolerating those who differed from them. 96 ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. having been erected over it, as Alexis de Tocqueville says, " The feet of a few outcasts having pressed it for an instant, it becomes famous." * The next day the party returned to the vessel which was still anchored at the end of the Cape, and were greeted with joy by their fellow-pilgrims who feared that they had been lost. Bradford was saddened by the news that his wife had fallen overboard and been drowned the day after his departure. On Friday, December 25th, the Mayfloiver sailed for Plymouth harbor, and anchored inside of Clark's Island the next day. After long examination, it was determined to establish the town on the mainland, and by the fourth of January (162 1) some of the women and children landed for the first time at Plym- outh. Even after that the ship remained the home of most of the voyagers, who did not all disembark until the thirty-first of March, 162 1. During the time that had elapsed since the arrival of the Mayfloiver, the deaths among the Pilgrims had averaged one every three days, and now of one hun- dred and two persons there remained scarcely one half. Forty-four died within four months, and seven more before the first year had ended. Still, their hearts were strong, and they saw the Alayfloivcr leave them on her return voyage, on the fifth of April, without a desire to seek again their more com- fortable homes. We have seen that at a very early period the settlers came in contact with the Indians, but friendly rela- *In an elaborate article published in the Atlantic (Nov., l88i) Mr. S. H. Gay denies that the exploring party landed on the historic rock on Dec. 21, 1620, but this view is not supported by other investigators. " 'M NEWS FROM HOME. tions were for a long time maintained, a treaty of amity and mutual aid having been very soon made. This was renewed in 1639, '^'^'^ again in 1662, but it was broken in 1675, by Philip, successor of Massassoit who made it. John Carver was elected Governor of the colony for the first year. He died just after the Mayflower had sailed on liam Bradford was chosen to fill the vacan- cy. Miles Stan- dish was the military man of the party, and achieved great reputa- tion by his suc- FAC-SI.MILE OF TJIE SIGNATURK OF MILES CCSSful dcal- STANDISH. ALSO HIS KETTLE, SWORD • with the AND DISH. ^ , natives. It ap- pears that the Indians about Plymouth were in a state of decline at this time, their numbers having been weakened by disease, pestilence and war. The colonists first heard from home in November, 162 1, when the ship Fortune arrived with some thirty emigrants and a patent from the Plymouth Com- pany, * for all efforts to obtain a charter directly from the King had been unavailing. After a few years of *"It was dated June 1st, 1621, and is interesting as being the first grant of which we have any record, made l^y the great Plymouth Com- 100 ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. hardship the colony began to thrive and the governing power was, in 1641, transferred to the entire body of freemen, and a settlement was made with the partners in England, by which their interest in the enterprise was extinguished. It had been at first a joint stock company, but in 1623, the lands were divided, and each man became an individual property holder. Subsequently the government was administered by a governor, a council of five (afterwards of seven) and a legislature comprising the entire male population. This organization was not given up until 1692, when Plymouth united with the colony of Massachusetts Bay.* Meantime other efforts had been made to settle the shores of New England. The history of these attempts is a succession of records of conflicting grants, and for a long period, of inconsequent expedi- tions. The coast had been explored by Bartholomew Gosnold, in 1602-3, ^^^ in November, 1603, a patent was obtained by Pierre Uu Gast, Sieur De Monts, including the region from the fortieth to the forty- sixth degree (from the present site of Philadelphia to the site of Montreal), which he called Acadie. In 1605 pany." (Bradford's " History of Plymouth Plantation," p, loS, note by Charles Deane.) A second charter was granted in 1622, but soon after cancelled, and a third in 1630, to the Plymouth colony, represented by " William Bradford, his heirs and associates." This last was by Bradford for- merly assigned to the body of freemen, in 1641. * Before the arrival of Andros, in 1686, there were six governors of Plymouth colony: John Carver, 1620-21 ; William Bradford, 1621-32 1635, 1637, 1639-43, 1645-56; Edward Winslow, 1633, 1636, 1644; Thomas Prince, 1634, 163S, 1657, 1672; Josiah Winslow, 1673-80; ancf Thomas Hinckley, from 1681 to 1686 SUNDRY SETTLERS. 101 De Monts explored as far south as Cape Cod, and claimed the country for France. A portion of this territory, extending from the Passamaquoddy River to the St. Lawrence, was granted, by the Plymouth Company, in 1621, to Sir William Alexander, Lord Stirling, a favorite of James I. Alexander ignored the French claim, and intended to interpose a colony of Scotch Presbyterians between the settlements of the French on the north and those of the Puritans to the south of him. He called the region Nova Scotia, No permanent settlement resulted from his efforts. In 161 3, Madame De Guercheville, who had come into possession of the title of De Monts to Acadie, sent out a missionary expedition, which made an attempt to settle on Mount Desert Island, but it was attacked by Captain Argall, from Virginia, and dis- persed. In 1620, King James made a division of the great ^^rant of 1606, giving to the Plymouth Company (of England) the territory between the fortieth and forty- sighth degrees, and to the Virginia Company the por- tion of the original grant which lay to the south. Sir Ferdinando 'Gorges was one of the leading spirits of the Plymouth Company, and in 1622, he obtained from it a grant to himself and John Mason of the territory between the Merrimac and the Ken- nebec, the sea and the St. Lawrence. The region was named Laconia. Under this grant settlements were begun at Dover and Portsmouth. In 1629, this partnership was dissolved, and Mason obtained the region between the Merrimac and the Piscataqua, which he called New Hampshire, tbouc^h the name was not used to any extent for nearly half a 102 ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. century. In 1635 the Plymouth Company was dis- solved, the members receiving patents for the portions they were entitled to. By this division the right of Gorges to the ^^act between the Piscataqua and the THE BUST LOOM OF THE EAKLY SETTLEHS. Kennebec, then called for the first time Maine (the mainland), was confirmed. In 1623, Captain Christopher Levett explored the coast of Maine, and built a house near the site of the present city of Portland, but did not establish any permanent settlement. THE MASSACHUSETTS COLONY. 103 In fact the early settlements in Maine were not so well defined and compact as those of other colonies were. The towns of Biddeford and Saco, begun in 1630, by Richard Vines and John C/ Iham, under a grant from the Plymouth Council, were the first ef- fectual attempts at settlements in Maine. The first court properly organized within the territory of Maine, was held at Saco, in i^g^, under the government of William Gorges, nephew of Sir Ferdinando. In 1628-9 the Council of Plymouth in England made a grant to John Endicott and twenty-five others, who organized as "the governor and company of the Mas- sachusetts Bay in New England," of territory extend- ing three miles south of the Charles River and Mas- sachusetts Bay, and three miles north of the Merrimac River, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. * A colony was immediately sent out under Endicott, which arrived at Salem in September. The settle- ment was governed by the corporation in England, whom Endicott was chosen to represent. The emi- grants were well equipped for the enterprise. They were Nonconformists, but approved a union of Church and State, and professed that their aim in emigrating was to " propagate the Gospel," though the charter authorized a mercantile corporation, like that of the East India Company, which was perhaps necessary in a legal document. * It was under this charter that Massachusetts claimed territory as far west as the Mississippi. (See map, opposite p. 235.) The old charters excepted from their grants territory claimed 1^y Christians, and therefore the domain of Massachusetts was broken by the intervention of New York and Canada. These claims- by the colonies to extensive western tracts proved one of the obstacles to a union of the thirteen colonies at the time of the Revolution. 104 ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. In 1629, other emigrants arrived led by the Rev. Francis Higginson, who organized the first church the same year. -It is said that when the vessel was leaving the shores of the Mother Country in the distance, Higginson said to the passengers, "Farewell, dear England ! Farewell the Church of God in Eng- land, and all the Christian friends there! We do not go to New England as Separatists, though we cannot but separate from the corruptions of it ; but we go to practise the positive parts of Church reformation and propagate the Gospel in America." Higginson reportea that including those who came with him, there were about three hundred planters, of whom a hundred were settled at Salem (then called Naumkeag), and the others on Massachusetts Bay, at a place called " Charton," or Charlestown. In 1629, a notable change occurred in the govern- ment of the new colony.* Before that time all local authority had been subordinate to that of the home council (originally designed, as has been said, for the direction of a private mercantile company) but then twelve men of more than ordinary importance and wealth, began to move for the transfer of the governing power to America. In August the vote was taken to transfer the entire government with the patent, and the courts were thenceforward to be holden on the Mas- sachusetts Bay, instead of in London. This was done without license of King or Parliament, and is an indi- cation of the facts that the colonists had a Spirit of inde- pendence developed at this early period, and that the * See "The Memorial History of Boston," Vol. i. chap, x, for an account of the Massachusetts charter and the struggle to maintain it, written by Charles Deane, LL. D. JOHN WINTHROP. 105 limits of their dependence on the Crown was never exactly defined. Under this new arrangement John Winthrop,* of Groton, in Suffolk, was elected Governor, and he made preparation to go over the sea. He was a man of rare attainments, of large income, a godly man, one accustomed to hear the highest matters of state policy discussed by the men in England best able to do it. He and his associates belonged to that class of which a part remained in England to be, as Palfrey says, the founders of " the short-lived English republic." They had been members of Parliament and were well informed regarding all the late movements in their national affairs, which were at the time in an active state of ferment. Seeing that thick clouds were gathering in England, they doubtless expected to estab- lish a community to which free spirits should flock if they were without an asylum at home. Like Endicott, Winthrop had a warm feeling for England and the establishment, and as the party left the shores of their native land, they breathed warm prayers for the Church of England, which they said they esteemed it an honor to call "dear mother." Seventeen vessels comprised the fleet, and carried some eight hundred souls. Twelve hundred more ar- rived soon afterwards. They found that a quarter of the latest emigrants had died during the winter ; that Higginson himself was rapidly sinking with a hectic fever, and that there was so great a scarcity of pro- visions, that the corn was not sufficient for a fort- night's supply. The site of Salem did not please * See the Atlantic Monthly for January, 1864, for an account of " Governor John Winthrop in Old England," by Rev. G. E. Ellis, 106 ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. Winthrop, and he removed the colony in July, 1630, to Charlestovvn, though a portion went to VVatertown, others remained at Salem, and some stopped at "Saugus"and founded Lynn. There being a want of good water at Charlestown, which produced an epidemic, some removed to " Trimountain," the name of which was changed to Boston, where the first " General Court " of the company in America was holden October 19.* Dorchester and Roxbury were settled at about the same time, and the colony then counted eight " plantations," as they were called. During the winter many died, and more suffered for want of proper food. In February, 1630, when a fast was about to be kept to implore divine succor, a vessel arrived with provisions, and a day of thanks- giving was held instead. On this vessel arrived one who was destined to play a very important part in the New World — the Rev. Roger Williams, a native of Wales, at this time twenty-four years of age and well educated. A friend of John Milton, it is not strange that he should have sympathized with that great man in some of his noblest sentiments. He was called to take the place left vacant in Salem by the death of Higginson, and though he accepted the call, his stay was brief, owing to persecution on the part of the church at Boston, with which he did not entirely agree in minor matters. *At Boston they found an Episcopal clergy/man, William Black- stone, established, who had lived for several vears in a house situated at a ])oint near the Common and Public Garden, not far from the corner of Beacon and Charles streets. He preferred solitude and soon sold his rights and removed to the region about the Blackstone River. Blackstone was "the Hermit of Shawmut " described in an entertain- ing manner, by J. Lothop Motley. MRS. HUTCHINSON. 107 Retiring to Plymouth, he was called back as successor of Skelton (who had been the associate of Higginson), and remanied at Salem until banished from the colony in 1635, by order of the General Court. With some of his friends who were indignant at this treatment, he determined to establish himself on the shores of Narragansett Bay, but when he found that prepara- tions were made to carry him to England, he aban- doned his friends and family and set out for the new site which had been chosen as without the limits of any existing colony. There he laid the foundation of Providence and of the State of Rhode Island, in the broadest principles of civil and religious liberty, making a " covenant of peaceable neighborhood with all the sachems and nations " round about him. In 1638, Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, who had been ban- ished as Williams had been, from Massachusetts, for entertaining and preaching doctrines not approved by the majority, went to Newport, Rhode Island. She had arrived in Boston in 1634, and became a power in the town. She gathered the women and preached to them with eloquence and ability. The church was intensely excited.* On her part stood Vane, the new Governor (the one apostrophized by Milton in his well-known sonnet), the Rev. John Wheelwright (her brother or brother-in-law), and a large number of the * Mrs. Hutchinson was " a high-minded and excellent woman," of deep religious experience, who sought to win others to her own faith. She was an ancestor of Governor Thomas Hutchinson. The historian of the controversy regarding her opinions calls it " one of the most shameful proceedings recorded in the annals of Protestantism," differ- ing little save in the lightness of its penalty, from the trials instituted by the Inquisition. Apparently fearing that she would be pursued even in Rhode Island, Mrs. Hutchinson removed to the neighborhood of the Dutch, where she was massacred by the Indians, in 1643. 1(^ Ey'GLISH SETTLEyfEXTS. members of the church. Her opinions were, how denounced by a synod, and banishment followed. The territory' of Connecticut was early a matter of dispute It was first explored near the mouth of the river, by the Dutch from Xew Netherlands, but the claim that the)- put forth for it was disputed by the Plymouth company, within the hmits of whose g^nt jErom James L, it certainly lay, and by the patentees of the " Colony of Connecticut,"' who had obtained their grant ilarch 19, 1631. During that year the Saga- more of the Connecticut VaUey sent to Governor Wlnthrop, asking him to send some Englishmen to settle his country-. The same message was sent : Governor Winslow at Plymouth, but neither r : was immediately granted. In 1633, Captain William Holmes sailed from Plj-m outfa with the frame for a trading house, which he erected at Windsor, on the Connerticut River, and in May, 1634, several parties which had settled at New- town (now Camfandge) asked permission to "look out for eitho- enlargement or removal," intending to go to the Connecticut valley, but when their purpose became known, their request was refused. Despite the refusal, some, probably from Watertown, erected a few huts at Wethersfield, ctmstituting it the first settled town in Connecticut. Late in the autumn of 1635, ochers jH-epared to remove, and in the spring of 1636, a company of one hundred persons, led by the Rev. Thomas Hooker, of Cambridge (the "grav^ godly and judicious Hooker" of Johns was at a later period abrogated by the General Court. The new town was surrounded by the Pequot In- dians, the same that bad, in 1654, sent to Boston for help against the Narragansetts, but now they were relieved of fear from their fellow-sa\-ages, and became dangerous neighbors for the j>ec>ple of Hartford. They made alhance ^nth the other tribes against the whites, but were dissuaded from their design by the heroic efforts of Roger Williams, who exposed himself to procure safety for those who had sent him into the wilderness. Still, the calamity was p>ostp>oned only. and hostilities were reciprocated by the murder of the Pequots of one John Oldham, who had been banished from Plymouth in 1624, for immorality, slander, and treason. This man was trading on the river in a ves- sel, when he was attacked by the Indians, who were found af tens-ards helplessly sailing out to sea, and were overpowered. War was declared, and Hartford contributed forrv- two of the ninety men who enlisted to go against the 110 ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. Indians T who, full of confidence, spent the night b'' .. the conflict in exultant revelry. They were attacked- before dawn, and thoroughly defeated, their village being burned, and their entire tribe either killed or enslaved. The bravery and success of the English struck terror into the Indians, and a lasting peace ensued. In 1635, John Winthrop, son of the Governor of Massachusetts, established a colony at the mouth of the Connecticut River,* which he called Saybrook, in honor of the chief patentees. Lord Say and Seal, and Lord Brook. In 1638, New Haven was founded by a party from Massachusetts, led by Theophilus Eaton, who became its governor, and John Daven- port, who was its minister. Other settlements were speedily made along the shores of Long Island Sound. Eaton was governor of the New Haven Colony for twenty years, and Davenport was minister for thirty years, when he was called to Boston (in 1667) to take the corresponding position there. He was a man of remarkable character. Forced by Laud to resign his living in England, he went to Holland, whence he emigrated to Boston in 1637, led by the representa- *The cMarter granted by Charles II. for Connecticut (April 20, 1662) defined the limits of the territory as extending from the Narragansett River to the Pacific Ocean, and thus Connecticut, like Massachusetts, claimed extensive region in the northwest, a fact that was remembered in 1774, when her statesmen drew magnificent pictures of the prospec- tive growth of the colony on "the finest country and happiest climate on the globe." — Bancroft'' s United States, vi., 506. The claim of Connecticut was recognized and a tract of nearly four million acres was set off to her on the south side of Lake Erie (in Ohio) which is still known as the "Western Reserve." Connecticut did not give up her jurisdiction over the tract until 1800, after whi'^h Jhe land was sold through her agents. (See page 291.) THE BEGICIDES. Ill A PUKUAX UA'JlillitH. tions of John Cotton. His influence was very great in directing the civil pol- ity of the colony. Under his direction, it was re- solved that the Bible is the perfect rule of a common- wealth, and that none but church members should be free burgesses. His repu- tation was so great that he was invited to sit as a member of the " Westmin- ster Assembly " of di- vines, in London. In 1643, when Whalley and Goffe, the regicides, were in New Haven, and sought by the messengers of the king, Davenport hid them, and preached to his peo- ple from Isaiah xvi. 3, 4. '•'■ Hide the outcasts ; be- tray not him that wander- eth. Let niine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab : be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler." In 1639, the colony of Connecticut adopted a constitution by general vote, and it was the first 112 ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. example in history in which a government h been organized and its powers defined under a wr ten constitution. It recognized no higher powe: than the people of the colony, under God, whose word, it stated, requires human governments, and it was based upon right and justice. It is essentially the constitu- tion of Connecticut at the present day. The Pequot War, the jealousy of the Dutch, and the proximity of the French on the eastern frontier of the colonies, led to a feeling that the colonies should unite for mutual protection. As early as 1637, nego- tiations had been initiated looking to such a confeder- acy.* There were many difficulties in the way. The weak felt that the strong would have too great power in the joint counsels, and the strong feared the weak. Besides this, Massachusetts would enter into no league with the people of Rhode Island or of Laco- nia, for the former had been settled by men at vari- ance with the doctrines of the men of Massachusetts, and the latter was under the proprietorship of Gorges, who was then fighting for the king, to whom, indeed, the Rhode Islanders professed allegiance. In 1643, however, the four colonies, Plymouth, Connecticut, New Haven, and Massachusetts, and their dependencies, bound themselves together in "a firm and perpetual league of friendship and amity for offence and defence, mutual advice and succor, upon all just occasions, both for preserving and propagating the truth and liberties of the Gospel, and for their own * It was on the thirty-first of August of that year that some of the mag- istrates and ministers of Connecticut being in Boston a meeting was had to confer regarding a confederation. Plymouth Colony had been invited, but the notice was so short that no delegates came from there. THE UNITED tOLONIES. 113 ual safety and welfare," under the name of "the Ui- ted Colonies of New England." The reasons given tor ni.king the confederation include the statement that the colonists were " encompassed with people of several nations and strange languages," the injuries sustained from the Indians, and specially " those sad distractions in England," which marked the beginning of the war between King and Commons, which might make it essential that those in the distant colonies who sympathized with the Commons should be united if a call for action should come. Times had changed since Connecticut had made her suggestion of a union six years before. The sentiment in favor of union seemed to spread, and the next year there was a plan which, however, never reached a practical stage, for a confederation of all the English colonies of the West- ern Continent. Thus was formed the first union of the English on this continent. It lasted until the advent of Governor Andros, in 1686. In the interim between the over- throw of that person and the receipt of the new char- ter, Massachusetts * proposed a congress of all the colonies, and its General Court sent letters to all the colonies, as far, at least, as Maryland. The body which convened in pursuance of this call, which Mr. Bancroft calls "The first Anglo-American Congress," met at New York, May i, 1690, and resolved to attempt the conquest of Canada and the invasion of Acadie. The union of 1643 naturally led the home govern- ment to determine to strengthen its hold on its dis- * "Massachusetts, the pai'eiit of so many States, is certainly the par- ent of the American Union.'' — Bancroft, 114 ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. tant dependencies, and to take steps to that end, but the time for effective action of the sort had passed. The germs of independence had been planted ; a self- governing confederation of self-governing common- wealths had already been formed in America, and the step was not to be retraced. The patent under which the Council for New Eng- land acted was surrendered to the Crown in 1635. The London company planted but one colony, that of Virginia; and when, in 1624, its patents were can- celled, Virginia was declared a royal province. The northern company had established a number of plan- tations, but they were permitted to govern themselves. One of them, Massachusetts, did this under a royal charter. A COl-UMAL IMDUIOli. CHAPTER VI. SETTLEMENTS BY THE FRENCH. MR. PARKMAN says that the story of the French efforts to colonize America begins with a tragedy. We have read that tragedy in the story of the Huguenot plantation under Ribault, and we have seen how the slaughter of the colonists was avenged by De Gourgues. A new chapter now opens. Two years less than a century and a half intervened between the discovery of the mouth of the St. Law- rence, by Jacques Cartier, in 1534, and the exploration of the Mississippi to its mouth in 1682, by the Cheva- lier de La Salle. In each case the country was solemnly taken possession of in the name of the king of France, and the name " New France " was given to most of the northern portion of the continent on some of the early maps.* The adventures of the French during this century were thrilling in their interest, and full of import in the opening of the new country. The explorers all professed the same desire to promote the extension of the Christian religion that we have found character- istic of the English and Spaniards, but they adopted different means and left more lasting memorials of the success they attained. They fraternized with the *Iii 1763, France formally renounced all claim to territory in North America. 115 116 SETTLEMENTS BY THE FRENCH. natives in a manner not thought of by men of any other nationality. They entered the wigwam, shared the blanket and the fare of the Indian, married his JACQUES CARTIER. daughters, and in some cases were at length scarcely to be distinguished from him. Nicollet, the explorer of Wisconsin, is an example of this. The names connected with the efforts of the French remain attached to the rivers, cities, and mountains of Canada, Nova Scotia, the Western Lake Region, and the valley of the Mississippi. The chief CARTIER IN CANADA. 117 rers sqnt from France were Jacques Cartier, samuel de Champlain, Jacques Marquette, and Robert, ^Ihevalier de La Salle. Cartier was commissioned by i^rancis I. to explore the New World, and left St. Malo n the spring of 1534. He reached the shores of New- oundland after a short voyage, and landed on the :oast of Labrador, taking possession of the country, ind planting a cross in testimony of the fact. He ;xplored the bay of Chaleurs (which received its name rom the heat that his company experienced there), md entered the mouth of the St. Lawrence, without )eing aware that he was in a river. He arrived in i^^rance in September, and was back again in June, 535. He now sailed up the St. Lawrence, found a own called Hochelaga, which he named Mount Royal, low Montreal. Like Smith, when he ascended the "hickahominy, Cartier hoped to find a passage to the vestward by the St. Lawrence. He wintered near he mouth of the St. Croix, now the St. Charles, and iter having taken solemn possession of the country )y erecting a cross bearing the arms of France and an nscription, he sailed homeward in May, 1536, carry- ng with him ten chiefs whom he had faithlessly :idnapped. He had suffered great hardship and many >f his men had died during the winter, but he was lothing daunted, and returned in 1541, with five ves- els. The winter was passed cheerlessly at Hochelaga. rhe natives were not so cordial as they had been on he former occasion, and in May Cartier sailed for "ranee, giving up all attempts to make his settlement )ermanent.* * See " Pioneers of France in the New World," by Francis Park- lan. A fascinating book. 118 SETTLEMENTS BT THE FRENCH. Samuel de Champlain was commissioned as General Lieutenant of Canada, by Henry IV., and set sail from Honfleur, March 15, 1603. In May he dropped anchor in the river St. Lawrence, up which he sailed as far as Cartier had ascended on the occasion of his first voyage, and after examining the shore with care, returned to France, where he published a book enti- tled Des Sauvages. In 1605, he sailed a second time under a new patron, who accompanied him. The patron, de Monts, was not of the stuff of which pio- neers are made, and finding the northern climate too severe, the expedition sailed to the southward. Cham- plain explored the coast of the Continent as far as Cape Cod, and returned in 1607, the year that Jamestown was founded. In 1608, he sailed for the third time for the St. Lawrence, which he navigated as far as the site of Quebec, which he selected as a favorite site for a town, and named from an Indian word meaning "narrows." {Kepek : it is closed.) Under his wise direction the town grew, houses were built, fields were cultivated, and the traffic in furs was increased. The year after his arrival, war broke out between the Hurons and other tribes of Indians, and the Iroquois, and Cham- plain determined to take the part of the Hurons, as he considered the Iroquois dangerous to his colony. He accompanied the Hurons to the lake which now bears his name, where he used his gun with such effect as to kill two chiefs of the Iroquois and cause the remainder to flee. He went to France to spend the following winter, but returned for his fourth visit, in the spring of 1610. Before reaching Quebec, he gathered a force of sixty Indians of the Montagnez VOYAGE OF CHAMPLAIN. Il9 ribe, to go against the Iroquois, whom he encoun- ered at the lake as before. His allies were this time lefeated, and he, being wounded by an arrow, was obliged to return to France. Champlain made his fifth voyage in 1612, coming as ieutenant-governor, and spent several years in explor- ng the country, going up the Ottawa River in the lope of finding an entrance to Hudson's Bay, which lad been discovered two years before by Hendrick Hudson, on the voyage that cost him his life. He iought against the Iroquois and with the Hurons, and, n 161 5, invited some Jesuit missionaries to come to :each them both Christianity, but he did little to estab- ish his own colonies. Returning to France, Champlain made his sixth k^oyage, in 1620, coming this time with the title of governor, and bringing his family with him. He was mthorized to fortify his settlements. In 1627, France and Spain formed an alliance against England, and " it fell out that they themselves were surprised by an attack from England." As a part of the general movement, Quebec was attacked, and forced to capit- ulate, but the treaty of St. Germain, in 1632, restored it to France and gave Governor Champlain freedom to :arry out his plans to establish his colony on a better toundation than ever. He did not live long after this, but he was able before his death, which occurred in 1635, to found a college in Quebec, to bring over more missionaries and to begin the training of the young Indians in the French language and the arts of civilization. He said that the salvation of one soul is of more importance than the foundation of an empire, and acted upon the saying. He did what he consid' 120 SETTLEMENTS BY THE FRENCH. ered the best for his colonies, without regard to per- sonal interest, not endeavoring merely to build up a fortune, as too many of the American pioneers had, and he is rightly called the Father of French coloniza- tion in Canada. In these enterprises of the French, we find the origin of subsequent strife between the English and French ; for the grants made to the explorers of the two nations by their respective sov- ereigns, in many cases, covered the same territory. Jacques Marquette was sent to Canada as missionary A GARRTSOX HorSE. of the Jesuits, in 1666, but after learning the Indian language, he started for the Lake Superior region, in 1668, where he founded a mission at Sault Sainte Marie, and then built a chapel, in 1671, at Mackinaw. Reaching still further towards the " South Sea," he determined, in 1669, to explore the valley of th > Mississipppi, of which he had heard. It was not nr.yV 1673, that he was able to accomplish his desire, when he accompanied a party under Louis Jolliet, sent out by Frontenac, the governor of Canada, to find the mouth of the great river. He went as missionary, and Jolliet was himself a member of the order of Jesuits. MARQUETTE ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 121 They followed the Wisconsin River to its junction with the Mississippi, and then descended that river to a point below the mouth of the Arkansas, whence they retraced their steps, passing up the Illinois, instead of the Wisconsin, to Green Bay, thinking that they had obtained a sufficiently clear notion of the course of the stream. They had journeyed some twenty-five hundred miles through the wilderness. Jolliet went alone to Quebec. Marquette never reached his mis- sion alive. He was detained at Green Bay a year by illness, and in October, 1674, set out for Kaskaskia, where he had promised to preach to the Indians, though cold and illness caused him more delay, and he did not get to Kaskaskia until April. 1675. Increasing feebleness made him desire to return to Mackinaw, and he started on the journey, only to die on the banks of a river that now bears his name, on the east shore of Lake Michigan. La Salle is another of the martyrs to the enthusi- astic desire to reach China by the western route. A native of Rouen, France, he was educated by the Jesuits ( having renounced his inheritance before entering their seminary), but inflamed by the story of the Western World, he resolved to give himself up to its exploration. In 1667, he sailed for New France, where he engaged in the fur trade, finally obtaining a grant which included the exclusive traffic with the " Five Nations " of New York. His grant included the fort on the site of the town of Kingston, then called Frontenac, after Louis, Count de Frontenac, one of the governors of Canada. As Columbus had been influenced by the stories of his predecessors, and by the romances of the olden 122 SETTLEMENTS B Y THE FRENCH. time, so now La Salle was incited to complete the work of Jolliet by the stories that were told him of the great river. He read of the heroic confidence of Columbus in his own plans ; he listened to the Indians who told him of the Ohio, and he was roused to action. He went to France, and so successfully interested the ministers in his schemes, that the monopoly of the trade in buffalo skins was given Iffi^te I, A SALI.E ON A VOYAGE. him, and in 1678, he returned to Frontenac to prose- cute his design. His preparations were not com- pleted until late in the summer of 1679, ^"cl ^^ t^^" set out, only to encounter disaster, and to return on foot and almost alone. He left a portion of his colony on the banks of the Illinois, sent a party to explore the upper Mississippi, and set out on his desolate march of fifteen hundred nMles through the wilderness, in the early spring of 1680. It was not until February, 1682, that he was back LA SALLE ON THE MISSISSIPPL 123 again, and ready to prosecute his explorations. But then he went down the Mississippi to the mouth,* took possession of the territory in the name of Louis XIV., called it after that monarch, Louisiana, and slowly retraced his steps to Quebec, where he arrived towards the end of 1683. The exploration was made at the time when Louis XIV. was indeed "le orrand monarque." He was striding over Europe with none to disturb his progress, and his ministers were inflated by the prospect of new dominions in which the nation might spread itself abroad. It was confidently ex- pected that a new empire would speedily arise on the shores of the great river, and a fleet of four vessels was prepared with a colony of two hundred and eighty persons to people the valley. The grand preparation was the precursor of a sad and igno- minious end. The voyage was begun August i, 1684, and the fleet arrived off the mouth of the Mis- sissippi in January ; but from a miscalculation, this fact was not known until the mouth of the river had been passed, and the commander was unwilling to return as La Salle desired. La Salle and his colo- nists were at first landed on the southern shore of Lou- isiana near the Sabine River, but subsequently taken to Matagorda Bay, where a place still bears the name of La Salle. The store ship had been wrecked on entering the bay, and the fleet soon after deserted the colony, leaving it — two hundred and fifty persons — almost without resources. The heart of the chivalric leader did not quail ; he established a fort, and then * Jesuit missionaries had discovered the great river eight or nine years earlier, and the result of this exploration is still exhibited in a map drawn by Louis Jolliet, in 1674, which is preserved in Paris. It ^ays down the lakes, and the course of the Mississippi to the sea. 124 SETTLEMENTS BY THE FRENCH. Started out November i, 1685, to find the river. All his excursions proved vain, and he determined to seek the gold mines of New Mexico. In this he was doomed again to disappointment, and in January, 1687, he started to return. His colony had been reduced to thirty-seven, and with sixteen of these he set out for the land of the Illinois and Canada. On the banks of the Trinity River, Texas, (probably in San Jacinto, formerly Polk County), La Salle was treacherously shot by one of his men who had long shown a mutinous spirit. Thus ended the life of one of the most high-minded, daring and far-seeing of all the adventurers who gave themselves to the work of exploring and peopling the New World. He gave to France her claim to the Mississippi Valley and Texas ; a claim that was always respected. The next French attempt to colonize Louisiana was under the command of Lemoine d'lberville, who entered the Mississippi March 2, 1699, established a colony at Biloxi (now in the State of Mississippi), and sailed up the Mississippi River as far as Natchez. Though he effected little, he is considered the foundei of Louisiana. Do you know of the dreary land, If land such region may seem, Where 'tis neither sea nor strand, Ocean nor good dry land, But the nightmare marsh of a dream ? Where the mighty river his death-road takes, 'Mid pools and windings that coil like snakes, A hundred leagues of bayous and lakes, To die in the great Gulf Stream > — Brownell. I THE Iamerican settlements CHAPTER VII. THE DUTCH SETTLERS AND LATER COLONISTS. THE attempts of the Dutch to colonize the New- World were but an episode in its history, for the Dutch supremacy in New Amsterdam lasted only seventy years, and that brief period was interrupted by nine years of English rule. The Dutch claim to any portion of the country rests on the discoveries made by an English navigator, temporarily in the em- ploy of the Dutch East India Company, Henry Hud- son, referred to by Dutch writers as Hendrick Hud- son. This discoverer was unknown until 1607, when he was first employed by a company of London mer- chants to search for the northwest passage to the lands of the Grand Khan, which Columbus also had sought. He made unsuccessful voyages, in 1607 and 1608, and the merchants did not engage his ser- vices again. He therefore made his third voyage under the auspices of the Dutch East India Company, intending to find China by the northeast passage which Sebastian Cabot had sought in 1553, about half a cen- tury before. The climate proving too severe for Hud- son's men, he crossed the Atlantic to the coast of Maine, which he explored, and on the second of Sep- nber, discovered the mouth of the river that ha* .e borne his name. — 125 126 THE DUTCH SETTLERS. KNTElilNG TUli IIAIUJOK ol' XKW VoWK IX MUDEIJN TIMKS. Flow fair beside the Palisades, flow, Hudson, fair and free, By proud Manhattan's shore of ships and gfeen Hoboken's tree ; So fair yon haven clasped its isles, in such a sunset gleam. When Hendrick and his sea-worn tars first sounded up the stream, And climbed this rocky palisade, and, resting on its brow. Passed round the can and gazed awhile on shore and wave below; And Hendrick drank with heartv cheer, and loudly then cried he : " 'Tis a good land to fall in with, men, and a pleasant land to see ! " Hudson sailed up the river witli a hope of finding the passage to China, and when he had arrived at the head of navigation, went some miles farther in a small boat. He afterwards explored Delaware Bay, and returned to Holland. In 1610, he set out on his fourth voyage. He found the strait and bay that bear his name, and was preparing to winter, when his seamen mutinied and abandoned him in an open boat. He was not heard from. Like La Salle and De Soto, Hudson gave up his life in the steady pursuit of dar- ing schemes of discovery. MANHATTAN ISLAND PURCHASED. 127 Very little was done by the Dutch in the way of colonization for some years. In 1610, a few traders had operated on the river, and in 161 3, four small houses were erected on Manhattan Island. The Dutch West India Company was chartered in 162 1, and in 1624, or thereabout, entered into possession. The first colony that was actually established was composed of Walloons, Protestant refugees, who sought an asylum in the New World. They were aided by the West India Company, and established themselves on the western shore of Long Island, in 1623-24, naming their settlement Walloon Bay. In 1623, a fort was built where Albany now stands and another on the Delaware. In 1623, Manhattan Island was bought of the Indians for twenty-four dollars, and under the direc- tion of Peter Minuit, the first Dutch Governor, small settlements were begun on Staten Island, Long Island and Manhattan Island. In 1629, more extensive movements were made. The company granted large tracts to persons called Patroons, who were endowed with feudal rights. One of these was Kiliaen van Rensselaer, whose territory was twenty-four miles by forty-eight in extent, comprising the territory of sev- eral counties around Albany. Other Patroons were Samuel Godyn, Samuel Blomaert, and Michael Pauw, who like van Rensselaer, were directors of the Am- sterdam chamber. The two first mentioned began a settlement in Delaware, in 1631. Before the capitulation of New Amsterdam to the English under the command of Colonel Richard Nicolls, acting for the Duke of York, afterwards James II., there were four Dutch Governors, the last of whom 128 THE DUTCH SETTLERS. was the renowned Peter Stuyvesant. The territory was all the time claimed by England, and there were troubles between the colonists representing" the two nations ; especially was this, true in the case of the settlers in Connecticut. The Dutch traders penetrated both Connecticut and Massachusetts, and in 1627 the Governor of New Amsterdam was asked by Gov- ernor Bradford of Plymouth to restrain his people from trading in the neighborhood of the English. The NEW AMSTERDAM. boundary question was not settled until 1650, when one half of Long Island was conceded to the English, and on the mainland the line between Connecticut and New York was drawn about where it now exists. Stuyvesant ruled New Amsterdam with rigor and arrogance, but he was the greatest of the Dutch governors. It was in 1652, during his time, that New Amsterdam received its charter, and became the THE FIRST AMERICAN CITY. 129 I first city organized in the United States. The fashion 1 of regulating religion was not confined to New England, but in New Amsterdam, also, Lutherans were fined and imprisoned. Baptists were fined and ban- ished, and Quakers were tortured. It is to the credit of the powers at home that when they heard of the actions of Stuyvesant in this respect, they censured him and restrained him from furCher oppression of dissenters. The sufferings in the Netherlands from the Spaniards who tried to force Romanism upon them may have had its effect in this case, though it is not always true that those who have suffered in this way are ready to pity other sufferers who do not agree with them. Meantime a settlement was planned with more gen- erous aims than any yet formed. Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, before his premature death on the field of Lutzen, had been filled with grand thoughts regarding the opening for the progress of Protestantism presented in America. He looked upon the settlement that was to be, as the brightest jewel of his kingdom, and his minister, Axel, Count Oxenstierna, founded Fort Chris- tina (near Wilmington, Delaware) in 1638. The colony was unfortunate in having for its director, Peter Minuit, who had been sent away from New Amsterdam in 1632, and in being composed largely of convicts from the prisons of Sweden and Finland. It was also immediately involved in difficulties with the Dutch, who claimed the territory on which it was sit- uated. The colony was increased from time to time, but its life was not robust, and in 1655, it succumbed to the superior force of Stuyvesant, and many of the settlers returned to Europe. The city of Amsterdam 130 THE BUTCH SETTLERS. purchased the new conquest, thus relieving the West India Company of an embarrassment of riches, and the purchase was increased in 1663, until it embraced the territory of the present States of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. New Sweden now became New Amstel. The Dutch colony at Manhattan did not contain the principle of life. It was simply a mercantile venture. There was no public spirit, none of the incentives to growth which made New England strong. Its gov- ernment was aristocratic, its governors oppressive 01 autocratic. It had schools, but they wete not esteemed so vital to the existence of the public weal as they were in Massachusetts and Plymouth, or Connecticut. The first clergyman arrived in New Amsterdam in 1628, but there were near eighty in New England in 1642, and probably fifty in 1628. In 1686, New York contained a population of only some six or seven thousand, while New England had one hundred and twenty thousand, and after the Revolutionary War, the population of New England was three times as large as that of New York. This great disparity was due to the different sentiments which moved the colonists of the two regions. The want of public spirit in the Dutch is shown in the reluctance with which they protected their own set- tlers, and in the readiness with which they permitted the city to be resigned to the English in 1664. War broke out between England and Holland in 1672, and New York, as New Amsterdam had been named by the English, was retaken by the Dutch in 1673, but was restored to England in 1674, at the peace, and the Dutch have liad no claim to any territory in the THE JERSEY GBANTS. 131 limits of the United States since.* The discomfited Stuyvesant after the surrender went to Holland to report the loss of the colony, but subsequently returned to New York, where he ended his days on his farm, from which the avenue called the Bowery ( Bouwerij ) was named. Before the Duke of York had actually taken pos- NEW YORK IN 1720. session of the New Netherlands, he granted the terri- tory from the Hudson to the Delaware to two favorites, Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, who founded * The Dutch governors of New Amsterdam were, Peter Minuit, from 1624 to 1632 ; Wouter Van Twiller, 1633-1637 ; William Kieft, 1637- 1647 ; Peter Stuyvesant, 1647-1664. The English then had possession, and Richard Nicolls followed from 1664 to 1667 ; Francis Lovelace, from 1667 to 1673. The Dutch administration was then renewed, and Sir Anthony Colve governed from 1673 to 1674; after which Edmund Andros began the line of colonial governors which ended with Willian Tryon, in 1777. George Clinton was the tirst governor after the State organization had been effected. 132 THE BUTCH SETTLERS, Elizabethtown, Newark, Middletown and Shrewsbury. The territory received its name from the island of Jersey, which Carteret as governor, had defended from Cromwell's attack in 1649. The territory had been settled upon, however, at an earlier date, for it is said that a colony had been planted at Bergen before 1620, and the same year that the Swedes settled on the Delaware, the New Haven colony made purchases, though perhaps no actual settlements. When the Dutch recaptured New York, they took New Jersey also, which returned to its owners on the peace of 1674. In 1673 Berkeley had sold his interest to two Quak- ers (who established a settlement at Salem, near the Delaware ), and the territory was divided into East Jersey and West Jersey. Carteret and his heirs controlled East Jersey, and the Quakers, West Jersey. The entire territory was, in 1682, transferred to Wil- liam Penn and associates. The first legislature of the State was held in 1668, and established very stringent laws, making death the penalty for some twelve different offences. Maryland received its name from Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I., who obtained, June 20, 1632, for Cecilius Calvert, Second Lord Baltimore, a charter granting him more extensive powers than th,. Crown had ever bestowed upon a proprietor in America.* * George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, had held extensive prants in Newfoundland and Ireland, but, having in 1624, become a Romanist, he had been obliged to abstain from engaging in public affairs, and the French had taken possession of his settlement in Newfoundland, upon which he had expended large sums. It was in compensation for his losses that the grant of Maryland wa?made ; but Baltimore died April 15, 1632, before the grant was legalized, and the patent was issued in the name of his son. MARYLAND SETTLED. 133 Under this charter, in 1634, Leonard Calvert, brother of Lord Baltimore, took out a colony of two hundred persons, mostly Roman Catholics of good family. The charter made no mention of the religion to be established, and the proprietor left that matter open, to be settled by the general laws of England ; settlers of all creeds were wanted and were welcomed. This did not hinder the Virginia colonists from look- ing upon their new neighbors as "idolatrous papists," but, on the other hand, it did not interfere with the rapid growth of the colony. An earlier settlement had been made in 163 1, by William Clayborne, under the authority of the Gov- ernor of Virginia," who refused to acknowledge the new government, and though he was at length ex- pelled, he gave much trouble to Calvert. In 1642 a company of Puritans who had been banished from Virginia for non-conformity, gave the colonists more trouble, and Clayborne uniting with them, forced Calvert to flee into Virginia. In 1646, however, he returned and gained possession of the government. The earnest strife between the King and the Commons at home led the settlers of Maryland to reflect on the relations of government to the religion of its people, and in 1649, the third legislature enacted a statute to the effect that "whereas the enforcing of the con- science in matters of religion hath frequently fallen out to be of dangerous consequence in those common- wealths where it has been practised, and for the more quiet and peaceable government of this province, and the better to preserve mutual love and amity among the inhabitants, no person within this province, pro- fessing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall be in any ways 134 THE DUTCH SETTLERS. troubled, molested, or discountenanced, for his or her religion, or in the free exercise thereof." This is remarkable as the act of men at a time when no nations of the world permitted entire freedom of con- science. It redounded to the advantage of the colony, which rapidly increased, having no enemies but those without its borders. The settlement of Puritans was at Annapolis, then called Providence. It received considerable additions to its numbers, and extensive territory was granted it, but this did not suffice. They strove to control public affairs, and, on the establishment of the com- monwealth at home, demanded that it should be recog- nized in Maryland. The Puritan party soon found itself in the majority, and in a few years a war of religion began, in which the Roman Catiiolics were defeated ; and it was not till 1658, that Lord Baltimore regained his rights, when toleration was restored and the colony began to thrive again. With no consider- able towns, there was a population of twelve thousand in the colony. Until 1729, the territory now known as North and South Carolina, was called Carolina. The first English colony on the continent was established at Roanoake, in 1585, by Sir Walter Raleigh. A party of Puritans from Massachusetts settled at the mouth of the Cape Fear River in 1660, and there were other attempts at colonization in early days ; but it was not until 1663 that a permanent colony was established. In 1662, Charles II., ignoring all other claims to the territory, formed the province of Carolina, eventually stretch- ing from Florida to Virginia, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, which he granted to eight noble- THE CAR0LINA8. 135 men,* who were styled " The Lord's Proprietors of the Province of Carolina." The new company was granted almost as great powers as had been given to Calvert, and little was asked in return except allegiance to the Crown. The future freemen of the colony were to give their con- sent to legislation, but otherwise, that too was in the power of the grantees. No colony in America started out with such grand plans as this. The territory was immense ; the charter provided for officers with high- sounding titles, and for a hereditary nobility hedged in in such a way that no others than those of the privi- leged class could ever enter it, a " chamberlain's court," with control of all fashions, habits, badges, games and sports, a grand Council of Appeal, and provision for freedom of conscience, though the Church of England was established as " the only true and orthodox " religion. This complicated and singular constitution was framed by John Locke, the philosopher.' The admirers of the great Shaftesbury fondly thought that it would endure forever, and yet before it actually reached the colonists, they had met in legislative assembly and established a simple code of laws that became the actual statutes of the Carolinas ; were con- firmed by the proprietors, and re-enacted in 1715- The colonists who came over at first were not of the classes adapted to build up a pioneer settlement. The settlements did not thrive; and though parties came from New England, New York, Scotland, Ire- * These proprietors were the Duke of Albemarle (General Monk), the historian Clarendon, the Earl of Craven, Lord John Berkeley, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Baron Ashley (from 1672, Earl of Shafts- bury), Sir George Carteret, Sir John Colleton, and Sir William Berke- ley, of Virginia, younger brother of Lord Berkeley. 136 THE BUTCH SETTLERS. land, and France, besides the Mother Country, there were constant troubles and little progress. Few towns were founded, but the people lived on planta- tions somewhat remote from each other. Carolina was a harbor for the persecuted. The first minist<:r arrived in 1672. He was a Friend, and was well received. In the autumn of the same year George Fox, the founder of the Friends, arrived and was welcomed to a safe asylum. He became guest of the Governor, and expounded to him as well as to others, the doctrines of his sect. He departed as he had come, without moles- tation. The settlers were of various sorts. There were poor cavaliers, dissenters from England, Dutch from the New Netherlands, Presbyterians from Scot- land, Huguenots from France, sent from their homes by the revocation of the edict of Nantes, some Irish, and many from Virginia, who fled from justice. William Penn, son of Sir William Penn, the English Admiral in the time of Charles II., bought the propri- etary rights in the colonies of the Friends in the Jer- seys, in 1682, and having, in 1681, received from the crown a patent for the territory now forming the State of Pennsylvania,* he drew up a liberal scheme of government, and prepared to embark with a colony. Being of Welsh family, Penn intended to call the new State New Wales, but King Charles insisted that it should be named Pennsylvania. No one was to be forced to attend or support any religious service what- ever, and all who acknowledged one eternal God were * In pa}'ment of a debt of si.xteen thousand pounds due to his father. The land granted is described in the charter, now in e.xistence at Har- risburg, as the "tract of land in America lying north of Maryland, on the east bounded with Delaware River, on the west limited as Mary- land, and northward to extend as far as plantable." xiJK JVATlliAI- IJKIDGE, VIRGINIA, WILLIAM PENN ARRIVES. 139 to be allowed freedom of conscience, the privileges Deing greater than those offered by the proprietors 3f Carolina, who did not propose to tolerate Jews. There had been other attempts at settlement ifl Pennsylvania before this. In 1643, a Swedish colon) kvas formed at Tinicum Island, under John Printz,and Chester (then Uplandt) was founded in 1648. Man) emigrants were immediately attracted to Pennsylvania. A. German company under Franz Pastorius, bought ifteen thousand acres, and three vessels came over .mder the direction of William Markham, a cousin of Penn, in 1681. The next year Penn himself arrived 3n the ship Welcome, with one hundred emigrants, nostly Friends. He landed at Newcastle (Delaware), ivas warmly received, and in November visited the site 3f Philadelphia, where a house was already partially :ompleted. Here he laid out squares, streets, and ivenues, some of which still retain the names he gave :hem ; the city itself bearing a name that he fixed ipon it with the hope of establishing there a feeling Df brotherly love. On the fourteenth of October, 1682, Peiin met the [ndians of the Lenni Lenape nation, under an old elm it Kensington (then Shackamaxon), to confirm a treaty vhich had been made with them, and so firmly was it established, and so well kept, that the savages respected ts terms for sixty years, and there was no war with :he Indians before the Revolution.* The next year a school was begun. The first yearly * Penn's grant covered the tracts upon which the Swedish settle- nents had been established for more than a generation, and conflicting :laims arose which were not all adjusted with the same equity that ^'enn has been represented as having practised in dealing with the Indians. 140 THE DUTCH SETTLERS. meeting of the Friends was held in Philadelphia; and a printing-press was set up in 1685. The grants of territory in America had always been made with little care in the establishment of boundary lines, and most of the colonies became involved in disputes regarding" them. Pennsylvania was no exception, and in 1684 Penn was obliged to go to England to assert his right to the territory on the west side of the Delaware from Philadelphia to Cape Henlopen, which was claimed by Lord Baltimore as a part of Maryland. Penn had already contested the claim of the Dutch to this strip, and he was successful now. He left behind him a prosperous colony of seven thousand people. While in England, he succeeded in obtaining relief for the Friends who had suffered great persecutions, twelve hundred of whom were released from prison by King James. He also was influential in obtaining the publication of a proclamation removing religious penalties and declaring liberty of conscience to all. His enemies represented that he was a Papist in dis- guise, while James was on the throne, and afterwards caused his arrest on a charge of conspiracy in the latter king's favor; but he was honorably acquitted, though he was for a time deprived of his office as gov- ernor. In 1694, his office was restored to him, and he went to Pennsylvania the second time, in 1699. Hearing that a project was entertained of bringing all proprietary governments under the crown, Penn determined to return to England, but before leaving, he gave Philadelphia a city charter, October 25, 1701. Penn had little satisfaction in his American prop- erty after his return, and in 171 2, made a bargain to transfer his risrhts to the crown for twelve thousand OGLETHORPE IN GEOBGIA. 141 pounds. He was hindered from carrying out the bar- gain by apoplectic strokes, and though he hved six years longer, he was always afflicted with mental weakness, and at times was unable to move. His character has been attacked by Macaulay and others, but it is doubtful if the accusations against him are true. Though Macaulay persisted in them, they seem to have been disproved. As late as 1733, the extensive territory now known as Georgia, was a wilderness. The proprietors of Carolina had in 1729 given up their claims to the Crown, and in 1732, the country between the Savan- nah and the Altamaha rivers, and westward to the Pacific, was granted, " in trust for the poor," to twenty-one "trustees, for founding the colony of Geor- gia," the most distinguished of them being Jarnes Edward Oglethorpe, the philanthropist, who became Governor of the colony that was planted. The motto on the seal chosen by the trustees was Nou sibi, sed aliis (not for himself, but for others), and it well betokened the intentions of the benevolent trustees, who wished to found a colony which should be an asylum for the destitute and forlorn. In November, 1732, Oglethorpe accompanied a party of one hun- dred and twenty persons to the New World, He landed at Charleston, in January, 1733, and selected the site of Savannah for the plantation. Kindly relations were established with the Indians; lands were bought of them, and the city was laid out with regularity, considerable portions being reserved as public squares. The sympathies of the charitable at home were readih' given to the enterprise. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign 142 THE DUTCH SETTLERS. Parts interested itself in Georgia, and aided some per- secuted Protestants to go thither from Salzburg (Aust- ria), giving them free passage, lands, provisions for an entire season, and religious freedom. Their settle- ment was made on Ebenezer River (Effingham County), which was then named. The same year Augusta was laid out, and soon became a place of important trade with the Indians. Georgia was established as a refuge for the distressed, and it was the only colony in which negro slavery was forbidden. Oglethorpe esteemed slavery as against the fundamental law of England. In 1744, Oglethorpe returned to England, where he gained much favor for his colony, and was able to bring back with him, in 1736, a company of three hundred emi- grants, among whom were John and Charles Wesley, and some Moravians, and the next year, George Whitefield began his American career by visiting Georgia, where he established an Orphan House. Presbyterian Scotchmen came also, and the colony prospered. The prosperity did not continue, however. When war broke out between opain and Eng- land, in 1739, Oglethorpe was made commander of the troops of South Carolina and Georgia, and marched with a thousand men and some Indian allies to invade Florida. The expedition was unsuccessful. In 1742 the Spaniards retaliated, and appeared at the mouth of the Altamaha with a fleet of thirty-six ships and three thousand men. They took several forts, but were, by a ruse of Oglethorpe, alarmed, and re- turned to Florida. Other sources of disquiet remained. The proprietors were not as capable as they were benevolent. They established feudal entails, and made GEOBGIA A ROYAL PROVINCE. 143 laws in London that were odious to those on the soil, and industry lost heart. In 1751 the trustees deter- mined to surrender their charter to the Crown, and in 1754, the first royal governor entered upon office. The colony then had the same privileges as to lands, trade and negro slaves, that were enjoyed by the other colonies. Rude though our life, it suits our spirit, And new-born States in future years Shall own us founders of a nation, And bless the hardy pioneers. AN OLD-TIME HOME. CHAPTER VIII. COLONIAL LIFE AND CUSTOMS. WE are apt, when we think of the lives of our fore- fathers in the colonial period, to compare them with life at our own time ; but we should rather strive to realize the state of soci- ety that they left when they came over seas. It would be a sacrifice for most persons, at this period, to go back to the style of living of the time of Elizabeth, and it was but four years after her death that the settlement was made at Jamestown. Doubtless the early pioneers enjoyed their immunity from many of the discomforts of home life. The pau- per class and the rogues were very numerous in Eng- land at that time, and even in London one's purse was scarcely safe, if life was, so little were the rogues awed by the constant executions for theft. There 144 THE INGLESIDE. LUXURY AND PRIVATION. 145 TIIPJ EAi;l>Y AMEKICAN AVUMAN AT "VVOKK. was a certain sort of luxury among the rich classes, it is true, but there was a deep gulf between them and those below them, while even the most favored of fortune did not enjoy a tithe of the conveniences that make life in our day so rich in opportunities, and 146 COLONIAL LIFE AND CUSTOMS. social enjoyment so much less servile and more rational. The colonists lost much by their voluntary expatriation, but we get an erroneous appreciation of their privations when we compare their condition with our own. Even in the houses of many who were in good circumstances, there were no chimneys in the seventeenth century. Glass was in use for windows, but it was a luxury that all could not indulge in ; and when our early settlers brought over oiled paper to be used instead, they probably did not think they were suffering on account of their removal to a new country. Roads were poor here, and most of the travel at first, was by bridle paths ; but roads were wretched in Eng- land, also, and long after the settlement at Plymouth, it was dangerous to travel in the streets of London in a coach. Coaches themselves were luxuries in the time of Elizabeth, and they were lumbering and uneasy. There were no steel springs to them, and the straps that served our fathers instead, were new devices long after our early settlements had been made. Houses in England were not well carpeted ; the rushes which in the time of Henry VHI. served to cover the floors and to hide the filth that was allowed to accumulate on them, had not entirely fallen into disuse. Queen Elizabeth was the first sovereign who is known to have owned a fork, and it is not certain that she used it on ordinary occasions. In i6o8, a traveller returned from Italy, spoke of the use of forks in that country as one of the fashions that he intended to imitate. The conveniences for the housekeeper, in England, in the seventeenth century, were few and rude, and removal to America did not add very largely to the worry of woman's work. TOLERATION NOT UNDERSTOOD. 147 All the colonists professed to come to the New World to spread the Gospel. So said the Spaniard when he settled in the land of flowers. So the Frenchman declared as he carried his priests to Quebec, and sent them as pioneers through the valley of the great river. So said the English at Jamestown, at Plym- outh, at Philadelphia, and so said the Huguenots in South Carolina, and the Dutch at New Amsterdam, Each colony had, however, its own character. The Spaniards sought wealth and adventure in Florida, and the French trader had the same ends in view. The phlegmatic Dutchman was a trader. He cared little to exert himself. He did not wish for strife. The Covenanters of Scotland, like the Huguenots of France, and the Quakers and Puritans of England, came for rest and the privilege of worshipping God after the dictates of their consciences. They were willing to endure hardness to obtain this privilege. The nature of toleration was not fully understood by any of the settlers, but there was a great difference in the treatment of religion in the different parts.* The Plymouth colonists were Separatists. They had come out from the Church of England. The Boston colony was composed of Puritans members of the Church of England who were protesting against the practices and doctrines in it which they considered erro- * Rev. Thomas Shepard, of Cambridge, wrote in the "Election Sermon " of 1672, that " 'tis Satan's policy to plead for an indefinite and lioundless toleration," and Increase Mather, in 16S1, argued that, hav- ing come to New England to find opportunity for the practice of their principles, the colonists who first came had a right to.send any who inter- fered with them "to the place from whence they came." He forgot that the first Puritan settlers of Boston found the ground preoccupied by the Rev. William Blackstone, of the Church of England. 148 COLONIAL LIFE AND CUSTOMS. neous, and they were generally of a higher social rank before emigration. There was little difference between these colonies regarding the treatment of those who did not agree with them. The settlers in New Hampshire were more liberal ; fin fact, they did not consider themselves founders of a religious community, but fishermen, and they will- ingly permitted the Rev. John Wheelwright, the brother, or brother-in-law, of Mrs. Hutchinson, to come among them, when she had been banished from Boston. The people of Connecticut, though emi- nently religious, and considering the Bible the only source of law, and permitting church-m.embers only to . enjoy the suffrage (like Massachusetts and Plymouth), did not wage war with equal force upon delinquents.* In Rhode Island there was actual freedom of con- science ; Jews, Papists, Infidels, were all freely ad- mitted and equally protected by the laws. New York was quite tolerant,! but as late as 1700, Roman Catholic priests were forbidden to enter the colony, under penalty of hanging. Maryland was liberal, but not to infidels, nor those who denied the Trinity. The latter were threatened with death, while all who denied the Virgin, the Apostles or the Evan- gelists were condem.ned to fines, imprisonment, whip- ping and banishment. * The Connecticut colonists appear to have enjoyed more even and sunny happiness than those of any other part of the country. There was no persecuting spirit there, the minister of Hartford saving to Roger Williams, that in his opinion God had provided the Western World as a " refuge and receptacle for all sorts of consciences." t Enacting, in 1683, that " no person professing faith in God by Jesus Christ, shall at any time be any ways disquieted or questioned for any difference of opinion." J BAPTISTS AND QUAKERS. 151 In Virginia, after the restoration in 1662, very severe laws were enacted against Quakers, Baptists, {stigmatized as Anabaptists), and Puritans, the religion of the Church of England being established by law. Even twenty ye'^rs before, Puritan ministers from Bos- ton and New H iven were warned to " depart out of the colony with all conveniency," and more were banished in 1649. Simply entertaining a Quaker rendered one liable to imprisonment. In Pennsylvania, all Christians and Jews were tol- erated, and in Carolina there was toleration of a cer- tain sort which did not include Jews, and declared the Church of England the only true and orthodox church. The settlement of Georgia was late enough to permit the framers of the laws to take advantage of the expe- rience of older colonies and grant greater freedom of conscience. The most marked intolerance was found in the Massachusetts colony, the Baptists and Quakers being in turn the victims.* We have already seen how Williams was banished in 1636, thirty-six years before Baptists were permitted to hold their meetings without molestation in Boston, and it was not until after 1680, that all proceedings against them were discontinued. In that year the General Court forbade them to assemble in their meeting-house, but the prohibition seems to have been merely a matter of form. " No doubt the New England fathers thought frith the tolerant Jeremy Taylor, that Anabaptism * It is a somewhat curious fact, that during the lives of the first gen- eration of settlers upon the soil of Massachusetts, not a single year passed by, in which they did not bring the civil jjower to bear upon a strange succession of persons obnoxious for a religious tenet. Ellis's "Life of Anne Hutchinson," page 172. 152 COLONIAL LIFE AND CUSTOMS. was 'as much to be rooted out as anything that is the greatest pest and nuisance to the pubHc interest.' " * They felt that the sect was adverse to the pubHc interests of the colony as well as a spreader of false doctrines. During this period the " learned, reverend and judicious " Dunster, President of Harvard College, was tried, convicted, and compelled to resign his office, for being a Baptist, and was not paid the balance of his account as president. More severe were the steps taken against the people called Quakers, and for four- years they were perse- cuted with great austerity. The sect had arisen in England in 1647, and its persecutions lasted there from 1656 to 1685. It was in the spring of 1656, that the General Court of Massachusetts appointed a " public day of humiliation," to seek the face of God on behalf of England, distressed by the abounding of errors, especially those of the Ranters, or Quakers. In July, two months later, Boston was invaded by two women, Mary Fisher and Ann Austin, f members of the body so much feared. They were ordered to jail, their books were burned by the public executioner, and the master of the vessel in which they came, was obliged to give bonds to take them away again. The women were put in the Boston jail, their cell was boarded up, that they might not communicate with the people, they were denied writing materials, and one Nicholas Upshall, who protested against such treat- ment, and gave the jailer privily, money for food for the women, was fined, and eventually banished to * Palfrey's " History of New England, volume iii., page 92. t The coming of these women is referred to in Longfellow's " New England Tragedies." — "John Endicott," act. i, sc. 2. MABY DYER EXECUTED. 153 Rhode Island. In August the shipmaster carried them away, but the next day another vessel arrived, bringing five men and four women of the same persua- sion. After similar proceedings as had occurred in the first case, these were safely shipped to England again. In order to provide for future emergencies, a law was passed laying a fine of five hundred pounds on any shipmaster who should bring Quakers to the colony, threatening the Quakers themselves with imprisonment, and severe whipping, and levying a fine of five pounds on every one who should import their books, or writings, concerning their "devilish opinions." This did not keep back the tide of emi- gration. Two more women arrived in 1657, Anne Burden and Mary Dyer, the latter, wife of the secre- tary of Rhode Island, both having been banished twenty years previously for holding with Anne Hutchinson. Anne Burden had come to collect some debts due to her deceased husband, but no mercy was shown her. After a tedious imprisonment she was shipped penniless to England. Mary Dyer was deliv- ered to her husband, who took her to Rhode Island, whence she returned, however, in 1659, in time to come under condemnation of a new law which pre- scribed death as the penalty for daring to return. Though two men were hanged on the Common in Boston, Mary Dyer, after she had stood with the halter about her neck, was set free, to go again to Rhode Island. The next spring she was " moved " to go to Boston to bear witness against the law. She was condemned to die, and her execution occurred on June 1st, 1660, her body hanging, as one of her judges said, "as a flag for others to take example by," 154 COLONIAL LIFE AND CUSTOMS. The inoffensive people were goaded to the most extraordinary acts. Men and women cried through the streets that the Lord was coming with the sword. One woman walked through Boston in a gown of sackcloth, another exhibited herself with her face covered with grease and lampblack, one walked through Salem naked, "as a sign," another went naked * amongst the People of Newbury, for the like reason. During the persecution thirty Quakers were scourged, fined or imprisoned, several were hung, and some were branded in the hand with the letter H, for heretic. The end approached in 1661, when there came from England a royal order to Gov- ernor Endicott, directing him to proceed no further against his Quaker prisoners, but to send them to England for trial. The order was sent by the hands of Samuel Shattuck, a Quaker, who had been ban- ished upon pain of death. In response to it, the Gov- ernor directed that all the Quakers then in custody should be discharged. The laws were modified, but it was only for a time. When the feeling of the people had subsided, men were again whipped at the cart's tail from town to town, and banished, and even women were treated in the same shameful manner. The persecutions did not entirely cease for some years, when the king demanded that no one should be hin- * Mr Whittier says that these persons, having been accustomed to seeing women punished in a condition of nalvcdness, and examined for " marks of the devil," had less compunction in thus presenting them- selves in public than they otherwise would have had. Mary Fisher and Ann Austin had been thus stripped and examined on their arri^-al, by orders of Deputy-Governor Bellingham. Governor Endi- cott- on his return, thought they had been treated too leniently, decUring that he would have had them whipped. THE WITCHCRAFT DELUSION. 155 lered from exercising his religion in the New World more than in the Old, and that men of civil lives ought to be permitted to "worship God in the way ihey think best." One reason for the carefulness of the people of Massachusetts in punishing " heresies," is found in the fear that their charter might be taken from them, and the principles of their ecclesiastical polity, which they were very jealous of, might be brought into dis- credit by reports carried to England. Ward, "the simple cobbler of Agawam," writing in 1647, says, " We have been reputed a collitvies of wild Opinionists, swarmed into a remote wilderness to find elbow-room for our fanatic doctrines and practices. I trust our diligence past, and constant sedulity against such persons and courses, will plead better things for us. I dare take upon me to be the herald of New England so far as to proclaim to the world, in the name of our colony, "that all Familists, Antinomians, Anabaptists and other enthusiasts, shall have free liberty to keep away from us, and such as will come, to be gone as fast as they can — the sooner the better." The witchcraft delusion was everywhere a frightful scourge and led good men to practise the most atro- cious cruelties, though its duration in America was not so long as that of the persecutions of the Quakers, The belief in witchcraft was brought to America by our forefathers. Crabbed old women had in England long been condemned to the stake or the gallows for no reason but their repulsive appearance or disagreeable manners. In 15 15, five hundred persons were put to death in the short space of three months. And fifty 156 COLONIAL LIFE AND CUSTOMS. years later the English Parliament passed a law against witchcraft, under which many were executed. In 1689, Cotton Mather, "the literary behemoth" of the period, then twenty-six years of age, published a volume entitled Memorable Providences Relating to Witchcraft, in which he collected the particulars ) of the cases which had occurred in the colonies, and ' the book was a means of fixing in the minds of the people a belief in witchcraft, and of preparing for the terrible scenes that were to follow. The first symp- tom of the coming storm was evident in Boston, when Mistress Margaret Jones, a practitioner of medicine, was suspected of diabolical visitations, was tried and executed June 15th, 1648. Mather was one of the ministers who united in holding a day of fasting and prayer, and he afterwards made careful investigations into the matter, by taking one of the daughters of the woman into his family. In his Magnalia he gives the results of this investigation. The girl was lively, and apparently esteemed the opportunity a good one to play upon the remarkable peculiarities of her pom- pous examiner. Mather relates that he found the devils familiar with the Latin, Greek and Hebrew tongues, but not with those of America; that the Irish girl could read a jest book, but could not bear even to hear the " Assembly's Catechism." He entertained his congregation with a sermon on this subject, which was approved by Richard Baxter, who reprinted in London, the narrative of the experiments referred to, which appeared there in 1691. The town of Salem was destined to be the scene of tragedy. The first case of v/itchcraft there occurred in 1692, and the rage dgainst witches continued until twenty victims had GILES COREY'S EXECUTION. 157 been sacrificed, among them being a clergyman, and one Giles Corey who was pressed to death. Oh, sight most horrible ! In a land like this, Spangled with churches evangelical, Inwrapped in our salvations, must we seek In mouldering statute-books of English courts Some old forgotten law to do such deeds ? So Mather is made to speak in Longfellow's dra- matic account of the execution of Corey, but he does not appear in history as having regretted that inno- cent blood had been shed, and even when the reac- tion came, he did not try very hard to further it* The people of Andover remonstrated in October, 1692, and in the following February an old woman *In volume ii. of the "Memorial History of Boston," there is an article on the witchcraft delusion, in which the writer, Mr. W. F. Poole, defends Mather from the imputations upon him in connection with the matter, and in a note, the editor, Mr. Justin Winsor, presents -some of the arcfuments on which the defence rests. 158 COLONIAL LIFE AND CUST03IS. who was apparently more likely to have been a witch^ than many who had suffered as such, was acquitted o: the charge, the reaction being complete. When, a' little later, accusations were made against some of the relatives of the Mathers, and the wife of the Governor, ^ Mather confessed that Satan had become confused. ; As in the case of the Quakers, there was a general jail delivery. In 1692, Mather published in London and Boston, his Wonders of tJie Invisible World, being an account of the trial of several witches lately executed in New England, and in 1700, one Robert Calef of . Boston, published in London, his More Wonders of the [ Invisible World, in which he disputed the truth of some ' of the statements in Mather's book. It was burned in college yard at Cambridge, and the author was called " A coal from hell ; " but he dissipated the delusion. In looking at society in this period we must remember that the people were placed in circumstan- ces entirely new in the history of the world. To a considerable extent, but not entirely, they adapted the customs of England to these circumstances. They had sumptuary laws to which they had been accus- tomed at home. The clothing,* wages, and prices of various articles, were regulated by law. They used the stocks, the whipping-post, the block, the gag, and the ducking-chair, in punishments for offenders against *The law forbade "new and immodest fashions," "short sleeves, whereby the nakedness of the arm may be discovered in the wearing thereof," "immoderate great breeches," and "immoderate great sleeves," embroidered caps, gold or silver girdles or hatbands, or clothes having more than one slash in each sleeve and one in the back, though, if they happened to have such clothes on hand at the time of the passage of the law ( 1634 ), they were permitted to wear them out. with some exceptions. USE OF TOBACCO PROHIBITED. 159 society. Their dwellings, at first built of logs, gradu- ally assumed more elegance. Their roads were few, and often fit only for foot-travellers or bridle-paths. Every home was also a manufactory, from force of cir- cumstances, but this was not very different from the state of affairs in the Mother Country among the mid- dle classes. Matron and maid at whirring distaff spin, Twisting long threads of flax ; and all the day The weaver plies his shuttle, and whiles away The peaceful hours with songs. The colonists could indulge in no tea nor coffee, and their bread was usually coarse rye and Indian, In some portions, as Virginia, New York, the Caro- linas, and Maryland, the same class distinctions were retained which divided society at home. Commerce was not large, and manufactures were frowned upon by England. In New England, and in Pennsylvania, tobacco was not to be used publicly in the streets, nor by minors* at any time, except on a physician's prescription ; but in Virginia and Maryland, it was one of the chief products, and it was freely used in New Amsterdam. Amusements were few. Christ- mas was not celebrated in New England, but Thanks- *In the laws of Connecticut of 1650, we read, " No person under the age of twenty years, nor any other that hath not already accustomed himself to the use thereof, shall take any tobacco until he hath brought a certificate, under the hands of some who are approved for knowledge and skill in physic, that it is useful for him, and also that he hath received a license from the court for the same." " No man shall take any tobacco publicly in the street, highways, or any barnyards, or upon training days in open places." We find also records of fines imposed for " drinking tobacco " in the highway, and it is but a few years since such fines were laid in Boston upon street smokers. 160 COLONIAL LIFE AND CUSTOMS. giving was a feast day, and great was the excitement at the ordination balls and on other occasions when dancing and drinking might properly be indulged in. Bachelors were everywhere frowned upon. In most of the colonies the clergy were the only learned class, but their rank was higher in the North than in the South. Lawyers and physicians were not rated high in the South, but were better esteemed in the North. It is interesting to remember that the Quakers of Philadelphia set the best example of caring kindly for the sick and insane, and that in their prisons and asylums they were in advance of all European coun- tries. The example has proved happily contagious, though the management of these institutions is humane to an extent that sometimes gives rise to a fear that in the prisons the dangerous classes are so tenderly cared for as to actually put a premium on vice. In regard to the observance of Sunday, and attend- ance upon the services of the Church, the colonists usually made stringent laws, though there was less of this in Pennsylvania than elsewhere. Even there, however, we hear of a barber who was indicted for exercising his vocation on "First day." In New Jersey the laws forbade travelling, recreation or work, upon pain of whipping, imprisonment or confinement in tlid stocks. In Virginia there were fines for absence from Church service, but in these respects Massachusetts took the lead in the strictness of her laws. It is almost needless to say that the so-called " Blue-laws of Connecticut," which have been made the butt of jokes and the object of violent objurgation, THE -'BLUE laws:' 161 were never in ex- istence in that colony, but were manufactured by a writer who de- sired to hold it up to ridicule. Laws that en- tered into many details which are now considered matters of indif- ference to the State, gradually fell into desue- tude, and passed away. They re- main in our his- tories interesting tokens of the life of the forefath- ers, and cannot be omitted from any comprehen- sive study of their times. In New Eng- land, schools and colleges were promptly established, cern. THE EARLY AMERICAN BOY OUT OF SCHOOL.. Churches were the first con- Harvard College was established in 1638, the college of William and Mary, in Virginia, in 1693, and Yale College, in 1701. There were two public libra- 1&2 COLONIAL LIFE AND CUr^TOMS. ries wiuiin the limits of the colonies ; one in Massa- chusetts, and one in Sou''h Carolina. Authorship was not cultivated to any great extent, but John Smith had written his account of his adventures ; George Sandys had translated Ovid ; and Governor Bradford had written a history of Plymouth Colony.* *The reader who is interested in the subject of thisch^ipter will find entertainment in Mr. Lowell's essay, entitled " New England two Centuries ago," and in Irving's humorous " History of New Yoik.' In the former, the foibles of the men of Boston and Plymouth are described; and in the latter, the Dutch are pleasantly satiiized. UiCAxNl^iATHIiK S TKLNK, CHAPTER IX. RELATIONS BETWEEN THE SETTLERS AND THE INDIANS AND THE FRENCH. IN former chapters we have seen something of the relations existing between the new settlers and the Indian tribes. The whites came to a land but sparsely inhabited by a race that was not improving, but which, in some localities at least, was losing ground on account of disease and war. For the credit of the inhabitants of New England, the historian Pal- frey asserts that they did not obtain their right to the land by force, but "when they wanted an enlargement of their borders, they acquired it, if at all, by amicable agreement with any who had earlier possession," giving " all that the thing parted with was worth to the settler." Governor Winslow said, in 1676, that before King Philip's war, "the English did not pos- sess one foot of land in this Colony (Massachusetts) but what was fairly obtained by honest purchase of the Indian proprietors," adding that a law was made that no one should even accept any gift of land from the Indians without the consent of the established authorities. Mr. Palfrey thinks that the Indians were actually benefitted on a vast scale by the whites, "in respect to the accommodations of their daily life, even suppos- 163 164 THE SETTLERS, INDIANS AND FRENCH. ing them still to adhere to their ancient manners and character, remaining in ignorance of the arts of civil- ization and of the revelations of Christianity. If they continued to be brutal savages still, they lost nothing, but, on the contrary, gained much by the neighbor- hood of industrious and orderly persons of a different race." No doubt this line of argument is correct, and chat it is true that in times of peace the Indians profited by their contiguity to the whites. This does not palliate in any degree the sins of which the whites were guilty against them. A brief examination will show that there was blood- shedding and inhumanity on both sides. In 1501, the Portuguese Cortereal carried away from their Canadian homes fifty-seven of the natives, and in 1520, the Spaniard Vasquez took two shiploads of Indians from the coast of Carolina, to suffer in the mines of Hispaniola (San Domingo). Thus the sons of the forest were early educated to consider the invading whites as dangerous enemies, who must be opposed by strategy or force. The Pilgrims when they landed on Cape Cod, were met at first by a flight of arrows from Indians who had been taught to look upon whites in this light, before Samoset welcomed them and opened the way for the treaty of comity and friendship with Massassoit. In Virginia the settlers under Smith kept up friendly relations with the Indians as long as Powhattan lived, but on the twenty-second of March, 1622, every set- tlement was attacked to revenge the murder of a brave, and three hundred and forty-seven persons were destroyed in an hour. The entire English community would have been swept away had it not been for MASSACBE AND EXTERMINATION. 165 warning given to Jamestown and the settlements near it by a converted Indian. The plantations were reduced in number from eighty to eight, though the greater portion of the colonists were happily saved. A war of extermination was then begun by the whites, and, six years later, a law was passed that no treaty should be made with the natives. Meantime the Pequots had been actually exterminated in New Eng- •^^^sv^ A PTO-NKRR'R HOSfE. land.* In 1643 it was again resolved in Virginia that no terms of peace with the Indians should be enter- tained. And in 1644, the Indians planned anew a general massacre. On the eighteenth of April, the bloody work began. Some three hundred victims were slain, and war continued for two years, until the chief, Opechancanough, was taken and slain. Desul- * See page no. 166 THE SETTLERS, IXDIANS ANU FRENCH. tory warfare was still sustained up to that time, but at last, in 1646, peace was established. One of the bright chapters in the history of the relations of the whites and Indians, tells the story of John Eliot, for forty years missionary to the red men- He was " teacher " of the church in Roxbury, Massa- chusetts, from 1632 to 1690, and minister to the Indians from 1646 to the time when bodily infirmi- ties obliged him to desist from his pious work. Eliot supposed, as others did, that the aborigines might be descended from the "lost tribes" of Israel. He learned the language from a servant to whom he taught English, and, after the Legislature in 1646, had passed an act for the propagation of the Gospel amongst them, he began to preach regularly in a place now within the limits of Newton, Mass. Referring to the action of the Legislature of Massachusetts on this subject, Mr. Palfrey says that " The General Court of Massa- chusetts was thus the first Missionary Society in the history of Protestant Christendom." * As early as 1644, Massachusetts had given her county courts authority to take order from " time to time, to have the Indians instructed in the knowledge and worship of God." In 1645 another step was taken, the Elders being called upon for advice as to the modes of bring- ing the natives to a knowledge of God and his ways ; and, finally, in November, 1646, it was "ordered and decreed that two ministers should be chosen by the Elders of the churches every year, at the Court of Election, and so to be sent, with the consent of their churches, with whomsoever would freely offer them- selves to accompany them in that service, to make *" History of New England," volume ii., p. 1S9. ELIOT AND THE INDIANS. 167 known the heavenly ccunsel of God among the Indians in most familiar manner, by the help of some able interpreter as might be most available to bring them to the knowledge of the truth, and their conversion to Jesus Christ ; and, for this end, that something might be allowed them by the General Court to give away freely to those Indians whom they should perceive most willing and ready to be instructed by them." A week before this actioiv Eliot made his beginning in the work, by holding his first service at Watertown, in a hut not far from an Indian village near the falls of the Charles River. The interest of the natives was great, and the meetings were continued. An account was published promptly in London, entitled " The Day-Breaking, if not the Sun-Rising, of the Gospel with the Indians in New England." The President of Harvard College, Dunster, ^^s present at some of the meetings the next spring, anu, in fact, had had the subject upon his mind for years. Eliot was invited from place to place, and gladly preached wherever he was wanted. He went further, and offered the Gospel to some who, like King Philip, rejected it with disdain. The greatest success was achieved in the vicinity of Boston, on Cape Cod, and It Martha's Vineyard, where Thomas Mayhew and his son had begun to labor in 1644. Eliot endeavored to civilize his wards, establishing schools among them, leading them to give up their savage habits, and to organize themselves into com- munities like those of their white neighbors. He prepared in Indian grammar, translated the Bible into their to.igue, publishing the New Testament in 1661, and the Old Testament two vears later. This was 168 THE SETTLERS, INDIANS AND FRENCH. printed at Cambridge, and for a long time was the only Bible printed in America. In 1648, the English Parliament took steps to help the work, by instructing the Commissioners for For- eign Plantations to bring in an ordinance for the encour- agement and advancement of learning and piety in New England. ■ This led to the incorporation of the society " for the Promoting and Propagating of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in New England," in 1649, six months after the execution of Charles I. * Shortly after the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plym- outh, they made a treaty with Massassoit, sachem of the Pokonokets, which was respected for more than forty years. In 1660, Massassoit died, and his son, called by the English Philip, succeeded to his posi- tion. The new sachem was soon suspected of enmity to the settlers, and was consequently several times examined regarding his intentions. In 1674, a former student of Harvard College, Sausaman, informed the whites that Philip was trying to incite the Indians to war, and, though the sachem appeared at Plymouth and protested his innocence, Sausaman was assassin- ated, and Philip opened hostilities by attacking the town of Swanzey, June 20, 1675. A bloody war of two years followed, which ended only when the sachem had been killed by a faithless follower, and the tribe of the Narragansetts had been exterminated as that of the Pequots had been. The chief fortress of the Narragansetts was in the present township of South Kingston, R. I. Canonchet, their sachem, had been at peace with the English, but was at the end of *"The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts" was not established until 1701. TO WN-B URNING. 169 the first year of this war, accused by his enemy, Uncas, of aiding the Pokonokets. He said, " We will die to the last man, but we will not be slaves to the English." This was a time of trial to the settlers. They were at all hours subject to attack by an enemy who fought from hidden shelters, rushing out to burn or scalp those who were unprotected, but seldom daring to meet an enemy in open battle. Towns were burned. Brookfield, Deerfield, Northfield, Hadley, Warwick, Providence, were among the places that suffered, but it was the settlers outside of the hamlets and towns who bore the greatest hardships. It is related that Hadley was attacked on the first of September, 1675, when the inhabitants were engaged in the religious services of a fast day, and that a panic which followed, was quieted by the dramatic appearance of a venerable and mysterious stranger, afterwards said to have been William Goffe, one of the judges who voted for the execution of Charles I., who had, in 1660, sought safety in America.* When the pioneer left his home, it was with the well-grounded feeling that he might not see his wife and children again, and they knew not but he or they might be the victim of the savage tomahawk, or be ere night, carried off to a barbaric slavery. Few *The appearance of Goffe at this time is not supported by contem- porary testimony. Palfrey, the careful historian of New England, was unable to find any earlier authority than Hutchinson's history of Mas- sachusetts, written nearly a century after the alleged event. The attack on Hadley is not even mentioned by William Hubbard, the historian of the time, who was then living. The story made so deep an impression on Sir Walter Scott, that he put it into the mouth of the Roundhead Bridgenorth, in "Peveril of the Peak." (Chap, xiv.) 170 THE SETTLERS, INDIANS AND FRENCH. families were without some loss. Over six hundred men had been killed ; many more had been disabled; thir- teen towns and hundreds of houses had been burned, and horses and cattle had been destroyed in great numbers. With the death of Philip war came to an end, though there still remained some Indians who for a time kept up a show of opposition to the conquerors. The Mohegans had remained faithful to the whites, and no settlers in Connecticut had been molested. The people of that colony now sent generous gifts of corn to supply the wants of their less fortunate friends. Ireland, too, sent over a contribution to relieve the distress of Plymouth. In Maine the Indians had been incited in 1675 to rise against the whites, either by accounts that they had received from the South, or by the outrages, some- times of a malignant nature, that had been inflicted upon them by the settlers. The country east of the Piscataqua was ravaged for more than two years by the relentless savages, who burned almost every set- tlement, shot down travellers on the roads, murdered women and infants in their homes, and carried off many men, women and children as prisoners. In the autumn of 1675, depredations were committed at Wells, Kittery, and other places, and the settlements at Oyster River, Berwick, Salmon Falls, Dover and Exeter, suffered from fire and the knife. Winter with its snows caused a cessation of Indian atrocities, but the nesft season the treacherous work began again. Aid was sent from Massachusetts, but the leader of the expedi- tion. Major Waldron, entrapped a body of Indians by means of a stratagem not authorized by any code of war, and gave grounds for terrible retaliation by WALDBON'S PERFIDIOUS STRATAGEM. 171 the red men. Waldron proposed a sham fight, to Indians who had come to him for protection, and when they had emptied their guns, caused them to be surrounded by his men and taken prisoners. In April, 1678, peace was concluded, but the Abenakis (Abnakis, or Abenaquais) rose again, and they were not really subdued until many years later. They did BUILDING A WIGWAM. not forget the trick of Major Waldron, and after thir- teen years, in June, 1689, attacked the garrison house at Dover, and killed him and twenty-two others, carrying a larger number to Canada to be sold to the French. In the year 1689, a series of wars began that did 172 THE SETTLERS, INDIANS AND FRENCH. not end until 1763 ; the dispute was essentially the same all the time, though it bore at different periods various names. It was a struggle between France and England for supremacy on the American Continent. The English Revolution of 1688 had resulted in the escape of James II. to France, and the accession of his son-in-law, the Prince of Orange, to the English crown, as William III. Indirectly, it brought about the war with France, which lasted from 1689 to 1697, involving the American Colonies. It was known as King William's War, and ended with the peace of Ryswick, signed in 1697. Queen Anne's war was in Europe the war of the Spanish Succession, and ended with the treaty of Utrecht, in 171 3. King George's war was the war of the Austrian Succession in Europe, and closed with the treaty of Aix-la-Cha- pelle, in 1748. Our French and Indian war was the Seven Years' War in Europe, which was closed by the treaty of Paris, in 1763. During King William's War, the French were aided by the Indians, who carried on their warfare in the usual manner, skulking and springing from ambushes, burning and butchering and carrying away captives. Schenectady, N. Y., was burned February 8th, and all but sixty of the inhabitants massacred. Salmon Falls was burned March 27th, and Casco and York, Me., and Exeter, N. H., suf- fered in the same way that year. Sir William Phips, a native of Pemaquid, was sent to attack the French settlements in Nova Scotia, then called Acadie, and he not only ravaged them and took Port Royal (afterwards called Annapolis, in compliment to Queen Anne), but also seized the eastern part of QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. 173 Maine, where a fort was erected in 1692, at Pema- quid. In 1684, the English in New York made a treaty of peace with the "Five Nations" (the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas) who inhabited the central portion of their State, but in 1696, the French had won them over, and planned a general invasion of New England, in connection with the Abenakis, who still kept up a desultory warfare on the eastern frontier. The unfruitful war was brought to a close by the treaty of Ryswick, in time to restrain this horror. In the year 1700, Charles II., of Spain, died,* leaving a will by which he appointed Phillip of Anjou, grand- son of Louis XIV., of France, his successor on the throne. The union of the crowns of Spain and France in one family was detrimental to the peace of Europe, and William III. determined to oppose it. Complica- tions were increased by the death of James II., at St. Germain, in 1701, and by the recognition of his son as King of Great Britain, by Louis XIV. This enabled William to revive the " Grand Alliance," and Austria, England, and the States General (Netherlands) prepared for war against France ; but before hostilities actually began, William died, March 8, 1702. War was, however, declared May 15, and operations began immediately. The colonies in America affected were those which bordered the possessions of France and Spain, New England and Florida. South Carolina sent an expedition against St. Augustine, and reduced it, but the force was obliged to retreat on the appear- ance of Spanish vessels of war. Other expeditions * With him the Spanish Plouse of Habsburg became extinct. 174 THE SETTLERS, INDIANS AND FRENCH. were more successful, and the Colonies obtained a good claim to the territory that is now Georgia. In the North there was a repetition of the scenes of the previous war. Deei"field was attacked on the first of March, 1704, by a party of French and Indians that had come from Canada, using snowshoes to effect the winter's journey. Only one dwelling and the church remained after the fight. Forty-seven of the people were slaughtered, and one hundred and twelve carried away captive, including the minister and liis family. Just after sunrise the party began the return march to Canada, a march of distress, torture and death. In 1708, the French planned a more ter- rible blow, intending to gather an overwhelming force and sweep away as many settlements as possible. The beautiful Lake Winnepesaukee was the place of rendezvous, whence a descent was made upon Haver- hill, which was sacked and burned with the most heartrending ruthlessness. On the other hand, the Colonies ravaged the French territory about the Penobscot, and sent an expedition against Acadie, in 1 7 10, which was successful in permanently wresting Nova Scotia from the French. In 171 1, an attempt was made at the capture of Canada by forces contrib- uted by England and the Colonies, but it was frus- trated, and the Treaty of Utrecht, signed in the spring of 171 3, brought the war to a close. This had been a war of religions, for both on the Continent and in America, Romanist and Protestant were arrayed against each other. The Protestant English did not relish any increase of power on the part of Romish France, and the Protestant colonies found themselves opposed by Romish Canada, and by KING GEORGE'S WAR. 175 the allies which they supposed had been gained by the arts of the effective missionary priests. The pioneers were inspired with the deepest detestation for the Jesuits, who, they supposed, filled the savages with hatred even more bloodthirsty than they naturally possessed.* The pioneers were not without reasons for their aversion to the Jesuits, for they knew that at times when the savages had become weary of car- rying on warfare against weak women and helpless infants, the French continued their murderous work. After the Treaty of Utrecht, there was peace between England and France, until the death of Charles VI. (the last ol the Austrian Habsburgs in the male line), brought about the war of the Aus- trian Succession, in behalf of his daughter, Maria Theresa, whose claims to the throne were supported by the Protestant countries, England and Holland. The claims of the Elector of Bavaria being supported by France and Spain, war was declared between France and England March 20, 1744. This is known as King George's War, after George II., then on the English throne, but in Europe it was called the War of the Austrian Succession. Spain was already at war with England, and, though there had been nominal peace between 171 3 and 1744, there were many scenes of carnage. There was an Indian war in New England in 1722 ; and in 1723 and 1724, Dover, N. H., was attacked, *So intense was the feeling, that in 1700, the Legislature of New York passed a law for hanging every Popish priest who voluntarily came into the Piovince This is not strange to us who can read the narration of the French Jesuits, in which they exultantly record the most diabolical deeds of the savages as brave and beautiful acts. 176 THE SETTLERS, INDIANS AND FRENCH. and many persons suffered from careless exposure to the skulking foes. The French were constantly incit- ing the Indians against the English, and the gov- ernor of Canada acted through Father Rasle, a priest who had for many years exerted a great influence over the Abenakis, among whom he lived in most cordial relations. During Queen Anne's War, in 1705, an expe- dition had gone from Massachusetts' against Norridge- wock, and had burned the wigwams and the chapel in which Rasle officiated at the time. In 1721 an attempt was made to seize the missionary himself, but he escaped, his church was plundered, and his dic- tionary of the Abenaki language was carried away.* In July, 1722, war was declared; it lasted three years, and was called " Lovewell's War," from Captain John Lovewell, who, in 1725, commanded an expedition against the Indians, and met death with most of his men, in what is now Fryeburg, Me., May 6, 1725. The Indian settlement was attacked August 23, 1724, and burned, Rasle being killed as he was firing upon the English. The Norridgewock Indians never rallied from this blow. Mr. Whittier describes the devasta- tion in his Mogg Megone : Castine with his wives lies closely hid Like a fox in the woods of Pemaquid I On Sawga's banks the man-of-war Sits in his wigwam like a squaw, — Squando has fled, and Mogg Megone, Struck by the knife of Sagamore John, Lies stiff and stark and cold as a stone. . . . White bones aie glistening in the sun, * It is now carefully preserved in the library of Harvard College. The Father's "strong box," captured at the same time, was for some years among the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. LOVEWELL'S WAR. 177 And where the house of prayer arose, , And the holy hymn, at daylight's close And the aged priest stood up to bless The children of the wilderness, There is naught save ashes sodden and dank ; And the birchen boats of the Nonidgewock, Tethered to tree and stump and rock, Rotting along the river bank ! The poet refers to the atrocities of the Indians and tuggests the inciting power of tlie Jesuit in the lines : Terrible thougjits on his memory crowd Of evil seen and done, — Of scalps brougiit home by his savage flock From Casco and Savvga and Sagadahock In the Church's service won! In 171 1 the Tiiscarora Indians had incited the smaller tribes about them to unite to exterminate the Colonists in North Carolina, and on the twenty- second of September, all the settlements along the Roanoake and Pamlico Sound were surprised, at a given hour, their houses burned, hundreds slain, and the others turned adrift in the woods. The terrible slaughter lasted several days, only ceasing when there were no victims to be sacrificed. The Tuscaroras had been led to this step by hearing of preparations for a settlement on the Neuse River, by refugees from Switzerland and Germany. The war ended in 1 71 3, and the Tuscaroras went northward, joining the " Five " Nations, making them six. In 171 5, the Yemasses, incited by the Spaniards, allied themselves with the Catawbas and Cherokees, sent the "bloody stick" from tribe to tribe, inviting- all to make a desperate assault upon the settlements 178 THE SETTLERS, INDIANS AND FRENCH. from the Cape Fear River to the St. John's, and on Good Friday, April 15, 171 5, they attacked the scat- tered settlements with the madness of revenge. The massacre was as indiscriminate as usual, but the sav- ages were soon met by the more deliberate efforts of civilized warfare, and were routed. They found a place of refuge in Florida, whence they still continued to sally forth from time to time to kill and scalp. In 1729, the French settlers came in conflict with the Natchez Indians, their commander, Chopart, hav- ing demanded the site of their chief village as a plan- tation. The French were attacked on the twenty- eight of November, and every one of the settlers was murdered before noon. Exactly two months later, the Indians were attacked by other Frenchmen and many of them killed. The tribe was scattered, and more than four hundred were sold as slaves to go to His^ paniola. In this war the French were aided by the Choctaws. The French had begun their settlement of Louis- iana at Biloxi (now in the territory of Mississippi), in 1699, under Lemoine d'lberville, and in 1702, the chief body of the settlers had been removed to Mobile. The southwestern possessions of France were vast, but her hold upon them was of the feeblest. In 17 17 a new project was launched, which was expected to pay the immense French debt, to develop the territory of Louisiana, and to increase the importance of France. It was the celebrated '■ Mississippi Bubble," organized by John Law, a refugee from English justice, who, in 1 7 10, induced the French ministry to accept a plan which he afterwards developed into a grander scheme, getting a charter for a bank in 17 16, and in 171 8, daz- THE MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE. 179 zling France with promises of fabulous wealth, by investments in his paper moneys. In 1720, after passing through spasmodic excitements that can scarcely be described or imagined, France found her- self bankrupt, her schemes a delusion, and her finan- cial leader a refugee from popular vengeance.* The territory of Louisiana had been granted to Antoine Crozat, Marquis du Chatel, in 17 12. Unable to establish a colony, despite great sacrifices, Crozat resigned his monopoly to Louis XIV., and it was transferred to John Law, 17 17. Under the auspices of the Western Company, the city of New Orleans was founded, in 171 8, receiving its name from the Duke of Orleans, then regent of France and patron of Law. In 1730, it was made the capital of Louisiana. The " Company of the West " continued to control the ter- ritory until 1723, when it was restored to the French crown. The colonists were distressed by the powerful Chickasaws, the same who had baffled De Soto, in 1540, by burning their town rather than supply him with burden-bearers. f They had fought and con- quered in defensive wars the Choctaws (who were allies of the French), Creeks, Cherokees, Kickapoos and Osages, but were on friendly terms with the Eng- lish, and were considered the most intrepid warriors of the south. They made all French settlements in the valley of the Mississippi unsafe, and effectually * England had passed through a similar convulsion at the same time, and her people had in many cases found themselves beggared by trust- ing to the delusive hopes of making fortunes in haste through the "South Sea Scheme," which exploded in the summer of 1720, a few months before that of Law ruined French finances. 1 See page 72. 180 THE SETTLEES, INDIANS AND FJRENCH. stopped communication between New Orleans and Kaskaskia (Illinois). In 1736, after two years of preparation, the French put forth their entire force, with the countenance of the home government and the help of the Choctaws, and probably other Indian allies, to subdue the proud Chickasaws. Bienville, one of the French commanders, was defeated and forced to take up an inglorious retreat, and another leader was captured and burned at the stake. The struggle here again was not simply one of French against the Indians, for the Chickasaws were aided by the military genius of the English, who were desirous of discomfitting the French. Further attempts were made at invad ing the land of the Chickasaws, but they were fruit- less, and the French returned, the country from the mouth of the Ohio to Baton Rouge, remaining an unsettled desolation. Oglethorpe, in Georgia, was able, by his concilatory methods, to establish friendly relations with these wild warriors, as well as with the Creeks, Cherokees, and even the Choctaws, as early as 1736. The death of Charles VI., of Austria, before referred to, and the accession of Maria Theresa, precipitated the war of the Austrian Succession in Europe, and the effects were felt in America in a new struggle between the French and their Indian allies and our English colonists, known as "King George's War." (1744-1748) The Indians did not engage in this war to so great an extent as they had in former conflicts between the Europeans. The principal event was the taking of Louisburg. The French had begun to make offensive demonstrations even before the news of the 'li?^!lWlf'"'-i statup: of iJKNjA.Miy f;;ankt,ix. 181 CA PTURE OF LO UISB UR G. 188 oeclaration of war had been received in New Eng- land, and had destroyed a garrison and fishery sta- tion at Canseau. The Indians, too, had attacked the ruined fortifications of Annapolis, and Gover- nor Shirley, of Massachusetts, conceived the bold design of sending a force to reduce the " Gibral- tar of America," as Louisburg was called from its impregnability. Obtaining in the Legislature a major- ity of but one vote in favor of the enterprise, the Gov- ernor dispatched an expedition under the command of Sir William Pepperell, of Maine, comprising men of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, aided by others from New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, carrying as their motto the words suggested by Whitefield, an admirer of Pepper- ell, '' Nil Despei'anduni, Christo Duce :'^ "With Christ for leader, nothing is to be despaired of." There, was much opposition to the scheme in the States to the southward, and Franklin ridiculed it in a witty letter. New England, however, was in earnest, and the people joined the expedition with a feeling that has been compared to the enthusiasm of the crusaders of old. To the surprise of the world, the fortress was reduced in less than two months, and on the third of July, the bells of Boston rung out a peal of thankful- ness, and the people humbly exclaimed, "God has gone out of the way of his common providence in a remarkable and most miraculous manner." In 1746, there were rumors of a grand descent of the French upon New England, but nothing occurred of the sort except the capture of Fort Massachusetts, at Williamstown, and some incursions of little import- 184 THE SETTLERS, INDIANS AND FRENCH, ance into New York. A fleet from France, intended for Canada, was forced to strike its colors. It was this rumor, however, that broke up a plan agreed upon by New England, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania for the invasion of Canada, which was to have been carried out in 1746. The war of the Austrian succession came to an end by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, and by its terms Louisburg and Cape Breton were restored to France. Upon this settlement the Col- onies were made restless. They felt that they had striven without stint to preserve to the Mother Coun- try her distant possessions, and that they did not receive from the powers at home the consideration which they deserved. The English had kept up their missionar' efforts under Eliot and his companions, and the field of operations in this respect has been gradually en- larged, for John Sergeant, a graduate of Yale Col- lege, had served as minister among the Stockbridge Indians, in Western Massachusetts, from 1734 to 1749; the celebrated Jonathan Edwards had super- intended the same mission for several years ; and David Brainerd (who had been expelled from Yale College) became preacher to the same Inaians, in July, 1742, under appointment from the society that encouraged Eliot. In 1744, Brainerd was ordained, and began to preach among the Indians at the forks of the Delaware, in Pennsylvania, removing after- wards to Newark, N. J., where his health wore out. In 1749, the British Parliament acknowledged the Moravian Brethren as an Episcopal Church, and encouraged them to settle in America. They came FRENCH CLAIMS IN THE WEST. 185 in considerable numbers, and devoted themselves with patience and success to missions among the Indians, having stations in Pennsylvania, and at the present town of Gnadenhiitten (tents ci grace), in Tuscarawas County, O. The Indian converts of the Moravians were attacked and put to death in the town of Paxton, Pa., in 1764, and at a later period, March 8, 1782, one hundred were treacherously mur- dered at Gnadenhiitten, on the ground that they had been connected with outrages in Pennsylvania, with which they had had nothing to do.* The next struggle between the English and F'rench opened in 1754, without a declaration of war. It was not at first connected with a European war, as the g other struggles between the colonists had been, bvt it ended at the time that the "Seven Years' War," which convulsed Europe, was brought to a close by the treaty of Paris, February 10, 1763, and was, therefore, to a considerable extent, coinci- dent with that war. The French claimed the northwestern territory of the United States, by virtue of the discoveries of Marquette, Jolliet and La Salle. They had not, how- ever, gone to the West for purposes of colonization, but rath'er to discover, and for half a century after the death of' La Salle, the French missionaries are the only persons who gave any information of what was going on on the Ohio River. After the treaty * The history of the Moravian Missions is related with great de- tail, in " The Life and Times of David Zeisberc;er, the Western pioneer and apostle of the Indians," by Edmund De Schweinitz- Philadelphia, 1871. See, also, an article on Gnadenhiitten, by W. D. Howells in the Atlantic Monthly, for January, 1S69. 186 THE SETTLERS, INDIANS AND FBENCH. of Aix-la-Chapelle, the French began to take formal possession of the region on the Ohio River,* by erecting wooden crosses, at the foot of which they buried plates of lead setting forth the facts that Louis XIV. claimed the land by right of discovery and by treaty with other European rulers. English traders were at this time forbidden to visit the region, but it was a fact that nearly nine years before, they had begun to move about among the Indians buying peltries of them. In 1748, Thomas Lee, a member of the Royal Council of Virginia, asso- ciated certain others with him (among whom were Lawrence and Augustine Washington) to form the "Ohio Company," and a half million acres of land were granted to them. The Governor of Virginia was interested in the new company, and made treaties with the Indians, and tried to open negotiations with the French. The French would not treat, however, and attacked an Indian village in which some traders were hidden, taking them prisoners. The troops of the company were attacked, and, in 1753, a Virginia party engaged in building a fort on the present site of Pittsburg, was driven off, the French finishing the work and calling it Fort Du Ouesne. To repei these encroachments, it was determined by * The right to this region had long been in dispute, and the matter had not been settled by the treaty. The English claim to the region from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, was based upon a treaty entered into by the representatives of Pennsylvania, Man,'land, and Virginia, and the "Six Xations," at Lancaster, Pa., July 2, 1744, by which the latter assigned the territory to the English for four hundred pounds. The treaty is said to have been signed when the Indians were under the influence of liquors. It conveyed lands to which they had no valid title. BBADDOCK AND WASHINGTON. 187 the English to send out four expeditions. General Edward Braddock, Commander-in-Chief, was to go towards the Ohio and the Northwest ; General Lyman (the command afterward fell to Sir William Johnson) was to attack Crown Point with a body of Provincial militia and some Mohawk allies ; Gover- nor William Shirley, of Massachusetts, was to reduce Fort Niagara ; and Lieutenant-Colonel John Winslow BRADUOCK's HEADQIARTERS EST WESTtEN VIBGIXIA. (great-grandson of Edward Winslow, of Plymouth) was to force the French from Nova Scotia. Braddock was aided by Franklin, then Postmaster^ General, and George Washington, who in 1753 had been sent by the Governor of Virginia, to examine the state of affairs in the region he was now to invade, and the expedition set out in the spring of 1755. It 188 THE SETTLERS, INDIANS AND FRENCH. marched slowly through the wilderness, the General being fettered by English military rules, and did not meet the enemy until July 9, ter^ miles from Fort Du Quesne, when Braddock was defeated, and, mortally wounded, was obliged to retreat. In a few days he died, and the command devolved upon Washington. The defeat of this expedition showed that British sol- diers were no better than American militiamen, and gave the colonists more inclination to depend with confidence upon themselves ; but it was disastrous in making the savages less fearful of molestation in their raids upon the unprotected regions of Pennslyvania and Virginia, which suffered much from their incur- sions in the following years. The armies destined to go against Niagara and Crown Point met at Albany, in June, and General Shirley went westward, stopping, however, at Oswego, disheartened by the news of Braddock's defeat, while Johnson and Lyman went towards Lake Champlain. The English were entrapped at Bloody Pond on the eighth of September, by General Uieskau, command- ing the French, and Colonel Ephraim Williams and Hendrick, a chief of the Mohawk allies, were killed.* The English Americans fell back to the lake (Lake George), where a second battle was fought ; Dieskau was defeated and killed, and his panic-stricken soldiers fled the field. Instead of profiting by this success, Johnson merely erected a fort, which he called William Henry, making no attempt to reduce Ticonderoga and Crown Point, against which he had been sent. * Before leaving home on this expedition, Williams had made his will, leaving his property for the founding, in western Massachusetts, of the college which now bears his name. THE ACADIANS TEANSPORTED. 189 Winslow's expedition against Acadia was the only real success of the year, and it is not one to be gloried in. It has been made familiar by the poet Longfellow, in his Evangeline. The inoffensive inhabitants were captured by false pretence and carried from their homes to be distributed throughout the Colonies, and some went to France. Thus the poet pictures the burning of the humble homes of the French : Suddenly rose from the south a li.£;ht, as in autumn the blood-red Moon climbs the crystal walls of heaven, and o'er the horizon Titan-like stretches its hundred hands upon mountain and meadow, Seizing the rocks and the rivers, and piling huge shadows together. Broader and ever broader it gleamed on the roofs of the village — Gleamed on the sky and the sea, and the ships that lay in the roadstead. Columns of shining smoke uprose, and flashes of flame were Thrust through their folds and withdrawn, like the quivering hands of a martyr. Then as the wind seized the gleeds and the burning thatch, and, uplifting, Whirled them aloft through the air, at once from a hundred house-tops Started the sheeted smoke with flashes of flame intermingled. These things beheld in dismay the crowd on the shore and on ship- board. The French command fell to General Montcalm, after the death of Dieskau, and the command of the English troops to General Shirley, after the death of Braddock. In 1756, Montcalm captured Oswego, with a great amount of stores, and the next year he reduced Fort William Henry, the force in it being massacred by his Indian allies after surrendering. In 1758 the tide turned. William Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham, had come to the head of affairs in England, and planned the capture of all the French possessions in America. The call for volunteers which he made was gallantly responded to, and an 190 THE SETTLERS, INDIANS AND FRENCH. army of fifty thousand men was in the field at the opening of the campaign of 1758. Louisburg was immediately attacked, and it capitulated to Generals Amherst and Wolfe, after a siege of fifty days, July 25, yielding nearly six thousand prisoners and filling the American heart with courage and enthusiasm. DEATH OF GENERAL WOLFE. I General Abercrombie and Lord Howe advanced on Fort Ticonderoga, but met an overwhelming defeat, losing more than cwo thousand men, July 8. A portion of Abercrombie's forces went to Oswego and Frontenac and captured them, and on the twenty- fifth of November, troops under the guidance of WASHINGTON AT FOET PITT. 191 Washington, raised the British flag over Fort Du Ouesne, naming it Fort Pitt, in honor of the British statesman. The success of Amherst at Louisburg led to his appointment to supercede Abercrombie, and in July he took Ticonderoga and Crown Point, which were not strongly garrisoned, and then, joining Gen- eral Wolfe, he proceeded against Quebec, on the thir- teenth of September. The Heights of Abraham were scaled, to the great surprise of the French, and the English gained a complete victory, though the gallant Wolfe was killed, and the French lost General Mont- calm. On the seventeenth, Quebec capitulated. On the eighth of September of the next year, Montreal and all Canada were surrendered to the English, and the French contest for supremacy on this continent was ended.* Complications with the French and Indians were not ended, however. In fact, the most sanguinary scenes of the past were reenacted with the frenzy of desperation. As the bloody club had been sent through the Southern Colonies at an earlier period, now the bloody tomahawk was sent from tribe to tribe among the Indians of the Northwest, and a concerted attack upon all exposed settlements was planned. The moving spirit in this new onslaught was Pontiac, * " With the triumph of Wolfe on the Heights of Abraham began the history of the United States. By removing an enemy whose dread had knit the colonists to the Mother-Country, and by breaking through the line with which France had barred them from the basin of the Missis- sippi, Pitt laid the foundation of the great Republic of the West. Nor were these triumphs less momentous to Britain. The Seven Years' War is, in fact, a turning-point in our National History, as it is a turn- ing-point in the history of the world."— Green's " History of the Eng- li.-^h People," Book IX., Chap, I. 192 THE SETTLES S, INDIANS AND FRENCH. a chief of the Ottawas, friendly to the French, who had defended Detroit against the attacks of other Indians when it was held by the French. He is thought to have led a band of Ottawas on the occasion of the defeat of Braddock. It was at the end of 1762, that he sent to all the tribes of the Northwest propos- ing that the general movement should be made in the spring of 1763. The effort was successful. In a very short space of time all the forts west of Oswego, excepting Pittsburg, Niagara and Detroit, had been taken by the Indians. Detroit was besieged from May 1 2th to October 12th. On the sixteenth of May, the garrison at Sandusky was massacred ; on the twenty-fifth, the post at St. Joseph's, near the head of Lake Michigan, was surprised, and all but three men massacred ; on the twenty-seventh, Fort Pitt was warned ; the next day, Fort Ligonier, fifty or sixty miles distant, was threatened, and an entire family was tomahawked ; Fort Miami was taken the same day ; the next day a party sent to relieve Detroit was cap- tured ; on the first of June, Fort Ouatonon, near Lafayette, Indiana, was taken ; Michilimackinac (Mackinaw) fell on the second of June before the stratagem of a party of Indian ball-players, whose squaws held their hatchets under their blankets until the moment arrived for their use ; traders were met and massacred, families received no mercy, the laborer in the field, and the babe in the cradle, were alike sacrificed to the brutal hate of the savages. The siege of Detroit was raised on the twelfth of October, and most of the tribes sued for terms of peace, but Pontiac and the Ottawas were not subdued until their hopes of eventually getting aid from the THE END OF THE INDIAN WABS. 193 French were extinguished by a letter received by him on the last day of the month. Even then he did not give up his efforts against the whites, but went to Illinois, where he had some encouragement from the French, and kept up a show of resist ance until 1766, when he formally submitted to Brit- ish rule. He died by the hand of an assassin, at Ka- hokia, opposite St. Louis, in 1769. The "Seven Years' War" end- ed in 1763, by the treaty of Paris, but the old " French and Indian War," though it nomi- nally ended at the same time, left the war of Pontiac * as a legacy, and that lid not terminate antil 1764, and ir- regular warfare continued for some time after that. The end of the long struggle found a population of two million and a half, of whom half a million were negro slaves. In general they were * See Parkman's " The Conspiracy of Pontiac." MONUMENT TO GEXKHAL JAJIu WOKFE AT QUEBEC. 194 THE SETTLERS, INDIANS AND FRENCH. orderly, if not strongly religious people, inheriting the good traits of the race from which they came, with a strong love for England, which was to most of them truly the Mother Country. There was now peace from the French on the north and west, from the Spaniards on the south, and from the lurking Indian, who had, almost from the beginning, been a terrible scourge to the frontier as its line had gradually moved from the Atlantic towards the western sun. Down the rivers, o'er the prairies, Came the warriors of the nations, Came the Delawares and the Mohawks, Came the Choctaws and Camanches, Came the Shoshonies and Blackfeet, Came the Pawnees and Omahas, Came the Mandans and Dacotahs, Came the Hurons and Ojilnvays, All the warriors drawn together. CHAPTER X. THE PEOPLE AND THEIR RULERS. IT has already been observed ^ . that the first representative "^assembly convened iiv America, met in 1619, at Jamestown, Va. It was the first indication of the mode of government to be adopted in after time in all parts of the land. The Republican form of government which is now guaranteed to all the States by the Constitution, was gradually developed by the force of circumstances, and the evident needs of the people. Slowly but surely in the shock of wars, The ample victories of peace are wrought. They bind up new-made wounds, and heal old scars. They cherish letters and encourage thought. The governments of the original thirteen Colonies were not uniform at first, and their characteristic traits form an interesting and important study. There were various races in the different Colonies, and there were also different social classes. The political rights belonged only to the "freemen," called also "the bet- ter sort," and in Massachusetts these were the church members. In Virginia they were the " gentlemen," but there, also, they belonged to the Established 196 196 THE PEOPLE AND THEIR RULERS. Church. Below these were the " lower orders ; " per- sons holding the unpopular creed ; those who had been sent from Europe to be sold into temporary bondage,* and those who were ineligible through youth or shift- lessness. The slaves found in all the Colonies at one time or another, formed the lowest class. Slavery began in Virginia, in 1619 — the year before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth — but for half a century it did not rapidly extend. The earliest importations of negro slaves to New Eng- land, were in 1637, but the first cargo direct from Africa did not arrive until 1645, when a Salem ship left for Guinea for that purpose. The following advertisement from the Brooklyn (N. Y.) Star, shows how long negro slavery held its place in that region, though similar advertisements of a later date, might be found without difficulty. Ten Dollars Reward. — Ran away from the farm of J J. Cossart, Esq., Foster's Meadow, Long Island, a French negro wench answering to the name of Mary. She is aL Jut thirty years old, remarkably short and slim, yellowish complexion, speaks broken English, and generally smiles when she speaks. She left the farm on Thursday, the 8th inst., between 7 and S o'clock, carrying with her all her clothes. Her dress, of course, cannot be particularly described, but her French appearance and manner of dressing will detect her. Persons secreting or harboring her will be prosecuted according to law, an^ whoever will secure her or deliver her to any jail, and notify said J. J. Cossart or Francis V. Rivere, 190 Broadway, will receive the above reward and reasonable charges. April 14, 1813. * The supply of white servants was early made a business in Virginia. The Roundheads sent many hundreds of Royalist prisoners after the battle of Worcester, September 3, 1651 ; Scotsmen were sent from the field of Dunbar, September 3, 1650; a thousand who participated in the insurrection of Monmouth, 1685 ; and many Roman Catholics from Ireland, at other dates, swelled the number. ifft ,,iiiiiiiii THE SLAVE TRADE. 199 The " Assiento " Treaty was made in 1689, between the king of Spain and other powers, for furnishing the Spanish Dominions in America with slaves from Africa. In 171 3, it was transferred to England, and thus Queen Anne obtained a monoply of the trade, agreeing to furnish the Spanish colonies forty-eight hundred negroes a year, and it is estimated that the English took altogether some fifteen thousand negroes annually from Africa. Bancroft says, that the num- ber imported by the English had reached nearly three millions (one tenth of which came to the Colonies), before 1776, when Congress prohibited the trade, "omitting half a million purchased in Africa and thrown into the Atlantic on the passage." The Northern climate was too severe for the negro. He did not thrive even in Virginia, and it was there- fore in the colonies further south that he was found in the largest numbers. England forced negroes upon the Colonies so energetically, however, as to excite opposition to the importation. In 1702, Queen Anne found it necessary to urge her colonial govern- ors to encourage the trade, and in 1712, boasted to Parliament that she had secured in Spanish America, a new market for slaves. The traffic was avowed in England to be " the pillar and support of the British plantation trade in America." Georgia did not suf- fer slavery to exist within its borders at first, and Oglethorpe said that at last it was forced upon the colony. George Whitefield, indeed, urgcid that it was essential to the prosperity of the plantadon. In 1676, the Earl of Dartmouth said to a colonial agent, " We cannot allow the Colonies to check, or discourage in any degree, a traffic so beneficial to the nation '' 200 THE PEOPLE AND THEIR RULERS. In New York, too, the Dutch directed Peter Stuyve- sant to use every exertion to promote the sale of negroes. In 1670, the Duke of York was president ^f BlKTHPLACli OF SAMUEL WOODWOKTH, SCITUATE, MASs;. the "African Company," and patron of the slave trade. In 1 701, Boston directed its representatives to make efforts to put a period to negro bondage. Maryland, Virginia and Carolina had already discountenanced the JEFFERSON ON SLAVERY. 201 trade, and in 1712, a petition for "the enlargement" of negro slaves was made to the Legislature of Pennsyl- vania. The petition was not listened to. The persist- ence of the British Government gave Thomas Jefferson * the reason for inserting in his original draft of the Declaration of Independence, the following words, which were omitted before the document was pre- sented to the House of Representatives. He [the king] has waged cruel war against human nature itself violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating them and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where men should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce. And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished dye, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms against us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he also obtruded them ; thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another. The settlements at Plymouth and Jamestown stand for two differing social forces which have been influ- ential all through our history. From the Massachu- setts settlement went out a stream of emigrants which was scattered throughout the West and the Northwest. * Speaking of the existence of slavery and its influence, Mr. Jefferson said, in 1781, " I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that his justice cannot sleep forever." He added, in view of a revolution on the part of the blacks, " The Almighty has no attri- bute which can take side with us in such a contest." Three years earlier he had said, " Nothing is more certainly written in the Book of Fate than that this people shall be free." After the freedom had become a fact, James A. Garfield said in the House of Representatives, February 12, 1S67, " Sir, the hand of God has been visible in this work." 202 TRE PEOPLE AND THEIR RULERS. The South and Southwest were peopled by those wno represented the aristocratic form of society. The people of New England were homogeneous in race and character. They belonged to the yeomanry, country gentlemen and small farmers of England, who sympathized with the Roundheads in the struggle with the Crown. Among these there were those who were recognized as belonging to the aristocracy, and some who possessed large estates, but the major part of the population belonged to the comfortable middle class, and they are typical of New England civilization. * The Virginians were aristocratic in their sympathies. They supported the established Church, and repre- sented the Cavalier element in English politics. They possessed both the virtues and the vices of an aristoc- racy. From them came George Washington, and they *An amusing illustration of the care with which rank was guarded in New England is found in the arrangements for "seating the meet- ing-house " so that each person should have his proper place. In Bev- erly, near Salem, Mass., an elaborate scheme was drawn up for this purpose by Colonel Robert Hale, before the year 1700, which may be taken as a sample. The following are a few of its stipulations. That every male be allowed one degree for every complete year of age he exceeds twenty-one. That he be allowed for a captain's commission twelve degrees, for a lieutenant's, eight degrees, and for an ensign's, four degrees. That he be allowed three degrees for every shilling for real estate in the last parish ta.x, and one degree for personal estate and faculty. Every six degrees for estate and faculty of a parent alive, to make one degree among his sons, or where there is none, among the daugh ters that are seated. Every generation of predecessors heretofore living in this town, to make one degree for every male descendant that is seated. That the foremost Magistrate Seat, so called, shall be the highest in rank and the other three in successive order. That the next in rank shall be in the foremost of the front seats below, then the fore-seat in the front gallery, then the fore-seat in the side-gallery. On these principles nearly six hundred persons were seated, th women being separated from the men. VIRGINIA ARISTOCRATIC. 205 supplied the young republic with many of its leading spirits, but learning and cultivation were confined to a number comparatively small. The schools and col- AN AMERICAN SCHOOLHOUSE IN A PIONEER SETTLEMENT. leges were not equal to those of New England, and the people did not wish to have the same system of popular education. The men of Virginia were born politicians, the women were admirable wives and mothers, devoting themselves with care to their house- wifely duties. The other Southern colonies were in general framed on the Virginia model. South Carolina was even more aristocratic, there being but two classes, the planters and the slaves. The highest civilization in the South, take each State as a whole, was to be found in Virginia. Charleston was a cen- tre of much elegance and cultivation, but the rest of South Carolina was not equally well developed. 206 THE PEOPLE AND THEIR RVLEES. James Madison wrote as late as 1774, of the social state of affairs in Virginia, " Poverty and luxury prevail among all sorts ; pride, ignorance and knavery among the priesthood, and vice and wickedness among the laity. This is bad enough, but it is not the worst I have to tell you. The diabolical, hell-conceived prin- ciple of persecution rages among some ; and, to their eternal infamy, the clergy can furnish their quota of imps for such business. This vexes me the most of anything whatever. There are at this time in the adjacent county not less than five or six well-meaning men in close jail for publishing their religious senti- ments, which in the main, are very orthodox." Per- secution was not confined to any region in America. In both the North and the South, the people inher- ited the original Teutonic notion of the formation of the community, but it was put into practice in New England as it was not in the other Colonies. In the New England village, town or city may still be seen the " common " land which all the inhabitants have the privilege of using, and in the early history of the founding of the Colonies it will be noted that the family was the unit ; that the settlements began as organized towns, which though bereft now of their communal traits, still stand as representatives of the old town system described by Tacitus as existing among the Germanic tribes eighteen centuries ago. They are self-governing, holding meetings of all the inhabitants, and providing for all local needs. In the other States the towns did not thus form the starting point for the State, but were formed by slow aggre- gations of individuals, whereas in New England they sprang into existence as organized political facts. " THE VULGARITY OF TOWNS." 207- The Southern gentleman, like his English proto- type, did not like to live in the populous town. As a late Southern writer well says, " The predominant tastes of the South were, from the beginning, English ; AN ERRING YOUNG COLONIST. and an Englishman is a rural animal to the very mar- row of his bones ; . . . . with this ingrained tradition and prejudice, the first settlers of Virginia and Carolina paid little attention to the building of towns and cities ; and to this day all out-and-out Southerners have a smothered contempt for what they are pleased to 208 THE PEOPLE AND THEIR RULERS. WASHIJ^GTON'S home at mount VEltNON. call 'the vulgarity of towns.'" This it was that retarded the development of the South in letters, though its upper classes were highly educated in arts and manufactures, and even in agriculture itself. The place of the town was imperfectly supplied in some of the States by the vestry, or the plantation, and the people of Virginia actually tried to legislate towns into existence, by passing a law (1680) commanding each county to lay out one. Seven of the original Colonies began under propri- etors. They were New York, Pennsylvania, Dela- ware, the Carolinas, Maryland and New Jersey. Of these, four. New York, New Jersey and the Carolinas, became eventually royal provinces, and Maryland at a time was in the same state. Three of the Colo- THE OLD NEW YORKERS. 209 nies, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, were settled under charters which were never sur- rendered. Three others, Virginia, Georgia and New Hampshire, possessed charters for awhile, but event- ually became royal provinces. In the proprietary governments, the proprietors were supreme, excepting, of course, their subjection to the sovereign, who appointed the Governors, con- trolled the assemblies, and received the moneys raised by taxation.* The people were more free in the Colonies possess- ing a charter, and hence the persistence with which in * " The population of New York," says Irving, "was more varied in its elements than that of almost any other of the Provinces The New Yorkers were of a mixed origin, and stamped with the peculiarities of their respective ancestors. The descendants of the old Dutch and Huguenot families, the earliest settlers, were still among the soundest and best of the population. [At the beginning of the Revolution.] They inherited the love of liberty, civil and religious, of their fore- fathers, and were those who stood foremost in the present struggle for popular rights. Such were the Jays, the Bensons, the Beekmans, the Hoffmans, the Van Homes, the Roosevelts, the Duyckinks, the Pmt- ards, the Yateses, and others whose names figure in the patriotic docu- ments of the day. Some of them, doubtless, cherished a remembrance of the time when their forefathers were lords of the land, and felt an innate propensity to join in resistance to the government by which their supremacy had been overturned. A great proportion of the more modern families, dating from the downfall of the Dutch Government in 1664, were English and Scotch, and among these were many loyal adherents to the Crown. Then there was a mi.xture of the whole, produced by the intermarriages of upwards of a century, which partook of every shade of character and sentiment. The operations of foreign com- merce, and the regular communications with the Mother-Countr^'. through packets and ships of war, kept these elements in constant action, and contributed to produce that mercuria temperament, that fondness for excitement, and proneness to pleasure, which distinguished them from their neighbors on either side — the austere Puritans of New England, and the quiet Friends of Peimsylvania." 210 THE PEOPLE AND THEIR RULERS. some instances they resisted efforts to deprive them of those documents. All the settlers professed, and most of them really acted upon the principle of allegiance to the Crown ; but there was much diversity of opinion as to the exact limits of the royal preroga- tive, and the amount of freedom of action left to the people. This it was which eventually brought about the irrepressible conflict between the home powers and the colonists. The Restoration developed this opposition in Massa- chusetts so distinctly, that it was said in 1671, that the State was almost on the brink of renouncing all dependence on the Crown. The struggle between Massachusetts and Charles II. lasted for a quarter of a century. The accession of that monarch was not proclaimed in the Colony at the time of the Restora- tion, but it was at last, and the king was asked to confirm the charter. He did this, but in a manner which might well have appeared to the people of Massachusetts to undermine the foundations of their social fabric. He demanded that the oath of allegiance to the Crown should be exacted, the Book of Common Prayer should be tolerated, and that others than church members should be admitted as freemen. The king did not at first insist upon compliance with his wishes, but in 1664, four royal commissioners arrived in Boston, sent to reduce to obedience the refractory Puritans, and also to take possession of New Amsterdam in the name of the Duke of York. After a conference with the authorities, the commis- sioners went to New Amsterdam, which surrendered to them, August 29, 1664.* By this move and * See page 130. INDEPENDENT MASSACHUSETTS. 211 ' the surrender of Fort Orange (Albany), and the territory of New Jersey and Long Island, the union of the colonies of New Haven and Connecticut was enforced, for though New Haven had been included in the royal charter of Connecticut (1662), it had never consented to be united to that Colony. The union was concluded in January, 1665, Hartford and New Haven being the capitals, an arrangement which con- tinued in force until 1875. The commissioners went afterwards to Maine and to Rhode Island, and were finally recalled, having effected nothing towards reduc- ing the independent spirit of Massachusetts. The war with King Philip ensued,* and after that attempts to subdue the insubordinate colonists were renewed In 1684 the charter was annulled, no other means appearing sufficient, and a royal Governor was about to be sent over, when King Charles died, and a different person was sent by his successor, James II, In 1686, Sir Edmund Andros f arrived, commissioned as Governor-General of New England. He had been Governor of New York from 1674 to 1681, and he subsequently became Governor of Virginia, holding the latter office from 1692 to 1698, * See page 168. T Andros was a native of London, born December 6, 1637. He first carrie to America in 1674, as Governor of New York, and to him Sir Anthony Colve, who had held that office for a few months, surrendered. In 1688, New York and New Jersey were added to New England, and the rule of Andros extended over thera. Upon the Revolution of 16S8, in England, the people of Boston imprisoned Andros, and Jacob Leisler led a revolt against Francis Nicholson, who was Lieutenant- Governor, in New York. Andros was sent to England for trial, but escaped it, and in 1692, came back as Governor of Virginia, where he was more popular. He retired in 1698, and in 1704, was made Gover- nor of Guernsey. He died February 24, 17 14. . 212 THE PEOPLE AND THEIR RULERS. In New York and Virginia Andros ruled with com- parative justice. Though estimable in his private relations, he was always despotic in the administration of public affairs, like the Stuarts, his master. But he infused a new life into the Colony of New York, man- aged to draw the Five Nations from their allegiance to the French, and in Virginia he fostered William and Mary College, the charter of which he brought with him, advanced the postal service, preserved the colonial records, encouraged the domestic manufactures, and introduced the raising of cotton, turning the attention of the planters from the impoverishing cultivation of tobacco. The government of Andros lasted in Massachusetts two years and a quarter. Then the people were strengthened by the news of the revolution of 1688, to rise in their might and put him for a while in prison, establishing a Provisional Government. Andros had been sent over as Governor-General of the Colonies of New England, but in 1686 Rhode Island, and in 1688, New York* and New Jersey were added to his dominion, making the territory of New England extend from the River St. Croix to Delaware Bay. The authority for this act rested upon the discovery of the Cabots. Under that, the sovereign had claimed the northern portion of America, had made grants to the "Council for New England," under which settlements had been established, and upon the dissolution of the council, the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay had obtained * The seal of New York was formally broken, and that of New Eng- land substituted for it at this time. ARBITRARY ANDROS. 213 a part of the territory. The charter of that corpora- tion having been declared null and void, all its privileges were rendered nugatory, and among these was the right to transfer lands. The king therefore held that all lands had fallen to him, and his Governor proceeded to act upon the claim. The colony was considered to be in the posi> tion of a conquered kingdom, THE OLD bOUTH CHUKCH, BOSTON. the people of which had, of course, no rights in the Magna Charta. Theoretically, no better foundation 214 THE PEOPLE AND THEIR RULERS. was needed for the despotism which James II., and Andros his tool, desired to establish. One of the first offensive steps of Andros was demanding the use of a "meeting-house" for the ser- vices of the Established Church. He was put off until Good Friday was approaching, when he demanded the use of the " Old South meeting-house." Despite the refusal which he met, the services were actually held there, and continued to be held, on Sundays and holidays. This the Governor considered a positive gain to his cause. He interferred with the freedom of the press, levied great taxes throughout the Colo- nies, and demanded heavy payments from owners of lands for new titles to them. Connecticut refused to recognize the authority of Andros, and, after some fruitless negotiation, he went to Hartford, where, on the last day of October, 1687, he met the Governor and assistants, in order to assert his authority personally. It is said that the colonial charter was brought into the room during the conference. The lights were suddenly extin- guished, and after they were lighted again, the charter was not to be found, Captain Joseph Wadsworth hav- ing in the brief interval taken it to a short distance, and hidden it in a hollow oak.* The next day the "annexation" was effected, the secretary closing the *No contemporary writing alludes to the hiding of the charter in this way in the oak, but in May, 17 15, a sum of money was granted to Captain Wadsworth, by the General Court, for "securing the duplicate charter in a very troublesome season, when our Constitution was struck at, and in safely keeping and preserving the same ever since unto this day," and the almost inevitable inference is, that the hiding of the charter is alluded to. THE END" OF ANDEOti. •215 records of the General Court with a simple account of the circumstances and the word " Finis." The "end" did not come immediately, however, THE COLONIAL SHOEMAKER'S INFREQUENT VISIT. for the tyranny of Andros aroused so much indigna- tion that, when the news of the landing of William of Orange, in England, reached Boston, the Gov- ernor was seized and thrown into prison, though the messenger who brought the information had been himself imprisoned by Andros, immediately upon his 216 THE PEOPLE AND THEIR RULERS. arrival. The tyrannical Governor under restraint, the people took the reins into their own hands, declaring that they committed their "enterprise to Him who hears the cries of the oppressed," and calling upon the other colonists to join in prayers, and "all just actions for the defence of the land." A General Court was elected and began its sessions in May, 1689, as under the old charter. Similar action was taken in Rhode Island, at Plymouth, and in Connecti- cut, the Colonial Charter was taken from its hiding place, and new chapters were begun in the Public Records after the "finis " of 1687.* This was a Prot- estant revolution in England, and it was a grand movement in favor of Protestant liberty in Aaierica. Boston was its starting-place, but its influence was limited only by the extent of the Colonies. It was the last great revolution in England, and on our Con- tinent it was the precursor of all the movements in favor of enfranchisement that have followed since, *The Massachusetts Colony had eight Governors before the arrival of Andros. in i6S6: John Winthrop, 1630-33, 1637-39, 1642-43, 1646-48; Thomas Dudley, 1634, 1640, 1645, 1650; John Haynes, 1635; Henry Vane, 1636; Richard Bellinghain, 1641, 1654, 1665-72; John Endicott, 1644, 1649, 1651-53, 1655-64; John Leverett, 1663-78; Simon Bradstreet, 1679-86. The Colony of Connecticut had also eight Governors from 1639 to 1687 : To 1655, John Haynes and Edward Hopkins occupied the office (most of the time alternately), except that in 1642, George Wyllys was chosen for one year ; in 1655, Thomas Wells was Governor, and again in 1658; John Webster followed in 1656; John Winthrop, in 1657, and serving after Thomas Wells, from 1659 to 1675; William Leete followed from 1676 to 1682 ; and Robert Treat, from 1683 to '87. The Colony of New Haven had but three Governors before its union with Connecticut: Theophilus Eaton, 1643-57; Francis Newman 1658-60; and William Lette, from 1661 to 1667. CHAPTER XI. LOOKING TOWARDS INDEPENDENCE. T was now settled that not the French nor the Spanish, but the English should mould the destinies of the New World ; but the settlers who had left their homes in the Mother-Coun- try, had begun to feel that it would not always be theirs to look over seas for laws and government. Outside observers had likewise seen, perhaps more clearly than the settlers themselves, that a separation would come in time between the Colonies and England. In 1750, Anne Robert Jacques Tur- got, * then prior of the Sor- bonne at Paris, in an essay on The Progress of the Human Mind, said, " Colonies are like fruits, which hold to the tree only until their * It was this Tuigot who inscribed under a portrait of Franklin, the epigram, " Eripuit ccelo fulmen, sceptritmque iyranttis." ( He snatched lightning from Heaven, and the sceptre from the tyrant. ) 217 21« LOOKING TOWAIWS INDEPENDENCE. maturity ; when sufficient for themselves, they do that which Carthage once did, that which some day America will do." Both Washington and Jefferson said that before 1775, they had never heard so much as a whisper of a desire to separate from the Mother- Country, and yet the Colonies were gradually learn- ing that there was strength for them in union, and that as their circumstances widely differed, so also their interests were not the same with those of Eng- land, and it was only necessary that they should have mutual grievances to bring them to make a common cause against her. * * John Adams said, after peace had been declared, "There was not a moment during the Revolution, when I would not have given every- thing I possessed for a restoration to the state of things before the contest began, provided we could have had a sufficient security for its continuance." Mr. Madison said, that in his opinion the real object of every class of people in the war was the reestablishment of the colonial relations as they had been before the trouble began, and that independence was sought only after this was despaired of. NEW ENGLAND UNITES. 219 They had felt the necessity of union as long ago as 1637, when, as we have seen, the league of the New England settlements had been proposed, but not car- ried out, in consequence of a difference between Connecticut and Massachusetts as to their relative importance in such a federation. From that day to this, there has been the same controversy about the relative rights of members of the federation, and the amount of power reserved by each member for independent action. There has always been a discus- sion of the centralization of power and of State rights. Connecticut gave way to Massachusetts, and in 1643, that State found itself at the head of a confederacy called "The United Colonies of New England." Rhode Island was left out of the league ; there was strife between the members themselves, and they showed that they were "united," principally when there were acts of violence to be done or resisted. The league expired after a feeble life of a half century. The last meeting was held at Hartford, September 5, 1684. Still there was a meagre union in the Post- office department, established by the home govern- ment in 1 710. Letters were taken from Portsmouth to Philadelphia regularly, but towns to the inland, and those off this line of travel, were very solitary. They had to depend upon chance opportunities for corre- spondence, and as there were no wheeled vehicles in use away from the seaboard before the Revolution, travel was effected on horseback, and produce was carried on sleds in winter and on oxcarts in summer. Danger led to the first American Congress. It was called by Massachusetts in 1690, at the time when the people were breathing more freely after the 220 LOOKING TOWARDS INDEPENDENCE. imprisonment of Andros, and just after the destruc- tion of Sclienectady had warned the Colonies of the danger to be expected from the French and their Indian allies. It was this Congress which planned the conquest of Canada. All the Colonies from Maine to Maryland were invited to send delegates. The practical results were not great, but the Colo- nies had taken another step towards self-govern- ment. The next indication of progress in this direction is shown by the proposition made to the London Board of Trade, by William Penn, in 1697, that there should be an annual Congress of twenty members chosen by the Colonial Legislatures (with a president appointed by the king), to regulate commerce; but it had no results until it had been vitalized by Benjamin Frank- lin, in 1754, though in 1722 Daniel Coxe of New Jer- sey had broached a similar plan. Here, again, it was fear of the Indians which drove the colonists to take measures for self protection. The French and their Indian allies were menacing the West. They had in April, 1754, established themselves at Fort Du ■ Quesne, and on the twenty-fifth of that month, had occurred the battle* in which Washington made his name known, and, as Bancroft says, by his " word of command kindled the world into a flame." He had been for the first time in action ; had been successful, and in the excitement of his youthful ardor had written that there was something charming in the whistling of the bullets as they flew about him. He was not so greatly enamored with military life, however, as to be hindered from retiring to Mount Vernon and the agri- * At Great Meadows, on the Youghiogheny. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 22J. cultural pursuits of peace, at the end of the year, though he was immediately recalled by his native State to take part in the campaign of 1755. Benjamin Franklin, who has been well called "the incarnated common sense " of the period, was son of parents who had sought in Boston, freedom from the disabilities which encompassed non-conformists i n England, and in that town he was born, January 17, 1706, the youngest son in a family of seventeen. He had been in Eng- land, had made the best of the advantage for getting wisdom from men, and books that had sparingly fallen to his lot, had written and printed much, and had proved himself a valuable public counsellor. He had founded the University of Pennsylvania, and the American Philo- sophical Society, had invented the stove which still bears his name, had begun his investigations in electricity, and invented the lightning rod, and had occupied the office of deputy Postmaster-general for America. Both Yale and Harvard Colleges had honored themselves by giving him the degree of Master of Arts. After the defeat of Braddock, against whose disas- trous expedition he had remonstrated, Franklin took BEN.JAMIN FKANKLTN'S BIRTHPLACE. 222 LOOKING TOWABDS INDEPENDENCE. the field as commander of the Volunteer Militia which he had been thf means of organizing, and would have been appointed to more important com- mands, had he not distrusted his military capacity, and returned to his scientific pursuits. In 1757, however, he was sent by the people of Pennsylvania to petition the Crown for redress from the measures of the proprietors. His mission was successful. He returned home in 1762, having received the highest academic degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge, on account of his scientific labors, and having been equally honored by the Government for his statesman- ship. In 1764 he was again called to perform a diplo- matic service, this time being commissioned to ask that the State be permitted to take its affairs into its own hands. He did not return until the spring of 1775, having spent the most critical years which intervened in the performance of duties invaluable to his countrymen. The next step towards the present union was taken in 175 1, and by an officer of the Crown, Archibald Kennedy, Receiver-General of New York, who sug- gested through the press, an annual meeting of com- missioners from all the Colonies, at New York or Albany ; proposing that the system should be author- ized and enforced by an act of Parliament. In March, 1752, an anonymous letter appeared in a Philadelphia paper, attributed by Bancroft to Franklin, in which the writer avers that a voluntary union would be pref- erable to one imposed by the British Government, and says that it would be strange if Six Nations of ignorant savages should be capable of forming a scheme for such an union, and able to carry it out^ TINGLAND FAVORS AMERICAN UNION. 223 and yet " that a like union should be impracticable for ten or a dozen Colonies, to whom it is more necessary, and must be more advantageous." In 1754, when war was opening between England and France, a feeling grew up in England that the American Colonies should do something for them- selves in a united way. It was the year before the final struggle between the French and English for supremacy on the American Continent. After the peace of 1748, the Ohio Company had begun its set- tlements (1749), and these had been assailed by the French and Indians. The Governor of South Caro- lina suggested a meeting of all the governors, to decide how many men each Colony should contribute for the campaign on the Ohio ; but the Governor of Virginia retorted that the assembly of his dominion would be guided only by its free determinations. The Colonies were, in fact, all reluctant to grant funds for the protection of the English settlers from the assaults of the French and the Indians, though all began to demand some sort of a union. Accordingly a convention was held at Albany, June 19, 1754, at which New York, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Mas- sachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Maryland were represented. The object was to take measures for mutual defence, and to treat with the Six Nations and the Indians allied to them. It was the most venerable assembly that America had yet seenr and every voice was for union. After peace had been effected with the representatives of the Six Nations, on the tenth of July, Franklin offered his plan for a Perpetual Union — a compromise between preroga- tive and popular power — which was read article 224 LOOKING TOWARDS INDEPENDENCE. by article. It contemplated a council, elected trienni- ally to meet annually, which only would originate bills, and a governor-general, appointed by the king, with the veto power, and authority to appoint military officers. The council was to regulate trade, make war or peace, raise armies, make laws, levy taxes, and establish and govern new settlements, but not inter- fere with the domestic affairs of each Colony. The seat of government was to be Philadelphia, which, it was thought, that New Hampshire or South Caro- lina could reach in fifteen or twenty days. So jealous was each of the Colonies of its rights, that the plan was not acceptable to them. The delegates from New England had previously been Franklin's most firm supporters, and yet New York but slightly favored the plan; Massachusetts charged her agent to oppose it, and Connecticut rejected it. Still the feeling of the people at large was in favor of Franklin, and as he took his way from Albany he was welcomed as the founder of an Amer- ican union. Quite a different plan of union was that proposed by George Montagu Dunk, second (and last) Earl Halifax, then at the head of the English Board of Trade. It opposed the " levelling principles " of the Colonies, so much feared in England, and, in spite of the colonial charters, would have made orders by the king law for America. It would have reduced any dis- obedient or neglectful province, for the people were esteemed even then " an obstinate, self-opinionated, stubborn generation." England thought that the coercion demanded by the colonial governors was needed, but she hesitated before applying it. TAXATION WITHOUT REPIiESEXTATIOJV. 225 Meanwhile Governor William Shirley, at Boston, (the same who had planned the capture of Louisburg, 1745, and removed the Acadians, 1755) submitted to Franklin a new scheme for union. He would have had an American Congress, composed of governors and delegates empowered to draw on the home treas- ury for funds for defence. Parliament being authorized to reimburse itself by levying taxes on the Colon- ies. Franklin argued against such a Congress com- posed of members largely under royal orders, and denied the right of taxation without representation.* Nevertheless Shirley urged upon his government the necessity of "A Parliamentary union," and of taxation, and was supported in his arguments by offi- cers of the Crown in every Colony, and it is not to be wondered at that the ministry was led to adopt the * For a half-century the " independent spirit " of the people, and especially of those of Boston (though South Carolina had not been least among those who assumed the management of their own affairs), had been rising, and the governors, loyal tools of the sovereign, had often come in conflict with it. The people of Massachusetts, in 1728, refused to vote the Governor a permanent salary, and they even went so far as to refuse Governor Belcher any support whatever, in 1731, when he opposed their will, and in 1740, the removal of Belcher was asked and obtained. In 1748, Governor Clinton, of New York* was in trouble regarding the same matter, and appealed to the Board of Trade to make " a good example for all America," meaning that a tax should be levied to provide for the civil list; but as late as 175? orders were sent to New York not to press the establishment of a per- manent revenue " for the present." It is worthy of note here, as indicative of the progress of opinion, that Peter Kalm, a Swedish traveller, wrote in 1748, that "oppressions'* and "restrictions " had made "the inhabitants of tlie English Colonies feel less tender toward the Mother Land," and that he had been told by native Americans and English emigrants, that " within thirty or forty years the English Colonies in North America may constitute a separate State, entirely independent of England." 226 LOOKING TOWARDS INDEPENDENCE, plan that Halifax insisted upon to ease the Mother Country, by a stamp tax and an import duty. The English " Board of Trade," unlike the organiza- tions bearing the same name in America, is a depart- ment of the government. It seems to have originated with Oliver Cromwell, who, in 1655, appointed his son Richard and many other persons, to meet and con- sider by what means the trade of the nation might best be promoted. In 1660, Charles II. erected two councils, of Trade and Plantations, which were soon combined. They were abolished in 1675, but re- established in 1695, and finally abolished in 1782. Edmund Burke satirized it at first as "A showy and specious imposition," and afterwards "a job to quiet the minds of the people," at a time of depressed trade (1695), and as being perhaps "the only instance of a public body which has never degenerated." As at present constituted, the Board of Trade performs important functions. It was re-constituted in 1786. It was this body which was destined to excite the American people to assert their right to indepen- dence, for it was commercial interference that first made the colonists dissatisfied with the Mother Country.* In 1733 duties had (under the so-called "Sugar Law ") been laid on molasses, sugar and rum * England was ever jealous of American manufactures and inven- tions, and after the War of 1812, her merchants were encouraged to send goods to the United Sates to be sold at auction, Lord Brougham saying in Parliament that it was worth while to incur losses on the first exportations, in order by glut to stifle in the cradle the rising manufactures that the war had forced into existence contrary to the natural course of events. The introduction into America of new machinery, however, saved American industry from being "stifled in the cradle." JAMES OTIS REPRESENTS BOSTON. 227 imported from any but the British West India Islands, and the Government had prohibited the exportation of hats, and the erection of rolling-mills and steel furnaces. These acts had been the result of a wide- spread feeling in England that it was bankrupt, the war with France having brought the debt to enor- mous proportions, and America having been the great- est acquisition, it was determined to make her pay a part of the amount. The value of property in Eng- land had increased one half, and it was due, Mr. Pitt declared, to the American Colonies, The customs' duties were felt by the colonists to be onerous, and they became difficult to collect. This led, in 1761, to the "Writs of Assistance," under which search could be made for contraband goods in warehouse or dwelling, by the officer of the customs, or any one employed by him. This was resented by the colonists as an infringement of their rights as members of the British nation, and thought to be an indication that the ministry did not consider that sub- jects of the Crown in America possessed an equality of rights with those in England. The customs' offi- cers called upon James Otis, then Advocate-General, to support them in their application for these writs, in a trial which was to take place in the old Town House in Boston, in February, 1761, but he resigned his lucrative position rather than do it, and repre- sented the citizens of Boston, who had presented a counter-plea. The case came on before the five judges of the Superior Court, Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson being chief justice. John Adams, in his account of the affair, says that Otis was " a flame of fire," and " hurried away all before him." "American 228 LOOKING TOWABDS INDEPENDENCE. Independence was then and there born." Every man seemed to be ready to take up arms against the writs. Hutchinson announced the opinion of the court, saying that he could see no foundation for such writs, and though he subsequently decided that they were legal, nothing more was heard of them. This speech of Mr. Otis, and the excitement it occasioned, form an epoch in our history, and Mr. Adams said that the oration "breathed into this nation the breath of life." At the time that Massachusetts was thus excited by the Writs of Assistance, Virginia was stirred by the urgency with which the Board of Trade insisted on stimulating traffic in slaves, Virginia determined to suppress the importation of Africans by a prohib- itory duty, and in the Legislature, Richard Henry Lee made his first recorded speech on this subject. He depicted in strong colors the moral and political dan- gers which were likely to overcome the old Common- wealth if the servile class was continually increased, nor did he neglect to show the barbarity of the trade ; and he drew from history dread tales of servile insurrections. He was rewarded by the passage of the bill, though it was by a majority of but one vote. Like all similiar acts of the Americans, this was vetoed by the powers at home. South Carolina was likewise alarmed by the increase of the black population, but the English Government would permit no interference there with its policy for the importation of slaves. New York was disturbed by the appointment of a judge to hold office during the king's pleasure, instead of during good behavior, as had been and still is the custom- THE WE1T8 OF ASSISTANCE. 229 rhis was a step in the direction of despotism, and William Livingston gained much applause by emphasizing the truth that all authority should be derived from the people. The judge thus appointed reported that affairs had reached a crisis in New York. Thus did the discontent of the colonists, though chiefly stimulated by acts of trade, gain in strength in the different Colonies, from various reasons. Everywhere the acts of the agents of the Crown were scrutinized with care, and the slightest infringement of the rights of the colonists was re- sented with pertinacity and spirit. More and more plainly did the people of the different plantations see that they had a common interest, and that it was their best policy to unite in their counsels and their acts. The excitement in America caused by the Writs of Assistance was not unlike that which broke out in England in 1763, on the close of the Seven Years' War, on the subject of General Warrants, which were not very different in their nature. All England was then stirred by the cry," Wilkes and Liberty ! " which arose on the publication of trenchant articles published by John Wilkes in a paper called the North Briton. George III., one of the most narrow-minded of all the long line of English kings, came to the throne in 1760, with the proud design of making himself an autocrat. His long reign did not end until 1820, after the American Colonies had won their inde- pendence and had a second time successfully come into conflict with the British Government. It was not unnatural that the reign of such a monarch should open with storms. The greatest and best ministers 230 LOOKING TOWARDS INDEPENDENCE. could not work peacefully under the restraints he put upon them,* A more reasonable sovereign might have made peace with the Colonies, and America might possibly have been a dependency of Great Britain, but for the rash unreason of George III. At a moment when William Pitt, the friend of America, was ill in bed, an act was passed in Parli- ament levying a stamp duty on the Colonies. It received the formal assent of the then insane king, through a commission, on the twenty-second of March, 1765, In the course of the debate on this bill, Isaac Barre, a member of Parliament, delivered a celebrated speech in reply to Charles Townshend, who had declared that the American Colonies had been planted by British care, nourished by British indul- gence, and protected by British arms. Barre said, " They planted by your care ! No ; your oppression planted them in America. . . . They nourished by * The British ministry did not at this time represent the sentiments of the people, and Parliament was unpopular (though nearly all the intellect in it was opposed to the American War, including Burke, Fox, Dunning and Pitt), and the steps which were taken adverse to the American Colonies must not be attributed to the English people. The ministers at that time were, John Stuart, Earl of Bute (a former tutor of the king and very influential with him), from May, 1762, to April, 1763; George Grenville, to July, 1765; Charles Wentworth, Marquess of Rockingham, to August, 1766; William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, to July, 1767 ; Augustus Henry, Duke of Grafton, to January, 1770; and Frederick, Lord North, to March 30, 1782. The Bute administration was very unpopular, and that of Grenville was thought by Macaulay the worst since the Revolution. Grafton was the minister assailed by "Junius." The administrations of Rockingham and Chatham were comparatively liberal. Lord North was a favorite of George III., and of Parliament. He supported the " Stamp Act" in 1765; proposed the duty on tea in 1773; and the Boston Port Bill in 1774, and prose- cuted the American War with pertinacity. THE STAMP ACT. 231 your indulgence ! they grew up by your neglect of them .... They protected by your arms ! they have nobly taken up arms in your defence ! " This speech was circulated throughout the Colonies before summer had scarcely opened, and the name *' Sons of Liberty," which Barre had given to the Americans, was adopted by the patriots with enthusiasm. The Stamp Duty had been threatened and the col- onists looked forward to it with the intensest interest. Benjamin Franklin was then in London bearing a remonstrance against it, and he labored indefatigably to prevent its passage, stigmatizing it as unconstitu- tional as well as impolitic. After it had passed, he counselled submission, but the colonists did not sym- pathize with him. They felt with another American in London, that they must "unite," or "bid farewell to liberty." Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, calmly but forcibly said, " The ways of Providence are in- scrutable. This step of the Mother-Country, though intended to secure our dependence, may produce a fatal resentment and be subversive of that end." George Washington, then one of the Burgesses of Virginia, characterized it as an unconstitutional method of taxation. The arrival of the packet bearing the news was looked for with intense interest, but the people did not wait for it before expressing their sentiments. The Legislature of Virginia met in May, and on the thirtieth of the month passed resolutions, framed by Patrick Henry, and supported by him with his impas- sioned eloquence, denying that British freedom was consistent with taxation without representation. The messenger who carried these resolutions to •IS'I LOOKING TOWARDS INDEPENDENCE. Massachusetts, passed on the road another bearing to Carolina and Virginia an invitation from Massachusetts to a Continental Congress. The town of Boston,* inspired by the substantial eloquence of Samuel Adams, had expressed itself in similar terms to those employed by Virginia, claiming as a British birthright the right to levy its own taxes. The Massachusetts legislature, at its meeting in June, and under the guidance of Adams and Otis, adopted the principles recommended by Boston, and a committee of five was appointed, who sent a circular letter to the other Colonies, calling for united action in behalf of threatened rights, f When the packet reached New York, in June, the people were intensely excited. Robert Livingston declared the tax to be the beginning of evils, and announced that his State would join with her neigh- bors, depending for support " on the God of Heaven." The people were prepared to dress in homespun, to stimulate the raising of flax and the production * Boston made a deep impression upon the popular mind abroad. "It was, indeed, by the name of Bostonian," says Mr. Brack, "that all Americans were known in France then [1780]. The war having broken out in Boston, and the first great battle fought in its neighbor- hood, gave to that name universal celebrity. I remember a song that was in fashion [in Paris], the chorus of which was : Bon, bon, bon Cest a Boston Qu'on entend soiifle les canons. "Coffee houses took that name, and a game invented at that time played with cards, was called ' Boston,' and is to-day exceedingly fash- ionable at Paris by that appellation." t In October, 1764, New York appointed the first Committee of Cor- respondence. Henry B. Dawson: "New York during the American Revolution," p. 41. "ALL OF US AMERICANS!" 233 of wool, to use no imported products, and to resent the new imposition in the most positive manner They agreed with Oxenbridge Thacher, of Massachu- setts, that connection with England was no blessing, if it involved the imposition of unconstitutional bur- dens. In the ardor of their desire to encourage home manufactures, the people of Boston generally signed an agreement to eat no lamb, in order that more wool might be produced. In the discussion of the call for a Congress in South Carolina, it was the voice of Christopher Gadsden, that caused the State to pronounce for union. Mr. Bancroft says, " Thus revolution proceeded. Virginia marshalled resistance, Massachusetts entreated union. New York pointed to " independence," and yet, "had it not been for South Carolina, no Congress would then have happened." The Congress met at New York, on Monday, October 7, 1765, Virginia and North Carolina only being absent and silent. The body adjourned on the twenty-fifth, having made a "Declaration of Rights," based (at the suggestion of South Carolina) not upon charters from the Crown, but upon the common rights of Englishmen, and resolved that there ought to be no longer " New England men," nor " New Yorkers," but " all of us Americans." This was the act of all of the Colonies, for, though New Hampshire and Georgia had not sent delegates, they had agreed to abide the decision of the others, and the absent ones did not lack sympathy with the cause. The result of this action was, that at the risk of stopping the business of the country, the people le- fused to use the stamped paper, and it was seized ai; 1 burned as it arrived, the stamp distributors were 234 LOOKING TOWARDS INDEPENDENCE. forced to'resign, and consequently the act was repealed the next yd^r, August i8, after a fervent debate in which Edmund Burke had made his maiden speech, and the vcjice of Pitt had been heard saying, " I re- joice that America has resisted." In the same de- bate Grenville had said, with truth, perhaps, "The Stamp Act is but the pretext of which they make use to arrive at independence." The House of Commons had examined FrankUn, and he had declared that America could not and would not pay the stamp tax, even if it were reduced. Upon the receipt of the news in Boston there was great rejoicing. Resistance to the act had begun under the "Liberty Tree" (where the effigy of Oliver, the stamp distributor, h?'' been hung), which was now decorated and illuminated with lanterns, the houses about it too, were bright with lights, and bore illuminated figures of Pitt, Camden and Barre. The church bells rang, and all those imprisoned for debt were liberated by subscription. Especially was Pitt honored as the champion of liberty. Good feeling was, however, not restored, for Par- liament had expressly declared its supremacy over the Colonies at the time that it repealed the Stamp Act, and it proceeded to impose (May, 1767) duties upon tea and other imported articles, for the purpose of paying the royal judges, governors and soldiers. These taxes were to be imposed after November 20, 1767. The "Sugar Act," and the "Mutiny Act," were still in force also, and by these the people were plainly assured that the policy of the Crown had suf- fered no change. Charles Townshend, then leader of the House of Commons, " a man of splendid talents. 86° T^^fTihirtB 8i° West from _ 82° f W*«t from A PALTRY TAX ON TEA. 235 of lax principles, and of boundless vanity and pre- sumption," as Macaulay says, who had procured the passage of the tax on tea, expressed his desire that '* America should be regulated and deprived of its militating and contradictory charters," and England by her ill-judged movements was preparing for the abrogation of these charters and the "regulating" of the political organization of the American Colonies in a manner that they did not fancy. Trouble had already arisen in the State of New York, where the Assembly had refused to pay for quartering of troops. Parliament declared the Assembly incapable of action until the demand had been met. The Assembly acquiesced after holding out for a time, but similar trouble sprung up in other Colonies, and new taxes were devised, until, in 1768, Massachusetts sent a circular letter to the other Colonies, asking them to unite in seeking relief from the king. The Assembly addressed a letter to the king protesting against the presence of a standing army and against taxation with- out -representation. The Secretary of State ordered the resolution which led to the letter to be rescinded, and the other Colonies were directed to pay no atten- tion to it. The Assembly refused, and the frightened ministry determined to remove the import duties excepting a paltry tax upon tea, retained to assert the principle (April 12, 1770). Everywhere people refused to use tea, and agreed to buy no imported goods,* though at great sacrifice of taste and convenience. * The determination to use no imported goods is illustrated by the fact that when a ball was given at Williamsburgh, Va., January 3, 1770, for the entertainment of the Governor, Lord Botetourt, the ladies to the number of a hundred appeared in homespun gowns. 236 LOOKING TOWARDS INDEPENDENCE. In the midst of the excitement, troops were or- dered to Boston " to reduce the dogs to reason," an extraordinary movement, for up to that time no Eng- Hsh soldiers had been seen in New England except in war time, and then only as they passed towards the unprotected frontier. The people refused to provide for them, and the town meeting in Faneuil Hall (September, 1768) requested the inhabitants to pro- vide themselves with arras — for sudden danger "in case of a war with France," so they euphemistically expressed it. It was voted "that the inhabitants of the town of Boston will, at the utmost peril of their lives and fortunes, maintain and defend their rights, liberties, privileges and immunities." Samuel Adams said, " We will take up arms and spend our last drop of blood, before the King and Parliament shall im- pose on us, or settle Crown officers independent of the Colonial legislature to dragoon us." It was not long before Washington, from Mount Vernon, echoed the words, saying, " Our lordly masters in Great Brit- ain will be satisfied with nothing less than the dep- rivation of American freedom. Something should be done to maintain the liberty which we have de- rived from our ancestors. No man should hesitate a moment to use arms in defence of so valuable a bless- ing. Yet arms should be the last resource." In the next month {May, 1769) the legislature of Virginia met at Williamsburgh, followed the example of Massachusetts and Connecticut by declaring that the Writs of Assistance were illegal, and asked every Legislature in America to unite in concerted effort to protect their violated rights. Pennsylvania approved Ihis action, Delaware passed the same reso- THE FIB8T BLOOBSHEDDING. 239 lutions, and every Colony south of Virginia followed in time. By the end of the year, New York had invited each Colony to elect delegates to a legislative body which should make laws for all, and though the plan was not carried out, it pointed again to union. The presence of troops in Boston led to the first bloodshedding.* It was on the evening of the fifth of March, 1770. The people irritated the soldiers, and they at last fired, killing three, mortally wound- ing two, and slightly wounding six others. This affray, called "the Boston Massacre," occurred in what is now State street (then King street), oppo- site the Old State House. Governor Hutchinson was forced to remove the troops, and until 1774, no more were quartered in Boston. A town-meeting was held on the sixth of March, in Faneuil Hall, but that place not being large enough, it adjourned to the Old South Meeting-house, where Samuel Adams was placed at the head of a committee directed to demand the removal of the troops. The Governor remembered the fate of Andros, and faltered before the strong man whom he had endeavored to have sent to England for trial as a traitor. It was one of the most pregnant moments in American history. England had been defied, and had given way, but revolution had been postponed. In June, 1772, the Gaspee, which had been sta- tioned at Providence to search vessels, all of which * "The first blood shed in defence of the rights of America," says Henry Dawson, in "New York during the American Revolution," "flowed from the veins of the inhabitants in New York, on the Golden Hill, [between Burling Slip and Maiden Lane,] Januarv 18, 1770." The affair did not, however, attain the historic importance of the Boston Massacre. 240 LOOKING TOWARDS INDEPENDENCE, were suspected of violating the revenue acts, was burned by citizens who boarded it, bound the officers and crew, and took them to shore. It was proposed to carry the perpetrators of this act to England for trial, but the proposal resulted in nothing but more excitement. The royal commission took no action.* The next outbreak was the " Boston Tea Party," as it has been called. On the sixteenth of December, 1773, a meeting of citizens in the " Old South Meeting- house," at Boston, was broken up by the cry, " Hurrah for Griffin's wharf! " Three ships had arrived, laden with tea, on which the tax was still laid, and the *The Rev. Ezra Stiles, of Newport, Rhode Island (afterwards President of Yale College), writing to an Englishman, evidently friendly to the Colonies, in 1772, said : " You may think it best to come first to Charleston, South Carolina. There you will find Mr. Gadsden, and other friends of public liberty. From thence, by water, you may come to Virginia, where you will find an Assembly firm in the cause of liberty. From Williamsburgh it may be best to travel by laud to the northward. In Maryland you may find the sensible Mr. Dulany. At Philadelphia you will find Doctor Allison, Doctor Dick- inson, Chief Justice Allen, and many other patriots. At New Yoik, among others, you will take satisfaction in seeing Mr. William Liv- ingston and Mr John Morin Scott. Travelling along through Connec- ticut, you may see Governor Trumbull and others. In your way to Newport, where you will find Mr. Merchant, Mr. Ellery, Mr. Bowler, and among them I, myself, shall be happy in waiting upon you. The late Governor Ward and Governor Hopkins, both now living in the Colony, will take pleasure in seeing you. You will then proceed to Boston, and find Mr. Otis, Mr. Adams, Mr. Gushing, Mr. Hancock and the Reverend Doctor Chauncy. I flatter myself you may find agreea- ble entertainment among them. You will proceed to Piscataqua, and, returning to Boston, may make an excursion across New England to Springfield, on Connecticut River, and so down to Hartford ; thence across the new towns to Albany, and so down along Hudson's River to New York." This shows what portions of the continent a man of learning thought worth seeing, and hints at the persons of most note, besides showing the names of some who had at that time espoused the idea of independence. THE BOSTON TEA PARTY. 241 people had determined that it should not be landed. They had negotiated with the Governor, but he had finally refused to permit the vessels to return. Samuel Adams then rose and said, " This meeting can do nothing more to save the country." Then the cry just referred to had been uttered, and the audience left the building. An immense throng gathered at the wharf, and as they quietly looked on, a body of men disguised as Indians threw the cargoes into the harbor. Before dawn the next morning the men of Boston retired to their homes. The town was quiet, but the Revolution had begun. No one to this day has been able to give the names of all of the fifty men who, on that moonlit night, threw the tea into Boston harbor. The next morning Samuel Adams and four others, as a Committee of Correspondence, sent Paul Revere * to New York and Philadelphia, with a declaration of what had been done. The most intense excite- ment followed. On the fifth of March, 1774, John Hancock suggested to a crowded audience in Boston, a congress of deputies from the several Colonies, as "the most effectual method of establishing a union for the security of our rights and liberties." On the tenth of May, news arrived at Boston that the British Government had closed its port, removing the Board of Customs to Marblehead, and the seat of govern- ment to Salem. At the same time it was announced * Revere was a native of Boston, at this time thirty-eight years of age. In 1756, he had been a Lieutenant of Artillery at Lake George. He was one of the actors in the Tea Party. He also took the news o^the closing of the port of Boston to New York and Phila- delphia, asking the sympathy of the inhabitants. 242 LOOKING TOWARDS INDEPENDENCE. that all the thirteen Colonies had pledged themselves to union. General Thomas Gage, who, in 1773, had succeeded Amherst as commander of the British forces in America, was appointed Governor of Massachusetts, and entered Boston on the seventeenth of May. On the first of June the " Port Bill " went into operation. The Assembly met at the same time at Salem, and on the seventeenth, with locked doors, appointed a gen- eral Congress to meet at Philadelphia, on the first of September. The Governor sent his messenger to dissolve the Assembly, but he knocked at the door in vain. On the sixth of August, Gage received a copy of the act, for the " better regulating the government of Massachusetts Bay." It was intended to awe the other Colonies, and to crush Massachusetts. It de- creed that the Governor was to have almost absolute authority ; that the councillors and chief judges were to be appointed by the Crown ; that town-meetings, except for elections, could only be held at the will of the Governor, and that persons charged with murder should be sent to another Colony, or to England, for trial. Under this act, thirty-six were summoned as "mandamus" councillors; but the in- dignation of the people was so great against them, that twenty refused to accept the post, and the rest fled to Boston in shame, to seek safety from the army. Gage was obliged to fortify his position, and on the fifth of September, broke ground for earthworks* *The expedition to Louisburg had been a military education to many in New England, and as some of the veterans of that campaign looked at the progress of Gage's works on the " neck," the^exclaimed: " Gage's mud walls are nothing to old Louisburg's-" THE QUEBEC ACT. 243 on Boston "Neck," which connected the city with the mainland. Another move of the English Parliament must be mentioned. It was the passage of the " Quebec Act," in 1774, ostensibly to regulate the government of Canada, but really intended to raise a barrier HOUSE OF LIEUT.-GOV. OLIVER IN CAMBRIDGE, NOW THE HOME OF JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. between the Colonies there and the thirteen now on the verge of war. It granted the Canadians the free exercise of the religion of the Church of Rome, and extended the province from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Mississippi River, the territory (subsequently 244 LOOKING TOWABDS INDEPENDENCE. called the Northwest Territory) to be mainly under royal officials. On the fifth of September, 177 A> the members of Congress met at " Smith's Tavern," in Philadelphia, and selected " Carpenter's Hall " as the place of their future sessions. Among the members were George Washington, Richard Henry Lee, Peyton Randolph and Patrick Henry, of Virginia, Samuel and John Adams, of Massachusetts, John Dickinson, of Pennsylvania, Christopher Gadsden and John Rutledge of South Carolina, Dr. John Witherspoon, president of the College of New Jersey, Stephen Hopkins, formerly Chief Justice of Rhode Island, and Roger Sherman of the same State.. Speaking of this body, William Pitt said, " For solidity of reason, force of sagacity and wisdom of conclusion under a combination of difficult circum- stances, no nation or body of men can stand in pref- erence to the general Congress at Philadelphia. The histories of Greece and Rome give us nothing equal to it, and all attempts to impose servitude upon such a mighty Continental nation must be in vain. We shall be forced ultimately to retract ; let us retract when we can, not when we must." After the body was organized it was voted that the sessions be opened with prayer, and the Rev. Jacob Duche, an Episcopal clergyman, read the psalm for the seventh day of the month (the xxxvth), and then burst out in an extemporaneous prayer of great pathos and earnestness, to the surprise of those present. John Adams, writing to his wife (Sept. 16), gives an interesting account of this circumstance. The work of Congress consisted in the preparation THE NATION FOUNDED. 245 of a Declaration of Rights, an agreement to stop Brit- ish imports and exports, to discontinue the slave trade after the first of December, an address to the British people (drawn up by Dickinson),* and a peti- tion to the king (drawn up by Jay). On the twentieth of October, the members signed the "American Asso- ciation," and thus founded the American Nation. Six days later the body adjourned, after having framed an address to the people of Canada, Nova Scotia and the Floridas, and after having made pro- vision for another Congress, if necessary, in the spring of 1775. Independence had not been demanded, but on the very day that the Congress adjourned steps were taken in Massachusetts that seemed to decide for war — steps which, if successful, could result in inde- pendence only. Governor Gage had ordered the Massachusetts Assembly to meet at Salem on the fifth of October ; but, having changed his mind, he countermanded the writs by a- proclamation. The members considered this latter step illegal, and accordingly met on the day first appointed. On the * John Dickinson, a native of Maryland, was born November 13, 1732, and died February 14, 1S08. He entered the Legislature of Pennsylvania in 1764, and was from that time a power in public affairs. In 1768 he published his " Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer," addressed to the colonists. In 1774 he was a member of the first Congress, but opposed the Declaration of Independence, though he had written some of the most important State papers issued by Congress, and in 1788, wrote his " Fabius " letters advocating the adop- tion of the Constitution. John Adams wrote of him in July, 1775, as " one whose abilities and virtues, formerly trumpeted so much in America, have been found wanting," and, in 1777, that he "turns out to be the man I have seen him to be these two years. He is in total neglect and disgrace;" but Adams was often prejudiced by his owu snthusiasm for the cause. •246 LOOKING TOW ABBS INDEPENDENCE. seventh they constituted themselves a " Provincial Congress," elected John Hancock president, and adjourned to Concord. They then remonstrated with Gage, urged the citizens to organize themselves as " Minute-men," and appointed committees of safety and supplies. On the twenty-third of November the body met again and asked the cooperation of New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut in raising a force of twenty thousand men. The committees from the Colonies afterwards met and decided to oppose any offensive acts of Gage. Stores were laid in at Worcester and Concord, and the event awaited. On the first of February the Congress met again at Cambridge, and the sixteenth of March was set apart as a Fast Day for Boston and the region about. On the twenty-third of March the selectmen of the little town of Billerica, Mass., sent in a spirited protest to Gage, telling the commander of His Majesty's forces in America that " if the innocent inhabitants of our country must be interrupted by soldiers in their lawful intercourse with the town of Boston, and treated with the most brutish ferocity, we shall here- after use a different style from that of petition and complaint." CHAPTER XII. WAR BEGUN. HE American people had sent to their king their jiltimaticm, and though they waited to hear the response it should meet, they were by no means passive. The Legisla- ture of Massachusetts, which, as we have seen, had been called the Provincial Congress, though it had no author- ity except that which was given it by consent of the people, was obeyed, and never were the functions of govern- ment more peacefully carried on. The local organizations of which mention has been made,* now proved of great ser- vice. The selectmen governed the towns without friction, and everywhere there were meetings of pat- BEATIXG DAMASK. * See page 206. 247 248 WAB BEGUN. riotic citizens, drilling of militia, and forming of bands of "minutemen," all of whom were bound to be ready to appear at a moment's warning of danger. The smallest towns did not fear to send to General Gage messages of the most independent nature ; and Samuel Adams urged all to study with diligence the art of war; showing the depth of his feeling by saying, " I would advise persisting in our struggle for liberty, though it were revealed from heaven that nine hundred and ninety-nine were to perish, and only one of a thousand to survive and retain his liberty." Of the origin of these feelings, Burke said in Parliament : "From six capital sources : of descent ; of form of government ; of religion, in the Northern Provinces ; of manners, in the Southern ; of educa- tion ; of the remoteness of situation from the first mover of government ; from all these causes a fierce spirit of liberty has grown up." One of the earliest acts of the new year was the assembling of a Provincial Congress of over two hun- dred members, at Charleston, S. C. ; more than twice the number that attended the meetings of the similar body in Massachusetts. Nine days later, on the twentieth of January, the British Parliament met. The policy of the adminis- tration was to create divisions among the colonists, and it was supported by the people. It proposed to protect those who remained loyal, and to declare all others rebels. Commerce with the Americans was to be stopped. Chatham moved that the forces be immediately removed from Boston, as the onlv way to keep peace. He snid that the king's information that the American union could not last was mislead- COMMITTEE OF SAFETY. 249 ing,* that, on the contrary, the union was "solid," permanent and effectual." In spite of the powerful and true statement of the case made by Chatham, it was announced that the government had determined to use all possible means to bring the Americans to obedience. Franklin was present at the debate, and he had been using all efforts to keep up the good feeling between the two countries, without effect. It was not believed that there could be union between the different Colonies, a view held also by the Tories in America. It was the same feeling which led the ministry to deny General Gage a reenforcement of twenty thousand men. Massachu- setts was declared to be in a state of rebellion. The Provincial Congress came together a second time in February, and committed the military affairs to the hands of a Committee of Safety of elev^en men who were charged to resist every attempt to execute the acts of Parliament. Artemas Ward was put at the head of the forces. He had had experience in the French War. Next to him was Seth Pomeroy, who had been at the siege of Louisburg, and had gained a victory over Dieskau at the battle of Lake George. At the same time orders were issued relievinof * This was not the first time that Englishmen had been "misled" regarding the outcome of affairs bearing upon the interests of Americp.. Tn 1 592, Lord Bacon wrote of the English Brownists, from whom the Pilgrims came, " As for those which we call Brownists, being, when they were at the most, a very small number of very silly and base people here and there in the corners dispersed, they are now (thanks be to God 1) by the good remedies which have been used, suppressed and worn out, so as there is scarce anv news of them." And yet it was from these that the New World received much of its character and strength. 250 WAR BEGUN. Gage of his command, and Sir William Howe was made commander-in-chief of all the English forces in America. Under Howe were General John Buigoyne and Sir Henry Clinton. Rear-Admiral Sir Richard Howe was in command of the naval forces. The army at Boston was to be raised to ten thousand men, and Gage was superseded because he was not considered able to manage so great a force.* Such was the position of affairs when the first blood was shed. The English commander had heard that ammunition was stored at Salem, and on Sunday, February 26, he sent two or three hundred soldiers to capture it. The expedition landed at Marblehead and marched to Salem. The cannon were not discovered, and the men set out for Danvers. The bridge at the river was found drawn up, and under the command of Timocny Pickering, the passage of the river was resisted long enough to allow the cannon to be re- moved to a place of safety. In the struggle the British used their bayonets, making some wounds. The people who thus repulsed the soldiers were at church when the alarm was given, but hastened as they had been trained to do during the Indian wars. On the fifth of March, Joseph Warren for the sec- ond time, delivered an address on the anniversary of the "Boston Massacre." Samuel Adams presided. The Old South Church was crowded on the occasion to such an extent that the orator was obliged to enter by a window, with the help of a ladder. He depicted the event of the day they celebrated, and then re- * Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne, did not reach Boston until the twenty- fifth of the next May, however, and the command of the army was not actually taken by Howe until August second. i WABBEN'S ADDBESS. 251 PULPIT AVINDOAV THROFGTr WfllCrr WAIIKEN ENTERED. ferred to the fact that armed men again filled the streets, but he assured those of the British army who were present, that such demonstrations would not intimidate the Americans. He said that indepen- dence was not the aim of the patriots ; that it was 252 WAB BEGUN. their wish that Britain and the Colonies might, "Hke the oak and the ivy, grow and increase together," but that if pacific measures proved ineffectual, the Amer- ican people would press forward, even if " the only way to safety is through fields of blood." Amid the hisses of the officers, it was voted to commemorate "the horrid massacre" the following year in a similar manner. In England, American affairs were the subject of constant discussion. Not only did Pitt and Burke oppose their eloquence against the fatuity of the king •jLud his counsellors, but Franklin still argued for his country against such men as Samuel Johnson and John Wesley, who could not discern the signs of the times. Suddenly, Franklin came to the conclusion that there was no more work for him to do in London, and embarked for home late in March. In April the ministers wrote to Gage to seize the colonial forts and stores, and to resort to short mea.s- ures to repress the rebellion by force ; but by the time they arrived he had already anticipated the instruc- tions. Boston and the towns around it now attracted the attention of the English. It was fondly thought that New York would stand by the king, but though it had not supported the acts of the general Congress, it now came out in favor of American rights. Ethan Allen and the " Green Mountain boys " were ready to seize Fort Ticonderoga, and to separate themselves from New York. Delaware approved the doings of Congress. Virginia, influenced by Washington, Jeffer- son., Patrick Henry and Lee, was earnestly protest- ing against royal imposition ; North Carolina was committed to the Congress, and the entire country GAGE'S MOVEMENTS WATCHED. 253 was busy preparing arms and supplying ammunition for the rapidly gathering volunteers who were every- where drilling in anticipation of war — not a war for independence, but for the recovery of lost rights. GENERAL GAGE. Soon after the affair at Salem it was expected that an attempt would be made by Gage to obtain the arms and stores at Concord, and a careful watch was kept of all movements at Boston. A part of the 254 WAB BEGUN. stores were removed and the cannon secreted, and Adams and Hancock made the house of the Rev. Mr. Clarke their headquarters, at Lexington. On Sun- day, April 1 6, Warren sent Paul Revere, from Bos- ton, to tell them that Gage had launched the boats of some transports which had been laid up all winter, and that it was evident that an advance was to be made. Two days later the move began by the send- ing of a body of men across the Charles River by night, to go through East Cambridge and Lexington to Concord. Just before they left, however, Warren sent out two men to warn Lexington and Concord, Revere, who went through Charlestown, and William Dawes who took the longer route through Roxbury, and the whole country was thus made ready for the event.* When returning from Lexington a few days before, Revere had agreed that if the British should go out by night, he would display lanterns from the steeple of "the North Church," as Christ Church was then familiarly called, and now as they left War- ren, he stopped to engage his friend, John Pulling (afterward captain and commissary of ordnance stores) a vestryman of Christ Church, to attend to the lanterns. Before Revere arrived at Charlestown, the signals had been seen, and it was known that the soldiers were to go by water. Revere roused the men in almost every house between Charlestown and Lexington, and awaked Adams and Hancock before one in the morning. Joined by Dawes and by Samuel Prescott of Con- cord, he pressed on towards Concord. At Lincoln, * The story of the ride of Revere has been made immortal by the poem of Mr. Longfellow. LEXINGTON PREPARED. 255 Dawes and Revere were captured by a party of British officers, and taken back to Lexington, but Prescott reached Concord in safety. By two in the morning the inhabitants of Lexington had been called together on the Common by the sound of the meeting-house bell, and the minute-men, under the command of John Parker, were prepared to meet the enemy when they HEADQUARTERS OF THE CUMMITTEE OF SAFETY, C'AiMBRIDGE. BIRTHPLACE OF THE POET HOLMES. should appear, though as scouts reported that the Brit- ish were not in sight, all retired until the drum should call them to face the threatened attack, Adams and Hancock were, against their inclination, obliged to retire to Woburn, as it was known that they had become the objects of Gage's special hatred, and it 256 WAR BEGUN. was supposed that the expedition was intended to take them.* The British commander found that he had not suc- ceeded in keeping the patriots from alarming the country, and sent to Gage for reenforcements. These were made ready under the command of Lord Percy, but as the boats were at Charlestown, they were obliged to go by a longer route — through Brookline — and did not arrive in time to give the required aid. The object was to reach Concord bridge in time to keep back reenforcements that might be sent from Acton and towns beyond. Just before daylight the British reached Lexington, and were met by the sight of the militia parading in front of the meeting-house, in number less than a hundred. The commander ordered the Americans to "disperse," but the order was not obeyed. It was followed by the command to fire, and seven of the little American band were killed, and nine wounded. Then Parker gave his men orders to disperse. With a huzza and a feu de joic, the British hastened on to Concord, reaching that place at about seven o'clock. *It was not until the twelfth of June that Gage issued his procla- mation, in which, under pretence of granting a general pardon, he proscribed Adams and Hancock by name. At the same time he pro claimed martial law, ordered troops to be concentrated at Boston anc other points, and called the savages to the help of his cause. Mrs. Abigail Adams probal)ly gives the view generally taken of this action, when she writes : " All the records of time cannot produce a blacker page. Satan, when driven from the regions of bliss, exhibited not more malice." At the same time the Congress of New York took every precaution to restrain the Indians from entering the war with their savage methods, and the general Congress called upon the colo- nists to keep a fast, to recognize George III. as their sovereign, and to pray for peace. THE BATTLE AT CONCOHD. 257 The men of the village had retired, and there was no resistance until after nine o'clock, when a force of about four hundred had gathered north of the bridge.* When the British arrived and found their progress impeded, they fired at the Americans, killing one and wounding four. The volley was returned. Two of THE OI>D BATTLE GKOUND AT CONCOKD, MASS. the British were killed, several, wounded, and the battle of Concord was over, for the British began a promiscuous retreat, which did not stop until the *By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood. And fired the shot heard round the world. — J?. IV. Emerson. 258 WAB BEGUN. tired and disheartened regulars found shelter in Bos- ton, though a rest was made at Lexington, where the reenforcements under Lord Percy, met them, but only to turn and join in the hopeless flight. As they advanced, they became more weary, while they were attacked from every angle in the road, and every pro- tecting wall, by the militiamen of the surrounding towns, who came up fresh and cool to revenge the murder of their brethren.* Percy marched thirty miles in ten hours, and the first body retreated twenty miles in six hours. Their loss was nearly three hun- dred — killed, wounded and missing. The Americans lost forty-nine killed, and thirty-nine wounded and missing. The next day the Committee of Safety, which had adjourned to Menotomy (afterwards West Cambridge, and now Arlington) before the battles, now estab- lished its headquarters in the house of Mr. Hastings, on the edge of Cambridge Common, and issued a call to the Colonies, urging them to send volunteers imme- diately, and saying, " Our all is at stake. Death and devastation are the certain consequences of delay. Every moment is infinitely precious. An hour lost may deluge your country in blood and entail per- petual slavery upon the few of your posterity that may survive the carnage." The proclamation was needed only to give official direction to the move- ments, however, for it seemed as if the whole country were turning out to protect its rights. Almost before the British had arrived at their Boston barracks, *The Americans had not forgotten the capture of Louisburg, and had great confidence in their powers. " The drum that beat along the road to I,exington, had beer, at Louisburg," said Edward Everett. THE GENERAL RISING. 259 General Ward found himself at the head of an army of determined freemen. Orders were given that the college should be removed to Concord ; the library was taken to Andover, and the college buildings were appropriated as barracks for the soldiers. " The news of this scene of blood [the battles of Lexington and Concord] roused the spirit of the patriots throughout the Colonies. John Stark in New Hamp- shire, Israel Put- nam in Connect!- ..ji^^i^^^^^, cut, the military oracles of their neighborhoods, leaving unfinished the work on their farms, and mount- ing their horses to join their brethren in peril — the Com- mittee of Orange County [Virginia], James Madison one of the number, pro- nouncing the blow ^f^^~t.^C^p cc^cc^l struck in Massachu- / setts an attack on Virginia and every other Colony — the patriots of the Carolinas entering into associations pledging their lives and fortunes to defend an injured country — are illustrations of the general uprising to support at every hazard a common cause." * The day after the retreat from Concord, Boston was in a state of siege. The Tories deserted their *"The Rise of the Aniciicaii Repuljlic," Frothingham, p. 415. 260 WAR BEGUN. elegant dwellings in Cambridge, and in a few days large numbers of patriots left Boston, first depositing their arms in F"aneuil Hall. The number was so great that the Tories urged Gage to rescind his per- mission that they should withdraw, and he was forced to accede to the request. Many other Tories left their homes in New Eng- land. Among them was Samuel Curwen of Salem, who kept a journal that has been published. In it he says, that finding the spirit of the people to rise on every fresh alarm (" which has been almost hourly "), and their tempers to get more and more sour and malev.olent against "moderate men," he thought it his duty to " withdraw for a while from the storm." Accordingly, he says, " I left my late peaceful home in search of personal security and those rights which, by the laws of God, I ought to have enjoyed there." He sailed at first for Philadelphia, " hoping to find an asylum amongst Quakers and Dutchmen," whom he vainly thought to " have too great a regard for ease and property to sacrifice either on the altar of an unknown goddess." He soon found that "Quakers and Dutchmen " were also patriots, and was fain to sail for England, where he remained nine years. The British government appropriated large sums towards the support of these self-expatriated persons. They were, however, in constant fear lest the pension should be discontinued. When a list of persons ban- ished by the Massachusetts government arrived in England, and contained but four of the thirteen from Salem, the nine not mentioned probably sympathized in the record made by one of them in his diary : "The omission of my name affords me no comfort, THE TORY REFUGEES. 261 fearing it may operate disadvantageously here, being dependent on the bounty of the court." * In 1782 Mr. Curwen heard that the government had actually determined to withdraw all support from the refugees, and his feelings rose so high that he wrote to Samuel Sewall, who was one of them, " So shameless and unexampled an act of barbarity you probably may think cannot be perpetrated in a civ- ilized State." Later in the same year the refugees seem to have become subjects for jest in England, and 7Vie Public Advertiser, of June 29, said, speaking of the withdrawal of pensions from them, " Next year we may hope for more haymakers than we are able to get for the present harvest." The first information that reached England of the affairs at Lexington and Concord came from the Provincial Congress, of which Dr. Joseph Warren was president, and it produced an impression favor- able to the Americans, which increased every day that information from British sources was delayed, as it was thought that the delay was intended to keep *In \-]%-\ the appropriation for this object were reduced more than half. Mr. Curwen went to the treasury February 14th, and found that his allowance had not been diminished, but, he adds, "A few are raised, some struck off, more lessened. Of those that have come to my knowledge, Governor Oliver's is lessened ;^ioo out of ;^3oo; Mr. Williams, who has married a fortune here, is struck off ; Harrison Gray, with a wife and two children, struck off; his brother Lewis, lessened to £^o\ D. Tngersoll, reduced from ;^200 to ;^ioo; Samuel H. Sparkhawk, from ;^i5o to ;^8o; Benjamin Gridley from ;^I50 to ;^roo; Thomas Danforth's. Samuel Sewall's, Samuel Porter's, Peter Tohonnot's, G. Brinlev's. Edward Oxnard's and mine continue as at first; Chandler's raised ^^50; Samuel Fitch's, £20; Col. Morrow's, £tfi ; one whose name T forget is sunk from ;^too to ;^3o." These facts show that the refugees did not have in all respects an agreeable life in England. 262 WAB BEGUN. back less favorable news. When Howe, Burgoyne and Clinton arrived in Boston Harbor, on the twenty- fifth of May, they found the city garrisoned by five thousand men and surrounded by an army of twice that number. Meantime a body of "Green Mountain Boys," under THE OLD MANSE, CONCORD, FROM WHICH THK WIFE OF THE RpjV. WM. KMKIISOX \V.\T( Iir<;i> TIIK RATTLE. command of Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold (who had forced himself into the position), had, on the tenth of May (1775), captured Ticonderoga, a fort which had cost the English a vast sum. On the twelfth they had also taken Crown Point, securing a large amount of ammunitions. Arnold claimed com- THE SECOND CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. 263 mand of the soldiers at Ticonderoga under authority of the Provincial Congress, which had moved to Watertown, and had not only commissioned him, but had also authorized an expedition to Quebec, which was not, however, immediately undertaken. On the day that Ticonderoga was taken, the second Continental Congress met in the old State House in Philadelphia, and sat until the first of August, when it adjourned to the fifth of September, and sat until December 30.* On the twenty-first of July Franklin submitted a plan for a perpetual union of the States,' with the name " The United States of North Amer- ica," but it was not acted upon at the time.f Early in June the " Continental " army was first so called, in a resolution to borrow six thousand pounds for the pur- pose of buying gunpowder. On the fifteenth of June, it was voted to appoint a general, and, " at the particular * A number of the delegates were elected without limit of time, and the commissions of the others were renewed from time to time, and the body may be considered as having been in continuous session from May 10, 1775, until after the close of the war, the formation of the Constitution, and the election of the first Congress chosen under it, in 1788. t Just before this, Franklin had shown his spirit by addressing the following note to one of his old friends, a member of the British Parliament : "Philadelphia, July 5, 1775. " Mr. Strahan — You are a Member of Parliament, and one of that Majority which has doomed my Country to Destruction. — You have begun to burn our Towns and murder our People. — Look upon your Hands ! — They are stained with the blood of your Relation ! — You and I were long friends ; — You are now my Enemy, "and "lam, " Yours, "B. Franklin." 264 WAR BEGUN. request of the people of New England," George Washington was unanimously chosen by ballot to fill the office. The next day he modestly accepted the appointment, and on the seventeeth, the delegates resolved to "maintain and assist him, and adhere to him, the said George Washington, Esquire, with their lives and fortunes." Washington was placed at the head of military affairs not a moment too soon, for it had been for some time evident that General Ward was not the man for the responsible post. At the moment that the election was made, the need of skilled, guidance was great, for another encounter was in progress between the Americans and the British. Gage had determined to extend his lines towards Dorchester and Charlestown, with the help of Howe, Burgoyne and Clinton, and the eighteenth of June had been set for the beginning of the movement ; but the plan was known to the Committee of Safety, and Ward was directed to anticipate them. Accordingly he sent a body of about a thousand men poorly equipped, to fortify Bunker Hill, under command of William Pres- cott. As they left Cambridge Common, President Langdon, of Harvard College, offered a fervent prayer for their safety and success.* It was after midnight before the first sod had been turned up, but the men used their spades with alacrity, and when the sun rose, it disclosed to the astonished British the fact that the Americans were behind a complete earthwork overlooking Boston. *It was Breed's Hill that was actually fortified, it being nearer Bos- ton. Gridley who laid out the works, had been engineer of the col- onial forces at the memorable siege of Louisburg, in 1745. THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 265 A cannonading was begun by the shipping, and a battery was mounted on Copp's Hill, in Boston, but neither stopped the progress of the work that the Americans had begun, despite the severe heat of the the day. Gage saw that it was necessary to storm the works, ordered an assault, and fired Charles- town. Twice his veterans advanced and were repulsed by the irregularly organized and poorly protected pat- riots, but at the third advance the Americans found themselves forced to retire on account of a lack of powder. By order of Prescott, who had the j command at the re- doubt, they retreated slowly to Prospect Hill, where they encamped for the night. The Brit- ish had lost eighty- three officers and more than a thousand men,* and the Americans had lost less than five hun- dred. The greatest loss to the patriot cause was the life of Joseph Warren, who had been made a major- general a few days before, but who acted a private on the field, though asked by both Prescott and Putnam to take the command. His presence on the ground had inspired the soldiers, as his eloquence had given life and courage to the patriots in their councils on many occasio-«s before. He had been a leader in and *It was reported in PJngland that " the king's troops would not fight, but laid down their arms," and " the great carnage among the officers " was thus accounted for. — Curwen's Journal, p. 34. 266 WAR BEGUN. president of the New England Provincial Congress This battle had important influence on both sides, Howe is said to have exclaimed, "They may talk ot their 'Mindens' and their 'Fontenoys,' but there was no such fire there ! " Gage reported to the adminis- tration that the Americans were not the "despicable rabble" that they had been supposed to be, that they possessed a military spirit joined with uncommon zeal and enthusiasm, and that the conquest of the country would not be easy. The Americans were encouraged by the defeat. They had completely crippled Gage, and Prescott had been confident enough to offer to retake the works if he could have fifteen hundred men. Washington had his faith confirmed that the liberty of America was to be secured, and Franklin wrote to England that the Colonies were lost forever. The battle also brought Georgia into the Union of colonies, which henceforth numbered thirteen. Torn from a world of tyrants, Beneath this western sky, We formed a new dominion, A land of liberty. The world shall own we're masters here, Then hasten on the day : Huzza, huzza, huzza, For free America ! — Joseph Warrenr CHAPTER XIII. INDEPENDENCE. mericaTV "\ T T'-' 'ASHINGTON received his commission from Congress three days after the battle on Breed's Hill. The spirit with which he en- tered upon the responsible duties of commander-in-chief may be learned from his correspondence. To his wife he wrote that he had endeavored to avoid the appointment, from a sense that the duties were beyond his capa- city, but that he entered upon them relying confidently upon that Provi- dence which had hitherto preserved him. This spirit he carried through the war. On the twenty-third of June, accompanied by a brilliant mounted escort, Washington left Philadelphia to assume command of the army. He was accompanied by two of the four Major-Gen erals just appointed by Congress, Charles Lee, an officer of uneven temper, who had returned from Europe the previous year, and Philip Schuyler, a man of great zeal for the cause and of high social connections in New York. Two or three hours out of the city they were met by a courier 267 BRITISH STAMPS (for the Amer- ican market.) 268 INDEPENDENCE. bearing the news of the battle of Bunker Hill, and Washington eagerly inquired as to the behavior of the militia-men on the occasion. The response satis- fied him that the country was safe. The slow journey gave the three officers a good opportunity to discuss the state of affairs, and their time was mostly given up to such a council as was needed by men who had just been chosen to prosecute a war. On the twenty- fifth, the party arrived at Newark, where a committee of the Provin- cial Congress appeared to act as escort to New York. They reached that city in the afternoon, and the inhabi- t a n t s turned out with every attestation of joy, to greet the new com- mander. The English Gov- ernor, Tyron, had been ab- sent, and re- turned the same day, though at a later hour, and was received with respect by the loyalists ; but the people looked upon him with suspicion. WASHINGTON AT CAMBBIDGE. 269 Having placed Schuyler in command in New York, Washington hastened towards Cambridge, with Lee, leaving the city on the twenty-sixth, and arriving at Watertown, where the Massachusetts Provincial Con- . gress was in session, on the second of July. He was greeted with a congratulatory address, as had been the case in New York, and the same day went to Cambridge, where the house of the president of the college had been prepared as his headquarters.* The Commander-in-chief was greeted by thundering of artillery, and the shouts of the multitude. He was in the height of Jiis physical vigor, forty-three years of age, a man of stately person, of elegant and digni- fied manners, military in his bearing, and, like all Vir- ginians, perfectly at home in the saddle. Mrs. John Adams wrote, that as she looked on him the lines of Dryden instantly occurred to her : Mark his majestic fabric ! He's a temple Sacred by birth and built by hands divine ; His soul 's the deity that lodges there : Nor is the pile unworthy of the god. On the morning of the third of July, Washington, accompanied by General Lee, formally took command of the army, under an elm which is still cherished as a memento of the occasion. The army was drawn up on the Common before him. The soldiers were ill armed. General Nathaniel Greene, commander of the Rhode Island forces, greeted Washington with a soldierly address, and was received immediately into the confidence of the Commander-in-chief. * This was exchanged after a few weeks, and the house for many years occupied by the poet Longfellow, became headquarters. 270 INBEPENBEN CE. Washington found his irregular army stretched out over a territory of some eight or nine miles in extent, holding in restraint the well-disciplined and well-pro- visioned army of England, which, under Gage, Bur- goyne and Howe, occupied Boston, and the shipping in the harbor. The prospect was not cheering, and it became his first duty to acquaint Congress of the THE WASHINGTON ELM, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. state of affairs, showing the destitution of the soldiers, the need of the appointment without delay, of a quar- termaster-general, a commissary-general, and other general ofiEicers. On the Fourth of July, Washington issued an order to the forces, in which he said, that as the Continen- tal Congress had taken all troops into its service, THE RAGGED CONTINENTALS. 271 they were thenceforth " the troops of the United Provinces of North America ; and it is hoped that all distinctions of Colonies will be laid aside, so that one and the same spirit may animate the whole." He added, "The General requires and expects of all officers not engaged on actual duty, a punctual attendance on divine service, to implore the blessings of Heaven upon the means used for our safety and defence." The ra-gged condition of the soldiers struck him with force, and he made suggestions towards supply- ing this want. The number of the troops had been represented to him as eighteen thousand, but he found but fourteen thousand on the ground. It had been in like manner told him that three hundred bar- rels of powder had been collected, and he had not been informed that all of it excepting thirty-two bar- rels had been expended. This startling discovery de- manded the most efficient measures for supplying the deficiency. His attention was, in fact, to be almost entirely restricted to the duty of bringing order out of the confusion in which he found affairs, and in strengthening his position. His lack of artillery was to a certain extent supplied in December by the cap- ture of the British brig Nancy, with a complete assortment of stores, among which were two thousand muskets, one hundred thousand flints and thirty thousand round shot, and a little later by the skill of Gen. Henry Knox, who brought from Ticonderoga fifty mortars, cannon and howitzers (dragging them over the Green Mountains by long trains of oxen on sledges.) Washington was not without other troubles. Gen- eral Lee did not prove a satisfactory aid. He was unprepossessing in appearance, but was supposed to 272 INDEPENDENCE. have gained remarkable experience and wisdom in Europe. He proved to be a soldier of fortune, vain, impulsive and overbearing, and at one time he came near entering into a compromising correspondence with the British. Such a correspondence was actually car- ried on by Dr. Benjamin Church, a member of the Provincial Congress, who was condemned as a traitor. There was at another time insubordination in camp, and some of the criminals were sent to the old copper mines at Simsbury, Connecticut.* The Rev. Dr. John J. Zubly, of Georgia, who was a delegate to Congress in 1775, also engaged in corre- spondence with the British, and was obliged to flee from the country. The patriotism of the Rev. Mr. Duche also failed. General Gage sailed for England in October, leav- ing the command to Lord Howe. To him was due the burning of Falmouth, now Portland, Me. ; for though it occurred just after he sailed, it was a part of the policy of ravaging the seacoast, which he is sup- posed to have inaugurated. On the morning of the' twelfth of October the place was fired by the British vessels, and the event led to the beginning of the American navy, for it became evident that protection such as ships only could give was needed by towns on the coast. Howe was in a critical situation, for though he had * It is said that these mines, which were used by Connecticut from 1773 to 1827, surpassed in horrors all that is known of European or American prisons. Entrance was effected through a shaft by a ladder ; the rooms were built of boards ; water dripped from the earth ; the caves were gloomy and reeked with filth ; the prisoners were fastened to bars of iron by their feet, and to the beams above by chains around their necks. THE MINUTE MAN. THS SIEGE OF BOSTON. '275 a fleet at his disposal which could ravage the sea- board and thus furnish him supplies, there was a misunderstanding between him and Admiral Graves, commander of the fleet. The Americans had at an early stage taken possession of a large quantity of live stock on Long Island, near Boston, which Gage had intended for supplies,* and now cattle in great numbers were shipped from England, not one of which ever reached the beleagured army. There had been shipments also, of potatoes and eggs, corn and butter, and other necessaries, and generous private offerings were made for the same purpose. Notwithstanding these troubles, the soldiers in the beleagured city managed to amuse themselves in vari- ous ways. Faneuil Hall was made into a theatre, in. which officers took parts, and the Old South meeting- house was used as a riding school for the light drag- oons. For the theatre General Burgoyne, who up tO' that time had been known rather as an unsuccessful author than as a military man, wrote a play entitled "The Siege of Boston," and while it was acting, an officer came upon the stage with the announcement that the Americans were attacking Bunker Hill again. It was supposed at first that this was a part of the play, and some of the audience laughed at it, until it was found to be a real alarm, though the firing amounted to little. It had been the design of Washington to approach Boston on the ice during the winter, but the season * At this time the beef of a poor milch cow was sold in Boston for a shilling a pound. On a Monday evening early in July, 1775, three hundred volunteers went to Long Island in whale boats, and brought oi5 " seventy odd sheep, fifteen head of cattle and sixteen prisoners." 276 INDEPENDENCE. proved warm, and this plan was frustrated. He determined to occupy Dorchester Heights (now South Boston), which overlooked the city, and chose the anniversary of the "Boston Massacre" as the time to make the attempt, a cannonading being kept up on the other sides of Boston,* in order to divert attention from the real work. The firing began on Saturday, March 2, 1776, and on Monday evening, under the bright light of the moon, the advance guard of some eight hundred, followed by a working party of twelve hundred with carts, intrenching tools, and all that skill and thoughtfulness could suggest for safety, passed from Cambridge to the Heights. In the morning the British were startled by the sight which met their eyes as they looked towards Dor- chester. Through the fog that happened to cover them, the new forts looked larger than they were, and Howe said that at least twelve thousand men must have been employed in raising them. Howe at first thought of attacking the Americans, and a party was detailed for the purpose, but the men were dejected as they remembered Bunker Hill. Lord * Mrs. Adams wrote to her husband on that Monday evening, " I have just returned from Penn's Hill, where I have been sitting to hear the amazing roar of the cannon, and from whence I could see every shell that was thrown. The sound, I think, is one of the grandest in nature, and is of the true species of the sublime. 'Tis now an incessant roar, but oh, the fatal ideas that are connected with the sound ! How many of our dear countrymen must fall ! " The next morning she added : " I went to bed about twelve, and rose again a little after one. I could no more sleep than if I had been in the engagement ; the rattling of the windows, the jar of the house, the continual roar of twenty-four pounders and the bursting of shells, give us such ideas, and realize a scene to us of which we could form scarcely any con- ception." BOSTON EVACUATED. 277 Percy took them to the castle, intending to make the attack after dark. A violent easterly storm such as frequently visits Boston in March, set in, and pre- vented the attempt for several days, and then a council of war advised Howe to evacuate Boston immediately. He was in a dilemma. He had in his dispatches scouted the idea of his being in any danger from the "rebels," and had expressed a desire that they would attack him. In the autumn he had said that he could not change the seat of war, because he had insufficient transports. Now he had fewer, and a larger army. However, he made the most hurried arrangements to embark, and the Tories who had felt unbounded confidence in the British power, hastened to crowd themselves into the close quarters of the transports. Of the Tories, Washington wrote that when the order for embarking the troops in Bos- ton was issued, " No electric shock, no sudden clap of thunder, in a word, the last trump could not have struck them with greater consternation. They were at their wits' end, and, conscious of their black ingrat- itude, chose to commit themselves, in the manner I have described, to the mercy of the waves, in a tem- pestuous season, rather than meet their offended countrymen." * Thus, with undignified haste, the British forces evacuated Boston and set sail for Halifax — sev- * Six vessels laden with refugees arrived in England early in June, bringing " R. Lechmere, I. Vassall, Col. Oliver, Treasurer Gray, etc. Those who bring property here may do well enough, but those who expect reimbursement for losses, or a supply for present support, will find to their cost, the hand of charity very cold. 'Blessed ts he (saith Pope) that expecteth nothing, for he shall never be disappointed ; ' nor a more interesting truth was never uttered." — Curwen^s Journal. 278 INDEPENDENCE. enty-eight ships and transports, with some twelve thousand men, including the sympathizers with the royal cause. All the time not a shot was fired by the Americans, and on the morning of Sun- day, March 17, the work of embarkation was com- plete. Howe sailed away for Halifax, that he might get "refreshment" and have room for "exercising his troops," at the same time that Putnam entered from Cambridge, and other American troops from Roxbury. The next day Washington entered with Mrs. Washington, by the road which now bears his name, amid the joyful plaudits of the few of the inhabitants who remained. He said that the destruc- tion of stores after the defeat of Braddock was nothing in comparison with what he saw in Boston. Congresi ordered a gold medal to be struck and presented to bim, bearing the words, Hostibiis primo fngatis, Bos tonum recuperatum, xvii Martii, mdcclxxvi. Wash ington lost no time in sending troops to New York, ^expecting the city to be attacked by the troops which had disappeared in the ships, and he left Cambridge himself on the fourth of April, reaching New York on the thirteenth. General Lee had arrived there on the fourth of February, with orders to resist all efforts to get possession of the Hudson River, and to "keep a stern eye upon the Tories." While Washington had been busy about Boston, the enterprise against Canada had been entered upon. Scarcely had Schuyler taken command at New York before Congress instructed him (June 27th, 1775) to protect Fort Ticonderoga, and take possession of Montreal, and to "pursue any other measures in Canada " that he might consider to the advantage SUCCESS IN CANADA. 279 of the Colonies. The patriot cause was menaced by the Johnson family of Central New York, one of whom, Colonel Guy Johnson, was " Indian Agent," and used his great influence over the Six Nations in favor of the royal cause, to which he was attached. Another of the family was in Montreal endeavoring to stir up the Caughnawaga Indians to rise against the Americans.* Illness forced Schuyler to give up the command to General Richard Montgomery, an Irish officer who had been with Wolfe at the capture of Quebec. He was connected by marriage with the Livingston family. Aided by Ethan Allen, and by John Brown of Pittsfield, Mass., he invested St. John's, and it capitulated to him in November, with the greater portion of the British forces in Canada ; but Allen and Brown planned a premature attack upon Mon- treal, in which Allen was made prisoner, and sent to England. After taking St. John's the way was open to attack Montreal, and this was successfully done on the thirteenth of November. Meantime Arnold, with very particular instructions from Washington, who placed great confidence in him, started across the district of Maine to join Mont- gomery in an attack upon Quebec. On the ninth of November, 1775, he arrived at Point Levi, opposite * Schuyler put an end to trouble from this family, on the nineteenth of January, 1776, by laying siege to Johnson Hall, in which Sir John Johnson had fortified himself, and forcing him to capitulate. There was no outbreak until the massacre of Cherry Valley in November, 1778. The orderly book of Sir John Johnson during the Oriskany campaign (1776-77), has been published (1883), and in the introduc- tion, Mr. J. W. de Peyster makes a vigorous plea for Johnson and the other Tories of the time. 2»0 INDEPENDENCE. Quebec, intending to surprise the fortress, but having a month before committed a letter to Schuyler to an untrustworthy Indian, his designs had become known. An inhabitant of the city writing of the sudden iippearance of the little troop, said, " Surely a miracle must have been wrought in their favor. It is an undertaking above the common race of men in this debauched age. They have travelled through woods and bogs, and over precipices, for the space of one hundred and twenty miles, attended with every incon- venience and difficulty." This was done at the most inclement season of the year. If Arnold had attacked the city immediately, he would probably have been successful, but the enterprise was delayed until the last day of the year, when a number of misadventures, and the fact that the British had been reenforced, caused it to result in failure. Montgomery was killed when bravely leading his men, and Arnold was wounded. The forces were subsequently commanded by Generals Wooster, Thomas and Sullivan ; but no success attended any of them, and the campaign was abandoned in June, 1776. It was a favorite plan of George the Third to carry on the war in the South, and he sent seven regiments under Generals Sir Henry Clinton, and Charles, Earl Cornwallis, who had opposed the measures which led to the war, aided by a fleet under Admiral Peter Parker, to attack Charleston. The* Governor of Virginia had attempted to excite the slaves to rise, and had exasperated the people. The Governor of North Carolina had issued a proclamation shortly after the news of the failure at Quebec had been received, and before the evacuation of Boston, urging SOUTH CAROLINA PATRIOTISM. 283 the colonists to unite in support of his majesty against the "daring, horrid and unnatural rebellion," and they had both failed in their efforts. Now the patriotism of South Carolina was to prove sufficient to protect her against the attack that was about to be made. Lee, who had previously been ordered to Canada to take the place of Montgomery, was sent to the South, and was in command at Charleston, having arrived on the fourth of June. Arrangements had already been made for the protection of the har bor, a hastily erected fort having been fortified on Sullivan's Island, and though not completed when the fleet arrived, Colonel William Moultrie took command of it, and held it against the attack with so much skill and intrepidity, that after enduring a hot fire for twelve hours, the South Carolina militiamen forced the British fleet to retreat with great loss. The fort has since borne the name of Moultrie. Though Lee's advice was against trying to hold the fort, he received much credit for the success that was achieved. There were few men in all the Colonies who had looked forward to independence as a right to be demanded, but in every one there had been slowly growing up a feeling that the relations between them and the Mother-Country could not be sustained as they then existed. The first real declaration of the necessity of independence was made by Virginia, on the fifteenth day of May, 1776, when she instructed her delegates in Congress to propose the sundering of the ties that bound the Colonies to England. On the twenty-ninth of June she went further, and de- clared that the ties which had bound her to the Crown were then dissolved. " North Carolina was 284 INDEPENDENCE. the first Colony to act as a unit in favor of inde- pendence. On the fifteenth of May, only four of the Colonies had acted definitely on the question." North Carolina, Rhode Island and Massachusetts had authorized their delegates to concur in declaring in- dependence, and Virginia had instructed her delegates to propose it.* Many other bodies had done as Cambridge, Mass., did, when, on the twenty-seventh of May, it engaged to support Congress " if" it should " for the safety of the Colonies declare them indepen- dent of the Kingdom of Great Britain;" but none had then taken a step so advanced as that of Virginia. At the time that she declared herself free from Great Britain, she, by an unanimous vote, adopted " the first written Constitution ever framed by an independent political society." f The same conven- tion on the fifteenth of May appointed a committee eventually comprising thirty-two members, including Patrick Henry, George Mason, and James Madison, to prepare a Declaration of Rights, and on the twenty- seventh of May, the Declaration was presented by Archibald Cary. It had been drawn up by Mason. On the twelfth of June it was adopted. It dealt in general principles, and made no reference to Great Britain, as the bills passed in the other Colonies had. On the fourteenth of June the Connecticut Assem- bly directed the delegates of that Colony in Congress to propose that the Colonies be declared independent and absolved from allegiance to the King, and the * See Frothingham's " Rise of the Republic of the United States," pages 502, 512. t "The Virginia Convention of 1776," by Hugh Blair Grigsby, p. 19; Richmond, t8 55. THE COLONIES DECLARED INDEPENDENT. 285 next day New Hampshire voted in favor of a declara- tion of independence. The final step was now to be taken. On the seventh of June,* Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, introduced in Congress at Philadelphia, a resolution to the effect that the Colonies "are, and ought to be, free and independent States," and that a HOUSE IN WHICH THE DECI-ARATION OF INDEPENDENCE WAS WRITTEiV. plan of federation should be immediately made and sent to the Colonies for consideration. In introducing the resolution, Mr. Lee said in substance : *Two days before, on the fifth of June, the declaration made by the Virginia General Assembly having been commmiicated to the Legisla- ture of Pennsylvania, was read and discussed in another room in the same Old State House, in whichthe Congress was in session. 286 INDEPENDENCE. " The question is not whether we shall acquire an increase of territorial dominion, or wickedly wrest from others their just possessions, but whether we shall preserve or lose forever that liberty which we have inherited from our ancestors, which we have pursued across tempestuous seas, and have defended in this land against barbarous men, ferocious beasts and an inclement sky. If so many and distin- guished praises have always been lavished upon the generous defend- ers of Greek and Roman liberty, what shall be said of us who defend a liberty which is founded, not on the capricious will of an unstable multitude, but upon imnmtable statutes and titulary laws ; not that which was the exclusive privilege of a few patricians, but which is the property of all ; not that which was stained by iniquitous ostracisms, or the horrible decimation of armies, but that which is pure, temperate and gentle, and conformed to the civilization of the age ? Animated by liberty, the Greeks repulsed the innumerable army of Persians; sustained by the love of independence, the Swiss and Dutch humbled the power of Austria by memorable defeats, and conquered a rank among nations; but the sun of America shines also upon the head of the brave ; the point of our weapons is no less formidable than theirs ; here also the same union prevails, the same contempt of danger and of death, in asserting the cause of country. Why, then, do we longer delay .'' Why still deliberate.'' Let this happy day give birth to the American republic. Let her arise, not to devastate and conquer, but to re-establish the reign of peace and of law. The eyes of Europe are upon us ; she demands of us a living example of freedom that may exhibit a contrast, in the felicity of the citizen, to the ever-increasing tyranny which desolates her polluted shores. She invites us to pre- pare an asylum, where the unhappy may find solace and the persecuted repose. She invites us to cultivate a propitious soil, where that gen- erous plant which first sprang and grew in England, but is now with- ered by the poisonous blasts of Scottish tyranny, may revive and flourish, sheltering under its salubrious and interminable shade all the unfortunate of the human race. If we are not this day wanting in our duty to our country, the names of American legislators of 1776, will be placed by posterity at the side of those of Theseus, of Lycurgus, Romulus, of Numa, of the three Williams of Nassau, and of all those whose memory has been and forever will be dear to virtuous men ! " The resolution was seconded by John Adams, of Massachusetts, and on the eleventh, a committee consisting of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benja- THE FOURTH OF JULY. 287 min Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert R. Living- ston, was appointed to draw up a Declaration of Inde- pendence. On the second of July it was resolved that " these Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States ; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown." Late in the afternoon of the fourth, the Declaration of Inde- pendence as we know it, the composition of Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, was finally passed and ordered to be engrossed for the signatures of the delegates from the several States.* It was not until the second day of August that it was thus prepared and placed upon the table of the President to receive the signa- tures. It was signed by those then present, and as. one after another joined the body, he was called upon by Charles Thomson, the secretary,! to do the same, *The " Sons of Liberty " had been accustomed to meet under a live oak-tree near the house of Christopher Gadsden, in Charleston, S. C, and there, in 1764, it is said that he first spoke of independence. There, in 1766, the Sons of Liberty met, and with linked hands, pledged themselves to resist, when the time came, and there, on the eighth of August, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed to the people. The tree was cut down by Sir Henry Clinton in 1780. t Charles Thomson, the " Sam Adams of Philadelphia," a literary man of considerable ability, was born in County Derry, Ireland, No- vember 29, 1729, and died at Lower Merion, Pa., August 16, 1824. He was a friend of Franklin, and became Secretary of Congress the day of its first meeting, holding the office until the close of the war. He was then chosen to inform Washington at Mount Vernon of his elec- tion to the Presidency. Thomson then retired from public life. In 1759, he published in London, "An Enquiry into the Alienation of the Delaware and Shawnese Indians," having been concerned in negotia- tions with the Delawares, who had given him the title " Truthteller." In 1808, he ])ublished, in Philadelphia, a version of the Bible in four volumes, in which he anticipated many of the improved translations of the Canterbury revision of 18S1. Seven years later, he published " A Synopsis of the Four Evangelists," also in Philadelphia. 288 INBEPENDENCK SO that the signers were not all of them members at the same time, and many of them took no part in the deliberations on the subject. It was entitled " The unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America. It was easy to decide to separate from England, but not so easy to make the plan for confederation, which was resolved upon on the seventh of June. The committee to which this work was given, reported on the twelfth of July, but it was not until the spring of 1 78 1, that Maryland, the thirteenth State, had rati- fied the " articles of confederation and perpetual union," These had been adopted by Congress in November, 1777, and sent to the States, but various reasons postponed their immediate ratification. This did not hinder Congress from acting as the central power, though all its acts needed the consent of the States before they became binding. The fact that the grants from the Crown to colo- nists were of a very vague nature, some extending from the Atlantic shore to the Pacific Ocean, or South Sea, as it was called,* gave rise to considerable confusion, and proved finally a very great difficulty in the way of union. The subject came to the surface very soon after the Declaration of Independence had been made. Public attention was first drawn to it, probably, by the action taken by the State of Maryland during the discussion in Congress of the objections to the articles of confederation, in June, 1778. On the twenty-second of that month, Maryland insisted that the boundaries of those States which made claims to land reaching to the Mississippi or to *Seepp. 85, 103, no, 134. TROUBLE FROM THE ORIGINAL GRANTS. 289 the South Sea, should have their Hmits defined to the westward by the Congress, and that the soil of the Western territories should be held for the common benefit of all the States.* February twenty-second, 1779, New Jersey, by her delegates, signed the articles of confederation, but expressed firm reliance that the candor and justice of the several States would, in due time, remove the existing inequality, and the delegates, on the twenty- third, presented resolutions passed by their Legisla- ture to the same effect, and expressing their belief that New Jersey was justly entitled to a right, in common with the other members of the Union, to such property westward of the frontiers of the several States as had not been granted to individuals before the commencement of the war, and had been gained by the blood and treasury of all. Maryland, on the twenty-first of May following, expressed through her delegates, her confidence that the Congress would make an equitable settlement of the conflicting interests of the different States, and said that she dreaded the continuation of the then present condition of affairs, lest after the pressure of the immediate calamities had passed, the causes which held the States together might be weakened and the States considering the Confederation no longer bind- ing, declare for disunion and independent existence. Maryland suggested at the same time that Virginia, by transferring her territory to the westward, might help * One of the objections to the holding of vast Western tracts by the favored States, seen very clearly by the people of Maryland, was that by selling at even low prices, they could lessen their taxes and injure the States which were obliged to depend upon their home resources, by draining them of their most desirable inhabitants. ^90 INDEPENDENCE. the Confederation to a solution of this grave difficulty. On the thirtieth of October, 1779, Congress recom- mended Virginia and the other States not to sell any of their land to the westward during the war, basing the recommendation on the same arguments which had been used by the delegates from Maryland. On the seventh of March, 1780, New York came for- ward with a patriotic offer to permit Congress to limit its boundaries to the westward. This was aptly entitled " An act to facilitate the completion of the articles of confederation and perpetual union," and began with these words : Whereas nothing under Divine Providence can more effectually contribute to the tranquility and safety of the United States of America than a federal alliance, on such l,jeral principles as will give satisfac- tion to its respective members ; and whereas the articles of confedera- tion and perpetual union recommended by the honorable the Congress of the United States of America, have not proved acceptable to all the States, it having been conceived that a portion of the waste and uncul- tivated territory within the limits or claims of certain States ought to be appropriated as a common fund for the expenses of the war ; and the people of the State of New York being on all occasions disposed to manifest their regard for their sister States, and their earnest desire to promote the general interest and security, and more especially to accel- erate the federal alliance, by removing, as far as it depends upon them, the before-mentioned impediment to its final accomplishment, be it therefore enacted, etc. On the sixth of September following Congress again made a recommendation referring to the declarations of Maryland and Virginia, reminding the people bow indispensably necessary it was to establish the Union on a fixed and permanent basis, and upon principles wiiich should be satisfactory to all, and asking the States making claims to Western territory to remove the embarrassment which those claims con- WESTERN TERRITORY CEDED. 291 tk.ued, since they could not be persevered in without endangering the stability of the Federation. On the tenth of October, Congress took action again, this time determining how the Western terri- tory should be disposed of in case the States should transfer it to the Federal Union,* In consequence of this action the States began to make cession of their Western lands to the Federai Union. On the first of March, 1781, New York ceded its territory ; Virginia followed on the first of March, 1784, supplementing its act on that date by another on the thirtieth of December, 1788, by which it agreed to ratify the fifth article of the ordinance of 1787. On the nineteenth of April, 1785, Massachusetts followed ; Connecticut did the same, September 14, 1786.1 South Carolina, August 9, 1787; North Car- olina (stipulating that " no regulation made or to be made by Congress shall tend to the emancipation of slaves") February 25, 1790; and Georgia, April 24, *The resolution provided that these lands should be formed into distinct Republican States, having, when admitted to the Union, the same rights held by the others, and that the reasonable expenses of war in acquiring the ceded territory should be repaid to the States which had incurred it. t In making the cession, Connecticut reserved to herself a tract on the shores of Lake Erie, still known as the Western Reserve, or the Connecticut Reserve, jurisdiction over which she did not resign until May 30, 1800. The tract comprised about four million acres, a terri- tory one third larger than the present State. Half a million acres of this were granted to certain citizens who had suffered by the burning of their property during the Revolution (known afterwards as the "Fire Lands ") and the remainder was sold in 1795 for $1,200,000.00, the sum being set apart for the support of education. Washington and others strongly opposed this compromise. See Rice's History of the Western Reserve, and" Maryland's Influence in Founding a National Commonwealth," by Dr. Herbert B. Adams. 292 INDEPENDENCE. 1802. The territory ceded by each State was the object of separate legislation by Congress, first be- ''■ 1 And empty all your veins for liberty. No pent-up Utica contracts your powers, But the whole boundless continent is yours ! Jonathan M. Sewall 1778. CHAPTER XV. SOUTHERN OPERATIONS. — PEACE. THE scene of operations was now shifted to the southward, and as the Tories were more numer- ous there than in the North, the country was desolated by a partisan warfare. Chnton sent a force of twenty- five hundred men to attack Savannah, and as the place was protected by only nine hundred Americans, under Gftieral Robert Howe, it was, on the twenty- ninth of December, 1778, obliged to capitulate. Augusta, Ga., was taken soon after. Congress then sent General Lincoln to command the forces in the South. On the eleventh of May the British sum- moned Charleston to surrender, but the Americans re- fused, and the British fell back upon Savannah, leaving affairs much the same as at the opening of the year. The taking of Stony Point, on the Hudson, at the entrance to the Highlands, forty-two miles above New York, was one of the most daring feats of the war. The attack was planned by Washington, and carried out by "mad" Anthony Wayne, a Pennsylvanian general who had Keen commended for bravery at Monmouth.* Chnton had taken the place on the first of June, 1779, and 'had fortified it. With five *-Wayne isDuried in tne churchyard of '•' Old St. David's at Radnor," near Philadelphia, celebrated in Longfellow's poem. 311 312 SOUTHERN OPERATIONS.— PEACE. hundred and fifty men, Wayne surprised it on the night of July i6th, and took it with five hundred and forty-three officers and men. A detachment from West Point was to have made a simultaneous attack upon Fort Lafayette, at Verplanck's Point, on the opposite side of the river, but as this was not effected,, Wayne was unable to hold Stony Point, and on the eighteenth, he destroyed and abandoned it ; but the movement checked Clinton's advances in other direc- tions. Lee wrote to Wayne that he considered this the most brilliant affair of the war, on either side, and also the most brilliant he knew in history. " The assault of Schweidnitz * by Marshall Laudon," he declared inferior to it. The affair at Stony Point was followed by a sur- prise of the garrison at Paulus Hook (now Jersey City), by Major Henry Lee ("Light-horse Harry"), after- wards General Lee, father of the late General Robert E. Lee. Lee set out on the eighteenth of August, and after taking nearly two hundred prison- ers, including three officers, effected his escape with but two men killed and three wounded. The year was memorable also for an attempt to retake Savannah, made by Lincoln, aided by the French fleet under d'Estaing. It was not successful, and resulted in a loss of a thousand lives, including that of Pulaski. To the disasters of the year must be added the failure of an expedition to the Penobscot, planned by Boston in August, the incursion of the British into Virginia in May, and the sacking of *The celebrated Baron Gideon Ernst Von Laudon took Schweianitz by assault, without investment, from the Prussians, during the " Seven Years' War," October ist, 1761. NAVAL SUCCESSES. 318 New Haven, Norwalk and Fair Haven by General Tryon in July. These last were raids against unpro- tected and unarmed peoples, and were disgraceful to civilization. The British shipping had suffered greatly all through the war from American cruisers, which had taken millions of dollars' worth of prizes before this time. During 1779, one captain took into Boston eight prizes of the value of a million dollars, while eiofhteen were taken into New London. Still there CK^^ No. 45^-^7 SIX DOttARS Six ^0££m.i. THIS Bill entitles ihe _,_„ Bearer to Tcceivf SIX SPAMISn MILLED DOLLARS, or the "Vahiethereof imGOLTI OT SIISVUK-aecardin^ to aResoluiion of cON'^ GRESS puBiMai Phi. ladelphiiiNav-Z- iJ/6' m^m. was really no American navy. The navy grew out of the needs of the people. The first movement was made in this direction after the British sloop-of-war Falcoji had begun to make depredations along the New England coast in 1775. The men of Gloucester repulsed Linzee, captain of this vessel, in August, when he entered their harbor in chase of a schooner. After a fight of several hours, Linzee lost thirty-five men. In June a sloop was taken from the British at 314 SOUTHER^' OPERATIONS.— PEACE. Machias, Maine, and her armament was put on another vessel which was used to intercept ships entering Boston harbor. In September commissions were given authorizing the taking of supplies at sea, and after the burning of Falmouth (October, 1775), the New England Colonies slowly equipped a small fleet which became the nucleus of the American navy. After the capture of the Nancy, the move- ment was more rapid. The cruisers had merely attacked merchant vessels, though with the aid of Spain and France they had almost destroyed British commerce. Under the name of "Paul Jones," a young Scotchman named John Paul had offered his services to the government at the end of 1775, and hoisted (as is said) the first American flag* ever thrown to the breezes, on the Alfred, the flag ship of a squadron of eight vessels that sailed from the • Delaware River. He had captured many prizes on different vessels, when, early in 1778, he harrassed the coasting trade of Scotland, and attempted to carry off an earl,| thinking that it might lead to a profitable exchange of prisoners. In May he arrived at Brest with two hundred prisoners, nearly twice as many as *The London Chronicle of July 27th, 1776, said that " the colors of ' the American fleet have a snake with thirteen rattles, the fourteenth Dudding." In 1751, Franklin's paper, the Pennsylvania Gazette, had said " We do ask fish, but thou givest us serpents," and it was soon afterwards suggested that a cargo of rattlesnakes should be sent to London, for distribution in St. James' park. In 1754, to stimulate concerted action against the French and Indians, the Pennsylvania Gazette placed at its head a design representing a rattlesnake cut into eight parts, with the motto "Join, or die." In 1776, this was improved upon by representing the snake in thirteen parts, one for each State. t He was only baffled in this attempt by the earl's absence. EXPLOITS OF PAUL JONES. 315 his crew, and endeavored to get a better command from the commissioners to France. Correspondence failing, he was struck by the saying in " Poor Richard's ahnanac," " If you would have your business done, go ; if not, send," Thereupon he went to Paris, and suc- ceeded, changing the name of the vessel entrusted to him to Le Bon Homme Richard, in compliment to Franklin. With this poor vessel he encountered two English ships of war, in September, in the English Channel, and after the most terrible naval battle ever fought, carried the fleet into a Dutch port as prizes, and was received in France with great honor, the king presenting him a sword. Congress afterward voted thanks to him, and caused a gold medal to be struck and given him. There were no more important naval fights than those of Paul Jones during the war. Philip Freneau, the poet, wrote verses on this victory, in which he said, referring to the flag : Go on, great man, to scourge the foe, And bid the haughty Britons know They to our thirteen stars shall bend; The stars that clad in dark attire Long glimmered with a feeble fire. But radiant now ascend. The winter of 1 779-80 was one of extreme sever- ity. Washington wrote that the army had not expe- rienced so much distress at any period of the war. He was at Morristown, New Jersey. The Hudson was frozen over, and New York, which Clinton had left early in 1780, to go to the South, was in such a state that he could have approached it readily over, the ice, but he was unable to move. A great deal of 316 SO UTHEBN OPERA TIONS. — PEA CE. his difficulty arose from the depreciation of the conti- nental currency. By March, 1780, it required forty dollars of paper money to buy one dollar of specie.* New Jersey suffered, for the army was obliged to for- age on the region around, though it must be said that both the army and the citizens bore their trials with fortitude and patience. Washington was disquieted also by a court-martial which was assembled at Morris- town to try General Arnold for acts while in command at Philadelphia, in 1778.! He was pronounced guilty of irregular and imprudent conduct, and the sentence was confirmed by Congress on the twelfth of Febru- ary, 1780. Washington was obliged to reprimand Arnold, and he did it with consideration, compliment- ing him on his previous record ; but it seems to have stirred up the vile spirit of the future traitor, and to have led to his final downfall. *The depreciation of the currency is shown by the following table: March ist, 1778, one dollar in specie was worth ^51.75 in paper ; Sept. 1st, 1778, it was worth $4.00; March ist, 1779, '* was worth $10.00; Sept. 1st, 1779, it was worth $18.00; March ist, 1780, it was worth $40.00; Dec. 1st, 1780, it was worth $100.00; and by May ist, 1781, one dollar in coin would buy from $200.00 to $500.00 of paper mone\-. t These acts of Arnold are referred to in a letter written by Richard Peters, who was secretary of the Board of War from 1776 to 1781, to Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State under Washington, published in Breck's "Recollections." Peters says that he was sent to Phil- adelphia, in June, 1778, by orders of Washington, to secure clothing and stores secreted by persons who had remained in the city during its occupation by the British, and that when he left, he placed fifty thousand dollars in Arnold's hands to pay for stores. This money Arnold converted to his own use, purchasing a country-seat with a por- tion of the proceeds. He was also detected in appropriating public stores to his own use. Peters adds : " When his traitorous conduct at West Point became public, neither Colonel Pickering nor myself were the least surprised at it." SIEGE OF CHARLESTON. 317 LOBD COBNWAIiLIS. After a long and tempestuous voyage, Clinton arrived off the coast of South Carolina, towards the end of January, and two weeks later embarked, about thirty miles below Charleston. On the twentieth of March his vessels of war crossed the bar, and the siege of the place was begun and carried on with the 318 SOUTHERN OPERATIONS. — PEACE. greatest precision. On the twelfth of May, the city was obliged to capitulate to the superior forces, and on the fifth of June, Clinton sailed for the North, fondly thinking that the South was subdued, leaving Cornwallis to carry the war into North Carolina and Virginia. The position was no sinecure. The Carolinas were guarded by three devoted patriots, General Francis Marion, who had taken part in the defence of Sulli- van's Island, in 1776; General Andrew Pickens, a Pennsylvanian ; and General Thomas Sumter, a Vir- ginian, who, like Pickens, was of Fluguenot descent, and like him also, had been engaged in the Cherokee War, in 1761 ; who were adepts in guerilla warfare, and gave the British and Tories constant anxiety, attack- ing them at unexpected times, and capturing superior forces. They and their men shrunk from no priva- tion, and thought no attempt too hazardous to be made. Besides these, General Kalb was sent by Washington to strengthen the cause, and Lincoln was superseded by Gates. Kalb and Gates met the British at Camden (August i6tb), thirty miles northeast of Columbia (S. C), and were defeated with great loss, among the killed being Kalb himself,* who had done his utmost to stem the retreating Continen- tals. Cornwallis was supported by Francis Rawdon Hastings {afterwards Baron Rawdon, Earl of Rawdon and Marquis of Hastings), usually called Lord Rawdon, who had taken part in the battle of Bunker Hill. *A resoh.aon was adopted by Congress in the following Octobei authorizing the erection of a monument to the memory of Kalb, and one hundred and two years afterward, in February, 1883, an appropriation of ten thousand dollars was made to carry the resolution into effect. Amiapolis, Md., was chosen as the site of the monument. COBNWALLIS RUTHLESS. 319 Gates, who had come from the North with loud boasts that he should " Burgoyne " Cornwallis, took to his heels and rode two hundred miles in three days, apparently careless about his army, which, with the exception of the division commanded by Kalb, did itself little credit. Cornwallis was elated by the result at Camden, and entered upon the most severe course towards the Americans. He erected a gallows upon which to hang all who had once borne arms with the British and had afterwards joined the Americans, and all who had given their parole. His men ruthlessly destroyed property on every hand, and put to death many with utter recklessness. For this he was applauded by the home government, which told him to act upon the supposition that no good faith or justice was to be expected from the Americans. Gate's, to whom the defeat at Camden was due, had been appointed in opposition to the judgment of Washington, who preferred Greene, and now Con- gress gave the command to that officer, who found himself at the head of but two thousand men, opposed to Cornwallis, flushed by victory and stimulated by the support of his government. The country had been roused, however, and patriots gathered on all hands to 'protect their homes. Cornwallis sent a force under Major Patrick Ferguson to secure the upper country, intending to meet him at Charlotte, the capital of Mecklenburg County. It was in this county that the patriots had met in May, 1775, and passed resolutions strongly savoring of independence, and it was still full of determination, Cornwallis soon pronounced it, with reason, the " Hornet's Nest h20 SO UTH ERN OPERA TIONS. — PEA CE. of North Carolina ! " Ferguson was attacked at King's Mountain, on the Hne between North and South I Carolina, and his entire force either killed or captured, on the seventh of October, by an army of inferior I numbers, but composed of hardy mountaineers, of Huguenot descent, who were not prepared for a cam- paign, but merely determined to repulse the invad- ers. They did more than they knew, for the advance of Cornwallis was effectually checked, and he began to retreat to the southward. Here the story of affairs in the South must be inter- rupted to tell the sad tale of the treason of Arnold. Six months after he had been so mildly reprimanded by Washington, Arnold made overtures to the Brit- ish, and obtained command of West Point, one of the most important posts of the Americans, in order to betray it to them. His plot was defeated by the capture of Major John Andre, who had been the medium of communication between Clinton and Arnold, as he was about to enter the Brit- ish lines with plans of West Point concealed in his stockings. Within half a mile of Tarrytown, he was met by three of the alert Westchester farmers who had been put upon their guard by the fact that the British made frequent raids through the " Neutral Ground," in JOHN ANDEE. EXECUTION OF ANDEE. 321 search of plunder.* They were astonished to find that they had intercepted a spy, and took Andre to the nearest post, North Castle, whence information was despatched to Arnold and Washington, who were to have met on the twenty-fifth of September, at the house of Beverley Robinson, opposite West Point, then the headquarters of Arnold. Washington did not receive the despatch until he had reached Robinson House, and then Arnold had affected his escape. It was in season, however, to prevent the escape of Andre, who, after a patient trial, was hanged at Tappan, on the second of October. The care with which he was tried was in marked contrast to the action of the British in a similar case, that of Nathan Hale, a graduate of Yale College, who was executed by Lord Howe, at New York, on the twenty-second of September, 1776. Both Hale and Andre were young, intelligent, and handsome in personal appear- ance. Both entered the enemy's lines to get infor- mation, but Andre was treated with courtesy, while Hale had received but brutal and inhuman roughness. He was refused the use of a Bible, and a letter which he had written to his mother was destroyed, in order, as his custodian said, "that the rebels should never know that they had a man who could die with such firmness " as he displayed. * The " Neutral Ground " was a region stretching some thirty miles north and south between the American and British lines, including Westchester County, at this time desolated by the " Skinners," sympa- thizing with the Americans, and the " Cow boys," inclining to the British. The captors of Andre were ]ci\\-[-\ Pauldinc. Isaac Van Wart and David Williams. They refused his offered bribes, but were so careless of fame as to for2;et to leave their names at headquarters when they surrendered the prisoner. 322 -SO UTHERN OPEBA TIONS. — PEACE. Arnold escaped to a British vessel, and was amply rewarded for his treachery in money and mili- MONU.MENT TO PAULDING, WIMJAMS AND VAN WAKT. tary rank, though the officers who were compelled to associate with him held him in detestation.* * It was related of a distinguished English earl that when some one proposed to present Arnold to him, he declined, saying, " No, I leave him to the executioner." Curwen writes, that on one occasion Earl Surrey " happened to espy Arnold, the American seceding general, in the House [of Com- mons], sent him a message to depart, threatening, in case of refusal, to move for breaking up the gallery; to which the General answered tliat he was introduced there by a member; to which Lord Surrey replied, he might under that condition stay, if he would promise not to enter it again ; with which General Arnold complied. This is the second instance of public disrespect he has met with ; [sic] the King having been forced to engage his royal word not to employ or pension him; a just reward for treachery, which is ever odious." Elizabeth Arnold died in the poorhouse, at Norwich, Conn., in 1852, aged 92. She was a cousin of Benedict, and was the last of his kin in that vicinity. DANIEL MORGAN. 323 Washington thought that Arnold was so deficient in feeling and "so hackneyed in villainy," that he could continue the most sordid pursuits without remorse. Congress gave a farm and a pension to each of the captors of Andre, and a silver medal was delivered to each of them at headquarters, by Washington. VIEW FKOM WEST POINT. In the South, Cornwallis sent Colonel Banister Tarleton, towards the end of 1780, to attack Colonel Daniel Morgan, who was advancing towards the dis- trict of "Ninety-six," in South Carolina. Morgan was an officer of experience. He had been with Braddock in 1775, had been taken prisoner at Que- bec at the time of Arnold's expedition, and was con- ,'ilJ4 MnTllFlx\ ()/'/-:/.'.t77()VS. — PKACE. spiciious at Saratoga, lie was now conimandinj; a force nearly as great as that of Tarleton (\nn not like his composed of disciplined men), which he had recruiteil in Georgia and North Carolina. The two forces met on the seventeenth of January, at a place in Spartanburgh. S. C known as "Hannah's Cow- pens." from the fact that it belonged to a gra^cing farm of one Hannah. Tarleton was routed by i\lor- gan. and pursuetl twenty miles by Colonel Washing- ton.* The British lost eight hundred men and all their cannon and arms, while the Americans had but twelve killed and sixty wounded. It was considereii bv the British, that no other action of the campaign reflected so much ilishonor to their arms, and on both sides of it was pronounced the most extraordinary victory of the war. Cornwallis was thunderstruck, but burning his bag- gage, entereil upon a fruitless pursuit of Morgan, and at last, on the fifteenth of March, 1781. encountered the whole force of Greene at Guilford Court House, where a battle was fought that resulted in favor of the ; British, but left them so much weakened that Corn- wallis was forced to give up North Carolina, and actually made the defeated armv his pursuers. Dur- ing the summer the war subsided, but on the eighth of September, Greene, assisted by Marion and Pick- ens, and the cavalry of Lee and Colonel Washing- * William Augustine ^^^-lsh^ngton w.is a distant relative of the Commander-in-chief. He was born in Stafford County, Va., Febru- ary 2S. 1752, and had been engaged in the battles of Long Island, Trenton and Princeton. He received a silver medal from Congress for his behavior at Cowpens, and one of gold was given to Morgan. Washington was taken prisoner at Eutaw Springs, and was not released until peace was declared. GUKKSE (iAlSH TUK hOVTIi. ?/2i} U)Xii TCit:X the combined forces of the Brithh at Eutaw Springs, and drove them from the fitld with great lost*. Greene lb advance was checked, j^owever, by the enemy, who were obliged to decamp duiing the next t. Ihufe Greene had gained the South, The .y, . ..sh were powerless, and Cornwall- - efforts to end the war on the soil of . spring and summer of 1781, CornwaJlis pursued a devastating war in \' and becorrjiijg thoro-, success, but destroying millions of dollars' worth of property. Washington saw his own home at Mount V crnon in great danger, but he said be would prefer to see it in ruins rather than that it should be saved by dishonorable means. Arnold at this time attacked and burned Richmond, and Lafayette was sent to ojxrrate against him. The British much weakened the little bold that they had had in the South \ A 2jct oi cruelty on the part of Lor on the fourth of August, 1781, hung Isaac Hayne, who after the fall of Charleston had gone to the city to get relief for his wife and children from the small-pox, and liad been forced to accept British protection (or the prison-ship) on condition that he should not be called upon to bear arms as a return for the relief. The British afterwards called upon him to take up arms for them, and he took the patriot side, considering that the British* had broken their agreement. He was afterwards taken prisoner. By causing Clinton to believe that he was intending to make an attack upon New York, Washington led him to strive to protect himself at the exrxmse of 326 -SO UTBEBN OPERA TIONS. — PEACE. Cornwallis, and it was not until late in August that his own army even became aware of the fact that the real point of attack was in Virginia. By skilful manoeuvring, Washington brought about a junction of the forces of Rochambeau* (who had come from France at the suggestion of d'Estaing, after his return in 1780), and had himself actually reached the Delaware before Clinton fathomed his plans. Then Arnold was sent to ravage and burn New London, Conn., which was done September 6th, the fort at Groton Hill being taken and its soldiers murdered after surrender. This was the fitting place for the end of the exploits of the traitor in America, who was born at Norwich, a few miles distance up the Thames. Washington was not turned from his course by this diversion of Arnold, and arrived at Philadelphia on the thirtieth of August. He was received with enthusiasm, and there was great curiosity as to his destination. The army passed through the city on the second of ' September, its line stretching nearly two miles, and on the next day the French troops followed, eight thousand strong. On each occasion there was the utmost enthusiasm on the part of the citizens. The President of Congress, and the fashion of the city, attended a grand review of the French army, and there was a banquet to Rochambeau and the French Minister, Luzerne,! during which despatches * Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur de Rochanibeju. His march from Newport to North Castle, N. Y., was performed in a masterly manner. It was at first intended that the attack should be made on N. Y. t Anne Cesar de la Luzerne arrived at Boston August 3, 1779, "\d was received with great respect. On the 25th he visited Harvard -•liege, the President making an address to him in Latin. He rned to France in 1783. CORNWALLIS SURRENDERS. 327 arrived announcing tliat the Count De Grasse* had arrived in the Chesapeake, with the naval force upon which Washington had anxiously depended for aid in his approaching contest with Cornwallis. The fifth of September witnessed a naval conflict between De Grasse and the commander of the English fleet that Clinton had sent from New York. The loss or the British was great, and after remaining five days in sight of the French, the English returned to New York, leaving De Grasse master of the bay. Cornwallis had at first been so sanguine of success, feeling that he had only Lafayette to oppose him, that he had offered to send a portion of his troops to help Clinton against Washington. Before September ended, he found himself shut up at Yorktown by the combined French and American forces which men- aced him both on land and water, while he, however, had hope that Clinton would come to his help, and Washington was dismayed by a proposition made by De Grasse to keep to sea, leaving but two vessels at the mouth of York River. At the urgent entreaty of Washington and Lafayette, this purpose was not carried out. By degrees the position of the British became less and less tenable, and by the seventeenth of October, Cornwallis proposed to surrender. On the nineteenth, the British force marched out between the French and American troops ranged on opposite sides of the field, and laid down their arms, while Major General O'Hara, acting for Cornwallis (whose absence was excused on account of " indisposition"), surrendered the English general's sword to Genera^ *Fran9ois Joseph Paul, Count de Grasse-Tilly, one of the mos; renowned of French captains, was born at Valette, in 1723. so UTHERN OPERA TIONS. — PEACE. Lincoln, who had been obHged to give up his sword to Cornwallis, at Charleston, eighteen months before. The capitulation was drawn up by a son of that Lau- rens, formerly President of Congress, who had been imprisoned in the tower of London, of which Cornwal- lis had been constable. The French influence in bringing about the sur- render of Cornwallis can never be forgotten. Leav- ing out of the ac- count Lafayette, who was of the greatest assistance by his bravery and enthusiasm for the cause, and Steuben, who was led to en- ter the American army through French influence, the entire naval force, without which the effect could hardly have been produced, was French, and of the sixteen thousand troops, seven thousand were of that naticii. In thus mentioning the American indebtedness to the French, it must not be permitted to detract from the praise that should be awarded to Washington, whose calm perseverance and skilful direction of the campaign was the real cause of its success. He ordered that Divine services should be performed in all the brigades the next day, and that the soldiers should "uivversally attend, with that seriousness of HEADQUARTERS OF CORNWALLIS AT TORKTOWN. TBANSPOBTS OF JOY. 329 deportment and gratitude of heart which the recog- nition of such reiterated and astonishing interposi- tions of Providence demand of us." Congress was transported with joy. It decreed that thanks should be given to Rochambeau and De Grasse, and that a column should be raised at York- town, commemorative of the alliance of France and the United States, and of the victory of their arms, HOUSE IN "WHICH THE ARTICLES OF CAPITUL 4.TI0N WERE SIGNED AT YORKTOWN. ., and it appointed a day of thanksgiving and prayer to God for his signal interposition. The same feelings were excited throughout the States, for it was felt that war was over. Count De Vergennes sent the information from Versailles to Franklin, who was in Paris on the nineteenth of November. He had himself received it the same evening, and wrote 330 SOUTHERN OPERATIONS. — PEACE. at eleven at night. Franklin was in ecstasy of joy, and said that there was no " parallel in history of two entire armies being captured from the same enemy in any one war." Paris was illuminated three successive nights, and there were great rejoicings, and many illuminations in other parts of France. The news reached England on the twenty-fifth of November, and Parliament met without delay. There was a general opposition to the prosecution of the war, and a resolution was offered that all further efforts to reduce the revolted Colonies be given up. The King was stubborn, but at last, in March, 1782, a resolution was passed in the House of Com.mons that all who should advise continuing the war should be deemed enemies of the King and country.* On the twentieth of March, Lord North was obliged to dissolve his ministry. Lord Rockingham was then with the utmost reluctance called to the head of affairs, and he accepted on condition that the inde- pendence of the United States should be acknowl- edged. Franklin was consulted at Paris, and he expressed a willingness to negotiate for peace, provided France were included. A preliminary treaty was accordingly signed on the thirtieth of November, 1782, by the *Curwen writes, "As soon as the joyful tidings of the ministers' defeat and the nation's deliverance was announced in the lobby and avenues of the House to the numerous multitudes that waited in anxiety and perturbation to know the fate of their country, the most vehement and heartfelt shouts of acclamation pierced the ear, if they did not reach the heart of the minister, now tottering on the Treasurj bench." The Government made efforts to restrain the people froir illuminations, in London, but not with entire success. The member; who had conquered the ministry were hailed by the multitude "as th» saviors of their country. " A BITTEB PILL, 331 three powers. Franklin introduced Thomas Gren- ville, the English representative at Versailles, and there was much amusement at seeing, as Bancroft says, " the dismissed Postmaster-general for America, at the request of the British Secretary of State, introduce the son of the author of the Stamp Act as the British Plenipotentiary, to the minister for foreign affairs of the Bourbon king." On the fifth of December, 1782, a dark and foggy day, King George III. came into the House of Lords, announced by a "tremendous roar of artillery," to acknowledge formally the independence of the United States. He took his seat upon the throne, dressed in his royal robes, and, with evident agitation, drew from his pocket the scroll containing his speech. His usual impressive and clear delivery left him, and he spoke with hesitation, a choked utterance and great embarrassment. He said, " I lost no time in giving the necessary orders to prohibit the further prosecu- tion of offensive war upon the continent of North America. Adopting, as my inclination will always lead me to do, with decision and effect whatever I col- lect to be the sense of my parliament and my people, I have pointed all my views and measures in Europe, as in North America, to an entire and cordial recon- ciliation with the Colonies. Finding it indispensable to the attainment of this object, I did not hesitate to go to the full length of the powers vested in me, and offer to declare them " — Here he paused, and was in evident agitation, either embarrassed in reading his speech by the darkness of the room, or affected by a very natural emotion. In a moment he resumed — "and offer to declare them free and independent 332 SOUTHERN OPERATIONS. — PEACE. States. In thus admitting their separation from the crown of these kingdoms, I have sacrificed every con- sideration of my own to the wishes and opinions of my people. I make it my humble and ardent prayer to Almighty God, that Great Britain may not feel the evils which might result from so great a dismember- ment of the Empire, and that America may be free from the calamities which have formerly proved in the Mother-Country how essential monarchy is to the enjoyment of constitutional liberty. Religion, lan- guage, interests and affection may, and, I hope, will, yet prove a bond of permanent union between the two countries." This speech was delivered in the presence of the Lords and Commons, and in the audience were Copley, West, and some American ladies. It was reported by Elkanah Watson. The final treaty was signed at Fontainbleau, but not until September 3, 1783. Meantime there had been no important military operations in America, and the British, shut up at first in a few seaboard towns,* had evacuated Savan- nah, July II, 1782, Charleston, December 14, and New York, November 25, 1783. On the nineteenth of April, 1783, Washington disbanded the army, reminding them that the day completed eight years since the conflict at Lexington, and saying that, the victory having been won, nothing remained " but for the *Sir Henry Clinton was superseded in New York by Sir Guy Carleton, formerly Governor of Quebec, in the spring of 1782, and Washington established his headquarters at Newburg. to watch his movements. He was joined in September by Rochambeau with his forces, at Verplanck's Point, below Fishkill. There the two armies encamped side by side, the most friendly relations existing between both officers and men. THREATS AND MUTINY. 333 actors of this mighty scene to preserve a perfect unvarying consistency of character through the very last act, to close the drama with applause, and to retire from the military theatre with the same appro- bation of angels and men which has crowned all their former virtuous actions." Before the army was disbanded the men were in a state of inquiet, and as their pay was in arrears, an anonymous address, said to have been written by Major John Armstrong, was circulated at Newburg in 1783, in which Congress was threatened. In the spring there was a mutiny in the Pennsylvania line, and a body of troops actually marched upon Congress itself. In both cases the coolness and tact of Wash- ington proved equal to the emergency, and actual conflict was avoided. On the thirteenth of May the officers of the army formed themselves into a society, called after the Roman patriot (who was taken as a man of li' spirit with Washington), the society of theCincinna General Knox drew up the plan of organization, ai the first meeting was held at the headquarters General Steuben, at the old Verplanck house, ne, Peekskill. The object was to establish a society < friends, who should cherish national honor and union between the States, and maintain brotherly kindness toward each other. The order still exists, composed of the descendants of the original members.* * The formation of this society was looked upon with much concern all through the country, as an attempt to elevate the military above the civil classes, and to establish a hereditary order of nobility. The Legislatures took the matter up, beginning with Massachusetts, and Judge Burke, of South Carolina, denounced it in a pamphlet, but the wisdom of Washington completely allayed the ill feeling. 334 SOUTHERN OPERATIONS. — PEACE. As the dissolution of the army was about to be ordered, Washington on the eighth of June addressed a letter to the Governors of the States, in which he discussed the four essential basis for the prosperity of the States as an independent power. They were, in brief — I. An indissoluble union of the States, under one federal head, and a perfect acquiescence of the several washikgton's headquakters, neavburg. States in the full exercise of the prerogative vested in such head by the Constitution. II. A sacred regard to public justice in discharg- ing debts and fulfiling contracts made by Congress for the purpose of carrying on the war. III. The placing of the militia of the several parts of the States on a regular, uniform and efficient foot- ing. "The militia must be considered as the palla- dium of our security." IV. A disposition to forget local prejudices and WASHINGTON'S FAREWELLS. 335 policies, to make mutual concessions, and to sacrifice individual advantages to the interests of the commu- nity. . . • On the second of November, Washmgton issued from Newburg his farewell address to the army, m which he reviewed the war, pronouncing the perse- verance of the army little short of a standing miracle, exhorted them to the strongest attachment to the Union, and solemnly commended them to the protec- tion of God, as he had already done in writing to the Governors. Preparing now to go to Annapolis to deliver to Congress the commission that had been given him at the beginning of the struggle, Washington stopped at New York, and there, at " Fraunces' Tavern," on Broad street, not far from Whitehall Ferry, he bade farewell to the officers of the army. Having drunk a health to them, he said, " I cannot come to each of you to take my leave, but shall be obliged if each of you will come and take me by the hand." General Knox was the first to advance, and Washing- ton was affected to tears. Not a word was uttered as one after another of the veterans approached and pressed the commander's hand, and he passed from them on foot to the ferry in the same quiet manner.^ His passage through New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland was like the progress of a conqueror, and he laid down his commission in the presence of an imposing company of ladies and public dig- nitaries, saying as he closed his remarks, "I con- sider it an indispensable duty to close this last solemn act of my official life by commending the interests of our dearest country to the protection 336 SO UTHERN OPERA TIONS. — PEA CE. of Almighty God, and those who have the superin- tendence of them to his holy keeping." Tiie next day he arrived at Mount Vernon, pre- pared to enjoy Christmas Eve, and, as he said in a letter to Governor Clinton, to spend the remainder of his days "in cultivating the affections of good men, and in the practice of the domestic virtues." O, for a drop of that terse Roman's ink Who gave Agricola dateless length of days, To celebrate him fitly, neither swerve, To phrase unkempt, nor pass discretion's brink, With him so statue-like in sad reserve, So diffident to claim, so forward to deserve 1 COOKING THE TURKEY IN OLD TIMES. CHAPTER XVI. FORMING A NEW GOVERNMENT. PEACE did not bring quiet and order immediately, and for several years the country was involved in the discussion of questions which did not readily resolve themselves. The union between the States, entered with reluctance, and never resorted to except in time of fear and under the pressure of danger from abroad or from enemies at Ijome, had become weak ; commerce was prostrate ; currency seemed to be in a state of confusion, fr officdiich order could not easily be brought; the po\/\m, hthe Confederate Congress, always undefined and precarious,* was now little respected, and even the representatives of the States scarcely thought its meetings of sufficient importance to demand their attendance. In this condition of affairs men were ready to take rash measures to secure relief, and insurrections broke out in different portions of the land. Goaded by poverty, harrassed by creditors, and seeing no * The condition of affairs is clearly indicated by Breck in his " Rec- ollections." "The laws were a dead letter; the States, collectively and individually, were bankrupt ; the public debt at ten or twelve dollars for a hundred! Each State was pulling against the others, and the fruit of our seven years' war foi independence did not then appear worth gathering. Disunited from Maine to Georgia, the element? of self-government seemed to be lost, and we were fast sink- ing into anarchy and confusion." 337 338 FORMING A NEW GOVERNMENT. reasonable hope for relief at the hands of the irreso- lute and almost powerless Congress, many recklessly- determined to oppose the collection of debts or taxes, to demand the emission of paper money, or to set up independent governments of their own, or, as in the case of Vermont,* to coquet with Canada. Before the new government was established, the inhabitants of Eastern Tennessee, who, in 1771, had formed them- selves into the " Watauga Association," independent of all English governments, organized the " State of Franklin," under the laws of which they lived from 1785 to 1788. It was evident that a better understanding between the States was requisite, and that their relations to the central government should be defined. Before the war had closed, Alexander Hamilton had broached the subject of the formation of a National Constitu- tion, and the feeling had been growing ever since that this should be done. The demands of trade proved the stimulating influence which finally brought the people to act, for the merchants saw that, owing to the want of a uniform system, for- * When Vermont was first settled, in 1724, near Brattleborough, the spot was supposed to be within the limits of Massachusetts. I>ater, Governor Wentworth, of New Hampshire, claimed it for his State, and it became known as " New Hampshire Grants." In 1763, New York claimed it, and attempted to dispossess the settlers. Under Ethan Allen and others the people resisted, and whipped with beechen rods every officer sent to enforce processes of ejection. The strife continued for years, when Governor Tryon offered bounties for the leaders, who retorted by offering a reward for the apprehension of the aitornej'-general of New York. The revolution stopped the contro- versy, and in 1776, the settlers asked to be admitted to the Confed- eracy, but in vain. The next year the State declared its independence, and again asked to be admitted. Owing to the jealousies of other States, she was kept waiting until March 4, 1791. A NATIONAL CONVENTION. 339 eigners were reaping harvests which should belong to Americans. It was this that led to the meeting of citizens of Maryland and Virginia to arrange some plan for regulating the commerce of the Chesapeake and the Potomac. These commissioners met first, in 1785, at Alexandria, Va., and also at Mount Vernon, James Madison being of the number. They found their purposes could not be attained without enlarged powers, and a convention was effected at Annapolis the following year, at which five States were repre- sented. Hamilton was present on this occasion, and took the opportunity to renew his proposition, first made in 1780, for a National Constitutional Conven- tion, which, it was agreed, should be called to meet in May, 1787, at Philadelphia. Virginia was the first to take action upon this prop- osition, and right nobly did its General Assembly express itself, saying that the crisis had arrived at which the people were to decide the solemn question whether they would reap the just fruits of independence and of union, acquired at the cost of so much blood, or would allow their unmanly jealousies and prejudices to wrest them away, and calling upon the other States to send delegates to a convention to devise and dis- cuss all such alterations and provisions as might be necessary to render the Federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of the Union. Other States followed, and Congress doubtfully issued a call of its own, lim- iting the purposes of the Convention to the revision of the Constitution. The Convention actually met at the State House, in Philadelphia, on the fourteenth of May, 1787. So slow were the people even to consider the propositions for a closer union, that it was not until 340 FOBMING A NEW GOVERNMENT. eleven days later that a majority of the States were represented and the body able to proceed to business. Washington was chosen President. The deliberations lasted four months, and then a Constitution was pre- sented to the States for acceptance. While this august body was sitting in Philadelphia, the last session of the Continental Congress was in progress at New York. It rendered itself memorable by passing " the most notable law ever enacted by representatives of the American people" — the law setting up the Northwestern Territory. Virginia, Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut had ceded to the general government their rights to the vast territory northwest of the Ohio River, and treaties had disposed of the titles of various tribes of Indians to the region. Before these cessions had been effected, in 1784, a committee of Congress of which Jefferson was chairman, had presented a plan for the organiza- tion of this territory, by the formation of seventeen States, *■ all to be free after 1800 ; but the project was postponed until the title should be perfected, and in the meantime the prohibition of slavery was voted down. The ordinance of 1787! provided that not more than five nor less than three States should be formed from the territory, and its chief provisions were made a solemn compact between the people of the thirteen States and the population that should in the future * The names that Mr. Jefferson suggested for ten of these States were Sylvania, Michigania, Cheroncsus, Assenisipia { from Assenisipi, Rock River ), Metropotamia, lUinoia, Saratoga, Washington, Polypo- tamia, and Pelisipia. t See page 293. THE OHIO COMPANY. 341 occupy the Northwestern Territory. It provided for universal freedom, religious and civil — for all except criminals — and set apart one section in every town- ship for the support of common schools, and two entire townships for the establishment of a university, declar- ing that " religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." This ordinance established the character of the region, and led to the formation of " The Ohio Com- pany," composed largely of army officers and others who had advanced money to the government, and had been impoverished by receiving in return the depre- ciated continental currency. Manasseh Cutler of Massachusetts, as agent of this company, bought a million and a half acres of land on the Ohio and Scioto rivers, and the first settlement was effected in 1788, at Marietta. The States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin were added to the Union from this rich domain. General Arthur St. Clair, then President of Congress, became first Governor of the new Territory. The Constitutional Convention was one of the most noteworthy bodies ever convened, not only by reason of the fact that it was the first attempt to establish a national government upon a written con- stitution, but also on account of the illustrious men who composed the body. Among them were George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, James- Madison, John Dickinson, John Langdon, Nicholas Gilman, Roger Sherman, Benjamin Franklin, Elbridge Gerry, Gouverneur Morris, Charles Pinckney, Edmund Randolph, Rufus King and John Rutledge. 342 FORMING A NEW GOVERNMENT. Governor Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, gave form to the discussion that followed the organization of the Convention, by proposing, on the twenty-ninth of May, 1787, a legislature chosen by the people (not by the States), which should elect members of an executive and a judiciary department. It was objected to because, in the language of Mr. Lansing, of New York, it destroyed the sovereignty of the several States, by committing to the general govern- ment "all power except what may be exercised in the little local matters." Another form was pro- posed the same day by Charles Pinckney of South Carolina, and both were referred to a committee of the whole. The committee reported in favor of Randolph's, or the " Virginia " system.* After the report had been made, a new plan was offered by William Patterson, of New Jersey, as a substitute foi that of Randolph, providing for a government of more limited powers, or, as its first article stated, revising, correcting and enlarging all the articles of confedera- tion ; and General Alexander Hamilton presented still another as the conclusion of a speech on the sub- ject, in which it was arranged that the members of the executive, legislative and judiciary departments were to be chosen by the people to serve for life, or during good behavior, with the exception of the members of an assembly who were to serve three * In N. C. Towne's " History and Analysis of the Constitution of the United States" (Boston, i860) pp. 252-295, sundry documents con- nected with the proceedings of the Convention are given, including the views of James Madison, the plans of Randolph, Patterson, Pinckney, and Hamilton, and the resolutions agreed to by the Convention, July 26. William Hickey's " Constitution of the United States " (Baltimore) is a valuable treasury of information on these subjects. FEDERALISTS AND NATIONAL MEN. 343 years. This was not seriously considered, and the choice lay between the Virginia and the New Jersey plans, called respectively the "National" and the " Federal " plan. A difference of opinion was soon made evident between the delegates, some considering that the powers of the Convention were limited to the revision of the old articles of confederation, and were not sufficient to construct a new form of government.* The supporters of the former view called themselves Federalists, and in general they approved the New Jersey plan. Those who considered the Convention authorized to frame a new government, called them- selves " National " men. The debate on these points shows the earnestness of the men, and must be studied by those who would know the fundamental principles of our government. Mr. Hamilton said that he did not approve either plan, but was especially opposed to that of New Jersey, being "fully convinced that no amendment of the confederation, leaving the States in possession of their sovereignty, could possibly answer the purpose." Mr. Randolph said that the salvation of the Republic was at stake, and that it would be treason not to pro- pose what was found necessary ; and Hamilton added that he agreed in the feeling, that the States had sent the delegates " to provide for the exigencies of * The Convention met under authority of an act of the Congress of the Confederation, of February 21, 1787, calling it ior " the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation, and reporting to Congress and the several Legislatures, sitch alterations and provisio7ts therein as shall, when agreed to in Congress, and confirmed by the States, render the Federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of Government, and the preservation of the Union." 344 FORMING A NEW GOVERNMENT. the Union," and the question for them to answer was, not what their constituents had expressed in their deHberations on the subject, but rather "what pro- vision shall we make for the happiness of our country ? " Mr. Randolph said that a national government alone would prove capable of " crushing rebellion whenever it may rear its crest," of providing for harmony among the States, regulating trade, natural- ization, etc., and Mr. Madison said that there was less danger of encroachment from the general government than from the State governments, and that the mis- chiefs arising from encroachments by the general government would be less fatal than those by the State governments. He argued that the danger of a strong central government was not that it might abuse its power, but that it might imperfectly perform its duties " throughout so great an extent of country and over so great a variety of objects." Other views were presented and urged, but after discussion a report was made by the committee of the whole in favor of the Virginia plan, on the ninth of June, and the national system was finally adopted. A comparison of the Constitution with the Articles of Confederation impresses the candid student with the belief that the patriots who framed it, bearing in mind the difficulties of carrying on the government under the weaker scheme, felt that they were now to lay the foundations of a great nation, though a monarchy of any kind was far from their thoughts. The larger States were on the national side ; the smaller took the federal view, and the altercations became so great at times as to threaten the usefulness of the Convention. ON THE VERGE OF DISSOLUTION. 345 It was in consequence of this condition of affairs that Franklin moved, on the twenty-eighth of June, that prayers be offered at the opening of each morning session.* In the midst of the agitation, when the smaller States were crying that they would suffer dominion of a foreign power rather than give up the right to an equal vote in one of the branches of the Legisla- ture, Franklin offered in committee, the motion that the votes of the States should be equal in the Senate,! and the tumult was assuaged in part, though so deep was the feeling that one of the members said that they were on the verge of dissolution, " scarce held together by the strength of a hair," and threats of secession were made on the part of the Federalists, while the national party spoke of dismemberment and absorption of the smaller States by the larger by the power of the sword. Better counsels prevailed, and the States were given the equal votes in the Senate, and the unequal votes in the House, that they have at the present time. The question of how this unequal representation should be arranged, caused a new division, this time between the North and the South, for the South demanded that the slaves should be included with the freemen in any count upon which representation should be based, while the North, which had largely given up the system of negro slavery, held that free- * In making this motion, Franklin said, "If a sparrow cannot fall without God's knowledge, how can an empire rise without his aid ? " ■f On this point Roger Sherman, of Connecticut, said that if the dif- ficulty on the subject of representation could not otherwise be got over, he would agree to have* two branches, and a proportional repre- sentation in one, provided each State had an equal voice in the other. 346 FORMING A NJiW GOVERNMENT. men only should be counted as the basis of represen- tation. Again the spirit of compromise brought peace, and it was settled that three fifths of the slaves should be included with the freemen, in the count on which the ratio of representation should be settled between the States. The status of the slave trade gave ground for another debate, which ended in a further compromise, the representatives of Virginia and the central States, who constituted the main opponents to the continuance of the trade, agreeing that the traffic should continue no longer than twenty years, or until 1808. This was not inserted in the Constitution, nor was the word slave mentioned in that document, though a clause respecting the return of fugitive slaves was inserted in article four, similar to that in the articles of Confed- eration of the New England Colonies ( 1643 ). This brief review is sufficient to show that the Con- stitution was "adopted by bargain and compromise," as one of the members of the convention * ( Nicholas *The following is the text of the letter here referred to . — "The important business of the Convention being closed, the Secre- tary set off this morning to present Congress with a report of their proceedings, which I hope will come before the States in the manner directed ; but as some time must necessarily elapse before that can take place, I do myself the pleasure to transmit the enclosed papers for your private satisfaction, forbearing all comments on the plan, but that it is the best that could meet the unanimous consent of the States in Convention. It was done by bargain and compromise, yet, notwith- standing its imperfections, on the adoption of it depends ( in my feeble judgment ) whether we shall become a respectable nation, or a people torn to pieces by intestine commotions, and rendered contemptible for ages." The letter was addressed to Joseph Gilniin, who had been chairman of the New Hampshire Committee of Safety during the war, and who was at a later date appointed by ^Vashington one of the judges of the Northwestern Territory. BARGAIN AND COMPROMISE. 347 Gilman of New Hampshire) wrote to a relative at home, the day after the conclusion had been reached ;- but it shows also that a wise spirit pervaded the body, and that they acted well on the whole, for the future good of the great nation that was to grow up, their differences of opinion modifying their mutual action in such a manner that the true mean was attained. The government was not so much centralized as to deprive the States of their proper rights, nor was the amount of authority committed to it so small as to make it present a weak front to the world that was anxiously watching its beginnings. Lord Brougham in his " Political Philosophy," said that the wonderful machinery of the United States government "is the very greatest refinement in social policy to which any state of circumstances has ever given rise, or to which any age has ever given birth." As the close of the war did not bring peace, so the presentation of a constitution to the nation did not result in concord, for the parties that had been developed in the Convention were but indications of the differences of opinion that were now expressed upon the grand document itself. The country was immediately divided into two parties, the Federalists, who counted among them Washington, Hamilton, Madison, Jay, and the anti-Federalists, called also Democrats and Republicans, among whom were men like Luther Martin, of Maryland, who declared that he was willing to reduce himself to indigence if he could prevail upon the country to " reject those chains which are forged for it," and Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts, who hinted at civil war, besides Jefferson, Randolph, Henry and Mason, of Virffinia. 348 FORMING A NEW GOVERNMENT. Mr. Martin objected that a Republican form of govern- ment was suited to small countries ; that delegates could not be induced to travel hundreds of miles to attend Congress, and that a central government would not be able to perform its functions properly in distant portions of a country so extensive as America. He said too, that under the form proposed, if one of the States were to take the sword against the national government, the State and every citizen acting under its authority, would be " guilty of an act of treason," while the same difficulty would arise if the citizens were to obey the general government in opposition to a State law. It was the fifteenth of September when the agreement was reached, and two days later, the Constitution, having been in the meantime properly engrossed, received the signatures of the President, George Washington, and the Secre- tary, William Jackson, the members signing as soon as convenient. With as great promptness as was possible in the days when there were no telegraphs nor railways, and few post roads,* the Constitution was communi- cated to the people, and discussion of its terms began with much earnestness. Among the most powerful *As late as 1790 there were but seventy-five post-offices in the United States. In 1710 a line of posts was established from Piscat- aqua to Philadelphia, letters being conveyed (a portion of the way at least) " as often as there were enough lodged to pay the expense." Franklin was Postmaster-general from 1753 to 1774, and he boasted that he made the office pay a revenue to the Crown. In 1775 the Provincial Congress established a line of posts from Falmouth (Portland) to Savannah, but the delivery of letters was mainly along the seaboard. In 1790 mails were carried but three times a week between New York and Boston in summer, and twice in winter. Five mails a week were carried each way between New York and Philadelphia. DISCUSSING THE CONSTITUTION. 349 influences brought to bear upon the question was a series of papers pubHshed by Hamilton, Madison and Jay, addressed at first to the citizens of New York (and at first signed by " A Citizen," of that State), and then to the citizens of the whole United States. At the same time John Dickinson, a native of Mary- land, and representative of Pennsylvania, who had written his Farmer s Letters a score of years before, now took up the pen again, and under the signature " Fabius," called upon the pt-_ple to rally for a con- stitutional government. Wise sentiments prevailed, and early in December the State of Delaware by its Convention, unanimously recorded its voice in favor of the Constitution, and in a little more than half a year the requisite number of nine States had ratified the agreement, and the Con- stitution became the fundamental law of the land. Virginia and New York followed in June and July, 1788, and North Carolina and Rhode Island, in 1789, and 1790. When two States remained to give con- sent to the Constitution, Congress appointed the first Wednesday in January, 1789, for the first general election, and a month later the electors met and chose George Washington President, and John Adams Vice-President. The fourth of March was the day for the final organization of the Government by the assembling of Congress and the inauguration of the President, but there was so little interest in the matter that it was the last day of April before that ceremony could be proceeded with, the Repre- sentatives not coming together with promptness in suflficient numbers to constitute a quorum for the transaction of business until April sixth, though 350 FORMING A NEW GOVERNMENT. there was a quorum of the House on the thirtieth of March. Mr. Gladstone has given expression to the opinion of thinking men in saying of the Constitution that it PRESIDENT WASHnrOTON. appears to him to be " the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man," and Washington, speaking when he had in immediate view the difficulties that surrounded the LITTLE SHORT OF A MIRACLE. 351 Convention, and the variety of interests that haa to be accommodated, said that it appeared to hini " little short of a miracle that the delegates from so many States, different from each other in maii- ners, circumstances and prejudices," should have united in forming a system of government so little liable to objection, and providing so many checks and barriers to the introduction of tyranny. When we consider the history of the nation since the days of Washington, we are filled with admiration of the wisdom and forethought exhibited by the fathers of the Republic, especially as we bring back to memory the story of privation and suffering of the years just before the transaction, and remember that it was not the work of a nation in its strength, but of a people worn out by a prolonged struggle with a power vastly its superior, suffering under a disorgan- ized currency, groaning beneath a load of public and private debts,* and united on scarcely any one of the many topics that it was obliged to discuss throughout the transaction. United when threatened by danger, the people were rent by sectional jealousies when no longer obliged to support each other against a com- mon foe, they still had sufficient self-control to per- •form this great transaction in a manner that has held the admiration of the nations ever since. * " Things in 1787," says Mr. Breck in his " Recollections," " were in a declining condition in every part of the United States, and poor Bos- ton, the population of which was reduced to eighteen thousand, lost this year by fire several hundred houses in the south part of the town. Lafayette, accidently hearing of this calamity in Paris, wrote to my father to draw on him for three hundred pounds sterling, and distribute the amount among those who stood in need of aid." CHAPTER XVII. THE FIRST PRESIDENT. IT was the middle of April when the intelligence of his election was communicated to Washington at Mount Vernon, where he was enjoying the retirement that was so congenial to him, which he fondly hoped was to continue. He accepted the honor with grati- tude, but with reluctance looked at the fields of his estate that he must leave, and with the promptness that always characterized him, started from home for the scene of his new labors, the second day after he had been notified of his new election. (April i6.) His journey to New York was like a triumphal march. The authorities of the various towns through which he passed honored him with escorts and addresses, women strewed flowers in his path,* and he passed under arches crowned with laurels, but all this did not elate him. He knew too well the nature of the arduous work he had undertaken. It was com- • paratively easy to frame the Consitution, but it was a labor of no small gravity to put the machinery of * Welcome, mighty chief, once more. Welcome to this gmteful shore ; Now no mercenary foe Aims ag.iin the fatal blow, Aims at thee the fatal blow. AJJress of the mat Jens at Trenton. 352 CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. '6b"6 government into motion. This was the task before the first President. Washington was inaugurated in the Federal Hall, on the site now occupied by the United States Sub- Treasury on Wall street, at the head of Broad. He took the oath of office on the balcony of that building, in the presence of both houses of Congress and of a great body of citizens who crowded the streets below, and afterwards walked to St. Paul's Church, where he attended prayers. (April 30.) His spirit may be judged by the following extract from his inaugural address. " It would be particularly improper," he said, "to omit in this first official act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides at the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that his benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instru- ment employed in its administration to execute with success the functions alloted to his charge." The new government was to be directed in its beginning by the houses of Congress, and these were at first occupied by discussions of the Constitution, many amendments having been offered by the differ- ent States. * It is often the case that after a body has adopted a constitution, its first step is not to begin to work under it, but to try to make it more perfect, or more in accordance with the views of the entire body to be *It may be said in a general way that the first amendments were in the direction of increasing the power of the States, while those offered in later times have tended to strengthen the general government. 354 TEE FIRST PRESIDENT. governed by it, for such a document is almost of neces- sity the product of a few minds, and the entire body does not come to consider it in detail until after it has been adopted. Most of the amendments now offered came fronr the party opposed to a strong central government. They did not contemplate any radical change, but simply a definition of the power of the central govern- ment and its relation to the States. Congress adopted ten of the nearly threescore amendments proposed. They emphasized the freedom of speech religion and the press, the right to bear arms, th^ security of the people from unreasonable searcher and seizures, and stated that powers not delegated to the United States, nor prohibited to the States by the Constitution are reserved to the States or to the^ people, and that the fact that certain specific right?* are by the Constitution, enumerated as belonging to the people, does not deny or disparage other rights still retained by them. These amendments were adopted by the States. The influence of the establishment of the new gov- ernment was immediately felt by trade, which was more secure, and commerce revived throughout the country, but this did not make unnecessary long dis- cussions of the tariff and finance. Alexander Hamil- ton advocated a plan by which the United States should assume the debts of the States of the late Confederacy, as well as those of the general govern- ment, and this honest course gave satisfaction to the creditors of the public and strengthened the feeling of stability. Congress organized three executive departments, THE Fin ST CABINET. 355 each under a secretary, and Washington appointed Thomas Jefferson Secretary of State, Alexander Hamilton Secretary of the Treasury, and General Henry Knox* Secretary of War. The department of the navy was not set up until 1798, when war seemed imminent with France, and Benjamin Stod- dard was made secretary. The attorney-general was made a member of the President's Cabinet, and Edmund Randolph was selected to fill the office. In 1789 Samuel Osgooct was appointed Postmaster- general, but without a seat in the Cabinet. John Jay, one of the most exemplary characters in Amer- ican history, and the persorH^ho seems to have been most like the first President, was appointed Chief Justice. The establishment of a National Bank, which was violently opposed, in the early part of 1791, by the anti-Federal party led by Jefferson,! was due to Ham- ilton, and the avidity with which its shares were subscribed for proved the confidence of the public in the stability of the new government. There had been antagonism between the Secretary of State and the Secretary of the Treasury from the beginning, and the breach gradually widened, until, in January, 1794. * One of the brightest ornaments of society in Philadelphia wa' " General Henry Knox, who was Washington's intimate friend, and was at the head of the War Department. To a fine, lofty and well- proportioned figure, the Secretary of War added bland and dignified manners — sprightly, very playful, yet of sensible conversation. He was indeed a very distinguished as well as a very amiable man." — Breck's Recollections. t Referring to the antagonism between himself and Hamilton, Jefferson once wrote : " We are pitted against each other every day in the Cabinet like two fighting cocks." 356 THE FIRST FBESIDENT. after the second election of Washington, Jefferson retired from the Cabinet. Hamilton followed his example in 1795. The second Presidential election occurred in 1792, and Washington received all the votes of the electors. Jefferson, just ready to leave the Cabinet and politically opposed to him, urged his election, saying, " North and South will hang together MONTICIor.LO, THE HOME OK .IKKFKKSOX. if they have him to hang on," and Hamilton, of the opposite party, could use no stronger language, while all patriots shrank from the consequences that they foresaw would ensue if he declined to accept the leadership again. The situation of affairs demanded the exercise of all his wisdom. At home, party spirit, which in the succeeding THE TAMIFI AND SLAVERY. 357 Presidential campaigns was to break out in its fiercest form, was daily increasing in intensity. The tariff divided the North and the South, for the one, relying on its manufactures, shipping and commerce, wished an amount of protection that the other, largely dependent upon agriculture, did not demand. The North also favored the abolition of the slave trade by act of Congress, and the South, though in its State Legislatures moving toward this end, did not approve federal interference with the institution. The subject of the action of Congress regarding slavery in the Territories began to constitute a bone of contention.* Jefferson had proposed the exclusion of slavery from the Northwestern Territory,! and that point had been settled, but while the North claimed that this action formed a precedent to be followed, the South thought otherwise, and when "the Territory south of the Ohio " was organized, in 1790, it was with the agree- *0n the twelfth of February, 1793, ^" order to carry into effect the clauses in Article IV. of the Constitution, Congress passed a law entitled " an act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from the service of their masters." This was not the first fugitive slave law of the country, though from the fact that the records of the New England Confederacy lay in manuscript until 1794, when portions were printed by Ebenezer Hazard, it seems not to have been remem- bered that a similar provision was made in the Articles of Confedera- tion of 1643. This applied, of course, to the New England Colonies only, but by a treaty made by them with Peter Stuyvesant, Governor of the New Netherlands, in 1650, it was extended to that Colony, and it is said that, on application, a slave who had escaped to New Eng- land was returned to a master living still further southward. See Mr. Webster's letter of May 15th, 1850, to Edward S. Rand, and other citi- zens of Newburyport, Mass. t Jefferson claimed that " the prohibition of the further importation of slaves " was one of the important measures for which his influence was responsible. 358 THE FIRST PRESIDENT. ment that Congress should not make any regulations tending to the emancipation of slaves. An Indian war of great violence broke out in 1790, and was not quelled until five years of bloodshed had wasted the region west of the Oliio. The Indians fought to regain territory which had been ceded to the United States, and at the close of the war Con- gress seemed to acknowledge that the whites had been the aggressors, for it gave the tribes that were conquered indemnities on their retiring further west, and for the first time, it took steps for the improve- ment of the Indians, and their protection from unscrupulous traders. Washington said that experi- ment had not diminished hopes for their elevation, and that the accomplishment of their civilization would "reflect undecaying lustre on our national character, and administer the most grateful consola- tion that virtuous minds can know." In this war Colonel Hardin had circumvented the savages. Gen- eral Harmer had been foiled, and General Saint Clair had been surprised, and his forces utterly routed, before the whites under "mad Anthony" Wayne, had been able to bring the Indians to terms. If Washington was embarrassed by the state of affairs at home, much more was his task difficult when he came to contemplate the foreign relations of the government. The French revolution broke out at the opening of his administration, and it was natural that the sympathies of the nation should be enlisted by the exciting scenes among a people which had so warmly seconded the efforts against Great Britain, especially when they saw among the leaders of the movement the man who had stood at the side of '^M ''Wm NORTHERN SCENERY. — THE CONWAY MEADOWS, N. H. TEE FRENCH REVOLUTION. . 361 Washington in the darkest moments of the Revolution. France did not have the sympathies of all, however, for the wiser and more calm were startled at the scenes of blood that marked the wild orgies in that fair land, and when, in 1793, Washington issued his memorable proclamation of neutrality, he found him- self supported by the Federalists, and by those who saw the dangers of anarchy resulting from unrestrained license. The feeling for France was, on the other hand, deepened by the antipathy to England, which it was to take many years to dissipate. The month that Washington issued his proclama- tion saw an ignorant and arrogant representative of the French Republic land, not at Philadelphia, the Federal capital, but at Charleston, S. C. demand an actijje support from the government, and upon its refusal, fil out privateers to prey upon English commerce. He even ventured, with the support of the Republican party, to threaten to appeal from the government to the people, and thus to inaugurate on American soil, the bloody drama that he had been playing a part in at home ; but Washington demanded his recall, and the demand was heard. A new ambassadoi took the place of " Citizen Genet." So great was the excitement at this juncture that war with England was demanded by the Republican party ; Marat, Robespierre, and the other actors in fhe French Revolution, were daily toasts at table, and the cries of the multitude about his house .vere so riotous that Washington exclaimed ; " I had rather be in my grave than in this excitement ! " War with Great Britain was not only demanded by the Republicans, but the action of that country made J62 THE FIRST PRESIDENT. it imminent. Not only did ii claim the right to stop and search American vessels on the high seas, and impress every seaman that its commanders might assume to be o. ijritish birth, but it issued arbitrary orders interfering with American commerce, and the greatest skill and wisdom were required to preserve the peace, Washington chose a good man to demand redress from England, when he sent John Jay on that mission. A treaty was obtained in November, 1794, though it had hardly been expected, by which Great Britain surrenderee the forts in the West * that it had held contrary to the terms of the treaty of 1783, and offered to make indemnity for the suffering caused by its search and impressment of seamen. This treaty was opposed by the " French " party with almost frenzied oratory, and meetings were everywhere held to stir the opposition to the utmost. Violent addresses were presented to Washington, but he rebuked those who offered them. Hamilton took up his pen, and argued with all his close logic in favor of the treaty, and finally Fisher Ames made in Con- gress an eloquent speech that has become historic. These influences combined with the firmness of the President, moved Congress. The treaty was ratified by a vote of fifty-one to forty-eight, and war was averted. This action gave deep offence to France and the French party in the United States, and Mr. Monroe, the minister at Paris, was notified that the alliance with his country was at an end. While these disturbing influences were doing their worst at home and abroad, when the press published * Among these forts were those at Detroit. Niagara, Mackinaw, Oswego and other places. INSULTS TO WASHINGTON. 365 the most virulent attacks upon the President, and epithets exaggerated and indecent were applied to him, Washington, on the seventeenth of September, 1796, issued to the people his " Farewell Address," in which he gave them many wise counsels, urged them to support the Union, to avoid all entanglements in European politics, to beware of "geographical dis- criminations," which might raise a belief that there is a "real difference of local interests and views," and prayed for the blessing of God on the people, with whom he promised himself the sweet enjoyment of partaking " the benign influence of good laws under a free government." Though urgently solicited to be a candidate for the Presidency for the third time, Washington firmly declined, and the strife of party no longer waged around him. The candidates for the chief office were John Adams of Massachusetts, representing the Fed- eral party, opposed to war with England, and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, the partisan ot France, repre- senting those whose sympathies had carried them to the extent of being willing, if not desirous, to plunge the young country into a new strife. Party spirit rose to a height never before realized, and in the midst of it Washington declared with the calm faith which had seldom left him, that he could not believe that Providence which had so long guided the country would withdraw its protection at the crisis. He was permitted to see his faith vindicated, for John Adams was peacefully chosen, and entered upon the duties of his office March 4th, 1797. The provisions of the Constitution were such at the time that the person standing second on the list of votes in the electoral 366 THE FIRST PRESIDENT. college became Vice-President, and accordingly Jef- ferson the Republican, was second in rank to Adams the Federalist. "Republican simplicity" was not known during the reign of Washington. He was himself a person of formality, and adhered with minuteness to the rules of etiquette in his associations with others. His "levees" were ceremonious and solemn. His coach in which he appeared in the streets of New York, was light yellow, built in the shape of a hemisphere, adorned with cupids, festoons, flowers, and fruits, and was drawn by six cream-colored horses. Coachmen and postillions in livery of scarlet and white, added to the ostentation of the establishment.* During liis administration Washington made several tours to different sections of the country, with a view of knitting the parts of the Union more closely together. Thus, in 1789, he visited New England, t (excepting Rhode Island) travelling as far as Portsmouth, and meeting spontaneous and hearty enthusiasm everywhere. Processions, banners, arches, feasts, were encountered on every hand. The next •*This style of equipage was not unusual in different portions of the United States. Even private citizens of wealtli often sported their coaches with four horses, and used liveries, and it was usual for public persons to assume much elaborate pomposity. t The feeling that the State was superior to the Federal Union, inter- rupted the cordial relations between Washington and Governor Han- cock. The Governor refused to meet the President on his entrance to Boston, expecting him to pay his respects to the chief magistrate at the official residence, and to dine with him. This Washington refused to do, and the Governor succumbed, offering a lame apology. Gov- ernor Langdon of New Hampshire acted in a different manner, meeting the President at the State line, and escorting him to the Capitol, then Portsmouth. WASHINGTON'S PBOGBESSES. 367 year Rhode Island had entered the Union, and the President made a visit to the State. In 1791, he went through the Southern States, going as far as Savannah, and returning by way of Augusta, Columbia, and towns in North Carolina and Virginia. It has been said that Washington desired to have ...Ji 1JUU.sk UK JOHN IJANCOCK, UEACON STKEET, BOSTOK. (KEMOVJiD IN 1863.) the President bear the title " high mightiness," which was used in the United Netherlands ; but be that as it may, it is certain that the etiquette of his life gave him much trouble, which was settled bv his commit- 368 THE FIRST PRESIDENT. ting such matters to Colonel Humphreys, formerly one of his aids, and General Knox, who was much at the Presidential mansion. Jefferson, who was not an impartial observer, thought the former was cap- tivated by the ceremonials of European courts, and the latter "a man of parade." In addition, Wash- ington propounded a series of questions to the able men about him, such as Adams, Hamilton, Jay and Madison. The influence of the advice of Adams may be seen in the stateliness adopted, for he con- sidered that "the office by its legal authority defined in the Constitution, hath no equal in the world excepting those only which are held by crowned heads ; nor is the royal authority in all cases to be compared with it." He adds, " If the state and pomp essential to this great department are not in a good degree preserved, it will be in vain for America to hope for consideration with foreign powers." Ham- ilton was careful to say that though the Presidential dignity should be insured, he believed it would be satisfactory to the people to know that there " is some body of men in the State who have a right of continual communication with the President." He would have confined this right to the heads of depart- ments and members of the Senate. Mr. Samuel Breck in his Recollectiojis gives a glimpse into the state of social affairs in Phila- delphia at this time. He began to live there in the autumn of 1792, and says, "The city was all alive, and a round of entertainment was kept up by the following families : Robert Morris, William Bing- ham, John Ross, Henry Hill, Thomas Moore, Walter Stewart, Governor Thomas MifiEiin, ex-Governor John SOCIAL LIFE. 369 Penn, Samuel Powel, Benjamin Chew, Phineas Bond, Thomas Ketland, Pierce Butler, Langton Smith, Gen- eral Knox, Samuel Breck, Alexander Hamilton, etc. Besides these, General Washington, who was Presi- dent of the United States, and John Adams, who was Vice-President, saw a great deal of company. Philadelphia contained then about fifty thousand inhabitants, and a much larger society of elegant and fashionable and stylish people than at the present day (January, 1842), with its two hundred and seventy thousand souls in city and country. There was more attention paid then to the dress of servants and general appearance of equipages. Dinners were got up in elegance and good taste. Besides Bingham,* and Morris, and the President, who had French cooks, as well as most of the foreign ministers, there was a most admirable artist by the name of Marinot, who supplied the tables of private gentlemen when they entertained, with all that the most refined gour- mands could desire. General Washington had a stud of twelve or fourteen horses, and occasionally rode out with six horses to his coach, and always two footmen behind his carriage. He knew how to maintain the dignity of his station. None of his successors, except the elder Adams, has set a proper value on a certain degree of display that seems suitable for the chief magistrate of a great nation. I do not mean pageantry, but the decent exterior of a well-bred gentleman." * Breck, whose foreign education and personal tastes caused him to lay much stress upon "style," and the ability of one's cook, states that Mr. Bingham " lived in the most showy style of any American." CHAPTER XVIIl. FEDERALIST AND REPUBLICAN. THE twelve years that followed the administration of the first President were years of bitter party strife. The chief magistrate at first was John Adams, the Federalist, and then for two terms, Thomas Jeffer- son, the anti-Federalist, or Repubhcan. During this period, the states of Europe were in a condition of ferment, and it seemed as if the people of the United States were more interested in foreign affairs than in those matters which belonged to the growth and prog- ress of their own Commonwealth, and the status of our statesmen, or perhaps, more properly, politicians, was determined more by their stand in regard to Euro- pean affairs than by their views of home matters. The first foreign embarrassment came from France, where the Directory, (no less than the members of the " French party " at home,) were complaining of the moderate treaty effected by Jay with England, as though it were an evidence of too great sympathy with that countrv. A minister sent out by Washing- ton,^ Charles C. Pinckney, had been refused an audi, ence at Paris, and ordered to leave French territory, in February, 1797, and when Congress, convened in extra session by President Adams in May of the same year, sent out Pinckney, Marshall, and Gerry, with 87Q THE ALIEN ANlJ I^EDITION ACTS. 371 power to adjust all questions between the countries, they were not received, though an intimation was made that for a pecuniary consideration Talleyrand would consent to enter into relations with them. It was on this occasion that Pinckney gave utterance to the words that afterwards became proverbial : " Mil- lions for defence, but not one cent for tribute." Almost immediately after the accession of Adams, the Directory had issued orders to French war-ships to molest American commerce, though there was no actual declaration of war on either side. Congress made preparations for war, however, by enlarging the army and navy, and by placing Washington at the head of the forces. There were, of course, no collisions on land, but at sea American privateers drove French privateers from our coast, and took many pi4zes that enriched private owners, and the United States frigate Coiistcllatiivi captured L' Insurgente, a French war frigate, in the West Indies. Congress passed two acts, called the Alien and Sedition laws, under which the President was empow- ered to send from the country such foreigners as he should think dangerous to the United States, and fines and imprisonment were threatened against all conspirators and all publications tendingto defame Con- gress or the President, and all efforts to stir up sedi- tion, or to aid foreign nations against the United States. These acts were but temporary, the first to expire in 1800, and the second in March, 1801, on the close of the administration of Adams. The Sedition act was enforced from time to time, but the Alien act did not lead to the sending of any dangerous foreigners from the country ; it was, in fact, deemed unconstitu- 372 FEDERALIST AND REPUBLICAN. tional by some, and the question has not even yet been definitely settled. Resolutions drawn up by Jefferson, but modified by the mover, George Nicholas, were passed by the Leg- islature of Kentucky, November lo, 1798, asserting that the Alien and Sedition Laws were "altoffether void and of no force;" and the Legislature of Vir- ginia voted, December 21, in words dictated by Madison, that they were "palpable and alarming infractions of the Constitution." Jefferson would have made these utterances stronger, and said that the laws were an experiment to ascertain whether the people would submit to measures positively contrary to the Constitution, and, if successful, would lead directly to a life Presidency, a hereditary Presidency, and a Senate chosen for life. The Legislatures of Delaware, Rhode Island, Massa- chusetts, New York, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont, promptly expressed their disapproval of the doctrine that a State retained the power to nullify an act of Congress. The action of Vermont was taken on the thirtieth of October, 1799, and on the four- teenth of the following month, the Legislature of Virginia passed another resolution on the subject, still further expressing its views, in reply to these States. Madison said that while he considered that a State might judge of the constitutionality of an act of Congress, it could not nullify one, nor, in any event, was it by the Legislature, but by a convention that it should take action. The Legislature of Virginia declared, years afterwards, that South Carolina was not supported by the resolutions of 1798 in her doc- trine of nullification, and as early as 1830, when the THU KENTUCKY AND VIRGINIA RE>i0LUTI0N8. 37a nullification doctrines first assumed a name and an importance, Madison declared that the resolutions were declaratory only ; simply expressions of sentiment; did not support nullification, and did not look to means of maintaining the rights of the State beyond the regular ones within the forms of the Constitution. He said that Jefferson would not have sustained South Carolina, and drew graphic pictures of the disorders that would have followed successful nullification.* The avowedly temporary nature of the acts com- plained of by Kentucky and Virginia, strongly suggests that they had none of the sinister intents mentioned by Jefferson, and certainly there was no effort made of the character that his vivid imagination represented as possible, if not probable. When Talleyrand learned the feeling that had been roused by his acts, he hastened to counteract the result of his rashness. He sent assurances through the American minister at the Hague, that a new mis- sion would be received, and one was sent with more decided instructions. The new ambassadors found Bonaparte at the head of French affairs as first consul. He was acute enough to wish to have America an ally, rather than to see her ranged against him on the side of England; and in October, 1800, a treaty of peace * In August, 1830, Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, asked Mr. Madison to express his opinions on these subjects, and the result was an elaborate letter from the aged Virginian, which Mr. Everett pub- lished in the North Ameriaui Ketnew. It is found also in " Madison's Writings," iv, 95. These statements were consistent with the expressions of Mr. Madison made in the convention of 1787, when he supported the "National" plan and said that "guards were more necessary against encroachments of the State governments on the general government than of the latter on the former. 376 FEBEBALIST AND REPUBLICAN. was concluded which, however, did not decide all ques- tions in dispute. It left open the settlement of claims for French spoliation. Before this treaty had been effected, the country lost the guiding hand that had led it through the Rev- olution, and the mind that had given it counsels from time' to time since. Washington died at Mount Ver- non, December 14, 1799, and the whole land united in heartfelt mourning. Richard Henry Lee, in his ad- dress before Congress, delivered in his honor, declared Washington " First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen,"* distinctly setting him upon the high pinnacle from which no one of his countrymen has since tried or wished to move him. Washington's sympathies with the* Federalists had made him during his later years the object of most vituperative abuse from the opposite party, but since the temporary clamor of the time has passed away, the hero's character has shone only more bright, and the affections of his countrymen have grown warmer and deeper. The feeling of opposition to the Alien and Sedition acts, especially in the interior, was powerful in leading to the election of an anti-Federalist or Democrat instead of Adams, and the power of the Federal party passed away when Thomas Jefferson was chosen Pres- ident, at the fourth election. Jefferson entered upon his career as President March 4, i8or, the seat of gov- ernment having been transferred to Washington * These oft-quoted words were first used in connection with the name of Washington, by Colonel Lee, in resolutions introduced in the House of Representatives the day after the great chief's death, and prefaced with appropriate remarks by John Marshall, afterwards Chief lustice. A CAPITAL IN THE WILDERNESS. 377 from Philadelphia in the previous year. Opposed to what he considered the aristocratic notions of the Federalists, he affected the utmost simplicity, setting pside the rules of precedence of the former administra- tions, and risking- misunderstanding by the informality with which he received titled foreigners. His inau- WASIIINGTON'S TOMli. guration, however, was conducted with all the pomp possible in a town of five hundred inhabitants living in " the scattered buildings of the desert," as a contem- porary states, the streets of which were little bet- ter than paths cut among the trees and shrubs with which the site was covered. The President's " pal- 378 FEDERALIST AND REPUBLICAN. ace," as the White House was then called, was a mile or more from the then unfinished Capitol, and the Alexandria Riflemen paraded before it, with the com- pany of artillery which had ushered in the day by the discharge of cannon. The city* was thronged by a large body of citizens from the^surrounding region, though the day was celebrated in the Virginia towns as well as at Philadelphia, by ringing bells, proces- sions, salutes and addresses. A procession m Wash- ington was impracticable, for the Tiber Creek was not bridged, pedestrians crossing it on a log, and vehicles being driven through it. The President-elect was, how- ever, accompanied by many members of Congress, and other citizens on foot and on horseback, and he rode on horseback himself. After the delivery of the address, the Chief Justice administered the oath of office, and the President returned to his lodgings, accompanied by the Vice-President, Chief Justice, heads of de- partments, and principal citizens. He was waited upon by many distinguished persons, and there was a general illumination in the evening. f * John Davis, an English traveller who was present on this occasion,, wrote an account of it, in which he said Jefferson "rode on horseback to the Capitol, without a single guard or even servant in his train, dis- mounted without assistance and hitched the bridle of his horse to the palisades. On the basis of this account it has often been said that the President-elect rode " alone," as a protest against the ostentation of Washington, who, in New York (a city of several thousand inhabi tants), rode in a highly ornamented coach. Davis says that "the Senate Chamber was filled with citizens from the remotest places of the Union. The planter, the farmer, the mechanic, the merchant, all seemed to catch uncommon transport of enthusiasm." t An account of Jefferson's inauguration was found a few months ago by Major Ben- Perley Poore, in the Congressional Library, in a small pamphlet {Political Pamphlets, vol. loi) printed in Philadelphia at the time. It substantiates the above statements. ROTATION IN OFFICE. 379 Jefferson reduced the pomp and circumstance of official life * and emphasized the change that had come over the administration in many other ways. The Alien and Sedition acts had expired by limit- ation, but he uttered his protest against them anew, by showing friendship for those against whom the Alien act especially had been aimed, and pardoning all who were imprisoned under the Sedition law. He wrote to Dr. Priestley who had been threatened by the Alien law, with warm sympathy, and appointed Albert Gallatin, the Swiss Republican, Secretary of the Treasury. He gave the chief offices of gov- ernment, then held by Federalists, to members of his own party,! thus giving support to that system which has since become so much of a drawback to the efficiency of the departments and the source of much corruption in politics. The great event of the first term of Jefferson's administration was the purchase from France of the territory west of the Mississippi River. This region had secretly been transferred by Spain to France in 1800, and Napoleon was intending to *That levelling philosopher, Jefferson, was the first President who broke down all decorum and put himself, wheiv abroad, upon a footing with the plainest farmer of Virginia. I say " when abroad," because in his family he lived luxuriously and was fastidious in the choice of his company, but when he wanted to catch the applause of the vulgar, with whom, however, he was too proud to associate, he would ride out without a servant, and hitch his nag to the railing of the Presidential palace. — Recoil erf ions of Samuel Breck. t Being criticised for these removals, he uttered a sentiment that has become proverbial, saving to some New Haven merchants in iSoi, "If due particiii-ition nf office is n matter of right, how are vacancies to be obtained ? Those by death are few; by resignation none." 380 FEBEBALIST AND REPUBLICAN. Siwd an armed colony thither to take possession. Meantime the Spaniards had deprived the United States of the right of deposit at New Orleans,* and the whole region interested in the navigation of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers was in a state of ferment, and especially was this true of Kentucky. It hap- pened that just before the plan of sending an armed French force to Louisiana had been carried into effect, Napoleon saw that it would be to his interest to strengthen the United States against England, especially as he became aware that in a war then imminent between France and England, if he did not make friends with our country, he would find it an ally of his enemy. He therefore listened to a proposition made through James Monroe and Mr. Livingston, for the purchase of the territory, and sold it, saying as he did so, that he had given to England a rival that would sooner or later humble her pride. The price paid for this vast region of more than a million square miles, was fifteen millions of dollars, out of which the United States agreed to settle certain claims against France held by American citizens, amounting to three and a quarter million dollars. As the treaty was signed, Mr. Liv- ingston said to the other signers, "This is the noblest work of our whole lives. The treaty . . . will change vast solitudes into flourishing districts. From * In 1795, Tlii'iiv.is Pinckney had effected a treaty with Spain Ijy tlic terms of which the right of the United States was recognized to navigate the Mississippi River, and to deposit merchandise free of duty at New Orieans. At the same time, .Spain bound herself, if she were to shut us out of New ()rleans, to assign an equivalent place of deposit oi the b.Ti'cs of t'lo r:\cr. This, with great injustice, ^he Spanish intendent now neglected to do. THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 381 this day the United States take their place among the powers of the first rank. The United States will re-establish the maritime rights of all the world." This purchase (like the appropriation of public funds for building the Cumberland Road, in 1806) was in controvention of the "Strict Construction" principles professed by Jefferson and his party, and the President called upon Mr. Madison, then Sec- retary of State, to prepare an amendment to the Constitution adapted to the emergency. Public opinion, however, supported the acquisition, and the amendment was not acted upon. The region occu- pied by the United States by virtue of the sale, comprised most of the territory of the States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, the Indian Territory, and Dakota, and the whole of Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington Territory.* This vast tract was not carefully described at the time, and the title to the whole of it was not determined until after the treaty with Great Britain of June 15, 1846, which defined the limits westward of the Rocky Mountains, confirming the title of the United States to more than three hundred thousand square miles. The representative of France in the negotiation was Francois, Marquis de Barbe-Marbois, who obtained a sum considerably greater than Napoleon had authorized him to sell the tract for. * In 1S29 M. Barbe-Marbois, published a Historie de la Louisiaiie, accomijanied by a map on which the limits of the territory incor- porated into that of the United States are laid down as above described, but he explains that the region on the Pacific coast was not included in the sale, though actually occupied by the United States, 382 FEDERALIST AND REPUBLICAN. The pirates of the Mediterranean had, towards the end of the eighteenth century, preyed on the commerce of the world, excepting that of those countries which paid blackmail to the governments that sent them out. In 1795, our government, the commerce of which had greatly suffered, entered into an agreement with the dey of Algiers, whose free- booters had captured two American vessels and thrown their crews into bondage, to pay him seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars cash, and some fifty thousand dollars, annually, for the release of these seamen and the future security of our ships. Treaties were also bought from the States of Tripoli and Tunis, but in 1801 the bey of Tripoli declared war against the United States, in order to get an increase of tribute. The war was concluded by a treaty effected June 4, 1805, by which all future tribute was abolished, but a large sum was paid for the freedom of Americans then in the hands oi the pirates. It was a naval war, and did not have great results excepting in training the United States navy, and in showing the wisdom of the Federalists who demanded a stronger naval force than Jefferson thought necessary. The war was rendered notable, "aowever, by the gallant conduct of the seamen gen- erally, and especially by the daring of Stephen Decatur, then a young lieutenant, who ran into the liarbor of Tripoli with a small vessel and destroyed an American frigate, the PJiiladelpJiia, under the very guns of the castle, and returned without loss. The candidate for the office of Vice-President at the first election of Jefferson, was Aaron Burr, a man of brilliant parts, but without principle. He had the THE STORY OF AARON BURR. 383 same number of votes in the electoral college that Jefferson received, and it devolved upon the House of Representatives to declare which of the two should have the higher office, since by the Constitution, as it then stood, the person receiving the greatest num- ber of votes was to be President, and the second in order Vice-President. Soon losing his popularity, and =3t=w, WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY, LEXINGTON, VA. foreseeing that though Jefferson would be re-nominated for his office, no such fortune was in store for him, Burr endeavored to capture the office of Governor of New York. In this attempt he failed, through the influence of Hamilton, as he thought. Challenging Hamilton to mortal combat, he deliberately shot him, 384 FEDERALIST AND REPUBLICAN. and was obliged to hide himself from popular indigna- tion, for the people knew the virtues of Alexander Hamilton and mourned his loss as a national calamity. During the administration of President Adams, a plan had been formed to wrench from Spain her South'American possessions, and prominent Federal- ists had for a considerable time negotiated with one Miranda, a Spanish adventurer, for the perfection of the plans. The accession of Napoleon to power in France had happily thwarted these schemes In his dejection Burr now thought of the plan, and seems to have determined to raise an army with which he might take Mexico from Spain, unite it to the Western and Southwestern States, and form an empire in which he should be dictator, with perhaps power enough to overturn the American Government. This was treason, and when the plan was discovered. Burr was arrested in Southwestern Alabama, whither he had escaped in 1807, and tried for that offence. He was acquitted for want of evidence that he had actually embodied an army within the State where the trial was held, though there were those who thought that the acquittal was a partisan act, the high-minded Chief Justice Marshal being accused of having favored Burr on political grounds. After the trial, Burr became a friendless wanderer. The story of the life of Harman Blennerhassett, an Irish exile whom Burr ruined by involving him in this scheme, is told in a brochure published in ChilHcothe, O., in 1850. It contains the elements of a deeply absorbing romance, bringing before the reader the polished and unprincipled Burr, and his devoted daughter, Theodosia, offset by the guileless simplicity THE RUIN OF BLENNEBHASSETT. 385 of Blennerhassett and the ardent attachment of his cultivated wife. The scene broadens ; takes us through the West and Southwest, exhibits many other characters and wild and exciting incidents. Before the sad story ends, Burr becomes an outcast and a wan- derer, without brother, sister, friend or child. Theo- dosia had been lost at sea in a vessel that set out from Charleston for New York, and was never heard of. Blennerhassett, after vain efforts to retrieve his fortunes, dies in a foreign land, comforted in his last moments by his loving but distressed wife ; and, fin- ally, just as the American Congress, led by Clay and others, is about to appropriate funds to enable her to enjoy her last days in comfort, Mrs. Blennerhassett dies in New York, in poverty and pain, an object of charity, ministered to by a society of women of her own warm-hearted Irish people. The foreign commerce of America had at this time become so great as practically to comprise the carrying trade of the world, and England became desirous of limiting it. She had, as we know, inter- posed some difficulties by insisting upon the right of search and the impressment of such seamen as her commanders might consider British subjects. She now not only reasserted this right, but declared that American vessels though neutral, were not exempt from siezure if they carried produce from countries with which she was at war. The American coasts were infested with privateers. American commerce was suffering from British interference, and, in 1805, the President recommended that active measures should be taken for protection. In 1806, a treaty was concluded by Monroe and 3«6 FEDERALIST AND REPUBLICAN. Pinckney, by which these troubles with Great Britain would have been stopped, but as a treaty with Eng- land would have been detrimci^lal to our interests with France, Jefferson did not send the document to the Senate, and it was never ratified. This action of the President caused a tumult of excitement. The situa- PIKE's peak — IN THE HEART OF THE CONTINENT. tion was still more complicated by the Berlin (Novem- ber 21, 1806) and Milan (December 17, 1807) decrees of Napoleon, which declared that the British Islands were in a state of blockade, and threatened with seizure all vessels trading with England or her dependencies, and the retaliatory " Orders in council " of England, JEFFERSON '8 EMBARGO. 387 November ii, 1807, which prohibited commerce with all portions of i\urope except Russia. June 22, 1807, one of our frigates, the Chesapeake, when just going to sea from Norfolk, Va., was overhauled by a British man-of-war, the Leopard, the officers of which came aboard as friends, and then astonished the Commodore by demanding to search the vessel for deserters. The demand was refused, and the vessel prepared for action ; but before this was accomplished, the Leopard poured her broad- sides into the Chesapeake, and compelled surrender. Four men were taken, three of whom proved to be American citizens, and the British government was compelled to disavow the outrage and promise repa- ration, which, by the way, was never given. This action led to the proclamation of the President forbidding all British war ships to enter American ports, and December 22, 1807, Congress, at the request of President Jefferson, passed an act pro- hibiting exportations and the sailing of American vessels from home ports. This act, called "Jeffer- son's Embargo," remained in force until the end of the term of Jefferson's office,* together with the acts of France and England, news of all of which, how- ever, excepting the Berlin decree and the Orders in council, had not reached America. The embargo act prostrated American commerce and brought home from all quarters of the globe, her busy merchantmen. * Congress had laid an embargo for sixty days, June 4, 1794, and had finally left it to the discretion of President Washington to con- tinue it until the end of the Congressional recess. The "great" embargo is the one mentioned in the text. The third was laid April 4, 181 2, and continued until the declaration of war with England, June 18. The fourth, lasting four months, was laid December 19, 1813. 388 FEDERALIST AND REPUBLICAN. The West and South, not being so extensively engaged in foreign commerce as the New England and Middle States, were better satisfied with this measure, by which Jefferson intended to ward off war ; but in the maritime States the opposition to \t was intense, and it showed itself in indignant public meetings and fiery addresses, as well as in votes, which, in two months more than a year, caused its repeal. It was in force, however, to within three days of the end of Jefferson's term of office, and he believed that if it had not been repealed, the war of 1 812 would have been averted. He attributed the great power of New England in breaking down his favorite act to the township system, which enables that portion of the country to bring so great a pro- portion of its best citizens to the polls. The administration of Jefferson had been a mem- orable period. It had seen the territory of the United States vastly increased by the purchase of Louisiana from France ; it had seen the first practical steamboat on the waters of the world ; * it had put * Robert Fulton, of New York, went from that city to Albany, in 1807, in the Clermont, a side-wheel steamboat, driven by an engine that he had bought in England of Boulton and Watt, and adapted to the purpose of steam navigatioB. It was not the first steamboat, but the first that ran for practical purposes and proved of actual value. Steamboats and railways were not considered unmitigated bless- ings, and Mr. Samuel Breck, writing in 1S30, of his early recollections, 5aid : " Gentlemen of fortune travelled then in better style than they do now. They did not get along so fast, but they went more securely, more agreeably, and more comfortably. Steamboats have ruined the inns, and in annihilating space have nearly broken up all private, genteel travelling. Everything now is done in vast crowds. Caravans move in mobs, and he who goes abroad nowadays must submit to the hugger-mugger assemblage of a steamboat on the water and a pro- cession of ten or twelve coaches on the land. Our fathers were not in such haste, nor so fond of kicking up a dust.'' ^/; MOUNT OF Till: ■5.S, CO LOU ADO. THE WEST EXPLORED. 391 an end to Mediterranean piracy, it had seen a Mar- shall* complete the estabHshment of American law upon a firm basis, it had sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clarke f across the continent to point the way to the Pacific Ocean and show the possibilities for growth in that direction ; it had begun the new policy of purchasing Indian lands, and establishing the tribes on reservations where they should be edu- cated to rely more upon agriculture than hunting ; and it had fixed at Washington in some degree the fashions of republican simplicity wb.M:h the first two Presidents dared not introduce for fear of compromis- ing their official dignity.^ During this administration, the subject of internal * John Marshall was born at Germantown, Va., in 1755, and served in the army of the Revolution, resigning in 1781. He supported the Constitution, and contributed more to its adoption by his native State than any other person except Madison. Appointed Justice of the Supreme Court the last day of 1801, he occupied the high office thirty-five years. His decisions in the department of Constitutional law were of the greatest importance at the beginning of the nation, and have always been deemed of the highest authority. Judge Story said of them, that for " power of thought, beauty of illustration, variety of learning, and elegant demonstrations," they "are justly numbered among the highest reaches of the human mind." t Lewis and Clark were commissioned by Jefferson in 1803 to explore the region between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean. Lewis had been Jefferson's private Secretary, and Clarke was familiar with the Indians and their ways. Their expedition occupied more than two years, and v/as of great importance to geo- graphical science and to the future growth of America. I Mr. Jefferson composed the epitaph which he wished upon his tomb, and it shows the importance that he placed upon the different acts of his administration. It is: "Here was buried Thomas Jeffer- son, Author of the Declaration of Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University ot Virginia." 892 FEDEBALIST AND KEPUBLIL'AN. COACHIKO liKVIAED. improvements by the general government, made its entrance into American politics. It was denied by the strict constructionists that the Constitution gave the government power to appropriate money for the purpose, but they supported some of the most em- INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 393 phatic enterprises of the sort notwithstanding. In 1 807, Secretary Gallatin was directed to report a scheme for a general movement in this direction, and the next year he proposed a great road from Maine to Georgia, to cost $7,800,000.00, and canals and other works estimated to cost in all twenty millions. The ques- tion stirred political circles for half a century. In 1838, John C. Calhoun declared that his life should be devoted to efforts to stop internal improvements by Congress, in the hope of restoring the government to its pristine purity, but in 18 16, he had believed the powers of Congress ample to "bind the republic together by a perfect system of roads and canals," and reported a bill to appropriate money for the pur- pose. This embryo capital, where fancy sees Squares in morasses, obelisks in trees; Which second-sighted seers, e'en now, adorn. With shrines unbuilt and heroes yet unborn, Though nought but woods and Jefferson they see, Where streets should run and sages ought to be. — Thomas Moore, Letter from Washington, in 1S04. CHAPTER XIX. WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. JAMES MADISON, of Virginia, a graduate of the College of New Jersey, a scholar of extensive culture, and, as Jefferson said, " of a pure and spot- less virtue which no calumny has ever attempted to sully," became the fourth President of the United States, March 4th, 1809. He was a man who made his mark by the strength of his character and the closeness of his logic ; not by aggressiveness or impet- uosity. At first a Federalist, and one of the authors of the essays which so much influenced public opinion at the time that the Constitution was under consid- eration, he subsequently became a leader in the opposition narty, and when he took the place of Presi- dent Jefferson, made no change in the policy of the government. It was hoped, however, that he would not sympathize with the strong anti-British senti- ments of his predecessor, and the jDublic expected that the pending difficulties with England Vv^ould soon be settled. At the moment when the new President assumed his office, the Governor of Canada, Sir James Craig, was plotting in an underhanded way to undermine the Union, by commissioning an adventurer, John Henry by name, to go to Boston to organize a revolution in 394 JOHN HENRY'S SCHEME. 395 favor of England.* This man seems to have been simply looking for an opportunity to fill his pockets, but he managed, three years later, to give the impres- sion that he had been the accredited agent of the British government to increase the antagonism of the Federal party against the Union, to deepen the dis- content already felt in New England, and to create a popular feeling in favor of the secession of the Eastern States and their union with Canada. The government paid Henry fifty thousand dollars for his pretended revelations, and the feeling of the public was strengthened against England to a wonderful extent. The Federalists could not prove the falsity of the story of Henry, though it was not shown that he had succeeded in corrupting a single American, and the Republicans, or Democrats, were glad to have such telling testimony against their partisan opponents as Henry was popularly supposed to have furnished. It was generally believed that the British ministry had been proved to be more hostile to America and less to be trusted than it had been supposed to be, and the war feeling was greatly increased. The Embargo Act, which had been repealed three days before Madison entered office, was followed by other measures intended to offset the unfriendly acts of Great Britain and France, but they were neither suc- cessful nor popular. They all interfered with Ameri- can commerce, and did no special damage to her oppo- nents. In 1810, in seemed as though France was about to institute friendly measures, when Napoleon promised to retract his decrees of which the United States complained, provided England would recall its * See Schouler's "History of the United States," ii. 346-47. 896 WAR WITH GUEAT BRITAIJS. ^ Orders in council. This England refused to do until ' France should actually set the example. The negotia- ^ tions dropped without effect. j The second session of the eleventh Congress was ' noteworthy on account of a debate upon the proposi- " tion to enable the territory of Orleans to become a i member of the Union, a movement that was earnestly ^ opposed by the Federalists of New England, who ' construed the clause in the Constitution re^ardino- ' the admission of new States as applying only to the territory of the then existing Union, and not to any ' acquired, as this had been, since the adoption of the ' Constitution. The founders of the republic had grave fears that a republican government was not possible in an extended country, and though Washington had declared in his farewell address that there was reason to hope "that a proper organization of the whole, ' with the auxiliary agency of government for the I respective subdivisions," might "afford a happy issue to the experiment," others were still fearful lest expansion should prove disastrous, and they opposed > this, the first proposition to erect a State west of the Mississippi River. When the bill was under discus- sion, in the midst of loud cries of " Order ! order ! " Josiah Quincy said (January 14, 1811), "If this bill passes, it is my deliberate opinion that it is virtually a dissolution of the Union ; that it will free the States from their moral obligation, and, as it will be the right of all, so it will be the duty of some defi- nitely to prepare for a separation ; amicably, if they can, violently, if they must." Mr. Quincy looked with dismay upon the regions watered by the Mississippi, the Missouri and the Red BIS UNIoy SEM 1 1 MEN Ts. 397 rivers, over which the imagination of the ambitious might venture, should the first step be taken into the vast territory ; but he lived to see his vaticination dis- proved, and to find himself a devoted believer in a still grander future of his extended country. The war feeling continued to grow in popularity, and it was strengthened in May, 1811, when, owing to an informality in hailing, the American frigate Presi- dent had received from the British sloop of war Little Belt a cannon ball in her mainmast, and it had returned the fire with a broadside in the dark, killing eleven and wounding twice that number. Six months later Congress met, with Henry Clay as speaker, and John C. Calhoun of South Carolina as one of its members.* The feeling in favor of war with England had grown still stronger. It was cal- culated that within eight years, nine hundred Ameri- can vessels had been boarded and searched, and six thousand seamen forced into the British navy. Con- gress showed its sympathy with the popular feeling by taking measures which had but one significance — war with England. It increased the army and navy, * Henry Clay, son of a Baptist minister, was born near Richmond, Va., in 1777, and before he came of age removed to Kentucky, with which State he was afterwards identified. He became a member of the United States Senate in 1806. and was a prominent figure in American politics ever after. He was Speaker of the "House in 181 1. He was candidate for the Presidency in 1824, and Secretary of State under John Quincy Adams. John Caldwell Calhoun, the advocate of State rights, was born in South Carolina in 1782, and died in 1850. He graduated at Yale College, entered the South Carolina Legislature in 1808, and the National House of Representatives in 181 1. He held afterwards the offices of Secretary of War, Vice-President, United States Senator And Secretary of State. 898 WAB WITH GREAT BRITAIN. and authorized the President to call out the militia, accept volunteers, and borrow eleven million of dollars. The President was not a leader in war measures. He hesitated, and it was not until a committee, headed by Henry Clay, had called upon him and intimated that he would not be presented for re-election unless he declared for war, that he was able to decide in favor of the wishes of the nation. On the twentieth day of May, information was received from London that there was no reasonable hope that the British government would withdraw from its positions regarding the rights of neutrals and the right of search, and on the first of June the President sent to Congress a message in which he showed that the British nation was virtually at war with the United States, and enumerated the grievances under which the government was suffering. This message was discussed in secret session, and a report of the committee on foreign relations was made to the House by John C. Calhoun, chairman, the result of which was that the President issued his proclamation declaring war, on the eighteenth of June, 1812. It hap- pened that on the twenty-third of the same month, be- fore the news of this move could have reached England, France having unconditionally withdrawn her objec- tionable decrees. Great Britain repealed her Orders in council. • Had this been done a few days earlier, war would probably have been averted. The Senate and the House were not very strongly united on the war question, the majority in the Sen- ate being but four in favor of war, and in the House but thirty, and the nation was as much divided. The consequence was that the President's proclamation THREATS OF DISUNION. 399 roused violent partisan feeling, for though the watch- word of the war was " Free Trade and Sailors' Rights," it was understood to be a party measure. Josiah Ouincy of Massachusetts, drew up an address to the people, which was signed by thirty-eight members of the House, protesting against the war, and the Legis- latures of Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey issued addresses of the same character. On the con- trary, it was evident that a majority of the people was in favor of the war, and they testified their ap- proval by illuminations, resolutions of apprbval and pledges to support the measure. In Baltimoreviolence was resorted to to suppress the opposition, the office of the Federal Republican, and the dwellings of some Federalists, being sacked :.by a mob on the twenty- second of June. One general was killed, another lamed for life ; others were assaulted ; and, notwith- standing, the ringleaders were acquitted. Threats of dissolution of the Union, with which the reader of American history has by this time become well ac- quainted, were openly made in private talk and in ser- mons, in deliberative bodies and in State Legislatures. One Boston clergyman declared that the Union had long since' been virtually dissolved, and that it was time for New England to take care of herself. The commerce of the country felt the distress consequent ,upon the war, and sympathized with New England in its intense opposition to it, an opposition that gave new life to the Federal party. Both nations were unprepared for the struggle ; England because it had not believed that the United States would carry out its intention after the cause had been partially removed, no less than because it 40U yy^Ji WITH GREAT BlUTAIN. was not free from its struggle with Napoleon ; and the United States because its army was small, its navy- unworthy the name, its revenue inadequate even to the demands of peace, and its people divided in coun- cil. Despite these odds, the United States determined to begin the war by an aggressive movement, and an army was prepared to invade Canada. The command was entrusted to Governor William Hull, of Michigan, who had done gallant service in the Revolution. His irresolution and pusilanimity on this campaign cost the country an ignominious surrender, the loss of Michigan Territory, and of an army numbering twenty- five hundred men. Hull was tried and sentenced to be shot, but was pardoned on account of his earlier services. Another expedition against Canada resulted disas- trously, and the advantage on land rested with the British, but on the ocean the feeble navy under the command of Hull, Jones, Decatur and Bainbridge, made such remarkable successes that England was amazed and terrified, while the Americans were to some degree compensated for the losses on land. American privateers also so effectively preyed upon British commerce that three hundred English mer- chantmen were taken during the first seven months of the war, and much wealth added to the stores of ';he people. The first notable naval victory was that gained by Captain Isaac Hull, nephew of the general, who with the frigate Coustitutioii (afterwards called Old Ironsides) met the British frigate Guerriere, and after a fight of thirty minutes, reduced her to a complete wreck. Hull received ovations in New York, Boston and Phibdelphia, and was rewarded by Con- COMMODORE PERRY'S VICTORY. 403 gress with a gold medal and fifty thousand dollars for his crew. The campaign of 1813 was entered upon after much the same fashion as that of 18 12, and with corresponding results. There were victories on the sea and ineffective conflicts on land. On Lake Erie Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry created a navy, and captured the entire British navy, sending to General Harrison the famous despatch, " We have met the enemy and they are ours ; two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop.'" For this victory, Perry was compli- mented by the President in a message to Congress. It enabled Harrison to make further progress, for he met the British under General Proctor, on the River Thames, between lakes St. Clair and Huron, when he defeated him and his Indian allies under Tecumseh,* who was killed. By this victory all was regained that Hull had lost at the beginning of the war. At the commencement of the war, Tecumseh had in 1805, visited the Indians of the Mississippi valley and the South, and had stirred them to a fanatical antagonism against the whites. The Creeks and the Seminoles carried on their hostilities against the inhabitants of Georgia, and were repressed by General * Tecumseh, a chief of the Shawnees, was born near Springfield, O., about 1770. In connection with his brother, an impostor Icnown as " the Prophet," he entered into a grand conspiracy against the whites. In 1809, he refused to sign the treaty with the United States when General Harrison had purchased three million acres of land of the Indians, and prepared to destroy the American forces. He collected a considerable body of Indians, which, under command of the prophet (during Tecumseh's absence in the South), burst upon Harrison's army near the mouth of the Tippecanoe, November 7th, 181 1, but was routed. Tecumseh thereafter threw himself into the British cause. 404 n'AB WITH GREAT BBITAIN. Jackson with a force of twenty-five hundred Tennessee volunteers. Again, in August, 1813, they attacked the whites at Fort Mims, firing the houses and massa- cring all but seventeen of the garrison. Again Tennessee sent out a force larger than the former, and the Indians were completely overcome. The last important battle of the campaign was fought March 27, 1 8 14, at Horse Shoe Bend, and resulted in the destruction of six hundred warriors, and the sub- mission of the chiefs. Among those who fought with Jackson at this time, were Sam Houston and Davy Crockett. The campaign of 18 14 opened with the promise of greater results on the part of the British arms, for the close of the war with Napoleon had enabled the gov- ernment to send large reenforcements to the army in America. The outlook for the United States was discouraging. Congress voted an increase of the regular army (for the purpose of defence), and a new loan of twenty-five millions of dollars. The British admiral Cochrane was peremptorily instructed to " destroy and lay waste all towns and districts in the United States " found accessible to his attacks, and the American seaboard was in sad condition. The coasts of New England had been visited, and some of the towns seized. Others bought their immunity, but Stonington, Ct., when bom barded, was so effectively guarded by its citizens as to inflict considerable loss on the attacking fleet. New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Baltimore strengthened their fortifications, and a considerable force was assigned to the protection of Washington. During two years the Southern coast was ravaged Siasaiiiii! GENERAL SCOTT AT NIAGARA. 407 by the British, and in the summer of 1814, an advance was made upon Washington, where, after overcoming the miUtia at Bladensburgh, August 24th, the capitol, the Presidential mansion, and most of the pubHc buildings, and the records, were given to the flar.es,* August 25th. General Ross, who had command of the expedition, proceeded to Baltimore with the inten- tion of repeating the scenes of devastation, but was effectually resisted, though he bombarded the city, and his forces were obliged to retreat. General Ross lost his life in this attack, September 12th. During this year a third Canada campaign was planned, which was more successful than those of pre- vious years had been. Though the first engagements resulted m disaster, there was a battle at the Chippewa River, at which the genius and persistence of Winlield Scott gained a victory, July 5th. The British General Riall retreated, and General Scott was detached to watch his movements. On the twenty-fifth of July, the two armies confronted each other near Niagara Falls, and the most severe battle of the campaign occurred, in which Riall was taken prisoner, Scott disabled for the war, and the British driven from the field by an inferior force, with great loss. *No American can hold his head up after this in Europe, or at home, when he reflects that a motley croup of French, Spanish, Portu- guese and English, amounting to only four thousand, has successfully dared to march forty miles from their ships, and ruin our best navy- yard, invade our capital, and march in safety, nay, unmolested, back to their vessels. O Democracy ! To what have you brought us ! O Madison, Armstrong, and your conceited, ignorant, and improvident cabinet ! How guilty are you towards this dishonored, unhappy nation ! — Breck's Recollections. 408 W^m ]VITH GREAT BRITAIN. In August, an expedition was sp-t to invade New Vork by way of Lake Champlain, and it reached Plattsburgh without opposition. It was the line so unsuccessfully f^^Uowed by Burgoyne. With fourteen the, xuJ men, the British met the Americans under Gen al McComb and Commodore MacDonough, and the fight began on land and water, September 15th. The ships fought for more than two hours, when the British, having lost their commander, struck their colors^ On shore the British were no more success- ful, and the General was forced t-augl .idon his cam- paign and retire speedily to Canada, avr^ . ving lost some twenty-five hundred men, and wastea i.vo and a half million dollars. Florida was at this time in possession of the Span- ish, but it was in August, 18 14, practically taker possession of by the British, who landed a consider able force, with arms and supplies, and issued an address calling upon the inhabitants of the Southwest to rise and aid them in expelling the Americans from the territory. The London Times announced that the most active measures were in progress for detach- ing from the enemy a most important part of its terri- tory ; for it was plainly seen in England that whoever possessed New Orleans and the region about the delta of the Mississippi, would command a greater territory than was included by the boundary line of the whole United States besides. The commander at Pensacola endeavored to enlist the aid of a band of pirates, who had preyed on the commerce of the world from the island of Barrataria, at the mouth of the Mississippi, but Commodore Patterson, then in charge of the squadron at New Orleans, attacked the B4TTLE OF NEW ORLEANS. 409 Dirates, put them to flight, and took their entire fleet )f vessels and priztr> to New Orleans, September i6th. On the fifteenth of September the British made an ittempt to take Fort Bowyer, off Mobile, but were epulsed and obliged to return to Pensa.,ola. Jackson ook this place on the sixth of November, df*-' -^H mart action, and forced the British to take to u^eir ■liWl^MHrfRWVO '■ STATUE OF PKESIDENT JACKSON AT NEW ORLEANS. lips. Then, learning that the enemy had been for )me time preparing an expedition against New •rleans, he took his comparatively small force thither ) protect it. General Packenham, a veteran of the eninsular Campaigns, and brother-in-law of Welling- m, was in command of the British Expedition, which )mprised fifty vessels, conveying a force of twelve lousand men, who had many of them been engaged 410 WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. in the war with Napoleon. It bore also English mer- chants who came out to buy the cotton that was expected to form a portion of the plunder of the city. After a preliminary skirmish on the twenty-third of December, in which the British had the advantage, New Orleans was attacked by the veterans, but they encountered a determined general who knew no fear, entrenched behind an impenetrable breastwork of cotton bales, with sharpshooters from Tennessee and Kentucky, and heroes of the Creek War who had lived on acorns and flinched at no dsncr'(jr The struggle lasted from dawn to eight in the evening, when the British were forced to retire to their works, with the loss of Packenham and twenty-six hundred men. The Americans lost an insignificant number — variously stated at from "thirteen" to "less than a hundred." The British soon after sailed to Jamaica. The intensity of party feeling magnified the impor- tance of a convention of a few Federalists,* which was held at Hartford at the time that Jackson's Cam- paign was in progress. The Massachusetts Legisla- ture, which in the earlier part of the war had refused the call of the President for troops, on the ground that it was the right of the Governor, and nof of the President, to decide when the militia sho out, now, October, 1814, called a convent States opposing the war, and appointed gates to deliberate upon the dangers t * The Hartford Convention — an innocent scheme w — was taxed with treasonable or disloyal designs, a good reason; and yet the Secession of 1861 justified ■,vise measure of a party which the States joining in th for that very measure strongly denounced. — Theodore sey, LL.D., T/ie Experiment of the Union with its Pi 'I I'll ' ii ii' ,1 THE HABTFOBD CONVENTION. 413 Eastern States were exposed, and to devise means of security " not repugnant to their obligations as mem- bers of the Union." It was thought that perhaps the plan of the Union had proved a failure, or at least that the Constitution needed amendment, to " secure the support and attachment of all the people, by plac- ing all upon the basis of fair representation." In response to the call, twenty-seven persons met at Hartford,* December 15, and remained in secret ses- sion. This secrecy added unnecessarily to the suspicion with which the acts of the body were viewed, and popular interest in it was very deep. When it adjourned, it sent a delegation to Washington to confer with the Federal government, and proposed another and more general convention to be held in Boston the following June. It offered seven prohibi- tory amendments to the Constitution, providing that there should be no representation of slaves, no em- bargo lasting longer than sixty days, no act of non-intercourse, nor war, except for defence, no admission of a State except by a two thirds vote in Congress, no election of naturalized citizens to Con- * Whatever were the intentions of the members of the Hartford Convention, it gave utterance to the principles of nullification as clearly as South Carolina did at a later date, and brought out ex- pressions from the party headed by Mr. Jefferson, on the other side. The Richmond Ejiquirer, for instance, then under the direction of Thomas Ritchie, said : " No man, no association of men, no State or set of States, has a right to withdraw itself from the Union of its own accord. The same power which knit us together can alone unknit. The same formality which formed the links of the Union is necessary to dissolve it. The majority of States which formed the Union must consent to the withdrawal of any one branch of it. Until that consent has been obtained, any attempt to dissolve the Union or obstruct the efficacy of its Constitutional laws is treason — treason to all intents and purposes." — T/ie Great Rebellion, Page 32. 414 WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. gress or to any civil office of the United States, and no re-election of a President or the choice of two suc- cessive Presidents from the same State. It was especially declared that " no hostility to the Constitu- tion " was meditated. When the committee reached Washington it found peace declared, and the subject dropped, except so far as it killed the Federal party and left its mark upon all who had participated in it, who were ridiculed and deprived of hope of political preferment. Three times during the progress of the war, Russia had proposed to act as mediator between the con- tending nations, but the offer had each time been refused by Great Britain. At last it consented to negotiate with commissioners of the United States, either at London or Gottenburg. Five commission- ers were sent to the latter place. They were John Ouincy Adams, James A. Bayard, Henry Clay, Jona- than Russell and Albert Gallatin. The meeting actually occurred in Ghent, lasting from August 8th, to December 24th. The war had been begun for the redress of specific grievances, but the first claims were deliberately abandoned, and a general treaty made, which settled nothing, except that England recognized in the United States a power that it could no longer trifle with. There was, it is true, no further impressment of seamen from American ves- sels, and there is reason to believe that after indulg- ing in insolence and superciliousness, the British commissioners gave assurances that the wrongs com- plained of by the United States should trouble them no longer, and that they felt that the English naval supremacy had at last been worthily challenged, that, DECATUR IN ALGIERS. 415 in fact, England could no more claim to rule the seas. The news of peace reached America on the eleventh of January, 1815, and electrified the nation. At the moment that it was rejoicing over the victory at New Orleans, gained after the articles of peace had been signed, special messengers were sent to the North and South with the news. Boston received it on Mon- day — it had reached New York on Saturday — and all the bells were rung, the schools were dismissed, and the region illuminated. Like scenes were enacted in other places, for the people did not stop to read the text of the articles. They rejoiced that a tedious war was over. Peace enabled the government to take efficient measures against the dey of Algiers who had taken advantage of the war to renew his depredations on American commerce, and Commodore Decatur was sent with a fleet to demand a treaty. Decatur com- pletely cowed the dey and forced him to sign a treaty, prepared beforehand, which gave indemnity for the depredations committed, renounced his claim of trib- ute, and surrendered all American prisoners. Deca- tur then advanced upon Tripoli and Tunis and com- pelled them also to renounce their claims of tribute, to pay for their violations of law, and to give bonds for their future good behavior. Thus ended the pay- ment of tribute to pirates by the United States. The war left the land in a deplorable condition. Its debt had grown to a hundred and twenty millions, its commerce was decayed, its manufactures almost dead, its banks suspended, and its people burdened with taxation. To aid towards recovery, a new national bank was established in 18 16 (in place of that estab- 416 WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. lished in the time of Washington, of which the charter had expired in 1811), with a capital of thirty-five mil- lions, and a tariff on imports, amounting almost to pro- hibition, was proposed, to protect home manufactures. At the election of 18 16, James Monroe of Virginia, was chosen President, and Madison retired to private life, after a tumultuous administration of eight years. IN AN OLD URAWING-ROOM. CHAPTER XX. THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING. THE portion of our history to be considered in the present chapter comprises the two admin- istrations of the fifth President, James Monroe, and that of President John Quincy Adams. It introduces us to the administration of the hero of New Orleans, Andrew Jackson, a man whose salient characteristics inspired his followers with enthusiastic admiration, and whose arbitrary acts made him at times an unsafe director of public affairs. The period is to be remembered for the renewal of confidence in the future of the country, and the tem- porary burial of party and sectional jealousies, which made it possible for Monroe to be chosen President for a second term, by the unanimous vote of the Electoral College ; but it was also the time of those vigorous discussions of the subject of slavery which led to the " Missouri compromise " of 1820. It was President Monroe * who promulgated the doctrine that still bears his name 'though its real author is said to * The genesis of " The Monroe Doctrine " is very fully presented in the volume on James Monroe, in the series of sketches of American Statesmen, by Daniel C. Oilman, President of John Hopkins Uni- versity, pp. 156-174. The earliest suggestion of it (1780) is traced to Thomas Pownall, Governor of Massachusetts, New Jersey and South Carolina; the person who first called American citizens "sovereigns." 417 418 THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING. have been John Ouincy Adams, then Secretary of State), which declares that the American continents are not to be considered as subjects for colonization by any European power. During this period (in 1 8 19) Spain ceded Florida to the United States. The aged Lafayette visited the country that he had aided in its struggle for freedom (in 1824), the Indian Terri- tory was established, and the plan to remove the Indians thither was perfected. This was a time when public improvements were carried forward with great energy. The Erie Canal was formally opened in 1825 ; the first steamship, the Savannah, crossed the Atlantic in 1829, and the first steam locomotive began to draw trains on the Dela- ware and Hudson Canal railroad in 1829; the semi- centennial celebration of the Declaration of Indepen- dence, in 1826, was marked by the simultaneous deaths in Massachusetts and Virginia respectively,* of Presidents Adams and Jefferson, who half a century before had signed their names to the document that had given the keynote to all the patriotism of the revolution, and still stands, like the Magna Charta of England, as the corner-stone of our rights and freedom. The period began with an amount of good feeling that seemed to promise the entire obliteration of sectional and party strife. Commerce revived, slowly, it is true, manufactures prospered, and all old parties actually died out as the reasons for their disappeared, but the very improvement in business, * By an interesting coincidence, President Monroe also died on the anniversary of the Nation's birth in New York City, in 183 1. Up end of the administration of the younger Adams, Virginia ar chusetts were the only Commonwealths that had furnish? " .idents to the United States. 4 NEW STA TES. 421 and the increase of population that resulted from emi- gration, brought new subjects to the front, and new parties were formed, new complications arose. Before the end of Monroe's administration, the original thirteen States had become twenty-four. During the administration of Washington, Vermont (1791), Kentucky (1792) and Tennessee (1796) had been admitted to the Union. Vermont was harrassed by claims of New York on one side, and New Hamp- shire on the other. It had applied for admission to THE PRESIDENTIAL MANSION AT WABHINGTON, FINISHED IN 1829. the Union as early as 1777, but had been refused on account of the claims of New York, Vermont then received overtures from Canada which alarmed Congress and led to a proposal for her admission to the Union on certain terms, in 1782. Madison after- wards explained that \he causes of the delay in this case were jealousy on the part of the other States of the growth of " Eastern interests," and the inexpedi- ency of giving to so unimportant a State a vote equal 122 THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING. to that of the others in determining the great ques- tions of public policy. The interests of New York in the Territory of Vermont was bought in 1789, for thirty thousand dollars. Seventeen years after Danic' Boone of North Car- olina had established himself at Boonesborough, the population of Kentucky had increased to seventy- three thousand, and emigrants were coming in in large numbers. She was then admitted to the Union, the last year of Washington's first term. A portion of her territory had been claimed by Virginia, but this was now relinquished. In like manner, in the same year North Carolina gave up her claims to the Territory of Tennessee, which, in 1796 was admit- ted to the Union with a population almost as large as that of Kentucky at the time of her admission. When the Northwestern Territory was formed in 1787, Connecticut ceded her claim to the Territory of Ohio to the general government, but with a reser- \ation of a certain portion which has ever since beer known as the " Connecticut Reserve," or the Western Reserve. The charter of Connecticut gave her a strip of land reaching across the continent, excepting such portions as were at the time (1621) actually pos- sessed or inhabited by any other Christian prince or State. This excluded New York from her jurisdiction, and it accounts for the possession by a New Englanci State of a tract so remote from the seaboard. Ohio, the seventeenth State, and the iirst formed from the Northwestern Territory, was admitted to the Union in 1802. The remainder became the Territory of Indiana. The southern portion of Louisiana after its pur- WESTEBN BEG IONS OPENING. 423 became the Territory of Orleans, ■l ii. i>'i2, L V. is admitted to the Union as the .ai'.: of I.ui '.I,... In i8i6, the State of Indiana le southeastern part of the Terri- STARTING KOK THE WEST. tory of the same name, and entered the Union with a population of-ninety-eight thousand, and the smallest area possessed by any of the Western States. 424 THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING. The States of Louisiana and Indiana were the only ones added to the Union during the administration of Madison, but that of Monroe, owing to the rapidity with which the territory was growing and the popula- tion increasing, was prolific in new members of the Union. From 1817 to 1821, five new States were formed: Mississippi, 1817; Illinois, 181 8; Alabama, 1 8 19; Maine, 1821, and Missouri, 1821. Three of these came into the Union without any special excite- ment ; but there was a long and bitter debate over the admission of Maine and Missouri, the consequen- ces of which had a lasting influence upon American politics. In 1802, Georgia, which claimed all the ter- ritory between its present limits and the Mississippi River, ceded it to the general government and it be- came the Territory of Mississippi, from which were formed Mississippi (1817) and Alabama (1819). In 1 8 18, the southern portion of the Territory of Illinois became the State of Illinois. Missouri applied for admission before Alabama had entered the Union, but the proposition involved the discussion of the subject of the extension of slavery, and the admission was postponed. It was the natural time for a new free State. Several States had been admitted with slavery, and of the eight since the adoption of the Constitution, the balance had been maintained. The North felt that too much' tolerance had been given to slavery by the general Government in its acts organizing the State of Louisiana, and the Southwestern and Mississippi territories, and the South argued that the admission of Missouri with the stipulation that she should be a free State, would con- travene the Constitution, which left the State itself THE MISSOURI QUESTION. 425 .>o determine the question. On the other hand, it was held that the State was not yet formed, and that the govern- ment had the ac- knowledged right to control slavery in the territories. The excitement grew. Jefferson be- lieved, with others, that the Missouri question was " the knell of the Union," and said that like a " fire bell in the night," it awakened him and filled him with terror. He thought that no such momentous question had arisen in the country since the day of Bunker Hill. In the midst of the turmoil, Maine applied for admis- sion, and the Sen- ate united the cases - , ^ I51INKEK niLL MONUMl of the two States m one' bill, providing no restrictions on slavery. A 426 THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING. conference committee effected the " compromise," by providing for the admission of Missouri without restrictions, but prohibiting slavery thereafter north of thirty-six thirty north latitude.* The question immediately arose whether the restriction related to "Territories" or "States," and there appear to have been those who voted for the bill who held different views of its interpretation on this vital point. Maine was admitted at the same time. While the discus- sion was progressing in the Senate, one of the South- ern members " was going round to all the free- State members and proposing to them to call a con- vention of the States to dissolve the Union, and agree upon the terms of separation and the mode of dispos- ing of the public debt and of the lands, and make other necessary arrangements of disunion." Thus does the demon of disunion reappear from time to time in the history of the country. At the close of his administration, Monroe, one of the purest and most self-sacrificing of all our Presi- dents, fell into insignificance and poverty. His successor eulogized him as being " of a mind anxious and unwearied in the pursuit of truth and right, patient of injury, patient of contradiction, courteous even in the collision of sentiment, sound in its ultimate judgments, and firm in its final conclu- sions." His biographer says : "The one idea he represents consistently from the beginning to the end of his * Henry Clay was the constant and consistent supporter of the com- promise. Me wrote that the subject engrossed the whole thoughts of the members and constituted almost the onlvto])ic of conversation. With- out the help of the genius of Clay, it could hardly have been passed through Congress. THE MONROE DOCTRINE. 427 career is this, that America is for Americans. He resists the British sovereignty in his early youth ; he insists on the importance of free navigation in the xMississippi ; he negotiates the purchase of Louisiana and Florida; he gives a vigorous impulse to the prose- cution of the second war with Great Britain, when neutral rights were endangered ; finally he announces the Monroe doctrine." * There were three candidates for President Monroe's place, in his own Cabinet, besides Clay and Jackson outside of it. The differences about the tariff divided the North and South and added to the confusion caused by the strife of the candidates. The election resulted in the choice, by the House of Represent- atives, February 9, 1825, of John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, as President, and John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, as Vice-President, and they entered office March 4th.t * The election of Mr. Adams by the House was owing to the influence of Henry Clay, and when the President made Clay Secretary of State, an oppor- tunity was afforded for a cry of "bargain and cor- ruption," and Adams was opposed with the most vindictive bitterness, which increased towards the end * Gilman's " Monroe," p. 214. t John Quincy Adams, son of John Adams, was born at Braintree. Mass., in July, 1767, and died at Washington, February 21, 1848. He was thoroughly educated abroad, and grew in mental brilliancy and strength up to the time of his death, earning the sobriquet " Old Man Eloquent," applied by Milton to Isocrates. After his foreign travel and study, he graduated at Harvard College, in 1788 He occupied many posts of public trust, both at home, in Massachusetts, at Washington, and abroad. After his term as President, he was a member of the House of Representatives for seventeen years. 428 THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING. of his term of office, until he was opposed by a j majority in both branches of the Legislature. The ' campaign for the next Presidential election was begun in October, of the same year, by the Legisla- ture of Tennessee, which nominated Jackson, and the whole of the term of Adams was a period of restless strife between opposing factions. The question at stake was not, " Was Adams successful in directing the government .'' " "Was he honest and capable.-'" but, " Was he popular with the people .-* " He had the reputation of being cold and unapproachable, and while no one doubted his sincerit}^ the popular heart was not stirred by any personal feeling for him. Jackson, on the contrary, held his followers strongly to him. Though Mr. Adams dechned to make use of the influence of government in his favor in 1828, when the nomination of his successor was to be made, he did attempt to gain support by a letter to the electors of Virginia, but it was unavailing, and Jackson, who had received the larger number of electoral votes at the previous election, was chosen in his place. President Adams had used his influence success- lully in the development of the country, holding opposite views in this respect to Monroe, who had vetoed the bill for the construction of the Great Cum- berland Road,* and following out the policy of Jeffer- son's administration, as exhibited in the recommenda- tions of his Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin, in 1807. Another phase of the administra- * An epitome of the arguments of President Monroe on this subject may be found in Oilman's " Monroe," pp. 239, 248. THE VICTORS AND THE SPOILS. 429 tion of Adams is seen in the " Panama Mission," as it is called. During the previous administration, the Spanish States of South America had proposed a conven- tion of delegates, with a view to carrying out the " Monroe Doctrine," as those States conceived it. Mr. Adams urged Congress to appoint commis- sioners, and, after an exciting debate, two persons nominated by the President, were confirmed, March 14, 1826. The Congress met June 22, but the United States was not represented, owing to the death of one of the commissioners, and delay on the part of the other. The next year the two commis- sioners proceeded to attend an adjourned meeting, but the other members of the Congress did not appear, and the hopes that had been cherished by some of seeing the United States at the head of a Federation of American Republics, failed to be realized. A marked feature in the administration of President Adams, was the adoption of the " American system," or protection, to industry by levying a tariff on im- portations, which was done in 1828. The principle of "rotation in office," adopted by Jefferson, and at a later date expressed by Governor Marcy, of New York, in the words, " To the victors belong the spoils," became very prominent in the administration of Jackson.* He entered office deter- mined to reward his friends. Washington had made nine changes in the office-holders during his adminis- trations ; Adams had made no more ; Jefferson put out thirty-nine persons ; Madison, five; Monroe, nine ; * This principle is now expressed, " The government belongs to its friends." 430 THE ERA or GOOD FEELIXG. John Ouincv Adams, two ; and it is estimated that Jackson put out two thousand federal office-holders to make room for his political friends. These figures show that though Jefferson may be said to have estab- lished the principle of rotation, it was Jackson who actually reduced it to practice on a grand scale. A POST STATION ON TUK rUAlKlKS. CHAPTER XXI. NULLIFICATION, — TREATY OF WASHINGTON. — ANNEX- ATION OF TEXAS. ^''"P^HE period from 1830 to 1845 'S marked by the discussions regarding the tariff, which resulted in nulHfication in South Car- olina by the treaty of Washington which set- tled important questions between the United States and Great Britain, by severe financial disas- ters, by successful for- eign diplomacy, and by the annexation of Texas, which was to bring about the war with Mexico. It carries us from the open- ing of the administration of Jackson to the close of that of Tyler. The Protective Tariff had before this time caused an antagonism between the Northern and Southern States, but the tariff of 1828 was especially offensive to the South, and Jackson in his first message sug- 431 WSBBTEB AT MABSHFIELD. 432 NULLIFICATION. gested a modification of the duties it levied, A few slight changes were made in the spring of 1830, but the concession did not bring concord. The South attributed to the tariff troubles that resulted from the sale of public lands to emigrants and depreciated the value of estates in the older communities. At the close of 1829, Senator Samuel A. Foote of Connecticut, brought forward a resolution inquiring into the expediency of suspending for a time the sale of public lands, and it brought up the vexed question of the relative rights of the general government and the States. It was on this occasion that the notable debate occurred between Daniel Webster and Senator Robert Y. Hayne, of South Carolina, in which Hayne declared that the general government, being a creature of the States, the States retained the right to "nul- lify" any act of Congress that they deemed unconsti- tutional, and Webster planting himself firmly on the theory that the Constitution was adopted by the people as a M^hole, acording to its tenor — for it begins with the words, " We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union " — argued that the general government is, within its sphere, independent of all local institutions, and that no State has the right to nullify any act of Congress. He argued that the United States was a nation, the government of which was the independent offspring of the popular will, " made for the people, made by -the people, and answerable to the people." The close of the first term of Jackson was approach- ing, and the time for the choice of his successor ar- rived, in November, 1832. The result of the election was the reelection of Jackson, who received the votes SOUTH CAROLINA ACTS. 435 of Maine, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, Mississippi, Indiana, Illinois, Alabama and Missouri.* Henry Clay received the votes of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connec- ticut, Delaware, Maryland and Kentucky. Vermont voted for Mr. Wirt, and South Carolina for John Floyd of Virginia, lor President, and Henry Lee of Massachusetts, for Vice-President. South Carolina under the guidance of John C, Calhoun, now acted upon the principles which, it claimed, were laid down f in the acts of Kentucky and Virginia, passed in 1798, under the direction of Jeffer- son and Madison, and called a convention, which assembled November 19, 1832, and passed, November 24, an ordinance declaring that the acts of Congress imposing duties on importations, were unauthorized by the Constitution, and therefore " null and void, and no law, nor binding on the State of South Carolina, its officers and citizens," J and that the Legislature should adopt measures to arrest the operation of such acts within the State. The people with a manliness that must be admired, staked their all on the support *The nomination for President and Vice-President were now first made by National Conventions. The Anti-Masons nominated William Wirt and Amos Ellmaker, in September, 1831 ; in December, the National Republicans nominated Henry Clay and John Sergeant ; and in March, 1832, the Democrats nominated Martin Van Buren as Vice- President, Andrew Jackson having been nominated as President in February, 1830, by his friends in the Legislature of New York. Candi- dates had generally been nominated by Congressional caucuses. t See page 372. J Writing in 1833, Jackson said : " The tariff was only a pretext [for nullification], and disunion, and a Southern Confederacy the rea^ object. The next pretext will be the negro or slavery question." 436 NULLIFICATION. of their principles, and the Legislature provided tor calling out the military to protect State rights. President Jackson found here such a juncture as he delighted in. He issued a proclamation declaring that he should " take care that the laws be faithfully exe- cuted," that " the Union must and shall be preserved," and warning the people of South Carolina that their course was " one of ruin and disgrace to the very State whose right they affect to support." A few weeks later, January i6, 1833, he issued a message to Con- gress in which he showed the reasons on which he based his opposition to nullification and secession, and drew a picture of the dire results which would follow them. He asked them if they could say, " This happy Union we will dissolve ; this picture of peace and prosperity we will deface ; this free intercourse we will interrupt ; these fertile fields We will deluge with blood ; the protection of that glorious flag we renounce; the very name of American we discard.''" He called General Scott, the hero of Lundy's Lane, to the Capi- tol, and gave him instructions to proceed to Charleston harbor, and to see that the laws were executed. Calhoun, who had resigned the office of Vice-President in order to take the place of Hayne in the Senate, did not wish to have the struggle go beyond debate, and used his great influence in favor of a compromise brought forward by Henry Clay, and adopted by the House, February 25, and by the Senate, March 2, 1833. South Carolina accepted the situation. She had not been supported by the other States. North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Missouri, Tennessee, Delaware, Indiana, Massachusetts, Connec- ticut and New York condemned nullification, though THE UNITED STATES BANK. 437 some of them pronounced the tariff unconstitutional and not expedient. Virginia appeared as mediator and sent a special messenger, Benjamin Watkin;; Leigh, with conciliatory resolutions to South Carolina. The trouble was temporarily settled, South Caro- lina rescinded its nullification resolutions, but no principle was laid down for the decision of future difficulties. During the administration of President Jackson, the Whig party received its name, and at about the same time the Democrats were first called " Locofocos," from the fact that in 1835, during an excited meeting of the party in Tammany Hall, New York, when the candles had been blown out to increase the confusion, they were lighted with matches then called " loco- focos." * The United States Bank, the charter of which was to expire in 1836, encountered the opposition of President Jackson from the beginning of his adminis- tration. In 1832, the bank applied to Congress for a renewal of its charter, and it was granted ; but Jackson interposed his veto, and there was not a two thirds majority in the Senate in its favor. The President then determined to remove the deposits and give them to the State banks. Congress refused to sup- port him in his determination, but he resolved to do it, nevertheless, on his own responsibility. He encountered a new obstacle, for the secretary of the Treasury, Louis McLane, could not be prevailed upon ♦Friction matches were new, having been invented in 1829, and intro- duced by Faraday. They were at first ignited by being rubbed between folds of sandpaper, and were noisy and dangerous ; but in 18341 phosphorus was utilized instead of the chenaicals previously used. 438 NULLIFICATION. to carry out his wish. WilHam J. Duane, who was put into his place, also refused to effect the transfer.* Duane was accordingly removed in turn, and Roger B. Taney was put in his place. ( Taney was never con- firmed.) The Treasury deposits, amounting" to ;;S9, 800,000. 00, were then, October, 1833, distributed among (89) "pet banks," in the different States, and these loaned them on easy terms, facilitating specula- tion to a great extent. At the same time the United States Bank and those others that were not favored with a portion of the Government funds, were forced to curtail their transactions, and commercial distress ensued. t While this was the case, the government was accu- mulating a surplus of funds which, by 1835, not only enabled it to pay off its entire debt, but left a balance which to the extent of more than thirty million v/as in January, 1837, distributed to the several State governments, to be used as each deemed best. In some cases this sum was divided among the citi- zens, but in others it was used to promote education, increase the area of cotton production, or the improve- ments of roads. Before the distribution had been * John C. Calhoun said of the removal of the deposits, "The whole power of the government was perverted into a great political machine, with a view of corrupting and controlling the country." " The avowed and open policy of the government is to reward political friends and punish political enemies. ' With money we will get partisans, with partisans votes, and with votes money,' is the maxim of our public pilferers." t The President's action in this matter led to the passage, by the Senate, of a vote of censure, which remained on the record for four years, when it was erased, under the " Expunging Resolution," on motion of Colonel Thomas Hart Kenion of Missouri, March 28, 1837, in opposition to the earnest protest of Daniel Webster nnd others. MARTIN VAN BUREN PRE:SlDENT. 4311 completed, the administration was confronted by the prospect of a deficit. The State banks added to tlic financial difficulties by increasing their issue of paper money, and this alarmed the government, leading the President to issue his " specie circular," directing that specie only should be received in payment for public lands. This order was followed by the sus- pension of many banks. In the midst of these financial complications, Martin Van Buren, who had been chosen to succeed Jackson on the expiration of his second term, took the head of government. The new President was a member of the Democratic party, and had been in active public life for over a quarter of a century. He had been chosen to the Senate of New York, his native State, before arriving at the age of thirty, and had been the leader of his party for many years. Twice he had been elected to the United States Senate, once to the office of Governor of New York, and he had been Secretary of State during the first term of Jackson, and was by him appointed Minister to England, an office which, owing to the adverse influence of Clay, Webster and Calhoun, he had not been confirmed in. It was the fortune of Van Buren to reap the consequences of the acts of his predecessors, for within two months after he took the oath of office, the banks of New York suspended specie payment, and were followed by those of other commercial cities. Within six months, the real estate of New York had depreciated more than forty millions of dollars, merchandise had fallen more than thirty per cent., and thousands of rla}- laborers had lost their employment, in the city alone. In May the mer 440 NULLIFICATION. chants called upon the President to convene Con- gress, and it was brought together in September, 1837. Mr. Van Buren laid the blame of the state of affairs upon the spirit of reckless speculation '> in which the people had indulged, and on luxurious habits based upon accumulations that were not real. He did not propose any method to relieve the \ embarrassments, but suggested the establishment of an " independent treasury system," by which the funds of the government should be kept in offices under control of the administration in the chief cities. The scheme which was, and still is, called the " Sub-Treasury System," was not favored at first, and it was not until 1840 that it was adopted. Even then it was not countenanced much more than a year (the bill being repealed August, 1841), but it was re-established in 1846. The financial crash affected not only individuals, but States, many of which had borrowed largely. Some paid the interest due their creditors in certifi- cates of indebtedness, others made no payments at all ; a few utterly repudiated their obligations, and when, in 1842, an effort was made to negotiate a govern- ment loan in Europe, no offer was obtained for it. The banks had, however, generally resumed specie payments in 1838, though trade still languished. The entire period of the administration of Van Buren was occupied with legislation to remedy the financial evils, and so strong was party feeling, that all the troubles of the country were laid at the door of the unfortunate President. The time for the choice of his successor arrived, 1840, and the election resulted in the overthrow of THE HARD CIDER CAMPAIGN. 441 the Democratic party and the defeat of Van Buren. General William Henry Harrison was chosen Presi- dent, and John Tyler of Virginia, Vice-President. Harrison was a native of Virginia; a graduate of Hampden-Sidney College, and had been an Indian fighter, and afterwards Governor of the Indiana Territory. He had been, as we have seen, victor over the Shawnee chief Tecumseh, at the battle of Tippecanoe, in 1811, and over the British General Proctor, at the battle of the River Thames, October FIRST HOUSE BUILT AT CHICAGO. 5, 181 3, and was esteemed for his upright character. An opposition newspaper gave the rallying cry to his supporters by saying that if he were given a pension and a barrel of hard cider, he would sit in his cabin contented for life. The Westerners, who knew Harrison, instead of resenting the sneer aimed at all who lived in log cabins, took the words as their party cry, and the country rang with the words "log cabin," "hard cider," and "Tippecanoe and Tyler *I2 NULLIFICATION. too." Against the enthusiasm excited for Harrison the supporters of Van Buren, who was nominated foi re-election, were able to make but feeble resistance in the face of the record of disaster that marked hij administration. Harrison received almost three votej to one of Van Buren's in the Electoral College. The cares of public duty, and the change in the mode of his life, caused the death of Harrison jusi one month after his accession to office, and Johr Tyler of Virginia, who had been chosen Vice-Pres ident with him, took up his duties. The new Presi dent, who was a Whig, soon turned his back upon the favorite measure of his party, the re-chartering of the United States Bank, following in this the principles adopted by President Jackson. The Independent Treasury Bill was repealed, as has been said, in 1841, to be re-enacted five years later. A general bankrupt law was passed, that gave the insolvent relief from their debts. The National Bank charter had expired in 1836, but under the laws of Pennsylvania, in which State the bank was situated, it had continued to oper- ate. Congress, trusting the assurances of the Presi- dent that he would approve a constitutional measure for financial relief, passed an act chartering the bank anew. This the President vetoed. It was modified and again passed, only to encounter another veto. The members of the Cabinet resigned, excepting Webster, who was at the moment negotiating a treaty with Great Britain, asserting that the President had asked them to support such a bill as the one vetoed. Daniel Webster as Secretary of State, had proposed to the British Minister that the dispute regarding the boundary between the United States and Canada THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON. 443 should be adjusted, and Lord Ashburton was sent by England as special envoy to negotiate upon that sub- ect and others that still remained unsettled between the lations* The sessions of the conference opened in \pril, 1842, and four months later the Senate ratified ' the Treaty of Washington," which settled almost ;very dispute with England. It established the ^■^^H hE^E^^^ /^^'^NffiB He^^^S^^ ^^^91 ^BH^'^^ixT-^^^- ' ' r* 1 II 1 1 li^BnH^BI ! MM ^Ml PRESIDENT HARRISON'S GRAVE, NORTH BEND, OHIO. )oundaries on the countries on the northeast, gave )ledges that the slave trade should be put down, *The northern boundary of the country from Michigan to Alaska 3 marked by stone cairns, iron pillars, wood pillars, earth nounds and timber posts. A stone cairn is seven and . half feet by eight feet ; an earth mound seven feet by fourteen eet ; an iron pillar seven feet high, eight inches square at the bottom, nd four inches at the top : timber posts five feet high and eight inches quare. There are three hundred and eighty-five of these marks letween the Lake of the Woods and the base of the Rocky Mountains, rhat portion of the boundary which lies east and west of the Red liver Valley is marked by cast iron pillars at even mile intervals, rhe British place one every two miles, and the United States one letween each British post. 444 NULL IFICA TION. provided for the rendition of fugitives from justice, pu an end to the claims of the right of search of vessels and the impressment of seamen, it being agreed ii accordance with the principle originally enunciatec by Jefferson, and repeated by Webster in his letter o August 8th, to Lord Ashburton, that the flag o a vessel should be evidence of the nationality of it: seamen. So favorable did the people of Englanc consider the treaty to America, that they called it th( "Ashburton Capitulation ;" but as itv^as thought ii the United States to concede too much to England, i may be assumed to be pretty fair in its settlement of the disputed points. Mr. Webster considered this treat3 of the greatest importance, and undoubtedly it gav( th^ United States its proper position as one of th( foremost powers of the world.* The other important event of the period before uj relates to the annexation of Texas. The boundar} between Mexico and Louisiana had been uncertair until the treaty that had ceded Florida to the Unitec States, in 1 82 1 , when Texas was acknowledged to belons to Spain, and became immediately a portion of Mex- ico. Up to that time it had been the policy of Mexico to keep Americans out of it, but in 1820, one Moses Austin of Connecticut, obtained a grant of land in the State, and in 1822, his son, Stephen F. Austin oi Missouri, took a body of colonists to settle there. From 1 80 1, when Philip Nolan of Kentucky, relying on a Spanish license, had ventured into Texas only to be treacherously murdered by Spanish forces, there had been occasional expeditions from the United *See Webster's speech in vindication of the Treaty delivered in the Senate, April 6 and 7, 1846. TEXAS AND MEXICO. 445 states, but all adventurers had been killed, imprisoned )r driven off. Finally the settlement of the territory lad actually been begun by Americans. In 1835, jeneral Sam Houston went from Tennessee to Texas, md March 2, 1836, the State declared itself inde- pendent. Two years before, under the lead of \ustin, permission had been asked of Mexico to join hat Republic as a State, but it had been refused and \ustin had been imprisoned. In 1835, Mexico had sent a force to disarm the )eople and arrest the officers of its government. The irst encounter occurred September 28, the Mexicans )eing defeated. On the sixth of the following March, :836, a small garrison, in a fort called the L' Alamo, vas overpowered by the Mexicans under Santa Anna, md relentlessly butchered, the noted Davy Crockett )f Tennessee, losing his life at the time. On the wenty-first of April, the struggle closed with the )attle of San Jacinto, at which Houston took Santa \nna prisoner and achieved the independence of rexas. Calhoun urged annexation as soon as the lews of the battle of San Jacinto reached the Jnited States, but Clay and Jackson counselled cau- ion, though one of the last acts of the President vas to acknowledge the independence of the State, md appoint an agent to visit it. In his inaugural address. President Houston expressed the desire of the people — many of whom lad come from the United States — to be annexed :o it, and an offer was made the first year of the idministration of Van Buren, who declined it, fearing :hat it would involve the country in a war with Mexico. In 1838, propositions were introduced in 446 NULLIFICATION. the Senate favoring annexation, but they werci rejected. Meanwhile the country was discussing' the proposition North and South. The South wishedi to receive Texas, as opening a large area for the' extension of slavery, and the North opposed it on the same ground. A compromise was finally affected,, the line of slavery being drawn as in the Missouri! Compromise Bill, at thirty-six degrees, thirty minutes and annexation was sustained by Congress, March, 1845. Texas assented to the terms July 4th, and be- came one of the United States December 29, 1845. The results of this action will be noticed in another chapter. Two Indian wars occurred in this period. The Sacs and Foxes refused to remove from the lands that they had by treaty, in 1830, conveyed to the United States, and the militia were sent by the Governor of Illinois to force them beyond the Mississippi. Joined by the Winnebagoes and led by Black Hawk, Keokuk and other chiefs, the Indians refused to be removed, and in March, 1832, they penetrated the region occupied by the whites, and burned their dwellings, murdering their occu- pants. A force under General Scott was sent from Buffalo to stop the ravages, and Governor Reynolds of Illinois, called for volunteers. Abraham Lincoln was one of those who promptly responded to this call. He was chosen captain of his company. The war proved so brief that he was not brought into actual conflict. The Indians were finally overtaken and defeated near Bad Axe River, when they were attempting to cross the Mississippi. Their chiefs were taken to Washington, in order that they might INDIAN WARS. 447 i impressed by the wealth and power of their iptors. On their return they advised their people lay down their arms, and the removal was then icomplished. A much more serious affair was the Seminole War THK MOHMON TEMPLE, SALT LAKE CITY. Florida and the adjacent States. There had been "Seminole War" in 1817, when serious depreda- 3ns had been committed upon the inhabitants ol eorgia, but it had been repressed in 1818 by the gorous measures of Jackson, who invaded Florida, ough the territory then belonged to Spain, captur- g two forts and executing two British prisoners 448 N ULLIFICA TION. whom he thought guilty of aiding the Indians. This almost involved the United States in war with Spain, but finally the territory was sold to the United States in 1819, for five million of dollars. In the winter of 1835, the Seminoles began to resist the measures taken to remove them west of the Mississippi. Their chief, Osceola, whose wife had been taken from him, as being- the daughter of an escaped slave, had a personal desire for vengeance, and though pretending to consent to the removal, cherished designs of direst vengeance. The Creeks, from whom the Seminoles had separated many years before, soon united with them in a terrible war against the Whites. Generals Gaines, Scott, Jesup, Taylor and others were sent to fight the savages, but the war lingered year after year, until, in 1842, Gen- eral Worth brought the Indians to terms. The war had cost thirty million and many lives. The peace between England and the United States was threatened in 1837, by the breaking out of a rebel- lion against England, in which some of the cit^ens of the United States joined. The insurgents seized an island in the Niagara River and fortified it, sending stores thither in a steamer, which, however, was captured by the Canadian authorities and set adrift over the falls, after having been set on fire. President Van Buren issued a proclamation of neu- trality, and sent General Wool to the scene of action, who obliged the adventurers to surrender, and thus restored order. The Mormons came into existence as a sect in 1830, at Manchester, N. Y. Within two years they had grown to twelve hundred in number, under the THE MORMONS. 449 lead of Joseph Smith. They moved westward, but were not permanently located for many years. In 1838, the citizens of Ohio expelled them from that State; in 1839, they were forced from Missouri by military power, and they built their temple at Nauvoo, III, in 1840. There they were charged with crimes, and Smith was thrown in prison for HOUSE OF THE LATE BRIGHAM YOUNG, SALT LAKE CITY, having led a mob in the destruction of a press on which a paper was printed that opposed his teach- mpfs. A mob finally took Smith's life, and so violent did the opposition to them become, that they were forced to sell their property and remove, under a new leader, Brigham Young. They found a resting-place 450 NULLIFICATION. beyond the Rocky Mountains, in the valley of Salt Lake, which they named Deseret, the Land of the honey bee. During this period treaties were made with Den- mark, 1830; Spain and Portugal, 1832-34; Naples, 1834; France, 1836; and China, 1843, and the for- eign relations of the nation had been remarkably fortunate. Five States were added to the Union; Arkansas in 1836, Michigan in 1837, Florida in 1845, Iowa the same year, and arrangements were concluded that brought Texas into the Union also. An insurrection broke out in Rhode Island in 1842, known as the Dorr Rebellion. The State was still governed under the charter granted in 1663, and the system by which its affairs were managed had become antiquated and ill suited to the wants of the people. Only those could vote who were possessed of an estate of the annual value of seven dollars, and the representation, on account of the changes in population, had become unequal. In 1824 and 1834, Constitutions had been proposed and rejected, and by 1840 a "suffrage association " had spread throughout the State, the object of which was to organize a new Constitution. The means were illegal, though the object was desirable. A convention was held in October, 1841, and a Con stitution adopted that should organize the government on principles in sympathy with those that obtainec- in the other States. Another Constitution was formed by a convention called in accordance with the forms of law, by tho Legislature, and when it was presented to the peopk THE DOEE REBELLION. 451 it was rejected, in March, 1842. The " People's Constitution," as the other was called, had been adopted by a vote that was afterwards proven fraud- ulent, but there was now a direct opposition between the laws under the charter and those of the faction that had adopted the Constitution. Under the Con- stitution Thomas W. Dorr was chosen Governor, and a government organized at Providence, the legal capital being at Newport. President Tyler sent troops to sustain the legal government, and when Dorr took the field with an armed force, his followers mostly left him. Volunteers went against Dorr, and the war ended June 27th. A new Constitution was legally adopted a few months later, which went into operation in May, 1843. Dorr was tried for treason, convicted, and sentenced to imprisonment for life ; but after three years he was released, and in 185 1 fully pardoned and restored to his privileges as a citizen. CHAPTER XXII. WAR WITH MEXICO. THE choice of President in 1844 turned upon the Texas question, and as the vote resulted in the election of James K. Polk of Tennessee, who favored annexation, that measure continued to be pressed, as we have seen that it had been at the close of the term of President Tyler, The consequences were left to the new President. Polk was of North Caro- lina descent, one of his ancestors having been a promoter of the " Mecklenburg Resolutions " of 1775. But his family removed to Tennessee in 1806, and he was educated at the University of Nashville. Enter- ing the practice of law, he soon found himself in a political career, and was chosen a member of the State Legislature. Subsequently he was for fifteen years a member of Congress, where he was known as an opponent of the measures of the administration of the younger Adams, and afterwards as a supporter of President Jackson. He was a man of good abilities, and of irreproachable private life. He felt the impor- tance of the crisis at which he entered office, and said in his inaugural address, " Well may the boldest fear, and the wisest tremble, when incurring responsibilities on which may depend our country's peace and pros- perity, and in some degree the hopes and happiness 452 POLK'S ADMINISTRATION. 463 ot the whole human family." After the struggle with Mexico was over, he was able to add, doubtless with pride, "the acquisition of California and New Mexico, the settlement of the Oregon boundary, and the annex- ation of Texas, extending to the Rio Grande, are results which, combined, are of greater consequence, JAMES KUSSELIi LOWELL. and will add more to the strength and wealth of the nation than any which have preceded them since the adoption of the Constitution." At the beginning of Polk's administration the boundary between Canada and the United States near 454 WAB WITH MEXICO. I the Pacific Ocean, was unsettled, and at the moment was threatening to bring about war. The United States had long laid claim to the territory in the Oregon region, on the Pacific, as far as fifty-four degrees and forty minutes, and one of the war cries of the Polk campaign had been " fifty-four forty or fight ! " The English government had insisted, on the contrary, that the northern line of the United States did not extend beyond the forty-ninth degree. The American claim was based on the explorations of Captain Robert Gray of Boston, who had entered a river flowing into the ocean, and named it after his vessel, " Columbia," May nth, 1792; upon the purchase of Louisiana, in 1803, by which all the rights of Spain to the western shores were conveyed ; and upon the explorations of Lewis and Clarke soon after that time, by whom the river Columbia had been descended to its mouth. During the administration of Monroe, the United States had proposed a settlement of the dispute, and again in the time of Tyler, and by 1844, the interest in the subject had risen to a remarkable height, and [ there were those who said that they would rather make the territory the grave of their fellow-citizens and color its soil with their blood, than surrender one inch of it. In his inaugural address. President Polk had stated that he considered our title to the disputed territory "clear and unquestionable ; " the region had been held by joint occupancy, under agreements made in 1 8 18 and 1827, but the number of Americans who had settled there had become so considerable that a decision of the ownership of the soil was imperative, i During the discussion of the question, the prospect of ' war with Mexico became more evident, and the United TEXAS AND COAHUILA. 455 States entered into a treaty by which the claims of the British were recognized, and the forty-ninth degree was made our northern boundary. War with Mexico was brought on by a dispute about the boundary of the State of Texas. The Mex- KALPH WALDO EMERSON. ican people on becoming independent of Spain in 1 82 1, had united under one government the Provinces of Texas and Coahuila, of which the river Rio Grande was the western boundary. When Texas, on the other hand, had, in 1836, obtained her independence 456 WAR WITH MEXICO. of Mexico, she claimed that the Province of Coahuila became a part of the Republic, and this, the Legisla- ture of the United Provinces put into the form of a resolution, December 19, 1836. Accordingly when Texas became a part of our Union, it was claimed that her western boundary was the Rio Grande, and not the Nueces, which was the boundary of the Province of Texas before her union with Coahuila by the Republic of Mexico. It was this Territory be- tween the rivers that was in dispute. As soon as Texas became a part of the United States she called for protection against Mexico, and General Taylor was sent from Western Louisiana with an " Army of Occupation," to advance as near the Rio Grande as he could. He established his camp at first on the Nueces, in November, 1845 ; but in January, 1846, he received orders to advance to the Rio Grande, and March 28th, he took a post on the east side of the river, opposite Metamoras. A month later, the Mexican General Arista informed Taylor that his government was forced into a war that it could not avoid without being unfaithful to that which is most sacred to men, and at the same time threw a body of his troops over the river and attacked a com- pany of American dragoons, compelling them to surrender after losing sixteen men. * When news of this event reached Washington, the President sent his message to Congress, informing them that war ex- * When the President insisted in his messages that the blood of our citizens had been spilt on "our own territory," Abraham Lincoln introduced into Congress the celebrated " Spot " resolutions, in which he called upon the President to indicate the exact " spot " where this had been done, and to inform the House whether the " citizens " had not been " armed soldiers " sent there bv the military orders of the President. GENERAL ZACHAEY TAYLOR. 457 isted by the act of Mexico, for the blood had been spilt on territory claimed by Texas and the United States. War was formally declared May 13th, and Mexico made the same declaration May 23d, neither country being aware, of course, of the action of the other. It seems probable that Mexico ventured into war under the impression that the impending diffi- culties with England would employ much of the attention of our country, and that the great opposi- tion to the war by many in the United States * would make the conduct of the campaign uncertain. It has been suggested, too, that the United States may. on the same grounds, be pardoned for its want of chiv- alry in attacking so mean a foe. The first fighting naturally fell to General Taylor. While he was establishing a base of supplies on the Gulf, the Mexicans attacked his position on the Ric Grande. Returning to the assistance of his troops, Taylor encountered and defeated the Mexicans at Palo Alto, May 8, and at Resaca de la Palma, the next Jay. Reaching his position, afterwards called Fort Brown, from its gallant defender during the absence 3f Taylor, he found that it had sustained a severe bombardment with great loss of life, Major Brown himself having been killed May 3. General Taylor fol- lowed the Mexicans, who had crossed the river and retreated some distance into the country, and occupied Matamoras, where he awaited orders. Fortified by votes of Congress and by a violent war spirit that resulted from the reports and from meas- *Ef it ain't jest the thing that's well-pleasin' to God, It makes us thought highly on elsewhere abroad. Lowell's Biglow Papirs. 468 WAB WITH MEXICO. ures taken to instigate it at " war meetings,' held throughout the country, the Presiden called for volunteers, and nearly three thou sand men offered to go on the grand ven ture. The plan was prepared b^ Gen. Scott. Congress voted tei million dollars for the war. Scot formed three armies : under Taylo being called the army of occupa tion ; a second under Gen. Philip W THE HOME OF EMERSON, CONCOKD, MASS. Kearney, was the army of the West ; and the " arm) of the centre" was to be under his personal direction Kearney's duty was to conquer New Mexico and Cal, ifornia, and raising a body of less than two thousanc men, he set out for Santa Fe, which he took, August l8, 1847, and received the submission of New Mexico^ Thence he proposed to go to the Pacific, but aftei FltEMONT IN CALIFORNIA. 459 having started, he was met by the intelligence that California had been secured, which was true. Captain John C. Fremont * had for some years been engaged in exploring the Pacific coast, and before hostilities had actually been declared, he had been put on the alert by letters from James Buchanan, then Secretary of State, and Colonel Benton, his father-in-law, and had entered upon a campaign to overthrow Mexican authority in California. On the fourth of July, 1846, having in June captured Sonoma, near San Francisco, he caused the inhabitants to declare their independence of Mexico, and with the aid of Commodore Sloat, who had taken Monterey and entered the Bay of San Francisco, he took Los Angeles and became master of Upper California. This place was retaken by the Mexicans, and again possessed by Fremont, in Janu- ary, 1847. In the meantime General Kearney had reached California and was able to take part in the skirmishes which resulted in the occupation of both Upper and Lower California. Commodore Stockton md Commodore Shubrick had also given aid in vari- Dus battles. General Scott's plan was to take Vera Cruz and *John Charles Fremont was born in Savannah, Ga., of French ' parentage. He began active life as professor of mathematics in the lavy, but soon gave up his position and became an explorer. After becoming acquainted with the upper portion of the valley of the Mis- sissippi and the valley of the Des Moines, he formed the project of exploring the Rocky Mountains and of opening a route to the Pacific. This great undertaking he entered upon in 1842, conducting several sxpeditions during the next few years. In 1850 he became Senator [rom California, and in 1856 he was the unsuccessful candidate for President against Buchanan. During the civil war, he was in active service in Missouri and Virginia, and in 1878 he was appointed Gov- ernor of Arizona. 460 WAB WITH MEXICO. then pass on as prompt as practicable to the city o^ MexicOo He found liims-elf opposed by Santa Anna, who two years before had been banished for ten years, but in the emergency had been recalled to protect tht! Republic. He reached Mexico in September. Tayr lor was the first to meet him, however, for, having, moved towards the capital from the Rio Grande, h^ tool Mont erey or the twenty-firsi o f September though its s t r o n c works were manned b} a superior force, and San ta Anna determined tc oppose his further progress, The encounter occurred foui miles south of Saltillo, tc which place he had advanced in November, near an estate called Buena Vista, on the afternoon of the twenty-second of February, 1847. General Scott, upon his arrival in January, had with- drawn a portion of the force commanded by Taylor, SOME AMKRTCAT7 COINS. THE WILMOT PROVISO. 461 and had left him weakened, a fact that Santa Anna was duly apprized of by an intercepted dispatch. The American forces amounted to less than one half the number brought against them by Santa Anna, but the Mexicans were repulsed at every attack, and forced finally to fly to the southward, leaving Taylor undis- turbed master of the valley of the Rio Grande. The battle had lasted throughout the twenty-third, and was a severe struggle, the Mexican loss being some two thousand, and that of the Americans about eight hundred. In November, Taylor returned to the United States, leaving General John E. Wool, who had been one of his efificient supporters at Monterey and Buena Vista, in command of the army of the Rio Grande. In July, 1846, President Polk made an overture of peace to Mexico, and in giving information of his act to Congress, suggested that a sum of money should be appropriated to offer to Mexico as indem- nity for any of her territory that might be retained at the close of the war. A bill was introduced authorizing the use of two million dollars in this way, and during the discussion that followed, David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, a member of the admin- istration party, moved a "proviso," excluding slavery, which had been abolished in Mexico twenty years before, from the territory to be acquired, using the words of the ordinance of 1787, by which the North- western Territory had been organized. This was passed by the House, but reached the Senate too late in the session for action, and in the interim between the sessions, progress of opinion and divis- ion of sentiment, led to its rejection by the Senate and its abandonment by the House. 462 WAR WITH MEXICO. Ever since the Missouri Compromise (1820) the discussion of slavery had been growing in intensity. William Lloyd Garrison * had begun the publication in Boston, in January, 1831, of a paper called T/ie Liberator, and many societies had been formed for the agitation of the subject of abolition, professing to rely solely upon moral and religious influences, and deprecating the "use of all carnal weapons." Riots occurred, at various times, in New York, Boston, Alton, Cincinnati, and other places, somei of which were attended with loss of life and the destruction of property. In 1835, Jackson went so far as to propose in his message to Congress the passage of a law prohibiting the circulation of anti- slavery publications through the mails, and in 1836 the House of Representatives refused to receive any "petitions, memorials, resolutions, and propositions relating in any way or to any extent whatever to the subject of slavery." The rule was rescinded at the end of 1845. The riot at Alton, 111., in November, 1837, in which the Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy,. who has been called the first martyr in the slavery struggle, was killed, caused a deep sensation through- out the North, and brought out for the first time the wonderful eloquence of Wendell Phillips, who, * Garrison was born at Newburyport, Mass., December 12th, 1804, and died in New York City May 24th, 1879. -^^ ^" early age he entered: the oftice of the Herald, in his native place, and soon became a con- tributoi to its columns. The struggles of the Greeks for indepen- dence {1820-30) stirred him, and he became an ardent advocate of freedom. Mild in manners and kindly in disposition, he was an uncompromising opponent of oppression, and waged incessant warfare upon negro slavery until its abolition, January ist, 1863. He then retired to private life, but did not give up his active labor for humanity. SAN JUAN AND CHERUBUSCO. 465 but without the intention of making any address, had attended a meeting held to consider it. Ralph Waldo Emerson, the philosophical student, did not let the event pass unnoticed, and wrote, in his essay on "Heroism," soon afterwards : "It is but the other day that the brave Lovejoy gave his breast to the bullets of a mob, for the rights of free speech and opinion, and died when it was better not to live." In March, 1847, General Scott landed with a force near Vera Cruz, and laid siege to the fortress of San Juan de Ulloa, which had been considered invincible. The bombardment began on the twenty- second, and articles of capitulation were signed by the Mexicans on the twenty-seventh. The advance on the capital was then begun. On the twelfth of April, General Twiggs, in command of the advance, came upon Santa Anna, strongly fortified at the Rocky Pass of Cerro Gordo, and a few days later forced the Mexicans to flight, capturing three thou- sand prisoners and a large quantity of military accoutrements. After occupying Jalapa, the army under Scott entered Puebla without opposition. Leaving there a garrison with his sick and wounded, Scott passed on towards Mexico, which he saw from the heights on the tenth of August, 1847. A series of battles followed. On the nineteenth to the twentieth of August, Generals Twiggs and Pillow routed the Mexicans under General Valencia, at Contreras. On the twentieth. Generals Worth, Pil- low, Twiggs, Shields and Pierce completely defeated Santa Anna himself, at the heights of Cherubusco, forcing him to retire to the city, which was fortified by the Molino del Rey (King's Mill) and by the 466 \]AR WITH MEXICO. fortress of Chapultepec, on a rock one hundred and fifty feet high, comprising a castle once a palace, but then occupied as a military school. Molino Del Rey was taken September 8th, by General Worth, but at the expense of great loss of life. On the thirteenth, Chapultepec was stormed by Generals Worth and Pillow, and on the fourteenth General ji.^ SAN FiJANCISCO. Scott entered Mexico, from which Santa Anna had fled the night before. A few minor battles followed, but the war was over. Santa Anna was a fugitive, and the Mexican Congress, in session at Guadalupe Hidalgo, a few miles from the city of Mexico, con- cluded a treaty of peace, by which the territory BOUGH AND READY. 467 between Texas and the Pacific Ocean was ceded to the United States, which agreed to pay Mexico fifteen milHon dollars and to assume debts due American citizens by the Mexican government, to the amount of three and a half million dollars more. This treaty was ratified by Congress, and on the fourth of July, 1848, President Polk proclaimed peace. When the sixteenth national election approached, it was found that the Democratic party was hopelessly divided on the subject of slavery. Those favoring the " Wilmot Proviso," united with some of the Whigs in forming the " Free-Soil " Party, and nominated ex- President Van Buren for President. The other Democrats put forward Lewis Cass of Michigan, and the " Whigs," as the members of the opposite party were then called, nominated General Taylor of Ken- tucky, who had distinguished himself in the War of 1 81 2, in the Seminole War, and was then fresh from the victory of Buena Vista. His "rough and ready " manners, his success in arms and his irreproachable character combined to give him success at the polls, especially as he represented moderate views on the subject of slavery and was opposed to secession as a remedy for political evils. He was elected November, 1848. Before the election of President Taylor, and at almost the moment that the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, a laborer turning up the soil of the territory then acquired by the United States, near the Sacramento River, for a mill race on the ranch of Colonel Suter, a Swiss emigrant, found particles of gold in his spade. The news of the discovery was rapidly carried throughout the world, and resulted in 468 WAR WITH MEXICO. the speedy gathering of a motley population on our new western coast, in great material progress of the nation, and also in giving the new administration grave questions of policy to decide. So rapid was the growth of population on the Pacific coast that Cali- fornia was admitted to the Union but little over two years after the discovery of gold. STAXDIX' INDIANS GAMBLING. prohibit the inter-State slave trade, and provided for the more complete enforcement of the fugitive sk.ve law. Senators Mason, Foote, King, Butler and Davis opposed these measures, and Mr. Clay in supporting 472 FEOM COMPROMISE TO SECESSION. them, said that no earthly power should compel him to vote for the positive introduction of slavery into any national Territory ; that posterity should not reproach him for doing that for which we condemned Great Britain — for forcing slavery upon them. He said that he owed it to himself as representing a Southern State to say thisr It was in the course of the debate on these resolu tions that Daniel Webster made in the Senate, March 7, 1850, the " Union Speech," or " Seventh of March Speech," for which he was at the time so severely condemned, and for which he was accused of turning his back on his party, though Mr. Adams had called him, in 1843, "A heartless traitor to the cause of human freedom." The aged Calhoun, too infirm to speak, had prepared his views, which were presented by Senator Mason of Virginia, demanding the " Final settlement on the principle of justice, of all the ques- tions at issue between the two sections " of the Union, and suggesting that two Presidents should be chosen instead of one, who should represent the slave and free States respectively. Mr. Clay's resolutions were referred to a committee of thirteen, including Cass, Webster, Mason, Dickin- son, King, Bell and others. As chairman of this committee, Mr. Clay reported to the Senate on the eighth of May, the" "Omnibus" Bill, as it has been called, providing for the organization of Utah, in addition to the provisions of the resolutions. The debate continued until the ninth of September, inter- rupted by the death of the President on the tenth of July; but as Mr. Fillmore took the place immediately, and chose Mr. Webster as his Secretary of State, the TOOMBS AND WEBSTER. 473 administration cast its weight in favor of the com- promise, and in time it became the law of the land. It was in the course of this debate that Mr. Robert Toombs of Georgia, made in the House of Representa- tives, Saturday, June 15th, the speech in which he has been represented to have said that he would yet "call the roll of his slaves jon Bunker Hill," in which he actually said that if he was deprived of the right of entering the Territories with his slaves, he should be the enemy of the government, and would, if he could, bring his children and his constituents to the altar of liberty, and, like Hamilcar, swear them to eternal hostility to the foul domination. " Give us our just rights," he exclaimed, "and we are ready as ever heretofore, to stand by the Union, every part of it and its every interest. Refuse it, and I for one will strike for independence ! " The speech of Mr. Toombs created a great sensa- tion in the House, and on the Monday following, Mr. Webster decided the fate of the compromise by a speech delivered before a crowd so great as to fill the lobbies as well as the galleries of the Senate Chamber. In concluding, he said, "My object is peace — my object is reconciliation. ... I am against agitators North and South ; I am against local ideas North and South, and again St all narrow and local contests. I am an American, and I know no locality in America. That is my country. My heart, my sentiments, my judg- ment, demand of me that I should pursue such a course as shall promote the good and the harmony and the union of the whole country. This I shall do, God willing, to the end of the chapter." The vote was then taken, and it was decided that when a territory 474 FBOM COMPROMISE TO SECESSION. should be organized there should be no restriction regarding slavery either north or south of the Missouri Compromise line ; and in accordance with this vote, the compromise was effected. By many it was accepted as establishing a great principle which should confirm peace and harmony between the North and the South ; but this was not the result, though, as Mr. Greeley states, ** There can be no doubt that it [the Compromise] was accepted and ratified by a great majority of the American people, whether in the North or in the South." While the North acquiesced in the Compromise as a peace measure, it was much agitated by the fugitive slave clause,* especially when it became common for slaves to be hunted through the free States, and to be returned, amid great excitement, from Northern cities. The "underground railroad," as it was called, became a means by which many slaves escaped to Canada, and entire villages sprung up just over our Northern borders, composed of such people. The rendition of Anthony Burns, which occurred in Boston, in 1854, and the decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case, in 1857, which sustained the doctrine of Mr. Calhoun, that Congress had no right to pass any *This was a revival (with modifications) of an act passed February 12, 1793. The Constitution provided for the return to their owners of fugitive slaves, and the Articles of Confederation of the New England Colonies of 1643 ^'<^ ^'^^ same. There was no such provision in the Articles of Confederation of the thirteen Colonies, adopted in 1778, and in consequence, the rendition of slaves under the confederacy had been always difficult and sometimes impossible. In 1644, Governor Berkeley of Virginia, made a request for the return of some slaves escaped from Virginia to Massachusetts, saying in his letter, " We expect you to use all kind offices for the restoration to their master of these fugitives, as we constantly exercise the same offices in restoring runaways to you." THE DRAMA INTENSIFIED. 475 law excluding slavery from the Territories, are indica- tions of the drift of opinion. The events of the ten years following the passage of the Compromise act read like the acts of a drama — all pointing to the great denouement — war. The discussion on the subject of the candidates for THE HOME OF WASHINGTON IKVING, SUNNYSIDE, IRVINGTON. President to follow Fillmore, gave indication of the depth and antagonism of men's feelings. The Demo- crats and Whigs both met in convention in Baltimore, in June, 1852. The Democrats met first, June first. They came together biased by an agreement entered into by members of both parties, not to support any [-{\ FliOM (OMI'liOMlst-: TO ;SJ!:L.t:iyiilON. candidate not pledged not to interfere with slavery, and they nominated Franklin Tierce of New Hamp- shire, as a person "available," becanse of his military reputation, and because being generally unknown, no word or act ot his lite could be shown to be in con- travention of the principles of the party expressed in the platform adopted by the convention. The choice of the Whigs, who met June sixteenth, lay between JNIr. Fillmore, iNlr. Webster, and General Scott, and Scott received the nomination, largely on the same grounds which had led to the choice of his subordinate by the opposite party. There were many in both parties who were deter- mined in their antagonism to the fugitive slave law, and indeed to slavery as a system, who declared it to be "a sin against God and a crime against man ; " and these, who called themselves the " Freesoil " party, held a convention at Pittsburgh, August eleventh, at which thev nominated John V. Hale of New Hamp- shire, formerly a member of the Democratic party, and expressed their hostility to slavery extension and to all compromises regarding it. The election resulted in the success of INIr. Pierce, who was chosen by a vote that overwhelmingly de- feated both of his opponents and showed the persist- ent demand for peace. The people seemed to desire to be permitted to attend quietly to their manufac- turing, their commerce, and the improvement of the country, and not to be disturbed bv questions of pub lie policy. The administrations of Taylor and Fill more had been effectual in administering to the masses the fatal mandragora that enabled them to sleep for a while on the crater of the social volcano that vvas THE SOCIAL VOLCANO. 477 soon to pour forth devastation and ruin. Fillmore had, indeed, made admirable recommendations to Con- gress, but they had generally come to nothing. Trouble with England seemed imminent in 1852, on account of disputes about the Newfoundland fish- eries, but they were settled in 1854, by negotiation ; and a difficulty regarding the territory now known as Arizona, was settled in the next administration, by its purchase of Mexico for the United States, by Senator Gadsden of South Carolina, for twenty million dollars. It was during the administration of Fillmore that General Lopez and certain American adventurers attempted to get possession of Cuba, an act that attracted considerable attention abroad ; but it proved abortive, Lopez and other leaders being captured and executed at fiavana. After the passage of the Com- promise measures, some of the Northern States enacted "personal liberty" laws, to provide for the liberation of fugitive slaves, but they were pronounced uncon- stitutional. The administration of Pierce opened with several events of a peaceable nature that are worthy of note. The Gadsden purchase of Arizona was the first. Then f')llowed the "World's Fair," held in New York, in 1853, in imitation of the exhibition that had been held in London in 185 1. The same year an American fleet, commanded by Commodore Perry, opened com- munication with Japan, and a way was made for the treaty that followed in 1854. The passage of so many people over the great desert between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean had made apparent the advantages that would accrue from railroad communi- cation from ocean to ocean, and Jefferson Davis, ther 478 FBOM COMPEOillSE TO SECESSIOX. Secretary of War, under the authority of Congress, sent out several companies of engineers who sur\-eyed five routes by which such communication was prac- ticable. Lewis and Clarke had gone over the region in 1 803-1 806, and General Fremont had done the same in 1842-46. The great political events of Pierce's administra- tion are connected with the slavery agitation. The excitement which became intense, was begun by Sen- ator Stephen Arnold Douglas of Illinois, chairman of the Committe on Territories, who, on the twenty-third of January, 1854, introduced a bill for the organiza- tian of Kansas and Nebraska, by which the restric- tions of the Missouri Compromise were nullified, and the provisions of the compromise measure of 1850, were affirmed, and the Territories were admitted with no restriction regarding slavery. Clay, Calhoun and Webster had died, and their places in Congress were occupied by lesser men ; but still the Senate and House comprised many members of ability, by whom the bill was discussed, but as the supporters of it were three to one of it opponents, the debates were not of the engrossing nature of former years. The Bill was passed by both houses, and was signed by President Pierce. By lea\'ing the question of slaver)' to be decided by the inhabitants who should occupy the new Terri- tories, Congress provoked competition for supremacy between emigrants from the North and the South, who became known as " Squatters," and the suprem- acy they sought as "Squatter sovereignty," in the words of Lewis Cass. Emigrant aid socie'ties were formed in the North and South and a struggle began THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS. 481 for the land. The Massachusetts Emigrant Aid So- ciety, which had been formed witli Amos A. Lawrence as Treasurer, and a nominal capital of five million dollars, placed a band of about thirty persons on the present site of Lawrence, in July, and some sixty or seventy more the next month. These were at first menaced by persons from Missouri, who were called in the slang of the time, " Border Ruffians." Before winter, the Society had sent five hundred emigrants, and other free States had contributed enough more to give a population of some eight thousand. Elections were held tor members of Congress' and for members of the Territorial Legislature, in the autumn of 1854 and in the spring of 1855, at which many votes were cast that were evidently those of non-residents, and illegal; but the authorities recog- nized enough of them to permit the choice of pro- slavery men. Other elections were held at which free-State men were chosen, and delegates of two dif- ferent political parties, as well as two Legislatures. One of these met at "Shawnee Mission," on the bor- der of Missouri, and adopted the laws of Missouri as the laws of Kansas merely changing the word State to Territory. The other met at Topeka, and framed a free-State constitution, and asked to be admitted to the Union as a State. Between the parties thus formed, called by them- selves respectively "Border Ruffians," and "Aboli- tionists," a protracted war began. It was in this war that John Brown, then called from the town in which he lived, " Ossawattomie " Brown, began his active warfare in behalf of freedom. The President sent out Governors, who reported that peace had been 482 FROM COMPROMISE TO SECESSION. effected, but in reality there was no peace. In the course of this war, on the twenty-first of May, 1856, the town of Lawrence was sacked by a body of men from South Carolina, under command of Colonel Buford ; the village of Ossawattomie was burned, June 5th, and Leavenworth was the scene of a number of outrages, especially on the occasion of an election held September ist, 1856, when all the free-State men were put on a steamboat and sent down the river, after the town had been ravaged and at least one man killed. During these exciting scenes the time for the nom- ination of a President approached, and it found three parties in the field. The country became intensely agitated. The Riclunoiid Inquirer in impressing upon its readers the necessity of electing a Democrat, said : " Let the South present a compact and undivided front. Let her show to the barbarians that her sparse popu- lation offers little hope of plunder ; her military and self-reliant habits, and her mountain retreats, little prospect of victory ; and her firm union and devoted resolution no chances of conquest. Let her if possi- ble, detach Pennsylvania and Southern Ohio, South- ern Indiana and Southern Illinois from the North, and make the Highlands between the Ohio and the lakes the dividing line.* Let the South treat with * At the same time, Mr. Preston Brooks, of South CaroHna, speak- ing to the people of his State, said, that if, on the second Monday of November next, it be found that Fremont is elected, he thought the course of the South was plain. It was his deliberate opinion that "we should then on the fourth of March next, march to W^ashington, seize the archives, and the treasury of the Government, and leave the consequences to God." — John Minor Botts, in The Great Rebellion, its secret ff.story, page 167. PBESIBENTIAL NOillNA TIONS. 483 California, and, if necessary, ally herself with Russia, with Cuba or Brazil." The Democrats nominated James Buchanan, who announced his approval of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill ; the "Know-nothing" party, organized at Philadelphia PAUT. HAMILTON TIAYNE, THE POET OF THE SOUTH. on Washington's birthday, 1856, nominated Millard Fillmore ; and the " Republican " party, then first formed, nominated John C. Fremont, the explorer ^f the Rocky Mountains. The Republican party 484 FBOM COMPROMISE TO SECESSION. comprised the Free-soil party, and most of the old Whigs ; was opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and declared its enmity to " those twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery." Its nominating convention was held in Philadelphia, on the anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill, a preliminary convention hav- ing been held at Pittsburgh on Washington's birth- day. The " Know-nothing " party was also known as the "American " party, from the fact that it recog- nized the right of native-born and naturalized citizens only, permanently residing in any territory, to frame its laws and to regulate its domestic and social affairs. At the election in November, 1856, Fillmore and Fremont received together fifty-five per cent, of the popular vote, but Buchanan was chosen, owing to the division of his antagonists. The interest of his administration still keeps us to a consideration of the slavery struggle. The election of Mr. Buchanan roused in the North a corresponding spirit to that which we have noticed had been excited in the South in view of the possible election of Fremont. One of the indications of this is seen in the "Disunion Convention," held at Wor- cester, Mass., January 15th, 1857, the call for which stated that the Union had proved " a failure, as being a hopeless attempt to unite under one government two antagonistic systems of society," and presented the object of the meeting to be to " consider the practicability, probability and expediency of a separa- tion between the Free and Slave States." As the Southern agitators had said that the Northerners were "barbarians," so now it was said that "the South was sinking deeper into barbarism every ]}fOBTHEBN niSUNIONISM. 485 year ; " and as they demanded disunion, so these said that they would have " liberty out of the Union, and over the Constitution, if it must be," — " peace or war is a secondary consideration." As in the South there were many who did not approve the extreme views of their loudest talkers, so the mass of the North did not support such conventions as this. They did not agree with one of the speakers, who said, " Dis- union is not a desire only, it is a destiny.'' Like the late Henry Wilson and Dr. Henry W. Bellows, they disapproved slavery, but they also held firmly to the Union. The first important event was the promulgation of the " Dred Scott " decision, as it was called, in March, 1857, in which Chief Justice Taney,* speaking for a majority of the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, declared that under the laws, negroes, whether free or bond, were not citizens, and could not become citizens, and had no right to bring a case * Roger B. Taney was appointed Chief Justice at the death of Marshal], in 1835. The change which followed in the tone of the decisions, caused Judge Story to feel that the constitutional interpreta- tions of the Court, which Americans have ever regarded as conclusive and not to be controverted, were losing ground, and led Chancellor Kent to exclaim : " I have lost my confidence and hopes in the Constitu- tional guardianship and protection of the Supreme Court." Up to that time the Court had upheld the authority of the Federal Govern- ment against the doctrine of State sovereignty; after that date the tendency was in the opposite direction. The case before us shows the climax of the tendency. The Republican platform of 1880 empha- sized the doctrine of nationality, as opposed to that of State rights. The Dred Scott decision has since been (in effect, though not in form) reversed by the' Supreme Court. By the constitution of our Govern- ment, the legislative, executive and judicial departments are carefully separated from each other, and a member of the judiciary may not, like the Lord Chancellor of England, exercise political powers. 486 FROM COMPROMISE TO SECESSION. into the courts. This decision added fuel to the fire that was burning in the North, for it was contrary to the laws of some of the States, and especially was it held to contravene the ordinance of 1787, creating the Northwestern Territory. In Kansas, a convention was held at Lecompton, in September, 1857, which framed a pro-slavery con- stitution. This was submitted to the people on the fourth of January, 1858, and rejected. A new con- vention was held at Wyandot, in March, 1859. ^^ framed a constitution that was adopted in October, and Republican officers were chosen under it. Kansas then applied for admission to the Union, but was refused, owing to the action of the Senate, in February, i860 ; but the application was renewed, and on the twenty-eighth of January, 1861, she was duly admitted as a free State. Minnesota was admitted to the Union May 11, 1858, and Oregon followed February 14, 1859. Before this conclusion had been reached, however, the country was astonished by the report that an attempt had been made at Harper's Ferry to arouse the slaves to a servile insurrection. It arose from the independent action of John Brown* of Kansas, who had, on the sixteenth of October, with a small band of armed followers, taken possession of the arsenal at that place, and declared it to be his intention to give freedom to the slaves. Of his company of twenty-one * At the time of the murder of the Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy, at Alton, 111., in November, 1837, Brown, then a tanner, was living in the " Western Eeserve," in Ohio. When the news of the tragedy reached the Western Reserve College, a mass-meeting was held, at which Brown said, " By the grace of God, I devote my life from this day to the extinction of slavery." JOHN BliOWN AT HARPER'S FERRY. 487 men, thirteen were killed in the encounter with the militia sent to protect the public property, and the others were captured, imprisoned, and soon executed. Brown was a descendant of Peter Brown, who came from England in the Mayjlozvcr. He was a man of harper's ferry, VIRGINIA. pronounced views, and had, as we have learned, been engaged in the struggle in Kansas. In 1859 ^^ had left Kansas, and he had, on May 8, 1858, held a secret convention at Chatham, Ontario, where he had adopted a provisional constitution for " the people of the United States," under which officers were chosen. Afterward he went to Harper's Ferry, near which place he rented a house and remained consummating his plans until the attack was made on the town. 188 FBOM COMPROMISE TO SECESSION. The affair at Harper's Ferry created a great excite- ment botli North and South. The North had ah'eady been stirred by the assault made by a representative of South Carolina, upon Senator Sumner of Massachu- setts, on the twenty-second of May, 1856, and had begun to feel that an appeal to force was to be made by the sup- porters of slavery. The assault occurred during the de- bate upon the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. On the nineteenth and twentieth of May, Mr. Sumner had delivered a speech, in the course of which he had spoken with force and plainness about " the crime against Kansas," as he termed the steps taken in the passage of the Kan- sas-Nebraska Bill, and he had been met with vitupera- tive abuse by various Senators, who disagreed with him. In replying to this abuse, Mr. Sumner used language too much like that of his antagonists, and a reference to Senator Butler of South Carolina was made by Mr. Brooks the basis of the assault. After the Senate had adjourned, he entered the chamber where Mr. Sumner sat at his desk writing, and, saying that the speech of Mr. Sumner wa^ a "libel upon South Carolina and Mr. Butler," who was his relative, Mr. Brooks suddenly struck Mr. Sumner on the head with a stout stick until he fell bleeding and uncon- scious to the floor. For the attack, Mr. Brooks was censured by the House of Representatives and fined by a Washington court, but, as he was sustained, and even praised, by many prominent persons in the South, it was felt at the North that the South was in earnest in wishing to decide the differences between the sections by other than peaceful means. On the other hand, the South accepted the act of John Brown as that of the entire North, and believed m PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES. 491 that there was a settled determination there to pro- ceed to liberate the slaves by force and to plunge that section in the horrors of a servile war. As long ago as 1850, Daniel Webster said that one cause of sec- tional jealousy consisted "in imputing to a whole por- tion of the country the extravagances of individuals." While the country was in this disturbed condition, the time for nominating President for the following- term arrived. The first convention to be held was that of the Democrats, at Charleston, S. C, April 23, but after a stormy session of ten days, it broke up without having made a nomination. On the ninth of May the relics of the Whig and " Know-noth- ing " party met at Baltimore, and nominated as repre- senting the "Constitutional Union" party, John Bell of Tennessee, for President, and Edward Everett * of Massachusetts for Vice-President. One week later, the Republican party met 'at Chicago and nominated Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, and adopted a platform * John Bell was born in 1797, near Nashville, Tenn., and died in 1869. He first became a member of Congress in 1827, and was six times re-elected before 1841. .He opposed Nullification, supported Jackson as President, but protested against his removal of the bank deposits. He separated from the Democratic party, and became Secre- tary of War under Harrison. In 1847 he was sent to Washington as Senator, and again in 1853. He favored Mr. Clay's compromise measures, and opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Edward Everett, a native of Boston, was born in 1794 and died in 1S65. He graduated at Harvard College, in 18 11, with the highest hongfcs of his class, and entered the ministry; but after preaching a year, went abroad to study at the University of Gottingen, and returned to take the chair of Greek at Cambridge. In 1825, he entered Congress, and occupied public posts of great importance until 1854. He had been Minister to England, Secretary of State, Senator at Washington, Governor of Massachusetts and President of Harvard College. He was judicial and conservative in his habits of mind, and of almost universal culture. 492 FROM COMPROMISE TO SECESSION. in which the attempt of John Brown was denounced as "lawless and unjustifiable," denying the authority of Congress, of a territorial Legislature, or of any individuals, to " give legal existence to slavery in any territory of .'he United States," affirming the princi- ples of the Constitution of the United States as essential to the preservation of our Republican insti- tutions, and that the rights of the States should be held inviolate, and especially that " the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institu- tions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the per- fection and endurance of our political fabric depends." The convention of the Democratic party re-assem- bled at Baltimore, June i8, but could not agree. Most of the Southern delegates (who had all retired from the convention at Charleston, because the Northern delegates refused to consent to their demands) left the convention, and those who re- mained, nominated Stephen A. Douglas for President, The seceders met first at Richmond, and afterwards, June 28, at Baltimore, and nominated John C. Breck- enridge of Kentucky. Thus, when the campaign opened, it found four parties in the field. It was understood that the success of the Republican candidate would be accepted by the Southern States as giving them a reason for seceding from the Union, and the contest was carried on with all the vigor that earnest sup- porters of diverse opinions could infuse into it. Mr. Douglas entered the arena in person, speaking in most of the States in his own behalf. The election occurred in November, and resulted in the choice SOUTH CAROLINA SECEDES. 493 of Mr. Lincoln, by a popular vote greater than any President had ever received before, and a majority of fifty-seven electoral votes over the other candi- dates. In pursuance of the avowed intention, the Gov- ernor of South Carolina convened the legislature in special session two days before the election, in order that it might take action "immediately," to consider and determine the mode and measure of redress " in the event of Abraham Lincoln's election to the Presidency," and on the twentieth of the fol- lowing month, a convention held in " Secession Hall," at Charleston, S. C, voted to dissolve the union between South Carolina and the other States. In the course of the remarks on that occasion, one delegate said, " It is no spasmodic effort that has come suddenly upon us ; it has been gradually culmi- nating for a long period of thirty years."* Another said, in deprecating any discussion of the proposed act, " Most of us have had this matter under consid- eration for the last twenty years, and I presume that we have by this time arrived at a decision upon the subject." Mr. Keitt, one of the eulogists of the assailant of Sumner said, " I have been engaged in this movement ever since I entered political life ; " and *In his "Seventh of March Speech," Mr. Webster said ten years before, scouting the possibility of "peaceable secession," "I see that disruption must produce such a war as I will not describe in its two- fold character ! " He added, " There is to be a Southern Confederacy. I do not mean, when I allude to this statement, that any one seriously contemplates such a state of things. T do not mean to say that it is true, but I have heard it suggested elsewhere, that the idea has originated in a design to separate. I am sorry, sir, that it has ever been thought of, talked of, or dreamed of, in the wildest flights of human imagination." 494 FROM COMPROMISE TO SECESSION. Mr. Robert Barnwell Rhett said, " The secession of South Carolina is not the event of a day ; it is not anything produced by Mr. Lincoln's election, or by the non-execution of the fugitive slave law. It has been a matter which has been gathering head for thirty years." A commissioner was sent with a copy of the seces- sion ordinance to each slave State, urging it to follow the example, and on the eighteenth of January, 1861, Georgia passed a like ordinance. Mississippi followed January 9; Florida, January 10; Alabama, January II ; Louisiana, January 26 ; and Texas, February i. Conventions were held in Arkansas, North Caro- lina, Virginia, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mary- land and Delaware ; but those States refused to take action at once. On the fourth of February, 1861, delegates from all of the States that had then seceded, excepting Texas, convened at Montgomery, Ala., and formed a new government, under thp name "The Confederate States of America," choosing Jef- ferson Davis of Mississippi, President, and Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia, Vice President* Immediate possession of the property of the United States within the limits of the new confederacy was taken, and war was the result. * Jefferson Davis was born in Kentucky, in 1808, and graduated at the West Point Military Academy, in 1S28. He took active part in the Indian wars of 1831 to 1835. He afterwards removed to Mis- sissippi, where he was chosen as Representative, by the Democratic party, in 1845. The next year he resigned his seat to take part in the Mexican War. His conduct at Buena Vista received commendation from Taylor in his dispatches. He was sent to the United States Senate, in 1847, where he became one of the prominent advocates of slavery and State rights. He was Secretary of War under President i OPPOSITION TO SECESSION. 497 It was evident that the people of the South were, however, not all ready for the resort to arms. The refusal of eight of the States to pass the Secession Ordinance resulted from the " unqualified disapproval of the remedy for the existing difficulties," as a reso- lution of the Delaware legislature expressed it, because as a Southern paper said, " The vilest, most damnable, deep-laid, and treacherous conspiracy that was ever concocted in the busy brain of the most designing knave," was being formed by " meddhng poHticians," and "political tricksters." It was because the love of the Union was too strong, and, as the Governor of Maryland said, there was " nothing in the bare elec- tion of Mr. Lincoln, which would justify the South m taking any steps towards the separation of these States." On this subject the late Alexander H. Stephens said, November 14, i860, in reply to the question whether the Southern States ought to secede, " I tell you frankly, candidly, and earnestly, that I do not think they ought." Again, in January, 1861, when addressing a convention in Georgia, he reviewed the relations between the government and the Southern States, and then impressively said, that to overthrow such a government, " Is the height of madness, folly, and wickedness, to which I can neither lend my sanc- Pierce, and afterwards was active in the Secession movements. Alexander H. Stepliens was born in Georgia, in 1812, and was a Whig member of Congress from 1843 to 1859. He advocated the annexation of Texas and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Afterwards he joined the Democratic party, and supported Buchanan. He was sent to Congress again, after the Civil War, and in 1882, was chosen Governor of Georgia. He died at Atlanta, Sunday, March 4, 1883, and was followed to the grave by a large number of fellow-citizens, who mourned him as a true Christian. 498 FEOM COMPROMISE TO SECESSION. ion nor my vote." He said at the same time that no one could name any " Governmental act of wrong, deliberately and purposely done by the government at Washington, of which the South has a right to complain." It may well be doubted if war would ever have been FOET SUMTEK. precipitated had it not been for several misconceptions that the Southern politicians had long impressed upon their constituents as truths, and which the people of the South now fully believed. These were (i.), that in case of actual conflict, the South would meet a divided 7 POLITICAL DELUSIONS. 499 North, for the Democrats, ^and all Southern sympa- thizers (among whom were counted business men having dealings with the South) would, so the South- ern leaders said, surely oppose all vigorous prosecution of war. (ir.) That the men of the North would prove feeble opponents ; that "one Southerner was worth five Yankees." [After these words had been written, a Northern visitor returned from the South, published in a New York journal an article on "The new South," in the course of which he said : " An old officer of the Confederate army said to me, ' We were brought up to think that one Southerner could whip ten Yankees, but we found we were mistaken. That was the reason we were so easily led by our Southern leaders to engage in a war with the North.' "J (iii.) That Great Britain and other European powers would take the side of the South — that propositions to that effect had actually been made in advance. This Jefferson Davis constantly affirmed, and after the battle of Bull Run, he announced the recognition of the Confederacy in the immediate future an absolute certainty.* (iv.) That the actual seat of war would not be on Southern territory, but that the Northern cities and wealthy regions would be devastated and the Southern army would live on the enemy. This great mistake was very influential, and the Southern leaders used it to the utmost. It took away from the horrors of war, and it offered also a *In his speech made at Stevenson, Ala., on the way to Mont- gomery, after his election as President of the Confederacy, Mr. Davis said, " England will recognize us, and a glorious future is before us. The grass will grow in the Northern cities where the pavement has been worn off by the tread of commerce." This hallucination always possessed Mr. Davis, and he reiterated its expression in a spirited oroclamation even after the fall of Richmond. 500 FB02I COMPROMISE TO SECESSION. solution to the difficulty of sustaining a large army with limited resources. It is not improbable that the leaders may have deceived themselves as well as those whom they tried to influence, until they honestly believed these statements to be true. In January, i86i, President Buchanan secretly ordered supplies sent to Major Anderson, then in command of the troops at Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor, and on the approach of the steamer bearing these supplies, it was fired upon by the Confederates, fortified on Morris Island, and obliged to return to New York without fulfilling its mission. Thus war was begun. CHAPTER XXIV. WAR FOR UNION. THE people of the North were not willing to per- mit the country to be precipitated into the horrors of a revolution without making an effort to preserve peace. They felt that the measures taken in South Carolina bore the marks of " haste, of pas- sion, of distrust of the popular judgment," as a prom- inent New York journal expressed it. It was thought that a small number of headstrong leaders desired to force the Southern States to act before time had been allowed for calm discussion of the reasons for seces- sion. There was ground for this view of the case, as the columns of the public newspapers of the South showed plainly, and as the utterances of the cooler statesmen there also proved.* In accordance with this desire, the Northern journals offered many suggestions of bases for the peaceful settlement of the differences between the sections, and many propositions for conciliation, com- promise and peace were made in legislative bodies. When Congress convened at Washington, December * John Minor Botts, a Southern Unionist, in his book entitled " The Great Rebellion, its Secret History," says that the Virginia Legisla- ture "made hot haste, without consulting the people, and without the slightest authority." Page 184. Mr. Botts v/as a writer of great vehe- mence, and not impartial, but much may be learned from his pages. 501 502 WAR FOB UNION. 3, i860, President Buchanan presented his solution ot the problem in his annual message, in an amendment to the Constitution of three paragraphs, providing that the right of property in slaves should be dis- tinctly recognized ; that this right should be protected in the Territories ; and that the validity of the Fugi- tive Slave Law should be firmly asserted. These suggestions were referred in the Senate to a commit- tee of thirteen, which, after four weeks of deliberation, reported its inability to agree upon any general plan of adjustment. On the Monday after the delivery of the Presi- dent's message, a number of plans were, however, presented in the House of Representatives, by John Sherman* of Ohio, Charles H. Larrabee of Wisconsin, Thomas C. Hindman of Arkansas, John Cohcrane of New York and others. They ranged from a proposi- tion to have a convention of all the States, to a simple demand that the requirements of the Constitution should be observed. All were referred to a com- mittee on the national peril, composed of a represent- ative from each State. After deliberating four days, this committee presented a resolution stating that the discontent of the Southern people is " greatly to be regretted," and that "any reasonable, proper and constitutional remedies necessary to preserve the *John Sherman, brother of General W. T. Sherman, was born a{ Lancaster, Ohio, in 1823, studied law, and was admitted to the bar, in 1844. He entered political life, was three times chosen to office from 1854 to 1858, and became prominent. He was sent to Congress in i860, and became Senator from Ohio in 1866. One of the ablest debat- ers, he has been prominent in discussing financial affairs, and for a time was Secretary of the Treasury. With the late Thaddeus Stevens, he prepared the bill for the reconstruction of the seceded States, in 1866. PEESIDENT LINCOLN. 503 EFFORTS FOR PEACE. 505 peace of the country and the perpetuation of the Union should be promptly and cheerfully granted." On the seventeenth of December, the House passed a vote deprecating " the spirit of disobedience to the Constitution," and recommending the States to repeal all statutes in conflict with that sacred instrument. Another vote affirmed the duty of the President to "protect and defend the property of the United States," but the Southern ra|mbers permitte(] it to pass without their votes. On the eighteenth of December, Senator Critten- den* of Kentucky, a statesman who on account of the purity of his character and the great length of his term of public service, commanded the respect of the country, offered, as his contribution to the efforts for peace, suggestions for four amendments to the Con- stitution, not differing essentially from those pre- sented by the President in his message. When the time for action came, January i6th, 1861, a substitute for Mr. Crittenden's resolution was passed, declaring that the Constitution needed "to be obeyed rather than amended," and that " compromises for particular difficulties, or concessions to unreasonable demands," were not to be looked upon as means of extricating the country from present dangers; that attempts to dissolve the Union, or to construct a new Constitu- * John Jay Crittenden, bom in Woodford Co., Kentucky, in 1787, entered the Senate in 1817, and again in 1835. He was a warm friend of Henry Clay, and approved his compromise measures. He was a member of the Cabinet of Harrison, but resigned on the accession of Tyler. From 1850 to 1853 he was a member of Fillmore's Cabinet. He was in the Senate again from 1855 *" 1861. He opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the Secession movement. His death occurred in 1863. 506 WAB FOR UNION. tion " are dangerous, illusive and destructive," and that all " the energies of all the departments of the government, and the efforts of all good citizens," should be directed to "■ the maintenance of the exist- ing Union and Con stitution." The discussions continued until February, but proved effective in nothing. The committee o f one from each State formed in the House did not effect more. On the last day of January, 1861, there was con- vened at Albany, : N. Y., a "peace* c o nf e r e nee " called by the Democrats, but JOHN GKEENLEAF wHiTTiEK. including many men of great influence who had acted with the Whig and " American " parties. It was called to insist upon a peaceful settlement of the interstate diflficulties. The chairman, Judge Amasa J. Parker, said that the people had a right to demand " that there shall be con- ^ ciliation, concession, compromise." Other speakers, referred to the strons: svmpnthv that had always;: existed between the Democratic party and the South, THE UTAE OF THE WEST. 507 and made it apparent that that sympathy still existed. This served to strengthen the feeling in the South, to which reference has been made, that the North would present a divided front in case of actual war. At the time that the Senate was discussing the resolutions offered by Mr. Crittenden, the Legislature of Virginia was giving thought to the plans for concil- iation, and on the sixteenth of January adopted resolu- tions proposing a "peace conference," to be composed oi a representative from each State, which should attempt to adjust the controversies. Representa- tives of thirteen free States met at Washington, on the :ourth of February, and continued in session three tveeks, at the end of which time they presented to Congress a series' of proposed amendments to the Con- stitution. Ex-President Tyler was chairman of this !I!onvention. The proceedings were brought before :he House March ist, 1861, but not acted upon, rhe Senate refused to accept the proposition of the )eace conference instead of the project of Mr. Critten- len, and finally rejected Mr. Crittenden's plan. Thus he efforts for peace ended, for while the discussions vere in progress in the North, the Star of the West* lad been fired upon at Charleston, and Georgia, Ala- bama and North Carolina had taken possession of orts and arsenals belonging to the United States. Dther public property was promptly seized. In Louis- * The Sfar of the West was a steamer sent with fifty recruits and ;upplies to Mjljor Anderson at Fort Sumter. It left New York on the light of January 5th, 1861, and reached Charleston Harbor on the linth. It was fired at from sand batteries at the entrance of the larbor, and was struck once or twice, and being a merchant vessel, it vas unable to return the fire. It was forced to put to sea without ;ffecting its mission. 508 WAE FOR UNION. iana, Missouri, Florida and Texas, seizures were made j before the inauguration of the new President, and a Southern historian states that over a hundred thou- sand muskets and rifles had previously been trans- ferred from Springfield, Mass., to various arsenals in the South, in anticipation of the war, the value of the property thus obtained being some thirty mil- lion of dollars.* Abraham Lincoln, the new President, was a " man of the people," who had been born of humble parents, in Kentucky, in 1805, and after having served in the Black Hawk War, in 1832, had become interested in State politics. He was elected a member of the Illi- \ nois Legislature in 1834. Admitted to the practice of law, he established himself in Springfield, and soon became a man of note. In 1846, he was chosen a member of the House of Representatives, and there, in May, of the same year, made a speech to which we have already referred, against the Mexican war policy of President Polk, in support of his " Spot Resolu- tions," as they were called. f After the passage of* the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, he delivered a powerful oration against Stephen A. Douglas,| which carried his * See also McPherson's " History of the Rebellion," p. 84, and quota- tions from it, in J. M. Botts's '• The Great Rebellion," p. 121. ' t See page 456. + Stephen Arnold Douglas was born at Brandon, Vt., in 1813, and removed to Illinois in 1833, where he began to practice law at Jack- sonville. Soon becoming an active Democratic politician, he wasv elected to Congress in 1843, where he advocated the admission of Texas. From 1847 to his death, he was Senator from Illinois. He supported Clay's compromise measures in 1850. He was the reputed author of the doctrine of popular sovereignty, or the right of each terri- tory to decide fofor against slavery. In 1854, he reported the Kansas- Nebraska Bill. He was a rival of Buchanan,, in the Democratic con- LINCOLN ELECTED. 509 audience by storm, and pointed to him as the natural person to oppose the "Little Giant." In 1858, the two became candidates for the United States Senatorship, and a remarkable contest ensued, in the course of which Lincoln and Douglas spoke in various places in Illi- nois in advocacy of their respective claims. In the opening speech of this campaign, delivered at Spring- field, June 17, 1858, Lincoln, who had been known as a conservative Whig, uttered the now memorable words, " A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this Government cannot endure half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dis- solved, I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect that it will cease to be divided." Douglas became Senator, but Mr. Lincoln gained the greater popular vote. When he was made the candidate of the Republican party for President, in i860, few people in the country knew him, and many felt that the nomination was a weak one, but his speeches after his election proved him to be a sagacious and thought- ful man who could bring a subject before the popular mind in a manner so perspicacious and original as to fix it in the memory of his hearers. His character is best indicated by his own words, uttered March 4, 1865, in his second inaugural address — "with malice toward none, with charity for all." He entered office declaring his intention not to irritate any portion of the country, but to strive to carry out all the laws of the land in strict impartiality. He indicated that his vention of 1856, and became his bitter enemy, opposing the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution. In i860 he was again candidate for the Democratic nomination for President, and was nomi- nated at Charleston. Upon the breakijig out of war, he supported the crovernment. He died in 1861. 510 WAB FOR UNION. policy would be simply to hold or re-take the forts and other property of the United States, that might be threatened or occupied by any forces not under Fed- eral authority, and he advised the people to keep their self-possession, assuring them that as other clouds had cleared away, so that one would which then threat- ened the land. " Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this land," he asserted in language which reminds us •of the utterances of Washington, "are still competent to adjust in the best way all our present difficulties." Mr. Lincoln evidently intended to pursue a "peace policy," and not to interfere with slavery.* The policy of the Confederates was indicated by Mr. Davis in several of his speeches in such words as the following : " If they attempt invasion by land, we must take the war out of our territory. If war must come, it must be upon Northern and not upon South- ern soil." "Wc will carry war where it is easy to advance ; where food for the sword and torch await our armies in the densely populated cities ; and though they may come and spoil our crops, we can raise them «as before, while they cannot rear the cities which took years of industry and millions of money to build." Mr. Stephens, the Vice-President, stated the principles of the Confederate Government in a speech delivered at Savannah, in March, i860, in which he * In August, 1S62, when a great pressure was brought to bear upon Mr. Lincohi to lead him to confiscate slaves and declare emancipation, he wrote : " My paramount object is to save the Union, and not either to save or destroy slavery." " What I do about slavery and the col- ored race, I do because I believe it helps to save this Union ; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union." THE CONFEDERATE PRINCIPLES. 511 used these words : " Its foundations are laid, its corner stone rests upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man ; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition." "The negro by nature, or by the curse against Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system." " This stone, FOKT SUMTER AFTER THE BOMBARDMENT. which was rejected by the first builders, 'is become the chief stone of the corner' in our new edifice." While the leaders were thus hurrying the South on towards war, the Southern people were, as Mr. Pollard says in his history, anxious for peace, and deplored war'between the two sections, as "a policy detrimental to the civilized world." Actual war was brought on by an attack upon Fort 512 WAR FOR UNION. Sumter, in Charleston harbor. The commander in charge, Major Robert Anderson, had refused to sur- render it to the confederates, and his supphes had been cut off. Upon news of this reaching Wash- ington, President Lincohi determined to send him supplies, and at the beginning of April a number of vessels were prepared for the purpose. Before this could be accomplished, however. Major Anderson was notified that if he should not surrender before the twelfth of April, fire would be opened upon him from batteries erected on Sullivan's Island, and at the designated hour the thunder of cannon and the crashing of shot in the fort, announced that war had begun. After having borne the cannonading thirty-four hours, Anderson was obliged to lower his flag. He surrendered with the honors of war, and sailed for New York with his little force.* On the fifteenth, President Lincoln issued a proc- lamation convening Congress on the Fourth of July, and calling out the militia to the number of seventy- five thousand, to " repossess the forts, places and property which have been seized from the Union," announcing that "the utmost care will be observed, consistently with the objects aforesaid, to avoid any devastation, any destruction of or interference with property, or any disturbance of peaceable citizens in any part of the country." War, on the part of the Federal Government, was to be prosecuted simply for the preservation of the Union intact, and the * During the bombardment, the wooden barracks had several times been set on fire by exploding shells, and much of the powder in the magazine was thrown into the sea for safety. Before the brave band surrendered the smoke was so dense that the gunners could not see to aim. THE PRESIDENT'S PUEPOSES. 513 protection of the property that the President under the Constitution had sworn to keep. On the other hand stands the declaration of the Confederate Secre- tary of War, General Leroy Pope Walker, who said, on receiving the news of the attack on Sumter, that before the first of May the Confederate flag- would float over Washington, and might ultimately float over Faneuil Hall itself; and that utterance of a Mobile paper : " We are prepared to fight, and the enemy is not. Now is the time for action, while he is yet unprepared. Let a hundred thousand men, with such arms as they can snatch, get over the border as quickly as they can. Let a division enter every North- ern border State." President Lincoln's call met an immediate response that surprised even those most firmly fixed in faith in the loyalty of the North to the Union. On the evening of the following day, several Pennsylvania companies had reached Washington, and on the afternoon of the seventeenth, the first full regiment to respond — the Sixth Massachusetts — started from Boston and reached Baltimore on the nineteenth, * where they were attacked by a mob, three being killed and four severely wounded. Ten Pennsylvania companies, that were in the same train, were obliged to return, after having resisted a determined attack in which several of them lost their lives. After this, soldiers were sent to Washington by the way of Annapolis. The news which thus aroused the North, led to the secession of four more States ; Arkansas, North Caro- lina, Tennessee and Virginia, and about one fourth of * The anniversary of the battle of Lexington, which had stirred the patriotic fire of the Fathers, 514 iVAR FOE UNION. all the officers then in the service of the United States, resigned their commissions and united their fortunes with the South. A great cry arose in the South, " On to Washington!" in pursuance of the announced intention of President Davis to carry war and the torch into the thickly settled territory of the North. * This was echoed by the Northern demand that the army of the Union should rush "on to Richmond ! " but in spite of the constant reiteration of the cry by the press, President Lincoln and his advisers seemed to be determined to carry out the plan of simple defence. On the nineteenth of April, Lincoln declared the blockade of all ports in the seceding States, and in spite of the fact that the vessels of the navy had been dispersed throughout the world by Secretary- Floyd, the blockade was soon (by May ist) made effec- tive, and vessels were provided to act on the Missis- sippi, the opening of which was of the greatest impor- tance. The first great battle of the war was fought ai Manassas Junction,! on the twenty-first of J\iiy\ Some forty thousand men were engaged, about equally" divided. The Union forces were driven from the field after a brave resistance and retreated in great confu- sion to Washington. The effect in the South was disastrous, for it led to the return home of large num- bers of volunteers, who supposed the struggle over. * A year before the war broke out, ex-President Pierce wrote to Jefferson Davis, that if " that dire calamity " should come, the fighting would not be "along Mason and Dixon's line merely, but within our own borders," between the class of citizens who supported slavery and those who did not. ■^ "riijs is known as the battle of P.ull Run, from a small stream near ..nich it was fought. THE EFFECT OF BULL RUN. 515 In the North it led to a call for five hundred thousand men, and to a renewed determination to carry the war forward with vigor. General Scott gave way to George B. McClellan,* a young officer of considerable repute, who continued at the head of the army of the Potomac until November 7, 1862, when he was ordered to Trenton, N. J., to await orders. The South now thought that the question of " Man- hood " was forever settled as between the North and the South, and that it was proved that " one South- erner was equal to five Yankees," as had before been confidently said. Mr. Pollard says, "The South reposed on its laurels ; " politicians began to plot for the succession for the Presidency, at the election then still six years ahead ; Nashville appropriated three quarters of a million dollars to erect a Presidential mansion, only to be disappointed. " There is no more remarkable phenomenon," continues Mr. Pollard, " in the whole history of the war, than the display of fully awaked Northern energy in it, alike wonderful in the ingenuity of its expedients and in the concentrated force of its action." On the twenty-first of October a desperate fight occurred at Ball's Bluff, on the Potomac, resulting in * George B. McClellan, a native of Philadelphia, was born December 3, 1826, and graduated at West Point at the age of twenty. He served in the Mexican War, and in 1857, was sent by the Government to observe the military systems of Europe at the time of the Crimean War. In 1857, he resigned his commission, and became chief engineer of the Illinois Central Railway Company. In May, 1861, he took command of the forces in West Virginia, and after the battle of Bull Run, was, at the suggestion of General Scott, placed at the head of the armv at W'ashington. In August, 1864, he was the Democratic candidate for the Presidency, but received only twenty-one electoral votes at the election. 516 WAR FOR UNION. the death of a brave officer, Colonel E. D. Baker a^d the loss of a large number of men. During the summer and autumn, Missouri was the scene of severe fight- ing by troops under Generals Lyon, Fremont and others, and during the campaign Fremont issued a proclamation of emancipation, which President Lin- coln nullified, as contravening his plans and the ex- pressions of his inaugural address,* The Confederates fitted out privateers, authorized by letters of marque to make depredations on Ameri- can commerce, and Captain Raphael Semmes, in the Sumter and the Alabama, destroyed many Union vessels and millions of property. England gave Semmes and other Confederate officers countenance, thus infringing the "neutrality" she professed, and it was for this that she afterwards paid our Govern- ment the sum of fifteen million, five hundred thousand dollars. During the year the Confederate Government appointed James M. Mason and John Slidellf commis- sioners to England and France. They ran the blockade from Charleston, and sailed from Havana to England in the British steamer Trent \ but on the pas- * Later, when Cameron, Secretary of War, suggested arming the blacks, President Lincoln objected, and later still, wher General Hunter attempted military emancipation, he still resisted, thinking that it was not as he said, an " indispensable necessity." 1 Mason, a native of Fairfax Co., Va., born about 1798, became a member of Congress in 1837, and ten years later a Senator. In 1S50 he was author of the Fugitive Slave Law. He remained abroad throughout the war, and died in 187 1. Slidell, a native of New York, was born in 1793, and removed to New Orleans, where he was elected to Congress in 1843. ^e was appointed Minister to Mexico in 1S45, ^"'^' in 1853 was chosen member of the United States Senate, from which he withdrew in 1S61. THE TRENT AFFAIR. 517 sage encountered an American war steamer, the Sai. /acinto, the commander of which, Captain Charles Wilkes, took the commissioners and their secretaries from the Trent, and instead of seizing the vessel as a prize, as he had a right to do under the Queen's proclamation of neutrality, and the general laws of the seas, permitted it to complete the voyage. The Eng- lish government promptly demanded redress and sent troops to Canada as if in threat of war. Mr. Seward found it convenient to avert war, on the ground that Captain Wilkes had decided questions himself that should have been passed upon by a prize court, and the prisoners were sent to England on a British man-of-war from Provincetown, at the end of Cape Cod. The second year of the war, 1862, was devoted to efforts to open the Mississippi to re-gain the fortifi- cations on the seacoast, to enforce the blockade, and to capture the Capitol of the Confederacy, which had been removed from Montgomery to Richmond, Va., in July, 1861. The opposing forces counted about eight hundred thousand men, of which there were in the Union army about four hundred and fifty thousand. The chief engagements of the year were the following : Colonel Garfield and General Thomas met the Confederates in January, in Eastern Ken- tucky, and defeated them with great losses on both sides. Commodore Foote forced the Confederates from Fort Henry, on the Tennessee, near the Ken- tucky line, and they took refuge in Fort Donelson, which they were obliged to surrender with fifteen thousand men, February i6th. It was on this occa- sion that Grant used the words " unconditional sur- 518 WAR FOB UNION. render," and, " I propose to move immediately on your works," in response to the inquiry from General Buckner, who, after Generals Pillow, Forrest and Floyd had retired to places of safety, had asked Grant THE HOUSE OF JOHN G. "WHITTIER. i((i '^ J^ P*" upon what terms he would accept capitulation. Grant then became commander of a new department, called Western Tennessee. On the sixth of April he was attacked by Generals Beauregard and Johnston, with an army of forty thousand men, and was defeated with great slaughter, losing three thousand prisoners and much material. The next day, however, he renewed the battle, having received reenforcements THE MISSISSIPPI OPENED. 519 under Biiell, and forced the Confederates to retreat to Corinth under Beauregard, General Johnston having been killed. The loss during the two days amounted to ten thousand on each side. This is known as the battle of Pittsburgh Landing, from the place on the river near Shiloh church.* The same day, General Pope and Commodore Foote, by cutting a canal, caused the surrender of Island No. lo, on the Missis- sippi (after a bombardment of three weeks), with eight thousand men. On the sixth of June Memphis was taken, and the river was open as far down as Vicksburg. In the meantime. Admirals Farragut and Porter, and General Butler, were endeavoring to enter the mouth of the Mississippi. The fleet bombarded Forts Jackson and St. Philip, seventy miles below New Orleans, from the eighteenth to the twenty- fourth of April, and then, having apparently done them little harm. Admiral Farragut performed the perilous feat of breaking the chain across the river and passing the forts with his fleet. Leaving Admiral Porter to continue the siege, he proceeded up the river, destroying all but one of the gunboats that protected it, and capturing the city, of which General Butler became commandant May ist. The forts surrendered to Admiral Porter April 28th. Farragut proceeded up the river, capturing Baton Rouge and Natchez, passing Vicksburg and joining the fleet above, June 28th. In the East, a new sort of naval warfare began in * The weather at the time was intensely cold, and the sufferings of the Confederate soldiers, as related by those who witnessed them, remind one of the trials of our fathers at Valley Forge. The prison- ers were sent to Camp Douglas, near Chicago. 520 ^VAR FOE UNION. March. The Confederates had made an iron-clad vessel of the United States steam frigate Alerrimac, which they called the Virginia. On the eighth of March it advanced upon the five men-of-war in Hampton Roads, striking the Cumberland first with its prow, and sinking it with all its men and ammuni- tion. There was great consternation at Fortress Mon- roe that night after the Virginia had withdrawn, but when it returned the next morning, to complete what it considered an easy victory, it encountered a new sort of vessel, — Captain Ericsson's Monitor, upon which it could make no impression. The Virginia retired and did no further damage, being blown up by the Confederates upon the surrender of Norfolk, May nth. The army of the Potomac had been gradually organ- izing under General McClellan, and early in the spring began a series of operations which included some of the severest battles of the war. After taking Wil- liamsburgh in May, General McClellan advanced until he was able to see the spires of the Richmond churches. In this region occurred the battles of Fair Oaks, May 31, which was a Union victory, but after it McClellan determined to change his base, and was involved in a series of struggles, which ended July 1st, with the battle of Malvern Hill, and left the advantage with the Confederates.* This emboldened General Lee to enter Maryland. He crossed the * McClellan could have marched into Richmond without serious impediment . . . but instead . . . the extraordinary spectacle was presented of both armies in full retreat. — The Great Rebellion, its secret History, John Minor Botts. Page 293. ANTIETAM. 521 P^coinac, capturing Frederick,* September 6. On the fifteenth, Stonewall Jackson captured Harper's Ferry, with nearly twelve thousand men ; but the Confederates had been defeated the previous day at South Mountain, and Lee took up his position near Sharpesburgh, in the Antietam Valley, where he was opposed by a large Federal army, and a battle ensued September 17, resulting in losses of some twenty-five thousand men, with advantage to neither side, though Lee was obliged to retreat into Virginia. General McCIellan was relieved of command, November 10, and General Burnside f took his place. The new commander did not try to follow the plans of the old. Advancing upon Fredericksburgh, he assaulted it, but was repulsed with great loss. He was superseded by General Hooker, January 26, 1863. After the battle of Antietam, President Lincoln made up his mind that the necessities of war de- manded a blow at the labor system of the South, and he issued a proclamation, declaring that after the first day of January, 1863, all persons held in servitude in States, or parts of States, which should then be in *Upon an incident related of this capture, which has since been proved apochryphal, Mr. Whittier, the Quaker poet, based his verses entitled " Barbara Frietchie." t Ambrose Everett Burnside, born in Indiana, in 1S24, graduated at West Point, in 1847, but resigned from the army in 1853. In i86i he commanded a brigade at Bull Run, and was appointed Brigadier- General in August. In 1862 he directed the expedition that captured Roanoake Island, and after taking Newbe^, in March, was made Major-General. In July he removed his army to the. James to reen- force McCIellan. He distinguished himself at Antietam. He subse- quently operated in the West, and fought under Grant during the battles in the wilderness. Before his death he was chosen Governor of Rhode Island, in which State he was much respected. 522 iVAli FOR UNION. rebellion, should be free. When the appointed time- \ arrived, he issued another proclamation defining the j territory in which the slaves were to be freed, which j included all of the slave States. Within a year more ■ than fifty thousand negroes had enlisted in the armies [ of the Union. The Confederates had already accepted ] their services in their armies.* General Hooker found that his first duty was to establish the discipline of the army, which had become greatly demoralized. He then advanced, and was met at Chancellorsville, by the Confederates, and through the impetuous bravery of General Thomas Jonathan Jackson, known as " Stonewall Jackson," defeated May 3, after a battle lasting two days, with a loss of seventeen thousand men. Jackson was mor- tally wounded. Hooker was superseded by General George G. Meade. Early in 1863, Congress passed a Conscription Bill, under which men were drafted to be sent to the army. The rich were able to purchase substitutes, and the poorer classes were much dissatisfied. There were > other causes which led to restlessness in the North, and the Emancipation Proclamation had strengthened the South in its adherence to the war. General Lee took this opportunity to invade the North, and his act united all who had there opposed the vigorous prosecution of the war. He crossed the Potomac with his entire army, the first week in June, and entered Chambersburg on the twenty-second. On the first of July he met the Federal advance at Gettysburg, where there ensued a desperate battle *The man who fights for the country is entitled to vote. — Thomas Jefferson. GETTYSBURG AND VICKSBURG. 523 lasting three days, and resulting" in the defeat of the Confederates, who were forced to retreat with a loss of thirty-six thousand men. The Union army lost twenty-three thousand. This was the decisive battle of the war, and one of the most brilliant ; but the fact was not immediately appreciated. The popu- lar dissatisfaction did not grow less, and ten days later the "draft riots" broke out in New York, which were only quelled by General Wool, with the aid of some of the veterans from Gettysburg, and the Metropoli- tan police.* In the West, General Grant was making himself felt at Vicksburg. He had cut off the communica- tions of the city and tried to take it by storm, but without success. He then laid siege to it, and though it held out manfully, it was obliged to sur- render on the fourth of July, 1863, with more than thirty-one thousand men and one hundred and seventy-two cannon. No surrender of equal magni- tude had ever been made in the history of war, though it has been surpassed in Europe since. In this remarkable campaign General Grant showed the promptness, pertinacity and accurate judgment which have made his name famous. On the eleventh of May, General Halleck had telegraphed to ' Grant orders to join Banks below Vicksburg, but happily, communication was cut off, and the despatch did not reach its destination. Had it been received the campaign, would have resulted in disaster. Pemberton was under orders both from General Johnston and * West Virginia, consisting of the loyal portion of the Old Dominion, which had formed a provisional government in 1861, was admitted to the Union June 20, 1S63. 624 iVAB FOR UNION. President Davis, and the fact gave uncertainty to his movements, while Grant, depending upon his own judgment, made clear plans, and carried them out. His master strategy was shown in his attack of the strong place from the rear. The beseiged army was reduced to the most frightful extremities. The soldiers complained that their rations were cut down to " one biscuit and a small bit of bacon a day," and they called upon General Pemberton (June 28) to sur- render, " horrible as the idea is,'' threatening to desert or mutiny if he should not.* Four days later, Port Hudson surrendered to General Banks, after a siege of long continuance. In July, General John H. Morgan, with four thousand cavalry, made a raid into Indiana, and after passing from Sparta, Tenn., through Kentucky, sacking Columbia, and destroying as he went, he entered Indiana, at Brandenburg, and turned towards Cincinnati, tearing up railways, burn- ing bridges and mills, and seizing much property. His army grew smaller and smaller, and he was forced to fly for safety, but was followed and captured at New Lisbon, and confined in the penitentiary at Columbus, whence he made his escape in November. Towards the end of June, General Rosecrans began the campaign of Eastern Tennessee, which was finally closed by General Grant. He drove the Confederates from Middle Tennessee, and over the Cumberland Mountains, under Bragg. They fell back to Chatta- nooga, and when Rosecrans' army was divided, attacked him at Chickamauga, on the nineteenth of September. The battle lasted all day, with no advantage to either *See "The Mississippi," in the "Campaigns of the Civil War" series, by Francis Vinton Greene. New York, 1883. T.OOKOUT MOUNTAIN. CEICKAMAUGA AND CHATTANOOGA. 527 side, but it began again the next morning, and resulted in a Confederate gain, for Rosecrans was forced to fall back to Chattanooga, which he fortified. There he was besieged for two months by Bragg, when he was superseded by Grant, who was joined by Sherman on the fifteenth of November. General Hooker also arrived from Virginia to take part in the decisive battles that were to follow on a field thirteen miles in length. On the twenty-fourth of November, Hooker advanced up Lookout Mountain, in the face of great difficulties, forcing the Confed- erates from their positions, and the next morning he moved down, driving them from the Chattanooga Valley. At the same time Sherman had crossed the Tennessee River, and taken possession of the north end of Missionary Ridge. The morning of the twenty-fifth, Sherman pushed forward, and assisted by Thomas and Sheridan, pushed the Confederates under Bragg from their positions. By evening they were routed. The next day was a day of thanks- giving. Burnside had been shut up at Knoxville, and now Sherman pushed on to his relief. But before he could arrive there, he heard that Longstreet had been repulsed, and was in full retreat towards Virginia, Early in the new year. General Sherman received orders to destroy the railroads centring at Meri- dian, Miss., and he carried them out so successfully that the Confederates were prevented from moving large bodies of men in the State, or of drawing sup- plies from it. He left Vicksburg on the third of Feb- ruary, and was back again followed by crowds of negro fugitives, on the twentieth. In the meantime he had destroyed railway-stations, machine-shops and bridges 528 WAR FOR UNION. and had twisted the rails in such a manner that they could not be used again. It was a heavy blow to the Confederates.* Following this stroke came the revival of the grade of lieutenant-general in the army, which had been borne by Washington, and, by brevet, by Scott. It was conferred upon Grant, who was thus (March 9) placed at the head of all the armies. Taking a month to determine his plans, and consulting Sherman, Grant determined upon two general simultaneous movements, to which all others were to be subordinate. Sherman was to march against Atlanta, then defended by Gen- eral Joseph E. Johnston, and the army of the Potomac under Meade and Grant, was to operate against the army of Northern Virginia, under General Robert E. Lee. After severe fighting, both of these plans proved successful. Meade broke camp on the third of May, and began his march to Richmond, entering "the Wilderness," where every obstacle had been placed in his way.f He was attacked by the enemy, and fearful struggles occurred on the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth", tenth, eleventh and twelfth, the Federals gaining some ground at great loss. Hancock captured General Edward Johnson, and three thousand men, among whom was General George H. Stewart. * Sherman destroyed one hundred and fifty miles of railroad, sixty- seven bridges, seven hundred trestles, twenty locomotives, twenty-eight cars, several thousand bales of cotton, several steam mills, and over two million bushels of corn. t The Wilderness is a region of thick woods to the south of Chancel- lorsville. The country is more open towards Fredericksburg, which lies to the east. The old " Wilderness Tavern," the headquarters of Meade, near the middle of the desolate region, was the scene of the battle of May 5th. Spottsylvania Court House lies further South. IN THE WILDERNESS. 529 At the same time General Sheridan was destroying the railways in the rear of Lee, and endeavoring" to cut off his connection with Richmond. During this dash he encountered General J. E. B. Stuart, who was killed. Sheridan rejoined Grant May 25. It was after the battle of Spottsylvania Court House (May 9-12) that Grant telegraphed that he proposed to "fight it out on this line, if it takes ail summer" It took much longer than "all summer," but still Grant persevered. While these operations were going on, there was active, work in the valley of the Shenandoah, where General Sigel was operating against General Brecken- ridge. He was routed May 15, and his command transferred to General Hunter, who gained a victory at Piedmont, but was afterwards obliged to retreat to West Virginia, when General Early was sent to invade Maryland and threaten Washington. Early crossed the Potomac, July 5, with twenty-thousand men, but was repulsed at the battle of Monocacy, July 9, by General Lewis Wallace, and retreated to Baltimore, where he was received with acclamations by those who sympathized with the Confederate cause. He proceeded towards Washington, which was in great danger, but he was finally forced to retreat across the Potomac, July 12. He was pursued, and again defeated at Winchester, but he rallied and entered Pennsylvania at Cham.bersburg, which he offered to spare for half a million dollars. This the inhabitants refused, and the soldiers rifled the houses of all they could carry, and set the town on fire. Sheridan was then sent to oppose Early, and defeated him Septem- ber 19, on Opequam Creek. The valley was devas- 530 WAR FOR UNION. tated by both armies. After receiving reenforcements, Early returned, and surprised Sheridan's army at Winchester. Sheridan, * who was absent, arrived at the front in time to change a rout to a victory, and sent Early permanently from the valley, October 19. PETERSBURG, VIRGINIA. Mr. Pollard, the historian of "The Lost Cause," thinks that when Sheridan had made the supremacy of the Union arms in the valley a fixed fact, the way in which the long struggle was to terminate was decided, though Northern writers have considered that Vicksburg or Gettysburg was the decisive battle. Grant's first intention had been to make General W. B. Franklin commander in this campaign, and after * Philip Henry Sheridan, a native of Ohio, was born March 6, 1831, graduated at West Point in 1853. His first duty was in Texas, after which, in 1855, he was sent to Oregon, where he remained nntil 1861, when he was appointed quartermaster in Missouri. He was in the iDattle of Stone River, Dec. 31, 1862, and for his service on that occa- sion was made major-general of volunteers. He was engaged in the battle of Chickamauga, and afterwards in connection with the army of the Potomac. March 4, 1869, he was made major-general of the regular army. In November, 1SS3, he took the command of the army in the place of General Sherman, who then resigned. THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 53\ him he had selected General Meade, before appointing Sheridan. Meanwhile Sherman had begun his operations in the West, moving from Chattanooga, May 7, arriving near Atlanta July 17. Johnston had retired his forces within the fortifications of Atlanta, but was on the seventeenth succeeded by General Hood, who on the twentieth, made a sally from the works. He was repulsed, and Sherman began a siege which soon showed Hood that he was out generaled. He there- fore destroyed all his material that he could, and began a retreat September ist. General Grant wrote to Sherman, " I feel that you have performed the most gigantic undertaking given to any general in this war, and with a skill and ability that will be acknowledged in history as unsurpassed, if not unequalled." President Lincoln also wrote a letter of thanks. Sherman saw that Hood was capable of doing a great deal of harm with his army of forty thousand with which he had retreated into Tennessee, expecting to be followed, and he sent Thomas to take care of him, while he removed all families from Atlanta, making it a military post, and then set out on his " March to the sea," November 15. He moved in four columns, subsisting upon the country, and destroying the railways as he went, and arrived at Savannah, December 10. On the twentieth, General Hardee, with fifteen thousand men, escaped from Savannah, and retreated to Charleston. On the twenty-second. General Sherman established his headquarters at Savannah, having lost less than six hundred men on his march from Atlanta. Hood, ' marching towards Tennessee, arrived at 6S2 ^\'AR FOR UNION. , Franklin, near Nashville, November 30, and attacked the forces of General Thomas Schofield which had retreated from the southern part of the State. Scho- field held the Confederates in check, and after a severe engagement, retreated to Nashville, where Thomas's forces were concentrated. Hood intended to drive Thomas from this place, and began to make intrenchments about it, but before he was ready to begin the siege, Thomas fell upon him, and routed his forces, with a loss of twenty-five thousand men. He was then pursued until he reached Alabama, 'vhen he was relieved of his command.* In August, Commodore Farragut brought his squadron to bear upon the fortifications of Mobile, and passing the forts, dispersed the Confederate vessels, captured the forts and effectually sealed up the harbor, after a fierce conflict with the ram Te/i- nessee. The Confederates had then but one seaport, j Wilmington, N. C, commanded by Fort Fisher, which was of great strength. Admiral Porter and General Butler were sent to take this stronghold, in December, but General Weitzel, who was sent to storm it, decided that it was almost impregnable, and Butler abandoned the effort. Porter did not leave the place, however, though Butler's forces were taken to Fortress Monroe. In January, 1865, the same men were sent back under General Terry, and the fort was taken by storm. (January, 15.) In the autumn of this year, the election of Presi- * The Confederates lost iiuich in the opinion of Europe in 1864, on account of the action of their troops under General Forrest, who, on the twelfth of April, took Fort Pillow on the Mississippi, and indiscrim- inately slaughtered men, women and children after the surrender. It has been explained that the officers lost control of the men at this time. SLA VEtt Y AB OLISHED. 5 33 dent occurred, resulting in the choice of Abraham Lincoln, with Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, as Vice- President. Congress met in December following, and passed an amendment to the Constitution, for- ever abolishing slavery in the United States, using the words employed in the Act of 1787, forming the Northwestern Territory, and in the " Wilmot Proviso." This was ratified by the requisite number of States, and became the law of the land. We have now reached the last year of the war. It began with brightness for the nation, but offered no cheer for the Confederates. Sherman rested at Savannah until February ist, 1865, when he took the field again, intending to meet Grant, who was before Petersburg. He reached Columbia on the morning of the seven- teenth, and received its surrender from the Mayor and other officers who came out in carriages to offer it. General Hardee was in command at Charleston, and he now planned to evacuate the city, first destroying- all the stores, in doing which he destroyed a large portion of the city itself. He then escaped, and began his march northward. On the morning of the eighteenth, the Federal troops learned the condition of affairs and entered the city, joining the citizens in endeavoring to stay the ravages of the flames. Sherman reached Fayetteville March 15, and found himself opposed by General Johnston, who had been placed in command. Hardee endeavored to stop him a few miles north of Fayetteville, but without success. On the nineteenth, however, he was suddenly attacked by Johnston, and in danger of defeat, when the day was saved by desperate fighting of the men under General Jefferson C. Davis, and he entered Raleigh 534 WAR FOB UNION. April 13, where, thirteen days later, he received the surrender of Johnston's army. A portion of the intervening time had been spent by the army at Goldsboro, in command of General Schofield, who had reenforced Sherman. In the meantime, Sherman himself went to City Point ( March 27 ), General Grant's headquarters before Petersburg, for purposes of consultation. Here the two generals met President Lincoln, who was specially interested in conversation with Sherman about the incidents of his great march. The generals were convinced that the end was near, and Lincoln was desirous that there should be no more battles. Could the generals have seen the other side, they would have had still greater confidence that the end was approaching. The war had become unpopular everywhere in the South. Davis was opposed by a strong party m his own Congress, and his plans thwarted. Supplies were growing less, and the Con- federate currency was fast losing all sort of value. In i86r, it was equal to gold ; in 1864, it took five hundred dollars m currency to buy one hundred dollars in gold ; in March, 1865, it was still lower, and in April, Confederate money was valueless. Just before the last act, an effort was made by the Confederates to treat with the Federal authorities for a cessation of hostilities and a submission of the ques- tions in dispute to the whole union afterwards. President Lincoln and Secretary Seward had a con- versation of several hours at Fortress Monroe with Alexander H. Stephens, and others, but nothing resulted, for President Lincoln was not willing to allow hostilities to cease until the Confederates would A CONFERENCE. -537 disband their armies, abolish slavery and recognize the authority of the government.* Grant intended to begin a general attack upon the Confederate lines on the twenty-ninth of March, but on the twenty-fifth, Lee made a desperate attempt to break through the Union lines. He effected the cap- ture of Fort Steedman, but it was soon retaken, and the lines were tightened about Lee. In order to keep Lee from escaping to the South, Grant sent Sheridan to go to Dinwiddle Court House and cut the railroad. Lee saw that this was a dangerous move for his safety, and gathered all the men he could miister to resist Sheridan. Sheridan met the enemy at Five Forks, and was driven back. But on the morning of April first, he advanced again and captured the Con- federate works with five thousand men. Grant kept up his fire upon Lee in Petersburg, and on the second of April, cut his line in two. His men began to fall back, and he sent word to Richmond that arrange- ments must be made to leave the city at eight o'clock that evening. At daylight' the next morning, the Union skirmishers discovered that the Confederate works were empty, and soon the Union flag was waving over Petersburg. Lee's message reached Davis while he was in church, and he gave the con- gregation cause for wonder by rising and leaving the building. That night preparations for evacuation * During this conversation, the Confederate Secretary of State brought jp the case of the correspondence between Charles the First, and the Parliament, as offering a precedent for the negotiations he wished to rarry'on. To this IVIr. Lincoln rejjlied, " Upon matters of history, I nfiust refer you to Mr. Seward, for he is posted on such things, and I ilon't profess to be ; my only distinct recollection of the matter is that Charles lost his head." 538 IVAM FOR UNION. were made on every hand. Everywhere confusion reigned. Soldiers became thieves, and thieves took advantage of the opportunity to pillage. The author- ities directed that the tobacco warehouses should be fired. The rams in the river were blown up; the bridges were soon wrapt in flames, and morning broke upon a scene of the direst desolation. Early Monday morning the Confederate forces were marching south- ward, leaving the city in flames behind them. General Weitzel sent a squad of Massachusetts cavalry to take possession, and during the day the flames were under control, and private property was carefully guarded. Lee retreated towards Lynchburg, but was intercepted by Sheridan, and on the ninth surrendered his entire army to General Grant. The two commanders met at the house of Wilmer McLean, near Appomattox Court House, and there the terms were signed, and at half-past three in the afternoon, Lee returned to his headquarters. The people of the United States felt that now the war was over. Secretary Stanton ordered salutes to. be fired at every fort and arsenal of the United States, and telegraphed to Grant — " Thanks be to Almighty God, for the great victory with which he has this day crowned you and the gallant armies under your com- mand. The thanks of this department, and of the government, and of the people of the United States — their reverence and honor have been deserved — will be rendered to you and the brave and gallant officers and soldiers of your army for all time." ' The joy was to be soon followed by sadness, for five days later the gentle and loved President was struck down by the hand of an assassin. He had twice THE PRESIDENTS DEATH. 539 isited Richmond after its evacuation, and had been earned that he risked his life by such exposure ; but e had confidence in the kindliness of his motives, and e preferred to trust the people. He was killed while itting in a box at Ford's Theatre, Washington, by John Vilkes Booth, who placed a pistol close to his head RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, AND THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT. nd fired, escaping in the confusion, and shouting, Sic semper tyrainiis ! The South is avenged ! " ecretary Seward was attacked at his house, while* 540 WAR FOR UNION. lying in bed, and stabbed, but the wounds did not prove fatal. Andrew Johnson immediately became Presi- dent. After Sherman entered Raleigh, he received a mes- sage from General Johnston, asking a suspension of hostilities for the purpose of negotiating for peace. He offered the same terms that Grant had offered Lee,* and on the twenty-sixth, the two generals met at a small farm- house near Hillsborough, where the terms of surrender were signed. On the fourth of May, the Confederate forces in Alabama were surrendered by General Tay- lor to General Canby ; and on the twenty-sixth, the army over the Mississippi was surrendered by General E. Kirby Smith ; but the flag was still kept at the head of the ship SJienanaiioah until November. The last battle was fought on the Rio Grande, and in it the Confederates were victorious. After leaving Richmond, President Davis still hoped to keep up the struggle, evidently feeling that, having lost the affections of the Southern people, he could hope for no mercy at the hands of the government,, and issued a proclamation from Danville, April 5th, calling on the Confederates not to despond, but to continue to fight as long as there remained a foot of soil to be contended for, and to " meet the foe with fresh defiance, and with unconquered and unconquer-, able hearts." Soon the news of Lee's surrender, reached him, however, and he took to flight, hoping to cross the Mississippi, and under protection of Kirby * More liberal terms had been demanded by Johnston, and at a, meeting held on the eighteenth, they had been signed and sent to, Washington for approval. They were rejected, and General Grant was sent to General Sherman's headquarters to " direct operations, against the enemy." JEFFERSON DAVIS CAPTURED. 641 Smith, to escape by sea. He was not successful, being irrested early in the morning of May loth, near [rwinsville, Ga., * and taken to Fortress Monroe, vhere he was confined until May, 1867, In Decem- Der, 1868, he was pardoned, with many others. Thus ended the greatest Civil War of all time, which lad cost the people more than half a million lives and >ix thousand million dollars. It left many questions ;o be determined, regarding the status of the citizens vho had endeavored to overthrow the government, md the mode of government of the States that had )een at war with the Union. The effect of the war on the North and the South lemands attention. The North had always supplied lot only itself, but the South and portions of the rest )f the world with manufactured goods ; and, its ports )eing open, it was still able to import foreign necessa- ■ies and luxuries. Trade and manufactures prospered, md many fortunes were made as the war progressed, jy men who furnished supplies or were interested in Tansportation. The people felt the losses of their brothers who were sacrificed in battle, but they saw 10 actual fighting, and to many the war was some- ;hing of which they had read only. The South showed a far different picture. There :he comforts of life were not readily obtained. It *The circumstances of this arrest have been differently stated. In I letter to the author, Mr. Caspar Knobel of Philadelphia, then of the Fourth Michigan Cavalry, encloses a detailed account of the affair. Mr. Knobel states that he was himself the first to enter the tent of the ■alien chief; that he found him asleep and captured him without resist- ince, and so quietly that his staff officers in the adjoining tent were aot disturbed until arrested themselves. The signal shot announcing the capture, drew a heavy fire from a part of the First Wisconsin Cav- ilry, which was on the same quest, by which one man was killed. 542 WAB FOR UNION. was cut off by the blockade from the productions of the rest of the world, and the manufactures of the North could not be purchased. The soldiers mainly came from warmer regions to fight where it was cold, and they found it impossible to protect themselves from the inclemency of the weather. Their shoes, blankets, socks, and hats were poor and became poorer as the war wore on. Even the rich were at last obliged to dress in homespun, and the furs of animals were sometimes used instead of wool, as it grew scarce. The supply of leather failed, and cov- erings for the feet were made of felt and other sub- stances ; even shoes of wood were made at Raleigh, N. C. The supply of paper was insufficient for the purposes of correspondence, and of printing. Letters were written on scraps of wall-paper, or wrapping paper, and books were printed and bound with the same. Envelopes were turned and used more than once. Carpets and heavy window curtains were stripped from houses to be made into clothes for the soldiers, and the prized brass fenders and andirons were given to the founder to be made into cannon. Add to these facts the gradual draining of the South of its able- bodied men ; picture the condition of the women, left alone in their homes, with only the young children and the helpless aged men, liable to hear the sound of the drum, or the roar of the cannon, or even to find their homes surrounded by soldiers of one army or the other ; to see their houses pillaged* or burned, and themselves at the mercy of a soldiery not always con- * Sometimes the same house was pillaged by soldiers of both armies in succession, as the writer has learned from those who had experi- enced the double misery. THE SOUTH DURING THE WAB. 543 crollable, and we get some impression of the terrible odds which the people of the South were obliged to face as they.pressed on in the struggle with a rich and powerful antagonist. The wonder is that their leaders were able to keep them from irresistible demands for peace at any price. They did not make any such demands, but, on the contrary, with one accord, men, women and children, united to support the constantly increasing burden of debt and misery, in the vain hope of victory. They see now that union is safety, and that th prosperity of the different sections of the American nation is bound up in the prosperity of the whole ; that they are all stronger, happier and more respected by the other nations of the world united than they ever could be separated. The sentiments of a large proportion of men in the South are expressed in the following words printed in a Southern journal at the time of writing. "Greatness or goodness," says the editor, " is not confined to any locality, and only the ignorant and self-conceited fail to recognize in the States of the North all the elements of a great people ; not without faults or the frailties of mankind, but a people worthy of their ancestry, whose history fills the greater portion of the records of progress in the New World. We are just as proud of our own sunny land and its glorious history down to Appomattox, from John Smith and Pocahontas and Lord Baltimore down to Sumter and Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee. We are proud of our statesmen and other great names, but none the less of Daniel Webster and John Adams. He is no full-blooded American who devotes his love of country to less than the whole continent." 544 WAR FOB UNION. As we continue our investigations after the war, wc shall see that the nation has grown rapidly in all that constitutes the greatness of a people, and, that being one, it commands the respect of those nations that least liked to give it. I hear even now the infinite fierce chorus, The cries of agony, the endless groan, Which, through the ages that have gone before us, In long reverberations reach our own. Down the dark future, through long generations, The echoing sounds grow fainter and then cease ; And, like a bell, with solemn sweet vibrations, I hear once more the voice of Christ say " Peace ! " — Longfellow. CHAPTER XXV. THE NEW ERA OF PROGRESSIVE NATIOxNAL LIFE. AT the close of the great war, the army of nearly a million men was disbanded, and returned to the avocations of peace without causing any disturb- ance in the social or political arrangements of the country, leaving to the nation as its most important duty, the reconstruction of the governments in the late Confederate States. Congress had passed the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, February 1st, 1865, by which slavery was abolished and prohib- ited in the whole country, and it was ratified by the States, thus establishing the principles of the Emanci- pation Proclamation as the law of the land. President Lincoln had adopted the policy of restor- ing the Governments of the South, and under his Proclamation of December 8th, 1863, Legislatures were organized in Tennessee and Louisiana, though Congress did not admit any Senators or Representa- tives from these States.* Following this policy of conciliation. President Johnson issued a proclamation of amnesty. May 29th, and appointed provisional Gov- * Andrew Johnson bad been appointed Military Governor of Tennes- see in March, 1862, and in tiie spring of 1864, under his orders, State and local officers were chosen and the wheels of court government began to move. 515 546 THE NEW ERA OF NATIONAL LIFE. ernors in seven States.* This action was followed by a second amnesty proclamation, issued in September, pardoning all except the leaders in the Confederate cause. Congress did not agree with the President, and a conflict ensued which led finally to an impeachment trial which was begun February 28th, 1868. During the excitement, President Johnson made a "progress" through the Northern States, accompanied by promi- nent persons, ostensibly for the purpose of being- present at the laying of the corner-stone of a monu- ment to Senator Douglas at Chicago. He made speeches in the principal cities through which he passed, both going and returning, in support of his policy, and in denunciation of Congress, the effect of which was, that Congress was sustained at the follow- ing elections by increased majorities, and the Presi- dent lost ground, but not confidence in his own views. Congress held that the seceding States were actually out of the Union, and that it only had power to re- admit them ; while the President held that no State could go out of the Union, and that the acts of Congress towards the late Confederate States were extreme. They preferred a military process and he supported the civil method of procedure. In March, 1867, Congress formed ten of the most important States of the South into five military districts, each to be under a Governor to be appointed by the President.! The Attorney-General pronounced the measure unconsti- * No steps were taken to secure political rights to the Freedmen, though Congress wished it. t In August, 1S67, the President issued a proclamation declaring that peace, order, and supremacy of law existed throughout the Union. THE PRESIDENT IMPEACHED. 547 tutional, and the President nullified it, though he appointed the district Governors. Congress pro- ceeded, however, to pass other acts,* and to re-or- ganize the States according to the plan adopted. In pursuance of the plan, the States of Alabama, Arkan- sas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and North and South Carolina, were admitted to the Union against the veto of the President, in June and July, 1868. While these acts were in process, the President dis- missed the Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton,! directing him to turn over his portfolio to General Grant, and Congress, on the third of March, agreed upon articles of impeachment, which were pre- sented to the Senate. On the twenty-sixth of May the President was acquitted, but one vote being wanted, however, to convict him. On the fourth of July, 1868, a pardon was pro- claimed to all who had been engaged in the war, and were not under indictment for felony or treason, and on the following Christmas, a general amnesty was declared. On the twenty-eighth of July the Four- teenth Amendment of the Constitution became the law of the land. It still further emphasized the results of the war by decreeing that no State should abridge the immunities of its citizens, assume any * Among these were those appointing a committee on Reconstruc- tion, on the admission of Southern members to the House, increasing the power of the Freedman's Bureau, and the Civil Rights Act. t The first Congress, in 1789, after an earnest discussion, had deter- mined that the power of removal rested with the President alone, but the " Tenure of Office Act," passed March 2d, 1867, provided that there should be no removal by the President without the consent of the Senate. Mr. Johnson's chief defence in the impeachment trial, was, however, that he had merely pursued the plan adopted by Mr- Lincoln and his Cabinet. 548 THE NEW ERA OF NATIONAL LIFE. debt of the war against the Union, or pay pensions to any who had been engaged in it. It reasserted the vahdity of the pubHc debt,* which at the time was of considerable importance, for at the close of the war the government found that it owed nearly twenty- five hundred million dollars, and was obliged to raise annually one hundred and fifty million to pay its interest. This caused the taxes assessed on the people to press very heavily, and it was only by the greatest efforts that bankruptcy was avoided. Up to the beginning of the war the government had relied for funds upon the import duties, but since that time the people have been familiar with income taxes ( now abolished) and stamp taxes of a great variety of kinds, levied on bank checks, ale, beer, cigars, whis- key, matches, patent medicines, wines, and numerous articles of luxury, many of which we can well bear to have taxed. These taxes have since been lightened. The year 1866 was notable for the successful solu- tion of the jDroblem of ocean telegraphy. The idea of this sort of communication occurred to Cyrus W. Field, in 1853, and in 1856, a line was constructed of one thousand miles, from New York to Newfound- land. This was followed by the first attempt to lay a cable in the ocean, from the Eastern to the West- ern Continent, which, after two failures, in 1857, and 1858, was successful in July, of the latter year, and messages of good-will were exchanged by Queen Vic- toria and the President. The cable was effective, however, for a few weeks only. In 1865, the Great * On the fifth of December, 1865, the House of Representatives passed a resolution pledging the faith of the United .States for the full payment of both principle and interest of the National Debt. THE OCKAJS TELEGRAni. 561 Eastern began to lay another cable, but it parted in mid-ocean. In June, 1866, another attempt was made with success, and the first message was again one of peace, being an announcement of the cessa- tion of hostilities between Austria and Prussia. Since that time there has been constant growth in ocean telegraphy, and messages are sent as a matter of course throughout the seas from one end of the earth to the other. In 1867, in spite of the great debt with which the country was burdened, seven and a quarter million were paid for the territory of Alaska, then known as Russian America — popularly supposed to be a region of snow and ice, only valuable, it was thought, for its fur trade, lumber, and fisheries.* The next year was the time for the nomination and election of President. Mr. Johnson had so com- pletely alienated the Republican party,f that he was * A scientific party had explored the country in 1865, just after the close of the Civil War, and had reported that it was of much greater importance than had been believed. Secretary Seward had a far- reaching policy in this purchase. He had studied with care the his- tory of the world's seas, and thought he saw, as he once stated to the late President Garfield, that the hopes of man, the civilization of the world and the power of nations had been connected successively with the Sea of Galilee, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic. He consid- ered that the people which should hold the key of the waters of the Pacific Ocean would form the nation of the future, and he hoped to make it certain that Oriental decrepitude and Western civilization should render homage at some future day to the Republic. t The reader will recur to the case of President Tyler, who, in 1847, on acceding to the place of President Harrison, offended his party, and caused the resignation of all the members of the Cabinet except- ing Webster; and to that of President Filmore, who, in 1850, approved the Fugitive Slave Law, and thus by estranging his supporters, led to the overthrow of the Whig party. 1 562 THE NEW ERA OF NATIONAL LIFE. passed over, and General Grant was nominated and elected after a political campaign of the most intense excitement. The questions discussed were, of course, closely connected with the reconstruction of the South- ern States, and the great war through which the coun- try had so recently passed. During the administration of President Johnson, three amendments to the Constitution had been passed by Congress, though but one, the thirteenth, had been ratified by the States. The fourteenth became national law, July .?8, 1868, and the fifteenth was declared a part of the Constitution March 30, 1870. The last simply guaranteed the suffrage to all men, irrespective of race, color or previous condition of servitude. Nevada, the thirty-sixth State, had been admitted to the Union in 1864, during the admin- istration of President Lincoln, and on the first of March, 1867, Nebraska, the thirty-seventh, was received. In 1868, Anson Burlingame, who had been appointed minister to China, in 1861, and had nego- tiated important treaties, returned to his native coun- try as ambassador from the Flowery Kingdom to the United States and the great powers of Europe. So complete was the reaction against President Johnson, that he was among those from whom the Democrats chose their candidate to be opposed to General Grant at the election in 1869. But for the unequalled popularity of Grant, he would not have been elected by a majority so great as two hundred and seventeen electoral votes against twenty-seven cast for his opponent, ex-Governor Seymour, of New York. His position before the end of John- son's administration had been one of great delicacy. GENERAL GRANTS POPULARITY. 653 After the assassination of Lincoln, Congress had created the rank of General and had conferred it upon him, and he had been obliged to come into con- flict with the President in the performance of his duties. When Johnson determined to have General Lee tried for high treason, General Grant looked upon it as a violation of the agreement made when that officer laid down his arms and gave his parole. TUK PKODUCT OF THE PACIFIC s-ILVKR MINES. He therefore urged tbe President not to proceed, and when Johnson persisted, he threatened to resign his commission. At the time that Johnson made his progress through the West, he invited General Grant and Admiral Farragut to accompany him, in order to take advantage of the prestige afforded by their pres- ence, but, as events proved, it did not avail to turn 554 THE NEW ERA OF NATIONAL LIFE. *:he popular sentiment that had so evidently set away from him. Grant entered upon his term of office with the enthusiastic admiration of the majority of the North, and the respect of many in the South, on account of his magnanimous treatment of General Lee, and his remarkable military genius, though it was afterwards thought that his talent displayed it- self to greater advantage in directing a campaign than in fostering the relations of peace. The first noteworthy events in his administration were fruits of peace. On the tenth of May, 1869, the completion of the Pacific Railway, which opened a line 1 of commercial communication from the Atlantic to ' the Pacific, was celebrated with impressive ceremonies at Ogden.* The last tie that was laid was of laurel wood, bound with bands of silver, and the spikes that fixed it in position were, a gold one, presented by Cali- fornia, one of gold, silver and iron, from Arizona, and another of silver, from Nevada. The very strokes of the hammer, and the words of the prayer that the Massachusetts clergyman uttered, were telegraphed to the ends of the country, and in practical token of the completion of the new route for trafific, a lot of tea was * In connection with the completion of the road the " Credit Mobilier scandal " arose involving many public men. The Credit Mobilier of America, was chartered in Pennsylvania, in 1S59, to carry on a gen- eral loan and contract business, and it was organized in 1S63, ^^'t^'' a capital of two and a half millions. Four years later its charter was purchased by a company formed for the construction of the Union Pacific railroad, and the capital increased to three and three quarters million dollars. Promiscuous, and in many cases, undoubtedly unjust accusations were made that members of Congress had become owners of this stock, and thus interested in an enterprise that was to be furthered by their votes. The Congressional investigation occurred in 1872-73. The Senate took no action in it, but two members were censured by the House. 1 SPECULATION AND FAILURES. 557 at once shipped from San Francisco to the Eastern markets. It is said that this project had been broached by Asa Whitney, of New York, the great car-wheel manufacturer, in 1846. Surveys were made under authority of the War Department, in 1853, and in 1862 and 1864, Congress made such grants for the purpose that its success was insured. September 24th of the same year is known as "Black Friday," for on that day a panic occurred in the financial circles from which the country did not recover for months. Two speculators. Jay Gould and James Fisk Jr., entered upon a plan to gain possession of the fifteen million of gold then in the hands of the sub-treasury, to advance the price and sell out at the advance. They actually succeeded in raising the price from 1.38 to 1.60, when, on the twenty-fourth of September, a despatch arrived from Washington announcing that Secretary Boutwell ordered the sale of four million from the sub-treasury. In the intensest excitement the price fell twenty per cent in as many minutes, and the stringency was relaxed at the expense of the speculators, who, in spite of the fact, managed to win a large sum. Many failures ensued. The year 1870 was marked by the completion of the re-organization of the South. The fifteenth amendment was ratified by Virginia in 1869, and by Mississippi and Texas in 1870, and the representa- tives from those States took their seats in the coun- cils of the nation — those of Virginia, January 24 ; those of Mississippi, February 23 ; and those of Texas, March 30. On the date last mentioned, Presi- dent Grant announced by proclamation the incorpora- 558 THE NEW ERA OF NATIONAL LIFE. tion of the fifteenth amendment in the Constitution. The year 1871 opened with another peace measure, for on the twenty-fifth of February there met at Wash- ington the joint high commission composed of five statesmen representing each country, to settle claims against England for the San Juan Islands, between Vancouver's Island and the continent, and for the depredations of the Confederate cruisers built in England, in contravention of her profession of neu- trality. The commission agreed to leave the claims to be determined by the Emperor of Germany, and the "Alabama claims," as they were called, (from the chief of the privateers,) to a court, one member of which should be appointed by the President, the Queen of England, the King of Italy, the President of the Swiss Confederation, and the Emperor of Brazil. The court met at Geneva, Switzerland, December 15, 1 87 1, and after an adjournment, decided, September 14, 1872, that England should pay the United States fifteen million and a half in gold to be distributed by the government. In 1867 the Governor of Tennessee, William G. Brownlow, called upon the United States military to suppress violent demonstrations in that State that had been traced to an organization known as the " Ku-klux Klan." It appears that at the close of the war a num- ber of secret political societies were formed in the Southern States, the objects of which were to offset, as was claimed by the people of the section, the acts of certain other societies formed through the agency of intriguers from the North, who were exciting the negro population to acts of violence, and endangering their homes and social relations. It has been reported FIBES IN CHICAGO AND BOSTON. 559 that five hundred thousand members united the Ku- klux Klan, of whom forty thousand were in Tennessee. Congress ordered an investigation in April, 1871, and the result was published in twelve volumes. The or- ganization died out afterwards, partly because the relation of the North and South were becoming more harmonious, and the passions engendered by war were growing weaker. On the evening of October 8th, 1871, a fire broke out in Chicago which spread with great rapidity and burned through the next day, sweeping away the greater por- tion of the pop- ulous city, and laying bare a space of twenty- one hundred UVHACK GKEKLb:X'» BIKTHPLACE. square acres The good feel- ings of the whole country went out to the devasta ted city, and mil- lions of dollars were contributed to help the sufferers. A year later the city of Boston was visited by a conflagration sec- ond only to that of Chicago, which destroyed the best portion of the city, causing a loss of seventy-five mil lion dollars and interrupting trade to a great extent. In both cases the process of recuperation was rapid, and new buildings of elegance and cost rose on the 560 THE NEW ERA OF NATIONAL LIFE. ruins of the old, which made the cities more beautiful than they ever had been. Another political campaign approached, and it developed much opposition to the measures of General Grant. He was renominated by acclamation by the Republicans, but in opposition to him the Democrats and disaffected Republicans chose Horace Greeley,* a man of pure motives, who for a generation had been among the leaders of opinion. The campaign was one of severe excitement, and resulted in the election of Grant. The strain and disappointment added to the care of an invalid wife, proved too great for Mr. Greeley, and he died November 29th, mourned by many who did not approve his teachings, but honored his purity. He did not gain any Northern States' elec- toral votes, and Grant was elected by a large majority. During General Grant's second term he inaugurated his "Quaker" policy in treating the Indians, intend- ing to use kindness instead of military force in the control of the sons of the forest. He appointed mem- bers of the Society of Friends to visit the Indians, but their influence was not extensive. A war broke out in Northern California, in consequence of an attempt * Greeley and his party did not approve the military measures adopted by President Grant in the South, and in their platform urged a return to methods of peace and the constitutional limits of Federal power. They demanded, also, civil service reform, and the immediate and absolute removal of all disabilities imposed by the civil war. Mr. Greeley was a native of Amherst, N. H., where he was born in i8n. He removed to New York in 1831, and in 1841, founded the Daily Tribune, which he continued to edit with great ability until his death. During the Harrison campaign, he published in New York 9 weekly paper called the Log Cabin, which attained a reniai kable circu- lation and gave him a wide reputation. INDIAN TBOUBLES. 661 to remove the Modoc tribe from its ancestral home to a reservation. In 1850, they had been chastised by General Nathaniel Lyon for predatory outrages said to have been inflicted on the whites in 1847 and 1849, and had taken revenge in 1852 by massacring some white settlers. For this they were invited to a peace- ful pow-wow, and forty-one of forty-six who attended were murdered. Fighting was pretty constant after this until they were finally overcome. In 1872, they intrenched themselves in "the lava beds" in Ore- gon, and several attempts to dislodge them failed. In 1873, a conference was appointed to attempt to arrive at a peaceful settlement, but in imitation of their former treatment by the whites, they treacherously fired upon the commissioners, killing General Canby and Doctor Thomas, outright, and wounding Mr. Meacham. They were then besieged and forced by General Jefferson C. Davis to surrender. The chief offenders were executed October 3, 1873, and the remainder retired to the reservation in the Indian Territory. The great extension of railways and the unproduc- tiveness of investments in them led, in the autumn of 1873, to a financial panic comparable to those of 1837 and 1857, caused respectively by the specie circular of President Jackson and the failure of the Ohio Life and Trust Company of Cincinnati. Jay Cooke and Company, extensive bankers, who were at fhe time engaged in constructing the Northern Pacific Railroad, were the first to succumb, and their failure was fol- lowed by many more in various parts of the country. Again many months passed before commerce resumed its regular operations. 562 THE NEW ERA OF NATIONAL LIFE. The railroad from Lake Superior to Puget Sound had been organized with a charter from the gov- ernment, in 1864, and had been granted nearly fifty million acres of land. Jay Cooke and Company expected other subsidies from Congress which should bring the stock to a high price, but the Credit Mobil- ier scandal coming to light at this juncture, dissipated all hope in that direction, and caused a fall in the securities that resulted in setting back the construction of the road, and the disastrous failure of the firm, with many others connected with it. Still the road under new management has slowly progressed west- ward, and some seventy thousand immigrants now have prosperous homes along the line. Six different roads are now completed or in process of construction across the continent; the Canadian Pacific, 1750 miles long, north of the Lake Superior ; the Northern Pacific, 1800 miles, from St. Paul and Duluth to Puget Sound ; the Union and Central Pacific, from Omaha to San Francisco, 1916 miles, completed in 1869 ; the Utah and Northern, a branch of the Union Pacific, to run from Ogden to the Columbia River, to compete with the Northern Pacific ; the St. Louis and San Francisco Company; and the Southern Pacific, beginning with the Texas Pacific, running through Arizona to San Francisco. Such acomplexus of railways would scarcely be possible in any other country,°and they are wonderful to examine, running as they do through a country as broad as a continent, which but a few years ago was considered almost impassable. The last year of the second term of President Grant was the one hundredth since the Declaration 1 TUE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 563 «jf Independence, and it had been looked forward to with interest. For some years previous the plans for its appropriate celebration had been discussed, and it was finally determined that a grand exhibition of the industries of all nations should be held at Philadelphia where the Declaration was signed. In 1871, commis- sioners were constituted in accordance with an Act of Congress, and the active arrangements began the next year. The exhibition opened May loth, and closed November loth. Throngs of interested visit- ors crowded the City of Brotherly Love during the interval, and a great impetus was given to the mate- rial progress of the entire country by the opportuni- ties that were afforded of seeing the highest results of the ingenuity and genius of man as developed in all parts of the world. The peacefulness of the Centennial year was dis- turbed by a war with the Sioux Indians, whose terri- tory had been invaded by gold-hunters, thus giving excuse for depredations upon the whites. Their chiefs were Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, and Spotted Tail,* who had been in Washington in 1875, but refused to sign a treaty giving up their lands and promising to retire to the Indian Territory. A force under Generals Terry, Crook, Custer and Reno, and Colonels Mac- kenzie and Miles, were sent against them, and they were at last forced to flee over the Northern line into British territory. During the struggle General Custer with all his force was cut to pieces by the savages, June 25th. On the first of August of the Centennial year, Col- ♦ A portrait of Spotted Tail, from a photograph, is given on page 44, 564 THE NEW ERA OF NATIONAL LIFE. orado, the thirty-eighth State, was admitted to the Union. It is rich in mineral resources, possesses a salubrious climate, has an extensive scheme of rail- ways, a carefully framed constitution, ample facilities for education, and a number of thriving towns and cities, of which Denver is the chief. Three and three- quarter million acres of public lands are consecrated to the endowment of education.* As the end of President Grant's term approached, THE ART GALLERY AT THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. much dissatisfaction was expressed with his adminis- tration, and deep interest attached to the choice of his successor. Besides the two great parties, a third entered the field — the " Greenback " party, and each one called loudly for "reform." It proved the great- est political crisis in the history of America, and the aspect of affairs for months was of the most threaten- ing character. The Greenback party did not obtain * Views of Pike's Peak and the Mount of the Holy Cross in Colorado are given on pages 386 and 390. A POLITICAL CRISIS. 565 an electoral vote, and owing to irregularities in Oregon, Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina, it seemed doubtful which of the two candidates, Ruther- ford B. Hayes, the Republican, or Samuel J. Tilden, the Democrat, had been chosen. Congress proved unable to decide, and a joint high commission was formed, con- sisting of five members of the Senate, five of the House, and five justices of the Supreme Court, to which was committed the final settlement of the great question.* Meantime the day for the inauguration of the Presi- dent approached, and the country was in a state of suspense. Commerce felt the unsettled influence of the doubt, and manufactures languished. Finally, two days before the inauguration-day, the commission rendered a decision, giving the Presidency to the Republican candidate, by a vote of eight to seven. After all the deep-felt excitement, the law-abiding- sentiment of the people held the day, the result was acquiesced in, and Hayes was duly inaugurated. The appointment of the commission was an act creditable to the patriotism of the members of each party as represented in Congress, and that it resulted in a peace- able settlement of the question when so large a pro- portion of the entire people felt aggrieved by the decision, showed the strength of the Republic. Rutherford Birchard Hayes, the nineteenth Presi- dent, a native of Ohio, was born October 4, 1822, of New England descent and Scottish ancestry. He graduated at Kenyon College, and studied law at the * The crucial question before tlie commission was, whetiier il, or Congress, had power to go behind an electoral certificate confessedly ;n proper form, and take evidence in support of alleged irregularities and fraud. This right the Republicans denied, while the Democrats supported it. The decision was, therefore, made on party lines. 566 THE ySW ERA OF NATIONAL LIFE. Harvard University Law School. In 1861 he left a position of the first rank at the bar, and entered the army. He saw much active service, and for gallantry during engagements in the Shenandoah Valley, was brevetted major-general. Though elected to Congress before the close of the war, he refused to take his seat until after the surrender of Lee. He was re-chosen on account of his marked ability, but was at about tlie same time elected Governor of Ohio, an ofifice to which he was twice re-elected. From it he went to that of President, entering upon his official duties with an announcement of his determination to carry on the government on the principles of the fathers, who, he asserted, meant that officers of government should not be turned out of their positions for political reasons. He declared that though elected by a party, he thought that he who serves his country best serves his party best, and announced that he should pursue a civil policy that would " wipe out forever the distinctions between North and South in our common country." These statements were looked at askance by strict Republican partisans, who felt still more suspicious of them when, after an investigation, the President with- drew the troops that President Grant had stationed in Louisiana and South Carolina,* on the ground that no such "domestic violence " as is contemplated by the Constitution as reason for the military interference of the Federal government, existed in those States. Though the move was eminently satisfactory to the great body of peace-loving citizens, it was denounced" *The troops had been sent to Louisiana and South Carolina on account of trouble that arose l-)et\\een rival governments, owing to dis- puted elections. President Grant had removed the troops from Missis- sippi before. HAIL WA Y RIOTS. 567 by the members of the President's party. Time has shown that it was a wise one. President Hayes also recommended a speedy resumption of specie payments, in accordance with the act of 1875. Scarcely had the President been inaugurated, when industrial troubles that had been for a considerable time threatening the railway and mining interests, broke out in extensive strikes. The first occurred on the Baltimore and Ohio Railway, when the men left their posts, July i6th, and stopped the running of trains, setting the authorities at defiance. Within a week, all trains between the East and the West had been brought to a stand ; the dangerous classes embraced the opportunity to make demonstrations, mobs gathered and destroyed a great deal of property in Pittsburgh, Chicago, St. Louis, San Francisco, and elsewhere. For two weeks the business of the country was disturbed. One hundred thousand railroad men and forty thousand miners were engaged in the strike, and the militia and United States army were found necessary to stay the destruction of property and life. Quiet was not restored until railroad property to the value of ten million dollars had been destroyed, inclu- ding two thousand freight cars and their valuable contents, the Union station, and all the railroad build- ings, machine shops, and a hundred and twenty-five locomotives in Pittsburgh alone. During the summer of 1878, the cities in the south- ern portion of the valley of the Mississippi were scourged by the yellow fever, a terrible infectious disease which had before afflicted those regions, and desolation spread from New Orleans to Natchez, Memphis, Granada, Vicksburgh, Nashville, Louisville, 568 THE NEW ERA OF NATIONAL LIFE. and before the grateful autumn frosts, twenty thousand persons had fallen victims to the insidious plague. Charitable contributions were poured out freely by the people of the North, and many instances of the most WILLIAM CILLEX BRYANT. heroic self-sacrifice adorned the records of the terrible period. As a result of the treaty negotiated by Mr. Anson Burlingame at Pekin, and ratified at Washington July THE NEGRO EXODUS. 669 1 6, 1878, a permanent Chinese legation was estab- lished in Washington, in 1878, Chen Lan Pin being the first minister, and Yung Wing, a graduate of Yale College, assistant envoy. The President received the ministers September 28th, and great satisfaction was felt on account of this establishment of more intimate relations with the ancient kingdom. The treaty per- mitted citizens of each country to enjoy entire religious liberty in the other, and included other stipulations of a liberal character. Congress did not sympathize fully with these senti- ivients, and passed an " Anti-Chinese Bill," which the President vetoed, because, as he thought, it contra- vened the engagements of the treaty. The opposition tM the Chinese had its origin in California, where laws w.Te passed against their immigration, alarm having oeen excited on account of their unprecedented increase, and the importation of their peculiar customs and diseases. Many acts of violence were committed against them. The year 1879 witnessed the beginning of a "negro exodus" from the Southern States to Kansas, which the colored people looked upon as a land of happiness and security. A memorial of the most prominent citizens of St. Louis set forth that during the two weeks preceding April 7, 1879, two thousand men, women and children, many of them infirm from age, had arrived mainly from Louisiana and Mississippi, who refused all inducements to return South, alleging fear of violence, privation and imposition. A negro convention assembled at Nashville May 7, which dis- cussed the entire subject, and voted to encourage the exodus, and to ask the government to appropriate 570 THE NEW EBA OF NATIONAL LIFE. funds for the purpose. Before summer closed more than seven thousand negroes had reached Kansas and other States, though the excitement gradually died out. The resumption of gold payments was effected on the first of January, 1879, without severe financial trouble, for after the passage of the act of 1875, the public had begun to prepare for the event. Dis- tress followed the passage of the act, but affairs grad- ually assumed a healthy condition as time passed on. As the end of the term of President Hayes approached, the Republican party began to look for a candidate to present to the people, for he had declared in his inaugural address that he should not be candi- date for reelection. The friends of General Grant made strong efforts to obtain the nomination for him, but there was a deep feeling against a "third term," which Washington would not accept, and at the Republican convention, held at Chicago June 2nd, a compromise was effected, the nomination being given to General James A. Garfield, of Ohio, who had been one of the leaders in Congress, had been an advocate of the nomination of John Sherman of Ohio, and was honored as a man of untarnished good name. The Democrats nominated General Winfield Scott Hancock, then in the army, a man against whom no aspersion was made. He had been engaged in the Mexican War, was brevetted for bravery at Contreras and Cherubusco, and took a prominent part in the Civil War, having seen service in the battles of Williamsburg, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericks- burg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Spottsylvania Court House. The choice of the Electoral College fell THE ASSASSINATION OF GARFIELD. 571 upon General Garfield, and he was inaugurated March 4, 1881. Following the example of President Hayes, Mr. Garfield declared that he should support the cause of public education with earnestness, that he wished to obliterate the sectional feelings still existing which had resulted from the war, that he should countenance measures for the payment of the national debt, and the support of sound banks, that polygamy should be repressed, and that the civil service should be reformed. The people felt that they had a chief officer in whom they might trust ; a man of strength and character. The administration did not open calmly, for a difference soon developed itself between two wings of the Republican party, and the rush for office, too, was greater than ever had been known before. Before the President had time to show in what manner he would meet the difficulties of his position, he was suddenly shot down by an assassin,* on the morning of the second of July, as he was about to enter a train for the purpose of going to Williams- town, Mass., to attend the Commencement exercises of his Alma Mater. The grief and exasperation felt by the country was intense, and it was shared by peo- ple all over the world. For eighty days the President languished, bearing his suffering with Christian forti- tude, and on the nineteenth of September he breathed * This act was that of a vicious and unbalanced office-seeker, who, after exhausting all means at his disposal for obtaining an appointment for which he was not qualified, deliberately determined to take the life of the person whose probity he thought had baffled his efforts. It emphasized the need of Civil Service Reform that had been expressed by Horace Greeley in 187 1, President Hayes in 1876 and by President Garfield in his inaugural address. 572 THE NEW ERA OF NATIONAL LIFE. his last at Elberon, near Long Branch, to which place he had been carried in the vain hope of facilitating his recovery. The Vice-President, Chester A. Arthur, immediately took the oath of office, and the wheels of Government PRESIDENT GARFIELD. moved forward without interruption. The funeral of President Garfield was held at Washington, and then his body was borne across the country ( as that of Lincoln had been carried ) to its last resting-place at Cleveland, Ohio. CIVIL SERVICE AND REVENUE. 573 Fifty years after the Parliamentary Reform Bill which changed the system of representation, had been adopted in England, and many years after the subject of a mode of appointing public officers that was not based on favor had been first discussed in America, President Arthur was called upon to sign a Civil Service Reform Bill, on the fifteenth of January, 1883. (Civil Service examinations had been first introduced in England in 1855.) The same Congress that effected the enactment of this bill, also modified the tariff and revenue system of the country. The changes that have been made in the tariff have already been referred to from time to time briefly, but they are worthy of a more detailed study in this connection. On the formation of the government the crying need of a revenue and the animosity felt towards the English, led to the imposition of customs duties on imported goods (by an Act of 1789), averaging about 8 1-2 per cent. ; but it was expected that they would be removed by 1796. In fact, however, before 18 16, seventeen acts had been passed mcreasing the duties. The Embargo and the War of 1812 nec- essarily stimulated the erection of factories, directed industry into new channels ; money was made rapidly, and speculation, and exten- sions of paper credit ensued. The unhealthy results of war in Eng- land and on the Continent, had produced the feverish condition of business which led to the false doctrine of over-production, announced by Sismondi, and to the shipment of goods from England to the Conti- nent and the United States for relief. This was the economic excuse for Brougham's famous words in regard to strangling the industries of America.* The principle of "minimum valuation t " first appeared in the Act of 1816, which retained the high duties of the War of 181 2 (averaging about 20 to 30 per cent.), but did not suffice to * See page 226. t A minimum valuation of 25 cents a yard was placed upon cotton goods on which a tariff of 25 per cent, was levied, making a duty of 6 1-4 cents a yard The application of the principle was afterwards enormously extended, especially in the departments of high-priced woollens, and now forms an integral part of oiir tariff system, '^ 574 THE NEW ERA OF NATIONAL LIFE. keep out foreign goods. In 1818, the iron industry received more pro- tection and kept it for twenty years. The cotton industry early obtained a firm footing, and was not so much dependent on protection. Yet in 1824, the argument that the years of previous commercial dis- tress could be aided by higher duties, brought about the first heavy protective legislation, the duties averaging about 37 per cent. The effect of this measure was, of course, to raise prices, and make it necessary for other industries to claim protection, which was the explanation of the demand of the wool and woollen goods interest for high duties on their products in 1828, when the average duties were placed at about 41 per cent. This was the cause of Southern dissatis- faction, because there was no protection on cotton and sugar, and all articles were purchased at protected prices. The Nullification move- ment led to tfee Compromise Tariff of 1833, arranged by Clay and Cal- houn, by which the excess of duties beyond 20 per cent, were to be gradually reduced by the year 1842. This, then, was a decided change toward freer exchange. Meanwhile the crisis of 1837 deranged all business. It was held that the excess of imports carried away specie and paralyzed trade, and so with very bad political economy they hoped to stop imports by a new tariff, that of 1842, which returned nearly to the high protection existing just before 1833. In 1844 the South came into power on Polk's election, and in 1846 reduced the tariff heavily, adopting the hobby of horizontal rates and ad valorem duties. The country prospered, and by 1857 the revenues were.beyond the expenditures, so that duties were again lowered in that year, and many raw materials put on the free list. In the Chicago Convention (i860) it was necessary to secure Penn- sylvania and Ohio to the Republican party, and it was arranged to do this by promising duties on iron and wool. The Morrill Tariff of 1861 was the result of this (not being a war measure), which put duties somewhat higher than in 1846. " Compensating " duties here jirst appeared. Manufacturers of woollens had a duty protecting them, merely in the manufacturing process, of 25 per cent, ad valo7-em on woollen goods; but inasmuch as the wool, which is the raw material of their industry, was protected by a duty and so was raised in price, the makers of woollens asked and received another, or " compensating " duty of 12 cents as an offset for the higher cost of their material. The demands of the Treasury for war payments now led to the War Legis- lation on the Tariff. July ist, 1862, an act was passed imposing heavy internal revenue duties; and July 14th, 1862, customs duties were like- wise increased to offset the internal taxes. The climax of this legisla- tion dates from June 30th, 1864. In only five days Congress passed the greatest fiscal measure in our history. A loan of four hundred THE TABIFF. 575 million was authorized, enormous internal taxation (including the income tax) imposed, and consequently as an offset again to this a great increase in customs duties, which mostly remain thus today. The following articles show the duties now in force passed in 1864 as com- pared with 1861 ; — Articles. Books Chinaware Cotton goods . Cotton, fine prints Manufactured flax, jute, 1861 15 per cent. 30 per cent. 30 per cent. 4 I-2C sq. y. ; & 10 p or hemp Linen Window glass Kidorleathe Bar iron Hoop iron Iron rails Pig lead Paper . Silk dress goods Steel bars gloves, 30 per cent. 25 to 30 per cent. I to I I-2C sq. ft. 30 per cent. 3-4C per lb. ic per lb. $12 per t8n IC per lb. 30 per cent. 30 per cent. I 1-2 to 2c per lb. 1864 25 per cent. 45 per cent. , 35 per cent. 5 1-2 sq. y. & 20 p.c. 40 per cent. 35 to 40 per cent. 3-4 to 4c sq. ft. 50 per cent. I to I I-2C per lb. 1 to I I-2C per lb. $14 per ton. 2c per lb. 35 per cent. 60 per cent. 2 1-2 to 3c per lb. After the close of the war internal taxation was reduced, and by 1870 most of those taxes for which customs duties had been laid on as an offset, had disappeared ; but this brought no change in the tariff to any extent. Steel rails which had not been much used by the railroads in 1864 were in 1870 protected by a duty of $28 a ton. In 1867 the woollen manufactui ers found the artificial demand of the war had failed them, and that their machinery could produce more than the market absorbed. They therefore secured, by uniting with the wool growers (in the Syracuse Convention of 1865), a great increase of their protective and compensating duties, and the duty on wool was raised at the same time. This is the reason woollen clothing is so high in this country. In 1869 protection to copper and manufactured copper was increased considerably. The activity of business and the increase of our revenues had pro- duced a surplus under the heavy taxation of 1872, and the clamor for relief caused a uniform reduction of 10 percent, on all dutiable goods; and tea and coffee were put on the free list (as was the case between 1832 and 1861). The crisis of 1873 came and was used, as in 1842, as a pretext for renewed protection, but only to the extent, in 1875, of repealing the reduction of 10 per cent, made in 1872. The change 576 THE NEW ERA OF NATIONAL LIFE. made by the last legislation of 1S83 has been in the direction of somfe. what lower duties on iron and wool, but not on woollens. Thus we have followed the history of our country from its discovery by Columbus, in the age just after the invention of the art preservative of arts, when Guttenburg and Caxton had recently passed away, and Erasmus, Cranmer, More, Cromwell, Copernicus, and Wolsey were about to appear. Wyclif and Chaucer had gone, but Shakespeare, Michael Angelo, Bacon, Des Cartes and Galileo were yet to come, among those whom to us seem ancient. Four centuries have wrought wonderful changes on both sides of the ocean. When Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean, Luther was preparing to overturn much that was thought to be immovable in Europe. When Cortez received the submission of Monte- zuma, the Reformation had begun. At the moment that the Pilgrims planted their feet on the rock of Plymouth, John Milton, already a poet, then twelve years old, was entering upon those careful studies which gave him his power, and all Europe was gazing upon the opening scenes of the Thirty Years' war. When Charles the First was standing upon the scaffold in Whitehall, the citizens of Maryland were preparing for the establishment of religious freedom, a freedom which was at the time but little under- stood by even the most advanced thinkers. It would be interesting to trace the contemporane- ous events that mark the progress of history on the two sides of the ocean. The study would prove instructive in many ways. It would show that the discovery of the New World was reserved for the period of intellectual, political, religious activity that \ ANGLO-SAXON CIVILIZATION. 579 followed the Reformation, and that the advent to our shores of the representatives of the people who were to give character to the future civilization occurred at a time when the Mother-Country was stirred by those earnest discussions of deep problems in Church and State which mark the Puritan period, and that thus to the first settlers was given a devotion to God and a VASSAU COLLEGE OBSERVATORY support of principle which was not known by the adventurers who had essayed to establish themselves on the continent before their day. Providence did not give it to the Spanish seekers after gold to found the lasting colony upon our territory, nor even to the self- sacrificing French explorers who carried their Gallic habits and mediaeval sympathies almost across the continent, before the representatives of Anglo-Saxon force and of the Biblical religion of England set their feet upon the rock of Plymouth — even before the 580 THE NEW ERA OF NATIONAL LIFE. less purposeful Englishmen built their cabins on the shores of the James River. In these men the spirit of freedom was planted, and it grew up by slow process, until it reached its full fruition in the dedication of the land to religious toleration and political deliver- ance from all restrictions to the suffrage. Neither religious freedom nor universal suffrage were decreed by any of those who were minded to found colonies in America. Both grew out of the cir- cumstances. Roger Williams, who did not come to establish a colony, seems to be the only founder who worked the problem out independently and without being moved by the force of outside influences, for though Maryland gave a free asylum to persons of all religious faiths, it can easily be shown that because the proprietor of that colony was a Romanist, and was surrounded by Protestants, and because he sought the growth of his colony, it was to his interest to open the doors to all alike. The very diversity of religious creeds must have shown the people the need of tolera- tion. The Episcopalians established themselves in Virginia in 1607; the Congregationalists may be said to have come in 1620, when the Pilgrims established their independence in Plymouth ; three years later the reformed Dutch Church was transplanted to the vir- gin soil of the New Netherlands ; the Roman Church was represented in the settlement of Maryland, in 1632. Roger Williams, in 1639, formed the first Baptist Church at Providence;* the Lutherans * Of the Baptists Judge Story said, " In the code of laws established by them in Rhode Island, we read for the first time since Christianity ascended the throne of the Caesars, the declaration that conscience should be free, and men should not be punished for worshiping God in the way that they are persuaded he requires." THE RELIGIOUS SECTS. 581 appeared in New York in 1669 ; the Presbyterians, persecuted in Scotland,* entered the New World a score of years later ; the German Reformed Church came with four hundred emigrants from the Palatinate to Pennsylvania, in 1727; and the Methodists formed themselves into a society in New York in 1766. Thus the representatives of different creeds met on the free soil of America. " Each sect," says Mr. Bancroft, in his eighteenth chapter, " rallied round a truth," and " as truth never contradicted itself, the collision of sects could but eliminate error ; and the American mind, in the largest sense eclectic, struggled for universality, while it asserted freedom. . . . The happy age gave birth to a people which was to own no authority as the highest, but the free conviction of the public mind." From these conflicts it resulted that when the con- stitutions of the different States were formed, though they recognized the duties of man to God, they left all free to perform those duties after the leading of their own consciences. Thus the constitutions of Tennes- see and Mississippi declare that no person who denies the being of a God or a future state of rewards and punishments shall hold any office in the civil depart- ment of the State, and some, like Maryland, enact chat no religious test, other than a declaration of a belief in the existence of God, ought ever to be regarded as a qualification for any state office of profit or trust. Another result has been that though the States generally agree with the expressions of the constitution of Ohio, and with the principles of Massa- chusetts, that " religion, morality and knowledge * See page 196. 582 THE NEW ERA OF NATIONAL LIFE. being essential to good government, it shall be the duty of the general assembly to pass suitable laws to protect every religious denomination in the peaceable enjoyment of its own mode of public worship and to encourage schools," doctrinal teaching has been excluded from the schools supported by the States. If we examine the mechanical progress of America we find a vast and most interesting field opening to us. During the colonial period there was little ad- vance in the direction of invention. It is said that there were probably but two steam engines in the Colonies at the time of the Declaration of Independ- ence ; but fifteen years after peace had given the people time to think of other interests than that of self-preservation, a cotton mill had been built at Bev- erly, Mass. (1787), the Arkwright system of mill spin- ning had been introduced by Slater {1789), Rumsey and Fitch had begun to see the future steamboat, Jacob Perkins had invented his machine fpr cutting nails and his dies for coin; Whitney had (1793) in- vented his gin which was to supplant the old roller gin and to increase immensly the cotton production of the country. England prevented the exportation of machinery, and added a stimulus to the already acute inventive geuius of the people. Steam navigation is a creature of the present cen- tury. The telegraph, which gives us this morning the news of every part of the world, and the newspaper itself, in its present completeness, were unknown to our fathers. The railway, the printing-press, the sewing-machine, the locomotive, the electric light, the telephone, all show the active inventive genius of the American, though all are not American inven- ELECTRICITY AND STEAM. 583 tions. The telephone is one of the most remarkable of all, and the patent for it is the nearest known ap- proach to a patent of a principle. It was issued in 1876, to Alexander Graham Bell, and in its now cel- ebrated "fifth claim" bases the demand for a patent AN AMERICAN RAILWAY STATION. TERMINUS OF THE BOSTUN AND LOWELL, RAILROAD, BOSTON. upon the " method of and apparatus for transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically, ... by caus- ing electrical undulations similar in form to the vibra- tions of the air accompanying the said vocal or other sounds." 584 THE NEW ERA OF NATIONAL LIFE. Though there had been other efforts to accompHsh steam navigation, it was not until 1807, when Robert Fulton sailed up the Hudson in his C/ermont, that success can be said to have been achieved. In 1829, the Savannah was the first steamer to cross from America to Europe. In 1836, Ericisson brought the AN OCEAN STEAMER. screw propeller into prominence, and since that time the paddle-wheels, then thought the only practicable mode of propelling steamers, have almost disappeared. A locomotive of American manufacture was first used on the South Carolina Railroad.* It was built at a foundry on West street, New York, in 1830, and the same year Peter Cooper, founder of the Cooper Insti- tute in New York, built another for the Baltimore * This was done on a suggestion made in 1829, by Horatio Allen^ the engineer of the road, who made the drawings. MECHANICAL PBOGIiESS. 585 and Ohio road, which showed that steam could be used on curved roads, for which English locomotives were not adapted. The first railway was not built for the use of steam, but the cars were drawn by horses. It was from Quincy to Milton, two and a half miles, and was opened in 1826. It was for the transportation of granite. The Baltimore and Ohio road, fifteen miles long, opened in 1830, was the first passenger road, and horses were used there before steam. From these small beginnings have grown the extensive ram- ifications of constantly increasing tracks, which, as we have seen, span the continent, and have revolution- ized internal commerce. In 1832 Samuel Finley Breese Morse,* the founder of the National Academy of Design, then known as an artist, made the drawings of the Recording Tele- graph, and in 1844, on the twenty-fourth of May, he sent from the rooms of the Supreme Court at Wash- ington, to Baltimore, the message, " What hath God wrought ! " I^ive days later the intelligence of the nomination of Mr. Polk as President was sent from Baltimore to Washington, and the active life was begun of the invention that now binds the entire country in its wiry meshes, and often thrills the world as with a single impulse. It is not possible in our limits to trace the wonder- ful history of American mechanical progress. It is seen in the thousands of mills, laboratories, foundries, mines and manufactories that crowd the land and call emigrants from every country on the globe. Its * A memorial tablet in honor of Mr. Morse, placed on the walls of the house in which he once lived, in Rome, Italy, was unveiled March 5, 1S83. A statue erected to his memory stands in Central Park, New York City.^ 586 THE NEW ERA OF NATIONAL LIFE. records are in the hundreds of periodicals that give descriptions of the patents which swarm from the cap- ital, that advertise the fruits of industry, that record the fluctuations of the products, or of stocks, that tell the often romantic stories of the lives of those self- PKINCIPAL BUILDING OF WELLESLljY COL- LEGE, SEEN OVER LAKE WABAN. sacrificing geniuses, whose minds work out the principles upon which the material growth and wealth of the country is founded. The very newspapers that give us our morning and evening news, are developments of mechanical and inventive genius, for the hundred ingenious processes necessary for their production have been slowly worked out in the privacy and AMERICAN COLLEGES. 587 hardship of many a brilliant and industrious scien« tific and mechanical worker. Progress is no less remarkable m the domain of literature and liberal studies. Nineteen colleges were founded before the beginning of the present century, and since that time the number has been increased until the list comprises several hundred, situated in almost every State and Territory. Nine of these were begun before the Revolution, and Massachusetts, which still expends more money on its schools in proportion to its population than any other State', founded the first. Harvard College, in 1636. Two generations had nearly passed away before the example was followed, in 1693, by Virginia, with William and Mary College, the germs of which, planted in 16 19, before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, were destroyed by the Indians. The offspring of the Revolution of 1688, it was char- tered and endowed by the sovereigns who were placed in authority by that uprising, and became a centre of influence and a nursery of patriotism. Yale College was begun at Saybrook late in the year 1701, and was removed to New Haven in 171 7, though the classes had been actually taught at Clinton (then Killingworth), until 1707. The name was given to the school in honor of Elihu Yale of London, a native of New Haven, who, after amassing a fortune in India, gave it goods valued at two hundred pounds. The college of New Jersey, founded under the aus- pices of the Presbyterian synod of New York (which then included New Jersey), was chartered in 1746, and opened in 1747, at Elizabethtown. It was removed to Newark in 1748, and to Princeton, in 1757, where a large edifice was erected, and named Nassau Hall, ii. 588 THE NEW ERA OF NATIONAL LIFE. honor of William III. Columbia College was incor- porated by George II., in 1754, and named King's College. It received its first funds from the proceeds of lotteries authorized for the purpose, and from lands granted it by Trinity Church. The University of Pennsylvania was incorporated as a college in 1755, though it had been founded as an academy in 1749, and still earlier, in 1745, had been a charity school. Brown University was founded as Rhode Island College, at Warren, in 1764, and removed to Providence in 1770, its name being changed in honor of Nicholas Brown, one of its bene- factors. Dartmouth College grew from a school for Indian youth begun at Lebanon, Conn., in 1754, and removed to Hanover, N. H, where a charter for a college was issued by the last of the royal Governors of the State, John Wentworth, December 13, 1769. Rutgers College was chartered by Governor William Franklin of New Jersey, in 1770, and the next year was begun at Brunswick, the object being to perpetuate the theology and forms of worship of the Dutch Church. The last of the colleges established before the Revo- lution was Hampden-Sidney, of Virginia, founded in 1775, but not chartered until after the peace, in 1784. The founders showed their sentiments in giving it the names of John Hampden, the heroic opponent of Charles I., and Algernon Sidney, the Republican victim of Judge Jeffreys, and they are still further shown by the provision of its charter, that " in order to pre- serve in the minds of the students that sacred love and attachment which they should ever bear to the principles of the present glorious revolution, the greatest care and caution shall be used in electing PATRIOTISM AND LEARNING. 689 professors and masters, to the end that no person shall be so elected unless the uniform tenor of his conduct manifest to the world a sincere affection for the liberty and independence of the United States of America." These sentiments are not remarkable when we remember that Patrick Henry and James Madison were among the first trustees. Before peace had been declared, Maryland founded Washington College in 1782, as a State institution, and the work of college building went on with con- stantly increasing momentum. The Presbyterians of Pennsylvania established Dickinson College at Carlisle, saying that " the great embarrassments learning lay under during the war, pointed out as a virtue particularly commendable to use our endeavors to revive the drooping sciences. Gratitude to God for the prosperous conclusion of the war laid us under obligation, our new relations to the other nations of the world, and especially the important interests of religion and virtue in this growing empire." In 1785, the University of Nashville began as Davidson Acad- emy ; in 1789 South Carolina founded the College of Charleston; Williams College followed in 1793, from the bequest of Colonel Ephraim Williams, who was killed in 1755, near Lake George, in the French and Indian War ; the same year North Carolina began its university at Chapel Hill : two years later. Union College was chartered at Schenectady, and named in token of the union of different evangelical religious bodies interested in it ; in 1797, Middlebury College was begun in Vermont. Thus legislatures and relig- ious bodies emulated the examples of single individu- als in extending the opportunities for the higher edu- 59C> THE SEW ERA OF yATlOXAL LIFE. cation throughout the land. It was reserved for our own generation to complement these institutions for men by the endowment of great colleges and well-fitted seminaries for the higher education of women. Brad- ford Academy, in Massachusetts, is the oldest of these, but Mount Holyoke Seminary, Monticello Seminary, in Illinois, the Western Female Seminary, in Oxford, Ohio, Abbott Academy, at Andover, Mass., Smith College, Wellesley College, Vassar College, and many other institutions exclusively for women, are doing a great work for the sex. Most of these colleges and seminaries began with a distinct intention to give theological instruction. This was the design of Harvard, (the motto of which is, "for Christ and the Church,") and of Yale. But as time passed, it became evident that there was a need for schools of theology independent of the colleges, and they have been founded by most of the different religious bodies. In addition to these institutions, there have been established at many centres, schools of science, medi- cine, agriculture, music, oratory, and other branches of general know^ledge, most of which are filled with diligent students. In the domain of literature the history of America is divided into three epochs : the Colonial period, the Revolutionary era, and the period of national life. During the Colonial period most of the reading of the people was imported from England, and there w^as no w^ell-defined American literature. The same topics interested men on both sides of the ocean, an beyond the clergy, there existed no strictly literar) AMERICAN LITERATURE. 593 class. To this era belong such writers as the Mathers, Charles Chauncey, Ezra Stiles, of Yale College, Samuel Johnson, of Columbia College, Thomas Prince, Jona- than Edwards, and Benjamin Franklin. The two last mentioned stand as representatives of classes, the first having been pronounced by Sir James Mackintosh, the metaphysician of America, "perhaps unmatched, certainly unsurpassed, among men." Benjamin Frank- lin was the incarnation of the common sense of the period; a "self-made" man. He took advantage of every opportunity for improvement, and rose from one post of influence to another, until he was acknowl- edged the greatest diplomatist of the century. From 1736, when he entered political life, he was the most prominent figure in American affairs. He was Post- master-General, Governor of Pennsylvania, and minis- ter to France, and in every station he showed the same equipoise and power. Sermons constituted, therefore, the mass of print of the colonial press. Science had not advanced beyond the empirical stage. Journalism made some progress, and there began to be discussions of political subjects as the time approached when the people were to assert their independence. During the Revolution there arose many strong writers, who discussed the topics connected with gov- ernment, among whom may be mentioned James Otis, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison, John Adams, Fisher Ames, Jeremy Belknap, Chief Justice Marshall, William Wirt, Samuel Hopkins, Timothy Dwight, Alexander Graydon, Philip Freneau, Joel Barlow, Joseph Hopkin- son, Joseph Dennie, and Thomas Jefferson. Poetry 594 THE NEW ERA OF NATIONAL LIFE. was little cultivated at this period, and the little that was written was to be commended rather for its patriotic sentiments than for its poetic inspiration. After the Revolution the cultivation of literature made slow progress, and for many years there was no class known as authors; but most of the writers were persons engaged in other employments, the books being still produced mainly by the clergy and instruc- tors in educational institutions. It was not until after the late Civil War that the importance of trust- ing to American environment for subjects and atmos- phere became sufficiently impressed upon writers to make its influence distinctly evident in their works as a body. The generation previous had been marked by such men as Daniel Webster, who was a states- man rather than an author, Washington Irving, who was not unmarked by the influences of Scott and the essayists, William Cullen Bryant, upon whom the influence of Wordsworth was great, William H. Prescott, Richard Henry Dana, James Fenimore Cooper, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Haw- thorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, v/ho were in some degree seeking to find their inspiration in themes connected with their own country. After them came the now venerable Quaker poet, John Greenleaf Whittier, the perennially youthful Doctor Oliver Wendell Holmes, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose great novel marks the anti-slavery struggle, and whose poems are among the sweetest that Amer- ica has produced, John Lothrop Motley, the dignified and careful historian, James Russell Lowell, the scholarly poet and genial essayist and critic, before the new school of authors came upon the stage. AMERICAN VERSATILITY. 695 It is too early to write the history of the present authors of America, of whom it can be truly said that they bid fair to raise authorship higher than ever. They comprise poets like Paul Hamilton Hayne, novelists like William Dean Howells and Henry James, critics like Edmund Clarence Stedman, and metaphysicians, essayists, theologians, scientists, students of educational problems, all of whom are woi-king with earnest effort, and their future is full of promise. The age is called a practical age, but it is employed with themes of the loftiest concern, which are not generally classed as practical. Never did discus- sion of moral, mental o;- s-ientific principles have 596 THE NEW ERA OF NATIONAL LIFE. so strong a hold upon the readers and writers of America as they do at this moment. There is a ver- satility in the American character, and a determination to master the situation, that gives our thoughtful visitors from abroad ground for prophesy- in g a future for America grander than any native of the country would have felt like claim- ing. It was Herbert Spencer, the latest of these observers, who wrote on his return "The Americans may reasonably look forward to a time when they will have produced a civiliza- tion grander than any the world has known." "The world has never before seen social phenomena at all comparable with those presented in the United States. A society spreading over enormous tracts, while still preserving its political continuity, is a new thing." "The eventual mixture of the allied varieties of the Aryan race forming the population will produce a finer type of man than has hitherto existed , and a type of man more plastic, more adaptable, more capable of undergoing the modifications needful for complete social life." In emphasizing the plastic and adaptable nature WILLIAM DEAN HOWKLLS. SPENCEE ON AMEEICA. 597 of the American character, Mr. Spencer points to marked traits arising from the circumstances through which the people have passed in the New World. They will not forget that their present has grown from their past, and that much that is great among them has come from the devout examples of their Washingtons, and Lincolns, and Garfields, who are but representatives of the thousands of God-fearing men and women who revere the memories of the fathers and worship the God whom they adored. In closing, let us make our own the eloquent words of Daniel Webster, uttered in the Senate Chamber at Washington, in 1850. They are as applicable in our day as they were a generation ago. " Never," said he, " did there devolve upon any gene- ration of men higher trusts than now devolve upon us, for the preservation of this Constitution, and the harmony and peace of all who are destined to live under it. Let us make our generation one of the strongest and brightest links in that golden chain which is destined, I fondly believe, to grapple the people of all the States to this Constitution for ages to come. We have a great, popular, constitutional government, guarded by law and by judicature, and defended by the whole affections of the people. No monarchial throes press these States together ; no iron chain of military power encircles them ; they live and stand upon a government popular in its form, representative in its character, founded upon princi- ples of equality, and so constructed, we hope, as to last forever. In all its history it has been beneficent ; it has trodden down no man's liberty : it has crushed no State. Its daily respiration is liberty and patriot- 598 THE NEW ERA OF NATIONAL LIFE. ism ; its yet youthful veins are full of enterprise, courage, and honorable love of glory and renown. Large before, the country has now, by recent events, become vastly larger. This Republic now extends with a vast breadth, across the whole Continent. The two great seas of the world wash the one and thC' other shore. We realize on a mighty scale, the beau- tiful description of the ornamental edging of the buckler of Achilles : Now the broad shield complete, the artist crowned With his last hand, and poured the ocean round ; In living silver seemed the waves to roll, And beat the buckler's verge and bound the whole." ^ department of the ^ntemt^ DOCUMENTS Illustrating the Constitutional History of the United States from 1620 to the present time. 1. The Social Compact signed in the Cabin of the Mayflower, 1620- II. The Articles of Confederation of the New England Colo- nies, 1643. III. The Declaration of Independence, 1776. IV. Articles of Confederation of the Thirteen Colonies, 1778. V. A Declaration of Rights, made by the Representatives of THE good People of Virginia, 1776. VI. The Constitution of the United States, 1787. VII. Amendments to the Constitution. VIII. The Virginia Resolutions of 1798. IX. The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798. X. The Kentucky Resolutions of 1799, passed in response to the Resolutions of the other States in reply to the Resolutions of 1798. 4 THE DOCUMENTARY BASIS Of the Representative government established by Governor Yeardley in Virginia, in 1619, has not been preserved. THE SOCIAL COMPACT Signed by the Pilgrims before landing at Plymouth, in 1620, on which they founded the Democratic government of the colony. ■' In the name of God, Amen ; We, whose names are underwritten, the loyall subjects of our dread soveraigne King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britaine, France, and Ireland King, defender of the faith, etc., haveing undertaken, for the glorie of God, and advance- mente of the Christian faith and honor of our king and countrie, a voyage to plant the first colonic in the Northerne parts of Virginia, doe, by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civill body politick, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid ; and, by vertue heareof, to enacte, constitute, and frame, such just and equall laws, ordenances, acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meete and convenient for the generall good of the Colonie. Unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witnes whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names, at Cap Codd, the iith of No- vember, in the year of the raigne of our sovereigne lord. King James, of England, France, and Ireland the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, Anno Domini, 1620. ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. Betweene the plantations vnder the Gouernment of the Massachusetts, the Plantacons vnder the Gouernment of New Plymouth, the Plantacons vnder the Gouernment of Connectacutt, and the Gouernment of New-Haven with the Plantacons in combinacou therewith. Whereas wee all came into these parts of America with one and the same end and ayme, namely, to advaunce the kingdome of ou: Lord Jesus Christ, and to enjoy the liberties of the Gospell in puritie with eU'2 DOCUMENTS. peace. And whereas in our settleinge (by a wise Providence of God) we are further dispersed vpon the Sea Coasts and Riuers then was at first intended, so that we cannot according to our desire, with conven- ience communicate in one Gouernment and Jurisdiccon. And whereas we live encompassed with people of seuerall Nations and Strang lan- guages which heareafter may proue injurious to vs or our posteritie. And forasmuch as the Natives have formerly committed sondry inso- lences and outrages v])on seueral Plantacons of the English and have of late combined themselues against vs. And seing by reason of those sad Distraccons in England, which they have heard of, and by which they know we are hindred from that humble way of seekinge advise or reapeing those comfortable fruits of protection which at other tymes we might well e.xpecte. Wee therefore doe conceiue it our bounden Dutye without delay to enter into a present consotiation amongst our selues for mutual help and strength in all our future concernements : That as in Nation and Religion, so in other Respects we bee and con- tinue one according to the tenor and true meaninge of the ensuing .Articles : Wherefore it is fully agreed and concluded by and betweene the parties or Jurisdiccons aboue named, and they joyntly and seuerally doe by these presents agreed and concluded that they all bee, and henceforth bee called by the Name of the United Colonies of New- England. II. The sa^d United Colonies, for themselues and their posterities, do joyntly and seuerally, hereby enter into a firme and perpetual] league of frendship and amytie, for offence and defence, mutuall ad- vise and succour, vpon all just occations, both for preserueing and propagateing the truth and liberties of the Gospel, and for their owne mutual] safety and wellfare. HI. It is further agreed That the Plantacons which at present are or hereafter shalbe settled within the limmetts of the Massachusetts, shalbe forever vnderthe Massachusetts, and shall have peculiar Juris- diccon among themselues in all cases as an entire Body, and that Ply- mouth, Connecktacutt, and New Haven shall eich of them haue like peculier Jurisdiccon and Gouernment ^v^thin their limmetts and in referrence to the Plantacons which already are settled or shall here- after be erected or shall settle within their limmetts respectiuely-, prouided that no other Jurisdiccon shall hereafter be taken in as a distinct head or member of this Confederacon, nor shall any. other Plantacon or Jurisdiccon in present being and not already in combyna- con or vnder the Jurisdiccon of any of these Confederals be received by any of them, nor' shall any two of tlte Gbnfederats joynein one Jurisdiccon without consent of the rest, which consent to be- fixter-' preted as is expressed in the sixth Article ensuinge. ■ ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 603 .,IV. It is by these Confederats agreed that the charge of all just warrs, whether offensiue or defensiue, upon what part or member of this Confederaccon soever they fall, shall both in men and provisions, and all other Disbursements, be borne by all the parts of this Confedera- con, in different proporcons according to their different abilitie, in manner following, namely, that the Commissioners for eich Jurisdiccon from tyme to tyme, as there shalbe occation, bring a true account and number of all the males in every Plantacon, or any way belonging to, or under their seuerall Jurisdiccons, of what quality or condicion soeuer they bee, from sixteene yeares old to threescore, being Inhabitants there. And That according to the different numbers which from tyme to tyme shalbe found in eich Jurisdiccon, upon a true and just ac- ,. count, the service of men and all charges of the warr be borne by the Poll : Eich Jurisdiccon, or Plantacon, being left to their owne just course and custome of rating themselues and people according to their different estates, with due respects to their qualites and exemptions among themselues, though the Confederacon take no notice of any such priviledg: And that according to their differrent charge of eich Jurisdiccon and Plantacon, the whole advantage of the warr (if it please God to bless their Endeavours) whether it be in lands, goods or ■persons, shall be proportionably deuided among the said Confederats. V. It is further agreed That if any of these Jurisdiccons, or any Plantacons vnder it, or in any combynacon with them be envaded by any enemie whomsoeuer, vpon notice and request of any three majes- trats of that Jurisdiccon so invaded, the rest of the Confederates, with- out any further meeting or expostulacon, shall forthwith send ayde to the Confederate in danger, but in different proporcons; namely, the Massachusetts an hundred men sufficiently armed and provided for , such a service and jorney, and eich of the rest fourty-fiue so armed and provided, or any lesse number, if lesse be required, according to this proporcon. But if such Confederate in danger may be supplyed by their next Confederate, not exceeding the number nereby agreed, ; they may craue help there, and seeke no further for the present. The charge to be borne as in this Article is exprest : And, at the returne, to be victualled and supplyed with poder and shott for their journey (if there be neede) by that Jurisdiccon which employed or sent for them : But none of the Jurisdiccons to exceed these numbers till by a meeting of the Commissioners for this Confedei'acon a greater ayd appeare necessary. And this proporcon to continue, till upon knowl- edge of greater numbers in eich Jurisdiccon which shalbe brought to the next meeting some other proporcon be ordered. But in any such case of sending men for present ayd whether before or after such order or alteracon, it is agreed that at the meeting of the Commission- 604 DOCUMENTS. ers for this Confederacon, the cause of such warr or invasion be duly considered: And if it appeare that the fault lay in the parties so in- vaded, that then that Jurisdiccon or Plantacon make just Satisfaccon, both to the Invaders whom they have injured, and beare all the charges of the warr themselves without requireing any allowance from the rest of the Confederals towards the same. And further, that if any Jurisdiccon see any danger of any Invasion approaching, and there be tyme for a meeting, that in such case three majestrats of tha/ Jurisdiccon may summon a meeting at such convenyent place as them selues shall think meete, to consider and provide against the threatnei danger, Provided when they are met they may remoue to what place they please, Onely whilst any of these foure Confederats have but three majestrats in their Jurisdiccon, their request or summons from any two of them shalbe accounted of equall force with the three men- toned in both the clauses of this Article, till there be an increase of majestrats there. VI. It is also agreed that for the mannaging and concluding of all affairs proper and concerneing the whole Confederacon, two Commis- sioners shalbe chosen by and out of eich of these foure Jurisdiccons, namely, two for the Mattachusetts, two for Plymouth, two for Connec- tacutt and two for New Haven ; being all in Church fellowship with us, which shall bring full power from their seuerall generall Courts respectively to heare, examine, weigh and determine all affaires of our warr or peace, leagues, ayds, charges and numbers of men for warr divission of spoyles and whatsoever is gotten by conquest, receiueing of more Confederats for plantacons into combinacon with any of the Confederates, and all thinges of like nature which are the proper con- comitants or consequence of such a confederacon, for amytie, offence and defence, not intermeddleing with the gouernment of any of the Jurisdiccons which by the third Article is preserued entirely to them- selves. But if these eight Commissioners, when they meete, shall not all agree, yet it is concluded that any six of the eight agreeing shall have power to settle and determine the business in question : But if six do not agree, that then such proposicons with their reasons, so farr as they have beene debated, be sent and referred to the foure general] Courts, vizt. the Mattachusetts, Plymouth, Connectacutt, and New Haven : And if at all the said Generall Courts the businesse so referred be concluded, then to bee prosecuted by the Confederates and all their members. It is further agreed that these eight Commis- sioners shall meete once every yeare, besides extraordinary meetings (according to the fift Article) to consider, treate and conclude of all affaires belonging to this Confederacon, which meeting shall ever be the first Thursday in September. And that the next meeting after the ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 605 date of these presents, which shalbe accounted the second meeting, shalbe at Bostone in the Massachusetts, the third at Hartford, the fourth at New Haven, the fift at Plymouth, the sixt and seaventh at Bostone. And then Hartford, New Haven and Plymouth, and so in course successiuely, if in the meane tyme some middle place be not found out and agreed on which may be commodious for all the juris- diccons. Vn. It is further agreed that at eich meeting of these eight Com- missioners, whether ordinary or extraordinary, they, or six of them agreeing, as before, may choose their President out of themselues, whose office andworke shalbe to take care and direct for order and a comely carrying on of all proceedings in the present meeting . But he shalbe invested with no such power or respect as by which he shall hinder the propounding or progresse of any businesse, or ary way cast the Scales, otherwise then in the precedent Article is agreed. Vni. It is also agreed that the Commissioners for this Confed- eracon hereafter at their meetings, whether ordinary or extraordinary, as they may have commission or opertunitie, do endeavoure to frame and establish agreements and orders in generall cases of a civill nature wherein all the plantacons are interested for preserving peace among themselues, and preventing as much as may bee all occations of warr or difference w'ith others, as about the free and speedy passage of Jus- tice in every Jurisdiccon, to all the Confederats equally as their owne, receiving those that remoue from one plantacon to another without due certefycats ; how all the Jurisdicconsmay carry it towards the Indians, that they neither grow insolent nor be injured without due satisfaccion, lest warr break in vpon the Confederates through such miscarryage. It is also agreed that if any servant runn away from his master* into any other of these confederated Jurisdiccons, That in such Case, vpon the Certyficate of one Majistrate in the Jurisdiccon out of which the said servant fled, or upon other due proofe, the said servant shalbe deliuered either to his Master or any other that pursues and brings such Certificate or proofe. And that vpon the escape of any prisoner whatsoever or fugitiue for any criminal ca«se, whether breaking prison or getting from the officer or otherwise escaping, upon the certificate of two Majistrats of the Jurisdiccon out of which the escape is made that he was a prisoner or such an offender at the tyme of the escape. The Majestrates or some of them of that Juris- * This stipulation regarding the rendition of fugitives, apprentices and slaves was not imitated in the " Articles of Confederation," of 1778, but a simi- lar provision was made in the Constitution of the United States, Article IV, Section 2, and in accordance with it special laws were enacted by Congress in 1793 and 1850. O06- DOCUMENTS. diccon where for the present the said prisoner or fugitive abideth shall forthwith graunt such a warrant as the case will beare for the appre- hending of any sucli person, and the delivery of him into the hands of the officer or other person that pursues him. And if there be help required for the safe returneing of any sucii offender, then it shal- be graunted to him that craves the same, he paying the charges thereof. IX'. And for that the justest warrs may be of dangerous con- sequence, espetially to the smaler plantacons in these vnited Colonies, It is agreed that neither the Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connectacutt nor New-Haven, nor any of the members of any of them shall at any tyme hereafter begin, undertake, or engage themselues or this Confed- eracon, or any part thereof in any warr whatsoever (sudden exegents with the necessary consequents thereof excepted) which are also to be moderated as much as the case will permit) without the consent and agreement of the forenamed eight Commissioners, or at least six of them, as in the sixt Article is provided: And that no charge be required of any of the Confederats in case of a defensiue warr till the said Commissioners haue mett and approued the justice of the warr, and have agreed vpon the sum of money to be levyed, which sum is then to be payd by the severall Confederates in proporcon according to the fourth Article. X. That in extraordinary occations when meetings are summoned by three Majistrats of any Jurisdiccon, or two as in the fift Article, If any of the Commissioners come not, due warneing being given or sent, It is agreed that ■ foure of the Commissioners shall have power to direct a warr which cannot be delayed and to send for due proporcons of men out of eich Jurisdiccon, as well as six might doe if all mett ; but not less than six shall determine the justice of the warr or allow the demanude of bills of charges or cause any levies to be made for the same. XI. It is further agreed that if any of the Confederates shall here- after break any of these present Articles, or be any other wayes injuri- ous to any ofc of thother Jurisdiccons, such breach of Agreement, or injurie, shalbe duly considered and ordered by the Commissioners for thother Jurisdiccons, that both peace and this present Confederacon may be entirely preserued without violation. XII. Lastly, this perpetuall Confederacon and the several Articles and Agreements thereof being read and seriously considered, both by the Generall Court for the Massachusetts, and by the Commissioners for Plymouth, Connectacutt and New Haven, were fully allowed and confirmed by three of the forenamed Confederates, namely, the Massa- chusetts, Connectacutt and New-Haven, Onely the Commissioners for THE DECLABA TION OF INDEPENBENCE. 607 Plymouth, having no Commission to conclude, desired respite tiJlthey niight advise with their Generall Court, wherevpon k was agreed aad concluded by the said court of the Massachusetts, and the Commis- sioners for the other two Confederates, That if Plymouth Consent, then the whole treaty as it stands in these present articles is and shall continue firme and stable without alteracon : But if Plymouth come not in, yet the other three Confederates doe by these presents confirme the whole Confederacon and all the Articles thereof, onely, in Sep- tember next, when the second meeting of the Commissioners is to be at Bostone, new consideracon may be taken of the sixt Article, which concernes number of Commissioners for meeting and concluding the affaires of this Confederacon to the satisfaccon of the court of the Massachusetts, and the Commissioners for thuther two Confederates, but the rest to stand vnquestioned. In testymony whereof, the Generall Court of the Massachusetts by their Secretary, and the Commissioners for Connectacutt and New- Haven haue subscribed these presente articles, this xixth of the third month, commonly called May, Anno Domini, 1643. At a Meeting of the Commissioners for the Confederacon, held at Boston, the Seaventh of September. It appeareing that the Generall Court of New Plymouth, and the severall Towneships thereof have read, considered and approoued these articles of Confederacon, as appeareth by Comission from their Generall Court beareing Date the xxixth of August, 1643, ^° Mr. Edward Winslowe and Mr. Will Collyer, to ratifye and confirme the same on their behalf, wee there- fore, the Comissioners for the Mattachusetts, Conecktacutt and New Haven, doe also for our seuerall Gouemments, subscribe vnto them. JOHN WINTHROP, governor of Massachusetts, THO. DUDLEY, THEOPH. EATON, GEO. FENWICK, EDWA. HOPKINS, THOMAS GREGSON. A DECLARATION By the Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled. When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature, and of nature's God, entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the . separation. 608 DOCUMENTS. We hold these truths to be self-evident : that all men aie created equal ; that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unaliena- ble rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- ness. That, to secure these rights, govej-nments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to insti- tute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments, long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes ; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves, by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pur- suing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies ; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having, in direct object, the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature: a right inestimable to them, and for- midable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncom- fortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved representative houses, repeatedly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused, for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others, to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of an- nihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise ; th^ THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 609 State remaining, in the meantime, exposed to all the dangers of inva- sion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States ; for that purpose, obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and rais- ing the conditions of new appropriations of lands. He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in time of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the civil power. He has combined, with o'ihers, to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws ; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation : For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us : For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment, for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States ; For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world ; For imposing taxes on us, without our consent : For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury; For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offences : For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it, at once, an example and fit instru- ment for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering, fundamentally, the forms of our governments : For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us, in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicted government here, by declaring us out of his protec- tion, and waging war against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries, to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilised nation, QW DOCUMENTS. He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts, by their legis- lature, to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connexions and correspondence. They too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace, friends. We, therefere, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Su- preme Judge of the World, for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be. Free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connexion between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved ; and that, as Free and Independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Provi- dence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. The foregoing declaration was, by order of Congress, engrossed, and s'gncd by the following members : JOHN HANCOCK, [and fifty-five others.] ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION AND UNION. 611 It was also Resolved, That copies of the Declaration be sent to the several Asseml)lies, Conventions, and Committees or Councils of Safety, and to the several commanding officers of the Continental troops ; that it be proclaimed in each of the United States, and at the head of the army. ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION AND PERPET- UAL UNION Between the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Caro- lina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Article I. The style of this confederacy shall be, " The United States of America." Article II. Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom, and in- dependence, and every power, jurisdiction and right, which is not, by this Confederation, expressly delegated to the United States in Con- gress assembled. Article III. The said States hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defence, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare ; bind- ing themselves to assist each other against all force offered to, or at- tacks made upon, them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretence whatever. Article IV. The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friend- ship and intercourse among the people of the different States in this Union, the free inhabitants of each of these States, paupers, vaga- bonds, and fugitives from justice, excepted, shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of free citizens in the several States ; and the people of each State shall have free ingress and regress to and from any other State ; and shall enjoy therein all the privileges of trade and commerce, subject to the same duties, impositions, and restrictions, as the inhabitants thereof respectively ; provided, that such restriction shall not extend so far as to prevent the removal of ^■operty imported into any State, to any other State of which the owner is an inhabitant ; provided also, that no imposition, duties, or restriction, shall be laid by any State, on the property of the United States, or either of them. If any person guilty of, or charged with, treason, felony, or other high misdemeanor, in any State, shall flee from justice, and be found in any of the United States, he shall, upon demand of the governor or 612 DOCUMENTS. executive power of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, and removed to the State having jurisdiction of his offence. Full faith and credit shall be given in each of these States to the records, acts and judicial proceedings, of the courts and magistrates of every other State. Article V. For the more convenient management of the general interests of the United States, delegates shall be annually appointed in such manner as the legislature of each State shall direct, to meet in Congress on the first Monday in November, in every year, with a power reserved to each State to recall its delegates, or any of them, at any time within the year, and send others in their stead, for the remainder of the year. No State shall be represented in Congress by less than two, nor by more than seven, members ; and no person shall be capable of being a delegate for more than three years in any term of six years; nor shall any person, being a delegate, be capable of holding any office under the United States, for which he, or another for his benefit, receives any salary, fees, or emolument of any kind. Each State shall maintain its own delegates in a meeting of the States, and while they act as members of the committee of the States. In determining questions in the United States in Congress assem bled, each State shall have one vole. Freedom of speech and debate in Congress shall not be impeached or questioned, in any court or place out of Congress; and the mem- bers of Congress shall be protected in their persons from arrests and imprisonment, during the time of their going to, and from, and attend- ance on. Congress, excei^t for treason, felony, or breach of the peace. Article VI. No State, without the consent of the United States in Congress assembled, shall send any embassy to, or receive any em- bassy from, or enter into any conference, agreement, alliance, or treaty, with any king, prince, or State; nor shall any person, holding any office of profit, or trust, under the United States, or any of them, ac- cept of any present, emolument, office or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state ; nor shall the United States in Congress assembled, or any of them, grant any title of nobility. No two or more States shall enter into any treaty, confederation, or alliance whatever, between them, without the consent of the United States in Congress assembled, specifying accurately the purposes foi which the same is to be entered into, and how long it shall continue. No Slate shall lay any imposts or duties which may interfere with any .stipulations in treaties entered into, by the United States in Congre.ss assembled, with any king, prince, or state, in pursuance of any treatiPN already proposed by Congress to the courts of France and Spain. ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION AND UNION. 613 No vessels of war shall be kept up, in time of peace, by any State, except such number only, as shall be deemed necessary, by the United States in Congress assembled, for the defence of such State, or its trade; nor shall any body of forces be kept up by any State, in time of peace, except such number only, as in the judgment of the United States in Congress assembled, shall be deemed requisite to garrison the forts necessary for the defence of such State; but every State shall always keep up a well-regulated and disciplined militia, sufficiently armed and accoutred ; and shall provide and constantly have ready for use, in public stores, a due number of field-pieces and tents, and a proper quantity of arms, ammunition, and camp equipage. No State shall engage in any war, without the consent of the United States in Congress assembled, unless such State be actually invaded by enemies, or shall have received certain advice of a resolution being formed by some nation of Indians to invade such State, and the dan- ger is so imminent as not to admit of a delay, till the United States in Congress assembled can be consulted ; nor shall any State grant com- missions to any ship or vessels of war, nor letters of marque or reprisal, except it be after a declaration of war by the United States in Congress assembled ; and then only against the kingdom or state, and the sub- jects thereof, against which war has been so declared, and under such regulations as shall be established by the United States in Congress assembled ; unless such State be infested by pirates, in which vessels of war may be fitted out for that occasion, and kept so long as the danger shall continue, or until the United States in Congress assem- bled shall determine otherwise Article VII. When land forces are raised by any State for the common defence, all officers of, or under, the rank of colonel, shall be appointed by the legislature of each State, respectively, by whom such forces shall be raised, or in such manner as such State shall direct ; and all vacancies shall be filled up by the State which first made the appointment. Article VIII. All charges of war, and all other expenses that shall be incurred for the common defence, or general welfare, and allowed by the United States in Congress assembled, shall be defrayed out of a common treasury, which shall be supplied by the several States in proportion to the value of ail land within each State, granted to or surveyed for, any person, as such land and the buildings and im- provements thereon shall be estimated, accorcb'ng to such mode as the United States in Congress assembled, shall from time to time, direct and a])point. The taxes for paying that proportion shall be laid and levied by the authority and direction of the legislatures of the several 614 DOCUMENTS. States, within tlie time agreed upon by the United States in Congress assembled. Article IX. The United States in Congress assembled, shall have the sole and exclusive right and power, of determining on peace and war, except in the cases, mentioned in the sixth article : Of sending and receiving ambassadors : Entering into treaties and alli- ances ; provided that no treaty of commerce shall be made, whereby the legislative power of the respective States shall be restrained from imposing such imposts and duties on foreigners as their own people are subjected to, or from prohibiting the exportation or importation of any species of goods or commodities whatever : Of establishing rules for deciding, in all cases, what captures on land or water shall be legal ; and in what manner prizes, taken by land or naval forces, in the service of the United States, shall be divided or appropriated : Of granting letters of marque and reprisal in times of peace • Appoint- ing courts for the trial of piracies and felonies, committed on the high seas ; and establishing courts, for receiving and determining, finally, appeals in all cases of captures ; provided, that no member of Con- gress shall be appointed a judge of any of the said courts. The United States in Congress assembled shall also be the last resort, on appeal, in all disputes and differences now subsisting, or that hereafter may arise, between two or more States, concerning boundary, jurisdiction, or any other cause whatever; which authority shall always be exercised in the manner following : Whenever the legislative or executive authority, or lawful agent, of any State, in controversy with another, shall present a petition to Congress, stat- ing the matter in question^ and praying for a hearing, notice thereof shall be given, by order of Congress, to the legislative or executive authority of the other State in controversy ; and a day assigned for the appearance of the parties by their lawful agents, who shall then be directed to appoint, by joint consent, commissioners or judges, to constitute a court for hearing and determining the matter in question ; but if they cannot agree. Congress, shall name three persons, out of each of the United States ; and from the list of such persons each party shall alternately strike out one, the petitioners beginning, until the number shall be reduced to thirteen ; and from that number, not less than seven, nor more than nine, names, as Congress shall direct, shall, in the presence of Congress, be drawn out, by lot ; and the persons whose names shall be so drawn, or any five of them, shall be commissioners or judges, to hear and finally determine the controversy, so always as a major part of the judges, who shall hear the. cause, shall agree in the determination. And if either party shall neglegt to ARTICLES OF CONFEBEBATION AND UNION. 615 attend at the day appointed, without showing reasons which Congress shall judge suiificient, or being present shall refuse to strike, the Con- gress shall proceed to nominate three persons out of each State ; and the Secretary of Congress shall strike ni behalf of such party absent or refusing ; and the judgment and sentence of the court, to be appointed in the manner before prescribed, shall be final and conclusive. And if any of the parties shall refuse to submit to the authority of such court, or to appear, or defend their claim or cause, the court shall, nevertheless, proceed to pronounce sentence or judgment, which shall in like manner be final and decisive ; the judgment, or sentence, and other proceedings, being in either case, transmitted to Congress, and, lodged among the acts of Congress, for the security of the parties concerned ; Provided that every commissioner, before he sits in judgment, shall take an oath, to be administered by one of the judges of the supreme or superior court of the State, where the cause shall be tried, ' Well and truly to hear and determine the matter in ques- tion, according to the best of his judgment, without favor, affection, or hope of reward :' Provided, also, that no state shall be deprived of territory for the benefit of the United States, All controversies concerning the private right of soil claimed under different grants of two or more States, whose jurisdictions, as they may respect such lands, and the Stares which passed such grants aie adjusted, the said grants or either of them being at the same time claimed to have originated antecedent to such settlement of jurisdic- tion, shall, on the petition of either party to the Congress of the United States, be finally determined, as near as may be, in the same manner as is before prescribed for deciding disputes respecting terri- torial jurisdiction between different States. The United States, in Congress assembled, shall also have the sole and exclusive right and power of regulating the alloy and value of coin struck by their own authority, or by that of the respective States, Fixing the standard of weights and measures throughout the United States : Regulating the trade and managing all affairs with the Indians, not members of any of the States ; provided that the legisla- tive right of any State, within its own limits, be not infringed or violated; Establishing and regulating post-offices from one State .to another, throughout all the United States, and exacting such postage on the papers passing through the same as may be requisite to defray the expenses of the said office : Appointing all officers of the land forces in the service of the United States, excepting regimental officers . Appointing all the officers of the naval forces, and commis- sioning all officers whatever in the service of the United States 616 DOCUMENTS. Making rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces, and directing their operations. The United States in Congress assembled shall have authority to appoint a committee, to sit in the recess of Congress, to be denomi- nated A COMMITTEE OF THE -STATES, and to Consist of one delegate from each State ; and to appoint such other committees and civil officers as may be necessary for managing the general aff-^.irs of the United States under their direction . To appoint one of their number to preside ; provided, that no person be allowed to serve in the office of President more than one year in any term of three years. To ascertain the necessary sums of money to be raised for the service of the United States, and to appropriate and apply the same for defraying the public expenses : To borrow money, or emit bills on the credit of the United States, transmitting every half year to the respective States an account of the sums of money so borrowed or emitted: To build and equip a navy : To agree upon the number of land forces, and to make requisitions from each State for its quota, in proportion to the number of white inhabitants ii^ such State, which requisition shall be binding ; and thereupon the legislature of each State shall appoint the regimental officers, raise the men, and clothe, arm and equip them, in a soldier-like manner, at the expense of the United States; and the officers and men so clothed, armed and equipped, shall march to the place appointed, and within the time agreed on, by the United States in Congress assembled : but if the United States in Congress assembled shall, on consideration of cir- cumstances, judge proper that any State should not raise men, or should raise a smaller number than its quota, and that any other State should raise a greater number of men than its quota thereof, such extra number shall be raised, officered, clothed, armed and equipped, in the same manner as the quota of such State ; unless the legislature of such .State shall judge that such extra number cannot be safely spared out of the same ; in which case they shall raise, officer, clothe, arm and equip, as many of such extra number as they judge can be safely spared ; and the officers and men so clothed, armed and equipped shall march to the place appointed, and within the time agreed on, by the United States in Congress assembled. The United States in Congress assembled shall never engage in a war; nor grant letters of marque and reprisal in time of peace, nor enter into any treaties or alliances, nor coin money, nor regulate the value thereof, nor ascertain the sums and expenses necessary for the defense and welfaie of the United States, or any of them, nor emit bills, nor borrow money on the credit of the United States, nor appro- priate money, nor agree upon the numbers of vessels of war to be built ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION AND UNION. 617 or purchased, or the number of land or sea forces to be raised, nor ap- point a commander-in-chief of the army or navy, unless nine States assent to the same ; nor shall a question on any other point, except for adjourning from day to day, be determined, unle'ss by the votes of a majority of the United States in Congress assembled. The Congress of the United States shall have power to adjourn to any time within the year, and to any place within the United States, so that no period of adjournment be for a longer duration than the space of six months, and shall publish the journal of their )5roceedings monthly, except such parts thereof relating to treaties, alliances, or military operations as in their judgment require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the delegates of each State, on any question, shall be entered on the journal, when it is desired by any delegate ; and the delegates of a State, or any of them, at his or their request, shall be fur- nished with a transcript of the said journal, except such parts as are above excepted, to lay before the legislatures of the several States. Article X. The committee of the States, or any nine of them, shall be authorized to execute, in the recess of Congress, such of the powers of Congress as the United States in Congress assembled, by the consent of nine States, shall, from time to time, think expedient to vest them with ; provided that nc power be delegated to the said committee, for the exercise of which, by the Articles of Confederation, the voice of nine States, in the Congress of the United States assem- bled, is requisite. Article XI. Canada, acceding to this Confederation, and joining in the measures of the United States, shall be admitted into and entitled to all the advantages of this Union ; but no other colony shall be admitted into the same unless such admission be agreed to by nine States. Article XII. All bills of credit emitted, moneys borrowed, and debts contracted bj- or under the authority of Congress, before the assembling of the United States, in pursuance of the present Confed- eration, shall be deemed and considered as a charge against the United States, for payment and satisfaction whereof the said United States and the public faith are hereby solemnly pledged. Article XIII. Every State shall abide by the determinations of the United States in Congress assembled, on all questions which, by this Confederation, are submitted to them. And the Articles of this Confederation shall be inviolably observed by every State ; and the Union shall be perpetual. Nor shall any alteration at any time here- after be made in any of them, unless such alteration be agreed to, in a Congress of the United States, and be afterward confirmed by the leg- islatures of every State. 618 DOCUMENTS. And whereas, it hath pleased the great Governor of the world to incline the hearts of the legislatures we respectively represent in Con- gress, to approve of,.and to authorize us to ratify, the. said Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union : Know Ye, That we, the undersigned delegates, by virtue of the power and authority to us given for that purpose, do, by these pres- ents, in the name, and in behalf, of our respective constituents, fully and entirely ratify and confirm each and every of the said Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, and all and singular the matters and things therein contained. And we do further solemnly plight and engage the faith of our respective constituents, that they shall abide by the determinations of the United States in Congress assembled, on all questions, which, by the said Confederation, are submitted to them; and that the articles thereof shall be inviolably observed b} "-he States we respectively represent ; and that the Union shall be perpetual. In witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hands in Congress. Done at Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, the ninth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy- eight, and in the third year of the Independence of America. [Here follow the signatures of the delegates from New Hampshire, the Massachusetts Bay, the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantation, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Dela- ware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. 48 in all.] A DECLARATION OF RIGHTS, Made by the Representatives of the good People of Virginia, assem- bled in full and free Convention, which rights do pertain to them and their posterity as the basis and foundation of government. I. That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of wliich, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. il. That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people ; that magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at al) times amenable to them. III. That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection and security of the people, nation or community ; of all the various ukkIco and forms of government, that is best which A DECLARATION OF RIGHTS. 619 is capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is most effectually secured against the danger of maladministration; and that, when a government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, unalienable and indefeasible right to reform, alter or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal. IV. That no man, or set of men. are entitled to exclusive or sepa- rate emoluments or privileges from the community but in considera- tion of public services, which not being descendible, neither ought the offices of magistrate, legislator or judge to be hereditary. V. That the legislative, executive and judicial powers should be separate and distinct ; and that the members thereof may be restrained from oppression, by feeling and participating the burthens of the people, they should, at fixed periods, be reduced to a private station, return into that body from which they were originally taken, and the vacancies be supplied by frequent, certain and regular elections, in which all, or any part of the former members to be again eligible or ineligible, as the laws shall direct. VI. That all elections ought to be free, and that all men having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with, and attach- ment to, the community, have the right of suffrage, and cannot be taxed, or deprived of their property for public uses, without their own consent, or that of their representatives so elected, nor bound by any law to which they have not in like manner assented, for the pub- lic good. VII. That all power of suspending laws, or the execution of laws, by any authority, without consent of the representatives of the people, is injurious to their rights, and ought not to be exercised. VIII. That in all capital or criminal prosecutions, a man hath a right to demand the cause and nature of his accusation, to be con- fronted with the accusers and witnesses, to call for evidence in his favor, and to a speedy trial by an impartial jury of twelve men of his vicinage, without whose unanimous consent he cannot be found guilty; nor can he be compelled to give evidence against himself; that no man be deprived of his liberty, except by the law of the land or the judgment of his peers. IX. That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. X. That general warrants, whereby an officer or messenger may be commanded to search suspected places without evidence of a fact committed, or to seize any person or persons not named, or whose offence is not particularly described and supported by evidence, are gjrievous and oppressive, and ought not to be ffraj^f^ri. 620 DOCUMENTS. XI. That in controversies respecting property, and in suits between man and man, the ancient trial by jury of twelve men is preferable to any other, and ought to be held sacred. XII. That the freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments. XIII. That a well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural and safe defence of a free State ; that standing armies in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power. XIV. That the people have a right to uniform government; and therefore, that no government separate from or independent of the government of Virginia, ought to be erected or established within the limits thereof. XV. That no free government, or the blessing of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, modera- tion, temperance, frugality and virtue, and by a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles. XVI. That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and con- viction, not by force or violence ; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience ; and that it is the duty of all to practice Christian for- bearance, love and charity towards each other. [Passed June 12, 1776; adopted without alteration, by the conven- tion of 1850-1851. The bill was also adopted March 14, 1864. The constitutional convention which met at Richmond, Dec. 3, 1867, again reenacted the bill of rights, adding five articles, providing that Virginia should "ever remain a member of the United States of America, and that the people are thereof a part of the American NATION, and that all attempts from whatever source or upon what- ever pretext, to dissolve said union or to sever said nation, are unauthorized and ought to be resisted with the whole power of the State." It asserted that the Constitution of the United States and the laws of Congress passed in accordance with it are the supreme law of the land, "to which paramount allegiance and obedience are due from every citizen, anything in the constitution, ordinances or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding." Other sections declared slavery abolished, that the rights of ail the citizens of the State are equal.] CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 621 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. We, the people of the United States, in order to form a men perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, pro- vide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. ARTICLE I. Section i. I. All Legislative powers herein granted, shall be vested in a Con- gress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives. Section i. 1. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several States, and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for elec- tors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature. 2. No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen. 3. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons * The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three, Massa- chusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Con- necticut five, New York six. New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten. North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three. * Xbis was altered by the XI Vth amendment, Sec. a. 622 DOCUMENTS. 4. When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the executive authority thereof sliall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. 5. The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other officers ; and shall have the sole power of impeachment. Section 3. 1. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six years ; and each Senator shall have one vote. 2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first election, they shall be divided, as equally as maybe, into three classes. The seats of the Senators of the first class shall be vacated at th^ expiration of the the second year; of the second class, at the expiration of the fourth year ; and of the third class, at the expira- tion of the sixth year ; so that one-third may be chosen every second year ; and if vacancies happen by resignation or otherwise, during the recess of the legislature of any State, the executive thereof may make temporary appointments until the next meeting of the legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies. 3. No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen. 4. The Vice-President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. 5. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a Presi- dent pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice-President, or when he shall exercise the office of President of the United States. 6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside, and no person shall be convicted without the concur- rance of two-thirds of the members present. 7. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from ofiice, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit, under the United States; but the party convicted shall, nevertheless, be liable and subject to indict- ment, trial, judgment, and punishment, according to law. Section 4. The times, places, and manner, of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the legisla- CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 623 ture thereof; but the Congress may at any time, by law, make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing Senators. 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by law appoint a different day. Section 5. 1. Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications, of its own members, and a majority of each shall con- stitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner, and under such penalties, as each House may provide. 2. Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, pun- ish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member. 3. Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and, from time to time, publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment, require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members of either House, on any question, shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered on the journal. 4. Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting. Section 6. 1. The Senators and Representatives shall receive a compensa- tion for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall, in all cases, except trea- son, felony, and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to, and returning from, the same; and for any speech or debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other place. 2. No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased, during such time ; and no person, holding any office under the United States, shall be a member of either House during his continuance in office. Section 7. I. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of 624 DOCUMENTS. Representatives ; but the Senate may propose or concur with amend- ments as on other bills. 2. Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representa- tives and the Senate, shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the President of the United States ; if he approve, he shall sign it, but if not, he shall return it, with his objections, to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large in their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If, after such reconsideration, two-thirds of the House shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two-thirds of that House it shall become a law. But in all such cases the votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each House, respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress, by their adjournment, prevent its return, in svhich case it shall not be a law. 3. Every order, resolutions or vote, to which the concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of adjournment), shall be presented to the President of the United States ; and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be re-passed by two-thirds of the Senate and House of Rejjresentatives, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill. Section 8. The Congress shall have power, — 1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts, and provide for the common defence and general welfare, of the United States ; but all duties, imposts, and excises, shall be uniform throughout the United States: 2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States : 3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States and with the Indian tribes : 4. To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankrujitcies, throughout the United States : 5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures : 6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States : 7. To est^lish post-offices and post-roads ; CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, 625 8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing, for limited times, to authors and inventors, the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries : 9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court 10. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on high seay, and offences against the law of nations: 11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water ; 12. To raise and support armies; but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years : 13. To provide and'maintain a navy : 14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces : 15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, supress insurrections and repel invasions : 16. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the ap])oint- mcnt of the officers, and the authority of training the militia, according to the discipline prescribed by Congress: 17. To exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases whatsoever, over such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places, purchased by the consent of the legislature of the S'ate in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful buildings: And, — 18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof. Section 9. 1. The migration or importation of such persons, as any of the States, now existing, shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohib- iled by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight : but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person. 2. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it. 3. No bill of attainder, or ex post facto law shall be passed. r 4. The President, Vice-President, and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and con- viction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. ARTICLE III. Section i. The Judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may, from time to time, ordain and establish. The judges, both of the Supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services a compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office. Section 2. 1. The Judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority; to all cases affecting embassadors, other public ministers, and consuls; to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; to controversies to which the United States shall be a party ; to controversies between two or more States, between a State and citizens of another State, between citizens of different States, between citizens of the same State claiming lands under grants of different States, and between a State, or the citizens thereof, and foreign States, citizens, or subjects. 2. In all cases affecting embassadors, other public nvinisters, and consuls, and those in which a State shall be a party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations, as the Congress shall make. 3. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury ; and such trial shall be held in the State where the said crimes iitaU. have been committed ; but wben not committed within any 630 DOCUMENTS. State, the trial shall be at such place, or places, as the Congress may by law have directed. Section 3. 1. Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason, unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court. 2. The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture, except during the life of the person attainted. ARTICLE IV. Section i. Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may, by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. Section 2. 1. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States. 2. A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall on demand of the Executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime. 3. No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.* Section 3. 1. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union ; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the junction of two or *This stipulation resembles that in article VIII. of tha New England Colonial CoTited::ration. On it were based the fugitive slave acts of Congress of 1793 and 1S50. Ths third clause is borrowed in substance from the ordmance of 1787, establishing the government cf the Northwestern Territory. CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. 631 more States, or parts of States without the consent of the legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress. ?. ine ^^ongress shall have power to dispose of and make all neeaun ruies ann regulations respecting the territory or other property belont'.ing to the Uniced States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular State. Section 4. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of Government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and, on application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domes- tic violence." ARTICLE V. The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall deem it nec- essary, shall jMopose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the appli- cation of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several States, shall call a convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress: Provided, that no Amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article ; and that no State, with- out its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. AraTCLE VL 1. All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution as under the Confederation. 2. This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution of laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. 3. The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several State legislatures, and all executive and judi- cial officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall. 632 DOCUMENTS. be bound by oath, or affirmation, to support this Constitution; 6ul no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any otfice or public trust under the United States. ARTICLE VII. The ratification of the Convention of nine States shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratify- ing the same Done in Convention by the unanimous consent of the States present, the seventeenth day of September in the year of our Lord one thou- sand seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the independence of the United States of America the twelfth, in witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names, GEO. WASHINGTON, President and Deputy from Virginia, New Hampshire. John Langdon, Nicholas Gilman. Massachusetts. Nathaniel Gorham, Rufus King. Connecticut. Sam Johnson, Roger Sherman. Meiv York. Alexander Hamilton. N'ew Jersey. Will Livingston, Wm. Patterson, David Brearley, Jona. Dayton. Pennsylvania. B. Franklin, Robt. Morris, Tho : Fitzsimons, James Wilson, Thomas Mifflin, Geo : Clymer, Jared Ingersoll, Gouv: Morris. Delaware. Geo ; Read, John Dickinson, Jaco : Broom, Gunning Bedford, Jun'r, Richard Bassett. Maryland. James M'Henry, Dan. Carroll, Dan : of St. Thos. Jenifer. Virginia. Johi* Blair, James Madison. Jr. North Carolina. Wm. Blount, Hu : Williamson, Rich'd Dobbs Spaight. South Carolina. J. Rutledge, Charles Pinckney, Cliaiies Cotes- worth Pinckney, Pierce Butler. Georgia. William Few, Abr. Baldwin. Attest, WILLIAN JACKSON, Secretary. AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. Congress of the United States, begun and held at the city of New York on Wednesdav, the fourth of 'March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine. The Convention of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopiing the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to pre- vent nns<:onstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory AMENDMENTS. 633 and restrictive clauses should be added : and, as extending the ground nt public confidence in the Government, will best insure the beneficent '^nds of its Institution. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two-thirds of both houses concurring, that the following articles be proposed to the legislatures of the sev- eral States, all or any of which articles, when ratified by three-fourths of said legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes, as a part of said Constitution ; viz. Articles in addition to, and amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the legislatures of the several States pursuant to the fifth article of the original Constitution. [article I.] Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press ; or the right of the people peaceably to assem- ble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. [article II.] A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. [article III.] No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house with- out the consent of the owner; nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. [article IV.] The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, sup- ported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the plaice to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. [article v.] No persons shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall- any ■jerson be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy c 634 DOCUMENTS. life or limb ; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a wit- ness against himself; nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, with- out due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation. [ARTICLE VI.] In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein die crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation ; to be confronted with the witnesses against him ; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense. [article VII.] In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fart tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States than according to the rules of the common law. [article VIII.] Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. [article IX.] The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be. construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. [article X.] The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respect- ively, or to the people.* [Two other articles of amendment were proposed at the first Congress, but were not ratified by the requisite number of States. They were the first and second, as follows : ARTiCLii THE First Aftertlicfirstenumer.ition required by the first article of the Constitution, there shall be one Representative for every thirty thousand, until the number shall amount to one liundred, after which the pro portion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall not be less than one * The first ten amendments were ratified by Dec. [5, 1701. Patrick Henry, James Monroe, John Hancocl<, Samuel .-\dams and others. Iip.d wished to see such an . article as the tent.r amendment inserted originally, and had opposed the adop-ion of the Const tution b?caiise it did not e.xpressly reserve to the States the powers not actually delegated. AMENDMENTS. 635 hundred Representatives, nor less than one Repiesentative for every forty thousand persons, until the number of Representatives shall amount to two hun- dred, alter wliicli the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there sliall not be less than two iiundred Representatives, nor more than one Repre- sentative for every fifty thousand persons. Article Second No law varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Rep- resentatives shall have intervened.] [article XI.] The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign State.* [article XII.] The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit scaled to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open jill the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted ; the person having the greatest number of votes for President shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed ; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three, on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each State having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President, when- ever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice- President shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of * The eleventh amendment was declared ratified Jan. 8, 1798. 636 DOCUMENTS. the whole number of electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list the Senate shall choose the Vice-President ; a quorum for the purpose shall con- sist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person con- stitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.* [article xni.] 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punish- ment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly "convicted, shall exist within the United States, or anyplace subject to their juris- diction. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropri- ate legislation, t [article XIV.] 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and sub. ject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States ; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any per- son within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of Electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the pro- portion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or Elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer •This amendment was declared adopted Sept. 25, 1804 f The thirteenth amendment was declared adopted Dec. 18, 1865. VIRGINIA RESOLUTIONS 637 of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitu- tion of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebel- lion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, author- ized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insur- rection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave ; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legis- lation, the provisions of this article.* [article XV.] 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by ap- propriate legislation.! VIRGINIA RESOLUTIONS OF 1798, [Pronouncing the Alien and Sedition Laws to be Unconstitutional, and defining the Rights of the States, — drawn by Mr. Madison.] In the Virginia House of Delegates. Friday, December 21. 1798. Resolved, That the General Assembly of Virginia doth unequivocally express a firm resolution to maintain and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this state, against every aggres- sion, either foreign or domestic ; and that they will support the government of the United States in all measures warranted by the iormer. That this Assembly most solemnly declares a warm attachment to :he union of the states, to maintain which it pledges its powers ; and :hat, for this end, it is their duty to watch over and oppose every infrao •The fourteenth amendment was declared adopted, July 20, 1868. tThe fifteenth amendment was declared adopted, March 10, 1S70, 638 DOCUMENTS. tion of those principles which constitute the only basis of that union, because a faithful observance of them can alone secure its existence and the public happiness. That this Assembly doth explicitly and peremptorily declare, that it views the powers of the federal government as resulting from the com- pact to which the states are parties, as limited by the plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting that compact, as no further valid than they are authorized by the grants enumerated in that com- pact ; and that in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the states, who are parties thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose, for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining, within their respective limits, the authorities, rights, and liberties appertaining to them. That the General Assembly doth also express its deep regret, that a spirit has, in sundry instances, been manifested by the federal govern- ment to enlarge its powers by forced constructions of the constitutional charter which defines them ; and that indications have appeared of a design to expound certain general phrases (which, having been copied from the very limited grant of powers in the former Articles of Confed- eration, were the less liable to be misconstrued ) so as to destroy the meaning and effect of the particular enumeration which necessarily explains and limits the general phrases, and so as to consolidate the states, by degrees, into one sovereignty, the obvious tendency and inevitable result of which would be, to transform the present republican system of the United States, into an absolute, or, at best, a mixed monarchy. T/iat the General Assembly doth partictilarly PROTEST against the pal- pable and alarming infractions of the Constitution, in the two late cases of the " Alien and Sedition Acts," passed at the last session of Congress ; the first of -which exercises a power noiuhere delegated to the fedcj-al goi'ernment, and which, by uniting legislative and judicial powers to those of executive, subverts the general principles of free government, as well as the particular organization and positive provisions of the Federal Constitution ; and the other ofzuhich acts exercises, in like manner, a power not delegated by the Constitution, but, on the contrary, expressly and positively forbidden by one of the amendments thereto — a pozuer which more than any other, ought to produce universal alarm, because it is levelled against the right of freely examinin^^ public characters and measures, and of free communication among the people thereon, which has ever been Justly deemed the only effectual guardian of every other right. That this state having, by its Convention, which ratified the Federal Constitution, expressly declared that, among other essential rights VIRGINIA RESOLUTION. 639 " the liberty of conscience and the press cannot be cancelled, abridged, restrained, or modified, by any authority of the United States," and from its extreme anxiety to guard these rights from every possible attack of sopiiistry and ambition, having, with other states, recom- mended an amendment for that purpose, which amendment was, in due time, annexed to the Constitution — it would mark a reproachful inconsistency, and criminal degeneracy, if an indifference were now shown to the most palpable violation of one of the rights thus declared and secured, and to the establishment of a precedent which may be fatal to the other. That (he good people of this commonwealth, having ever felt, and continuing to feel, the most sincere affection for their brethren of the other states ; the truest anxiety for establishing and perpetuating the union of all ; and the most scrupulous fidelity to that Constitution, which is the j^ledge of mutual friendship, and the instrument of mutual ha]:)piness — the General Assembly doth solemnly appeal to the like dispositions in the other states, in confidence that they will concur with this commonwealth in declaring, as it does hereby declare, that the acts aforesaid are unconstitutional ; and that the necessary and proper measures will be taken /'v each for coojjerating with this state, in maintaining unimpaired the authorities, rights, and liberties, reserved to the states respectively, or to the people. That the governor be desired to transmit a copy of the foregoing resolutions to the executive authority of each of the other states, with a request that the same may be connnunicated to the legislature t'lereof, and that a copy be furnished to each of the senators and representatives representing this state in the Congress of the United States. Attest, John SrKWARX. 179S, December 24. Agreed to by the Senate. H. Brooke. A true copy from the original deposited in the office of the General Assembly. ]0\{'^^lY^NKKl, Keeper of Kolls. 640 DOCUMENTS. KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS OF 1798. [The original draft was prepared by Thomas Jefferson.] 1. Resolved, That the several states composing the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government ; but that, by compact, under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for special purposes, delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each state to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government ; and that whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force ; that to this compact each state acceded as a state, and is an integral party ; that this government created by this compact, was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself, since that would have made its discretion, and not the constitution, the measure of its powers ; but that, as in all other cases of compact among parties having no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as %vcll of inf-actioiis as of the mode and measure of redress. 2. Resolved, That the Constitution of the United States having delegated to Congress a power to punish treason, counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States, piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offences against the laws of nations, and no other crimes whatever ; and it being true, as a general principle, and one of the amendments to the Constitution having also declared " that the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitu- tion, 1 or prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people," — therefore, also, the same act of Con- gress, passed on the 14th day of Jul}', 1798, and entitled "An Act in Addition to the Act entitled ' An Act for the Punishment of certain Crimes against the United States;'" as also the act passed by them on the 27th day of June, 1798, entitled "An Act to punish Frauds committed on the Bank of the United States," (and all other their acts which assume to create, define, or punish crimes other than those enumerated in the Constitution,) are altogether void, and of no force; and that the power to create, define, and punigh such other crimes is reserved, and of right appertains, solely and exclusively, to the respective states, each within its own territory. 3. Resolved, That it is true, as a general principle, and is also expressly declared by one of the amendments to the Constitution, that " the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respect- KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS. 641 ively, or to the people ; " and that, no power over the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, or freedom of the press, being delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohib- ited by it to the states, all lawful powers respecting the same did of right remain, and were reserved to the states, or to the people ; that thus was manifested their determination to retain to themselves the right of judging how far the licentiousness of speech, and of the press, may be abridged without lessening their useful freedom, and how far those abuses which cannot be separated from their use, should be tolerated rather than the use be destroyed, and thus also they guarded against all abridgment, by the United States, of the freedom of religious principles and exercises, and retained to themselves the right of protecting the same, as this, stated by a law^^assed on the general demand of its citizens, had already protected them from all human restraint or interference ; and in addition to this general prin- ciple and express declaration another and more special provision has been made Ijy one of the amendments to the Constitution, which expressly declares that " Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press," thereby guarding, in the same sentence, and under the same words, the freedom of religion, of speech, and of the press, insomuch that whatever violates either throws down the sanctuary which covers the others, — and that libels, falsehood, and defamation, equally with heresy and false religion, are withheld from the cognizance of federal tribunals. That therefore the act of the Congress of the United States, passed on the 14th of July, 1798, entitled "An Act in Addition to the Act entitled ' An Act for the Punishment of certain Crimes against the United States,'" which does abridge the freedom of the press, is not law, but is altogether void, and of no force. 4. Resolved, that alien friends are under the jurisdiction and protec- tion of the laws of the state wherein they are ; that no power over them has been delegated to the United States, nor prohibited to the individual states, distinct from their power over citizens ; and it being true, as a general principle, and one of the amendments to the Constitution having also declared, that "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people," the act of the Congress of the United States passed the 22d day of June, 1798, entitled "An Act concerning Aliens." which assumes power over alien friends not dele- gated by the Constitution, is not law, but is altogether void and of no force. 5. Resolved, That in addition to the general principle, as well as the 642 DOCUMENTS. express declaration, that powers not delegated are reserved, another and more special provision inserted in the Constitution from abundant caution, has declared, "that the migration or importation of such persons as any of the states now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year iSoS." That this commonwealth does admit the migration of alien friends described as the subject of the said act concerning aliens ; that a provision against prohibiting their migration is a provision against all acts equiv- alent thereto, or it would be migratory; that to remove them, when migrated, is equivalent to a prohib:tion of their migration, and is, therefore, contrary to the said provision of the Constitution, and vo/i/. 6. Resolved, That the imprisonment of a person under the protection of the laws of tJiis commonwealth, on his failure to obey the simple order of the President to depart out of the United States, as is under- taken by the said act, entitled, "An Act concerning Aliens," is contrary to the Constitution, one amendment in \\hich has provided, that " no person shall l)e deprived of liberty without due process of law;" and that another having provided, "that, in all criminal prose- cutions, the accused shall enjoy the right of a public trial by an impartial jury to be informed as to the nature and cause of the accusation, to be confronted with witnesses against him, to have com- pulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have assistance of counsel for his defence," the same act undertaking to authorize the President to remove a person out of the United States who IS under the protection of the law, on his own suspicion, without jury, without public trial, without confrontationof the witnesses against him, without having witnesses in his favor, without defence, without counsel — contrary to these provisions also of the Constitution — is therefore not law, but utterly void, and of no force. That transferring the power of judging any person who is under the protection of the laws, from the courts to the President of the United States, as is undertaken by the same act concerning aliens, is against the article of the Constitution which provides, that "the judicial power of the United States shall be vested in the courts, the judges of which shall hold their office during good behavior," and that the said act is void for that reason also ; and it is further to be noted that this transfer of judiciary power is to that magistrate of the general government who already possesses all the executive, and a qualified negative in all the legislative powers. 7. Resolved, That the construction applied by the general govern- ment (as is evident by sundry of their proceedings) to those jjarts of the Constitution of the United States which delegate to Congress power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, excises ; to pay the KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS. 643 debts, and provide for the common defence and general welfare, of the United States," and to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the powers vested by the Constitu- tion in the government of the United States, or any department thereof, goes to the destruction of all the limits prescribed to their power by the Constitution; that words meant by that instrument to be subsidiary only to the execution of the limited powers, ought not to be so construed as themselves to give unlimited powers, nor a part *o to be taken as to destroy the whole residue of the instrument ; that /he proceedings of the general government, under color of those articles, will be a fit and necessary subject for revisal and correction at a time of greater tranquility, v/hile those specified in the preceding resolutions call for immediate redress. 8. Resolved, That the preceding resolutions be transmitted to the senators and representatives in Congress from this commonwealth, who are enjoined to present the same to their respective houses, and to use their best endeavors to procure, at the next session of Congress, a repeal of the aforesaid unconstitutional and obnoxious acts.* 9. Resolved, lastly, That the governor of this commonwealth be, and is, authorized and requested to communicate the preceding resolu- tions to the legislatures of the several states, to assure them that this commonwealth considers union for special national purposes, and par- ticularly for those specified in their late federal compact, to be friendly to the peace, happiness, and prosperity of all the states; that, faithful to that compact, according to the ]jlain intent and meaning in which it was understood and acceded to by the several parties, it is sincerely anxio7is for its preservation ; that it does also believe, that, to take from the status all the powers of self-government, and transfer them to a general and consolidated government, without regard to the special government, and reservations solemnly agreed to in that compact, is not for the peace, happiness, or prosperity of these states; and that, therefore, this commonwealth is determined, as it doubts not its co-states are, to submit to undelegated and consequently unlimited powers in no man, or body of men, on earth ; that, if the acts before specified should stand, these conclusions would flow from them — that the general government may place any act they think proper on the list of crimes, and punish it themselves, whether enumerated or not enumerated by the Constitution as cognizable by them ; that they may *This article is evidence that Kentucky proposed to take constitutional .iction, and not to proceed to such acts, as M''- Calhoun used it to support, in 1S32, — in addition to the statements made by Mr. Madison, in 1S30, to the effect that ■• Nullification '" and " Secession " were not intended by Mr. Jefferson, or by him m iiaming the Virginia Resolutions. 644 DOCUMENTS. transfer its cognizance to the President, or any other person, who may himself be the accuser, counsel, judge and jury, wh6se suspicions may be the evidence, his order the sentence, bis oilicer the execu- tioner, and his breast the sole record of the transaction; that a very numerous and valuable description of the inhabitants of these states, being, by this precedent, reduced, as outlaws, to absolute dominion of one man, and the barriers of the Constitution thus swept from us all, no rr.mpart now remains against the passions and the power of a majority of Congress, to j^rotect from a like exportation, or other greyious punishment, the minority of the same body, the legislatures, judges, governors, an.l counsellors of the states, nor their other peace- able inhabitants, who may venture to reclaim the constitutional rights and liberties of the states and people, or who, for other causes, good or bad, may be obnoxious to the view, or marked by the suspicions, of the President, or be thought dangerous to his or their elections, or other interests, public or personal ; that the friendless alien has been selected as the safest subject of a first experiment; but the citizen will soon follow, or rather has already followed ; for already has a Sedition Act marked him as a prey : That these and successive acts of the same character, unless arrested on the threshold, may tend to drive these states into revolution and blood, and will furnish new calumnies against republican governments, and new pretexts for those who wish it to be believed that man cannot be governed but by a rod of iron ; that it would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights; that con- fidence is everywhere the parent of despotism ; free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence ; it is jealousy, and not con- fidence, which prescribes limited constitutions to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power; that our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no farther, our confidence may go ; and let the honest advocate of confidence read the Alien and Sedition Acts, and say if the Constitution has not been wise in fixing limits to the government it created, and whether we should be wise in destroying those limits; let him say what the government is, if it be not a tyranny, which the men of our choice have conferred on the President, and the President of our choice has assented to and accepted, over the friendly strangers, to whom the mild spirit of our country and its laws had pledged hospitality and protection; that the men of our choice have more respected the bare suspicions of the President than the solid rights of innocence, the claims of justification, the sacred force of truth, and the forms and substance of law and Yjstice. In questions of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS. 645 man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitu- tion. That this commonwealth does therefore call on its co-states for an expression of their sentiments on the acts concerning aliens, and for the punishment of certain crimes herein before specified, plainly declaring whether these acts are or are not authorized by the federal compact. And it doubts not that their sense will be so announced as to prove their attachment to limited government, whether general or particular, and that the rights and liberties of their co-states will be exposed to no dangers by remaining embarked on a common bottom with their own ; but they will concur with this commonwealth in con- sidering the said acts as so palpably against the Constitution as to amount to an undisguised declaration, that the compact is not meant to be the measure of the powers of the general government, but that it will proceed in the exercise over these states of all powers whatso- ever. That they will view this as seizing the rights of the states, and consolidating them in the hands of the general government, with a power assumed to bind the states, not merely in cases made federal, but in all cases whatsoever, by laws made, not with their consent, but by others against their consent ; that this would be to surrender the form of government we have chosen, and live under one deriving its powers from its own will, and not from our authority ; and that the co-states, recurring to their natural rights not made federal, will concur in declaring these void and of no force, and will each unite with this commonwealth in requesting their repeal at the next session of Congress. EDMUND BULLOCK, S. H. R. JOHN CAMPBELL, S. S. P. T. Passed the House of Representatives, Nov. lo, 1798. A^fes/, THO'S TODD, C. H. R. In Senate, Nov. 13, 1798 — Unanimously concurred in. AUesi, B. THURSTON, C. S. Approved, November 19, 1798. JAMES GARRARD, Governor of Kentucky. THE KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS OF 1799, [ In response to the Resolutions of the other States in reply to the Resolution of 179S.] By the Governor, Harry Toulmin, Secretary of St:;te. House of Representatives, Thursday, Nov. 14, 1799. The house, according to the standing order of the day, resolved Itself into a committee of the whole house, on the state of the com- monwealth, (Mr. Desha in the chair,) and, after some time spent 646 DOCUMENTS. therein, the speaker resumed the chair, and Mr. Desha reported that the committee had taken under consideration sundry resolutions passed by several sta*^e legislatures, on the subject of the Alien and Sedition Laws, and had come to a resolution thereupon, which he delivered in at the clerk's table, where it was read and luianiiiioiisly agreed to by he House as follows : — The representatives of the good people of this commonwealth, in General Assembly convened, having maturely considered the answers of sundry states in the Union to their resolutions, passed the last ses- sion, respecting certain unconstitutional laws of Congress, commonly called the Alien and Sedition Laws, would be faithless indeed to themselves, and to those they represent, were they silently to acquiesce in .he principles and doctrines attempted to be maintained in all those answers, that of Virginia only accepted. To again enter the field of argument, and attempt more fully or forcibly to expose the unconstitu- tionality of those obnoxious laws, would, it is apprehended, be as unnecessary as unavailing. We cannot, however, but lament that, in the discussion of those interesting subjects by sundry of the legislatures of our sister states, unfounded suggestions and uncandid insinuations, derogatory to the true character and principles of this commonwealth, have been substituted in place of fair reasoning and sound argument. Our opinions of these alarming measures of the general government, together with our reasons for those opinions, were detailed with decency and with temper, and submitted to the discussion and judgment of our fellow-citizens throughout the Union. Whether the like decency and temper have been observed in the answers of most of those States who have denied or attempted to obviate the great truths contained in those resolutions, we have now only to submit to a candid world. Faithful to the true principles of the federal Union, unconscious of any desis^nis to distitrb the hannony of that Union, and anxious only to escape the fangs of despotism, the good people of this commonwealth are regardless of censure or calumniation. Lest, however, the silence of this common- wealth should be construed into an acquiescence in the doctrines and principles advanced, and attempted to be maintained by the said answers, or at least those of our fellow-citizens, throughout the Union, who so widely differ from us on those important subjects, should be deluded by the expectation that we shall be deterred from what we conceive our duty, or shrink from the principles contained in those resolutions, — therefore, Resolved, Th.it this Commonwealth considers the Federal Union upon the terms and for the purposes specified in the late compact, conducive to the liberty and happiness of the several States : That it does now unequivocally declare its attachment to the Union, and to KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS. 647 that compact, agreeably to its obvious and real intention, and will be among the last to seek its dissolution : That, if those who admin- ister the general government be permitted to trangress the limits fixed by that compact, by a total disregard to the special delegations of power therein contained, an annihilation of the State governments, and the creation, upon their ruins, of a general consolidated govern- ment, will be the inevitable consequence : That the principle and construction, contended for by sundry of the state legislatures, that the general government is the exclusive judge of the extent of the powers delegated to it, stop not short of ciespolisvi — since the discre- tion of those who administer the government, and not the Constitiilion, would be the measure of their powers : That the several States who formed that instrument, being sovereign and independent, have the unquestionable right to judge of the infraction; and. That a mdlifica- tion, by those sovereignties, of all unauthorized acts done under color of that instrument, is the rightful remedy : That this Commonwealth does, under the most deliberate reconsideration, declare, that the said Alien and Sedition Laws are, in their opinion, palpable violations of the said Constitution; and, however cheerfully it may be disposed to surrender its opinion to a majority of its sister States, in matters of ordinary or doubtful policy, yet, in momentous regulations like the present, which so vitally wound the best rights of the citizen, it would consider a silent acqiescence as highly criminal : That, although this Commonwealth, as a party to the federal compact, willOozu to the laws of the Union, yet it does, at the same time, declare, that it will not now, or ever hereafter, cease to oppose, in a constitutional manner, every attempt, at what quarter so ever offered, to violate that com- pact : And finally, in order that no pretext or arguments may be drawn from a supposed acquiescence, on the part of this Common- wealth, in the constitutionality of those laws, and be thereby used as precedents for similar future violations of the federal compact, this Commonwealth does now enter against them its solenm Protest. Extract, etc. Attest, THOMAS TODD, C. H. R. In Senate, Nov. 22, 1799. — Read and concurred in. Attest, B. THURSTON, C. S% INDEX. A<)bott Academy founded, 590. Abenakis the, rise against the Whites, 171, unite with the French, 173 Acadie, p;ranted to de Monts 100, rav- aged, 181). Adams, Abigail, on tlie cannonading at Boston , ^76 ; on the outlawing of Adams and Hancock, 2!X. Adams Herbert B , ou the influence o£ Maryland in forming the Union, 291. Adams, John, 593; advises stateliness in HresidCiitial behavior .3G8; chosen President, 305; deatu of, 418; longs for "one leading mind," 301; OTiOtiis, 227; on the Howes, 297, on the views about In lependencs, 218 Adams, .Jolm Qiiiuey, chosen Presi- dent, 427; at Gottenberg 414; on Ply- mouth Colony, 92; saiii to be the author of the .Monroe Doctrine, 418 ; vindictive opposition to, 427. Adams, Samuel, eloquence of, 232; fears the loss of Independence 298; on the committee of correspondence, 241;! Americans, all of us, 23; pi-esides at the Old South, 250; pride 1 timidated, 251, sold of the South 548; urges all to study the art of war, 248; and Hancock at Lexington, 255, 2.5t;. Administration of Jefferson, the, 388. Adolphus, Gust ivus, plans an Ameri- can colony, 129. Ad valorem duties, 574. African Company, the, 200. African slavery, ]9(i. African siaves'tirst brought to America. 90. Agassiz, Louis, on the Antiquity of America, 43. Agitators, \v^ebster on, 473. Agriculture, Schools of, 590. Alabama admitted, 424. Alabama Claims, the, 558. Alaska, pu.chaso of, 549. Alba.iy, Co:ive;;tion ;it, in 1754, 2: Peace Conference, the, 50G. Alexander, ;?ir William, 101. Algerian \)irates, 382. Algiers, Dcy of cowed, 415. Alien act, the, 071, 37o, 379. Alien and Sedition Acts, jirotests agahist, 038, (;41, (:42, Ui4, 647; tem- porary nature cf, 375. Allen Ethan, in Canada, 279; on the alert, 252; resists the governor of Ts'ew York, 338; takes Ticbndcroga. 202. Alton, slavery riots in, 462. Amazon, valley of the, visited by Orel- lano, 08 Amendment, the Fifteenth, incorpor- ated into the Constitution, 558 Amendment to the Constitution abol- ishing slavery, 533; needed to author- ize the Louisiana purchase, 381 ; to the Constitution, 353 354, 552, 631; how made, 631; offered by the Hartford Convention, 413; suggested by Crit- tenden, 505. America characterized by Richard Price, 309, Knglish sympathy for, in the Revolution 310;'for Americans, 427; roused, 2.08; too large for a repub- lican government, 348; taken posses- sion of for England, by Cabot, 29; Webster's devotion to 473. American Association formed, in 1774. 245; character, versatility of, 596; his- tory as looked at in the South, 543, history, urning point in, 191; nation, the, 620; system, the, 429. not to be in- i slaves, by Cortereal, 32. Ihe enrly, their origin, 43; to be made to obey, 249. Ames, Fisher, ,593; speaks in favor of the Treaty with England, .362 .Amnesty proclamation, of Johnson, the, 546, 547. Annisements in early times, 1.59. Anderson. IMajor Robert, at Fort Sum- ter, 549; obliged to surrender Sumter, 512. Andre, Major .John, 320; captured and hung. 321. Andros, Sir Edmund. 100, '13; extent of jurisdiction of, 212; life of, 211; ini|)risoned, 215. Annapolis, Puritans at 134; Washing- ton's farewell at, 335. Amie, (Jueen, obtains a monopoly of the slave (radc. 199. Anonymous plan for l^nion, 222. Antietam, b.ittlc of, 521. .\ntilla, island of, 8. .Anti- Masons nominated for President and Vjcc-Presi''e'!t, 433 .Vntipodes, disbelieved, 4, 11, 13. .■Vnti-slavery publications and the mails, 402. Archeology, the Jluseum of, at Cam- bridge Mass., 50. Aristocracy, the, of Virginia, 202. G48 INDEX. 649 Arizona, cliff-dwellings of, 48, 51 ; pur- chased, 477; visited by Coronado, 41. Arkansas admitted, 450. Armies, the French and American in Philadelphia. 32U; at Verplauck's Point, 332. Armstrong!:, Major John, writes an anonymous address, 333 Army uisbaiidment of the Union, 545; Wasliin^toiTs f,.revvell address to 335; the continental, poor condition of, 271; of the Revolution, mutinous, 333, Arnold, Benedict, at Ti^onderoga, 262 escape of, 321 ; burns Richmond, 325; not respected by the British after his • treason, 322; treason of, 320; tried by court martial, 316; unsuccessful in the North, 299. Aithur, President, takes the oath of office, 572; signs the Civil Service Reform Bill, 573. Aryan race, the, in America, 597. •Vshburton capitulations, the, 444. Asenisipia and other new States sug- gested by Jefferson, 340. Assie7ito, treaty, the, 199. Assistance, writs of, 227. Atahualljia, Inca of Pern, 68. Atlanta, r-herman takes, 531. Atlantis, story of, 1. Austin, Anne, the Quakeress, 152. Austin, Stephen F., settles in Texas; 444. Austin. Moses, obtains a gi-ant of Texan laTids, 444 Austrian Succession, War of the, 175 180. Authorship in early times, 162. Azala. Don Pedro lie. letter to, 29. Bachelors frowned upon, 160. Bacon Fiancis on Plantations, 87. Bad Axe River, battle of, 446 Bail, excessive, not to be required, 619. 634. Baker Col. E. D.. killed, 516. Balboa, Vasco Xunez de, 35. Ball's Bluff, battle of, 515. Baltimore, early in, 529. Baltimore. Lord, grantee of Mary- land , 132. ■' Baltimore, Mass , soldiers in, 513. Bank. National, 355. 415; the United States, 442; opposed by Jackson, 437 Banks suspension of. 439; the pet, 438. Baptist, church, the lirst, 580. Baptists and Quakers not tolerated in Massachusetts. 151; banished from New Amsterdam, 129; of Rhode Island, Story on. 580. Barbarism, " twin relics " of, 484. Barlow, Joel, 593. Barattaria, pirates of, 408. Barre, Isaac, replies toTownshend,230. lia.xter, Richard, re))rints Mather's narrative about witchcraft, 156. Bayard, J. A., at Gottenburg, 414. Behaim, Martin, map of, 5. Belcher, Governor, salary refused by Massachusetts, 225. Belknap, Jeremy, .593. Bell, Alexander G., patents the tele- phone, 583. Bell. John, nominated as President, 491. Bellows, Henry W., opposed to dis- uinon, 485- Berkeley, and Carteret, 131. Berlin and ]Milan decrees, 386. Bible, the, Connecticut law, 111; Thomson's version of, 287; translated into the Indian tongue, by Eliot, 167- Biddeford and Saco, 103. Biddle, Richard, life of Sebastian Cabot, 29. Billerica sends a protest to Gage, 246. Biloxi. colony established at, 124, 178. Bimini, island of, 67. Black Friday, panic of, 555. Black Hawk's war, 446. Blackstone, the Rev. William, at Bos- ton. 100, 147. Bladensburgh, battle of, 407. Blennerhassett, Harmau, romantic life of, 384 Blockade of British ports declared by Bonaparte, 386; of Southern ports 514; effect of, on the South, 542. Bloodshedding, the first in the Revolu- tion, 250. Bloody Pond, the English entrapped Blue Laws, the so-called, of Connecti- cut, 160. Bonaparte at the head of French affairs, 375, 386; promises to retract offensive measures, 395, Berlin and Milan de- crees of, 386. Boone, Daniel, in Kentucky, 421. Border Ruffians in Kansas 481. Boston evacuated by Howe, 277; fire in, 1(87, 351; in 1872 559; founded, 106; impresses Europe, 2.32, makes a move to end Xegrobond.ige, 200; massacre, 239; jiort closed, 241; siege of, 259; slavery riots in, 462, the game of, 2.32. Bostonians refractory, 210. Botts, J. M , on the haste of secession, 501. Boundary lines mentioned inearlv char- ters indefinite, 140; the Northwest- ern, how marked, 443, the Oreaon. 454. Bowyer, fort, attacked by the British, 409. Braddock's expedition against the French, 187, 18S. Bradford academy, founded, 590. Bradford, William. 05, 98, 09, lOO. Massassoit, makes a treaty with the Pil- grims 99. Bradford's History of Plvmouth Col- ony 1G2. Brandywine, battle of the, 303. Brainerd, David, missionary to th« Indians, 184. wo INDEX. Brant, Joseph, cbief of the "ir Na- tions, 3C'7. Breck, Saiuusl. describes life in Pliila- delphia, 3ti8, on General Knox, '^55. on Jefferson, 379; on modes of travel, 388; on the burninfj of NVasliin^ton, 407; on the condition of atl'airs at the close of the Revolution, 337, 357; on the influence of Boston, 232. British ministry, the, 230. British progress in America slow, 304. Brooks, Freston, attacks Sumner, 488; threatens to march on Washington, 482. Brougham, Lord, on strangling Amer- ican industries. 22G, 573; on the Amer- icangoverinnent, 347. Brown, John, at Harper's Ferry, 48G; in Kansas, 480. Brown, John, of Pittsfield,279. Brownists, Bacon's view of, 249. Brown University founded, 588. Bryant. William Cullen 594. Buchanan, James, nominated as Presi- dent, 483; elected, 484; remedy for se- cession, 502. Buckner, Gener.al. surrender, 518. Bull Run, battle of, 514. Bunker Hill, battle of, 2G5; troops start for. 264. Burden, Anne, the Quakeress, 153. Hurgoyne, General, defeat of, 302. Burke, Edmund, rejoices at the resist- ance of America, 233; on the Ameri- can spirit of liberty. 248. Burke Judge, denounces the Order of the Cincinnati, 333. Burns, Anthony, rendition of, 474, Burlingame, Anson, negotiates treaties, 552, 508. Burnside, General Ambrose Everett, sketch of, 521. Burr, Aaron, candidate for vicCrpiesi dent, 382; treason and trial, 384 Theodosia, 384. Butler, Gen. B. F., at New Orleans, 519 Butler. John, leads the attack on Wy- oming, 307. Butler. Walter, leads the attack on Cherry Valley, 307. Cabeza de Vaca visits Zuiii, 41. Cabinet, resignation of the members of Tvler's, 442; Washington's, 355. Cabot, John, 29, 30, 90; Sebastian, 29, 30, Sebastian discovers America, 18. Cabots, discoveries of, 212. Cahokia iNIoniid, the, 5G. Calef, Robert, iniblislies 'Move Won ders of the Invisible WoiM," 158. Calhoun, 398; acts on the principles of the Kentucky and Tirgir.ia resolu- tions, 435; chosen vice-president, 427: ill Congress, 397; on internal imi)riive- meiits, 393; on tlie removal of the de- posits by Jackson, 4:;8. California, antagonism fn (he Chinese in, 5G9; applies for aihnissi()u,4G9; dis- covery of gold in, 407 ; growth of pop- ulation in, 468, 469; occupied by Frt niont, 459. Calvert, Leonard, takes a colony to Marylard, 133. Cambridge, Mass., favors Independ- ence, 284; Washbigton at, 2G9. Camden, battle of, 318. Canada, attempt to capture, 174; cam- paign against 278, 279; campaign in, 407; coquettes with Vermont, 338; olfered the privilege of joining the Confederation, G17; plan for the in- vasion of, 184; preparations to invade, 400; rebellion in, 448. Canal, the Delaware and Hudson opened, 418. Canals and roads, 393. • Cannibalism not a practice of the In- dians, 48. Canoncliet, a Naragansett chief, 168. Centennial exhibition. 5t'3. Central Amer., ancient remains in 63. Cape Cod named, 83. Capital, the, transferred to Washing- ton, 377. Carleton, Guy, in command at New York, 332. Carolina, lirst settlement in, 134; gran- tees of, 135; grant of, 134; origin of the name of, 77; Puritans in, 134. Caroline fort, erected b> Ilibault, 77. Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, 244. Carterei; and Berkley, Jersey granted to, 131. Cartier, Jacques, 41, 115, 117. Carver, John, 100; governor at Ply- mouth, 09. Cass, Lewis, gives its name to squatter sovereignty, 478. Catholic church, the, 580. Caucuses to nominate presidents, 433. Chaleurs, Pay of, 1 1 7. Cliambersburg burned by General Early. 529; invaded by Lee, 522. Chanipl.-rui, Samuel de, 117; father of French settlements iii Canada, 41, 117, 118; battle of L:>kc, 408. Chai:cellorsviilc, b;;ttlc of, 522. Charles I ,casc, of unfortunately used as a precedent, 537. Charleston, att:icked by the British, 280; besieged by Clinton, 317; burned and evacuated bv Hardee, .033; evacu- ated by the British, 332; Oglethorie lands at, 141; college of, 58!i; Sons of Liberty at, £87; summoned to sur- render to the British, Gil. Charlestown, tiie Massachusetts colony removed to, lOG. Charter ; overnnients, the, 208. Charter Oak, the, 214. Chatham, Larl of, 180. Chattanooga. Rosecranz at, 524. riiauncey, Charles, 593. Cliei ubusco, battle of, 46,5. Chesapeake and Leopard, action be- tween, 387: convention for regulating commerce on, 339. INDEX. 651 Cherry Valley, massacre at, 307. Chicago, fire in, 559. Chicliasiiws. De Soto among the, 72; •rive trouble, 179. Chimneys, not used in the seventeenth century, 146. Cliina, elTorts to reach it by sailinp; up American streams, 36, 88, 12l>; treaty with, 532. Cliinese, antagonism to, 569; legation at VVasliington, 569. Cliippewa, battle of, 407. Christ Cliurcli, Boston, Revere s Signals at, 254. Christianity, misdirected efforts to pro- mote, 39. (Jliristmas not celebrated in New Eng- land, 15.». Churcli, Benjamin, treason of, 272. Churcli of Kn^ianil loved by the Col- onists. 104, 105. Churches and schools, IGl. Cincinnati, Order of the, 333. Cincinnati, slavery riots hi, 462. Cipango, island of, 9. Citizens, rights of, 1)36. City, the first American. 128. Civil Service, changes in, 429; reform 573; reform advocated by Garfield 571 : demaniled 5li0. Civil war tli; ^ itened, 347. Clarke. George Rogers, sent out by Virginia to the West. 308 Clitf-dwellings of Colorado 48. Clay. Henry, at Gottenberg 414; candi- date for President. 435; consistent supporter of Compromise, 426: inter- cedes for .Airs. Illennerliasset. 385; his life. 307; opposed to the introduc- tion of slavery to the territories, 472; presents a compromise to avoid seces- sion, 5oG; projioses a compromise 470; secretary of state, 427; speaker of the Uon.se 307; urges President Madison to declare war. 398. Clayborne. William, in .Maryland, 133. Clergy the. in different colonies. 130. Clergyman, the first in Carolina. 136. Clermont, the. 3S8. CUuton, Sir Henry, advances checked 31.'; at New York. 297; attacks Charleston. 280; attacks Savaimah 311; cuts down a liberty-tree 287; in command of the British 305; salary refused by New York. 226; sent to America. 250 303; superseded 332; supposes the South subdued. 318. Coaches lumbering and uncomfortable in England in Elizabetirs time, 14G. Cochrane. Admiral, ordered to destroy towns, 404. Coinage, aright of Congress, 615, 624. Coalmila. province of. 4.55. 456 Coligni sends out a colony 75. College founded at Quebec 119. Colleges dates of founding the early ■587; foster patriotism .588. 589. ColoiiiAl boundary lines, 140. Colonies, Turgot's remark regarding. 217. Colonization, the era of. 83. Colonists objects of, ihe, 601. Colorado admitted 564. Columbus Bartlioloiuew. 20. Columbus. Cliri.stoplier 8: applies to J'ortugal. 10; death of, 23; lionored, 18; marriage of. 9; motives of 15; vows to recover the holy sepulchre, 22 Columbia surrenders to Sherman, 533. Columbia college founded, .5.^7. Columbia River discovered 454 Commerce, .\merican interfered with, 395; in coloidal times, 159; the Chesa- peake, commerce of 339; prostrated by .Jelfersons embargo. 387; revival oi'. 418; the foreign of .\iuerica, 385. Commercial distress, in 1879 438, 570; panic in 1873 561; of 1869, 555. Commission, the joint high on the presiilential election of 1876 5i)5. Committee of Safety, the New York, 296. Common land the New England, 206. Compact, the Social, signed at Fly- mouth, 02. Compensating duties appear, 574. Compionrse. s))irit of, 346. Compromise tariff the 574. Compromise, a. proposed by Clay. 470. the Missouri, 42, 417, 426; the, of 1850, 474. Concord, battle of, 257; stores secreted at 253. Confederacy, the Southern recogiii- tion of by foreign powers 49 ); cruis- ers damage wrought by paid for by E:ngland. 558; action of Congress regarding, 546; formed, 494; policy of, 510. Confederation, Articles of, of New Eng- land. 601; Articles of, between the thirteen States. 288. Oil; Xew Eng land, fugitive slave law in, 357; the New England. 112 2Ii). Conference, at Fortress .Monroe, 534. Congregationalists established in Amer- ica, 580. Congress, acts of, nullified by -Johnson, 547; and Piesident .Johnson 54(!; composition of, (i2] ; deterior.ition of, 30iS; liist session of the Continental, 340; little interest in, 340; makes a suggestion regarding Western Tei-ri- tory,290; meetings of, 623; miffi'ations of. 300; of 1774 the, 2»4; pay of mem- bers of, 623; powers of, 613; rep7-esen- tatioii in, (il2, rights of, 642; supre- macy of laws of, 620, 621, 024; the Continental, called, 232; the first American, rise of, 219, the first, 113; threatened by the army, .3.33; weak- ness of, .337; the Panama, 4:9. Comiecficut ami .Massachusetts invaded by Dutch traders, 128. Connecticut claims Western territory, 65i INDEX. 110; favors Independence, 284; gov- ernors of, '217; migration to, from Massachnsetts, 108; no iiersecutin"- spirit in, 148; resists Andros, 214 ; territory of, 108. Connecticut Keserve, 110, 29), 122. Conscience, Story on freedom of 580. Consci'iption bill, passed by Congress, 522. Constitution, amendments to the, 552, 632; amendments to, i)roposed by the Hartford Convention, 413; a National, proposed by Hamilton, 338; compared with the Articles of Confederation, 344; debates on, 342, 347, discussion of, 353; ratification of, 34:); signed, 348; Webster on, 432; right to judge infractions of, G40, the, of Connecti- cut, the first example of its kind, 111; Virginia claimed to have framed the first adopted by an independent political society 284. Constitution, the Frigate, 400. Constitutional Convention, object of calling, 343. Construction, strict, doctrine of, .381. Continental Congress, the second, 203. Contracts not to be impaired, G2U. Convention, tlie Hartford, 410 413; the National Constitutional, 339, 343. Convicts brought to America, 89. Conway cabal the, 304. Cooke, -Jay, & Co., failure of, 501. Cooper, James Fenimore, 594. Cooper, Peter, constructs a locomotive, 584. Copyright and patents, 625. Corey, (iiles, pressed to death, 157. Cornwallis, attacks Charleston, 280; checked, 320; confideiit of success, 327; left to carry war into Vortli Car- olina and Virginia, 318; news of his surremler in England, 330, retreats from the South 324; severe measures in the South, 319; surprised at Prince- ton, 300; surrender of, .327. Coronado, Francisco Vasquez, visits Colorado and .Arizona, and discovers the pueblo of Zuni, 41. Correspondence, committee of, 2.32, 24 Corruption cliarged upon Clay and Adams, 427. Cortereal, Caspar, sent to explore America, 32, 90; carries away Indians 104. Cortes, Hernando, 35. Cotton industry not dependent on pro- tection, 574. Cotton mill, the first, 582 Cotton, Rev .lolin, of Boston, 109; infinence.s Davenport, 111. Cow-boys, the, 321. Cowpeiis, Hannah's, battle at, 324. Coxe Daniel, plan for Union, 220. Craiir, Sir James, plots against Amer- ica, 391 Creasy, Sir Edmund, on the battle of, Saratoga, 30:2. Credit Mobilier scandal, the, 554, 562. Creek Inilians, the give trouble in Georgia, 403. Crisis of 1837, 574; of 1873, 575. Crittenden, John Jay, makes eflfoito for peace, .505. Crittenden's plan rejected. 507. Crockett; Davy, at the battle of Horse- shoe Bend, 404; bi^chered at 1' Alamo, 445. Cruisers, American, dama2;e British shipping, 313. Cumberland road, the, 428. Currency, Confederate, depreciatioii of 534; confasion in, at the close of the Revolution, 337; depreciation of the Continental. 316. Curwen, Samuel, leaves America, 260; Journal quoted, 265; on the news of American success, 330; on sympatliy with America, 310; on the hopeless- ness of the Revolution, 297; on Ameri- can Independence 302. Custer, General, murdered, 563. Customs duties, cause for, 573. Cutler, jManasseh, agent of the Ohio company, 341. Cuzco, remains at, 64. Dana Richard Henry, .594. Dartmouth College founded, 588. Davidson Aca Federal property seized by the South, 507. Federalist, tlie, 3-19. Federalists and Republicans, 317. Federalists convene at HarttorU, 4iu, 413- oDDOse admission ot Orleans, J90. Ferdinand and Isabella aid Columbus, Field, Cyrus W., and the ocean tele {inipli, 518. Fifty-four forty, or fight, 454. Fillmore, Millard, becomes President, 475; alienates his party, 519. _ Financial legislation 441); panic, of 1873,501 ^ , LT ■■ Finances, management of, by tiamii- ton, 351. ,, , T„™:„,. Fire-bell, in the night, the, of JefEei- son, 4-:5. , . ._. Fire-Katers receive their name, 470. Fiscal measures, the greatest of Amer- ica, 574. Five Fns surprised at Trenton, 299. HiKfiii.son, Rev. Francis 104 Hickeys " Constitution, 342. Hinckley, Thomas, 100. History, the turning-point in Amen Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 594. Home life, 144 Homespun clothes worn, 235 Homespun preparing to dress in, 232 Hood, General, driven from Atlanta 531; driven from Tennessee, \i^- Hooker. General commands at Ohan- celiorsville, 522. o/x.i.iuo Hooker, Rev. Thomas, goes to Connec- ticut, 108. Hopkins. Samuel, .593. Hopkinson .loseph, 593. Hornet's nest, of ^orth Carohna. the, 319 Horseshoe Bend battle at, 404. Itospitals f .r the sick 'V'^VI'f.f Hoise Houston, Sam, at the battle of Hoise- shoe Bend. 404; president of Texas, 445; takes Colonists to Texas 445. Howe, Sir Richard, in command of British Naval forces in America, 250. burns Falmouth 272. Impeachment. 622, 029; of Johnson, 547 Importation discouraged. 23o. Impressment of seamen 385. 444; stopped, 414 Improvements, internal, 42». Inauguration, the first in Washington, Income Tax, the, 57o. ^ , ^ ^ „„. Independence, birth of, in Boston, 228. Independence Declaration of ,007. Independence, Declaration of, drawn upr237; read before the Army. 295; tirst delaration of, 283. Independence, germs of, 114, 210, erowth of the spirit of, 225, 248; movement towards, 217, 284; not the desire of any before 1775, 218, 253; senii-centenuial celebration of, 418; voted by Coiigres-s, 285, 287. Independent treasury system^the, 440. Indian reservations, 389; Territory, esablished, 418; policy of Grant, Sbli; ravages, 172, 174; traits, .53; tribes. the. 47; war. hi 1790, 358; war of 18i6, 5(,3; wars, in 1830,35, 440; benehtted by the whites 103; delude Ue^oto, 72- encountered at Plymouth, 95; friendly relation with, 98; how in- fluenced by the French, ;15; Jef- ferson's treatment of 389; messa- cred 501; New York tries to keep them from taking part in the Revolu- tion, 250: Oglethorpe's dealnigs with, 141; Penn-s treatment of, 139; ravage Maine. 170; relations ot the whi es with, 103; rise of the, in the Noith- west 192 the, terrified by the whites. 110: their decrease before the Euro- peans came to America, 55; to be reg- ulated by Congress, 015; trouble fiom, in the Southwest, 179; war. among, 118; Washhigtou wishes to elevate, 358.' gress,298; expectsabrief war30.300 m lo^^ .^ Massachusetts, 151. Howells, William Dean, 595, on Gnad [JJ^'^^^ji^,,^ progress in, 582. enhutten, 185 • ' -"•" ennimen, iw. . .»j Howes, detestation of the, 297, at JNew HubbarifwiUiam, historian, 169 Huguenots in Carohna, 13b; sent iiom France to America, 75. Hull Captain Isaac, captures the Guei- Hult, General, disastrous campaign of 400. Khin^otAnSuS; banished from H^^CS^^^or a^ioma.J07 forced to remove troops from Boston 239. Iberville, Lemoine d', 124. Illinois admitted, 424. Illinois, County of. 308. Iowa, admitted 450. , Ireland contributes to the distress of Plymouth, 170. Iron, industry prfected, 574 Irving, Washington, 594; on oia JNew York, 209. y^Sf^lmh^ewfat^N^w Orleans, 409; censured by Congress. 438, discharges Xe-holders, 430; .executes BriU.h iivUnners 448; nominated toi riesi ent 428-; in the Creek war, 404; on the ckcuiation of a"ti-slavery pub - cations, 402; opposes ">' ti.atio.r 436; proposes a modihcation m the tariff, 431; reelection of, 432; takes I Pensacola, 409, I Jackson, T. J., death of, 552. INDEX. 6fi7 James, Henry, 595. Japan, opened by Perry, 477. Jamestown, founded, 87; saved from massacre, ]U0. Jay, Jolui, 5U3; effects a treaty with England, oti^, 37U. .Jealousies, colonial, 112, 219. Jealousy, among the States, 421. Jellerson, Thomas, 093; chosen Presi- dent, 37G; chosen \'ice-Piesident. 300; death of, 418: draws up tlie Declara- tion of independence, :..'87; draws up the Kentucky resolutions, '6V1; ignores a treaty witli England, in ISOG, '66b\ on lighting and voting, 522; on slav ery discussion, 42.5; opposes the slave trade, 201; presents a plan for organiz- ing tiie Nortliwesteri: Territory, 340; proposes exclusion of slavery from Ohio country. 357; Sec. of State, c;5.">. Jetferson and Hamilton, antagonism between, 355. JelVersoii"s embargo, 387; official life, 379; party opiioses nullification 413. policy regarding Internal Improve- ments, 428. Jersey, origin of the name, 132. Jersevs, the, grants of, 131 ; settlements in, !32. Jesuits, feeling against. 175. Johnson, Andrew, alienated from the Republican party, 549: becomes I'res- ident, 540; impeachment of, 547; mili- tary Governorof Tennessee, 545; and Congress, 540. Johnson family, the, of central New York, 279. Johnson, Samuel, of Columbia College, 503; Jolinaon, Dr. Sam., opposed to Amer- ica, 252. Johnson, Sir VVni., allied to Brant, 307. Johnston, Joseph E., at Atlanta, 528; surrenders to Sherman, 5."4, 540. Jolliet, Louis, explores tlie Mississippi Valley. 120, 185. Jones. Paul, exploits of. 315; hoists the first .-Vmerican flag, 314. Journalism, progress of, 593. Judicial, (lower of the Federal Govern- ment, 020. .ludicirtl powerof the United States, G35. Judiciary, distinct from ihe Executive and Legislative, 485. GIO. Jury trial gn;iranteed, 029. Jury trial, right of, G2o, 034. Ivalb, Jolin 300; monument to, 318; sent to the South, 38. ICalm, Peter, prophesies independence hi 1748, 225. Kansas admitted, 480, migration of Ne groes to 50.1; settled, 481. Kansas-Nebraska bill, 478. Kearney, Phili'> W., in Mexico. 458. Keitt, Lawrence M., on secession, 493. Kentucky, County of, 308 ' Kentucky enters the Union, 421, 422; Resolutions, 372, 4a3, 640, 645. Kentucky and Virginia resolations, declaratory only, 375. King George s War, 175, 180. Kii/g Av'illiaui's War, 172. King s hiountaui, battle of, 320. Knobel, Caspar, account of capture of Davis by, .041. Knowledge essential to good govern- ment, 581. Knownothing party 483. Knox, General Henry, 335; brings can- non to Cambridge, 271; draws up the plan for the organization of the Cm. cinnati 333; Secretary of War, 355. Kosciusko, Thaddeus, 306. Ku-klux Klan the, 558. L'Alamo, massacre of, 445. Laborers unemployed in 1837, 440. Lrtcoiiia named, 101. Laetanlius refuted, 4. Lafayette arrives 301; at Yorktown, 327; heliis Boston, 351; visits America the second time, 418. Lake (Jeorge, battle at, 188. . Lamb, agreement to eat none 233. Lands divided among the settlers at Plymouth, 100; trouble from sale of public, 432. Langdoii, John, receives Washington, 300. La Salle, Robert, death of, 124; sails for America, 121. Laudonnieie visits Florida, 77. Lava beds, fighting in. 501. Law. American, established by Mar- shall, 389. Law, John, interested m Louisiana, 178. Lawrence, Amos A., Treasurer of the Emigrant Aid Society, 481. Lawrence, Kansas, settled, 481; sacked, 482. Leather lack of in the South, 542. Lebon homnie Richard. 31.5. Lecompton convention, 480. Lee, Arthur sent to France 298. l,ee, (ieueral Charles, accompanies Washington from Piiiladclphia, 267; a soldier of fortune, i;72; maligns AVashington, 299; tried by court mart.'a 1,305. Lee, INIajor Henry, takes Paulus Hook, 312. Lee, Richard Henry, on the character of Washington, 370; opposes the slave trade, '228; speaks for indepen- dence 285. Lee. Kobert E., captures fort Steed- man, 537; determines to invade the North, 522; enters Antietani Valley, 521 ; honorable treatment of, liy Grant, ^.53; pride of the South in, 543; surrender of. 538. Leigh, Benjiimin W.. 437. Leisler, .Jacob revolts, 211. Length of the Revolutionary War, opinions regarding, 300. Leon, .Juan Ponce de, 35. 658 INDEX. Levees of Washlnffton, 3G6. Levett, Cbi-istoplier, explores the coast of Maine, lOJ. Lewis una Clarke, explorations of, 383, 454. Lexington, 'battle of, 25G; Iieadquarters of liancock and Adams at, 254. Liberator, the 402. Liberty of couscience and the press, (339 Liberty tree, the, of Boston, 234. Licuteiiant-Geueral, grade of. 528. Lincoln, Abraham, assassination of, 530; character of. 501); consults Grant an(l Sherman, 534; election -not the cause of s3cession, 491,407; nominated 491; ou the case of Chnrlcs 1.. 537; re-elected, 533; sketcli of .503; Spot Resolutions, 45'J; volunteers iu the Black Hawk war. 44G. Lii'.CDlii Benjamin, attempts to retake Savannah. 3 2; sent to the South, 311 ; superseded by Gates. 318. Literature, epoc'.is of American. 590. ]iroiires8 of, 587; slow propri-ess of, 594. Living, style of. iu England in the time of Elizabeth . 144. Livingstone, Edward, on the Louisana purchase. 380. Livingston, Robert, opposes the Stamp Tax, 232. Livingston, "William, asserts that an- thoi-ity should be derived from the people. 2.19. Local self-government in Now Eng- land, 200, 247. Locke, John, makes a plan for the gov- ermuent of Carolina, 135. Locofocos so nameil 4.')7. Locomotive, the first American, 584. Lo:; cabin campaign, the, 440. 441. Loiidon Company, the, 85, 114; patent ca;icelled, 114. Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 594; home the headquarters of Washing- ton 2G9; New England Tragedies quoted, 157. Long Island, operations on, 2C8. Lookout .Mountain battle of, 525. Lo'.ez, e.xecutioii of, "471 . Lost Tribes, supposed progenitors of the Indians, 44, l(iO. Louisburg, effect of. on the Revolu tion, 2,58; restored to France, 181 takinu- of, 183; attacked the seco.id tinie,")90; recollection of, stimulates patriotism, 242. Louisana admitted, 423; granted to Antoine Crozat. 179; ])urchnse 379 381, 454; settlement begun in, 124; ter- ritory of, 422; troops removed from, by Hayes, ,56G. Lovejoy, Bev. E. P., murder of, 4G2. LovewelPs war, 170. Lowell, .Tames Russell, 594; on "Wash- intjton. 290. Lowell s New England two Centuries ago, 1G2 Lutherans, the, appear in N. T , 580i Luxury in England and America, 145 Luzerne, the i''rench minister, 32G. Lynn settled, lOG, Lyon, General, chastises the Modocs, 501. .Vlacaulay"s attack on Penn, 141. .VlacUonough. Commodore, at Lake Charaplaiii, 408. .Machias. a prize taken at, 3!4. MacClellan, George 13 , sketch of. 515. MoComb, General, meets the British, 408. Mackinaw, treacherous capture of, 192. McLano, Louis, Secretary of the Treas- ury 438. Madison. James, 589, 593; choseii Presi- dent, 394; on Stateand Federal power, 344; o:\ t;:e growth of Independence, 213; on the social condition of Vir- ginia. 20G, opposed to nullification, 372; retirement of. 41G. Magalhaens, Fernnndo, 36. .Magellan, Strait of, 30. .Maiiew, Thomas, labors among the In- dians. 1G7. Mails, anti-slavery publications in the, 402; infrequency of, 348. Maine admitted, 424; named, 102; rav- aged by Indians, 170; settlement in, 91. Mallery, Colonel Garrick, on the early Americans, 50. Malvern Hill, battle of , 520. .Mauiissas, battle of. 514. Mailamus cou!icil!ors api>ointed. 242. .Mandeville. Sir John, on the shape of the earth, 3. .Manlioo 1, as between the North and tlie South, 515 vianhattan Island, houses erected on, 127. Maimfactures, American, England jeal- ous of, 220; restrained by England, \o.)\ pros--.crity of , 418. Mauufactming stimulated by the em- b.ir.'TO, 573, Miirb'ois, M., sells Louisana for Fiance, 331. Marcv, Governor, of New York, saying of, 429. Marietta, settlement of, 341. Marinot, the cook, 309. Marion, Francis, the South Carolina patriot. 318. .Mar(iuette, .lacqnes, the Jesuit mis- sionarv, 120. 1:^1, 185. Marshall, ,Iohn, .389, 593. Martin, Luther, opposed to the consti- tution 347. Maityis hi the cause of discovery, 73, 124, 12C. Marvlan. Neutral Ground, the, .wi. r,,.. Va,, Keutrality the of {•;"gl;^"^l: '^'''^Xi^l Bureii's proclamatioi, of, 4-1^ \vai,u iuRtou-s proclaination ot aol. Neutrals, rii;lits of o'Jb, 501; effect 01 tne civn «u,. "i.- , ---, supposed to be divuled in l«Ol, 4J8, r.n.l SoutU, differences betvvee.i 345. Korclieastern route to India, 3 , 1-5. Northerners reported to be no niatcU for Southerners, ■I'J'J Amer- Nortlunen supposed visits of to Amei ica, 18, ^-t iuRtou s prociaiM.i. ^.. -. ^^- ^ jg_ .^^ Neutrals, rights of ■''J*^-,^ ,,,,., .^ the Northwestern Territory, tlie, 292, act New Aiuster.Uu.i ^''^'^'''^^'^.,,.^^^^^ foruung 340, cession of, 422; no Slav- E^srqs; ais- - - .tzm-^-t;-:.., ..«. NewioJudlaudttsUeries deputes about, New Hampshire favors I"^P.^"'\^"^,^. 285: -rants, :«8; lil)erality of settlei. "^ '. rr. „i i>,r .In ni A ason, 101 285; tirants, ;ws luic .n.^j -■-- of i4s; named by -lohn Mason, 101 New Hav'en founded, i '^^^^^^^^^^^ 210; sacked by Tryon, 31^, a-nd ^ou iiecticut unite'!, 211. .New Jersey, Collc5;e of, founaed, 58. ^ r.,„ fi,o onvf innient, orz. Nova Scotia named lOl. Xullitication, 431, 643; conceinned, 437, Madison on. STf); opposed 413. oppo- sition to, in IT'.)'.", 37-. Office, rotation in, 311); tenure of, 547, iiolders, changes in, 4'zJ. Oaletliorpe, James K'lward, 141, con 'filiates the Indians 180. Ohio Company, the, 223, 341; the first, Oldo' constitution of on religion, mor- alitv and knowledoe 581. 01 io region, pla„s for gove'-nnren of, 340; taken possession of by Fiance, Oldli'am, John, at Biddeford, 103; killed by the I'equots, 100. Old' Man klo(pient, the, 42, 587- Old Man l'-lo(pieni, luc, ^-.. ^ ,„ ... .,, ^ .. -' -„-„„t :u''01.1 South .Meeting-house. 214, Warien system for the So^'f,''"'"^' !' .J, "' speaks in, 250. ^ ^^ ^ _ \Vashington-s -et-vat throng , 29. • L«l,;^(^„, b\i , the of 18,50, 4,2. New London burned 'y ,^, '*^'.' 'j/ip of iopechancanough slain, 1('.'- New Orleans founded, l.O ^Jf^feiuglopequam Creek, battle of, 52a 40;): importance of, 40^, ,>e:oicing „i , i . , ,,„.,i nt Euirla 40;): importance "'>,.'"'!„,:;',•', f,.„,° over the victory of, 415; taken fioni the Confederates, 519. Newport, Round Tower at 24. ■NTHVvsnaners the modern, .jso. NevrivorHtime of the discovery of, New York, draft riots in 523; in old i>ew 1"")^ :.,^i.,,i<>,i in Xewtnirlaiid, Orders in council of England, 387, repealed by England. 398. nvdin-mce of 1787, the, 293, 294, 3W. 8reoou admitte.!,' 486; question, the, 4r;4. Osceola, war with, 448. O^sawattomie Ks., burned, 482. ^^york. draft nots ii. 523; in old Ossa^tomie^K^^ times, 209; included in New England p-- 1^i„„torthn, 189. .^ . .. „ 212; patriotism of, f^^^^'^ ' ^^i^Lns" proposed as a member of the way for the confederatuin, j^-'". ' ^ territory_of, 423. fuses to pay ^o-; 'l''"V^^.''''ferSsiorenauo, Francisco, b/. to New Amstoruain, i.j", >-■— i - Meeting of the «•'«* Congress 113 wrongly supposed to be loyai King Geoige, 252. Niagara battle of, 407. Nicollet the explorer 116. f, , Nicholas, George, m^'^'fif^^, 'If I^ff "yo^ draft of Kentucky resolutions, 3,-. Nobility titles of, 626. Nolan. Philip, murdered in iexas, ■*-i+. Nordeuskiold, Adolf Eric, ol. Norrid-ewock Indians overcome, 1-6. Norsemen, visits ot the. .-■*; -" „ , „g North Carolina favors ""d^t'^';, '^"p^' 283; gives up her claim on.Tennessee 422; massacre in, 177; university ot, founded, 589 wishes North, Lord and his policy, 230, wisnes to conciliate, 304 Ov^^ndiwtes'ioCaliforniaexplored. Over-production, doctrine of, 573. picitic railway, the completion ot^^^^^^^^^ railways, 5C2; surveys for loutes oi, Fadfic region, .aained by the Mexican treaty 467; settlements on t le, 454. pSfr.ani.'Ge,neral. defeated at New Palei-que, remains at' w- . ^eiT-nt Itulians and WlV|<^s- l^^. Panama iVIission, the, 429. Parncof 1857, 5(1; of 1809 555 Paper, lack of, in the South, S-w INDEX. 661 Paper money, embarrassment fi'om surplus of, 430. Paper oiled, used in windows, 146. Taratlise, the terrestial. '11. Parker, Aniasa .1., chairman of the peace confeieiice, 506. Parliament encourages missionary work, 168, plans to divide the Amer- icans, 248; proposes to conciliate, 303, 304. Parkman, Francis, on the early Amer icans, 48, 53; "Pioneers of France," 79, 117. Parties forming 347. Partisan warfare in the South, 311. Party feeling low, 357, 418; strife after the Washington administrations, 370 Patents andcOj;yriglits 625. Patriotism of Isew York 290. Patriots 1< ave Boston, 2( 0. Patrions, the Dutch, 127. Patterson, Connnodore, overcomes the jiirates of Barataria, 408. Patterson, William, olfers a i)lan for the government, 342. Paid JohnjCalls himself Paul-Tones, 314 Panhjinsr, rlolm, one of tliecapturers of Andre, 32 ! . Peace after the war of 1812, 415. Peace Conference, the, at Albany, 506 at Washington, 507. Pierce, FranKlin nominated, 476. Fenia<]uid, a fort erected at, 173. Peniberlon, Genera), at Vicksburg, .523. Penn. William, obtains a grant of Penn sylvania, 136. Pennsylvania declares against the Writs of Assistance, 236; invaded by Lee 52_'; toleration in, 151; Univer sity of, founded, 221 , 588. Pensacola, taken from the British by Jackson, 409. People, the, sovereignty of, 432. Pepperell, Sir William, at Louisburg, 183. Pequot Indians, war declared against, 109. Percy, Lord, flight of, 258; takes re-in forcemeats to Lexington, 256; Perkins, Jacob, invents a nail machine 582. Perry, Commodore, opens Japan, 477. Perry, (Commodore I). PL, creates a navy o;i the lakes, 403. Persecution general in America, 206 Personal libsrty laws, the, of the Northern States, 477. Persons, importation of, 625; taken in wai', how divided by the New i ng land Confederation, 003. Pet banks, 438. Peters, Richard, on the deeds of Ar nold, 316. Petersburg, capture of 537. Peyster, -L W., de, pleads for the To ries, 279. Philadelphia, laid out, 139; popula- tion of, 369; social life in, 368. Philip, successor of Massassoit, 168. Phipps, Sir William, takes Annapolis, 172. Pickens, General Andrew. 318. Pickering, Timothy, not surprised at Arnold s treachery, 316; resists Gages forces, 250 Pilgrims, the, at Plymouth, 91; Ka- con's view of their predecessors, 249; landing of the at Plymouth, 95, 98; social compact of the, 92, 601. Pillow, Fort, slaughter at, 532. Pinckney, Charles C, ordered to leave France, 370; olfers a plan for the G vernment .342. Pinzon deserts Columbus 16. PirateS; the, of the .Mediterranean, 382; tribute to, paid by United States 415. Pitt, Williaui, 230; lays the foundation of the Western Rei>ublic, 19i ; opin- ion of the Continental Congress, 244; plans the driving out of the French from .\merica 180; thinks the Amer- ican Union i)ernianent, 240; urges the I'emoval of forces from Boston, 248; Camilenand Barre honored, 2.34; and Burke oppose the king, 252. Pittsburg named. 190; riots in, 567. Pittsburg Landing, battle of, 519. Pizarro, Francisco, 40. Plantation the, in the South, 208. Plymouth, colony, Adams on 92; Gov- ernors, 100; united to JMass . 100. Plyjnoutli company, 85, 114; dissolved, lOi; grant divided. 101 Plymouth Coinicil, the 91. Plymouth, iilgrims at, 91; Kock, 95, Pocahontas, the .story of, 88, 00. Poetry, early cultivation of, 594. Political misconceptions, 408; parties formin.g, 347. Polk, James K., elected 452. Pollard, on the battle of Bull Run, 515. Polo, Marco, travels of, 4. Polygamy, suppression of, 571; and slavery opposed by the Republican party,' 484. Pontiac, the conspiracy of, 191; death of, 193. Poore Be!i Perley .'178. Fopjinm, George arrives at the Ken- nebec, 86. Fopulation of the country at the end of the old French and Indian war, 193. Port bill goes into operation, 242. Port Hudson, siu'render of, 524. Portlnntl, .Maine, 102. Post OfRce Dcjiartment 219. Tost Roads, how established, 624. Postal facilities, 348. Fotomac, Army of the, to operate igainst Lse, 528; camnai.^-n of,' 420. Poverty at the close of the Revolu- tion, ;537. Powhattan, 88, 90; and the whites, 164. J "o well, .1 W , corrects some anthro- polo-^ical errors, .50. INDEJt. Pownall, Govemor Thomas, calls the people " sovereign," 417. K. ayer, Franklin's proposition for 345 I'rescott, Samuel, accompanies Re- vere, 254. Frescott, William, starts for Buuker Hill, 2(;4, 1 rescott, William H., 594. I resbyteiians, the, appear, 581 ; Scotch, arrive in America, 101 President, duties of, G24, 02(i; how chosen, U35; propositions regarding election of, 414, President, the American friiiate, 397. Presidential candidates, 42t; election contested, 505; the first, 349: nomi- nations, 433. Presidency, relative rank of, 3G8. Press, freetates, called for, 470; completion of the ve-ortianization of, 555, dissatistied with the tariff; 574; effect of the civil war upon, 541; measures of Grant in disapproved, 5G0; sentiments of , 543; the, opijosed to a iirotective tariff, 431 ; i econstruc- tion in the, 545; visited by AVashing- ton. 307; and North, dil'ierences be- tween, 345. South Carolina alarmed at the increase of negroes, 2L8; for ui.ion, 23L;; doc- trine'of nullificati not, 372; holds a Provincial Congress, 248; indepen- dent spirit in, 22.i; nullitication in,' 433; patriotism of, iiSJ; secedes, 493. South Sea Scheme the, 179. .Duutheni coast ravaged by the British, 404. Southern gentleman, the, 207. Southern people, the, opposed to war, 511. Southwest, efforts of the British in, 408. Sovereigns, the people first called, 417. J^pain cedes B^lorida to the United States, 4i8; plan to taKe her South American possessions, 384; refuses the right of deposit at New Orleans, 380; and Fngland, war between, 142. Spaniards, the, incite the Yemassees against the whites, 177. Spanish Succession, war of the, 173. .Specie circular, the, of Jacksor. 439. opecie payments, resumption of, recom- mended by Hayes, 507; resumntion of, 570. Speculation caused by the embargo and war of 1812, 573; facilitated, 438. Speech, freedom of, emphasized by Constitutional amendments. 354. .Spencer, Herbert, his errors regarding anthropology, 50; on the American character 590. Spoils belong to victors, 429. S|jot lesoUitions, the, of Lii coin, 456. Spotted Tail, 503. Spottsylvania, C. H., 528. Squatter sovereignty, 478. Stamp A-Ct repealed, 234. Stamp tax, the, 220, 231. Stamp taxes after the civil war, 548. Stamped paper seized and burned, 233. Standish, Miles, 95 99. Stanton, removal of. 547. Mar of the West, the, tired on, 507. Stark, John, roused by the battles of Lexington and Concord, 259. State Governments, guards needed against, 375; ojiposed to the 1 ed- eral Government, 348 State rights as held by Madison, 375; Calhoun the advocate of, 397; and confederate risihts, 219, and nullifica- tion, 432; jealousy for, 293; supported by South Carolina, 433 State sovereignty, 342; Hamilton's op- position to, 343; and the Supreme Court 48.J. ;^ tate, tl e, superior to the Union, doc- trine of, 3()0. INDEX. 66b States, 396 ; admiggioii of new, 421, 422, 424: disputes between, how decided, 614; financially embarrassed, 440; have no right to secede, 413; how admitted, 630; power of, increased b}' amendments to the constitution, 353; relation of Congress to, 630; rights of, 012; rights asserted, 641, 045; and the general government, relations between, 432. Steamboat, the first practical, 388. Steam engines. 582. Steamship, the first to cross the At Ian tic, 418, 584 Stedman, Edmund Clarence, 59, 595. Steel rails protected, 575. Stephens, Alexander H , chosen Vice- President of the Confederacy. 494; against secession, 497; at Fortress Monroe. 534; on slavery, 511 ; sketch of 495. Steuben, Baron, 306. Stiles. Ezra 593, makes an itinerary for an English traveller, 240. Stony Point taken by Wayne, 311. Story, Judge, on Marshall, 389; on the Baptists 580. Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 594 Strict construction, doctrine of, ig nored m the Louisiana purchase, 381. Strict constructionists, 392. Stuarts, despotism of, 212. Stuyvesant, Peter, 127, 128; asks re- turn of fugitive slaves, 357; favors negro slavery, 200; persecutes Quak- ers, and overcomes the Swedes, 129. Sub-treasury system, the, 440. Suffrage, right of, 619; under the con- stitutional amendments, 552. Sugar Law, the, 226, 234. Sullivan, messenger between Howe and Congress 298. Sumner, Charles, attacked by Brooks, 488. Sumter, General Thomas 318. Sumter, Fort, attacked, 512; supplies sent to. 500. Sumptuary laws. 158. Sunday, observance of, 160. Supreme Court, the, on slavery, 474; tendencies of decisions of, 485. Swanzey attacked by Indians, 168. Swedish colony, a, in Delaware, 129. Swedes in Pennsylvania, 139. Talleyrand refuses to treat with Amer- ican arabassadors, 371; retraces his steps, 375. Tammany Hall, meeting in, 437. Taney, Roger B., carries out Jackson's desires, 438 Tappan, the place of the execution of Andre, 321. Tariff, the, changes in, 573; the Amer- ican system of, 429; divides North and South, 357; discussions, 431 ; the, of 1883, 576. "Earleton, (Jeneral Banister, in the Sooth, 323. Taxation determined on by England, 220. Taxes, 626; heavy, after the civil war, 548; reduced, 575. Taylor, Zachary a candicate for the Presidency, 467; in Mexico, 456, 157, 458, 460, 461; death of, 472. Tea Party, the Boston, 240. Tea refused, 235. Tea and coffee, not used in early colonial times, 159. Tecumseh, Chief of the ^hawnees. life and death of, 403. Telegraph, early days of the, 585. Telegraphy, ocean, 548. Telephone the. patented, 583. Tennessee enters the Union, 421, 422; legislature of, nominates 'Jackson, 428; sharpshooters, at New Orleans, 410; volunteers under Jackson, 404. Tennessee the lam, 532. Tenure of office 547. Terra del Fuego, degradation of the inhabitants of, 66. Terrestrial Paradise, the, 3. Territories, how governed, 631; slavery in the, 357. 425, 471, 472. Territory of the United States, 294; south of the Ohio, slavery in, 357. Teutonic town system, 206. Texas admitted to the Union, 446, 450, 456. Texas, annexation of, 431 ; urged by Calhoun, 445; discussed, 446; boun- dary of, 444, 455; declares itself in- dependent, 445. Thanksgiving, the New England feast, 160. Thatcher, Oxenbridge, on connection with England. 233 Theology, schools of, 590. Third term, efforts to nominate Grant for a, 570. Thomas, General, at Nashville, 532. Thomson, Charles, the Sam Adams of Philadelphia, 287. Tiahuanaco, remains at, 65. Ticonderoga taken by Allan, 262; taken by the English, 191. Tiiden, Samuel J., candidate for Presi- dent, 565. Times, the London, on efforts in the Southwest, 408. Tippecanoe, battle of, 403. Titicaca, Lake, remains at, 64 Title, the. of the President, 367. Pobacco, laws regulating the use of, 159. Tocqueville, Alexis de, on Plymouth Rock, 95. Tolerance, religious, not professed by the Pilgrims of Plymouth, 92. Toleration in Maryland, 133. Toombs Robert, on s'avery, 473. Topeka, Ks., convention at, 481. Tories, astonished at Boston by Wash- ington's success, 277; the, desert their Cambridge homes, 259; have no faith 6ti6 INDEX. in Anieiican union, 249; in the South worried by Marion, Pickeiisand Sum- ter, 318; join the Indians in massa- cres 307; leave for England, 277; nam!es of some, 2G1; numerous ni the South, 311; tlie object of English iestinff 261; on the Committee ot Safety,' 296; to be protected by Eng- land, 248. Tours of Washington, 366. Towne's history of the Constitution, 342. . . • * Townseud, would deprive America ot its charters, 235. Township system, influence of the ^ew England, 388. Trade, English Board of, 225. Trade revived by the adoption of the Constitution, 354. Travel, improvement in modes ot, 3»»; modes of, 146. „.^ , ■ .,„ Treason dettned, 630; by Ritchie, 413 embarrassments regarding, 348; re marks ab .ut at the time of forming the constitution, 348. &-eaties, 450; how made, 628; not to be made by States, 612. Ireaty at the close of the Revolution 330; with England ignored by Jeffer son, 386; with France in 1800, 376. Trenton, surprise of, 299. Tribune, the New York, 560. Trimountain, an early name of Boston, Tripoli, forced to renounce its claims to tribute, 415; war with, 382. Troops ordered to Boston, 236. Tryon, Governor, at New \ork, IW, claims Vermont as a part of New York, 338; sacks several towns, 313. Tunis forced to give up its claim to blackmail, 415. Turgot, Anne Robert Jacques, ^17 Turning-point in American history, 191. Tuscarora Indians, massacre by, 177. Tyler, John, becomes President, 44^, chairman of the peace conference, 507; alienation of his party, 549. Uncas, accused by Canonchet, 169. Underground raih-oad, the, 4i4. United Colonies, the, of New England, their union to be perpetual, 602. United States loan refused in Europe, 440; phenomena presented in tne, 596; territory 294. ^ , Union an indissoluble, recommended by Washington, 334; the Albany plan for, 223 ; anonvmons plan for. 222; Archibald Kennedy's plan for. 222; .lelayed by the claims to Western territory, 288; demanded, 231; de- sired by the New England colonies, 112; determined upon, 232; difficulty in forming. 219; dissolution of, as depicted by Jackson, 4.36; a fadure, 413 ; favored by England, 223; fee- bleness of, 337 ; the lirst on the Cii tinent, 113 ; Franklin's plan for, 220, 223, 263 ; growth of the spirit of, 229; interests of neglected by Congress, 308; IventvicUy professes loyalty to, 646; knell of t)ie, 425; Lincoln on the, 509; movement towards a more per- fect, 339; need of seen, 219; obstacles to the, 103 ; only cared for in the presence of danger, 351 ; Pemi's plan for, 220; proposition to dissolve, 426; safety in, 543; speech, the, of Web- ster, 472; threats of dissolution of 399; the thirteen colonies pledged to, 242; under the constitution, AVebster on, 697; Vermont admitted to, 338; war for preserving, 512; Webster or. the, 432. Union College founded, 589. Upshall, Nicholas, protests against in- tolerance, 152. Utica, no pent up, 310. Vaca, Cabeza de, 41, 70. Valley Forge, winter at, 303. Van Buren chosen President, 439; nom- inated as Vice-President, 433. Vane, Henry, 107. Van Rensselaer, Kilaen, 127. Van Wart, Isaac, one of the capturers of Andre, 321. Vasquez carries away Indians, 164. Vassar College founded, 590. Vergeimes, Count de, se:«ds informa- tion to Franklin, 329. Vermont, enters the Union 421, 422, reasons for keeping out of the Union, 421 ; settlement of, 338. Verrazano, Giovanni de, 39, 90. Versatility, the, of the American char- acter, 595. Very. Jones, sonnet by, 60. Vespucci, Amerigo, 32. Vestry, the, in the South, 208. Vice-President, duties of, 622 627. Vicksburg, Sherman at, 52o; taken by Grant. 523. Victors and spoils. 429. Villegagnon leads a Protestant colony to Brazil. 76. Vines, Richard, at Saco, 103. Virginia, acts as mediator, 437; calls for a constitutional convention. 339; centre of the last scenes <3f the Revolution, 326; claims \V est- ern territory, 308; described in Mar- ston's play, 84; declaration of rights. ■'33 618; declares against the writs oi Assistance, 236; discountenances the slave trade, 200; emigrants from, 201 ■ gives up her claim on Kentucky, loo'. legislature declares against nul- lification. 372; makes the first declar- ation of Independence, 283; named, 83- ouposes the stamp act, 231; op- nosed to the 8lave trade 'fS; orgf"" izes operations in the West .308, pa- tent, the. 85; plan for the American government, 342; resolutions of 1.98 •99, 372. 375, 637; representative gov- INDEX. 661 ernment In, 89; social distinctions in, 195; toleration in, 151 ; university of, 389; Masbacliusetts and Carolina call for a congress, 23J. Wadswortli, Capt. Joseph, said to have hidden the Connecticut Charter, V!14. Waldron, Major, entraps Indians, 170. Wallace, Gen. Lewis, at Monocacy, 529. Walloon colonists, 127. War, charges of, how paid, 013; civil, threatened, 347; duties levied, 574; of 1812, protests against, 399; of 1812, a party measure, 390; cf. ''.812, opposi- tion to, 410; of 1801. object of the North in, 512; of secession, causes of 498, 499; persons taken in, how appro- priated, 603; with England, demand- ed, 3G1. Ward, Artemas, at the head of the pro- vincial army, 249; at the head of an army, 259, Ward, Xatlianiel, the "simple cobbler oLAgawam," on tolei'ation, 155. "VwB^ants, General, oppressive, 229, 019, 033. Warren, Joseph, address on the anni- versai'y of the Boston Massacre, 250; president of congress, 201; falls at Bunker Hill, 205. Washhigton. G., .593; affected to tears, 335; appears as aid to Braddock, 187; appointed commander of the conti- nental forces, 204; aspersed, 304; at Mount Vernon, 330; at New York, 296; becomes known, 220; before the Provincial Congress, 269; death of 376; declares for resistance to Eiig land, 236; delivers his commission to Congress, 335; disbands the army 332; enters Boston, 278; inauguration of, 353; informed of his election as President, 352; leaves I'hiladelphia to take command of the army, 207; on the constitution, 350; in Phila., 320; opposed to the stamp tax, 231 ; satisfied with the militia, 208; retreats to Har- lem Heights, 298; near despair for the cause, 298; receives his connnission, 267; reliance on Providence of, 26 signs the Constitution, 348; skill of, in the Revolution, 328; troubled by the sympathy with the French Revo- lution, .361; unties North and South, .356; violently abused, 365. 376. Washington's address to the Governors at the close of the Revolution, 334; designs on Boston. 275; embargo, 387; "embarrassments as President, 358; farewell address. 365; powers augmented. .300; style of living, 366, 369; tours, 360. SV^ashington, William Augustine, 324. Washington appearance of the city in 1800, 378, 393; becomes the federal capital, 389; burned by the British, 407: peace conference at. .507; threat- ened bv Karly, 529; treaty of, 431, 443. Washington College founded, 589. Watauga Association, 338. Watson, Elkanah, rejjorts a memorable speech of George III., 332. Watertown, Mass., Eliot's labors at, 107; settled, 100. Wayne, Anthony, overcomes the In- dians, 358; talies Stony Point, 311. Webster, Daniel, 594: debates with Hayne, 432; negotiates the treaty ol Washington 443; on peaceable seces- sion, 493; on sectional jealousy, 491; on the American character and fu- ture, 597; on Union, and local ideas, 473; pride of the South in, 543; secre- tary of .State, 472; union speech, 472. Wellesley College founded, 590. Wells ravage', by Indians 170. Wentworth, John, charters Dartmouth college, 588; claims Vermont, 338. Wesley, John, opposed to American independence, 252; and Charles, in Georgia, 142. Western explorations, 389; limits of the colonies, 288. West, operations in, 308. Western lanfls, recommendation of Congress about, 290. Western Reserve, the, 110, 291. Western Reserve College, meeting of students of, 480. Western territory ceded to the Union. 291; territory claimed by Massachu- setts and Connecticut, 103, 110; terri- tory claimed by N'irffinia, 308; terri- tory, claims of the colonies to, delay union, 288; territory, French claims to, 1S5, I8(;. Western Female Seminary, 590. West Virginia idmitted. 523. Wethersfield settled, 108. Wheelwright, Rev. John, 107, 148. Whig party named, 437. Whipping-post, the, 1.58. Whitefield, Rev. George, a friend ot Pepperell, 183; in Georgia, 142; fa- vors slavery, 199. White Plains, Washington at, 305. Whitney, Asa, said to have proposed the Pacific railway, .555. Whitney's cotton gin, 582. Whittier, John Greenleaf, 594; on the acts of the Quakers, 154; "Death of the Fratricide," 307. Wilderness, battles of the, 528. Wilkes and liberty, 229. Wilkes, Caiit:iin Charles, 517. William and .Alary College. 101, 587. Williams, David, one of the capturere of Andre', .>21, Williams, T':phraim, founder of Wil- liams College, 188. Williams, Rogei-. arrives at Boston 106; l.inished from jNT.assachusctts 107; ' --tablislies religious freedom. •580; Ivi eps peace between whites am- Indians, 109. 'Villianis College founded, 589. 608 INDEX. ^ ^, Wilmingtoxi, N. C, taken, 532. Wilmot, David, introduces liis proviso, 461. Wilson, Henry, opposed to disunion, ■185. Winchester, Sheridan at, .5.>0. Winchester, defeat of Early at, 529. Wingfleld's Discourse of Virginia, 88. Winslow, Edward, governor, on Ply- mouth Colony, 100. Winslow. John, sent against Acadie, 187,189. Winslow, Josiah, 100. Whisor. Justin, editor, 157 Winthr'op, John arrives with the Massachusetts charter, 105. Wirt, candidate for Tresident, 443, 593 Witchcraft delusion, the 155. Witchcraft, views regarding, common to Europe and America, 155. Wolfe, death of, 191. Women colleges for, 590; condition of in the South during the Civil War, 542: iionei.a the tirst Va. colony, 89. Wool John IC., on the Rio Grande, 461 Woollen goods protected, 574. VVoolsey, '1'. 1) on the Hartford Con- vention, 410. World's 1 air, the of 1853, 4'i7. Writs of Assistance, 227; resisted bv Virginia, 230. Wyandot convention, 48G. Wyoming, massacre at, 307, Yale College founded, 101.587. Yeardley, Sir George, establishes i representative government in Vir- ginia, 89. Yemassees, rise against tlie Whites, 17"i Yellow fever in tlie South, 5()7. Yorktown close of the Revolution at 327. Young, Brigham, leader ot the Mor mons, 450. Yucatan, ancient remains in, 03. Zeisberger, David, the Moravian pion eer, 185. ZuTii, pueblo of, discovered, 41. ^^ Zubly, John J. becomes a tory, WK yy ; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 01 1 446 456 9