'/, ■■^ ^\% "^x euDDL LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. Shelf S^.-T^., UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. George Washington. Born February 22, 1732; died December 15, 1799. First President of the United States. SHORT HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA JTor t\)t mt of 3Segmners BY HORACE E. SCUDDER AUTHOR OF " A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES " WITH MAPS AND ILLUBTRTmONS ^ ^ TAINTOR BROTHERS & CO. NEW YORK AND CHICAGO BOSTON: WILLIAM WARE AND CO. rS.TV^ Copyrigld, 1890, By Horace E. Scudder. s ^z University Press: John Wilson a>d Sox, Cambridge. PREFACE. Careful observers of our public schools are well aware that the average limit of school age is not above thirteen or fourteen years. Within that period pupils are expected to learn to read, to write, and to spell; to have a fair acquaintance with numbers and with geography ; and to be able to express themselves with some facility in the ordinary forms of composition. If, there- fore, the majority of children in America are to learn anything of their country's history while they are in school, they should have it brought to their attention in some other form than is common. With this in mind I have prepared the following book. I have made it, purposely, for the most part a flowing narrative rather than a series of compact lessons. Thus it may be used as a reading-book and accomplish a double purpose by offering ex- ercise in reading, and by putting the reader in possession of the essential facts in the history of the country. I have sought not so much to emphasize particular incidents as to quicken interest in the continuous growth of the nation ; to show in some slight way that history is not the narrative of a series of chance events, but of a steady development ; to explain, ever so lightly, some- thing of the why and wherefore of our present nation. If, therefore, any one is disposed to find fault because I have not made this book more of a story, let him consider tliat I liave been writing a school-book, and have been more eager to give beginners a just notion of their country, than to give them the means of passing a few agreeable hours. I would rather run the risk of being a little tame than throw away an opportunity for making on a child's mind some lasting impression of the causes of his citizenship. Vi ' PREFACE. If, on the other hand, complaint is made that I have omitted many important facts and dates and have not packed my book with details of American history, I beg to remind my critic that the place for such a book is after the pupil is familiar with the broad outline of historic movement, not when his mind is ready only for the simple narrative. Until one has some general notion of the succession of causes and effects, individual names, incidents, and dates have little meaning, and to burden the memory Avith them is more likely to deaden the interest in history than to arouse the mind to a keener pursuit. I hope that after acquainting himself with the outline, which this book gives, the young reader will take up to advantage larger works both of history and of biography. In preparing this little work after already having written a History of the United States for schools, it is natural that I should follow somewhat tlie same line of thought as in the book for maturer students, but this is in no sense a condensation of the earlier volume. It is properly an introduction to it, or, where further study is imi)ossible, a substitute for it; while entirely independent, it will so far familiarize the young student with the main current of our history as to make the study of the larger volume more interesting and more profitable. A single word as to the conclusion of the book. I am heartily in sympathy with the growing disposition to teach the rights and duties of citizenship in our public schools ; but I am in- clined to think that the teaching of history is the most effective means for leading pupils to appreciate those rights and duties, and offers the most natural illustration. T have therefore closed this book Avith a brief summary of the relations of the person to the whole community. H. E. S. Cambridge, Mass., April, 1890. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Chapter 1. Across a Continent .... II. The United States of America III. First Inhabitants of America IV. How THE Indians lived . . V. The Far East VI. Christopher Columbus . . VII. Discovery of the New World VIII, Europe AND America . . IX. England and America . . X. The First English Colony . XI. Captain John Smith . . . XII, The Pilgrim Fathers . . XIII. The Plymouth Colony , , XIV. The Puritans XV. New England in America . XVI. The Settlers and the Indian XVII, Early New York .... XVIII. William Penn and the Friends XIX. Pennsylvania and Delaware XX, Maryland and Virginia XXL TheCarolinas XXII, Oglethorpe and Georgia . XXIII. The English in America XXIV. The French in America XXV. The Indian Tribes . . XXVI. The Fight for America XXVII. The French lose America , XXVIII. Boyhood of Benjamin Franklin XXIX. Franklin's Manhood . . XXX. England and her Coloniks XXXI. Why our Fathers resisted E XXXII. The Boston Tk a- Party . . XXXIII. Lexington and Concord XXXIV. Battle of Bunkfji Hill . XXXV. Thk Bheach widens . . . XXXVI, Fourth of July . . ■ . . . XXXVII. The War for Independence Page 9 11 12 14 18 22 26 29 33 36 39 42 45 48 52 57 59 61 63 67 71 73 76 78 81 82 85 89 95 103 106 110 116 120 126 128 131 Vlll Chapter XXX VIII XXXIX XL XLI XLII XLIJl XLIV XLV XL VI XLVll XLVllI XLIX L, LI LII LIII LIV LV LVI, LVII LVI II LIX LX LXI LXII LXIII LXIV LXV LXVI LXVir LXV III LXIX LXX LXXI LXX 1 1 LXXIII LXXIV CONTENTS. . Heroes of the War : The Plain People . . L Heroes OF THE War: The Leaders . . . . i. George Washington A Bundle of Sticks [. The New Government ........ . The Government at work '. The New World and the Old . The United States and Europe The Growth of the Country . . The North and the South. I The North AND the South. 11. . :. The North AND THE South. HI i. The East and the Wesf. 1 The East and the West. 11. '.. The East AND the West. Ill Free States and Slave . . . . . . The War with Mexico The Pacific Coast. 1 The Pacific Coast 11 . . . . The Contest about Slavep.y . Secession . The War for the Union. I . The War for the Union. II :. The War FOR THE Union. Ill AftePi the War . [. The Union once more '. The States of the Union. I '. The States of the Union. II [. The States of the Union. Ill . The States OF the Union. IV [. The Territories I. How WE GOVERN OURSELVES. — ThK PeOPLE . '. How WE GOVERN OURSELVES. — CoNGRESS . . [. How WE GOVERN OURSELVES. — TUK PRESIDENT . The Presidents I. How WE GOVERN OURSELVES. — TllE CoUltTS . Judges . . How WE GOVERN OURSELVES. — TheVoTER VM) Index 277 /C >: ^^it^M',^ :/9 |r;J^-AS X _::.djv>r A Map to niustrate Scutes of Narigators to Inc. v^ C oJ -I' [ind America in the 15tb and 16th Centuries. A SHORT HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. CHAPTER I. ACROSS A CONTINENT. 1. There is an office in ^ the city of Washington which has a great many telegraph wires running into it. Mes- sages are sent over tliese wires every day from all parts of the country, telling what the weather is ; and every day messages are sent back from Washington to all parts of the country, telling what the weather is likely to be on the following day. 2. Thus the captain, who has his vessel in harbor, may know beforehand if a storm is coming, and whether or not he shall hoist anchor and set sail. The farmer may know if it is wise for him to sow his grain or harvest his crop. The gardener may know if there is to be a frost ; and persons who are going on journeys may prepare for fair or for stormy weather. 3. The telegraph carries news in an instant from Washington to San Francisco, and from San Francisco to Washington ; but if a person were to travel by rail across tlie country night and day, he would be a week on the road. If he were to set out from Eastport, the farthermost town in Maine, to go to Brownsville in 10 ACROSS A CONTINENT. Texas on the borders of Mexico, he would need at least as much time. 4. If he were to ride a horse from Washington to San Francisco, and travel two hundred and fifty miles a week, it would take him three months to make the journey. If he were to go afoot, and walk a hundred miles every week, he would be eight months on the way. 5. If our traveler were taking this walk from Wash- ington to San Francisco, he w^ould in a few days cross a great range of mountains known as the Alleghany Mountains. Then he would follow the course of the Ohio River westward. By and by he would come to the great river Mississippi, which flows through the country from north to south. He would have made about one third of his journey. 6. After crossing the Mississippi, he would follow the current of another river flowing into it from the west. That river and its branches come down from the Rocky Mountains, and our traveler would have to cross that range. He would then have gone about two thirds of the way. 7. Thus far, his journey would have taken him by many cities and towns, and past many farms ; he would have seen the smoke from chimneys of factories and furnaces, and he would have seen great numbers of men, women, and children. 8. The last third of his journey would be more desolate. It would lead him across almost uninhabited plains to another range of mountains, the Sierra Nevada, and so he would descend to the Pacific Ocean. His walk would have taken him across a continent. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 11 CHAPTER II. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 1. In making this journey across the continent, there is a point where our traveler might say in one breath, " I am in Ohio," and in the next breath, " Now I am in Indiana ; " but he would not see any line separating the two States. In fact, he could cross the borders of ten States and two Territories. Sometimes he would pass through the capital of a State, and see the State House. 2. In Washington he might visit the Capitol, where men from all the States and Territories meet in Con- gress. He could hear their debates over the different plans proposed for making the country prosperous and orderly. He could go into the court-rooms, where the judges decide questions of law, and he might see the President at the White House. 3. He would hear the English languages almost everywhere, but he might hear also the language of every people of Europe, and many languages of Asia. He would see white, black, copper-colored, and yellow people. 4. How happens it that in the part of North America occupied by the United States there are now about sixty million people ; that there are villages and towns and cities, courts and schools and churches ; that all the people live under one government ? 5. When the fathers of some of us were living, scarcely a white man had crossed the Mississippi 12 FIRST INHABITANTS OF AMERICA. River. When the grandfathers of some of us were born, there was no such thing as the United States. A few i)ersons, not more than would now fill one of our cities, were scattered up and down the Atlan- tic coast. They called themselves English. They or their ancestors had come over from Europe to America. 6. ]]ut there was a time when the people living in Europe did not know there was any country like America on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. They had never sailed across the sea. Let us imagine what America was like before there was any white man living in it, and what kind of men lived hei'e. CHAPTER III. FIRST INHABITANTS OF AMERICA. 1. The Europeans who came to America called the people whom they found here Indians. If one has never seen an Indian or a picture of one, he must imagine a man with a complexion like cinnamon, Avith long, coarse, black hair, small eyes, and a narrow, re- treating forehead. His cheek-bones are higher than most white men's, and his lips are larger and thicker. 2. There are probably as many persons whom we call Indians now living within the United States as there were when tlie Indians were the only inhabitants of the country. Where are they ? A few are in Maine, more in New York, in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Tennessee ; but the greater part live west of the Mississippi River in places set apart for them by the whites. FIRST INHABITANTS OF AMERICA. 13 3. Before the white men came, the Indians were scat- tered over the whole country. They did not differ greatly from one another in general appearance and ways of living, but they did not all speak the same language. They were separated into groups or tribes, and called themselves by different names, as if they were different nations. 4. One tribe, or collection of tribes, occupied one part of the country, another tribe another. There was plenty of room for all. The Indians living west of the Mississippi River were more savage, but in the south- western part of the country there were tribes who lived then much as they do now. They had houses which they built in the sides of cliffs, and were gentler than most Indians. 5. The tribes which were most warlike, and most able to protect themselves against the whites when these came, were the Iroquois, who lived chiefly in what is now the State of New York, and the Creeks, who lived in the country now occupied by Georgia and Alabama. 6. How did these people first come to be in America ? Nobody knows certainly, but there are signs that they, or men like them, had long occupied the land. In the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers are great mounds, built by human hands. Sometimes they are in the shape of animals. There is one shaped like a serpent, and others are said to be like birds. 7. These mounds differ greatly in their contents. From some of them human and other animal bones, earthen jars and images, stone pipes, and ornaments of copper, silver, and stone have been taken ; in others nothing is found. Ashes have also been found in them, as if 14 HOW THE INDIANS LIVED. great fires had been built ; but whether these mounds were burial-places, or places of worship, or sites for rude houses, cannot always be told. 8. The Indians have built some of these mounds since white men came to the country. They say that their forefathers built others ; and as far back as we can go there were Indians living on the continent. They were the first inhabitants of America of whom we know anything. CHAPTER IV. HOW THE INDIANS LIVED. 1. It was not hard for the Indians to live here before the white man came. There were jjlenty of fish in the streams and lakes ; the woods held deer and foxes, and bears and turkeys, and smaller animals and birds ; upon the plains were vast herds of buffalo. 2. They also had great fields of corn, beans, and pumpkins. There w^ere many kinds of beri'ies and wild fruits. If everything else failed, they could dig roots and eat them. They did not look forward very far, however, so that there were times when they suffered severely from want of food. 3. They roasted their meats over the lire, and they also had earthenware pots in which they made stews and cooked their hominy. Some tribes had no earthen pots, but used water-tight baskets, and heated the water by putting in red-hot stones. When they went on jour- neys, they took with them a supply of parched corn. 4. They lived out of doors so much that they learned to use the woods and streams, and animals and birds. Scenes in Indian Life. Cliff Dwelling. — War Dance. — Exposure of the Dead. Travel by Water. — Chief's Head. 16 HOAV THE INDIANS LIVED. The Indians of the north stripped bark from birch-trees and made canoes. Those of the south, where there were no birches, dug out boats from trunks of trees. 5. They used bows and arrows, and they tipped the arrows with bone or flint. Fish-hboks they made of bone, and fish-lines of twisted wild hemp or the sinews of ani- mals. They made rude hatchets and spears, with blades and tips of stone. Many animals they caught in traps. 6. The buffalo was an animal, every part of which the Indian used. He cooked or dried the flesh for food. He tanned or otherwise dressed the skin and used it for his bed, and he cut it up for ropes and cords. The marrow served for fat. The sinews made bow-strings. The hair was twisted into ropes and halters, and spun and woven into a coarse cloth. The bones made war-clubs, and the shoulder-blades were used for hoes. 7. The Indians used the skin of the deer and bear and smaller animals for clothing, and covering for their feet, but they also wove cloth out of wild hemp and the inner bark of trees. They often ornamented the cloth with feathers, and colored their stuffs with juices and clay. They used fish-bones for needles, and sinews for thread. In winter they made snow-shoes out of bent wood and thongs of leather. 8. In the south, the houses were made of mud, or were caves. In the north, they were mostly tents of skin, or wigwams. The Indians built these wigwams by driving poles into the ground in a circle and bending them toward each other at the top. The poles were covered with bark or skins, and a bear's skin served for a door. 9. The fire was made in a hole in the ground, and some of the smoke escaped at the top, but a good HOW THE INDIANS L1VP:D. 17 part of it stayed in the wigwam. The Indians had no matches, but they had a way of kindling fire by nibbing two sticks together. 10. The women, or squaws, as they were called, stayed at home when the men went hunting or fighting. They took care of the fields, dressed the skins, made the clothing and fishing-nets, and helped to build the wig- wams, and to carry loads when the families moved from one place to another. 11. The children, or papooses, were often strapped to boards when they were little, and hung from the trees to swing in the air. As they grew older the boys learned to shoot and fish with their fathers, while the girls belped their mothers in the wigwams. 12. The tribes had villages, which were usually on the banks of some stream or lake where tlie fishing was good. Near the villages they planted their cornfields, and at the proper seasons they went into the woods to hunt. They had laws, and customs, and tliey had a rude way of writing by means of pictures. From time to time they held councils for debate as to what the tribe should do, and the strongest and wisest were among the number of their chiefs. 13. The tribes often fought with one another. Wheu Indians went to war, they fought tlieir enemies with bows and arrows, with spears, and with a kind of hatchet which they called a tomahawk. When an Indian killed an enemy, he scalped him. He was thought the bravest who had the largest number of scalps dangling from his belt. 14. To catch the beasts and birds and fishes, and to fight with success, the Indians needed to be quick run- ners, to have sharp eyes, and to be able to endure hard- 18 THE FAR EAST. ship. They learned to know the signs of their game, and to find their way through the woods by little marks whicli few white men would notice. 15. In their games also they were strong and alert. They were famous ball-players ; they jumped, ran races, shot their arrows at distant marks, and tried many feats of strength. They liked to dress finely, paint them- selves with bright colors, engage in strange dances, tell stories, and sing songs. 16. Some of their dances were acts of worship. Many of the stories which they told were about the beginning of things. They made much of dreams, and tried to peer into the future, to make out what happened after death. They had many forms of worship, but for the most part they called the sun their god. CHAPTER V. THE FAR EAST. 1. How came the people in America to be called Indians? Did they call themselves by that name? India is a great way from America, far to the west- ward. Indeed, unless one lives on tlie Pacific coast, one is most likely to go from the United States to India by way of Europe. 2. Such a traveler would probably take a steamer through the Mediterranean Sea to Egypt. Tlion lie would [)ass, by the Suez Canal, into the Red Sea, and thus on to Bombay. If he were going to China and Japan, he would cross the Indian Ocean, make his way through the East Indies, and so come to the end of his journey. THE FAR EAST. 19 3. The countries of India and China and Jnpan were once all known hy the general name ui India. India was then much farther in time from Europe than it is now. There was no Suez Canal through whicli vessels could pass, and there were no swift steamers. Travelers could reach the far East only by slow and dangerous land-journeys across the continent of Asia. 4. Now and then some hold man would make the journey, and bring back strange stories of what he had seen. Besides, long trains of camels came from the East to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. They were laden with costly silks, and gold and silver, and precious stones and spices. India was a rich and wonderful land to the people of Europe. 5. Once, great hosts of swarthy men of Asia crossed to Europe and Africa, and began to conquer those countries. They pushed along the southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea^ and finally crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and took possession of Spain. There they built splendid buildings and carried on commerce with the East. 6. After many hundred years the Moors, as these men were called, were driven out of Spain, but only after hard fighting. The war cost a great deal of money, and the king and queen of Spain, as well as the rulers of other European countries, became more impatient than ever to get hold of the riches of India. 7. If their ships could only sail to the East! But the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea was a wall which they could not get through. Was there no way round ? Tliat was what they began to ask themselves, 20 THE FAR EAST. and their bolder captains and sailors were trying to find such a way. 8. Before this time, ships had sailed in the Mediter- ranean Sea, and along the Atlantic coast of Europe. Sailors did not dare to go far out of sight of land, for they had no means of telling exactly where they were. They had no instruments by which they could reckon longitude. 9. Sometimes, however, they were driven by storms or heavy winds away from the coast. In this way the islands which lie to the westward of the coast of Africa were discovered. They afforded harbors into which Spanish and Italian and Portuguese vessels could run, and be made ready for new voyages. 10. The Portuguese were famous sailors, for their country was almost wholly on the seaboard, and had good harbors. They kept sailing farther and farther along the coast of Africa, wondering when they should come to the end of it. For seventy years they kept on trying, before they reached the Cape of Good Hope. 11. Meanwliile, others were asking if there were not a still shorter way to India. Learned men were very eager to find out all they could about tlic world on which tliey lived. Many were very sure the earth was a globe ; if so, then it was clear that India could not be very far west of Spain, since it was such a great distance to the east. 12. For they tliouirht the glolie much smaller than it really was. They did not suppose there was so much water. They knew how far it was to India if one went east ; they reckoned that it could not be over three thousand miles if one sailed west. THE FAR EAST. 21 13. But no one had sailed across that ocean which stretched away to the westward from the shores of Europe. The farthest any one had gone had been to the Canary Islands. Besides, In- dia lay to the west only if the world was a globe. Suppose it was not a globe ? Multitudes of people and some learned men did not believe tliat it was. Who had ever been round it ? There were terrible stories told of great monsters in the ocean, and of dark regions out of wliich no one could come alive. -TROPIC OF-CAP,HICORN L. from 10 GreeiiwicTi 20 East 22 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. CHAPTER VI. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 1. There were many who pored over their books and maps, and were persuaded that India could be found by sailing west. There was one who showed his faith by never resting until he had made the voyage. 2. Christopher Columbus w^as born in the province of Genoa, on the coast of Italy. His father was a weaver by trade, and the boy had liis own living to make. He went to school until he was fourteen years of age, and then he shut up his books and went to sea. 3. To be a seaman in those days was to lead a very adventurous life. Many of the vessels were manned by pirates, and all were armed in case of attack. The captains needed to be brave and skillful men. They were merchants also, buying and selling goods. When they came to new countries, they would build forts and take possession of the land in the name of the king or prince in whose service they sailed. 4. For about lifteen years, Columbus led the life of a seaman and captain. There are stories of bis having sailed with some of the Portuguese ships which pushed down the coast of Africa. Tliere are other stories of sea-fights in which he took part ; but it is hard to tell just what is true in the stories of the early life of Columbus. 5. He was not always at sea ; while he was on land he was often engaged in making and selling charts. He talked much with learned men, who were trying to get a more perfect understanding of the suriace of Christopher Columbus, Discoverer of America. Born 1436 (?) ; died 1506. 24 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. the earth. He read books written by the great geog- raphers who had lived in earlier days. He talked with sailors, and he became convinced that there was a short route to India across the Atlantic. 6. When a great idea becomes firmly lodged in the mind of an earnest man, it is pretty sure to drive him day by day until he puts it actually on trial. That is the way it is with great inventors. They study and work over a machine, maybe, until they can think of nothing else, and their friends are very apt to say they have gone crazy over it. 7. It was very much so with Columbus. For ten years his great idea grew more firmly fixed in his mind. He went on farther voyages, going as far north, it is thought, as Iceland. Among the northern people he might easily have heard news which would make liim more confident. Fishermen, hunting for new fishing- grounds, had pushed out to sea and come upon land far to the west. Hardy Norwegians had found Greenland, and there were dim stories of a country still farther west called Vinland. 8. Columbus could not carry out his plans by him- self ; he was poor. He had been too much absorbed in his great idea to get rich. So he tried to interest others. He went to the rich cities of Venice and Genoa. He is said to have sent his brother to England. He went with most hope to the king of Portugal, for Portugal was making great efforts to find a short way to India. 9. The council of the king shook their heads. But one of the number went privately to the king, and asked him why he did not quietly send one of his ships upon the plan Avhich Columbus had proposed, CHRISTOrHEli COLUMBUS. 25 and put it in charge of some trusty captain. Then they wpuld know if there was really any truth in his theory, and they would not be troubled by such a crazy fellow as Columbus, a mere dreamer. 10. The king had been half persuaded by Columbus, and he was mean enough to send a vessel secretly, but it went no farther than the Cape Verde Islands. The captain came back, and said the voyage was plainly impossible. He had not the faith of Columbus. 11. Columbus was indignant at such treatment. He would have nothing more to do with such a king, and he went in search of more honorable friends. Poor and forsaken, — his wife had died-, — he traveled on foot with his little boy. He came to a Spanish convent on the way, and asked for food and shelter. The prior of the convent was a generous and a learned man. He took care of the travelers, and Columbus, as was his wont, talked of his great idea. 12. The i)rior listened and believed, and from that time Columbus had one firm friend. More than that, the prior called in some merchants of a neighboring port, and they, too, heard and believed. Now Columbus took new courage ; he was not alone. Others had faith in him, and he would yet accomplish his great purpose. 13. He left his boy in the care of the monks at the convent, and went forward to see the king and queen of Spain ; but he was not so near success as he thought. For eight more weary years he talked and argued. Spain was fighting the Moors, and he even entered the army to gain the good will of the king and queen. 14. At last there was a great victory over the Moors, and the king and queen seemed ready to listen to Columbus in earnest. He told his plans, and asked 26 DISCOVERY OF THE NEW WOULD. for ships and men. They asked him what he wished lor his share if he shoukl really find new hinds. Colnm- bus replied that he must be governor of the lands, and have one tenth of all the wealth they brought. 15. The men who were acting for the king and queen said this was impossible. Columbus was now utterly out of patience with Spain. He mounted his mule and started for France. There a great king was on the throne, who would listen to him ; he would see what an opportunity was offered him. So Columbus turned his back on Spain. 16. This was the decisive moment. His friends, who were now men of influence, went to the queen and urged her to recall Columbus. If he carried his great plan to France, Spain would lose the glory and gain of what was sure to be done. The queen was at last con- vinced ; messengers were sent to bring back Columbus; and now his great idea was to be put to the test. CHAPTER VII. DISCOVERY OF THE NEW WORLD. 1. When Columbus made liis final agreement with Ferdinand and Isabella, the king and queen of Spain, he agreed to furnish one eighth of the cost of the expe- dition, and to be content with one eiglith of the wealth which the new land should produce. He had no money, but the merchants who had listened to him at the con- vent lent the needed sum. 2. He was so happy at the thouglit of carrying out his great plan, that he promised to devote the riches he sliould gain to the recovery of the holy sepulchre at DISCOVERY OF THE NEW WORLD. 27 Jerusalem, a religious object dear to Christians of that day. The sepulchre was in the hands of the Moslems, that is, of people who had the religion of the Moors, and Christians everywhere were eager to recover it. 3. Falos, a seaport of Spain, was in debt to the king and queen, and was ordered to fit out two vessels. Columbus was to provide a third, and to command the little fleet. But when he went to Palos, he found the town in an uproar. The people had heard of the expedition, and said it was sure death to go on it. Once more the merchants came forward, and not only offered their own vessels but agreed to go out in command of them. 4. The vessels of that day were small. Only one of the three which made up Columbus's fleet had a decl^ ; the other two were open boats, not so large as many of the schooners which now sail from port to port on our coast. The provisions were chiefly dried fish, enough to last a year. Besides, the sailors there were a number of Spanish gentlemen and priests. One of the great ob- jects in discovering new lands was to convert the people to Christianity. 5. Fortunately for the expedition these small vessels met no severe storms to separate them, or drive them back. They stopped for repairs at the Canary Islands, and then pushed out into the unknown waters. The wind blew steadily from the east for a fortnight, and the sailors were afraid that they were entering a region where there were no west winds to drive them home again ; but now and then the wind was against them, and their courage revived. 6. They came also into a vast floating mass of sea- weed, extending for hundreds of miles, and were greatly 28 DISCX)VERY OF THE NEW WORLD. alarmed, for they feared the vessels would strike on hidden rocks and reefs. They ])assed through in safety, however. But the farther they went from Spain, the more terrified the men became, and Columbus had hard work to control them. 7. He was steering for Japan, as he thouglit ; but when he had gone as far as was supposed necessary to reach that country, he noticed birds flying and other signs of land to the southwest. So Columbus changed his course, and at last one night, watching anxiously, he saw a light in the distance, it moved about, and it was impossible to say what it was. It may have been a light in a canoe. 8. Early tlie next morning a sailor on one of the other vessels saw in the moonlight a low sandy shore. It was land at last, and when morning came Columbus and others took boats and went ashore. They discov- ered that they were on an island, and they set uj) a great cross and declared that the land belonged to the king of Spain. 9. It was Oct. 12, 1492, when Columbus set foot on this island, which was one of the Bahamas. He im- agined it was off the coast of Japan or China. For several days he sailed about among the islands, and landed both on Hayti and on Cuba. He found a gen- tle, dusky i)eople living on these islands, who looked with wonder upon the white, bearded strangers. They exchanged presents, and, as the islanders had a few gold ornaments, the Spaniards looked eagerly about for gold mines. They were looking for the riches of India. 10. Colum])us returned to Spain in the following January. He took with him some of tlie natives and the simple gifts they had given him. He went in EUROPE AND AMERICA. 29 triumph to the court of Spain, and told the king and queen of the wonders he had found. A hove all, he had sailed westward three thousand miles, and found, as he supposed, a short route to India. 11. He made three other voyages, hut it is not certain that he ever set foot on the continent of America, and he died in the belief that he had discovered the coast of India. Since he had sailed west, the islands were called the West Indies. The people who inhabited them were called Indians. By and by, as new discoverers landed on the mainland and found the same sort of people there, they still called them Indians. CHAPTER VHI. EUROPE AND AMERICA. 1. We have seen how the Indians got their nnme, but how came America to be so called ? No sooner had the great discovery by Columbus become known than explorers from all the countries of Europe set out on similar voyages; but it was a long while before they knew that a great continent lay to the west of Europe, and that a wide ocean stretched beyond that continent to the shores of Cliina and Japan. 2. Thirty years after Columbus made his first voyage, a ship starting from Spain sailed round the world. Other ships followed, and the geographers who made maps and globes now knew that the world was much larger than had been supposed, and that there was far more water than land. 3. Although Columbus was really the discoverer of the new land, his name was never given to it. An Italian 30 EUROPE AND AMERICA. wiio was sailing in the service of Portugal explored the land lying far to the south of the West Indies, and gave an account of what he had seen. His name was given to the land, and it was called America. 4. That was what we know as South America, but the name gradually spread to the whole continent. When the people of Europe, except the Spanish, spoke of the country lying to the west, they called it all America, but they still called the people Indians. The Spaniards long continued to speak of the western lands as the Indies. 5. It was a wonderful hour for Europe when a new world was found. It was as if people were waking out of a long sleep. The art of printing had been invented not long before, and the cities were full of restless men who were eager to travel, to read books, and to find great treasures. 6. The important kingdoms at that time were Spain, Portugal, France, and England. Spain naturally sent explorers to the countries lying near the West Indies. They crossed from Cuba to Yucatan, and conquered the rich country of Mexico. When they were firmly fixed there, they sent parties north into what is now California ; and they conquered Central America and the countries on the Pacific coast of South America. 7. Portugal was a little kingdom, but it was a famous one. Portuguese ships first found a way round Africa to India, and Portuguese sailors discovered much of the eastern coast of South America. Thus Brazil came to be occupied by the Portuguese. 8. French fishermen, hunting for new fishing-grounds, had found the Banks of Newfoundland and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. So when the king of France was look- EUROPE AND AMERICA. 31 ing for a short way to India, he sent out captains who took these iishermen with them. 9. They visited the Gulf of St. Lawrence again, sailed up the broad river, and in the name of France took possession of all the country about. They followed the river to the Great Lakes, and finally discovered the waters of a river flowing southward. It was the Missis- sippi, and courageous explorers sailed to its mouth. 10. The Frenchmen who thus went far into the in- terior of the continent were soldiers, missionaries, and traders. The missionaries lived among the Indians and tried to convert them to Christianity. The soldiers built forts. They found the Indian tribes at war with one another, and they took sides with one tribe against another. 11. The ti-aders at the various mission stations and forts bought furs of the Indians, and in return sold them beads and knives. The French did not clear tlie forests and plant fields. They had a few gardens about the forts, and raised vegetables for the table ; but there were not many French families living in the new land. 12. While the French were thus trading with the Indians, the Dutch came also for the same purpose. Their native land, Holland, was a small country, but every foot of the soil was cultivated. The people had even made new land by draining the salt marshes and building great dikes, or banks, to keep out the ocean. 13. Since they lived by the sea, and their land was crossed by rivers and canals, they were sturdy sailors. Their vessels sailed mto every port of Europe, and they early found their way round Africa to India. They grew rich by trading, and built great cities and towns. 32 EUROPE AND AMERICA. They had been subjects of Spain, but they fought this most powerful kingdom of Europe and won their in- dependence. 14. In the year 1609 the Dutch also were looking for a shorter route to India, and found what is now the Dutch and Indians trading. great bay of New York, and the noble river which flows into it from the north. A Frenchman, coming through the woods from the north, discovered a lake to which he gave his name, Champlain, and the same year an Englishman, in the employ of the Dutch, sailed up the river as far as where Albany now stands. His name, Hudson, was aftei'ward given to the river. ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 83 15. The Dutch were disappointed that they had not found India, but they sent their ships to the great bay and river. Thev also established forts and tradin"'- places at Albany, at New York, and about the bay. They traded with the Indians for furs, but they also began to send out companies of men and women as set- tlers. Their rich men took possession of great tracts of land near the river and bay, for farms. CHAPTER IX. ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 1. One other European nation was to have a still more important place in America. Five years after Columbus made his first voyage to the West Indies, an I^^nglish vessel, commanded by one Cabot, crossed the Atlantic and visited the eastern coast of North America. 2. Like others, the English were hunting for a short route to India. At first they avoided the track of the Spanish and Portuguese, and sought for a northern route. They tried to sail round Norway and by the north coast of Asia. Then they tried the nortliwest passage, but were caught in the ice and found it im- possible to make any headway l)y that route. 3. Meanwhile the nation was growing stronger and more willing to run the risk of fighting Spain. Its brave captains sailed the south Atlantic, seized Spanish ships, and attacked Spanish towns. From being a nation of farmers, the English were fast becoming a nation of sailors, merchants, manufacturers, and fishermen. 4. A hundred years passed after Cabot made his voy- age, before English people began to settle in America: 34 ENGLAND AND AMERICA. but during that time English captains were sailing along the Atlantic coast. Just as the Spanish called the West Indies, and the countries lying about the Gulf of Mexico and parts of South America, their own, and as the French declared that the lands along the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi belonged to them, so the English claimed all the country extending from the St. Lawrence to Florida. 5. They even claimed the country where the Dutch had their trading-posts, but at first they did not interfere with the people living there. 6. Toward the end of the hundred years, great changes began to show themselves in England. There was an increase in the number of poor people. 'Long wars had used up the money of the kingdom, and had left many families without fathers and husbands. Food cost more, and it was not so easy to get a living. 7. Besides, when the wars ceased, there were a great many soldiers and idle persons, Avho were restless and discontented. They could not settle down to hard work at home, and they were kept on the alert by the stories brought back by sailors and travelers. 8. There was a change going on also in the religious life of England. Formerly, the king and people had regarded the Poj)e at Rome as head of the Church. Now, the kingdom had declared that the Church in Eng- land was independent of the Pope. Moreover, many said that the Church needed reforming, and they altered customs which the Pope declared necessary. 9. Not only so, but among the members of the Church of England there were many who said that the changes made were too slight, and some refused to have anvthing to do with this Church. They would worship William Penn, Founder of Pennsylvania. Boru 1644 ; died 1718. 86 THE FIRST ENGLISH COLONY. God as they believed they ought to worship Him, even if they were cast into prison for it. 10. Thus, for many reasons, England was coming to ])e an uncomfortable place to live in, or its })eople wei'e eager to try their fortunes in the new land across the water. A little more than a hundred years after Co- lumbus discovered the New World, Englishmen began to flock over to it. CHAPTER X. THE FIRST EN(iLISH COLONY. 1. In the year 1607, three small ships, carrying about a hundred persons, sailed up the James River, in Virginia. These Englishmen were looking for a good landing- ])lace, and they chose iinally a low peninsula. Here they began to build huts and to settle themselves. 2. They could hardly have chosen a worse place ; the river has already washed over the ground on which the first huts stood, and by and l)y the whole of the peninsula Avill be under water. Little now remains to mark the oUl settlement but the ruins of a church-tower and some old tombstones. Yet the })lace is famous as that where the earliest English colony in America was planted, — that is, the earliest that lasted. 3. The settlers named the place Jamestown, after James T., then king of England. The country bore the name of Virginia, a name given to it l)y the voyagers who came there in the reign of Elizabeth, the virgin, or unmarried, queen of England. 4. King James had given to a company of p]nglish- nicn a charter, or right to establish colonies in America. HE FIKST KNCxLTSII COLONY. 37 Tills company, wlicii it sent out the settlers, hoped for two thiiius, — to fiiul gold, and to discover some quick way from Virginia to India. So they sent out no fami- lies, no wives and children, but only men. 5. The men in this fnst company were of all sorts. Some were well- litted to work in the new country. The greater part, however, had never worked at home ; at any rate, they were not the kind to use axes in the woods, for they were gen- tlemen, jewelers, gold - refiners, and one was a perfumer. The jewelers and gold-refiners, per- ]ui])s, were to work the gold ; for every- body was crazy to find irold. 'r- ^J ^y^^Pt Comfort '7 L^ '^^^r~\C Henry Early Virginia. 6. They found some shining dust which they fancied to be gold, but it was only what is known as " fooFs gold." They loaded a ship with the useless dirt, and sent it back to England, but fortunately they sent in the same ship twenty turkeys. So the ship did not 38 THK VUIHT ENGLISH COLONY. luive a wholly useless cargo, for these turkeys were the first ever seen in Europe. 7. It chanced that some Englishmen liad tried, a few years before, to make a settlement not many miles away. They had failed, and the settlement perished miserably, but not before the settlers had angered the Indians who lived near, by unjust treatment of them. 8. Thus, when this new company of Englishmen came, the Indians watched them closely, and did not show clearly whether they would be friends or enemies. Not long after the settlement was begun, the Indians at- tacked the colonists while they were planting corn ; but presently a treaty was made with the chief Indian, Powhatan, and for a time the colony had peace. 9. Indeed, in the first summer the Indians saved the colony from a dreadful end. The whites were not used to the country. They had made their first settlement in a marshy spot, and sickness seized them. Half the colony died, and the rest would have perished of hunger if the Indians had not brought them corn and other food. 10. The colony had a hard struggle in its early days, but the company in England sent new settlers, and among them women and children. Yet, three years after the first coming, the people were so discournged that they actually abandoned the settlement and made ready to sail back to England. Just as they started, two ships came sailing up the river bringing new colo- nists and provisions. The people turned back and l)egan again to occupy tlie lan....,.>m.^...y >. 7»,-j;_. ii »n . ..m i . i. . . Alexander Hamilton. Born January ii, 1757 ; died July 12, 1804. First Secretary of the Treasury 54 NEW ENGLAND IN AMERICA. 2. They broiiglit no bishops with them. Tlicir min- isters had been pi'iests in tlie English Churcli, and most of the colonists were members of that Churcli. But now they formed their churches anew, and left out all those customs which had troubled them at home. Tiiey banded themselves together for religious purposes, and chose their own preachers and teachers. 3. They \vere English subjects, and they professed to be governed by English laws ; the charter from the king i-equired that they should do nothing contrary to the laws of England. But they were three thousand miles from England ; they had a General Court for settling tlieir own affairs ; they chose their own governor and other magistrates ; and as they were pretty much all of one way of thinking, they made such law^s as seemed to them to suit their needs. Especially they gave great heed to what the Old Testament said, for they thought they were in very much the same way as the Jews. Like them, they had been brought iuto this land of Canaan, they said, by the hand of God. 4. For ten years, ships w^ere constantly bringing new colonists from England, It was a troubled time in the old country, and many families were anxious to get away before war broke out. These immigrants were hard-AVorking men and women, — farmers, blacksmiths, carpenters, millers, masons, fishermen, merchants, and many ministers. The ministers were the learned men, and the peo])le looked to them for advice. 5. Towns first sprang up about Massachusetts Bay, but soon the new-comers pushed farther out into the wilderness to get more room. Explorers found the fer- tile valley of the Connecticut River, and some of the Plvmouth colony wished to settle there. The chief set- NEW EN(JLAND IX AMERICA. 55 tlement near Hartford was from the towns of Water- town, Dorchester, and Cambridge, at that time called Newtown, near Boston. 6. it took a great deal of courage to make these moves, and the people met with severe hardships. One fall, five years after Boston was founded, a large party of men, women, and children set out for the Connecticut River, driving their cattle before them. They sent their goods around in vessels. It was winter before they reached the end of their journey. The vessels had been forced to put back to Boston, for the ice blocked their way. Home of the settlers made their way back through the woods to their old home ; some remained, living on a little corn and on roots and by hunting, till spring came. 7. The little towns about Hartford appointed com- mittees, and these committees met and formed a General Court for the transaction of such business as the towns had in common. So began the colony of Connecticut. Afterward a colony was established in New Haven, by persons who came direct from England. 8. A generation later, the New Haven colony became a part of Connecticut ; but, until a few years ago, the two original colonies were represented in the State of Connecticut by two State capitals, one at Hartford and the other at New Haven. 9. Some years before the time of which we are read- ing, a Dutch captain had sailed into Narragansett Bay and named the island he saw there Rhode Island, or red island. The State of Rhode Island is the smallest in the United States. Maryland would hold ten such States, and Texas more than two hundred ; but it had an interesting beginning. 56 NEW ENGLAND TN AMEIJICA. 10. The Puritans liad hardly settled themselves in Massachusetts, before they fell into trouble with some of their number. When people are very much in earnest, especially about matters of religion, they are apt to think that every one ought to agree with them. The Puritans had established a gON'ernmcnt and chui'ch after their own ideas, and now certain persons not only disagreed with them, but said so openly. 11. One of these was a young minister named Roger Williams. The magistrates compelled him and others to leave the colony, and Williams went through the woods to Narragansett Bay. lie began the settlement of a i^lace which he called Pi'ovidence, because of ^' God's merciful providence " toward him. His hard experience led him to see more clearly that the State ought not to interfere with a man's religious belief, and he and others helped to make Rhode Island a refuge for persons driven out of other colonies. 12. Between the Massachusetts colony and tlie French settlements to the north there was a wild country, very little known. Along the coast were good harbors and fishing-stations, and solitary settlements were made here and there. On the rivers, too, farms were started ; but the farmers built high })icket fences about their houses for fear of the Indians. What is now the State of Maine Avas, until 1820, a part of Massachusetts. 13. For a long time Massachusetts tried also to get control of the settlements in New Hampshire, and did for a time govern them. The colony took its name from Hampshire in England, because the king had given the governor of that county a large part of the territory in which these settlements were formed. THE S1^:TTLEKS and TIIK INDIANS. 57 CHAPTER XVT. THE SETTLERS AND THE INDIANS. 1. Whenever an English company or an English nobleman wished to plant a colony in America, the first thing to 1)0 done was to got a charter from tlie kino-. Tlio king was said to own all the land and to have the right to parcel it ont among his subjects ; and as the country had never been surveyed, the dif- ferent colonies often had quarrels over the correct boundaries. 2. But neither Spanish, French, Dutcii, nor English troubled themselves greatly with the thouglit that the Indians were the real owners of the land. They saw that the Indians roamed from one place to another and had few villages. There was plenty of room for new-comers. 3. Sometimes the settlers bought land of the nearest Indians. They gave presents of beads, or cloth, or knives, and sometimes guns and powder and shot; in return, the Indians j)ut marks at the bottom of papers, by which they agreed to give up their lands to the whites. They did not at first understand what this meant. They did not suppose that the whites meant to prevent their living aud Iiunting on these lands. 4. There is an old story of an Arab and his camel. Tlie camel put his head into the Arab's tent one stormy day, and begged to be allowed to keep it there out of the wet ; l)y and by he asked if he might not dry his shoul- ders too. The Arab was good-natured, and let him do so. Little by little the camel worked his way into the 58 THE SETTLE US AND THE INDIANS. lent till ho was wliolly inside. 'Vhvn there was not room for both, and the Arab had to go outside. 5. Something like this happened between the Indians and the settlers. Bnt the settlers were not wholly self- ish. Just as the Spaniards took priests with them to convert the Indians, so the English colonists hoped to convert the savages into whose country they came. One of the chief reasons for founding Harvard College was that there might be a place in which to educate Indians. A Stockade. 6. One of the New England ministers, John Eliot, was so earnest that he devoted his life to Christianizing the Indians. The Indians had no written language nor any books, but Eliot and others listened to their words, wrote them down witli English letters, and so made a written language, and translated books into it. Eliot translated the Bible, and, for this and other labors, early received the name of the Apostle Eliot. 7. The Puritans, however, did not understand the In- dians very well, and tried to make English Puritans out of them instead of good Indians. The Indians saw the EARLY NEW YORK. 59 whites sett]iii<2; on their huids, and qminvls easily arose between the two peoples. It was not long, therefore, before the Indians in New England treated the wliites as their enemies. 8. The red men did not form companies as the whites did, and march in armies. They would steal out of the woods in tlie night, and appear suddenly at some lonely farm-house or remote village. They burned houses and Ivilled people, and sometimes carried women and children into captivity. 9. Only six years after Boston was settled, and a year after the first settlements had been made about Hartford, there was an Indian war, chiefly in Connecticut. It ended almost in the extinction of one tribe of Indians, l)ut it made the Indians hate the English more bitterly, and watch every oi)portunity to do the white men mischief. CHAPTER XVII. EARLY NEW YORK. 1. Just as there was a New England, and, farther to the north and west, a New France, so there was in America a New Netherland. It was the country lying along the Hudson River. Here the Dutch, from the Netherland in Europe, had their trading-posts ; before the Pilgrims had landed at Plymouth, they had built a few huts on the island where New York now is, and a fort near the site of Albany. 2. The Dutch were merchants, and sailors, and they cared most to trade with the Indians for furs. They could go in their ships up the Hudson River, into the heart of the Indian country, and they tried to get pos- 60 EARLY NEW YOKK. session of the Connecticut River for the same purpose ; but the English settlers there drove them off. 3. They had little trouble with the Indians, and very early made a treaty with them on the banks of the Hudson, two miles below Albany. The Dutch and the Indians gathered there, and went througli cer- tain ceremonies. They passed a pipe from one to an- other, and each took a whiff at it, which meant they were friends : they all held a belt, which meant that there was to be union among them ; and they buried an Indian tomahawk in the ground, as a sign that no one was to throw a tomahawk at another. 4. The Dutcli West India Company in the Nether- land, or Holland, managed affairs in New Nethei-land, just as similar companies managed affairs in Virginia and New England. It took care to buy land from the Indians, and sent out families to occupy the country. 5. For about sixty years the Dutcli continued in pos- session, but the English were all the time crowding upon them. The people in Connecticut crossed over to Long Island and formed towns there, and began to claim all tlie country about as belonging to England. The Dutch at home were weak, and finally the Eng- lish king sent some ships and men, and seized New Netherland. 6. New Netherland now l)ecame New York, receiving its name from the king's brother, the Duke of York, and New Amsterdam became the town of New Yoi-k. The Dutch rule ended, — though the Dutch reea])tured the })lace a few years later and lield it for a year, — and the English rule be,gan. Englislimen came into the town and the country in increasing numbers. WILLIAM PENN AND THE FRIENDS. 61 7. But the old Dutch ways were sh)w in disappearing. Even now, one may hear the Dutch hmguage spoken by market-women on the Hudson. U}) and down the river, and along the bay, are names of places which were given by the Dutch. Staten Island, Sandy Hook, or cape, are Dutch names. '' Kill," which means a brook, is found in Fishkill, Catskill, and the like. 8. For a long time, the Dutch families not only kept Dutch names, but were very careful to keep up old Dutch customs. Many of these customs became common also among the English. The custom of making calls on all one's friends on New Year's Day was an old Dutch custom ; and a New Year's cake, after a Dutch pattern, used to be given to children. 9. Some years ago an old lady in Albany, of Dutch descent, was called upon by a learned Dutch gentleman. She talked the Dutch language with him easily, but he said that it was not the Dutch which he spoke ; it was the Dutch of two hundred years ago. Language, like dress, changes ; and in Holland the language had been growl- ing and changing all this time. Here in America, the language used by the first Dutch had been used by a few people only, and so had not greatly changed. CHAPTER XVni. WILLIAM PENN AND THE FRIENDS. 1. When the English took possession of New Nether- land and named it New York, they also took the dis- trict lying to the south, where the Dutch had other settlements. Tiiey called it New Jersey, and invited English people to settle there. 62 WILLIAM TENN AND TIIK FIJ TENDS. 2. Among those who bought Large tracts of land were two Englishmen, Avho had a dispute about their property. Tliey called in a third, named William Penn, to help them settle the dispute. Xot long after, Penn bought the land which one of them owned, and a few years later, in 1682, came himself to America. It was not to Xew Jersey, however, but to Pennsylvania that he came. 3. Pennsylvania means " Penn's woodland." The country occu])ied by the great State of that name was once, for the most part, covered Avith forests, and was a present to William Penn from the king of England, Charles II. The present,' to be sure, was in payment of a debt which the king owed to AVilliam Penn's father, who was an admiral in the English navy. It was in honor of the admiral that the king insisted that the country should be called Pennsylvania. 4. William Penn accepted the gift, but not because he wanted a vast farm upon which he could be a lordly master. He was one of a number of Englishmen who called themselves Friends, and were called by otliers Quakers. Tliese Friends could not live undisturbed in England. On the contrary, they were often beaten, shut up in prison, and even put to death. Tliey never resisted the force which was used against them, and they constantly put themselves in the way of pun- ishment. Wlierever they believed the Lord sent them to })reach their doctrines, thither they went without fear. 5. Tliey taught that there was no church except in the meeting together of Friends, who spoke as each thought himself or herself moved by the si)irit of God. They declared that there ought to be no armies or prisons ; that every one should be obedient to the law which God had written in his heart. PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE. 63 6. Tliey said also that all moii were equal before God, and should treat one another so. Thus, no Quaker would take ofl* his hat, as the custom was, when speaking to a person of rank. Every one used the name of the person to whom he was speaking without any title like Sir or Mr. IJe would call the king, Charles Stuart. 7. The Quakers dressed with great plainness. They would not, l)y tlieir clothes, seem to be richer or greater than other men and women. They would not use the common names of months and days, because they said those names were from heathen gods. They said " first month " for January, and " first day " for Sunday. 8. Since they led sober and industrious lives, they were rarely in want, and it was held to be the duty of every Friend to help his poorer neighbor. But all tliese doctrines and customs made other Englishmen angry with the Quakers. So, when William Penn received the gift of a great tract of land in America, he determined to make a home there for Friends, and for any others who wished to live there peaceably. He meant to found a great State across the Atlantic, which should show the world how the Quakers would rule if they had their way. CHAPTER XIX. PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE. 1. It quickly became known that Penn had offered a liome to emigrants. His fame had spread to other countries, and a large number of Germans came very early to Pennsylvania. Germantown is a name which reminds one of this, and, in the eastern part of the State, there are a great many families of German oriii'in. 64 PENNSYLVAXIA AND DELAWARE. 2. Before Penn arrived, there was a colony of Swedes livini^ on the Delaware River." They welcomed the new- comers and were taken into Penn's colony. They were particularly ])leased when they lislencd to tlie words which the governor spoke to the first asseml)ly, wliich he had called together at Upland, now Cliestcr. 3. Penn declared tliat every peaceful citizen was free to come and go as lie pleased, to worship God as he thonght right, and to liave a part in making the laws. Every one was to know what the laws were, for they were to he taught in the schools. 4. In England, at tliat time, there were nearly two Inindred crimes for committing any one of which a person might l)c hanged ; in Pennsylvania there was only one, — the crime of willful murder. In England the prisons were horrihle dungeons ; in Pennsylvania they were made workhouses, because Penn said that idleness was the cause of most crimes. 5. In many other ways Penn made the governmeiit humane and generous. He believed that people would be better if the rulers of the people were less harsh and cruel. But what surprised the world most was tlie manner in which he treated the Indians. 6. When Penn first talked in England of making a home for Friends in America, the lords and fine gentle- men at tlie court of King Charles made merry over the idea of the i)eaceful Quakers settling among the savages. They thought it was as if a flock of sheep should look for a pasture where the wolves were most abundant. 7. Ever since Englishmen had l)een living in America, they had been fighting the Indians. It was so in Vir- ginia ; it Avas so in Massachusetts. Only six years be- rENNSYLVAXTA ANT) DELAWAl^^E. Cih fore renn's arrival, all New England had been engaged in a lierce war with the Indians, called, from the Indian chief. King rhiliiTs War. 8. Tenn believed that these troubles with the Indians had sprung from the manner in Avhich the English had treated them. The English had been unjust; they had Philadelphia, 1682. driven the Indians off their land. He determined to treat the Indians as he would wish to be treated by them. 9. He began Avith buying their land. He came to the meeting without any guns or other weapons, and made a treaty with them under a great elm. He meant to show them that he was peaceful, and that he trusted them. The laws ])rovided that if a white man wronged an Indian he should l)e ])unished. The treaty so made was honorably kei)t on both sides for sixty years. 10. Thus Penn laid broad foundations for a pros- perous State. He planned the city of Philadelphia, or '' Brotherly Love ; " he meant that it should have broad 66 PENNSYLVANIA AND ]:>ELAAVAKE. Penn's House. squares shaded by trees, and be a i)leasaiit town in which to live ; in it he built a liouse for his own use. 11. lie was disappointed, however, in his plans for his own life in America. He was obliged to visit England to attend to some affairs there, and was kept longer than he intended. It was difiicult to gov- ern the colony when he was aAvay from it, and there was trouble while he was in England. He returned to Pennsylva- nia, but did not end his days there. Once more he was obliged to go to England, Avhere he died. 12. His descendants continued to liold Pennsylvania as their property for many years after, but only now and then did one of their number live in America. Under the wise laws which had been made, the colony grew prosperous, and the i)eople finally paid little atten- tion to the Penn family, except to quarrel with them and their agents. 13. The i)art of Pennsylvania which was occupied b\' the Swedes before Penn came, was called The Terri- tories. It remained under Penn's government for about twenty years, when it was separated, and formed the colony of Delaware. But for some time, though it had a separate assembly, it had the same governor as Pennsylvania. MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA. 67 CHAPTER XX. MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA. 1. The principal city of Maryland to-day is Baltimore. How did it get its name ? How did Maryland itself get its name ? 2. Before William Penn received the gift of Pennsyl- vania from the king of England, the land on both sides of Chesapeake Bay was given by the king to another Englishman. George Calvert, who bore the title of Lord Baftimore. Calvert had already tried to establish a colony in Newfoundland, and had spent much money in the attempt. 3. It seems strange to us now, that Englishmen should have chosen such a country as Newfoundland, with its long winters and short summers, when there were pleasanter lands to the southward. But the early travelers to the New World shut their eyes to much that was disagreeable. Each new discoverer persuaded him- self that he had found a more wonderful part of the country than had been known before, and each tried to tell a finer story than the last. 4. Calvert knew that Newfoundland was in the same latitude as France, but he did not know anything about the Gulf Stream. It had not then been learned that a river of warm salt water flowed through the Atlantic Ocean, and swept along the northwest coast of Euro])e, making it warmer there than in the same latitude in America. 5. When he went to Newfoundland, however, with his family, and with additions to his colony, he discovered 68 :^iAin^LAND and ytkgtnia. that it was no place for them. The French who were near by fell upon his colony, and there were fights at sea between the French and the English; worse than that were the bitter cold and the long winters. 6. Calvert, therefore, abandoned Newfoundland, and applied to the king for land farther south. He still meant to i)lant a colony in America. The king made the grant, but Calvert died before he could receive it. His son, Cecilius, who now became Lord Baltimore, re- ceived the charter, and the country was named Mary- land from the king's wife, Henrietta Maria. 7. Loi'd Baltimore remained in England, but he sent out a colony under his brother, Leonard Calvert. For nearly a hundred and fifty years the C'alvert family con- tinued to hold Maryland. Tliey governed it either in person, or by some agent whom they appointed. They were constantly seeking the good of the people, and that is one reason why they continued so long in power. 8. One of the most important acts in IMaryland was that by Avhich the people were free to follow whatever form of religion seemed best to them. While other colonies attempted to decide which should be the prevailing religion, Maryland set the example of not interfering with the choice the colonists might make. 9. One reason for tliis was that the Calverts weic Roman Catholics, and thus liable to be interfered with. They desired that persons of their Church should liave a right to their own ways in ^laryland ; therefore, tliey gave to others the same rights. This did not ])revent quarrels, however. Few had yet learned to l)e as just and generous in religion as the Calverts were. 10. Maryland was neighbor to A^ii'ginia, and tliere was a long dispute between the two colonies about their John Jay. Born December ., 1745 ; died May 17, ,829. Fir.t Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. 70 MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA. boiiiKhuT. The land occupied by both was very much the same in kind. It was fertile land, broken into by broad bays and rivers. There was not much difference, therefore, in ways of living in the two colonies. 11. Tlie most profitable crop was tobacco, and negro shiA'es cultivated it. The planters lived for the most part on the banks of the bays and rivers. They built roomy, generous houses for themselves, and surrounded these houses with groups of cabins for their slaves. 12. The planter had a wharf, and loaded a ship with his tobacco, to be sold in London. When the ship came back, it brought him goods which his tobacco had bought. There were clothes for himself and his family ; sugar and coffee, and tea and wines for his table ; fur- niture of the better sort for his house, and linen, with any luxuries he might desire. 13. It was easy to supply the table of a Maryland or Virginia planter. Besides the vegetables which his garden afforded, there were deer and wild turkeys in the forests ; the bays and rivers were stocked with a great variety of fish and shell- fish. Wheat-bread was not much used, but corn-cake and hominy were on every table. 14. The houses of the better class were often built of brick. Sometimes the bricks were brought from Eng- land ; (jftener they Avere made from clay dug in tlie neighborhood. Tliere were not many carriage roads between the plantations, but there were ])lenty of liorses and saddles ; 'and every planter by the water had boats, for the water made it easy to get from one plantation to another. 15. For a. long time it was not thought worth while to i-aise anything )>ut tobacco ; but, in Maryland, they began to raise wheat and Indian corn. Smaller farms THP: CAROLINA S. 71 were formed in the interior. Some of the planters no longer lived by deep water. Instead of having shii)S eome to wharves near their houses, these planters had to carry their tobacco and corn to market. 16. Then, since they had to sell in their own country, there were merchants to buy, who sold them other goods in return. Thus towns were formed, where there were good harbors, or where the court-houses stood. But, to this day there is only one large city in Maryland, and there are only six towns in Virginia which ha\e a population of more than ten thousand each. CHAPTER XXI. THE CAKOLINAS. 1. Far to the south of Virginia, there were a few Spanish settlements in Florida, but the country between received new settlers slowlv. There is a Ion"- stretch of sea-coast sheltered by islands, which make sounds and bays of quiet water. 2. At two points on the coast small settlements were early made. Some Virginians found their way to the River Chowan, and a few persons from the Barbadoes Islands came across to Cape Fear. There was good lumber to be had, and tar, turpentine, and fish. They couhl raise tobacco, also. 3. The New Englanders had once formed a settle- ment near Cape Fear River, but had given it up. Their captains, however, knew the waters of the sounds, and now they came down in coasting-vessels and traded witli the peo])le. They bought their lumber and cattle, and carried them across to tiie West Indies. 72 THE CAROLINAS. 4. Then, in the West India Islands, they bought what used to be called West India goods and groceries, that is, molasses, sugar, s})ices, and the like. These, Avith salt, they sold to the people in North Carolina, and then loaded their ships with tobacco to carry to New England. 5. Not long after these settlements were foi-med, King Charles, with one of his easy, good-natured, royal strokes of the pen, gave the country included in what is now North and South Carolina to a company of gentlemen. 6. These proprietors, as they were called, were too far away to know much of the country. Tlicy ap])ointed governors, and after a while the king assumed control over the colonies, and he appointed governors ; but the people meanwhile had their assemblies, and gradually they became the real I'ulers of the country. 7. A few years after the fornuition of the two pi-inci- pal settlements in the northern part of the Carolinas, a third was formed in the southern part, and became, hnally, the city of Charleston. The whole region was now divided into North Carolina and South Cai'olina, with a governor and assembly for each. 8. Into both of the colonies came new parties of emi- grants from Europe. Tliere were French Protestants, called Huguenots, Germans, Swiss, and a great many families from Scotland and the north of Ireland. 9. The chief product of South Carolina was rice, and slaves were em[)loyed to cultivate it. The life was somewhat like that of Virginia ; that is, there were rich j)lanting families with ])lenty of leisure, since the slaves Averc doing the work. I>ut there was a difference in the fact that South Caroliiui had a beautiful citv OGLETHORPE AND GEORGIA. 73 10. For the planters did not ship the rice from their wharves to EngUind, as the Maryhxnd and Virginia pUinters did their tobacco. They sent it to Charleston, and merchants carried on the bnsiness for them. In this way the commerce of Charleston became important, and the city grew large and rich. 11. It was a pleasant place to live in, and many plant- ers made their homes there, while their plantations were carried on in the country by agents. Thus there came to be a small class of well-to-do families, who lived near one another and managed South Carolina after their own liking. CHAPTER XXII. OGLETHORPE AND GEORGIA. 1. When King George II. was on the throne of Eng- land, English people were well used to hearing the name America. For more than a hundred years, men and women had been leaving their homes in Enj^land and settling in the new country. 2. It was usually the restless, or the resolute, people who thus crossed the Atlantic. There were always those who felt crowded at home and wanted more room, ()!• those who were full of enterprise, or those who were dissatisfied with the Church and government and wished to go where they could be more free. From time to time, also, companies luul helped the poor to emigrate to the New World. 3. In the days of George 11. and, indeed, for many years after, the laws of England were very severe toward ])ersons who could not pay their debts. To be in debt is a misfortune, but it is not always a crime. i-h OGLETHORPE AND GEOllGIA. In England, in those days, it was treated as a crime. People were shut up in prison ioy debt. 4. The longer they stayed in prison the more impos- sible it Avas for them to pay their debts. Meanwhile their families were worse off than ever. Tiuis there was a great deal of Avi-etchedness among persons who were really honest, and anxious to provide for them- selves. 5. Besides this, persons were shut up in prison for very small faults, and tlie prisons were distressful phaces, unfit for any one to live in. The officers in charge, too, were often liarsh and cruel. Wise men shook their heads, and said that something must be done to cure this evil. 6. There was a man in England, at this time, who set himself to work to help matters. This was James Oglethorpe, an officer in the English army and a mem- ber of Parliament. He joined to himself other men of like mind, and together they formed a plan for a colony in America. 7. The king granted to them so much of America as lay between the Savannah River and the Spanish pos- sessions in Florida. This was good news to the people of South Carolina, for they were greatly troubled by the Spaniards, and settlements of English on their souther: border would be a protection to them. 8. The Trustees for Georgia, as they were called, witli ()glethorj)c at their head, made careful choice of needy j)ersons in England, and sent them out to the new- colony. They also invited some Germans, who were ])ersecuted in their own country, to settle in Geor- gia. They sent over, besides, some Highlanders from Scotland. OGLETIIOKPE AND GEORGIA. 7o 9. Oglethorpe was very desirous that the people should have a variety of occupations. He thought it would be a fine thing if they were to have silk-worms. So he planted mulberry-trees, and brought over Ital- ians who were used to raising silk-worms. Olives were planted, and it was hoped that Georgia would become another Italy ; but it was found more profitable to i-aise rice and cotton. 10. The Trustees forbade rum to be brought into the country, and for a long time tliey refused to allow negro slavery. But there were slaves in the neighboring colony, and, little by little, slavery became established in Georgia. Oglethorpe treated the Indians much as Penn did those in Pennsylvania. He made friends with them, and for many years there was scarcely any trouble between the Indians and the whites. 11. But trouble came from the Spaniards. For a long time Spanish i)irates had seized English vessels, and now the Spaniards began to attack the settlements in Georgia. Oglethorpe received orders from England to carry on war against Spain in Florida. He made sev- eral raids upon the Spanish settlements, but the most important struggle came from the attempt of the Span- iards to destroy Georgia. 12. They gathered a great fleet at Havana, in Cuba, and came with more than five thousand men. Ogle- thorpe had sent to South Carolina for help, for he had only about seven hundred men. He did not wait for more soldiers, however, but attacked the enemy, and fought so bravely that he drove back the first who appeared. He contrived also to let the Spaniards know that he was expecting more men. The Spaniards, discouraged by the first encounter, and ignorant of 70 THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA. Oglethorpe's real weakness, took alarm and sailed away. After that, Georgia was at peace. 13. It proved impossible for trustees living in Eng- land to govern Georgia wisely. General Oglethorpe, wlio had lived in the country during its most trying- time, had been the I'eal founder. Twenty-one years after it was founded, Georgia came of age. It was no longer under the guardianship of trustees. It had an assembly chosen by the people, and a governor appointed by the king. Oglethorpe went back to England, where he died when he lacked only three years of being a hundred years old. CHAPTER XXIII. THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA. 1. While the Spaniards were troubling the English colonies on the south, a more dangerous enemy was close at hand on the north and west. For a hundred and fifty years the English had been forming colonies in America; during the same time the French had also been taking ])ossession of the country. 2. The English followed the sea-coast, and the Con- necticut, Hudson, Delaware, James, and Savannah rivers, iieliind their settlements stretched a long, broken range of mountains. Thus it was a strij) of sea-coast which th(\v occu])i(Ml with thirteiMi colonies. 3. Kach of these colonies was governed much as Eng- hiiid itself was governed ; that is, eacli had a governoi- who ruled in the place of the king, and each had an assembly chosen by the people to make the laws. The law of England was the law of the colonies. Moreover, the colonies made many laws which concerned the THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA. 77 affairs of the people in America and had little or nothing to do with England. i3ut the people called themselves English people, and they called the king of England their king. 4. In fact, these colonies were like pieces of England, which had heen broken off and started anew on the other side of the Atlantic. Of course, since the country was so different and everything so new, the i)eople had many customs and ways of living of their own. Still, they were English. 5. The colonies, however, had not a great deal to do with one another. The people did not travel much. There were few good roads, except near the large towns. The stages took a long time for their journeys, and letters which now pass quickly in a night might tlien be a month on the road. It was l)efore the days of steamboats and railroads. 6. The planters in the south lived on their planta- tions, and rarely left them, except to visit their neighbors or to go to the ca})ital of their colony. Sometimes they sent their sons to England to be educated. At the north, the farmers saw few persons but their near neighbors. 7. There were a few small towns on the sea-coast, like Charleston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Newport, and Boston. These were busy with trade and fisheries. A great many vessels plied back and forth between these ports and the West Indies and England. 8. In these towns, too, lived the officers of the Eng- lish government, the custom-house officers, and tax- collectors. Rich merchants kept up English w\ays, and every one was eager to know what was goiiii;' on in England and on the continent of Europe. The few 78 THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. newspapers were filled chiefly with the news brought by sea-captains from across the w^ater. 9. At the back of these colonies, lines of farms stretched toward the Alleghanies and the Blue Ridge. As the land near the sea-coast was taken up, families would move farther into the wilderness. Holitary clear- higs might be found, miles away from any other house. Here some adventurous man was living with his family, raising a little corn and liunting in the woods. 10. All the colonies were alike in this, tliat they were dotted over with liomes. Families grew up, and the sons and daugliters needed more land. Farms multi- plied and towns clustered. The people sent to their friends in England, and invited them to come and join them in the New World. The colonies were alike in this, too, that the people were accustomed to meet to- gether to manage the affairs of the town, the county, and the colony. CHAPTER XXIV. THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 1. The French, meanwhile, were following the courses of the two great rivers of North America, the St. Law- I'cnce and the Mississippi. As they followed the St. Law- rence they came to the Great Lakes. When they traced the Mississippi from the lakes to the Gulf, they explored also the rivers, like the Ohio, the Wisconsin, and the Illinois, which flowed into the Mississippi River, the great " Father of Waters." 2. Thus the French had traveled over a great deal more of North America than the English had. They THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 79 claimed very much more oi' the country, but they did not occupy their possessions in the same way as the English. Instead of having colonies where families were building homes, clearing forests, and planting farms, the French liad a few forts and trading-posts and mission stations. 3. These were scattered, at wide intervals, through the vast interior of North America. They were reached by long journeys on rivers, or by trails through the forest. At each was usually a chapel, where the missionary gathered the Indians and the French soldiers ; a store- house where the traders kept the goods which they sold the Indians for furs ; and barracks for the company of soldiers. 4. Now and then some trader, wlio spent most of his time at one of these stations, would have a garden in wliich he raised a few vegetables. Perhaps he married an Indian woman, and his children, as they grew, hunted and fislied like the Indians about them, or went trading- like their fatlier. 5. The fur-trade led the hunters into the depths of the wilderness, and the wild, free life tempted the young Frenchmen who came to America. They disliked tlic restraints of the town and the station, and they plunged into the w^oods, lived with the Indians, and only came back at intervals to the settlements. 6. These wood-rangers increased in numbers, and made an important part of the population. Half Indian, half French, they plied their canoes on the rivers, sing- ing as they shot along; they trapped and hunted theii- prey, and after working hard all day, camped at night round the blazing fire, with nothing to eat, })erhaps, but hulled corn and bear's-urcase. 80 THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 7. The principal military station was at Quebec. There lived the governor of New France. The great rock of Quebec was well fortified. French ships rode at anchor in the harl)or. The priests and nuns had hospitals and churches, and under the protection of the citadel some few French families had farms on the River St. Lawrence. •-i.v- , j i , 1 -3 ^, f^ 101 .^L^Mm ^m-'^i'id^S ^k^M^^: ■ — . - ^_ mM K i ^~"-^^l_ll^p^ Sl^ The Rock of Quebec. 8. The people had nothing to do with making laws. They had no assemblies, and held no public meetings. Their governor was sent out from France, and he was supported by soldiers. France wanted this new land mainly for the sake of the furs which her traders obtained from the Indians. 9. While, tliercfore, the English colonies were growing by pushing their farms farther and farther into the wil- derness, New France simply added a fort here and there. While English families were multiplying and forming neighborhoods, very few people came from France except soldiers, and single men who were seek- in q- their fortune. s i.ewistown^ Cape May NEW ENGLAND NEW NETHERLAND Ticicc the Scale of tlui larue Map. THE INDIAN TK115KS. 81 CHAPTER XXV. THE INDIAN TIIIBES. 1. The Indians looked on, as Englislinien and French- men divided tlie land between them. They did not at first mind the French very much, for they saw that these new-comers only wanted to trade with them. Besides, the lively Frenchmen were quick to adapt themselves to the ways of the Indians, and lived with them, and married into the trijjes. 2. The French priests were untiring in their efforts to win the Indians to Christianity. They forsook comforts and society, and lived in solitary places. They suffered hardshi}), and were even more courageous in the face of death than the Indian himself. 3. It was of no great consequence to tlie Indians that they saw the French soldiers set up crosses, fasten the arms of France upon them, and take possession of the land in the name of the king. The Indians were ready to call the king of France their father, if he would send out soldiers to lielp them fight their enemies. 4. They were more jealous of the English, for they saw that as fast as the country w^as occupied by farms, there was no longer room for the Indian. Besides, the English often could not make friends with the red men ; they were too unlike them. 5. The French found that the Indian tribes were not at peace with one another ; they therefore made friends witH one tribe by going to war with it against its ene- mies. The Indians also saw that the French and Eng- lish were jealous of each other, and were often at war. 82 THE FIGHT FOK AISIEKICA. Tlicv soon began to take sides with one or the other nation. 6. Thus it came about that the unhappy Indian was crushed between the two powers. The French urged the Indians to attack the Englisli settlements ; tlie English used them when they tried to get possession of the French forts. The fighting w^as cliiefly on the frontier, where the English and French were near eacli other. Sometimes there was fighting in America when England and France were at peace in Europe. 7. There came a. time, however, when England and France were at deadly w^ar with each other. The chief question to be settled by this war was, whether the con- tinent of North America was to be under the control of the English, or under that of the French. CHAPTER XXVI. THE FIGHT FOR AMERICA. 1. When the war finally broke out between France and England, which was to decide the ownership of America, the French held certain strongholds. One was Louisl)urg, at the entrance of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It was strongly fortified, had a good harbor, and w^as close by the great fishing-grounds. Thus it was a very important place. 2. Besides, the French held Quebec. This great rock had a cluster of houses at its base, and w^as protected at its top by cannon. The French felt very secure upon it, because it seemed imi)ossible for any enemy to cap- ture it. A very few men could keep a great army from climbing its steep sides. THE FIGHT FOR AMERICA. 83 3. At different points along the St. Lawrence, and on the shores of the Great Lakes, the French liad other fortified places. Moreover, they had estab- lished a line of forts from Lake Erie to the Ohio River. The last of these forts was built where the city of Pittsl)urgh now stands. It was called Fort Duqnesne. 4. In previous wars, the English had obtained pos- session of Nova Scotia, or Acadia, as it was then called. They had made settlements at Halifax and other places, but they had not disturbed the French who were living on tlicir farms. These farms were cliiefly upon tliat part of Nova Scotia which is near- est New Brunswick. 5. AVhen the English, therefore, began to attack tlie French, they aimed to get possession of tlie forts. The French, on the otlier hand, used these forts, at the head of the F>ay of MAP OF THE COUNTRY BETWEEN MONTREAL and NEW YORK ^ Scale ===^iles ^J /:: 84 THE FIGHT FOR AMERICA. Fundy, as places from which to sally foi-lli and attack the English towns and settlements. 6. The French had no such navy as the English possesscnl, and therefore they could not sail out from Louisbiirg and attack l>oston ; but they could use canoes and flat-boats on the rivers and lakes, and they could call upon Indians to pilot them through the woods. 7. There were two great water- courses, which led from the French posts into the heart of the English settlements. One was the Mohawk River, eastward from Lake Ontario ; the other was Lake Champlain and Lake George to the head-waters of the Hudson River. By either of these ways the Fi'cnch could reach AU^any. From Al- bany they could go either down the riv- er to New York, or eastward into New England. 8. The first fight- ing was about Fort Duquesne. When the governor of Virginia heard that the French had begun to build a fort in what was then called a part of Virginia, he sent a voung soldier whom lie trusted, to look into the matter. Braddock's Route. THE FRENCH LOSE AMERICA. 85 9. This young Virginian was George Washington, whose name in a few years was to be known over all the world. Washington made a perilous journey, and brought back such news as made the A^irginians deter- mined to dri\e the French out of their country. 10. England, at that time, did not have much confi- dence in the soldiers of the colonies. They were only farmers, she said, wlio had never been trained to fight. So she sent over regiments of soldiers, and generals who had been in the European wars. 11. One of these, General Braddock, led an army through the woods and over the mountains to drive the French from the banks of the Ohio. George Washington went with him, and warned him that the Indians and the French would fight in a different fash- ion from that to which English soldiers were accustomed in Europe. 12. Braddock did not pay much heed to the warning. As a consequence, his army was suddenly attacked when near the fort, and completely put to flight. Braddock was killed, and Washington narrowly escaped death. Two horses were killed under him, and his clothes were torn by bullets. CHAPTER XXVII. THE FRENCH LOSE AMERICA. 1. While the war was thus going on in the wilds of Virginia, the English were at work in a different manner in Acadia. The settlements about Halifax were in constant peril. Among the French in Acadia were a few men, who were determined to drive out the 86 THE FH ENCII LOSE AMERICA. English. They stirred up tlie Acadian fanners and the Indians, and kei)t the English colony in a state of constant alarm. 2. In vain the English showed that, by treaties with France, all of Acadia was under English law. In vain they ordered the French inhabitants to take an oath tliat they were English subjects. At last they took severer measures. G ULF OF ST. LA W li H N C IJ V,-v^ ST. JOHN'S I. r ISLE -^ on tlie l^lains of Abraham Itchind the. town. 10. Here a battle was fought, in which the English were victorious. Both Montcalm and Wolfe were killed. Wolfe's Cove. BoYIInol) OF 15ENJA.M1X FKANKLIX. 89 There was some lighting afterward, ijut tliis hattle, foiiglit Septcmher 13, 1759, was decisive. When the war ended, the French gave up to England all of America east of the Mississippi River, except two little islands near Newfoundland, and except, also, New Orleans and the district about it. The country west of the jMississippi as far as to the Rocky Mountains, then known as the Province of Louisiana, they sold to Spain. CHAPTER XXYITL BOYHOOD OF BEXJAMIX FIJAXKLIN. 1. When the war was over. Great Britain and her colonies formed the most powerful nation in the world. England, though but an island broken off from the rest of Europe, held sway over all of North America east of the Mississippi River. She had begun also to establish her rule in India. 2. The people in the American colonies, though scat- tered over a wide country, had one feeling in com- mon, — they were proud of being Englishmen. The war had brought together men from different colonies, who had fought side by side. To have a common enemy sometimes makes people firmer friends. 3. Near the beginning of the war there had been a meeting, at AlJjany, of men sent from the different colonies to consider th(j licst way of resisting the Freucli. There was one man present who was confi- dent that the surest way of making the colonies strong was to unite them: that the thirteen distinct colonies sliould form some kind of a union. 90 BOYHOOD OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 4. This mull was the must famous American of his time ; and it is worth while to interrupt our story of the American nation, to become acquainted with the histoiy of one, who had a great deal to do with making the nation what it afterward became. 5. iJenjamin Franklin was burn in Boston in 170G His father, who made soap and candles, had seventeen children, and as fast as his sons were old enough, he bound them out as ai)preii- tices, — that is, each boy was set to work learning a trade ; while he was learning it, the ti'adesman to whom he was bound must shelter, clothe, and feed him. At Iii'st, of course, the boy was an expense to his master and of very little service ; as he grew older he was more useful, and if he was a bright and diligent boy, lie was able, at the end of a term of years, to set up fur himself and earn his uwu living. 6. This was the must commun way for a boy to learn a trade, down to the time, in this century, wlien machinery and steam began to make a great difference in the modes of cai'rying on trades. 'J'here are still a))prentices in some ])laces, but there are also s])ringing up shoi)S for teaching boys how to use tools. Birthplace of Franklin. BOYHOOD OF BENJAMIN FKANKLIN. 91 7. Franklin's father had ten sons, and he bound out nine ; but when he came to the tenth, Benjamin, he said to himself, "This boy reads more easily than the others; I will send him to school instead, and make a minister of him." 8. There were two kinds of schools in those days, — one, called a grammar school, where boys studied Latin, to prepare them for college ; the other, called a writing school, where they studied arithmetic and wi'iting, to prepare them for keeping accounts and doing business. 9. Benjamin was sent first to a grammar school, and quickly made his way to the top ; but his father was frightened, when he found how much it would cost to send him to school and college, and changed his mind. He sent the boy to a writing school, and presently took him out of school altogether, and kept him at work in his shop. 10. Here Benjamin stayed for two years, cutting wick for candles, filling the molds with tallow, attending shop, and running errands. He did not at all like the work, and would gladly have gone to sea. Boston was then only a large village on the edge of the water, and all the boys learned to swim and manage boats. 11. " I was generally a leader among the boys," Frank- lin tells us in his Autobiography, '' and sometimes led them into scrapes, of which I will mention one in- stance, as it shows an early projecting public spirit, though not then justly conducted. There was a salt marsh that bounded part of the mill-pond, on the edge of which, at high water, we used to stand to fish for minnows. By much trampling, we had made it a mere quagmire. 92 BOYHOOD OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 12. " My proposal was to build a wharf there fit for us to stand upon, and I showed my comrades a large heap of stones, which were intended for a new house near the marsh, and which would very well suit our purpose. Accordingly, in the evening, when the workmen were gone, I assembled a number of my playfellows, and working with them diligently, like so many emmets, sometimes two or three to a stone, we brought them all away and built our little wharf. 13. '' The next morning the workmen were surprised at missing the stones, which were found in our wharf. Inquiry was made after the removers ; we were dis- covered and complained of; several of us Ave re corrected by our fathers ; and though I pleaded the usefulness of the work, mine convinced me that nothing was useful which was not honest." 14. The longer he had to work at candle-making, the more Benjamin disliked it. An older brother had run away to sea, and so Franklin's father, fearing Benjamin would do the same, cast about for some other trade for him. He took the boy on walks about the town, and showed him men at work, — carpenters, bricklayers, workers in brass, and others, to see what he Avould like best to do. 15. In this way Benjamin picked up a good deal of useful knowledge, for he had a quick eye and a strong memory. But he liked his books better than anything else, and so his father decided to make a printer of him. James Franklin, one of the older sons, just then returned fiom England with a ])rinting-press and some type, to set up in business in Boston, and Benjamin was apprenticed to him. 16. Benjamin was twelve years old at the time, and BOYHOOD OF BENJ A:\IIN FRA^IKLIN. 98 he was to serve as an apprentice until he shonkl be twenty-one. " I now had access," he says, " to bet- ter books. An acquaintance with the apprentices of booksellers enabled me sometimes to borrow a small one, which I was careful to return soon, and clean. Often I sat up in my room reading the greatest part of the night, when the book was borrowed in the evening and to be returned early in the morning, lest it should be missed or wanted." 17. Years afterward, Franklin saw how useful it would be if several persons should put their separate stocks of books together, so that each could have access to the whole collection. Accordingly he started a library with some friends, and that was really the beginning of the great public libraries of America. 18. Now, too, he began to put his thoughts into writing. He fell in with a famous English book called the " Spectator," and was so pleased with the way it was written, that he tried to write in the same way. He would jot down a few words from a sentence, just enough to remind him what the sentence was about, and then put the book away. A few days after, he would try to make the sentence himself. Then he would compare his sentence with that in the book, and see what his faults were. 19. When he was fourteen or fifteen years old, his brother started a newspaper. Franklin heard his In'otlier's friends talk about the pieces wliich they wrote for the paper, and he thought he would try his hand. He knew his brother would not think much of an article written by a boy, so he disguised his handwriting and slipped his piece under the door of tlie printing-office. 20. He was greatly pleased to hear his brotlier and 04 P.OYIlonl) OF r.KXJAMIN FKAT^KLIN. Iriciids talk about this piece, and praise it. He wrote more i)ieces, and they were all printed, but no one knew who liiid written them. Pretty soon Franklin had said ;ill lie could tliink of, and then he told what he had done. Jlis brother was not altogether pleased. He llion^ulit tlie boy, who was only his apprentice, was iiiininLi' on airs. 21. The two brothers did not agree very well, and IJenjamiu Franklin was eager to be rid of being an ;ipi>reutiee. lie did not see how this was to be done, when siiddeuly the chance came, and in a somewhat odd manner. 22. The newspapers at that time had to be very care- ful what they printed. They had not the freedom they now have, and if a newspaper said what displeased the government, the government often forbade it to be con- tiuued. It happened that one of the writers for James Franklin's pai)erj " The New England Courant," wrote an ailiele which gave offense. As a consequence, the Massachusetts government oi"dered that "James Franklin - should no longer print the papei' called ^ The New Eng- land (/ourant.'" 23. Of course James Fj-anklin and his friends were all the more determined to keep up the paper. They talked over plans, and finally agreed that the paper should eome out under Benjamin Franklin's name. But they knew that the government would consider James Franklin's a])prentice the same as James Franklin himself. 24. So it was arranged that James should release l»enjamin from being an aj.prentice ; then if fault was tound.tliey could show I>enjamin's apprentice-agreement with the release written upon it. At the same time a FRANKLIN'S MANHOOD. • 95 new set of papers was to be made out, so that Benjamin would continue to serve his brother, but these papers were to be kept secret. 25. All went well for a time ; but at last James Franklin treated Benjamin roughly, and the boy said he would no longer serve him. He was free ; he had liis discharge, and he meant to go elsewhere. He knew very well that his brother would not dare show the new paper. " It was not fair in me to take this advantage," said Franklin ; but he was angry, and tired of the life he had been leading. 26. He sold some of his books, and raised enough money to pay his passage on a sloop to New York, and there he found himself, as he says, " near three hundred miles from home, a boy of but seventeen, without the least recommendation to, or knowledge of, any person in the place, and with very little money in my pocket." CHAPTER XXIX. FRANKLIN'S MANHOOD. 1. When Franklin left his home in Boston, he no longer cared much to go to sea. He had learned his trade, and could get his living by that. He went to the only printer in New York, and asked for work. Tins man luid no place for him, but said he knew of a place in Philadelphia, and advised him to go there. 2. A journey from New York to Philadelphia was a very different matter then from what it is now. Franklin set out in a sail-l)oat for Amboy. A squall came up, and the boat was driven upon Long Island. There they lay 9G FRANKLIN'S MANHOOD. all night, but the next day made out to reach Amboy, havhig been thirty hours making the passage. 3. At Amboy, Franklin spent the night, and the next morning was ferried across the Raritan River. lie had fifty miles to walk, to Burlington on the Delaware River, and he was more than two days getting over the ground. He had left New York on Tuesday, and it was now Sat- urday. The regular boat was not to leave till Tuesday of the next week ; but, as he was walking by the river in the evening, a boat came by, from some point farther up, on its way to Philadeli)hia. 4. Franklin joined this party, and, as there was no wind, they had to row all the way. It was dark, and they could not tell where they were at midnight. Some thought they had gone beyond Philadel})hia, some that they had not reached it. So they pulled to the shore, found a creek up which they rowed, and landed near an old fence. They made a fire, for it was cold, and waited for daylight. When they rowed down the creek again, there was Philadelphia just below them. 5. The printer-boy, in a rough working-dress, stepped on shore, in a city which he was to make famous. He liad a little money in his pocket, and he was very hungry. He found a baker's shop, and with three pennies bought three great rolls of bread. " Having no room in my pockets," he says, " I walked off with a roll under each arm, and eating the other. Thus I went up Market Street, as far as Fourtli Street, passing l)y the house of Mr. Read, my future wife's father, when she, standing at the dooi', saw me, and thought I made, as I certainly did, a most awkward, ridiculous a})- pearance." 6. A young man, whu has learned a good trade, is Benjamin Franklin, Philosopher. Com January 6, 1706 ; died April 17, 1790. f),s^ ri JAN KLIN'S MANIIODI). seldom at a loss lor (.'iiiploymciit, and Franklin was soon lnisv, scttini;- type, lie made friends easily, and the gov- ernor of the provinee, who was a good-natnred man and niaut mark how liixuiy will cntci- families and mako a i»n>.i:rrss, in spite uf princii)^; ; being called one iiK. ruing t(» l)ivakfast, I found it in a china bowl, with a spoou of silver ! They had been bought for me with- out m,v knowledge by my wife, and had cost her the ruormous sum of three and twenty shillings, for Avhicli she had ni) other excuse or apology to make but that slic thought lier husband deserved a silver spoon and eliina bowl as well as any of his neighbors. Tin's was liic first a])pearance of })late and china in our house, wliich afterward, in a course of years, as our wealth in- creased, augmented gradually to several hundred pounds in viduc." 16. Fraiddin was now in a fair way to success. He had a good trade and a thrifty wife ; he was diligent, fi'ugal and temperate. If he had merely gone on making money, nobody would care to-day to read about him. But Franklin was something more than a money-maker. 17. When he was settling himself in Philadeli)hia, he ]»lanned with his friends a debating club, called the Junto, and Ujv ncai'ly forty years this club used, to meet once a week, to talk over what its members had read or thought about. Out of this club grew the American l*hilosophieal Society ; and out of it, also, grew the Phila- deli>hia Library, the firstof the great libraries of America. 18. 'I'liis club and library heljied Franklin greatly, but his mind was always ])usy. While he was hard at work, making his printing-oflice ])ay, he was learning French and Italian and Spanish. Tie took a curious mode of Irarning Italian. A friend, Avho was A'cry fond of play- ing ehess, and constantly begged Franklin to ])lay with him, was also studying Italian. Franklin proposed that wliiehever beat a game should set the other a task in FRANKLIN'S MANHOOD. 101 Italian, and as they played pretty evenly, they made steady progress in learning the language. 19. Philadelphia was not a large city, and Franklin, who was a leader among the mechanics, and was looked upon as a very sensible young man, soon became very well known. When he was thirty years old, he was cliosen clerk of the general assembly, and the next year the postmaster-general of all the colonies made him postmaster of Philadelphia. 20. He was now in a position where he could hear all the news, and where he could be of real use to his townsmen. When he had any plan for bettering the city, he would write out his thoughts and read the paper to the Junto, where it would be discussed ; and, as there were other clubs, which had been started by the Junto, the same subject would be talked over in them. Thus the matter would be widely discussed, and finally Frank- lin would print the plan in his newspaper. 21. Philadelphia was Imdly paved and ill-lighted. By talking and writing, Franklin managed to get the part nearest the market paved. Every one was so delighted, that it was easy to persuade the townspeople, after that, to submit to a tax, by whicli all the streets were paved. 22. The lamps in tlic streets were globes that soon became full of smoke, and allowed only a dim light to shiue through. Franklin changed these globes into lamps with four flat panes, with a long funnel above to carry off the smoke, and openings below to let the air in. He carried out a plan for hiring night-watchmen, and he persuaded the peoi)le to form fire-com])anies ; and when there was dauger of war w^ith France, h(^ induced the people to raise money for buying cannon, and to form themselves into militia companies. 102 FRANKLIN'S MANHOOD. 23. He was a vciy i)i'actical man, and was fond of trving experiments. He invented a stove, still made aiul called by his name, which burnt less fuel, and gave out iiioi-e heat, than the old fireplaces. He discovered that protection against lightning could be secured by the use of iron rods. Indeed, he made some of the earliest exjiei-inicnts in electricity, and thereby became lainoiis both in America and Europe. 24. When the war broke out between France and Kngland, Franklin was of great service to the king's troo})S. (ieneral iiraddock had two regiments m Mary- land, but he had no means of transporting the men and ilitir .supplies across the country. Franklin offered to hclj) him, and at once drew up such a fair agree- ment, that, when he published it in the papers, all the fai-niers in the neighborhood came with their wagons. Tin y knew Franklin and trusted him. 25. Before the war w^as over, Franklin went ag-ain to London. The people of Pennsylvania had a dispute with the Fenn family about the right of the Assembly to tax the Penn property. They thought Franklin the wisest man they had, and so they sent him to England to cai-ry tlit-ii- point, which he succeeded in doing. 26. He did not, however, at once return to America. The wai- with France was ended, but Franklin thought that Knglaud did not know what a prize she had won ill Caujida and the valley of the Mississippi. No one was better acfpiainted than he with America, and he knew many members of the English government. So he i)iisied himself with seeing that the treaty of peace l)etween England and France was so drawn as to be a good bargain for England and her colonies. He was like a private anil)assador. ENGLAN]) AN]) HER COLONIES. 103 CHAPTER XXX. ENGLAND AND HER COLONIES. 1. Franklin knew his countrymen well, and he tried to make people in England understand them. The English in England and the English in America were alike in some ways, and unlike in others. If two boys were born and brought up in New York City, and one of them went, when ten years old, to live on a farm in Oregon, they would be found at thirty to have very different habits. 2. It was somewhat thus with England and her colo- nies. The English in America were three thousand miles away from king and Pai-liament. They lived on land which did not belong, as it often did in England, to nobles who lived by the rent they got from it. It was their own land. 3. There were no such differences in rank as in Eng- land. Very few nobles ever came to America. Instead, the people worked with their own hands, side by side, in the fields and shops. They met together in town- meeting, and their children went to the same schools. 4. There was no great regular army as in England, made up of men whose business it was to fight. In- stead, there were companies of volunteer soldiers, wlio fought when there was war with the French or In- dians, and, when war was over, went back to their several farms. 5. Again, the peojAe who came to America were mainly ""picked men and women. It required courage and resolution to cross the Atlantic and settle a new ItM ENGLAND AND IIKR COLONIES. country. Tliosc who came had to conquer a wilderness ; ilicy cut down forests, drove out wild animals, and had ;td\<'iiUiit's which were impossible in England. C. The war hcl ween England and France had cost a great deal of money. It was a heavy expense to the colonics as well as to England, but the king and liis iiiinislcrs did not think so much of that as they did of their burdens at home. They cast about for some means of lessening those burdens. 7. From the beginning, England had been wont to think of the colonies as existing for the convenience of Enuland. Eno'lish merchants sold their goods to the colonics ; English ships traded with them. Laws were made by Parliament foi'bidding the colonists to manu- facture articles. 8. The colonists might take iron from the mines, but they must send it to England to be manufactured. They paid a tax when they sent it. They paid English cap- tains for carrying it, English manufacturers for working it, l']iiglish merchants for selling the articles made from it, and then another tax to the English government. 9. So, too, the furs brought in by the hunters, the fish caught by the fishermen, the pitch, tar, turpentine, and ship-timljcrs from the forest, must all go to England. 111 the woods of Maine, no tree of more than two feet diameter at a foot above the grouiul could be cut down, except {^^y a mast for one of the king's ships. 10. In this way, l":ngland tried to make the industrious colonies i)our money into her treasury. She acted like a great landlord who has a distant faijn which he never visits, hut from which he gets all the profit he can. 'I^he result was that England really knew very little id.out the people in the American colonies. John Adams. Born October 19, 1735; died July 4, 1S26. Second President of tlie United States. lOG WllV orU FATIIEUS RESISTED ENGLAND. 11. Mciiiiwliile, the people went on their own way. They were hard workers, and the country was fresh and iintiUed. Tliey found their farms yielded well, and thei-e was i>leiity of room for everybody. In their as- sciuhlies they frequently made grants to the king, but they t(^uk care to say that they gave this money of their free will. They held that the king had no right to deniniid it of them. 12. In New England, they were impatient of the taxes whicli tlie king's officers collected at the seaports. 'I'lu' lung extent of sea-coast, however, and the scat- ti'rcd population, made it easy to get goods into the country without the ofticers knowing it. A great trade was carried on in this way, and large fortunes were made, so that the complaints against tha laws were not so loud as they miglit otherwise have been. CHAPTER XXXI. WHY OIK FATIIEIJS in-:SISTED ENGLAND. 1. Althotc;!! Englishmen generally knew little about America, there were some who knew well how valuable the colonies were. They advised the king to be more strict in jire\('nting smuggling, so that the ships which sailed out of. niid into, tlie colonial ports should pay more money iiit(, the king's treasury. 2. 'I'he revenue oClicei's in these ports were greatly disliked ])y the jieople, who cliarged tliem with using tlieir oHices to make tliemselves rich. When, therefore, tlie government -ave these oHicers greater power, the jieoplr complained more loiidlv tlian ever. WHY OUR FATHERS RESISTED ENGLAND. 107 3. They complained, especially, when the revenue offi- cers were armed with " writs of assistance." These were letters from the courts, which gave the officers authority to call upon any citizen to assist them in searching a house, to see if there were smuggled goods in it. 4. If an officer had one of these papers, he could search any place, and could compel citizens to go with liim on the search. He was not even obliged to name to the court the particular house which he wished to search. 5. There is a saying in English law, — " An Eng- lishman's house is his castle ; " that is, he has rights there, which even the king is bound to respect. But a collector of the port, if he had a writ of assistance, could go in without knocking, and hunt through the whole house. 6. The people determined to see if this was good law, for they were brought up to respect the laws. So, when the collector of Boston ordered his deputy in Salem to apply to the court for a writ of assistance, some persons objected, and the judge said he would hear the question argued before him. 7. James Otis was advocate-general of the province. It was his duty to show that the writ of assistance was according to law. He resigned his office rather than take that side, and appeared, instead, on the side of the [>eople. He argued well, but the court was not persuaded, and the writ of assistance was declared legal. 8. This decision made the people more determined tlian ever to resist any attack on their rights, and they soon had another opportunity to protest. Parliament passed an act called the Stamp Act. By this, all deeds, contracts, bills of sale, wills, and the like, made in Amer- ica, must have a stamp affixed to them, or tliey would 108 WIIV OUII KATIIKKS IJKSISTKI) ENGLAND. not be loiiiil. These stamps were to be sold by the government through its ofhcers. 9. As soon as this was known in America, the people, ii|i ;iii(l down the land, were lilled with anger. They said that Parliament had no right to pass such a law; only their own assemblies had the right. Otis, in his speech against the writs of assistance, had said, " Taxa- tion witliont representation is tyranny." It was a short, sliarp sentence, easily remembered, and it said exactly what Hie jteople thought. Everybody repeated the words, " 'J'axation without representation is tyranny." 10. What did these words mean ? What is repre- sentation ? When a town wishes to raise money to pay the expense of making roads, or keeping them in rejKiii", of maintaining public schools, or of any other j)ul»lic interest, a meeting of the townspeople is called. Tliey vote to raise the necessary money by a tax. Every one must i)ay, perhaps one dollar for every hundred dol- lars that he owns, or one dollar for every dog that he keeps. 11. It would be impossible for all the people in a State to come together in this way, and vote to raise the money needed, aiid decide on the amount of the tax. Instead, each town cliooses, at a meeting, certain of their number who sliali 1)0 representatives of the town at the State as.^rml.ly. ^i^liesc representatives are spokesmen for the whole town, and they vote and decide for all the towns of the State, just as if all tlie i)eople had met in the State Mouse. 12. The people of America could send no representa- tives to tlie F.uulish Parliament. So they said that Par- liament could make hiws foV England and for the Pritish '■'"'I'''-''. '•"( it had no right to make special laws for the WHY OUR FATHERS RESISTKl) KN(iLANl). 100 culuiiics, juid lay s[)ccial taxes there, because the peo- ple of the colonies had no oi)portunity to be heard in Parliament. 13. Tliey sent their representatives to the assemblies, and they paid the taxes which their representatives or- dei'ed, but taxation without representation was tyranny. If they obeyed Parliament when they had no voice in Parliament, they were obeying a tyrant. 14. Accordingly, they made a great uproar over the Stamp Act. They did more. Nine of the colonies sent representatives to a congress, which met at New York, to consult as to wdiat should be done. The people tliroughout the country were thus coming together for a common purpose. They were so determined, and it was so impossible for England to make them buy the stamps, that the Stamp Act was repealed ; that is, after passing the law% Parliament took it back. 15. It seemed, at first, as if the colonies had gained their point. But soon it was clear that England did not mean to give u}) the right to tax the colonies, or to govern them in any way she saw fit. She began to send troops to New York, and Boston, and other places. The people were indignant. Why should soldiers be sent over ? The country was not in danger from any enemy. Besides, they had their own soldiers. 16. In Boston, the peoj^lc demanded that the troops should be sent away. Tliey were always getting into trouble with the townspe()[)le, for they were very unwel- come guests. The better citizens were earnestly and angrily calling upon the governor to send the troops back to England. The roughs and idlers took their own way of showing hatred. They hooted at the soldiers, and vexed them in every possible way. 110 TIIK no.STON TKA-rAKTY, 17. From woimIs they came to blows, and as the sol- diers were armed, it was not strange that, in one of these street fights, some of the townsi)eo})le were killed. The people were furious at this. No matter if it was a street brawl ; English soldiers had killed Americans. They called the affair the Boston Massacre, and for several years afterward they kept the anniversary as a solemn day. 80 angry was tlie town after the Boston Massacre, that the governor thought it prudent to send the soldiers, for a time, to a fort ii- the harl)or. 18. Wliatever took place in one colony was quickly rej)oi-t('d in the others. Letters were written by the men in J]oston, who were watching events there, to the pi-incipal men in the other colonies. Everywhere, peo- ple were determined not to allow England to treat them unjustly. They sent memorials to the king, in which they protested against the illegal acts of the king's oHicers. Tliey agreed to do without articles of com- merce which came from En<>land, until their wronos should l)e righted. Those who had sent to England for thcii- hnudsome clothes now dressed in homely cloths spun in America. CHAPTER XXXII. TIIK BOSTON TEA-rAKTY. 1. Tiirs f:ir, the people in America liad only talked, ■111. I hrld meetings, and gone without English goods. 'I Ik- king and his advisers had given way more than once, when Ihey found they could not carry their point, l)nt tliey never ceased to declare that they had the right to tax the Americans, and to treat them, in fact, as a subject people. ^rilE BOSTON TEA-rARTY. Ill 2. Tea was one of the articles wliicli the Americans refused to buy of Enghuid, because a tax was laid on it when it was brought to America. Taxes on other arti- cles were taken off, one by one, but the tax on tea was left. The Kni»lisli government wanted one tax left, to show that they had a right to lay as many taxes as they chose. 3. The colonies, before this, had bought a great deal of tea ; now they bought scarcely any. As a conse- queuce, the warehouses of the East India Company in England were filled with tea which the company could not sell. The English goverument was anxious to get rid of this tea, for it had lent the company money and wished to get it back. It could remove the tax, and the Americans would then buy the tea ; but this would not do. 4. There were two taxes on the tea. The compauy that sold the tea was obliged to pay a tax of sixpence a pound, before any could be sent out of England ; then threepence a pound more was collected before any could be landed in America. The government now took off the sixpenny tax, but kept on the threepenny tax. They imagined this would make the tea so much cheaper that Americans would not mind the slight tax that was left. 5. They did not know the Americans. As soon as the people heard of this they were very indignant. It was as much as telling them tliat they cared more for tea than they did for their ])rinciples ; that they had stood out against the tax, only because it made their tea cost too much. In all the ports, they resolved that the tea should not even be landed. 6. In Boston, the people, under their leader, Sam Adams, went to the governor and insisted that the 112 THE HOSTON TKA-rAKTY. sliips slioulfl 1)0 sent hack to England. He refused, :iii(l they took th(^ matter into their own hands. They posted a iiuard over the tea-ships to make sure that none of the cargo was landed. They held meetings in Faneuil Hall as it was at the time of the Boston Tea-Party in I 773. Fancuil Hall, which were attended not only by Bos- ton ians, ])iit by people from all the country about. 7. For nearly three weeks these meetings were held. 'I hey Ln-<'\v to Ix' so hu'go that the people had to adjourn to tlir Old Soutli Mecting-liouse. They sent committees to coiiiri- with tli(^ morchants to whom the tea had been srnt. 'I'll." mrrcliants were ready to send the ships back, l)ut tlic olViccrs of the king refused to allow them to do this. 8. At last, in tlie middle of December, the day had come lor tlie linal answer to be given. At ten o'clock ]|4 THE BOSTON TP:A-rARTY. in tlic innrniiii:, people began to crowd the Old South to licar wliat Mr. Rotcli, the owner of the chief tea-ship, sliould say. He came, and said tliat the collector of the port ahsolulely refused to give him pa])ers, by which liis sliip would be given permission to go back to England wit bout unloading. 9. l']veiTbody knew tluit there were two English men- ol-war in the harboi", and that they would stop any vessel wbich might try to sail away without permission. The meeting told ^Ir. Rotch to go to the governor and tell liim, from llie ])eo})le, to order the collector to give him tbe necessary papers. 10. Tbe governor, who knew^ what was going on, had taken care to go out of town to his country-seat in ^lil- ton. lie wished to be out of the way. Tlie people told .Mr. Ixotcb to go out to Milton and find him. Then they adjoiiiiHMl the meeting to three o'clock in the afternoon. 11. Wben three o'clock came, the Old Soutb was craniuKMl with ])eople, and there was a great crowd out- side They were waiting for Mr. Rotch. Meanwhile, patriots were making speeches to the multitude. The afternoon went by, and sunset came. It was dark and <'<>ld. but the people did not move. 12. At a (|uarter-past si.x o'clock ^Ir. Rotch came l»aek, and made his way through the darkness to tbe stand. Tliere was a great hush. Then he announced tliat lie had seen the governor, who refused to allow the sliips to l(>ave. As soon as he had finished, Sam Adams stood up and said, " Tins meeting can do nothing more to sa\(' tbe eounti'v ! " 13. Instantly there was a tremendous shout and a war- wboop outside tbe ])uilding. The people poured into the street. Forty or fifty Indians were rushing down toward THE BOSTON TEA-PA PvTY. 115 the wharves. Aftei- tliem went the people, easily guess- ing who they were. They were young men, disguised as Indians, who had been in readiness in ease nothing else could be done. 14. They leaped on board the tea-ships lying at the wharf, and seized upon the chests of tea. They broke in the sides of the boxes, and emptied the contents into the harbor. Not a box of tea did they spare, while the crowd stood by and cheered. 15. The news spread quickly over the country. In other towns the people were just as resolute, but the king's officers w^ere not so obstinate, and let the ships go back to England with the tea on board. What A\'ould happen when the Boston ships returned, and carried the news of what had been done ? 16. It was soon seen. Parliament at once passed an act, called the Boston Port Bill, closing the port of Bos- ton. After a certain date no pei'son should load or un- load any ship in that port, until the town asked pardon for what it had done, and paid for the tea destroyed. 17. This was intended to punish Boston, and it was a severe punishment, for tlie town lived mainly by its connnerce. Wlien tlie port was closed, the people hung out mourning on their houses, but they had no intention of asking pardon. They were sorry to be made poor, but they were not sorry for what they had done. 18. The other towns sent messages of sympathy, and, throughout the country, money was raised and sent to help the poor of Boston. The people all felt tliat tlie town had not acted for herself alone, but for the whole country. Ill] li:xin(;t<)N and roxcoKi). CHAPTER XXXIIL LKXIXGTON AND CONCOIU). 1. After the Stamj) Act, nine of the colonics bad sent irprcsentatives to a congress in New Yori<. After the Tioston Vovi liill, nil of the colonies, (!xcept Georgia, sent ivprcsentativcs to a congress at Pliila(lel})liia, which is known as the First Continental Congress. This Con- gress (h'cw np a memorial to the king which recited the wi'on'js suffered by the colonies. 2. 'J'luis the entire conntiy was coming to feel a common c;nise, but tlie events in Boston made that place the one most watched. The governor of Massachusetts was General Gage. He was appoijited by the king, and liad several regiments of British soldiers under his com- mand, as well as British men-of-war in the harbor. 3. Dut General Gage was surrounded by a vigilant jicoplc, who did not mean to sit still and suffer. It was im|)0ssibl(' for the governor to i)lace troops in all the towns and villages in the province. Oji the other hand, tlie people were everywhere forming their own military eouipaiiies, and pi'e)»aring to maintain their rights. 4. 'Hm English government took away from Massa- <-husetts the right to have a legislature. The governor was lo rule, with the aid of a council appointed by the king. 'J'lie courts, whenever they saw lit, were to send l)risouers to England to be tried. 5. The ].cople refused to give up the right of self- govei'uniont. If they could not meet with the governor in the State House at I>oston,they would have their own legislature somewhere else ; and so they did. They met LEXINGTON AND CONCOKI). 117 ill their towns and chose representatives as before, and these representatives met in Concord. 'i'hey called themselves the Provincial Congress. 6. This Congress had gathered military stores, pow- der, shot, and guns, in readiness for war. General Gage determined to send a company of soldiers from Boston to Concord, which was only twenty miles away, to seize these stores. He went to work secretly, so as to take the people by snri)rise, for he had no wish to bring on a fight. 7. Near the foot of Boston Common was then the Back Bay, with water all the way to East Cambridge. General Gage ordered troops, from the barracks on the Common, to take boats at this point and cross to East Cambridge. Then they were to march throngh Lexing- ton to Concord, and destroy the stores or bring them away. 8. The troops started quietly, but they could not get off without being seen. The patriots in Boston were always on the alert. Some of their number were kejit walking the streets at all hours, ready to detect any movement of the soldiers. They saw the men start from the Back Bay, and immediately informed the leaders. At first it was supposed that the soldiers were sent to capture John Hancock and Sam Adams, who were leading patriots, and were at this time in Lexing- ton. So a rider was sent across the country, by way of Roxbury, to warn them. 9. The news spread quickly among the patriots who were in council in Boston. They had been expecting some movement among the soldiers, and had agi-ced on a signal to notify those who were concerned. From tlie tower of a church at the north end of the town, a 118 Li:xix(rr()N and concord. siii-lc lantern was to )»c hung if the troops went by land, (.1- two hmlci-jis, if they went by water. 10. Two lights Hashed out from the tower. Across the stream, on the Charlestown side, was Panl Revere, nne <•!' the Hoston patriots. lie had a good horse; it was a clear, frosty niglit, and he galloped away toward Lexington. As he went by houses where ])atriots lived, he would stop and give the warning that the soldiers were out. At Lexington he was joined ])y another rider, and so r<)recd's Hill. At the foot of these hills was the town of Charlestown. A ferry carried people across to Boston. 2. Tin; men in the country who had been roused did not ii<) back qnietly to their farms. They had been (hilling in militia companies for a long time, and now tliey marched to Cambridge and encamped on Cam- l)ridg(' Connnon. The Provincial Congress at Concord, Hire*' days alter the figlit, resolved that an army of 'liiily thousand men shonld be raised, and proposed '•"i^ nearly hall' the nnmber shonld be enlisted in Massaehnsetts. 3. 'I'Ik' nihcr New England colonies voted to raise I'-nn.'iits. and ti-onps (piiekly gatliered and surrounded IJnston. TIk-iv w:,s a BIi.mIc Island army and a Con- nectient army, an army of Massaclmsetts and an army joo BATTLE OF BUNKEPv HILL. of New Ilaiiipsliirc. There was, however, no united arniv, and no general connnanding all the forces. 4. Tlie news of Lexintiton and Concord was sent to IMrdadelpliia, wliere the Continental Congress was as- scnihled. It was evident that if there was an army of Americans encamped about Boston, that army was fight- iiiii- for all the colonies, and not for New England only. Till" Pi-ovincial Congress at Concord asked the Conti- ui'utal Congress at Philadelphia to make the army a Continental army, and to appoint a commander-in-chief. Til.' nienihers agreed, without a dissenting voice, upon (Ji'oi-gc Wasliington of Virginia. 5. Wasliington set out from Pliiladelphia for Cam- l»ridge, l»ut on the way he heard a startling piece of n<'\vs. Tlie army of which he was to take command had not waited for liim. It had fought the battle of IJnnker Hill. 6. The way it came about was this. After the fight at Coneord, th(3 patriot camps about Boston really shut tilt' Ihitish up in the town. The people in Boston who h'arcd lighting were very anxious to get away. The people outside of Boston, who were on the king's side, were anxious to get into Boston, where they would be umlcr the proteelion of the Britisli soldiers. 7. 'I'hus there was a great deal of going back and loith. The king's men could at any time leave tlie inwn hy sea, but, if they wished to hold the place, they nuisl also hold the liills which overlooked it. The most important of these were, Bunker and Breed's in Charles- town, :iii(l Doichester Heights opposite Boston on the other side. 8. It was elcar to the j.at riots, also, that if they wished to eoniinand IJcston they must get i)ossession of the BxVTTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 123 bills. So, after much thought, just as the British were plauuing to occupy Dorchester Heights, the Americans made up their minds to seize upon the Charlestown hills and build a fort there. 9. On the night of the IGth of June, about two months after the Concord fight, a company of Amer- icans marched from Cambridge Common to Charles- town. They came to Bunker Hill, but saw that they would not be safe unless they fortiiied Breed's Hill, which was nearer to Boston. 10. So, a little after midnight, they went to woi-k with a will, a thousand men digging in the earth to raise an embankment on the top of the hill. Their leader was Colonel Prescott, whose grandson was afterward a famous American writer. 11. When the sun rose on the morning of the 17th of June, it shone on a fortification six or seven feet in height, behind which were a thousand men, who had toiled through the night, and were still busily strength- ening their defense. 12. As soon as the captain of a British man-of-war, lyiug in the stream, saw what had been done, he be- gan firing on the fort. His guns gave notice in Boston, and the British officers at once met in council. At first they proposed to send a force of men to Charles- town Neck, to attack the fort from the rear. They de- cided, however, to cross to Charlestown and storm the fort in front. 13. The Americans, meanwhile, were sending messen- gers to Cambridge, to ask for more troops and guns. Gen. Israel Putnam, a brave Connecticut soldier, was very busy, riding back and forth and cheering the men. He was the highest officer in rank on the ground, and 1^)4 I'.AITLK OF BrXKElJ HILL. whik' I'rcsL'utt was in cumniaiid behind the fort, Putnam took general charge of affairs. 14. It was noon hcforc the British landed, but they kept up a. constant fire from their ships to prevent the Americans in Cambridge from going to Charlestown. I'»\ three o'clock, the British soldiers were formed in line at the foot of tlie hill ; at the top were the Americans, with l)eating hearts, waiting the attack. There was a rail-fence stretching down one side of the liill. They liad hastily filled this in with sticks and grass, and some uf the men were behind it. 15. They had very little powder and shot, and both Putnam and i^i-escott knew how needful it was for the men to save their ammunition. If they could have the courage to hold their ground until the enemy came close to them, it would be much in their favor. 16. ^^ Wait till the enemy are within eight rods," tliey said. " Save your powder." " ^len, you are all miiiksuieu," said Putnam. " Don't one of you hre till you sec the whites of their eyes." 17. Th(.' eager men, their hearts thumping at the a|»|iro:i('h of the enemy, could not restrain themselves. Out' and another bred, but their commanders indignantly oi-dcrcMl them to stop. On came the British, nuirehing in a solid body. They came nearer. They were with- in eiuht rods. ^^Fire!" came the command; and the Aniciicans, springing uj), poured their fire down upon till' a(l\;iu(*iuii' line. 18. Slill the enemy pressed forward. Again and again ili«- Americans lired. Tlie British hesitated. Their com- mander ordered a ivtreat. They turned and went down tin- hill, and a shout bui-st from Ihc Amei'icans. 19. Now, if only reinforcements and ammunition ■i BATTLE OF BUNKEll HILL. 125 would come from Cambridge ! But tlie fire from tlic sliips made that next to impossible. Only a few could make their way across the narrow neck. The men who had worked all night and all day had to bear the brunt of the fight. 20. In a quarter of an hour more the second attack came. Again the dusty, smoke-covered men beat back the British soldiers. In vain the British officers pricked their men forward with the bayonet. They were forced to order a retreat. Once more the men behind the earthworks and the fence burst into a cheer. 21. When the third attack was made, the British were more cautious and more determined. They placed their caunon where they could reach the inside of the fort, and again they advanced, their number increased by fresh troops. Once more the Americans received them, but their anmiunition was gone. They seized their mus- kets by the barrel and used them as clubs. They hurled stones upon the advancing men, but such a fight could end only in one way. 22. The Americans, fighting desperately hand to hand, now began to give way, and to retreat slowly toward Cambridge. They had fought a brave fight. They had lost; but the battle of Bunker Hill, as it is called, was one of those memorable battles where the cour- age of the men who fought in it is remembered lone, though the battle is lost. iii<; Till-: BKEACIl WIDENS. ClIAPTKR XXXV. THE liKEACII WIDENS. 1. For nearly nine months after the battle of Bnnker Hill the liritish continued to occupy Boston, while the American army surrounded the town. Washington, with his oHicers, was busy drilling the men and collect- ing supplies. The patriots had very little powder and very few cannon. 2. At last, however, Wash- ington was ready to drive the British out of Boston. At the same time the king's men saw that nothing was to Washington s Headquarters in \)q gained by Staying tlicre. They might much better take ])nssessi()n of the central parts of tlie country. So, as sodu ;is tlicy saw that they were to be attacked, they went on lioard their shi])s and sailed away. 3. ll was not too late, many on both sides thought, to prevent war. and to bring l^ack the colonies so that llicy sliould be on good terms with the king. But durinu' ilie lonritish, served to make this seem im- possible, and more surely united those who believed in independence. 7. At last Congress determined to consider definitely the question of independence. Then it took a recess of four weeks. This was to give the members an o])]iortu- nity to go home and hear what their neighbors thought. When the recess was over, and the membeis came back, they had no longer any doubt. It was quite clear that the people were ready to declare the colonies free and independent of Great IJritain. 128 FOURTH OF JULY CHAPTER XXXVI. FOURTH OF JILV. 1. On the second day of July, 177G, this resohitioii was })asscd in Congress : '' That these united cohjnies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States ; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.'' Independence Hall, 1776, 2. It was a very serious step to take. One of the members of Congress was John Adams of Massachu- setts, who became the second President of the United jwpwpwi -'•■■i'il;v-> Thomas Jefferson. Born April 2, 1743 ; died July 4, 1826. Tliird President of the United States. ;l;30 l-(H'UriI OF .JULY. Stales, lie wrote a letter, July 3, 1776, to his wife, in Nsliicli hr sai.l : '" The seeuud day of July, 177G, will be tlic most lucniorahle epoeha ^ in the history of America. 1 am ajit to believe tliat it will be celebrated by succeed- inir generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be connneniorated, as the day of deliverance, l)y solcnni acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solenmized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations iVoni oue end of this continent to the other, from this lime forward forevermore." 3. It is not July 2d, however, but July 4th that has ever since been celebrated. On that day Congress agreed to the Declaration of Independence, and ordered it to be published to the world. The Declaration was signed by John Hancock, president of Congress, and Chailes Tiiomson, secretary. A few weeks later the Declaration w^as written on iiarchment and signed by all tlie niemljers of Congress. 4. The oi-iginal parchment copy is preserved at Washington. It is an interesting fact that Thomas .IrlTci-sou of Virginia, who w^rote the Declaration, and .Inlm Adams of ^hissachusetts, wdio w^as its principal suj.porter, both died on the 4th of July, 1826, exactly lifty years aftei' the Declaration was published. 5. Although Congress voted that every member should sign the heelaratiou of Independence, there w^ere some who had many doubts as to the Avisdom of taking such :i stand. In it. Congress told the world how the king bad ill-treated the colonies. It told of the petitions addressed to the king, and how he answered with new injuries. It sbowe.l that the colonies had appealed, not ' I'.jMH li:i (iiruiiuiiucud ep'oka) = day. THE WAR FOii INDEPENDENCE. 131 to the king only, but to their brethren the people of England. 6. All had been in vain, and now Congress declared to the world that the colonies were no longer subject to Great Britain ; they were free and independent States, governing themselves. Something more than a year later Congress went further, and drew up a plan by which the thirteen States should form a confederation called the United States of America. Liberty Bell, Independence Hall. CHAPTER XXXVII. THE WAll FOK INDEPENDENCE. 1. The war for independence began when the first shot was fired on Lexington Common. On the 19th of October, 1781, the British forces under Lord Cornwallis surrendered to General Washington at Yorktown, Vir- ginia. It was nearly two years after that, however, namely, on September 3, 1783, when a treaty of peace 182 TllK WAII FOR INDEPENDENCE. was siiiiicd between (Jreat Britain and tlic United States. 2. Tiius the war lasted more than eight years. It was a hai'd war. 'i'he Americans were not trained to aims. Ahiny of tliem, indeed, had ionght the Indians, and sdinc had been engaged in the war between Engkmd and Fiaiii-c ; but for the most part they were farmers, wlio left their i'arms for the camp. 3. Tlie Hnghsh, on the otlier hand, sent over regiments of nun wlio liad been trained in the art of war. They hail a navy, too, with which they conhl blockade the ports, and carry their army from one point to another on the sea-coast. There were many in America, also, who did not wish the colonics separated from Great Britain. 'I'hese Toi-ies, as they w^re called, were often of great sei-\ire to the English. 4. Aftei- the British sailed ont of Boston harbor, there was not nuich fighting in New England. The Ameri- cans tried to [lersuade Canada to join them ; but, though Canada had only lately been conquered by England, the (.'anndians cared little about the war and took no part in it. 5. The British took possession of New York and kept it till III.' end of the war. They found it very important to hold New York bay for their fleet, and they wished to control the whole length of the Hudson River, Lake Ceorgc, ank up a position at Yorktown, in Virginia, where the hist 'jivat battle of the war was fought. 13. Thougli the Americans fought bravely for indepen- dence, tlicy owed much to the help which they received troni Fiance. France was an old enemy of England, and w lien she saw the English colonies in rebellion, she encoinagcd them, and jiromised to hel|) them. 14. it was only after Ihn-goyne was defeated, however, that France came forward openly and declared herself an ally of the United States. So it came about, that the pcojdc ill America who formerly had fought the French with the Hritish on their side, now found themselves lighting the Ihilish with the French on their side. 15. '{'he French sent a nunibei- of ships and men to help tlu' Americans. In the linal struggle, the French army, under Count fjafayette, and the FVench fleet ren- dered imp<»rtant aid. Fi-ance also lent the United States money to carry on the war. 16. This was especially jummUmI, for, when the war came, the jteople were poor. They had just s[)ent a gn'at deal ol" money in the French and Indian war. Ilesides, since their commerce had been chiefly with Kngland. the war put an end to that, and they liad not this means of obtaining money. James Madison. Born March i6, 1751 ; died June 28, 1836. Fourth President of the United States V\\j HKliUES OF THE WAR: THE PLAIN PEOPLE. CHAPTER XXXYllI. IIKKOKS OF THE WAR: THE PLALN PEOPLE. 1. TiiH iiK'ii wlio fired the first shot at Lexington wi'i-e farniers. Throughout the war, the country de- iK'utlcd ahunst entirely upon American volunteers. There were some European officers, and the French sent over a few soldiers, but these last did not do much fighting. 2. The war was begun by the people and carried on by them. They did not hire other men to fight for them; they were fight- ing for their own rights and free- dom. We call them patriots, which means men who love their country. 3. At first, country meant, to each soldier, the colony in wdiich he had lived. But as the war went on, and New England men fought in X<'\\ York and Pennsylvania, and men from the south fought side In- side witli men of the north, their country meant all tjie thir- trcn States. Wlicn men have fought in the same com- pany and liave suffered together, they learn to know one auotlu-r well. 4. At the time when the British held l*hiladclphia, the chief American anny was in winter-quarters at Valley A Soldier in the Conti nental Army. hp:roes of the war: the plain people. 137 For.ii'e, a place about twenty miles from Pliiladelphia. The British army was having a very comfortable winter ; it was well housed and warmed. There were many Tories in the city and neighborhood, and the people in the country about were very ready to sell provisions to the British. There were fine times in the winter even- ings, and the city was gay witli feasting and dancing. 5. It was not so at Valley Forge. The soldiers made haste to cut down trees and build rude huts, which they plastered with mud ; but they could not get these finished before the icy winter was upon them. Con- gress could not, or would not, do much for them. The separate States were expected to look after their own men, but the States were poor. 6. Often the men had no blankets or overcoats, or even shoes to their feet. Provisions were scarce. The soldiers went for days without meat. Hundreds of horses starved to death, because no grain or hay could be had. Men sickened and died, but their brave com- rades lived on, uncomplaining. This is what Washing- ton said of the heroes : — 7. " To see men without clothes to cover their naked- ness, without blankets to lie on, without shoes [for the want of wliicli their marches might be traced by the l)lood from their feet], and almost as often without provisions as with them, marching through the frost and snow, and at Christmas taking up their winter- quarters within a day's march of the enemy, without a house or a hut to cover them till they could be built, and submitting without a murmur, is a proof of patience and obedience which in my opinion can scarcely be paralleled." 8. There wei'c heroic women also in those days. 1:1S HKUnKS OF THE WAK : THE PLAIN PEOPLE. Wliilt' 111*' 1)111 isli wero occupying- Philadelphia, the olliccis in coiiunaiul met to consult in the house of William inul livdia Darrali, two Quakers, who were ;ii(|.'ul patriots. They told Lydia one night to send her tamilv cailv to hed, and they would let her know when thcv wcie ready to leave the house. 9. She susj)ected, from their secrecy, that they had somt' plan on foot; so she crept quietly to the door of tlie room where the officers sat, and there heard the order read for an attack to ])e made the next day on thr Amt'iican army, wliich was then at White Marsh, outside of th<' city. 10. She went softly hack to her cliamber, and lay waiting for the summons to let tlie officers out. When tlicy had gtjue and the house was locked, she could not sleep for thinking how she couhl help her countrymen. 11. At last, at early dawn, she told her husband that thrv neede(l Hour, and that she must go to Frankfort to the uiill. She saddled her horse and rode to head- • piaiteis, where she obtained a pass to Frankfort. Then she indr to the mill witli her bag ; but no sooner had she left it to he filled, than she rode full speed toward till- .VuK'iiean eauip. As soon as she met an American otticer she told her story and sent him to General Wash- inirton, with a caution not to say how he got his news. 12. Thru she rctiinied to Frankfort, received lier bau" of tloui-. and i-o(le hack to Philadelphia. Soou she saw troops lea\ iug the city, and she waited anxiously for the result. She heard no firing, but after several hours she saw the ti-oops coming hack. One of the officers came to her house and called her to him. 13. '' Wciv auy of your family up, Lydia, last night, when we met here ?" he asked. HEROES OF THE WAR: THE PLAIN PEOPLE. 139 14. "No," she re[)lied ; "I did as you told me, and sent them all to bed at eight o'clock.'' 15. " It is very strange," said the officer. " You were sound asleep, for I had to knock three times before 1 could wake you ; but somebody must liave learned our plans, for when we expected to surprise the rebels, we found Washington prepared to meet us, and we had to give it up and come back." 16. One of the martyrs of the war was a young Connecticut soldier named Nathan Hale. He was a Execution of Nathan Hale. studious young man, who had been through college and loved his books, but went into the army because he wished to serve his country. 17 General Washin^^ton needed some one to make his 1 lU UKKOES OF THE WAK : THE PLAIN PEOPLE. wav into tlie enemy's camp on Long Island, find out how many suldiers there were, and how they were pUiced. Hale vohmtecred to go. It was dangerous business, lie would be a spy, and men do not praise spies; I lilt lie said, '' Every kind of service necessary to the |iiiltlic good becomes lionorable by being necessary." A friend begged him not to go. " 1 will reflect," he said, '' and do nothing which I do not feel to be my (hity." 18. He decided to go. He took note of all he saw, anibl(> says that 'Mie that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city;" and Washington grew up so strong, that he was cool and self-possessed and just, thouuh Ins spirit was fiery with passion. 7. Mr jiad a great liking for the study of surveying, and he was very orderly in all his accounts and papers. IFc was studiously neat and exact in his work, for this was all a jtai-t of that complete command of himself wliirli was to make him able to command others. His early copy-l)()oks are still to be seen. 8. /JMicn- was uuich talk in those days about the western kinds: but the West meant, to Virginians, the country about the Ohio River. That country was a GEORGE WASHINGTON 151 part of Yirginia, and settlers were taking up its land. There was great need of surveys of the country, and Washington determined to become a land-surveyor. 9. He began his work as early as when he was six- teen years old, and did it so thoroughly that he received an appointment as public surveyor. For three years he was hard at work, but during this time he also showed a great interest in military life. 10. Tlio work of a surveyor, especially in a new coun- try and among Indians, was an excellent training for a soldier. It made him able to endure hardships, quick in invention, and expert in overcoming difficulties. 11. When, therefore, at the age of nineteen, Washing- ton was appointed an officer over the militia of one of the districts of Virginia, he was already fitted for the duty, and he practiced diligently all the exercises of the soldiers. 12. He was just of age, and held the rank of major, when the governor chose him to visit the Ohio River on an important errand. It was said that the French were building a fort on land which belonged to the Eng- lish, and Washington was sent to warn them to leave. He made the journey, which was a very dangerous one in the winter season, and acted so prudently that he delivered his message, found out what the governor wished to know, and came back to report. 13. He was now made a lieutenant-colonel. The Vir- ginians were aroused by the doings of the French, and they sent out men to build a fort at the most important point. Washington was sent with some men to sup- port them, but, on the way, learned that the French had come down suddenly, driven away the builders of the fort, and finished it for their own use. i;,:: (iKolJCiE WASHINGTON. 14. 'I'iiis was tlio fort against which General Brad- (Inck niarclit'd tlic nt'xt year. Washington went witli liiiii, as we have seen, and sliowed himself a Ijrave and skilllnl sol(her. He was now made commander-in-chief of tilt' army of A'irginia. lie led the forces which after- wanl l(t<»k ])ossession of the fort, in the French and Iiidinii war. 15. When that war was over, he retnrned to his estate, whicli had l)ecn greatly enlarged, for a brother had died and liad left his land to him. lie married, and was busy witli his plantation; but all the while he watched the troui)lcs of tlie colonies with Great Britain. He was a member of the Virginia assembly, and was heartily oj)|>os(m1 ti) all those acts of Englaud which were unjust to tlic cobjuies. 16. Virginia sent him to the Continental Congress, and Congress, when the time came, chose him com- inandi'i'-in-chief of the American army. From that time ln' was tlie foremost man in America. 17. Tbc whole story of his life is like that of his yontli. He belonged to the class of men who were in the liabit of governing others. Wben the separation fi'nni Ci-cat Britain came, the rich Tories in New Eng- land and New York left the country, and went to Canada and England. Tlic Virginia planters lived likr English lords, but they were lovers of freedom, :ind tlicre were not many Tories among them. 18. Wasbington learned his love of liberty from \ iiLnnians; but he learned how to govern others by first govei-ning liimself. He was a tall, strong man, and every one wbo sow him was a little in awe of him. "'• ''"1 "<>t laugli nmoli, l)nt he was a pleasant compan- •""■ H<- ba.l enemies, wlio hated him because he was A BUNDLE OF STICKS. 153 great, and because he was not easily moved to do as they wished him to do. But he thought first of Ids country and hist of himself; therefore his country has always honored him as its First Citizen, and he bears the name of the Father of his Country. CHAPTER XLL A BUNDLE OF STICKS. 1. When the War for Independence was over, there were thirteen States in America, which were no longer under the government of Great Britain. Each State had its own government, but there was also a Congress to which all the States sent representatives ; it was with this Congress that Great Britain made peace. 2. The king did not sign thirteen treaties with thir- teen States; he signed one treaty with commissioners from the United States. But the United States of that day was very different from the United States which we know. There was no President chosen by the whole ])eople, with his Cabinet officers to advise him; there was no Senate, no House of Representatives; there was no United States Court. There was only a Congress, which had very little power, because the people were unwilling to give it power. 3. The thirteen colonies had gone to war, because each thought that the king was tiying to rule it con- trary to the rights of English people. They had united for the war, because they knew that thirteen colonies together would be stronger than thirteen fighting sepa- rately. The old fable of the bundle of sticks was shown to be true. i;,4 A BUNDLE OF STICKS. 4. A larinrr's sons once had a quarrel. The farmer tried to make peace between them ; but though he used many words he could do nothing. So he bade them l.riiiu:hhn some sticks. ITe tied these together into a liimdle, and .u'ave tlie bundle in turn to each of his sons and tuld him to l)rcak it. Each son tried, but could not. Tlien he untied the bundle, and gave them each one stiek to break. This they did easily; and the farmer said : '' So is it with you, my sons. If you are all of the same mind, your enemies can do you no harm ; but if you quarrel and become separated, they will easily get the better of you." 5. 'i'he colonies tied themselves together, and England could not break them. But when there was no longer any enemy, they began to fall apart again. They were States now, ami each State thought of itself and looked with suspicion on its neighbor State. 6. Congress was hardly more than a committee.' The States had been careful not to give it too much author- ity. They did not wish to break away from a king, and ihrn set up a power over them which might be as un- just as a king. And since Congress w^as of so little account, the ablest men no longer belonged to it; they were governors of States, or agents abroad. 7. The govei-nment seemed to be falling to pieces. Congress could with dilTiculty bring enough members together to attend to business. Scarcely any one paid any attention to what it did : least of all was it respected l)y foreign governments. John Adams, who had been .sent as connnissioner to England, could hardly get a liearing there. In fact, some members of the English government began to say that England might, after all, get possession of the weak States auain. John Quincy Adams. Born July ii, 1767; died February 23, 1848. Sixth President of the United States. i:,(; THE NEW GOVERNMENT. 8. Still, till' |HM>{)li' uf tlic States really did know one allot her hotter tlinii l)efoi"e the war. They had fought side l.v side, Mild tlie leaders now wrote long letters to one another ahoiit tlie state of affairs. They were anxious that tlie country should not lose the good it had se- cured. Neighhoring States held conventions for settling (Hicstioiis ahout trade that had arisen among thein. 9. It was a great help that all spoke the same lan- uuage, that all had much the same religion, and lived under laws and forms of government Avhich did not greatly differ , in short, there were many more points in wliich they agreed than there were in which they dif- iricd. IJesides, they saw that they were likely to fall into fi-esli dilhculties with England, and this made them all w ish foi" some union of action. CHAPTER XLII. THE NEW GOVERNMENT. 1. Till'] people living in the United States had long Ix'i'ii used to settling their own diflicultics. They kiiew^ \u)\v to carry on town-meetings, and State assemljlies, and a general Congress. Whenever they found them- selves face to face with a hard problem, they called a iiKM'ting and talked it over. Moreover, the several States Ii.kI chai-ters, and constitutions, and written laws. 2. So now the States called a Convention, which met ill l^hiladelphia in the summer of 1787. This Conven- ti'Mi di-ew up, with great care, a Constitution which be- gins with these words: "We the ].eople of the United States, in order to form a more ])erfect union, estab- lish justice, insure (hjuiestic tranipiillity, provide for THE NEW GOVERNMENT. 157 the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure tlie blessings of liberty to ourselves and our pos- tci-ity, do (jrdain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." 3. The Constitution then declares that the govern- ment of the United States shall be in a Cong^ress which Interior of Independence Hall. is to make tlie laws, a President who shall see tliat the laws are carried out, and judges who shall decide dis- putes and try offenders against tlie laws. 4. It further says that this government shall act for tlie i)oo[)lein all dealings with foreign governments; tliat it shall provide for tlie defense of the people against enemies ; that it may make war in the name of the people ; and that it shall take charge of all those mat- ters, like the post-office, and the care of pulilic lands, Avliich concern all the States and not some single one. 1,^ii, THE NEW GOVERNMENT. 5. '11 ic incnilM'is of ilic Convention talked long Tind earnestly over a Constitution. Two or three different plans were discussed, before they could agree on the best. Then they sent to each of the States a copy of tlic Const it ul ion as they finally wrote it. It was not to he the law of the land until the people in at least nine States had accepted it. 6. Tiie people now took up the matter. There were not many ncwspaj)ers in those days, but they wei'c all lilled with articles and letters about the new Constitu- tion. Ivspecially, those members of the Convention who liad worked hard in shaping the Constitution now did their best to explain it, and show that it would work well. 7. It was the great topic everywhere. Whenever a few men got together, in a country store or by the fire- side, tln^y were sure to have a debate on this subject, 'i'lu'ii tlie several States held conventions to decide whether or no they would adopt the Constitution. 8. Tliere were many who talked earnestly against it. They were afraid the States would lose tlieir separate existence, and be swallowed up in one great State. But the greater numl)er remembered the confusion of the past few years. If they did not adopt this Constitution, and have a more perfect union, when would they ever have peace and security ? 9. So, one by one, the States accepted the Constitu- tion. At last eleven States had agreed together, and the new government began. Shortly after, the remaining two States also acce})ted the Constitution. 10. There was no doubt as to who should be the first rn-.sidciit. (Jeorge Washington was the choice of all; and Joim Adams was made Vice-President. After some THE GOVERNMENT AT WORK. 159 delay, the men came together who had been chosen in the different States to ho members of Congress ; Wash- ington appointed the first judges ; ambassadors were sent to foreign countries, and the United States was one of the world's nations. CHAPTER XLIII. THE GOVERNMENT AT WORK. 1. The American people had been so used to seeing a feeble Congress, that they did not at first have nnich faith in the new government. But it had been well planned ; it was in the hands of men who were thor- oughly in earnest ; it gave the people a feeling that they were united, and it removed a thousand difficulties in their trade with other countries. In a short time, no one wished the country back in its old w^ays ; even those who had opposed the Constitution were now its friends. 2. Washington's first act was to surround himself with able men,, who should be his advisers. He chose for his cabinet four men, two of whom were heartily in favor of the Constitution, and two had been o})posed to it. The secretary of state was Tliomas Jefferson, and the attorney-general wns Edmund Randolph. Both of these men had preferred a confederation of the States to a strong union. 3. The secretary of war w^as General Knox ; the secretary of the treasury was Alexander Hamilton. These two men were ardent friends of the Constitution and union, and Hamilton, especially, had worked hard to liring about the new state of things. Thus the first 100 THE GOVERNMENT AT WORK. Pivsidont (lid not think it necessary to have about him oiilv those wlio ihonglit just as lie did; he wished to lind llic wisest and a])lest men to set the government in motion. 4. 'i'lio most imi)ortant l)usiness was to provide some means for paying what the country owed. The United States of Ameriea was beginning life not merely poor, lull deeply in debt. To carry on the war, the old Con- fedei-ation had borrowed money, both in Europe and in .\niei'i<*a. besides, each of the States had borrowed money foi" tlie same purpose. 5. Tlie United States was the old Confederation with a new name. It was bound to pay its debts. But should it also pay the debts which the separate States owed ? Those who wished to make a strong union were in favor of this. They saw that if the States turned over their debts to the United States, they would have also to give the United States power to raise money to l»ay these debts, and that would strengthen the general government. G. Congress was almost evenly divided on this ques- tion, and it was finally decided in this Avay. The strong- est o|)position came from the southern members, headed by Jelierson. Now, these members were very eager to have the caj.ital of the country in the south. The noitiiern members preferred to have the capital at Phila- delphiu; aiul it seemed likely that there would be a sliarp debate over this question. Hamilton, who had brought in the plan for paying the debt, went to Jeffer- son, and said he would })ersua.de his friends to vote for a southern position for the capital, if Jefferson's friends would vote that the United States should assume the debts uf the States. Andrew Jackson. . Born March 15, 1767; died January 8, 1845. Seventh President of tlie United States. 102 THE NEW WORLD AND THE OLD. 7. 'I'lius it was brought about. The present site was clioseii lor the ca])ital,and Hamilton's plan was adoj)ted. Tiio United States had no money in the treasury with which to |»ay the debt, but it had vast areas of unoccu- pied land which it could sell, and it had the right to raise money by taxation in various w^ays. So it issued '• promises to pay " to all the creditors of the old Con- federation and the tliii'teen separate States. 8. The people ot" the colonies had rebelled, when En^iland uudertook to tax them without giving them anv voice in the matter. Now, the United States was taxing the same people, but the people had a voice in the mattei- ; they chose the men who laid the taxes. They giumbled, foi" they were })oor ; but they knew very well that government could not be carried on without money, and they were, at any rate, their own masters. CHAPTER XLIV. THE NEW WOULD AND THE OLD. 1. Tin; United States was now an inde|)endent na- tion. It had its own government, and it had possession f nearly all the country south of Canada and east of the Mississippi River. The country west of the Missis- sippi belonged to Spain, which also owned what is now the State of Florida. 2. Tiiere were l»ut few settlers in the great valleys of the Oliio and Mississippi. The ])opulation was mainly between the Alleghany Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean, and the people still had a great deal to do with Europe. They liad not yet begun to manufacture many goods, and they dei)ended chiefly on England and Fi-ancc for wliat they needed. <> THE NEW WORLD AND THE OLD. 163 3. The people in Europe, on the other liand,were very much interested in the United States. The French ofti- cers and soldiers, who had helped the new nation to ac- quire its independence, returned home, and everywhere spread accounts of the Republic. The Constitution of the United States, and those of the several States, were translated into French. Many travelers came across to see the new nation, and a great many books, pamplilets, and papers about America were scattered througliout France and England. 4. The English had of course, before the war, more trade with America than any other country had, for the two peoples were united in language, government, and race ; besides, England had made laws which com- pelled the colonists to trade only with the mother- country. The war interrupted this trade ; but when peace came, English merchants again sent their ships and goods across the seas. 5. While the Americans had more business with Eng- land, they had a very friendly feeling toward France. They had just been fighting the Engiis]i,and France had helj^ed them. Besides, the war was scarcely over, before France herself entered upon a Revolution which greatly interested Americans. 6. For generations, the French people had been undei* rulers who gave them no liberty. When, therefore, they saw the })eople of the British colonies in America rise against the government, and become free and indepen- dent, they thought of their own wrctclicd condition. The Frencli people rose and overthrew the govern- ment. They put their king to death, and chose their own rulers, and set uj) an Assembly much like the American Congress. llU TIIK NEW WORLD AND THE OLD. 7. At first all seemed to go on well. But unfortu- nately tlie French people had not been trained, as the Americans had been, to govern themselves. They had had no town-meetings ; they were not used to repre- sentative assemblies. 8. Tlicrel'ore, alter getting rid of the king, they did not know how to ])rocced in an orderly way to set up a new govcnnnent. Their leaders led them this way and tliut. The cruel wrongs they had suffered made them ready to take vengeance on their old rulers. They began to I Hit to death the friends of the king, and to take away their property. 9. Soon, the leaders became jealous of one anotlicr, and each treated the other as an enemy of his country. Siieli 11 period of bloodshed and misery followed that it lias been called the Reign of Terror. It came to an v\u\ only when one leader, stronger than the others, gathci-ed the power into his hands. 10. This was Na])oleon JJonaparte, and for a while he was the great man of France. lie was an able general, and lapidly became so ])owei'ful that he caused himself t<> be jiroelaimed Emperor, and the French Repu])lic, wbicli had been set up when the kingdom was over- thrown. ]»ecame the French Emi)ire. 11. It was iui))ossible tliat France should have this tiiimoil. and not eomc into difficulties with other na- tions. N(» nation is without neighbors, and France had a neiglibor who was an old enemy. It was not long before Franee and Fngland were at war. It was a war wliieli linally osscssions extended from the Atlantic Ocean to the Rocky Mountains. Many persons, especially in New Kngland, shook tlieir lieads over the purchase ; but it was one of tlie most important acts in tlie early history ol" (lie Union. 6. It could not 1)0 expected that, wliile war was rag- iug in Kuropo, thv United States should be able to keep wholly out of the quarrel. Each of the countries at war threatened to drag her into the conflict. 7. England issued a series of orders which bore hard upou American merchants and sailors. She claimed the ri'jlit to lay hold of any supplies for the enemy, which si I.' might find in a vessel belonging to any other coun- try ; to seize the produce of French colonies wherever found; and to make search on any vessel for seamen of l>i-itis]i ])iiTh, and carry tliem off for her own service. 8. Frnnco, on the other hand, claimed the right to seize all vessels trading with England or her colonies. Thus each country began to seize American vessels, and ricsi(h-iit .lelTorson tried to punish them both, by per- suading ('ongress to ])ass a bill forbidding all American vessels to leave American ports for Europe. Foreign vessels, also, were forbidden to land cargoes. 9. The object of this bill was to cripple European, and especially English, trade. But England did not need our trade so mucli as we needed hers ; and the chief effect of the Fmhargo,as the bill was called, was to stop business in the ports from whieh American vessels sailed. It soon appeared that the United States could not get along without Europe. 10. The United States and England grew more irri- tated with raeh other. The English continued to seize Henry Clay, Statesman. Born April 12, 1777 ; died June 29, 1852. ir,8 TIIK INiTKI) STATES AND EUROPE. vessels and men. Mult! than nine hundred vessels had Ikcu sci/ed during ten years, and several thousand Anicririin seamen had been pressed into the British service. This could not go on. In 1812 the United States dechiivd war aoainst Great Britain. WASHING! 0>lv;* I I-;,; v^ . '' ' ''■' "^ ' -B-^'H' 'Nil 'r ^. 11. Tile wai- lasted about two years. Tli(> uKjst famous l)att les were fought at sea, and <»ii tli<' (Jreat Lakes between t'aiiadaand the United States. Amerieau .sailors won some splendid victories. England, meanwhile, had defeated Na|)oleou, and the war in Eui-ope was coming to an viu\. Thiivii was no longer any need of interfering with ti-ade, and both England and the United States were glad to sign a treaty of peace. ^ t a o n- T V •«■ 'T «^ A N D 8 A L A S K A I *nr-Kalf the mrU* ••/ ttu litr^ I^^Tijptjji^f -'■ W'rt*. •! ^. =^Va^C^ y \ TERRITORIAL A< (J lis IT IONS 09 TUB I MTFO ST A 1 1 > THE GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY. 169 CHAPTER XLVL THE GROWTH OF THE COl NTRY. 1. When the second war with England was fought, there were some men in tlie American army who liad taken part in the War for lndoj)endence, but they were men of sixty years and upward. Most of the sol- diers had never before seen a British soldier. They had grown up in the United States, and had known no other government. 2. Instead of the thirteen States with which the Union began, there were now eighteen, and in six years more there were twenty-four. Instead of the Missis- sippi River being the western boundary, the country now stretched to the Rocky Mountains, and some ad- venturous men had even made settlements beyond those mountains. In a very few years Florida was given up by Spain, and became a part of the Union. 3. Tlie people were glad that the wai* was over. Their .ships could again sail freely over all seas. They could go to work once more, and there was a great deal to be done. There were roads to be built, clearings to be made in tlic forests, and mines to be worked. 4. Tliey knew that they were in a great covmtry which was wonderfully rich, and they were eager to occu])y it. One after another pushed farther into the wilder- ness, and word came back of fertile ])lains and broad rivers, of hills where iron and coal abounded, and of vast herds of buffalo and other game. 5. In a country which had so long a stretch of sea- coast, and such lakes and rivers, it was natural to use 170 TllH GliOWTII OF THE COUNTRY. boats lor travel as much as possible. The families iiiovino- \v('sl\\ai-(l liuatcd down the Ohio, on rafts and ill tiat-boats. Persons who wished to travel from New Kniilaiid to the southern States went in sloops and schooners, and, in the extreme west, the Mississippi River was a great highway. 6. The roads, except close by the few towns, were rough, and stages were very slow. It was easier to move large goods by water, and, where there were no rivers, canals were dug. Canals were very common in Europe, and they seemed to Americans the best means of connecting distant parts of their country. 7. The most famous of these canals in America is the Ki'ic, which extends from Lake Erie, across the State of New York, to the Hudson River. It was eight years in building, and was then the longest canal in the world. Not long Ijefore it was begun, a very important inven- tion was made. For many years, ingenious persons had been trying experiments with steam. They had found out how to drive machinery with it, and now they were ti-ying to apply it to boats. 8. Tlu' lirst steamboats were odd affairs. One was made wbicli would go as well on land as on the water, and not veiy well on either. At last, a persevering American, Robert Fulton, built a steamboat, to run on tb." Hudson River between New York and Albany. While be was building it, people laughed at him, and eallcd it ''Fulton's folly." 9. It was not a perfect steamboat. It sent great showers of sparks and a column of smoke into the air ; its machinery and ]>addles made a prodigious noise, and frightened the sailors on the boats wliicli it passed ; but it moved up the river without oars, against wind and tide. THE GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY. 171 10. After Fulton's success, improvements were rap idly made ; but steamboats had Ijeen runnino- for twenty years before men succeeded in using steam for carriages on land. At first, the locomotives, like the steamboats, "The Clermont," Fuiton's first Steamboat. were very clumsy, and people supposed the wheels would slip on the rails ; so they made the rails and wheels with cogs, but they quickly found this was not necessary. 11. About the time that railroads began to be built, that is, near the end of the first quarter of this century, o THE GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY. men loiiud out how to work iron ore by means of hard coal. As the coal and iron were in great abundance, especially in Pennsylvania, and near to each other, a laru-e business in working- iron sprang up. 12 It was a long while, however, before coal was use(l much, except in the neighborhood where it was dtiu'. There were still great forests standing all over the count i-v. AVood was abundant and cheap, and was The first Passenger Locomotive built in the United States. used both on steamboats and on locomotives. A story is told of a sea-ca|»tain who brought some coal from I^hibulelphia to Ids New England home. He told his wile that it was used for fuel, and she tried to burn i< '»'> the heaitli. but it would not burn. He described a gi-atc. She luid never seen such a thing, and the nearest tliey could come to one was to take a gridiron an<] try to make a lire of coals on that 1 THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH. 173 CHAPTER XLVII. THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH. I. 1. The War of 1812 did much to destroy the com- merce of New England ; but, meanwhile, something was occurring wliich did more to change the life of New England than any war could do. Before this, the peo- ple, except as they sailed their ships, had not much to do with other parts of the Union. 2. They lived on their small farms or worked as mechanics. Now and then a peddler stocked his wagon and drove into New York State or even farther south ; but most of the trade was done by vessels, and there was more trade with Great Britain than with the Southern States. 3. But when the war was over, all this was changed, and New England and the Southern States were brought into close connection with each other. In the South, the peo[)le gave most of their attention to raising tobacco and cotton. Tobacco does not require much machinery to make it convenient for use. The leaves are dried, and there is little else to be done. 4. It is not so with cotton. The pods of this plant contain down mixed with seeds, and, before the down can be used, the seeds must be picked out by a machine ; then the down is packed into bales and pressed. All this is done where the cotton is raised ; but to make use of the cotton as thread or cloth, it needs to be cleaned and combed, and then spun or woven. 5. Formerly, this spinning and weaving were done by hand ; flax and wool, also, were spun and woven by hand. 171 Tuv. Noirni and the south. In (.1(1 f:ii-m-li<>iis('s one may still find in the garret the s|.iiiuiuu--wheel or loom Avhich our great-grandmothers used. J>iit so entirely has this work ceased, that the old s|)iiiniim-\vli(M>ls are now used as mere ornaments ill the ])ai'lor. 6. Not long before the War of 1812, cotton cloth ])i'gan to be manufactured in England by machinery, and soon similar factories were started in New England. Tlie mountain streams, which widened into rivers, like tlic Ak'rrimac and Concord, furnished water for turn- ing the mill-wheels. On the banks of these and other streams, factories wei'e built, and towns gathered about the factories. 7. It was necessary to have men and women to work in tlie fiictories, and there was no diiliculty in finding tlicni. Young women, especially, who had used the sjii lining- wheel at home, came to the factory town to work. Tliey could earn more money, and they liked to be among people. It was more cheerful in the busy towns than on tlie solitary farms in the country. 8. in the long winter evenings, they gathered in halls and chiirclies, and listened to lecturers and preachers. They had debating clubs and lending libraries, and read Ixjoks and newspapers diligently. A change was silently going on. The farms were being deserted for the mills. Towns gi-ew and flourished, while the country became more lonely. 9. From being chiefly a fai'ming and seafaring people, the New Knulanders Ix'came a manufacturing and trading pcoj.le. As th.-y bought cotton of the South, they sold, to Soutliein planters, cotton cloth and a great many other •joods wliioh tliey manufactui'ed ; they had, too, much of tiie carrving triide between Europe and the South. THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH. 175 10. In this way, New England and the Southern States were brought very close together. Many South- ern boys were sent to New England to be educated in the schools and colleges there, and many New Englanders went to the South, to engage in business or to teach in families. 11. Trade increased also betvyeen New England and other parts of the globe. Since there were now great manufactories, tbe merchants had more goods to send away. Since there were growing cities and towns, they needed to Iniy more goods from other countries. Ships sailed from New England ports not only to the South and to Europe, but to Asiatic countries as well. CHAPTER XLVIII. THE NOKTH ANJ) THE SOUTH. II. 1, When the Southern boys came to the North, they found busy towns and small farms. Almost all the people worked with their hands or tools, and almost everybody could read and write. When they went back to their homes in the South, they returned to a very different kind of life. 2, The Southern planter was not like the Northern farmer, and Southern towns were not like Noi'thern towns. There were very few towns, indeed, and only two or three on the sea-coast, like Charleston and New Orleans, which could be called cities. There was no whir of machinery heard, for there were no manufactories. 3, The two parts of the country were almost as differ- ent from each other as two separate countries. They 176 THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH. spoke lilt' .siiiiic hiiiguage, it is true, and had the same loiiu uf u-ovcnmient ; but the habits of the people were lint the sauie, and the people themselves thought dif- Iciviitlv alioiit many important matters. 4. Tlic liist tiling that would striive a traveler, going tinin the Noi-th to the South, would be the great number of black mrii and women. These bhicks were the slaves (.f the whites, and this system of slavery marked the chief difference between the two parts of the country. 5. Slaves were brought to V^irginia very early in the historv of the count it. They were to be found in all the colonies, [or al that time very few people thought it wrong to keep slaves. Some of the Indians were made slaves, and, after an Indian war in New^ p]iigland, many Indians, wIkj were captured, wei'e sold into slavery, and sometimes sent to the West India Islands. 6. ihit the blacks were not common in the Northern States. 'J'hey were sometimes employed as house ser- vants, hut they did not work much in the fields or shops. 'I'liis was partly because the colder climate was unsuited to tiiem. paitly because they were mainly ignorant, and were of little use where skillful and industrious laborers were needed. 7. It was a simple matter to work on the tobacco and kill : it required only ]»atience and strong hands. The plantei- lived in his large house and rode out over his lields to see if the work were done ; but the work itself was done by his slaves. ^' 't sccukmI to him much the l)est way of carrying on liis plantation. He bought the negroes, who were bioiiLdit over from Afiica, or were the descendants of such, and they worked for him as lonir as thev could. THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH. 177 He fed them, gave them houses to live in, and little garden-plats for their own use. When they were sick, or grew old, he took care of them. A Cotton-Field. 9. He played with the little chil- dren, and they were first playmates for his own chihlrcn and then their ser- vants. Tlic slaves about, the house were the most intelligent, and they often became greatly attached to their masters nnd mistresses. The less intelligent slaves were kept at work in the fields. 10. Except in some of the mountain districts, the white man and the black rarely worked together. The 178 TIIK NOKTII AM) THE SOUTH. whites seldom worked with their hands. They were so used to liaviii«i- all labor of this kind done by their slaves, that tliey thought it a disgrace to work. Those \slit> weic loo jM)or to own slaves were yet ashamed to work, and le(i idle, ignorant lives. CHAPTER XLIX. THE N'OKTH AM) THE SOUTH. HI. 1. .Ii:i'FKifS()N and others like him, who lived in the midst of slavery, wished at lirst to he rid of it. They saw that it was as had for the whites as for the blacks, and tliat il was a wasteful system. One of the wisest acts of .Jefferson was to have laws })assed, by Avhieh slavery was forbidden in the new country north of the Ohio. 2. ('ongress tried to stop the growth of slavery, by passing laws that no slaves should be brought into the count IT after a certain day. But when tliat time came, there w(>re already a great many slaves in the South ; their chihlren were slaves, and only now and then was a slave made free by his master. A great business had Lirown uji in the buying and selling of men and women, and the persons engaged in it did not mean that it should be stopped. 3. After the War for Inde])endence, slavery had raj.idly died out in the North. The )^tates, one by one, made slavery unlawful. P>ut in the South, slavery increased. The mills in England and New England wanted cotton. ^J1ie l)cst came from the Southern States. Th(^ planters enlarged their fields, and needed .norc men and women to pick the cotton, so the one John Caldwell Calhoun, Statesman. Born March i8, 1782 ; died March 31, 1S50. ISO THE NOKTH AND THE SOUTH. wlio had the largest number of slaves could send the must cotton to market. 4. The more slaves a man had, tlic richer he was thouirht to be. People soon became used to this state of things, and forgot that they or their fathers ever wanted it to come to an end. Instead, quick-witted lurii reasoned that it was the only true way of living, at anv rate, in the South ; they even persuaded themselves that the Uiblc approved of it. 5. Since the masters had not to work, they had leisure for otlier things. They visited their friends. Those who likt'il books had large libraries. They traveled abroad, and often sent their cliildrcn abroad to be educated, for there were few good schools or colleges at the South. 6. At the North, there was no great difference between ied by the Indians ; then it would move the whole tribe to a place far dis- tant, and say they should be undisturbed. But by and by the white population, moving westward, would again reach the Indians, and want their new lands. 9. Thus the government pushed the Indians more and more out of the way. No wonder there were wars and cruel deeds. The Indians looked upon the whites as their enemies. They found the government did not keep its word. Treaties were broken. The Indian could answer only with the tomahawk, the blazing fagot, and the seal ping-knife. 10. Yet the Indians in the country have increased in number, in spite of these hardships and wars. They are not dying out. The white people, too, are learning to do them justice. They are asking themselves why the Indian should not own a piece of land as well as the white man ; why he should not live as the white man lives, be educated like him, and like him live under the laws. 11. Indeed, while the government has often been negligent or indifferent, the people have been trying in many ways to christianize the Indians. Missionaries and teachers have made their home among them, and schools have been established, like those at Hampton, Va., and Carlisle, Pa., where Indians arc taught the arts of peace, and trained to teach their own people. 188 THE KAST AM) TIIK WKST. CHAPTER LII. THE EAST AND THE WEST. III. 1. !t wiis not only the people in the Atlantic States, who were occupyinu" the western country. The wai's in Miiropf, whieh came to an end when the War of 1812 was ovci-. lett the countries there heavily in debt. In- stead of tilling the soil, and manufacturing, the people had ItL'cn destroying property and killing one another. War costs a great deal of money, and the people wlio sulTcr most from it are the poor, and the day lal)orci's. 2. Knroi)c was therefore a hard place to live in, and those who were distressed heard of a great country beyond the sea, called America, where there was land enoiiLiIi for every on(\ They heard, too, that there were not men and women enough to do all the work that was needed, in tilling the soil, in digging canals, and in i)iiil(liiiii- i-ailroads. 3. S(j the poor, who had a little money left, began to iret their goods together, and take passage to America. And now was seen a wonderful sight. There was no iri-eat army gathering on the European shore to attack America, but there was a multitude of families, each (M)ming singly and money for their work. They saved their money, iiiid .srut it back to bring over their friends. The news si»read, and every year more came across the water. Thore was a famine in licland in 1847, and people in Martin Van Buren. Born December 5, 1782 ; died July 2^, 1862. Eighth President of the United States. IIM) TlIK EAST AND THE WEST. tlh' United States generously sent muuey and shiploads nl ^laiii, ill aid of the sufferers. The gift showed that Aineriea was the land of plenty, and a great emigration fioiu Ireland began. 5. At first, these emigrants from Europe stayed mainly in the East. There were not enough men and women to work in the mills and factories, and there were not enough women for housework. So these new-comers (|iiickly found places. They were used to low wages ;ind to iiu'xpensive living, and it was not long before I he men and women, who had been working in the mills and factories, gave place to these new-comers. Many, unwilling to work side by side with the foreigners, at the ])rice for which the foreigners would work, joined the companies which went West. 6. As the railrcrnds were built, the emigrants from i']iii-ojK' worked u])on them, and were drawn farther away from the seaboard. The Gei-mans and Norwe- gians and Swedes, who were farmers at home, were attracted Ijy the great fertile plains of the West. The railroad companies wished to sell the land which they owned, and to build up villages along their routes. Tiie steamship companies wanted passengers. So these great corf)orations sent agents to Europe, who scattered advertisements everywhere, and made it easy for men of every nation- to come to America. 7. Yet there were not men enough, and this made Americans eager to contrive machines which should do the work of men. This was especially the case in farminL^ The i)road fields of the West were very fruit- ful ; hut the farmer who owned a great tract could not find men enouLdi to help him cultivate the fields after tli<' ohi fashion, lie set his wits to work to invent FREE STATES AND SLAVE. 191 machines which should prepare the ground, sow the seed, and reap the crop. 8. As the West l^ecame more settled, and railroads were built, the old and the new parts of the country were brought closer togetlier. The people in the East, busy with manufactures, were fed with bread made from flour which was ground from wheat raised on the West- ern prairies. In turn, they made the cotton and woolen goods, the boots and shoes, the l<:nives and tools, which were needed in the West. Thus no part of the Union could say to another, " We have no need of you." CHAPTER LIII. FREE STATES AND SLAVE. 1. As the great country in the West became occupied, one State after another was added to the Union. The new States north of the Oliio River came in as free States. Not only were they settled, mainly, l)y emi- grants from the older free States, but the laws made, before the Constitution was framed, had forever ex- cluded slavery from the Northwest Territory. 2. The new States south of the Oliio came into the Union as slave States. Tliey were formed from territory given to the Union by the older slave States. They were settled })y families from those States, who carried their slaves with them, and observed the laws and ways to which they had been used. 3. But, when the Mississippi was crossed, and settle- ments began to be made in the great territory originally called Louisiana, the question arose whether the States made from it were to be slave States or free. 102 FREE STATES AND SLAVE. 4. Tlie first discussion was over the admission of the Tcrritorv of Missouri as a State ; for, before the new parts nt" the country become States, on an equality with other States in the Union, they are formed into Territories, haviui^ trovernors appointed by Congress. It was the (hitv of Congress to decide whether Missouri should rniiic ill as a free State or a slave State, and for more tlian a vear this question was discussed. 5. Kver since the Union had been formed, people had I. ecu uneasy al)()ut slavery. The Declaration of Indepen- dence begins with the words : " We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men arc created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness." It seemed to some a contradiction to use tliese words, and then keep millions of human beings in a state of j)crpetual slavery. 6. ( )theis declared that slavery was a wasteful system, and that tlie country would be richer and more prosper- ous without it. Still otiiers declared that slavery was wron'i-; that no man had a right to hold another in bondage. Oh tin- other hand, those who defended slavery wei'e sui'c that it would be impossible to cul- tivate the South without slave labor. They said it was natural ioi- the whites to govern the blacks, and that there was nothing wrong in it. 7. Meanwhile, the free States of the country were -lowing i)owerful, much faster than the slave States. Tlie emigrants from Europe landed at Northern ports ; thoy stai, all the territory in the South had been made into slave States. There were now fourteen slave States, and thirteen fi'ee States. But people were still flocking into tlie groat eonntry nortli of the southern boundary of Missouri, and it was plain that, before many years, a THE WAR WITH MF.XICO. 195 number of States would tliere be formed. When this xvas done, tl>e free States would greatly outnun,ber the slave States. . 2. Those men, at the South, who were anxious to pei- petuate slavery, saw clearly that people would not le slavery alone. They foresaw that, by and by, there won d 1 a Unton, in which the greater number of States would be opposed to slavery, and Congress would beg>n to make laws against the system. ^ 3 They looked about for means to increase the num- ber' of slave States, and they found it in the southwest. Not long after the purchase of Florida from Spain by the United States, Mexico had thrown off the rule o hpam and formed itself into a republic after the i.attern of the United States. 4 At that time Mexico included, besides the count y which now bears the name, Texas, New Mexico Cali- fornia, and other western regions. But the people, living in this great country, had not been trained ni self- lovernment, as the people of the English eolomes had been when they revolted from England. It was not long before they fell to quarreling, and the province of Texas separated itself from Mexico, and set itself up as an independent State. 5 In doing this, the inhabitants of Texas were greatly helped by people in the neighboring States of the Amen- can Union. These men went into Texas, and were very ready to fight against Mexico, and t« show the Te.Kans how' to organize a government. They were in fact, always thinking what an excellent addition to the Union Texas would make. 6 Through their advice, Texas now proposed to be annexed to the United States. This proposition stirred I'.Ml TIIK WAli WrrH MEXICO. the rninii -jreatly. Mexico hud not acknowledged the independence of Texas, and for the United States to admit tins country into the Union would mean that Will- must he made with Mexico. 7. It was very i>lainly seen, too, what the admission ol" 'l\'xas meant. It meant more skive States, and the ,,|, position to slavery was every day growhig more pownl'id. r»ut the South wanted Texas, and the South was moi-e in earnest than the North. Besides, there w.iv uKiny, all over the country, who thought it a fine liiiuL^ to have the United States grow bigger and bigger, until it should take in all North America. 8. Congress voted to have Texas annexed, and war with Mexico iunnediately followed. It lasted about two vears. 'I'lie Mexicans fought bravely, but they were uot united, and they could not stand against the army aud uavy of their powerful neighbor. General Taylor, wlio afterward was President of the United States, and (leneral Scott, commanded the United States forces, wliich, after a series of battles, marched into the city (jf Mexico, the capital of the country. 9. A treaty was made with the United States in IS-AS. The independence of Texas was agreed upon, and Mexico also sold a large poi'tion of the rest of her territory to the Uuitcd States. In accordance with this treaty, and another our uiade live years later, our nation came into possession of Ualitornia, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, and New- Mexico. 10. There were few who thought the war a just one, and many foresaw that greater evils were to follow ; but tlio country was ])leascd that the boundaries of the nation were so greatly enlarged. William Henry Harrison. Born February 9, 1773; died April 4, 1841. Niiuh President of the United States. 1«)S TllK rAriFIC COAST. ClfAPTER LV. THE PACIFIC COAST. I. 1. Shortly after tlie United States became a nation, a I^)ston sea-eaptnin, Robert Gray, was sailing in the Noiih L*acilic Ocean. He was trading with the Indians lor furs, and as he sailed along the coast, he discovered a irn^it river cmiitving into a bay. There was a bar of sand across llic mouth, auainst which the waves broke; but Cai)tain (J ray, watching his chance, fonnd an 0})ening and eari-ird his sliip througli. 2. Mis ship was namiMl '' Columbia," and he gave that iiainr to (lie i-ivci', up which he sailed a few miles. He was tlic first white man to enter the river, and so the • •..iiuliy watered by the river was claimed by the nation tn which Captain Gray belonged. A few years later, i'rrsideul dellerson, when he l)onght Louisiana for the Cnitcd States, sent out an exploring expedition under two lui'u. liewis and Clai-ke. They crossed the Rocky Mountains, and made their way down the two branches of the Columbia River. 3. Thr JMiglish, also, sent an expedition from Canada, the year after Captain (»ray fonnd the Columbia. It entered the coimtry and passed through to the Pacific ; so the KuuTish ehiimed the land. Spain, meanwhile, said that all the Pacific coast north of Mexico, as far as Russian America (now Alaska), belonged to her. But Spain nia|icn( (1, however, that a party of missionaries In ijie Imli.iiis. ; ('111 liom the Eastern States, undertook to cross the inoiiiilirms. One of them. Dr. Marcus Whit- iniiii, M resolute niiin, wns determined to take his wagon tliroiiuh, Mud he found tliat he could do it. The pass \\:is itv no nie;ins ;is dillieult as the English had dechired ilto be. CHAPTER LVT. THE PACIFIC COAST. II. 1. .Mi: ANwiiiLK, the JMiglish were lu'iuging in emigrants t'rnni ilie noillieasl. They wished to occupy the country, so tli:il llie .\nierieiins should abandon it. They wished rs|i('(i:illy to bold it at this time, hecause the American and JMiglisli governments were trying to come to some agreement al)out Oregon. If the Americans could only be kept out nntil a treaty was signed, giving the country to England, all would he well. 2. Di-. \Vbirni:in was on the watch, and determined to save Oregon for the United States. He mounted his hoi-se, took a single companion, and rode for three months thi-oiigh terrible snow and cold, until he reached St. I.onis. Then he went to Washington. He found tiial a treaty had been signed, l)nt it provided only for tiie bomidai-y betwe(>n the United States and Canada, east of the Ro(dvy Mountains. The question of Oregon was left unsettled. 3. Dr. Whitman at once saw the leading men in Washington, and told them what a country the new land was. Then he set about organizing companies of THE PACIFIC COAST. 201 eiiiigrants. In the following siunmer, he carried a great body of them over the mountains. Multitudes followed, and soon there were so many Americans in the new country, and so few Englishmen, that England was forced to give up her claim. Oregon became a part of the Whitman starting for Washington. United States, only the northern boundary was not made as far north as the United States first wished. 4. This was just before the war with Mexico. The new country wliich the United States acquired aftei* that '2{)'2 TIIK PACIFIC COAST. war. IxudtTcd on Or.-^on, and thus a great region west nl tlic Rocky Mountains became a part of the Union. Ihuigrants were moving toward it across the plains, wIm'ii. suddenly, a discovery of tlie greatest importance \\:is uiado. 5. In the very year (1848) in which California became ih ■ |ti('ity of the United States, gold was found in the \ alley of the Sacramento River. At once the news spread all over the world, and, in the eastern part of the I'nited States especially, people were attacked by what was called the "gold lever." 6. Men ol all occu[>ati()ns were excited by the hope of liiidiiig gold. The student left his books, the farmer sold his acres, the mechanic gave up his shop, the mer- chant closed his store, and men who had failed in every othei- jiuisuit thought they could, at any rate, make a I'oitune in California. 7. There were three modes of reaching the new conn- tiy: by ship round Cape Horn; by ship to Panama, thence aci-oss the isthmus, and again by ship ; and by the overland route. Whichever way one took, one had a hard time. The ships were crowded. Multitudes died ol lever ill crossing the isthmus, and the bones of hundreds strewed the plains between the Mississippi Valley and the liocky Mountains. 8. Yet new men took the place of those who fell by the way. Ill two years there were a hundred thousand inhabitants in the California valleys. A biistlino' city spraiiL-- iij. on the shores (»f San Francisc(> Bay, and ••aptains who brc.iiuht their ships into the bay found the '»'»»'h«)r t.. I lie of the finest in the world. 9. At lirst, nearly every one went to the "diggings," as they were called, to dig for goM. But the miners had THE PACIFIC COAST. 203 to be ted and clothed and housed. Thus, many quickly found that they could make more money by selling goods to the miners than by digging for gold. Soon, too, it was discovered, that parts of the country were rich farm lands, and parts were well suited to grazing. City of San Francisco. 10. So a great and prosperous State grew up on the shores of the Pacilic. It was far away from the other States. Many of its ways were different from those of the older parts of the country ; but most of the people were Americans, who had grown up under the laws of the nation, and in 1850, two years after it had been bought by the country, California became one of the States of the Union. •2i)[ TlIK CONIKST ABOUT SLAVERY. CHAPTER LVIL I'llH CONTEST ABOUT SLAVERY. 1. rALiF()UNL\ did not come into the Union without a sliarp discussion over the question of slavery. Not only were the Abolitionists more persistent than ever, hut there was a growing sentiment in the country against the extension of shivery. 2. Molts assailed the Abolitionists, broke up their meetings, destroyed their printing-presses, and some- times killed men. This vioU'Uce roused many who were not preitai-e(l to ui-ge an immediate abolition of slavery. It slavery made such trouble in the country, they said, it would be bettei' if slavery should come to an end. 3. At any rate, it ought not to be suffered in any of the new States. IJcsidcs, slaves were constantly breaking aw.'iy IVom the South, and escaping to the North and to Canada. Slavery could not he so desirable a condition, it' men and women ran such risks to escape from it. 4. The nioie slavery was attacked, the more stoutly it was defended by slaveholders, as well as by many in the North. The friense forts by authority of the rnit(Ml States, and that he could not surrender them '•v.rpi |,v order of the I»resident. unless he were forced ♦•> do so by war. 11,. irmoved all liis forces to Fort SECESSION. 213 ^^v , CHARLESTON ilA KBOK Sumter, tlie strongest of the forts, and there awaited the result. 8. The Confederate States said that no United States offieer had any longer any authority within their borders ; they were no more a part of the Union than Mexico was, or Canada ; it was only necessary to make some arrange- ment with the old Union, by which the property of the United States within the seceding States should be di- vided, and each receive its share. 9. All this followed naturally from the belief that the States of the Union were independent governments, only held together by common agreement. But the peo- ple of the Northern States were not ready to grant this. They said : The States are all parts of one country ; each State owes a duty to the Union, and no State can withdraw ; at any rate, it can with- draw only when all con- sent. 10. Still, the people were very anxious to avoid a rupture. They said : Wait and see ; the Republican party has l)een suc- cessful, but the President w^ill be the President of the whole country ; he will not interfere with tlie rights of the States. They were even ready to make promises to this effect, if the secedintr States would return. l''t.Jobusoii Ciimming's Pt. Ft.Grc^rs 014 THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 11. So the winter went l>y, and everybody was in the o-reatest anxiety. One after anotlier, senators and rep- resentatives from the seceding States left Washington. It was clear that the Southerners were very much in earnest. Seven States only, howevei", had seceded when Mr. Lincoln took tlie oath of oftice, March 4, 1861, and became President of the United States. CHAPTER LIX. 'J' 111-: WAR FOR THE UNION. I. 1. Presidknt Lincoln determined to maintain Major Aiidcison at Fort Sumter. He was bound to do so, as I*i-esident, and he sent a steamer with stores to the fort. The Soutli (-arolinians had erected batteries in the har- bor, and they W(juld not let the steamer come near the fort. The Laiited States had not yet fired a shot. The government waited patiently. 2. It had not long to wait. On Friday, April 12, 1861, the l)atteries in Charleston Harbor opened fire on Fort Smnter. Tlie Confederacy attacked the United States. The fort replied, and for several hours the firing was kept up, until the fort was so ruined that tlie men could no loiiiit multitudes of families, in the North and in tlie South, i-ememhei-ed with grief those wlio had died on the hattlelield. oi- ill the li()S|»ital, or at home. Homes liad iiern Idokeu up, houses destroyed, especially in the South, :iihI iiiMiiy who once were ]>rosperous now were ])0oi\ 4. The ■• INITKDSTATKS OF A" • 1' i. AFTER THE WAR. 225 into Virginia and West Virginia), but they had said they were out of the Union. The Confederacy had dis- appeared, but were these States back in the Union ? 6. This was a question which puzzled people. They said it would never do to let States leave the Union at their own pleasure, and then, after a four years' war, come back on an equality with the States which had remained loyal. So Congress made various conditions upon which the States were to be allowed to return. Each State, for example, was required to pass laws protecting tlie blacks. 7. Meanwhile, soldiers were stationed in the South to see that the will of Congress was cari'ied out. Gov- ernors of the States were appointed from Washington, as if the States were Territories, and not yet States again. The blacks were encouraged to vote. White men from the North established themselves in the South, and undertook to get control of affairs. 8. Tins went on until, one by one, the States which had joined the Confederacy came back into the Union. At first, the power was in the hands of those who acted under advice from Washington. The most influential men in the South, those who formerly were the leaders, took little part in affaii's. Many refused to act, because they did not believe they were free to act as they thought best. 9. Thus it came al)out that the very evil which the South had feared, now did happen as one result of the war. The States were not independent, as they had been ; the general government did interfere with the States. But this could not go on forever. Matters became so unbearable that the leading men at the South began again to combine, to recover their old power. 226 THE UNION ONCE MORE. 10. 'VUo blacks, too, who had never been trained to iroveninient, were nut sorry, for the most part, to give up trvini^ to rule. They were glad to be free, but they were attached to their old masters, and often remained as hired servants where they had been slaves. 11. People in other parts of the country also were unwilling to see the Union so changed that any State should be governed from Washington. If the States of the North could manage their own affairs, the States of the .^outh should, also. They were determined, indeed, t(> protect the blacks. They said that the country had freed them, and now nuist see that they were made able to take care of themselves. They sought to educate lilt 111 so that they might know how to vote, and how to earn their own living, and a great many schools were established for them. CHAPTER LXIII. THE UNION ONCE MORE. 1. LiTTLH by little, as the years went by, the coun- tiy came back to its old ways. The soldiers were with- drawn from the South, and each State, as before, was left free to manage its own affairs. People noticed gladly that this came about just as the country finished the fii'st century of its life as a nation. 2. Before 1876 there had been many celebrations of historical events. The fight at Lexington and Concord, the battle of Bunker ITill, and other memorable events, were celebrated one hundred years after they occurred, by speeches and ])rocessions and holidays. After 1876, also, there were similar celel)rations down to 1889, when Franklin Pierce. Born November 23, 1804; died October 8, i86g. Fourteenth President of the United States. 228 THE U2slON ONCE MORE. tlie ceiitciniial or bundrcdth anniversary of the inaugu- nition of (Jcorge Washington, as first President of the United K^tates, was remembered. 3. Jint every one agreed that the great year to have a celebration was 1876. Just one hundred years before, the country had declared itself indei)endent of Great Britain. So a great international exbibition was held in that year, in Philadelpbia, for it was in that city that tlie country's independence had been declared. 4. What made people most thankful was that the country was at peace with itself. It was more than ten years since the War for the Union had ended. All the States were regularly carrying on their governments, and no on(^ talked of dissolving the Union. 5. Indeed at this very time there happened something which showed how determined the people were to pre- serve the United States. An election for President was held, hut when the votes were counted, it was very un- certain which of two candidates, R. B. Hayes and S. J. Tildeii, liad been elected. 6. The President is chosen in November, but he does not take his place until the following March. All thiouuli the winter there was the greatest uncertainty wlio liad been elected. Each political party was eager to see its choice declared President, and men grew exceedingly angry over the dispute. 7. But the people were determined to settle the matter without a war. The great doubt was over the vote of two Slates, Louisiana and Florida. There had been such keen political management to secure these States, that each party accused the other of fraud. The people in- sisted that some peaceable way of deciding the question should be found. THE UNION ONCE MORE. 229 8. At last it was agreed by Congress to refer the dispute to fifteen men, who should constitute a court to decide questions about the election. Five were sena- tors, five were representatives, and five were judges of the Supreme Court. So evenly was this court divided, that, on almost all critical points, eight voted one way and seven the other. 9. By the decisions of this court, the votes were so counted that Mr. Hayes was declared President. The friends of Mr. Tilden felt that he had been wronged, but they submitted. The government went forward, and the country settled down to its usual work. This quiet determination showed plainly that the people be- lieved the Union too precious to be brought into peril by an election. 10. Eight years later, in 1884, at the presidential election, the Republican party, which had been in power ever since the election of Lincoln, was defeated, and the Democratic party chose its candidate, Grover Cleveland. Thus the party which was in jiower, when the Southern States left the Union, came back into power. Some of the men wlio had fought against the Union were in Con- gress or in the President's Cabinet, but the country was not disturbed. It knew that the United States was now one nation, that no State would again attempt to leave the Union, and that its people were all free, with power to choose their own rulers and make their own laws. 230 THE STATES 0¥ THE UNION. CHAPTER LXIV. THE STATES OF THE UNION. I. 1. Every nation has a flag. When a person is on llie ocean and sees a vessel in the distance, he knows to what nation its owners belong, by the flag which the vessel carries at its mast-head. The United States has a flag wliiili tells nn interesting story. It is the flag of the whole nation, but it reminds one that, when the nation came into being, it consisted of thirteen States, and that now the thirteen have become forty-two. There are thir- teen stripes for the original thirteen States, and forty- two stars for the present number of States. Whenever a new State is added to the Union, a new star is added to the flag. 2. Each of these States has its own history, well wortli telling, and reaching back beyond the time when it became a State. We have seen how there were Eng- lish colonies before there were States, and how the country, now occupied by our great central and western States, was early sprinkled over with Spanish and Frencli settlements and forts. It will be like takins: a bird's-eye view of the whole nation to glance a moment at each of thes(^ States, and a convenient order will be that t)f their entering the Union. 3. The tliirteen States, which took part in the Con- stitutional Convention of 1787, severally ratified the Constitution in 1787-1790, and so formed the Union. Delaware was the first to act. Its noble river and bay early attracted the attention of voyagers. The Dutc^h and the Swedes were the first to plant settlements, but James Buchanan. Born April 23, 1791 ; died June i, 1868. Fifteenth President of the United States. 232 THE STATES OF THE UNION. the Englisli obtained final control. For nearly a hundred years, Delaware had the same governor as Pennsylvania, but after it became a State, it had its own governor. 4. Pennsylvania has had so much to do with the history of the nation, that it has frequently been named in our story. It was one of the States which, originally, was hke a great landed estate belonging to one family. As it grew in population and power, the people through their assembly were constantly brought into opposition to the Peim family. They were ripe for independence, wlien tlie colonies broke away from Great Britain, and it was in Phihidelphia, the chief city of the State, that tlie first Congresses of tlie nation met, and it was there tliat the Declaration of Independence was made. It was on tlie soil of Pennsylvania also that, in the war for the Union, the decisive battle of Gettysburg was fought, July 1,2, and 3, 1863. 5. New Jersey was at first occupied by the Dutch, but wlien the English became supreme in New York, they bi^gan to settle New Jersey also, and from 1702 till 1738, the two colonics were under one government. After that, New Jersey was under a separate government. Duiiug llie War for Independence, the State was crossed again and again by the forces on both sides, and one of the n()tal)le battles of that war was fought at Prin(H!ton, where was then a college which is now out' of tlie great universities of the country. 6. Georgia was tlie latest founded of the original tliirteen colonies, but it is honorable as having been founded cliicfly as a refuge for the poor and oppressed. In its early years, from its position on the extreme southern border, it liad to struggle with its Spanish neighbors. Later, when a member of the Union, it THE STATES OF THE UNION. 233 came into conflict with the Creek and Cherokee Indians, and finally drove them out, though, in doing so, it was charged with using an authority which belonged only to the whole Union. It was one of the first States to adopt the ordinance of secession in 1861, but it was not the scene of military operations, except on the coast, until the taking of Atlanta, September 2, 1864, and the march afterward of Sherman through the State to the sea-coast. It was readmitted into the Union in June, 1868. 7. Connecticut took its name from its principal river, but the State originally consisted of two colonies, that of Connecticut with its capital at Hartford, and the colony of Now Haven. The colony of Connecticut was the first in the country to have a written constitution. The governor of the State during the War for Inde- pendence was Jonathan Trumbull. His counsel was highly valued, so that it was often asked, " What does Brotlier Jonathan say to this ? " In that way '' Brotlier Jonathan " came to be a term used for the people of the United States, as John Bull is used for those of England. Yale University was established in New Haven in 1700. 8. Massachusetts, as the scene of the landing of the Pilgrims, and of the opening chapters of the War for Independence, has played a leading part in our his- tory. It took its name from a tribe of Indians living within its borders. The character of its early settlers, many of whom were educated Englishmen, led to a prompt provision for education, and the founding of Harvard University dates almost from the beginning of tlie history of the Commonwealth. 234 THE STATES OF THE UNION. CHAPTER LXV. TIIK STATES OF THE UNION. II. 1. ^rARVLAM), like Pennsylvania, was at first a great estate under tlie direction of one family, the Calverts, who Itore the title of Baltimore. The Calverts were Konian Catholics, and when they settled the country, lliey sought to make it a refuge for men and women of their faith who were ill-treated in England. They did not seek to make it, however, exclusively a Roman Catholic colony, and by wise laws they invited men of all faiths to settle in Maryland. There were long disputes about the boundaries of Maryland ; the north- ern one, fixed in 1760, has always since been known l»y the names of the surveyors. Mason and Dixon's lin(.'. The State suffered severely in the War of 1812, and it was in connection with the defense of Fort ^^c Henry, at Baltimore, that the national song of the '' Star-Spangled Banner " was Avritten. During the War for tlie Union, the people of Maryland were di- vi(k'd in sentiment, but the State remained in the I'liion. 2. South Carolina, as its name indicates, was the s(jMlli(jrn ])ortion of an English province named after King Cliarh's II. Later, the State entered heartily into iIk' War for Independence, and important battles were I'jught on its soil. The State was greatly influenced by one of its citizens, John C. Calhoun, who was earn- est in maintaining the doctrine that the Union was a confederacy of States, each a sovereign power. Thns, in 1832, when South Carolina felt herself wronged by ^-i^^^'^--^-^^",^' g^- .' ■' I JJJJ i JJJJJJJJJJ^--. William Tecumseh Sherman, General. Born February 8, 1820. 236 THE S'J^ATES OF THE UNION. the tarirt' laws of the nation, she passed an ordinance declaring that those laws had no force in the State. The difliculty was removed, partly by the firmness of 1 'resident Jackson, partly by concessions made by Con- •rress. The spirit of independent sovereignty remained, aiifl wlien, in 1860, it was evident that Abraham Lincoln was to be the next President, South Carolina took the lead in passing an ordinance of secession from the Union. Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, was the scene of the lirst open attack on the Union. The State suffered se- verely in the war that followed, especially in the close l»lockade of its ports. It was restored to the Union in June, 1S68. 3. Tln-ee years after tlie landing of the Pilgrims, two feeble settlements were made in the district which is now occupied by the State of New Hampshire. For a hundred years the colony was more or less united to Massachusetts, but in 1741 it became an independent picnince. It took an active part in the French and Indian wars, for its position made it greatly exposed. When the War for Independence came, it was ready to send many trained soldiers into the field. Dartmouth College is in New Hampshire. 4. Virginia was a name at first applied indefinitely to a large i)art of the Atlantic coast. It was the scene of an unfortunate early attempt at settlement, but within tJM' borders of the present State, the first permanent I'jiLilish colouy in North America was founded. The lirst representative asseml)ly in America met at James- town in 1619. The State was a planting State, its chief pioduet being tobacco, and large estates were held by intiuential families. When the struggle for indepen- dence came, Virginia furnished a larsfe number of THE STATES OF THE UNION. 237 notable men ; Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Patrick Henry, and Monroe were Virginians. So important was the State, that, of the Presidents of the United States, seven have been natives of the State. When the War for tlic Union broke out, the Southern Con- federacy was extremely anxious to secure the aid of Virginia. There was strong opposition in the State, but it finally adopted the ordinance of secession. Rich- mond was made the capital of the Confederacy, and the severest struggles were on the soil of the State, from the battle of Bull Run to the final surrender of General Lee at Appomattox Court House. Virginia was restored to the Union in 1870. 5. New York, under the Dutch, was principally a field for trading with Indians for fur, although the foundation was laid for a great agricultural State. Under the Eng- lish, its great port was beginning to be the centre of trade, when the War for Independence came. The port was held by the English throughout the war, but when the United States became an independent nation, the city of New York rapidly grew in importance. It was the depot for the commerce that came down the Hudson River. Meanwhile, New England people were taking possession of the rich lands in the Mohawk valley, and the great watercourses of the State, aided by the Brie Canal, were the arteries through which the blood of the vigorous young nation began to course. The position of the State and the importance of its chief city have given it the name of the Empire State. 6. North Carolina received its first definite settlement from Virginia. It also was much indebted to Scotland, and the North of Ireland, for an important element in its population. There was a sturdy spirit of indepen- 238 THE STATES DF THE UNION. deuce ill the colony which showed itself in the Mecklen- bu^^• resolutions in 177"), — resolutions that anticipated tlir"^ Declaration of lndei)endence. A small majority eanied tlie State into the Confederacy. It was restored to the Tiiion in 1808. 7. Rhode Island was the last of the original thirteen Stales to ratify the Constitution. It had always been an independent, self-reliant little community. During the War for Independence its people were very active iu privateering. Brown University is a seat of learning at l^rovidence. CHAPTER LXVl. THE STATES OF THE UNION. III. 1. \'i;kmont was the first State to be added, after the original tliirteeu States. Its territory had been claimed in ]»ait by New York and in part by New Hampshire, but its inhal)itants, poi)ularly called the Green Mountain Boys, conducted their affairs as if the country between the Connecticut and Lake Champlain were an indepen- dent State. In 1777 they so declared themselves, and proceeded to elect a governor and other officers. By adroit management, the leaders, while helping the pa- triots, kei)t the English in doubt whether Vermont would side with the crown or with the American people. In 171)1 the boundaries of the State were settled and it was admitted to the Union. 2. Kentucky is the daughter of Virginia. The early settlers were largely from that State, though Daniel l>oonc,the most noted pioneer, was from North Carolina. In 1770 the region covered by the present State was Abraham Lincoln. Born February 12, i8og ; died April 15, 1865. Sixteenth President of the United States. •240 THE STATES OF THE UNION. IIKUR' ik' a county of Virginia. The early settlers had many lierce conflicts with the Indians, so that Kentucky wi'llclcscrved its name, which in the Indian tongue sig- nifies '' the dark and bloody ground." After the War for Independence the number of families moving into Kentucky greatly increased. They were so far away from the settled parts of Virginia that the people, in 1784, tried to establish an independent government. Ihit, in 1790, Kentucky was made a Territory, and, in 1792, it was admitted into the Union as a State. In the War for the Union, the State attempted to be neu- tral, and its inhabitants were divided in sentiment, but the State remained in the Union. 3. As Kentucky was nominally a part of Virginia, so Tennessee was a part of North Carolina, and, in 1771, was made a county of that State. In the confused time after the War for Independence, before the present Union was formed under the Constitution, Tennessee, like Ken- tucky, tried to establish itself as a State. But, under the Union, Tennessee was formed as the Southwest Ter- ritory, and in 1796 was admitted to the Union. The State adopted the ordinance of secession in 1861, but the people in the mountains of East Tennessee remained loval to the Union. The war for the Union raged liercely in Tennessee, and there the great battles of Sliiloh, or Pittsburgh Landing, Chattanooga, Island Num- i»er Ten, and Stone River were fought. For a while there were two State governments, one under the Union and the other under the Confederacy, but in 1866 the State was wholly restored to the Union. 4. In 1783, the several States, which claimed the ter- ritory lyincr to the northwest of the Ohio River, gave up the land to the United States, and it was formed THE STATES OF THE UNION. 241 into the Northwest Territory, lii 1787, an ordinance was passed for the government of the Territory, and it was declared, that, when one of the divisions of the Territory had not less than sixty thousand inhabitants, it could apply for admission as a State. 5. Ohio was the first to apply. A company of Eastern emigrants entered the country in 1787-88 and settled Marietta. A period of conflict with the Indians followed, but in 1795 a treaty of peace was made, and, after that, there was a great increase of immigrants, so that in 1803 Ohio was admitted into the Union. During the War of 1812, Ohio was the scene of important engage- ments on Lake Erie. 6. The State of Louisiana w^as admitted into the Union in 1812, but the name was at first given to a vast unexplored country, from the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains, whicli was entered upon by French explorers, and taken possession of in the name of Louis XIV., king of Prance. This great countiy was divided, after the French were defeated by the English in 1763, the eastern part going to Great Britain, the western to Spain. Jn 1800 Spain gave back her portion to France, and in 1803 the United States bought it of France for fifteen million dollars. It was at New Orleans, in Louisi- ana, that the last battle of the War of 1812 was fought, when the Americans, under Andrew Jackson, defeated the English, Januaiy 8, 1815. The State adopted an ordi- nance of secession in 1861, but New Orleans was taken possession of by Union forces in April, 1862. The State was readmitted into the Union in 1868. 7. In 1800 the Northwest Territory was divided, and the western portion was made into Indiana Territory. It was the scene of severe Indian wars, but after the 242 THE STATES OF THE UNION. battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, there was greater security. Out of a part of Indiana Territory, a new State was forniod, called Indiana, which was admitted to the rniun in ISld. 8. Tilt' Territory of Mississippi, formed in 1800, com- l)risod what are now the two States of Mississippi and Alabama. Before 1800 tlie country was a part of (ieorgia. In 1817 the Territory was divided, and the Mississippi portion admitted as a State. Mississippi was one of tlio earhcstto adopt an ordinance of secession, and (he president of the Confederacy was a citizen of the State. It was restored to the Union in 1870. Its name, taken from the great river, signifies Father of Waters. 9. Illinois is so called from a tribe of Indians, whose name was written in this form by the French discoverers. Tiie country was early visited by the French, and occu- pied by them with forts. In 1763 it became part of the IJritish possessions, and in 1784 it was included in the Northwest Territory. In 1800 it was a part of Indiana Territory, but in 1809 it became the Illinois Territory, and in 1818 was admitted as a State. In 1831 Cliicago, its chief city, now one of the largest in the Union, had only twelve families besides a small garrison. It suf- forrd from a great fire in 1871, but was so abounding in vigur, that in a few years scarcely a sign of the tire remained. 10. Alabama was Alabama Territory when Missis- si|)pi came into the Union, and two years later, in 1819, l)ccame itself a State. It passed an ordinance of seces- sion in 1801, and the first cajntal of the Confederacy was at Montgomery. It was received back into the Union in 18G8. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Poet. Born February 27, 1S07 ; died March 24, 18S2. '2U THE STATES OF THE UNION. CHAPTER LXVII. THE STATES OF THE UNION. IV. 1. It was after tlie admission of Alabama, that the quest ion of slavery began to affect powerfully the forma- tion of new States. A long struggle arose over the achnission of ^lissouri, and, while it was going on, the South was o})pused to the admission of Maine, which had long been known as the District of Maine under the government of Massachusetts. Maine was admitted to the Union March 3, 1820. 2. Missouri was admitted the next year. It was a portion of the Louisiana purchase, and became a part of the District of Louisiana in 1803. In 1812 it was formed into a Territory, and five years later applied for admission as a State. For four years the question was dcljated in Congress and in the country, between those who op])OS('d and those who favored the extension of slavci-y. Missouri was admitted as a slave State. In the War for the Union, its people were divided in senti- Mieut, but the State remained in the Union. 3. Arkansas, also, was a portion of the Louisiana Tcri'itoiT. When the State of Louisiana was formed, Arkansas liecamc a portion of the new Missouri Terri- tory, but it was admitted as a State in 1836. It adopted tlic ordinance of secession in 1861, and returned to the Union in 1868. 4. Michigan was early visited l)y the French, who formed settlements there. It formed a ]»art of the Xortlnvest Territory, in 1805 became a Territory by itself, and in 1837 was admitted as a State. The name THE STATES OF THE UNION. 245 is said to mean in the Chippewa tongue, " Great Lake/' It has an important State University. 5. Florida is that part of tlie United States which was earliest occupied by Europeans. It was discovered in 1512 by Ponce de Leon, who landed on the coast on Easter Sunday, which the Spaniards call Pascua Florida. The name was at first given, indefinitely, to a large part of the southern portion of the United States. The present Florida remained a part of the Spanish possessions until 1763, when it was given up to Great Britain. In 1788 it was restored to Spain, but in 1819 it was bought by the United States, was organized as a Territory, and admitted into the Union in 1845. It passed an ordi- nance of secession in 1861, but was one of the first of the seceding States to be readmitted into the Union in 1868. 6. The name of Texas is taken from that of a small tribe of Indians. This great State was a part of the Span- ish possessions until 1821, when, with Mexico, it threw off the Spanish rule. It remained a province of Mexico until 1885, when, with the aid of a number of settlers from the United States, it became independent. In 1845, after a long discussion, it was admitted into the Union, and its annexation was the immediate cause of the war with Mexico, which had never assented to the independence of Texas. The State joined the other Southern States in 1861, and was one of the last to return to the Union, in 1870. 7. Iowa was a part of the Louisiana purchase, and was included in the Missouri Territory when that was formed. It became a separate Territory in 1838, and was admitted into the Union in 1846. It was settled largely by New England peoi)le. 246 THE STATES OF THE UNION. 8. 'J'hc mime uf Wisconsin is taken from that of the riser, which signifies " the wild, rushing river." The country formed a part of the Noi'thwcst Territory, and then, in succession, of Illinois Territory and Michigan Territory. In 183G it hecame a separate Tei-ritory and \v;is admitted as a State in 1848. It has received large munljers of inhabitants from the north of Europe. 9. California was admitted into the Union in 1850, aud hecame at once the scene of great activity in mining ior gold. The gold-mines now form only a part of its weahh, for it is one of the great wheat-growing States, and is famous also for its fruits. 10. Minnesota, or " Cloudy Water," was first visited l»y French explorers in 1680. The country, lying on holli sides of the Mississippi River, was obtained in part i>y con(]uest from England, when it was included in the Northwest Territory, and in part by purchase as a por- tion of Louisiana. In 1838 there were but a few log cabins on ilie site of St. Paul, and it was not till 1849 that the Territory of Minnesota was formed. The Mis- souri River at that time was its western boundary. The Sioux Indians were a strong tril)e and kept out setth'rs, but in I80I they gave up all their lands east of the Sioux River, and then the white population in- creased niorc rapidly. In 1858 Minnesota was admitted into the I'nion. The State suffered severely in 1862 by attacks from the Sioux. A war followed, wliich ended in th<' exi)ulsion of the Indians. 11. In 1s4s, nil fjie region west of the Rocky Moun- tanis :ind north of California was erected into the TVKRN OUKSKL VES. — THE TUESIDENT. roll()\viii<>:. lie niiist be a natural-born citizen. He must be not less tlian thiity-five years of age, and must liave bern fourteen years a resident within tlie United Stides. 8. The Constitution defines the duties of the President as follows : " He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient [such communica- tions to Congress are called the President's Messages] ; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjoui'u them to such time as he shall think proper ; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers ; lie shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and sliall commission all the officers of the United States." 9. The President is commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States. He also appoints am- bassadors, other foreign ministers, consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and a great many other officers, including certain postmasters. His ai)pointments must, howevei", be agreed to by the Senate, before they become legal. 10. It would be impossible for the President to attend, l)ersonally, to all the business that falls to him, and there- fore he api)oints certain men to take charge of the differ- ent departments of administration. He consults with these men, wIkj form his council of advisers, and are called the President's Cabinet. 11. The Cabinet consists of eight men. The Secretary ol State attends to the business which otows out of THE PRESIDENTS. 265 the intercourse of tlie nation with other nations, gives directions to ambassadors and consuls, and receives the ambassadors from other nations. The Secretary of the Treasury has ovei'sight of all that relates to the revenue. There is a Secretary of War, and a Secretary of the Navy. The Secretary of the Interior has charge of the patent office, the census office, the public lands, Indian affairs, public education, and much else that re- lates to the industry and prosperity of the country. Tlie Postmaster-General is at the head of all the post- offices. The Attorney-General is the lawyer of the gov- ernment, who gives to the President advice on all questions touching law ; and the Secretary of Agriculture has charge of the great farming interests of the country. 12. The \^ice-President presides over the Senate. If the President should die during his term of office, the Vice-President would take his place and become Presi- dent. If both the President and Vice-President were to die, then the office of the President would be filled by a member of the President's Cabinet, — the Secre- tary of State, if that member is living ; if not living, then the first who may be living of the other Cabinet officers in a fixed order. CHAPTER LXXII. THE PRESIDENTS. 1. When one is studying the history of England, there is a long list of kings and queens to be learned. The reigns of these sovereigns are the divisions of its his- tory. The laws enacted have, at their head, the name of the king or queen, in whose reign they are passed. 266 THE PRESIDENTS. These reigns are of different Icngtlis, according to the lives of the sovereigns. 2. In studying the history of our nation, we have found that tlie Constitution is in the name of the people, that the people are the real sovereigns, and that the persons chosen by the people to carry on the govern- ment arc the ministers, or servants, of the people. 3. The chief of these ministers is the President, and we often speak of events as occurring in the administra- tion of this or that President. There have been twenty- three Presidents of the United States since the first was elected in 1789. Some of them have been chosen to fill the office a second time, and some have died before completing their term of office. Several of the Presidents have already been spoken of in connection with the growth of the nation. It is well to recall the names of all, in regular order. 4. The first President was George Washington, of Virginia. He entered upon his duties April 30, 1789, and after he had served four years, he was chosen to serve four years more ; but at the end of the second tei-m he refused to be considered a candidate for re- election. After he had retired from office, the country was in danger of war with France, and he was ready to take command of the army : but the alarm died away, and had nearly ceased when Washington died, December 14, 1799. 5. John Adams, of Massachusetts, had been Vice-Presi- dent during Washington's administration, and was chosen President, to succeed his great chief, in 1797. He was succeeded by Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, in 1801. 6. Jefferson was President for two terms. The great event of his administration was the purchase of Louisi- Grover Cleveland. Bom March i8, 1S37. Twenty-second President of the United States, 2C)