Class. Book El^l , / / CM^ Gop>TightN^__ COPVRIGHT DEPOStr. AMERICAN HISTORY FOR SCHOOLS BY R. B. COUSINS PRESIDENT THE WEST TEXAS STATE NORMAL COLLEGE AND J. A. HILL PROFESSOR OF HISTORY THE WEST TEXAS STATE NORMAL COLLEGE D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO EI72 ,1 COPYRIGHT, 1913 BY D. C. HEATH &; CO. All rights reserved ©CI.A35 1794 PREFACE In the preparation of this book the constant endeavor has been to hold the student to the proper view point of history and thus promote his progress toward two definite and most important achievements. (i) The possession of well organized knowledge of the origin and character of the institutions which affect his life is of high value to every citizen. But well organized historical knowledge will not be attained if there is absence of organization in the study; while the spiritual value of the subject may remain undeveloped if organization rests upon a mechanical basis. If only those who understand our country's history as a development can respond with full and intelligent obedience to society's demand for a citizenship which appreciates the worth and sympathizes with the nature of her institutions, then there is ample justification for following the threads of national thought and feeling which have become the warp and weft of our institutional life; accordingly, we have endeavored to build upon the one fundamental thought of progress and thus show the unity of American History. (2) We have had another, and it seems to us a most important aim: that of leading the student through mental discipline to strengthen his native powers. To this end we have sought to induce him to think and to feel as well as to remember. The educational value of that kind of history teaching which exercises only the memory is exceedingly doubtful. It is too often supposed that the high school student is incapable of interpreting the events of history and that a book which seeks to follow the unity of a people's life in their thought and feeling is too difficult for his use. Yet a student who is capable of understanding Burke's Con- ciliation as a piece of English literature is also able to understand it as a source of historical knowledge and inspiration. The student who exercises in the study of History the degree of intellectual effort that is ordinarily employed in the study of Latin or of Algebra, finds opportun- ity on every page, and earns reward both abundant and sure. It has, therefore, been our constant aim to provoke thought, and it is hoped that the teacher into whose hands this book shall fall will prevent the student from forming the habit of simply memorizing external facts. iv PREFACE WTien our students shall be made to feel the uplifting influence of the motives and impulses that have urged the American people to national independence and toward individual freedom, much will have been done to make secure the future of our common country and to guarantee the personal happiness and efhciency of its individual citizens. We acknowledge with grateful appreciation the assistance of Prof. H. W. Morelock, who so kindly aided us in the preparation of our refer- ences, and of Mrs. R. B. Cousins, who has patiently worked out the details of our military life, and who has given many valuable suggestions and helps throughout the entire work. Canyon, Texas, THE AUTHORS. July, 1 913. CONTENTS PART I. — INTRODUCTION Chapter Page I. The European Background i The Forces of Heredity i The Middle Ages 3 The Beginning of the Modern Age 7 The Anglo-Saxons 12 II. The New World 14 Physiographic Conditions 14 The Natives of North America 19 The Barbarous Indians 25 III. Discovery and Exploration 29 Incentives to Enterprise 29 Voyages of Discovery: the Spaniards 32 The French 36 The Portuguese 37 Exploring the Continent 38 Claims to America 41 French Efforts at Settlement 42 Spanish Efforts at Settlement 42 The English Rovers . . .' 44 English Efforts at Settlement 45 PART II. — THE BUILDING OF FREE LOCAL INSTITU- TIONS IV. The Southern Colonies 49 Virginia 49 Maryland 60 V. The Southern Colonies (Concluded) 65 The Carolinas 65 Georgia 71 W vi CONTEXTS Chapter Pace VI. The MroDLE Colonies 76 New York 76 New Jersey 83 Pennsylvania 85 Delaware 88 VII. The New England Colonies 91 Attempts at Settlement 91 Conditions in the Mother Country 92 The Pilgrims 94 The Massachusetts Bay Colony 97 Rhode Island 102 Connecticut; New Hampshire; Maine 103 The New England Confederation 104 General Conditions in the Colonies 109 VIII. New France 115 The Traders and Trappers 115 Missionaries and Explorers 117 Colonial Wars 122 The Border Struggle 124 The Seven Years' War 128 IX. Colonial Conditions in 1760 135 The Foundation of Free Local Institutions 135 X. Causes of ihe Revolution 146 Colonial Development 146 Material Interests 140 Governmental Relations 151 Oppressive Measures 154 The Rights of Man 157 XI. The Revolutionary War 169 Separation and Autonomy 169 Washington's Campaigns: 1775-1777 ^7^ The Hudson River Campaign: 1777 179 The Philadelphia Campaign: 1777-177S 181 The War in the South 186 Virginia Campaign: 1781 196 The War in the West i97 CONTENTS vii Chapter Pace XII. The Formation of a General Government .... 205 Early Tendencies Toward Union 205 Tendencies of the Revolution 206 Working Out a Form of Government 208 Weakness of the Confederation 214 The Constitutional Convention 217 PART III. — THE NATIONALIZING PROCESS— 1789-1875 XIII. A Conplict of National Ideals 225 Internal Factors in the Centralizing Process 225 External Factors in Centralization 237 The Decline of the Federalists 244 XIV. Growth Toward Stronger Union 250 Jefferson's Policies 250 Adjusting Old Theories to New Conditions 252 Foreign Complications 259 The Second War for Independence 265 Monroe's Administration 272 XV. The Rise of Sectionalism 280 The West 280 Slavery 282 The New School of Statesmen 288 XVI. The People as President 297 Western Democracy in Person 297 Jackson's Fiscal Policy 304 National Progress and Sectional Interests 309 XVII. Slavery and the Constitution under the State Rights View 313 The Constitution and Slavery 313 Slavery Considered Economically 315 Slavery Considered Morally 319 The Quality of the Union 326 XVIII. The Far West 330 The Whig Rule of the Early Forties 330 Texas and Oregon 353 War with Mexico 340 v viii CONTENTS Chapter Page XIX. The Rise of the Republican Party 353 The Disorders in Kansas 353 Campaign of 1856 358 Continued Struggles Over Slavery 360 Secession 366 The Confederate States 372 XX. War Between the States — 1S61 376 War Policy of Lincoln 376 Beginning of War 380 Federal Advance in \'irginia 384 XXI. The Strategy of the War 392 The Blockade 392 The Blockade of Southern Ports 393 The Blockade of Atlantic Ports 402 XXII. Strategy of the War: West 407 Operations for the Control of the Mississippi 407 The Vicksburg Campaigns 411 The Chattanooga Campaigns 416 XXIII. Strategy of the War: East 422 Operations against Richmond 422 Combined Operations against Richmond 432 Campaigns in Georgia and Tennessee 435 The Closing Campaigns ^ 436 XXIV. Reconstruction — 1 865-1 S76 446 Opposing Policies 446 Johnson vs. Congress 451 XXV. Reconstruction (Concluded) 459 Struggle for Home Rule in the South 459 National Elections — 1872-1876 462 Foreign Relations 466 A Fitting Close of the Era 467 CONTENTS ix PART IV. — DEVELOPMENT UNDER A RESTORED UNION Chapter Page XXVI. New Industrial and Political Ideals 471 A Brief Inventory 47 1 Currency Problems 476 The Civil Service 482 Economic Conditions Reflected in Politics 486 XXVII. Government for the People 492* Public Office a Public Trust 492 Labor and Commerce 495 Labor and Capital 498 The Railroads 501 The Election of Harrison 504 XXVIII. Government for the Party 507 Republicans Reverse Cleveland's Policies 507 Blaine in the Limelight 512 XXIX. A New Crisis 517 Economic and Social Troubles 517 Economic Problems 521 Foreign Complications 522 The Silver Campaign of 1895 525 XXX. The Spanish-American War 53 1 Conditions in Cuba 53 1 The Philippines 534 The West Indies 536 The United States a World Power 539 XXXI. The New Democracy 544 Roosevelt and Conservation 544 The Panama Canal 548 The Problem of the Corporations 552 The Tariff 557 Currency and Banking : . . . . 561 The Peace Movement 562 X CONTENTS Page Appendix i I. Declaration of Independence i II. Articles of Confederation v III. Constitution of The United States of America xii IV. Growth in Territory and Organization xxv Index xxix LIST OF MAPS Page Natural Features and Native Tribes of the United States. . . 16-17 Trade Routes in the Middle Ages 30 Toscanelli's Map, 1474 31 Lands Discovered by Columbus 34 Map Showing Jacques Cartier's Voyages 37 Map of Early Voyages 39 Map of De Soto's Route — 1 539-1 542 41 European Claims in 1600 47 Virginia in Early Days 50 European Colonies — about 1650 iii Map to Illustrate French Explorations 121 Route of Braddock's Expedition 127 Map Showing French and English Forts 129 Central North America in 1755, before the French and Indian War /(2f '«g ^32 Central North America in 1763, after the French and Indian War '. f dicing 132 Reference Map for the Revolution: Northern and Middle States 4 facing 1 78 Reference ISIap for the Revolution: Southern States. facing 188 Land Claims of the Thirteen Original States in 1783 . . facing 210 Route of Clark and Lewis 256 Route of Zebulon Pike 257 Map of the United States in 18 10-12 / facing 262 Reference Maps for the War of 181 2 267 Route of the National Road 281 Map of the United States in 1825 between 290-291 Map of the Mexican War 342 Territory acquired from Mexico as the result of the Mexican War facing 344 Sketch-Map of Forts in Charleston Harbor 367 Map of the United States in 1S61 facing 370 Manassas Battlefield 389 xii LIST OF MAPS Page Reference Map for the Civil War between 390-391 Map of the \'icksburg Campaigns 413 Map of Hampton Roads, Virginia 424 Position of the Army of the Potomac at Harrison's Landing, Va., 1862 427 Map of Campaigns in Virginia 428 Texas Coast, Showing Points of Occupation under Gen. N. P. Banks, November, 1863 440 Territorial Growth of the United States, 1 783-1867 betzvecn 464-465 The Westward Movement of Population 477 "The Crossroads of the Pacific " 540 Irrigation Centers of the West 546 National Forests 547 The Route of the Panama Canal 551 AMERICAN HISTORY part I INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I THE EUROPEAN BACKGROUND REFERENCES Secondary Authorities. — Adams, Civilization during the Middle Ages, pp. 364-391; Symonds, A Short History of Renaissance in Italy; Cheney, European Background of American History; Schwill, Political History of Western Europe, pp. 1-43; West, Modern History, pp. igi-224; The Cambridge Modern History, vol. i; Thatcher and Schwill, Europe in the Middle Ages, pp. 583-657; Robinson, History of Western Europe, pp. 250-276, 321-464. Sources. — Robinson, Readings, vol. i, chaps. 19 and 22; Ogg, Source Book of MedicEval History, pp. 445-477; Pennsylvania, Translations and Reprints, vol. i. Illustrative Material. — Kingsley, Westward Ho; Moore, Utopia; Irving, Columbus. THE FORCES OF HEREDITY Since the day in which the discoverer incited the whole world 1. The Ameri spirit to enterprise, wonderful progress has been made in the arts e"can and in the sciences by the nations that are still European, of whose advancement there seems no end. Yet the distinctively modern man, the man in whom European ancestry and a New World environment have combined to develop self-reliance, and whose self-reliance has developed the sense of freedom and of power, is the American. In America more than elsewhere, men take hold of new under- takings with self-confidenc?, drive to the goal with relentless energy, enjoy victory, scorn defeat, and fill their days with accomplishment. .2 THE EUROPEAN BACKGROUND Having built institutions singularly free from the influence of servile tradition, the American resents with deepest anger any attempt to curtail his liberties. Sometimes, indeed, he sleeps with the enemy dangerously near, but when once aroused he fights with a vigor and an intelligence in such combination as the Old World does not know. His spirit of free initiative has been so tremendously exercised that the word American has almost become the synonym of radicalism in the vocabu- lary of nations. And, indeed, the vocabulary is not greatly in error. For after all, the difference between the diverse peoples of Western Europe and their composite descendants in America is a difference more of degree than of quality. 2. Ancestry The primary factor in the development of the American, in character both time and importance, is the people from whom he has sprung. The men and women who first settled in Virginia and New England, as well as many of those who have since come to America, brought with them very small cargoes of perishable goods. But if their material wealth was small, their mental endowment was sufficient, and they were rich in those elements of character which form the basis of free and enlightened government. In order to understand these people and the impulses which they gave to their descendants, it is necessary to know the European conditions out of which colonial life in America proceeded. 3. Making a In the Middle Ages a new man was being prepared to under- new man ^^-^^ ^-^^ enlargement of the known world — both in the physical and in the intellectual sense. Indeed, by the beginning of the fifteenth century this new man had attained his majority and had assumed responsibility for the progress of the world. The discovery of America, and the building of a great civilization upon the new continent, is his most important achievement. 4. The The Middle Ages opened with three great constructive forces ckssl/""^*^^^' ^^ ^^'°'"^- Greece and Rome had finished the work of giving to culture mankind their highest conceptions of literature, art, science, philosophy, law, and political organization — the combined THE MIDDLE AGES 3 force that is now called classic culture. During the medieval period this force was gradually drawing the barbaric German invaders into the current of civilized life, and was furnishing them new ideals of beauty and organization which they were eventually to use in building anew upon their own ideals and institutions. Moreover, Christianity had become well established at the 5. Chris- opening of this period, and was slowly at work wearing away*'*'"*^ the severities of paganism and substituting for its gloomy and mystical future reward the promise of love and hope. It held before the ignorant and superstitious barbarian two pictures: on the left, an abode of darkness where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth to all eternity; on the right, a heaven free from all care, all sorrow and labor, supremely beautiful, and overflowing with everlasting happiness. The third factor at work during the Middle Ages was the 6. The Teutonic race. Ignorant, superstitious, and destructive, the!^°™°^ Teuton was yet plastic, energetic, and virile. Inferior in past accomplishment, he was strong in possibilities. Having created little, he was nevertheless capable of creating much; for his mind sees no limitations, except to recognize their recession in proportion to his progress. It was the task of the Middle Ages to put him in possession of so much of classic and of Christian culture as would enable him to take hold where the Ancients left off, and carry a long way forward the material, intellectual, and spiritual standards of mankind. THE MIDDLE AGES It required a thousand years for these three forces, working?. The man together, to produce the new man. And in truth, the outlook ^^*^f . " ^ . . . Middle Ages was not at all times promising. In the first few centuries of the medieval period, much of the ancient culture was for- gotten, and much of its work destroyed, because the barbarian was incapable of appreciating or even understanding it. Art perished, science was corrupted by base and superstitious practices, the Greek language and Uterature were forgotten, 4 THE EUROPEAN BACKGROUND violence wrought the destruction of property and of life, land and other forms of wealth were concentrated in the hands of the few, public improvement ceased, roads and bridges fell into decay, commerce and industry languished, cities declined, intellectual life became stagnant, and enlightenment seemed about to vanish from the earth. The Church had acquired a majestic importance in the eyes of the people ; and both spiritually and intellectually they were its subjects. Society became stratified, education fell exclusively into the hands of the Church, and government was exercised by right of might. The great mass of mankind groped about in ignorance and superstition, accepting as inevitable a life bound in shallows and in chains. George Burton Adams says of the man of the Middle Ages: "He was only a part of a great machine. He acted only through some corporation, the commune, the guild, the order. He had but little self-confidence and very little consciousness of his ability single-handed to do great things or overcome great difficulties. Life was so hard and narrow that he had no sense of the world around him, and, as if this world were not dark enough, the terrors of another world beyond were very near and real. He lived with no sense of the past behind him, and with no conception of the possibilities of the future." 8. Material It will be remembered that when the barbarians invaded the and social Roj^an Empire, life and property became so insecure that it conditions ' r i j . i . was a common thing for the small landholder to commit him- self and his possessions to the protection of a wealthy land- lord or an able military chieftain, retaining the right to occupy the land indefinitely, and claiming from his master security from the lawlessness and violence of the time. In turn, he placed his services at the disposal of his chief, and became his man. This custom, together with perhaps other influences, resulted in the formation of two classes of society — the noble and the serf. 9. The life It will be remembered, also, thtit the baron eventually took of the baron j^jg ^x.d.\\d on some high and inaccessible hilltop, and there erected his castle after the fashion of a fort; that he spent most THE MIDDLE AGES 5 of his time in hunting and fighting, while depending upon his serf, both for the cultivation of his lands and for military sup- port against the avaricious and intemperate representative of chivalry whose castle frowned from the neighboring hill; that all this produced a state of continual warfare on the one hand, A Medieval Castle in France and on the other erected a social organization based upon wealth and military prowess; that the noble lived in luxury and in ceremony at the expense of men lower than he, and in disre- gard of their interests; and yet that life was not very comfort- able even for him. The constant dread of a hostile army, continuous imprisonment, as it were, in a dark and dungeon- like castle, which even the warmth of summer could scarcely penetrate, and which was not built for comfort or convenience; the necessity of wearing cumbrous armor, or shirt of mail, even within his castle, lest he be struck down by some faith- less villein — all these things must have rendered even the life of a noble hard, narrow, and ignoble. As for the serf, his condition was not expected to be happy, lo. The His time and his labor belonged to the lord. He must work so ^^® °^ *^® serf many days in the week and fight so many days in the year for his master. On occasion, he must make contribution either in THE EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 11. The universal Christian Church money or in kind to the noble's treasury or entertainment. He must not sell his horse or his cow without the lord's per- mission. He must grind his corn at the lord's mill and bake his bread at the lord's oven. He lived in a hovel of but one room, thatched with straw, or perchance with turf; his floor was dirt, his chimney was a hole in the roof. He ate black bread, cheese, and, at long intervals, meat, without salt, pepper, tea, coffee, or sugar. He drank beer or cider when he could get it. He wore a single garment, and the same one both day and night. Annual baths were regarded as helpful but not necessary; therefore, it is not surprising that plagues swept away multi- plied thousands of the population every few years. Life was necessarily regarded lightly, because it was not worth much under such circumstances. The poor peasant might perchance escape from his lord, but at the risk of being captured by some one else equally exacting, and, if caught, of being hung up by his thumbs or his toes, or confined in a foul dungeon. If such were the material conditions of a vast majority of the people, what should be their intellectual and spiritual manner of life? But another class of medieval society, the clergy, was fai: above the lords in influence and in learning. The Church was the most powerful organization of the Middle Ages, and was the chief security, so far as there was such, against violence and disorder of every kind. Moreover, it controlled whatever political organization there was. William the Conqueror con- sulted the Pope before his conquest of England; Henry IV stood barefoot in the snow .for three days at Canossa waiting for Pope Gregory VII to withdraw his excommunication; Philip Augustus, at the command of the Church, was forced to retain an uncompanionable wife; and King John surrendered England to the Pope and received it back as a fief from Rome. So complete was the dominion of the Church over the political organization that the state often helped the Church to main- tain its doctrine, punishing heresy with as much alacrity as did the Church itself. Furthermore, the Church was extremely wealthy. It re- THE BEGINNING OF THE MODERN AGE 7 ceived large gifts of land, manors, buildings, etc., from rulers and rich men who hoped in this way to make reparation for their sins, or who sincerely wished to serve God in any accept- able way. Then, too, the Church levied the tithe as a means of support, and received valuable contributions through its various ordinances. The Church alone was the custodian of learning. Books were kept in the monasteries, and hence only Church officials, as a rule, could read. Literature, philosophy, science, and art consequently assumed a religious character. Those who ad- ministered such a powerful organization inevitably became a class. The clergy enjoyed many exclusive privileges and were exempt from burdens which the masses of men must bear. Since the Church was the one agent of salvation, men trusted its teachings and feared its power. It should be said, however, in justice to this religious absolutism, that it met well the needs of the time, and performed for succeeding ages an invaluable service. It not only maintained the Christian faith; it also preserved pagan learning. THE BEGINNING OF THE MODERN AGE Circumscribed as was his hfe, and hopeless as seemed his 12. Devel- future, the medieval Teuton was ordained to regenerate so- op™^'^* p* . , 1 . . the medi- ciety. He it was who held in his hand the destiny of civiliza- eval man tion. Classic culture and Christianity would gradually raise this man to the level where he could see and appreciate the ideals and institutions of Greece and Rome. Through the processes of amalgamation and absorption he would slowly but surely prepare to utilize all that the world before him had created. The art and science and literature and law of the Greek and Roman world would bring light to his benighted but teachable mind. The softening influences of Christian love and life and hope would gradually wear away the rough edges of pagan superstition and Teutonic barbarism. The plodding German intellect had begun to feel the effects of a thousand years of training in the school of the Almighty. 8 THE EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 13. The Man at length was beginning to think and was beginning to Renaissance £gg|^ and as he caught glimpses of the ideals and institutions of Christianity and of classic civilization, he turned his face upward to the light and became restive under the restraint of medieval life. Though still unaware of his own rights and, what was more, of his own powers, he was yet no longer satis- fied either with his ; ^ II material or with his v intellectual and spiritual environ- ment. He felt that society, the Church, t , i .> 'f F\ r ""* i^illl'llll'™!'"™'" >% ^ , the feudal lord, the economic and social organizations — something, some- where, was depriving him of what by right w^as his. Self-confi- dence began to take the place of cringing servitude. The Monk Copying Manuscript , . . , , , beauties of the world were opening unto him. He found new joy in living and looking upon his past; he knew that he was growing. His interest in new problems and his consciousness of his right to deal with them increased from day to day. The individual had begun to come into control of self. Enlightenment was taking the place of ignorance, and freedom the place of bondage. Superstition and custom were being defied, and reason chal- lenged the institutions of society. Men dared to undertake things single-handed in every field of human interest. 14. The Perhaps the change of attitude toward life is first noticeable mei-Iturt ^" language and literature. Latin had been the Uterary language of the Middle Ages, but in the twelfth, thirteenth, and four- teenth centuries, vernacular tongues began to take new dignity, THE BEGINNING OF THE MODERN AGE 9 as is seen in the songs of the French troubadours and the German minnesingers. The poets of Spain sang of the Cid; Chaucer wrote his Canterbury Tales; WyckHflfe translated the Bible into EngUsh; and Dante composed the Divine Comedy in ItaUan, The movement reached its climax in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when Shakespeare com- Printing in the Fifteenth Century posed his immortal dramas and Milton his sublime Paradise Lost. This building up of new languages and literatures was the result of the desire to express the new thoughts and feelings which were beginning to surge in men's breasts. At the same time they furnished a convenient weapon for use against fos- silized authority; new forms of thought must clothe themselves in new forms of expression, and the Latin language was too inflexible to meet the emergency. Indeed, these new languages contributed reflexively to the development and propagation of the impulses and thoughts that had brought them into existence. Art likewise reveals the presence of the free spirit. Medieval 15. The art had been stiff and imitative, expressing eloquently but ItT^^^ °^ monotonously the characteristic medieval habit of depending lo THE EUROPEAN BACKGROUND upon authority, and the lack of confidence which every man must have felt in his own ability to do original work. Formal- ism and dogmatism had given direction to the painter's brush and to the sculptor's chisel as well as to the scholar's philosophy and to the monk's religion. In fact, medieval art, no less than medieval science and medieval schools, had existed for the sake of religion, and, therefore, had received its character from that religion. On the other hand, the Renaissance art is overflowing with the spirit of liberty. The artists feel the bracing influ- ence of a consciousness of power and of an appreciation of the beauties and joys of Kfe. Freedom is breathed from the folds of their draperies and beams from the countenances of their Madonnas. We feel its magic influence whether we gaze upon the Holy Family of Del Sarto or upon the Sistine Madonna of Raphael. Everywhere there is evidence of a breach with authority and a return to nature as the source of life and the fountain of inspiration. 16. Reli- In religion, and in education also, the presence of an awakened ^°'^ intelligence is everywhere apparent. As in the cases of litera- ture and art, the movement here began in Italy. The resurgent mind first asserted itself in the desire to find the original sources of the world's stock of knowledge. Men began to feel the insufficiency of authority and the injustice and inconsistency in ecclesiastical organization and doctrine. They turned to the documents of classic and Apostolic .literature both for an explanation of their own institutions and for an understanding of their relation to things eternal. Their admiration for the philosophy of Plato and the polished rhetoric of Cicero devel- oped into a passion, while their eagerness for the spirit of primitive Christianity led them to doubt, in some instances, the infallibility and the spiritual efficacy of the Church. The application of the spirit of free criticism to the abuses of the Church bore its legitimate fruits in the Protestant Revolution, and thus brought about the establishment of new churches and the invitation to men to choose their ecclesiastical relations. In politics the results of this movement were slower in ex- THE BEGINNING OF THE MODERN AGE ii pressing themselves than in other fields of activity. And yet 17. Gov- it is no small evidence of a changed attitude in the mind of^'^®^*' _ " nations; Europe that nationalities begin to take permanent form in the science latter part of the fifteenth century. England becomes unified under the Tudor monarchs. The feudal lords of France gradu- ally give way in large measure to the Capetian kings, and Spain attains nationality through the expulsion of the Moors and the union of Castile and Aragon in the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella. Much of the time and energy of medieval science had been consumed in efforts to transmute the baser metals into gold, to discover the philosopher's stone, to find the elixir of life, or to read one's fortune in the stars. Under the impulse of the new intellectual movement, and directly expressive of its nature, Copernicus further revolutionized the thinking of the day by proving that the sun, and not the earth, is the center of our universe. Galileo (i 564-1642) invented the telescope and established the Copernican theory. The scientific spirit, essentially the spirit of freedom, had at last entered upon the conquest of truth. The crusades had given a strong impetus to trade and com- 18. Com- merce. The West became eager for the luxuries of the East;™®*^*^!' trade routes were opened, and trade centers were established as a result. The rich cities of Italy and of the Levant sprang into existence, endowed with remarkable vigor and greatly devoted to liberty. The traders from East and West met and mingled in the markets and on the streets, and gained from one another many helpful ideas. Travel intensified men's interest in the world and developed a broader outlook upon life. Strange civilizations were drawn into the current of human interest, and curiosity about distant peoples and newly found lands began to express itself in a variety of forms. Inevitably there followed the desire to know. Practical inventions were begin- ning to arouse and to answer the spirit of inquiry. The compass had already come to guide the mariner in his search for new routes to the treasures of the East. Gunpowder came 12 THE EUROPEAN BACKGROUND into effective use in the first part of the sixteenth century and powerfully aided in the destruction of feudalism, thus contributing to the idea of equality among men, irrespective of rank. Printing became general just as the revival of classic literature was at its height, and just in time to spread broad- cast the results of new activities. Books multiplied many fold, and the number of those who used them much more. Learning could no longer be monopolized. Europe was astir with the breath of progress. The light of reason began to fall upon the time-worn institutions of society and they in turn began to totter. The spirit of criticism was doing its work and mankind was breaking the shackles of medieval bondage. Man awoke from his centuries of slumber, refreshed and strengthened, be- cause in that long interval the assimilative processes had brought to him new elements of light and life. He now pushed out into unknown worlds and returned with fresher knowledge, broader outlook, and brighter hope. Christianity, with its spirit of exact justice demanding equal rights to all and special privilege to none, and classic culture, with its love for beauty and its veneration for law, had become bone and sinew to the old Germanic invaders. They accordingly rose in their strength, seized hold where the Greeks and Romans had left off, and began afresh the conquest of the world and the discovery of truth. It was in the full tide of this movement that the Western World was discovered. The breath of liberty brought America into life, and by it she has been nourished until this good hour. THE ANGLO-SAXONS 19. The England was geographically remote from the influences of En iish^'^* classic culture, and hence was slow in coming into contact with it. Although she did not avail herself of the ancient achievements as early as did some other nations, she was better prepared to utilize them when she did find them. She had developed more completely than the rest her own racial and national ideals. Through her isolation and her longer years of experience she had achieved more of her own strength. THE ANGLO-SAXONS 13 Under the guidance largely of her own instincts, she had devel- oped the most resourceful, the most independent, and the most self-reliant people in the world. When she at length turned her attention to the exploration and settlement of the New World, she directed her enterprises with greater intelligence, and sent to the far distant wilderness the most progressive and the most enlightened colonists to be found in Europe. The spirit of the Renaissance, then, working through the best endowed people of the Old World, would give rise to a nation sprung from the developing peoples of Western Europe, and planted in a new, a strange, and a stimulating environment. SUMMARY American history had its beginnings in European life. The roots of American national character and institutions, therefore, are to be found in European soil. As Europe emerges from the Middle Ages man enters upon a wonderful conquest of the world and of the whole realm of truth. In literature, in science, in religion, in government, in everything that engages the thoughts of men, the spirit of regeneration is plainly at work. Poets, painters, inventors, scientists, statesmen, sailors, merchants, religion- ists, all vie with each other in the accomplishment of new things. The air tingles with change and stimulates progress. England is best prepared to profit by the new conditions and in the end makes greatest use of them. The Anglo-Saxons, thrifty and strong, become the progenitors of the American people and transmit to them the spirit of revived Europe en- riched by the native ideals of the most capable race of the Old World. Is it any wonder that America should be called "the land of the free and the home of the brave" ? REVIEW QUESTIONS I. What reason may be given for beginning American History with a chapter on European conditions at the opening? 2. What is your conception of the man of the Middle Ages? 3. What elements of modern civilization are found in the medieval period? 4. What essential process was going on during this period? 5. Why did not the Teutons who invaded the Empire immediately continue the work which the Ancients had begun? 6. What are some of the earliest evidences of a change from medieval conditions? 7. Describe the change that took place in art, in literature, in science, in invention, in government, in rehgion, in education. 8. What are all these changes taken together called? 9. Distinguish between the Renaissance and the Revival of Learning. 10. Do you see any resemblance be- tween the spirit of the Renaissance man and the spirit of the present day American? CHAPTER II THE NEW WORLD REFERENCES Authorities. — Brigham, Geographic Influences; Farrand, Basis of American History; MoTg3.n, American Aborigines; Viske, Discovery of America, vol. i; Starr, American Indians; Thwaites, Colonies, sec. 2-5; Fisher, Colonial Era, i-ii. Illustrative Material. — Longfellow, Hiawatha; Bryant, An Indian at the Burial Place of his Fathers, Manumcnt Mountain, An Indian Story, The Indian Girl's Lament; Leland, Algonquin Legends of New England. PHYSIOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS 20. The A few people of Western Europe came to the continent of oMhe first America when it was an unbroken wilderness and sought to settlers make their homes where the necessities of life were most easily obtained. On one side, was the danger of perishing at the hand of the savage; on the other, the danger of death through lack of food; and they built their cabins and cleared their fields with an eye single to the protection and prolongation of life. Their personal modes of living, their collective pursuits, their very habits, were ordered along the lines of least resistance. The solitary huntsman must make his single shot effective; the groups of fishermen must mend a net common to all and cast it, with prayers for success, where it would least easily be injured and where the prey that they were seeking was most abundant. In this day of complicated and effective machinery driven by steam and electricity, of steamship lines and railways, when manufactured goods fill every crossroads store and city mart with an abundance of commodities necessary for food and clothing, brought from places long distances away, it is diffi- cult to realize the full force of the truth that every colony was PHYSIOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS 15 compelled either to produce what it consumed, or to starve. If there was no food in the colony, the colonists suffered, although there was food in wasteful plenty within a hun- dred miles. It would require a long time to cross and recross mountains and pass swamps without roads. The building of bridges and the tunneling of mountains in the construction of great railroads are so common as to blind one to the extreme difficulties of the pioneer and early settler as they labored in widely separated groups with tools made on the other side of the ocean. In the primitive days the results of isolation were mortally quick and sure, and it was not only natural but also very neces- sary that the settlers should take every advantage which nature offered in order that they might live at all. The life of the pi- oneer hardened and toughened and helped to develop strength and character and the love — even the necessity — of indepen- dence, but it was terrible. The individual suffered, and, though unconsciously, he suffered in order that a strong race might follow. The factors that nature supplies in the making of nations 21. Effect and in the development of the race are soil and climate. °f. ^^'J climate Though it is true that the beginnings of civilization were in Egypt in the Eastern, and in Peru in the Western World, each a land under the tropical sun, it seems equally true that to pro- duce the highest civilization a temperate climate is not less necessary than is a generous soil. There must be food from the earth, but that food must come as the reward of industry. It must not fall into the lap of idleness, for the idle will never ad- vance. It must be a sure return for effort, for without a degree of certainty effort will cease. The extremes of heat and cold discourage the highest prolonged endeavor. The savage of the Caribbean islands is little below the Eskimo ; if either had made any advance in untold centuries, he was still far behind races of other climates. The frozen region is fatal to bodily vigor through sheer lack of productiveness, and the torrid zone is fatal to mental energy through lack of incentive to effort. So, i6 THE NEW WORLD as a rule, the peoples that have made great impression upon the history of the world have had their homes in the temperate zone. Such civilization as that of Egypt or that of Peru in- evitably passes away when it comes into contact with a higher form of progress. The descendants of the EngHsh colonists in America, and of the Dutch, and of the Swedes, are fortunate: their forefathers came from lands where thrift was a necessity to a land where industry was sure to be rewarded. Our forefathers found on the Atlantic coast a climate that would neither enervate nor benumb their energies, and a soil that would respond to intelli- gent labor. 22. The There were many things that the early settlers had to learn sc 00 o through actual contact. In the first place, they had come to expenence '^ t' j j an unknown shore. The little exploration that had been made of the coast was uncharted for the most part, and when a chart could be had it was unreliable. As to the interior, no one knew anything; scientists continued to argue into existence a passage through the continent to the South sea, but the ex- plorers never could find it. Except on the rivers, fifty miles from the coast was unknown land abounding in unknown beasts, reptiles, and savages. Before the discovery, no white man had ever seen a common turkey, or a buffalo, or had eaten a potato, or an ear of corn, or a tomato. How many still more marvelous beasts and wonderful fruits might exist, who could know? And as to scientific conditions more recently made known to the world, how could the poor pioneer even dream of such? It was impossible for him to know that there existed a Gulf stream and an Arctic current; consequently he was utterly ignorant of the effect of these currents upon the climates of England and of the New World. Nor could he know as yet that there are greater extremes of heat and cold at a given place on this continent than at the place from which he had come. It was necessary for him to learn, and he learned at the cost of suffering and of repeated failure. But learning enables one to learn. Sault Ste.^arv /^' r! ! .V* ! ■5, '"'3, ^S^StSis \ficsapealie B. /$ CHICK AISAWr M^ ^^J — ^cafe > C H*© C T * W S I.. n n n I\.and more than 10,000 ft. above the sea level. Land between 6,000 and 10,000 ft. above sea level. Land between 1,000 and 6,000 ft. above sea level. Ijind less than 1,000 ft. above sea leveL PHYSIOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS 17 The colonists made their settlements in what is now called 23. The Atlantic seaboard the Atlantic coastal plain, which stretches from Canada to the ^*^^"**^ southern part of Florida, and varies in width from two hundred to four hundred miles. Its western boundary is a mountain system that extends from Labrador, subsides at the Gulf of Newfoundland, rises again into the Appalachians, and then sinks into foothills and lowland about four hundred miles from the Gulf of Mexico. The mountains at the west are from 1000 to 6000 feet in height and are broken into passes at considerable distances apart by the Hudson, Potomac, and other rivers. The settlers of the region which John Smith named New 24. Physical England found a high, rolling country of hills and valleys, g^^^^^ It is one of the oldest sections of the continent, and is traversed by valleys and short, swift rivers, many of which have numer- ous falls. The surface is rough, and the coarse soil, not well adapted to the cultivation of grain, is more suited to the growth of trees. The climate invigorates, although the winters are long. These conditions, while limiting the possibilities of agriculture to small farmers, make manufacturing possible and preferable. The rivers furnish the power, and the climate makes indoor labor necessary and profitable. New England, with no natural open way to the west, developed mightily through her rivers and her coast. Urged by no great incentives to cultivate the soil, the people engaged largely in the crafts of the sea — the fisheries and traffic; and they collected in towns and cities. These facts contributed largely to the making of New England's later history; they conditioned her commerce, her social affairs, her politics, and her government. The mouths of the Hudson and confluent waters afforded 25. The to the early mariner a safe and restful harbor after his long and ^y^^o" perilous voyage. The islands and the mainland offered fertile section soil for such crops as the settlers wished to cultivate. The river gave open passage through the Appalachian mountains into the rich farm lands above. The Hudson and Alohawk rivers make the natural road to the sea from one of the most productive countries on the continent. It is said that nine- i8 THE NEW WORLD tenths of the wealth of the empire state Hes along these two rivers. WTien the Erie canal was built the destiny of New York city was assured. Before that was done Philadelphia and Boston rivaled her in trade, but she soon distanced them when her waterway was completed to the great granary behind the moimtains. Geography has made New York the commercial emporium of the Western World as surely as it has made the Mississippi valley the great agricultural empire of the future. 26. Virginia Farther to the south the climate is genial. The summers are so th ard ^""8^^; the winters are milder, while moisture and soil make the country a great farming and fruit-growing section. From Vir- ginia southward the mountains recede from the coast, and the landscape is varied, although the lowlands broaden until the mountains are entirely forgotten. There is abundant rainfall, and it is well distributed throughout the seasons. Rivers large and small provide ways for the transportation of farm prod- ucts to the cities of the coast. These conditions invited the man from rural England, and it was here that the Cavaliers established their larger estates, in this country of natural high- ways. Indian corn, tobacco, and vegetables grew almost with- out cultivation, and the early settler found it easy to harvest a bountiful supply of food. The South, therefore, invited to rural life and made this the marked feature in the development of her institutions. New England became urban in thought, in habits of life, and in government. While conditions in the South naturally developed a county form of government in contrast with the town government of New England, New York and the other Middle colonies partook of the nature of both the South and New England. Nothing in these divergences and in these conformities was accidental. Events of history follow the law of cause and efTect with no less certainty than do phenomena in nature. Men and races of men may react differently upon their environment, but all men move accord- ing to the general law as naturally as birds migrate in proper seasons, for the law is progress in accordance with the totality of conditions. THE NATIVE INHABITANTS 19 THE NATIVES OF NORTH AMERICA Ethnologists now agree that all Indians of North America, 27. Prob- except the Eskimo, were of one race who, by means of similar *^^?^ "'"^^ arrowheads, implements of war, and a rude form of art, are identified with the cavemen of early England and France. Before the days of civilization savage tribes contended with one another for the mastery and possession of Northern Europe and Asia, and it now seems probable that a group of tribes, forming a division of these savages, driven across Bering strait, or across the Atlantic by the way of Iceland and Greenland, found lodgment somewhere on the Western Continent, and became what we have regarded as the aborigines of America. There was not so great a difference between the Aztec and the savage Indian of the Northwest, a nomad and an eater of roots, as there is between the German of today and the barbarous German who overcame the Roman Empire. But a difference in civilization does not prove a difference in race. As in any race which is not brought into contact with a higher civiliza- tion, so the development of the Indians was necessarily slow. Lacking beasts of burden, or of draft, they could not reach the agricultural stage into which all civilization passes, and, since they could be acted upon by no outside influence, it is very probable that their development had come to a halt before the discovery. The development of the Indians through the ascending stages would indicate ^ ^ ^ , 1 , , . r Pueblo Indian Pottery a slow but natural evolution of similar characteristics under somewhat different conditions. The usual division of the Indian race at the coming of the 28. The white man is into three classes — savage, barbarous, and semi- ^^^^ stages civilized. Mr. Morgan in his Ancient Society gives the follow- ing simple rules for distinguishing the stages: The making of 20 THE NEW WORLD 29. The savages 30. The barbarians pottery marks the rise from savage to barbarous; the change from barbarism to civilization is marked by the smelting of iron and the use of an alphabet, while progress from the lower to the higher state of barbarism is indicated by the improvement of stone tools, the use of copper, and the making of coarse cloth. Measured by such standards, the Indians of Arizona, New Mexico, and Peru cannot be classed above the higher stage of barbarism, while those east of the Rocky Mountains and be- tween Hudson Bay and the Gulf of Mexico were in the lower stage of barbarism, and those west of the Rocky Mountains and southwest of Hudson Bay were savages. The Indians that lived along the northern coast of the Pacific at the time of the discovery of America should be classed in the middle stage of savagery. They lived on roots, fish, and the products of the chase. The tribes of the South had begun to raise corn and other vegetables. They wove baskets and made rude ornaments and lived in holes and caves and in tents of rudest structure made of bark and hides. The barbarous Indians of the eastern part of North America varied in cleverness. They made pottery from clay and tools from stone. Among the lake tribes living in the Ohio valley many imple- ments made of copper, and ornaments of shells, mica, and pearl ha e been found in the movmds, all of which were evi- dently built by the same races. They made rude implements or frames upon which they wove a coarse cloth. They depended principally upon hunting and fishing, but cultivated a few vegetables, a little tobacco, and especially corn, which played an important part in the life of the Indians as well as that of the settlers. It was easy to culti- vate and did not require immediate harvesting when matured. Flint Spades and a H(je THE NATIVES OF NORTH AMERICA 21 Their religion never passed the stage of witchcraft and the medicine man. Their language contained no words that con- veyed the meaning of repentance and faith, hence they could not understand the teach- ing of the early mission- aries. Their inteUigence was shown particularly in oratory, in stratagem in war, and in the judicious and safe location of vil- lages. Later the towns of the whites were in many cases built on the sites of these villages. Their lodges were made of a framework of poles covered with bark, straw, or earth, the choice of these materials depending upon convenience. There was little com- mercial intercourse between the tribes, wampum being their only medium of exchange; but after the coming of the white man the Indians carried on an extensive barter with the colonists at the different tradingposts. Advancement toward civilization showed itself in weaving, 31. The agriculture, and house structure. Doubtless necessity was the ^f^\~ ^ .,...., civilized cause of this greater development, since the semi-civilized Indians tribes lived in the arid sections of the Cordilleras, where there were no fur-bearing animals to furnish the Indians clothing, and to protect themselves from the cold they were forced to weave cloth of cotton, fibre of bark, and feathers. In Arizona and New Mexico timber was scarce and inaccessible. The rapidity with which clay is dried by the sun pointed the way to the adobe house. The necessity for irrigation tended to promote experiment in agriculture ; their patches of corn or of -JV(^, Indian Village Village of Pomeiock, on Albemarle sound, in 1585 22 THE NEW WORLD potatoes became fields whose greater area taught them the value of slaves. At the time of the Spanish conquest of Mexico cannibalism was confined to the victims offered in sacrifice to the gods, and the medicine man had given place to an organized priesthood. A comprehensive method of picture-writing had been devised, and their deeds in war and other important events were being recorded on a paper made of maguey, from which plant a sour beer, called pulque, also was made. Page ur ax Aztec book According to the Spaniards, the city of Mexico contained "pleasure gardens, menageries and aviaries, fountains and baths, tessellated marble floors, finely wrought pottery, exquisite feather work, briUiant mats and tapestries, silver goblets, dainty spires burning in golden censers, varieties of highly seasoned dishes (tamales and tortillas), dramatic performances, jugglers and acrobats, ballad singers and dancing girls. Such things were seen in this city of snake- worshiping cannibals." ^ Archeologists believe that this statement, taken from Spanish reports, is overdrawn. Nothing is unearthed in the ruins to indicate better tools than those of flint or obsidian. 32. Civil The civilization of a race passes through the matriarchal development ^^.^^^^ during which property is inherited through the mother, and to her belong the children. The adoption of the patriar- 1 Fiskc, Discovery of America. THE NATIVES OF NORTH AMERICA 23 chal form was the first step toward breaking down the clan government and the dawning of citizenship. Among the savage tribes of the Pacific coast there was some indication that the family existed, and all government was through loosely organized clans, but there was no evidence of any confederation of clans or of fixed habitations. The City of Mexico in the Sixteenth Century From the engraving in the Niewe Wercld of Montanus Building on the artless clan of the savage, the barbarous Indian had developed an organized matriarchal clan govern- ment with a loose confederacy of tribes. "A group of clans constituted a phratry, or brotherhood, and a group of phratries, a tribe," all members of which were related through the mother. The tribe spoke one dialect and it occupied a certain loosely defined territory. The diversity of languages prevented any strict confederation between different tribes. The most powerful confederacy was that of the Iroquois, the 33. The "Long House," as they called it, yet they had no conception "^^^^^^^ of an organized central government. Though the clans elected two general chiefs, who served during good behavior, and fifty sachems to constitute the general council, yet neither council nor chiefs could coerce a clan. Even if a clan or tribe refused to stand by an undisputed agreement of the confederacy there was no way to enforce observance. But for such weakness 24 THE NEW WORLD Pontiac's and King Philip's wars would have been far more disastrous to the whites. The outgrowth of the confederation system was the communal house owned by a clan, in which they all lived. The land was occupied by the whole tribe, the Indian having no idea of land ownership. Personal property consisted of arrowheads and a few ornaments. -•^ pc:^tjpr4 ,_ 34. The Pueblos; the Aztecs Iroquois " Long House " The communal "pueblos" of the southwestern tribes would indicate their general form of government to be a development of the Iroquois Long House, but the Aztec confederacy, with its capital in the city of Mexico, was a much stronger organiza- tion than the pueblos had. Although consisting of only three tribes, the Aztec confederacy had a complex organization. The clan organization was still in force, but was much inferior to the tribe. The tribal council was supreme and each tribe must obey its commands. The Montezuma was elected by this council and held office during good behavior, and his suc- cessor must be chosen from the imperial clan. The confederacy collected a tax from the surrounding pueblos or tribes, but it had no jurisdiction over their affairs. Land was still occupied by the clan in common, though the idea f personal property had enlarged and slaves were owned by individuals. The family had changed to the patriarchal form. Laws respecting marriage and divorce had been made. Each pueblo contained an "estufa," a house used for governmental and religious purposes, where the most barbarous and revolting religious THE BARBAROUS INDIANS 25 ceremonies were performed. The sun dance of the Pueblo Indians of Arizona and New Mexico, as well as of the Mandans of the Northwest, has been prohibited by the United States government on account of its barbarous cruelty. The city of Mexico, surrounded by a lake, the four approaches to which were defended by drawbridges that could be quickly View of Pueblo, Taos, N. M. raised or lowered, was described by the early Spaniards as a marvel of civilization, yet the Aztecs had not nearly reached the stage of the Egyptians or of the peoples around the Medi- terranean before the building of Rome. THE BARBAROUS INDIANS The barbarous Indians of North America, with whom the 35. The six white man soon or late came into contact, can be divided into groups six groups: the Dakotas, Mandans, Pawnees, Maskoki or Mus- kogee, Algonkin, and Iroquois. The first three lived west of the Mississippi and had little relation to the earlier settler, though they gave much trouble later. The last three groups were first to welcome the white man and supply him with corn. They retarded the growth of his settlements when they 26 THE NEW WORLD became convinced that the white man would occupy the land permanently. 36. The The Algonkins held the land from Hudson bay, along the ^^^ Atlantic coast in Canada, south to South Carolina, and west to groups the Mississippi river. This widely scattered family embraced the Powhatans of Virginia; the Mohegans; the Pequots, Narra- gansetts, and Wampanoags of New England; and many others. It was in their territory that the first settlements were made in Virginia, at Plymouth, and in Canada. The Iroquois, or "Five Nations" surrounded by the Algon- kins, occupied much of New York and extended westward to Lake Huron and northward into Canada. The "Five Tribes" or "Nations" were the Senecas, Cayugas, Oneidas, Mohawks, and Onondagas. A sixth nation belonging to this group but separated from it, comprised the Tuscaroras of North Carolina and the Cherokees of Tennessee. After the white man came these tribes, at least in part, emigrated northward and joined the main body of the Iroquois. The Maskoki, or Muskogee, groups were found in the Caro- linas, in Georgia, and in the Gulf states east of the Mississippi. They comprised the Creeks, the Seminoles, the Choctaws, the Chickasaws, and perhaps other smaller tribes which were being absorbed at the time of the discovery. The Indians fought the encroachments of the Spaniard and Frenchman, and later of the backwoodsman as he pushed his way into Tennessee and the southwest territory. The population of the three great groups was probably not over 150,000 souls. By far the greater number were scattered along the seacoast, rivers, and lakes. There were a few villages in the interior, but they were on the border of vast hunting grounds where many bloody battles were fought. Constant warfare, great mortality among children, contagious diseases that sometimes depopulated entire villages, and a natural improvidence that led to starvation during the cold winters, caused the Indians to be less numerous than they were supposed to be. GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE 27 The French soon made friends with the Algonkins of the 37. Effect North, in whose country they traded for furs. The French °^ ^°^'*° ' ■' •' wars upon traders frequently married Indian women and were adopted the colonists into the tribes. The French told the Indians they did not desire to hold their lands, and that they built forts only to protect their hunting grounds against the Enghshmen. They helped the Indians in their wars, sometimes abetting the most atrocious massacres of the frontier English settlements. The English also traded with the Indians and made them their allies, but never led in their forays, though they encouraged the Iroquois in their continual border wars against the French and Algonkins. This continued warfare reduced the fighting strength of the Indians, so that when war was waged against England they were not so formidable as they had been at an earlier date. The hostility of the Iroquois kept the French out of the Ohio valley, while the Algonkins and Maskokis kept the English confined to the narrow strip of coast east of the Alleghany mountains, thus forcing settlements to be made near together, a condition which proved fortunate to the colonies in enabling them to repel the invasion of the British armies. The wars against the French and Indians unified the colonies, while the necessity for self-protection created a spirit of inde- pendence among them. The training the men received in Indian warfare developed a natural strategy unknown to the British generals. SUMMARY When the European came to America he lived in a most primitive way, accommodating himself to unmodified nature. He obtained his water supply from spring or brook. The forest and lake furnished his meat. The river was his roadway and a raft of logs was his means of travel. These gifts of nature, ready made, nourished him at first and later gave direction to his enterprises and conditioned his social and civil institutions. His isolation from the mother country developed self-reliance, and danger from the Indian forced upon him the necessity of co-operation. From the Indian, too, he learned helpful lessons in agriculture and gained a knowledge of the country that stood him in good stead at a later day. 28 THE NEW WORLD REVIEW QUESTIONS 1. Why must each town, county, and country produce as great values as it con- sumes? 2. How do climate and soil aflfect prosperity and growth of institutions? 3. Make a list of things pecuUar to .\merica that are used for food or clothing. 4. Is there such a thing as a geographical influence in the Hfe of an individual? 5. There are no accidents in history. Illustrate. 6. Give a geographical reason for town government in New England and county government in the South. 7. Can you think of an Indian custom that has left a permanent mark on American Ufe? 8. If the Indians had been as highly civilized as the European settlers who came to this country, would there be any serious difference in the history of America? 9. Have you ever seen any evidences in your community that Indians once inhabited this country? 10. Account for the general failure of attempts to Christianize the Indian. Ruins of Building of Semi-civilized Indians Chicken Itza, Mexico CHAPTER III DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION REFERENCES Secondary Authorities. — Thwaites, Colonies; Fisher, Colonial Era; Fiske, Discovery of Atncrica, vol. i; Wilson, American People, vol. i. Source Book. — Hart, Contemporaries. Illustrati\t; M.\teri.\i,. — Whittier, Norsemen; Longfellow, Sir Humphrey Gilbert; Wallace, The Fair God. INCENTIVES TO ENTERPRISE In a previous chapter it has been pointed out that in the 38. The period immediately preceding the discovery of America, Europe ^^^^^ssance was undergoing a marvelous intellectual and spiritual transfor- to America mation that expressed itself in literature, art, religion, science, and eventually in government. It was an age of zealous and determined inquiry, and hence a wonderful age of discovery. It possessed two features which bear a close relation to the discovery of America: one, the expanding commerce already referred to and the consequent desire to reach the East; the other, the increasing interest in geography. During the four or five centuries preceding the discovery, 39. The Europe's commercial interests had widened very rapidly. The ^^^^^ routes crusades, calling Europeans to Egypt and even into the Tigris- Euphrates region, had stimulated interest in travel and com- merce and had enlarged the intellectual horizon of the times. In the latter part of the thirteenth century Marco Polo made an extended tour through the far East and brought back a mixture of truth and fiction that filled his hearers with wonder. His fabulous story of the Golden Island (Japan) seemed less marvelous than his facts concerning the products of the Moluc- cas and Ceylon, which so aroused the interest of the West in the East that permanent trade routes were soon established 30 DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION between the two, and there followed a flourishing commerce in the exchange of cloths and manufactured articles for the spices, dyes, gems, perfumes, and other luxurious commodities that bril- liant courts, extravagant feudal lords, and a recently enriched merchant class would naturally demand. In those days the fleets of the Italian cities raced with one another for the trade of the Orient, and long caravans lined the various routes from Venice northward over the Alps and overland eastward across 40. Geog- raphy ; Toscanelli's map the Hellespont. But in 1453 the Turks captured Constanti- nople and cut off the trade routes in that region, giving a fatal blow to the Italian cities and changing the whole direction of commerce. Yet the losses of Venice and Genoa proved to be the gains of Cadiz and Lisbon. Europe felt an urgent neces- sity for a new route to India; under the spur of this necessity she appealed to science, and science responded. That the earth is round, many scholars had believed since the days of Aristotle, more than three centuries before Christ. Roman geographers knew of the theory and surmised that "habitable earths" might be found by sailing from Iberia to India by way of the Atlantic ocean. The idea of the rotundity GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE 31 of the earth was preserved through the Middle Ages, both by the Arab philosophers and by the Christian monks, and had now become the possession of the scholar of the Renaissance. In the latter part of the fifteenth century, along with other increased activities of the period, geographers were at work whose labors prepared the way for Columbus and his contemporaries. Tos- canelli, an Italian, in reply to an inquiry from Columbus, sent a long letter (1474) accompanied by a map setting forth his TOSCANELLI'S MaP, 1474 advice to Columbus about a voyage to India by way of the Atlantic. He believed that Cipango (Japan) occupied, approxi- mately, the region which we know as Mexico. Perhaps he had miscalculated the circumference of the globe, underrating it about twenty-five per cent ; or else he had supposed that Asia extended some seven thousand miles farther eastward. Be that as it may, his error was a fortunate one, because Columbus could never have found men or money for a voyage of ten thousand miles, even if he had been willing to undertake it. Scholars disagree as to the original home of the Caucasian. *^- "^^^ sagas of the Some place it in North India and call the first of the race Northmen 32 DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION Aryans; others place it in the forests of North Germany and call the first of the race Germans, or Teutons. The advocates of a German origin believe that the early civilization which flourished on the northern coast of the Mediterranean could hardly have sprung from an Eastern people such as produced Lapp and Finn and Eskimo, but, on the contrary, that the light- haired German sent out hosts of conquering emigrants south- ward thousands of years before history records the deeds of Alaric and Attila. The race of Northmen spread over Scandinavia, Germany, and other countries southward. In the ninth century they settled Iceland, a land nearer to America than to Europe, and within a hundred years they had found America and had made settlements on the coast of Greenland. Both of these islands still belong to them. From Greenland they made voyages, according to their ancient songs, to a land at the west, sailed southward along its shores, and brought back some of the products of the country. When the laws of Norway created a state monopoly of water transportation, the Northmen no longer made voyages to America, and what little knowledge of the Western Continent had been obtained seems to have been forgotten until Columbus startled the world with the annoimcement that only the narrow Atlantic separated the shores of Western Europe from those of eastern Asia. VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY: THE SPANIARDS 42. Coium- The theories of the size and form of the world were pretty bus; his enough in the cloister of the monk and in the study of the character ^ •' and fame geographer, but the practical application of them required a man who combined the genius and the hero. Of the thousands of men who believed in the rotundity of the earth not one before Columbus had the courage of his convictions. He alone formulated a plan, based on science, howsoever imperfect, and wrought it out with long persistence and imequaled fortitude. That he found something more than he had sought serves to VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY: THE SPANIARDS 33 increase rather than to diminish his glory. A conviction that a continent stood in his way would have given his arguments before courts a potency irresistible from the first, and no one would ever have heard of the patient striving for help during long years of denial and dis- couragement. The possibihty of finding a new continent would far outweigh, in the royal balance, the chance of finding a new way to an old one. After repeated unsuccessful appeals to the kings of Eng- land, France, Spain, and Por- tugal, Columbus finally secured the assistance of Queen Isabella of Spain. Under her favor he fitted out three small vessels, the Pinta, the Nina, and the Santa Maria, and set sail from Palos, August 3, 1492. It was a soul-trying voyage. Driven constantly westward by an east wind, they were soon upon the trackless deep, and, as the sailors thought, going down hill. How could they hope ever to return? Murmurings among the crew were met with the calm declara- tion from Columbus that under God's help he would reach the Indies. On Friday, October 12, 1492, they came upon land. The sailors no doubt rejoiced because they could again set foot upon solid earth, but Columbus was stirred with an emotion of a different kind. He had reached, as he thought, India, the land toward which all Europe was now bending its energy. He had put science to test and it had not been found wanting. Hereafter men would approach new undertakings with a dif- ferent spirit. Columbus's feelings are perhaps best described in his own statement: "I gave the name of San Salvador, in Christopher Columbus The oldest known picture of Columbus, in the National Library, Madrid 34 DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION commemoration of his Divine Majesty who has wonderfully granted all this." The land he had reached was an island of the Bahama group. After taking possession of the new land in the name of Ferdinand and Isabella, he continued his search for the mainland, hoping to find Cathay (China). In this he was disappointed, though he did believe that Cuba might be the long-sought kingdom of the East and that Haiti was Cipango. Tampa Bay] ^q \\ \ '8. V GULF OF MEXICO ^ 'i^-^ ^' %\ cs^f^"^^ ATLANTIC . SAN SALVADOR •S^ O C E A N After losing the Pinta through the desertion of its captain, and the Santa Maria in a storm, he returned to Spain in the third vessel and was received with wild acclamations of joy by his fellow countrymen and given royal honors by the king and queen. 44. The The discovery of the new lands was a matter of great im- I'^^'^l^later Portance in the eyes of the rulers of Spain, who had furthered voyages of the enterprise of Columbus. They had just brought to its end Columbus ^ ^^,^j. ^\^\f,\^ had conquered the Mohammedan Moors within their borders, and they wished to continue the glory of their reign. To add peoples to their kingdom, to convert the heathen of the Asian islands to Christianity, would be a work well worthy of monarchs who had rescued their own land from VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY: THE SPANIARDS 35 the Infidels. Spain was already well within the front rank of the powerful nations, and nothing must content her until she should leave all others in the rear. Her reluctance in aiding Columbus was a matter of the past; for the future the scope of her maritime enterprises would be equaled only by her munificence in sustaining them. She quickly pro- vided the great admiral with ships, men, and stores necessary for colonizing the new lands. Sailing again, he found many other islands, and in 1502 saw the mainland of Amer- ica, but returned without landing. Meantime, his first discovery had been the signal for a revolution in the civil and political condition of the world. Moreover, it "had greatly stirred the spirit of adven- ture, so that sailors now boldly plied the sea in every direction. Vasco Nunez de Balboa, a Spaniard, came to America in 45. Dis- 1=510 and settled in Darien. In exploring the country he heard covery of the Pacifi through the natives that there was a great sea at the south, ocean and that far away on its shores there was a land where the people, whose houses were filled with gold, lived like kings. He deter- mined to fmd that sea .and that land, and in 15 13, with a few followers, he crossed the mountains and saw the Pacific. He entered the water and, in the name of his sovereign, with great ceremony took possession of it and all lands on its shores. Spain claimed Florida from the visit of Ponce de Leon in *^- ^•^" covery of 1 5 13. Without accepting the story of his creduHty, it is not Florida The Columbus Monument at Genoa 36 DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION 47. The discovery of the North American mainland — 1497 difficult to believe that he wished for good health and could not find it in San Domingo. He set up the standard of Spain somewhere near St. Augustine in 15 13, and named the land Florida in honor of the day of its dis- covery, Easter Sunday. THE ENGLISH In 1407 the king of England granted a license to John Cabot to make a voyage of discovery on the condition that he should defray his own expense. All the land was to belong to the crown, which should receive also one-fifth of the profits from the monopoly of trade which Cabot should have. Cabot was an Italian, but was living in England, and he seems to have been a sailor of some experience. In the course of the voyage he reached the mainland of North America, and there is little room for doubt that in the neA year he and his son Sebastian sailed along the coast Cabot Memorl-^l Tower from Nova Scotia to Cape Hatteras. Erected at Bristol, Eng- Upon these expeditions England, nearly land, in memoryof the first ^ hundred years later, set up serious sailor Irom England to visit . . America claims to the continent. 48. Verra- zano; Cartier THE FRENCH In 1524 John Verrazano, an Italian in the service of France, sighted land at Cape Fear and sailed along the coast as far north as Newfoundland. This was the first voyage to America under the protection of France, though for some years previ- ously French fishermen had visited the banks of Newfoundland. Jacques Cartier, in 1534, ascended the St. Lawrence river; he traded for furs with the Indians, and gave the name Montreal to a certain hill, and called another spot China, possibly think- THE ENGLISH, FRENCH, AND PORTUGUESE 37 ing the rapids were all that prevented his reaching the celestial empire. The French made good their claim to Canada by dis- covery and they lost it by war. THE PORTUGUESE The name Vasco da Gama is associated with early America 49. Da because of Pedro Cabral. Da Gama was the first to go round q^^^'. the Cape of Good Hope; on his return to Lisbon in 1499, Vespucius; another fleet was fitted out on his recommendation ; the fleet ^°'^*^" ® U X I T E D T L A J!f T T C OCEAN SCALE OF MILES. Map Showing Jacques Cartier's Voyages Thus; 1st Voyage •■^— 2d Voyage 3d Voyage — ♦— ♦ sailed under Cabral, and "blown by adverse winds" reached an unknown land on April 24, 1 500, where he took formal pos- session of what is now known as Brazil in the name of the king of Portugal. Possibly the northern coast of Brazil had been previously seen by one of Columbus' companions. Cabral at once sent a small vessel back to Portugal to an- nounce the discovery, and then continued his voyage to India. When the king learned the news he invited Americus Vespucius to enter his service, and sent him to explore the newly discovered 38 DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION land. Vespucius had difficulty at first, but at length succeeded in exploring the coast as far south, according to some, as the Antarctic ocean. Americus Vespucius, innocently and unin- tentionally no doubt, gave his name to the whole continent. The name seems to have been intended to designate those lands which Vespucius had found, and he could hardly have had the knowledge that their magnitude was so great as to include those already discovered by Columbus and his companions. Another Portuguese discoverer was Caspar Corte-Real. In the year 1500, endeavoring to find a route to India, he sailed to the North American coast, landed, and named the country Labrador (the land of laborers or slaves) and returned home with a few natives whom he had captured. In the next year he went on a second voyage, but never returned. In 1502 his brother set out with another ship in search of Caspar; but neither of them was ever heard of more. 50. The Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese navigator, offered his ^ "'^'. services to Spain in an attempt to find a short way to India. tionof the He sailed in September, 15 19; he coasted southern Brazil and ^ passed through the Strait of Magellan; he named the Pacific, and crossed it to the Philippines, in 1521, where he fell in an attack upon a native tribe. He had set out with five ships; but one of them returned, with only eighteen survivors, who arrived in Spain by way of the Cape of Cood Hope. EXPLORING THE CONTINENT 51. Cortez; Hernando Cortez, with infantry, cavalry, and artillery, arvaez, landed on the coast of Mexico in March, 15 19, and within less Coronado than a year had conquered the "empire." The governor of Cuba sent Panfilo de Narvaez with an armed force to supersede Cortez, but Narvaez was defeated and made prisoner. In 1527 Narvaez received from Spain a grant of a great part of Florida. He landed, with about six hundred men, near Tampa, in 1528, and marched into the interior in the everlasting search for gold. Finding none, and discouraged through hardship, he and his men turned to the coast again EARLY VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY 39 7^ v^^iTC N ' ' GREENLAND \ .^/ . N rf^ T H ^v New Albion ■ ^ .'-.0^ T L A N T 1 C ■% V_( - -" / JSPMN/ -V.- , --' AzORt's--. f iPalos / \ _^_^ MADEIRA/ /^' -■v. ^., ;; ^^'""''r"'^ - CANARY IS. /<■•'.!; t.,l\V ' --'■"" bJfi'''' H>J \J>,^— — COLUMBUS 1492 .^?/ '^"^'^Jt-.a'''' _---'i5T3 ^:i AFRICA ^-^:;:;._j c E A N,/;^ \ Balboa 1513 i^: Y S ^U T H -^ /V P A C I F I C'^^^ ' ^ '■'- AMERICA i /.'.«'' OCEAN "-"o-j;. '^0'''-~... Y? Strait of Magellan'"- C.pu Horn Map of Early Voyages 40 DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION and built boats in which they attempted to reach Mexico. Many perished in a storm; those who reached land were taken by the natives, and death soon relieved the sufferings of all but four. Of these few surs'ivors, Cabeza de Vaca seems to have been the most vigorous and resourceful. Reduced to slavery among savages, a thousand miles of ocean between them and their friends, they nevertheless reached Mexico. They had passed through southern Texas, crossing rivers and prairies and mountains; they had crossed Chihuahua and Sonora to the Gulf of California ; they had walked two thousand miles in the wilderness, and had attained their end in 1536, nine years after they landed in Florida. When they reached Mexico, they were questioned about the country through which they had passed. DeVaca's description and information, obtained by a special message, induced the Spanish authorities to send an expedition into northern Mexico in search of "The Seven Cities," reputed to shine with gold and precious stones. This expedition, under command of Francisco de Coronado, also failed to find gold or cities; but it passed over a great land from which many states have been made. Coronado's expe- dition gave strength to Spain's claim to Texas, as did that of Narvaez to her claim to Florida and all the Gulf coast. 52. Her- In 1 539 another Spanish expedition, six hundred strong, ^^t°^ landed on the west coast of Florida. De Soto had been with De boto Pizarro in the conquest of Peru, and his thirst for gold was not yet satisfied. For almost four years these Spaniards advanced or wandered through the great American forest, their numbers constantly diminishing through disease, hardships, and war with the natives. They went through Georgia, Alabama, Ten- nessee, and possibly Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana. They found no gold; but they found the Mississippi, and they learned that America is a wide continent. In 1542 De Soto died, and his body was buried in the Mississippi. His surviving followers built boats and in 1543 reached Mexico. De Soto gave to Spain a strong claim to almost the whole of the territory now included in the Southern states. EXPLORING AND SETTLING 41 CLAIMS TO AMERICA By the middle of the sixteenth century Spain claimed all 53. Spain; of South America, except Brazil, and was dominant in North !1''^"'^^', . . . England America. She claimed Florida, which stretched indefinitely north and west; she had conquered Mexico, which extended from the Gulf to the Pacific, and from the Pacific to Florida, De Soto's Route ^.^^^ Map of De Soto's Route — 1539-1542 covering all of the western and half of the eastern part of the United States; and she was ready to maintain her claims in war. She had become immensely rich and powerful; even before the discovery, her revenues had begun to increase enormously, and with the slave trade in Indians and negroes, and with her mines in INIexico and Peru, she was far the most powerful among the nations. The French, at the same time, based claims to parts of the North American coast on the ground of discovery by Verrazano 42 DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION 64. Port Royal; St. John's river and Cartier, while England's right to the country because of the Cabots' discovery was lying dormant and unheard of. FRENCH EFFORTS AT SETTLEMENT In 1562 John Ribault came out with a small colony of French Protestants, or Huguenots, as they were called, and at Port Royal, on the coast of CaroHna, he built a fort; then he left the colony, sailing for France. Utter failure followed; in despera- tion the thirty colonists repaired an old leaky boat and risked „-^^ , the Atlantic. They were picked up by an English ship, after hor- rible sufferings. The following year Laudonniere came out with other Huguenots and built a fort which they named Fort Caro- line, near the mouth of St. Jolms river in Florida. They were not seriously wishing to build homes in the new land; on the contrary, they were gold seekers, if not worse; yet there were some good men among them, and when Sir John Hawkins came by (56) and offered to take them to England they declined, hoping that Ribault would soon come to their relief. Ribault arrived in August with seven ships and three hundred men; and early in September a Spanish fleet of eleven sail steered past the mouth of the harbor, moving southward. Fort Caroline, the French Huguenot Settlement in Florida From De Bry's Voyages 55. St. Augustine; Ysleta; Santa Fe SPANISH EFFORTS AT SETTLEMENT The king of Spain had sent out an officer named Menendez to govern Cuba and Florida and convert the heathen. Sailing past the French fort at the mouth of the St. Johns, Menendez FRENCH AND SPANISH SETTLEMENTS 43 continued his course until he found a pleasant site for his colony; then he landed and began to build St. Augustine, the first permanent European settlement in the territory of the present United States. France and Spain were not at war with each other, but the Protestants and Catholics were; so Ribault and Laudonniere, seeing the Spanish fleet sail by, knew that they must fight; St. Augustine, Florida, as founded by Menendez Pagus Hispanorum as given Montanus and Ogilby they sailed to attack St. Augustine, but a storm wrecked their ships, and the result was that the Spaniards put every French- man to the sword; thus perished the French colony at the mouth of the St. Johns river. Two years later another Frenchman, DeGourgues, led an expedition, at his own cost, against St. Augustine to avenge his murdered countrymen; and although he did not take St. Augustine itself, he captured the outlying forts and hanged all the Spaniards who fell into his hands. No great political complications seemed to follow these religious troubles. Following Coronado's expedition, the Spanish missionaries succeeded in establishing missions in the Rio Grande valley, one at Ysleta, and another at Santa Fe. 44 DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION THE ENGLISH ROVERS 56. Haw- WTiile the Spaniards were monopolizing American trade, kins; Drake; |-j] J ji^^ their treasury with western silver and gold, and driving Armada away the French from Florida, the English were developing their industries, building a powerful monarchy, and preparing to take the commercial leadership of the world. In the mean- time, already at work, was the advance agent of her new great- ness, the English sea-rover. Sir John Hawkins was an able navigator who attained a high rank in the English service and gained a great reputation in the contest with the Spanish Armada. He was at first engaged in the slave trade, carrying wild negroes from the coast of Guinea to the West Indies, where they were sold to the planters at a great profit. In returning from one of these voyages he touched at the mouth of the St. Johns river (54). Sir Francis Drake served under Hawkins, his kinsman and benefactor in early life. With Hawkins he fought not only Spanish ships, but Spanish towns on the Ameri- can coast. He sailed north along the Pacific beyond the site of San Francisco, made boldly across the South sea, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth as the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. The queen gave him a privateering commission, and he plundered the Spaniards anywhere he could find them, ranging the whole ocean and all its coasts. As to exploration, he did that inci- dentally; nevertheless, he sailed along the whole west coast of America from Cape Horn to Oregon, and claimed for England what is now California. He, as well as Hawkins, gave valiant support to Elizabeth in her resistance to the attempted inva- sion by the Spaniards. In the great protracted battle in the Channel, Drake's splendid courage and superb seamanship con- tributed largely to England's victory, and victory then meant England's future leadership of the nations. From this time Spain, the temporal bulwark of the Catholic faith, declined in power and influence; while her rival, a Protestant country, grew without a seeming hindrance. England now began to ENGLISH EFFORTS AT SETTLEMENT 45 feel her power. She. entered upon the period of commercial and colonial development that has made her the great civiliz- ing nation of the world. Her adventurous seamen now explored every coast, while her expanding industries found new markets in hitherto barbarous lands. Her increasing population sought new homes where Cabot had planted her flag, and the suc- cessful colonization of America began. ENGLISH EFFORTS AT SETTLEMENT One of the most celebrated of the English commanders who took part in the overthrow of the Spanish Armada was Sir Walter Raleigh, a seaman, a soldier, and a statesman. Perhaps it would not be too much to say of him that he was the foremost Englishman of his time. Raleigh was already inter- ested in America; he had fought the Spaniards there, and he had at- tempted to colonize there. In 1578 Queen Elizabeth gave a patent to Sir Hum- phrey Gilbert, granting him the authority to dis- cover and possess "heathen lands not actually possessed of any other Christian prince or people." Gilbert disposed of his estate and that of his wife in raising funds for an expedition and then secured the cooperation of Raleigh, his young step-brother. The first voyage brought no results; in 1583 Gilbert sailed again and landed in Newfoundland; but his Sir Walter Raleigh and his Son 57. Failures of settle- ments; Gilbert; Raleigh ; Gosnold ; Pring ; Weymouth 46 DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION largest ship was wrecked, and while sailing for England his own ship foundered and all on board were lost. Raleigh succeeded to Gilbert's work." In 1584 he secured a charter of colonization and sent men to examine the coast. In the next year he sent out colonists, but they became discouraged, and when Sir Francis Drake appeared on the coast they secured passage in his fleet back to England. In 1587 Raleigh sent out another colony, which landed on Roanoke Island. The colony was under John White, who soon sailed for England, leaving his daughter and granddaughter, little Virginia Dare, the first English child born in America. White, for some reason, did not return to Roanoke for nearly three years, and when he at last arrived on the coast he found that the colony had disappeared. In the bark of a tree had been carved the letters CROATAN. White returned to England without finding any other trace of Raleigh's lost colony.^ Other unsuccessful efforts to plant colonies were made by Bartholomew Gosnold in 1602, JMartin Pring in 1603, and George Weymouth in 1605; colonization proved too great a task for private means; and there was no success until trading companies gave to the work their ability and enterprise. SUMMARY Before the time of Columbus, various peoples had probably visited America, but for one reason or another the world had made no use of their discoveries. The work of Columbus, though entirely diflerent from what he had expected to accomplish, was the direct result of European con- ditions. It was the expression of that marvelous intellectual transforma- tion of Europe known as the Renaissance, and as such is to be ranked with the invention of the printing press and the formation of the modern lan- guages. But it had further significance: it not only pointed backward to * Many believe that Raleigh's colonists intermingled with the natives. James- town heard of a white princess at the south. On the southern border of North Carolina there is now a seemingly mixed race of people who are called Croalans. On a military map used by General Grant in 1864, there is a spot, about eleven miles southeast from Richmond, marked "The grave of Virginia Dare." 0. R. Atlas, plate xcii, map i, section i. EUROPEAN CLAIMS IN 1600 48 DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION an awakening Europe, but it also pointed forward to a day of new achieve- ment for all the world — a day in which America should take first rank in the most enlightened civilization mankind has ever known. It stimulated men's interest in the world and led Spaniards, Englishmen, Portuguese, and Frenchmen to make explorations in the new hemisphere. Most of these exi)lorations were inspired by the love of adventure and the greed for gold, but llie\- laid tlu; basis for European claims and for colonial empire. REVIEW QUESTIONS I. What makes the discovery of Columbus more important than that of Leif Ericson? 2. Was Columbus's discovery an accident? 3. What gives to Columbus special claim to the admiration of the world? 4. What importance should be attached to each of the following: De Soto, Cartier, Cabot, Cabral? 5. How did Spain come into possession of the Philippines? How long did she keep them? 6. How did Brazil become a Portuguese possession? 7. Why was Spain more active in the New World during the fifteenth century than were the other nations of Europe? 8. Why did the Spaniards confine their activities chiefly to the southern half of the Western Hemisphere? 9. State the claims of each of the following nations at the close of the fifteenth century: Spain, France, England, Portugal. 10. If South America had been an island would the story of exploration and settle- ment have been different? Pmi- '<-}*% iv^'/■.W£..N^fr^:C,rfU(i■.\&FKlHI4^'^^t§ ■UiR;»r,T«6.ti'UJS»'^*<:tjH'A>!i:«iciv"5 -IN AnJwsowsfAlSiiytii itAiiixiu Owe. j Monument at Old Fort Raleigh part II THE BUILDING OF FREE LOCAL INSTITUTIONS CHAPTER IV THE SOUTHERN COLONIES REFERENCES Thwaites, The Colonies; Fisher, The Colonial Era; Hart, Contemporaries; Wilson, American People, i. VIRGINIA By the close of the sixteenth century England had taken her 53. Condi- place well toward the front in everything that makes for national *J°"^ ^^ greatness. The Tudor monarchs had endeavored to maintain 1600 peace and develop the internal resources of the nation. The people were weary of war and turned eagerly to the arts of peace. The result was expressed in an unprecedented growth of industry and commerce. Agriculture was supplanted as the leading industry by manufacturing and trade, and England became urban rather than rural. The destruction of the Span- ish Armada in 1587 had signalized the material supremacy of England as well as the definite establishment of Protestantism. Moreover, the full tide of the Renaissance reached England in this century and greatly stimulated every form of intellectual and spiritual activity. It was the golden age of literature, the reformatory age of religion. It was essentially a period of tran- sition and of expansion. The nation was becoming conscious of its power and was undertaking to explore every field of human enterprise. What was more natural than the coloni- zation of the New World? 50 THE SOUTHERN COLONIES 59. The Virginia Company 60. The founding of James- town w^ Raleigh's attempt at colonizing (57) had been undertaken at his own cost and misfortune, and no one had arisen to emulate him. But it was not uncommon in Europe to form trading companies, under a charter from the monarch, which charter granted authority to trade, to settle, and to govern the settlers, and provided that the king should be paid a specified part of the profits. Such a company was formed in England in the year i6o6, and received King James's authority to colonize Virginia. In this company there were two groups of shareholders, one of the groups residing at Plymouth, the other at London. The London branch undertook to make a settlement in Virginia, and received a charter to all the country along the coast from 34° to 38°, while the Plymouth branch received a grant to all land between 41° and 45° north latitude. The intervening territory was to be subject to settle- ment by either branch, provided only that one should not make a settlement within a hundred miles of a settle- ment of the other. The colony was to be governed by fourteen councillors in Eng- land, subject to the king, who should name thirteen men of the colony as a local council. The colony was to be under the immediate control of the local council, and the council under the general control of the king. On the 19th of December, 1606, the first permanent settlers that England ever sent out as a colony sailed for the Virginia 1607 coast in three small ships, under command of Captain Christo- pher Newport. There were one hundred and forty-three men; not a woman or a child was among them. Many were "gentle- ViRGiNiA IN Early Days VIRGINIA 5r men unused to work and scorning it; only twelve were laborers, and among the artisans were jewelers, gold refiners, and a per- fumer." On May 13, 1607, Newport came to land on the left bank of the James river, about forty miles above its mouth, and the colonists began a hard struggle against untamed nature and untamable men. For two years they endured indescrib- able hardships. Food ran low; many colonists would not work ; others spent their time in exploring rivers or in hunting for gold. The change of climate and mode of liv- ing caused sickness, de- spair, and death. Meanwhile, natural leaders had appeared, who saved the colony from utter ruin. Captain John Smith, in great dis- favor with the colonists when they landed, had won the first place in their esteem. He proved himself to be the man for the hour. When Smith became the leader of the colony, he decreed that "he who would not work should not eat," and then everybody worked. He urged the strong to exertion, cared for the sick, cultivated the friendship of the Indians, explored the country, made maps of it, and wrote books about it. Moreover, Smith helped the situation from the other side of it; he begged the council to send no more idlers; he wished for farmers, carpen- ters, blacksmiths, woodcutters, and ditch diggers. But, with all Smith's efforts, the colonists were reduced to a sorry plight; they had passed through a "starving time"; nearly half had died from fevers and starvation. The survivors were despair- ing wretches whose greatest desire was to see England again. 61. Captain John Smith Captain John Smith From the map in his Description of New England 52 THE SOUTHERN COLONIES 62. The charter of 1609 63. Com- munity labor abolished 64. The charter of 1612 Just as they were about to leave their new homes, as they thought, forever, Lord De La Warr came to their help with immigrants and supplies. The colony thus near to extinction took on new vigor and began the second stage of its history. The colony, of course, was very unprofitable to the share- holders and the king granted a new charter with larger liberties to both patentees and colonists. In this charter the territorial boundaries of the colony were made to extend two hundred miles north and south along the coast from Old Point Comfort, and to include "all that space and circuit of land lying from the seacoast of the precinct aforesaid up into the land, throughout from sea to sea west and northwest." Surveyors, very prob- ably, would require some time for plotting the land from such field notes; and, of course, boundary troubles afterward came thick and fast. This charter was one of the bases of Virginia's claim, in later years, to the vast territory in the Northwest. Lord De Warr ruled for one year. The greatest improve- ment effected by his administration and that of his successor. Sir Thomas Dale, was the allotment of land to individuals for cultivation and private ownership of the ensuing crop. Before this time all things had been held in common, each man being duty-bound to give his labor to the colony in return for supplies from the common store — a rule that discouraged industry and frugality while it fostered idleness with all its attendant evils. The business part of the venture, however, was as yet unprof- itable and in March, 161 2, another charter was granted, giving still greater privileges to those having the affairs of the colony immediately in charge. This new charter placed the Bermuda Islands, or Somers Islands, under the control of the Virginia colony, and gave large authority to the governor-general of both with respect to the enforcement of law and punishment for crime. And, by this time, personal ownership of property had proved itself good. Men had worked the farms; the earth had borne increase; prosperity was at hand through the culti- vation of tobacco, the use of which soon spread throughout England and Russia in spite of laws and royal edicts. VIRGINIA 53 During the administration of Dale the colonies were greatly 65. Puri- oppressed by severe laws concerning religion. Among other **°**^ things, they were required to attend divine service twice Virginia every day at the tolling of the bell, upon penalty of having their "allowance" withheld for the first offense of neglect, a whipping for the second, and for the third dereliction they were condemned to the galleys for six months. Each man must satisfy his minister as to the soundness of his faith. It was a capital offense to speak against "God's name" or the faith of the Church of England. Samuel Argall, who succeeded Dale in 1617, by his severity 66. Argall; drove the colonists to combinations in resistance to the royal Sandys authority; and there developed a degree of self-confidence and co-operation among the Virginians. When Sir Edwin Sandys became governor, he used his credit in giving the colonists more and more freedom in private life, and a greater voice in the government of the public affairs of the colony. In 1619, through a more enlarged policy in England, Governor 57. Repre- Yeardley, who was no less magnanimous himself, was sent out sentative . . ... government with the most liberal instructions for the governing of Virginia _ i(,ig that had, up to this time, been given for any colony. The quaint wording of his instructions was as follows: "That they might have a hande in the governinge of themselves yt was graunted that a general Assemblie should be helde yearly once, whereat were to be present the GovR. and Counsell with two Burgesses from each Plantation freely to be elected by the Inhabitants thereof, this Assemblie shall have power to make and ordaine whatever lawes and orders should by them be thought good and profitable for our subsistance." By this time there were in Virginia eleven settlements within a few miles of one another, and from each of these were elected two delegates called burgesses. These burgesses composed the first representative law-making body that ever assembled among the American colonists, a prophecy of larger things. They met with the council and governor in a little church in James- 54 THE SOUTHERN COLONIES 68. The first slaves — and others town in 1619. What the colonists would do must be referred to the council in England, but what the council would do must be referred to the colonists before it could be binding. The Virginia colony thus became the Training Camp of Freedom. In the same year a Dutch vessel brought to Jamestown and sold twenty African negroes, and thus began in America an extension of the slave trade that had been carried on with the West India islands and many parts of the civilized world. Kings and queens in those days shared in the profits of the slave trade, and there was no country in which it was legally condemned. Slaves were soon found to be profitable as laborers in the tobacco fields. The tobacco plantations were now pro- ducing about 40,000 pounds a year, which sold at a very high price in London. Affairs were looking much better; men with their families had come; in 1621 ninety young women of good character were brought over in company to share the pros- perity and happiness of as many bachelors; and such was the success of this enterprise that others followed; but not all immigrants even at this late period were "desirable citizens," for, of the lower and unfortunate classes, many convicts and vagabonds were enticed or entrapped and sent to America, some as indentured servants who hoped to find a generous master who would accept service in return for money to pay ship passage or prison fines. These slaves, for the time being, were afterward known as "indented" or "dented" servants.^ 69. Local Yeardley's generous policy was continued and enlarged by ence^ alarms ^^^ successor, Sir Francis Wyatt, who came over in 1622 and the king brought a written confirmation of the liberties previously assmned and allowed. But now the king of England began to be right regally alarmed at the growth of local independ- ence and freedom in this advancing quarter of the world, and 1 "If a deed be made by more parties than one, there ought to be regularly as many copies of it as there are parties, and each should be cut or indented (formerly in acute angles instar dentium, like the teeth of a saw, but at present in a waving line) on the top or side, to tally or correspond with the other; which deed, so made, is called an indenture." — Blackstone, Commentaries, II, xx. VIRGINIA 55 declared that the London Company's Virginia colony had be- come a " seminary for the teaching of sedition and opposition to royal authority." He had learned to doubt the wisdom, from a royal point of view, of admitting the liberal ideas of the mem- bers of the company, and had become as nervously sensitive to the manifestations of freedom and growing independence in the colony as any king "by the grace of God" ought to be. This sensitiveness of his gracious majesty was the real reason for Jamestown in 1622 After a cut in the Scheeps-Togt van Anthony Chester na Virginia, 1622 his revoking the charter in 1624; but in his great grief at the colony's loss through Indian troubles,^ he declared that because the company neglected to care for the plantations he would take matters into his own hands. Thus Virginia became a royal colony. She kept her assembly and continued to learn the ways of self-government and to advance toward freedom. ^ In 1622 occurred the death of the Indian chief Powhatan who had been a friend to the EngHsh. There had been some friction, of course, between the Indians and settlers as the whites encroached upon the ancient preserves of the natives, but this had been held to a minimum by judicious governors and the Indian chief himself. Now that Powhatan, the friend of Captain John Smith and the father-in-law of John Rolfe, who had married Pocahontas, was out of the way, the Indians under Opecancanough, treacherously fell upon the English settlements on March 2, 1622, and slew about three hundred persons before they were repulsed. Jamestown itself was saved by a friendly Indian who revealed the plot, but too late to save the outlying settlements. A bloody war followed, and the colony lost about fifteen hundred of its four thousand inhabitants; but the Indians were at length decisively beaten and pushed back to make room for further settlement. 56 THE SOUTHERN COLONIES 70. A struggle with royal authority She was becoming the land of the country gentleman. Many families of wealth and refinement had come and had built com- modious dwellings in the midst of large estates. The planters had their private warehouses and wharves for handling their tobacco crops, which were being culti\'ated and gathered with the labor of indentured servants and a few negro slaves. In 1629 King Charles I, needing money in his contest with parliament, was looking to the tobacco industry of Virginia as a possible source of revenue. A royal governor, of course, must represent a royal majesty's will, so Sir John Harvey, the gover- nor, in his great desire to make the tobacco industry and other sources of revenue produce largely for his master, became odious through his schemes for taxing the people exorbitantly. The calling of the general assembly by the council and king to consult about revenue and other colonial matters, did not weaken the opinion among the people that they had the right to participate and to protest. The governor further alienated the good will of the settlers by his sympathy with Lord Baltimore's colony, planted on territory which belonged to Virginia under her charters. Matters came to a crisis when the colonists arrested the governor and sent him to England to stand a trial for violation of the laws. Some of the boldest went with him to prosecute the case. Nothing came of the charges. Harvey was exonerated, and he returned; but the Virginians were not molested for having dared to prosecute the royal governor. King Charles was annoyed, almost exasperated, by the audacity of his Virginia subjects, but he was prudent enough to vent his feelings in words only. He reappointed the genial Wyatt, who was much in favor with the colonists, and under his kindly influence contentment and prosperity returned. But the king was torn by a divided mind as well as a divided ministry at home. In his policy toward Virginia he vacillated between indulgence and severity. While his favors encouraged enter- prises which brought financial gain, they also tended to develop a spirit of independence as well as the ability to maintain it, much to the royal displeasure and embarrassment. In Berkeley, VIRGINIA 57 however, the king was rejoiced to find a true exponent and a wiUing tool, who ruled the colony from 1642 to 1676, except for part of the Cromwell interval, from 1652 to 1659. In every division of sentiment or purpose in the colony, 71. The Berkeley was an open, intelligent, obdurate partisan for England. P^ntan 1. ' u / 1 o supremacy He was a staunch churchman and, regarding both Puritan and in England Catholic with aversion and suspicion, he bristled at their presence as though they, instead of the savages, were the chief source of danger to his government. When Puritan thought and senti- ment engulfed England and placed Cromwell at the head of affairs, the Virginians were loyal to the king and showed willing- ness to engage in his defense against the "Roundheads." Dur- ing the period many families of distinction came over to Virginia in order to escape persecution at home, and the population increased from fifteen thousand to forty thousand within about two years. In fact, Virginia became a kind of Mecca for the sympathizers of the dethroned king. But Cromwell promptly sent commissioners to encourage a better mood; and with the appearance of the little frigate Guinea in the Chesapeake, all forms of resistance came to an end. The commissioners under the commonwealth were moderate in their demands. Liberty was granted generously, and the colony prospered under the protectorate. Far away from kings and thrones, the colonists,. or some of 72. Clai- them, were free to fight among themselves. Soon after Virginia ^'^'^^j ^°f had become a royal colony, William Claiborne, a vigorous, — 1654 resolute Puritan, claiming Virginia as his home, established a trading-post on an island in Chesapeake bay, and carried on an extensive business in fur trading along the coast as far north as Newfoundland. About 1634, the year following that of the king's grant to the Calverts of the territory of Maryland, which was within the original boundaries of Virginia, Claiborne under- took to drive the Calvert colony away, but he was defeated and driven back to Virginia. In 1645 Claiborne tried again to dis- lodge the Marylanders, and succeeded in ousting Calvert for a time, but in his turn was driven back again to Virginia. In 58 THE SOUTHERN COLONIES 1654 Claiborne, as one of the commissioners, met a force of Marylanders at the Severn river and gained the ascendency. Three years later the matter was finally settled, and the Calverts held their territory. 73. The In 1660 the monarchy was restored in the person of Charles II. Restoration; ^j^jjg dominating England, Puritans and Puritanism had effect upon _ _ "_ . Virginia— flourished in America, even in the Old Dominion, but now that the Stuart kings were again in power, a royal governor was again in control of the colony, Berkeley having been called from his country seat in Virginia, where he had retired when Cromwell became ruler. Oppression began; navigation acts were passed requiring all trade to be carried on with England and in English ships; heavy taxes were forcibly collected; creatures of the king were appointed to places in the colonial council; industry suffered; persecutions and dissensions dissipated the energies of the people, and the colony languished in all its interests. Land titles were disturbed and agriculture became unprofit- able through extortionate taxation; then came local confusion and consequent feuds. The governor, more interested in the fur trade and other business interests than in his obligation to serve the colony, permitted the marauding Indians to roam unmolested for fear his private revenue from trade with the tribes should suffer. Everything seemed upside down; it was a current saying that "a bullet would not pierce a beaver's skin." Yet the condition existed not through any variance of the law of cause and effect, but by reason of that law, and the people knew it and knew where to place the responsibility for the misery they endured. The unfortunate complications caused by the rule of a governor who was out of sympathy with the rising tide of democracy came to a crisis in the public protest that is usually called "Bacon's Rebellion." 74. Bacon's Sir William Berkeley, of course, was a true royalist, and his 1676^ ^°° ~ ardent sympathies were with the rich class that had come to the colony, and not with the poorer who were really the basis of Virginia's prosperity and who inevitably repaid the governor's aversion. The Indians harassed the border, but Berkeley failed VIRGINIA 59 to realize the gravity of the situation and neglected to provide protection. It was under these conditions that many men, thinking the time had come for action by the people, found a leader in young Nathaniel Bacon, who, placing himself at the head of a company, requested of the governor a commission to march against the Indians and restore peaceful conditions. But, seemingly given over to his idols, and, whether in- different or scornful in face of a popular demand, Berk- eley refused the somewhat irregular yet natural re- quest, and Bacon, with his men, believing that they had already crossed the Rubicon, marched against the Indians and defeated them. Then Berkeley cried insubordina- tion, outlawry, and treason, declaring Bacon a rebel, and as a consequence there resulted a state of civil war, in which Bacon attacked Berkeley, burned Jamestown, and drove the governor out of the colony. In the height of his success, however. Bacon died and his followers were scattered. Berkeley's policy of persecution now drove many of Bacon's followers to take refuge in other colonies, notably in Carolina. Berkeley's severity drew from Charles II the famous statement: "That old fool has taken more lives in that naked country than I for the murder of my father." These events occurred just one hundred years before the Declaration of Independence. Bacon's war was the "little fire that kindleth a great matter," or the smoking flax that after- ward became the conflagration that lit up the dark places of the earth. T-> I 1 11 1 1 1 , , 75. Berkeley Berkeley was recalled, but one bad governor succeeded recalled; another until the climax was reached and repeated in Sir Francis William Nicholson. These governors levied exorbitant taxes on tobacco; College / / Bacon and Berkeley 6o THE SOUTHERN COLONIES they even manipulated the coinage in their own interests. Nicholson did these things, and more: he persecuted and hanged men who opposed him. The political conditions, intolerable if permanent, contained power for future good; out of the misrule and suffering there steadily grew opposition to arbitrary government and a determination to combine in order to resist it. In the closing years of the century, Rev. James Blair was sent to England to procure a charter for a college, and returned with College of William and Mary After a lithograph made from a drawing by Thomas Millington, about 1740 the charter of "William and Mary," to be located at Williams- burg, which was the capital after the burning of Jamestown. This was the second American college. Harvard being first and Yale third. By this time the colony, after passing dangerously near annihilation in 1609, had grown from the one hundred forty- three men who came in 1607, to a vigorous and permanent society, consisting of nearly one hundred thousand inhabitants. 76. The Calverts and the Maryland charter MARYLAND About twenty-five years after the landing at Jamestown, George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, who was a member of the Virginia company, having become greatly interested in coloniza- tion plans, obtained from King Charles I a grant of land which had for its northern boundary the fortieth parallel, and its MARYLAND 6i southern, the south bank of the Potomac river to a point near its mouth. From this point the Hne was to run across the bay to "Watson's point," and the western boundary was to be the meridian passing through the western source of the Potomac river. The territory within the described limits had been in- cluded in the grant of the Virginia company, but the king reclaimed the right to it on the ground that every grant reverted to the crown when the charter was re- voked. Lord Baltimore had first attempted to establish a colony in Newfoundland, but a winter there had convinced him that the climate was too severe. So, with many of his associates, he had gone to Jamestown, where he received no welcome because he was a Catholic. He then sailed for England and sought and obtained a charter to what is now Maryland. But he died before the charter was in his posses- sion, and his son Cecilius Calvert obtained the charter and proceeded with his father's unfinished task. In November, 1633, Cecilius Calvert sent out his brother Leonard with two hundred colonists, who settled at St. Mary's, on the north bank of the Potomac river. Claiborne's hunting camp on Kent island was within this territory (72). Lord Baltimore is greatly distinguished for his tolerant spirit 77. Notable in regard to the religion of others. Although he had suffered *^*^^''*®.'' * ° * provisions some forms of persecution for his faith, he not only refused to retaliate, but even welcomed the Protestants to his colony. With great power granted by the king, he used it in the ways of peace and friendship. He might have forbidden the coming Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore After a portrait in the British Public Record Office 62 THE SOUTHERN COLONIES of any person of any sect, but he invited every sect, even the Puritans of New England. The proprietary was almost regal in power. His only obliga- tion to the king as expressed in the charter was to pay two Indian arrows a yeps in acknowledgment of his fealty. Such a tribute, however, though trivial as to value, shows the fact, back of all charters, that the king was the court of last resort in all things. The charter was remarkable for the provision that the colony should be governed by the proprietary and the people. At first all the people met and passed all laws, such as they desired. Later, the scattered settlers preferred to elect representatives. In 1650 the representatives of the people, or burgesses, sat as the lower house, and the councillors summoned by the pro- prietor sat as the upper house. About the only trouble they had concerning government related to the question whether the people or the proprietor had the right of initiative in calling an assembly, and that question was comj)romised. 78. The Protestants and Catholics came to Maryland in the first Act^— 1640 shipload of immigrants, and they lived together for many years in peace. It was the time of the Thirty Years' War in Europe, the chief phase of which was religious. The discord of the sects disturbed England, and its consequent influences, of course, reached all the colonies with greater or less effect, and began to become troublesome in Mar^'land in spite of charter provisions and of laws. In 1649 the assembly passed an ordinance that no man should be molested in his religion or his worship, pro- vided only that all must believe in the doctrine of the Trinity or in the Christian religion. 79. The During the ascendency of Cromwell in England the Puritans contror^ "" gained control of Maryland, persecuted the Catholics, and deprived the governor and the proprietor of their rights. But with the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Calvert also was restored to power, the toleration act was again in force, reli- gious and political freedom once more prevailed, and the colony prospered in spite of its troubles. MARYLAND 6^ The troubles of the colony may be stated briefly: (i) Religious controversies which were largely results of English conditions. (2) The boundary disputes; among them, those which gave Claiborne ground for causing trouble. (3) The navigation acts, which embarrassed planters in shipping their goods. In 1691 Maryland became a royal colony.^ The general conditions and possibilities of the eastern coast 80. The in these latitudes had been made known to the English through ^^^sons of '^ ° Jamestown the Jamestown experiment, and the Maryland proprietor and colonists had known before they came over that a better living could be made in their country by digging up trees and sowing seeds than by prospecting for gold or by seeking water routes to India. Having learned a lesson in government also, they divided their law-making body somewhat after the plan of the Virginia assembly. Worthy settlers continued to come into the colony, attracted by the liberal government, its tolerance in religion, and its solid basis of prosperity. Wheat and corn were grown in large quantities, but tobacco 81. General was the chief agricultural export. Manorial estates, the best f°'^^^*^°'^^ conditions of rural life, and government by the county as a unit developed naturally, as in Virginia. Almost all the people were English, and they were united rather than divided by the many arms of the great Chesapeake, which facilitated communication and aided in promoting a commerce that was fast becoming important. SUMMARY The English people took strong hold of the matter of colonization at the beginning of the seventeenth century as a natural part of their national expansion in everj' direction. Their settlements developed under the great- est difiliculties; but habits were formed and policies were matured that left a permanent impress upon American life. Both slavery and representative government had become well established institutions in Virginia and ]\Iary- land by the close of the seventeenth century. Resistance to royal authority in these two colonies had several times shown the temper of their citizens and had pointed the direction of future developments. Religious questions. ' The heirs of Lord Baltimore held thenceforth the relation of landlords to the colonists, and this relationship was not ended until the Revolution. 64 THE SOUTHERN COLONIES often agitated the settlers, especially in Maryland, where the spirit of toleration and freedom was strong from the beginning. Population in- creased steadily in spite of hardships, and the industries, particularly the cultivation of tobacco, became well established. On account of the pre- dominance of agriculture, the county system of government was adopted — a system that afterward extended itself to all the southern colonies and became the type of all southern political local organization. REVIEW QUESTIONS I. WTiy did the English become active colonizers about the beginning of the seventeenth century? 2. What difference was there between Raleigh's attempts at settlement and those of the London company? 3. What was the chief weak- ness of the Jamestown government in the beginning? Why? 4. Representative government was introduced in Virginia in 1619. Is the representative idea very prominent in our political institutions of today? In our religious, social, and busi- ness organizations? 5. Negro slaves were first brought to Virginia in 1619. Has this fact had any bearing upon our political history? religious history? sodal history? economic history? educational history? Show how in each case. 6. Make a list of the incidents in this chapter that exhibit the spirit of democracy. 7. Think of two adjectives that describe the character of the institutions Virginia and Maryland were building during this period. 8. Trace on an outline map of North America the limits of the Virginia charter of i6og. What complications might be expected to arise from this charter later? g. Enumerate the incidents related in this chapter that reflect conditions in England. 10. What was the bound- ary line between Maryland and Virginia according to their charters? Can you see any possible difficulties that might later give them trouble? A Maryland Shilling CHAPTER V THE SOUTHERN COLONIES (Concluded) REFERENCES Thwaites, The Colonies; Hart, Contemporaries; Hart, The American Nation; Channing, Students' History U. S.; McCrady, South Carolina under the Propri- etary Government. THE CAROLINAS In 1663 Charles II granted "all the region lying south of 82. The Virginia, extending from 31° to 36° of north latitude, and west- '^^g^^^^'^ ward across the continent from ocean to ocean" to a number of his supporters. The names written in the instrument are very familiar today: Clarendon, Albemarle, Craven, Berkeley, Ashley, Carteret, Colleton — names attached to important geo- graphical or political features on the map of the Carolinas. In 1665 the grant was extended to 36° 30' north, and south to the twenty-ninth parallel. The charter provisions were quite simple and generous, guaranteeing religious liberty and making it possible to invite settlers of any faith. The lords proprietors were empowered to make any law "with the advice and assent and approbation of the Freemen of the said Province, or of the greater part of them or of their delegates or deputies." However, the proprietors were authorized to make ordinances in emergencies without the advice of the people, provided that such ordinances were reasonable and not repugnant to the laws of England. The assembly could meet on its own initiative, a rule which might have saved Maryland from trouble and Virginia from oppres- sion (73, 74, 77). New settlers were exempt for five years from prosecution for debts contracted elsewhere, and from taxes for one year. A somewhat peculiar provision of the charter em- powered the proprietors to confer upon any one, who through his deserts or services was worthy, such marks of favor and 66 THE SOUTHERN COLONIES titles of honor as they saw fit, provided only that these titles should not be the same as were conferred in England. This pro- vision probably was the origin of Locke's Grand IVIodel (85). 83. The Possibly there were already three hundred white families in fettles- ^^^ Carolinas Afhen Charles II granted the charter of 1663. 1653-1662 One group had been conducted from Virginia by Roger Greene to a site on a bay known afterward as Albemarle sound; this settlement was begun in 1653.^ Another was begun near by in 1662 by some Dissenters and Quakers under George Durant; they came from Virginia and ]\Iar}-land, where they had been made very uncomfortable. 84. Sir In the same year in which the final charter was issued, 1665, Yeamans at ^^'' J*^^^ Yeamans, with a company of colonists from Barbados, Cape Fear landed at the mouth of Cape Fear river and attempted a "^®'' settlement, where they hoped to find relief from governmental oppression." They called their settlement Clarendon. Before leaving Barbados, Yeamans had been already commissioned governor of the county of Clarendon and of all the territory as far as Florida. But the governor of so great a territory and so few inhabitants returned to Barbados, abandoning the colony, which dissolved before the close of 1667, some of the colonists joining the Albemarle settlement, some going to Virginia, and others to New England. 85. Locke's Mr. John Locke, the English philosopher, was secretary to ^"co^ti-" ^°^^ Ashley, one of the proprietors. Ashley requested Locke tutions to formulate a plan of government for the Carolinas, and the philosopher drafted his Fundamental Constitutions, July 21, 1669. In derision the settlers called this instrument the Grand Model. Taking advantage of the vice-regal authority conferred in the charter, it provided an intricate system of government suited to a dense population, if suited to anything, rather than to a few settlers in a new country. Society was to be classi- ^ The Duke of Albemarle, one of the proprietors of Carolina, was the famous General Monk who, in command of the army of the Commonwealth, had been so important a factor in the restoration of the Stuarts. ^ "The government of Charles II had levied a tax of four and a half per cent on the produce of the island." — McCrady's South Carolina, I, p. 70. ,THE CAROLINAS 67 fied into strata, which were to be forever fixed. There were signories, and baronies, and landgraves, and caciques, and eight supreme courts. Doubtless there would have been dukes and earls and lords but for the restriction in the charter (9). Each of the proprietors was to have a high office with a large income. Powers to tax were limitless. The colonists never understood the provisions of the Grand Model, though for almost thirty years the proprietors endeavored to enforce them whenever an instrument of oppression and extortion was needed. The few Albemarle colonists were now struggling for physical existence. The navigation acts were enforced, ruining their West Indian trade and putting the means of cruel extortion into the hands of the English shipowners. The governors sided with the proprietors, and the wretchedness of the settlers became pitiable. While the Albemarle settlers were growing in numbers and 86. The be- ware having commercial and political troubles, the first settle- ^'J^'",^^! °^ ^ . ^ ' Charleston ments in what is now South Carolina were being made. In— 1670 August, 1669, three ships, the Albemarle, the Port Royal, and the Carolina, with two hundred emigrants, sailed from London, bound for Port Royal harbor in Carolina. The Albemarle was wrecked at Barbados, and another vessel was procured. Then the Port Royal was cast away on one of the Bahama islands. Lives and valuable cargoes had been lost. Port Royal harbor was reached in March, 1670; there it was determined to proceed farther north. In April the Carolina sailed into Charleston harbor, and the emigrants landed on what they named Albe- marle point on the Ashley river, and at once began to con- struct a town with fortifications. The next year, however, the settlers began a removal a few miles to the site of what became Charleston. The first governor was William Sayle, almost eighty years 87. Gover- of age, yet under all the circumstances perhaps the best man°°^^^^'® for the office. The Carolina sailed to Virginia for more pro- Governor visions, Virginia by this time being rich and prosperous. The West— 1671 68 THE SOUTHERN COLONIES surrounding Indians, called the Kiawhas, were friendly; they had hostile neighbors on the south, and were very willing to have the whites for allies. Still, the colonists kept on their guard, both against Indians and Span- iards, for Spain claimed this coun- try as a part of Florida, and at St. Augustine there was a fort garrisoned by some hundreds of her regular soldiers. A Spanish fleet might appear in the harbor any day. There was politi- — cal trouble in South - Carolina. Locke's Fundamental Con- stitutions proved impracticable, and compromises had to be worked out. Governor Sayle did his best, but he was con- fronted by "strict constructionists" who demanded that he follow the letter of the instrument — that is to say, demanded the impossible. The Carolina returned to Albemarle Point with a cargo of provisions, and sailed in September for Barbados, from which island more than a hundred new emigrants took ship for Albe- marle Point early in 167 1. There were reenforcements in that year from the Dutch of New York also, and from England. Governor Sayle died in the spring of 1671, and was succeeded by Joseph West. There were now about four hundred persons in the colony. But Yeamans, who had abandoned his people at Cape Fear A Spanish Galleon THE CAROLINAS 69 and had returned to Barbados, appeared in Charleston, built 88. Yea- a home there, and soon succeeded, with the help of the Funda- ™^f , . . . . supplants mental Constitutions, in having himself appointed to supplant West; and West, whom the council had elected to fill what we might call ^®^! , ° supplants "an unexpired term." The proprietors made West a cacique Yeamans and appointed him "registrar of writings." Yeamans brought from Barbados to Charleston his negro slaves, the first that came to the colony. Unpopular from the first, the troubles of the colony made him more so. Political bickerings, friction with Indians, the escape of slaves and white criminals to the Spaniards, combined to make his rule odious because of his in- ability to deal with such conditions. The proprietors at length superseded Yeamans with West, whom they made a landgrave in order that he might, under the Grand Model, be qualified for the office of governor. West held the ofhce until 16S2; and under his wise guidance 89. West's prosperity began and continued. Other settlements sprang up ^^^® . near Charleston, and the Huguenot accession to the colony tion; West began. The country was explored as far west as the moun- '' g™"^®** ~ tains; treaties were made with the Indians, and trade with the natives was greatly increased; their land was bought with beads and trinkets; and the Grand Model was disregarded. Prosperity was beginning to come — at first through trade rather than through agriculture. The colonists exported skins, furs, and valuable wood to England; and with Jamaica and Barbados and other islands exchanged pitch, tar, timber, and provisions for sugar, molasses, rum, and ginger. They sold Indians as slaves to the West Indies, and brought back negro slaves to the colony; the Indians, most likely, had been captured in war by other Indians, as the negroes had been captured in war by other negroes. In the eyes of the whites both were looked upon as commodities of trafiic; and the bargaining for a negro or an Indian was regarded not in the light of morals, but of ex-pediency.^ Yet the proprietors thought it was very ^ It should be remembered that, for a hundred years after these times, the rules of civilized warfare permitted a conqueror to dispose of the conquered in any abso- 70 THE SOUTHERN COLONIES wrong for the colonists to sell Indians on their private account, for such trade was considered one of their own peculiar privi- leges according to their grant; so Governor Joseph West was removed from office. 90. Troubles Meanwhile the Albemarle settlements were having troubles, *" J'"*'^ yet were increasing in population and advancing to a condition of stable prosperity. The people, sturdy and independent from the first, developed a strong attachment to free institutions. They resisted the government under the Grand Model, and even dared to banish one of the governors sent over from England. Their refusal to obey the navigation acts persisted to the point of offering violence to their governor and his council. There was an end of the troubles when the proprietors gave up their efforts to enforce the provisions of the Grand Model. From the time of West's retirement until John Archdale be- came governor, a period of twelve years, there were no less than ten changes in the office. During this period troubles increased; the people at one time, through their representatives, declared they would be governed only by the charter, and not by the Grand Model, but the governor persisted and there was a dead-lock in the assembly. Violence followed and the governor proclaimed martial law; but without the strength to enforce it, he was compelled to ignore the infraction. At times there was little of real law administered in the colony. The gover- nor whom the Albemarle people had banished sought refuge at Charleston. Confusion reigned; many people welcomed him back as a possible improvement upon the incumbent, and, being one of the proprietors, he had legal right on his side, and summoned a parliament and had his rival banished. 91. Cover- John Archdale came out as governor of both colonies, and with nor Archdale ^^^^.^j. ^^ appoint a deputy-governor for North Carolina. There had been, and there still were, very great troubles concerning quit-rents exacted by the proprietors; these troubles Archdale lute way he might choose. Even Frederick the Great, in the eighteenth century, forced thousands of captured enemies to take service under his banner; and in South Carolina itself, the British in the Revolution, justified, with this rule, their treat- ment of prisoners. GEORGIA 71 had authority to settle, and in settling them he rendered valuable service. He was willing to remit all arrears up to the last quarter of 1695, provided the remaining debts were secured and measures taken to secure the prompt payment of the quit-rents in the future.^ Under Archdale the management of Indian affairs was fortu- nate; and it is interesting to know that in his administration an act was passed prohibiting the "sale except by license from the governor, of any beer, cider, wine, brandy, rum, punch, or any strong drink whatsoever, under the quantity of one gallon at one draught." When he was ready to leave for England, the assembly gave him an address of thanks, praising his pacific government; but after his departure the troubles were renewed. It was plainly impossible for these early Americans to live under a constitution that seemed made for serfs. The Grand Model was practically ignored in 1696; the proprietors con- tinued to find difficulty, and in 1729 they ceded to the crown all rights to govern the colony with all property in land except one-eighth. The Carolinas thus became two royal colonies, and so remained until the Revolution. GEORGIA Georgia is unique in the purpose of its establishment, 92. James which was neither religious nor financial, but purely philan- chlrter'of^* thropic. James Oglethorpe, the founder, served as chairman Georgia of a committee on prisons in the House of Commons, and became familiar with the prisons and prison conditions of England. He saw many honest but unfortunate men deprived of their liberty for debt without hope of release. His great heart was touched, and he determined to give the remainder of his life to the relief of the sufferings that he saw. ' Seemingly a sort of tax on land, the quit-rent was a render of money or its equivalent instead of services due a superior. A survival from feudalism, it gave trouble in every colony in which it was collected. McCrady, in his South Carolina under the Proprietary Government, has the following, Vol. I, p. 190; "This land was to be to them and their heirs forever, with the reservation of a penny an acre quit-rent to the Lords Proprietors." 72 THE SOUTHERN COLONIES In 1732, George II granted to Oglethorpe and his fellow "Trustees of Georgia" the land between the Savannah and the Altamah rivers, and from their courses westerly to the South seas. The territory was part of that originally granted as Carolina, but the king had purchased the rights of the Carolina proprietors (91). The charter provided for "liberty of conscience in the worship of God to all persons except papists." Great power was given to the trustees; they might prepare all laws for the government of the colony, subject only to the approval of the king. 93. Settle- Oglethorpe himself came out with the first settlers. They SaTaUah ^^^^"^ ^" November, 1732, and in January, 1733, Oglethorpe — 1733 selected a site for his colony near the mouth of the Savannah. The Georgia charter, in regard to land, was different from that of any other colony. The trustees could have no interest in any lands of the colony; nor could they grant more than five hun- dred acres to any one person. But an actual settler obtained smaller tracts without charge except for the cost of surveying and transferring. There could be no monopoly in land so long as Oglethorpe was at the head of affairs, nor could there be trouble concerning quit-rents which some of the colonies had to pay on granted land. "Only those who were willing to pay sweat for the soil could procure lands in this colony." 94. Reia- Oglethorpe wished to avoid trouble with the Spaniards and the Indians ^^^ Indians; the former, however, he must largely leave to the foreign policy of England; but the Indian relations must be his special care. So he promptly made a friend of Tomochichi, the head chief of the natives near Savannah. Moreover, he paid the Indians for their land, and the report of his fair dealing spread far and wide through the wigwams, west and south. Debtors released from prison, Salzburghers fleeing because, of religious persecution, Scotch Highlanders, and Moravians came and helped redeem the wilderness. 95. Slavery The trustees had forbidden the introduction of slaves and and rum , . . . _ , . , the importation of rum. Each of these measures was an innovation, and criticism and complaint quickly followed. prohibited GEORGIA 73 Georgia was the only colony that forbade slavery; the other colonies were enjoying a lucrative trade in slaves, and the critics asked, "Why not Georgia?" As to rum, the New Englanders were making hogsheads of it, and becoming rich on the manufac- ture and sale of it; Georgia was simply standing in her own light. Nor could the Carolinians, or the Virginians, they said, move into Georgia, because they were forbidden to bring their Early Savannah, Georgia From a London print dated 1741. Dedicated to General Oglethorpe slaves. Such a policy, it was argued, tended to isolate Georgia from the world, and to place her at a great disadvantage in the race for population and prosperity. In July, 1739, Oglethorpe, with but half a dozen attendants, 99. War set out on a notable journey for the purpose of making a treaty ^^^ the •in,- T ,. •, . , . , . Spaniards 01 peace with ail the important Indian tribes within the territory covered by his charter. Spain was assuming a very threatening attitude, and the great trustee, foreseeing that his beloved colony must be drawn into war, wished to be ready for action as soon as possible. He met the chiefs of the Creeks, the Choctaws, the Chickasaws, and other tribes at a place called in the Creek tongue Coweta, on the upper Chattahoochee; all terms were speedily arranged, and Oglethorpe smoked the calumet with the redmen. His next step was to go to England for the purj50se of procuring help; and it is said that "he raised, equipped, and disciplined a regiment of 600 men, and in less than a year 74 THE SOUTHERN COLONIES returned to Georgia, bringing with him the newly levied troops." The English government had decided not to await attack from the Spaniards, and had ordered General Oglethorpe to attempt the reduction of St. Augustine. Oglethorpe obeyed; and in command of an army of 2000 men appeared before St. Augus- tine, but the works of the Spaniards, as well as their numbers, seemed too strong to justify attack. In 1742 the Spaniards retaliated by invading Georgia. Oglethorpe's forces were Ruins of Oglethorpe's Fort at Frederic.\ 97. Georgia a royal colony — 1752 greatly inferior, but he bravely confronted the enemy, and after two or three small combats, was enabled, by a fortunate stratagem, to cause them to give up the campaign. In 1743 General Oglethorpe, having placed the colony on a good basis, and having granted the demands concerning rum and slavery, transferred the government of the colony to the "Presi- dent and Assistants of Savannah," and went to England. In 1752 when the trustees surrendered the charter to the crown, there were about 23,000 white inhabitants in the colony, and perhaps a thousand negroes, slavery as well as rum having been admitted. From this time until the American Revolution, Georgia remained a royal colony. GEORGIA 75 SUMMARY The Carolinas were first settled by wanderers from the other colonies, but in 1663 the English government granted a charter to certain nobles as proprietors, who governed the colonists until 1729 through proprietary representatives according to a Fundamental Constitution drawn up by John Locke. There was constant friction between the governors and the governed, the issue being generally matters involving the rights of the colonists. Georgia, settled in 1732, was peculiar in several particulars. Settled late, it enjoyed the help of the other colonies in many ways. It alone had hostile relations with the Spaniards, unless South Carolina be excepted. It was founded upon philanthropy, pursued the most liberal land policy, for a time prohibited rum and slavery, and submitted to the rule of one man. REVIEW QUESTIONS I. Compare the power of the Carolina assembly with that of the Virginia and Maryland assemblies. 2. What, in your opinion, were some of the chief weaknesses of the Fundamental Constitutions? 3. Is there such a thing as a form of govern- ment that is suitable under all circumstances? Illustrate. 4. In what occupations did the people of the Carolinas first engage? What later? 5. Was there any moral objection to slavery in the Carolinas or elsewhere at this time? 6. Show why Georgia's was a composite population almost from the first. 7. Give an estimate of the character and work of James Oglethorpe. 8. Why did the Georgians submit more completely than the rest to the government given them? 9. Why was it especially necessary that Georgia keep on good terms with the Indians? 10. Ogle- thorpe was not a democrat in any sense. Why did he riot help the king in the war of the Revolution? Seal of the Georgia Colony 98. Ex- ploring the Hudson River — 1609 CHAPTER VI THE MIDDLE COLONIES REFERENCES Thwaites, The Colonics; Fiske, The Dutch and Quaker Colonics in America; Hart, Contemporaries; School Histories. NEW YORK In 1609, a little before the time when the colonists at James- town were d}-ing of hunger, Henry Hudson sailed in his Half- Moon into a most commodious harbor and up the noble river which now bears his name. Although an Englishman, Hudson was in the service of the Dutch East India company, one of the most successful of the strong commercial organizations of Amsterdam; and he was coming to attempt the deed demanded of every great seaman — the discovery of a short route to the East, the land from which his patrons, at so much expense of time and of money, obtained the rich stuffs that supported their commerce. Hudson had at first tried to sail aroimd the north of Europe; failing, he remembered that he had a letter and a map sent him by a friend, a certain John Smith, who was somewhere in the wilderness of America. So he turned his prow to the west, and in due time sighted the coast of Maine; thence he continued southward to the Chesapeake, hoping to find a good waterway through the continent. Then turning back, he explored Dela- ware bay, and sailed up the Hudson until the water became so shallow that he was convinced he could never reach China by that route, so he returned to Holland and made his report — a report of failure. Yet he, like Columbus, had succeeded. He had learned that the country was wonderfully good, and that it abounded in fur-bearing animals, for he had examined the shores on both sides of the river; and he had talked much with NEW YORK 77 the Indians, and they, under the charm of a pecuhar water he gave them to drink, had talked much to him, becoming exceed- ingly garrulous for a time; nor did the shrewd captain of the Half -Moon exercise the arts of blandishment in vain, as the French could soon testify; for just about this time Samuel Champlain was over on the lake that bears his name, diligently engaged in shooting Iroquois Indians; and it is a significant fact of history that these people, who long separated the French colonies on the north from the Dutch on the seaboard, were always the friends of the Dutch and enemies to the French. New Amsterdam in 1656 After Van der Donck's New Netherland Through private enterprise, interested in the fur trade with 99. Settle- the Indians, voyages were made to the Hudson river region by Dutch West Dutch vessels, but Holland, hesitating because the country was India claimed by both England and Spain, took no official action of importance until 1621, when the Dutch West India company was given almost limitless authority over a grant of land "from Newfoundland to the Straits of Magellan," the longest con- tinuous line of sea-coast ever claimed by any group of mortal men. Under this company, trading posts were established at New Amsterdam, at Nassau (so named by Adrian Block in 1 614, but soon moved a short distance and called Fort Orange, and ultimately Albany), and at Fort Nassau on the Delaware river. These posts grew in population, and trade with the Indians flourished. 78 THE MIDDLE COLONIES 100. Con- ditions in New Netherland — 1630 By this time it had been proved to the world, by both Virginia and Massachusetts, that America is a habitable country; so in 1629 the Dutch West India company set about attracting to New Netherland people who w^ould build homes and become citizens, instead of those whose only purpose was to buy furs from the Indians and take them back to Holland for sale. Land was cheap and it was good; to attract settlers, the company had the "concessions" drawn up, providing that any member of the company who should introduce fifty colonists over fifteen years of age should have a tract of land with sixteen miles of river-front (eight miles if he chose both sides of the river) and ex- tending as far back as other grants would admit. The patroons, as the great land- holders were called, must bear the ex- pense of transporting the colonists and furnishing them with tools and provisions for beginning their work. The patroons became lordly, and almost regal in authority over the colony. The Dutch claimed all the land along the North river (Hudson) and the South river (Delaware), and on these rivers lay the great estates. The Dutch were thrifty and shrewd; they attended to business in season and out of season. Their colonies were planted on a fertile soil and in a favorable climate. Politics and theology were old world matters which in the new country did not absorb them quite all the time. Their colonies flourished. Immi- grants came from many quarters — from north and south, and from beyond the sea. It is said that in 1643 eighteen languages were spoken in New Amsterdam. The patroons were wealthy and defiant of authority. In- dividual members of the company acquired immense tracts of land and became almost feudal in their thought, their purposes, Dutch Patroon or Landed Proprietor NEW YORK 79 and their power over their tenants. This attempt to renew the institution of a past age continued for more than a hundred years. The fortunes of many rich New York families were begun by these rich patroons. The tax riots in New York two hundred years later resulted from efforts to collect back taxes on the Van Rensselaer estate. The patroons cared less and still less for the rights and welfare of their tenants, in this respect re- peating the history of other land- lords of early times. The company began to reform conditions by greatly reducing the sizes of the land grants, and by forcing upon the patroons a form of local government in which the colonists themselves had a hand. Many Englishmen had found their way into the Dutch colony, and the undemocratic condition grated After the portrait in the posses- ,1 Ti • -1,1 r sion of the New York His- upon them. It was impossible for jorical Society them not to have heard of the house of burgesses down in Virginia, and of the selectmen and town meeting in Plymouth. In 1 64 1 the colonists compelled Governor Kieft to call a council of twelve deputies from the settlements to consult with him about the treatment of the Indians and about taxes. Later, Governor-General Stuyvesant selected a council of nine from a list nominated by popular vote; and thus representative government began in New York. Some Dutch immigrants had gone as far south as the Dela- 101. Clash ware river, which they called the South river, and had made ^\t n^j their settlement at Nassau, on the Schuylkill, near the site of Swedes Philadelphia. These people were almost annihilated by the Algonkins, and the remnant joined with others in obtaining a charter from Sweden (117), hoping for better protection than the Peter Stuyvesant 8o THE MIDDLE COLONIES 102. New Netherland becomes New York under the English mercenary Dutch had afforded them. "The South Company of Sweden," 1636, sent out a colony under Peter Minuet, formerly a Dutch governor, the genius who had bought Man- hattan island from the Indians for twenty-four dollars. Minuet built a fort, which he called Christina in honor of the Swedish queen, on the site of the future Wilmington. Governor-General Kieft with great awkwardness brought on a disastrous conflict with the Algonkins, and Governor Peter Stuyvesant, he of the "wooden leg and bad temper," disputed the rights of the English on the Connecticut river, but in the time of the New England Confederation he learned his error (141). He deserves military honors, however, for capturing Christina, and political credit for obliterating the Swedish claim to the country. In 1664 King Charles sent a fleet to demand the surrender of New Amsterdam. The thrifty colonists were tired of the war- like governor "who strutted like a peacock — as if he were the Czar of Musco\y," and they frankly informed him that he must surrender. In fact, these good people seemed to care little who was pope or king so long as trade was brisk, and crops were bountiful, and Virginia sent them good tobacco; so the conquest of New Netherland was bloodless. The king gave the territory to his brother, the Duke of York; hence the name. Fort Orange was anglicized so far as to change its name to Albany, from another duke and another brother. Colonel Nicolls, who had captured the Dutch fort, was made governor, and promulgated rules of government, known as the "Duke's Laws," which pro- vided for town meetings and elections, a constable, and eight overseers; and for the county meeting, to look after taxes and other matters of important general interests, all to be supervised by a sheriff. The people were industrious, and they confined their industry to sane pursuits. Therefore they prospered, for they were under fairly liberal laws; there was the beginning of self-government in the "riding," or county, yet above this, so far as they were concerned, every power was absolute. NEW YORK 8i The king had given a part of the territory — the part that 103. Per- afterward became New Jersey — to his favorites, John Berkeley session of and George Carteret, two of the proprietors of the Carolinas. the colony Such transfers of ownership of great bodies of land had inevitably confused land titles and brought other annoyances. So, when the Dutch fleet appeared before New York in 1673, the settlers were quite willing that their old rulers should return to power: The Stadthuys, New York, 1679 After Brevoort's drawing. (" Stadthuys " is Dutch for " statehouse.") the town rejoiced, and the fort surrendered without resistance. It was little more than a year, however, until the treaty of peace, signed at Westminster for England and Holland, stipulated the cession of New York to England; and with this permanent acquisition England's possessions on the North American coast were continuous from Maine as far south as Florida. At the time of the extinction of the Dutch political power, there were about seven thousand people in New York, along the Hudson and Mohawk rivers, on the farms, and in the camps of pioneers and trappers. Thrift was apparent on all sides. 82 THE MIDDLE COLONIES Among the notable governors of the period may be mentioned nor Andros;gjj. E(jjj^Qn(^ Andros, afterward prominent and even unpopular 104. Gover- nor Andros tyranny of James II 105. Leisler; his death — 1691 in New England (145). He encouraged thrift and enterprise, and exerted his influence on the side of the colonists in their controversy with Berkeley and Carteret concerning the dis- turbance of land titles. But at the same time he was a mere tool in the interest of the Duke of York, the owner, against the colonists. His opposition to Berkeley and Carteret, who were court favorites, cost him his office. He was succeeded by Thomas Dongan (1683). The pressure had become so great from the democratic tendencies of Virginia and New England that Dongan was compelled to call an assembly, elected by "freeholders and free-men." This assembly, with the king's consent, shared authority with the governor and council. Reli- gious toleration was established bylaw; all taxation required the consent of the assembly; but the laws were of no force without the sanction of the duke. The advantages gained, both in politics and religion, were temporarily lost when the Duke of York became James II of England, and immediately put an end to the assembly, and caused the Church of England to be established. In 1688 New York was annexed to New England, with Andros as governor, and Francis Nicholson became some- thing like a lieutenant-gov- ernor of New York under Andros. Later, in 1688, Jacob Leisler, a rough German ex-soldier, raised a company and drove Nicholson out. Leisler ruled the colony vigorously and awkwardly for three years. His administration was signalized by the meeting of the first colonial congress which took place in New York in February, 1690. This convention was called mainly to devise Jacob Leisler's House NEW JERSEY 83 ways and means of defense against the Frertth and their Algonkin allies, who had become very troublesome in their attacks on English settlements; this was the time of what was called King William's war, in which occurred the burn- ing of Schenectady and of Salmon Falls. In 1 69 1 the first royal governor. Colonel Slaughter, compelled Leisler to give up the o£&ce. In a drunken debauch Governor Slaughter yielded to the persuasion of Leisler's enemies and had him executed. Leisler had been too democratic. A new assembly was called and a degree of liberty was again 106. Im- restored. But progress was slow, owing to the disgraceful P''"^!'! administration of Governor Fletcher, who was paid by pirates Beliomont' for harbor privileges, and who generally invited and accepted bribes. In 1698 the Earl of Beliomont was appointed gov- ernor, and again New York was placed under a governor with New Jersey, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Beliomont died in 1701. The century closed in this wholesome administration, with the colony prosperous materially and enjoying a degree of self- government. When New York should be blessed with free local institutions was only a question of time. NEW JERSEY The Duke of York granted to his friends, Lord John Berkeley 107. The and Sir George Carteret (103), a great part of the peninsula ^^^^^y^^^ between the Hudson and Delaware rivers; and it was named its govern- New Jersey. The territory included the old Dutch settlement ™®°* of Nassau, while along its borders the Dutch, Swedes, and English had settled under authority of patents issued by three governments. Profiting by the experience of older colonies. New Jersey organized a government consisting of a governor, councilmen appointed by the proprietors, and an assembly elected by pop- ular vote. The power to annul a law was, however, reserved by the proprietors. Freedom of worship was allowed. Philip Carteret, nephew of Sir George, came out as governor. 84 THE MIDDLE COLONIES 108. The Because of» great troubles in the colony between the pro- Jf.^^yf prietors and the people on account of quit-rents (91) Berkeley sold his interest to some members of the Society of Friends, or Quakers. In 1676 Sir George Carteret and the purchasers of the Berkeley interest agreed upon a boundary line ''drawn from Little Egg harbor on the Atlantic coast, to a point not far from Minisink island in the Delaware river." The seat of govern- ment for East Jersey was Elizabethtown ; that of West Jersey, Burlington. There was now very liberal government. 109. The West Jersey passed into the hands of William Penn and Jerseys other Quakers; and, after the death of Sir George Carteret, united under East Jersey also was purchased by Penn and a few associates ^^°^ of different creeds. In 1688 the proprietors surrendered to the king all rights in resjKXt to government, but retained their rights to the lands. Sir Edmund Andros, governor of so many colonies (145), had a claim to New Jersey also as part of his jurisdiction, but he gave the people no trouble. In 1702 the proprietors surren- dered all claims, and New Jersey became a royal province. It had its own assembly, but no governor until 1738, being under the go\'ernor of New York, who appointed a deinity for New Jersey. 110. New When royal authority took control, the king's representatives Jersey a organized a government resembling in some ])articulars that province which had previously e.xisted. Freedom of worship was allowed to all, but Catholics had no political rights; and only free- holders of two hundred acres of land, or those owning property \alued at fifty pounds or more, were permitted to \-ote. The population was composed of people from many lands. Besides the Dutch and the Swedes, immigrants had come from England and from New England, while troubles at home had caused many Scotch Presbyterians to come to New Jersey. Aggrieved or persecuted men with their families came from other colonies. The climate was mild, the soil was rich, the water- ways gave promise of a great commerce in the future, and the government was liberal; everything conspired to make New PENNSYLVANIA 85 Jersey a state that would be limited in power only by the narrowness of its boundaries. PENNSYLVANIA The founder of Pennsylvania was the son of an English ad- 111. King miral. While he was at school he became imbued with the^^f^'^^ sells spiritual ideas of the Quakers, a new religion propagated bypennsyi- John Fox, to the great displeasure of the admiral, his father, who ^^""^ ^°'' endeavored to dissuade the boy ; but through all his life William Penn held stoutly to the two cardinal tenets of his religion : the right of the individual to perfect freedom, and the duty of the individual to follow the "inward light," or his conscience. At the death of his father, Penn found himself heir to a claim on the English crown for £15,000, a loan with which the admiral had favored Charles I when that monarch was in dire necessity. Charles II was now on the throne, and Penn solicited the pay- ment of the debt, not in money, which he knew the profligate king would refuse from ^ ^th^Sntury"^ inability to pay, even though he were will- ing, but in lands in the American wilderness, and he found his debtor not averse to a settlement that cost nothing. Penn had previously, and charitably, become interested in 112. Bound- the Jerseys (109), and in offering the bargain to Charles, he had ^^^s of in mind the settlement of a great colony where soil and gov- purchase ernment should be a refuge for the distressed, not only of his greatly persecuted brethren the Quakers, but of all mankind, regardless of creed. So Penn became proprietor of what he wanted to call Sylvania, but to which the king — charming in a personal way — prefixed Penn in spite of all protest. The land thus granted in 1681 was bounded south by the fortieth and north by the forty-third degree of north latitude, and it stretched westward from the Delaware for five degrees 86 THE MIDDLE COLONIES of longitude — a country greater in agricultural possibility than England itself. The boundaries of this imperial domain were not surveyed, and of course trouble arose afterward. 113. Penn's In order that he might have a good outlet to the sea, Penn toriower^^ bought from the Duke of York a large body of land farther counties; south, and on the west side of the Delaware river and bay. immigration ^j^j^ territory had already been settled to some extent by Dutch and Swedes; later, it was divided into three counties. Reduced Facsimile of Part of the Royal Deed given to Penn In publishing his plans, Penn made a strong effort to induce the persecuted Quakers to settle in his colony, but others also were invited. His land was offered at very low rates, about ten cents an acre, and on very liberal terms. Immigrants came rapidly to Pennsylvania, the land where freedom was proclaimed — freedom in government and reli- gion, and proclaimed by a man in whom the immigrants could have utmost confidence. Penn himself came over in 1682 with a hundred settlers, and in that year founded Philadelphia. 114. Penn's Penn's form of government, which would now be called a con- stitution, provided that the people should elect both assembly and council, the proprietor appointing the governor. Thus he put to the test his belief in the ability as well as the right of the people to govern themselves. No one could be a citizen, how- ever, who did not beUeve in God; and no citizen could hold office unless he professed the Christian religion. The punish- ment of criminals was to be a means of saving them, not a means of retaliation. Children were to be taught useful employment, and the Indians were to be treated fairly, honestly, and kindly. liberal government PENNSYLVANIA 87 and he remained away 116. Pros- In his absence his affairs ^^" ^' Penn's In 1684 Penn returned to England from his colony for fifteen years in the colony were administered by governors whom he ap- Indian pointed. These years were prosperous. The cheap land, the^"'*^^ bountiful harvests, the liberal rule, all combined to attract settlers. Dutch, Germans, Swedes, Welsh, Englishmen, and men from other colonies came to the land of liberal things. On his arrival in the col- ony in 1699, Penn assembled the chiefs among the Indians and smoked the peace pipe, and began a friendship that was abused but rarely. In- deed, Pennsylvania, until the English themselves stirred up the redmen in the time of the Revolution, was notably free from violence on the part of either race toward the other. Penn's Indian policy was no less astute than it was humane. The boundaries named in Penn's grant, unmarked as they had 116. Mason been in any actual survey, could not be satisfactory to the^^^. ^^^""^ increasing population in its demands for homes. The southern Charter of boundary especially was confused on account of the grant to the "^ ^^^^ Calverts. Moreover, the Swedes and the Dutch down the bay contended that their land had never been Penn's because it certainly was not in the charter from Charles II. The dispute as to the boundary between Penn's colonies and Maryland was not settled until 1732, when the heirs of Penn and of the Calverts agreed upon the present boundaries of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. Part of the line was "run" by two English surveyors named Mason and Dixon; and their names seem immortalized in the political nomenclature of the Union. William Penn 88 THE MIDDLE COLONIES In 1 701 Penn framed his Charter of Privileges, which, with respect to the council and the election of the assembly, placed the government on about the same basis as those of the other Middle colonies; and then he required that all laws should be approved by the proprietors. As in New York, so in Pennsylvania, the government was a blending of the town government of New England with the county government of the Southern colonies. At Penn's death, the heirs fell into ran- --■-5!w».^? corous contention and lawsuits, which Penn's Treaty i^g^ed until the Revolution settled them. Monument DELAWARE 117. Early Henry Hudson, a week before he entered New York harbor, settlements j^^^ sailed up Delaware bay, searching the shores for the hoped- for strait that would lead him through an isthmus into the South sea; and though he found no great waterway, he gave the Dutch a claim to the country. It is possible that Thomas West, Lord Delaware, the governor of Jamestown, explored the bay in the year following Hudson's visit, for his name was given to it. A small Dutch colony came out in 163 1, and after purchasing land from the Indians, settled at what they called Swanandael, on the west side of the bay, not very far above Cape Hen- lopen. Before the end of the year they were all slain by the Indians. The first permanent settlement on the west side of the Dela- ware was effected by Peter Minuet, a Hollander, with a com- pany of Swedes. Minuet, after serving as governor of New Amsterdam, had returned to Holland, and thence had gone to Sweden, where he succeeded in reviving an old colonization scheme of Gustavus Adolphus. Under the patronage of Queen Christina, Minuet, with a colony of more than fifty persons, sailed from Sweden in 1638 and settled in what is now the state DELAWARE 89 of Delaware. To honor his queen he called his fort and town Christina. Minuet bought land from the Indians, and thus, according to Roger Williams's theory, had a far better right to the country than either the Dutch, whose claim was based on Hudson's discovery, or the Calverts, who claimed the territory as part of their grant from King Charles I. Of course, the Dutch at New Amsterdam protested; but more 118. Con- Swedes came out to Delaware, or New Sweden, and they went j)ytch and so far as to build a trading post on the east shore. Swedes These earliest colonies, Swede and Dutch, were more inter- ested in the fur trade with the Indians than in agriculture. The unsettled shores of Delaware bay, with all its arms and inlets, caused mutual jealousy of Dutch and Swedes, while the furtraders among the English of Calvert's colony became obnoxious to both New Sweden and New Amsterdam. "The only measures in which the Dutch and Swedes could unite harmoniously in carrying out were such as would keep the English from gaining a footing on the river." But while trade was growing, the colonists continued to come, and farms were laid out, and permanent occupancy seemed assured. Then Peter Stuyvesant thought it was getting high time for him to step in (101), and the result was that after a fort- night's campaign Fort Christina fell into the hands of the Dutch, and the Swedish colony, as a political body, became extinct. When William Penn obtained his grant and began his settle- 119. Politi- ments in Pennsylvania, he bought Delaware from the Duke^j^^g of York, and it became known as the "Lower Counties," "the Territories," "the Delaware Hundreds," etc. The people here never took kindly to Penn's government and were troublesome. They were separated and reunited once or twice during Penn's experiences up to 1703, when Delaware was given a separate assembly, though it remained under the same gov- ernment with Pennsylvania until the Revolution. For a long time it was more Lutheran than Quaker, and more Dutch than English in sentiment and social life. 90 THE MIDDLE COLONIES Political conditions in the Delaware colony depended largely at first on the Dutch power in New Netherland nd afterward upon the more modern influencu of Pennsylvania. SUMMARY New York was settled by the Dutch about the time the English settled at Jamestown and at Plymouth. The settlers were essentially commercial by nature and were well situated geographically for the development of business enterprises. The Dutch patroons accumulated vast wealth and laid the foundation for great estates which have figured prominently in later years. The colony fell into the hands of the British in 1664. In population it was cosmopolitan almost from the beginning, while in govern- ment it partook of the nature of its New England neighbors on the one side and its Southern neighbors on the other. As a matter of fact, govern- ment and religion were not primary factors with the shrewd business men of the Hudson valley. New Jersey was settled a half-century later by the Dutch, the Swedes, and immigrants from the other colonies and England. As in New York, politics was secondary to business, though it often exhibited leanings toward democracy. Pennsylvania, founded by the Quakers in 1681, grew very rapidly under d well executed scheme of colonization, and in less than a quarter of a century it had a population of twenty-five thousand English, Welsh, Scotch- Irish, German, Moravian, and other inhabitants. It was liberal in both politics and religion and was generally associated with Delaware which had been granted to Pcnn in 16S2 by the Duke of York. REVIEW QUESTIONS I. What factors in the early life of New York may be seen in her present life? 2. If Henry Hudson had accomplished his purpose, would New York have been settled i)y the Dutch? 3. Is there any evidence today ihat the Dutch once occupied New York? 4. Do you know of a piece of American literature that has for its background Dutch life in New York? 5. Can you think of some feature of New Jersey's government that showed the influence of neighboring governments? 6. Should you like to live in a state in which the conditions for voting were the same as those in New Jersey? 7. Why did Pennsylvania grow so rapidly from the first? 8. Discuss two very prominent traits of William Penn's character. 9. How was the Mason and Dixon line established? 10. Why did not the Middle colonies develop a distinct type of government of their own? CHAPTER VII THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES REFERENCES Secondary Authorities. — Thwaites, Colonies; Fiske, The Beginnings of New England; Channing, i; Larned, History for Ready Reference. Sources. — Haxt, American History Told by Contemporaries; Old South Leaflets; MacDonald, Select Charters. Illustrative Material. — • Longfellow, Courtship of Miles Standish; Hemans, Landing of the Pilgrims; Whittier, The Garrison of Cape Ann; Longfellow, John Endicott; Webb, The Pilgrims of New England; Seaton, Romance of the Charter Oak. ATTEMPTS AT SETTLEMENT In the year Jamestown was founded, the Plymouth company 120. The sent to the mouth of the Kennebec river a colony of more than ?^5°°ebec . River a hundred people under the immediate direction of George settlement Popham. The winter was severe and the Indians were hostile. ~ ■'^"'^ ]\Iany of the settlers died; others were disappointed, even in despair. The leaders lacked courage, and the colonists them- selves lacked fortitude. They had not come, but they had been sent, to found a colony. As a consequence, those who survived the winter were glad to return to England in the following spring. In the interests of English traders and merchants, Captain 121. John John Smith, in 1614, visited the coast of north Virginia, to which Smith names New he gave the name New England. He brought back a cargo of England — fish and furs, and his success stimulated other explorers, who l^^"^' ^^® ^ ' Gorges gained knowledge of the country and further developed the fish charter and fur industry. ^^^° In 1620 Sir Ferdinando Gorges and about forty associates applied for a charter and obtained a grant to all territory from sea to sea lying between the fortieth and forty-eighth parallels north latitude. The terms of the charter, extremely liberal, 92 THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES gave exclusive rights in trade and in administration. The- grantees, however, were apparently unable to make a success- ful permanent settlement, and were on the point of failing altogether when a crisis in England brought unexpected help to the company. CONDITIONS IN THE MOTHER COUNTRY 122. Reli- In studying the primal sources of American life it was found feeling- the ^^^^ Europe was undergoing a marvelous democratic move- Puritans ment (13), and that this movement was making itself felt in every phase of action and of thought. In England one impor- tant result was the separation of the Church (1534) and the establishment of the independent English Church. To this new organization a majority of the English people belonged, particularly the rich and the official classes. But there were many who objected to the formalism still retained, and de- manded a greater degree of spirituality and less of ritualism in their worship. In their revolt against medieval conditions this class had gone farther than their brethren. They were part of the advance guard in that great army of reformers who for nearly a century had abandoned medieval habits of thinking and feeling. Because they wished to purge the Church of what to them seemed corrupt practices they were given the name of Puritans, but the Puritans were divided into two classes — conformists and nonconformists, or conservatives and radicals. The former class wished to purify the English Church by remain- ing within it, while the latter, sometimes called Dissenters, un- able to work conscientiously within the Church, withdrew from it and formed congregations of their own. Moreover, the Dis- senters were of two kinds — the Presbyterians (followers of Calvin, Knox, and Zwingli) and the Independents (also called Separatists and Brownists). 123. The Under Elizabeth's judicious home policy and under the intole^rance ^^^^^^ ^^ foreign complications, the religious differences had been kept somewhat in the background, but no sooner had James I come to the throne than all the discordant elements of English CONDITIONS IN THE MOTHER COUNTRY 93 society began to be active. In the Hampton Court conference (1604) James gave everlasting offence to the Puritans, who had expected lenient treatment at the hands of the new king. With the same indiscretion he offended the Catholics and other religious bodies. Thoroughly bigoted, both by nature and by training, and unable to interpret the changing needs and wishes of his people, he came early into conflict with his Parliament and with all the advanced thought of the time. The people had borne with Tudor despotism for a century, because of poverty and oppression due to the previous long period of feudal wars, and because foreign relations demanded a strongly centralized government. Now that England had established herself as the first of the Protestant states, and by the same stroke had won the commercial supremacy of the sea, she was free to follow her own racial instincts in matters of religion and government. In the economic field, also, there was ground for dissatisfac- tion. True, the material conditions had been improved greatly in the time of Elizabeth, and with the increased enlightenment of the age people were unwilling to tolerate much that they had previously considered inevitable. The feeling of discontent and unrest which was everywhere manifest in religious, polit- ical, and economic affairs might have continued for a time with- out serious results if James had been as tactful as Elizabeth. But his imperious temper, his intolerance toward every move- ment that did not originate with the king, his despotic bigotry, and his continual blustering about his pet "doctrine of divine right" brought on a crisis in England that immediately led many self-respecting men to seek for better things elsewhere. It was under the pressure of such conditions that the little Scrooby congregation of Independents sought relief first in Holland and later in America. The story of their sojourn in Holland and of their subsequent removal to New England is the familiar possession of every school child. We are more in- terested here in the manner in which they organized themselves and began the process of establishing their institutions. 94 THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES 124. Found- ing of Plymouth — 1620; the " May- flower " compact 125. Forti- tude of the Pilgrims 126. De- veloping Plymouth THE PILGRIMS Contrary to their original purpose, they landed, December 22, 1620, in north Virginia within the territory granted in the early part of the same year to the new Plymouth company of Gorges and his associates (121). From this company they soon received a patent giving them the right to colonize and to trade. Thus the new Plymouth company was saved and the first permanent EngHsh settlement in New England was established. In the meantime, naturally impelled to maintain order, and realizing perhaps that they were without the jurisdiction of the Virginia company where they had intended to settle, the Pil- grims, as they had styled themselves, drew up a compact, or agreement, by which they organized themselves into a body politic and began the institutional life of New England. The forty-one men on board the Mayflower signed this compact and elected Deacon John Carver governor of the one hundred and two settlers. The experience of the first winter is important chiefly in showing the temper of these first colonists. Poor housing, inadequate and unwholesome food, and the lack of sufScient clothing for a New England winter produced sickness. Gov- ernor Carver and about fifty other members of the colony died. Ordinary men would have given up in despair, but there was no weakening on the part of these zealous and hardy Puritans. They preferred even the hardships that bereft them of friends for a time to the restraints that denied them their liberties. In the following autumn they received recruits, replenished their food supply from the season's produce, built more log houses, and began to feel themselves very much at home. The years following the first winter were little less discour- aging. The T'ilgrims had been compelled, by lack of supplies and means of transportation, to receive into partnership a number of London capitalists. It had been agreed that there should be a common storehouse to which each man's labor was to contribute, and from which all were to draw the necessities THE PILGRIMS 95 of life. At the end of seven years the assets of the company were to be distributed in proportion to the shares held. This rule naturally led to disputes between the colonists and their London partners, with the result that in 1624, in order to avoid actual starvation, each man was given one acre of land for his ^f-HtX.^Ccf'i^ijfyfUirL- -^t-rvAofy ^ff.^ts ere. '^,nJ<.t-y,rrt/K4rtzs 'yt>/Uv^erf ^t Aa.^t Acr^-irnihr- ^u.^Jcf-'--» %•''■' Reduced Facsimile of the Heading, Signature, and Seal of the Massachusetts Charter of 1628-1629 The company was composed largely of imcompromising Puritans, whose abiUty and energy supported a courageous devotion to principles. A majority of these men were broad- minded and well educated, and their ideals in religion and poli- tics were far in advance of those of the average Englishman. They were not Separatists in principle, but they soon became so in act. Far removed from the influence of the mother church and already out of sympathy with much of its ritualism, the Massachusetts Bay settlers soon became as independent as the most radical Puritans. They early abandoned the prayer book and established "congregational" churches, which bore many of the distinguishing marks of Calvinism. They gave impetus to the development of local institutions under genuine English instincts. MASSACHUSETTS 99 In 1630 the colony was reenforced by one thousand immi- 131. The grants, and during the decade beginning in 1630 probably twenty ^^^} q"^'' thousand Englishmen, impelled by the conditions prevailing in 1630 England at the time, landed on the shores of Massachusetts. The struggle of the Stuarts with Parliament over the nation's purse and the conflict between Puritanism and Episcopacy had reached a crisis. The Petition of Right, 1628, which sought to stay the hand of despotism and give English citizens greater security of life and property, was ruthlessly invaded by the king in 1629. Parliament was dissolved, the leaders were sent to the Tower, and Charles I began his per- sonal rule, which lasted un- til 1640, when his war with the Scots forced him to summon Parliament and ask its aid. The period of Puritan supremacy now be- gan in England, and the tide of emigration really turned from America back toward the mother coun- try. But in the mean- time, Massachusetts, Meeting-house at Hingham, Mass. ■Du ] T 1 J /^ 4.- Erected in 1681 Khode Island, Connecti- cut, and New Haven had ^•■°"^ Winsor's Narrative and Critical History been firmly established by men who feared God and loved liberty. In England the issue between despotism and freedom possibly hung in the balance for another hundred years, but in America, after 1640, there could be no doubt as to the outcome. According to the charter, the stockholders of the corporation 132. A rep- had control of the government, but in 1631 it was decided gj^^g^j that the franchise should be granted only to church members. These, together with the governor, were to meet quarterly in primary assembly. It was not long, however, before the free- loo THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES men of the neighboring towns found it inconvenient to attend the assembly; accordingly the assistants were empowered to choose the officers and to make the laws. In the same year the assistants were granted the privilege of holding office indefi- nitely, subject only to recall by the freemen. This looked too much like autocratic rule to the freemen of Watertown, who now declined to pay a tax levied by the body of assistants, on the ground of taxation without representation. When the matter came before the general court, the Watertown conten- tion was sustained and a representative assembly was estab- lished (1634). Naturally, the plan of the English Commons was adopted, two deputies being sent by the freemen of each town, and the governor and his assistants taking part in the deliberations. In the same year, voting by ballot was intro- duced, and ten years later the plan of having two chambers, or houses of legislature, was adopted. Thus the "assistants" were an upper house, or Senate, and the deputies, a lower house. In 1636 Lord Say and Sele and Lord Brook proposed the estab- lishment of hereditary nobility in the parliament, but the settlers rejected the proposal; they wished for no conditions such as they had so recently escaped. Again, in 1638, it was pro- posed to set up a permanent council for the government of the colony, and again the freemen refused to accede. It is worth while to note once more how often and how persistently these sturdy. God-fearing New Englanders asserted the principles of self-government. The democratic character of the colonists is nowhere better shown than in their relation to the mother country during the first decade. 133. Pros- Population increased, and wealth grew rapidly, owing to the perous, profitable fish, lumber, and fur industries, and the coastwise intelligent, . and trade with the colonies. Commodious dwellings were begin- deternuned j^jj^^ ^^ ^^y^^ ^^^ place of log houses, Toads and bridges to be constructed, the stock industry to flourish, and the air of prog- ress to stir ever^'where. In 1636 £400 was appropriated for founding a college at Cambridge to the end that "the light of learning might not go out, nor the study of God's word MASSACHUSETTS lOI perish." Two years later Reverend John Harvard added £800 to the sum first given, and the college was named in his honor. News of this material and intellectual development, and reports concerning religious independence in the colonies, aroused the jealousy of some people and the suspicion of others, and led the English government to revoke the charter of Massachusetts. Accordingly, a royal commission of twelve men was sent over to receive the charter, but the men of Massachusetts refused •^ r' Pi !8 |§ w cjI^-^'^' "' " V Prospect or the (oiilucis in C vmbridc l in \i\\ 1n(1\nu" After an early picture in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society to lay their charter before the privy council as demanded and prepared to resist the authority of the commissioners by force of arms. They fortified numerous posts, established arsenals, drilled militiamen, and prayed for divine guidance. In the meantime, the English government officially declared the Massachusetts charter null and void and imprisoned her com- missioner Winslow, who had been sent to make peace with the authorities. Another order for the surrender of her charter followed, but was likewise disregarded by Massachusetts. The king was now ha\dng so many troubles of his own in trying to rule without a Parliament that he had neither time nor money to spend in suppressing defiant colonists three thousand miles away. I02 THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES 134. Roger Williams and religious freedom RHODE ISLAND But determined as the Puritans were in resisting despotic authority, they were no less determined in maintaining uni- formity in their own institutions. This fact is exempUfied in the familiar stories of Roger Williams and Mrs. Anne Hutch- inson. Williams was an educated Puritan minister, who emi- grated to Massachusetts in 1631. As pastor he immediately opposed the policy of restricting political privileges to church members. He went further, and opposed the union of church and state in any form. He declared to the Plymouth colonists that the king had no power to grant land to them, and that the only righteous way of obtaining land in the New World was through purchase from the Indians. He denounced compul- sory attendance at church and refused to accept enforced con- tributions to religious puqDOses. For these advanced views he paid the penalty of banishment. When Williams heard of the intentions of the magistrates to send him to England, he fled to the woods with five associates and founded the town of Providence, just south of Massachusetts. In keeping with his doctrine, he "bought the land" of the Indians and estab- lished his colony on a political and religious basis broader than that of any other American colonial government. Catholic Maryland had previously set an example to the colonies in the toleration of Dissenters; and now Rhode Island, through the wisdom and statesmanship of Roger Williams, gave the whole world an example in the establishment of a state in which a man's religion in no way afifected his political rights. If the separation of church and state, naturally resulting from the doctrine of religious freedom, and if the giving of a distinctive character to American institutions have any virtue, then the people of the world, and especially those of the United States, owe a debt of gratitude to the heretic of Salem. 135. Mrs. But Roger Williams did not have the exclusive honor of Hutchinson founding Rhode Island, for through eagerness to maintain uni- formity of doctrine and worship, Massachusetts had exiled an- CONNECTICUT; NEW HAMPSHIRE; MAINE 103 other religious agitator, Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, whose teachings were perhaps somewhat Hke the modern doctrine of a sin- less life. At any rate, she was not orthodox in New England, although she was received with favor by such distinguished ministers as Cotton, ^^ Hooker, and Wheelwright. She was looked jP^^fei* upon as a disturber of the peace and an M^^'^yK enemy of the state, and was consequently JfE^^^-0<^ placed on trial as such, and, upon convic- M^^^^^j^ tion, was banished from the colony in 1637. ^MM^jp^' She went to Rhode Island, and with her ^ Mmt^ followers and the assistance of Williams, |l|'^' j founded the two towns of Portsmouth and tdBj^^ Newport. In 1644 all the settlements in that *^™^|' region obtained a charter from the Long Par- ^^^^, liament through the agency of Williams, and 1^^^^^^^ were incorporated imder the name of "Rhode Sxatue of Roger Island and Providence Plantations." Williams at Prov- Massachusetts had secured her desired uniformity and public order, and thereby increased immigra- tion, even if she did not grant what she demanded for herself — the right of free worship. CONNECTICUT; NEW HAMPSHIRE; MAINE In the meantime, however, dissatisfaction had grown in 136. The Massachusetts concerning her narrow political policy; and i>^ td^Orders' 1635 a party of emigrants went overland to the Connecticut val — 1639 ley and founded the towns of Hartford, Windsor, and Wether- field. Four years later these settlements sent representatives to a general court, and drew up a constitution known as "The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut." This document is im- portant in many respects. It was "the first written constitu- tion known to history that created a government," says Fiske. It did not seek authority from the king, from parliament, or even from Massachusetts, though she did give her consent. It provided for the simple administration of local government I04 THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES in each settlement and for efficient means in transacting the business common to all. The general government thus created was modeled, naturally enough, after that of Massachusetts, but it carefully avoided making religion a test of citizenship. The great, far-seeing leader in this constructive piece of state- craft was Reverend Thomas Hooker, who announced that "the foundation of authority is laid in the free consent of the people" ■ — a doctrine wonderfully prophetic of the familiar political utterances of twentieth century statesmen. Connecti- cut gave encouragement to education, cultivated a strict code of morals, maintained a policy of toleration in religion, and flourished under, her republican institutions. In 1665 she was united with New Haven, which had been established in 1638-9 by Theophilus Eaton and John Davenport — two Puri- tan ministers from England, whose desire had been to found a state upon scriptural models. Henceforth the united colony took a place of importance in New England second perhaps to Massachusetts only. 137. Setae- Contemporaneously with the establishment of Rhode Island ments in ^^^ Connecticut, settlers were going north from Massachusetts Hampshire into the region afterward known as New Hampshire and Maine. and Maine £xeter and other villages formed a little confederation about 1638, but soon acknowledged the jurisdiction of Massachusetts and remained a part of that colony, with brief intervals, until 1691. Maine was first settled by emigrants from Plymouth in 1631, but its precarious separate existence terminated in 1652, when it was annexed to Massachusetts. THE NEW ENGLAND CONFEDERATION 138. Mo- Plymouth and Massachusetts were, in a large sense, the eaxly imion "pother colonies, to whom the others looked for counsel, and from whom they received encouragement in their efiForts at development. In religion and politics all were essentially dem- ocratic, while in industry and commerce each fed the others. They were one in blood and speech; they suffered the same hardships and confronted the same dangers. The French THE NEW ENGLAND CONFEDERATION 105 pressed them on the north, and the Dutch were obstructing their expansion on the west. The Indians, usually friendly, were, nevertheless, to be watched; in 1637 the war with the Pequots had resulted in the death of hundreds of the colonists, while the Indians had harassed the region from one end to the other. Under the pressure of these influences Connecticut suggested 139. The to Massachusetts, in 1637, the formation of a confederation ^^°° °[ of all the New England colonies. Massachusetts withheld her Articles approval. In 1639, and again in 1642, Connecticut repeated her suggestion. By this time news had reached Massachusetts that King Charles I was again in serious trouble with parlia- ment and with the Puritans. The danger that might come to New England from a royal victory in the motherland was the final factor in leading Massachusetts to accept Connecticut's suggestion. In 1643 Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven formed the New England Confederation "for mutual help and strength." Maine and Rhode Island were left out of the "consociation" because of "a different course both in their ministry and in their civil administration." The Articles of Confederation, from which extracts are given, show the character of the framers, and the spirit of the times, as well as the trend of governmental development: Art. 2. The said colonies for themselves and their posterities, do jointly and severally hereby enter into a firm and perpetual league of friend- ship and amity for offence and defence, mutual advice, and succor upon all just occasions both for preserving and propagating the truth and liberties of the Gospel, and for their own mutual safety and welfare. Art. 3. It is further agreed that the Plantations . . . shall each of them have like peculiar jurisdiction and government within their limits; . . . Art. 4. It is by these Confederates agreed that the charge of all just wars, whether offensive or defensive, upon what part or member of this Confederation soever they fall, shall both in men, provisions, and all other disbursements, be borne by all the parts of this Confederation in different proportions according to their different ability. . . . Art. 6. It is also agreed, that for the managing and concluding of all affairs proper, and concerning the whole Confederation, two Commissioners shall be chosen by and out of each of these four jurisdictions . . . being all in Church-fellowship with us, which shall bring full power from their several io6 THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES General Courts respectively to hear, examine, weigh and determine all afifairs of our war, of peace, leagues, aids, charges, and numbers of men for war . . . not intermeddling with the government of any of the Jurisdic- tions, which by the third article is [)rcscrved entirely to themselves. But if these eight commissioners when they meet shall not all agree yet it [is] concluded that any six of the eight agreeing shall have power to settle and determine the business in question. . . . Art. 8. It is also agreed if any servant run away from his master into any other of these confederated Jurisdictions, that in such case, upon the certificate of one magistrate in the Jurisdiction out of which the said servant fled, or upon other due proof; the said servant shall be delivered, either to his master, or any other that pursue and brings such certificate of proofs. . . . Art. II. It is further agreed that if any of the Confederates shall here- after break any of these present articles, or be any other ways injurious to any of the other Jurisdictions; such breach of agreement or injury shall be duly considered and ordered by the Commissioners for the other Jurisdic- tions, that both peace and this Confederation may be entirely preserved without violation. 140. Com- Very noticeable is the laxness of the federal bond, as well as Articles- ^he reserved power of local government. The representative value of the idea is there and the equality is there — two commissioners ation from each colony. There is the provision for the return of fugitive slaves, without which provision the Articles could never have been agreed uj^on, for all the colonies had slaves at this time. There is the semblance of a confederate court, whose duty it was to settle disputes between the members. In the matter of representation there is disregard of the comparative strength of Massachusetts, which led her in 1653 to refuse to abide by the decision of the other confederates. There is the absence of any acknowledgment of royal or parliamentary supremacy. The Confederation served as a rallying point and as a bul- wark of strength to the New England colonies in their later struggles with the Indians. In 1652, by order of the general court, a colonial mint was established, which continued for thirty years to coin the pine-tree shilling. Indeed, the Con- federation for nearly twenty years pursued a practically inde- pendent course. THE NEW ENGLAND CONFEDERATION 107 But when Charles II came to the throne, there was a change 141. The of policy toward the American colonies. Reports of the treat- ^°?^. *^°™" '^ "^ '^ missioners ment of the Quakers and of " a design to throw off their depend- — 1664 ence on England"; the reluctance of the New Englanders to proclaim the restoration ; protection offered by New Haven and Hadley to the regicide judges; and a general indifference to English authority, led the king in 1664 to send over a royal commission "to dispose the people to an entire submission and obedience to the king's government." The four commissioners arrived in the summer and proceeded, with the help of Con- necticut, to conquer New Amsterdam. Then they demanded that Massachusetts should comply with the king's require- ments that "free-holders of competent estate" be given the right to vote and to hold office irrespective of creed and belief; that the Church of England be given the right to worship; and that the laws be administered in the king's name. But, unable to bring Massachusetts to terms, the commissioners returned home and found Charles too busy with the Dutch, who were now in a commercial war with England, to punish his obstinate subjects beyond the Atlantic. Meanwhile Connecticut, whose diplomatic governor. Win- 142. Royal throp, had secured the favor of the king, was granted a liberal Connecticut charter and received further benefit in the annexation of New and Rhode Haven. Rhode Island, Ukewise, had been requited for the orphanage she had suffered at the hands of the Confederation, and rewarded for her treatment of the royal commissioners; the king's favor had granted her a charter similar to that of Connecticut. Under these charters the citizens enjoyed large liberty and the colonies were independent — subject only to the king as the court of last resort. These events greatly weakened the Confederation, the fed- 143. King eral court meeting only once every three years thereafter. Its coherency was further diminished by a series of Indian massacres from 1674-78, commonly known as King Philip's war. Whole villages were destroyed, hundreds of the whites were killed and many others were made prisoners. Much property was io8 THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES 144. Massa- chusetts suffers under the royal displeasure 145. A tyrannical governor ; end of the Confeder- ation destroyed and a heavy indebtedness of the Confederation in- curred. The colonies had preferred to fight their own battles unaided by English troops, lest a precedent should be set for the maintenance of a royal army in New England. The independent attitude of the colonists, their persistent violation of the navigation laws, and the evident desire of Massachusetts to extend her territory through the absorption of adjacent colonies, a disposition which was shown in her con- duct toward New Hamj)shire in 1642, and later toward the settlements in Maine, led the king to take cognizance of the policies of the refractory colonists, and to renew his attacks upon Massachusetts. In 1675 the management of colonial affairs was placed in the hands of "the Lords of the Committee of Trade and Plan- tations," a sub-committee of the English Privy Council. In the ne.xt year Edward Randolph was sent to Boston by the king as the bearer of a royal protest against the violation of the navi- gation laws ; and he was commanded to uncover sufhcient irreg- ularities in Massachusetts to justify a suit for the benefit of her charter. His conduct was such that the people in Boston and throughout New England were greatly embittered toward the king, and the king, in turn, through Randolph, found plenty of the desired evidence of illegal conduct. In 1679 New Hampshire was made a royal province, and the king asked that Maine be given over to the crown. To none of his demands did Massachusetts give even diplomatic attention, and in 1684 her charter was annulled by a royal decree. Sir Edmund Andros was sent over as governor of Massachu- setts, Plymouth, New Hampshire, and Maine, with instructions to proceed without regard to local institutions. Such absolute power was consonant with the despotic temper of the man, who now (1686) demanded also the charters of Connecticut and Rhode Island. The latter yielded without protest and when Connecticut refused to surrender hers, Andros annexed her without it. And now began the distinctively individual rule of the governor. Combining within himself the three jwwers GENERAL CONDITIONS IN THE COLONIES 109 of government, he was maker, interpreter, and enforcer of the law. Congregational churches were used for Episcopal services; the colonial representative assemblies were ignored; the press was strictly censored; private property was seized, and the writ of habeas corpus suspended. In 1688 his jurisdiction was extended over the Jerseys and New York, and Andros was now despot from Maine to Maryland. Happily for the last named colony the "Glorious Rev- olution" in England interrupted the forfeiture of her charter, as it also put an end to the tyrant's rule over the whole region. The Revolution was no less "glorious" in the colonies than in England. William and Mary were duly pro- claimed and the old charters restored, but Massachusetts re- ceived a new one from the king in 1692. While not so liberal as she no doubt wished, it restored many of her earlier rights and permitted the reestablishment of most of the local institutions on their former free foundation. The New England Confederation was now completely broken up, but not until the attempt to consolidate most of the colo- nial governments under the direct control of the crown had been frustrated. Sir Edmund Andros After the portrait in the State Library at Hartford, Conn. GENERAL CONDITIONS IN THE COLONIES T^i T r* • • motives in The Virgmia^^i^^^j^g In all but two cases, the motive of the Europeans for plant- 146. The ing colonies in America was purely mercenary company, out of whose efforts grew Plymouth and Jamestown, and from the former. New England, had in view the making of money out of the gold that the Indians were supposed to possess, or through the fur trade with the natives. A third commer- no THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES 147. A game of kings and pawns 148. Eco- nomic conditions cial puqDose was to find that short route to the East where so much rich treasure lay and for which every explorer sought. The story is a different one with William Penn and James Oglethorpe, whose motives were philanthropic rather than com- mercial. But when Pennsylvania and Georgia were settled the world had grown older and wiser through the experiences of more than one generation of men. The Virginia company was conceived, organized, and man- aged by shrewd financiers. Through losses and gains these men demonstrated that there was "big game" in the American woods. Princes and lords were not slow to learn the best preserves, and then "charters and governorships" became the stake in royal games of chance. In other words, as soon as it was seen that there was money to be gained, dukes, earls, and lords of all sizes were put on the governing boards, and kings paid their debts with grants of vast territories that had no value until redeemed from the wilderness by blood and toil. In almost every case, the common people — those who were to put their labor and their lives into the mill — were granted just as great liberty as was necessary to attract other settlers, and the said liberty was very skilfully diminished as the revenues were increased. And in the American wilderness the people neces- sarily grew in independence, as they repeatedly experienced the fact that their neighbor and not the king was a present help in time of need. Almost uniformly, the colonies soon became royal colonies. Not only through political importance, but also because of their constantly increasing profits derived, the king found them too great to be longer entrusted to even dukes and earls; he needed the royal revenues, and he was jealous of political power. Just as every great event in English or international politics was registered in the American colonies, so did the totality of social and economic life in the mother country cause correspond- ing effect in the settlements. Where cupidity impels, the weak must suffer; the penniless and the unfortunate on the streets of London were picked up for material as colonists. The hired GENERAL CONDITIONS IN THE COLONIES iii W/yM'7^' 'LiS:^nac xx; 7 w. hi so 100 :200 300 1 87 \ ' , O V'.luuibus, EUROPEAN COLONIES--ABOUT 1650. 112 THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES man, and the tenant, thrown out of aj^ricultural employment because of the contraction of farms to enlarge sheep ranches, and the soldier returned from foreign wars, hardly recruited in health and body for another adventure, were attracted by the colonizing schemes. To the poor man just released from prison, without friends or money, it was his chance to begin life anew. ■With such an aggregation of unfortunates, "the starving time" was a necessity. They had brought it with them. But a better class soon followed, and the quality of the immigrants improved until some of the best men of all lands, with their families, found their way to the New World and gave them- selves to the making of a great people. 149. Aland As political conditions at home drove both Roundheads and f "^VnT"^ Cavaliers to America, and as economic conditions drove the unfortunate to die quickly in the wilderness, so religious condi- tions drove men of strong mould and earnest conviction to make their homes in the land which they themselves might govern, and so religious sects of all lands sought "freedom" in the New World; and, in truth, in many cases unfortunately, the words "religious freedom" were interpreted to mean religious domi- nation. Intolerance and bigotry were often covered beneath the seductive words "religious liberty." But common dangers, a common enemy on many a bloody field, and common suffer- ing, resulted in bringing men to recognize the common rights of Man. 150. Forms Let it not be forgotten that New England conditions of small o govern- j^Qi(}j,-,g5^ among a homogeneous people, produced the town meeting, the nucleus of political life; while in the South town meetings were impossible. There, only the county meeting was large enough to justify the man whose farm contained thousands of acres, cultivated by "indentured" serv'ants, hired men, and negro slaves, in getting into his sloop or barge and rowing to the court house landing. The Middle colonies, having the benefit of Virginia's experi- ence and that of Massachusetts on the north, combined the forms of New England and of the South in their own. GENERAL CONDITIONS IN THE COLONIES 113 The Middle colonies were blessed with fine harbors, navigable 151. Natural rivers, productive soil and an agreeable climate ; their advance- ■■®s°"''c®s ment was assured, and their population increased rapidly. Navigable rivers, the fur trade, the grain exports from the Mohawk valley down the Hudson, and a delightful climate set the Middle colonies on the way to permanent prosperity. By the close of the seventeenth century, the powerful Dutch 152. The colony and the promising Swedish settlements had lost their do^^ant^^ foothold forever, and the Englishman occupied the coast from Maine to Florida. It was not then an assured fact that the Englishman would evolve into the American and that Anglo- Saxon civilization in its development of English institutions should dominate the North American continent, and yet, the combined activities of the time could have no other result, God willing. In a few years "New France" is numbered among the un- realized dreams of the Gallic statesman, and the Anglo-Saxon takes up his resistless march to the Golden Gate. SUMMARY After repeated failures to colonize New England, a small band of Pil- grims, seeking religious freedom, settled at Plymouth. This little colony maintained a separate existence for nearly a century and set the world such an example of Christian courage and purity of life as has been rarely equaled in the history of the world. Massachusetts Bay Colony was established in 1629 by stanch Puritans. It grew rapidly from the beginning and soon became the leading colony in New England. It early developed a large measure of independence and gave the mother country more trouble than all the other New England colonics combined. In their attempt to secure uniformity of worship the colonists of INIassachusetts Bay drove out Roger Williams and Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, who became the founders of the small but important colony of Rhode Island. The rapid development of the mother colony also led to the establishment of Connecticut, New Hampshire and Maine. In 1643, perhaps the first step toward an American Union was taken in the formation of the New England Confederation. This organization protected the colonists from the Indians, taught them the lesson of coopera- tion, and made trouble for England until the close of the seventeenth century. 114 THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES In all the New England colonics there was a general dififusion of democratic principles and a vigorous development of the towns as units of political organization. REVIEW QUESTIONS I. What two distinct influences working together brought about the settlement of Plymouth? 2. Which is more important to know, the number and names of the Pilgrims, or their character, thoughts, feelings, motives, etc.? Discuss. 3. What sort of influence did tlie Plymouth colony exert over her neighbors? 4. Account for the rapid growth of Massachusetts Bay from the first. 5. Were the colonists of Massachusetts Bay democrats in religion? 6. Relate two incidents that clearly show the spirit of freedom in the colony. 7. Why did not England suppress the development of free government in the colonies? 8. What form of local government developed in New England? Why? 9. What did Connecticut do when the mother country asked for her charter? 10. Do you see in the colonial history of New England any signs of greater trouble to come with England? In the Stocks CHAPTER VIII NEW FRANCE REFERENCES Secondary Authorities. — Thwaites, France in America; Hart, Formation of the Union; Fisher, Colonial Era; Wilson, American People; Sloane, French War and Revolution; Fiske, New France and New England. Sources. — Hart, Source Book, Contemporaries; MacDonald, Select Charters; American History Leaflets, No. 14. Illustrative Material. — Longfellow, Evangeline; Cooper, Last of the Mohi- cans; Stevenson, Soldier of Virginia; Cooper, Pathfinder; Cooke, Stories of the old Dominion. THE TRADERS AND TRApPERS On the American continent, at the beginning of the eight- 153. Car- eenth century, the undisputed possessions of the French were ^'^^ immensely greater than those of the EngHsh. They owned the Great Lakes and around them, for thousands of miles in every direction, a region valuable for all natural products and rich beyond computation in potential development. How they had acquired the heart of the continent and how they lost it, when all is told, is a story that runs through almost three cen- turies. As early as 1534 Jacques Cartier saw the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In the next year he ascended the river as far as the first rapids, which he named for China, the object of every great navigator's hopes. Here he spent the winter, encamping on the "mountain island" which he named Mont Real. Almost from the first the fisheries of Newfoundland attracted enterprise. The church, in its prescription of a fish diet one day in the week for all its adherents, furthered the prosperity of the fishermen. The trade in furs with the Indians became very lucrative, Canada being a region unequaled both in the numbers of fur-bearing animals and in the quality of their ii6 NEW FRANCE pelts. Samuel de Champlain's first visit to the country was in company with fur traders in 1603. Not until seventy years after Cartier's discovery was there an agricultural settle- ment made, De Monts planting his colony in Acadia (Nova Scotia) in 1605. Three years later Champlain founded Quebec, when Jamestown was in the second year of its existence. 154. Cham- Samuel de Champlain, the leader of the colony at Quebec, o^'^lj^V properly called "the Father of New France," began at once Acadia to establish, according to French ideas, a paternalistic govern- ment, easy enough as an end within itself, but at the same time rendering the rapid development of a strong colony impossible, as later events amply proved. Unmarried men came to make their fortunes by finding gold or collecting pelts and returning to Europe, but families were very slow in coming. The dis- tance was great, the region almost inaccessible, and the climate rigorous. Champlain's high purposes were to convert the Indians to the Catholic religion, to extend his master's dominions, and to add greatness and glory to the French crown. The new colony was surrounded by the Algonkins, who controlled the valley of the St. Lawrence and the region to the west and northwest about the Great Lakes and beyond. Champlain cultivated the friendship of the Algonkins and made treaties with them. He believed that he would thus open the way to a rich trade in fur, which was now filling the Frenchman's horizon with prospects of great wealth, as gold had filled the imagination of English, Span- iards, and French at the far South. Such was the interest in this new business that, previous to this time, the king had granted monopolies to Chauvin to trade "in the new land of the far west" and to De Monts between 40° and 60° north along the coast, "for a part of the pelf." Meanwhile, the settlers under De Monts, at Port Royal, in Acadia, differed in very many respects from those on the St. Lawrence. The history of the little colony is peculiar and pathetic. Occupying territory claimed by another country, the settlers were compelled to depend upon themselves against MISSIONARIES AND EXPLORERS 117 the Indians and the English. Driven to think and act for themselves, they developed an independence and a power for self-government unusual in paternalistic New France. They established homes, built dykes, and cultivated the land, under the leadership of the priests, who gained supremacy in civil as well as in ecclesiastic affairs. By 1670, two generations after Champlain had begun his arduous labors at Quebec, the French were setting their traps around trading-posts and hunt- ing-camps hundreds of miles to the west and north. They had found the rich supply of beaver, otter, mink, and muskrat pelts on Hudson bay. But the Eng- / , lish king, claiming the Ameri- \ can continent, had granted that part of the Indian's land to the Hudson Bay company, whose purj^ose was to engage in the fur trade. The charter, with provisions peculiar to charters of the time, gave to that com- pany "all the land drained by rivers emptying directly or indi- rectly into Hudson Bay." One dollar invested in the fur trade was returning thirty to the proprietors in England. Of course Englishmen and Frenchmen thought the prize worth a contest, and there began the trouble which brought varying disasters by turns to one country and the other, and at length resulted in the overthrow of French rule in North America. 155. Begin- ning of the trouble with the EngUsh Samuel De Champlain MISSIONARIES AND EXPLORERS The English soon held the region around Hudson bay, 156. Mar- aud the French sought new fields for their enterprise. Even ^"^"f."'^. ° ^ the Missis- as early as 1661 they had posts and settlements west of Lakesippi Superior. The hunters and traders were accompanied and greatly aided by the Jesuit priests, who found no path so long, ii8 NEW FRANCE no river so deep and cold, and no privation so great as to weaken their unconquerable purpose to assist in holding the country for their king and to convert the Indians to their religion. Up to this time, the Iroquois and the Huron Indians, implacable foes of Champlain's people ever since his wide-mouthed guns first frightened them on the lake that bears his name, had kept the French out of the Ohio valley and away from the southern shores of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, but now that the English had encroached on the north, the Frenchmen determined to explore the rivers flowing southward. Three years after the Eng- lish had established themselves about Hudson bay (1673), Father Marquette in company with Joliet, a fur trader, following the route taken by Jean Nicolet whom Champlain in 1604 had sent to the Great Lakes by way of the Fox River and the Wisconsin portage, passed down the Mississippi as far as the mouth of the Arkansas, where tradition says De Soto had died one himdred and thirty-one years before. They became convinced that these rivers emptied into the Gulf of Mexico and not into the South sea, and began their arduous return to Quebec. Through Marquette and Joliet France had now a strong claim to the JVIississippi valley, but she was soon to have a still better one through the explorations of Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle. Like other ambitious explorers of his time he was hunt- ing for a passage to China, and thought he had found it when he first saw the Ohio River. This boldest, ablest, most versa- tile of the hardy spirits of New France had come to America James MARgrExxE " Who with Louis Joliet discovered the Missis- sippi River at Prairie du Chien, July 17, 1673." From the statue by G. 157. Explo- Trentenove, in the Ro- rations of tunda of the Capitol, La Salle; Washington French policy MISSIONARIES AND EXPLORERS 119 in 1667. Engaged in the fur trade, he was led to make explo- rations requiring the greatest courage and endurance. He ex- plored the Ohio as far as the falls at Louisville. He went far westward also; and, hearing of the success of Marquette and Joliet, he determined to find the mouth of the great river. He was convinced that the Mississippi flowed into the Gulf of Mexico and not into the Vermilion sea. In 1682, after years of arduous toil and disappoint- ments that would have deterred men of baser metal, his great desire to plant the standard of his king and the cross of his church at the mouth of the "Father of Waters" was gratified. Return- ing to France, he received a royal commission to colonize and gov- ern the country, and in 1684, at the head of an expedition largely military, he sailed for America in order to carry out the royal pur- pose; he would land at the mouth of the river, explore the gulf, conquer the Spaniards and attach Mexico to France. After landing at Matagorda bay, on the coast of Texas, he built a fort and began seeking for a formidable Indian tribe to help him against the Spaniards. But there was no such tribe to be found, and this part of his enterprise was abandoned in time to save a few of his followers, but not to save himself. He was murdered by one of his own men in March, 1678. La Salle's plan for holding the vast country had been to make a chain, each of the links a fort, to reach from the Gulf to the St. Lawrence river, either end of the chain in communica- tion by sea with the French government. If he had lived, however. La Salle would have found his conception, princely though it was, visionary and impossible. The French policy was too narrow to stimulate vigorous colonial growth. Fur Robert Cavelier, Sieur de LA Salle I20 NEW FRANCE traders, missionaries, and soldiers without families did not increase the population very rapidly. The soldiers were coura- geous and the missionaries were faithful, but England's power was great, and she was saying that the French were intruders because John and Sebastian Cabot, sailing English vessels, had discovered the continent in 1497, and therefore the whole con- tinent belonged to England. A contest was approaching and France was at a disadvantage, because of her poor access to the sea and her sparse population, in comparison with the power of the English. But she became active in her preparations to hold the country. 158. French Toward the close of the century the brothers, Jean Baptiste settlements ;Lg Moyne of Bienville and Pierre Le Moyne of Iberville, the Iroquois -' ■' ' descended the Mississippi river and made a temporary settle- ment near its mouth. In 1699 Iberville planted a small colony at Biloxi, and in 1702 another at Mobile. New Orleans, settled by Bienville, was founded in 17 18; but there was no settle- ment at St. Louis until 1764. Meantime, New France was increasing her power in a military sense by bringing over colo- nies, building forts, and strengthening herself in alliance with the Hurons as well as the Algonkins. In choosing the Algon- kin alliance, the French had made the Five Tribes, or the Iroquois, their implacable foes. The position of the Iroquois made it impossible for the French ever to gain the Mohawk and Hudson river valleys; and it was long before they could, in safety, occupy the region south of the lakes; so Marquette, Joliet, La Salle, and other explorers, in discovering new regions toward the west and southwest, served to relieve, at least for a time, the pressure of the French upon territory claimed by the English. Had France been able to control the Iroquois Indians, the history of the New World might have been difTerent. 159. French France saw that she must make good her claims in the face En^Hsh ^^ English aggressions, and she extended her line of forts up settlers the Ohio toward the St. Lawrence. They now reached from New Orleans to Montreal, along the Mississippi and the Great Lakes. During the years of French activity beyond the MISSIONARIES AND EXPLORERS 121 Map to illustrate French Explorations Alleghanies, the attention of the English had been given to developing their interests between the mountains and the sea. Only a few adventurous spirits had passed the western barrier.^ ^ "Several years before Marquette and Joliet had sailed down the Mississippi, Colonel Abraham Wood (1654-1664) had explored the streams emptying into the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Later English explorers were Lederer (1O6Q-1670), Botts (1671), Howard and Sailing (1742), and Walker (1748-1750)." — Thwaites, French in America, p. 40. 122 NEW FRANCE A few frontiersmen had also crossed over to Kentucky and a permanent settlement had been begun at Dupers Meadows. But when the French began to strengthen their fort at Presque Isle with the evident intention of connecting Lake Erie, in a military sense, with the Ohio, men active in the political life of the English colonies observed these preparations and urged the king of England to check any French advance. 160. The European wars; King William's War COLONIAL WARS "The French and Indian Wars" is a title adopted for con- venience to designate the American effect of the quarrels and wars of European states which gave the observant and perhaps envious French and English colonists in America an occasion to "set each other by the ears," to gratify an inherited tradi- tional hatred, and to punish a rival for trespassing on territory that had been taken from the Indians in total disregard of their wishes, interests, or rights. Each war takes its name from the monarch of England who was on the throne when the war was waged. The first three wars did not grow out of conditions in America; in fact, they had no reference to American conditions and did not affect them; but the last war, known in Europe as the Seven Years' war and in America as the French and Indian War, was an American war, and affected the states of Europe. The last war has so many distinguishing characteristics that it should not be classed with the others. The royal brothers, Charles II and James II, were cousins of Louis XIV of France and had borrowed from him large sums of money with which to fight the parliament of England. They could not well afi"ord to oppose, seriously, any of his interests or movements. But when William of Orange came to the Eng- lish throne (1689) to succeed James II, he opposed the French king on old scores, and he was quite unfriendly toward his ambi- tion to gain commercial supremacy and to deal a blow at Prot- estantism by combining the great Catholic nations in placing his grandson on the Spanish throne. War broke out in Europe and in the colonies, each group taking the side of its own mother COLONIAL WARS 123 country. The French with their Indian allies fell on the exposed towns and villages of the English. They scalped and murdered the people and pillaged and burned Schenectady in New York, Salmon Falls, New Hampshire, and Exeter, New Hampshire. These horrible outrages were planned, in the main, by the subtle and able Count Frontenac, who came over as governor of Canada about the time this war broke out. During this war, at the suggestion of Massachusetts, the first colonial congress was attempted. It met at Albany in 1690 to plan concerted action against the French. Three plans were formulated, but only one, the capture of Acadia, was successful. This congress opened the way for very effective ones later. The British cap- tured Port Royal in Acadia, but when the treaty of Ryswick closed the war in Europe (1697), it was given back to France. The second of these "Intercolonial Wars" was known in 161. Queen America as Queen Anne's War and in Europe as the "War^^^®'^^" of the Spanish Succession, England, Holland, and Germany being allies on the one side and France and Spain on the other. The fact that Spain and France were friends gave ground for the English colonists in South Carolina to attack the Spaniards in St. Augustine, Florida, when Governor Moore (1702) cap- tured that town. When the Spanish fleet arrived the governor burned the towTi and hastened back to Charleston. In 1706 the English were attacked by the Spaniards and they in turn drove the Spaniards away. Again the New Englanders captured Port Royal. The greatest horror of these wars in America was in the awful Indian raids and massacres, led by the French. In this one, Deerfield, Massachusetts, suffered a terrible massacre. More than a hundred inhabitants were carried into Indian captivity. There • were Indian troubles in the South, but fortunately no massacres. Under the leadership of Queen Anne's great general, the Duke of Marlborough, England was able to dictate terms of peace. ^ ' In this treaty England demanrled and obtained the right to sell not less than 4800 slaves from Africa to the Spanish- American colonies. The South Sea company, in which the queen was a stockholder, was given the right to engage in the slave trade. 124 ■ NEW FRANCE By the treaty of Utrecht (17 13), which closed this war, France surrendered the Hudson bay region, Newfoundland, and Acadia, and acknowledged England's suzerainty over the terri- tory of the Iroquois Indians. The English changed the name of Acadia to Nova Scotia, and Port Royal to Annapolis. 162 King The third of these European wars was King George's War George s (1744-4S), which began thirty-one years after the close of Queen Anne's War (17 13). This conflict is known in Europe as the War of the Austrian Succession. During the period of peace which followed the treaty of Utrecht the French had con- structed on Cape Breton island an exceedingly strong fortifica- tion which was called Louisburg. It was a common saying that even women could hold it against any attack. The most im- portant American event of the war was the capture of this fortress by New England troops. Curiously enough, it is said that a lawyer drew the plan of attack and that a merchant, Pepperell, commanded the troops composed of mechanics, far- mers, and fishermen, and this combination, aided by a small fleet under Admiral Warren, succeeded in an assault that trained soldiers would not have undertaken. To the chagrin and indignation of the Americans who had captured it and needed it, the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which closed this war, gave Louisburg back to France (1748). It was in this war that Oglethorpe (1742) attacked the Spanish colonies and later drove them away from Frederica. At the end of these three Euro- pean American wars the English possessions were the same as in the beginning, except that the English had gained Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, with disputed boundaries. THE BORDER STRUGGLE 163. The In 1749, the year following the close of King George's War, western ^j^g j^jj^g granted a charter to the "Ohio company" in which were some Virginia gentlemen, two brothers of George Wash- ington among them. A half million acres of land west of the Alleghanies was granted upon the condition that one hundred families be settled on it in seven years. The company built a THE BORDER STRUGGLE 125 temporary fort at Mill Creek (Cumberland, Maryland), near the head of the Potomac, and cut a road through the wilderness for sixty miles to the Monongahela, where, in 1752, another trading-post was begun. The road, afterward known as Wash- ington's road, Braddock's road, and as the Cumberland trail, became a way by which the French and Indians advanced to attack the English settlements when hostili- ties began. The French, already preparing to defend the territory which they claimed, built Fort Le Boeuf on a tributary of the Alleghany river, which would command the portage between the river and Lake Erie. They endeavored to confirm their alliance with the Indians, some of whom had shown disaffection. They moved their outposts to Venango, an Indian village, driving out some English traders, and taking others prisoners, whom they sent to Canada. Governor Dinwiddle of Virginia chose Major George Wash- 164. Wash- ington, who was then but twenty- two years old, to make thej^g^jj*". arduous journey through the wilderness and to bear to the Fort French commander beyond the Ohio the remonstrances of his ^'^®^^' ^ colony. Washington set out with six companions, at length reached Fort Le Boeuf, and delivered his despatch to the French commander. He then returned to Virginia, bearing a sealed reply to Governor Dinwiddle. It had been a long, painful, and perilous journey. The message of the French commander, as Washington might well understand, was not at all encouraging, and news of French encroachments upon Virginia's territory continued to come. In January, 1754, Colonel Trent, with George Washington as a Young Man From the portrait painted by C. W. Peale 126 NEW FRANCE 165. The Albany Congress — 1754 166. Rela- tive strength of the disputants a small force of Virginia volunteers, was ordered to build a fort at the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers. He did so, but in April he was compelled to retire upon the advance of a large body of French troops, who completed the fort and named it Fort Duquesne. Before learning of this act of war, Governor Dinwiddie had ordered Washington to march, with two hundred men, to reenforce Trent. Washington skirmished with a small body of the French on May 28, and they left the field, but another and larger force advancing upon him, he fell back to Great Meadows, where he built a small fort of logs which he called Fort Neces- sity. There he resisted a combined attack of French and Indians, and on July 4 capitulated on terms and marched out with all the honors of war. Now the French held by force of arms all the country that Great Britain had claimed beyond the mountains, and war was believed by all the colonies to be imminent. Indeed, the approach of war had long been apparent to the English colonists, and an effort to bring about concert of action had been begun again. A conference was called to meet at Albany July 19, 1754, and was attended by delegates from seven colonies. A plan of uniting in resistance to the French and Indians was presented by Benjamin Franklin, which pro- vided for a grand council to be elected by the colonies, having power to levy taxes, raise troops, build forts, and to be supreme in those general affairs in which all the colonies were concerned. Although the plan failed it was another lesson to the colonies in learning how to act together. The territory in dispute in America was covered by the Eng- Ksh grants to Virginia "west and northwest from sea to sea, "while the French claimed all lands drained by the Ohio and the Mississippi and their tributaries. Device printed in Frank- lin's " PENNSYLV.A.NIA Gazette," 1754 THE BORDER STRUGGLE 127 The French had about sixty forts from New Orleans to Montreal. They held Fort Duquesne, Crown Point, Ticon- deroga, Montreal, and Quebec. The English had but two of any importance, Oswego and Fort William Henry. The pop- ulation of New France at this time (1754) was about 80,000, while that of the English was about 1,500,000. The French had, at the beginning of hostilities, 6,500 regular soldiers, but in addition were 15,000 men, mostly hunters and fur traders, who were expert marksmen, and whose training under the French military pohcy greatly added to their effec- tiveness as recruits. Each separate English colony har- bored antagonism to the others almost as great as that which it felt toward the French, and at the beginning of the struggle the border English colonies alone could be induced to vote men and supplies. The regulars who were sent over at first did not greatly add to the efficiency of the army, un- used as they were to the conditions of wilderness warfare Route of Bra dock's Expedition Both France and England prepared for war. Great Britain, 167. Brad- in 1755, sent over two regiments under General Braddock, ^g^^^j appointed commander-in-chief in America, and the French — 175s reenforced their troops in Canada with three thousand men. And then came Braddock's disastrous campaign against Fort Duquesne, consisting of a single battle in which the British veterans were put to rout by savages and their French allies. General Braddock was brave, and with his life atoned for 128 NEW FRANCE typical British arrogance displayed in his contempt of colonial soldiers and his rejection of Washington's counsel. 168. Con- quest of Acadia — 1755 169. The campaigns of 1758; Louisburg; Ticon- deroga; Fort DuQuesne THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR Almost two years after men had been killed in battle at Fort Necessity, parliament declared that war existed between Great Britain and France. Before it was ended, other Euro- pean nations had taken part. Acadia, afterward Nova Scotia, had changed rulers several times, but the people had remained French. Even after the treaty of Utrecht in 1713, which gave Nova Scotia to the British, the inhabitants refused to take the oath of allegiance to the British government. Nova Scotia, the Gateway to the St. Lawrence, as it is called, seemed necessary to the British on account of its strategic importance. In 1755 General Monck- ton, in command of about two thousand volunteers and a small force of regulars, was ordered to use severe measures to make Acadia entirely obedient to Great Britain. He gave the people a final opportunity to take the oath of allegiance, but about half of them still refused, and the result was that the property of the malcontents was destroyed or confiscated and they themselves were deported, while those who took the oath were not molested. Those who were deported were scattered along the Atlantic coast among the English settlements. Some finally reached France, and some went to Louisiana and settled south and west of New Orleans, where today are found the parish of Acadia and the little town of Evangeline, the latter named in honor of the poem that tells a story of Acadian lovers. The commander-in-chief in New France, General Montcalm, was an able soldier. He took Oswego and Fort William Henry and prepared a fleet for the invasion of New England. In 1758 William Pitt, who had become minister of war, was ready to try again the issue which had ended so disastrously under Braddock. The British land forces in America were under com- mand of General Abercrombie, who planned for three separate operations to be undertaken. THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR 129 (i) General Amherst and Admiral Boscawen took Louisburg. In this siege, General Wolfe, who was afterward famous, gave a good account of himself and returned to England a hero. (2) At Ticonderoga Abercrombie threw his army time after time against impregnable intrenchments defended by the flower of French infantry under the incomparable Mont- calm. In four hours the British loss was two thou- sand and the campaign was over and a failure. (3) The third move- ment, which had for its object the taking of Fort Duquesne, succeeded after bloodshed that was no less than criminal in men who Map Showing French and English Forts knew of Braddock's experience. These disasters had for one result the placing of Colonel Washington in command of the advance guard. But when the army pushed on and reached the fort, no enemy was found. The capture of Fort Frontenac by I30 NEW FRANCE 170. The campaigns of 1759; Fort Niagara; Ticon- deroga; Quebec the enterprising Colonel Bradstreet caused the French to set fire to Fort Duquesne and retreat hurriedly down the Ohio. Abercrombie was superseded by Amherst, who had forced the surrender of Louisburg, and a plan for another campaign was determined upon: (i) General Prideaux, joined by Sir William Johnson and the Indians, would advance against Fort Niagara. After taking the fort, he was to cross Lake Ontario, continue down the St. Lawrence, capture Montreal, and then unite with Amherst. (2) Amherst was to move against the forts on Lake Champlain, as Abercrombie had done in 175S. After taking Ticonderoga and Crown Point, i'Ymherst was to form a junction with Wolfe before Quebec. (3) Wolfe, with an army of eight thousand men, with ships of war, was to sail up the St. Lawrence and take Quebec, the capital of New France. After a desperate battle the fort at Niagara surrendered to Sir William Johnson. The French in all this region then gathered to the defense of Montreal. The Ticonderoga garrison withdrew and united with the force which was concentrating to defend Montreal against Sir William Johnson. So Amherst marched into Ticonderoga with- out firing a shot, and then, strange to say, began to fortify instead of pressing the enemy or advancing to cooperate with Wolfe. In June the fleet carrying Wolfe and his army went up the St. Lawrence. The able and gallant Montcalm was having his hands full collecting forces to defend both Quebec and Mon- treal. He had more troops at Quebec than Wolfe had, but many of them were undisciplined savages. Wolfe took position on the Isle of Orleans below the town. He erected batteries and General James Wolfe THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR 131 bombarded the town and fort with no success. A few days later he ascended the St. Lawrence, beyond the town, to find a way to assail Montcalm from above. He found an almost inac- cessible height, beyond which stretched the Plains of Abraham. He returned from the reconnaissance feeling discouraged. Now he determined to cross the Montmorenci and fall directly upon Montcalm, and a plan of battle was made. The attack was repulsed; the French behind the intrenchments slaughtered Quebec in the Eighteenth Century the Highlanders as they advanced, and as they retreated the Indians slaughtered the wounded. Nothing remained but to attempt to reach the Plains of Abraham. So oh September 6 the troops boarded the vessels and went up the St. Lawrence far past Quebec, Montcalm dispatching a force to prevent a landing. On the night of September 13 the English embarked in flat-bottomed boats, floated down the river toward Quebec, and landed on the north shore where a small cove, now known as Wolfe's cove, seemed to offer possibility of an ascent; and the morning sun shone on Wolfe's army in line of battle on the Plains of Abraham. When Montcalm was informed that the enemy had turned his position, he said, "Yes, I see them; but they have made a false movement. We are going to crush 132 NEW FRANCE 171. The Treaty of Paris — 1763; the king's proclama- tion Marquis Louis de Montcalm them;" and he made an immortal effort, but the battle went against him. Quebec fell, both commanders were killed, and New France became only a piece of interesting history. Upon the monument in Que- bec, erected to the memories of Wolfe and Montcalm, twin im- mortals who fell in the battle, these words are engraved: "Valor gave a united death. History a united fame. Posterity a united monument." Treaties of peace were made at Paris in 1763, the nations in- volved being Great Britain, France, and Spain. Spain ceded to Great Britain East and West Florida, and received from Great Britain the city of Havana which a British fleet had taken. France ceded to Spain the "Island of New Orleans," on which "island" the city of New Orleans stands, and all her territory west of the Mississippi. Excepting two small islands in the St. Lawrence and certain possessions in the West Indies, France ceded to Great Britain all her territory in North America south of the Hudson bay and east of the Mississippi from the source of that stream to "the river Iberville, one of its outlets through Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain to the Gulf of Mexico," the waters above named being east of New Orleans. King George II issued a proclamation in which he defined the limits of three provinces. East Florida, West Florida, and Quebec. The province of Quebec included all French settle- ments in the valley of the St. Lawrence, Cape Breton being joined to Nova Scotia. The two Floridas were separated by the Appalachicola river. The territory not included in the three divisions was- to be set apart for the Indians and addi- CENTRAL NORTH AMERICA, 1755 AT THE BEGINNING OF THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. CENTRAL NORTH AMERICA, 1763 AFTER THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. (ACCORDING TO PEACE OF PARIS) THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR 133 tional colonies; this region included the western claims of Virginia, Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. The fall of Quebec was more than a military event. It 172. Sig- settled upon the English the responsibility for the future oi °^'^^°.^^ °^ the American continent. It determined that English political Quebec and institutions, gradually but inevitably evolving a form of f ree ^^^ ^''^*^® government rather than the paternalistic government of the French monarchy, should become established in the New World. The free local institutions which the Englishmen had been one hundred and iifty years in founding were now secure, so far at least as danger from France was concerned, and the Anglo-Saxon was ready to enter anew upon his mission of achieving the freedom of enlightened and self-governing men. Of the significance of this struggle in the other fields of human interest, Mr. Mace says that it "decided that North America should become a new home for English Protestantism, and that French Catholicism must return to European soil. This result lifted a great load from the minds and hearts of the English colonists. Yet, even if victory had belonged to France, the religious effect would have been just as great. . . , Again, this war brought into personal contact the Puritan, the Baptist, the Dutchman, and the Cavalier; they messed together, marched together, and fought together; they shared each other's joys and sorrows, victories and defeats. Seven years of this and other forms of mutual intercourse did much to tone down religious exclusiveness and prejudice. . . . This war also decided that free instead of parochial schools should bless America; and yet more, for it destroyed the possibility of French family and social life. This long struggle also bur- dened both England and the colonies with heavy debts. The former tried to lighten her load by putting new burdens on the trade of the latter. The colonies replied by refusing to have commercial intercourse with England, and began to develop their own resources, which led the way to commercial as well as to political independence." 134 NEW FRANCE SUMMARY The French began their activities in the New World under the influence of that intellectual expansion which led all Europe in the fifteenth and six- teenth centuries to seek new and better conditions of hving. In their search for the East they became impressed with the possibilities of the fur trade and the opportunities for spreading the Christian religion. To promote these opportunities and to secure for the French monarchy a controlling interest in the New World, they attempted to form a chain of settlements reaching from the mouth of the St. Lawrence, along the Great Lakes, and down the ]\Iississippi to its mouth. Population did not increase rapidly and the settlements were far apart. A conflict with the westward moving Englishmen was inevitable. It was precipitated by conditions in Europe, and gradually came to a climax through four successive wars. The result was the practical expulsion of the French from the North American con- tinent, producing political, religious, social, educational, and industrial effects that neither Englishmen nor Frenchmen of that day could even remotely foresee. REVIEW QUESTIONS I. Did the Frenchmen have a valid claim to North America? 2. Make a list of the characteristics of the settlers of Acadia. Do the same for the settlers of Plymouth. Strike out those that are common. 3. Compare the motives of La Salle with those of William Penn. 4. What evidence may be found now that the French once occupied the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi valleys? 5. Was the struggle between the English and the French colonies inevitable? Give reasons for your answer. 6. Were the Indians an important factor in this war? Why? 7. What advantages did the English jxjssess? The French? 8. If Montcalm had won at Quebec, how do you think his victory would have effected history? 9. What were the respective European wars of which the intercolonial wars were a reflection? 10. Did the English have any valid claim to the region west of the Alleghanies? 11. In what ways were the intercolonial wars a preparation for the Revolution? 12. Why did not Spain figure more prominently in these wars? CHAPTER IX COLONIAL CONDITIONS IN 1760 REFERENCES Secondary Authorities. — Thwaites, Colonies; Fisher, Colonial Era; Fiske, Old Virginia; Ashley, American Government; Channing, Town and County Govern- ment. Sources. — Hart, Source Book; Hart, Contemporaries, vol. i; American History Leaflets; Hill, Liberty Documents. Illustrative Materials. — Longfellow, Courtship of Miles Standish; Haw- thorne, Scarlet Letter; Cooper, Last of the Mohicans; Carruthers, The Cavaliers of Virginia; Irving, Legend of Sleepy Hollow. THE FOUNDATION OF FREE LOCAL INSTITUTIONS One hundred and fifty years after the successful settlement 173. Popu- of the Atlantic seaboard by the English, the character of Amer- g^*'°°j.'y ican local institutions had been largely determined. The pop- ulation of the colonies now numbered approximately 1,750,000, about equally divided by Mason and Dixon's line (116). Sixty- five per cent of the people were English, twenty-three per cent were negroes, and the remainder were French, Dutch, Swedes, Irish, Scotch, Germans, and other Europeans. A large per cent of the negroes were on the rice and tobacco farms in the South, the industries of the North not being suited to negro labor. On moral grounds there was little objection to slavery, perhaps as little in the Northern as in the Southern colonies. It is true that among the Quakers of Pennsylvania, a moral sentiment against slavery had begun to develop; on the other hand there were parts of North Carolina where the institution was in disfavor. Georgia had only recently removed her ban from slavery for economic reasons, just as she had done in the case of rum. Whatever else may be said about slavery at this time, it was preeminently an economic institution largely 136 COLONIAL CONDITIONS IN 1760 refused in the North because it was unprofitable. Three fourths of the negro population were south of Mason and Dixon's line. The slave traders of New England grew rich in import- ing Africans; they sold them to the South, where untrained negroes could find work suited to their small capacity, and where they became more and more serviceable as they forgot their native savagery and advanced toward civilization. To such progress ideals were not lacking for an intelligent negro. The forces of a plantation were usually well organized, admit- ting not only development of individual merit, with practical instruction in the serviceable arts, but even encouraging an esprit de corps, which the negroes were so quick to further that in many cases restraint was necessary to prevent trouble with the brigade in the neighboring settlement. There can be little doubt that the vast majority of the negroes were of far greater worth, in life and in character, than they could possibly have been by remaining in their native forests. By the middle of the eighteenth century, more than forty per cent of the entire population in the Southern colonies were negroes. Besides negro servitude, there was also white servitude throughout the colonies. It will be remembered that, in founding some of the colonies, debtors were given a chance to work out their obligations and secure their freedom. Others bound themselves to service for a period of years in payment for transpor- tation and other expense money. As a rule, these people soon secured their liberty and blended with the other whites. Others expiated crimes committed in England by accepting a long term of servitude in the New World in lieu of the death or other severe penalty imposed by act of parliament. There were comparatively few slaves of this kind, but they seem to have been utilized by all the colonies without compunction. 174. Indus- In regard to industries, the colonies varied greatly. Timber, tries of small farms, and water power made of New England a manufac- the sections ' turing and commercial section, which developed more and more and became wealthy and powerful. The ship builders of this region and the merchants of the mother country were hand and FREE LOCAL INSTITUTIONS 137 glove in exchanging the slaves of Africa for the molasses of the West Indies, and converting the molasses into rum to exchange for more slaves. With the connivance of the British govern- ment they sold their surplus of negroes to American purchasers, and thus became accomplices in establishing the institution of slavery. Navigable rivers, the fur trade, the grain exports from the Mohawk valley down the Hudson, and a delightful climate, urged forward the Middle colonies on their advance to Y A K'i^l'^iii .SS^-^^-^^SSs- ~v<^ , — Rice Field permanent prosperity and paved the way for the most cosmo- politan civilization in the world. Philadelphia and New York were already known as flourishing American cities. Indigo, tobacco, corn, rice, timber, cattle, and waterways, with cheap labor, gave the South its basis of wealth, and made it attrac- tive to the man of means beyond the seas.^ Most of the commerce of the colonies was carried on with 175. Corn- Englishmen. Means of intercolonial communication were ™®"® poor, and the colonists naturally looked back to their old home for a market. Moreover, there was no common medium of exchange, though England's sterling money was more generally ' In 1764 eight bags of cotton were received in England from a Southern colony. The cotton industry was very rapid in developing after Whitney invented the "gin." 138 COLONIAL CONDITIONS IN 1760 used than the coins of other nations. Tobacco became a legal tender in Virginia and Maryland, and some of the colonies issued paper notes with a view to securing a loan or to facilitating business. The value of such notes depended upon the colonial government's fiat; they were easily issued, and their depreci- ation led to business disturbances, which induced the English parliament to prevent their issuance (1751). The mercenary motives which England revealed in the enactment of trade and navigation laws are likewise seen in an endeavor to regulate the '!(/ / \i \ . ^ti. y^ Tobacco Field monetary system of the colonies. The persistent treatment of the colonies as legitimate prey for the lords of British capital was a vital force in producing trouble for the mother country. 176. Social The industries of the country were important factors in conditions ijj-inging about social differences. In the South the system of slave labor, and the concurrent growth of agricultural inter- ests gave rise to marked peculiarities. The great tobacco plantations of tidewater Maryland and Virginia, and the rice plantations of South Carolina, had their effect in giving to the families holding such estates a prominence almost aristocratic. There is no doubt that the influence of this small "class" was far greater than was commensurate with its numbers, and tended to obscure the merits of the great majority of the white people, who owned farms and worked at various vocations, and lived free from servility on the one hand and from arro- FREE LOCAL INSTITUTIONS 139 gance on the other. From the great landowners came the leaders in both social and governmental affairs. Their wealth and consequent leisure made possible the highest intellectual development of enlightened and patriotic citizens. The man- sions on their vast estates were the centers of hospitality and of festivity on great occasions; and, as a rule, there was little superciliousness shown in mingling with their sturdy constitu- ents, the white men who were unable or unwilling to own slaves. There were very few whites who worked as day laborers for -its. A Southern Mansion hire — hardly enough to place in a distinct class. At the bottom of Southern society were the slaves, who were clus- tered in "quarters" about the mansion of the master and who did very nearly all the manual labor on his plantation. There was practically no beggary. In New England the "aris- tocracy" was composed of the rich business men and the minis- ters, the one holding their places by reason of wealth, the other on account of superior education. Below these the social strata were not very clearly defined, but social life was not so demo- cratic as the political history of that region might lead one to believe. The church was the center of public activities and the attitude of society was distinctly religious. In the Middle colonies, social conditions, like every other interest, partook of the character of both the Southern and the New England colonies. The planters of Delaware, the patroons of New York, and the rich merchants of all the region constituted the upper I40 COLONIAL CONDITIONS IN 1760 class. The great middle class consisted mainly of farmers, tradesmen, artisans, and professional men. Perhaps free white laborers were proportionately more numerous there than in any other part of the English settlements. 177. Edu- In matters of education the South depended in the main upon the private instruction of clergymen or others who could give part of their time to teaching. The children of the well-to-do were often sent abroad or to New England in the later years, while many others were educated in William and ISIary College established in Virginia in 1693. Higher education was more general in' the South than in any other section of the coimtry, but on account of the absence of all public education general illiteracy was greater than in New England. In the North something was done toward public education by the establish- ment of town schools (supported by local funds) which gave instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic. Some of the larger towns maintained the semblance of high schools and were blessed with an occasional private academy. Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, King's (Columbia), New Jersey (Princeton), and Pennsylvania were perhaps something like the "junior colleges" of today. The ministry, law, and medicine, in the order named, were the leading professions of the colonial period. 178. An We have already seen that religious conditions drove men of religious Strong mould and earnest conviction to make their homes in the freedom land which they themselves might govern, and so religious sects of all lands sought "freedom" in the New World. There was, therefore, a greater degree of separation between church and state than was common at the time in Europe. Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas recognized more or less completely the established church (Anglican), though the attempt was rarely made to enforce religious uniformity. The Episcopalians were, therefore, the predominant religious organization in these states, but Presbyterians, Catholics, Methodists, and Baptists increased rapidly toward the close of the colonial era. That the established church was not strong in New England at any FREE LOCAL INSTITUTIONS 141 time during the colonial period, is easily understood when we remember that it was settled chiefly by Dissenters. Because of danger from the Indians, and because they came to America in communities, the settlers built their homes around the church in which they loved to meet; and the custom gave rise to the congregational form of worship in which each local church gov- erned, for the most part, its own affairs. The New England minister rivaled the Southern statesman in scholarship, and left an indelible impress upon American life. The Quakers were strong in the Middle colonies, particularly in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Dela- ware, while the Dutch (Reformed) Church held a prominent place in New York. Baptists, Metho- dists, Presbyterians, and Catholics were to be found throughout the Middle and New England colo- nies. Legally there was religious freedom in Rhode Island and Penn- sylvania, but as a matter of fact, genuine religious toleration, as we have it today, was scarcely known at that time. If the colonists did not yet know the full mean- ing of "religious freedom" they had gone farther toward it than any other people in the world. As to the political condition of the colonies, that which is of 179. PoUti- deepest significance in relation to their governmental activities tions°°'^*' is their virile spirit of liberty. There was not a colony from Massachusetts to Georgia that did not, at some time or other, show unmistakable evidence of a determination to be free. As a rule, those who came to America were of the most liberal element in England, but in any case their whole environment A Virginia Mansion Party 142 COLONIAL CONDITIONS IN 1760 in the New World was conducive to the development of local self-government. Distance from the mother country, poor means of ocean travel, necessary dependence upon themselves both for their common defense and for the necessities of life, the hardships that always accompany the settlement of a new country — all these things and many more cooperated with that instinct for freedom which has always been a characteris- tic of the Anglo-Saxon race and which was particularly strong with the American colonists; the result was the establishment of the most liberal and enlightened commonwealths of the world. In the development of their institutions they were not creating anew, however, so much as building upon and enlarging the old. Englishmen had long been accustomed to Magna Charta (12 15), their traditional bulwark to individual liberty; fresher still in the minds of the colonists was the Petition of Right (1628), the granting of which had been wrung from King Charles I in his struggle against parliament for the control of the nation's purse. Then, too, there was the Habeas Corpus Act (1679), and the Bill of Rights (1689), each standing as a landmark in the development of English liberty. Add to these written constitutional documents the common law of England, and the foundation of political development becomes as strong as instinct and as permanent as reason. 180. Forms The political genius of the colonists expressed itself under two government fo^ms: (i) In the legal relations between the colonies and the mother country; (2) In the kind of local government erected. With respect to the former, there were three official kinds: (i) Provincial, in which the home government attempted to govern directly through governors. The colonies organized in this way were Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire, and (after the trustees surrendered their proprietorship in 1752) Georgia. (2) Proprietary, in which individuals or groups of individuals, holding from the crown, administered the colonies; these were Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. (3) Charter, in which there was a kind of con- stitutional law granted to the colonies by the home government; FREE LOCAL INSTITUTIONS 143 at the close of the colonial period these were Alassachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. While there were these three differences, more or less distinct, in their official relations with the mother country, all the colonies were organized much after the same fashion. For example, they recognized three separate departments of government: (i) The executive, whether elective as in Rhode Island and Connecticut, or appointive by the kings or proprietors as in all the other colonies, was the highest colonial office in America. Baltimore in 1752 After an engraving in Scharf s History of Baltimore The governor's powers were extensive, though not always the same in the different colonies. He usually appointed the members of the upper branch of the legislature and could veto any measure passed by that body. He appointed the judges and most other important colonial officials. The term of the elective governor was one year, while others held their places during the pleasure of the appointive power. (2) The- legislative, which, except in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Delaware, consisted of two houses. The upper house, usually appointed by the governor, acted as his counsellor and assisted in the process of law-making. The members of the lower and more numerous branch of the legislature were government 144 COLONIAL CONDITIONS IN 1760 elected for one year by popular vote, though suffrage was restricted by a property qualification and generally also by a religious qualification. Toward the close of the colonial era this branch of government became so powerful as to defy the governors and king, and thus developed leaders for the approaching struggle with the mother country. (3) Colonial courts, which furnished the germ of the later judicial system. The judges were appointed usually by the crown or the governor, who largely controlled them. Trial by jury, however, was an "inalienable" right. 181. Local The various reasons for the differences in the form of local government have been noticed in a previous chapter. We are here interested only in their operation. The county court, appointed by the governor and presided over by the justice of the peace, levied the taxes and passed the governing ordi- nances. The sheriff of this court, also appointed by the gov- ernor, served the court in the administration of the law. The office of sheriff was the least democratic of all local colonial institutions. In the Middle colonies, where both the county and the town systems were in vogue, it was frequently the case that public oflficials were chosen by the people and local gov- ernment was therefore more democratic than in the South. But the most democratic region, so far as local government is concerned, was New England. Here the town was the unit of organization and the town church and city hall were the centers of political activity. The voters here made their laws, levied their taxes, elected their officials (including a pastor) and listened to the reports of their selectmen. This method is still followed in parts of the country and has served to give color to local institutions and political thought throughout the New England region. SUMMARY One hundred and fifty years of English colonial life were given to setting up local institutions and making them stable. By (1760) the end of the period, it had been determined that American institutions would be Anglo- Saxon in character rather than Spanish or French, or Portuguese, or Dutch. FREE LOCAL INSTITUTIONS 145 Moreover, it was reasonably evident that the spirit of liberty had found richer soil here than in any other country in the world. Nowhere else in the world was there such free government; nowhere else so much tolera- tion in religion; nowhere else such constant appeal to the energy of an indus- trious people; nowhere else so little of caste; and finally and fundamentally nowhere else so much love of truth and desire for enlightenment. Popu- lation was increasing rapidly, industries were multiplying, and forces were at work, and had been from the beginning, that were slowly but surely weld- ing the American colonies into one. Free local institutions having now been established, it remained to be seen what would next dominate the thought and feeling of American-Englishmen. REVIEW QUESTIONS I. What authority is there for the statement that the colonial charters were a kind of constitution? 2. How did the colonists usually feel toward their governors? Why? 3. Describe the kinds of colonial governments in America in 1760. 4. Give as many reasons as you can for the development oifree local institutions. 5. Where did the town system of government originate? The county system? Why was the one transferred to New England, the other to the South? 6. Why were the negroes so much more numerous in the South than in the North? Did slavery have any- thing to do with the development of the county as the unit of government in the South? 7. Make a list of things that existed in the colonies, and that do not exist now. 8. Make a list of things that exist now that did not exist in colonial times. 9. How is the largest town in your county governed now? 10. Has the spirit of freedom grown any in this country since 1760? Prove your answer. Is it full grown now? 11. Name some of the opportunities for self-development that you enjoy that were not open to the young people of 1760. CHAPTER X CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION REFERENCES Secondary Authorities. — Fiske, American Revolution, vol. i; Howard, Pre- liminaries of the Revolution; Van Tyne, American Revolution; Woodrow Wilson, The American People; Hosmer, Samuel Adams. Sources. — Hart, Source Book, American History Told by Contemporaries, vol. ii; American History Leaflets, Nos. 21, 23', MacDonald, Select Charters. Illustrative Material. — CofSn, Daughters of the Revolution; Thompson, Green Mountain Boys; Yord, Poems of History {The Boston Tea Party); Thackeray, The Virginians; Moore, Songs and Ballads of the American Revolution. COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT 182. Great The history of the EngHsh colonies in America embraces a develop- period of one hundred and seventy years. At the beginning of tending this period Jamestown was settled; at its close, the Declara- towardin- ^-^^^ ^£ Independence was proclaimed; within that period, a tremendous Cause was working — the Cause of liberty, and the Cause of man, working toward the " One far-off divine event To which the whole creation moves." The mercenary motives that influenced the planting of the English colonies continued to affect their management. Although England's colonial policy was more liberal than that of any other nation, yet merchants, court favorites, and kings never permitted parliament to lose sight of their material inter- ests in America. It would seem that the development of a century and a half, in both the mother country and the colonies, should have given British statesmen a vision and a policy unlike the narrow view that regarded the settlements as trading-posts, and very different from the mode of exploitation which actually obtained. For Great Britain was now in the front rank of the COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT 147 nations; while in the colonies, in every material and moral way, the rate of progress had been greater than that in the mother country. The colonists had earned the right to regard their governmental conditions above the commerce of Great Britain or the glory of a king whom few had seen and possibly fewer still had reason to love. They had increased from a few scattered settlements to more than a million and a half of people, vigorous, intelligent, equal to any people of western Europe, and in love with the theory of self-government; and these people regarded themselves as fixed in their homes. Generations had lived and died in America. Parents and grand- parents of thousands who participated in the stirring events that led to the Revolution had been born on the soil which now their descendants owned. Many of them knew the native Englishman as only a royal governor or member of the council, or as a hated customs ofificer. Not many of these officers were in position to endear themselves to the men who found it neces- sary to outrage a good conscience in protecting smugglers from punishment for violating laws that were traditionally unjust and oppressive. Doubtless thousands of settlers had sat by the open log fire in the evening when they were children, and heard their fathers and grandfathers tell the stories of the perennial struggle for representative assemblies from 1619 to their own time. Opposition to the oppressor had become a part of the subconscious mind of lineal Americans. Men from all countries had come to the English colonies, but 183. The they had not become EngHshmen. They were British subjects, '^o^o'^sts but, living in the woods of America, fighting Indians at one exclusively time and royal governors at others, there was no great induce- ^^^gl'sh ment to offer their lives in the service of Great Britain. The Dutch and the Swedes, who had distinguished the early history of New York and Delaware, had left descendants that were American, not British. Many hardy Germans had come to Pennsylvania and other colonies. Huguenots from France, and many most valuable Scotch and Scotch-Irish people had added both steel and iron to the blood of the Carolinians, and the 148 CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 184. De- mand for freedom in religion infusion of all this blood into the English stock brought little strength to Great Britain's hold on the American colonies. The Church of England was part of the machinery of the government, and it always figured in British politics. It was but natural that an effort should be made to bring the institu- tion to America. This effort was made, and successfully made, in Virginia, Georgia, Carolina, and Maryland, where the church was established by law. It was but natural also that these state churches should desire a bishop, a resident American bishop, and an effort was made to establish the epis- copacy in America. The matter was first proposed by the ill-starred Archbishop Laud, and it was advo- cated by other influential church- men. It received the approval of Queen Anne just before her death. Thomas Sherlock, bishop of London (174S-1761), labored assiduously to engraft the system on the American colonies.^ Many pamphlets were written on each side of the controversy. American clergymen, as a rule, opposed, while English clergymen favored the plan. The controversy stirred Puritan Massachusetts and her circle of influences, and the agitation became a force in destroying English sentiment in the Northern colonies. All of these movements contributed to the general discontent. ^ Hart, American Nation, 63-75. Lntekiuk uf King's Chapel, Boston Built in 1754 MATERIAL INTERESTS 149 MATERIAL INTERESTS The age-long source or ground of misunderstanding, injustice, 185. Injus- and oppression was the system of navigation laws. As far back ti^e of the ^'^ ■' ° navigation as the fourteenth century, under Richard II, laws were enacted laws to compel all English citizens to ship their merchandise out of, or into, England in English bottoms on pain of forfeiture. In the latter part of the fifteenth century, under Henry VII, only English-built ships, manned by English seamen, could import certain articles of trade, and in Elizabeth's reign the English shipowner was greatly favored. Therefore, it should not be inferred that the na\dgation laws of the seventeenth and eight- eenth centuries were invented especially to embarrass or destroy American interests. The primary purpose was to encourage Englishmen to build ships that would finally obtain the business then handled by the Dutch, and thus would produce a balance of trade for England. The navigation acts were the chief means in the building up of monopolies in all lines of trade, to the benefit of Eng- lish trading companies or merchants, who divided profits with the king. The colonies were for a long while exempt from the operation of these laws, but were placed under them in the seventeenth century in the reign of James I. In 1645 a very restrictive law was passed requiring all goods from the colonies to be transported in English-built ships, owned by native Englishmen, and manned by native English sailors. Later, the term "Englishman" was made to include the colonists, who could then engage in the profitable busi- ness. For more than a hundred years the colonies labored under repressive and destructive navigation laws, before active resistance began. One writer says: "From 165 1 to 1764 more than twenty-five acts were passed in Parliament regulating trade between England and her colonies. Each succeeding ministry felt it necessary to adopt some new scheme for monopolizing colonial trade, in order to win popularity at home. It was in 1 73 1 when the government began to repress manufacture in 150 CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 186. The navigation laws not for revenue 187. Inju- rious restrictions of colonial trade the colonies of the goods made in England; after that date more acts having that end in view were passed." The navigation laws were passed not in the interest of the government of England primarily, but in the interest of the commercial classes, upon whom, in great measure, the general prosperity of the nation rested, and who in turn divided profits with the king, but not with the government. Grenville found that in sixty years the government had paid out nearly thirty- five million pounds on the fleet engaged in American trade, and that in one year the American custom houses received from one thousand to two thousand pounds, the collecting of which had cost seven thousand or eight thousand pounds sterling. The whole matter was one of English commerce, but it became so pressing that resistance to the everlasting sacrifice of colo- nial interests to those of England brought up the cjuestion of parliament's right to pass laws destructive of English rights and liberties. The navigation laws in force at the time now studied, re- stricted American trade to British markets, compelling colonial merchants to purchase at high prices, to sell at low prices, and to pay the high freight charges fixed by the shipowners, who of course had a monopoly of the carrying business. The sugar planter was compelled to sell his sugar in Great Britain for a low price, when prices were higher in all other markets. The New England business in lumber, fur, and fish was embarrassed by similar arbitrary laws. The colonists were required to conduct their European busi- ness through a factor or wholesale house in Great Britain, for no other reason than that parliament wished to give the business to the British wholesale house. This was called "stapling." A duty was laid in Great Britain upon farm products so that the American farmer could not ship his crop to a British market, which must be free from competition for the benefit of the British farmer. The "balance of trade," sought by all nations, that would bring in money but send out as little as possible, was Great Britain's ruling desire. GOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS 151 In 1733 parliament passed the Molasses Act, which was 188. The intended to prevent the Northern colonies from exchanging ^tl^^ff^ t their lumber, fish, and manufactured articles, with the West upon the Indies for molasses, which in turn they manufactured into rum ^^^f. ^^^^i ' -' . Enghsh and sent abroad in exchange for other merchantable articles, protected They had built up a very large business in exchanging rum for ** *^® slaves on the coast of Africa, which slaves they sold to the of the Southern colonists. The trade was destroyed, not because of '^°^"^'"^*^ any opposition to the rum trade or the slave trade, for both were entirely legitimate at the time, but because of the motive to compel trade with Great Britain, and to give the profit to British merchants, middlemen, and shipowners. Very large amounts of money had been invested in the trade itself, and in ships to carry the goods. Large numbers of men were employed in the business, but all this was sacrificed, without thought of injustice to the colonies, in order that British merchants might profit. Although the colonists had had for a hundred years the right to participate in English commerce and ship-building, only a few of the more fortunate and wealthy had been able to profit by it. Restrictions of trade embarrassed them, because all laws were made from the English point of view. Ship-building grew to be an important industry in the North, but the colonists were in the main pastoral and agricultural. The laws bore heavily on thousands of toiling colonists, to build up fortunes for people in England. The fundamental error in the English mind was that the colonies were "possessions" that existed only for the good of England. GOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS Belief in the right to liberty had grown more rapidly in 189. Repre- America than in England, and the American conception of rep- mentation resentation was in advance of the English idea. In England, certain towns or boroughs were given the right to send mem- bers to parliament. Old towns died away and still had representation in parliament, while new cities sprang up and 152 CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 190. The right of suffrage 191. The king and parliament 192. Am- bition of King George III at the time of the Revolution had never had any represen- tation, except in the EngHsh sense, which was that every member represented all England. English laws on the subject were illogical, a patch work, and out of date. England had a property qualification for voting, and, for reasons lost sight of, certain possessors of certain rights could vote. "All those who had the right to cook at the com- mon lire could vote." As a result, only about an eighth of the people in England had the right to vote. Others had never had such a right, and hence it was unconstitutional for them to vote. Such conditions were unknown in America. Though it is true that suffrage was not unrestricted with the colonists, yet most of them voted directly for their representatives in the assemblies, and they were consulted about many important matters in their town meetings. They had learned to claim the right to think and act in the affairs of their government. Hence they were unable to see how they were represented in parliament by men for whom they had not voted, and whom they had not seen, and whose names they had not heard. Another confusing fact was that they had long looked to the king for their rights. Parliament had had nothing to do with charter rights and grants, and now parliament was showing a wish to dictate. It had not been so before. It was, therefore, unconstitutional. Yet the king and parliament were them- selves not quite agreed on this point at that time, and the condition was but additional to other reasons why the authori- ties in England could not come to an understanding as to the rights of Englishmen. Great Britain and the colonies looked upon the problem of their relations from points of view that were as far apart as were the two countries geographically. England's traditional view had become the "constitution" to Englishmen, very difficult indeed to change. She was hardly competent to judge of the conditions as they really were; and her difficulty was greatly increased by the accession to the throne of George III, whose highest ambition seemed to be to restore to the crown GOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS 153 the usurped prerogative which violently attached to it under the Stuart kings. In those days arbitrary acts of the king had been committed without the sanction of parliament. George III assembled a ministry in sympathy with his view and sub- servient to his will. With these handicaps British statesmen undertook the solution of the greatest problem that ever con- fronted a government. The treaty of Paris closed the Seven Years' war, and left a large war debt, a part of which had been contracted in the defense of the American colonies in the French and Indian war. Moreover, the treaty gave to Great Britain the region between the Atlantic colo- nies and the Mississippi river. The ^ war debt and the annexation of the trans-Alleghany region to Can- ada (208) would prove sources of friction. The feeling of depend- ence upon England for protection against the French or the Indians was removed and a closer view of the relations between the mother country and her colonies was becoming possible and unavoidable. Among the troublesome problems needing solution were the following: (i) Was the American colonist, whose ancestors had emigrated from England a hundred and fifty years previously, an Englishman, having all the rights of an Englishman under the constitution? (2) What were his rights as an Englishman in the colonies? (3) Could England and the colonists agree on the meaning of representation? If these questions, which became burning ones in 1763, could have been settled in a friendly way, there would have been no Revolutionary War, but the participants could not agree on the correct answers to the questions, and so in 1776 the colonists advanced to the broader assertion, not of the rights of Englishmen, but of the rights of man. 193. The war debt; the rights of English- men Kl L, CiE RCL 111 154 CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION OPPRESSIVE MEASURES 194. The In 1763 Lord Grenville became prime minister to George III, Do'licy ^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^ motion a colonial policy involving three main lines of procedure: 1. A more rigid enforcement of the navigation laws. 2. "Internal" and external taxation of the colonists to raise money, a part of which was to pay the debt incurred in the defense of the colonies during the French and Indian wars. 3. The quartering of British troops in America. 195. "Writs The first steps of the Grenville ministry were to revive the of Assist" ance" "Sugar Act," and add to the "enumerated" list of taxable articles a number of others. Grenville sought so to enforce the tariff schedules as to make them a source of revenue rather than an expense, as they had been before this date. To bring about a more vigorous and profitable enforcement of the navi- gation laws, the evasion and violation of which had destroyed England's revenue from this source, he employed a method not unknown either in the colonies or in England — the issuance of what were called "writs of assistance." The writs were originally issued by the Court of Exchequer, which was the king's court for the collection of money due the crown. In the colonies they were first issued by the chief justices, but later by the "superior courts." They were general in their directions and provisions, allowing the officer who held a writ to search any place in the day time, for any article that he believed to have escaped duty at the custom house, and to call the citizens to his assistance. Of course, the authority granted under these writs was greatly abused. And it is equally true that the colonists had come to believe that since these duties were heavy and unfair they ought not to pay them, even though parliament and the king had fixed the tariff. 196. Atrial On February 24, 1761, the Supreme Court of Massachusetts James Otis ^^^^ ^ sitting in the old town house of Boston to hear the case of Charles Paxton, who appHed for a writ of assistance. Chief Justice Thomas Hutchinson presided. Paxton was represented OPPRESSIVE MEASURES 155 by Jeremiah Gridley, one of the best lawyers in the province. Oxenbridge Thatcher and James Otis appeared against the writs. Gridley argued that, since parliament had directed the issuance of the writs, there was nothing to do but obey. Otis, ^ in his reply, was exceedingly bold, and his utterances were very influential in strengthening the spirit of resistance to usurpation. It was in this speech that he used the famous sentence, "Taxation without representation is tyranny," which speedily became a watchword. The chief justice cast his vote in favor of the writs. Other members of the court reserved their decisions until they could make further investigation. No decision was ever rendered, but writs of assistance continued to issue. The speech of Otis had no legal effect, but it gave words to the latent thought of the people, and opposition formed around the principles expressed in it. In the matter of the judiciary, the impetuous and narrow 197. The prince, King George III, asserted the "royal prerogative" as " """y?^ Pf ®" against constitutional rights, and proposed to appoint judges during good behavior, which meant, of course, subservience to the king's will.^ To protect themselves, the colonial assemblies provided salaries of judges for only one year at a time. If they could not remove the king's officer, they could refuse to pay him. This contest between the king and the assemblies, which had begun in New York, was carried into other colonies as soon as the king decreed that all judicial commissions should be issued during good behavior. In the development of the Grenville policy, the prime minister 198. A introduced a resolution in parliament, March, 1764, expressing ^**™p *f* the belief that it would be necessary to tax the colonies to help in bearing the ex-pense of a standing army to be kept in America for their protection. The resolution passed without debate. He then called the colonial agents together to see if they could ^ Benjamin Pratt, chief justice of New York, said: "The people ought to be ignorant; and our free schools are the bane of society; they make the lowest of the people infinitely conceited." 156 CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION propose any method of taxation or any other means whereby the colonists would willingly help to bear this expense. The colonies had assisted England in conquering an old enemy. They had furnished their share of men and money — and more — in the French war. They had fought King William's war, 1689-1697, Queen Anne's war, 1702-1713, and King George's war, 1 744-1 748, without assistance from the mother country. They had quelled many an Indian uprising, 8 m^ Penny) Stamps Authorized by Parliament for use in the Colonies 199. The Stamp Act passed and could take care of themselves. Since the French had been drawn off the continent, they saw no reason for a standing army, and somehow they had the idea that a standing army was a menace to their liberties. They said, "Taxation without representation is tyranny." They said that it would take all the circulating medium out of the country to pay for the stamps; and they said other things. But parliament had a different view of the matter. Great Britain had just closed an expensive war in protection of the colonies. The regular troops had just subdued the Pontiac uprising against the English in America. A standing army would be a protection against the Indians now in the western woods from the AUeghanies to the Mississippi, or other enemies that might appear. It was not proposed that the colonists should be taxed to support the home government. The bill passed parliament March 10, 1764, by a vote of 205 to 44 in the House of Commons, and in the House of Lords THE RIGHTS OF MAN 157 "without debate, division or protest." It provided that all books, newspapers, deeds, notes, and other legal documents should be printed on stamped paper. Franklin and Otis were so conlident that the colonists would acquiesce that they suggested some of their best friends for appoint- .,^]f%, ^ -=-^ ment as stamp officers. "^Iv-^l '- ^""""'^^ - Honest and true pa- triots at first accepted the offices, but after- ward gave them up. A stamp tax was not a new idea in America. It had been suggested by Sir William Keith, governor of Pennsyl- vania, in 1 7 28, and again in 1732. It had been discussed by the governor of New York in 1744, and proposed by Governor Shirley o f Massachusetts i n 1754 and 1756. Franklin had opposed the measure as a matter of policy, but he did not anticipate the violent opposition that it was to meet. He suggested that the necessary amounts be assessed against each colony in an aggregate sum. He was unable to answer the prime minister's question how the total should be divided among the colonies — a question that was troublesome later. Burning Stamped Paper THE RIGHTS OF MAN Martin Howard of Newport, in arguing the cause of the200. The loyalists, said in substance: (i) The colonists have no right to "S^*^. °* ^'^^ •^ colonists as nullify the acts of parliament. (2) Under their charter they Englishmen have only "civil rights," and not political rights. They have 158 CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION the right to life, liberty, and property, but the political right of representation in parliament is a conferred right when it is possessed at all. Political rights are specifically conferred, and when not thus conferred they are not possessed by Englishmen anywhere. They are not conferred in commercial charters. (3) Colonists are not exempt from taxation because they do not send members to parliament, or vote for them. In parliament they are represented as every other English subject is repre- sented. ... At the time of the passage of the act he said, "Birmingham and Manchester had no representative, although they were large and important commercial centers." . . . "Therefore," he concluded, "the colonists may justly challenge the wisdom of a particular measure of parliament, but not its jurisdiction." Such was the English idea of repre- sentation, but in the colonies, the changes were rung on the right of Englishmen to be taxed only by their representatives — and they had no representa- tion in parliament. Franklin and Otis, seeing the storm, recommended that America be allowed representation in par- liament, but the suggestion was regarded as impracticable It should be borne in mind that the navigation acts were never discussed as tax measures until after the close of the French and Indian war. These were regarded as laws to promote the interests of trade. In fact, they never produced any revenue to the government, because it required more money to enforce collections than was pro- duced to the government by the custom house duties; moreover, they were easily evaded. The stamp act, however, could not be evaded; it was self-executing, and it would produce a revenue Patrick Henry both in England and America. THE RIGHTS OF MAN 159 that would reach the exchequer. Such was the theory of the British government, and yet, in the conclusion, it was found that the revenue arising from the sale of stamped paper was but £4000, a sum not sufficient to reimburse the exchequer for the cost of putting the law into effect. The first overt opposition came from Virginia under the 201. Oppo- impetuous leadership of Patrick Henry in his famous speech in ^^}^°^ *° ^^^ i^ ^ J 1^ stamp act the house of burgesses in favor of the five resolutions which he develops proposed against the acceptance of the stamp act, closing the ''^sistance Patrick Henry Addressing the Virginia Assembly speech with the fiery words: "Caesar and Tarquin each had his Brutus, Charles I had his Cromwell, and George III may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it." He maintained that the colonists had been governed by "their own assembly in the article of taxes and internal police" and had not forfeited their right, and that the representatives of and in Virginia were the only power having the right to tax the people of Virginia. The sum of his contention was that parlia- ment had no right to legislate on the internal affairs of Virginia. Unfortunately, about the time when popular indignation was aflame on account of the stamp act, parliament passed the bill to quarter a part of the standing army in America at the expense of the colonies. Then, under Samuel Adams of Boston, i6o CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 202. The Stamp Act Congress the most watchful and earnest of patriots, Massachusetts followed Virginia in active organized opposition to British aggression. When the stamped paper was sent to America trouble began. The home of Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson, who was also chief justice of Massachusetts, was attacked, and his papers and books were destroyed or scattered. Stamp officers were insulted and their places of business were sacked. The opposition be- came so violent that no American would accept the office of stam.p distributor. The Virginia Resolutions, drawn and pushed through the assembly by Patrick Henry, were printed and scattered quickly throughout all the colonies. "While Virginia was raising the standard of resistance, Massachu- setts pointed the way to union." On June 6, upon motion of James Otis, the Massachusetts assembly suggested that all assemblies then in session be invited to elect dele- gates to meet other delegates in New York, October 7, 1765, to discuss the dangers that might arise from the stamp act. On the date named, all but New Hamp- shire had sent delegates. The convention, or congress, was composed of the notable men in the colonies. Its tone was respectful and loyal, but determined. It expressed itself in a Declaration of Rights. The rights claimed in this document were those of "natural born subjects." The congress asserted that the people of the colonies "are not and from the nature of their local circum- stances cannot be represented in the House of Commons, and that no taxes can be constitutionally levied upon them but by their respective legislatures." They referred to the fact that the trials of cases under the stamp act were to be held in the William Pitt THE RIGHTS OF MAN i6i courts of admiralty, and they asserted that trial by jury is the inherent right of British subjects in America. The spirit of resistance and of union grew rapidly after the 203. Effects work of this congress was made known. The colonists had at°^^ ® g^. last learned how to "pull together," to forget temporarily, or repeal of the to ignore, their small jealousies, sinking them in the good of ^*^™p ^*^* the whole. The resistance to the stamp act became universal. Stamp officers resigned. The stamps were stored at the docks in ships, or destroyed. "Non-importation" societies were formed and resolutions to refrain from using British-made goods were passed and kept. English merchants failed for lack of American business. The Gren- ville ministry saw the disastrous effects of its policy, and King George became weary of parlia- ment's blunders. The ministry resigned. A large party sprang up in parliament, who, as a mat- ter of statesmanship, were America's friends, and who be- lieved that the colonists were fighting for the freedom of Eng- lishmen everywhere. Names dear to all Americans are Burke, Camden, Conway, Barre, and the greatest of them all, William Pitt. It was Barre who first referred to the American patriots as "Sons of Liberty," a name to conjure with later. Unfortunately, about the time of the fall of the Grenville ministry, Pitt retired from parliament. The stamp act was repealed in 1765 by a vote of two to one in parliament, after the Grenville ministry fell. With its repeal, there was passed the "Declaration Act," proclaiming that the stamp act had been repealed as a matter of policy, and that parliament had full power to make any laws whatsoever to be binding on the people of the colonies. In America the declaration act was regarded as mere bluster. Edmund Burke 1 62 CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 204. A ques- " The great principle of English law that taxation was not a *^°h °^ h ^ighl, but a gift of the persons taxed, through their represen- Townshend tatives, was claimed by the colonies." William Pitt had held ^'*^ that a colony could be taxed only by its representatives. The American idea of representation was irreconcilable with the English idea of "virtual representation." It was argued on the one side that the rights of the colonists were found only in their charters. On the other hand the colonists asserted that they dealt with the king and not with parliament; there- fore, parliament could not tax them. They were afraid to admit parliament's right to levy "internal tax." It had already "regulated" their trade until in some instances it was destroyed; now to admit the right of direct taxation, where would the matter end? Charles Townshend, chancellor of the exchequer, pushed through parliament a list of laws which have been summarized as follows: (i) To provide for colonial revenue an importation duty on wine, oil, glass, paper, lead, tea, etc. (2) Revenue so raised was to be used in paying the salaries of governors and judges, thus making them independent of the colonists. (3) To improve the custom house service. (4) Writs of assistance to be employed. (5) Revenue cases to be tried in admiralty courts without juries. (6) Suspension of the New York legis- lature because it refused to vote supplies for English troops. The whole fight was reopened and with greater earnestness on both sides. To the Townshend acts resistance was more prompt, deliberate, and effectual than to the stamp act. Massa- chusetts, through Samuel Adams, put all the town meetings to work again; the whole province responded to the suggestion from Mr. Adams, to use no more English goods. Virginia followed promptly. A letter sent to all the colonies encouraged vigorous measures, though it breathed loyalty to the king. 205. The As an enforcing measure, parliament had authorized the ReSlutions ^^"^ ^'^ revive an old statute of Henry VIII, which provided that persons might be transported to England to be tried for THE RIGHTS OF MAN 163 Samuel Adams crimes committed outside the realm. This statute was specially offensive to Americans. In May, 1769, the Virginia assembly passed resolutions to the effect : (i) That not parliament, but the council and king, or their representatives, possess the sole right to tax Virginia. (2) That one or all of the colonies have the right to petition for redress of wrongs.^ (3) That it was uncon- stitutional to transport a man to England to be tried for crimes alleged in America, or to deprive a man of the right of trial by jury. Upon the passage of the resolutions, the governor dissolved the assembly, but many of the members soon met elsewhere and resolved again on the non-importation of English goods. In this assembly were Henry, Jefferson, and Washington. When the Massachusetts circular letter went out (204) the British government ordered the assembly to rescind the letter, and the assembly refused. The assembly was dissolved, and all colonial governors were directed to dissolve any assembly that attempted resolves or protests touching the acts of parliament. These orders were followed by sending troops to Boston, and by the law requiring persons charged with crime to be sent to England for trial. In its purpose of quartering troops in America, the govern- ment was expending about £160,000. The revenue was small; the colonists were showing a rebellious spirit; English mer- chants were being forced into bankruptcy on account of the self-imposed non-importation agreements, and the English cause was lost. 206. Pro- gressive coercion in Massachu- setts 207. Town- shend Acts partly repealed; Boston Indians * Parliament had held that the colonies had no right to petition parliament on a question of taxation. 164 CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 208. The Punitive Acts; the Boston Port BiU All duties were repealed except the tax on tea, which was left on in order to show that parliament had the right to make the le\'y. The duty was so small that the tea cost less than in England, but the colonists could not be forced to drink tea. The Boston Tea-Party From an old print Some cargoes of tea were in ships in Boston harbor. A sound as of Indians was heard by night, and next morning the tea was in Boston harbor. The parliament now passed five acts to crush the rebellious spirit of the colonists, and especially to punish Boston: (i) The port of Boston should be closed until the town submitted. (2) Certain provisions of the Massachusetts charter, granted by William III, were revoked by parliament. (3) Persons charged with certain crimes might be sent to England for trial. (4) Sol- diers might be Cjuartcred in Massachusetts, at parliament's pleasure. (5) Canada was granted religious freedom and trials according to the French civil law, and Quebec was made the capital of all the territory beyond the AUeghanies. The climax of British aggression was reached when the Boston Port Bill was passed. The cry went through all the colonies that THE RIGHTS OF MAN 165 the cause of Boston was the cause of all. Provisions and supplies were freely sent to Boston from other colonies. Committees of correspondence soon began work in each colony to inform the people concerning what was being done. The first machinery of the Revolu- tion was about ready. To enforce the new coer- cive measures, General Gage was sent to Boston as governor. Again Sam- uel Adams proved his title to leadership ; through the general court of Massa- chusetts he secured the passage of a resolution in- viting all the colonies to meet in conference or con- gress, and on September 5, 1774, the deputies from , , , . , . Carpenters' Hall, 1774 twelve colonies met in > //t Philadelphia. With the ^^^"'^ '^' ^'''' Continental Congress met exception of Franklin and Jefferson, all the prominent political leaders were present. Georgia was not represented, her royal governor having succeeded in preventing an election of deputies. The congress agreed upon a Declaration of Rights, embodied in nine resolutions, and demanded the repeal of eleven acts of parliament repugnant to these rights. It advised the colonies to cease commercial intercourse with Great Britain until the mother country should repeal the acts complained of, and an association was formed for the purpose of furthering the boy- cott, as it would be called in modern days. The congress also addressed a loyal petition to the king. A recommendation was made that the colonies meet again by deputies on the loth of May, 1775, unless more favorable conditions should ensue. This congress dissolved on the 26th of October. Its functions 209. Gage sent to Boston; the work of Congress; its functions i66 CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION 210. The revolution of Massa- chusetts 211. Acts of violence had been only advisory; its deputies, delegated by the sev- eral distinct colonies, represented only their respective colonies, at whose charge and expense they had undergone the labors entailed. Probably the greatest good accomplished was their furnishing common guidance to the assemblies, many or all of which passed resolutions endorsing the work of the congress and taking steps to abide by its recommendations. In September, while congress was in session at Philadelphia, General Gage, who had been made royal governor of Massa- chusetts, as well as commander-in-chief of the British forces, called the general court to meet at Salem. The representatives met, resolved themselves into a provin- cial congress, and moved to Cam- bridge, where they took charge of all the state government outside the city of Boston, and organized a military force known as minute- men, one fourth of whom were I) commanded to be always ready for action. A committee of safety was also created, with John Han- cock as chairman. These acts constituted the Revolution of Massachusetts, and the creation of a state in opposition to the state of Great Britain. While the political excitement was at its height, there had been actual resistance by force to the measures of king and parlia- ment. Near Philadelphia, the guns of a fort had been spiked. A sloop owned by John Hancock had been seized by the revenue officers, and the officers had been frightened away by a mob. The British troops in Boston, exasperated by the insults of a crowd of unruly men and boys, had fired into the mob, killing or wounding eight or ten of them. This act had increased excitement to rage. An English armed vessel, the Gaspee, had run aground on the Rhode Island coast and had been burned John Hancock THE RIGHTS OF MAN 167 battle of Lexington - April 19, 1775 by a party of men from Providence. Here and there, revenue officers had been roughly handled, one of them receiving a coat of tar and feathers. To arrest John Hancock and Samuel Adams, and to seize 212. The some military stores the committee had collected at Lexing ton and Concord, Gage despatched a column of troops under Colonel Smith and Major Pit- cairn, on the night of April 18, 1775. But the patriots had dis- covered the movement, and two swift mes- sengers, Paul Re- vere and William Dawes, rode out of Boston at mid- night to give "the alarm through every Middlesex village and farm." By the time the British reached Lexington, the "chief traitors" had made their escape, and the minute-men had rallied to defeat the purpose of the British. Pitcairn ordered the rebels to disperse, and firing began on both sides. Eight of the minute-men were killed, and some of the troops were wounded. Pitcairn then marched his force to Concord and destroyed all stores that had not been removed by the Americans. But the few minute-men who had run away from Pitcairn 's regulars had not intended to yield the day. At Concord bridge the patriots began to assemble in such numbers that Pitcairn ordered a retreat to Boston. But for a reenforcement with cannon, the column would have been annihilated by the farmers. The The Boston Massacre From an engraving by Paul Revere 1 68 CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION British lost nearly three hundred men. "War was inevitable." An army of 16,000 men soon assembled around Boston. SUMMARY The American colonies having for a century and a half developed almost independently, their Revolution was a natural consequence of great diver- gence from the mother country in ideals, policies, and interests. From the beginning of colonial life ultimate union and independence were inevitable unless there should be such development in the mother country as would necessitate hearty recognition of equality and of individual rights. Long years of common hardships, struggles with hostile neighbors, remoteness from Europe, growing power of self-support, — these and other influences were gradually welding the colonies together and creating a consciousness of common interests. In a word, all unknown to themselves perhaps, they were becoming a nation; and the assertion of nationality and of its corol- lary, independence, must certainly follow. The navigation laws, the debts from the P'rench and Indian war, the stamp act, the writs of assistance, the Boston Port Bill, the Townshend duties, the burning of the Gaspee, the energetic leadership of Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry — all these are but movements of the fundamental Cause. REVIEW QUESTIONS I. When and where were the seeds of the Revolution sown? 2. In what sense was the French and Indian, or Seven Years' war, a preparation for the American Revolution? 3. What was .\merica's view of the obligations entailed by that war? 4. Show England's viewix)int. 5. When was separation first talked of? 6. What three general purposes did the Parliament have during and after Lord Grenville's administration? 7. In what three ways, in general, did the colonists assist England? 8. Did the colonists regard the navigation laws as tax laws? 9. What is internal taxation? 10. Did the American subjects have all the rights of Englishmen? II. Were charters granted by kings or by parliament : which? What effect would this question have on parliament's rights to tax the colonies? 12. Trace England's efforts to subdue the colonists and enforce her laws. 13. Show how the colonists endeavored to resist. CHAPTER XI THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR RFFERENCES Secondary Authorities. — Fiske, American Revolution; Wilson, American People, vol. ii.; Roosevelt, Winning of the West; Van Tyne, American Revolution; Hart, Formation of the Union. Sources. — Hart, Source Book, Contemporaries, vol. ii; MacDonald, Select Documents; American History Leaflets, No. 5. Illustrative Material. — Longfellow, Ride of Paul Revere; Lanier, Battle of Lexington; Bartlett, Concord Fight; Bryant, '76; The Boston Tea Party and Battle of Trenton in Ford's Poems of History. SEPARATION AND AUTONOMY In the war which she had begun, Great Britain would find 213. The both advantage and difficulty in the geographical conditions of to invasion the country which she had undertaken to subdue. The coast line, indented with harbors, and with rivers flowing into the sea at convenient intervals, at first offered to a powerful navy little resistance beyond that of inertia, which condition, however, might prove distinctly embarrassing from the fact that it was temporary and therefore invited a naval commander to possible destruction through necessity for his acting with extreme haste in seizing important towns on the seaboard. But in holding even Boston, the storm center of insurgency, the British power was already largely occupied; and, in the end, events proved that while the coast towns might be taken, their capture would cost more than the results were worth; for the strength of the American colonies was not in the cities, but in the rural regions, where every man and boy knew every stream and mountain, and no column of British ever left the coast and marched into the interior without sooner or later coming to grief. It is true that in the South, toward the close of the war, the British held much territory; in that quarter, for various reasons, the people were lyo THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR more divided in sentiment, and the invaders found there more sympathy and more of active assistance. Yet the South itself proved to be the grave of British hopes. 214. The As to comparative resources, the disparity of course was t W O D C O d1 6 S and their enormously in favor of the British. Population, experience in sentiment war, disciplined troops, financial ability that could satisfy the foreign princes who, for pay, sent their soldiers to fight and die in a cause for which they felt no interest, everything, viewed superficially, seemed to point to British success. The colonies had no money and no financial system. In the nature of the case they had no credit. Their government, hardly deserving the name, was a makeshift, tolerated because of temporary necessity, a government without power to collect taxes, a government depending upon the will of thirteen other govern- ments which had some actual power and frequently exercised it to the disadvantage of the common cause. The population of three millions, not one third that of Great Britain, included half a million negro slaves and half a million people who were loyal to the king. The loyalists, or Tories, more numerous in the South, because that section had not suffered as much as New England at the hands of the king and parliament, were in every colony; in many instances they furnished supplies to the British and otherwise gave them active assistance. Yet Britain's people also were divided as to the justice of the war on the colonies, and the division grew more marked as the war continued. Although men like Pitt, Fox, and Burke and their followers expressed sympathy for America, even early in the conflict, the majority of the English people had not realized that America was fighting for the rights and liberties of the world, including Englishmen. They upheld the king and his ministers in "distressing America," and it was only after the surrender of Burgoyne that there was, in England, significant opposition to the war in America. 215. Miii- The greatest number of American troops in the field at any contrasted °"^ ^^^^ ^^^ 3SP°° "^^n, divided into continentals, state militia, and volunteers. The latter classes were mustered SEPARATION AND AUTONOMY 171 into service as the state in which these soldiers resided was invaded, and were mustered out, or rather they quit the army and went home, when the danger to their state had passed. If Great Britain had beUeved it to be necessary she could have 216. Cap- put 300,000 disciplined men into the field at the beginning of t^red forts the war, but, fortunately for the colonies, she did not realize the extent of the sentiment of Revolution until 1778, and by that time necessity for meeting other demands upon her military resources reduced her ability to keep up her armies in America. She had, for the times, a power- ful navy which she could send against the few merchantmen converted into American men- of-war. The colonial army before Bos- ton faced a very serious condition through lack of munitions — gun- powder and heavy artillery being sadly deficient — and it was not until the winter of 1776 that partial relief was brought from Ticonderoga, Crown Point, and St. John's, which had been captured in May by volunteers under Ethan Allen, Ben- edict Arnold, and Seth Warner. The stores and guns cap- tured in these forts were hauled to Boston on sledges over the frozen snow in the dead of winter, to be used by Washington in the spring of 1776. On the day that Ethan Allen and his men chased the flee- ing guard, in hot haste, into the fort at Ticonderoga, May 10, 1775, and demanded the surrender of the fort in the "name of Ruins. OF Fort Ticonderoga, 172 THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress," the Second Continental Congress was assembling in Philadelphia. This body, forced by the exigencies of the times, gradually but rapidly assumed both legislative and executive functions for the entire country that was in revolt against Great Britain. Many important matters of a general nature imperatively demanded attention, and there was no other organization that could be employed. Questions of authority gave way rapidly to ques- tions of expediency and necessity. The result was the assump- tion of powers necessary to wage a successful war in the name of all the colonies. The first great necessities were a commander for the force already in the field, the increase of that force in numbers and efficiency, *ind its development into an organized federal army. Congress assumed control of the conditions and, upon motion of John Adams of Massachusetts, selected George Washington of Virginia to be commander-in-chief. It advised and urged the colonies to arm their militia. On July 6 it re- solved "that we have taken arms against violence and we shall lay them down when hostilities cease on the part of the aggressor; our cause is just; our union perfect." Congress issued calls for troops and recommended that each state furnish its quota, but it could not compel compliance with its recommendations or orders, and the old colonial jealousy hindered prompt responses. Besides this handicap, Washington was further embarrassed, at times, by the failure of congress to grant his urgent requests because the members could not agree. The committees appointed by congress to supervise the branches of the military service frequently failed to get the correct point of view and to comply with the demands of the general, which at times necessity made imperative. On the whole, howe^'e^, the committees were helpful both to congress and to Washing- ton. "Committees of Correspondence" were appointed in the states to gather and furnish information. Whenever a royal governor left his colony for any cause, the congress advised and urged the people to organize a state government modeled after the charter. In the absence of such SEPARATION AND AUTONOMY 173 a model, they were urged to form a government best suited to their needs. Nevertheless, the congress continued for a time to place common grievances before the king ; after independence was declared, it appointed ambassadors and sent representatives to foreign courts except, of course, the court of Great Britain; it devised a crude postal system to be administered by com- mittees; it negotiated loans and issued conti- nental money; it prohib- ited the slave trade, mediated between states on boundary line disputes, and appointed prize courts to decide in cases of seizure and captures on the high seas, and other maritime questions. The purpose to separate from the mother country, vague and weak even after the contest had be- gun and congress had taken charge of affairs, grew rapidly in definite- ness and in strength as Great Britain's obduracy became apparent. A rep- resentative and not a primary body, congress could not proceed without authority from the vari- Monxtment to the Signers of the ous colonies. Although Mecklenburg Declaration at Char- colonial action had been ^■aiTBt;! 218. Move- ments to- ward inde- pendence lotte, N. C. outside of British warrant ever since the fight at Lexing- ton and Concord, yet separation had been assumed, not declared. The convention in Mecklenburg county. North 174 THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR Carolina, on May 20, 1775, gave expression to thoughts that were in many minds, and it contributed to making clear the trend of events and to giving impetus to the general movement tov.'ard independence. In fact it was a virtual declaration of independence by a small group of people. Samuel Adams had seen and declared as early as 1768 that separation from Great Britain was the inevitable end of move- ments then apparent. The conservatives believed that Adams was a mere agitator, an extremist, and a fanatic. In 1775 Patrick Henry, in the house of burgesses in Virginia, electrified a continent with wild words that have never lost their charm. In March of the same year, Benjamin Franklin, who • ^ had represented several colo- nies abroad, returned to the continent, believing that noth- ing more could be done through diplomacy. When two assaults by British regulars under Howe had been repulsed by the raw American troops, and the third at last had succeeded because the militia had no more powder, Great Britain and the world knew that the Americans could fight, and that they were ready to lay down their hves in defense of their country, which, after that time, meant America. 219. Bunker Although congress had declared by resolution, July 6, 1775, HiU; Peti- ^_Y\at hostilities must first close on the part of the aggressor, tioning the . , . i king— 1775 and the battle of Bunker Hill had smce been fought, peace was again urged through John Dickinson in the petition to the king to repeal "such statutes as more immediately distress your Majesty's colonies." The king deigned to answer the petition by declaring that the colonies were in open and armed rebellion, and "by sending armies, fleets, and hired myrmidons." ^^ 1 -. Ben'jamin Franklin SEPARATION AND AUTONOMY 175 In January, 1776, the delegates from Massachusetts were 220. Inde- instructed to vote for separate independence. In March pendence . . . declared South CaroUna had adopted a constitution and had organized a complete government. In April the North Carolma legisla- ture had empowered its delegates in congress to vote for inde- pendence. Georgia took the same action in the same month. New Hampshire went a step farther and empowered her delegates to pro- pose independence and a union into one republic. In May a convention in Virginia requested the delegates to the congress to propose independ- ence, and in June the Virginia con- vention adopted a state constitution and created a state government. On June 7 Richard Henry Lee of Virginia offered in Congress a reso- lution that "these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be. Inde- pendent States." The resolution was referred to a committee which was honored with the duty of preparing a Declaration. Mean- time, the delegates in congress were diligently consulting the people at home, and by the time the committee reported it had become evident that the desire in the states for separation was practically universal. On the second of July the Resolution was passed, and on the fourth the document prepared by the committee was accepted and formally enacted into law. On August 2 it received the signatures of the members present in congress. There have been very many dissertations upon the literary merits of the Declaration, and much criticism has been aimed at its apparent lack of originality. Jefferson, its author, said he had not regarded it his duty to be original. The fact is that originality, either in expression or in idea, would have been monstrously out of place. The document simply embodies Richard Henry Lee 176 THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR the spirit of the time; it is not Jefferson, or Franklin, but the People, speaking through their mouthpiece. Yet the Declara- tion, simple in form, possesses a content which is more than mere, assertion of independence of Great Britain's government. The great meaning beyond the documentary words is a closer union of the states in order to effect the well-being of each. After the Declaration of Independence there was no middle r-' |> • (1/ . ,rw r /■ , .| <,^ f i'.tif n rrrM^,..;»i jj .ii V/KmA c/tn^M-t fhj.m.'to T»|« iitn iim ^ y/< g.jt^*v<,..c^ r/.'~i£... « ■ j n < ? Facsimile of the First Two Paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence In the writing of Jefferson ground. Each man must choose whom he would serve. The united colonies were no longer British dependencies, but a country lighting a foreign invader. WASHINGTON'S CAMPAIGNS: 1775-1777 221. Boston In the meantime, on July 3, 1775, Washington had taken Washington charge, at Cambridge, of the body of loosely organized, undis- at New ciplined troops, most of whom were from a section of the country or —1776 (jista^nj- from his home, and had begun the difficult task of reduc- ing it to a disciplined American army. In the autumn he sent General Montgomery and Benedict Arnold against Canada. WASHINGTON'S CAMPAIGNS: 1775-1777 177 The expedition was a failure. Montgomery was killed, and Arnold, after gallant and distinguished service, was severely wounded at Quebec. The remnant of this expedition was res- cued in the following spring. In March, 1776, Washington seized Dorchester Heights, which gave him command of Boston and of the shipping in the harbor. Howe, who had succeeded Gage in command of Boston, then sailed away to Halifax. Well aware that the Hudson river offered the British a line of advance by which they might cut the colonies into two divisions, Washington transferred the greater part of his army to New York City in May and prepared for defense. Meanwhile, Arnold was cooperating with Schuyler and Gales in an effort to drive back the British who were advancing from Canada under General Carleton. In Octo- ber Carleton gained a victory on Lake Champlain, and the Americans retreated to Ticonderoga, from which position the British general decided it wo\ild be useless to try to dislodge them on account of the lateness of the season, and he returned to Canada, making it possible for Schuyler to spare a part of his army to reenforce Washington in New York. On June 29 the reenforced fleet from Halifax appeared in 222. Long the lower bay, bringing General Howe with 15,000 troops I^'^'l^.' from Boston. A month later Admiral Howe, brother of the ton's retreat general, arrived from England and General Clinton returned ^J^^°^^ ^^^ from the expedition against Charleston (232). Washington Trenton — soon saw that the British so far outnumbered his little army 1^7^' ^ •' Pnnceton — that it would be worse than useless to give battle at New York. 1777 With great skill he withdrew in safety after an unfortunate combat on Long Island, and took position on the east side of the Hudson about thirty miles up the river. Forts Washington and Lee, on opposite sides of the Hudson A Continental Soldier After the picture by Chappel 178 THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR just above New York, fell into Howe's hands with three thousand prisoners of war. Anticipating a movement against Philadelphia, Washington, on November 12, 1776, divided his army, leaving a part under General Charles Lee,^ east of the Hudson; with the other division he crossed the Hudson and retired toward Philadelphia, closely followed by Cornwallis. General Howe, the commander-in-chief of the British in Amer- ica, endeavored to create loyalist sentiment, offering pardon to all who would desert the Americans and return to their old allegiance. His proclamation encouraged the Tories and caused desertions from Washington's army. When the little American army crossed to the west side of the Delaware, its pursuers found no boats. Lee's division, under Sullivan, had reenforced Washington. On December 12, congress, fleeing before the British army, left Philadelphia to meet again in Bal- timore on December 20. The country was in despair. Wash- ington wrote to his brother: "If every nerve is not strained to recruit the army with all possible expedition, I think the game pretty nearly up." Yet the British went into quarters along the Delaware, waiting for the riVer to freeze; then they would march over Washington's army into Philadelphia. But Washington had been driven to the limit. "Neces- sity," he writes, "justifies an attack." He crossed the Dela- ware on Christmas night, surprised and captured a thousand Hessians in camp at Trenton, fell back to the west side of the Delaware with his prisoners, sent them into the interior, and recrossed to Trenton on December 29, where he took position between the detachments of the British army. Cornwallis, charged by Howe with the task of destroying Washington, found himself out-maneuvered at Princeton (January 3, 1777), ' The General Charles Lee here mentioned was not a member of the distinguished Lee family of Virginia, famous later in the history of their countrj-. He had been ordered repeatedly to leave his camp east of the Hudson and rejoin Washington in New Jersey. Finally, on December 4, he crossed the Hudson and took up his march leisurely to Vealtown, reaching that town on December 12. Taking quar- ters at a tavern several miles from the camp of his army, he was captured the next day by the British, who learned of his carelessness and his exposure through a Tory. Exchanged in the spring of 1778, he returned to service under Washington. !^5S^^5^^s^^^^^s^ss^s5^ss555s^5^^;^^^^ —^Kichmond v^ ^ j T^t^ REFERENCE MAP FOR THE REVOLUTION NORTHERN AND MIDDLE STATES. THE HUDSON RIVER CAMPAIGN: 1777 179 where Washington gained a signal success. Washington then marched to Morristown and went into winter quarters. The British detachments in New Jersey fell back to New York and, as they went, the farmers "pulled down the red rags from their doors" and shouted for independence at sight of the first continental soldier. THE HUDSON RIVER CAMPAIGN: 1777 When Washington withdrew from Long Island he left the 223. Bur- British under Howe in possession of New York, while hesoyne's ad- ^ vance; his retreated before CornwaUis through New Jersey to protect difficulties; Philadelphia. The British now determined » Bennington to renew their efforts to divide the colonies by seizing control of the strategic line of the Hudson river. Three armies converging toward Albany, one from Canada by way of Lake Cham- plain, one down the Mohawk from Lake Ontario, and one ascending the Hudson, encouraged and supported by the many Tories of the country, might easily conquer First Flag of the the state of New York and restore it to United States the British crown. Burgoyne should ad- Adopted by Congress in 1777 vance from Canada by Lake Champlain, Lake George, and the Hudson. St. Leger should advance from Lake Ontario down the Mohawk river, and Howe should ascend the Hudson from New York. The plan was good, but the difficulties were greater than the British could overcome. By a grievous fault of generalship, natural difficulties had been largely ignored, and the strength of the enemy both as to military skill and fighting quality had been underrated. The almost impassable roads, which caused such slow advance that Washington had time to concentrate the northern detachments and so reenforce them that a respectable army under Schuyler stood in Burgoyne's path; the obstacles, which made communi- cation well-nigh impossible and at the same time rendered the i8o THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 224. Sur- render of Burgoyne; Oriskany; the river forts movements of supply trains slow and indeed hazardous — every- thing, seemed to tell against the British from the time they left the lakes. The Americans were too strong to be easily crushed. Washington was at Morristown, Putnam was at Peekskill, and Schuyler at Albany. They knew the country and could easily communicate with one another. And the greatest Ameri- can general had determined that Howe should not succeed in making a junction with Burgoyne; and without Howe's help, Burgoyne was doomed from the beginning. In the early sum- mer of 1777 Burgoyne moved south from Quebec and easily captured Crown Point and Ticonderoga over on Lake Cham- plain. But when he left the highway of the lakes and plunged into the interior forests his troubles began. The Americans under Schuyler retarded his advance, while they waited for reenforcements sent by Washington. As Burgoyne approached Fort Edward, late in July, the Americans, greatly outnumbered, retired. The Tories informed him that at Bennington there was a depot of supplies collected by the Americans. Colonel Baum was sent to. capture the place but failed, with the loss of the entire column. In a terrible combat the American militia- men stormed the entrenchments of the Hessians, and the rest of them surrendered to General Stark. Burgoyne's situation was now desperate. He had heard that St. Leger had been defeated in the west. He probably should have tried to save his army by retreating to Lake George, but he hoped that the column from New York would very soon cause such a diversion in his favor as to enable him to press forward. He halted at Stillwater and began to fortify his position. Congress unwisely superseded Schuyler with Gates, but even that performance could not now save Burgoyne's army, which was thinking only of defending itself in the midst of gathering enemies. Burgoyne threw up intrenchments; they were stormed by Arnold; while Morgan's riflemen quietly picked ofif com- manders. Still Burgoyne held out, hoping to the last for the strangely delayed column from New York. The surrender took place on October 17. By the terms of the convention THE PHILADELPHIA CAMPAIGN: 1777-1778 181 the soldiers were to be sent to Europe on condition that they should not serve again in the war against the United States. But congress charged that the British had violated the agree- ment in retaining surrendered property, and refused to abide by the terms. The prisoners were marched to Charlottesville, Virginia, and many of them became citizens of America. Meantime Fort StanwLx was being besieged by St. Leger and his Indian allies. General Herkimer, in command of the militia of Tryon county, advanced to relieve the fort, and, in the bloody battle of Oriskany, was mortally wounded; but the British and Indians gave up the field. In this instance they were greatly disappointed in the Tory aid, comfort, and support that they expected. St. Leger's division retreated before the approach of Arnold a few days later. Early in October, 1777, General Clinton, in command at New York, moved up the Hudson and captured Fort Mont- gomery and Fort Clmton, but was too weak to extend help to Burgoyne. THE PHILADELPHIA CAMPAIGN: 1777-1778 While Burgoyne was still on Lake Champlain, General Howe, 225. Battles the commander-in-chief of the British army in America, under- °f Brandy- •^ , . wine and took to march across New Jersey on his way to Philadelphia. German- Washington opposed with such skill that Howe gave up his^°^° purpose and decided to advance by another route. Leaving Clinton in command of New York, Howe embarked his army in July, and nine days after the disaster at Bennington and three days after St. Leger's flight landed at the head of Chesapeake bay and began his march of seventy miles to Phil- adelphia. Washington threw his army in front of the British at Brandywane creek (September 11), believing that for the moral effect upon his troops he ought to risk a battle rather than yield Philadelphia without a struggle. The Americans lost, and the British entered Philadelphia on September 26. The British went into camp at Germantown, a few miles from Philadelphia, and Washington attacked them there. The i82 THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR battle favored the Americans at first and it seemed that victory was sure, but owing to a dense fog one American battalion fired into another and a panic ensued, which lasted until all hope of victory had vanished. Washington had exposed his person to the hottest fire, and felt that his army had won the day and then lost it unaccountably. The British went into winter quarters in and around Philadelphia, and Washington's army built huts at Valley Forge, twenty miles away. 226. Valley The devotion and fortitude of the little American army, Forge; the enduring an intensity of suffering in "the time that tried men's Conway in- ° ■' . . trigue souls," have become proverbial m the history of America, acknowledged examples of heroic quality with which to stir hearts and strengthen arms to resist oppression. Perhaps no greater devotion to country was ever exhibited. It developed later that at least a part of the extreme suffering was due to a lack of organization in the commissary department, for it is now a matter of common knowledge that there were quantities of shoes, clothing, and food side-tracked in transit for lack of money to pay teamsters for delivering supplies to the destitute army. Add to this the fact that there were intrigues in congress to humiliate and degrade the commander-in-chief upon whose mind and heart rested the full consciousness not only of the suffering of the men under his command, but the welfare of the English speaking world. If strength or courage had failed him the history of the human race would have been written in a minor key from that day to this. Yet the vermin of politics were at work in the congress to embarrass and even displace Washington with a soldier who fought mainly in the field of politics. Conway, who had steered the "cabal," and Horatio Gates, who was to profit by it, made the winter of 1777-1778 hard indeed to bear. But out of it all came a clear light and a brighter hope. Washington became almost absolute in the affairs of the war after that date, while the heroism of the army won confidence abroad. Baron Steuben, who had joined Wash- ington's army, brought it to a high state of efficiency by his THE PHILADELPHIA CAMPAIGN: 1 777-1 778 183. patience and skill in teaching discipline. American patriotism will always cherish the names of DeKalb, Kosciusko, Pulaski, Rochambeau, and Lafayette. After the congress fled from Philadelphia, the Articles of 227. Articles Confederation were adopted, and thus a long step was taken °^^^.°^ .® " toward ultimate victory and in- dependence. Early in 17 78 the colonies made an alliance with France which aided very greatly in the final outcome of the struggle. France entered this alliance, not through senti- ment or from sympathy, but with the view of promoting her own welfare. A young nation that could sustain a war with Great Britain for three years and compel the surrender of an army was worthy of encourage- ment and would make a valuable ally. The taking of Burgoyne at Saratoga, Washington's brilliant maneuvers before Howe in New York, and the sublime devotion of Valley Forge chal- lenged the admiration of the world and made sure the alliance with France, England's veteran enemy. Aid had been given secretly; it now came freely and openly. In that year (1778) the colonies agreed, by treaty with France, in return for armed support, that they would continue the war until they won inde- pendence, and that they would not conclude a treaty of peace without the concurrence of France. By a special article, it was agreed that Spain might enter the alliance at the earliest convenience. The treaty with France was not universally popular. Some feared an alliance with a Catholic nation, and preferred England to France if a choice of masters must be made. It was specially distasteful to New England, where Frenchmen who had led Indian raids were still the ghosts of nightly dreams. Marquis de Lafayette 1 84 THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 228. Great Lord North, the prime minister of Great Britain, now turned ^ff *^t^ ^ ^ political somersault and proposed to renounce the right to treat— 1778 tax the colonies. After much opposition the bill to appoint commissioners to treat for peace with the colonies passed par- liament, March 11, 1778. The proposal came just two years too late. The colonies were now unwilling to consider a contin- uation of the old relations on any terms. England's only hope lay in again calling to power the ministry of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, and in following Pitt's policy of withdrawing British troops from American soil and joining America in an alliance against France and Spain, but such action would be a virtual recognition of American independence, and George III refused to have more of Pitt. A few weeks after the colonies and France had formed an alliance, England declared war on France. Then Spain, in the next year, hoping to take back Gibraltar from England, added her forces to those of France, her ally. In 1780 Holland, England's old commercial rival, joined the alliance. Also in 1780 Frederick the Great opened his ports to American vessels and refused to allow Hessian troops bound for British service against the colonies to pass through his territory. 229. Evacu- The French alliance bore fruit immediately. France sent a Phiiadel- ^^^^ ^*^ America under Count D'Estaing. In anticipation of phia; battle its approach. Sir Henry Clinton, who had succeeded Howe in mouth command at Philadelphia, evacuated the town June, 1778, and marched for New York for fear that city might not be strong enough to resist the combined French and Americans. There was great rejoicing when Clinton left Philadelphia. Washington pursued Clinton toward New York with an army greatly improved in spirit, discipline, and power. He over- took the British at Monmouth and fought a drawn battle, which might have been a victory for the Americans but for the mysteri- ous conduct of General Charles Lee in ordering a retreat which seemed unnecessary. Washington countermanded Lee's order and stopped the retreat, but too late to win the day. The British, during the night, continued their march toward New THE PHILADELPHIA CAMPAIGN: 1777-1778 185 York. Lee was tried by a court-martial and suspended from command, and at length was dismissed from the army. Count D'Estaing arrived in America with a French fleet of 230. Stony eighteen ships and an army of 4000 men, but the fleet was^^^^j^,^ damaged by a storm and put into Boston harbor for repairs treason before it could render service. The British made no further general movement in 1778, but contented themselves with encouraging their Indian allies to commit atrocities on exposed villages and towns. In the North, from the battle of Mon- mouth until the close of the war there was little military activ- ity, owing to Clinton's inability to undertake two aggressive campaigns at the same time, the South de- manding whatever reenforcements he could spare from the defense of New York, where Washington was confronting him. But there was a deed of a great and gallant soul, and another deed, that of a traitor, both of which will live forever in American annals. On July 15, 1779, General Wayne stormed Stony Point, a British fortress on the Hudson, and at the point of the bayonet forced the surrender of the garrison. The other deed was the treasonable correspondence of Benedict Arnold, command- ing at West Point, in which he arranged to deliver the fortress to the British for a sum of money and a commission in the army of those he had fought as enemies. The execution of Major Andre, the British spy who visited Arnold, was justified by all the rules of war; Arnold fled, knowing full well his fate if he should fall into the hands of the soldiers who were fighting for liberty. When the war began the colonies had no navy and congress had no authority to build one. Merchant ships were fitted out Anthony Wayne 1 86 THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 231. The as privateers and sent to prey on British commerce. Before Ameri(^n j^_g ^^^^ ^^^ captured more than six hundred British ships, Jones and the British had destroyed more than nine hundred Ameri- can vessels. The fisheries of Newfoundland, as well as com- merce, had suffered severely. In 1777 Lambert Wickes took an American ship across the ocean, Gustavus Cunningham damaged British ships in the North Sea, British Channel insurance rose to ten per cent for a single voyage, and merchant- men were accompanied by men-of-war. Paul Jones, with a fleet of five ships fitted out in France, boldly attacked English vessels off the coast of England. The Boii Ilommc Richard gained a notable victory over the Serapis September 23, 1779. The effect of these engagements on the sea increased foreign interest in American affairs, while the presence of the American flag in foreign waters had an immense moral effect in teach- ing men and governments to look upon the United Colonies as a nation. THE WAR IN THE SOUTH 232. Fort In 1776 an expedition under General Henry Clinton sailed on°Sum- ^'"^"^ Boston for New York and farther southward. Clinton van's Island threatened Norfolk for a time, and then continued his way to ~^^^ North Carolina with the purpose of restoring the royal author- ity in that state; but he learned that the Tories had been defeated in battle at Moore's Creek; and being reenforced by a fleet from England, under Admiral Peter Parker, a com- bined land and naval attack was planned upon Charleston. On June i the infantry made a landing on Long Island, and batteries were erected. The harbor entrance was de- fended by Fort Sullivan, a rude crib-work of palmetto logs filled with sand from the beach; it mounted thirty cannon, and was under Colonel William Moultrie with a force of about three hundred militia who had never seen a skirmish except with Indians. The British fleet at length moved up to reduce the fort; but it proved strong, and the militia proved good gunners; the balls from the fleet sunk into the soft palmetto THE WAR IN THE SOUTH 187 without splintering, while the Americans deliberately disabled each ship as it came within range. Clinton's forces quickly reembarked, and the crippled fleet sailed for New York.^ On November 3, 1778, Count D'Estaing, commanding a 233. Savan- French fleet, sailed from Boston for the West Indies; soon after °*^^**^^° ' . 'by the this event General Clinton g British — sent a force of 3000 men '* "" '■^ ''~~—~ ^778 under Colonel Campbell, with a fleet commanded by Admiral Hyde Parker, for the purpose of making a lodgment in the Southern colonies, which had been untouched by war since the battle of Fort Moul- trie. The troops landed near Savannah and suc- ceeded in taking the town after very easily defeating the little army of 1500 Americans under General Robert Howe, who retired into South Carolina. The British troops in East Florida, under General Prevost, were ordered to reenforce Campbell in Georgia. The British continued to strengthen their forces at Savannah by proceeding to subdue the country, some of their skilled ofl&- cers being appointed to command bodies of loyalists received into the royal service. The succeeding war in the states of Georgia and South Carolina was a civil war, as much so, per- haps, as it was war with a foreign power. Colonel Boyd, who was killed at Kettle Creek, Georgia, was in command of a body of Tories, while Colonel Pickens, who defeated him, was in com- mand of American partisans. Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton was a Tory in command of a North Carolina regiment under CornwaUis, and, according to General Henry Lee, "attracted universal esteem." Colonel Ferguson, killed at King's Moun- Sergeant Jasper at Fort Moultrie ^ The fort has ever since been known as Fort Moultrie, in honor of its com- mander. It became an important post in the Civil War. i88 THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR tain, was a leader of Tories and a remarkable soldier. Camp- bell's conduct toward the inhabitants of Savannah is described as peculiarly kind and amiable. And General Prevost, coming from Florida to take command of the British, continued Camp- bell's policy of kindness and reaped his reward. 234. The General Prevost sent a detachment under Colonel Campbell Tones de- ^^ occupv AusTusta, from which point Lieutenant-Colonel feated in ^ -^ ° , . , . ^ . Georgia— Hamilton, m command of his Tory regiment, advanced west- ^"^"^^ ward, gaining recruits and crushing all resistance. A body of seven hundred Tories under Colonel Boyd was defeated by Pickens at Kettle creek, and only three hundred of them suc- ceeded in reaching Augusta. This was the first success gained bv the patriots since the British began the campaign. 235. Lincoln South Carolina and Georgia delegates in congress urged a m com- change of commanders in the South, and General Lincoln was mand; Ashe " . ,,..., defeated in named to supersede Howe. Lincoln succeeded in uniting the Georgia; American forces, and took position near Savannah on the north Rutledge '■ .... side of the river. His force was inferior, but Prevost s army was now in several detachments. Prevost lost almost the whole of one detachment, which was routed by General Moul- trie at Port Royal. But General Ashe, with 1500 men, detached to operate near Augusta, was surprised at Brier Creek by the British and a great part of his force made prisoners. This victory relieved all Prevost's fears concerning Georgia, and he proclaimed the reestablishment of the royal government in that state. It looked as though the South was lost to the cause of independence. But in this trying hour the legislature of South Carolina invested the governor, John Rutledge, with dictato- rial powers, and through his vigorous measures the militia in large numbers were enrolled to defend the state. 236. Lincoln At Augusta, now unoccupied by the British, the Georgia and Prevost legislature was to meet ; and to protect it General Lincoln ad- maneuver; . 1 1 1 1 f r Rutledge vanced toward the town with his main body, but left a force proposes ^f jqqq j^gj^ Under Moultrie to defend the road from Savannah neutrality ^, , -r^ , . 1 1 • to Charleston. Prevost met this movement by advancing toward Charleston in the hope that Lincoln would countermarch REFERENCE MAP FOR THE REVOLUTION SOUTHERN STATES THE WAR IN THE SOUTH 189 for the defense of that city. Moultrie fell back, sending mes- sengers every day to Lincoln, who kept to his original purpose. Then Prevost, finding it too late to advance and contest Lin- coln's march, determined to capture Charleston, now that his adversary could not defend it. But Governor Rutledge, and Moultrie also, threw themselves and their weak forces into the city and made it strong with intrenchments. "Masters and The Siege of Charleston After the picture by Chappel servants, boys and girls, mixed in the honorable work of self- defence." Still, the condition of the town was desperate, and when Prevost appeared and demanded its surrender, offering favorable terms, the defence adroitly gained a day in discussion before the demand was rejected; and it was at this time that Governor Rutledge proposed that the city and the state be bound by a pledge of neutrality in the further contest between Great Britain and America. Prevost retired without delivering an assault, knowing full well that Lincoln would be upon his back as fast as forced marches could bring him. The British marched southward; and after a partial engagement at Stono, withdrew into Georgia. IQO THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 237. Ameri cans repulsed at Savannah 238. Sur- render of Charleston — 1780 239. The British overrun South Caro lina; Span iards take Mobile Governor Rutledge, General Lincoln, and the French consul at Charleston united in a request to Count D'Estaing, then in the West Indies, to cooperate with the Americans in driving the British from the South. The result was the combined opera- tions of the French and American armies against Savannah, October 9, 1779, ending with an assault that was repulsed with great loss. Count Pulaski, an eminent Polish soldier, who, like Lafayette, had offered his services to America, received a mortal wound. The French reembarked, and the fleet sailed for the West Indies. General Henry Clinton, with Admiral Arbuthnot in command of the fleet, laid siege to Charleston. Lincoln with 5cx)o men defended the city from March 30 until May 1 2 against an army double his number, which was shutting him off on the land side, and a fleet in the harbor which was bombarding the town. The surrender of Charleston enabled the British in a very short time to overrun the whole state; and the inhabitants of the rural districts, seeing no hope for the American cause, in large numbers accepted British protection. Yet there were not a few brave spirits who, driven from their homes, joined the partisan leaders of the low country or those of the highlands in a seemingly hopeless resistance. Clinton charged Cornwallis with completing the work of con- quest, and Cornwallis advanced into the interior, his army in . three widely separate divisions which met with no resistance. The British fortified and garrisoned Augusta, Ninety-Sbc, and Camden. Spain was now at war with Great Britain, and though she did ' nothing in a direct way to assist the United States, her forces tended to occupy the British, and thus to lessen the full power which otherwise they could have brought to bear upon the South. Don Galvez, the Spanish commander at New Orleans, took Mobile with its small British garrison; and the operation had for result the retention of Colonel Campbell in Florida, thus depriving Cornwallis of this meritorious officer's services. THE WAR IN THE SOUTH 191 General Clinton, soon after the fall of Charleston, had issued 240, stern a proclamation in which he promised protection to all the "^f ^.sures of people who should renew allegiance to the royal government. Many who had accepted the military situation as convincing proof of the failure of America, and for the sake of their fam- ilies had submitted under the terms of the proclamation, were now horrified to read a later proclamation in which Clinton announced that all who had subjected themselves to the royal authority were required to do all the commands of the new state; in other words, he notified them that they must be ready, when called upon, to take up arms in support of the royal authority. If the first proclamation had the good effect of producing an ostensible submission, the last document roused anger the more virulent because of its seeming impotency, and many, too helpless to escape the situation, determined upon a course of h^T^Docrisy, while others who would have remained quiet now became not only hostile but active. General Clinton sailed for New York, leaving to Cornwallis, the ablest commander on the British side during the whole war, the task of invading and subduing North Carolina. Washington had hurried toward Lincoln reenforcements241. Battle under General DeKalb, one of the foreign volunteers in the °^ Camden patriot cause, but DeKalb's force had not reached the state be- fore Charleston surrendered, and it now became a rallying point for the discomfited and a nucleus for a new Southern army, the command of which was committed by congress to General Horatio Gates without conferring with Washington. The battle of Camden followed, and the defeat of the Americans was so complete that no organization of Gates's army remained within the borders of the state, although the North Carolina line was more than fifty miles from the battlefield. The brave DeKalb died from eleven wounds received in the battle of Camden. Cornwallis advanced to Charlotte; he would subdue North 242. Battle Carolina. Wilmington would then become a base of supplies ^p^^^^^^ while Virginia was being reduced. His rear was protected by 192 THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR the Tories; his flanks were guarded by Tarleton, and by Fer- guson's forces which were thrown out toward the mountains. As for the United States, it was dazed by the result at Cam- den, where the conqueror of Burgoync had been put to rout on his first Southern field. But the Tories and the Whigs continued to fight in South Carolina. Sumter won success at the time Gates was defeated, but was himself surprised and routed by Tarleton two days later. Marion still kept the field. Colo- nel Ferguson, commanding 1000 well armed Tories and British, marching in the northern part of the state, heard that a Whig force under Elijah Clarke had attempted to seize Augusta and was now retiring; Ferguson, therefore, altered his march, in the hope of intercepting Clarke. But now he heard that enemies other than Clarke were near him. The Westerners were coming down from the mountains to take Augusta, not knowing that Clarke had just failed in a similar enterprise, and, learning that Ferguson was in the country, turned upon him with eight hundred riflemen. But Ferguson himself was reputed to be the best marksman in the British army, if not in the world; and he knew the ways and wiles of border warfare as well as the best. So he took post on King's Mountain and dared them to come on. The Western men, led by many colonels, surrounded Ferguson on his height, killed or wounded three hundred, captured the remainder, and hanged some bloodthirsty Tories. Ferguson had fallen dead. No sooner did Cornwallis at Charlotte hear of the destruction of Ferguson and his corps than he abandoned his plans for a further advance and fell back to Winnsboro. Marion, Sumter, Pickens, all renewed their activity. Sumter at Blackstock Thomas Sumter THE WAR IN THE SOUTH 193 balanced accounts with Tarleton, while Marion struck a blow now here, now there, and leaped aside before the British could crush him. If the partisans saw no rest, neither did their enemies. The fragments of Gates's defeated army were being collected at Hillsboro, North Carolina, and Gates at length advanced to Charlotte; but here he received the news that congress had decided that a court of inquiry should examine his conduct in regard to the Camden battle, and that Washington had been re- quested to name his successor. So Gates returned to Philadel- phia, and General Nathanael Greene, succeeding to the com- mand of the Southern army, advanced into South Carolina. On his right, some twenty-five miles westward. General Daniel Morgan, commanding the light corps of the army, found himself confronted by Tarleton with a superior force. Morgan with- drew to Cowpens, and retired no further. In the battle that followed, Tarleton's infantry were killed or made prisoners; with his surviving cavalry he escaped to tell Cornwallis the tale. Cowpens has been called the Bennington of the Southern campaign. Now Morgan found himself greatly embarrassed by his cap- tures. Into his hands had fallen the artillery, the wagons, a hundred horses, eight hundred muskets, and more than five hundred prisoners. Morgan at once retreated, full well know- ing that Cornwallis would strain every nerve to overtake him. The British commander took up the pursuit as soon as he heard of the defeat; burning his heavy baggage and everything that was not necessary to a forced march, he set out to catch Morgan before he could rejoin Greene. But Morgan was moving 243. Greene in command of the Southern army; Mor- gan's victory at Cowpens — 1781 Nathaxael Greene 244. Greene's famous retreat 194 THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR and Greene was moving. Encumbered with his prisoners and captured material, Morgan's weary troops hardly succeeded in crossing the Catawba before Cornwallis reached it. But a hea\^ rain swelled the river and Cornwallis was unable to cross; and Morgan now sent off his prisoners and stores under guard by a road nearer the mountains. Greene himself, protected by a small escort, had ridden hard, and here took charge of the retreat; he had left his main body with orders for it to retire into North Carolina and unite with Morgan wherever this was possible. The commander had foreseen that Morgan would retreat; he had foreseen that Cornwallis would pursue, and he had made his plans accordingly. The retreat was continued, and it was kept up entirely across the state of North Carolina, with Corn- wallis closely following and occasionally skirmishing with Greene's rearguard. When Greene went into bivouac for the night after crossing the Yadkin, Cornwallis's advance appeared on the south side of the river; and again the rains fell and the swollen river protected the Americans. At Guilford Court- house, Greene's main body, under Huger, united with Morgan's division on February 7, and on February 14 the American army succeeded in crossing the Dan into Virginia, and Cornwallis gave up the pursuit. Greene's masterly retreat and the Brit- ish general's dogged pursuit comprise a movement greatly celebrated in the records of war, in which Greene's escape out- classes many a showy victory. 245. Battle Greene's rearguard had crossed the Dan on February 14. Three days later he threw forward the same troops, now become the advance-guard; and when his expected reenforce- ments had arrived, he recrossed the Dan with his main body. The two armies joined battle at Guilford Courthouse on March 15, the British general almost through constraint deciding to attack Greene's superior force. The combat was bloody; the discipline of the British regulars carried the field held by the American militia, and Greene confessed defeat. Yet the Brit- ish loss had been very much greater than that of the Americans, THE WAR IN THE SOUTH 195 and Cornwallis marched away, leaving many of his wounded to the care of his enemy. So far as miHtary and poHtical consequences were concerned, Greene had gained the victory. CornwalHs retreated to Wihiiington, and Greene advanced into South CaroHna. Colonel Henry Lee, the celebrated "Lighthorse Harry" of 246. Marion the Revolution, had been General Greene's able subordinate in ^" ®®' ' Greene's the previous campaign, and was now in command of the light campaign corps which intervened between the main body and the forces of the enemy. Lee joined Marion, and together they captured Fort Watson by building a tower of logs so tall that it over- looked the fort, which surrendered on April 23. On April 25 Colonel Rawdon advanced upon Greene at Hobkirk's Hill, and gained a victory through the giving way of a veteran Continental regiment; but it was a dear-bought field, and Raw- don in May evacuated Camden and directed his march upon Marion and Lee, who were besieging Fort Motte. Within the fort stood the mansion of Mrs. Motte, who had taken refuge in a farmhouse on the plantation. Rawdon was soon heard from; his advance was near by; and Marion and Lee felt that burning arrows must be used to compel surrender. But consideration for Mrs. Motte restrained them, until the lady herself, hearing of their embarrassment, placed in their hands a bow and quiver. The plan succeeded, and the fort surrendered. Fort Granby soon capitulated, Orangeburg also; and there were but two fortified posts left to the British on South Carolina: Charleston and Ninety-Sbc. Greene marched against Ninety-Six, while Lee, whom Pickens would join later, moved upon Augusta, which place, with its two forts, surrendered on May 31, after a most determined resistance. Meanwhile Greene had pressed the siege of Ninety-Six, his fortifications and approaches being planned by Kosciusko, but the approach of Rawdon with a superior force determined Greene to deliver an assault, which was repulsed, and Greene withdrew without contesting Rawdon 's march. 196 THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 247. Battle of Eutaw Springs After a rest during the greatest heat of summer, Greene took the field against Stewart, now commanding Rawdon's forces, to which had been added the garrison of Ninety-Six, that post having been evacuated. In the battle which followed, at Eutaw Springs, Greene forced the British army from its camp, and though it was able to rally and return to its original position, the day's work had brought to an end the royal power in South Carolina. Stewart retreated to Charleston; and to that city and Savannah the British were confined for the remainder of the war. 248. Ad- vance of Cornwallis into Virginia 249. Lafay- ette defends Virginia; the York- town cam- paign VIRGINIA CAMPAIGN: 1781 Cornwallis moved from Wilmington April 25, directing his march upon Petersburg, at which place he expected to form a junction with General Phillips, already operating in Virginia. Phillips reached Petersburg in May, and died there of fever. The command of his forces devolved upon Benedict Arnold, now a brigadier-general in the British army and engaged in an attempt to suppress the rebellious colonies. Cornwallis entered Petersburg May 20, and took command of the combined forces. On May 24 Arnold, by permission, left Virginia for New York, impelled by the treatment that he received from his new companions-in-arms. General Lafayette had been chosen by Washington for the defence of Virginia, and the youthful commander opposed Cornwallis with courage and skill. With Count Rochambeau, the general of the French forces in New England, Washington concerted measures for an attack upon New York, and General Clinton, alarmed for the safety of his army, ordered reenforce- ments from Cornwallis, who was taking town after town in Virginia with fair hope of reducing that state to submission. The commander-in-chief must be obeyed, and in order to ship the troops demanded by Clinton, Cornwallis left the interior and approached the coast, taking position at Yorktown. Lafayette followed and fortified a position in his rear. In the mean- time, to escape the hurricane season of the West Indies, Count VIRGINIA CAMPAIGN: 1781 197 DeGrasse sent Washington word that he was coming north and would cooperate with him in Chesapeake bay. This entire condition was Washington's great opportunity. With Rocham- beau he quickly arranged for a campaign against Cornwallis instead of against Clinton, and the armies moved southward The Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, October 19, 17S1 From the painting by Trumbull in the Capitol at Washington and blocked Cornwallis's retreat by land, while the French fleet prevented his escape by sea. The British general, on October 17, 1781, surrendered his army to Washington, and the result was the practical cessation of hostilities in America. THE WAR IN THE WEST By the terms of the treaty of 1763 between Great Britain and 250. Set- France (171) the former power had acquired Canada, and King trans-Alle- George II had proclaimed the country west of the Alleghanies ghany and north of the Ohio a part of Quebec, while the country south of the Ohio was reserved for the Indians and for future colonies that might receive royal authority to settle therein. Such con- ditions rendered possible Great Britain's acknowledgment of iqS the revolutionary war the independence of the thirteen colonies with the proviso that each colony should have no claim upon the western lands. But to this land the hunters began to go; following them, the surveyors, and later the settlers. These men of the forest lived harsh, narrow lives of toil and danger. In the conquest of the land every acre was cleared by the axe and every hut was defended by the rifle. These backwoodsmen of the Southwest received no aid from the government until after they had estab- lished their own. The government followed the trail of the pioneer. From the valleys of the Alleghany and its tributaries came the Presbyterian Scotch-Irish, "Protestants of the Prot- estants"; what the Puritans were to the East these men were to the West. They impressed their peculiar character on the civilization of the Southwest. There was a large element of the Germans from both Pennsylvania and Carolina, while Huguenots, Dutch, and Swedes came from Delaware^ a single generation in the wilderness welding them into a body of Americans. They settled together in groups of families for mutual protection. They built their log schoolhouses and their churches. 251. South Through her charter North Carolina claimed the land lying Watauga ' between the present western boundary and the Mississippi river, and had additional claim upon it because of settlements on the Watauga begun by Bean, Robinson, and others in 1769. These settlements had prospered, and in 1772 the people organ- ized an independent government and effected an agreement known as the "Articles of the Watauga Association," the first written constitution adopted west of the Alleghanies by a com- munity of native American citizens. For six years this inde- pendent government continued in force until, in the year when the British evacuated Philadelphia, North Carolina organized Watauga into Washington county and appointed civil and military officers for its government. 252. Dun- Kentucky, settled by James Harrod and Daniel Boone in _jyy^ 1774 and 1775, was rapidly growing in importance. Virginia claimed the territory through her original charter and was not THE WAR IN THE WEST 199 253. North of the Ohio unwilling to defend it against the claims of the king. A war with the Indians, known as Lord Dunmore's war, began in 1773. For more than a year the usual Indian atrocities were repeated till a decisive battle at Point Pleasant on the Great Kanawha river was fought, in which the settlers gained a victory. In a treaty the Indians surrendered all claims to lands south of the Ohio. Two years later the Cherokees of the South, set on by the Tories, caused a repetition of the sufferings experienced elsewhere when Tories incited the Indians to go on the warpath. By 1778 the Indians within the Kentucky and Tennes- see borders had been subdued, yet the bold frontiersmen were ready always to spring to arms at the call of their leaders. Although fifteen years had passed since the British claims to the Canada country had been confirmed by treaty, compara- tively few Englishmen had ever visited the region between the Ohio and the Great Lakes. The French posts were still French in language and in the character- istics of the people who are called the ^ Frontiersman traditional enemies of the English. They had been released from their allegiance to the French government and had been bound in allegiance to another which they hated. The British garrisons at Detroit, Vincennes, Kaskaskia and other small trading-posts were essential as a part of governmental policy, but they added to the displeasure of the French fur traders and their retinues. In 1777 Governor Patrick Henry gave a colonel's commis-254. Clark sion to George Rogers Clark, representing the so-called county ^*°!j^® of Kentucky in the Virginia legislature, and also granted the— 1778 new and youthful colonel material aid in an undertaking which seemed to promise immense results from small expenditure. In short, Clark had so laid his case before Governor Henry that he went back to Kentucky with authority to raise troops 200 THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR 255. Wyo- ming and Cherry VaUey — 1778 256. Fi- nances of the War for the purpose of winning from the British the territory south of the Great Lakes and north of the Ohio. Clark got together about one hundred and fifty men, moved his command in rude punts down the Ohio, landed on the north bank somewhere near the mouth of the Tennessee, and advanced overland upon Kaskaskia, which he surprised and captured while the inhab- itants were at a revel. The garri- son surrendered at once and the American flag was hoisted over the fort. Governor Hamilton, who ruled the Northwest country under Great Britain, soon heard of Clark's exploit, but before he could get ready to advance, Clark had captured Cahokia and Vin- cennes ; and he held the territory until the close of the war. Mean- '^'A<* while the settlement of the coun- try was very rapid. George Rogers Clark In the summer of 1778 the Tories and Iroquois combined and fell upon the defenceless people of Wyoming in western Penn- sylvania and almost annihilated them. Cherry Valley, also, in western New York, was devastated by the Indians and Tories. Washington decided to break the power of the Six Nations and ordered General Sullivan to march against them. In the ensuing operations (1779) the Indians and Tories were defeated and the country laid waste. The commercial policy of England had drained the colonies financially, leaving only about $10,000,000 in specie in the entire country at any one time, about enough to run the gov- ernment for six months. The colonies possessed no mints and no developed mines. Under these circumstances something must be done and it seemed necessary to issue paper money. This issuance would not necessarily have become a hard- ship had congress limited the amount issued, but by 1779 THE WAR IN THE WEST 20I $200,000,000 had been put into circulation and the policy had become disastrous. "Congress requested the states tp pay in a sufficient sum to retire its proportion of the issue. This they never paid, but they issued large sums of similar currency which depreciated in value until it became worthless. These unredeemed notes proved to be a tax on those who held pONt SIXTH OF A )^ DOLLAR 'fm According^ mto a Re/olu- ]^\fionofCoisi- Kt^,|jG R ESS, fof- gWa/Phi- !l^l ladelphia. «^3t:5:t^veen Great Britain and the United States (September 3, 1783). On the same day treaties were made by Great Britain and Spain, and Great Britain and France. By the terms of the American treaty, Great Britain acknowl- edged the independence of the United States, naming each of the thirteen colonies. Great Britain gave up all claim to the region west of the AUeghanies, so the Mississippi became the western boundary of the United States, and Florida, with its vague northern limit, became ^\the southern boundary. The Facsimile of the Signatures northeast boundary was also UPON THE Treaty of Peace, 1783 ^^g^^^ ^^j caused trouble until From the original in the State j^ ^^S settled in 1842 by the JJepartment, Washington Webster-Ashburton Treaty. The treaty provided that the United States allow free navi- gation of the Mississippi river. The British insisted that the loyalists should be reimbursed for their losses by confiscation during the war, and it was agreed that Congress should recom- mend that the state legislatures observe this demand, but the legislatures took no steps in the matter. Rights to the fisheries of Newfoundland were to be shared equally by Americans and British, and debts owed in America to British creditors should be payable at the close of the war. The wise diplomacy of Franklin, Jay, and Adams, the active American Commissioners, had overcome many a difiiculty in the course of the negotiations; and their success has merited the applause of the historian. Great Britain, France, and Spain signed the treaty of Versailles on September 3, 1783, the day of the signing of the treaty of Paris. In the following November the British evacuated New York. THE WAR IN THE WEST 203 The battle of democracy had been won. In defense of human Hberty the American had been tried and had proved loyal to truth; his capacity for establishing free national institutions was yet to be tested. SUMMARY The colonists entered the war without the purpose of gaining independ- ence. But the divergence of opinion between them and the British and increasing hostility to a government residing three thousand miles away soon developed such a spirit of colonial union as inevitably led to the Dec- laration of Independence and the establishment of a national government. For five years, however (until 1781), that government was without consti- tutional basis other than the good will of the states. The Second Continen- tal Congress was trivial in comparison with the powerful monarchy of Great Britain. The American navy was too small to be counted as a factor in the beginning, though by its efficiency it did much to determine the outcome. Public sentiment in America was divided and the available resources of the country were insignificant when contrasted with those of the British. The conditions led Great Britain to believe that the war would be a small matter of short duration. The British occupied Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Savannah, Charleston, and Newport, and thwarted the attempt of the Americans upon Canada, but they failed to separate the colonies by their campaigns along the Hudson and Mohawk rivers. The salient features of the progress of the war from the American point of view were: the evacuation of Boston, which gave the colonies confidence in the fighting qualities of the raw colonial troops when they had to contend against the trained soldiers of Great Britain; the battle of Trenton, which renewed hope, courage, and confidence in a waning cause; the battle of Saratoga and the surrender of Burgoyne with seven thousand troops, — counted one of the decisive battles in the history of the world because of its military importance, its greater moral value in giving America prestige in the Courts of Europe, and its effect upon the issue of the war fought for human liberties; the military occupation of the country north of the Ohio by George Rogers Clark and his little band, which caused Great Britain, in the Treaty of Paris, to recognize x\merica's claim to the great Northwest; Greene's campaign in the South, in which he wrested three states from British domination; the capture of Cornwallis at Yorktown, the crowning event of the war. None of the great .Vmerican generals had been technically trained in military science. The}' had onh' the severe, sure, and practical skill acquired in fighting the French and Indians, without which it is difficult to believe that their feats in arms would have been possible. 204 THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR The peace concluded at Paris in 1783 closed one of the most heroic struggles for human liberty that the world has knowTi; but it opened, for the Americans, problems of peace no less serious and difficult of solution than those of war. REVIEW QUESTIONS I. If modern battleships had been in use during the Revolution, would the out- come of the war have been different? 2. Enumerate the advantages of each nation at the beginning of the Revolution. 3. Why were so many of the colonists slow in joining the Revolution? 4. Did the British government have any sound basis, moral or legal, for their policy of coercion? 5. By what right did the second Conti- nental Congress assume legislative and executive functions? 6. In what sense was Jefferson the mouthpiece of the American people? 7. What importance do you attach to the defeat of the British at Saratoga? 8. In what incident of the war did Washington exhibit the finest qualities? 9. In your opinion, what was the most important battle of the war? 10. Who was the real hero of Saratoga? 11. Was Benedict Arnold's act of treachery a result of a change in his character? 12. Were the Indians an important factor in this war? 13. What territory was relinquished by Great Britain by the Peace of Paris, 1783? 14. How was the Revolution an aid to the cause of liberty everywhere? 15. Name some of the serious problems that confronted the Americans when the war was over. 16. Why was the peace treaty formed in Europe? 17. What importance should be attached to the trans- Alle- ghany region in this war? 18. How do you account for the success of the American navy? 19. What effect did the success of the navy have upon our standing abroad? 20. Comment on the following: (i) The Conway Cabal; (2) "Mad Anthony" Wayne; (3) Lafayette; (4) George Rogers Clark; (5) Robert Morris. CHAPTER XII THE FORMATION OF A GENERAL GOVERNMENT REFERENCES Secondary Authorities. — Hart, Formation of the Union; Cambridge Modern History, VII ; Morse, Benjamin Franklin; McLaughlin, Confederation and Con- stitution; Wilson, American People, vol. iii ; Dewey, Financial History; Walker, Making of the Nation; Fiske, Critical Period. Sources. — Hart, Source Book, Contemporaries, II; McDonald, Select Documents; American Leaflets, Nos. 22, 28, 32; Hill, Liberty Documents. Illustrative Material. — Stowe, Minister s Wooing, Oldtown Folks; Watson, Old Bell of Independence. EARLY TENDENCIES TOWARD UNION A common language, common ideas of government, large 258. Efforts sympathy in religion, common danger from the Indians and ^°'' "°i°° , o 7 o 1643, 1690, the French, and common remoteness from the mother country 1754 were factors and conditions in the development of a sense of fellowship among settlers of different colonies, of which sense the New England Confederation of 1643 was the first great public expression. Long before the Revolution men of Massa- chusetts and of Virginia fought side by side and learned the purposes and merits of one another; and many prejudices gave way to that natural affection which neighbor has for neighbor. In 1690, at the suggestion and under the direction of Eng- land, a colonial assembly was held at New York (105) for the purpose of forming a defensive alliance with the Iroquois against the French. Seven years later Wilham Penn outlined for the English Board of Trade a plan of intercolonial union by which a commander-in-chief of the army, appointed by the king, should preside over a council composed of two representatives from each province. Penn was ahead of his time in many ideas. In 1754 Benjamin Franklin offered a plan of union to the 2o6 FORMING A GENERAL GOVERNMENT Albany Congress. It provided for the establishment of a fed- eral body to act as a political clearing-house for all the colonies. A president-general appointed by the crown and a grand council chosen by the general assemblies of the colonies were to constitute this body. Representation in the council was to be based upon the amount of revenue derived from each colony. The congress approved the plan, but the colonies and the Eng- lish government rejected it — the colonies because it gave too much royal power, the government because it was too demo- cratic. Franklin, as well as Pcnn, was a man whose thought anticipated the future. 259. The Though the plan failed, it was, nevertheless, a factor in fndfan War tlevcloping intercolonial union. It brought men together from and the every inhabited section of English America. From Maryland Committees ^^ -^^^ Hampshire colonial leaders met for the first time in of Corre- ^ ... spondence discussion of matters of a common interest. Local jealousies unifying ^^^^^ softened and effort was made to find a general basis from which to consider colonial questions. Some of the best thought of America had been directed toward a plan for uniting the colonies. Almost immediately there followed the French and Indian war, whose effects in removing prejudices and breaking down many other obstacles to union have been stated in a previous chapter. Close upon the heels of this unifying force came another in the preliminaries of the Revolution. If intel- ligent sympathy is the basis of genuine cooperation, doubtless there were few stronger factors in the promotion of the Union than the Committees of Correspondence who disseminated information concerning conditions throughout the colonies. TENDENCIES OF THE REVOLUTION 260. First Prior to the Declaration of Independence the resistance of the ^^^rd'fnde- colonists to the mother country had been based upon their con- pendence ception of their rights as English citizens. They stood together [at^Mnfl"/' from 1760 to 1776 because they believed that English law had ences— l)een violated at their expense by a despotic king. In few 1765-1776 jj^gt.^jj(,gs, and those not before the later years of the period. TENDENCIES OF THE REVOLUTION 207 was there any conception of an independent American power. And yet the movement toward independence is cyclonic in its swiftness during that whole sixteen years. The Stamp Act Con- gress (1765), the Virginia Resolves (1769), the Non-importation Agreements (1769), the Local Committees of Correspondence, (1770-71), the Colonial Committees of Correspondence (1772- 73), the First Continental Congress (1774), and the Second Con- tinental Congress (1775) were factors in developing, not only independence, but also its corollary, colonial union. Having learned to think and to feel and to act as a unit, it was only a short step to political independence and confederation. The climax of the movement was accordingly reached on July 4, 1776, when congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence and set about the drafting of the Articles of Confederation. Having begun the Revolution in defense of their rights as 261. The Englishmen, the colonists now declared their purpose to con- states ante- tinue it in support of their rights as men. The Declaration is the union the first conscious step in the forming of an American nation, °^ states and the contention that "the Union is older than the states" has no basis in fact, for state organizations had been taking form for a whole year before a federal government was seri- ously proposed. Those who make such contention evidently refer to the fact that the Second Continental Congress had directed the joint colonial interests since June, 1775, and that various colonies, under its advice, had formed new state gov- ernments and had adopted new constitutions.' This is true enough. And yet it is evident that in giving such advice ^ Massachusetts' charter had been forfeited in 1774, while in New Hampshire and Virginia the royal governors had vacated, leaving those colonies without legal and constitutional foundation. Accordingly, congress had advised Massachusetts to follow her charter " until a governor of his Majesty's appointment will consent to govern the colony according to the charter." Since New Hampshire had no charter, congress advised "that it be recommended to the provincial convention of New Hampshire to call a full and free representation of the people, and most effectually secure peace and good order, during the continuance of the present dispute between Great Britain and the colonies." 2o8 FORMING A GENERAL GOVERNMENT congress was looking not to a permanent but to a temporary arrangement, and it is equally evident that congress itself did not believe that the union was permanent. It is unques- tionably true that the Union did not in fact create the states. The thought of independent statehood preceded necessarily the thought of independent union. The spirit of union preceded the ultimate form of independent statehood, but by no possi- bility of logic or of fact could the form of independent union have preceded the form of independent statehood. 262. Local The spirit of union — a common sympathy, mutual interests, mustVr^™ a consciousness of the unity of thought and feeling — developed cede a na- rapidly as the Revolution proceeded. As long as the colo- tion spin ^.^^^ \\rere defending their rights as men, as long as they had to fight a common foe in defense of inalienable rights, their policies were remarkably unselfish and considerate of the inter- ests of the colonies as a whole. But when they undertook to form a general government, when it became necessary to define the relations between the states and their common agent — the Union — there was not such unanimity either of spirit or of action. The Revolution had greatly augmented and made secure the spirit of union; it had not yet developed a satis- factory form of union; and, as we shall see, perhaps the chief obstacle to this end was the vigor of independent statehood. WORKING OUT A FORM OF GOVERNMENT 263. Frank- The development of the spirit of union led to the most dra- iin'spian; j^^^-j^, situation in American history. The evolution of a fun- lution; damental law, creating a framework of government and definmg Dickinson's j^.^ parts and their intricate relations, expresses the most phil- osophic process in which the American people have consciously participated. On July 21, 1775, Benjamin Franklin laid before congress a plan of union. Among its provisions was one for the control of commerce by a congress chosen from the states in proportion to population. Each member of congress should have one vote and a minority of the state assemblies might amend the constitution. A common treasury should be WORKING OUT A FORM OF GOVERNMENT 209 created at the expense of all the colonies, and congress should have power to deal with the Indians, with questions of peace and war, and with disputes over boundaries. Franklin's plan was rejected, but the leaven was at work, and on June 7 of the following year, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced a resolution in congress declaring that "these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states," and on June 12 congress resolved "that a committee be appointed to prepare and digest the form of a confederation to be entered into between these colonies." This resolution resulted in a draft, by a committee composed of one delegate from each colony except New Jersey, of the plan of confederation known as the Dickinson draft from the chairman of the committee, John Dickinson of Pennsylvania. The document provided for the control of commerce by the states, permitted each state to send as many as seven and not less than two delegates to the confederate congress, gave the entire delegation from each state only one vote, and made amendments possible only with the consent of all the states. The questions of represen- tation, taxation of property in slaves, regulation of commerce, and control of western lands developed such differences of opinion that numerous amendments delayed its adoption until November 15, 1777. It was then sent to the states for ratification, with the direction that "these articles shall be proposed to the legislatures of all the United States, to be considered, and if approved of by them, they are advised to authorize their delegates to ratify the same in the congress of the United States; which being done, the same shall become conclusive." The document itself should be studied as a whole. It made 264. State no provision for an executive or for a judicial department, sovereignty ^ ■' '^ the essence Congress was to be chosen by the state legislatures and should of the be responsible only to them. The delegates from each state ^'^*"^^®^ should have only one vote, and the votes of nine state dele- gations were necessary to carry any measure. No power was granted to congress to collect either direct or indirect taxes 2IO FORMING A GENERAL GOVERNMENT or to raise an army, and hence congress would be unable to sustain its agreements with foreign nations. Control over domestic commerce was left to the states, and no pressure could be brought to bear by congress upon any individual or upon any member of the Confederation. It is therefore clear from these features that the fundamental idea in the Articles of Con- federation is state sovereignty. Absorbing the very life of the American people, and of congress itself, was the necessity for overthrowing despotism. Restriction of power was the end for which the colonies were fighting, and the conversion of colonies into states carried with it no change of sentiment toward lib- erty. No system of government that would tend to endanger the liberties of individual states could have been adopted. It is perhaps fortunate that Franklin's plan was not submitted to the states for ratification, for it most surely would have been rejected and the colonies would have been without a fundamen- tal law of union. It is not to be inferred, however, that the Articles did not mark a decided step in the direction of a fed- eral union. Feebly, to be sure, but none the less certainly, all the people were turning their gaze toward a common authority. During the Revolution, they necessarily formed the habit of looking to the new government for the direction of foreign affairs. The Confederation could borrow money on its own credit, and could make requisitions upon the states. It had recogni- tion from foreign powers as an independent sovereign nation, and it had jurisdiction over the question of state boundaries. In fact, it was such a long step, as viewed by the colonists, toward centralization of power that it barely escaped being defeated altogether, and its weakness became apparent only after the pressure of war was removed. 265. Claims The large states protested against equality of representation Western ^^ Congress, while the smaller states would accept no other lands basis. But perhaps the most far-reaching debate concerning the relation of the states to the new organization arose over the management and disposal of the western lands. Early charters had made grants "from sea to sea." As WORKING OUT A FORM OF GOVERNMENT 211 time passed it developed that some of these grants overlapped, but in 1774 parliament annexed to Quebec all colonial territory north of the Ohio river. After the Declaration of Independ- ence, the various states reasserted their claims to this region. For example, Virginia brought forward her charter of 1609 (62) and claimed all territory as far as the Mississippi river.^ With greater force, she contended that this region had been conquered from the British by George Rogers Clark, a Virginia officer, in 1778-79, and that, therefore, this territory was hers by right of conquest. Massachusetts claimed under the charter of 1629 all territory west of New York and east of the Mississippi, between those parallels that lie three miles north of the source of the Merri- mac and three miles south of the source of the Charles. New York asserted her right to all lands previously occupied by the Iroquois north of the Tennessee river, because this Indian tribe had previously ceded that region through the governor of New York to the British king. Connecticut had never surrendered her charter of 1662, and therefore desired to retain her territory as far west as the Mississippi. Georgia stood out for her charter limits of 1732, with the addition of the lands lying north of the Floridas and west of her present boundaries back to the Mississippi. North Carolina claimed the present state of Tennessee, and South Carolina claimed a narrow strip between North Caro- lina and Georgia. Against the state land claims in the West, the states which 266. The had no such claims contended that this region had been won ^j^^ g^^^^g from the British with a common treasure of men and money, surrendered They had spilled as much blood and spent as much money general to acquire this territory as any of those who held claims, and, government since these lands had formerly belonged to the mother country, ^ This charter, conveying to Virginia "the land from sea to sea, west and north- west," was annulled in 1624. That of Massachusetts was likewise annulled in 1684. The Carolinas surrendered theirs in 1729, and Georgia hers in 1752. 212 FORMING A GENERAL GOVERNMENT the United States had become heir to all her rights and prerog- atives therein. Under the influence of such arguments, and after stubborn resistance on the part of Maryland, a state with no great unoccupied lands with which to defray her expenses in the Revolution, the states gradually surrendered their claims to this region. New York, in 1780, adopted her present west- ern boundary; Virginia, in 1784, gave up practically all of the territory north of the Ohio river in accordance with a previous agreement; Massachusetts followed in 1785; Connecticut in 1786 (reserving a strip 120 miles long on Lake Erie, afterward known as the Western Reserve); South Carolina in 1787; while North Carolina held out until 1790, and Georgia until 1802. 267. Ratifi- When it became evident that the claims would be surrendered, th^'Tf^ Maryland ratified the Articles of Confederation on March i, 1 78 1, and they immediately became effective. The contest over the Articles shows the difficulty of estab- lishing a central government with even the limited power which the instrument gave. On the other hand, the final acqui- sition of control over the vast western region by congress greatly strengthened the idea of nationality, which was not at all lessened because of the fact that the new government was under the necessity of improvising some form of organization for the territory. 268. Emi- Even before the Revolution had closed, settlers had begun fh*^w° t° ^° push out into the new country. After congress acquired Franklin— Control, it decided to place the land on the market at the price 1784; gov- y£ Qj^g dollar per acre, in order to raise funds with which to dis- ernment of ^ ' the North- charge the war debt, and a stream of emigration set in toward west Terri- ^-j^^. West. After the Revolution the stream became a tide, and tory state governments began to be organized prematurely. In 1784 the settlers along the upper Tennessee set up the "State of Franklin," elected a legislature, and chose John Sevier gover- nor. Although this organization soon dissolved, and the region was reannexed to North Carolina, the settlers were there in great numbers, and others continued to come. WORKING OUT A FORM OF GOVERNMENT 213 JuHN SLVILR In 1785 congress adopted an ordinance providing for the organization of state governments in the western territory under certain conditions, and making possible their admission to the Union. ^ A New England real estate company now tried to establish colonies on the land west of Pennsylvania and north of the Ohio, but found it difficult to induce emigrants to settle in that region because of the absence of civil law there. When the situa- tion was brought before the gov- ernment again, congress, in 1787, with only one negative vote, passed an "Ordinance for the Organization of Government in the Northwest" — the large territory now occupied by the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and the eastern part of Minnesota. This document, though quickly superseded by the Constitu- tion, was extremely important in two ways. In the first place, it gave the settlers of that region the benefits of civil government, and thereby encouraged immigration, while it determined the kind of institutions that should prevail. In the second place, it was a powerful contribution to the idea of nationality, since it opened a vast territory whose inhabitants looked to the United States, rather than to their respective native state governments, for advice and protection. It will be seen later that this region was an important factor in the spread of the idea of national sovereignty. Some of the fundamental provisions of the document are: I. "Slavery and involuntary servitude shall forever be prohibited." ^ It is significant in this connection that the original ordinance contained a clause prohibiting slavery; it is said to have originated with JefEerson, and was defeated by one vote. 214 FORMING A GENERAL GOVERNMENT 269. Fi- nancial dif- ficulties; Robert Morris 2. "Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary for the welfare of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged," 3. "The navigable rivers leading into the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence, and the carrying places between them, shall be common highways and forever free." 4. "The inhabitants shall forever enjoy religious freedom, the habeas corpus, trial by jury, and equal civil and poHtical privileges." WEAKNESS OF THE CONFEDERATION Among other questions with which the Confederation had to deal, and which helped to develop the movement toward stronger union, was the question of finances. Congress did not receive as much money from the sale of the western lands as was expected, so that the national debt, amounting to some $35,000,000, was left unpaid. The soldiers were clamoring for pay, and the credit of the new government was declining both at home and abroad. In 1 78 1 Robert Morris, a wealthy Philadelphia merchant and banker, became superintendent- of-finance. He paid the soldiers (except the officers) by the use of his personal credit, and in- duced congress to charter the Bank of North America — the first bank of a national character in the country. The financial burdens of the Confederation soon became too heavy for Morris, and in I785 he resigned his office, convinced of the weakness of the federal scheme. In foreign relations also the Confederation proved its inade- quacy, and, again made evident the need of a stronger central government. In forming a commercial treaty with Spain, Robert Morris WEAKNESS OF THE CONFEDERATION 215 now in control of Louisiana, and hence of the mouth of the 270. Foreign Mississippi, her government refused free navigation of that g . *\°'^^ • stream. The United States possibly would have yielded to Great Brit- Spain but for the vigorous protest of the Southwest, whose ^'"' ... ^^'^ interests were so closely bound up with the use of this river. Threats of revolt were boldly made by the hardy frontiersmen, and congress very wisely postponed a settlement. Relations with Great Britain were no less unsatisfactory than relations with Spain. Immediately after the Revolution, the old laws of trade which had been used with severity against her competitors on the sea, Great Britain now employed against the Americans. The commercial and industrial interests in this country were crippled, and congress lacked the power to retaliate, since the Articles left with the states the control over commerce. Gold and silver were consumed in payment for the commodities imported from Great Britain, while the trade laws largely restricted American produce to the home market. Business depression prevailed, public and private credit declined, and the number of debtors throughout the country increased at an alarming rate. A cry went up from all over the land for remedial legislation. Lacking confidence in the Confederation, many appealed to the state governments. A paper currency was issued by most of the states, with nothing back of it except their promise to pay. This desperate recourse worked a serious hardship upon the merchants who had invested in goods which could now be sold only for a depreciated piece of paper. But the merchants were not the only dissatisfied class. All of the business interests suffered because of a lack of specie, while the variety of foreign coins in use was a hin- drance to the development of commerce and industry. The expenses of government were heavy, necessitating higher taxes ' than those to which the colonists had been accustomed. The debtor class was large, and growing larger still from day to day. The laws were heavy upon those who could not pay, imprisonment being a common penalty. The whole outlook was gloomy, and the mental depression led to violence. In 2i6 FORMING A GENERAL GOVERNMENT New York, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania, insurrection had to be put down by force, while Tennessee, Kentucky, Ver- mont, and Maine asked that they be allowed to form separate states to the end that they might do something to alleviate the people's sufferings. In Massachusetts, Daniel Shays, in 1787, led about 1800 debtors, mostly farmers, against the United States arsenal at Springfield. State militia met the insurgents at Petersham and put them to rout. The movement lost none of its significance because it was suppressed. Plainly such conditions were intolerable, and, if remedial policies were not soon adopted, could lead to only one result — the dissolution of the American Union. 271. Viola- In the meantime, neither party was fulfilling strictly the terms tions of q£ ^jjg treaty of 1783. Great Britain continued to hold mili- Treaty; in- tary posts within the United States territory, carried away negro ability of slaves without making compensation for them, and seized and Congress ^ '^ ' appropriated private property. The states, on the other hand, would not restore citizenship to Tories, and placed legal obstacles in the way of the collection of debts incurred by the colonists in the early days of the Revolution. Congress could only advise the states how to deal with the question, and the result was that there were as many American commercial policies as there were American states. Some of the states levied high protective tariffs on British goods, and entered upon a commer- cial war with their neighbors. So evident was the weakness of the new government that Thomas Jefferson declared, "There never will be money in the Treasury until the Confederacy shows its teeth." Washington, about the same time, said, "Thirteen colonies pulling against each other, and all tugging at the federal head will soon bring ruin on the whole." In ■ fact, leading citizens, if not many of the common people, had realized the inadequacy of federal power under the Articles almost from the beginning; and in 1786 it was seen that only immediate and radical reform could avert civil strife. In 1 78 1 congress had asked for the power to le\^ a five per cent ad valorem duty on imports, the proceeds to be used in THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 217 the discharge of the public debt. Rhode Island had defeated this proposed amendment, as it was her right to do under the Articles. In 1783 congress asked for the power to levy a five per cent specific duty on imports, to be collected by state offi- cials. New York this time refused her consent, and again twelve of the colonies were defeated. In 1784 it was proposed to give congress the right to pass discriminatory measures against those countries that refused to enter into commercial treaties with the United States. This proposal met with the approval of seven states only, and hence came to nothing. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION In the meantime, various suggestions were made from many 272. Ques- quarters that a "Continental conference" be held for the pur-*'°"^ °^ . . ,, Ti 1 r-r 1 • 1 commerce pose of frammg a Contmental charter. But the effort which (1785) give resulted in the making of the federal Constitution is due to "^^ *° * convention another circumstance. _ 1786 The navigation of the Potomac river was a constant source of trouble between Virginia and Maryland, the one controlling the mouth of the stream, and the other its upper course, while the tariff policy of each state was directed with an eye single to its own welfare, and had resulted in commercial condi- tions that were becoming ruinous. After making unsuccessful attempts to adjust their differences, these states, in 1785, sent commissioners to Alexandria, Virginia, who immediately adjourned to Mount Vernon, and there discussed the whole question of interstate commerce as it applied not only to Vir- ginia and Maryland, but also to the other states that were concerned. This conference was followed the next year (1786) by a conven- tion at Annapolis, the purpose of which was to consider the whole question of both national and domestic commerce. Five states sent delegates to this meeting, which drew up a report recom- mending that a general convention be held in May, 1787, at Philadelphia, for the purpose of amending the Articles of Con- federation. The states immediately began to choose delegates 2l8 for:mixg a general government 273. The Constitu- tional Con- vention — 1787 to such a con\-ention, and congress gradually made up its mind to issue a call for a convention "for the sole and express pur- pose of revising the Articles of Confederation and reporting to congress and the several legislatures such alterations and provisions therein as shall, when agreed upon in congress and confirmed by the states, render the federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of government and the preservation of the Union." At the appointed time, May 25, 1787, delegates gathered from all the states except New Hampshire and Rhode Island. New Hampshire eventually sent representatives, but Rhode Island did not participate at all. Many of the delegates composing the convention were great men. After Washington, who was made president of the body, the names of Hamilton of New York and Madison of Virginia are the greatest in the conven- tion. Madison's Notes are the best source of information con- cerning the proceedings, and have served posterity well in giving the issues and in portraying the men who worked out our funda- mental law. He made a careful study of the history of confed- erate governments and presented the results of his investigations to Washington. He also drafted the "Virginia plan" as a working basis for the convention. He is called the "Father of the Constitution." Hamilton wielded a tremendous influence in launching the new government when once framed. His radical views as to the power, in degree and in kind, that the central government should exercise, weakened the confidence of the convention and injured his usefulness in that body. Benjamin Franklin, although past four-score, with his genial wit and [)rofound wisdom, was a powerful factor in Alexander Hamilton THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 219 the convention. In addition to these men there were fifty-one others of the ablest in America. The convention had not been in session long before it found 274. Plans itself limited by the nature of the call. It had been called to * ^°J' ■' _ ernment revise the Articles. But these had been found to be incapable submitted; of suitable amendment, and the convention began the construe- ^* . ' '^ compromise tion of a new instrument. If such action was usurpation, the people recognized the necessity for it and approved it in ratifying the Constitution. The first plan submitted was brought forward by Edmund Randolph for the Virginia delegation. It provided for a national government consisting of a legislative body of two houses chosen by the states in proportion to population, and judicial and executive bodies appointed by the Congress, or law- making body. Clearly this plan favored the larger states, and it met with vigorous opposition from the smaller states. New York, which was at that time a small state, threatened to with- draw if such a plan was adopted. Connecticut now proposed a scheme by which the powers of the Confederation would be enlarged, but the execution of the federal law would remain with the states. New Jersey proposed a similar scheme in the interest of the smaller states, while Alexander Hamilton read a proposal to establish a strongly centralized government providing for a president and a senate, both to be elected for life. Charles Pinckney of South Carolina also laid before the convention a plan which was in many respects like the Virginia proposal. Finally, after a long series of de- bates, the Virginia scheme was made the basis of procedure. It provided for a legislative branch of government to be com- posed of two houses in each of which representation should be in proportion to population. The plan was attacked by the smaller states, which contended for a congress to consist of one house in which the states should have an equal vote. The result was the first compromise of the Constitution, according to which the states have equal representation in the upper house and proportional representation in the lower house. 220 FORMING A GENEFL'VL GOVERNMENT 275. The The first great problem having been solved, the next question compromise ijiyQiygfj the apportioning of representation in the House of concerning _ '^'^ " '^^ _ slaves as Representatives, and also brought with it the slavery question. property jj^ counting the population for purposes of representation in the lower house should negro slaves be included? The South very naturally said Yes, while the North, with equal consistency, said No. In the matter of direct taxes, also, it was proposed that the sums levied against each state should be in proportion to its population, including negroes. The South now very naturally said No, while the North, with equal positiveness, said Yes. North Carolina threatened to withdraw if such plan was adopted. The whole matter was settled by adopting the three-fifths, or federal, ratio; that is, three-fifths of the slaves were to be counted both for the purposes of representation and taxation. This ratio was nothing new; for purposes of taxa- tion it had already obtained by act of the congress under the Confederation. 276. The It has already been observed (270) that one of the chief compromise ^j^.f^^-j-g qJ ^^^q Confederation was its lack of power over com- concermng ' commerce merce. New England in particular had consecjuently been a tation°of°'^" ^^''^'^T sufferer from British industrial competition and discrimi- slaves nation. When efforts were made to give to Congress the power to protect American interests against a repetition of such abuses, Southern members objected for fear it might injure Southern agricultural interests by reason of an export duty. The issue was finally settled by a compromise providing that Congress should have the right to regulate commerce, but no right to prohibit the slave trade for twenty years. As a concession to the Southern states export taxes or duties were forbidden. 277. Fears After agreement upon the main features of the Constitution, the document was referred to various committees for perfection as to form. When it came back to the body for final adoption some of the members had given up in disgust and returned home. Gerry of Massachusetts and Randolph and Mason of Virginia refused to sign it on the ground that it was too centralized. Thirty-nine members of twelve states signed the document and of central! zation THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 221 transmitted it to congress and to the various states to be acted upon by state conventions. The Constitution provides three departments of government 278, The — legislative, executive, and judicial. This plan was a result legislative, . 1.1 judicial, and of the desire to obviate the weakness of the Articles without executive endangering the rights of the states and the people through ^^'^^^^'""^ centralization. Each department is given power over the others and each is given a means of defense against the others. The president wields a negative power over legislation through the veto, and is subject to impeachment by Congress. Through the power of pardon he exercises a judicial function, and the justices of the Supreme Court are appointed by him. The legislative power is vested in Congress, and in the Senate's right to ratify or reject treaties and executive appointments that body holds a check upon the executive. The House, a body representing the majority of the people of all the states, wields the initiative in taxation. The Supreme Court and inferior courts exercise the judicial power, and whenever the Supreme Court declares a law unconstitutional, it exercises a power to defeat legislation. The arrangements here described make the government one of "checks and balances." When it is remem- bered that the framers of the Constitution had had recent experience with the concentration of power in the hands of royal governors, it is not surprising that they contrived a system that automatically checks the exercise of centralized functions. Congress was given jurisdiction over taxation, money, terri- tories, coinage, commerce, patents, copyrights, post-offices, and weights and measures, in addition to the powers exercised under the Articles of Confederation. The federal government was further strengthened with the power to enforce its will. When its law is disobeyed, it operates directly upon the individual citizen through its courts. It can declare unconstitutional a state law that involves the federal Constitution, and has the power to settle disputes between states. By the terms of the Constitution, when nine of the states 2 22 FORMING A GENERAL GOVERNMENT .279. Oppo- should ratify it, it should go into efTcct "between the states so sition to the j.^j.jf jj^g the same." It is not difficult to explain why the Constitution ^ o . . _, • i , document met with so much opposition. The convention had exceeded its authority; large numbers of the people did not understand the weaknesses of the Confederation; some were suspicious of "these lawyers, and men of learning, and moneyed men that talk so finely and gloss over matters so smoothly," while the love of free local institutions was too deep in the hearts of a vast majority of the people for them to accept any set of measures that might endanger their liberties. Moreover, there was no Bill of Rights, as was found in most of the state consti- tutions with which the people were familiar. This omission looked suspicious to those who had just passed through so many years of conflict with centralized powers. 280. Begin- Ui)on adjournment of the Convention its members returned to ning of their respective states, and for the most T)art became champions political ' ... -11 parties; the of the Constitution. They organized for systematic work and discussion; i),_>gmi the Struggle for ratification. They astutely called them- eralist " selves " Federalists " with the purj^ose of conveying the idea that they favored the preservation of state rights, for the strongest opposition to the Constitution planted itself squarely upon the idea that too much power was being filched from the states. Among the leaders of the opposition were such Revolutionary I)atriots as Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams, whose party naturally took the name of "Anti-Federalists." Each side, with pamphlets and speeches, solicited votes, and every detail of the Constitution was subjected to the severest criticism. The Senate would become, some thought, the seat of aristocracy, where the rights of the common man would be trampled under foot. The President, they feared, would de- velop into a despot no less odious than the one whose tyranny they had just escaped. The Supreme Court would become an Inquisition, destroying the life and liberty of the citizens. The opposition was somewhat mitigated by the promise of a Bill of Rights, which accordingly was drawn up and adopted immcdiatclv after the inauguration of the new government; THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 223 this Bill of Rights became the first ten amendments, which are designed to protect the life and liljerty of the individual against the power of arbitrary government. Great influence upon the election was exerted by a series of papers issued from New York and known as The Federalist. Alexander Hamilton was the inspiring genius of these discus- sions, and he was ably seconded by James Madison and John Jay. Hamilton, who had little leaning toward a republic, supported the Constitution for the single reason that it was a stronger form of organization than the Articles, yet no abler or more effective arguments for the document were ever produced than his. The ratifying conventions, chosen by popular elections in 281. The the respective states, began to meet late in the autumn of 1787. state con- . ' o ^ / / ventions; In a short time Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, ratification and Connecticut had ratified in the order named. The contest in Massachusetts proved to be the crisis. The influence of John Hancock, who was president of the ratifying convention, was against the Constitution until a political change in his state held out to him the prospect of the governorship. Then, too, Massachusetts had a right to fear centralization, and she very positively insisted on a list of amendments. After dickerings and long debates the ratification measure was adopted (Febru- ary, 1788) by a vote of 187 to 168. This action on the part of Massachusetts turned the scales in favor of the Constitution, and Maryland followed in April, South Carolina in May, and New Hampshire, the ninth state, in June. Virginia was slow, though the new instrument was supported by Washington, Madison, and Edmund Randolph. By sub- mitting a long list of proposed amendments, Virginia ratified the Constitution June 25, 1788, by the close vote of 89 to 79. New York, likewise, was slow; but after a stubborn fight between Governor Clinton and Alexander Hamilton, the meas- ure succeeded in passing, by a vote of 30 to 27 on the next day after Virginia's ratification. The convention in North Carolina adjourned without rati- 224 FORMING A GENERAL GOVERNMENT fication, but a second convention ratified on November 21, 1780. Rhode Island held aloof until May 29, 1790. SUMMARY The development of the Anglo-Saxon (19) became very rapid in America. His inherent love of order, and especially of freedom, made him a fit instru- mentality for building an independent nation. The building process is seen at various times during the colonial period and much more clearly in the Revolutionary war. By 1776 the spirit of American nationality was being well developed, and it continued to grow with remarkable rapidity. While the war was going on, and more especially after it had been won, the general form of the American nation was being worked out. The colonies, still fearing despotic power, and still cherishing a local patriotism which had developed through long years of hardship, looked upon the weak central government in its formative period as the agent of the several states acting together. From 1776 to 1781, questions of war were more important than questions of peace. When a formidable enemy is at the door there is no time for debating constitutional law. The first results, therefore, of con- scious effort to frame an American government were extremely meager. So little power was given to the central government that as soon as the stress of war was removed and men turned their thought to civil affairs it became apparent that a stronger organization was necessary. Accord- ingly, a convention was called to meet in Philadelphia for the purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation. When it met in 1787 it threw the Articles overboard and constructed the Constitution. After much debate this document was adopted by a sufficient number of states to make it efTective, with the somewhat general proviso, expressed or tacit, that the states surrendered thereby none of their sovereignty. The spirit of union had thus worked out a form of government. REVIEW QUESTIONS I. Show clearly how the .\lbany Congress (1754) was a preparation for inter- colonial union. 2. What influence did the public domain have upon the formation of the union? 3. Distinguish clearly between the spirit and the form of the union. 4. Was the Confederation a more compact form of union than that existing in 1776? 5. Why did the colonies construct such a weak form of government at first? 6. What were some of the weaknesses that became apparent soon after the Revolution closed? Why did they not become apparent before? 7. By what authority did the Constitutional Convention draw up a new fundamental law? 8. Why was the period from 1781 to 1780 a critical period? g. Were Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry consistent in opposing the adoption of the Constitution? 10. Would the Constitution have been adopted if its friends had advocated the abolition of state sovereignty? Give a reason for your answer. part III THE NATIONALIZING PROCESS — 1 789-1875 CHAPTER XIII A CONFLICT OF NATIONAL IDEALS REFERENCES Secondary Authorities. — Hart, Formation of the Union; Wilson, The American People, vol. iii; Bassett, Federalist System; Walker, Making of the Nation; Morse, Thomas Jefferson; Conant, Alexander Hamilton; Lodge, George Washington. Sources. — Hart, Source Book, Contemporaries, vol. iii; MacDonald, Select Documents. Illustrative Material. — Brackenridge, Modern Chivalry. INTERNAL FACTORS IN THE CENTRALIZING PROCESS In the campaign for ratification, the advocates of the Con- 282. The stitution had promised to favor certain amendments to be fathers" '■ purpose to added so soon as the new government should be organized, uphold state Moreover, they wilKngly allowed the people to believe, if they "s^^^ did not intentionally lead them to believe, that in ratifying the Constitution they in no way sacrificed the sovereignty of their several states. There can be no doubt that if a great number of the voters had not so believed, the attempt to form a new government would have been defeated, and the Articles of Confederation would have remained an uncertain force for an uncertain time. Yet the two ideas which had divided the voters into two camps waged war upon each other as vigorously as ever. Those who had favored the Constitution now sought by a policy of "loose construction" to give to the government as much power as possible within the most liberal interpretation of that document, while their opponents, maintaining the 226 CONFLICT OF NATIONAL IDEALS contrary policy of a "strict construction" of the Constitution, demanded that the new government be limited in the exercise of power, in order to secure the people against oppression. The former party, known as Federalists, naturally attracted a large part of the aristocratic element of the country, while the latter party, known as Anti-Federalists, appealed especially to the common people, and to conservatives generally. 283. The The basis upon which the conflict between the two ideas was people vs. a ^^ ^^ waged under the Constitution had been foreshadowed by privileged ° -' class the declarations of two of the foremost men of the times. In 1787 John Adams had said in his studied Defense of the American Constitution that "the rich, the well born, and the able . . . must be separated from the mass and placed by them- selves in a senate." In the same year Thomas Jefferson wrote: "I am persuaded that the good sense of the people will always be found the best army. They may be led astray for a moment, but will soon correct themselves." It is not difficult to see in these assertions two distinct ideas and ideals of national organi- zation. Federalist doctrine carried to its logical conclusion meant government by the powerful class, while Anti-Federalist doctrine, as understood by the people at this time, meant decen- tralization and perhaps final dissolution. The adjustment, and possible reconciliation, of these two ideals of national organiza- tion was the task of the next three-quarters of a century or more. Nationality must take deeper root, if the American nation would be preserved; democracy must hold the reins of government, if the people would be secured in their rights. He would have been a prophet, indeed, who could ha\'e foreseen the outcome of the conflict — the democratized nationality of the twentieth century America. ^ 284. The Washington received every vote of the electors, because he country ^^^g everywhere recognized as the logical man for the place. its first He had successfully led his country through the Re\'olution, President j^^^^j presided over the convention that formed the Constitution, ^ These diflerences in political theory did not show themselves, however, in the first presidential election. THE CENTRALIZING PROCESS 227 and had been a wise and patriotic counsellor in all matters of public interest. His pure, strong, and well-balanced character marked him out as the man best fitted for the office. That he was a Virginia aristocrat and a very wealthy planter told perhaps in his favor with those who participated extensively at this time in governmental affairs, while his military renown attracted to his support the great numbers of people who had desired the success of the Revolution. It would perhaps be too much to say that he belonged to the Federalist party, yet he had strongly advocated the adoption of the Constitution. Though his great heart was so responsive to the needs of all humanity that he was in the large sense democratic, he was yet thoroughly convinced of the necessity of a stronger central government, and bent all his energies to making the federal power respected and obeyed. He was neither a profound scholar nor a political philoso- pher, in the sense in which that term is ordinarily used. His chief claim to the admiration of posterity is his seeing the needs of his country at that particular time and his having the courage to supply them to the extent of his ability. What better claim can statesmen wish? If he seemed to yield more to the advice of Hamilton than to that of Jefferson, it was because he felt the imperative necessity of making the federal government an effective instrument for the promotion of the public good. The elevation of such a man to the presidency of the new government went far toward creating confidence in its motives and its policies. According to the constitutional provision, the names of the 285. Adams candidates for president and vice-president were not segregated, f^^ HamU- and in the first election Alexander Hamilton became fearful tranged George Washington 228 CONFLICT OF NATIONAL IDEALS that Adams, who really desired the vice-presidency, might get more votes than Washington, and consequently become presi- dent. The scheme to prevent such result lessened the vote for Adams, who had never endangered Washington's election to the presidency, and caused a long and ugly estrangement between Adams and Hamilton. But Adams became vice-presi- dent, and thus a Federalist, a proud New England aristocrat by nature, was called to preside over the first Senate. 286. Wash- The congress of the Confederation had set the first Wednesday au^uratioir ' "^ March, 1 789, as the time when the new Congress should con- his cabinet vene, count the votes of the presidential electors, and proceed to the inauguration of the new government. But on account of the difficulties of travel in those days. Congress did not assemble until the first week in April, and the inauguration of the president was delayed until April 30. Washington's journey to New York had been one continuous ovation to "Columbia's Savior," and on his arrival he was given an enthu- siastic reception by thousands of people from different parts of the country. The inaugural ceremonies were marked with solemn pomp and regal formality. The president's address breathed the same solemnity of spirit, though it clearly revealed a deep consciousness of responsibility. The whole occasion, like Washington's election, had the effect of increasing the national sentiment. In the meantime, the new Congress was already at work. After voting the president an annual salary of $25,000, a very large sum for those days, it proceeded to the organization of the executive departments. Thomas Jefferson became the first secretary of state, Henry Knox, the first secretary of war, Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary of the treasury, and Samuel Osgood, the first postmaster-general. The last named official was not considered a member of the cabinet, while the attorney-general was not at this time the head of any depart- ment, although he was constantly called into consultation with the president. These officers were appointed by the presi- dent and confirmed by the Senate, but, after a hard-fought THE CENTRALIZING PROCESS 229 battle, the president was given plenary power over removals.^ The duty of these officers is indicated in their respective titles, but they are expected also to advise with the president indi- vidually and collectively about all matters of administration. The president may or may not follow their advice. Article III of the Constitution directs: "The judicial power 287. The of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and ^" '^'^"^^ Steuben Gov A St Clair Sec'y S A Otib Roger Sherman Gov E Clinton. Chancellor R R Livingston John Adams Gen Henry Knox. George Washington. Washington t.aking the Oath as President, April 30, 1789 in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both of the supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and shall, at all times, receive for their services, a compensation which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office." Under the authority herein granted, Congress (September 24, 1789) created the Supreme Court,- consisting of a chief- ^ Congress has since created the ofSces of attorney general, secretary of the navy, secretary of the interior, secretary of agriculture, secretary of commerce, and secretary of labor. * There are (1913) nine judges on the supreme bench. 23© CONFLICT OF NATIONAL IDEALS justice and five associate-justices, three Circuit Courts, and thirteen District Courts. The Supreme Court has final juris- diction over all infractions of the federal law, though cases may originate in the Federal District Court, may be appealed from this court to the Circuit Court, and from thence to the Supreme Court. Cases involving the federal law may be appealed from the highest state courts to the Supreme Court of the United States. It should be remembered, too, that it is the function of the Supreme Court to pass on the constitutionality of only such laws as are involved in cases brought before that body. 288. The Congress kept faith with the people in the matter of the Bill of Rights pj.Qj^jggg jj^^jg ^y ^j^g advocates of the Constitution (280). Some four hundred proposed amendments to the Constitution were reduced to twelve, which were submitted to the states for ratification. The promptness with which ten of them were ratified by three-fourths of the states shows that there was uneasiness in the public mind as to the powers granted the new government. The amendments have been very appropriately styled a Bill of Rights, since they deal with such questions as trial by jury, freedom of the press and of speech, and such personal rights as had been trampled upon in previous days. Articles IX and X are especially significant. "The enumera- tion in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people"; and "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people," indicate how jealous were the people of their local independence. There could be no perma- nent union which did not cherish the principles of the Bill of Rights. Possibly the great majority of those who had voted for the ten amendments had been unconscious of the fact that in so voting they were encouraging a permanent nationality; indeed, their purpose was almost unfriendly to such result; they had in mind the limiting of arbitrary power, and not the per- petuation of the central government; necessarily, however, in achieving their conscious purpose, they were acting as in- THE CENTRALIZING PROCESS 231 strumentalities in the great work of development committed to the Anglo-Saxon "in the dark backward and abysm of time." The amendments became part of the Constitution, and the Union became dear to many who had formerly feared it. If in America it had ever been possible to avert a clash 289. Jeffer- between centralization and local self-government, the conflict ^°"^^^^*'" surely became inevitable when Alexander Hamilton was ap- democracy pointed secretary of the treas- ury, and Thomas Jefferson secretary of state. Each a dis- tinguished patriot, no two men ever more perfectly typified, in personality and in policy, two opposing ideas. Merely to say that Jefferson was the author of the Declaration of Independ- ence is to say that he was the greatest democrat of all the Revolutionary statesmen. He was perhaps the closest student of political literature and theories of government on the American continent. It is said that he could quote passage after passage from Locke, and that he lived in close touch with the great French school of philosophers, Rousseau being his favorite. It is no wonder that his heart was close to the people, though by birth he was an aristocrat. His attitude toward his fellow man and his political thinking are nowhere better reflected than in his inaugural address. Among other things he said : "All . . . will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression. . . . Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he then be trusted with the government of others? Or have Thomas Jefferson 232 CONFLICT OF NATIONAL IDEALS we found angels in the form of kings, to govern him? . . . Absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism; . . . the diffusion of information, and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of public reason; freedom of religion ; freedom of the press; and freedom of person, under the protection of the Habeas Corpus . . . these principles . . . should be the creed of our political faith, the test of civic instruction, the touchstone by which to try the services of those we trust." 290. Hamil- In vivid contrast to Jefferson was the great secretary of the ton's lean- treasury. Hamilton was personally attractive, quick, shrewd, incfs towflxd *. *f monarchy and self-reliant. He possessed natural administrative ability, and was the greatest public financier that America has pro- duced. He brought with him to the cabinet a wealth of experience in the Revolution, in the practice of law, and in the congress of the Confederation. An able advocate of the adoption of the Constitution, he yet had little confidence in popular government, and little interest in the aspirations of mankind. To him, government by the people was no govern- ment at all. Perhaps if his real political philosophy could be known he would be found at heart a monarchist. He fought for the ratification of the Constitution because it offered a stronger system of government than the Articles provided, and was the nearest approach to centralization possible at that time. His own words may best exhibit his character: "Per- haps no man . . . has sacrificed or done more for the present Constitution than myself; and, contrary to all my anticipa- tions of its fate ... I am still laboring to prop the frail and worthless fabric. . . . Every day proves to me more and more this American world was not made for me." Again, on one occasion he declared: "Sir, your people is a great beast." With such differing convictions, and each with the courage to press them, it was impossible that Jefferson and Hamilton should not fight from the moment the new government was launched; while it was equally sure from the beginning that THE CENTRALIZING PROCESS 233 the contest would be waged around the fundamental question of the powers that the federal government ought to exercise. Perhaps the first serious matter to confront the new govern- 291. The ment was one that belonged primarily in Hamilton's department. ^^"°y^ ^7 It was the question of finances. The United States owed a ficuity; the foreign debt of $11,000,000 and a domestic debt of $40,000,000, *" increasing at a high rate of annual interest, and there was no money in the treasury. The credit of the country, both at home and abroad, was extremely poor, while the certificates of the domestic debt were below par. Business was unsettled, as was natural in a period which saw the first stages of govern- ment in what the world called an untried experiment. To meet the conditions, Hamilton laid before Congress a series of plans, which for the rnost part found their way in substance to the federal statute books. The first of his pro- posal, a scheme which he hoped would pay the interest on the public debt and defray the current expenses of the government, dealt with import duties. Before he came into office. Congress had passed the first Tariff Act in the history of the United States (July 4, 1789). The debates over this measure contain arguments very similar to those which have been used pro and con on this question from that day until this. Some wanted to protect "our infant manufactures," particularly Massachusetts.^ South Carolina feared "oppression" from such a policy, and had the sympathy of other states. The bill as finally passed provided for an ad valorem duty on several articles, averaging about eight per cent, and a specific duty on others. The rate was looked upon as rather high at the time, and no doubt the manufacturers were jubilant over their initial victory, a mere foretaste of what was to follow, for although the tariff schedules have had attention constantly ever since, the average rate has never again been so low. The measure brought an inadequate ' Some wished "to give great encouragement to the establishment of manufac- tures, by laying such partial duties on the importation of foreign goods, as to give the home manufactures a considerable advantage in price when brought to market." They believed "it both politic and just that the fostering hand of the general government should extend to all those manufactures which tend to national utility." tion' 1794 234 CONFLICT OF NATIONAL IDEALS revenue, so the next year, and again in 1792, upon the recom- mendation of Hamilton, the duties were raised. 292. Hamil- To supplement the tariff revenue and to exert the power of "°widV^^ the federal government, Hamilton induced Congress (March 3, Insurrec- 1791) to lay an excise on whiskey. The tax was low and did not bring a great amount of revenue at best, while it bore heavily upon the Western frontiersmen, with whom whiskey was the chief medium of exchange,^ and, therefore, affected not only the distillers, but every man in the whole Western country. Through public gatherings the people protested against the tax, and in many instances threatened and intimidated the revenue collectors. On July 17, 1794, matters came to a crisis in southwestern Pennsylvania, when a mob attacked and burned the house of Inspector General Neville. Then came Hamilton's opportunity to show the ability of the new govern- ment to cope with difficulties. Accordingly, under the direc- tion of Washington, he accompanied an army of 13,000 militia gathered from Virginia, New Jersey, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, over the mountains to the scene of the troubles. The army met with no resistance, and soon returned home. Some of the leaders of the insurrection were arrested, tried, and convicted, but were soon pardoned by the president. 293. Demo- In a message to Congress, Washington made unfriendly crats call references to certain classes of citizens who by continued themselves ■' Republicans agitation fomented insurrections and encouraged "suspicions, jealousies, and accusations of the whole government." He evidently had in mind the democratic clubs that were formed under French influence. To avoid the possible reflection that might come through the identity of names, Jefferson's associates began to call themselves Republicans. In the meantime, Hamilton had been working on the finan- cial question along another line. It was generally agreed that foreign obligations should be paid in full. Hamilton proposed ^ " Western Pennsylvania at this time was primarily an aRricultural region. The principal crop was corn. Transportation was diflficuit and markets were remote. To dispose of their surplus grain, therefore, the farmers converted much of it into whiskey, which was used as a standard of value to take the place of money." THE CENTRALIZING PROCESS 235 to discharge the domestic debt in the same liberal fashion, 294. Hamil- paying to the holders of the certificates their face value. This 1°° ^ }"f^ would have been acceptable to the interested parties but for policy; the the fact that many of these certificates were no longer in the ^^^ ^.^^"®'^* hands of the original holders and had depreciated in value, tions Hamilton's plan, therefore, was attacked on the ground that it would not be fair to the original owners of such certificates, and Madison proposed that the government pay the legal holder the amount of his investment, and that the difference between this amount and the face value of the certificates be paid to the original holders. But Hamilton insisted that the government's credit must be strengthened, and that Congress could strengthen it only by paying par value for all outstanding certificates by whomsoever held. He won his contention before Congress, and government securities began to rise. Hamilton now went a long step farther and proposed the 295. The assumption of state debts. This plan was supported on the ^?^"™^^'°° ground that these debts were incurred in a common cause debts against Great Britain and should, therefore, be paid for out of the common treasury. It was opposed on the groimd that some of the states — notably Virginia — had discharged a part of their debts, and that it would be an injustice to them to make them assist in paying all the debts • of the others. A more fundamental objection, perhaps, was the fear that cen- tralization was implied in the proposal. The measure would have carried but for the arrival of the members of Congress from North Carolina, that state having but recently ratified the Constitution. Fortunately for the measure, it now became bound up in the controversy over the federal capital. It was soon ascertained that a small majority in Congress favored establishing the permanent capital somewhere in the North — preferably, perhaps, in Pennsylvania. To this the South, Virginia especially, was strongly opposed.^ Hamilton saw the ' The issue became so vital that one member declared: "The question is to be settled which must determine whether this government is to exist for ages, or be dispersed among contending winds." 236 CONFLICT OF NATIONAL IDEALS struction and " implied powers " opportunity; he proposed to Jefferson a compromise: the South should have the capital, if she would vote for the assumption of the state debts; and the compromise was effected, Jefferson influencing enough Virginia votes to turn the scales in favor of Hamilton's assumption measure, and Hamilton obtaining enough Northern votes to place the capital in the South. ^ The great treasurer had won a,gain in his nationalizing process, j 296. The Perhaps the most important of all Hamilton's measures, and bank- ^^^^ which did most to draw the lines of demarcation between " loose con- the two fields of political thought, was the proposal to establish a national bank. In support of the measure, he urged that it would furnish the government an easy and effective method of collecting and disbursing the public moneys, and that it would improve business conditions through loans to business men. Of course he could see that it would tend to make the business interests of the country subservient to the federal government, and would, therefore, greatly contribute to his general purpose of centralization. When the bill had passed both houses over stubborn opposition by Madison and others who believed with him, and had come to the president for his signature, Washington called for the written opinion of his cabinet. Jefferson opposed the measure on the ground that the Constitution did not give Congress the power to charter banks, and that according to the tenth amendment all powers not specifically delegated to Congress by the Constitution were reserved to the states or to the people respectively. Hamilton, on the other hand, argued that the Constitution conferred such a power upon Congress because it authorized that body "to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the fore- going powers," "to lay and collect taxes," and "to pay the debts" of the federal government. In other words, he asserted that such power was "implied" even if not definitely granted. His doctrine of "loose construction" fitted in well with the Hamiltonian idea of government, for it gave to the central power extensive discretion in the exercise of its functions, while * A few months later President Washington chose the site on the Potomac. THE CENTRALIZING PROCESS 237 the opposite doctrine of "strict construction" was no less compatible with Jefferson's democratic view that people should be protected against the tyranny of arbitrary government. Henceforward there were two well-defined political parties in the United States, and, in a way, they have continued to fight over the poli- cies and principles developed in this bank controversy. Washington agreed with Ham- ilton, signed the measure, and the national banking system came into being. The cen- tral bank was established at Philadelphia, and eight branch banks were opened in other cities. The system was capitalized at $10,000,000, the United States government owning one-fifth of the stock. Another step had been taken toward the fulfil- ment of Hamilton's scheme of centralization. Bank of the United States, 1797 EXTERNAL FACTORS IN CENTRALIZATION While Jefferson and Hamilton were contending over the meaning of the Constitution, thousands of immigrants were 297. Growth building homfes in the fertile valleys of the Ohio, the Cumber- °^ ^^^ ^^^* ^ 111 promotes land, the Tennessee, the Wabash, and the Maumee. The nationality Ordinance of 1787 (268) had provided for the organization of the Northwest Territory into states under certain conditions. In 1790 Congress passed an act which made possible the organi- zation of the "Territory South of the Ohio." Population now increased rapidly. Vermont was admitted in 1791, and three new states west of the Alleghanies came into the Union near the 238 CONFLICT OF NATIONAL IDEALS close of the century — Kentucky in 1792, Tennessee in 1798, and Ohio in 1803, while Indiana Territory was organized in 1800. In dealing with all this region Congress found abundant oppor- tunity for gaining power and using it. The receding frontier had brought inevitable conflict vnih the Indians. Both the legislative and executive departments continually endeavored to prevent friction by enacting laws and making treaties of peace that sought to segregate the two races as much as possible. Despite their efforts, however, war broke out in 1789, and the troops under General Harmer were twice defeated. Two years later, General St. Clair was surprised and defeated, and his army almost annihilated, at Fort Recovery. The administration was greatly exasperated, and committed to Mad Anthony Wayne the duty of regaining the ascendancy. After his victory over the Indians at Maumee, the government was able to secure a treaty by which eastern and southern Ohio were left in undisturbed possession of the whites. Other uprisings of Indians in different parts of the West were put down in the same way, the government in each case dictating the terms of peace. It is not difficult to see that the frontier was unconsciously, but none the less surely, doing its part in the process of nationalization. 298. Wash- The closing months of Washington's first administration * ington be- -^ygj-e full of anxiety over foreign complications which widened second term; the gulf between Federalists and Democrats, and made clearer J^^'if'^'^® °^the principles which each party advocated. The French Revolution Revolution had broken out in 1789 and France was under- going a tremendous political, social, economic, and intellectual transformation that involved all Europe. The ntovement was essentially democratic and, although it occasioned unpardonable excesses, in most respects it contended for the same issues that had been at stake at Lexington and had been won at Yorktown. The monarchy was abolished in the autumn of 1792, and the king was executed in the following January. The democracy ^ Washington had been reelected without opposition in 1792, and began his second term on March 4, 1793. THE CENTRALIZING PROCESS 239 of France delighted the great mass of American citizens, but spread consternation throughout the Old World and led to a coalition of European powers against the new republic. Early in April, 1793, news reached America that England and France were at war, A wave of popular good-will to France swept from Georgia to New York, and would have drawn America into war but for the wise and firm policy of Washington and his cabinet. On April 12, the president requested the secretary of state and the secretary of the treasury to consider the question of the proper relation of the United States govern- ment to the affairs of Europe. A week later, at a meeting of the cabinet, it was unanimously agreed that the United States "should with sincerity and good faith, adopt and pursue a conduct friendly and impartial toward the belligerent powers." Even Jefferson, who had been United States Minister to France in the early days of the Revolution, and who knew how to appreciate the efforts of French democracy, and whose party was almost to a man in sympathy with the Revolution, was firmly of the opinion that " the young republic, as yet without assured power or established friendships in the world, its own government still in its first stages of experiment, must stand neutral in European wars." ^ Hamilton, whose party was par- ticularly strong in the commercial districts, leaned perceptibly toward England and regarded with abhorrence the subversive character of the Revolution. If he had previously distrusted popular government, he now saw positive proof that it led unmistakably to anarchy. He therefore wished to break with France by renouncing our treaties, which had been formed in the days of the Revolutionary war, regarding trade and the defense of the French West Indies. He took the position that since these agreements had been made with the French mon- archy which had lately been abolished, they were no longer binding. This view harmonized beautifully enough with Hamilton's monarchistic ideas, which exalted governors at the expense of the governed. However, he was perhaps in a measure ^ Woodrow Wilson, .4 Ilislory of the A merican People. 240 CONFLICT OF NATIONAL IDEALS 299. Neu- trality pro- clamation displeases France ; Citizen Genet driven to this extreme position by the conviction "that, if these gentlemen [referring to Madison and Jefferson] were left to pursue their own course, there would be, in less than six months, AN OPEN WAR BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND GrEAT Britain." He could see in Jefferson only "a man electrified plus with attachment to France," and he told a friend that "they [Madison and Jefferson] forget . . . that it is much easief to raise the devil than to lay him." But to renounce our treaties with France because they had been made with a previous and essentially different administration, was utterly repulsive to Jefferson's democratic sympathies, which looked upon government as the agent of the people. He felt that covenant relations had been entered into with the French people and not with any particular form of government; a change, therefore, from monarchy to republic in no way dimin- ished obligations in the matter. Jefferson was ably supported in this view by Randolph, and this phase of America's relations with Europe went unsettled for the time. The neutrality proclamation, issued April 26, 1793, greatly disappointed the French revolutionists, and was a prime factor in producing an estrangement between the two countries that led to hostilities a few years later. It committed the United States to a foreign policy of non-interference with European affairs, and thereby set a precedent that has saved the American people a tremendous amount of trouble. France now sent her Citizen Genet as minister to the United States. Immediately after landing he began to court the democratic element of the people with a view of obtaining assistance for the French revolutionists. He succeeded in arousing enthusiasm throughout the country and began organiz- ing democratic clubs, modeled after the Jacobin clubs of Paris. He even went so far in his misguided efforts as to raise volun- teers, commission officers, and plan an expedition against New Orleans, then belonging to Spain. Contrary to the advice and admonition of Jefferson, he sent out from Philadelphia a well- equipped cruiser, and thus lost the respect of those who at THE CENTRALIZING PROCESS 241 first had received him with favor. He was at length recalled by France, but did not return to that country because, doubt- less, he feared the violence of the French government. The incident had intensified party feeling in America, the Hamil- tonians reproachfully calling their opponents " Democrats," after the French terrorists, and the party of Jefferson calling the Hamiltonians " the British party." But if the neutrality proclamation disappointed France, it 300. in no wise won the friendship of Great Britain. The treaty .°^^^^^ of Paris (1783), had supposedly settled all troubles between the Great United States and the mother country, but as a matter of *^^ fact there had not been strict compliance with this treaty by either party. Great Britain still retained numerous posts in the Northwest, and had violated her agreement relative to the removal of slaves. The United States had failed to lend assist- ance to the British in the collection of debts incurred by the colonists before the. Revolution. To all these irritants was now added that of the impressment of American sailors. British men-of- war habitually seized American vessels, confiscated their goods, and forced their seamen to enter the British service. Because of racial identity, it was sometimes* difficult to establish the illegality of the act. In addition to all these causes of friction both France and Great Britain had taken the position that provisions were contraband of war; i.e., subject to seizure without legal process. This, with other restrictions upon American com- merce, had practically closed the doors to the shipping interests of America. Feeling was at white heat over the situation when Washington appointed Chief Justice John Jay special commissioner to Great Britain to arrange a settlement. John Jay 242 CONFLICT OF NATIONAL IDEALS 301. Jay's After months of tedious diplomacy, Jay concluded a treaty treaty; (November, 1794) to the effect that Great Britain would aban- France don, on June i, 1796, all posts within the territory of the United States and would refer to a commission the matter of boundary disputes and compensation for slaves. Nothing was accom- plished with respect to the impressment controversy. Jay's treaty was distinctly unsatisfactory to many Americans, and particularly so to the commercial and industrial interests. Jay was burned in effigy and Washington was made the target of the most stinging criticism, so that he declared he "would rather be in his grave than in the presidency." After a bitter fight, however, the Senate, June 24, 1795, ratified the treaty by the required majority, the vote standing 20 to 10. The treaty had three important results: (i) it postponed an inevitable conflict with Great Britain; (2) it greatly weakened the I^deralist party; (3) it renewed French antagonism to the United States. It was this last result which became immediately important. France was so irritated over the establishment of peace with the British that she no longer courted America. In February, 1796, James Monroe, minister to France, was notified that the Jay treaty had abrogated the French treaties with the United States. A few months later, the commission of the French minister to the United States was revoked; still, the minister remained in an unofficial capacity and tampered with the elections which were being held in the autumn. 302. Presi- Washington announced his unwillingness to serve longer as president, and there was a strict party fight between Adams, the P'cderalist candidate, and Jeff'erson, the Republican, or Demo- cratic, candidate. A break was showing in the Federalist ranks between Hamilton and Adams, the former advocating the elec- tion to the presidency of Thomas Pinckney of South Carolina, the Federalist candidate for vice-president. Moreover, the French government, and i^articularly its ministry, endeavored to turn the election in favor of the Republicans. These in- fluences, together with Adams's naturally aristocratic bearing, came near to defeating the Federalist party at the polls — the dential elec tion — 1796 THE CENTRALIZING PROCESS 243 vote standing in the electoral college: Adams 71, Jefferson 68, and Pinckney 59. Adams thus became president and Jefferson vice-president. The results of the election added to the anger of France, 303. Effect already kindled by the Jay treaty, and that nation now became J° France of more active in the seizure of American vessels. James Monroe, a Virginia Republican, who was United States minister to France at the time, and who was expected to do something to placate the French, seemed to be in sympathy with the policy of the Directory, the governing power of the French republic, and was accordingly re- called by Washington in August, 1796, C. C. Pinckney being sent in his place. Relations with France were becoming so difficult that Washington, in his farewell ad- dress, advised his countrymen that it was "our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world." In the meantime the Directory had refused to receive any more American ambassadors as long as the United States government pursued its present unfriendly course toward the French republic. When President Adams received the news of the action of the 304. The French Directory, he sent over John Marshall, Elbridge Gerry, y^^'^"^ ^' and C. C. Pinckney as a commission to reestablish friendly tilities with relations with France. On arri\dng at Paris they were met by^*"*""' * " _ / ■' new treaty agents of the Directory, who opened negotiations, and soon— 1800 demanded money "for the pockets of the Directory and minis- ters," and thus directly insulted the American embassy.^ The news of the attempted bribery brought about a distinct revulsion of feeling in the United States, and the people approved Presi- ' The state department at Washington referred to the persons making the attempt as X. Y. Z. John Adams 244 CONFLICT OF NATIONAL IDEALS dent Adams when he declared in a message to Congress, June 27, 1798: "I will never send another minister to France with- out assurance that he will be received, respected, and honored as becomes the representative of a great, free, powerful, and independent nation." Preparations for war were immediately begun, and Washing- ton was made commander-in-chief. A navy department was created, and American vessels were authorized to seize French cruisers.^ Actual hostilities had begun before Talleyrand, the virtual head of the French government, seeing the unpopularity of his policy in France, hinted in 1799 that his country would receive a minister from the United States and attempt amicable settlement. By the time the commissioners arrived, in April, 1800, the French Directory had been supplanted by the Consulate of Napoleon Bonaparte, and the two powers now concluded an agreement by which peaceful relations were restored, release from the old treaties granted, and an understanding reached as to the rights of neutrals and belligerents. Compensation for French aggressions upon United States commerce could not be obtained, but on the whole the treaty greatly augmented America's prestige abroad, while it increased her own people's respect for their national government. THE DECLINE OF THE FEDER.\LISTS 305. The The foreign relations of the United States had the effect of '®" ^ ^ widening the breach between the two leading parties in the country, while division had arisen between the leading Federal- ists themselves. The retirement of Washington had greatly raised the center of ])olitical gravity, and the Federalists, under the tactless leadership of Adams, had begun a very unwise domestic policy with purpose to discredit their opponents, the Republicans. * The French frigate Vengeance fell a prey to the American frigate Constellation, and the Berceau to the Boston. THE DECLINE OF THE FEDERALISTS 245 The conduct of France had brought about such a revulsion of feehng that Congress in 1798 passed the AHen and Sedition Acts, measures plainly aimed at the Republican party. The first of the series of laws was the Naturalization Act (June 18, 1798), raising from five to fourteen years the period of residence before naturalization. The second law was the AHen Friends Act (June 25, 1798), which authorized the president to order any such aliens in time of peace as he should judge to be "dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States, or shall have reasonable grounds to suspect are concerned in any treasonable or secret machinations against the government thereof, to depart out of the territory of the United States"; and provided further that "in case any alien, so ordered to depart, shall be found at large within the United States after the time limited in such order of departure, and not having obtained a license from the president . . . shall, on conviction thereof, be imprisoned for a term not exceeding three years, and shall never after be admitted to become a citizen of the United States." The third act, the Alien Enemies Act (July 6, 1798), provided that "Whenever there shall be a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government ... all natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of the hostile nation or government, being males of the age of fourteen years and upwards, who shall be within the United States, and not actu- ally naturalized, shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured and removed, as alien enemies." Finally, the Sedition Act, passed July 14, 1798, provided that 306. The "if any persons shall unlawfully combine or conspire together, ^®'^'*'°" ^*^* with intent to oppose any measure, or measures, of the govern- ment of the United States . . . and if any person or persons . . . shall counsel, advise, or attempt to procure any insurrec- tion, riot, unlawful assembly, or combination ... he or they shall be guilty of a high misdemeanor and on conviction . . . shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, and by imprisonment during a term of not less than six months 246 CONFLICT OF NATIONAL IDEALS nor exceeding five years." It was further provided that "if any person shall write, print, utter, or publish . . . any false, scandalous and malicious writing or writings against the gov- ernment of the United States, or the President of the United States, with intent to defame . . . then such person, being thereof convicted . . . shall be punished by a fine not exceed- ing two thousand dollars, and by imprisonment not exceeding two years." This last measure was aimed primarily against the Republican press, which had been especially virulent, and which to a con- siderable extent was edited by foreigners. While the Alien Acts were very rarely enforced, if enforced at all, they brought about the emigration of a few foreigners who were unwilling to suffer humiliation or undergo any risk of persecution. The Sedition Act was brought to bear against Republican editors in a few instances, but every attempt at enforcement only multiplied Republicans at the expense of the Federalist party. 307. The The Republican reply to this series of Federalist attacks is and Virginia ^^^^ represented in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, Resolutions; drawn by Madison and Jefferson respectively. On November s a e ng s ^^^ 1798, the Kentucky legislature "resolved that the several states composing the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general gov- ernment; but that by compact under the style and title of the Constitution of the United States and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for special purposes, delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each state to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government; and that whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force," and further that the Alien and Sedition Acts were unconstitutional and hence, "utterly void, and of no force." A few days later the Virginia legislature passed a similar measure, and the next year Kentucky took more definite and ' aggressive action by declaring "that the several states who THE DECLINE OF THE FEDERALISTS 247 formed that instrument [the Constitution], being sovereign and independent, have the unquestionable right to judge of the infraction [of that instrument]; and that a nuUification, by these sovereignties, of all unauthorized acts done under color of that instrument, is the rightful remedy." These acts also called upon the other states to join in a similar declaration against federal usurpation, but a majority of the replies were out of harmony with the resolutions. Nevertheless, Madison and Jefferson had put clearly before the country their theories of constitutional government, and had turned the tide of public thought against Federalist policies. Hamilton's two attempts to thwart Adams's aspiration forsOS. Presi- the presidency had produced an irreparable breach in the ^^"*^' ®^^*^" Federalist party, yet Adams was renominated by his party and made a stubborn fight for reelection. Jefferson and Aaron Burr were the Republican candidates for president and vice-president respectively. The Republicans carried the election by a vote of 73 to 65. But since Jeiferson and Burr had each received 73 votes there was a tie, and the election now went to the House of Representatives voting by states. The Federalists held a majority of the states; compelled by the Constitution to elect Jefferson or Burr, they threatened to elect Burr in order to disconcert the Republicans, who had intended to elect Jefferson president. Hamilton now used his influence for Jefferson, the " choice of two evils," he thought. Upon the thirty-sixth ballot, Jefferson was chosen president by a vote of ten states to six. This crisis, in which the plain wishes of a majority of the people came so near being defeated, led the Republican administration to propose the twelfth amendment (ratified 1804) to the Con- stitution, by which the president and vice-president are voted for separately. For three months after the election Adams and his Federalist 309. The Congress still held the reins of government. They were not " n^>|li"glit . . appomt- negligent of their opportunity. Regarding Jefferson as "auments" atheist in religion and a fanatic in politics" and believing ''democracy to be the government of the worst" and its advo- 248 CONFLICT OF NATIONAL IDEALS cates "Jacobins and miscreants," the Federalists perhaps felt that they would do their country service by building as many buttresses as possible against the supposed radicalism of the incoming administration. Accordingly they rushed through Congress the Judiciary Act (February 13, 1801) by which the number of federal judicial officers was greatly increased and out of all proportion to actual needs. The president proceeded to fiU these new offices, as well as all others that by any decent method could be made vacant, with loyal partisans. It is said that he sat up until midnight on March 3, signing commissions for the newly appointed Federalist officeholders and then left the capital early the next day without so much as attending the inauguration or making formal transfer of the office to his Republican successor. It was a characteristic performance, revealing again that the Federalist party could not bring itself to believe in the capacity of the people to govern. The Republicans had fought twelve years for such an inter- pretation of the Constitution as would guarantee to the states and the people reasonable protection from centraUzed power in the hands of Federalists. It remained to be seen how they would use their victory. SUMMARY The adoption of the Constitution had purposely made the federal tie much stronger (chiefly through the powers conferred upon the executive), though the states made it plain in most cases that they were not surrender- ing their sovereignty. The spirit of democracy ran strong throughout the land and yet the necessities of the hour made mandatory a stronger national government. It was all but inevitable, therefore, that a conflict should arise over the interpretation of the Constitution and the functions of gov- ernment. Around two central ideas, aristocracy and democracy, there were formed the Federalist and .\nti-Federalist parties representing prin- ciples of government that have adhered to our [lolitical system from that time until this. President Washington, with leanings distinctly toward the Federalists, succeeded in maintaining the political balance for eight years. He gave the country poise, strength, dignity (its greatest needs at the time), though he did not reconcile the conflicting ideals of government. He was succeeded in the presidency by a man far less capable than he, and THE DECLINE OF THE FEDERALISTS 249 the tide of democracy raised the people's party to power. The national- izing process had been given a strong impulse; to make it most effective through harmony, it must now be democratized. REVIEW QUESTIONS I. How did the term Federalist originate? 2. What is meant by "loose con- struction"? How did the Federalists justify their doctrine of "implied powers"? 3. Show the harmony between the doctrines of "strict construction" and state rights. 4. When and how did the tariff policy of the United States originate? 5. What trait of character do you discern in Washington's management of the first cabinet? 6. Wherein did Hamilton's contention that our treaties with France were no longer binding reflect his political theories? 7. Make a hst of evidences that Hamihon believed in centralized government. 8. The location of the national capital was th^ result of a trade between Hamilton and Jefferson. Do you hear of similar things in politics today? Is it good statesmanship? 9. Why were Ham- ilton and Jefferson always "pitted against each other like cocks in a pit"? 10. Was Washington's neutrality proclamation wholly wise? Give reason for your answer. 11. What effect did Washington's retirement have upon political par- ties? 12. How did the frontier contribute to the nationalizing process, or aid the forces of centralization? 13. Which of the great leaders of this period stood near- est the principles for which the American Revolution was fought? 14. What was going on in Europe during the early days of our Republic? 15. What was the cause of the decline of the Federalist party? 16. How was the Sedition Act con- trary to the spirit of free institutions? 17. How did the X. Y. Z. affair affect the standing of the United States among the nations? How did it affect the attitude of the people in this country toward their national government? 18. Would Jefferson's political theories have been practicable before iSoi? CHAPTER XIV GROWTH TOWARD STRONGER UNION REFERENCES Secondary Authorities. — Walker, Making of the Nation; Mace, Method in History; tiart, Formaliou of the Union; Wilson, American People, vol. iii; Schurz, Henry Clay; Dewey, Financial History; McMaster, United Ulales, vol. iii; Babcock, Rise of American Nationality. Sources. — Hart, Source Book, Contemporaries, vol. iii; MacDonald, Select Docu- ments. Illustrative Material. — Cunningham, Paul Jones; Percival, Perry's Vic- tory on Lake Erie; Key, Star Spangled Banner; Holmes, Old Ironsides. JEFFERSON'S POLICIES 310. The In spite of the twelve constructive, centralizing years of the first Demo-^ administrations of Washington and John Adams, the country dent — 1801 had elected as the exponent of its political philosophy the man who had inspired the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 (307). In the political nomenclature of the time, the newly elected president was a Federal Republican; in later days Jefferson came to be thoroughly recognized as the first great Democrat. He believed that development comes from within, if it comes at all, and he believed that it comes. That the people should be trusted to govern themselves was his cardinal political doctrine, and he contended with the utmost sincerity that the power of government is just as safe in the hands of the common man as in the hands of the aristocrat, provided always that there be an equality of intelligence. Moreover, Jefferson's democracy was such as would give the individual the greatest possible freedom and limit the power of government to the narrowest functions consistent with the good of the governed. His idea of the powers of government is given in one sentence of his inaugural address : "The sum of good government is a wise and frugal government JEFFERSON'S POLICIES 251 which shall restrain men from injuring one another and leave them otherwise free to regulate their own affairs." The official and social manner of Washington, as well as of 311. D©mo- Adams, had been largely patterned upon the form and ceremony "^^^^ ^*™" which had been cherished by the royal governors. Each had ridden to and from the capitol in a carriage of state, emblazoned with a coat-of-arms and drawn by richly caparisoned horses more numerous than profitable, while servants in livery attended with the obsequious deference quietly but peremptorily de- manded by aristocratic usage. And then came Jefferson, he also of an aristocratic family, cultivated, refined, learned, distinguished, and more than all, able, and he quietly threw off the shackles of monarchical custom; he walked to the capitol for his inauguration; rode his horse afterward to and from his lodging, and tied his horse under a shed. In harmony with his democratic ideas, the new president 312. Jeffer- began at once the reform of abuses which had been committed ^°^'^. ^°".. . , 1 T . , . mestic policy m the period between his election and the retirement of his pred- ecessor. The superfluous courts which the defeated Federal- ists had created in order that places might be found for outgoing ofiiceholders were promptly abolished by law, and an honest endeavor was made to fill all necessary offices with serviceable men, without regard to party affiliation, so that a considerable minority of the officials appointed under his direction were found to belong to the party opposing him. Not only honesty, as shown in the impeachment of federal judges for incompetency and drunkenness, but economy also distinguished the new administration. Confident of the correctness of his political philosophy in its decision that oppression rather than liberty gave rise to sedition, he reduced the standing army. What need of a great number of soldiers to compel right-minded men to do right? A force of 2500 men could garrison the forts on the frontier and keep the Indians in awe; as for American citizens, an attempt to awe them would be an insult and would cause them to hate a government of which they should naturally be proud. So the army was reduced by almost half, and the navy 252 GROWTH TOWARD STRONGER UNION from twenty-five ships to seven; and though the excise laws of Adams's administration were repealed, thus decreasing the revenue, under Jefferson's economizing policy, the national debt was reduced from $83,000,000 to $45,000,000. 313. Jeffer- Evidently, with such an army and such a navy, it was son's foreign jg^gj.gQj^'g policy to Cultivate an "honest friendship" with all foreign powers. That he did not fully succeed was owing to European wars conducted on a most enormous scale, and fre- quently in defiance of the laws of nations. And yet Jefferson's foreign troubles were few; he was compelled to take action in the Tripoli matter, but he succeeded in averting war with France and in acquiring from Napoleon a domain greater than was the United States when he became president; and he also succeeded in postponing inevitable war with Great Britain until America was less unable to cope with that power. It is quite evident that Jefferson's philosophy was not marred by a belief in heavy armaments and in a belligerent attitude before nations. ADJUSTING OLD THEORIES TO NEW CONDITIONS 314. The Already the country had been called to face a serious trouble Louisiana arising from the necessities of the western Pennsylvania farmers Purchase . — 1803 who, unable to market their bulky produce, had, by distillation, reduced it to a form in which it could more easily bear long transportation (293). And now thousands of immigrants, who later had built homes in the great agricultural valleys west of the Alleghanies, were producing a large surplus of foodstuffs which found difficulty in reaching a market. The mountains shut them off from the Atlantic seaboard, and there were few naviga- ble rivers that did not find their way to the great Mississippi, at whose mouth a foreign power held control. The treaty with Spain, made in 1795, had stipulated that citizens of the United States should be permitted to store their goods in New Orleans and re-ship them in seagoing vessels bound for foreign ports. But in October, 1800, by secret treaty, Spain ceded New Orleans to France, and rumors began to spread that the river would be ADJUSTING THEORIES TO CONDITIONS 253 closed. Jefferson, in 1802, learned of the cession to France, and, willing to make any reasonable concession in order to secure treaty rights to the river at its mouth, sent James Monroe as special envoy to assist Robert R. Livingston, the American minister in France, in making a treaty. In the meantime , Napoleon had been made first consul for life, and his ambi- t i o n was unlimited. Louisiana was considered by Napoleon only a means to his ends; as the United States seemed to need privileges there, let the United States pay for the privileges, and pay roundly, for the French military chest needed replenish- ment. So Napoleon, through his minister Talleyrand, met the American envoys halfway and a bargain was struck. France ceded the whole of Louisiana to the United States for the sum of $15,000,000 — about two cents per acre — more than $3,000,000 of which was to be paid to American citizens in satisfaction of damage claims against the French government. The Louisiana purchased from France contained, in round 315. Extent numbers, one million square miles of the best land in the "^^'orld,^" .^^^^j'" on which grew the primeval forest, interspersed with fertile Louisiana prairies and furrowed by noble rivers. The white population, *®""'*°''y at the time of the purchase, was perhaps 50,000. In less than a century it had increased to more than 15,000,000 comprising The Old Cabildo of New Orleans In this building took place the official transfer of Louisiana by France to the United States 2 54 GROWTH TOWARD STRONGER UNION the inhabitants of fourteen great states, with an average area greater than all New England. 316. Jeffer- In the question of purchasing Louisiana, Jefferson had delib- son's erated upon a case of enormous importance to the people of dilemma ^ , . ^ . , , r i • the Western country, whose future prosperity clamored for his affirmative decision. No doubt the president was thoroughly aware that the purchase of the territory would tend mightily to increase the power of the central government through the individual interest of each state in a common investment, as well as by reason of a future population within the territory, a population made up from all the states and owing allegiance to all. The situation was such as might well cause him to consider again his advocacy of "strict construction" and his hostiUty to the "implied powers" political heresy as exposed in his own Kentucky Resolutions, as well as in those of Madison for Virginia. At first, he purposed asking for a constitutional amendment providing distinctly for this purchase, but to seize the wonderful opportunity, immediate action was advisable, if not imperative. He sympathized deeply with the people of the West, but so far as the greatness of the population was concerned, he cared little. In reply to the suggestion that so much territory might in the future cause divergence of political thought and consequent division into states, he said: "Whether we remain one confederacy, or form into Atlantic and Mississippi con- federacies, I believe not very important to the happiness of either." That Jefferson finally decided to give the people who were most interested the benefit of the doubt was entirely con- sistent with his view that the people in large groups and in small groups should always be allowed to regulate their o-wti affairs (290). If he did violence to his dogma of "strict construction," he upheld his creed of "local self-government," and well might have claimed immunity from criticism on the ground that his opposition to the "implied powers" preachment was based primarily on the contingent use of such power — whether for the good of the people in their homes, or, on the contrary, for the purpose of subjecting them to any degree of despotism. And ADJUSTING THEORIES TO CONDITIONS 255 izing the new terri- tory the people understood and approved, giving him in his second election 162 electoral votes against 14 for his opponent. Having acquired the new region, the administration was under 317. Organ- the necessity of furnishing it with such local governmental machinery as would conform at once to its needs and to the re- quirements of the Constitution. The greatest part of the population was on and near the lower Missis- sippi, and was of French extrac- tion. The people differed, therefore, from the Americans in race, lan- guage, and institutions. In provid- ing a government for them Congress at first ignored racial differences, and created the Terri- tory of Orleans in the lower part of Louisiana, and placed its ad- ministration in the hands of a gov- ernor, a secretary, and a legislature appointed by the president of the United States. Such was the dissat- isfaction of the "subjects" that Congress gave them, the next year, an elective legisla- ture, and in 181 2 admitted Louisiana into the Union as a state. Soon after the treaty was concluded, the 318. Explor- president sent William Clark, his secretary, 'territory -"^ and Meriwether Lewis to explore the north- 1804-1806 em and almost unknown parts of the terri- tory acquired. Setting out from St. Louis j. in May, 1804, with about forty men, they ascended the Missouri river ^ 1600 miles to Meriwether Lewis the Rocky mountains. Then they journeyed ^ At one of their bivouacs on the bank of the Missouri, they received a visit from Daniel Boone, then 70 but vigorous, who expressed regret that other matters prevented his joining the expedition. William Clark From Lewis and Clark's Travels 256 GROWTH TOWARD STRONGER UNION down the Columbia to its mouth. A claim which the United States already had to the Pacific coast through the visit of Captain Gray in 1792, was made very strong by the expedition of Clark and Lewis. Route of Clark and Lewis Another expedition under Lieutenant Zebulon Pike had for its purpose the exploration of other parts of the new territory. Two months before Clark and Lewis returned to St. Louis, Pike started westward from that town. He passed through what are now Missouri and Kansas, then on to central Colorado, where he saw the great peak which bears his name and where the whole party were arrested by the Spaniards for invading their territory, and carried to Santa Fe as prisoners. They were not held very long, however, and they returned through Texas to the states. 319. Signifi- In many ways the purchase of Louisiana is one of the most cance of the significant single incidents in American history. We have Purchase already seen what pains Jefferson was put to in finding legal justification for it. But what is of greater significance is the fact that in sacrificing a principle of his political faith, strict construction, he and his party consciously showed preference for national interests. Not only without specific constitutional power, but directly under executive initiative, Jefferson per- ADJUSTING THEORIES TO CONDITIONS 257 formed "an act that did vastly more to consolidate national power than any act of either Hamilton or Adams." ^ Again, the popularity of Jefferson's action in this case is a telling index to the growth that had taken place in the idea of nationality. Route of Zebulon Pike People were not afraid of executive power even, when exercised courageously and patriotically. The acquisition of one million square miles of fertile territory attracted thousands of settlers into the new region and gave rise to many vexing problems relative to the admission of new states into the Union. Every time the federal government made a law pertaining to Louisiana, created a territory, decided a case in court, or admitted a state to the Union, it gave effective exercise to the federal arm. It was inevitable that the people who settled this region should look to the Union rather than to their territorial or state governments as the source of highest authority. The purchase was significant, too, for the institution of slavery. The greater part of the vast region was ordained by nature to be free. The balance between Northern and Southern power was destroyed, or would be in time.^ ^ Mace, Method in History, p. 175. - New England threatened to secede because she thought it would give slavery an undue advantage. 258 GROWTH TOWARD STRONGER UNION Finally, the purchase bound to the Union, through the conse- quent control of the Mississippi, a country of almost infinite possibilities, which the national government had heretofore largely ignored — the West and Southwest. The absence of transportation facilities to the East made necessary for the people of this country the free navigation of the river. With- out it their surplus of corn, wheat, hogs, and tobacco was practically worthless to them and to the world. In their distress they had often desired relief from the go\'ernment. Failing to receive it, they had threatened secession. After the purchase, their commerce mingled freely with the commerce of the nation and performed its part in developing, west of the Alleghanics, the spirit of nationality. Its significance in this direction is abundantly illustrated in the experience of Aaron Burr. 320. Hamil- Harriilton, for using his influence in iSoi to cause the election r" *^ Q of Jefferson rather than Burr, had not been forgiven, and when the vice-president saw his candidacy for the governorship of New York fail through Hamilton's efforts, his active enmity was aroused. A quarrel was followed by a duel forced upon Ham- ilton, who fell mortally wounded at the first fire. The vice- president was untouched, so far as his physical frame was concerned, but the duel hurried him to ruin. 321. Burr's After the duel with Hamilton, Burr engaged in an undertaking downfall; vvhich, in spite of the mystery in which it was enshrouded, meant at least filibustering, if not treason. Arms were collected on the Ohio, men enrolled, and everything made ready for an expedition to the Southwest, the object of which has never been certainly disclosed. General Wilkinson, commanding in that region, was concerned in the enterprise at first, but when he learned more fully what Burr intended, he withdrew from it and revealed what was going on. Jefferson ordered Burr arrested, and he was seized by United States officers near the boundary of Spanish Plorida. At his trial for treason, in Richmond, Chief Justice John Marshall presiding, no overt act of treason was proved, and Justice Marshall directed the jury to acquit him. FOREIGN COMPLICATIONS 259 The general belief is that Burr was endeavoring to found a new empire in Mexico, with himself on the throne as "Aaron I." The protection of the commercial interests of the Southwest, through the purchase of Louisiana, probably saved the national government a serious loss through defection in this region under the leadership of Aaron Burr. FOREIGN COMPLICATIONS While Jefferson was having ^^1^ ^^L 322. The difficulty in finding constitutional il^^^^^^^^^ trouble with right to purchase Louisiana, his MS«^^ . ^^*^^k. love of peace and his determina- tion to give the country an economical administration of its business were being put to test 1 i_ r r ■ John Marshall by a number of foreign com- •" plications. The Mohammedans of North Africa had developed piracy into an institution, which was supported by forced levies on merchant ships of other countries. Although the president stood firmly for a reduced naval force, he was compelled to recognize the usefulness of an efficient na\'y when the deys and beys and pashas of Tripoli made war upon the United States. Commanders Decatur, Preble, and Bainbridge soon brought them to terms. During the first two years of Jefferson's second term, very 323. much of the carrying trade of the world came into American ^''°"^'!^ , hands because of war in Europe, for the United States was neu- seas tral and cargoes in her vessels were not liable to seizure. But in 1806 Great Britain, with the intention of weakening Napo- leon, now Emperor of France, issued a proclamation declaring that all the ports from Brest to the Elbe were in a state of block- ade. This act authorized the seizure of any vessels that should attempt to enter the ports named, and of course greatly injured American commerce. But, as though to add to the trouble. 26o GROWTH TOWARD STRONGER UNION Napoleon now issued a decree from Berlin, which city had just fallen into his hands after the defeat of the Prussian army at Jena and Auerstadt, declaring the British Isles in a state of blockade. In January, 1807, Great Britain declared the whole coast of Europe blockaded, and vessels bound from one French port to another liable to seizure and confiscation; and this proclamation provoked Napoleon's Milan Decree, in which he directed the seizure of all such ships as should submit to be searched by the British. It is estimated that two hundred American vessels were seized by the British in 1807. By this time the Jay treaty had expired, and America was without recourse except to the law of nations or the law of might. 324. British Both Great Britain and France fell upon American merchant aggj-essions; vessels at pleasure. Great Britain impressed American sea- the Em- men, forcing them into her service by thousands. The peace- Kaj-OTQ Act • • —1807 loving Jefferson saw a war party arising m America. He was urgently advised that the only wholesome treatment for a bully was the application of force in large measures, but he believed that men would do right as they understood the right, and so he began his efforts to settle the troubles through diplomacy. First, he issued a proclamation warning all British war vessels to keep away from American shores. Then he called Congress in extra session and recommended the passing of an act which would forbid vessels in American ports from going to sea. The Embargo Act was duly passed. This protest, for that was what it amounted to, resulted in nothing, unless perhaps it saved a number of American ships from seizure. The trouble increased, and when Monroe and Pinkney arranged a treaty with Great Britain, perhaps the best that could have been made in 1807, its terms were so humiliating that Jefferson returned it without submitting it to the Senate. Matters rapidly grew worse. The American merchant marine had been crushed between two millstones — but whether Great Britain would prove to be the upper none could yet tell. Doubtless Great Britain felt that in resisting Napoleon she was fighting for the good of civilization. She might easily ascribe virtue to any act which FOREIGN COMPLICATIONS 261 would increase the probability of success, and American trading vessels must not get in the way. The worst of British arrogance was shown in the attack on the Chesapeake, a war vessel of the United States, by the British frigate. Leopard, in June, 1807, in which eighteen men were slain, four seamen seized, and the United States greatly humiliated. The act was disavowed by Great Britain and belated reparation made. The embargo continued, in spite of evasion and in spite of great losses in trade. Those American vessels that remained in harbor for the two years rotted where they lay, while "Amer- ican seamen were forced to seek employment under the British flag, and British ships and British commerce alone occupied the ocean." New England, a commercial region, suffered greatly, and was forced to develop manufactures. The agricultural parts of the country suffered less, yet even they felt the loss of markets for their crops. But there were many evasions of the Embargo Act. Shipowners found such great profit resulting from a successful voyage that the danger of complete loss of vessel and cargo was fre- quently incurred. Smuggling to Canada grew quite common. On February 28, 1809, the Non-Intercourse Act was passed by Congress. The act virtually repealed the Em- bargo Act, so far as concerned all other nations besides France and Great Britain. Trade revived, and though some ships were seized, the outlook began to brighten. James Madison, who succeeded to the presidency on March 4, 1809, had served as secretary of state during Jefferson's entire term of ofllice. Thoroughly familiar with the affairs of state, the foreign policies of Jefferson continued. While Madi- 325. The Non-Inter- course Act — 1809 James Madison 326. The fourth presi- dent — 1805; the Western Americans 262 GROWTH TOWARD STRONGER UNION son was greatly pleased with the British envoy, Mr. Erskine, who signed a treaty for Great Britain, agreeing to withdraw the Orders in Council, the British government refused the treaty and recalled Mr. Erskine. The continued oppression by the British could have but one result on the American mind. New leaders were springing up, who, though Democrats, could not be kept quiet within their party in the face of so much outrage. Clay and Calhoun, the leaders of many others of their age and spirit, had come upon the poHtical stage. They thought that America had borne enough, and, indeed, the patience of the people had been worn out. This sentiment was strongest west of the AUeghanies, a region thoroughly democratic because of its free frontier life. It was also nationalistic, because it was the child of the Union. "Here no pride of statehood diminished the affection and devotion of the citizen to the gov- ernment under which he held the title to his land; to which he looked for protection from the savage foe; which opened up the navigation of the rivers to his clumsy flatboat; which endowed the school in which his children learned to read. Constitu- tional scruples were at a discount with these rude, strong, brave men. . . . They wanted a government, and a strong govern- ment, and in the continually growing power of the republic they found the competent object of their civic trust and pride and love." ^ The sentiment of this region was prophetic of the democratized nationality of the Monroe period. Two events occurred to give more urgency to the spirit of resistance. First, the British ship. Little Belt, fired upon the United States frigate, President, in American waters, and the President replied so effectively that the Little Belt was disabled; and the entire seacoast applauded. A few months later a great victory over the Indians under Tecumseh was gained on Tippe- canoe creek by General William Henry Harrison; and now the West applauded. The war spirit was unmistakable. 327. War President Madison at length yielded to the demands of the war party in the country and in Congress and sent to that body declared — 1812 ^ Walker, Making of llic Nation, p. 171. FOREIGN COMPLICATIONS 263 a message in which he asserted that the British government was already making war upon the United States. Not only had Great Britain blockaded foreign ports and thus injured American commerce, but she had even placed American ports in a state of virtual blockade, impressed American sea- men, and incited the Indians to ravage the frontier. His advice to declare war upon Great Britain was adopted June 18, 181 2. Congress immediately called for 50,000 volunteers, proceeded to increase the regular army to 25,000 men, and recommended that the several states take measures for raising a volunteer force ^ of 100,000 men for the purpose of repelling invasion. Congress also negotiated a loan of $11,000,000 to be expended in increasing the na\y and in carrying on the war. At this time Napoleon was crossing the Niemen with 400,000 328. Tin- men to invade Russia: and Great Britain, although furnishing f®^*^'"®^^ '^ ^ for war ; means for assisting Russia, was free to use her land forces in opposition crushing America. As to the navy, Great Britain possessed aj'^^^^^^s- thousand ships, and the United States but fifteen. The pop- ulation of Great Britain was about 20,000,000; that of the United States 8,000,000. Great Britain's customs amoimted to £70,000,000 yearly, a sum thirty-five times as great as the United States could possibly collect. True, Great Britain's expenditures in the European wars were enormous; but for this condition, and the probability that the French would con- tinue to demand much attention from the British, America's cause would have seemed utterly hopeless from the first. It was not strange that Jefferson and Madison had shown reluctance to demand war as a settlement of America's grievances — and yet, now that war was declared, America's grievances came uppermost in mind, and found utterance in the popular war cry, "Free Trade and Sailors' Rights." Still, there were many who opposed the war. New England was greatly disaffected. Connecticut refused to send troops to the Northwest border. Of the $10,000,000 raised by Congress for war purposes. New England subscribed but $1,000,000, although fifty per cent of the currency of the 264 GROWTH TOWARD STRONGER UNION country lay in her banks and in the pockets of her people. The British, while warring against America on the Lakes, were able to secure supplies of beef from New England contractors. The opposition grew stronger as the war progressed. Threats of secession were frequent, and from leading citizens. In those days there was little arguing against the abstract right of with- drawal from the Union. It would have astonished many men who had voted for the Constitution to be told in 18 14 that they had voted for a complete and perpetual surrender of their state to a syndicate of states. In the dark days of 1813 Jeffer- son wrote: "Some apprehend danger from the defectjon of Massachusetts. It is a disagreeable circumstance, though not a dangerous one. If they become neutral we are sufficient for our enemy without them, and in fact we get no help from them now." It was not Massachusetts, however, but New England, that was lukewarm. 329. Senti- Speaking of the bill for the admission of Louisiana in 181 1, ment for Josiah Ouincy of Massachusetts had said: "If this bill passes, secession; . . . . , . . the Hartford it is my deliberate opinion that it is virtually a dissolution of Convention ^-^e Union; that it will free the states of their moral obligation, and as it will be the right of all to do, so it will be the duty of some definitely to prepare for separation, amicably if they may, but violently if they must." The opposition reached its climax in New England in 1S14 when, at the suggestion of Massachusetts, twenty-six delegates from five states met in the Hartford Con- vention and remained almost for a month in session behind closed doors. The convention sent a committee to Washington bearing the following resolution: "States which have no com- mon umpire must be their own judges, and execute their own decisions." They proposed a number of amendments to the Constitution, which Congress was requested to submit, depriv- ing the general government of powers, especially such as involved financial affairs. The whole movement was intended to lessen the powers with which the states had already charged Con- gress, or to secede in case of failure to secure the desired amendments. The committee arrived in Washington amid THE SECOND WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE 265 the general rejoicing over the two great events, Jackson's vic- tory and the signing of the treaty of peace. The influence of these results destroyed the remainder of the FederaUst party. In spite of all the obstacles raised at home, and the over- whelming disparity in strength of the two belligerents, the war was fought to a successful issue — and the United States pressed forward with quickened pace toward its greater freedom and stronger government. THE SECOND WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE The government of Great Britain was but little better pre- 330. Inva- pared for war on the border than was that of the United States, ^°^ °} ' Canada pro- and it seemed wise at Washington to invade Canada before the jected British there could be reenforced from beyond the sea. Besides, there was much disaffection in the Canadian provinces, accord- ing to report, and Great Britain might well be glad to offer terms of peace rather than press a war which might result in the loss of the last of her American colonies. 'General Hull, commanding in the Northwest, marched with 331. The 2£;oo men into Canada from Detroit, found General Brock °"^'*^7 . . . . operations advancing against him, and marched his 2500 men back to on the Detroit, which post, with his army, he surrendered without ''°'"^®''' a struggle on August 16, 1812.^ Michigan was now in the hands of the British, and great alarm was felt throughout the Northwest. But thousands of volunteers came forward and were enrolled under command of General William Henry Harrison, who had succeeded Hull. -^ General Van Rensselaer marched to the Canadian border with 6000 men; then, leaving on the American side 5000 who refused to enter upon a war of invasion because they were volunteers to repel invasion (327), crossed with 1000 men and took the fortification at Queenstown after some severe fighting in which a certain Colonel Winfield Scott did his duty. Then Van Rensselaer returned in person to the ^ Hull was tried by a court martial and sentenced to be shot, but his life was spared because of his services in the Revolution. 266 GROWTH TOWARD STRONGER UNION American side in order to reason with his volunteers, and mean- time, the British, having been reenforced, retook the fort and all the American troops within it, October 13, 181 2. Van Rensselaer immediately sent in his resignation. The two disasters were sufficient cause to deter General Dear- born, in command of the third division designed to invade Canada, from ad- vancing. 332. Cam- ^ ' ^^'^Z "^ ^^' I'"^ ^^^ succeeding Canada"; ^ '"/VV^K year little was effected' 5i3 . \^ T^^iC:^**^^ ^y I'ii"'*^- Harrison won the battle of the Thames, in which the great chief Tecumseh fell, and recovered the Northwest. General Dearborn took York and left it in flames. The end of the year found the Americans within their own borders. The rela- tive advantage had hardly been changed by the encounters on Launched in 1797; now in the j^nd. General Brown Boston Navy \ arc! 1 , • - 1 1 and Wmhcld Scott had fought well at Chippewa and Lundy's Lane. 333. The 'It would be hazardous to say that the British were more navy in the -^gtonished than the victors by the success of the Americans War of 1812 . , . •' at sea. First, the Constitution, August 19, 181 2, forced the surrender of the Giierriere after a thirty-minutes battle in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In October of the same year, off the coast of North Carolina, the Wasp captured the Frolic, a British brig of heavier metal, after a contest lasting an hour. The other side of the picture was seen when Lawrence was mortally THE WAR IN THE SOL'TH Refekexce Maps for the War of 1812 268 GROWTH TOWARD STRONGER UNION wounded and his frigate, Chesapeake, surrendered to the Shannon outside Boston harbor on June i, 1813. But OUver Hazard Perry, with a few unseasoned vessels, on September 7, captured •from the British on Lake Erie, "two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop," and at the same time captured all the hearts of America with his laconic report. It was this Facsimile of Perry's Report to General Harrison victory that enabled General Harrison to advance and win the battle of the Thames. Besides these successes, the American sailors gained victories under Decatur, Bainbridge and Porter, and Macdonough. Perhaps the greatest injury done at sea was by the American privateers. It is estimated that dur- ing the war they captured more than 2500 British vessels. Rates of insurance on shipping rose to prohibitory figures in some cases, and the English merchants and shipowners, who had helped to (bring on the war, were beginning to clamor for peace. ^^ 334. The A more vigorous prosecution of the war on the part of the valiifn-' British followed Napoleon's abdication in April, 1814. There 1814; Wash- were great fleets sent to the American shores, and a land force timore' ^*'' ^nder General Ross designed for the capture of Washington. Piattsburg To cooperate with this movement, a British fleet on Lake Champlain protected the advance of an army under General Prevost. THE SECOND WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE 269 General Ross landed 5000 men in August, and began his advance against Washington. The main American armies were still on the Canadian border, and the capital was without adequate defence. The militia under General Winder could do no more than retard the advance of the British. The presi- dent and cabinet and a host of private citizens became refugees from the city. Ross entered Washington on August 24, burned the public buildings in retaliation for the destruction com- mitted by Dearborn at York, and reembarked with the purpose of capturing Baltimore. The British advanced to attack the force of volunteers drawn up to defend the city, and a skirmish occurred on September 11, in which General Ross was killed. Meanwhile, the fleet had been ordered to assist in taking the city and it now diligently bombarded Fort McHenry, but nothing was accomplished. The campaign was given up, and the army reembarked, the troops being transported to the .West Indies to join in a campaign against New Orleans. On the day of the skirmish near Baltimore, in which the British General Ross lost his life, a naval engagement was fought on Lake Champlain. General Prevost had advanced with 14,000 men, his purpose being the invasion of New York state, while the British fleet on the lake should pro- tect his base. The Americans had some 1500 men at Platts- burg, in a good position, and a small fleet on the lake under Commodore Macdonough, who at once accepted battle, and within a few hours utterly defeated his antagonist. Mean- while, an engagement had begun between the land forces, but General Prevost retreated hurriedly when he learned of the disaster to the British fleet. The great Tecumseh had not been content with causing war 335. war in the Northwest, and he succeeded in his eftorts to incite thei?*^® South; Creeks in the far South to take up the hatchet. In August, Andrew 1813, occurred the massacre at Fort Mimms, not far from Jackson Mobile. Following this event. General Andrew Jackson led his Tennessee riflemen into the Indian country and defeated the Creeks at Talladega and Emuckfau, and in a fierce battle 270 GROWTH TOWARD STRONGER UNION 336. Battle of New Orleans — 1815 337. The Treaty of Ghent at the Horse Shoe Bend of the Tallapoosa river — Tohopeka in the Indian tongue — he broke their power completely and they were compelled to sue for peace. One of the Americans who fought in this battle became president of the RepubUc of Texas. He was wounded while serving on the staff of a future president of the United States. A treaty made by the usurper is void, argued the British. Napoleon being in exile in Elba, the province of Louisiana, which he had sold to the United States a few years previously, was fair game in war. So Gen- eral Pakenham, brother-in- '^i\ /W.i^'^:^^7^r:^^ law of the great Wellington, came with 12,000 trained men to take New Orleans and Louisiana. Little opposition was expected. Gold Medal presented by Congress There were no American TO Andrew Jackson ^ ^i 1 • r troops worth speakmg of within a thousand miles, except perhaps a few volunteers who were resting a while after the campaign against the Indians. But Madison gave orders that Andrew Jackson should be placed in command in Louisiana, and the frontiersmen of the South- west rallied to him by scores and hundreds, and when Paken- ham came up the river he found intrenchments, and riflemen behind them, and cotton bales in places, with the muzzles of cannon showing. On January 8, 18 15, Pakenham advanced to the attack, and Jackson's men remained behind the intrench- ments and the cotton bales and shot the British down until they turned and gave up the struggle. Pakenham here met his death, as had Brock in Canada and Ross at Baltimore. On December 24, 1814, peace had been concluded, two weeks before Jackson, at New Orleans, had wiped out the disgrace of Hull at Detroit and the burning of the capitol. John Quincy Adams, Albert Gallatin, James Asheton Bayard, Henry Clay, and Jonathan Russell had met the British Commissioners at the little Dutch town of Ghent and agreed to terms of peace which THE SECOND WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE 271 amounted to little more than an agreement to quit fighting. The treaty did not mention "Free Trade and Sailors' Rights"; still, Great Britain never afterward annoyed American ships and never impressed American seamen. More important than the events of the war were the results 338. The that flowed from it in the form of ideas and sentiments. Prior ^^ ^ ^ ®*^* in a demo- to the war, the Republicans, the unwitting instrument of the cratic centralizing process, had been led to take up arms by a frontier ^^t'^^^i^y democracy (326) and the rising tide of nationahty. Indeed, the war was itself an assertion of the nation's determination to be free. The people were becoming conscious of unity and of its corollary, strength. They were coming to see the neces- sity of relying upon the federal arm for the protection of their country's honor. But while this sentiment had been strong enough to turn the scales in favor of war, it had been timid in some quarters and almost refractory in others. It was not yet strong enough and universal enough to inspire confidence and brush aside obstacles by sheer enthusiasm. The whip of Neces- sity drove the Republicans to war and war dissolved their fears of nationality. The Federalists gave faltering aid to the war and the war rendered ridiculous their fear of democracy. The outcome was a virile consciousness of democratic nationality. Democracy and nationality had fused. Federalists came to have confidence in the capacity of the people, and the people were no longer so fearful of centralized power. In the storm of war the Republican lost its mainmast, but succeeded in appro- priating the ballast of the Federalist. The Federalist turned turtle, sank in the sea of democracy, and when the survivors reached the shore, they had been transformed into National Republicans. Madison was the last of the Revolutionary statesmen, and Monroe was the president selected from the most brilliant group of men that ever illuminated the pages of American history. He was not the equal of Clay or Calhoun, or a number of others, in oratory or other peculiar power, but in experience and diplo- matic skill there was none to approach him. He had been 272 GROWTH TOWARD STRONGER UNION chosen to assist in the Louisiana Purchase, which made him secretary of state, which made him president; while, coming into office with the support of both Jefferson and Madison, he enjoyed almost unequaled prestige. MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION 339. The The president surrounded himself with a great cabinet — the fifth presi- greatest perhaps since Washington's. John Quincy Adams was the cabinet ' his secretary of state; William H. Crawford was his secre- ' tary of the treasury; John C. Calhoun, secretary of war; and William H. Wirt, attorney general. During his first term, Daniel D. Tompkins, former governor of New York, was vice- president. The next few years could not be less than great in progress along all lines. Four years later (1820), Monroe was elected again without opposition; Vice-president Tompkins was also reelected. As if to hasten the process of unification. President Monroe had little more than taken the reins of government when he made a tour of the country. He traveled for days through the New England and Middle states, presumably on a tour of inspection of national defences. His presence put to rout whatever anti-national feeling may have remained in those regions and at the same time greatly stimulated the spirit of democracy. A New England newspaper, a former Federalist organ, spoke of the new administration as inaugurating "an era of good feeling." No president had ever gone among the people in such fashion, and the democracy did not fail to recognize Monroe's method as " the genuine article." Wher- ever he went he inspired fresh confidence in the integrity of the federal power and gave fresh hope to the young democracy. 340. Terri- During the last trouble with Great Britain streams of emi- pansion" grants had flowed over the Alleghany mountains into the acquisition western valleys, and some had even reached the Pacific coast, — 1810 where they reenforced the claims to that coast resulting from the Boston merchant's visit in 1792 and the exploration of Lewis and Clark in 180 MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION 273 James Monroe In the early part of Monroe's first term, the Indians, together with the robbers and outlaws who had long infested Spanish Florida, became very troublesome, and General Andrew Jack- son not only drove them beyond the border, but pursued them into Spanish territory, and remained there unblushingly, thus giving rise to international controversy. But Spain had failed to restrain the Indians, and therefore, having failed to keep her treaty agree- ment, was amenable to reason; and by good diplomacy Jackson's movement of invasion was upheld by the United States government, and Spain was induced to enter into a new treaty (1819) by the terms of which she gave up her claim to Oregon and ceded Florida to the United States, while the United States surren- dered to Spain all claims upon Texas, and paid in addition the sum of $5,000,000. The duties on imports rapidly discharged the war debt of 341. Inter- $127,000,000, and left a surplus, which was appHed to the °^ ^^p"""^®" building of public highways. On the Cumberland road, from Cumberland, Maryland, to Vandaha, Illinois, there was spent, first and last, $200,000. Other great roads were built at public expense, and many more projected. By the end of Monroe's first term, not less than $1,500,000 had been expended by the United States government upon the highways. Fulton had launched the first successful steamboat on the Hudson in 1807; and few years passed before every river had its packets and steamers plying up and down, carrying the farmers' produce to market and bringing back manufactured goods in return. The center of population was rapidly moving westward. New states were being admitted. Old states had created the National Bank 274 GROWTH TOWARD STRONGER UNION Union. The new states were created by the Union, but were admitted upon terms of equality. The great new West brought with it its new relations and its new problems. 342. The Congress had refused a new charter to the old national bank in 181 1, but, since the country had now outgrown much of its fear of a central government, a new national bank was char- tered (18 1 6) for twenty years with a capital of $35,000,000. "Its capital was more than three times that of Hamilton's bank, and it was as fully endowed with authority. While it was more national, it was more democratic; five of its directors were appointed by the president, and both Congress and the secretary of the treasury were more directly connected with this than the former. . . . In 181 1, Henry Clay opposed the bank in an elaborate argument based on strict construction and true to the ancient ideals of his party; in 181 6, he was just as enthusiastic for the bank, and his argument would have done credit to Hamilton." ^ 343. Jurists John Marshall was the first great chief justice (1801-1835). and deci- jj^ ^^^^^ ^-^^ ^^^^ ^^ decide that all cases that involve the Consti- sions a£Fect nationality tution of the United States are appealable to the federal courts. He declared unconstitutional a Maryland law that levied a tax on a branch of the national bank (181 9), upholding the constitutionality of such an institution on the ground that it was necessary for the proper handling of the national finances. The Supreme Court, in the same year, sustained the trustees of Dartmouth College in a case in which the legislature had attempted to change the charter without the consent of the trustees, on the ground that a legislature may not pass a law invalidating a contract. It also annulled a New York law which gave R. R. Livingston and Robert Fulton a monopoly of steamboat transportation in and around New York harbor, because Congress alone may regulate commerce between the states. These early decisions of the Supreme Court greatly influenced the development of the feeling that there is force and dignity in the institution that men call the Union. ^ Mace, Method in History, pp. 185-186. MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION 275 In 1815 the North American Review began its work, the first 344. The national literature periodical to show the higher forms of American thinking and"^*'°"^^ to receive national attention. William CuUen Bryant wrote " Thanatopsis " and James Fenimore Cooper began to weave strands of Indian life and individual experiences of the Revolu- tionary war into stories that never fail to charm the youth of the country; Washington Irving enshrined in art the ludicrous and the serious in the history and traditions of the early Dutch governors of New York and made the history of New York entertaining to the English-speaking world. Since these begin- nings of a literature truly national and distinctively American, the movement has increased beyond all note or measure. While American commerce was suffering injury in the times 345. The of Jefferson and Madison, much capital was withdrawn from J"^°.g ^^® the shipping interests and invested in manufacturing enterprises. 1816-1824; Of course the factories had all the American market to them- "^°^^°^ ^ second elec- selves while the wars were going on; but after the treaty oftion — 1824 Ghent was signed, and all ports were opened, the American markets were soon glutted with foreign goods, to the great embarrassment of "infant industries." To nourish the chil- dren until they could get upon their feet, it was thought best to protect them by a tariff on foreign goods, which could be removed at the will of Congress. Accordingly, in 1S16, those who had induced the country to go to war brought forward a protective tariff measure and, with the help of a Republican president, enacted it into law. The South and West had brought on the war, and the condi- tion of war had been responsible for the springing up of the factories, so the South and West were willing to prevent the destruction of the new enterprises through competition. When the tariff of 1816 failed to give as great protection as was desired, efforts were renewed to raise it. In 1820 the Senate defeated, by one vote, a new measure. But, in 1824, a bill was passed which slightly raised the duties and added raw materials to the list. This measure was fought bitterly by Daniel Webster, representing a New England shipping constituency, and was 276 GROWTH TOWARD STRONGER UNION championed by Henry Clay of Kentucky, whose people had a surplus of raw material.^ The larifif was destmed to become one of the most serious questions of all in the country's his- tory. It even served to test the devotion to the Union of that great epoch-making Democrat who became president in 1829. Although he had been elected by the party of state rights and strict construction, he nevertheless threatened to coerce a state which had enacted a nullification ordinance. In the meantime, Monroe had gone through a second elec- tion without an opponent. Several issues had arisen during his first administration, but no new party had been formed, while the Federalists were forever dead. Only one vote was cast against Monroe, and that to preserve for Washington the exclusive honor of having been chosen president by a unani- mous vote. What better evidence could be found that "the lion and the lamb had lain down together"? or that democ- racy and nationality were blended, and that centralized power and democracy are entirely compatible when each understands and properly estimates the other? 346. Mon- But the climax of the nationalizing process under a Republi- — 1823 ^^" administration, came in connection with certain conditions in South America. The Spanish colonies there were not slow to seize the opportunity offered by the temporary subjection of the mother country to Napoleon; and in 1810, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, and Chile, in rapid succession, revolted, and in each case the revolution succeeded and an independent republic was the result. Mexico had more recently begun her revolution, and the great monarchies of Europe, not yet recov- ered from the consequences of Napoleon's domination, feared that the infectious spirit of republicanism would not confine itself to America. Austria, France, Prussia, and Russia agreed upon what was called a Holy Alliance, having for its purpose the perpetuation of monarchical government and the mainte- nance upon their thrones of the interrelated royal families con- 1 The parties and th3 sections have changed sides on the tariff as time and circumstances have changed. MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION 277 cerned. Russia had issued a decree forbidding the ships of any other nation to approach within one hundred miles of the west coast of what is now Alaska, upon which country, later called Russian America, she had a valid claim; she might extend this claim to include the west coast indefinitely if she could feel her power sufficient. Let the monarchies of Europe have a control- ling voice in the political affairs of America and there would be no safety anywhere from oppression. To call in question the title of the United States to Florida and to Louisiana would be for Spain and France, combined, a small thing to do, especially under an arrangement that would give Mexico to France. Washington and Jefferson had consistently proclaimed in effect that the United States had neither the right nor the reason for interfering between the nations of the Old World. Monroe proclaimed in effect that the governments of the Old World had neither right nor reason to interfere in America. In other words, Monroe, in a message to Congress, maintained, first, that the American continent should no longer be considered terri- tory for European colonization, and secondly, that any effort to coerce the newly established governments of this continent would be regarded as proof of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States. The policy had the approval of Madison and Jefferson, and it was, at the time, greatly pleasing to England. It is not difficult to see that the promulgation of this doc- 347. Signifi- trine was significant in two directions. It pointed back to the S^°^^ °^ *^® fact that the United States had recently become conscious of Doctrine its independent position among the powers of the world. The country was not only willing to keep out of "entangling alli- ances with foreign nations," as Washington in his farewell address had declared it must do, but meant to see to it that foreign nations should keep out of entangling alliances on the American side of the Atlantic. It felt strong enough to take positive ground with respect to all matters of vital interest, even though such position might contravene the interests of the powerful nations of Europe. But the Monroe Doctrine did 278 GROWTH TOWARD STRONGER UNION more than point backward: it pointed forward with equal sig- nificance. It meant that hereafter the United States of Amer- ica would uphold, by force of arms if necessary, the principles of free go\'ernment throughout the western hemisphere. To be sure, the proposed opposition to despotic government in South and Central America was based on political interest, which, however, in the last analysis, is coincident with the interests of mankind. It is one of the characteristics of free govern- ment that its ideals keep sufficiently ahead to beckon it con- stantly forward. Nothing short of internal dissension could now prevent the new nationalism from going straight forward in its progress toward that ideal condition in which government and the governed are in perfect harmony. SUMMARY The Republican party came into control of the government after twelve years of federal administration and with the distinct idea that " that govern- ment is best which governs least." They were expected, therefore, to follow a very strict construction of the Constitution, leaving all powers and pre- rogatives not expressly conferred upon the federal authority by the funda- mental law to the states and to the people. Men, however, are subordinate to principles. It has often happened in the history of the world that the greatest of men have been used, contrary to their will, by compelling forces in human society and have been made to follow courses just the opposite of their own convictions. Always, too, these forces are in the end constructive in character. It was, therefore, a wise stroke of fortune that made Thomas JefTerson, the highest exponent of democracy the world has ever known, responsible for the exercise of federal power. Under such circumstances but one result could follow: the central government must grow in power, because the perpetuity of a democratic nationality demanded power, and because conditions were at work to make the government grow; yet the central government must also be made to serve the whole people and those in authority must recognize both the rights and the capacity of common men. In other words, if the government was to endure it must ha\e power enough to deal eflectively with all questions that concern the whole people, but it must use the power with due regard for the whole people. JefTerson's administration inaugurated a process which went a long way toward bringing about just such a condition. The purchase of Louisiana, the trouble with the Mohammedan pirates of Tripoli, the war with Great Britain commonly known as the war of 181 2, the successful operation of a steamboat MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION 279 — all these and many other incidents were so many factors in enlarging the field of action for the federal government; yet at the same time they set in motion new forces that helped to destroy the aristocratic idea of the federal party and to infuse fresh vigor into the democratic Republicans. The result has been appropriately called a democratized nationality. The spirit of this new product manifested itself in the reestablishment (iSiO) of the National Bank on a more democratic basis, the extension of the pro- tective idea to the products of the democratic West, the making of internal improvements, the admission of several democratic states, the general feeling of good will that sprang up from Massachusetts to Georgia, and, finally, the proclamation of the Monroe Doctrine. This process of making the central government an effective agent of the popular will was disturbed only by the rise of sectional interests which began to make themselves felt in spite of constructive democracy. REVIEW QUESTIONS I. Was Jefiferson consistent in removing the "midnight judges"? 2. Knowing Jefferson's political faith, would you expect him to attempt to redeem the national debt? Why? How did he do it? 3. What effect did the war with the Barbary powers have upon the idea of nationality? 4. Give three reasons for the special importance of the Louisiana Purchase. Explain each. 5. By what right did Jefferson acquire this territory? 6. Why is the war of 1812 sometimes called our "Second War of Independence'"? What was the cause of this war? 7. The Repub- licans had opposed Hamilton's bank on the ground that it was unconstitutional and tended to centralize power. In 181 1 a Republican secretary of the treasury recom- mended its re-charter and the measure failed by only one vote. In 18 16 a Repub- lican president and Congress reestablished the bank by an overwhelming vote. What does this show as to the growth of the idea of natioaality? 8. How do you account for the Federalist opposition to the annexation of Louisiana and to the war of 181 2? g. What special significance do you find in the failure of Aaron Burr's expedition in the Southwest? 10. What battle in the war of 1S12 would doubtless have been averted if modern means of communication had been available? 11. Did New England believe in the right of secession at this time? Prove your answer. 12. Show that the Federalists had reversed their position on their cardinal doctrine by 1814. 13. Why was the tariff schedule revised in 1816? 14. What importance do you attach to the tour of the country by President Monroe? 15. What is meant by "the Era of Good Feeling"? 16. What was the relation of democracy and nationality in 1820? CHAPTER XV THE RISE OF SECTIONALISM REFERENCES Secondary Authorities. — Turner, Rise of the New West; Wilson, A merican People, vol. iii; MacMaster, History of the People of the United States, vol. iv; Stanwood, History of the Presidency; Burgess, The Middle Period; Taussig, Tarijf History of the United Stales. Sources. — Hart, Contemporaries, vol. iii; Beard, Readings in American Govern- ment and Politics; MacDonald, Select Documents . Illustrative M.ateri.\l. — Cooper, The Prairie; Eggleston, Circuit Rider. 348. The trans- Alle- ghany re- gion: its rapid devel- opment THE WEST We have already seen that the region west of the Alleghanies had its part in bringing on the War of 1812. It was destined to play a much more conspicuous part in matters of national inter- est in the not distant future. Its resources were limitless and as yet had not been touched. It abounded in wide and fertile valleys, rich prairies, and great forests. A thousand streams watered the region wherein the agricultural resources were seconded by tempting opportunities for grazing and stock- raising; and mighty rivers were ways for cheap transportation of surplus products. Coal, iron, and lead lay beneath the sur- face in vast quantities, awaiting only the pick and shovel to yield their treasures of wealth. One of the characteristics of the well-developed American is his love of land — not the speculative land lust, but the love of it as his home. He has pushed west whenever his elbows touched his neighbor's. This natural tendency coupled with the distresses of the older communities (324) brought about, in the second decade of the nineteenth century, an unusual migra- tion to the land of promise beyond the Alleghanies. Already THE WEST 281 the Anglo-Saxon's instinct for government had set up, in this region, the states of Kentucky in 1792, Tennessee in 1796, and Ohio, the first daughter of the Northwest Territory, in 1803; and then followed Louisiana, born in a storm in 181 2. The troubles with England and France on the high seas made conditions of living much harder than formerly in the United States, and particularly in the New England and Middle states. In the stir that always accompanies "hard times," many now sought refuge in the fertile West, where the government was selling lands at two dollars an acre on long time and at low interest. Dangers from the Indians had been greatly reduced by the efficient services of General William Henry Harrison at Tippecanoe creek (181 1), and later by General Andrew Jackson Route of the National Road in Florida. In 181 1, steamboats began to go up and down the Ohio river. Moreover, the government had given encourage- ment to road building by providing, in the Ohio admission act, that from the proceeds of the sales of public lands in that state, five per cent should be expended toward the construction of public highways. As early as 1806, definite steps were taken having in view the building of the Cumberland Road from Maryland to the Ohio river. These measures gave hope to those interested in the West that governmental encouragement would not be withheld from this region and that the obstacles to comfortable living there would be gradually removed. Dur- ing the War of 181 2, and immediately following it, the high- ways were kept alive by the trains of covered wagons, never out of sight, going West. The population of some of the states in this region doubled, trebled, and quadrupled in a decade. 2«2 THE RISE OF SECTIONALISM upon the Union The trackless forests saw the rise of thrifty villages, while vil- lages became cities. Prairies were converted into farm lands and houses were built of native timber. The invention of the cotton gin in 1794 and the industrial revolution that was going on throughout Europe, and particularly in England, at this time greatly increased the demand for cotton and led to the rapid occupation of the Southwest. Commerce floated down the Mississippi, exchanging the surplus corn and bacon of the Northwest for the cotton and tobacco of the Southwest. 349. New A number of new states knocked for admission in rapid suc- States; their ^^ggj^j^. 1^(^13^^^ in 1816, and Illinois in 1818, settled by people who had followed the roads up the Hudson and Mohawk valleys, and down the Ohio and along the lake shores; or by those of the Middle states, who followed the old road that Washington made to Fort Duquesne, then down the rivers to St. Louis and intermediate points. Mississippi came in in 181 7, and Alabama in 1819, organized, for the most part, by the planters from the Carolinas and Virginia. Such physical and material expansion as this must inevitably manifest itself in the growth of national institutions. The nation could not ignore such vigorous and spontaneous develop- ment, slow as were her leaders to acknowledge the merits of Western statesmen. This new region, vast, virile, and resource- ful, must find its appropriate place in the economic, political, and social life of the nation or be forever separated from it. The adjustment of these relations furnished fuel for a fire that put the American government to the severest test of its life — the Civil War. SLAVERY 350. Mis- souri and slavery The first serious friction came when Missouri knocked for admission as a state. Her soil and climate had attracted settlers from Kentucky and Tennessee, who had moved into the new country with their slaves. Of course the Missourians were expecting to be granted a state government, and were also expecting their institutions to be preserved by the central government, as in the recent cases of Mississippi and Alabama, SLAVERY 283 as well as when Kentucky, Tennessee, and Louisiana had become members of the Union. But Congress had become sensitive to the slavery question; years of petitions, committee reports, and debates had brought at length the beginning of an epoch; and the North had a majority in the House; for the first time the question appeared in national politics. From the time when the first shipment reached Jamestown, slaves had been openly imported into the United States until the year 1S07, when Congress passed an act directly prohibit- ing the foreign slave trade. This act was not enforced. North, as well as South — and the North mainly, be- cause the South was too busy agriculturally — had invested in the traffic which transported slaves from Africa and else- where, and continued to sell them in all the states from Mas- sachusetts to Georgia. Under the climatic influences, and in the economic conditions exist- ing in the various parts of the United States, the slaves drifted to the South through laws as inexorable as that of gravity; and Eh Whitney's cotton gin (1794) fastened the negro upon the Southern plantations for all time, or at least until the world's demand for Southern cotton shall be diminished through inven- tion or discovery. The slaves proved profitable as laborers, and made the South rich. From Maryland southward, the soil, climate, and elemental industries were such as to attract negro labor; in that climate he was at home, and the plantation labor on a large scale required less of intelligence and skill than did factory, or farm, or garden. In the North, however, the slave- market was soon satisfied; there, the climate proved too rigor- ous and the industries too exacting for the African negro whose forefathers for thousands of years had remained unde- Whitney's Cotton Gin After the original model 284 THE RISE OF SECTIOK\LISM veloped beneath a tropical sun ; so the Northern people got rid of their unprofitable negro laborers; and then, with consciences no longer bridled, began to agitate for compulsory emancipa- tion. The only difference, therefore, between the North and the South in these early days seems to have been purely a matter of economic divergence. If the people of the North had been 351, The Union to be tested Picking Cotton placed under the climatic and other geographic conditions of the South, slavery would have flourished with them just as it did with Southern people. In other words, if natural conditions of soil, climate, etc., had been reversed, the attitude of the two sections toward slavery as an economic institution would likewise have been reversed. It was fortunate that since the days of Jefferson's first admin- istration, the government had been in the hands of men who guarded the country against the dangers of centralization. Only inch by inch had Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe given way to the unalterable demands of a strong government. Their work and their influence had been sorely needed for the preser- vation of the balanced powers of state and nation, so that the government was enabled to pass through the coming period of strife, retaining its strength, without too greatly oppressing the SLAVERY 285 states. The tariff question was now a sufficient and an increas- ing menace to the further development of the cementing ten- dency, and slavery had appeared (1818) for the first time as a disturbing national question, almost exactly two centuries after its introduction into Virginia. It was like a smoldering fire during the Jacksonian period, in which the strength of the Union was tested and proved, yet it in reality increased as a disturbing force until its climax was reached in the Civil War, 1861-1S65. In 1818 the Territory of Missouri, which was included in the 352. Dis- Louisiana Purchase, sought admission to the Union as a slave ^°'^'^.*^°^". ' ^ _ cerning Mis- state. Such had been the admission of states as free and slave, souri; Maine to this date, that the strength of each group in the Senate was^^.^*^°"'^*^'" equal to that of the other; and the North and East saw that to admit Missouri as a slave state would destroy the equipoise of the sections and cast the balance in favor of the South and its peculiar institution; and they objected. A fierce debate, degenerating into abuse and vituperation, ensued. Thomas Jefferson, then old, and living quietly at Monticello, wrote of this fierce debate: "This momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened me, and filled me with horror. I con- sidered it at once the knell of the Union." The North further felt that since Missouri for the most part bordered the free state of Illinois on the east, the South was breaking a precedent in going north of Mason and Dixon's line, which, however, did not extend west of the Mississippi. The South, on the other hand, saw that there was no possible chance for the admis- sion of more than two additional slave states — Arkansas and Florida, while a large unorganized territory remained from which to carve free states. The bill to admit Missouri as a state into the Union was sub- mitted February 13, 1819. The question of slaves or no slaves produced so much debate that the bill went over to the next Congress. In the meantime, many Northern states passed resolutions against the admission of Missouri with slavery, notably the legislatures of New York, New Jersey, Ohio, and 286 THE RISE OF SECTIONALISM 363. Thomas's substitute bill, or the " Missouri Com- promise " — 1820 Delaware. The Territory of Missouri had suddenly attained great importance, due to the contest in Congress for advantage on the part of the two sections, and the fact that this was the first state, after Louisiana, to be created out of the Louisiana Purchase. To offset the danger threatened from the South, the North offered Maine for state honors; she could be cut out of Massachusetts, where she had belonged since 1677, and her two senators would balance those of Missouri. The Missouri bill was now amended by the House so as to prohibit slavery in that state. When the measure went to the Senate, it was combined with the Maine bill under the leader- ship of Henry Clay. Senator Thomas of Illinois now brought forward a substitute for the House amendment according to which Missouri should be admitted as a slave state, but all other states carved out of the Louisiana Purchase and lying north of 36° 30' should be free. The House accepted this sub- stitute after heated debate, and Maine, having her consti- tution in readiness, became a state immediately (1820), while Missouri was put to work on a slaveholding constitution. When the new constitution was submitted, members of Congress objected to it on the ground that it forbade the immigration of free negroes. Through the diplomacy of Henry Cla\% Mis- souri was induced to agree that no law should be made in any way abridging the rights of citizens of other states, whereupon she was admitted into the Union in August, 1821. The agitation of the slavery question became at this time not only a strong decentralizing force, but even a disorganizing force, such as would have destroyed the Union probably, had it not been for the steps taken by Jefferson and Madison to make the the" attack to Union justly indissoluble by making it as strong for the rights of an ethical ^ individual state as for the delegated powers of the feder- ground . ation of states. It shook the very foundations of the govern- ment, because it involved immediately the fundamental law of the land. It was simply the cjuestion of strict or loose construc- tion of the Constitution over again and in a new form, or rather as applied to a new question. Did Congress have the right to 354. The South maintains the Consti- tution; the North shifts SLAVERY 287 prescribe the terms upon which new states should be admitted? If she could admit states she certainly could reject states for cause, argued the North, though there be no express grant of such power in the Constitution. Moreover, the admission of the states from the Northwest territory, which were required by the Ordinance of 1787 to adopt anti-slavery constitutions, was cited as evidence that Congress had such a right and had hitherto acted upon it. But, argued the South, it was clearly understood by the states that adopted the Constitution that they surrendered none of their sovereign rights by so doing, and that when Congress attempted to dictate to a state a part of its fundamental law it was itself violating that very law; that such action would be a usurpation of power and would lead to a tyranny on the part of the federal government that was wholly incompatible with the rights of the state govern- ments and subversive of the spirit which inaugurated the Con- stitution. Clearly the South was legally and constitutionally right; and when men find their own interests plainly justified and protected by fundamental law it requires more than ordi- nary force to dislodge them. On the other hand, the North, realizing its defenceless position from a standpoint of law, began to lay emphasis upon the moral aspect of the institution of slavery. She began to see in human bondage a clear and iniquitous violation of moral law, which, her people asserted, is the highest law of the land. They submitted that slavery enervates society and perpetuates the worst form of cruelty toward a helpless victim; that it cultivates a tyrannous dispo- sition in the slaveholder and is contrary to the principles of free government, and hence to the Declaration of Independence itself. Gradually the issue shifted from economic and political grounds to practical and moral grounds, the pulpit and the press taking up the contest, which ever grew more bitter. The West, therefore, having done its part toward cementing the Union, was now incidentally doing much to increase sectional animosity. From this time forward the fires of sectional hatred did not cease to l)urn for more than a half century. THE RISE OF SECTIONALISM THE NEW SCHOOL OF STATESMEN 355. The Along with the rapid development of the West and the tbe ^Sections entrance into politics of the slavery question, there came a new school of statesmen. The Revolutionary patriots and the fathers of the republic were gradually passing off the stage of action, and the new leaders who took their places came more directly from the people. As a common patriotism had developed, as the people had felt more and more the strength of the federal arm, as their commercial interests had been unified, as their sense of dependence upon each other had grown, as questions of public concern had been agitated from one end of the country to the other; in a word, as the spirit of nationality became strong, freer participation in public affairs was inevitable. Interest in a question and knowledge of it carry as a corollary participa- tion in its solution. But, that the new generation of statesmen was democratic, and represented a higher national conscious- ness than its predecessors, did not prevent them from being also sectional. For example. New England felt itself closely bound together by interests pecuh'ar to itself, and which placed it apart as a section of the larger whole. The South was con- scious that its resources, its industries, and even some of its institutions were not common to the entire nation. The West, young, virile, and free, knew its unlikeness to any other part of the Union, and felt that its peculiar interests needed the recognition of the whole country. These conditions, however, reflected themselves more plainly in the presidential election of 1824, and rendered the Adams administration very unpop- ular. A line of succession threatened to become fixed in the elevation of the secretary of state to the chair of the executive. Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe had been at the head of the state department, and though Jefferson had not succeeded Washington directly, he had been a candidate to succeed him, and had been elected vice-president. ^^^•. J^® Although there was but one party — the Federal Republican in 1824 — there were four strong candidates for the presidency. THE NEW SCHOOL OF STATESMEN 289 I. John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, Monroe's sec- retary of state. The son of the second president of the United States, Mr. Adams was a statesman of great ability, wide experience, and extraordinary scholarship. More than any of the other candidates, he represented the old Federalists and the aristocracy. He was very popular in New England. Henry Clay addressing the Senate After the painting by Rothermell 2. Henry Clay of Kentucky, speaker of the House of Repre- sentatives. Mr. Clay was one of the greatest political orators of his day, and it is doubted that any succeeding time has produced his equal. He was a Virginian by birth, and he was a magnetic candidate, with hosts of friends and admirers every- where. In him were embodied the vigor, the resourcefulness, and strength of the great West from which he came, as well as the polish and political training of the East. 3. William H. Crawford of Georgia, secretary of the treasury. Mr. Crawford was the nominee of the Congressional caucus, 290 THE RISE OF SECTIONALISM and was one of the ablest men of his clay. His candidacy was practically interrupted by ill health. 4. Andrew Jackson, United States senator from Tennessee. Jackson represented the new democracy, now beginning to feel its power. Like the frontiersman that he was, he relied upon his own native strength for success. 357. New The campaign was significant. In the first place, all of the nondnatine candidates except Crawford had been nominated in an irregular and of cam- way. Party leaders had usually picked their man without con- paigmng suiting the people — an essentially oligarchic method. But so interested were the various sections of the country in their own local leaders and in giving direction to national policies, so intensely conscious of an identity of community interests, that the old caucus method of making nominations was no longer acceptable to the plain people. They accordingly resorted to mass meetings and endorsements by state legislatures. The fact that Clay, Adams, and Jackson were all nominated in this way is evidence of the rising tide of democracy, and is pro- phetic of the approaching days of bitter sectionalization. In the second place, the methods of the campaign were entirely out of the ordinary. Previously it had been beneath the dig- nity of presidential candidates to go about over the country asking for votes. In this campaign stump speeches, parades, topical songs, and all forms of popular demonstrations were used in behalf of the various candidates, more particularly in the interest of the "hero of New Orleans." Passion ran high. Thousands of people became interested in public questions who had thus far been indifferent to such matters. Appeals were made by candidates and their friends to sectional interests. The soil was being prepared for ci\'il discord. 358. A In the electoral college, Jackson received gg votes, Adams Sngf the ^4, Crawford 41, and Clay 37. House elects John C. Calhoun had received a large majority of the votes jg2^™^~ for the vice-presidency, and was declared elected. No candidate for the presidency having a majority, the elec- tion again (308) devolved upon the House of Representatives, f ■ \ ■ I'eoria i 'A O 'S-to^ -shTo ^-^ «^ yf ) ^i^?^ /tp I. =^■•1, ^avan'iab. ^ ^ R. D.jSecYOM. £Dj:r,.N.B. THE NEW SCHOOL OF STATESMEN 291 which, under the Constitution, voting by states, must choose "from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the Hst." Clay, thus eliminated as a candidate, gave his strength to Adams, who was elected, receiving the vote of thirteen of the twenty-four states. Perhaps Mr. Clay had made Mr. Adams president; and when Mr. Adams appointed Mr. Clay secretary of state, the charge was made that a bargain had been struck. Jackson's friends argued that their candidate should have been elected by the House of Repre- sentatives, because he h^d received the largest popular vote; and cried out that he had been robbed of his right. They declared war on Adams and on Clay, and immediately began active work for their candidate's success in 1828, taking time by the forelock in a campaign for the presidency. From the standpoint of experience John Quincy Adams was 359. The one of the best equipped men who ever sat in the White ^"'^^P'!^^'' House. Scholarly, able, energetic, and conscientious, he was difficult also well trained in the school of politics. He had been senator Position from Massachusetts, minister to Russia, peace commissioner at Ghent, minister to England, and secretary of state. Son of a Federalist president, he was cold, haughty, and diffident toward others, but was nevertheless sincerely devoted to the best inter- ests of his people, as he saw them. He had large ideas about the future of his country and wanted to expand to the Rio Grande, annex Canada, and absorb Cuba. But he was in trouble from the beginning. He was an ardent anti-slavery man, and was from a state that had new come to demand a high tariff. His technically righteous election remained clouded by suspicion of bargaining with Clay, and by the charge that he had shown John Quincy Adams 292 THE RISE OF SECTIONALISM lack of magnanimity in not withdrawing when Jackson was declared the choice of the people. And Jackson's friends were many. Tennessee was now more populous than Massachu- setts, and Jackson, whom both of the jealous Carolinas claimed, was without a rival in the affections of the people in every Southern state, while North, East, and West, the number of his adherents must logically be increased by all who were opposed to the administration. It is hardly too much to say that Jackson's defeat made him doubly strong for the work he was ordained to do in the future; and that Adams's victory sapped much of his strength when, in after years, he sat in the lower house of Congress and represented Massachusetts. 380. The Congress convened on December 5, 1825. There were angry ^f „ ^~ controversies. Mr. McDuffie, of South .Carolina, in the House, vestiga- ' ' ' tion;" the adversely criticised Mr. Clay for the part he had taken in the Conference Presidential election. Excitement followed, and an investi- gation was ordered, in which Mr. Clay produced " a mass of testimony" which his friends thought ample to justify him. Mexico, Peru, Chile, Colombia, and the Central American republics invited the United States to send representatives to a congress of American republics to be held at Panama in June, 1826. The purpose of the conference, suggested no doubt by the Monroe Doctrine, sought to cultivate among these powers a friendly understanding relative to European activities in the western hemisphere. The plan met with the hearty approval of the administration. But when the fact developed that the republic of Hayti also had been invited to participate, it caused a long debate in Congress in regard to the propriety of meeting on terms of quasi-political equality with negroes. The objec- tion was urged chiefly by the South. The United States was not represented, though two delegates were appointed; one of them failed through sickness, and the other "was not able to serve." The incident illustrates well the influence that sec- tionalism was beginning to exert upon national policies. The same anti-national force is seen about the same time in the Southeast. Georgia, in 1802-3, had surrendered to the THE NEW SCHOOL OF STATESMEN 293 United States her claim to the territory west of her present 361. boundary, for which the United States had agreed to pay the ?^^°l?^^ 5°*^ sum of $1,250,000 and had engaged to extinguish "within a Indians reasonable time" the Indian title to lands within the remainder of the state. In February, 1825, Commissioners Campbell and Merriwether, on the part of the United States, made a treaty with some of the Creeks, by which the United States partly fulfilled her obligations to Georgia in regard to the Indian lands. This treaty proved objectionable to others of the Creeks; the chief who had signed it was killed; and the dissatisfied Indians appealed to the government to repudiate the treaty; and although it had been ratified by the Senate, the government proceeded to make a new treaty early in 1826. But Governor Troup of Georgia refused to admit validity in the new treaty; he ordered the survey of the western line of Georgia according to the terms of the treaty of 1802, and of the Indian lands designated in the old treaty, the proper disposal of these lands having already been provided for by the legislature. The United States government now threatened the arrest of the surveyors; but when Governor Troup replied that he would meet force with force, the survey was no longer hindered. A peaceful solution of the whole affair was a third treaty by the terms of which the Creeks gave up all their lands in Georgia and removed beyond the Mississippi. Georgia had successfully defied national authority and had asserted that she was "sover- eign on her own soil." The era of good feeling was past; divisions were taking place; the followers of President Adams and Clay, his secretary of state, began to be known as National Republicans, while those of Jackson, Calhoun, and Crawford were called Democratic Republicans. A high tariff act was defeated in the Senate only by the vote 362. Com- of Vice-President Calhoun in 1827. Soon afterward, the rep- ^'"^'P^ °^ ' '- sections; resentatives of the protected industries met at Harrisburg, the " tariff Pennsylvania, and advocated still higher duties and began a °^ abomi- . ' ° ^ , nations " campaign to accomplish their purpose. The West combined 294 THE RISE OF SECTIONALISM with the North on the tariff measures for the puri:)ose, it is said, of promoting the candidacy of Andrew Jackson for the presi- dency. At any rate, the West, the producer of raw material, combined with the North and East, the manufacturing sec- tions, in the production of a tariff measure suitable to both. The bill provided for a tariff on wool and other raw materials, to protect the farmers of the West; on pig iron to protect the Middle states, and on manufactured articles to help the merchants and manufacturers. Hardly could any party to the move- ment expect it to carry, but it carried nevertheless, and received the president's sig- nature on May 24, 182S. This "Tariff of Abomina- tions," as it was called, bore hardest on the South, which section produced most of the raw materials and received the least benefit, for few of its productions were on the protected list. South Carolina led in opposition, with John C. Calhoun, her favorite son, issuing a full discussion of the matter in a folder called "Exposition and Protest." In this he took the old ground of Jefferson and Madison, as ex- pressed in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, contending that the United States had the right to levy taxes to maintain the government, but not to protect industries. He summar- ized and restated much of the argument that had been used by the pohtical philosophers from all sections when statesmen from the respective sections had felt themselves aggrieved. He asserted, as New England had done in 1814, that a state was its own judge, and could properly dissolve the compact with other states when its rights had been invaded. In South Carolina and other states of the South meetings were held, resolutions John C. Calhoun THE NEW SCHOOL OF STATESMEN 295 were passed, and great orators were heard denouncing the "Tariff of Abominations." The condition continued long into the next administration, and with the marked peculiarity that the slavery question did not enter into the discussions, except perhaps incidentally. The federal compact was of such uncer- tain strength that any section whenever aggrieved or injured in this or that interest, threatened to break the compact, and few seemed to regard secession an unjustifiable remedy for an extreme evil. In the meantime, the ambition of Andrew Jackson had been 363. satisfied, and thus a Democrat of a new and extreme t}'pe, a elected Southern slave-owner and a man of the people, had been elected. — 1828 It was decided to wait to see what he would do. There was hope that the South, which paid a large per cent of the import duties of the entire country, but elected only a third of its rep- resentatives in Congress, would receive fairer consideration at the hands of the federal government. SUMMARY The rapid development of the West emphasized the idea of nationahty, but also it brought forward such new forces as promoted for the time the process of sectionalization. It was one thing to annex territory and another to organize states upon terms agreeable to all concerned. Respect for the federal power had grown for more than a quarter of a century, and with it the development of an intelligent patriotism, but the absence of quick and efficient means of transportation and communication permitted the rise of sectionalism. Men gauged national questions by the things they saw immediately around them. Their horizon was no wider than the interests which were peculiar to the section in which they lived. When men from other parts of the country could not agree with them, passions arose. Dis- cord took the place of harmony and bitterness entered into the settlement of all public questions. The admission of Missouri had brought forth a contest that revealed the divergent interests of the difTerent sections and gave emphasis to the slavery divergence. Once more, too, it aroused the old question of state rights and the whole problem of constitutional interpretation. Moreover, it attracted the attention of a much larger per cent of the people than had hitherto been interested in public matters, because it had to do with a problem that lay close to the daily interest of all the people. The election 296 THE RISE OF SECTIONALISM of 1824 reflected these conditions and introduced a new factor into national politics — the common man. New England was successful in this election, through a combination between her candidate and another whose national ideals were acceptable to her. The new administration was constantly obstructed by sectional interests and came to a close in the midst of a storm which had been brought about by attempting to make laws in the interest of certain sections of the country. In passing the "Tariff of Abominations" members of Congress lost sight of national interests and committed them- selves to the pernicious practice of settling matters of national concern in accordance with the prochvities of a local constituency. REVIEW QUESTIONS I. What were some of the conditions that retarded the development of the West before the war of 181 2? 2. What effect did the invention of the steamboat have upon Western development? 3. Why did not the slavery question become an issue when Alabama was admitted to the Union? Illustrate. 4. What had been the policy of the national government with reference to the admission of states before 1820? 5. What was Missouri's attitude toward slavery? 6. How was the ques- tion of state rights involved in the Missouri controversy? 7. Why did the South adhere to the doctrine of "strict construction"? 8. Was the attitude of New England toward the federal power the same now as in 1 81 2? Why? 9. If railroads and telephones had been common in 1 800 would the process of nationalization have been interrupted by sectional interests? Why? 10. In what sense was the elec- tion of 1824 an indication of a more thorough democracy? How did it bring out sectional differences? 11. What reasons can you give for the failure of Adams to be reelected? 12. What significance do you find in the Panama congress affair? 13. Was the "tariff of abominations" a protective tariff? 14. Did it place a duty upon raw materials? 15. How does it reveal the rise of the sectional spirit? CHAPTER XVI THE PEOPLE AS PRESIDENT REFERENCES Secondary Authorities. — Wilson, American People, vol. iv; MacMaster, History of the People of the United Stales, vol. vi; Houston, A Critical Study of Nullification in South Carolina; Burgess, The Middle Period; V'on Hoist, Constitu- tional History of the United States. Sources. — MacDon'ald, Select Documents; Hart, Contemporaries, vol. iii; Source Book. WESTERN DEMOCRACY IN PERSON The administration of the government from Washington to 364. " Gov- Jackson had been kept in the hands of a few men. There ernment by Secretaries had been an unbroken line of presidential succession handed down from one administration to the next. Part — a very great part — of Jackson's political capital consisted of the declared policy to break down government by secretaries and erect gov- ernment by the people. And Adams had been a secretary, and his administration as president had not been successful. He could neither run the engine nor put on the brakes. He had disappointed many of his supporters in not vetoing the "Tariff of Abominations," and had gained no strength in approving it. If ever there was a "typical" man, his name was Andrew 365. An- Jackson. Nevertheless, or, better to say, therefore, he was ^''^^ J^*^^" strongly individual; inasmuch as he represented the West, he Tennessee and the West were independent, unconventional, and unique; it had united its elemental forces with the spirit of a courageous man and had produced Andrew Jackson. The West was new, populous, and prosperous; it had its own ideas and its own purposes, some of them as yet unknown. The West had grown from a wilderness to be the home of more than two millions of 298 THE PEOPLE AS PRESIDENT people, whose endurance of hardships had given them self- confidence, courage, and capacity. The theoretical questions of nationality and state sovereignty had not seriously taken hold of the minds of men in Tennessee. Jackson believed in local self-government of course, but also, of course, he had taken the power of the general government for granted — and if a govern- ment at all, one strong enough to maintain itself on every field. The powers at Washington had intimated, in 1819, their willing- ness for him to invade Spanish territory, and had sustained him in that delicate and dangerous enterprise. His state had come into the Union by the power of the general government. He might view the question of secession perpendicularly rather than from an angle. fiJ^^ f Jackson's campaign for the presidency was the first of its the demo- kind in the history of the government. He was a hero at great "^^J" gatherings in different sections. He carried New York by organization and good management, developing there his friend and associate, Van Buren. His supporters made the most of his war record, and of the fact that he had been defeated by Adams by means of a "foul bargain" between Adams and Clay. A small number of men had held the ofl^ices. The widen- ing West, now beginning to feel her strength, put forth all that strength to help Jackson, her first military hero. The poor widow's boy, homeless, friendless, uneducated, ambitious to become an American soldier at fourteen, captured by the Brit- ish at Hanging Rock, and refusing when a prisoner to black the British officer's boots, this boy had shown the possibilities of a man in the "Land of Opportunity," — the land of Democracy. Jeliferson was a Democrat by thought and choice. Jackson was a Democrat by necessity and birth. He had only the point of view of the common man. But nature made him of granite and made him large. He was a chieftain descended from Scotch Highlanders. He knew little of the fine theories of government, and cared less. With a refreshing independence of Congress and courts he had magnified his military office to his own proportions. He was warmhearted, combative, self- WESTERN DEMOCRACY IN PERSON 299 willed. What he wanted to do he moved straight onward to do that. Only a fair judge of men, he frequently missed the size of his associates and trusted or mistrusted the wrong man, and trusted himself when the judgment of others would have been better. The whole country has, perhaps, fashioned no stronger charac- ter, no better type of the self-taught American, than this rugged backwoods- man, who inciden- tally produced earthquakes and wrestled success- fully with their fury. When offices seek men, there need be no spoils, but when men seek offices, they must have help to win. Those men who spent their time and money to elect Jackson president, naturally expected to be remembered when he came into power, and they were not disappointed. It is estimated that for political reasons he removed during his first year ten times as many men as all other presidents had ever removed. Of more than six hundred appointees of the president he had removed more than a third, to say nothing of a much larger number of subordinates who went out along with their superiors. In modern times the spoils system is a logical necessity, result- ing from the contests of political parties. Its evils are limited by the civil service laws. General Andrew Jackson 3CX) THE PEOPLE AS PRESIDENT 368. The In the preceding chapter it has been pointed out that the South'shope '"Parifif of Abominations," a political treason committed in the in Jackson _ ^ x- time of John Quincy Adams's administration, was the result of that kind of politics which places sectional interests above those of the nation; that it was the product of a combination between New England manufacturers and Western producers of raw material; that it raised the tariff rates, and brought a storm of protest from the South because she considered it detri- mental to her industrial interests; that it had been opposed by Calhoun upon the ground that the Constitution, which gave to Congress the right to raise revenue, did not authorize the collection of a surplus through a system of taxation that took money out of the pockets of one section of the country to put into the pockets of another section; and finally that the South looked with hope for relief to the election of Andrew Jackson. 369 The It was soon evident that the South had mistaken her man. South's jj^ ^ message to Congress (December, 1830) he asserted the con- ment stitutional right of Congress to levy such a tax and agreed with Clay that it was also in keeping with a wise national policy. It would have been difficult at this time to add more inflammable material to the fire of sectional jealousy. The South was worse than disappointed; she was furious. She could not forget the issue of slavery which the Missouri question had precipitated and which had been growing more acute from day to day. She had watched with suspicion the change in the attitude of New England toward the tariff, for as late as 1824 Daniel Webster of Massachusetts had declared that "the general sense of this age sets, with a strong current, in favor of freedom of commercial intercourse, and unrestrained individual action"; while he was now upholding the most abominable tariff act in the history of his country because his section, under the protect- ive system, was changing from a shipowning to an industrial district. Plainly, as it appeared to the South, there was a conscious effort to discriminate against her economic interests and her institutions. With pubhc sentiment in this condition, only a spark was WESTERN DEMOCRACY IN PERSON 301 needed to set the whole country aflame again. When Senator 370. The Foote of Connecticut introduced a resolution (December, 1829) , °?*®. ^^°" providing that the federal government should take all public December, lands ofif the market, there was an inevitable explosion of the^^^' *_ ® anti-Eastern sentiment. The South and much of the West Webster could see nothing in the measure but an attempt to injure ^^^ ® ~ them by checking the tide of immigration, keeping a surplus of labor in New England, and thus reducing the price of labor for the manufacturers, who were already becoming rich through an iniquitous, unconstitutional, and undemocratic tariff law. The discussion naturally shifted, therefore, from the Foote reso- lution as such, to the more fun- damental question of the sphere of federal authority. Was such legislation constitutional? Did Congress have a right, under the Constitution, to enact a law that was sectional in its effects, or that gave one class of citizens the advantage over another? Were not these questions appro- priate for the states, rather than for federal authority? Senator Hayne of South Carolina took the ground that the Constitution is a compact, or an agreement binding a league of states, and that when the rights of a state are invaded or broken, the state has the right to withdraw from the Union. Webster took the ground that the states are one, that the Con- stitution made a nation, and that the parts must be subject to the whole, which cannot be broken. The debate contains perhaps the best summary of the arguments on this subject to be found. It is now agreed that, historically, Hayne was correct. But as a matter of expediency, or as to what might be best for the people of the whole country for all the future, Webster was prophetic. "The past was with Hayne; the Daniel Webster 302 THE PEOPLE AS PRESIDENT 372. Nulli- fication in South Carolina — 1832 future was with Webster." Hayne's position was based upon the argument of Jefferson's Kentucky Resolutions and Madi- son's Virginia Resolutions, announced thirty years previously. Webster's position was not a new one, but was the masterly summary of all the arguments that had been presented from time to time in favor of the theory that "We the people" in the preamble of the Constitution destroyed state lines in so far as the Union was concerned, and fused the people into one indissoluble nation. On April 13, after the famous debate in January, 1830, Jefferson's birthday was celebrated with a great banquet. A rare program of toasts had been prepared, for the most part setting forth the position of the South on the questions at issue. When President Jackson was called upon he responded with "Our Federal Union — it must be preserved." It was hideously out of tune with all previous sentiments of that occasion, and provoked from Calhoun the virtual declaration of war, "Liberty dearer than Union." From this time forward the president and the vice-president were out of harmony, and when it became known to the president that in 1818 Calhoun had proposed that General Andrew Jackson should be cen- sured for insubordination in the prosecution of the war against the Seminole Indians, there was at once an impassable breach between the two officials, and Calhoun resigned his office to become a senator from South Carolina. When the contro- versy was about to reach its climax, Hayne left the Senate to become governor of the same state. The battle was just over the hill. Calhoun now issued "An address to the People of South Carolina," emphasizing again his doctrine as set forth in the "Exposition." His ceaseless attack upon the tariff policy, in addition to the admitted injustice of the "Tariff of Abomina- tions," led Congress in 1832 to pass a new tariff law, which practically returned to the basis of 1824, though it retained the protective idea. Once more in American history, it was not the amount of the tax, but the principle involved that was objec- WESTERN DEMOCRACY IN PERSON 303 tionable, and, giving voice to the opposition, Calhoun wrote a letter to the governor of South Carolina setting forth in vigor- ous and convincing terms the doctrine of state sovereignty. He supported the proposition that the central government was the agent of the sovereign states; that when the agent exceeded his authority his actions were "null and void"; that federal law was binding in a given state only because the people in such state had made it so; that the same power which gave validity to the federal law in a given state could certainly nullify such law. The South Carolina legislature issued a call for a state convention, and on November 24 this convention declared the tariff acts of 1S28 and 1832 null and void, and forbade payment of duties on imports into the state after February i, following. It further declared that should the federal government attempt to enforce the said laws such action would ipso facto sever the relation between the State of South Carolina and the Union. President Jackson's attitude toward the whole affair had been 373. Jack- previously made plain when he said to a member of Congress ^°"'^. '^®" . . . termina- from South Carolina: "Please give my compliments to mytion; Clay's friends in your state, and say to them that if a single drop of ^™P''°°^'^® blood shall be shed there in opposition to the laws of the United States, I will hang the first man I can lay my hands on engaged in such treasonable conduct, upon the first tree I can reach." His reply, therefore, to the nullification proclamation was just such as would be expected: "The laws of the United States must be executed. I have no discretionary power on the subject — my duty is emphatically pronounced in the Constitu- tion. Those who told you that you might peacefully prevent their execution deceived you. . . . Their object is disunion, and disunion by armed force is treason." Governor Hayne followed with a proclamation to his people urging them to be firm. Jackson now asked authority of Congress to enforce the law in South Carolina, and when Congress passed the "Force Bill" the president prepared to send troops into that state. It looked like war, when Senator Clay again came forward with a compromise, February 12, 1833. He proposed a gradual 304 THE PEOPLE AS PRESIDENT return to the basis of the schedule of 1824, one tenth of the excess of the measure of 1832 to be removed biennially until 1840, when half of the remainder should be removed, and in 1842 the twenty per cent basis should be adopted. This measure passed easily, and, on March 11, upon the call of Governor Hayne, the convention reassembled and South Carolina revoked the nullification ordinance. The result of the compromise was a postponement of the issue — not the issue as to the tariff, but the issue of state rights. South Carolina regarded herself as the victor, since the hateful laws had been repealed because of her protest. But the taxes had been collected while she was protesting, and the federal government had shown unmistakable evidence of an intention to counteract by force the principle of state sovereignty when applied to a national interest. JACKSON'S FISCAL POLICY 374. Past The tariff war was not the only question which occupied the* National ^^^ public mind during "the reign of Andrew Jackson." The Bank; its re- people's president wielded the scepter of federal power with as —^16 much vigor against the National Bank as he had exhibited in his contest with South Carolina on the tariff question and state rights. In a previous chapter it has been pointed out that one movement of Hamilton's policy of centralization was the establishment of a national bank; that he had found constitu- tional right for it in the doctrine of "implied powers"; that he was opposed by Jefferson on the grounds that the Constitution did not expressly grant such power and that the tendency was too much toward centralization ; that after considering carefully the arguments of each, Washington followed the advice of Hamilton, and Congress chartered the institution (1791) for twenty years. We have further noticed that in 181 1, when the Republicans were in power, and this country was about to go to war with Great Britain over impressments, Congress had refused by one vote to recharter the Hamilton bank, but in 1816, under the nationalizing influences of the War of 181 2, a Republican JACKSON'S FISCAL POLICY 305 administration rechartered it with more than three times the capital of the former bank, which had been somewhat less directly connected with the federal government. During the period of national expansion after the War of 181 2, this bank shared in the general prosperity of the country and grew immensely rich. Branch banks were established in various sections and stockholders from Maine to Georgia shared in the marvelous profits and cherished toward it the friend- liest feelings. It was now receiving millions of the people's money on deposit, besides taking care of the government's surplus, negotiating its loans, and enjoying a monopoly of the banking business so far as the federal government was concerned. It was lending vast sums of money and returning to its stockholders gratifying dividends from their investment. It had very nearly become what Hamilton had desired it to be — the nerve center of American business enterprise. In addition to this bank, and in part no doubt because of its 375. The prosperity, numerous state banks had also come into existence. ^***® banks They were not state banks in the sense that they were under state supervision, but in the sense that they had received their authority to do business from state legislatures. Often such banks had been chartered for political reasons — either to pay a political debt or to promote party interests. Such banks were administered, therefore, in the same partisan way, and naturally enough many people came to suppose that all banking business was more or less tainted with graft. In the popular mind, especially in the West and South, pohtics and money were mutual friends. Jackson had been elected by the common people and naturally brought to the office of president a distrust of the integrity of the National Bank. Nor were grounds for distrust wanting. It was no secret that the bank as an organi- zation often favored certain candidates and spent thousands of dollars to secure their election, not necessarily in a corrupt way, but spent it nevertheless. Then Clay and Adams and Webster had shown themselves friendly to the institution and many had come to suspect that perhaps money was giving too much 3o6 THE PEOPLE AS PRESIDENT 376 of the bill to renew the charter of the Bank — 1832 direction to government. At any rate, it was evident that a keener sense of interest in public affairs was being developed by the people, and the people now ruled the country. Veto It was seven years from the time Jackson was inaugurated until the charter to the bank would expire, but that did not prevent his hoisting the danger signal. In his first message to Congress he declared: "Both the con- stitutionality and the ex- pediency of the law cre- ating this bank are well questioned by a large por- tion of our fellow-citizens; and it must be admitted by all that it has failed in the great end of establish- ing a uniform and sound currency." This low note was continually repeated in succeeding messages, and in 1832 Nicholas Biddle, the president of the bank, upon the recommen- dation of Clay and Webster, asked that the charter be renewed. A bill passed both houses, but was vetoed by the president. In his veto message, Jackson maintained in substance that the bill was unconstitutional because the bank was not only not a necessary and proper instrument of the federal power, but was also expensive and un-American, contrary to democratic government and dangerous to a free people. Jackson had now been president for nearly four years, and Clay thought that in the bank there was good ground for a race. Nor was it very difficult for Jackson to hear the voice of the deposits people demanding that he run again, despite his previous ad- vocacy of single presidential terms with direct election. The . result of the campaign was ne\'er in doubt. The electoral vote was 219 to 49; and now Jackson had his mandate from the Henry Clay 377. Jack- son re- elected — 1832; Jack- people. The bank must go. In December after the election JACKSON'S FISCAL POLICY 307 he sent a message to Congress insinuating that the bank was unsafe and was not to be trusted with the government funds, recommending at the same time an investigation of its condition. It proved to be thoroughly sound, and both houses of Congress gave it a vote of confidence. But Jackson was not to be thwarted. The bank had taken active part in the presidential campaign that had just closed — and on Clay's side. This dickering in politics by the money interests was offensive to the democracy of the country, and for the government to charter an institution of this kind was undemocratic and dangerous to the people's safety. The president remembered that the law gave to the secretary of the treasury the right to remove government deposits from the bank and inform Congress of his reasons. To deliver his meditated stroke required that a treasurer be found who could be used to carry out the president's wishes. The third appoint- ment proved lucky, one having been promoted, and one dismissed, before the hour met the man in the person of Roger B. Taney, who was transferred from the attorney general's department. An order was now issued from the treasury department for- bidding further deposits of federal money in the bank, and providing that existing funds should be drawn upon to meet current expenses of the government. Henceforth deposits were placed in state banks (frequently called "pet banks") scattered throughout the country. The results were many and far-reaching. The bank was 378. The compelled to contract its business, a hard thing to do when '^^^ {^^^^ into remember the burdens the institution had to carry at this time, a state bank; Public confidence in it was further weakened and it lost the J^jjQj^.^gJ^^J"_ support, therefore, of many of its former friends. The country tion of Van barely escaped financial disaster, and the bank adjusted its_^|"g business as best it could and reorganized under a state charter. There were no more national banks for a quarter of a century, the necessities of the Civil War bringing into existence our present system. The patronage of state banks by the national government 3o8 THE PEOPLE AS PRESIDENT greatly stimulated the state bank business. Hundreds of new state banks came into existence and enjoyed their share of the federal surplus which was now accumulating. Business conditions were good with all classes, and the outlook was so bright that the speculative spirit developed. The new banks, as well as the old, issued a flood of paper money based upon nothing but prospects. Everybody had credit and believed he was on the point of getting rich. Money was easy, real estate was advancing rapidly, and long risks were common. Even the national government placed large loans with the states, and the states, like individuals, involved themselves heavily in land and in transportation facilities. The United States government sold nearly $25,000,000 worth of land in 1836 and received in payment large amounts of state bank paper. To stop the accumulation of this unsafe currency the president issued the specie circular, ordering that the United States treasury receive nothing but gold and silver in payment for the lands. The new banks had no gold and silver with which to redeem their currency, and speculators found specie hard to borrow. The bottom dropped out of the land business, public and private improvement ceased, factories were shut down, labor became scarce, banks "went broke," the cost of living went up, riots became common, foreign commerce fell off, and the national treasury suddenly found itself more than $10,000,000 in debt. In the meantime, Jackson's second term had expired, and he had named his right hand man, Martin Van Buren, as his successor. The Whigs, a new party formed of the National RepubUcans (338) and others hostile to Jackson, scattered their votes among several candidates, and the Democrats won the election by 46 electoral and 25,000 popular majority. Van Buren undertook to relieve the financial situation by the establishment of sub-treasuries. Vaults were constructed in New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, New Orleans, Boston, and Charleston as depositories for the government revenues, and the country settled down to a more conservative fiscal policy. PROGRESS AND SECTIONAL INTERESTS 309 NATIONAL PROGRESS AND SECTIONAL INTERESTS While the democratic president of the people was wielding the 379. Punda- scepter of national power in a manner impossible for the Queen cental pro- . cesses; of Great Britam and Ireland and Empress of India, there were prosperity tremendous forces at work just beneath the surface that were ^"^ danger destined to bring about revolutions no less fundamental than the great political questions we have just studied. The material development which followed the war of 181 2, and which so effectually contributed to the growth of nationality, went forward during the decade between 1830 and 1840 with remarkable rapidity, and, strangely enough, now became the chief factor in promoting, tempo- rarily at least, the process of sectionali- zation. At the be- ginning of the decade there were twenty- three miles of rail- way in the United States; at the close there were nearly three thousand. The results were both instantaneous and perpetual. On the farm, in the factory, at the mart there was constant demand for labor. Farm products increased, the output of the factories doubled, traffic gained commensurately, wholesale centers developed, capital began to come together for undertaking business on a larger scale, population grew dense in industrial and commercial cities, where a large foreign element now began to make itself felt, and deeper shafts were sent into the earth to satisfy the increasing demand for fuel. Steam navigation was rapidly transforming the western waterways into channels of exchange, while a variety of mechanical improvements in the manufacture of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 1830 From an old print 3IO THE PEOPLE AS PRESIDENT cotton cloth gave impetus to the development of the i)lantation system in the South, and the invention of the McCormick reaper in 1834 changed many a western prairie into a rich and profitable grain field. "The nation, hitherto singularly uniform in its conditions of life, exhibiting almost everywhere equal opportunities of success, few large fortunes, and an easy liveli- r:^-' Modern McCormick Reaper This reaper cuts and threshes the grain hood for all who were industrious, was now about to witness sudden enormous accumulations of wealth, to perceive sharp contrasts between poverty and abundance, an ominous breaking up of economic levels. The aggregate material power of the country was to be greatly increased but individual opportunity was to become unequal, society was to exchange its simple for a complex structure, fruitful of new problems of life, full of new capacities for disorder and disease." ^ Thus this unprecedented material expansion opened the way for a number of social and economic problems of today — such as lems; exten- strikes, labor unions, the relation of capital and labor, trusts, and interstate commerce. But for the immediate future it was more significant of the approaching political divergence between the sections of the country. It emphasized the economic differences of the various regions and thus made inevitable political conflicts between them. * Wilson, Division and Reunion. 380. Social and eco- nomic prob sion of the suffrage PROGRESS AND SECTIONAL INTERESTS 311 Along with this material growth there was a corresponding expansion of the suffrage. Since colonial days there had been in most of the states either religious or property qualifications for voting. In some places only tax-payers might vote. The states had almost uniformly been slow in adjusting their funda- mental laws to the changed conditions, and as a consequence thousands of men did not participate in political affairs. The agitation of the slavery question, the passionate public discussion of the tariff, the bitter contest over the bank — appealing to the almost instinctive popular distrust of capital, the rise of public education, the multiplication of newspapers, magazines, and books, the rapidly increasing means of quick communi- cation, even the material expansion itself — all these factors educated the popular mind to interest in all life, and politics was a part of it. As always happens when enlightenment grows, the people demanded more and more the right of self-govern- ment. The right of suffrage was therefore extended, caucus nominations became less frequent, terms of office were shortened, and offices formerly appointive were now filled by popular election. These reforms stirred within the politicians a mighty sympathy with the people, and gave rise to questionable, though interesting, methods of campaigning. "Bosses" and "rings" developed, and party machinery was expanded and reorganized with a view of controlling the new electorate. The common man had had little knowledge of political affairs, but he was now demanding the right to learn, and to learn by experience. « SUMMARY The plain people were now coming into their own and Andrew Jackson was their exponent. In him were embodied the honesty, the fearlessness, the capacity of the common man. In all these qualities he was the direct product of the rising democracy; and he administered the government after the democracy's methods. Accordingly, he threw questions of expediency as to methods to the winds and sent all his energy in the direction of his goal. This attitude, when applied to the questions that affected public policy and involved the administration of his oflice as president, brought him into open and violent conflict with every force that crossed his path. 312 THE PEOPLE AS PRESIDENT When South Carolina attempted to nullify a federal law the absolutism of a military dictator was brought to bear in upholding the national statute. The battle was drawn, but only because compromise was effected before Jackson could bring the machinery of government into more radical action. The specter of his and the people's enemy appeared in the bank question, and again the methods he used were no less thoroughgoing than before. If Congress failed to act, then some power must be found that would not fail. If cabinet officials were not pliant, then others must be found that were so. The bank must be destroyed, because it was the people's enemy and his enemy, and he and the people were in the saddle. It was destroyed. Its destruction came at an unfavorable moment and helped to produce the worst panic that the country had ever seen. Jackson's term expired just in time to drop the burden on Martin Van Buren, who was not strong enough to stand up under it. He devised the sub-treasury plan, however, as a sort of preventive of future panics, out of which finally evolved our present system of banking. Meantime, during most of the decade beginning 1830, material pros- perity abounded, enlightenment increased rapidly, and the suffrage was greatly extended. REVIEW QUESTIONS I. What isa />'/'zVa/man? In what sense was Andrew Jackson such? 2. Enumer- ate a few of the most pronounced elements in the character of Jackson. 3. What was there in the " Tariff of Abominations" to which the South could rightfully object? 4. What was Webster's attitude toward the tariff in 1828? Why had he changed? 5. What was Clay's consistent attitude «cward the tariff? 6. IIow was the doctrine of state rights involved in the tariff controversy? 7. Who were the chief exponents of the state rights doctrine and what constitutional basis did they find? 8. How did the Hayne-Webster debate foreshadow the Civil War? 9. Was there any connection between Jackson's war on the bank and the spirit of nationality or with the spirit of democracy? 10. Did Jackson employ a constitutional method in his war on the bank? 11. What was the cause of the panic of 1837? 12. Has there been a panic within your own memory? What caused it? 13. What were "pet banks"? "Wildcat banks"? 14. How did the increase of inventions and means of transportation promote the process of sectionalization? 15. What restrictions were removed from the suffrage during this era? CHAPTER XVII SLAVERY AND THE CONSTITUTION UNDER THE STATE RIGHTS VIEW REFERENCES Secondary Authorities. — Burgess, The Middle Period; Wilson, Division and Reunion; MacMaster, History oj the People of the United Slates; Larned, History for Ready Reference; Hart, Slavery and Abolition. Sources. — Hart, Source Book, Contemporaries, vols, iii, iv; MacDonald, Select Documents. Illustrative Material. — Whittier, Anti-slavery Poems; Longfellow, The Slave Singing at Midnight, The Slave's Dream; Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin; Lennox, Ante Bellum; Ingraham, Sunny South; Congressional Debates. THE CONSTITUTION AND SLAVERY Even if the Constitution had been silent upon the question 381. The of slavery, the acceptance or rejection of the institution would ^."J^ ^q™' have been a matter for the decision of each of the several states, recognition But the Constitution, far from being silent, provided for taxing o^ slavery the value of slaves as property, as well as counting three-fifths already of them in fixing representation in Congress. In addition, ®^*s*®'* Article I, Section g, prohibited Congress from interfering with the importation of slaves into any state prior to 1808. These provisions were compromises after strenuous debates in the constitutional convention. That the organic law of the Union thus defended slavery as an existing economical condi- tion, forced upon Congress the passing of the "Fugitive Slave Laws," the purpose of which was to protect the slave owner's lawful right to his property in slaves who might be enticed to escape from servitude into a state which no longer permitted slavery. Another emphatic instance of the recognition of slavery by the general government was in the case of North Carolina's cession of her western lands, in which the clear 3^S 314 SLAVERY AND THE CONSTITUTION 382. Oppo- sition to the exten- sion of slavery stipulation was made and accepted that slavery should receive protection. Representative Wise of Virginia said in Congress, in 1835: "Sir, slavery is interwoven with our very political existence." The tendency to restrict slavery was shown very early. In the formation of the general government, one question con- cerning the negro, as we have seen, regarded the importation of slaves; another concerned the political status of the slaves already in the United States. Both of these were disposed of by the Constitution, the first permanently, and the second also permanently, in so far as the original Constitution taught; for the amendments which overthrew slavery proved by their coming into existence after the Civil War that the Southern leaders had held to a correct interpretation of the original document. The next step in the development of the discussion was the bringing up of the question whether slavery should be pro- hibited in the territories and in the new states that were being created after the adoption of the Constitution, or, in other words, whether slavery should be restricted or extended. Not yet was there discussion of governmental abolition of slavery where it already existed, nor would there be until President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation in 1862-3, which was issued as a war measure, and which was known to be without warrant in the Constitution. The angry debate over the admission of Missouri as a state in the Union was indeed like a "lire bell in the night," for con- ditions invited a great conflagration. Though many wise, humane, and patriotic men of the North and of the South had not only seen the evils of slavery, but had freed their own slaves and had tried to find a way to be rid of the institution on fair and friendly terms, yet there could be no reasonable hope that the financial system, the economic conditions, and the social customs of the empire of the South could be changed unless through a slow development of ages. Kentucky, Tennes- see, Mississippi, and Louisiana, had come in as slave states. SLAVERY CONSIDERED ECONOMICALLY 315 Congress had refused, by a decided vote, to prohibit slavery in the District of Columbia. Many effective laws were on the statute books whereby the owner might recover his runaway negro. Knowing that the Constitution and the laws protected the South, the orators of the North broadened the old concep- tion of the Rights of Man, to include the rights of the negro man. They appealed to the feelings of philanthropy and religion and they created the doctrine of the "higher law" than the Constitution and the laws of the country. The South warmed with indignation at the attacks upon her vested rights, while the North very suddenly glowed with altruistic emotions. The debates on the admission of Missouri kindled the fires of sec- tional animosity, which, though they smoldered for a while, finally broke out and raged in both sections. Possibly the institution would have endured longer had Southern statesmen been less bold and aggressive in the spread of slavery to new territory, yet both sides to the controversy had strong ground to fear that the other would gain a controlling majority in Con- gress. When Missouri had come forward for admission (1820) the power was equal in the Senate, and from that time a great game of political skill was played by men and parties to win new territory for their respective sections. SLAVERY CONSIDERED ECONOMICALLY After the first negro slaves came, in 1619, others were 384. Gen- brought as rapidly as there was a market for them. They ^fJ*) 5^^^°°" soon found their way to the rice and tobacco fields of the South, slavery and a few were employed as household servants throughout the North. Slavery was by no means a sectional institution during a hundred years after the founding of Jamestown and Plymouth, but it finally became sectionalized to a degree, through the laws of adaptation to economic needs, and not through the laws of ethics or religion, and not because one section of the country was more or less enlightened than another. When the navigation laws of Great Britain developed ship building and manufacturing in New England, the shipowners 3i6 SLAVERY AND THE CONSTITUTION soon found profitable employment in carrying timber and manufactured articles to the West Indies in exchange for sugar and molasses, which they brought to New England and made into rum, which in turn they carried to Africa and ex- changed for cap- tive negroes, whom they trans- ported to the West Indies or to America, ac- cording to the de- mand. In these early days there was no blame at- tached to the slave traders of the North, or to the slave owners of the South. They shared profits, and they must share the blame. When England closed her wars with France and Spain in 17 13, one of the conditions of peace was that she should have a monop- oly of the slave-carrying business. Queen Anne and her court- iers had large investments in the slave trade, and even the Friends in Pennsylvania had slaves for servants as late as the Revolution. Slavery was recognized in all the colonial laws. Though it is not possible to state a rule without exceptions, yet the negroes generally were well housed, well fed, and humanely treated by the overseers and owners. Motives of sound economy as well as humanity would dictate such a policy; and in the great interior of the slave territory there was little occasion for harsh treatment. Undisturbed by the agitators, the relations were most cordial, kind, and even affectionate, between the master's families and the old negroes. Such feel- ing existed during the Civil War and long afterward, and explains why there were so few negro outrages and uprisings Negro Quarters SLAVERY CONSIDERED ECONOMICALLY 317 while Southern men were away from their families in the early- sixties. Still, the visitor to the South might find overworked slaves, and slaves poorly fed by brutal masters whose reasoning powers were not sufhcient to make them understand their own interests in the matter. Negroes frequently were incited to run away and were roughly treated by their captors. In the absence of the owners, overseers were not always as kind as they should have been; but it should be remembered that, in most instances, the master lived among his slaves. They were well cared for and not overworked as a rule. The rise of aboli- tion sentiment, then, cannot be attributed to the manner of treatment which negroes received. As early as 16S8, a few Americans had begun to question the 386. Early moral quality of slavery, and before the time of the Revolu- ™^arT^"*^ tionary war, a few of the colonies had passed resolutions and emancipa- laws against the further importation of slaves, but these acts silver b - had been vetoed by the king for commercial reasons. comes sec- Universal discussion of the Rights of Man, which led to the LiiT^ria Revolution, shed its influence upon the question of negro slavery. The foremost American statesmen considered the question seriously and began to work for a peaceful solution. One of the indictments against King George III which Jefferson wrote in the original draft of the Declaration of Independence was that he had encouraged the slave trade, "violating the most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who had never offended him." Jefferson proposed, in 1820, that one-third of the revenues of Virginia be devoted to paying the owners for the gradual emancipation of their slaves. The congress of 1784 lacked only one vote of making all terri- tory west of the AUeghanies free territory. Jefferson was the author of the resolution. By their last will and testament Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Randolph freed their slaves. Already, in 1733, Great Britain had paid £33,000,000 for the slaves in the West Indies, and had set them free. Doubt- less this tremendous philanthropy had an effect upon America. As a result of the discussion in the first and second Conti- 3i8 SLAVERY AND THE CONSTITUTION nental Congress, slavery was to be prohibited in the North- west Territory. With a single exception, every state north of Mason and Dixon's line provided for gradual emancipation before Jefferson became president. The climate of the North was too severe for negroes. The death rate among them was high and their labor was not profitable in factories. Even as Jrce labor, after fifty years of enlightenment,' there was no demand for negroes in any kind of manufacturing enterprises North or South. But the story is a different one when it comes to the labor in rice fields, turpentine forests, and cane fields of the South. In 1776 there were 455,000 negroes in the South and only 46,000 in the North. The North had bought and sold. The South bought and had held. In some states the negro population equalled or surpassed the whites. The question necessarily became sectional; the operation of geographic laws and economic conditions could not be uniform. Exportation of cotton increased from 138,000 pounds in 1792 to 127,860,152 pounds in 1S20. This was due to the cotton gin and slave labor. Forty-seven years before William Lloyd Garrison issued his Liberator, Thomas Jefiferson proposed a plan for the gradual emancipation of the negroes and their transportation to Liberia on the west coast of Africa. Even before the days of The Genius of Universal Emancipation, the Liberator, and the bitter speeches in Congress over the Missouri Compromise, the South was a fruitful field for emancipation societies; they existed in North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, Delaware, Tennessee, and Mary- land before they were organized in New England. Through the influence of Southern congressmen Sioo,ooo was appro- priated to a colonization society which was organized in 1816. Of this society a nephew of George Washington was the first president, and Henry Clay was the second president. For forty years it sent to Liberia an average of 250 negroes a year, while the race in the South was naturally increasing to millions. With such an increase and with the great demand for negro labor after the improvements in the spinning-wheel and loom SLAVERY CONSIDERED MORALLY 319 by Arkwright, and the invention of the cotton gin, the result of the economic forces showed the vanity of artificial effort in opposition. SLAVERY CONSIDERED MORALLY In the struggle over the admission of Missouri (353), the 387. The second state to be carved out of the Louisiana Purchase, the ^]5^^V^^ ' attitudes South lost irrecoverably. The compromise had left only Ar- and condi- kansas and Florida as possible slave states, and had prohibited **o°.o' t^® '^ ^ sections slavery in territory in which eventually twelve states were erected. But this was by no means all the damage; in the discus- sion over Missouri, the anti-slavery sentiment had been aroused to action. The North had recognized that the position of the South was impregnable from a constitutional standpoint; and she now shifted her line of attack to sentimental and moral grounds. Before the Compromise, the ethical or moral view of slavery was not peculiarly emphasized by any section. Perhaps as large a proportion of Southern statesmen as of Northern had lamented its evils, and given deep thought to its possible eradica- tion. But now that economic differences were becoming appar- ent there began naturally to develop likewise a different moral attitude toward the institution. The economic interest of the North in the negro was constantly declining, relatively at least, and in the consideration of slavery, lands and bank accounts were factors no longer. Hence, she could the more easily see the human side of the problem. Neither the South nor the North was peculiar, therefore, in its attitude assumed in the days of the Missouri Compromise, for material consider- ations have in all ages modified man's viewpoint on all public questions; and, if we divest slavery of its human aspect and regard it as an economic institution, it at once deserves a place beside the protective tariff, the ship subsidy, and all other forms of national policy that look to the protection or promotion of particular industries, classes of citizens, or sections of the country. To have expected the South to put away her economic interest in slavery and place the cjuestion upon moral grounds, 320 SLAVERY AND THE CONSTITUTION would have been to expect of her what no section of this or any other country has learned to do even yet. Possibly the North could have afforded to bear her share in the expense of the government's purchase of the millions of slaves in order to set them free; but the North made no such proposal; and the South could not feel that she alone could justly be required to bear the whole burden for the American people. The era (1820-1840) was one of reform. Modern prisons were being built; greater care for the unfortunate of all classes was taking hold of the thoughts of men; the deaf, dumb, and blind were receiving attention; the public free school idea was being proclaimed by Horace Mann of Massachusetts. Two normal schools were built for the training of teachers. Michi- gan established her university and a system of schools leading up to it. Francis Wright began, in 1830, the agitation of "Woman's Rights." Robert Owen's colony of socialism, known as the New Harmony Community of Equality, on the Wabash river in Indiana, had lived two years. The more visionary effort of Brook Farm, by Hawthorne, Lowell, SOUTH FORTS Fort, Great Salt Lake City, Utah, 1848 Emerson, and others was spending its brief day. Mormonism, founded in 1830 by Joseph Smith of Elmira, New York, was crowded west, first to Ohio and then to Nauvoo, Illinois, and finally to Utah (1846). The provisions of the charter granted to Rhode Island in 1663 continued as the constitution of that state until 1842. In 1 84 1 not more than a third of the men in that state were allowed to vote, constitutional provisions limiting that right to the oldest sons, and to tax payers. The legislature gave no heed SLAVERY CONSIDERED MORALLY 321 to petitions of those who were denied the right of suffrage. Finally these people held a convention, adopted a constitution, chose Thomas W. Dorr as governor, and elected a legislature in opposition to that which already existed. Trouble arose, the militia were called out. Dorr's forces were scattered, and he fled the state; but he returned in 1844, stood trial, and was condemned to life imprisonment. He was pardoned after one year in prison. Within another year he saw placed in the constitution of the state, the principles for which he had fought. In the same year (1842) trouble came up in New York state over rents claimed by the descendants of the old Dutch pa- troons. Their claims were bought by the tenants, and this phase of feudalism was ended. Manhood suffrage and fee simple title came together. In 182 1, the year of the Compromise, Benjamin Lundy had 389. The DS.rtlS£LIl printed the first issue of The Genius oj Universal Emancipa- prggg ^nd tion in the interest of the anti-slavery movement. About pulpit seven years later he enlisted William Lloyd Garrison, firebrand and fanatic, in the "crusade" for emancipation of the slaves. Garrison worked with Lundy for a time, but finding him to be too deliberate, printed the Liberator. The intemperate views expressed in this periodical subjected Garrison to the dangers of mob violence by those opposed to him. He was led through the streets of Boston with a rope around his body, and escaped death, perhaps, by being placed in jail for protection. He it was who characterized the Constitution as a "covenant with death and an agreement with hell"; he went about the country preaching the doctrine of immediate, complete, and uncondi- tional freedom of the negroes. He said: "I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen ; — but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present." Gradually the newspapers, the bookmakers, and the 322 SLAVERY AND THE CONSTITUTION preachers in the North took up the question. Whittier, in 1843, in a poem addressed to the Old Dominion, stirred public sentiment with the lines: "Still shame your gallant ancestry, the cavaliers of old, By watching round the shambles where human flesh is sold — Gloat o'er the new-born child, and count his market value when The maddened mother's cry of woe shall pierce the slaver's den." Longfellow and Lowell used their pens little less effectively, while Wendell Phillips and Theodore Parker filled papers and pulpits with the "gospel of free negroes." At the same time Congress was listening with fear and trembling to such emo- tional exhortations as the following: "And reflect, sir, upon the nature of the being that you thus reduce to the condition of property! It is MAN — your BROTHER! Man, with an intelligent, immortal spirit — Man, allied to angels — ^ Man, made in the image of the Almighty — Man, in a peculiar and exclusive sense, the property of the great Jehovah." 390. Negro In the year the Liberator was published, Nat Turner, a negro uprisings; preacher, led an insurrection at Southampton, Virginia, in riots; peti- which more than sixty people were killed. The greater part of t*°°^ them were women and children. The people of the South had not forgotten the Gabriel insurrection in Virginia in 1800, or the "Vesey Plot" in Charleston in 1822. The extremists in the North, through their speeches, sermons, and printed matter, caused the people of the South to fear still more formidable insurrections. Emancipation seemed to the South as well as to the North to depend upon insurrection, and it is not too much to say that the South dreaded the liberation of the slaves more than it prized their servitude. In 1831 Georgia offered $5000 for the delivery of Garrison to her authorities. Mississippi offered $5000 reward for the arrest of any one selling the Liberator in that state. In the North mobs grew in frequency and violence; in 1837, Elijah P. Lovejoy, publisher of an anti-slavery paper in Alton, Illinois, was killed and his office was demolished. The SLAVERY CONSIDERED MORALLY 323 poet, John Greeiileaf Whittier, edited The Pennsylvania Free- man in Philadelphia; his plant was destroyed and the house in which it was printed was burnt. Petitions and memorials were sent to Congress, to the president, and to the post-office department, asking that abolitionist advocates be punished for inciting slaves to insurrection, and that incendiary matter be excluded from the mails. On the other hand, floods of [)etitions came from the North demanding the abolition of slaves. Congress finally adopted a rule that no further aboli- tion petitions should be read, this, too, in the face of the constitu- tional guaranty of the right to petition.' John Quincy Adams, after having been defeated for the second term as president, served his district in Congress for many years, and became known as the "Old Man Eloquent." He fought this "gag" rule, as it (excluding petitions) was called, for eight years, and finally succeeded in having it repealed in 1S44, gradually drifting all the while to a position of hostility to slavery. Professor Burgess, an authority on constitutional history, says: "It would not be extravagant to say that the whole course of internal history of the United States, from 1836 to 1 86 1, was more largely determined by the struggle in Congress over abolition petitions, and the use of the mails for the dis- tribution of abolition literature, than by anything else." Evidently conditions were shaping for a mighty and mortal 391. The struggle. The agitation must inevitably lead to the habit of arguments regarding all political measures as matters relating to slavery slavery and to the practice of settling them with purpose to affect that one question. Arguments pro and con began to seek all forms of justification and to leave their marks upon all kinds of institu- tions. The opponents of slavery urged: (i) That slaves were excluded from the elective franchise solely on account of "the color of the skin," and that this was contrary to the principles for which the Revolution was fought, since "taxation and repre- sentation should be inseparable." (2) That negro slavery was ' See first amendment of the Constitution. 324 SLAVERY AND THE CONSTITUTION harmful to the moraHty of the whites in that it constantly- stimulated the temper of the slave owner, particularly the youth ; and there was perpetual temptation to abuse the excessive power which masters exercised over their servants. (3) That slavery closed the door of opportunity upon the negro, particu- larly in the matter of education.^ (4) That slavery was a cruel institution in that "the contempt poured upon these people by our laws, our churches, our seminaries, our pro- fessions, naturally invokes upon their heads the fierce wrath of vulgar malignity"; that "our colored fellow citizens, . . are frequently denied seats in our stage coaches; and although admitted upon the decks of our steamboats, are almost univer- sally excluded from the cabins"; that husbands were separated from their wives, and children torn ruthlessly from their mothers. One case is cited in which "about twenty poor African families have had their all destroyed, and have neither bed, clothing, nor food remaining." (5) That slavery was economically unprofitable, because slaves were not adapted to the factory system, and their successful use required a wasteful extravagance of land. (6) That slavery was contrary to the "higher law." Lowell appealed to this sentiment when he wrote: " Slavery, the earth-born Cyclops, fcllest of the giant brood, Sons of brutish Force and Darkness, who have drenched the earth with blood, Famished in his self-made desert, blinded by our purer day, Gropes in yet unblasted regions for his miserable prey: — - Shall we guide his gory fingers where our helpless children play ? " The advocates of slavery argued to the contrary: 392. The (i) That the laws of nature condemned the negro to a state ^ofslavery ^^ servitude, because he was inferior in every way to the white ' A town meeting in New Hampshire in 1834 resolved "that we will not asso- ciate with, nor in any way countenance, any man or woman who shall hereafter persist in attempting to establish a school in this town for the exclusive education of the blacks, or for their education in conjunction with the whites." Such decla- rations were taken as a proof of the intention of the advocates of slavery to keep the negroes in iijnorance. SLAVERY CONSIDERED MORALLY 325 man; that the negro was not capable of filling any other station and that he was greatly benefited through his relation to the white man. (2) That the negro in servitude in America was much better off than the free negro in Africa; that slavery was really heljiful in promoting the happiness of the negro and putting him on a higher plane of living. (3) That slavery furnished the whites a necessary opportunity for self culture. Professor Dew of William and Mary college wrote in 1832: "Look to the slaveholding population of our country and you everywhere find them characterized by noble and elevated sen- timent, by humane and virtuous feelings. We do not find among them that cold, contracted, calculating selfishness which withers and repels everything around it, and lessens or destroys all the multiplied enjoyments of social intercourse. " (4) That slavery was not contrary to Holy Writ. Quoting again from Professor Dew: "We . . . deny most positively that there is anything in the Old or New Testament which would go to show that slavery, when once introduced, ought at all events to be abrogated, or that the master commits any offence in holding slaves. The children of Israel themselves were slave- holders, and were not condemned for it . . . the meek and humble Savior of the world in no instance meddled with the established institutions of mankind. . . He was born in the Roman world, a world in which the most galling slavery existed, a thousand times more cruel than the slavery in our own country — and yet He nowhere encourages insurrection — He nowhere fosters discontent — but exhorts always to implicit obedience and fidelity." (5) That slavery was favorable to republican government. "In the ancient republics of Greece and Rome, where the spirit of liberty glowed with most in- tensity, the slaves were more numerous than the freemen." (6) That slavery was necessary to the perpetuity of economic progress, because without it the cotton, rice, sugar, and tobacco fields could not be developed. (7) That the abolition of slavery would destroy vested rights and reduce to poverty thousands of people who were then living in comparative ease and luxury. 326 SLAVERY AND THE CONSTITUTION 394. The old issue concerning the powers delegated by the states to the federal union The more radical anti-slavery h-enliment now began to gather around such leaders, as William Lloyd Garrison, and to effect organization. Accordingly, in 1S3S the Liberty party took form and elected Joshua R. Giddings of Ohio to Congress,^ while two years later the abolitionists entered the presidential campaign and polled a very large vote. It was prophetic of a day not far distant when slavery would be the chief factor in national politics. THE QUALITY OF THE UNION The question whether the United States is singular or plural, one and indissoluble, or a league, and the Constitution a com- pact between states, rightfully to be dissolved at the will of any party to the contract, is one that men have viewed from differ- ent angles, and have argued according to their different inter- ests and conditions, moral, social, or industrial, ever since the adoption of the Constitution in 1789. The real point of con- troversy in this question concerns itself with the amount of power that should be exercised by the federal government, and is in reality a very old issue. It is perhaps not too much to say that the settlement of North America by the Anglo-Saxon was, in a large sense, a protest against despotism, because, as we have seen (chapter i), it was the result of an intellectual revolution that shook the foundations of authority in every field of human interest. Certainly the American Revolution declared in no unmistakable terms that the American people would not tolerate over-centralization of power. This is abundantly verified by both the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. In the formation of the Constitution this same principle was clearly at work, as even a casual study of that document will reveal; and, though the necessity for stronger central power succeeded in a measurable degree, it yielded perceptibly to the opposing force of decentral- ization. This, it will be remembered, was necessary to secure I Garrison opposed this party, though his agitation of the slavery question was the immediate cause of its formation. THE QUALITY OF THE UNION 327 the adoption of the Constitution, and left its distinct impress upon that document in the form of the first ten amendments. With the launching of the new government in 17S9, the contest gathered around the question of constitutional interpretation, the Federalists championing the doctrine of greater central authority and the Anti- Federalists opposing (chapter xiii). During this whole period the opposition to centralization, seek- ing a positive or affirmative substitute for the doctrine and policies of the friends of strong government, found it in the doctrine of state sovereignty — a very natural rallying point, since the people were in those days in closer contact with state than with federal power, and had given allegiance to local rather than to national authority for nearly two centuries. It was inevitable then that any locality, when it should feel 395. that its peculiar interests had been ignored by or subordinated secession to federal authority, should attempt to defend itself against and nuiii- despotic power by resort to the doctrine of state rights. This i-gyi^g^ed is exactly what happened at the time of the War of 1S12, as is shown by the Hartford Convention (329). New England believed that the federal government was abusing its power and that the rightful remedy was secession. It was precisely the same doctrine that this same region had urged in 1S03 and 1S04 against the purchase of Louisiana — the right to dissolve the Union when the South should attain too great power in the affairs of the government. New England simply meant by all this that she feared centralized power and that she would make use of the doctrine of state rights to oppose it if necessary. The "nullification" episode, given in a former chapter, was essentially a protest against centralization and against despotism, real or imaginary. Whether well-founded or not. South Caro- lina's action was based on the belief that the attempt of the federal government to enforce the tariff acts of 1S28 and 1832 was usurpation of authority which brought with it immediate danger to men's liberties. Nullitication, accordingly, was her rightful remedy, a most natural and moderate remedy. 328 SLAVERY AND THE CONSTITUTION 396. The historic struggle of state rights against centralized power; slavery the test case The foregoing facts are here rehearsed with the purpose of emphasizing three fundamental truths which help to a just understanding of the mightiest conflict on the Western Hemi- sphere: (i) That the American people have from the very be- ginning of their history stood in mortal fear of despotic power. (2) That every section of the country prior to the Ci\-il War, when it felt its liberties and even its peculiar interests endan- gered by federal authority, has resorted to the doctrine of state rights as a means of defense. (3) That slavery, becoming a sectional institution, adopted the commonly accepted theory, which rested for support upon the Anglo-Saxon fear of arbi- trary centralized power. It does not require, therefore, a long stretch of imagination to bridge the chasm between the South's defense of sla^'ery and the American instinctive demand for freedom from centralized power. The chief difference between the contest over slavery and previous contests with growing nationality is a difference of degree rather than of kind. The rage of the contending factions at previous times was but a zephyr in comparison with the storm that slavery was at length to bring. Whirlwinds of passion gathered in different sections of the country, each having its center and its circles of force. Through progressive development minor differences were lost, and all the strength of the North was marshalled against that of the South, and the final struggle between union and the technical Constitution took place. The question of the quality of the Union had to be settled; and negro slavery fur- nished the point of division at which the contending forces should finally measure strength and reach a physical conclusion. SUMMARY When the War for Independence had been won, the American people knew how to value the blessing of freedom from despotic power; hence they were very careful to grant to the new government which they were building a decidedly limited prerogative. The doctrine of state rights naturally, therefore, inhered in the Constitution itself — if not in its letter certainly in the spirit which gave it life. After 1789 every section of the country regularly defended its peculiar interests, when necessary, by resort to this THE QUALITY OF THE UNION 329 doctrine. Slavery had scarcely become a distinctively Southern institu- tion until the beginning of the nineteenth century; nor had the South felt that its very life depended upon slavery until about the time of the Missouri Compromise. Just at this time the North was beginning to have moral scruples against the institution, and the ditTerences showed themselves in politics, in religion, in the press, in soc^iety, and in business. When the North began to attack slavery the South began to defend herself with the customary weapon of state sovereignty. Slavery, therefore, simply became the battleground which the forces of nationality and state sovereignty were now organizing to reconnoitre with a view to decisive combat. We shall see that the climax, though not the end, of the struggle was reached in the Civil War. REVIEW QUESTIONS I. When and how was slavery introduced into America? 2. What other important institution was introduced in the same year? 3. Why did slavery develop so much more rapidly at the South than at the North? 4. Point out the earmarks of slavery in the Constitution of the United States. 5. When and why did the objections to slavery take a decided ethical turn? 6. When and why did the institution of slavery become a sectional issue? 7. What influence did inven- tion have upon slavery? How? 8. How did the Missouri question affect aboli- tion sentiment? g. What importance should be attached to the anti-slavery peti- tions in Congress? 10. What fundamental relation obtains between Dorr's rebel- lion and the abolition crusade? 11. How do you account for the presence of the doctrine of strict construction and state rights in the early history of our country? 12. Was the South or North right historically in its theory as to the nature of the Union? Explain. 13. How did slavery become allied with the doctrine of state rights? 14. Had any other interest ever made use of this doctrine before? 15. Do special industries pecuhar to a given section of the country now press their claims to protection and preservation on the part of the national government? 16. What does the highest patriotism demand of people whose business needs the special favor of the federal government? 17. What arguments were used by the abolitionists against slavery? By the slave owners in defense of it? iS. Was slavery becom- i ng more than a political question in 1840? Give reason for your answer, ig. What sort of treatment was usually accorded the slave? Did the North understand this to be true? 20. Were the press and the pulpit important factors in the aboli- tion of slavery? How did they expect the abolishment of slavery to be effected? CHAPTER XVIII » THE FAR WEST REFERENCES Secondary Authorities. — Burgess, The Middle Period; Barker, Potts, and Ramsdell, A School History of Texas; Garrison, Texas, Weslward Extension; Wilson, American People, Division and Reunion; Mace, Method in His lory; Sparks, The Expansion of the American People; Turner, Rise of the New West. Sources. — Hart, Source Book, Contemporaries, vol. iii; MacDonald, Select Doc- uments. Illustrative M.\terial. — VVhittier, Angels of Buena Vista; Lyon, Hero of Monterey; Lowell, Bigelow Papers; Munroc, Golden Days of '49; Harte, Luck of Roaring Camp. THE WHIG RULE OF THE EARLY FORTIES General Jackson, the hero of the common people, gave a western interpretation to democracy and to the presidency. 397. WUliam Henry Harrison Van Burcn was a partial return to the ideals of the East modified president ^^^' ^^^^ immediate presence and continued influence of the 1841 masterful Jackson. But the panics of '37 and of '39 were too much for the Democrats to carry successfully. Van Buren was again nominated ; and the Whigs opposed him with General William Henry Harrison of Indiana, the "Hero of Tippecanoe'' (326). To secure Southern votes the Whigs nominated for the vice-presidency John Tyler of Virginia, who was at heart a Democrat, though he had left the party nominally on account, as it appeared later, of opposition to Jackson. After a noisy and showy campaign of whistles, horns, flags, mottoes, and doggerel songs, the Whigs won; as to Whig policy, there had been none, unless opposition to Van Buren and the panic was policy. In ridicule some Democrat had said: "Give him (Har- rison) a log cabin and a barrel of hard cider and he will be satisfied." It was the fatal blunder of giving a weapon to an 330 WHIG RULE OF THE EARLY FORTIES 331 President Tyler and the Whigs enemy; at once the Whigs painted signs of log cabins and cider barrels. The author of the expression had given utterance to the thought that was really back of the contest between the seaboard states and the West, and between the politicians who lived in mansions and drank champagne, and the voters who lived in log cabins and drank hard cider. The voters elected "Tippecanoe and Tyler too." Within one month after the election. President Harrison, then 398. Death about se\'enty years old, much fatigued by the campaign, the in- Harrison •^°' auguration ceremonies, and the duties of office, beset night and day by office seekers, sickened and died. For the first time in the history of the country, the vice-president succeeded to an unexpired presidential term, an event for which the Whigs, who had elected John Tyler, were poorly prepared. The program of the Whigs, presented by Henry Clay, who was the ac- knowledged leader of the party, planned the repeal of the Inde- pendent Treasury Act, the es- tablishment of a new national bank (Jackson having destroyed the first one), the floating of bonds to bridge the panic, and the fixing of permanent tariff duties. President Tyler disappointed the Whigs. The negative part of the program, that of repealing the Independent Treasury Act, was easily passed. But after two unsuccessful efforts to pass a national bank act that the president would sign, the Whigs declared ''all political connections between their party and John Tyler at an end from that day forth." Although the Whigs had a majority of sixty members in the 399. Tyler lower house of Congress, they could make no progress against ^^^ ^°'^~ a president that was neither Whig nor Democrat, whom they Tyler and William Henry Harrison 332 THE FAR WEST his Cabinet the Web- ster-Ash- burton treaty — 1842; Con- gressional elections — 1843 had heedlessly elected. In the campaign which brought the Whigs into power, one of the issues had been the cause of the hard times through which the country had been passing since the panic of 1837. The Whigs had attributed the financial troubles to the destruction of the second national bank and to the low tariff. Accordingly, a few months after Tyler became president, a bill was passed rechartering the bank. Tyler vetoed the bill and Congress undertook to frame a measure that would be acceptable to the president. The revised bill met the fate of the former, as did also two tariff measures which Con- gress passed. By thus using his veto power the president de- stroyed whatever opportunity he may have had for steering the Whig ship clear of the breakers. He had retained all the cabinet members appointed by his pred- ecessor, and all of them resigned in a short time except Daniel Webster, the secretary of state, who remained only that he might conclude the important matter of determining the northeastern boundary line between the United States and Canada, which had been left unsettled by the treaty of 1783. According to that agreement this line extended "from the northwest angle of Nova Scotia, viz.: that angle which is formed by a line drawn due north from the source of Saint Croix river to the Highlands; along the said Highlands which divide those rivers Avhich empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence, from those which fall into the Atlantic ocean, to the northwestern- most head of Connecticut river." It is not difficult to see that such a description of a boundary line offers ample opportunity for disagreement. Various disputes arose as to the exact mean- ing of some of the terms used, and as to the location of some John Tyler TEXAS AND OREGON 333 of the places and positions whose names were given. These matters harassed Monroe's administration, became more seri- ous with that of J. Q. Adams, and led, in Van Buren's day, to the "Aroostook War"- — an effort of Maine to take possession of part of the disputed territory. After much embarrassment, a compromise agreed upon (1842) between Mr. Webster, representing the United States, and Lord Ashburton, representing Great Britain, defined the boundary as it now runs. The treaty also provided for the extradition of fugitive criminals from one country to the other. After this agreement was accepted by both governments, Webster also left the cabinet (1842). In that year Congress passed a tariff tax fixing duties at considerably above twenty per cent, which had been the level sought by the compromise tariff of 1833. At the congressional elections in 1843, the Whigs lost to the Democrats by a large majority, but it little profited a president who had forfeited the confidence of both parties by being "neither bird nor beast" when distinction was necessary. TEXAS AND OREGON The careful student has already noticed the influence of the 400. The western frontier upon our national life. Not one great move- ^^^^ ^°^ '■ , ° untram- ment in the life of the American people has been unaffected by meied what the brave and strong pioneer has thought and felt and Westerners done. Indeed, the distinctive character of American civiliza- tion would have been lost long ago but for the free spirit and rugged strength of the Westerner; for into the West have always come the most freedom-loving members of a freedom-loving race; and the conditions of the frontier have not only tended to preserve liberty, but even to promote individual freedom. The Anglo-Saxon's instinct for a fuller life led him to brave the dangers of a savage land separated by three thousand miles of water from his mother country and plant himself permanently on the western shores of the Atlantic; it carried him likewise through the narrow passes of the AUeghanies and established him in the rich valleys of the Ohio, the Tennessee, and the 334 THE FAR WEST 401. The settling of Texas not an effect of the slavery issue; but annexation becomes an issue be- cause of slavery Cumberland; it urged him to cross the great "father of waters" and take possession of the rolling prairies and fertile woodlands of the Louisiana territory. To have stopped here would have been to reverse the order of nature. Though following the instinct might give strong emphasis to the slavery question, revive in more formidable proportions the doctrme of state sovereignty, and even precipitate civil war, yet the love of freedom inherent in the Anglo-Saxon character must subordinate if not ignore all matters of less than fundamental importance. Come what may, the hardy pioneer who laid the basis of free government in the Western Hemisphere will continue to go west, east, or in any other direction where opportunity offers exercise for his unbounded initiative. This is recited here to help in showing the origin of the Texas and Oregon question, and its relation to the burning issue of slavery. It is important that the student should see that the annexa- tion of Texas and the occupation of Oregon were ordained long before slavery became a sectional issue, and would have resulted if that institution had never been. The settlement of Texas, therefore, and all the questions that grew out of it were not originated by conscious effort on the part of slavery to extend itself or to make secure the position of the South in the councils of the nation, as some historians would have us believe. It is true, however, that about 1836 both South and North began to consider the Jefferson Davis, in speech of resignation in U. S. Senate, 1861. SECESSION 367 Carolina and the other states under the name of the United States, is hereby dissolved." The result was received with great rejoicing, and in her sister states of the South there began preparation to prove unbounded sympathy by vigorous co- operation. On December 22, the South Carolina convention appointed 440. The three commissioners, "to proceed to Washington, authorized ..°" "° and empowered to treat with the Government of the United missioners States for the delivery of the forts, magazines, light-houses, and other real estate, with their appurtenances, within the limits Sketch-map of Forts in Charleston Harbor of South Carolina; and also for an apportionment of the public debt and for a division of all other property held by the Govern- ment of the United States as agent of the confederated states, of which South Carolina was recently a member; and, generally, to negotiate as to all other measures and arrangements proper to be made and adopted in the existing relations of the parties, and for the continuance of peace and amity between this Com- monwealth and the Government at Washington." Old Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan's Island, commanding the 441. Occu- entrance to Charleston harbor, was garrisoned by two small p**^°^°^ companies of artillery under Major Robert Anderson of the ter, Decem- United States army. Out in the water, upon a shoal some ^^^ ^^ eighteen hundred yards southwestward, stood Fort Sumter, as 368 RISE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 442. Prep- aration for war; the " Star of the West," January 9, 1861 yet unfinished, a polygon of masonry with walls defensible by a small force, and with guns that could dominate harbor and city. It was a much stronger position than Moultrie, which could easily be surprised on the land side; so Major Anderson, on the evening of December 26, spiked the guns of Fort Moultrie and quietly transferred the garrison and stores to the new fort, which he at once began to strengthen. Events followed rapidly. On the 27th, the governor of South Carolina demanded that Major Anderson evacuate Fort Sumter and reoccupy Fort Moultrie, but Major Anderson replied that he had been assigned to the defense of Charleston harbor, and intended to defend it. On the same day the palmetto flag was hoisted upon the custom-house, and South Carolina forces took possession of Fort Moultrie, and also of Castle Pinckney, a small fort nearer the city. On the 28th the three South Caro- lina commissioners, now in Washington, addressed a letter to the president of the United States, transmitting a copy of their powers for treating with the government at Washington, fur- nishing an official copy of the ordinance of secession of South Carolina, but declaring in substance that the action of Major Anderson in dismantling one fort and occupying another forced the said commissioners to suspend all discussion as to any arrangements for an amicable adjustment, and urging upon the president the immediate withdrawal of the troops from the harbor of Charleston. On the 29th, the United States arsenal in Charleston was surrendered to South Carolina forces acting under orders of Governor Pickens. On the 30th, General Win- field Scott, commander-in-chief of the United States army, requested of President Buchanan the permission, "without reference to the War Department and otherwise as secretly as possible, to send two hundred and fifty recruits from New York harbor to reenforce Fort Sumter, together with some extra muskets or rifles, ammunition, and subsistence stores." On January i, 1861, volunteer troops of the state began to pour into Charleston. On the 5th there sailed from New York the steamer Star of the West, bearing troops and provisions for the SECESSION 369 relief of Fort Sumter. At midnight of the 8th the Star of the West arrived ofT Charleston harbor; and on the 9th, while she was attempting to make Fort Sumter, was fired upon by a South Carolina battery, and was forced to turn about and put to sea. Meantime, United States senators from Georgia, Alabama, 443. A new Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi, and Florida met (Jan. ^onfeder- 5) and passed resolutions to the effect that in their judgment jected mv Charleston in 1861 Looking across Cooper river each of the Southern states should, as soon as possible, secede from the Union and provide for a convention to be held in Montgomery, Alabama, not later than February 15, for the purpose of forming a confederacy. In giving this advice the Senators barely anticipated the action of some of the states involved, and barely echoed the invitation which the South Carolina convention had already sent to her sister Southern states — an invitation to send delegates to meet in a congress in Montgomery on February 4, to form a confederacy. While these events were occurring in the South, great effort 444. The was being made to save the Union by compromise. Mr, Crit- Crittenden ° , •' ' ^ resolutions tenden of Kentucky introduced in the United States Senate 370 RISE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY a series of resolutions which would make the Missouri Com- promise line of 36° 30' the boundary between the slave and the free states as far west as California — and as the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case had decided that "slavery could not be prohibited in any of the Territories by act of Congress, he presented his proposition of compromise in the form of a constitutional amendment" to be submitted to the states. There were many petitions to Congress favoring this compromise amendment, and Southern senators, Mr. Davis and Mr. Toombs among them, together with the conservative Northern senators, greatly desired to see Mr. Crittenden's measure prevail; and it was because they speedily foresaw, from the disposition mani- fested by the Northern extremists, that the bill would fail of passage, that these Southern senators united in advising their states to withdraw from the Union as already related. 445. The On January 29 Virginia invited all the other states to send failure of delegates to a Peace Congress, or Convention, which held its Conference sessions in Washington during almost the entire month of February. At this convention more than twenty states w^re represented. Its presiding officer was ex-President John Tyler, and among its members were many men already celebrated and others to become so. Mr. Salmon P. Chase, within a few days to be appointed secretary of the treasury by Mr. Lincoln, in a nota- ble speech practically acknowledged that the Northern Repub- licans found it impossible to obey the Constitution in the matter of the fugitive slave laws; he said, in effect, that the South was immoral in contending for slavery, and that the North was compelled to act unlawfully or to admit conscious culpability. He went so far as to suggest that the South should be repaid for the loss of fugitive slaves, not by "rendition" of the slaves themselves, but by compensating the owners, apparently un- conscious that his language carried a strong implication that for his own state he preferred secession rather than a toleration of partnership in iniquity. "The proposition to pay for the dereliction of duty on the part of faithless confederates out of the Federal treasury amounted to an oflfer to increase the SECESSION 371 wrong. In that way the people of the Southern states would have become equally burdened as those of the Northern with the taxes required to make good the shortcomings of t"he latter. No good came of the Peace Congress. Its results rather widened than healed the sectional breach." Still, the efforts did not cease. On February 28 the secretary of war informed Major Anderson that the Peace Convention had agreed upon a basis of settlement of political difficulties which had been reported to Congress, and that he entertained hope that nothing hostile would now occur. But Congress rejected, by a large majority vote, the plan which the Peace Convention had agreed upon. After the failure of the Star of the West expedition, President 4*6. Buchanan made no effort to relieve Fort Sumter. Probably no poUcy written agreement was ever made, yet it was generally under- stood that neither the government of the United States nor that of South Carolina would commit any act of hostility ; ^ and a state of tacit armistice was generally accepted as existing for the remainder of President Buchanan's administration. Never- theless, as other states, one by one, went out of the old Union, each of them took possession of the United States property, and occupied such forts as were within her borders. Near Pensacola, Florida, however, the officer in command of the few United States troops transferred them to Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island, and this fort remained permanently in possession of the United States forces. Conventions of the people of the respective states passed 447. Seces- ordinances of secession in the following order: January 9, states 1 Governor Moore of Alabama says: "I have had a conference with Senator Mallory of Florida and Senator Fitzpatrick of Alabama ... in which they informed me that they and Senator Slidell had a personal interview with the President and Secretary of the Navy, and were assured by them that no attack would be made upon Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens, or any excuse given for the shedding of blood, during the present administration." O. R., I, 446. General Bragg says: "They have placed an engineer ofiGcer in Fort Pickens in violation, as I conceive, of the agreement not to reenforce. I do not hesitate to believe we are entirely absolved from all obligations under the agreement of 29th January," 0. R., I, 457- 372 RISE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY Mississippi; January lo, Florida; January ii, Alabama; January 19, Georgia; January 26, Louisiana; February i, Texas. Each of these states appointed delegates, in number equal to its representatives and senators in Congress, to meet in Montgomery, Alabama, on February 4, for the purpose of forming a new federal government based upon the terms of the Constitution of the United States, and, almost without excep- tion, the representatives and senators from the seceding states withdrew from the federal Congress in which they felt they were no longer entitled to sit. So, too, Southern officers of the army and navy of the United States resigned their commissions and offered their services to their native states. THE CONFEDERATE STATES 448. For- Qn February 4, 1S61, the day of the assembling of the Peace the Confed- Convention at Washington, the delegates of six Southern erate states; states^ met at Montgomery, Alabama, and, according to in- February, . . , . ■' . 1 i r i86i structions from their respective states, proceeded to form a government for a new Union. This Congress, like the Con- tinental Congress of 1 775-1 790, was composed of but one House; it elected Howell Cobb, former speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States, president of the Con- gress, and immediately began to frame a Constitution for the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America. On the Sth, a provisional constitution, creating a government for one year, was adopted by a unanimous vote; and also by unanimous vote on February 9, the Congress elected for one year, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, president, and, Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia, vice-president, of the Confederate States of America. Mr. Davis was inaugurated on February 18. Meanwhile, the Congress had been framing a Constitution for a permanent government, which, after being ratified by the conventions of five states or more, should take effect in the 1 Texas had passed an ordinance of secession and it had been referred back to the people for ratification in an election to be held February 23. Her delegates took their scats in llie Confederate Congress on March 2. THE CONFEDERATE STATES 373 states so ratifying on February 22, 1862. The permanent Con- stitution also received the unanimous vote of the Congress on March 11, 1861, seven states now composing the Confederacy. The instrument followed, in general, the form of the United 449. The States Constitution, but differed from it in a few important coHltSon provisions, as follows: In the preamble were inserted the words, "each state acting in its sovereign and independent character." The president and ^•ice-president should hold their offices for a term of six years, and the president should not be reeligible. No duties or taxes on importations from foreign nations should be laid to promote or foster any branch of industry. And there should be no tax or duty laid on articles exported from any state, except by a vote of two-thirds of both Houses. Importation of negro slaves was forbidden from all foreign countries except the slaveholding states of the United States. In all new territory acquired, the "institution of Negro slavery as it now exists in the Confederate States" should be recognized and protected by Congress and by the territorial governments. Fugitive slaves should be delivered upon claim of the owner; and owners of slaves should have the right to take their slaves into any state of the Confederacy. Congress should have no power to appropriate money for any internal improvement intended to facilitate commerce, except in the matter of aid to navigation upon the coasts, and the improvement of harbors, and the removing of obstructions in river navigation, in which cases a duty sufficient to pay the cost should be laid upon the navigation facilitated On March 12 commissioners accredited by the government 450. The of the Confederate States had addressed a note to W. H. Seward, Confederate . . Commis- secretary of state of the United States, acquamtmg him with sioners to the fact of their presence in Washington and of their purpose *^® Umted to seek amicable adjustment of all questions growing- out of the political separation, and asking him to appoint as early a day as possible in order that they might present to the president 374 RISE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY of the United States the credentials which they bore and the mission with which they were charged. This note had been answered indirectly by Mr. Seward in a memorandum, dated March 15 (though it was not delivered to the commissioners until April 8)/ in which he refused to receive the commissioners ofhcially, submitted a copy of Mr. Lincoln's inaugural address to the consideration of the Confederate commissioners, and styled the Confederacy "not a rightful and accomplished revolution and an independent Nation with an established Government, but rather a perversion of a temporary and partisan excitement to the inconsiderate purpose of an unjustifiable and unconstitutional aggression upon the rights and the authority vested in the Federal Government." SUMMARY The decade from 1850 to i860 was the most stormy that had ever con- fronted the American nation. Slavery would not down. Every public question was viewed through colored spectacles. Pro-slavery men tried to favor the interests of their "peculiar" institution by the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and the attempt to establish a pro-slavery constitu- tion in Kansas. The anti-slavery men took forcible possession of Kansas, defeated the pro-slavery constitution, and tried to test the courts of the country in the Dred Scott case. The offensive attitude of the North in these matters greatly aroused the worst feelings at the South and drew more clearly than ever before a line of demarcation between Northern and Southern interests. The issues were still more clearly drawn in the Lincoln-Douglas debates which also defeated Douglas two years later for the presidential nomination of his party, and at the same time secured for Lincoln the Re- publican nomination for the presidency in i860. In 1859, John Brown, a fanatic, who believed he held a commission from God, made his notorious raid in Virginia, aided and abetted all the while by radical abolitionists at the North. Sectional fires burned hotter as a result, and passed the point of endurance in the presidential election of i860. Lincoln was elected, and seven Southern states seceded and formed a new union. 1 The delivery of this memorandum to the commissioners was delayed so long because of their willingness to exhaust every means at their disposal before confess- ing the failure of their mission. ICvidently they knew the tenor of the memoran- dum, but until it was actually sent to them by Mr. Seward, they were not openly and ofiBcialiy rejected. See Sec. 454. THE CONFEDERATE STATES 375 REVIEW QUESTIONS I. What circumstances led to the introduction of the Kansas-Nebraska bill? 2. Why did the friends of the measure seek to apply to the Nebraska region the doctrine of "squatter sovereignty"? 3. Why did the North oppose this measure? 4. By what former legislation did the friends and opponents respectively of the Kansas-Nebraska bill justify their positions? 5. What effect did this measure have upon the slavery issue? 6. Were pro- and anti-slavery people both to blame for the civil war in Kansas? Why? 7. Describe the beginning of the Republican party and tell why it should have arisen at this time. S. What was the substance of the Dred Scott decision? g. How did it affect the slavery issue? 10. What effect did the Lincoln-Douglas debates have upon the political career of each? II. What is the chief historical importance of the John Brown raid? 12. What was the significance of the election of Abraham Lincoln in i860? 13. What was the Ostend Manifesto? 14. If you had been a slave owner in western Missouri in 1855, how do you think you would have felt toward the Emigrant Aid Society? 15. If you had been an anti-slavery citizen of Illinois in 1855, what would you have thought of the "Border Ruffians'"? 16. If Henry Clay had been aUve in i860, could he have averted armed conflict? Give reasons for your answer. The Capitol at Montgomery CHAPTER XX WAR BETWEEN THE STATES— 1861 REFERENCES Secondary Authorities. — Century Co., Battles and Leaders, vol. i; Pollard, The Lost Cause; Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln. Sources. — Official Records of the War, vols, i-v; Appleton, Annual Encyclopedia, 1 861; Stephens, War Between the States; Johnston, Narrative, etc.; Longstreet, From Manassas to Appomattox; Davis, Rise and Fall of the Confederate States. Illustr^^tive Material. — Churchill, The Crisis. WAR POLICY OF LINCOLN 451. inaug- On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln had been inaugurated uration of president of the United States. On March 15, President Lin- Captain' coin, in writing, inquired of the secretary of war as follows: ^°^ "Assuming it to be possible to now provision Fort Sumter, under all the circumstances is it wise to attempt it?" In reply, the secretary referred to a proposition formerly presented by "Mr. Fox," but advised the president that the time had passed for the relief of the fort without too great expenditure of men and means. There was, however, a council held, at which were present the president and his cabinet. General Scott, Com- modore Stringham, "Mr. Fox," and General Totten, chief-of- engineers. In the deliberations written opinions were read from the officers in Fort Sumter, all of whom gave large esti- mates of the naval and military force necessary for the attempt. On March 19, President Lincoln applied to General Scott for a competent person as a messenger to secure accurate informa- tion in regard to the command of Major Anderson in Fort Sumter; General Scott selected Captain Fox, and the selection was approved by the president. Captain Fox at once left Washington for Charleston. 376 WAR POLICY OF LINCOLN 377 On March 4, after hearing President Lincoln's inaugural 452. Beau- address, Senator Louis T. Wigfall of Texas telegraphed Gov- regard ernor Pickens of South Carolina that Mr. Lincoln meant war, Sumter and that there was strong ground for believing that reenforce- ments would speedily be sent to Fort Sumter. Two days later Brigadier-general G. T. Beauregard, of the Confederate States army, assumed command of all the troops on duty in and near Charleston harbor, and began to organize the forces at his disposal into a system for the investment of the fort. Still, notwithstanding the warlike preparations on both sides, mer- chant vessels from the North as well as from other parts of the world, landed or loaded their cargoes at the wharves of Charles- ton; the telegraph line was in service between Charleston and the Northern cities; railway trains ran as usual or nearly so; and the Confederates allowed Major Anderson's command to receive fresh meats and vegetables from the Charleston markets every forty-eight hours, as well as daily mails from the North. Major Anderson's lines of communication with Washington were still open, and until April i he was in constant expecta- tion of receiving orders to vacate the post. In fact, so impressed was he that his government intended only pacific measures, that he wrote, on March 29, to General Beauregard "trusting that in a few days the position would be more agreeable to both of us," and Beauregard replied in the same friendly way, concluding with "I am, dear Major, yours very truly." Even as late as April 3, Chief-of-engineers Totten addressed a com- munication to the secretary of war of the United States, in which he argued for the evacuation of Fort Sumter, and closed his recommendation with the prophetic utterance, "If we do not evacuate Fort Sumter, it will be wrested from us by force." Of the two alternatives thus presented, Mr. Lincoln, in the end, deliberately chose the latter. Pursuant to the order of Mr. Lincoln, Captain G. W. Fox 453. Cap- proceeded by rail to Charleston; arriving there on March 21, coionei ' he sought Governor Pickens, and, after pledging pacific in- Lamon tentions, was granted an interview with Major Anderson. 378 WAR BETWEEN THE STATES 454. The commis- sioners; Judge Campbell His guaranty and escort to the fort was Captain Hartstene, now in the Confederate service, formerly of the United States navy. After a confidential interview at night with Major Anderson, the messenger left immediately for Washington. Captain Fox had not produced upon Major Anderson's mind the impression that an attempt would be made forcibly to relieve the fort. Again, on March 25, at about 2 o'clock p.m., a messenger from the president of the United States arrived in Fort Sumter, escorted by Colonel Duryea of Governor Pickens's staff. This messenger, Colonel Ward H. Lamon, deepened the impression upon the minds of the Confederates and Federals alike that the fort was to be speedily evacuated. On the day following his departure. General Beauregard wrote to the secretary of war at Montgomery: "Mr. Lamon left here last night, saying that Major Anderson and command would soon be withdrawn from Fort Sumter in a satisfactory manner." Still, the war department at Montgomery, advised by friends in Washington, suspected that at the last moment Mr. Lincoln would decide to use force. April 2, the commissioners, still in Washington, telegraphed the Confederate secretary of state: "The war wing presses on the president; he vibrates to that side. . . Their form of notice to us may be that of the coward, who gives it when he strikes," and on the same day the Confederate secretary of war wrote to General Beauregard: "The Government has at no time placed any reliance on assurances by the Government at Washington in respect to the evacuation of Fort Sumter." He instructed General Beauregard to notify Major Anderson that all communication between city and fort was inhibited — adding for the general's information that the withdrawal of the commissioners from Washington might occur at any moment. But still the commissioners remained at their posts; they tele- graphed on the third, on the fifth, on the sixth, more and more news of warlike preparation. To further their mission, they had enlisted the good offices of Justice John A. Campbell, of the Supreme Court of the United States. Judge Campbell was WAR POLICY OF LINCOLN 379 an Alabamian and was an acceptable intermediary to Mr. Seward, who very early had decided that he could not directly grant the commissioners the recognition they desired, and had also decided to gain time — the policy of his government not having been settled upon. On March 15, Judge Campbell had left with Commissioner Crawford a note which read in part: "I feel entire confidence that Fort Sumter will be evacuated in the ne.xt ten days." Five days later Judge Campbell had called on Mr. Seward, bringing a telegram from General Beauregard to the effect that Fort Sumter was not evacuated, Fort Sumter before the Bombardment and that Major Anderson was at work making repairs. The next day, March 21, after a conference with Mr. Seward, Judge Campbell had written to Commissioner Crawford that "the failure to evacuate Sumter was not the result of bad faith but was attributable to causes consistent with the intention to fulfil the engagement." On March 30, Judge Campbell had left with Mr. Seward a telegram from Governor Pickens in- quiring concerning Colonel Lamon, whose visit to Charleston he (the governor) supposed had a connection with the proposed evacuation of Fort Sumter. Judge Campbell was to receive Mr. Seward's reply on April i. On the first of April Mr. Seward had written Judge Campbell as follows: "I am sat- 38o WAR BETWEEN THE STATES isfied the Government will not undertake to supply Fort Sumter without giving notice to Governor Pickens." And when Judge Campbell, on April 7, saw that warlike prepara- tions were being forwarded by the government, and asked in writing if the assurance he had given the Confederate authori- ties were not well founded, Mr. Seward answered, "Faith as to Sumter fully kept; wait and see." 455. Mr. Lincoln's notification 456. Con- federates seize official mails BEGINNING OF WAR On the eighth of April, Mr. Robert S. Chew, a messenger from the department of state at Washington, handed to Gov- ernor Pickens and General Beauregard the following note: "I am directed by the President of the United States to notify you to expect an attempt will be made to supply Fort Sumter with provisions only, and that if such attempt be not resisted no effort to throw in men, arms, or ammunition will be made without further notice, or in case of an attack upon the fort." On the same day Major Anderson wrote to the adjutant- general at Washington: "A movement made now, when the South has been erroneously informed that none such will be attempted, would produce most disastrous results throughout our country. It is, of course, now too late for me to give any advice in reference to the proposed scheme of Captain Fox. I fear that its results will be disastrous to all concerned. . . I ought to have been informed that this expedition was to come. Colonel Lamon's remark convinced me that the idea, merely hinted at to me by Captain Fox, would not be carried out. . . My heart is not in the war which I see to be thus commenced." April 9, the Confederate secretary of war telegraphed Gen- eral Beauregard: "Major Anderson's mail must be stopped. The fort must be completely isolated." The order was obeyed, and the letters from the fort marked "official" were sent to the Confederate government. On this point Governor Pickens wrote to President Davis as follows: "Rumors well established, indicated that Mr. Fox had violated his faith to me in visiting the fort, under guaranty of Captain BEGINNING OF WAR 381 Hartstene, who went with him. The pledge was that he visited Major Anderson by authority, for pacific purposes en- tirely. You see that the present scheme for supplying the fort is Mr. Fox's." On the night of April 11, Beauregard demanded the evacua- 457. Bom- tion of Fort Sumter, which was refused. At 4:^0 a.m. on the ^^rdment ' . ^ ^ of Sumter twelfth, the Confederate batteries opened fire. Sumter was silent until 7 o'clock, when she returned the fire. After a bombardment of thirty-three hours, the bar- racks of the fort being in flames, Major Anderson surrendered, and was allowed to vacate the fort, carrying all personal property, and saluting the flag. During the bombardment, a Federal fleet could be distinctly seen standing off the bar — an expedition under Captain Fox sent by President Lincoln for the relief of Sumter. The fleet returned to New York, carrying the garrison. The war was on. President Lincoln had had his way. 458. The Whether he had hesitated, as a ruler well may pause and con- i^^i^^^" sider when confronted with some tremendous but delicate question of war or peace; whether the result was but the out- come of well-wrought policy of his own initiative, he builded wiser than he knew. Had he been gifted with prophetic vision, he could hardly have arranged for the first act of hos- tility to benefit his cause more greatly in case that cause re- quired war. Major Anderson at once became a popular hero; on landing at New York he was met by an immense multitude; his men were seized upon by the crowds and paraded through streets upon shoulders proud to bear them; and the bells of the city were pealing ardent devotion to the cause of the North. The war policy of Mr. Lincoln had triumphed. Anderson was •, ."X''?'^ Jefferson Davis 382 WAR BETWEEN THE STATES 459. Prep- aration for war; the Baltimore riot 460. The South's lack of arms; Mr. Stephens 461. Se- cession of four states made a major-general, and Fox became assistant secretary of the navy. Both governments began to prepare for war — but not for such a war as followed. On April 15, Mr. Lincoln called for 75,000 \olunteers for three months; and militia were rapidly put in movement toward the capital and toward camps of in- struction. The Sixth Massachusetts regiment, on April 19, while passing through the streets of Baltimore, changing from one railroad to another in order to reach Washington, was attacked by a mob and men were killed.^ President Davis also called for volunteers; and in answer to this call, 360,000 men, according to the secretary of war, offered their services. How could they be armed? General McCul- loch of Texas wrote that some of his command were using single-barrel shot-guns. Neither in the North nor in the South was there a general belief that there would be a long war. Mr. Davis, in May, sent an agent to England to purchase 10,000 Enfield rifles. They were brought over in November. But for the seizure of munitions in United States forts and arsenals, the Confederacy would have been practically un- armed and helpless; even with these, and the arms purchased in England, her troops were at a disadvantage, increased rap- idly and enormously in the last years of the war by the manu- facture of the repeating rifle with which the Union regiments were being armed. The North had armories, and the South none, but the South had cottonfields. Mr. Stephens urged upon Congress the strong financial policy of buying Southern cotton with Confederate bonds; it could have been bought at eight cents, and would have given the Confederacy strong credit in England; arms in plenty could have been bought. President Lincoln's call for troops to "suppress the com- binations" existing in the Confederacy found small welcome in the Border states. Virginia seceded on April 17; North 1 The riot in Baltimore was the occasion that inspired the well known battle lyric, "Maryland, My Maryland." Jas. R. Randall, the author, was a Marylander residing in Louisiana. BEGINNING OF WAR 383 Carolina seceded on May 20, the eighty-sixth anniversary of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence (218). On May 6 the convention of Arkansas passed an Ordinance of Secession, only one delegate voting against it; and on May 6, the legislature of Tennessee voted to submit an Ordinance of Secession to the people, and on June 8 the people voted for secession by more than two-thirds majority. The power of the United States, however, had been and still 462. The was exerted mainly in efforts to save the states of Maryland, stages held Kentucky, and Missouri to the Union, In May the Maryland in the legislature refused to pass a secession ordinance; and no con- vention was called for such purpose. Many volunteers from Maryland, however, served in the Confederate armies. As to Kentucky and Missouri, both states endeavored to maintain "neutrality"; in the end they were occupied by IJnion forces, and the full voice of the people was never spoken. There resulted in Missouri a provisional state government, sustained by Federal force, opposed to the regularly elected administra- tion which was largely for separation. The regular legislature made an alliance or convention with the Confederate States, and the state was recognized as a member of the Confederacy, always, however, under the protest of the opposing faction. A very similar condition resulted in Kentucky; Federal force was employed to prevent the scales from turning in favor of secession. In the midst of a condition of excitement and vio- lence in the state, a convention was called to meet at Russell- ville, a place not yet occupied by the United States forces. The convention met and adopted a Declaration of Independence, resorting to revolution rather than secession. Commissioners were appointed to efTect an alliance with the Confederate States, and Kentucky was admitted in December, 1861. In both states, Kentucky and Missouri, civil war existed, and continued long. In the Confederate service there were regi- ments from these states, but they were few in contrast to those in the Federal armies. An example of the discord in the Border states is shown in the fact that George B. Crittenden of 384 WAR BETWEEN THE STATES 463. Occu- pation of Alexandria 464. West- ern Virginia; McClellan Kentucky, son of United States Senator Crittenden, became a major-general in the Confederate army, while his brother, Thomas L. Crittenden, became a major-general in the Federal army. FEDERAL ADVANCE INTO VIRGINIA Richmond had now become the Confederate capital, and troops were being assembled there; while Washington was rapidly becoming an armed and entrenched camp. Still there was no advance on either side until May 24, on which day a Federal regi- ment under command of Colonel Ellsworth occu- I)ied Alexandria, Virginia, capturing a few Confed- erate soldiers and some munitions of war. In this affair Colonel Ellsworth lost his life at the hands of a citizen. On the same day a division of the Fed- eral army advanced and took position in Virginia some four miles southwestward, covering Washington. The people of western Virginia were opposed to secession. Before i860, a movement had been begun looking to a separate state in the mountains, and now the secession of Virginia gave opportunity for the formation of a rival government, the head of which was gladly recognized by the Federal authorities in Washington as the lawful governor of Virginia. About May 25, a few Confederate troops burnt some bridges on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, and the Federal govern- ment ordered General George B. McClellan, commander of the Department of the West, with headquarters in Cincinnati, to take such measures as were necessary for the protection of the railroad, the line of communication between Washington and Cai'Hul ax Richmond FEDERAL ADVANCE INTO VIRGINIA 385 the West. So McClellan promptly advanced, and after some small engagements brought to a very successful termination a campaign which had for its final results the creation of the state of West Virginia, and its admission into the Union (1863) with or without constitutional sanction. In June, General Robert Patterson, in command of the 465. Op- posing in Military Department of Pennsylvania, began an advance into forces Virginia, and crossed the Potomac July 2. His total force was the Shen- about 14,000. Opposed to Patterson, and defending Harper's yaiiey Ferry and the valley of the Shenandoah, was General Joseph E. Johnston in command of about 10,000 men. There were movements to and fro, and skirmishes. Johnston had already evacuated Harper's Ferry as indefensible, and taken position near Winchester; his force was called the Army of the Shenandoah. By the middle of July the army covering Washington, under 466. command of General Irvin McDowell, was about 35,000 strong, andBeaure- and the newspapers were clamoring for an advance upon Rich- gard; mond. The successes of McClellan in western Virginia were 3°^"^ °^ cited to show what Union troops could do ; enthusiasm was Patterson unbounded and the army must go forward. Confronting McDowell within a day's march, the outposts of the armies almost in touch, was Beauregard, with about 20,000 men, headquarters at Manassas Junction, where the Manassas Gap railroad started westward toward its terminus at Strasburg in the Shenandoah valley, General Joe Johnston's field of operations. Beauregard's army was called the Army of the Potomac. The Federal plan of campaign was excellent; and the Con- federate plan for defense was not less so. McDowell could overthrow Beauregard unless Beauregard should be greatly reenforced, and the plan provided that he should not be reen- forced. It was evident to the commanders on both sides that with Johnston and Patterson in the Valley hard at work on each other, Beauregard must retire before the Federal advance or fight at a great disadvantage. As yet, however, the Con- federates could not know whether the first attack would fall 386 WAR BETWEEN THE STATES upon Beauregard or upon Johnston; so they considered two problems, the reenforcing of Johnston by Beauregard, and the reenforcing of Beauregard by Johnston. 467. June- As early as July i. General Scott, commander-in-chief, ad- Tohnston vised General Patterson of his hopes to move a column of about with 35,000 men early the next week against Manassas; and on eauregar j^j^ ^^^ Scott telegraphed Patterson, "If not strong enough to beat the enemy next week, make demonstrations so as to detain him in the valley of Winchester." Patterson replied on the 14th, "To-morrow I advance; if an opportunity offers, I shall attack;" but on the i6th he wrote, "The term of service of a very large portion of this force will expire in a few days. Any active operations against Winchester cannot be thought of until they are replaced by three-years men," and on the next day, the 17th, wrote, "The term of service of eighteen regi- ments expires within seven days, commencing to-morrow," and desired to know if he must re-occupy Harper's Ferry or with- draw entirely. And on the 17th Scott telegraphed Patterson, "Do not let the enemy amuse you and delay you with a small force in front whilst he reenforces the Junction with his main body. " On the night of the 17th Beauregard's outposts were already falling back before the general advance of McDowell's army, and in the Valley, after midnight of the 17th, Johnston was straining every nerve to get away from Patterson's front with-, out being followed, and move his whole force to the support of Beauregard. So the Army of the Shenandoah marched on the i8th toward Manassas Junction; and on the iSth Patterson wired Scott, "Shall I attack?" General Johnston reached Manassas at noon on the 20th, with about half his force, the remainder of his infantry follow- ing on trains from Piedmont, to which point the whole army had marched on the i8th by passing through Ashby's Gap. Johnston, being Beauregard's senior in rank, now had command of all the Confederate forces, but deferred largely to Beauregard, in whose capacity he had full confidence. Johnston regarded FEDERAL ADVANCE INTO VIRGINIA 387 the arrival of the remainder of the Army of the Shenandoah during the night as certain, and Patterson's junction with McDowell on the 2 2d as probable; so it was determined to assume the offensive and attack McDowell before Patterson could come to his help. Meantime, McDowell had formed an admirable plan of 468. battle; he would move a heavy column, under Hunter ^n^d advan^^ Heintzelman, in the night by a circuitous road to the west, Evans; cross Bull Run at a shallow ford about four miles above the g^^' Confederate left, and fall at sunrise upon Beauregard's weak Hampton; and exposed flank, then advance rapidly down stream driving vy^iK^^^d everything, while Tyler's division upon the north bank opposite Stone Bridge should open fire with its artillery at daybreak in order to divert the attention of Beauregard from the flanking column, and should cross Bull Run when the way was cleared and join in the general battle. The movement was begun at 2:30 A. on Sunday, July 21, but from poor arrangements the roads were blocked with inac- tive troops, delaying those ordered forward — so that it was past 9 o'clock when the head of the column reached the upper ford. Meantime, the division below, opposite Stone Bridge, had opened fire — not, however, at daybreak, but a little after 5 o'clock, and had continued to cannonade the Confederate position for an hour. Then skirmishers were thrown out, and there was musket firing across the Run. The Confederates holding the extreme left were not two full regiments under command of General Nathan G. Evans, who soon saw from clouds of dust rising on the road by which the Federal column was marching, that it was not the intention of the Federals to make a \'igorous attack upon him, but that they were moving to envelop the whole Confederate left. Therefore, leaving his skirmishers to keep up a show in front of Tyler, he marched his main force to the left and took position on the road by which McDowell's turning column was now rapidly advancing upon him. Not yet was either Johnston or Beauregard aware how grave was the situation; their flank had been turned and a 388 WAR BETWEEN THE STATES thousand men under Evans were to meet the attack of ten thousand under McDowell. And Evans's men resisted, many dying there before Beauregard or Johnston knew what it was all about, and they were not quite overcome when General Bee's brigade and Colonel Bartow's brigade double-quicked to their help, while the Federals still came on, their long column spreading out in line of battle to overlap the audacious little force in front of them. And how these few brigades still resisted, let Beauregard tell in his own words: "For an hour did these stout-hearted men of the blended commands of Bee, Evans, and Bartow breast an unintermitting battle-storm, animated surely by something more than the ordinary courage of brave men under fire. It must have been indeed the inspi- ration of the cause and consciousness of the great stake at issue which thus nerved and animated one and all to stand unawed and unshrinking in such extremity." By the time the constantly increasing Federals were begin- ning to bear back Evans, Bee, and Bartow, Hampton came to their support with his legion, losing heavily as he came. Then, as the mingled remnants of these four commands, with what was left of Imboden's battery, were falling back to a stronger position, Jackson's brigade came up to their help. Let Beauregard tell it again, for both Beauregard and John- ston were now on the field, and Jackson would never tell it: "Every segment of line we succeeded in forming was again dissolved while another was being formed; more than two thousand men were shouting each some suggestion to his neigh- bor, their voices mingling with the noise of the shell bursting overhead, and all word of command drowned in the confusion and uproar. It was at this moment that General Bee used the famous expression, 'Look at Jackson's brigade! It stands there like a stone wall ! ' — a name that passed from the brigade to its immortal commander. " ^ The Confederate troops were now in better position on the ' General Jackson always disclaimed the personal title "Stonewall," saying it belonged to his brigade, and not to him. FEDERAL ADVANCE INTO VIRGINIA 389 Henry house hill, and were being constantly reenforced; but 469. The the Federals continued to increase, and to advance. They general -' engage- had been strengthened by two brigades of the division of Tyler, ment which had crossed Bull Run as soon as it became evident that the entire force of the flanking column was engaged. And then followed a conflict indescribable. There was little general- ship — the men fought. But the Federal soldiers of the main column had expended too X ^- j\^..* much of their energy on the night march, and they wearied of the battle. They took positions and they lost them; they lost bat- teries and they retook them to lose again. General Bee had been killed; Colonel Bartow had been killed; and General Jackson had been wounded, yet did not leave the field. On the Federal side, also, the mor- tality had been great, and it was becoming evident ■ » that though McDowell had outgeneraled the Confederates, he was not able to win the battle. And at 4 o'clock, the last brigade of the Army of the Shenandoah, which had reached the Junction at noon, marched upon the battlefield under the lead of Kirby Smith, and the day was decided. Kirby Smith fell wounded, but his brigade marched on, and the Federals began to yield. "At first the men quietly walked oflf. There was no special excitement except that arising from the frantic efforts of officers to stop men who paid little or no attention to any- thing that was said. McDowell and his staff, aided by other officers, made a desperate but futile effort to arrest the masses and form them into line." The men fell back, constantly be- coming more and more disorganized, until a few shells from Manassas Battlefield 390 WAR BETWEEN THE STATES the Confederates effected a panic, and the routed army fled to Washington. 470. Effect The battle of July 21, called Bull Run by the Federals, battle showed the North that a great war had just begun. Previously, many persons, even many leaders, had cheerfully entertained the opinion that the South would yield to a moderate degree of force; they had thought that her "political heresy" had not become a faith, but was intermixed with such devotion to the fathers as greatly to weaken her power and willingness to resist. But every shade of such opinion was swept from the public mind by the newspapers of July 22. Three months volunteers were a thing of the past. Congress — many members of which in carriages and otherwise had merrily followed McDowell's advance in order to see the show, and had helplessly increased the difi&culties of his retreat — was willing to sustain President Lincoln in whatsoe\'er he should demand; for Washington itself, the capital of the country, seemed in immediate peril. Mr. Lincoln, on July 23, only one day after the defeated troops began to fill the streets of Washington, called McClellan to take the chief command of all the armies. General Scott, a hero of the War of 18 12, was now almost eighty years old; he felt incapacitated for the arduous work of his office, and retired. General Paftterson was superseded by General Banks. A great, almost desperate, activity speedily relieved the sudden fears for the capital; and then President Lincoln set about preparing for the gigantic task of reducing the Southern Con- federacy. » Congress had assembled in extra session on July 4. It approved all of Mr. Lincoln's acts; it called upon the states for 525,000 men, to serve for three years, and appropriated $500,000,000 for the carrying on of the war. In the Confederacy, however, the battle of Manassas, as it was called, went far, though only for a time, to cause undue elation, and an unwarranted hope of European recognition. The battle had certainly confirmed a de facto government for • an indefinite time; while the North might well fear foreign FEDERAL ADVANCE INTO VIRGINIA 391 intervention, the South might as reasonably hope for it; and such condition did not, for the moment, add to the energy of the Confederate government or of the Southern people. SUMMARY The hesitation which had marked the conduct of the government ceased when Lincoln became president; and it was determined to relieve P'ort Sumter by force if necessary. The Confederates, hoping for a peaceful separation and for an equitable division of the public property, refrained from actual hostility. Two messengers from Washington were allowed to enter the fort and confer with its commander. Meanwhile Secretary of State Seward had indirectly assured the Confederate commissioners that his government would make no attempt to relieve Fort Sumter without giving them notice beforehand; and on April 8, notification was given that an attempt would be made to relieve the fort. Already a small fleet had left New York for Charleston harbor. Beauregard demanded the surrender of the fort, and receiving Anderson's refusal bombarded it on April 11 and 12, when it surrendered. Immediately the war spirit rose high in both North and South. Lincoln called for volunteers to carry war into the seceded states. Some of the Border states refused to furnish troops for the purpose, and Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Arkansas seceded and joined the Confederacy. Richmond became the Confederate capital, and armies of both sections were collected near Washington. A battle occurred at Manassas Junction on July 21, 1861, and resulted in a serious defeat for the Federals. At once the North understood that a long and difiScult war must be fought, and began scientifically to prepare for it; but the South, for the moment, was unduly elated, and in a measure rela.xed its energies. REVIEW QUESTIONS I. Discuss the ownership of Fort Sumter in November, i860; in January, 1S61; in April, 1861. 2. Did the war begin with Lincoln's notification that force would be used if necessary in relieving Fort Sumter, or did it begin when the Confederates fired on the fort? 3. Could the war have been prevented? On whom rests the responsibility for the war? 4. Would Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina have left the Union and fought against it if Lincoln had delayed and tried peaceful measures? 5. Why should the people on both sides think the war would soon be over? 6. Discuss Kentucky's policy of revolution. 7. By what con- stitutional right was West Virginia formed? 8. If West Virginia was in the Union, was Virginia out of the Union? q. Discuss the generalship of McDowell in the battle of July 21. 10. Whom do you consider the hero of the battle? CHAPTER XXI THE STRATEGY OF THE WAR REFERENCES Secondary Authorities. — Century Co., Baltics and Leaders, vols, i-iv; Histo- ries by Ropes, Fiske, Wilson, Burgess, Gregg, Rhodes, Dodge. Sources. — Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies; Appleton, Annual Encyclopedia, 1S61-1864; Davis, Rise and Fall; Stephens, War Between the Slates; Johnston, Narrative. Illustrative Material. — Semmes, Service Afloat; Solej', Blockade and the Cruisers. THE BLOCKADE 471. The The South was very willing to be let alone; so that the war, four series ^ ^ continued, must be a war of aggression by the North, of offensive ' °° ... operations; upon whose military authorities rested the work of plannmg 1861-1865 ^ system of offensive operations; and gradually there developed four lines of attack, namely: 1. The blockade of all the Southern ports by the navy of the United States. 2. Operations by the combined naval and military forces of the United States to control the Mississippi river, so that the Confederacy should be cut in two, thereby preventing the eastern part of the South from being reenforced or supplied with provisions from the region which speedily came to be known as the Trans-Mississippi region. 3. The occupation of Chattanooga, Tennessee, by the United States forces, in order that the lines of railroads in the Confederacy should be broken, and thus the Confederate armies be rendered unable to reenforce one another rapidly, and also be unable to receive provisions or munitions of war across the gap thus to be created by the capture of Chattanooga. 4. The taking of Richmond, the capital of the Confeder- acy.^ ' In a purely military view this fourth movement in the general combination should hardly be classed with the three others, for the Confederacy must certainly 392 THE BLOCKADE 393 THE BLOCKADE OF SOUTHERN PORTS On April 19, 1861, six days after the surrender of Fort Sumter, 472, Lin- Mr. Lincoln issued a proclamation declaring all seaports within J^°^a!j^^°— the boundaries of the seceded states, in a state of blockade. At April 19, first, the Confederates derided; the blockade, so called, could ^^^^' efifect nothing; no ships of war appeared at the entrances to their harbors; the boasted blockade was a mere "paper block- ade," and it could not be believed that any earnest effort would be made actually to close all the ports along two thousand miles of seacoast. But, as soon as it became evident to the Federal government that a long and obstinate war was begun, it put itself seriously to work in the construction of a navy that should accomplish the purpose which the Confederates thought impossible. At the beginning of the war, the United States navy con- 473. Con- sisted of about ninety vessels, but fifty of them had served the°Unhed their day, — old sailing vessels unfit for arduous or rapid States navy service. Of the forty steamers, half a dozen were unavailable; ^ ^ the thirty-four remaining were scattered here and there, some at Pensacola, some at New York, others elsewhere. A great many of them had been laid up for repairs, and it would take time to fit them for sea ; so it may be said that the United States navy at the beginning of the war was merely a nucleus. It surely could not be considered capable of effecting a serious blockade; it would have more than enough to do in protecting commerce from the depredations of Confederate privateers. And yet the future proved that the privateering ended when fall if the first three should be successful; yet there were strong reasons why the movement against Richmond occupied so much of the attention of the Federal authorities. In the first place there was constant necessity, exaggerated perhaps in the mind of Mr. Lincoln, and of Congress, for defending Washington; and an army could defend Washington by taking the oflfensive. Again, the defence of Richmond must weaken the Confederates greatly all along their other Unes of de- fence, from which reenforccments were frequently hurried to the capital; thus the defence of the Mississippi and of Chattanooga were rendered more difficult. Fur- thermore, all danger of foreign intervention would end with the fall of the Confed- erate capital. 394 THE STRATEGY OF THE WAR the blockade had been made effective, there being no induce- ment to officers and crews to continue the dangerous business when they could no longer bring their j)rizes into port and sell them. Before the close of the war the United States had probably in her service five hundred sea-going vessels; there had been nearly sixty ironclads built, while in the Mississippi river alone the flotilla of gunboats which began the descent of that stream in January, 1862, numbered about one hundred vessels, a great many of them ironclads. 474. The At the beginning of the war the Confederacy, of course, was ^°°^®^55^'® without a single ship. A few side-wheel river and harbor States Navy o i — i86i steamers were purchased, or leased, or seized, in Charleston harbor before the bombardment of Fort Sumter; and in other harbors, wherever a seizure could be made of a United States vessel regardless of condition, the opportunity was improved. But the only fleet of any importance was at New Orleans. When Louisiana seceded all possible seizures of United States vessels were made, and to these were added by purchase some few little steamboats. As the war progressed, the Confeder- acy made effort to create a navy, or at least a semblance of one. At first Letters of Marque had been issued to persons wishing authority to prey upon the United States commerce at sea. In those days, such conduct in war was not uncommon. But with the establishment of an effective blockade the calling of the privateers was gone. There was no shipyard of any con- siderable worth within the bounds of the Confederacy, and what work was done to create a navy at home was accomplished under very serious difficulties. The Confederate authorities, however, were enabled to negotiate with ship-builders in Eng- land for four first-class cruisers, which created very great havoc among American merchant vessels, and gave rise, after the war, to complaint on the part of the United States government against Great Britain for allowing the vessels to leave her ports, and this complaint resulted in an arbitration, in which the board decided that Great Britain should pay the United THE BLOCKADE OF SOUTHERN PORTS 395 States a heavy indemnity. Besides the English-built cruisers, the Confederacy negotiated for six others to be built in France, but the vessels were never permitted to leave the French shipyards.^ It is thus easily seen that the Confederate government, in the 475. For- lack of a navy, very early abandoned hope of raising the block- nj^on^'oped ade by physical force. But the South had reason to hope that for and Great Britain would soon recognize the Confederacy as an in- -^^^ ' j dependent nation, and perhaps intervene in order to protect Slidell her own manufacturers, daily becoming more and ■^^^t'^^::^^^ML more embarrassed by x^^^^^^^^^S^^Cll mUls. It was a foregone ~^ "" ~^'' "" , . ,1 . ^1 /^ The Cruiser "Alabama" conclusion that the Con- , 1 ^ , , 1 From a drawine; which Captain Semmes federates would endeavor , pronounced correct to obtain European recog- nition, and that the Federals would endeavor to prevent it. On November 7, 186 1, two commissioners from the Confed- erate States, James M. Mason, for Great Britain, and John Slidell, for France, took passage at Havana for England, and on the next day, the British ship Trent, on which they were passengers, was arrested by a United States warship, and the commissioners were seized. Great excitement resulted in the North and in the South and in England. A United States ves- sel had attacked a neutral ship, and if her government should sustain the act. Great Britain must necessarily become involved in the war; but the United States government delivered up the ' The most famous of the English-buih Confederate cruisers was the Alabama (or 290 as she was at first called), commanded by Captain Raphael Semmes. She sunk the ¥. S. steamer Ilatteras, i6 miles south of Galveston on January i, 1S63. After cruising in almost every sea and capturing scores of United States vessels, she was sunk by the "chain-armored" United States cruiser Kearsarge in battle near the French coast, June ig, 1864. 396 THE STRATEGY OF THE WAR commissioners to Great Britain and war with that power was averted. The Confederate government hoped long for recogni- tion from France and Great Britain, both of which powers had early recognized the belligerent rights of the South in proc- lamations of neutrality. No foreign goverrmient, however, throughout the war, gave to the South the longed-for recogni- tion of her independence as a nation. 476. The Closely related to the failure of the Confederates to secure quest[on- foreign recognition, was the institution of slavery which the some public South upheld. The United States government, through diplo- expressions j^^^^^--^, measures and otherwise, continually held before the English people and their government the fact, or alleged fact, that a recognition of the South meant a recognition of slavery. There is no doubt that this influence prevented Great Britain from recognizing the South as an independent nation. But the fears of the Federal government were long kept alive in this respect, and its influence abroad was greatly lowered by the fact that Mr. Lincoln, in his inaugural address, had made the solemn statement: "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so; and I have no inclination to do so." Furthermore, the Congress of the United States, in July, 1 86 1, passed the resolution of which the following is part: "That this war is not prosecuted on our part in any spirit of oppression, nor for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, nor for the pur- pose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established institutions of those States; but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution and all laws made in pursuance thereof, and to preserve the Union, with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired; that as soon as these objects are accomplished, the war ought to cease." This resolution, offered in the Senate by Andrew Johnson of Tennessee had passed that branch of Congress on July ir by a vote of 30 to 5; and on July 22, the day following the defeat of McDowell, it passed the House by a vote of 117 to 2. THE BLOCKADE OF SOUTHERN PORTS 397 These majorities in the national legislature in favor of letting slavery alone, could not evoke British sympathy with the objects of the war. On May 24, 1861, General B. F. Butler, in command of the 477. A Union forces at and near Fort Monroe, reported to General ™^'*^''y ' ^ _ view of Scott that, when some fugitive slaves who had come into his slavery; lines were demanded of him, he replied that the fugitive slave g IJ^"^ act did not affect a foreign country, which Virginia claimed to be, and that she must reckon it one of the infelicities of her position that in so far at least she was taken at her word; that in Maryland, a loyal state, fugitives from service had been returned, and that even now, if their master would come to the fort and take the oath of allegiance to the Constitution of the United States, the men would be delivered up to him. Both General Scott and the secretary of war gave written approval of Butler's report. On March 6, 1862, President Lincoln, in a message to Con- 478. Grad- gress recommended a proposal to compensate any slave state "^!. ^^^^'^^' ° , ir 1 1 J pation pro- which would "adopt gradual abolition of slavery," and adds, posed by "Such a proposition on the part of the General Government ^'""^"^^ sets up no claim of a right by the Federal authorities to interfere with slavery within State limits," and, in continuation, fore- shadows the possible emancipation of the slaves as a measure forced by the necessity to preserve the Union. On May 9, 1862, General David Hunter, commanding the 479. Hun- Department of the South, issued his General Order No. 11, in tfr's eman- , ... cipation which, after reciting that martial law had been declared in order — Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina, he adds: "Slavery and ^^^' martial law in a free country are altogether incompatible. The rebuked; persons in these States — Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina i'''i"^ol°'s — heretofore held as slaves, are therefore declared forever free. " But on May 19, President Lincoln issued a proclamation in which he disavows all responsibility for Hunter's emancipa- tion order, and says, "it is altogether void," and further says that he reserves to himself the decision whether at any time "it shall have become a necessity indispensable to the maintenance 398 THE STRATEGY OF THE WAR 480. The president's appeal to the Border states Abraham Lincoln of the government to examine" the supposed power to declare the slaves free. Then he quotes his message to Congress of March 6, and adds that both branches of Congress had adopted a resolution looking to the gradual abolishment of slavery with compensa- tion, and concludes with a very earnest appeal to the states and people most interested, as follows: "This proposal makes common cause for a com- mon object, casting no re- proaches upon any. It acts not the Pharisee. The change it contemplates would come gently as the dews of Heaven, not rend- ing or wrecking anything. Will you not embrace it? So much good has not been done by one effort in all past time, as in the Providence of God, it is now your high privilege to do. May the vast future not have to lament that you have neglected it. " Following this appeal, Mr. Lincoln called together the repre- sentatives and senators from the Border states. They met on the morning of July 12 at the Executive Mansion, and the president "addressed them from a written paper held in his hands." He told them very seriously that if they had all voted for the resolution for gradual emancipation, in his opinion "the war would now be substantially ended." He argued that the seceded states would always hope for the help of the border states as long as the latter held to slavery; but that an abandon- ment of that institution would at once disabuse them. "How much better," he said, "for you and for your people to take the step which at once shortens the war, and secures substantial compensation for that which is sure to be wholly lost in any other event. I do not speak of emancipation at once, but of a THE BLOCKADE OF SOUTHERN PORTS 399 decision at once to emancipate gradually. Room in South America for colonization can be obtained cheaply, and in abundance, and when numbers shall be large enough to be company and encouragement for one another, the freed people will not be so reluctant to go." Concluding, Mr. Lincoln referred to great pressure upon him, and begged the members to consider his appeal, and discuss it among themselves. Within two days he received from the majority of his audience 481. Reply a well prepared reply, in which the following expression occurs: ^ *^^ "The right to hold slaves is a right appertaining to all the states States in the Union. They have the right to cherish or abolish the institution, as they or their interests may prompt, and no one is authorized to ciuestion the right, or limit its enjoyment. And no one has more clearly affirmed that right than you have. " They say, furthermore: "Twelve months ago both Houses of Congress, adopting the spirit of your message, then but recently sent in, declared with singular unanimity the objects of the war, and the country instantly bounded to your side to assist you in carrying it on. If the spirit of that resolution had been adhered to, we are confident that we should before now have seen the end of the deplorable conflict. But what have we seen? In both Houses of Congress we have heard doctrines subversive of the principles of the Constitution . . . Confine yourself to your constitutional authority; confine your sub- ordinates within the same limits; conduct this war solely for. the purpose of restoring the Constitution to its legitimate authority." They add that if this advice is followed they will very gladly sustain him; and say they are willing that their states should consider for themselves the matter of compen- satory emancipation. The document was signed by twenty of the twenty-eight members concerned. Whether as a sequel to the action of the majority of the 482. Mes- Border states representatives, or whether Mr. Lincoln had !f^® °^^ . . / , December worked to a similar conclusion through his own thought or i, 1862 other influences, the fact remains that in his message to the ne.\t session of Congress, December i, 1862, he proposed an 400 THE STRATEGY OF THE WAR amendment to the Constitution, part of which reads as follows: "Every State wherein slavery now exists which shall abolish the same therein at any time or times before January i, igoo, shall receive compensation from the United States." It is to be observed that this proposal would leave the question to be solved by the individual states, and is entirely consistent with Mr. Lincoln's statement in his inaugural address. It is also to be observed that he had already declared that on January i, 1863, he would issue his proclamation of emancipation, as a military necessity. 483. The Meanwhile, "the seven governors," the churches, the soci- do*n Droda- ^^^^^> ^^^ politicians, and especially the military conditions, mation were exerting great .pressure upon Mr. Lincoln to induce him to declare the slaves free; but he persisted in refusing until to him it should seem "an indispensable necessity for the pres- ervation of the government," and the time came soon. For, after his proclamation of May ig, not six weeks passed before his greatest army was defeated and the campaign utterly lost; and cjuickly followed worse disaster to another army which sought refuge in the defences of Washington, while the Southern army invaded Maryland, and fears for the capital were great. Why should not a foreign nation recognize the independence of a de facto government which could so demonstrate its military power? Mr. Lincoln, within less than a month, proclaimed that the slaves should be free on the first of January following. The "military necessity" had come. The story goes, and it is not known that it ever has been disputed, that President Lincoln, at a time when he felt greatly discouraged on account of successive defeats, made a vow to Heaven that he would declare emancipation as soon as victory returned to the Union army. The battle of Antietam occurred, and the Confederates on September ig retired into Virginia; on September 22, the proclamation was issued. In this connection, the action of France is interesting. On October 30, 1862, possibly three weeks after hearing of Antietam and the ])rocla mation, the French government prepared a diplomatic note in which it THE BLOCKADE OF SOUTHERN PORTS 401 invited Great Britain and Russia to join with her in endeavor- ing to bring about an armistice of six months duration between the contending powers in America, in the hope that in this interval measures would be initiated that would result in peace. ff^ fr^U:ZZy /Tut**^/^ JiA,s.r,^ jt:^ cnd on September 19 and 20 was forced to fight the battle of Chickamauga. Meantime, Bragg had been reenforced from Mississippi, and from Virginia by two of the divisions of Longstreet's famous corps. Chickamauga was the 420 STRATEGY OF THE WAR: WEST greatest battle fought by the western armies; it resulted in disaster for the Federals: marvelous work was done by General Thomas to save the army from destruction. Bragg shut Rose- crans's army in Chattanooga, where its position became very ..^^_,_ ^^_^ _^ perilous because of 8^ ^^^--^r^ -^ - '^ ^~ \*^?^^?:5rf^^ the difficulty of ob- ^" taining supplies. But ■£ ' - = the Federal govern- ment made extra- ordinary efforts for Rosecrans's relief; troops were hurried from the North and from the West, and long wagon trains endeavored to bring supplies into Chat- tanooga from Nash- ville; Grant himself came from Vicks- burg to take com- mand. Burnside, in command of the Federal army at Knoxville, was ready to march to the relief of Chattanooga, and Bragg felt compelled to detach Longstreet in opposition. Grant, learning that Bragg's army had been reduced, ordered an attack, and late in November, Bragg's line of intrenchment on Missionary Ridge and his position on Lookout Mountain were carried. Bragg raised the siege of Chattanooga, and retired into Georgia. Longstreet, in the meantime, had laid siege to Knoxville, but feeling un- able to devote the winter to the operation, determined to assault, and was repulsed with very great loss. lH«i„>' Point of Lookout Mountain, Tenn. View during high water, looking down the river THE CHATTANOOGA CAMPAIGNS 421 SUMMARY Grant and Foote captured Forts Henry and Donelson and advanced southward. General A. S. Johnston attacked Grant at Shiloh, but the timely arrival of Buell turned the tide of victory in favor of Buell and Grant. General Pope took Island No. 10 in the Mississippi river. Farra- gut, after a most dramatic action below New Orleans, received the sur- render of the city on April 29, 1862. Meanwhile, Lincoln had appointed Andrew Johnson military governor of Tennessee, thereby putting into effect his first large movement toward a generous "reconstruction." In Northwest Arkansas a battle had been decided against the Confederates March 7 and 8, 1862. The campaigns against Vicksburg began. Sherman needlessly caused his men to be slaughtered at Chickasaw Bluffs. Grant marched down the Mississippi on the west side, far below Vicksburg, crossed to the east side, and won engagements at Jackson, Champion's Hill, and Big Black river. J. E. Johnston maneuvered for the purpose of aiding Pemberton to avoid being shut up in Vicksburg; but his movements failed, and Grant besieged the city, which was surrendered on July 4, 1863. The taking of Vicksburg and Port Hudson divided the territory of the Con- federacy, and rendered almost hopeless the cause of the South. Butler, commanding in New Orleans, ruled rigorously, confiscating property, receiv- ing negroes into the United States army, and ordering all citizens to take the oath of allegiance. Butler was succeeded by Banks, who was defeated by General Taylor in his Red River campaign. Price and Van Dorn attacked Rosecrans at Corinth behind intrench- ments, and were repulsed. Bragg invaded Kentucky without great result; fought a drawn battle at Murfreesboro, gained a great victory at Chicka- mauga (September 19-20, 1863) and besieged Rosecrans in Chattanooga. Grant took command at Chattanooga, reenforced the army, defeated Bragg at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, and the Confederates retired into Georgia. REVIEW QUESTIONS I. What effect upon the Confederates in Virginia would spring from the loss of the Mississippi? 2. Discuss the following proposition: The death of General Johnston at Shiloh affected the future history of the South. 3. Why did it so happen that many battles in the Civil War began in favor of the Confederates and ended in Federal successes? 4. Discuss the effect of the Vicksburg surrender. 5. Was Butler right in confiscating property in order to provide for the poor? 6. Why should Banks wish to invade Texas? 7. What were the two purposes in Bragg's advance into Kentucky? 8. Which side, if either, could afford to fight a drawn battle, as Murfreesboro? 9. Explain how "extending lines" to outflank an army has an effect. 10. What effect should the permanent occupation of Chattanooga have on the war? CHAPTER XXIII STRATEGY OF THE WAR: EAST REFERENCES Secondary Authorities. — Century Co., Battles and Leaders, vols, i-iv; Ham- lin, Chancellorsville; Dabncy, Stonewall Jackson; Long, Memoirs of Robert E. Lee; Swinton, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac. Sources. — Official Records; Humphrey, Virginia Campaign; McClellan, Campaigns of Stuart's Cavalry; Stephens, War Between the States; Grant, Memoirs; Walker, History of the Second Army Corps. Illustrative Material. — Johnston, The Long Roll; J. Esten Cooke, Hammer and Rapier; Surry of Eagle's X est; Scott, Partisan Life with Mosby; Avury, A Vir- ginia Girl in the Civil War. OPERATIONS AGAINST RICHMOND General George B. McClellan, commander-in-chief of the 512. Cam^'ai'^n'^ Union armies, had spent the winter and early spring, 1S61-62, 1862; the "Virginia" and the "Monitor" in organizmg an immense army near Washington. This general was a highly accomplished mili- tary engineer who thoroughly understood the advantage of even a small fortification to an army acting upon the defensive. He considered it unworthy in a general to throw away the lives of his men needlessly; he con- sidered every point of attack and every line of retreat; and believed that he had no right to engage in battle unless he had a fair prospect of advantage. In- stead of advancing upon Richmond by the way of Manassas, where Joe Johnston's army was intrenched, he transferred his 422 George 13. McClellan OPERATIONS AGAINST RICHMOND 423 troops by water to the peninsula formed by the James and the York rivers, took position before Yorktown, and began a siege of the Confederate fortifications defended at the time by Gen- eral John B. Magruder. Meanwhile, General Johnston at Manassas, learning of McClellan's movement, was retreating toward Richmond in order to reenforce Magruder, for which purpose McClellan gave him sufficient time. The siege of Yorktown lasted from April 8 until May 4, McClellan choosing a slow and safe process, and refusing to sacrifice his men in a bloody assault. The Confederates retreated up the peninsula, and at Williamsburg, Johnston now in command, gave battle in order to save their wagon trains. The result, according to McClellan, was a great victory; according to Johnston likewise it was a victory, but for the Confederates. Johnston saved his wagon trains and retired upon Richmond. In a rneasure, McClellan's slow movements may have been determined by an ironclad Confederate vessel^ which was capable of blocking the passage of the whole Union fleet into the James jriver. On the 8th of March, the Virginia had come out into Hampton Roads and had attacked and destroyed two Fed- eral frigates and retired without being injured. On the next day she came out again to complete her work of destruc- tion, but was met by a Federal vessel, named the Monitor, and a royal battle followed between the two, in which the Monitor was enabled to stand off in water too shallow for the Virginia, which consequently returned to her moorings. Neither vessel was seriously damaged, although they fought at close range for more than six hours. The Virginia came out again on 1 The old U.S. frigate Mcrrimac, which had been greatly altered and named the Virginia. The "Monitor" and the "Virginia' 424 STRATEGY OF THE WAR: EAST April II, in full view of part of McClellan's army, but did noth- ing except to aid smaller craft in effecting the capture of a few merchant vessels near shore. The Virginia was burned on May II, to prevent her falling into the hands of the Federals. 513. Seven McClellan continued slowly to advance until he was within Pines and ^ £g^^ miles of Richmond. Here he halted and fortified, with Fair Oaks, May- June part of his army on either side of the Chickahominy river. CH ESAPEAKE Map of Hampton Roads, Virginia On the 30th of May, General Johnston prepared to attack McClellan's left wing, and on the 31st, the Chickahominy rose in consequence of heavy rains. McClellan's left was then with- out support because his right wing could not be brought across the river. The attack on May 31 was made at Seven Pines and Fair Oaks Station, and both sides lost very heavily. The day ended with the success of the Confederates; by the next morn- ing, however, the Federals were enabled to repair their bridges OPERATIONS AGAINST RICHMOND 425 and bring over to the help of the distressed left wing reenforce- ments from the right. The battle was renewed and resulted in restoring the Federal lines. In this battle General Johnston was severely wounded, and Gen- eral Robert E. Lee, who had for some time been serving as Presi- dent Davis's military adviser, was appointed to the command of the forces, which became known as the Army of Northern Virginia. Gen- eral McClellan, overestimating al- ways the numbers of the Confed- erates, asked for reenforcements, and General McDowell, who had advanced as far as Fredericks- burg, was ordered to join him. On May i, Stonewall Jackson was in the Shenandoah valley 514. Jack- with about 14,000 men. Advancing toward him were Fremont I'l'^nan- from the west, and Banks from the north, while McDowell was doah between the Blue Ridge and Fredericksburg, all with a total <^^™P^'sn force of perhaps 75,000 men. Suddenly, Jackson moved east through the Blue Ridge Gaps, but quickly turned again, and rapidly marched westward upon Fremont. On May 8, Jackson encountered the advance divisions of Fremont and overcame them. Then he turned again and marched down the valley to meet Banks's army, part of which he found at Front Royal and defeated. Banks at Strasburg immediately learned of the disaster to his division, and retreated in all haste down the valley, but while his army was in motion his flank was struck by Jackson, and his whole army driven to Winchester, and even beyond, for at Winchester, Ewell attacked him again and his force did not halt until it had crossed the Potomac. But by this time Fremont was in Jackson's rear. On June 8, at Cross Keys, Jackson turned and delivered battle to Fremont, and was again successful. Meantime, an army Stonewall" Jackson 426 STRATEGY OF THE WAR: EAST 515. Jack- son with Lee, June 516. The seven days battles, June July J. E. B. Stuart under Shields had advanced upon him from the east; and on the night of the battle at Cross Keys, Jackson marched to meet Shields. The battle of Port Republic followed on June g, and Shields was badly defeated. The wonderful success of Jack- son's campaign in the valley had caused great fear in Washington for the city, and President Lin- coln countermanded the order for McDowell to reenforce McClel- "'" Ian, and commanded him instead to defend Washington against Jackson. On June 17, Jackson moved toward Richmond, and on June 25 arrived within a day's march of Lee's left flank. Li the meantime, General Lee, having determined to attack McClel- lan, had ordered General Stuart, commanding the Confederate cavalry, to obtain information of the position of the Federals. Pursuant to this order General Stuart, with 1200 cavalry, had ridden entirely around McClellan's army from the west to the east and back into Richmond with the loss of but one man. On June 26, General Lee threw forward Longstreet and the two Hills to the north of the Chickahominy and unsuccessfully attacked McClellan's right flank at Mechanicsville. In the night the Federals retreated down the Chickahominy and took up a strong position at Gaines's Mill, where, on the next day, the united forces of Lee and Jackson overcame the Federals under Fitz John Porter, after desperate fighting for many hours and the loss of thousands in killed and wounded. Porter was enabled by the falling of the night to withdraw his shattered forces to the south of the Chickahominy. McClellan decided to retreat to the protection of his gunboats on James river. He abandoned his base of supplies at White House on York river, and though terribly pressed all the way, succeeded in OPERATIONS AGAINST RICHMOND 427 saving his army. Great battles were fought during the retreat, and in the last battle, at Malvern Hill, on July i, the Con- federates, attacking an almost impregnable position, were Position of the Army of the Potomac at Harrison's Landing, Va., 186: repulsed with great loss. The next day, however, found Mc- Clellan's army crowded together at Harrison's Landing on the James river under protection of the Federal fleet. General John Pope, whom President Lincoln had placed in 517. Battle command of the army being formed for the protection of Wash- ?t ^^^/^q ington (506), was between Culpeper and Manassas; and Mc- Clellan's army was being transferred by water to Alexandria. Lee, learning that the danger was now from the north rather than from the east, sent Jackson's corps to meet Pope's advance, and soon followed with the remainder of his army. Jackson met Pope at Cedar Mountain on August 9, and after a contest which lasted until night, Pope withdrew. General Pope's army lay behind the Rappahannock. Lee ond Battle of ordered Jackson to march around its right flank, and get in Manassas, its rear at Manassas. Following Jackson with an interval of 28-30 428 STRATEGY OF THE WAR: EAST Map of Campaigns in Virginia a day's march, came Longstreet's corps. Jackson took Bristoe Station and Manassas Junction on the night of August 26, and now his whole corps was on the railroad directly between Pope and Washington city. On August 29, Pope's army attacked Jackson, but could not dislodge him, and on the next day Lee's whole army attacked Pope's on the old battleground of Bull Run and drove it from the field with immense losses. 519. Lee in While Pope's shattered army was reorganizing at Washington, Sharpsbur'g Lee crossed the Potomac at White's Ford on September 4, and OPERATIONS AGAINST RICHMOND 429 occupied Frederick. Meanwhile, McClellan's army was arriv- orAntietam, ing at Alexandria; in fact, its division under Fitz John Porter ^^ had reached Pope in time to take part in the battle of Manassas. Immediately preceding that battle President Lincoln had re- moved McClellan from the command of the army, but now, pressed by misfortune, he yielded to the popular clamor and placed McClellan at the head of the united armies. McClel- lan, very proficient as an or- ganizer, soon restored confi- dence, and advanced slowly upon Lee, completing his or- ganization as he moved. On September 9, Lee detached Jackson's corps for operations on the south side of the Potomac against Harper's Ferry, held by 11,000 Union troops. Harper's Ferry, with all its garrison, was sur- rendered to Jackson on Sep- tember 15. Meanwhile, Lee's remaining forces in Maryland, less than 30,000 men, were slowly retiring before McClellan, and on the night of September 16, the two armies confronted each other on the opposite sides of Antietam creek. On the 17th, McClellan's army of about 70,000 men advanced upon Lee at Sharpsburg, and the bloodiest single day of the whole war resulted in some 30,000 killed and wounded. Part of Jackson's corps had reached Lee before the battle, and part of it had made a forced march of seventeen miles from Harper's Ferry while the battle was raging. All night and the next day, Lee remained in position, but McClellan did not advance, and on September 19, Lee retired to the Virginia side of the Potomac. The Federals claimed a victory, and it was now that President Lincoln issued his preliminary proclamation in Robert E. Lee 430 STRATEGY OF THE WAR: EAST 520. The Burnside campaign; Fredericks- burg, De- cember 13 521. Battle of Chancel- lorsville, May, 1863 regard to the slaves in the territory still in arms against the United States (483). Lee's army encamped around Bunker Hill in the valley of Virginia, and McClellan's army remained in Maryland until November. While the armies were in these positions, General Stuart again rode entirely around McClellan's army, fording the Potomac twice in doing so, and escaped without serious losses. President Lincoln was greatly displeased because of McClellan's continued inactivity; and McClellan at last ad- vanced on the east side of the Blue Ridge, forcing Lee to retreat uj) the valley in order to place his army between JMcClellan and Richmond. Late in November, President Lincoln removed McClellan, and appointed General A. E. Burnside instead. Burnside at once marched upon Fredericksburg, intending to cross the Rappahannock immediately and move against Rich- mond by the direct road; but when he was ready to cross he found Lee in front of him. Burnside crossed, however, on December lo-ii, and on the 13th made a series of desperate attacks upon Lee's almost impregnable position. He was de- feated with terrible loss, and retired to the north side of the river. In this battle, as well as in others, General George G. Meade distinguished himself. Both armies now went into winter quarters, making huts of pine logs and clay, and roofed with tent cloths. Very likely the Confederate army was in no better situation to endure the winter than Washington's had been at Valley Forge. Lee's army had been reduced to 55,000 men in consequence of detaching Longstreet to operate against Suffolk, when General Hooker, who had superseded Burnside, advanced by the right flank up the Rappahannock, crossed it, and took position at Chancellorsville, ten miles distant upon Lee's left. Lee accepted the challenge of an army more than twice as great as his own, and within three days, May 2-4, had defeated it and sent it back across the Rappahannock. Here, however, Lee lost Stonewall Jackson, his most valued lieutenant. The middle of June, 1863, found Lee's army marching down OPERATIONS AGAINST RICHMOND 431 July, 1863 the Shenandoah valley. Ewell defeated Milroy at Winchester 622. Get- on June 14 and 15, and crossed the Potomac. At Gettysburg, ^^^^^^^^^^ Pennsylvania, on July 1-3, the Confederates under Lee fought a great battle with the Federals under General George G. Meade, who had superseded Hooker only four days previously. The first day went against the Federals; the second day was a slaughter in which nothing was determined; on July 3, Lee attacked Cemetery Hill. At one o'clock more than a hundred Confederate guns opened upon Meade's center; the Federals replied with eighty cannon; for two hours the artillery combat raged; then there was silence, and 15,000 veteran infantry, Gettysburg National Military Park under Pickett and Pettigrew and Trimble, marched against the \eteran divisions of Hancock's corps aided by staunch support to right and left, all easily discernible across the open space of almost a mile. The Confederate troops came down Seminary Ridge in long line of battle, and into the open, their arms glittering in the three o'clock sunlight, their ranks orderly, saving their strength for the charge that was yet to be made. Batteries played upon them from front, from left oblique, and from right oblique; but they marched on at quick-step with the shells bursting overhead and in their ranks. They reached the depression and marched on; the climbing of three fences that obstructed their march caused loss of time and temporary disorganization under the murderous fire that was breaking them to pieces; but they passed the fences and began to march 432 STRATEGY OF THE WAR: EAST 623. Lee at Hagers- town, July 624. Bris- toe; Mine Run up Cemetery Hill. Then they came under infantry fire, with the batteries always at work upon them. Three hundred yards of open ground must yet be crossed, and at the other side, behind the stone walls Hancock's corps was firing as fast as cannon and musket could be loaded. What' was left of the line charged, and melted away before it reached the Federals. A few lived through the terrible fire and fell at the foot of the wall; fewer still mounted the wall and never returned. Lee could no longer continue the struggle; artillery ammu- nition was lacking. He remained in line, facing Meade, until the night of July 4, when he began his retreat into Virginia. At Hagerstown, Maryland, he again confronted Meade from the 7th to the 13th of July before he crossed the Potomac into Virginia. The failure of Meade to attack Lee caused President Lincoln great disappointment; but it afterward became clear that General Meade was right in refusing to risk a battle at Hagerstown. Meade followed Lee into Virginia, and the armies faced each other across the Rapidan until October 10, when Lee suddenly threw A. P. Hill's corps ahead of the advancing army far up the river with orders to gain Meade's rear by the road on which Jackson had marched around Pope in the preceding year. But Meade learned of the movement in time to fall back to Centre ville. On his retreat, Warren, commanding the rear guard at Bristpe, was attacked by A. P. Hill, and fought a successful combat. Lee gave up the pursuit, and again retired behind the Rapidan. Late in November Meade advanced by his left, crossed at Germanna Ford, and took position for battle at Mine Run, where Lee confronted him until December I, when Meade withdrew to the north bank without bringing on a general engagement. COMBINED OPERATIONS AGAINST RICHMOND 625. Grant Early in March, 1864, President Lincoln ordered General er^™*"**" Grant to Washington, and appointed him commander-in-chief chief, 1864 of all the armies, with the rank of lieutenant-general. Grant COMBINED OPERATIONS AGAINST RICHMOND 433 immediately gave Sherman the command of the Federal army in the West, and arranged for a simultaneous movement in four directions upon Richmond. The Army of the Potomac, under the immediate command of General Meade, was to make a direct advance through northern Virginia; the Army of the James, under Butler, at Fort Monroe, was to advance up the James river, on the south side, against Petersburg and Rich- mond. An army under Sigel was to move up the Shenandoah valley and destroy the Virginia and Tennessee railroad in order to prevent supplies from reaching Richmond and Lee's army, and then move against the capital. Meanwhile, General Sherman should cooperate with Grant by moving from Chatta- nooga upon Atlanta, defended by Johnston, who had super- seded Bragg. ^ All these movements were to begin at the same time in order to prevent any inactive Confederate army from sending reenforcements to points of danger. Pursuant to Grant's orders, Butler advanced up the James 526. But- river, landed his troops on the south bank, and began to ^^^ ^. ' march on Petersburg. He was met, however, by General Sigei's Beauregard, with forces which had been hastily collected from ^l^^^^' the Carolinas, and was repulsed with considerable loss. Beaure- gard then intrenched from the James to the Appomattox in front of Butler, so that the Union general was upon a peninsula, the neck of which was occupied by the Confederates behind fortifications. The soldiers said Butler was "bottled up." As for Sigel, that commander advanced up the Shenandoah valley, encountered a force of Confederates under Breckin- ridge at New Market, was worsted, and was compelled to retreat down the Valley. He was succeeded by General Hunter, who accomplished the destruction of the railroad. Almost simultaneously with the movements of Sigel and 527. Ad- Butler, General Meade's army, with which General Grant kept ^he Army his headquarters, advanced by the left flank, crossed the Rap- of the Potomac, ' From Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant. — " L"ee, with the capital of the Con- May federacy, was the main end to which all were working. Johnston, with Atlanta, was an important obstacle in the way of our accomplishing the result aimed at, and was therefore almost an independent objective." 434 STRATEGY OF THE WAR: EAST 628. Grant before Petersburg, June idan at Germanna Ford, and took position at Chancellorsville on the night of May 4. General Lee's army fell upon Grant and Meade in the Wilderness on the two succeeding days, and paralyzed all effort of the Federals to maneuver. The two days battle had been favorable to the Confederates, but Grant ordered Meade on May 8 to continue the movement by the left flank toward Richmond. At Spottsylvania Courthouse they found Lee in front, and from the loth to the 21st of May a series of terrible battles took place, in which both sides lost k * Pontoon Bridge ox the James River From the North side; 68 boats heavily. Meantime the cavalry of the two armies had fought at Yellow Tavern. Stuart fell, and Hampton succeeded him. Again the Army of the Potomac moved by its left flank, endeavoring to gain ground toward Richmond, but at the North Anna found itself once more confronted by Lee. Meade's army then crossed the Pamunkey and marched to the Chicka- hominy, and on the same ground where Fitz John Porter had been defeated almost two years previously. Grant ordered a general assault by Meade's army upon Lee behind intrench- ments, and within an hour had lost 10,000 men. The losses of Meade and Butler since they began to ach-ance had been about 61,000 men. Still, the ratio of Meade's strength to Lee's was greater than at the beginning of the campaign, for the Federal army had been reenforced by almost as many men as it had lost, while there CAMPAIGNS IN GEORGIA AND TENNESSEE 435 could be no such help for Lee. After the battle on the Chicka- hominy, Grant pushed forward Meade's left again, crossed the James river, and suddenly attacked Petersburg. The town was stoutly defended by the few troops that could be collected, and was held until the advance divisions of Lee marched upon the field. Then Grant, with the Army of the James under Butler, and the Army of the Potomac under Meade, sat down before Petersburg with his right wing stretched beyond the James river, threatening Richmond; and his left wing stretched far south of the Appomattox river, threatening Petersburg; and both Federals and Confederates fortified and remained confronting each other for many months, with almost number- less combats occurring at different points along the lines of forty miles, Grant's relative strength constantly increasing, and Lee's army wearing away with the labor of watching and fighting an army three times as strong. CAMPAIGNS IN GEORGIA AND TENNESSEE Sherman advanced against Johnston at Dalton, at the same 529. Sher- time that Meade's army had advanced, and Johnston fell back ™*" ^ . -' . campaign after a combat at Resaca. Again Sherman came forward, and after a partial engagement at New Hope Church, Johnston fell back to Kennesaw mountain, where for almost two weeks the armies were in close contact, without, however, a general engagement being fought. On June 27, Sherman ordered a general assault, which was repulsed with heavy loss. Johnston, however, retired farther, and crossed the Chattahoochee. Johnston was regarded in the South as the greatest general in thCfCountry next to Lee. In fact, a good many believed him the greatest of all. He saved his men. He would retire rather than fight at a disadvantage. Sherman acknowledged his skill and his generalship. The Federals in this campaign had almost twice as many men as the Confederates. Sherman still advanced and crossed the Chattahoochee, and here President Davis, because of Johnston's disinclination to fight without prospect of victory, placed General Hood in command of the army. 436 STRATEGY OF THE WAR: EAST 630. Bat- tles of Atlanta 631. Hood' Tennessee campaign; Sherman's march through Georgia 632. Bat- tles of Franklin and Nash- ville General Hood at once assumed the offensive. President Davis wished him to fight and he fought. On the 20th of July, Hood attacked Sherman and was repulsed. On the 2 2d of July, Hood again attacked, and was repulsed with very great loss. Again, on the 28th, Hood delivered an assault, which was easily repulsed. These battles had so weakened the Con- federate army that Sherman was enabled to throw strong forces toward the railroad at the south, and the movement forced Hood to evacuate Atlanta, which Sherman promptly occupied. Hood then began to march northward, believing that an advance into Tennessee would force Sherman to withdraw from Atlanta in order to protect his communications. Sherman followed, but not long. He soon determined that there were sufficient forces in north- ern Georgia and Tennessee to deal with Hood, and began to prepare for a march upon Savannah first, and then upon Richmond. On November 12, Sherman set out upon his march through Georgia, lay- ing waste the country as he went, for a breadth of sixty miles. On D.ecember .21, he occupied Savannah, which had been evacuated by a few troops under General Hardee, who crossed into South Carolina. Hood advanced into Tennessee, and at Franklin, on Novj?m- ber 30, attacked behind strong intrenchments General Scho- field, his old classmate at West Point, and lost some 6,000 men; then, Schofield having withdrawn to form a junction with Thomas, his superior, Hood pushed on toward Nashville, held by Thomas's army, and sat down before the city. Thomas waited for rcenforcements, and on December 15 marched out and attacked Hood and gained a complete victory. Potter House, Atlanta, Showing Effects or Bombardment THE CLOSING CAMPAIGNS 437 THE CLOSING CAMPAIGNS From Savannah Sherman's army moved into South Caro- 533. Sher- lina, and that unfortunate state was made to feel a severity ™*° f ' _ -' marches unusual in modern warfare. Columbia was occupied and northward burned. Sherman's movement in the rear of Charleston forced the evacuation of the city and the fall of Fort Sumter, which a few men had heroically defended against bombardments and Fort Sumter after the Bombardment, Dec. q, 1863 assaults by the Federal fleets and armies until its walls were a mass of ruins. From Columbia, Sherman advanced into North Carolina, and, at Bentonville, again came into contact with General Joe Johnston, who had been restored to command, in a battle which had no decisive result. Hunter's destruction had not been confined to the Virginia 534. Early and Tennessee railroad (526) ; dwellings, barns, mills, and all ^'■^^*.^°^ kinds of private property had been burned. Lee determined ton to drive him from the Valley, and in June General Early, with a corps from the Army of Northern Virginia, marched upon Hunter, who at once retreated westward into the mountains. There being no other Federal troops between his force and Maryland, Early, pursuant to the orders of Lee, crossed the Potomac river, defeated General Lew Wallace at Monocacy, and suddenly appeared before the fortified lines of Washington. He made ready to attack, but before his preparations were 438 STRATEGY OF THE WAR: EAST 535. Sheri- dan and Early — Sept. Oct. 1864 536. The Hampton Roads con- ference — Feb., 1865 complete he was in great danger of being surrounded, and he decided to retreat into Virginia. Not long thereafter Early sent his cavalry into Pennsylvania. Chambersburg was burned, as a measure of retaliation, according to Early, for Hunter's destruction in the Shenandoah valley. Grant ordered General Sheridan with a powerful force to proceed to the Shenandoah valley, drive out Early, and lay waste the country. Near Winchester, Early was defeated; he made a stand at Fisher's Hill, only to suffer another disaster. Early's army then retreated far up the Valley, and Sheridan obeyed Grant's orders to devastate the country. A month later, at Cedar Creek, Early surprised Sheridan's army at daybreak, took its camp, and his men proceeded to enjoy themselves. While they were in this condition the Federals rallied, recovered their camp, and gained a substantial victory. With but a weak force to confront Sherman's veteran army in North Carolina, with still less to oppose Sheridan in the Valley, with but 40,000 men under Lee to resist Grant's two armies under Meade and Butler before Richmond and Peters- burg, the military situation of the Confederacy was hopeless. Her forces were finding daily augmenting difhculty in meeting in the open field Federals armed with the terrible Spencer maga- zine rifle; her navy had almost utterly perished with the sinking of the Alabama by the Kearsargc in June, 1864; her armies were rapidly dwindling without the possibility of recruitment, while with negro troops alone the Federal armies had been in- creased by 100,000 men in the past twelve months. The re- sources of the North were seemingly cxhaustless, and the civi- lized world was at her financial beck and call ; while the South- ern army before Petersburg was suffering for want of food. Peace, with honor for the South, had to a few men seemed pos- sible; a commission had been appointed to confer with Presi- dent Lincoln; and in February, A. H. Stephens, John A. Camp- bell, and R. M. T. Hunter were allowed to pass through Grant's lines as far as Hampton Roads, where they held a con- ference of four hours with Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward. THE CLOSING CAMPAIGNS 439 Mr. Stephens, the Confederate vice-president, introduced the subject of the Monroe Doctrine (346) ; he cited the weU-known fact that the repubhc in Mexico had been overthrown by a French army, acting under the authority and orders of Emperor Napoleon III; that as a monarch, Maximilian I now reigned in Mexico, sustained by European bayonets; and proposed to Mr. Lincoln that an armistice be agreed upon between the North and the South in order that the JVIonroe Doctrine be reasserted and a republic be reestablished beyond the Rio Grande. Mr. Stephens further developed his thought; the armistice would give time for men's passions to cool; the upholding of the Mon- roe Doctrine would restore a degree of sympathy between the sections, and the hoped-for result of the armistice would be peace. Evidently, Mr. Lincoln sympathized; but he felt forced to declare that no step could be taken until the South ceased its resistance to the Union. The capture of Fort Fisher, and the consequent fall of Wil- 537. The mington, rendered the blockade complete; the Confederacy ''i°<^^^^^ was now shut in from all the world except upon the Mexican border, where such a thriving commerce had by this time developed, that General Lew Wallace, on March 14, wrote to Grant: "Neither the port of New Orleans nor that of Baltimore can present to-day such a promise of commercial activity " as Brazos Santiago — the harbor near the mouth of the Rio Grande. General Wallace, even before the Hampton Roads confer- 538. Effort ence, knowing somewhat of the secret diplomacy which was }S ^^° leading up to it, became desirous to try his persuasive powers Alexander H. Stephens 440 STRATEGY OF THE WAR: EAST upon Texas. Grant gave his permission, and Wallace left his command in Maryland and proceeded to New Orleans, and thence to Brazos Santiago, where he soon obtained an interview with a Confederate brigadier-general, who agreed to transmit Texas Coast Showing points of occupation under Gen. N. P. Banks, November, i 863 to his superior in command a schedule of terms upon which the trans-Mississippi states would be received back into the Union. The document was forwarded to General John G. Walker, com- manding at Houston, who at once denounced the effort to detach Texas from the Confederacy as a proposition to induce the "blackest treason," and on March 27 wrote Wallace a rejection of his "insidious proposals." On March 4, 1865, Mr. Lincoln began his second term as president, having received the electoral votes of all the states THE CLOSING CAMPAIGNS 441 except Delaware, New Jersey, and Kentucky, which cast their 639. Lin- votes for General George B. McClellan, the Democratic candi- ^"^ fnaug'- date. The vice-president for Mr. Lincoln's second term was uration Andrew Johnson, the military governor of Tennessee, a southern statesman who adhered to the Union rather than to his own state. General Lee and President Davis knew that Richmond and 540. As- Petersburg could not be held after the roads became sufficiently p^^^ g^^^, dry for Grant's army to move. Still, Lee would not retreat man without first delivering a blow; and on March 25, before dawn, General John B. Gordon led an attack on Fort Stedman. With unloaded muskets the troops went forward and seized the fort- ress; but daylight revealed that it was dominated by other batteries, which at once began to work upon the Confederates. Retreat or surrender were the alternatives; and in the retreat Gordon lost many men. On March 27, Sheridan, with two divisions of cavalry, formed 541. Sheri- a junction with the Army of the James and the Army of the r^rnforces' Potomac. Sheridan had marched his cavalry overland, de- Grant stroying as he came, while his infantry were transferred by water. Grant's entire force was now about 120,000 and Lee's 39,000. Pickett's infantry division, and Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry, hold- 542. The ing the right rear of the Confederate army, were defeated on Richmond March 31, at Five Forks, by Sheridan and Warren. Meanwhile, Grant had cannonaded Lee's lines night and day; and before dawn on April 2 he threw forward his troops in direct attacks and easily drove the thin Confederate line from its advanced position near Petersburg. On this morning. General A. P. Hill was killed; but his troops rallied in the interior forti- fications; the terrible defence of Forts Gregg and Whitworth gave time for evacuating the lines of Richmond; and at night- fall the army was in full retreat, with Meade, Sheridan, and Ord (commanding the Army of the James) vigorously pursuing. In these tremendous events Lee's generalship was displayed all the more because of his weakness. To evacuate Richmond, and unite his forces from the north side of the James with those on the south side of the Appomattox while both columns were 442 STRATEGY OF THE WAR: EAST 543. Lee's retreat 544, Appo- mattox, April 9, 1865 retreating before a victorious army, add to the fame of the great Southern general, yet detract nothing from that of his adversary. At first, the retreat was directed toward forming a junction with Johnston. But the food supply failed; at Amelia Court- house, where Lee had ordered supplies brought from Danville for this emergency, he learned, to his overwhelming disappoint- ment, that the supply trains had not stopped there but had gone on into Richmond. There was nothing to do but continue the retreat in the hope of living on a country that had already been exhausted. Combats were fought each day; the men — those that were left — responded as of old to the call for battle, but human endurance had reached its limit when Lee found Sheridan obstructing his road on the 9th of April, while Grant's infantry were pressing on almost every side. The surrender at Appomattox displayed the nobility of both commanders. There was no petty demand for the defeated general's sword; there was, instead, every mark of true con- sideration for unfortunate valor and genius, and the fine manliness of Grant challenged and won the admiration and good-will of every Confederate soldier. Men cannot always, if ever, know what is best; yet it would seem that for the South to fight unto utter exhaustion, was the way to command the respect of the Northern people. If, on September 18, 1862, McClel- lan had advanced vigorously against Lee's crippled army backed against the Potomac, probably the war would have soon ended, but if the strong South of that day had yielded, she would forever have been con- temptible. On the other hand, it may easily be believed that the Federal bullet which cut the thread of Sidney Johnston's life, or the Confederate bullet which laid Stonewall Jackson low, prevented an overwhelming Southern x'ictory that might have led to peace Confederate Sol- dier IN Uniform THE CLOSING CAMPAIGNS 443 with separation. So, too, it is conceivable that through panic, or through the loss of some great commander, the Union army should have failed to resist Lee's attack on July 3, 1864, and left the road open to Washington and to enforced peace. There were many times, perhaps hundreds of times, in that war, when it seemed to human eyes that the mightiest events turned upon the mental condition of a man. Jackson was shot down by his own men at the very moment when his life was of most impor- tance to the cause for which he fought; and the fact that Longstreet was shot one year later, in the same forest, by his own men, and at the precise instant when his leadership was equal to a great victory, multiplies many times the force of argument that the American Union owes its preservation to the Divinity that shapes our ends. And yet it was but the form of union, and not Union itself, that was recovered at Appomattox. In its power to restore a union of minds and hearts, the ability of Grant, the general, cannot be compared with the magnanim- ity of Grant, the man. Union came, but not from bayonets; it came at length, when passion ceased, and men on both sides put away prejudice, and learned to appreciate each other, made mutual confession, and freely forgave. Though it be true that men cannot always know what is best, 645. Death it is yet true that the future may approve or condemn their °} P''«si- judgment. The fatuous creature who slew Lincoln did untold Lincoln; harm to the South. The successor to the presidency, a South- Joh'^son '■ . -^ president erner, without prestige, unapt and powerless in face of the extreme condition, though honestly endeavoring to follow Mr. Lincoln's programme for restoring the civic functions of the South, proved utterly unable to control or even guide; perhaps there was no man on earth, who, at that moment of despair on one side and jubilant arrogance on the other, could have given direction to the influence of justice and good-will. Amidst the general delirium that marked the actions and words of common men of great rank, Lincoln's sanity was all the more remarkable. His word would have been law to his followers; he could have controlled the tempest that broke against the 444 STRATEGY OF THE WAR: EAST South; but he, the man that would have proved her strongest help, fell before the weapon of an assassin who vainly had fancied that he was avenging the Confederacy. Lincoln's loss was truly mourned by the Southern people, and they had cause to mourn. 646. The The surrender of Johnston to Sherman quickly followed that Confed- ^^ ^^^ ^° Grant; and within a few weeks the Western armies eracy yielded and the paroled Confederate soldiers returned to their poor homes, to begin a new life that looked to many of them a worse fate than had found those of their comrades who were sleeping forever beneath the sod on hundreds of battlefields. Few officials of the extinct Confederacy felt in their persons the oppression of military power. Mr. Davis was arrested and long kept in prison, but in the end was released without trial. Mr. Stephens, Postmaster-General Reagan, and a few others were subjected to a short imprisonment. SUMMARY McClellan adv'anced (1862) against Richmond by the Peninsular route, and at Seven Pines fought a two days' battle against J. E. Johnston, who was wounded. The command of the Confederate army devolved on R. E. Lee. Stonewall Jackson defeated the Federal armies in the Shenandoah valley, and made a junction with Lee. Stuart had ridden around Mc- Clellan's army. Lee attacked McClellan, June 26-July 2, and won the campaign. Lee advanced against Pope in August, defeated him on the battlefield of Manassas, and marched into Maryland. Jackson took Harper's Ferry and rejoined Lee in Maryland. McClellan attacked Lee at Sharpsburg September 17, but Lee held his position until September 19, then retired into V^irginia. Burnside succeeded McClellan and was defeated by Lee at Fredericksburg. In 1863 Hooker succeeded Burnside, and ad- vanced to Chancellorsville, where Lee attacked and defeated him. Meade succeeded Hooker. Lee attacked Meade for three successive days at Gettysburg; failing to dislodge him, Lee retired into Virginia. In 1864, Grant, commanding three armies led by Meade, Butler, and Sigcl, succeeded by Hunter, advanced against Lee, who attacked Meade while in the Wilder- ness, and gained the advantage. Grant's forces continued to envelop Richmond. Great battles were fought, and the siege of Richmond and Petersburg developed. Meantime, Sherman had advanced from Chatta- nooga against Bragg's army, now commanded by J. E. Johnston, who THE CLOSING CAMPAIGNS 445 retired fighting upon Atlanta. Johnston was succeeded by Hood, who attacked Sherman and was defeated. Atlanta fell. Hood marched into Tennessee and was defeated by Thomas at Nashville. Sherman marched to Savannah, and in 1865 advanced through the Carolinas to unite with Grant's armies before Petersburg. Lee evacuated his lines, and endeavored to form a junction with Johnston in North Carolina; but was forced to sur- render at Appomattox. Lee's surrender was followed by Johnston's to Sherman, and the commands west of the Mississippi gave up the struggle. President Lincoln was assassinated in Washington on April 14, and Andrew Johnson became president. REVIEW QUESTIONS I. Give your idea of good generalship. 2. Why should Mr. Lincoln have so great fear in regard to Washington? 3. Explain why two battles more than a year apart were fought at Manassas, and a third at Bristoe Station very near Manassas? 4. What power has the president over a general? How should this power be used? 5. Describe Grant's plans for the campaign of 1864. 6. Explain Grant's hammering, or attrition process and its necessary results. 7. Should the South have yielded in 1S62; in 1863; in 1S64? 8. Could Mr. Lincoln, with consistency, have accepted the plan proposed by Mr. Stephens in the Hampton Roads con- ference? 9. Could Texas alone have made terms with the United States, and maintained her honor? 10. If the Confederacy had succeeded in the war do you think the Southern states would have come back into the Union at any time? Discuss. The Confederate Flag CHAPTER XXIV RECONSTRUCTION— 1865-1876 REFERENCES Secondary Authorities. — - Burgess, Reconstruction and the Constitution; His- tories, by Rhodes, Fleming, and Wilson. Sources. — Official Records, vols. xlv-Iii; Stephens, Pictorial History U. S., book ii, chaps. 33-34; Hart, Source Book, vol. v; Contemporaries, vol. iv; Appleton, Annual Encyclopedia. Illustr,\tive M.\terial. — Avary, Dixie after tlie War. OPPOSING POLICIES 547. A new Even before the war had closed, farseeing statesmen felt or an old ^^^^.t the triumph of the Union arms would not overcome all relation? national diflEiculties arising from the South's struggle for inde- pendence. How should the South be dealt with? What should be done with the negroes? Were all the citizens to be treated alike irrespective of their attitude toward the secession move- ment? And first of all, what was the relation of the seceded states to the Union? All these questions would be immediately pertinent when the war should cease with the destruction of the Confederacy, and would offer possibilities for serious division. Indeed, on the last question at least, there was already a differ- ence of opinion among the leaders of the Republican party. Senator Charles Sumner, in a speech before the United States Senate in 1862, set forth the state-suicide theory, and further elaborated that doctrine the next year when he declared, among other things, that "clearly, the Rebels, by utmost efforts, could not impair the national jurisdiction; but it remains to be seen if their enmity did not act back with fatal rebound upon those very state rights in behalf of which they commenced their treason. . . It is enough that, for the time being, and in the absence of a loyal government, they can take no part, and per- 446 548. Sum- ner's view, 1862; Lincoln's view; his proclama- tion OPPOSING POLICIES 447 form no function in the Union, so that they cannot be recog- nized by the national government. . . The new governments can all be organized by Congress, which is the natural guardian of people without any immediate government, and within the jurisdiction of the United States. . . And the whole Rebel region, deprived of all local government, lapses under the ex- clusive jurisdiction of Congress. . . The whole broad Rebel region is tabula rasa, or 'a clean slate,' where Congress, under the Constitution of the United States, may write the laws. . . When a state fails to maintain a republican government with ofiQcers sworn according to the requirements of the Constitu- tion, it ceases to be a constitutional state." In plain contrast with this view is the proclamation of Presi- dent Lincoln in the same year: "Whereas a rebellion now exists whereby the loyal state governments of several states have for a long time been subverted, and many persons have committed, and are now guilty of, treason against the United States; . . I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, . . do further proclaim, declare, and make known that whenever, in the states of Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Caro- lina, a number of persons, not less than one-tenth in number of the votes cast in such state at the presidential election of the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty, each having taken the oath aforesaid and not having since violated it, and being a qualified voter by the election law of the state existing immediately before the so-called act of secession and excluding all others, shall reestablish a state government which shall be republican and in no wise contravening said oath, such shall be recognized as the true government of the state, and the state shall receive thereunder the benefits of the constitutional provision which declares that the ' United States shall guarantee to every state in this Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and, on appli- cation of the legislature, or the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened) against domestic \dolence'. . . Any 448 RECONSTRUCTION provision which may be adopted by such state government in relation to the freed people of such state, which shall recognize and declare a permanent freedom, provide for their education, and which may yet be consistent as a temporary arrangement with their present condition as a laboring, landless, and homeless class, will not be objected to by the national executive." The inference is that Lincoln meant to follow a conciliatory policy toward the South; had he lived, he might have saved the Southern people many hardships and much embarrassment. Lincoln considered that Arkansas, Tennessee, and Louisiana had returned to their "proper practical relation" before the war closed, for under the stress of war, the differences of opinion in Congress had not become so pronounced as to be obstructive in their nature. The administration proceeded orderly enough, though with baitings on the part of Congress, with a consistent policy, the purpose of which was a final reconstruction of the Union. Slavery was abolished in the District of Columbia, the Fugitive Slave Law was repealed, and freedom was given those negroes who served with the Federal armies. 549. The In April, 1864, the United States Senate proposed a constitu- Thirteenth ^^^Qj^r^j amendment formally abolishing slavery. There was not ment in the House the necessary two-thirds majority in its favor, and the proposal failed for the time. But in January, 1865, it was carried and, with the aid of the Southern states, it was ratified by the necessary three-fourths of the states, and became the thirteenth amendment on December 18, 1865. It provided that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punish- ment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly con- victed, shall exist within the United States, or any place sub- ject to their jurisdiction." This amendment had been secured through the persistent efforts of President Lincoln, and did not satisfy many of his party who found difficulty in subjecting passion to reason. Moreover, in his second inaugural address, March 4, 1865, Lincoln had shown the forgiving spirit when he said, "With malice towards none, with charity for all; with firmness in the OPPOSING POLICIES 449 right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in." Men Hke Chase and Stevens could not understand the mild 550. Oppo- temper and pacific policy of Lincoln, and began planning "to j'.**°'^ *° thrust their hands into Southern affairs to control them, to make policy good the freedom and privilege of the negroes even at the cost of all privilege to those who had been their masters." The vie\vpoint of these headstrong partisans is fully expressed in the declaration of Thaddeus Stevens that the Southern states "ought never to be recognized as capable of acting in the Union, or of being recognized as valid states, until the Con- stitution should have been so amended as to make it what its makers intended, and so as to secure perpetual ascendency to the party oj the Union.'^ With such proclivities, they chafed considerably because the president so tactfully re- strained the radical sentiment of the country, and so effectu- ally hindered their designs in Congress. When Lincoln was assassinated the balance wheel of the administration's machinery was lost. Johnson wished to continue practically the same broad and 551. The generous policy that his predecessor had begun, and, therefore, ^^"^ presi- naturally came into conflict with the leaders of the Republican policy — party. But there were other sources of discord. In the first ^^^S place he was known to be a Democrat who had been elected vice- president by the Republicans because such selection would tend, it was thought, to promote Union sentiment in the Border states (476, 497). He could not, therefore, reasonably be expected to become an efficient and wise party leader, though Benjamin Wade, a prominent radical senator, did ejaculate Andrew Johnson 45° RECONSTRUCTION 552. John- son's amnesty proclama- tion 653, The freedmen; vagrancy laws soon after Johnson's inauguration: "Johnson, we have faith in you. By the gods! there will be no trouble now in running the government." But circumstances proved that he had reckoned without his host. Then, too, Johnson, like Lincoln, had a will of his own. But, unlike Lincoln, he lacked poise and tact. Reared in the moun- tains of eastern Tennessee, he carried with him into the executive office the rugged and uncompromising character of the moun- taineer. Thoroughly consistent, he now, as president, was governed by one ideal — the preservation of the Union. In his Washington's Birthday speech (i866) he declared that "there were two parties. One would destroy the government to pre- serve slavery. The other would break up the government to destroy slavery. . , They agreed in one thing — the de- struction of the government, precisely what I was always opposed to." Holding this sentiment, Johnson began his work as president with an amnesty proclamation similar to that issued almost three years earlier by President Lincoln, though it was slightly more thorough-going in its dealings with Confederate officials. Under the provisions of this executive proclamation, and acting with the knowledge that the Southern states had been asked by Congress to ratify the thirteenth amendment,' such voters in the seceded states as could take the oath held constitutional conventions (1865) and adopted fundamental laws abolishing slavery and establishing republican forms of government.- Accordingly, they expected representation in this Congress, which convened in December of that year. But just here their plans went awry, and their expectations came to nought; and so did those of the president. The legis- latures chosen in accordance with these new constitutions were proceeding to solve, in their own way, a problem which to them ' It should be borne in mind that Congress had unwittingly recognized the validity of the Southern state governments of 1861-1865, in asking for their radii- cation of the thirteenth amendment. If these governments were not valid then the thirteenth amendment is and has always been invalid. * Texas alone failed to avail herself of this proclamation. JOHNSON vs. CONGRESS 451 was a very serious one. The sudden emancipation of hundreds of thousands of negroes who were in every way unprepared for citizenship, had produced social, economic, and political chaos. To the ignorant negro, his new freedom meant license to do as he might choose. He understood nothing of the intellectual and spiritual meaning of emancipation and, as yet, cared less. Consequently, in many instances his unbridled passions ran riot in unspeakable deviltry, threatening or destroying the safety of Southern homes. To be sure, great numbers of the freedmen had preferred to remain with their former masters and sustain themselves by their industry, but thousands of the younger and more restless negroes prowled about the country, satisfying their wants and desires in whatsoever way they could. The legislatures of the Southern states very appropriately took in hand the matter of improving conditions. In several states, notably Mississippi and South Carolina, vagrancy laws were passed very much like the vagrancy laws of many of the Northern states. Legislatures, of course, sought the arrest and punishment of idle and lawless freedmen in order to protect the lives and property of all the people. Unusual penalties were imposed in some cases, but unparalleled exigencies de- manded them. In many cases the existence of a written con- tract signed by proper persons was requisite to avoid the charge of vagrancy, because vagrancy was the mother of a brood of crimes. Minor negroes should be bound out to service until they should become of age, and negroes unable to pay fines were sometimes hired out in a sort of convict bond fashion, but these young negroes unrestrained were a source of greatest danger. JOHNSON vs. CONGRESS Congress, incapable of fair judgment under the influence of 554^ coq. passion, could not understand that the legislative measures in gress un- the South were necessary to the preservation of property and ^jjg ^^^k the protection of Southern families. It believed, and very of recon- naturally, too, looking from the Northern viewpoint, that the ^355 South had determined to reduce the negro to bondage again, 452 RECONSTRUCTION and to undo all the work of the Ci\'il War with regard to slavery. Accordingly, when Congress met on December 4, 1S65, it pro- ceeded to organize without Southern representatives and sen- ators, not even so much as pronouncing the names of the seceded states in the roll call. It did, however, pass a concurrent resolu- tion establishing a joint committee of nine representatives and six senators whose duty it was to investigate the relation of the seceded states to the Union, and, therefore, their right to repre- sentation in Congress. In the following February another concurrent resolution was passed, providing that no Southern senator or representative should be admitted to Congress until that body had proclaimed the full readmission of the seceded states. This meant, of course, that Congress intended to perform the work of recon- struction. It was the expression of a feeling, which had long been gathering momentum in Congress, that the executive had exceeded his constitutional authority in the whole matter; and certainly the Constitution does give Congress the right to judge the qualifications of its own members. 555. The But President Johnson had no inclination to surrender to president Congress the whole process of reconstruction. When, on Febru- opposes ^ "^ ..... Congress ary 6, 1866, Congress passed a bill continuing indefinitely the Freednien's Bureau, which had been created the previous year for the purpose of heavily punishing those who in any way ob- structed or abridged the rights of former slaves, the president promptly vetoed it on the ground that Congress had passed the measure without Southern representation. A few days later, he took Congress to task for violating the Constitution in vesting the right to judge of the qualifications of its own mem- bers in the committee of fifteen. On the same occasion he pointed out the inconsistency of Congress as follows: "By this rule they assume a state is out of the Union, and to have its practical relations restored by that rule, before the House can judge of the qualifications of its own members. What position is that? You have been struggling for four years to put down a rebellion. You contended in the beginning of that struggle JOHNSON vs. CONGRESS 453 that a state had not a right to go out. You said it had neither the right nor the power, and it has been settled that the states had neither right nor the power to go out of the Union. And when you determine by the executive, by the miUtary, and by the pubUc judgment that these states cannot have any right to go out, this Committee turns around, and assumes that they are out, and that they shall not come in." This whole dis- cussion is a vigorous and bold attack upon Stevens, Sumner, Phillips, and men of like stamp, even impeaching and incriminat- ing their motives and their patriotism. Congress retaliated in the following month by taking the 556. The reins into its own hands and adopting a joint resolution (March 2, S^^'^. . 1S66) providing that neither House would admit Southern vetoed but representation until Congress as a whole should give its consent; Passed and on April 9, by passing "an Act to protect all persons in the United States in their Civil Rights, and furnish the Means of their Vindication," and asserting that "all persons born in the United States, and not subject to any foreign power . . . are . . . citizens of the United States." The measure further pre- scribed greater restrictions upon those who in any way inter- fered with the liberties of any citizen, and empowered Federal courts to exercise exclusive jurisdiction over such cases. The president vetoed this act, and Congress passed it over his veto. To make secure its work. Congress (June, 1866) proposed 557. The the fourteenth amendment, which provides that "all persons ^"""^^^^^ born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the ment pro- jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of p*'^®^' •' _ ' _ \ Southern the state wherein they reside. " The amendment forbids the represen- states to "abridge the privileges ... of the citizens" . . . or*^*'°°^^^" "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law," and prescribes as a penalty for the infraction of this amendment a reduction of the congressional representa- tion from the state guilty of infraction. It declares invalid all debts "incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States"; and it also excludes from office the leaders of the Confederacy, except when a two-thirds vote of Congress 454 RECONSTRUCTION should ''remove such disability." Finally, the ratification of this amendm^it by the Southern states was generally under- stood, though not yet formally declared, to be prerequisite to readmission. Immediately following the proposal of the fourteenth amend- ment, the committee of fifteen reported: "The conclusion of your committee therefore is, that the so-called Confederate States are not, at present, entitled to representation in the Congress of the United States; that before allowing such representation, adequate security for future peace and safety should be required." 558. The It was the season of congressional elections, and the cam- 1^°^' paign was fierce between the president and his friends on the Act; miii- one side, and congressional leaders on the other. Congress iSili^^ ^' ^^^^ overwhelmingly, and came together in the following March (1867) in order to circumvent executive direction pending the regular meeting of Congress in the following December.' In the meantime, the Southern states had nearly all rejected the fourteenth amendment; while Congress had overridden the president's veto in conferring universal suffrage upon the negroes of the District of Columbia, had admitted Nebraska to the Union, March i, 1867, and had enacted into law the Reconstruction Act on the following day. As completed during that month it provided, "that said rebel states shall be divided into military districts, and made subject to the military authority of the United States as hereinafter prescribed, and for that purpose Virginia shall constitute the first district; North Carolina and South Carolina, the second district; Georgia, Alabama, and Florida the third district; Mississippi and Arkansas the fourth district; and Louisiana and Texas the fifth district; . . that it shall be the duty of the President to assign to the command of each of said districts an officer of the army . . . and to detail a sufficient military force to enable such officer to perform his duties and enforce his authority within the district to which he is assigned. " These military governors ' See Constitution, Art. I, Sec. 4. JOHNSON vs. CONGRESS 455 should complete the process of reconstruction by allowing qualified male citizens to hold an election in the respective states for the purpose of choosing delegates to a constitutional con- vention. When such convention had submitted its proposed constitution to the qualified male citizens for ratification, and these in turn had adopted it, such constitution should then be sent to Congress for ratification. When Congress should ratify it, and when the state, through its legislature, should ratify the fourteenth amendment, such state should then be readmitted to representation in Congress. To quote from Burgess's Re- construction and the Constitution: "There was hardly a line in the entire bill which would stand the test of the Constitution. . The bill was the most brutal proposition ever introduced into the Congress of the United States by a responsible com- mittee, and it would never have been tolerated except at such a time of partisan excitement and exaggerated suspicions." The result of the reconstruction act, so far as the South was 559. The concerned, was to establish a corrupt and wholly inefficient !'^^P®*~ military despotism which added much to the cup of bitterness govem- of which the South had already drunk, and greatly interfered ™®°*s with the South's own reconstruction of her better self. The officials placed in charge of the reconstruction processes were too often self-seeking politicians who used the ignorant negroes to secure control of the constitutional conventions and the state governments; and who, being ignorant of conditions in the South, could not have given efficient administration had they so desired. Negroes, either alone, or in conjunction with small squads of "carpet-baggers," as these federal officials were named by the Southerners, came into control of all the ma- chinery of government, and used their authority with wanton and ruthless extravagance. Taxes became burdensome, public debts increased with incredible swiftness, and the disfranchised white man was left robbed, stript, bruised, bleeding, bent uixler his burden, misunderstood, maligned, and outlawed. Gradually the states were "reconstructed," and by Janu- ^•ry 3O) 1 87 1, all of them had been reinstated and rehabilitated. 456 RECONSTRUCTION 560. The Fifteenth Amend- ment proposed 561, The Tenure of Office Act — 1868 The fourteenth amendment, of course, had been adopted of necessity, and Congress, on February 26, 1S69, to make assur- ance doubly sure, proposed the fifteenth amendment, which forbade the United States or any state thereof to abridge the rights of any citizen of the United States to vote "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." The ratifica- tion of this amendment was made prerequisite to the admission of Texas, Virginia, Mississippi, and Georgia, states which had been slow in the process of reconstruction. This amendment became a part of the constitutional law on March 30, 1870. On the same day Congress passed the first reconstruction act and "An Act regulating the Tenure of Certain Civil Offices." Under the Constitution, a great many of the federal officers receive their appointment through the executive branch of government with the consent of the Senate. But the Con- stitution makes no express declaration regarding removals from these offices. Custom, however, had given the right to the president to remove such officials without the consent of the Senate, since such power seemed necessary to the efficient execution of administrative policies. But Congress and the president had now reached such disagreement that when John- son removed officials Congress suspected that he did it solely because they disagreed with him over questions of reconstruc- tion. Therefore it passed the measure mentioned for the pur- pose of depriving the president of the right to reinove officers without the consent of the Senate; it further provided that members of the cabinet should remain in office one month after the presidential term should expire. It gave the president power, however, to suspend cabinet members when the Senate was not in session, with the proviso that the body might restore such suspended member if, after investigation, it should decide to do so. Violation of this act, in any particular, was punishable by a maximum fine of ten thousand dollars or a maximum imprisonment of five years, or both. In the summer following the adjournment of Congress, the president called for the resignation of Secretary of War Edwin JOHNSON vs. CONGRESS 457 M. Stanton. The secretary refused to resign, and the president, 562. Stan- within the authority of the Tenure of Office Act, suspended him *°"' *^® from ofl&ce. When the Senate convened it refused to ratify the meat trial order of suspension, and the president again removed Stanton, acting this time upon the conviction that the Senate had ex- ceeded its constitutional right in passing the act.^ Again Stanton refused to be removed, and this time appealed to the House of Representatives. This body, on February 24, 1868, by a vote of 128 to 47, resolved to impeach the president. The Senate concurred, and on March 6, an order was issued summoning the president to make answer by March 13. On March 23 a request for thirty days extension of time in which to prepare for trial was denied, and on March 30, the trial was opened, with Chief Justice Chase presiding. After several weeks' pro- ceedings, 35 senators voted "guilty" and 19 "not guilty." ^ As a two-thirds vote was necessary for conviction, the president had won. Stanton resigned and the disgraceful episode was at an end. But the impeachment trial and its incidents had aroused the 563. Grant most bitter sentiments throughout the country. Johnson had president — gone about pouring out the vials of his wrath upon Congress, 1868 while congressmen and Republican newspapers in turn exe- crated the man whom they had made president. It was the year of the national election, and the Republican convention met a few days after the impeachment proceedings. It en- thusiastically chose Ulysses S. Grant for its presidential can- didate, and showed plainly its intention of supporting the congressional plan of reconstruction. The Democrats nomi- nated Horatio Seymour of New York, and accepted the Re- publican challenge. In the popular vote General Grant received 1 The president's discussions of the constitutionality of these two measures, the Reconstruction Act and the Tenure of OfEce Act, are among the ablest state papers in the history of the country, and are generally accepted now by the highest legal authority in the nation as " masterpieces of political logic, constitutional in- terpretation, and official style." 2 Seven Republicans and 12 Democrats voted for acquittal. All but one of these seven Republican senators lost their seats in the next election. 458 RECONSTRUCTION a majority of about 300,000 out of a total of six million. In the electoral college Grant received 214 to Seymour's 80. Johnson's retirement from the presidency was not the close of his politi- cal service; in 1875 he was elected United States senator from Tennessee, and he died in oflBce the same year. SUMMARY Northern politicians found themselves in a dilemma. If the act or ordinance of secession was constitutional and valid, the "so-called" Con- federacy had been a de jure government, and consequently the war against it had been one of oppression; but if the ordinance of secession was uncon- stitutional, and therefore null and void, the Southern states had never left the Union, and were entitled to equality under the Constitution. Mr. Lincoln's view (that a "rebellion" had existed and that upon its suppression within each state such state should be encouraged to exercise the functions of a member of the Union) was maintained by President Johnson. He lacked, however, the qualities and the power of Mr. Lincoln. He issued an amnesty proclamation, and the Southern states, generally, held conventions and adopted constitutions prohibiting slavery and setting up forms of republican states under the United States Constitution. But the senators and representatives elected by these states were not allowed by Congress to take their seats, and there followed an unseemly conflict between the national legislature and the executive. Meanwhile, the Southern states were endeavoring to control the newly freed and irresponsible negro, and to build again some degree of material prosperity. Congress proposed the fourteenth amendment, placed the South under military rule in 1867, and the carpet-bag governments followed. The Tenure-of-ofEce Act (1868) and the removal of Stanton gave rise to an impeachment trial in which the president was acquitted by one vote. In the same year Grant was elected president. REVIEW QUESTIONS I. Was the act of secession forbidden by the Constitution? 2. Discuss the constitutional right for the formation of West Virginia. 3. In what essential does the fourteenth amendment differ from the thirteenth? 4. Do you consider suffrage a universal right? 5. Do negroes, as a rule, vote in the South? Discuss. 6. Why do states and municipalities enact laws and ordinances for the suppression of va- grancy? 7. What was the purpose of the Civil Rights Act? 8. Why did most of the Southern states reject the fourteenth amendment? 9. Does the adoption of the thirteenth amendment confirm, or does it attack the constitutional right of Mr. Lincoln to free the slaves as a war measure? 10. Did Mr. Lincoln free the slaves? acter of Grant CHAPTER XXV RECONSTRUCTION — Concluded REFERENCES Secondary Authorities. — Burgess, Reconstruction and the Constitution; His- tories as for chap. xxiv. Sources. — A. H. Stephens, Pictorial History of U. S., book ii, chap, xxxv; Hart, Source Book; Contemporaries. * Illustrative Material. — Grady, The New South; Tourgee, A Fool's Errand. STRUGGLE FOR HOME RULE IN THE SOUTH The few years immediately following the retirement of Presi- 564. Char- dent Johnson were characterized by the completion of the process of reconstruction under the immediate direction of Congress, by the restoration of the Southern state governments to the Southern white man, and by the recovery of material prosperity in a measure and a return to sanity on the part of the people, both North and South. The new president was a man of entirely different mold from the one who was retiring. His election was the tribute which the jubilant North paid to the man who had led its armies to victory over stubborn and resourceful opposition. Untrained in affairs, a failure in the management of his own business but for a military record he could never have attained high civil station. He had two supreme virtues, however: he was honest beyond the concept on of a majority of his public contempo- raries and his patriotism was as sincere as his integrity was deep. Indeed, his own honesty led him to put implicit faith in his feliowmen, many of whom, in this time that tried men's souls, were swept by the lust of office and the greed for gold into the purlieus of rapine and plunder. Astute politicians took advan- tage of the president's trustful nature and used him as a tool for 459 46o RECONSTRUCTION 665. The North distrusts Southern purposes; the Loyal League 566. The Ku-Klux organiza- tion the accomplishment of selfish ends. The result was a great moral laxness in the administration of public affairs and an abnormal development of the idea that public office is a private perquisite. It would not be fair, however, to attribute this result entirely to President Grant's confiding nature, because it was a i:)eriod when ungovernable passions dominated the thoughts and actions of many men. A low conception of public office is worst revealed in the continued process of reconstructing the South. It has been the conviction of dispassionate judges that the period immediately following the close of the war was "blacker and more hopeless than the worst experiences of the war." ^ The promptness with which the Southern states accepted the terms of President Johnson's amnesty proclamation, their cjuick denial of the civil equality of the freedmen with the whites, their refusal to accept the proposed fourteenth amendment, their vagrancy laws, and their evident intention to resume entire control of affairs at the South, led the North to suspect that the real purpose of Southern white men was to reenslave the negro. Accordingly, as early as 1866 there began the formation of negro organizations under the leadership of Northern politicians. The purpose of these secret organizations, it seems, was the building up of a Republican political machine; they soon took the name of the Loyal League. Almost at the same time, there arose an organization of Southern white men called the Ku-Klux Klan. It, too, seemed chiefly perhaps a political body whose purpose was to secure to the white people of the South the control of Southern society and politics. The Reconstruction Act of 1S67 having placed the ignorant negro in practical political control of every state in the late Confederacy,- the Ku-Klux attempted, with more or less success, the practical defeat of this measure by a policy of ' Burgess, Rcconslruclion and Constitution. - From the point of view of sound political science the imposition of universal negro suffraRe upon the Southern communities, in some of which the negroes were in large majority, was one of the "Jjlunder crimes" of the century. — Burgess, Reconstruction and t/tc Constitution, p. 244. STRUGGLE FOR HOME RULE 461 intimidation. They rode about at night on their snow-white horses, flogging the political leaders, both white and black, and terrorizing the ignorant and superstitious negroes. In this way they kept down a good deal of lawlessness on the part of the negro and in some instances changed the election results by keeping him away from the polls or otherwise nullifying his newly-acquired political privilege. "Meanwhile," to quote Burgess again, "the new ' state ' 567. Social governments had well begun their career of corruption, shame, ^^^sorder and vulgarity. They were plundering the treasury, increasing Carpet-bag the taxes, selling franchises, issuing bonds, and celebrating high ^^^ carnival everywhere and all the time." The gentlemen of the old school, and the political leaders of the old class, looked on with bitter feelings of mortification and anger, while the irre- sponsible were stirred to deeds of intimidation and violence. Between the Ku-Klux on the one hand and the "Carpet- baggers," "scalawags,"^ and negro leaders on the other, the feeling had become so intense as to prevent any general move- ment toward the restoration of material and intellectual devel- opment in the South. Riots occurred in various places, and lynchings, arson, and theft terrorized society throughout the South. The whole region was divided into two hostile fac- tions. The Ku-Klux had the sympathy of the respectable white element, and the political exploiters from the North appealed to the Federal government for aid. The administration responded with the passage of the En- 568. The forcement Act of May 31, 1870. By this measure the govern- ment^Acts ment sought to prevent the intimidation of negro voters, — 1870 penalizing every individual or combination of individuals who in any way should attempt to "prevent, hinder, control, or intimidate any person from exercising the right of suffrage, and to whom the right of suffrage is secured or guaranteed by the fifteenth amendment of the Constitution of the United States, by means of bribery, or by threats of depriving such person of ' This was the name for Southern white men who connived at the carpet-bag and negro domination. Possibly the word was derived from the French sceleral. 462 RECONSTRUCTION employment or occupation, or of ejecting such person from rented home, lands, or other property, or by threats of refusing to renew leases or contracts for labor, or by threats of violence to himself or family." It is now generally agreed by competent authority that this bill was outside the constitutional power of Congress, but it was election year and unless something were done to prevent it the "reconstructed" states might send Democratic representatives and senators to Congress in the autumn. As it was, the Democratic vote was heavy enough to indicate the trend of public sentiment at the South, and con- sequently Congress returned to the assault in the following February with a "Supplementary Act to Enforce the Fifteenth Amendment." This measure placed the whole cjuestion of Congressional elections under Federal supervision, its authority enforced by deputy marshals, and interpreted by the Circuit Courts of the United States. On March 23, President Grant appealed to Congress for power to protect life and property in the South, and to make secure the handling of the United States mails. Congress was not slow to respond. On April 20, it passed "An Act to Enforce the Provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and for other ])urposes." This act virtually deprived the "states" of the right to regulate their own elections and empowered the president to resort to martial law at his discretion. He never made general use of this new power, but in the following autumn he suspended the writ of habeas corpus in some of the states and he brought many of the Ku-Klux to severe punishment. NATION/\L ELECTIONS — 1872-1876 569. The '^^^ radical Republicans in power in the state governments Liberal Re- at the South perpetrated the extremes of extravagance, fraud, 1872"^*'^^ and corruption.^ The abuse of federal power, and the shame- ' In describing conditions in South Carolina, Burgess says: "The House of Representatives, the majority of the members of which were negroes, and the presiding officer of which was the notorious F. J. Moses, spent ninety-five thousand dollars to refurnish its assembly hall, where the aristocrats of South Carolina had never spent over five thousand. Clocks, costing six hundred dollars each, desks at NATIONAL ELECTIONS— 1872-1876 463 ful conduct of the state governments reacted upon the Republi- can party at the North and resulted in the formation of the Liberal Republican party in the spring of 1872. They drew up a platform advocating the withdrawal of military govern- ment from the South and the removal of the disabilities of Southern white men. They nominated Horace Greeley for president and were soon supported by the Democrats, who now despaired of recovering their former power through the election of a partisan Democrat. In the election which followed, Greeley carried Maryland, Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky, and Missouri, all of which were in a measure free from negro domina- tion. He lost, however, all the Northern states, and was, therefore, overwhelmingly defeated. This was the signal, as the carpet-baggers took it, for increased plunder of the state governments, but if they had been wise they might have seen in the Republican split and the increasing vote of the Demo- crats in several of the Northern states a warning against their unscrupulous methods. Two years more of carpet-bag rapine brought about the 570. Dem- further undoing of the Republican party, and in the elections of °*^y^*^*: 1874 the Republican majority of two-thirds in the lower house 1874; of Congress was supplanted with a similar majority for the ^^°didates Democrats. Moreover, three more of the states freed them- selves from negro control and turned their governments back into the hands of the Southern whites.^ The backbone of the negro domination had been broken. In the next year South Carolina and Mississippi, the two states which had the greatest proportion of negroes, overturned the carpet-bag rule and placed the Democratic party in power. The rising tide of opposition to Republican misrule mani- a hundred and twenty-five dollars each, mirrors at six hundred dollars each, cus- pidors at eight dollars each — such were the items of the bill. Then came the hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars for a free restaurant, lunch counter, and bar, at which the members and their friends fared most royally, eating, drinking, and smoking, and paying not a penny therefor directly, nor indirectly, since many, if not most, of the members of that legislature paid no stiver of the taxes." * Arkansas, Alabama, and Texas elected Democratic governors and legislatures. 464 RECONSTRUCTION 571. The Electoral Com- mission festcd itself in the national election of 1S76. The Democrats nominated Governor Samuel J. Tilden of New York for presi- dent — a man in whom the country had come to have confidence on account of his success in breaking up rotten political rings in his own state. The Republicans nominated, after consider- able wrangling, a compromise candidate in the person of Ruther- ford B. Hayes of Ohio. The National Greenback party, which had just been organized in opposition to the Resump- tion Act,' and which advocated a paper currency convertible into United States interest-bearing bonds, likewise nominated candidates, as did also the National Prohibition party, which had for its object the abolition of the whisky traffic. "The bloody shirt" was the chief factor in the campaign and naturally enough the contest was bitter. When the election returns came in, it appeared that Tilden had a large popular majority as well as an electoral majority of thirty-seven.- But the Republicans charged irregularities in the elections of South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, and Oregon, and claimed that their candidates were entitled to the legal votes in these states. If so, Hayes would receive 185 votes, or one more than a major- ity; but if the Democrats could retain even one of those dis- puted votes Tilden would be elected by a majority of one vote. Each party made its own returns and the matter went before Congress for settlement. The House was Democratic and the Senate Republican.^ Upon failure of these two bodies to reach an agreement as to which had jurisdiction in the case, they created an Electoral Commission composed of five members chosen by the House of Representatives, five members chosen by the Senate, and five judges of the Supreme Court. It was expected that seven Democrats, seven Republicans and one 1 On January 14, 1875, Congress had passed an Act which provided that on and after January i, 1870, all bills of the United States should he redeemable in gold coin upon presentation to the treasury. * If these returns were correct, Tilden had 203 electoral votes and Hayes 166. ^ Here the Constitution failed to give needed direction. It simply directs that "The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted." No officer, board, or body of ofTicials had authority to do the simple act of counting. NOTE. The United States seized part of West Florida in 1810, and part in 1812. from Greenwich 82 R,.D,.ServoS8,.Eiig'r, H. X. NATIONAL ELECTIONS — 1S72-1S76 465 Rutherford B. Hayes independent would be chosen, but this [)lan miscarried through the election to the United States Senate of the only independent member of the Supreme Court, and so the fifteenth member was chosen from among the Republicans. Considering the partisan rancor of the times the result was a foregone con- clusion. On every issue that arose the vote stood eight to seven and finally, the day be- fore the inauguration, the com- mission announced that Hayes and Wheeler had received 185 votes to 184 for Tilden and Hendricks. Feeling subsided very quickly and people soon turned their attention to other matters. Perhaps it was not important after all whether Hayes or 572. The Tilden should be president, for they differed little in regard to j"ason the Southern question. But the succession of events taken together was very significant. In the first place, the vote of the people was prima facie evidence that reason was beginning to supplant passion at the ballot box and that the South was again taking her place in the national life and was being per- mitted more and more to control her own local affairs. In the second place, the calm acceptance of the work of the Electoral Commission, which was plainly contrary to the wishes of a majority of the people, was no small tribute to the character and ideals of American citizenship. In the third place, it was prophetic of a change in administrative policy, since the incoming president was peacefully disposed toward the South. This meant, of course, the gradual retirement of the war question from the predominant place in national politics and the rise of such policies as would promote the peace, happiness, and pros- perity of the people on both sides of Mason and Di.xon's line. 466 RECONSTRUCTION 573. The French in Mexico 574. The "Alabama" arbitra- tion; fisheries FOREIGN RELATIONS While the Union was thus being welded in the fire of civil and I^olitical discord and under the hammerings of a ponderous congressional majority, a shower of small troubles with Europe was giving it a firm temper. The friendly sentiment in England and France toward the Confederacy had given rise to resentful feeling on the part of the Federal government. France had gone so far as to improve the opportunity by trying to gain a foothold in the Western Hemisphere. In i86i, by command of Napoleon III, a French army about 50,000 strong landed in Mexico for the purpose of conquest. It was easily successful, and straightway an empire was proclaimed with Archduke Maximilian, brother of the Emperor of Austria, at its head. At the close of the war Secretary of State Seward warned France against establishing a monarchial form of government over a republican state and showed his intention of enforcing the Monroe Doctrine (346). President Grant emphasized these warnings by sending General Sherman with an army to the Mexican border. Napoleon saw the peril of his undertaking, withdrew his troops, and weakly permitted Maximilian to be court-martialed and executed (June, 1867). The case with Great Britain was not so easily solved. While the war was in progress, there had been fitted out in her harbors a number of vessels designed for the use of the Confederate States in preying upon the commerce of the Union and other- wise aiding the South. Prominent among such ships was the Alcihama, or Two-ninety as she was commonly called. In addition to offences from this source Great Britain had com- mitted others in recognizing the belligerency of the Confederacy, in granting its cruisers coaling stations, and in extending sym- pathy in such material way as prolonged the war and therefore multiplied damages. Through the influence of Charles Sumner, chairman of the Senate committee on foreign relations, the United States demanded of Great Britain in settlement of these claims the exorbitant sum of $200,000,000 and the surrender CLOSE OF THE ERA 467 of Guiana, Honduras, and Canada. Commissioners from the two nations met at Washington on May 8, 187 1, and settled some minor disputes about the boundary and fisheries, and agreed to refer the question of claims to an international tribu- nal, to meet at Geneva, Switzerland. This court, composed of representatives from Italy, Switzerland, and Brazil, besides Lord Cockburn from Great Britain and Charles Francis Adams from the United States, decided that Great Britain should pay $15,500,000 in settlement of the "Alabama Claims." In 1877, another arbitration determined that the United States should pay Great Britain $5,500,000 for violation of the treaty of 1818 in regard to Canadian fisheries. Relations with Russia during the Civil War had been some- 575. Pur- what more cordial than those with France and Great Britain; ^^^^ °.* .1^ so it was not difficult in 1867, for Secretary Seward to conclude Buriingame a bargain with Russia by which $7,200,000 was paid for Alaska, '^^^^^y a frozen region seemingly important only for its seal fisheries. In after years the gold discoveries there made it worth many times the purchase price. An understanding was likewise reached with Austria, the German States, Belgium, France, and Great Britain, and agree- ments followed in regard to immigration and naturalization (1868). In the same year, by the "Buriingame Treaty," the United States promised to protect Chinese immigrants, who had now begun to pour into the Pacific coast region on account of the demand for labor in those states. These and other international questions growing for the most part out of the Civil War, gave America standing abroad, and made a constant appeal to the national consciousness. A FITTING CLOSE OF THE ERA While Congress and the president were restoring the Southern 576. Im- states to their "proper practical relation," and carrying on a p^'^^®™®°*^ successful diplomacy with foreign nations, the recuperative inventions power of the American people was manifesting itself in numer- ous improvements and inventions. In 1866, Cyrus W. Field 468 RECONSTRUCTION succeeded in laying the Atlantic cable, which revolutionized the industrial and commercial world. In 1869, the Pacific railroad was completed across the Rocky mountains; and the East was nearer the West by weeks, and another obstacle to a stronger Federal Union had been removed. In 1870, Congress ■^m- 677. The Centennial Exposition Completion of the Pacific Railroad Meeting of the locomotives of the Union and of the Central Pacific Railroads established the Weather Bureau, whose business it is to observe the weather and publish forecasts of approaching changes. The service of this dejiartment of the federal go\'ernmcnt has been greatly enlarged, and the whole people have become more and more convinced of its usefulness. The same period wit- nessed the invention of electric lighting and the telephone. A great number of appliances newly invented were brought together and exhibited in a Centennial Exposition held at Philadelphia just one hundred years from the natal day of the rq^ublic. Here was gathered the best product of the best thought of the nation. The Congress of the United States contributed .11,500,000 to the enterprise and many other nations joined in making the occasion one of world-wide significance. CLOSE OF THE ERA 469 Between May 10 and November 10, 1876, more than ten million people passed through its gates. Though standing at the close of a long period of sectional strife, the Exposition terminated a century full of American achievements for all mankind. The national boundaries had been pushed across the Mississippi to the Rio Grande, and over the Rocky mountains to the Pacific. State governments had been set up three thousand miles from the national capital, and all now acknowledged an indissoluble union. A century and a half had been required to develop the spirit of union and a national consciousness, and still another century had been needed for determining the form which nationality should assume. No doubt the Union had been a compact, but it was so no longer. Beyond all question each state had at first been sovereign; but the growth of the principle of union had broken down partitions, and state sover- eignty had been laid on the altar of an enlarged patriotism. Not the war, nor the enforced reconstruction, had wrought this profound conversion; it was the result of the spirit of sym- pathy and love working in the hearts of men of the North and of the South for better things; working through Grant, the magnanimous, and through Tilden, the self-sacrificing; working with, and aiding men in their gropings after the truth; working through Hayes's well-known good-will to the South, to be exemplified by his instant abolition of bayonet rule; working in the schools, in the churches, in the fields and workshops, in the army and everywhere. Now indeed might the federation be said to have developed " an indestructible union of indestruct- ible states," in which the respective powers are essential to each other. The Centennial typified this great truth, since it brought together the East and West and the North and South, and directed their attention toward national achievements. It announced the end of domestic strife and heralded the dawn of a new day of social, industrial, and economical development. The country would no longer be "drenched in fraternal blood" but would be given, soul and body, to unlocking its natural resources and to building up national industries. 470 RECONSTRUCTION SUMMARY In Grant's administration the work of "reconstruction" was continued. There were scandals affecting the national government, and a low moral standard obtained in regard to public office; the president's confiding dis- position making him the well-meaning tool in the hands of crafty politicians. White citizens of the South, seeing the negroes organize into the "Loyal League" for the purpose of furthering the ends of carpet-bag leaders, formed the "Ku-Klux Klan," which by intimidation had much effect in the rural districts of the South in restraint of excesses, and the preservation of a degree of order. These Vigilance Committees — self-appointed in many cases, — fell under the displeasure of Congress, which passed the unconstitutional Enforcement Act, 1870, an act to enforce the fifteenth amendment, 187 1, and later in the same year an act to enforce the fourteenth amendment and for other purposes. The effect of this act was to place elections in the South- ern states under the supervision of the military arm of the government. Meantime, natural revulsion in the North against the methods and morals of the party in power led to the formation of the Liberal Republicans, which, though defeated under Greeley, registered its strong and wholesome protest against political conditions. In this election the patriotic Southern voters sided with Greeley. Carpet-bag rule continued in the South until the Congressional elections of 1874, which returned a large Democratic majority. In the South generally, the whites regained political power, and their state governments were rescued from the carpet-baggers and negroes. In 1876, the presidential election was disputed, and an Electoral Com- mission created by Congress decided by a strict party vote in favor of Hayes, the Republican candidate, who was known, however, to favor giving justice to the South. In the same year the Centennial Exhibition at Phila- delphia, attracting citizens from all sections, and throwing them together, had its effect toward unification of sentiment. The evil days of negro domination, carpet-bag rascality, and scalawag treason were over when it became known that the troops would be withdrawn from the South. REVIEW QUESTIONS I. What was the difference between a carpet-bagger and a scalawag? 2. Does military service fit for civil rule? 3. Discuss the qualifications for ruling, possessed by all the presidents who had been military heroes. 4. Discuss the conditions which brought about the Loyal League. 5. Was the Ku-Klux organization a whole- some movement? 6. How did Congress endeavor to defend the freedmen against the Ku-Klux? 7. Why did the Southern white voters in 1872 cast their ballots for Greeley?. 8. Are such organizations as the Ku-Klux ever justifiable? 9. Who won the presidential election in 1876? Give reasons for your answer. 10. What general influences brought about unity of sentiment between the sections? Discuss. Ipart IV DEVELOPMENT UNDER A RESTORED UNION CHAPTER XXVI NEW INDUSTRIAL AND POLITICAL IDEALS REFERENCES Secondary Authorities. — Wright, Industrial Revolution of the U. S.; Wilson, Division and Reunion, The American People, vol. ii; Larned, History for Ready Ref- erence, vol. v; Taussig, Tarif History of the United States; Dewey, Financial His- tory of the United States; Cambridge Modern History, vol. vii; Stanwood, History of the Presidency. Sources. — Hart, Source Book, Contemporaries, vol. iv; MacDonald, Select Documents . Illustrative Material. — Ford, The Honorable Peter Sterling; Burnet, Through One Administration. A BRIEF INVENTORY The years which followed the abolition of slavery and the 578. Old reconstruction of the bonds of union stand out in marked con- '^^"^^ s*^® place to new trast with all other eras of the country's history. For more than a century, American thought and feeling had been strongly attracted by political discussion. What was the relation be- tween the states and the federal government? Was the Union a compact? Were Congress and the president justified in exercising powers not specifically granted them by the Con- stitution? Was a national bank desirable? What interest would the annexation of this or that piece of territory best serve? Was slavery justifiable, and did the South actually leave the Union or only attempt to do so? These and other questions of a doctrinal character had been uppermost in the public mind and had held the attention of the statesmen for a 471 472 NEW INDUSTRIAL AND POLITICyVL IDEALS hundred years. But a long step in the interpretation of the Constitution had now been made, and men could give time and thought to the development of natural resources and the ex- pansion of industry; and there was brought into prominence a train of interests such as corporate business, transportation, commerce, labor and capital, immigration, inventions, public education, mining, scientific agriculture, monetary problems, tariff, conservation, and others equally practical and impor- tant. To understand the wonderful expansion that attended the closing years of the nineteenth century, it will be helpful to consider the conditions of the country at the beginning of the period. In the South little had been done during the recon- struction process toward the reestablishment of industry and commerce. Political and social conditions had been too ex- asperating and too unstable to admit economic recovery, and hence all the arts and crafts languished for want of security. Agricultural labor had received an almost fatal stroke in the freeing of the slaves, many of whom seemed to consider service inconsistent with freedom, while few of them were prepared for independent farming. Intellectually and morally the war of reconstruction had wrought temporary havoc of the worst kind. Approximately four million ignorant slaves, inferior in everything that constitutes a high civilization, had not only been elevated to citizenship, but had been encouraged to assume a large part of the civic and political responsibility of the South. The white population had been diminished by war and its attendant ravages to a number far less than the South had had fifteen years earlier.^ Much of her best blood had been spilt, her cities burned, her wealth and her industries destroyed, and much of her former wealth had become a burden. In despair, many of her citizens had emigrated. Yet there was still something which could not be taken away: her natural in- tellectual and spiritual endowment, her ability to look defeat ' The South lost approximately 300,000 men in the Civil War and spent per- haps $1,500,000,000 in gold. A BRIEF INVENTORY 473 squarely in the face, her native strength of intellect and of spirit, in a word, her character, remained unimpeached and un- impeachable and this was her one foundation of hope for the future. Already there were faint glimmerings of approaching day. By sheer inherent force she had now wrenched her gov- ernments from carpet-bag and negro rule and had placed South- ern white men at the helm of state. Encouragement had come, and industry would follow. Poor in material possessions, she faced the future with resolution and with promise. "Order and peace were quickly established everywhere, and the plundered and impoverished South could at last take hope and feel courage to make a new effort to recover some degree of prosperity and some measure of domestic content. For ten years the dark night of domination by the negro and political adventurer had rested upon the unhappy section, until it had been reduced to the very abomination of desolation. Broken in health and fortune, sick at heart, conscious of the terrible degradation which had been imposed upon them, and politically ostracized, the better part of the white population of the South had staggered and groped through the hideous experience of this period, and such of them as had not perished during the awful passage had now at last been relieved of the frightful scourge, and, half dazed as if recovering from a terrible night- mare, found themselves again in the places of power and re- sponsibility." (Burgess.) If the South had been weakened by the war, and as yet 580. The had been unable to recover, the West had been stimulated and ^®^* '^ made strong. Under the Homestead Act of 1862 settlers had poured into the trans-Mississippi region, had built homes, had opened many new industries, and had organized new terri- tories. The Act provided that any head of a family, after five years' residence upon any 160 acre tract of government land, might secure a title free of cost. A somewhat similar act was passed in 1873 by which the government granted free title to land on which settlers would grow a certain number of trees. Under these two acts nearly 40,000,000 acres were 474 NEW INDUSTRIAL AND POLITICAL IDEALS " homesteaded " by the close of the reconstruction period. Another factor in the development of this region was the build- ing of railroads to the Pacific. The war had developed the necessity for these roads and Congress had taken the initiative by granting certain companies very liberal charters in 1862. In fact, several of them were subsidized by Congress with grants of vast tracts of land, and loans in government bonds. View on the Union Pacific Railroad, Colorado From a photograph It is estimated that 100,000,000 acres were thus given to five of these Pacific railroads and that government loans to the same companies approximated $60,000,000. Under the stimu- lus of Congressional favor, a company^ had been formed in 1865, called the Credit Mobilier of America, which took over the contract of the Union Pacific designed to link the Missouri river region with San Francisco. The undertaking, pushed with vigor, had been completed in 1869. Moreover, young men whom the war had left penniless, and soldiers without employment, turned in increasing number to the enchanting West, there to seek fame and fortune. Then, > This company is said to have given shares to Congressmen in return for their votes for favorable legislation. It at least illustrates the general business, if not moral laxness, that obtained throughout the country during this period. A BRIEF INVENTORY 475 too, copper in paying quantities was discovered at Butte, Montana, in 1864; gold in Wyoming and Dakota, in 1874; and silver at Leadville, Colorado, in the centennial year, and as a consequence, vast caravans of covered wagons invaded the new and sparsely settled West. Nor was it long before the new- comers organized themselves politically, and established legal relations with the Union. Indeed, three new states had been created between the outbreak of the war and the close of re- construction — Nevada, 1864; Nebraska, 1867; and Colorado, 1876. Besides these, Wyoming, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, and Dakota were organized as territories. The thrifty Westerners will be heard from in the political and economic history of the closing years of the nineteenth century. The region that had supported the Union lost nearly 400,000 581. The men, and spent untold wealth, and acquired still more. The ^^^^ war left material conditions prospering, and during the recon- in 1876 struction period the industries of the East and North went forward with great rapidity. Since the war had been fought on Southern soil, the farming interests of the North were really stronger at the close than at the beginning of the struggle. The tariff levied for revenue during, the war had given pro- tection to New England industries, which were already revelHng in the wealth that was being poured daily into their coffers and which were now wholly unwilling to be deprived of this advantage. Cities were springing up on all sides, commerce was expanding, fortunes were being gathered, and an air of general prosperity pervaded the entire region. In contrast with the social, economic, and political disorganization at the South, the North, during the decade immediately following the war, was waxing strong and rich from the bountiful hand of governmental favor. Thus it will be seen that in material condition at the opening 582. With- of the new industrial age there was great inequality between t^oopg from the different sections of the country, but it should be noted the South that it was such an inequality as would pass away with the return of normal intellectual and spiritual conditions. With 476 NEW INDUSTRIAL AND POLITICAL IDE.\LS the accession of President Hayes, perceptibly begins the resto- ration of mental balance and a consequent process of natural and national development. It was pointed out in the preced- ing chapter that the white men of the South were coming pretty well into control of their state governments. The withdrawal of the federal troops was a fitting climax to this movement, and one for which President Hayes deserves the everlasting grati- tude of the nation. The South was now freer than she had ever been before to unlock her natural resources and build an enduring civilization after the fashion of her own ideals. Not only so, but the people of every section had already found greater profit in a good understanding than in sectional strife; while special classes of manufacturers and merchants were loudly proclaiming that the interests of business required the throwing olT of the artificial shackles that had hitherto bound their Southern patrons. It was, therefore, a new day for the whole nation when the president withdrew the iron hand of federal control and turned over Southern politics to Southern white men.' CURRENCY PROBLEMS A study of the national census for 1880 will reveal surprising developments in industry, commerce, transportation, agriculture, mining, and all other forms of enterprise. Reference has been made to the effect of the war tariff upon New England in- dustry. In 1876 the balance of trade was in America's favor, and exports have exceeded imports almost continuously since that time. The number of manufacturing establishments in- creased enormously during the decade ending in 1S80. More- over, diversification of industry went on apace, particularly in » It is true that the president did not yet abolish federal supervision of the na- tional elections in the South, but the Democratic majority in the House of Repre- sentatives practically accomplished this end by attaching a "rider" to the Army Appropriation Bill providing for the abolition of national election machinery. The contest over this amendment resulted in a compromise which removed the offensive presence and use of troops by United States marshals at the polls. The practice of attaching "riders " was abolished a few years later by a change in the rules of the House. CURRENCY PROBLEMS 477 the North and East. The result was a total increase in pro- duction of some 75 per cent for the decade. The wheat and corn-fields of the new West and Northwest were teeming with prolific yields and sending a surplus to foreign ports. The newly-settled Dakota produced 3,000,000 bushels of wheat, and 1810 The Westward Movement of Population drouth-stricken Kansas, 100,000,000 bushels of corn. Wyo- ming, Colorado, and Nevada poured their treasure of gold, silver, lead, and other minerals into the lap of the nation and added multiplied thousands to the population. Bank deposits broke all previous records and the national wealth reached what was then the enormous figure of $43,000,000,000. Villages of 1870 became cities in 1S80; pojjulation passed the 50,000,000 mark, and capital 478 NEW INDUSTRIAL AND POLITICAL IDEALS an increase for the decade of more than 30 per cent. The rail- roads of the Atlantic coast region raced with one another in building to the West, from which they brought to market the product of grain-field and mine, and to which they carried back whole colonies of German, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, and other immigrants. During the decade, the railroad mileage in- creased as much as 65 per cent, the development bringing with it the process of railway consolidation — the Hudson River, Lake Shore, and New York Central lines passing under one management. The effect was seen in the exorbitant and dis- criminating freight rates which these roads now established. 584. Labor The new industrial and economic conditions must inevitably make themselves felt in pohtical and governmental affairs. Indeed, signs of such influence had been evident enough be- fore the new era was well inaugurated. The Liberal Re- publicans of 1872 had exhibited a will to ignore sectional disputes and consider questions beyond the domain of con- temporary politics; such, for example, as civil service reform. The Labor Reform party of the same year grew out of social and economic questions instead of the customary political and constitutional questions. It was more interested in the rela- tion of labor and capital than in the process of reconstruction. It felt that the danger to negro freedom in the South was less threatening than was the control of the national finances by the banks of the East. To the great working class there could be no question so important as the national control of railways, telegraph and telephone lines, the equitable and careful disposi- tion of public lands, the regulation of hours of labor, an eco- nomic system that would meet the expanding needs of business, and a train of similar questions in which men from Maine to Texas were vitally interested. The panic of 1873 was due to this new industrialism that was just now beginning to pervade the country no less than to the over-speculative spirit that accompanied it. The Greenback party (570) of 1S76 was an expression of the same movement, for it demanded a currency based upon the national promise to pay, rather than upon gold CURRENCY PROBLEMS ' 479 and silver — a plain evidence that the monetary system was having difficulty in meeting the demands of the new business age. Between 1872 and 1875 the secret order of Grangers, or Patrons of Industry, having for its primary purpose the pro- motion of farming interests, was organized, to be followed in the later seventies by the Farmers' Alliance, which entered more purposefully the field of politics with the consideration of such questions as transportation, currency, banking, monopoly, governmental favor to the capitalistic class through the pro- tective tariff, and railway subsidies. Prophetic of the new questions which should soon give 585. direction to politics, numerous and extensive strikes occurred ^*"'^®^ in 1877 throughout the North and East, especially among the employees of the railways and the mines of New York and Pennsylvania. So serious did the situation become that United States troops in conjunction with state miUtia were required to suppress riots and restore order. Organized labor was clearly upon the field and had come as a permanent part of our social and economic life. These conditions gave rise to the only seriously important 586. The national measures of Hayes's administration, the Bland-Allison ^'^^®^ ^"®^" silver act and the resumption of specie payments. Gold and silver had been the legal currency of the country from the very beginning of the national history. As a matter of fact, how- ever, before the Civil War gold had been used almost ex- clusively, for it seemed to meet the needs of business without the assistance of silver. Silver had, therefore, by the middle of the century, found its chief use in the work-shops of artisans and jewelers. In 1853, gold became the single standard of value by act of Congress, and the silver dollar passed entirely out of circulation. The new stress put upon the government by the war led it temporarily to issue (1862) irredeemable United States treasury notes as legal tenders in the payment of debts. The banks now suspended specie payment and the country was at once upon a paper basis. Multiplied millions of paper currency flooded the land, soon depreciating in value 48o NEW INDUSTRI.\L AND POLITICAL IDEALS and correspondingly inflating prices. But the unprecedented demands of the war for the products of the country largely counteracted the evil effects of the suspension of specie pay- ment and the issue of treasury notes. In 1873, Congress, simply recognizing the status of silver, passed an act forbidding the coinage of the silver dollar.^ Almost at the same moment great deposits of silver were unearthed in the now rapidly developing West.^ The price of silver necessarily fell, and the mine owners contended that the act of 1873 was responsible for the decUne. Moreover, just at this time, money was in great demand on account of the unexampled development of farms and the building of rail- roads in the West and South. Money became "stringent" for the farmers, yet the great bankers of the East, who controlled the gold supply, found ways for financing the railroads. Some agitation had already taken place over the constitutionality of the treasury notes, and the moneyed interests had already shown their opposition to an irredeemable paper currency. Might they not also be responsible for the "crime of '73" and consequently be leagued against the "people's money"? The doubt led the farmers of the West and South to ally themselves with the mining interests in a demand for the repeal of the law of 1873 and a resumption of silver coinage. Accordingly, Congressman Richard P. Bland of Missouri introduced in the House a measure which provided for the free and unlimited coinage of silver at approximately the ratio of 16 to I, or in other words provided that standard silver dollars of 41 2 1 grains should be exchanged at the mints for silver bullion. Senator Allison of Iowa offered a substitute bill, author- izing the treasurer of the United States to expend a minimum of $2,000,000 and a maximum of $4,000,000 monthly for the purchase of silver bullion with which to make silver dollars. The Democratic House as well as the Republican Senate ac- * This act is popularly called the "demonetization of silver" and the "crime of 1873." "^ The total silver production of the United States rose from $1,000,000 in 1861 to $30,000,000 in 1875. CURRENCY PROBLEMS 481 cepted the substitute and passed the measure. The president vetoed it and straightway it was passed over his veto. (Feb- ruary 28, 1878.) In the meantime, under the same pressure of expanding in- 588. Re- dustry that brought about the Bland-AlHson Act, there arose a g"™?"°^ °J demand also for an increase in the issue of paper currency, ments The Labor Reform party, and then the Greenback party, had demanded "a purely national circulating medium, based on the faith and resources of the nation, and issued directly to the The United States Mint at Phil.\delphia people without the intervention of any system of banking corporations." But it had been the policy of the government for some time to "retire" the "greenbacks" which had been issued during the Civil War to the amount of $450,000,000, and $100,000,000 worth of them had been thus disposed of. Con- sequently Congress turned a deaf ear to the demands of the farmers who were now clamoring for more greenbacks. In 1875, a law had been enacted providing for the resumption of specie payments on and after January i, 1879. When the day came a great amount of gold had been brought into the United States treasury through the sale of bonds, and the financial situation was so secure that few people cared to exchange their greenbacks for heavy specie, and the paper notes remained 482 NEW INDUSTRIAL AND POLITICAL IDEALS in circulation.^ Thus the demand for withdrawing and can- celling the greenbacks passed away, and at the same time treasury notes (greenbacks) were placed on a par with gold and silver.'- But the currency controversy was to be revived at a later day. THE CIVIL SERVICE 589. Eiec- The presidential election was now approaching and both 1880° parties were beginning to cast about for available candidates. Hayes had rendered himself unpopular with the "machine" of his party when he withdrew the troops from the South. He had been handicapped during a part of his administration by a Democratic House, and even the Republican Senate had not always been tractable. He had got into ofl&ce against the votes of a popular majority, if not an electoral majority. He would no more listen to party leaders in his appointments to office than in his policy toward the South, and thus he arrayed against himself a faction of the Republican party. These "stalwarts" as they called themselves, under the leadership of Senator Roscoe Conkling of New York, turned to General Grant, who had just completed a tour around the world, and who was received with great demonstrations of popularity in many cities of the North. The Republican ship had had smooth sailing under Grant's nominal piloting while president, and yet had carried the party far among the breakers of political ' John Sherman, secretary of the treasury under Hayes, writes as follows of this incident: "The resumption of specie payments was generally accepted as a fortunate event by the great body of the people of the United States, but there was a great diversity of opinion as to what was meant by resumption. The com- mercial and banking classes generally treated resumption as if it involved the payment and cancellation of United States notes and all forms of government money except coin and bank notes. Another class was opposed to resumption, and favored a large issue of paper money without any promise or expectation of redemption in coin. The body of the people, I believe, agreed with me in the opinion that resumption meant, not the cancellation and withdrawal of greenbacks, but the bringing them up to par and maintaining them as the equivalent of coin by the payment of them in coin on demand by the holder." ' In 1876, fractional currency, popularly called "shin-plasters," was supplanted with silver dimes, quarters, and half-dollars. THE CIVIL SERVICE 483 and governmental dishonesty.^ The "stalwarts" placed Grant in nomination ; John Sherman and J. G. Blaine also were stren- uously urged; and the result was a compromise. James A. Garfield of Ohio,^ who for many ballots received but one vote in the convention, was nominated for the presidency, and Chester A. Arthur of New York, a "stal- wart," for the vice-presidency. The Democrats chose Winfield S. Hancock because of his reputation as a soldier, and William H. Eng- lish, a fine type of the new busi- ness man, for vice-president. Seemingly such a combination should have won and, indeed, be- sides the Southern states, the Dem- ocrats carried California, Nevada, and New Jersey, and lost the pop- ular vote by only nine thousand out of a total of nine million. In the electoral college Garfield and Arthur won by 214 to 155. Moreover, the Democrats lost both the House and Senate, and it remained to be seen again what the Republicans would do when they controlled both the legislative and executive branches of the government. The election had been singularly void of serious national ' Grant himself had no intention to be dishonest, or to permit dishonesty in the administration of the government, but pubHc morality was so low during those days when passion ruled men's minds that stories of fraud are written shamefully often in the history of the period. Besides the corrupt carpet-bag and negro domination at the South, there were political "rings" and "bosses" whose conscienceless methods have never been equalled in our national history. " Boss " Tweed of New York was imprisoned for robbing the city of miUions of dollars; Secretary of War Belknap barely escaped impeachment by resigning, and the president's private secretary, Babcock, was involved in frauds growing out of the handling of the internal revenue tax. 2 Garfield was a Western man in spirit. He had been president of a college in Ohio, a member of the state senate, had won laurels with General Thomas at Chickamauga, had been a member of the lower House, and was United States senator when elected president. James A. Garfield 484 NEW INDUSTRIAL AND POLITICAL IDEALS issues, yet in one respect it meant much to the whole country. For the first time since the Civil War all the states of the Union had participated in the election, free from the interference of national troops, and strangely enough, every state south of Mason and Dixon's line voted for a Northern war hero for the presidency. There was no doubt that the South was "solid." 590. The Scarcely were the election results known when the pre- Garfield convention factional spirit made itself manifest again. Conk- admimstra- '■ r /-. i 1 tion; firm- ling, the "stalwart" leader, at the urgent request of Grant, had ness of the gjyen active support to Garfield in the campaign, and expected in return some recognition of the "machine" in the distribution of federal patronage. Like Hayes, Garfield held a lofty con- ception of his responsibilities in such matters, and therefore all but ignored the claims of the "stalwarts." He made Blaine secretary of state, an appointment as distasteful to the machine politicians as could have been made. He turned a deaf ear to all the horde of hungry office-seekers who besieged him; and was considered by Conkling and his associates guilty of base ingratitude. Finally, after giving New York scant recognition, he ignored the endorsements of Conkling and his associate, Senator Piatt, in filling the post of revenue collector for the port of New York. This was the straw that broke the camel's back. The two New York senators resigned their seats in Congress and appealed to the state legislature for vindication.^ 691. Death Partisan and factional politics now became so bitter that Arthur ^^'*^' ^^^^ost any outrage might have been heard of without surprise. president The cHmax was reached when, on July 2, 1881, while leaving Washington on a brief vacation, the president was shot by a man named Guiteau, a disappointed office-seeker and fanatic who avowedly intended to make room for the "stalwart" vice- president. Garfield died on September 19th, and on the 20th Mr. Arthur took the oath of office as president. The tragedy had one salutary effect. The country awoke ' Neither of these men was reelected. Conkling retired to private life, while Piatt reentered the Senate in 1897 and remained until succeeded in igog by Ehhu Root. THE CIVIL SERVICE 485 as never before to the evils arising out of the administration of 592. The the civil service. Public offices had been used too frequently nation's COQSCicilCG in payment of political debts. The highest officials had not stirred always scrupled to traffic in public appointments. PubUc office in many an instance was a sinecure, and he got it who could, by fair or foul means. The main thing was to get it. The "liberal use of soap," to quote Arthur himself, brought many "fat" jobs. The assassin's shot awoke the conscience of the nation and made itself heard even in the legislative halls. Public opinion had already demanded that Congress enact 593. Civil measures which would require the appointing power to consider Service an applicant's merits rather than his party affiliation; and in fact, a law had been passed in 1871 providing for the appointment of a commission to regulate such matters, but the federal patronage had proved too tempting to the greedy self-seekers of Grant's ad- ministration, and so the civil ser- vice commission had lapsed through a lack of funds for sus- tenance. President Hayes had been in sympathy with it but with- out congressional support could ac- complish little. Outside of Con- gress, however, the sentiment had gained much force and had expressed itself in the organization of the National Civil Ser- vice League of 1880. The iron was now hot and the League decided to strike. 594. The Through the Democratic Senator George H. Pendleton of Ohio, Pf°dleton 61II the League secured the passage of a measure by which a system of competitive examinations was made to apply to a large number of federal offices, and the commission of 1871 was restored. It forbade the assessment of clerks for the campaigns of their chiefs, and gave the president power to extend the Chester A. Arthur 486 NEW INDUSTRIAL AND POLITICAL IDEALS system. It did not place all appointive offices upon the "merit " plan, but it gave strong emphasis to brains and character when "pulls" and "soap" were all too common. President Arthur was in hearty accord with the measure and gave it rather efficient enforcement. Perhaps 15,000 postoffice and customs officials were affected by the law, and the business of the govern- ment was put upon a more dignified and honorable basis. Civil service reform has gone forward at intervals in all the succeed- ing years and promises to reach a high level of efficiency. ECONOINIIC CONDITIONS REFLECTED IN POLITICS 595. The There was no other very important national legislation during prosperous Arthur's administration, but it must not be supposed that it West; the was a fruitless period. New issues were in the making. Forces corporations ^gj-g ^^ work that were destined to affect profoundly every phase of the nation's life. Industry and commerce were ex- panding so rapidly that many questions in their train were being piled up for future solution. The South in particular was prosperous. Clark Howell, writing in the Century Magazine, April, 1913, says: "Students of the South are almost unani- mous in agreeing that the fortunes of the section turned de- cisively in 1880. The deadening effect of the war, and the pessimism that followed it, were beginning to be outlived. The panic of '73 had been weathered with remarkable success, con- sidering the handicap. . . Throughout the section a feeling of buoyancy became manifest, inspiring every element to new effort, and drawing the attention of Northern and foreign capital to the opportunities south of Mason and Dixon's line." The West was growing in like manner, and in the North and East the capitalistic element was combining into great cor- porations for the promotion of industrial interests, or for the more profitable development of transportation facilities. Again the country's attention was turned away from politics as such, to the seemingly more \ital problems of economics and industry. Adversity threatened, it is true, in 1881, but only a few heeded it, and soon it was gone. Yet the economic conditions, pressing ECONOMIC CONDITIONS AND POLITICS 487 forward new issues, were bound to be reflected in politics and government. In 1S82 the Democrats won control of the House and elected 596. Efforts several state tickets. The presidential election was only two the'^^Re "b years away and the Republican party had not been welded by Ucan party Arthur's administration. On the other hand, it had aroused the resentment of many people by its radicalism in the process of reconstruction; it had plundered the public treasury during Grant's administration, and the people knew it; many of its leaders had been involved in land and railway scandals; the high tariff, which it had levied during the Civil War and had now in Arthur's administration refused to revise materially,^ was accumulating a surplus of money which proved too tempting to the party in power. These and other similar conditions led a number of the more honorable members of the party to attempt to reform it as the Liberal Republicans had done in 1872 (569). But James G. Blaine, formerly candidate for the presidential nomination in 1876 and 1880, had charge of the "machine," and manipulated it with precision. He and his associates opprobriously dubbed the reformers ''Mugwumps" or "Big Chiefs," attempting in this way to discredit them with the rank and file of the party. The "steam-roller" worked beautifully at the convention and the reformers revolted and urged the Democrats to nominate Grover Cleveland of New York for the presidency. Blaine himself was nominated by the Republicans over both 597. The President Arthur and Senator Edmunds of Vermont. He was nom"nee^" a man of strong personality and positive convictions, and hence had the strongest of friends as well as the bitterest of enemies. He had been in public life a long time as member of Congress, speaker of the House, secretary of state, and twice as candidate for president. He was brilliant on the stump, wary in methods, and bitter toward his enemies; and he believed in maintaining 1 A commission was appointed in 1S82 for the purpose of investigating the needs of the country on the tariff question. This commission made its report, upon which a tariff act was passed, but it only shifted the incidence without Hghtening the burden of taxation. Democratic nominee 488 NEW INDUSTRIAL AND POLITICAL IDEALS his party in power at any cost. His ability as a party leader was well known and his power was feared by his opponents. But the shadow of suspicion lay across his path. While speaker of the House, he had become the director and master of party policy, and had used his power and prestige to promote personal interests. There were those in his party who believed that he had received favors from some of the great railway and mining corporations, and that he was therefore under obligations to those very interests which the farmers of the West and South most hated. Whether the suspicion was well founded or not it left its taint, and led many conscientious Republicans to support the Democratic candidate. 698. The Grover Cleveland, whom the Democrats nominated much to the pleasure of the "Mugwumps," was in many ways a strik- ing contrast to the Republican nominee. Instead of a long career of brilliant leadership, he had risen very gradually from humble beginnings. The son of a Presbyterian minister, he had early manifested the strong principles of a forceful character. He had been reared in western New York, and had served in what his hand had found to do, first as a clerk in a country store, then as a teacher, and later as assistant in a law office. He became district attorney for Buffalo at the age of twenty-six, and sheriff of Erie county a few years later. In 1S81 he was elected mayor of Buffalo, and the next year governor of New York by the handsome plurality of 192,000. All the way up the line he displayed remarkable poise and stamina. Cool, honest, fearless, he had boldly upheld the right as he saw it and wherever he met it. He was young and strong and free of the taint of doubtful associations. He was without legislative experience; indeed, he had not handled any of the machinery of the national government. In his lofty conception of public office, in his forgetfulness of by-gone issues, in his appreciation of the many complex and practical questions of the new industrialism, in honesty of purpose, and in rugged strength of character, he typi- fied the man of the new day. For these reasons the "Mug- wumps" gave him their support and made him president. The ECONOMIC CONDITIONS AND POLITICS 489 campaign turned on personalities. The Republican candidate attempted to drag the ghost of the Civil War before the country again as he had done in the campaign of 1880. Now, as then, it worried him greatly because there were "four and a half millions of negroes in the South who don't have anything more to do with the government of the United States than they do with the gov- ernment of Great Britain; en- dowed with American citizenship, and yet as capable of exercising the right of franchise as if they were in the moon." But "the bloody shirt" had lost its rallying power. He could find no comfort in Cleveland's ofiicial record, and so turned with his associates to the slime of personal criticism. The Democrats came back with the charge of fraud and complicity in railway and land scan- dals, and descended to littleness in attempting to injure Blaine by publishing that his mother was a Roman Catholic. The ballots were very close. New York was the pivotal state, 599. Eiec- where Cleveland finally led by a majority of 1149 votes out of a **°° ^ ^ total of more than a million. The national vote stood 4,874,986 for Cleveland to 4,851,891 for Blaine, while the electoral college gave Cleveland 219 and Blaine 182 votes. It was the first victory of the Democratic party since 1856, though it had enjoyed a majority in the Senate once and in the House four times since that date. It was even now handicapped by a Republican Senate. Perhaps the most significant thing about the election, however, is best indicated in a letter by Ebenezer Hannaford to The Nation, November 20, 18S4. In part, it reads as follows: "Among the many 'lessons of the election' is not this an obvious one, that the American people are ready to smooth out and iron down 'the bloody shirt,' do it up with care Grover Cleveland 490 NEW INDUSTRIAL AND POLITICAL IDEALS and camphor, and put it away in the back closet of party politics? Not that the nation's heart for one moment throbs less true to the Union or the cause of universal freedom than it did twelve, sixteen or twenty years ago, but simply that the plain practical men who make up . . . the great mass of our voters, have come to regard the settlement of the war issues as safe beyond the possibility of undoing; and, further, to require of political parties that their aspirations and endeavors 'fall in' with the soul of Capt. John Brown, and keep marching on. . . With all their hearts they [Independent Republicans] believe in progress, in movement straightforward, that is, and not round and round in a circle like the wheelings of a hunted ostrich, or the wanderings of some lost wretch in a snowstorm. They have their convictions, and the 'courage of them,' too. Nobody crusades more vigorously than they. But it is against the living hordes of despoiling infidels that they demand to be led, not against those elder evaporated infidels, the mummies of the Pharaohs. . . The influential and steadily increasing class of voters in question can never be rallied around the ghost of a dead past. They will, as heretofore, fight in the front rank, but they will insist on being placed face to face with existing verities, real issues, living questions. . . They are too old birds, these Independents, to be caught with chaff from a thrice beaten sheaf, or frightened by a scarecrow rigged out in their own discarded feathers." Cleveland's election was a proof not only that the country was interested in the newer economics and industrial problems, but that it was also demanding that statesmen and political parties should turn their attention to the solution of living questions instead of wasting their labor and soiling their hands with worn-out issues. SUMMARY As the era of reconstruction drew to a close, business interests sprang up to take the place of sectional issues. The nation definitely committed itself to a policy of industrial development hitherto unequalled in the history of the world. Men began to give all their thought and energy to the making of money and the result was the accumulation of fortunes and the develop- ECONOMIC CONDITIONS AND POLITICS 491 ment of new industries. Day in and day out the question which every man thought most about was, will it pay? Naturally, therefore, legislation and all questions of national interest were settled in terms of business interests. In other words, in the public mind no question was settled right until it was settled favorably to business. East, West, North, and South were developing their material resources with a wonderful rapidity that overtaxed the cur- rency system of the nation, brought on, in part at least, the panic of '73, and expressed itself in strikes, new social and political organizations, and an attempt to revise the national monetary system. Parallel with this industrial expansion arose a higher conception of the duties and functions of political office. The opposition to this new under- current expressed itself in the defeat of Hayes for renomination, in the organization of the "stalwart" wing of the Republican party, and in the assassination of President Garfield. The new movement made itself felt in national politics when the civil service was overhauled, when the Pendle- ton Bill was passed, and when the "Mugwumps" bolted the Republican "machine" and helped the Democrats elect Grover Cleveland president. REVIEW QUESTIONS I. About what did the American people begin to think most after the issues of the Civil War began to pass? About what is the everyday thought of the people of this country now? 2. What was the condition of the South in 1876? What was the basis upon which she might build with hope in the future? 3. What factors contributed to the growth of the West in the seventies? 4. What effect did the West have in turning men's minds away from the passions and prejudices of the Civil War and Reconstruction? 5. What was the effect of the war upon the material development of the North? 6. What significance do you see in the withdrawal of the troops from the South by President Hayes? 7. Show the relation of expanding industry to the panic of 1S73. 8. Why were the Greenback party and Farmer's Alliance formed in the decade ending in 18S0? 9. What historical significance is to be found in the strikes of the same decade? 10. Was the demonetization of silver responsible for the hard times of 1873? 11. Why did the price of silver fall about this time? 12. How was the Bland-Allison Act (1878) an expression of the new industrialism? 13. What gives to paper money its value? 14. What was John Sherman's meaning of Resumption? 15. Why was President Hayes not renominated for a second term? 16. What was the principle to which President Garfield sacrificed his life? 17. What new forces were gathering strength during Arthur's administration? 18. What significance should be attached to the "Mug- wump" movement? 19. How do you account for Cleveland's election in 1884? CHAPTER XXVII GOVERNMENT FOR THE PEOPLE REFERENCES Secondary Authorities. — Wright, Industrial Evolution of the United Stales; Wilson, Division and Reunion, American People, vol. v; Dewey, National Problems; Jenks, The Trust Problem; Cambridge Modern History, vol. vii; Larned, History for Ready Reference, vol. v; Taussig, Tariff History; Ely, Monopolies and Trusts. Sources. — Hart, Source Book, Contemporaries, vol. iv; MacDonald, Select Statutes of the United States, i86i-i8g8; American History Leaflets, No. 6. Illustrative Material. — Ford, The Honorable Peter Sterling; Riis, How the Other Half Lives, Children of the Poor; Wister, The Virginian. PUBLIC OFFICE A PUBLIC TRUST 600. False If the election of 1876 had been prophetic of a new day, the rebuked flection of 1884 announced its dawn. Unscrupulous politicians had viciously predicted in the campaign that if Cleveland should be elected the negroes would be reduced to slavery and that the Confederate debt would be assumed; and doubtless the effect of the insolent negation of a people's intelligence was similar to that of the far-famed political boomerang. The voters elected to rebuke the ghouls who would even falsely pretend to disturb a dead past, and voted in accordance with the demands of a living present. Moreover, the man whom they elected, felt deep down in his heart the conviction that "public office is a pubUc trust," believed in the dignity and importance of the executive office, and was determined to use it in the interests of the people. 601. Cleve- That new considerations were to govern henceforth was evi- iTre^udiced ^^^^''^ ^^°''" ^^^ beginning of Cleveland's administration. The appoint- election of 1884 had given the Democrats a majority in the House, but the Republicans had retained control of the Senate. After such a long period of humiliation the Democrats naturally 492 ments to oflBce PUBLIC OFFICE A PUBLIC TRUST 493 felt that the Republicans should be immediately dropped from the national pay-roll. If their hopes and expectations had been questioned, they no doubt would have justified themselves by the fact that the opposing party, while enjoying exclusive and unrestrained control of all federal emoluments for twenty- five years, had never failed to make the most of its opportunity. Moreover, the Liberal Republicans, who had urged the nomina- tion of Cleveland by the Democrats and who had really made possible his election, felt that they should not be ignored in the rearrangements that would follow a change of administration. This they had hoped for the more because in the campaign Cleveland had virtually pledged himself to an extension of the civil service. They were doomed to disappointment; not be- cause the president did not mean to keep his pledge, but rather because he knew better than they how an efficient and perma- nent reform could be worked out. In making up his appoint- ments, therefore, he did not hesitate to ask for the resignation of Republicans who might use their offices to thwart the pur- poses of the administration or to promote the interests of their own party. He felt no inconsistency in filling with Democrats ofiices that had automatically become vacant through a change of administration, and he believed that he could greatly heal the wound of sectionalism by disregarding the Mason and Dixon line in the selection of a cabinet and in filling ambassadorial posts. He accordingly chose three cabinet officials from the South, ^ gave a number of consulships to "rebels," and removed hundreds of politically offensive postmasters. Naturally this procedure brought upon him the wrath of the Mugwumps, not to mention the machine of the Republican party. These differences over the distribution of patronage were aggravated by others perhaps more fundamental. Two conditions had arisen out of the Civil War which to- 602. The gether had fastened upon the country a most iniquitous custom ^"■'p'."^' ° _ ' •' ^ _ pensions; — a full national treasury and a ponderous Republican ma- tenure-of- office act I L. Q. C. Lamar of Mississippi, secretary of the interior; Thomas F. Bayard of repealed Delaware, secretary of state; and William H. Garland of Arkansas, attorney general. 494 GOVERNMENT FOR THE PEOPLE jority in Congress. It was all but inevitable, therefore, that the people's money should be used for partisan purposes, while it was almost equally sure that the pension system would become the medium of plunder.^ Millions were poured into the laps of federal ex-soldiers without serious investigation of merits. All this was contrary to Cleveland's sense of public honesty and led him to exercise a restraining hand. Republi- cans and Democrats alike chafed under this pressure and made up their minds to retaliate. They found opportunity when the president removed from office one Dustin, a district attorney of Alabama. Seeking cover under the Tenure-of-office Act (561), which had been con- veniently forgotten since the impeachment of Johnson, the Senate refused to ratify the president's action. He in turn asserted in no unmistakable terms his constitutional right as executive to remove such officials, and exhibited a dogged determination to put aside every consideration that inter- fered with a "government for the people." There could be no decent questioning of such a position, yet it provoked a bitter controversy in the Senate. In the end, however, not only was the president sustained, but the Tenure-of-office Act was repealed (December 17, 1886). Congressional leaders had learned that there was understanding, conscience, and back- bone in the executive chair; nor has that department of the government greatly suffered for want of personal power since that time. 603. Presi- Contributing to the same result and exhibiting to a degree dentiai Sue- |.j^g ability of Congress to deal with questions outside the cession A.ct* provision ' realm of partisan politics, was the Presidential Succession Act for settling q{ ^]^g same year (1886). Some anxiety over the order of suc- putes cession to the presidency had been experienced in President Arthur's administration and had twice expressed itself in a Senate bill which sought to amend the law. An unexpected situation forced the question upon the attention of Congress 1 Strangely enough, the farther we get away from the Civil War the larger grows the pension bill. In 1912 it reached the extravagant sum of $229,000,000. LABOR AND COMMERCE 495 in 1885. Under the law at that time, in case of the death or disability of both the president and vice-president, the suc- cession passed to the president pro tempore of the Senate and then to the speaker of the House. The Senate had elected John Sherman, a Republican, president pro tempore; and Vice- President Hendricks died; thus the Democratic control of the executive department of the government might be lost, only the life of President Cleveland standing against such a con- tingency. Furthermore, if Cleveland should die while Con- gress was not sitting there would be no legal succession. The Presidential Succession Act provides "that in case of removal, death, resignation, or inabihty of both the President and Vice-President of the United States" the cabinet officers shall succeed in the order of their creation, beginning with the secretary of state. Another vexing problem which was settled in this adminis- tration, and the settlement of which was evidence of a more dispassionate consideration of public questions, was the method of counting the votes of the electoral college. Thoughtful men had wanted to preclude the possible recurrence of crises like that of 1876 (571), but could not overcome the passion en- gendered by that contest. By an act of February 3, 1887, it was provided that thereafter the settlement of such disputes should be left in the hands of the state involved. Congress acting as final arbiter only when such state should fail to reach a decision. LABOR AND COMMERCE But, after all, these were minor questions compared with 604. De- those that grew out of expanding industry and commerce. j™f° J^^ The building of the railroads to the West (580) had not only undesirable increased the number of stars on the national flag ^ and poured |™™'sra- ' North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington, and Montana were admitted to the Union as states in 1889, while Idaho and Wyoming came in in 1899. Utah was not admitted at this time because of her practice of polygamy. She finally outlawed it and was admitted as a state in 1896, under a constitutional guaranty that polygamy should forever be prohibited. 496 GOVERNMENT FOR THE PEOPLE untold wealth into the lap of the nation, but it had also brought with it a train of problems concerning immigration, transportation, etc., that have puzzled the brains of the best statesmen from that day forward. The increased demands for labor incident to the rapid development of all parts of the country had brought into the mines, the factories, and the railway organizations great numbers of foreigners from almost every country in the world. As a rule these were not of the IRISH SWEDE GERMAN ITALIAN RUSSL\N CHINAMAN Typical Immigrants good class of people who were at the same time unlocking the agricultural resources of the West and Northwest. Inferior in intelligence and in ideals of life, they were almost wholly in- capable of understanding American institutions. They had lived in their native homes under the most abject economic conditions and therefore had learned to live, as it were, on the crumbs from the rich man's table. Many of them had heard of liberty but knew so little of its meaning that to them it was a sort of talisman. They imagined that any form of govern- ment that bore the name of democracy offered coveted oppor- tunity for license. They could not understand that free government is but the corollary of enlightened mind — a result rather than a cause. They had caught no vision 'of the better self; had felt no inspiring force lifting them upward. Their physical cravings obscured from their own eyes their spiritual LABOR AND COMMERCE 497 needs. The task of assimilating into the national life the sturdy and thrifty German and Scandinavian farmers of the West and North was an easy and wholly promising process. The Irish and English who came into the New England and Middle Atlantic regions were equally easy of absorption. The case was different with the immigrants from southern and southeastern Europe and from China. It was inevitable from the beginning that races so vastly different in character should find difficulty in working together in peace. The Caucasian laborers of the Pacific coast soon learned that it was impossible to compete with the "heathen Chinee." Living on a higher plane, the Americans required a better return for their labor and hence were soon out of employment. When their demands for remedial legislation went unheeded they resorted to vio- lence. Riots became common, especially in San Francisco, and hfe and property suffered immensely. In 1879 Congress had passed a Chinese exclusion bill, but President Hayes vetoed it through fear of retaliation. The next year a treaty was made with China by which the right to regulate Chinese immigration was conceded to Congress. In 1S82 President Arthur vetoed a second bill excluding Chinese immigrants for twenty years. Other regulatory measures followed until, in 1S88, the question of Chinese immigration was permanently settled by prescrib- ing rather stringent conditions upon which inhabitants of that country may enter the United States. Succeeding measures have sought to strengthen this act and to define the relation to the government of those who are already inhabitants of the country. One phase of the labor question was thus settled, and at the 605. Anar- same time a part of the race question. But there were enough *^^'^*^ of such problems ahead. More dangerous than the Chinaman was the anarchistic foreign element now found in the great cities. Being wholly out of sympathy with American ideals and institu- tions, and many of them destitute of this world's goods, they would form themselves into secret revolutionary bodies and preach their doctrines of anarchy and riot. Extreme danger 498 GOVERNMENT FOR THE PEOPLE became apparent in May, 1886, when they carried through a campaign of incendiarism, treason, and murder, kilHng seven poUcemen in the Haymarket at Chicago, by the explosion of a dynamite bomb. Four of them were convicted and executed, but the danger was not permanently averted. The unassimi- lated and seemingly unassimilative foreign element distresses the country with one of its most serious present day problems, more portentous by far than the negro question. 606. The unions; strikes; Bureau of Labor — 1884 LABOR AND CAPITAL Other serious labor problems arising out of a new industrial system have found a more prominent, if not a more important, place in the national life. Happily, however, they are American problems and are approached by opposing parties with equal intelligence and patriotism. Broadly speaking, they are ques- tions growing out of the relation of labor and capital. In the preceding chapter reference has been made to certain labor organizations. Among the first objects of these bodies was the protection of American laborers against the competition of foreigners. In later years organized labor has found a larger and more unselfish service in attempting to ameliorate the con- ditions of living among the labor people. It is true that the desire for increased wages, shorter hours, and a monopoly of the labor market have been primary factors with a large number, but many of them have seen in these more humane conditions opportunities for greater enlightenment and higher culture. For example, a higher wage would make possible more whole- some food, better clothing, and more sanitary and comfortable homes. Shorter hours would also furnish leisure for intellectual and social development. Laws regulating child labor would con- serve the lives of the children and give them an opportunity for acquiring the rudiments of an education. These demands evi- dently express the better aspirations of the labor element and should be interpreted as one of the hopeful signs of the times. As the labor unions increased in numbers and power, they extended their demands beyond the field of social and economical interest LABOR AND CAPITAL 499 to matters more directly political. The Knights of Labor, numbering 700,000 members in the first year of Cleveland's administration, asked for a graduated income tax, compulsory arbitration of disputes between labor and capital, and govern- ment ownership of telegraphs, telephones, and railroads. The demands of labor were strongly interpreted by Henry George in his Progress and Poverty and by Edward Bellamy in his Looking Backward. These two books have continued to do a wonderful service for American labor. When the labor unions failed to get what they wanted by state or national legislation, the more ignorant and irresponsible members sometimes joined with foreign workmen in strikes and riots. Statistics seem to prove that during the first year of Cleveland's term of office, there were seven hundred or more strikes. The president was impressed with the seriousness of these movements and earnestly recommended to Congress the establishment of a federal labor commission whose duty it should be to study carefully needs and conditions, and adjust disturbances between capital and labor. The creation of the National Bureau of Labor in the Department of the Interior in 1SS4 perhaps led Congress to feel that enough had been done for the time in behalf of organized labor and so the president's recommendations were not embodied in law. But the labor element was by no means discouraged. On the other hand, it had gained great confidence in itself, had perfected a national organization, the American Federation of Labor, and had taught the country to have more respect for the laboring man. Indeed, the labor agitations had helped to call the attention 607. Ques- of the statesmen and public men in general to the high cost of *'°"^ relat- ■^ . ing to a living and to federal extravagances. The president felt keenly protective the justice of many of the claims of labor and saw at the same **"^ time a gradually increasing surplus in the national treasury. This surplus, which had now reached the enormous sum of $450,000,000, was bad, not only as a business condition, but also as a very tempting bait to political grafters. The farmers of the West and South, complaining of governmental favoritism to 500 GOVERNMENT FOR THE PEOPLE the manufacturers and railroad magnates of the East, joined with the labor element in protests against class legislation. President Cleveland found, as he thought, the seat of the trouble. Tariff duties levied during and since the Civil War had proved distinctly savory to the capitalistic element of the North and East. Consequently the sentiment of tariff reform had been comparatively weak, despite the fact that a national surplus had been accumulating all the while notwithstanding the govern- mental extravagances and political graft that characterized the early post-bellum period. The president believed that much of the economic unrest could be alleviated by a reduction of the tariff. It was not so much a question of how to spend as much money as came into the government's pockets, as how to secure for all classes a just share in the nation's prosperity. In his annual message in December, 1887, he declared that "the neces- saries of life used and consumed by all the people, the duties upon which add to the cost of living in every home, should be greatly cheapened. . . The simple and plain duty which we owe the people is to reduce taxation to the necessary expenses of an economical operation of the government, and to restore to the business of the country the money which we hold in the Treasury through the perversion of governmental powers." This was plain talk and rang true in the ears of the common people. The president had twice before recommended tariff revision and Congress had refused to follow on account of certain reactionary Democrats in the House who represented an in- dustrial suffrage. This time the unmistakable tone of the president's message and his fearless defence of the consumer brought the reactionaries of his party into line and secured the passage of a bill, prepared by Roger Q. Mills of Texas, reducing the tariff in such a way "as not to necessitate or justify either the loss of employment by the workingmen, or the lessening of their wages." The average reduction was perhaps as much as eight per cent. The Republican Senate defeated the measure and the president's battle for the people was lost. He had especially sought to serve the laboring and agricultural classes THE RAILROADS 501 of the West and South and consumers everywhere, but he had been defeated by organized capital in the North and East. The unexampled prosperity of the country after the panic of 608. The 1873 had greatly encouraged the development of "big business" ^°'"p®''^ ^°^^ in the New England and Middle Atlantic states. Before that panic, industry had been more or less individualistic; thereafter, it was largely corporate. The organization of labor mentioned in the preceding pages saw its counterpart in the combination of capital. The business interests found it economical and' profitable to operate with large capital, and hence formed great corporations that covered the country. In some cases they became so powerful as to monopolize an entire industry. This they did in various ways: sometimes through superior manage- ment, sometimes through the purchase of competing companies, sometimes through the unfair manipulation of prices, and, more often, through the absorption of a majority of the stock of competing enterprises by a few men who constituted themselves a board of directors for the combined industry. This last form of organization is called a " trust." Practically all of the leading industries of the country had now passed under this form of control — oil, lumber, railway, mining, sugar, tobacco, and other trusts which maintained lobbies at the national capital and greatly influenced legislation. In many instances they brought strong pressure to bear upon Congressmen and effectu- ally thwarted the interests of the people, while at the same time they corrupted the great law-making branch of the government. THE RAILROADS Among the worst of the great organizations were the rail- 609. The roads. The enormity of their offences was brought to the public Jransporta- eye by reason of their indispensable service to a rapidly growing tion com- people. The wonderful development of the agricultural and p*°*®^ mining resources of the West and South had modified the relation of these sections to labor and other social problems and also to the national wealth; and, of course, these regions became fields of exploitation for organized capital. The cities which 502 GOVERNMENT FOR THE PEOPLE . sprang up while the crops were growing could consume but little of the mineral and agricultural products, and transportation to distant markets, therefore, became a matter of universal concern to the farmer, the miner, and the business man alike. The opportunity for the railroads was great enough even under legitimate management, but, in those days, "big business," like politics, was not over-honest in its methods. The railroads, of course, had a practical monopoly of the transportation facili- ties in these new regions from the beginning. There was nothing . wrong with this so long as they were managed with a sense of responsibility to the people served. Unfortunately, they used their monopoly without mercy. Excessive freight rates were regularly charged, thus placing a burdensome tax upon the consumer and producer ahke and taking away from the legiti- mate owner much that he had earned with the sweat of his brow. Worse, perhaps, than this was the practice of discrimination between shippers. This evil manifested itself in two forms. Oftentimes more was charged for a short than for a long haul because of competition among trunk lines. This put the local shipper at a great disadvantage and reacted with equal hardship upon the producer. Localities in which the railways had pecuniary interests received cheaper rates than others, and rebates were given to favorite shippers. In addition to these evils, competing lines were merged into trusts and "pooled"^ their earnings, thus destroying competition and making it easy to fix exorbitant rates. They entered into agreements of mutual profit with the steel trust, the oil trust, the meat trust, etc., and thus reaped untold profit from the necessities of the people. 610. The 'phe first popular protest against these wicked methods of Commerce the railroads manifested itself in various state legislatures. •^*^* Laws were passed not only prescribing equitable freight rates within a state but endeavoring also to regulate interstate traffic. This brought a series of difficulties to commerce, 1 To "pool" is to contribute to a common stock upon the basis of a mutual division of profits or losses. THE RAILROADS 503 similar in effect to the tariff laws of the states under the Articles of Confederation. The laws were difficult of enforcement and failed to reach the seat of the trouble. Naturally, relief was sought from Congress. In 1884 Senator John B. Reagan of Texas introduced an Interstate Commerce Act designed espe- cially to help the farmers and small shippers. On January 18, 1886 Senator Shelby M. Cullom of Illinois reported a bill for the committee appointed "to investigate and report on the subject of regulating the transportation of freights and passen- gers between the several states by railroads and water routes." More than a year was consumed in debate and in attempts to amend or to substitute. On February 4, 1887, the Interstate Commerce Act became law. It created a commission of five men and clothed them with power to investigate the books of railroads doing interstate commerce. It forbade "pooHng," and discriminating in the matter of rates, and was expected to secure equitable rates. It required publicity of railway tariff schedules and empowered the commission to interrogate railway managers. The roads continued much of their iniquitous business because the commission lacked certain powers; but subsequent Acts have materially strengthened the commission and greatly extended its usefulness. It was given authority in i8gi to compel testimony; in 1893 a supplementary Act was passed compelling testimony even at the risk of self-incrimina- tion. In 1903 the Elkins Bill forbade rebates from published tariff rates, penalizing both railroads and shippers guilty of violation of the Act. In 1910 the powers of the commission were extended over telephone, telegraph, and cable companies, and were greatly enlarged with respect to rate making. The Act was especially significant from the view point of the people, who had at last found a power that could at least do something to restrain the cupidity of corporate wealth. In a later chapter it will be shown how the people are now applying the lessons here learned to almost every public service industry in the country. 504 GOVERNMENT FOR THE PEOPLE 611. Presi- dential elec- tion, THE ELECTION OF HARRISON As the presidential election approached it was evident that Cleveland would be renominated, though he had grievously dis- appointed the leading politicians of his party. He had acted with such courage and honesty, had faced the new problems of industrialism with such intelligence, had "relegated to the limbo of oblivion" the issues of sectional antagonism with such ruth- less indifference, that not even his bitterest enemies dared op- pose his nomination. He was, therefore, nominated by accla- mation at the convention of his party in St. Louis, June, 1 888. The Republicans offered their nomination to Blaine, who was now away in Europe, but he refused it and recommended General Benjamin Harrison of Indiana, United States Senator, lawyer, veteran of the Civil War, and grandson of former Presi- dent William Henry Harrison. The campaign was pitched on a much higher plane than that of 1884. Instead of abusive personalities and the outworn issues of the Civil War, the tariff question constituted the storm center of political action. The Republican press and platform hammered Cleveland as a "free trader" and tearfully prophesied the gloomy fate of the working classes in case of his reelection. Wages must needs go down and thousands would be out of employment should the Democrats be returned to power. As before, the contest depended upon the vote of New York. Unfortunately, the reactionary Democratic governor in that state, David B. Hill, sold the prospect of the national ticket for enough Republican votes to reelect himself governor. Harrison carried the state by a small margin and was elected to the presi- Benjamin Harrison THE ELECTION OF HARRISON 505 dency. It should be said, however, that Cleveland was sus- tained in the popular election by more than 100,000 votes. Government for the people had lost the election but it had set up new ideals of service in the public mind and had given the country fresh hope in the struggle for economic and industrial freedom. SUMMARY President Cleveland came into office in 1885. He believed that govern- ment should be administered for the good of all the people; and he set a high standard of efficiency for the whole public service. Such conception of duty led to improvement of the civil service, to the repeal of the Tenure- of-office Act, and the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Strongly opposed to extravagance in the use of the people's money, and especially for partisan purposes, the president lost the support of those Democrats who were patriots "for revenue only." Congress also was beginning to consider public questions in the light of the public good. It passed the Presidential Succession Act, and the law which leaves disputes concerning electoral votes to be settled by the states involved. The most important issues that President Cleveland had to face were those growing out of the new business expansion. The demand for labor brought to the country a large number of foreigners who had no sym- pathy with American institutions and who provoked riots and strikes; and these circumstances gave rise to a series of more stringent immigration laws, directed especially toward the Chinese. Because of the increased importance of labor and the bad conditions under which it was compelled to work, labor organizations were formed which demanded shorter hours, better pay, and more sanitary conditions of living. The continued discussion of these questions forced the attention of the country to the whole problem of the high cost of living, and led many men, among them the president, to fix the responsibility upon the protective tariff. An attempt to reduce it was defeated by the Senate, and the industries of the country continued to reap large profits from import duties. The accumulation of wealth now led to corporate industry on a very much larger scale than ever before, and "big business" began to exert purposeful and questionable influence upon politics and government. Wealth was expanding and developing the country as well as itself, and felt that it had the right of exploitation. Among corpor- ate offenders were the railroads, which were charging excessive and unequal rates despite the fact that the government, the agent of the people, had subsidized them with large grants of land. To regulate them, Congress created the Interstate Commerce Commission (February 4, 1887); and since that date it has extended governmental supervision to a number of corporate 5o6 GOVERNMENT FOR THE PEOPLE enterprises. Such a vigorous administration of the people's business naturally developed opposition to President Cleveland, and he was defeated in 1888 by the Republican candidate, Benjamin Harrison. REVIEW QUESTIONS I. What encouraging prospect might have been seen in the election of 1884? Give reason for your answer. 2. How did Cleveland's conception of public oflBce differ from the general conception before his administration? 3. Explain clearly what is meant by the oft-quoted expression, "public office is a public trust." 4. What legislation in the early part of Cleveland's first administration exhibited a broader spirit toward public problems? 5. Show how the Chinese question was an outgrowth of the new industrial conditions. 6. What danger to our country arises from immigration? Would it be wise to exclude all immigrants? 7. Show how the riot in Haymarket Street, Chicago, was due to the new economic and industrial conditions. 8. What are some of the present day problems growing out of the relations of capital and labor? g. What are some of the higher and noblgr purposes that animate organized labor? What are some of the material motives? 10. Do you think that increased knowledge of mutual interests and better understanding of all public questions would help to solve the trouble between capital and labor? Why? II. What evils did President Cleveland hope to remedy by a reduction of the tariff? Did he succeed? 12. What is a "trust," and why did such organizations come into existence? How did they affect national poUtics? 13. What part have the railroads had in developing our resources and contributing to our prosperity? 14. In what way have the railroads abused their power and done injury to the people? What attempt has the government made to correct these abuses and what other solution has been offered? 15. What kind of tariff did President Cleveland favor? 16. What were the issues in the campaign of 1888? 17. Can you see in President Cleveland's administration a tendency to give still more regard to the people? 18. Show that "big business" was beginning to feel that the government might get in its way. CHAPTER XXVIII GOVERNMENT FOR THE PARTY REFERENCES Secondary Authorities. — Wilson, Division and Reunion, American People, vol. v; Dewey, National Problems; Ely, Monopolies and Trusts; Commons, Labor Problems; Blaine, American Tarijj Controversies in the Nineteenth Century; Bryce, The American Commonwealth, vol. ii, Revised; FoUett, The Speaker of the House of Representatives; Henderson, American Diplomatic Questions. Sources. — Hart, Source Book, Contemporaries, vol. iv; MacUonald, Select Statutes. Illustrative Material. — Payne, Money Captain; Merwin and Webster, Calumet K., Short Line War; Anon, The Breadwinners. (See list in chapter xx\'ii.) REPUBLICANS REVERSE CLEVELAND'S POLICIES The election of 1888 had not only retired a Democratic presi- 612. The dent, but it had also returned a Republican majority to Con- return of . the bosses gress. The triumphant party now came back with equal confidence in its own wisdom and in the people's support. Setting itself from the first squarely against the pohcies of the Cleveland administration, it advanced the tariff rates, dis- posed of the treasury surplus in increased pensions and a stronger navy, and played poHtics with the currency ques- tion. Its feeling toward the South had lost a degree of its old-time bitterness, but was still tinctured with a touch of intolerance. The new president, possessing in no large measure the powers of leadership, was made the catspaw of those more influential. A veteran of the Civil War, his ideals were largely those of a former day. Service to his party was paramount to service to his country. Not that he was dishonest or un- patriotic from his view point, but that he belonged to a by- gone poUtical age. He was out of his element in both time and place, and was therefore unable wisely to serve the whole people. He was under obligation to the briUiant, aggressive, 507 So8 GOVERNMENT FOR THE PARTY 613. Con- gressional extrava- gances partisan Blaine, whom he made his chief adviser in the cabinet. His influence upon the Senate was overshadowed by the able and skillful leadership of Senator John Sherman of Ohio. In the House, the despotic speaker, Thomas B. Reed of Maine, built up a machine that needed only the press of the button to make effective his own will. So absolute was the speaker's control of his party in the House that in recognition of his autocratic port and power he was called "Czar Reed." Under such leaders it was all but inevitable that the executive de- partment should lose much of the prestige that it had gained during Cleveland's administration, and that the party machin- ery should be manipulated for partisan purposes. As in previous days, the national treasury offered the first and best opportunity. It had greatly tempted the Demo- crats, who had been fortunately restrained in a measure by the executive veto, Cleveland having put the ban upon the Depend- ent Pension Bill of 1S87 along with some hundred others of the same kind. The Republicans naturally received the sup- port of the Civil War veterans and no less naturally wished to keep it. There was more money in the treasury than was needed for other purposes, so why not be liberal in the care of those who had saved the Union? Why be so scrupulous as the former president had been in weighing the claims of old soldiers ? They had performed a great service at the risk of their lives and in sacrifice of their best days. It would be base ingrati- tude to refuse their demands. The result of such a policy was a foregone conclusion, and a veritable raid was made upon the national treasury. The pension bill at the beginning of Harri- son's administration amounted to $89,000,000; at its close it had reached the exorbitant sum of $159,000,000, and the end was not yet. The worst feature, however, was not the ex- cessive amount, but rather the motive behind it. Along with its extravagance in pensions the Republican party also turned back into the Northern state treasuries the sum of $20,000,000 which had been collected in direct taxes during the Civil War. Expensive public buildings were erected in hundreds of small CLEVELAND'S POLICIES REVERSED 509 cities and ship subsidies were proposed to build up the national commerce. Lighthouses, harbors, and coast defences con- sumed large sums, and a costly and effective navy was built, placing the United States well toward the front in naval equip- ment. It should be said, however, that the Republicans faithfully 614. The kept their promises in regard to the tariff issue. They took Tariff Bill their election as an endorsement of the protective tariff policy, for which they had fought in the campaign. They had said that such a tariff was necessary for the preservation of our in- fant industries and the protection of American laborers. They had contended with effectiveness that the Democratic policy contemplated a condition of free trade that would ruin man- ufacturing industries and throw many thousands out of em- ployment. Accordingly, the Ways and Means Committee of the House set itself the immediate task of saving the country, or at least a portion of it. Early in i8go, the chairman of this committee, William McKinley of Ohio, brought in a measure effectually raising the tariff on many of the necessities of life, such as clothing, fuel, food products, implements, and common household articles, though it opened a way for a limited reci- procity policy. It passed the House after a two weeks skirmish and went to the Senate. Here it was held up for months by the Democrats and a few hesitant Republicans, until October i, when it became a law. The Democrats had fought the measure as a piece of class legislation, had contended that it would raise the price to the consumer of protected goods, and had ex- pressed the fear that it would augment the treasury surplus and thus increase the temptation to oflficial extravagance and dishonesty. The vote by which the measure passed was strictly partisan, and the issue was now clearly drawn for the next presidential election. In the same year with this tariff legislation the Republicans 615. The likewise attempted to amend the Federal Election Law in such a Election way as to deprive the South, and hence the Democratic party. Bill of some of its representation in the House. In most of the 5IO GOVERNMENT FOR THE PARTY Southern states laws had been passed that practically nullified the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution, The white men of the South, making law of necessity, had taken almost exclusive control of all elections, and battalions of negro voters of a former day had deserted their colors. Representation in Congress, which was based upon the total citizenship, re- gardless of color or previous condition of serN'itudc, was out of all proportion to the actual voting strength of the Southern states. The RepubUcans now put through the House a Federal Election Law (1890) providing for the appointment of federal supervisors of national elections. Though the measure failed in the Senate, it is significant in several ways: It expressed a sentiment of impatience with all attempts to evade federal authority; it marked the last effort on the part of the North to interfere in Southern elections, though the subject continued to give rise to dispute; it exemplified the anxiety of the Republican party to maintain its control of the federal machinery. 616. The Indeed, so slender was the majority of the Republicans in Ac^'^'^^^ Congress that they could do little more than play to the galleries. Washington, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota were admitted in iSSg and 1890, partly at least with the hope of increasing the number of Republican senators and representatives in Congress. But as has been seen, these Western states were chiefly interested in agriculture, mining, and stockraising, and were about as likely to cast their political fortunes with the agricultural South and the Democrats as with the industrial East and the Rejiublicans. Indeed, sympathy between the West and South over many questions of transporta- tion, agriculture, etc., was increasing. The Farmers' Alliance had been formed in 1887 in the rapidly developing West and South, and a national People's Party was in process of develop- ment at the same time. The silver states, Montana, Nevada, Idaho, Colorado, and Wyoming, joined the new movement because their products, like those of the farmers, were steadily declining in value, and, like the manufacturers of the East, they believed that their peculiar interests should be protected by the CLEVELAND'S POLICIES REVERSED 511 federal government. The silver in a standard dollar was worth 89 cents in gold in 1878 and only 73 cents in 1889. In order to make use of this growing restlessness in the new states and to keep their leaders loyal to the Republican party, the politicians again began to tamper with the currency question. Senator Sherman secured the passage of an' Act in 1890 which repealed the Bland-Allison Act of 1878 and directed the secretary of the treasury "to purchase, from time to time, silver bullion to the aggregate amount of four million five hundred thousand ounces, or so much thereof as may be offered in each month, at the market price thereof, not exceeding one dollar for three hundred and seventy one and twenty-five hundredths grains of pure silver, and to issue in payment for such purchase of silver bullion, treasury notes of the United States to be prepared by the secretary of the treasury, in such form and of such denomi- nation ... as he may prescribe. . . That the treasury notes . . . shall be redeemable on demand, in coin . . . and such treasury notes shall be a legal tender in payment of all debts, public and private. . . That the secretary of the treasury shall each month coin two million ounces of the silver bullion purchased under the provisions of this Act into standard silver dollars until the first day of July, eighteen hundred and ninety-one" and as much thereafter as necessary "to provide for the redemption of the treasury notes herein provided for." The Act further declared that it was "the established policy of the United States to maintain the two metals on a parity with each other upon the present legal ratio, or such ratio as may be provided by law." The price of silver had an upward turn at first, but the law of supply and demand was more powerful than the law of Congress, and so the price again took a tumble.^ The results of this measure were reaped by the next administration in a general panic. The country now went into a Congressional election. Hard 617. Con- as the Republicans had tried to curry favor with the voters, they fevolution could not stem the tide of opposition which their extravagance 1 In 1892 aa ounce of silver was worth 67 cents. 512 GOVERNMENT FOR THE PARTY 618. The seal fish- eries 619. Rela- tions with southern repubUcs and the high cost of Uving brought upon the party. The results were decisive. The Republican majority in the House was supplanted by the Democrats in the ratio of 235 to 88. This put an end to important legislation for the next two years and gave the spectacular Blaine an opportunity to enjoy the lime- light. BLAINE IN THE LIMELIGHT Among the first problems incident to his office as secretary of state was one which Mr. Blaine inherited from the Cleveland administration. The United States looked upon the Bering sea as a natural part of Alaska and hence subject to federal control; but the seal fisheries therein led British sealing vessels to disregard these views and to treat Bering sea as open waters. In 1886 and again in 1889, United States revenue cutters seized British trading vessels outside the three-mile limit from the shore. Blaine now added to the old argument mentioned above the additional contention that wherever they went the seals were "tame herds" which belonged to the United States. Great Britain resented this sort of defence in no unmistakable terms and Blaine was forced to yield or become responsible for an unwelcome conflict. The matter was at length settled in 1893 at Paris by a board of arbitration. The United States lost every contention and had to pay damages besides. Blaine had long cherished the dream of augmenting the influence of the United States in South and Central America through commercial treaties and the cultivation of friendly relations. During the Garfield administration he had acted as peacemaker between Chile and Peru, assuming, by his methods, the role of a would-be international arbiter for the southern republics. He had long advocated a poUcy of reciprocity with these nations, and it was through his influence that such an element was embodied in the McKinley Tariff Bill. He had taken steps looking toward the control of an Isthmian canal, and had encouraged a Pan-American Congress in 1881, which, long deferred, assembled in October, 1889, at Washington. It BLAINE IN THE LIMELIGHT 513 discussed questions of trade, currency, and arbitration, and recommended a Pan-American railway. The material results were almost unnoticeable, but the Congress was significant in foreshadowing the time when American industry would make a conquest of the markets of the world. The pacific relations with a South American neighbor were disturbed by revolutionary movements in Chile. When the United States minister to that country offered an asylum to the defeated authorities, the revolutionists retaliated by an attack upon American sailors in the streets of Valparaiso. Failing to receive the expected apology, President Harrison (January 25, 1892), in a message to Congress, suggested war. The receipt of acceptable apologies in the nick of time averted hostilities. More important, perhaps, than any of these incidents was 620. The the trouble with Germany. At this time there was at the helm Samoan 1 1 • • islands of German affairs a statesman no less able and ambitious than the American secretary of state. Prince von Bismarck, the German chancellor, had brought Germany through an arduous but highly successful period of internal development, and was cherishing an unbounded desire to increase the influence of the young empire in international affairs. Moreover, his country was already feeling strongly the impulse to acquire large colonial possessions. Accordingly, she had joined with the United States and Great Britain in a kind of protectorate over the Samoan islands. Bismarck now decided that it would be well to exclude the British and Americans from Sam^a and exercise undivided authority there; so he took possession of the leading town of the islands in the name of the German emperor and prepared to defend it against all comers. The Americans accepted the challenge by dispatching a number of warships to the islands and war seemed almost inevitable. Fortunately, it was averted through the conciliatory agency of a Pacific tj^phoon which greatly damaged both fleets, and led to a con- ference at Berlin in which Germany recognized the neutrality of the islands, and the rights of both Great Britain and the United States as protectors. The incident had effected for 514 GOVERNMENT FOR THE PARTY another what Bismarck had wished for Germany; America had entered with success the field of international politics. 621. Presi- In the meantime, the presidential election was approaching dential elec- again. Blaine had occupied the center of the political stage, and his name was once more mentioned for the presidency. He wavered in his own mind and lost the nomination to President Harrison. The Democrats for the third time nominated Grover Cleveland in spite of a strong reactionary element led by David B. Hill of New York and a free-silver contingent which feared the ex-president's attitude toward the currency question. Each party recognized the practical importance of the silver industry, and equivocally pronounced in favor of the maintenance of both gold and silver as money and on a parity. The leading issue, however, was the tariff, and on this question Cleveland had a record that appealed to the people. He won a sweeping victory, receiving 277 electoral votes to 145 for Harrison, and leading in the popular vote by approximately 400,000. More- over, for the first time since Buchanan, the Democrats gained control of both the House and the Senate, and apparently might hope to enact into law a series of genuinely Democratic measures. But the election had other features of significance besides a Democratic triumph. The increasing economic and social dis- content of the West and South was now represented in a national People's Party, commonly known as Populists, which promul- gated a platform demanding the free and unlimited coinage of silver, government ownership of railroads, telegraph and tele- phone lines, the direct election of United States senators, a graduated income tax, and many other measures of a distinctly reformatory character. They nominated James B. Weaver of Iowa for ])resident and polled 22 votes in the electoral college, a result that should have acted as a bugle call to progressive legislation ; how well it was heeded will appear in the pages that follow. The popular vote of this "Third Party" had exceeded 1,000,000. SUMMARY AND QUESTIONS 515 SUMMARY When the Republican party returned to power March 4, 1889, it was under the domination of pohtical bosses in both the legislative and executive branches of the government. President Harrison, a good man, was old and lacked the power of party leadership. Blaine, Sherman, and Reed practically controlled the Republican party and hence the government. Large sums of money were voted to pensioners who were, or might become, good party followers. The navy was greatly enlarged at enormous cost, and ofikial extravagance again became notorious. To prevent a treasury deficit where there had been a surplus; and to give further aid to manufac- turing interests, the McKinley Tariff Act raised the import duties on a number of articles, and, as the Democrats have charged, sent the cost of living still higher. Since the North was reaping so great benefit from favorable tariff legislation, the West began to feel that its rapidly growing silver interests ought likewise to receive the protection of the national government. Already the government was purchasing silver to the amount of $2,000,000 a month, but it was necessary from a Republican standpoint to keep the West in line politically, so the Sherman Silver Act was passed, which committed the government to the purchase of 4,500,000 ounces of silver monthly and to the issue of certificates equal in amount to the silver purchased. A Congressional election in 1890 overthrew the Republican majority in the House and thereby put a check to partisan legislation. The public mind then centered upon our foreign relations — particularly with Great Britain, the South American states, and Germany. As results, national influence was heightened, and the attention of American capital was again directed to the possibilities of commerce with distant islands and with other continents. Harrison was renominated by the Republicans in 1S92 and Cleveland again carried the standard for the Democrats. The leading issue was the tariff, and the Democrats won control of both the executive and the legisla- tive branches of the government. In the meantime, the "Populists" or People's Party had entered the field of national politics. This party de- manded free silver, government ownership of public utilities, an income tax, and other reforms of a sweeping character. REVIEW QUESTIONS I. Contrast the policy of the Republicans in 1S90 and that of Cleveland in 1S85. 2. Why was Harrison elected over Cleveland in 18S8? 3. Why was Cleveland elected over Harrison in 1892? 4. What were the arguments used by the Republi- cans in support of the McKinley tariff? By the Democrats against it? 5. Did the silver states of the West have as good reason to ask for national protection as 5i6 GOVERNMENT FOR THE PARTY did the manufacturing states of New Kngland? Discuss. 6. Was the Sherman Silver Purchase Act a measure of statesmanship, or of politics? Discuss. 7. Did the Act succeed in holding the West in line for the Republicans? 8. Account for the rise of the People's Party in 1892. g. Have any of the measures which that party advocated found their way to platforms of other parties? Have any of them been enacted into federal law? 10. Would government ownership of public utilities lend any strength to the cause of centralization? 11. Is it true that the tendency to centralize power increases with the advancement of civilization? 12. Is it true that government is administered more and more in the interests of the people as people become more intelligent? 13. How do you account for the growth of the pension roll as we get further away from the Civil War? 14. Was the United States right or wrong in its contention about the seal fisheries? 15. What eSect did the Samoan trouble have upon the national influence? 16. In what interest was govern- ment being administered in those days? 17. WTiat was the average .\merican thinking about in those days? 18. When he went to vote, what interest was upper- most in his mind? CHAPTER XXIX A NEW CRISIS REFERENCES Secondary Authorities. — Wilson, Division and Reunion, American People, vol. v; Lamed, History for Ready Reference, vol. v; Dewey, Financial History; Taussig, Tariff Ilislory; Bryan, The First Battle; Harvey, Coin's Financial School; Stanwood, History of the Presidency. Sources.- — Hart, Source Book, Contemporaries, vol. iv; MacDonald, Select Statutes. Illustrative Material. — Foote, Coeur d'Alene, The Chosen Valley. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL TROUBLES When the Democrats took into their hands the reins of govern- 622. Panic ment on March 4, 1893, the country was in a situation that has ° ^ ^^ no parallel in American history. The tariff question had been prominent in the campaign, the Democrats having stood for a • downward revision of the schedules. Great industrial corpora- tions, either through fear or through purposeful self-interest, shut down their mills, turned thousands out of employment, and brought business stagnation upon the whole country. The gradually rising tariff rates of the former administration had greatly increased the cost of living, and caused distress and suffering to labor, which was compelled to pay higher prices without enjoying a corresponding increase in wages. Yet the prices of farm produce had somehow declined, and there was a storm of discontent in the West and South. Thousands of the common people grew desperate in their desire for relief, and the feehng against capital was angry. Men of all occupations were uneasy, suspicious, and fearful of the future. In the life of the nation there had come a new crisis, an economic crisis, which threatened social disorder if not social revolution. The great deep was again broken up, not in regard to slavery, or state Si8 ■ A NEW CRISIS rights, or the law, or the Constitution, but upon the right of every American citizen to enjoy the fruits of his own labor and be secure against the greed of the barons of industry. The new administration had come into power in a period of disturbance, of riot, of strikes, of political heresies and economic innovations. It was well for the ship of state that a strong and fearless pilot stood at the helm. The folly and extra\agance of those who had gone before Cleveland had left an empty treasury. Politi- cal truckling to the silver interests had destroyed the gold re- serve which was thought to be necessary for the redemption of treasury notes and silver certificates, and had driven gold into hiding, because silver was so cheap that men wanted to pay their debts with it, while they held the gold as a simple matter of precaution. Under the Sherman Act the paper currency had reached the extravagant sum of $500,000,000 and the govern- ment could get no gold with which to redeem it. Customs duties were being paid, for the most part, in silver, while large amounts of gold were attracted to the Old World to discharge unfa\orable trade balances which business ner\-ousness had created. Yet if the government should refuse to ])ay in gold, the law-made parity of gold and siher would be destroyed, property values wrecked, and credit ruined. It was Scylla on one side and Charybdis on the other. What should be done? The president was not a man to waver or falter in a crisis. He adopted two clear-cut policies and followed them con- sistently to the end. 623. Cleve- In the first place, the Sherman Silver Purchase Act should an s po 1- ^^^ repealed and as a consequence the accumulation of silver certificates would be checked. Thus there would be a limit to the demands that might be made upon the treasury for gold, so far, at least, as those who held treasury notes and silver certificates were concerned. Accordingly, a special session of Congress was called for the summer of 1S93 for the purpose of considering fmancial matters. Before Congress could assemble, the price of silver slumped heavily and many mines in the West were closed, throwing thousands of workers out of employment ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL TROUBLES 519 and adding largely to the discontented classes in the cities. Silver conventions were held in protest against anti-silver legis- lation, and the silver men in Congress made a determined stand. Their fight was useless so far as the House was concerned, for leaders there felt the necessity of supporting the administration. In the Senate, however, the strong silver contingent prevented action until far into the autumn. The final passage of a repeal measure contributed its share to the restoration of business confidence and normal conditions of industry. The other measure which the administration carried through did not require Congressional action. Its object was the in- crease of the gold supply in the national treasury. To accom- plish this end, United States bonds, purchasable with gold only, were issued to the sum of $100,000,000. But the buyers of these bonds presented their paper currency at the treasury and asked for gold with which to buy the bonds. Such management amounted to forcing the government to float its own bonds with its own gold, and, therefore, commensurately nullified the government's purpose. The president then turned for relief to the financiers of the country. He arranged with a few New York bankers to furnish the treasury with gold in return for United States four per cent bonds. This plan worked more successfully than the general issue of bonds, and public confi- dence was further restored. Naturally enough, however, it rendered Cleveland very unpopular, for the people were ner- vously suspicious of any negotiation between the government and the financiers. The silver question remained a disturbing issue before the country until after the next presidential elec- tion and left an impress upon the Democratic party very diffi- cult to efface. Certainly the financial crisis of the treasury did not invite a 624. The revision of the tariff, the issue upon which the Democrats had ^^v^'^ been elected. The party could not maintain its self-respect, however, and ask the country again for its suffrages if it neg- lected or refused to carry out its promises. Accordingly, William L. Wilson of West Virginia, chairman of the Ways and 520 A NEW CRISIS Means Committee, brought before the House a genuine tariff reform measure. It placed sugar, iron ore, wool, lumber, and other raw materials upon the free Hst, and greatly reduced the tarifT on such manufactured articles as woolens, glass, cottons, and silks. The bill, after passing the House by a vote of nearly two to one, went to the Senate, and, as had happened in the case of the currency bill, this body offered stubborn resistance. Special interests like the steel, sugar, woolen, and lumber indus- tries protested strongly against the destruction of their business. It was the old argument of protection again. The bill was so amended in the Senate that it almost deserved the title of the second "tarifif of abominations." It left the general average of tariff rates no lower than it had been under a Republican ad- ministration; so the Democrats, too, had betrayed a sacred trust. President Cleveland was heartily ashamed of his party in Congress and refused to sign the measure, though he did allow it to become law. The people were now more convinced than ever of the power of money in the upper branch of Congress, and the Populists could use one more argument for the direct election of United States senators. It was now evident, too, that the Democrats would, almost certainly, sufter defeat in the approaching national campaign. 625. An To counteract the loss of revenue which the Wilson bill was found un- expected to entail, a provision had been inserted levying a tax constitu- of two per cent on incomes above $4000. Such a tax had been levied during the Civil War and had been regularly collected for several years thereafter. This part of the tariff bill, therefore, was passed by both Houses and became law. It was soon put to test, however, before the Supreme Court, which decided that, since it was a direct tax and such taxes were to be apportioned, under the Constitution, among the states in proportion to popu- lation, it was unconstitutional. This decision of the Court seemed to the people to indicate that the judiciary, like the Senate, was in league with capital, since much of the wealth of the country thus escaped formal taxation while the necessities of every poor man's household paid the toll of a "robber tariff." ECONOMIC PROBLEMS 521 Privilege seemed intrenched in the capitol, and with power great enough to defeat all effort to dislodge it. ECONOMIC PROBLEMS Dismayed by the political and financial conditions, enterprise 626. A gen- for a time almost ceased. Great numbers of people in the cities, threatened with starvation, joined here and there in angry, riotous mobs, while society stepped as though on needles. Farmers throughout the country were foreclosed by their credi- tors and all but gave up the fight in despair. Many good men lost confidence in the old political parties and gathered to the standard of the Populists. A pecuHar instance of the general unrest of the time, and an 627. Cox- occurrence with which even millions of the American people ^^ ^ ^'^^^ had more or less sympathy, was the gathering in Ohio of an army of malcontents under the leadership of "General" Jacob Coxey. This ragged "Army of the Commonwealth of Christ" marched upon Washington with the avowed purpose of demand- ing that the government give employment to the idle and issue $500,000,000 worth of greenbacks with which to pay them. On reaching the capitol Coxey was arrested for trespassing, or "walking on the grass," and his army of three hundred disbanded without accomplishing any good thing. Other spasmodic movements agitated the country from one end to the other, and added to the social and industrial chaos in all quarters. Another convulsion of the period, and one which brought upon 628. The the president a round of hostile criticism, was a strike among gtrik™ the employees of the Pullman Car company in Chicago. Pre- sumably the company was suffering from the general disorder of the time, though there was little external evidence that such was the case. At any rate, it saw fit to discharge some of its workmen and reduce the wages of others. Upon refusal of the management to listen to the remonstrance of the employees a general strike ensued. When it was proposed, through the American Railway Union (a Pullman labor organization with 522 A NEW CRISIS Eugene V. Debs at the head), to submit the matter to arbitra- tion, the company again refused to yield and the union attempted by violence to prevent the movement of Pullman cars. This obstructed the United States mail on twenty-one railroads lead- ing from Chicago into the whole western country. The governor of lUinois made no effort to relieve the situation, so President Cleveland dispatched troops to Chicago to protect federal interests. A federal court issued an injunction restraining the strikers from interference with the mail, but the mob would not be restrained until it was fired upon by the soldiers. Private and public property alike had seemed doomed to destruction, but when the strikers realized that the president meant business the trouble soon passed over. To the Westerners the president's action seemed an assumption of power, while to the laboring class it meant alliance between the executive and the capitalistic element. FOREIGN COMPLICATIONS 629. The Throughout his dealing with these economic and social Hawaiian problems, the president had manifested a strength of will inter- episode . preted by his opponents as obstinacy, which they modified into stubbornness when they saw his dealing with the Hawaiian question. This, like the domestic problems of the time, arose out of a rapidly expanding industrial interest. American capital had early found profitable investment in the far-away islands of the Pacific. In the Hawaiian group, many Ameri- cans now lived as citizens of the kingdom. Owning much property there, they had entered into the political life of the state and had come into practical control of the island. Early in 1893 Queen Liliuokalani determined to exclude the foreign- ers from political control by the promulgation of a new con- stitution. The Americans got together in an attempt to de- feat her plan, and with the assistance of the United States minister landed artillery from a United States battleship and set up a temporary government of their own. Within a month President Harrison sent a message to the Senate recommend- FOREIGN COMPLICATIONS 523 ing the annexation of Hawaii to the United States and sub- mitting a treaty to that end. The American residents had meanwhile assumed the authority to declare a protectorate over the islands. Just at this juncture Cleveland became president. He withdrew the treaty from before the Senate, sent a com- mission to Hawaii to investigate the situation, strongly con- demned the action of the United States minister, lowered the American flag from the public buildings, and proposed to re- store the queen to her throne on condition that all Americans Senate and Legislative Buildings, Honolulu, Hawaii should be pardoned for participation in the affair. The queen refused to grant the condition, and there the matter rested until the succeeding administration, when the islands were annexed to the United States (July, 1898).^ Cleveland had simply followed the traditional policy of the nation with re- spect to distant regions, but expanding industry was carrying the flag to the remotest parts of the earth. Another incident in the administration's foreign policy, and 630. The happiest in its result so far as the president was concerned, ^^'^''p^ ^ . . ^ , ' Doctrine ap- was distmctly preparatory to an enlarged American activity plied against in all the affairs of the world. It grew out of the appli- ^^^^} ^"'" cation of the Monroe Doctrine (346) to the settlement of a Venezuela case * Since April, igoo, the islands have been a regularly organized territory of the United States. 524 A NEW CRISIS boundary dispute between Great Britain and Venezuela. The issue was an old one, involving some twenty-three thousand square miles of mineral lands along the western boundary of British Guiana. Venezuela had made repeated complaints to the United States concerning Great Britain's encroachments; successive administrations had sought to effect a peaceful settlement of the affair; and Great Britain had as often re- jected all suggestions of compromise, though in such a diplo- matic way as to preclude immediate friction. When it seemed that all reasonable means of pacific adjustment had been exhausted, President Cleveland sent to Congress (December 17, 1895) a message setting forth in fresh and vigorous form the policy of the United States with reference to the activities of European nations in the Western Hemisphere, and recom- mending an investigation of the facts in the Venezuela case. Congress received the message with enthusiasm and voted money for a commission to carry out the president's suggestion. Public opinion rallied heartily to the administration's support and possibly helped Lord Salisbury, the British premier and foreign secretary, to agree to arbitration. It should be further said that the prime minister had not represented the views of Englishmen generally, as was shown by more than three hundred members of Parliament who petitioned the president and Con- gress for an agreement by which all disputes between the two nations should thereafter be settled by arbitration. Commis- sioners met at Paris in 1899, fixed a boundary line, and thus settled a matter of long-standing importance. The idea of arbitration had received a wonderful stimulus, and negotiations had been begun which were to go far toward the abolition of international warfare. Since this Venezuela episode, senti- ment for the establishment of universal peace has grown very rapidly, not only in the United States and Great Britain, but all over the civilized world. Moreover, the United States had demonstrated her purpose to maintain the Monroe Doctrine in all its fullness and had increased her prestige among the European powers. Whatever interests American citizens might THE SILVER QUESTION 525 hereafter acquire in any part of the world would be respected by sister nations. THE SILVER CAMPAIGN OF 1896 While the president and his able secretary of state, Mr. 631. The Olney, were thus finding happy solutions to intricate problems divided on of foreign affairs, the economic and social forces were making the silver another and final attempt to reinvigorate the currency question. ^"^^ ^°°' Election year had rolled around again and brought political upheavals in great variety. Cleveland, by law of custom, was ineligible as a further candidate. Clearly, also, he was very unpopular and had lost the leadership of his party. He was hated by the agricultural West and South because of his currency measures and an imputed alliance with the money interests. The manufacturers of the East and North disliked him because he attempted genuine tariff reform. The laboring classes fought him because of his use of the federal power in suppression of labor disorders. Under such circumstances he was not even in a position to counsel his party. Indeed, the party itself scarcely knew its own mind, for its chief strength lay in the West and South where political heresies were rifest. Perhaps a great majority of the party felt that there was something radically wrong. Government must be wrested from the classes, the bankers, and railroad magnates of the East. The small opera- tor must be given an equal chance with the trust. The farm was not getting its fair share of the profits of industry. Money was too scarce on account of the government's gold standard and the industries of the country could only be set free by a more elastic currency. It was not a bad diagnosis. The diffi- culty lay in finding a remedy. The agricultural and mining interests believed it could be found in a reform of the currency. They believed that the United States had reached such a stand- ing in independence and power in the industrial and political world that she need not ask the cooperation of any people in the solution of what they considered a domestic question. Let the United States declare her economic independence by the adop- 526 A NEW CRISIS tion of a system of free coinage of both gold and silver, the metals to be valued at the ratio of sixteen ounces of silver to one of gold. We are a free and powerful nation, dependent upon the policy of no other government, economically, politically, or financially. Besides, they argued, when the United States pronounces a certain silver coin a full dollar in value, the Euro- pean nations will be economically and financially compelled to join with the United States, and the result will be free silver all over the world and a consequent unmcasurable benefit to America, where the metal is so largely produced. The appeal was thrilling and went home to men everywhere, regardless of party, while the Democrats, strong in the South and West, were naturally disposed toward silver. When the national conven- tion of the Democrats met at Chicago in the summer of 1896 the silver men were in control. They denounced the Cleveland democracy, and in unequivocal terms declared for free coinage "without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation." 632. Bryan In the choice of a candidate for the presidency, as in the ka- Mc-^^" adoption of a platform, the convention showed an unmistakable Kinley of impatience with all forms of conservatism. Richard P. Bland of Missouri was looked upon as the logical nominee of the silver men, and in fact he led in the first balloting. The issue of the ballots, however, was determined by a dramatic speech of William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska. When he brought to a close his burst of eloquence with the defiant note, "Thou shalt not press down the crown of thorns upon the brow of labor nor crucify man upon a cross of gold," the convention hall was a scene of wild enthusiasm and tumult. He was nominated for the presidency and the Democratic party was committed, both by its platform and its candidate, to the cause of free silver as a means to the liberation of the people from the thralldom of privilege. The issue was made. The Republicans had met three weeks earlier and had fought out the same question, but with different results. The gold-standard element had won and then, as if to placate the silver faction within its party, they nominated Ohio THE SILVER CAMPAIGN OF 1896 527 William McKinley of Ohio, a man whose convictions on the currency question were not thoroughly pronounced. He had been conspicuous as the author of the McKinley Tariff Act, had had long and successful experience in Congress, enjoyed the confidence of men of all parties in a remarkable degree, and was well prepared in every way to become the party's leader. The campaign was unique, spectacular, and very significant. 633. Elec- The Democratic candidate made the most remarkable canvass ^jjgy of the nation ever yet attempted. Such a continuous storm of oratory and tide of rhetoric had never before thundered from the platform or surged from the press. The campaign is graphically depicted by Woodrow Wilson as follows: "Such excitement, such a stir- ring of the moral and intel- lectual forces of the country, on the one side as if to regen- erate society, on the other as if to save it from disruption, had never before marked a political campaign. The elec- tion even of i860 had been pre- ceded by no such fever of agitation. The Democrats and their allies had the dramatic advantage. Their candidate made a gallant figure wherever he moved, and went up and down the country, as no presidential candidate before him had ever done, to give the people his own striking version of the doctrines he preached. To the excited crowds which pressed about him he seemed a knight errant going about to redress the wrongs of a nation. There could be no mistaking his earnestness or his conviction or the deep power of the motives to which he appealed. His gifts were those of a practised orator, his qualities those of a genuine man of the people. . . It was in the last analysis a contest between the radical and the conservative forces of the William McKinley paign 528 A NEW CRISIS country, and the conservative forces won."' McKinley re- ceived a plurality of 600,000 popular votes with the electoral college 271 to 176 in his favor. 634. Sig- The campaign was significant in several ways. The Demo- nificance of cratic party had fallen upon evil days. After the Chicago convention, the "sound money" Democrats held a convention and nominated John M. Pahner for president. They polled only a small vote, but enough to show a division in the Demo- cratic party. The beginning of the end had come to the People's Party, or Populists, who fused with the Democrats in support of Bryan and free silver and nominated Tom Watson of Georgia for vice-president. The National Silver Party, a branch of the Republicans, also accepted the Bryan leadership, but as soon as the silver issue died they fell away from their adopted party. The capitalistic element supported the Re- publicans and the triumph of this party was distinctly the triumph of "big business." "Obviously the business world, the whole world of industry, was in process of revolution. America, in particular, had come to the crisis and turning point of her development. Until now she had been struggling to release and organize her resources, to win her true economic place in the world. Hitherto she had always been a debtor nation, her instruments of industry making and to be made, her means of transportation, the vast systems of steel highways which were to connect her fields and factories with the markets of the world, as yet only in course of construction. The country had at last built up its railway and manufacturing systems, had at last got ready to come out of its debts, command foreign markets with something more than its food- stuffs, and make for itself a place of mastery. . . In March, 1897, a great consolidation of iron mining properties, foundries, steel mills, railroads, and steamship lines was effected which brought the country's chief supplies of iron, its chief means of transporting steel products to the markets of the continent and of the world under a single organization and management, and reduced the cost of steel to a figure which put American steel SUMMARY 529 factories beyond fear of competition. Steel had become the structural stuff of the modern world. Commanding its manu- facture, America might command the economic fortunes of the world." (Woodrow Wilson.) SUMMARY Capital opposed the election of Cleveland in 1892 because of his attitude toward the tariff and because in his former administration he had shown an unmistakable disposition to administer the government first of all in the interests of the people. Already the country was on the verge of grave economic disorders because of the Silver Purchase Act and the demands of growing industries. The capitalists, taking advantage of the conditions, slightly "tightened" the supply of gold, which was already becoming scarce, and brought on the "hardest" times the country had seen in many a day. Designing politicians in league with protected industry ascribed the new crisis to the danger from tariff revision. Silver had continued to decline in value despite the Congressional effort to bolster it up, and gold, therefore, became scarcer, even in the national treasury. To secure gold with which to take care of the flood of silver certificates which were daily being pre- sented for redemption, gold bonds were issued. This measure failed to bring the expected relief, and the president called for help upon Eastern capitalists, who furnished a supply of gold, and accepted United States four per cent bonds therefor. In the meantime, after long delay by the Senate, the Sherman Silver Purchase Act was repealed with the expectation that its repeal would effectually reduce the demand upon the treasury for gold by reducing the issuance of silver certificates. Before these relief measures could be made effective, however, popular opinion had already saddled upon the administration responsibility for the "hard times." Nevertheless the party in power attempted to redeem its campaign pledges by the reduction of the tariff, but again protected interests so amended the Wilson bill as practically to defeat its purpose. The general disorder of the period was illustrated in the "Coxey's army" movement and in various riots and strikes, chief of which was the Pullman Company's employees' strike. When United States mails were obstructed by the strikers. President Cleve- land suppressed the riots with national troops. The new industrial system not only gave rise to perplexing domestic problems, but also involved the government in a number of foreign difficul- ties. American investors in Hawaii practically dethroned the queen of the islands, and looked forward to annexation by the United States. President Cleveland believed that such an act would violate well-established national policy toward foreign powers, and cancelled a practical protectorate over the islands. The trouble arising between Great Britain and Venezuela 530 A NEW CRISIS prepared the way for the extension of commerce with the South American states. The cUmax of the period was reached in the presidential election of 1896. Expanding business felt itself restrained by an inelastic monetary system. The silver interests of the West attributed the depression, and especially the decline of their chief product, to the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. They saw their relief in the doctrine of free silver at the ratio of 16 to i and succeeded in inducing the Democratic party, the "Silver RepubUcans," and the "Populists" to incorporate the doctrine into their platforms. All of these parties endorsed William J. Bryan for presi- dent. Opposed to this doctrine was that of the single, or gold, standard, supported by the regular Republicans under the leadership of William McKinley, and the gold standard Democrats under John M. Palmer. After the most thorough campaign in the national history, McKinley was elected. REVIEW QUESTIONS I. What was the peculiar situation of the country in 1893? Give two reasons for it. 2. What were President Cleveland's plans for relief? Did they work out? 3. Did the issuance of United States bonds contribute in any way to the "hard times" of Cleveland's second administration? Did the tariff revision so contribute? 4. What kind of tariff measure was the Wilson bill as passed by the House? Why did it not pass the Senate in the same form? 5. Compare the history of the Wilson bill with that of the Underwood measure of 1913. 6. Can you see in the defence of a protective tariff a principle similar to that involved in the South's defence of slavery? What vital difference can you see? 7. What good reason can be offered for telling the story of "General" Coxey in connection with a protective tariff dis- cussion? 8. How did the suppression of the labor riot in Chicago affect the outlook of the Democratic party in regard to the next election? 9. Name two serious problems which this riot brought to the surface again. 10. Show how the Hawaiian incident was a result of expanding industry. 11. How did the Venezuela case affect national influence abroad? How was the Monroe Doctrine involved in it? 12. What became of the income tax law of 1895? Has such a measure been before the country since that time? 13. What vital issue did both of the great political conventions have to face in 1896? Which .side did each take? 14. How did the campaign of 1896 differ from previous campaigns? 15. Could the "Populist" party be considered a natural result of the new age of business? Discuss. 16. Why were the West and the South in such a state of political upheaval during the decade ending in 1900? CHAPTER XXX THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR REFERENCES Green, War with Spain; Lamed, History of the American People; Life of Mc- Kinley; School Histories; Contemporary Magazine Articles. CONDITIONS IN CUBA Through geographical position Cuba, in time of war, would 635. The threaten the control of the Mississippi river and the Panama Hillt of'the canal. On account of its proximity to the American continent, United and its similarity of climate and soil to the southern parts of q^^^ ^°^ the United States, its political, social, and commercial affairs had long been matters of importance to American citizens. Many had become financially interested in the cotton, sugar, rice, tobacco, and other products and industries of the island; and after the United States obtained possession of the Gulf coast frequent offers had been made by the United States to purchase the island from Spain. As early as 1809 Jefferson had written the president, Mr. Madison, that he believed that Napoleon, at that moment dominating Spain, might be induced to part with Cuba, and that he, Jefferson, would like to see the island come into the possession of the United States. Later President Polk offered Spain one hundred million dollars for Cuba, but Spain persistently refused to consider the proposal. The Ostend Manifesto (431) declared that Cuba ought to belong to the United States and if Spain would not sell it, the United States would be justified in seizing it. After 1849 occasional filibustering expeditions, assisting the native insurrectionists, attempted the seizure of the island from Spain. The fili- busters were financed and directed by "juntas" composed of Cubans naturalized in America, or the United States, and by 531 532 THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR Americans financially interested in Cuba. President Cleveland issued a message warning all persons that the American govern- ment would not support or countenance one unfriendly act toward the Spanish government; and at the same time he urged Spain to change her policies in reference to Cuba. In President Harrison's administration, Secretary of State Blaine urged that Cuba be allowed to purchase its freedom, the United States to guarantee the payment of the price. President Mc- Kinley pointed out to the government of Spain the deplorable conditions existing on the island. 636. Spain's In 1808, when Napoleon forced the abdication of the Spanish oppressive ^-^onarch, the Cubans declared their allegiance to their de- rule; 1493- ' 1898 throned sovereign, and contributed men and money to the national defence, but they were forgotten by Spain when peace was restored. In 1830 the island was put under a governor general, responsible only to Spain. The whole machinery of the government was run in the interests of the officers, and every office of emolument was held by a Spaniard; yet the natives outnumbered the Spaniards five to one. The deplorable con- dition of the people of the island at the close of the nineteenth century was in great part due to oppressive and official misrule and corruption. Larger and larger revenues were demanded and the burdens of the suffering people became still heavier. Before the war for independence, the estimated "revenues and disbursements amounted to about $25,000,000 per year, of which the Spanish officials in the island took $4,000,000, the army S6,ooo,ooo, interest on the old Spanish national debt $10,000,000, pensions $2,200,000, treasury administration $708,000, judiciary $995,000, and so on, all the money being absorbed by the Spaniards except $725,000 for internal improve- ments, harbors, etc. Not a cent was spent for primary educa- tion. Then there was always an annual deficit of from eight to ten million dollars to be made up by the issuance of Cuban bonds." Attempts to improve conditions gave the government more completely into the hands of the Spaniards, for the poll tax of twenty-five dollars eliminated the native element from CONDITIONS IN CUBA 533 all elections. The last proposed reform was a Council of Administration which was to have fifteen members appointed by the king and fifteen elected by Cuba. Of this election the Spanish officials had control and the governor general was to be president, with power to remove any member of the council at his discretion. From 1868, the beginning of the Ten Years' war, to the out- 637. The break of the Spanish-American war, Cuba had not been free insurrec- tions from insurrection. In 1895 ^ more closely-organized revolt followed under Gomez and Maceo. General Weyler, who, during the Ten Years' war, had earned the name of "The Butcher," was brought from the Philippines to subdue the Cubans, He ordered the crops to be destroyed and the people, together with all domestic animals from the country, to be concentrated in camps in or near the large towns and cities. Thousands of people died from hunger, exposure and fever. The prisons were filled with suspects, many of whom were Americans. U. S. Battleship " Maine " On the night of February 15, 1898, the United States battle- 638. De- ship Maine, which had been sent to Havana harbor to protect t^g"*^u°s°' the interests of Americans, was destroyed and two hundred and battleship fifty of her crew were killed. Investigation showed that a sub- ^*'°^ ' marine mine had caused the explosion.^ 1 Experts again declared in igi2, after the ship was raised to the top of the water, that an outside explosion caused an explosion of the magazines. 534 THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 639. Presi- dent Mc- Kinley's Humanity, love of liberty, and self-interest would doubtless have caused the United States to intervene in the course of events, but the tragedy of the Maine hastened action. Weyler had been pre\'iously recalled, and other forms of reUef were promised, but it was too late. Again, President McKinley ai)pealed to the Spanish govern- ment in behalf of the Cubans, and received the reply that they message in would be "granted all the liberty they could expect." Congress Cuba ordered a more thorough investigation of conditions in Cuba than had yet been made. After the report of the commission had been received. President McKinley sent a special message to Congress, April ii, 1S9S. Without committing himself to the insurgent cause he calmly reviewed the situation, and added, "In view of these facts and considerations, I ask Congress to authorize and empower the president to take measures to secure a final termination of hostilities between the government of Spain and the people of Cuba, and to secure in the island the establishment of a stable go\-ernment capable of maintaining order and observing its internal obligations, insuring peace and tranquillity and the security of its citizens, as well as our own, and to use the military and naval forces of the United States as may be necessary for these purposes." 640. Reso- lutions of Congress; war THE PHILIPPINES On April 19 Congress passed a joint resolution: (i) declaring that Cuba ought to be free and independent; (2) demanding the withdrawal of Spain from the island; (3) empowering the president to use sufficient force to carry out these resolutions; (4) it further declared that it was not the intention of the United States to exercise sovereignty or control or to encourage annexation, but instead, when independence was established, to leave the government to the people of the island. The Spanish minister at Washington was notified and was given his pass- ports. The resolutions were also wired to the American minis- ter at Madrid, but he had already been notified by the Spanish government that diplomatic relations were severed. These THE PHILIPPINES 535 resolutions were tantamount to a declaration of war; volun- teers were called out, and in a few weeks regiments from every section of the country were training in camps, while the regular army was being mobilized at Chickamauga and Tampa to be ready for transportation to Cuba, and a blockade of Cuban ports was ordered. Commodore Dewey, who was at Hong Kong, was instructed 641. Naval to "iind and destroy" the Spanish Asiatic fleet. The American ManUa°bay, squadron entered Manila bay Saturday night, April 30. With May 1,1898: , Manila oc- cupied, Au- gust 13 Manila and the Pasig River Showing the Magellan monument and the stone bridge connecting the walled city with Binondo all lights out and each gun manned, half the fleet had passed the fortifications before the ships were discovered. The guns from the forts then opened fire, while frequently an immense volume of water shot into the air showing where a submarine mine had been exploded. The Spanish fleet was sighted under the guns of Cavite, one of the forts that guard the bay and the city of Manila. The American ships passed "line ahead" to the attack. As they neared Cavite a shell exploded directly over the flagship; at once rose the cry of "Remember the Maine" from the entire crew. Dewey gave orders to return the fire, and in a few hours of battle the Spaniards had lost their entire fleet, while the Americans had received no serious damage 536 THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR to a ship. Not a man had been killed and only eight slightly wounded. The Spaniards fought bravely; they did not lack guns, ammunition, or modern equipment, but the inefficiency of Spain's corrupt government was such that her gunners had not been properly trained. On the next day the American fleet established a blockade of Manila and occupied Cavite. The naval victory could not be followed up by the occupation of the city for lack of a sufficient force to hold the place. Land forces had to be sent from America, Three months later General Merritt arrived with ten thousand troops, and the city was taken August 13, the next day after the signing of the protocol, or preliminary peace treaty. 642. Samp- son and Schley in the West Indies; Cer- vera blocked in Santiago; Hobson and the "Merri- mac " THE WEST INDIES Admiral Sampson was sent to the West Indies, while Com- modore Schley, in charge of the flying scjuadron, was left at Hampton Roads to protect the American coast. As a further protection, mines were laid in every harbor along the coast from Maine to the Rio Grande. Soon after hostilities began, a Span- ish fleet under Admiral Ccrvera was reported to have sailed from St. Vin- cent for America. Great excitement prevailed in the cities on the At- lantic coast, for no one knew the destination of the Spanish fleet. Escaping the \-igilance of Sampson, Cervera's fleet entered Santiago har- bor. May 19. Positive knowledge of its presence there was given by Lieutenant Blue, who passed the Spanish lines and saw the fleet at anchor in the harbor. Samp- son, reenforced by Schley, closed the port, and Cervera was shut in. Just prior to this the American fleet had been joined by the battleship Oregon that had been ordered from San Francisco, making a journey of fourteen thousand miles in sixty-six days. William T. Sampson THE WEST INDIES 537 The entrance to Santiago harbor is a narrow strait between two precipitous mountains. Lieutenant Hobson conceived the idea of blocking the harbor by sinking the coalship, Merrimac, across the channel. At three o'clock one morning Hobson with six men ran the ship under the guns of the Morro castle, and entered the narrow channel, but before reaching the desired position they were fired upon by a picket boat, their rudder was shot away, and the ship became unmanageable. The explosives were fired to sink the ship; and the crew, scrambled to a raft where they remained until daylight, when they were picked up by the gallant Cervera, who sent word to Sampson that they were safe. They were kindly treated and later were ex- changed. An army of sixteen thousand men under General Shafter was 643. Schley at once sent to Cuba to attack Santiago in the rear and to q^^^°^^, cooperate with the fleet. Before the city was captured, Cer- fleet, July 3 vera, acting under orders from his home government, tried to get out to sea by running the gant- let of the American fleet. On July 3, while the American crew were at quarters and Sampson had gone in his flagship to consult with General Shafter, the Spanish flagship was sighted coming out of the harbor, followed by the rest of the fleet. Commodore Schley started in pursuit. In three-quarters of an hour of a running fight it was clear that the Spanish fleet w^ould be compelled to „, o ' o ^ , ^ WiNFiELD Scott Schley surrender. One ship had already been beached and half the others were on fire. Admiral Cervera's flagship, the last of the fleet, burst into flames and was run aground. Ofiicers and crew surrendered. Spain had lost two fleets and over a thousand men in Httle over two months. On the American side one man had been killed and one wounded, while ten thousand dollars covered the damage to the ships. 538 THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 644. Land attacks ; surrender of Santiago, July 17; surrender of Porto Rico The deadly fire of the Americans showed the training of the men behind the guns, as it had done at Manila. Admiral Sampson joined the squadron just as the last Spanish ship was destroyed, and Schley at once reported to him the result of the conflict. After the war there was a bitter con- troversy over the action of Schley in this battle and during the blockade. He demanded a Court of Inquiry to investigate his conduct and on several counts he was acquitted, but was con- demned on others. He appealed to the president for vindica- tion and received assurance that the findings of the Court were final; but he was vindicated by the American people, and to them he is the hero of the naval battle before Santiago. Santiago harbor is six miles long and is surrounded by pre- cipitous mountains that rise straight from the water. At its head, between two mountain ranges, lies the walled city of Santiago, guarded by the fortified positions of Aguadores, San Juan, and El Caney. The American plan was a joint attack by the army and na\'y on these three towns. General Law- ton was to take El Caney, General Wheeler's cavalry was given the dif- ficult task of taking San Juan, while General Duffield was to act in direct conjunction with the fleet in the cap- ture of Aguadores. In these move- ments the Americans were to be sup- ported by the Cuban soldiers, but on account of their lack of military training, they were a negligible factor during the entire war. The Spanish soldiers contested every inch of the ground, but in July the heights above the city had been carried. El Caney and San Juan had been taken after heavy losses in des- perate charges; and when Cervera made his dash for liberty, General Shafter and Admiral Sampson were in consultation on the feasibility of inaction until reenforcements could be brought D'—'J-*'- V- '-- Joseph Wheeler THE UNITED STATES A WORLD POWER 539 from the United States. But the destruction of the Spanish fleet on July 3 left Spain's cause hopeless, and a few days later General Toral, in command at Santiago, surrendered "the city and province of Santiago de Cuba into the authority of the United States (July 17)." The Cuban soldiers were to be treated as prisoners of war by the American general. The protocol that was signed on August 12 stopped the operations of General Miles in Porto Rico, and the governor at once surrendered the island. THE UNITED STATES A WORLD POWER The American soldiers had performed well their duty in every 645. A situation — in camp, along the march through the jungles under the°War° a tropical sun, in the charge, and in the trenches. But the Depart- inefhciency of the war department is a dark blot upon the ™*°* picture. Secretary of War Alger's administration was investi- gated by a commission appointed by the president and, al- though he was exonerated, the fact remains that lack of proper equipment, suitable clothing, pure food, and sanitation in the camps, caused more deaths than occurred on the field of battle, or from wounds received. The peace commissioners met at Paris, December 10, 1898. ^*^- '^^^ Since the city of Manila was not captured till the day after the peace protocol was signed, Spain charged that the United States had broken the terms of agreement. There was much discussion among the commissioners before an agreement was reached, but the final terms did not change the terms of the protocol. Spain should relinquish all claim to Cuba and cede Porto Rico and three small islands, and Guam of the Ladrones, to the United States, and in consideration of twenty million dollars, grant all right and title to the Philippines. A successful revolution was terminated in Hawaii and the 647. Ha- new government applied to the United States for annexation, ng^ed — On account of the importance of the island as a coaling station 1898 and naval base, as well as the large interests which Americans had acquired there. Congress by joint resolution declared iu 540 THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 648. favor of annexation, and Hawaii became an American de- pendency. Agui- There had been continued restiveness in the PhiUppines under Tn the Phil- Spanish military government. The islands had been in revolt ippines before war was declared, but Aguinaldo, the native leader, had been bought off by Spain, and had left the country. Dewey, however, picked him up at Hong Kong, and brought him back to Manila; and his Filipino army cooperated with the American " The Crossroads of the Pacific " troops in the assault against Manila. When peace was declared he believed the island would be granted independence. Dis- appointed in this hope, he set up a government and made war on the American forces. His army was soon broken up into little bands, and guerilla warfare was carried on for more than two years. After the capture of Aguinaldo, in March, 1901, he issued a manifesto urging submission to American authority. The last insurgent leader surrendered in April, 1902. There was much dissatisfaction over the conduct of the war in the Philippines. Many of the political leaders in America government opposed the acquisition of any territory that could not become 649. Im perialism ; a state THE UNITED STATES A WORLD POWER 541 an integral part of the Union. Moreover, they contended that established the United States violated the spirit of the Constitution whenj -^gg. it undertook to govern a people "without the consent of the the tariff governed." One of the main issues of McKinley's second cam- paign for the presidency was that of "Imperialism." His large popular vote revealed the attitude of the people toward that policy. In March Congress conferred upon the president "all the military, civil, and judicial powers necessary to govern the Philippine Islands." The army was greatly increased and Judge William H. Taft was sent over to be civil governor (July 4, igoi). He was assisted by four commissioners ap- pointed by the president, who were placed in charge of commerce, public works, justice, finance, and education. Three Filipinos were soon added to this commission. Four years later a Philip- pine National Assembly was elected, which was to act in the capacity of a lower house to the commission. The professed policy of the administration was to grant the Filipino inde- pendence as soon as "he is fit for it," but when that shall be is a question for the future to answer. The United States has spent vast sums in the islands on internal improvements, building bridges and roads, improving rivers and harbors, and fostering commerce and agriculture. The friars owned 400,000 acres of land that was purchased for $7,200,000 and sold to the natives on easy payments. A modern system of education has been organized, and hundreds of teachers have been sent over to take charge of the schools. After Spain withdrew from Cuba a military governor was appointed by the president. His main work in the island was to improve sanitary conditions (for which purpose ten million dollars has been expended), establish schools, and aid in internal improvements. The next year, 1902, a constitution, patterned after that of the United States, was adopted. Four clauses demanded by Congress were incorporated into the document: (i) No foreign power would be allowed to control the island, plant colonies, or interfere with its independence. (2) No debt must be incurred that could not be easily taken care of by 542 THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR revenue. (3) Cuba must sell or lease to the United States certain coaling stations. (4) If necessary to maintain a stable govern- ment at any time, the United States might intervene to protect life and property. The high tariff wall which Congress built around the newly acquired islands retarded their commercial growth for some San Juan Harbor View from Casa Bianca, Ponce de Leon's house years. Recently free trade has been granted on all products except rice, sugar, and tobacco, and since then their exports have greatly increased. 650 Porto In 1900 Porto Rico's government was vested in a governor ernmem°^ and council of eleven, five of them Porto Ricans, all of them appointed by the President. There is also a legislature of thirty-live members elected by the people, but the Council holds the veto power over them. There are a million native inhabi- tants, consisting of mixed Spanish, Indian, and negro blood. SUMMARY AND QUESTIONS 543 It now seems probable that Porto Rico will never enjoy the privilege of statehood. SUMMARY Spain's treatment of Cuba became intolerable to the American people, for reasons of sentiment as well as interest. American capital had found investment in mines and agriculture on the island and cried aloud for pro- tection by the United States; but Spain acted as though she felt that how she treated her own province should give no concern to a foreign power, and she showed resentment when offers were made for the purchase of Cuba. The disaster to the Maine precipitated war. Dewey's fleet de- stroyed the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay. Sampson and Schley destroyed the Spanish fleet at Santiago de Cuba. The land forces under Shafter attacked the intrenchments of Santiago, and the Spanish army was sur- rendered. Manila was occupied. The treaty of peace gave the United States possessions in the Atlantic and in the Pacific. The governments of Cuba, Porto Rico and the Pliilippines were reorganized. Cuba became independent. REVIEW QUESTION? I. Discuss the moral quality of America's attempted intervention between Spain and her colony. 2. What was the Ostend Manifesto? Why did Spain re- fuse to part with Cuba? Why did she treat the island harshly? 3. Discuss three possible causes of the destruction of the Maine. 4. What right had Spain to sell the Philippine Islands? What right had the United States to buy them? 5. What right had Aguinaldo to make war on the Americans in the Philippines? 6. Discuss: The Filipinos will never be capable of self-government until they practice it. 7. Why are the words Filipino and Philippines spelled so differently? 8. Cleveland refused to annex Hawaii : the Congress under McKinley annexed Hawaii. Discuss. CHAPTER XXXI THE NEW DEMOCRACY REFERENCES Secondary Authorities. — Lamed, History for Ready Reference, vol. vii; Wilson, Division and Reunion; The New International Year Books; The Current Periodicals. Sources. — Political Party Platforms; The Constitution and Reports of the various social, industrial, economic, and political organizations of the last decade; Congressional Records; Reports of the various Departments of the United States Government, etc. ROOSEVELT AND CONSERVATION 651. Death The Pan-American Exposition was held at Buffalo, in the dent'^M^c- summer and autumn of 1901, for the purpose of "joining the Kinley three Americas in a unified attempt to show one another their trade resources." Like other expositions it was attended by miUions of people and, also like others, it was a powerful educative factor, particularly along industrial lines. But it was the business man's show, and from it the business man derived most profit. President McKinley spoke at the exposi- tion in furtherance of the continued good-will among the Ameri- can republics and the maintenance of friendly trade relations, and he gave expression to the needs and interests of American industry no less than to his own pacific nature and his desire for universal peace. It was his last public address. On September 6th, the day following his speech before the exposition. President McKinley was shot by a half-crazed assassin named Czolgosz. For eight days he lingered between life and death. On the morning of September 14 he died, and in the afternoon Vice-President Theodore Roose^'elt took the oath of office as president of the United States, and the strenuous Rough Rider became the star performer on our national stage for many a day. 544 ROOSEVELT AND CONSERVATION 545 Theodore Roosevelt was born of Dutch paternal ancestry in 652. The new Dr6si~ the city of New York, October 26, 1858. Graduating at Har- dent — 1901 vard at 21 years of age, he soon entered the politics of New York, and was elected to the legislature in 1883. He was a member of the Republican National Convention of 1884, where he fought side by side with the Mug- wumps to defeat the nomina- tion of James G. Blaine for the presidency. On account of failing health he next sought the western plains of North Dakota, and there spent two years in "punching" cattle and writing books. In 1889 he was appointed by President Harri- son to a place on the Civil Service Commission, where he made a reputation as an advo- cate of the "merit system" in appointments to public offices. In 1897 he became assistant secretary of the navy, but resigned the next year to serve as lieutenant colonel of cavalry in the operations in Cuba. Re- turning from Santiago as the hero of the Rough Riders, he was elected governor of New York in 1898. In this capacity he was too active for the politicians of his state, who thought they were ridding themselves of danger from him by forcing upon him in 1900 the nomination for the vice-presidency. President Roosevelt announced that he would pursue the policies outlined by his lamented predecessor, and he retained the McKinley cabinet. The student will remember that although the Teffersonian 653. The new (l6* Democracy stood for a government in which the people are to mocracy; participate freely, it also preached that "that government is 'direct best which governs least." That the new democracy believes senators; even more strongly than the old in the capacity of the people *^® income tax Theodore Roosevelt 546 THE NEW DEMOCRACY 654. Roose- velt on for- ests and irrigation for self-government is shown by the ratification (1913) of the constitutional amendment providing for the election of United States senators by direct vote; and that the new democracy beUeves still further that every branch, phase, and part of gov- ernmental, social, and economical power is responsible to all the people is shown by the ratification (1913) of the amendment to the constitution which provides for an income tax. The new democracy also believes that under the present complex bus- iness organization, in which the tendency to — ^s- I'lCAN. \' ■^'"x. ; V A I" 1 >. -^^^ .' -A-/- X". v.i. ! monopolize is very strong, the government must very greatly en- large the scope of its activities if the people are to continue to be free in the enjoyment of equal opportunities and in the pursuit of the fuller life. This is the fundamental idea back of the national policy of conservation — the pol- icy of reclaiming deserts, preserving forests, and conserving mineral deposits. In other words, the new democracy believes that the natural resources of a country should be used for the good of all the people. The first vigorous and comprehensive effort toward caring for the "people's domain" was made by President Roosevelt. In his first message to Congress (December 3, 1901) he showed a broad sympathy with the whole field of conservation, urging at considerable length that "the preservation of our forests is an imperative business necessity," and that "the western half of Ikkigation Centers of the West ROOSEVELT AND CONSERVATION 547 the United States would sustain a population greater than that of our whole country to-day if the waters that now run to waste were saved and used for irrigation." On June 17, 1902, Con- gress passed the Reclamation Act — a measure which had for its purpose the irrigation of arid lands in the West by the use of funds derived from the sale of public lands in Arizona, Cali- fornia, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North and South Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, Washing- ton, and Wyoming. Under this act the Department of the The black portions indicate the Western reserves; the shaded sections show the Appalachian and White Mountain reserves Interior undertook immediately the work of reclaiming the desert. The work has been enlarged from time to time and to-day many thousands of acres of formerly unproductive land are pouring their treasures of fruit, vegetables, and grains into the lap of the nation. In December, 1904, President Roosevelt again urged upon 655. The Congress the importance of forest conservation. In the follow- poi-est^g. ing February Congress placed the entire forest ser\dce under serves the Department of Agriculture. In 1907 by a proclamation of the president, 17,000,000 acres of forest lands were added to the National Forest Reserves which had been previously set inland waterways 548 THE NEW DEMOCRACY aside. In 1909 these lands totaled the enormous sum of 194,505,325 acres, most of which ^•ast area was under govern- mental control. This, however, is less than twenty per cent of the total forest area in the United States. In immediate charge of this timber land is the National Forest Service, employing, in 1910, 3636 persons, and expending more than $4,000,000. In addition to preserving the forests, efforts are being made to extend them, to find new uses for the various timbers, and to utilize odd lengths of lumber. A very general public interest in forestry has been aroused, and numerous local and national organizations have held important meetings with a view of promoting conservation in every legitimate way. 656. The Springing from the same idea is a plan to develop and utilize more perfectly the inland waterways. In March, 1907, Presi- dent Roosevelt appointed " The Inland Waterways Commission," which immediately began the study of a "Lakes- to- the-Gulf Deep Waterway." Interest in all the problems of waterways continued throughout 1908, and in 1909 the National Rivers and Harbors Congress in annual session at Washington urged upon the Congress of the United States the necessity of an appropriation of $50,000,000 for river and harbor improve- ments. In 1910 the Mississippi River Commission expended more than two and a quarter millions of dollars on the develop- ment of internal waterways. Since this time the public has been forced to take a broad view of the interests invohed and the possibilities of national development of the streams. The floods of March, 1913, have been no small factor in con- vincing the public that the navigable rivers need not only to be improved, but that the interests of the whole country can be materially served by protecting the fertile valleys from excessive and destructive overflows. THE PANAMA CANAL 657. Early The great industrial and commercial expansion of the United an isth- States following the Civil War emphasized the necessity of a mian canal transportation route in the region of the isthmus. In 1878 a THE PANAMA CANAL 549 French company, under the leadership of the engineer who had constructed the Suez canal, Ferdinand de Lesseps, obtained from Colombia permission to dig a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. President Hayes, in a message to Congress, pointed out the advantages of an inter-oceanic canal, and the next year James G. Blaine, secretary of state, seeking closer trade rela- tions with the states of South America, called the attention of the country to the interest of the United States in the Panama canal. At the same time he endeavored to abrogate the Clayton-Bulwer treaty (415). In 1884 a New York company was organized for the purpose of constructing a canal across Nicaragua. The French company, after spending $260,000,000, failed in 1888, but retained its property in the isthmus and the right to complete the canal. In the Spanish-American War it became desirable to send the 658, The Oregon battleship Oregon from San Francisco to support the Atlantic fleet in the West Indies — a distance of nearly fifteen thousand miles. The acquisition of the Philippines and part of the West Indies further emphasized the necessity in time of war for a trans-isthmian route. Another reason had been added to the commercial one; and the whole country had been made keenly aware of the imperative need for shortening the distance be- tween the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The initial step taken by the United States government in the 659. The work was the appointment by Congress (1899) of a special Pauncefote commission to investigate the comparative merits of the Panama Treaty and the Nicaragua routes. This body reported (1901) in favor of Nicaragua. About the same time Secretary of State John Hay induced Great Britain to renounce the- Clayton-Bulwer treaty, and to agree that the United States should have the right to construct and control an isthmian canal. This agree- ment is called the Hay-Patmcefote treaty. Its preamble states a purpose "to facilitate the construction of a ship-canal to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, by whatever route may be considered expedient, and to that end to remove any objec- tion which may arise out of the convention of the 19th of April, 550 THE NEW DEMOCRACY 660. The Hay-Bu- nau-Varilla Treaty 661. Signi- ficance of the canal 1850, commonly called the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, to the con- struction of such canal under the auspices of the government of the United States, without impairing the general principle of neutralization established in Article VIII of that convention." In June, 1901, Congress, after some sharp debating, expressed its preference for the Panama route, provided the president could get control of the necessary zone "within a reasonable time and upon reasonable terms;" if not, then the president was to proceed with the construction of a Nicaragua canal. The French Panama company was now offering its property and rights in Panama for the sum of $40,000,000. President Roosevelt, under authority from Congress, accepted the offer and proceeded to negotiate what is commonly known as the Hay-Herran treaty (August, 1903), which would give to the United States the right to construct the canal in return for $10,000,000 in cash and $250,000 a year as rental for a land strip ten miles wide across Panama. Colombia, a confederation of which the state of Panama was a member, rejected this treaty, and in a few weeks a revolution was started on the isthmus which resulted in the establishment of the republic of Panama. Whatever may have been the cause of the secession of Panama, it was supported by the presence of United States marines instructed to prevent the landing of military forces in the state. The revolution occurred on November 3; three days later the United States government officially recognized the independence of Panama; and on November 18, a treaty was entered into between the new republic and the United States,^ Panama having sent Senor Bunau-Varilla to Washington to conduct negotiations for the completion of the canal. By the Hay- Bunau-Varilla treaty, November 18, 1903, Panama accepted substantially the terms of the Hay-Herran agreement, with the important exception that the canal zone ten miles wide became the exclusive property of the United States. In May, 1904, actual construction was begun; and the work has progressed so well that Chief Engineer Goethals expects to 1 Colombia has never ceased to lay upon President Roosevelt and the American people the responsibility for the secession of Panama. THE PANAMA CANAL 551 complete it in 19 14. Preparations are being made to celebrate the great event in a Panama exposition at San Francisco in the summer of 1915. The completion of the canal is significant for the student of history. Among the great achievements of mankind, it has already had a marked effect in stimulating interest in engineer- ing science. New projects are undertaken; the Erie canal is being greatly improved; even an additional isthmian route through Nicaragua has been suggested. The Route of the Panama Canal The most noticeable immediate effect of the canal will be the change in the quantity and direction of international trade. The distances from New York and London to all the markets on the western coasts of America, and also to the islands of the Pacific, will be greatly reduced. A distance as great as the width of the Atlantic ocean will be saved between New York and Yokohama, while the broad Pacific will scarcely equal the reduction in the distance by water from New York to San Francisco. An air line from Portland, Maine, to Brownsville, Texas, is only half as long as the distance the canal will save between Galveston and San Francisco. The saving in time and money will be in proportion. The effect upon international trade cannot even be imagined; and for American industry and commerce only the eye of a prophet can foresee the future. Certainly Southern ports and Southern cities will have a 552 THE NEW DEMOCRACY marvelous growth; industries at the South must inevitably be strongly organized and more varied; while with increased material development will surely come a whole train of social and economic problems hitherto unknown to the Southern people. Proximity to the South American states and a re- sultant increased business in them will inevitably bring new international problems that may revolutionize existing relations and put the Monroe Doctrine to a new test. THE PROBLEM OF THE CORPORATIONS 662. The The great corporate industries had forced a new problem upon l'f,^^,?o *°' the government and people of the United States. Infants that gerous '^ ' ' power had been protected had become giants; and the question now concerned the preservation of the repubUc, which, no less than a monarchy, must refuse to tolerate within itself the existence of insubordinate power. The truism that large capital, right- fully employed, is advantageous to producer and consumer gave complacency, and the second election of McKinley (1900) gave endorsement to "big business," which prepared to make the most of the circumstances. Already in the last two years of McKinley's first administration nearly two hundred new trusts had been formed with a combined capital of $4,000,000,000 — "an amount of money equal to one-twentieth of the total wealth of the United States, and four times the combined capital of all the corporations organized between the Civil War and Cleve- land's second administration."^ The great combinations had maintained in power a party which had enabled them through tariff laws to enter the markets of the world and compete suc- cessfully with foreign enterprise. The nation's export business had suddenly doubled, trebled, and quadrupled, and had gained for us a favorable trade balance. The farm and mine products had broken all previous records, population had increased rapidly, prices were good, and prosperity abounded. There was a great opportunity for corporate greed — "a time when America had set about her task of making commercial vassals 1 Muzzey, American Uislory, p. 591, THE PROBLEM OF THE CORPORATIONS 553 of the Old World countries," even if it took the life blood of the American people to do it. In his first message to Congress, President Roosevelt reviewed 663. Roose- the conditions which had given rise to the agitation concerning monopo- corporations and trusts, and especially pointed out "over capi- lies; De- talization" as an evil to be corrected. In the following summer comnferce he declared that "the State not only has the right to control and Labor monopolies, but that it is the State's duty to control them." His next message to Congress (1903), asserted that "no more important subject can come before the Congress than this of the regulation of interstate business. This country cannot afford to sit supine on the plea that under our peculiar systems of government we are helpless in the presence of the new con- ditions, and unable to grapple with them or to cut out whatever of evil has arisen in connection with them." The president went on to urge upon Congress its constitutional authority to deal with this problem, and recommended as an initial step — "knowledge of facts — pubUcity." In all of these utterances the president simply voiced a strong current of pubUc opinion and Congress responded with the passage of a law creating the Department of Commerce and Labor, "including the Bureau of Corporations, with for the first time authority to secure proper publicity of such proceed- ings of these great corporations as the public has the right to know. It [Congress] has provided for the expediting of suits for the enforcement of the federal anti-trust law; and by another law it has secured equal treatment to all producers in the trans- portation of their goods, thus taking a long stride forward in making effective the work of the Interstate Commerce Com- mission." ^ While these vigorous messages from the president, and this 664. Utica new kind of legislation by Congress were seeking to regulate secretary corporate industry, the combinations of capital and brains were Root— 1906 growing in numbers and in power, and were devising new means of exploitation. That "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" * President's Message to Congress, December 7, 1903. 554 THE NEW DEMOCRACY was no less true now than in the days of Patrick Henry. From time to time, therefore, statesmen called the attention of the country to the dangers from coq)orate power and from time to time Congress sought to cope with the evil by new laws. The following extract from a speech at Utica, New York (November, 1906), indicates the scope of governmental action to that time: "The act creating the bureau of corporations, the act expediting the trial of trust cases, the anti-rebate act, the act for the regu- lation of railroad rates, have made possible redress which was impossible before. Under the direction of two successive attorney generals of the first order of ability, sincerity, and devotion, in hundreds of courts, incessant warfare has been waged and is being waged under the federal laws against cor- porate wrongdoers. The Northern Securities company . . . has been forced to dissolve by the judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States. The methods of the Beef Trust in combining to suppress competition in the purchase of live- stock and the sale of meat have been tried and condemned, and the trust has been placed under injunction to abandon these practices by the judgment of the Supreme Court. The com- bination of paper manufacturers in the territory from Chicago to the Rocky mountains has been dissolved by the judgment of the Supreme Court, and the combination has been abandoned, and the price of white paper in that territory has gone down thirty per cent. The Retail Grocers' association in this country has been dissolved by a decree of the court. The elevator com- bination in the West has been dissolved in like manner. The salt combination west of the Rocky mountains has been dissolved by decree of the court. The Wholesale Grocers' association in the South, the meat combination and the lumber combina- tion in the West, the combination of railroads entering the city of St. Louis to suppress competition between the bridges and ferries reaching that city; the Drug Trust, which suppresses competition all over the country, are being vigorously pressed in suits brought by the federal government for their dissolu- tion. The salt combination has been indicted, convicted, and THE PROBLEM OF THE CORPORATIONS 555 fined for failing to obey the judgment of dissolution. The Beef Trust has been indicted for failing to obey the injunction against them, and have been saved so far only by a decision that they had secured temporary immunity by giving evidence against themselves." Secretary of State Root goes on to enumerate the actions against the Tobacco Trust, the Fertilizer Trust, and the Ice Trust. Perhaps the most famous anti-trust suit was that against 665. The the Standard Oil company. In May, 1906, Commissioner of q-i^c"*^ Corporations James R. Garfield reported to Congress: pany (i) For about ten years the New England territory has been in control of the Standard Oil company by reason of the refusal of the New York, New Haven and Hartford road, and of the Boston and Maine road, on all but a few divisions, to pro-rate, i.e., to join in through rates — on oil shipped from west of the Hudson river, and by means of the adjustment of published rates. . . (2) The Standard Oil company has been able absolutely to control for many years the sale of oil in the northeastern part of New York and in a portion of Vermont by means of secret rates from its refineries at Olean and Rochester. . . (3) The Standard Oil company has maintained absolute control of almost the whole section of the country south of the Ohio river and east of the Mississippi, by means of secret rates and open discriminations in rates from Whiting, Indiana. . . (4) The Standard Oil company has for at least ten years shipped oil from Whiting to East St. Louis, Illinois, at a rate of six or six and one-fourth cents on three of the five railroads running between those places, while the only duly published rate on all roads has been eighteen cents during all that period. This discrimination saved the Standard about $240,000 in 1904. . . (5) In the Kansas territory field there were some unfair open rates. . . (6) In California direct rebates, as well as discriminations by the use of secret rates, have been given on oil. 556 THE NEW DEMOCRACY As a result of this report and the recommendations of the president a large number of indictments were returned against the Standard Oil company and its various subsidiary organiza- tions in the several states. In Indiana the company was con- victed (April 14, 1907) on 1462 counts, and was fined the sum of $20,000 on each, or $29,240,000. The penalty, when it is considered that the admitted net profits of this concern during the years 1903, 1904, and 1905, were $81,336,994, $61,570,110, and $57,459,356, respectively, does not seem so enormous, for the capital stock was only $1,000,000. But this did not end the suit. It went on a writ of error to the United States Court of Appeals, which declared (July, 190S) that since the capital stock of the Standard Oil company of Indiana was "principally owned by the New Jersey corporation, a corj:)oration not be- fore the court," and since a court cannot, "without abuse of judicial discretion, condemn any one who has not had his day in court," . . . "the judgment of the District Court is reversed' and the case remanded with instructions to grant a new trial." In March, 1909, the Judge of the District Court directed the jury to find the Standard Oil company not guilty, and the case was closed. Other suits against the company were prosecuted with less vigor, some dismissed, and very few were successful. In the meantime, however, the United States Circuit Court at St. Louis, had declared (April, 1909) the Standard Oil com- pany an illegal corporation under the terms of the Sherman Anti-Trust Law, and had ordered its dissolution. An appeal was taken from this decree to the Supreme Court, and a hearing was given on the following March 14. After a long argument before this court, postponement of the decision was made on account of the death of Justice Brewer, the illness of Justice Moody, and the lack of opportunity of Justice Lurton, who had just been appointed, to become well acquainted with the case. On May 15, 1911, the case was again decided in favor of the government. Recently "the government has been investigat- ing to see if the company obeyed the order for dissolution. Agents for the government have so far made no report." ECONOMIC PROBLEMS 557 THE TARIFF As a part of the story of "big business" in its relation to the 666. Pro- national government, the tariff becomes more than ever no- McKiniey torious. It will be remembered that since the first adminis- on reci- tration of Washington the tariff has been the subject of repeated controversies; that, beginning primarily as a revenue measure, its tendency was gradually upward, for the most part, until the Walker tariff of 1846; that it took on the protective idea more and more as the different business interests found its advantageous features; that the Civil War fastened protec- tion upon the country and made it a glaring feature of the Republican party's policy; that the Democrats endeavored unsuccessfully to make a downward revision in Cleveland's second administration (Wilson-Gorman Bill), and that they have advocated with some degree of earnestness a tariff for revenue only; and that the RepubUcan Dingley Tariff Bill further extended the protective idea by again raising the rates. The Spanish- American war, the interests of "big business," and "imperialism" kept the tariff question in the background in the last few years of the nineteenth century, but there was an undercurrent of sentiment gathering strength all the while which demanded that the tariff schedule be revised downward in the interests of the American people. In President McKin- Icy's last public speech (September, 1901) he said: "Reci- procity is the natural outgrowth of our wonderful industrial development under the domestic policy now firmly established. ... If perchance some of our tariffs are no longer needed for revenue or to encourage and protect our industries at home, why should they not be employed to extend and promote our markets abroad?" In this can be seen at least some faint glimmerings of an idea that was already striving in the minds of even stanch Republicans; but these words from the chief executive had little effect. The Democrats made tariff revision an issue in the prcsi- 667. Tariff dential election of 1904, but the popularity of the Rough Rider 558 THE NEW DEMOCRACY president, and the business interests which the Republican party had always protected were too great to be overcome. The public mind was being educated, however, and Presi- dent Roosevelt himself negotiated certain reciprocity treaties which the Senate refused to ratify. In igo8 the tariff reform sentiment became so strong as to find expression in the plat- forms of both the leading parties. The Republican platform of that year declares "unequivocally for a revision of the tariff by a special session of Congress, immediately following the inauguration of the next president, and commends the steps already taken to this end, in the work assigned to the appro- j)riate committees of Congress, which are now investigating the operation and effect of existing schedules." The Democrats a few days later declared: "We favor immediate revision of the tariff by the reduction of import duties. Articles enter- ing into competition with trust-controlled products should be placed upon the free list, and material reductions should be made in the tariff upon the necessaries of life, especially upon articles competing with such American manufactures as are sold abroad more cheaply than at home, and graduated reduc- tions should be made in such other schedules as may be neces- sary to restore the tariff to a revenue basis." As is easily seen from these declarations much of the sub- stance of the issue between the two parties was removed, and the Republicans, with Taft, won overwhelmingly over the Dem- ocrats with Parker. In his inaugural address. President Taft said: "A matter of most pressing importance is the revision of the tariff. In accordance with the promises of the platform upon which I was elected, I shall call Congress into extra ses- sion, to meet on the fifteenth day of March, in order that con- sideration may be at once given to a bill revising the Dingley Act." When Congress came together the people expected a generous, if careful revision of the tariff. Three days after Congress assembled, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, Mr. Payne, introduced into the House a measure which was THE TARIFF 559 substantially the result of the work of the Special Tariff Com- increases mittee created by the preceding Congress, and which offered a ^'^^ ^"^ ^^^ considerable measure of reduction. The protected interests immediately reenforced in every conceivable way their special lobbies at the national capi- tol for the purpose of pre- venting unfavorable legisla- tion. Their activities on this as on other similar occasions attracted a scathing denun- ciation from Charles Francis Adams, who said of them: "Speaking after the fashion of men, they are either thieves or hogs. I myself belong to the former class. I am a tariff thief, and I have a license to steal. It bears the broad seal of the United States, and is what is known as the 'Dingley Tariff.' I stole under it yesterday; I am steaHng under it to-day; I propose to steal under it to- morrow. The government has forced me into this position, and I both do and shall take full advantage of it. . . And what are you going to do about it ? The other class come un- der the hog category; that is, they rush, squealing and strug- gling, to the great Washington protection trough, and with all four feet in it they proceed to gobble the swill. . . To this class I do not belong. I am simply a tariff thief. . . But, on the other hand, I am also a tariff reformer. I would like to see every protective schedule swept out of existence, my own in- cluded. Meanwhile, what inducement have I to go to Wash- ington on a pubHc mission of this sort? A mere citizen, I represent no one. . . Meanwhile, have it well understood that my position is exactly the position of tens of thousands of William H. Taft 56o THE NEW DEMOCRACY others scattered througliout the country; to ask us to put aside our business affairs, and at our own expense to go to Washington on a desperate mission is asking a little too much." These "hogs," however, could not prevent the passage of the bill through the House. But when it reached the Senate it was changed, under the leadership of IVIr. Aldrich of Rhode Island, in 847 counts and, in almost every case, increased the "swill." After twelve weeks' debate it passed the Senate and was re- ferred to a free conference committee of the two bodies. Here . it was slightly revised downward in a few particulars, though it remained distinctly the most protective of all protective tariffs in our national history. It promptly passed both Houses as it came from the free conference committee, and was signed by President Taft, who confessed, however, that the bill did not fully comply with party promises. 669. Wil- Naturally the country was disappointed and expressed that failure of disappointment in no unmistakable terms. At the close of a Congress severe arraignment of the measure, Woodrow Wilson, at the time president of Princeton University, declared in the North American Review, October, 1909, that "nothing more need be said to demonstrate the insincerity, the uncandid, designing, unpatriotic character of the whole process. It was not intended for the pubHc good. It was intended for the benefit of the interests most directly and selfishly concerned." President Taft and others declared it the most satisfactory tariff act which the country had had. But it widened a breach which was already appearing between the progressive and "stand-pat" Republicans, and contributed in large measure to Democratic victory in 191 2. ' 670. Wood- President Taft was a candidate for reelection, and was nomi- elected ^°° nated by the regular convention of his party. Immediately president Colonel Roosevelt organized the "Progressive" party, which nominated him for the presidency by acclamation. After a hard battle in their convention, the Democrats chose Woodrow Wilson, governor of New Jersey, as their standard bearer, and he carried the electoral vote by an overwhelming majority. CURRENCY AND BANKING 561 In the meantime, however, the Taft administration, pro- 671. Con- ceeding under authority conferred by the Payne-Aldrich bill, ^^^^^ J°^^ was continuing to work at the tariff question through a special iff — 1913 tariff bureau. This body spent considerable time and money in the study of the question. But nothing more than its report found its way to congressional action until the special session called by President Wilson in April, 1913. Under the Demo- cratic leadership of Oscar W. Underwood of Alabama, a some- what thorough-going tariff measure has been carried through the House and is before the Senate. CURRENCY AND BANKING Closely articulated, also, with the problem of "big business" 672. Panic is the question of currency and banking. The expanding in- dustry of the country could not continue without aft"ecting the nation's monetary system. This had been abundantly verified in the panic of 1873, in the financial distress of 1893 and 1894, and in the presidential election of 1896. But the period of transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century was characterized by an unprecedented material develop- ment. Everybody seemed to prosper, crops were bountiful, money was plentiful and easy, business confidence pervaded the entire country, and men engaged in projects that had no real ground for existence. The speculative spirit then, combined with an anticjuated monetary system, brought on a panic in the autumn of 1907. Business suddenly and surprisingly contracted, bank- ing houses throughout the country failed disastrously, money again became stringent, and the whole country entered upon a of 1907 WooDROw Wilson 562 THE NEW DEMOCRACY period of business strain. This condition again directed the attention of serious minded men to a reform of the currency and banking laws. 673. Cur- Accordingly, in 1908, Congress appointed a National Mone- of ^^1908 ^^^ ^^T Commission with Senator Nelson Aldrich as chairman. In the autumn of 1909 President Taft, while touring the country, called attention to the need of a Central Bank of Issue, which, as he thought, would automatically regulate the supply and distribution of the currency and thus prevent the recurrence of such crises as that of 1907. This proposal met the ap- proval of many bankers throughout the country and found formal and somewhat more definite expression in the report of the Monetary Commission near the close of 191 1. Briefly, this report recommends a National Reserve Association or central bank with certain fiscal relations to the national gov- ernment, and composed of representatives from smaller but similar district associations. Every bank in a given district is to be associated about a central district agency, which shall also serve as a branch of the National Reserve Association. This proposal has aroused a great deal of popular discussion. The currency and banking questions are looked upon by the Wilson administration as the most pressing national problem next to the tariff. FOREIGN RELATIONS 674. Eng- The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1S50 provided that: land and the Panama "The Government of ihc United States and of Great Britain hereby declare that neither one nor the other will ever obtain or maintain for itself any exclusive control over said [Panama] ship canal." This treaty was supplanted by the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of 1901, one provision of which was the following: "The canal shall be free and open to the vessels of commerce and of war of all nations observing these rules on terms of entire FOREIGN RELATIONS 563 equality, so that there shall be no discrimination against any such nation or its citizens or subjects in respect to the conditions or charges of traffic or otherwise. Such conditions and charges of traffic shall be just and equitable." On December 9, 191 2, Congress passed a bill granting free passage through the canal to all vessels engaged in the coastwise trade of the United States. To this Act Great Britain objected on the ground that tolls for passing through the canal are assessed to pay the expenses of keeping it in repair, and that if the merchant vessels doing the coastwise business of the United States should be allowed to pass through free, the tolls on all other vessels would be higher, in order to meet these expenses, than they would be if all should pay toll alike. To this objection the United States government, expressing itself through Secretary Knox, re- plied that granting to American vessels free passage through the canal dug by American engineers, with American money, violated no treaty, and was our own affair. However, after considerable discussion, the president, Mr. Taft, expressed a willingness to oblige Great Britain by submitting the matter to arbitration. Great Britain has ceased to press her objection, and Congress has not repealed the Act. (Au- gust, 1913.) In 1832 the United States and Russia entered into a treaty 675. The which is now expiring by limitation, of which the following ^"^^\^° ^ ° -' ' '^ question IS the first article: "There shall be, between the territories of the high contracting parties, a reciprocal hberty of commerce and navigation. The in- habitants of their respective states shall mutually have hberty to enter the ports, places, and rivers of the territories of each party wherever foreign commerce is permitted. They shall be at liberty to sojourn and reside in all parts whatsoever of said territories in order to attend to their affairs, and they shall enjoy, to that effect, the same security and protection as natives of the country wherein they reside on condition of their submitting to laws and ordinances there prevailing, and particularly to the regulations in force con- cerning commerce." 564 THE NEW DEMOCRACY On different occasions the passports of American Jews who wished to enter Russia have not been honored, because in hon- oring those passports American Jews sojourning in Russia would be allowed privileges and liberties which are denied native Russian Jews by the laws of Russia. While perhaps the cases wherein Jews were actually denied the privileges guaranteed by the treaty were few, still the fact of these few denials deterred many other American Jews from attempting to visit Russia, The agitation of the question by leading Hebrew citizens in America prompted the passage through Congress, by a unanimous vote, save one, of the Sulzer reso- lution, which expresses at least the national political sentiment. The resolution is as follows: "That the people of the United States assert, as a fundamental principle, that the rights of its citizens shall not be impaired at home or abroad because of race or religion; that the government of the United States concludes its treaties for equal protection of all classes of its citizens without regard to race or religion; that the government of the United States will not be a party to any treaty which discriminates, or which, by one of the parties thereto, is so construed as to discriminate between American citizens on the ground of race or religion; that the government of Russia has vio- lated the treaty of 1832, refusing to honor American passports duly issued to American citizens, on account of race or religion; that, in the judgment of Congress, the said treaty, for reasons aforesaid, ought to be terminated at the earliest time; that for the reasons aforesaid the said treaty is hereby declared to be terminated and of no further force and effect from the expiration of one year after date of notification of the government of Russia of the terms of this resolution, and that to this end, the President is hereby charged with the duty of communicating such notice to the government of Russia." Both parties now seem willing to agree to the abrogation of the treaty of 1832 and the formation of a new treaty more explicit in its terms and in harmony with the demands of both 676. Japan nations. and the Early in 1913 the legislature of California, responding to a incident popular demand, proposed measures providing in substance FOREIGN RELATIONS 565 that aliens should not own land for speculative purposes, but only in such quantities as might be put to personal use. They provided also that upon the death of those aliens now owning land, the same should be sold ; and that rents or leases should not exceed three years. It was evident that the legislation was aimed at the Japanese, and the govern- ment of Japan protested against it. President Wilson sent Secretary of State Bryan to California to consult and advise concerning the international problem which the proposed legislation raised. The legislature gave Mr. Bryan respectful attention but passed the measures at the close of his address, and the governor approved with his signature. The Cali- fornia legislature seems to have steered clear of the inhibitions of the treaty with Japan, and its Acts, while embarrassing to the federal government, will stand in the courts. Fortunately American diplomacy was equal to the delicate task, and friendship with Japan remains unaffected. Almost without interruption from 1877 to 1910, Porfirio Diaz 677. The was the president of the Republic of Mexico. In 1910 Fran- [^^^"^^^^ Cisco I. Madero, Jr., was a candidate against Diaz, and was the efforts defeated. Madero, charging frauds in the election, headed ^^flHsonto'^ successful revolt against the Diaz government, and Diaz left end the the country. De La Barra was made provisional president °" ^^ ad interim. An election was called in 191 1, and Madero was duly and constitutionally elected president. After two years, revolution again broke out; Madero and his vice-president were imprisoned, and were quickly put to death. General Victoriano Huerta became provisional president, and at his assumption of power in the City of Mexico, there broke out another revolution, led by the governors of some northern Mexican states, who called themselves constitutionalists, to emphasize their charge that Huerta 's claim to the presidency was unconstitutional. The proximity of Mexico to the United States gives this country strong grounds of interest in her southern neighbor. Battles fought near the line endanger the lives of Americans. 566 THE NEW DEMOCRACY Citizens of the United States own property in Mexico. On account of the prejudice against Americans existing among the less intelligent Mexicans, the lives and proi)erty of American citizens in Mexico were endangered. President Wilson accepted the resignation of the United States ambassador, who was not in harmony with the views of the administration, and sent to Mexico ex-Governor John Lind of Minnesota as his personal representative. In August, 19 13, there were strong hopes that even without armed inter- vention, America would be able to guide in bringing peace to her sister republic. SOCIAL AND GOVERNMENTAL IVIOVEMENTS 678. The While the new democracy is successfully combating nse of com- pj.jyj^ggg through the agency of the national government, form of it is also at work in a variety of movements looking toward goveriunent ^j^^ greater freedom of the individual and a fuller participa- tion by him in all those matters that directly affect his welfare. For example, a decided reform is taking place in the government of cities and towns. When men are busy about private affairs they are in danger of becoming neglect- ful of civic duties. In the recent era of business activity municipal government became the victim of partisan politics. Rings, bosses, and political cliques acquired control of the machinery of local government and manipulated it in disre- gard of public interest. This condition has come about in part, no doubt, as a result of the organization under a mayor or aldermen chosen usually by political parties that in no wise followed definite policies or principles of local government, but whose issues were mainly national in char- acter. It is not surprising, therefore, that the spoils system found a prominent place in municipal administration and that the people were cheated out of their rightful service. A more or less general consciousness of these evils had begun to be felt at the opening of the twentieth century, but no effec- tive reform had been undertaken until a destructive storm SOCIAL AND GOVERNMENTAL MOVEMENTS 567 wrought havoc to the city of Galveston in 1900 and made necessary an effective and economic administration of the city's business. It was seen that if the city was to rise again its government must proceed in accordance with com- mon interests, and that local and selfish interests must be ignored. Accordingly, the old system of organization was done away with, and in the place of aldermen representing the special interests of districts of the city, there was sub- stituted a commission of five which was made responsible for the collective interests of the city. The change proved so effective in Galveston that other cities have adopted the plan with modifications and improvements. The functions of each commissioner have been specialized; some of the cities have adopted the policy of paying their officers for their full time; and some have otherwise given their city government the organization of business corporations. These changes mean better local government in the interests of the people. What is popularly known as the Initiative, Referendum, 679. The and Recall is being resorted to extensively in state govern- ^j^g people ments as well as in cities. The Initiative seeks to confer for greater upon a certain per cent (not the same in all cases) ofti^\^n^^he the people the right to initiate or begin legislation through government petition to the legislative power, such petition being man- datory upon that body so far as the question involved is concerned. The Referendum requires that, upon petition by a varying percentage of voters, measures which shall pass the legislature shall also be ratified by the people before becoming valid. The Recall gives to the people the right to recall or dismiss inefficient or unfaithful officials without wait- ing for a regular election. The friends of these measures believe that in bringing governmental activities more directly under popular control, the people's common aims and inter- ests will be better served. They see in them a simple exten- sion of the principles of democracy. The opponents of these changes see in them a dangerous tampering with representa- 568 THE NEW DEMOCRACY tive government, and assert that they have failed to accom- plish, where used, the results their friends claim for them. Many of the cities throughout the United States have adopted one or all of these measures, while the states of Oregon, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Michigan, Utah, Mis- souri, and Montana have also adopted them. In many other states there is a partial use of these measures. 680. The Discussion has been given to the rise of organized labor in increasing tj-jg seventies and eighties (498) and to a number of questions dignity of . r i 1 » 1 • • 1 i- • 1 workers growmg out oi labor s relation to our economic and pohtical system. These problems have since become more complex, and new ones have arisen that constantly confront both state and national law-making bodies. Some progress, however, has been made in the matter of adjusting differences between labor and capital. In 1902 the American Civic Federation gave encouragement to a national conference between labor leaders and capitalists. Besides bringing together representative men of broad outlook and patriotic purpose, the convention appointed a standing committee whose function should be the amicable adjustment of industrial troubles, and whose work has since been strengthened by the organization for the Foun- dation for the Promotion of Industrial Peace (1906), by the intervention of the Interstate Commerce Commission, by the National Bureau of Labor, and by sundry other organizations that seek industrial peace. Meantime, by the educative process, greater toleration is being developed on the side of both labor and capital, and it now seems that the traditional good sense of the American people will eventually bring about an entirely satisfactory solution of a most perplexing problem. Strikes and boycotts are becoming less numerous, and less destructive. The law is also taking greater cognizance of the laboring man. Through the passage of liability acts in nearly every state, legislation is seeking to give the workingman better protection against injury, while at the same time labor organizations as well as the larger corporations are attempting to care for workingmen through various methods of old-age, sickness, and SOCIAL AND GOVERNMENTAL MOVEMENTS 569 accident insurance. Pensions and profit-sharing are resorted to in a limited way, and shorter hours and better sanitation are doing much to improve the material and intellectual condi- tions of the laboring classes. If these improvements with a body of more than twenty million of our population signify anything, it is a greater, a more enlightened, and a happier democracy. Along with other more or less popular reforms is a move- 681. The ment for woman's suffrage. This movement seems to be one^°™*'^'^ suffrage of many phases of a more general movement — the constantly movement widening field of woman's activities. In the last half century women have found employment in factories, have gained ad- mission to hundreds of colleges on equal terms with men, have entered the professions of law, medicine, teaching, and others, in constantly increasing numbers, and have adopted various trades and business pursuits with astonishing facility. The inevitable result of this enlarged participation in the ordinary vocations of men has been the development among women of a keener interest in and a broader sympathy for civil and political problems. State and local governments have re- sponded in many instances to these new conditions by giving to women larger control over their own property and by grant- ing them suffrage in varying degree. In Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Washington, California, Arizona, Kansas, and Oregon, women enjoy equal suffrage with men. Elections have recently been held in Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin, but each resulted in a defeat for the suffrage movement. In Massa- chusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia, efforts have been made to secure the submission of a woman's suffrage amendment to the constitution, but so far these efforts have failed. In thirty-one of the states women now have the right to vote at school elections, and various state and national organizations have declared in favor of woman's suffrage, the new Progressive Party, organized in 191 2, making it a platform demand. Its advocates are very aggressive, and feel keenly that they are fighting for the sacred cause of liberty, while 570 THE NEW DEMOCRACY as a rule the opponents of the measure can see in it only a tem- porary craze that stands for no vital principle of government, and insist that women are not by nature fitted for the exercise of the suffrage, and that participation in poUtics would hinder the efl&cient performance of her duties as a home-maker. 682. The Patriotic men who think in large terms are now laboring " rural life " effectively in an effort to provide the means whereby rural con- movemen jitions may satisfy the cravings of the normal man for society and its pleasures. While in office, Mr. Roosevelt, responding to a general public desire, appointed a committee of distin- guished Americans, with Prof. L. H. Bailey of Cornell University as chairman, to study rural life and its betterment Among other helpful suggestions the report of that committee empha- sized the use of the rural school house as a "social center" of each community. It should be the meeting place of the debat- ing club, the sewing club, the cooking club, the agriculture club, the book club, the singing club, the athletic club, and the various other clubs and organizations which contribute to the social and intellectual life of the neighborhood. In all this activity the rural library is perhaps the real center. In the meantime, science and government were making large contributions to the social life of the country. The telephone found its way into the home of many prosperous farmers; and the automobile greatly lessened the journey to the city. Furthermore, the postoflfice department, with the extension of the rural free delivery service, greatly assisted in relieving the hard conditions formerly common to the people on isolated farms and ranches. Recent years have witnessed an intense effort to bring school and home life nearer together by the introduction of the study of rural economics into the schools. Legislators, educators, and patriotic associations throughout the country have united in efforts to make comfortable and beautiful the country school- house and the country home. Manual training and agriculture, as well as household economics and arts, now share the school programs with foreign languages, oratory, music, and painting. Everything that affects the lives of people is now engaging the THE PEACE MOVEMENT 571 attention of the great universities. Agriculture in its multi- form subdivisions, engineering, — down to the digging of a hillside ditch and building a split-log bridge across a brook, — the breeding of cattle and other domestic animals, the running of a country newspaper, and the directing of a country debating club, all are now within the still developing work of state uni- versities and other colleges maintained at the state's expense. This is but a glance at the great effort of the people to im- prove the quality and quantity of the life of the country. THE PEACE MOVEMENT From a feeble beginning in the parlors of David L. Lodge 684. The in New York City (181 5), organized efforts to promote thcg^^j .^^® cause of universal peace among the nations have increased 1815 until nations themselves, through their rulers and represen- tatives, are adding not_ only dignity but even force to the movement. Resolutions have been passed in the House of Representa- tives and in the Senate of the United States, in favor of refer- ring international questions to arbitration. Somewhat similar resolutions have also been passed by the legislative bodies in England and in Italy. The Czar of Russia proposed a conference to meet at the^^^- '^^^ Hague in 1898 — a conference to be composed of representa- ferences tives of all the civilized countries, and with the purpose of bringing about the disarmament of the nations. This effort finding but small encouragement, the czar made a second effort in which he proposed a conference at the Hague to discuss pending international difficulties. The result was the forma- tion of an international Court of Arbitration. The second Hague conference met in 1907, called by Presi- dent Roosevelt at the suggestion of the Inter-parliamentary Union. This conference took long steps forward, (i) It pro- \'ided for perpetuating itself by appointing another meeting in 1915. (2) It established the principle of arbitration, to take the place of the power of war, in the collection of national debts. 572 THE NEW DEMOCRACY (3) It provided a Prize Court for the protection of neutral ships in time of war. (4) It strengthened the Court of Arbitration. Mr. Andrew Carnegie, the American philanthropist, has given to the Hague conference a magnificent building and an income. President Wilson, almost immediately after his in- auguration, with Secretary of State Bryan, began to move upon the nations in the interest of arbitration; and to the secretary's proposals, the nations have signified their willing- ness to enter into an agreement refusing to go to war until causes of trouble are investigated by a court, the details of whose creation are yet to be worked out. Evidently the Wilson- Bryan plan will assist in a\-oiding useless wars, and in bringing in the reign of peace. In 1913 three great peace societies held their meetings in the United States — one in New York, one in St. Louis, and one at Lake Mohonk. All of these con- ventions urged the nations to prepare for the program of the centennial of the World Peace Movement, the third great Hague conference in 19 15. SUMMARY At the Buffalo exposition in 1901, President McKinley was assassinated. Theodore Roosevelt succeeded to the presidency, and announced that he would pursue the policies of his predecessor. Roosevelt began at once to press upon Congress the necessity of "conservation of the national re- sources." In 1902 Congress passed the Reclamation Act, designed to convert arid areas of the West into irrigated agricultural lands; and the Department of the Interior began the work of reclamation. In 1904 Congress placed the forest service under the Department of Agriculture. Vast areas of forest lands were withdrawn from sale, and placed in the National Forest Reserves. In 1907 Roosevelt appointed "The Inland Waterways Commission"; and the movement has made progress in the development of systematic improvement of rivers and harbors. A series of destructive floods in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys in 1913 emphasized the necessity of scientific effort for the protection of life and property. The United States government, by act of Congress, in 1904 began actual work on the Panama Canal, having provided for full right and title to the canal zone through a treaty with Panama, which had become independent of Colombia. The work is still in progress, with outlook for its completion in 1914. Popular agitation in regard to trusts, combinations, and monopolies, marked the period. Congress created the Department of Commerce and SUMMARY AND REVIEW 573 Labor, including the Bureau of Corporations; passed an act expediting the trial of trust cases, passed an anti-rebate act, and an act for the regula- tion of railroad rates. Many great combinations were indicted and some of them dissolved. Opposition to a protective tariff was growing. In 1908 even the Republicans declared, in party platform, for a revision of the tariff — and won the election of Taft. The new president called Congress in extra session to consider the tariff revision, and Congress, in its revision, increased the protective rates; yet the bill was signed by President Taft. In the election for president in 1912, the Republican party split on the tariff and other questions, and the Democrats elected Woodrow Wilson. REVIEW QUESTIONS I. What is the great fundamental problem now before the American people? How did it originate? 2. What are trusts? 3. What difBculties are encountered in dealing with them? 4. What is the difference between the Jeffersonian Democ- racy and present day Democracy? 5. How is the tariff issue related to the trust problem? 6. How is it related to the political doctrine that government is for all the people? 7. How is it an evidence that business interests have had a large share in directing our government? 8. Is the Currency and Banking question an evidence of business expansion? 9. Is the Panama Canal the result of an industrial and commercial necessity? 10. Will its competition have any appreciable effect upon business? How? 11. Explain what is meant by conservation, and tell something that has been accompHshed for it. 12. Does the policy of Conservation contemplate an enlargement of governmental activities? 13. What is the Peace Movement? 14. What are some of the arguments of the promotion of the peace movement? 15. What are some of the practical difficulties in the way of universal peace? APPENDIX I DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE In Congress, July 4, 1776 A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress Assembled When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all e.xperience hath shown that mankind are more dis- posed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same objecj, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their futiu^e security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpa- tions, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing im- portance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. i ii APPENDIX I He has refused to pass other laws for tlie accommodation of large districts of people, unless those peojjlc would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, — a right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislati\'e bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measure. He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining, in the mean time, exposed to all the dangers of invasions from without and convulsions within. He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that pur- pose obstructing the laws for the naturalization of foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. He has kept among us in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures. He has afTected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitutions and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation : For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us; For protecting them, by a niock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states; For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world; For imposing taxes on us without our consent; For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury; For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offenses; For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an e.xample and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies; For taking away our charters, abohshing our most valuable laws, and altering, fundamentally, the forms of our governments; For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE iii He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and de- stroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. He has e.xcited domestic insurrection among us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions. In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tryant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have we been wanting in our attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them, from time to time, of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the cir- cumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity; and we have conjured them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They, too, have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled, appeahng to the Supreme Judge of the world for the recti- tude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly pubhsh and declare. That these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection be- tween them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that, as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And, for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. The foregoing Declaration was, by order of Congress, engrossed and signed by the following members: IV APPENDIX I NEW HAMPSraRE JOSIAH BaRTLETT William Whipple Matthew Thornton MASSACHUSETTS BAY Samuel Adams John Adams Robert Treat Paine Elbridge Gerry RHODE ISLAND Stephen Hopkins William Ellery CONNECTICUT Roger Sherman Samuel Huntington William Williams Ouver Wolcott NEW YORK William Floyd Philip Livingston Francis Lewis Lewis Morris John Hancock NEW JERSEY Richard Stockton John Witherspoon Francis HopiaNSON John Hart Abraham Clark PENNS\TLVANLA Robert Morris Benjamin Rush Benjamin Franklin John Morton George Clymer James Smith George Taylor James Wilson George Ross DELAWARE C.«sar Rodney George Read Thomas M'Kean MAR\TAND Samuel Chase William Paca Thomas Stone Charles Carroll, of CarroUton VIRGINIA George Wythe Richard Henry Lee Thomas Jefferson Benjamin Harrison Thomas Nelson, Jr. Francts Lightfoot Lee Carter Braxton NORTH CAROLINA William Hooper Joseph Hewes John Penn SOUTH CAROLINA Edward Rutledge Thomas Heyward, Jr. Thomas Lynch, Jr. Arthur Middleton GEORGIA Button Gwinnett Lyman Hall George Walton Resolved, That copies of the Declaration be sent to the several assemblies, conventions, and committees, or councils of safety, and to the several command- ing officers of the continental troops; that it be proclaimed in each of the United States, at the head of the army. APPENDIX II ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union between the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Islattd and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Article I. — The style of this Confederacy shall be, "The United States of America." Art. II. — Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation e.xpressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled. Art. III. — The said States hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defence, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretence whatever. Art. IV. — The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and inter- course among the people of the different States in this Union, the free inhabi- tants of each of these States, paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from justice excepted, shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of free citizens in the several States; and the people of each State shall have free ingress and egress to and from any other State, and shall enjoy therein all the privileges of trade and commerce subject to the same duties, impositions, and restrictions as the inhabitants thereof respectively; provided that such restrictions shall not extend so far as to prevent the removal of property imported into any State to any other State of which the owner is an inhabitant; provided also, that no imposition, duties, or restriction shall be laid by any State on the property of the United States or either of them. If any person guilty of, or charged with, treason, felony, or other high misdemeanour in any State shall flee from justice and be found in any of the United States, he shall, upon demand of the governor or executive power of the State from which he fled, be delivered up and removed to the State having jurisdiction of his offense. Full faith and credit shall be given in each of these States to the records, acts, and judicial proceedings of the courts and magistrates of every other State. Art. V. — For the more convenient management of the general interests of the United States, delegates shall be annually appointed in such manner as the Legislature of each State shall direct, to meet in Congress on the first Monday vi APPENDIX II in November, in every year, with a power reserved to each State to recall its delegates, or any of them, at any time within the year, and to send others in their stead for the remainder of the year. No State shall be represented in Congress by less than two, nor by more than seven members; and no person shall be capable of being a delegate for more than three years in any term of six years; nor shall any person, being a delegate, be capable of holding any office under the United States for which he, or another for his benefit, receives any salary, fees, or emolument of any kind. Each State shall maintain its own delegates in any meeting of the States and while they act as members of the Committee of the States. In determining questions in the United States, in Congress assembled, each State shall have one vote. Freedom of speech and debate in Congress shall not be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Congress; and the members of Congress shall be protected in their persons from arrests and imprisonment during the time of their going to and from, and attendance on, Congress, except for treason, felony, or breach of the peace. Art. VT. — No State, without the consent of the United States, in Congress assembled, shall send any embassy to, or receive any embassy from, or enter into any conference, agreement, alliance, or treaty with any king, prince, or state; nor shall any person holding any office of profit or trust under the United States, or any of them, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title of any kind whatever from any king, prince, or foreign state; nor shall the United States, in Congress assembled, or any of them, grant any title of nobility. No two or more States shall enter into any treaty, confederation, or alliance whatever between them, without the consent of the United States, in Congress assembled, specifying accurately the purposes for which the same is to be entered into, and how long it shall continue. No State shall lay any imposts or duties which may interfere with any stipu- lations in treaties entered into by the United States, in Congress assembled, with any king, prince, or state, in pursuance of any treaties already proposed by Congress to the courts of France and Spain. No vessel of war shall be kept up in time of peace by any State, except such number only as shall be deemed necessary by the United States, in Congress assembled, for the defence of such State or its trade, nor shall any body of forces be kept up by any State in time of peace, except such number only as, in the judgment of the United States, in Congress assembled, shall be deemed requisite to garrison the forts necessary for the defence of such State; but every State shall always keep up a well-regulated and disciplined militia, sufficiently armed and accoutred, and shall provide and constantly have ready for use in public stores a due number of field-pieces and tents, and a proper quantity of arms, ammunition, and camp equipage. No State shall engage in any war without the consent of the United States, in Congress assembled, unless such State be actually invaded by enemies, or ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION vii shall have received certain advice of a resolution being formed by some nation of Indians to invade such State, and the danger is so imminent as not to admit of a delay till the United States, in Congress assembled, can be consulted; nor shall any State grant commissions to any ships or vessels of war, nor letters of marque or reprisal, except it be after a declaration of war by the United States, in Congress assembled, and then only against the kingdom or state, and the subjects thereof, against which war has been so declared, and under such regu- lations as shall be established by the United States, in Congress assembled, unless such State be infested by pirates, in which case vessels of war may be fitted out for that occasion, and kept so long as the danger shall continue, or until the United States, in Congress assembled, shall determine otherwise. Art. vii. — When land forces are raised by any State for the common defence, all officers of or under the rank of Colonel shall be appointed by the Legislature of each State respectively by whom such forces shall be raised, or in such manner as such State shall direct, and all vacancies shall be filled up by the State which first made the appointment. Art. VIII. — All charges of war, and all other expenses that shall be incurred for the common defence, or general welfare, and allowed by the United States, in Congress assembled, shall be defrayed out of a common treasury, which shall be supplied by the several States in proportion to the value of all land within each State, granted to, or surveyed for, any person, as such land and the build- ings and improvements thereon shall be estimated, according to such mode as the United States, in Congress assembled, shall, from time to time, direct and appoint. The taxes for paying that proportion shall be laid and levied by the authority and direction of the Legislatures of the several States, within the time agreed upon by the United States, in Congress assembled. Art. IX. — The United States, in Congress assembled, shall have the sole and exclusive right and power of determining on peace and war, except in the cases mentioned in the sixth Article; of sending and receiving ambassadors; entering into treaties and alliances, provided that no treaty of commerce shall be made, whereby the legislative power of the respective States shall be re- strained from imposing such imposts and duties on foreigners as their own people are subjected to, or from prohibiting the exportation or importation of any species of goods or commodities whatsoever; of establishing rules for deciding, in all cases, what captures on land and water shall be legal, and in what manner prizes taken by land or naval forces in the service of the United States shall be divided or appropriated; of granting letters of marque and reprisal in times of peace; appointing courts for the trial of piracies and felonies committed on the high seas; and establishing courts for receiving and determining finally appeals in all cases of captures; provided that no member of Congress shall be appointed a judge of any of the said courts. The United States, in Congress assembled, shall also be the last resort on appeal in all disputes and differences now subsisting, or that hereafter may arise viii APPENDIX II between two or more States concerning boundary jurisdiction, or any other cause whatever; which authority shall always be exercised in the manner following: Whenever the legislative or executive authority, or lawful agent of any State in controversy with another, shall present a petition to Congress, stating the matter in question, and praying for a hearing, notice thereof shall be given by order of Congress to the legislative or executive authority of the other State in controversy, and a day assigned for the appearance of the parties by their lawful agents, who shall then be directed to appoint, by joint consent, commissioners or judges to constitute a court for hearing and determining the matter in question; but if they cannot agree. Congress shall name three persons out of each of the United States, and from the list of such persons each party shall alternately strike out one, the petitioners beginning, until the number shall be reduced to thirteen; and from that number not less than seven nor more than nine names, as Congress shall direct, shall, in the presence of Congress, be drawn out by lot; and the persons whose names shall be so drawn, or any five of them, shall be commissioners or judges, to hear and finally determine the controversy, so always as a major part of the judges who shall hear the cause shall agree in the determination; and if either party shall neglect to attend at the day appointed, without showing reasons which Congress shall judge suffi- cient, or being present, shall refuse to strike, the Congress shall proceed to nominate three persons out of each State, and the secretary of Congress shall strike in behalf of such party absent or refusing; and the judgment and sen- tence of the court, to be appointed in the manner before prescribed, shall be final and conclusive; and if any of the parties shall refuse to submit to the authority of such court, or to appear or defend their claim or cause, the court shall nevertheless proceed to pronounce sentence or judgment, which shall in like manner be final and decisive; the judgment or sentence and other pro- ceedings being in either case transmitted to Congress, and lodged among the acts of Congress for the security of the parties concerned; provided, that every commissioner, before he sits in judgment, shall take an oath, to be administered by one of the judges of the supreme or superior court of the State where the cause shall be tried, "well and truly to hear and determine the matter in ques- tion, according to the best of his judgment, without favour, affection, or hope of reward." Provided, also, that no State shall be deprived of territory for the benefit of the United States. All controversies concerning the private right of soil claimed under different grants of two or more States, whose jurisdictions, as they may respect such lands, and the States which passed such grants are adjusted, the said grants or either of them being at the same time claimed to have originated antecedent to such settlement of jurisdiction, shall, on the petition of either party to the Con- gress of the United States, be finally determined, as near as may be, in the same manner as is before prescribed for deciding disputes respecting territorial jurisdiction between different States. ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION ix The United Sates, in Congress assembled, shall also have the sole and exclu- sive right and power of regulating the alloy and value of coin struck by their own authority, or by that of the respective States; fixing the standard of weights and measures throughout the United States; regulating the trade and manag- ing all affairs with the Indians, not members of any of the States; provided that the legislative right of any State, within its own limits, be not infringed or violated; establishing and regulating post-ofEces from one State to another, throughout all the United States, and exacting such postage on the papers passing through the same as may be requisite to defray the expenses of the said ofSce; appointing all ofBcers of the land forces in the service of the United States, excepting regimental ofBcers; appointing all the officers of the naval forces, and commissioning all officers whatever in the service of the United States; making rules for the government and regulation of the said land and naval forces, and directing their operations. The United States, in Congress assembled, shall have authority to appoint a committee, to sit in the recess of Congress, to be denominated "A Committee of the States," and to consist of one delegate from each State, and to appoint such other committees and civil officers as may be necessary for managing the general affairs of the United States under their direction; to appoint one of their number to preside; provided that no person be allowed to serve in the office of president more than one year in any term of three years; to ascertain the necessary sums of money to be raised for the service of the United States, and to appropriate and apply the same for defraying the public expenses; to borrow money or emit bills on the credit of the United States, transmitting every half year to the respective States an account of the sums of money so borrowed or emitted; to build and equip a navy; to agree upon the number of land forces, and to make requisitions from each State for its quota, in proportion to the number of white inhabitants in such State, which requisition shall be binding; and thereupon the Legislature of each State shall appoint the regi- mental officers, raise the men, and clothe, arm, and equip them in a soldier-like manner, at the expense of the United States; and the officers and men so clothed, armed, and equipped shall march to the place appointed, and within the time agreed on by the United States, in Congress assembled; but if the United States, in Congress assembled, shall, on consideration of circumstances, judge proper that any State should not raise men, or should raise a smaller number than its quota, and that any other State should raise a greater number of men than the quota thereof, such extra number shall be raised, officered, clothed, armed, and equipped in the same manner as the quota of such State, unless the Legislature of such State shall judge that such extra niunber cannot be safely spared out of the same, in which case they shall raise, officer, clothe, arm, and equip as many of such extra number as they judge can be safely spared, and the officers and men so clothed, armed, and equipped shall march to the place appointed, and within the time agreed on by the United States, in Congress assembled. X APPENDIX II The United States, in Congress assembled, shall never engage in a war, nor grant letters of marque and reprisal in time of peace, nor enter into any treaties or alliances, nor coin money, nor regulate the value thereof, nor ascertain the sums and expenses necessary for the defense and welfare of the United States, or any of them, nor emit bills, nor borrow money on the credit of the United States, nor appropriate money, nor agree upon the number of vessels of war to be built or purchased, or the number of land or sea forces to be raised, nor appoint a commander-in-chief of the army or navy, unless nine States assent to the same, nor shall a question on any other point, except for adjourning from day to day , be determined, unless by the votes of a majority of the United States, in Con- gress assembled. The Congress of the United States shall have power to adjourn to any time within the year, and to any place within the United States, so that no period of adjournment be for a longer duration than the space of six months, and shall publish the journal of their proceedings monthly, except such parts thereof relating to treaties, alliances, or military operations as in their judgment require secrecy, and the yeas and nays of the delegates of each State, on any question, shall be entered on the journal when it is desired by any delegate; and the delegates of a State, or any of them, at his or their request, shall be furnished with a transcript of the said journal except such parts as are above excepted, to lay before the Legislatures of the several States. Art. X. — The Committee of the States, or any nine of them, shall be authorized to execute, in the recess of Congress, such of the powers of Congress as the United States, in Congress assembled, by the consent of nine States, shall, from time to time, think expedient to vest them with; provided that no power be delegated to the said Committee, for the exercise of which, by the Articles of Confederation, the voice of nine States in the Congress of the United States assembled is requisite. Art. XL — Canada, acceding to this Confederation, and joining in the measures of the United States, shall be admitted into, and entitled to all the advantages of this Union; but no other colony shall be admitted into the same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine States. Art. XIL — All bills of credit emitted, moneys borrowed, and debts con- tracted by or under the authority of Congress, before the assembling of the United States, in pursuance of the present Confederation, shall be deemed and considered as a charge against the United States, for payment and satisfaction whereof the said United States and the public faith are hereby solemnly pledged. Art. XIIL — Every State shall abide by the determinations of the United States, in Congress assembled, on all questions which by this Confederation are submitted to them. And the Articles of this Confederation shall be inviolably observed by every State, and the Union shall be perpetual; nor shall any altera- tion at any time hereafter be made in any of them, unless such alteration be agreed to in a Congress of the United States, and be afterwards confirmed by the Legislatures of every State. ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION xi And whereas it hath pleased the great Governor of the world to incline the hearts of the Legislatures we respectively represent in Congress to ai)pro\e of, and to authorize us to ratify, the said Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union, know ye, that we, the undersigned delegates, by virtue of the power and authority to us given for that purpose, do, by these presents, in the name and in behalf of our respective constituents, fully and entirely ratify and confirm each and every of the said Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union, and all and singular the matters and things therein contained. And we do further solemnly plight and engage the faith of our respective constituents, that they shall abide by the determinations of the United States, in Congress assembled, on all questions which by the said Confederation are submitted to them; and that the Articles thereof shall be inviolably observed by the States we repec- tively represent, and that the Union shall be perpetual. In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands in Congress. Done at Philadelphia in the State of Pennsylvania the ninth day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight, and in the third year of the independence of America. [Here follow the signatures of the delegates from New Hampshire, the Massa- chusetts Bay, the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connect- icut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. 48 in all.] APPENDIX III CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic trancjuillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. ARTICLE I Section I. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Represent- atives. Sect. II. i. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several States, and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature. 2. No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen. 3. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a terra of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other persons. The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one representa- tive; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Provi- dence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six. New Jersey four, Penn- sylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten. North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three. 4. When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the Execu- tive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. xii CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES xiii 5. The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other officers; and shall have the sole power of impeachment. Sect. III. i. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. 2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three classes. The seats of the Senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year, of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year, and of the third class at the e.xpiration of the sixth year, so that one third may be chosen every second year; and if vacancies happen by resignation or otherwise, during the recess of the legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary appointments until the next meeting of the legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies. 3. No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen. 4. The Vice-President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. 5. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice-President, or when he shall exercise the office of President of the United States. 6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the Presi- dent of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two thirds of the members present. 7. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disquahfication to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit imder the United States: but the party convicted shall never- theless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment, according to law. Sect. IV. i. The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing Senators. 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by law appoint a different day. Sect. V. i. Each house shall be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner, and under such penalties, as each house may provide. xiv APPENDIX III 2. Each house maj- determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderl)' behavior, and with the concurrence of two thirds, expel a member. 3. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy ; and the yeas and nays of the members of either house on any question shall, at the desire of one fifth of those present, be entered on the journal. 4. Neither house, during the session of Congress, shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three daj's, nor to any other place than that in which the two houses shall be sitting. Sect. VL i. The Senators and Representatives shall receive a compensa- tion for their services, to be ascertained by law and paid out of the treasury of the United States. They shall in all cases except treason, felony and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any speech or debate in either house, they shall not be questioned in any other place. 2. No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased, during such time; and no person holding any ofhce under the United States shall be a member of either house during his continuance in office. Sect. VII. i. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other bills. 2. Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the United States; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it with his objections to that house in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such reconsideration two thirds of that house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and, if approved by two thirds of that house, it shall become a law. But in all such cases the votes of both houses shall be deter- mined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each house respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their adjournment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law. 3. Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States; and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES xv by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representa- tives, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill. Sect. VIII. The Congress shall have power I. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; 2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States; 3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes; 4. To establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States; 5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures; 6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States; 7. To establish post ofiices and post roads; 8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries; 9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court; 10. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas and offences against the law of nations; II. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water; 12. To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years; 13. To provide and maintain a navy; 14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces ; 15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions; 16. To provide for organizing, arming and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the miUtia according to the disciphne prescribed by Congress; 17. To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such dis- trict (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the State, in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful buildings; — and xvi APPENDIX III 18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitu- tion in the government of the United States, or in any department or office thereof. Sect. IX. i. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year 1808; but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding $ro for each person. 2. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. 3. No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed. 4. No capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken. 5. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State. 6. No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one State over those of another: nor shall vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another. 7. No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of ap- propriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time. 8. No title of nobiUty shall be granted by the United States: and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state. Sect. X. i. No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobihty. 2. No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws: and the net produce of all duties and imposts, laid by any State on imports or exports, shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States; and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of the Congress. 3. No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty of tonnage, keep troops, or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or com- pact with another State, or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay. ARTICLE II Section I. i. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES xvii years, and together with the Vice-President, chosen for the same term, be elected as follows: 2. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Repre- sentatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress; but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector. [The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same State'with themselves. And they shall make a hst of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for each; which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors ap- pointed; and if there be more than one who have such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for President; and if no person have a majority, then from the five highest on the list the said house shall in like manner choose the President. But in choosing the President the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each State having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice of the President, the person having the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be the Vice-President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the Vice-President.] 3. The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the day on which they shall give their votes; which day shall be the same through- out the United States. 4. No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States. 5. In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death, resigna- tion, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said ofiice, the same shall devolve on the Vice-President, and the Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or inabiUty, both of the President and Vice-President, declaring what officer shall then act as President, and such officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected. xviii APPENDIX III 6. The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services, a compensa- tion, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that period any other emolument from the United States, or any of them. 7. Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation: — "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my abiUty, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Sect. II. i. The President shall be commander in chief of the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the United States, except in cases of impeachment. 2. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments. 3. The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session. Sect. III. 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; 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 adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States. Sect. IV. The President, Vice-President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and on conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. ARTICLE III Section I. i. The judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both of the Supreme and inferior CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES xix courts, shall hold their ofllces during good behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services, a compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office. Sect. II. i. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made or which shall be made, under their authority; — to all cases aflfecting ambassa- dors, other public ministers and consuls; — to all cases of admiralty jurisdic- tion;— to controversies to which the United States shall be a party; — to controversies between two or more States; — between a State and citizens of another State; — between citizens of different States; — -between citizens of the same State claiming lands under grants of different States, and between a State, or the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens or subjects. 2. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a State shall be a party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such ex- ceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make. 3. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury; and such trial shall be held in the State where the said crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have directed. Sect. III. i. Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court. 2. The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture except during the Ufe of the person attainted. ARTICLE IV Section I. Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. Sect. II. i. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States. 2. A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall f^ee from justice, and be found in another State, shall on demand of the executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime. 3. No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due. XX APPENDIX III Sect. III. i. New States may be admitted bj' the Congress into this Union ; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the junction of two or more States, or parts of States, without the consent of the legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress. 2. The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular State. Sect. IV. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against in- vasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence. ARTICLE V The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a convention for pro- posing amendments, which, in either case shall be valid to all intents and pur- poses, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendments which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. ARTICLE VI 1. All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation. 2. This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. 3. The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several State legislatures, and all executive and judicial ofBcers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or affirma- tion, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States. CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES xxi ARTICLE VII The ratification of the conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same. Done in Convention by the unanimous consent of the States present, the seventeenth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven and of the Independence of the United States of America the twelfth. In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our [Signed by] NEW HAMPSHIRE John Langdon Nicholas Oilman MASSACHUSETTS Nathaniel Gorham RuFus King CONNECTICUT Wm. Saul. Johnson Roger Sherman NEW YORK Alexander Hamilton NEW JERSEY , Wil; Livingston David Brearlev Wm: Paterson Jona: Dayton Go Washington Prcsidt and Deputy from Virginia PENNSYLVANIA B Franklin Thomas Mifflin RoBT. Morris Geo. Clymer Tho. Fitz Simons Jared Ingersoll James Wilson Gouv Morris DELAWARE Geo: Read Gunning Bedford, Jun. John Dickinson Richard Bassett Jaco: Broom MARYLAND James McHenry Dan of St. Thos. Jenifer Danl Carroll VIRGINIA John Blair James Madison, Jr. NORTH CAROLINA Wm. Blount Richd. Dobbs Spaight Hu Williamson SOUTH CAROLINA J. Rutledge Charles Cotesworth PiNCKNEY ChARLF.S PiNCKNEY Pierce Butler GEORGIA William Few Abr Baldwin Attest: William Jackson, Secretary Articles in Addition to and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified BY THE Legislatures of the Several States, Pursuant to the Fifth Article of the Original Constitution Article I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free e.xercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Article II. A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. Article III. No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. xxii APPENDIX III Article IV. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Article V. No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or hmb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation. Article VI. In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assist- ance of counsel for his defence. Article VII. In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law. Article VIII. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. Article IX. The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. Article X. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Con- stitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respec- tively, or to the people. Article XI. The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state. Article XII. The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of government of the United States, directed to CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES xxiii the President of the Senate; — the President of the Senate shall, in the pres- ence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted; — • the person having the greatest number of votes for President shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose im- mediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each State having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. — The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the hst, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States. Article XIII. Section i. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly con- victed, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their juris- diction. Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Article XIV. Section i. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, hberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protec- tion of the laws. Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of Electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age and citizens of the xxiv APPENDIX III United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the propor- tion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or Elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two thirds of each house, remove such disability. Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obliga- tion incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void. Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce by appropriate legisla- tion the provisions of this article. Article XV. Section i. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Section 2. The Congres's shall have power to enforce this article by appro- priate legislation. Article XVI. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration. Article XVII. Section i. The Senate of the United States shall be com- posed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislatures. Section 2. When vacancies happen in the representation of any State m the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided that the Legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the Legislature may direct. Section 3. This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution. APPENDIX IV GROWTH IN TERRITORY AND ORGANIZATION The Treaty of Paris in 1783 fixed, approximately, the boundary of the United States as follows: The Atlantic Ocean was the eastern boundary as far south as Florida. The definite northern boundary began about where the forty-fifth parallel of north latitude crosses the Connecticut river and ran west to the St. Lawrence river and up that river through Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Superior, and to the northwest corner of the Lake- of-the-Woods; thence due south to the Mississippi river, to the thirty-first parallel, or to Spanish Florida; thence east to the Chattahoochee river; thence down that river to the mouth of the Fhnt river; thence due east to St. Mary's river, and thence along that river to the mouth. The northeastern boundary between Maine and the British possessions was settled by the Webster-Ash- burton Treaty in 1842. Acquisition of Territory Name Treaty Area in sq. miles Price; source I 1803 1819 1845 1848 1853 1867 1898 1899 1899 1899 1899 1,032,700 58,680 371,063 522,568 45,535 577,390 6,740 146,750 3,600 200 54 2 Florida $5,000,000. Spain. •3 4 Annexation of Texas By joint resolution in Congress. s 6 Alaska Purchase $7,200,000. Russia. 7 Hawaii 8 9 Philippines Porto Rico $20,000,000. Spain. 10 Guam Capture and treaty. II Tutuila Coaling station, treaty. • Included part of what is now New Mexico. XXVI APPENDIX IV Date of Organization as Territories, Admission as States, Area, and Population ACCORDING to I9IO CENSUS Original 13 States in order of ratification of the Constitution Name Delaware Pennsylvania . . . . New Jersey Georgia Connecticut Massachusetts. . . Maryland South Carolina. . New Hampshire Virginia New York North Carolina.. Rhode Island Vermont Kentucky Tennessee Ohio Louisiana Indiana Mississippi Illinois Alabama Maine Missouri Arkansas Michigan , Florida , Texas , Iowa Wisconsin California Minnesota Oregon Kansas West Virginia... Nevada Nebraska Colorado North Dakota.. South Dakota. . Montana Washington.. .. Idaho Territory 1790 1790 1800 1804 1783 1783 1809 1802 1812 1819 1819 1822 1838 1836 1846 1849 1849 1854 1861 I8S4 1861 1861 1861 1864 l8S3 1863 State Dec. 7, Dec. 12, Dec. 18, Jan. 2, Jan. 9, Feb. 6, Apr. 28, May 23, June 21, June 25, July 26, Nov. 21, May 29, Mar. 4, June I, June I, Feb. 19, Apr. 8, Dec. II, Dec. 10, Dec. 3, Dec. 14, Mar. 15, Aug. 10, June IS. Jan. 26, Mar. 3. Dec. 29, Dec. 28, May 29, Sept. 9, May II, Feb. 14, Jan. 29, June 19, Sept. 31. Mar. I, Aug. I, Nov. 3, Nov. 3. Nov. 8, Nov. II, July 3. 1787 1787 1787 1788 1788 1788 1788 1788 1788 1789 1790 1791 1792 1796 1803 1812 1816 1817 1818 1819 1820 1821 1836 1837 1845 1845 1846 1848 1850 1858 i8S9 1861 1863 1864 1867 1876 1S89 1889 1889 1889 1890 Area in sq. miles 2,050 45.215 7,815 59.475 4.990 8,315 12,210 30,570 9.30s 42.450 49.170 52,250 1,250 9.565 40,400 42,050 41,060 48,720 36,350 46,810 56,650 52,250 33.040 69.415 S3,8,';o 58,915 58,680 265,780 56,025 56,040 158,360 83.365 76,0.50 82,080 24,780 110,700 77.510 103,925 70.795 77.650 146,080 69,180 84,800 Population 202,322 7,66s, III 2,.5.57.l67 2,609,121 1,114,756 3,366,416 1.295.346 1,515,400 430,572 2,061,612 •9,113,614 2,206,287 542,610 355.956 2.289,905 2,184,789 4,767,121 1,656.388 2,700,876 1.797. 114 5.638.591 2.138,093 742.371 3.293.335 1.574.499 2,810,173 752,619 3,896,.S42 2,224,771 2,810,173 2,377.549 2.075,-08 672.76s I 690,949 1,221,119 81,875 1,192,214 799.024 577.056 583,888 376,053 141.990 325.594 GROWTH IN TERRITORY AND ORGANIZATION xxvii Date of Organization as Territories, Admission as States, Area, and Population ACCORDING to igio Census {Continued) Name Wyoming... Utah Oklahoma.. New Mexico Arizona Alaska , Hawaii , Porto Rico., Philippines.. Guam , Tutuila Territory 868 8so 891 850 863 868 900 900 899 State July 10, 1890 Jan. 4, 1896 Nov. 16, 1907 Jan. 6, 1912 Feb. 14, 1912 Area in sq. miles 92,890 84,970 70,057 122,460 112.929 590,884 6,449 3.606 127,853 200 54 Population 145,965 373,351 1,657.15s 327.396 204.354 64,356 191,907 1,1X8,012 7,635,426 9,000 3.700 INDEX Figures refer to pages Abercrombie, James, defeated at Ticon- deroga, 128-129 Abolitionists, the agitators, 316; news- papers, 318; press and pulpit, 321; petitions concerning, 323; arguments, 323-325; Liberty Party, 326; Mrs. Stowe, 349; the RepubUcans, 359; Harper's Ferry, 363-364 Acadians, deported, 128 Acadie (Nova Scotia) settled, 114 Adams, Charles Francis (elder), candi- date for vice-presidency, 346 Adams, Charles Francis (younger), quoted, 557 Adams, George Burton, quoted, 4 Adams, John, proposes Washington for commander-in-chief, 172; peace com- missioner, 202; on aristocracy, 226; vice-president, 228; elected presi- dent, 243 Adams, John Quincy, peace commis- sioner, 270; secretary of state, 272; candidate for presidency, 289; elected president, 291; character, 291; mem- ber house of representatives, 323 Adams, Samuel, opposition to tyranny, 159-160; 162; 165; 167; 174; oppo- ses Constitution, 222 Agriculture in England, 49 Agricultural products, 18; 63; 137; 138 Aguinaldo, 540 Aix la Chapelle, treaty of, 124 Alabama, De Soto in, 40; Jackson de- feats Indians in, 269-270; admitted, 282; secedes, 372; in 1874, 463 ftn. Alabama claims, 394; 466-467 Alabama, the cruiser, sinks the Halleras, 395 ftn.; is sunk by the Kcarsarge, 395 ftn.; 438 Alaska, Russia's orders concerning, 277; purchase of, 467 Albany, settled, 80; colonial congress, 126 Albemarle Point, settlement, 67 Albemarle sound, 66 Aldrich, Nelson M., 560; 562 Alexandria, commissioners at, 217; Fed- erals occupy, 384 Alger, R. A., secretary of war, 539 Algonkins, subdivisions of, 26 Alien Enemies Act, 245 Alien Friends Act, 245 Allen, Ethan, 171 Alliance, Farmers', 510 Alliance, French, 183 Alliance, Holy, 276 Amelia Courthouse, 442 Amendments, First Ten, or Bill of Rights, 222-223; 230 Eleventh and Twelfth: see Consti- tution, Appendix II Thirteenth, proposed and carried, 448 Fourteenth, proposed, 453; re- jected by South, 454 South forced to accept, 456 Fifteenth, ratified, 456 Sixteenth and seventeenth, ratified, 546 American Federation of Labor, 499 American Party, or Know-nothings, 35S-35Q *Amherst, Jeffrey, at Louisburg, 129; supersedes Abercrombie, 130 Ampudia, Pedro de, defeated, 341 Anarchists in Chicago, 497-498 Anderson, Robert, occupies Fort Sum- ter, 368; surrenders, 381; promoted, 382^ Andre, John, executed, 185 Andros, Edmond, 82; 84; 108 Anglo-Saxon, the, 12; 113; 133; 142; 333 Annapolis, Nova Scotia, 124 Anne, Queen, 14S Annexation, of Hawaii, 539-540 " of Texas, 338 Antietam, or Sharpsburg, battle of, 429 Anti-federalists, 222; 226 XXX INDEX Appalachians, 17 "Appointments, midnight", 248 Appomattox Courthouse, surrender at, 442 Appomattox river, 433; 441 Arbitration, of Alabama claims, 466- 467; of seal fisheries question, 510; Great Britain and Venezuela, 524; Court of, 563 Arbuthnot, Marriot, at siege of Charles- ton, igo Archdale, John, 70 Argall, Samuel, 53 Argentina, revolution in, 276 Arguments, against slavery, 323-324; for slaver>', 324-325; concerning an- nexation of Texas, 338-339 Aristocrats, 138-139 Aristotle, 30 Arizona, the Indians of, 20; organiza- tion of, 475 Arkansas, De Soto in, 40; mentioned, 285; admitted, 339; secedes, 383 Arkwright, Richard, inventor, 319 Arnold, Benedict, at Ticonderoga, 171; at Quebec, 177; at Saratoga, 180; treachery of, 185; in Virginia, 196 "Aroostook War", m Arthur, Chester A., elected vice-presi- dent, 483; becomes president, 484 Articles of Confederation, adopted by congress, 209; ratified, 212 Ashburton-Webster treaty, 33s Ashe, John, defeated at Brier Creek, 188 Assumption of state debts, 235 Atlanta campaign, 435-436 Atlantic cable, 467-468 Augusta, 188; British occupy, 190; at- tempt upon, 192; taken by Lee and Pickens, 195 Austin, Moses and Stephen F., 335 Austria, in Holy Alliance, 276 Aztecs, 19, 24 Babcock, Orville E., Grant's private secretary, 483 ftn. Bacon's rebellion, 59 Bainbridge, William, at Tripoli, 259; mentioned, 268 Balboa, Vasco Nunez de, discovers Pacific Ocean, 35 Baltimore, Lord, 60 Baltimore riot, 382 Baltimore, skirmish near, 269 Bank, — of North America, 214; Na- tional, 236; 274; under Jackson, 305- 308; bill for, vetoed by Tyler, 332 Banks, N. P., supersedes Patterson, 390; takes Port Hudson, 414; campaigns, 415-416; Red river campaign, 416; defeated at Winchester, 425 Barbados, 66 Barker, Potts and Ramsdell, quoted, 335 "Barn-burners", nominate Van Buren, and become the Free Soil Party, 346 Barre, Isaac, 161 Bartow, Francis S., killed at Manassas, 389 Baton Rouge, occupied by Federals, 415 Baum, Frederick, defeated by Stark, 180 Bayard, James A., peace commissioner, 270 Bayard, Thomas F., 493 ftn. Bear Flag, 342 Beauregard, G. T., reduces Fort Sumter, 381; at battle of Manassas, 386-380; retreats from Shiloh, 410; superseded by Bragg, 417; defeats Butler, 433 Bee, Barnard E., killed at Manassas, 388; 389 Belknap, W. W., secretary of war, 483 ftn. Bell, John, candidate for presidency, 365 Bellamy, Edward, 499 Bellomont, Earl of, 83 Belmont, battle, 408 Bermington, battle, 180 Bentonville, battle, 437 Bering Sea, seal fisheries, 512 Berkeley, John, 83-84 Berkeley, William, 56-59 Bermuda Island.s, 52 Biddle, Nicholas, 306 Bienville (Le Moync) founds New Orleans, 120 Bill of Rights, 142; 222 Bimey, J. G., candidate for presidency, 338 Bismarck, Prince Otto Von, 513 Blackstone, Sir William, quoted, 54 ftn. Blaine, James G., 483; secretary of state, 484; candidate for presidency, 487; character, 487-488; mentioned, 508; 512; 514 Blair, James, 60 INDEX XXXI Bland-Allison Silver Act, 480-4S1 Bland, Richard P., 480; 526 Blockade, of France by Great Britain, 259; of Confederacy, 392-405 Blue, Victor, 536 Boone, Daniel, in Kentucky, igS; in Missouri, 255 ftn. Border states, held to the Union, 383 Boscawen, Edward, 129 Boston, British troops in, 166; evac- uated, 177 Boston Port Bill, 164 Boston Tea Party, 164 Boyd, Colonel, killed at Kettle Creek, 187 Braddock, Edward, defeated, 127 Bradstreet, John, takes Fort Frontcnac, 130 Bragg, Braxton, quoted, 371; super- sedes Beauregard, 417; Kentucky campaign, 418; opposes Rosecrans at Murfreesboro and defeats Rosecrans at Chickamauga, 419-420; defeated at Lookout Mountain and Mission- ary Ridge, 420; superseded by John- ston, 433 Brandywine, battle, 181 Brazil, discovered, 37 Brazos Santiago, 439 Breckinridge, John C, elected vice- president, 359-360; candidate for presidency, 365; defeats Federals at New Market, 433 Bristoe action, 432 Brock, Isaac, 265; 270 Brook Farm, 320 Brown, Jacob, 266 Brown, John, in Kansas, 35S; at Har- per's Ferry, 363-364 Brownsville, Texas, occupied by Fed- erals, 416 Bryan, W. J., speech at Chicago, 526; campaign for presidency, 527; sec- retary of state, 563 Bo'ant, W. C, 275 Buchanan, James, 350; elected presi- dent, 35q; urges acquisition of Cuba, 363; on Panama Canal, 363 Buckner, Simon B., at Fort Donelson, 409 Buell, Don Carlos, 409; at Shiloh, 410; operations in Kentucky, 418; super- seded by Rosecrans, 419 Buena Vista, battle, 343 Bull Run, or Manassas, battle, 387-390; second battle, 428 Bunker Hill, battle, 174 Bureau of Corporations, established, 553 Bureau of Labor, established, 498 Burgess, John W., quoted, 323; 361; 45S; 460 ftn.; 461; 462 ftn.; 473 Burgesses, Virginia house of, established, 53 liurgoyne, John, advance into New York, 179; surrender of, 180 Burke, Edmund, i6i Burlingame treaty, 467 Bumside, A. E., at Knoxville, 420; at Fredericksburg, 429-430 Burr, Aaron, elected vice-president, 247; duel with Hamilton, 258; downfall, 258 Burrell, Isaac S., defeated at Galveston, 41S Bustamante, Anastasio, forbids immi- gration, 335 Butler, B. F., 397; 402; rigorously rules at New Orleans, 414-415; superseded by Banks, 415; commands Army of the James, 433; repulsed by Beau- regard, 433; siege of Petersburg, 435 Butler, W. O., candidate for vice-presi- dency, 345 Cabeza de Vaca, A. V., 40 Cabot, John and Sebastian, 36 Cabral, Pedro, discovers Brazil, 37 Cahokia, taken by Clark, 200 Calhoun, John C, 271; secretary of war, 272; vice-president, 272; elected vice-president again, 290; defeats tariff bill, 293; issues Exposition and Protest, 294; at Jefferson's Birthday banquet, 302; becomes a senator, 302; issues Address to the People, 302; death, 353 CaUfornia, acquired by conquest, 342; ceded by Mexico, 343; gold discov- ered in, 347 Calvert, George, Cecil and Leonard, 60-61 Cambridge, 166; 176 Camden, Earl of, 161 Camden, occupied by British, 190; bat- tle, 191 Campbell, Colonel, in Georgia, 187; 188; in Florida, 190 XXXll INDEX Campbell, John A., 378-379; at Hamp- ton Roads Conference, 438 Canada, invasion of, 176; 265 Canby, E. R. S., in New Mexico, 408 Capital, the, compromise concerning, 235-236 Carib, 15 Carleton, Guy, wins victory on Lake Champlain, 177 Carnegie, A., endows Hague Conference, ■ 563 I Carolinas settled, 65-71 Caroline, Fort, 42 Carpetbag government, 455; 460; 463 Carteret, George, 81; 83; 84 Cartier, Jacques, 36; 115 Carver, John, 94 Cass, Lewis, candidate for presidency, 345 ; mentioned, 350 Cedar Creek, battle, 438 Cedar Mountain, battle, 427 Centennial Exposition, 468-469 Centralization, 220; 271, 276 Century Magazine, 486 Cerro Gordo, battle, 343 Cervera, Admiral, 536-537 Chambersburg, burned, 438 Champlain, Samuel de, 77; 116-117 Champlain, Lake, naval battle, 269 Chancellorsville, battle, 430 Charles I, 56; 60; 85; 97; 98 Charles IL 58; 65; 85 Charleston, settled, 67; taken by Brit- ish, 190; in Civil War, 377; 437 Charter colonies, 142 Chase, S. P., 353; at Peace Conference, 370; mentioned, 449 Chattahoochee river, 73; 435 Chattanooga campaigns, 416-420 Cherry Valley, 200 Cherubusco, battle, 343 Chesapeake and Leopard, 261; and Shannon, 268 Chew, R. S., messenger, 380 Chickahominy river, 424; 426 Chickamauga, battle, 419-420 Chickasaw Bluffs, assault, 412 Chihuahua, taken by Doniphan, 343 Chile, revolution, 276; relations with, 512 China, treaty with, 497 Chinese Exclusion Bill, vetoed by Hayes, 497 Chippewa, battle, 266 Christina, Fort, 80, 89 Christina, Queen, 88 Church of England, 82; 107; 140; 148 Civil Rights Act, 453 Civil Service, 299; 482-485 Civil Sers'ice League, 485 Claiborne, William, 57 Clarendon, county of, 66 Clark, George Rogers, 199-200 Clark, William, explorations, 255 Clarke, Elijah, 192 Clay, Henry, peace commissioner, 270- 271; reverses position on national bank, 274; champions protective tariff, 276; advocates Missouri com- promise, 286; candidate for presi- dency, 289; 337; favors Adams for president, 291; appointed secretary of state by Adams, 291 ; investigated, 292; advocates compromise of tariff, 303; leader of Whig party, 331; leads compromise of 1850, 348; death, 353 Clayton-Bulwer treaty, 344; 549 Cleveland, Grover, 487; candidate for presidency, 488; character, 488; elected, 489; elected, 514; policies, S18-519 Clinton, Henry, captures Forts Mont- gomery and Clinton, 181; succeeds Howe, 184; evacuates Philadelphia, 184; at battle of Monmouth, 184; defeated at Fort Moultrie, 186; takes Charleston, 190; proclamations, 191 Coahuila, 336 Cobb, Howell, president Confederate Congress, 372 Colombia, revolution in, 276; treaty with, 346; 549 Colonial commerce, 137 Colonial development, 147-148 Colonial representation, 151-152 Colonizing, motives for, log; 146 Colorado admitted, 475 Columbia College, 140 Columbia, District of, 348; 448 Columbia, S. C, burned, 437 Columbus, Christopher, 31-35 Commerce of the colonies, 137 Commissioners from C. S., 373-374; 378-379 Commissioners from S. C, 367 Committees of correspondence, 172; 206; 207 Concord, 167 INDEX XXXlll Confederacy projected, 369 Confederate States, Congress of, 372; Constitution of, 373; commissioners to U. S. from, 373-374; 378-379 Confederation, Articles of, adopted by Congress, 209; ratified by states, 212; weakness of, 214-217 Confederation, New England, 104-109 Congress, first colonial, 82 Congress, powers of, 221 Conkling, Roscoe, 482 Connecticut, settled, 103; Fundamental orders of, 103; western land claims, 211 — yielded, 212; in Constitutional convention, 219; ratifies Constitu- tion, 223; refuses troops in 1812, 263 Conservation, urged by Roosevelt, 546- 548; Reclamation Act, 547; National Forest Reserves, 547-548; Inland Waterways Commission, 548; Na- tional Rivers and Harbors Congress, 548 Constantinople, captured by Turks, 30 Constitution, C. S., 373 Constitution, U. S., analysis of, 221; purpose, 225 Constitution and Gucrriere, 266 Constitutional Convention, 217-223; compromises in, 220; ratification by states, 223-224 Constitutional Union Party, 365 Continental Congress, first, 165-166; second, 172; flees from Philadelphia, 183 Convention, at Alexandria, 217; at Mount Vernon, 217; at Annapolis, 217; Constitutional, 217-223; Hart- ford, 264; Montgomery, 372 Conway Cabal, 182 Conway, Henry Seymour, 161 Cooper, J. F., 275 Corinth, battle, 417 Cornwallis, Charles, campaign in New Jersey, 178; mentioned, 187; ad- vances in S. C, 190; advances into N. C. and retires, 192; pursuit of Greene, 193-194; at Guilford Court- house, 194; advances into Virginia, 196; surrenders at Yorktown, 197 Corporations, 501 Corporations and Trusts, 552-556 Corte-Real, Caspar, 38 Cortez, Hernando, 38 Cotton, 282; 283 Cotton gin, 283 Cowpens, battle, 193 Coxey's army, 521 Crawford, M. J., commissioner to U. S., 379 Crawford, W. H., candidate for presi- dency, 289 Credit Mobilier, 474 Creeks, war with the, 269; treaty with, 293 Crittenden, G. B. and T. L., 383-384 Crittenden resolutions, 369-370 Cromwell, Oliver, 57 Cross Keys, action at, 425 Crown Point, 127; 130; 171 Cuba, J. Q. Adams's desire, 291; Ostend manifesto, 359; conditions in, 531- 533; attempts to purchase, 531; op- pressed by Spain, 532; Ten Years' War in, 533; resolutions in Congress in regard to, 534; government for, S4I Cullom, S. M., 503 Cunningham, Gustavus, 186 Currency, problems of, 476-482; re- sumption of specie payments, 479; surplus in treasury, 493-494 Currency and Banking, 561-562 Curtis, B. R., dissent in Dred Scott case, 361-362 Czar, the, calls peace conference, 563 Da Gama, Vasco, 37 Dakota, organized, 475 Dale, Thomas, 52-53 Dallas, G. M., elected vice-president, 337-338 Dare, Virginia, 46 Dartmouth College, 274 Davenport, John, 104 Davis, Jefferson, becomes prominent, 353; quotations from speech of res- ignation from U. S. Senate, 366; fa- vors Crittenden resolutions, 370; president C. S., 372; calls for volun- teers, 382; appoints Lee to command, 425; relieves J. E. Johnston, 435; aggressiveness, 436; retreat from Rich- mond, 441; imprisonment and re- lease, 444 Dawes, William, 167 Dearborn, Henry, 265, 266 Debs, E. v., 522 Decatur, Stephen, 259; 268 XXXIV INDEX Declaration Act, i6i Declaration of Rights (1765), 160; (1774), 165 Declaration of Independence, 175 De Coronado, Francisco, 40 Deerfield massacre, 123 Dc Gourgues, D., 43 Dc Grasse, Count, in Chesapeake bay, ig6 De Kalb, Johann, killed, igi Delaware, settled by Swedes, 88; rati- fies Constitution, 223 Delaware, Lord (Thomas West), 52; 88 De Leon, Ponce, 35-36 De Lesseps, Ferdinand, 549 Democracy, the new, 545-546 Democratic Party, or party of Jcflerson, called Republicans, 234; called Dem- ocrats opprobriously, 241; called Federal Republicans, 250; the only party, 288; called Democratic Re- publicans, 293 "Demonetization" of silver, 480 ftn. De Monts, Pierre, 116 De Narvaez, Panfilo, 38-39 Department of Commerce and Labor, 553 De Soto, Hernando, 40 D'Estaing, Charles H., 184; 185; 187; 190 Detroit, trading-post, 199; surrendered by Hull, 265 Dew, Professor, quoted, 324-325 Dewey, George M., battle Manila bay, 535 Dickinson, John, 174; draft of Confed- eration, 209 Dinwiddle, Robert, 125 Dissenters, 66; 92 Dongan, Thomas, 82 Doniphan, A. W., takes Chihuahua, 343 Dorr's rebellion, 321 Douglas, Stephen A., 346; 353; intro- duces Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 354; de- bates with Lincoln, 363; candidate for presidency, 365 Dowling, R. W., 416 Drake, Francis, 44 Duke's Laws, 80 Dunmore's War, 198-199 I)ui>ont, S. F., 403 Durant, George, 66 Duryea, R. S., 378 Dutch, the, settlements in New Ncth- erland, 77-78; beginning of repre- sentative government in New York, 79; clash with Swedes, 79-80; men- tioned, 84; 87; 89; 135; 147 Dutch East India Company, 76 Dutch West India Company, 77 Early, Jubal A., defeats Wallace and threatens Washington, 437; defeated by Sheridan, 438 East in 1876, the, 475 Eaton, Theophilus, 104 Edmunds, G. F., 487 Education in the colonies, 140 Egypt, IS Electoral commission, 464 Electoral vote-counting act, 495 Elizabeth, Queen, 44 Elk Horn, or Pea Ridge, battle, 411 Elkins bill, 503 Ellsworth, Elmer, killed, 384 Emancipation proclamation, 401-402 Embargo Act, 260 Emerson, R. W., 320; 364 Emigrant Aid Society, in Kansas trou- bles, 355-356 Emuckfau, battle, 269 Endicott, John, 97 English, W. H., candidate for vice- presidency, 483 Erie Canal, 18; 551 Erskine, envoy from Great Britain, 262 Eskimo, 15; 19 Evans, Nathan G., at Manassas, 387- 388 Ewell, R. S., 425; defeats Milroy, 431 Excise, 234 Exeter, attack by Indians, 123 Expositions, Centennial at Philadelphia, 468-469; Pan American at Buffalo, 544; Panama Canal, at San Francisco, 551 Farmers' Alliance, 510 Farragut, D. G., takes New Orleans, 410-411 Federal Election Law, 509 Federal Republican Party, 288 Federalist, The, 223 Federalist Party, 222; 226; becomes National Republican Party, 271 Ferdinand, King, 11 Ferguson, Patrick, killed, 192 INDEX XXXV Fernandina occupied by Federals, 404 Field, Cyrus W., 467 Fifty-four forty, or fight, 337 Fillmore, Millard, succeeds Taylor, 350; candidate of Know-Nothings, 359 Finances of Revolution, 200-201 Fisheries of Newfoundland, 115; 202; of Bering Sea, 512 Fisher's Hill, battle, 438 Fishing Creek, or Mill Springs, engage- ment, 408 Fiske, John, quoted, 103 Five Forks, action at, 441 Fletcher, Governor, 83 Florida, discovered, 36; invaded by Jackson, 273; acquisition of, 273; admitted, 338; secedes, 372 Floyd, John B., at Fort Donelson, 409 Foote, A. H., 407; takes Fort Henry, 408; at Island No. 10, 410 Foote Resolution, 301 Force Bill, in regard to nullification, 303 Foreign relations with: Great Britain and Spain, 215; France, 240-244; Tripoli, 259; Great Britain, 259—263; France concerning Mexico, 466; Great Britain as to the Alabama and the fisheries, 464-467; Russia re- garding Alaska, 467; European na- tions in regard to immigrants, 467; Hawaii, 522-523 Forest Reserves, National, 547 Forest Service, National, 548 Forrest, N. B., 418 Forts, Caroline, 42; Christina, 80; Clark, taken by Federals, 402; Clin- ton, taken by British, 181; Donelson, surrendered to Grant, 408-409; Du- quesne, 129; Edward, 180; Fisher, taken by Federals, 405; Granby, sur- render by British, 195; Gregg, de- fence of, 441; Griffin, defence of, 416; Hatteras, taken by Federals, 402; Henry, taken by Foote, 408; Jackson, bombarded by Farragut, 410; Leaven- worth, 341; LeBoeuf, 125; Lee, taken by British, 177-178; Macon, 403; McHenry, bombardment of, 269; Mimms, massacre, 269; Montgomery, taken by British, 181; Motte, taken by Marion and Lee, 195; Moultrie, de- fence of, 186; evacuated by Anderson, 368; Necessity, 126; Niagara, taken by Johnson, 130; Oswego, 127; 128; Pickens, held by Federals, 371; Pillow, evacuated by Confederates, 411; Pu- laski, taken by F"ederals, 403-404; Recovery, 23S; Stanwix (or Schuy- ler) besieged by St. Leger, 181; St. Philip, bombarded by Farragut, 410; Stedman, assault by Gordon, 441; Sumter, 367-368; 381; Washington, taken by British, 177-178; Watson, taken by Marion and Lee, 195; Whit- worth, defence of, 441; William Henry, 127; 128 France, claims, to America, 41; efforts at settlement, 42; in Holy Alliance, 276; diplomacy to stop Civil War in America, 400-401 Franklin, battle, 436 Franklin, Benjamin, at Albany con- gress, 126; 206; in regard to Stamp Act, 157; 158; returns from England, 174; peace commissioner, 202; plan of Union, 208; member of Constitu- tional convention, 21S Franklin, state of, 212, Frederick the Great, 70 ftn.; 184 Fredericksburg, battle, 430 Freedmen's Bureau, 452 Freedmen, vagrancy laws, 450-451 Free-soil Party, 346; 351 Fremont, J. C, in California, 342; can- didate for presidency, 359-360 French aggression upon American com- merce, 260 French Directory, 243 French in Mexico, the, 466 French revolution, 238 Fugitive slave laws, 313; 348-349; re- pealed, 448 Fulton, Robert, 273; 274 Fundamental Constitutions, Locke's, 66 Gabriel insurrection, the, 322 Gadsden purchase, the, 422 Gage, Thomas, 165; 166; 167 Gaines's Mill, battle, 426 Gallatin, Albert, peace commissioner, 270 Galveston, blockaded, 402; combat, 415 Galvez, Bernardo, takes Mobile, 190 Garfield, James A., elected president, 483; death, 484 Garland, W. H., 493 ftn. Garrison. W. L., 318; 321; 326 Gas pee, The, 166 XXX VI INDEX Gates, Horatio, opposes Carlcton, 177; supersedes Schuyler, 180; concerned in Conway cabal, 182; defeated at Camden, 191; superseded by Greene, 193 Geary, J. W., 358 Genet, E. C, minister from France to U. S., 240 Geneva arbitration, 467 George, Henry, 501 George HI, ambition of, 152; 155 Georgia, settled, 71-74; instructs for independence, 175; western land claims, 211 — yielded, 212; ratifies Constitution, 223; trouble with Creeks, 2Q3; secedes, 372 Germanna ford, 432; 434 Germans, 7; 87; 135; 147 Germantown, battle, 181 Germany, influence of in Samoa, 513 Gerry, Elbridge, oppyoses Constitution, 220; commissioner to France, 243 Gettysburg, battle, 431-432 Ghent, treaty of, 270-271 Giddings, J. R., 326, Gilbert, Humphrey, 45 Goethals, G. W., 550 Goldsborough, L. M., 402-403 Gordon, J. B., assaults Fort Stedman, 441 Gorges, Ferdinando, gi Gosnold, Bartholomew, 46 Government, local in the colonies, 144; working out form of, 208; by secre- taries, 2g7 Grant, U. S., battle at Belmont, 408; takes Fort Donelson, 409; at Shiloh, 40Q-410; passes Vicksburg, 412; bat- tles of Champion Hill and Big Black, 413; Vicksburg surrenders, 414; at Chattanooga, 420; commander-in- chief, 432; Wilderness campaign, 434; crosses James and besieges Peters- burg, 435; pursues Lee, 441; great- ness at Appomattox, 442; elected president, 457; character, 457; can- didate for third nomination, 483; troubles of administration, 483 ftn. Gray, Captain, visits Pacific coast, 256 Great Britain, blockades European . ports, 259; impresses American sea- men, 260; resists Napoleon, 260; is- sues "orders in council," 262; abol- ishes slavery in West Indies, 317; in Oregon boundary, 340; in Trent af- fair, 395; in reply to France concern- ing Civil war, 401; in Alabama claims, 468; in seal fisheries claims, 512; in Venezuela arbitration, 524 Great Meadows, skirmish, 126 Greeley, Horace, candidate for presi- dency, 463 Greenback Party, 464; 478; 481 Greene, Nathanael, supersedes Gates, 193; famous retreat, 193; at Guilford Courthouse, 194; at Hobkirk's hill, 195; assault on Ninety-Six, 195; bat- tle of Eutaw Springs, 196 Greene, Roger, 66 Grenville, George, prime minister, 154; 155; 161 Gridley, Jeremiah, 155 Guadalupe-Hidalgo, treaty of, 343-344 Guerriere and Constitution, 266 Gustavus Adolphus, 88 Habeas Corpus Act, 142 Hague Conference, 563 Hale, J. P., candidate for presidency, 3SI Halifax, 177 Halleck, H. W., 407; advances to Cor- inth, 416; supersedes McClellan as commander-in-chief, 417 Hamilton, Alexander, member Consti- tutional convention, 218; offers plan for centralized government, 219; author Federalist, 223; antagonizes Adams, 227-228; secretary of the treasury, 228; political character, 232; financial measures, 233-237; views in regard to French revolution, 239; death, 258 Hamilton, Andrew J., military governor of Texas, 415; 416 Hampton, Wade, at Manassas, 388; succeeds Stuart, 434 Hampton Roads, naval battle, 423; Conference, 438 Hancock, John, 166; 167; 223 Hancock, Winfield S., at Gettysburg, 431; candidate for presidency, 483 Hannaford, Ebenezer, quoted, 489 Hardee, W. J., evacuates Savannah, 436 Harmer, General, defeated by Indians, 238 Harper's Ferry, insurrection, 363-364; surrendered to Jackson, 429 INDEX XXXVll Harriet Lane, the, captured by Confed- erates, 415 Harrison, Benjamin, elected president, 504; defeated by Cleveland, 514 Harrison's Landing, 427 Harrison, W. H., defeats Indians at Tippecanoe, 262; succeeds Hull, 265; elected president, 330; death, 331 Harrod, James, settles in Kentucky, 198 Hartford Convention, 264 Hartstene, H. J., 378 Harvard College, 60, 100; 140 Harvard, John, loi Harvey, John, 56 Hatteras, the, sunk by the Alabama, 395 ftn. Havana, 132 Hawaii, 522-523; annexation of, 539- S40 Hawkins, John, 42; 44 Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 320 Hay, John, secretary of state, 549 Hay-Bunau-Varilla treaty, 550 Hayes, R. B., candidate for presidency, 464; seated by Electoral Commis- sion, 465; withdraws troops from South, 475 Hay-Herran treaty, 550 Hay-Pauncefote treaty, 549 Hayne, R. Y., defends state rights, 301 Heintzelman, S. P., battle of Manassas, 387 Henderson, J. Pinckney, 338 Hendricks, T. A., candidate for vice- presidency, 465; elected vice-presi- dent, 489; death, 505 Henry, Patrick, 159; 160; 163 Herkimer, Nicholas, mortally wounded at Oriskany battle, 181 Hill, A. P., in Seven Days' battles, 426; at Bristoe, 432; killed at Petersburg, 441 Hill, D. B., S04; S14 Hill, D. H., in Seven Days' battles, 426 Hobkirk's Hill, action at, 195 Hobson, R. P., sinks Merrimac at San- tiago, 537 Homestead Act, 473 Hood, J. B., supersedes Johnston, 435; repulsed by Sherman in battles of Atlanta, 436; Tennessee campaign, 436 Hooker, Joseph, defeated at Chancellors- ville, 430 Hooker, Thomas, 104 Houston, Sam., in battle Tohopeka, 270; defeats Santa Anna, 336 Howard, Martin, 157 Howe, William, at Bunker Hill, 174; evacuates Boston, 177; takes New York, 177; proclamation to America, 178; defeats Washington at Brandy- wLne and Germantown, 181; 182; occupies Philadelphia, 181; suc- ceeded by Clinton, 184 Howe, Richard, in command of British navy in America, 177 Howe, Robert, defeated at Savannah, 187; superseded by Lincoln, 188 Howell, Clark, quoted, 486 Hudson Bay Company, 117 Hudson, Henry, 76; 88 Hudson river section, the, 17 Huger, Isaac, 194 Huguenots in South Carolina, 69; 147 HuU, William, surrenders Detroit, 265 Hunter, David, at Manassas, 387; de- clares slaves free, and rebuked by Lincoln, 397; succeeds Sigel, 433; devastates Shenandoah Valley, and retreats before Early, 437 Hunter, R. M. T., in Hampton Roads Conference, 438 Hutchinson, Anne, 103 Hutchinson, Thomas, 154-155; 160 Iberville (Pierre LeMoyne) settles Biloxi and Mobile, 120 Idaho, organized, 475; admitted, 495 ftn. Illinois, admitted, 282 Immigration, problems of, 496 ImpUed powers, doctrine of, 236; 254 Income tax, unconstitutional, 520; amendment ratified, 546 Indentured servants, 54; 112 Independent treasury, repealed, 331; reestabhshed, 345 Indiana admitted, 282 Indiana territory organized, 238 ' Industries, of the sections, 136-137; of New England, 151 Internal improvements, 273; 281 Interstate Commerce Act, 503 Iowa admitted, 347 Irish, the, 135 Iroquois, subdivisions of, 26; at Wyoming, 200 INDEX Irving, Washington, 275 Isabella, Queen, ii; 33 Island No. 10, surrendered to Federals, 410 luka, battle, 417 Jackson, Andrew, defeats Indians in Alabama, 269; defeats British at New Orleans, 270; invades Florida, 273; candidate for presidency, 290; elected president, 295; character, 297-299; at JefiEerson's Birthday ban- quet, 302; opposes nulUfication, 303; re-elected, 306; destroys national bank, 308 Jackson, Thomas Jonathan, at battle of Manassas, 388; wounded, 389; Valley campaigns, 425-426; junction with Lee, 426; Seven Days' battles, 426-427; defeats Federals at Cedar Mountain, 427; marches to rear of Pope at Manassas, 427; captures Harper's Ferry, 429; battle of Sharps- burg, 429; mortally wounded at Chancellorsville, 430 James I, 50; 92-93 James II, 82 James river, 426; 433 Jamestown, settled, 50 Jay, John, in relation to The Federalist, 223 Jay treaty, the, 242 Jeflerson, Thomas, member Virginia Assembly, 163; author Declaration of Independence, 175; sentiment con- cerning the fKJople, 226; secretary of state, 228; political character, 231; opposes national bank, 236; in regard to French revolution, 239; elected vice-president, 243; author Ken- tucky resolutions, 246; elected presi- dent, 247; governmental policies, 251-252; Louisiana Purchase, 253; re- elected president, 255; quoted con- cerning Massachusetts, 264; on Mis- souri and slavery, 285; for emancipa- tion in Virginia, 317; on negro slavery in U. S., 3SO Johnson, Andrew, senator, 396; military governor of Tennessee, 411; vice-presi- dent, 441; president, 443; Washing- ton's birthday speech, 450; amnesty proclamation, 450; opiX)ses Congress, 452; removes Stanton, 456-457; im- peachment trial, 457; senator from Tennessee, 458 Johnson, William, takes Fort Niagara, 130 Johnston, A. S., 407; retreats to Cor- inth, 409; death at battle of Shiloh, 409-410 Johnston, J. E., opposes Patterson, 385, joins Beauregard, 386; defeats Mc- Dowell, 387-389; efforts to relieve Vicksburg, 414; battle of Williams- burg, 423; battle of Seven Pines, 424- 425; supersedes Bragg, 433; super- seded by Hood, 435; restored to com- mand, 437; surrender, 444 Jones, Anson, 338 Jones, Paul, naval exploits, 186 Judiciary Act, 247 Judiciary, the national, 229 Julian, George W., candidate for vice- presidency, 351 Kansas, disorders in, 356-358; 362; admitted, 363 Kaskaskia, trading post, 199; taken by Clark, 200 Kearny, Stephen W., 342-343 Kearsarge, sinks the Alabama, 395 ftn., 438 Keith, Sir William, 157 Kennesaw Mountain, assault, 435 Kent Island, 57; 61 Kentucky, early settlement in, 122; admitted, 238; resolutions, 246; at- tempts neutrality, 383; convention at Russellville, 383 Kieft, Governor, 79-80 King Philip's War, 107 King's College (Columljia), 140 King's Mountain, battle, 192 Knights of Labor, 499 Knox, Henry, secretary of war, 228 Know-nothings (see American Party) Kosciusko, T., at Ninety-SLx, 195 Labor and capital, 478; 498 Labor Reform Party, 478 Labor unions, 498 Lalirador, 17; 38 Lafayette, Marquis de, in Virginia, 198 Lake Erie, naval battle, 268 Lamar, L. Q. C, secretary of interior, 493 ftn. INDEX XXXIX Lamon, W. H., 378 Land Claims, western, 210; surrendered, 2H -212 Larcom, Lucy, 355 La Salle, Robert Cavelicr, de, 118-119 Laud, William, 148 Laudonniere, Rene de, 42 Lawton, H. W., at El Caney, 538 Lecompton constitution, 362 Lee, Charles, captured by British, 178 ftn.; retreats at Monmouth, 184 Lee, Fitzhugh, action at Five Forks, 441 Lee, Henry, 187 ; takes Fort Watson, Fort Motte, and Augusta, 195 Lee, Richard Henry, oSers resolution for independence, 209 Lee, R. E., 425; defeats McClellan in Seven Days' battles, 426-427; de- feats Pope at Manassas, 428; op- poses McClellan at Sharpsburg, 429; defeats Burnside at Fredericksburg, 430; defeats Hooker at Chancellors- ville, 430; repulsed by Meade at Gettysburg, 431—432; opposes Meade at Hagerstown, 432; advances against Meade at Bristoe, 432; opposes Meade at Mine Run, 432; opposes Grant in the Wilderness and Spott- sylvania, 434; and on the Chicka- hominy, 435; defends Petersburg and Richmond, 435; surrenders at Appomattox, 442 Lee, S. D., repulses Sherman, 412 Leisler, Jacob, 82 Leopard and Chesapeake, 261 Lewis, Meriwether, explorations, 255- 256 Lexington, 167 Liberia, 318 Liberal Republican Party, 463; 478; 493 Liberty Party, 326 Liliuokalani, Queen, 522 Lincoln, Abraham, 353; debates with Douglas, 363; elected president, 365; inaugurated, 376; sends messenger to Fort Sumter, 376; proposes amend- ment providing for compensatory emancipation, 400; emancipation proclamation, 400-401 ; Hampton Roads Conference, 438; death, 443; view of reconstruction, 447; second inaugural address, 448 Literature, 275 Litllc Bell and President, 262 Livingston, R R., in Louisiana purchase, 253; interested with Robert Fulton, 274 Locke, John, 66 Lodge, David L., starts peace move- ment, 562 London Company, the, 50 Longfellow, H. W., antislavery poems, 322 Longstreet, James, at Chickamauga and Knoxville, 419-420; in Seven Days' battles, 426; at Second Ma- nassas, 428; at Suffolk, 430; wounded in Wilderness, 443 "Looking Backward", 499 Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, action on, 420 Louisiana, admitted, 255; secedes, 372 Louisiana Purchase, 253 Louisburg, taken by Pepperell, 124; by Amherst, 129 Lovejoy, E. P., 322 Lowell, J. R., 322, quoted, 324 Lundy, Benjamin, 321 Lundy's Lane, battle, 266 McClellan, G. B., operations in West Virginia, 385 ; commander-in-chief, 390; character, 422; siege of York- town and battle of Williamsburg, 423; battle Seven Pines, 424; Seven Days' battles, 426-427; removed and re- stored to command, 429; attacks Lee at Sharpsburg, 429; superseded by Burnside, 430; candidate for presi- dency, 441 McCormick, reaper, 310 McCrady, Edward, quoted, 66 ftn.; 71 ftn. McCulloch, Ben, 382; killed at Pea Ridge, 4n Macdonough, Thomas, 268; victory on Lake Champlain, 269 McDowell, Irvin, 385; advances, 386; at Manassas, 387-390; ordered to join McClellan, 425; order counter- manded, 426 McDuffie, George, criticises Clay, 292 Mace, WiUiam H., quoted, 133 Mcintosh, killed at Pea Ridge, 411 McKinlcy Tariff Bill, 509 McKinley, William, 509; candidate for presidency, 527; elected, 527; appeal xl INDEX to Spain, 534; message in regard to Cuba, S34; death, 544; on reciproc- ity. 557 Madison, James, member constitutional convention, 218; relation to the Fed- eralist, 223; opposes national bank, 236; prepares Virginia Resolutions, 246; becomes president, 261 Magellan, Ferdinand, 38 Magna Charta, 142 Magruder, J. B., at Galveston, 415; defends Yorktown, 423 Maine, settled, 104; in relation to Mis- souri, 286; admitted, 286; boun- dary, 333 Maine, the battleship, destruction of, 533 Malvern Hill, battle, 427 Manassas, or Bull Run, first battle, 387- 390; second battle, 428 Manhattan Island, 80 Manila bay, naval battle, 535-536 Mann, Horace, 320 Marlborough, duke of, 123 Marion, Francis, 192; 193; takes Forts Watson and Motte, 195 Marquette, James, 118 Marshall, John, commissioner to France, 243; chief justice in Burr trial, 258; decisions, 274 Maryland, settled, 60-63; ratifies Con- stitution, 223; refuses to secede, 383 Maskoki, subdivisions of, 26 Mason, George, opposes Constitution, 220 Mason and Dixon's line, surveyed, 87 Mason, J. M., Confederate commis- sioner to Great Britain, 395 Massachusetts, 97-101; charter an- nulled, 108; revolution of, 166; in- structs for independence, 175; west- em land claims, 211 — yielded, 212; ratifies Constitution, 223 Massasoit, 96 Matamoras, 405 MaximiHan I, 439; executed, 466 Mayflower, the, 94 Meade, G. G., 431; repulses Lee at Gettysburg, 432; at Flagerstown, at Bristoe and Mine Run, 432 Mechanicsville, battle, 426 Mecklenburg, declaration of independ- ence, 173; mentioned, 383 Memphis, occupied by Federals, 411 Menendez, 42 Mexico, city of, 22; 25 Mexico, republic of. Burr's design, 259; revolution in, 276; invites Americans to Texas, 355; war with U. S., 341- 343; commerce with Confederacy, 405; French occupation of, 439; 466 Michigan, admitted, 339 Miles, Nelson A., in Porto Rico, 539 Mills, Roger Q., tariff bill, 500 Mill Springs, or Fishing Creek, engage- ment, 408 Mine Run, Lee opposes Meade, 432 Minuet, Peter, 80; 88-89 Missionaries, French, 11 7-1 18; Span- ish, 43 Missionary ridge, battle, 420 Mississippi, admitted, 282; secedes, 372 Mississippi river, operations for the con- trol of, 407 Missouri, admitted, 286; attempts neu- trality, 383 Missouri and slavery, 282-284 Missouri Compromise, the, 286 Mobile settled, 120; taken by Galvez, 190; blockaded, 402 Molasses Act, 151 Monckton, Robert, 128 Monitor and Virginia, 423 Monk, George, 66 ftn. Monmouth, battle, 184 Monroe Doctrine, the, announced, 276; in Hampton Roads conference, 439; in regard to the French in Mexico, 466; in regard to Venezuela, 523-524 Monroe, James, minister to France, 242; Louisiana Purchase, 253; abor- tive treaty with Great Britain, 260; elected president, 271; administra- tion, 272-278; re-elected, 272 Montana, organized, 475; admitted, 495 ftn. Montcalm, Marquis de, 130; defeats Abercrombie, 131; death at Quebec, 1.54 ^[onterey, Calif., taken by Sloat and Stockton, 342 Monterey, Mex., taken by Taylor, 342 Montgomery, convention and Congress, 372 Montgomery, Richard, killed at Quebec, 177 Montreal, named by Cartier, 113 Moore's Creek, action, 186 INDEX xli Moravians in Georgia, 72 Morgan, Daniel, at Saratoga, 180; vic- tory at Cowpens, 193 Morgan, John H., operations, 418 Mormonism, 320 Morris, Robert, 201; 214 Moultrie, William, defends Ft. Sullivan, 186; operations in S. C, 188; i8g Mugwumps, 487; favor Cleveland, 488 Napoleon I, consul, 244; sells Louisi- ana, 253; Berlin and Milan decrees, 260; invades Russia, 263; abdication, 268; at Elba, 270 Napoleon III, 439; 466 Nashville, battle of, 436 Nassau, settled, 79; mentioned, 83 Nation, The, 489 National Republican Party, the, suc- ceeds the Federalist Party, 271; be- comes the nucleus of the Whig Party, 308 National Silver Party, branch of the Republicans, 528 Naturalization Act, 244 Navigation laws, 149-150; 154 Nebraska, admitted, 454 Negro domination, broken in South, 463 Negro population, 135 Negro slaves, first in colonies, 54 Nevada, admitted, 475 Neville, Inspector General, 234 New Amsterdam, settled, 77; condi- tions in 1643, 78; surrendered to English, 80; retaken by Dutch, 81; ceded to England, 81 New Berne, taken by Federals, 403 New England, physical features, 17; town government, 18; colonization of, 91-109; Confederation, 104-109; Articles of, 105-106; slave traders, :^6; 151; manufacturers, 136; com- merce, 136-137; opposes war of 181 2, 263-264; Emigrant Aid Society, 335- 336 Newfoundland, 115 New France, 115-133; population, 127 New Hampshire, settled, 104; instructs for independence, 175; ratifies Con- stitution, 223 New Haven, 105 New Hope Church, engagement, 435 New Jersey, settled, 83-85; ratifies Constitution, 223 New Mexico, Confederate invasion, 408 New Netherland, 78 New Orleans, settled by Bienville, 120; ceded by Spain to France, 252; block- aded, 402; taken by Farragut, 411 Newport, Christopher, 50 New Sweden, 89 New York (city), surrender by Dutch and change of name, 80; treaty of cession, 81; first colonial congress, 82; occupied by British, 177; evac- uated, 205 New York (state), settled by the Dutch, 77; ceded to England, 81; legislature suspended, 162; defeats amendment to Articles of Confederation, 217; western land claims, 211 — yielded, 212; ratifies Constitution, 223 Nicholson, Francis, 59; 82 NicoUs, Governor, 80 Ninety-Six, fortified by British, 190; besieged by Greene, 195; evacuated by British, 196 Non-importation societies, 161 Non-Intercourse Act, 261 North Carohna, settled, 66; instructs for independence, 175; ratifies Con- stitution, 224; secedes, 383; western land claims, 211 — yielded, 212 North Dakota, admitted, 495 ftn. North in 1876, 475 North, Lord, offers to treat with col- onies, 184 Northmen, 32 Northwest Territory, government of, 213 Nueces river, 341 Nullification, 302-303 Oglethorpe, James, 71-74; no Ohio admitted, 238 Ohio Company, the, 124 Olmstead, C. H., surrenders Fort Pu- laski, 403-404 Omnibus bill, the, 348 Opecancanough, 55 ftn. Orange, Fort, 77 Ord, E. O. C, commands Army of the James, 441 Oregon, Spain yields claims to, 273; mentioned, 334; 337; boundary set- tled, 340 Oregon, the battleship, 536 Oriskany, battle, 181 zlii INDEX Osgood, Samuel, postmaster-general, 228 Ostend Manifesto, 359; 531 Oswego, 127; 128 Otis, James, 155; 157; 158; 160 Owen, Robert, 320 Pacific Ocean, discovered by Balboa, 35 Pacific Railroad, 468; 474 Pakenham, at New Orleans, 270 Palmer, John M., candidate for presi- dency, 528 Palo Alto, action, 341 Panama, secession, 550 Panama Canal, 344 Panama Congress, 292 Panic, financial, 308 Paris, treaty of, between Great Britain and France, 132 Paris, treaty of, between Great Britain and U. S., terms of, 202; violations of, 216; 241 Parker, Hyde, at Savannah, 187 Parker, Peter, at Ft. Moultrie, 186 Parker, Theodore, abolitionist, 364 Patrons of Husbandry', 479 Patroons, 78-79; 139; 321 Patterson, Robert, 385-387; 390 Paxton, Charles, 154 Payne-Aldrich tariff bill, 558 Peace movement, 562 Peace Conference, the Hague, 563 Peace Congress, 370-371 Pea Ridge, or Elk Horn, battle, 411 Pemberton, J. C, surrenders Vicksburg, 414 Pendleton, G. H., civil service bill, 485 Penn, William, 84; 85; 205 Pennsylvania, settled, 85; ratifies Con- stitution, 223 Pennsylvania College, 140 Pensions, increasing, 494; 508 People's Party, or Populists, 514; 528 Pepperell, William, 124 Pequots, war with, 105 Perry, O. H., battle on Lake Erie, 268 Perryville, Ky., battle, 418 Petition of right, 99; 142 Pettigrew, J. J., 431 Philadelphia, founded, 86; occupied by British, 181; evacuated, 184 Philippines, 38; 534-535 Phillips, General, death, 196 Phillips, Wendell, 453 Pickens, Andrew, 187; 195 Pickens, F. W., 376; 377; 378; 380 Pickett, George E., 431 Pierce, Franklin, elected president, 350- 351^ Pike, Zcbulon M., explorations, 256 Pilgrims, the, 94-97 Pinckney, Charles, member Constitu- tional Convention, 219 Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth, minister to France, 243 Pinckney, Thomas, candidate for vice- presidency, 242 Pinkney, William, 260 Pitcairn, John, 167 Pitt, William, 128; 161; 162 Piatt, T. C, resigns senatorship, 484 Plymouth Company, 50; 91 Plymouth settled, 94-97 Pocahontas, 55 ftn. ■ Point Pleasant, Indian battle, 199 Political conditions in the colonies, 143- 144 Polk, James K., elected president, 337- 338 Polk, Lconidas, battle of Belmont, 408 Polo, Marco, 29 Pontiac, 24 Pope, John, at Island No. 10, 410; or- dered to Virginia, 417; defeated by Lee, 428 Popham, George, 91 Population, colonial, 135; 170 Populists, see People's Party Porter, David, 268 Porter, Fitz John, 426; 429 Port Hudson, 412; surrenders to Banks, 414 Porto Rico, 539; government in, 542 Port Royal, Acadia, 116; captured, 123 Port Royal, S. C, 42; captured by Federals, 403 • Potomac river, navigation of, 217; mentioned, 429; 430; 437 Pottawatomie, 358 Powhatan, 55 ftn. Pratt, Benjamin, quoted, 155 ftn. Preble, Edward, in Tripoli war, 259 President and Litlle Bell, 262 Presidential Succession Act, 494 Prevost, Augustine, in Georgia, 188; in South Carolina, 1S9 Prevost, George, defeated at Plattsburg, 269 INDEX xliii Price, Sterling, 412; at luka and Cor- inth, 417 Princeton College, 140 Pring, Martin, 46 Proclamation of Neutrality, Washing- ton's, 240 "Progress and Poverty", 499 Progressive Republican Party, 560 Prohibition Party, 464 Proprietary Colonies, 142 Providence, settled, 102 Provincial Colonies, 142 Prussia, in Holy Alliance, 276 Pueblos, 24 Pulaski, Casimir, death at Savannah, 190 Pullman Car Company, 521 Punitive Acts, 164 Puritans, 92; 98 Putnam, Israel, 180 Quakers, 84; 85 Quartering troops, 164 Quebec, surrendered to British, 132; capital, 164 Queenstown, action, 266 Quincy, Josiah, favors secession, 264 Quit-rents, 71 ftn. Railways, consolidation of, 478; tyr- anny of, 502 Raleigh, Walter, 45 Randall, J. R., 382 ftn. Randolph, Edmund, member of Con- stitutional Convention, 219; 220 Randolph, Edward, 108 Rapidan river, 432; 434 Rappahannock river, 428; 430 Rawdon, Francis, defeats Greene at Hobkirk's Hill, igs Reagan, John B., imprisoned, 444; in- terstate commerce act, 503 Reclamation Act, 547 Reconstruction, Lincoln's view of, 445; Johnson's policy, 449; undertaken by Congress, 451; Committee of Fifteen, 454; the Reconstruction Act, 454-455; the Loyal League, 460; Ku- Klux Klan, 460; Enforcement Acts, 461 Reed, T. B., speaker, 50S Renaissance, the, 8 Representation, 151; in parliament, 158; 162 Republican Party, organized, 359; ef- forts to reform, 487 Resaca, engagement, 435 Resaca de la Palma, action, 341 Revere, Paul, 167 Revolution, tendencies of the, 206-208 Rhode Island, settled, 102; defeats amendment to Articles of Confedera- tion, 217; not represented in Consti- tutional Convention, 219; ratifies Constitution, 224 Ribault, John, 42 Richmond, Ky., battle, 418 Richmond, Va., becomes Confederate capital, 384 Rochambeau, Count, 196 Rolfe, John, 55 ftn. Roosevelt, Theodore, becomes presi- dent, 544; message on forests and irrigation, 546; message on forest conservation, 547; appoints Inland Waterways Commission, 548; ne- gotiates Hay-Herran treaty, 550; message on corporations and trusts, 553; candidate of Progressive Repub- licans, 560; calls second Peace Con- ference at Hague, 563 Root, Elihu, Utica speech, 553 Rosecrans, W. S., at luka and Corinth, 417; supersedes Buell, 418; battle of Murfreesboro, 419; defeated at Chickamauga, 420 Ross, Robert, burns Washington public buildings; killed near Baltimore, 269 Russell, Jonathan, peace commissioner, 270 Russia, in Holy Alliance, 276; in regard to Alaska, 277; in regard to Civil War, 401 Sabine Cross Roads, or Mansfield, Banks defeated by Taylor, 416 Sabine Pass, action at, 416 St. Augustine, founded, 43; threatened by Oglethorpe, 74 St. Clair, Arthur, defeated by Indians. 238 St. John's river, 42; 43 St. Leger, Barry, 179; 180; at Fort Stanwi.x, 181 St. Louis, settled, 120 Salisbury, Lord, 524 Salmon Falls, attacked by Indians, 123 Salzburghers, in Georgia, 72 xliv INDEX Sampson, W. T., battle of Santiago, 536; 537; 538 Sandys, Edwin, 53 Santa Anna, defeated by Houston, 336; defeated by Taylor, 343 Santa Fe, founded, 43; occupied by Kearny, 342 Santiago de Cuba, 536-538 Saratoga, surrender of Burgoyne, 180 Savannah, settled, 72; taken by British, 187; assault upon, igo Sayle, William, 67 Schenectady attacked by Indians, 123 Schley, W. S., battle of Santiago, 536; 537; 538 Schofield, John M., battle of Franklin, 436 Schuyler, PhiUp, opposes Carleton, 177; superseded, 180 Scotch, 72; 84; 135; 147 Scotch-Irish, 147; igS Scott, Dred, history of the case, 360-362 Scott, John, quoted, 356 Scott, Winfield, campaign in Mexico, 266; candidate for presidency, 350- 351; advises Lincoln, 376; orders to Patterson, 386; retirement, 390 Seal fisheries, 512 Secession of S. C, 366; of six states, 371; of four states, 382-383 Sedition Act, 245 Seven Days' battles, 426-427 Seven Pines and Fair Oaks, battle, 424- 425 Sevier, John, 212 Seward, W. H., 343; secretary of state, 373; 379-380; in Hampton Roads conference, 438; relations with France, 466 Seymour, Horatio, candidate for presi- dency, 457 Shafter, W. R.. 537; 538 Shannon and Chesapeake, 268 Sharps' rifles, 356 Sharpsburg, or Antietam, battle, 428- 429 Shays's insurrection, 216 Sheridan, P. H., defeats Early, 438; joins Grant, 441; at Five Forks, 441; at Appomattox, 442 Sherlock, Thomas, 148 Sherman, John, secretary of the treas- ury, 482 ftn.; mentioned, 483; sena- tor, 495; 508 Sherman Silver Act, 510; repealed, 519 Sherman, Thomas W., 403 Sherman, \V. T., at Chickasaw Bluffs, 412; commands in West, 433; At- lanta campaign, 435; battles of At- lanta, 436; march to Savannah, 436; march through South Carolina, 437; receives surrender of Johnston, 444; on Mexican border, 466 Shinplasters, 482 ftn. Shirley, William, 157 Sibley, Henry Hopkins, in New Mexico, 408 Sigel, Franz, at New Market, 433 Silver, 479; 525 Slavery, in Virginia, 54; in Carolina, 6g; in Georgia prohibited, 72-73; admitted, 74; in 1760, 135-137; com- promise in the Constitutional con- vention, 220; in regard to Missouri, 282-286; in the North, 287; slavery and the Constitution, 313-315; in District of Columbia, 315; 448; eco- nomically considered, 315-319; mor- ally considered, 319-325; test case in controversy, 328 Slidell, John, C. S. Commissioner to France, 395 Smith, E. Kirby, at Manassas, 389; at Richmond, Ky., 418 Smith, John, 17; 51; 55 ftn.; 91 Smith, Joseph, 320 Smith, Lt. Colonel, 167 Smuggling, 154 Social conditions in the colonies, 138-139 Sons of Liberty, 161 South, physical features of, iS; for the Constitution, 286-2S7; hope in Jack- son disappointed, 300; in 1876, 472; withdrawal of troops from, 476 South Carolina, settled, 67; organizes state government, 175; western land claims, 211 — yielded, 212; ratifies Constitution, 223; fears the first tar- iff, 233; nullification in, 302-303; re- vokes nullification ordinance, 304; se- cedes, 366; suffers under Sherman, 437 South Dakota, admitted, 495 ftn. Spain, claims to America, 41; efforts at settlement, 42; cedes Florida to U. S., 273; war with U. S., 531-539 Spain, treaties with, 252; 273; of peace with, 539 INDEX xlv Specie circular, issued by President Jackson, 308 Spencer magazine rifle, 382; 438 Spottsylvania, battle, 434 "Squatter sovereignty", 363 "Stalwarts", 482; 484 Stamp Act proposed, 155; passed, 15C; opposition to, 159 Stamp Act Congress, 160; effects, 161 Standard Oil Company, 555 Stanton, E. M., removed by Johnson, 457 Stapling, 150 Stark, John, at Bennington, 180 Star of the West, the, attempt to relieve Fort Sumter, 368-369 State rights doctrine, 207-208; 211-212; 225-226; 246; 263-264; 293; 295; 301; 302; 326-328 Stephens, A. H., 353; vice-president, C. S., 372; financial plan, 382; in Hampton Roads Conference, 439; imprisonment, 444 Steuben, F. von, 1S2 Stevens, Thaddeus, 449; 453 Stewart, Colonel, at Eutaw Springs, 196 Stillwater, 180 Stony Point, stormed by Wayne, 185 Stowe, Mrs. H. B., 349 Strasburg, action, 425 Stringham, S. H., in council with Lin- coln, 376; naval operations, 402 Stuart, J. E. B., rides around McClel- lan's army, 426; 430; death, 434 Stuyvesant, Peter, 79; 89 Suffolk, 430 Suffrage, the right of, 152 Sugar Act, the, 154 Sullivan, John, defeats Indians, 200 Sumner, Charles, 446; 453; 466 Sumter, Thomas, 192 Supreme Court, created, 229-230 Swanandael, settlement, 88 Sweden, South Company of, 80 Swedes, the, 80; 135; 147 Taft, W. H., governor of Philippines, 541; elected president, 558 Talladega, battle with Indians, 260 Talleyrand, 246; Louisiana Purchase, 253 Taney, Roger B., 307; chief-justice in Dred Scott case, 360 Tariff, the, 154; 162 Tariff, protective, the first, 233; of abominations, 294; Democrats advo- cate reduction, 340; Democrats re- duce, 344-345; mentioned, 475; 476; Cleveland's message on, 500; Mc- Kinley bill, 509; Wilson bill, 519; reciprocity, 557; reform in both plat- forms, 558; Congress increases pro- tection, 560; Underwood bill, 561 Tarleton, Banastre, 192; 193 Taxation, 154; 162 Taylor, Richard, defeats Banks, 416 Taylor, Zachary, in Mexican war, 341- 343; elected president, 346; death, 350 Tecumseh, defeated at Tippecanoe, 262; killed in battle of Thames, 266 Tennessee, admitted, 238; secedes, 383 Tenure of Office Act, passed, 456; re- pealed, 494 Territory south of the Ohio, 237 Teutons, 3; 7 Texas, claims to, yielded to Spain, 273; not settled for slavery, 334; immi- grants to, 335; revolution, 335-336; annexed, 337-338; boundary, 341; secedes, 372 Thames river, battle of the, 266 Thatcher, Oxenbridge, 155 Thomas, George H., defeats Zollicoffer, 408; at Chickamauga, 420; defeats Hood at Nashville, 436 Thomas, J. B., in regard to ISIissouri Compromise, 286 Thwaites, R. G., quoted, 119 ftn. Ticonderoga, defeat of Abcrcrombie, 129; taken by Amherst, 130; taken by Allen, 171 Tilden, S. J., candidate for presidency, 464 Tohopeka, battle with Indians, 270 Toleration, rehgious, 61; 65; 72; 84; 140-141 Tomochichi, 72 Tompkins, Daniel, elected vice-presi- dent, 272 Toombs, R., 370 Topeka constitution, 362 Tories, 170; 187-188; 192; 199; 200; confiscation of property of, 202; 216 Toscanelli, P., 31 Totten, J. G., 376 Townshend Acts, 162; 164 Trent affair, see Great Britain xlvi INDEX Trenton, battle, 178 Trimble, Isaac R., at Gettysburg, 431 Tripoli, war with, 259 Troup, George M., trouble with Creeks, 293 Turner, Nat., insurrection, 322 Tyler, Daniel, at battle of Manassas, 387 Tyler, John, elected vice-president, 330; becomes president, 331; troubles with Congress, 332; cabinet resigns, 332; vetoes national bank bill, 332; favors admitting Texas, 336; presides over Peace Conference, 370-371 Underground railways, 349 Underwood, Oscar W., 561 Union, the quality of the, 326-328 Utah admitted, 495 ftn. Utrecht, treaty of, 124 Valley Forge, 182 Van Burcn, Martin, 2g8; elected presi- dent, 308; defeated by Harrison, 330; candidate of Free Soil party, 346 Van Dorn, E., at luka, 417 Van Rennselaer estate, 79 Van Rennselaer, Stephen, at battle of Queenstown, 265-266 Venango, 125 Venezuela, revolution in, 276; diplo- macy concerning, 522 Vermont admitted, 237 Vera Cruz taken by Scott, 343 Verrazano, John, 36 Versailles, treaty of, 202 Vesey plot, 322 Vespucius, Americus, 38 Vicksburg, campaigns against, 412-414; surrenders to Grant, 414 Vincennes taken by Clark, 199-200 Virginia, settled, 50; instructs for in- dependence, 175; western land claims, 211 — surrendered, 212; ratifies Con- stitution, 223; secedes, 382 Virginia Company, 50; 92 Virginia, plan of Union of, Madison's, 219; resolutions, colonial, 163; reso- lutions in regard to state rights, 246 Virginia and Monitor, 423 Walker, John G., in Texas, 440 Walker, R. J., governor of Kansas Ter- ritory, 362 Walker's ''Making of the Nation", quoted, 262 Wallace, Lew, at Monocacy, 437; in Texas, 440 Warner, Seth, at Ticonderoga, 171 Warren, Admiral, 124 Warren, G. K., repulses Hill at Bristoe, 432; action at Five Forks, 441 Washington, George, beyond the Ohio, 125; at Fort Necessity, 126; with Braddock, 12S; in Virginia assembly, 163; elected commander-in-chief, 172; drives British from Boston, 177; op- poses Howe at New York, 177; re- treats through New Jersey, 178; victories at Trenton and Princeton, 178; sends reenforcements to Schuj'- ler, 179; defeated at Brandywine and Germantown, 181; attacks Clinton at Monmouth, 184; at Yorktown, 197; president Constitutional Con- vention, 218; elected president, 226; character, 226-227; inauguration, 228; approves bill for national bank, 236; reelected without opposition, 238 ftn.; neutrality proclamation, 240; establishes anti-third term pre- cedent, 242; farewell address, 243; ap- pointed commander-in-chief, 244 Washington City, taken by British, 269 Wasp and Frolic, 266 Watauga Association, 198 Watertown, 109 Waterways Commission, Inland, 548 Wayne, Anthony, storms Stony Point, 185; defeats Indians at Maumee, 238 Weather Bureau, established, 468 Weaver, J. B., candidate for presidency, S14 Webster-Ashburton treaty, 333 Webster, Daniel, opposes protective tariff, 275; changes position on tariff, 300; opposes Hayne and state rights, 301; secretary of state, 332; settle- ment of Maine boundary, 333; death, 353 West, the, immigration to, 237; 352; democratic, 262; developing, 272 West in 1876, the, development, 475; 486 West, Joseph, 68; 69; 70 West, Thomas, 88 Western land claims: see Land Claims, Western. INDEX xlvii Westminster, treaty of, 81 West Point, 185 West Virginia, 385 Weyler, General, 533; recalled, 534 Weymouth, George, 46 Wheeler, Joseph, at San Juan, 538 Wheeler, W. A., vice-president, 465 Whig Party, from National Repubhcans, 308; elect Harrison, 330-331; break with Tyler, 332; nominate Clay, 337; elect Taylor, 346; nominate Scott, 350 Whisky insurrection, 234 White House, Va., 426 White, John, on Roanoke Island, 46 Whitney, Eli, invents cotton gin, 283 Whittier, J. G., anti-slavery poet, 322; and publisher, 323 Wickes, Lambert, 186 Wigfall, L. T., 377 Wilkinson, James, in regard to Burr, 258 William and Mary College, 60; 140 William and Marj', monarchs, g6 William the Conqueror, 6 Williams, Roger, 102 Williamsburg, engagement, 423 Wilmington, Del., 80 Wilmington, N. C, taken by Federals, 40s Wilmot proviso, 345 Wilson-Bryan peace proposal, 563 Wilson, W. L., tariff bill, sig Wilson, Woodrow, quoted, 239; 310; 527; 528; 560; elected president, 560 Winchester, action, 425; battle, 431; battle, 438 Winslow, Edward, commissioner, lor Winthrop, John, 107 Wirt, W. H., attorney-genera!, 272 Wisconsin admitted, 347 Wise, H. A., 314 Withdrawal of troops from the South, 476 Wolfe, James, at Quebec, 130-133 Wright, Francis, 320 Wright, Silas, declines nomination for vice-presidency, 337 Writs of assistance, 154; 162 Wyatt, Thomas, 54; 56 Wycliffe, John, g Wj'oming, massacre at, 200 Wyoming, state of, admitted, 405 ftn. X. Y. Z. affair, 243 Yale College, 60; 140 Yeamans, John, 66; 68-6g Yeardley, George, 53 Yellow Tavern, cavalry battle, 434 York, Canada, burned, 266 York, duke of, 80; 82; 83; 86 York river, 423; 426 Yorktown, surrender of Cornwallis, ig7; McClellan's siege of, 423 Ysleta, mission founded at, 43 Zollicoffer, Felix K., 408 F 22 1313 /n Retail Price $1.23 Exchange Price .63